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So yeah, I want to make sure like we worst case scenario 10% increase. We're so because a lot of it too is is it's um it's wealth and your special ed. So yes, if you look through those those budgets, not that we want to rely on any of our taxpayers more than we do, but they're not uh insurmountable amounts that we couldn't find. We're fortunate it's not going to we don't have as big a concern as as other cities and towns. Okay. So, just to transition to teaching and learning on a happier note, you you had the fun job. Okay. Let's hope so. Okay. Uh, so quick teaching and learning updates. Uh, like superintendent McCoy said, it is MCCAST season. Um, so I just want to thank our assistant principles who are doing a lot of work right now, organizers that are making sure that all of our students are getting the accommodations that they need for the MCCAST exam.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
So, that's why when we talked about all the different options, that's the one that we came up with to target was that placement schedule. and then of course you know uh provide equity for the existing you know the continuing psychologist so that they're matching up but that's where we saw the biggest deficit even taking into consideration the range of market demands or not market demands and all of that other information so I just want to like just these are my thoughts my perspective on this is that I mean we're bleeding psychologists in this district like I don't know how many are coming back or not coming back next year and we're constantly turning over and school like so many schools I went with years without one like as a I if I were a psychologist or even just thinking as a principal if I were to go and look at a district and look at their salary not looking at market demand because you know some districts do it some districts don't do it I would not necessarily look at that part I would just look at the base salary and be like oh they're so much lower I am not going to this district but I do think this what one of the options that we talked about and I just want to throw this out there is moving that market demand stipen into the base salary which would because people don't always look at that difference and maybe that might help it make a difference plus all of the other things that we're saying already but I think that would make a huge difference be when people are looking at salary schedules like I'm not going to this district they pay $20,000 less or 15,000 which may not necessarily be the case because we pay that but it's not in that base so just throwing that out there we did talk about that and we did look at that.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Um, you know, the one thing that I will say, and I'll talk a little bit more once we get to June and some of the Dober and the um, Sherborn meetings is with the math MCCAST, we just want to set our expectations that we have a new curriculum and that there could be some growing pains as we're adjusting to the new curriculum. I have a lot of faith that our teachers and our students are doing a great job. U, but it's very normal when you're implementing a new curriculum to see a decrease um, in scores in that first year. um it's not what I'm anticipating, but I think it's important for you all to know and for the community to know that that is a possibility um with the first year of implementation. With that being said, though, I have to spotlight our two math coaches.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
That's why we pulled up the salary schedule. To be honest with you, I you know, I have um some feelings about that. I I agree that it makes more sense for both what Kelly said and what you're saying to have more of that if you're going to have any stipen outside of it, at least get more of it into the base for that very reason. Also, the the thing that Kelly pointed out in terms of when raises come, there's a chunk of your money that's not getting that raise, which doesn't really feel fair. So, we talked about all of those different options. This is the one that we came up with that was going to be the best immediate fix, knowing that we wanted to look more at adding that um uh market demand maybe into the base later. But to be honest with you, it's pretty clear that there is a market demand on our salary schedule and many of the other districts do have a market demand.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
So, Laura Howerin at Cherine and Lindsay Winer at Sherborn who were um asked by Desi and TNTP to present to the whole state about um what they've been doing with our math implementation. Um, so Dover Sherborn is going to be one of three districts that's highlighted at this webinar that's coming up on Thursday. Uh, so we're really proud of them and they have done so much work. Um, so to see them recognized and highlighted by the state is really really exciting and kind of speaks to how thoughtful um, their implementation process has been there. Um, and then just a couple quick updates. As I've mentioned, I think in January, we've launched our program review of our elementary ELA programs. So we now have a committee that's been formed. We took the feedback from the community and teachers. Um currently right now the committee is looking at research on early literacy and looking at some of the rubrics that have been put out by various organizations like the reading league.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
It was pretty easy to to find. It wasn't I mean I don't want to be mean or anything but if if you're a new psychologist looking at any of the districts and you couldn't see that there was a market demand I'd be a little worried about your ability to kind of look at a salary schedule. But that being said I do agree and and most members of the committee did agree that that's an area that we need to look at in terms of is it base pay or is it compensation. Who made this graph? Vanessa. Oh, okay. I believe Well, the nextG one came from data that was put into that nextgen system and then the whole thing being put together was Vanessa. Yes. Sorry. As part of that committee as well, I just wanted to add on to Dorothy that with the stipens, um, we stacked the stipens.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Um and we're hoping to at the June um school committee meeting with Dober and Sherborn um to present to you our findings of what are the criteria we're looking for in a um successful elementary ELA program. So, that got launched. Uh, we launched our program review of the elementary Spanish program. Um, so we've set out a timeline for what that's going to look like. Um hopefully by next January uh January 2026 um we'll have a presentation for all of you that gives a report on the goals of our elementary Spanish program uh whether or not the program is meeting those goals um and any recommendations um on any changes or um adjustments we need to make to the flesh program or the fles curriculum. Um I think all these have come handinhand with a study that we've been doing at both elementary schools in terms of instructional time.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Other districts did not. It was like one or the other. So, like for the NC, what is it? the NCSB certificate in the doctorate either other districts said either you get a stipen for your doctorate or the certificate we we stock all those including the market demand. Yeah, sorry. So like for Scottsdale it's three grand for your NCSP or six for your license. So that's but there's a huge difference with Kraton's. Um my only thing going back to what um Dorothy said, so yes, we're having a mass issue with Sykes, right? I think we're only going to have like maybe two district sites for next year when we are staffed for nine, which is kind of crazy. Um, but in adding to the base salary, like you're still only going to have a difference of 5,000 between step A and step K. And I think we're gonna continue to have or Kraton's gonna continue to have problems with getting experienced psyches, which just as a forewarning, we're going into an audit um in the next year and a half and that's going to be crazy.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Um so for two weeks we had elementary teachers keep track of every minute of their day and what they were spending it on. Um, so currently that's in progress and we're looking forward to seeing that data and just to figure out what where time is going. Um, and to, you know, make some decisions. If, for example, we get to a point where we're going to be adopting a new elementary ELA program, the first thing is going to be, well, how much time do we have to all lot towards that? Uh, some programs are going to say 90 minutes. Some are going to say, you know, you want an hour reading block and an hour writing block. Um so h knowing where the time is being spent and if we need to make tweaks in several places uh will be really helpful in that process as well.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
But again, I think I don't know, it's really interesting. And not everybody does have a market demand, which is really interesting. They've just always had higher base um salaries from the get-go. Yeah, we definitely talked about all of that because as a member of the special ed department, I have a big concern with this as well. So, we brought up all of those things and I think this was our best effort at making the first step, but certainly not the last step in addressing the psychologist situation. Sorry. And can I just go back though in looking at this but also going back to the bus drivers like I don't know and are are we going to talk about these recommendations more later on or should we do it now? We are. Okay. Now's a good time. Okay. Well, I just for a dollar increase like I'm sorry like we need the bus drivers to be able to bring the students for a psychologist to test.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Uh so that's in process. Um another thing that is just beginning um and the region will hear more about this um is kind of a reorganization of our middle school science curriculum. Uh so some of you know that currently our sixth grade curriculum I have to make sure I get this right. Our sixth grade curriculum is earth science. Our seventh grade curriculum is life science and our eighth grade curriculum is physical science. Uh we're looking at a reorg uh that is actually in line with Massachusetts frameworks. So it's not one specific science in each grade, but it's a combination of all of those three and a progression from sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. Um we've done a lot of studies about this. We've talked to neighboring districts um and some of our comparable districts. Uh we've had conversations with the high school science department. Um, we think that this reorganization is going to be beneficial, um, especially for a lot of our freshmen that take biology that will be having a closer glimpse at their unit on genetics in 8th grade rather than it falling a lot earlier.
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Like I'm not okay. Like I I that doesn't sit well with me. Like I know we have an issue with Sykes, but we also have an issue with bus driving and it's impacting which kids could go to which programs, school start times, like all of these things because we don't have enough drivers. So I have a problem with that only being a dollar. Um I would just like to add because I see we're talking about bus drivers. little history since I've been on meeting confer and I've been I don't know consecutively for about what five years I don't know back when the first you know long time ago but every year we have discussed bus drivers and have implemented different things to get bus drivers whe that was raises or making them 12 month employees we have done things every year like I remember one year back toback back.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Um, so more updates for that to the regional school committee. Um, but that's something that wouldn't go into place next year. Next year would be a planning year and then it would unfold at a a rolling basis. So that would be the oh goodness the fall of 2026th grade would change seventh and eth would stay the same. The next year we would rolled up sixth and seventh grade. Uh so really looking at four years out before the entire sequence um has possibly changed as well. Um so that is the teaching and learning updates. Uh a couple more things. Uh recently we had our math consultant that we've been working with Dr. Alison Melo come in. Um this was such a great professional development opportunity for our teachers. Um she's an expert in math and also an expert uh with districts who are implementing reveal. Um she went into a bunch of different classrooms and she taught lessons and we were able to arrange it so we got coverage so that all the teachers in that grade level could come and observe the class.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
We gave just a certain type of race to bus drivers to try to recruit bus drivers. So, there has been things done to try to recruit bus drivers. I will say there hasn't been a lot of work done to recruit Sykes, but we have made a solid effort to recruit bus drivers. Oh, yeah. Um, I was just going to ask if uh Dorothy or Lisa, whomever else was on the committee, when these recommendations were put forward, was it was there thought in mind of the money that meet and confer to play with as far as what Vanessa had brought forward? Like, are these within our realms of possibility or was it just like, well, that would be nice, but we don't we can't do that. Uh, well, what we talked about was, you know, we gave you guys the 20 thou the 200,000 back because we had Thanks, Dorothy.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Um, and it was a really valuable PV experience for them just to have the opportunity to see somebody else teaching the math, modeling kind of good math practices, but then the discussions and the debriefs they had afterwards as great little teams um was really really powerful and just a nice opportunity for them to talk more about math. Um, so the pictures that you can see up here is she was in a fourth grade classroom at Pine Hill and she was doing a kind of kinesthetic movement activity around fractions. Um, so we had been talking about scientific research that shows kind of the difference between males and females and males different part of their brain activates with movement. So this was just a really cool thing that fell in line with what we were talking about brain research and um, getting students up and physically like making fractions with their bodies.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
We really appreciate that because we hadn't been able to get enough time to do all of this deeper work. We were going to ask for some of it back because now we've kind of looked at and earmarked um recommendations that we think make sense. It doesn't spend all the 200,000 by any means. Um I forget exactly how much, but I'm sure it's on here. Um, so we were going to ask for some of that money back and that's what was going to fund this and then the rest we were going to let you keep and use for um, uh, longevity or whatever else you guys decided was the best use for that money. Sorry. Um, I was going to add on the bus drivers conversation. um like it's very like it's helpful to compare to surrounding school districts, but um like something that is not necessarily represented here is that they could go drive for the city of Phoenix and it's like the same skill, a lot of the same lensure and then they um can make just as much if not more, right?
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Um, so that was a cool activity that we had. Um, our peer leaders at the middle school have been busy in classrooms um, working with the younger students and doing those lessons. Um, so that's been another great thing that we've been seeing is our um, eighth graders or seventh and eighth grade period leaders getting to flex their leadership skills um, and go in and talk to our younger students. And that is all for me questions. Quick quick question for me Denny on the evaluation of the foreign language in the elementary schools. Is there going to be uh a deeper look at how that transitions to the middle school as well? I think right now it's pretty obviously like disconnected from the five years of of language that they take um to then jump into the middle school. So, I can talk more about this at the um Sherborn and Adobe school committee meetings, but we have a whole set of metrics that's going to go into the evaluation and we're going to have some sort of kind of quantitative number um that we're seeing where students are coming out in their level of proficiency in Spanish.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
And then not have to deal with kids all day. And so that's like that is actually from what I conversations I've had with a few people seems to be where we are losing some bus drivers rather than necessarily other school districts. Uh I guess kind of to comment on Ariel and Daniel. I know I've been in transportation for 13 years now here. Um I know there has been done a lot um as far as money like the district has tried or is helping not tried they have they've done a lot to help but I do feel like we have been behind and how Daniel commented we do we have people who leave to the city uh they'll make more money driving a garbage truck and all they got to do is pick up trash. Um they for I got a driver who left to go to light rail, city buses.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
We're going to be sending surveys home to parents and caregivers to get their reflections on it. We're looking at data from our middle school students, our high school world language enrollment. Uh we'll be meeting with our world language teachers at the middle school and the high school to get their just anecdotal evidence of the impact that they've seen from the program. Um so there's going to be a lot of different metrics that we'll be collecting over the course of the next kind of five or six months that will lead us to the report that we'll give next January. Thanks. I just wanted to say how great seminar day was. Um I heard from a sophomore actually she's a junior now. she's in my family, but um she she actually came out wanting to be a nurse. So now I ask you why. And she's like, I actually really want to go into nursing.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
There's just there's people are finding I'm going to say easier driving jobs that pay better. Um and that's that's a concern. I feel like that's been one of the long, you know, I feel like that's been a very difficult thing since the very beginning for education. It's never really been able to compete with the private sector and there's always kind of just been other things to balance it out. for example, a pension, but you can also I think the city bus drivers also get a pension. So, it used to be like there was give and take, but I don't think there's any more give and take at this point. But competing with the private sector has always been a problem for education. All right. All right. So, yeah, we addressed the psychologists. Moving on to facilities. Um, let me use my computer. I can't really see that.
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