Middleborough Public Schools: School Committee Meeting - March 4, 2026

001[clears throat] >> Good evening, everyone. I'm going to call the meeting to order. We good up there? Thank you. All right, we will start this evening by asking if you're able to rise for the pledge of allegiance. The flag is back over there. I pledge 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. I have to say our pledge of allegiance always sounds better when there's a large group of teachers in the room, so thank you all. >> All right. Um under the open meeting law, I'm going to just inform everyone that this meeting is being recorded by Middleborough Educational Television, MET. If anyone in the audience is taping the meeting, either audio or video,

002please inform us at this time. >> [snorts] >> All right. We'll now move on to the public comment portion of our agenda. We do ask that you state the name of your name for the record and direct all your comments through me, the chair. Uh tonight we do ask that your comments relate to items within the purview of the school committee. Please note that personal complaints regarding personnel or students should be directed to the appropriate administrator outside of the meeting. The committee will not engage in discussion with the speaker or take action on any matters not on the agenda tonight. We allow 3 minutes per speaker, so do please be mindful of the time. If you are here to speak on the elementary complex reconfiguration, I would ask that you wait until we begin the

003public hearing around 7:15. The floor is now open for regular public comment. Good evening. Teresa Farley. Um I just wanted to come quickly and say 4 years ago I sat in the seat that you're in and um we started that process of hiring a superintendent. And what I want to say is we didn't have nearly this many people sitting behind me as that process started. I'm really happy to see this group here um and I would just ask that you listen and truly hear their words and their requests as this process starts towards finding a new superintendent and and let's move forward as a district. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Hi. Alexis Barros, 75 Wareham Street, resident, parent, and teacher for this town. Um the only thing I want to comment of uh comment

004on is my disappointment for how communication is severely lacking. Last night, Middleborough Public Schools decided a post on a Facebook post to saying that we had rescheduled the reconfiguration hearing for tomorrow meeting today. Yet, there was no announcement about tomorrow's School Committee. I am asking for transparency and communication because as a parent, we should be notified within a timely manner. A lot of us find it odd that these have not been broadcasted. And I dare I say, the timing is impeccable. We're deciding our reconfiguration and curriculum during the time that the complex has their parent-teacher conferences. So, I want to say thank you to all the members that showed up for the very long day we had and the members who are not part of our complex. And we are just coming here hoping that

005we can work alongside each other because we deserve communication, our parents deserve communication, and that is something we are severely lacking as a district. Thank you. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Anyone else for public comment? >> [snorts] >> All right, thank you everyone. I'd now like to invite Shawn Costello from the Massachusetts Association of School Committees to join us. Shawn is here to present the MASC Superintendent Search Process to help us determine if we want to avail ourselves of their services to find and hire a new superintendent. So, this is basically a sales pitch um and we do not have a vote scheduled. This is not a decision-making event. Um, the committee will be able to ask Shawn questions, but this is not listed as discussion items. Questions from the public can be emailed to

006us or brought to comment when we discuss this at an upcoming meeting planned for March 12th. Shawn, please. >> Awesome. Well, first of all, I want to echo the comments that your prior school committee member made. This is really great to see folks interested in the process. I'm sure there are other things on the agenda that they're interested in, too. But, folks taking an active interest in the superintendent search process is something that we take very seriously at MASC and that we incorporate into every single step of the superintendent search process. And that's part of the reason why we've had such a long track record of success at MASC for superintendent search processes. I'll back up and explain very quickly. I think all of you know it, but just in case and and for those

007in the audience, as well, MASC is the Massachusetts Association of School Committees. It was founded in 1947. Every single school district in Massachusetts, save for two, is a member of MASC. I am your field director, Shawn Costello. I have been with MASC for almost 2 years now, as you know. I have done some trainings with you folks over the course, I think one training and I've seen some of you at Charting the Course, which is our legally mandated training that all school committee members must take in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I have a district that includes Boston all the way down through the South Shore, Cape and Islands. So, I have 102 school districts in my district at MASC that I serve on a daily basis. I have school committee experience as an 11-year member

008of the Marshfield School Committee where I still currently serve and the past 10 years as chair. And again, I think I told you before that's not impressive, it's because nobody else wants to do it. So, I did my own superintendent search in Marshfield a few years ago and that's how I came to this work. And we're very pleased with how that turned out. Since then, I've been part of many superintendent search processes. We just wrapped up a superintendent search process on Martha's Vineyard. Prior to that, I wrapped up at the Monomoy Regional School Committee down in uh Chatham and Harwich. And prior to that, we wrapped up in Wareham. And that's all this year alone. I also have Whitman-Hanson on my roster right now that I'm working with to find their interim before we switch

009over to finding their full-time superintendent. I shared an email with you, Madam Chair, that included a few documents that I hope the rest of the committee has had time to review. That included a document called Looking for a Leader. That's a rather long document that gives you some idea of the superintendent search process as a whole. And that's not just something that we provide to our clients. That's something that we make available if anybody wants it. That's an important document to to become familiarized with. You see a superintendent search cost summary. MASC is uh very confident in the fact that we come in at one of the lowest costs in the state for a superintendent search at a flat rate of $11,500. Uh that is um not subject to any sort of change. You know,

010we won't charge you more money for any sort of thing. And if you We have a clause in there uh that we dare anybody else to compete with that says if you have a contract with a superintendent for 3 years that you hire through our process and that person does not complete 2 years of service, we do the search all over again for you free of charge. Um so, you'll see that cost summary in there. You'll see a cover letter that I put together for all of you. Um I've been grateful to have a working relationship with all of you at this point. I've gotten to know all of you at varying levels and have spoken to you with some of the issues that you deal with as a school committee. There's a document in

011there called the superintendent search team. I would be leading your search, but um in the case that I have uh an issue or an emergency or a prior scheduled meeting, somebody else would be filling in for me to ensure that you still have MASC in the room at everything that you do. And then that last document is steps in the superintendent search process. And that's what I'd like to go over with you today. Um as you may remember from my training with you, please feel free to interrupt me. I am totally fine if you need to ask a question in the middle of my presentation. You do not need to wait until the end. If you have any questions whatsoever, please let me know. I am certainly happy to answer them. Sue's nodding cuz she

012knows. So, if you look at the steps in the search process, our first step is called general consultation, which is the announcement of your vacancy, which we can work with you on uh wording. We have the timeline development, which we can work on, as well as qualifications and salary. Salary is something I don't touch. That is you as a school committee. I will not be spending your money for you. That is something that you need to decide as a school committee what salary range you're comfortable with. Sue. >> [laughter] >> First question. Do you provide Do you provide data that helps us determine that range? >> we can. Okay. I would be very happy to So, what we essentially what I would do is I would to if you ask me to, which I'd be

013happy to, I would look at the size of your district, the size of your budget, and I would reach out to our friends at the Mass Association of School Superintendents, um which is an organization we work very closely with, and I would ask them for a few districts that are a comparable size and budget size. Okay. And we'd look at the salaries that they pay their superintendents. We could also look at some in the area itself, um but we find it's better to look at the size of the district um and the budget. So, we'd be happy to do that. So, again, this is the general consultation period. You can see that we assess the search environment. We analyze the district's needs and your goals. You You have a strategic plan, correct? Yes. Okay, so

014we would look at that with you. We'd set a timeline with you, and everything is subject to your approval. This is not something that it's like, "Well, this is what I as your consultant want." I work for you. This is not something where I make all of the decisions and you have to go with whatever I say. I go with whatever you say. Um we define the scope of the search. We define the qualifications that you're looking for in the next superintendent of schools. Um and then we discuss the formation of a preliminary screening committee. I will always recommend certain things for a screening committee. Now, this is something that folks should understand is that school committees in Massachusetts have all the statutory authority they need to just make a decision on whoever their superintendent

015will be at any time. You do not have to involve anybody else. You should involve other people. You should involve every facet of your community at every step of this process. And that includes uh a strong search committee. Um I typically recommend a number of about 13. It gives you an odd number of folks. Um so there's no tie votes or anything like that. Um I would recommend a couple of staff members on that committee. I would only recommend up to two school committee members. Um I would recommend some staff. I would recommend an administrator. I would recommend a couple of parents. And please, please, please put at least one student on your search committee. It is always an important piece of the process to have student voice in that room when you're interviewing candidates.

016So that's something that we can talk about if you choose to go with MASC services. Sean, my first question >> ahead. is the preliminary screening committee the same as will they become the search committee? That is the search committee. Yes. Preliminary screening, preliminary search, that those are the same thing. >> Thank you. Um that committee will have to go through a training process. We can talk about that in a minute, too. Um and that's actually right there. The review of the requirements of public records and open meeting statutes. So whenever your committee is selected, they would actually be an official town body. Um and they would have to go through a training with me on the open meeting law. That is something that they cannot miss. So anybody that applies to be on your screening

017committee needs to be made aware that they can't miss any of the dates that are set ahead of time for the screening committee to meet. And that they especially can't miss that training because have to go through the training to know about confidentiality. We are dealing with uh people's livelihoods. A lot of the time you will receive applicants who have not yet informed their districts that they are applying for these positions. So, it is um paramount that your search committee, your screening committee, keep all of that information confidential because the first round is confidential um by law these folks have these privacy rights. Once they become finalists, it is no longer confidential. Everything in the finalist round has to happen in public. Um you cannot advance one finalist. You cannot advance two finalists. You have

018to advance at least three finalists for your superintendency. I see three as a pretty good number. Sometimes a district will do four, but that tends to be like a city, like Fall River did four. Most other districts I've worked with did three. Um but there's a point there too that says decision whether to engage in community and school district focus groups and or electronic survey to elicit community feedback. And that leads nicely into step two, which is community engagement, focus groups, and online survey. Some districts have chosen just to do an online survey. I would not recommend that. I would recommend you do an online survey and in-person focus groups. Uh if you so choose, I can lead those focus groups. And essentially what I would do um is work with you to schedule different

019focus groups for different groups of folks in your district. We would have multiple focus groups for parents. We would have multiple focus groups for educators in your community. I always like to do focus groups for students and give them an opportunity during school hours, if they so choose, to come and tell us what's going well in their schools and what should change in their schools. The questions that I ask at these focus groups are incredibly simple, and yet they yield a lot of great information. The questions I only ask three questions. What's going well at Middleborough Public Schools? What should change in Middleborough Public Schools? And what qualities and qualifications should the next superintendent of schools have in order to address these issues? Through those pieces of information that I gather in community focus groups

020with parents, with staff, with members of your community who are concerned about public education, and with your students, I put together an entire report um that essentially notes the culture and climate of your school district where it currently stands. Um I do have samples of reports that I have put together that I would be happy to send to you. I just did one for Whitman-Hanson, and I just did one before that for Martha's Vineyard. Uh they tend to be about 7 to 10 pages long. They are public documents. So, anything that I put in those reports are a public document, and I don't like to pull punches or anything like that. If somebody says something and it's the way they feel, and it's something that's prevalent in the community, it's going to be in the

021report because that's important for you folks to know. Um so, that's a big piece of the of the process. I also would highly recommend supplementing those community forums with some kind of online survey. That way, if folks can't make the community forums, um or if they don't feel comfortable saying something in public, which I totally get, um you know, to remedy that, right? Like if there's any administrators or any school committee members that try and come to like an educator forum, I kick them out of the room. Um because those educators need to be able to speak freely. But, if anybody still feels uncomfortable with anything like that, or public meetings aren't their thing, um a uh a a community a a community electronic survey is a really good way to supplement that, and and

022gives us some good information. So, I would synthesize all of that for you, provide it as a report to you, and that report would then inform the search committee's process as they go through the the process of selecting finalists. Alan. I just back up for a moment. So, from what I gleaned what you were saying, the focus groups will not be a public meeting. Focus groups are not a public meeting. All right. Thank you. Yep. So, no cameras or unless you guys schedule a school committee forum too for that, but I that would be highly unusual and redundant. Um So, the um the electronic survey is a really good thing to do. Again, that uh report that I put together for you will inform the search committee on what the community at large is looking

023for um and will also inform the school committee what the community is looking for when you're voting the three to five finalists that you receive from the search committee. So, that's the community engagement piece. Now, that community engagement obviously flows throughout the entire process because you will have community members on your search committee, but at the same time when you have your three finalists or four finalists or five finalists, I always always recommend each one of those finalists have an entire site visit day. We'll get to site visits a little while down the road, but while we're on community engagement, I just want to say it's an important part of the site visit process for the individual finalists to hold a community forum, a staff forum, and a student forum. So, three different forums for

024each finalist to hold so they can answer questions for members of the community, for members of your staff, and for any students who feel the need to come. >> [clears throat] >> Students don't typically come, so sometimes we like to suggest bribing them with pizza. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, and can see. You'll see the next step there is the announcement of your vacancy. And the first line there I'll plagiarize here in my my comments. MASC is in an excellent position to announce the vacancy not just statewide but nationwide. Again, every single school district save for two is a member of MASC. Perspective superintendent candidates know to look at MASC when they're looking for job applications. Um we have a network where we can blast this out nationally if you choose to do uh

025literally a nationwide search. Um we receive applications regularly, mostly from Massachusetts, but regularly we'll get them from places like Florida or Maryland or we had one candidate um in one process who was in Iowa and flew out to do their interview in person. Um there are people who very much want to come to Massachusetts. There's also folks in Massachusetts who are either current sitting superintendents, people with superintendent experience superintendency experience who might be in between districts and between contracts, and current assistant superintendents who are preparing themselves, who know Massachusetts laws really well and who know Massachusetts education really well. That will be looking at this. Most of your applicants will be from Massachusetts. Um and they will know uh they will know Massachusetts education. As you can see there, um we have a distribution list

026with more than 900 sitting superintendents and assistant superintendents who sign up for our distribution list to be notified when there's an opening. And we will do that for you and we will blast it out a few times to our list to make sure they know that Middleborough has an opening. Again, we post it on our website um and those folks um look to their web to look to our website for that. Um as your field director and as a lead search consultant for superintendency searches across Eastern Massachusetts, I am a member of the National Association of superintendency searches and I can post on our forum there too for some nationwide stuff. Um I'm going to move on to step four unless anybody has any questions. Okay, great. Step four you'll see is the development and

027distribution of your brochure and application materials. This is a process where a lot of the time committees don't recognize right away that they're not just looking for somebody to sell themselves to the committee. You are selling your committee and your district to a qualified strong candidate. In order to do that we put together a brochure of the district. That is something that your school committee representatives on the search committee would work with me on directly. Um if the school committee chooses, they can give those members essentially the the leeway to make those decisions or we can bring those things back to this full committee for approval, which might take a little longer, but it's totally however you feel comfortable. Um we would work with you to put together the announcement of your vacancy that would

028include a brochure that includes information about the district. Your budget, how many schools you have, how many staff you have, recent testing scores, all sorts of things that educational leaders would be interested to know about your district, as well as a blurb about the Middleborough community in itself. Um because you want somebody who's not just going to come in and be in these buildings. You want somebody who's going to come in and ingrain themselves into your community and be an active member of the Middleborough community at large. So, um that that is an important piece of the process. Um again, that could be approved by either just the folks on your search committee, the two school committee members, or by your full school committee, whatever you are comfortable with. Step five is the actual collection

029and review of applications. That's obviously one of the bigger steps in the process. We will set an application window. Typically, it's about a month, but we can shorten that if you folks want to or we can lengthen it. With Martha's Vineyard, we did 7 weeks because it's Martha's Vineyard and it's hard to get people to want to go out to an island where the median income of year-round residents is $57,000 a year, but the median price of a home was 2.5 million. Um that is not an issue you're going to have here in Middleborough, right? You're on the mainland. Um I would like guess that you would probably get about anywhere from 15 to 20 applicants, which is a really good thing. Um But so we would review those applications after they're collected, so we

030set the the the deadline. MASC collects those directly, so I collect those. I see them as they're coming in, so I know exactly who's applying. If their applications are incomplete, I call them and I say, "You need to do this part of your application." More likely it would be Anne Marie Martin in our office, our operations person, um and member services director, who would see it at the same time I would and would just dial quicker than I would. Um So Anne Marie Martin is as you may have seen in that um MASC search team would be an important piece of this process because she works with me directly to collect your applications, put them all together in a nice Dropbox folder for you, so you're not going through document after document, that you just

031see the applicant's name and every single piece of their application, their resume, their cover letter, their letters of recommendation, the actual application itself with their questions. All of that is in one document. So we collect all of that for you. I do not provide you with the applicants on a rolling basis. I provide you with the applications after the deadline. That is to ensure that your opinion is not colored by the applications that may come in right away versus the applications that come in in the last week. That's an important piece of the process to keep your mind fully open. Um you have a deadline for a reason and nobody should get points for doing it ahead of the deadline when you might have a really strong candidate who's on the fence about whether or

032not they want to leave their district in a good job and decides at the last minute they'd like to apply with you. As long as they apply by that deadline, we give everybody equal consideration. At that point we deliver those applications to you. We set a deadline for the search committee to review those applications. And then we determine, say we have 18. We determine seven to nine to bring in for an interview. I would reach out to those people to schedule those interviews for you. I would work with you to ensure that the dates that we pick for the interviews work for the schedule of your uh school committee and the search committee and the search parameters itself. And I would slot those people into the interviews. Go ahead, Sue. Yeah. Um developing the criteria

033by which you get down to the nine. Yes. Uh in that uh with [clears throat] the search group. >> Yep. Um is that an interactive process Very much. with the school committee itself? No. That's the search committee. Okay. So what happens is you take that report that I put together based on the community feedback. Yeah. And you look at the qualifications the community wants. The school committee can have a discussion on what qualifications you'd be looking for and that should be included in the district brochure that gets put out. So if you decide you want somebody with you prefer superintendency experience, right? Um which I probably wouldn't advise you to say because there's plenty of great candidates who are assistant superintendents. But if you wanted that, you could discuss that as a committee. Um but

034typically the conversation unfolds after um the development of questions in the interview in the uh search committee process. So the search committee develops questions for the search committee round. And at that same time I have a discussion with them about, "Okay, you're going to get your applications soon. What kind of qualifications are you looking for? Now, the applications are are very involved applications that can't just be narrowed down to well, this person meets this, this, and this. You're going to get a good feel for these candidates based on their applications, which are like 15 pages long. Um so, it's a lot of reading. And it's a lot of analyzing. Um and then of course, somebody's going to blow you away with their application and come in and totally bomb their interview. Um it happens all

035the time. Um so, it's essentially, right? The school committee can set certain parameters of qualifications with the district brochure. Um but the search committee has the conversation about what they're looking for in terms of um you know, base qualifications and things uh to forward finalists to you. Uh follow-up question? Go ahead. Um and which I forgot. Never mind. That's okay. If it comes to you, let me know. Um it it is placing some trust in your folks, right? In your um search committee representatives. But they also need to be aware of what the school committee's looking for. Go ahead, Kristen. Uh yeah. So, that brings me to my question. Will you guys lay out the parameters of how people get put on the search committee or is that up to the That's typically up to

036the school committee. Um I can certainly work with you on that if you ask me to. So, I have like a Google form that we've used in the past to take applications for that. I won't choose your search committee for you. That's something that you as a school committee will have to determine the process. Whether it's the two folks from the school committee who are going to be on the search committee choosing the members of the search committee, that is typical and that's okay. Or it's the entire school committee placing on the agenda reviewing the applications of folks who have applied to be on the search committee. Whatever works for you will work for me. I will speak with you about the process once you get to that point and you can tell me what

037you're all thinking and I will let you know if it's illegal. Thank you. You got it. I thought of it. Go ahead, Sue. You got it? Yep. Um so, when you're starting to calm down from the What did you say? Eight Yeah, say you get 18, you interview eight, right? >> and you're getting close on the four or even before. Um do you all provide other contextual information that might not be in Yes. the application? Yes. Thank you. I know I know many of the folks that will be applying um and can provide you with as much information as you'd like. We do background checks on these folks for you. Yeah, and what may or may not have been going on in their school systems and >> That is absolutely a key piece of having

038MASC as part of your search. Thank you. You got it. Good question. >> [clears throat] >> So, as you can see, um we collect those applications, we develop those questions as a search committee that the search committee wants to ask to those candidates. And again, throughout that piece of the process and every piece of this process, the report that you have from the community forums is informing what questions you should ask. Among other things that inform the process, right? Like you're you're folks who were elected to serve on your school committee. You know what questions you've worked with superintendents. You know what questions need to be asked um at certain levels, but that's like a guiding document throughout the process so people don't feel like they're going in blind. I also have a very basic

039rubric that I provide folks at the search committee level and at the finalist round level. That's essentially rate this answer one through five and make your comments. So, we certainly do things like that as well. Um we verify references of the folks that you select to interview um and we can perform a limited background check on them as well. Step six is preparation for the interview at the semi-finalist level. So, as you can see there, we work with you to develop questions. I have like a 38-page document called questions for searching for a superintendent. It's everything that you could possibly think of to ask a potential superintendent candidate. The way I like to do it is provide that guide at our very first search committee meeting. Have the members of the search committee go through

040it and use it as a reference. Not to take verbatim, unless they choose to, but not to take verbatim the questions in there, but to use that as a way to write their own questions, submit them to whoever the chair of the search committee is, and that person would then call the list and bring it to the search committee as a way to say, "These are the questions that we've come up with." That way it's Middleborough specific questions. It's not, you know, you're going to ask the same question here that you'd ask in Wellesley, or that you'd ask on Martha's Vineyard, you know? It's It's very important that that process be cultivated in a way that they're district-specific questions. And the report on the community forums helps with that. But having your search committee be

041comprised of folks who know what's happening in the district and who are on that level of what's happening in the district, that's really going to get you some really good questions. And at that point we interview the semi-finalists. Again, that is a confidential process that will not happen in public because these folks at the semi-finalist level have privacy rights. It will be stressed multiple times to your search committee, if you if you choose to go with MASC, that they need to maintain that confidentiality. That's an incredibly important piece of the process. Step seven is finalist site visits and interviews. So, this comes after you have selected your finalists. Um again, I think three is a good number. But, if there's four, awesome. Advance four that really need to be advanced to the school committee. If

042there's five, great. Go right ahead. It It's more work for all of you and for whoever is working with me from your central office to schedule some of these things. I will need to work with likely your administrative assistant in the superintendent's office to schedule these things and I'm sure uh whoever is the chair of the search committee as well will be intricately involved in those scheduling conversations because when we get to this point, it the final site visit involves visiting schools. And watching that finalist interact with your people and watching how they fit into the Middleborough community. And again, like I said earlier, having that person meet face-to-face with interested parents, with interested staff, and with interested students. That's important that they that they face those folks and speak with them. Does the full

043screening committee attend the site visits? After the screening committee selects finalists, the screening committee is dissolved. Okay. The screening committee does not select the final superintendent. You do. So, the screening committee selects finalists to send to the school committee. It should be noted that the school committee by law has to vote to accept those finalists. So, those finalists are not announced by the screening committee as soon as that vote is taken. Those finalists are sent to the school committee and announced at the school committee meeting when they're accepted. Go ahead, Sue. And when they're advanced um from the screening committee, is it advanced with a uh narrative of what they see as the strengths and the challenges? Yes. And that's something that I work with you on as well. So, the next step in that

044process, again, is the finalist interview. So, after you have your site visits, you will schedule a dedicated School Committee meeting simply to interview the final candidates for the superintendency. It's about an hour and a half per candidate. It's a long meeting. Um Does it have to be one meeting? You can split it up however you want. >> [laughter] >> That is a very long >> I typically recommend doing them all on the same day because what's going to happen, right, is your meetings are televised. You're going to have one candidate interview Monday night and you're going to have one candidate interview Wednesday night. The candidate who interviews Wednesday night is going to watch the interview from Monday night and know what the candidate said and know exactly how to respond to certain questions. Good point.

045>> Alan. I can't remember if it was for the town manager or police chief when I was on the select board, we had an issue with that and we we taped it. Mhm. But we didn't release the tape till after all the interviews were done. So, the Monday night person >> much up to the School Committee as it is to Middleborough Public Access. You have no control over that tape. That's a public record. We work pretty well with them. I would I would recommend one night for interviews. >> [laughter] >> They could always send them all. They could send somebody to listen. Right. Um And look at you may also choose to provide the questions to the candidates in advance. That's That's something that I've seen be implemented successfully. That way you know folks are

046going to come prepared. Or you don't have I mean questions are developed in public, right? The development of questions has to happen in a public meeting. So, when we develop them at the uh semi-finalist round in the Search Committee meeting, that Search Committee meeting is held in public. We don't discuss any candidates, but we develop those questions in a public meeting. And then you as a School Committee will get have same 38-page document that I'll share with the search committee, and you'll develop your own questions in public. There are ways to do that easily where you're not group editing for 6 and 1/2 hours. And we can walk through those as well. So, as you can see there, after you have the interviews, the committee will vote. Most of the time the committee votes the

047same night. So, they do the interviews, and then they vote. You don't have to. That's just typically how it's done. Again, it's up to you. Um when we did them in Marshfield, we did the interviews on a Saturday, uh and we voted as soon as the last interview ended. Um it's totally up to you. However you want to do it, works for me. So, once you have your final candidate, I get to make the fun phone calls of telling the people who didn't get the job. You don't have to do that awkward part. I get to do that awkward part. It's why I make the big bucks. No, it's It's an awful call to make, and you certainly don't have to do it. Um After that, you can see that there's a step eight, which

048we always like to include because you are dues-paying members of MASC. That's a very great benefit of having us do the search is that you have a relationship with us before and after the search process. So, that follow-up step is that we can talk to you throughout the process of your contract negotiations and advise you on the proper way to do that. We can advise you on what the candidate should be doing in between that awkward time when they have the job but haven't started yet. And then once you've had about 4 to 6 months working with that person as your new superintendent, I can come in and do another workshop with all of you to make sure everybody's on the same page on your legal roles as school committee members versus the legal role

049of a superintendent, so you're working as well together as possible. So, that's a very quick, believe it or not, bird's-eye overview of the superintendent search process that we run. Most other search consultant groups cost more money and aren't as thorough as we are and aren't as good about involving the community as we are. Every single person at MASC who runs searches is either or has been on a school committee. We know your role very well. There's only eight of us who work in the office at MASC. We work incredibly well together as a team and we all have extend I think like combined we have like 70-something years of experience serving school committees. We know your role. We know how important it is to involve your staff, to involve your communities. We have been in

050your seat to hire superintendents ourselves. No other search committee, no other search firm can can say something along those lines. The last bit of of information I will give you I understand there are many districts right now in a financially difficult position. You will see in the uh summary of the cost that I provided for you there is an option on there called technical assistance. Essentially, what that is is because you are dues-paying members of MASC we will provide you technical assistance instead of doing a full search with you. Now, that means there are some things that I wouldn't do. For example, if you choose to do technical assistance, I probably won't sit in on every one of your interviews. If you choose to do technical assistance, I probably won't sit in your entire meeting

051when you develop questions. But, if you do technical assistance, the cost is $0. So, that's the trade-off. The 11,500 gets you my services every single step of the process beginning to end. That technical assistance still gets you my advice. And I I mean, I would do your training for the open meeting law. I we would still collect your applications. I would do all of those things with you because I like you all and I've worked with you all and the relationship that we have together in a working relationship is an important one to me. I've been in Middleborough a lot and I've talked with all of you a lot. Um I would be happy to provide that technical assistance, but I won't sit through all of the interviews with you. I won't uh sit through

052the development of questions and I likely wouldn't come to the finalist interviews either and and and do certain things like that. If you feel it's important to have me at those things, we are more than happy to enter into a full contract with you. Or we can do technical assistance. Whatever you'd like. How long does the process usually take from Beginning to end? Yeah, from date of date of contract to date of contract. >> on what you're looking for in terms of your um you know, how long you want the applications to be open for and then how aggressive you'd like to be um in scheduling your interviews and how many interviews you choose to have, right? I've seen some committees interview six and I've seen some committees interview nine. If you interview six, you

053can do three nights of interviews, two people per night. If you interview nine, you're probably doing four or five nights of interviews, right? And that pushes out your process even further. So, it depends on what kind of time you'd like to leave there, as well as okay, well, we have a school committee meeting on this date. So, the search committee's going to stop. They're going to choose their uh the finalists to move forward, but it can't be publicly announced until the school committee accepts it and we don't have a a committee meeting for a week. So, there's like that week in between. That lengthens the time. Uh I started the Wareham superintendent search at the beginning of September of last year, and we wrapped up towards the end of October. I started the Monomoy superintendent

054search probably towards the end of September, and we wrapped up at the beginning of November. So, it's a month and a half, 2 months? We we could work with you to develop a full schedule that would give you a better idea, but it's it's really up to you guys. >> it's an intense couple months of >> Oh, absolutely. Whoever I can't reiterate this strongly enough because I'm sure some folks here in the room would be interested in serving on that search committee, right? If you are interested in serving on the search committee, be prepared. It is long meetings, and it's meetings that you can't miss. Um this is your next educational leader. Now, that being said, I was just talking to Sue beforehand, and I think you guys know that I'm a nerd by now.

055This is my favorite part of my job. I get to advise school committees every single day. I write district policies. I train school committee members. I advise superintendents. Absolutely my favorite part of my job is helping a district choose a new superintendent because we get to sit there in these interviews and hear from these qualified, talented educational leaders about where they think your district could head with their leadership. It's nice to be able to see all the different road maps for Middleborough Public Schools to improve over the next however many years. That's a really cool thing that you all get to be a part of, and that some folks in this room likely get to be a part of as well. That's not something to take lightly. It's not something to take for granted, either.

056I learned so much in my own superintendent search process that I wanted to do it for a living. It's a really, really interesting process. Any other questions for Sean? Good. You just made such a wonderful case of how wonderful it would be to have you leading it. Thank you. However, But, >> [laughter] >> uh you put a little clause in the beginning. Yes, what was it? That uh if for whatever set of reasons you are not able to, you have a team of people that can. Right. Uh That's if I get hit by a bus. Okay. Yeah, right. Yeah, okay. >> bought a house. I can't leave my girlfriend with the mortgage all by herself, so I'm going to avoid buses. If some horrific thing should happen to you, uh would we have the opportunity

057to kind of interact with whoever the potential people would be that would take us on so that >> Absolutely. So, >> you you made such a good case about how important it is that we feel comfortable with the person that's working with us, and I think that that dynamic would be really important. >> So, I I I appreciate that. So, if I were to walk out in the parking lot after this meeting and get crushed by a mound of snow that falls over on me, the the person that you would likely be working with is Glenn Koocher, who is the executive director of MASC. Glenn himself, personally, has done over 100 superintendent searches in his time at MASC. Um And is Glenn the only Are there others that that >> There So, there are four

058field directors. Myself, Tracy Novick is our field director for Central Massachusetts, former member of the Worcester School Committee. Uh Alicia Mallon is our field director for the uh northeast part of the state, like the North Shore above Boston, and she is a member of the Nashoba Tech School Committee. And then Liz Lafond is our field director for Western Massachusetts, and she's a member of the Granby School Committee, was also the administrative assistant to the superintendent in Holyoke for like 30-something years. Yeah. So, we have that extensive experience. >> and figure out who would be best for us. Absolutely. And I'll I'll tell you now, that clause is in there and I say that because sometimes I'm doing these searches when I have like three or four going on at the same time. I'm about to

059wrap up Whitman-Hanson's interim search and starting with them for a full-time superintendent would happen in September. You guys would be my only search. Great. I do have policy contracts. I'm working on policies with a couple of districts and I meet once a month with one district and then do the other one virtually. And then I have trainings, but those trainings can always be scheduled around your schedule. I don't see you having to work with anybody else. Anyone else? All right. Sean, thank you so much for your time and for all of the information. We greatly appreciate it. Thank you. I know how to find you if we have any follow-up questions. >> All of you do. So, please reach out to me if you have any questions. Sue, best of luck with the recovery. Shannon,

060congratulations. Next time I see you, I'm sure you'll have another another little one running around. Yep. That's awesome. Yep, really great. Nice to see you all. Thank you very much. Thank you, Sean. We're going to take just a quick 5-minute recess so that we can switch up who's here and give a couple of people a chance to take care of business. So, 5-minute recess. Thank you. >> Thank you. I just hired someone. Can I get you anything? >> Go away. Come on. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's nice to be here. No, I'm not. Are you really? >> [laughter] >> All right. That's my my gavel for the evening. So, thank you everyone. Uh we're going to resume. Um welcome to the public hearing portion of this evening. Please know that this is a time for us,

061your school committee, to listen. But I do want to start by stating some ground rules just to level set us. The hearing is going to go no longer than 3 hours. It's already 7:24, so do want to give everyone time. We're going to start by the principals doing a presentation about reconfiguration. School committee members after that will each have a few minutes, just a couple minutes, to make any statements if you wish. We get a chance to make a statement at the end as well, so your choice. And then we're going to open the floor to the publics. We do ask that your comments be related to why we're here, to this specific topic. We do have a lot of people here, so I want as many of you as possible to have a chance

062to be heard. We're going to allow everyone to speak first for up to 5 minutes, and then if you have more to say once everybody's had a chance to go for one time, then people can come back around, okay? So, we'll continue that for as long as time permits or as people have interest to stay. Interesting things to say. If you do find that what you had to say is in agreement with the previous speaker, please feel free to say I agree with that speaker on these topics and then move on to new information. We're all here to hear all the new stuff and everything everyone has to say. But do please remember this isn't a Q&A. We are here to listen. We're recording your feedback. Any questions will be noted and we will regroup

063and schedule time to answer as many as we can at a future meeting. All right, and then we'll close with the school committee members having a chance for any closing remarks. With that being said, I'll invite our panel of administrators to begin the presentation. Good evening. I'll start. Um So, this is a proposed complex reconfiguration. Through reconfiguration, the district aims to improve operational efficiency, enhance academic collaboration, and foster >> [clears throat] >> Excuse me. Foster a unified school culture at all grade levels. Our students will benefit from improved teacher collaboration, shared resources, >> [clears throat] >> and unified grade levels at each school. The overall plan is to move grades one and two to [clears throat] MKG, move grades three through five to HBB. Classrooms would be moved over the summer. Specialized programs would be

064reconfigured. A development of a reconfiguration committee of stakeholders would be created for input. So, what does this look like? At MKG, we'd have general education grades one and two, the RISE programs one and two, AIMS program grades one and two, TLC grades one and two, and a principal and assistant principal. Um at HBB, general education grades three through five, again the RISE program from three through five, AIMS program three through five, and the TLC program three through five. We would also have the language-based classroom for three through five, and a principal and assistant principal. So, both buildings are still operating as two schools. Are we going slow enough so people are able to catch all of this? Okay. Just want to make sure. Thank you. Uh to continue on what does this look like. So,

065we have been working already on draft schedules on what it will look like. So, we've created drafts of lunch specialist schedules, recess schedules. We've created a lot a draft layout of what the building will look like. We've considered that teaming has we we have moved to grade five teaming and we're committed to keeping that in place. So, we're looking at splitting our grade five lunch. So, grade half of grade five would be able to eat at MKG. So, that way we would be able to maintain our teaming component for grade five. Transportation would be no change at the drop-off and pick up for our buses. They would be as far as the front of the building, the back of the building, that wouldn't change at all. A new route would be created for family drop-off

066and for pickups. What we'd like to do also is our specialists would be complex across the complex. So, an entire grade would go to specials at the same time. So, it wouldn't be split. All of grade one would go. So, right now for instance, um you know, with phys ed for instance, Graham White White Law is an HPB phys ed teacher. Chris Phoenix is a MKG phys ed teacher, but they would have all students. So, all of grade one would go to specials at the same time. All of grade five would go at the same time. So, that teachers would maintain a whole the whole time together for for that common time of planning. Why don't we hold up just one second while he >> he fixes this. Sorry, yes. Somebody touched the connection there.

067Connection to boxes there. No. Looks good. Looks good. Hm? Nobody take your feet. You're good. I didn't touch anything. Thank you, Sam. Freddie, you Sorry. Just say that ending again. Thank you. >> absolutely. So, all like I said, all of this is in draft in in draft like paper pencil draft, real draft. Um the specialist would be um across the complex. So, all of the students would go to specials all at the same time to maintain that continuity for teachers to have prep all at the same time per grade level. Yes. All right. Hello. So, we are here just to talk a little bit about um the sending school, the the exiting school, um and just how this isn't just a um thing that affects the students at the complex, but it's throughout the whole

068district. So, I was actually here um teaching kindergarten in the first year that we had to separate the students and tell them that were they were going to be at two different schools. In kindergarten, it's their first real full year of school. They create friendships and bonds. They are anxious as it is having to move to a new school. And then when they find out that they're not going to be with some of their best friends, um it is a sad time for them. So, usually we try to wait as long as we can to tell them that half of their class is going to one school, half of their class is going to another. Um and then the last thing is just when we're doing class placements, we get together as a grade level

069team um with input from specialists, try to make really balanced, thoughtful classrooms. We want our co-taught classrooms to have peer role models, which leaves us with filling um other rooms sometimes with a heavier load of behaviors and challenges because we're limited with the number of classrooms that are available um to place them into. I'm going to read some prepared statements so I can keep my train of thought moving forward. While I'm new to this role as the N M S principal, I'm not new to Middleboro or the middle school. For years as the school's assistant assistant principal, I struggled to meet the needs of our incoming sixth graders social, emotional, and developmental needs because of the way students entered our school. Middle school is a time we all know is it's a time fraught with

070social stressors, increased academic expectations, and pre-adolescent hormones. Often relationships are what makes the experience for the kids positive or negative at the school. Even today our guidance counselors, administrators, and teachers spend an inordinate amount of time helping our students adjust to and balance their entry into N M S. It often takes months before students talk about being comfortable or feeling like they are in their school. One of the largest reasons we hear for this discomfort is that they are put into their new middle school in an environment where they do not know 50% of the students around them. This is echoed time and time again throughout these students' first year at N M S. Placing our students together as a grade earlier will allow N M S to create more heterogeneous groupings of students to

071address academic, behavioral, special education, and emotional needs. It will allow us to identify students who should not be placed together at a time when such a separation is appropriate. In short, some of the most glaring weaknesses to how we transition kids to N M S currently would become our strengths under this proposal. From the perspective of the Nickel of the Nichols Middle School, the proposed realignment has nothing but positive impacts for our student. I wanted to take a minute to ask a couple of our more well-spoken students to give us their thoughts on this proposal. We all know that at the end of the day this is about our students. So, I've invited two current sixth grade students, Chloe Weatherbee and Sylvia English, to to give the committee and the community their thoughts on their

072experience of coming to N M S. Hi, my name is Chloe and I'm a sixth grader at Nichols Middle School. Hi, my name is Sylvia and I'm also a sixth grader at Nichols Middle School. We are here to talk about why we like the idea of changing how the elementary school is set up. We know that right now fifth graders are switching between two teachers. We think that is a great idea. We wish we got the opportunity to do that, too. I went to MKG. I am a part of town cheers, so I met kids that went to HBB through sports. But, I only really got to see them during the season. If I had classes, recess, or lunch with them, I would have became better friends with them. In our sixth grade cluster, we

073have lots of kids that I went to HBB with. That was nice for me, but not Chloe. I think it would be I think it would have been really helpful and fun if we had an end of the year event with all HBB and MKG fifth graders. That way I would have gotten to meet kids that I didn't get to meet before. In elementary school, I remember on the bus, kids would be arguing arguing about which school is better, MKG or HBB. Even in sixth grade, I hear people arguing about whether MKG is better or HBB is better. These are a couple reasons why we think that it would be a good idea to change how Middleboro elementary schools are set up. This change would make there be less drama and create more opportunities for

074friendships. If Middleboro makes this change, it will help students starting in kindergarten all the way up to sixth grade. Thank you for listening what we had to say. >> [applause] >> Thank you, girls. Thank you very much. If I may, Principal Brannigan was unable to join us tonight. He did pass a few comments on to me to ask me to read them for the community as well. If you If you give me a minute. This is from Principal Brennan again, not from me. The transition to high school is one of the most significant transitions a student will go through during their educational journey. A strong transition is vital to the success success of each student. Over the last 29 years while serving the students of the high school, I have placed a considerable amount of

075time and energy in developing and nurturing a strong school culture and climate. This important work is ongoing and shifts to ensure that we are meeting the needs of the students who are at the high school. The culture and climate is assessed by the student body and their engagement with each other, the strengths of their relationships, and the collective story they tell. Over the last few years, I have noticed a shift in the needs of the students entering the high school that needs to be explored. It became clear that the shift is a direct response to the lack of students knowing each other when they enter the ninth grade. Over the last few years, I've noticed a level of disconnection between the students when they enter Middleboro High School. We have had to become quite adept

076at how we engage the students as they begin their high school experience. Through talking with students who are struggling to go into a classroom with peers, entering the student commons at lunch, or to feel a sense of belonging in our school, and most importantly, a sense of connection. I know hearing, "I do not know anyone." or "I have no friends in this class or at lunch." Please know, most of these students grew up in Middleboro and started their journey at the MEC or at some point during their elementary years. This assumption that everyone knows each other led to our school to revamp the Start Strong program and change how we onboard our ninth grade students. We have become much more intentional about ensuring connections and programs to bring a class together. A class may enter

077the MEC as a group, but then split for their five years of elementary school based on the part of the town they reside in. Upon entering middle school, students are separated into three teams during each of their three their middle school years. Finally, students come back together again in high school and in many ways must start their journey all over again. So, the challenges of the current structure, teacher collaboration and consistency. Physically and administratively separating teachers of the same grade level make it difficult to share best practices, align assessments, or mentor new staff. Consistency of the student experience. Currently, students do not share an art show or field trips with their whole class, and some resources are not available at both schools. Sorry. We have strengthened grade level collaboration includes the opportunity for common planning

078time, peer mentoring, aligned curriculum pacing, shared data analysis through common assessments, and instructional adjustments that promote greater consistency across classrooms within the same grade level. So, I'm going to speak to the special education challenges of the current structure. Um right now, we have a variety of programs for students at the elementary level. For students who have been identified as needing a specialized program, they often have to leave their familiar school to receive the appropriate services in the proposed program, or travel back and forth between the buildings. We noted earlier that um we would with the new structure and that we'd be able to consolidate them more by grade. The staff who work with students who are in the specialized program are also not easily able to collaborate with their colleagues, even the general ed colleagues,

079who work with the students because they may be split between buildings. So, if you have a student who is a Brookland-based student who needs a service that's at MKG or vice versa, the specialist might be in one building, the general ed staff that works with the students in the other building, it's very difficult for them to collaborate. Even if the the desire is there, and the desire is always there to work. It's just the schedules aren't the same, they don't share PLCs, they don't share PD all the time. Um, it makes it very difficult to collaborate. And also just across the general ed setting for our grade level, um, co-teaching program, having fewer classrooms in each building limits the flexibility and the options that we can have. I look really closely at how we have

080the MEC setup where we have all kindergarten in one building and the flexibility and the fluidity we have in our co-teaching program in order to be able to work with what teachers are doing in any given year depending on the students who are coming to them that year. So, those are the challenges. The rationale for the change is basically taking those bullet points and talking about how it would be would be improved with the, uh, reconfiguration. So, for the specialized students students who now require specialized programs, they'd be able to stay in there with their familiar grade level peers. They would have the opportunity for more integration and flexible service delivery just because there's more options. There's more classrooms that they could choose from and they wouldn't have to move buildings. of times students who

081need specialized programming are not identified prior to coming into first grade, so there wouldn't have to be any change. They'd be right there where they need to be in their, um, in their right school. Teachers who work with students in the specialized programs will now have a better opportunity to collaborate with each other. They'd be able to provide a more cohesive experience for students and greater alignment with curriculum. Special education is individualized education. So, we do create specialized programs, but they're not one size fits all. So, we also have students who might have to straddle two programs or receive something from one and something from another and if those programs are in different buildings, they can't really collaborate. So, by having them across the grade level as opposed to separated by buildings, it would be,

082um, better for the students in the long run in terms of really receiving individualized education. And then for the students, the vast majority of our students who receive special ed services, I have one more question. I jumped the gun. Okay. The last bullet. Um, for the students who are in the general education co-teaching program, they have the benefit from more flexibility with scheduling and staff assignments so that the service delivery can more easily be individualized for students. So, and I'm going to speak from my own experience. When I first started in Middleborough, I was the fifth grade co-teacher and gen ed, there were three gen ed classrooms that I worked with and I was the special education teacher. All of the fifth grade, if we had students that needed support in the classes, I would

083have the availability to be able to help them because it was all fifth grade together. We had a unified schedule together. When they are separated, and since the buildings have separated, we have added special education teachers and now we have two per grade level for the co-teaching program. We're not looking at changes with that staffing ratio right now, but it does provide us with a lot more flexibility and fluidity in about being creative in our programming for our students so that again, it's not one size fits all and we can be more creative. Um, so I think that's a strong benefit for us. It seems like a long time. >> Thank you. So, you know, to echo what I brought up earlier, middle school and the success of middle school is is all about, um,

084you know, the social piece. I mean, there's an academic side, there's a social and emotional side and um, I think kids reflecting on their middle school time are more likely to remember their social growth, um, their social experiences, um, and and the way that we're currently set up is sixth grade becomes the source of high anxiety, um, entering sixth grade and there's barriers there that we can't control at the middle school end. And I I you know, I think it it's incumbent upon ourselves if we have the opportunity to explore ways for kids to transition to a major academic change in their life in a way that's not going to create additional stressors and additional barriers. I think that's really important for our kids. So, um, you know, if they're emotionally and socially successful at

085the school, that's going to lead to more academic success. And I think that's for us the most important thing that we're looking for from this proposal. [clears throat] So, I'm just going to kind of bring it home and kind [clears throat] of reiterate all the benefits of reconfiguration. First is the teacher collaboration and consistency. Time and scheduling. Unified grade level messaging, leadership and vision. Special education alignment, collaboration and flexibility. The transition better transition to the middle school. There's also financial benefits and the human resource benefits. A better capitalizing on our our teachers. So, lastly the class sizes just so we show on the second to last line last second last line grades 1 and 2 currently is 19. In the proposed budget and in this proposal goes to 21. And then in 3, 4 and

0865 it is currently 19 and the proposed is 22. The reason that goes up is we are proposing some reductions in grade levels in those grade levels with the reconfiguration. That concludes the presentation. Okay. So, I'll start now by allowing anyone on the school committee who wishes to make a statement, please feel free. Anyone? Alan, please. How you doing? I would just ask if you have a hard copy of your competency questions if you could email it to us then we have a hard record of it. Thank you. Chris. Can we just get a little more clarity on the financial and human resource benefits to the reconfiguration. >> [applause] >> Financial and The left two >> uh human resources. Oh. >> benefits. Yeah, so we um are recommending a one grade level um position to

087be reduced in 1 through 5. So, that um is why uh the class size goes up. If If we didn't do the reconfiguration, it would be even higher. Um not much, but we're actually looking at the out years where it would be much larger because of the growth that we're expecting. Just to bring that home a little bit more. So, is it under whether we stay the same or we reconfigure, would that change the number of teachers? No. No, so this does not cause cause for people to for a position to be eliminated. It would happen anyway. In the In the proposed budget, yes. It's a grade level position in each grade 1 through 5. But what might be different is the number of students per classroom in each building. Yes. Depending upon whether the

088reconfiguration >> Depending on which grade and you know, which fourth grade. Is it HBB or is it MKG? So, if we stay the same, the average class would in some in one building may go up. In this way, it stays if we reconfigure, it only goes up by one or two. Correct? Yes. I'm going to let >> is a major point of confusion, so I just want to make sure that It has been >> the human resources and financial I'm going to let Melissa talk about another budgetary uh change that will happen. And I It's a benefit. So, you've all already heard the budget presentation, so you know that there is a gap to be filled. Um one of the things that we have talked about as a reduction is reducing the number of special

089ed coordinators we have on paper. So, right now we have um a MET coordinator, it's me. We have an MKG coordinator. We have a Burkin coordinator, Nichols the high school, and a director. So, you have five coordinators and a director. In going through the budget process, one of the things that we talked about with reconfiguration, we'd be able to reduce by one because we could do a pre-K to two coordinator, then a three to five, six to eight. Um all right, nine to 12. Sorry, slight. Um and then have four so on paper. So, part of our reductions, in order to again keep the reductions from having to just all obviously hitting the the instructional staff, is to reduce by one administrator at that in that department. That's extremely difficult to do if we don't

090reconfigure because what would happen is we'd have multiple coordinators in multiple buildings. We've had principals who have tried to do that juggling things. And one of the things that I've already been previously to talk about our special education status determination, we're in a needs of assistance status. You know, we're waiting for the data to come out for spring of '26 um and also the results for spring of '26. We've been working really hard to increase our responsibility, our responsiveness to families. And I'm concerned that we would not be able to be as responsive to families if our coordinators are stretched too much. Pre-K to two is very doable, very similar. It's like early education, very similar in having the same coordinator who could do early childhood through grade two, very similar needs for students, can

091really lock in um on that grade level, those grade levels. And then three to five to be focusing on the upper elementary ages. Um so, we do have that kind of married. So, that is also one of the financial considerations that's part of our budget was the reduction there of the coordinator and then the impact that that would have on the special ed programming and all of the other concerns we've talked about multiple times already this year. So, I don't know if you have any specific questions about that or It's probably for another time. Sue, did you have any other statements to make? No, other than I too just want to say how great it is that there's so many people here and that we can have um hear from you um then consider what

092your feedback is and what your questions are and set up another time so we have real thoughtful dialogue back and forth. Um you know, it is something that's a stressor, but the more that we come together as a community to look at it and resolve whatever the issues are, I think the better off we are as a town. And I just want to state that I hope the presentation has brought home that nothing has been decided. That this is a proposal. Um we are here to listen to what you have to say. There are multiple options to consider. One is to not reconfigure at all. One is to reconfigure for this September and another is to consider reconfiguration but to have it be a longer process and to have more discussions and more feedback until

093then. As you saw in the presentation, the plan does include a development of a reconfiguration committee for input regardless of the timing that we go forward with. So, with that being said, I would like to open the floor for public comment or at this public hearing. Hi, good evening. My name is Donna Germano. I proudly serve as the co-president of the Middleborough Education Association. Thank you all for giving the public and the staff an opportunity to express our thoughts and feelings about a proposed reconfiguration. It is important for all stakeholders voices to be heard when making a change of this magnitude. I do have to say that a positive spin on the process was given by the administrators here and we thank you for that. However, I also want to say that many of our

094members here, most of which are from the elementary schools, are opposed to such a re-configuration and here's why. I want to address each of the five points that you raised in the first email that went out to the parents and community and staff about a week ago. To your first point, creating a more cohesive and supportive experience for students, according to recent studies conducted in Massachusetts, small school communities in Massachusetts offer personalized learning, enhanced teacher attention, and a stronger sense of belonging, often resulting in higher academic achievement and better student safety. These close-knit environments allow for flexible curricula, increased participation in extracurriculars, and deeper and more trusting relationships between students, staff, and families. As an educator myself, I've prided myself and welcome the opportunity on getting to know families of students and as I call

095them, my legacies. This has made for deeper connections between myself and the students I teach. Such connections would be more difficult in a larger group per grade. The next benefit mentioned was the middle school transition. Again, studies have shown cite the strategies already in place to have an effective transition, many of which are more logistical than anything else. An effective transition from elementary to middle school should cover logistical changes like lockers and schedules, academic expectations like homework and organization, and social and emotional growth to reduce student and parent anxiety. Key topics include navigating new buildings, increased independence, and extracurricular opportunities. Um, bringing everybody together like that, um, sure that might help some of it, but when I took a look at the statistics for the town of Middleborough, which has 1,152 elementary age students, over

09670% of those students already belong to an extracurricular activity that brings them with other students in the district from other schools, from other grade levels, from other classrooms. These include um, any kind of sports, arts, music, dance, scouts, karate champions, the Y, and other activities that are geared towards lifelong relationships. The next benefit that you mentioned was regarding common planning time, increasing common planning time and curriculum alignment. One thing I want to say is that right now we don't have common planning time, so I'm not sure how we would um, adjust it since it doesn't exist at this time. We do have PLCs and PDs with our grade level colleagues from the other building. We have built strong relationships with those colleagues. We have worked with them on curriculum over the years, almost every year

097as a matter of fact. And we feel that if um, bringing the schools together as one big school, if this were to be employed, smaller teaching pods would do allow for more knowledge of the students as everyone's kids. I remember when Derek Thompson was the principal and he held um, PLCs or PDs for us, he always talked about having the groups together and having us have everyone's kids were the were our grade level. Right now, I pretty much know every child in the second grade as do my colleagues. With 12 different classrooms or 10 or 11, that would be a lot more difficult. Another benefit that you mentioned, the fourth one, was unified management of resources. To me, this sounds like a way of saying we're going to put you together, cut some teachers, and

098save some money. Although, when the reconfiguration was mentioned at the last school committee meeting, that it was specifically stated that this was not a budgetary move. The last benefit mentioned involves special education students. Ensuring students can access special ed services without changing schools, promoting stability, continuity of relationships, and support. Changing classrooms and settings offers substantially separate students an opportunity to mingle with model peers, build relationships, and foster a level of independence. The sped department is currently being run by an interim leader, and we really think that it would be more prudent right now to find a leader of the special education department than to reconfigure and and move to kids around. In closing, please allow me to share my experience as a parent. In the town where I raised my my now adult children, there

099were five elementary schools. Each school had its own character. Each school followed the same curriculum. Each school had the teachers meet by grade level and by school to do PLCs and PD. This gave the students, though, an opportunity in the smaller setting to mingle and meet with kids from other towns because they participated in leisure activities and sports activities. All three of my children built friendships with kids from other schools while feeling the closeness and nurturing environment a smaller school provided. The grade five teachers in the town I raised my children, just like the grade five teachers here in Middleboro, do a fantastic job of preparing the students for the logistical challenges that middle schoolers face, like lockers, a new building, navigating the hallways, and different teachers for subjects. We've gone a step ahead by

100having a grade five teaming model, and it's now completing its first year, and I hear they're kicking butt. The social and emotional changes and challenges of teenhood will not change by putting all these children together. Right now, as we see it, putting a child as a small fish in a big pond, I don't see how that can help them. I don't see how that can help them transition. Donna, if I could just ask you to wrap up, please. I'm sorry. >> If I could just ask you to wrap up, please. >> I am. Thank you. >> Um I ask you to consider what the teachers who know the students of the district as students best, what we have to say about what could be a hasty and poorly planned move. The school committee hasn't given

101any indication at this time how this will help the budget, so we have to be suspicious and wonder what really is um the motivation here. Thank you. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Hi, Alexis Barros, parent, resident of Middleborough, and a first grade teacher at Mary K. Gould. Um I was given by some of my veteran colleagues the old um reconfiguration task force information from back in 2010. It was actually proposed back in 2008. Um what I found interesting was the reconfiguration task force was postponed until January 2009 due to the retirement of a Berkley principal and the subsequent hiring of a new principal. So, they believed it was prudent to hold off on these plans until they had permanent leadership inside that that elementary school. Um it took months. It took months. So, from the

102moment that was suggested in 2008 until the doors had opened between MKG and HBB running this new reconfiguration model, it's a total of 3 years. An hour and a half meeting does not make any sense to me. And especially since the situation where we're going to be losing teachers, I My question is, if we are going to separate 1 through 2, and then 3, 4, 5, and we're saying we're having um rise and aim staff and classrooms for each, how are we going to appropriately staff those rooms when we're having a substantially difficult time staffing our current rooms right now? Having a hard time finding ESPs. >> [applause] >> Might I say not paying them enough, and I will tell you our ESPs should be far more valued because if we did not have ESPs,

103our schools could not run, and people need to understand that. >> [applause] >> They're the glue that hold us together, and they work with the students that require the most supports. Um so, I do not see how we can maintain this. Also, I had a member tell me, because I'm also building rep, for those of you that don't know, a member tell told me in a substantially separate classroom that they don't have curriculum, and they've been waiting for it. They have been asking from the former sped director to give a curriculum. So, and to also add the professional developments, how apparently we don't see our colleagues from the other school, well, maybe we should have brought together our professional development committee and created professional developments that matter to our service providers and our staff because

104they were being, and I'm sure a lot of people can agree, they have been thrown into professional developments that do not apply to them, or they could find far more valuable use of their time. So, I don't see this. I don't understand it. We're coming up with this information, and a lot of us have far more questions. Um we're saying that there's a draft of this. Where are the drafts of the layout? How many recesses would first grade need to be able to have all the children have recess because it will still be a cohort or in the Nichols Middle School use cluster style. You're going to have clusters. You're going to have multiple recesses and lunches. You're going to have kids that are going to different schedules compared to a friend. I don't see

105how this can work out especially at the rate we're going. We need to take our time. We need to find quality leadership to lead our school district. We need to find quality leadership for our special education because I think our special education is running into issues that a lot of our teachers and staff have been trying to bring attention to but nobody's been listening. So please, we are begging you. Please reconsider this. I'm not saying I would not love to work with my first grade teachers at HBB. They're awesome. But I think it's far more beneficial for our students to just keep things the way they are and also find our energy and money putting it to more things. By the way, heads up folks. For those of you that don't know, apparently third grade

106in MKG sprung more leaks cuz apparently there's another classroom that also has a leaky ceiling and the third grade hallway is also running water. So I think we need to put money that we would use for the reconfiguration to actually fix the complex cuz I also don't know how that's going to fix our maintenance of buildings. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Good evening. My name's Bob Sullivan. I'm a resident. The previous speaker started where I was going to start which was what happened in the past. Reconfiguration is not new to Middleborough. In the '90s, early '90s, it was forced on us because of budgetary concerns. When the Nichols Middle School was built, well, we knew it was coming, so we knew what we had to do to make the changes. It was time to make

107the changes. The Mac opened. Again, it was time to make changes. It was mentioned that the reconfiguration that we are now living in started in, well, she said October in 2008. Discussions, yes, but in an earnest with our school committee, it did begin in January 2009. And the school committee had on their agenda what the progress was as we had these task forces that worked together the reviewing various grade configuration, reviewing the research, making site visits to neighboring school districts, and developing several potential grade configurations. So, from January to October, school committee was deeply involved. Some of the members of school committee participated in some of those research activities. And then from October until February into the spring of 2010, there were multiple meetings with staff. We had surveys out to parents. There was opportunities

108to speak to the PTA. So, there was an an effort so everybody knew where we were particularly going. School committee made the final decision, and now you're living with it. I think looking at an organization structure is great. I think you should we we all should we all we should be doing that. But we should be doing it in such a way that the in our case, the teachers and the parents are well aware of what this is going to look like. So, I want to thank the previous speaker for bringing that up. Um Mr. Fowley was talking about do you want notes? Well, it sounds like the notes from 2008 and 2009 exist because that's what I'm holding. Um and I'll >> [applause] >> I guess my point is I think we need to

109give it more time. Thank you. >> [applause] >> My name is Pat Rooney. I'm a second grade teacher. I'm also a parent of two students who went through our system. Um I just want to start maybe from the top. So, the high school is having problems uh we we're not reconfiguring the high school, correct? Okay. Are we reconfiguring Nichols Middle School? All right, so those kids from Nichols Middle School are going up to the high school are still going to have those issues? I'm just curious. They're separated. They're going up to the high school. The high school said that there's a problem. Now, let's go down to Nichols and we're saying it's a problem. Now, my son and daughter went to Nichols. As elementary teachers, we carefully place these students. And as you heard from

110kindergarten as well, that we watch for kids who don't play well together. When my students when my children got to the middle school, they didn't use any of that. Now, we had data. It wasn't used. They would say, "Well, they got to figure out themselves now. They have to grow on themselves." Uh that doesn't work. You've got Mo and Larry together who haven't been together in 4 years at the complex and now they're in, you know, sixth grade math. Yeah, they're going to be bouncing off of those walls. So, are those things being looked at? So, it's placement is important, too. How are we placing these kids? And if we're not going to change the middle school, then what the high school is saying really isn't cohesive right now. And what you guys are saying,

111"All right, well, we've got fifth grade kind of working together now. They're learning how to go to different teachers." Sounds like that might be a good opportunity. So, just curious about placement could be looked at for our fifth graders going to sixth grade. Um 12 second grade classes. How's sped working for that? I'm just curious as to we have 40 kids that need services. 20 over at MKG, 20 at HBB. Now we're going to put them together. We've got 40. With one sped teacher? For the second grade or third grade and I mean it's going to be K1, too? Are we going to have two I'm just curious. So we're not really those sped kids aren't going away. Those numbers are still going to be there. So I'm just curious how changing schools is going

112to solve that. Uh the financial benefits we talked about. How are we saving money? There's no money being saved. We still have the same money to Well, we're going to cut teachers. Okay, well we can do that now. We can also save money by I don't know who's moving in the summer, but we're off in the summer. Are we Who's moving all that stuff? And teachers, there's in the contract $60 uh $40 an hour up to 8 hours to move for un- for forced moves. So just something to be aware of. It's going to cost money. Um Mr. Frawley, I did email you some information about some ideas. I don't know if Were you going to talk about that later? You want me to quickly do a quick recap on that? >> your comments along

113to the entire committee. Okay. So we could definitely just take our K kids, right? Some go to HBB, some go to MKG. Doesn't matter where you live. Like you said, you're not moving the buses. The buses are all going to be the same. So it doesn't matter. Doesn't matter where you're from. It matters hey, we've got data that we can place children. We've got data that we can use to make good classroom sizes, good classroom organizations. Doesn't matter if it's HBB or the other place. Take into family considerations, absolutely. Any new kid comes in, we've got all these new places coming. Doesn't matter if they're from North Middleboro. You're going here, you're going there, you're going here. Oh, but there's two openings there. In 4 years, you won't have a north and a south. In

1144 years, you will have our kids all spread out everywhere. And the buses are still going to be mixed up and late to the complex every day. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Alexander Cook, I'm a resident. As somebody who I was in middle school and high school when the first reconfiguration happened, so you can imagine I had bigger things on my mind than what was going on in the elementary schools. But now as an adult who's hearing and listening to all of this, this is sounding more like change for change's sake rather than to actually benefit our students or our teachers, which is what our education should always be focused on. I'm glad we got to hear from two of our students tonight, but truthfully I'd like to hear from more. I think our students

115should have more of a voice of what is going on in their schools. I'm definitely very interested in hearing what our teachers and what our parents think about this because obviously they're the ones who are interacting with our students, who are seeing them every day in their classrooms and in their homes. Truthfully, I'm hearing we're worried about our students and how they're not being with their friends. Why not teach them how to make new friends? That is what life is all about, meeting new people, building new experiences. >> [applause] >> Yes, there are friends I loved at high school and elementary school that I've recently reconnected with and it's wonderful, but I didn't talk to them for nearly 20 20 20 25 years, but that's okay because I got to reconnect with them later in

116life and I have new friends now that I love just as much. I think I agree with our the previous speakers in that if you really want to go forward with this, give it the proper time and attention it needs. I believe what, it was years that the last reconfiguration took? We should be devoting that much time and truthfully I think this should all await until we find a new superintendent who give us strong leadership in that. >> [applause] >> Everything and every decision the school committee makes should be about our students and our teachers, but honestly, mostly our students because they are the ones that have to show up to these buildings every day and we should think about their needs and their priorities first. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Hello, Alyssa Beard, grade

117five teacher. Um, I've heard a lot about collaboration tonight, which is a great word. Um, I do want to just point out the amount of people we have behind us here that have come to be collaborators in this process. So, educators, parents, families, people that are invested in the learning of the children in this district. Um, some of the things about collaboration that I've heard that I would like to clarify a little bit. Um, currently, we have six fifth grade classrooms and I walked out into the hallway today and ran into a fifth grade colleague and I was like, I haven't seen you in like two days. We are across the hall from each other. So, even though we're in the same hallway, mere feet from each other, we don't always get to see each

118other throughout the day. So, being in the same hallway will now have, um, how many people? 12? 10 teachers in the same hallway? So, we're very spread out with the reconfiguration idea, which means that we're probably not going to be seeing most of those people throughout the general day anyway. Um, something that I was thinking about, too, is in terms of lunch, we mentioned the fifth grade students are going to be eating lunch potentially at MKG and HBB to help with our fifth grade teaming situation. Um, it does bring up questions about if fifth grade is having lunch all together, is there a space where educators can also eat lunch together because we have a very small space in which to do so now. So, are we going to have to then split our team

119during the time where we actually do have time to come together and collaborate and talk with each other. I do have a question that I wanted to clarify about the reduction of teachers. And I I heard that we are removing one teacher from each grade level. And I just wanted to clarify, was that in total or at each school? Are you able to answer? So, would it go from like 12 to 10 or 12 to 11? Can we I said it's a Q&A it's not a Q&A, so it we can take that back. We will bring it back and we will have more discussion at the next meeting. Sorry, Alyssa. >> Okay, no, that's right. It was just presented and I just wasn't it wasn't clear as it was presented, so I just wanted to

120know. Um, just because for the fifth grade teaming, we did spend about 10 months working together to plan out all the changes for that teaming. We did go and do school visits to figure out what that looks like, where there's an odd number of teachers to team, and it is quite a puzzle piece mess. Um, so I just want to make sure that that is kept in mind for whatever the decision is going forward, um, that we've done a lot of work with that teaming. And even with that, it took 10 months of questions, we had a committee, we put things together. Um, so I would like to also pair it a lot of people that have already come up with the time frame of this. Um, these people all want to collaborate. We want

121to be a part of this process. We found out about this proposed decision four weeks ago, and it seems like there has been a fair amount of planning gone into it already, which feels pretty bad, to be honest, because we have not been able to collaborate to this point. We can't collaborate if we don't know something is happening. So, I do appreciate that we're having a public hearing, that you're taking our questions. Um, but I think the September deadline, that's one of the proposed decisions, would be far too rushed, and it would leave a lot of unanswered questions, and just rushed things that would be left to individual teachers and classrooms to have to deal with. That has happened in the past with rushed decisions where teachers are left to figure things out on their

122own. Some of that has happened with fifth grade team teaching. It has happened with curriculum for years now. We're just kind of left to our own devices to figure things out. So, really we are looking for leadership. Communication is the biggest piece that I have heard most of my colleagues talking about. These are big decisions. They impact a third of the educators in this district. They impact over a thousand students and their families. So, this is not a decision that should be rushed for September. This needs to be carefully planned out like many other people have said tonight. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Hi, I'm Lisa Duval. I am a speech pathologist at the complex. I have worked in the district for 32 years and I've seen a lot of reconfigurations. Um so, I want

123to speak partly to that, but I also wanted to focus on our more um substantially separate population of children because I believe that this reconfiguration, which I have gone through in the past, we tried this years ago as Dr. Sullivan mentioned. We've tried other reconfigurations. We always end up right back where we are. Two schools, grades 1 through 5 each, because that is what has been the most beneficial and the most consistent for our students. So, we're just trying things that we've tried before that didn't work. But it seems like right now we're trying something on a very fast pace when people they the parents in the community, the teachers, they need to be on a committee. They need to have their say. They need to be part of the decision-making process. So, I just

124want to go through this if you don't mind and then I will uh next person stand up. Um I have been in Minneola a long time working here. I don't have the pleasure of living here, but I love the students that I've worked with over the years. The parents have been amazing and as we have here the best staff ever. They are wonderful. They care about these children. They put them first. They give them their heart and soul. They give up their weekends. They do everything they can for these kids. And they deserve they deserve to be considered in this process as well. To be clear, I don't have a dog in this fight. I retire at the end of this year. This reconfiguration will not impact me. But I am very worried about my

125students that I currently have and my colleagues that I work with now. Um as I said, I'm here speaking on behalf of my students and my colleagues because my caseload has always included the students who need extra help, who need that technology near order for them to to have a voice, who do not adjust well to changes and things that are unfamiliar. The children who do not trust easily, can have difficulties making friends and rely from from moment-to-moment, day-to-day, and year-to-year on those adults that are familiar to them. Those adults that have learned that they can count on and yes, they learn to trust. My fear is my students will lose that feeling of the caring and the safety and the belonging if we move forward with this proposed config- reconfiguration. With this configuration that

126we are talking about today, it will increase the transitions and the impact student progress. This significant increase in the transitions and starting over could very well be this type of a format. Students will be at MECC for 1 to 2 years. Then they'll be at MKG for 2 years. Then they'll be at HBB for 3 years. Then 3 years at Nichols and then 4 years or more at MHS depending on the student. For students who receive special ed services including academics, OT, PT, counseling, behavioral support, and speech, consistent relationships with service providers is critical. It's crucial to their progress. Repeated transitions make it harder to form strong relationships and rebuild the trust and maintain that progress. Splitting our substantially separate programs at the complex, in my opinion, is not in the best interest of our

127students. Right now, our programs benefit from shared staff, shared resources, many of which are created or purchased by teachers because as previously previously mentioned, our sub separate programs do not have a curriculum. Even though we've been asking for years. Staffing in substantially separate programs is already difficult. As someone else had already mentioned, the ESPS that we have in the substantially separate programs are very unique. It takes a lot to work with the students that we love because of the challenges that they have. And they are wonderful people. All of our staff are. If we want to retain the strong staff and continue building in-district opportunities so that more of our children do not have to go out of their hometown community to receive appropriate school services, we need to provide a stable, well-supported environment. Splitting

128the programs risks inconsistency in programming, service delivery, and continued growth and progress for our students. I urge you to please put our students first. Teachers, staff, and parents should be included as a part of a committee making this decision. This district should not rush to make this decision. Our students' futures depend on it. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Hi. Uh Jessica McKenna. I'm a resident. I'm a parent. I'm not a staff member. Um I want to speak just for a second from a perspective of a parent. I have two kids in the system. Um one of them went through the high school. The other one is currently at Parkland. Uh both of them struggled with their transitions when they went from Brookland to to the middle school. And you know, twice as many students. Um

129just as you said. Um my little one came out of the MEC and did not understand, just as you said, "Where are my Where are my best friends?" Well, they're down that very long hallway and you can't be in a classroom with them. Um and yes, kids are adaptable. And yes, we do teach them to make new friends. And yes, as parents, we do the work to help these our kids at home find new pathways, just like teachers and everybody else here. So, I need to say that I'm very much in favor of this because I think it's important as they transition. But I also want to say that I think there's a detriment that happens at the junior high that causes anxiety into high school and that is the three separate grades on three

130separate floors and they never mix up and they never see each other unless they're on the bus. And I don't really think that that's the greatest idea if you're trying to help kids mix into a high school when when they get into those classrooms, they are not always in there with freshmen. Those classrooms have sophomores, juniors, and seniors in them. And they don't know what they're doing and they come into this big new beautiful building which is not three separate floors and you're in your own little bubble and I think that that's something that should be addressed in addition to this because I don't think you can address one without the other. That being said, I think that this is being rushed very much. It our educators that are sitting behind you are saying that

131these are the people who work with these children every day. They are Some of them were through many transitions. Some of them have been through just one. Some of them have been through none. But they're telling you that this is a lot. It's lot. It's too much. We've got a budget problem coming up on our hands. We don't even know if some of them will have jobs even though we keep saying they will. They're nervous they won't. Uh there's so much happening. This is too much. This is too much icing on the cake and I would much rather see this push out to September 27th or 28th. And the last thing I just want to say is it couldn't be more clear that our special department has a lot of problems. And if all of

132these specialty these people are specialists and they're saying we have problems and they keep repeating it and repeating it and repeating it. It's time to shore that up. Because it's a gaping hole. I feel like it's probably a gaping hole everywhere. But it's a gaping hole. And to the people who do not want this reconfiguration, I'll say this. There are a hundred other towns in Massachusetts where kids go to school K through two and three through five. And there are a thousand kids in those schools. And they do it. And they mix in and the kids are okay. And it's not always easy and it's certainly not easy to reconfigure, but it can be done. But it definitely needs to be done with a methodology and not just trying to throw it at the wall

133and see what sticks. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Ashley Ferney, 7 Maple Road. Um first of all, I wanted to thank some of you up there. Um I emailed you all yesterday and thank you to Melissa, to Jessica, and to Alan for your replies. Um I will not read that email because it will definitely proceed over my 3 minutes. Um but it was just to the Parent Square message that we received, um, last week. It was just my thoughts on each of those bullets, but after hearing tonight, I just had some comments I wanted to share. Um, you spoke briefly about an admin cut, a special ed coordinator. I beg you not to cut one of the special ed coordinators. We do need them all. Please cut an admin that's not direct to the students.

134Maybe Terry or Kevin's position. Um, class sizes. This is without the new builds. It seems to be a guess. Each slide that you showed, you heard cackling, you heard comments. Talk to these people. They may not come to the microphone today. I beg you to have a committee with these people behind me. Um, to Mr. Brannigan's statement that was read for him. Those are COVID kids. I have a 10th grader here. She missed fourth grade and fifth grade. It's still a struggle socially in high school, even though I love this school. Don't get me wrong. The high school is like the Disney World of this district. Um, but they're COVID kids. They lost out. So, of course they have that social awkwardness right now. Let's give them some time to, you know, figure it out.

135Um, I wanted to thank the two middle school kids that came to speak. That was very brave. Um, however, fifth grade does have a mingle night. I am the president of the Mary Kay Good PTA and, um, myself and Jen Newhook, the the president of the HBB PTA, we came together last year with Mrs. White and Ron who's no longer with us, um, to make a mingle. And we had been trying, uh, Stephanie Hewins had been trying for years prior and it was just always a struggle with admin at the, uh, middle school level to do so. So, we were able to do it last year for those sixth graders that you have now. We already have a date, and I know you know cuz we've verified it with you, for the fifth graders this

136year. Jen and I are amazing. We talk about getting things together with the kids because that those are the experience they need. They need to have that social piece. Um, speaking of building bonds, let's support our arts department. Currently in the complex, we have 250 students who are in the music department right now doing an instrument or or whatnot. However, their auditorium has missing seats and no light that works and sound that is horrendous. We talk about bonding them across um grades. Let's put our energy there. I know a lot of those students when they go to the middle school, their their um schedules don't allow them to continue their musical interest. My daughter was one of them that lost out on orchestra. Those are bonds we can keep building. Um last time I spoke,

137Mr. Perone, you said that you had heard that parents want this. Why listen now? I'm a parent. I want a safer building for my child. I want a main entrance that's secure for visitors to be vetted in before they enter. I don't want visitors to have access to my student just by a buzzer at the door. I want a building without mildew and without mold. I want windows that are able to open safely for the students at recess eliminating injuries such as my son who endured inches from his jugular last year for recess. I want better food options for the children so they can actually fill their bellies at lunch for when they learn. >> [applause] >> I want water fountains that drain. I want toilets that flush. And I want hand-washing sinks that actually

138work for the students. >> [cheering and applause] >> And you know what? When the warmer weather comes, which is September, October, May and June, I would love a classroom that the levels in the classroom don't mimic Amazon style of rainforest humidity levels that they can actually learn comfortably in. [applause] I was always raised by if it's not broke, don't fix it, but it's definitely broken. It's not the student placement that's broken. It's the lack of leadership, the issues with our curriculum, and too many non-facing non-facing student people making decisions, poor building facilities, and non-transparencies that need to be fixed, not a reconfiguration. Woo! >> [applause and cheering] [applause] >> Hi, I'm Lisa McDonald. I'm school psychologist at the Burckland School. I have worked in the district since 1997. So, Lisa Deval has a few years

139on me, but I've been here for a while in different capacities across all grade levels. So, um as a school psychologist, obviously I'm learn I'm in the social emotional kind of piece of this. That transition from grade two to three, so back So, I was at the Burckland School from 2008 through So, I was there for 3 years prior to the reconfiguration. So, I was there for just grades three to five. And now seeing the students there from one to five is tremendously better for students. The relationships that we can develop with students over 5 years and with the families over 5 years is so so much better than what we had before. In that in the, you know, the moving forward to the grade one and two, we'd have that transition from second to

140third. And that transition that age is really tough for kids. So, now they're transitioning and it may not be the same transition as a middle school transition. Middle school transition's going to happen regardless of how we're reconfigured. They're showing up to sixth grade. But we keep hearing all night about how difficult transitions are transitions are, but now with this proposal we're adding a transition. Um >> [applause] >> the seeing kids in the elementary school, if you come, I would invite people, I don't know I can really do that, but >> [laughter] >> but um but walking if you came at arrival time at the Burckland School, the way that we're set up, we have first grade going down one way and then it goes second, third, and then fourth and fifth. So, if you're anyone

141except for first grade, you're walking through, you know, all of from chronologically you're going second to third. To see the amount of students that check in with past years' teachers to say hi, smile, get a hug, it is unbelievable and that's what I would love for people to come and witness that. Um find um family impact. You have parents, we are all stretched thin as parents, um >> [clears throat] >> especially those of us that are coaches or involved in, you know, dance or drama or other things. And now we have parents that are going to be pulled between two elementaries. Is that going to down decrease the parent involvement at schools? The PTO the PTAs, I'm guessing it's the same people that are kind of doing everything. Um because people are so stretched thin,

142is that going to limit what we have for family like our family's not going to be able to access as much of that we have at the schools. Um socially, I had a couple of questions. Um I know you can't answer the questions, but and maybe with seeing the draft schedules would be it would be answered, but having that like would we be having an entire grade at recess? And if so, I know people kind of addressed that before, but if you have 250 kids at recess, you have to separate that. It's a safety concern. You're going to end up having kids rotate through. We used to have to do this in the like the old configuration where certain classrooms would have certain days on the equipment. So, you might be out there, but you

143can't play with your best friend because you're it's your equipment day and they have laptop day. Um or are we going to have to use the, you know, the field across the street to separate out recess? Um someone kind of mentioned it before, but from a social emotional perspective, kids out at recess if they have a some some type of peer issue, they're going to the teacher that's there. With having only five or six classes there, those teachers know who all the kids are. So, they can intervene and really get a handle on what's going on. Doubling that, they're not going to know. They're not going to know that Johnny has an issue with Bobby, and they're they're not going to be able to to know this. Um we're going to have kids that um

144I agree with that. Um 10 to 12 classes out the kids aren't going to be together. So, like the whole idea of having kids be with their friends and they're going to end up separated to some capacity. I do feel like this is too rushed. Um last time, you know, it was like people said like several years. I did just want to point out that the superintendent, the presentation earlier from Mask, talked about how to make a good decision is by having focus groups involving the parents, the families, um the students, um having an online survey to get more information, and I would strongly recommend that we're doing that as well as looking at is there any research that supports this model. Um I'm a data person. I'd love to see that. Thank you. >>

145[applause] [applause] >> Janette Barrett, and I still hate this. I still hate talking in public, so I am a parent of a 9-year-old and a 4-year-old. So, this is a heavily vested option for me because I don't have a kid leaving in 2 years. I have a kid who will be at the complex in 2 years. And I have been so fortunate to have an amazing experience at the elementary school from Mrs. White, Mr. Dyer to Mrs. Randall, Mrs. Holmes, and because they get the opportunity to truly know our children. And there is so much research-based evidence. I'm also a data person. I work in finance. Research-based evidence that show smaller elementary schools children learn better. When the teachers can know the children, they can know the families. My daughter would be thrilled if I

146told her she was going to be in her best friend in HBB's class next year. Thrilled. But you know where she is right now? At her house. And she's going to be her friend. They don't always have to be together to be friends, but their education does matter. Their relationships with their administrators, with their teachers, with their placements are much bigger to me than if she's on the same classroom as her basketball player teammate. Again, by the way, the basketball gym's leaking at the HBB gym's leaking. It was leaking at basketball practice today on the third graders. Maybe an ice dam. But again, on her basketball team, half the kids are on HBB, half are MKG. You know what they do? They play. I am not concerned about that. I'm concerned about her teachers knowing

147how to place the kids, how to get them together. I I don't love the idea of the cohorts in middle school. I'm not going to lie to you, but that's not this year's problem for me. My other question is, and I know that we're not doing Q&A, so I'm not expecting an answer right now, but from my understanding, Mr. McGrail was able to increase our Chapter 70 funding from $70 a student to $125 a student. If we take that and multiply it by the number of students we have in our school district, I believe it comes out to 1.2 million, which would save those five or 10 teachers we're thinking about cutting for this one year while we truly dive into is this the right choice. Sorry. And I won't go over all my other

148questions cuz the school committee has been great about answering them. Thank you, Mr. Foley. I bother him a lot. Um But just take your time, please. Really think about the research, the evidence, the data that shows that this might not be the right choice. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Anyone else? Uh Nathan Demers. Um I can see both sides of of this particular issue and I have maybe just one one question and then a thought. Um I know as the town is getting larger here with all this uh you know um high density housing going up, is there going to be a disproportionate effect on classroom sizes in HBB versus MKG? And I'm guessing that's probably what probably sprung this discussion about, I guess. Um maybe budgetary is another issue, I guess, and that's what

149brought this up. Um >> [clears throat] >> I would say that you know, I have uh one child who is in fourth grade HBB and another one who's entering the school system. So, you know, this would you know, directly affect me. Um Classroom Well, teachers, you know, the cuts, the proposed cuts to teachers and administration and professional services aside, um whether or not it's going to happen or not, um I look at it as an opportunity for for kids. Um you have the opportunity to co-mingle with all your peers through reconfiguration over each year because theoretically, you could be in the same class in one way or another each year if the classes are really co-mingling. So, I think that's a good benefit to you know, um and establish the groups. My my daughter >>

150[clears throat] >> when they went from MKG, I'm sorry, from Mac to HBB, was devastated that some of her friends weren't going to be in the same school as her. So, I can only imagine you know, a little bit less pain on her behalf if she was able to go to school with her you know, her her friends from the Mac going to HBB. So, I mean, I just want That's just my primary thought, right? Is what's the what's the benefit for the kids? And having an opportunity to have those same >> [clears throat] >> those same friends all through elementary school um would be a good thing. Um and I I know a gentleman commented earlier about well, you could just backfill the classrooms regardless of where you live. And I think that kind

151of creates silos if you have one child who goes to MKG next door to a kid who goes to HBB all because they're trying to even out the classroom sizes. So, I think that's one of the benefits of reconfiguration. Thank you. >> [clears throat] [applause] >> Hi, Kim Jones, 79 Clay Street. Um I want to start off by saying I haven't seen a full breakdown of the budget. I mean, maybe it's out there and I've missed it. The website's not always the user-friendly for me anyways. Um we've got some big bullet points, but I know myself when I run my household, I know how much this bill is, this bill is, this bill is. I'd like to see that fine-tooth more. I don't know if that's been shown with the um town to develop why

152we need to make these pay cuts. Um next thing I mean that was brought up the last meeting, the school's in bad shape. We um brought up that, you know, in the next couple of years we're probably going to need a new building. Well, how are we going to build a new building if we can't finance what we have now and we're making cuts? The kids adjusting I grew up in East Bridgewater. Sorry. Been here for 25 years though. Um East Bridgewater, we were all grade central school first grade, second grade, third grade. We went off to the intermediate school fourth and fifth. Sixth, seventh, and eighth was in the middle school. Boom, high school ninth through 12th. I think I did okay. I'm Some may disagree. My son's been here in Middleboro. He's gone

153to the Mac, he's been to MKG, he's been to Nichols, he's up here at the high school now. He's adjusted. Kids are resilient. They're going to adjust. They're going to have their friends, they're going to have the ones they don't like. We're always going to have problems. We have them in the own our rooms as adults. We go to work. We have conflicts. We have to learn to teach them how to adjust. I'm going to defer to the teachers cuz they're the experts on how to teach our children. I don't have an education degree. The conflict with moving People move all over the world. They move in their businesses, the military move every three to four years. So, moving a classroom if a family can move a household, one classroom shouldn't be that bad cuz

154the the desks I think are going to stay in the room. It's a matter of gathering your belongings. So, I mean I don't think that should be something that we should rely on. But, the thing that concerns me the most and I'm lucky cuz my son's only got one more year till he graduates and then two or three years if he does the extended program. But the services for the special ed and it's constant constant constant. There's no program. There's no teachers. You want to take away someone. That's ridiculous. The school needs all the support they can get and you need to get that line budget out and we need to look where money's being wasted. And reorganize cuz these teachers need to be here. Our kids deserve them to be here. Thank you. >>

155[applause] >> Hello, Alyssa Baldwin, third grade teacher at MKG. Um I'm just here to really ask us to just slow down. I think I keep hearing the reiterating kind of statement tonight is thinking about the kids. Um at our last meeting that we had in this room, we had decided that we were going to take a pause for our status program after hearing from the the educators who are in this classroom. So as of right now, we don't have a ELA curriculum. We don't have a superintendent and we are now talking about making really big changes that impact and affect a lot of people, a lot of students and a lot of families. It sounds like we kind of just need to get ourselves in a good position. Reconfiguration might be the correct answer. I

156wasn't here when it was here before. I'd like to see some research. I'd like to see the data. I'd like to be part of the conversation. Um again, I will admit it to you, I'm the classroom that's been leaking. Um so with my leaky classroom and not being a part of this, it does feel like my input and as a teacher, I'm not valued or appreciated in this district. Uh that's my experience. I'm I'm sure some some other teachers may feel that as well, but in keeping us out of this and moving so fast, you're taking away our voice and our ability to feel like this is our school and that we are really making impact for our students. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Anyone else? All right. I'm going to allow the school committee

157members if you have any closing statements that you'd like to make. Anyone? Alan. Um So, this came up pretty quick to us. And I was initially uh encouraged by the idea that we might be able to save jobs. That's why I was initially interested in this proposal. Doesn't look like we can save enough jobs to rush this through. Um I think this would be a great task for the new superintendent to take on and investigate and look at this. >> [applause] >> I think there's some opportunities there for the new superintendent to engage in dialogue with the teachers, the staff, the community, the parents, everybody. This would be a great way for them, he or she, to uh get involved with the community. You know, I'm I'm finding $2.2 million and, you know, all the

158other good stuff that he or she's going to have to do, but I just I I from what I've heard, from what I've read, from the comments I've seen, um September's far too soon for this type of thing. I like the idea of it, but I'd like to investigate it a lot more. And I think, like I said, I think there are some really good opportunities with this um study for a new superintendent to really get involved with the community. I think it could end up being a win-win for everyone. Thank you, Alan. Anyone else? Kind of want to echo that. Uh first, I'd like to thank everybody for coming and talking about the benefits of it. Um but uh there's no way I could support this in September 26. Um it just >> [applause]

159>> As we heard, there's too much change. As Alan pointed out, with throwing this on top of a superintendent who's applying, it just that doesn't add up to me. So, I think let's do one step at a time, get the leadership in, bring up the community, our educators, and then move forward from there. Sue or Shannon? Okay. You guys pretty much said it all. So, thank you. Okay. I'm sorry, I didn't hear you. I said they pretty much said everything that that I had written down, so I'm good. Uh I too want to thank the people who brought this forward. Uh and for everyone that is here that has brought their perspective also. And what I would like to reinforce is I've had lots of conversations with lots of different people um that have different

160roles and perspectives about the decision. And one thing I want to really reinforce is that in every conversation that I've had, the students have been the center of what they're thinking about, and what is best for our students is what we've been thinking about, everyone here. And we might have difference of opinion about what we should do, how fast we should do it, or how slow we should do it, but the care in this town for our children is something that we really should celebrate, and that we're we're all here having this conversation, and it shouldn't be something that divides us. It should be something that brings us together. And having these kinds of conversations, I believe does that, and is something that we should continue. Thank you, Sue. Um So, I I echo the

161thanks all of you. I know being here was uh important for us so that um we could hear from you how you saw the benefits. Um but it was also important for us to have a chance to hear from all of you um for the benefits and the negatives and the pros and the cons. I do hear the the fear in rushing. Um I do hear the focus on the students as well. Um so, I I think that everyone has given us a lot to think about. Um and I appreciate that everyone attended this forum and gave us a chance to listen. Um I think that is one of the most important things that we can do is listen. Um as I mentioned, we do want to put this or we do plan to put

162this on the agenda for next week, which is March 12th, which is also our budget hearing for another discussion um and for everybody to have a chance after they've um processed everything we heard tonight to um make any kind of recommendation or decisions. We've heard a few tonight and uh we'll bring it back up again next week for another discussion. Um I do appreciate the feedback about surveys as well. It's something that we had talked a little bit about about sending out a survey. Um as we heard for those who were at the MASU presentation, surveys by themselves aren't enough. Forums like this are really vital to getting a chance to hear from everyone. So, please consider this just a part of the process and uh we will have more discussion next week. And um

163we'll see where everybody feels the right next step is. So, I do thank you all for coming. I do ask um please be careful leaving. As everybody knows, those piles of snow got started melting today as the temperatures went up, but they have gone back down again. So, I do ask that everybody just please take care leaving and going home. Stay safe, everyone. I'll now entertain a motion to close the public hearing and adjourn the meeting. So moved. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Thank you all. Good night. Good night to you, too. Good night to you, too.