Methuen School Committee 6/26/2025

001[Music] All right. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Committee workshop business executive sess end of the year session of June 26, 2025 will now come to order. This meeting is being recorded and will be made available for viewing on the Methan public schools website. However, the executive session portion of this meeting will not be recorded. Secretary, will you please call the role? Member Daglio, member Dunovan, member Keegan present. Member Maxwell present. Member Shabilia here. Member Wlette here. Mayor Boragard. We have a quorum four present. May I have a motion and a second to accept the agenda as presented? So moved. Moved by member DOG. Well, sorry by member Shabilia. Second by member Maxwell. Discussion. Um, all in favor? I I opposed. All right, the eyes have it. Um, can we please rise for the flag salute? I

002pledge allegiance 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. Has anyone signed up for public participation? No. Is anyone in the audience like to speak? Okay. All right, at this time we will close public participation. If you cannot make the meeting in person for public participation, you can send an email to Martha so at ma sroyce mthuan.k12.mma us before 3 p.m. on the day of a school committee meeting. May I have a motion and a second to approve the minutes of June 9th, 2025? So moved. Second. Moved by member Shabilia, second by member Maxwell. Discussion. All in favor? I I opposed. The eyes have it. May I have a motion and a second to approve

003the minutes of June 4th, 2025? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Moved by member Shibilia. Second by member Wlette. Discussion. All in favor? I I I opposed. All right. Eyes have it. We're on number three. Do you want to take over? Sure. Apologies for the delay. We will now start the formal adoption of the fiscal year 2026 school budget. We'll begin with professional salaries. We need a motion and a second to adopt 61,845,584. So moved. Second. Motion from member Shabilia, second from the vice chair. Discussion. Member Shabilia. So, I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I got a couple of phone calls on this today um from our friends at the big table, and there seems to be a lot of comment about us not recalling everybody. So, I'm not

004suggesting that we change anything right now. Yeah. But just a public conversation about Yeah, I saw you go hot and heavy for the button. No, no hot. No, we're cool. Everything's cool. Um, yes. I think, and Dr. Quan, correct me if anytime I uh I go off script here, but there are this passes. Colleen gets to do recalls tomorrow. In doing so, she gets to recall all but 12. Seven of them from unit A, three of them from unaffiliated, and two from unit B. I got that. You did. See, I know things. Um, I don't think anybody is particularly thrilled about it, but it's the, in my opinion, the best case forward given our uh, economic position right now as a city. And I know one counselor today told me, just ask for it and

005we will give it to you. It's not it's not ask for it and we will give it to you because then we're putting those people in the same position next year. If the course of the year evolves and some of the conversations at the council table and in the mayor's office become, let's call them, lucrative and the money starts to roll in, that's a conversation, not us, but the next group that sits at this table in March gets to have. But I think what we're doing right now is a fiscally responsible decision. As much as I dislike it, I support it. So, thank you for bringing that up. I think it's been so fastpaced the past several weeks that just to make sure that we are all on the same page and the details here

006are different than what the details would be that we would share out at a city council meeting. But the school committee approved budget, the staffing plan, the budget, the services, all of that remains exactly the same. Right? that this was our path forward and that all of that remains the same. So the four world language teachers at the upper at the grammar schools were reduced. The four positions were reduced eliminated. So let's talk about positions first because that's also what confuses people, right? like we we have positions and then we have people in those positions and the work that went into making sure people even with other licenses filled other spots, right? We tried all of that to reduce the number of actual people layoffs we had in the end, but the four uh world

007language positions were eliminated. A PE teacher at the Marsh and the the uh CGS were eliminated. Four of the the K4 health teachers were eliminated. that was part of the school committee approved budget. There were uh teachers at the high school that were eliminated. Um there were classroom teachers because of enrollment reductions that were in that budget, right? That may not have left to a layoff because of openings, but they were red those positions were reduced. So there are positions in the school committee approved budget. That's the staffing again plan that we have gone with to fill. So nothing changes tonight. Nothing changed with the city council. The only difference that is in the memo that you see from Ian is the understanding that with the additional funds from circuit breaker, we are able to

008reduce the contracted service line, not anything to do with staffing or any other department or supplies. None of that was altered. So we that's where we applied those funds from circuit breaker with the understanding that we still need. Right. So there's twofold that has happened. We've already received the city council's blessing and transfer of 900,000 of free cash for those one-time special education costs for FY25. We've already applied that to this whole budget. We did that before, right? We applied that because that was real money in the city, right? We we removed everything that wasn't actually tangible dollars to us. Um, and we still need and I believe and the mayor can correct me, but I believe I heard it correctly that the the city budget approval process included the approval of the transfer of

009free cash of 1.8 8 million once that is certified at the city so that the mayor and the CAFO don't have to keep going back and forth with the council. They know what's going to happen once it's certified to make sure that we still fill that gap with the non-net money and the additional FY26 onetime cost for special education. So all those things are in place. Did I get all of those things correctly? Okay. So that is the hard part I think for people to understand what what is coming back, what isn't. So the the final layoff number is because of those positions that were eliminated in the school committee approved budget. So some of those folks had different licenses. So we had people who had licenses to go into other open positions. For example,

010we had one of the health teachers that had a reading license that could be going is going into a reading position. Right? So, we did all of those things to minimize the number of final layoffs that we had. So, I hope that I hope people understand that. I will make sure uh that was going to be part of my task today, but it will be part of my task tomorrow at this point. Um that I will make sure uh the staff is expecting to hear from me tomorrow. They know that it was city council first read second read school committee tonight. Um, I will be communicating out with the whole faculty tomorrow to make sure they know everything has gone through. I don't want to be premature, but hopefully everything will go through. Uh, you

011know, Colleen will be in tomorrow to start making those recall phone calls and sign off letters for people to come back. Everybody who's impacted is aware, uh, that the hopefully this all goes through, they'll be getting those phone calls tomorrow. Um, you know, the the unfortunate part is there are people that are going to say no to us tomorrow when they're recalled. I have been on the phone with many staff as have the individual principles. There are folks who have uh, you know, received other job offers and who are just not feeling that they don't want to be in this position again next year. And I have to respect that. As much as we're trying to keep, again, I've had personal phone calls with educators in this district since last Thursday. um you know just

012trying to reassure but I can't guarantee anything in this world right um so we're doing everything we can to make sure we retain those good people in this district um but there are going to be people that are going to make a decision not to stay with us and that might impact then those seven people who are getting who are still laid off you know we're going to start with those seven people and lensure and see if those people would fill positions in the coming weeks so when all is said and done in August you know, we'll have a number of of people uh who are going to leave because they do over the summer. We we have had unfortunately we've had people just relocating to other states. Those are normal levels of attrition for

013us on top of some of this unsettled feeling of where are we going to be next year? And I, you know, again, I've had those personal conversations with staff uh and feeling uh and I said it out loud. I will say it out loud here again on record, but uh the the tone and the momentum to move forward to have these discussions sooner uh with the subcommittee here for finance, the finance committee at the city council, the mayor, myself, like we're all uh aligned. Those stars are aligned to start those conversations. maybe we take a couple weeks of a break, but like to start those conversations probably in August to just get ourselves sort of settled on what the tasks are that need to happen to prepare for FY27. So, and again, that's never happened

014before in this community that I'm aware of. So, I'm I'm hopeful uh that we'll have, you know, a better trajectory and planning time for the budget for next year. Yeah. I mean, that was a lot. I'm sorry, but I hope I answered those questions. did putting myself in the positions of those who received the notice. I don't necessarily blame them. This this community historically has treated them like yo-yos and I certainly wouldn't want to deal with that nonsense. And until we can guarantee that Methun is going to be a stable community and I mean relatively stable, not nobody has ever guaranteed anything. But in hopefully the subcommittee for finance and the cooperation with the city council and the cooperation with the mayor, hopefully that can become a more stable presentation so people feel comfortable and

015confident with Mthuan as an employer. I hope so. And I would, you know, I said I've a couple of the staff I've spoken to have really been um this is where they want to be. So that's great to hear and having those conversations I think has been very fruitful and helpful uh in how I perceive how this is going to work going forward. But also just to hear with staff like am I hanging on? Am I not hanging on? I want to be here. I don't want to say yes to that job offer I got yesterday. You know that's what folks are going through right now. There are school districts that are hiring um you know close enough to us right now and some of them are offering more money, not as much money. It's

016just it it's all variable right now, but I think, you know, we'll know better tomorrow when those phone calls are made. I think a lot of people held on. Um, but again, some of those personal phone calls I think were helpful. Uh, and respectful because I also certainly said to everybody that there was no I was going to respect whatever decision they had to make for their family, you know, but we don't want to lose those good good teachers in this. All that being said, and I know I had emailed you earlier in the week and you had sent me a draft of a document, but and I know today kind of went out the window, so I just wanted to see if we can just confirm for everybody. What does this do for our

017class sizes? So, we Yeah. So, we return the the school committee budget returns the class sizes to below 25 um and 18 to 22 K through2, which was has always been our goal. Um, so it it returned that. So the memo from and yes, I did not get a chance to go through by detail. I assumed given the situations. Yes. Yep. But uh I certainly will do that tomorrow and make sure everybody has that as a final um copy as well. I'm just pulling it up now just to make sure what I just said is accurate. Let's see. Yeah. So, this so the CGS class sizes with the school committee budget. If you're showing us something, it's it's No, I'm not showing you anything only because I'm a little hesitant to show it to you.

018I just want to read it out loud and then I'll send it out and we'll blast that out to everybody once I confirm. Um, but you're, you know, K through two is 21 or below. Uh, grades three through eight, the highest number is 23, lowest 20 for K through eight. Um similarly at the marsh K through two is 19 and 20 1920 uh 3 and 4 is 2024 and then upper school is between 20 and 24 uh 19 to 21 in K through two uh the highest class size at The tenny would be 24.5. So 25 somewhere and 23 somewhere that's the average is 24.5 uh is the highest lowest in the upper school is 21. And then lastly to Tim uh very much the same. So K through two is at 20 21. uh

0193 through 8 is uh between 21 and 25 in grade 8 is going to be the highest. So we landed that was a priority for me and for you all and I think that's where we wanted to maintain class sizes that were not 25 and above. I think that a and again I will confirm all of that and I'll send that out publicly. That is in a memo already posted, but I'll confirm and make sure that that is exactly where we landed because we've done this so many different times. But thank you very much. You're welcome. Vice chair. Um I have two questions. One of them is a little bit twofold. Um my first question is um if we recall, does and they say no, we don't want to come back. Yep. Does that stop

020unemployment? Yes. Okay. on that day. Unemployment stops tomorrow for the people getting recalled. Okay. Um and the money that we're saving in unemployment, are we able to put that somewhere else in the budget? Um and then my other question is there's um you said that we have the 1.8 which was has been we've needed from free cash from April. Like we've known that that's been a a number. But then the city council um was talking about this $320,000 that we were getting. um where is that in the budget being applied? Um what what are we doing with that if because if that's above and beyond the 1.8 and we have the three million from the state that gets us to the school budget. So now we have this extra $320,000 coming from the city. What

021are we doing with it? Not quite. But I'll start and I'll let the mayor take that one. But um so the the money additional reimbursement from the state almost got us to that number. So part of that $320,000 that was going to be earmarked in full before we had this right that was where we were trying to find more dollars. Um I think the mayor's plan how he explained it uh to the city council I believe on the first read night was that that money some of that 320 would go to make the school department even for the number that they requested. Um, and then you had some plans for some other things at the city level for some of those funds as well is my understanding. If I'm wrong, he will correct me, but

022I think that is we filled the gap with that money, but we didn't need all of it now to get to the number that we needed with the reimbursement from the state. Yeah. So, my commitment was to keep all of the resources that were proposed to assist with the situation, broadly speaking, on the table. Um and so we were able to meet the staffing model uh established by the original school committee budget and uh we ended up with those calculations we uh have capacity now for the launch of the new literacy partnership with the library and that's in collaboration with the schools etc. So, um, you know, that that all is kind of in the mix in terms of the general revenue pool that we're able to use to fund the school committee's desired staffing

023model. Okay. I just understood the city council to say that the two the 320 had to be earmarked for the schools. So, that's not the case. I think uh there's there's some debate among the council as to uh whether to do that. I I think ultimately you know that is going into the broader general fund picture which is being used to fund the schools. So um you know to earmark that one way or another the ultimate effect is that it would be in that broader pool that's being used to fund the schools. Okay. And then so the the second question the first question you had about the unemployment um I just want to add the other money that we are holding on to uh is in the budget that was signed by the governor was

024also that $100,000 earmark from Ryan Hamilton. Once that comes you know we have to actually that's not real dollars right now. It's there we don't it's coming but so once those dollars come that would be applied to special education as well. Right. So there's there's that fund hanging out there as well which was approved. Um the unemployment numbers uh and I you know that came from the city uh also moved free cash added to their unemployment so that the school unemployment and the city unemployment is coming out of one pool right now. That unemployment money is not in the school budget. It's with it lives with the city. Um so I think I mean I have my own thoughts about it. I don't know if that's you guys are like, "Oh, intrigued." Uh I don't

025I think at this point we're asking the city for some unprecedented funds out of free cash that they have been uh very willing to give us with that 1.8 and the 900 that uh I I think we need to see where this unemployment falls. That is not funds that I would recommend asking for because we're asking for money that's not part of our planning for next year. that also could set us into a position that would be challenging. But again, we have a finance committee now and so does the city. So those are conversations that can happen through that process moving forward. I think and that's just me saying what I think at this point, right? I just thought if we had this extra money, I wanted to know where it was going. Yeah. It's

026not really here. We don't have it. So it's not ours. It's part of the city. So the city is holding our unemployment and that's where those funds are. So again, we have to kind of see how this falls. You know, how much money the last couple weeks cost us. And there is going to be funds that come out of the last two weeks. Um, but I think that's a that's kind of the some of the conversation that those subcommittees can have with the mayor and myself and moving forward. All right. I don't know if you have any other thoughts on that. No, I think you covered it. Amber Maxwell. Um, just a qu two questions. um the literacy um developing program that we're doing with the library, is that going to be up for discussion

027with at a meeting? So, it's a part of the library's budget. Okay. Separate from the schools. So, it won't be a discussion for us. No. Okay. Well, perhaps I mean, it's a partner, you know, we're talking about we're trying to partner with the Neans, but it's not part of like our budget or programming. We just want to build a partnership with them for the literacy and see where it goes. Yeah. Member Donovan has been spearheading this. Yeah. Member Maxwell, would you like to hear a little bit? I'll give you the Sure. Okay. So, the literacy partnership um has been talked about for over a year. Um it's something that the library has been looking into. I happen to be sitting on the board at the library. We are inspired by something called Havil Promise with

028the focus being why is it the school's responsibility to teach reading? Why is it the library's respons like sole responsibility to promote literacy? It really should be a community effort. We're all responsible to create literate citizens because we know that in communities where your citizens are reading, where they're literate, crime is down, people are healthier, even sustainability is improved. So it's this partnership bringing together people to support literacy in a number of programs. Uh I know there's been some discussion. This is really nothing to do with the schools in the sense that we've asked the schools to be a partner along with other communities agencies like man inc to work together to create opportunities to promote reading at grade level by third grade to promote adults understanding the value and how to read to children.

029So, and the amount that we were lucky enough to get from the city was $30,000. So, it's not a lot of money. Um, I hope that we can have uh Christine Mloud from the library come and give a presentation. This came very suddenly. We knew we weren't going to get the money. We were applying for grants. Um, so we're really excited, but um we're hoping to get a consultant on board who is an expert in community organization and literacy issues. So that's all it is. And if you'd like to be part of it, we welcome everyone. We're very much a work in progress. This was serendipitous how the money came to us. But if you have any questions, feel free. Um, I was inspired last year when I did some research on how to promote

030literacy and tripped upon a group called Habil Promise, which is a grassroots organization that has been extremely successful in bringing up literacy rates. Do you have any other questions? Because I can talk about it all night. Okay. Okay. Yeah, that's all it is. I mean, not all, but that's what it is. It'll be a hope hopefully a multi-year project. Okay. And thanks. And then my second question um is which positions or departments will not be um coming back and does does the 110 million that doesn't include any of the new positions that we wanted. Correct. So it really if if you guys refer back to your budget binders of the budget we voted on that staffing plan is what you where we are. So that like I don't I don't I it's in your that

031book that we voted on is where we are tonight with the staffing plans in the back for each school. I know that I'm not detailing that right now, but um there's a staff that staff grid that says the plus and minus right in each building. Uh I think you have that plus the class sizes plus the actual budget sheets from from the spreadsheet. Okay. I know. I have it in my head. I know. I know it's I know which chart I'm looking at in my head. Yeah. I mean there defin I think this was part of our very strenuous process, right? is trying to figure out how to bring down all the things we wanted versus how do we propose a fiscally responsible budget. Um there are new requests in this budget that you voted

032on on May 21st. The CTE positions are in there. Custodian for Timony Tenny ETFs at the Tenny Tim. You have positions in there that were new requests that you asked you all part of that process asked to be put in there and then see where we are. Right. The reading specialists are all back in there. So, um, if you refer back to that and if you have questions, definitely contact me. But that budget binder that you have in the end that we gave you, um, for the vote on the 21st is the staffing plan that is approved. Member will. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, to my knowledge, the the Haval Promise, they have a strong amount of seed money. Um, that's part of that process. I think a good segue is if we have that

033grant writer focus on that because you're talking about corporate foundational nonprofit charity. I know Hil had a tremendous head start on that. They had an angel. They had an angel. Yeah. Um who gave them but the library this is going to be housed in the library. It's not I think there's a lot of confusion. Happy confusion. This is program housed in the library. Yeah. I mean, it used to be in entailing a municipal chargeback and that was something that was in prior budgets that we we don't have any with with the partnership we had the school system with the Neans Library. Oh, I see. And that was something that was removed from the budget process. So, if you have a little bit of money, it's only $30,000. The grant writer potentially could be working on

034other aspects of it. I I think at least. Thank you. you know, and I I know Haveril had a good amount of seed money and like you said, there was a person that gave Yeah, they had an angel. Yeah. Thank you. It's a great idea. Thank you. Any other comments? If not, we'll take roll call votes for the budget. So, we'll take a roll call vote on adopting uh the professional, excuse me, professional salaries line of uh 61,845,584. Member Daglio. Yes. Member Donovan, yes. Member Keegan, yes. Member Maxwell, no. Member Willlette, yes. Member Shabilia, yes. Mayor Borgod, yes, that passes. Let's bring them back. Passes. Yes. Secretarial salaries. We need a motion and a second to adopt 2,187,188. So moved. Second. Motion from member Shabelia, second from member Daglio. discussion. If not, we'll take a

035roll call vote. Member Daglio, yes. Member Dunovan, yes. Member Keegan, yes. Member Maxwell, no. Member Shabilia, yes. Member Wlette, yes. Mayor Borg, yes. Passes. Next, we need a motion and a second to adopt the number for other salaries. 13,247,278. So moved. Second. Motion from member Daglio, second from uh the vice chair. Discussion. Sorry. Take a roll call vote. Member Daglio. Yes. Member Dunovan? Yes. Member Keegan? Yes. Member Maxwell? No. Member Shabilia? Yes. Member Wlette? Yes. Mayor Boragod? Yes. Passes. Contractual services. We need a motion and a second to adopt number 31,554,952. So moved. Second. Motion from member Shabilia. Second from member Daglio. Discussion. Vote. Member Daglio. Yes. Member Donovan. Yes. Member Keegan. Yes. Member Maxwell. No. Member Shabilia. Yes. Member Wlette. Yes. Mayor Borg. Yes. 61 passes. Supplies and materials. We need a motion and

036a second to adopt 1,638,300. So moved. A second. Second. Second. Yeah. Sorry. The motion from member Shibilia. Second from member Daglio. Discussion. Supplies. Yes. Member Shibelia. Mr. Ian. For supplies. And I know it's everybody's super favorite topic. Mary Beth is uh shaking her head over there because she's got the uh the PTSD from the supply closet. Do we have are we going to be doing a supply order before the end of the year with all of our leftover money? I just ordered about $60,000 worth of copy paper. So, yes, I'm I'm in that process. We don't have that much left, but yes, we're trying anything that we can purchase now to save on next year's budget. I asked custodians to put in um supplies for cleaning over the summer obviously, but as well as stocking

037up on stuff they'll need for September as well. Um knowing that we'll any money we can use now, we don't have to use later. So yes, as well as some technology. We need some projectors replaced, things like that. So we're trying to get those done now as well. Awesome. Thank you. Any other discussion? If not, we'll vote. Member Daglio, yes. Member Dunovan, yes. Member Keegan, yes. Member Maxwell, no. Member Shabilia, yes. Member Wlette, yes. Mayor Borod, yes. 61 passes. Other expenses. We need a motion and a second to adopt $183,950. So moved. Second. Motion for member Daglio. Second from member Shabilia. Discussion question. Member Maxwell. What are other expenses? subscriptions, professional memberships, postage, um, mileage reimbursement, stuff like that. Any other questions? We'll vote. Member Daglio, yes. Member Dunovan, yes. Member Keegan, yes. Member Maxwell,

038no. Member Shabilia, yes. Member Wlette, yes. Mayor Borga, yes. 61 passes for the total operating fiscal year 26 budget. We need a motion and a second to adopt the following number. 110,657,252. So moved. Second. Motion from member Daglio, second from member Shabilia. Discussion. Member Daglio. Um, I just want to say, um, as I said last year when we were in this, um, situation, I I'm happy that finally the finance committee will be established uh, for this, but we did I I honestly we we got lucky from the state. Um, and this is where I'm concerned about in the future because, you know, that parachute might not come next year. So, I'm excited to hear about the finance committee. Um, and I hopefully we're not in this situation next year. That's all. Any other discussion? Member

039Maxwell? I know there's a lot of questions around why I vote no on the budget and I just want to clarify that I just I think that we could use more money. I think that we could use more positions. Um, and I just it's the only reason why I can't support the budget. So that's where my no comes from. I know I get a ton of questions. That's the only reason why. Member will I've said it for the last two years. There has to be a better realignment of the millionaires tax dedicated to education and away from the tea. I think the mayor highlighted that parking facility in Quinsey was still approved. I think I saw a lot of pork barrel projects that have nothing to do with education. Um I know Max Page at

040the MTA. I know he's dedicated his forces when you have a millionaire's tax to us. We were sold that that was going to be dedicated to education and I think there was a misalignment to the tea and if you have an uneducated workforce I don't care if the trains are on time or not. It's a disservice to the communities. So I know next year is an election year. I am grateful to the legislative delegation for advocating. Um, I want to give a special shout out to Senator Pyeno, uh, Representative Hamilton with his amendment, and I think the mayor is on the same page, is that you can respectfully advocate, marshall your resources, and make sure the alignment is dedicated to education and not to freebies, not to pork barrel projects, but to education locally. because

041what is the sense if we're not going to have reading specialists, if we're not going to have things that are recommended by the state, um all those additional positions that we could be doing, um I think is totally unfair and it's going to be reflected eventually in our test scores. Um again, the whole p the whole purpose of having a gateway community is that you have additional resources from the state. the millionaires tax barely passed and it should not be dedicated to other purposes but local education and there's got to be a better balance. So I've said that for the last two years and again uh next year is an election year and I will continue to advocate for that. Thank you. Any other discussion? If not, we'll vote. Member Daglio. Yes. Member Dunovan. Yes.

042Member Keegan, yes. Member Maxwell, no. Member Shabilia, yes. Member Wlette, yes. Mayor Boragod, yes. 61 passes. All right, we have a budget. Uh, we need a motion and a second now to approve the increase of MHS student activity checking account balance from $50,000 to $75,000. So moved. Motion from member Shabilia, second from member Daglio. Discussion. Can I just give you a little background on it real quick? Yes. Um, school committee sets the maximum within the checking account. So, money gets deposited into the savings account and as they spend it, it gets replenished. They're only allowed to have so much in that checking account just to make sure that it's not misspent, etc. We don't want them to have access to that kind of money in the checking account. Um, we ran into an issue a

043little bit last year, but a lot more this year with the high school. I mean, proms are over $30,000 to cut to to pay. Like, at the end of the year, senior activities, um, with only $50,000 in the checking account, I believe there was one week I had asked for three different transfers from city hall. Um, it was just and it it holds up paying vendors. It holds up. So, I don't want to I don't want to miss a prom payment because we're short $1,000. And so I'm hoping that you can at least bump the maximum only of the high school. Grammar schools are fine um from 50 to 75 um specifically for those end of the year um situations. Thank you. Any questions, discussion? If not, now that we're done with the budget, we'll

044return to voice votes. All those in favor? I opposed. The eyes have it. Thank you. Yep. Uh, superintendent, I'll invite you to begin the update on the strategy plan for fourth quarter. Okay. So, this is our quarter 4 update. So, we have lots of information in here for you. Uh, I will turn it over to Dr. Gowski to go through all of it. We have endofear data for reading. We have endofear data for our mental health initiatives. Um, and a whole bunch in here as you can see, but we'll go through it all. uh stop at each objective to answer questions for everybody. Um I know uh Dr. Glosski is passing out some additional grids. Uh I did there was a question I think from member Maxwell about wanting these grids because these grids were

045used last year um so that we were consistent. These grids were used for our S SOA plan when we presented that to you that we really divided up um to focus on our students with disabilities and L students. Um but she's providing some of that information for you today. Um I did instruct uh Dr. Golovski, I just I want to make myself very clear uh to actually use screenshots from the software so that the conversation about us having inaccurate data or false data is uh not doesn't need to come up tonight. Um so it does look a little different, but we thought it was important that you actually see the screenshots from Dreambox or Dibbles. so you know what we're actually looking at for bars and percentages. And then Dr. Globsky put sort of underneath

046all those what it means by group. So I just want to make that that was my so if it looks different it's because uh I asked her to do it that way for clarity and also uh we added some things that along the way some of you all have kind of wanted us to see a little more uh prevalent in the when we're sharing out um most importantly I think the last two times it was the the disagregation of um the L students students with disabilities and then all other so that far right uh underneath our grids at this point. Again, Dr. Lapsy will go through that. Of the students who are not identified in any of those subgroups, what does that group look like? Um so, she'll go through all those. So, without further

047ado, Dr. Gabski, it's all you. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Um and before I begin, I'll say that John Crocker is here as well. There are some elements um of the quarterly, so that directly relate to his work. So if you have questions, feel free to call him up as well. So we've been very busy with objective one this year, um accelerating literacy development and language acquisition across all subject areas. So you'll see um a yellow check mark in each of our key actions, not to say that it's done, um but to say that there's been movement made in each of those areas. And I'll I'll speak through some of those in these slides. So at the onset of our plan, we had established uh a baseline and then incremental targets for 25, 26,

048and 27. For objective one, we had talked about looking at MCCAST ELA mean student growth percentiles and MCCAST ELA average composite scaled scores. those scores are not yet available to us um to measure against this um like the access targets for our English learner students. Um however, with the access targets, we do have some data that's available to us at the district level. So, we were able to come up with um numbers that we think are fairly accurate and will be compared to what Desi will share with us in August. So, we'll speak on those. Um, and then we do have some endofear benchmark scores for both Dibbles and Reading Plus Dreambox. So, just to remind you of the highlights, things that we've talked about over the course of this year in terms of key

049actions for objective one. Um, and to point out that tonight we're going to focus on those literacy benchmark scores, the access scores, um, and some EL progress monitoring data. Um, as you know, objective one talks about language acquisition as well as accelerating literacy development. So, here's a screenshot that hopefully isn't too busy for you. Um, but it's comparing the beginning of the year benchmark to the end of the year benchmark K through three. And this is dibbles. And the color coding indicates what how we've been referring to students as on grade level or on benchmark above or below. So the red range is called the intensive support range. So those are students who have been found through benchmarking to need direct support in order to meet instructional goals. So there are likely multiple components of

050reading of which the students would need support in. The yellow is known as some risk or strategic support. So the student may have one or two areas of reading where they may need some extra support. Green would be what we would call on benchmark or on level for being on track to success. So with general tier one instruction that they're receiving in the classroom, um they are on grade level and then the blue is negligible risk, meaning that these students are above or beyond where we would expect them to be at grade level. So you can see the progression from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. And this is the same information in a different view K through three. So the first column points out the percentage of all students

051in that grade level at or above grade level. So that would be the um green or blue areas on the the charts. The second column is the percentage of English learner students at or above grade level. The third students with disabilities and the fourth column are students who are not identified as students with disabilities or English learners at or above grade level. The green circles there indicate that those are areas where we would be above where we had hoped to have been for this year which um was the 70% mark. And in grade four, we switch over to Dreambox, otherwise known as Reading Plus. This is called the Insight Assessment. So the screenshot on the top of these slides is new. And you'll see across the rows there's benchmark one, two, and three. And the

052average proficiency rating is arrived at um through looking at the average comprehension, average vocabulary and average reading rate for the student. So I highlighted that benchmark three row and then the numbers that represent each of those categories. And then be below that is the grade out. Um you'll see in the first column plus 1.6 six and that speaks to the growth that students in that grade demonstrated throughout the year. So when we're looking at the average proficiency in benchmark three for grade four, it says 4.0 and four indicates year four or fourth grade zero would be zero month. So on average students in grade four read at a fourth grade level and below that that group was shown to increase in their proficiency 1.6 years over the course of the year. So we would expect

053to see one because it would you know be a year per se of growth but 1.6 exceeds that. So we're pleased about that. I did want to point out the reading rate is a little hard to understand. Um, it's independent reading. So, we're reading we're rating the independent fluency of students reading, which is hard to do. I actually called Dreambox and spent some time talking with them because I noticed that the uh reading rates were erratic in terms of students from the three benchmarks that they took. uh and they agreed that some of them that I pointed out as examples didn't seem to fit the trend. Um and several students had a reading rate of zero, which would indicate that they either couldn't access the assessment, which means they read below um kindergarten level, which

054is likely not the case in many of the circumstances, and compared to the other benchmark scores that corroborated that. Um, and so Dreambox suggested that we look strongly at the comprehension column. Um, because vocabulary scores tend to be higher, but comprehension is really where the leverage point is for students in grades four and up. So, I just wanted to point that out to you. Um, on the right hand side, you see the color charts. Um, I think that's nice to show the growth throughout the year. And in the bottom row, um, we have the all students above grade level, the the English learner, students above grade level, students with disabilities, and non-English learner and non- students with disabilities. I did include on the bottom the number of students in each of those categories that were

055found to have a reading rate of zero. um predominantly because when we get up to grade seven, you'll see that very few if any students had a reading rate of zero and those scores were significantly higher. So I do feel as though the reading rate is is kind of a trouble area in terms of of rating the proficiency and I just wanted to point that out. So there is grade four and five. Both are um grade levels which we watch intently um because grade four would have been in kindergarten um during the pandemic years and the grade five students would have been kindergarten first grade. So that's where we're seeing the dip across the Commonwealth and really the nation. So grade five the average proficiency is grade five average comprehension is a grade is grade

056five second month vocabulary grade seven first month and here's the grade six. So the comprehension um in vocabulary and proficiency um are at or above. You can see there's there's ample growth there. In grade seven was particularly strong. So the average student or the average proficiency rating in grade seven was grade eight reading level um with the average comprehension as being eighth grade third month vocabulary 9th grade ninth month. And you'll see that that's a situation where only nine of the students had a reading rate of zero and grade eight. So the average comprehension for a grade eight e 8 e 8 e 8 e 8 e 8 e 8 e 8 e 8 e 8 e 8 eighth grade second month vocabulary is 10th grade and that's the average average proficiency overall 7.8 indicating

057that the reading rate is bringing that score down. Okay, I'm about to transition into language testing for English learners. So, if you'd like me to pause here or do you prefer I continue through the objective, mayor. Okay, we're on a good cadence. Okay, so for our multilingual learners, um identified as English learners every year, um they're to take the access test similar to MCCAST and that it's a yearly standardized test, um but it happens early in the year, so January or February. Um so often when students leave for the summer their proficiency is further than the scores show because the test is so early in the year but that's just the cadence at which it's given. So all students coded as English learners whether they opt out of services or not are asked to take

058the access test. Um and it measures English proficiency in the domains of listening, speaking, reading and writing. Also, these students are given progress targets for the following year. So, those progress targets are important. That's actually one of our accountability ratings is the number of students that meet their target year to year in the access test. And that the um progress target is one of those um in some ways mystery algorithms as to how it's um produced, but it has to do with the students previous access score, the number of years they've been identified as an English learner, the number of years they have left in the program before they graduate high school, and finally reclassification. So once one of our English learners hits a certain threshold for their composite literacy score and their overall score,

059they um formally exit um English learner status and become known as a former English learner. And so that means that they no longer need to take access. They no longer are enrolled in our EL or extra support um opportunities, but we do monitor those students for four years to make sure they're progressing as expected. So here are some um data on MPS students who have met or exceeded their progress targets. So in the top left you'll see from 2023 that's the DESIE certified data for the percentage of students at each school that have met those targets not exited the program necessarily but met the targets identified by DESIE and the same for 24. 25 is our rough data that hasn't been officially released, but this is the data that we're allowed to use um when

060making instructional decisions for students. And so we wanted to include that here for you. So these were the students that met or exceeded their progress target. You'll notice that Mthuan High School has a significantly lower number and that's for two reasons. So um the ultimate goal of the whole program is to exit um English learner status. So when we have newcomer students arrive at say grade 10 or 11, there's a short amount of time that they have in order to exit the status and reach proficiency. So their targets are much larger or are bigger than in the grammar schools. Also um in Mthuan High School, we have a significant number of um LELS or u English learners who have been identified as such for more than six years. So theoretically a student should be in

061the program six years or fewer and then exit. Um we do receive a number of students at the high school from the grammar school who have been in the program for a number of years. Um when you look back to their history you see that they were very close to exiting sometimes three or four years prior. Um the access test is redundant. Um it differs very little from year to year. um and kids that have taken it a number of times sometimes find it difficult I think to demonstrate their true proficiency there. So between the els and then the students who are new coming to methan high school it's difficult um to help students reach their targets. We're going to continue to work on that. Um, and then on the bottom right, that's a little

062bit more of uh zoomed in information on the 2025 access, the percentage of students who met her exceeded. You can see the number of students um that we're looking at there. And that does not encompass all of our English learner students. And that's because in order to have a target, they had to have taken the access score previously. So, our newcomers who are just arriving um to the United States would not be included in those target counts. Here's a slide on the number of students reclassified as former English learners, otherwise known as FELS. So, the CGS, as you know, houses the Excel program for newcomer students in the grammar schools. Um so we would expect to see um potentially fewer because students are starting at level one. Um but a number of students do stay

063in the in the school and so they have a significant population of English learners and they do a nice job there. The Marsh as well they have they have the fewest English learners in the district but 29 fells. The Tenny with 41 um consistent from last year. The Timn had 54 feld students this year, which is significant. So that's 54 students fewer who will need English learner services next year um and have shown proficiency. And then Mthuan High School with 25 um for the reasons that I spoke about before. So while the access test happens in January, February, um it doesn't give us real- time data. So we started doing um progress monitoring last year and continued with it this year. And we focused on writing because that's the the domain that students predominantly struggle

064with the most of the four. So they do the um beginning, middle, and end of the year uh benchmarking, and that's what these numbers show. And so we use released um prompts from WEDA and the WEDA model tool and then teachers use the um proficiency level descriptors rubric from WEDA and we have PD to calibrate the scoring and that's guided by the supervisors. And so the rubrics evaluate the complexity of English proficiency at the word, sentence and discourse level. And so what you're looking at here is the number of students percentage of students who made more one or more level of proficiency growth just in writing over the course of the year. And so the gains showed um in that blue chart the right hand column uh high percentage significantly higher percentages of students made

065gains this year than last. And that concludes the objective one. Be happy to answer any questions. Any questions? Maxwell. Okay. So, I have a few questions and I don't know. I I thought maybe we'd stop page by page, but I was wrong. So, I'm just going to try and gather all of them. Um, as far as the dibbles benchmarking, um, so when you turn to the dibbles benchmarking, I just want to point out that like red is well below grade level, yellow is below grade level, green is at goal, and blue is above goal. Um, I guess my first question there is the third grade is making the least amount of progress. They're actually regressing. And um why are the dibbles results for the kids that don't do well on Dreambox not included in this

066report? Um as far as the third grade, I mean third grade, there were four kids below grade level than what started. There were four grades below um the yellow goal. There were four kids below that. So, I guess my question is, um, we're not making much progress just based off of this Dibbles report here. Um, the second page is the Dibbles benchmarking at the end of the year. Um, 77% is what's reported of 402 um, at grade level or above grade level. That leaves 24% of our kindergarten students who are not at or above grade level. and somehow that's up from 49% from last year. Um, that's a huge jump. So, I'm concerned that 30% of students have made that much progress or or or if we even go to grade one because that was

067last year's kindergarten. We're at 71% 30 aren't reading at grade level and that's up from 48%. So, again, we made a 30% um jump. again, third grade has decreased. Um, I don't know if you're keeping track of my questions because I can just keep going and then um um yeah, so I think you have concerns about K and one because they made significant gains in three and four because in some areas you don't perceive those as being gains. Is that right? I mean, yeah, just on the benchmark, the dibbles benchmarking beginning and end of the year comparison with the red, yellow, green, and blue, you're, you know, the difference between the red is 184 negative students. Um, negative 55 students in the yellow, positive 68 students in the green, and 205 students in um the

068blue. So, if you if you add all of them together, 29.8% 8% are not reading at grade level. Um 311 are at below goal, 440 are at goal, and 25% are above the goal. Um at the end of the year, it was 18% are well below grade level, 14% are below go grade level, 29% are above um are at goal, and 36% are above goal. Um I guess my main question here is yes I do think that and I stand by that I think that these results are inaccurate just because they don't present um even the even the scores that you gave us that is comparison to last year you know um I'm not even going to touch that yet but this could you mind if I ask what you think is leading to the

069inaccuracies? Yes. So when you present to us one year that 51% of an entire school is not at grade level and a year later we're still at the same level and you're retesting students. No. Yes. You've already said that you I don't Okay. I'm sorry. I'm having trouble following what school you're talking about, what grade you're talking about, and what where we're headed. Can you just be a little bit clearer? Um, yeah. So, on March 24th last year, we were told that the Timn school specifically was 51% not reading at or above grade level. The entire school cumulatively. I presented the entire school cumulatively. Nope. We added it up and asked questions. And if you'd like me to quote what the questions were, just trying to get to the question that you're asking right now.

070So my my question is is these these benchmark scores that you're sharing with us aren't accurate numbers because we are retesting students and if we retest students then that doesn't give us a true picture of where they're at regardless of the reason on why we're retesting them. the first score that they get should be that accurate score that we're testing because whether you agree with it or not and your personal opinion doesn't matter when it comes down to whether they're performing well or not. So, I'm going to say it's not my personal opinion, it's my professional opinion. Sure. And if a student has a zero, for instance, on a reading rate, which indicates that they're reading below kindergarten grade level, but in the benchmark before, we have evidence that they're reading at sixth grade level.

071I would argue if I kept the zero, that would be false data. It's misrepresenting the student's ability. So in those situations where we're we suspect based on data that the student isn't being accurately measured which in essence tells us nothing about how to better serve their needs as a student that it's in the best interest to retest them and deem Dreambox concurred with that. Um what I'm especially proud about in the Dibbles benchmarking data is the K and one. If you look at the the green and blue um columns, we ended the year in kindergarten with 183 students reading above grade level, which is tremendous. Um, and the same with at with one 170 students. The blue bars are are growing and the green are as well, which is the goal because then we're overtaking

072um those areas of red where students may need extra support in multiple categories. We are aware of the three, four, and five dip, which is consistent with what we're seeing across the district. We're really excited about the um CKLA program that we're bringing on for next year. In grades three and four of CKLA, that skills component is woven into the program along with the knowledge base. So, we'll be having that continual phonics support and instruction and also writing. So, I think it's going to be really robust and help us move those grade levels that I agree feel stagnant in three, four, and five. So, I'm really excited about that. But I I would have to say that the growth in K and one is is very encouraging. So I mean I guess my concern isn't

073that you know the growth in K and one is is progressing. I mean yes you said 183 students are at or above grade level which leaves 96 that aren't. So um I mean that's that's one thing. Okay. So let's get past this. Dibbles now goes up to grade eight. So, for consistency purposes, I'm not sure why we're not going from K to 8 in our progress monitoring tool. The other thing is is I know that I have personally I have two kids who don't do well on the Dreambox assessment. It gives um a description on the instructional support that the program thinks their child re, you know, needs and that's not followed within the school. So, I guess I'm confused at what we're really using these tests for if we're not going to um one

074inform parents of their results and two um use the instructional recommendations that the app is asking us to use. Okay. Um so the measures are used in different ways. Many of the students uh teachers use this evidence in terms of their educator plan and what they're focusing on throughout the year. So in talking about when or reading success blocks, a lot of this data helps to inform those groupings and actually what's happening in those groupings. Um it also can inform the small groupings that are happening within the classroom. So there are instructional adjustments happening even between trimesters. I meet with the supervisors regularly and we'll talk about different strategies as to how to incorporate reading specialists, the best way to use scaffolded instruction, when it's appropriate, when not, cycling students in and out of working

075with the reading specialist to moving with other groups. So, the data is used regularly. Um, and it also helps us make decisions in terms of how we're charting our course. And this is one data point. So we do also look at MCCAST when it's available for the grade levels walkthroughs. There's common assessments in the upper school apart from these benchmarks which we want to lean more heavily into next year. Um and calibrate some of those writing practices as well. Um but it does inform instruction. Okay. I think I I'm just concerned like you know I I've been accused of saying that you know these these scores are false or fabricated. I've never used those words. I've I've always used the words inaccurate and I stand by that. I do feel like, you know, if we

076go further into grade four, for instance, where your benchmark three is, the average comprehension at the end of the year was 4.1, which means kids are behind in reading because at the end of the year, they're no longer fourth graders. They're fifth graders. No, they're 4.9. Okay. So, they are behind because we're rating them at 4.1. Yes. But um if you look at the gains that were made over the course of the year, we're exceeding a year's worth of growth. So we're happy that we're we can eclipse that um and actually get on grade level with those students. So there's there's also students you'll see here um that there are students in the the um dibbles. The red means that there's a couple at least two areas where they need additional support. So, it's really

077important. Um, member Dunovan talked about like the K3 and the early literacy getting students on track early, which is why I'm encouraged by K and one. Um, but we do have a number of students who join us who haven't been with the district for very long. Um, so in the past I've pulled that apart and looked at students who have been with us for three plus years, five plus years, students that we've recently um, welcomed to Mthuan. Um, and whether they're coming from another Massachusetts school, a school from another state, or outside the country does come into play. um we find that students that have been with us for a while um we've seen measurable gains and so we're confident in our systems that way. I'd be happy to pull out some of that um

078for next year going forward to share as well. Yeah, I mean I'm just concerned that you know these results aren't really matching up with the state results. Um, and you know, as far as like whether they're reading at grade level or not at grade level, um, I mean, we've heard we've heard from 13 teachers over the last few weeks during budget, you know, and and you know, of course, now that budget's over, I guess we're not actively listening to them anymore because they're actually telling us that our kids aren't reading at grade level. They're actually saying the words. Yeah. And and I think we've indicated that here. Not everybody is where because I pointed out when I showed you below grade level and you pointed it out as well and you got that from the

079data I shared with you that there are students who we who we still need to work with and help. I think there are significantly more students behind grade level than are in these numbers is what I'm saying and that's where the inaccuracy comes from because I've seen numbers myself. I've seen reports myself. I've asked teachers. I've heard from teachers. I know I don't I I don't know on on the um the access portion of it. Um I don't know how to read any of this. I'm totally ignorant when it comes to access and I I truly apologize for that. I don't I don't know how to read that. I do know that on Desi's accountability report, Mthun received zero out of four points in elementary and high school for English language proficiency um in 2024

080and in 2023. in 2003 they did get a three out of four for elementary um and a zero out of four in high school. So I just don't want it to present as we are in fact making significant progress when we are not making progress um in the eyes of the state. We are only making progress in the eyes of Mthuan. um we don't have the ELA proficiency rate that you know is is being portrayed and and that's the only that's the only thing I want to say about the inaccuracies. I just want to make it very clear that we are not our kids are not reading at 65% proficiency rate across the district or whatever the numbers are. I want it to be very clear that these numbers when you add them all up

081and you do the math and you look at the and you look into it does not show that we're proficient in reading. So last year in 2024 across the state fourth graders had a 40% um rate of reading at or above grade level. That's the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Not so MCCAST is more than reading. Yeah. It's all the ELA standards. Yeah. Or math or science depending on what you're taking. So, I would if I if I may uh just make a comment and then I I I don't think it's within my perview, but I'll ask the chair. Um I think uh you know part of what we're presenting member Maxwell is what what we are assessing and our assessments. We have been very accurate and reporting appropriately and the constant uh you know comments about

082us not reporting accurately. Uh I I just I that is not uh I just hope that people look into their own things. I hope that parents are getting the reports from their dibbles and their um benchmark assessments which they are not. So I hope that after this meeting it's public knowledge. People can request them. They can ask ask Miss Gabsky for them. Um but every student should be going home when those benchmarks assessments are taken so that their parents can see their results of those benchmark assessments. We don't disagree with you. That is something that should be in progress reports and we will if that's not happening across the board, we will address that. Okay, that is there's nothing that we are hiding. There's nothing that we are falsifying. there's nothing that we are reporting

083inaccurately and I just the constant um you know reflection that we are we're reporting different things and different assessments and different information based on what we're getting back from you know yes this has grown but I think the conversations and the requests from the committee have made it so that we want to disagregate the data and go a little deeper. Our entire student opportunity act plan is based on we clearly need to focus, we've said this, this is no surprise, shouldn't be any surprise here on our students with disabilities and our English learners and we're doing what we can and understand that the budget that we just passed doesn't grow that service delivery. In fact, we reduced supervisors to help us enforce and implement these things at this point. So, it's going to be challenging,

084but we're going to continue to move forward and progress. So, I just I take I just I just need to make a statement. I I I have sat here and listened to it on so many different occasions that we are uh inaccurately presenting data. And we are not inaccurately presenting data. I just think the data that you were speaking of, we're comparing apples to oranges uh as we're going through different assessments. The dibbles is different than dreambox, which is different than MCCAST. We have to have some internal assessments assessments. I'm going off of your assessments, Dibbles, and then benchmark and then MCCAST separately. I'm not going off of all of them combined. You present them differently and I review them. Let's let the superintendent finish. Yeah. I I I think I'm I'm all set. I

085just need to say like I think we are the amount of time and energy that we are putting into reporting these things out that we can say where we're making progress and where we can say we need to focus. Nobody is saying our kids are reading at 100%. Right? The reading specialists that came up here are the specialists that are working with the kids in the red and the yellow. So that makes perfect sense to us. Right? They're working with the kids that need that. I'm glad that is where we are right now and those positions are back in our budget as of today. So I think that part of our problem right now in this conversation is the definition of progress. Can you tell me any district anywhere that is reading at 100%. None.

086Right. No, I don't think anyone expects that to be the way. We all hope, but it's not real. Um, I I guess I I have some questions to help maybe clarify what member Maxwell is saying. Um, and I mean I also have some questions for you as regarding kind of what we should be anticipating because I am not a reading expert. So I look, I Google, I read what member Donovan sends me from her teacher blogs. Like that's that's kind of where I'm coming at it from. I think looking at this and knowing what I saw even before I sat at this table sitting at home on the couch watching these meetings, I don't think that it's disputable that there has been improvements made. We have made jumps in reading. Are we are we perfect?

087No. And where I mean we still got a long way to go even even to hit 80% I think like I guess my first question is what's the the target point? I know it's 100%. Yes, I get it. No kid left behind, all of that. But what's the target? Do you know what I mean? Like how I don't know how better to ask it. If you looked at a district and said they're they have reading on grade level at 87%, that's perfect right there. That's that's great. Is there a number? No, I don't think there's a target like that that we would hit. I would say to you uh starting to look at slide six here is something that is which one one of our challenges at sorry slide six which one what does it

088have on it oh I'm sorry it says dibbles benchmarking end of year just as a sample um I think one of the things that has been very helpful to us and uh I would like to dive more into this um level of disagregating the data with also some other dis like districts because that's where we're going to get into some comparable like what if if I'm looking at a ravine or Malden Taton and their students with disabilities or L numbers look different than ours that's where I want to start asking questions saying what are you guys doing are you doing something different programming right because if you look in the right hand column our students who are not receiving any specialized instruction right so there's a students with disabilities are English learners identified are receiving

089special reading instruction somewhere. And I shouldn't say that entirely because our students with disabilities are not necessarily only receiving reading services. So that was I shouldn't have said that quite so blanketly, right? But if I start looking at these numbers here on the far right hand column, those are students who are receiving reading services making gains with the instruction from teacher program student work and back right cyclical. So I'm looking at that and and as Dr. Gopy said, I know this and unfortunately the state used to provide us with some of that information. Now we have to hand do it where they say the cohort. How did the cohort of students do that you had in Methuan forever do versus just a class at a time including students that churn rate those hund 800 kids

090that are coming in and out of our district. Right? So there is something to be said when you're talking about curriculum and the work and the instruction that's happening in the classroom and who's accessing that and is it working that right-hand column is very important to us right then to disagregate that now we go to the middle two columns and say what are we doing differently with the special ed services and the English language services for pull out or push in what model is working that that's the level of conversation we're at I think there's no target number. You want it to be high, right? You want everything to be higher. But there's also you could disagregate both of those middle columns even more because there's six levels of English learners from level one to

091level six that are encapsulated in that column. And there are all kinds of levels of disabilities with students with disabilities. Some are in subs separate, some are not. Some are accessing the reading, some are not. Right? So at different levels, some are receiving specialized reading services, some are not. So, so we need to go deeper into those two middle columns even to figure out is it a push-in model, is it our collusion model, is it our right for for me. So I think uh and these are the conversations that we have and that when we go to those meetings with the urban superintendent network with our colleagues, that's the level of conversation we're having. We're all dealing with very similar populations and challenges and the state actually comes in and I think we've shared it

092was probably with the SOA slides we shared with you all that the state Rob Cirten at the state comes into the urban superintendent network and shares with us urban super urban I say superintendent that's what it's called but urban districts the gateway cities MCCAST data so we have just a screenshot of apples to apples Right. And so that gets our like the conversations we have amongst that group of schools is very different than I would have with different suburbs or different schools, right? Trying to work through some of this because they're not going to have those middle two columns as large. It's not going to make up the same number of students in those two middle columns as it will in a gateway city. So, that was a really long response, but it's very, this

093is like the stuff that gets us excited when we're with our colleagues in like districts because these are the conversations we're having. Like, have you found something that works with middle school English language learners that are new to the country? What are you doing? What are you doing? We've had some of our supervisors presenting at DESIE for some of the things we're doing and vice versa, right? We're taking right anything that we can get in information to change that instructional practice. Right. So, I'm very excited and passionate about it as you can tell. Just like Miss Donovan, I could talk about this stuff all night because there's so much work to go into and dive deeper every single time to figure out what we can do best for our kids. So, I want to bring

094it back a second. So, we talked about I I made a comment about definition of progress. I think it's undeniable that we are making progress, but I think what gets lost is this is averages. It's percentages. And when you talk about 400 and you know 500 kids and you say 70% that 30% is a big number of people and I think the that that segment of the population, it it stands out and I know I've said it myself, teachers have set up and said it, member Maxwell has said it. when we like I know personally when I say and I I think I said it sitting in city hall our children are having trouble reading our kids can't read that that's not a blanket statement although it sounds as such to say our city is

095not reading our kids can't read it's that 30% is falling behind the goal is 100 progress is always going to be measured to a 100 but to see that we're up to 82% in our our nonL nonsp specialcial needs at grade level for prek or not prek uh k is is amazing and hopefully that continues to increase. I guess what I'd be really like to see is in in dibbles and you just made a comment about it like how many of those kids in let's say grade one were with us in K right how much of that I could disagregate that again right I know and it's it's it's being able to see that separation and this data can be spliced 955 million different ways and being able to see that but what the people

096are going to see and I know member Maxwell and I have had the conversation a million times. It's but it's it's that 30% of kids that aren't. And whether you think it's 30 or you think it's 90, like it's it's that's the population that's going to be focused on. Um my my my question and maybe member Ax Maxwell has an answer like she you've mentioned a few times the retesting when a student is retested. If they are retested for any reason, whether they got a zero or they fell asleep on the desk, whatever it may be, is it the same test or does the system modify it or is like same system? It's an adaptive test. So, it changes. They're not getting the same questions. Correct. So, they're not writing answers on their hand. No.

097Right. Whether they So, whatever score they get is still their score. Mhm. So if I go in and do half effort and then you're like, "No, you can do better. Do it again." And I go, "All right, damn. I'll go back and do it." And I do better. Does, you know, how I guess my question is, how does retesting change the conversation unless there's some accusation or enabling of foul play? I guess that's my concern. So I guess I can I can answer just my portion of that. So, personally, I'm only going to speak to my kids now because everything else is in question. Personally, my kids, their first test result came back, or I'll I'll talk about one of my kids came back that the result was two grades below grade level. So, we

098wanted to retest that because I'm not sure why, but we wanted to retest that because we didn't think that that was a true reflection of the how they could perform. Fine. The second test that was given, now I have both scores side by side. The second test that was given was given in 128 minutes where the first test was like 40 minutes. But because it wasund whatever minutes, that's the test score that was that was accepted. That was the test score where they scored at the grade level just under the grade level that they are at. So my I guess I guess my question is how long are these tests supposed to take? because I don't feel like kids should be taking that for me is is a is a measuring difference where it's not

099uh a question of retesting but it's a question of communication and that's something that maybe should have been I I'm sure you're not the only parent that's been in that position that should have been explained to a parent we retested has never shown to the parent so nobody knows they're retested but even if retested so there isn't I'll just clarify and then um I think member Donovan might want to say something there's not the average student takes between 40 and 60 minutes. Um it's not necessarily a timed test. The time that they take to respond and the time that the test is open is reflected in that individual reading rate. So, I've seen kids who are very strong readers score not quite as high as I thought because they were doing a super thorough job

100and rereading and taking their time and entering and the program thought that they were slower in the rate and so it interrupted that way. So, I've also seen when I scan through the data some students who allegedly took 18 hours to complete it because they left the program open and then went in the next day and hit submit. So, there's all kind of texting variability in there that's on the teacher to see. Oh, you took that in four minutes. Not quite. Try again. Uh I I don't see a ton of I I think I will say at this table, uh myself, superintendent included, that this benchmark testing probably means the most to us than it does. The kids are not as concerned with the scores and many of the teachers are are doing what is

101asked and assign the test and move on with their instruction. So, I I don't think that there's um anything deliberately being done to to mess with scores. Um but I don't I don't know. That's my my take. Donovan, I'm just wonder are we getting excuse me stuck on the word test? Because I'm looking at the dibbles like I never called them tests. It was more of an assessment like when I'm I'm trying to think like I'm trying to make an analogy like when you go to the doctors to get your cholesterol checked, you know, it's or whatever. Yeah. Like how to treat your score. So I think I don't know. I'm wondering if that's why some of us gets you think of a test like you take it once like the MCCAST. You'd never give

102the MCCAST twice unless the building across the street burnt down one day which happened in Mars. But that's another story. But do you know what I mean? Like, is that where where we're all getting tripped up? Because I'm looking at the dibbles and the other reading information we have as more of a way to look at how can we support the students where they are now with those scores because you think test, you think, oh, this is really like it has to be rigid. It, you know, um you don't take it over twice. But I know if I go to the doctor and I have my cholesterol is through the roof be or something like that, I would want another test to make sure it's right. I said test. See, I said test, right? It's

103hard. But I don't know. I think that's where I get stuck a lot thinking it's very different than a test test. But I think we're also getting stuck on the fact that yeah, we've been having a lot of conversation about supporting the students because that's part of our improvement. But with that blue bar growing, we have a lot of students reading above grade level and what is that going to look like? Because that's going to be very different moving forward as well, right? They need different enrichment and challenges than the students in the red and the yellow, right? So there's that. There's two there's this this seessaw of a conversation that we really are trying to focus on with reading success and what kids need because the kids in blue and green don't need all

104that extra support. They're getting what they need to get from their classroom instruction on a daily basis and whatever they're getting at home for support. So, uh that's we don't want to lose sight of that conversation too that we don't want to keep our kids challenging and pushing forward. May I ask a followup to what you just said? Sure. You mind if I jump in because it's fresh in my brain? Oh, okay. Okay. So, you talk about those students who are above above grade level, which is awesome and I go back to was it three years ago, four years ago when we started this initiative where we really embraced and it was was it three years ago? Um four four. So the kids who were in kindergarten when they came in after COVID and this

105whole new approach to teaching reading based on the science of reading. So now they'd be going into grade five four four four. They're going into grade four. Okay. One, two, three. So they're going into fourth grade this year. Okay. I I and I want to go back and look at that information because those were the kids who really started off on a very different foot than the others when we did it. And this is where I get worried. There were I don't know how many pillars, parent communication and transparency where there was a real push to keep parents informed of where the kids were landing on these assessments or tools. I hope we're still continuing that. It sounds like it might be a little bit murky. Yeah, like I just said, remember we sent like

106Yes, I know. We we sent them home after typically during progress report or report card time wherever the test fall you would get a form home because we'd be delued with people saying what does this mean right I don't understand what this means so I hope that is continuing the second thing that what we really committed to was a designated time every day where the focus would be on teaching of reading so that stays the same I've been out of the business a little while okay so that remains and that's so important that commitment and the third one was the kids were grouped by ability. So the blues were together so they could do high level work. The reds were probably toddling off to their reading specialist and everyone in the middle was they disperse

107and go to different rooms where the teachers were ready to pitch that ball where the kids could hit it. Right? Is that happening now? because I worry as we progress through this it might get a little loosey goosey and we're losing our vision, our tunnel vision. No, I I I don't think we're losing the vision. I think what we're doing is responding to what we're seeing in the data. So, in terms of the grouping of kids, it's not as simple as as tears, right? Especially in the younger guys, but it's in which of these mini tests are they showing that they need extra support and how to group them that way. Really focused hyper on vocabulary. Yes. Uh and there's a lot of progress monitoring and data keeping and spreadsheets upon spreadsheets of what's happening

108in between these benchmarks when um students are cycling in with the reading specialists or not are moving between rooms. We've had a couple schools and grade levels this year suggest teachers have suggested I would like to keep my students own their data which I I am a fan of because sometimes when they leave the room we lose track of who we're looking at. Um but within our classroom using grouping in small groups within the classroom where that teacher knows all the kids knows their needs know where they're growing can move them on the spot. Um, so we we have had some success with some grade levels trying that this year to see if there's something to that. Um, in the past we've tried solely to have them move classrooms where the teacher becomes the the

109specialty teacher of whatever that skill level is. Um, but I think we've learned a lot um, prior to my time and and when I've been here seeing about um, the best way to configure, when to adjust, when to switch groups. These kids would sometimes move. they hit the mark, move out of that one class into another where the focus was another cat which was a lot of work for everybody. But I guess what I'm trying to say I would be really interested like you don't have enough to do but I would really like a way to look and say is any way that we've changed from our initial plan like allowing kids to stay in their home room and work with a teacher kids of the reds up to the blues. How is that working?

110And I don't know if you just take a quick look at a few samples, but I would be really curious because that vision was so clear when we started out. And boy, did out of the gate, we saw some crazy respon, you know, you know, kudos to the teachers who who carried it after co I would really be interested in that. I think it's going to get simpler even next year um with the the CKLA in terms of the MC class that data system that comes with it. Um because right now this is just really a fancy spreadsheet where teachers are inputting their data for dibbles. But with that comes the suggested grouping, the suggested focus and it automates when things should change. So I think that'll help. Um the program itself has foundational skills

111woven throughout um or a separate component for the younger guys but then also like the boost element with the practice. So everything is speaking the same language. It'll make sure that our reading success groups the same sort of um skills are being practiced that bleed into the ELA that bleed into the extra practice. So, I think it's going to dovetail even um more readily um than it has been because it's been a lot of effort to get all those pieces g going well and to maintain. Yeah. Um and I think it's going to be nice. So, hopefully. Okay. I just I think back to how we started and how focused we were. And I'm not saying we're not focused, but sometimes it's good to go back and say, "Hey." Yeah. I I think with the

112addition of the humanities supervisors, there had luckily been a a focus. I know in the building, in the rooms, um that could help drive that. So, we're just going to be strategic in how we do that now. Yeah. And moving those kids in and out with the reading specialists, right? That's always the That's so hard. Okay. My other question is because I know we're really going deep here students um in our um subsparate uh are they I know we've talked about it briefly but are they getting the curriculum? Are they getting the materials they need so they can they can make progress? Yeah, we've accounted for those Oh, go ahead. No, no, I just it's done. Do they have everything? Yes. So, just like we did with wonders, we've accounted for all the subsparate classrooms

113to have access to all the grade level materials, right? Yes. Understanding that a grade three subs separate is probably not going to be accessing grade three materials, right? Uh they might be accessing grade one or two materials or dabbling in a little bit of both depending on the content specific thing they're dabbling in. Whether it's a story, whether it's the phmic awareness, whether it's foundational skills, it it just might depend. But they will absolutely we've accounted for all of that in all four grammar schools. Okay. Because I know at at some points there were concerns about whether or not the curriculum that was chosen was appropriate or those teachers had access. I think there's still specialized instruction that happens and is needed, right? They're not going to just use CKLA or Wonders for their curriculum.

114That's not how that works. But they have access to all of it. And I think some do take advantage of that. Some use different parts of it. Yeah. I think I think part of it too is in the oversight and the observation and evaluation piece like what's happening. Um and anyway, if anyone's really interesting interested, check out the state of Alabama, which is doing super duper in terms of increasing their reading scores. Don't look at me that way. Like what? Yes. It's very Yeah, there's 15 states that have adopted science of reading. I mean, it's legislation, which is crazy. Um, but they've shown such growth and I'm glad we are continuing on that science of reading of bounds literacy, but okay. Thank you. Thank you. I did not improved Alabama reading scores on my bingo

115card. Vice Chair Mary Beth will send you anything you need. So I have a couple questions. Um the kids who are in the red I obviously the red is going down from the beginning of the year to the end of the year and um the yellow is also going down which are we tracking the kids like do we know that the kids that are in yellow at the end of the year used to be in red or were they in yellow before or do we have some kids going from yellow to red as opposed to going from going up? Do you know what I mean? like like are those kids who have hit yellow cuz that number is smaller. Do we know who they are and are we making are we seeing that those they're

116coming from the red and they're now in yellow. So we've we're at least seeing some progress. Do you know what I'm saying? Um yeah. Um in in the schools they do and they they track they track that. Um the supervisors monitor it. I couldn't tell you offhand how many have moved. Um I would surmise that that's the case because the additional green and blue have to come from somewhere. Um, but yeah, I I I think that that would okay, most probably be the case, but I would have to give you case studies or individual. Um, my next question is at the end of the year, we've got 52. Look, I'm just going to look at the kindergarten row just as an example. Um, we have 52 reds and we have 44 yellows. When they start

117grade one, what information is passed on? How is that communication going? So those kids are getting the targeted reading help they need from day one and not waiting to say October to get help. Like what are we do? We just look at this kid fresh like oh this kid is brand new we're expecting it and then we start taking something or are there conversations going on between teachers? What's happening there? Sure. the the um data is accessible to teachers for the students who are new to them. Um and that is part of what we what I've been devising for the the educator plan um for next year. So we push back the date that the educator plans will be due um for the sake of ensuring that all all teachers have the designated data sets

118they need to consider when making their goals. So that's one thing. um from the beginning of the year, we're busy getting the benchmarking done early because although we have these scores, we do account for what may have or not happened over the summer um to use that as another measure. Um but yeah, this is certainly important data that we don't just throw away and we and we use to track. Um there's also individual goals. um supervisors and spreadsheets have made goals for students um and then they track to see if the goals have been met and then move the goals up. So that's all been manual work um which I think will be more automated with this new system too which is good. Um moving to the new CKA CKLA are we going to continue

119with these assessments or are they giving us a whole new set of assessments that we're going to start in September? So it's I I'll describe it as dibbles automated. So it's the same assessment. Um but whereas now there's some math that needs to happen. Um the teacher charting and and adding to get the composite score, the program will do that automatically. We're I think one of the few that were using um this version. It was a bit cheaper at the time and we weren't able to bundle it with a bigger purchase. Um and so that's why we have been going that way. But that this will exist. Um but sometimes these these conversations are hard because this is one data point of many that we see and look at and sometimes where we put too

120much um stock in this one point. Um but I will say for the the older kids for the uh dream box assessment that we've been using um we uh we have common assessments in the curriculum for the upper school um in EL education meaning that all teachers across the district their students should move through these assessments performance assessments and so we have we have that data there. So, what I've been working on with the supervisors is um carving out time professional development for teachers to bring samples of that work and calibrate and look at what we're scoring and to use those common assessments which were able to view through the platform districtwide um to track our our growth in those areas as well, not just in um Dreambox, which we use because it's one of

121the few reading comprehension measures for that upper school age. So, we're adding on as well. Um I have two more things. Um shoot. All right. So with for the kids who are reading above grade level, um so this is very very far removed way back when my old my second was in kindergarten, first grade reading well a bit above grade level. Um, the teachers were capped at being able to test those kids and so we couldn't even figure out what grade level my kid was reading at because she couldn't take the test high enough. So then we had to have somebody come in special to test her. Is that still the case or are these kids able to just test so we know where those kids are? Um, yes. I've seen as high as um

12213, grade 13 as they call it, kids testing is at. Um and maybe it's because I'm able to get into the data and really dig into it that um in some ways in some aspects of this are impressive in a positive way. Um because some of those students that I'm seeing reading at 12 and 13 are not necessarily in the eighth grade, they're in fifth grade. So that's really important information for the teacher to have because although it's nice to say, "Okay, they've made it, it's still our job to make sure that they're appropriately challenged." And sometimes the span and the range in the room is so broad that particularly in those win blocks or in the reading success, we have to be really deliberate about what we're doing to appropriately challenge students. Um, which

123is a fun problem to have and to let students kind of drive their learning. um because it would be quite a while for them in the trajectory to get up to where they actually are at level, right? And I just want to make sure that those kids are also being challenged because I know I mean it's important to get all the kids reading. I totally agree with that. But I also don't want to forget that there's a good number of kids who need to be challenged differently and need attention differently. Um and we don't want to just drop those kids off and just say, "Oh, no. You've hit grade level. we're gonna keep you there because congratulations, you made it. You know, I really want to make sure that we're challenging kids so that they

124can get into the AP classes when they get to high school, right? Like we want to we want to build that so what they learn here is gonna transfer up to the high school and so and for the rest of their life even, right? I mean, they can get college credits now, right? Right. So, I mean, those are the kids that are going to be in those classes. So, we need to make sure that we're continuing to challenge those kids, too. Um, and I don't remember my other questions, so I'm just going to stop. Okay. Let me know if you do. Okay. Thanks. At this point, we can continue on to objective two. Okay. For objective two, um, the focus here is to reduce opportunity and achievement gaps between student groups to improve outcomes. So

125sometimes you'll notice when we're talking about objective one or even three, we weave in objective two and we're trying to disagregate data by students disabilities and English learners to match our S SOA plan, but also to object um address this objective too. So we have um and this is the first year of our three-year plan. We have um several elements underway of our key actions. Um and many of the others we have plans to begin this summer or to launch in the fall. This is a slide showing the measures of progress um that we had established at the onset of this year, the end of last year. So the again the MCCAST data isn't quite available yet. Um we do have um a column there called percentage of students um passing all grade nine courses

126and that you can find on the district profile and the school profile. Desessie shares that out. Um, and you're able to sort by core courses or all courses. And the reason that's important, um, is because, um, research has shown that students who attain their credits or earn all their credits in grade nine have, uh, a much greater likelihood of persisting and meeting their their next educational milestone, which happens to be graduation. Um, and so I added in, um, when we created this plan, we didn't have the baseline measure yet because Desi hadn't entered it. So, I did enter it there. Um, and then the that grade nine passing rate and advanced coursework grade rate, although we're able to look at what we have for statistics. Desi does share that in the summer, so we'll be

127able to update and see if we met the marks. Um and then we had added the proportion of student groups utilizing tiered mental health services. Um and in terms of objective two for the sake of making sure that we're reaching all students. Um and so John is here. Um he shared some of those baseline estimates and that's not just who who qualifies but who is actively using the services regularly. Here are some highlights that we've talked about throughout the year in terms of key actions. Tonight, I wanted to focus on some exciting news. Um, our early college designation and then also case lo case case load monitoring data. So, Mthuan High School recently was announced as winning the state designation approval for UMass LOL's early college program, which is really important. And this was a

128a year-long application. Um, so, thank you to Martha Tetro and principal um Tony Caret for helping um drive this process as well as our partners at UMass LOL. was uh a grant that was entirely written in partnership with multiple phases and interviews and a lot of work went into it. And this means that our Mthuan High School students are eligible or could be eligible to earn college credits at no cost and to start their path to UMass uh to a UMass degree before they even graduate from Mthuan High School. So, with this designation comes a sizable grant that allows us to not only um offer credits for free to students, but allows us to cover um stipens for teachers um who are supporting this effort at the high school, book costs, transportation costs when the

129students need to go to campus. Um and Desi directly reimbures UMass LOL for the students credit hours. So we needed to select pathways. Um at this point we have selected teaching engineering and law and criminal justice. So there'd be two courses the junior year and two courses their senior year that would directly feed into one of these pathways. Um that being said, some of these um could be considered general requirements. So if the student decides to change majors or directions, they could still be of use to them. um but they could ultimately graduate with a diploma and um four courses worth of credit which is outstanding. Um and then to switch gears um our case load monitoring and partner services report. So, uh I believe this ask um came from the committee early on where

130we had planned to talk about tracking services that were offered and use of them. Um and member Keegan, I believe it was you who suggested that we look at the um the efficient efficiency of these these services that we're offering and are they doing what we hope for them to do. Um and so Mr. Crocker had developed these spreadsheets that are uh maintained by every counselor in the district um progress monitoring um their work with students in terms of social emotional health, academic progress, attendance, behavior um to see if what we're doing in tier two and three is working. Um so there's some interesting data there. Um and then uh we also note the referrals that have been made to carousel and cartwheel to also augment um the available mental health services. So I'll pause

131there. Mr. Crocker's here if there are questions for the program with LOL which I wish I had more years ago than I wish it was. Um, are those credits transferable? So, if that kid decides not to go to ULO, can they transfer those credits to wherever? They're definitely transferable within the UMass system. I believe there's one course that's unique in the engineering program to UMass LOL because they're the only school that offers it. It has to do with sports and engineering. Um, but the others, I think it would be dependent upon that institution's policies. transfer, you got to have them reviewed and all that stuff, right? But it's a college transcript. So that's it is up to like if they go to University of Connecticut, it would be up to University of Connecticut to say

132we're going to take these courses that you had from UMass LOL, your AP courses, it's up to them to review it, but they are they will be on a college transcript. So it really opens every student up to any school, not just UMass L, which is awesome. Yes. UMass definitely. Yeah. Um, but that's part of the seriousness of it too is it is a college transcript, so those grades live with them if they do carry on to mess. And there's a lot of work that goes into making sure students and parents understand the seriousness of the course. And although it's an opportunity, it's also a responsibility um and things of that nature. That's fantastic. Thank you. Can I carry on um with that one? membership. So, what's great about it because it might not transfer

133the credits though, but that GPA, they could put it as like a transfer student if I'm correct. If because it's kind of like Northern Essex Community College, like when I went there after high school, it they a lot of my credits transfer, but there was some that didn't transfer, but my GPA helped me get into UMass Amherst. So, if I'm correct, these these honor courses, no matter what, that GPA is considered a college GPA if I'm correct. Mr. Crocker is like, "Yes, yeah." Okay. So, that's I I think I think we're saying this because it's an official college transcript that how the Yes. How the college actually weights that GPA is how it will be looked at anywhere. Yes. If that's what you're saying, then yes. here. Um, is there a reason why we're only

134doing four classes for these kids when they could have up to two years? Like it seems like why not more? Because there's a lot of kids that we have here that could do more. Yeah, that is the that is the two years. Um, so it's two courses a year, one per semester. So junior year would be two courses, senior year would be two courses. Yeah, it says that they could come out with up to two years worth of college credits and that's only four classes. That's not even a full semester. Yeah, I think that's being interpreted. Yeah. So, we wouldn't give them two full years of college credits. So, maybe that's just how we wrote it. High school students can earn up to two years worth of transferable college credits. Up to two years. Two

135years worth of college credits is Yeah. No. So, it's just this program. I just think it was we So, that seems to me like you should be offering four courses a semester to get them two years worth of Yeah. college credits. We're not doing that. No, we're not doing that. And I think it was the way we wrote that of that they're going to be taking the college classes in their last two years of school and they could earn up to whichever however many courses they enroll in years of credits. Because like a student may enroll in only one C, you know, like each semester one course, right? No, I mean I hear of kids in other places, not here, coming out with associates degrees and a high school diploma at the same time, which

136is what this led me to believe that they could do with two years worth of college. And that's not going to do it with four classes, right? Because it's a pathway, right? They'd have to choose their pathway amongst the three that they that we're offering. Am I right? Yes. I will double check to make sure I'm not misspeaking. um because it's there's an amount of money that we're putting towards this not we but the grant right because this isn't somebody has to pay for the credits and there's a cost attached each student and credit coming from UMassel and the grants so there's a significant amount of funding that is going into these three each pathway is an additional thousands of dollars um so we'll we'll we'll make sure yeah we'll clarify we don't want to

137misspeak on that it's very exciting and we're very excited for it If there are no other questions, we can continue. Okay. For the third objective, um enhancing partnerships with students and families. So, we've done um taken significant steps uh to begin these key actions as well. The vision of the graduate, which you can see is the second bullet down, will commence in the fall. So the measures of progress we talked about here um were ultimately we hoped um like Desi does in their vision that engagement and partnership with students and families will lead to um a reduction in chronic absenteeism. We mentioned school culture and climate surveys. Um we look we decided to look at the percentage of grade nine students in at least two school-based e extracurriculars. percentage of students with moderate to severe

138anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress. And then also the percentage of students receiving tier 2 or three services whose mental health has stabilized or improved. So all um speaking to ways that we can increase engagement and sense of belonging. So for quarter four, I'd like to focus on the mental health screening data, MHS participation data, and just some of the family and community events and showcases um specifically YAR civics and English learner education. And so we have um the screening data here. Mr. Crocker, if you'd like to come up, I'll ask you to walk through it. Do you want a copy? Hard copy. Yeah, sure. Okay, perfect. Good evening. So, I'll walk you through some of these data. You've seen these graphs before. This just represents another um administration of the data for the spring. Anxiety

1399 through 12. Uh this is actually one of the ones I was most excited to share. We're actually looking at the lowest rates of severe anxiety at the high school um ever uh for the 10 years that we have administered screening measures. So, this is actually outstripping preandemic levels. I recognize it's one piece of a much larger journey that we've been on, but it it was a glimmer of hope that uh really resonated with me. So, we've been chasing that prepandemic level for a long time. I'm glad to outstrip that. So making gains with severe anxiety, some maintenance for some of these other um areas which is to be expected for depression 9 through 12 continued decrease in severe and moderately severe score ranges. Slight improvement in no concern but overall we're making gains in

140the right areas. Post-traumatic stress 9 through 12 reduction in severe symptoms and increase in no concern. I won't go through all of these. I know you can read charts. Um, but for the for the I think the the the biggest one that I want to kind of focus on here is anxiety 5 through8 and depression 5 through8. You will likely have noticed on the chart that Lisa showed at the beginning that the the numbers that were uh indicated for anxiety and depression for 5 through 8, those represent our old measure. So you may have remembered that this is a year where we switched to two measures to replace one older measure. The older measure is called ARADS, the revised child anxiety and depression scale. It had 47 questions which is that's a lot for student

141grades 5 through 8. It measured anxiety and depression as is in the name. Uh it did not include a question of suicide and it did not match with our 9 through 12 U measures. So, we made a decision after a long uh point of reflection last year to switch to the measures that we've used at the high school. So, right now, this is the year where we're establishing baseline data for anxiety and depression for grades 5 through 8. We conducted the screening in the fall and we conducted rescreening in the spring so that we could really establish a year a year's worth of baseline. Um what this shift does for us is it reduces the number of questions that students in grade 5 through 8 have to answer by 31 questions. It includes a question

142uh that that directly asks about risk for suicide. We want to do that. We feel like it's really important to get at that question. We have students endorse that question as young as grade five and before then. Maybe not on a screening measure, but um they are reporting that to our counseling staff. So we feel like the onus is on us to uh proactively ask these questions and get ahead of it. And lastly, now we have a 5 through 12 data set that allows for us to longitudinally uh reflect on these data. So that's the story with why that data on the uh the initial graph looks identical because it's one measure. Um, we are going to replace that entire row with the new baseline that's been established. And Lisa, if you don't mind pulling

143that up. I think it's right beyond the graphs. Yeah, universal mental health screening data. So, this these new measures uh cannot be compared to the old ARCADs. So, PHQ9 and GAD 7, two different measures. They can't be compared to ARCADs. So that uh that first column you'll see baseline under those two numbers. This is the number that we will compare against as we move forward. Just a little bit of context between fall and spring. We've already seen gains across the board for uh 5 through8 anxiety and 5 through8 depression. Making gains early. I love that. But we you know this this does represent a number that we want to improve upon for sure. So, we will be resetting those targets for future years so that we can march toward that 12%. Uh, someone mentioned, you

144know, what's that magical number that we want to kind of march toward? I can tell you what that is for mental health because we've reflected on research across the country and we've also reflected on our 10 years worth of data. I have yet to see data outstrip 12%. Because now you're dealing with issues that related that relate to society. you're you're dealing with global stressors. So in order to move data beyond 12% you're not talking about interventions being levied with one student or a group of students. You're talking about societal changes that need to occur to reduce the overall stress that people have. So you're talking about health gains, social influencers of health and education. You have to reduce food insecurity, housing insecurity, access to health care. So these are big swings that you have

145to you have to make to get beyond that 12%. Um, and I want to do that anyway. So, we're going to keep marching forward to get to the 100%, right? Um, but it moving beyond 12% is is going to be very difficult. I think I can hit pause there, but happy to answer questions. members. So, John, I had a conversation with a few folks uh over the weekend and the concern or question they brought up to me was that for these assessments that the kids are doing where you're getting this data, whether it's the new one or the old one, the perception could be that the kids essentially know the answers to put to avoid what some may deem as a socially awkward like sure interaction because I mean it it it has a in

146some circles it still has a stigma and you know mental health is scary and all of that stuff you know what I mean um is there some kind of let's call it a safety net built into these systems to see if there's a kid who's kind of playing the system to put the right answers down to avoid yeah it it's a great question honestly and it's something that we're always going to have to grapple with I don't pretend like we get 100% % accurate data. That's actually not why we screen. That's not the purpose of screening. Screening isn't to get to a 100% of kids answering honestly. I don't think that should be a goal for anyone. That's never going to happen, right? Like, let's just be real. Yeah, for real. Let's let's be real.

147The goal of screening is not to get 100% compliance. The goal of screening is to provide an opportunity for a kid that's ready to talk about a very serious problem, that very opportunity, and connecting them with a trusted adult. That's what it's for. So we will always have some degree of students that do not want to share that information. How do you control for that? How do you move toward a point where more students are accurately reporting, you reduce stigma. You invest in social emotional learning and mental health literacy. You talk to kids about how to access care. You talk to kids about why it's okay to access care. You share data with kids so they understand that oh I may be one of the large percentage of students struggling with anxiety, depression, trauma. You

148talk to parents. You give parents information so that they don't contribute to stigma or perhaps think it's a phase. All of these things help to create a situation where students feel more comfortable being honest in that moment and not going to look for 100%. Just not going to happen. So we want to provide those real authentic opportunities for kids to access care and we want to be real about the fact that we have a lot of other methods for identifying kids. Screening is one of them and without it we miss a huge swath of students but we do try to find students in other ways to your point as one of the methods of catching students who maybe aren't honest during screening. That's that's helpful. And I mean I know you're never going to get

149cooperation from kids. I mean it's like when you go to the doctor and they say you safe at home and I joke no because I have little kids. Like people people do that. They make a joke of it and I just it's good to know that there are you know steps in place and systems in place because like looking at these charts the the world is a messed up place. Yep. And to see that it is you know the anxiety is declining and you know depression for the for the most part is declining is is a good thing. And then I step back and think why? Because I look around the world and see I'm glad you're looking around the world, but I want you to look here at the 10 years of investment we've

150made in a comprehensive school mental health system. And the reality is it's not rocket science, right? We ask kids early and often how they're doing. We provide them care in a proactive and preventative sense. We look for emerging concerns. We don't wait for diagnosis and crisis. That's not normal. So, yes, the world is messed up in a lot of ways and I'm glad we're doing something about it. Yeah. No, me too. Agreed. Very much so. Thank you. Member Keegan. Excuse me. Member Maxwell. I did want to say something, but I thought we'll have Member Maxwell, vice chair. Um, just a quick question. Do you foresee an like an uptick in anxiety and depression with not having K through4 wellness? So, I want to I'm gonna answer this in a a way where I can't predict

151anything. Like, let's just be real. That is a super loaded question. Um, and I'm going to say this. Any degree of mental health that we want to establish requires investment. Okay, that's it. You have to invest in this. Mental health is not something you arrive at. Mental health is something you invest in and sustain and maintain over time through continued investment. That's it. So if there's less SEAL, mental health literacy, and mental health services, then there is going to be less opportunity for gains. That's just real. That's math. That's logic. Vice chair. Um, so with the screeners, I we've had this conversation before because we have, um, but I just want to know for kids who don't have reading comprehension, um, who are taking these screeners, what happens when they answer, "Yes, I'm suicidal," and

152they don't know what that means. Yeah, totally fair. So, I would never read a screening score as black and white. That's just bad practice. You have to unpack that with the student. Any student that that screens in and is going to get a follow-up interview with a counselor, you have to ask questions about that score. You have to ask questions about what the student meant. So, you're unpacking that with student. The score is a great red flag to be able to follow up with the student and ask more questions. If you fail to ask questions and you move on intervention without any degree of reflection, bad practice. So with a student that says, to your example, I want to kill myself on a screening tool, there's going to be a conversation with that student and

153if they say, well, no, like I didn't mean that at all. Like I didn't I didn't actually check that off. That's not what I that that's not what I'm indicating. I'm giving you a very simple example here, but you know, we're processing with the student. We're asking them questions. We're we're actually verifying whether or not the data is accurate. And that happens with an actual conversation, not with a score. Great. Thank you. Thank you. We'll hear from member Donovan and then member Willlette. Just with the screeners, have you noticed a change in participation? It's opt out, correct? Mhm. So, have you noticed that more students are opting to take it over the years? Over the years? Yeah. Yeah. We I I'm thinking all the way back to our first administration at the high school. We

154had about a 35% um uh rate of um rate of completion. And I was thrilled. Honestly, I thought I was going to get 10%. Um so, 35 I was I was pretty psyched. We're up around 90% at this point. Um, and we have a less than 1% opt- out rate from families. So, you know, I I do want to just highlight the fact that screening is an act of prevention unto itself. If you do nothing else, which is this is bad. Don't do this, right? Like, don't screen and never follow up with kids. But if you simply screened and talked to kids about the data, you're actually reducing stigma. You're opening up conversations about mental health. you're engaging in mental health literacy instruction. Uh so over time, kids talk to each other. This is becoming

155normal in our district. When I talk to other districts about screening because they ask us, "What should we expect? Should we expect 90% compliance from kids?" No, definitely not. They they've never been screened before. They don't know what this is about. You need to give them time to get used to this. your population, your the culture in your district has to change for people to start to feel comfortable and open up. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, are we measuring a child's exposure to social media? Because I think when we look at the anxious generation, which is a fantastic book and I recommend it, are we asking students how much time they're exposing themselves to social media? I know the school committee took a very strong stance on cell phone activity within the

156schools and I think there was a strong relationship between exposure to social media and levels elevated levels unprecedented levels of depression, anxiety um and suicidal thoughts. Um, so I'm wondering if we are um asking these students basic questions of how many hours they're exposing themselves to social media and then maybe following up with the the parents of friendly suggestions of telling the kids maybe to take some more for activities, less exposure to social media, uh, coping skills, things of that nature. Sure. I like where you're going with the idea. I I do. And I'll tell you right now, we we don't screen screen right for for um exposure to social media at this time. I remember a connections lesson that we did at the high school where we asked students to actually pull out their

157cell phones and look at the screen time that they the average screen time per week and to actually like we had a conversation about that. That feels very small in comparison to the level of intervention required to actually disrupt the amount of screen time that students are engaged in and the amount of social media that they're exposed to. I I think it's interesting. I know that some of our youth risk behavior survey data would wave at that, but in a deidentified way. So, that's not a great way to find this kid in that family that needs this conversation. But at the same time, um I can't argue with your logic here. makes a lot of sense to me why we would want to identify students with a high rate of exposure to social media and

158question whether or not that makes sense. Um I don't know of a measure out there and now I'm curious. I'm going to take a look at it just but I'll say this right like if I find a measure that would be one more thing we're screening kids on and we want to make sure we're finding the right measures to screen uh for our kids. um it's just one more piece of implementation. But I I really appreciate the thinking and I think probably there's a fair amount of mental health literacy that I would want to do with students related to exposure to social media and related to the amount of screen time that they're exposed to. I think that's probably the tier one way to address this that doesn't involve screening. Just really flooding kids with

159a with the education required to understand the degree to which it has an impact. the comprehensive health and PE frameworks decidedly have uh content that relates to health and technology. So that's a that's an entry point that I think we can consider and then obviously I don't want it to be an adversarial relationship where all we're doing is an assessment of a child's exposure to social media. Sure. and and how do we handle that situation because we've done a strong enforcement measure at the school system and I'm on the home front and again it I think it was not only because of COVID but also the introduction of the iPhone. Sure. um and the algorithm that go into the factor of they're motivating these kids to expose them to certain sites and certain uh yeah

160tweets and and you know Tik Tok and all that other garbage. Yeah, there's a there's a lot of discussion at the state level and with the attorney general's office around, you know, how we would actually um make moves on social media and on exposure to screen time and uh and you know, cyber bullying as well. Um these are topics that are decidedly in the public arena right now. I think that, you know, we're well positioned to be able to double down on some of the mental health literacy that we've u that we have uh already engaged in. And I know that the the health staff have done a tremendous job of uh really unpacking the comprehensive health and PE frameworks. That is going to be a piece of the puzzle, but I don't see any

161one thing disrupting this. It's it's obviously a massive concern that has uh that has implications for every kid. So, thank you. I appreciate it. Member Maxwell. I just want to piggy back kind of off of Ken with the cell phones and anxiety and all that. But I do I feel like taking cell phones from kids in at this time is causes a huge amount of anxiety and I think that um social media withdrawal not exposure is what causes anxiety in kids um at school not so much the exposure but necessarily the withdrawal if you will from not having that phone and scrolling. I mean it begs a question if they didn't have it in the first place would they be withdrawing from it. So I you know right like I so I I I want

162to I want to honor the fact that family dynamics come into play and the culture that exists in a home and what's allowed in the home around use of technology and social media is going to be a factor that we have to grapple with and we don't get to decide what that is. We do have to intervene on behalf of if it's causing the student to experience distress. I just worry that we're like grouping it together as anxiety when I mean if we think about it like all of us sitting here at the table if we left our cell phone at home or in the car we would have this sense of anxiety that we're missing out on something or we're not you know so let me put it this way you all have cell

163phones in front of you right now. Yeah. And you're not inappropriately using them except for Dan. No. Um I I don't it's not here my pocket but having them isn't causing anxiety. No, because you have the skill and you have the knowledge to be able to navigate use of a tool. Period. So when it comes to students, just like adults, they need the skill and knowledge to be able to navigate use of that tool. And some of that comes from the home and some of that comes from our exposure with them around curriculum that will help them to understand the benefits of not using social media all day long. I'm also just going to plug the fact that there's a lot of conversation I'm hoping you're following at the state level right now about the

164state demanding and putting regulations in place of something that we have already started. Right? So, I think there's uh for our community and our teachers and our kids, this might hopefully just be maybe we have to tighten it a little bit depending on if it does come from the state and if the regulation is a little different, but it won't be completely out of the blue or a complete surprise uh if that cell phone use is regulated in the classroom. Right? I mean, I I have been following it pretty closely. Uh, and I'm imagining some of you have been following it closely, but it is moving and it has some strong momentum about what cell phone use in as a school should and shouldn't be and when it when it should be used or not.

165A little more um restricted than what our conversations have been. So, it'll be interesting to see where this lands and what the expectations from the state will be. Um, but again to be continued because I think we'll see some more develop over the summer regarding that particular issue. That was a very large segue. Uh, but we were talking about it and I do think it's important because member you brought it up and member Maxwell brought it up but to be continued very quickly. I think the fact that we had local flexibility, we surveyed the teachers. I think the draconian measure that was at the low public schools where they did outright confiscation of the phones had a massive reaction from the student population. So I understand member Maxwell that we should at the local level

166have some flexibility because we still have a strong uh policy. I know New Hampshire just implemented belltobell restriction and I'm not at that point. I'd rather have the state issue some guidelines and and entrust the local district uh because we've been um very highly recommended of what we've been doing and it's been very effective. So I I enjoy that local flexibility of giving kids at times for good behavior an opportunity to use their phones and not have the draconian low public schools policy or what's going to be transpiring in New Hampshire with the bell-to-bell restriction. So that would just be my uh two cents on that. Thank you Zaglio. Um, just to piggy back everybody else's, um, where I come from a school, there is a strict confiscation cell phone policy. And I will say

167that we don't go through the stress like anxiety um, bells because the kids know to put it in their bags. If we don't see it, it's there because they still have it in their bag. So, in their minds, it's there. It's fine. um we don't deal with that issue at our school. So I I and which I am so happy that the state is finally after so long um um working with us educators and Mary Beth would probably also love agree with me on that because cell phone use only trends trouble. Uh we had that trouble at my school this year. We had troubles at the high school and not just our high school but other high schools and other districts. um cell phone use with Tik Tok and everything else just only brings trouble.

168So I I am full agreement. I'll say that openly. I hope the state bans it from schools. Absolutely. Including teachers because we do us teachers are bad on that as well. So I would say that as well. Um I would love to get your input and maybe off maybe maybe I'll talk to you after um just to get your input on the relation between um phones and computers because really like they both offer the same kind of thing. I know there are blocks in place and but maybe off this meeting we can kind of sit down and talk about that. Sure. Okay. Right, we can move on. Okay, thank you. Thank you, John. Moving on. Moving on to MHS student participation. Um, this is something we've never logged before, so this was interesting to do.

169Um we took uh rosters from MHS clubs, activities, sports um and Paula George, secretary at the high school, helped us upload everything into Infinite Campus so that on a student's um biography or summary page, we're we're able to see the programs that they're involved in, which is helpful um when we're looking to learn more about a student. But it also helped us gauge um in a I think more accurate way than just self-report the number of students who are participating in these activities. So we broke it down by students who participated in one and then more than one and then the total. So for grade 9 10 11 and 12 uh 45% 51 45 48% of students are involved in at least one of the offering offerings. Um, and then we broke it down further.

170Um, because as I mentioned before, with objective two in mind, we're always looking at those two identified student groups um to see the percentage of students with disabilities participating and the percentage of English learners because part of our objective too is not just to shrink um gaps in achievement but also in those um taking advantage of opportunities available to them. So this was interesting data for us. Um and this will segue into the next um slide I have. Uh this was also of interest to the the YAR group at the high school. So uh I attended several of the YPAR retreats this year and we got to talking about the same things. um this being one of them which I thought was really neat and I was telling the students how um we were using

171IC to gather this data but then there's a really important next step um and that's to figure out why students who aren't participating aren't participating. So is it an access issue that has to do with rides after school? Is it work or other responsibilities after school? Is it just simply a matter of not knowing um that clubs exist or how to get to them um or maybe feeling unsure about how to take that next step to a access the clubs? Um and so the students had heard a lot about um from their peers informally their peers saying there's nothing here that interests me but some of them on the team knew that there are over 70 75 opportunities for which students could be a part. Um, and so one change they're going to make is

172they're going to do um a clubs and activity fair during the day, almost like a science fair where the students will tour around in the fall, make direct contact with the adviser, get information, know how to get there. Um, and then a few of them also um volunteered to help me create a survey to send to students because we're doing a lot of guessing about why students might not participate, but we're not actually hearing from them. Um, and then addressing those barriers is the next step. Um, okay. And then here's a slide on the the YAR team summaries for the year. This was through grant funding from DESIE. Um, and I'm happy to say that it's been extended for next year as well. So, we're able to um continue our contract with our um outside

173provider, Up for Learning, who helps support these activities um and actually fund the projects that students are are working alongside adults to complete since that's the goal. So, I just wanted to give you a sense of what each um team focused on. And so with the the idea of engagement at the high school, they were really focused on helping um decrease the um student absence rate and increase attendance. I thought that was interesting that they perceived it as a problem as well. Um, the Tenny Grammar School chose to look at behav uh classroom behavior. And what I thought was neat is that uh up for learning provided students with many opportunities or ways to gather data um beyond um what's just in front of them. So they suggested doing ghost walks for so after school

174ended they could go with their adviser just walk through the hallways and look at the spaces see if they were welcoming or inviting or they could do informal classroom observations or send surveys and so they did a lot of of those different options. Um the tenny did some of their observations at different times of day um trying to to make uh objective observations about behavior. They shared their work um with the different grade levels at the tenny rocks assemblies. So why pars become common language and they know what's being looked at. The CGS wanted to look at the wind block which stands for what I need which is also something that lines up with one of our key actions in our strategic plan. So I was excited to hear that. Um they had begun thinking

175that it it might be good for the wind block to just be um a steady hall. and we explained why maybe that wouldn't be the best use of time um and not also not time on learning. Um and through that conversations came up about um would that be a good time to weave in financial literacy and how could we um reach student interest while also offering supports during that time. So we're going to continue that conversation um next year as well. Uh the marsh wanted to focus on developing stronger student teacher relationships. Uh they gave surveys and classroom observations and they wanted to really focus on um community and and connections. So they thought um it might be helpful to make a stronger identity within the team and engage um in activities like informal tournaments

176or team building activities at the start of the year um to to improve those. And I should say it's not just the students who are doing this work but students and adults together side by side which is the real wipire spirit. Um and then the timony wanted to focus on student behavior and bullying. So they had the opportunity to share with administrators some of the data they saw. We provided um them another a number of data sets but then they also wanted to discuss within the team how could students be helpful um to stop bullying and to respect each other. So, one idea they had was to invite former students back, students that had graduated or moved on from the Timn uh for a panel discussions to talk about their experiences in high school um

177and what it's like and how it affected their life. And they have some plans in place for next year, including team building activities um for teachers to use at the start of the year to kind of inspire positive classroom culture. And I just wanted to share this is some of the survey data for the students that took part um of our YPAR team, their pre and post uh survey uh results and the change in terms of what YAR is supposed to do. Um and it's really um giving students a voice, an equal voice with adults about sharing responsibility for improving the school. not just offering feedback or giving ideas and leaving it at that, but actually seeing um the problem through. Um their comfortability with having conversations with adults and the opportunity to do that,

178conversations with the youth and how to make the school better and um what's really important knowing how to use data to advocate for change. And so there was substantial growth there. We're excited about. In the same vein, u our civics classes in grade 8 and grade 11 all created civics projects which they worked on throughout the year with another grant um through Generation Citizen who's been a longtime partner of ours. That's another grant that's going to continue through next year. So at least one team at each school was selected to move on to the state showcase which was the first year was also sponsored by Desi and Generation Citizen as it has been in the past. Um so schools offered a little showcase of their projects. They chose representatives from each class to speak on

179their projects and ultimately they all traveled to Boston and set up and the EMK Institute in Boston um to share and so weeks after the event and this is new. Usually they announce winners at the end which is kind of exciting. They changed it this year because Desi was um trying something new. So weeks later we got um an email of feedback for every group from all the judges which was nice um but also commendations. So, the CGS won a commenation uh for sustainable cafeteria practices and their idea was focusing on a local uh problem they saw which was um a lot of trays being disposed of and they created an action plan and actually went into the cafeteria, met with Bob Friday, researched different trays, how they could be washed. It was really well

180done. Um I heard that one myself. And then uh Marsh got a overall commendation for access to feminine hygiene products. The Marsh I believe actually presented at student coun uh city council as one of their um action steps. Um and they thought it was um the way that students could access those products now took a lot of time, was inconvenient, um inequitable, and were able to put their plans into practice. So congratulations to those two groups. Um each each school this year hosted an English learner education showcase and so um in most situations the students created work which the teachers were excellent and the supervisors and helping a showcase. We invited families in. Attendance was outstanding. Nearly every student had at least one person there from their family and those whom didn't. The teachers artfully

181um mixed in other students to share in their work. I thought that was a really beautiful element to have their peers who are not English learners see what happens and what they've been working toward in terms of their English proficiency and the students were very proud. Um each showcase took a little bit of a different look. So there were some songs, there was some writing, there were some presentations. Uh and then many schools offered um a graduation ceremony of sorts for students who had failed out of the program. Um and so that was beautiful too with stu with families showing up with balloons and flowers and really celebrating the work of the students. Um and then we just wrapped up today our um Horizon summer program through another grant um we applied for and were

182awarded um and so newcomer students um making a transition so either moving to the upper school or high school primarily in in grades six through nine came to the high school for the week Monday through Thursday. We had teachers, counselors, administrators um here and the goal was to introduce them to new opportunities. So, um, I believe every student ice skated every day. They took STEM classes, art classes, got tons of school supplies. They took a field trip to the Neans today. Um, and did a blackout poetry workshop. They made terrariums, artwork, um, so it was an awesome experience for everybody. So, I was I was glad to have that grant funding. And finally, our community literacy partnership with Neans, which we've already spoken about, um, is something that we're very excited about, um, and look

183forward to next steps. That concludes objective three. Member Shabilia. Um, going back to the page with the YPAR summaries, some of these are I mean, all of them are really cool. Would it be possible, as you said, that these are all grant funded and they're coming back next year? I would like to see hopefully before this body gets turned into a new body. So, I don't know, November, Decemberish. Yeah. Right. um if we could hear from these kids cuz like looking at them, the Timony one jumped out at me because as we've all know and we've seen the emails and I mean maybe as a little teaser I mean it'll even reflect in our audit. But I would love to see what those kids find and how it works for them and what their outcome

184is and you know if that's something they plan to continue if they want to tweak it. It'd be great to have them come in here maybe, you know, one at a time or maybe we do it on a night, whatever it may be, and have them stand at the podium and wow us. I think that would be that timeline would actually be great. Um because funding wasn't made available till January. I think we're the first district to get going with it. Um and even still, we we made some progress. Um but there's still more they wanted to do. So, I think the the mid to late fall would be perfect um for them to talk about where they want to take it. Maybe we could earmark right now, and I'm going to write it down,

185make it official, the November workshop because we don't have one in December. Uh and the October one is typically results or, you know, quarterly. So, maybe that November workshop. All right. uh would be a good time because that would give the kids a couple months to get their keep going with some of their stuff before you guys change over. I just think it's also a good experience for them to be up in front of the body and Oh, they would love it. Yes. At the Desi showcase, I heard that we took most of the air time, the Mthuan students. So, I was kind of excited about that. They're also going to help lead um our vision of the graduate work, right, in the fall. So that's developing in essence the vision of the graduate what

186we hope all Mthuan graduates um are able to do and be when they graduate. And so um we're going to leverage those groups to help drive that work in the fall too. Awesome. Um I did catch the Marsh civics class at the council meeting that night. They did an amazing job. Um, I have not seen the CGS one, but I would like to. Okay. Um, I mean, congratulations to them for for getting these commendations. That's fantastic. I think this is the kind of stuff that Methuan historically misses out on as a community in noticing and acknowledging and promoting our our victories because I guess the the loudest of the group get the takes the negative attention and runs to town with it. I would love to see stuff like this. Not that I don't enjoy

187listening to you tell me things, but have the kids come in and have them explain to us what they've done, how they've done it, what they learned, how they learned it, what they want to change, like that would be so much more meaningful than this. Yeah. I think another opportunity that we didn't know how was going to go this year. So, uh, each school did it a little differently, but, um, I know we were invited to be judges and we had classroom rotations and it it we have we're familiar with sort of the state level of how they judge and what the kids should have in their civics project. Um, and again, each school did that piece a little differently. So what would be another sort of natural next step is to actually invite other

188people like yourselves and to council and mayor and I think Ryan Hamilton did come back to the marsh to be a judge uh and he had some friends with him at the table. Um but but to involve that's the whole point, right? Like to involve as many people as you can. Um so I think there'll be some really nice opportunities for that just in general for other people in the community to see these things happen and what our kids are doing, not just a parent because I mean some schools had the opportunity for parents, some schools didn't just because of the way they were doing the judging and when the kids were in and out of the rooms. Um, so there's just there's just a different way to look at it. And I think there's

189really some good opportunity here for to build that voice of our kids uh in this community. So, thank you. We look forward to that next year. I think opening that up. Wanted to mention just a quick shout out to the students at the marsh. As member Shabilia mentioned, they actually showed up at that council meeting, right? And uh I had done some research with Mr. Gosselin uh relative to the program that the Mars students had uh shared information about it was uh national group called go on flow and um we we did some digging into you know what it would take to actually implement that program. Now the issue is that the quote that I got back from that organization was in the ballpark of $25,000. Uh but nevertheless, I think that might be a

190good opportunity maybe for a future grant. Yeah. Or something like that. But it'd be great to keep those students in the in the loop and uh continue to involve them. Member Maxwell, um two things. Who are the students in the Y pilot? Like is that National Junior Honor Society students? Did you open it up to the whole school or? Yes, we opened it up um to the grade and all actually we did uh six, seven, and eight I believe at the upper schools. Just wasn't sure if five would be ready. Um and at the high school we did 9, 10, and 11 because we knew the 12 would be moving on. So, it's going to be nice to have the eighth graders move in um to the high school. But we did open it to

191everybody. And what I was pleasantly surprised about is I saw a lot of unfamiliar faces who aren't necessarily involved um in some of these more public um activities. So I appreciated that and I heard some conversation um that I think supported that um commenting to to peers like, "Wow, I I didn't know you really thought that. You're really smart. You should speak more." And I loved that. So um yes, it was it was open to everybody. I think in couple schools we had more interest than we did space because I did already maximize the groups um to get as many kids as possible but we were vanning um for retreats and things so logistically speaking but we'll probably open it again next year. Um and my second question was just to kind of backtrack a

192little bit to the extracurricular activities. I love that you're digging into that to find out you know more on why they're not or why they are. Is there a way that we can extend that into I know not right now obviously because of budget and all of that but is there a way to extend extracurricular activities into the lower schools that way um you know they may be able to participate that um what was that sport group that um play ball like more opportunities like that play yeah so play ball is a recent addition also we did STEM clubs this year okay um we did that through grant funding so I'm I have a little note to hopefully hopefully find some again um we had really positive feedback from that um but we're trying we're

193trying to build any other discussion will just something as a food for thought I know in Salem life there's a dedicated section for Salem public school system have we approached Steve Whipple to have a monthly column that would advertise events and accomplishments ments within the Mthan public schools. I know he tries to steal away from any political controversy. I think the Salem public schools is a very strong template and Salem life and maybe something to at least approach Steve Whipple. I don't know if we may have done it in the past, but yeah, we we so Melissa Feelely uh is our sort of go-to person from Mthuan Life and I we try to invite her to every single thing we do so she can do stories. Um there are some things that I'm sure are

194missed, but we do try to invite her so that that can get them into life. They love the positive this kind of stuff for the kids and the field the fun field days and you know they she does come to a lot of different events when she can. So yeah, we try I definitely think we could be better at making sure she knows all of these things are happening. Hard to keep track of all of them. I'll tell you just Dr. Dr. Glossky and I had a hard time this year even with the invites and when they were happening and the 9 to10s and the 11, you know, it was just it was it was great because all those things were happening and we were trying to pick like when we could be there and

195when we couldn't or when she could go or I could go or both of us could be there. So, uh it was a good problem to have. But, um but yeah, we do work with Melissa Phely. I mean, she calls me all the time if there's events. So, very positive with that paper. Yeah, because if you look at Salem life, there's a specific call focus on education. Yeah. Yeah. And I know a PR person. We don't have the resources for a PR person, but if we designate somebody and and Yeah. It's a team uh effort is something just maybe to explore attach it to any one of us or all four of us, we're good. Yeah. Because he he owns the Salem life like he owns the Mthan life. So that's something just to toss

196it out there. Yep. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other questions? No, I think that'll do it. Thank you for the presentation. Thank you. We'll move on now uh to the uh discussion regarding end of year goals. So, the good news is we're not really having a discussion tonight. So, um I should shouldn't say it that way. So, what I gave you tonight uh is a update on my goals in the memo form with live links and I actually have on my computer. I'm going to hit send right now. Send. Um, so that this is actually uh it's much easier. So you have a copy of some evidence a little bit of different format uh from my report out midyear in February and all those live links. And so we send that out to you electronically.

197This I just did the same. There are live links here with some examples. It's easier for you all to click through all the all of those live links than to make photo copies. I think that was a request last year. We're just going to do this a little differently to be more efficient. Um so I just outlined here my these are the goals that came directly from the approved uh process last fall. Um, I put a self assessment on top. That's just me and what I think uh based on the work that we did and the action items uh and the progress that I think we made um for each of these. And then underneath each of the measured goals, you can see likely a chart from one of the quarterly updates or something that

198was just maybe referenced a little differently uh that had some numbers or references there that I put in my goals. So, I'm not going to go through all this is for you all to review for my evaluation. Um, I will the one that I do, however, really want to note um because as I looked at these at the end of the year, I said, hm, that wasn't awesome and that should have been a two-year goal. But, um, if you look at the professional practice goal where it's I did a self assessment, says some progress. Oh, and I left out the O. That's not very good for my evaluation. apologize there. It's a busy afternoon. Um, and then it I just, you know, said more in August and I just want to explain that I know

199Josh Golovsky just went through this. I put these items in my goal to be met by right now and that's not possible to be met right now. We don't have this information. So, some of this was um the percentage of students passing grade nine. We just don't have that in detail just yet. Uh we're expecting that information. Um and we want to make sure we're using the same data that the state is collecting as data because that's what we put in our original strategy plan. We don't want to guess, I guess, is what I'm telling you, right? I could pull stuff from Infinite Campus now by course and kid and start guessing and that I don't want to do that. Um and then the the second two uh where it says by June which had

200we had had maybe a more typical budget year scheduling for students would have been completed at this point or at least um courses um where it all fell uh would be completed and that is definitely not the case at this point. So I can't tell you I will when schedules are out in August uh if we have that percentage of students enrolled in advanced coursework for next year. So while there is still work being done towards that goal which has been outlined below that I just wanted to reflect on that. And so again, upon further reflection, I was like that probably wasn't smart to do and think that we were going to have all those at this point in time because those take a little bit of time to actually get. Um I think those

201are the only two that I wanted to make sort of a general comment on because those were just a little bit Oh, and also I'm sorry, the last one, the district and go goal improvement number two. Um Dr. Dr. Glass, you just went over the grade nine data, which you know, upon reflection again, I looked at it and said we we agreed two months before I presented this to you that we were going to take a baseline data of the grade nine to start digging into it, but then in my goals, I put that 50% of the kids would be extracurricular activities. So, it didn't quite match uh our work. Uh so, I just wanted to point that out. I still would like that to be my goal. I in fact would like to push

202that forward and push some of these forward for another year because I think having this be the first year of our new strategy plan and looking at data and getting all the feedback we have this year refocusing our attention. I think some of these actually will apply for next year as well and we'll have a little bit um I feel stronger that the the solid a more solid outcome to review. Member Shibilia So before I I have a first I have a question. Yeah. What is the reason that the superintendent's review is public? Is that like a desi thing? Is that a policy thing? Like we don't regulation. Oh, it's how it works. Say because we don't do it for any of the chiefs or nobody may like it is just me. I'm a lone

203wolf. I mean l lucky you I guess. No, it's part of the it's part of the system and it's a regulation by Jesse that it's done this way with the school committee. Um, the one thing and I don't know if we've talked about this out loud, so I'm actually going to do it now because I want to think about this for when we have this conversation when I create new goals for next year, right? Because there's going to be information that we gather and create new goals. um that at this point there is a system in place that Desi suggests that superintendent uh could or should have a two-year set of goals. So that this this right now would be the midpoint and I think I started to reflect on that in the past couple

204weeks when I looked at this and said that'd be great for next year. Like why did I put that on this year when we actually could have that data the baseline plus what the work we're doing to get to that outcome in two years? And so there's a consideration for that. That's part of something that Dussie recommends. And MASC also has some thoughts about that with not new superintendent but veteran superintendent to do a more of a two-year plan. So it's a more global plan that matches things like a strategy plan. But just just that I'm putting that out there because those are things I'm thinking of having gone through this and knowing where we are in year one that these are some of these are more outcome based for a in year two or

205three. And so again that's my you know we just have to think about that when we talk about approving goals for this coming school year. So that feeds into my second question. Yep. When would we start doing goals like the new set of goals? Because as we had a subcommittee meeting today for the audit, y we are, let's call it cautiously optimistic that we're going to have the document out by July 11th, which means it would be publicized. You'd have it, I'd have it, everyone would have it, and then we'd be able to assess, digest, discuss, and then come up with any corrective action plans that we deem necessary. And I would think that would be part of any goal setting scenario. Yeah. So I guess how does the time I want to make sure

206the timelines jive so we don't have to go backwards and yeah I think the timelines if I had if that's something that I have in the summer that's also something that I can work through with the evaluation committee to then present goals. Typically I present goals the end of August right to this this committee. Um, last year we just got way laid a little bit for a lot of different reasons. I actually didn't present and improve my goals to you until October 15th. Um, and again that was due to us presenting a new strategy plan in August and feedback uh to try to generate this. Uh, and then the the meeting unfortunately that I was supposed to present at was right after the mayor passed. So we had postponed that. So um you know August

207has been a pretty regular August workshop has been the pretty regular goal setting draft. So I think if I have that in the summer that's something that I would then present as a draft to the committee. So then my concern becomes if this thing does come out July 11th with which is a soft tenative date um we don't meet in July right that might be premature well that's well I mean once the final product is done I was under the assumption based on conversation today that that'll be the final product that's what we will that's what we would put out into the world. That's what CBIS is going to give us. Just to clarify, so one of the things that we discussed today was the prospect of uh conducting a a formal presentation for uh

208the public um ultimately by way of a joint uh city council school committee special meeting. So that's something that we can organize as we get closer. Yeah. I would just want to make sure that we're doing that with Dr. Kuang's calendar in mind to make sure that we're able to adequately plan and have time for golding and conversation and discussion because this this thing is beefy. Um there's going to there's a lot to digest. There's a lot of graphs and charts and datas and all the things. I mean it would be it it I think it's on multi multileveled, right? So, it would be great if that is something that I could have to digest and incorporate and then plan the public conversation about that knowing that that's going to be part of what I'm

209trying to digest and that what makes sense for me for next year. Right. Member Maxwell. Um, I'm only asking this because I was going to ask you anyway and I just see it in here. Professional development offered in um 2425. Is this all of the professional development? I guess I'll ask that question. Do do seas have professional development? So the special ed administrators all so all of the administrators participate in our leadership PD. Yes. Okay. Is that what you're asking for educ for the admin? Um yeah. the um the evidence that's listed is already um those are the the sessions that most closely matched um the goals the objectives. Okay. I think my question a little different. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Any other questions or discussion? If not, we'll move on. Oh, I'm sorry. And then

210I just I just added that too. So because we're the same committee, the evaluation committee last year is or this group is vice chair Keegan, member Donovan, member Daglio, unless there was any we haven't changed any of our committees with the same group. So I just Okay. All right. Uh next we're on to other business. I'm I'm going to chime in here uh just so that we can have a discussion about this and I'll pass it off to the superintendent after I share just a brief introduction. Uh for the sake of uh full transparency with the public uh this morning, uh city health inspectors visited the Tenny School. Uh I received word from those inspectors about uh major facilities failures at the school. Uh the city had spent in the ballpark of $50,000 deep cleaning

211the school roughly three and a half months ago and the cleaning company did a very good and thorough job of cleaning the school and by all accounts it appeared that uh we had succeeded in helping the custodial staff at the school catch up. Uh so today's news um of some major rodent related issues at the tenny u that news was obviously disappointing uh a surprise to us uh within the city. Uh I'd have a hard time uh frankly believing that it was a surprise among any school administrators or custodial staff. I'm exploring all options on my end, including going out to bid potentially for a new rodent control company. I've asked the city's director of health, human services, and inspections to take every necessary step from a regulatory standpoint to protect students participating in summer

212programs. Custodians have been cleaning today and inspectors will be back at the school tomorrow morning at 6:00 a.m. They'll be back on Monday as well. I think uh this speaks to the need for us to continue to have conversations about ways to work together to explore opportunities to merge certain city and school facilities functions so that we can better support our schools. I've been in touch with the superintendent throughout the day. Uh it's an unfortunate development uh but it's in the process of being addressed and I'll invite the superintendent to share any additional information. Just wanted to share that for full disclosure. That was a pretty good summary of uh what transpired today. So, um we are in the process of u Mr. Goslin and I were there for a good three and a half

213hours or so today. Um I did send a notice home. I sent it to you all just right before this meeting. It was trying to get to the parents timely um to make sure they were all set. Uh if there's any questions or concerns, the parents know to call me or the um director for the Rangers uh CL camp summer program that's there right now. We do have a plan for tonight. We have a plan for the weekend and we have a plan for next week. We have um all of our summer programs at the Tenny this summer for all the reasons uh that we have capital improvement projects that are uh beginning in other schools. And so to relocate that pro programs at this point is really not in the best interest of the

214district. Um so we are remediating everything that we can at this point and putting more custodians over at the tenny next week to make sure all the areas where students will be are disinfected and cleaned and sanitized again. Um and Ian and I are following up on some other issues and personnel matters. uh moving forward. So I think that's where I am and yes, incredibly disappointing today to be there. Dagio. Yeah. Uh I'm going to speak upon this because I was alerted by the health inspectors to come to the tenny grammar school today. Um that is because I've been working with them for the last almost since October. Um the man knows about that um due to the fact that I was tipped off back in October in regarding the mouse issue uh which led

215to the health inspection reports that were received and I went to the mayor and I followed through on that. But then today when I walked in and um it was absolutely mortifying what I saw in the cafeteria. It was probably one there was gaps in the doors which by the way which I do not blame the pests frankly there are people just not doing their job. One the pest in reports go back about six years which if you looked at if that was sent to all of us if you look they put in recommendations inside those reports and one is door sweeps. We went to the book today. Request door sweeps. Okay. Another thing that's requested, if you are in a sighting, you are to put any sightings in the log book. They have a

216log book that has a a nice thing where you put in the sighting because how pests work, they go in because it's a big school. They're not going to go check every classroom, but if there's specific areas that they need to go to to look, it has to be in that lock. If not, they check the traps. They check everything that they they put down and then they put in a log book. They say activity is clear. Um told not sightings. It's all in those reports. I checked the log book today. There was nothing put in there since February 10th. We went to probably 11 to 12 classrooms. It was covered in feces. At one point there was two classrooms where there was kids in there. All right, which then mortified me. Okay, health inspectors

217have been saying for now about five years if you look at reports, okay, where they are being told that you need to do these things and it's not being done or it's not being passed on cuz even Ian today was frustrated because he goes, I was told we put door sweeps down. Can I let you know what I said? Yeah, absolutely. Um cuz when I saw we needed door sweeps, I called past and I said, "Come out here, do the whole perimeter, put them on every single door." As they did the door sweeps that they're asking for interior doors, which there's a discrepancy between Pestand and the inspectors on whether that is whether that will actually do anything because they're already in the building or not. So the so that's the door sweeps. Every single

218one of the ex exterior doors have been done there. On some doors where there's two doors that close together, there is a small thing of light down the middle. The industry itself has been struggling with getting a sweep that goes horizontal. Horizontal, right? Yeah. No, vertical. Sorry. Goes vertical. Um, I was told today that within the last two months they have a product. They have um they have samples at their place. They're going to be there tomorrow between 7 and 8:00 installing those as well as I bit the bullet even though Pestan does not agree. They think it's a waste of money. um all interior door sweeps on the doors around the cafeteria area a as well as the um the electrical closet on the first floor outside the cafeteria. So if they're in the

219cafeteria, we're going to try to at least contain them there. Okay. So that that was what I said about and they're not in they're not in the kitchen. They're not in the kitchen. They're not in the kitchen. I just want you to say that. Can you fine? Okay. And then well um the the fact of the matter is and I brought this up five six months ago with the way the process is being done. The process is I am where principles where the book itself is in with the custodians. To my opinion, it should be with the principles where Mr. Reeves has done a great job with his electronic digital of all the sightings, which that could have been Ian and I were talking about this today in front of everybody that that we go

220digital, they print it out and put it in the log book. That's that's something that was brought up because I said our ticket system was awful cuz the principles are not on those ticket systems. So, if there needs to be a request like and I get it, toilet paper, stuff like that that shouldn't be going to an email, but what I saw today, I it's very hard for me to believe that it was only a week that it's happened because there was parts of where me and the inspectors looked at where there was dust, which we did a deep cleaning, so it had to happen afterwards, where there was rodent feces on the dust and the dust was covering it. That to me, unless the deep clean wasn't doing a deep clean, they didn't do

221their job. But I'm assuming where these areas were, there was and again I could continue to talk about what I saw today, but I'm just I'm I'm making it very clear with transparency now. And that to me is the issue. It's not a disconnect of communication. There is no the process is broken and I've said it over and over again and I'm going to continue to say it because the principal should be know what's going on in their building. The head custodian should be talking to the facility director or they should be in meetings where everybody is on the same page. People should be checking and it shouldn't be one person doing it. It should be a chain of command down all the way down to the head custodian to the custodians to to make

222this work. That's all I'm going to say. I and and I hope finally because I know the mayor has put a lot of investment in it and for him to be frustrated too. I am in the same boat and I'm hoping everybody is too. But what I saw today to me is unacceptable. And Dr. Kuang and Ian both agreed. So I'm not gonna say they they're not taking matters like this like not seriously. But to me it's it's unacceptable that that this happened. That's to me. Okay. So my question is, I know things really start next week is when a lot of the programming kicks in, right? July 7th. July Okay. July 7th. Um the cafeteria. Um the lunch program that we run for the city, all the satellite. Yeah, they is that No, cuz

223the kitchen passed inspection. No problem. Yeah, the kitchen was fine and they sanitized recaned and sanitized the whole cafeteria today and we'll do more tomorrow. Um but Mr. Friday was there as well. The kitchen inspection had no violations. Okay. So, anyone depending on Yep. So, that's still happening at Branch Street and Tenny. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Thank you, Member Shabilia. Then, member Maxwell. So, member Daglio was right. It was not a week. Dr. Kuang and I had this conversation earlier. The mayor and I had this conversation earlier. I spoke with uh Heidi this afternoon who is one of the inspectors. Um I just and it's this is this is a reiteration of the conversation I had with Dr. Kuang, but where where is admin? Where is janitorial? It's it's not new. And my concern is we

224have this um I forget what we're calling the the joint task force, but it's we're we're not doing anything as a city. We didn't fix a single problem when we spent all the money to do the deep cleans. It was great. It was the great concept of getting them caught up, but we didn't we didn't stop the the bleeding. So it's we we have to do we have to do more as a district and I know that our budget has an additional headcount for janitorial at the tenny and the timony plus the the floater which I guess is kind of an undefined role at this point subject to change districtwide. Districtwide. Yep. Yeah. Um, but when this when this came up months back, it it wasn't it wasn't new then either. I sat here in

225January, two weeks after swearing and watched Mickey run around the back of the room and it was the funny thing and the next thing I know, Telmundo called me for a quote. It was we we skated then in a sense that there was no real recourse other than the abuse we all took for getting there which despite the fact that most of us weren't here two weeks prior it was it was justified um but now something needs to be done and I know that there are restrictions that you have to go on where you can't discuss employees and employee matters and all of that stuff. But I think that the district needs to be assured that there is going to be a corrective measure because someone didn't do their job and it may be multiple

226someone's. I I don't know. Um all of that aside, I have other issues with how today went down. Um, when I learned about this, it was from councelor Ferretro or maybe it was member during our member Donovan or maybe maybe it was even you. I don't remember who it was. Someone said, "Have you heard the news about the tenny?" That's that's always how great stories start. But come to find out that it wasn't communicated to the bodies. The mayor was putting out other fires, so he didn't get to this one today. But come to find out, chairperson Marsen is there and member Daglio was there. And I I have issues with that because chairperson Marsen has zero jurisdiction in our buildings. The city council has no jurisdiction in our buildings. So at what point in

227the chain of command did it go mayor, city council? So the city council chair and I connected this morning, I was unable to drop what I was doing and run to the school. He was available. So that made sense to me. So the when I asked that question earlier of the health inspector, the response was because of the abuse they've taken being accused of being non-b businessiness friendly, which their job is not to be business friendly. Their job is to keep the city safe and clean and people healthy because we're gross as human beings. Apparently Ron had offered if you go somewhere and you need something, call me. And I I commend him for that because I think any one of us would say the same thing. But I I take issue with that and

228the fact that we're going around and they're going into rooms with children. And then today at about 3:30ish, I got a phone call from a friend. And I first thought, why are they calling me? They usually call my wife. None of them called to talk to me. I'm the dad. But the question was, she picked up her child at the tenny from Rangers Club today. And it was my son got in the car and said, "Why are there people he asked me why there were people yelling in his classroom about mice?" Now, even accounting for 50% of exaggeration. It was a conversation happening in a classroom about mice versus it was yelling about mice. Should never have happened in front of children. Take it in the hallway. I don't know what happened, but take it

229in. It doesn't matter. There's no need for a comment. It shouldn't have happened in front of kids. Something you don't know what you're talking about. should get both sides of the story. I don't care what both sides of the story are. The fact that a child can come home and say that why were there grown-ups in my classroom today talking about mice is a problem. Well, okay then. I'm going to go call this kid mom back and be like, "Your kid's a liar. Get him get him assessed." But stay focused, please. It's the health department is being abused. it it wasn't handled properly and now it's on us as a committee and and you as the leader of this administration to make sure that we're sending a message to the community that we're not going

230to skate on this one. I I I hate it and everyone for the most part works their butts off, but this was a systematic failure. Something needs to happen. There needs to be recourse. Something to keep in mind is I think it's important to consider other examples here where for instance the timony uh late last year late fall Timony was that that was like a crisis right and uh after uh their deep clean uh their uh custodial uh team um helped to I think establish a sustained trend of improvement And uh the other thing too that was mentioned was uh principal Reev had established a digital uh mechanism by which people could report sightings of any rodents in the building. And that allowed for enhanced communication between everybody. And so you look at the Timony

231and you see how they were in straight up crisis mode late last year and now they've gotten things to a point where uh the situation from all uh indicators that we have is mostly under control. And compare that to this instance at the tenny. It seems to me that there is an uneven distribution here in terms of the system and the in the results of that. So, you know, I think at this point uh you know, I wouldn't have said this late last year, but you know, look to perhaps the example of the tim I'm not for most. It's not the best. So that's well I but in in this context I'm speaking only in this context here. Uh you know I think that's something that is uh interesting to note. Member Maxwell. Um so

232I didn't know any of this. Everybody else knew every all day I guess. I didn't I didn't hear about this until like 4:30. But um my concern with it is is the health inspector went there because they have to certify that it's safe for summer camp to start. Correct. It's the kitchen. Fine. And that starts July 7th. But are the other schools going to be relooked at by the board of health? Yes. And Okay. Member Lu. I'm just honestly completely outraged and if someone can give me an explanation at the the tenny if they're under staff if people are on extended leave because there's absolutely no excuse to have a deep cleaning to have the focus of the entire community really the entire state multiple times on that issue. uh and no uh breakthrough at

233the at the tenny. So, it's either like incompetence, inefficiency, or if people are on leave, that might be a partial explanation. And I know that we're underst staffed, but this this is like a major issue that I'm getting tired of uh approaching now. I have no problem asking the administration to look at comparable communities to see if they have privatized services and if we have cost savings from that privatized service that you could reapply into that school for deep cleaning privatized service right I don't have a problem at this stage exploring that because there's a massive disconnect if if if even dust you're not you're not cleaning the school and it and it's sad because I went into Mthoan High School I see the guys working diligently the CGS had no problems the two problematic

234schools were the Tim which you witnessed progress and then the tenny so now we're going to focus all of our energies on the tenny and it better be a a damn good explanation like if you had a a massive call out or sick leave and a depletion of the services and maybe have some backfill at the tenny and we've had this conversation like 10,000 times because of the dimensions of the tim and the tenny the the unique situations there's a lot of activities at both of those uh facilities right and we will have proms and we're going to try to correct the problems and everything like that. I'm getting tired of that person pitting against that person, right? I want to make sure that the metallic barriers are in place if we have it was

235recommended to us landscaping exter external trapping. Okay. and member Daglio and I recommended and received that same information that was circulated from past end. I know for a fact those recommendations weren't abided by. Okay? And we have to learn from those mistakes. But I'm not going a year and a half into a situation, right? And there's no consequences. And I've never broached the topic before privatization. I'm a strong advocate of unions, but if they're not getting the message, maybe it's a pilot program at the tenny and people will have to fight for their jobs and maybe apply for that, you know, that dynamic. It's when you don't have competition, right? Look at the tea, how that's operating, the inefficiencies at the tea. Are we collectively happy with the tea? I'm getting the same sense of

236the tenny and with the custodial crew and it's not universally like I said CGS was fine the marsh has done improvements the high school has done improvements the tim based on your word is improved now we're focused on the tenny it's the same garbage so maybe we explore other communities and privatization or use the tenny as an example right and you justify to me why you still have a position in in a school system and if someone is through attrition and retirements right have uh privatized services is another option but if you don't have competition in the society and I you know I worked at the state house I you know they have a privatized crew at the state house it's not union it's a privatized crew they go in and clean it because they

237had issues before with custodial ranks and it fested and things weren't taken care of. So, at this point, um I'm getting just tired of it. So, that's a Thank you, Vice Chair. So, the problem exists. I'm not gonna rehash that because everybody else has already said it. But my issue with the cleaning, and I'm not saying cleaning doesn't need to get done because it does, but it's not solving the problem. What are we doing to solve the problem of the mice, right? Like there's obviously we need to clean up, right? We need to get plants out of classrooms. We need to get food out of classrooms. We need to do all that. But what are we doing to keep the mice, the ones that are in there? How do we kill them? And how do

238we keep the other ones out? And why is it that they're at the tenny and they're not at the Timony, right? Like I mean, as far as the cleaning goes, I get it. We have different crews there, etc. But we have the same rodent control people that Tim was so much worse a few months ago. Why is it under control over at the Tim and the mice are not under control at the tenny? We need to figure that out and we need to fix the problem, not just clean up the mess afterwards. We need to prevent. We don't need to just keep cleaning up. Agreed. I think we all are in agreement. Just my own narrative. I'm more upset that the staff that work there didn't report it. Thank you. Don't Don't come with me

239with your problem if you didn't tell me three months ago when you saw it. Um I don't know what budget meeting it was, but we had a room full of t red shirts and union president or co-president, one of them, Carolat, came up to this table at a recess or whatever it was, and said, "I got a report that the seventh grade at the tenny has mice." I said, "Okay." During that recess, I called past 10. I heard we have an uptick of mice at the seventh grade wing at the tenny. I need somebody over there tomorrow. The next morning, he said, "I'll be there at I don't know, 8:30, whatever it was." Called head custodian. Make sure you bring them up. Seventh grade wing where they were reporting the mice. They went up there,

240they baited, they trapped, they they did all the stuff that I would want them to do. That's the only report I got. So they went and I called, they responded, they went up and did what they had to do. No one told me there was having a problem in the cafeteria. Nobody told me there was a I'm sure there was no problem in the cafeteria. Let's not the kitchen. Same thing, right? No. No. Question. How, and I don't mean this in a rude way, but how come it's being reported to you instead of the director of facilities? Anybody would have been anybody. But isn't the director of facilities I think she just reported to me because I was here. But isn't he responsible for all of the buildings and maintaining this type of stuff and

241maintaining and and making sure that our buildings are in safe conditions to some degree. Yes. You do have to understand and it's a joke here with a lot of you is that we're all wearing way way too many hats. We all have a plate this big and we're getting told to take care of this much stuff. Stuff falls off the plate. Stuff's falling off my plate. You can blame me just as much as you could blame anybody else because there's not enough bodies to be in every building supervising every person every day while you're dealing with everything else that's on your plate. So, I'm not making excuses. You can be mad at me just as you can at anybody else. But at some point, the straw is going to break the back. People can only

242do so much. We've said times we're short on custodians. We were able to get a couple more in and another supervisor or district-wide maintenance person into this next budget. Hopefully, that's going to give us a little step in the right direction. Is it enough? Probably not. But I also know we're not going to cut teachers. It it's a catch 22. Everyone's doing She does. No superintendent in the world gives access to them like she does. She does way more than any superintendent I've ever worked with. She'll talk to anybody. She'll She was out there looking at mouse poop today. Like that doesn't happen in other districts. But you know what? There's no one else to do it. There's literally five of us and we're cutting everyone around us because we're topheavy and our plates are

243only this big. Was the director of facilities yesterday? Yes. And he was there tonight. I was just I don't know if you saw me on my phone. I was just texting one of the guys who was over there working on on the rooms. I asked if there were 12 rooms that we absolutely need for tomorrow morning. We picked the 12 rooms that don't have carpets. They went through, they mopped, they cleaned, they did all the sills, they did all the They did that all today. We pulled guys from other buildings to come over and help so that tomorrow morning at 6:00 a.m. when the superintendent, which doesn't happen in any other district, we'll be at the tenny tomorrow morning at 6:00 to meet the board of health. We're burning candles at all 14 ends. And

244I mean, we can yell and scream and yeah, some people need to be dealt with. And if you've ever worked with her, you know they will be. All right, I'm off by rant. Sorry, Donovan. I'm just wondering, and kudos, Mr. Goslin, for speaking up. You said it beautifully. I worked in this district long enough to know. You're absolutely right. And um but that said, I think in order to move forward through this debacle, I really hope we and all of us think long and hard about what the chain of command is. You saw my face today when you said Ron Marsen was there and I said to you, "Why weren't you there?" or something like that. And I respect that you had stuff going on. But I I just have to ask, when did you

245guys get called? after we got a phone call from Cali I think at a little before 11 looking for look at my text looking for me or Ian and and I was in a meeting and Ian went so Paley is the director of health human services inspections and is the quarterback of the response today so as long as I feel better knowing that the administrative team was contacted and kudos I'm glad all the work you did however I think we have a job and that's often to step out of the way so these folks can get in assess clearly keeping in mind there's kids in the building. I mean and then they're going to have to do their thing. I'm just it it shouldn't be we need to follow the chain of command in both

246directions and the same goes with Mr. Goslin noted. People aren't reporting. I mean that's a culture thing. I mean, that's a culture thing in the building, and that's really sad. Like, they should be griping, saying out loud, I have a mouse in my room or whatever. But I just wanted to confirm that the correct chain of command was used because we could all show up at some point. It would be a circus. It's a circus here every day. Well, and a meeting violet. Yeah, that's true. Vice Chair, yeah, I have to agree with me Donovan. Um there shouldn't be people walking around the building with kids in it um that aren't coreied that aren't with a cried person that aren't supervised. And so you know the first people that should be called is I mean

247the principal should be there walking around or the superintendent or somebody. I mean honestly the school committee members shouldn't be walking around the buildings without them. It it's just not what we're supposed to do. And you know, member Ro um uh Marzan shouldn't have been there. He's not cried. He doesn't belong in the buildings. Like our people need to be like people need to be escorted for the safety of our kids. Um and so I I feel pretty strongly that, you know, people need to be escorted if they're going to be in the buildings. And that includes school committee, it includes city council, it includes even the board of health. they need to be with somebody because they're not coreied. So, we need to follow appropriate, you know, safety measures in the buildings. I I

248just go ahead, member. So, I had a conversation with Mr. Stella at this point probably a month ago and it's been tossed around here over the last year. This, oh, it's all his fault. It's all Bruce's fault. Where's the director? Where's the director? I got a call today from a counselor who shall remain nameless screaming at me because it's all Bruce's fault. It's all Bruce's fault. If you talk to Bruce, yes, he is the director, but he is also the guy shimmying up the ladder, which you of all people can attest to, to get onto those roofs because he's working on the air handler. He's crawling through the closet working on the boiler. He is a director in title, but he is a he is a doer. He is out there doing it. And it

249is again another flaw in Methuan. And like Ian said, the topheavy nonsense which we've I personally have been speaking about for the last 18 months is stupid because he doesn't have the ability to go out there and direct because he has to do it. So, the fact that he hasn't been getting these reports, which nobody has been able to tell me today whether it's been reported or not, because when this happened the first time, we put in tickets. I haven't heard that this time yet. And maybe it's true, maybe it's not. No one has been able to confirm whether or not the mouse problem was reported. But to sit around and to blame the director is it it's it's it's the the knee-jerk reaction to find a scapegoat. We it's his it's his job to

250run a building. It's our job to build a damn district. And we have failed as politicians in this city for 30 years to fund a district that can support its employees. Why the hell would anyone want to work here? Because we put them in a position where we burn them out and then we say fault. get out. But someone has to be held accountable. No one's being held accountable in this district. And that's the problem. You want to talk, you want to talk truths, that's the truth. No one's held accountable for anything that they don't do or do. We have all said that someone needs to be held accountable. I just don't think that's where it is. I think that we need to take a step back and say, how did the problem get to

251where it is? Who's responsible for making sure that doesn't get that way? Because there are administrators that have walked by it every day. There were teachers that have walked by it every day. There are janitorial services that have walked by it every day. There were PAs who have walked by it every day. And it's one person's job to make sure that everybody else is doing their job. But we haven't given that person the ability to make sure that they're able to do that. We have told that person, climb up on the roof and fix the air handle. I'm saying the superintendent's job is to is to is to oversee everybody and make sure that we have a functioning district. Correct. And I'm not I can't wait until the audit comes out and show us how

252not topheavy we are and how this city has completely screwed up education. What I'm saying is is there's one person responsible for all of the jobs. And I'm not saying this in a in a bad way. I'm just saying if someone's not being held accountable, like we're all saying, someone's not being held accountable. I don't know who that is, but if that person's not being held accountable and the problem continues for 5 years, then then we need to address the the the main person in charge of running the entire district. Correct. I mean, let's let's just say so to to go off everybody's remarks for when I got the call, the first thing I did was called the chair and then I called Dr. Kong left her a message saying I would meet her at

253the tent because at the end of the day from this letter and I'm not saying she was trying to hide anything or any that we wouldn't know how severe the situation was. Also, we wouldn't know the classrooms where kids were what letter the the email that they sent out to parents. we wouldn't know that there was feces and also classrooms where kids were occupied which I'm going to go and I'm going to defend even though I was being dismissed. We the health inspectors went into those rooms because they wanted to check those rooms. Once they found that Dr. Qu we were all in a different room where we were told we need to get those kids out of those rooms. That's what what happened. So the kid, I'm not going to say the kid didn't

254hear talking among six individuals, but we had to put a plan in place right away because the health inspector said, "You need to get those kids out of those rooms." So I'm not going to sit here and say I heard yelling and I'm my like know your place. I'm not going to be told that by by someone that wasn't even there. But I was told no, you could say whatever you want. I I'm not going to be talked down to as I'm a child. I know what happened. I was there. No, don't at the state. This is not this is not helping the situation. But I'm just saying I'm defending who were there. But at the same time, the chain of command I went through the chair and I went and I went through the

255superintendent saying I would meet there and I did so and I'm cried. So I I am allowed in that building because I am court. So, are you cried to our district? I did. We did take the exam. Yeah. Could Could we then at some point just get a copy of the um health inspector's reports? Yes, that'll be I'll have that posted on the website. I mean, not that I want to read them, but I'd appreciate it. We'll we'll have that shared. Do we have any other business? I have one question. Is there a concern that if we're moving janitorial staff from I believe it was the marsh to the tenny that there'll be some I I don't know slippage in the buildings we're pulling them from you mean right now to pull them for the

256tenny so I don't know how long I don't so I I heard it was the marsh I don't know it's the marsh I don't it's all school we had we had yeah a couple from each school so that we weren't pulling whole crews from each school so I guess my general eneral concern is is if we're if we're pulling from one place to add to another and I know I mean we have what four on a crew at any given time maybe five. Right. If we're pulling, I don't know, half of those folks to go to the tenny to to damage control, my concern then shifts to the buildings we're pulling from that they're they're going to fall behind. And it's it's a slippery slope. And yes, I mean, I I this isn't a long-term

257solution, obviously. So, we're never have long-term solutions. We're pulling them to make sure that we can open on the 7th and everybody's comfortable with the expectations, right? So, uh, we don't see this as a long-term solution, and I think we'll be okay pulling everybody as we need to for the next seven days. There's also building not being used right now. There there are no children at the marsh, CGS, and Tim. So, we're pulling those crew because they're not being occupied right now. Well, we're pulling crews from the high all all schools right now to support and we will send them all back to the building once we have all of our expectations met. And I will say the guys have been great about it. They've all been So, we also did the same thing when

258we had to re relocate furniture at the Timny for the abatement, the upcoming abatement. Um, each gram school sent two guys over and they really pounded the work out in no time and they've really been great. So, I just want to sometimes they do squawk. People could squawk about you pulling from one building, put them in another. Our guys have been great. No, no complaints to speak of right now. Yeah. Keep in mind this is all happening as we're beginning the process of replacing those carpets at the Tim and such. So, it's uh only thing I wanted to add, Mr. Chairman, in terms of debris fields behind uh bookcases which was photographed and uh dilapidated uh bookcases that are falling apart that was recommended to us to remove at the tenny. I know teachers personally

259approached me on that and I saw the visual with the photographs since we're you know marshalling all the resources at the tenny. Can we double and triple the efforts to make sure that, you know, debris fields and discarded items and and paper uh anything that would fester that we're working on those classroom by classroom like strategically because if that was photographed and all we're doing is a quick cleaning and dusting, right? That doesn't solve the issue either. And I know um member Keegan and I were talking about if if there's still plants in classrooms and other things that were identified previously. Um I don't want to regurgitate on these items either. I want some accountability on this. So I will let you know about the bookcases. Uh there was an issue with bookcases where the

260backs were pushed out. I believe what happened was if you looked at the the bookcases behind it was discarded papers and and books and things that should have been should have been cleaned. Now again I can't put it 100% on a teacher because that's not totally her responsibility but if it was reported or if a classroom wasn't fully examined that goes back to our level of accountability. So, if I if I went to a school tomorrow, let's say at the tenny, and behind a bookcase had uh stuff on the floor of discarded uh books and papers because it hasn't been cleaned um or holes in a wall or anything of that nature, right? I think it just manifests that we really if we're going to combine resources and I think the council also talked about

261having a maintenance team go from school to school to school and and work on things. um we just in a digitized platform at this at the at the Tim if that's something that we can apply to all the schools that's something a digital platform we got to start thinking outside the box because we're regurgitating the same problems so I just want to say that thank you right at this point uh with no further business to discuss we need a motion and a second to adjourn uh tonight's workshop uh business executive end of the year session of the Mthuan School Committee for June 26, 2025 and enter into executive session. So moved. Second. Motion from member Daglio, second from member Shabilia pursuant to Massachusetts general laws chapter 38 section 21A3 to discuss uh strategy with respect

262to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body. And the chair so declares unit B and custodians. Uh, make that declaration now and we'll have a roll call vote to enter executive session. Member Daglio, yes. Member Dunovan, yes. Member Keegan, yes. Member Maxwell, yes. Member Shaveilia, yes. Member Wlette, yes. Mayor Boragon, yes. Unanimous. Time is 8:46. Our meeting is adjourned. Good night, Mthun. [Music]