001If I had a Snickers bar, I'd be eating it. I love those commercials. The Snickers Yeah, they are. What I like about them is it takes me a second to understand it, you know? I'm like, "What?" Oh, all right. Now I got you. No, he has agendas. I got them. Sorry. It's okay. I thought I was going to have to walk all the way over there, Mike. No, no. >> [laughter] >> I would, but I guess you have yours, right? Yes, I have mine. >> you feeling? How's it going? I'm okay. Good. I'm tired. I could turn to do stuff at home, like fancy stuff. Some renovations. Nesting? Yeah, well, we had to close our bedroom, so we closed in our formal dining room. We had a contractor come in. Uh so, he finished that.
002So, you good? Yeah, Mason usually likes one. No, he has one. Yep, here you go. Here's one. Uh no, he's not supposed to be alone. He's just alone right now. I can't see either. Got you. You're getting old. Okay. You good? >> I'm jealous, Mom. I'm a little jealous of you. Not a lot jealous. You want Everybody all set? There's a lot of good stuff that comes from it, you know? All right. As I pry my hands off my son's throat. Good evening. I'm going to call this meeting to order, and if you are able, please rise for the pledge of allegiance. Flags 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
003all. Thank you. Um our next order of business is public comment. Just remind you that if you do have public comment, we do ask that you keep in mind privacy, as well as items under the purview of the school committee, and there is a 3-minute time limit. Anyone for public comment this evening? Seeing none, we will move on to discussion items. We will start with half, and if the other half shows up, we'll do it another time. My better half is on his way back from track. So, he is very close to the building. So, I'll talk slow. So, the district-wide events are the same as it was, just snow day possibility added in. For the MEC, they did not have a lot to add from the previous meeting. They just wanted to remind everyone
004that the January word of the month is respect, and that students are being taught about ways to show respect to friends, family, teachers with their words and their actions. And the preschool lottery for community peers has opened and is still going on. I'll read a little bit about it. Uh the application is due by 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, February 11th. And if you need any help with the application, you can visit the MEC from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. anytime until that application deadline. And if you want a paper application, you would call the school, and they will provide you with one. And the lottery will actually be held on Thursday, February 12th at 11:00 a.m. And all entrants will be notified of their status the week [music] of February 16th. And there will be
005more to come after your status has been updated. I stalled for the perfect amount of time. Do you want me to say the HPB then come back? Yeah. Okay. I'll continue on with the HPB, which has two announcements, so that [music] won't buy Jackson a whole lot of time. Um January 8th was their book bingo night in the cafeteria, and their holiday concert is coming up on the 28th from 5:30 [music] to 7:30 at the HPB in the auditorium. I'll jump to the MHS, which has a lot, so Uh we want to congratulate Eleanor Jackson, who won the American Legion orat- orator- oratorical competition this weekend. Um they now move on to the state meet for the American Legion, so congratulations to them. Uh thank you to the class of 2028 officers. They are launching
006their planning for [music] the pizza bowl, which is a annual event that Middleboro puts on. And the end of the first semester and the second quarter are creeping up. The quarter will close on Tuesday, January 27th, and the new quarter will open on that Wednesday, which will be the 28th. Uh the quarter two report cards will be distributed on February 5th to all students through Aspen, and the first day of the new semester will be a day three in the Middleboro schedule. Uh for the class of 2026, the annual scholarship information night will be held on Wednesday, February 11th at 6:00 p.m. in the auditorium. This event is designed to walk seniors [music] and parents or guardians through the scholarship application process. It's a very informative evening for all senior families looking to apply for
007scholarships to four-year or two-year or technical colleges and universities. If you have any questions, you can email Mrs. Breton in the coun- in the school [music] counseling office. The school counseling office also hosted its first of a three-part workshop series for juniors and their families on this past Wednesday, and it was on >> [laughter] >> the fine details of applying to college and how to start the application process. The other two parts will roll out throughout the year. And on February 4th, Middleboro High School opened its doors to students and families in the class of 2030 for a open house. And they will have an opportunity to meet with the faculty and staff and discuss and learn about the amazing opportunities that the high school can provide for them. The Math Honor Society, Mu Alpha
008Theta, is sponsoring peer math tutoring. If you would like to sign up for yourself, or if you are a parent signing up for a student, there's a QR code or a link in Brand's [music] bulletin to do so. Students can sign up for a drop-in time slot, or they can schedule weekly sessions. All students are asked to bring their notes, assignments, [music] and materials from class to aid in the tutors. And if you have any questions, please email Mrs. Crowley, who is the supervisor for Mu Alpha Theta. The history department is coordinating the selection process and election of who will represent our school at the annual student government day event at the State House in April. And if you are interested in any position in that, please email Mr. Osgood, who is the coordinator for
009that event. And the last thing is thank you to all the amazing team of students who are working very hard to prepare for the MASC Unified Bocce tournament that will be held in next weekend in Duxbury through our partnership with the Special Olympics of Massachusetts. Apologies for the the tardiness. Um for MKG, I unfortunately don't have any um major announcements from um Principal White. And then for NMS, um um tonight, the middle school is putting on a vaping presentation for parents. It's um currently in session. It's going till 7:00. Any kids who attend with their parents get a coupon for a quiz grade for all four of their core classes. Yeah. Since you're so slow. All right. Um and then we're moving on to athletics. Um congrats to the MHS hockey team for their outstanding
010service project for the first responders. The team collected over 300 stuffed animals at their game last week. Well done, Sachems. Congratulations to EJ Wankie for signing his letter of intent as he committed to Roger Williams University in Rhode Island for baseball. We're very proud of you, EJ. Congratulations to Wyatt Goyette for scoring his 122nd point, placing him in the MHS history books. Wyatt now holds the all-time points leader at MHS. Congratulations to the MHS wrestling team for winning the Cohasset tournament this weekend, and congratulations to Megan Youngquist and Anna Machado, who beat the 600-meter school record that was set in 2020. Well [music] done, Sachems. That's all we have for today. All right. Thank you very much, and Jackson, no need to apologize. We understand you're trying to balance a lot of things. Any questions
011for our student reps? Just a comment. I to follow up on the uh at the middle school, I think it's really wonderful that [music] they're doing the that uh informational session on vaping. I understand it's really gotten to be a significant problem, and one that we really need to address. So, um kudos to them for pulling that together. All right. Thank you, gentlemen. So, moving on to the superintendent's report. Yes, if we could take this uh um Is he good? He's switching mics. Try to save time. Yes, we have a I want to take this out of order if we can. Uh we have the special ed uh report from Melissa Deutschman and Terry Markolitis. And then Terry's going to stay up and do um uh report on the new ELA curriculum program. So, if
012they will come up, I will slide over. Hi, everyone. Hi. Thanks for having us tonight. We have quite a bit of information to share with you and we're looking forward to it. Good evening. I'm Melissa Deutschman. I am the acting special education director and also the MEC coordinator currently. And we're going to share with you some information regarding our um DESE determination. So, it's just to kind of give an overview. Also, we did give the handouts. There's a handout at every spot and there's also some in the back for anybody in the community audience who wants to look at that. Um the handout is not the actual presentation. It's what's referenced in the presentation. So, giving you some ideas. Especially since some of the the pictures might be a little too small too small to
013see in the presentation. So, just to kind of give you an overview, in May of 2025, uh the former special education director was notified of Middleborough's 2024-2025 status of determination [music] for students with disabilities specifically. And Middleborough was identified at that time as being needs assistance. So, there are four levels of possible designation. [music] The determination of needs assistance um comes right below meets requirements. So, we had been meets requirements and we we did fall into the needs assistance um for the 2024-2025 status determination. It's important to note that that is based on 2023-2024 data. So, everything the data is about a year prior to when they give you the notification. And by falling into the needs assistance category, there were two key components of what's required. Um we are now required to expend for
014special education in the 2025-2026 school year and subsequently um at least as much state and local funds in the aggregate or per pupil as it's spent last year in order to meet maintenance of effort. So, basically means we need to continue to maintain the same level of funding for students with disabilities as we [music] have already been doing. We can't dip below what our current spending And our other requirement um by being in needs assistance is that we need to participate in technical assistance that the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education [music] is putting out for us in order to address the the needs [music] and status. So, we're required to participate in this technical assistance and we're going to be engaging in root cause analysis and improvement planning in the identified rubric areas of
015need. So, those are the two requirements. In addition to meets requirements, needs assistance, the other two categories are needs intervention or substantially needs intervention. So, we're not at those levels. We're at the needs assistance level. So, the technical assistance that they've offered, we were notified in early fall, right around the time that I assumed this position, uh that the technical assistance would involve participating in three days of conferences, [laughter] they call them convenings. There were [clears throat] two days in October and one day in January. >> [music] >> So, found out about this at the very end of Decem- end of September. We put it together a team and then started working on that. There's also some webinars that are embedded in between the convening days. We have a team of five administrators from Middleborough
016who have attended the convenings. It's myself, Dr. Markolitis, um Toby Viviano is the Nichols Middle School special education coordinator, Jeff Silvia, the assistant principal here at Middleborough High School, and um Joshua Dyer, the assistant principal for MKG. We specifically chose administrators who have experience with special ed, but also from a variety of grade levels, but also really looked at the assistant principal level because it gives a an a [music] lens into what's happening in the classrooms. Um obviously, we involved the principals too in the conversations as we go forward. So, we've been we've done the convenings in October, the one in January. It was actually just earlier this week for the January one. There are some webinars coming up in early February. And as part of the convenings, we've been working on a root cause
017analysis and moving into action [music] plan development. And that's what we were doing this past Tuesday when we were there. In addition to that, we have been pulling our team together for in-district meetings in order to talk about what we've been discussing at the team and moving forward. Oh, I'm so sorry. Thank you. Do you need to move it this way so that it's in line with the direction your head is inclined to turn? Okay. Hopefully, that's [music] better. So, just to kind of give you an overview of how the status was determined, it's based on the scoring matrix that the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has put together. This is a new matrix. I think they previously used a rubric. There were some um webinars that were provided >> [music] >> prior to
018me assuming this role. I found the slides on the DESE website and I've been able to go through it, but I wasn't able to participate in it. But, I was able to discern that this matrix is somewhat new, so they do have a video out about how to understand it. And they also gave information about it during the convenings. But, you can see and I provided a a picture here on the presentation, but also it's in your handouts. It's a little easier to read in the handout. But, you can see that our determination is based on a number of points. So, Middleborough earned 27 out of 41 possible points, which led to a percentage of 66%. And then those points are accrued through three matrix categories. Performance is the first one. You can see that's
019on the front page here. And performance really encompasses the MCAS results from the spring of 2024. Exiting results, which is broken down into graduation result graduation rates as well as dropout percentages for students with disabilities. This is not the entire population. This is just students with disabilities. And then the third category there is educational environments and it looks at your percentage of students with disabilities who are fully included in gen ed as well as um preschool students [music] who are attending integrated programming. And when you take a Do you mind questions as you go along? >> No, you can have them Go ahead. Um just to make sure I understand. I educational environments is the they look at the percentage of students that are participating in the general ed. Okay. Right. So, when we when
020a student is placed in a special education program, there's also a placement page and the placement page breaks down into the type of environment. There's full inclusion, partial inclusion, um substantially separate. And then those are reported to the state. So, the state has an idea of of our total population of students with disabilities, what percentage are full inclusion, what percentage [music] are partial inclusion, etc. Um and I remember from Dr. Markolitis's um presentation previously, the differences in the MCAS scores that was um called out. Uh in the exiting results, [music] do you have what are what's the discrepancy there? So, if you look at the chart, you can see and this is new information for us. Um you can see where our percentage of students who graduated with the regular high school diploma was a
02174. 10. Oh, I'm sorry. It's right here. And the target is 79. Got it. >> percent. So, your score is based on how far away from the target you are. >> Right. And so, ours was 18. Of the dropped out. Yeah, the dropped out. But, percentage of children with disabilities who graduated is 74 versus 79. Okay, understood. Sorry. >> So, and then the score in that final right column where it says the score, you can see there's the yellow, a one they I highlight in yellow, a zero is red, and then if there's no color, it's a two, that means you got full points. Got it. >> And so, there's a they have a breakdown Mhm. on their website. There's actually a website too. I can send you the link if you're interested in in
022looking at the the nitty-gritty of how they fill it out. But, there is a breakdown of that and there's different targets. So, depending on how close to the target you are determine if you got one point or two, exactly. [music] >> Exactly. Understood. Thank you. So, when we were looking at this, obviously, the areas [clears throat] in red are the most concerning. Um you can see that there were no colors for the educational environments. We did very well there. We got full credit there. Um, it was the MCAS. And I know that you've had presentations in the past with Dr. Markolitis about the MCAS results. And again, these are from the spring of '24. This is not our spring of '25 results because we were notified about this in spring of '25, so. So, that's
023that page. Any questions about this page? So, this is one of three matrix categories. The other two matrix categories they came together to give us the full 27 points are on this page. And the next section is compliance. And compliance is is broadly um, broken into disproportionality and then non-compliance. So, the disproportionality we got full credit there and it talks about is there a significant discrepancy based on race race and ethnicity in terms of suspensions, expulsions, um, into the breakdown of our services, and um, into our different disability categories. Are we over represented? And we were not. So, we had no status in those areas and we got full points there. Weird way to capture that, no status. Okay, thank you. I I we have no idea how long they spent into developing their matrix
024and what kind of process they went through, but this is this is the result. So, we got all we know is we got full points there. So, we're in good we're in good standing [music] there. There were a couple of areas where they were not reporting this year and that includes you can see indicator 11, which is a child find, indicator 12, which is an early childhood transition, and secondary transition, which is indicator 13. So, there's slashes there. No no district was reported on those. So, there were no points to be given. Um, so they didn't count toward the total. And you can see where we did have um, an issue is with findings of non-compliance. That's actually broken into two more categories. That's public school monitoring, which is the tiered focus monitoring process the
025department goes through, and also the problem resolution system, which is the PRS. And we had um, seven findings of non-compliance during the '23-'24 school year. So, almost 2 years ago. And the seven resulted in zero. Anything six or higher gets a score of zero. If we had had between one and five instance of non-compliance, we would have gotten a one. And if we had had zero, we would have gotten the full two. And are the non-compliance, are they typically indi- sorry. Are they typically individual student driven or is it something that's across the school? So, if you look at the handout I gave, I didn't put it into this slide cuz it would have been too hard to read, but you can see that we in that middle column that says data, we have a
026seven. And so, that actually on a later page in the handout, there's a breakdown of where that seven came from. It's from there were two findings in the TFM, the tiered focus monitoring or as they refer to it here, the public school monitoring. And then there were five student family complaints that went to PRS that had a finding. There are more complaints that go to PRS than that, but they don't all yield findings. So, again, during the '23-'24 school year and I don't have those cuz I wasn't in this role then, um, but I guess it during that time there were five findings in that that time frame. And that's where the seven came from. Thank you. And you can see that in terms of non-compliance, the other thing they look at in terms of
027compliance is were there any that you didn't correct within the year requirement? Because if there is a finding, you're expected to correct it within a year. The district did correct them all within a year. So, we got full two points there. And then the third consideration area for the matrix, we lost um, we didn't have any any issues. They There's only one There's only one one is the max you can get in this category. And you can see that the fiscal, the maintenance of effort was met. That's a yes. Um, we were timely in turning in our indicator results for indicator seven and indicator 14, and we had equitable child count, um, and submitted on time and accurate and reliable. And that's how we're doing our data submission to the state. And we got all
028the possible points. Two wasn't an option in that column. That's just the one the highest you can get there. So, all of that together is what led to our um, our total of 27 out of 44, which reaches the 66% and 66% puts you in the needs assistance. So, you can see that you know, if you go back to the original, it was really primarily the MCAS results that was driving it with the addition of the compliance back from '23-'24. Any questions about the matrix? You guys will have you have the whole packet, so that I can explain it to you. And when we started this process, we had we had that packet and that was it. We've been like building our information as we go from there. So, through this process, um, as I
029said, we went through the convenings. We sat we met in October. We just started doing this work when we went to the convenings in October. It was 2 days in October with our team of five. And we spent a lot of time there talking about well, what are our priority areas based [music] on the data that we had in front of us. Um, we did identify that compliance was one priority area. And what we've done so far to address it is rolled out a new revised special education procedural manual for staff. Compliance results really have to do a lot with are our staff able to follow the policies and procedures and practices of the district [music] and DESE in order to make sure that we're meeting compliance standards. And it had been since I want
030to say 2017 that we had updated the manual. So, we really started this fall with this as a priority, getting that manual into the hands of our staff. That rolled out January 12th. Um, to staff. Part one. Um, part two is still to come for them, but the sections that we have in part one are really the nuts and bolts of the IEP process, the team process, reevaluations, initials, things that the special education staff are dealing with on a day-to-day basis. There are other processes that have to do with more infrequent activities that are becoming in the second phase of the of the manual for them. We also have been working on onboarding and training our new special education coordinators. I think you're all aware we have a new staff, um, in terms of the
031special education administration. Our high school coordinator is new to us this year. Our middle school coordinator is new to us this year. Um, our Burckland coordinator was previously had the entire complex and is just at Burckland now. And our MKG coordinator is new to us in this role this year. And I'm new into the director role and still managing MAC. So, really important to us in terms of this compliance factor is training the coordinators, um, making them aware of everything that's in the manual and working together and really onboarding. So, that's been a focus since October really, um, getting everybody up. Our ex- our additional top priority area was the reading proficiency on the MCAS. Uh, that was where we lost the greatest number of points and that's really what we we wanted to address.
032Can I speak to this, Mark? So, Terry's going to talk about this part here. So, she has the next bullet on the slide. Um, so as you have heard over the past few years, we have been struggling with our proficiency in reading both in general education and in special education. Um, our priority is reading proficiency in K through 10, which are I mean, K through three, they're learning [music] to read and as we go on, they get tested in MCAS. Um, so we took that number all the way up to grade 10. Um, core reading instruction has not been consistent across elementary schools, nor has it been um, consistent from grade to grade. So, as we looked at this and as we looked and spoke with special education, we realized that um, we really needed
033to do something about this. Um, and as you all know, we started this work last year with the ELA curriculum review. Um, we are tonight introducing um, for your approval our ELA program, um, which [music] embeds the tenets of the science of reading. We're going to talk about that in the next presentation, so I'm not going to spend time on that here. Um, and one of the things that we are really work working on is foundational literacy. For many years in this district, we did not have um, a systematic phonics approach. About 3 years ago, this is going to lead into the next slide, um, we brought on UFLI. Um, and I'm going to sort of switch from our priority areas to what we have done. Um, we have been looking at this data for
034a while, so while we were surprised to get this determination, we [music] did have some things in place. Um, one of those things was that we adopted UFLI 3 years ago. That is our phonics program. Um, it's designed to teach foundational reading skills systematically and explicitly. It's aligned with the science of reading and it helps students become proficient readers through structured lessons. Um, we also adopted instructional frameworks. So, instructional frameworks are really guides for our educators. What you should do, when you should do it in the classroom. What are those evidence-based strategies that really work? So, we introduced that to our staff. We also established a foundational literacy team, brought on a dyslexia screener. Both of those things really support our K through two students. Um as you go up through the grades, we've really
035focused on professional development, universal design for learning, which removes barriers to access to the classroom, >> [music] >> to education, reading instruction, and inclusive practices. One of the biggest things that has come out of all of this work is the need for and the selection of a literacy program that is aligned to the science [music] of reading. Um and the last thing is prioritize needs for continuity in special education to improve our compliance. I'm not sure what that last bullet means. I'm going to have Melissa speak to that one. Okay. That gets back to what I was saying before about the the manual, starting with the manual. Making sure that our staff are following the process. And also I you know, compliance builds trust. When everybody is following the same practices, it builds trust with
036the families. That they know that when I go in for a team meeting with my child, that it's going to follow the same process. I know what to expect. I've been at Mac for the last 14 years. Um and so I know how things have been running there. But when sometimes at some of the other buildings, I don't know that it was as consistent as we wanted it. And I'm what I'm hearing from some families now is that they were getting mixed messages. too. So, when we say we're prioritizing the needs for continuity, we're really looking at the continuity in practice Okay. of what we're doing so that we can build that trust with families and that they can recognize what we're doing in terms of the practice. Can I ask another question? Of course
037you can. Michelle, um I wonderful that we're moving towards the science of reading program, um which will be good for all our students. Um I'm wondering about um our special ed uh teachers themselves. Um do we [music] have a good cadre of OG certified um instructors or some or or equivalency of thereof that supports the uh general Right. We are we're currently working on that. Um we do have a good number of staff at the elementary level who have either the full OG training or the Orton-Gillingham, which is a Both of the training. Yeah, OG training. We also have a a couple of teachers at the elementary level who are Wilson certified, uh which is another reading program. And then we have a a couple at the middle school. We are currently we just signed
038up one of our high school teachers for Orton-Gillingham training as well. Still trying to get us out one of We have some teachers who were trained but who were on leave. So, that kind of put a little bit of a wrinkle in some of our elementary plans because when staff are on leave and they have that training, getting somebody to come in who can replace them [music] is more of a challenge. So, we were we were dealing with that. So, we're still in the process, but that is definitely on our our agenda of what we're doing and trying to increase our training in that area across the board and have a better flow of the staff that we have too and making sure that there's access for the students who need that level of intervention.
039How big of a gap do you think we have? A gap in in what? Uh people what's your goal? You know, you say we have a couple here, we have a couple there. Um There's a it's it's complex. I I want to kind of look at like where we are with the the building, you know, the the the levels of the building and the teachers and where we are with everything. Um this something I've been talking to the elementary coordinators about. We have you have two, Justine and and Meg. So, we've been talking about that. In terms of we would like to make sure that we have that service available at every level. Possibly not first grade. First grade is plus usually it's part of the general curriculum there. Um but second and up. So,
040we're looking at that. We have to kind of look at how things shake out with leaves. Leaves Yeah. Leaves at the start of the year was a little um little challenging in terms of of leave coverage and that sort of thing. Um but we do have money in our current budget for that. We also have in order to go through the OG training, there's it's a it's involved. It's very involved. Um I'm personally Wilson trained, district trained me well, many years ago. Um and the district has moved beyond Wilson, but even just that was a year long. It's a one-to-one. In order to get the training for that, it was a one-to-one experience. You have one student you can work with the entire year. And then on the subsequent year, you can then implement it.
041So, it's very time intensive. Um I know that the district has also trained staff in the past and then the the staff move on, take the training with them. So, we need to really look at the renewal and who are we training and making sure that they're staying with us. So, it's all part of the the package. Definitely talking about it. Thank you. So, that's what we have accomplished so far. And again, this is since we some of it already started as Dr. Markley said before we even got these results, we kind of knew. Um so, we have it already had some things underway. But because our determination is based on data from 2024, we're not going to start to see results in terms of this determination for a couple of years. So, what do
042we need to do next? We are finalizing an action plan. We started that process like I said on Tuesday at our convening. Um our primary goals are going to be focused on the improved reading. Um we have to upload the action plan to DESE. They have a vendor who's running these trainings. It's called Sped Strategies. So, we have to upload. There's a portal that we're using to upload that. So, we're working on that. The due date kind of fluctuates. They were a little unclear about the due date. They've given us several due dates. We're going to go with the earlier one in our minds so that we're ready and then if it turns out as later, even better. Um but we're we're targeting end of March. So, it's somewhere at the end of March, early
043April is when they expect us to upload that. There's a webinar in early February to give more information that um we're already [music] signed up for for that. We're also going to continue to develop some subcommittees from our core group uh that have been going to the conven- um the convenings to really look at this more carefully at the elementary and secondary and with additional stakeholders. Um we're going to initiate our training in ELA, which uh Dr. Markley is going to talk about. We are preparing for the fact that we are going to get another letter like the one you have in front of you in May-ish of 2026, and that's going to be reflective of the 2025 MCAS data, which came out before we determined that. So, we do anticipate that our needs assistance
044status uh probably won't go back to meetings or meeting requirements, but even potentially dip into the needs intervention. Um and with the convenings, we're in year one. There is a year two, which they would move us to. So, we'll learn more about that when we get the letter in the spring. Is the year two based on everybody who gets the needs improvement always has a two So, it's a two-year plan regardless of what your next year's scores are? >> it is. It is. They yes. And then would next year mean another two-year plan or they take into consideration that you're mid-plan? They will say like so First of all, we're going to hit our targets. >> We are going to hit our targets. So, >> we won't see that until the >> we will >>
045until the spring of 2027. So, and then our action plan actually is targeted for the spring of 2027, which of course would be in a letter that we would get from DESE in 2028 cuz everything's kind of a year behind, which makes it a little hard for us to to see you you're not going to see the results in this format quickly. Um when they told us we were year one needs assistance, they implied well, you know, they'll then therefore be year two because by the time you know about it, It's too late. So, we already know we're going to want a year two. They haven't showed us they separate the year one folks from the year two folks. So, when we went to our convenings, we were with all year one districts. So, we
046don't really know what they're talking about with the year two folks because it's a different day. Uh we'll find out next year when we go. Um so, we will hear. And I think that they'll probably be a little bit more information hopefully as we get to [music] the end. We've We've given our feedback. The so, the Sped Strategies that they it's the vendor that they're using. There's some conflicting information that comes from them. They're not local. They they were contracted by Massachusetts, but they're from Our presenters are from Tampa. So, we'll we'll try to keep getting some more information from them. Um the other thing we're going to be working on is completing a special ed program review. It's something we identified pretty early. We really want to look at our special education programs, particularly
047for our partial inclusion or substantially separate [music] programs. It's been a while since we've looked at that, the entrance exit criteria for that. Everything's part of a continuum in special education, and we really want to look at you know, students who are moving between the general ed program and the programs outside of the classroom to make sure that those programs are capturing the needs of our students appropriately and that they're not losing contact with the general ed curriculum, which obviously feeds back into your your MCAS. So, we're looking at that, how we go about that could vary depending on the program. Um we're still considering that, but we're talking about doing that, and I want to put that on as a priority area moving forward. And [snorts] then, depending on the results of that program
048review, we may look at reorganizing some of our specialized programs, we may update our program descriptions, and we really want to continue to do an enhanced training on co-teaching, too. Any other questions? I just I had one. So, this has a date of May 2nd, 2025. So, I'm assuming that's when the district was notified of these findings. >> It's our understanding. Okay. And is is there a reason And again, I'm all new to this, so I'll just take it for what it's worth, but is there a reason why we don't share it with, you know, the students or maybe with parents and the committee until much, much later than when it's received, or is it just to give you an opportunity to kind of get a plan together and address that and present that? I
049can't speak to why that was. >> Oh, no. Yeah, Yeah, so it's a new position. We did have a presentation when this came in. Um I couldn't We had some discussion about it not until this fall, because I was >> Right, but there was a previous discussion about it. Because I was asking about it in April and May, and I was just [clears throat] curious, because now if we're getting a new one in May, and now if we're it's, you know, it's almost February now. Yeah. It's kind of kind of a close timeline. >> It is. I think one of the um one of the positives to come out of this is that we know where we are, and we know what we need to do to move forward. And we're taking those steps, and
050so even when we get that determination next year, we are ready and poised to put things in place that are already in place, um to really move keep moving forward. Um somebody said to me today that forward is a pace, and I was like, that is fantastic because sometimes you have to just accept that forward progress as enough in the moment. Um we didn't have enough information and enough time, but we will next year. Yeah. That's perfect. Thank you. Right, and you get in this letter to you that we received, it noted it mentioned that there'll be technical assistance. They didn't actually start rolling out what that technical assistance would be until mid to late September. Then we went in October trying to get some sort of sense of of what all this meant and
051where we were going, so. I'd be interested in seeing in your subcommittees, one of the questions I have that I know you don't have an answer for yet. Yeah. And that has to do with graduate the graduate >> call graduation rates. Um it's called something else here, but um really taking a look and and maybe this has something in that will help inform program the programs in the general programs for um our students um with learning challenges. Um but really digging in there and finding out what it is that's the barrier for graduation. Um I don't it may not just be grades and not not um being successful in a class. It There may be other kinds of things, so that'll be interesting to see. It will also be interesting to see how the percentages
052are impacted by the change in the the MCAS requirement for graduation. Yep. Yeah. Okay. Any other questions? All right. Um other than to say Thank you very much. That was very helpful. Thank you very much. >> Yes, thank you for bringing this forward. It was very informative. I appreciate that you're both kind of learning on the the fly as this goes as they release information to you as you go. I did also want to take a moment, Melissa, and just officially welcome you to the position. I know you've been in it for a little while here, but this is our first opportunity to speak with you directly at a meeting. I've had the the great pleasure of meeting you outside of this process, um but also want to thank you for taking on this acting
053position and appreciate all the work that you're doing to improve the program and to um support the families in this district. So, thank you. Thank you. Can I also just add, I know this is kind of new for some families, too. Um I was mentioning this to Sue earlier when she came in. Um she's like, "Where Where are you housed?" I'm like, "I'm kind of all over the place because I am still acting coordinator at MAC. Um I do encourage families, if you have a question, obviously reach out to your building coordinator, but if you're having challenges, reach out to me, too. I am best reached by email um because I'm in multiple buildings. So, reach out to me via email. My email is on the district website, um and we can also provide that
054a little bit more clearly. Um and I do try to then make appointments to to call families back if they prefer calls. It's just a better way of reaching me since like I'm always on the road. Um but I understand, you know, that we are working to rebuild some some trust in some communication breakdowns that have happened previously. So, start with your coordinator, but don't hesitate, and I really want families to know to reach out um to us as we continue to work through getting to know a Like I said, we have new staff, new coordinators getting to know the district. I've been in Middleborough since 1999, um in a variety of roles. I think I mentioned to Dr. MacLeod, this this The last time I presented at School Committee, we didn't have anything electronic.
055And we certainly [snorts] weren't live streaming. So, it's been a change, and we're learning as we go. So, um thank you for welcoming me, and I am going to hand it over to Dr. MacLeod, and I think she's the blank. Yeah. Thank you, Melissa. Okay. So, hi everybody again. Hello. Um Lori LeBlanc, our humanities coordinator, is here with me to present because she has been critical in this work. Hi. Hello. We have um probably one of the most exciting presentations, um at least Works for for curriculum geeks. Um we are very excited about this. Just move it this way so that you're Turn Turn in the direction of the microphone. Thank you. So, we are presenting this tonight to School Committee for adoption for the '26-'27 school year. So, real quick, here is our agenda.
056We're going to go over the vision, the program vision, our rationale, our process for the pilot, our overarching questions, our recommendation to the School Committee, our implementation plan, which is still um that's really just a draft that you're going to be seeing tonight, um and then you'll have an opportunity to ask us some questions, okay? You can ask us questions as we go through, but we may explain it as we go, so it's up to you. So, our vision is adapted um from the district vision, and this is really about literacy. So, Middleborough Public Schools will develop lifelong learners by creating a literacy-rich environment that is responsive to individual students' needs and growth. We will develop lifelong learners who value literacy as the key to their future, who persevere through challenges, and who have respect
057and appreciation for others' perspectives. When you develop a program vision, it's a little bit different than a district vision or literacy vision. We had a few things that we really had to look at. So, our program vision, why do core resources matter across a grade level? We have seen in what happens when there is no consistency and no coherence from classroom to classroom. It is very hard for the next year to determine what has happened and what needs to be taught. So, when all teachers at a grade level use the same high-quality, research-aligned materials, students benefit from an equity of experience. And what we mean by that is that every student has access to rigorous, grade-level content and foundational skills designed to meet state standards. It also means that there are shared expectations. Teachers can
058collaborate more effectively because they are working from the same instructional model and using the same language. Better use of data. Very hard to compare data when you're looking at different things, as you all know. Um so, when everyone uses the same assessments and lesson structures, conversations about student progress become more meaningful and actionable. And then this is, I think, probably the biggest benefit for our educators. There is more time for teaching. Core resources reduce the burden of teachers searching for materials. It allows our educators to devote their time to instruction, differentiation, and learning. I just talked about why it matters horizontally. I'm going to give you a little information about why it matters vertically, K-12. 12. So, literacy growth depends on a coherent journey. It is not 1 year at a time, but across many
059years. Our standards roll into each other in ELA year after year. It's not like math where every year is something new. ELA builds upon the year before. We add rigor, we add challenge, um, and that's how we keep our students moving and growing. Consistent use of core materials ensures a logical progression of skills. Students can build on what they've learned the year before with fewer gaps and unnecessary repeats in foundational skills, vocabulary, and knowledge building. In alignment to the science of reading. We are going to talk about that because I know many people do not know what that is. So, we're going to give you a little information on that um, soon to come. So, students experience a structured sequence of phonics, fluency, comprehension, and writing practices that grow stronger each year. Smooth transitions between
060grades. This is something we have been working on. Um, this year we implemented team teaching in fifth grade in the hopes that that would ease the transition to sixth grade. Another way we are looking to ease transitions is that this core resource teachers will have a clear understanding of what students have mastered. They will know what they are coming in with, they will know what they are expected to come in with, um, and what they are expected to learn next. And then targeted intervention. This is something we have heard pretty consistently from our special educators. It is very hard to know what to do when something different is happening in every classroom. It's very hard to jump in and say this is going to help when you're not quite sure and when the data looks
061different from classroom to classroom. So, when core instruction is consistent we can more easily identify where students need support and respond quickly. I'm going to pass it to Lori because as you can hear I had the flu last week and it's [clears throat] a struggle. Yep, next slide. Just going to talk to you about the rationale about why we would do this. And to secure a future-ready ELA program for our K to 8 students, we need to ensure that our ELA curriculum is grounded in the science of reading and strictly aligned with state standards. So, this is not a shift that's a trend, it's a commitment to evidence-based practices that ensure every child becomes a proficient reader. And in doing this, it's not that it wasn't happening, it was happening in pockets, just not as
062consistently as we needed to happen across grade levels both horizontally and vertically. So, having that core resource really provides us with the continuity and then the consistent language, that academic language is really important. So, year to year they're hearing it, they're understanding it, and they can go deeper with it and not have to learn something new, um, phrasing and >> [clears throat] >> and language-wise. Next. Yep. And the science of reading, we keep talking about the science of reading sounds like it's one thing, but it's not. It's a body of research, um, and it is interdisciplinary body of research that comes from neuroscience and cognitive psychology, and it explains how the human brain learns to read. Learning to read is not a natural process, learning to speak is a natural process, and when you learn
063to read, you have to basically rewire your brain, um, and it takes time to do that. So, it's systematic, it's explicit, it takes time, um, and so we have proven results here. When we're following the science of reading, research consistently shows that instruction based on the SOR leads to significant improvements in reading proficiency. There are five pillars that you can see there, phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Not all five of those were really as explicit and as systematic as we really needed them to be, and so that's what this will allow for, um, and equity for all of our learners. So, this approach is particularly critical for students with dyslexia or English language learners, um, who really require that explicit systematic instruction rather than kind of guessing from the context and trying to
064figure it out on their own. And this is a visual that goes with the science of reading. This is one of the models, um, Dr. Hollis Scarborough developed is a reading rope, and you can see that the there are two components really here that weave together to make a stronger rope. There is the bottom part that's word recognition, otherwise known as decoding, and then there's the top part that's the blue, and this is the language comprehension. The word recognition part is the part that is really more of the foundational reading that we're talking about, and then the other part, the language comprehension, the top strands are the ones that never end. So, you're still doing those now as you're reading books. It continues once you have that lower part down, this is the part that
065goes on forever. Your comprehension grows, but you have to have that bottom part down solid, and that has to be that explicit phonics piece that we've talked about. I'm just going to add here that we have, um, talked at these school committee meetings for a few years now about our struggles with writing. Um, writing is the reverse of reading. And if we are struggling with reading, writing is going to become a problem. So, writing has been at the forefront, we've seen it, it's been visual, reading has been hidden. Um, it is not anymore. Okay, I'm going to speak a little bit, um, about our pilot process and our program selection timeline. So, as you know, we've been in the middle of an ELA curriculum review, and that before I move on with this, I just
066want to put a plug. You're going to be getting some surveys from the ELA curriculum review. Um, we do have some members here, Sue and Lauren, um, and please take the opportunity to answer those surveys. It's really important for us, we need that information from our families. Um, but, uh, I'll go back to the pilot process. So, as you can see here, um, elementary principals, Lori and myself, reviewed three programs, Wonders, My View, My Perspectives, and Into Reading. Um, all three of those programs had very strong report, strong ratings on EdReports and CURATE. CURATE is the Massachusetts teachers who really look at a program, rate it, and say it has this, it doesn't have this, it's great at this, not so good at this. EdReports is the same thing, but it's national. So, we looked
067at both ratings for our programs. We narrowed it down to two programs, My View and Into Reading. We have presented both of these at the curriculum review. Teachers were selected selected to pilot in late spring, um, and the pilot actually continued into the fall of 25-26 based on administrator and teacher feedback. We had planned on ending it in June. It was not enough time for us to make, um, a well-informed decision. It really wasn't. Um, so we ended up completing the pilot in December, um, and then we began negotiations with the two, uh, companies. We're going to talk to you a little bit about why we didn't just narrow it down immediately, um, and then program recommended and adopted by district pending notification of school committee, which is what we are doing here this evening.
068I'm not going to read through this, but I will ask you to look at this because the work that our piloting teachers did was a very heavy lift. And we owe them a huge thank you. Some of them were some of our newest educators, some of them were veteran educators, but all of them did incredible work. Their honesty, their dedication, I really cannot speak highly enough. Um, without them, we would not be here. Um, so thank you to all of them. Um, we also included special education in this process and ML educators in this process to make sure that we really had a robust, um, group of individuals looking at all of these programs. Should I start, please? These are the overarching questions that we used, um, and we're going to read them and trade
069back and forth. So, the first one is, do the materials encourage flexibility and variety in student writing? The 2017 Massachusetts framework treats argument, explanation, and narrative as broad categories encompassing a wide range of writing types. It also values the writing that serves more than one function. I want to add a little history there. We used to teach persuasive writing, and then we would teach informative writing, and then we would teach narrative writing. They are not separate things. So, now we try to interweave them into every unit that we teach. Um, the second overarching question was, do the materials encourage attention to language skills in authentic contexts linked reading, writing, speaking, and listening standards? Third question is, do the materials encourage students to use and analyze literary elements such as patterns of sound, figurative language, genre,
070and other effects. Do they expose high school students to literary criticism? That third question, that last piece, is really more for the ELA curriculum review than this process, to be clear. Um fourth question, do the materials ensure that students engage with text representing diverse genres, media, cultures, and perspectives, as well as diverse types of complexity? Challenging vocabulary, syntax, knowledge demands, level of meaning. And do the materials have opportunities to scaffold instruction for sped and ELL students, different entry points, age-appropriate leveled readers, and opportunities to demonstrate understanding in a variety of ways? So, teacher feedback, um as Terry had mentioned that we had the first part of the pilot, so we have feedback year one, and then we did the second half of it, so we have feedback year two, and this is based on the
071Curate document. So, we took the Curate from Massachusetts, made a blank workbook, and then asked teachers to complete it. Um most of them completed it with their partner at the same grade level, and they worked through these together, so you can see there's a document there linked for you to click into where um the teachers put their feedback in the columns based on the program and the grade level that they were working on. Um they were asked basically just to put it in bullet points, it didn't have to be like a super long narrative piece of it. Um and kind of come to a consensus. So, they're all listed there. You can see that there's a workbook for each grade level, each program that they completed. And then we also had um a meeting with
072all of them to come together and give us pros and cons for different programs. And so, we went through, and here's the notes for both programs, for both the pros and the cons. We did have a couple of teachers that actually had the opportunity to pilot both programs. They did one the first round, and then the other program the second round, and that was interesting to hear comparatively what they liked and didn't like about each program. And we [clears throat] asked them to really look at and think about the writing, because we had mentioned writing has been a really big focus that we really need a lot of support with in our classrooms. Um in looking at this feedback, I think it's important to remember that no program's going to be perfect. It's not going
073to fit everybody. No, not everyone's going to be happy all the time. Um and that's where the expertise of our teachers comes in to fill in those gaps, scaffolds, uh change the pacing, look at different things, and come to consensus on those parts. But not everyone's going to be happy all the time. We can try most of the time. There's a life lesson. I will say that we received um actually Lori received an email from a veteran teacher who was piloting, and she really was excited about what she piloted. Um and she was disappointed when at the ELA curriculum review we talked about um the two choices and why we were going to go why we're going to recommend Savvas. Um and her response was after she heard directly from Savvas, she was really thrilled.
074So, I mean, I'm paraphrasing, but that was basically the gist of her email. And we were happy to see that. So, I'm going to give you just a little bit of information about the program negotiations. Savvas came in at $404,000, and HMH came in at 430, rounding. Each program encompassed the same exact things. So, you can see the price there is not that different. And when I when I shared this with Mike, he was like, you know, which one which one do you want? Which one do you guys think is better? Um and it wasn't so much of which is better. They were both very similar. Um as you read through the pros and cons, you will see there were people who thought parts of one were great, and parts of the other were weak.
075That's what happens with a program. That's why we have educators. Our educators are the ones who make the difference. Um something that HMH did with their quote was they embedded their writing program. We did not vet their writing program. It is brand new. And they said they would only give us this price if we purchased that writing program. So, that did not work for us. And we would we could have taken that out. It would have been significantly a different cost. So, we would have been higher, and there it was higher to start with. Um and as you all know, this is a tight fiscal year. And it is my responsibility to make decisions that support the district. Um so, we are recommending that we go with Savvas, which is my view and my perspectives.
076So, we are recommending full adoption in grades K through 8. Seventh and eighth grade will continue with their novels, and if they agree as a department for next year, they can make adjustments moving forward. So, if they look at the selections from Savvas, and they decide we would like to go with these, that's what they will do, but they will decide collectively. Um so, we have already surpassed our literacy objectives. What we're seeing in the data already is a trend of increased student growth compared to student growth without the program. So, we do have mid-year testing results that are coming in, and it is very promising. There's also a trend of more students meeting grade level proficiency in reading. And I do want to really highlight that this supports our work in special education by
077providing equitable access to grade level text with reliable data to monitor student growth, something that we have not had. It provides predictable building block learning based in the science of reading. As I mentioned earlier, our implementation plan is still in draft form with the exception of the 25-26 school year, which we are currently in. So, we will be establishing a literacy implementation team. That survey has already gone out. Um materials distribution and access, that will happen this year and over the summer. Initial professional development, Savvas came and provided an overview. Um and they did that on the fly, last minute, so that we could really introduce this to our teachers and build some buzz and some excitement. Um unit one planning will be complete, and we will be collecting baseline data. Um 26-27, we will
078continue to look at progress monitoring. We will have an ongoing observation and feedback loop to ensure the efficacy of the program, and I cannot stress how important this step is. Cannot be skipped. We have to do it. It's a lot of work, but we have to make sure that our students are getting the very best. Teacher collaboration, which will happen during PLCs and professional development. Mid-year data review, which will be a more formal process. And then we will also continue to look at family engagement. What are we sending home? What do families need to know? Um how do we get them involved um in the curriculum? And then looking into 27-28, we'll be looking for full implementation with fidelity, so that we can really judge the efficacy. Um we will have student outcomes that we'll
079be able to measure. The curriculum review will be finished at the end of this year, but it is never truly over. We are always looking at our curriculum, always growing, always trying to make it better. And we will continue to look at culturally responsive integration as required by the state. Questions? Go ahead, Sue. >> [clears throat] >> I didn't under under your Savvas my view my perspective um bullet, the second bullet, seventh and eighth grade will continue with their novels if they agree as a department for next year, they'll review the options from Savvas to see Sure, I'm happy to explain that. It is confusing now that you say it back to me. Um so, seventh and eighth grade currently teaches three novels throughout the year. While they are teaching their novels, they are also
080teaching the standards. They're teaching the standards through those novels, but we realized that we need to have a core resource to ground them all. That's what this will be, but we still believe that in seventh and eighth grade and in sixth, novels are incredibly important. Um actually, starting in third grade, we think that novels are incredibly important. So, Savvas does provide a full um platform of novels that comes with it that we buy. And you can shift, make adjustments. Yep. So, that's really what that means. And seventh and eighth grade have been promised they can stay with their novels for next year, and as they're looking at the program, they can decide to change those moving forward. We wanted to give them a little room for their skill as educators to really see what fits
081best for their students. It would be more work for them. Yes. May I just build upon that for a second? One of the concerns that I've heard with the the Savvas program is the lack of uh complete text and that a lot of the program is built on excerpts. >> Yep. Um so you just mentioned that you believe in novels as early as third grade. Yeah, I fully support whole books as soon as it's within the scope of what a student is capable of reading. I think there's extreme value in a beginning, middle, and end and and learning the love of reading a story. Um so how do you envision incorporating that into the curriculum if it's not built into the Savvas program? It's a great question, Jess. Do you want to Um so I
082think part of part of the reason for me that leaning towards Savvas was a better piece is that when we were doing the piloting and going through the whole process, when we asked for different resources, they didn't just build on their own curriculum. They brought in actual like science articles and things like that to say, "Here's why we would support a novel and here's how we would do it." So it's not necessarily a program that's a basal like we used to have where you have to follow every single day, that kind of thing. It's more like having pieces in there where you would say, "Yep, we're going to do these five core things and then we have this ability and this flexibility to bring in this novel and this is how we're going to do
083it and this is how we make it work for that." So there's like flexible pacing within that depending on what you're doing because I completely agree. Novels and books are so >> is is that the expectation of how you're going to implement the program to ensure that those full texts are I mean I I actually appreciate that the texts have to vary because you never know when one student is going to latch onto non-fiction versus fiction. So the expectation in the implementation of this program is that there will be those those times in the curriculum where full texts are incorporated. I can't imagine teaching a class and not reading full books and having that piece that goes with it. Um and that piece of this is kind of that part of having the core resource
084of teachers not having to pull like that collective text set. They have that right there and they can make decisions like that and it's like a faster process because they're not trying to piecemeal things together. Okay. And just to add to that, so we start teaching whole books in kindergarten and that is never going to change. That practice is never going to change. With each grade level comes a set of complete texts. So the book itself has excerpts, but it is accompanied by full novels or picture books depending on depending on the age Um and we actually use picture books all the way up through high school. It's some of the easiest and best way to teach our harder concepts. So we Lori and I are book people. We are both English people. So we
085>> [laughter] >> we are never ever going to choose a program that is not going to honor that there is joy in reading and books are magic. Yes, Ellen. Do we know of any other districts that use Savvas? >> Yes. What's the feedback? So we actually know of quite a few. Medway, which is a district that I used to work in years ago. I just had a conversation with their principal. They adopted it, I believe, two years ago. They love it. They said that much like we struggled with consistency from classroom to classroom, they were having the same thing with their own units of study. And they found that Savvas much like us was very responsive to their needs, their concerns, and trust me, we had concerns for both programs. Medway said that they have
086been partners with them every step of the way. That their professional development has been excellent. I think I think we have an opportunity to really grow from this. There's Dighton Dighton-Rehoboth also has it. We have set up um opportunities for some of our educators to go and visit these programs in action so that they can really get a feel for what it looks like once it's fully implemented. And how you make those decisions on do I teach a novel now? Is this the right time? Can I add this here? And they'll talk with teachers about that. We did the same thing with Ufly, very successful. And I apologize if I'm asking questions that don't make any sense, but it like is there a life cycle to this? Like is Savvas good for like the next
08710 years? Or should we revisit in two >> is a years? great question. So it's another reason why Savvas we think was a better selection. Um HMH was in their third iteration of something they released two years ago. That's troubling to us. We cannot buy something year after year after year. We cannot. Um Savvas, this is its second iteration in, I believe, 15 years. And what they did was sound. They did the research. They took the time. They made a full program of resources that our educators are going to be able to pick from and really get the best fit for their students. So So it's six years. >> we have to buy another like the updated version of Savvas in 10 years or >> Possibly. Do we get a discount since we're already there?
088We sure will. All right. So we also partner with Savvas for our math program envisions. Um I think it was three years ago we had to they changed their program, we had to buy it. It is just the nature of programs. New science comes in, new books come in and they either add those or and we can just supplement or we do have to change because we have found something new out. We have to do better. And it is a business. And it is a business. Anyone else? I'm assuming this fits within the budgeted amount for this program. Well, we knew it was coming so we put it into the budget. The good news is they're allowing us to pay this over two years. So the hit is 200,000 versus four and so it's in
089the budget in the proposal that you'll see. So that's this year and next year, half and half or next year and the year after? This year and so 26-27 20 >> July 1 will next year will be the first payment and then the second one will be the following July. Okay. So that does help. It made it easier. So the other concern that I heard is about how reliant it is on online and screen usage. So what's the obviously not all of the So that is in both programs. I just want to clarify that. Um every program that we look at has a huge online presence. It is the world that we live in. There is no program that is not doing that. For many reasons. Um Our expectation about online time changes grade by
090grade. We do not have anything formal in place. I do think that we need to. Um I have talked a lot with Paul Branagan, Principal Branagan, about screen time for our students at the high school level. We have talked a lot about screen time for our kindergarten students. We have heard our teachers. We got rid of our online assessment platform for early elementary, which was Early Bird, and we brought on DIBELS so that it is teacher to student, not teacher to computer. Um the online pieces are really slides that are instructional tools. So it's not like your students are sitting there. It's really for the teachers to yeah. >> It has a workbook that goes with the modules. >> Yeah. Actual paper? Actual paper. And they're beautiful. They're color. They're they're beautiful. >> [cough] [clears
091throat] >> So every slide deck that they have you can download is editable. They can change it. You can use that as much as you want or not. The excerpts that are in the book are also projectable on the screen just so that they can follow along and you can do those pieces, but you also have the workbook that you can have and they're working in that right there. So they can use that in centers. They can move it with them. Kids love it. And the kids love the books. Thank you for clarifying. It does help to to to know that there's materials that come with the online program. And anything that they have that is on the computer for the kids is also downloadable that they can print it out. So if there's an
092article that's not necessarily in their workbook, they can also print it out and give it to the kids paper-wise. It does not need to be on the screen. So there's a lot of ways that they can kind of work around that, too, depending on what they want to do with it. Okay. Great. Thank you. Anyone else? Any wrapping up comments or anything like that? >> I just want to say that we are really excited for this opportunity and I think that it is the best decision for this district at this time and I think following on the heels of our sped report, we have to do something and weeding is not the answer. Okay. Thank you. So it it falls on us to officially approve adoption of major curriculum changes. Um, I know some of
093the information like the the pros and cons and such um came out a little late into our packets. I don't know if everybody had a chance to review them in their entirety. Um, so my first question is does everybody feel like you've had appropriate time to review in order to approve anything this evening? No concerns? Okay. Please go ahead, Sue. I have a just a question mechanically um around the budget. Um, so assuming that we support the adoption of this curriculum, I assume that that would be contingent on the funding in the budget. So, we met yesterday and balanced the budget. It was not easy, um, but this is in the budget that we will present to you next week, uh, to the subcommittee. Um, so you can make a change there if you would
094like, but this was like a number one non-negotiable priority for the district for me when Terry told me that it was coming and she told me what the amount was about and so that was the first thing. I mean, it was probably the top thing that was just first thing put into the budget and then we worked from there. We balanced. It wasn't easy. It's in there. I can >> [laughter] >> I can maybe [clears throat] imagine. You'll have fun learning more next week. >> Yeah. All right, so with that being said, the chair will entertain a motion to formally approve the new ELA curriculum. So moved. Second. So, I have a motion and a second. All those in favor? I. I. I. It's unanimous. Thank you. Thank you. Can I just say, um, sorry.
095Uh, how I think this is the best choice. Um, from it's anecdotal, but just from personal experience and experience from some of my colleagues, this does work and it does make a big difference. So, I'm thrilled that this is the one we're going with. Thank you. Yeah, it really could be transformational for the district if we We hope so. And just to be clear, we have the best teachers who are going to be delivering this. So, that makes a big difference. Um, the decisions they make and the experience they have, um, no program works without wonderful teachers and, you know, that's that's what we have. So, we are lucky and I think it is going to make a difference. Thank you. >> you. Thank you. All right. I think Paul, you're up. Yes, last but
096not least. Program of Studies. Hi, everyone. Hello. Hi, Paul. I just got my notes out. So, I'm really excited to share with you tonight the Program of Studies proposal for the upcoming school year. Um, it is always a fun to be able to share with you the evolution of our programs here at the high school and the new experiences we're hoping to bring and, um, the just movement of content areas and just, uh, some good stuff. So, um, I just want to say thank you to the key people from department leaders to um Dr. Dr. Markalaitis and, uh, our coordinators, um, Mrs. Stukenborg and Mrs. LeBlanc. And of course our school counseling department as well because all of these stakeholders come together to really do the work of creating the changes and the updates in
097the Program of Studies each year. Um, as always, our, um, work is, um, based upon the vision of the graduate and also our learning expectations as well. So, when we're creating new courses and we're looking at revisions, we really always have to go back to that vision of the graduate. Um, just for you to know that we have identified in keeping our graduation credits 236 credits, which is the minimum to graduate. And also, um, the criteria that we will continue for the upcoming school year as you know, a year ago I came before you with the addition of the fourth year of math in senior year. That will stay, um, because it's all based upon the new expectations with the state. Um, the addition of US History as a requirement with for DESE, which we've
098already had that as a graduation requirement. So, you'll notice in the guidance that it says that it's, um, starting with the class of 2027, we've already had that, but I thought it was important to include that in the in the presentation tonight and that everything we're we are doing is totally aligned with the competency determination that you had approved. Um, MCAS expectations are still there that we're expected to administer and students are expected to be, um, to sit for biology and English and math in grade 10. As we know that the state is exploring, um, new graduation requirements, so we'll see what that looks like as that moves forward. Graduation, excuse me, community service is still an expectation of all of our students with a minimum of 24 hours. We know the fact that based
099upon our, um, data points that come in, many most of our students are will be on the 24, but that is a minimum threshold to graduate as well. Um, and here's now just the content areas. I'll take you through each content area. If there's no updates, I think it's important for you to know that there are no updates. In English, um, just besides the updating of courses, and this happens in every content area, that they will go in and they'll review the descriptions. They'll go in and review the overviews and make sure they're aligned. One with the vision of the graduate, two making sure that they're aligned to the standards and just make sure they're tweaked. So, you'll see that first bullet on every slide about updating course descriptions to modify with scope and sequence
100and all of that. Um, but ultimately in terms of courses, there are no changes in English. In mathematics, um, one of the biggest changes that I'm really quite excited to see where this goes. Um, we have been through the unbelievable work of Steven Chamberlain, who's the math department chair, Kelly Stukenborg, our STEM coordinator, there has been a significant amount of work looking at, um, mathematics especially in the transition from 8 to 9. Um, looking at readiness, looking at skill. And what we're exploring is that there's no there's no change in scope and sequence. Our ninth graders will take Algebra 1, our ninth {slash} tenth graders will take Geometry and Algebra 2. But we have been able to, because of the work of the curriculum team, we have been able to, um, administer a significant amount
101and also collect, uh, a lot of data points, namely the STAR 360 data, which you never had. So, we now have beginning-of-the-year data, mid-year data, and end-of-the-year data. As long as well as all the common assessment that is being done in in mathematics. And so what the proposal is is that it will be a little bit of a redesign of the college preparatory level. And that for students coming into Algebra 1 that they will be either in Algebra 1A, 1A, or 1B. And based upon those data points, everything is the same, the curriculum is the same, all of it. But in Algebra 1 for the students that are in, say, the A group, that group is Algebra 1 ready based upon their data. So, that way they're they can get into that course and really
102go into those standards in a very different trajectory. But in the group in group B that we're noticing in their data that their pre-algebra skills are still need some support. And instead of putting them in all together in an Algebra 1 class, we're finding the fact that either the class is being held back or we're or we're just we're dragging them along. And so by having this kind of cohorting in mathematics, it's allowing us to be able to give the support that is needed. The goal is to do it in Algebra 1, in Geometry, and Algebra 2 for next year. In History and Social Sciences, um, really the only change, which is a big one, is we're bringing back World History. We had to kind of put a pause on it because we were doing
103the realignment based upon the new state frameworks for History and Social Science, which required that the beginning when if I go back years when I was a when I was a department chair, that World History was done in grade nine and then you had your two years of US History. You know that we flipped all of that because now you US History begins in grade nine and we end with World History. So, now that we've done the sequence that all of our students are getting what they need, World History will now return next year for the rising juniors, um, and they will have it as their core content in in US excuse me, in World History. What is really great is that we're also aligning it with AP European History. So, for a student who
104really would like to take AP European History, that will count as their third year of History. It never did. US History always counted. If they took US AP US History, it would always count as one of their two years of History, US History. And now with with here we have the alignment with World History in grade 11, it would allow for that course now to count as a core, so which is pretty cool. And then also, um, just expanding, um, the International Relations and Diplomatic Class, um, it was not an elective offered this year to grade 10, but we're moving it down to grade 10. This is the course that actually is the precursor to the Model UN program. We're piloting it this spring. It will be running starting next week and, um, the goal
105is is to really see how we can foster the Model UN program at the high school. Science and Engineering, this is probably where you're going to see the biggest shifts and moves and it's really quite exciting. Um, I charged the, um, team of teachers that work in our Project Lead the Way program as well as collaborating with Mrs. Stukenborg is to really do a completely redesign of Project Lead the Way. As you know, we have the pathways of Biomedical Science and Engineering and Computer Science and as well as the innovative pathway of advanced manufacturing. And then I was finding and we were not realizing, but we really needed to do some rework because part of the the expectation around Project Lead the Way is a formalized capstone where students are creating something. They're taking all
106of their years of work in the pathway and now they're bringing it to life. And we were really not doing what I think we could be doing. And so with this redesign, we have that you'll see that we're removing two courses. Um these are the senior level courses. So when a student who goes into biomedical science, that this is the capstone course as we always called it. So in biomed, it's the biomedical innovations that will be disappearing this year. The engineering senior course, the engineering design and development, that will disappear and I'll explain why in a minute when you see the pathways in the next slide. We're going to be adding in a robotics two class um due to the good work of Mr. Shray and then Mr. Wrench in the science department. We have
107really created a robust robotics program which is incredibly exciting. And so because of that, we would now be moving into a robotics two to allow students to continue their work in robotics. And also um a course that will be added, with approval of course, is an elective for grades 9 through 12, the principles of AI. Um we know we cannot escape it. We cannot run away from it and we have to be able to start to engage into what work with students about how to use it and to use it appropriately. And so the principles of AI course will become an elective for all students if they would like to take. How many students do you have in in these different in these different programs? I'm sorry. How many students do you have in generally?
108Yeah. So I would probably say in total, it's well over 100 students. So the biomedical science program is probably the largest program that we have, which is probably carrying I probably say about 50 to 60 students if not more. The engineering tad bit smaller, but but actually the numbers are rising. Um our ninth grade cohort is the biggest that we've had in some time and I think it's because we put some attention into really marketing it and branding it with the eighth grade. Last year we did some partnership with the middle school and we went down and did focus groups for students that were interested in biomed and or any of the fields in biomed and engineering and computer science. And then from there, we really worked with those students and their families to make
109sure they were scheduled for that. So for example, we had a a student who's a ninth grader right now who thought that they could not the high school if they wanted to be a nurse because they had to go to the vocational school, which actually is not true. So based upon our work with them to really educate what we do, what these pathways really are, um that it actually has allowed that program to kind of blossom. >> And and you're doing that in the middle school for the rising ninth graders. Yep. And so what we did, if you remember um a few weeks ago, the middle school did their career fair. And that career fair was the precursor to our focus groups. So a lot of the careers that were there go right in line
110with biomedical and engineering and computer science. So now they'll be able to see it from the industry standpoint and now we're going in to say this is what you can do to learn it. And um the focus of these different programs are determined by interest, by competition with first of all this Yeah. I think they're really just out of interest and in in desire. We knew the fact years ago when we started Project Lead the Way that these were the pathways that were the most popular. They were the most um kind of um sort of looking for. They were the most global that you could really do so many different things in biomed. You can do so many things in engineering that it really allowed to have a much more robust opportunity for students, yeah.
111And so as you notice on the slide in front of you, these are the two programs, biomedical science and engineering. The pathways you see are the pathways of courses. These are the pathways we've had, but you're noticing the new capstone and I'll explain what that is in a minute when you see the next slide. But you'll see it's a senior capstone is now what we're calling the capstone. It will be the senior course in biomedical science. It will be the senior course starting next year in engineering and it will also be the senior course in computer science. It will also be the senior course in the advanced manufacturing. What is really cool about this, I want you to imagine this like a gigantic think tank. So you have all of these kids that are coming
112from very, very different perspectives learning computer science principles, biomedical science principles, engineering principles, advanced manufacturing and they're all coming together into a group. And this is where they're charged to solve a problem. And so you're taking the talents and the knowledge of these different stakeholders, which is exactly what they would be seeing in in an industry of some kind and actually having them solve a problem and to create a capstone. The goal is that all the students who would be in this capstone would actually go to the showcase that is done by Project Lead the Way in the spring where they would showcase their creations. So we have never done that part and it's time that we do it. And with the facility now with the My Lab, there's no excuse as for not to
113be doing it. So what is exciting is it's not just this pathway, they're only staying in their pathway. They're now combining with all the others to really do this course. So I think it will be pretty exciting to do that. Um world languages, the only thing we're removing is Russian two. As you know, we're beginning the sunsetting of Russian. So our sophomores right now will finish Russian two um and they will move forward if they would like. What is nice is they've met the requirement now for graduation because you need to have two years of a consecutive language. They've all met the requirement. So if they decide not to move forward in the language, they've met the requirement. Visual arts, we're bringing back calligraphy um in grades 10 through 12. So that is the one
114elective that's being added there. In theater um between the good work of Mr. Mosher and Mr. Pitzly, um we were finding that we were saturating the theater program in in courses and what I mean by that is is that we did the very similar thing a little bit with TV production, but we only reversed it. We had such a limited of courses that we needed to kind of go in a direction of making it much more robust, which is what you approved last year. This year, it's taking theater and put it into a place where it's much more manageable because we have so many classes that we were offering that it was actually not allowing us to really fill courses appropriately and really getting into what are the kids really want. And so you'll notice
115courses that are being removed, which is theater and entertainment business and also keep in mind some of these courses weren't running. So we were running them in the program of studies hoping that they would gain some foot traffic and they just don't. Um theater and activism, theater history, play making and theater devising and for the stage and screen, all that is being removed. What we're adding in is Shakespeare in modern times. We're bringing that back. What is really interesting to note is that what we're finding and really to the good work of of Mosher is the fact that that the play production program has exploded. And so and that is partly because of really the collaboration between the My Lab and really the the theater department. So it has created on a completely different trajectory
116of really the study of theater. And if you saw the musical that was in direct connection to what those that play pro class did all of that. So it's really we're finding the numbers we could be teaching play production all day long um as well. Um in music um some thing changes based upon the analysis of Mr. Pitzly, Mr. Suzziere. We're going to be opening concert choir. Historically, concert choir was never open to ninth grade. They had to go into Sachem singers and then their journey would begin. We they were thinking why are we doing that? So they were have the opportunity to audition just like every other student would. So ninth grade would now be open to concert choir. Sachem singers would now be college preparatory only because we had that as a double
117level. You could do Sachem singers honors or Sachem singers CP. We're not doing that anymore. That Sachem singers will be the entry level college preparatory. You go to concert choir, that's where you would be able to go into the honors level experience. And then lastly, just two electives. Again, with the sound engineering lab that we have, we finally have gotten our our our swagger with it. And then you'll notice the fact we have a class that you approved when we first moved into the building called sound engineering. We've redesigned it and it's now called introduction to digital music, much more appropriate for the space. And then lastly, a new course. Kids who take digital music, when they really like it, they can now go on to the next course, which is digital music composing and
118arranging. Um fine arts, excuse me, television production, no changes. We did all that last year. Physical education, one course which is kind of interesting is the foundations for athletic officiating. You know, if you read many of the articles that officials are are we just don't you can't find them. And what many schools are now doing is they're launching programs where you actually are training students to actually be officials. We'll use it as an elective and what Mr. Silvia's goal is to really have this program and this course where the students coming out of it could actually become referees at middle school games, elementary, church league kind of thing as well potentially. And um so the goal is to try to get students that would be able to have be trained so they could go off
119and do things in the community and all of that. And that is open to grades 11 and 12. And lastly, just future ready um with the innovative pathways. Um through the good work of that Project Lead the Way team, they did some analysis of our pathway of innovation with advanced manufacturing. And we had a called advanced manufacturing three, which was advanced one, advanced two, advanced three. And that we were renaming it. So in junior year, the students in the pathway would be taking advanced manufacturing design, much more of an appropriate title. And then in grade 12, all of those kids that are in that academic pathway innovative pathway, excuse me, will go directly into the capstone with all the PLTW kids, which is pretty cool. It seemed as though whatever last year um that space
120was becoming an issue with that pathway in terms of the lab. Is that growing and therefore It is. Yeah. So I mean it's incredibly popular. This is a space that's limited in size because you can only fit so many students in the space, you know, kind of from a safety standpoint. But between the work of Mr. Cubby, how we're scheduling the the space that students are in the classes that want to be in. So we really have two trajectories in the My Lab. Students who have been identified to be in the Innovative Pathway. So they're in that designation. That is a group of ninth a small little cohort of 10th graders right now. They're in a full year experience because part of the Innovative Pathway is they have to be in it for one for
121the full school year. So those students are in it Innovative Pathway one this year. They'll go to Innovative Pathway two next year a full year. But then the rest of Mr. Cubby's schedule is all semesterized courses doing the same exact course but only in a semester experience. So any student who wants to be in the the lab will have the opportunity to do it. And we have not found it to be that we're locking kids out of it. I think as the program grows it may be something we need to start looking at. But right now we're in a good spot. And and staffing also? I mean Yeah. Yep. Um someday down [clears throat] the line we may need to look at that as you are building and growing. But I think for now in
122the near future we're in a good spot with that. >> [cough] >> Thank you. And then just early college we're keeping you know, we have that program in the program of studies. Note the fact that so a lot of our Jim Braga Pathway to Business Programs allows students to be getting their math credit in senior year and also getting their early college credit as well. And really what's next teacher recommendations process begins which for our community is a really important process that we have all of the teachers in grades 8 through 11 making recommendations based upon student performance in their classes at this time. And that will begin beginning on February 2nd. You'll notice on February 4th is the open house for grade 8. That is a very intentional evening inviting all the 8th grade
123families to come and to be able to learn about the programs, understand what a schedule looks like and get them ready for that journey ahead. A program of studies night is a schedule here for February 10th. That's just a general overview of the program of studies for all students, all grades and their families. And then right after the holiday after the February vacation, that's where really we begin in earnest of getting this going. You'll notice the week of February 23rd we'll be working with Mr. McLaughlin to have see if we'll be able to come down with the school counseling team to have them work directly with the students who they will be serving when they come up to the high school to begin the process of how to do all of this. Parent communications will
124go out as well. And then ultimately in very early March we're targeting the week around March 9th or so. Is that the portals will open for students to begin the schedule. When the schedule does open all those teacher recommendations are already loaded in the system. So when a parent and a student opens up their their courses they're going to see the array of courses that they've been recommended for. If a student likes what they have then they just have to pick a few courses for themselves. They're done. If they really like gosh I really should I want to be in that AP course or I really want to be in that honors course, that's where we do all the work in the spring months to be able to do all that finalization to have a
125schedule done by the end of June. So So questions or comments and concerns. So my first comment is I'm super excited about the capstone projects and I think those align really well with kind of what we've been seeing coming out of DESE for additional thoughts on graduation requirements and and having those kind of projects and things like that be embedded into the curriculum. So I think this is a great great process and I think it's just um a wonderful culmination of the the studies that they'll have done for the three years leading up to those capstones. >> Absolutely. And it's a great It's a great test run because one of the goals we've always had is what would it look like for a student who creates a passion project. They have something that they really
126want to create and design that may not be in a pathway. And how do we have the infrastructure that they would be able to do it? Having a community sponsor, having that mentor where they would be off in the field doing something in the community really creating a legacy behind. And that's ultimately a goal in the future. So by starting this capstone it allows for us to be able to see kind of what this will look like. And really part of the capstone is that they create the curriculum. It's like this gigantic think tank where they create the problem or they find identify the problem and begin the process of solving it. So. Anyone else? I don't have any questions but I have a comment. I think every year I'm amazed by the uh the
127updating that you do on this. I mean when I was in you have architecture and engineering and a capstone project in a program that's available. I had mechanical engineering with economy green paper. You know, it's come quite a long way since I was in school. And I know that just hearing from my daughter and and my son that they couldn't be more excited about these types of things and these opportunities available to them. And that again that is a huge difference from the attitude that my myself and my peers had when I was starting and looking in in attending high school. So I thank you again Paul for all your hard work and thank you. Agreed. I do have one follow up in a a little bit in the same way and it's about I
128saw in the written material that you had around the internship program. Any further developments with that? Is that on a track that you're pleased with or Yeah. So we have this year has been year two of our work study model where we have a pretty good number of students who are coming into the building simply for the courses that they need and then they're out in the field working. And if you have met all the requirements all you need in senior year which is so interesting is math, English and a PE. And so to have the ability for students to be able to come into the building, do what they need and then to go off and earn hours for credentialing, hours for a union you know, application. It really has taken a group of
129students who would be sitting in elective. Albeit the electives are good but it's not an interest of them they're sitting in a class they don't want to be in and really get them out of here is really what the goal is. We're finding that the number of partnerships that we are establishing through the good work of Mrs. Miller is is good. Could it be better? Sure. Some of our internships are incredibly popular especially medical. So that is always an incredibly competitive internship to be able to work at like Tobey Hospital or physical therapy you know, centers because there's only so many of them that we can do. And so those are ones that we really work with students about the trajectory of what that looks like. But what is really incredible is is that with
130the Project Lead the Way piece that is a really good coupling and with the advanced manufacturing it's another whole layer of the internship program. So for example a lot of the sponsor a lot of the stakeholders that were at the career fair at the middle school are partners that we either use or were in conversations about really partnering with. So it is becoming what exactly what we want. We have two students right now who very possibly could be because of the work they're doing this year academically could be engaging with the Photonics Lab at Stonehill. And I just read an article today before I came into the meeting that Bridgewater State is now in the process of creating one as well. So it really is we're putting ourselves in the positions where you see an
131interest for students and then where can we go to find the partner to do it? I I was impressed with the contracts that state the learning goals and and all of that. I also know that that's a difficult process to monitor for so many students. Mhm. As that program is growing is that becoming something that we need to look at of how it is that we keep track of what the students are doing and where they're going and what they're >> during the day. Like our system of checks and balances like for the student who's leaving for the majority of the day kind of thing. >> And are they learning are they meeting their objective their learning goals? So every student has to complete this these things that they have to complete in order to
132get the grade. So there's progress reports that come in from the sponsor, from the business, from the manager. So that's one. So they're telling us here's what they're doing, here's what their performance has been and that's part of their grade. There's a journal that they have to keep that is submitted to the school to career coordinator of their experiences because it's not only just we want the students to be able to love what they're doing but often times they get into something they realize I don't want to do that, right? We have students who are in educational settings in the schools thinking they want to be a teacher and then >> [cough] >> at the other end [clears throat] like you know what I thought I really wanted elementary but I really don't want elementary.
133You know, or they find this is what they want to do the rest of their lives. So they have that part but they also have time sheets they need to do. So there's this accountability of really this kind of real life experience where they have to be submitting what are their hours, were you there from 8 to 12 and submitting it to the director to the coordinator excuse me of school to career. So the accountability is there. Now could it be stronger? Sure it could be. But I think teaching them the the responsibility of accountability is important. Thank you. Yeah. Any other questions? All right. So, we have the pleasure of voting to approve the program of studies for the high school for next year. The chair will entertain a motion to do so. So
134moved. Second. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. It's unanimous. Thank you, everyone. Appreciate it. Have a good night. All right, Mike. You stay in there or you mosey on back? Those walks >> [clears throat] >> for the ESP negotiation got me, so too many steps tonight. All right, you're good. I'll stay here, Frank. Thank you. >> right. Um all right, so moving on to the next order of business. It's the subcommittee updates and Alan, you're up first for facilities. All right, um Sue and I met with uh Andrew Frawley, the uh director of facilities, and Mike. That was last week. Um and it we just went over our state of the facilities. Um be rather quick. The um the top three priorities for the facilities for next year
135are developing a preventative maintenance plan for all roofs at the five schools, um and establishing a proactive maintenance schedule to extend the roof lifespan, and reduce the risk of costly repairs. Uh we're going to get a new basketball court at the Nichols Middle School. Um and a new Kubota tractor for the Mary Kay Gould Elementary School. Um there's a couple things that we're working on as capital planning. Um the Nichols Middle School roof is the big one. Um they're they've been accepted to the MSBA uh accelerated repair program. And in the future, we're going to look at at some playgrounds at the elementary level, windows and doors at the elementary complex, and the Mac needs to be paved. The Mac parking lot needs to be paved. So, that's it. Any update on the pool? Um
136it's going to be really expensive. And we're deep in discussions about it. Okay. I think it would be uh a more appropriate conversation after some other things get settled in town. Understood. I had one thing. Yes, please. Um as part of that conversation, are we talking about how we really need to um get going on the master plan because even questions around the pool and and other things and um talking with the people in the department, I'm saying for their planning, it would be really helpful for us to, you know, start looking to the future. Uh and so that we're building towards something. Great. It's going to be on the next agenda. Perfect. Thank you so much. Anything else? All right. Next up is budget. Yeah, so next Wednesday, uh the 28th and Thursday, the
13729th, uh both at 5:30 to about 6:30, uh we're going to meet with the uh building administration. They're going to give us, you know, an overview of what their needs and wants are, and we get to kind of dive in uh really at the very detailed level. Spreadsheet time. Yeah. >> [laughter] >> Okay. Um so, just one thing for the the budget subcommittee to keep in mind as you go through those meetings, um Mike mentioned in his flash that there are some um budget things to consider in relation to the complex and the potential of a reorganization of the complex, um and how that could impact budget. Um so, I am just going to ask you that if that becomes something that after you go through these meetings next next week, it's something that you
138do feel should be considered, to just bring it back quickly because I would like to consider scheduling a public hearing specifically related to the the complex and any restructuring plans outside of the budget hearing. So, I'd like to be able to get public feedback on that. Great idea. Um so, if that's something that comes from those meetings, let's um keep that in mind so we can start looking at scheduling that hearing. Okay. Anything else for budget? Have fun next week. I'd join, but I can't because then we'd have a quorum. Um all right, so that puts me up next for policy and protocols. Um just the the first announcement is the first reads. So, that's 1 2 3 4 5. Uh five additional um policies up for first reads. I'll list them out just for
139the record. IMD, school ceremonies and observances. IMDC, religious holiday observances, which is a removal because it's embedded in IMD. IMG, which is animals in school, which I believe is a removal because it is embedded in IMGA, service animals in school. And then IMGB is a Middleborough specific policy on therapy emotional support dogs in school, and because we have them in the district, um my um thought would be we should keep that because it is something that we utilize and it's not fully covered in IMGA. So, those will be up for discussion at the next meeting. Um we then have the list of policies that we brought up for review and discussion at the last meeting. Um so, this is the third read announcement and vote. So, um before I read them off, are there any
140here that anyone felt the need to specifically discuss in any greater detail? Okay. So, sorry. Where are we? We're on the third reads. Of of which ones? They're on your agenda. I will read them off. >> No, no, no, no, that's okay. I I'm just got a little lost there for a second while I was >> So, yep. >> looking. >> So, this is the third reads. Just asking if there are any of those policies that we reviewed um for the second reads at the last meeting that we feel the need to have any additional discussion on. Sorry. Okay. So, I'm going to read them off in order for us to vote on approval. ADA, district strategy objectives and priorities. That's removing in favor of our existing district strategy. AB ABD, substance abuse policy. ADC,
141tobacco products on school premises prohibited. EEAE reclassified as EEAEB, drug and alcohol testing for school buses and commercial vehicles. GBEC, drug-free workplace policy. GVEED, tobacco use on school property by staff members prohibited. IHAMB, teaching about alcohol, tobacco, and drugs. IHB G, homeschooling. JEB, entrance age. JF, school admissions. The removal of JICG in favor of JICH, which is alcohol, tobacco, and drug use by students prohibited. And just a reminder that a number of the other policies above are removals because they're covered in the um IHAMB and the JICH policies. So, the chair will entertain a motion to approve the the third reads as just listed. So moved. Do I hear a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Aye. It is unanimous. Thank you all. All
142right. So, the last item um for the policy and protocols is the operating protocols. Um I put a second draft in um the Google Drive for you all. It's also available on the public um webpage. So, this was um briefly discussed at the meeting last week, but Sue had asked if there were some [clears throat] considerations to be made, so I've made some um draft adjustments with Shannon's assistance. And um so, we just wanted to review and discuss this one today. Um I have to remember my password again. So, bringing that up, um the changes that I proposed um we're going to incorporate some of the feedback you had, Sue, which was to update the uh who we represent to we represent the school committee, the school community. We represent the school committee. We are
143the school committee. We represent the school committee and place the needs and interests of students above all others in the decisions we make. Um and then in addition, um there was a change within the what is our role to add ensuring effective communication with the community about the district and maintaining awareness of public needs and concerns, which um thanks to Sue, came from a policy that begins with B. Yeah. >> [laughter] >> The yeah. Um which reads ensuring the school staff is informed about the needs and wishes of the public. Um that's that's the policy that's the verbiage of that policy. So, there are two thoughts that I had, and I um and this is a little bit of wordsmithing, so I don't know if we want to do wordsmithing in the full committee or
144if you guys want to take it back. Um I the wordsmithing around the school community. I know that you asked me about this on the phone when we spoke quickly a while back. I do Do we represent only the school community or do we represent the community of Middleborough? Um It is a question that I I I think is important. Is it only that we're talking about the people that are within the school community or is is it really um the broader community. And then secondly, um on the ensuring effective communication with the community about the district and maintaining awareness, uh again, wordsmithing and do with it, you know, I don't know if you want to do that here or if you want to bring it back. Um I I given what is in our
145policies, I think maintaining awareness is is not specific enough because it does say ensuring the school staff is informed about the needs and wishes of the public. I would take that language and put it more specifically in there that that we are getting information from the public and we are what those wishes and concerns are we are communicating to um to the staff the district the staff, however we want to say it. So, those are my two thoughts on on what I think you did as a great job. Okay. So, just I feel that we should be discussing as a uh a committee at this point. So, thoughts on Sue's first question about representing the school community or representing the community of Middleborough. Um you know, we are the school committee. I do feel like
146we are restricted in the decisions that we are able and allowed to make. Obviously, the budget does have impact on the overall Middleborough community. Um but with the students being our primary primary focus. Yeah, and I think when we looked at that, too, we were saying that we while we do represent the school community, our goal is to communicate in with the community as a whole. So, I think when you're talking about wordsmithing, that's kind of how we had drafted it up was that we still want to pull the community into it, but our ultimate, you know, who we represent >> direction of who we're representing is is to the school that, you know, those who are part of the school community. But still making sure that we communicate everything with the community as a
147whole, if that makes sense. Okay. Anyone else? Yes, Alan. There's uh I can't I can't remember who says it, but every year at the MASC um group down there, they remind us that our constituents as members of the school committee, don't vote for us. We're the only elected board that represents uh part of the community. They can't vote for us. And that's where our purpose and uh focus should be and needs to be. Um I agree we absolutely have a a commitment to the community as a whole, but our focus has to be on the school committee. I mean, on the school district and in the school community. It has to be or else we're not doing what we're we were elected to do, what we ran to do. If you want to I mean,
148if you want to represent the whole community, couple other boards you can run for, you know, plenty of opportunities there. But yeah, I I we represent the school community while keeping the community at large in mind. But our our duty is [snorts] to the kids in this district, period. Yep. Yeah, and my and my my thought about that first the school we who we represent, uh the second part I wouldn't change I don't disagree at all that the second part says it, the needs and interests of students above all others in decisions we make. That says that. Um as far as who we represent, I feel like I represent the people that vote that in the community because there are other stakeholders in the community, um businesses, uh you know, real estate, there's all sorts
149of reasons that you need to listen to different people. So, uh again, and the language of our our policy says the public is who is who we're representing. >> No, I I disagree that that says who we're representing. That says who we need to listen to and who we need to communicate. But this is talking about who we represent. You know, we were elected to the school committee. We were elected to specifically do the responsibilities of a subset of responsibilities within the town. So, um you know, when we say school community, to me that means the staff, the teachers, the administrators, the students. Um you know, that's who I see as the school community. We're representing all of those in the decisions we make. We do have an obligation to communicate with the community as
150a whole. But to me, the the the what's in our purview is very specific to the school community. I also don't want to get too deep in the weeds in this. Yeah, I understand. >> We we know what we're doing, and sometimes, you know, to paraphrase the Supreme Court Justice, we know we can't define it, but we know what we're supposed to, you know, we know it when we see it. We know what we're supposed to do. I don't want to get too specific on who we represent. We represent the the kids in the I I school the school community is fine with me cuz that isn't I I don't think that's excluding anybody in the community as a whole. Yeah, it doesn't >> I Tell Tell me something in the community that doesn't somehow
151touch the school community. It is one in the same. Chris, do you have any thoughts? Yeah, I agree with Alan. I mean, anyone who pays taxes or has relatives, anyone who's going to live here in the future, like our students become the the broader town. So, the school community really is an extension of the town, but it having the the focus that those words really bring home that the students is the priority. So, I'm fine with how it is. Okay, good point. All right. Uh the second part about being more specific to be with the policy that of ensuring school staff is informed about the needs and wishes of the public. So, I think when you talked about that, I looked at a different area of the policy. So, this was specifically ensuring communication with
152the community about the district as a general and maintaining awareness of the public needs and concerns. Um so, you're talking about informing staff of those public needs and concerns, correct? >> Yeah, I think one of our roles is we listen. And like even some of the questions that you asked tonight, you said, "I've heard this concern." Mhm. Um and that's what I'm trying to uh that it's not a one-way communication thing, that it's not just having an awareness, but that we communicate concerns and wishes and needs. And again, I'm not I I'm not trying to get into the weeds. Uh it's just was looking at it um in comparison to what the um policy says. And what we do, like you said, Alan, it is what we do. You you hear a concern, you bring
153it to your attention. Okay. Um any thoughts on adjustments to that language? Um you know, we were trying to to match the flow of the document, so we were trying to uh when Shannon and I looked at it, we thought that the you know, trying to to match the rest of the document and not So, I would change that and maintaining awareness, I would put the language as it is and ensuring the school staff is informed about the needs and wishes of the school community. I wouldn't necessarily say school staff cuz our responsibility is to communicate to the superintendent. We are supposed to maintain that. So, um you know, I don't want to be um to [snorts] except you just did. >> [cough] >> You [clears throat] brought You bring Somebody comes up, we let
154them know what the concerns are. It wasn't that It wasn't the superintendent that we were just talking with. If that wasn't the concern of the community, that was my personal concern as a member of the um my personal concern as a member of the school committee based on things that I heard. So, then it becomes my concern. Um Okay. So, um I understand what you're saying. Okay. Um but I'm just I'm open to feedback here. So, So, this is under the heading of what is our role? So, we're in agreement that our role is ensuring effective communication with the community about the district, correct? If nobody has any objections to that. Correct. So, [clears throat] the question is does it stay as phrased in terms of maintaining awareness of public needs and concerns, or should
155we change this to and uh communicating public needs and concerns, or another word that means communicating so we don't say communication and communicating. Um passing along, conveying public needs and [snorts] concerns. I like conveying. Conveying, I think that's good. >> like Conveying instead of maintaining awareness? Cuz either way, we're going to get those concerns to the appropriate person. So, if we're communicating those to to Mike as the interim superintendent for him to pass along to the appropriate person, the information is getting Okay. being put out there. So, Great. I like it. Okay. Thank you for conveying public needs and concerns. Okay. Noted. Any other thoughts? General feedback on the Does it need an end there though? Maintaining awareness of public needs and concerns to the appropriate I think we need to convey them to somebody.
156Conveying public needs and concerns to the appropriate personnel. I don't think I don't like appropriate personnel. Okay. Cuz there's only one appropriate personnel, and that's the superintendent. To the superintendent? Yep. Thoughts? Any other areas of the document that anyone wanted to review? All right. So, with the addendum that made, I would like to see if we can vote to approve this with the understanding that we're approving it. I'll get it updated on the website, but we won't implement the formal signing process until we get to April and get through the election and make it be, you know, a fresh clean start of a new session. Does that make sense to everybody? It does. So, the chair will entertain a motion to uh approve the operating protocol second draft with the adjustments that we just agreed
157to. So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor? I. I. All right. So, I will proceed with getting this updated on the website, and then we will have a document for the next round. Mike, I think item number six is you. Yes, we have two grants. The Cape Cod five mini grants. It's $500. Schools throughout the year apply through Cape Cod five and receive those grants. And number two is our early college planning grant for $23,839. Not sure We need to vote We need to vote to approve these grants so that the money can be appropriated or whatever the right word for that is. So, So moved. Apologies that they are not on the list of things to vote for. They were uh Yeah, cuz that's what I
158looked to see if they were in the back. Yeah, so I know federal does, but All right. So, we have a motion to approve the grants. >> Second. Motion and a second. Any further discussion? All those in favor? I. I. Thank you. All right. We've done that. Action items, we have two informational items. The Middleboro High School is going to have a fundraiser through the Key Club for Valentine's [snorts] goody bags, and the Middleboro High School Student Council is also doing the Polar Plunge again on February 13th. Um that is a fun event. Where do they do it? They do it out in the parking lot, and they bring in a trail a big tractor trailer that's full of water, and they climb up one side and jump in and climb out the other, and
159they look very cold when they do so. [laughter] Um so, those are both exciting. Um before we adjourn, just um a note, um our next school committee meeting is Thursday, February 12th. Our meeting after that is Thursday, February 26th. The meeting on the 26th will be at the Nichols Middle School. Um it's the week before the METG theater festival, and because the high school was chosen to host again this year, which is very exciting. Um all the schools who are competing have to come in and have rehearsal time in the space, and they don't have that schedule yet, and they may not have it until a little too late to plan [clears throat] accordingly. So, we're going to accommodate and shift. Um so, with that being said, the chair will entertain a motion to adjourn.
160So moved. Do I have a second? Everybody seconded. Thank you. >> [laughter] >> All those in favor? I. I. We are adjourned. Um just >> we get out of here before 9:00?