Weston Board Of Education Meeting 6/3/26 Academic Year in Review

001Check. One, two. See? Good afternoon. Have we started recording? >> We will wait to hear from June. Are we recording? >> Just asking if it's on. Is it recording? Yes sir. >> Good afternoon and we are recording. Glad to see everyone. This is the uh Wednesday, June 3rd, 2026 Western Board of Education curriculum subcommittee meeting. Thank you for all being here today. Let me first read the purpose of our subcommittee. The board of education curriculum subcommittee meeting's purpose is to collaborate between board of education stakeholders and school-based leadership to discuss all aspects of the curriculum, instruction, school culture, and climate in the western public schools. Today's meeting actually is particularly focused on teaching and that in our estimate and >> teaching and learning, >> teaching learning in our estimate that's where the rubber meets the

002road in our education system. So, we're very excited to be here and here. And um I uh just uh will go to the agenda item number one, which is we do confirm that we have a quorum with Nicole and I here. Lisa left apologized. She was not able to attend today. That's why I'm running the meeting. And uh we have an agenda item number two for Nicole and I and that's to approve our meeting minutes from the last meeting. So, I have no input. Do you have any input? >> No. So, can I have a motion to approve the meetings? >> I second the meeting. Can we have a vote on approving the minutes? That's pretty quick and easy. All right. So, I will turn the mic over to uh our assistant superintendent and she

003will run the academic year and view from here. >> Great. Thank you, Mr. Gordon. Welcome everyone. This is a very exciting uh culmination of celebration and highlighting of our good work throughout the district in all different departments this year. We have many accomplishments that we'd like to go through and speak with to you today. Um, this is our academic year in review as we call it every year where every department gets to come together to highlight their areas of focus uh that are aligned to our district and school improvement plans as well as talk about some areas that um they um learned from based on their work this year or their takeaways as we call it. And then as we think ahead um what are some of those proposed next next steps that drive some

004of our district and school improvement work moving forward. Um I always start out the presentation to um highlight some of the additional presentations that come out of our curriculum subcommittee meeting as well as our board of education committee meetings as well because it's important for us to see that there are a variety of um opportunities for us to talk about um how we are celebrating and honoring the teaching and learning that is happening throughout Weston. All of these meetings have been archived and remain available online at our district website if anyone wants to review them in further detail. It's also important to note that these presentations do have a common through line to some of the work that you're going to hear today from our CI our curriculum and instruction leaders throughout the district and

005every department. Um these uh the highlights from today uh reflect our action steps within our district improvement plans and um we hope that you'll see some patterns and trends throughout that uh throughout the conversation as well. So the curriculum and instruction leader department team um a few years ago when we started our work um we defined a clear vision and mission for our work around the role of a curriculum and instruction leader in Weston. Um the purpose of these statements was to ensure that we had a common language and essentially a common understanding that we would anchor our work and ground our work in when we are making decisions and we're having conversations at the school and district level. Our vision is to strive to create a strong learning community where teachers feel feel valued,

006motivated, and empowered to the commitment of lifelong learning. Together, as a community of educators committed to continuous growth, we cultivate an environment that maximizes the potential of every teacher, ultimately benefiting the diverse needs of our students. Our mission is to provide targeted evidence-based professional learning experiences in a collaborative setting that enhances teacher effectiveness, confidence, and adaptability. Um, I hope you hear I I read this out loud because I always want to ensure that we are um intentionally um pulling out some of the vocabulary that we used when we talk about our vision and mission in our department. Um, we want to empower teachers. We want there to be continuous growth. We want to maximize every teacher's potential to benefit the diverse needs of our students. And this vision, as I mentioned, and mission is what's

007what guides our work throughout the year. to go a little bit deeper around the role of a curriculum and instruction leader. Um they hold many hats um and depends on the project or the task that they're working on. And our CILs use different um skill sets depending on the situation that they're working on. You may be more familiar with a collaborator or a consultant, but you may not be as familiar with a cognitive coach. And so when we started our work as a department, we wanted to increase our skill set around cognitive coaching. And why is that important to our team? Um because we were we were very comfortable with being a collaborator. We were very comfortable with being a consultant. But in the cognitive coaching lens, it's an opportunity for us to support metacognition

008of teachers to help them build their capacity um think about their thinking and help them make decisions independently without us. So it builds on their existing strengths and allows them to explore and deepen their capacities as a teacher in the role of teacher um without a coach uh that is side that is along going alongside with them depending on the project or task. So the idea of cognitive coaching is to build a um a staff member's reflective um mindset, a problem solving mindset and really use the skills of mediative thinking to help them uh gauge different um solutions to problems depending on what's in front of them. Um so just building on our toolkit, we've been engaged in this work for about 3 to four years now. Um, we started out as I mentioned with

009building our school our skill set around cognitive coaching and those strategies. We've built on that work over the last few year years with additional um conversations and training around Elena Agular's work which is around transformational coaching and we continue to build on our toolkit. Every year we add an additional layer to our work and next year we're going to be focusing on adding in um Hessa's work which is around web's depth of knowledge and thinking about um um rigorous thinking and collaborative thinking in the classrooms and how do we help support teachers and students drive that work from um um lower levels of cognition to higher and deeper levels of cognition over time. So, that is something we're going to be adding for next year as we continue to build on our toolkit moving into

010next year. Too fast. Um, so our district team is here today and we have 12 curriculum and instruction leaders to support our our departments throughout the district. Um, and we are here um within this meeting to celebrate all the great accomplishments across the district. Um, this team is really committed to the staff, the students, and the work um to advance teaching and learning and the learning experiences for all students in Weston. Uh, we're fortunate, very fortunate to have this team, and we appreciate the board for supporting these roles every year. Um, and really committed to the work that is necessary to drive excellence around teaching and learning and curriculum and instruction. Um, these individuals support our building leadership and teacher teams towards continuous growth, improving and aligning our district and school goals. Our CILs are

011unique and they are experts in highquality evidence-based instructional practices. They take on an active role in designing meaningful professional development for our staff. They facilitate and lead our curriculum teams throughout the school year and over the summer. And uh they serve as mentors and role models uh for all of us. I learn a lot from them and we are constantly seeking to refine our craft and remain at the forefront of educational research research and advancements. Um so the first part of our uh academic year and review today is going to be led by each one of our curriculum and instruction leaders. They are going to guide you through and talk through some of the high lever focus areas that they felt have returned the greatest return on investment of their work this school year. They're

012going to talk about some of those areas are areas of celebration and maybe some lessons that they've learned. This year we've added a new section which is some statistics that you might not normally see within district or school improvement plans. So that's the year and numbers and then finally what are our next steps as we move forward. From there, we will then take a break and we will engage in a gallery walk with some of the artifacts that each department has brought to connect what they speak about on their departments today, but actually see it in action from a teacher andor student lens. We will also um encourage everyone to engage in dialogue around some further questions that they may have after each CIL presents. So, if you need to take notes as they're talking,

013that's that's encouraged. But we just respectfully ask that you wait um until all the part this part of the presentation is done and we complete the gallery walk and then we'll do a a Q&A at the end and do a debrief as well. Okay. So I am going to transition to our first curriculum instruction leader which is Mary Mary Faith Zangi. She is our curriculum instruction leader for K12 physical education and health. >> Hello. As Dr. Hankle said, "My name is Mary Pay Zeni and I am the K12 PE health and curriculum instructional leader. I'd like to take this opportunity. Is this working? Sorry. There go. There we go. Um, I would like to take this opportunity to provide an update on the important and significant work completed by the K12 physical education and health

014department related to curriculum development and revisions. As a department, we are committed to ensuring that every student graduates with the knowledge, skills, and confidence needed to make informed, healthy decisions throughout their lives. Over the past two years, our department's primary focus has been on the redesign of our K12 health curriculum. With the adoption of the new state and national health standards, health educa education has shifted from a contentbased model to a skills-based approach. Rather than simply teaching students information about topics such as alcohol, drug use, human sexuality, and stress management, the new standards emphasize the development of essential skills, including decision-m, goal setting, communication, advocacy, and accessing reliable health information. These skills allow students to apply their learning, make personal meaning of the health content areas, and develop habits that support lifelong health and well-being.

015Throughout this process, our department has engaged in extensive collaboration to unpack the new standards, identify priority learning outcomes, and design meaningful learning experiences that align with this new vision for the health education. I'm pleased to share that the majority of our K through8 health curriculum has been written and is now in the revision and reflection stage. This represents a significant accomplishment and is a testament to the dedication, professionalism, and collaborative efforts of our staff. Another major area of focus has been at the high school level. Our team has been working to redesign the health and physical education course sequence to better meet the needs of the students and provide greater continuity in instruction. Under the current model, students participate in multiple short segments of health and physical education throughout their four years at high school

016to earn the required graduation credits. However, in December during the curriculum subcommittee, the board approved a new course model that will provide students with the opportunity to complete a health one, health 2, and physical education one and two course during their high school experience. This change will create a more coherent progression of learning, strengthening curriculum alignment, and provide students with greater flexibility when selecting courses. Most importantly, it will allow for deeper learning experiences and more consistent instruction across the grade levels. As we look ahead to next year, our work will continue in two key areas. First, we will complete the writing and revision of the high school health and physical education curriculum to align with the new core structure. Second, our K8 team will begin the process of revising the physical education curriculum to align

017with the 2024 Shape America National Standards. This work will ensure that our physical education program continues to pro provide students with meaningful opportunities to develop movement competencies, personal responsibility, and the knowledge and skills necessary to lead active, healthy lives after they graduate from Weston High School. I am so proud of the progress our department has made this year. As you can see in the year in numbers, um we've had a lot of successes in the amount of curriculum we've written. Uh um we have 350 students at the high school level who have completed the CPR assessment so that god forbid there is ever anything that happened they can step in and we've actually had students who have had to use this in real life. Um and we've had 17 students participate in a unified physical

018education program that was approved for this year where typical peers and students with disabilities all work together in one class to support the physical fitness. Um, I am very proud of our pro progress of our department that they've made. Curriculum development is a complex work that requires collaboration, reflection, and a shared commitment to student success. Thanks to the dedication of our teachers, we've built the strong foundation that will continue to benefit our students for years to come. Thank you for your continued support of the health and physical education in our district, and I'm happy to answer any questions during part two of our meeting today. At this point, I'm going to be handing the microphone to Andrea Noble, who will be speaking to you about literacy and ELA. >> Thank you. Just to pause for

019a second, um, we are not moving on to each one of the individual slides after. This is a repeat of what's in the four boxes of the poster, but we can if it's easier to see the text on this the slides, we can always move it over instead of looking at the poster. We weren't we're never sure exactly which slide to show in this setting because sometimes the text is so small here. So we then copy and paste it in the next two slides. So any suggestion but we'll go with what we started with um which was on the poster. Andrea >> sounds good. >> Hi my name is Andrea Noble and I am the curriculum instructional leader for reading writing and social studies kindergarten through 2 grade. Um, at Herbut this year, we've continued

020to implement a number of enhancements to our curriculum and have been able to tie some new social studies curriculum units with some ELA curriculum units in ARC. So, this will be part of a um two-parter with um social studies. I'll go into greater detail when we talk about social studies. Um most importantly this year um we have done a lot of tier one collaborative plans with our classroom teachers. So when students qualify for MTSS which is the multi-tered system of support for intervention um those students end up qualifying for those interventions based on benchmark data. There are some kids that sometimes are cuspy and they don't really need an intervention, but we also don't want to just leave it to happen stance that they may continue to make adequate growth and progress. So, I meet

021with every single classroom teacher to discuss a tier one targeted plan with those students based on their benchmark data and the growth and progress that they're making. We have progress monitoring probes that we implement with our teacher that they make sure that those students are continuing to demonstrate adequate growth and progress and then after a four to six week period we come back together and we discuss how those students are doing. Um you will see from our year in numbers that we have significantly decreased um the number of students who have been exited from intervention but we also have decreased the number of students who have needed interventions when those next benchmarks have come around. So that's really strengthened a lot of the tier one instruction within that classroom setting and has made a significant

022impact on our overall school data. tiny little bit of a teaser because I'm in the middle of doing our end of the year data collection, but in the fall of 2025, we had 91% of our first grade students performing at or above benchmark on their Dibbles assessments. As of now, we are up to 96%. So 96% of all of our first grade students are performing on all of their early literacy screening measures at or above benchmark. 96%. So even though we started off really strong, we're not kind of saying, you know what, that's good enough. We are constantly reflecting on what we're doing and responding to our students that are in front of us to make sure that we are meeting their needs. Um, our MTSS data team meetings have grown to include both our

023MLL teacher because we have MLL students and they come with a wealth of knowledge that we need to make sure is included in these conversations that we have about student growth. Um, we also have collaborative data team meetings that both include reading, math, as well as SEAL this year. So, we're including the social emotional aspect of learning in how we're making sure that we're supporting our students. Um, this year I usually do parent workshops um in the fall. This year I decided to break off kindergarten workshops so that we can go into a lot more detail of how to support our parents of students who are just coming to school for the first time. And it was a very hands-on activity. So, they got to play with the manipulatives that we use when we're working

024on um funological awareness and and it was a wonderful opportunity not only for our parents to grow their knowledge of early foundational skills that lead to reading acquisition, but it also provided them with an opportunity to learn ways in which they can support their students at home when they're working with them or reading with them after school and in the evenings. Um, I will pass it over to Alex now. >> Oh, that's okay. >> All right. Is this close enough? Can you hear me now? Okay. Um, so I'm Alex Bluestein and I want to just carry on a lot of what Andrea uh spoke to and I want to start by saying that all of the work that has happened K2, all of the curriculum work, the work on assessment, the work on instruction, we

025are seeing the dividends of that pay off as students move through WIS. So I just want to share that the the there's been a lot of change um and we're seeing the positive benefits that of that in many ways. And so you may know that at WHIS um we're in our second year of implementation of ARC which is our core ELA resource. And um so at the end of last year at the end of year 1 um we did focused reflections with all of our grade level teams to sort of decide where we had come where and what goals we wanted to focus on. And so by and large across grade levels um the two strongest goals that came forward were that teachers wanted to work on stronger use of assessment data within both our

026curriculum based measures and our universal screening data um and to leverage that to focus on more rigorous um small groupoup instruction. And so the work on that really began during Curriculum Academy last year where our teams were able to come together and make focused revisions and updates to our units of of study to ensure that our instructional practices were strong in the tier 1 instruction every day. And to enhance our assessments to ensure that we're routinely assessing standards and creating success criteria for students so that teachers know where students are on a progression. and that also informs for them what to teach next. So that work in turn during the school year this year led to some really strong collaboration with grade level teams to engage in cycles of evaluating data. So curriculum data, universal

027screening data to evaluate student achievement and growth toward grade level standards uh while also designing strong small groupoup instruction. uh this routine collaboration was was super successful and I mean I don't you know we we students made a lot of growth this year. I won't get into the weeds there but we're very proud and also importantly our teachers felt like they grew quite a bit. Um we are I'm just going through our end of year reflections again right now so that we can look at where we are toward the goals that we set. So what did we do to get where we are and what do we still need to do next year? What where where are we shooting the trajectory for now? Um another focus this year was to enhance our use of writing

028progressions and um instruction to ensure that we are teaching the standards that the writing standards are rigorous. They're intense and the kids are capable. They're really I have some samples of student writing that back there to share with you to ensure that we're using our writing rubrics and standards and progressions not only for our own use but with with students as well. Um I also want to echo the work during our MTSS data teams. All of this work threads through our work on our multi system multi-tered systems of support. So when students are in need of of more support with with literacy, um we engage in data teams every 6 to 8 weeks with classroom teachers, with um uh our MLL teachers, with interventionists so that we can measure student growth, ensure growth is sufficient,

029um set new goals, discuss strategies, provide the classroom teacher with instructional strategies and and a focus. and progress monitoring in the classroom. That has yielded huge results for us this year and we look forward to continuing that next year while also again focusing digging deeper into the needs of our multilingual learners. [snorts] So next year our ARC is updating their materials in three through five to include more focused instruction related to grammar mechanics and advanced word study. So, a focus of our work will be all the ways that we integrate these updates into our units of study, into our small group instruction, and how we're assessing those skills as well. Um, we also look forward to, as I just said, enhancing our work for multilingual learners. And I I think just continuing the work, becoming

030stronger, better all the time, every day. And so we're we're very proud of the work that we did this year and we have focused next steps that we look forward to engaging in. The work the work is never never complete. [snorts] Um so with that I will pass it on to Amy Holmes who will speak about the middle school and high school work. Good afternoon everyone. Again I'm Amy Holmes. I'm the curriculum instructional leader for ELA grades 6 through 12 and I am incredibly proud to share the tremendous progress and rigorous work taking place within our secondary literacy ELA program. Our 6 through12 English language arts department has focused thoughtfully and strategically on building student capacity for advanced textual analysis, critical writing, and real world synthesis and applications. I'd like to celebrate uh some of

031what has been uh recently happening at the middle school where literacy has become a most powerful vehicle for building community and fostering deep historical empathy. This year we achieved a remarkable milestone by uniting 500 student and teacher readers in our one school one book initiative. Together, the entire middle school community immersed themselves in Alice Hoffman's historical novel, When We Flew Away. This experience extended far beyond the traditional ELA classroom. Our students actively connected fiction to history through rich interdisciplinary experiences and student leadership opportunities, injecting a renewed energy and purpose around the role literacy plays in amplifying student voice. New to the seventh grade curriculum, the Museum of Human Rights exhibition. It's an innovative ELA, social studies interdisciplinary unit that completely transforms our students from passive readers into active historical curators and civic advocates. Currently the

032unit is in full swing and we have some beautiful um artifacts at the back tables and actually the full set of books and resources that students are uh using to guide this experience. This unit brings together our language arts and social studies teachers to build a powerful structural bridge between literary empathy and rigorous historical inquiry. Throughout this unit, students cycle through deep literature circles, conduct factual contextual research, and transition into studio days where they build physical artifacts paired with self-produced digital order audio tour guides. The project culminates on a museum exhibition day when our students open the doors of the school library and successfully using their own creative voices and rigorous research turn abstract global statistics into deeply human stories. our high school. We intentionally elevate the academic rigor and individualized support necessary for highlevel

033communication. A major driver of our high school success has been the literacy lab, which has integrated itself into the fabric of our entire school culture. This academic year, our literacy specialists conducted more than 500 one-on-one student conferences and completed over 150 visits across multiple subject areas, ensuring that strong writing and communication are prioritized across all disciplines. We're also looking critically at how we prepare our older students for the world beyond Weston. This year, we completely redi redesigned English 12 into a robust year-long course. By making this structural change, we have been able to deeply embed authentic projectsbased writing designed specifically to mirror the demands of college classrooms and modern professional environments. Our seniors no longer just writing standard essays. They are engaging in complex self-directed research. Realworld communication styles will give them a distinct advantage

034the moment they graduate. The impact of our rigorous student centered focus at the high school is vividly reflected in our student outputs and national celebrations. This year, Weston High School boasts four prestigious National Writing Award winners recognized by Scholastic and the National Council of Teachers of English. Furthermore, our student voice is thriving creatively with over 30 exceptional student submissions produced and published in this year's filament art and literary magazine. These accolades are a direct testament to the creative confidence of our students. our students possess when given the tools and support to shape their own perspectives. Over the coming months, our teams will revise and implement updated writing rubrics across multiple genres and grade levels, utilize consistent student writing models, and exemplars for ongoing collaboration. We as an interdisciplinary ELA um and social studies um team,

035humanities team are really invested in exploring the role of AI in writing and learning. And our goal really is to teach students how to use these tools responsibly, not as a replacement for critical thinking, but as a means to enhance inquiry and to strengthen revision opportunities. As technology evolves, our teachers are committed to preparing our students to be skilled communicators and thoughtful AI users. gonna pass it back to Andrea. All right. During last June's summer curriculum academy, we had the opportunity to um create a draft of three curricular units in kindergarten, first grade, and second grade. In the fall of 2025, we implemented these units of study for social studies, making sure that inclusive in social studies are marginalized populations such as indigenous people, um, Hispanic Americans, Native American, well, indigenous people are Native Americans,

036um, women, women, um, African-American people of descent as well as Hispanic Americans. So, we're really starting to make sure that we are intentionally embedding instruction to include marginalized populations starting in kindergarten and working our way through that so that all of our students see themselves within our curriculum. Um, one of the big findings for our first grade kids were they had no idea that indigenous people still live today. They're like, "Wait, they're still around?" They had no idea. So, you know, it's a six-year-old mindset, right? they think that that happened in the past. So there's a lot of learning that's happening with our students over the course of the year as each unit was implemented. We had once we've completed the roll out and implementation of the unit, we had time to reflect and modify

037and make adjustments to each of the curricular units so that by the um May uh 21st PD that we had this spring, we were able to do that revision process with the third unit in every grade level. So each of our social studies units for next year are ready to be rolled out and implemented. Um, of course we will continue to further revi revise and refine those units, but we are really very pleased with what we've been able to accomplish together. Hello. So, our social studies journey at WHIS is in revision. Last year, uh, we really focus academy, we focused on, um, updating and revising our fifth grade units because fifth grade has got a significant amount of content and they teach it all year. Um, this year, fifth grade focused on implementing those units

038and we also focused on strong assessments that are tied to the standards. Um, a highlight was that our fifth graders once again participated in Connecticut's Kid Governor program. Um, we did that as a voteonly school this year. And in April, our a few of our fifth grade teachers met to again revise and enhance the social studies units so that in the fall we will be participating as a nominate and vote school. So, we're very excited about this. Um it it means that a a member of our WHIS community could very well end up as a finalist at the state for Connecticut's kid governor. So that's very exciting. Um third and fourth grade began their revisions of uh their units of study in alignment with the updated social studies frameworks and standards. That work was done

039in April and is ongoing. So we we sought to um ensure that all the standards were being taught as they should. Connecticut um is the focus in third grade, history, uh economy, geography. Fourth grade focuses on the United States regions. So again, history, geography, economy, environment, all of those components. Um and in fourth grade, we also have a nice alignment with um a couple of our ARC core units. So we have we do an American historical fiction unit and so we tie that in with regions history and indigenous peoples. Um and then our final unit in fourth grade is about US states. So students research um a different different states in the country that are aligned with the region that they're studying. So, we're trying every year to enhance that um alignment and crosscurricular. Um

040and so that that is the big work in social studies right now. We're updating our resources. We're focusing we're trying to really focus on print resources, books, articles in print. um and to provide a research environment that mimics what ARC provides them so that there's consistency and kids get extra practice with those research skills and summarizing skills and analysis of text and so we look forward to continuing that into next year and Shauna. Hi, Shauna Johnson, the 612 social studies sil. Um, in uh the secondary level, we continue our tier one instruction, making sure that we are providing opportunities for students to think critically, to read primary and secondary sources, practice their writing skills, their source analysis. Um, as we look towards the summer, we're going to continue editing and revising some of our curricular

041units, uh, making sure that we are meeting the needs of all of our students, including the UDL strategies. And to Andrea's point, making sure that students see themselves in the curriculum and that we are representative of the entire Western community. Um we have um some samples in the back of the room that you'll see from the 612 world that include our performance tasks. Um so culmination activities using uh inquiry standards as the basis for them. And there's some pretty interesting projects back there if you want to chat more about them. We've done a lot of collaboration with ELA this year between our one school one book uh the interdisciplinary unit in seventh grade and also looking at rubrics and how we can align better with one another. Um if you look up the board um

042there's the last bullet point under the focus areas where it talks about the uh integration of authentic learning experiences. So that was something that I've been working on. on uh the League of Women Voters has been really um important and impactful in providing those opportunities for us. They've come in, they've presented to our seventh grade students kind of as a preview of how Weston works and some issues here in Weston before they jumped into their population project. And there are some examples of that in the back in addition to some pictures and graphic organizers that the students had with them. Um in the back you'll also see stuff for Ann Frank, our traveling exhibit, which we couldn't have done without the support of the PTO's at the middle school and the high school. We had

043every student in grades 6 through 12 have the opportunity to pass through our exhibit and to have a dossentled tour. So we had 20 of our students trained to give these tours and beyond just learning about the information our dosent gained a lot of public speaking experience and a lot of really great firsthand experience on audiences. So in school often we tell the kids to write for your audience but how do you define audience? And so they would come back after giving a sixth grade tour or a ninth grade tour and talk about, "Oh, I noticed that the kids weren't really paying attention or they didn't really get something or I changed how I spoke. I changed what stories I told. I changed what information I gave them based off the students in front of

044them." So, it was really great to kind of see them work through that and problem solve and have that real life experience. There's a lot of information back there on our one school, one book, including uh a VR headset, which is not turned on, but every middle schooler did have the opportunity to tour the Anne Frank House. And Dr. Henle also toured the house prior to coming to the exhibit. So Amy and I worked really closely and a lot on providing the middle school with the opportunities for learning prior to coming to the exhibit because we know that they don't necessarily have the instruction the way they do at the high school because it's built into our curriculum up there. Um, there's a GeoJam picture up here. So, we do GeoJam every year. We have

045our winner. Um, and there's pictures of our ninth grade interdisciplinary field trip between science and social studies. So, we go to New Haven, we go to the Peabody, and we go to the Yale Art Museum and the British Art Gallery, and they had an exhibit on um imperialism and how you see that through art. Um, and there's an example of our ninth grade symposium, which we invited families to come in and see all of our projects where the kids really had to dive into those 21st century skills to explore the industrial revolution and its impacts. So, I'm going to pass it on to Kelly who's going to talk about math. Hello, I'm Kelly Delveio. I'm the K2 math uh curriculum and science instructional leader. Uh I have the pleasure of sharing a lot of good

046news with our focus and our areas of celebration. Um our major focus over the past few years has been through the implementation of our new core resources both in kindergarten and then all the way first through 8th grade which has been wonderful. Um the success of both programs has been very evident in any moment in math that you might walk into any room. We've seen an increase in student engagement. Um, at the core of mathematics is problem solving. And when you walk into these classrooms, the kids are doing the work, they're doing the thinking, they're communicating using tremendous amounts of math language, which is a huge shift. Um, and they are confident. I can tell you that just witnessing in all the end of the year assessing that we've been doing um the walking into

047these classrooms, you just felt the energy and you felt the confidence and you watched our littlest learners um look at a problem, reread a problem, try something on their paper, try something else on their paper, and really put thought and effort into everything that they were doing. um and spoiler alert to great um results as well. So that's been great. Um equally as important um in their success though has been um a mindset of growing from our mistakes and that's what grows our brain. and not just celebrating getting to the right answer, but really celebrating what it is to be a problem solver and to to have strategies and to have confidence and to be able to work through um our work. And I always say that our student success is it's all like a

048big snowball because it's our student success. It's coming from the tremendous amount of work that our teachers put into implementing um a new resource and doing it with a lot of um commitment and energy and newness and really embracing a real big flip on our whole curriculum model um being problem based. So that was a big shift for all of our teachers and they did a wonderful job with our teach with our students and it's goes to a lot of support from our administration. Um we've had a lot of really targeted professional development time with our teachers at individual grade levels all through the whole trajectory. And this time has been purposeful and really focused on certain moves that we've noticed the teachers are using and we've noticed the students are using. Um so that

049has been wonderful which leads to the vertical um articulation that we have really taken to new heights this year. uh we have a core resource that travels through the grade levels that now we are no longer saying well at my school at my school at my school and now we're using this we and we're seeing the students rolling through the grade levels and showing what they're knowing it's taking it to um to really heighten to new levels in my eyes spoke about uh MTSS and not only in the math department are we working on the consistency but across subject areas. Um, Andrea and I have worked tightly together as Alex and James and Riley and Amy and we've all made this a very consistent process um through the school system and through the subject areas

050which has made this process very uh solid in the sense of the enhancements that are happening and the developments that are happening at the 612 level as well. Um, we've received a lot of positive feedback with our parent workshops that we continue to have every year. They're really important for us to have collaborative conversations um connecting with the community looking at the vision of mathematicians in Weston and that's something that we look forward to sharing um about our vision for going forward and we also want to support the development of math at home. Um, so these workshops have been highly attended and the feedback has been wonderful and it's really been nice to have teachers and parents and everyone who's part of the team engage in the same conversation. So we've had a wonderful implementation

051and we are ready to keep moving forward from there. I'm going to turn it over to James. >> I'm James Bernie, math CIL at WHIS and leave it to the math people to put math and numbers for you. Right. By the way, we will be asking you to do some calculations and we'll be checking them for various strategies and and consistency and accuracy. So, just kidding. Uh so to go through the numbers, we uh the math sills hosted a total of 38 professional development sessions this year. Those sessions range from things like unpacking units uh to specific professional learning on instruction routines uh to enhancing our curriculum instruction and assessment overall. Right. We've also uh included some opportunities for challenge for our students in math. We really want to harness that and and continue to

052have students excel. Um so we had 78 students participate in both the AMC and math kangaroo um challenges this year. Additionally, we had 50 students participate in the math Olympian. Uh just to speak to the AMC quickly, we had two fifth grade students receive the young student certificate of achievement for the AMC, which is fantastic. And we also had three students qualify to take the AIM test which is the subsequent test after the AMC. Uh at WHIS we had a student who took the math kangaroo test who finished first ranked in the nation. Uh so it was something that we're very proud of very happy to be offering uh this to students at the math kangaroo competition. We welcome students from Hess Wis and hopefully next year we're looking to expand that so we uh

053include middle school students as well. Um we also had 58 parent uh parents who attended our workshops. Those workshops were focused on uh sort of descriptions and and communications of our core resource as well as communicating priority standards for mathematics and how families can support mathematics at home. Um additionally, uh we had 50 students inducted to the national uh honor society for math. So we're we're very happy with with these accomplishments. uh gonna pass it over to Riley to talk about our takeaways and next steps. >> Hi. Uh I'm Riley Rapaore. I'm the math CIL 612. Um and I'm going to piggyback off of a lot of what Kelly and James already reiterate um talked about when it comes to um our future goals and our next steps when it comes to math. And one

054thing we talk about a lot is really what do what's our goal of building a mathematician as they go through at Weston. And we know we want them to learn the content and we want them to be able to do well on the these assessments we're talking about, but we also want to build students confident and ability to problem solve, to be precise, to persevere through problems and recognize patterns. And all of that goes to the math practice standards. So we really, as the years go on, we're continuing to reframe our narrative and our vision of a mathematician in Weston and what that looks like and how do we assess that? how do you how do you assess if a student is persevering in math? And so we're putting our heads together to kind of

055come up with some ideas with that. Um we're also continuing to update now that we have a solid um 1 to8 to algebra 1 curriculum. We need to continue to update vertical alignment when it comes to the al geometry algebra 2 high school courses. um as well as incorporating and going deeper in some of our curriculum when it comes to building thinking classrooms and exemplar tasks. What are some of those rich tasks where we can again see those students recognizing patterns them persevering through some things and recognizing structures all of that stuff. And so incorporating some of those additional resources now that we've spent a a majority of the last three years developing this core resource, how are we adding on to that? Um as well as strategic focus on differentiating instruction in the classroom.

056So hoping that when you walk into classrooms in the next few years, you see more small groupoup instruction in the tier one classroom where we can really prioritize some of the gap areas that students may have. So pulling those small groups. And now I'm gonna send it over to Beth to talk about science. >> Thank you, Riley. I'm the 612 um science and technology curriculum and instruction leader. My name is Beth Lancaster. Um [snorts] I'm going to share a brief update on our journey this school year. Um our strategic focus areas and I'm lucky enough to sell to share our celebrations from this year. Um our instructional focus this year has been on deepening student um engagement through collaborative work with our teachers. This has included um coaching cycles, targeted professional learning work with our

057teachers during curricular partner time um as well as grade level meetings. We continue to work on strengthening our interdisciplinary connections by intentionally aligning our science units with our new ELA resources. Also collaborating between departments at the middle school level. We have partnered with special education to um plan and deliver targeted lessons that focus on reading for information in the science context. Another focus area has been in encouraging all students to participate in our science classrooms. We're doing this by providing them with strategies in which to engage in discourse. I brought some samples of that student work and some of the different ways that we're doing that. Um this helps students um feel prepared to engage in argument from evidence um respectfully and collaboratively so that they can build their science understanding. And lastly, we have

058not lost sight of the computer science work that we have to do within the district. Um our K12 computer science team gathered this spring to revisit our strategic plan. um that plan while it identifies many of our stakeholders and some of our curriculum work is currently on pause because we are waiting the new um computer science standards. So we're looking forward to digging into that work hopefully after they are um passed this summer. Um now on to the celebrations. Um this year uh our um collaborations between schools has begun. uh WIS and WHS um were able to plan a science research expo. So along with my colleague James and our honors um science research teacher Stacy Greenberg um we had all of our honors research students um present their projects in a way in which

059it could be wellreceived from a fifth grader at WIS. Um, so they took that complex research that they've been doing all year long with the goal of being able to communiate communicate it at a fifth grade level, um, engaging students in some activities. Um, so I brought some of those with me, but it was really just an amazing, um, show of engagement amongst our high school students, but also our fifth grade students, and they provided amazing feedback um, to our high school students. I also want to thank um principal do and principal Ketta because it really was a team effort. Um they came and met with our students. The students were able to ask questions. They dug into the science standards. It was just it was really an amazing experience. Um another celebration um are

060our uh four new science units that were implemented in grades six and seven. These units were focused on student inquiry. Um so I have to celebrate our teachers who um you know took that on this year. Um these four units have really strengthened our integrated science curriculum at the middle school level and we saw students engaging in some deep um science learning and I have artifacts also to share of that. So I hope you stop by and check them out. uh at the high school this year, we were able to turn that student centered inquiry um into an experience where our environmental science students uh engaged in a field trip where they collected data that was directly reported to the state. Um this started with actually applying for a permit, a collection permit from the

061state so that we could um sample a local stream and um then the students identified all the organisms they found and reported that directly to our um state bank. Um this year I I'm so excited that James Kelly and I have been able to collaborate a bit more um at the K12. So really looking at how can we vertically team? What is that um student centered inquiry look like? Um we were able to engage in a professional learning experience along with um Dr. Hankle this year where we we were we assumed the role of students. So really um seeing what does it look and it feel like and how can we support our teachers in making this happen in our classroom. So we're looking forward to that future work as well. Um and at the

062state level, our um computer science, our library media specialists and other members of our computer science team um were able to represent the district at the state computer science forum. This allowed us to provide some feedback on the states um on the action plan for computer science um and have a sense of how we are going to be able to support that work, but also be supported in that work. I'm going to pass it over to Kelly who is going to share our year in numbers. >> So, we've had an astounding number of things happening in the district science-wise. Um, our 25 rigorous professional development sessions have ranged from advanced scientific discourse to classroom AI integration and the impact on our students has been massive. Uh we've had over 400 of our students involved in

063science extension clubs from robotics to the biology olympiad. Um I'm going to read this one from my notes so I don't get it wrong, but culminating in um many statewide and historic uh awards. We had a second place finish at the Connecticut Science and Engineering Fair in their category category. And across the district, our students took on a very creative challenges, too, including an incredible 120 um K12 submissions to the Hatonic Resources Recovery Authority Recycling Billboard competition. Um we would definitely like to thank the PTO for the Wonder Robots that were purchased. um to Beth's unit development at the middle school. Um the middle school lab has been hopping with some new curriculum uh advancements that were made. Uh all of our students from the youngest up to the most experienced have been on field

064trips and schoolwide activities and our faculty's excellence was also recognized. U Melanie Welsh was named as the CSTA middle school teacher of the year. Michael Akinhead was selected as the Explorer Club teacher fellow for an upcoming expedition to Peru and Aaron Luchia received the prestigious web founders award as well. So we are proud of our numbers in science too. I'll hand it over to James. So Riley spoke before about some of our practices with uh identifying what high quality instruction looks like in mathematics and we're trying to do the same thing for science. So, we really are are articulating a shared vision for what high quality instruction looks like and also what highquality uh instructional materials can support that. Um, we're also looking for K12 science learning walks to help identify professional learning needs across

065the district. Right? We want to have more of a district lens of what science looks like. Um, additionally, we have some updating to do to curriculum documents to our uh internet to to reflect some of these changes uh that we've made. We're looking to design and pilot 3D assessments in grades 6 through 12. Uh, and WHIS is currently has a teaming model at grade five. We're exploring a teaming model for grade four next year where we're going to have some uh specialty in in terms of teaching science. So, we really want to be able to support that every way we can. Uh, and we're also looking to reconvene the district computer science committee to review the new state adopted standards, make sure that our plan aligns and adjust as necessary. I'm going to pass it

066over to Liz to talk to us about all things music. >> Hi, I'm Liz Boris. I'm the uh K12 music curriculum instruction leader and the district theater arts coordinator. Um as a department leader, much of my focus uh this year has been the continued support of our district's newest teachers. Um we have a third of our staff that is just in our second year um in their second year here in our elementary strings, our secondary orchestra and um at our high school in the band program. Um our western music continues to be a high level performing program and our expectations for excellence require continuous reflection on practice coupled with instructional strategies specific to music learning and rehearsal technique. So we've been able to bring them into into the fold on some of that. what we

067do here. Our K5 focus remains on music literacy in the continued implementation of a revised scope and sequence um that uses utilizing our new resources that we have been uh using for uh sequential music literacy lessons. In addition to that, at our at our secondary level, um we made some curricular revisions and implemented um in our in our digital music courses. So, our seventh grade music lab and eighth grade music technology classes are now semester. So, we needed to um change some of the units and the media components in those. And our high school digital music production and music industry course uh sequences were updated with changes to industry standards. And I anticipate that that will be a continuing theme in digital music as we keep going through um with the use of AI and

068other and other things that are coming into into our um into our work. As we continue to focus on student engagement in the ensembles, our common rubrics for ensemble citizenship in grades 4 through 12 were revised and implemented. So basically that gives every student the idea um the criteria for success within that ensemble. So beginning ensembles in grades four through six utilizing kid-friendly language kind of introduce them to what what what that is, what that it is to be an ensemble citizen, what you need to do to be successful there. and seven and eight, they kind of build on that foundation with our novice groups. And then at the high school level with our intermediate and proficient groups, um we kind of release responsibility to the ensemble members. Basically, if you've ever been in a

069group project with somebody and you want to make sure that everybody's doing their part, this is how we know I'm doing my part. I'm not doing my part. Right? So, that's the the update on that one. Okay. So, moving forward, our areas of celebration and our year and number going to kind of bring those together. Um many of our musical performances and accomplishments um were really in in within the theme of collaboration with various school and community partners. Our music groups are very important part of our school and community events. Um everything from Veterans Day to the winter holidays to Black History Month, America 250, athletic events, pep rallies, you name it, you will find a music group at one of those events bringing community um and and bringing music into that community. So many

070of them are in our schools but also as a part of collaborations with the town of Weston uh with the Weston celebrates 250 committee and the Weston Commission for the Arts. If we look to our year in numbers, you can see that we continue to maintain a very active program. Just as a reminder and a little plug on our website, there is a performing arts calendar that you can subscribe to that will um let you know about all of those events so that you can attend. So um we hope to see you there so you can hear our kids because they're amazing. Um, I'd like to highlight some special recognition uh to celebrate our exceptional music students. for our regional and all-state musicians at the secondary level. We had um one student audition and be

071selected for uh the high school allstate, 10 for western region um at the high school level, 12 at the western region for middle school, and then we had eight elementary students that were selected uh in grades four, five, and six to be part of the elementary honors band, ele honors orchestra, and elementary elementary honors chorus. Um, in addition, this year at our high school theater awards at the Halo Awards, I have to mention that uh our students were nominated for 13 awards, including best orchestra and best classical musical. And this year they won for best classical musical, the first time in eight years that they've won that award. Um, we were pretty excited about about that for Little Shop of Horrors. It was a great show. It's particularly impressive because our theater is a co-curricular

072program. So there are no courses you offered in our schools. Everything is after school. That's acting, musical theater, set design, costume design, stage management, lighting, sound, all of those pieces. And we're fortunate that we hire professionals and contractors who provide on the job training to students who desire to learn all of these things. So we're very proud of that. Um, I'd also like to highlight a couple of special events this year. Clinics and festivals provide our students musical experiences with professional musicians and judges and give feedback uh for growth. They also allow our music teachers embedded professional learning opportunities with professional conductors and musicians. So some of our adjudicated mu music festivals this year that we participated in um the high school jazz ensemble participated in the Wilton Jazz Symposium with other uh ensembles from

073Westport, Fairfield and Wilton and a professional group uh the Berkshire Jazz Ensemble. Our middle schools just got back uh recently and our and our auditioned orchestra, choir and jazz ensembles were adjudicated at the trills and thrills music festival. I was there. They did a wonderful job and got some great feedback as well. And our high school orchestras participated in an adjudicated festival in Norwok with other high school orchestras from Greenwich, Westport, Norwok, West Hartford, and Middletown. Some interesting clinics that happened here in our schools. We brought some people in uh for a high school jazz clinic with GRA Grammy award-winning jazz musician David De Jesus. Our middle school and high school band uh participated in percussion clinics with a percussion specialist Jeff Jones, which is really great because not every band director is a percussion

074specialist. So being able to bring somebody in who really understands percussion and how that works and how to best teach that to kids was was fantastic for our for our teachers. Um, we also had a very interesting experience with our high school orchestra and our high school jazz ensembles. Usually those things don't go together, but we had a performance in a clinic with a jazz professor Sarah Caswell from the Berkeley College of Music. Um, and her band and her specialty is in jazz violin. So, we had uh clinics on improvisation and also jazz for strings. Um, in addition, other celebrations, the celebrations of America's 250th birthday, we had our district-wide concert, Celebrate 250, during music in our schools month. Um, it was an amazing concert, amazing night. And all of our um, our schools were

075all represented that have performing ensembles. And all of our spring concerts this May featured pieces that celebrated America and highlighted the American voice. While we are celebrating 250, I'd like to celebrate our music staff. We are so fortunate to have music staff that support this very active and robust robust program. Um, this list of accomplishments and all of the things that happen with our students are the direct result of great teachers who continue to rebuild and maintain a cohesive program. Every item on that list means and everything that you've come to, every performance that you've been to, every event that you've attended is extra hours, weekends, and in the evenings. and we're really fortunate to have people who are so dedicated to our students. Um some things uh some takeaways and some things for next

076steps. Um I want to um focus on really looking at the program by by strand going into next year. Um really music seems to be it's it's a catch-all, right? Our music program, but really our band, our orchestra, our choir, those are the strands of the program. And we want to make sure that to have those highest level of of ensembles and and to keep active like this, we really need to focus on our on our specialty and commit to that strand of the program. We hope to increase students auditioning and participating in regional and all state and develop consistency in the program. Um, we also want to make sure um that we are supporting them for their highest level of uh student achievement. Making sure that we have um access to their teachers so

077that they can have time to be able to do these things. Um, one thing to note, retention is paramount for a successful K12 music program. It's one thing to get the kids involved, but to keep them there, that's that's one thing that we always are trying to do. our elementary and middle school ensembles, those feed our high school ensembles. So, if we are missing any of that instrumentation, if we're missing at that skill level, we need to really focus um on that. So, we really want to create structures that allow access and support student success with all of our um scheduling and lessons and offerings and all of the things. In addition, I'm hoping next year, as since our music program naturally connects with other parts of the district's academic and arts curriculum, um I'm

078looking forward to continuing to develop some interdisciplinary connections and opportunities to integrate music into other areas of the curriculum. So, and that's it. And I'm passing it along to Sarah Webb for visual arts. >> Hi, I'm Sarah Webb. I am the K to2 visual arts curriculum and instructional leader. Um [snorts] this year it was my first year as this department's um CIL and for me it was important that we focus on our vertical alignment from K to2 um curriculum and really thinking about the ways that even at the lowest elementary level in kindergarten how their instruction influences their art journey all the way through high school. Um, and so we were very focused on our technical and um, skill-based learning, but also in a mindset shift and the belief that there are many ways for

079a student to be a talented um, artist. [clears throat] If you ask a lot of our youngest learners what it means to be good at art, they think it means to be good at realistic drawing. And so we're trying to shift their mindset to understand that there are very many ways that you can excel in the arts. um and to create a very inclusive program so that all students and all families feel that they have a place within the Weston art program and that there are a lot of avenues to be an artist and to be successful um here in Weston. We've also been looking um and revising our curriculum especially at the high school level in um trying to meet the needs of current learners and current students. Um, we live in a very

080visual world today and so we're particularly focused on updating our graphic design and media art pathways to better meet the needs of students um, and technology today. We did have a lot of successes this year. Another one of my goals was to provide more professional learning opportunities specifically within the arts. Um, we had on and off-site professional learning opportunities. We went out to the Brookfield Craft Center um as well as offering more art focused choices um especially during our future of schools PD day. Those sessions were highly attended not only by the art department but by teachers across all grade levels and all um content areas which I think speaks to the importance of art not just for our students but also for our teachers. At one of those sessions we created a really beautiful

081collaborative mural. Um we felt it was important to highlight not only student work but the role that teachers have in this district. Um and so that will be completed and featured in central office. Um we also were focused on creating a lot of opportunities to display student work. We just had our district-wide art jam on May 21st. If you weren't able to attend, I have a lot of our beautiful work here with us today. Um, we also collaborated with the Weston Historical Society for Weston 250. Um, some of the work from Hurlbut and from the middle school will be donated to the town and will be on display at town hall and at the historical center throughout the summer. And they are keeping that artwork um as part of their collection. We had um four

082high school student awards and honors. Um, one of our large accomplishments was one of our seniors was chosen out of 80,000 submissions to be um, part of the AP studio art exhibit. We also ran two new ECE courses at the high school and will continue to add ECE courses to our program next year. Um, we had 18 new students inducted to our honor society and um, an in we had five art focused professional learning opportunities which is four more than we had last year. Um, and as we move forward, we're continuing to look for opportunities within the community, both in and out of school, to um, display our students work. And we're going to continue focusing on our vertical alignment, again, particularly focusing on our media arts pathway and the opportunities, um, the different types

083of courses we offer at the high school level. Um, overall, we did have a really successful year, a really successful art jam. um and our students, especially since I've started, it's my second year at Hurlbut. Um we've really been overhauling the curriculum to create that strong foundation that we hope will carry through all the way to the high school level and we're continuing to focus on enrollment numbers and engagement at the high school level next year. So, we had a great year and we hope to have another one next year. I am passing it on to Mercedes to talk to you about world language. Hello everyone. I'm Mercedes Fernandez, curriculum and instruction leader uh for world languages K12 and multilingual learners. Um this year our world language department focused on three major priority areas. Updating

084curricula in identified high priority courses, revising benchmark assessments across all languages and levels and expanding opportunities for students to deepen their understanding of the products, practices, and perspectives of the target cultures. We are proud to celebrate significant progress in each of these areas. First, student engagement with world cultures increased meaningfully through experiences both inside and outside of the classroom. Western High School students organized our annual world language festival for students in grades 8 through 12. Students utilized the world language support center, attended music and dance performances, engaged with guest speakers, completed volunteer opportunities, and took part in enrichment activities throughout the year. These experiences helped bring language learning to life and strengthen students appreciation for cultural diversity. in curriculum and assessment development. Our department accomplished substantial work during the summer curriculum academy and throughout the

085academic year. I would like to take this opportunity to thank um all of the staff members and I think I speak I can speak on behalf of all the CILs. Uh we wouldn't be able to do all of this work without the teachers commitment during their spring breaks or during their summer breaks. um 10 courses were updated, including newly designed courses in French, Latin, and Spanish. We also created new and revised benchmark assessments across languages and levels to better align with learning goals and student needs. One exciting addition was a new ECE course in Latin classical mythology at Western High School. Our students achievements continue to reflect the strengths of our programming. This year, 670 Spanish students in grades 5 through 12 attended the Hispanic Flamco Ballet performances. 58 students at the high school were

086inducted into the French, Latin, and Spanish honor societies in our annual celebration last week. uh where also 120 students uh were awarded um certificates and medals uh for their performance in um national language examinations. Um actually two students uh received a platinum plaque for scoring perfect scores in those examinations. um and 72 students are graduating with the seal of biiteracy this year recognizing their high levels of proficiency in multiple languages. This is an impressive number and a testament to the strong language programs in our district. As we look ahead, our next steps remain centered on growth and access. We will continue expanding opportunities for students to become empathetic learners who appreciate and understand cultural diversity through rich units of study, events, field trips, and immersive cultural experiences. We will also continue updating priority curricula through

087the summer curriculum academy, including courses in French, Latin, and Spanish. And finally, we aim to strengthen programming and support to our multilingual learners through our multi-ter systems of support. Together, these efforts reflect our ongoing commitment to prepare to preparing students not only as language learners, but as globalminded citizens. Thank you all for your continued support. And now I will turn it over back to Dr. Henkle who will speak about the next phase of um our meeting. >> Thank you Mercedes and thank you everyone. Um as you heard there's an amazing amount of hardware coordination across the district and I am so glad that we added that year in numbers because while I know that there's a lot of work going on when you actually reflect and name it, there is so much more than I

088could have imagined in some of your presentations. So kudos to all of you and all the hard work that you've put in this school year. Um, we'd like to take the next 30 minutes to engage in an opportunity not to just tell you about the work, but to show you about the work, which is the most exciting part in my opinion of this presentation. So, um, in good instruction style, we have created a no-catcher for you. So, as you're walking around and engaging in conversations, uh, we'd like to encourage you to, um, think about some of these questions as you engage in conversation. And you do not need to use these questions, but by all means, it might help us as we debrief um at the end after you have already gone through each station.

089Um and um so for the next 30 minutes, um there's clipboards there for you if you don't have something to write on and our CILs will be each at each area to answer questions and dive into more artifacts based on what they spoke about today. And then we'll come back together and do a debrief as well as a Q&A. Okay. Great. Ready. Break. >> This is like a kid at a candy store here. >> Where do I go first? Run 30 minutes. There's always a way around. We'll figure that out. >> All right. Thank you everyone. Um I think we all can agree that the amount of work and uh ways to celebrate this year has been um really commendable and exciting and um we had some side conversations about how we can further celebrate

090and honor some of this work by distributing it out through the community and through some of our newsletters so that we can continue um kind of demonstrating and showing all the great things that are happening with our teachers and with our students across the district. So, I want to give all of you um a huge shout out and say thank you so much uh for all your hard work and dedication this year, every year. Um but I'd like to open it up to um any member of the of the board to give us some um give us your thoughts, your reflections, what did you notice? What are some things that you um really really resonated with you as you were having conversations and walking through? And if you have any other if you have any

091questions for anyone uh of our team. >> Um I don't have any questions. I I went and I asked questions to people who I had questions for. But um thank you everyone for coming today, for giving this presentation, for doing all of the work to prepare for today, for your wonderful boards. Um, this truly is a wonderful, rich celebration of so much learning and so much teaching and support that you're providing to all of our teachers in in our district. So, thank you so much for everything. It's just incredible to see the variety of learning and the variety of means and methods throughout the ages and grades. Um, so thank you. It's really enjoyable. I something there's like a few things that I think about for next year that I would want to know more

092about and or consider because one of the questions I had today as I was hearing the presentation on um theater and music. My question was do we have drama? And the answer is no. Um, and I know that for me at a who attended a K to2 school of pretty much the same size as Weston. I was about to say Westport. Um, I had drama starting from like I have to think cuz it's like when I transitioned schools, but probably first grade. I participated in school plays starting in elementary school. It became optional after a certain age, but in elementary school, participating in school plays was required. But drama was a class where we looked forward to drama every week. Like everyone in our class looked forward to drama every week. And I wasn't even

093a drama or a theater student. And I still loved it. And I could not imagine the benefit it would have for so many different types of learners in our district to have that as an option during their their day. And also if you talk about the high quality performances and concerts that you are putting on in middle school and high school and the awards that you're receiving and you're not even doing it for awards but just having interest, retention, recruitment to have that those foundational skills as a young learner I think is just it's invaluable for so many different types of learners and also really contributes to your portrait of a graduate. >> Thank you for that feedback. >> [laughter and snorts] >> supposed to do what I I'm being told here. Um uh I

094want to thank Nicole for all her comments because um she's said it more um clearly than I can with a cold, but thank you for all your work all year long and the impact uh and the way you leverage um the teacher skills. We it's just amazing. Um, I can't speak to drama. I don't disagree, but I've never experienced it. Um, I was just random uh things struck me. Uh, our community support, you know, when you're talking about the one book, one school, I'm going, well, why doesn't the board of ed do that? And I go, well, because you're never going to need 500 copies of a book again necessarily. So, I get it. Uh, but anyway, just to be able to have that support in lots of lots of different subject areas. And I'm

095sure you have all experienced that. Um I love that the kids are doing the work. I think Erica calls it the cognitive lift. So when you talk about um the honors research project and needing to do your own research and then try to explain it to a fifth grader, it's like very cool. Um and then um you shared the science notebooks, you know, where kids are handwriting their notebook and their and their questions and their observations. Uh and then of course just how cred incredibly um just amazing achievement across the board and just being able to say that 44% of our graduating class has a seal of biiteracy is is astounding. Um, and then I'm so glad to hear that the math program is sinking in in a way that the parents are better understanding

096it, the teachers are, you know, getting used to the the methodology and that that's yielding great results. Um and then uh the reading, you know, trying to reading is always a pushpull, but it sounds again like Weston has found a program in terms of the science of reading piece, but without losing the comprehension piece and so that you're able to see stronger readers come through um but not at the expense of the thinking part. Uh so anyway, congratulations all around. Thank you. And I'm so sorry I missed the arts. I just didn't get there. Thanks, Deb. Spoken like a true literacy teacher. Sorry. Couldn't resist. >> I have to buy time because I'm waiting for a handwritten manifesto. >> Is it done? Oh, here it is. >> Good question. You could ask either one. Either

097question >> or both, whatever you feel. So question one uses a term I don't understand but uh we were very good with the uh e uh literacy and social studies still it is how can we insulate our kids from becoming AI subcognitive and do we have a definition for subcognitive that everyone understands >> I don't have one >> I do cuz I experience it as an professional adult >> let me I don't know if I'm c in capturing what were referring to. But I often as an adult am reading email exchanges that were just produced by AI, one AI person to another AI person and there's really no original writing in it whatsoever and just really AI structured >> paragraphs. Is that what you mean? Subcognitive also implies we erode our kids abilities to problem

098solve, perform real time synthesis, essentially perform cognition, >> right? >> Because they have relied on other forces. >> Yes. As as a >> I think that's is that our summer curriculum? >> Well, I think um agenda item >> always of course there's always opportunities to improve. I I think that part of the work um and the beauty of this academic year in review is to demonstrate the student work that is grounded in critical thinking and tasks that don't rely on technology at all. And I think we have been engaging in dialogue and conversations around why we purchase certain materials or resources to help leverage critical thinking, problem solving and authentic opportunities for kids to think independently. Um, and we are always looking to enhance those resources in our curriculum. that I think today and um

099in particular were some really great opportunities to show how our kids are thinking, applying and transferring what they're learning from content to application in various settings that we I think we pride ourselves on in Weston. Um and while still kind of highlighting the reality that we need to um also embrace the the evolving aspects of technology so that we can teach our kids to be ethical and responsible and um know that it doesn't replace the human interaction or the human brain and the human ability to complete tasks independent of that of those tools. So yes and to be continued. So, I I'll ask uh the second part of Chad's input and I'll add to a comment I made uh and on Monday night special meeting uh about um you have a balance of tech, right?

100You it could be a tool, it could be a crutch, right? We don't know yet, right? Um, you want kids to embrace the tech and I saw that at like Project Challenge because they had VR goggles, they had uh they had a gem bot, right? It was remarkable what they did. On the other hand, [cough] most of them don't understand how it works, like how they got to that point. And I think that's an opportunity for our district to sort of show, you know, this is how we get to this point because that's actually going to be the career differentiator. If you can understand how we get to these points to use these tools, you're actually way ahead of the curve. And it could be in the arts, it could be in the m in

101music. It's not limited to science, right? Which is a good thing to use it for. I mean, across the board. So, uh, in my day job, I see the future. I have a very unique day job. I actually work for a company to put quantum computing in your palm, right? I monetize photons. I don't even know what that means, but I do it like I've I don't even know what I'm talking about half the time, but I do it well because I got taught in school to network and think on my feet, right? But the point is that the kids are facing a future of robotics and drones and automation in on the factory line, automation and law and finance and and I think getting ahead of that curve is really where Chad's question is

102coming from so they could be proactive in in sort of self-determination in a sense they don't become enslaved to the technology. So that's sort of the challenge for all of us and particularly for the sills because they're the ones that are thinking how do I how do I get the teaching capability in place? You call it scaffolding or capacity. These are words that I I don't use in my day job, but I get it right. So they can sit there and get the kids ahead of the curve. That's that I sort of ask. >> Thank you. I was also really pleased to see the science notebooks in middle school because as somebody who engaged in that type of learning over 20 years ago, I truly did not know if students in middle school use notebooks

103anymore. So that was reassuring and I hope that that's more pervasive than just on that table. >> We agree. Um any other questions before we close? I have two more. >> The next steps. So, do you want to do that for a minute and then I'lljourn? >> Um, yes. So, I just wanted to always take the opportunity first and foremost say thank you to the board for your support. Um all of these resources, the time to speak about curriculum development could not happen without um every year coming back to the table to support the requests that make this teaching and learning and the work that the CIL's um oversee and manage without your continuous support, financial support every every school year. Um, one in particular is as we look ahead the summer curriculum academy. Um,

104we've been running the summer curriculum academy for four years. Uh, well, is this my fourth year? Fourth year. Going into my fourth year and um, just wanted to give you a quick update um, as I do every year regarding some of the structural changes around our summer curriculum academy because our school year ends so late this year. So with the support of superintendent 40, we actually started writing uh curriculum and revising curriculum already during the April break. We had volunteer teachers uh that volunteered time to actually start um updating and revising and designing uh units of study and assessments based on specific content areas across the district. And we're going to continue that work in the last couple days of June that we have to close out the school year. Um and so thank you

105again for all your continued support around that. Um just yes and so then I'll turn it over to Superintendent 40. Please >> before you close out. It looks like you have a final slide here. >> You go ahead. >> But I just would like to say one thing. First of all, thank you Tina >> because this is an incredible team of very highlevel educators who understand the importance of a viable curriculum matched with coherent assessments and doing the hard work of getting the students to do the cognitive lift but also being more flexible in their thinking. Sarah Webb while embracing the friction that comes with learning and that is not an easy job. But the people around this table have captured that here today and they would not be able to do their work without

106the guidance and leadership of you and the support and the relentless time and dedication that you give to them as well. You're a visionary in this area and we are very fortunate to have you in this role leading this work and leading this team and assisting and supporting our principles who are also incredible in sort of monitoring it in their buildings. Um so thank you for continuing to create a really strong culture around problem solving and coming from a solutionsbased lens. >> You're welcome. I close. Yes. Okay, great. Um, so this quote, um, we pulled this quote out. Thank you so much. That was very sweet. Um, this quote, um, really resonates with us. Uh, it's actually taken out of our co transformational coaching text that we've been anchoring our work this year from Elena

107Aguular and it really speaks to our vision and mission um, and our work that we are intentionally developing together over the last four years. We believe that meaningful transformation begins with people who believe things can be better and who are willing to do the work together. At the heart of this work are relationships and connections that we build with adults which ultimately shape how we influence, support and inspire our students. So, um, this this quote really drives what we do and it send uh sent a message to me to close out our year and close out our academic year and review with all of you. And I I want to uh, you know, continue what Erica said. Um, I I can't be the leader for you without you doing your work and being um being

108the support system that I know I need throughout the school year as well. So, I also want to thank you all because I learn so much from you. we're always learning together and that really is what makes this work so special and um you know it's it's the people around the job that make the job so great. So I just want to also say thank you to all of you. Um just one final um piece of of talk speaking about relationships before we leave today and close our school year out is um that I would like to take a moment um in public section to recognize and honor Andrea Noble as she prepares to retire after an extraordinary 35-y year career in education during which nearly 25 of those years um were spent in Western

109public schools. So, if you won't mind, I'd like to just take this moment to highlight and honor you. Um, I actually have gone back into this massive folder. Um, and actually learned a lot about you. So, give give me a little little bit of time. So, Andrea arrived in Weston in the fall of 20 2001 as a reading intervention teacher at Herbut Elementary School. She brought a strong foundation as a classroom teacher, instructional leader, and curriculum developer. having previously taught in Greenidge public schools where she served as a grade level leader and learning facilitator and consulted on developing instructional materials from Addison Wesley Publishing. I did not know that. I I saw that. >> Amazing. The math. You have the math there, too. Little did I know. What began as a role supporting struggling readers

110quickly evolved into a career defined by leadership, expertise, and an unwavering commitment to helping all students succeed. For eight years, Andrea served as a reading specialist at Herbut, leading literacy initiatives, mentoring teachers, developing intervention systems, pre presenting professional learning opportunities, and helping to establish practices um that continue to shape instruction even today. In 2009, Andrea stepped into the role of curriculum instruction leader for language arts and social studies, a position she has held in that role since since 2009. In that role, she became an advocate for students, a coach and mentor for teachers, a presenter at regional conferences, a leader of curriculum renewal efforts, a steward of instructional excellence, and a trusted colleague whose influence extended far beyond far beyond anyone or in the classroom or school. Um, she helped design and coordinate K8 langu

111K8 K8 language arts and social studies programs, guided uh guided curriculum revisions, led professional development, again supported assessment and intervention systems, mentored new teachers, and served on countless committees dedicated to improving teaching and learning across Weston. Along the way, Andrea, I learned a lot, was recognized as Weston Public Schools teacher of the year, an honor that reflected so many of us that we already knew. Her impact on students and colleagues and the profession was profound. Um, as I also was reading her file, I can do this now because you're retiring, so I get to just tell everybody what it says in there. As I was preparing for today, I had the opportunity to read one of Andrea's earliest evaluations from her first year in Weston. What struck me was not only how glowing the evaluation

112was, um, but how accurately it describes the educator that she still is today. In June of 2002, here's what it said. Mrs. Noble is a reflective educator who who certainly understands how student performance impacts teaching. She is commended for her ability to analyze the why in her teaching. She uses data collected to plan her lessons, develop flexible groups, and improve student learning. She also uses student observation to confirm student growth. The balance of both teaching strategies is powerful. There were so many wonderful comments through the evaluation, but I chose this one because it really captured something essential about you, Andrea. For nearly 25 years, Andrea has never wavered from her dedication to students, her commitment to supporting teachers, and her belief in the importance of teaching and learning. She has always sought to understand the

113why. She has always focused on what students need. She always approaches her work thoughtfully, collaboratively, and with a relentless commitment, relentless commitment to helping grow others. Um, this is remarkable to think about uh the amount of time that Andrea has spent in Weston and her her career is simply um is just so consistent over the last 25 years here. what she was in 2002 is what I know of her in 2026. Um, in another section of that same evaluation, not not done yet, her administrator wrote that Andrea was a contributing team member and an asset to all the staff and praised her enthusiasm for teaching and sincere appreciation for each child. Those words ring true today. Andrea, your impact on Western public schools extends far beyond the lessons you taught, the curriculum you developed, or

114the professional learning you facilitated. Your legacy lives in the countless students whose lives you've influenced, the teachers you mentored, the leaders you supported, and the culture of learning you help build. On behalf of the CIL team, the Western Public Schools administration, the Board of Education, your colleagues, and the generations of students and families you have served, thank you for your dedication, your leadership, your expertise, and your friendship. We're grateful for everything you've given to the Western Public Schools, and we wish you nothing but happiness, health, adventure, and fulfillment in this next chapter. Congratulations on a remarkable career and a well-earned retirement. We have cake and a card and a gift. [applause] >> Oh yeah. [applause] Congratulations. >> Okay. Now, now you have to adjourn. I'm sorry. You have to. >> You have to journ to

115get to the cake, right? >> Yes, please. I'm sorry. >> So, those well spoken. I uh move to adjourn our June 3rd, 2025 board of ed June 2026 board of ed. It says 2025 here curriculum subcommittee. May I have a second? >> Second. >> Do I have a vote on the yes? >> Yes. >> Let's Let's eat cake. >> Congratulations.