Worcester wonât fight lawsuit aimed at diversifying school committee
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By deciding not to fight a voting rights lawsuit, Worcesterâs elected officials became the latest in Massachusetts to abandon an electoral method that constituents called discriminatory.
Worcester City Council committed earlier this month to changing the cityâs all-at-large system of electing school committee members in response to a suit filed in federal court in February.
âThe trend is clear, which is toward more representative government and away from electoral systems that pose structural barriers to communities of color,â said Oren Sellstrom, litigation director for Lawyers for Civil Rights. The nonprofit legal organization championed the Worcester suit and others that have nearly extinguished all-at-large voting in large Massachu
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Trust between Worcester’s Latinx community and public schools must be rebuilt to improve outcomes for students, families, report finds
Updated Jan 26, 2021;
For Latinx families and students to thrive in Worcester, there must be accountability and rebuilt trust between the community and the Worcester Public Schools, officials said.
Leaders in Worcester have spent more than a year analyzing data and the community to make recommendations to improve achievement for Latinx residents, who make up about 21% of Worcester’s population and 43% of students enrolled in the Worcester Public Schools.
In an effort to respond to concerns about Worcester’s Latinx community, Mayor Joe Petty tapped Quinsigamond Community College President Luis Pedraja and Mary Jo Marion, the assistant vice president for urban affairs and the Latino Education Institute at Worcester State University, to head up the Commission on Latino Advancement and Education, which led to a newly-released report on the way