Communicating regarding information from April 7 Regular School Committee Meeting and Public Hearing on the FY21 Budget

OFFICE OF THE MAYOR Sumbul Siddiqui Mayor To: Cambridge City Council From: Sumbul Siddiqui, Mayor Date: April 9, 2020 Subject: Communicating information from April 7 Regular School Committee Meeting and Public Hearing on the FY21 Budget To the Honorable, the City Council: This past Tuesday, April 7th, the School Committee and administration held a (virtual) Regular School Committee Meeting & Public Hearing on the FY21 Budget. Superintendent Salim gave a presentation on the district’s new Distance Learning Plan, following the COVID-19 crisis. The CPS District Learning Plan intends to provide a framework and a set of expectations for educators and families as they navigate the uncharted territory of distance learning. This Plan asks that students engage in “meaningful and productive learning for approximately half the length of a regular school day”, which is about 3 hours a day. Educators are asked to prioritize regular and meaningful two-way exchanges with their students and to focus on reinforcing, applying, and deepening the skills that have already been taught earlier in the school year. The utmost priority of the School Committee, as always, is to make sure that our most vulnerable students and families have access to the supports and resources they need to succeed. In response to the Superintendent’s presentation on the Distance Learning Plan, School Committee members raised questions around how to: address the learning loss over the summer, identify and communicate with students who are struggling, and leverage OST partnerships to deliver additional resources and support. The district is committed to leading through an equity lens, with iterations of the Distance Learning Plan to be informed by a strong feedback loop—hearing from and engaging with students, educators, and principals. The School Committee also approved a motion to convene the Special Education and Student Supports Subcommittee for the purposes of coordinating a plan to engage our partnerships with organizations and institutions to create an in-house consortium of resources that will establish and communicate best practices for supplementing and supporting the district’s Distance Learning Plan. Among these partners, are Cambridge School Volunteers and Tutoring Plus, who are eager to break into this space and have been working with my Office for the last few weeks to find solutions to the barriers they face.

For the budget portion of our meeting, Superintendent Salim gave a presentation on the proposed new Office of Equity, Inclusion & Belonging. He began with an overview of the District Plan and the administration’s ongoing equity work before outlining how the implementation of this new Office and the hiring of its Chief Equity Officer intends to lead the advancement of: racial equity and anti-racism, family engagement, social-emotional learning and mental/behavioral health, as well as climate and relationships at every level of our system. The many comments and suggestions put forward during the Public Hearing on the FY21 Budget, highlighted a few common themes: 1) ensuring that the budget addresses the root causes of racial inequities, 2) deeper involvement of community members in equity work and processes, and 3) a culture shift towards more transparency and power-sharing. Until further notice, the School Committee will hold all of its meetings and hear public comment virtually. Please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions, suggestions, or concerns. Respectfully, Sumbul Siddiqui