And at the high school level, there really is not time within the day where our our high school teachers have time to get together and have those collaborative conversations. It helps teachers identify specific students lessons and skills and intervene early to catch them before they fail. Um how PLC's work, they um are focused on specific skills and standards. How do you move it forward? Yeah, technology is not my friend, especially not Canva. So um so how PLC's work the teachers do intentional planning and um each week they teach more than one skill but there's a specific skill that they highlight during the week and they take data to determine whether or not students met the mark that they had planned on. Um they are very focused standards and they're assessed within the week. This leads us into the data driven decision making piece. So I'm going to turn it over to Mr.
I'm sorry Erin stepped out, but um you know I think it bears noting that there was a need and a demand um driven in part by economics and part by education but the result that came out of that effort I something a notable improvement and what we long term for our kids particularly at the middle school to some degree also does the enhanced commitment to ban there and I think it's just it's also worth talking about the positive rather than kind of feeling what are we not doing that feel has been the the theme of this conversation to some degree and what more do we need to do all of which I agree with but I I just want to recognize the efforts of all the people involved Chris all you folks that are sitting out here in the in the audience all our principles and other administrators managers office and and I guess while we have uh the the audience and I think uh Jason mentioned it and some other people One of the uh things we did talk about at our tri board meetings was um I mean Jason mentioned getting the details here, but um we really talked a lot about how we engage the public in the dialogue to understand not only the challenges but also to get the priorities and feel for what we want as a community.
it. Maybe I don't have them correct, but if we do the redistricting that we have planned with the budget cut in place that we're faced with, we would lose 19 jobs, right? As opposed to 25, but you're using more of your savings reserves because you needed the additional teachers at the middle school. So you're not comparing apples to apples, but in order to run the plan, you did need additional teaching staff. Okay. All right. I just wanted to make sure that I understood that. Okay. Other questions or comments? Um Ston. Yeah. So just for the for the audience watching in the room and the audience listening at home, um we school committee members did have access to certain budget implication information that was not presented tonight in our in our files because the reasons that I were given was because it might change and because it is of a sensitive nature i.e.
Um and then content specific sessions around foundational skills, literacy, and math tools. And all of these were presented from our teachers based on what they felt comfortable sharing. and it was very well received by staff. Um, their feedback from those sessions were they felt like they walked away with specific strategies. Uh, this was from Miss Sarno's class for activities to help kids regulate themselves. There was such positive feedback from that session. Um, really like the hands-on questioning practice. I believe Miss Arerodondo and a couple of other teachers facilitated questioning strategy sessions. U, better ways to maintain and encourage self-management within their classroom. We had quite a few teachers propose that from elementary, middle and high school. And then um some amazing learning for thinking strategies that they had in the sessions and the last one was um using their resources to help them with data notebooks in the year and providing resources for their students.
That's the part where we need to work on. Um, so now let me backtrack. I've shared with you the track for students identified as gifted. Now the area that we're going to be working on as a district is through the MTSS process, right? How are we identifying students who are high achieving from there? Yes, we can still use Kogat to see how they did. Um a parent at any point can let's say second grade they didn't like the turnout they can appeal there is an appeal process for that where then we will dig deeper into data we will have a meeting with the parent um we'll get teacher input teacher recommendations a teacher can recommend a student as being high achieving a student can recommend themselves is hey I'm high achieving and I think I did want to be in that class anything can spark this where then what we do is we take them through the MTSS process and that's the part that we need to tighten up a little bit is how are we um in the same way that we are identifying or or working with students to identify how to close their gap, how are we providing those students who are demonstrating these high abilities, what is the pathway to get them what they need and so the same can you go back to the that same process also applies ies to our students who are high achieving.
Staler was not here. He had been he was here when the board um originally did that. But going forward we will have him here at any approval of the board or any of our um any of those individuals listed in this policy. Um the policy does though stay it does not take the power of from the board. It says the board of education selects architects, engineers, and land surveyors to provide professional service to the district. I'm not going to read the whole thing, but it says in in accordance with state law. So, there are very clear guidelines of things we have to do and follow and um the board's responsibility in that as well as the management. Um so, again, that's there. I'm indifferent to whether the language is added. we don't have a problem adding in there, but I do think that the language in the policy and what's being added may be redundant there, but again, that's the board's decision to determine if they um need that information added.
Mr. All right. The next next up with the Briergate renovation. We received uh uh let's see received seven bids. I'm getting my papers confused over over here. Uh seven bids for this project. This project includes renovations to the 1990 edition uh to bring classrooms uh uh bring some equity to the the building with the classrooms, providing new case work, classroom flooring, building wide ceiling replacements, uh move to LED lighting, which hopefully will uh see some savings in energy costs, which we know are are increasing. Uh we're also looking at the replacement of a water fountain that uh uh has not been usable for years. Uh so that's going to be taken care of. uh looking at a renovated nurse's office, a new door and lock replacement with key card entry uh and an expanded teacher uh workroom. Uh so we received seven seven bids and received seven bids and the renovation uh the uh lowest responsive bid as vetted by our architect was provided by Manus General Contracting in the amount of uh 1.9 a little over $1.9 million.
try is there okay? So uh during the data driven um making process basic a teacher will uh they analyze their assessment data from the week uh to determine what students are struggling and then what they're doing is they're taking um what they're struggling with and what support is needed and they take it back to that PLC uh and have that collaboration with other teachers um in their areas. So like the English department is with the English department. So it may not be a like when they're focusing on that skill, they're not talking specifically about students. They're talking about their data and what worked and what didn't work. So they're using that collaboration with their other staff members and their colleagues and having those discussions, those meaningful discussions where then they can get feedback from others to help like improve um and what they need to help with either the interventions um or the um the interventions and then also um the um extended time for extra activities as well.
So if you're willing to spend some time that then that you know I don't know how we're going to you know it's it's a it's a everything we're talking about here you're only seeing one piece of it that everything you talked about at the tri board is exceedingly complicated and we've all you know I've been doing this for nine years and you 10 years something like that it we've all been doing this a long time and it's complicated for us so we're really looking to try to figure out how we have conversations about priorities with uh uh with the community and also making some of this consumable both from uh the school side but also just in general the municipal side as well and how these things work and and and that because that that merging of an opinion and and priorities along with what's at play just understanding broad strokes of how these things interplay.
it talks about you. Unfortunately, not you personally. I don't think that it talks about any of you who are in the current room, but um that it would be painful to for you to see. Um so, I just wanted to you to know that that we are not making this decision out of nowhere. We all did see certain financial information. I do wish that it had been here knowing even that it would have been hard. It still seems more transparent that way for me, for my perspective. Um, and so again, we we I want to be clear from you all that neither one of these choices saves us money because we are being cut a certain dollar amount no matter which way we decide to go. Um, and I also want to say that of when you hear 25 jobs lost, I need you to know that that is unit positions.
I know Miss Douglas also from Ellsworth ran some sessions that were super positive with notebook strategies for kids from resource that they can take to the gened classroom. So lots of great feedback from our staff led sessions and then at the end of the day we had some campus closure. So everyone came back to their campus groups and their feedback was they felt like they had that opportunity to compare uh collaborate with colleagues and share ideas. Um they focused on how they could implement those new strategies in their classrooms. They love that opportunity to have some time to plan and then um as we hear each time and we we do respond by trying to give more of that planning time but they did express that desire for more time to plan and prepare. So we do hear them and we are taking that feedback each year or each time um some quantitative feedback.
So if you have a student who you are like hey I think they might need some enrichment they can go through the MTSS process as well to be identified as they should be in this enrichment category. It's not just a hey they should be enrichment here take them. We do need to have this based on data um in order to make sure we are best supporting their needs. And so we look at benchmark assessment we look at teacher recommendation. We do look at classroom performance. We'll also look at classroom observations. If there's parent input as well or like I said, even student input, all of those categories, we're looking at both quantitative and qualitative data to make these informed decisions and ensuring that those students who are high performing also have access to this enrichment during win time in grades 3 through 5. The junior high has already functioned that way.
It's not, in my opinion, it's not redundant at all. the entire policy 2170 as I'm recommending and this is again procurement of architectural engineering and land surveying services. These aren't things that are cheap or should be you know uh approved um willy-nilly. Um the entire policy would only read the board of education selects architects, engineers and land surveyors to provide professional services to the district on the basis of demonstrated competence and qualifications and in accordance with state law. The person or representative from the firm selected shall meet with the superintendent in the board of education to discuss the responsibilities and the scope of services. I think that if we don't have policy language is so important that if we don't have language, I'm not suggesting Mr. Shepherd's going to hide away our architect and keep them from us and not answer questions or anything like that.
Uh we have worked with this uh this company before, this contracting firm before, I believe, uh on projects at Three Oaks. Uh so the uh their bid was uh vetted by the the architect. They recommend that we approve this bid. Administration concurs. May I have a motion to approve the bid submitted by Manuso's General Contracting in the amount of 1,931,367 as presented? So moved. Second.
So they're they're really using that time, that extra time to be able to collaborate with each other um and what helps to help improve all those scores that we're talking about for everything. So um so that intervention planning time is what's the most critical part and that PLC time. Um it takes the shift, it moves the shift from like the external factors that a student has to the internal like what we can change. So that's the big part of that as well. So let's up that. So then the impact of PLC is it encourages the proactive problem solving and accountability um for students and teachers. It strengthens collaboration among teachers and improves the instructional effectiveness of our teaching staff. It leads to better student outcomes through targeted interventions in the response to teaching. We have implemented a strategy that's called instructional rounds. As Mr. Lawhead had presented earlier, we have um teachers that are going to present um the instructional rounds.
So, if you're listening and you are willing to spend some time, hopefully that's something we can get off the ground and at least start pecking away at uh in building up some collateral of just some some educational materials and also some dialogues there. Um, I'll just echo. I'm consistently impressed with the level of detail and dedication and amount of Saturdays people put in coming to talk to us about what you need in the budget. And I feel like a lot of the reason we're focused on or had conversation about the capital budget tonight is because you did such an awesome job articulating the need for the operating budget and the level of programming that's been built into the schools and the level of cost avoidance that comes from that programming is something I didn't fully appreciate until I, you know, became more involved with the school.
That is not you sitting in this room. These mean that some positions are going unfilled, which means you might not be getting the support you desperately need, unfortunately. But it is not as if we are turning 25 people out um away from employment out on the streets. So, I just I really want to be clear about that with you all. Um it doesn't make the job any easier because we know that you need that support. Like, we know that we wouldn't have been asking for those positions. We would not have them in our budget if we didn't need them. Um but unfortunately we are going to have to go without uh for certain for certain positions in order to make this budget tenable. Um, it seems to me that we're either damned if we do, damned if we don't, um, in either direction, but one of them uses up more of our savings that we might be able to use to cushion for the future, um, and potentially stave off further losses.
So I didn't put something from all 13* 4 times whatever sessions but overall the sessions um were asked these three questions was their presenter prepared and the fe feedback for the most part was a three or a four for all sessions. Also when we look at the resources providing um support for their understanding and implementation were also very high in all of our sessions. And then that comfort for implementing what they learned was also high. So this is just a snapshot from one, but in looking at all of the feedback surveys, they all had a similar graph in their responses. So moving forward, we are excited to have from solution tree Maria Nielsen. She's the author of the 15-day challenge, which was um a resource that really helps teachers structure their planning for units of study around standards. Some of our campuses dove right into that and some of us are still kind of working through that.
the junior high, you did not have to be identified as gifted to get placed into their advanced ELA or advanced math classes. Um, they looked at benchmark data, which for us is currently STAR. They looked at teacher recommendation. They looked at classroom performance. So, a student was able to get into and is still able to get into an advanced ELA or an advanced math class without being identified as gifted. We just had to take that model and now mirror it down in grades three. And so, that's what we are working to do moving forward. Again, all this information is available in our handbook. It has been in there. I just don't think our practices have um been as tightly aligned with what has been scripted in the handbook. And so that's the area for us to continue to improve upon. Thanks. And then we just included MTSS really provides access or streamlines students getting services and supports along the way.
But if that language isn't there then that language right adding that language directs um gives the intention of the boards. The board's intention is to hear from the person who is going to be in charge of those projects and those services. You've sold me. Without it, it doesn't have to get done. No, you've sold me. I the I don't have a question. I feel like we could spend all night clarifying or debating, but like the way it's written, that is what is accomplished. I think if there's if there's a further thought that marinates or percolates, I'll send an email, but I don't have any further ones. I think it's fine. I mean, to me, this policy seems like it's like if you're that I think I hear Mrs. Patter and Mrs. Darling, before we before the architect or the land surveyor does any plans, they have to introduce themselves to the board and get approval.