was it was middle school and high school actually preferred to all come to to travel as a unit together. Um a lot of it too is parents are going to work and they drop you know our families here K to 12. So at that point it became not any kind of other issue other than at that point that cohort of students wanted to um travel with their cohort with their family members. Um, and that's when we started improving things that we could do here, creating the Metroco lounge at the high school, getting new furniture here at the middle school. So, Mon'nique enhanced what we could do in the morning programs, um, better breakfast. So, that's one thing I shared with those students is we need to, they didn't have really the voice of all the Boston students and I said that is important to gather that and see because there are family dynamics that made it them want to do that.
Uh, I don't know. You know, obviously this is just data. So we can leave it up to interpretation and you can interpret data any way you like, but this is this is just the raw information to give to you.
And the only other issue we have and we have to see if it's changed that's why we are riding the bus traffic getting out of Boston. If you wait too long they would be late. So it's a it's a one of those problems that are not easy to solve because of all the other things that are happening. But don't think that we're never thinking about that and investigating that and seeing what we can do. Um we have worked tirelessly trying to figure it out um to see if we can enhance it. And I say we gathered 15 minutes this year which was great for the elementary students. They are getting there with their peers um and starting the day so they're not having that time having to wait and it's 15 minutes later here and we do provide um support here and breakfast uh for those students.
So any questions as as we're looking at this and then we'll go on to the next piece. Miss Cardier, how is separation defined? Is that it's a termination, resignation, retirement, but not a leave of absence. Okay. No, it's it's by person by their status in that year. Right. So, if you're a teacher this year and you become a coach next year, you're still a teacher. This is only people contract edition. Nope. This is not Is this our contract employees? Like Oh, this this does not include That's a good question. This does not include contract employees because this is these are people that we hire in the district. We pay them. We pay their benefits, you know, whatever that process is. So, they're within our our hiring. You're welcome. Yeah. Uh, I it seems pretty straightforward, but if you do have questions, um, just let me know as we're looking.
So have you asked the MECO students themselves this cohort? So that's what that's what they were going to that was the next step. They walked away with next steps, right? and we're going to continue the conversation. Just because we made a decision in 2019 doesn't mean that needs that decision needs to stay in, you know, two 2025 or 2026. So, it's an opportunity to revisit it with new voices, new perspectives, perhaps new ideas um and really sit down and work through it similar to what we did with the calendar committee and and really dissect it. That's great. Yeah. And I think, you know, this is data um that we have um looked at as a leadership team and we're we're putting our heads together too about how to um approach the discrepancies with sleep with engagement. Um you know, obviously the achievement gap um it's an ongoing conversation.
Do you need a minute maybe to scan it? Okay, I'll be quiet. Can we clarify this? I think you know the answer, but just to make sure when we're looking at the number of employees that doesn't include contracted employees. It's only district employees. Correct. Yeah, that's what I just said. Yeah. So, um of these positions that are nice and these Oh, sorry. and and these numbers are also people who um resign mid year or resign a couple months here. Yep. So it it encompasses July 1st through June 30th. So if they resigned on July 4th, they're included. If they resigned on June 29th, then they're included. Do we know how many of those I've got the number 112 um separated um teachers? How many of those positions were filled with contractors? We do not have any contractors on this like were we able to replace those hundred?
Okay. Thank you. Thank you for your support. Yeah. uh the listening session when was that and how many students did you have um show up for that for the the one this year or back then following so this was just that group of 24 and so there was um a third of them that worked on Boston transportation um some of them were were METCO students and some of them weren't um so part of the next step is to go back and gather more information and data from METCO students and METCO families and bring together larger groups of people. So, that was just kind of a beginning of the conversation. Um, and between Don and Denny, they were able to give them some constructive feedback to say, "All right, this is how we're going to keep your question and your, you know, um, potential solutions going." Um, Beth, can I ask, are they planning to interview the um the families or ask ask for sleep quantities from the parents because a Metco parent that I spoke to said, "Well, they didn't ask me how much you sleep." So, I think it would be the self-report on sleep.
Oh, I see what you're saying. Um I I haven't pulled that data. I mean I gave you that data about how many contractors we have at the beginning of the year or beginning of this process. So I would refer you back to that. Okay. Yeah. So that's that's a good point though. And you know the other thing to think about too is that there were reductions in positions, right? So we cut our coaching team down from 29 or 26 to 12 district-wide and they are certified. So they're in the certified group. Other questions. All right. Uh the second piece artifact that I have for you, I received uh information from the curriculum instruction and assessment department. So what you have is you have four different tabs. There was a request to uh get information on what instructional minutes and minutes were required by the state.
Um, you might find different answers if you ask. Good point. I encourage you. Yeah. Thanks. Thank you. Do you have any general benchmarks of when Boston public school buses start running or their charter buses? Because I went to Boston public schools. My commute was over an hour as well. Like they started pretty early. So, I'm just wondering are other neighborhood buses going or are we the only buses going through town? I think we're hitting the lot we're think buses for all the areas um have the earlier start. You have to keep in mind too that they they c they cover a lot of ground. They're doing like it's not just a neighborhood in Boston. And that's one thing we talked about with the Mechco students. It would be great like if MECO would try to start doing neighborhoods that would make it so much easier on all of us.
So the first tab are AD's recommendations for time for primary and elementary upper grades. Uh fourth through sixth and seventh and eighth. Uh little just a note seven and eight if self-contained is if you had one teacher in the classroom right teaching all content. Uh the second tab, SEI models. This is what the states approved models for structured English immersion. Yes. Where's what? It's linked in your um master course schedule. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. in a 120 or 100 minute daily model. These are the options that are available to the district for how to provide that instruction. So, we don't do all of these models. I don't believe we do the newcomer model. I'm not in curriculum, but I think that bas if I remember correctly, we don't do do newcomer. We do pull out, we do twohour, and we also do the DLI model, which is what our superintendent of public construction had issue with.
Um and so I think that's a recommendation that we can put back on MECO is how they assign students. So and to me they seem like they'd have their own community too, right? Yeah. Your neighborhood. So that would definitely enhance transportation issues because we all grapple with the right with the same thing. Are they all transiting to one place where the bus picks them up or does the bus do essentially a route through Boston? They it does a route through Boston and something that came up last week or two weeks ago uh it was MCCO advocacy day at the state house. Uh so we had a number of you know administrators from districts, parents, students, former Boston students, nonmetco students there. um just advocating to our state representatives um to continue to not only continue to fund MECO but to allocate additional funds. Uh, so when we had our smaller sessions with our more local representatives, that was something we brought up is how can Mechco maybe think more outside the box in terms of the transportation maybe having, you know, while we couldn't have just an elementary and a secondary bus at over Sherborn, what if we did like Westwood and, you know, kind of pulled with some of the local towns.
and to sue the district. So, that's still ongoing uh statutory analysis. And I I don't have a lot of context for this, so I'm going to defer to principles and uh assistant principles uh if you have specific questions, but this gives you sort of a breakdown of what and it's based on I know our our times are different at different sites, but then the amount of time at each site is the same whether you start at 8 or 9, whatever your start time is, it's still the same amount of time. So, what this is based on a full day and early release days including Wednesdays, how many days of instruction, what the hours are for each day, uh, and what how that breaks down. And what I would have you look at also is note the instructional minutes versus the non-instructional minutes. So, that's another part of this calculation of daily time.
Um, and we said like things like this cost money and it would be something that reason why we need our legislators to advocate for an increase to the metco budget as well. So some of it kind of rests in our legislators hands to advocate for the additional funding too. Okay. As for homework, I was assuming that most of it was probably done on computer or some sort of tablet. Is that correct? Yeah. Or essentially like middle school and high school kids. Does the bus have something like a hot spot on it for them to be able to access online? That was something that we explored this year with our new head director. And I think a lot of the feedback we got from the students is that they wouldn't be doing it on the bus that that's their time to unwind, be with their friends, listen to music, kind of, you know, some of them will take, you know, the nap on the bus.
And then just for your information, um a different look at where each of those minutes are broken down as well as some links to uh statute. So ARS 1590 901 and SB 1 1022 which were changes to the SEI model a few years ago. Um, I don't know if Katie or Amy or James have anything to add. I know you're still you're you're in the testing model or zone right now, so you might not have other thoughts about master course schedule. That seems a little far off, but just to see if you have anything to add. And it's okay if you don't. Um, I'll just add like looking at the last tab, the analysis tab, um, like it's showing that we have more hours than required by statue for both instructional time and non-instructional time. Um, and like when we were comparing surrounding school districts, we identified several other school districts that had a shorter day by somewhere between like 30 and 45 minutes.
Um, but they didn't think that they would be productive doing homework um on the bus if we even offered that. respectfully. Um the student that is optioned with us, he has teachers who have times that they have to have he has to have the work in by 4:30. Um and they've not been lenient about the time that the work has to be um submitted and so he's been forced to do it on the bus or be late, which is generally what has happened and that's affected his grade. um you know that's just one story but yeah it's important and I think as we you know dive in we'll hear more stories and more examples and figure out what we can address. Yeah. Yeah. Come go come. So during co days we had Zoom um right in all the classrooms and all the teachers were doing it.
And so like that needs to be part of our calculation, especially when we're talking about salary and wages, that not only could a teacher jump to a neighboring school district and make more money, they could make more money for less hours in a day. So they're making more money per hour than a teacher over here. Well, remember their compensation is based on an 8 hour day, whether or not that's instructional or not. Yeah. I think um when we're talking about that the amount of time as a teacher you spend in front of kids is the amount of time that like is the the core of your work I guess I should say. Yeah. Good. I'm not discounting that. I'm just making sure that people understand you're not getting paid a full day for six hours or seven hours. So and I would I would just add like that's one point but the most important is comparing progress in scores.
So on an especially long day because they're playing sports and doing uh drama and stuff. So suppose if they're going back teaching back home really late and started have to start really early in the morning. What if they were not for everybody but for the high school students at least when their time sleep is so important. What if they could be connected on Zoom on some classes some days, not all classes obviously, not physics or something, but say history or English, they would get some semblance of learning staying home when they're responsible enough to stay home and catch on if that was an option. Mhm. For a few because I know they wouldn't be getting that extra one period of DR like some kids do, right? they'll have to be on the bus so they don't have that luxury as well. I know how much my kid wants to sleep in on the day of the year.
So, if other districts around us have shorter days and are doing much better, that's something for us to look at because the longer day isn't necessarily equaling better scores or even an improvement of scores. You need All right. Um, yes, Amy, just one thing that Oh, that was really loud. Um, just one thing I'd really like us to be a wary of because I know the principal's been having a maybe not wary of just aware of um conversations about the instructional minutes for kindergarten because you can see that kindergarten is not mandatory. But when we write our MA master course schedules, they're oftentimes held to the same number of minutes as first through third grade. And so just thinking about um the needs of our kindergarten students, we've tal been talking a lot about like including like some more thank you. developmentally appropriate um time in the day for kindergarten because they learn through play.
So if they were to take a break, you know. Um yeah, that's worth looking into. And I think one of the proposals was looking at schedules and unfortunately the way the high school schedule is right now, they don't start with the same class every day. It was like, oh, can we give our Boston students all a DR first period so that they can then have a longer commute and not worry about missing class? not with our current schedule, but it's on the table to figure out like is there any flexibility. So, thank you for the Zoom idea. Great. Um, so extracurriculars. Um, and the last category we looked at was student support. Um, so teacher care and support that our students are getting as well as students reporting uh feelings of belonging by the middle school. It's hard to see. What is teacher Karen? like I feel cared and supported by my teacher or I'm receiving extra supports that they feel connected to teachers, have relationships with teachers, um feel supported by them.
And so how do we bridge that gap between preschool where they're learning but it's all playbased to suddenly I'm sitting in you know a desk at a table and so how do we kind of bridge that gap? So we've been a lot of conversations centered around how can we support that transition from preschool or head start to kindergarten. So it's not like I go from playbased to sitting at a desk all day. And I think that's a a good conversation to have as you're exploring options and making recommendations. All right, we're going to call up Mr. Ruth Nam is going to give us a overview of the work that the uh compression and compensation committee had been tasked to do. Um Dorothy is on that committee. Uh so if you can fill in if you don't mind uh since Vanessa's not able to be with us today.