5.2. Regular Meeting Apr. 7, 2026

This is episode 2 of the coverage of the April 7, 2026 regular meeting of the School Committee. It covers discussion on the screen time motion (referred to superintendent), the school councils motion (amended and approved), and approval of a new private school. The superintendent’s agenda included a brief discussion on 158 Spring Street as well as a quick look at the range of student assessments employed by schools.

Links of Interest

-Administrative-

Agenda (with links to all motions)

Superintendent presentations for the regular meetings remaining in the school year

-Budget Discussion-

Proposed Budget for FY27

Staffing graphic for King Open and MLK

Article about the BRYT program

Shore Educational Collaborative

School Improvement Plans

-Screen Time Motion-

American Academy of Pediatrics new screen time guidance

-Motion on School Councils-

School Councils Law

School Councils Handbook

School Committee Rules

Subcommittees

-Superintendent's Agenda-

City Employee Salaries

Curriculum and Achievement Subcommittee Meeting (March 19th)

-District Employees-

Chief Operations Officer: Damon Smith

Director of Data, Assessment, and Accountability: Jen Amigone 

Executive Director of Academics: Dr Heather Francis 

Director of Family and Community Engagement: Melissa Bolden

Our favorite first grade teacher and now children’s author: Inbal Alon

The website for this podcast is CSC30.com

You can contact the podcast by emailing CambridgeSC30@gmail.com

The School Committee email address is SchoolCom@cpsd.us

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Hello, I'm Jess Getz. Welcome to School Committee in 30 Minutes or Less, the unofficial recap podcast of the Cambridge School Committee.

SPEAKER_00 0:16

Salutations, dear listener. This is James Get Stark. In today's episode, my mom is going to talk about the April 7th, 2026 regular meeting of the School Committee. This was a very long meeting, lasting for 4 hours and 40 minutes, so this is part two. In part two, we will talk about the School Council and Screen Time Motions, the private school approval, the superintendent's updates, and the consent and school committee agendas.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

Thanks, James. As he said, this was a long one and the agenda was absurdly packed. In addition to a 43-slide presentation on student assessments, there were 22 items on the agenda, including approval of the superintendent's budget, discussion of the screen time motion that was tabled at the previous meeting, a motion about school committee support of school councils, a motion about the youth risk behavior survey, the approval of a new private school, 13 contract, one notification of gift, three subcommittee reports, and a partridge in a pear tree. Just quickly before I get into it, I want to apologize for my delay in getting these episodes out. This one was a real doozy. After voting to approve the budget, they moved on to discuss motion 2664, which came from Chair Weinstein, Vice Chair Duby, and Member DePalo Santos, and proposed establishing a school council subcommittee and working group. A little sidebar before moving on with this discussion to make sure that we are all on the same page. Every school is meant, by law, to have a school council. School councils advise but do not supervise in building school leadership. These groups are supposed to be democratically elected and made up of caregivers, school staff, and community members, and should be co-chaired by the principal and a caregiver representative. I'm using some pretty hedgy language here because the school councils vary greatly by school and are not managed in any sort of centralized way. There is a handbook that was created by the previous school council working group, but speaking as someone who has used it to run school council elections, it could definitely use some updates and clarifications. Rumor has it that the previous superintendent gutted the original handbook in order to weaken school councils, but I haven't been able to get my hands on an original, so I can't verify that. All this to say that within CPS, school councils exist in most schools and they work really well at some schools and less so at others. This discussion took 40 minutes, which was also a little longer than it needed to be. So here is an abbreviated version. First, the motion makers outlined the goals and purposes of the motion. These are to bring back a school council's working group that can revise the handbook, centralize school council resources and knowledge, and enact suggestions from the previous working group that never happened. The motion also called for creating a subcommittee on school councils in order to strengthen the connections between school councils and the school committee, which, they argued, would also align well with the district's family engagement goals. Member Hudson asked why a subcommittee was necessary. She pointed out that a subcommittee creates more work for the administration. As it turns out, according to school committee rules, each subcommittee has a member of the executive leadership team assigned to it. Vice Chair Duby reiterated the goals of the motion and added that she really wants the school committee to recognize the value and importance of school councils. Chair Weinstein agreed, noting that there is a certain amount of informal knowledge sharing happening between some school councils already. Member Jacomar said he supported the motion. He thought that Member Hudson's question was a fair one, but he believes a subcommittee will help improve family engagement goals. Member Harding also thought Member Hudson's question was important, and he asked the superintendent what he thought. The superintendent said that despite the fact that his hardworking staff feels stretched already, he respected the desire for a school council subcommittee. He agreed that there is variability in school councils and stated clearly that school councils are important as well as legally required, and when they are run well, they add value to school communities. Vice Chair Duby noted that it isn't their job to debate the role and value of school councils. The point of this motion was to create a conduit for school councils to work with the school committee. She said she would imagine that the director of family engagement, who was the member of the executive leadership team they assumed would be assigned to the subcommittee, would actually benefit from taking part in the subcommittee. The chair then asked the superintendent if having the school council working group report to the Communications and Community Relations Subcommittee, which already exists, would relieve some administrative burden, and the superintendent said yes it would. So Member Hudson asked if the motion makers would accept an amendment to strike the subcommittee but keep the working group. Members DePalo Santos and Jacomar, as the co chairs of the Communications and Community Relations Subcommittee, said they were fine with the working group reporting to them. And Member Hudson moved to amend the motion thusly. She was seconded by the Vice Chair, and they all voted unanimously to approve the amendment. The superintendent asked some clarifying questions about operationalizing the formation of the working group, and it was decided that he will create the working group, and that group will report to the Communications and Community Relations Subcommittee by the end of this school year, and to the full school committee by the end of the next one. They then unanimously approved the motion as amended. Then the meeting moved to unfinished business, which was motion 2640 from Vice Chair Duby and Member DePaulo Santos, and proposed a temporary pause on non-essential screen use for students in pre-kindergarten through second grade. Vice Chair Duby opened the discussion with some explanation of the motion, saying it is a response to a February report by the American Academy of Pediatrics, and, among other things, quote, this motion proposes a temporary pause on non-essential student-facing screen time in pre-K through second grade classrooms while the district completes a comprehensive audit of screen time. It's important to be clear about what this does and doesn't do. It does not eliminate technology. It does not restrict teachers from using screens. It simply pauses the routine use of individual student devices in early childhood classrooms for non-essential purposes. End quote. She expressed some concern that the burden of a moratorium would fall solely on educators and wanted to make sure that administrators help with enacting it. She said it is an important motion, given that there are many challenges related to increased screen use for our youngest learners. Member Hudson said she loved the intention of the motion, saying that nobody on the committee endorses the use of non-instructional screen time. She did, however, have questions about operationalization. She suggested simplifying and clarifying some of the language in the motion, and also noted that some of the details, such as having the superintendent alone grant exceptions for screen use, were unrealistic. She also noted that it would be better to have the screen time audit report before creating a new screen time policy. Member Harding agreed with Member Hudson and asked the superintendent what he thought. The superintendent said the educational technology developed faster than we were all ready for. He agreed that it makes sense to wait for the audit and noted that this is an issue for the long term and the data on it are complicated. He said that his administration had issued specific guidance for the pre-K and kindergarten levels at the start of the school year, but I'm guessing it was not properly implemented, given that he then said he had made a mistake to not put the full weight of the administration behind it. Chair Weinstein agreed it is an important issue, but had concerns about enacting something so suddenly, especially with respect to how educators would be affected. He thought it was a good idea to refer the matter to the superintendent. Then the mayor asked the superintendent if the audit report could happen sooner than the planned date of may nineteenth, and the superintendent said not really. The mayor further suggested editing the motion to attend to the operational challenges. Member Jacomar supported referring the matter to the superintendent. He added that this is the issue that school committee members have received the most input from the public on, saying that nobody thinks we need more screen time in the early grades. So Chair Weinstein moved to refer the motion to the superintendent and his motion passed by a five to two vote. Only Vice Chair Duby and Member Harding voted no. Next they moved item 2646 forward. This was a recommendation to approve a new private school called Harmony Academy. Interestingly, even though the district is not responsible for evaluating private schools, they are responsible for approving the establishment of them. The superintendent noted that the last time the committee approved a private school was 2023. He said there had been applications since then, but this was the first to have successfully passed through the screening process to make it to school committee. The Harmony Academy leadership then made a presentation on their plans for how the school will operate, including the curricula they will use, and the members voted unanimously to approve the new school. Second, he said he would update the committee on the hiring processes for the various openings in the district and school leadership positions by the end of the week. Last, with respect to the 158 Spring Street building, he said he was committed to engaging the community before the end of the school year with October 1st, 2026 as the decision deadline. He said he would provide a list of specific options by May 15th. This final update inspired some questions from the committee. Member Harding asked if the October 1st deadline was realistic, given that the school committee doesn't work over the summer. And the superintendent said he thought it was, but the committee might have something else in mind. To which Member Harding said he was under the impression that they had committed to deciding by June of this year, which was an assertion that the superintendent did not agree with, because the superintendent thought the committee was planning to complete the strategic plan first. Member Harding noted that the decision should be made by the time families are signing up for the kindergarten lottery. The superintendent said the timeline is subject to change. The construction analyst should provide specific building information by next month so they will know more than. Then Chair Weinstein joined the conversation, saying it would be helpful to see the superintendent's timeline for making the decision, including planned community engagement sessions and other meetings. Member Hudson then asked how early the decision could be made, and the superintendent said that will be more clear once they have the complete list of options, which he will present to the committee on may 15th. He agreed that sooner is better, but noted that building and infrastructure issues could get in the way. So Member Hudson said she appreciated the administration giving them clear choices, especially since they don't work over the summer. She said she blames the school committee, not the administration, for this decision moving so slowly. The mayor then wondered why the school committee doesn't work in the summer. She said they did in her previous terms, and they get paid during the summer, so they should be working. I will take this opportunity to remind listeners that the school committee members get paid an annual salary of forty nine thousand one hundred and twenty two dollars with benefits, but with no job description or codified expectations by which to evaluate their effectiveness. The superintendent noted that the work of the district happens all day, every day, and not just at these meetings, and the district leadership will keep working even if the committee doesn't meet. But whatever goes into that space has to be part of a larger vision for the district and of benefit to the community. At long last, they moved on to the presentation, which was originally to be quite lengthy, but most of the people in the meeting agreed that there wasn't going to be enough time for that. And instead of spending a lot of time on presenting, the Director of Data Assessment and Accountability, Jen Amagon, and the Executive Director of Academics, Dr. Heather Francis, would give an abridged presentation and then take questions from the school committee, who had already had the presentation for several days at this point. The presentation covered the many specific metrics used to assess students and school's academic progress, and I have linked to the presentation in the show notes. After the lightning speed presentation, Member Harding spoke first, taking umbrage with the rushed nature of the discussion. Member Hudson also felt like this should be a longer discussion. She talked about how unclear this information is to non-experts and caregivers. She said the school committee should be using their time to help families understand these things better. Chair Weinstein asked the presenters about helping families understand the assessments and their results. Ms. Amagon mentioned that they had tried district level webinars and other ways of sharing data, but they hadn't been very successful. She highlighted a presentation given to the Baldwin School community by their principal communicating assessment results and their meanings to caregivers, and said that they are working on using it as a model for similar presentations at all schools. She noted that school level communication may be more valuable than district level. She also mentioned that based on the curriculum and achievement subcommittee meeting, they are developing a one-pager about ELA assessments. The superintendent closed out the discussion by acknowledging the rushed nature of this particular presentation on assessments, but also noted that work on assessments and sharing out about them is going on all the time. At this point, they had already voted to extend the meeting more than once, so they hurried along to the consent and school committee agendas. Nothing exceptionally noteworthy happened, and everything was approved. Everything includes 13 contracts, one notification of gifts, three subcommittee reports, two of which are now available online, and a motion to hold a roundtable regarding the results of the youth risk behavior survey in the fall. Finally, there was a quick announcement from the mayor congratulating Member Harding on his Impact Award from the Phillips Brooks House Association. And congratulations to all of you for making it through part two. I split the meeting into two episodes because it is my absolute number one goal with this podcast to make meetings like this one more accessible and help the public be informed without being overwhelmed. Relatedly, because I have been asked this question, I want to state definitively that I will not be running for school committee in 2027. This podcast is not a long-term campaign strategy, I promise. The next regular meeting is on May 5th. Until then, I'll be working on some episodes on public comments, subcommittee meetings, and all of my opinions, including what to look for in school committee members when you are voting next year. You can send any feedback to Cambridgesc30 at gmail.com. As I just said, I have a lot of opinions, and I'm going to share them for sure. But today I'm going to wrap up with a delightful little announcement, especially for those whose lives include beginning readers. My kids' beloved first grade teacher Imbal Allen will be releasing her first picture book on April 28th. This book is called Maddie's Towers, and it tells the story of a child managing disappointment and friendship and carefully rebuilding her trust in herself and her friends. I've read it, and I think it's a great book that definitely reflects Miss Inbal's gentle, thoughtful, and caring approach to teaching. If you know Miss Imball, you know she always knows exactly what to say to kids in a way that's meaningful to them. I have linked to her website in the show notes. Thanks for listening.