001Good evening. I'll officially call the um to order the Lawrence Alliance of for Education board meeting. My name is Maria Mhler. I am chairing today's meeting on behalf of our chair Mariano who is here attending virtually with us today. Um and would you please stand up for the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic of its nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. Maria, would you please call attendance? Dr. Lores Kalaf present. Edgar DeLeon, [snorts] Jana Matias, Maria Müller, present. >> Mayor Brian Dea, >> present. >> Chair Patricia Mariano. >> She's in. >> She's present, but she's muted. >> Okay. >> We can see she's here. >> Mhm. >> All right. The first item on the agenda
002is public comment, and we have Mr. Mali signed up. Mali 53 Chester Street. Good evening honorable members. We the citizen are united to support Lawrence teachers union. Lawrence public school with the impeccable leadership by honorable superintendent Ralph Guerrero. Moving forward, we must know the best teachers in the nation are teaching in Lawrence public school. We must pay the best compensation to our teachers. So other cities, they don't take our teachers. The teachers, the true nation builder, the hope of the best future for the children of the Lawrence, future of this great nation, future of our great city depend on how well we support our teachers union. The teachers who inspire the whole world. The teachers who educate the children of Lawrence. Lawrence teachers. You are number one because of your hard work because of your
003dedication. The children of Lawrence have a bright future. Lawrence always is strong. Lawrence always unite. We pledge to support Lawrence teachers union. As a great leader Nelson Mandela said, "Education indeed the most powerful weapon to change the world. This change is only possible if we support our teachers union. The teachers bring the best education for our children in this wonderful season of the joy. We must we wish the best holiday and the Christmas for our great teachers and all employee Lawrence public school in this greatest nation of the world. The whole nation are stand united to support of our teachers and the union. Lawrence teachers we are proud of you. Because of you Lawrence we rise again. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next item of on the agenda is the chair's report. Um the first
004bullet is superintendent evaluation. We are going to have a vote later today to table that item for um hopefully the next meeting. Um the second item under that um is the subcommittee report which um we don't have a subcommittee report today uh for the policy, budget and finance or curriculum and instruction. We should have um we should have them for the next meeting as well. And um I am going to ask this superintendent Carrero to introduce our new LE student representative. >> It took us it took us to find him, but he's the best. Let me introduce to you Angel Dominguez, one of our uh students here at Lawrence Public Schools. And I'm going to allow for him to uh present his uh bio. Hello everyone. My name is Angel Dominguez and I'm 17 years
005old and I'm currently a junior at Aban Lawrence Academy. To start, I was originally born in Santiago, Dominican Republic, but migrated here at the age of four and I've ever since lived in Lawrence. To begin, I'm currently the president of my junior year class and I'm very involved in other extracurriculars such as the Red Cross club, Go Green, and Lao. I'm also involved in outside extracurriculars such as Erin's Presence, Yo, and top-notch scholars. I'm very excited to be here and have the opportunity to represent students in Lawrence, especially in the high school level. I'm privileged to be here surrounded by so many amazing people and I'm excited to share my opinions. Thank you. [applause] Um I'm sure that you're going to be impressed with Angel. He impressed me when I had a chance to interview
006him with other students and uh he's very thoughtful um and very analytical as to issues that are going on within the student body and I'm very proud of the work that he's done and he's only a junior right now in uh high school. So I like to think that we have him for a twofa that's a sale. Welcome Angel. >> Thank you for being here. >> Um, >> next item on the agenda are a series of votes. Uh, the first vote we are taking is uh to table the superintendent evaluation for the a meeting of a future meeting. Um, may I have a motion to table this item? >> So move Anybody wants to second or >> second? >> Thank you. Maria, please call the room. >> Dr. Lores Kalaf. >> Uh, yes. >> Maria
007Müller. >> Yes. Mayor, >> yes. She's not muted. Wait, I'm gonna send her a message. >> Wait a minute. She's unmuted now. >> Patricia. >> Yes. >> We are voting on tableabling um the superintendent's evaluation and I need to vote. >> Yes. Okay. Thank you. >> I'm sorry. >> That's okay. All right. Thank you. The next item is um a vote on uh accepting the middle school career technical education policy and I'm going to call for Victor Caravayo uh our headmaster to >> the headmaster of the high school. So the middle school pathway explor exploration policy is driven by uh policies of the department of education that they want all students in middle schools exposed to uh what career paths and opportunities that they have in high school. Uh Victor and his team worked diligently
008with uh the high school to create um a policy where we want to try to expose our kids to all of the offerings that the district has to have not just vocational technical education, private education or what have you. But in particularly with all the new pathways that we have, Madame Chair, offerings at the high school, we feel that uh we represent a viable choice for our students. I'm going to ask Dr. Karavaja to please come up, please. Where are you? Oh, >> superintendent. >> I'm sorry. I didn't see Jean T. was Jean that was here at all. So, anybody else? Okay, Jean, you got put on the spot. >> Welcome. Okay, that the first slide. Okay. So, thank you for having me tonight to discuss the evolution of our middle school our proposed middle
009school pathway exploration policy and to ask for your support. So, if you want to advance the slide one. So, this new policy requirement, as the superintendent said, is something that um the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is requiring that all school districts develop to ensure that our middle school students have exposure to the variety of options they have for career and technical education at the high school level and that we start to integrate our middle school with the um academic academic and career planning that's already in place at our high school. So that's the directive from the state to develop this new policy. Next slide. So the state also provided school districts with a variety of guidelines to help them develop these policies. So again, we had to state goals for our middle school
010career exploration. We had to enumerate the different CT career and technical education schools that our students can attend as well as the program options that are available at our local high school. We have to talk about career awareness activities with specific language around touring our um high school career and technical education schools. We have to provide we have to provide records of what we do to expose our middle school students to career and technical education options. We have to maintain those records and we have to as number six integrate it with our career and academic planning activities that are already available at the high school. So those were the policy guidelines of things we had to include in the policy. Next slide please. So, we went through this process to draft the policy that's in
011front of you tonight. Um, we reviewed the guidance that Desi provided as well as the model policy template. Uh, middle school principles, we reached out to all of them and they each designated one school counselor to provide input into the policy development. We met with those school counseling representatives as well as Caroline Turner who's the district lead counselor housed in the office of student support for input on our processes from our current processes what's already happening at the middle school so we could be cognizant of that and then build upon that and then we shared a draft with those counselors and with Caroline for feedback and then a we made some revisions and then finally we presented a draft to the principles all the principles from the district for their feedback and input. And so
012as a result of that process, this is the policy that we bring to you for approval tonight. So if you want to open up that link in this slide deck, anybody can do that. If not, you got I have provided you with a draft a physical draft of the policy. So if that doesn't open, I can walk you through a little bit about the policy. So if you if you see we stated sort of the purpose of the policy first to meet that DESIE requirement. We set three goals for our middle school policy to help students explore their interest and start matching them with possible career aspirations to learn about that variety of career options that are available and the educational requirements to enter those different careers and to develop a high school roadmap to
013help them think about their course selection and extracurricular activities to move toward their potential careers. So there's the goals of our policy and then as required in the guidance we enumerate the various high school pathway options some of which are at Lawrence public high school and some of which are at the greater Lawrence Technical School and the Ethics Essex Northshore Agricultural and Technical High School. So we have to enumerate those in our policy. Um then we articulate the variety of middle school career exploration activities that we're committing to in this policy. Um, if you scroll down a little bit to the second page, keep going. Okay. So, the specific action steps items one, two, three are all based on things that the middle schools and Lawrence public schools are already doing to support career and
014technical education exploration at the middle school level. If you scroll down to the next page, number four is something that we're introducing as a new aspect of their work at the middle schools. So, the high school this year adopted something called the ME MEIFA pathway to help students through in grades 9 through 12 plan for their career, their um career and post-secary plans. And we decided as a team to bring that down to the eighth grade and introduce the MEFA pathway in the eighth grade year and have them start building that capacity as middle schoolers. This is what we're committing to is this year. At the end of the policy, we talk about our desire to then roll this back eventually to grade six. Um, the next sections of the policy cover things that we're
015required to cover, including our policies for tours of the various schools, CTE schools and programs available. Our pol our attention to provide records of students to the CTE schools and programs to help with the admission process. our commitment to maintain records of all the CTE awareness activities we expose students to in the middle school levels. Um and then finally on the last page there's a link required link to an appendix which includes our my cap or my career and academic plan for the high school that we've amended to articulate the things that are going to happen in the eighth grade as well. So that's an overview of the policy. If any of you have any questions, I'd be happy to try to answer them. >> Yeah, thank you. >> Yes, the the commitment is to
016start this process this year as soon as the policy is >> that was that part of the open house that you was that part of the open house that was done just recently? >> No, the open house was to showcase all the offerings that we have when it comes to the bathroom, but I know that district wide in terms of [snorts] ensuring that middle school families understand what's going to be available at the high school. But you know, this is pretty much going to be a road map at the middle school so parents and students can make wise choices once they make. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions or comments? >> Could you repeat what he just said because I couldn't hear anything. Oh, thank you, Dolores. He's he's coming now. >> Oh. Oh,
017wait. You said okay. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. My apologies again. I was just uh in the audience. So, what I was saying is that when it comes to my cap and the vision for Desi and when it comes to the district is um seventh and eighth grade are going to be exploratory years. We're bringing down the idea of exploring careers earlier on in order for kids and families to be very well informed in terms of what the options are once they make it to the high school. Any additional questions? >> Thank you, sir. >> Thank you, Jean, for your work. Appreciate it. So, um I will now then take a motion to um adopt the middle school career technical education policy as presented. >> So move. >> Any second? >> Second. >> Okay.
018>> Maria, would you please call the row? >> Dr. Lores Kalav. >> Yes. Yes. Maria Müller. Yes. Mayor Brian Dea. >> Yes. >> Chair Patricia Mariano. >> Yes. >> Thank you. [snorts] >> Thank you. For the next item on the agenda, I'm going to call Chris Martins to um present our policy book updates for sections A and C. >> Do we got all the way to Z? >> No, no, C. >> A through C. [laughter] >> We'll try to keep this relatively quick. Um you guys have had these I think for a month or so. Uh these went through the process that we discussed at the beginning of the year which is uh we did uh an internal review with appropriate team members uh representatives from uh Mass Association of School Committees who supporting us
019with this process uh in which we uh merged our policies with their model policy either or kept our previous policy or added a new policy per their recommendation. Those were then presented to the policy subcommittee who met uh reviewed them all and then voted to send them to the full board for your approval tonight. Uh the only thing I will flag because they happened after the subcommittee meeting >> uh were two language changes to bef and BDA and those were simply uh updates from language that we discovered in the charter. We're getting very familiar with the charter uh after that meeting. So we added that language to make sure that it reflected the charter. Uh so the masks recommendation uh is that these be adopted in quote unquote in form pending the completion of the
020full policy review and at the end of the year they would take effect when you voted to adopt the entire book. >> So is the recommendation for us to adopt policy sections A through C as a subsection? Yes. You you will be adopting A throughc in form pending the complete review of the policy book. Yes. Got it. >> So that would be the motion that you'd be looking for. >> Thank you. Any other questions or comments? All right. May I please have a motion to adopt the policies mentioned in form pending completion of the policy review? >> So moved. >> I thank you. Maria, please call the row. >> Dr. Dores Kalaf, >> yes. >> Maria Müller, yes. Mayor Brian Deñena, >> yes. >> Chair Patricia Mariano, >> yes. >> Thank you. We'll see you
021at the next meeting with more policy sections. >> Thank you. The next item on the agenda um we are the next vote actually was scheduled to be a facilities rental vote but we are going to table until next meeting. Okay. >> And the next uh vote will be um to approve a uh donation from Extreme Craze. Extreme Craze is donating a visit to their facility for the Partham Middle School uh PA1 classroom and teachers on December 17th, 2025. The donation amount is $673. May I have a motion to accept this donation to the Parthonon Middle School from Extreme Craze? So move Anyone second? >> Second. >> All right, Maria, please call the round. >> Yes. >> Maria Müller. Yes. Mayor Brian. Chair Patricia Mariano. Yes. >> Thank you. Motion carries >> and the next two
022votes are for uh approval of minutes. Um may I have a motion to approve the minutes of October 8, 2025 from the Lawrence Alliance for Education Board meeting? >> I I have a comment on the October minutes. >> Okay, go ahead, Dolores. There is an error when it comes to a a piece that I did that says uh on the international book fair it says children's uh prayer and it was supposed to say children's fair and then I think there's a big difference and then as I read into the minutes of October it continue into another month. So I think there was some kind of a confusion there. >> No. Was that the meeting that we had to stop? >> Yeah, >> I believe that is the meeting that had to be suspended um because
023we lost quarum. >> We tabled it at the end because we lost quarum um Miss Kofiff. So it continued to the next meeting. >> Oh, okay. >> That was the October one. So if it's saying, where are we? >> Oh, so so this so this the the vote is for September or for October? Now I'm confused. >> No, the vote was for June because we we continued October to November. And you also have November, but the October one because we did not finish the meeting. It was tabled and then in November when we met. >> Okay. But but the error in terms of the on my piece on internship buffet is is wrong. >> Did you for November it was fine. >> Could you repeat that up so I can hear it? >> Miss Kof,
024can you repeat that so she Maria can make that correction? >> Okay. Yes, the under the October minutes, >> the error uh was saying that the international book fair uh included a children's prayer and it should say a children's fair, >> not a children's prayer. >> Children's prayer. >> Although we probably now that in retrospect we probably needed it. A children's prayer. Well, but it's not supposed to be connected to religion. >> You're absolutely right. >> Uh she was she captured that. So, >> okay. >> The minutes. >> So, that's it. Then they be approved with the um >> Okay. So, may I u may I please have a motion to approve the minutes from October 8th, 2025 as amended? >> Uh a motion. >> Any seconds? I saw some motion. She supposed >> Oh,
025so I'm sorry. U Mayor Dea said um said the motion. So the motion the minutes with the amendment. >> Oh, so second. >> Yep. >> Okay. All right. Maria, please call the row. >> Okay. Got it. >> Josecala. >> Yes. >> Maria Müller. Yes. Mayor Brian Dea. Yes. >> Sh Patricia Mariano. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> So, may I have a motion to approve the minutes from November 24th, 2025? Any comments or edits on that? [snorts] >> Oh, they're fine. May I have a motion? >> Some go ahead, Patricia. >> Yes. So, mayor, >> we need a second. Mayor >> and then the second chair. >> We need a second. >> You have Oh, Miss Mariano. Okay. Yeah. Chair Mariano did that. Okay. Sorry, Maria. Please call the wrong. >> That's okay. Dr. Lores
026Galaf, >> yes. >> Maria Müller, >> yes. >> Mayor Brian Dea, >> yes. >> Chair Patricia Mariano. >> Yes. >> Thank you. And with that, I'll pass it on to the superintendent for a superintendent's report. Thank you. I'm going to call on Dr. Lin Cateris, our supervisor of assessment and accountability and accountability to uh make this next presentation regarding the district and school results. >> Good evening. >> Oh, there you are. >> Look at that. >> Um thank you for having me. Um hopefully you've had an opportunity to review uh the presentation uh so that we can just sort of get through this today. Um I just wanted to share a little bit about um both our demographics and our MCCAST data from last school year. Um we are a little bit late doing this
027presentation since we're going to be hitting our MCCAST is going to start back up in February for our high school in science. So um but if we could have the presentation. Okay. How do you get me? >> Thank you. Okay. So, um, as we talk about one of the things I just wanted to point out in the student demographics, if you could go forward two slides, please. Um, is one of the things I think one more, uh, is that after COVID, right, we lost, um, a number of students out of the district. We'd went from just over 13,000 down to um, around 12,700. And gradually over the last 3 or four years, we're starting to see that number go back up. Last year we were at 13,300 and this year we're back we're continuing to
028see another 50 or 60 students. So we are seeing that increase. The other thing that was important on this data was that um last school year, the 2425 school year was the largest percent of students who are English learners. um we had 44.5% of our students who were English learners and 20% of our students were identified as students with disabilities also the highest that we had seen in in the last five or six years. Um how we did in terms of achievement we're going to go to slide five now. Um so our English language arts achievement on MCCAST. One of the things you can see here it's I just put up the last three years of data. So it's 2023 24 25. The black line at the top is how the state did. This is
029the percent of students scoring in the meeting or exceeding on MCCAST. We are relatively flat and that has been a trend over the last several years. However, we did see some meaningful increases in grades three, four, six, and seven. And a meaningful increase is at least two percentage points from the previous year. So even though we're sort of flat overall, we did see an increase in a number of grades um on the ELA from 2024 to 25. In math, uh we saw that same can you Yeah, thank you. Um again, you can see those charts from 23, 24, 25 are relatively stable. we are scoring about the same in terms of the percent meeting or exceeding. Um but we did see in grades five and seven those meaningful increases and our grade three continues to
030be our highest area or highest grade meeting expectations or exceeding expectations with 25% of our students who are meeting that criteria on MCCAST. our science science is only administered in grades five, eight and 10 or 10, nine or 10. Um and so again we are seeing in fifth grade especially we've seen um an increase each year and that increase from 17% to 19% for 24 to 25 was a meaningful significant increase. our eighth grade stayed the same and our 10th grade was was basically the same as well. And then last year was the first year that um we now have civics assessment in 8th grade. Uh so uh our students eight or 16% of our students were in the meeting or exceeding expectations compared to 39% at the state level. If we look at this
031data by school, I think the important part here is that anything that's in green was an increase from 24 to 25. So in ELA, 78% of our schools had an increase in the percent of students meeting or exceeding expectations. In math, it was 50%, science was 64%. So even though we are sort of flat as a district, we did see some nice gains for schools from 2024 data to 2025 data. Uh the next piece is looking at the accountability. Um just as a remember reminder that our Massachusetts accountability system it's really designed to say how is our school how are our schools doing compared to other schools across the state and then what kind of support might they need and so the indicators are look at indicators of achievement which is the MCCAST scores um
032student growth also on MCCAST some issues some high school completion indicators such as the graduation rate um dropout rate, how how well are we doing with getting a fiveyear five-year cohort um graduation rate. We also look at um measures of English language proficiency. So that's on the access test. How many students are showing progress on that? And then we're also looking at things like chronic absenteeism and advanced coursework at the high school. If we look at our Oh, you might have to click it one more time. Nope. Go. There you go. Um, the state gives us what they call non high school. So that's our grades 3 to 8. We get an accountability result for that. And then we also get an accountability result for our high school. So on the left side, the non-
033high school, you can see that in achievement um our grades 3 to 8, we improved. We improved below the target that the state set for us. We improved below target in math. we improve below target in science. Those are all MCCAST scores. In terms of growth, they look to say, are you at or around that 50th percentile for growth? And in ELA, we had typical growth high. And in math, we also had typical growth high. Our English language proficiency, we met the target that the state set for us. And our chronic absenteeism, we exceeded the target. that we had a significant um decrease in the percent of students who were chronically absent last school year. >> Overall, in the grades 3 to 8, we made um 68% of our progress. We made substantial progress towards
034our targets. At the high school level, um we did not see the same kind of results. Um our achievement across ELA, math, and science declined from the previous year. growth was low. Um I want to say a caveat here is that last year um after the MCCAST in we had the vote in November to eliminate MCCAST as a graduation criteria or requirement. Um, we we don't know, but we think that may have had an impact on how serious perhaps students took the MCCAST as 10th graders when it was no longer a criteria for them to graduate. And that may have been one of the indicators that we see that decline. Um, it may not be the only one, but it's something that we're looking into to sort of see if if there's something we need
035to do around that. Um, in terms of our high school completion, the four-year graduation rate we had improved below target. Um, but our extended engagement in the dropout were both declined um, compared to the previous accountability results. We did meet target for our English language proficiency, which again, remember I indicated that 40 we're at 45% of our students are English learners. So, they are taking that access test. So in both grades 3 through 8 and grade 10, we met our targets for students um meeting those criteria for for language proficiency. Um in addition, the high school also um exceeded their target for chronic absenteeism and met the target for having students participate in the advanced course or those AP um courses. Um overall though there was limited or no progress towards targets at our high
036school level. When we look at this for individual schools, um again, green is good in this instance. Um and so we have um some highlights from this is that uh 14 of our 19 schools increased their percentile. So, the state looks at measures of achievement, growth, chronic absenteeism, and English proficiency, and it compares how our schools are doing compared to in grades 3 through eight, there's about 1,200 other schools in Massachusetts. So, we're compared to those 1,200 schools, and they give us a rating. That's what that rank is. So, you rank at the fourth percentile. we have a school that ranked at the 35th percentile compared to those other 1,200 schools. So again, we had about 74% of our schools that improved their ranking from the previous school year. Um in addition, you can look
037at how many um met progress towards targets. We had um the majority of our schools made substantial progress towards targets. And then the last area there is the classification. So the state um looks at that ranking and any school that is below the 10th percentile or ranks in the bottom 10% of schools of those 1,200 schools across the state is automatically identified as a school requiring assistance or intervention. in our turnaround plan. Um the goal had listed in our turnaround plan that we would be at nine schools down to five schools down to zero schools by last school year. Um last year in 2024 we had nine schools that were in that bottom 10% that were requiring assistance. This year that number dropped to six schools. Um so we are on track for what the
038turnaround plan had asked for to have zero schools in three years. So we are making progress towards that >> and that's all I have questions. >> Well certainly the uh last bit of news that you mentioned is good news for our district and uh the work of our teachers. um trying to figure out all of these numbers that the Department of Education throws at us is not easy to keep up with. And then to uh throw out a non-motivator of eliminating MCCAST at one of our grade levels makes it tough for us. But I I do believe that uh you you're correct. We're right on target. We're at six schools and we're hoping to drop that down to three to zero at the end of this school year. That puts us in a very good
039position to have serious conversations uh Mr. Mayor with the Department of Education about uh releasing our schools back to local control. Okay. So, we're going to keep we're going to keep working. I know that we've got we've met with our faculty, explained to them where we're at and what we're doing that all is not doom and gloom. There's some good stuff happening, but it's it's hard work. We can we can see that. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. >> Um I have a quick comment actually. Um could you talk a little bit briefly about um uh just some overall strategies for the specific schools that are that declined significantly as as it shows in some of the slides. >> Yeah. So, um, we we've implemented, I would say one thing that we've done this year is
040we're really looking at our, um, tiered systems of support. Um, so MTSS and really starting with that tier one and what's happening in our classrooms and and then, um, trying to address the needs of all of our students within that tier, that, you know, core instruction. But if students need additional support, every school now has um at least 45 minutes to an hour every day where students are getting getting intervention that's based specifically on their need. Um so that I think is one thing and then we've also are focusing a lot on on implementing curriculum for our multilingual learners. And um we've also implemented a a program of an assessment and intervention program also to be used during that intervention block specifically for our multilingual learners. >> Okay. Thank you. I'll also say that we
041have implemented a lot of I say we but honestly the LPS and the staff and all the administrators have implemented a lot of new initiatives um in the school and I think this this I am I want to you know I want this to be the base you know that we can just jump from you know and continue improving but I am hoping that uh all those initiatives that have been implemented this year you know I I can see that very soon we're going to start seeing in the results. So, >> yep, we're stable. >> Yeah, correct. Any other comments or questions? >> Yes. Um, do you hear me, Maria? >> Yes, we do. >> Okay. Um, Lynn, uh, how does the, um, the program at the high school, the portrait of a graduate, how
042does that impact or help the MCCAST in that at the high school? >> I'm going to let the headmaster speak to that. [laughter] >> Uh, good evening everyone. Good, good evening, Pat. That's a great question. So when it comes to the portrait, one of the things that we're doing is one, we're focusing on the expansion of pathways, but at the same time, uh, we're really expanding on the rigor of the coursework that we're offering, particularly around AP courses. And what Lynn was saying is, uh, doubling down on our efforts to help our multilingual learners, particularly with those interventional courses, is the way to go. um you know we're receiving a lot of kids who are uh below grade level and so we have to do a lot of catch-up work and that's what we're focusing
043on. Just to give you an example, we have this year over 40 I would say intervention courses to support students uh in both ELA and math. Uh and then the English language component is huge. If the kids cannot read in English, they cannot write in English, they're not going to perform well in the MCAST. And so we're making sure that you know uh that when it comes to the supports for those students uh it is there. We do have a um a co-eing model that we have adopted. So now we have your regular content teacher along with your ESL teacher uh to support language acquisition in our classrooms. >> All right. Um Victor, one more question and um I'm I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around this. Um how many years have we
044been um using that model the portrait of the graduate? This is going to be year three. The launch was actually right after co I would say and it just started at the high school and it was an intro right to the series of competencies that we all agreed upon. >> [snorts] >> And so, um, that's that's that's how long it has been in place. This is this is going to be, I believe, the the start of year three for it. >> All right. Um, do you and Lynn together feel that we should have had a bigger impact from that program when it came to the testing? I think that the portrait was more careerbased and career oriented and focused more on the CTE rather than the instructional core. I think that the work that we're
045doing now in terms of the professional development, the training, the interventions, I think that that's going to have a greater impact. Uh if you compare Lawrence High School again with the you know with Lynn and Chelsea and uh Methuan uh they basically all got the same results in terms of um to be honest not limited progress towards uh the MCAST. And so I I know that the commissioner even went out saying that across the state they saw a decrease at the high school level. And so that whole accountability piece I think is playing a huge factor. Again I don't I'm not trying to excuse it. I think that we can do a better job in terms of providing additional interventions. But to your question again, Pat, um I don't think that the portrait work necessarily
046uh fully supports the the the academic growth that that we need to see. I just think that doubling down on the interventions and the supports for students in our classrooms is going to be the way to go. >> All right. So, if you had a crystal ball right there and you shook it, um what would How long would we get a the bang for our dollar? In other words, um with the both programs combined, >> I think within realistically to imple as we're doing this work at the middle school and we do this launch, I think within uh two to three years, we're going to be able to see it in full fruition. When it comes to the MCAST 2, uh I know the governor just announced that we're shifting away from the MCAST as
047well. And so, um, when it when it comes to this data, uh, it it's not something that we're going to necessarily be focusing on. We're just going to be focusing on the instructional core since, um, Desi is going to be focusing in developing, uh, standardized test for each content area. [snorts] >> Okay. Thank you, Victor and Lynn. >> You're welcome. [snorts] >> The different twist. >> Any other comments or questions? Thank you, Dr. >> We're good. >> You good? >> Yes. >> All right. Um, so next item is um to discuss the Lawrence High School code of um >> Uniform policy. Yes. Versus a code of um >> this in the past has always been a nice controversial [laughter] topic. There's uh there's there's heated >> passionate beliefs versus uh discipline versus what students look
048like. >> So what I had said to the head safety Thank you mayor. What I had said to the headmaster is why don't you take up the conversation with the faculty, students and anybody else that should be involved in having a discussion about it. And one of the reasons why we brought it up to be honest with you uh members of the board is that how many students do we have on a regular basis leaving the campus to go to internships to go to early college to go to the hospitals to go to the health centers. >> We're talking over a thousand students >> on a regular basis. >> Okay. So what has come up is our students are dressing in a uniform and they go to the hospital and everybody in the hospital is
049dressed in blue scrubs. You and I don't want to see them. If we see anybody with a blue scrub, our eyes are going to open up, right? >> No. >> Yeah. Okay. However, the kids would like to go and represent themselves as if they're there truly doing internships and that's just a piece of it. Then there's the early college. Our kids, what I understand, are going to Northern Essex, Marramac College, the University of Massachusetts, and they're going with their uniforms on versus dressing like college kids. So with that in mind, I had asked the headmaster to bring his team and let's have a quick conversation as to what has gone on, what's the framework around it and see if we can come to terms by next meeting and decide on whether a uniform policy or
050a dress code, not a freeforall, a dress code is in order so our kids can represent the best of what we have as they're out and about. Now remember, we have kids at Abbott that also walk across the street two blocks to Northern Essex. They like to look like young men, young ladies, >> serious going to college also. And I think that we started uniforms because of safety reasons, issues that we've had in the past at the grammar school level and at the high school. I don't think that we have that condition anymore, but I'll leave that up to the team. >> Thank you for uh superintendent just for laying out some context. But before we get started, I just want to introduce the members of the team who are here with me tonight. >>
051Good evening. Dr. Reinoso, principal opera school. >> Good evening. Mindy Richardson, one of the um ninth grade teachers at the high school. >> Sorry. >> Moren Santiago, CTE teacher, business pathway teacher. >> So, when it comes to the high school, um the main focus and and uh Miss Mariano just really opened the door to this conversation. This what we're talking about today is the heart of the portrait of a graduate. And so what we have on the left side of the screen is the various initiatives that align to the portrait, but also diversify the kind of experience that we're providing for students. And so before we even get started, it's important for everyone to understand the evolution of the high school and the changes that we're making to make the high school more attractive and
052more conducive to the kind of experience that we want students to have. And now again the goal is college and career readiness. I know there was a time in which we were wondering where are our students? Attendance grade is looking amazing at the high school. Kids are making it to school. They're showing up. The dropout rate I know Lynn presented some information. This is the latest data as of October 1.33. There was a time in which we were at 56%. And so what this is telling us is that when it comes to the change of programming is becoming a lot more meaningful, more attractive for students and so kids are showing up because they see themselves in the school and they are seeing a future in our career that they can aspire to. So in
053terms of programming this year we introduced to the high school advanced manufacturing for example and that was just unique to GLTS and the after dark program. And so for a lot of students who are interested in in in manufacturing and with all the partners that we have here in Lawrence, this is a great opportunity when it comes to our business pathway. We have really uh expanded our efforts and I'm just going to have uh Moren for a second. She's a bit shy, but she's our uh business pathway teacher just to talk a little bit about the business experience and uh what students are encountering and some of the partnerships that we have. >> You can talk about the store. >> Yeah. I'm on. Good evening everybody. First of all, he told me I wasn't speaking
054so I'm not prepared. I'm winging this for you. But our business pathway has been around since the early days of small schools when we were the business and finance school. It is now a um innovation pathway that is a Desi sponsored pathway. in that pathway. Currently, our current juniors last year redesigned the entire uh school store. So, if you come into the school store now, it is a new brand new school store. Now, selling items to the public, selling it to alumni, selling to students. It is not just food and drink. It is now a running store, which is fabulous. They are designing the actual clothing. They are making it through a Cricut and we also would love for you guys to come by and see what's happening through that. But the business pathway runs
055from sophomore to senior year. Sophomore year is intro to business. Uh junior year is marketing and then senior year they take a management and an internship and they're interning inside the school store. They're interning at an art center. Um, we are currently talking to Reading Bank, writing cooperative bank who would like to take our students as bank interns. And so there's just a lot of amazing things happening in that pathway. But that's only one of the many other ones. And in that pathway, we also see students owning their pathway. And we would love for somehow for them to look like their pathway, not look like every other student at Lawrence High School. And so they could take ownership into joining this pathway because not everyone gets to join the pathway. So if you could think
056about this policy that we're talking about changing, it would really help the students be part of something some ownership that they really need at the high school. Thank you. >> See Marina Shaba, she's a wonderful speaker which is fantastic. do >> uh >> when it comes to health assisting, uh that's a brand new pathway as well. And what's great about the health assisting pathway is that we have now student interns at Lawrence General and we also have a great partnership with Harvard Med in which we're able to actually take our kids to Harvard in order for them to partake of what we call um a lab and within that lab, right, they're able to experience what it is to be right in the medical field. And so again, uh, the superintendent mentioned it earlier. When
057they go to Harvard, they're wearing the scrubs, right? They're in it. They're immer They're immersed in the experience, right? They're really getting to know what it is like uh to be in the health field. Dual degree, uh, through NECO, uh, we have a series of students. Now, if you're a we're recruiting students from the eighth grade that are going to be able to graduate with a high school diploma as well as an associates and so that's a beautiful program. Again, it's a great way to expose and challenge our kids. And this is part of uh the innovation and the work that we're doing at the high school. And the focus of the dual degree is in both business and health which is part of our innovation pathways. And then lastly uh but not least our
058education pathway. We have always wondered you know how can we diversify the workforce? And so what we're doing at the high school is creating uh a pathway in which we can train our kids from Lauren High School to become the future educators of Lawrence public schools which is a powerful statement that we're making and we're becoming a model in the state in terms of creating that kind of unique experience from being a student to becoming an educator with high school support and district support all aligned. The other piece that I want you to pay attention to which is important is yes while we need to do some work when it comes to uh series of students there a lot of students that are performing and outperforming uh our AP scores are coming back and now
059we're at a point in which 52% of our students are actually passing the AP exam which is a great number for us um and so that's a testament of the rigor and the push that we're making and so the school that just focused on the fights and the remedial work is transitioning into a school of innovation and careers and goals. Uh just last week I just received the news that one of our kids from upper school actually um was admitted to Yale University with a full scholarship. So we're very proud of that and again this is that new identity of the high school um that we're creating and we're developing. Next slide please. I'm just going to show you a few images because I know we're also short in time. So, I'm going to be
060cognizant of that. This is what it looks like to have a dress code, right? Members of uh JTC proudly showcasing the uniform. That's what we're talking about. Kids who are part of the health assisting. Here's a picture of the kids at Harvard Med in the simulation lab wearing their scrubs. Project Lead the Way. This is another example of how our dress code can support that career oriented goal that we have as a high school. Advanced manufacturing, another testament of how this dress code can support that idea and really uh enforce um that career outlook that we want our kids to have. Aviation. So, if you look up at the sky on a Saturday morning, the odds are that you're going to see a Lancer. >> And the reality is that on the left side, that's
061actually one of our kids on that plane. >> They ain't flying me to Paris. [laughter] >> Uh some of our families have inquired about free trips to the DR and I I couldn't guarantee that. Uh but when it comes to the aviation pathway, that's something new um that we started this year. And again, our kids are able to go to um our local airport and take advantage of the proximity of it. Uh they get they get the training that they need for ground school and eventually they're going to be able to accumulate the hours in order for them to become licensed pilots. That's happening at Lawrence High School. >> And then I know Marine was talking about this. Uh this was this is a picture of the grand opening of the um of our store.
062And you can see again the the shirts that the kids are making, the gear that the kids are making, okay, are inspired uh by uh the career pathways and it's something that we would like to uh extend to a lot more students. Okay. Uniform policy versus dress code. Uh so basically what we're trying to do is shift like Victor said uh we want to make ownership for our students to showcase the different pathway that they're going to be in. Uh we're not asking to get rid of uniform, but we're asking to uh lessen that and create the professional attire. Right? As the principal for the opera school, I work with the juniors and seniors who are going out into the workforce and leaving the school to go to internships as Victor said. So, what we're
063looking to do is create more of a dress code where students are dressed to fit the part to go out into the community. Uh the detail in the PowerPoint here talks about uh what it would look like. And what we're trying to do at this point is engage the community, engage some of the parents to see how they feel about what we're proposing to do at the high school level. Uh to Victor's point earlier, we have moved away from remedial and breaking up fights where now kids are asking to go into AP courses and the different um pathways. So I think we're in a good place and we got to capitalize on that to make sure that we're supporting what the workforce is asking us to do. And when our students get on the bus
064to go to Neco, they're asking us like, can we design different shirts? Can we wear something that when we're there, we don't look like uh, you know, 15, 16 year old at the college level. They want to fit uh the part there. >> Thank you, Dr. Renoso. Now, I'm just going to have Mindy just talk about the elements of the dress code. What are we really talking about? Okay. What is allowed and what is not? So we understand the parameters of it and how this can be conducive to the goal that we have of college and career readiness. >> When we went to look at what we would like to put into our dress code, we looked at the neighboring um high schools in our area and reviewed some of the dress codes that were
065already there and like the superintendent like you um had requested, you know, we want standards. So, we definitely felt like we could find um standards with um no no headwear that um except for religious purposes, but especially that doesn't cover or conceal the identity of the student. Um so, still maintaining that aspect of the safety. Um no clothing that is sheer or um significant. Um tears that it would be um exposing um you know undergarments for example are one of the um the items that we still we want. Um there can be uh torn jeans and fashion without um exposing undergarments. I think is the the point we were trying to um put together when we put the dress code. Um but we we wanted um we wanted to allow um oh certainly nothing that
066had profanity um promoting um any drugs or alcohol um or illegal activities um or [clears throat] um sayings um that would have um um profanity in them. nothing nothing like that as as we know those things are out there that the teenagers sometimes well adults too. Um anyway, nothing that was discriminatory towards um towards anyone um or sexual orientation. So we we felt like we put together some good standards that while students could um could express some individuality, it's still with standards. Um and I I believe as we've all mentioned you know that shift of moving from punitive to um um college oriented and career and tech orientation is is very important and that more positive uh facing approach. Our students have really earned this and are moving in the the correct um the correct
067direction. um that we we believe they're ready for this. And on our teacher leadership team um the the faculty and um teachers uh they voted um overwhelmingly in favor of this. >> So thank you Mindy for highlighting that aspect. We are not when it comes to this initiative we're not doing this in isolation. Okay. We uh engaged the campus student government. I know I have a follow-up meeting with Avit on Wednesday. Um, and you know what we're asking for tonight is just the ability to be able uh to promote and uh to inform and uh to ensure that everyone is on the same page in terms of you know uh parents, students again teachers and administrators in order for us uh to be able to make this switch. Then I just want to give space
068to uh Markins so we can discuss next steps. >> So just quickly to put this in the context of the policy work that we've been talking about so much. Obviously we are doing a district-wide policy review. As part of that we will be getting with mask to a discussion around dress code and uniform. Um I think they wanted to bring this to your awareness now so that you guys could sort of have some time to sit on it and they could begin the process of moving forward with the rest of their community. What we'd be looking for, I think, uh, probably at our next meeting, is uh, a motion, the board's approval to move forward with the district developing a district-wide dress code policy that carves out space for the campus. Uh, you know, if
069K to 8 were to keep the uniform policy, for instance, it would carve out space for the uh, for the campus to create a dress code policy that uh, fits that those uh, grade 9 to 12 needs. Um, but that's for for next month. I think they really just wanted to bring it to everybody's awareness now so they could start that conversation, make sure that the the the board was aware uh that they're moving forward in this way. >> And that's it folks. Any questions with regards to the change, the rationale, the ask? >> No, but thank you. This is really exciting and you know it just uh it it's evident that you're thinking about the students. So much appreciate it and really happy to hear that it it's going in the right direction too.
070>> Thank you Marc advisement as I mentioned before their presentation that we wanted to have a discussion with the board. Um, it's a shift in mindset, but I think we when we deal with young people, there's always a shift in mindset. It depends on which way they lead us. And I think this is a good pathway. >> Yep. >> That they're leading us to. So, we'll have uh we'll have a month in January to discuss it a little bit. I like the fact that you had an option there for things that clothing where that shouldn't be. If you're going to be dressing appropriately, let's dress appropriately, but being mindful. I like the fact that you've have allowed for kids to at the different grades, depending what their pathways are, that they're um participating. I have
071one question. Ninth grade, you got eighth graders that came out of schools and ninth grade. Speaking as a ninth grade teacher for um several years now at the high school and all of those years have been in uniform. I think sometimes our ninth graders spend more time and energy trying to change or hide their uniform. Um and in terms of the standards you were talk talking about sometimes um they they try to change these uniforms to a standard that we don't like. we we could um save a lot of energy and maybe not have those hassles if we we let them um express some individuality. Um many of them, you know, would love to dress with pride and some of them are currently trying to dress with with pride. Um others just want to be
072a little more comfortable, but there's nothing that's offensive. Um again, I think many of our freshmen try hard to avoid the uniform. um if we gave them a little bit of space, we might be surprised. >> Okay. And >> I just wanted to add the message for us is college and career readiness. So from the day that uh a ninth grader starts from the way that they dress to the experience that they have, we want it we want it to match, right? College and career readiness. Now you got to start thinking about the future. That's our message. And so I think that when it comes to the dress code that would really reinforce that and kids are going to understand that they're really in a different space and that now right we really have to
073start thinking seriously about what the future looks like. >> Spoken like a true democrat. >> What was that? >> Spoken like a true Democrat. Um thank you. I appreciate all of you taking the time to come out and express uh the conversations that you've had with the I'm happy to hear that the faculty is almost you know in its majority uh so that wasn't always the case much moons ago right >> it's true >> so the synergy I think that I'm hearing of what's going on at the campus is pretty exciting and amazing amazing that uh folks want to support kids and want to see them succeed and that we'll do whatever we can to make sure that we set that environment up. So, we'll take it under adisement. I think that uh what we
074have to always worry about is the elements. That's why I brought up the ninth graders. Sometimes they're still mustangs, right? and uh by the time they get to sophomore, they line up and go with the rest of them. But I I hope that you be ready for those Mustangs that >> we'll be ready. We'll be ready. >> So, thank you. Mayor, did you have anything to add? Uniform policy. P personally [clears throat] as a student I feel like this would be very beneficial as we're seeing um these students and these pathways they're becoming more confident and I feel like with this confidence they're want to see their future more and they're going to put their step forward into their future and I feel like if we go into this uniform policy there'll be more and
075more students striving for their future. >> Thank you Angel. Excellent. >> Right. Thank you, members of the board. >> Thank you. >> I thought I put you on as a student to support me. [laughter] >> Okay. >> Thank you. Appreciate that. Real quickly, last item on the agenda, Madam Chair, is just uh LPS, our November December update in your packets. Do you have or do we have this up, Susan? Also, Suzanne, wanted to just quickly mention this past uh November, our talented students performed. Uh, help me out here. Where's my What was the name of our play? >> The Bronx Tail must be the connections that we have there. But uh it was nice that uh I noticed that it was it looked like if it was all males this time around. We do have
076talent. Um I want to congratulate them and the work that they that they've done. But I also want to mention something and and that has to do with the feeder programs and this is something that Heather Loy has spoken about and that we have to create those opportunities in the lower schools in the grammar schools where kids have an opportunity to do art to perform because as they come up in grades they develop the skills and and and the character that they're not afraid of. Uh in the in the second page, one thing that I that was brought to my attention, we had uh we were asked to have our kids um present some of their artwork and 12 of them got selected from around the state um to look at their finals. Two of
077them were finalists and they got selected and their artwork was presented at the uh state house. um in the right outside the governor's office. >> I hate to do this when we're hearing the best part of this meeting, but um we have lost quum u because chair Mariano had to step out and um I need to call the meeting to adjournment at this point because we are not allowed to have continue. >> Thank you so much for the >> the whatever good news you had to share before we lost our quorum. But um >> thank you madam chair. Um, I would like to ask for a motion to adjourn due to lack of quorum. >> Dolores, are you there to second? >> Yes. Second. >> Right. Please call the row. Mariatoores Kala. >> Yes. [laughter]
078>> Maria Müller. Yes. >> And Mayor Brian Dea. >> Yes. >> Thank you.