DCRSD SC Mtg May 13 2026

001all right we're going to call the meeting to order of the dudley charlton regional school district school committee it is wednesday may 13th it is 6 32 p.m we're meeting at the shepherd hill regional high school um all right the chair declaration that we're recording it live on vimeo which you can also see on the district uh find the recording on the district website and i have the reader of the in court accordance with mass general law chapter 30a section 20 uh in accordance with the chapter 2 of the acts of 2023 um to ask if there's anyone else present that's recording today's meeting it doesn't appear so so we're going to let the minutes reflect that and we're going to move right on to the pledge of allegiance to the united states of america

002to the republic take a moment of silence now we get to move on to recognizing that Charlton had their annual town election. And welcome back to Anthony Abbey, to a three-year seat this time. You're stuck with me for a little bit. And for the one-year seat, we see a new face, Member Kristen Martin. So congratulations. I promise, while we can get heated, we do not bite. I did bring something to say. welcome which is a simplified chart moving on to consent agenda items does um anyone have anything they want to pull out of that um just as a little housekeeping item the approval of the minutes for the regular meeting that would be the last meeting um since i'm not good on dates today would be wednesday april 8th 2026. as a block would be

003great I make a motion to approve the consent agenda as printed on the agenda. All right. All those in favor? Aye. Okay. It's unanimous of members present. Okay. And then moving on to communications. Any communications this evening? I mean, not tomorrow, but the friends of John Thayer this weekend. But it looks like the one's going to be nice. All right. I have one because Maureen's not here tonight from the CPAC. So that would be the – sorry, bear with me. All right. can't quite do it the dudley charlton cpac's next monthly meeting will be wednesday may 20th the meeting will take place at the shepherd hill library with the cpac board meeting beginning at 6 30 p.m and the cpac meeting beginning at 7 p.m and please be aware that this is the last cpac

004meeting of the school year and is the month where we host elections for all board positions so welcome the cpac welcomes parents and caregivers to join us for an open discussion and exercise your right to select board leadership and that the CPAC will host their final coffee and conversation on Friday, June 5th at 9 a.m. held at the Dudley location at Sturbridge Coffee Roasters. And the gathering is offered so folks have a place for casual conversation about special education at DCRSD and to widen the welcome for those who cannot attend the monthly meetings held in the evening hours. And any questions, please contact Maureen, the school committee liaison, or Kenny LaFerriere, the CPAC chair, via cpac at dcrsd.org. Madam Chair, I just have two quick ones. One is a reminder to your neighbors that kindergarten

005registration is open and to make sure you enroll. And also, our town meeting is on Monday, and to please attend. No further communications? We've got a lot to get through. We do have a lot to get through. Awesome. And moving on to our student representatives, in which we are blessed to have both tonight. The Shepard Hill Junior and Senior Prom will be held this Saturday, May 16th at the DCU Center at 6 p.m. The theme is Afterglow. The Shepard Hill Honors Academy attended a field trip to Nichols College for their first college campus experience and tour. May 1st was National Decision Day at the Hill. Students wore articles of clothing that featured their future plans. Congratulations to the seniors. In April, the U.S. History I students embarked on a field trip to Boston to walk

006the Freedom Trail and visit 11 of the 16 official Freedom Trail historic sites. The district-wide art show was held on May 1st in the Shepherd Hill Gymnasium, showcasing the artwork of all students within the school district. Congratulations to all art students and art teachers. And finally, the Shepherd Hill Show Choir will be hosting a Disney Spectacular tonight, displaying a dinner with members of the music department dressed up as different Disney characters. Do it now or forever hold your peace because this is unfortunately their last time with us. We appreciate all the time you guys give us. Thank you very much. We do have parting gifts for you, so thank you again. And don't forget your name tags, too. Yes, definitely take your name tags. We appreciate everything. We can afford them. Just checking. Just checking.

007Hopefully you can keep us alive until the week is cool. I don't know that I could, but I had faith in you guys. So madam chair and school committee I do have a couple of items to report on this evening One is last day of school just a reminder that our last day of school and there is an alert on our website now if you click on the calendars Tuesday, June 16th 2026 that is a half day early release day for all students, but that is our last day of school The next item I have to share is we have begun the process for searching for the Charlton Elementary School principal, the next principal for Charlton Elementary School. As previously communicated to the community, Principal Laura Ramos will not be returning to Charlton Elementary School

008for 26-27 school year. The district has formally begun the search process for the next principal at Charlton Elementary School. To support this process, surveys have been distributed to both Charlton Elementary School families as well as the staff in order to gather feedback regarding the qualities, priorities, and leadership characteristics the school community believes are important in the next principle for Charlton Elementary School. While the district will not utilize a formal search committee structure for the initial screening process, staff and community members will have the opportunity to participate in a public finalist forum in question and answer session once finalists are identified later. this spring or excuse me in June. The position has been posted on School Spring and also on our website. The next item I have which is to me is this is really exciting

009and really important stuff that I get to experience as the superintendent. It's around Marfan awareness and advocacy. I would like to recognize the Heritage Elementary School fourth grade student, Monty, who recently presented to a small group regarding Marfan syndrome. awareness and advocacy as she and her family prepare for next year's transition to Charlton Middle School. The presentation highlighted Monty's courage, leadership, commitment and increasing awareness and understanding surrounding this important medical condition for which she has. This wasn't this what she's presented a couple of times this year to two different audiences, but I was lucky enough to be able to participate in one of her presentations. In addition, the district is proud to support Monty and her family through the upcoming Marfan Walk for Victory in Boston. Flyers of awareness and program information related to the

010event are attached for the committee's review. It is also in the superintendent's packet. It's in the packet over there. That is actually a picture of Monty. Monty actually put her picture in there. Her parents gave me permission to share this tonight. Marfan, as an organization, is adopting. This was created by her teacher. and her family and her mother. Marfan is actually adopting this as part of their information sheet on their actual website, which is fantastic. We really appreciate the work that was put into that. And then you have the flyer for her walk. Actually, if you go on the Marfan... Morphin Syndrome Awareness website, there's a picture of last year's walk and you can actually find Monty in that picture which is unbelievable. It's fantastic. So again, one of the best parts and highlights of

011my work here as a superintendent is to be able to participate, support, and understand the students in which we. work with so hats off to Monty in her very mature presentation about her own condition but also preparing others because there were some child and middle school people present at that presentation that I was at as well so congratulations to her and to our district for being very supportive of her and principal Olson is in the audience as well he's participated in many of these it is his one of his students and he's very proud to support and share her as well with us The next item I have is around Amazing Educators Ceremony. You have the entire packet attached here. I'm not going to go through that. But I would like to once again congratulate

012Stephanie Moisson, our school nurse at Mason Road Elementary School, who was recently recognized at the state level during the Amazing Educators Ceremony on Tuesday, May 5th, which was held out in Devons, Massachusetts. I attended the event with... Jackie Marinelli, who's the school nurse at Charlton Elementary School, myself and Rachel Goetz from the high school, with Stephanie Moisson. It was a great event, a great recognition for Stephanie and one of our own leaders in our district. The recognition did reflect Stephanie's dedication, professionalism, and continued commitment to supporting students in education. We are proud to see members of our own staff recognized for their positive impact they have within our schools and broader educational community. And as I said, I did attach the program for you to look at as well, the others that were recognized for

013that. I am happy to announce, too, that the state is going to recognize a paraprofessional of the year next year at their Amazing Educators event, which I thought was great as well to hear. I did have a chance to chit-chat with the commissioner, a Hall of Famer, Pedro Martinez, but I also had an opportunity to discuss things that are going on with Rob Curtin, who is an associate commissioner as well. who had lots of insight, but he also heard lots of insight from me as to some of the regulatory stuff that continues to come at us as a school district. So it was a well worth event to attend. The next item I have, which you'll hear in a minute about, is the Dudley-Chawton Leadership Council, the DCLC. I would like to recognize the continued

014work of the DCLC and thank the students who have participated throughout the year. The DCLC continues to provide students with opportunities for leadership development, student voice, collaboration, and engagement across the district. This year's participating members are Adrian Warner, Aidan Gee, I think I came close. G? Adam G., who's the president, who's going to be speaking. Alexa Zanotti, Andrew Hayward, Brianna Degois, Kata Gendron, who's the president coming in for next year. Chelsea Tawamasi, Ankra, Elise Peculis, Elise Reznor, Emma Kokosinski, Erin Gormley, Haley D. Vajon, our own Haley, Pamela. who's sitting at our table. Paige Warner, Sadie Landrum, Sarah Miller, Sinead Ennis, Tom Dolan, who's here this evening as well and presenting, and William King. And they were great members. As I point out in the report, Aidan is the president, Adrian Warner was the vice president,

015Jayden was the secretary, and Thomas was the treasurer as part of our leadership group. We appreciate the leadership engagement that these students continue to demonstrate within our schools and our community. The last item I have is we have started the Generative Artificial Intelligence AI Working Group. I would also like to provide the committee with an update on this. The purpose of the working group was to explore both the opportunities and challenges associated with artificial intelligence and education while helping inform future district guidance, expectations, and policy development. The group includes representatives from district and school administration, educators, student services, the school committee, and students. I do list the current working group. It's Amy Vitkus, Christopher Audet, Darren Elwell, Heather Harriman, Jamie Congdon, Gene Costello, Kristen Martin, Kelly McDonald, Kelly True, Rachel Lemanski, Raymond Sullivan, Sarah Zosiak,

016Jaden. Jaden Najorj, Jeroji, excuse me. I always say Najorj, so I had to correct myself. She's part of the group. And we also have had a guest participant, Keelan Lamarche. I'm not sure if anyone knows who that might be, but she was a nice guest for us as a junior in high school who has a lot to say about AI. To date, the working group has focused discussions in several priority areas, including staff use, student use, data privacy. equity, accessibility, and consistency, academic integrity, critical thinking, and human connections, AI accuracy in misinformation, which includes AI hallucinations, governance, guardrails, and district expectations for responsible use. A consistent theme throughout the discussions we've had thus far have been that artificial intelligence should support learning, creativity, productivity, and accessibility, but will never replace human judgment, critical thinking, or

017authentic relationships with education. The group also emphasized that student and staff privacy protections, including FERPA and COPA compliance, must remain non-negotiable. In addition, the working group has begun reviewing a draft district policy related to artificial intelligence and generative artificial intelligence and establishes guiding principles, expectations for student and staff use, data privacy protections, and procedures for district review of AI tools. The group will continue meeting throughout the spring as the district works toward the development of administrative guidance and potential policy recommendations for future school committee consideration this summer. And then I just have I list the important dates There are very few because we're getting close to the end of the school year Please keep in mind that Friday next Friday May 22nd is an early release day for all students Monday May 25th is Memorial

018Day And Sunday May 31st is class of 2026 commencement at 1 p.m At DCU Center and then as I already shared the last day of school is June 16 and that concludes the superintendent's report this evening One question, I think it was in documentation I received earlier. Can you just highlight the timeline for the surveys, submittals for the search committee, I mean for the search input on CES principal? We were hoping to get feedback within the next two weeks on the surveys. We've already posted and we've had some applicants and we're hoping to begin that application process just after Memorial Day. And the survey they went out to parents, do you have a timeline on when you're going to cut that off? Yes, before Memorial Day. Okay. I think it said it in the communication.

019I think it did. I just couldn't remember the date. I don't have that directly in front of me right now. Okay. But it said it in both surveys. I think it was a date that we were expecting people to respond to. I think you're right. I just was looking to highlight that. Yeah, okay. I just have one question or something up for discussion next and further. Date I'm just curious since there's no committee formed for this principle But there was a committee formed for the assistant principal like where are our guiding points as far as? As you know every under every form the hiring entity is the principal for their position So they can set it up any way that they want and for principals. It's the superintendent So we've done some search committees, but

020some of those search committees have led us to where we are right now, so we're trying to flip that a little bit. It doesn't mean that we don't want people's voices. We do. That's why the surveys were sent out, because even when we set up committees, we never sent surveys out for people, even though those committees were set up. And then the other thing is to bring as many people as possible to meet two finalists to see what their feeling is on that, which is similar to what we did at Sheppard Hill Regional High School. Any other questions? All right, so moving on to public comment, seeing as we have no. Public? I'm assuming we have no public comment unless Mr. Desto, do you have a public comment question? Any? No? No? Okay. Awesome. You're

021just here for your agenda item? Fantastic. Okay. Moving on to new business. So DCLC presentation. So Madam Chair, I'll invite Aiden Jeek up to the table and Tom Dolan as well to present. And I'll be so with the slides you just you can come up and you can grab two chairs and come up and sit Mr. Olsen will help you with two chairs He's a strong buck you could kick a few chairs over you can sit on the end of the table So we can grab you by the microphone okay, and then I could I'm the one controlling the slide So you just have to let me know when you're ready for the next one okay? So I would respectfully ask you to introduce yourselves to the committee and then go from there Hello, my

022name is Aiden Jeeke and I'm here representing the president of DCLC. And I'm Thomas Nolan. I'm the treasurer of the W Charlton Leadership Council. And so, we just said that, I know we already introduced ourselves, but again, this is Tommy Dolan, the treasurer, who's responsible for managing committee finances and expenses. And then not here with us today is also Jane Jiroge, our secretary, primarily responsible for correspondence with district staff and other necessary parties. Adrian Warner, also absent today, vice president, who aids in major decision making and leadership. And, of course, myself, Aiden Jeek, who's president, responsible for all committee affairs, organization, and leadership. And our main purpose behind our council is to bring positive student-driven change to all schools within the Dudley-Charlton School District, but primarily at Shepherd Hill. And we focus on doing this

023by starting year-long or multiple year-long projects that seek to either revise a current system that's already in place or to bring about a new one. And every year when we have new projects, we have ones that either try to change something or bring about something new that doesn't already exist. So some of our projects that we've been working on this year has been kind of, they've been bigger than the past few years. One of our groups is the Mental Health Initiative, which I've been working with three other clubs within Shepherd Hill, all about mental illness, putting together weeks, months for students to raise awareness about mental health and break the stigma around it. and they will be continuing that into next year and it'll be a multi long thing. The alumni network is an adopted

024project from last year. They are still working on that. They are currently building a network for alumni and graduating seniors to have connections with current students at Shepherd Hill for college advice, study tips, anything like that, just genuine life questions, but they're figuring out some troubleshoots. And there's a group putting together some snacks for after-school athletes, which would provide proper nutrition and healthy snacks after school since we got our vending machines taken away. So that would provide a nice alternative to that after-school food. And then our environmental committee has been working with Principal Elwell and the school to put together compost bins in the cafeteria. So that way we reduce the waste at Shepherd Hill and we can compost more and recycle our food. And as I was saying, our continued projects include our guidance

025network, which is currently putting together a website within Shepherd Hill. So that way, Shepherd Hill students can go in and get guidance, help, and materials just all within that website. SAT help, college help, anything that they need could be in that website. And then our compost and environmental initiatives are still continuing, and same with our mental health. And then our new cabinet members, we just had our election yesterday. Carter Gendron will be president. Elise Baculis will be our next vice president. Jean Bardier will be our secretary. And Jillian Clark will be our new treasurer. Does anyone have any questions? Thank you. So gentlemen, please extend our gratitude to your cohorts as well. We really appreciate the work and time commitment you guys put in this year. It's kind of a standard question for me I

026do every year. It's a two-part question. The first part is what did you enjoy most about the project this year? And if you could go back retrospectively, what would be something you would have changed? What I enjoyed most about the project is just... It was more general, but I enjoyed knowing the fact that I'm bringing change to the entire, I don't want to say school, but the entire school. It can even be brought more so to the entire district. It's not just affecting me or a few of my classmates, but the entire place where I attend for education. And my favorite part, I was a part of a lunch... associate and custodian appreciation week on top of teacher appreciation week and I think my favorite part was kind of just seeing how appreciated they felt

027and them being reminded that they're important to us too. And if I could change anything about the way I went about it I would like to have made um I guess more scheduled to have more like consistent check-ins to make sure nothing piles up and all the work stays in a consistent workflow. That way it's more easy to manage and get more done over a longer course of time. And I think I would change probably the amount of times my group met outside of DCLC. Great job. Great job, guys. I can't thank you both enough. I can't thank Hayley as well as Danica, sorry. But I can't thank the student group enough. It's just, again, it's another part of my role that I really, really appreciate. And the growth that I see over years, some

028of you have been with me for four years, some of you have been for a couple years. But the growth I see and the leadership I see has just been phenomenal. So I just appreciate it. You continue to leave a good legacy for the next group. So I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you, gentlemen. you don't have to say for the rest of the meeting either just so you know okay moving on to the heritage elementary school report mr. Olson I did try to talk to mr. Lamar so I didn't have to follow them but it didn't work well I mean school committee does set the agenda so you need to talk to me you gotta talk to the chair next time I know Thank you. I certainly appreciate the invite. I was hoping not

029to have to look up. Yeah, you just have to. I got it. Okay. I want to just thank you for inviting me here on behalf of the Heritage School. And I look forward to sharing some information about heritage, both kind of culturally as well as academically. You'll see there's a distinct delineation in the slideshow. The biggest strength that I think of heritage, and I will say I inherited it, is kind of the strong partnership they have amongst each other in the community. The dedicated staff, and I think that shows by basically the low turnover. Since I've been there, I think we've had one staff member move out to another district to be closer to home. Only reason. We maintain our staff, and I know we've had a few come back. Supportive parents. The one thing

030I've learned about Dudley Charlton, I've had the pleasure of working on both sides of the district, 10 years on one side, and now I'm up to 16 on the other. I think that's a strength of this district, of the parents and the community members and working here. And most important of all, of the students. We do have amazing students. And I'll share a story when I get to our artisan residents and what he says, because I think sometimes when we're within the school, we kind of forget how amazing our kids are because we see them every day. They're just kind of our kids, and we kind of lose the perspective. And I'll kind of go further into that in a minute with our Otis and residents. Brett, great event. The highlights we'll be focusing on

031are our cultural strengths, student achievement, and academic progress. And the commitment at Heritage continues to be providing an environment that is safe and engaging. Once again, I think a strength of our school. I forgot I had notes. And supportive where all students can succeed across all grade levels. I think our students do very much feel like they're at home. We do obviously have some improvement, as I'll show in a little bit, to make. But our students are comfortable in the building. They feel at home in the building. They feel loved in the building. And they are willing to take risks and make their mistakes. Now we need to push them to those risks. Mr. LaMarche? You know, I do have to start with this. I can't lie. This is one of my favorite things, and

032I inherited it, but it has grown. And I'm going to give credit where credit is due. This is Mrs. Dumas and Mrs. LaPierre. This is their baby. And that is the after-school activities. And when I started to count how many kids are involved in our after-school program beyond the school day, it is... staggering. I think at some point in time almost every kid gets involved with something after school. And what I do appreciate is the staff putting these activities together. The best part is It allows the students, one, to find activities they love. I mean, our most recent Pokemon Club, we had to turn people away. It's a hit, and we've actually had donations come in from local comic stores. I walked downstairs to see about 2,000 cards spread across tables that were all donations.

033So it works. And then, of course, the most popular one, year in, year out, are candy melts. Kid hears candy, they want to go. But there's a wide variety how to draw crocheting you'd be surprised how many people crochet and Now in the auditorium when they're waiting for their buses instead of reading books. I have kids with needles crocheting I'm waiting for my first scarf though haven't got one yet But it also and what I love about it and you hear the staff talking about it at the end of it this afternoon even this afternoon with Four staff sitting in the lobby, and they are just talking about seeing the kids in a different light, in a different way, and not a student sitting in front of them, but that whole person. And it's so

034heartwarming to hear. I was told I have about an hour, so I'm trying to keep it there. This was yesterday. Told I had an hour, so we'll go there. Some more items that... oh I talked to the wrong person next time I'll call you Jean so okay dedicated staff I'll continue on this and I talked already about the very little turnover but they spearhead things in the community and this is really started to blossom this year it's taken a few years to I think maybe get comfortable with me to be able to come and ask. I don't know. But now we're starting to move out to the community a little. I know we have a group of teachers that have made tremendous connections with the Overlook. We've gone up there. Students have gone up to

035the Overlook to do art projects, to do a variety of projects up there. And I know the folks at the Overlook love those visits. And what we just... decided on and we're working together with the overlook our concerts are coming up we're getting some vans coming down from the overlook and now a couple staff members are going to put out a reception afterwards with their students and the folks who come down in the vans once again heritage i think is growing as a community in the whole town community not just the building other things and this is something actually that was on my school improvement plan for a while and it kind of got slid off because it kind of we were having trouble getting it running well all it takes is a few teachers

036with a great idea and then the rest of the staff thinking yeah we'll support you in that in any way we can is we have a little beautification project going um we've received some friends from the pto we've received from donate some donations from home depot um and a few other places and i wish i brought the list um and i will send the list to you of where all our donations have come from and i will tell you They're going to make it look like an elementary school and just some little ideas that I know they have as you enter and you see the flagpole those picket fences there that they look worn. They're going to now be primary colors. As you enter the building and I tried to put some pots planted in

037those three stone areas we've learned nothing can grow there because it doesn't get any sun at all. So what they're doing, I won't say we because this is their baby and their idea, they're putting a wishing well in each one. And each grade level are going to paint stones and write wishes on them and put them in the wishing well. Since plants won't grow, we'll grow ideas and thoughts. And once again in the wintertime, and we've decided on wishing wells, we can move them inside because that is also where we plow our snow. So we don't want them to get damaged. And the last one is some letters to military overseas. That was very active the first half of the year. Unfortunately, well, unfortunately, the folks that they were sending it to all kind of

038got disbanded and sent elsewhere. So the group they were using is no longer there. So they will find another connection, they said, next year. But once again, a great success. This is our artist in residence. And I am going to, Mrs. Paquette, this was through an Ed Foundation grant initially. She did get some funding through the Childhood and Arts Council as well. What? And, and, yes. And it absolutely was an amazing week. I know the Arts Council paid for the canvases. And I can't, I'll invite you all when we finally put them up and unveil. But Brett Butaklen, and I kill his last name, I kind of have empathy for anyone who has to say last names repeatedly, especially at high school graduations. But he came in for a week, and it started off with

039an assembly, and he did assemblies in the auditorium at each grade level. And in the assembly, students all brought clipboards, paper, they were ready to go. It was about a 45-minute presentation on who he was and where he was from. He showed all the different places in the world where his art is hanging up. He started out by doing artwork and handing them out. If you watch the news report, it goes really in-depth on that, and he talks about every place he went. You could hear a pin drop in our auditorium. Second, third, fourth grade. He actually asked me to come in for the fourth grade presentation because he was a little nervous because he said at most schools, the oldest kids just get a little rambunctious. His word. Not a single issue. And most

040of the items you see on there are actually kids' ideas. He takes the kids' drawings and they do mashups. He focused a lot on animals combined with food. I don't know why, but it was unbelievable. And he was drawing stuff right there, signing them, giving them to kids. My favorite one that he gave out, he asked me to pick a student. I picked a student and he asked him, what would you do if I gave you a piece of art? And the student looked back at him and said, I would give it to someone who is sad. He ended up giving him two pieces of art, one for him and one to give away. And he did give it away before the end of the day. And surprisingly, it wasn't to like a best friend.

041It was to a girl in his class that has been having a tough time. So he did what he said. But the story, can I stay there one second? But the story that stuck with me, and this is where I say we get used to our kids. is he looked at me and he goes, Mr. Olson, you have some of the best kids I've ever experienced. He's like, I've been to about 200 schools, 300 schools over the last couple years. You're in the top five. Because we do forget about our kids. Our little problems feel like big problems to us. And he noticed that. And to finish it off, he did the drawing. The staff did all the painting. Matter of fact, my arms on responsibility. Just so you know. Both of them. I did

042both arms. And it was a lot of fun. And he did this right at the bottom of our main stairwell is where he was set up and painting. So the kids walked by it every day. Now I'm good. This, I will share, has been a big part of my year, is work with Klee. I'll be brutally honest, there were times it was overwhelming. However, it was very rewarding. I'm actually very upset that I'm losing Julia. Julia Hendricks was my mentor for the year and was a great sounding board and actually a great teacher. There were a lot of things, and boy, I forgot I had this. There were a lot of things that we went through and where we, what I loved about it, it combined community, combined students. Students came in for a meeting,

043fourth grade. She kept it to fourth grade to kind of see where they thought we should be going, our guidance, where we're struggling based off of our school improvement plan. It was all went back to either the district improvement plan or the school improvement plan. So we had sessions where they came, roundtables, procedure process, and I still have my big wrapped-up posters in my office that I open up every so often to remember what it was like seven months ago. And from that, we worked then with the staff. They helped run two staff meetings. The most recent was this past Monday. It was, yeah, two days ago, where the focus was on data and doing kind of a data dive in a different way and following what they called the Atlas Protocol. The staff, I'm

044sure, initially probably thought, okay, end of the year, we'll kind of do our same stuff where we start to focus on next year. Once again, the energy and the engagement after about 10 minutes, it took about 5-10 minutes to get them into it, was unbelievable. To the point where Ben and Julia kind of made the decision. They were going to pick them up and rearrange and that the groups were so focused and they were mixed. We made a conscious decision. We weren't going to have the second grade teachers with the second grade teachers, third grade with the third grade, fourth grade with the fourth grade. We wanted them intertwined. And it was a wonderful process that the staff was excited about that now shrinking it down to grade level, I look forward to pursuing that

045further, whether it's in our PLCs or staff meetings next year, to kind of drive our windblocks and setting up our windblocks and drive teaching in the classroom. It was very eye-opening, and we also realized, hey, with our map data, which you'll see in a minute, we had some growth this year. that we hope reflects in the MCAS. I talked about the principal coaching already, and my other favorite was my school leadership team. There was a formation of a school leadership team, and this year, I'll be honest with you, I think some of them did it because they heard there was a stipend associated. Next year, there's not. I think all are returning. And these are seven. six educators within the building. I won't say teachers because my librarian is on it as well. But actually

046she's a teacher as well. Teacher of the library. And once again, sounding board and we have, we actually change ship midstream because we realized we did take some risks in the classroom teaching. So that's where our focus was going to be. We switched to communication between staff, parents, and myself. and I'll actually share the forms that we created through that group out with you. Academic excellence, this is one of the things we focused on to continue to implement and refine practices that inform instruction and impact achievement for students. More of the work with this was done on the data side. Mr. LaMarche, we're good. Now I am going to be honest. You've seen this. You've seen this data. Don't love sharing it. I'm not going to lie. It's... our MCAS data from last year. So

047our current grade four students as grade three students. Where as you look, you know. The numbers are not where we would like them to be. We would like more than 43% of our students in exceeding or meeting expectations. We would like more than 1% of our students meeting or exceeding in English language arts. That is our goal. And part of that is using this data and the map data to put some systems in place so we don't look at data like this again. Not to put down anywhere in the state, we shouldn't be getting beat by the state. I will freely admit that. And we have to work as a school to do better and to get that to change. That up there, by the way, was grade three. Here's grade four, which is very

048similar. The math data, especially in grade four. Once again, same issue. We're being beat by the state. And I do know us and Dudley kind of go back and forth. This was a better year for Dudley. However, as a school system, I think we need to find. And I know one of them is starting next year with a search for a new math curriculum. And hopefully that will affect some change. But most of it's going to have to come from within and from the staff and from myself. Mr. LaMarche, now we'll move on to map data, which is, I'll be honest with you, it does show a little better story. and I'm hoping it's a reflection of how this year has gone. The first slide, and there are some things I'll highlight, the map data.

049One, lost my train of thought. Fourth grade showed tremendous growth throughout this year. And I know Kelly Mistrue highlighted this in one of her reports is that that fourth grade growth was kind of the champion of it all. And it was. And this is a comparison between us and other students throughout the country. And I did actually a little kind of research. Over 4 million students take this test between the ages of grades 3 to 8. So it's not a small sample size. Are we very happy to be in the 76 percentile in growth? Yes, we are. And once again, we are hoping this carries. That is the good news there. I will say I would like in the fall, hopefully we don't have a summer slide, I'd like the number to be higher than

05048% in the high average and high. But having 61% of the student body in high average high obviously is much different with the story the MCAS told. And we're just going to go through real quick third grade map reading. I looked at this and I panicked a little. And once again, I did a little research with the map and the map organization and the map test. I panicked a little on the growth and I see 57%, which is not in the red or the orange on the low end. It's in the average. And I'm like, boy, I would love that to be a little higher up in at least the 60th percentile. However, when you start in the 66th percentile in the fall, unlike where the fourth grade had a lot of growth and started

051in the 47th, they didn't have a lot of room to grow. I mean, there's some room to grow, but they didn't have as much. So they did go up to the 67th percentile in the winter. Once again, we'd love to see that growth a little more, but... We're growing. The next slide, and it's funny because I did share these slides with a few people, and one person came back to me and goes, why do you have dibbles in the middle of your map data? Well, we're staying with reading, and we're going to switch to second grade. Second grade uses dibbles. You'll only see four colors. And the one thing I do know about DIBELS is I could have sat here and we could have had a DIBELS chat for about an hour because it does

052go down into many, it dives into many different areas, phonics, phonemic awareness. I could go on forever on each one of them. So I just took the composite score, which is kind of the average of all the subtests and subcategories. And we have 64% in the beginning of the year at or above average. which is very good. Charlton Elementary School sent us a good group. And I actually was down at Charlton Elementary School last week walking through classes and listening to these kids read to each other. Oh, we're getting a good group next year too. I know it. But there was still room for growth, and the growth came 71% at or above. Once again, we'd love to see the well below go up a little. Go up a little and there's no excuses doesn't

053matter who we can make kids move And we are trying a few things next year to hopefully help with that And now we move to math and once again the math data I will say is not as good as the reading data the reading data definitely was better however the fourth grade we did show 64 fourth percent on growth. Started in the 55th percentile, went to the 60th percentile, still in the orange in that average range. Would like to see that higher, but the growth is there. And this one, once again, the third grade seems to have started high. And therefore, they're in the 62nd percentile. We're in the high average area there. And tough to go up from there. I would have at least liked them to say stagnant. We dropped a little, but

054still in that high average. But because of that, the growth didn't show as much, 54th percentile. Then now we move on to grade 2 map. Yes, we do use the map for the grade 2. I will tell you this is, you know, I watch this, and I'll be honest with you, in my opinion, this is a little bit of a struggle, watching our little ones take tests on a computer. But it works, and everybody else does it, so we are comparing ourselves to those other 4 million students around the country. So once again, no excuses. However, in the fall, they came to a 61st percentile, 52% in high average high. And the low on this, I will say 7%, 7%. I like those numbers. We'd like to see the growth a little better, but the

0557% and 7%. Obviously, we'd like to get that down even lower, but in comparison with the 4 million folks, that's not that. It does give us, and this is where we need to use the data a little better, we need to now focus on those kids and give them what they need and use wind block more effectively. And finally, we're going to go back to Klee. And these were the two areas with the school leadership team that came out in the end. One is a communication system. As I said, we've created kind of two forms, minor incident communication, major incident communication, because one thing that I have found different from the middle school to the elementary school is that communication back and forth isn't set in school brains per se. So we are kind of

056creating a form that now we can track data. on what time of day kids are getting sent out or what time of day there seems to be issues. What classrooms do they seem to be coming from? We can kind of now focus and make sure that communication is going full circle back to the teachers if it's a major and coming to me and make sure the teachers are communicating with families if it's a minor and it's coming from the teachers, which is where that first communication should come from. This year I find, you know, I allowed myself to get pulled out of the classroom a little too much and involved where it needs to be the teacher stepping up and my crisis team, but we went away from the crisis team, and I'm trying to

057remember the wording, but the crisis team stepping up and going in and the school adjustment council is helping. The second thing that we're going to work on next year, and this is a focus for next year and this came from the school leadership team, they want to do a portrait, quote-unquote, of a graduate. What skills are we sending both academically, socially, emotionally, our students to Charlton Middle School with? You know, and one of the things is I would love to actually use Charlton Middle School to help guide this. Okay, what do you want these students to have when they get there? But our push in the end, and it's our ideas in the end. That, once again, is going to be done through the school leadership team as well as a little bit in CPT

058where they want to push it, but more in the PLCs, the after-school PLCs. Common planning time is more planning, planning-based. I know that. But the PLCs, the once a month between the data and doing this opposite, it will work, and we can get this done. And I'm very excited about this process and progress. And I think that's it. I'd like to thank you for allowing me to come and give an update. I didn't get to my hour, so I apologize. What? You still have time. It's not the hour. Oh, okay. I'll do my best. Questions for Mr. Olson. I've got a couple. I know you do. I saw her writing, so I bet she has a few. I'm pretty sure. Kelly has a couple too, so, you know, going to hit the normal hitters. Kathy,

059would you like to go first? And it may not be something you can answer now, but maybe something to think about. When I think about the MAP scores and that they're focused in the area of reading, and then we look at our MCAS data, you know, MCAS is more than just the reading, right? Because it's the writing, the essay, and the language. And I wonder if your scores from the MAP data actually do... like correlate to your reading scores in ELA because that I mean that might be a telling kind of thing and then for MCAS I'm just wondering like as you know as we have open architects now like If you think about delving into or having your staff delve into like looking year over year, like if they look at the fourth grade,

060you're able to look at the fourth grade questions and standards and wondering like are there consistent ones we're missing? Like what might those be and how do we attack that within our curriculum? There's a couple things I have right now. The first one is I will say with the new implementation of the version 3 CKLA, as we walk through the classrooms, as teachers communicate and talk, there is more writing in this version, which I am very excited about, and different types of writing. So hopefully that will also help a little too. You can let other people go. I don't want to. Other people may have the same questions. I have a comment. So I have a little one that's fortunate enough to be in your building. And their teacher did a really fun activity that

061the kids really grabbed onto. They do a journaling to the parents every week. and they can discuss anything they like, whether it's I'm having difficulty with something in a class, I'm really finding this to be fun. And I found it not only therapeutic for the kid, and of course organic with writing skills, but it gives you kind of an insight into the classroom. And then I build their confidence. So if they're not confident enough to say to the teacher, you know, I'm having trouble with this math word problem. Because the parents respond in the journal to the child and the teacher goes through them. And it's been a great back and forth dialogue. for the families, the students, and the teachers all year long. And the kids love it. They're like, I got my journal!

062I got my journal! Come read my journal! And they're excited and proud of it. I mean, anytime you can make a kid excited about learning and you're like, come on, time for bed. No, I've got to write another page in my journal. I thought it was an excellent way to incorporate what they're learning into the classroom and bring it home. So it was an observation that I thought that pilot program worked very well this year. And it is expanding. Not necessarily mandating, but it is expanding because I know some of her peers in second grade as well as a couple in third grade have started that process as well. My kids did that in Heritage prior, and I have one kid who hated the journal experience when he was at Heritage. And I had one

063kid who enjoyed the journal experience and heritage. Sure, since Mr. Olson has known both of my younger children, well, he's actually known all four of my children, I'm sure you can pick out which child was which out of that experience. But my question is on the map testing, when you're figuring out for the second, for the fourth graders, since there are accommodations. and the MCAS and MCAS-Alt. Out of this, out of the students that are all taking this, and I know I've asked this question before, so I'm just going for a re-clarification out of this, is out of the students, so I'm assuming not all students are taking this, so out of the students that are taking this, I'm assuming then if you're also an MCAS-Alt or you're a sub-separate and you have... you know,

064the modification or that you're not taking the MCAS or something that you're also not taking this MAP test. So how are you encapsulating the data for those children that are then, you know, if they're not in this capacity to be able to see their growth on whether or not, like is it, you know, how are they getting part of this mix? Is it just like an anecdotal, like spaghetti at the wall? Is it, you know, how are we doing this? It's a good question, and it's something that we have to look at how we can do better at this. Because you're right, they do the alt assessments, and we should have something in place for common assessments throughout the year for them. I do know that our fourth grade students are... much more active in

065writing and Miscarapy's class they do go into Miscarapy's quite a bit that we now need to take that and collect that and kind of assess it and evaluate it together because all three all the students in Miscarapy's class from the ILC do take the alts but they do write but we need to do a better job of evaluating and assessing where they are and then I would also wonder on my end is like do they all in that class really need to take the alt? It's something that I know is looked at every year on the team meeting, and we are decreasing. I know. But I mean, I also have that perspective that an alt only really judges the teacher and not the student's capacity. But that's my viewpoint as a person. Maybe not from

066that. The percentage of representation that we just saw the slides of the student like of the total body like what I can put that together for you The only ones who don't take it are the students who are on alt assessments And if a student is as an accommodation where they have text speech they do use the text-to-speech Throughout it so the accommodations that are there for the MCAS test get used when we do the map testing. If they have a small group, they go out to a small group and take it. To try and mirror. And just a second unrelated question about after the bell. Again, as a former Heritage parent, Candy Melts, obviously, is the greatest. While my children were there, there was a scholarship or a need-based type of situation. Is that

067something that the school still accommodates? So at this point, like any trial. Anyone who wants to participate can participate. Wonderful. And in the past, we used to say it was they could just go to fund one because of funding. Through the Pair Foundation, if a kid wants to do four, they can do four. And the Pair Foundation has assisted with that. We also do have some funds that, based off our fee scale, that we are able to – kids will not be left out. Let's just put it that way. And is that funded as well for curriculum or access for materials for staff that are choosing to host those clubs? I hear Pokemon Club is also just an absolute hit course. Big time. Yeah. Yes. No, supplies are purchased through the school. It's not coming

068out of the teacher's pocket. What's that? Leading questions, maybe. Do you have another question? Not a question, but maybe just an overall comment. You had mentioned about the portrait of a graduate. And I'm wondering when, I know Principal Elwell will talk about that as well. I'm just wondering if we think about portrait of a graduate as an overall continuum and have, what do we envision by the end of high school that they will get to and then work our way backwards? And then not just have it for what's going to look like for, you know, Charlton Middle School, but what would it look like for Dudley Middle School? And, like, have some, you know, have some common goals amongst all the schools. I think that's still going along with the horizontal and vertical alignment. Yeah.

069Yeah. But I think that's great work. I'm excited about it. Yeah. It's exciting. Congratulations with everything that you did this year. Thank you. I know you worked very, very hard and in concert with the school council, and I was fortunate enough to attend most of those meetings. And a lot of exciting ideas and a lot of energy. Appreciate that. I'll be honest. Heritage School is a good place to be, both as a leader, as a student, and as an educator. It's a good place to be. Tom Molley, I appreciate that. But when do you think we can get the answers to our questions? Can I have a week? As far as I would say, you can have two. Okay. And I did write him down. Well, I'm done with you. Anybody else have any other

070further questions or comments for Mr. Olson? Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you for letting me share. Thank you very much. Moving on to integrated monitoring review. Director Harriman. Because she has the civil rights part. Oh. Well, you know it just didn't fit on the agenda. I know right. Would have pushed it off, had to change the font. So we had our integrated monitoring review this winter. We had a lot of data and documents that we had to upload into the DESE portal. The civil rights was May. A lot of documents had to be uploaded and then the special education. documents needed to be uploaded this fall. DESE conducted an on-site visit in two days in January. And with integrated monitoring, it is a process that happens every three years, but it is in

071two different cycles. So there's a group A, they're looking at certain standards, and then group B. We were group B this year. So there are multiple ratings that we can obtain in each area that they were looking at for compliance. Implemented, of course, is the goal always. So there is a page that has a summary. It's page 10 of 21. The summary of compliance criteria ratings. I just want to highlight in terms of special education. In most areas, it was found that we were in compliance and everything was implemented. We only had two areas in special education, SE 15 and SE 51, that were partially implemented. Those two areas. were the first one is Child Find. Child Find previously had been As far as this criteria used to be just about us sending out the

072child fine notices However, Jesse has expanded that this year to include that we are ensuring that we're documenting progress monitoring for students that are receiving interventions and that we're having discussions and documenting those as to whether students should remain in Interventions or be referred for a special education evaluation So the only area in the district that we were found out of compliance there was the high school level so we were it was implemented in all other levels except for the high school and the only other area that we were we had partially implemented was special education certifications for special education teachers we have a few people that are not currently certified which is not uncommon in this day and age. As far as the corrective action, obviously there needs to be a process at the

073high school. There are going to be regular progress reports that we have to submit to DESE, and it's expected that the noncompliance is corrected within one year. So we have until next April, I believe, to correct all of the noncompliance. For the certifications, one of the things that was an issue, one, when we have people that leave in the middle of the summer after a lot of people have secured positions or we have special education positions that are open after the school year starts, it is very difficult to find people that are certified. As we know, we are in a teacher shortage right now. And the other piece to this is that there is an early childhood license that is called early childhood with and without disabilities and DESE has clarified that that is not

074a special education license so all of our preschool teachers have to have a moderate disabilities license and only one out of four of our preschool teachers has that in this dual license so obviously we're going to work with them on that You know what, civil rights actually wasn't too bad because we did have a couple of corrections that we have to make, but a lot of them actually were already brought to the committee because a lot of them were handbook changes. So there was a lot of updates to kind of the discipline language. There were certain, you know... laws that need to be spelled out in the discipline sections that we didn't have in there like just you know mgl whatever the um the number is and then so that those were kind of easy

075fixes and like i said we already brought them before the committee so those are already fixed which is fantastic one of our areas of concern was phys ed for our grade 12 students so we need to have phys ed at all levels for for all students and we were not providing it in grade 12 necessarily as its own course. So we have to look at, I've been working with Principal Elwell, he's been working with us to think about how we can offer within the coursework for seniors. physical education and it's it's hard to just add that in for a lot of kids because they already have their projected path if I need to take this this year this year you know and how where they're going to see that so we're really trying to think

076of creative ways that we can include physical education into the year whether it's a quarter whether it's you know a class that only meets during study halls you know there's there's a couple of different options that we're looking at for that and we we need to look at staffing and you know all of those things but i think we're close close we're right we're right there to having figured it out i mean the good part is that we have a year to correct it but we will have it corrected for this year so i'm confident that all of our um concerns will be addressed this year so it has to be addressed during the school day and there's not a potential for waiver with my sport as an out uh No, so there's some different

077districts have tried to do some different things with that but it really pushes some kids into like a compartmentalizes it for these students but not for these like there's still a big enough number of students that we would need to do something have this in place anyway. So, and the only other one outside of the handbooks was our bullying intervention and prevention plan just needs to be updated with a little more language that they provided to us as well. So pretty easy fixes. I feel like we did well and that we got out of it not too bad. We don't have any really super complex things that we need to fix. So all of those will definitely be fixed within the time frame. Nothing was not implemented. Right. Yep. Nothing was not implemented. So they

078do this every two years? Every three. So through the chair to circle back to one of the points Heather made, was it early education, licensing, and one out of four of the... New school teachers, yes. So what's our obligation in terms of time frame for a licensor? Well, we have a year to get in compliance. So that could mean if we're not able to obtain certification for those teachers, have a waiver. Okay. And they need to apply for waivers for them. And so compliance, a form of compliance may be in the work of, the act of working towards licensure. Okay, Heather, you're still in the hot seat. Annual IDEA, LEA determinations. So not only do we have the integrated monitoring every three years, but we also have the annual special education determinations. So this used

079to come out in January. Now it comes out at the beginning of May. This matrix has changed over the years, so it's a little bit hard because you're not really comparing apples to apples. It is similar to last year's matrix, but there were changes. So last year, I knew Anthony would wonder what last year looked like, so I have it with me. Last year, our percentage score was 66%. This year, our percentage score is 69%. Again, if you look at our total points, we scored... 15 out of 16 points in compliance, so we're great at compliance, that's consistent. We scored six out of 16 points in performance, which is, I mean, not a surprise, you know, given the data that we've talked about with student performance. The areas that we lost points are the same

080areas that we lost points last year. I do want to note, though, that most of this data is lagging. So my first year in this role was the 23-24 school year. Most of this data... is from the 23-24 school year. Except the MCAS, that was the 2025 MCAS. So it's a little bit, it is a little challenging because we have action plans that we have to write, but it's based on data that's lagging. So even if we're making progress in areas like LRE, for example, for preschool, we are well over 50% full inclusion now. But that's not going to show up on this determination for at least another year or two. So it's just the way it is. It's not going to change, I've asked, if the data was gonna be a little more current.

081And then the way that the graduation and dropout rate is looked at is different than it used to be. I think this changed last year. Previously it was the Massachusetts. It was based on the data that was submitted to Massachusetts. Now it's based on the federal. the federal data so what the way it's calculated is if we it's the number of students that exited in a school year at a given time so if we had and I can give you the exact numbers from this is the 23-24 graduating class so we had a total of 16 students exit that were on an IEP I think five of the students dropped out, but they weren't necessarily seniors. So it's not related to a cohort, it's related to how many students exit by either dropping out, graduating,

082or turning 22. So we had 16 students that left us that were on IEPs, and 10 of those students graduated. And that is what really impacts the numbers. It's a very small sample. And I did look because I said, we're not really that small of a district. Why do we only have 10, such a small sample? And so we're looking at that. And part of it, we are, there are a lot of students that are graduating from their IEPs before they graduate. And that obviously does impact this number because we only had obviously, I think, 10 students with IEPs that graduated. So that's just. as we were looking more closely at the data. And then the dropout is the same thing. So it's not students who dropped out in the cohort of seniors. It's any

083students that dropped out in any grade level the entire school year. So that's the same 16 students. So that's five out of the 16 students for the 23-24 school year that were on IEPs. But there might have been the freshmen, a couple juniors, a sophomore, but they're still included in the same number. So that's something we're working on. MCAS, as you know, we are still working on that. In LRE, we're still working on, but again, preschool, we're there. We're definitely there at preschool, but this indicator is not going to show it for another year or two. I think this was as of October 1st of 2024. Do you have any questions? If we had three more points on the rubric, we would have been in meets requirements. It's 75% is meets requirements. So just those

084two points from the preschool full inclusion would put us almost at these requirements. No, I mean, I'm also on the CPAC, so I hear the updates on all the work that you have been doing and on the percentages and what has been moving forward with the district. So I know that the numbers are out of alignment with this. I have a question, but I'm going to stumble on how to ask it. We, as a committee, have recently voted to approve on our budget request an assistant pupil personnel services director. And what do you envision the impact of that position will have on? potentially the results for next year. I mean, I know it's lagging, but let's kind of fast forward and see. So it'll be the results for probably three years from now. Right. Because

085next year will be the 20, mostly 24, 25. Right, right. So it's lagging, but with that position, we'll be targeting certain aspects to have those positive influences for students. So if you could highlight what you envision those inroads to be. I mean, I think an assistant director obviously is going to help across the board, but I think there would obviously be more support in the area of LRE. We are still, as a district, hovering around 62% full inclusion, which we've kind of been hovering around there for the past year. I think we need additional support with that, and that means additional contact with the buildings at a level that one person is not able to do. also continuing to work with the high school as far as that graduation and dropout. And even the academic

086piece of the MCAS, continuing to look more closely at the special education data and working more closely with the principals in the buildings and just looking at what curriculum we're also using for special education students as supplementary materials. Okay, thank you. Any other questions for Director Hammond? Hearing none. It's time for Principal Elwell for NEAS Collaborative Conference Outcome. Good evening. Just a few moments too late, but I would like to go on the record and acknowledge both of our student representatives from this year. Probably now on their way home to study or prepare for exams, those AP exams bright and early tomorrow morning. But I really enjoyed working with both, and I think both were excellent representatives for our school, for their peers. Both students are headed to college Syracuse and Providence College. That's their

087plan to be political science majors on a pre-law track. So I think we will see wonderful things out of both students and again I thank them for their contributions this year working with the committee. So as you may recall in October we had a two-day collaborative conference visit. A team of six educators from different schools throughout New England visited us as part of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges Collaborative Conference visit. And leading up to this visit, the faculty completed a pretty exhaustive self-study process through which we had to identify the extent to which we met. the criteria set forth in the indicators across all of the different standards. So the headline here, the overarching headline, is that the Commission voted to continue our accreditation, which is obviously the desired outcome. And we

088are very proud of that. And again, kudos to the staff who worked so hard to prepare for this visit. There are additionally some takeaways that the visiting committee affirmed as far as school improvement goals. So now our mission is from the visit this past October leading up to the October 27, 2027 decennial visit, we essentially have two years to address a number of critical items. And so across the standards there are eight foundational elements which are really as the name suggests, critically important. And across those eight foundational standards, we were found to have been meeting six of the eight. And on two, we were found to have not been meeting the standard. So those foundational elements are as follows. The first is the school community provides a socially and emotionally safe environment for students and

089adults. We are meeting that standard. the next 1.2a learning culture. foundational element is that the school has a written document describing its core values, beliefs about learning, and vision of the graduate. We were rated as not meeting because we need to do some work around our vision of the learner. It's now no longer portrait of the graduate, it's the vision of the learner. And so we have, of course, our core values and beliefs about learning as well as our 21st century learning expectations, but we need to recommit to a vision of the learner. The next 2.2a, there is a written curriculum and a consistent format for all courses and all departments across the school. Of course there is a written curriculum. However, has it gone through the type of review process that it should have

090throughout the years? No. Do we need to update it? Yes. And therefore, that is one of the goals that you will see in the next handout. 3.1a, the school has a current school growth and improvement plan. We do, and we continue to make progress. 3.6a, all career and technical ed programs have a program advisory committee. That's an A for us. 4.1a, the school has intervention strategies designed to support learners, although we were rated as having met this standard. I think the committee knows full well that we have work to do around developing a more formal tiered system of supports. And 5.1a, the school site and plant support the delivery of the curriculum, programs, and services. I really appreciate the extent to which the chair of the visiting committee worked collaboratively with me on this because

091the visiting committee as you might expect had some concerns about the facility but at the end of the day we are able to deliver our programs offer our programs successfully and the building is fully functional However, the committee did offer some language in the report around recommendations for upgrades sooner rather than later. So we were rated as having met that standard. And also, the committee felt strongly that this is a safe building. And I don't want anyone to think otherwise. Just because our HVAC systems or otherwise might need to be updated, this is a safe and structurally sound building. 5.5a the school provides a physically safe environment for students and adults that's what again what I just referenced so of the eight foundational elements we are meeting six the second handout in your packets the

092priority areas for growth so those are the four overarching goals that we'll be working on up until that decennial visit in the fall of 27. The first foundational element is the vision of the learner that I just mentioned. And so this year, we're really developing a plan for next year because this is a process that's going to involve a variety of stakeholders. It's not simply a couple of faculty meetings, but rather it's going to be a very collaborative process that involves administration, faculty and staff, parents, community members, students. So that process needs to be... intentional and will begin in August. I'll put a call out to form a committee and we will also take advantage of some of the professional development that NEASC offers. They offer a series of workshops around how to approach this

093vision of the learner. visioning and we will certainly avail ourselves of those opportunities and I estimate by hopefully March of 2027 we will have that vision identified and we will be actively living that vision of the learner and implementing it into our into the teaching learning culture and work of the school. The second priory priority area for growth is the curriculum work again we knew this was something that we needed to revisit and become more accustomed to the cyclical nature of curriculum review and revision This year we devoted several early release and PD sessions to that purpose as well as some of the department meetings that were allocated for inventorying to ensure that our units of study are updated, that our scope and sequencing is updated. Next year we are going to have to allocate

094some additional time for that work and then ensure that everything is in a consistent format we are using. Google drives at this point to archive and develop that those lessons and scope and sequence documents the third goal that we will continue to address relates to implementing processes and supports to ensure that the school community takes further collective responsibility for the well-being of every student and can demonstrate how each student is known valued and connected to the school in NEASC of yesteryear this was referred to as advisory and now NEASC is giving us a little bit more flexibility to carry out these objectives which we very much appreciate and so this year we made some strides in terms of training our RULER implementation team. RULER is a Tier 1 SEL program that once all staff are

095trained, all staff can deliver and that contributes to our tiered approach, but it also will help build some of those relationships, which are a critical part of what this goal aims to achieve. Next year I do anticipate that we will pilot some form of a hybrid advisory and I also anticipate next year that we will establish committee to explore changing our master schedule for a variety of reasons we have some things that need to be addressed the rotation of our schedule is problematic for students who are securing internships out of the building when you're finding industry connections that are willing to supervise and host our students When you're rotating and your schedule is cascading, it's very difficult to establish those connections for our programs. Our innovation pathways have some pretty rigorous requirements for industry-based experiences,

096and the schedule is making that especially challenging. We also have to be mindful of our staff and the number of sections that we can provide and how we're running into some roadblocks there. So all things considered, It is the right time after many, many years of the same schedule to explore how we can incorporate some kind of a flex block to accomplish either additional intervention or some form of advisory, but also making it a little bit easier for those learning experiences outside of the school day for the students in our different programs. And then finally, the school will complete a review of the systems and supports to determine and implement future strategies to ensure that all students receive appropriate intervention strategies for academic, social, and emotional success with a focus on the three different tiers

097along with any of the needed professional learning to fully implement these strategies. Again, structurally, we have some challenges here. We have a schedule that doesn't necessarily accommodate. tier two academic blocks, if you will. And in terms of staffing, we have explored taking an English teacher, taking a math teacher, offering up some kind of tier two based on sections that we could squeeze out of existing positions, but that's not really sustainable. So what we have done this year currently is post for an interventionist position. So once we have a staff member, we have the position secure, then we can approach scheduling next year for... likely grades 9 and 10, taking a look at study halls, how we can maybe come up with some quarterly or semester-based offerings, and rely on the MAP data that we're now

098seeing with rising students from the middle school level, how if we continue to expand MAP, we can really rely on that for some Tier 2 academic... So those are the four overarching goals and what's helpful for us is because sometimes we have goals and we make some progress and then those goals kind of fade away and disappear. We very much have to deliver on these by the fall of 27. So there is a sense of urgency and thankfully several of the three of these four goals already are linked to our current school improvement plan. MTSS is something that we're hearing from. DESE that we're hearing from NEASC that we know to be good practices. So thankfully, a lot of the stars are aligning around some of these goals that we need to accomplish prior to

099that decennial visit in 2027. So all things considered, again, I'm really pleased that we've had this outcome, that we were... that the commission voted to extend our accreditation and I really want to credit the work of the faculty. We were very candid in our self-assessment and we were honest about where we felt we were falling short and the visiting committee mirrored our own self-reflections and I think that's the best place to be and that opened the door to a very frank discussion. Happy to answer any questions. Does anyone have any questions for Mr. . Just a couple. I'm looking at part of what you talked about is continuing map assessments for grade 9 students. I'm just wondering if you would think about including transfers in that so that you can get an accurate measure of

100where they are when they do that. You do that already? OK, perfect. I just didn't know if you want to document it. And then for the one above that where you're trying to understand the well-being of students, I'm sure you already have screeners in place. I just didn't know if you have a student screener versus like, do you have teachers screening where students are for SEL versus a self-screen for a student? We have a lot of work to do. That's the honest answer. Great. No, that's fine. Anything that we have is not comprehensive. It's not formal. And they cited in the report the number of things that our adjustment counselors are doing, that our clinical staff are doing. But we need to start with Tier 1. Yeah. And we have a lot of work to

101do. That's great. Thank you for all your work. Thank you. So going through the priority area of growth and having the requirement of trying to hit these for fall 27, realistically it's a pretty aggressive timeline. So it doesn't leave much time for reflection and look back of progress and what's working and what's not. So how do you address that challenge? Well, the visit itself is going to force us to stop and reflect on our progress, even in just these two years. Thankfully, I feel strongly that much of all of what we are tasked with here are time-tested, effective. interventions, practices, approaches, there's really nothing here that's experimental. And I do view it as good medicine and elements that high achieving schools already have in place. So when I think of the work at hand, there's

102really nothing here that's controversial and that I wonder. Is this really what we need? Is this a good fit for us? And I think fortunately the educators in the building feel the same. But now it's my job to make sure that I'm budgeting time and where applicable funding to really make this plan come to life and to give people the support and resources that they need to achieve these goals. And I'm sure along the way we're going to find what works and what doesn't work for us. What frequency of some kind of a wind block or hybrid advisory will work for us or not work for us. There will be contractual issues that we have to work through. So, of course, there are going to be some things that we'll have to figure out along

103the way. But by and large, these are widely accepted best practices that you see in most high-achieving schools and districts. I agree. I think this is the right roadmap, and I look forward to seeing the goals come off the page and into practice. So thank you very much. I appreciate that. Any other questions? No? All right. And Mr. Elwell's not done. International exchange student request. Yes, so I would respectfully ask the committee to consider and vote to approve the application. before you this evening. I had the opportunity a couple of weeks ago to meet with a prospective host parent who was very excited and had a lot of really great questions about what this would look like in the event that she and her family host an exchange student. I think based on my time

104with this prospective parent that it would be a great fit. And also what I appreciate about this particular application is that Really, the agency is responsible for everything. A couple of years ago when we pursued the SEVIS credentials so that we could go directly and work with foreign exchange students directly. we assume far more responsibility. In this case, the agency working with the student applicant is responsible for the J-1 visa sponsor program. So if there are any questions at all through Department of State or otherwise, the agency has to deal with it. We don't have to deal with it. They're handling the bulk of the responsibilities, and in terms of what the policy... calls for in a district. This is a student who would be entering grade 11 who has demonstrated the level of English

105proficiency that we would look for. And again, all of the other requirements that we would look at for enrollment purposes, I believe this is a strong application. Any discussion? Where maybe is that at the end of the meeting, can we have... This document that we have right here has a lot of student data that should not be public and it's in our e packet That I don't know if it's published on the website, but we have medical information and things that is a lot of like I think that we as school committee members should hand this in at the end so that it can be shredded And then just review like what information we actually get in the future but that gets placed in the obviously Top-notch kit. I appreciate it I mean currently that's

106kind of already out so But we've already made a motion in the second to accept the application. You can accept the application and not have it. You can amend it. You can amend the motion. Do you want to rescind your second? Sure. Okay. I rescind my original motion to make my new motion of I move to accept the application and redact sensitive information applicable to the applicant. Is that what? It's fine. I think you're going to be crossing out everything. Steve, any thoughts on that? Do I have any thoughts? This is what I've always done, so this will be new. It's not a student of ours until you accept them on student records, and I can easily remove things from this. But we've always provided you the entire packet of foreign exchange students that are

107trying to attend our schools. I know. I'm just asking. So I can easily take out the student records stuff that we're supposed to once they're a student of ours. Okay, so we're saying like for right now for past practice, this is something that's always happened for Dudley Charlton, and then moving forward we can discuss what we can do moving forward? Once it's passed, I will go through and I will remove everything that is under student records regulations. All right, awesome. This is what the committee has asked for for all the years I've been here. Okay. Yeah, I don't know Or I would say like this is probably the most comprehensive. I think this has been the most comprehensive Yeah, that's that's just the difference yeah Well, we have a motion in the minute, so why

108don't we just Have a motion a second yeah, so all those in favor Thank you my apologies And then moving on to the Director of Finance and Operations report, Joe DeSantis. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm going to make several updates and also make several respectful requests for a vote based on those updates. Now you're asking too much. I'm not going to ask for a full hour, though, so I'll get to it very quickly. That's good because I did not put that on the agenda for you. So moving toward item number one, it's an update on the Charlton Elementary School fire panel. DCRSD has closed the window. for bids for replacement of the CES fire panel. A summary of pricing has been included, which includes all four of the bids that were received. In addition to

109that, we have a memo from our architectural and planning firm, GINAP, that states based on the information submitted during the procurement process, DMS Electric was determined to be the responsive and responsible low bidder best suited to perform the work under the contracted documents. If you may or may not recall, DCRSD's previous vendor, H&S Electric, became defunct. which opened up this need to have to put this out to rebid. The lowest bidder on your summary sheet of the four Pappas Industries had files, they had complaints filed against them related to wage issues and the legalities based on that with the town of Yarmouth, so they were considered not to be. a responsible bidder at that time. So it's both the recommendation of DCRSD and our architectural firm that we move forward with the next lowest bidder,

110DMH Electric. Replacement of the fire panel is slated to commence late June this year after school is out. And substantial to final completion is anticipated in mid-August prior to school beginning for the 26-27 year. So unless there are any questions in relation to the bid, I would respectfully recommend school committee vote to approve DMH Electric as the vendor for the Charlton Elementary School fire panel completion. So moved. Moved by Anthony, seconded by Kelly. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? Aye. It's unanimous. Thank you. If you don't mind, I'd like to skip to the third item on my agenda because it directly relates to the fire panel that was just voted. The 2022 capital borrowing authorization. In September of 2022, the towns of Dudley and Charlton voted to authorize the borrowing of up to

111$7,566,838 to fund multiple... capital projects. This included the CMS and DMS roof projects, replacement of fire panel of all schools, etc. So with the Charlton Elementary fire panel being the only project yet to be fully completed in relation to the 2024 bond that was taken out to fund the projects of 4.2 million, we are requesting that school committee rescind. the remaining amount not borrowed. Just to let school committee know, we did speak to legal to verify that this is the proper action to take, that any school committee vote to rescind that authorization does not need to go before the town's for vote and is voted at the school committee level. So again, I would respectfully request school committee vote. to authorize rescinding the remaining authorized borrowing amount of $3,366,838. Well, I mean, you guys have

112been doing so well. I don't want to stop the roll, you know. Discussion? Yeah, discussion. Joe, I have a question on that. So the CES fire panel was in that bonding capital request. What happens if we rescind now and there's a change order, some type of cost increase on the project beyond the bid? How does that affect us if we rescind the remaining amount of the bid now? So we don't anticipate. Cost to go further than what would be needed as far as borrowing again There are avenues and funding accounts that we can utilize based on DOR regulations to pay for any overage that May be incurred assuming some other type of catastrophic event with the vendor doesn't happen Okay, so it behooves us to move forward with rescinding that the remainder of the bond

113now versus deferring till the completion of the project or? Yeah, so the justification and the reasoning that I'm moving to do this is because again, we plan to move forward with the phase two of our capital funding that was provided and detailed as part of our budget. We would like to And I believe it shows strong fiscal responsibility. If we keep those projects separate, if we rescind the amount that was authorized before we were to ask the towns to vote on authorizing any further potential debt for those projects. Okay. That's satisfactory. I just wanted to make sure that we didn't run into a situation if we had a change order at an unforeseen expense on the bid that we'd be up against a wall. Right. Right now, we're in good shape there. All right. Thank

114you. Very satisfying. Any further discussion? All right. Hearing none, all those in favor? That's unanimous again. Thank you. Now I will move back to number two on my list, which is the MSBA statement of interest for both Heritage School and Shepherd Hill. DCRSD submitted on April 17th, 2026 to MSBA statements of interest for both Heritage School and Shepherd Hill Regional High School. As you may or may not recall, school committee voted to prioritize Heritage School over Shepherd Hill. If it does come to that with MSBA. But for now, copies of both statements of interest for Shepherd Hill and Heritage, as well as the necessary statement of interest voting language, is attached to the documentation here. One is the official vote language for Shepherd Hill. The other is the official vote language for Heritage School. It's

115also to be noted that these need to be separated into two separate votes, one for statements of interest for each school. So I would respectfully request that school committee take two votes, one for statement of interest for Heritage School and the other statement of interest submittal for Shepherd Hill Regional High School. I move that we approve the SOI for heritage with the MSBA and the DCRSD. It has specific language. Does somebody have it actually in front of them that can blow it up? Would you like me to read the language? Please? Yes. Because I can't flip it the right way. Yeah, it's sideways. So I will read Heritage School first. Yes, please. Resolved, having convened in an open meeting on Wednesday, May 13th, 2026, the Dudley-Charlton Regional School Committee of Dudley and Charlton, in accordance

116with its charter bylaws and ordinances, has voted to authorize the superintendent to submit to the Massachusetts School Business Authority the Statement of Interest form dated April 17th, 2026 for Heritage School, located at 34 Oxford Road, Charlton. which describes and explains the following deficiencies and the priority categories for which an application may be submitted to the Massachusetts School Business Authority in the future. priority number five replacement renovation or modernization of school facility systems such as roofs windows boilers heating and ventilation systems to increase energy conservation and decrease energy related costs in the school facility and hereby further specifically acknowledges that by submitting the statement of interest form the Mass School Business Authority in no way guarantees the acceptance or the approval of an application the awarding of a grant or any other funding commitment from the

117Massachusetts School Building Authority or commits the Dudley Charlton Regional School District to filing an application for funding with the Mass School Building Authority. So moved. Sorry, Jill. I missed that one. All right. Any discussion? No, we shouldn't have. All right. All those in favor? Look at that. It's unanimous. I'm going to check to see if my readers work now that I found that paper. Okay? All right. I'm going to try to take it. All right. All right. If I screw up, y'all can let me know. All right, we're on Shepherd Hill. Resolved, having convened in an open meeting on Wednesday, May 13, 2026, the Dudley-Charlton Regional School Committee of Dudley and Charlton, in accordance with its charter, bylaws, and ordinances, has voted to authorize the superintendent to submit to the Massachusetts School Building Authority the

118Statement of Interest Form dated April 17, 2026, for Shepherd Hill Regional High School. located at 68 dudley oxford road dudley which describes and explains the following deficiencies and the priority categories for which an application may be submitted to the massachusetts school building authority in the future priority number five replacement renovation or modernization of school facility systems such as roofs windows boilers heating and ventilation systems to increase energy conservation and decrease energy-related costs in a school facility and hereby further specifically acknowledges that by submitting the statement of interest form, the Massachusetts School Building Authority in no way guarantees the acceptance or the approval of an application the awarding of a grant or any other funding commitment from the massachusetts school building authority or commits the dudley charlton regional school district to filing an application for funding

119with the massachusetts school building authority so move okay any discussion hearing none all those in favor look at that it's unanimous again moving to number four on my list it's the fy25 access and deficiency certification On May 1st, 2026, DCRSD received from the Massachusetts Department of Revenue excess and deficiency certification of $2,002,542. This value is under the 5% threshold for excess funds to be returned to member towns. I respectfully request school committee vote to authorize the use of E&D funds of $1.4 million. as detailed in the FY27 budget and in support of the FY27 budget, as presented and voted by school committee on March 11, 2026. Kristen beat the punch on that one. Any discussion? No discussion? Just good work? Joe? All right. Good work, Chair. All those in favor? It's unanimous. Thank you. right

120here's a big one fy 26 budget status i included an update graphic that shows where we currently stand with five weeks left in the 25 26 school year dcrsd is in a stable position to end the year there's still 1.16 of the budget left which as you can see is over 720 000 still remaining Any of our year-to-date costs and encumbrances are already included. This includes all salaries, contracts, and any other encumbered purchases for supplies for the remainder of the year. There are still final offsets to be made against certain grants and revolving funds, which will be made over the course of the next 30 days or so prior to the next school committee meeting. The winter of 25, 26, I think to no surprise to anybody was extremely difficult. It was unprecedented as far

121as a combination of cold temperatures and record precipitation amount. Both of these factors among other factors such as foreign policy right now, but the Iran situation the way that it is, that's led to a lot of uncertainty around heating costs with regards to fuel, transportation fuel and heating costs. There was also additional costs that were included. or incurred by the district for snow removal and snow cleanup, which was variable costs that were outside of our standard contractual dollar amounts, which the district did incur and did have to pay over the course of the winter. Now fortunately the operating budget freeze that was implemented early in the year Allowed the district to absorb the overages that we're seeing in facilities and utilities Again, this is in addition to an aging infrastructure that we already know is

122in need of help on a year-over-year basis Where expenditures and projects that may occur during the cost of the year could pop up at any given time I am confident that we will still be able to end the year on a positive financial position. One cost center transfer will be brought. school committee now the remainder of the cost center transfers that I will request will be in June the reason I'm only requesting one cost center transfer now is because I wanted school committee to truly see where we stand with each one of these categories at this meeting and at the subsequent meeting in June I think it's important to see where those overages lie before I make those cost center transfer requests The one cost center transfer request I will be making tonight is in

123relation to a health insurance premium holiday, as it was titled, which was authorized by the Department of Revenue as an appropriate utilization of the DCRSD health insurance trust surplus and was utilized to offset the budget. The dollar value of the holiday was $879,745.03, which benefited all entities within DCRSD, meaning the district's payment itself, the active employee portion, and the retiree portion. The Department of Revenue was very clear that any use of these funds had to benefit all parties and aspects and couldn't just be used to, say, pay down current year's premiums. So, again, this was a Department of Revenue-approved utilization of these funds. utilize those funds. They need to be paid from the operating budget, which they have been, but we need to transfer those funds and have authorization to specifically transfer those funds from

124the health insurance trust where they reside to the general fund in order to supplement the payment that was made out of the operating budget. So at this point, I respectfully request, unless there are any questions, school committee vote to authorize the transfer of the $879,745.03 from the health insurance trust to the general fund. So, Caitlin got it. I know Caitlin, I didn't get it. Dyslexic, I have to write the numbers down. Who's that? Katelyn and Kristen, they're just shaking it up on us now. Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor? It's unanimous again. Thank you. All right, no vote on this one, just an update. Let's see, FY27 budget status. The State Senate finalized its recommendation for the FY27 state budget. There weren't dramatic shifts on our projections for which school committee had voted

125the budget in March. With the exception of the chapter 70 per pupil funding, we were looking at $75 per pupil initially. When the governor's budget had come out, when we were creating the budget initially, right now the Senate had approved $160 per pupil. The Student Opportunity Act is also fully funded, as well as transportation reimbursement estimated between 85 and 90%, which is on target with DCRSD's FY27 operating budget. It can be noted that the additional per-pupil reimbursement funds would equate to approximately $276,533 in additional revenue. The FY27 budget is to be voted by Member Towns this upcoming Monday, May 18th, where both Superintendent LaMarche or myself will be present at either meeting. So I'm happy to ask any questions you may have in relation to where the budget currently stands. Thank you for the update

126and it's my understanding that the Senate has come out with their recommendation but it's still a moving target that has the ability to change and so it'd be in our best interest to go with our fiscally prudent proposed budget that we voted on and sent assessments to the town, correct? Correct, yeah. We always try to approach this in a conservative manner. We don't want to be aggressive with our revenue projections and leave ourselves short. Again, that would be extremely fiscally irresponsible. So again, we try to come in with... the strongest numbers that we can as Superintendent LaMarche likes to say when we're presenting our budget. We obviously know it's a fluctuating budget based on where it is within the state process. This seems to be the earliest that the Senate has approved the budget for

127the state as far as I've seen over the last handful of years. So yes, while we do have a Senate approved budget, it is still a budget in flux. Reconciliation between the House and the Senate and the governor. Correct, correct. So at this point, it's not considered final, but we are moving toward that. We are moving toward that closer to the end of this school year than is normal. Thank you, Joe. Any other questions for Joe? So before we get to our favorite, motion of the evening it's been a long night okay we hit the two hour mark thank you for being here okay um but for next month and uh just as we're thinking about like next meeting dates um and kristen do you mind just kind of filling in for like any of

128jamie delobo's spots for the month of may all right before we org okay and then and then thinking about June for the Dudley town election which is the 15th and I think what the June 10th is the school committee meeting but does it is anybody okay with like if we push the like the school committee meeting out like a week The one question I had on that is were we doing any retiree recognitions on that 10th? I think we were. Because like Quo Vadis retirees. To the chair, it's planned, but the invitations haven't gone out yet because I wasn't sure where we were landing. Does it make a difference if we do it the 10th or the 17th? Like you'll be done with school. I don't know if that makes a difference. Originally we talked

129about doing it in May. I'm just asking also for you guys really quick, like administrative-wise. We work year-round. I know you work year-round, but is it a big deal for June 10th versus June 17th? I think the big deal for them would be if you're not having two meetings in June, you're just having one. That's what I'm saying. So if it's one instead of having June 10th and then a reorg, like just... If we defer one week, then we can reorg. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, okay. And then everybody knows about the, I think it's what, the MASC Summer Institute that's coming around the one day. That's out in Springfield. If you haven't gotten the email, I can send it to you. And then also talking about having a summer workshop where we have, like... you know,

130we can send out an email about that where we can just have a workshop between us, administration, where we just have like one meeting that we set aside where it's just us sitting down and having those conversations about, you know, without, it'll be an open meeting but we don't have to have the cameras and we can just kind of just. Like we did last time. The roundtable kind of discussion where we just, you know, we can kind of get a head start on things. Do you have a proposed date? No, but that's why I thought just kind of like putting it out now where we can kind of think about it maybe, I was thinking like July. Yeah, I think it would be good to know vacation plans. The admin council. I mean, because we

131can, I mean, that's informational, so we can take that offline, put it through emails. I was just, I just thought it would be good just to kind of like state it out now, and then we can go through the adjournment process, but, and we can take that off for an informational calendar email, because that's not a deliberation, but it's, you know, and that's okay to do that via email. Yeah. To kind of set something up. Yeah. It worked out well last time. I thought that was a great idea. I think just a reminder too to make sure you get back to Darren, Principal Elwell's secretary for graduation. Yeah, but that's up to everybody else. Yes, just a reminder to everybody that we should get back to her. You just did a great job doing that.

132Thank you so much. Just throwing it out there because I forget every year. Yeah, I know. I already did that. Motion to adjourn. Second. She didn't mind that one. No space there. No space there. No space there. And again, non-debatable, doesn't need a quorum to do it. All in favor? Everyone grab a piece of cake.