I didn't see other administrators, but if the conversation was half as good at your tables as it was at mine, uh we will have come back with some information. Uh just some heads up. So, we'll gather this information. We'll get it out tomorrow. It'll be on the web page somewhere. Uh it'll be up within 24 hours. So, you can look at that. Um and I hope we got some questions for us to answer to. I know I know at our table we came up with at least two that we need to get some feedback on and get back out to you folks. Uh, the last thing I want to do before we go is I'd like to just uh ask the board members to give a couple quick sentences on major themes that they heard at their table um or anything that they would like to share that kind of jump out at them.
You'll have an opportunity to review what we submit and that I think would be better guide the commission on the next step from there. >> Um, okay. if you want to do that. But I but I we we still I think feel pretty strongly about having a peer review of it and if we don't move forward with establishing that it's just going to delay the review. >> I understand at this time the applicant uh is is not willing to discuss that tonight um for this hearing. So okay I think we can well I'll make sure your your points noted to the applicant again and uh we can further discuss it at the next hearing. >> Okay. We understand if there's a delay, we understand. >> All right. >> Any other points before I open it up to the public? Go ahead, Preston. >> Uh, if it would be appropriate, I just like to comment on a few things that were observed during the site visit.
Goes wide, but Ashland retains the ball as the closest line. And that's a great pass from behind the the net. Unfortunately, hit the crossbar. That was a great opportunity. Norwood on the offense come down. You got Lily Vidigonis on the right here. It's one of her amazing qualities as an attacker. She never gives up on the play. That is a Looked like a good check to me. Maybe a little cross the body, but Ashley Forrest is coming into this game with 11 goals, six assists for a total 17 points on her career. Not much of that being on the defensive end. She's going to add to that, I would be surprised if she doubles or triples her previous totals, maybe even more over the course of this year. She was another player who was on defense last year that this team is is going to miss.
So in terms of uh we had heard that there was a HSTA also had a Hawaiian uh work group. So we had asked we I asked I had um asked what theirs was about to see if we could measure ours but then they had said that um that uh that we that they had representation on our uh work group. So so that was fine. So I was like okay. So then they could relay what was going on with our work group. So, I'm not sure where the push back is coming from because HSTA um they do have a member on our our work group and um >> well, I was told that whatever you came up with at that January meeting was just you know, they felt that it was just you weren't listening to the stakeholders. So, I'm just trying to understand how did you come up with anything that you discussed at that January meeting?
Okay, regardless of your disability, if we can if we can help you here, if we can challenge you here, you should be sitting next to your friends. You should be getting on a bus with your friends. You should be playing sports with your friends. That's the most important thing. It's special special ed. I have a child that has special needs when he was growing up, there was nothing worse than seeing him you know, dissociated from everyone else. It was the worst thing for him. Okay? And that's very important to me and I we do a great job, but we need to continue to put money into those resources to expand some of those things down at the elementary middle school level because that's where it's most important. Not saying the high school is not important, but to work on elementary and middle school programs and special needs so that our kids can basically test out in high school so they're ready for the real world and do something called DVR which is vocational, you know, readiness.
Jimenez here addresses during our WIN time. And she ensures that students accept we all ensure that our students succeed. Um right now, I'm going to pass it to my teammate. Um good evening. My name's Andrina Jimenez, and I will be presenting our kindergarten Acadience data um that highlights um our effective um work as a PLT. Um if I could bring your attention to the top row of letters, we start with BOY, which is for beginning of the year, MOY will be middle of the year, and EOY is end of the year. Um looking at BOY blue green, our entering average this year for our kindergartners was a very low 15%. Um for comparison, the district average is 50%. So, our average um indicates that our students come in with little to no letter sound knowledge. Um moving over to blue green middle of the year, we have seen tremendous growth in a short amount of time of the year at 65%, and then moving along to end of the year blue green, um our um end of the year average has continued to trend upward, starting with 68 on the bottom, 84 the next year, and a high 90 um last year's ending average.
Um, just sitting there ready for a show, and then they said brag tags, and it just hit me. And the emotions were real, and my words that day were real. So, I'm trying to think back to what I said. I just remember saying that I was honored to be part of this community and this school corporation, and honored to be a Rock Creek Bulldog, of course. But I also my why is just focusing on the good. There is so much good in this community and in the corporation. Focusing on that, creating that, and celebrating that really just brings a different perspective into the profession and into your viewpoint each day when you're in the classroom. That doesn't mean every day is great or good, but if you do focus on that, it does make it a little bit better. So, thank you for this award, and I'm honored to represent what it means and who Edna was.
Remember, this is one person's screening of this. It's not it's not meant to be full force. I know that I wrote down some some notes uh but it's not meant what I wrote isn't meant to be the notes for the evening. So, I don't know who wants to start. I'll start. Okay. Go ahead. Okay, perfect. Um, I think a big theme at our table was and and my table can obviously correct me if I'm wrong uh with this, but I think a lot of it was coming up with the consolidation of the schools. Um, they were uh really worried about teachers, are teachers going to be able to keep their jobs? Are the aids going to be able to keep their jobs? And then the class sizes um was the other thing that was really brought up that we kind of stuck on for a while over there.
>> Sure. >> Yeah. Okay. So, um, uh, most of the board was there and, uh, we noted as shown on the plans and has been mentioned, there are three different pipes that go under or through the wall that connect to the Sudbury River for um that allow water to flow out and potentially in. Uh, and there's a burm along the south side of the property, uh, at the edge of the parking lot. And on the other side, there's a little stream that I believe was originally the uh, a raceway where water flowed under or through the mill, used to power the mill. I don't know the exact details. Um it's believed that that is closed off and no longer flowing uh from Mil Pond. Uh however, where uh where we observed where it's first visible on the surface, uh Becca disturbed a little bit of the rust that had was there in the sediment and we could see it flowing.
Even though as a midfielder, she gets to play in the defensive zone as well. And the Westland of Payton Tripp slowing down the offense there. And I with the ball. Good switch there by Ashley. Allie. Ball up top. She's looking to bust through all the all the defense. Great check by Ashley. Al- Ashley No, that wasn't Ashley. It was Alyssa. Out of bounds. Oh, no. Sorry. Good job by Norwood collecting it over there in the corner to keep their possession alive. 1 minute left now in the first quarter. And Ashland up front five nothing. A little high pressure defense. I like to see that. Nice step by 15. Nice stop by Alana Duffy. Another great save. She is seeing the ball today, man. The call was there. I think offensive. She's got a card. Yellow card on the follow through on Payton Tripp's head. Yeah.
So there were a lot of questions because um there were different stakeholders on the Hawaiian group um where they were having a hard time coming to consensus. So what we said was okay you know what we thought um we had put in some language in terms of like the NC Sah as well um which is a federal guidelines that we need to follow and um we just wanted to make sure that everything was in place. So at the time when all these conversations were going on and groups couldn't um they couldn't come to consensus, we pulled the MBI and said okay let's have them go back so that they can talk about it because we want it to be uh robust before doing bringing that up to the board. >> I'm sorry. >> Why didn't you do that before bringing it up to the board?
That's the goal. That's the goal. And our team does a great job, but we have this board has dedicated the time and now again, more budget to to support those things. That's the important thing. Those are the kids that are most important to us with regard to these life skills things. Technology, continue to upgrade, repair the critical needs. I've heard it a million times. Oh, why is this? Well, everybody talked about fixing things before I got here. We fixed it and then there's problems again because we fixed it for too much money. That's not true, okay? If if anybody knows anything about saving money or budgeting correctly coming in and getting things done, it's me. Every place I've been had those same issues. You know, my first 10 meetings here, kids were getting up. Kids, students, not parents, not people complaining, not just gadflies coming here to yell at me whatever.
The empty box for 25-26 school year is where we um are hoping to put a similar or even higher average than last year for end of the years um data, I guess you could say. Um to further explain and describe how we work effectively as a PLT and obtain these results, I will transfer it to my teammate, Ramona Arizmendez. And hello, governing board. My name is Ramona Arizmendez and I will speak about the process that we follow to get the results you heard about earlier. The process always starts with setting goals. Starting at the beginning of the year, we set a variety of goals based on our Acadience data. Those goals serve as a roadmap that we follow for both our whole group and our small group instruction. Our teaching is focused to the goals that we set using the data. All of our students are looked at individually and are placed in intervention groups based on their needs.
So, thank you very much. >> [applause] [applause] >> Congratulations, Miss Hill. We appreciate you. As we move to the next agenda item, we'll begin with a video. We ready for that now? Hi, I'm Dr. Aaron Stallbom, assistant superintendent of human resources at BCSC. We admire the care our teachers place into creating engaging learning experiences for students each and every day. From targeted literacy instruction to captivating STEM lessons, our teachers' commitment to the academic growth of all students is unmatched. Recognizing distinguished educators throughout BCSC is a valued tradition. We are proud to introduce our BCSC 2026 Teachers of the Year. Thank you for your partnership in education. Okay, hold on. You got to be on the red court [music] though. You can't just play that. So, finding out about Teacher of the Year, it I had no idea. I was completely surprised. What was crazy was I looked down the hallway and I saw [music] my husband and my daughter, and my daughter's in college.
Okay, anybody else? >> Uh, I'll go ahead with my table. Thank you. Quiet size was another topic u with small community feel and if we do have to do it theme was the sooner the better if we're going to do it. And as far as referendum, I don't know if you can hear me. My voice is loud anyway. uh uh basically uh thought it was way too soon. It's a hot button in the community right now. And same as Tyler, class size was a big topic. >> Well, it sounds like we're all on the same page here. So, space and class sizes. Um just make a decision was, you know, just make a decision. We keep talking about it. Um, someone had a really good uh point, you know, the demographics, you know, does the school track the death, the burst, the ages of the voters the first time through the referendum, you know, is there a target um class we could focus on?
So there is water some water still flowing through there and uh there's a question of where is that water coming from. So u that's probably the most interesting thing we observed. Uh everything else was pretty much as uh shown on the plans. If anybody else was there and would like to comment that'd be fine. Um Chris, you don't have to speak to this this evening, but um just so that you don't feel ambushed at the next meeting. Um we and and for everyone else's information, we asked for a second uh sitewalk because we weren't able to enter the buildings. And we we made this known to the applicant and the applicant um said there was no need for a second sitewalk uh because the buildings were not jurisdictional. Uh we received an email today from DCR that corroborated our position that the buildings are jurisdictional.
A dangerous follow through, but that was a terrific dodge by Norwood, but Alana was there to stymie her. Alana Duffy, great goaltending. She has been doing some club with the Laxachusetts, getting a little bit better every year. She's doing summer summer training as well. Um you know, totals on the on the on her on her career is 36 games played. 351 goals against. 679 shots. 328 saves. That's a that's a nice number. It's a little bit more than 50% save percentage. So good for her. 48% save percentage, which is in lacrosse, Kevin. Mhm. That's ridiculous. So she she is on top of her game. It's only going to get better this year and also in the next year. Callahan on the on the chase here. Erin Hickey cross checks for the slow her down. New rule implemented, Kev. Right in between the 30s. If you foul for to slow the play down.
>> Have conversations. We did. We thought that the language was uh exactly how they wanted, but when we found out it wasn't, that's when we said, "Okay, we'll defer it and have them go back." >> Yeah. But how how if you were talking to them and and then they came to the board and they said that, you know, they don't like it, that means you're not talking with them. Isn't that correct? >> The turnaround time from when um the conversations were going because the NBI was there. If it was just minor changes, we could have done that just at the meeting. But because there was um a lot of conversation about it, then we said, "Okay, not a problem. Um we'll bring them and we'll reconvene them." So that's what we did. So we we wanted to give them their voice. So that's why we uh deferred that MBI.
Kids coming up here pouring their hearts out. This board made a commitment to fixing that and it's and we're doing well, but we need to continue to do that even the technology in the extracurricular areas, right? Yes, guess what? Sports uses technology now. And guess what? So do we now in the city of champions. It's incredible. We're one of the last schools to do it, believe it or not. Okay, but now we do because that's what happens with technology. The technology you use today is not the technology that happens tomorrow. How many of you changed your phone in the last couple of years? Of course you did. Everybody does, right? We have to keep up with those things and that's what budgeting does, right? So that's an important piece. Technology modernization is exactly what we're talking about. This board is now committed through leases through leases coming up so that's no impact on the tax dollar that our students now will be receiving through a rollout program new laptops.
These groups are always fluid and are based on student growth. We assure that our classrooms are actively engaged. In our classrooms, you will see us using many kinesthetic strategies to keep our young learners engaged and focused on the instruction because after all, they are only five. Our routines and procedures are streamlined so no time is wasted and our belief is every minute counts. We also collect and check student progress frequently. We monitor and collect informal data as we teach our daily lessons and discuss that data as a team. We also collect formal data from a variety of assessments. The data we collect and use for our instruction comes from our 95% lessons and unit test, our Acadience progress monitoring, and our own kinder assessment which test letter names and sounds. We have successfully implemented WIN, which stands for what I need. And these groups help students who need remediation.