Uh but that level of support for our school system uh is uh just amazing. It really is. And and I think we have to recognize that within this community and I I wrote that to our our teaching staff uh the day after uh the the town meeting said it's special here and just recognize that. So, uh, and then today I had the opportunity to, uh, go into Boston, uh, to present Karen Spilka with the distinguished, uh, award from the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendent, uh, for her work. Myself, Dr. Pyrus from Medway, Dr. Kavanagh from Hopkin, uh, and Dr. Mary Burke Burke who is our executive director of the school superintendent association. and to see Karen and to appreciate uh when she began her process here as a school committee member and her fight for chapter 70 for 25 years and and the the equity of funding schools within the Commonwealth.
But the city's been extremely communicative um on this and he's super responsive. Um and so you know we've been staying really close with Mike and I on it. Um the the big question is how it will impact summer school. I have reached out to Westcon um and told them about sort of the situation um concerning about having enough parking spaces for events that are coming up particularly at the end of the year. Um they are very supportive of us using the parking spaces. Um but then but then how do we get we're talking about potentially running a shuttle for key events maybe half an hour before half an hour after um to bus people to the school if there's not enough parking uh down in the grassy area. So I think right now the staff is parking. Are you guys parking on the grass right now or anywhere else?
Um there's a lot of mirroring in terms of the interventions that they provide that we also provide, but just on a on a different level in terms of possible intensity or what else can we possibly think of to support these students. Um so our alternative alternative education programs within COD are listed right there. Oakidge is a a little different and Miss ODM is going to talk about that. Um but I I really want to go through in terms and uh really kind of explain what each of these means. Um, I know in the community we just had some hearings today, expulsion hearings where a community member or a parent thought that their student was at Fair View twice through the expulsion process last year and I had to clarify actually your student was at Cal for one semester and then AFC through the expulsion process for another.
Um, our advanced placement language composition and literature composition resources. Um, we've shared what those look like. Um, the cost for those is is relatively small. We have a small group of students who utilize those texts. Um, and this these funds will actually come out of um we get money for AP over the course of each year and so we'll pay for it back out of there as opposed to the the core adoption will come out of those capital funds that were set aside. um that also gives us a little more flexibility if those numbers increase over the years, easier to add those subscriptions. Um finally, the last piece that I wanted to share with you, one of the questions that came um to us out after the first read was wanting to better understand um some of the availability of materials. So, you know, one of the things we're always conscious of with any curriculum adoption is what are our community standards, our community norms, what's available to our students, um and making sure that those meet those expectations.
Are we looking at buying um more I don't have your duty furniture? What budget's that coming out of and what's the target date for that? Yeah. So, that's our next step. That'll be something we'll try to tackle next year. That'll start with a conversation and meeting with uh our special education department principles and then looking at the sites to see it could just be replacing existing furniture, could be looking at um flexible furniture, could be maybe their storage needs. Um we haven't really identified those areas yet. Um but that's what the plan is for next year. So, so that would come out of our capital budget then. Correct. Correct. Thank you. I have a question for Miss Pastor. Mrs. Pastor, sorry. So, discipline best practices. Can you elaborate more on what our best practices are? And then a follow-up question to that is equitable treatment and fair approaches.
And we can't really talk about early voting anymore because that was today, May 14th. But you can talk about we can talk about the ballot and the election that is coming up on Tuesday, May 20th, happening at the Ashlin High School. To that point, we now have two candidates for the planning board, but they are here for two different seats. So, uh, we have Scott and Camilo. Um, Camilo, why don't you go first? Tell us a little bit about yourself. and Camilo is running for the five-year seat that um Kate Jerzik, who is currently on our planning board, has decided not to run for reelection. Camilo has decided to run for that. Tell us a little bit about yourself first. Sure. Thank you uh WACA for having me here. Uh my name is Camilia. I live on three Treasure Way. Um that's about uh almost exactly at the 5 kilometer marker of the Boston Marathon.
Uh and that you know that was sort of why we were there. We were there to say thank you for the work you've done. the Student Opportunity Act and the revision of the Chapter 70 formula is a direct relationship to the work she's put in over 25 years and and the understanding that 25 years ago when he looked at the formula Ashland uh really was was being penalized um significantly and now it's it has you know morphed into where um it it's a little more fair. It's still we're still struggling with uh you know funding public education but because of that so it was nice uh she can't be at our Mike and I have a meeting next Thursday um for our association uh normally we'd present the award there uh at that association but she can't as she said they're heavy in the budget right now um so the three of us went in along with their executive director to to say thank you to Karen and um so it was it was nice so uh a you know I'll let Abra talk about what's going on at the high school but um I know I'm living in my own house about AP exams and all that kind of stuff.
On Wednesdays. On Wednesday, right? So um you know when we have more parents coming it's going to be a problem. So we'll have to direct them to the west parking. They're about Westcon's about to let loose um in another week or so. We'll have more access during the summer. Um how this impacts summer school is kind of TBD. Um but Westcon is ready to to support us in in whatever way possible. And then I'm just hoping that the whole thing's cleared up before school starts. Uh but we won't we won't know that till they dig into the project. Okay. Um summer orders. We are rocking with orders um getting prepped for this high school opening. Um at the end of the year tends to be a really hectic time with with putting orders in for the for the next school year and closing out. Um but the addition of this bringing on this large high school and um everything now having a conversation with Mr.
Um, so I really want to start with Cal. Um, it's for seventh and eighth graders in Cal. It's a junior high credit recovery program. So students who have gone through all the interventions afforded to them at our junior highs and they're still struggling to promote to the eighth grade or to high school on time, a referral is made to Cal. And again, that's after all interventions have been exhausted and perhaps a student isn't responding to it or there's just other factors at play. Um that that referral to Cal is made and a student will start with us either in January or in March to to try and finish strong and make it to that next grade level on time. Uh students are referred to us at the end of the school year for Cal to to start the following school year in the same grade, but we work to promote them to the next grade level by the end of the first quarter in October.
So, Um, I love I love analogies, folks. I love analogies. So, in my I classed this up for you, but I call this in the yard, over the fence, and behind the wall. Um, but for tonight, I made it your core materials, your enrichment materials, and your choice materials. Um, because it helps to kind of contextualize what's the availability of anything. So, if we were to have a concern about anything within any of our adopted texts, is it something that's readily available to students or something that we would have to make an effort to get to? So for the recommended adoption, our core materials, those are the open access materials, meaning those are in the forward- facing student edition. So controlling those, controlling anything in that open access would be a difficult thing to do because it's it's in the print student edition. Um the specific elements are the analyze and apply and collaborate and compare and those are open to everything.
How does that look if for children and their families that may not follow through on their buy in or their their responsibility in those situations? So I'll start with your first question. Your first question was about um best practices and discipline um overall. So um we look at several things. we review uh statute in particular for K4 students we have some specific guidance of um what can and can't happen and then our policies um there are two policies that give us uh significant guidance and then uh we also have um our student handbooks and the code of conduct. Um then another important part, a very important part of best practices with discipline is due process. Due process with students has four parts and I've um gone over that a few times with APOSA deans of what that looks like um and how that plays out with students of all ages.
So, it's something we enjoy doing with our neighbors and our friends. Uh we've been doing it for the past six years, which is the time I've been uh here in Ashland. I previously lived in the Boston area and then prior to that in New York. Um I'm a planner. I've been uh working in the planning world for almost a decade and before that as an architect for almost two and I'm excited to call Ashland home and I hope to call it home for the next decades or so. Great. Thank you so much, Camilo. Scott, tell us a little bit about yourself. Yeah. So, my name is Scott Pelitier. I've lived in Ashland with my family since uh 2017. Uh my oldest son graduated Ashlin High School last year. My youngest son is a senior this year, so he's graduating in a couple weeks. Uh my wife works in Boston.
So and graduation and since I have a young lad of my own in two weeks busy time of year busy time of year. So so that's that's what I've got. Thanks Mike. Uh as we do every year uh we put out the opportunity for our teachers to participate in summer curriculum work. So that that form has gone out to staff. uh it is due on May 23rd for any of the proposals. At this point, we have 15 uh curriculum proposals for summer work. It's one of the most important parts of what our staff does is to make sure we're implementing new strategies and in new curriculum areas for our for our students. U most of that well, one of the highest priorities for that work this summer is going to be at the middle school level. As you know, we're implementing some new courses. So, those those folks will take the highest priority.
Donovan he's like Cara I need 75 staplers. I need so we're going through all the little things. So, we we've taken care of a lot of the big equipment and the big items. Um, and now, you know, we have a lot of just basic stuff that you need to open up and and operate a school. Um, things that do not come with that FF package. So, um, microscopes and all the science equipment and things like that that we're going through. Um, so we we've been very creative and closing out grants and and things that maximizing every dollar in that area to make sure that we have everything that we need. Uh then we have a little bit of money too in the uh ARPA money that's set aside for supplies as well for startup. So if we need to tap that, we'll do that as well.
Um Cal also serves as a U intervention program for uh Fairview or Oakdale students who are academically disengaged. So once we've exhausted all of our interventions at Oakdale or at Fair View, we do look at the possibility of a student coming over to Cal in the high school group uh to complete the program, make some positive changes, stay connected to our staff, and then make their way back over to Fairview.
So, um, we worked with board member Horn to go through some of those and make sure that we felt comfortable and confident with the vast majority of what is in those materials because again access is difficult difficult to control. Then we looked at the the second layer, my behind the fence layer, our targeted access access. So this is our excerpts in the student editions. So it might reference a specific work, a poem, a story, something of that sort. It might give the students a paragraph or two of that as kind of the hook. Um but any additional information um beyond that would be accessible behind the wall like we would have to provide access to that. It's not in those materials. Um some of those are readily available in the digital platform short reads. Um the significant piece here that I think is really important is that um the proposed adoption is set up to offer student choice.
And then your second question was remind me the second question. So equitable treatment and fair approaches. So, how do you work with children that or and their families that don't follow through on their part of their responsibilities in a situation? If you're doing best practices and you're doing what you should be doing and the teachers are doing what they need to do, but the family may not be following through on their end. I guess my my bigger question is what is our staff left to to be able to to handle that? our our focus during training sessions is around um what is within our control especially when those moments are presenting themselves. Okay. So, with it, one thing that's very important to consider when disciplining students is to make sure that you've identified that the student that you're looking into a matter um has a a disability and that um you reach out to the case manager to get some more information so that when you're speaking with the student, as the dean, for example, I'm taking into consideration the fact that I now know this is a student um with autism and here are some things the teacher told me is important to know in working with with him or her.
I've done a plethora of jobs over kind of my career. Ran big box retail for a really long time. Uh ran Amazon for about five years. I was at a sort center, then did Amazon manufacturing, then a couple years went into couple years ago went into business for myself, did a little bit of consulting, and now I've just opened up a property management company. Uh, we focus on residential property management in the area. Um, I've been a real estate agent kind of part-time for about seven years and I'm excited to be here. I'm a member of the Ashlin Business Association and I've been on site council for the last two years for the high school. Uh, so I wanted another way to give back to the community and this seems like a great opportunity for it. Great. Well, thank you both for being here and for taking the opportunity and the time to come speak with us.
Ultimately what what will happen uh is I will work with the principles to prioritize the different uh proposals that we receive and we we try our best to um approve as many of them as possible even if some of them only partially funded. Uh terms of assessments MCCAST is is still happening. Um our students at the middle school were working hard today. It's almost over. They're they're reaching the final stretch here, but we're still working hard. I'm sure Abashek will talk a little bit about AP, but uh our our AP students are obviously uh worthy of recognition in terms of how hard they work. I know the stress that those students are under is pretty immense. And uh you know, Mr. Adams was able to to highlight how well we typically do on our AP exam is one of the best, you know, districts in the entire state.
But um there are shipments coming all over this district. We'll be all shipping our boxes pretty soon uh until we can get the shipping address directed to DHS West. Um right now they can't receive anything. So um we'll be giving the update later in the summer, but we are doing all things needed to open up this um large campus. Um I'm going to kick the hiring update over to Kim. That office has also been very busy. We are hopping. Um so this is we've come into kind of our busiest time this year um which is our um first trying to organize where we're doing all of our hiring. Um and that's involved a lot of meetings back and forth um in con conjunction with Mike and um with other members of leadership team trying to make sure that we understand exactly where all of these new positions are going to be coming from.