School Committee Meeting 4-10-25

001issued another one. No, no, I just opened up. What I'm saying I have everything that I need. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Good evening and welcome to the school committee meeting for today, Thursday, April 10th. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. So, our first order of business is the reorganization of the school committee. With that, I will entertain nominations for the position of chair. Jess, I'd like to nominate Zeke Lewis for chair. I feel like Zeke is um proven his interest in his long he's the longest standing uh member of the school committee that we have here. Um he has proven his

002interest in participating in multiple committees acting as vice chair um and I know that it is something that Zeke strives for um in terms of his his goal of proving leadership and um I think that Zeke deserves our vote for chair. Is there a second? I'll second the nomination. Are there any other nominations? I know Sue um it puts a lot of time and effort and is very focused on data and I know it's something she would be interesting in interested in and I think a discussion is important. So I'd nominate Sue. Is there a second? I'll second. All right. We have two nominations. Are there any other nominations? All right. So, we'll start out with Zeke. I have a motion and a second for Zeke to be chair. All in favor? I I opposed

003I. No. Or no. All right. We have three to three. I have a nomination for Sue. A nomination second for Sue to be chair. All in favor? I. I. I have three. We have a tie. Do we want to have a discussion about this or do we just want Yes, please. All right. Um, I'd like to hear from both of the candidates to see their feelings on the nomination and why they are interested in being chair of the school committee. Sue, do you want to go? Sure. Uh, first, thank you for the nomination. Uh when I ran for school committee, uh there were a few reasons why I said that I wanted to run. Uh I thought that uh that my experience uh my qualifications and frankly my time um would allow me to really

004uh focus on this very important committee. And as I've served on the committee, uh I have as uh was spoken about I have really gotten involved in a lot of the information that we have been discussing uh served on subcommittees and I think that my experience that I've had both in running committees, running meetings in my prior work, um the type of work that I had to do um know how to facilit facilitate conversations uh and again frankly the time that I have because I'm retired that I can spend time really setting us up um for success and it is something that I'd like to do and being more involved with the community uh to get more uh ways that we can get community input in a productive way so that we move the district

005continue to move the district forward um to be successful. Zeke, thank you. Thank you for the nomination, Jess. I appreciate it. Um, I have had the past I'm starting my fifth year and so I feel that I have enough experience under my belt to be chairman of this committee. I have served as vice chairman uh for three years. Um, and I just want to talk about some of the things that I've done in those past few years. Um, so number one, first and foremost, is that I am the delegate currently for the uh, MA MASC. um having voted on things for the MA uh MASC um such as you know school bus stop alarm surveillance and act uh act and enforcement penalties um aligning tax authority with the required local contribution. I have an entire

006thing here of pieces that I've worked on with the delegation that quite frankly I don't know if any of you have known. Um I am the only member on stipen committee at the time. Um working closely with all members uh of that committee um at both administration and the MEA. Um and by my calculation, you know, Jess, Allan, and Chris are starting their third year. Um Sue, you're starting your second year, and Shannon, you're starting your first year. Um, but just the way that it shaped out is that there is a 2year gap of historical and experience, you know, experience that I've had that quite frankly is missing from the rest of this committee that I think I can bring. Um, for example, did you know that there used to be a social media subcommittee?

007You know, something that I would love to bring back, right? Um, I have successfully run meetings in the past when filling in for the chairman and uh for Allan and for Rich previous before him. Um, I have sorry and now I'm just going off of my little list. Um, you know, the years I have attended uh through the years I have attended the MASC conference and I've sat in on lectures specifically about being chairman and how to run meetings. Um I have been on the budget subcommittee in the past uh for the past three years and in tandem with the help of Marcy um with Teresa and this past year uh Sue which we did amazing things but in those years uh when I was with uh Teresa paired with Teresa um you know we

008were preparing for the fiscal cliff we did great work doing that when we uh when I worked with Marcy we were we were responsibly conservative when it came to the budget and the last of ESSER funds when we were uh you and I were working together we made sure to maintain a balanced budget with let's face it limited resources from the town um I have integral knowledge of this district having been a graduate of this district less than a decade ago um I know that there are still educators and faculty and staff members ers who uh are still here that I know personally and that I feel that gives me sort of a boots on the ground view when it comes to the decisions made by this committee. Alan, may I add on? Sure. Um

009I guess I I didn't know that we would get as specific. Uh, and I appreciate what Zeke uh is saying and thoroughly actually Zeke and I have had this conversation. However this is goes is is good with for either one of us. Uh, I would say that like to add that I think that one of the things that I bring when I spoke of uh my experience and expertise is a little bit of an outside perspective. Even though I am very grounded in the community, I have my grandchildren in the schools and um and I too graduated from here. Uh and some examples I would give to that. Um I am the person that brought forward uh the this year uh the idea that we really need to be tracking the retention of our staff

010in an annual basis and made the motion that we uh begin the task force to really look into that. Uh I also was the person uh that uh look wanted to look into exit interviews because it's something that had become important re uh related to retention. Um when Zeke spoke of the budget committees, um I brought forward the idea that we should go to the school council and really hear firsthand from the parents uh and the school staff and faculty uh about their input into into retention. And yes, I have not had the experience of sitting on the committee, but I I do bring a perspective of how it is that we can take what has been done in the past and find ways that we can improve. And that is another reason why I

011think that uh I would help serve well as a chair. Anyone else have any other comments? I'll speak again, Alan. Sure. Um, I think I find this to be a very hard decision. You know, I respect both of you personally and I know you have both done good work for the committee and and dedicated yourselves to um to often exhausting uh pursuit of the betterment of this district. Um, I don't want this to be perceived as a a school committee divided. I think we're just being faced with a faced with a decision. So, just to mention that, um, I was pleased to hear you state that, you know, you two have spoken and both of you are are uh interested in serving but happy with whatever way this turns out. Um, I think that just

012puts us in the the lovely bind of having a even numbered member school committee and I know that came up at the last MESC session in discussion. People said, "Wait, what do you do if you have a tie?" And in all honesty, this is the first one that I have ever seen. And so, yeah, now we find out. Uh just as an editorial note, the um the charter review committee gets uh called into action every 10 years. And the first suggestion I'm going to bring up the next time it comes up is that we either enlarge or shrink the school committee by one member so that this does not happen unless we don't have a quorum. But yeah, so um or not a quorum. Does anyone else have anything else to add? All right. I

013have a motion for a motion and a second for Zeke Lewis to be chair. All in favor? I I opposed. No. No. All right. I have a motion for a motion and a second for Sue to be chair. All in favor? I I I mean I didn't say I. Sorry. So three or three again. Three. All right. Does anyone else have anything else to add? I know I'm still relatively new here, but in the instance that we do have a tie, is this something that we can perhaps just hold off on until our next meeting or we need to come to a decision this evening? Unfortunately, I checked our policy and our policy clearly states that no business can occur until the reorganization of the school committee is done. Um, I'll reiterate that I've been

014chairman uh vice chairman uh for four years now. Um, I although I'm loathed to do it, I'll serve as vice chairman again. However, I would really love the opportunity Sue to serve vice chairman and chairman. They're both servants of the committee. And so while I also have many ideas, my first and foremost aim is serving the needs of the committee to to figure out each and every one of your priorities and perspectives in order to make them the effective priorities of the school committee and ultimately the district. I am asking you all three of you to give me that chance please. All right, we'll try this one more time. I have a motion and a second for Zulu to be chair of the school committee. All in favor? I I I opposed. No. No. No.

015I have a motion in a second for Sue Panini to be chair of the school committee. All in favor? I I opposed. I We are still at a tie. Yep. I think I'm going to make a motion to adjurnn the meeting. We can't go any further. Question. Could I see the uh where you saw saw that policy? Yep. Hold on. I thought I read that it just that uh until it was resolved that Allan would remain chair. Allan remains chair through the election of the new officers. Um And I did check with MASC to double check. Um, let me see if I can find the full Sorry, I have too many files in my policy folder. I should have written down the number, the little letters. It's going to come down to there's a hyphen

016or something. Got it. All right. So, for the purpose, it's BDA, school committee organizational meeting. For the purpose of organizing the school committee at its first regular meeting following the district's annual elections will elect from its membership a chair, a vice chair, and a clerk, all of whom will hold their respective offices for a term of one year or until a successor is elected. In the event the chair and vice chair are no longer members of the school committee, the senior member year served will act as the chair promp. A majority of the members of the school committee will constitute a quorum. The election will proceed as follows. Nominations for the office of chair will be made from the floor. The chair will be elected by a majority roll call vote of the members present

017in voting. If no nominee receives a majority vote, the election will be declared null and void and nominations will be reopened. Upon election, the new chair will preside calling for the election of a vice chair and clerk in order. The procedure used for their election will be the same as that for electing the chair. Any vacancy among the officers occurring between organizational me meetings will be filled by a member selected by the school committee. The election will be conducted as described above. Following election of officers at its organizational meeting, the school committee may proceed into such regular or special business as scheduled on the agenda. So to note somewhere else in the policy, it does say that the first meeting after an election is the reorganization meeting. Um and it's that last sentence that is

018the sticking point. Um so the chair remains until a successor is elected which is why the chair is allowed to preside over this meeting but the last sentence is the kicker because the last sentence says following election of officers the school committee may proceed into regular and special business. And so that is what binds us to not being able to proceed into regular special business until we have an election. Um, instead of calling for an adjournment, could we call for a brief recess? So that, uh, yeah. Um, so the next order of business would be to declare all nominations null and void and accept new nominations. And then do you want to go into a recess? Um, I just rather than adjourning, I didn't know if a recess for private been doing this a long

019time and I've never run into this situation. So I am not 100% sure how to proceed. So I with that I will declare all nominations null and void and we are nominations will be reopened is what it then states. So we can have a new a new set of nominations. All right. So we have uh we are open to nominations for the position of chair. Um, so I will nominate Allan to be remain as chair with the understanding that we can call for a reorganization of the committee at any time we wish. So in the interest of having a meeting tonight, I'm going to nominate Allan as chair. Is there a second? I second. Thank you. [Laughter] Are there any other nominations for for the position of chair? Can I just ask a question before?

020Sure. So, you're nominated for chair. We take a vote. We can reorganize next meeting. Yes. Okay. I didn't I'm sorry, I didn't hear the question. So, we can reorganize next meeting. There's nothing to stop that. So, so this would be for the purposes of technically we can re reorganize at any point in time. Someone makes a motion to reorganize and it receives a second. So in the interest, my nomination of Allen is in the interest of us having proceeding through the elections with the understanding that that will allow us to have a meeting and we can reconvene uh the the the potential reorganization of the committee at a future date and time. Are there any other nominations? Calling once, calling twice. calling three times. Motion a second to nominate Alan Frley as chair of the

021school committee. All in favor? I I opposed. Thank you very much. All right. So, with that, uh, welcome aboard, Shannon, and uh, welcome back, Chris. We technically need to vote for chair and clerk. Sorry. Or vice chair and clerk. Sorry, I wasn't expecting this. Um, take nominations for vice chair. I'll nominate Zeke. Second. I have a motion in a second. Are there any other nominations for vice chair? Going once. Going twice. Going three times. Have a motion to second for uh Zeke Louis to be vice chair of the school committee. All in favor? I opposed. Passes unanimously. Um, I didn't say a motion to uh well, I'll make the motion to uh nominate Christine Albert as the secretary or clerk for the uh school committee. Brun, sorry, Christine Brun. Sorry. Second. A motion to second.

022Any comments, questions? Any other nominations? Are there any other nominations? Going once. Going twice. going three times. Have a motion and a second. All in favor? I I opposed. Passes unanimously. I think that's Robert rules of order. I we I then stand a motion to adopt Robert's rules of order if we have to. Second. Oh, sorry. Yeah. So moved. Second. Any comments, questions? All in favor? I oppose. Passes unanimously. Now, welcome Shannon. Welcome. Welcome back, Chris. Uh Shannon, you've been sworn in. Yes, I am. Chris, you've been sworn in. Yep. All right. This is a reminder that there is a requirement by law that there's the um charting the course training for members of the school committee. Uh the first one is May 17th um in New Bedford. Yeah. Second was first one. Yeah. First

023one is May 3rd. You want to do it? Yeah, sure. First one is May 3rd um at uh 8:00 a.m. to 400 p.m. in Westford. Uh yeah. And so that's why I pointed to May 17th which is in New Bedford. Um that is May 17th 8 am to 4 p.m. Um just also to add um the MASC conference that's held in November that um if your regular job allows you to take the time off to attend um the last day of that session holds the charting for the course training in person. So that's another option um and it also lets you attend a really valuable conference at the same time. So multiple options to consider. Um and I think in the introductory materials that I gathered for you, there is a a link to more

024info on the MESC website about the charting the course class. I can send it to you. It's I think it's extremely useful. It gives you a lot of information. Gives you an opportunity to meet other people from other school committees and it is a requirement by law. So um I agree. You learn you learn quite a bit there. All right, we have a student recognition. Caroline, you want to take this? Sure. So, I'd like to welcome Valerie Rufo, Glenda Spelain, and our postgrad program students uh to talk about their work, the Cranberry Cafe. And uh Mrs. Rufo will take it away to you and Miss Fellain. There are also seniors and underassmen that join us during their school to career class to help with the food preparation. Here are some of the students that would

025like to present their accomplishments. Hello school committee and superintendent Lions. My name is Adam and I am part of the postsecary transition academy at Middlebar High School. As part of our weekly schedule and activities, we run the Cranberry Cafe within the school. In the Cranberry Cafe, we serve lunch and dessert for staff on Thursdays. We spent the week shopping, preparing food, organizing order forms, and calculating profit and loss. We are all required to complete and pass the food handlers course at the beginning of every school year. Hello, my name is Olivia. Every week there is shopping list we need to we use to purchase items needed. Sometimes we have to go different stores find the best prices for certain grocery items. Once we have compared prices and selected the best product, we go through the

026checkout. We keep all our receipts from grocery shopping and once a week we log purchase along with adding to profiles. Hello, my name is Sean. We have a weekly order form that includes the weekly offering. We go around the school and deliver them to teachers that that have requested to be on our list as regular customers. Once the forms are returned to us, we create a list of totals which helps us prepare enough food for everyone that has placed an order. We also make extra for people that have forgotten to order or may want to buy an extra dessert. The order forms also help us know which lunch they're eating. Students will deliver the lunches when needed. We have many frequent and returning customers. [Music] Hi, my name is Isaiah. I am a junior and

027during my school to career block, I am lucky enough to work in the kitchen to prepare food for the Thursday staff lunches. We look for a variety of seasonal recipes online. Then we choose the one we want to make each week. I have learned how to chop, peel, and measure many types of ingredients to create all the lunch items from scratch. All students assist in cleaning up our work areas once we are done prepping and serving. My favorite part of this opportunity is working as a team with different staff and students. Hi, my name is Fate. I greet everyone and said, "Welcome to the cranberry cate. Enjoy your lunch and dessert. Hello. Hello. My name is Damon. I work the cash register in the Cranberry calf. When a teacher comes to pick up their lunch,

028I find their order form and let them know how much they owe. I make sure that they get the correct change. And I never forget to say thank you. Our menu changes weekly. If we serve soup, we serve it with an Italian bread or oyster crackers. Our baked potatoes come with a variety of toppings. Miss Orvc's favorite meal is the three cheese grilled cheese sandwich. And Mr. Brangan's favorite is our egg salad sandwich. Today we served Caesar salad with homemade dressing and homemade croutons. For dessert, we made carrot cake cupcakes. We made extras and we would like to deliver one to each of you. You guys can go. Okay. Um, I just want to take uh this opportunity to thank the tremendous support staff that I have um that work with these children daily and

029also a special thanks to the administration and staff that support us weekly to give the students a chance to work on all these transferable skills. So, and they're going to deliver to you [Applause] Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you guys. Really appreciate it. Thanks guys. These are beautiful. And one more that you wanted to give to someone special in the audience. Who was that? Your middle school teacher. What was that? These are beautiful and decorated far better than I can do at home. So, wonderful job. [Applause] Val, Val, before you leave, thank you as well. Thank you. [Applause] Do you want me to move on to the next? Yeah. Okay. So, um, thanks everybody. It was great to see you guys. Thanks Mrs. Rufa, Miss

030Fine. Um, thank you especially to the students. Um, with that, we have another recognition tonight for our PTA. Um, Ashley Forini, president of the Mary Kay Good PTA is here. Um, and she's here to talk about an award that the PTA um has awarded to Principal Branigan, but also to talk about the PTA event um and annual meeting. So, with that, I'll pull up your slides and if you want to just give me a cue, I'll advance them for you as you present. Welcome, Miss Finey. Thank you for having me. So, the first slide is just um the mission statement for the Massachusetts State PTA. Like Mrs. Lion said, I am the president at Mary Kay Good, but I'm also the president-elect for the state, which means um next year, not this coming school year,

031but the year after, I will take over as president of the state. So, for this current year and next year, I'm um in training. So last weekend we held our annual meeting event in Lexington, Massachusetts at Minute Man um Technical High School, which is a beautiful high school. We paired that with our reflections program, which is an art program for any district that is a current PTA um unit. They can join in on the reflections and um earn grants and awards for their students. So here you'll see just some highlights. This year, students at MKG had unique artwork. It was what makes them unique. They were able to pick a a hand that represented them and color it completely at their own, you know, ideas. Some say sports, some say character traits, um, anything. It

032was an open thing. And Mrs. Marie at the Mary Kay Good helped me with this. So, I just want to say thank you to Mrs. Marie. Um, we also had students record the pledge of allegiance and the national anthem, which the video is on the next slide if you want to, but we don't have to watch it. Um, we had a student at MHS offer a sensory friendly spot for the students um, who needed to kind of take a break of the adult business. And, um, the mech PTA was recognized for a 300% member increase for the current year. So on this slide you'll see um the president from Mech which is Treasure Gonzalez accepting the award which was a a great accomplishment. Um out of all of the current Massachusetts units there was only

033two units that were awarded this award and one was Middlebar. So I thought that was really huge. And then there's Autumn which is my daughter spoiler alert doing the um sensory friendly spot. Um, I don't know. Did you want to play the pledge of allegiance? And if you want to, go right ahead. It's only a minute. So, if everyone has time, I think it's really great. I feel like we should stand. Should we stand? Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Yeah, probably. Yeah. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And then it will roll right into the national anthem, which is from students as well from the Mary Kay. Can you see

034early light? So proudly we held at the twilight last we made and bright stars through the [Music] [Applause] [Music] ter and the I can red the first day in air. It proved through the night that her flag was still there. Oh s that are [Music] [Applause] sple and the bra. [Music] So, in that video, there's 21 first through fifth graders. Um, they had no idea. I had permission from their guardians, and with the help of Mrs. White and Miss Fantasia, I called them down um 15 minutes before school ended and we rehearsed twice. And then I took the music away. I said, "Okay, I'm recording." So, that was all of them. There was no adult guidance. It was all of their voices. So, Mr. Moer, they're heading your way in a few years. I got

035them I got them ready for you. So, that was pretty great. Um, if you go to the next slide, last but certainly not least, Mr. Brandan was awarded as the Massachusetts PTA outstanding principal of the year. And I would like to read you what we were um what we presented Mr. Brandan with. When you think of someone in education that is exceptional leader who creates a positive school environment while inspiring students, staff, and the community, you think of Mr. Paul Branigan. I have had the pleasure of knowing Mr. Brandigan or Brand to the ones who truly know him for decades. Once my leader and student council, he taught me how to be the leader I am today myself to now being the principal of my daughter's high school and still to this day creating leaders.

036I have had the pleasure to watch Mr. Brangan build a magical place for the students of Middlear. A place where you are seen, accepted, and heard. The school culture that he has grown in his school is one that should be adopted throughout the entire state. Any student that has the pleasure of attending Middle High School knows that no matter the path they choose for themselves, they are not alone because Mr. Brandan is rooting for them. And he has made Middle Brow High School a place for them all to call home. Thank you, Mr. Brandan, for being the role model that so many youth need today. This award belongs to you and yet it is not enough. Thank you for all the things you do seamlessly for decades. So yes, [Music] absolutely. Thank you. So on

037Saturday um Mr. Mr. Brenan came up to Lexington and hung out with us for the day where he received his reward and I I hope experienced the magic behind PTA. A lot of people think PTA is fundraising and you know the crazy spirit weeks, but you know behind the doors there's so much advocating and being there for students and for staff. And I encourage everyone including community members. If you're not a part of PTA, it costs five bucks. You're supporting more than you realize. Join a PTA today. You do not need to be a parent at the current school. You just need to be a middle borrow community member. Thank you for having me. Thank you. Thank you, Grant. All right. With that, we will move on to public comment. So, public comment is uh

038please state your name and your address. You have three minutes. And Miss Fley, Teresa Farley. Um, so just a couple things regarding the reorganization. I apologize. I have no voice for some reason. Um, so tonight's meeting should have been opened up by allowing Carolyn to do the reorganization. So I was a little confused by that. But anyway, u moving on. The fact that you're divided this way, I think is um indicative of more than just three versus three. And I would encourage you in the next week as or actually at this point it looks like a few weeks since you won't have a meeting until May that you really um each of you take a step back and think about what this community is looking for in this school committee. It's been a lot of

039contention and it's very clear that um despite uh people trying to do better um we're just we're not there yet and I'd like to hope that you will think about who will bring this committee moving forward and base your vote on that. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? All right. Discussion items report from Ed. How we doing tonight, Ed? Good. Good. Finally, [Laughter] I nominate Ed. Second, we made it. To start, the mech. Um, kindergarten information night for incoming families will be held on April 9th. um PTA event Joe crazy Joe's crazy critters student in student students interacted with animals such as snakes lizards and other reptiles um the word of the month was creativity kindergarten registration opens for fall 2025 children turning five by September 1st 2025 um HPB updates MCCAST testing ELA sessions

040completed April 7th to 9th for grades 3 to 5 math session sessions May 5th to 7th, grades 3 to 5. Science sessions May 13th to 15th for grade 5. Celebration of US night will be June 11th showcasing culture performances and community partnerships. HB spirit week April 14th to 18th. Um Prodigy Prodigy Math Challenge. Um before I say this, I just want to specify um Prodigy is a application that's used for um the elementary um and some sort of middle schools do it. Um but it's a program that you can uh get on your laptop or your phone and um it's basically like basic math problems for elementary and some middle schools. Um but um HBB ranked sixth statewide in March with 31,140 correct answers. And that is a lot because I have done it before.

041That takes a long time. Um for the NMS, MCCAST testing is ongoing. Ensure students arrive on time. The last ELA MCCAST testing dates are April 14th and April 15th for eighth graders. Um upcoming events, uh April 18th, 2025 is picture day. Theater production, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe rehearsals underwent successfully. Um MHS, um quarter 4 began April 9th. Senior deadlines, um senior senior dues, $50 due by May 23rd. Covers caps and gowns. um graduation events late May 2025 and those dates are to be determined. Um upcoming events would be college planning workshop for class of 2026 on April 16th at 6 p.m. in the Blackbox Theater. Um that's entertainment 46. Auditions began April 7th um districtwide and community updates. Um, one Mavaro workshop anxiety school anxietychool refusal April 15th 2025 7:30m virtually early

042release on April 18th and April bp april break is April 21st to 25th and that is all I have. Thank you Ed. Yeah uh reports from school committee members. Shannon, do you want to start? Sure. I super super busy. I went to the town office yesterday, got my credentials. All right. Uh Sue, sure. Um so my focus of attention since the last meeting um actually began last Friday with Carolyn's uh Friday flash. And in in that flash, I learned that there had been some questions and concern raised about how Middleboro was accommodating our students that um identify their gender identity is different and that how it aligns with how they use bathroom facilities. And because of that, I went I asked Carolyn for uh the policies and she forwarded to me the law regarding this

043for Massachusetts as well as uh what Middlebar had um written. And then I went in and looked at some uh best practices and it really started me thinking about some questions. And then I also um was in touch with a parent that had some concerns and I really would like to see us put this on the agenda. Um bottom line is of course we follow the law. Of course we provide students uh with facilities that align with their gender identity. That's not the question. The question is how is it that we do it in a way that we meet uh the needs and support our students as all our students. Uh and there are lots of information out there about best practices regarding this. And I know that we and I'm not saying we're not

044doing it. I don't know all of what we're doing. I hear um different things. is I just think that we should come together and have a conversation about this uh informed by Carolyn and what we're doing and some of our own research and just make sure that we're doing this in the best way that we can. And I'd like to ask that we put this on the next agenda. All right. What's the topic you'd like on the agenda? The topic would be gender identity and bathroom facility use. discussion regarding gender identity and bathroom use. And I'd like to add I think that this is the type of topic I know um that it can be contentious and some sometimes people have very strong feelings, but I think that this is the kind of thing that

045as a school committee I I know that there was question about whether we're divided. I don't believe we are. I think that this is the kind of thing that we really can come together and have good conversation, represent our community and look at best practices, look at the law and come up with things that really meet the needs in a difficult topic. I I will admit um uh but so that we have real information out there of what we're doing in the different schools um what other places might be doing and and come to a good conclusion. and I think is the kind of work that we should be doing. Thank you, Jess. Okay, so um just to give a a quick update, we are on track for the uh superintendent evaluation uh to occur

046in May um at one of our our May meetings. So um we are um as a subcommittee working on reviewing the aggregated evaluation and we will just put it on the agenda when everything is ready to go and uh as always we will uh present the evaluation publicly as dictated by law. Um so the other um couple of things or more than a couple unfort fortunately or fortunately depending on who you want. Um I have a few things just to mention um to kind of build on some of uh what we've already talked about today in recognition of some of the events that our PTA organizations do. Um as Eddie referenced our mech PTA uh sponsored uh Joe's Crazy Critters to come there this week. I do want to also note that in addition to

047um that being sponsored by the Mech PTA was also sponsored in part by Sullivan's landscaping. So thanks to them for um participating in that uh or for contributing to allow that. I see a list of the animals and I'm very jealous that I didn't get invited to come and play with the hedgehog. So, um, other things just to note, um, last week Mech had their book fair and the book fair, the PTA, uh, volunteers to help coordinate that book fair. Um, one of the things that has come to the book fair is that every student gets to walk away with a book. So, I think that's a wonderful experience regardless of um, their ability to pay. There's been developed a process to use mech money to make sure that all students do that. In addition,

048the PTA has made uh wish lists. They go to all of the staff at the mech, not just the teachers, but all of the staff there. Um and they can create wish lists for adding to their libraries. And those wish lists are available. So, as everybody is shopping, if they wish to purchase a book specifically from the Scholastic uh library or from the Scholasters book fair to help supplement the library of one of their teachers, they have the ability to do so. Um, so I think that is a wonderful way to build upon the library and support um all of the literacy causes that the funds raised from the book fair go to support. So thanks to everyone for participating in that. Um, another item to highlight at the HBB. Um, at the HBB there

049is a PTA uh sponsored club called Berkeland Brights. Uh, Mrs. O'Brien is the fifth grade teacher who oversees that. Um, and the students in this club have a goal of spreading positivity and doing good deeds. And so they have decided to host a penny wars fundraiser and that they are going to take all the funds that they raise and donate it to children with cancer. I believe they've chosen the tomorrow fund as their choice. Um, so similar to what was done at the mech, the classrooms will have a jar for donations and the winning class will have a a way to do a prize. I hear that the pie in the face of SRO's and uh teachers and administrators is always a fan favorite. Uh, just to put that out there. Um, but the PTA

050is helping with this fundraiser by using their online uh platform. And um, they have also um opened up a way to accept donations in addition to what the students raise. Um, if you are interested in finding out about donating, you can email the email address is pthbgmail.com and then at mkg scrolling um mkg it's here I promise. So on Tuesday, April 15th from 6:00 to 7:30, the PTA is um hosting a free family event. Uh they are going to have seven authors present. Three of those authors are actually MKG alums. So that's super exciting. They're going to have stations so that they can chat and engage with the students who may be inspiring authors themselves. and they're going the PTA during the event is going to have rooms set up um to make bookmarks and

051um visit with the representatives from the Middleboro Public Library uh visit with Rockland Trust to hear about the summer reading incentives and then there's also going to be an open mic so that the students can share their own personal work. Uh if anybody gets hungry there'll be popcorn and water in the calf and bingo for books. So, um, another great way to foster the love of reading for our students and we hope that, uh, the MKG families will participate in that event. And then the MKGPTA is hosting a conducting a spirit week from the 14th through the 18th. We're celebrating reading week. So, I just want to take this opportunity to highlight some of the wonderful things that our PTA volunteers do. um they really um are very integral to a lot of events that

052bring not only joy to the children but also raise a lot of funds to help sponsor a lot of events. So thank you and I hope I have the ability to continue to highlight some of the ongoing work that those organizations are doing. Other quick things to mention, um Eddie mentioned the line witch in the wardrobe at the uh middle school. Uh since we'll only have one meeting before those performances, I just want to make note that their performances are going to be May 9th and 10th. So please do come out and um support that. Maybe read the book before you go and see how it adjusts uh how it compares to the play. Um, there is also uh scheduled to be a uh senior showcase of one of the high school students is directing

053a version of Sheel's Monsters as a senior showcase that's scheduled for May 1st and 2nd. So, be on the lookout to attend and support a student directed and designed event with all students participating. Don't forget town meeting is April 28th at 7 PM so that you can vote to approve our school budget. uh in addition to all the other important things on the agenda and I just want to wish everyone a restful and uh safe April break. I know it is welld deserved by students and staff alike. Thank you. Thanks Chris. I wanted to uh recognize um the first grade teachers over and um basically the entire staff over at the MKG and Principal White. Uh they put on a performance of Frog and Toad and uh the kids were incredibly engaged. Um the parents

054were very happy with that. There was a lot of hard work put in by the staff over there. Uh and one thing it always sticks out when um the students are engaged in learning outside of the traditional classroom setting. It usually flows back into academics. Uh, and just an example, my own first grader, he came home and wanted us to buy him Frog and Toad books so he could read. Uh, so it's really great to see the the the activity kind of supporting the classroom, too. So, um, thank you very much for everybody. Thank you, Zeke. Uh, yes. Um, I have been in stipen committee uh recently. Um there were some very lovely large charts uh around the table um that we were all looking at. Um uh mainly that was all for the uh

055Caroline, you can correct me if I'm wrong. That was for the um uh what's the word I'm looking for? Not not gym, the athletic department. Thank you. That's the word I was looking for. Um and next we'll be moving on to the extracurriculars and all that stuff. Academics. Academics. Um uh there was one piece that came up that I think I'll take a stab at which is um looking at uh sort of the pilot program little chart that you can apply for. Um that's stuff that I'll be working on and I hope to bring to the next meeting. Thank you, Zeke. Um I just have one thing and I understand that this is kind of like preaching to the choir. If you guys are watching this, you probably received the email and read it, but

056there is an anxiety school refusal workshop on April 15th from 7:30 to 8:45. Uh, this session will take a dive into the mechanics of anxious school refusal, exploring why it occurs and what caregivers can do to to support their children. If you are unable to attend live, the recording will be available for 30 days following the event on the Middle Public Schools website. Additionally, if you'd like to submit a question but prefer not to ask in a public forum or if you're unable to attend, you can use the QR code on the flyer to ask the presenter directly. This is the first in a two-part series with the second session being held on May 13th focused on coping strategies to address those concerns. More to come on this at a later date. Uh so yeah,

057just keep that in mind. Um Allan, can I just uh on that note, um Carolyn, um if anybody has any issue using the QR code to submit a question, um could they reach out to Director Avatabé? Sure. To have him help facilitate the uh the sharing of the question. Sure. What I'll do is um talk with Director Avataby after tonight and also create a an email. So if there's any issue um just because if he's facilitating that event I want to make sure someone's manning that while that's happening. I meant in advance because sometimes the QR code in advance some it's a little tricky from if you don't have the physical flyer some little tricky to get to a QR code from an electronic uh flyer. I know there's a way but I always have

058to play around with it. So just as an alternative to filling to using the QR code to send a question in advance, just noting that uh director Avatabé could help pass it along. Absolutely. All right, with that we will go to the superintendent's report. Okay, good evening. Um and thank you. Tonight uh we have two items. Uh the first is to shine a light on two uh very exciting updates. The first is our futures academy. This is our alternative pathways program. We're going to talk a little bit about what's been going on in that program, the wonderful growth. I've actually talked about it in the uh Friday flashes and some of the things and exciting activities we're seeing and developments to come. And then next we'll talk about the Middleboro Leadership Academy, which is a

059brand new initiative targeted at creating pathways of leadership for our educators here in district. So, with that, I'll invite Lacy Foley, our coordinator of alternative pathways up to talk about Oh, you're already there. You already beat me. That was very fast. I I heard my name, so I just came up. So, if you want to uh pull up your slides are actually embedded in mine. Sure. Um and Mrs. Foley can tell you all about Futures Academy and what's been going on and the exciting work happening there. So, take us away, Miss Foley. Yeah, sure. Um, hi everyone. Those of you who don't know me, my name is Lacy Foley. I'm the coordinator of alternative pathways here at Middlear Public Schools, which is a fancier way for saying that I am in charge of the futures

060program. Um, I just want to thank you all for the opportunity to give you this update is I don't think that futures has had a formal update in front of this committee and I just really want to shine a a light on and highlight all the amazing things we do in this program. Um, so without further ado, I [Laughter] Okay. Um, we created a Futures Academy promo video in coordination with Adam Peller and Nick Crocka up here at the high school uh to try to show this to prospective students and families to answer some questions about really what our program is about and the students that we service. So, I'm hoping I can show it to you. Welcome to Futures Academy. Futures Academy is an alternative high school located within the walls of Middlear High

061School. Futures is designed to provide an alternative pathway for Middlear students to obtain their diploma while ensuring their success postgraduation. Sometimes mainstream education is not effective for a group of students and futures is the chance to give an alternative way to gain access to that education. Students take courses in a smaller environment while focusing on the life skills needed to be successful in a career after graduation. With a schoolto work environment and a lot of fun, Futures Academy is an amazing place to be. What is it like being in Futures? Uh, it's pretty nice. Um, teachers are really nice. The classes are a little smaller, so it's easier to focus. Um, teachers are more engaging. Like if you have a question, like they'll answer it right away. Uh, I like that we always have gym

062every day and like there's always an hour spec specifically for that. Um, I like how, like I said, the teachers are more engaging and like they talk to you, not at you. It's it's nice. Um, teachers are very friendly. They're lot a lot more like friends, not just teachers. each other but not really like the personalities like [Music] person and willing to play. Uhhuh. [Music] Um they feel a lot of responsibility and car not involved with everything that they do out there like obviously we sort of homecoming prom and all that. to have fun, go all like things that happen to school. It's just when it's actual school time, school day, we're just in here. It's not much different. It's just we're in a secluded part and still school, not do anything. So school is

063just kind of smaller particularly in classrooms. Students in Futures Academy focus on job readiness and life skills. Through our youth works and volunteer programs, students get hands-on experience outside of the building by working with local businesses. Our students gain access to various job placements in the local middlear community. They have the opportunity to use their life skills-based curriculum to be successful and gain work experience. We also have a focus on hands-on project-based learning. Our students try to get out into the community and opportunities that bring fun and education together. The school work program to me is a program where I come to school every day in the morning. I do my classes. I meet with my teachers and then from there I leave and I go straight to work. And right now I work in

064the kitchen where I deal with the culinary and daily operations where I'm learning new experiences for when I leave and I graduate I'll know all of these stuff. All future students meet their graduation requirements to receive their diploma and have the support and environment required to be successful. Both our staff and students are lucky to be part of the futures family where integrity, accountability, and resiliency are at the forefront. [Music] Thank you. Thank you. All right. So, as you all just heard um a little bit about futures and we are the alternative program located within Middlear High School. So, we're just looking at um a different approach to the traditional learning styles to give students um specifically students who are maybe in increased danger of dropping out uh their opportunity to receive their diploma, but

065also it is a schoolto work program. So, we are embedding those uh work skills in the every day of the program. So, um as you can see, we like to call ourselves the futures family as you heard in that video as well. So, you know, between our 30 students, four teachers, uh, school adjustment counselor and one education support personnel, uh, we equal the futures family. Um, so I just want to highlight a little bit about what makes our program so special. Uh, specifically, we were so lucky with this new high school uh, that we were built our own separate space uh, up in the up in the corner of the high school. So, we do have four classrooms and a common area which allows us to have our students um a little bit more focused

066on their academics throughout the day. Um our day-to-day, we do have a delayed start. So, our students first class begins at 8:05. Uh that has been something that has significantly increased our attendance and decreased our tardy rates. Uh the reason for that is a lot of our students are coming from full-time work. So either they may be working late or they are caregivers for uh younger siblings or even guardians. So uh giving them that delayed start time has really increased our attendance rate. Uh we are a semester-based non-rotating schedule and that is pretty much just to promote a little bit more consistency in the daily routine. Uh we do have an average of around eight students per classroom. So again, that smaller classroom size uh really allows us to tier our interventions uh and our

067curriculum towards those students. Uh we are lucky enough that we do have special education push-in services from a special education teacher to service our students on IEPs. Um and then new in the past two years has been our acceptance process. We put this into place pretty much because uh in the past students were maybe forced to be into futures um and we wanted to create an application process so they really realized that this is an opportunity that they can take advantage of and that has been very well received. We've actually um started a wait list. So we have students who really want to be in it. They apply with their administrator or their counselor and show that they have high interest in being a part of the program. Um a little bit of recent data.

068We are educating 30 students which puts us at full capacity to keep that small classroom size. Uh our average daily attendance is 76%. Which is huge for us because in past years our average daily attendance was probably around 40%. Uh so we have worked uh myself, the teachers and our school adjustment counselor to really implement things that we feel makes our attendance at the forefront. those students are expected if they are not going to be in school that day to call or text us like they would a job. So, they are practicing those soft skills and it also increases our accountability. Um, we're also tying their attendance to those privileges such as our youthworks program and our volunteer opportunities. Um, we also make sure that if a student is not attending daily and they do

069not call or text, we are doing frequent home visits. So, we're not just engaging the student, we're engaging the student in the family. And then on top of that, we've had increased mental health referrals specifically through our Care Solace program um to make sure we're connecting those students who aren't engaging with the appropriate resources. So this year we will have nine graduates with one going to a full-time apprenticeship, seven into the workforce, and one into higher education. When students are referred to Futures Academy, a 100% of the students referred are labeled at risk in at least one area, whether it be academics, behavior, or attendance. A lot of the time, uh, they are labeled at risk in all three. So, our job is to try to get them on a track where they feel committed

070and safe in school. So right now in our population, we have 0% of our population is considered at risk in behaviors and 73% is on target for their academics. Through that panorama data, we're also able to target, you know, those eight students who are not on target for academics with tiered interventions. Um, and as you heard on the video, 50% of our students are working daily. So they are coming in uh committing to their academics and then going directly into the workforce. One of the things that has made such improvements in our program uh is through our panorama data are student relationships. Our students answered those survey questions and it was 82% positive in the area of student teacher relationships. So you have students who are typically labeled as unengaged uh saying how engaged they

071feel in school. So 89% of them are saying how safe they feel at school, which is huge for us, especially students who are considered high- risk outside of school. So we're very proud of those recent results. How do we get such good student teacher relationships and engagement from our students? Uh these are some of the things that we have implemented recently that we feel make us special as a program. So you'll see highlighted on my following slides our volunteer hours at the Mary Kay Good School and the Elks. We have brought in guest speakers who speak on facets of post-graduation life. Uh our student relationships. We make sure we carve out quality time for our students. So every week we have uh a weekly meeting where students are welcome to speak on things in the

072program that they would like to see improved. So giving them a little bit of ownership over their own experience. We also ensure that we are implementing the life skills curriculum. So focusing on the why. I know every educator in here probably gets the question of why do I need to learn that? And we are making sure we're putting that at the forefront of every lesson that we have. Um our built-in work study programs. You'll learn a little bit more about our youthworks program and internships. And then our career exploration. If a student says they are interested in a certain career, we are making sure we are exhausting all avenues um to get them hands-on experience in that career. So, as you see here, these are new volunteering opportunities that we implemented over the past uh

073year at the Mary Kay. Good school. We implemented a mentorship program with the help of Josh Dyer. Um and that was just basically to make sure our students know that they had something to offer our younger students and create that partnership within the community. so that when those Mary Kay good students come up to the high school, they know that Futures Academy is this really positive experience. We've had really great feedback and we are hoping to expand that into all the schools next year. Um we've had a great partnership with the Elks. Our students have been going every month to the Elks Veteran Lunch which serves free lunch to all of the veterans in the Middle community. So they are really learning about service, giving back and having integrity and that has been very wellreceived.

074A lot of them have formed uh bonds with the veterans they see every month, which is nice to see as well. Um this is a little bit into our life skills curriculum that we try to incorporate again every single day. Uh our new initiative this year is called Foodie Fridays. Uh this was implemented when one of our students said when he moves out to his own apartment, the only thing he will be able to know how to cook is ramen noodles. So that wasn't good enough for our staff. So they decided to work in coordination with Middlear High School in the industrial kitchen where they get to pick the meals that they want to learn to cook when they are going to live independently. Uh and they practice them and then you know the rest

075of our students get to practice the eating part which they really love. Um we do a lot of career exploration as you can see there's a photo up there of us at the Middle Fire Department. We have a few students interested in fire science so we made sure to get over there and give them that hands-on experience. our community outreach beautifification projects around middlear high school and then still always focusing on the why. Uh these are a few of our guest speakers and field trips that we've had. Again, the guest speakers are always intended to focus on aspects of life postgraduation. Um so whether it's running your own business, uh substance use, health care, things like that. And then our field trips are intended to assist our curriculum. So, at the beginning of this year,

076we actually went to the Mass Hire job fair with our juniors and seniors, and they were able to hand out resumeumés to local businesses, um, to ask more about gaining employment there. So, our youthworks program, um, I know you've heard a little bit about this in the past, but it is a state funded program that we implement into our daily life here at Futures. So, our students get to take part in short short-term work placements over their school year. Um, and we work with local businesses in the community to place them and they learn those core job skills that we want them to have to know that they are going to be successful post-graduation. So, they learn how to take the next steps in their career and we help them uh with their education pathway

077as well. So, currently in Youthworks, we have 18 participants. Um, and you might notice down the bottom there where it says placements include uh they're all local middlebar businesses. So, our students are going out into the community in the field of their choice uh to a local middle borrow business and working there for 10 to 15 hours a week. And while they're there, we are trying to make sure they are doing those job skills. Calling in, reporting to a supervisor, uh filling out a time sheet every week, uh showing up on time, and with that, youth works in mass hire gives us a signal success curriculum. And it's a staff facilitated curriculum every other week where students are practicing interview skills uh as simple as how to introduce themsel all the way up to resume

078builders. So, this program has really become the backbone of our school to work program and we hope to continue to utilize it and expand it in the future. Um, I thought it would be nice to highlight some of the nice things that our students say specifically about their teachers and the program as a whole. Uh, we are so fortunate to have the students that we do. Although traditional mainstream education might not work for them, uh, they really are eager to learn and eager to participate in our school program. So, I just thought the the nice things they say were nice to highlight to you all. So, looking forward into the future, we are hoping uh our teachers have been using their uh professional learning community time and their professional development time this year to learn

079more about a competencybased learning model. And the competency based learning model is intended for students who need that alternative um way to look at their curriculum. So it focuses on meeting core competencies to put more emphasis on the why of learning. So as you can see here our core competencies that we are working towards are argue, analyze, communicate, collaborate, investigate and self-direct. And what that means is every lesson that we teach in futures academy will be tied to one of these competencies. So when they are asking about the why, we can justify the why you are learning about this thing is to learn, you know, how to argue a point and a counterpoint. So there is a core job skill in there for them in every single lesson. Um we are hoping to have additional

080staff to expand and service more students. Uh right now at 30, that's really our capacity with the way our schedule works and our classrooms are set up. So, we're hoping in the future to have another staff member so we can service more students of Middlear High School and then to continue to build the culture of our program and build that volunteering and um school to work criteria every every year. Um if anyone on the committee has questions, I'm happy to answer them. Mr. Chair, through you just quickly. Um thank you, Miss Foley. I think um I think that presentation really does speak for itself, but I wanted to take a minute to recognize the effort. Um I've been the I've had the pleasure of observing the futures program for 13 years and I've never seen

081it stronger and that has a lot to do with Miss Foley's direction and Miss Avatab's direction. Um, when you see how this program, how this community has invested in this program and the robust planning that goes into it, um, you know, I I know you're not in that program or see it, but I I've had the benefit of being in there. These are students that feel like they're part of something and they feel value. And when you feel value, you're able to springboard from whatever you're in into the future. And I I just want to recognize that effort and and tip my hat truly. Um like I said, these are students that'll come and talk to me. There's they're the some of the few students that are have no problem telling me what they think.

082Um and when you walk into the program, you can feel it. There's a there's a lot of positivity happening in that program and that's very exciting. So with that, any questions you have? But I I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge that. Any questions? No, no questions, but um I just want to um say how grateful I am to what you have done to grow the program. Um I know that uh I was very sad when you left the middle school since I had a student there and uh you were well uh well thought of and a wonderful resource to the students there when you were there. Um, but to see what you brought to this exceptional program to make it even better, um, is just it it speaks so highly of you and

083your dedication to, um, make sure that no one gets left behind in the the high school process. Um, and I just want to thank you for everything that you put into it. And, uh, I hope you are exceptionally proud of your accomplishments because we are very grateful for what you have done. So, thank you. Thank you. Yes. Um, and I would just like to say a lot of that also has to do with director Avataby as he is kind of our guiding light through this whole process. And if any of you would like to come stop into futures at any time, please feel free to email me. We would be happy to host you so you can see a little bit more firsthand exactly what happens in the program. Thank you. With a little of

084the taste that we get this evening, that would be a complete joy. So, I hope to take you up on that. Absolutely. Thank you very much. Greatly appreciated. Thank you. [Applause] So, if you just want to rotate back in. The next item um of my report involves the Middleboro Leadership Academy. And I wanted to talk a little bit about it. Um, I have both um, assistant principal Jeff Sylvia and special ed coordinator Kim Oravec here to talk about this program, but I wanted to let you know a little bit about where this came from. Um, I have the distinct pleasure of working with some amazingly talented administrators in this district. I came to the team with an idea and it wasn't even my idea. I got it actually going to the MASS conference last summer.

085I learned about this concept. other districts were dealing with um high rates of turnover with educators. And so one of the things which was one of my focus areas for my goals this year was hey, how are we going to focus on our teachers and our our teaching staff and our educators, not just teachers, related service providers, you know, um how are we going to provide something that niches them into our community? And we got to thinking about leadership and the pathways. How do you grow as an educator in this job? what type of roles can you take on and when do you have the opportunity? Who gets to get promoted and why? And when I looked around how our processes have been here in our district, I didn't see a lot. So, I approached,

086you know, the team and had a concept with how this might look. And tonight, you'll hear from uh Mr. Sylvia and Moravec about how they took this idea, took off and have been running. and and this year is actually we're almost completed with our first class of the Middleboro Leadership Academy, but I'm very very proud to present this to you this evening. And with that, I'll turn it over to our fearless leaders and they can tell you about what they've been up to. Thank you, Superintendent Lions. Um, as you mentioned, I'm Kim Orc. I'm the coordinator for special education here at the high school, and this is my partner, Jeff Sylvia, um, assistant principal here at the high school. Um and we are here to talk to you tonight about Middleboro Leadership Academy. This was

087a new initiative that was first um presented to us at our summer administrative meetings by Superintendent Lions. It was described as an opportunity to help us to foster leadership from within our district. And as soon as it was presented, it was something that I knew that I wanted to be a part of. Um, personally before taking on my current role in Middbor, I had worked as a teacher in a classroom for about 20 years. Um, and when COVID hit, education was rocked. Um, everything was on its head. Um, for some crazy reason, I decided that I was going to go back to school and get another degree in educational leadership. Um, and through doing that, I realized that I had been a leader in my classroom, in my own teaching, but no one had ever

088referred to me in that way from my administration. Um, and so I knew that when Mrs. Lions put this out that um, this was my opportunity to pay it forward to the next generation of teachers in classrooms. Um, so I reached out to see what it would entail and I twisted Jeff's arm to come along with me and here we are today. Um, Jeff and I were first introduced to Carrie PCEL and her company Focus Schools um, who would partner with us to guide Middbor in the mission to provide our staff with the knowledge, the tools, and the collaborative experiences needed to foster this culture of growth for a district. We reached out to administration across the district and we asked them to please nominate professionals within their schools, teachers and counselors who would be

089invested in personal and professional growth for themselves but were also passionate about making our district better in some way. Through that we received the names of about 30 people. Uh they were nominated by building administration, some were nominated by district administration and a few who even nominated themselves. And we reached out to everyone who was on that list and we explained what the commitment would look like. That is six 90minute professional development sessions after school. uh and this culminates in a capstone project um for which the per the uh teacher or um counselor is personally invested, a way that they feel that they can truly make Middle Mboro a better place, something that they think we need to work on. And in return, Jeff and I and the focus school staff offer individual coaching sessions

090to refine leadership skills and to implement new strategies. group coaching sessions to foster collaborative work and share um there's a share of a drive of um professional resources to aid them in that and communication with the district um with other administrators to ensure that there is se successful integration of goals um that these educators have deemed as being important. We Jeff and I are beyond proud of the 15 professionals who have taken on this challenge. Um, and they have been working through the program. We have three of our participants here with us tonight. Miss Jillian Bernell is a school psychologist here at Middleboro High School. Miss Colleen Breton is a guidance counselor here at the high school. And Miss Nicole Soua is an adjustment counselor for the futures academy program. I'm going to turn the

091presentation over to them if they have anything that they want to add. But we want to take the opportunity to invite the members of the school committee um and all of any professional in the district who would be interested to come to our capstone presentation uh where all of the candidates work over this last school year has been show or will be showcased um with the support of focus schools and Jeff and myself. And this will take place on June 10th from 3:30 to 5. So, if you are available, we would love to have you come and see the hard work um and the new projects. Not everything will be completed this year, but it's been such a springboard of ideas that people are passionate about. It's truly it's going to be a gift for

092our district. Thank you so much for your time. Hi, good evening. My name is Colleen Breton and I am one of the school counselors here at the high school. I just want to say thank you for providing the opportunity for us to speak tonight and to reflect on our experience so far with the Middlebar Leadership Academy. This is my sixth year as a school counselor and my second year here at Middle Public Schools and I'm just so grateful to be working for a district that provides these awesome opportunities for educators to be able to grow and really enhance our skills. Um it's just really wonderful. So I really truly appreciate all the opportunities um for our capstone project. It's actually going to be a group project with a few other fellow educators and actually with

093Miss Brenell who's behind me and we're going to be focusing on the transition from 8th grade to 9th grade and having them come up to the high school and how we can just kind of enhance some of those programs we have and how to make it a smoother transition. Again, so grateful. It's been really great. We've done a lot of um reflection, a lot of collaboration, and just being able to reflect on my own leadership and provide it at Middlebar has been great. Thank you. Hi. Um, like Colleen said, thank you for the opportunity. Um, this has really given us the opportunity to ask questions where we don't have time to during the school day and work together and have those conversations. The facilitators have been great um, as we have the six sessions, but

094they've allowed us to book different conferences or um, have conversations with them throughout the week um, and give uh, suggestions. um they're all educators themselves. So, it's great to hear from other people in other schools and see how we can better Middle High School. Hello everybody. Uh my name is Nicole Souza. I'm the school adjustment counselor for Futures. Um I think this opportunity has been awesome for me specifically. I've always been told I've been a leader, but never fostered. That's never been fostered in me through my administration. Um this is my second year as a school adjustment counselor and I've been had the pleasure to work under Lacy um in futures. So I've loved that position and it's where I'm meant to be with that particular population. I feel like this leadership academy has really

095given me the opportunity to have a voice. Um never have I ever felt that I couldn't say what I felt or how I think we could improve the district. Um, so I think that this has really fostered that leadership and voice in me that's been there but has been welcomed. For my capstone project, I'm actually working with Kaylee Goodell, who is our outreach counselor, and we are looking to fine-tune or refine our CST model, which is our uh child success team. So, it's really for students who are um seen as at risk and we're kind of like the team that meets prior to the special education referrals. Um so, we want to work together as a team as well as with the teacher who may have referred them or the other staff member to really

096collaborate and create a plan for said student to make them successful uh and and implement those tier one and two um interventions. Thank you again. Any questions? Uh, again, I I just want to reiterate what Kim and and um uh Colleen and and Jill and and Nicole said. This is was a great opportunity for us as a district to um provide uh this forum for for some of these uh individuals uh professionals which uh over the course of the the six sessions that we've had. Um the amazing part that that Kim and myself and um the team has taken uh the teachers is everything is aligned to the district strategic goals as well as the individual school goals. Um so that is it's been essential and um the the capstones will reflect those um strategies

097that are being placed. So we will love to field any questions if you have it and again you are more than welcome to to come. We would love to have you um on on that June 10th date from 3:30 to 5. Sorry. Anybody have any comments, questions? I assume you get professional development credit for this. Yes. Go ahead. That's the goal. Yeah. Uh and I also wonder um there might be possibilities uh to align yourself with an institution that would uh grant master's credits for this. I've seen that done before and and it's a wonderful win-win for everybody. uh and having this again tied to practice, tied to and then tied to the uh district goals is as much a win that you can possibly get. And uh Caroline, kudos to you for it's a

098wonderful way to um both encourage uh those that want to head towards leadership paths, but as he said to retain um people that want to uh attain higher positions and don't need to look elsewhere and really uh have loyalty here. It's a wonderful program. Kudos, Jess. Um, I was just curious in terms of how you're going to engage with the current participants in terms of feedback and further development of the program for hopefully next year. So, actually uh after each session the they we give them a QR code to do give us feedback after each individual session because it's designed specifically for that topic of the session. Um, so we're getting current feedback each time we have the session and I know at the end of the capstone the more people involved I think we're

099going to provide a some sort of survey for everyone not just the participants but also uh for uh the audience who is there um witnessing the hard work that they've done and I I do think Kim and I have spoken um at the end of the school year we really want to get um an idea to from the entire district staff um about interest, gauging interest for next year to run the cohort and start it a little earlier um and get it off the ground early and and try to build the cohort for next year. This year we had 15. We had a lot that you know it was a little later this year which we totally understood. A lot had to decline because of the start time but I think they were definitely interested.

100So we're going to reach back out to all these individuals. Um, so we are getting constant feedback and and it is vetted every single session. Wonderful. If I might just add a a suggestion as we go into next school year, um after what seems like an appropriate amount of time, maybe reach out to those folks who participated this year and uh gauge how they feel what they trained on this year has helped them in their uh progress moving on into next year. I would just be very interested in in hearing how you've been able to implement some of the practices that you've learned into your day-to-day work. That's great. Thanks. Next year you'll come back and tell them, right? Same time, same place. Different bad. Any other comments, questions? I just wanted to uh point

101out how innovative this is. It's such a a great um step. uh in education the the vertical pathway isn't always as clear in other pos prof professions. Um so this is great and uh to Sue's point I I think um this is a great step towards uh tackling that retention number. Uh and so it's just great to be part of a district that has this. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Uh so you the showcase for lack of a better term is Thursday June 10th 3:30 to 5. Yes. It'll be here uh at the high school. Probably in the auditorium if we can. Mr. Mojo, we'll cancel the school committee meeting that night. We'll do it before. It's day one. I think it was designed to be before school committee that night uh to make,

102you know, it a little easier for some of you to attend. Um and we're going to get feedback from the participants um to see how big of a space they need in order to present what it is. We'll still cancel the meeting except it's a Tuesday, not a Thursday. So don't worry. And it's tech week for that Z. So that's why Sam's hanging his head. Uh any other comments, questions? All right. Thank you very much, folks. Thank you. Thank you. And that completes my report for this evening, but I will advance the slides in case you want to call up for um policy. Um they're both there. And Sam, if you want to give us a hand if we want to click into those, they're both here. So, I'll turn it back over to you,

103Jess. Thank you. Um so, tonight is our third read of the two policies that um have been presented at the past two meetings. Um Shannon just to get you caught up um the current policy is that if we want to make an update to a policy we do three reads. First read is just presenting. Second gives opportunity for discussion and third is regroup and see if anybody has uh anything left to discuss and if not we vote on it for adopting it officially to our policy. And then I get to go through the first ever process I've done of trying to figure out how it actually gets posted in its updated version online. And I'm expecting to need some help from Sean on that one and an um but so we have two policies that

104we have reviewed. Um the first is um classified in our policy manual as BDB which is the school committee officers. Um the adjustment to that policy was to add a clause to handle time-sensitive items. So if for some reason there is something such as a late night or overnight field trip that is on an agenda and due to unforeseen circumstances that meeting has to get cancelled. Um but if we don't vote on it, it's not going to be able to happen that the chair is um able to uh approve that item with the support of the superintendent. So it's just making sure that our students don't miss out if for some reason outside of our control there is something that needs to be approved. Um it also happens if there is some amazing opportunity that

105comes up and it happens to be one of those months where such as April we don't have a second meeting because of vacation and it's a longer period of time between meetings and it's something that comes up in between meetings to give an opportunity to again the whole goal is to make sure our students don't miss out on something that is approved all the way up through the district of and at the superintendent level. So, um I know Shannon you haven't had the chance yet to um necessarily receive all of that, but um does anybody else on the committee have any questions or did you have any additional feedback on the changes to that policy? I only have one. Um just hopefully and theoretically all these changes won't just be for this committee, but it'll

106be in the future. Uh and just thinking down the line um just to make it as clear as possible for those future committees. Um the point um where the chair it can approve something that hasn't been posted on an agenda if there's no meeting. Could there be some language there that it will be listed on the next agenda? That way it's clear and presented to the public. Sure. Um, so right now it reads, [Music] um, the chair is also authorized to act on requests not yet posted on an agenda, provided the requests are submitted and scheduled to occur between school committee meetings, but only when meetings occur more than three weeks apart. Chair action is only permitted if a time-sensitive item has already been approved by applicable building principal and with the support of the

107superintendent. Um, I would uh propose to add a sentence at the end that says any time-sensitive approvals will be brought to the school committee for review at the subsequent meeting. Any objections? I would I just I don't know if a re does the term review mean yeah because change it uh will be presented. Yeah. Okay. Just leave review out just so that for any timesensitive Approvals will be presented to the school committee at the next available meeting. Is it too wordy to add for information purposes only? So it's clear that there's there's no changes that are going to be made. It's just there's nothing you can do about it. It's just for information. forformational purposes. Any time-sensitive approvals will be presented to the school committee at the next available meeting forformational purposes. So, I don't

108know if I'm allowed to do this, but uh may I offer up a motion or may I what's the wording? I would accept a motion to approve policy to amend to amend to to approve policy BDB school committee officers with the uh aforementioned amendment. So moved second. Any discussion? All those in favor? I I All right. Thank you. Um the second item is JJ which is student fundraising activities. Um the goal of this was mostly just to clarify and make it easier for everyone who tries to do these wonderful things to have them approved in an expedited fashion. Uh so basically it says that uh the school committee doesn't need to approve fundraisers anymore. Uh they can be approved through the superintendent um for organizations such as the PTA or the boosters. um those fundraisers

109that involve students. So such as the boosters having the athletic boosters having students sell calendars or raffle tickets or whatever they've done in the past. Um those fundraisers since students are participating would require the same approval process. But if it is one of those organizations where the PTA decides to host a um an outside event, a paint night for parents to raise funds for some event, uh they do not need approval of the school to do such an event and they can invite students to volunteer as long as there's no alcohol being served. Um and um the students can volunteer at their own discretion or the parents discretion. We don't need school committee approval for student volunteers. um it's only if the students are actively soliciting funds. So that was the gist of the changes

110to that policy. Um and it may mean just to put it out there um and a review of those lovely green forms or whatever color they are at the buildings to ensure that they're updated to um to approve those policies. But hopefully it just means things are expedited and when a student or the PTA has a great idea for a fundraiser, we can get things rolling in a more efficient fashion. We do still ask that those fundraisers, as they always are, be brought to the school committee for recognition um and hopefully we can continue to keep those um wonderful things being recognized as we have done in the past. Any questions on policy JJ? So can I ask yes in that expedited fashion who will be responsible for a the building principal and the superintendent?

111So it'll be a dual Yep. Yep. And just to ensure equity across buildings and that kind of thing. So that's why we we incorporated the superintendent. Any questions? Okay. So, um I will I will make a motion to Yeah, I will make a motion to approve uh the JJ student fundraising activities. Second. Have a motion in a second. Any comments, questions? All in favor? I opposed. Passes unanimously. Thank you. We um we voted on the BDB. Yes. Beautiful. Yep. And I will add that amendment before I pass it along. Um, and just to to kind of wrap up, we do still have um the we've renamed it um the uh it is now being called MPS strengthening school family partnerships communication guide. We still are doing the final review of that and then we'll bring

112it forward again. um that is not a policy. That is a a guide for how to implement uh or how to educate um everyone in our district about an existing policy. Um and then um we are um in process of reviewing uh field trips, travel, those kinds of things um because there was definitely some clarification needed. And then next up is anything related to gifts and fundraising and all of that. Um we do not have a next meeting organized because Zeke and Sue and I have been um very engaged in things policy rel uh not policy uh negotiations related and now we've got this you know vacation week coming up. Um but we do hope to get the meeting at least scheduled and continue moving forward. although we may have a subcommittee reorganization as well

113to consider and then we'll see who else comes in on the fun of reading policy and making updates. So, thank you all. And uh one of the other things that I would like to discuss is how we can move to expedite policy review because we got a whole heck of a lot of them that haven't been updated in a while and uh how can we make the most out of the time we have to get everything current and updated. So, we'll be talking more about that. All right. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Jess. Uh, with that, I would entertain a motion to approve the consent, excuse me, approve the consent agenda as as presented. So, move Mr. Chairu, before you go forward to approval, I have someone here tonight um that I wanted to

114just call. Rebecca Deon, if you want to come on up, is our nurse coordinator who joined our team this year. Actually, if you want to go that way. Sorry. I wasn't sure where. Fair enough. Fair enough. Yes. Yes. I I absolutely do want you publicly speaking. Uh Miss Deon, who is um bashful, has uh really taken on a lead in securing a donation of an additional AED um for the middle school. And we've been, this has been part of an expansion project that we've been doing over the last call it a year and a half where we've been bringing on more devices as we approach all hazard safety so that when children and staff are going outside for learning opportunities, there's an AED going with them. They're already in our buildings, but we felt that

115we could be doing more to protect everybody. So, with that, I'll turn it over to our fearless uh nurse coordinator and tell us about this donation, please. Caroline said I am Rebecca Deon. I'm the new nurse coordinator and I'm mostly here just to request your approval for the gift receipt from the Scholastic Sports Foundation which is an organization run by volunteers in memory of two brothers who died of acute cardiac events. Um, so to support well to prevent that from happening hopefully they fund raise and donate these units to schools and athletic organizations in the area. So we had an episode back at the Nickels in the wintertime that led to conversations about how we can add more devices in some of these buildings and actually Kaylee Goodell outreach coordinator found the organization and applied

116and we were approved as a recipient. So we've been working with that organization and they did select us. So, we have an AED that is being given to us for free with your approval, which we'd like to put in the nickels to bring our number of units in that building up to three and just provide yet another fail safe for if we have an emergency. Um, we won't have to travel so far to find the unit. It will be placed in the upper floor of the academic wing of the building and just be an extra measure of protection like we said, adding to our devices that we have on site. So hopefully you approve of that and we can put it in place this week. Does anyone have any comments, questions? A wonderful thing to

117be doing. Thank you. No, thank you. It's very exciting. I think we're good. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you. All right. So, I have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda as presented. Any other comments or questions? Could you just read the rest of them for us? Sure. We have a fundraiser at the Millboro High School speech and theater that's entertainment on June 13th and 14th. Um we have a fundraiser at the Mary Kay Good Elementary School with the PTA a touch truck on May 3rd. Donation of the AED from the Scholastic Sports Zone Foundation and a donation from Hannah to Middleboro High. All in favor? I opposed. Passes unanimously. I would entertain a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Second. I have a motion in a second. Any comments,

118questions? All in favor? I opposed. Passes unanimously. Thank you very much. Have a good evening.