001Good evening everyone and welcome to the meeting of the Dudley Charlton Regional School Committee. Today is Wednesday, November 12th, 2025 and it is 6.32 p.m. We are at Charlton Middle School. If there's anyone else that is recording, please let us know. Other than, of course, for the presentations you can record your children, that's fine. Okay, moving on, we will say the Pledge of Allegiance. Could my friends from Dudley Elementary come up and help me out? They're all coming. We'll pause for a moment of silence. Okay, thank you. Thanks. Great job. Okay, so moving on, we're going to move into the Dudley Elementary Showcase. Principal Audette, would you like to come up and introduce yourself and your friends? Good evening, everyone. It's great to be here. My name is Chris Audette, and I am the principal,
002the very proud principal of Dudley Elementary School. And it is an absolute pleasure tonight to introduce some amazing students from our grade four team. Our students are going to be sharing some excerpts from the personal narratives that they wrote. This is the first unit in our grade four core knowledge language arts unit. And the students basically take a deep dive into the genre of personal narratives. So they read a variety of different models by some very cool authors like Beverly Cleary, other famous people, Condoleezza Rice, Oscar Ciceras. And they analyze these models and look for patterns and ultimately draft their own. And they end up by the end of the unit with a publishable piece of writing that they're each going to share an excerpt, a piece of, with you today. I do have copies
003of their full pieces for you to check out, so I'm going to pass those around. We can just take one. And without further ado, I'm going to call them up one at a time so you can learn a little bit about them through their personal narratives. So first, to lead us off from Mrs. Durant's class, I want to welcome Julie Worms. My name is Julie, and I'm going to share part of my personal narrative called Dancing Competitively. Have you ever felt competitive? I have. That's why I joined the competitive dancing team. It all started when I was three or four years old, and Mom had signed me up for a dance class of the dancer's soul. I ended up loving dance class like a cat loves fish. I joined the competitive team a few years
004later. It was around 5.30 on a Saturday morning when I woke up to prepare for the dance competition. The day at work at Dance Challenge was sure to be very fun. We went on stage when our songs were called. The lights were blinding and the music was blasting. We performed four different dances, and we all did our very best. When we were done each time, the crowd went wild. Then we had an awards ceremony. We were all very hopeful. We were in the top five on the leaderboard for all the dances I was in. Eventually it was time to leave the competition. I said goodbye to everyone and me and mom rushed to the car. When we drove away I was practically falling asleep. When we finally got to the house I went upstairs to
005my bedroom and found my warmest, snuggliest pajamas. I went downstairs and crashed on the couch. My dogs hopped on top of me and licked my face. I was happy I was home again even though it was a very fun day. One thing I know for sure is that I can always go back next year. Thank you, Julie. All right, next we have Sadie Makoviak from Mr. Hanna's class. My name is Sadie, and I'll be reading my restaurant slash food experience. My food experience was one of the best. One time we were driving to New Hampshire, and suddenly I said, Mom, I'm hungry, like really hungry. Then my mom said, there's a restaurant down the street. But I wasn't just hungry, I was starving. We passed so many restaurants before we reached what looked like a
006bar. I said, Mom, this is a bar, not a restaurant. Then Mom said, This isn't just a bar, it's a restaurant. See? I did see. It said restaurant right on the sign. I quickly woke Riley up, she's my sister, and said, It's time to eat. Come on. Then she said, Oh, okay. And we went in. When we went into the restaurant, the waitress said sweetly, you may sit wherever you would like. So we did. We sat next to a window where we always do. Then she neatly placed the menus in front of us. I quickly searched for my favorite drink, a Shirley Temple. When I saw the beautiful, amazing, most delicious drink, I got so excited. I was actually starting to like this place. Next, from Ms. Miller's class, Millie Young. I will be reading
007tiki masala. Do you know what tiki masala is? It's an Indian dish that makes me hungry at the thought. Let me tell you about the joyful experience of tiki masala. When my mom tells me that we're having tiki masala, I practically jump. When she's making it, I can smell the savory aroma around the chicken. It makes my mouth water. Finally, the wait is over when Alexa says, it's dinner time. When my mom is done, we get called down to eat. I am eager to get that food. When I see my food, I am so hungry by looking at it, I don't have the time to sit. I don't have the time to savor the splendid cashews and rice and the chicken. I can taste the chicken having a party in my mouth. The cashews float
008in the sauce with the chicken. Tiki masala is top notch. Can't wait to have it again. Every time it's cooking, I can hear the sizzle of the crock pot. When we gather for dinner, the feast begins. Do you like tiki masala? If you haven't tried it, you must. It'll be the best thing that'll happen to you. All right, from Mrs. Breton's class, Safira Casey. My name is Safira, and I'll be reading my Christmas. My Christmas. One morning I woke up and realized that it was Christmas. I rushed to my parents' bedroom and yelled, Mom, Dad, wake up, it's Christmas. They immediately woke up. Mom said, let me get my camera and a cup of coffee. I said, okay. I ran to my room to wake up my little brother, but I accidentally woke up my
009baby brother, so everyone was up and moving. I was so excited to open presents. When Mom and my stepdad got their coffee, I got Mom's camera set up. I grabbed my baby brother and my little brother and sat by the tree. Then I explained to my brothers that we were going to open presents and our stockings. They got so excited. I got dolls, clothes, and for my special gift, I got an electric scooter. My brothers got cars, trucks, and other stuff like that. My elf left a note that said, I know this is your first time having me for Christmas, so I left you a gift. And there it was, two haircuts for me and a Santa hat for my little brother. Then I got in the car and drove to Gammies. When we got
010there, my cousins were there. We played inside. We played games like hide and seek and played tag in the basement and turned off the light. Then me and my cousins went outside. We jerked turns sliding on our jackets like a sled. It was very fun. Then we opened presents. After everyone got their presents, I gave everyone their homemade presents made by me. It was not a long drive from my aunt's to my uncle's. When they got there, my little cousin Abby was there. I was excited to play with her, as I don't see her very often. We bought a fort and had a tea party. Soon after, it was time for dinner again, for me. But I was really hungry from playing. The food was really good. I liked it a lot. Next week, open
011presents. I got a Mickey and Minnie Harry Potter, oh, Codrum kit, Nerf guns, and a remote control car, and a National Geographic kit. Then I played with my new toys. Soon enough, it was time to leave. I said goodbyes and got in the car to go to my Nana's. By the time I got there, most of my family was gone. I felt a little sad, but I was mostly okay. I ate a little food. Then I opened presents. I got a Barbie Dreamhouse, dolls, and a bike to ride around there. I love Christmas. I said my goodbyes. Then I went home. I love Christmas. It's so amazingly fun. The end. And last but not least, from Mrs. Davies' class, Declan Trindle. I sprang out of bed and bolted downstairs. Today was the day I got
012to go to the Woodstock Fair, and best of all, I was going with friends. I sat at the clean white table, and my mom put a chocolate chip muffin in front of me. Are you excited? asked my mom. Gosh, I answered with a mouthful of food. Time to go, announced my dad. I leapt into his red truck, and we were off. I bounced in my seat so much, it was as if I had jumping beans in my behind. I glanced at my sister. She looked even more excited than I was. Soon, our car came to a halt. We parked next to something that looked like a giant marshmallow. The smell of cotton candy wafted through the air. Hi, said a voice from nowhere. I looked again. It was my best friend Gavin and his little
013sister Anna. Hi, I replied. Hey, my dad said, trying to get my attention. Would you go on that? I looked up at a giant circle with big green lettering. Sure, I said, even though I was unsure what it was. I went back to talking with my friends. A little bit later, my mom chimed in on our conversation. Let's get tickets. Then we were ready for our first ride. We sprinted there as fast as we could. We were at the little kid rides. Let's go on that one, my sister said, pointing at a small drop ride. Yeah, Anna agreed. The ride was themed so it looked like a frog was jumping up and down. The drop wasn't that big, but it was better than most little kid rides. That was fun, said Gavin. And I ran
014to another ride, and we followed. This went on until we saw the Ferris wheel. The girls looked so excited, it was as if it was their birthday. Our parents agreed that Gavin and I were old enough to ride alone with the girls, so we hopped on a cart and went up, up, up. It felt magical to be up there. My sister was nervous, but we calmed her down. Up there we saw everything, rides, friends, and food. A little while later, we got off. Can we go on other rides, asked my sister. Yes, replied my mom. And you and Gavin can go to the thrill rides with your father, she said while comforting my sister. We walked down to the thrill rides. I got a better view of the circular ride from before. It was called
015Fireball, and it looked like it was a loop-de-loop that never ended. I was a little nervous, but I got in line anyway. Are you sure? my dad asked. The truth is, I wasn't sure, but I assured him anyway. Finally, it was time to get on. I buckled inside a big yellow cart. There were four seats, but I was the only one in that section. Then it started. All the blood drained from my face, and I was glued to my seat. Wind whooshed past my face. My stomach flipped up and down, up and down. It felt like three years when I was only around three minutes. The ride soon screeched to a stop. The world started spinning. All right, great job everyone. You make us proud. Go Top Dogs. Thanks everybody. Thank you everyone. Those were
016great. I think we all felt like we were right there with you. We can take a minute or two if you want to head home, get to bed, get ready for school tomorrow. Thank you for coming. Yeah, thank you. You're welcome to stay. i'm pretty sure my eighth grader was a story like that yeah right yeah and didn't have to in fourth or fifth or sixth or seventh grade okay well we'll move on um we're going to move to the consent agenda items does everyone anyone feel that they have to pull anything out of the consent agenda items I guess I kind of do just for editing purposes take out the minutes is it was it like just a quick little yep it wasn't the lettering of no it was actually just by my name
017and after all of them there's no yes vote so it just shows me as my name but doesn't have a vote Like everybody else says yes on the following pages. So I just wanted my votes to be added in the notes. And they were all in the affirmative, right? Yes. Okay. I don't think we need to take it out of consent to do that, right? And then I had on... Yeah. Just cut and paste, whatever, but that's fine. I had on, like, I think it was C. There was something where, I think it was on the second page here. They were all Ks. Like on communications. They just need to be re-lettered. That's all. Okay. So does everyone feel like with those fixes we're okay? So I'd entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda
018items. Great. Thank you. All those in favor? And we are unanimous. And we'll move on to communications. Does anyone have any communications? I have a few, actually. I wrote them down because it's quite a few. So just worth mentioning, the Friends of John Pair, their Be Better store is open back up. So if anybody wants gear in time for the holidays, that's open now. as a reminder the Jackal training is on Monday that's the program for the suicide prevention Monday the 17th at J Anthony's it's basically intended to offer hope through positive action through their QPR program which stands for question persuade and refer so if anybody is interested in going you can reach out to them I think I sent everybody information but I plan to attend just two things that came to mind
019tonight before we talked was the community unified basketball game is coming up on Steve did you tell me okay next Tuesday I don't know the date of next Tuesday I get 17 19 18 at the school which is a really event if anybody's around to attend the sports night is tomorrow at the high school and registration for Winter sports closes on the 24th. I attended a PTO meeting last week. I am running their kid shop event on December 6th. That event is being held here this year at the Charlton Middle School. We switched it up a little bit from Heritage School, but the Grinch will be making an appearance, so that will be fun. And there's a vendor fair going on, and there will be all sorts of great gifts for the kids to shop
020from. But as always, we're looking for volunteers if anybody's around that day. The event is from nine to two. They also nominated me as the member at large for the PTO, so I did accept. So you'll be getting more frequent updates of their happenings. To include tomorrow is their UNO's night. So if anybody's hungry tomorrow You can get 20% off 20% not off but 20% goes towards a PTO I also want to mention that I did volunteer at the spooktacular at the elementary school That was really fun. All the kids came in did some play games and stuff That was really well really well run. There was a lot of parent volunteers at the elementary level There usually is but it was nice to see since i was at that event i had a few
021teachers reach out actually well when speaking with them i offered to volunteer a few of them have already taken me up on it so lucky me i have spent a little time at the elementary school and i will be doing that again in the near future as well as the heritage school i went by to see all the halloween doors that they decorated which was really cool they did halloween fall theme this year instead of um the Christmas spirit kind of thing. But through that, I was also invited to help with the craft in the classroom. So I'll be visiting Heritage School to help there too. And lastly, I just wanted to congratulate Mr. Elwell, who I know has a big day tomorrow. No? Oh, Saturday. Sorry, I'm thinking today is. Friday. Wouldn't that be
022nice? I wish. But I'm glad we're not here on Friday. This weekend, Mr. Elwell. So, you know, we appreciate your commitment, you and your wife, to moving to this area. And we wish you the best on your wedding. And we'll try to take it easy on you tonight, I guess. See what happens. You never know. But, yeah, I think that's all. It's been a busy few weeks. Thank you. Sure. Yes, go ahead, Maureen. Okay, the next meeting of CPAC is Wednesday. November 19th at 7 o'clock and it's fully virtual this time. And then the next coffee meeting would be Friday, December 5th at Disturbage Coffee Roasters in Dudley at 9 a.m. Maureen, what time is the meeting on the 19th? The virtual one? 6.30 to 7 is usually just the ones in charge and the
023meeting actually starts at 7. There was, and I cannot find my announcement, but I think there is a Chapter 70 meeting coming up, a virtual meeting. So I will find that information and send it to the committee as well. It could be tomorrow. I don't know. It's either tomorrow or next week. So I'll look for that tonight and send it out on an email. So it's a virtual event. No, I think it's a it was it's on a it's Tuesday the 18th from 4 to 7 p.m. It is there is a result for this to people. Okay. Thank you Okay, moving on we have our student representative report and Danica Okay, so this past Friday football traveled to Marblehead for the first round of MIA playoffs. Unfortunately, they did lose, but they will play against
024Auburn this Friday. The marching band traveled this past weekend to Pennsylvania for nationals, and they did finish in second place. The National Honor Society is collecting donations for the Thanksgiving food drive, and all donations go toward a full Thanksgiving meal for DCRSD families. Is the game on Friday a home game? I'm unsure about that. You believe it's in Auburn? Okay. Oh, okay. Thanks. Great, thank you so much. We'll move on to the superintendent's report. Madam Chair and school committee, I have a very short report. It was very important for me today, even though it's the day after, to recognize Veterans Day yesterday. As I've talked about at this meeting several times, I did not serve myself, but my father did serve and my brother served as well. So I just wanted to have a call
025out. to our veterans. I want to extend our sincere gratitude to the men and women who have served and continue to serve our nation in uniform. Across Dudley and Charlton, our schools took time this past week to honor their sacrifices to remind us what service, duty, and commitment truly means. This was obviously done on Monday of this week as well. We are deeply proud of the many students and families in our district who have a connection to military service. Their stories bring Veterans Day. close to home and remind us that courage and selflessness are not abstract ideals. They are lived values within our own communities. To every veteran among us, thank you for your service, your example, and your enduring impact on our nation and our schools. I also want to add that this is
026the last meeting before the Thanksgiving break, so I just want to wish everyone to take a moment to express appreciation for our staff, students, and families and community partners. This is a time of year which invites us to slow down, reflect, and give thanks for one another. I know that's hard for all of us to do in many respects, but this is truly an opportunity for that and for the work that we share and for the continued support of the Dudley and Charlton communities. On behalf of the entire district, I wish everyone a restful and joyful Thanksgiving surrounded by family. friends in gratitude and then the conclusion of my report of the upcoming dates for people to keep in mind as well so it's a short report this evening but that concludes my my report
027thank you we will move on to public comment does anyone have anything for public comment no okay we'll move on um on to new business report from shepherd hill regional high school principal principal elwell good evening So I'll be passing around my report to the school committee for you to follow along. I ordinarily wouldn't read word for word from a report that I'm presenting, and I will not do that throughout, simply at the beginning and at the end just to bookend my comments. Members of the school committee, on November 6th, Eighth grade students from Dudley Middle School and Charlton Middle School visited Shepherd Hill for a fall step-up showcase, which reflected something a little bit different than we've done in the past. Later in the day, a Shepherd Hill delegation visited both schools during conferences
028to promote the school's academic, co-curricular, and extracurricular opportunities. We recognize that eighth grade students and families are carefully contemplating the future and we are committed to providing as much information as possible as we work to retain Dudley and Charlton students. During the presentations I reiterated my firmly held belief that our people and programs truly make our school exceptional. We take great pride in our school culture and the variety of challenging high-interest courses that we offer. and I welcome the opportunity this evening to provide some additional information regarding our personnel, our academic programs, our student achievement, and also our ongoing school improvement efforts. So with regard to personnel, it's no secret that we have a very dedicated staff and... Over the summer, we were busy filling a number of positions. We welcomed five new teachers this
029year, five new paraprofessionals to the Hill. We currently have a posting for an environmental science teacher due to a January mid-year retirement. As the table indicates, there is some pretty incredible longevity in the different departments at Shepherd Hill, and that really is a strength for us. At this time, 88% of our teachers are considered professional status and 12% are in their first three years of service. So overall, again, a very tenured veteran faculty. With regard to student achievement, this year, although MCAS is no longer a graduation requirement, the state still administered the assessments in the spring, and the state is continuing to provide school and district accountability data based largely on our MCAS performance and the other indicators that are listed, including access testing data from our English language learners. chronic absenteeism data for multiple
030years, advanced coursework completion rates for multiple years, our four-year cohort graduation rate, the annual dropout rate, as well as extended engagement rate data for multiple years. So all of those different factors are a part of that calculation. So with regard to our overall accountability determination, if anyone were to... visit DESE's website and visit the school and district profiles. What you will see as a result of our 2025 performance is that we are in the 27th percentile and we've been rated as overall not requiring assistance or intervention, which is positive. And we also made moderate progress toward our growth targets, the targets that the state identified for us. So On a bright spot, there is growth toward targets. Are we achieving at the levels that we want to across the board? No. And I won't attempt
031to sugarcoat our data across math, English, and biology in particular. It is disappointing. There are decreases across the board. This is complicated across the state, obviously, when... It was well known that the test no longer counted for graduation purposes. That obviously impacts the testing culture, the assessment culture. And I appreciate the staff who worked very hard to convey the importance, nevertheless, of MCAS, not only for us as a school in terms of our reputation, but also for those students who could still qualify for the Adams Scholarship and other scholarships as a result of their performance on MCAS. I won't go through each of these, but obviously what we want to see is more blue and green in terms of exceeding and meeting expectations versus orange and red, which is partially meeting or not meeting expectations.
032So the first three graphs represent the performance of all of our students on English in grade 10, math in grade 10. and high school biology for grades nine and 10. On a positive note, as opposed to in the past when I believe we were dealing with other assessments, I think it was Park. and there were times when if testing became optional, I think we all probably recall dealing with opt-outs and how to handle that. Our participation rate is over 95% for all of these tests, meaning we still have strong participation. Students are taking the tests, and that's a positive. So we're not seeing our school penalized because we've dipped below our participation targets. That is one positive. When we look at the next page, there are three graphs that specifically highlight the performance of our
033students with disabilities. Again, this does not reflect where we want to be. But I will say, if we're looking for a bright spot or some bright spots, looking at English language arts for students with disabilities, students who met expectations, that category increased from 7% to 13%. At the same time, we're looking at our orange column going into red. So this is not, again, where we want to be in terms of performance. It's the same for our students with disabilities in math and also biology. You may recall a few years ago that we had students on two different tracks. Some students were going through physics and taking the physics MCAS, others were taking biology, and we decided as a school that we wanted to put students on the same track and made that change a couple
034of years ago, which is why in a couple of years ago you won't see the same data because there were different paths for physics and biology. Switching gears to our advanced placement achievement data. This is where at times it feels as if we have two schools, multiple schools under one roof. Approximately 22% of our students are enrolled in an advanced placement course, which is a significant number. And as you can see from the chart on the left labeled school summary, we continue to see A strong number of students this past year was 211 total students who took an AP course. The number of exams, 397. Obviously some students take multiple exams, multiple courses. and AP students who scored three or above 173, which equates to 82%, meaning 82% of the students who took an advanced
035placement course and took the college board exam actually earned qualifying scores to potentially cash in on that credit at the college level, which is fantastic. We want students to go through the coursework. We also want them, in the end, to earn that currency of potential college credit. So the bar... The blue bar graph on the right is exactly what we want to see. For the past five years, we've been ticking up every single year, and this past year was the highest year yet. for our students' performance. And so we have an obligation to take a look at the instructional strategies that are working and find a way to expand that across all of our student groups to see the same kind of success. Another performance indicator for our students is the PSAT and the SAT.
036And for the past two years, we've chosen to do a school day administration to try to remove some barriers for students who might not be able to go somewhere on a Saturday to another community, to another school where it's a little uncomfortable, you're not in your own surroundings. And so we administered both in school, and we found that to be a success. On the left, the PSAT, we had 50 students that we administered that to. last month in October and you can see there the average score 1061 on the right hand side you'll see that 87 of our students have taken SAT I believe approximately 50 of those 87 were during the school day administration and then there are a number of 37 others who've gone to other testing sites to take it again or
037to alternatively take it somewhere else. But the vast majority are choosing to test in our own school which is I think a huge benefit. And you can see the average score there is an 1148 at this time. We are planning for additional spring administrations. as well switching gears a little bit just to provide a slightly different data point across the board we have advanced placement courses honors accelerated honors college prep and foundations you can see the breakdown in that chart the vast majority of the sections in our schedule are at the honors level and i'm particularly proud of the maroon and blue graph underneath which i think speaks to our work as a district with And I have exact numbers to attach to these bar graphs. I apologize that it's not as clear. But there
038again, you're seeing we're trending in the right direction. The blue represents our foundations classes that for the past three years we've continued to offer fewer and fewer of those as we move students toward more supported classes in the inclusion setting. So we want to see those blue bars go down and we want to see the maroon bars continue to increase because again we are striving for greater inclusivity and we are particularly proud of the work that we're doing in that area. And now for the acronym sections. So our SIP, our School Improvement Plan, you've seen, you voted on. It reflects the district improvement plan in that there are three overarching goal areas, academic achievement, wellness and belonging, and operational effectiveness. And this year we've already made strides in all three of these areas. With regard
039to academic achievement, on October 10th, the first professional development day, A considerable amount of time was spent among departments beginning the process of a comprehensive curriculum review and revision process, which also relates to MEASC, which is another acronym that you'll hear about in a second. But that was a particularly helpful time for us to kick off those efforts, which also included for our algebra teachers working with their middle school counterparts to begin some of that vertical alignment work. Additionally, this year, something that was a little bit different with my team, although we strive to do the best that we can to give meaningful feedback throughout the evaluation process, one of the things that my leadership team has not necessarily done every single year, but that we did this year, is to sit down and talk
040to educators about their SMART goals and not simply sign off on them in Vector. And we found those conversations to be very helpful. and all evaluators, administrators in my building posed minimally two questions. Number one, what student data did you look at before you developed the student learning goal? And number two, how does it relate to our school improvement plan? And we found that in some cases a little rejushing was needed before we were able to sign off on the final goals, but in the end I found that we now have many teachers who collectively have a similar focus and we're hopeful that that will yield results for us with regard to the goals in the school improvement plan. In terms of wellness and belonging, I'm really pleased this year that As we consider the
041different initiatives to work toward improving mental health across the board and promoting greater awareness, that students are an important part of that. And we've launched the Hope Squad initiative with the support of the Jack L Foundation. We have three trained advisors. We've had assemblies in which students were informed of the nomination process to nominate their peers to be part of this peer ambassador program. I want to say after the four assemblies, we had probably 35 to 40 credible nominations that we then further vetted and worked with the students to understand what the training involves and the time commitment. So we are very well positioned with our Hope Squad initiative. And additionally, Shepherd Hill was represented on the SEL curriculum committee. exploring RULER and there was another option as well and we have already started to
042think about how and when we would implement an SEL curriculum given our schedule that has remained the same for quite some time and doesn't necessarily have a flex block if you will so that work is already beginning and finally operational effectiveness we hope that as a district we can continue to pursue different forms of capital improvement for our building. But in the meantime, I appreciate Mrs. Shrew and the teachers who work to secure grant funding that allow us to chip away at some badly needed items in our building, one of which is our science labs. We have grant funding over $80,000, I think, from the Mass Life Sciences group that will allow for the renovation of two science labs on our third floor, which we're very excited about. In addition, the Dudley Charlton Ed Foundation
043just awarded grant funds to support a wellness space that our school adjustment counselors will soon be using and accessing for group lessons and a number of other purposes as well. With regard to NEASC, I briefly mentioned at a previous meeting that we are awaiting their collaborative conference report, and overall the feedback was very positive. and their feedback reflected our self-reflection, which is great. There didn't seem to be too much misalignment, but there are three primary goals that we need to focus on for the next couple of years before the decennial visit in the fall of 2027. The first is we need to review and recommit to this vision of the graduate. And I think it's timely as across the state and in our own district we're thinking about graduation requirements and what do we want
044our graduates to know and be able to do. I think this makes sense and I think we have a lot of the ingredients we just need to recommit to that vision. Number two, review and update the written curriculum, which I just referenced. We've already started that work. We knew it was work we had to do. And we know that it's especially important from the perspective of HQIM. We really need to take an inventory of what we're using, what we have, before we move forward with some of these other grant-funded opportunities. And finally, develop and implement tiered supports for academics and SEL. That's a big one. That is going to require structural change in terms of our schedule. That's going to require us to look at service delivery, service providers. We're willing to do the work,
045but that one's going to be difficult. I think we've made great strides potentially with an SEL curriculum. But the academic intervention piece is going to continue to be a challenge for us, admittedly. But those are the three primary goals that NEASC has said, take two years, and when we come back, we'd like to see that you've made some improvement in these areas. And then finally, in the acronym section, CLE, which you've heard about, and I'm in PLANS, which is a principal coaching program, leadership coaching program. And this year, some of you have participated in the different forums that CLE has facilitated. There were two community assets mapping sessions. There were members of the school committee, parents, teachers, students were there. And there was really good dialogue around what do we want to see at Shepherd
046Hill? What does that look like? What should the future look like for Shepherd Hill? There were two of those public forums. And then there were... using the data gleaned from those two sessions, two full faculty meetings that CLI attended and facilitated and said this is what came from the community assets forums. What is your feedback on that feedback? And our faculty did a really nice job of responding, adding, questioning, and then the most recent iteration. of those poster charts that have covered a lot of territory in recent months, they're all in my office now ready to be wallpapered somewhere with a lot of good feedback, is our department, my department chairs took a look at everything and said we've got to boil this down to two or three things that we can all commit to
047and do really well and demonstrate how we as a faculty can roll in the same direction and move forward. And so as a result of that process, we've identified that we want to achieve greater consistency in all classrooms regarding the instructional block, rigor, and student engagement. I've talked for a couple of years now about the anatomy of the instructional block. We have 180 days from 7.40 to 2.10 to do our work. And in a 45-minute class, you really have to work to squeeze every last drop out of those 45 minutes. It can't be... 20, 30 minutes and then just time for homework or other things. We need to intentionally use our time to make sure that we're getting the most bang for our buck. We have pockets of excellence, but we have some places where
048we need to do a better job with that. Adapt and evolve our instructional practices to meet the needs of all students, including the continued integration of UDL principles. So one of the challenges as we work toward greater inclusion. more inclusion, fewer of our foundations classes, is that our philosophy has to evolve around what teaching and learning should look like, but our practices also have to evolve. We have to be able to meet the new demand of having classes that have varied needs. And so there's been an acknowledgement, especially among... Some of the higher numbers in that first table that you saw among personnel, people who've taught for a very long time, who are acknowledging that there is a time when your practices have to evolve. And I appreciated that reflection. And finally, bridging the gap
049between the middle schools and the high school. We talk a lot with CLI around what's within our realm of control. We have a lot of concerns, but there are some things that are within our realm of control. And within our realm is how we create a ninth grade experience that maybe prepares students for a comprehensive high school experience that maybe it's not simply about content, but rather about the skills as a learner, how to be a high school student, how to be given that increasing level of independence and responsibility. And I felt that these three were... pretty spot on and things that I think the faculty can rally around as well. So it feels like we have goals everywhere. We have goals for NEASC, we have goals for CLE, we have the school improvement plan.
050But at the end of the day, I think that they all do. relate back to the school improvement plan in those three areas of academic excellence, wellness and belonging, and operational effectiveness. So I'm happy to paint that picture when people feel like there are goals coming from every angle, but they're all goals that I think that are worthwhile. So as I reflect on my fourth year as principal of Shepherd Hill, We've certainly had some challenges, but we've also had some triumphs, and I remain grateful for the opportunity to lead in this community. We are clear-eyed regarding our challenges and firm in our resolve to continue our school improvement journey as we work to expand opportunities and increase achievement levels for all of our students. In this pursuit, we look forward to working with the school
051committee in a few key areas. First, we'd love to pursue MSBA funding and other capital improvement projects with your support and encouragement. Minimally, we'd love to maintain level services with the possibility of expanding high-interest electives. We would love to pursue grants and other funding mechanisms to incorporate HQIM whenever, wherever possible. And finally, we appreciate the school committee's support for piloting some unique and innovative programs. And I think probably in the next semester you might hear some things that we wish to pilot and we appreciate your willingness to hear those proposals. So on behalf of the faculty, staff, and students, I want to thank all of you for the work that you do to help us do our work. Happy to take any questions. Do we have any questions? I have one question and you had
052a very detailed and lengthy but very important presentation and so it was towards the beginning of your presentation. When you were mentioning the Hope Squad and the nominees that you built over the four assemblies, were the nominees of those students done by peers or by staff? I wasn't quite sure. This is a peer-driven nomination process. We had four assemblies, and we outlined what the role entailed. And then there was a Google form, and students nominated their peers within their own class only. So it was 9, 10, 11, and 12. Then we obviously took a look just for quality assurance purposes to make sure that we did have nominees who met the criteria. And then we did one final check with the faculty to say if there's something we should know that we don't know, please
053let us know. But otherwise, I would say it's 99% peer-driven, the nominations. I think that's fantastic. I mean, it would have been great either way, but that just is a higher level of participation. I had a couple comments. Sure. First of all, I appreciate your candor and the honesty that's within this. Some of the data is not pleasant to look at, but I think that you and your staff have really thought about it and have a path moving forward, which is important. I think one of my questions was on the AP data. The PSA, no, it was the, oh. I had a question about what percent of students with disabilities take an AP class. You asked that question before and I should have that answer tonight. Oh, did I ask that again? And I don't.
054Okay. But I don't, but I will tomorrow. You don't have to do it tomorrow. You can have like a week or two off. We will get that answer to you. That's an easy one. Yeah, that's fine. I would say I attended, I was able to attend your ninth grade parent, like incoming ninth grade parents night at Dudley Middle School. And I really appreciated the message, you know, even though we didn't have a lot of parents there in the crowd, I think that your messaging was on point, you know, really telling parents that you really stress that students have the right to reinvent themselves. and that what they might have done in middle school doesn't need to be their path in high school. If they have a bad year, you can always have a better year.
055And I think that that message came through, at least for the parents that I talked to, it did. And I think that it was important when you talked about when making, you know, with things like AP courses and course selection in general, is that you're not blocking students from entering courses. that they can select what they want to select and that they have the right to challenge themselves. So I think that doesn't happen in all communities, and I think that's important that we give the kids that ability to do that sometimes. Thank you. Thank you. I just have one, maybe a real quick, easy question. PSATs, how long does it take for the results of those? Well, so we administered in October, and these... PSAT scores reflect October. So now there's a difference sometimes between
056the educator report versus the individual reports, but those should be available. Okay. Thank you. On the college board site, right? I believe so. I believe so. And the students are aware that they're there? You know, I could follow up on that for you tomorrow. See what we're getting with this. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Yes, go ahead. exams. Are we finding from students any economic challenges with affording those exams that are precluding them from participation? It's rare but we do work with all families and one of the things that we've tried to do to incentivize not only AP exams but for example the sealed by literacy I cover the first test for student to test for the sealed by literacy it's a nominal fee but if we can remove a little bit of a barrier I
057think we should with the AP exams one of the things that we've offered to our new Honors Academy students. We have 40 this year who came to us from Dudley and Charlton Middle Schools. Forty ninth graders now who applied, who are in the program. We have offered to subsidize the cost of those AP exams. If a student's willing to do the work and apply themselves, then we'll find a way to offset the cost. But by and large, If there is a significant need, we address it. No student has been prevented from taking an AP exam because of cost. Thank you. Thank you. Great. Thank you so much. We'll move on to financial updates. Director of Finance, Joe DeSantis. Good evening. Just a few items on my agenda tonight, the first of which is a donation
058acceptance request. The Dudley Charlton Regional School District acknowledges receipt of a donation in the amount of $2,500 from Amy Fox and the Ruta family in the name and memory of Elaine Ruta. Mrs. Ruta was a beloved Dudley Elementary teacher for many years who passed away in 2005. This year marking the 20th anniversary of Mrs. Ruta's passing. The family would like to make a donation to DCRSD and Dudley Elementary specifically. DCRSD and Dudley Elementary wish to thank the Ruta family for their generous offer and donation as it would go to directly serve the students of Dudley Elementary School. The impact of many years of second grade instruction from Elaine Ruta will continue via these donated funds and will be embodied in the form of book vending machine materials. There's a typo on my reports which says
059book vending machine. It's book vending machine materials. designated to directly impact student reading and literacy DCRSD can only hope that the donated funds and associated materials can make a portion of the impact mrs. Elaine Ruta has made on the district so I respectfully request school committee vote to approve this donation I didn't chain a motion to approve the donation as okay any discussion Seeing none, we'll go to a vote. All those in favor? And motion carries, unanimous. Thank you. On to my second item. I have an update for FY25's end-of-year report. DCRSD has submitted to DESE our FY25 end-of-year report, which is required on an annual basis. the district met DESE requirements with regards to net school spending and maintenance of effort so if there are any direct questions related to the report I'm happy
060to take them. Thank you and the final item I have is just an update on where we stand where the district stands for FY 25 fiscal year closeout FY25 closeout is in process. FY25 financial balances have been rolled into FY26. And as mentioned above, the FY25 end of year report has been filed with DESE. CBiz, our current audit firm, is on, well, they're not on site this week, but they are auditing this week our FY25 financials with resulting FY25 financial statements to be issued subsequent to the testing. Our excess and deficiency or E&D certification is due to the Department of Revenue at the end of the month, November 30th, 2025. So I'm happy to take any questions in relation to those updates. That concludes my report. Thank you. Great. Thank you. We'll move on to
061C. Superintendent LaMarche. Madam Chair and School Committee, what I have in front of you is, and I am looking for a vote of support. You have in your packet what is... Playfully considered the southern Worcester County health insurance group the reason why I say playfully is because that name has not been established yet I did it for the purpose of presentation So when the group gets pulled together, they will come up with their own name for the group But I thought it would be best for a presentation So what this is is we are part of mass strategic health group MSHG. We are not this is not we're not leaving that group We're not trying to leave that group in any way shape or form, but that group is up to 14 representative communities And
062what we're trying to do within that group is have geographically based joint purchasing groups within that group. So the examples I'll give you are, so for example, like Abington is part of our group. If you think the geographical bias when it comes to costs for insurance, and this is an attempt to share the risk cost of that, and I'll get into that a little bit more, but if we're working with Abington, and Abington, all of their members go to South Shore Medical Center or something like that, or go right into Boston or something like that, the cost for their services is far greater than the cost for the people that we go to Worcester. So not that we're actually in competition with that. I mean kind of something like that But we don't have any
063shared risk with that So we're trying to pull that in such a way because Dudley Charlton was all on their own So we had a couple of very difficult years for claims We didn't have another joint purchasing group geographical area that could kind of balance that risk within that So this is an attempt to work with Spencer East Brookfield public schools the town of Webster and their public schools as well to try to come together and have some more shared risk. So when I talk about shared risk, that means the annual cost for for cost for let's call them services for our members. Dudley Chauvin is all on their own. With the Mass Strategic Health Group, we share the administrative costs of the group. We share some costs. We share the stop loss costs, but
064we don't share the risk. So we're always on our own when it comes to setting our rates from year to year. So this past year, we had a sizable increase of 21% in our health insurance. We've asked before we even got to this point we asked to do an analysis on our groups and if we were together Spencer East Brookfield the town of Webster in Dudley Charlton Regional School District our increase would have been 12% not 21% because the other communities didn't have as bad a risk as we did so it balances out not that everyone's going to always win in a joint purchase like that but we at least are in a position where we're not seeing substantial increases just for us time over time year over year. So this joint purchasing group gives
065us a chance to work together as a regional base. But it also does far more than that. What it really does too is MSHG, any insurance group that you're part of, you always have to do an analysis as to the health of that organization. If we're in a small JPA within a JPA, that's what we're calling it, if our JPA wanted to step away from MSHG and do our own shared cost, we have that opportunity because we're already together as a group. W. Charlton is not in isolation trying to work on something all on their own. So you have multiple layers in here by being part of this. This has already been run through our insurance advisory council. We've talked about this and we have their support. We don't ask them for a formal vote.
066We just look for their support because they're an advisory group. They have the support. So I'm looking for your support to enter into this. We do have an off ramp. If all of a sudden all this stuff came together and we couldn't figure it out and MSHG came out with a better process, by July 1st we could say we don't want to do this JPA. We'll just stay in MSHG. So I already talked about two off ramps that are in there as well. One is an off ramp from MSHG, another is an off ramp from this JPA if we don't feel like the numbers are working out in our favor. So let's say for example Spencer East Brookfield has a couple of, is starting to enter a cycle like we did the past couple of
067years where our costs were just ballooning. We could say it's just not feasible for us because we were now in a different cycle. So we could take a look at that analysis. We have to look at that. But the first point is for us to form this. come together build it build it we have a representative from our community so it's kind of like a mini board within the mshd board so you have a member of spencer's brookfield member of webster member of w charlton and then we form this group and then we do all of our analysis the other piece that is just critical for this is to what this does is it does aggregate our data to a certain level pulls us all together because that's how you do the risk sharing but
068what's really critical for me and important for me is that we Disaggregate that data so we know exactly what Dudley Chauvin's profile is when it comes to health insurance as well So we have lots of work to do But this is the entry point for this for us to get into this The town of Webster has already voted favorably for this Spencer East Brookfield is in the next week or so They're voting for this as well. We don't see any barrier there So you're the next group to kind of join this and we are looking at a couple of other locals that are going through some insurance adjustments with their let's call them consortiums or collaboratives and we're trying to pull them in as well so we have that geographical jpa within our mshg board
069so i did put this in the folder i wasn't sure if anyone had any questions about this this is standard legal legalese legal language around this the proof as you know is always in the the details of now really looking at this but the analysis that was done in preparation for this clearly showed that dudley charlton would have almost split their increase in half this school year coming in. So going from 21.5% to 12% would have been a huge benefit for our fiscal and for our budget going forward. So I'm open to any questions, but I am looking for a motion in support of joining, I would call it the JPA within MSHG. MSHG. JPA with an MSHG because if you vote for Southern Worcester County Health Insurance Group it's good that's kind of a
070fictitious name right now so MSHG Master Dejah health group okay and I don't know if you know what's going on health insurance out in the world out there but this is just a very complicated very complicated endeavor so the more we can do to try to organize and stay ahead of this the better off we will be as a school district moving forward little assistance with the exact wording that you would like. I would record a motion that Dudley-Charlton Regional School District join a joint purchasing agreement within Mass Strategic Health Group, MSHG. Any questions? I'd be happy to take any questions on this. I have a question. So when would this take effect in what fiscal year? Yeah, so this would take effect July 1. Okay. But now's a chance for us to start working
071on it to see what our July 1 numbers would look like. Okay. Great question. And so essentially it's almost like a chapter within a bigger branch. Yes. Okay. We already have one chapter within the MSHG. That's the Valley Trust, and that's, talk about geographic, that's Merrimack and Salisbury, Massachusetts. Right, which is nowhere near here. Nowhere near us, but they've combined to have their own little JPA. So, again, it's, you know, can we do an analysis to say that we're going to save $100,000 because all of our employees go to Worcester hospitals? I can't say that today. There is that benefit and that risk pooling that you're doing. There's a better potential. Yes, better potential for savings that we need to figure out, yes. I just have a question. You said there's 14 different communities. Is
072that, I mean, that number can change either way, any other direction at any time? Yes. Or within the, everybody signs a year? It takes a process to get into it. So you're talking about a member joining Mass Strategic Health Group? Yes. In order to join that, you have to give all of your data and it has to be analyzed as to whether you're an appropriate member. Nobody can just say, I'm just joining that. Right. So, for example, if you have a lot of liability and a lot of risk and you have no finances to back it up, MSHD would probably say, no, this year isn't a good year. Come back to us next year. But anybody who falls in that can come into the Southern Worcester? No. Okay. No. Just certain. criteria right we're looking
073for little geographic areas for that okay so yes if they're let's say for example the town of i'm just going to make it up oh i don't want to make it up the town of hoboken one which is 30 miles away from us wanted to join they'd have to apply and we'd have to go through that analysis piece to see if they could join but they're being 30 miles away makes them a viable already an entry point for joining the jpa within the mshg gotcha okay thank you for thinking outside the box that's a pretty that's pretty interesting It is. It's the one piece that the MSHE is not doing is that risk sharing. So that's the piece that that's what this really addresses for us. So we have, because what we're trying to do
074is we're trying to remove the spikes. Because the spikes are what get you in trouble. So if you have a down year, and we've done here in study Charlton, we said let's take a zero. And then the next year it balloons, and then you've taken a zero, so you have no way to recoup that. And so the following year you're already deficit spending, and you're already in a deficit. So this tries to even out that annual increase within a reasonable margin to a certain extent within health insurance. Yes, because that has the incentive for the other towns to join because they've had lower years in their... predicting maybe that they might have a bigger risk here yes because they according to all of the reading that i do and i'm hearing listening is that there
075is it's a cycle so w charlton has had some at least three or four really tough years and we're we're pulling out of our deficit now but it's it's you know we don't want to put ourselves in that position again and this is one of those measures those measures to try to prevent that discussion okay um we'll move to a vote all those in favor Great, thank you We have policies for distribution. Yep. Madam Chair and School Committee, Policy Subcommittee has met and will continue to meet. These are new policies for distribution. These are policies that the Policy Subcommittee worked on. These are all new. I want to believe at some point in time the district may have had one or two of these, but they are no longer. They are not there. So it's
076not a point of trying to fine them and un-retire them. It's more of a let's put them back in place. These are policies. These are also. Massachusetts Association of School Committees priorities these are on their priority list of policies that they've been updating as well so these are policies some of them are do have some connection to Mass General Law but they're required policies so we are distributing these for feedback not only from you but also we will send it out to the community as well as we have The first one is KBG. This is Parent Advisory Councils. This is to ensure that we are fully aware that we need a Special Education Parent Advisory Council, but we also need an ELPAC, English Learner Parent Advisory Council, and Multilanguage Learner Parent Advisory Council. One or
077the other, but we do the ELPAC, the English Learner. This is required if you have over 100 students that are considered English learners. We have over 100 students that are English learners, but we don't have this policy on the books. So that's why this policy is coming forward. And it has legal references and other connections to it. The next policy is KBE, Relations with Parent Booster Organizations. Again, this falls in line. We appreciate that MASC is working on this. This falls in line with some of the cleanup that we're trying to do within our district and our operations in the district around things like facilities use and those types of items that we've been working on as a school committee. This requires that any parent organization that we have does have a 501c3 status. The
078good news is all of our parent organizations do. So this is not to restrict them moving forward, but it's just to organize us and to make sure that we know who we're working with with a 501c3. Not that it happens on a regular basis, but you do have number two in here. If there were two competing parent organizations trying to compete for the same interests or the same reason, let's say, for example, Charlton PTO decided to split and start another PTO. All of the members, number two is in there for that reason. Not that this has happened here that I'm aware of, but a vote open to all parents and guardians of children enrolled in the Charlton schools would designate which organization should be recognized as that organization. So it does give you some type
079of guidelines and parameters around that. And it speaks to, again, system organizations for us as a district. The next policy is KI, visitors to school. This is currently... Our current KI policy is really, if this moves along... Our current KI policy is really a policy that should be labeled IHBAA, and that's for visiting special education programs within our schools. We did not have a policy on visitors, a specific policy just for visitors to schools. So that's why this is moving forward. Again, I want to believe this is one definitely. I want to believe that the school committee at some point in time had one of these in place, but it's not in our... It's not in my indexing and it's not been there since I've come to Dudley-Charlton, so this is extremely important for us
080to have in place when we consider visitors to schools. Any questions on that one? Yep. I actually have a question only because I have recently visited the schools. Where, so it says, it refers to anyone who's, I guess, not a current student, a school, like, would we fall in that as a school committee member? Do I fall under it as a visitor? Yeah, you're still a visitor to the school. I'm not sure what part you're falling under. Well, I guess I read it wrong. I thought it said anybody who is not a current student staff member. It does say that. But I'm not a current student staff member assigned to work in a building or a different district level staff member. Right. MASU is pretty clear that we, as school committee members, are visitors when
081we go to a school, just automatically. I just wanted to make sure. That's me, right? Yep, they do, yeah. I have a question about this and how we would handle this, where it says visitors may not record or photograph students or staff while they're in the building without explicit prior permission of the superintendent or designee. I'm just wondering about when you have Christmas concerts and things like that, that might be a tough cut, or just concerts in general. That might be a tough one. Field trips, yeah. Right, but I think that there are certain events that, whether it's a blanket or an approval, I think the designees obviously hear typically the principal. I think the principal would indicate that cameras are allowed during a certain event. I know that I've attended. I don't know if
082it's a holiday spectacular or other events where they say no cameras, please, or play where you have to buy the rights to the play, they say no cameras and stuff like that. So that's the designee at that point in time as well. But I think there's a general acceptance of, like this evening, just like these kids, for parents to take pictures of their kids and stuff like that. I would say that I think as more and more parents are putting pictures of their children. singing at concerts up online and there are other children in the videos I think it is it can be an issue that we might want to look at I've been told in the past that the teachers are aware who those kids are so they tend to try to put them
083along the edges and such so that they can kind of be more discreet about it is my understanding from Our schools internally do a very good job of communicating out to staff who is on the no photo list. Perfect. Perfect. Any other questions on that one? Next policy, ECAB. This is access to buildings and grounds. Once again, I want to believe that there was probably something in place at some point in time, but we have to re-up this and put this in place. I think what is really critical in here is we deviated a little bit from the model policy from M.A.S.C. and that's in the third paragraph that starts with during school hours. What we did is we, as a policy subcommittee, we inserted the word limited. So if you look at the second
084to last sentence access to school grounds during the school day except for recognized school or district activities is limited Such limited use is secondary to the use of any school or district activity or to any community use as provided through rental or donation So the example I give you and I've given in the past is at Shepherd Hill. Shepherd Hill is a widely used campus Even during the school day, we have community members who do go up on the track and walk. As long as they're not interfering with anything and we've not had any issue with staff, students, or parents, or the people, we should continue to allow that because the community did pay for that and bought that. MASC wanted it to be strictly shut down during school hours. There are certain places that
085not only do they walk on the track, they'll walk around our buildings as well, and I consider them as additional security. because they will knock on the door and say hey I saw this did you see this something's out of place so I respect and appreciate that so that's the only deviation that's within this particular policy out of the model policy but it does talk about school hours and obviously the priorities school and things of that nature So, Madam Chair and School Committee, these policies are coming back to the committee after they've come back and they've gone out for distribution. The first one is IHBH. This was the policy that was required for November 1st. I did receive an extension to November 21st to submit this. This was sent out. There was very limited feedback
086for this particular policy, so it's coming before you again for your approval and support. I'd entertain a motion to accept policy. IHBH middle school pathways exploration is there any discussion all those in favor thank you okay yep madam chair and school committee this is a this is a policy I know it's it's On face value, this is kind of a tricky policy because this policy does not, this is not an intended policy to address all due process opportunities for people. So some of the feedback that Policy Sub did receive was around due process and how do we address due process within this particular policy. That is really covered through some of your other policies. So the examples I'll give you is anything around harassment or bullying, things of those nature, those are covered under other
087policies and those are far more specific under that policy. And this was really kind of a general, this was addressing any concerns. And the attempt here was to try to direct people. It wasn't an attempt, and we did receive some other feedback that we're trying to delay the process. We actually, from our perspective, think sometimes we delay the process once we take all the information and then we're expected to go back to the school, get all the information, come back, call the parent. We like to go directly to sources. That is really how. And you as a school, your original policy did have basically sources in it. You had the four-step process in it. So you had the level one, level two, level three, level four. So you already had some of these in there.
088We're just trying to spell it out a little bit more and try to really direct people to certain areas for certain categories. This does not alleviate any due process opportunities. This does not alleviate reaching out to any administrator either. We will try to direct people to go through, go right to the source. We know that we have even contracts within our district associations that there's an expectation that if a complaint comes forward, it goes right back to the person who's a member of that association. So this is not out of the ordinary. And again, I feel bad for people who were addressing due process issues. This is not a due process. effort here. This is just trying to say if you have concerns and you want them to address, these are the individuals or the
089groups to go to to try to find some answers to those questions. And as it says in this particular policy, as this moves along, you know we do have 48 hours for communication which we we do but if it moves along and you're not satisfied you can go to the next step in the next step which is what your original policy was as well so it kind of expanded your original policy and articulated a little bit more but it wasn't meant to capture every due process opportunity in the in the in the policy manual and i know the feedback from school committee was number eight to try to align that a little bit more keep that as probably the most well-versed due process item on this particular chart. I think we can motion to approve
090policy KE as amended. So moved. Okay. Is there any discussion? We'll move to a vote. All those in favor? Okay. Thank you. We're going to move on to old business. And we have one topic, the formative and We talk about standards and indicators for the superintendent's goal for the superintendent's evaluation for the formative and summative. We have the goals, but we have to give like the focus indicators. So Superintendent LaMarche has a packet in your packets. Do you want to take a peek at those? It's the clipped section. So I think what you had done is you looked at the focusing indicators and put, do you want to talk about it? Sure. Sure. Sorry. That's okay. I appreciate it. Thank you. Madam Chair and school committee, so as we continue to work on the model
091for superintendent's evaluations, in that packet, this was not in the file before the meeting. You did have, and you have them, again, in hard copy, extensive. copies of superintendent evaluation documents that is not specifically to what i'm referring to so what i did is i put my goals in there again that were approved by school committee with the corrections and then i was asked to identify indicators within the superintendent's evaluation that would not only tie to the superintendent goals but it could also tie to the district improvement plan so that's what those so those were the indicators on that page are highlighted as i we joked about last time i talked about my first year as superintendent i had like 13 goals and I was going to do all this incredible stuff way too much.
092So the indicators, which are areas to really say this is a focus indicator, an area for focus for evaluation, I highlighted the ones that I thought were closely tied to, but also new, a little bit newer. So, for example, if you look at the first page for Standard 1, Instructional Leadership, I think for the past couple of years, and including in these goals, I talk a lot about the curriculum. I touched upon instruction, things like that, but I think really a focus over the next two years should be really for an indicator for evaluation purposes and my formative this year and my summative at the end of next year should be data informed decision making. I think that's what we really need to highlight on. I think the SWOT analysis leads towards that as well.
093I think that that's the one that really captured standard one for me to recommend to you as a school committee. And then for standard two, management and operations, I could quite frankly pick all of these, but I thought that the two that were most important at this point in time is to continue to work on scheduling and management information systems. I thought that that would be critical to use the systems to ensure optimal use of data and time and teaching because, again, if I'm picking data to inform decisions, I need to work on how we collect the data and what our systems do for data-informed decision-making too, so that's why that is in there. And then as much as I'm going to contradict what I just said about standard one, I don't think I've had
094a year that I haven't worked on the fiscal systems, but I just think it's still too critical and too important for me to let that go. It's not a focus area for us and for you to focus your work on evaluating me to ensure that our fiscal systems continue to develop in the way that you see them that fit our mission and goals as we're trying to pull all these plans and things together at this point in time. Then for standard for standard for is professional culture this I just I Don't think I've completely focused on this or given this to you as a focus indicator But I think it is critical at the stage especially with all the planning that we've been doing the curriculum adoption planning the LRE planning, the fiscal planning, the
095capital planning, all that planning. I think I really need to focus on shared vision, successfully and continuously engage all stakeholders in the creation of a shared educational vision in which every student is prepared to succeed in post-secondary education and become a responsible citizen and global contributor. I think AI leads to, AI community leads towards this as well, but I think this, I think the shared vision is still a critical, we're at a critical point here in Dudley-Charlton for that to be a real strong focus area for me. I know that in the past through my evaluations, there were other categories that have been picked. but I thought that was the most critical especially if given a two-year variation to try to get our vision shared over the next two years to a higher level higher
096standard and then that is the same for I'm sorry standard three sorry Standard 3, I think because we are making some, I'm backtracking a little bit. That was standard 4, by the way, just for a little blurb in there, just so people could know. Standard 3, okay. Standard 3, the real standard 3, please come forward. So I think as we continue to push on our focus of data-informed decision-making, you know, the critical mass of all the regulatory things that are happening, the changes in discipline law, SEL. All of those things, I think that there's a push and a pull to that. I think one of the things that would be very critical is to make sure that we are consistently across the district, and this comes from me, that we address how we address family
097concerns. We address family and community concerns in an equitable, effective, and efficient manner. I don't think we're there yet for seven for seven. I don't think we're there yet as a district, and I think that that's a... a critical piece in looking at the family and community engagement part of this because of all the pushing that we're doing at this point in time. As I said, and the other one with all of our plans and everything else that we have in place, they really need to be tied together. So those were, I was advised to pick three or four. I could pick one for each, so I picked five total, and I think that they do align fairly well with my goals, but they also align with the district improvement plan. Can I ask a
098question? What are the standards that you have your staff doing? Like do you have focus indicators for teachers this year? Yes. I don't have them in front of me. Oh, you don't have them. Okay. I didn't know if they align with these. Not specifically, no. Okay. Does anybody else have any questions? I would say on standard two, I mean, I think it's a... 2B, you're already going to be doing it? You'll have done it anyways. You'll have done it through the goal. I just didn't know if you wanted that instead of fiscal systems. I think my hesitation on 2B was, and I think it's safe to publicly announce it, but our HR director is retiring next August. So we have some work to do there around all this. So that's why I kind of hedged
099away from that particular indicator. Because we'll have a lot of work to do on filling that role. And that's a critical role in that indicator. Yeah, that is. So I'm not sure if we need a vote, but I think it would be good to have a collective agreement on this. Okay. So I would entertain a motion to accept the performance indicators as noted. 1E, 2C, 2E, 3D, and 4E. So moved by Anthony. Second. second by Kelly okay is there any other discussion points anyone wants to bring out then I would say all those in favor and that is accepted thank you very much great before we adjourn our next meeting is let's say Wednesday December 10th at 630 at Shepherd Hill Regional High School and there are next meeting dates here for for all the
100different subcommittees so I would just take a peek there if you want to look at those. I'd entertain a motion to adjourn. Great. Second Jamie. Okay. All those in favor? Aye. And we are adjourned.