001Call to order the Masama School Committee meeting for November 19th at 7:05 p.m. First order of business is to enter into executive session for the purpose of discussing strategy relative to pending litigation. The chair has determined uh that having this discussion in open session may have a detrimental effect on the district's litigation position. Executive session purpose number three. The school committee will return to open session at approximately 7:30, 7:45. I need a roll call. >> Second motion. >> So moved, >> Chris. Thank you. Any roll call? All in favor? Against? Any go one by one? We have to go one by one. One by one. We have to go one by one. I think you have to >> for executive session. >> Exe. Yes. >> Yes. And >> yes. >> Smalls. >> Pizza. >> Yes.
002>> Phil. >> Yes. >> Adrian. >> Yes. We'll be back in half hour. Yeah. All right. Uh, so next up on the agenda, we're going to get rolling here, guys. Uh, next up on the agenda is, uh, comments from the audience. >> Sorry. >> Any comments? Are there any comments from the audience tonight? Great. Keep moving. Um, and next uh remarks from the chair. I I don't have many. I will just uh repeat what I repeated earlier. We have a packed agenda tonight. Please stick to the topics. Stay stay tight and let's keep this show moving tonight. I'll also just wish uh the administration, teachers, students, families around the community a happy Thanksgiving next week and uh and yeah, let's keep let's keep rolling here. All right, next topic 805 social social studies department head
003presentation. Thank you for coming tonight. >> Yeah, thank you for having me. Social department head. >> All right, >> going. >> Sorry, the president. I don't plan I have plans to go to bed before 10 time >> sorry it was this >> that's not Did you ask? >> Thank you. >> [ __ ] So again, here we go. Rene Young, the social studies department head. I'm here to talk to you guys tonight about some highlights of the department and about our priorities and all that good stuff. All right, add it. There we go. >> All right. Um, so we have two major priorities as a social studies department. One is to maint maintain current staffing levels and the other is to maintain funding for educational experiences such as field trips and guest speakers. Um, our budget, our
004current budget includes the alternate trips for students who do not attend Washington DC to attend trips to Boston for the four days that their peers are in DC as weather as well as some other local historical um, and governmental field trips. Uh, for students in the high school, students benefit greatly from these hand hands-on learning experiences and usually come back with positive feedback. Our 10th graders usually go to the Edward M. Kennedy Institute uh and do a Senate uh simulation. This experience is free uh in terms of the admission. There's no admission cost. However, the district has been funding the buses to to the Kennedy Institute every year and so every 10th grader gets the opportunity to participate in that type of experiment experience. For our seventh graders, we have a program called Culture Connect
005that was established by a Masco grad in which students get to experience um music from different cultures and they usually do this to align with their different ancient um cultures that they're learning about at the time. They recently had one a presentation done on ancient Greece and the instruments and artifacts from ancient Greece and the musician played his piano for them and presented some things about um the ancient civilization as well. Um so focus areas, what is the most important issue your department is focused on right now? Currently our two major things that we're focusing on for this school year is to document the curriculum for our elective courses. All of our um 9 101 actually seven 7 8 9 10 11 core classes were documented last year but our electives had not been documented.
006So we are working on that this year. And we're also working to continue developing our common assessments and incorporating elements of the portrait of learner competencies into those assessments. Um and depending on the course depends on where we really expand, but our hope is to have all that done by the the end of the school year. some bright spots. One of the bright spots are the eighth grade trips that occurred about a month ago. A large number of students went to Washington DC where about 30 students stayed behind for the eighth graders and went on various trips in Boston. And while the government was shut down, they still had a great time from my understanding is they they had a they had a lot of fun. Um they made sure they filled in those spaces
007that would have been government buildings. They did stop in Philly on their way down and did some historic tours and they stopped by Independence Hall in the Liberty Bell. When they got to DC, they still were able to see all the monuments and memorials um because they're just open outdoor spaces. So, they were still able to do that. They got to go to the White House, took pictures outside of the White House. They went to Arlington National Cemetery that was still open because it receives partial private funding. So, they were able to still experience that. They went to the Spy Museum as well as the Holocaust Museum. And what they did to fill in some of that downtime that would have otherwise been taken up by things that were federally funded was they did green
008stops and they had like balls and things for the kids to like play. Um they went to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and they also um what was the other one they did that I did not write down here? Sorry. There was one other one they went to and I'm blanking on it. Sorry, I forgot to write down. There was one other thing they did and I if I remember I'll come back to that. from Boston. They went to TD Garden. They went on TD Garden tour one day. The USS Constitution Museum. They could not go on the the boat because again that would be federally funded, but the museum was still open because that was privately funded. So, they did get to experience that still and see the ship,
009but they couldn't go on it. They went to the Institute of Contemporary Art and the Tea Party Museum. I believe our superintendent went on that trip with them. Um, and then on Friday I went to the state house in Faniel Hall, which I got to go on that trip. That was a lot of fun. It seemed like the students had a great time regardless of the experience, whether they were in DC or in Boston. Some other bright spots outside of our recent trips, we got our eighth grade civics MCCAST scores. This is the first year, this past school year was the first year that the civics MCCAST was implemented on a statewide level. Previous years they were pilot years. This one actually counted where each student got scores. They were reported out to the parents
010and the and we got the district scores. So overall performance levels we had 11% that got exceeding expectations, 43% meeting, 39 partially meeting, and seven not meeting. Overall our our average was higher than the state average in every single category. So the three categories that they were tested on were government structures which the state average was 54% and we were at 62%. Foundations of government was state average 54% MASCO was at 62% and rights and responsibilities of a citizen the state average was 54% and MASCO average was 61%. So in every category we were scoring above the state average. AP exams. We had 156 students take AP exams as part of our social studies department. Exams this past year included European history, human geography, US government, US history, and psych. 127 students scored a three
011or better. So that would get them college credit. And we had 10 students receive a five on the exams. Um, collaboration and planning. what opportunities for collaboration or professional development across departments have been most valuable and where we expand further. So the recently added time for teachers to meet with their co- teachers for lesson development has been helpful that just started over the last couple weeks. However, if co-eing schedules were designed to allow for weekly collaboration, it would be most beneficial. In order to have cohesive optimal co-eing experience, it is essential that teachers can meet at least once a week to collaborate and plan with their co-teers. um department-led faculty-led Wednesday early release times enables us to work on curriculum alignment, assessment calibration and to think holistically about our department. This is a time that
012our department is really concentrating on finishing up those curriculum maps and working on those common assessments. Uh we also need a formal and consistent PLC time for our departments to meet specifically around student data and assessment. So that would also be part of the scheduling piece moving forward. As for planning for the next few years, what role can the school committee play in helping your department achieve its goals for for facilities, staffing, and programs? As department heads, we know the needs of our departments best than anyone else really. And if budget cuts are going to happen, that will directly impact our departments. We are the best source to consult with about where we can save money without drastically altering our program. So essentially I think the major goal for my department and probably speaking for
013most is to try to maintain staffing even if that means other things have to be cut from our budgets. So in the enrollment numbers and I'm sorry that this is probably kind of small for you. I wanted to make sure that you guys could see our middle school versus our high school enrollment numbers. Um so on the screen it's a little small but um I did break it down. Our smallest class at the middle school is 13 students and we actually have several classes running at 12 and sorry at 13 students 13 14 students. Largest class is 23 students with the average class size being 18 and the median class size being 17. At the high school I then broke it down to required like 9 10 11th grade classes and then elective classes because
014you're not comparing apples to apples if we mix that data together. So for the required classes, the smallest class is 12, the largest is 24, average is 19, and the median is 19. An observation I made when I was pulling this data though is that oftent times our honors classes are running at smaller class sizes than our CP level um class sizes. And I'd like to in the future flip that because our CP students need more support than our our honors students would typically need. Elective classes, our smallest class size is seven students, but in our largest is 25. That being said, that data isn't really a the greatest picture of what our elective classes look like because with that elective class that has seven students in it, there's another section of that same class
015with 24 students in it. So, the numbers ran at over 30 students. If you average that, it would have been like 15 15 16 students a class. But when the schedule ran out, like actually ran, one ran with 24, one ran with seven. Um, we do have several elective classes running at 24 students like maxed out. So, a lot of our including AP, geography, I think we have three sections maxed out of that. So, we really have 75 students taking that. Sorry, what was that? >> And there was a weight list. Um, world religion is running at max and so is early childhood ed and stories of World War II has several sections that are maxed out. Um, okay. Enrollment trends. So, what enrollment or course trends have you noticed in recent years including class
016sizes and weight list? And I will say I relied because this is my first year in this role. I relied heavily on the data that I was able to obtain through um I think that's sent it to us. So I was looking at the enrollment numbers that way. So it's not something I know but I was just relying on the numbers given to me and it looks like that since 2020 the enrollment across all cer course offerings has remained fairly consistent and anything that did have lower enrollment trends for more than one year seem to have been phased out over time. So I saw a couple classes that dropped in 2022. I'm ass and it looked like they had low enrollment prior to that. I'm assuming the reason that decision was made was because the
017historical low enrollment didn't justify continuing to run those courses and they were replaced by other courses in um in 2023. Uh where do you see opportunities to work more efficiently or use resources more effectively? This is actually what I just spoke about on the previous slide that I'm seeing that the honors classes are lower in size than the college prep and trying to switch that in the future. How might you do that? >> What? >> How might you do that? >> So, what you do is you end up when you take all the numbers, you end up when you decide how say you have enough students to run 10 CP classes and 10 honors, right? Just the the raw number. >> What you would probably do and but you only have enough staffing to run
018nine. And you make sure that you run less honors classes than you do CP >> so that honors classes become larger and the CS become smaller. >> Okay. Je knowled uh CP versus honors. What's the difference? >> College prep. So honors is a harder is would be like um more intensive. >> Honors is a top. >> Yes. Sorry. >> I'm old so everything's different. I was just >> sorry about that. >> For the class sizes, do you have an idea on what those low like the seven for the electives in the high school? Do you have an idea on what classes those were? >> Yeah. Well, so yes. So I actually have it written down. Ancient civilization had one section of 24 and one of seven. Okay. >> So that that's what I was saying
019like that section of seven doesn't isn't indicative of how many kids enrolled in it. It was that >> and that was an outlier. There weren't >> the schedule. It was the schedule, right? Ran two sections of it and one filled in one minute >> rather than equally distributing >> only one elective class size like that size. That's an outlier. >> That's there's another elective with nine >> that I would look to phase out next year if the enrollment looked to trend down again. >> Okay, thank you. >> And that is a singleton like there's no other section whereas Ancient Siv has more than one section. >> 31 kids signed up. And so when you think about sessions that should be two because you're not going to run one of 31 and >> right >> the
020computer doesn't >> computer kids were taking other classes that conflicted I don't like like how many people requested it versus what did it look like when it ran >> that'd be a better question for and I know you have more material so bear with us this might be a better question for Kevin or Dr. Harvey, but when you talk about CP and honors and AP, I know we talk about average class size and we talk about max medium uh minimum class sizes. Like do we have targets for class size based on level? >> No, not that I'm aware of. >> I think >> level >> I know not to my not that I can recall right now. We definitely try to make sure in order to run a course, so when the students put in
021their requests, we want to make sure a class has at least, you know, especially if it's elective, if it has at least, what is it, 18 to to move it forward in terms of sectioning, if it drops below that, we typically might look to have it not move on into the master build, if you will. Um and then based on the master build and how everything comes together in terms of conflicts between you know classes at the same time and how the requests pan out you could find that classes might not run at that point because the number drops even lower because of the way the the schedule conflicts with one another. >> Yeah, I appreciate that. I think that you're talking about you know being frugal with lowsiz classes. I guess my question was
022more along the lines of do we have a target for, you know, what a college prep student is ideally most able to learn, what environment they're most able to learn in versus an honor student versus an AP student. Is there a theory that an AP class could be bigger than a college prep class or vice versa even maybe? I don't know. >> I think that's just what Rene was talking about. >> Okay. It honestly hasn't been practiced here. they could be in a larger >> right AP and classes can run at larger typically you can run those at larger sizes because those students are probably more self-motivated and need less attention >> right >> so you can run those larger and keep the try to keep the other ones smaller >> um so I have
023this the the closing question that was asked if you could leave a school committee with one additional insight request or perspective, what would it be? If I could leave the school committee with one additional insight, it would be the critical importance of intentional and transparent communication. As a department head, I see how clear, consistent messaging directly impacts collaboration, morale, and the successful imple implementation of initiatives. When communication channels are open and two-way between leadership, staff, and families, it fosters trust, alignment, and a shared sense of purpose. I would encourage the committee to continue prioritizing structures that support proactive inclusive communication so that decisions are well understood and the voices of all state holders are genuinely heard. >> I think we all appreciate that. I think that's why we're looking to hear from you guys. >>
024Yeah. >> Is we want to foster those discussions with you and I I appreciate, you know, just the sentiment from your side as well. Um, in that spirit, I guess I had one other question a few charts back about uh chart seven. you're just you're just talking about here how you know the department better and if if we get to a place where we have to talk about uh cuts to involve you and I know what that's looked like the last couple years as we've gone through budget season and I'm wondering if we as a school committee can consider and this with the administration can consider better ways to include you in some of those discussions rather than the very emotional sometimes heated um discussions that we have during open comment. I don't know if
025there's an opportunity in the in the DCI or or elsewhere or if there I'm not really sure what it looks like, but I just ask us to think a little bit about how we might be able to foster more collaborative discussions with you as we get into budget season. And that goes for all the departments, >> right? And I think we all kind of feel because we we do talk so I I think I not trying to speak for all of us but I think all of us feel like there are things in our budgets that we could most definitely do without if it meant a teacher, right? >> Um I'm coming from a district where my budget was not this lofty, right? So I know how to survive without the the budget that I
026I have. It it's possible to survive without cutting a t-shirt sometimes. It might be like you don't have all the nice things you wish you had, but you have the body in the room. >> And you heard us last year in terms of the last the last thing we wanted to do was get rid of studentf facing positions, right? And I appreciate that we can we can start continue build upon the an open dialogue around some of those opportunities. So again, let's just think about what that could look like in the next couple months. So Joe question goes in the opposite direction >> what percentage of the students went to Washington DC you know >> it was 28 kids that stayed back so >> 90 90% >> there you go >> what is the cost
027per student for that trip >> a DC >> sorry I actually don't have the answer to that >> 7 or 800 Yeah, I think I say I remember it was like eight something kids went to something. >> I came in after that part start after they all paid. So I feel like >> I can't I was after they paid or after they signed up. So I was I'm not aware of how much they paid for that. would be nice in a future year when we're we have all the money in the world to make that mandatory and paid for by the school and um asking for donations from parents instead of saying this is what it's going to cost. I think you get enough parents to put money in to where it wouldn't be as
028big of a suck of of funding that 300 kids times $900 is going to be right. think I think the overall cost would be something lower probably in the 50 to 100k or something but it would be really cool if everybody could go right now. Now, I know there going to be some kids whose parents maybe don't let them go anyway, and there's always going to be some exceptions, but that would be a really neat way to bring people into Masco and say, you know, look how great this, you know, school is. Everybody gets a trip to DC that's paid for, right? I mean, that that would build a lot of um a lot of good public will. I think we're not in position to do that right now. lot of money. >> A lot.
029No, but down the road it would be an interesting thing to think about, wouldn't it? >> Absolutely. No, you're totally right. >> Yeah. >> Are students not going because of financial reasons? >> I don't think that that was the situation for most >> scholarship. >> Your scholarships, right? I don't think I don't think money was the reason for the 30 or so that didn't go. >> I agree with you, Joe. It'd be great to be able to get to a place like that. We'd also want to understand the root root of why people aren't going. I'm thinking that like both of those trips are good trips. You'd like them all to go to on both. Really? One's about state government, the other one's about federal government. >> Right. Different forms of government. Yeah. Right. Different
030levels of government. >> Just saying the kids in Noel fly. my friend's son like I want to go through and stop working with >> the government. >> Yes. He may have flown, but I I feel like they miss out a lot because the they went to Philadelphia on the way down and then they went to Mount Vernon on the I don't know if they still did, but when my son went to three years ago, they went to Mount Vernon on the way back and those he loved DC, but those two outliers, he loved those too because that he enjoyed that part of the history trip, too. So, it wasn't just a Washington DC, it was the other parts that >> but all federal relating still. also heard a rumor >> that the kids thought the
031buses were part of the best part of the trip. >> That's what I heard last week that the bus ride was the best part. >> Yeah, plane ride's too short. >> 30 minutes up now. >> Welcome a comment question just a great slide presentation that was really clear together. So, thank you. >> I just had a question on the the weight list. Is that normal to have a or how how many kids are waiting to get in these classes? Is there >> It's usually a handful, right? >> Just a handful. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Because like for some of these classes, there's more interest than what you know you can accommodate for. And it's not because of their section just happens that >> classes meet at the same time. Um and >> and we
032can't put it somewhere else. >> So you have enough classes as is a lot of just kind of scheduling and paring out. >> Yeah. To to skip. >> Great. Thank you. Any other questions? >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you for having me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. >> Uh, school counseling department presentation >> round two. Um well, good evening. My name is Julie Damase. I'm the director of counseling child services here at Maskment. I appreciate the opportunity um to be here tonight to speak on behalf of the department. Um where we're where we're currently at and where we're heading. Um, I kind of wanted to start and just kind of give a little bit of an overview of who the department is because we are a bit of a of a of
033a different makeup than other departments. We're not just a group of of teachers. Um, we have um a group of of counselors in two different areas. So, we have five high school school counselors who um work with every student in the building. So, every student is assigned a school counselor. Um, and at the high school, those individuals work with their students all four years. We also have at the high school, we have three and a half um school adjustment counselors, and those are individuals who provide additional supports to our students. And I'll kind of get into those total numbers in a little bit in the presentation. Uh, at the middle school, we have three school counselors. Uh, in the seventh grade, each counselor is assigned a team. Okay? And then those students travel with them
034uh in eighth grade. So they do keep all of their students from seventh and eighth grade. Uh and then we also have two and a half school adjustment counselors down at the middle school. Um we have half in the high school and half in the middle school because as you recall we had a reduction in staff in that position. So we took the the one position at the high school and split it between both in order to accommodate our students. Um we also have at the high school we have one high school nurse which again was dropped down from 2 to 1 um who is responsible for all of the students at the school including all their care plans, emergency plans, 504s and IEPs uh field trip planning and such. We have one school nurse
035assistant at the high school who currently right now is at two days a week and I'll talk about that in a few minutes as well about that staffing. Uh we have one school nurse at the middle school and then we also have one nurse assistant at the middle school and that individual is here five days. Uh and then we do have two teachers within our department which sometimes people um don't think about because we have two centers within the high school and the middle school. Um we have our academic success center at the high school which is a um tier 2 intervention for mainly general education students to get some additional support with um their academics through executive functioning skills as well as to provide support for students that have been out for extended absences
036for various medical reasons to help them transition back into the school. Um there is one paraprofessional in that depart in that room as well. And then um the I should have mentioned the school adjustment counselors at the high school. They are in our student support center. So they're all housed in one room. They have one pair of professional. And at the middle school, we also have a student support center um that functions kind of like the student support center and the academic success center in one at the middle school level. So we have um the two and a half school adjustment counselors in the student support center in the middle school. And then we have one uh teacher in the in the student support center who works with students for um educational purposes whether it
037be for study skills getting them caught up into class as well. And that individual also is a co-teer um in a in a class as well. So he's out of that room in a teaching as well one period a day. Um we also have some additional members who aren't part of the counseling nurse and teaching position. We have the high school registra. We have an administrative assistant at the high school level who is also our college visit coordinator. So she organizes about 100 uh schools and universities to come to mass school in the fall to meet with our seniors. She's also our college board um organizing. She plans all of our standardized testing between PSAT, SAT, and advanced placement. Um and I mentioned the two PAR professionals as well. Um, I've been working really hard
038to develop a substitute nurse list um, in order to provide support to our nursing staff. Um, we've recently added a third member to that um, group. So, when we do know if a staff member is going to be out for various reasons, we tried to make sure we have somebody else available. Unfortunately, most of the nurses on our nursing staff are also full-time nurses elsewhere. So, their availability isn't, you know, I can't just call them at a moment's notice. So, we try to be proactive and plan. Um, with the addition of the third substitute nurse, uh, we are working to see if we can supplement her time to kind of match or off, what's the right word? the opposite of our current nurse assistant. So, we can balance out the staffing that we have in
039the high school. Um, so then that way we always have one school nurse and one assistant nurse. Um, and I'm in the process of finalizing that now. So, I hope by early next week I have a a plan in play and a set schedule in play to make sure that we always have people available in the nursing office. >> Um, yes, thank you. So, um, so moving into the budget priorities, I I'm gonna make an assumption here that you might not be surprised by what I'm putting here as a priority for my budget. Um, but we are request, you know, looking to have um, add back a school nurse back into the budget for FY27. We are looking to move back into the budget, a school adjustment counselor um, back into the budget as well.
040And I would also like to support the addition of e-collect which is a power school feature. Um it's part of the high school principal budget for uh FY27. It was part of FY26 but with the budget deliberations last year it was removed from from the piece. Um that one's a little bit easier to explain. I'll go into that quickly. Uh but e-collect is a feature in powers school where we can have parents log into the parent portal which they all now have p school accounts and parents can go in and update their students emergency information and kind of update their um contact information. Right now we do everything via paper. Um it's very archaic. It's very inefficient. Um, and I hate to use the word dangerous, but it can be dangerous in the sense that
041if we're not updating those fast enough and having enough staff to be able to do that for us, we we may not have the correct information for parents. So, moving to this e-collect feature would allow uh families and caregivers to be able to go into powers school and update that in real time. So, that way we have the information there. Um the importance of adding a school nurse into the budget um is is vital in terms of the safety, the well-being, and the education of our students. Um every minute counts when it comes to emergencies that take place in this building. And we've had a couple this year where the nurse has been um called upon to to tend to students and tend to staff members as well. Um, and if we have at least
042one other person in the office with her, then we're not looking to have to close the office when she is out performing those emergency needs. Um, it also helps to have an additional person in the office, particularly with a school nursing license when it comes to field trip planning, care planning, and emergency planning because only DESIE certified nurses can work on care plans, can do field trip planning. So, while our nurse assistant is a very talented and gifted nurse and can triage and can perform well in emergency situations, she cannot help in those types of situations when it comes to preparing care plans and emergency plans um as well as field trip planning as well as attending 504 meetings and IEP meetings. So, now we have one school nurse to be attending the needs of
043952 students I think that we have at the high school right now. Um, adding back the school adjustment counselor to our budget as well, which also definitely impacts the well-being and safety of our students. We currently right now do our very best to be proactive as opposed to being reactive. Um, and at this point in time, we find it very difficult to be as proactive as we'd like to be because with the shuffling between the middle school and the high school for our one school adjustment counselor, we're finding that it can be very difficult for that counselor's students to get their needs met because when they're in the middle school and the needs arise in the high school, yes, we can always triage it with another individual who can support in that situation, but they
044also have individual ual and students that they need to tend to. So, it can get very challenging going back and forth between between both buildings. Um, the loss of the school adjustment counselor has also had an impact on the work that our lead school adjustment counselors were doing. They have been doing vital work in the terms of SEAL programming for our students and staff. And so, things are kind of have to take a little bit of a backseat right now in terms of that work that they're doing when it comes to like the universal mental health screening. um when it comes to the crisis prevention institute training which is our restraint training for a lot of our professionals in the building. Um and as well as last year we were starting to work on some
045um programming around our social emotional needs of our students to help prevent further out outplacements. So we started working on something called the flex program where we were hoping to provide support inhouse for our students. We didn't get to as far into that program as we would like. um to because of the the change in the in the staffing. So, we're really hoping should we be able to have our school adjustment counseling staff at capacity like it was, we can move forward to try to reduce the burden of some of these out of district placements that have caused um a st a strain on the budget. what we're focused on right now. Um we're really focusing on working on having proper staffing in both house offices. So making sure that we have two individuals in
046the nursur's office at all times. Um we are really working hard to make sure that we have equitable services to all students. um given the fact that we have fewer resources and staff available to them. We want to ensure that um we are supporting our staff as well. We are often the people in the building that the staff come to when they are need of support of individuals in their classes um who have significant needs. Um so given the fact that people come to us we put out a lot and we give a lot and we are asked a lot. So it becomes very taxing at times to be able to provide constant support for others in the building when we are running on fumes a lot of the days if I can just be
047so blunt. Um, we're try doing our best to prioritize the needs of the students over the needs of the department. And that kind of goes into what I was just addressing in terms of the needs of the staff. Um, trying to make sure that we're at our best to be able to be ready and able to work with the kids and in focusing on what it is that they need. Um, we are a department that does its best to make it work. we're always willing to step in and do what we can to help out. Um, but at some point it becomes a bit much and and pe and we're human. Um, and to be able to have a bit of time to be able to decompress from what is happening throughout the day is
048essential. Um I mentioned earlier we're always looking to be more proactive proactive than reactive. Um a lot of the work that we do we can't plan for. You know we can't plan for some of the crises that might come up. We can't plan for sometimes the way a student might react in a situation. So we're never going to always be at 100% ready to do everything. But a lot of the work that our school counselors and our school adjustment counselors have been working hard to do is to is to try and and teach our students coping skills so that they can be more resilient and be better um suited to in the classroom when a crisis arrives or when their anxiety bubbles over because we all know that anxiety is not something that is going
049to go away. Anxiety is something that a lot of us have to deal with. There's healthy anxiety and then healthy stress and then non-healthy stress. And so we really want to work hard to make sure that we instill in our students the skills so they can be able to process and understand the difference between the two and they're not necessarily in danger if you will because that's how it comes feels. Um some of our recent successes to share we've partnered with the children's room the last two years. um offering grief support to a lot of our students. Um sadly, we're seeing an increase in um family loss for our students, whether that be parents, uh close friends. So, it's been important to us to provide some support to those students. So, last year um we
050started uh Kristen Duffrey, Kristen Duffy, one of our school adjustments counselors, and Alexis Costas, they collaborated with the children's room to start a brief group for our students both in the middle school and the high school. Um and our students found that to be very helpful. We continued that group this year and actually increased the number of participation this year for that group. Uh and then last week the children's room came in to do an event during lunch because it is um national grieving children and teen awareness month. So we had some activities um outside the cafeteria for them to participate to support um their friends and and their loved ones that they have maybe lost over the years. Um we also had Whittier Tech come in recently um to meet with some of our
051seniors. There is um the career technical institution which is um a statewide initiative to address the ongoing demand for skilled workers in manufacturing and construction. So students can participate in a summer program through Whittier Tech where they can earn uh 200 hours of an uh hands-on technical training um and they get industry recognized credentials and they get career counseling and job placement in the areas of advanced manufacturing, auto body, carpentry, culinary, electrical, marine technical, um plumbing, uh construction that I can't read my handwriting. So, I'm just going to let that one go for right now. Um, but it's the program that they have over the summer and it doesn't obviously give them full-blown lensure to be able to move forward in those in those programs, but it gives them the step in a direction. So,
052Whittier Tech came in to speak to some of our seniors who have expressed interest in trade um or maybe having a little bit of uncertainty of what it is that they're looking to do to kind of talk to them about that. Um we also work really hard to continue to provide developmentally appropriate curriculum to all students and all grades. Um and each year we reflect on what it is that our programming what the purpose of it is and what the target is because we understand the needs of the children change from year to year and we want to make sure that we are suiting what it is that they need. So yeah, ninth grade we work on that transition to high school and kind of how to get them to become more engaged in their
053experience here. 10th grade we focus on the career development. And then 11th and 12th grade really goes into the post-secary planning. In seventh and eighth grade we really want to start getting them acclimated to being students, if you will, and the expectations of what it's like now when you're changing classes and you're having multiple teachers. So our counselors in the ele the middle school do a lot of great programming around executive functioning study skills. Um Robella started a program on mindfulness to kind of start working with that anxiety focus and such. And then we also have our career development program as well. So getting them started to thinking about what it is that their career planning is. Um we also have a lot of day-to-day successes that we can't really talk about due to confidentiality
054and such of our students. um it's little things like just getting a kid in the building or getting them to show up to class. Um coming back from a hospitalization for mental health reasons and such. So, you know, some of our our wins, some of what we think of our bigger wins maybe or biggest wins are ones that we can't really necessarily share with with the community. Um as far as collaboration, planning, and growth, um I mean, our department collaborates quite extensively with a lot of departments. um if not all of them in a variety of ways. So for me a lot of these questions I have a different take on them than maybe some of the academic departments. Um so we collaborate extensively with the social studies and the English department to provide our
055programming. Um yes we have MBLOCK. Um and MBLOCK is a little challenging for us to utilize for our programming. Um so we still utilize English classes for the 12th and 9th grade program and then we use the social studies department for the 10th and 11th grade program. Um we do use MB block to meet kids and work with kids but they are not they are mixed grades so it gets difficult to we can't just go into an MB block class and deliver programming because they're not all the same grade. um and we can't pull them because it's hard to find a spot because MB block everyone is spread out because we try to keep those classes small. So thankfully social studies and English still allows us to use that time. Um we've collaborated with the
056district to create districtwide PD for social emotional learning. Our school adjustment counselors did a trauma informed classroom program not too long ago and helped create anal library for faculty so that they can utilize that those resources in their classroom. Um, last year during professional development, we collaborated with the English department to kind of have a better understanding of their the the books that they are reading in class and how that pertains to student mental health. Um, so that way we can be better prepared when speaking to students about the the curriculum and the content that they are reading. Um, we are working to increase partnerships with outside agencies to support our students here. So lately we've been working through the Northshore Education Consortium. We've been using connections wraparound services to support our students that have
057um school avoidance and such to try to get them to be in the building more regularly. And then I'm working with Evan to provide district um level support um district planning for professional development for our department um as we're called the CISP group, which is the um specialized instructional support personnel. Um, and so sometimes the professional development that our group might look a little different than what a classroom teacher might need. So Kevin and I have been working to try to differentiate a little bit between that um for what our needs are and classroom teachers. Um, as we plan for the next few years, what can the school comm role can the school committee play in helping to understand our department, schools, facilities, staffing, and programs? Um, I think it's really important to understand that
058the profile of the student in general has changed drastically over even, you know, five, six years, even 10 years. Um, and what their needs are. Yes, they still have academic needs and yes, we're still working with them on their, you know, post-secondary plans and such. Um, but we often find that sometimes the students that you might think are doing the best might be struggling the most. We often talk about them struggling in silence. So, it's really important for us to make sure that we are um that everyone understands that because as if you're not directly working with them or if you're not seeing it, it might not be something that is as obvious to you. Um it's hard to quantify our work or qualify our work because not every student is the same. So yes,
059numbers we look at to see like things even across the board, but obviously at certain times then there could be certain circumstances that might make an individual's case load a little bit more challenging than others because it does go beyond the numbers. Um and that we're a unique department in the sense that we do support everybody. We support students, we support staff, and we support families. um and in and and in and for one common goal and that just all supports the district to be, you know, stronger and and better and more productive. >> Pause for a second here. Right. I mean, there's been a lot a lot of good content that you presented and with a lot of sort of background to it, too. I want to make sure that you the committee is
060getting a chance to process this and ask questions if there's questions you guys have had so far. Um I don't know if Jeff got visual >> support staff. That's something it's not really I didn't consider. What what's that usually entail? >> So oftent times we work with staff in order to give them um support in the classroom when dealing with a certain with a student whether that is through social emotional disability or through various levels of >> you're still working on the students just through a classroom environment. >> Yeah. So, it's giving teachers skills in order for them to help in the classroom. >> Thanks. >> Yeah. >> So, uh just quick I I was trying to find it. The ecolct >> I don't remember hearing about that last year. Do you know what that
061would have cost in the budget? >> Um I think last year it was it was maybe about5 or $6,000. >> Was 6,000. >> Yeah. >> It's never been in our budget before. wasn't in our budget last year. >> No, it was it was proposed and then removed as part of that $50,000 discretionary pool. >> Okay. >> All right. But it's I mean it's an an add-on power school module. >> That was >> an additional feature. >> Sure. >> Which they have a lot. >> Right. >> So in terms of your staffing levels, have you benchmarked against other schools in the area? I mean, what are we like compared to North Andover or Andover or Hamilton? >> I don't have those numbers, Joe, to be honest with you. Um, uh, in terms of of of what
062their staff looks like. Um, and again, that kind of goes back to what I was talking to about. It's not always just about the numbers in terms of like how many people. Every every district is different in terms of what their needs are. Um, and part of why I'm really hoping to have more conversation about bringing back the school adjustment counselor is to continue to do doing the other work that we were able to do because we had that staffing um with the um, you know, mental health screening, the training for staff as well as this other programming that we're trying to do. So one one of the challenges that we have and if you were in our last sub at our last committee meeting you would have seen it when the town officials were
063here. I think it was our last meeting. Maybe it was from before, forget is they are simply looking at here's the number of students you have, >> here's the number of positions you have. It's way out of whack, right? >> And um so that's why I'm asking the question, you can give us some ammunition beyond >> right, >> we're doing great stuff >> and I can we believe you're doing great stuff, right? >> And I can continue to build off of that. tonight I know was simply like a list of priorities and and a way to kind of introduce it all. And I'm not looking for an answer as to how we're going to, you know, we're going to do that. I'm I'm hoping for a serious conversation about how we can do that because
064it's that it would be great. >> As you said, it's hard to quantify this stuff. >> If there's a way, >> right? >> You know, while it may be hard to quantify it, it doesn't make it any less important. um or that you shouldn't try. So, give it our best shot. >> I just want to call out that the the vocal subcommittee presented last May on this and we talked about how statewide districts were increasingly in support and the trends that we were seeing. Um we were trending downward on guidance counselors, nurses, social workers in contrast to the state trends which were going up or staying steady. Um, and we were following trends pretty closely in terms of adjustment counselors and psychologists as compared to the state. So, we are not above, were trending down
065or on par with the state average. Um, and that's at a time when 80% of districts were adding FTE positions since 2018 to support student mental health and 33% increased staff to support mental health statewide since 2018. So the numbers are generally going up or leveling out in most places and we have stayed level or gone down and that was May 27th. >> Is that true for guidance counselors too? Because I remember our number was way high. our number of staff in relation to our number of students was nowhere close to the recommended average as put forward by their recognized national consortium or whatever. So I think it's important to recognize like yes there are recommendations to to to make sure that there's like adequate support floor but I think there's also something to keep
066in mind that Masco has never been of the guys that we kind of trend like in the average like our goal is to work and to be as best as we can and we've we've we we've lost we've reduced school counselors at the high school. Um we had a position that was not renewed after 2020. Um and our numbers like where like the counselors right now where they are at for numbers of like seniors and like numbers of individuals and classes kind of match where it was like when I first started here when we had classes close to like you know 350. So we were see we were working with an average of about like the senior class right now I think each counselor has about like 55 kids on their on their case load.
067Um the senior class is a little bit bigger than other classes but um it kind of you know es and flows a little bit. >> I'm gonna go to Trevor and then I'm going to ask maybe we spend a few more minutes on this topic with Julie and then we we press on and >> I'm sorry I don't have that number in front of me or where it came from. I just remember it from the budget season and speaking to people who are in the profession who have um opined on it. But so the list of three uh budget priorities, are those in a specific order or are they all priorities? >> They're all priorities. I mean I mean I would the school nurse I think is a is a major priority of all of
068all three. Um >> the I think the e-lect is probably a lighter lift obviously than the others. Sure. you know, so that could be why. But yeah, >> but you guys stick around for the nurse discussion and kind of >> we can make it right after this. >> That was kind of it. But >> yeah, I mean I'll be here. Sure. >> Okay. All right. >> Um >> well, I think there's all the other aspects of one of the things. >> Um but as far as um we can move on to programs, enrollments and trends. Um so what enrollment you know so of course we don't have courses or whatnot but in terms of enrollment uh or in terms of trends that we have I'm kind of focusing on right now it's important for us
069to maintain uh to manage the current need of adjustment counseling um that our students are needing um with the reduced staff um it's important for us to be able to triage the increased number of dropins crises and immediate needs of the students. It's always interesting to think about with schools, like schools is like the only place where most individuals like either hope to or anticipate to get their needs met immediately. Like in other areas of your world, it's okay if someone says they're not available for you right now. Can you come back tomorrow? In our world, that causes a lot of like calls like you couldn't see my kid today. No, I couldn't because I had about 10 kids waiting outside. So we are working really hard to be able to figure out like in
070a crisis level like what is an immediate need and what is something that maybe an individual can learn to sit with a little bit more because sitting with the uncomfortable is something that is very challenging for a lot of students right now and so being able to work with them to do that is important. Um we are you know um working make sure that we plan emergency plans, care plans and field trips in a timely and efficient manner. We want to be able to continue to support the consistent demand for early decision and early action applications. If you look in the far right corner, you can kind of see where our numbers have gone in the last few years. We see we're getting close to about 60% of the class applying for early decision. Um,
071and right now the class of 2026 is like way ahead of all previous classes as far as early action applications. I think for 2025 we had about 950 early action applications and right now we're about pushing 1,400 for it's it's just November. Um, so really trying to make sure that we work to to maintain that. Um, we are, you know, in the past years we've talked a lot about this. We've seen an increased number of applications to the technical high school. Um I'm curious how the lottery system that they are implementing right now will impact that. Um last year we had about 29 students go or for this freshman class we had 29 students go. The year before that was 42. So we did kind of trick down a little bit than previous years. Um
072it's important for us to kind of like how Rene was talking about with scheduling address any master schedule challenges that we have. balancing of core classes, making sure that honors and CP classes are way there should be and also keeping in mind with the elective courses. We are seeing especially also I I know I think I just wrote high school, but it's really an issue at the middle school too where you have these sections that are off, right? You'll have a class that will have 12 in it and then you'll have a class that's 25 and that has to do with the way the other core classes are and the way the electives are offered, too. So, always trying to make sure that we can make our courses available to our students and that they
073are interested in taking them. Um, we're working to make sure that we're overseeing a, you know, constant need for 504 plans. You can see our numbers that are listed below as well. Generally, we're about we've kept we, you know, the numbers are relatively the same. This year's numbers look a little bit lower than other years. That's primarily because it's November. So those numbers will probably go up as we go through. Um it's important for us to provide a compassionate response to increase um you know loss of parents and close family members. Hence why we're trying to work with the children's room. Um and we're doing our best to be able to be prepared for the unexpected. Um we would love to be able to have the opportunity to work with more resource me more resources
074and more staff, but we recognize that that is a challenge and it's just a a magic wish. Um the adjustment counseling numbers are there as well over the last uh four years. And I've also put in there some of our field trip numbers as well because our school nurses are doing all the prep work for that. The DC trip in the fall takes a lot um of prep work for our nurse for Gwen Meer. Uh giving the timing of it at the very start of the school year. Um and those numbers for the high school field trips and middle school trip field trips will increase as this year goes on as well. um culture and communication. Um again, I may have interpreted this a little different than other departments, but we are department that relies
075on communication and relies on having a a a feeling of connectedness and a feeling of support in the building. Um so our department is constantly meeting with all sorts of holders in the building. Um whether it's myself or our our staff. So we have weekly meetings for our support teams. Um we have our middle school and high school PLC's that we try to run regularly as well. Um the middle school obviously has team meetings. So that helps to make sure that everyone is a lot on the same page. Um myself I meet weekly with Bradent and the assistant superintendent of student services. as Kevin and I try to meet monthly as well so we can make sure that we're on the same page working with the building principles whether that's the department or me individually.
076Um and then we're also making sure that the school adjustment counselors, the school counselors and the academic success teachers and student support teachers have time to collaborate together about the students that are some of our high needs. Um we have our monthly leadership team meetings as well where we get together with um all department heads, assistant principles, um executive leadership and then we also have our weekly PLC with um with Kevin and all department heads as well. Um the nature of our work relies heavily on leadership um feedback from them at all different levels because without them we're not able to kind of move forward with academic planning, safety planning. So whether that's department heads, assistant principles, principles, um having that consistent communication is really important for us. Um and my last piece that I
077could add for everybody is that you know um we are a department with the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. So we try to celebrate our kids as best as we can and we often have to move from a high to a low very quickly. Okay? So, we could be working with a kid who got really excited because they were accepted to their like top choice school and then we move right into meeting with a kid who had a significant loss or is struggling with self harm. Um, we are making high stakes decisions um daily. It's exhausting and it's debilitating. Um, so we're really trying to be able to make sure we figure out ways as a as a department, we're really focusing a lot on um having time for ourselves, if you
078will, so that way we can make these decisions and then move forward to being the best version of ourselves for our students and our community. >> Thank you. >> I just want to say thank you. Um, I mean, these were hard decisions we made last year. The decisions aren't a representation of the O. um our understanding of this needed for the students and the wellness is paramount uh I think across the entire school committee and so um I appreciate you coming tonight and giving us all this detail and again like like we mentioned earlier we want to make sure we continue to have an open dialogue with with each department and we'll figure out what that looks like as we get into budget season and with Brad and myself and thank you thanks for all
079your hard work too >> thank you very Thank you. >> Nurse Yeah. Let's let's go to the nurse topic so that way we can let uh >> I mean yeah >> so maybe just a quick segree as we get into the nurse topic. I think everybody's familiar that um we have budgeted a full FTE for a nurse assistant. >> We have only we have somebody who's on staff right now at point4. We've really struggled to find that 6. We we post if I could sorry interject for a minute, Matt. We posted it twice. We posted it as a three-day a week position and then we currently have it as a five day a week position. Um I had one one person apply um back in September and then um um with multiple phone calls and
080multiple emails, they never responded back to anything. So >> yeah, so I think yeah, I just wanted to make sure that you know Adrian and I have had discussions with Mike about this. Uh, I want you guys to be informed on some of the things that the administration has been trying to do to solve this problem. It's not an easy problem to solve. I think I I don't think we want to deliberate on this for a half hour tonight or anything like that. I think I want to get you guys informed and if you have questions or suggestions or anything like that, I just ask you bring it to to Mike and Brad offline. I think you heard Julie say earlier that the goal is to get two people in each office every day and
081we're trying to use substitute nurses to do that at this point. Um because that's what we have and I've talked to colleagues on the Northshore who are all in the same boat. There's not not a lot of nurses out there that are looking for school jobs >> while still continuing to search to fill the spot. >> We are it's still posting. I just want to make that clear that >> somebody applies. Yeah, >> we haven't stopped the search. >> The posting is still up there. Just there hasn't been an applicant >> that two months I think at this point. >> And if you just repeat the postings for a one FTD, right? >> Full fulltime assistant. >> Yeah. >> You considered hiring a Northeastern co-op. What was >> get six month co-op nursing? >> So
082it's like a nurses >> a student. >> Yeah. Six months full-time. >> I'm not sure they would meet our minimum requirements, >> right? >> Okay. Let's connect you with >> Yeah, this was a distinction for me too is that the school nurses are full nurses with certification and then the nurse assistants are also >> Yeah. Typically, they're LPNs or RNs. >> And these these co-op students wouldn't meet those. >> They might have graduates. >> Sure. Yeah, >> they might if they have the LPN or RN. >> We're open to it. >> Yeah, we'll look into it. >> Any other quick comments or questions? I mean, thank you guys for continuing to press. So, just ask me to be creative. >> So, congratulations. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> policy. All right. Uh first reading of
083GB EBC. >> Um so the policy subcommittee after the last meeting on that previous Wednesday went back to the drawing board because there were some questions around um the acceptance of gifts by the school committee. um because it was inconsistent with the district's 2018 student support or stu um student support organization guidelines document. And so we me and Melissa decided just taking that um two sentence paragraph out satisfied um and fix the discrepancies between the two documents. So what what's before you is the same thing as last week besides the last paragraph which was two sentences about acceptance of gifts. >> Any discussion or let me start with do we have a motion? I move that we accept uh first reading of policy JB EC. Yes. Thank you. >> Any other discussion? Okay. All in
084favor? Any abstain? >> All right. Thank you, Trevor. Thank you, policy team. All right. Uh, next topic, school nurse. We already covered >> Oh, retreat planning by mistake. Thank you. Uh, so just real quick, uh, I did poll everybody. Um, I think may not have gotten one response, but other than that, I got enough responses to see, not going to say an overwhelming majority, but a clear majority. uh where we could take one of our off Wednesdays uh December 10th and have the Toms come back in and have a little bit of a collaborative session with them for a few hours. So, so I'd ask let's get I don't know this probably has to be it has to be a full school committee meeting right there's a quorum of the committee there yet >> it
085will be um >> should be started a little earlier maybe 6:00 >> I don't know if I can do much earlier than 6 so so 1210 6 o'clock Jackie, post that for us. An agenda. >> Yes, >> I think the agenda is just um budget budget season brainstorming with with the town officials. Somebody has a better agenda topic. Season deliberation with officials. >> I missed. Are we doing it here? Are we doing it? We can do it here, right? >> Who are we inviting? >> I would suggest same thing. One representative from FINCOM, one representative from select board. Um, and just make sure to inform the town administrators, but I think each town will get two seats. >> Anyone from town administration invited, did you say, or just informing them? Um, what do you guys
086think? >> Yeah, you have a question >> of the town administrator. Do they get a seat or do they just are they just in informed to sit in the audience? >> Smaller is always better. So, >> I I think often times they can lead the rest of their groups. If we get one person's okay, it might help the rest of those two other bodies. But will >> Justin still be around? someone from his office. Jackie is perfectly capable. Just leave it. >> Yeah. >> So, I don't know. I guess I I tend to I mean I I don't disagree with you, Bill, but I do tend to lean towards if we're going to do this and we're in the spirit of collaboration, let's just they want to send a town administrator and let them participate,
087then fine, right? It's just a it's just a discussion. It's just brainstorming. Nothing is being voted on that night. Nothing's being It's just a open forum. So, I'll do my best to keep things tight. So, sure. Right. The invite the T administrators. I'm looking at you. I will invite the then I'm looking at Joe, I think. >> So, same at night. Uh just with the town administrator. So again, 1210 at 6 p.m. 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. >> We're going to just have, you know, a great big round table essentially uh with everyone sitting at it because we can we just say, "Hey, there you're allowed two seats at the table, but want to sit in the audience and observe. There are others that want to come." we extend that invitation. So, I think I could
088see Boxford wanting to send four people probably easily. >> I think that's fine. I mean, I'll I'll establish some rules of engagement, right? I just of sharing sharing the mic, right? Just because you have four people doesn't mean you get four voices, >> right? >> So, every one of you know and other tones suggest maybe something like 10 makes more sense. It's a smaller room. It's a little more intimate. I know people sit in the audience back here that are very hard time hearing and if we're have a bunch of associated time people and it's make the conversation a little stilted. Get past this wall. It's always says they can't hear the conversation. >> Yeah. >> Whoever you guys want to meet. >> I I think we should meet here. I I think just in
089an effort to be as transparent as possible about the conversations we're having. If we met here at the high school, I mean, aren't the acoustics better in one of the cafeterias? I mean, the acoustics are absolutely abysmal here. >> It's a library, so it's supposed to be that way. >> Yes, but we're not here reading >> as designed. Bummed it. That's the one date I could do. >> What's that? >> Bummed. I'm going to miss it. It was the one date I'm going to be in Vancouver. >> I know. We have nine. Who can >> Yeah. Sorry, >> I can't be there. Um, all right. I'm just going to say we're going to do it here. >> Simpler. Make any reservations. Don't have to worry about equipment or anything like that. Mike, if anything we
090need to do. >> Yeah, just let me know. >> I'll get it posted. >> Thank you. And get the room shut. Thank you. Okay. All 10 books. Um, all right. Next topic was school nurse staffing. That's all set. Superintendent report. >> Okay. Um update on uh some of our faculty professional developmentators recently competed completed uh the first round of faculty-led workshops. Uh the participant response was uh very positive to that. Uh these professional learning opportunities empower faculty to learn directly from their colleagues uh strengthening collaboration and reinforcing the expertise within our own community. Uh we want to give special thanks to the following mascanomid educators for uh building leadership capacity and facilitating these workshops. Uh Ellen Shehy, library media specialist. Uh Al McCarthy, instructional technology specialist. Uh Ursina Ansler, middle school art teacher. Uh Madison
091Marell, uh high school business teacher. Uh Jen Rashard, high school business teacher. Ben Hodgeges, director of digital learning. Uh, I Lee, who's a Chinese uh and ELELLL teacher, Jenna Gagnon, high school English teacher, uh, Christian Leblanc, uh, middle school English teacher, and Nick Parano's high school wellness teacher. Uh the workshops reflected a wide range of professional interests and needs including technology integration tools, self-care, uh artificial intelligence, sheltered English immersion, English book club, uh CPR and AED, uh training, and pareducator e-learning. Uh we're excited to share that the next round of professional learning workshops will resume on January 14th. Uh we'll have several outside partners joining in to uh lead workshops as well. Um, next up, uh, make sure you get your tickets. Uh, the High School Musical this year is literally High School Musical. Um,
092and that'll be, uh, for December 4th, 5th, and 6th. Uh, all the performances are at 7:30 in the Masanome Auditorium. Uh, next up, the Masanomit Middle School Student Council is holding a food drive beginning on Monday, November 10th. began last week through uh Wednesday, November 26th. Uh many in the Tritown area are in need of support and rely on the donations of local citizens uh to fill the pantries during the holiday season. Uh if you can make a donation of any size, the student council and the community at large will greatly appreciate it. Uh donation boxes are located in most classrooms in the middle school as well as in the main office area. Uh student council members are available each morning to total up each donation and will attribute the gathering uh to one of
093the teams in the middle school uh so that they can crown a champion. We'll talk about what that means. Um donations will be sent to the uh Trinity Church food pantry in Topsfield uh the First Church Congregational Food Pantry in Boxford uh and Accord food pantry in Hamilton. And you can also uh there's a link that'll be on my blog um that you can make direct uh donations directly through Amazon to uh to one of those places. Um if you'd like to donate online, they ask you to send a print out of your receipt uh with your child if if they're a middle school student so that they can add it to the uh middle school total. Um and the goals of the program are to provide food and personal hygiene items to those in
094need during this incredibly difficult time. Uh, and any support that you or your family can provide will be graciously appreciated. Uh, and here's the incentive for the middle school kids. Um, the prize. The winning MB block will be awarded the most sought after trophy on the Northshore, the Canley Cup. >> The cup. >> Hold on. >> I'm still logged in. You got to see this. >> Thought you were going to get pied or something. >> The cup. >> So cute. It looks massive. >> It is. It's pretty big actually. >> And they actually write the the MB block class. You can see there in black marker on it like they engrave the names in the Stanley Cup. So it is the Canley Cup. Uh so the MLOCK that donates the most >> um to the
095uh drive um will um be awarded the candy immortalized >> with eternal glory. Uh and they're also going to have a party in their in black class. Um, so they there's a link uh actually also on my blog that sent by the uh middle school uh student council to a list for a list of food items that they're looking for for the food drive. So they want to thank you thank everyone in advance for the support. It's a great activity they do uh every year at the middle school. Um we had uh today the youth risk behavior survey was administered uh to all grades at Masconomic during MLOCK. uh youth risk behavior survey or the YRBS uh is admitted to administered at mascanama every other year by the tritown council. Uh separate surveys containing developmentally
096appropriate questions were admitted administered at the middle middle and high schools. Uh the YRBS is designed to monitor priority health risk behaviors that contribute to the leading causes of death, disease, injury, and social problems among youth. Uh questions in these anonymous surveys measured youth demographics, substance abuse, protective factors, depression, personal safety, and sexual health. Uh YRBS results will be analyzed by the Tritown Council's Youth Action Advisory Board or YAP. Uh and they will be presented publicly uh next fall. Uh the results of the surveys are used by us uh here at Masanomit uh in the administration and faculty uh to develop programming uh to meet identified student needs. So thanks to uh Tritown Council for their support in doing this uh for us every two years in administering it and then actually doing the uh
097the analysis as well. Uh parent coffees um for this month uh so next one is going to be at the middle school on November 21st and I'll have the December ones >> Friday. Uh, no, December will be on December 12th and then December 19th. So, yeah, those are all Fridays as well. Um, and then just some community um notices. Uh, next, uh, Thursday morning, uh, Middleton's 8th annual Turkey Trot 5K is, uh, running. So, um, please, uh, go down and burn off some calories actually before the big meal on on Thanksgiving morning. Uh, that's actually actually at the Flint Library, uh, at 8:00 in the morning. Uh, they start registration at 6:30. So, go on and get the run in. Uh, and, uh, Tritown Council is also running their Ski Bradford program, uh, for this
098winter. uh they start uh looks like uh for uh grades middle school grades seven and eight um starting in the beginning of January. So signups are uh in both uh both school bulletins at actually the middle school bulletin and it'll be in my blog as well. So great Thanks, Mike. That's pretty cool. Uh, superintendent search update. >> Um, so we've officially closed our window for the community advisory committee and we'll be formalizing that committee in our next session. um we got a decent response from all three towns um and all of our stakeholder groups. So, we're thrilled to kind of dig in and um see what kind of um cross-section of representation we can provide from that group. Um and we are about halfway through the applicant window at this point and I believe we
099are at eight or nine candidates right now. So, that's a pretty good poll for halfway through. Um, we're feeling pretty good about the volume we're seeing. Um, >> when does that window close? >> The end of this month. The end of November. Yep. >> Um, so yeah, that's we're we're chugging along. We're on track. We're sticking to the timeline though. It's aggressive, but um the team's doing great. Any questions? I'm happy to answer. Okay, >> next meeting. >> Uh, I have to coordinate with folks uh offline to get the next meeting date because Melissa was not attending tonight. So, I want to make sure to set the next one for the community advisory selection. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> Do you need anything from us >> right now? Um, well, >> except Trevor's question. >>
100Did anyone from Middleton reach out after last night? >> Yes. The is it they mean Jack? >> Oh, you mean for the Middleton rep? >> Yeah. >> Yes. Um, can I say >> not? Okay. >> Okay. Yeah. I was just wondering if you got >> Yeah, we got >> Yeah. Yeah, that got fin. >> Yes. >> Awesome. >> Thank you guys for all your >> Adrian has been driving this awesome process. >> Yes. >> I have no doubt. have no doubt. >> Fantastic. It's a lot of work. Thank you. >> See subcommittee reports. >> Uh community relations. >> Yes. So we have our returning sponsors for the holiday senior citizen lunchon which is um Friday, December 12th. Institution for Savings has offered to donate $500 again and Soulbean in Middleton has offered to do the
101lunches for the senior citizens at a 50% discount again which is very generous. Um I am still waiting to hear back on Market Basket. They are also a potential sponsor. Obviously have to know soon for us to be able to approve all of this. Um but that's great to have sponsors for this awesome event that our performing arts uh department does every year. It's Friday, December 12th. Again, it's from 12 to 1:15. Um, and uh, our next working meeting for community relations will be December 8th, Monday, December 8th, 11:30 via Zoom. Our next uh, dialogue where we'll have people come here at 6:00, will be January 21st and February 25th. I assume they'll either be superintendent and or budget related themes. We're going to try to organize uh, for people to be able to come
102in. Um yeah, and we've just been trying to rotate through good news to share with um the three towns. Anytime something great is happening and that our you know administration is working on, try to share as much as we can in the positive and just be ready. Send all the good news out now for the possibility of having to send out difficult information later on. But I think it's good. We have a lot of good stuff going on at Masco and I want to make sure we we rotate through all the departments, all the areas to showcase what we're doing. So, um, that's it. >> Thank you. Next, DCI. >> Yep. Our next meeting is Friday at 10:00 a.m. Uh, including in that meeting, there's going to be a presentation from the firm that did
103the study on softball fields, track associated area down there. >> We've finalized the feasibility study and we're presenting it to the subcommittee uh with a as you recall a a real particular focus on uh ADA and title 9 compliance on those facilities. Uh we've expanded the scope to include the tennis courts as well. So softball facilities, track and field, tennis. Um I think we did a Mike John Delanus and I for the kind of the team uh that worked with vision sports design over the course of the last three months and I think we put together a nice >> um thoughtful presentation that we'll make to the group tomorrow. >> Awesome. >> Friday. >> It's like tomorrow. >> Wishing the league. Yeah. Uh Jeff, I assume you got debriefed from the last school committee meeting
104with the town reps on budget. >> Uh a little bit. >> A little bit. Yeah. >> I mean, I bet you can guess what the message was. >> Yeah. You told me you knew what this message. >> Oh, yeah. The the numbers. Yeah. Yeah. They're the same. >> Yeah. So I guess I just >> you want to ask I don't know if there was something you wanted to specific that you where I'm leading to this is I just I know we had some discussions around the DCI working with you around a number right I just want to make sure that we don't lose if you guys haven't done that yet agenda >> yeah so we had that was the thing that we talked about a couple of months ago >> uh and we had talked
105about u mid December as a point in time where we would be well enough informed to begin to have that conversation. >> Great. >> Yeah. >> So, we haven't I mean, we haven't had a subcommittee meeting since the last full committee meeting. So, this Friday will be that. >> Okay. >> Yeah. I'm just making sure we don't lose track of the strategy. >> Yep. Yeah. We've That was the first thing that we talked about. >> Yeah. And you know again uh December 10th we'll have a brainstorming session again with town officials and collaboration but then hopefully a little bit more um constructive uh than we we felt the last one might have gone and so hopefully there'll be some you can bring to a sub DCI meeting. Yeah, I think it was that following week
106that we had targeted as the week that we would schedule a time to speak specifically about that goal of the subcommittee. >> Great. Yeah. All right. So, after the 10th. >> After the 10th. So, that the 10th is good. Good timing. >> Uh vocal. >> Uh no dates. >> Yeah. Thank you, Joe. DC. Thank you, Joe. uh policy. >> Um we have no meetings scheduled. We're going to try within the next two weeks. Um really just delayed updates from mask and waiting on Crystal to give back um her opinion on some um amendment to the regional agreement uh questions that we had. >> Are there any leazison updates? I know we had a big meeting a couple weeks ago. So it's not leaison, but do we want to just give an update on the replacement
107for Erica at all? >> A good time to say it. >> I don't know. We have one candidate right now. >> One candidate so far. And we're interviewing her >> early next year. >> We're interviewing her early next week. >> That's it. Just one >> bar. >> That's candidate. Looks pretty strong, I think. >> Too too confident. >> Yeah. No, >> yeah, it's looking good, which is nice. So, one thing I could add from that we've heard from from Topsfield, specifically uh Chay, the head of the or chair of the the Fincom, um is a hope that we could wrap up our budget process a week earlier. >> So, just so be sure that that's on the table anyway or at least under discussion. um it would just make their lives substantially easier. >> Yeah,
108that's a great reminder. They mentioned that. What's that? >> He brought that forward at that meeting. Yeah. >> Yeah, he brought up that that meeting. So, thank you for reminding us. I think I don't know. I'd like to have a notional budget wrap-up date on the calendar and then a backup budget wrap-up date on the calendar. >> We'll see how we do. We have the statutoily required one on the >> our represents. >> Is there given the date that we have is there any harm in finishing a week early? >> No. >> Okay. >> No. So, >> but it has to come out of the back end of the process, not the front end of the process. >> I know. I know. >> Just to be clear. >> Do level service. We're done. >> What's
109that? >> Do level service. >> Yeah. Here. If only that's >> 7% February 6%. >> Sorry had a listening session on Saturday and some of the elementary school committee members were there and they brought up a really interesting topic that I just wanted to surface here as a creative way to bring revenue into a district. So they are um doing a private public partnership um and creating a um I forgot what they called it like a a a language learning academy or something within Topppsfield Elementary. They are partnering with a private school that offers a program. They're bringing a classroom into Proctor I think it was and it supports eight students. if they don't have eight students within Toppsfield that will fill those seats, they allow people to tuition in. And so that is a
110model that they're they've been working on and their operational team spearheaded and the committee got behind and now they're exploring um letting some people tuition in. So I thought it was an interesting model. Um and I know that you know a lot of our our district placements are around different challenges. >> I was thinking >> no no no read like reading >> the consort. >> Yes. They're working with the North Education Consortium. Yeah. >> Not yet. No. Yeah. But they're exploring what it would look like, you know, to to do that. They have all the numbers ironed out and they have spots now that are not filled. So I don't know. Creative solutions that bring revenue in. just wanted to elevate it um as you thought. >> There anybody familiar with that? The DCI Adrian's
111talked about that model. >> I'm the I'm the chair of NC this year. So >> good about it. >> Brad saying we've done it. >> We've tuition. >> Yeah, we've tuition kids for special ed. >> He's not. >> Right. >> Okay. Are we still doing it or not? >> Not at the moment. >> But do we do it? >> It depends. >> Usually requires a pretty hefty investment to get the program going. >> Right. So that's the issue right now is they've kind of laid out to have the staff there, but there's no takers at this point. So, >> so right >> they track down build it's building a program and so they've identified an area that they want to service and they're working with the northeast consortium to build a program. What we've done
112in the past, I mean, I get them, I won't say frequently, but you know, when a surrounding school district is looking to send a student out of district, often times they'll send it to the local, you know, first, right? Because presumably it'll be cheaper to come here than to go to New England Academy or Landmark. So, so we get those every so often and we look at them kind of vet them and sometimes we've made a decision to push a student in here and sometimes we make the decision that this is going to be too much. So, we've done that just based on like what we offer currently, not based on like trying to survey the top set, >> which is tricky for like I I applaud I've talked to Matt about it, you know,
113like what they're doing. >> It's a bit of a struggle, right? Because they're competing against, you know, some other schools that are, you know, probably more established. But I mean if they stick with it and it kind of builds some incremental growth might work. >> Yeah. I just I think it's interesting to keep an eye on it too because if they do get a foothold and they do get growth those kids are coming here, >> right? So we're not >> my recollection is we >> Masco did that um I mean before you know the current administration was here but back under the uh prior superintendent there was and this might have been 2015 or 16 where there was uh a specific budget request to build the capacity to serve uh a need that that was
114present in in the district. Um but that there was the thought that any excess capacity would be, you know, offered to schools um or students from other districts. So it's, you know, there's >> that's the excess. >> Yeah. I mean, so you know, there's definitely a always going to be a u supply and demand question mark because if you have u the ability to invest heavily in something like that, then you'll have excess capacity and then you can solicit um >> I mean that was probably but co probably blew that up, right? So that was 2018. >> Yeah, it was definitely it was several years before co >> Yeah. Yeah. few years of this building and then just education in general. >> Yeah. We the last time we had we had a few singleton tuition
115in probably the last one >> was 2021 probably. >> So there was a handful in 1920 and 21 and then since then nothing. Thank you. >> I think uh negotiations. I doubt we have any negotiations. Um consent agenda >> motion to approve. >> Read it right. >> Yes, you have read meeting minutes on November 5th, 2025. Approve warrants in the amount of 2,80,213.90. Accept theater to booster donation. Do I have a motion? I think I heard Bill. >> Yes, you did. And a second. >> I have a second. Any discussion? Do we all in favor? >> I. >> Anyone against? Any abstension? Do I have a motion to adjurnn? >> Yes. So moved. >> Chris. Second. >> Second. No wonder Kendra is doing it. All in favor? I. Yeah. Thanks everybody for >> so it's
116like work I won't negotiate >> like someday