The Newton School Committee unanimously voted to reject a petition for the creation of an academic principles advisory committee for Newton Public Schools (NPS) at a public hearing on Tuesday night. Over 250 residents requested time to speak about the petition at the hearing.
“Oddly enough, tonight was helpful to restore some of my confidence in our community,” Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller said at the close of the hearing. “Others tonight have said this: We have very passionate and engaged residents here.”
ImproveNPS, an education advocacy group in Newton, organized the petition, which received 168 signatures. Fifty signatures is the minimum amount required for a petition to be presented and voted on at a public hearing in accordance with Section 10-2 of Newton’s City Charter.
The committee the petition proposes would have advised the school committee on NPS’ curriculum, mission statement, and other operations if approved, according to ImproveNPS’ website.
Speakers at the hearing included NPS students, parents, teachers, city councilors, and other community members.
Several dissenters of the petition expressed their unhappiness with the potential bias of the proposed committee, which was to have at least five petition signatories as members if approved.
“We already have an elected school committee … I reject the idea that an unelected group of people who bear no accountability to anyone at all should establish the core principles for Newton Public Schools,” Newton resident Kerry Prasad said.
Daniel Blumenthal, an NPS parent who opposed the petition, said he believed the proposed committee would be inefficient.
“You could make the argument that this committee is just going to create non-binding recommendations, but the school board is going to have to respond to each in writing, and this will create a huge burden on their time,” Blumenthal said.
Several proponents of the petition pointed to the difficulties of having their voices heard within the present system of communication between NPS and residents.
“Parents have tried to individually present concerns shared by many of Newton to administrators, school committee members, and the mayor’s office,” said Phoebe Olhava, an NPS parent. “Up to this point, detailed information is rare. Each person’s individual communication remains in its own silo.”
Meanwhile, other proponents expressed their concerns with the quality of students’ education at NPS.
“I was shocked to see this data … if you go to AP tests in calculus, Newton North failure rate 2022—70 percent,” Dmitry Genis, an NPS parent, said. “I’m asking to vote to support creation of this committee, because we can ignore it, you can vote against, but it will not help our kids.”
Ward 2 councilors-at-large Susan Albright and Tarik Lucas, Ward 2 ward-councilor Emily Norton, Ward 7 councilor-at-large Marc Laredo, and Ward 5 councilor-at-large Andreae Downs all spoke at the hearing and expressed their disapproval of the petition.
“As always, any resident can make recommendations to the school committee in the school department on any topic at any time, and that’s what these petitioners can do,” Albright said.
One area of debate regarding the petition dealt with the way NPS addresses diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Some proponents of the petition expressed displeasure with the way that DEI is handled within NPS.
“At Franklin specifically, there are several affinity groups that only allow students who identify as BIPOC to participate … they are segregating students by race and discouraging students to be allies,” Amanda Caruso, an NPS parent, said. “This is wrong. All students who want to support each other and enhance their social-emotional learning should be welcome.”
Several dissenters voiced their support for NPS’ approach to DEI, pointing to programs like Dover Legacy Scholars and the Calculus Project as important resources available to students from marginalized communities. Dover Legacy Scholars is an academic community for Black and Hispanic high schoolers and the Calculus Project provides math support for Black, Hispanic, and low-income students.
“When my junior honors students use linear combinations of trigonometric functions to parameterize the path of a point on a rolling wheel, or when they use the hypergeometric distribution to model bad actors trying to change the outcome of a national election, they weren’t distracted by the fact we have a Calculus Project,” Ryan Normandin, a teacher at Newton South, said. “In fact, several of them are in the Calculus Project.”
At the conclusion of the hearing, Newton School Committee chair Tamika Olszewski emphasized the importance of DEI programming in schools and her opposition to the petition.
“We should teach our teachers that this is something they should recognize as a risk because we’re all a microcosm of our greater society, and bias exists,” said Olszewski. “That’s an objective truth.”
