At-large City Councilor Michelle Wu and 11 of her colleagues - joined by several state legislators and US Rep. Ayanna Pressley - tonight released a statement condemning what they called now former School Committee Chairman Michael Loconto's "deeply offensive" and "blatantly racist" words during the exam-school hearing last night. Read more.
Loconto unfurling a flag to start meeting with Pledge of Allegiance.
The Herald reports Michael Loconto resigned as chairman of the School Committee this morning amid growing uproar over "hot mic" comments he made in the middle of last night's lengthy meeting on suspending the exam for exam schools for next year's class - and just a few hours after his vote on the exam question, which he called "the proudest moment I've had in my 18 years in public service." Read more.
Student member Khymani James speaks during School Committee discusion early this morning.
Update: School Committee chairman resigns over "hot-mic" comments.
The Boston School Committee voted unanimously early this morning to suspend the use of an exam to decide who gets into the city's three exam schools for the next year because of a raft of problems brought up by the Covid-19 pandemic, in a meeting that lasted more than 8 1/2 hours. Read more.
About 70 people rallied this morning on the steps of Boston Latin School in support of keeping an exam to help determine who gets into Boston's three exam schools next year, while across Avenue Louis Pasteur, about 20 people held a counter-protest saying it's time to ditch the test as a legacy of Boston's racist past. Read more.
Boston Public Schools announced today it's delaying the return of young elementary-school students to in-school classes another week, from Oct. 22 to Oct. 29 - but says that "High In-Person Priority" students who were already going to school two days a week can now start going four days a week for classes and support services. Read more.
Mayor Walsh said today that he and BPS officials will decide this weekend whether to further postpone the return of additional students to schools, based on latest city Covid-19 numbers. Read more.
There are currently a couple of Boston-specific petitions circulating online: Read more.
WBUR reports BPS Superintendent Brenda Cassellius is proposing a one-year change for Boston's three exam schools: 20% of next year's seats would go to students with the city's top grades, while the rest would be awarded based on students' ranks in each city Zip code - with students in lower-income Zip codes getting first crack.
Mayor Marty Walsh today announced the start of the "hybrid" model for most Boston public-school students has been delayed at least a week, from Oct. 15 to Oct. 22, because of a testing positivity rate citywide that now exceeds 4% for the first time since early June. Read more.
Dan Dehart is a teacher at the Haley Pilot School in Roslindale, who posted this review of 2020 for his students as they began their new year (remotely) today.
The Globe reports all of them students incorrectly denied admission last year and this year have been offered seats at the schools they were eligible for, that the error cascaded down to affect other kids denied entrance to non-exam schools they had requested and that none of the students who were given seats who shouldn't have gotten them will have their seats taken away.
School Superintendent Brenda Cassellius announced the move in e-mail to parents today - and said that even when in-school education resumes, it will be phased in over a month starting on Oct. 19 - with high schoolers not scheduled to return to actual classrooms until Nov. 19. Read more.
WBZ reports on the latest BPS school re-opening plan, which calls for schools to open Sept. 21 for grades 1-12 and Sept. 23 for pre-K.
The newest proposal calls for a hybrid model, in which students would spend part of the week in school, part in home, but with a parental option to keep kids home fulltime.
Boston Parents Schoolyard News compares proposals from BPS administration and the Boston Teachers Union on how to re-open schools next month.
Mayor Walsh said today that BPS is planning on making its school buildings as safe as possible - but also beefing up remote-learning abilities - as officials continue to try to figure out whether school will start this fall entirely remotely or with a "hopscotch" model in which students would spend part of their time in school and part at home. Read more.
The Boston School Committee narrowly voted last night to cede what is now a McCormack School field to a new Boys and Girls Club field house.
Katie Mallon reports members Michael Loconto, Michael O'Neill and Alexandra Oliver-Davila voted for the controversial handover, members Lorna Rivera and Jeri Robinson voted against and members Hardin Coleman and Quoc Tran abstained.
Mayor Walsh and School Superintendent Brenda Cassellius said today they are continuing to look at a "hybrid" school re-opening, in which students would split days between in-school and at-home learning, but that parents will have the chance to opt out completely and stick with remote learning over Covid-19 concerns. Read more.
The Globe reports BPS is looking at a "hybrid" learning model for this fall, in which students would spend two days a week in school and do remote learning the other three days.
The Bay State Banner reports the BPS's Opportunity and Achievement Gap Task Force unanimously urged a one-year halt on exams because of Covid-19 - just as some colleges are doing with SATs, two days before BPS announced it would be using a test from a non-profit testing concern.
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