MRSD School Committee Meeting 2/11/2026 - Superintendent Interview with Patricia Haynes

001us. >> I will call to order the Masconomic Regional School District uh school committee meeting at 6:32 p.m. on February 11th. Once again, I will pass the baton to my partner in crime meeting. >> Okay. Um we have Dr. Patty Haynes with us tonight. Um, so just to orient you, we have um about 20 questions. Um, and we do ask for you to try to keep your responses to two to three minutes so we have time for some follow-ups and questions from you at the end. Um, and with that, I think we can get started. Matt, you have our first well actually the intro, right? We want to hear from you. Okay. Um to get us started, um if you could share your journey to educational leadership, what draws you specifically to Masanomit Regional School

002District at this point and what priorities you would have for your first 90 days? >> Absolutely. First of all, I want to thank everybody for the the great experience I had today. Um just being here, I can see the pride that everybody has in the district. Uh students were phenomenal leading me through the building. Um and this is certainly a place that is um poised for excellence. Um and if it was to come to me, it would be an honor for me to partner with the community and move forward um in what what you have already got going. That's going very well. Um very very phenomenal. Um very impressive. I am a 30-year educator. Um 30 year plus educator. I started off teaching actually uh 10th grade biology, moved into kindergarten, have taught everything between

003literally kindergarten through high school. Most of my career has been spent at the middle grades 5 through 8. Uh at which point I thought it was a good idea to go into um building administration. Started as an assistant principal, uh was principal of a couple of buildings, moved into central office and did some work at central office in multiple districts in Connecticut as well as in New Hampshire. Um, and Masco just really has the structure of the perfect district for me in that the emphasis on academics and student growth and learning is right there. Um, balanced along with the need to support student well-being where students can explore and figure out who they are and who they want to become as adults. Um, and I understand that there are always with strong districts such as

004Masanama uh needs to balance fiscal pressures with the investments that have come already as far as um what the community has put in. But I see that my my um pedigree and what I bring to the district and my instructional journey is that I would balance out and bring forward a lot of the um different perspectives that I bring along. um having come from across multiple districts and move along um to help mask move on to the next level. Um I believe it is poised for excellence. I totally see that there is um a lot that is just ready to um go on to next point of excellence. having met with your staff and knowing that they are very passionate about what they do um and caring so much about students and families and I

005feel like this is just the right place, the right time for me. >> Can you touch on first 90 days? >> Sure. Sorry. Um >> so my first 90 days would be definitely to spend time listening and learning the district. listening and learning about what's going on not only in the district and in the two schools, but also getting to understand um the feeding system from three separate towns, getting to understand the flavor of each one of those towns, learning how all of that sort of works together, building relationships with people, whether they be people at central office that would be working with me, the administrative team, which is very talented. I did spend time talking to them today. um working with the teachers directly and any of the support staff and then looking at

006systems and priorities to assess what's going on. What really is um in need of immediate attention? what might need to have some time to uh do some further exploration looking at data that is aligned with those uh systems and priorities. And then spending time developing communication plan so that there is clear and regular communication coming out from my office to not only the families of both of the schools and in the district but also a way to regularly communicate down to the towns and the elementary schools so that there's a regular um explanation and sharing of information of what's going on so that the first time that families are entering Masco is not at seventh grade with their new students but that they've already feel like they're part of the district and part of what's

007going on here. And from there, I would establish a roadmap for action. Figure out what is it that we're going to do immediately? What needs again immediate attention? How are we going to develop systems to address that? What does our plan look like going out and really developing that roadmap? looking at the next 90 days, the end of the first year, second year, third year, so that there is a clear plan in place with communication about where we are along the way, where are we as far as fulfilling those steps and also carrying out what we've set for ourselves for goals. So, that would be my 90-day plan. >> Great. Matt, >> um, actually, Adrian, do you mind if we go around just introduce ourselves real quick because I know some of us missed it

008last the other night and yeah, >> would be effective. So um I'm Matt Alexander. I represent Middleton and uh this year I happen to be the school committee chair. >> Lisa McInness also um Middleton representative Alden Topsfield. >> Joe McClean uh Boxford representative >> and I'm Trevor Courier also representing Middleton. >> Bill Hodgees from Topsfield. >> I'm Chris Bullzan. I'm from Oxford and Adrien Hay Tenny Topsfield. >> Thank you. So our first section is going to focus on educational vision and instruct instructional leadership. Um and specifically the first question is on strategic vision. So Masconomic has developed a portrait of a learner that emphasizes competencies for college career and civic readiness. How would you how would you approach ensuring this vision translates translates into tangible outcomes across grades 7 to 12? And what would success

009look like in year three of your tenure? Absolutely. So, I've already looked at the work that you've done with the portrait of a learner and the work that you've done is has got a great foundation. You're you're going in the right direction as far as being able to have students um clearly articulate how they're demonstrating those competencies across different content areas, but also working to have those students figure out ways that they can selfassess how they're performing in those competencies would be something I would be looking at. um those those competencies I believe are the way that education needs to start thinking about evolving and moving in that direction because we have access to technology right now. We in our phone we can look up information. We don't any longer need to memorize things. and

010looking at ways for students to be able to take the information that's so readily available to us now and demonstrate it in new ways to problem solve whether local problems or national issues or perhaps global ones if perhaps if we wanted to somehow um end up on Mars and build colonies to really self assess and embed those into what they're doing so that they could see that not only are they learning about content but the application of that content that's going to be what is going to matter when they leave us. Um, setting up students for success at Masconomic means giving them the full uh portfolio of those competencies and of of the portrait of a learner and then making sure that they are confident in those abilities that they can demonstrate that whether through

011a portfolio or through other means. Um so that when they go off to postsec postsecary whether it's college maybe they're going straight to career maybe they're going off to the military that they know that they are ready to uh attack whatever is going to face them when they leave us. We have a very finite amount of time with with our students when they leave us in 12th grade. they're into the real world and we want to make sure that we are sending out into the world students who embody those competencies, can apply them, and um are really out there showing what Mascanama does for students. And there's a great deal of um academic success that goes into all of that. um at the end of my third year, what I would expect to see for

012success is that we have all those uh portrait of a learner competencies um written out. Perhaps having a list where students can self assess to really think about what does their journey look like over the years? How how have they evolved from a seventh grader who might not be comfortable with collaboration or communication to somebody who is confidently in their 12th grade year perhaps presenting a an exit project, a portfolio, a defensive learning where they can feel confident in their abilities as a student, as a learner, and as a citizen. making sure that not only are we preparing them for a career, but are they prepared to be a citizen, whether they stay in our towns, which is something we really would want them to do, is stay here and continue to give back, or

013they go out and find their passion, which is something that uh the school and both schools, the district is providing for all these students. So those are the things that I would look at to put together to really uh develop a profile where we have those students who are very confident in their abilities that we are confident that we're able to measure them and that we have a way to um prepare them for what's what's coming up u after they leave us. >> Thank you >> Joe. >> You're number two. >> Yes. Okay, sorry about that. Uh, this question is about curriculum and instruction. Uh, please describe a time when you led a significant curriculum innovation or instructional improvement initiative. What was your process for engaging teachers, measuring impact, and sustaining the changes over time?

014>> Absolutely. Thank you for the question. Just recently, and I would say within the last three years, um, we led a major initiative and a major change at the high school in the district I'm currently in. Um when I arrived in Portsouth 4 years ago, um what I noticed was that there was a significant number of students who were failing algebra 1, uh having to fail failing and having to repeat the class multiple times. And the process for those students at that time was basically something that I shorthanded to lather, rinse, and repeat. You fail, you go, we know that you're failing before the course even ends. You go to a student support center, you repeat the class in the next semester, and we see what happens. and maybe maybe you'll do better the second

015time. In addition to that, we were looking at some of our standardized test scores for mathematics that were pretty much stagnant and the one course that was in common for all of those students um that was showing up in the standardized test was algebra one. They all needed to pass that. Everybody had the same experience. So, I worked with my director of curriculum at the high school at that time to sort of dig into the data. And one of the things I like to do is look at data to figure out what what is the data telling us? Is this going to help us diagnose what's happening? and can we make a plan going forward from that? And what we ended up finding out was going back about 20 years, the uh standardized test scores

016were flat, but also the failures in algebra had been pretty substantial where there was about 50% of the class that had been failing and having to repeat, repeat, repeat. So she and I started talking about what could we do to change this. We went and we did some uh observations in class and a lot of teacher talk, teacher at the front of the classroom, students not really engaged. So it was really wasn't an exciting class uh for students to be in. At the same time, what happens to be coinciding with that was the fact that it was time to purchase a new book for algebra 1 as well as all of the the math courses, algebra, geometry, and algebra 2. and we could have very easily just gone to a publisher, purchased a math book,

017math has not changed in many years and given it to the teachers and like here's your new book, carry on. We decided to pivot and make a big change. And so we started looking at different instructional models that could be used that would give students some of the relevance I talked about in the earlier question about figuring out how is math really going to apply in my life? Why do I need to learn algebra? That's a common question we tend to hear. So, we did some research. We looked at some uh publishers and we brought in a couple of the um math department uh teachers and we started talking about potentially looking at something from illustrative math which really changes the way math is taught from being teachers giving basically algorithms to memorize and students

018figuring out how to use the algorithms to students puzzling through and figuring out how to do math using real world problems. and the math teachers that we had talked to looked at it. They were game. We had listened to some of the professional development videos that were available. And so using some of the grant money that I had available, we decided to invest in full-on professional development for the entire math department, we had split up the math department so that the teachers were no longer just teaching random classes, but we had clustered them into a mini team of algebra 1, a mini team of geometry, and a mini team of algebra 2. gave everybody the training which we had embedded in during one of our professional development full days as well as um additional days

019that they had uh given half days that we had find coverage for as well as additional support over the summer where teachers were now in their teams clustered learning the way that they were going to present the math which was completely different and then having them start the year at the end of August with this in algebra 1 as well as in geometry. the algebra folks. We waited another year to implement. The first couple of weeks, teachers were struggling. Teachers were feeling that they couldn't do it. They didn't think that this was going to work. We worked through a lot of the rough patches and bumps. Got them through sort of that dip and we started to see around Thanksgiving where teachers were getting a little bit more excited about what was happening in the

020classroom. Simultaneously, we were hearing from students that math class was actually fun. something you don't hear about math class at the high school level very often. And we started to hear that students were feeling more confident. At the end of the first semester of this new program in place, we went from a 50% failure rate in algebra 1 to three students failing. >> Wow. >> It was a huge change that was uh put in place not only because we changed the the way that we taught math, but it was very systematically done. We made sure that the teachers had the appropriate training. We made sure that the training was provided without impact to the budget using grant money. We made sure that we clustered the teachers so that they had support teams and support groups

021that they could commiserate with and question like how did you present this problem? What did you do? How did you do this? And we provided additional opportunities during the school day for them to meet separately as as their clusters. and we met with them on a regular basis whether it was me or the director of curriculum or both of us to see what other support they needed. It continues to be very successful. The geometry experience the students moved from algebra 1 to geometry seamlessly. They knew how to do the program. We rolled in the algebra 2 program the second year. The students are already used to that way of doing math. And what we feel now is that we're going to be producing students who are more um sort of math-minded and not as afraid

022of approaching STEM careers or math careers. Um and it's really done wonders for just the environment in the math department. We have other departments that are starting to sort of wonder what's going on over there. Can we get into some of that? which has now opened up a larger conversation about pedagogy across the building and how can we change what we're doing so that it's not the same old same old but that students are seeing relevance in what they're learning. Um I'm very proud of the work that the team did. I'm extremely and exceedingly proud of the work that the students have done. Um and just I I wholeheartedly believe that that's the correct approach to making something change that will stick. >> Can I ask a follow-up question? Um, how do you define highquality

023instructional materials? >> Looking at seeing what's aligned with standards, whether those be uh common core standards, state standards, you want to make sure that the standards are aligned and you want to make sure that they have been vetted. Anytime that I choose a program, I use a three-prong approach. I look at um the standards that the Common Core standards, if it's English or mathematics, I also look to see what other outside groups have weighed. So whether it's ed reports, I know Massachusetts has its own clearing house. Um and then also taking those products and bringing them inhouse, getting samples and having some of our experienced teachers who have been doing this for years look at this and say, "Does this make sense for your grade level, for your content area?" So really weighing them against

024a a sort of a try try three-prongong approach to really make sure that all of those conditions are met >> to make sure that we're actually um using things that are going to move student learning forward. >> Okay. And then you know thinking about that how do you ensure alignment between curriculum instruction assessment professional development and how you know what's your perspective on measuring that? So a lot of the alignment has to come through observation, conversation, making sure that you have um whether they are course syllabi that are put together, whether you have curriculum maps that are put together so that you can see where are the essential standards that are in those content areas, your power standards or the things that every student must know and be able to do before they leave the

025the class or the school district. and then figuring out how many times are those concepts introduced, making sure that students have ample opportunity to show and demonstrate that they've learned those things through assessments and making sure that those assessments are aligned. So, what we've done um in Portsouth is looking at um formative assessments that not only test and assess to see where students are currently in um what they're learning, but also are they in need of um further support? Do they need a second dose of it? Do they already excel in that and they need to move on to something different? So putting all of those things together and then in the case of for instance the mathematics piece providing professional development to teachers who might need support in a new instructional model. There might

026be something new for instance AI is still out there. It's still kind of new. How are we going to approach that? Making sure that you're providing opportunities for teachers to learn and and develop those skills. Uh similarly, you want professional development and support for teachers who after you've gone through and done observations and seen what's happening or not happening in the class. Making sure that you're addressing any of those deficiencies that might be there and providing them support. Maybe they're going to see to do an observation in another class where it's being done well. Maybe they're going to a seminar. Maybe they're doing something online to provide that extra support and learning. Because in an educational organization such as a school district, every person in that district needs to be learning at all times. So

027there's nothing wrong with teachers going for professional learning, central office folks going for professional learning, um administrative assistants continuing to learn. All of that needs to be there because if we're going to expect our students to to do their best and to learn the most that they can, we also need to be demonstrating that. >> Thank you, Bill. You're up. >> All right. Uh how do you define datadriven instruction and how does it influence decisionmaking at the classroom, school and district level? Then please share an example of when you use data to lead a shift in growth for all students, not just those near proficiency. So, when you're using data to make decisions about instruction, there really are a number of different levels of what you could be looking at. A lot of people think

028that the data is immediately standardized testing. What are they doing on the MCCAST? How are they doing on SATs? What are they doing on other kinds of skills tests? And you could take that information and you could mine down a little bit and figure out gives you a rough idea of what students are doing and how they're performing in certain areas. There are content areas, however, that do not have standardized test measures. For instance, world language, social studies, there aren't always ways to measure that. So, for that, what you want to do is to make sure that you've got your curriculum in alignment where teachers are covering the essential standards in those content areas, that assessments are aligned to that, and that teachers have opportunities to sit down and talk about how students are performing

029on those assessments. So if you know that they need to understand a certain concept about US government for instance and that question is on the test and you look to see if only 17% of students answered that question correctly. You need to then look at was it the instruction that was that needs to be changed and that's at the classroom level. Maybe the instruction didn't cover that content. Maybe the instruction did cover it but the students struggled with it for another reason. Was the question worded differently that they couldn't read it or they couldn't understand it. So, is it is it going to change the way that the assessment is presented? So, you want to look at that as well. Um, in the example of the math curriculum change, for instance, that was a huge

030shift that affected all of our students across the high school, starting with the students who were in algebra 1, whether they were in 9th grade or they were repeating. Um, so they were able to make that shift at the classroom level, which then is cascading now into some of the other courses that they're taking and also impacting choices that they're making about course selection. So instead of shying away from things like economics or trigonometry or a calculus class, we're seeing now that those classes are getting more enrolled. So making those changes based on data, hugely important. professional learning communities, which I know that Masco is using, is one way for teachers to sit together and look at whether it's a standardized test, a classroom assessment. It could be an exit ticket that is something that

031is given out to students to just answer a couple of quick questions to see if they understand something to really think about how do I need to change my instruction the next time I see those students so that I can better inform them and help them better understand what's happening in class. And there was another part of the question I'm sorry, I think I might have missed. uh just share an example of when you use data to lead a shift in growth for all students not just those near proficiency. >> Absolutely. So in addition to the math example that I I gave um we are currently looking in the district at changing our approach to our literacy program at the elementary level. Masco doesn't have an elementary component to it. I know that there's a

032tri-town region, but looking at some of our scores with um some of our early skills and early phmic reading awareness, things like that, we see that students continue to struggle with some of those skills. And so, we are now looking at buying and investing in a program that's going to address those deficiencies because we have done an audit of all of our instructional materials. And through that audit, we've discovered that the instructional materials that we have are not addressing those areas that those students are continuing to struggle with. So, we're looking for a program that is going to specifically sort of patch those holes while also continue to support the other areas that we are already doing well in. So, those are different kinds of choices that you have to make um when you're doing

033program purchases or when you're changing the instructional uh approach. >> Thank you. Okay. Um, what does continuous improvement mean to you in practice and how would you foster a culture of accountability where both students and staff are challenged to grow while maintaining high morale? >> Absolutely. Continuous improvement is more than just scores going up and students performing better and better and better on tests because there are numbers and there are reasons that there's variation in in the way the tests are put together and numbers can measure different things and so you need to look at a multiple multiple lane approach to that. Not only do you need to look at test scores that students are performing, whether they are MCCAST tests, SAT tests, classroom grade level, classroom grades that they're being given, but also are

034students able to feel confident and um proficient in some of those skills that they're using in the class. So having students set goals for themselves at the beginning of units or at the beginning of classes about what do they want to learn, what do they want to change going forward is another way for us to measure continuous learning. Because you might have students who are very confident in a content area, but you want them to maybe stretch themselves in an aspect of it or the way that they present in there or the way that they want to uh talk about that content level. So that that can be continuous learning. Continuous learning also means that professional development is supported for everybody in the system. You want to as I said earlier ensure that everybody in

035the system continues to learn and grow and do their best. And so if there is a support of professional learning, which Masco does have because of the early releases that you have on Wednesdays, which I think is amazing because that shows a commitment to the continuous learning of teachers. And that also sends a message to our students that just because you grow up and leave school doesn't mean you stop learning. Everybody is learning all the time. If you're a teacher, there are professional development days. If you are a police officer, you're going for training. If you are working in accounting, you might be learning a new software program. there's always learning that's going on. And so by embedding that expectation across uh our staff and what our staff are involved in, it's also sending a

036message to the students that learning does not stop when you leave the school doors. And that learning can also be getting better at the hook shot in basketball, getting better at playing the trombone, getting better at delivering your lines when you're on stage. So all of those things can factor into continuous learning. And I think I missed the end of your question. >> Um just the idea of fostering a culture of accountability while maintaining morale. So one of the things that um I think has potential to work and we are starting to look at this in Portsouth is having teachers meet in smaller groups that are not professional learning communities but they're called tripods. And the tripods are set up with three adults, could be three people from the same department, could be three people

037from the same school, where they sit and they talk about things that they're working on, things that they're encountering with students, things that um maybe they're finding challenging or successes that they're having. And what ends up happening is one person is doing the sharing, one person is is sort of reflecting back the information and the third person is doing the listening and then sort of summarizing those conversations so that there is a supportive relationship being built between those three people that not only enables them to continue to do the work that they're doing, but there are other people that they feel that they can turn to for other needs as the as the year rolls on. So that morale continues to be supported in the building that it's not always tied to what's happening in

038the content area, what's happening with your group of students because we share students or something like that. It's a different way for staff to sort of build connections and um talk to each other just on a person-toperson level and develop um skills and and different ways to approach problems. Great. >> Thank you. Uh we are moving on to regional governance and community relations. Masco serves three distinct towns, Boxford, Middleton, and Hopsfield. Each with its own character, priorities, and resources. How would you approach honoring each community's identity while maintaining educational equity and unified district vision? >> It is very important that all three communities have say in what's happening in the district. And so making sure that the lines of communication are open with those communities to find out and again part of the 90-day plan,

039100 day plan, three-year plan is to have constant communication with communities in the community to learn about what's important to them because Masco is all of those communities and what each community finds valuable and important needs to be important to us in Masco. So building those bridges and building those relationships would be incredibly important. Um honoring what their expectations are, learning what they are um striving for, what they're aspiring to for the students. um learning about traditions and things that are happening so that we can build as a uh regional district an understanding of what's happening in each of the three towns and how those towns might be approaching different situations. Whether they be budgetary constraints, whether they be um travel constraints, could be things like snowstorms are are are the three communities very different

040uh geographically and topographically that we need to think about how those things are addressed, but really making sure and again I I I will probably repeat this a number of times is to make sure that those human connections are in place through communication, whether it's in person, whether it's by email, um going into the districts, going to visit those elementary districts, elementary schools within the the Tri County to learn what's happening, to learn what what experiences those students are bringing to us, to talk to those families so that there's an understanding that we value what they value, and that we find that their piece of our mosaic is is what makes us important and what makes us shine the way we do. Um, and so it's it's about getting out there and communicating and opening

041up um those avenues so that everybody feels important and continuing to build trust. Um, because trust is critical. And the only way that you can build trust is by having that communication and then following through on things that you say you're going to do or making sure that people understand when you're making decisions why those decisions are being made that they have all of that information. Um so that the communities can feel that their concerns have been heard even if the decision ends up being something that is unpalatable. >> Thank you. Okay, I'm next. Um, you would work closely with the Tritown Union Superintendent, Dr. Scott Morrison. He was out of town today, but I think you met his colleague, Matt Lacov. >> I did. Yes. >> Great. Um, and Dr. Morrison oversees elementary education.

042Yep. >> In our member communities. How do you envision this relationship? What strategies would you employ to ensure seamless transitions for students moving from elementary to middle school? >> That's a huge transition. Having worked in middle school, 5, 6, 7, 8th grade, it it's that is probably probably a little bit more scary than actually sending your child to kindergarten because there's there it's a big change from a classroom with one teacher and it's a whole new building and everything's much bigger. So what I would do immediately is to set up regular meetings and regular conversations. come go down there, have him come and meet with me here so that we we can set up regular meetings about what's going on in that in the tri-town area with the elementary school so that I understand how

043it works, what's going on with the curriculum, what are the students learning, what are their experiences being in those buildings, having him take me through, show me things, go down when there are events and and be present so that I could learn what's happening and really build a collaborative partnership with him so that what's happening there and what's happening here. We are communicating often and that if we are making changes here, he's well aware of what's coming and we can find a way to prepare the families together because there are a lot of families that have their feet in both areas that they they might have one child who is maybe in fourth grade and another one in eighth grade. We want to make sure that they feel that they that we are as communicative

044and um integrated as possible even though we are technically two different districts that that should not matter. So, I would be really looking forward to having regular conversations with him, being in those buildings, meeting with um teachers and family members at the elementary level, finding ways to invite those families up here before like middle end of sixth grade or or in sixth grade so that they're getting used to what's happening on this campus and are already feeling tied to us as a district, Masco as a district because they are us. It's just a different a different setup. So, making sure that those connections are in place and uh really looking forward to partnering with somebody who would be able to help me learn and here would be, you know, superintendent learning, help me learn what

045I need to know about fabulous communities and what's going on with the families. If I could ask a follow-up question, can you give us an example, Patty, of a time when you led a either a complex or a multiddisciplinary team and what you learned from that experience? So, we were going through um a strategic planning exercise probably three years ago in Portsouth, which Portsmith um as a district has its own students in grades K through five really. And starting at sixth grade, we have four surrounding towns that start feeding into the Portsmith District starting in sixth grade. Um and by 9th grade, we have students from the other four towns coming to join us. And so when we were going through the strategic planning process, um, one of the things that I was tasked with

046doing was inviting community feedback and input into the development of our strategic plan. And having outreach to those four towns was just as important as reaching out to the people who were living in our community so that they had input into what that strategic plan was going to look like. It was not easy because those four towns were are all part of their own separate district, very similar but a little different. And we really needed to work hard to recruit and convince them to give us input about developing this strategic plan. And so we had times when we had captive audiences, whether they were coming to like the sixth grade open house and we would have a table there, come and talk to us about the strategic plan. um if we were going to have

047the open house at the ninth grade uh sort of the incoming the rising eighth graders going into ninth grade come and talk to us so that they felt that they were included and part of that it's a lot of outreach that was happening um that was intentional to involve them in that process but through that outreach we ended up developing a strategic plan that really reflected not only the families who were in Portsouth proper but also reflected sort of what we were also going to be receiving as the students continue to join us through the secondary years. >> Great. That's a great example. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> My question is on school committee relations. Please describe your philosophy regarding the superintendent school committee relationship. How do you establish clear rules and respons and

048boundaries while maintaining collaborative partnership? >> Absolutely. So the school committee has three hugely important jobs. Budget, hiring and firing the superintendent and policy. And in my current role as assistant superintendent, I am the administrative liaison to our policy committee. So I work very closely with multiple members of the board through that. Um I have worked through multiple iterations of budgets through two districts now with a lot of challenging conversations um and making sure that again open lines of communication with school committee members so that they understand what are the challenges that we're having in the district. What are the things that we see on the horizon? things that could be coming down from could be governmental expectations, state expectations that schoolboard members or school committee members would not necessarily know about and making sure that

049that information is shared with them about the impact on not only the budgetary impact, but how is that going to be impacting our families? How is that going to impact our students? How is it going to impact our administrators and our staff and what's going to be happening? So regular open lines of communication with uh school committee members and making sure that when there are subcommittees such as policy committee such as probably finance or facilities type committees um I actually have two other committees that I'm working with the board making sure that um there is input in development of those agendas that board members have an understanding of what's coming. Uh, I feel like with policy committee especially, there are so many policies that we have to get through. Um, they come at us very

050fast and furious with in New Hampshire with what I'm dealing with and making sure that uh, board members are informed about why that policy is important, what that does to impact us in the buildings and how we would recommend those policies sort of be developed so that we can work through them in tandem together. Um but is it is a hugely important hugely important uh relationship to have and having constant uh conversations getting to know each school community me school committee member as a person again because it's important to know what is important to you and what what are your passions so that we can work together to deliver for our students and our families because that's the bottom line why we all sit around the table. It's to make sure that our students and

051our families have an excellent experience and that our students are ready to go out there into the world fully equipped to contribute to society. >> Thank you. >> Uh the next question is about community engagements. What specific strategies would you use to engage families and community members who may feel disconnected from the district to state decisions? How do you handle vocal opposition when making necessary but unpopular decisions? So, it's important again to have regular communication and to have that communication be as clear and unjargoned as possible. I know that in education there are a lot of words that we use. There are buzzwords and there are things that we say. And over the last two districts that I've worked for, one of the things that I've worked really hard to do was to sort of

052unjargonify a lot of what we put out in communication. So instead of talking about um things that we're working through in teacher speak, really putting that in plain language so that the community understands what we're really doing and what we're all about. district um community members who might not feel connected to the district. Again, as I gave in the earlier example, what I try to do is to go into places where I know that those members will be so that I can meet them on their turf, meet them in their community where they are going to be most comfortable to engage with them and to invite them to have conversations with me. So whether it's going to an open house to meet folks to whether I'm soliciting for strategic plan input, whether I am um

053attending at parent conferences because I need parents to help us with a certain for instance getting enough of the free and reduced lunch forms signed so that we have uh our adequate funding for through our title grants, things like that. making sure that I am out there and that I'm soliciting that and being open to that. Um, clear communication, making sure that um I'm available when they need that. Vocal opposition is something that will happen all the time because you cannot make everybody happy. And I I guess that you know on a t-shirt it's like you're not a taco. You can't make everybody happy. And it's so true. It's very true. And there is there is a real reason that people will vocally oppose what's happening. There is something that they are very um invested

054in that they believe very strongly in. And it's important to understand what that position is. Even if they're going to vocally oppose you and to have that conversation early to talk about, for instance, budget cuts, which we're just going through in our district, early on. We want to start messaging what's going to happen. What potentially are we shooting for for a percent increase or a percent decrease in our budget? Why that's something that we're looking at? Why certain positions might be reduced or why certain positions might be introduced and what the rationale is for that. And to understand that that vocal opposition exists because people believe very strongly in what it is that they're advocating for. to make sure that there's an a place for that, but to also be clear about why the decision

055is getting made the way it's getting made. Um because not everybody is going to love every decision that's getting made. I learned that very quickly when I was the face of the co plan in my previous district. It was very difficult to have to deliver information that people didn't agree with. But you have to explain to them why in clear language. You have to anticipate that people are going to be vocally opposed and address that in the moment and gather the support of the team behind you as you're making that decision so that you're not making the decisions on your own. Any decisions that we would be making, we making as a district. There would be nothing that would happen that I would be going off rogue. No surprises from me. um if the board

056is deciding in a certain direction and that's the way that the board is deciding, that's the message we're going to be communicating and there will be vocal opposition to things that we decide. But as long as we know that there's a reason and a rationale for what we've decided and that we have consensus over why we've made that decision, it's going to make it easier to move forward as a unit. >> Thank you. Can I ask a follow-up question to that one before I go? >> Uh sure. Yeah. Do you have any examples of where you had to make a decision that or the board the school comm made a decision that you didn't agree with and you had to move forward with? >> So, we've had um multiple conversations in non-public session about decisions

057for for instance um there have been budget conversations recently that positions wanted to be added back in uh by the board that we did not believe needed to be added in. Um, and there were it was a minority of the board that believed that. And after having conversations about what we were thinking long-term planning, because I'm always trying to think long term, we might have an acute need immediately. So, an example is um our ELLL population in Portsouth um is sort of unevenly dispersed amongst our elementary schools. And we had one of our administrators come and ask for an increase of a halftime ELLL teacher to support the increased numbers at her building. As that that request was coming forward, I was also working with the ELLL teachers to redistribute their time because they're all

058sort of none of them are full-time. So, I'm taking pieces to make pieces work with pieces, if you can follow what I'm saying. and I I took a part of a teacher who was part-time at one building to patch the need that was needed at this other building working through the um problem with the ELLL teachers. As that proposal came to the board, the board thought it was a great idea because they could see the numbers going up. They did not know that I had already worked on the pro solving the problem without an increase to the budget. They were all set to be like, "Yet we need this." by explaining that nope, we've already moved these folks around. The schedules are working right now. We don't need this. We can pause on that. They

059they did come to an understanding, but they were really focused on this school had this many and we needed to provide support there. Um so I was able to explain what we had sort of done by moving some parts around. >> Okay, >> I got the next question as well. So, >> okay. >> Um I pulled up. Sorry, I just missed it. All right. Um, mine's on the topic of equity with this student population. So, can you tell us about a specific initiative that you led that kind of that eliminated a barrier to achievement for the underserved populations? I think this is a you kind of falling on your last topic. >> Yeah, absolutely. So, in addition to working with ELELLL students, um I did spend part of my year last year because of staffing

060um staffing needs as the interim uh director of student services. So, there were some decisions that I needed to make about staffing and providing support for um students in need uh at at one of our schools. And it was a difficult thing to sort of work through because the need presented itself midy year and of course it's a need. It's mandated by the IEP which is a legal document and it's not really in the budget. So, I had gone back and forth with um the business administrator to look at what we had for available funding, looked at what we had written out in the IEP, and worked with the case managers at the building and the building coordinator, which is not really an administrative role, but they sort of oversee how the cases are distributed

061and how support is given. and we were able to come up with a solution that did not involve much of an increase. We were able to increase um a part-time position to provide support in a different area to move somebody who had skills that would support this new need that had arisen in order to cover that those IEP needs with not much of an impact to the budget. there was a budgetary impact um which was something that was unforeseen but we did look at a lot of different alter alternatives other than just let's just hire a one person to cover this thing we sort of again we're creative with what we had and moved some pieces around which is generally the way I like to operate see what we have on the ground see how

062things are being used right now can we make a schedule change can we make a move Can we can we shift some things around before we then say, "Hey, we need more money for another body, another thing, another there there's a lot of creativity that I think can be utilized before we go right to the bank." You >> get a lot of push back from staff on that. There was a little bit of concern amongst um the people who actually were getting moved just because they had developed relationships and procedures in the classes that they were being moved. They kind of knew how the teachers were operating. They had a flow. Um not really push back, but more like concern about, okay, but I've already figured out how this class operates. Now I've got to

063go over here. So there was a little bit growing pains um but not really push back. >> And I have the next question. Um how would you ensure that students with disabilities, English learners, and students requiring intervention receive appropriate support while still having access to rigorous academic opportunities? >> Absolutely. Support for students who have a need for support should be part of their day and should be not should not be made to feel like it's something that's taking them away from something that they enjoy, something that um is going to hurt them in any way. You want to be able to provide them the support that they need at the time that they need it. Through the tour today and talking to the fabulous students, I learned that there are so many opportunities in both

064schools for students to receive academic support that is scheduled into their day, which is I think the ideal way to do that because it becomes part of the culture of the building. It shows that everybody, regardless of if you have a documented need with an IEP, whether you are a new American learning English, that people can get extra support to continue their learning and that there are places to go in the buildings that even if you don't need support for a a you know documented reason that you could go there just because you might be struggling with an assignment. I think that that's the best approach to take because it is part and parcel of what's happening in the building. Students do not stand out and at the secondary level any kinds of differences can

065sometimes be looked at as negative through the eyes of students depending on what their life experience are. So you want to make sure that those um situations are in place in such a way that all students feel supported and every student gets what they need. Now you also want to look at the data that you're getting from students and making sure that any of test data any of the information that you might be getting things even like absence data things that you could be collecting. So we've also done um social emotional survey data. Students who might be feeling disconnected, are they also getting that kind of support? Are we providing enough opportunities for students to sort of meet informally with other students? All those things need to go into that sort of equation to make

066sure that all of our students are feeling connected to each other and to other adults in the building. So I really take a global approach when I think about making sure that students have support and have what they need in order to be successful in school. >> Thank you. >> The next question um similar in some ways post pandemic students face mental health challenges. What is your approach to balancing academic rigor with social emotional support and what systems would you implement or evaluate here at Masinov? I believe in Maslo's hierarchy of needs totally. And Maslo's hierarchy for those who are unfamiliar basically says that your your needs, your basic needs need to be met in order for you to continue to grow and develop and become the best version of you that you can be.

067And looking at student mental health needs and support and academics, it's it's handinand. They go together. And so students need to be provided opportunities to access support through whether it's a counselor, whether it could be a nurse, maybe it's a different trusted adult, maybe it's a teacher that they had a previous year or that they're having in a class to talk to, to have a safe place to be who they are and to express what their concerns are. um having systems in place that allow students to so I learned today about your M block at the uh high school which is a way that students can go and get extra help but I also suspect because I know adolescence and middle and teenagers pretty well that some of those M blocks might be because I

068feel safe in this space with this teacher and I'm going to go and schedule myself there because I know that if I talk to that teacher about this problem that has nothing to do with my schoolwork I will feel supported. And so having those pieces in place is is hugely important and is already a great first step to supporting student well-being. Um I would also look to see what other sort of more formal systems might be in place at Masco and figure out what exists that we're doing sort of formal evaluations of students and where they might be. Y RBS is one tool that could be used, but we've also done in my current district panorama surveys. We also brought in SEAG training for um teams of our teachers, counselors, social worker, which is the

069Colombia um Colombia threat assessment uh student threat assessment guide to look to see if students are feeling unsafe. If students are saying things that sound like they might be disciplinary, are we really assessing what could be going on with that? and instead of it being a disciplinary need that student really is having an issue over here and making sure that that's being addressed. So looking to see how some of those systems are in place and then what other things can we bring in as far as training for teams of people um are we providing uh a different approach to gathering adults together to response teams to help students who might be struggling. So figuring out what's going on with that and then strengthening or developing those things so that they again fit seamlessly into what's

070already in place because there's already so much going on right now that exists for our students that will help them um do both feel supported and become the best that they can be. >> I'm next. um how do you personally shape the culture of your organization and what are one or two decisions you've made that best reflect the culture you want to build. So this is an example I shared when I was meeting with the administrative team uh earlier today. The culture in buildings or organizations where I am is very collaborative and it's very much um it is not about me being the one who is saying and doing what has to happen. I really totally feel like I am part of the group. I don't ever feel that my word or my ideas weigh

071more than other people's. Um and we had gone through in my previous district some tough times um with budget with teacher contracts because we had two different towns. This was my previous district. One town would pass the teacher contract, the next one wouldn't. So it couldn't go forward and the following and it it was just over and over and over. So, we had come back for a new school year after a particularly bad just just very bad time in the community the previous year. And so my school at that time, the school I was running was a model PLC school which followed the um tenants of professional learning communities as outlined by the DU force. >> And one of the things that you do as a model PLC is you have something called collective commitments.

072These are things that as a group you agree that you're going to commit to do together. And it could be things like students will always come first. Um we will review data without you know a skeptical lens. Could be anything on there. So I thought we needed to have a boost of morale. So, I went about planning a wedding that we would be on the first day back we would have I I sent out wedding invitations to all my teachers and and staff and I told them they were going to be attending a wedding on our first day back in August. I think people thought I was probably nuts. I put together a website. I think it was on the knot or whatever and we had, you know, invit I sent out email invitations and

073I set up the gymnasium and I covered the round tables with paper tablecloths, got plastic flutes, filled them with ginger ale, put little Hershey kisses on the tables, bought fairy lights, and did all the whole thing. And I welcomed everybody back to school and I says, "Welcome to the wedding. We are going to commit to ourselves this year and we're going to together have some collective commitments to each other. And for that day, my teams, this was elementary school, so all of my teams went off started thinking about what are the things we really want to commit to doing this year for ourselves, for our students. They generated lists in their own grade levels. We came together at lunch. We talked about put them all up. We put dots to figure out which ones were

074the ones that people like the best. By the end of the day, we had one document with our collective commitments. It was about six or seven that everybody signed at the bottom. I made copies for every classroom. And that that one little exercise with the wedding that guest was received exactly the way you did with the giggling and everything else carried us through the year where when I would meet with my team leaders during that year we would be having some kind of a struggle and be like well I did this because that's on our collective commitments and and we just it propelled the group through the year which ultimately probably not for the reason of of anything except finally the town said fine we'll just approve the the contract but the contract finally got

075approved that year. But it was a way for us to build morale and to to come together as a group. And that to me was so important because we knew that we were a group together, working toward a common goal of putting our students first, making sure that academic rigor was there, making sure that our students felt safe, all of those things. And it was done in sort of a unique and fun way that is memorable that people still I I'm still in touch with some of them. I still remember the wedding. I still have the the the glasses that you gave us. They walked away with the flutes. I don't know. They had, you know, curling ribbon on the but it was nothing fancy, but they they really invested in that. So that that

076is what I look for is not the silly piece of that, but making sure that we know that we are in this together and that together, yes, we're going to face challenges, but as long as we're clear about what is important to us and we're moving together in that direction, we can do things. We can do hard things, but we've got to have that set that mindset that we can all sort of gather around. >> Thank you. Uh, okay. I've got the next question. We're moving into the operations finance area and uh the budget. So, Masco has been facing increasing expenses which exceed our member town's abilities to fund us without property tax overrides or significant budget cuts. In difficult budget years, cuts may be required. when that happens to challenge to balance the competing

077interests of student services, special education, facilities maintenance, contractual salary increases, and other uh factors. Can you tell us about a time in your past where you faced a shortfall in funding that forced you to make a similar and difficult decision and how you went about making your decision? We've just gone through that in my current district. Um where so combined with this budget that the board just approved last night and last year's budget approval process, we have lost cut 10 and a half positions across the district, which represents 10 and a half positions that are not coming back. Um, and we made those decisions based on looking at things like course enrollment at the high school level to figure out where could there be efficiencies made where um, for instance, this year we have in

078one art room there are two classes going on. There's like painting one and painting two. So you might have 18 students in painting one and seven in painting two. We're still able to run the courses but the teacher is now doing two classes in that. not an ideal situation for staff. Um, but the the reductions that we made ended up having to be made because we like a lot of towns in I think all of New England are facing redose enrollment. Students are just not here. I think families are moving to other places and so we've had to make difficult decisions. And when it's time to make those kinds of decisions, what has to happen is the messaging about why those decisions are getting made has to be made early, clearly, and plainly, and repeated

079often so that the community, even though it's a difficult thing to hear, will understand the reasons why and allow you to maintain trust. What doesn't work is when you suddenly figure out that you're short money and you can't hire people that you promised to hire, which is a lot worse. So, making sure that you are clear ahead of time and you have sort of set up what what kinds of decisions need to be made, what are the high impact decisions and keeping high impact things in place. And when I'm talking about high impact, I'm talking about what's going to most impact our students if they lose these positions. What do we need to put in place that's most going to help our students? So, we proposed in this current budget that went forward um a

080new position at the middle school that's really going to uh sort of put into a conglomeration a number of services in one position for students who are struggling with just maintaining themselves in class. That that person will be communicating with teachers all day long to make sure that students are getting what they need. But that came at as at the result of a swap that was happening at the same building that we end up swapping out two lesser positions um that are going to be just they're going to dissolve and and disappear. Never easy decisions to make and you have to look at what's going to impact our students, what's going to impact our instructional programming. How do we keep our systems intact? and make sure that our communication is clear, plain and repeated. And

081I think that um that approach has allowed me to maintain trust when making difficult decisions. >> Yeah. >> I just want to ask a follow on to that and that is um one of my pet peeves with with u the way that school financing works, we're always looking just the year ahead. >> Mhm. we're not looking 5 years down the road. How do you deal with that? Making these short-term decisions um suboptimal sometimes. >> Y >> how do you bring what's what you think's going to be happening 5 years down the road into the present conversation? So, I tend to be a systems thinker anyway and I I tend to think in longer term chunks in planning and as part of my stint last year as the director of student services, what we started to

082have conversations about was developing in district programming for students who had needs for things like autism or behavioral uh needs. And we really were looking at one set of students in one particular building. And I said, "Hold on a minute." Because that profile of student is over here, is over here, is over here. This is not just a okay, let's let's throw something here and put a band-aid on this pipe because it's leaking because the minute I plug up this hole, these three are going to spring. What are we going to do to fix the whole system? And so now with a new director in place, he and I have started working on looking at systematic ways to bring in programming to to shift the way we're thinking about things instead of things being localized

083to well, we have this need at this building, so we're going to put that here. And we have we're we're thinking more systematically about, okay, is this a need that if it's in the elementary school right now, it's going to be in the middle school in a few years. It's going to be in a high school a few years after that. How do we look at this whole picture and say, "Okay, we're going to grow this literally with with the students. We're going to grow this up so that we have planning so that we can say, okay, this year we're going to put this position in and it's going to do this thing. Next year, we're going to add on this other small piece because that's going to expand it maybe not twice, but maybe

084four times." and really think about systematically districtwide. What is this going to look like for everybody instead of just a peacemeal approach that just like you said, it's like, well, it's this and then next year it's this. We don't do that with our homes. We don't do that with our cars. We don't we don't we don't do that. Some of us who love to go to Disney don't do that when we're planning to go to Disney. It's like 5 years out. I've got the plan. We're going to You plan the whole thing out. And that's what I would rather see folks do is think about how does it impact the system. There are times when yes, you have to put a band-aid on it, but if you're taking out more than one band-aid, this is

085a bigger issue that we've got to explore at a sort of bigger picture. >> Thank you. This question is going to be similar to where Joe is going, uh, but we'll focus on facilities and capital planning. >> Yes. uh what experience do you have with facilities management and capital projects and how would you approach long-term planning for aging infrastructure uh managing current operational needs? >> Sure. So, some of the facilities uh work that I've done not personally but been involved in um my previous district, we had to shut down the middle school and retrofit sort of change around some of the classrooms in the high school to bring over our middle school students because of declining enrollment. Um, and so I was involved in conversations with what that layout would look like, where in the

086high school it would go, working to uh put out request for proposals for contractors who would do the work um to actually make the the part of the building not only safe, but also have um the proper fire hazard uh doors and life safety equipment and those kinds of things that we could um also safely bring students in and out of the building in separate entrances because that was a request of the district uh uh community. So, working through that, I also um was uh on the committee that helped to put in a new turf field at the high school. um looking at different options for everything from um what kind of turf, who were the contractors that we could bring in um looking at uh information that we had gathered from other sort of

087New England uh districts that had used different contractors who had given us proposals to what was your experience? What did you find out? Making decisions about do we want crushed walnuts under it? Do we want a you know thick pad? if we invest in this, well, this is good for this many years out. And then having the turf field put in, we're already thinking about, okay, it has a shelf life of X years. We've already got to start thinking in 2 or 3 years, we need to start thinking about when it's time to replace it. So, really looking at that. And then the most recent one, which sort of ended up getting moved in a different direction, was um the work at our three elementary schools, uh playground equipment just getting old and really wanting

088to replace playgrounds. So again, putting out requests for proposals, looking at um one of our elementary schools needed wetland permitting, so wanted wanting to make sure that we had the correct permitting in place, looking at different plans that would be drawn up for our different um elementary schools. But because of the way that the playgrounds are situated on the properties and because of the funding needs that we would have had and the way it would have had to be phased in where we were looking at gaps between uh putting in elementary playground here, waiting a few years to put in another one and sort of playing this very long game. The city actually stepped in to to provide some funding and guidance and took that project over. But really looking at what is our goal,

089what is our budgeted amount, what are experiences that people have had with contractors that have really put in proposals figuring out if there are outlying issues that we aren't anticipating. Do we have wetlands to look at for permitting? Do we need to be concerned about sound barriers or noise or different things that that could be impacting where playground equipment is put, for instance, which is something we came up against with one of our elementary schools. So, we really need to think uh long term about that and to get as much information as we can when we're making a plan for that. And then also part of the capital improvement process is not just planning for that big project but similar to the turf field thinking about what is the life expectancy of this thing whether

090it's a system whether it's a a piece of equipment what is our plan at halflife when we've got half the time left to start to replace that. what has been the maintenance all along for that system or for that piece of equipment and making sure that those sort of milestones are met. Similar to operating a car, you know, every so many miles time for the oil change. You stop changing that oil. Your problem is not just a $50 $80 oil change. It is now, okay, we need the whole new system replaced, which is much more costly. So making sure that even those small pieces are monitored and um followed so that we don't end up with a major issue. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um can you describe your approach to recruiting and retaining excellent

091diverse teachers and administrators? um and talk a little about how you build strong relationships across um multiple bargaining units while maintaining accountability for performance. Absolutely. So, first let me talk about recruiting um and retaining teachers. It is a very difficult field. It has become more challenging since COVID and all of our teachers, all of our support staff in our schools work so incredibly hard and they are so dedicated to our students and and the work that they do, money can't even reimburse them for what they're putting into it. Having a strong um recruiting process into a district, hallmarks of that would be the kind of experience that teachers would be having when they're here. If you are a brand new teacher, brand brand new, straight out of college, what kind of support are you receiving?

092So, making sure that there's a clear mentoring program in place, making sure that they are partnered with other teachers who can help them through some of the things that become easier as you become more seasoned as a teacher. Even if you're not brand new to teaching, what does your entry into the the community look like? Who are people that you can turn to to say, "Hey, how do we do this thing?" Or, "What does this phrase mean? I don't know what this kind of a special day is. All those kinds of things need to be in place so that teachers feel supported from the minute they enter our buildings and that they are provided with opportunities to continue their own growth. I think that um expecting teachers to come in and to just perform a

093job to finish that job and to go home at the end of the day that's that's unrealistic. providing them with time to explore um different ways of teaching, different instructional methods, providing them with professional development which they get every Wednesday here which is phenomenal is a great thing for for them to have and for when you're recruiting to explain that you are getting on site regular professional learning that you are going to continue to grow and develop as an as an educator. So that that piece is highlighted and retaining them is again providing that constant support, listening to them when they have concerns. The tripod method that I talked about earlier, setting up those relationships with maybe not people that are in their grade level or on their team, but that they feel that they

094have a network that they're growing beyond the person across the hall or the person who helps them in the classroom. that there is a way that they feel part of the community and that we honor those things that they're doing and that they're bringing to us. Um it goes beyond cookies at teacher appreciation week. um showing them that we appreciate them in in small ways like that and and allowing them to explore what they're interested in and to bring some of that into the classroom in ways that align with the curriculum so that they feel that passion and that they can by showing that passion to other students create new sort of ripple effect into the future. Um so that would be what I would do for recruiting and um retaining teachers. As far as

095bargaining units and um maintaining relationships, one of the things that um in my time in Portsouth as the assistant superintendent, I meet regularly with um especially our teachers union that that's probably the most regular meetings that we have their their membership um and meeting with them regularly um to sort of talk about things that are going on in the different buildings and surface concerns early on before they become potential grievances or big issues so that we are again having constant conversations about what's happening in those buildings, what's going on and also for gives us an opportunity as administrators to sit down and say, "Hey, we see this is going on or you know people are cutting out 5 minutes early and the and the day isn't over yet. What can you do to help us

096with that?" Or similarly, this is going to be another tough budget year. We might have some cuts. These are the things that we need to sort of work on. Two years ago when we went through the biggest sort of cut, we had to work very closely and I I enlisted the help of the president of our teachers union to look at a very interesting part of our contract that required us to sort of score and grade teachers and where they were that was beyond tenure to figure out if there was going to be a layoff list, a riff And it was very complicated and I had to go through this process, send out a Google form for teachers to fill out, have that form calculate and tabulate these scores and work with her to make

097sure that that list adhered to what was in the contract. So having those relationships, I could have never turned to her and said, "What does this even mean? How am I supposed to do this?" Because it was it was it's very unique and it's very tricky. But having those relationships in place, huge. Working through negotiations, knowing ahead of time what um different bargaining units might be looking for, pinch points, things that might be a concern. Um we worked through bargaining uh collective bargaining agreement with our clerical staff, our secretaries. And one of the things that was sort of out in the air before we even got to the table was how they were communicating with substitutes and making sure substitutes had what they needed. If we did not know that they were using their personal

098cell phones to text substitutes about you're in this room today or you're doing this or whatever, we would not have been ready to talk about district cell phones just for the purpose of communicating with the substitutes. So again, having those relationships at the outset, you get to sort of put into place early on what you need and when stuff is really rough and tumble, which every district hits, you've got something kooky going on or employees behaving badly, you've got relationships in place that you can work through it again together. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um, I know we're running long. Um, my question is about teacher evaluation >> and um, I think I'm gonna the first part of the question is what does teacher evaluation look like? I think you just touched on a lot

099of those points. So, I'm going to jump right to the example part. Okay. >> Can you give us an example of a time you've supported a struggling administrator or teacher? >> Absolutely. Um, in the last few years, we have had some changes in the way that we have approached um, some of our disciplinary work at the high school and one of our administrators was struggling with carrying out what that discipline policy sort of said. And um so I made a point of meeting with that administrator to go through how a certain situation had been handled and talked about how it sort of deviated from the policy. And I said, "Let's look at this again with because it was a high school and because students are always busy doing things, let's look at working on this

100next situation together." And so together we worked through the discipline situation where they took the lead on the disciplinary um work that needed to be done talking to the student collecting all that information. But we had constant conversations about what did that information tell you? What was the next step you should be taking there? and providing that administrator with the support to understand the new system so that after going through it twice with me sort of coaching along by the third instance of something happening where that policy needed to be followed they were sort of just checking in to say okay I've done this and this and this now I'm going to do this and they're at a point now where that's sort of become rope memory for them so you want to provide opportunities

101again of coaching and teaching especially when policies or procedures change that you're showing them that you can help them learn it instead of saying you really should just read this policy and do this because you should know better. Like that's not helpful. It's not helping the the administrator and it certainly isn't helping the students or the families. So that would be my approach. And if things didn't improve, there would be different conversations and improvement plans that uh which I've done in the past with um teachers in the past when I was a building administrator. But those are the kinds of things that I would be looking for. >> Thank you. >> Uh I think you touched upon some of this, but I wanted to give you the opportunity to pointedly answer this. So tell us

102about a challenging collective bargaining situation or labor relations issue that you've navigated and what was your approach and what did you learn? >> So I did sort of touch on a little bit of that. I think um if we go back to the the riff list and and trying to figure that out we didn't we the administrators at central office didn't even know that that existed in the contract. Um, and so it was the teachers union that brought it to us, like pointed it out that it was there and that we needed to follow it. Making sure that we understood the intent behind why it was put in was critically important to us um, in carrying it out properly. Now, I had been there four years. The teachers union president had been there, I think

103this is her 18th or 20th year in the district. So she understood all the institutional knowledge that led up to why that was created. At the face of it, if you had read it and just done what the grid sort of said to do, it seemed like a mathematical exercise. It really wasn't. There was intention behind it. And there was a part of it where teachers had to provide information to their administrator, their building administrator about what they had been done that was value added to the building. And there was a score for that and they were looking for certain things that she was able to explain to us that the institutional knowledge for why that was in there which was so that the riff list wasn't just last one in first one out. It

104was a way to sort of try to preserve >> teachers who had brought something to the district that was more than just I'm here teaching students. So through having those conversations with her and sitting down and letting her teach me what everything was going on and listening to the wise and wherefors of that component of the um collective bargaining agreement enabled us as a full administrative team. So it was everybody from central office and all of the principles to sit down and really go through all of those written explanations that the teachers gave and we all sat in a room just like this. We all did sort of like scoring together. We scored one together then we went through the rest and we we went through the process together in order to develop that list.

105Um very challenging, very confusing to I think everybody in the room. But what it ended up doing was it showed good faith to not only the union, but it showed good faith to the teachers who weren't in the union that we were following and doing what we said we would be doing and we were able to clearly explain who might have been in jeopardy to get cut um that year. >> Fantastic. Thank you, >> Lisa. I think I assigned you this one. >> Um, yeah. No, that's I out just in case. >> Uh, we're going to go into uh crisis management, communication, change leadership. >> How do you ensure transparent timely communication with multiple stakeholder groups, the school committee, staff, families, and the three three town governments? and what communication structures and tools would you

106implement? >> So, a couple weeks ago, we had an incident at the middle school um because of the cold weather where one of the sprinkler heads failed and ruptured and started leaking. And because it started leaking, it set off the fire alarm in the building. >> Oh no. >> So, into the 15°ree weather with banks, you know, mounds of snow, all of our sixth, seventh, and eighth graders go into the parking lot. Fire alarms are going, sprinkler is going. Total chaos and confusion. So, I immediately shift into communication mode and making sure that we're getting through the walkie-talkie information from the middle school about we're being evacuated, fire department's not letting us in. There's no fire, but they can't let anybody back in because the panel is lighting up and and it's just not safe

107in there. and they honestly didn't know how many if it was going to start a chain reaction. So I reached out to um the receiving elementary school which was down the street to make sure that they were ready for the 400 400 middle school students who were going to be walking down the street to show up at their doorstep because we needed them out of the cold. we needed them in a safe place and we didn't know how long this was going to take. So I reached out to them and through coordinating with some of the uh support staff at central office we were able to send out an alert through our uh parent square to the parents that this was what was happening that students were being moved to the elementary school and that

108they were safe everything was fine but we had a malfunction. So everything's happening. We've got people who are going to facilities director went to the middle school and um was working with the fire department to work on that. I was in contact with the elementary school principal. She was all set. There was places to put all of our students. Um they finally got the situation under control. And so when we knew what was going to be happening next, we sent out another alert to parents to say, "Please do not come to the elementary school to pick up your child." So that because that's going to be the next thing because we've got students out in the cold without their coats and they're walking through and we are going to be bringing our students back because

109the fire department has been able to shut off whatever they need to shut off. We can get them back into the building. Everything will be fine. and another message went out to alert the parents when the students were back in the building. Um, in the meantime, because we were able to facilitate the movement of students and get the parking lot cleared and everything else, our facilities director who was running over was able to contact the um the company to to come and clean up all the water. They were able to coordinate that off. So, there was a lot of coordination that was going on from central office with facilities with uh my admin assistant making phone calls. parents were still calling in. And one of the things that uh I helped develop for central office

110um the clerical staff was a binder that basically includes scripts for every kind of potential category of situation. Our our administrative assistants went to that part of the binder. As the phone call started coming in, they knew what the information was. They wrote like the interchangeable information into the scripts. They were able to give the parents the same information regardless of as if the phone rang in this office or down there. Everybody gave the same information because they had a script. Nobody had to think about what do I need to say. It's just yes, they've been evacuated. They are here. This is what's happening. So that was seamless. And because we were able to handle it on that day when it happened again 2 days later, >> no, >> we already knew what to do.

111And thankfully, because it had already happened and the fire department knew and they arrived, we did not need to evacuate our students. They instead said, "No, we don't need to go through that again. Let's just move them to this part of the building and move forward." But there there is a definite need for communication when the crisis is occurring immediately so parents know because students will be on their devices. They're I mean, you're in town, things are happening, fire trucks are flying. um making sure that parents are aware along the way of what's happening. Even if this case had turned out differently um to alert them that there still has been no change. There still has been no change. We are now asking you to come pick up students. Whatever that would have been, we

112would have communicated that out. But also what was helpful is having those preset scripts for my central office staff that they could immediately turn give them the basic information. they're going here, they're doing this. They all had the same information. So, we had sort of pre-planned for that. But we also knew that communication was key in um and and it had to be timely regardless of if we had updates or not. Was there another part of the question? >> Um well, it was um how would you how would you communicate with us and also with the three town governments? >> Absolutely. So once the situation sort of started unfolding, had it been my role, it would have been to contact the the school board or the school committee chair and vice chair to just say,

113"Hey, this is what's happening. No crisis is going on." And then also to alert um the other part of the school district, so the tritown community. So if families were concerned about that that this was happening um because it happened at our middle school, we did have to contact our um paired district that had some of the students who were in there from different towns just to give them an awareness. They didn't need to do anything, but they were also ready to send buses to us to move students if we needed to do something more permanent or to get them further away. So again, another reason why you want to have those partnerships in place because if something happens like that, if somebody's got the ability to send you resources, whether the buses were to

114move students or just to keep them warm, we would have absolutely accepted that, but gladly we didn't need to do that. Can you touch a little bit on your philosophy around the formal exchanges between yourself and the member town governments when it comes to things like preparation meetings uh other types of formal deliberations? >> I would want to make sure that those conversations start early when we know that we're going to start developing a budget to look at what what are the parameters that we're looking at for that budget. we already would kind of have an idea of what the income would look like, what what the current budget situation is, what the concerns might be from the town about what stresses they might have on their financial resources and how we would need to

115fit into that. So, having those communications happen early and then to have again regular check-ins to say, okay, this is what we're looking at. What where are you with that? Are does this still make sense to you? Because what you don't want to have happen is you come in with a budget that's at a certain dollar amount and the towns have no way of supporting that. You want to make sure that you're going to at least be in alignment and that there's going to be some continuity because at the end of the day, even though this district is separate and distinct from the from the tri town, there has to be continuity of service across all three of those towns. So, having those conversations early, understanding what are the parameters, trying to figure out has

116anything changed? You've got to check in along the way. And then when it comes time for town meeting to make sure that the information again prior to town meeting should be communicated out at the town meeting, communicated out clearly without any kind of jargon. And then answering questions that might come up that you could support and provide rationale for cuts that you're making or things that you might be asking for and why those needs are necessary. And in a tri-town environment, would you envision having those engagements directly yourself with the three town government? >> I would like to. I would like to because I would like to understand what they're working with. Um, again, superintendent learning. I I would want to know how is this how does this all go together? What's happening to put

117this all together? How do we do this? Would I make every single meeting, every single time? Could I send other people? Sure, I could if other things were were happening. But for me, I would want to know how is this how is this going together? What do we need to do to work together to to deliver this? Um because if if I don't have a good understanding of how something works, I can't explain it to you. I need to understand how does this work? Because as an educator, I want to be able to explain to you why this is happening this way. And I think that that's also going to build trust with teachers, with staff, with administrators, with families that I really understand that this is what's going on. >> So do you feel

118like that's already been answered? >> I do. >> Yeah. >> Was that the next question? >> Crisis related question. >> Yeah, there was a crisis situation question. So I feel uh you address that pretty pretty heavily. >> Okay. Um, so Matt, just >> that's funny. I didn't even see that. >> Um, I think that that wraps up our direct questions for you and has a chance to give you the mic and maybe ask us some questions. >> Absolutely. >> Um, do you have questions for us about Masanomic, the school committee, or the communities we serve? >> So, I'm wondering what do you all think makes this district appealing in terms of community culture? What are you most proud of here? >> Who's passionate first on this one? >> I'm I'm inclined my mouth shut because

119I've already talked to the candidate so extensively. >> I'll hear Trevor because he's the most recent out of Moscow. >> So, like you said, I graduated in 21. I got elected in 22. Um, I'm the 12th generation in my family to live in the Tritown. So, um there's a lot of deep roots in a dry town like that. And I think this building does a good job um at creating a sense of community within the walls. I think an area where we struggle is going out to the member towns and having them feel like they're also a part of this community. Um but what Masco does that I think separates us from a lot of schools is we really do try to teach the whole student. We offer experiences where students can come out and

120be certified EMTs where one of the only I think the only school in high school in Massachusetts that does that inhouse. Um so we offer a lot of unique programs like that. Um but beyond those programs like I said the relationships I think that are be that are able to be built in here are longlasting and impactful for students to want to come back here. Um, I know there's a lot of other reasons why they might not be able to, but I think the desire for a lot of people is to come back here and hopefully raise their family here on day two like you had alluded to earlier in the interview. >> Answer, >> Melissa. >> Okay. So, I am also a graduate of Masco, not as recent as Trevor. >> Um, that's close.

121>> My kids are the third generation to come through the school and graduate. And um I think that everybody when you talk to people about their Masco experience or their community experience, everybody has a distinct memory of something good that happened at Masco or something good that was part of Masco or their belonging and how they took their education and they did great things with it or you know we we have a um reputation of graduating very good students who go on to do great things in the world and are very well equipped to for life after 12th grade. And I think that that we need to expand on a little bit more for support in the future. So, communicating with our member towns like Trevor said, but also being able to have the next

122generation have those memories of Masco and continue that because we we need we need we may not have the stability um that the school that the communities once had and people staying around, but so we need to create them. And I think when we I think you mentioned something about um taking Masco to the next level, we're poised for success. >> Yes. And if doing so, we can we can continue to have that reputation in our communities and have everybody have a wonderful me memory of Masco. >> I'll chime into I can't help myself. Um but transplant from New York City. So uh I did not have generations attended Masco, but I have three children who attended Masco who have all graduated and they are wildly different. different interests, different skill sets, different talents, and

123they were all served fabulously here. It's why I serve on the school committee to try to do a small part to pay back. Um, it is an exceptional education, no matter what your interests are, no matter what your abilities are. That is not as widely known as I think it should be. We don't have a newspaper here and we have a communication issue that really needs to be addressed. Some of the things that make it really special is we have a really really robust set of electives that students can choose. This is a choose your own adventure kind of place but there are guides along the way on that adventure. There are a lot of student supports here which I think you mentioned that you heard from students themselves. >> Students are able to have

124an experiential learning opportunity here that goes way beyond anything you might see at even a vote school. Um, it goes beyond what you'd see even at some of the best colleges in this country there. It's not just the internship that is signature senior year experience here, but the classroom experiences, the clubs, they're very hands-on. Um, our DECA program, the business program is one of the best in the state um with hundreds of students participating here and community support for it. But there's also a biotech program. There's a woodworking program. There are arts that win national awards year after year after year. The music program, I mean, I could go on and on. There are so many programs for every type of student and every type of interest. And as Melissa mentioned, students go on and

125they are well situated to experience secondary education, career or military pursuits because they had a foundational knowledge here that is second to none. But that is kind of like the bestkept secret on the Northshore. I'm done with that being a secret. Um, so we need help on that. I also think there are some feelings in the community of like Masco is not what it used to be and um, I think that's more of a communication issue than reality. U, but there are we're definitely poised for growth. There are a lot of benefits to being a teacher and an administrator in this district that we are very fortunate such as you don't see a long list of discipline issues like I occasionally ask the administration how are the attendance and discipline reports right now and I'm

126kind of shocked by how uh fantastic the building is operating and how committed our students are to learning that creates a very good environment to build on other things here if you're not having to focus your energies on those things. The basics are really robust here. And I think that creates an interesting challenge for an administrator and for educators. It's a nice environment to work in. You also have families who are super committed. That's a blessing and a curse at times, but they are committed and they support their children and they support what goes on in this building. So >> just a different perspective. So I have my whole experience with Masco is two years at the school committee. Um that's that's it. I have two little kids. They're rising into this eventually. So I

127I moved to to Boxford um for the schools. So Masco is always highly rated and it's a larger school with a wealth of extracurricular and just lots of electives and a very strong music program. very strong, you know, arts program. Sports are great. I came from a very small school that was very oldfashioned, very limited. So, I want my kids to have, you know, maximize their education experience, but also have a diversity with, like you said, a wealth of opportunities and kind choose your own adventure. So, I'm trying to kind of keep that as much as possible as we're in a time of budget cuts and try to, you know, promote that. And I think Chris is spot on. Masco does have a PR problem. We do have an outreach issue, which I think is

128very easily solvable. That's a quick win. So, I think we can get there, but there's a few of us here that are kind of on the other side of the mountain. We're really looking for the future of that five or 10 year plan. And I think it's it's there. We just have to get there and get it out there a little more. >> I'm going to hand the mic back to Patty if she has more questions. >> I can say one thing too because I feel like this hasn't been said. >> Okay. >> Was um the teachers we have a very we have a great group of teachers and the teachers are here. There the longevity here is phenomenal. there is very little turnover year to year and they just a shout out to them

129for the way they teach and the students and the support that they get every year is just amazing and I think the teachers here are phenomenal. >> What would be one piece of advice you would give to your new superintendent? >> Do we have somebody who hasn't offered one yet? Yeah, Trevor, what we're thinking, >> um, and people around this table have heard me say it, as much as you might not like surprises and you'd want that open line of communication to come to you from us, we'd appreciate the same in return just so you know, everyone's on the same page. So, often times we're the ones facing in our communities out there. Um, and we're the ones to be communicating issues. So if we all know what's going happen happening collectively, we can better

130address those concerns. >> Yes. Um I would say it would be do whatever is humanly possible and then more uh to engage with our three communities. Um it's it's not always going to be pretty, but >> um it probably is more often than it's not. Uh but if you're able to develop goodwill and trust because people know you're not just listening, but you want you re sincerely want to hear and get their perspective. um and for them to have the opportunity to impact what goes on here which is um factually the you know our community's most valuable asset. Um so even people who don't have kids in school what goes on in this school impacts them financially. Um, so engaging with the the residents of the three towns, not just the parents, um, and not

131just people who have kids in the school, but but all groups, um, so that they understand that you care about their kids as well. Um and frankly, you know, this this there's a lot of potential for what this school can offer those people. Um that uh largely untapped um and we can engage those groups and draw them closer to to this institution um much more much more rigorously. So, I would almost split the difference between what these two have just said and just say be very transparent in the way you communicate with people. One of the things that we see in our town is there's a there's a sense that there's a little bit of antagonistic relationship between you know the administration versus the school committee versus the town in some ways. and and over

132the last couple of years, we've really established, I think, a really good working relationship between the school committee members and our town, but there's still this lack of trust almost. And it's I think it it it uh arises out of doing what's required in the job as opposed to doing whatever someone is asking you to do that's reasonable, you know, and there's a there's a real desire for um the administration to reach out to the towns and tell them exactly what's going on. And at least with with our town government, I can't speak for the others, but I can tell you that there's not one person I've I've seen on our town government that isn't above board and honest and just looking to make the right decision and to be a partner with us. >>

133And I think that's not been taken advantage of as much as it mine's super short. My advice would be use all the people at this table and our towns by extension as your thought partners. >> I had one, but if I have you ask more questions. >> I'm I've I have I I I'm going to say it again. I have learned so much from being here today. I have thoroughly enjoyed the visit, talking with the students, um talking with the administrators, talking with just the community members. This this truly is everything that you're saying. I can see it. It it's it's it's right there. It's ready to to go to the next level. And you know, just having had the opportunity to be here to talk to everybody, um the the pride, you can you

134you can hear it. You can see it. I mean, you drive in and it's just it's it's gorgeous. It it's even with all the snow piles, it it's I mean, it's gorgeous. And you can you can see that you know that this is something that is important to the communities. And it it would, you know, I would be so honored to be able to partner with this this community and these three towns and to work alongside all of you and and to bring forward um wherever we need to go next. But it's it's that next that next sort of star. We're on the rocket ship. We're getting there. I I can see that for this district. And um I just I wanted to just reiterate that. It's been it's been a phenomenal experience. So, thank

135you. >> Thank you. >> Um so with that we are we ready to wrap >> concluding. >> We are concluding. Yeah. Unless you have other questions. We are we have what we need. >> Before I before I take it. Yeah. Before I uh ask for a motion, I again say thank you to the search committee. Want to say thank you to the administrators who participated today. Thank you to the families that came to join, the teachers that participated today. A big special thank you to the students who participated today. Um, and thank you to you. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you for coming in. >> I enjoyed the discussion. I enjoyed the interview and uh I appreciate your time. >> Me too. Thank you so much. >> Absolutely. So with that motion to

136>> I think Melissa beat you and Joe was second. >> We have nobody on TV. So all in favor I >> againstain.