WPS in Brief: August 2025 new superintendent's entry plan, progress on Superintendent's goals, Worcester Tech naming

open.substack.com/pub/billshan...

Community rallies to help Leicester girl, hospitalized for year with cancer, celebrate birthday Maryangelie Rivas missed many milestones during her freshman year in high school, and she still faces at least a year and a half of chemotherapy.

Cc: Alex Guardiola

“She took all her sick days from 26 years in the district and worked with administrators to get the time she needed to care for Mary, spending nearly all her time on North Lake Avenue.”

www.telegram.com/story/news/2...

WPS in Brief: July 2025 2025 election, grading policy fail, teacher sick days

Budget squeeze, 2025 election, and teachers taking too many sick days?

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WPS Budget Cut Due to Charter School Reimbursement Underfunding. An explainer and what you can do.
www.wpsinbrief.com/p/wps-budget...

Agenda Preview: June 18 School Committee Meeting Budget, Dual Language Plan, Pride Month, Before and After School Programs, AI Opt Out.

School committee meeting on Wednesday this week. Budget and a packed agenda, could be a long one!

www.worcestersucks.email/p/agenda-pre...

This is the headline.

Can you imagine being the deputy superintendent of the second largest district in New England–a renowned expert in the field–and a school committee member turns to you and whispers "you better not screw this up" right before she votes to make you superintendent?

So unserious.

Hopefully Allen’s appointment will mean a seamless transition.

And as past school committee member Jack Foley said “He is regarded as one of the best, if not the best, CFOs in New England."

He brought transportation in house, improving the experience for students and families and saving the district millions of dollars.

Brian is a rare Worcesterite who was born and raised here, but has a strong regional and national perspective.

But as someone who watches school committee meetings, Brian is not an unknown, in fact quite the opposite.

There’s a feeling among folks in Worcester who are not “in the know” that Brian Allen’s appointment was out of the blue. Having his name on the agenda item about appointing a new superintendent could have helped.

Who is Brian Allen anyway? I’m so glad you asked…

WPS in Brief April 2025 New Commissioner, Superintendent Steps Down, Vision of a Learner, Fundraising Burden

April vacation is over!
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Agenda Preview: April 17 School Committee Meeting Vision of a Learner Part 2, Autism Awareness, Special Education

*NEW ITEM* Mayor Petty put on a new item right before the 48 hour cut-off for adding something to a public meeting agenda. It reads: "To request Administration make School Committee aware of administrative personnel changes."

www.worcestersucks.email/p/agenda-pre...

A new curriculum called Amplify Science was approved at the school committee meeting last Thur. Typically a curriculum should go to subcommittee first, but the admin asked for approval without going to subcommittee. That was approved unanimously. Not sure why it is on the agenda for this meeting.

Currently there are over 25 sports offered at the high school level and 4 sports offered at the middle school level (plus intramurals). There are no sports offered at the elementary level.

The MIAA did not approve flag football as a varsity sport, but the Athletic Director is proposing to add it as a club sport and is requesting 12 new coaching positions (2 for each team) for next year at a cost of $12k.

There is a Teaching, Learning and Student Success subcommittee meeting Thursday, April 10 at 5pm. There are two items on the agenda: one on adding flag football as a high school varsity sport and the other on the new science curriculum for elementary schools.

Worcester joins federal lawsuit over Trump's education cuts, becomes declarant in case The lawsuit was filed by the advocacy group Democracy Forward on behalf of the Easthampton and Somerville schools.

The school committee had a meeting on Friday to go into executive session to discuss this. Worcester joined not as a plaintiff, but as a "declarant."

www.telegram.com/story/news/l...

@billshaner.bsky.social can you add me to this?

Wondering what’s federally funded in WPS? A 🧵