Methuen School Committee 10-27-2025

001Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, Heat. Heat. Heat. The school committee workshop business session of October 27, 2025 will now come to order. This meeting is being recorded and will be made available for viewing on the Mthuan public schools website. Secretary, would you please call the role? Member Daglio >> present. >> Member Donovan >> here. >> Member Keegan >> here. >> Maxwell is she online? >> No. >> Member Shabilia present. Member Wlette >> here. >> And Mayor Bogard >> here. We need a motion and a second to accept the agenda for October 27, 2025 as presented. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion is from member Daglio. The second is from the vice chair. Any discussion? If not, we will vote. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. The eyes have it. Will now

002rise for the flag salute. >> To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Now we'll have public participation. >> Sure. Uh we'll start with Jay Jalbert. >> Slide down. But >> thank you. Good evening. I am Jay Jelbert, a res resident of Mthuan and parents of three Mthuan public school students. Member Wlette, you asked me for an apology during the October 14th meeting. I emailed the committee on Saturday, October 11th, saying in part, "If protecting the students is the aim of this discussion, perhaps starting with known and documented cases where the problem actually is reported, males, not transgender students." Three members reached out to me p personally as did the superintendent. You were not one

003of those members. It could be because on December 16th of 2024, you replied to an email to me which said in full, if that is the attitude, have a good day. I will continue to work with other constituents. True to your word, in nearly a year, you have not once reached out or contacted me directly in an official capacity. I remind you that I am who you are representing. whether we agree or not. During the meeting on October 14th, what I said was that you in particular will be fighting full boore for actual documented instances of trouble now that you know about it. That sentiment was born from emails you portrayed concern for students at the school and bringing to light when it is brought to your attention. You attempted to twist that while saying

004you were being gaslit. What you said throughout your diet tribe was that the very was the very definition of gaslighting. You also said on the record that you listened and did not laugh. I did try to pull evidence about this obvious lie, but the cameras are not on the members when the public are speaking. We who were here saw it though. I have a note handwritten to somebody at my table asking to call you out on laughing during our speeches. I have a text at 7:18 to a friend who was not a member, not a Mr. One resident and was not here. Well, public participation was still ongoing saying that you and member Maxwell are giggling to each other across the table while everybody is talking. That shows how much they care. All of this

005to say, Member Wlette, is that you are not a victim here, no matter how much you try to portray yourself in that manner. When you are ready to apologize to the constituent with whom you have refused to work with because you disagree while feeling absolutely comfortable lying on the record about me and what I said, you have my information. Unless you want to do it in a public forum in the same way and you attempted to call me out. Speaking of emails, I sent one to this group on after the meeting on the 14th regarding what member Maxwell said. I emailed and reposted Oh, sorry. what member Maxwell said, emailed and reposted both to me personally and here in the meeting. I wrote my concerns very loud and clear. I realize as a parent I

006am not able to add items to the agenda. Member Maxwell had said and I quote, "If a parent brings a concern to me, I am putting it on the agenda." There were many concerns brought to her over the past two weeks, including my own. None of them are on the agenda tonight. Mine in particular was in regards to the students use of bathrooms. On September 16th, member Maxwell asked to remove gender identity as a protected population in policies. This is not legal. On October 5th, member Maxwell emailed Dr. Kuang saying there was a boy in the girl's bathroom. In her email to the committee on October 9th and in a meeting at the meeting on October 16th, member Maxwell said that transgender students should need to use genderneutral bathrooms because quote a bi biological female

007was uncomfortable. End quote. Either she does not understand that genderneutral bathrooms are specifically for any student that is uncomfortable or she is refusing to acknowledge the population within Methuan public schools. These are my concerns relayed to the committee and member Maxwell as a parent. Next, Mr. Mayor, will you allow a question from me at this time? >> We're not able to engage in a back and forth, but if you >> can't hear, >> we're not able to engage in a back and forth during public. Can we engage in a back and forth or no? >> No. >> Thank you. I'm aware of this rule as is each person sitting here. This is not an open discussion. It is literally against the rules. Community members speaking hopefully to but more apparently at each of you followed

008by you speaking to each other with rigid rules in place. While I appreciate what each of you do both here and behind the scenes to imply meetings are discussions with the public is untrue and disingenuous. The place for discussions with the public would be in the public through private exchanges or on online public forums. Member Daglio used to do live Facebook chats and have a office hours with constituents. These are discussions. Blocking people from official committee Facebook pages does not promote, encourage, or allow for discussions. More importantly, it puts you in an echo chamber with people who either agree or will not speak against you, be it out of fear or anything else. writing on your page that quote if we disagree that's fine, no need to be here is saying a lot and not

009clarifying whether or not that is and whether or not that is not in fact what you meant is even though it's brought to your attention is equally telling. All of this is opposite of open discussions. Speaking of online, I heard a discussion on the October 15th meeting about reaching out to public via social media. Sorry, but as a Facebook mute user, I love this idea. Um, I fully recognize Facebook is for old people like me. There are so many social media platforms that are used, it would be a daunting task. I agree that nobody on the staff is currently spending their time twiddling their thumbs and eating bon bonss. Perhaps the first step could be reaching out to the PTO's. Could they disseminate information? Perhaps there's a way to designate what's officially from school, the

010schools versus their own posts. I realize not every school has a PTO, but again, it's a start. I liked member Shabilia's idea of local interns. Maybe the community at large has ideas that could be useful. I do agree that turning off the comments would be a must. I know the collaborative efforts of this group can do great things. Look at the literacy program that member Dunovan championed or the policy subcommittee that has been able to cover so much and continues to work so hard. Look at the policy change made last fall with a simple request from a resident not to speak a home address out loud. I know you can all work together. I look forward to seeing it. Thank you, >> Heather Plunkett. >> Good evening. My name is Heather Plunkett. I am a

011current Mthuan resident and I have a senior in high school at Mthuan High. Um, I wrote this amazing speech tonight and I was going to read it, but I thought it might be better for me to actually make eye contact with folks as opposed to reading. Um, as I want to make sure that everything I have to say is heard by the person I'm saying it to. Um, unfortunately, Miss Maxwell is missing the meeting this evening. So, I will not be able to address my comments to her um, in this forum, but I'll I will still be able to to say my piece. Um, interestingly, after the meeting last on on October 14th, not last week, the week before, um, committee member Wulette said he was owed an apology. He was owed an apology for

012all the things that everyone is saying about him that just aren't true. I find that interesting because two of your uh, fellow committee members have been attacked online repeatedly by someone that that you are friends with and work for. I think you might owe an apology to them for basically standing by and watching it happen, right? Um, after the meeting and after the comments were made in support of our transgender students, we've been called, and I speak for myself as well as other parents and residents, perverts, groomers, and bullies. So, if you are associating with this journalist that goes online to call people, I'm speaking to you. Thank you. when when when um when when when we go online, Mr. Wlette, I am speaking to you. It it is common to make eye contact when

013speaking to someone, right? You can look away if you want, but I'm speaking to you. I'm addressing my comments directly to you, not to the board. This is to you right now. And the reason I'm saying this is because not only do you write for this gentleman's paper, but you have sat by idally saying nothing when Lori Keegan's attacked for her child being trans or uh Dan Shabilia is being attacked because his wife was up here and spoke. He even went as far as to speak of Kelsey's physical appearance. But you do nothing. You say nothing. It's comp it it. Who owes who an apology? I just want to say Lori to you. I am so sorry for the way that people behave towards you and that they associate and are endorsed by this person.

014And I'm giving him way too much attention. I'll admit it. I'm sure he's going to eat this up. I can't wait to be on his podcast as he takes this apart and talks about what a pervert and groomer and everything else that I am. And that's fine. I will always stand up for trans kids. And there is no reason on God's green earth why anyone should have ever attacked you for your children. You are on this committee as a servant to the community. Your family should never play into this and sure as hell not used as a weapon against you. I I feel so bad that I was not aware of this sooner and that I couldn't speak out against it sooner. So, you have my sincere apology as a resident that I didn't come

015to your defense sooner because that is it's just disgusting that somebody would do that to you and I apologize. Um DJ, I know that in the past you have been endorsed by this journalist. There are people running for the school committee right now that are endorsed. Ms. Maxwell and Mr. Wlette are endorsed by this journalist. This man that calls people names, posts the most disgusting, vile things, has doxed people posting their home and their address. I don't understand how anybody can stand by that. We're all We all belong in Methuan, right? We should all be able to speak our peace without being attacked online. There there's just it it's ridiculous. and for people to give it any credence and and it I just and there's two people on here, Mr. Wulette and Ms. Maxwell that

016are friends with this guy and it just blows my mind. It it absolutely blows my mind. Dan, I want to apologize to you for everything that's been said about you and Kelsey online. And a lot of it is because we spoke out in supportive of the LGBTQ kids here at school and in the community and spoke out about a book not being banned. And by the way, I know Miss Maxwell said, "No, I'm not banning the book." And then in the public comments said, "Oh, wait. Can't we just remove it from the classroom if it makes people uncomfortable?" Guess what that is? Banning a book. If you're going to remove it from the curriculum, that's a form of banning a book. It isn't the opt out, which again, that parent had every right to do.

017And apparently Miss Maxwell instead of getting the answer for the parent with a concern and pointing her in the right direction of where she could get information, she brought it as an agenda item. And I don't understand that either. We have policies in place that have been in place for years. That book has been in the curriculum for over a decade, but suddenly it's this hot button topic and inappropriate and pornography and all this other stuff. And because I defended it, I'm I'm just a grooming pervert. Seriously. And again, you just sat there. Yeah, you can shrug. It's fine. Yeah, nobody the camera's not on you, so I'll go ahead and tell everybody what you're doing. You're sitting back just shrugging like me, whatever. Just get through this. Right. Right, Mr. Wlette? You know, I'm

018tired of just of seeing people getting destroyed that are public servants and people sitting by and doing nothing. It just blows my mind. Uh Mr. Daglio, in your comments, you said we were being passive aggressive. I think you need to look up the definition of passive aggressive because this ain't passive, my friend. This is speaking it directly to you and I will back it up in person online. Anything I say anytime, I will back it up. Yes, I'm passionate. Yes, I'm upset. And you know why? Because I live in Methuan and I care about it. And I care about the kids that go to school here. And I don't want any child of any family to feel like they are not welcome here. They they can't belong here. Mr. Wlette also posted the ICE hotline

019for people to call. I guess he wanted to turn in the neighbors. Have people turn on their neighbors. You do realize that over 50% of our student population is Hispanic. And you do realize that ICE is racially profiling Hispanic people. So, it makes me wonder if you want our kids torn away from their families. Is that I mean, why the hell would you ever post that online? It just doesn't make sense. Yes, I'm speaking to you again and I know you can't answer me. Can't wait for your comments, >> but again, this is somebody that is on the school committee. >> Point of order, Mr. Chairman. >> I asked if something was on the agenda. tonight. >> Is that on the agenda tonight? >> Keep order. >> Yeah. >> So, we we have >> keep

020to the agenda >> public particip. Yep. >> So, I did ask about if our comments had to be on the agenda and I was told no. You can speak to whatever has been spoken to or posted about by school committee members at any time. So, if Mr. Wlette wants to deny posting the ICE hotline, he is. He can do that in his public comments. Now, is my turn to speak. It's it's my turn to speak. So, I guess what I want to say is as Methuan residents and as voters, as we go out there to cast our vote for school committee, let's pay attention to who's doing the work and who's causing Jerry Springer moments. Let's pay attention to who's endorsing people and who isn't and and and who is really who would stand up

021for the rights of every student, every student and and every family in Methuan. It's important to me. It's important that you guys work together as a team and not get on social media and tear each other apart and then come back and expect to work in harmony. Doesn't work that way. And if you see somebody else speaking out and tormenting somebody online, I believe it's your obligation to speak out against that. Unless you actually believe that people are perverts and groomers and all this other BS because your buddy said it over a book and over the, you know, being supportive of the transgender community. I It's just mind-blowing. Mary Beth, thank you for all you do. I have nothing bad or even critical to say to you because you're always diplomatic and sweet and I'm

022so grateful that you're here. So, thank you. And that concludes my comments for this evening. Thank you so much. Is there anyone else in the audience who wishes to speak? If not, we don't have any written public participation. Uh so, at this time, I will close the public participation portion of our meeting. If you can't make a meeting in person for public participation, you can send an email to Susan Shanti at snsci mthuan.k12.mma. us before 300 p.m. on the day of the school committee meeting. Uh next on the agenda, we have uh the acceptance of the superintendent's uh resignation. Uh, first I would like to uh publicly recognize the superintendent for her 24 years of dedicated service to the Mthuan public schools and her commitment to our community. We wish you the very best uh

023collectively as a body. Uh the very best in what comes next for you. Uh if uh I what we'll do now is we'll entertain a motion and a second and then we can engage in any further discussion. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion is from member Daglio. The second's from member Shabilia. Uh we'll have discussion now. >> Member Shabilia. So, I actually called member Donovan on the way here after a conversation I had with member Keegan and asked, "What if we vote no?" Not to do anything other than send a message because you have the most thankless job and you have had it for what, seven years now? >> Eight. So, an eternity is what it feels like. And even even and I apologize to you, Mr. Mayor, but even worse than being mayor

024of this city because the mayor gets to sit at the council table or sit at this table and sing the accomplishments and the praises of his office, but you don't. And as someone who came into this office um less than aware and filled with a headful of social media madness over the last couple of years, I've watched you work and I've seen what you've done for this district and I've seen what you do every day. even the well the small pieces of what I get to be a part of and I think that there is going to be a massive gap and I think that you are going to be a very difficult person to replace which unfortunately we're going to talk about in a few minutes and I just want to say that I

025appreciate everything you've done and everything you've done for me and the district and all these students and wherever you end up next. They're going to be lucky to have you. So, it's going to be a it's going to be an interesting time in Methuan. Thank you, >> Member Daglio. Um, thank you, uh, Mr. Chair. So, um, Dr. Kuang and I have been serving together for about five years now. Um my first few months in office, my first term we in we had a shutdown and we dealt with CO for about seemed like forever. Um but it was a good experience for both of us I think. Um it was something new for me and her and working together to make sure our district um was able to do its job properly. So, a lot of

026her leadership that I took from dealing with COVID and she dealing with me and how I wanted to do things. Um, but um, we got through that and we, you know, we never, you know, there was times that we didn't agree, but we always seemed to, we can agree to disagree on things. And that's one thing I will cherish um between our friendship and um being a colleague to you. Um and yeah, like I truly will miss miss calling you up at 6:00 7:00 at night for a question. And um I hope for you and your family that the next journey that you have outside or in in the area is best for you and your family. So, I appreciate for all the time you've done here in in Mthuan and I wish you the

027best of luck in your future. Thank you, >> Vice Chair. >> I can't thank you enough for the years. I'm going to get upset. I've known you since my kid started kindergarten, and we hated each other. [laughter] Um, we went headto head. We we >> we've come a long way. I want to preface that statement because that was on the record just then. >> Yes. Sorry. We have come a long way. I mean, we I was one of those parents that was just a thorn in your side nonstop. Um and we have come a long way and I have grown to respect you so much. Um, and I can see over the past 18 years where the district was and how bad it was back then to where it's come and how much better it

028is. And it's because of your leadership as a principal and as a superintendent. And I don't know how we're going to find someone who is as dedicated, who works as hard as you, and is always available. You are 247 available to this district. You put your heart and soul into this district and it's going to be a hard hard position to fill and I'm very sorry to see you. >> Member Donovan. >> Well, this must be kind of hard, right? Um, I certainly am accepting this resignation with nothing but gratitude, respect, and wishes for the best for you and your family. Um, I know I started to make a list of the things that have been accomplished under your direction. And I know I'll I'll name a few and know that I will miss many.

029Uh, the creation of the early childhood center on Branch Street, which some people still ask, why do we need it? Well, we have this ballooning population of our earliest, youngest learners with real needs, and that was so important. Um, [snorts] you introduced evidencebased instruction. You, you know, that was not something that was highly looked at, but you changed the way we teach in this community, and that has made a huge difference. I think the the creation of our literacy initiative four years ago where we brought the science of reading into our schools and that's a gamecher and we have seen we have seen and we have the data to prove it significant improvements and we're continuing down that road. you've expanded the before and after day school program so parents in the community can feel

030comfortable and go to work knowing that their children are cared for before and after school. Um and then my favorite is like no one on this committee has any idea what it was like to be in the schools during COVID. I was fortunate enough to be there on March 13th, which was a Friday, 2020, when we shut down. And um while the schools were shut down, the staff under Dr. Kuang's direction, we never stopped. How do you get the Chromebooks to kids safely? And I can tell you, I think Dr. Kuang was there one day when we were literally hurling Chromebooks into the open windows of cars because we couldn't get close enough. Um, we we had to think about how we grade because it was such a gamecher. We had to think about the

031teachers who were rightly so concerned about their own well-being and their own children home with them. And what many people may not know is Dr. Kang made us make sure every single child in that in our district had supplies because we knew some kids did not. We knew many families were just we were all paralyzed then and we spent hours stuffing envelopes with school supplies and then delivering them. And when a parent called saying, "My whole family is sick. My whole family is sick. We can't get out." This woman made sure someone made a delivery to their home of food. These are the things many people in our community do not know. We have an education leader, but someone who cares so deeply about our students and our staff. And it's going to leave um

032I I'm not sure where we're headed from here. There's [snorts] a saying in education, our harshest critics would last two minutes in a classroom. Our harshest critics would last maybe 15 seconds in an administrative position like yours. and I do commend you for your levelheadedness and your calm at in the worst possible moments. um you've always looked out for the best interest of the students and sometimes those decisions are not popular and I do will say building on what um member Keegan said you do have a knack at turning people around including me [laughter] um and so many of the parents I've worked with when we meet when we first met sometimes it was adversarial but it was evident and when I think of some of my favorite parents who would say, "I'm not talking

033to that lady." would later say that agree that you came from a place of concern and love and following the law. So, um, I wish you the best. I totally understand why you think it's the right time to leave and, um, I'm sorry it's come to that, but I wish you nothing but the best and I thank you for our own moments together. And one of my favorites would be yes, the day that the roof came off the tenny, the day before Christmas Eve. And what you wouldn't know is Dr. Kang was there kneedeep in water. We were on the third floor, too. [snorts] Knee deep in water and uh helping move materials, comforting teachers, and um it was fun, but we got through it and we got we got part of a new roof.

034But um I do appreciate it. And I also want to acknowledge for some staff who reached out for me today to say thank you for the compassion you showed them during their own tragic times in their lives um other things that people don't see. So um thank you Dr. Kang and know that um I wish you nothing but the best. I know there are other communities out there already kind of hoping you give them a ring and um I know I know your impact will be felt for years to come. >> [snorts] >> member Shabilia. >> Nope. Just letting you know that we have >> Okay. Member Maxwell is joining us via Zoom. >> Um do we have any other discussion? >> I'd like to vice >> chair. >> Member Maxwell. >> Hi. Uh sorry

035for joining so late. Um I just wanted to comment on uh Dr. Kuang's resignation and uh unfortunately I wasn't there for the public participation which you know just had a bunch of lies but um the resignation I I agree that maybe you know if we could vote no I would uh I would say that's a good idea based off of the audit. Um I think that we need to have a an exe an executive session regarding that. Um I you know personally I I can sit here and I can say that I think Dr. Kuang did the best that she could over the past seven years and I thank you for that. Um but over the last six, seven years, you know, I've come to you as a parent and we've talked about mice control

036and bullying and all of these issues that came back in the audit and unfortunately you weren't able to address any of them. Um so I don't think that someone who isn't doing their job to the fullest should be able to resign. Um that is my opinion and that's my input, but I just wanted to make that clear. I wish you the best. >> I'll quickly wrap then. Um, so I know member Maxwell just referenced for instance uh mice. I just want to state for the record. Just look at how much progress we have made. So I I want to highlight uh facilities especially the the ground that we made up and the accomplish the accomplishments we made on that front. Um I echo what uh my colleagues um have said here tonight. Um you know

037tonight I I view this as more of a formality where we're taking a formal vote on this uh which we're required to do. Uh so with that uh we will take a roll call vote uh considering that member Maxwell is joining us remotely via Zoom. >> Before we do that, just a quick point of clarification just so everyone's aware accept or reject. She's gone. You you can't keep prisoners. This this isn't 1920 Russia. We can't force anyone to stay in an office. But anyways, I will proceed with the roll call. Member Daglio, >> yes. >> Member Donovan, >> yes. >> Member Keegan, >> yes. >> Member Maxwell, >> no. >> Member Sherbillia, yes. Member Wlette, >> yes. >> Mayor Perry, >> I'm I'm sorry. Mayor Bergard, [laughter] >> sorry, it just happened. >> Uh we'll

038move on to the uh superintendent search process. Um this is uh simply on the agenda tonight for discussion. Uh I think it is important for us now that we've taken that vote formally to have this discussion. It's a process that takes months to complete. I'd also like to point out that we should keep in mind that there are roughly seven other districts who are doing >> 17 >> seven north of Boston. Correct. North to Boston, Massachusetts. >> 17 across mass. There are currently 17 superintendent s searches underway right now, which in essence means that we are competing with 16 other districts in the Commonwealth. So, this is something that we do not want to um take lightly and we do not want to, and I'm going to say it right now, we don't want to

039wait forever. Uh so, let's just keep that in mind. So, we need to start the discussion now. Um, I'll I'll open it up. Uh, member Shabilia. >> So, a quick text to attorney macaro, a quick email exchange with Alicia Min from MASC, and a quick Google search gave me a list of 17, plus Lynn, Cambridge, Worcester, and Bedford that have all recently just wrapped up a search, not necessarily hired, but closed their posting. So tonight is our opportunity to portray why Methuan should be a [clears throat] positive place for someone to land because I I think we need to proceed somewhat carefully because the narrative that Mthun is toxic and that the next individual is going to come into that seat and be beat over the head is why no one would want to come

040here. It's not a job where you can sit there and say, "I did this for that person and I did this for that person." You have to quietly sit in the background and be hated by 50% of the people. And I mean, we signed up for that and clearly so did you. But [laughter] but it's it's something we need to make sure that we're projecting and we need to project confidence as we go through this. not only for the district and to attract a candidate, but for all of the employees in our school, the teachers and the paras and the custodians, the cafeteria folks and everybody else because they need to know that we're here and we support them and that we're going to set a function in place that is going to bring in

041a strong and qualified candidate that is going to help them achieve because they are going to get the grief of whatever ever failure we produce if we don't hit the mark. So we need to make sure that we're acting as a partner to this. And I think that that's the most important thing that we need to keep at the forefront is that if we aren't portraying confidence and we aren't portraying the the respect and the admiration for the people that are doing this work every day, no one's going to come here. They're certainly not coming for the pay because we don't have the best pay in the district in the state. They're not coming for the location because we have nothing but traffic. We just need to make sure that we are keeping a positive

042attitude regardless of how this plays out. Otherwise, we're doomed. I'll hold my rest until the goound. >> Member will >> I'm trying to I'm trying to reconcile this because we have an election next week. Automatically, we have two members that will depart from this committee. I am beholden to a nationwide search. I want an outside consulting firm leading that process. I would imagine that the city council would have to pay for that process. So if we we have the funds internally to hire the next superintendent. >> I don't I mean someone have to explain that to >> free cash could be frozen until >> okay this early 2026. >> Okay. So again a nationwide search outside consultant devoid of uh internal politics and the the person whoever will be interested in uh going to a

043suburban uh district or a gateway community, they will know in advance um if they did their homework, they'll do a Google search of the regional paper. um they will reach out to maybe colleagues um and they will tackle the issues of that school district just like any competent superintendent. Um I want to make sure the consulting firm wouldn't be similar to the one that hired the superintendent de mo Iowa because they had major issues because they they hired someone who was here illegally. So, I want a competent outside consulting firm. I want a nationwide search. I want collaboration between the city council and the school committee and the mayor. I want parents involved. If we establish some type of foundation uh between now and January, I'm in favor of that. If we're going to have

044members of the committee manipulate the process in any fashion, I'm not in favor of that. uh the neighboring community of Wilmington had three finalists. Okay. It's it's possible to have finalists for a position and people will want to jump at the opportunity maybe to reform a system top to bottom and they'll jump at that opportunity. Um I'm not a person that's a person that's half empty uh glass of water. I'm a half full glass of water. But I also realize that we're not polyiana here as well. We're not going to sugarcoat the problems that we have within the system. We're a gateway community. We have limited finances. The tax base is mostly residential. We don't have commercial. At any time, we might have problems with state and federal funding. Um, we have uh a minority

045district, which I en encourage and I embrace. Um, and we have ELLL and profoundly disabled individuals. And I think it's an interesting dynamic as opposed to a wealthy community that might not have similar issues. It's a challenge and I think that members of this committee we the last two years regardless of how we felt on the issues. We embraced those challenges. So I'm going to bring that same mindset. I'm not going to be dismissive of a process. I will discuss a process and we will finalize something because we want to move that train down the road. So that's my two cents. Again, this is the infancy of this process. I want to set a solid foundation. If we're involving the Massachusetts Associated School Committees in some fashion, I don't have a problem with that. Outside

046consultant, national search, involve the state uh holders in the community. I don't have a problem with that. So that's my two cents. Vice Chair. >> Um, so the mayor and I have spoken with MASC. Um, they are not prepared to do a gateway city superintendent search. They don't have the manpower to do it. Um, so that's not really a good option. Um we've spoken with one um consulting firm and their process would be to start by sending their people in. They would come to where the people are. They would go to like football games and basketball games and other community events um to meet people to try to develop a profile of a superintendent of what what the community is looking for. They would interview each um school committee member individually. They would interview um

047other major stakeholders individually. They would create us a profile of a of what we're looking for and they would do that between now and December and then come January they would start the nationwide search. Okay. So, when we're saying we need to get this ball rolling, there is a lot of work to do before you start putting out that um notice for people and what you're looking for, right? There's a lot of work to be done now. And so, starting the process does not mean selecting a superintendent right now. The next school committee will be su selecting the superintendent, but we need to get it going so that we can start that nationwide search. Otherwise, we're so far behind the eightball that we're not going to we're gonna have to end up with an interim

048superintendent because we're not going to find anybody because it's there's just not going to be enough time. So my recommendation would be to um speak to more consulting firms to get more ideas of what other firms would do and select a firm in the next say month or two and get this this process going and and a voting on the funds to do it to allocate the funds because we're going to have to do that. We're going to have to find the funds in the school budget. So, we and I don't know exactly how much it's going to cost, but we're looking at probably somewhere in the $30 to $40,000 range to do this. Um, and so that's where I'm at. And I think we need to move forward with an outside consulting firm that's

049going to do everything for us and bring us bring the school committee, the next school committee, a list of qualified candidates to interview. That's my two cents. Can I say something? I don't know how to go ahead. >> We'll hear from member Maxwell. >> Um, just a quick uh question. So, I know that um member Keegan just mentioned this outside company doing um interviews and going into the community and um talking to community members and school committee members. My only concern with that is um half of this board, this school committee has rated the current superintendent proficient in um a lot of her, you know, communications and and all of these things. Are we going to be talking to the new school committee members that are elected on November 4th to get their input or

050are we just going to take um the input of the current school committee because I think that that would be doing a disservice to Maduan public schools. So to clarify, member Maxwell, the that was an initial conversation putting out feelers for what we might be in for in terms of services provided. That would be uh something that would be done carried out by the vendor that's ultimately selected. Uh a superintendent search is not subject to traditional procurement. Uh so we don't technically need to go out to bid. We need to uh potentially get quotes if it exceeds a certain threshold. Um but nevertheless it might behoove us to consider getting the three quotes anyway. Something along those lines so that we can compare our options. But that would be something that would be carried out

051by whichever vendor is established. That would not be at the discretion of uh the school committee unless we were to establish guidelines for the process. Uh but again, this is simply a preliminary look see at what we're uh likely in for in terms of a process and uh that's something that's not determined right now. >> So if they did have to interview the school committee members, would they be interviewing the current school committee members um with two going out or would they be interviewing the incoming school committee members? >> So I I can share my personal opinion. I mean, I can't state definitively exactly what any vendor would do. I I think it would make sense to discuss with members of the current committee and also any newly elected people. I think that that is

052logical and would make sense. Um, but again, I don't want to put the cart before the horse. We're not at a point here where we're officially establishing say vendor criteria and specific things that we would include in say specifications as part of a request for uh quotes uh package along those lines. This is just an initial discussion but uh I I think it would make sense to include everybody. >> Great. I appreciate it. Thank you. >> Member D. Well, well, I hope before we leave this evening, if possible, we establish a calendar or or set some deadlines for ourselves. MASC, if you've done your research, and I'm sure you've all been reading in the newspapers about the incredible uh flight of superintendent across Massachusetts for a variety of reasons. Um, I think we need to

053get our our house in order right away. MASC says three to five months the search process takes and that starts with establishing what are you looking for as a educational leader in the community. Finding a superintendent is not putting an ad in the paper and hoping people send in their resumes. There's site visits on on come people coming and going. It's having staff involved. Lots of discussions. Um, so I'm going to suggest that we at least tonight commit to some form of action and also be prepared. Just because we have finalists doesn't mean that there what we want, what our community needs. Also be prepared to go the interim route, which I don't think anyone really I I don't know how I feel about that, but I think we need to be prepared. And I

054hope we owe it to our community. Our staff certainly needs to have a sense of we are moving forward. Some people whether here's publicly speaking or on the board has said in the past let's wait until the new school committee comes in. That would be so irresponsible for us. So irresponsible because it's a long process and we need to be purposeful and thoughtful. So could we figure out what we need to do next? MASC I know they've said we can't handle it. They're trying to I don't even think they have a pool that would be appropriate or even filled for us. So um I guess I look to you Mr. Mia like what do we do next? We know of one firm one and I know there have been issues across Massachusetts most recently in

055Cambridge Mr. Wlette where that vetting process went south really fast. So I think we're going to have to be very cautious and we need to spend some money. So can we do that tonight do you think? I don't know how that works but >> so I think the the first step in the process will be to officially get some quotes so that we can see the different packages that would be available the cost different the uh the difference in cost uh etc. And then um from that point once we have a series of quotes then we can discuss as a committee what the next steps would be and you know we'd have to go through a whole process of engaging a vendor in a contract and uh going about that process and so uh I

056think it really does start with uh getting some comparisons between uh vendors. We'll hear from member Wlette and then vice chair. >> Thank you Mr. Chairman. Um, I think we need to establish a demarcation line because we're going to have new members regardless sworn in in January. So, I think interviewing the members of the community and that could be the the current members of the school committee or the future members of the school committee uh they have equal stake in the in the process. But in terms of just interviewing the demarcation line is is January. That's when you have a consulting firm and then again we're going to have a broader search because one consulting firm ain't going to do it. So we need to have a broader search. We had it with the the

057auditing firm. We had difficulty obtaining an auditing firm and I understand that. But the interviewing process I'm on board with that involving our association. I was on board with that. the demarcation line we established that the new members and some maybe some of the existing members will be serving on that board in uh January. Okay, that will be a nationwide search that will be a consulting firm. Um, and in terms of an interim uh candidate, I would imagine if you're doing a nationwide search, anybody internally that wanted to apply who are qualified and who can be vetted and that's a very important component because I know in De Moines they they hired someone of a major school system that was not here legally in this country and he had a prior like arrest record and

058he had major issues. So we shouldn't be hiring that firm. So that should be first on that list. So we I confidence in the in the mayor working with the CAFO, working with the existing superintendent. And again, I emphasize the city council because I'd like to have them in some fashion involved in in the process because I know city council has brought concerns about the school system to my attention. So if we have that demarcation line, I don't have a problem with that. I think it would be irresponsible if we didn't set up an outline tonight, but remember January is a demarcation line. Thank you. >> Member Dagio. >> Um, thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, just going to piggy back off of everybody. I have no problem with stopping the search because I feel like

059we need to make sure we're being competitive like the other districts are. Um, but I do agree with some of the members saying that next week is an election. So, those school committee members should have just as much of a say than us going into this process. I will agree to stop the process as long as the election after next week. um those school committee members stop with us on the search as well like interviews. No, no, no. I'm just saying with the consult if the consultant comes in and says they want to talk to members, I don't think it would be in my place because I am leaving um to be discussing with a consultant until unless those other school committee members are with us. Just like Mr. mayor was saying um he believes

060that both sides will um but that's that's I agree that we need to stop the search process now but I want to also agree that we're going to include those future school committers as we get closer to January if they were to come and interview all of us. I want to make sure they're there as well. That's all. and and something to reiterate real quick just for the sake of the conversation. So just to clarify, the next school committee is going to be choosing the next superintendent. All we're talking about doing is setting the table for the process so that we have, you know, we don't have the next school committee coming in and everyone starting from scratch on what would be a it's going to probably be five or more months, I would imagine,

061before we actually find somebody vice chair. >> So then I'd like to propose that for next meeting we have the consulting firms since it seems like everybody's in agreement that we have a consulting firm. So on on the next agenda, we put on there that we're going to discuss the firms that we're looking at and we vote to um use funds to pay for the one that we select that we that we actually select the one that we want and that we move forward with that process, whichever whichever firm that is. And at that point, we can talk about what they're going to do because we don't know what they're going to do until we actually have the proposals in front of us. We only have one proposal at this point. So, let's get a

062couple more. Let's get it on the agenda next next meeting. We vote on which firm and how much we're spending. So, our next step will be uh the superintendent and I will get we'll loop in the cafo as well and we'll take a look at this from the quote process and and getting a sense of what's out there in terms of potential vendors and then we'll have more to share at the next meeting. I think that's a responsible path forward. Does anyone disagree? >> Okay. All right. So, uh that'll conclude that discussion. And we're going to move on now to uh the superintendent's goals, specifically the bullying goal to review. I'll invite the superintendent to start that conversation. >> Thank you. So, I added uh tried to capture the conversation that we had on the

06315th um and added uh a goal, district approvement goal number three, which is at the end of the actual goal. I I don't know what page it's on. Page seven of 10 starts on page six, the bottom of Michael's. Does everybody see that? Okay. So, um again, I I tried to capture the conversation of what we were looking for for students, parents, um and staff. I met with uh my leadership team after our conversation in the 15th to uh I thought we had a really rich conversation uh which led to this goal about what what our role as the school department should be. I think we hemmed and hot a little bit about um you know what does a bullying task force look like and who should lead that. So, I did somewhat prematurely put

064in here uh mayor that uh you know a task force that branched out to the community would really be sort of under the head of the mayor, right? Um and then you know with that obviously it would be our responsibility my responsibility my leadership team's responsibility to then pro like go through all of these pieces of what we're responsible for for the goal right we really were trying trying to narrow down the smart part of the smart goal because uh you know if you I was really uh I actually had sort of a grandiose idea about the task force that we would do that and that that would be what I would be responsible for. That's a really hard thing to write a smart goal for because I'm not uh I don't have all of

065the sort of authority control over all of those outside pieces if I'm making any sense to folks. And so I just you know I think this warrants some further conversation. It sounded like everybody wanted to go in that direction and I am and the team I mean we talked about the youth sports and the who could be involved and there's so many different community organizations and sort of everybody kind of saw the notes I took that night. Um I think that's all can come together pretty easily in this community. So the goal here really is looking at what the school department team would do and it again I I hope I captured everything we talked about. Again, I took some pretty good notes that night about sort of seeing where we are, what kind of

066communication, and I think the biggest conversation that I had with our leadership team is we really uh visually uh are going to put this into three prongs. What are we doing with students, which is different than what we're going to be doing with staff, which is different than what we're going to be doing with parents. And so that was probably the most um you know effective and clear part of our conversation that our students need some education on the language of bullying, what it is, what it isn't, how to uh the how-tos, right? And it looks different at 10 than it does at 17. And so how do we developmentally bring in folks who can talk about it in large assemblies, in small groups, um and just focus that. So we had that conversation about

067what does it look like for students? And we have a bucket for that. And then for staff, what does it look like? Same things. What pieces do we need to reassess our procedures, our policies, our uh protocols on bullying and sort of re-educate our staff on those procedures, policies, definitions, right? a little bit of a different conversation than we would have then with parents and sort of how do we uh engage parents in that conversation? Again, the education, the do we need to change our letters? Do we need to sort of reook at our handbook language to make things more clear um more effective? And so, um I think our team felt really, uh solid about this. Um, and I I couldn't uh the one thing I would say what I just described is really

068how our team is looking at it. Sort of the student prong, the parent prong, and the staff prong. Um, and then for me, there's another prong that is community, right? And that's where the task force would come in, right? All of the information we're taking from students, right? Uh, if we're doing these things with students and families in our schools, that language, that commonality should carry over into the work of the community. and how do we engage community members who are doing youth sports and uh you know all those other community engagement activities. So um it's here I'm not going to read every bullet. It's here for you. Uh if there are suggestions or uh ideas that I didn't miss or that you'd like to see differently, this is I think what this evening should

069be about. If as long as the mayor agrees to I did put that in there uh at the last bullet, I'm going to support the mayor uh jointly, right, doing this task force. And I think, you know, that may come after some work within the the district and sort of getting our buckets straight and then talking about what this looks like in the community as a whole and who do we start bringing into this conversation. Uh that's not just about the schools. You know, I think we forget to there's a lot of other schools in Methuan, right? And so, um, there's a lot of students in Methuan that are part of this community that don't, uh, have access to our programs and our assemblies and sort of our initiatives. So, you know, and vice versa.

070So, there's some partnership there, too. >> Yeah, I'm completely on board with taking that on uh discussion. And this is only discussion. We're not voting. >> Okay. >> Very good. >> Uh, all right. We'll move on to the next item on the agenda which is the CTE admissions policy. Uh we need a motion and a second to approve it. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion is from member Daglio. The second's from the vice chair. We'll begin discussion. I'll invite Dr. Gowski to uh explain the new requirements. >> Thank you. So, there have been some changes to the uh Massachusetts career and technical education regulations that boil down to two main changes. Um, the first being that there needs to be a lottery system put in place for when the amount of interest um exceeds

071the number of available seats that we have in our programming. And the second is that we need to have um an official middle school pathway um exploration policy. So we're trying to think about how we're advert advertising our programming, how we're recruiting, retaining students um and essentially making students as young as grade six aware um and then providing students in grade eight opportunities to try out um the programming here or see what we have to offer. So, I will say that we're not yet at a place where interest exceeds seats, but we're close. Um, and so we'll be looking to um put a lottery into place. So, I'll walk you through the policy as it's written here. Um, just some highlights. So, a major change is that as of November 1st through March 1st would

072be the time that applications would be available. Um at this point we already would have gone to um the sending schools, our middle schools through our uh Mthuan High School road show. We would have invited students to Mthuan High School, the grade 8 students to rotate through the programming, learn about other programs like early college that we offer here. U and so they'll they'll know that opportunity will be coming up. We'll also have opportunities for families to learn more about the offerings, but that will be the application window. Um, and we are proposing here that we have an unweighted fully blind lottery um to which students will seek admittance to the exploratory program. And that exploratory program is for grade nine students where they rotate through um each of our five certified chapter 74 pathways

073and ultimately decide which program they'd like to pursue um to work on their over 900 hours required by DESIE um to earn certifications um job experience and other qualifications. So that would be the application process. The fully blind unweighted piece um is important because we think it would give every student an opportunity to take part in in the exploratory program should they wish. The regulations specify the only other option you would potentially have for lottery would be to weight both attendance and discipline or behavior. But there are really strict guidelines on that. Um, and so you would have, say, one entry into the lottery. If you didn't meet the attendance requirement or the discipline requirement, should you meet either one, if we chose to put that in, you would have an additional ticket, per se,

074in the lottery. So, your chances would be greater. The way the attendance piece works is they look at the students previous 270 days in school. If the student had been absent fewer than 27 days, then they would get that extra entry for attendance. The discipline piece is really narrowed to um assault and weapons charges, which um we feel as though would not be worth putting into the lottery because it's so rare. Um but should you not have either one of those on your record, you'd get another entry um into the lottery. So for comprehensive high schools like us, um this seems to be a fairly popular way to go. Um I saw that Waltham's going this way and they have um several chapter 74 programs and this is just to get into the exploratory program

075of which we have plenty of seats at the moment. This would also apply at the conclusion of the exploratory program when students are seeking to pursue a particular pathway should there be um more interest than there are seats. There's also an appeals process spelled out here where essentially um applicants would be put on a wait list and offered seats in other programs. Um perhaps they were torn between two and they might have entry into one. um if they're still unhappy with the choice, they can appeal to the principal and then ultimately the superintendent if the principal upholds that original decision. So again, this is a rare circumstance for us as a comprehensive high school, but we need to have a policy in place. What we've been doing in the past is when we note that

076there's high interest in a program, we've had the flexibility to add additional courses or teachers. We're so fortunate to have the additional teachers from last year that were added with the budget cycle. So, we've been able to adjust to student interest to date. Um, and then there's a piece there that just outlines the maintenance of the records of the lottery. Um, regulations state that the lottery will be public. Um, and people will see how that will be done. Um, which I assume we will use a digital um, randomizing platform to pull the numbers. So that is the um admission piece in a nutshell. >> Vice chair >> um I'm just concerned about not having an attendance um component to admissions only because if a kid is chronically absent and we then admit them into this

077program, they're never going to be able to make the 900 hours. Um, so I'm a little bit concerned about not having that requirement. I know that the trade schools typically do. Um, but other than that, it looks great and I will agree to this if since you've done your research, but I'm just giving you my concern. >> Member Daglio. >> Um, so when I uh, and Dr. Guan knows this. Um I was one of the biggest advocates to bringing the afterdoc program here and uh Frank Cerillo and I talked about this. So to to your concern, the the thing that I look at the afterd talk program is to stop to me is to bring that kid back to school with the chronic absences because a lot of the kids that I talked to with

078Frank that went into the afterdoc program from all these other communities, they were the troubled kids. They were the ones that had chronicle absences and this was their incentive because they were just kids that were just like, "Listen, I'm I'm I'm not going to college. I don't feel like college is for me." And they worked with their hands. So, they couldn't they didn't have the grades to get into GLTS. So this afterdoc program was to kind of bring them and say listen if you're going to be put part of this program you because the way the afterdoc program was set up is you have to go to school you have to be in the classroom doing good grades and then you succeeded and that's why I kind of like the policy a the way with

079the chronic absences it's it's not that big of a deal because those are the kids that you want in this program. I actually want more kids that are having chronic absences except salt charges. I totally agree with that. But those kids that, you know, might be failing in the classroom, they they might just not be that um academically driven, but they, you know, a lot of those kids might be working in their uncle shops on the weekends or doing all these different jobs that they just need that extra boost to get them back into school. So, I feel like that should be the lottery first, getting those kids that have those chronical absences and having all those troubles. I feel like that should be more driven because that might actually reduce kids being chronically absent.

080And you have to pick the right ones. Obviously, there's going to be ones that that we put in there and might fill out. It happens. Um, but I feel like that's where, and I could be wrong, but I feel like that's where the lottery is that what the goal of the lottery is, is to bring those kids that are having those troubles academically and giving them an opportunity and an incentive. I feel like that's how those programs should be driven. >> I can I say one thing? I know I just whispered in your ear to say something else, but um I think that the the whole point of the lottery and I was here so the board of education meeting that we hosted last spring was actually when the board voted on this that all

081the technical high schools are now changing to a lottery, not an application. And it was very clear to Mr. Caret and I sat and sort of listened to this. there were a lot of my colleagues from the technical schools there to testify. Um and and the the real reason behind this is the fact that our kids don't get the opportunity they deserve because there's an application process and they are left out of that opportunity. So what you are talking about about all of our kids having that opportunity, right? They may not have had great grades in middle school. They may have been bored. Academics isn't their thing. They don't get an opportunity at a technical high school. None of them at this point. If you're not getting A's and B's with zero things on your

082record, you don't get in. >> That's what this is trying to combat. So So in essence, you are absolutely correct. This is what we're trying to do. Um, and I say we, the state, right, is to say if these kids are in Mthuan High School, they should have an opportunity in another public high school that focuses on technical education. Right now, the the part that we play is that so many comprehensive high schools like us have career and technical education programs, right? So, we have to abide by those same new regulations with these policies that Dr. Gowski is explaining. Um but the like greater Lawrence Whittier Essex Aggie they have to do this is a huge change for them and so uh it was amazing to be here to hear that that um you know

083and a lot of our colleagues were testifying against this change because so many kids apply and they get to select the the kids right it's it's a different process so um you know and this is everybody's going through this right now. Whether you're a comprehensive high school or a technical high school, I think you've read there's been a couple headlines about different schools doing this now. We all have to do this by next week, right? So, there was a a huge uh push to do this and have these policies approved. Um Dr. Labs is going to talk about something else, but I also want you to understand uh because this gets complicated with the school committee. This is not a standalone school committee policy that has a code. This is a policy that we're required

084to have. It needs a a one vote approval, much like us talking about a cell phone policy that we're putting in something. This has to go on our website. This has to be how we do business. But it's not part of the school committee manual and does not have a code. I just want just because we've been so in in that. I I I hemmed and hot about the fact this the state expects us to have this policy. They will not call it anything else, but it's not a state, you know, a school committee uh manual policy. It doesn't have a code of JHC or something like that. >> And I'm sorry I cut you off. >> No, that's that's perfect. Just going to add on part of the fully blind part in the lottery

085has to do with um if students have been identified as English learners or students with disabilities that needn't be disclosed to vocational schools prior to the lottery. Um so they'll be needing to support those students as they would in any public school. Um and this policy is um to be revisited by the regulations every fall. So every fall prior to the deadline, if we feel as though there's a need need for a change, we can do that and adjust as demand may increase or decrease over time. >> Member Shibilia, >> I just want to make sure that I'm I'm following because I think we may have blurred the lines between the first policy and the second policy that you're presenting. So the first one that we're doing now is for the high school's chapter 74

086CTE stuff, >> the five programs. So that doesn't that doesn't include >> Well, the exploratory is grade nine, which is >> But that's >> that's next. >> no. There's exploration. Middle school exploration is different from grade nine exploratory. Grade nine exploratory is the entry point into the chapter 74 programs at Mthuan High School. >> And that's where the afterdark fits into this. >> After dark would be part of GLTS because our students access GLTS programming through the afterdark program. >> Okay. >> Right. So what we govern is um the exploratory and then the pathway of selection and then it's a little tricky. The exploration is how our middle school students learn about what we offer. >> And our chapter 74 courses offered here at the high school actually make the city money because they get

087reimbursed at a higher rate. Mhm. >> So, we have every incentive to market those like crazy >> and keep growing. That's kind of the point I wanted to get across is that I hope with this um exploration policy we are working hard to show kids that whether it's biotech or early ed marketing programming and web development or multidia production and broadcasting all of which are worthwhile avenues to explore. It's it I mean it actually helps us at the end of the day too. Member Dunovan, >> I hope you if anyone wants to look at this at home, I really like um you've created a timeline of when you will be communicating and disseminating the information to our middle school students, which I think is fabulous. And I also appreciate the involvement of the Mthuan High

088students who are in the CTOE program >> um working with our middle school students. I think that's where you re your best marketing comes from. Um and you know what I hope you invite the members of the school committee like whoever is here in January for some of these um oh there'll be one in December um for these maybe invite everybody but for theseformational presentations I think it's the responsibility of the school committee given this is a money maker sort of right for us to be present at these kind of meetings to show our commitment. So, if you could give us the dates for that, I promise you I will be there. Okay. >> And I hope I'll be joined by my colleagues. >> Absolutely. >> Really, it's really awesome. Thank you. >> Thank you.

089>> Any >> right. Anything else before we vote? >> Great. >> All right, we'll take the vote. Um, roll call. >> Yes. Yes. >> Yes. >> That is approved. We will move on to the CTE middle school exploratory policy. We need a motion in a second to >> approve it. >> Second. >> Motion from member Shibelia. The second is from the vice chair. Discussion. Just wanted to highlight that while we'll be publicizing the programs that are available at Mthuan High School, part of our obligation is to make sure that students are aware of all the opportunities available to them. So, working in collaboration with GLTS when they come and give their presentations as well. Um, and essentially to do what our objective is outlining to do, make sure all students have awareness and access um

090in a way to get where they're trying to go. discussion. >> If not, we'll vote. >> Member Daglio, >> yes. >> Member Donovan, yes. >> Member Keegan, >> yes. >> Member Maxwell, >> yes. >> Member Shibilia, yes. Member Wlette, >> yes. >> Mayor Bogard, >> yes. >> We'll now move on to the presentation regarding the 2025 MCCAST. I'll invite the superintendent to lead this off. >> So, thank you. I'm going to actually turn it over to Dr. Gowski. She's going to show the slides that you have. Um I think there is is um there's a lot of state conversation about these scores this year and uh I know I've been in different uh settings with different colleagues and and so is Dr. Gabsky and Mr. Caret. I think uh we have the urban superintendent network

091that you know is looking at the gateway city data which Dr. Dr. Gopsy will show you tonight um how we compare against sort of the whole state but how we also compare within our gateway cities uh where we fall with the like districts that uh the state has um you know aligned us with. Um but there's a lot of conversation. I'm on the uh assessment advisory council for the state. I have been for three years and I think people were really anxious going into this year without the MCCAST as the graduation requirement uh and what that would do to our scores and I think uh what we thought it was going to do it did um statewide and locally. So you know again that that's a lot of the conversation that is being had amongst

092us and how do we look at it differently? How do we uh look at our accountability data? What's the state going to do differently? So, we're asking a lot of those questions, you know, are we just going to keep going with business as usual? Um, so there's a lot of unanswered questions right now. Uh, and I think you are all aware. Uh, and if you aren't, uh, I would encourage you to, um, you know, do some searches, but I can send you some links. The governor has put a graduation council together. So now the governor is involved in what the next sort of thing will be that will be part of a Massachusetts graduation requirement. So there's a lot of prongs there that's happening amongst uh the state with um again the governor plus superintendent.

093Uh we have regional uh listening groups talking about what that next graduation requirement is. There's a lot of uh things moving right now and moving parts uh in the state about what that will be and what our obligation is to do yeartoyear. Until those decisions are made, uh there's going to be a lot of local decisions that we're going to have to be making. So without further ado, I'll turn this over to Dr. Labsy. Okay. >> Thank you. Um, so before I begin, the MCCAST and accountability data is public and available um on the DESIE profile page and searchable by district um or school. And you can also move throughout the years if you're curious about specifics. Just trying to move my slides here. Um, but just to point out some state trends um that

094were also reflected in our district data. uh the post-pandemic learning loss continues to be a major challenge and that the subject scores um by grade and area are still significantly lower than in 2019. And out of all the districts in Massachusetts, over 300, only 13 of them have reached preandemic levels in both ELA and math. Um I did look up which districts those were. many of them were um single school charter schools. Um so large districts are still struggling um to recover to pre- pandemic levels. What was interesting um was that in grades three through eight there was essentially no change in math results. The scores were very similar across the state um with no significant movement. In ELA we did see an increase from 2024 and then as Dr. Kuang mentioned both ELA and

095math results are down um from 2024 um suggesting that it could partially be due to the impact of the change in the competency determination. Science scores reflected no significant change in grade five and lower results in 8 and 10 when compared to 2024 and for the first time the civics exam was given in grade 8 last year. So I have um a slide here showing the percentage of students meeting or exceeding expectations on the MCCAST tests. Um and that will be the percentage change from last year to 20 or 2024 to 2025 but then also the percentage change from 2019 to 2025. So, and you hear those um prepandemic levels. So, you can have a sense of of where we're going there. So, you can see that uh the state is represented on the left,

096MPS is represented on the right, and we're very similar um in terms of the degree of change increasing or decreasing by subject area. And for MPS, you can see that the gap between our 2025 data and 2019 is larger um than it had than the state. So the prepandemic levels were larger in MPS than the state. And while we're fluctuating with the state, um we're not covering much ground in shrinking that gap. On this slide, I have the 2025 ELA results. And this is where I'm introducing um the urban superintendent network districts. And that's signified by um USN. And so to recap, I believe I mentioned this last year as well, the urban superintendent network districts are 31 districts with students prek through 12 who are in the top quartortile for each of the following

097criteria for at least three consecutive years. So total enrollment, the percentage of economically disadvantaged students, percentage of English learners, and the percentage of churn, meaning students coming in and out of the district per year. So we are members of the urban superintendent network district and onethird of all students in Massachusetts are part of these urban districts. So it's a sizable group that drives a lot of the data. um many of many of whom are um comparable districts to us. So for ELA 3 through 8 and 10 um we're at or exceeding the rate of USN so falling where we would expect to be um with our like peers um yet below the state. So whereas we're all moving in the same pattern, the results would be similar to what they had been um in years

098past. And here's a slide showing um by student group our ELA results, grades three through eight. And these are the percentage of students not meeting, partially meeting, meeting, or exceeding. and then the combination of the two and that combination is shown against the USN and the state. So in some areas for instance um in students classified as low income very similar to both the USN network and the state a significant difference between um groups would be two or more percentage points otherwise it's fairly similar. Um, we have some similarities in our Hispanic or Latino student group between us and the state, although we do um exceed USN outpacing there. And our English learners and for former English learners have some um interesting comparisons were between the state and the USN but closer to the state.

099If we move to our ELA grade 10 results on the next slide, again by student group and if you see a student group that's represented on some slides and not others, it's because in that particular grade level, there wasn't a sample large enough to be considered as a student group. So in grade 10 great variation between student groups and that variation is reflected both in our um like schools the USN and the state and I'll explain some of the rationale behind those ch those um scores just a bit and the math results 3 through 8 and 10 very similar to that one-third of students in the USN and just behind the state as well. the student group slide for math grades three through eight. So again, our low-income students fairly similar to both of the

100comparisons as our Hispanic and Latino students. White students very similar to USN yet behind the state. students with disabilities with relatively low percentages across the board. Yet, we're similar there in grade 10 math. One area that's striking to me across all these slides and something that I'm very much interested in improving is it's one thing to look at the meeting and exceeding percentages together. But when you look at the exceeding percentages alone alone um that boils down to very few students within that category of which we know that there are students who are certainly capable of achieving at that at that level which it does appear to be a statewide problem in science. for grade 10. Um, actually between the USN and the state. And I will point out we call the science scores grade

10110, but really they're tested in grade nine. So those students from 2025 that we're calling it their their science score, they took in 2024 prior to the vote for MCCAST to no longer be a competency determination. Perhaps a theory as to why those scores are a bit higher or perhaps those kids really know their science well. And then the first go at the civics's exam which was new to students and teachers across the state comparable or similar to USN behind the state. So I just want to provide some contextual information and I'll I'll pause in a moment for questions or comments. Um and this was shared with us. Um uh Rob Curtain from DESIE was very nice to give a presentation at the urban superintendent um network meeting and mentioned some um contextual information that

102might be interesting to us. So across the state in in Mthuan, the performance of chronically absent students was substantially lower than the performance of non-chronically absent students both in terms of scaled scores and the percentage of students meeting or exceeding expectations, which seems pretty intuitive. Um, again, to be identified as chronically absent, you need to have missed 10% of school days for any reason at all. Excused or unexcused does not matter. So interestingly across the state the average number of missed days for students who are chronically absent is 30.5. In Mthuan the average is 33 days missed. in that um absenteeism is equated to the loss of 1/3 to 1/2 of an achievement level. So the way MCCAST is scored, each score band is worth 30 points or there's a 30 point range. So if

103you look at the slide here, you can see the difference in scaled scores between students who were chronically absent and not chronically absent. And this is this is Mthuan data here and the difference in those scaled scores. So a student losing um 20 points between the not chronically absent and chronically absent um um data there that would be more than half of an achievement level. So that could be the difference between not meeting partially meeting partially meeting meeting. Um, as we all know, attendance is important for so many reasons and we do see that reflected here. And so there's there is some um noticeable correlation perhaps causation between the change in competency determination and the grade 10 scores. Um, number one, the amount of time that students spent in the MCCAST tests across the state

104decreased significantly after MCCAST was no longer part of the competency determination this past year. The amount of blank answers increased significantly. the amount of students who wrote off-topic essays tripled and essays are worth eight points. So an off-topic essay is something that is completely not in the realm of being close. Um we also saw a lot of blanks um and we saw a lot of zeros or ones which might be a sentence attempt. So, M uh Mthuan public schools grade 10 testers, there were 38 of our testers had one of their essay questions eight worth eight points marked blank or off topic. Another 23 testers had two essay questions, which is 16 points marked blank and off topic. And amazingly, five of those students who seemingly didn't answer two of the essays were still partially

105meeting. So that that might have been a change there. Um, and I will say Miss Moore, our math department chair, has really torn into the math data and has recognized and this 2025 exam some standards were leaned a little bit uh more heavily into than in previous years. And so she's gone back and re revised the curriculum to make students have more practice in those areas. So while there is some um affiliation or correlation with the change in CD um also looking at for questions that were respon responded to where we need to um support students more before I move to accountability data which is also linked to MCCAST questions >> vice chair >> um this isn't one of the subgroups groups that you give us data on, but is it possible to get the

106data on the students who start their education in Mthuan and are taking MCCAST? Um because I think that that's really given how high our turn rate is, it doesn't really show us how well our students are doing because we don't know where they are in the in the Methuan public schools education. So if we could get the data on the percentage of kids who start in Mthuan all the way through, how many of those kids are what percentage of those kids are meeting and exceeding and not meeting or whatever. Um that would be very interesting to me to see really how our curriculum is adding up for our kids, right? Um not kids who are bouncing in and out of districts. Um the other thing is is um students with disabilities, how is that defined?

107Is it anyone on an IEP or 504? Is it um anybody? So if I have a 504 and I happen to be allergic to bees, then I'm a student with disabilities. So it's just IEPs. >> Okay. >> With any goal in the IEP, >> any goal. So if it's a social emotional kid and not an academic kid, they're still listed in there. And I'm really really concerned about those numbers because if a kid just requires speech for instance we've got a very small percentage of kids with disabilities that are meeting or exceeding and those aren't just our subsparate kids. So, um, that's really needs to be something focused on what is going on with our students with disabilities education that is getting such low numbers. >> Um, >> I can drill further into that too

108and to different subgroups of that subgroup too. >> That would be really helpful to see where we're failing those kids because with those numbers, [clears throat] I feel like we're failing the kids and we need to figure that out. Um, that's all. Thanks. Member Shabilia, >> Dr. Gowski, I I don't know what to do with these these numbers because we told a bunch of what 9year-old 10 year olds and a bunch of 16 year olds, hey guys, take this test. It doesn't mean anything and now we're discussing how they did. I just and I I can assume you've had this conversation in your superintendent groups. I can assume I'm not the only one to look at this and go now what is is there a good answer because I'm looking at this and yeah it's

109it's bleak but at the same time it had no teeth. So the kids who may have done well they got to leave early because they finished their test. So like I just I don't know how to I don't know what weight to give this information. I think we're all having this conversation. I would say this, you know, the test the tests aren't going away, the assessments, right? Because they're part of the federal ESSA law, right? So, states are required to give tests on language, arts, and math. Now, Massachusetts goes above and does other subjects and other things and does it more often. However, um I think that's where the challenge is right now at the state level, right? What is DESIE going to do next? Are we going to I mean, we've been using MCCAST

110for my entire career. Yes. So, a long time, right? So, is is the state going to look at are we are we approaching the assessments going to should we approach it differently? Should we? I don't know. I don't Nobody at the state knows the answer. And I think uh we also have to give right we have a new commissioner who's three months into his job at the state level uh trying to get his bearings in Massachusetts. Uh right he was the former superintendent for Chicago public schools. So he is learning uh about us in Massachusetts which is very different than Illinois and Chicago. Right. So, uh, I think we have to also see what comes out of his office working with the Secretary of Education and the governor. I think it's a it's there's a

111lot of people involved in making decisions about education, public education in Massachusetts right now. Way more people involved than certainly when I first started my career. Right? So, I don't have a good answer. I think it's something we still have to do. We still have to deem important. Uh but we also live in an environment where uh you know every year our kids become more uh anxious and uh parents uh do keep their kids home for the test because they don't want to have to put their kids through that anxiety if it doesn't count. Right? We do get that. Um and so it's a challenge all the way around. Everything about this assessment is a challenge when it's given when we get the scores to have it be useful. I mean we're diving into this.

112We've said this my entire career and nothing has ever changed with MCCAST that it's given in the spring. We never get the results. Things are embargoed until I don't think that's changed in my entire 30-year career in Massachusetts. That the timing of it is just not awesome either that we can really do something with it to make a difference, right? If teachers and us we're we're looking at it and making sense of it now, right? and the and the state doesn't give us even the rest of the data until January on like our lowest performing kids and they they keep giving us data. It's hard that's a moving target for us. So again, it's it's there. We've lived with it. I I we do the best we can with this system that we have and

113um you know, try to celebrate our wins and try to look at as Dr. Gowski said, our math department heads are looking at what they're doing differently and what was done differently, right? can't all be that all the kids didn't want to do this test, right? Um, so, you know, we're trying to I think we were at a a administrative meeting with the high school uh talking about this data to to what we are what we see at the high school, what my own daughter experienced at the high school is not represented in this data. And that for me is very challenging of what is it because I go through classrooms. I had a daughter who had the experience. I I don't know what it is because what I see happening and how people feel

114about and I'm I'm just sticking with the high school for a moment because that was the team we met with kind of as a whole. um it it just doesn't that the this piece of paper and the numbers don't reflect what what I see and what I know and what I've experienced myself as a parent, right? So, never mind being a part of this community for 24 years, but just what I experienced on the parent side of it as well. Um and so we're just we're just digging in, right? We're figuring out is it is it chronic absenteeism? Are kids just not engaged? You know, do we have to figure out how to really share with kids intrinsically more that this test matters um and that it's helping us and it's helping us make sure

115that they're learning, right? And pride in their community. I mean, there's all kinds of I mean, that conversation went in all kinds of directions, but I think that's the one thing like we're all just trying to figure out what piece of this we can look at a little deeper and glean from it what we can. Uh because, you know, it's going to be hard to glean much from uh students who just didn't write their responses or wrote off topic because they could. And um that has been a pretty large conversation in our groups is the fact that like we did the open response in the writing. There's just the the 10th graders for sure just kind of gave up just didn't do it. >> So that feeds into my second question. Are we able or

116are you folks able to identify down to the individual level so we could as a district acknowledge those students that that did achieve >> like they would have gotten their pass rates last year? >> And I mean I think there's something to be said for that. I mean, I think that by us putting a little bit of motivation behind the [clears throat] test, those kids who are going to want it to achieve are going to want to be able to put it on on a college resume or whatever will have a little piece of paper that says, you know, I I passed the MCAST or whatever whatever we do or the next body does. But I think that's something worth discussing as we >> I think the commissioner well the former commissioner used to send

117us letters that we could give out that we did, but I don't know if this commissioner will maintain that practice. We'll see. >> Um, but we also just got the John and John and Abigail Adams scholarship letter, you know, to pass out. So, we have some students who did do well and will receive that notice that they will get a scholarship to state school. So, we have, you know, we have kids who care. I mean, we're sending kids to Harvard and MIT. Um, so we're doing some really good things with our kids, especially the last five years that we're sending kids to to these these top rated schools um that I haven't always seen in my career here either. So that to me is this is what I'm saying of, you know, we're really trying

118to figure out that missing puzzle piece. And I don't think there's a magic answer. I don't think we have sort of this magic unicorn that we're all going to be like, "Oh, that's it." Right? Um because it's a school of 2,000 kids and there's a lot of variables. But um I do think member Keegan, we've always talked about that that the state used to give us those that cohort that you're talking about that was here from third grade and test it all the way through and that we could actually um use that just for our own information and they don't give it we have to get it ourselves now. So I mean it's doable and we'll figure it out. But um they stopped giving that cohort data to us because I loved that. I mean

119that I think when I was assistant superintendent that's what we used all the time because it was more informative to our practice because it was these 300 kids that landed in this 10th grade class from were with us from third at least we can count third grade to 10th grade right and that made a difference to us as to and it was it was always that was always higher right the percentages of progressing passing meeting exceeding was always higher when we just pulled out our kids. Um, but it still helped us look at sort of what we needed to change in our curriculum differently than just looking at the masses. There's a lot I mean there's a lot we we're have a again a lot of eyes on this right now and trying to glean

120what we can building based grade level based and certainly at the high school looking at a lot of different things. That was a really long answer member Shabilia of what are we going to do with this but I think you know we do what we always do. We we have to take it very seriously and we um do that and we take the information we can to to do what we can with it to make things better. Right. >> We still have a bit of ground to cover but we can take another member down. >> I I'll be um very quick. I'm just really curious. I know high stakes testing it's this is being done for a reason. I totally understand what's behind that. What's the Do we have an idea of what's ahead of

121us of what will be the next high stakes testing? I I read something about specific course assessments like whoa, here we go. Like that's that's a lot on everybody. That was one thing that was mentioned. And what timeline are we looking at? >> Well, a sneak peek at what's coming up is um I believe it's might be the next meeting. Um we'll hear about competency determination proposal >> um from the high school and what they're looking at is the next several years um because whatever is developed from the governor's council at the state will take maybe five plus years to go into effect but in a mean in the meantime um individual districts will have to determine what their measures are but it will be something similar to um and I think the idea is

122If you know time continues and the trends continue and um the state may feel as though the test isn't doing what they want for it to do then they will need to switch to some different measure >> and and also how many students do you have a number of how many students were absent the day of testing because that would serve >> we actually had um in grade 10 an excellent attendance rate. >> Oh, you did? >> Yes. I think it was maybe a hundred. >> Yeah, it was probably one of the higher attendance. >> That was always the big push. >> Yes, they they all came and many students reported that they appreciated not having the stress of the competency determination. >> Yeah. Okay. >> But they did all >> they all came. That's

123okay. >> Yeah. It's interesting. >> Thank you for that. >> Yeah. And and I should say too along with the John and Abigail Adams scholarship, many students use this as proof of English proficiency for the seal of biiteracy. So it it it does still have significance to many students. >> Um I just want to point out that 10th graders still have not received their MCCAST scores um as parents and so those really I feel like they should have been delivered before this report comes out to the school committee. So, I just want to give you a heads up that I still don't have my um kids cases. Okay. Well, I was scanning them through the poster machine myself and stamping them with Mr. Goslin, so >> I I hope that you get I mean, because

124it was mailed out last week. I would have assumed you would have gotten them by Friday or Saturday at the latest. No. Okay. >> Okay. Accountability. Um All right. So, accountability is the system which measures the normative component which is the school and district against um other similar schools and districts by size and the grades that they serve. Um and then there's also the criterion referenced component which um is when we talk about targets based on our previous performance. So how we stand against others and more importantly how we're comparing against our own practice. Quick breakdown of how the accountability is determined. It's different um between the nine non- high school schools and the high school and that is because achievement is worth 60% of the non- high school schools accountability rating growth 20% and

125then English proficiency which is rated by um students meeting their target growth on the access test um in around February January is 10% % and then chronic absenteeism, um advanced coursework, um and all those other pieces funnel into 10%. And in the non- high school category, it's just chronic absenteeism. Um because the advanced course work really rolls into just the high school. And high school achievement um only only 40 is only worth 40% of the accountability calculation. And that's because high school completion, which includes the four-year cohort graduation rate and the extended graduation rate, annual dropout rate, that accounts for 20%. So that 20% comes off the achievement and moves into that area for high school. And here's what the the points awarded for targets indicate. Um, so a one is no change. So very

126similar to how the performance was last year. Two is improvement. Three is met target or met expectations. Four is exceeded target and zero is a decline. So the the accountability data is broken into two groups. First it's the all students group which is everyone in the population. And then there's the lowest performing student group. So students with the lowest combined ELA and math average scale score who were enrolled in the district for two consecutive years and tested in 2024 and and are not in their first or second year in of of being identified as an English learner and were not assessed using MCCAST. alt in both ELA and math. The lowest performing student group is com and grammar schools is comprised of students who fit all of those qualifications. So the way this works is

127when we're looking at the lowest performing student groups, we're looking to see that the current results from 2025 of that lowest performing student group from the previous year has has improved. So has that that quarter of students improved? The high school is a little bit different because they don't test um in grade nine. it's eight and 10 or how we how we label the tests. So every year it's a different group of students who's classified as being in the lowest 25%. And what we're looking to see is that that lowest quartortile of students in performed um at a higher rate than did the lowest cortile of students in 2024. So pointing that out because the highest lowest performing student group is different students that we're comparing year-toear and then the non- high school group or

128our grammar school group. It's the same group of students and we're tracking their growth. So that's what Dr. Kuang was referring to is the state does share with us who those lowest performing students were. Um usually we get that information um in January. In the high school, it's a little bit tricky. We need to figure out who those students would be on our own because it's different students yeartoear. Okay. Okay. So, I have a couple of grids here just to show you. Um, and this screen here shows all grammar schools together. So, three through eight. And the green circles indicate an improvement in the target from 2024 and red indicates a decline in the target between 2024 and 2025. So you can see most of the green circles for the grammar schools are in the

129all students area um showing that the all students groups um had higher target ratings than they had in the previous year. And then the lowest performing student group had some um some slight dips and otherwise the target stayed the same. So if you look at the very bottom row, I think that that's important. So the percentage of possible target points. So, Mthuan public schools in the grammar school area earned 61% of the possible target points for the lowest performing student groups and earned 37% of those points available overall for the all students group. So coming off the MCCAST presentation and knowing that achievement um accounts for 60% of the um accountability data and rating here that could be um as anticipated. Next screen um shows the high school. The circles are a little bit offkilter

130here. Um, but you can see what the 2025 MCCAST scores. Points earned for all students and lowest performing students in English, math, and science, zero, which indicates a decline from 2024, which we had um just discussed. some growth although um still a decline extended engagement um and dropout fewer points earned there as well. Um we have looked at the list of students who fell into that category of not completing high school. Many of whom um leave the school, speaking of the churn rate, have arrived at the school. um some English learners who had hoped to do maybe a year of school and graduate not understanding all the credits that need to be earned in their um of the age where they are on the border of qualifying for adult education sometimes decide not to stay

131on. others who leave um to go to out of state school and it's hard for us to determine where they've gone because they haven't um issued that information. If we're not able to um identify where the student has gone to school, then that would qualify as a dropout. in terms of English language proficiency um maximum points for students reaching their target for language development which is excellent and I believe too that that was the same on the grammar school. So in both um both chapters there English proficiency was strong. Chronic absenteeism some points awarded goal exceeded for the low performing student groups. So to sum it up for you, the progress toward targets ultimately lands um with the title to indicate how much progress has been made over the course of the year for 2024

132to 2025 based on those categories. So MPS overall um has been identified as making moderate progress toward targets earning 42% of possible target points. So it puts us in that range which spans from 25% to 49%. So at the higher end of that range. This slide shows school progress toward targets. So CGS and Marsh were both shown to have made substantial progress. Um, notably the CGS had an 11% increase from 2024 mostly in the areas of achievement. The Tenny and Tim moderate progress and MHS limited progress which was a 6% decrease from 2024. So here's a breakdown by school of the points awarded for these major categories. So achievement um which accounts for the majority of the rating for the all students group and then the lowest performing student group. So with the exception of

133Mthuan High School, um at least half of the points were earned by all grammar schools for the lowest performing student group. CGS earned the maximum amount of points and also earned six points um for the all students. And then progress toward attaining English proficiency, three or four points. the Marsh had um one of four points because after the accountability data came out last year, the state reviewed um the ratings and found that the marsh performed actually at a much higher rate than it had initially reported. So their target was increased. And here's some chronic absenteeism data that I had alluded to earlier. So CGS had a slight decline. Marsh Tenny met their target and Tim and MHS improved although are still below target and that's for all student group and for the lowest performing student

134group before I move on to advanced placement. questions on accountability. Okay, here I go. Advanced placement scores come out over the summer. Um so I thought it was appropriate to include that here in our first um overview of assessment data. So in 2025, MHS students tested in 22 AP subjects. Overall, we had 391 students who took exams and there were exams administered. We had 278 students earn a qualifying score which is a three or above qualifying because uh most colleges and universities recognize a three or above as college credit. So the percentage of AP students with scores of three or above for 2025 was 71%. So it's noticeable growth from 2024 which was at 62% and previously at 60%. Um we're also proud of the number of exams increasing overtime. So more than 100 more

135exams were given in 2025 than 2024. Um and at Methuan Mthuan High School um the students that take these tests also participate in the coursework which means that 391 students were exposed to advanced coursework um and are more prepared for post-secary education. So Mthuan High School outperformed the state and the percentage of qualifying scores for the following AP tests. So 91.3% of our chemistry students earned qualifying scores, 83.3% of English language and composition students, 81.6% of English lit and composition, 90% of physics students, 84% of pre-cal students, 65.4% of psychology students, and 95.2% 2% of CalBC BC students um earned a passing or qualifying score on their AB subcore. And then this is the advanced placement recognition as issued by the college board. This is another um standardized award and recognition which helps our students

136be compared to other students across the country for their achievement and accolades. So 50 Mthuan High School students earned the honor of AP Scholar and that's earning a qualifying score on three or more exams. 24 students earned the honor of AP Scholar with honor. So that's an average score of 3.25 on all exams taken. And qualifying scores are four or more of those exams. and 28 students earned the honor of AP Scholar with distinction, receiving an average score of at least 3.5 on all AP exams taken and scores of three or higher on five or more of these exams. >> Questions, discussion? >> Very comprehensive report. All right. So, with that, that does it for our agenda. >> Any other business from the committee? >> Just a quick note that there's no school Tuesday because

137it's election day. Go vote. >> Not tomorrow. >> Yeah. No, not tomorrow. Like the next one coming. >> Come to school tomorrow. >> Twice tonight. >> All right. >> Come to school tomorrow. >> So, so with that, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Oh, excuse me. >> Um, I I would just like to mention um your press conference today about Methoo and Cares um due to the SNAP funding um being >> going away for until the shutdown. Um and I also wanted to know if that's going to affect our free and reduced lunches um or our free lunches at all um coming up. >> So, yeah, thank you for mentioning that. Um yes uh today we shared that in anticipation of the upcoming uh freezing of SNAP benefits beginning on November 1st uh we are

138undergoing a major effort to in essence conduct uh a citywide food drive to help individuals in need. Um we are collecting donations of food preferably uh non-p perishable food, paper products and the like. Uh the uh eight locations for drop off include uh during regular business hours, city hall, the senior center, the Neans Library, and then we have uh several locations that are open 24/7. We have the Quinn building, the police station, and we have the four fire stations. We have the central fire station. We have uh the uh East Street and uh Swan Street uh fire station. We have the How and Hamstead station. And then we have the Bean Street station over in the West End uh available for uh folks to drop off donations of food. We're going to be holding our

139first distribution of food this coming Saturday. uh we've set aside two initial uh times. What we want to do is we want to see what we get in terms of donations. We don't want to establish, you know, this uh schedule over the course of many days if we can't commit to actually providing a service to the residents. So, we're going to see what we get in terms of donations this week into next week before we publicize additional dates. But uh we will have as a distribution center the Methuan Senior Center uh this Saturday, November 1st, 7:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. And then we have an afternoon/eing date planned for next week, Wednesday, November 5th, from 12 to 8:00 p.m. And uh we have a more defined schedule planned, but again, we want to see what

140we get in terms of donations. This is separate from the backpack program uh within the schools. Um but nevertheless uh you know this is something that we're going to be undertaking as as a community. I have not heard of any impact to the free and reduced lunch program. Uh I have not heard of an impact to wick uh as of yet. However, if we need to uh we will expand our current collection operations to include formula and diapers and the like if it comes to that. Hopefully it doesn't, but we'll keep all options on the table and until the federal government uh the administration in Washington, etc. until they get their act together, we will do what we need to here at home uh to take care of the people of Mthuan. Thank you for

141bringing that up. >> I also want to mention that HIPP benefits are not affected. And so if you leave a dollar on your SNAP card, you're able to go get free vegetables and produce from Farmer Daves and Drake or any other farm stand that um that belongs to HIPP. Um and so those benefits are not affected. So that's at least a little bit of money that people will be able to use. >> And I can answer that. At this point, we are being told it's not being affected. If that changes, I certainly will inform the committee, but at this point, it is not. >> Thank you for reminding me. Uh, any other business from the committee? If not, I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion's from member Daglio. The

142second from the vice chair. We'll take a roll call to adjurnn. >> Actually, I think member Maxwell is gone. >> Is member Maxwell with us? If not, we'll note for the record that she's departed the meeting. And then in that case, because we have all pre members who are present voting, they're here in the room. We could take a roll call on the motion to adjourn. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. The eyes have it. The time is roughly 8:11 and we are adjourned. >> Good night, Mthun.