This will be a relatively short post on last night's community meeting. Mostly because it really didn't feel much different from last week's community meeting at Orchard Gardens, though the turnout wasn't as good.

This time, Laura Perille from the EAC presented the proposed plans. I thought she explained them in a little more detail than they were explained at the last community meeting, but I'm not at all confident that people understand how the home-based plans work.

BPS gave the same presentation on the impact of the plans that they've given in the past. They really need to fix the charts that don't start at zero, they're pretty deceptive. Also, they still only show access to quality for the child with the lowest access and there were no breakouts by race, ethnicity, or free lunch status.

I think only one person spoke in favor of moving towards neighborhood schools. Almost everyone else who spoke called for putting quality first and/or expressed concerns about the lack of equity in the new plans.

One group that's really been missing from these meetings is parents who have children who are not yet attending BPS. These are the families who will be most affected by any assignment plan and very few of them have spoken at the community meetings I've attended.

I really encourage everyone to attend the final community meeting next Thursday. It will be in East Boston, but the location hasn't been determined yet. I assume it will start at 6 pm. as the other meetings have.

I'll be away next week so I'll miss the last community meeting and the EAC meetings on Wednesday and possibly Saturday of next week. If anyone attends those meetings and could send me your notes, it would be much appreciated.