Um so at the very least we know when to, you know, maybe bring an extra coffee for our kids' teachers and those types of things because the work gets it gets rough and laborious. So I appreciate that. Thank you, Ms. Davis. Go ahead. Yeah. Um and I just want to mention um one of the questions I asked is how many parents came in to review the material and um there was only two parents and that that's unfortunate because I think this is a great opportunity for parents to be able to be engaged in the curriculum process uh as we want to be proactive versus reactive. Um and I don't know if any other board member went, but um I took time off work and I I went in to review the material and I walked in and it was very overwhelming. We [clears throat] had seven publishers uh and each grade for each publisher and that was a lot of information and it took me about two hours to go through just second grade for one publisher.
And they're And they're trying in Bolton um not to do a 2 and 1/2 override even with the roofing project they're doing at the town. So, they're breaking that up so it doesn't become um have to go to ballot cuz they're not sure it's going to pass as well either cuz up to the voters. Um but it's certainly something that needs to be done in Bolton with the roof because it's getting worse and worse. So, what we have to do tonight is make sure we understand everything Aaron told us. Yeah. Ask him whatever questions you have to clarify it. And then next week we'll be voting on some budget that we come up with. What he's presenting here, the level service budget, is basically what you have at the school today Mhm. at next year's price. Yeah. Or do we want [clears throat] to improve that and add to it with the the priorities?
So we're going to include somebody from the PR team within those um as kind of a follow through to like kind of um do a report out after each of those impact checks moving forward. >> So yeah, we were really excited for that feedback. Additionally, I know we we both were had the opportunity to proofread. Was that article already gone out or is it going out? >> It did. >> Okay, perfect. So, it was in the school newsletter, too. So, or the district newsletter? >> Yes. >> That's great because I think it's really important to share with our community and we report back to them the great things that we're accomplishment accomplishing with students that they are doing. That's that's why we're here. >> Absolutely. All right, we're going to go ahead and transition into goal three, which is our math and science. And the focus here is on mathematical understanding and science sensemaking.
And I understand the whole process is is extremely complex. One of the recommendations I I made is having like a map or a guide for you know parents to be able to go through like know where to even start and I kind of went through and like organize the books in order before I even started just so it made sense to me. But I get it. It's overwhelming. But I do hope that you know parents understand how important it is to be engaged in what children are learning and you know take the time to clearly staff took all this time to and effort to put into this and I think parents need to be as equally engaged in the process. To be able to understand what it is that their kids are going to be learning. So hopefully you know future adoptions even when we put you know books out for 60-day reviews that are purchased, it's important that parents they take the time to review the material and bring concerns ahead of time instead of uh possibly reacting to something that they might find later.
Or do we want to cut it in the uh second year in a row below level? Yeah. And And I'm not being disrespectful to the school committee, but I need you guys to tell us your budget after March 10th, which of these priorities do you want us to focus on because I think our admin, I think Joe would say I need that tech support. I think um that Dean would say I need the night custodian here at at Tahanto. I think Rich would tell you I need a biology teacher and I think Robert would tell you I need a fifth grade >> Which would be really helpful. So, all of those guys that you just mentioned gave us their write-ups. It's in there. It's in here. It's in It's on the website right now. Anyone want to go in and look at it and then come next week on Tuesday and tell us Like do you guys want to just arbitrarily pick from the list and decide what to do or do you want to have some support from voters and parents to come here and tell us.
So when we started with our original um goal, it was truly more around math. And what we found through the last two years of work is that it is equally as important to have that science um critical thinking. Uh those standards that we found that students maybe were struggling in math. When we dove in deeper to the skills, they're the same skills that our students are needing support with in science. So rather than have an additional goal down the road, we realized that we wanted to pivot and make it a combination of both our mathematics and our scientific thinking um and really focus on more of a cross-curricular approach. So with that, our goals are the exact same as in our ELA and social studies. Ultimately, we want to increase our proficiency and we want to minimize the um percent of students that are in the minimally proficient category.
Thank you so much. President Wade. I agree with you on parent involvement but maybe also parents might you said it was very overwhelming as it was and a lot for them that maybe they also defer to the experts because it is a lot of curriculum that I I defer to them as experts too because I don't know all of the ins and outs of curriculum and I mean we have two teachers on the board so you do but I think as a parent I always trust the instincts of our district and the experts on the board that look at all of those things and I appreciate all your time and everything that went into this so thank you. Yeah no I agree also to I I went in as well Miss Van Hook to any parent who is is you know listening and and taking that recommendation I think it does two things not only you can be aware of what it is that your kids are experiencing and going through but I think it does a good job of showing the care and the thought and the consideration and the work that gets done for your child because it takes so many people and so many steps and it is a lot of information and the idea of knowing what to look at and how this fits with specific things understanding the appropriate steps of scaffolding to ensure that there is understanding all of that is part of what your kids teacher does so when you see that and you come in and you go oh this is overwhelming because it is at the end of the day and that.
Or send an email. Or send an email. We're not flying by the seat of our pants here, right? To use that expression. Admin put a lot of time and effort into deciding what they want and the reason why they want it. For us to even get there. And by the way, there is also our priority four and five that you guys aren't even looking at right now. We knew that we can't do them all, but there is, right? You want us to be a high-performing district, here's what we need. So, we're we're saying to you to whoever asked that question, what do we need? It's this budget and everything in priority one. And then slide two. What do you think the likelihood is is that we could even consider any of those priority ones? Well, that's why I want people to look at it and come back to us.
So, we want to build skills for our tier 2 and three, our struggling students, and we want all of our students to be proficient. Um, the data points here again, uh, we wanted to just provide a few snapshots. So, you can see that with fourth grade, uh, really, um, excited to see the turnaround there. It's the same as what Mr. Burchcher shared with the middle of the year in 2024. What we found historically was that our middle of the year data was pretty consistent within maybe a point or two. Whereas since we've taken a district approach to school improvement, you can see that within a 2-year span, we do have that um bump going from 43 to 52%. And we believe with our intentional work and taking action uh more regularly throughout the year that we're going to continue to see this upward trend. You'll see the same thing in seventh grade math.
This brings us to 6.3 supplemental material recommendations Miss Davis that's still you. >> [cough and clears throat] >> Okay great. All right so I'm back with the pre-K through 12th grade supplemental materials committee. And just to remind of the is a committee that was established last year. Um So, I'm back with this year's recommendations. And just want to remind of our goals. Um so, it is um sticking with um our state statutes that guide the committee and our board board policies. I do have a district um definition of supplemental materials. And I'll go through our um process for how we select and use the materials. And then I will share our recommendations. So, first are our statutes and board policies that guide our work. I'm not going to read through all of them, but just to kind of highlight the ones that um stand out the most are 15721.
Rich did a really great by that everything with the Hanzo. I really encourage people to both look at it. Hanzo has taken a beating. They're the ones that have bore the brunt of Well, it's easier to cut from both towns. It is taking from the Hanzo. Nobody wants to lose a second grade teacher at BMS, but we lost two very real teachers. These were not real positions. These are real teachers with real classes. Both of my kids had those teachers that had such a classroom Yeah. and didn't come back. Hanzo's taking all of it. It's not fair. And we can't do it ourselves, right? So, we need our you guys, we need the admin team, we need our teachers, we need the community to say this is what we need. So, they go to the town floor and say, "No, we we want these things, right?" That's So, that's one thing for us to consider.
uh really excited about our seventh grade because historically um our elementary does a really great job and we I think we joked in our previous presentation that when students get to junior high there's a lot of things that are just changing and the the student um uh experience um they're in junior high and so there's a lot of dealing with um the behaviors and um mindsets of a junior high student that when they're in elementary school they're very eager and excited to learn and in junior high all of a sudden they want to maybe um ask why a little bit more. So historically in our seventh and eighth grade um we haven't seen um this type of a bump and so to see that at our seventh grade level is huge and we're also finding that our sixth graders are coming into seventh grade even more prepared than they were before.
And then IJJ are the other is the board policy that really guides the work. Our definition of supplementary materials, um instructional materials outside of our district adopted curriculum that the district, site, department, or grade level require um use for all students. And on our committee, we had seven members this year. One district office staff, three teachers or instructional coach, and three parents or community members. And they were fantastic. They worked really hard on reviewing all the materials. We had quite a lot this year. Um and they dug in to the research behind it all. So, what we do for reviewing the materials, um a teacher can propose a material for us to review. They submit a form um after they've talked with their administrator about it. Um also, parents can make a request of um having us review one that may already be on the list.
The second thing Aaron said that the ask from Berlin about the I think it was related to capital. What What are you suggesting in this the END money is covering a lot of capital items. Say Say again the The Berlin ask at the last week's pick up meeting. Yes. You told them the END money that you're taking there is to cover a lot of those capital items. Yes. >> And I think their ask was in relation to that. Instead of you using END to pay for the capital items, they want you to use END to lower the operating Right. Right. It It It So, we we would have to discuss that as a community whether that's a smart idea or not or And And I think it's it's six of one, half a dozen of the other whether it's END or choice or I mean they're both our savings accounts.
So that just shows that our seventh grade team is working exceptionally hard, but we also know our elementary team is working incredibly hard as well to send the students as prepared as possible. And then uh wanted to include a little piece of uh science on here. So we pulled um the high school biology final exam. uh historically our science data because it wasn't a part of the goal but when we were like wanting to add it we're like well what is going to be our measurable piece everything that we include in here we always challenge ourselves to question like how are we measuring it how do we hold ourselves accountable so with science we have our ai which is at only three grade levels and then when you get to the high school there is an a in the ACT there is a science component so those are the data points that we use but we don't have that at every grade level.
And then we come together in our group. Um They are in small groups as they review the material. They review the material prior to coming and they each submit an individual rubric. In their small groups, they discuss um their review and their recommendation from that rubric. Um that rubric includes information on the standards, grade grade appropriateness, instructional value, and any sensitive content. And then they make a recommendation as a whole group for that material. And then they create um a two-slide PowerPoint that includes a summary of the material, um the positives for the material, and any concerns. And then they state if they recommend it or not. And then we do a whole group share out. They make their little presentation to the group. And then as a group, we come to consensus on whether or not that material should be recommended and brought forward to you all.
Um The fact is whatever they are are one-time savings. Going to pay to multi-year. Like teacher salaries, for example, are operating expenses. Mhm. If we cover the teacher salary with Indian this year, well, we're going to have the same salary next year, but we're not going to have the same Indian. That's why those districts are in trouble because they did things like that and then they can't afford to pay them year after year because they they using their savings. The savings runs out. Then we can't afford the biology teacher or the ELA. And trust me, these people, the biology teacher that's out there, the ELA coaches out there, they're paying attention. They're not going to go to a district and get employed and fearful they're going to get laid off a year from now, right? They're looking to see the sustainability. Uh what's the math curriculum?
So, um having final exams and different science metrics, even though it looks different than in the other content areas we've talked about, um that's what we're using to kind of evaluate how we're doing instructionally. So, with the goals that I've discussed and the data points, we have identified three clear action steps that we have been focusing on in these areas for the last two years. The first one is I'm going to continue on from what Mr. Burchcher shared with Seaways. So, our common unit assessments, this year was our first year rolling out in uh most campuses with mathematics. All of our elementaryaries because of the waves with the curriculum and different types of curriculum are um in a different spot depending on the school. All of our secondary schools because they have the consistent curriculum were all able to implement the CUAS at the start of this year and it's been going um exceptionally well.
So, here is our list of materials for this year. For grades 4 through 12, we have Morphun Magic. Um it is a uh tool for word study. Um kind of an intervention for word study for our um intermediate grades. And that was recommended for use. Um I am going to do my best to pronounce this correctly. Um "Ma Hay Nina" um is a textbook for our Spanish um four class. And that was recommended for use as well. Um with a permission slip for our videos. Um In reviewing some of the videos with the translation on, um there was some good casting going on in there. So, they um the parents and the teachers wanted to flag that with permission slip. Um otherwise they were very happy with what was in the textbook. And then grades K through 8 we have practicing success um language for essentials and that would be a tool for our students um that are multi-language learners.
I'm not 100% sure. In our operating budget or is that in the capital? What's in there? The new math curriculum. The new math curriculum is sitting in the capital budget. So, it's a one-time expense. So, they just figured it would be it's it's not truly capital, but it fits into the one-time expense nature. Jessica, that's exactly the right spot for it, right? That right one-time expense, I don't have to worry about putting into it next year, right? Like we have that. Right. As opposed to the biology teacher, I'm sorry. So, we don't have to make any decisions now. No, but we No, no, no. We don't need to We're not voting on anything tonight, but we should certainly discuss what we want to do. I agree with what Beth said. I feel like the economy has got it over the past couple years and even from a capital standpoint, I love the idea of using the choice money to take care of some of the actual things and needs that we have in this building.