MRSD School Committee Meeting 12/17/2025

001Yes. Amen. Right. Right. A call to order the Mass Regional District School Committee meeting at 7:05 p.m. Uh, first comments from the audience. Anybody? Anybody? All right. Um, remarks from the chair. Uh, just a couple quick remarks. First, uh, I just want to wish everybody a happy, healthy holiday season. Uh, thanks as always to all of our teachers, administrators, support staff for all their hard work. And um again, I hope everybody deser get has a well-deserved break um over the holidays. Uh the other thing I just want to say is thank you to the town representatives for joining us last week. I thought we had a a productive discussion with them. Uh had some good actions that came out of it. We'll be diving into those actions tonight. Um you know, I'd asked the school

002committee to continue to be prepared to have some hard discussions uh as we go through tonight, as we go into uh budget season, which will which we're about a month from. And I think think that's it. So with that uh turf field plan discussion. >> Y we did get um a revised proposal from Stantech um today. It's in the link in the agenda. Uh and I asked um Ananda Berseron from Santech and Michelle Simino to come in and uh explain to us what it what the new proposal entails. So Nandanda, are you there? >> Hi everybody. >> Hello there. >> Hello. >> Hi. I'm here. Can you can hear me? Okay. Seems like. >> Okay. >> All right. Very good. >> What's that? >> We used to see you, but >> Oh, yeah. I can

003turn I'll turn my camera back on. >> Oh, here we go. I didn't know if it was going to take up my Sometimes it takes up my bandwidth, but I think it should be okay. My My computer's being a little funny. The video button's not working. Oh. Oh, there it goes. >> Don't worry about it. >> Hi. Sorry about that. Um yeah, so we um based on um conversations with Crystal, she had and I think we brought it up at the last meeting. She had recommended that we um submit uh for the uh the RDA uh the request for determination of applicability um first uh before we move forward with updating the project. Um this is just to get um and Michelle can speak more to it, but it's to get more uh definition on

004well we have the definition on the wetland lines but it's their coordination and approval acceptance of uh the wetland lines and that the um revised project would be um out of the the wetland determination. So we added uh some additional scope for that and then also included two additional conservation u commission meetings assuming we would need to advance this process um prior to um updating the plans and then going back to the conservation commission. Um >> just to clarify, excuse me, are you >> because what we got was plan A, plan B, and then a Thank you. Yeah, this is just for plan B. This is all assuming we would move the plan. >> Plan B one, >> right? >> With RDA. >> Yeah, >> the third. Okay, >> it's the letter C under the

005Turfield discussion documents. >> Yes. >> And that's new as of today? >> Yes. >> It wasn't there this morning, was it? >> No, it was not. I saw him this afternoon. >> This is super frustrating. >> The cost is up. >> Yes. >> Yeah. The cost the the the previous version for plan B did not include that RDA um step. So, this adds some time to get through that process first um prior to the the plans update. And we had mentioned it at that last meeting because Crystal had suggested that before um I I guess after we had put that previous proposal together um so it didn't have it in there then. So, we've added it. And Michelle, um, Michelle, maybe do you want to talk a little bit to what the RDA process would

006look like? >> Sure. Um, hi, good evening. Can everybody hear me? Okay. >> Yes. Yep. >> Okay. I'm Michelle Simino with Stan. Um, nice to see you all. Yeah. The RDA process, um, just to kind of give a a brief overview in case, um, anyone's not familiar with it, it's it's a a legal process by which we can present to the Conservation Commission. um a footprint and kind of basic design of the project that demonstrates that the the project footprint and the associated work will be outside of the Conservation Commission's jurisdiction under two specific laws, the Mass Wetlands Protection Act and the Boxford Wetlands Protection bylaw. Um, so just to back up a little bit, the the ongoing hearings that we have that we're presenting the project under currently are are there three separate uh

007laws being considered. So the conservation commission is currently considering the project under three different laws and I just wanted to give context a little bit for the RDA. Um so that those laws are the Mass Wetlands Protection Act, the um Boxford Wetlands Protection Act, and then the Boxford Storm Water Management Act. So they're considering the project under the notice of intent under all three of those laws. What the RDA would do is demonstrate that the revised field field one removing field two is outside of the Conservation Commission's jurisdiction. So that would include the 200 foot riverfront area, all of the 100 foot buffer zone areas, and that therefore there's no decision to be made by the conservation commission under those laws because the footprint of the project is outside of their jurisdiction under those two

008laws. and the request for determination of applicability. The package that would be presented that the conservation commission would just um have enough information to show the conservation commission that the new revised footprint is outside their jurisdiction. Ask them to make a formal determination that no further action is required. In other words, no notice of intent has to be filed. And then with that uh assuming they issue a negative determination with that we can go forward red comfortably redesigning the rest of the project removing field two and focusing on field one and the storm water redesign that will give us a level of comfort to move forward with that >> so couple questions. >> What happens to the existing NOI? Are you make are you modifying it or are you withdrawing it? Are we asking for

009a decision? >> Yeah, that's a great >> I'm sorry. >> Because that's um my concern is that they're going to deny the project with prejudice. >> Mhm. >> So the the thought I apologize I think we have a little bit of delay. I don't mean to interrupt. >> That's okay. Um so to address your question what what we would propose is um going forward getting that negative determination of applicability that we'll be requesting we would then ask the conservation commission to without prejudice um withdraw the portion of the notice of intent that they're consider that the pending notice of intent that they're considering under both the wetlands protection act and the Boxford wetlands bylaw but continue the notice of intent process or continue the hearing process I should say under the storm water management bylaw

010and then we would revise the plans under the existing ongoing hearing. >> So the RDA isn't It does not cover the storm water, the Boxford bylaw for storm water, only the Boxford bylaw as it relates to the wetlands protection act, like that portion of it. >> Yes, that's correct. Because we would want the hearing to we don't want we know that they have jurisdiction under the the um storm water um management bylaw. We know they have jurisdiction. So the RDA process would help to demonstrate that they don't have jurisdiction, that our project footprint is outside of their jurisdiction under the Mass Wetlands Protection Act and the wetlands um bylaw, but knowing that the the remainder of the project, they do have jurisdiction over the remainder of the project um under the storm water bylaw. >>

011Thank you. >> So we don't need a determination of that because we we are clear on that jurisdiction. So >> discussion >> just are we considering the other two proposals here as well? I guess I'm confused what we're doing. >> So you had made a decision yet on which uh path you wanted to go down. uh >> plan A is to keep the two field >> right >> fraud proposal in play and there's an associated cost with continuing with the conservation commission meetings um and that's what that first proposal is and then right now we're really looking at the the second B proposal which is to slim the project down to one field and have this RDA as part of it. So, first one, plan A is just to stay on the path we're already

012on, >> which I'll say I don't think we want to do that. Um, and the second one is one that's also called plan B, which >> we haven't discussed yet. What's different about that one versus the other plan B? This is still um this is still plan B. It just adds this extra step of submitting the RDA prior um prior to moving forward with >> Okay. Okay. So >> really modifying just an adds a step to the the process. Yeah, >> it's expanding the scope to >> Okay. Yeah, I can see it's a slightly more expensive now. Now I understand how all three work together. Thank you. >> Mhm. Yeah. Sorry I didn't make that clearer before. >> Sorry. I I think what I heard was Sorry, Trevor. I think what I heard was we

013got to this because we had generally given direction we were going to go down the path of plan B two weeks ago. >> Crystal met with Stan over the last however many days. It sounds like Crystal gave them the recommendation to include additional scope. they've come back with this >> B prime that is this additional scope and we're >> I think our we're faced with a decision of >> you know we've already kind of decided not to go on the path of A fund B prime or >> withdraw >> right knowing mean or don't take Crystal's advice and go back to B >> and we have a donation from from Mexico Sports Foundation that would substantially pay. I mean, not like 80% or something. >> Cover the original scope that we saw two weeks ago,

014>> right? But not the the >> not the new one. >> Sorry, >> Mike was um >> was this based on advice that Crystal had gotten? I thought someone else maybe had recommended it to Crystal. It wasn't It wasn't from us. >> Yeah, I I don't know if it came up in a conversation with Ross perhaps. >> Um that's what I'm looking for confirmation on. That was my question. Has anyone actually discussed this process and procedure with the town of Oxford? And this is the recommended way to proceed. It doesn't sound like it, not that we know of. >> That gives me very little confidence in this process is going to work. And that's very disappointing because last week I asked about legal strategy and I think I encourage people to talk to this the

015town of the people who are actually making the decisions and know the process in their town. So this is a very disappointing new thing today. J, did you want to go? >> Sure. Um, I I just have a very hard time accepting that we're going to change course to go down to one field when I believe that they're going to have the same arguments. The reason that they're denying us is because of PAS because of all these old science like their reasoning is out of date and nothing is going to change when we then go forward with one field. We're not changing our materials after we had already said we're going to go all natural. We're not going to use crumb rubber. We're going to try the best we can to um mitigate the impact

016on our environment here. And so we're going to compromise to go down to one field to what I think is going to be the same end result, which I have a very hard time doing where if they're going to deny us, let them deny us on two fields and at least show the voters that we did everything we could to deliver them what they had asked for at a previous town meeting. Uh Trevor, we were you here two weeks ago for the deliberation? >> Yes. Okay. Just want to make sure. All right. Any other discussion? Bill. >> Yeah, I guess um I I definitely hear what Trevor's saying. Um I I guess fortunately we don't have um a lot of Oxford pre presents here tonight. So for all we know, they did talk to them.

017Um, so unfortunately we don't have an answer to that. What's that? >> Yeah, Adrian's like Chris is here. I'm not aware of, >> right? We just don't know. Um, you know, I'm I'm reluctant to just call it a day. um given the you know demonstrated need for this and there is um broad I think there's there's substantial support among the three towns to go forward with with this. So bailing on this I I I really don't want to do that. So I would be I guess um it sounds like B prime is the current best thinking um from Stantech um as the way to go as opposed to just B um and I guess >> yes and there was some um it was a recommend it was a suggestion >> by whom >> it was

018from Ross >> Ross's is >> conservation agent. >> So, someone did >> Okay. >> Yeah. So, they they talked I'm looking back at my notes. Yeah. Crystal and Ross talked. Um he suggested that we file the RDA beforehand to degree to agree there is no impact um to quell the commission when we present the storm water permit. >> Okay. So I know Crystal has had at least one very lengthy conversation with Ross had at least two phone conversations with the town administrator in Boxford. >> I wasn't on those calls. I don't know what was discussed. >> Right. >> But I do know that two weeks ago >> that the issue of the RDA came up during Santex presentation >> and I believe it was said that it came the recommendation came from Crystal. >> Yeah.

019for based on her conversation with Ross. Yeah. >> Okay. Okay. >> Just wanted to clarify that. >> Yeah. >> Promise class happening two weeks. >> No, way before. >> And why why is the scope just contemplated now in in >> I can't plan plan A and plan B were presented on the >> the 3. >> Yeah. Y >> and there was some discussion. I think George brought it up from Stantech. He brought up the issue of the RDA and then we asked them to include that contemplated scope in an an additional plan during that call. But during the meeting, next morning, I sent Stantech an email and said, "Could you please amend your plan B to include the RDA based on the conversation last night?" So that's >> Yeah. And we had just had the

020meeting on the first with the crystal with with Crystal. So I think we had already had the proposal into you before we got to add the RDA. >> But we asked about all of this during that meeting. >> Yeah. I'm just I'm struggling to >> reach for more money when we just went through the process of securing funds and >> getting a donation and doing all that. It just it's frustrating. It feels like a miss. >> I think it is a good strategy though. It sets the ground rules very early. If we were go to go with that plan B option so we're not having this constant debating, >> right? But it pulls field two which is contrary to what you >> but if we were going to go that way >> sets it up.

021>> I would like to have a direct to >> right. >> Yeah. I mean you said it. Sorry. Go. >> That's all right. But I think at least I'm assuming the frustration is if everybody knew about this then why are we now looking at an $83,000 propo proposal versus the 64 when they knew about it before? We wouldn't have secured funds for $65,000 to cover it if they knew that the budget the proposal was going to be 83,000. >> Yes. >> That's a very hard like pill to swallow at the moment and I'm really not comfortable with >> just I guess both of A and B are dated in November. So that was before >> we had the conversation that the meeting what was it a couple of weeks ago >> and just said that

022the conversation with Crystal happened after she submitted the >> No, she first >> she said no put this on. >> Yeah, it was December 1st. It was December 1st and I did mention in the meeting on the 3rd that the scope did not yet include >> guys. So So I think the I think the frustration is somehow the school committee missed some message that there was going to be an incre an increase in No, that's sad >> in Austin between last meeting and this meeting. How we missed that, how it wasn't communicated, how it was misinterpreted. I almost don't care at this point, >> but it's I think a point of frustration amongst all of us, right? So, somehow there was an increase in cost from the last meeting to this meeting. school committee went

023and got $65,000 from the Masco Sports Foundation to fund the amount that we were understanding it was going to cost us to move forward with option B and now it's more so we're frustrated. Okay, we can dig into we can we can root cause where the miscommunication happens >> and the difference >> decision to make >> right and the difference between this 83 and 65 is that 18. So, we either vote to approve it, we vote to reject it, or we punt until the box all the boxwood folks are here and vote with them or Trevor has a fourth option. I I just want to go back to kind of the early discussions we had and we had a lot in the superintendent's office downstairs when we really sat down with the um athletic director

024and went through the need like what do we need as a district? And it was very clear through those conversations that one field wasn't going to cover our need. And if we want to be a community asset like we always say we want to be and we want to be able to invite the community in, we're not going to be able to do that with one field. There's it decreases our opportunity to rent our facilities. It decreases our opportunity to invite youth groups in, adult groups who come in in the morning and work out. I think it would be a real mistake to limit this project down to one field given where we are right now. So I just want to go back to those early discussions when we were talking about what we need

025as a district and it was very clear we needed two fields. >> Yeah and absolutely agree with that. I recall making that, you know, argument on numerous occasions as we were going through this process. But as much as two fields better suit our needs, zero fields serve no need at all. So if the best we can do is to get one, then um that's the option that I want and I'm in favor of B prime. Right. So again, I think the options are fund option A, fund option B prime at an increased amount, don't fund anything or punt the vote until the Boxer folks are here. So >> is there any reason to not punt? I mean meaning time is of the urgency or what's >> Nothing's going to happen between now and our meeting

026on January 7th. When is the next Conscom meeting where we're set to present something? >> Like January. >> We tell them when did we tell them we were coming back? Michelle Conscom. >> Mike, I'm going to double check my notes on that, but I think we got a continuation until um the second hearing in January. Um >> is it somewhere? Because the first January 15th is a Thursday. Yeah, >> that's right. New Year's New Year's Day. Yeah, thank you. Ananda, it was uh January 15th and that's the continued NOI hearing. >> And would that also give us the opportunity to ask Masco Sports Foundation very nicely if they wanted to contribute a little bit more? >> That's an embarrassing ask. I'm going make a motion to table the vote until January 7th. >> Second. >>

027Okay. Do we have any other discussion? Jeeoff, did you want to weigh in? I >> I just wanted to mention that um to draw money out of the stabilization account, you need a 2/3 vote of all members. So, you need eight eight and the affirmatives. >> So, we won't be able to vote on that anyway. >> There's eight people. >> You have eight people. If it was unanimous in the sense I' raised that >> thank you for clarifying and is the reason of postponing to communicate with Masco Sports Foundation. >> Um yeah I think the liaison who has done the most work with Masco Sports Foundation is not here tonight for this discussion. So, I think a lot can happen in the next two weeks and I think we would be remiss if we move

028forward and drew money from stabilization when perhaps we don't have to. >> I know it's a small amount, but it's still >> and I hear that um I almost I'm thinking about accepting their grant. I'm not a yes yet. I think we would be better suited accepting their money at the end when we have a project to show to meeting that they actually did work. I don't want to drain all the work they've already put in. Um, when we told town meeting that we were going to be working on private or there was a group working on private fundraising. So, I don't want to come to town meeting then with a goose egg when they have in fact done work cuz they're not going to see that. And even though if we tell them that

029like they've covered everything up to date, you have we haven't asked you for another penny. It would be a lot better to walk in to town meeting with a a number in hand, a larger $60,000 number larger than whatever we're going to be coming into. But that's just my thought. >> I just have kind of just a general question, I guess, and last thought kind of tailing on to what Trevor had said a little bit earlier. I mean, is there is there any feeling that no matter what we do and that this is just a process that's being dragged on and on and on and that they're never going to say yes? I don't I don't know. I'm just the way it's been seeming so far. It doesn't What in their mind is the perfect

030presentation of a magical field that will check all the boxes for them, I guess, is what I'm I'm looking for because it doesn't seem like there's any positive coming from them to want to say yes to this. So, is there any feeling or inkling to what would ever be a yes? because it I feel like they're going to just drag this on and we're we're jumping through all these hoops. One field, two field, all this for for them to just drag us along. I don't know. I guess that's what I'm I'm looking for guidance to know what um what the feeling is like. Is there ever going to really be a yes? It's a hard question to answer, but I I don't feel like it's >> I'll just say I mean I think that um

031we have a couple box members who have a little bit of insights on into your into your question. Um and so I I'd probably defer to them. Chris, I don't know if you had a be my question was >> um I believe one of the boxer members attended the cons meeting. >> Yes. >> So there's information I I don't know what happened. And I haven't had a report out on that, but I >> feel like we're making we're having a discussion in a vacuum. We don't have all the information. >> Like we invite the fincoms to come here. Can we invite the comms come or should we all be going? Like if there is if if we're missing information and we're making decisions based on not having all the facts. >> I think it's important

032that the committee attend the con meet. >> I think there have been 15 to date. >> Yeah. >> Okay. I don't want any I think only one member has been reasonably consistent. Yeah. >> Continued. >> When was the last time you attended? Like >> I went to one recently but it got continued. I wasn't not aware that it was going to be continued and I was there's a hat because it continues. >> I think we need to have these conversations. >> Yeah. I think we need to have these conversation >> is when we do it. Yeah. Two meetings ago. >> We have a motion on the floor. >> Motion was Ramy Melissa pushed to January 7th. >> Y >> a second. Have a vote. >> Uh I think we can do >> Okay. All in

033favor and pushing to January 7th. >> Any against? Any abstain? >> The foot order. I also going to withdraw or when we get to the consent agenda, I'm also going to ask that the um the vote for acceptance of the gift be pulled because it's specific as to what it's used to be used for. >> Yes. Yes. Yeah. We don't want to vote on that until we have to vote on this. Okay. And thank you for your help in making the update. We recommend it to you. Appreciate yours. Appreciate your time today. Anything else to do next? Yeah. Do we? Yes, I think so. and Crystal. >> That would be everybody. >> All right. >> Great. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Do you need us anymore? >> You're welcome to stick around. I think

034you're also free to go your other fun. >> Thank you so much. Nice to meet you all. Good night. >> Thank you. >> All right. Well, I take back what I said to Sarah earlier that that was going to pass in five minutes. >> Um, >> I have a request. If these proposals are going to come up again, maybe we get them sooner, earlier in the day or maybe the day before. It's very frustrating to look at these proposals so late in the day. This is the second time in a row. >> Yeah. Okay. I agree. Right. I mean, I agree. I think that Mike and Jeff probably do everything they can to get these things out as soon as they get them. >> Yeah. Like I said, I requested >> requested it first the

035first thing I did when I got into the office on Thursday morning following the last meeting and Stantech sent it to us this afternoon. 114. >> That's not fair to us. So, >> it's not fair to anybody, but can't control when they send something. So, >> I can't either. Sorry. >> I mean, in retrospect, I mean, could we give him a a preferred date? >> I do do that. >> He did. He asked me. He just asked. >> Yeah, the email's request was early last year. Well, it's funny because the the actual proposal is dated the 11th of December, but it's named is what yesterday's date is that is in the uh the file name >> and it wasn't emailed till today. It came early this afternoon. >> 11:41 today. >> All right, let's uh

036press on you. All right, on to hopefully a more optimistic and fun topic. Department ciation. So hopefully a lighter conversation and nothing to vote on or anything. >> Nothing lighter than math. >> Light. Everybody loves math. Um I'm Sarah Smith, the math department chair for those of you that don't know me, but I think I know most in the room at this point. Um, but I have been at Mascos my 20th year, fourth year as department chair. Um, I'm happy to be here. Thank you for inviting us. Um, I think it's been good for all of us and when we've all sat down and reflected after um, any of the other department chairs have come. We've all felt really positive about it and and appreciate the opportunity to share out some of what we're doing.

037So, thank you for that. Um, you can go to the next one, Link. um a little bit just in general about where we're at with the math department and what we're about. One of our biggest things is making sure that our students are appropriately challenged and supported. And that combination, that balance um can be tricky at times, but we try really hard to make sure that we're meeting the needs of our students. We try and work on building a strong foundational understanding in middle school um to support long-term growth for our students. the the Tritown schools, everybody's coming from different places and experiences and amount of time spent in math and all those things. So, there's a lot of work in middle school in terms of getting everybody on the same page with each other

038student wise and um acclimated to middle school, which is challenging for everyone in general in all realms um in particular math. And um so that's one of our our biggest goals is building a good foundation um trying to work through mathematical thinking and reasoning and problem solving not just content content content and skill skill skill but building bigger picture things. Um and we try and make sure we use multiple representations to really deepen that understanding and make sure we are teaching things in ways that every student can learn. Some are more verbal, some are more visual, trying to work through all those components to build a a good understanding on any concepts that we're doing. Um, one of our newer things is really working on explorations and students building some of their knowledge from the

039ground up and then formalizing things later on, which I'll talk a little bit more about later. um and really making sure that throughout our time with these students in Mascow that they are seeing themselves as capable mathematicians um for whatever comes next, school, military, career, whatever is next for them. We want them to feel like they can do math and when they're seeing math in a variety of forms in their life that they're okay with it. They're not as intimidated by it. They have a they have a strong knowledge base and are good thinkers and problem solvers. So, those are some of our biggest things that we're working on. We try and keep that in mind in what we're doing. One of the things I know you all asked for was I apologize that's a

040little light on there. Um, looking at our enrollment trends. Um, in the middle school, our core classes, our smallest is 12 and largest is 24. Median and mean class size are 17. Uh we also have our geometry lab course which I know a lot of you heard about last year. Um which is a supplementary course that we have in um the average class size in that is nine. That's partially because of how we built in the foundations course um for ELA that Meg talked about last time and kind of splitting students amongst those to build in extra pieces that they for Geolab originally it was built to help with supporting MCCAST when we were struggling with geometry in the middle school. Um, more recently it's been about trying to make sure we're able to fit

041in all the math that the students need. And geometry was something where if we kind of pulled those standards out into this other course looking it actually pulls on some of the eighth grade and some of the seventh grade standards into that um just to kind of create more time and exposure to the concepts. Um, in high school, smallest class is 10, largest is 24. Uh, mean and median are at 19. Um, that class that 10, I know Meg again spoke last week about some of the sectioning and balancing. It's not an isolated 10. It's a course where there's two sections, one is 10, one is 20. Partially because of where um, students were other courses that they were signed up for. it kind of forced more students into one section um just because there

042was another course that was only offered that that one period. So, it made that one smaller. Um these numbers have gone up slightly in the high school in the last couple of years. Not by much, not not really significant. Um but I know it was something that was that was asked about. Um, another piece that I wanted to put in there, math is currently a three-year requirement, but 97% of our students enroll in four years of math. Um, so there's a variety of reasons for that. Some of them are very much interested in STEM fields, and it's really important to show that that strong representation of the math and the science. Um, others are looking at state schools, um, which want four years of math and using that. others trying to fill out their schedule.

043But again, most of our students are taking four years of math right now, which which is great. Um, and we have about 100 students enrolled in our AP math courses right now. Um, go ahead, Mike. Our focus areas, we've been looking a lot over the past two years on vertical and horizontal alignment. Um, both within Masco, looking at what we're doing 7 to 12. We also um restarted some conversations last year with the elementary schools to see where they're at with math, what they're doing, what they're seeing in their students. We used to do that a lot and then obviously everything kind of changed through the COVID years. Um and we're working on on building that back up. Um Kevin and myself and the seventh grade math teachers spent an afternoon with some of the

044Tritown Elementary math teachers um talking about what all of us are seeing um what our needs are, what our overlap is and what students are doing, what successes they're having, what struggles they're having, so that we know when our seventh graders are coming in, which again is a tough transition year in general, what we can do to support them. Um we had some great conversations. The teachers then have had a lot of follow-up communication with the elementary school teachers which um we're really excited about. Um Kevin has tried to work on getting some conversations this spring as well in math and other departments um so that we can continue to bridge all of what's happening in the elementary schools all the way through high school. So, um, that's something we're really working on and trying

045to make sure our expectations and experiences um are consistent among schools and courses. Um, couple things that are listed here relate to promoting student centered learning. Um, which many of us have experienced a lot of lecturing in courses and in particular math. We're trying to flip the script a little bit on that. There's a lot of research about student- centered work especially in math and in problem solving in building thinkers um which is really you see here our open up resources is our middle school curriculum which really promotes that um the BTC is building thinking classrooms an initiative our middle school teachers have taken on in terms of strategies um EFL is experience first formalize later so um a lot of of our high school teachers are doing that. There's curriculum um lessons associated with

046that that a lot of our high school teachers are implementing um to really get students thinking through and building concepts and then we say, "Okay, now here's where this formally is in math. Here's, you know, all those all those pieces and concepts and theorems that you need that build that, but you've already kind of built it on your own. We're just taking that piece and and twisting it a little bit. Um, and the last focus area that we've been working on for a couple years is trying to build elective choices for students. Um, we want to make sure that yes, there's requirements students need to get through, but having a little more choice. Um, you know, we've added in statistics courses and an intro course. Last year, we introduced a couple others. There weren't wasn't

047enough um students signed up to run them. We're gonna also offer again this year in the course signups and hopefully have enough that we can run some of these um interest based courses um that Cammy's predecessor Tammy who you all know she and I ran some surveys um to see what there was for interest in different science and math electives um to try and figure out what to run in terms of making sure we're hitting the interest there. um the bright spots on the next slide. Couple of the big ones, the building thinking classrooms I talked about, um which we've really seen increased student engagement and ownership in their learning. Um all students are thinking and contributing because they're up at these vertical surfaces that you can see in the pictures there working together, talking,

048problem solving. Um, the teachers in the room are going over and asking guiding questions on how to push their thinking forward. Um, and the students are doing a really great job on that. Um, one of the ideas in it, the student in the reddish shirt there, I know you can't see it from afar, but if you're looking at it on your screen, she's actually looking over at some of the other boards, which sometimes has been seen as a no no, right, in terms of things. But part of the reason for this is because in all of the fields that students are going into, it's collaboration. So if you can see an idea that somebody else is building off of and it sparks some understanding for you that you can help push your group forward on

049trying to encourage that. Um so that's one of one of the pieces that's been really great. um with that this whole idea of using the building thinking classrooms philosophy um there's a researchbased book on it and how to go about teaching with this that all of our middle school teachers have read they originally heard about it in our conversation with the elementary teachers last year because a couple of them were using it um they all read the book they created a personalized learning um session on that where they were doing the books study and starting to implement. They've all been using it day in and day out in their courses this year. Um, and it's one of the things I love because it it came from the teachers and they've really owned it. It's a

050lot of work. It's a lot of energy. Um, but it's incredibly valuable. When I'm in the classroom, I can see it. I can see just so much more communication than I've ever seen from students, which is is pretty inspiring. Um and then on the right similar idea with the experience first formalized later is it's it's a slightly different methodology but they are very much tied together and the reason we're doing that more in the high school is because they've got materials aligned to it that we can easily access. Um so where students are thinking through some of those ideas you can go ahead Mike. Um another bright spot for us is our math teams. We have a middle school math team and a high school math team. Um they are both led by passionate teachers

051and students. Um which is really exciting. The the energy in the room um is pretty great. I've been in their practice sessions and you know the excitement and energy of students doing hard math problems um is is kind of crazy. You don't always see that, but if I'm if I'm having a rough day and I know they're doing math team practice, I stop by and it's just kind of awesome to see how excited the students are. Um, in the high school, the November meet had the most members who have ever participated in a math meet for MASCO. Um, so that was also really exciting for us is just the participation is up. It's something where we're able to add in students um students who are playing sports different seasons. Sometimes it makes it challenging to

052join other clubs, but they can kind of weave in and out. A lot of students just came in because they played a fall sport and they're not playing a winter sport. They can kind of join in and join in the practices and participate in meets. So, that's been really exciting. Um, it creates an opportunity for student connection and kind of some joy and belonging in math where some of those students that is their thing. That's what they're excited about. Um, and they have a home there which which is really great. So, um, that's really good. Thank you for taking over. Um, what would be math without some numbers? So, I have some some data here for you guys. Um on the left side we have our AP Calc scores from this past year. Um and

053and BC kelp AB 84% of our students scored a three or higher. And BC kelp, which is the even harder calculus course, 92% of our students scored a three or higher. Um on every subcategory, um we were above the state and global average, every single subcategory. And that's pretty remarkable. It was our highest um scores in four years. And this was all with a teacher that it was his first year teaching AP Cal for us. Um so I was super impressed with that. Um and the work he did. It's not just teaching calculus. There's I taught it for a number of years early in my career. Um there's a lot of work to understanding not just calculus but the exam and the preparation for that and making sure the students are thinking in the right

054ways and able to support with evidence and our students are doing a really good job with that. Um as well um in terms of MCCAST you can see on the right um less than 4% of students fell in the not meeting category in the high school. um in the middle school, 7% of eighth graders, 11% of seventh graders. Um these are still better than the state average. Um obviously we'd love it if everybody was was passing that. Um but you know, these are pretty low numbers in terms of students not meeting. Um and I'll have a little bit more on the next page about that. Um we also the last couple years brought back the AMC math competition. Um, this year we had over 40 students participate, which is the highest number since COVID when

055we stopped doing it for a couple years. Um, I proctored that exam. It was at 7:40 in the morning and I had the most energetic group of 40 people sitting down to make a math test, take a math test that I've ever seen. They were just in their element. Um, which was which was really great, too. So, that's something I'm really really happy about that the participation in that is up. um students get scored on that. There's opportunities for students that do well to move on to the math olympiad and some other competitions. So um it's a pretty pretty prestigious competition. Go ahead. Uh this is pretty similar to what Meg presented last week. Um she and I sit down frequently and talk about what things to look at in terms of empaths. Um and

056these are looking at the categories the big picture categories um in terms of each grade and how we did relative to the state. Um you can see in all of them in each of grades seven, eight and 10 um we are above the state average in every category. Um each of these is broken down into subcategories as well. And what I do is I take each of those um subcategories, look at each of the components, um gather that information and share it out with the appropriate group of teachers and we meet about it um and discuss how we're doing in each thing, what impacted the results. So, one conversation recently was about some of the timing in middle school. Um, the number of exams that they have to take in the different content areas and

057the window that they have to take them in. Sometimes that means we haven't covered the content by the time they hit this exam. Um, so trying to look at can we shift things? Are there certain topics we can shorten out to make sure we get to them? Some students, there's a whole team who hasn't had geometry lab in seventh grade by the time they have the seventh grade MCCAST. Um, and so that's a conversation we've had of how do we do that? Should we be putting some things online for those students to make sure um they can at least have some exposure to that where the team teachers can can give them access to it and look at it ahead of time. Um, and just restructuring some things, making sure we're meeting those those needs.

058Um, so we're we're doing work on that, right? There's still work to do, but overall we were happy with these results. Um, and we are sitting down looking at that, looking at our sequencing, looking at the depth on different topics to try and make sure we're addressing any of those concerns. You can go ahead. Um, the next one, again, similar to to Meg's, Megan, Brad and I sat down and and talked about some of these components and our students with disabilities and the um their student growth percentile compared to other districts. Um, so you can see that ours in the growth percentile is higher this year than last year. Um, there's been a little bit of up and down over the past few years, but between last year and this year, there was certainly growth

059um for our students with disabilities. This was grade 10, by the way. Um, and we tried to look at other comparable districts and see how they're doing. Um, you can see some had higher or lower growth. Um, some, you know, started out a little bit lower, some started out a little bit higher. So, again, we're we're seeing some good progress there and we'll continue to work on that. I would say one of the biggest things in terms of us in doing well with that is um the levels of support we're able to provide our students. I know Meg spoke a little bit about that and and Brad has chimed in on that as well, but trying to make sure that we're having options for students where they can get the level of support they need,

060whether that's a co-taught class, a foundations course where it's also co-taught, but it's smaller sectioning and we focus on the priority standards for the course. Not every single standard, but prioritizing the most important ones so I can go at a little bit different pace, get more support, more built-in structure. Um, I was in one of those classes this week and it was really awesome what the pair of teachers was able to do in terms of helping the students, having a lot of scaffolding, having a lot of different representations, being able to go around and support um in the small group setting and how much student engagement there was in the room. They felt comfortable and confident to share out, to speak out, to ask questions. some of these students who if they're in a much

061bigger course um might be a little more intimidated to do that. So, it's a really great option we have for our students um go ahead to the next one. Um which folds into our budget priorities um which for me are staffing course offerings, maintaining our resources and having math specific professional development whenever we can. Um the staffing piece ties into both math staff and our our special ed staff which is able to help provide those services um and those options for students to be able to build confidence and have engagement which breeds success for them. So that's one of the most important things um keeping our class numbers where we're able to. In terms of course offerings, we are um Katie and I have been in discussions over the past year about moving to Mass

062Core and I know she's been in some conversations with ELT as well. Um Mass Core requires four years of math which for us doesn't change a lot because as I mentioned 97% of our students and that's pretty common that percentage um are taking a fourth year. But that being said, those students who are choosing not to, sometimes it's interest based and we want to make sure we're providing opportunities for them. So being able to have more course offerings and some electives um would be really great. Um which obviously has budget impacts as well. Um in terms of our resources, one of the things that I find most important for us is that we have online support options. Um, a lot of times we'll give an assignment online rather than on paper because I don't want

063a student going through 20 problems doing them all wrong and not knowing it until they're able to see from the teacher the next day. A lot of our online supports. If you're struggling on a problem, you can see a similar problem. You can see a worked out solution and try a new one. There's help videos so you can get that right away. Um, which is is really important and really helpful. The students really enjoy that option. Um so being able to main that maintain that and um math specific PD as much as possible the building thinking classrooms work a couple of our teachers have have done professional development on that um the experience first formalized later other things like that where it's really about how to teach and engage students in math. You can go

064ahead to the next one. Um, and then in terms of collaboration, planning and growth, this just just builds off of the same things I've been talking about. Um, the idea of our co-eing pairings and being able to provide time and opportunity and training for them to be successful pairs is really important. Um, professional development time, which some of that can come from within. Um, some of these teachers who have been working on these strategies as they're getting more comfortable be able to share out to other teachers. um additional course offerings um you know with our electives. Sports analytics is one that we're hoping to add in. We had it offered last year. We just didn't have quite enough students. Game theory, applied trig, data science, stuff that's super applicable um and relevant to their futures.

065It's really really important for us to add in. Um and then more collaborative spaces for this student centered work. MEF was awesome about um funding some of the vertical surfaces for us in the middle school. Um being able to expand upon that in the high school would be awesome and just spots where we can work together more as for with our students. So um and then lastly, I know you all asked about culture and communication. I would say it's pretty strong in the math department. Um we have a healthy mix of newer and veteran teachers. There's been several retirements in the last few years for us. Um, and a lot of young teachers coming in. Um, that has been amazing. The things that the new teachers and the veteran teachers are offering to each other

066has been really great. Um, and our new teachers, I think, have been willing to share because of how open our department is. And it's one of the best things I've been able to do is learn from the different teachers as I go around and do observations and walk through classrooms. Seeing what our teachers are doing has definitely made me a better teacher. I can't name a single person in my department that I haven't learned something from. Um even the newest, even the most veteran, all along the spectrum, I'm I'm learning new things from them. So, um, it's something that I have unique insights because I'm in those rooms all the time, seeing what people are doing, how they're approaching things, how they're asking questions, how they're responding to students, how they're dealing with classroom management.

067Um, so it's something pretty amazing. Um, and in terms of communication outward to you guys, I'm happy to help in any way you can. I know you guys have a really challenging budget season um coming forward and myself and any of the other department chairs are absolutely willing to answer questions and help out and come back if there's things we can do to help support you. >> Thank you for that. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, thank you. I know we're a couple minutes over. Do we have any questions? >> This is great. Thank you very much. welcome. >> Um, I just wanted to say I liked seeing the building thinking classrooms that come to fruition because I know Mike might have talked about it or you might have talked about it earlier in the early

068stages of it and just the organic nature that it came to the district. Thank you for doing that. >> Welcome. It's been great and I I really credit to the the middle school teachers um who've really take taken charge and ownership. It's it's a lot of work. Um, but it's paying off I think in a lot of different ways. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate it. >> Right on to science tech engineering department head. >> Yeah. Good pair. Hi everyone. I'm Cammy Cox. Um I'm the science, technology, and engineering department chair here at MASCO. Um, I'm also a biology teacher and a STEM elective teacher at the high school as well. So, I'm new to Masco this year and I'm coming in with 15 years of experience in education where I've worked in a

069variety of roles in um, secondary post-secary science education um, working as the induction supervisor and a K through2 uh, science curriculum lead in the past. Um, and I, um, have just had a great first few months here. It's been awesome to feel very supportive and welcomed by, um, the community here. Uh, feeling really supported by my fellow department chairs and I've just been blown away by the experience um, and commitment of the uh, science, technology, and engineering teachers in the department. It's been amazing to see what an impact they've had on students. Um, so I'm I'm grateful to be a part of this community now and I'm happy to have this opportunity to share some insights about our department today. Um, just going to be sharing some of the things like uh just same as

070Sarah, you know, our focus areas that we've been focusing on for development. Um, some bright spots. >> I don't know. go try to find which bring can just turn the volume off. >> Okay, thank you. Um, so what I'll be talking about tonight is some areas that we've been focusing on in the department, some areas to celebrate, um, talking about some data points like assessment and, um, enrollment, our budget priorities, and some of the collaboration and growth. Go to the next slide. So the before I dive into everything, I did want to review some of the key features of high quality science instruction because it really grounds all the work that we do in our department. And so those four key features are up there. The first one is grade level and standards aligned. Um

071so this really means that um instruction, it's kind of straightforward. Instruction is aligned to the grade level. So students are um receiving appropriate instruction that meets their developmental levels as well as um the standards or the curriculum frameworks. Um so that uh the frameworks is what um we're talking about when we look at what's mentioned there the DCI so the disciplinary core ideas. So that's going to be like what the focus is in terms of content but a big part of our science instruction as well as the science and engineering practices. So we're looking at the skills that are required um to really apply that scientific thinking and to do science, not just to know about science. Um the next feature is real world application. And so this um really means that our instruction is

072grounded in observable events um and students are connecting to real world problems that they may be solving or they may be looking at an anchoring phenomenon that's driving um the instruction. And so when we talk about phenomena, we're looking at anything that's happening in the natural world. So students could be investigating something like the water cycle through understanding why our local water source um quality changes after a storm, something along those lines. Or they may be looking at um an experience like why is it that sometimes when we drop things they break? And so something that they can really relate to um that helps them to build that content in a meaningful way. And also we want to be mirroring the way that scientists um where the way that science actually looks outside of the

073classroom. The next component is supportive of student sensemaking. And so sensemaking is something you hear a lot in um science education. It really deals with students um diving into the how and the why and not just wrote memorization. Uh we also look at coherence in this aspect of things as well. Also, we want students ideas building upon themselves as they go through their um science experiences. And I had mentioned that skills are being developed throughout. So, we want to make sure there's coherence in the assessments as well. They should also be reflecting those skills. And then finally, culturally and linguistically sustaining practices. So, this just um refers to um making sure that all students regardless of identities or abilities are able to have their learning needs met in the classroom. So that deals with um

074educators being thoughtful about the needs of our multilingual learners for students who are on ed plans. And so the reason why I go over that is because it really is going to be the through line um for the work that we're doing and for you to see how we're really making some shifts in science where we're moving um really more into student learn deeper learning. Um so our focus areas align with that. Our science educators are highly talented and well trained and supporting them to deliver those key features that I just reviewed is really um our core my core focus in supporting our staffing. Um so for example, we're implementing this year a new curriculum in the middle school that you may have heard about. And so my focus has really been to make sure

075that the educators have the timing and the training and the resources to be able to deliver this rigorous uh sensemaking focused curriculum. Additionally, it's paramount for our educators to be able to access up-to-date scient um scientific equipment materials and training. So as the um education field in science shifts and as well as what we learn more about as research is developed, we want to make sure that we also have um those same up-to-date concepts and materials coming into the classroom. And so some of the way that we're doing this and some things that we have to celebrate that impact our focus areas are um one of the things that I had just talked about a little bit uh the new curriculum that we've been implementing um in our middle school. And so this is um

076a curriculum that is really meeting those key features of highquality instruction that I just spoke about. Um, as of spring this earlier this year, there are about 90 districts that are also using this curriculum and we have began to implement it through the help of the 18 grant foundation. Um, last year we received a grant that has been supporting our implementation of this curriculum. So, ensuring that the educators have the durables that are required to deliver the instruction to the students as well as uh teacher and leader training. They provide really amazing professional learning that helps um educators to develop um their understanding of the curriculum as well as um the instructional moves that go along with the curriculum. Um and we have also aligned um I've been aligning our PLC to support the development

077in this curriculum as well and really make it student centered just like the curriculum is. And so um some of our PLC focus follows those themes to really produce student outcomes. Our themes have been student talk um student ownership and student critical thinking. So this is really powerful work that I did want to celebrate. It couldn't be happening without our middle school educators. They've really committed to this work. It's hard work, but it's important work and they understand that and they've done an excellent job um with their development. So they have implemented um they're in in one unit right now. They'll be implementing a second unit later in the school year. Um there are six units total in each grade. So next year we'll have four um and then in the third year of this

078um grant we will have um full implementation. So, I did really want to just acknowledge the great work that the middle school teachers have been doing and it's been amazing to see those student outcomes to see how um you know the the results with their skills really being more strongly developed and them engaging in much more deeper learning. Um another bright spot to um celebrate is what we've been doing with high school science. So I spoke a little bit about sensemaking and coherence and how we really want to be developing um the science skills in the classroom as well. So these are skills of course that our students can use in the classroom, but it's also helping to prepare them for um college or STEM career paths as well. And so as we make this

079shift to having it be more studentled and skills focused, we want to make sure that our assessments reflect our instruction as well. So we've also been doing work to develop um common practices that develop the skills and then common assessments that um assess those um uh skills as well through performance task assessments. So all of our uh focus areas fair focus areas and development also um impact our budget priorities. And so our budget priorities align um with supporting that highquality science instruction. Um and so we're looking at focusing on staffing and those highquality instructional materials and equipment. Um one thing that I did think was important to mention while I'm um mentioning staffing as a budget priority um science is unique when it comes to the lensure um that teachers need to have. Um, oftentimes

080in content areas, you can have like a, you know, 8 through 12 social studies license and you'd be um, fit to teach any class that is offered at that level. You may have, of course, a specialty. Um, but science is different where you don't have just an 8 through 12 science license. You actually have a specialty license where you will have um, like a biology, a physics, a chemistry or a technology and engineering license. So there are different licenses within our department that um help to support those teachers to deliver um instruction because it is so specialized. Um so that is why it is so important that we do have a variety of those educators with those different licenses um within our department so that we can deliver instruction for those core classes that are

081required for graduation. Um, I oftentimes bring up the analogy of um, signs licenses are a lot like the trades. So you, um, you know, you wouldn't necessarily want an electrician to do the plumbing work on your home. Like maybe they know about it. Um, but there may come some issues. Some things may malfunction. There may be safety issues as well. So it kind of translates that same way. Sometimes you have someone who's a master plumber and electrician, but it's extremely rare. So we do have people with um multiple licenses but it is a little bit more rare. So that is why it is so important to have those highly qualified um educators and maintain that variety of licenses like we have now. Um so next up looking at some data we'll start with um enrollment

082trends. So at the high school these are uh first looking at our class sizes. So our smallest class at the high school is um nine students and that class is a conceptual chemistry course. So that um not all of our conceptual um CPAM courses are that size, but um it does definitely help where those students do benefit from that specialized instruction. Um our largest class is 24 and our average is 19 students. For the middle school, our smallest class is 12 students and that class in particular is one of our eighth grade STEM electives and our largest class is 25 with an average of 18. Um, I did want to mention that state guidelines recommend a cap of 24 students for laboratory classrooms. Um, so we really do try to uh maintain uh that limit

083as as best as we can. Um and then in terms of numbers for teachers, we have seven educators at our middle school and 11 at the high school. Sharing here is just a really quick snapshot. Sorry, the on this screen I know the contrast isn't that easy to see, but um hopefully if you have this on your screen, you can see um the difference between our uh district scores which are shown in that like turquoise green color and then um how we compare to uh the state scores which are in gray. And so the first one is um breaking down the different um categories grade eight MCAST test. Um and that is going to be on the standards that students are learning in grade six through eight. Um and as you can see they perform

084they outperform the state and all categories. And that's the same for the other two that are shown there which are 9th grade MCCAST tests um which last year students took in biology and physics. And so again, you can see how they outperform the state. This is just a quick snapshot of our MCCAST scores. We certainly um within our teams dive much deeper into this data and spend a lot of time unpacking and analyzing it. So I'll kind of package up the data for them. We do an item analysis and we try to um notice trends in the um how students are performing on specific questions. So, um, we've been able to pull out in some areas some trends around, um, graphing and interpreting graphs. So, we're able to then adjust our practice to embed this

085more in the instruction. So, we're really responding to this data on a very specific level. And that's just one example of how we're doing it. Um, another data set that I have shared here is we have four APs across science. So, we have AP bio, chemistry, physics, and environmental science. You can see here again just a snapshot, but this is the um the for students that scored higher than a three. Um and you can see the amazing work that um our teachers and students are doing in that area and the positive outcomes that they're having. Um they really have surpassed uh the state as well as um the global scores. Um, one area that we certainly can be focusing on more is the physics C course. That is a new a newer course. Um, and

086this is just one example of how we use data to drive our decisions. We just approved um some more training for that uh AP course this summer. Um just to kind of um sum up some of the collaboration that I already spoke about that's happening in the science department during our professional development time that is department directed and during our PLC time. We're using data um to inform um our uh reflection that we have in groups and we're um creating action steps based on those reflections that we're having on the data and the trends that we're seeing. We're also aligning practices uh and curriculum to those key features of highquality instruction that I spoke about. and we're collaboratively designing uh engaging and hands-on experiences uh for our students and also aligning our assessments to that.

087Um we're also using uh PLC time in particular to make sure that we are utilizing um science equipment and materials. So, you know, we have somebody who's maybe new to teaching a certain course, they'll collaborate with a veteran teacher to be onboarding to any type of um technologies or tools that they may be using in the laboratory setting. ways that I think we can continue to enhance these practices is to really um you know delineate some time for common planning um versus how we use our professional learning networks and really um in involve more of our special education teams with the content teams as well so that we can be on boarding to curriculum and sharing practices and really targeting um student outcomes in that way. And then of course just I know time is

088probably the best material in education and we can always use more of it. So um the more department directed time that we can have to really have like discipline specific training um within those core areas uh the better. Um yeah, so basically I've just again wanted to acknowledge that there's and celebrate the work that our teachers have been doing um with collaborating um I've learned so much from them and I feel that they are a group that really shows up for one another and I feel that I've already seen such great student outcomes from that. Um, so I did just want to mention that as I finish up and and really just thank you for the opportunity to share and if you have any questions feel feel free to ask them. >> Um, I guess

089I have a kudos, a comment and a question. Um, maskomit produces a disproportionate number of students pursuing STEM majors in college. It's it's unbelievable. I don't know how the data is captured here, but I look at it. I've actually had interns do a analysis of the major students are declaring based but it's like based on Instagram account. So it's not very it's not very it wouldn't pass a scientific test but it's it's unbelievable and you haven't you didn't highlight as much of the um engineering content. The engineering program here produces so many engineers. And if we're looking around the corner at what's AI proof, engineering for the physical world, especially with the data warehouses and whatnot, is that is going to be needed in the wake of the AI wave. Um, engineering is going to

090become increasingly important. High schools and colleges and universities are doubling down on physical engineering right now. Mascanome is one of the few high schools in the state with a comprehensive engineering curriculum. Are there other investments or needs that you are seeing that we could support in those areas? Are you seeing continue I guess it's two questions. Are you seeing continued interest in those electives that are um so well taught here? >> Yeah. So um a couple of things there. Thank you so much for elevating that because it is absolutely true. Um we do have a lot of students going into the STEM fields and we have um an incredible teacher. We have lots of incredible teachers but Mr. Curts in particular I did just want to shout out he is um teaching our engineering one

091our engineering 2 honors and our CAD program. Um and I do feel that that's kind of where the support this to acknowledge the support question. um you know that I mentioned that department directed time that could be a really great time to um make sure that we have a variety of educators supported in those upcoming trends. Um there's a lot of the state offers a lot of opportunities for things around AI and whatnot. Um and so I would love to get us more involved in that type of a thing. And then we're also looking at um potentially um looking into getting a new 3D printer. We have some now, but we would love to diversify the companies that we're working with for that as well for students to see more of like what we have

092right now is already outdated. So, um, for students to see more of like what we're actually seeing in the field and then again just get more experience with that. And so I'm sure that each year that will continue um where we want to be bringing in more tech into the classroom. Um and also um really supporting our teachers so that if they were interested in going for one of those types of like engineering and technology licenses um that we could certainly provide them with the PD support so that they felt ready to go to take one of those. I and I know that you're new here. So, if I and I don't know how much you've been informed of like how do you come up with a wish list and um there's also a donor

093community that's really robust here that if there is a particular 3D printer or something you're in need of could socialize with the school committee and others a technology wish list. Um >> awesome. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you all for your time. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, Cammy and Sarah, I just want to say thank you to you guys. We know that it takes time to put this material together. The results, just like the other departments we've heard heard about so far, are fantastic. And thank you guys for all your hard work. >> The computer science classes fall under the business. >> Yes. >> Department, right? Okay. Right. >> All right. So, I put together a few charts with inputs from Adrian and Joe and some feedback from Jeff uh over the last few

094days just kind of summarizing some of the discussions that we had this past Wednesday uh this past Wednesday uh on heading into budget season and what a strategy could be as we uh as we go over the next month and into budget season. You know, I started with the objective and I kind of toyed with the statement a couple times and you know, I settled on to we want to continue to provide an exceptional experience for all students and mitigate budget growth challenges, right? I'm not that's a ch that is hard to do. Um I think that those two things aren't completely orthogonal to each other. So, it's going to take a lot of work. It's going to take a lot of hard discussions and uh but I think we can get there. Um everybody

095knows we'll face budget challenges in FY27. A level service and you know some people I've heard refer to it as level staff budget maybe Jeff will correct me on that. Um would be well beyond our 2 and a half% that the towns have asked for. Um, we met with the member towns, the finance committees, the select boards, some administrators, and collective brains collectively brainstorm some ideas. We have some opportunities to go do research into. And so, in a couple charts, you guys will see what I think will be some homework assignments to do over the next month as we head into budget season. Uh, I have asked I'll I'll be asking the the chairs of the subcommittees to take a lead on these homework assignments. Um, but by all means, you know, everybody's welcome to

096help out here. Um, where am I? >> Third bullet, propose a strategy, practically informed school committee. Um, I'm going to jump down to the last bullet. Uh, so the other thing that's come up is the need for some ideas on how to establish a multi-year budget. Right? I remember last year we were working in the DCI to establish multi-year capital plan. Um I think that that was a step a great step in the right direction. It's hard to do a multi-year budget, right? I've talked to Jeff about this in the past, right? It's lumpy. It's unpredictable. Um but I think it's worth looking into. And you I think I've heard a couple creative ideas around how we might be able to smooth out some of that lumpiness. Um so it's something that we'll we'll pull

097the thread on, I think. Next shot. All right. So just a summary of of our um of our working session from last week. Um, I don't know about everybody else, but I thought it was more genuine, more collaborative than the first time we sat down with them. Um, we came up with a handful of ideas. Some came from the committee, some came from the the member uh member towns. They were a single principal model. uh department heads and DTL consolidation, operating uh operational savings and instructional efficiencies, access and deficiency strategy out of district placement reductions um or strategy I suppose uh central office collaboration with TTU and then Georgetown. So we'll talk about those on the next chart. Um and we also have an opportunity to strengthen what success looks like at Mascow. You know,

098there there was discussion last week around, you know, how do we compare to other towns? What are other how do other towns model their schools? What are our KPIs? Um, so those are things that we should we should try to poke at um and make datadriven decisions and uh create a long-term strategy. Again, the town's asked for us to avoid an override. Um so we'll talk about how we can try to get there. Uh and then again the last thing was the Topsfield has requested adoption of the budget one week earlier than our current schedule has us uh adopting it. And so that would be on March 11th. Okay. So as for homework um I'll start at the top. Right. So prior to prior to budget deliberation kickoff, school committees should research creative cost-saving topics

099and collaborate with staff who have offered to share perspectives, right? So we've had pers we've had everybody offer perspectives. We'd have department heads coming in offering their perspectives and the administration talking about their perspectives and um you know there's there's a lot of perspectives and I think that you know to hear to hear them all will have to divide and conquer. Um, I will say that we're not going to be done in a month. Uh, to go off and hear and talk to people and get data and try to size these things in terms of budget impacts, it's it's going to be a tall ask. Um, you know, and I know a lot of this is going to have to flow through Jeff when it comes to, you know, what it means from a budget.

100And so I understand it will take longer than the month that we're talking about here, but I think the ask is to start the discussions into budget season so we can deliberate on them as we uh within with information as we get to them throughout the the couple months we deliberate. So I'll go through these uh the single principal model, right? So fundamental question is can we operate the middle school and high school with a single principal? Um Adrian and I will continue to pull on this topic with with Mike and Jeff and uh if we need to pull others in, we certainly will. Uh the next is the department heads and DTL consolidation. And I think the fundamental question here is just how do we effectively and efficiently oversee uh the departments that we

101have. So I'm asking Joe from a DCI perspective to discuss this with Katie Dinaro for starters. and pull in others as needed. Uh operational savings and instructional efficiencies, right? So, are there ways uh to save uh cost across our teaching organization? Um frankly, some may be, you know, go talking about teacher cuts in certain areas. Um but that's probably not the only way to look at efficiencies. So, again, I've asked Joe to talk to Katie and or Phil uh on this for starters. um the excess and deficiency strategies uh strategy. Are there ways to more effectively fund END? Um so Trevor, if you wouldn't mind um having a discussion with Jeff on this. I think that there's things that we should think about as a school committee on this topic. Um out of district placements,

102right? And I know um Brad's put in some efforts to try to reduce and art district placements already and is collaborating with the elementary and middle schools. Um Joe and Jeff Han, I'd like to have meet with from a budget perspective as well as from a local perspective to talk through, you know, additional ways to to mend, not mend, but to bridge that and hopefully reduce out of district placements in years to come. U and then Georgetown. Um so you guys are familiar with Georgetown's general interest to uh perhaps tuition in students. next year. I will say that this for me is u I'm going to consider it a one-time thing until it's not a one time uh revenue surplus until it's not. Uh meaning we still have to go out we still have to

103go and look at one through five um as a more sustainable way to maintain a budget going forward. So I'll continue to have these discussions with the uh Georgetown school committee chair. I know they reached out today to see if we can meet on Friday and um nonetheless we'll have a discussion with them soon. There was another idea that came up around central office collaboration with the uh tritown union. I'm suggesting that we don't dig into that right now. Uh there's a lot to go after that's going to I think take up a lot of people's time and um I I think that that's probably going to be something that we'll we'll kick the can on. So, so I'm going to pause there and just see if there's any thoughts or feedback or deliberation we

104want to have on on this. I mean, again, this is just my perspective on a recommendation for how we go forward over the next month. I don't know if you guys feel I completely missed the mark or if I just small nuggets that came up the other night or or if you guys generally agree with this strategy. So, I'll pause and Lisa can start. Um, I did have a question. I don't know if it would fall into number four or five, but one of the things that a couple of towns talked about was doing a stabilization fund for our sped students and I didn't know if that was something we would want to look at. >> Um, that's a good idea. That's a good topic to bring up. I don't know. I I do know

105that we want to look at it. Um I don't know where it falls under. >> Probably just make a number eight, I guess. >> I don't know if want to volunteer, Trevor, with me, but something I think you and I could talk about relatively quickly as part of so maybe a 4a. >> We can talk about that. >> 4a. >> Thanks for inviting us. That's a good one. >> And again, I don't I don't know if it's a savings opportunity. It's more of a longterm planning, >> but it's a great point. >> I mean, there's a lot of administration to it. It has to go through town meeting, has to go through the boards of selectmen, has to go through the um the school committee in order to establish a specialed stabilization fund. Um and

106then there are probably rigid kind of requirements and how you spend out of it. Um, but I think what we'll struggle with in this conversation is that it can only be funded through your operating budget, >> right? So, it's additive to the conversation, not subtractive subractive or deductive. >> Oh, no. >> It's certainly something that we can talk about. >> Um, I know a lot about it. So, >> yeah, >> we can talk about relatively >> and it's different from the member towns have one for their elementary schools and like it would be coming out of our budget. Correct. >> It could it can if it was approved and established, it can only be funded out of >> the Masco operating budget. >> That town meeting has to >> during the annual budget process and

107has to be part of the school committee's adopted budget. So, it's additive. >> So, if we cut a position here for >> No, no, no. I I I I get that. And I guess I don't but they I thought one of the towns specifically used taxes. >> Bobsfield used >> recash maybe. >> Yeah. So it came from taxation. >> And our primary source is our operating budget. I I I know that, but I I guess it's I I'm just saying we could look at it because their way of thinking at it was the big swings and we had a very big swing one way and hopefully we are more stable and we don't need to use it. I'm just saying could it be possible for it to be funded through as an addition to this

108is something we would like to start as a one-time fund say 100,000 from each town. I'm just throwing out numbers so before everybody gets mad just, you know, just to create that stabilization fund to have it there in case it's there for future use. Couldn't rather than it being built into our budget, it is >> into the budget, >> but it's a it's a one-time ask from the town. It's kind of like the one-time ask we have, you know, for other things. >> We'll talk about it. We'll put together a slide that will help >> you visualize how it works. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Good reminder. Thanks. >> What else, folks? I'd like a little bit more feedback or >> I certainly think you capture the essence of what we talked about last week.

109So, um, yeah, if you running with this, it seems to be a good place to start. >> Looks great. >> Great. Chris, you want to say something? Come on. I I feel bad about asking when I missed the last session and everybody else might already have the answer to this, but how do we go from like these concepts to numbers potential save right like and is it like okay at the January 7th is that the next 14th is our next meeting >> our two weeks later is January 7 are the people assigned to numbers one through 7.5 or whatever. Um, putting together a slide, the potential cost savings, the recommend a recommendation like what how are we operationalizing this great framework? So in my mind um and this might be the right approach or the

110wrong approach or just an approach but in my minds the first thing that I think folks have to do is just go get information on the impact right like let's understand the impact of any one of these individual calling them opportunities but I'll more like moves right Um, I think with almost any one of them, like, and Jeff, you can smack me upside my head if you want. We could probably rough it out in terms of what the impact will be or whether there's value to them, right? Um, without going to the, you know, to the dollar, right? And then that way like when we get to budget season and Mike and Jeff come to the table with >> here's our proposal, >> we'll have that information in terms of the impact. Maybe we will

111maybe we won't have that information in terms of the dollar pass. Um but it'll at least give us that discussion on the impact of the operational effectiveness here at the school. Right. Am I making sense? I don't know if I'm >> That That totally makes sense. I think it's that we know we don't want to cut anything, right? In fact, we want to invest in things, but we can't do that. That's not sustainable. Sometimes I feel like in all the years I've sat in these budget conversations on making a decision based on the level of doomsday prediction uh that X Y or Z cut would mean. And I almost feel like we should have a agreed upon rubric for like what we are aiming towards like what is palatable based on like this will have

112the most minimal impact on students or this will have the most minimal impact on a non-priority area right like a lot of times I we're impacted by the presentation recency doomsday prediction and it should be more datadriven and priority oriented. Um yeah, I I guess I just want to add that um over the next several weeks between now and our next meeting, I I have no expectation that any of these buckets um will be fully developed. But I do think in that time um you could come back and say okay back of the envelope we know that there's very little to be gained by doing this thing. Um and this other one actually has some promise in it. So, you know, so let's go from six and or seven or whatever the right number is

113and then it becomes three and they're more fully developed over time over the course of the budget season. And you know, we may go through this and we may end up that that none of these actually are in a position or can be sufficiently rigorously analyzed to impact this budget. But at least we've started the process about the next budget season. So we we have to start somewhere. Um and and you know when we started la that meeting we had nothing on the table. At least now we've got several avenues that were able to pursue. >> Yeah. >> And let's see where they lead us. Um, and let's refine it and um, chuck those that don't seem to have a lot of promise to them and and focus on those that that that do have

114promise of of providing some savings or greater efficiency with with um, minimal impact on on the quality of the education that our that our kids receive. Yeah, I mean I think what I'm trying to what I'm trying to drive here is I'm trying to predict or we're trying to predict what topics are going to come up during budget season. I suspect many of these will come up during budget season and rather than trying to research and discuss them in the heat of the moment, I'm trying to get us ahead of this so that we can be smart when they come up, right? And there probably are some things without bothering to do the step of quantifying what the financial impact is. There may be some things that operationally like that's a no-go. Like the impact

115of cutting that would be >> so damaging. Let's not go through the ex the fruitless exercise of even wasting Jeff's time or anybody else's time quantifying. Okay, >> great. >> Vice versa, there might be things that are so obvious that we can adjust. >> Yes. >> Doesn't matter if we're going to save 50 bucks, right? it's not going to have an operational impact. We'll we'll do it. >> So So Matt, on the I'm struggling with what we're talking about here a little bit in terms of the process. So on the 21st, we're going to have a level service budget and that's the starting point, right? And then these groups are going to begin conversations about these buckets. >> Nope. >> So >> we we better spend some time together then. >> We can spend some

116time. >> Yeah. I think these groups start discussing things now. >> Exactly. >> Well, I'm concurrently developing the level service. You just said no to that. >> Level service is this is what is going to cost. This is >> this is what we have right now. >> And it may be 9% over >> might be I think the next >> and we have to get to 2%. >> I struggle with the next slide too. So yeah. So, let's talk about let's talk through it. All right. So, we said we want to give you Mike and Jeff a number. Um, the towns have asked for 2 and a half%. Right? And the discussion last week was we asked for 2 and a half% plan to get to 2 and a half% it will show us all

117the knobs it would take to turn to get there. And we may not like some of those knobs and we may have to understand why those are good or bad knobs to turn and be able to tell that story back to the towns. Um, but it will show that we we highlighted a path to get to no override and that it's is or isn't a feasible approach. Can I >> that district administration prepares a budget recommendation to get to 2 and a.5%. So you're asking us to come to the table on the 21st with a rec a detailed recommendation of how we would get from level service to 2 and 12% 2 and Okay, keep going. So I suspect if you had a two and a half%. So I think the next thing that Adrian,

118Joe and I discussed was we're almost sure that's going to be >> a lot. >> Yeah, >> it's going to be a lot. >> Indeed. >> Right. So what is hypothetically we've got a I mean if we look at the projections that I've a couple of different times right so you know it's it's easily service is easily plus 7% right >> y so could you go back so you're just to be clear you're you're asking us to come to the table on the 21st with a recommendation to cut $1.6 $6 million. >> Yes. >> From the level service budget >> is it 1.6 go down one >> is 1.6 >> get you from seven to 2.5 1.6 million. >> Okay. Go down and chop. Mick. >> Yeah. >> And then at the same time you're

119asking us to come to the table with a second proposal >> about a million dollars. So develop a level service budget. You need that right as a starting point. And then a recommendation to cut $1.6 million from that level service budget. And then a second recommendation to cut 1.1 million from the budget. That's what you're saying. >> Yes. towns would like to see on behalf of the towns, they would like to see what a school would look like if we had to cut 1.6 million level service this year. >> Yeah. We might be saying to them, we're gonna have 30 kids a class. We're going to have this few teachers. There's going to be one varsity team, no JV teams. There's like >> but he's asking in in this recommendation he's asking us to prepare

120a detailed recommendation to get there >> to get there >> right >> like these positions. >> Yep. >> These programs. >> Yes. >> Y >> I think we're going to have to probably have conversation offline. >> Okay. >> Yeah. That that's a rough ask. That's a really rough ask and it didn't go so good for us last year. >> Yeah, >> if we recall. Y >> let's talk I mean what what did we want to do? >> I mean that's rough. >> I mean I don't see it as different. So last year you gave us the level service initially and then >> we started with level service >> and then meet multiple meetings later we got to the eventual point of meeting that. So, we're saying if we start off with all of that information,

121we can get to the end point a lot quicker. >> I guess what I'm struggling with, Trevor, just to be perfectly frank, is the word recommendation. >> So, don't say recommendation, but I would appreciate if >> I I'm not going to recommend we cut 25 people. I'm not doing that. >> Right. And >> I'm just going to be perfectly straight with all of you. That's fine. >> I'm not doing that. We can't keep operating with the administration only recommending level service because you guys are part of this struggle with us. >> We need you to also be a part of that with us. I'm fine taking the heat for whatever votes I take on in the budget, but I can't I need your professional expertise because that's why I feel like you're sitting at this

122table. And I know it might work best. Let's >> be honest, right? Last year was a level service recommendation because the the three or four years prior none of the recommendations that were put forward by by the by the leadership team >> professional opinions that you just asked for were rejected >> right so we went the level service route whether that sounds like a copout or not that's what happened last year >> I might be alone in asking for that but that's how I feel >> but a a recommendation I don't know how Mike feels we haven't talked about it but I'm not comfortable. >> I wouldn't want to recommend >> I agree and I think I actually brought this up the other day with somebody, right? I don't think anybody's going to come come

123in. >> Well, it says recommendation. >> I know. Bad choice of words on my part, >> right? I don't think anybody's going to come in here and recommend cutting 1.6. So, >> I'll pick a better a better word. Adrian's jumping out of my chair. Sorry. >> No, I just I want to make clear that like not all of us were on those commitments either. So it's not the same appetite that there was three years ago to have these discussions or four years ago to have these discussions. We're in a different place now. We have different people at the table. You know, let's endeavor to be collaborative and put forth a good faith effort on behalf of our students in our towns. So I just want to put that out there. You know, I also want

124to say last year was really difficult because there wasn't a lot of like detailed data driven rationale lead with the why. Here here's what we're thinking. And you know, and I think you guys obviously are communicating now that you felt burned by the last several years. I didn't have that context really going into that. I I had no idea how strongly you guys felt about that. It would have been helpful to know because it would have adjusted the approach at least from my perspective. And then also recommendation. No, I think you guys put forward your recommendation however you want to and I think that's important for us to see. But I think as a school committee we should normalize on can you also fulfill these requests that we are making for you for other options

125so that we can go in informed to the discussions. You guys don't have to call them recommendations at all. I don't have any quarrels with that. >> You can just say the school committee asked for this. We're fulfilling the request and here is our recommendation over here. That's fine. I don't think anybody's going to argue with that. But I think we need to be clear that this is a different group and we are trying to approach this differently and we would appreciate it if you guys did too. Um I guess I disagree with one of your points and that's the one about how the uh the committee is constituted so differently that the conversation's going to be different because I don't think that at all because the the conversation that we had uh last year

126and and and even the year before there was the response that no we can't cut anything we can't cut any um studentf facing positions and I that was set around this table all too often and frankly that's that's this committee not doing its job if we can't have that. So, I I've fully given, you know, my look around the room, I'm I'm hopeful to not hear that this year. Um because we're not going to get anywhere near um you know, barring some sort of, you know, Brinks truck falling from the sky. I mean, we're not going to get anywhere near what the town wants without making some tough decisions. that what I observed over the last couple of years, this committee isn't prepared to do it. >> Mhm. >> So, >> oh, and that's why

127we're changing the approach. >> But last year was different. We cut over $800,000 out of level service, which has not been done previously. >> But it's still the first budget that I've been a part of that we've actually made. than last year's budget >> is extraordinarily different than any of any other budget process that I had been involved with because it had two extreme outliers, right? It had out of district placement costs off the charts and a healthc care factor of that was multiples of what we've ever seen historically, right? On top of a 3.755% cola, right? So when you put all those things together, it was this perfect storm, right? that that propelled the growth of operating assessment close to 10%. Right? We had no choice but to go through the process that we

128went through last year. Right? Things might be a little bit different with this level service budget, but this group approved for example a 4% cola for everybody. >> Right. that's going to drive, >> you know, we have represent representatives from the towns that approve that as well, right? That's a major driver. That's a $1.2 million increase to our operating budget. That's close to 4%. Right there salaries, 3 and a half to 4%. And then you're looking at another 15% increase to health care costs, right? These are fixed costs, guys. I hate to say it, but teacher headcount is not a a fixed. >> It's not a fix. It's not a fixed cost. But then when you have folks come to the table during deliberations that >> you know, I don't want to call people out,

129but I'm going to um if we cut a teacher or if a teacher is proposed to be cut, I'm >> this group is opting out of the the vote, right? that's not collaborative in my in my opinion and it's the same people that are at the table, not different people. So, um >> what I >> I guess we can talk about what the plan is for the 21st, right? And what we're prepared to come to the table with a recommendation, I think, but it it doesn't look like that. Will there be >> I should say the towns are coming to us saying we can't sustain this. We have a d we those of us around the table are representatives of the town and we have to we have to look at it. If ultimately we

130take what our job is as a school committee and say you know what towns we actually really need this money for education we have to have gone through that exercise. I I agree with that. >> And we like and I I know where I lie and I think I know but I but we always need to know the impacts of what these what cutting them 1 point whatever $6 million would do to our students. And I think that was more of a powerful conversation that we had was that we want to know like if if given the information you tell us that our our class sizes are going to increase to 30 going to have um we're not going to be able to offer only basic courses because our classes are going to grow so

131big which I don't think is the case but we're going to have to also I think said someone said cut varsity you know cut sports and programming and combine the departments and not have music And >> but isn't that isn't that work of the work streams not a a recommendation from us? >> We're looking for the we I I think what I heard is that we need to know >> if we say Jeff and Mike absolutely we can't ask for an override this year. What does that look like? And we know we know we all know what that looks like but we actually need to see it on >> but that might look different to me than it does for the work streams. >> Right. So, I'm I'm I'm struggling with the process a little

132bit. >> We want I think I personally need I think we all need to think outside the box. And I think that's what we heard at that meeting last week is that we all need to do a little bit of creative thinking into how best we can save money. >> I I agree with that and that's been the work of my entire career. Um, but my job as I understand it is to advocate for the mass economic and I live in a town too, right, where the finance committee says it can't be more than 2.5%. And as a member of that town, I challenge that if more than 2 and 12% is needed for the reasons I just described, a 4% cola, a 15% increase in in healthcare costs, a 10% increase in utility um

133delivery charges that are impacting all Not just masking on it. I I can go through the list and list. We've got contractual obligations, regular transportations going up 6%. Essex retirement boards going up 6%. It's 100k a pop. Right? These are all fixed cost. Right? Why is it not okay to push back at folks to say, "We hear you. We understand when you're coming from, but we need an override >> because we need to see the impact. And I've been arguing I have been arguing with the fincom chair for seven years. >> I have. >> So, and about student enrollment like it drives me crazy. Like I I think we all individually have been having those conversations and have really been trying to do the hard work. We've sat down with our We're just trying to

134make the process work, but we need to show them that we we need to show that, you know, if if Sarah was here that we need to show our work, you know, like like if we were doing a math problem, we can't just give the answer. We have to show our work. And I think that's just what we're asking to do, that we have to demonstrate that that's actually what we're doing and that we're actually thinking about it in a very way. And I think at the end of the day, if we tell our towns, listen, in order to get to where you want us to be, we have to cut 35 teachers. I'm saying that, please don't quote me on anything, but I think that's probably close to the number. >> Be real. >>

135We have to cut 35 teachers. And this is what it means for the students at Masco, for our towns, for um those who are in honors courses, those are in special ed courses, those are who are you know how it will impact. I think that we start we're starting this process a lot earlier. And I thank Matt and Adrian for doing that because all of us have been sitting down with our towns since Octoberish. We have to go through that exercise and if we say listen this is what the impact is we can present that data we can start talking about that data in February we know what's coming and that has a bigger impact than sitting here and making adjustments in March and I hated last year's process because it was like we were

136throwing spaghetti against the wall and seeing what would stick and there was No, there was no strategy behind any of it in my opinion. And there I mean for a lot of the years that I've been on the school committee, we had to deal with co Mike's first three years first three years Jeff right through fiscal what 24 we were still dealing with co >> and so financially it was nothing like this. >> Yeah. >> No, but we were still we were still dealing with it and trying. So I think that a lot >> easy compared to this. >> Exactly. my opinion. >> but now we're all coming out of that and instead of and maybe we should have been looking at it like I remember the team conversation in 2019 or 2020 and I

137don't think anybody sitting at that table at that time could make that decision because of what we were dealing with. I don't even know what it was. It might not even >> time we were dealing with one and a half or 2% colas. we were dealing with >> one and a half to zero% increases in health care costs, right? >> Um, >> yeah. So, I mean there's different things and I mean the the fact that we settled the contract and didn't have our teachers go on strike for two or three weeks, >> that's also, you know, that's something different. So, I think there's always pros and cons to everything, but um I just feel this year especially, we have we owe it to the towns to have this exercise. Um, and it will go a

138long way to helping Masco continue to grow and thrive and be supported by our community, especially as we deal with needing new buildings and needing turf fields and just everything that we need to make our students like really successful and and Masco to be something that we can maybe everybody can say we're proud of Masco and we live here because of Masco and it's my last budget season. I don't want to sit through this exercise any more than you guys do. I can honestly tell you that. But and we're not blaming we're not like I don't feel like we're blaming anybody for anything. We just all want to work together. And I think honestly at the end of the day we're probably going to conclude that we can't cut 35 teachers. In my heart I

139know >> I don't feel that you're blaming us either. >> Yeah. But I'm >> taking this as an opportunity to talk about the process, >> right? >> Yeah. >> So, I've worked real hard to accelerate the process by a month, >> right? And I'm and I'm ready to do that. >> But at the same time, I'm I'm just going to say it again. I'm not going to make a recommendation. And I know you I'm being hard on the word you chose, but that gets us to 2 and a half% increase. But if we said we have to cut a million dollars, we absolutely have to cut a million dollars. The school committee voted, you'd have to come up with a plan. >> Sure. >> And we can come up with a recommendation. >> No, a

140recommendation. No, a recommendation >> to cut a million. >> Yeah. Not to to come to cut something that's reasonable. >> We can do that, but not something that gets to, in my opinion, to two. >> That's a lot. >> It's a million 1.6 $6 million. Thanks a listen. >> Can we think for a second? >> Yeah, we don't have to figure it out. >> Yeah, >> you have time. We got time. >> Well, I want to I want to get you a number. >> Can you go back to the >> I have the chart. Never mind. I guess I have a question before or a statement before we offer up a number or deliberate on this some more. I mean what Jeff and Adrian talked about in terms of student facing positions if we go

141off and we do our homework and the homework says that there's going to be a minor to modest impact on stu on the quality of the education the quality of the student experience. you know, is there anybody that's not willing to make that hard decision if that's what it takes to get to? >> There was a group last year that made exactly that same decision. I know, >> right? And that >> and that really that really threw the process into a spiral. >> I mean, I I I've had a discussion with Nico. I told Nico, we are gonna we are going to have to look at teachers. It sucks. >> Yeah, >> we're not going to do anything that's going to significantly deteriorate the quality education or experience here at Masco. I I won't vote

142for that. But if we can give the students a very good education, a very good experience, and get close to our budget number, then that's a hard decision that I'm willing to vote for. And it's not going to be popular. I get that. I >> mean, the vast majority of our operating costs that that are variable are staff. Staff costs. >> Staff. It's almost all staff costs, >> not just teachers. >> 280 people that work here. Yep. Right. >> And we have staff, right? I mean, on that list, we have principles, we have the DTL, we have department heads, our professionals, everybody, >> administrative people. Right. >> Right. >> But I just want to make sure that if we're going to ask Mike and Jeff to go off and make not a recommendation at whatever

143number, joking. >> No, recommendation recommendation. Right. I just want to make sure I want to make sure that >> there aren't any untouchables. Go collect data. >> Well, our recommendation is going to be I mean it's don't take this. It's not going to be based on what you you think. It's going to be based on what we >> right and what our leadership team thinks, right? That would be our recommendation. So in that scenario, we'll determine what the touchables and untouchables are, whether it's right or wrong. That's the essence of a recommendation, right? >> And then we'll converge on what we think are the touchables and untouchables after we review data. >> So how about our recommendation gets us to 5%. And then we work from there and then your groups work concurrently. I mean,

144these are these are target numbers based off a projection. These aren't necessarily level service, right? Which I'm going to share with you guys by the end of the week. >> Um, >> say that again. Sorry. >> The these th this chart is based off of the projections that I had shared >> you did in October, right? >> In April and then in October, the level service might be different than this, >> right? Um, and it might take more to get to these figures. I haven't finalized it yet. That'll be finalized by the end of the week. How about if our recommendation gets between gets between four and 5% as a starting point? >> I could live with that. >> Can you include the wise in your recommendation? >> Then you guys like why why >>

145why we're doing this. >> Yeah, >> of course. and the impact of students >> and the impact to the school. >> I think that's what made the decision hard for me last year was I didn't have a lot of data to say this is >> and there was a lot of there was a lot of data. Come on. There was a lot of presentations and data. Um so I I I can't agree with you. I couldn't understand what it looked like today verse tomorrow for the students given what we had. You know, >> there was a tremendous amount of data. Maybe it wasn't the data that you wanted, but there was a tremendous amount of data produced by by our leadership team >> as the people making the decision. I think the data that we

146want is important. >> I'm not hearing from everybody that I'm only hearing that from you that there wasn't data. >> I have a big mouth. >> Unbelievable amount of data. >> I'll back that up. There's at least two positions right now that I would if id known what I know now, I wouldn't have voted for it. >> Yeah, fair enough. >> What do you know now that you didn't know then? >> We need to go down that rabbit hole. >> Yeah, I don't think we >> Okay, just >> what the learning was. >> And I think the other dimension here, guys, is I'm asking you to go get some data on our own, >> right? And to have the discussions with Jeff oneonone and have the discussions with Brad, one whoever, right? I mean, let's

147go have these discussions over the next month. Let's get smart. I'm I'm predicting that there's going to be a little bit of a flavor of all six of those bullets in whatever the recommendation is. >> There might be a couple strays that go inside those. >> So on those work streams, I think those workstream folks need to answer the same questions Melissa just asked of us and our recommendation. Those work streams have to produce the why, the the the impacts. >> Yeah. >> All of those things. >> Yep. Yeah. I'd like to know. >> So, you put a lot on Joe who's a busy guy. >> Yep. >> Right. Joe can delegate it out if you want. >> Yes, he has. >> I was just going to offer up for the out of displacement help

148on that little Where is it? Oh, >> I was just gonna offer because I did see Joe's name a lot up there for me. >> Talk to Joe. By the way, I met >> PCI too, right? >> I mean, what's that too? >> Yeah. No, I just wasn't. Yeah. Yes, EKCI. >> So, >> I don't see Bill's name up there either, so Bill can figure out where he wants to volunteer. >> I'm on it. >> Oh, just one more quick thing. I just wanted to add one thing. Just to add on a little bit to what Melissa said, too. I just know last year for even the elementary school in in Middleton, they did something similar to that where they they had the big kind of doomsday list up there of what the drastic cuts

149would look like. And it was very simple. It was sort of like a bullet point list of this is if you if you're you want us to do this, this is who has to go. And it was like 20 to 25 teachers. And it was really drastic. And it was just that bit of information to show the towns like is this really what you want and this is the quality and how it's going to go down. So it was more of just showing okay well this is it. Of course that's not what happened. It was nobody voted for that right we didn't know we didn't vote for that where I am. Um, but I think it was just it also helped give the information to the towns too to say, you know, you want you

150want the wish list. It's not that's not going to happen cuz we can't get rid of that many people. So, I think it did help in some in some way to have that. I guess if that makes any sense. Not recommended, just the >> just the this is what you asked for, this is what it will look like kind of thing. And it made everybody go, "Whoa, like what the hell?" Like that's that can't be right. >> Isn't that what we did in Topps? I mean, I remember in Toppsfield they because >> that's exactly what we did. >> So the difference was in Middleton it was on the town meeting warrant which we took the position that we can't bind a future school committee and that was a whole conversation and I don't necessarily disagree

151with our decision at that. >> All right. So just to bring it back. >> So one last the to add on to Kendra the the the one thing when we went through budget seasonally everything I kept hearing over and over again was Middleton was very specific about what teachers they were going to cut and what programs they were they would lose if something happened. And all I could kept saying is it'd be 20 to 25 teachers. Well what teachers? They just kept going well why can't you specify? Why can the elementary school but why can't >> because the process is completely different. >> I I I understand that and that's what said and I also said it was different programs and different teams and different specialties but their point was >> the elementary school could

152do it. Why can't you why can't you tell me what teachers specifically you're looking at that you could lose. >> And didn't Mike just answer that? >> He did. And I said that to them over and over, but again, I kept going, "Yeah, but the elementary school can do it. Why can't you?" >> Well, so the process is different. Maybe there are some steps you could outline that would give people directional sense of what that process looks like and they could approximate an impact because just a number wasn't helping me understand either. And I I know that you guys have spoken to the process, but there's not something documented that we can see that says here's how the impact would go down. We would start here, we would move to here. If we're looking at

15320 to 25, you could expect in the realm of this and then that and then that. Something that would help us approximate where the impacts might be. Because I know you said there's a lot of data, but it wasn't at that level. And for me, if I don't know if we're cutting from math or science or electives or like I have no idea what it looks like tomorrow. And that's my point. You guys keep saying there was tons of data. But >> but you know, when you get to the point where you're identif identifying individual educators, >> but a department that works it works is you got to identify it's people >> because of the way the CBA is written. It's very people specific >> and we start if it gets to that level, guess

154who's going to start looking for a job regardless of whatever decision we make. >> Get it. >> I get it. >> Y >> All right, folks. That was helpful. >> Seriously. All right. So, I sort of asserted to myself four to 5% as a starting point. uh not including any findings from any sort of discussions around END or Georgetown. >> Wait, that wasn't a good book. >> Let's go with that. >> 5%. Anybody else? Everybody good? >> I'd still like more than one option going in. I'd still like to go in eyes wide open, even if it's ugly on the 2.5. I think that shows a good faith. three weeks between now and the 21st essentially. >> So that's what I can commit to doing >> between now and then is having a level service

155budget and a recommendation that gets between four and 5%. That's what I think we can commit to at this point. >> Get the get the work streams going and I think we we're moving in the right direction. >> I appreciate that and I like that recommendation. >> We to vote on this. Okay, 45%. >> Very good. Let's move on, guys. Good discussion. Good deliberations. >> Yes, sir. Right. Right. So, first off, uh want to congratulate uh the model UN team. Uh they on December 6th had their uh first uh competition with a one-day simulation uh hosted at St. John's Prep. We had uh 15 delegates uh including six new team members joined with hundreds of students uh from schools around New England for an exciting day of debate and negotiation. Each delegate was assigned to

156one of a dozen committees including traditional UN bodies such as the disarmament and international security committee uh and the UN office on drugs and crime and non historical committees such as the 1787 constitutional convention and a 1941 meeting on the partition of India. Uh they showed off their skills in researching, public speaking and diplomacy while achieving their goal of creating resolutions to remedy some of the world's most pressing issues past and present. Uh and we want to congratulate all those who participated especially best delegate award winner Delaney Agn. Congratulations. >> And uh the DECA team actually dropped off some gifts tonight. um they achieved unprecedented success uh at the DEC DECA district 3 career development conference. Uh we had 80 students qualify for the state conference. Um so the chapter had a strong showing um

157that this uh the district 3 career development conference was held on Wednesday December 11th and Thursday December 12th. Um there were over 1,400 students from 11 schools competing uh in over 50 marketing, finance, hospitality and entrepreneurship events. Uh we stood out in both participation and performance. Uh this year 215 masconomics students took the stage at districts. Uh and an impressive 80 students earned a spot at the DECA state career development conference uh which will take place uh March 2nd or March 12th, I'm sorry, March 14th in Boston. Uh this milestone reflects the hard work, professionalism, and perseverance our students consistently demonstrate. Uh at districts, team and series competitors completed a 100 question exam in November and then delivered a roleplay uh where they had to solve real world business scenarios in front of a judge.

158Uh project competitors conducted indepth research, developed written papers, and presented their solutions during the conference. Uh, DECA is also a co-curricular DECA is a co-curricular organization that prepares high school students for college and career success by fostering leadership, communication, critical thinking, and community engagement. Uh, now in its eighth year at Masanomit, our chapter includes nearly one quarter of the school student body. Uh, the program is led by business teachers Brian Dupli uh, and Madison Marell along with business computer teacher computer science teacher Jennifer Rashard. uh the support of the business and computer science department and school administration continues to play a crucial role in the student sites in DECA. So congratulations big club. It's amazing. Um got a question about elevator been down since last Thursday. Uh as Jeff has been saying for three plus

159years now. Um the elevators need to be replaced uh because we we're going to be unable to get parts and that day is here. Um so they have to fabricate. It's a control board. >> Yes. One of the parts we need for the the high school elevator is a uh is a control board. Um, as I've discussed for 3 years going, um, we've should we, we probably should have modernized both elevators >> that are now 26 years old 2 years ago. >> Um, so >> so the part doesn't exist anymore. They have to fabricate one and that won't happen before the 31st. >> I've got in I've got repair scheduled for the 31st of December, >> but that's the best they can do. Didn't we have an elevator modernization project in the capital request? >>

160Yeah. When did that have is that lead time? >> So, we have the funding and I've got the project entirely next uh it starts on June 22nd actually and it'll be completed before August 15th. Uh one of the things I spent the majority of the fall working on. Um but >> that doesn't allow us to avoid >> run to run >> right so we were notified four years ago by this company that parts would become very very scarce. Uh the vendor that we have uh TK Elevator was actually the original manufacturer of the elevators that were installed here. Um back in the day they were called Dover Elevator. Um they have um the biggest repository of parts for these types of elevators in the world and they don't have the particular control board in stock

161that we need to make this repair. So they have to fabricate it which takes time. So, it's been I ordered it today. I signed the contract. I processed the PO and I gave them the green light to fabricate the board. >> Great. >> So, yeah, we're going to relocate classes to accommodate students that need to be on the first floor. I mean, that's what we've been doing since Thursday. So, >> are we done relocating them down? >> I mean, it'll we got three days left. >> It'll continue. Yeah. I mean the principles the principles set things up to move move rooms around. They're using the library for classrooms. They're using the you know the fishbowl room on the corner more. >> So the students are accommodated at that point. >> Right. So we're we're making

162students that have tr you know have difficulties with stairs not have to do the stairs. >> Got it. >> So that's we're doing what we can to make it work. >> Great. >> For another couple of days. >> Yep. >> Right. Uh thanks. >> And then Yeah. >> Thank you. And then uh just the parent coffee schedule. Um so the middle school is actually this Friday, December 19th. Uh and the next high school parent coffee will be on January 16th. >> Great. Thank you. All right. Uh, superintendent search >> I wanted to point out that when I was coming up the ramp that there's like a DECA poster out there that has all the kids' names moved on and it's actually pretty impressive to see the list. Um, >> yeah, actually it's in the the

163from the the last competition. >> Yeah, there's actually big poster out the hallway. So for the school committee members who want to like walk by, it was like big poster games. I'm like, how? >> Yeah, it's pretty cool. >> All right, Adrian, you're up. >> Um, okay. We met before this meeting. Um, we met with our advisory group. We've done preliminary screening. We are moving forward with seven candidates for phone screening. We are on track to wrap those up before the end of the month. and we are tenatively scheduled for uh the four of us to meet again January 7th and then I'll be communicating to the full advisory um for a meeting probably the second week of January um ahead of our first round interviews which are on track to be done um hopefully

164by the end of January. So, we will likely be making a recommendation to the school committee with our finalists in the month of February, hopefully early February. >> Great. >> Yes. >> Questions? >> Okay, Preston. >> Thank you, guys. Thanks. >> Um, all right. Subcommittee assignment update. >> Can I pull that up real quick? >> I'll move that we approve the subcommittee assignment. >> You have a second. >> I second it. All in favor? >> Anyone against? >> Sorry, Maggie. You're not here to save yourself. >> All right. Well done. >> All right. Subcommittee reports. If we can make them just as succinct, that would be uh >> that would be awesome. Uh community relations. >> Yeah, we had the um the senior citizen holiday lunchon. It was last Friday. It was wonderful. I think

165we had like 150ish people come from uh the three towns. It was wonderful. Uh just thank you to Institution for Savings, Soulbean, uh the community relations subcommittee and Topsfield House of Pizza for feeding the the students, the choir and the band students. They're just so talented and and the student council as well. Thanks to them. Um it's a great event and it really opens up your eyes if you've never seen to see the talent that we have in this building with the performing arts department. So um it was wonderful. Our next working meeting is going to be January 12th, Monday, January 12th on Zoom at 11:30. Next dialogue will be here January 21st at 6 o'clock. And happy holidays everyone. >> Thanks. >> Uh DCI, uh Joe's not here. Anybody else from DCI want to

166comment? >> Meeting Friday. Thanks. Uh Vocal, Jeff's not here. Maggie's not here. Not much of an update. All right. >> Um, so we met on last Friday. We established a recommended uh schedule to review the policy manual again. Um, for those of you that were on, remember the long process it took last time because the manual hadn't been a comprehensive review in a number of years. So, it took I think five years to complete that review. Um this time we're hoping it's uh quicker and can completed in roughly three years. Um given that we had just gone through the entire manual last ended last year. So um that will be coming before the committee for a vote to adopt the recommended schedule. Um, we also had Crystal um on our last meeting where we talked

167a lot about the recall process and I'm sure all of you are going to be happy to hear that um those discussions aren't going to be happening at this table really much longer. It seemed like um her opinion is that the town's process uh covers members of the regional school committee which is different than two other legal opinions that we've had. Um, so as an individual, not in my capacity, as a school committee member, I'm going to be doing a citizens petition to amend the Middleton charter to explicitly um, say the Middleton members of the Masco School Committee, and then if there's a problem legally, they can hash it out. Um, so it'll be off the committee's table for this year. But I love your energy behind it, Trevor. Don't >> you have a pretty

168job right now? I got that thing. >> Um, next leazison. Yeah, leazison updates. Um, I I don't know if anybody's really going to have much after last week. >> CPAC. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Anybody wants from leazison tiff CPAC? >> Yeah. I mean the towns. We just had that conversation. >> Okay. Keep pressing and nothing for negotiations. All right. Um, consent agenda. It would want to remove the gift from the Mascow Sports Foundation from the consent agenda. >> I think that means we have to vote on them individually. >> You vote on Julie. >> Before we jump, >> I want to you can just pull the gift from the MSF and then vote on the rest as a block. Okay. >> Uh, and I sent you an email about this. Um I object to the

169what's in last meetings on the the 10th of December meeting minutes specifically uh Fred Glor statement that regarding the turf project that residents were told it would be privately funded. That is categorically false and and I unfortunately I don't think my face hid the fact that I was quite unhappy with um that statement from him and I don't we can say that Fred mistakenly believed but but I do not want to repeat um that false statement because that is simply not true. can't take it out. I mean, what you could say is he said residents were told it would be privately funded, but the minutes reflect what was said at the meeting, not >> I I mean, all you can say is he said it would he said residents would were told it would be

170private, >> right? >> Which he did. >> Yeah. >> So, I told >> so >> and I will tell him and and take every other opportunity to point out that error. So, whatever you have to do to change it, that's fine. But I don't want to leave it like it is because I don't want people just because he said it to think that it's true because it isn't. >> I changed it. >> Thank you. >> All right. Then do we have how do how do I do this? >> So, you can you can vote the two sets of minutes and the warrants together. as a as a consent agenda. >> I'll move the approval of the December 3rd and December 10th minutes as now um edited and the approval of the warrants in the amount

171of $1,929,287. >> A second. All in favor? >> I against the 10th Dane, despite despite that we're not uh voting on the Masco Sports Foundation, want to say thank you to them for their generosity, their work that went into raising those funds and we'll revisit this in a couple weeks. >> And I also put in a request that um with that when if and when that comes up again on a future agenda that there's also an option to pay for that out of stabilization. I don't know if we need a separate motion, which I'm assuming yes, but like written out anywhere um that the school committee offer to stabilization >> somebody. So when you when you have the t bill plan discussion, anybody can make any separate. >> Okay. Yeah, you can make the motion

172to say go with plan B1 and fund it through stabilization or or accommodate or combo. Yeah. >> And then if that passed, then we wouldn't accept the gift, I imagine. Correct. So, >> all right. Before we we have a final vote, I I thank the teachers. I thank the administration. I wish them all a, you know, happy holiday season. The same to you guys. I know how much work you guys put into this. And thank you for all you guys do. And I hope >> same to you, man. >> I hope you guys bingo. >> What's that? >> Three bingos I missed this month. >> All right. Uh do we have any last uh motions? One more >> to adjourn. Yes. >> A second. >> Well, I think Lisa did. >> All right. All in

173favor? I even voted this time. Thanks.