001All right, folks. We all set. I'll call this meeting to order. The time is 6:33. I would ask that you please stand if you're able for the pledge to the flag. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you very much. [clears throat] Uh we will move on to item number three which is uh public comment. Seeing no one for public comment, we'll move on to number four, discussion items. Uh, a report from student representatives Jackson Collins and Mason. All right, so to start us off, we have the Mech. And the Mech had a very successful book fair, and they thank all the PTA and volunteers that ran it. The kindergarten
002students visited the fire station today and the preschool students are visiting on Monday the 27th to learn about fire safety. If I remember correctly, it is fire safety month. So, it's a very nice experience for them. And their Halloween parade down Main Street is going to be at 1:30 on October 31st. All right. And then next up, we have MKG. The uh harvest dance for grades first, second, and third is coming up on the 24th. tickets for which have been already pre-sold and won't be available at the door. Uh, first grade is having their Halloween parade also on the 31st at 9:30 a.m. Families and friends are invited to view the parade from across the street on Mayflower A. The MKG PTA fun run fundraiser will be held on Monday, November 4th, of which all
003students will be participating in. Now to move over to the HPB. Uh they want to continue to bring attention to their pie and cookie fundraiser which is being put on by the PTA. They're raising money for the field trips and they would like your help of raising their goal of $8,000 and I hope that there's been some good progress made there. And the big blast is coming up. It will be in November. It's going to be a Friday evening filled with games, music, food. Uh there's a pre-sale ticket discount currently running. So buy tickets soon. Um, I think I might have to go to that. It sounds very fun. All right, next up we have the middle school. Uh, eighth grade students recently took a tour of, uh, the Middleboro High School here, uh, which
004went exceedingly well. I just want to thank all the, uh, tour guides and speakers for making that time very special for them. Principal Mclofflin wants to note that the, uh, parent attendance at the coffee with the principal this last Tuesday was very high. The Halloween dance is coming up on the 29th. The first school council meeting is November 24th and parent teacher conferences are scheduled for November 19th and 20th. Okay. And now to move on to the high school where we had a very big last week since it was homecoming week. So we kicked off homecoming week on Wednesday which was the 15th. It was our student council homecoming meeting and we planned out basically the rest of the week and made sure that everything was in order. And then on Thursday, October 16th, it
005was our homecoming dinner. Uh it was the fundraiser for Lorie Cirten, who is a valued member of our food service department who has been bravely battling cancer. I believe we raised over $1,000 to send to her and we are very glad that people came to that event. Uh on Friday it was the tailgate where every class had a different theme to decorate and we all got to decorate a little area of the quad. This year's theme was neon. So everyone had a different color to decorate. Seniors were pink, juniors were orange. I believe the sophomores were blue and freshman were green. And then we all blended together for the homecoming football game where the student section was the most electric I've seen it all year. We had smoke cannons, uh, neon powder, everything. Um, that
006football game was one, by the way, which was that would have been sad if we did all that for nothing. On Saturday, it was the culmination of this week, which is the homecoming dance, which is held in the gym. And we'd like to congratulate all members of the homecoming court, but especially Jordan Rosa and Mary Cox who were named homecoming king and queen. And that was homecoming week. Now to move on to the upcoming stuff. Um, thank you all the student council members who have been working very hard for the first step of the year. We've had a lot of events including homecoming. So, thank you all for stepping up and thank you to the members of the student council who represented us at the fall seam mass conference at NSET Regional High School on
007the 10th. Um, special note of appreciation to Anita Travers, Jordan Ingram, Lexi Boyd, Keith Melo, Natalie Corey, Jaden Murphy, Mike Marzelli, Kennedy Frolley, and Llaya Dylan. And they presented leadership workshops at this conference. And we would like to thank certain student council officers for tellers, for being tellers at the annual fall town meeting, which was two weeks ago now. Um, they helped count votes and they really helped the meeting run smoothly. Uh, class of 2026 has their senior mystery ride coming up on the 28th and Jackson and I are very excited to find out what it is. There's rumors of it being Topgolf, but I don't think it will be. The MASC officer shop is going to be held this Saturday at Worcester Technical High School. It is a conference for student council members who
008want to have an awesome day of leadership and networking with schools from around the state. Uh the annual the annual Halloween funfest will take place on Wednesday, October 29th. This event is co-run by the student council and the speech and theater workshop. There will be arts and crafts and plenty of candy put on by student council and there will be a haunted hallway throughout the performing arts department which will be designed by speech and theater workshop. All members of the student council are kindly asked to bring in a minimum of two bags of Halloween candy for the event which can be dropped off at the main office at any time. And finally, it is a big week coming up for our high school as the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, NIASK, will be
009sending a visiting team of educators from across New England to do our Dyson Dsenial accreditation visit on the 27th through the 29th. Uh this group will be in charge of accrediting the high school and they will be meeting with groups of students, teachers and administr administrators and they will observe classrooms and their whole goal is to make sure that the students at this high school are receiving a quality education and in order to receive a diploma, it has to be from an accredited high school. Uh Bran wanted me to say that he has no worries and that everything should go well. >> All right. And then to end off, we just have, you know, major athletics and everything. Uh the band along with the majoretses performed their first full halftime show for the first time
010at the homecoming football game last Friday, which he mentioned. Uh the cheerleaders followed soon after with their routine, and the concert choir opened singing the national anthem. Varsity golf had their senior night on the 10th uh against Norwell, I believe. Varsity volleyball had their senior night on the 14th against Dery. Varsity field hockey had their senior night on the 20th against Aponoquit. The unified basketball team had their senior night on the 22nd also against Dery. And girls soccer is going up against Rockland for theirs on the 27th with boys soccer just three days later on the 30th. And football cheer and majoretses also have a game that night for their senior celebration on the 30th. >> Thank you very much. And with that, we'll hand it over to the superintendent's report. >> Okay. So, we
011have school improvement plans. We have um the mech, MKG, and HBB. Uh you had the middle school and high school last time. Uh we're going to go in a different order, I believe. I believe the mech is first. So, Tracy Lord, if you want to come on up. I guess I don't have to move. Thank you, Mr. Chrome. Thank you, school committee members. So, our goals, um, we will go through them and then just look at some of the steps that we're taking this year, our action steps. So goal number one is through professional development and ongoing coaching, we will improve literacy and math instruction and student performance for all preschool and kindergarten students at Mech. Goal number two is foster an inclusive environment for students, families, staff, and visitors so that every member of
012our school community feels like they belong and are valued and included. And then our third goal is continue to build a school culture that fosters teamwork, camaraderie, and shared goals. >> It's okay. Either one works. [clears throat and cough] So for our goal number one um last year we implemented um middle of the year and end of the year math assessments and we were working together with our instructional coach to develop the beginning of the year and term one math assessments and those have been completed and um are implemented this year. Our assessments include early literacy, a DESIE approved dyslexia screener, which in the past was early bird and now is Dibbles 8. Um, we found that the Dibbles was giving us more information. Um, we talked about this a little bit at our ELA
013curriculum review team meeting. um and it's just it's a quicker screenshot of the students abilities and gives a lot more um information. And then we also have our common math assessments. The next thing is our PLC's which is professional learning communities. Um we were doing these during the school day for kindergarten teachers last year but this year we have incorporated into the schedule to have preschool um we arranged coverage so that preschool teachers can also meet along with um the um related services. So, occupational therapy and and physical therapy and speech, our school psychologist. Um, so they have a whole list of things that they're going to be working on, um, different ideas, calibrating assessments, looking at student work, um, improving instruction. Our instructional coach is continuing to run and take her own professional development.
014um and we are working closely together to plan our PLC's and um focus weeks where she gets into every classroom including our unified arts teachers. Um the instructional frameworks were developed and completed last year and teachers are using those. So those are in our shared drives. It has lots of different um links to ideas for centers and um it's everything in one place. So, this is actually especially great for a new teacher just coming in where they can look at this one document and see the entire day of what a literacy block will look like. and it breaks down each section um from readalouds to small group work um interventions and um writing everything is all included in one document. We are continuing to use our SEAL screener for our grade level. It's a teacher
015perception survey. Um the students don't start entering the info until third grade, but that's through Panorama. And that same program Panorama we are using for CST which is our child study team where teachers bring student concerns um whether it be behavior, speech needs, OT, PT um or they may need a referral for further interventions. All of that is in Panorama and we are using Panorama also for the Panorama playbook which has lots of different resources for teachers, interventions, behavior plans, um what worked well, what didn't, and all of that travels with them throughout all their years at school. So, the first grade teacher can go in and look and see what things we implemented and tried. Um, and there's, you know, a history there, a record of all of those things. And Lexia and Stmath.
016So, this is our first year with StMath. The elementary schools have been using it for years, but we are very excited to bring it to kindergarten, and we're very happy to say that each classroom now has 14 iPads and five Chromebooks per classroom. Um so technology in the past you know was a struggle. We didn't have onetoone devices and with the the help of um Sean Siciliano he was able to secure those for us with headphones. Um so some teachers like if they don't have a whole class set they're pairing up so that way they have enough for the whole class to get on Lexia or StMath for a block and then swapping out. Um, so that's been working really well and our common reading and writing assessments. So that is our goal number one.
017>> Do you want us to wait till the end around questions? >> We can do questions and then I'll go to the next goal. That way it's fresh in your mind. Yep. >> Um, >> we'll go back to that >> and this comes a little bit out of sitting in on that curriculum meeting. Uh, looks like great. You know, all of the work around assessment looks, you know, good and I I love that you get the Chromebooks now because that was a real concern I remember last year. So, um, those are really good things. >> Could [clears throat] you tell me a little bit more about the instructional coach and how much time they get to spend? The goal is also is around teaching. Uh so I'm just wondering [snorts] how we're supporting the teaching
018uh within this goal. >> Yep. So the focus weeks um basically it's so that so in the past the instructional coach kind of had a open schedule and would share it with teachers and and who would like to meet with me and some would sign up some wouldn't. Um so with the focus weeks it's ensuring that she is meeting with every single teacher and they get to choose what they are talking to her about. Sometimes it might be so she has like a menu of options and sometimes it's her just observing them teach a lesson. Sometimes they might need help with administering assessments. Um it might be her covering the room so they can get to another classroom and see a a certain lesson on a certain subject. Um and then she is um going
019down to preschool and like I said the unified arts too. Sometimes it's technology help or information on a program that say our computer teacher might be pulling up Lexia or StMath and it's not something that they do as part of their core day but they might need a little bit of extra help. So um she also does send her schedule out so that if they want to meet one-on-one for something different. Um just this past week after school she offered help um with the dibbles because it's our first year doing it again. Many of the teachers in our building who are seasoned have done it in the past but it you know some things are a little bit different. So she just offered >> especially to our newer teachers just to go through and practice
020administering and scoring and and doing that. So she has been um a great asset to the teachers. >> Thank you. >> No problem. So our goal number two um some of the things that we are doing and have been doing um family surveys. So I wasn't super happy with the amount of responses that we had from the family surveys. And so last year I was brainstorming different ways. I know the district as a whole is trying to get away from the paper um things that are sent home, but [clears throat] one idea that we had was having surveys available during our conference nights. So, families are in the building, sometimes sitting there waiting for their appointment time or whatever, um and having a paper copy of the survey available for them there. that way, you
021know, if they chose to do it online, they can, but having the copies available and then they can just put them in a basket and we'll collect them. And so, we're hoping um so our conferences are first week of December and third week of March. Um that way we'll have a fall and a a spring survey with some data to look at from the families. Um we continue to offer volunteer opportunities. As the student representative said, we had a lot of volunteers for our book fair, which has been great. And um some families went with classes to the fire department today. The preschool students picked pumpkins in the the back field, so some families came in to assist with that. And um there's lots of ongoing opportunities at our school. The Sunday night stories is
022something that I put out. Um Leanne from the tech department just came to our school and recorded seven more stories. So it's all different staff um that offer to read a a story. Sometimes it's teacher ESP still working on trying to get our nurse and our custodians, but not everyone's comfortable on camera. Um but it's really exciting for the kids and they come in the next day and they're telling their teachers, "I saw you read last night." Um, so it's just it's a a fun little thing that the kids look forward to and the families. Um, something that we started this year is our second step seal curriculum. And this again is something that we had years ago. It was a little bit outdated the version that we had. And this is a once a
023week lesson and it ties in nicely to our words of the month focusing on kindness and um responsibility, managing their feelings. Just like what do they do when they have a problem? They stop. They take a deep breath. Um, it's having them learn about empathy, looking at pictures of kids and how might they be feeling and why do you think they're feeling that way? Um, so really just putting them in touch with feelings in general and how to manage their own feelings. Um, something else in our Friday weekly newsletter is weekly teacher spotlights. So, we have a schedule. Every staff member throughout our building has a spotlight week. Um, and they have multiple weeks throughout the year, but [clears throat] I'm just highlighting um something that's going on in the classroom. Sometimes they include pictures
024or uh a link like usually our school psychologist or a speech teacher might have a helpful link for families and things that they can do to work on speech or language development. Um, so that's been a a good highlight in our newsletter. Staff shoutouts. We have still our monthly PBIS meetings. So that is when the whole school comes together. I do a little slideshow that includes a story and a song and um we talk about how to sit appropriately and be in the auditorium together that we might have presenters or a show come in. Um, and it was really cute. We had our meeting yesterday for honesty and the kids as soon as the story was over, they're all just applausing and and cheering and um it was just it was very cute to see.
025Um curriculum nights, we had our math and literacy the night of open house which worked out really well. We will be having another literacy and math night in the winter um in February and then working with the PTA to have just more family events um ideas to have fun and collaborate um outside of the school day. >> Tracy, >> yes. >> Go ahead. >> Um two things. Y quickly, um for your surveys, um you may want to try making a QR code of the link. Maybe people will scan it while they're sitting right on their phone on their phone. That might be an option. >> Thank you. >> Um and the other thing I just want to mention, you know, this goal of >> of making a an environment where everyone feels valued and like
026they um belong. Um I had the pleasure of being there for your open house and I felt it there that night. So kudos to everyone for um making an environment where everybody who walked in the door, majority who walked in the door were super excited to get to show up off their school and >> um it was just a a uh a beautiful thing to get to observe. So thank you for that. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. >> Any other questions on goal two? Okay. And finally, our goal number three. So some of the things that we have been doing for this are PLC's again um looking at student work. This year we're are focusing on looking at our um writing benchmarks that we have common assessments for just seeing how we can um
027change our instruction. What further steps are needed for students, whether they are meeting grade level and need to be challenged a little further or whether they're not quite there yet and what things can we implement either small group or whole group um mini lessons and things like that. Learning walks just making sure that teachers, ESPs both have the opportunity to learn from each other. Um we can always learn something. even a a seasoned teacher can go into a new classroom and get a new idea. So doing that both kindergarten to preschool, preschool to kindergarten, and then the grades amongst each other. We're continuing our mech word of the month. Our motto that's now on our logo, be safe, be kind, be ready. That is also said every morning in our announcements. Our PBIS, that is
028our positive behaviors, interventions, and supports. We have monthly meetings for that. We have our common language. Um the posters that are throughout the building that has been going really well. Um just like the family surveys, we have staff surveys and input on whether it be professional development activities that we're doing at the school. Um things that they are in need of. We're constantly looking to improve with that. And um we have monthly ESP meetings. Last year I was doing them kindergarten and preschool combined. And per their request um because their days just look so different from each other, we have separate meetings. So um this Wednesday I met with the kindergarten ESPs. Next week I'm going to be meeting with the preschool ESPs and that has been working out well. Also um again staff shoutouts.
029is just anyone at any time that we do have a QR code for um in lots of different common areas throughout the building, but anyone can just go and it brings them to a Google form where they can give a shout out to anyone in the building. Um mechmingles are little events that we plan as a staff for us all to get together and our sunshine committee. Um, next week we have an under our first underground um staff spirit week. So, it's just the staff members that are doing something a little bit different each day. And we're we're curious to see if our four and fiveyear-olds are going to notice this. Um, but those are just some of the things we do for Sunshine Committee. We have um already like every Friday we draw a
030name for a gift card winner. Um, and then it's also just reaching out for, you know, families who are going through staff member families that are going through a hard time, like maybe giving a card if there's a a loss in the family or something like that. So, just trying to spread sun sunshine wherever we can. Any questions on goal three? >> Any other questions for [laughter] >> uh Lisa? Lisa is going to appreciate this one. Uh so I'm wondering as a goal are there ways that you can assess that you're achieving your goal for specifically goal three. [snorts] Um, that would go back to our staff surveys. And honestly, a lot of it is just feedback that I'm getting just by word of mouth, not even um surveys. But at the beginning of this
031year, I heard from staff like this is the most prepared I've felt or um I really appreciate you, you know, listening to this feedback. I feel like all our voices count and things like that. So, a lot of it, you know, may not be measurable on paper, but we're feeling it and we're feeling it in the building that um, you know, we are a team and we're a a shared mech family. >> The one one that I was interested in specifically was the PLC's and and learning walks as it as it relates to the uh writing goals that you have. Mhm. >> Um, are there specific writing goals that you can see whether or not what you're doing through the PLC's is making a difference or >> So, this is our first year with the
032writing benchmarks. I mean, everyone already did their own kind of different assessments based on the standards, you know, for report cards and for instruction. But these we have set rubrics. So, this is our first year working with these rubrics. So part of our PLC's is going to be, you know, is everybody grading in the same way? Are they looking at the same criteria? Do we need to tweak the rubrics a little bit? And looking at we have a a shared document for that, too, where we're going to be typing in like what are some next steps? >> For instance, like if a student is struggling with this, what are some things that we can do? Um, and if you're seeing that in October somebody is already meeting some of these grade level benchmarks, what are
033some things that we can do to challenge them and push them further? So, that's our our focus for this year. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions for Principal Lord? >> Thank you so much. >> All right. Thank you so much. Have a good night. All right. This the hot seat. Okay. All right. Good evening. >> Good evening. >> All right. So our goals for this year starting with goal one is to improve our schoolwide achievement in all content areas through continued development imple and implementation of curriculum related resources. Um one of my one of my specialties as a leader and kind of person I am I'm a systems thinker. So I am definitely always thinking how things work together and one of the models that I follow through the Lynch Academy is the instructional
034improvement system and the components and I'll talk about um more of that later. Um because we have so many curriculums, so many initiatives going on. I'm I'm a focuser also and so my instructional leadership team came with an instructional focus that ties in all the initiatives that ties academics and social emotional learning and it transcends content areas and it transcends roles so that everybody can get around this one little bite-size um instructional focus. And so that is our instructional focus this year is to that teachers will design opportunities for students to use higher order thinking skills through questioning and peer-to-peer discourse in order for students to use evidence to explain their reasoning when speaking and writing. >> Can we make is there any way to make that a tiny bit bigger because I can't read
035it. >> Do you know Oh, I got the wrong person. Okay, >> probably not. >> Okay, never mind. It's okay. I see Sam trying, but I I'm not gonna try. >> I can. >> Sam, is there any way to make this PowerPoint presentation a little >> larger? It's probably a PDF and all you have to do >> if it is just a PDF. >> It's just PDF. >> Is it a PDF? >> I don't think so. I think >> you can blow it up. >> Yeah, it's not going to >> That's fine. That's fine. >> That's fine. Um, goal two is to ensure the growth and development of each student through the implementation of a ro rob robust multi-ter system of support or MTSS. And o goal three, continue to foster relationships with families that
036ensure a true partnership and allow access for all families to be involved in the school community. Um, you're going to see a big emphasis through all goals or in tier one or or tier one is those schoolwide practices that for everyone. So for goal one to improve schoolwide achievement in a cult content areas. Um as I was saying about the instructional improvement system there are several components to that. Um it includes having a strong instructional leadership team. Um having strong teams such as um collaborative planning time or your grade level teams, your math team, your data teams. Um schoolwide professional development um quality instructional materials and curriculum observation and feedback and coaching and systems instructions for data and assessment. So, I will we are focusing hard on that. And the first component that we're really
037trying to build is using the teacher leaders as an effective instructional leadership team um to establish a schoolwide instructional focus that you just saw and align PLC um which is professional learning communities and professional development to that instructional focus and to align instructional rounds with the ILT teacher leaders and have peer observations with teachers as well as support um observation coaching and feedback through having a coaching menu. Um we also focus on classroom tracking for ST math and challenges to incentivize students to make sure that we are using those platforms to build those um skills. We are continuing to implement implement the new um social studies curriculum which is investigating history. Um we're having professional development. and I have it highlighted because you'll see that's a direct tie to our instructional focus which is professional
038development on higher order thinking questions and discourse protocols. We are also training teachers um teacher leaders on panorama for instructional resources and data triangulation so that they can in turn change take it back to their um grade level teams. And we are also increasing collaborative planning centered on um content and tasks with the use of protocols. So, we're using our teacher leaders to support um collaborative planning like looking at student work re um and reteing planning and lesson internalization breaking that down and then unit unpacking. >> Any questions on go one >> on the go ahead >> uh on the training and >> there are a couple different verbs that you use there. Is that mostly done by the and the professional development? Is that mostly done by the instructional leadership team that's doing that
039training and coaching with professional development or the training the on panorama? >> Uh all all of the above. So professional development varies. Sometimes it's been me, sometimes it's been um other teachers and sometimes it's the coaches or curriculum support. Um when it specifically says teacher leaders that is me working with the instructional leader team training them and then they go back and train the teachers. >> That's great. It's great to see that kind of support happening. >> Any other questions? Um goal two. So we are um continuing our working with our multi-ter systems of support um MTESS. Again, we are um trying to foster um support support teams and specialists to improve instructional strategies and literally we are using specialists to help do intervention um around social emotional skills and um small group in small
040group instructions through the screener that we do in Panorama for behavior um and social emotional needs. And so we are actually having specialists um support our school adjustment counselor and our school psychologist to um to do small groups because definitely like PE teachers that's a great place for them to do social emotional learning because they do a lot of that in in in their um instruction. Um we're trying to strengthen workshop models to increase small group and targeted tier one. We're really focusing on tier one instruction as we look at looked at our MCCAST data. um um and especially when you're implementing and trying to pilot curriculums and all different types of initiatives. So, we're really trying to focus on that tier one core instruction that's, you know, rigorous and aligned to grade level standards.
041Um ensure consist of sale lessons to include common language and expectations. We're imp implementing the harmony curriculum and we try not to just do it during the um morning meetings and time, but we try to embed those skills into instruction all day long whenever we can reinforce them. Um we're also using the riot matrix. Um I'm going to introduce the riot matrix and other instruments to collect data at tier one. Um, when you're talking about a multi-ter system of support, you always want to look at um, how are you infecting their tier one first before you go looking at tier two and tier three um, and intervening, you want to make sure that you have a strong core tier one. So, when we're looking at our CST team, when our CST, that's the child support
042team that Tracy mentioned, we also have one, we're using that other data so that we aren't constantly looking at the learner, but that we're also considering instruction, curriculum, and environment. all the things that impact the learner before we start trying to fix the learner. Um um we're doing PD and collaborative planning on tier one routines and intervention. We are working a lot with um MKG um and Lisa will talk about that more about how we're collaborating um and calibrating um instruction across the two buildings. We are supporting teacher leaders and grade level um CST through data. Um so I'm trying to build their efficacy so that they can in turn be either skillful participants or uh giving their expertise to their grade level teams. We are increasing our use of panorama to track interventions and
043triangulate student data. We've used Pan Panorama to make like um child support team referrals, but it is a really powerful data tool um that has a lot of data dumped in one area. And so in using it and it's also a resource tool. And so using it more to not just do a referral, but for teachers to use that powerful tool um at a click of at a click of a button, they can really see several data sources and see how all of them connect to one another. And then we're updating protocols to include um tier one support for teachers. Um we're focusing a lot on trying to give all teachers the coaching and feedback that they need. Um even the most experienced teachers need um coaching is important or asking for it and want
044that feedback. Any questions on goal two? Goal three. Um we are mostly in this goal we are working with our families and including the homeschool and partnership. One of the things we're trying to do is there are six parent involvement um um areas. And so we're trying to make sure that we hit all of those six areas. Helping parents to parent by matching them to resources and things that they can help to support um support them at home. making sure that we do effective communication both two um two-way um using parent square to to really communicate and have that two-way um connection. Um volunteering, giving them opportunities to to volunteer and participate in the school. And then learning at home, making sure that we send home um things that they can work with with their
045child um and um sending home reports and things so that they know how their child is doing in school. And then we want them to be involved in decision- making through PTA and other um bodies. And then of course being a community resource um and supporting them to go then go beyond the school and access the community. We are also refined and um communicating our PBIS approaches which is part of interest support that um Tracy also mentioned and our pro-social efforts. So we're continuing those. We're continuing our above and beyond awards that we give to students who've gone above and beyond. We do that weekly and we announce them. Our high- five awards are given to staff um because a part of positive behavior intervention and support also starts with staff and making sure that
046that it's a positive. And so our sunshine committee which we call the culture club this year um gives the opportunities for high- five awards. We do other incentives like um trivia Friday mornings. We play music and meet the 10th caller gets a prize um and things like that. And so the culture club is really working. They're also working around called a morale pal that I brought to them the idea to them. And so we're also doing incentives for them. Um bus of the month cafeteria centers and trimester attendance recognition awards and trying to really communicate those so that families can help celebrate. So I try to put those in the newsletters to really support that. Um this year also our fifth grade is um piloting something called a house system and that I don't it's
047a detailed system but I'll try to summarize it but basically was started by the at the Ron Clark Academy basically students are assigned to a house um and the house do um friendly competitions around academic and behaviors and it builds community um and um fosters relationships with students. They have house leaders that rotate every year. they vote. They also in the houses um actually vote on the above and beyond awards that students actually nominate them nominate their own peers for that award. And so we are piloting it in fifth grade so that we can see and then spread it out across the school. And then finally we're implementing trying to implement parent workshops to for help parent understanding of content policies and procedures. A lot of times we send home stuff in what I call
048educational. Um it's not always very parentfriendly. Um a lot of policies and things like that. Um and so I presented to PTA the other uh the other night that before PTA that we do some type of mini workshops to help support parent learning around some of the content and policies and procedures that are coming out. And so that's goal three. Any questions on any of the goals? questions for Principal Daniels. >> Sure. >> Just in general, I'm I wonder how we're going to celebrate the work that you've done at the end of how how you'll be able to demonstrate that you're achieving these things. If that's something that you've thought about as you created these goals. >> Um absolutely. Um I think the parent survey will be very um very crucial to give us data
049on how they feel we are doing around these um and and utilizing PTA to give um feedback on that. Um the house system we're already evaluating that and seeing how it goes. So most of these are attached to either the cell screener will tell us about how students are feeling a sense of belonging and feeling celebrated. Um so thinking of all that and then of course when I do parent workshops getting their feedback and evaluation and even seeing what some of the topics they want. Um I know one parent even asked for technology like some parents don't know how to use a QR code and so I was like you know that's a quick easy workshop to help them so that they can get information at the glance of their phone um things like that.
050So we are constantly sending out evaluation and usually all of these >> all of these goals are attached to some type of uh screener, survey or assessment. >> And is that true in the other goals also that that you've uh looking at how again >> um because it's one of the things that I really hope we can do more of and that's celebrate the gains that we're making >> um and how it is that we demonstrate those. So that's great. >> Yeah. especially um as far as the instructional leadership team, we have kind of like a a rubric for effective practice for that. So, we we already kind of did like a self assessment of kind of where we was as a team. So, we'll do that at the end of the year. >> Um
051as far as our instructional focus, we actually going to do instructional rounds and collect baseline data around what are we doing around this course and then we'll do it at the end of the year. So, that's great. >> We'll be doing things like that. >> Thank you. I just see if you don't mind. >> Yes, Jess. Um, I just want to recognize how um I I appreciate that some of your assessments of the progress of these are constant and continual and you're you're using um Ben you're you're able to learn on the fly and adapt and adjust and I think that's fantastic that you're you're looking at getting that feedback and making adjustments as you go whenever possible. Obviously, some of them require that longer amount of time in between, but it sounds like you
052found a really good balance between the continuous improvement and and really being able to demonstrate um what you're asking the teachers to do and within your own processes. So, thank you for that. >> Thank you. Um I definitely believe school improvement plans are living documents, so they're going to be ever changing. >> Um these goals right now may look very differently at the end. I've already kind of presented it to teachers and the instructional leadership team and getting feedback on on some of the goals. And so it it's a living document. I don't think it should collect us. So we'll constantly be tweaking and >> that's great. >> Um evaluating and I also appreciate the substantiveness of what you've shown us. I mean you've got a lot going there. >> Thank you. Any questions? >>
053Thank you very much. I'm just kidding. [laughter] >> Just kidding. >> Well, that was fast. >> I win. I win. Good evening, everybody. How are you? >> Well, how are you? >> This is one of my favorite I always say this. I would It's always my favorite time is to introduce the school plan of of the exciting things that we're going to do. So, thank you to our members from 2024 and 2025. And we actually have the same members except we added um these two members. Paige Hoffus is a teacher joining us and uh Claire Jones is no longer um on the committee, but we have Shelley Bar joining us um as a new parent. So, thank you to our team from 2024 2025 for the work that they did um on this plan. So,
054our goals for 2025 2026, uh, goal number one, commit to academic excellence through inclusive, rigorous, and engaging instruction that supports all students and narrows achievement gaps. Goal two, foster an equitable environment that empowers all students to achieve academic success. Goal three, ensure a safe, secure, and supportive environment for all students, staff, and visitors through a comprehensive community engagement approach. So with goal one um I won't repeat the goal for you. We um divided that into three sections. A curriculum, instruction, and assessment in this goal. Our focus this year really is um on not only a higher level of student discourse, but for us we have found writing writing for us, we um see the need to really we're adding and and you'll see this, we're adding um a writing intervention. I spoke a lot last
055year about the interventions we were putting in place for our early literacy, for our math, looking at the data that we're seeing. Um we are focusing uh in grades three, four, and five. And we're having specific writing intervention. Um it's actually is going well and we're we're kicking that off. Uh we are continuing with our UFly. UFly mainly is it it's the University of Florida. Um it it's a great phonics program. Uh grades one, two, three somewhat. But what we're seeing is because um we didn't have a focus on phonics for a while, we're seeing kids in our fourth and fifth grade with some deficiencies in that area. So we're using um UFly Hegrity. We're we're backtracking a little bit and filling in those gaps and those holes um with our our uh coaches and
056with our interventionists with UFly. Um we're still have our empowering writers um in grades three through five. That's again that's our tier one in writing and we're also taking that and using those skills that we're learning in empowering writers as part of our interventions as well. Uh something that I spoke last year and we saw kind of the fruit of our labor last year was uh data cycle reviews. Um, our teachers meet constantly with their grade level teams to review data. Um, they meet in PLC after school once a month. We meet twice a month. One is we during our town meeting time that our students have that students are reviewing reviewing student work and student data. Uh, they have the PLC after school that they're meeting. I'm meeting with teams of teachers. The teacher
057leaders have taken on the role of leading those data conversations. So, they don't need me. We've been doing this now for many years looking at data. We use a data-driven protocol that our teacher leaders um you know that's how this works. I give and now they take and they run with it and they're leading those conversations in the grade levels to support the the the students at every student is belongs to every teacher. You know just because you have Mr. Peron and you know you you don't have Mrs. White. We own all of the students and it's important for all of the teachers to know all of the data and what standards our students are hitting, what they're missing, and are there pockets in certain places we're missing that we need to fill our project-based
058learning. Something we're looking at, we're we're changing some things that we're doing. We're still looking at our multicultural. We're still looking at our job fair in a different way. We're still looking at doing our um I know it's Mr. Benson's favorite, the um living wax museum. So all of those projects are STEM week that we're able to do which is it's important for our kids to use their hands and show their learning. It's great to take an assessment paper pencil but it's also great for our students to demonstrate learning in other ways as well. Um we have our STEM pseudo STEM that we're doing with uh Mr. Steinberg and tech and kids are able to to demonstrate their learning that way as well. We're up we have updated the report card so that will be
059coming out. We've started that work in March and that's continuing for those updates. So parents will see an updated report card when that comes out uh for first term. Um we're grade five with our investigating history. As you know, we're doing um and I'm I'll not in here, but I will report a little bit that our um grade five teaming is moving along. Um again, there's always bumps in the road and we're we're navigating those. We have collected some information, some informal data. You know, just like everything, some love it, some not so much, some are in the middle. So, we're continuing to tweak as we go along. Investigating history is from our state and it really is encompass encompasses a lot of ELA in investigating history. So, I like that cross that happens with
060that. our writing calibration. Our our friends next door, we um Shammer and I did our our first PD together, which was fun. Uh we did a collaboration, a writing calibration collaboration. Um so we did that as a PD and the teachers like that. They they not only looked at, you know, it's nice to look at the work that MKG does, but it's nice to look at the work that HBB is doing. And again, where are we in relation to not only ourselves but but next door and how do we make it better across the complex just not in in pockets of one one grade, one school, we're still continuing our observation cycles in there too is our our learning walks is there's gathering information. It's learning from our teachers. It's sending teachers, especially our newer
061teachers um into um other classrooms, but veteran teachers always learn. They tend to learn a lot from our new teachers, too. So, making sure those observation and and cycles of of really seeing what is going on around you in other classrooms are so important. Our assessment analysis, you know, looking at data and looking at numbers is great, but that's not the whole assessment. Why is a student answering the way they're answering? what is the question? We just found a fifth grade uh we gave a a fifth grade assessment and the teacher came to me and said this question's out next year and she said it's not we it it's bad question and that happens. Um and that's really about an analyzing those assessments making sure that we're hitting the mark with what we're asking our
062students to do. collaborative planning, giving our teachers time to have those conversations, to plan together, to discuss what's going on. Um, I'm trying to figure out um that vertical one, two, and that's something that's kind of [clears throat] floating around in my brain. We're really doing well with uh collaborative planning at the grade level, but I want more conversation vertically. So, that's something that is in the brain. Um, math to ma, it is it's it's gonna happen. I have to figure it out. Math to mastery is a is something new to us. It's tier one two for our math. We really haven't had anything for tier one, excuse me, tier two math. So that math to mastery um our students our excuse me our teachers were trained um by our math coach Amy Anderson on
063the math to m mastery screeners and then she has all the available um intervention pieces and lessons that go with that that students uh excuse me that students will be able to access with their teachers. So small group stuff for their teachers. So go to I'm not going to repeat it but this is um our equitable equitable environment. So there's our uh multi-tered our MTSS our use of panorama was key for us uh and we're continuing that this year as well. We've found that you know now the teachers that last year being our implementation year of this I'm hearing teachers you know that that have inherited these these plans from last year say this is great I know where I need to start or I knew you know this was a struggle back last January
064and you know as we know we have summer slide so this may not be a time that I have to you know really panic it might just be a little remediation that a student needs they may not need a full intervention plan. So, this is really valuable and our teachers are are seeing kind of that the work that was done pay off with those intervention plans. our child study team is is creating our support plans for our students and what they need and this is both in academics behavior. um what what does a student need to be successful and it looks different depending on you know that need our tier two and tier three um I really as as you know I was very proud of our Lexia usage last year um so we're really
065again that's our focus uh making sure our Lexia you know goals are met um making sure we're using our UFly consistently which grades one and two are amazing at their at their UFly by uh making sure that if we need to have a student that's that needs to have an intervention that they're getting what that looks like in grade three, grade four, and grade five. A targeted small group instruction. We, you know, we we throw the word small group instruction out a lot. But if we're just doing more of the same with less kids, it's not always what they need. Sometimes they need something specific, something targeted, and it may not be something that's longterm. It may be just a remediation that may need to happen. teachers are really good at looking at student work
066and saying, you know, oh, this isn't, you know, a multiplication issue. It's a repeated addition issue. So, let's just go back, retach that real quick, a little remediation, and then we we can move on. So, that's key, making sure that that small group instruction is targeted. again our data reviews, our BOI, our MOI, getting into that data and where are we seeing um success? Where are we seeing, you know, our kids are doing really, really well here? Let's push them further. >> Our students are not doing so well here. Okay, how are we intervening? Great. So that's that both edge because even if our students are meeting the standard, we want better than meeting, right? So again, our professional learning um in math, in writing, in our harmony curriculum, and again in our ELA pilot,
067uh we're really again focused on looking at the writing, looking at how how are we tackling this? How are we building? One thing we're seeing about the writing in our data is writing stamina >> is is something we I I had a great conversation with our interventionist today about that and with one of our fifth grade teachers about all the things that go into writing and now here comes the MCCAST test and we're really good at getting ourselves organized and now we need to type it. So where does how do how we fit in this in too? So we're having that conversation as well. attendance. Um it we have some concerns about attendance at MKG. Um we have a lot of vacations and that's a concern. Um when kids aren't in school, they're not learning.
068So we have built in a grade level monthly incentive. Why we did grade level is children get sick and I get that and I know perfect attendance is really hard and I we listen I I've already been out this year. I had something I had to deal with. So perfect is hard and perfect is it's okay when kids get sick, right? So what we decided to do um Mr. Dyer had an idea of doing a grade level for a monthly in incentive because that way it keeps it a little bit broader. So happy to report September the grade level attendance uh best attendance was grade two. So, we gave grade two what would be equivalent to a million dollars, which was an extra recess in grade two. Um, so they were very excited. It's actually
069tomorrow that they get their incentive for that. We have it posted outside the um assistant principal's door. So, everyone walks by it and it's created a little buzz. It's created a little, oh, who's going to get it? And um one of our students says, "What if it's a tie?" That was good. I like that. I'm like, "If it's 100%, it's a tie for 100%." Great. I want to have that problem. Um, we've met actually met with our the DA's office to they they have a liazison that works with us with attendance and we have met with her and you know some ideas about improving our attendance and and um you know kind of how can we do this? How can we make this a better um you know incentivize attendance without labeling it that perfect
070attendance. So she had some great ideas as well fostering collaboration uh between general education, special education teachers and related service providers. Sometimes we travel in our silos, gened teachers, special ed teachers, related service providers. So creating these opportunities during our PLC time to have, you know, have those conversations, creating opportunities to share tier one, what's working, tier two, what's working, tier three, what's working, making sure that we're aligning our IEPs with what students need and what that looks like in the classroom or out of the classroom if that needs to happen. >> Oh, I didn't ask if there were any questions after goal one. I'm sorry. >> We interrupted you. >> Oh, I probably Any questions after goal two? Sorry. Okay. Goal three is ensuring safety for all. Again, this is a big part. Making
071sure that our staff and our students feel safe in the building. Before we can do anything, before we are going to expect our teachers to teach and our students to learn, everybody needs to feel safe in the environment in which they're in. So therefore, we have our professional learning around our safety training. We've had our professional development with harmony. um are and we include our writing calibration in this which means why would that fit here because our students are writing about their how they're feeling are how safe they're feeling in the building and that's important. Sometimes kids aren't going to tell you they're going to they're going to write it. So that's important for us. Our harmony our students are getting um harmony in grades one to five. Our grade level meetings we're still doing
072our town meetings. Um I it's been 10 years now that we've done it and kids know about it. We talk about things like behavioral expect the behavioral expectation matrix where we this is what it looks like. The classroom looks different than the expectations of recess that look different than the bathroom that look different than the cafeteria. So making sure that our students know what that looks like. Um we are big on internet expectations. We're working, which you'll see, we're working with um the DA's office again will be coming and doing some cyber um cyber security, cyber bullying, cyber things with with our students. And what that looks like, what are your expectations when you're when you're online? We have Mark, a Mark presentation is um it's either was scheduled at the end of last week
073or it's about to be scheduled. um they come in um Mark is the Massachusetts Aggression Resource Center. It's in Bridgewwater and they come in and do a great presentation with our students and um on bullying and they do a little bit with cyber bullying as well. There's our our PBIS support with our behavior matrix. And again, as we said with this year, we have student incentives. We have our school store. We have our tickets. We um but for our staff, we also do um we have staff bingo and they created a bingo card at the beginning of the year of all the things that Mr. Dyer and I might say at a staff meeting and then they get bingo. Um, and there were certain things I they couldn't put on their bingo card that I
074might say, but they And then we have rewards for that. And then we do staff. That's not funny, Mr. But we do we do um um staff like we did we do pie for pie and stu teachers all make pies and we vote or we might do a different food activities for for our staff. We have our student shoutouts. We do them in the cafeteria. um we ask the student, we learn this that students don't always like to be shouted out. Sometimes they don't and when they don't, it's a different experience for them. So, we ask them, "How would you like this presented to you?" Because some students don't want that. um our family support again um very proud of the positive relationship that we do have with our PTA and obviously continuing that and
075having student um excuse me we have a lot of family volunteers that come in. We have things like flashlight Friday. We have lots of activities to get our families. We have the um STEM week that we have families come in. We have our um science fairs. We have our read uh mystery readers throughout the year that families are able to come in and and share um what what they do with our students. A big piece um our emergency planning, our BER, we meet monthly um to discuss lots of topics that come up with safety. We also meet after every incident. If we have a fire drill, we meet to we can always get better. If we have a situation that occurs, any situation that occurs that's safety related, we always meet after to debrief. How
076can this be better? How can we change? How can we, you know, that's important for us. Making sure that our grounds are are safe. Um, for instance, so if you've been to Mary Kay, good, we so the gate that goes into the playground area that's closed, there's an opening there. Our first and second grade students play there. Well, sometimes they can be a little wiggly. So, Mr. Dyer was able to get a donation from um someone in town and we're having a gate put there. That's just it came up and we were able to solve that. So, we're looking We've also put um barriers. We had cars that would sometimes drive through. That's gotten a thousand times better. But, we put barriers there that we put out every day, cement buckets, so if a car
077does come through, they can't come all the way through. So those are things that we've we've seen, we've noticed, and we've made changes to our restorative practices. Um again, um when discipline issues come up, which they do, um it's about restorative. Um it's about learning. It's about, you know, we can give a lunch detention, but you know, it's it's about sitting there and talking about not repeating what happened or um you know, sometimes we have children that, you know, might need a video to help them see. You [clears throat] know, we have some great videos that we share with them that allows kids to have a start start the conversation and have a conversation to not repeat that that behavior. And [snorts] again, making sure we have a welcoming envir environment for all of our
078families and having family nights and we have our title one nights and our PTA nights and how and how we assess that. >> Thank you, Lisa. is uh we academically obviously we do our benchmarks but more important than our benchmarks are our progress monitoring. So we progress monitor our teachers are progress monitoring constantly and so we're always looking we're not waiting till the benchmark or we're especially not waiting until the MCCAST to know that there's a problem. We're continuously progress monitoring through our academics. We're constantly looking at our Lexia for improvements. We're always looking again calibrating looking at our writing making sure we're seeing those improvements. We're looking at our behavior referrals, making sure we're looking at that data, making sure we're seeing decreased u behavioral uh reports. Uh we're looking at our attendance data
079all the time. Making sure we're, you know, we're addressing that. We're sending letters home to families to let them know, hey, you it's October 23rd and you've been out seven times already. So, making sure that we're doing that all the time. That data is constantly being looked at, collected, analyzed. Um, and that that's important because we don't want to wait until again MCCAST or for that indicator to be like, "Oh, we didn't know we had a problem." Nope. We need to know we have that now. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Yes. Jess. >> Um, so the it's wonderful that it's happening, but terrible that it has to happen that you're already talking about cyber bullying in in this grade level. Mhm. >> Um the the DA that you're working with, do they do
080anything for uh parents to that might be >> Yes, we've actually had that in the district before. >> I know I've been to them, but from my perspective, I went as a parent and it was always with the older children. So, I think that that might be a wonderful opportunity to reach out to both HB and MK. >> I'll check with them. I know, like I said, they they do the student one. I will definitely uh when they call out to schedule it um we'll ask if we can do or what their availability is for a parent night and I can work with Kevin Avatab with that too >> because I do think it's it's extra it it definitely sounds like the type of thing like Shama alluded to of sometimes the parents don't know
081what they don't >> we can certainly team up and even me I mean I even I think and I think >> or to educate the parents at the same time you're educating their students so they can have a conversation >> and it's never too early I mean even including the mech because it's coming I mean in kindergarten, but it it's not that far away that they're they're on online or, you know, having phones or whatever. >> Yeah. >> They're on them, right? So, I can certainly talk to Tracy, too. Yeah, absolutely. >> Um, and then the other thing was just, you know, I'm excited to hear how the new report cards are received when they're they're ready and they're out. Um, >> they're an update. It's the same. So, it's still standards based. So, it's
082still the same thing. What we did was we updated um from the 2017 standards to make sure that they're aligned with what's being what's being taught and graded assessed in each grade level appropriately. Um, so that's been been updated and that was work that was done by the teachers and very proud to say that this work came from the teachers um because they're the ones that are living these report cards kind of and so it was great work that began in March of last year >> and I remember some of the discussions being you know uh looking at them and as the parent getting it making sure that the parent can understand what those standards are and not >> um not thinking that a student not meeting standards that aren't available till aren't taught till
083the end of the year is a negative. Right. I just put in a plug to say round go out. I'd love to hear how they're received if they seem to be better, >> but it may be also something Shammer and I can talk about about doing a even if it's just a like we did a film last year, just a like an understanding of these are end of the year standards. So don't panic if you see a two, you know, because it's it you have all year to get there. Some standards you're taught um at the beginning of the year and we don't see them again, especially in math. math tends to be much more choppy and you're done and you move on. But the thing is is with a standardsbased report card, if we
084teach um fractions with unlike denominators and maybe that was a standard taught in term one and you and you and you got a two, it might not go away. We don't just say, "Oh, sorry, didn't get it. Bye." We will revisit that in small groups. So that gives that child the opportunity because no one we all don't learn at the same rate. So it may just take someone a little bit longer. ELA is a little bit different because of course that tends to, you know, do this and go around and around. Um, so it looks a little bit different, but I I think that's a great idea to explain to parents to not panic because same with, you know, beginning of the year data, our our benchmark data that that we just sent home. It's
085end of the year standards that we're looking at. So we're not panicked. You know, this is baseline. So we need, you know, it's like I I need to drive from here to California. I need a map. This is our map. >> I think that would be really helpful. Make sure everybody knows what they're what they're looking at before they get >> Yeah. And Tracy, too, because you guys do the standard space, too. So, we can certainly, especially for K, because for K, it may be the first time they're seeing it. >> Seeing it. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. You're welcome. >> Any other questions for Principal White? >> Allan, >> what do you do in the event of a tie? >> Well, we talked about that. And if it's an event of a
086tie, then both win and both get the recess. >> All right. we already solved that problem, but it was literally I think it was a second or third grader who said that. What if there's a tie and we Mr. Dyer and I looked at each other. I said, I guess we're doing two recesses, so I'd like to have that problem. [laughter] >> Sue, it looked like you had another question. >> I did. Um something I I have no knowledge of. Um so when Principal Mclofflin was here, he talked about climate survey that he did with the middle school. Is is there such a thing for elementary schools? >> Yeah, we use panorama. So, we kind of use that um be because our students are um as far as you talking about the students or or
087>> students. We look at that through panorama. >> Okay. >> Because it's it I like it that way. It's cleaner because it's student driven. Um student it there's no influence influence from us on that. Um the students are answering it holds the data for us. So, it's interesting how children's perspectives can change over time. >> And so, that I like it for that reason, that survey. That's why I I use that survey for that reason to judge that and and really look at and our our counselors really use that data for that reason, too, because it's also can be a grade level. >> Um, you know, sometimes it's a student that, you know, wasn't struggling in certain areas in the, you know, and and now is even a grade level. So we look at are
088the grade levels being successful in the culture because it looks it looks different. >> So we use that data for [clears throat] that purpose too. >> And then that's another way that you can kind of measure growth in in some of these. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Any other questions? >> All right. Thank you. Thank you. Um I believe we're moving on to the academic calendar which I believe is still under the superintendent report. >> Yes. So this is really um initial discussion. Uh what we put together is just basically the um current year's calendar with just all the uh dates that we know in um holidays and where we think the uh breaks will fall. But uh the beginning and the end and all those different things. We will be
089bringing you three options at a future meeting. We'll probably figure that out in a um agenda prep. Uh, one thing to note though, um, and I know the, you know, there's philosophies before after, uh, Labor Day. Labor Day is a little late, so this one's going to make you think about, [laughter] I know, I know your, uh, thoughts on this, but it is the 7th, so uh, it causes a little problem uh, at the end of the year where we have some employees that have to work five days at the end. It will get us real close to that date. So, uh, we'll bring you three different, um, calendars and we could talk about Well, you could start talking about them now. That's fine. I just >> No, I'm just going to put a plug
090out there that I don't think we could even consider a start on the the 8th. So, I I don't think a start after Labor Day is feasible for So, >> I'll put a plug out there to not spend too much time on that version of it. >> Um, I think Allan will he's gonna want to talk about >> I I can be convinced [laughter] Uh I would I would suggest perhaps um because usually what happens is we we get you know three different drafts and then after we look at them we then put out a survey. It might be beneficial this time around to perhaps have that survey. >> Sorry I wanted to ask that I that was done last year. I don't know if it was parents, staff or both but I wanted to
091know if you wanted me to do that again and so timing is prior to >> Yeah. Yeah. And if that could be presented to the committee. >> Sure. Alongside the three drafts so that they >> I do think that um you know in terms of asking it's important to do the if we started here the we would end here >> so that they [clears throat] get both both dates so they can see the big picture. You know it's really easy to say I I like the idea of starting on September 8th. Not when you see that it would mean you'd end on June 28th or something terrible. >> And that's where it is. It's it's 28th or 29th. >> Yeah. So >> if we do the >> and that's with no snow days >> with
092no snow days in the five I think we have a couple of groups that work five days after the last day. >> Yeah. That's [clears throat] >> so it would bring them to 28 or 29 which is tight. >> Yep. >> So Halloween falls on a Saturday. >> What's that? >> Have to worry about that day after Halloween. [laughter] >> You're welcome. We planned it that way. >> Absolutely. >> You don't have to this year though. >> I know. >> Yeah. This year you're good. Although Friday is tough. >> Any questions for Mike? All right. So, we'll move on to the subcommittee updates of which there is always a policy. >> Yep. Um I do want to take just a quick moment. I'm going to come over here. Um one of the one of the
093items we had been discussing was having materials posted in advance. um especially with the policies where the policies not being able to read them in advance of a discussion makes uh it uh very difficult. So I just wanted to let everybody know they are available at least the policies that will be discussed at the meetings are now available online in advance. So, if you go to the school committee section of the district web page, which if you don't know how to find it, if you go to menu and you go to our district, we've got our school committee page down here. And then on the uh menu over on the left, if it's collapsed, there is usually a plus sign. So, if it's not collapsed, you're good. But under school committee agendas, minutes, and materials,
094this will launch you into a shared Google Drive folder. And if you go to the list format, it's easier to find them. And then down here under the 2025 school committee materials, you'll be able to see a folder for today which has um materials. It includes the draft some uh the presentation for that we just saw is here and you can also see the policies that we are going to be discussing. So these are now available. Um when things get posted they will get put in there as soon as possible. Um but I just wanted to kind of show and tell that a little bit to make sure that everybody had a chance to see the pathway to get to that information. >> Thank you. just that's I think that's a really great step forward
095>> and thanks Sean Siciliano for setting that up for us. >> Thank you Sean Sisiano >> and Ann Milligan for putting all the information in the folder. Thank you, Sean and an >> All right. So, in terms of the policies that are posted for first reads, there are uh just a couple things. I'll quickly go through them. Um many of them are short [snorts] uh minor updates. So, KBA for student parent relations goals, it's mostly just updating language to be parents and guardians. There's nothing significant changing there. KBBA, non-custo non-custodial parents rights, it's the same thing. It's just some minor changes um and updating the um legal references. KBE relations with parent organizations and KJA. So, this is a little different. KBE has been updated significantly um mostly to incorporate the content that had been
096in KJA. So the recommendation here is to update KBE and to remove KJA. So that's KBE would be relations with parent organizations and it becomes relations with parent booster organizations and we don't need a separate policy specifically for relations with booster organizations. So that's why many of the updates are there is to combine those two types of parent involvement organizations into something plus it adds in that raffle language that we talked about at the last two meetings. So those are some of the more significant updates there. KBG would be a new policy for our district. It's specific to the parent advisory councils um such as the CPAC and those are required by law. So, this is a entirely new policy just to keep that out there. Um it also mentions the multil- language learner parent
097coun uh parent committees and what those um what the requirements are to have one of those within your district. KB KDB, the public's right to know, um, is just a policy that would require minor updates. Um, and it relates to public records and things like that. So, that would be not significant changes. KDD, news, media relations, news releases. Um, this has minor updates, but I am meeting with uh Sean Sisiano and uh Mike tomorrow just to double check some of the language related to the policies that have been in place in our district. So, do expect that before the second read um there may be an update to this and I'll notify you all accordingly. K public complaints. This one also only needed minor updates as well. Um, K LJ, relations with planning authorities. That's
098a new policy. I found this one especially interesting after one of the updates that you provided um in a previous meeting, uh, Sue, but it is a new policy just to make sure we know that the district needs to be involved in u planning matters because we've got lots of things to plan for. Um and then on to uh section L. Section L is a very nice section. There's only four policies in it. We've already approved one of them. Um section L is relations with other schools and school districts. Um that one has um the biggest change there is that I spoke with uh folks in the central office and added a list of some of the schools that our district is associated with such as Bristol Aggie BP uh the Reeds collaborative. So we
099have examples in there specific to our district LBC relations with non-public schools. Um this one has some relatively significant changes. Um, I'm also meeting with some folks to clarify the process within our district to make sure it's in place so that our policy updates and our process are in line. So, I'll be able to speak more to that at the next meeting as well. Um, and then LDA student teaching and internships only required some minor changes. So, um, some language and changing school system to school district. So that's the list of um what's there there is so an couple ads a removal mostly minor changes um and then two that I'll make sure to give you updates on at the next meeting. >> Yes. >> So um if people want to go and find what
100the proposed changes are, where do they go? So everything that is in the drive is the same as what you're seeing in our drive. So it's a copy of what I've prepared for you. So the yellow highlight designates changes that are proposed by MASC. Comparison crossouts are things to be removed and the blue highlights are things that we've proposed adding as MPS specific. >> Okay. And this is like a map to tell people go look on that drive and find those. Right? Because if I click on here, it just says small edit. >> Scroll down. >> Oh, okay. >> I have a template cover page for each document. >> I was wondering I was looking at >> every every document every every um every policy gets a cover page where I just summarize that it's
101been reviewed and then you scroll down and you can see the changes in the >> I was looking for the changes. I went >> nope. Thank you. No, it was just easier for my record keeping to do a coverage. >> Anything that makes it easier for your record [laughter] keeping is good. >> It's a big spreadsheet. So, those are the first reads. Um, if you have any questions, we can um you can raise them now, but in general, we can discuss more at the next meeting. >> Questions for Jess Shannon who were also on that committee. >> All right. I have no questions. >> Yeah. Yeah. Isn't it great? >> It is. [laughter] >> Uh, all right. So uh that concludes subcommittee updates. We'll move on to item six, which is consent agenda. Chair will
102entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion a second. Um all those in favor? >> I uh it's unanimous. Um just for those uh who are listening, uh it's donations to Middlear's uh high school English teacher recognition travel from uh Thomas S. Pierce Trust and B the minutes uh from uh September 11th uh meeting uh uh the action item which is the budget calendar. I don't believe we I mean there's no budget >> at the last meeting. >> Yeah. >> I think it was two meetings ago from the first uh budget subcommittee meeting that came out. And so again that is fluid but if you vote it and there's any changes I'll bring them to you. Yeah. Um, so, uh, a motion to, uh, approve, uh,
103the budget calendar. >> So, move. >> Second. >> Motion and second. Those in favor? >> I. >> Those opposed, it's unanimous. Um,formational, uh, this fundraiser, Middle Bar High School Key Club goodie bag sales. Uh, B, fundraiser, uh, Middlebar High School, class of 2020, uh, 2028, student verse teacher basketball game on November 1st. I would really like to know what time that was. Uh, but um C, fundraiser Middlebar High School, class of 2027, Sichum themed merchandise sales. And D, fundraisers uh John T. Nichols Middle School uh yeah, John T. Nicholls uh Junior Middle School PTA Forest Family Fun Center roller skating on December 29th, 2005 uh 2025 and Winter Carnival uh on January 23rd, 2026 in the NMS cafeteria. Uh before we adjourn, I do have one announcement uh to make and that is that as
104of uh effective November 1st, um I am resigning um my position entirely. So you'll have one seat that is uh a little bit on the empty side. Uh the reason being is that I am uh moving to Taton. Um I tried to find a beautiful place here in Middlear, but um there was a lot of a lot of caveats that my girlfriend and I had while we were looking for a place and Taton is just where we ended up. Um I will miss this place. Uh I will miss Middle Bar. Middle will always be my home and I'll be around. Uh but I just won't be here serving on the board. So, thank you all very much. >> Thank you. >> And >> uh Mr. Chair, wait, before you before you move on to adjournment,
105I I just want to um I've not served on this board with you as long as some of the other people here, but for the last year and a half that I have, and especially uh the beginning of this year, I I really want to thank you for the collaborative way that you have worked with me as vice chair. Um and um as I have heard of your work and your commitment to the town and to the school and mo and most of all to the kids um we owe you uh thank you and so I wanted to make sure that that is said and noted in the uh minutes of this meeting. >> Thank you very much. I appreciate that. >> Mr. Chair, >> yes, >> I echo the thanks. But I'm going to
106ask for uh an emergency dispensation due to unexpected agenda items to ask quickly. Um Zeke was our uh rep for the MASC conference in November. Um and just out of courtesy to them to notify someone of who could be taking their place, we did have to vote him in as rep. So, I would just like to propose that we take a quick moment now to uh nominate and vote for a new rep. Um, I would happily put my name out there. I did read through everything and I was able to attend a webinar recently that they posted on those things. So, just to put that out there, >> of course, she did. >> Yes. [laughter] Yes. >> I'd like to nominate Jess to be our ref. >> I wholeheartedly second that nomination. So, I assume
107that'll be a motion in a second. Those in favor to nominate Jess. >> I um actually I should probably uh uh uh probably not. Yeah, I should probably abstain from that, but uh I know Jess will do a great bit of work. Um >> yeah, I'm interested to see the Robert Rules of Order used for for evil as I've heard it happen. So, >> it was crazy last year. So, good luck. Um all right so that was I said that was basically a unanimous and one abstain. [snorts] Um so thank you very much. We will move on uh to item number nine which is adjournment. Chair will entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> Can I'm sorry. Oh, could I just clarify on the next school committee meeting the time cuz it was noted at the
108last meeting it was at 7:00 which is different from the 6:30s and I don't know if it was just um when we wrote it it was a type or was there something going on at Nicholls that night that we needed to make it seven. >> I think there is something going on but I don't know the time of that. >> Maybe we should >> I just want to when we post it we got to make sure we post the right time >> the right time. Okay. >> So, if someone can get it someone on the board who needed it to start at seven when we changed the date. >> No, there was something happening here of course and >> and that's why we're going and that's why we're going to Nichols and I do remember
109them talking about something that was happening at Nicholls but I don't remember it >> if it was the reason why it was at seven. >> So, we can follow we'll follow Yeah, we'll follow up. I I have some do eyes to dots and tees to cross before I >> You got till November 1st. >> Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. So I can help vote. Yeah. Exactly. Um >> there was a motion. Is there a motion to adjurnn? >> So move [laughter] motion and a second. All those in favor? >> I. Those opposed, it's unanimous. Thank you. Good night. >> Thank you. It delayed