NTA President Michael Zilles Discusses Negotiation Process with Fig City On Monday, May 14, the Newton Teacher’s Association (NTA) began a modified “Work To Rule” contract action, which is described on the NTA website as educators taking one day per week to be unavailable, outside of contracted work hours, for…
Posts published by “Adam Bernstein”
Advanced Placement Classes: Agenda Item Tabled Until May 22 The regular May 8 School Committee meeting contained a busy agenda, including presentations regarding Science & Technology Education (STE) and History & Social Studies curriculum, the formation of state-mandated School Councils, and a detailed analysis and presentation on Advanced Placement (AP)…
To begin the April 27 School Committee meeting, two Bigelow Middle School educators were among the public comment speakers to advocate for staff restoration to address the middle school team sizes. Superintendent Kathy Smith followed the public comment period by giving her scheduled update, during which she congratulated the central…
During a special meeting on Tuesday, April 25, the School Committee voted to accept Mayor Fuller’s in-meeting proposal to transfer responsibility for making Newton Public Schools (NPS) employees’ Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB) contributions from the NPS budget to the City budget. This proposal effectively rejected Ward 2 representative Chris Brezski’s…
Following the April 3 School Committee meeting, during which member Chris Brezski (Ward 2) proposed alternative methods to increase available funds for NPS, the School Committee met two more times in the past week to hear more detailed presentations from NPS administrators regarding how they will manage anticipated budget cuts.…
Tuesday’s School Committee meeting did not have a public comment period, and began with a typical update from Interim Superintendent Kathy Smith. After Dr. Smith spoke, Committee member Cove Davis (Ward 8) requested that the Superintendent address concerns in the community about low Advanced Placement Math test pass rates for…
250 people sign up to make public comment On March 28, the School Committee convened for a special meeting, as mandated by the City Charter, to conduct a public hearing regarding the petition for an Academic Principles Advisory Committee (APAC), as described in this article by Fig City News. The…
On Sunday March 26, the Newton South HS debate team won the Massachusetts state debate championship at the conclusion of the 3-day tournament. Fig City News interviewed their coach, Josh Cohen, a parent volunteer who has coached the team since 2014. Josh is also Chair of Debate for the Massachusetts…
Special March 28 School Committee public hearing. Future NPS Superintendent Dr. Anna Nolin weighs in on social media. A group of Newton Public Schools parents has signed a petition to form an Academic Principles Advisory Committee (APAC) that per the petition “will review and recommend revisions to the systemwide goals,…
The School Committee meeting on March 1 began with Superintendent Kathy Smith’s regular update, during which she talked about the decision not to declare a snow day on February 28, and reported on ongoing NPS lobbying efforts in the community regarding the vote on the proposed override on March 14.…
The School Committee Budget Resolution supporting the proposed override and two debt exclusions passed 8-0 during the February 6 School Committee meeting. Last week, Fig City News focused on a notable abstention from the vote. However, the remaining eight members, including the Mayor, unanimously approved the Resolution drafted by Chair…
The February 6 School Committee meeting contained another full agenda, with the headline item — a discussion and vote on endorsing the proposed overrides — pushed toward the end of the 4-hour session. Prior to the override topic, three NPS K-12 Arts educators gave a presentation describing the recovery of…