Salem School Committee Meeting - August 18th, 2025

001It's a summer. Everyone's a little punchy right now. Call to order the meeting of the Salem School Committee of August 18th, 2025. This meeting is taking place in 29 Highland Avenue, room 227 in Salem. You can also join via Zoom using the link posted in the meeting agenda. The first item on our agenda is approval of the agenda. >> A motion to approve the agenda. >> I'll second. >> All in favor? Any opposed? The matter carries unanimous. Public comment. The Salem School Committee would like to hear from the public on issues that affect the school district and are within the scope of the committee's responsibilities. Spanish interpretation is available for anyone who needs it. The members of the school committee would like to remind the public that Salem public school students regularly attend Sale uh

002school committee meetings. We encourage all meeting participants to model respectful and productive public discourse for our young learners. Is there any public comment from the chambers? Seeing none, is there any public comment on Zoom? All right. Move on to approval of the consent agenda. This is the minutes of the school committee meeting of July 28th. the warrants of July 30th, August 6th, August 13th, and the new fiscal year uh warrants of July 24th, July 31st, August 7th, and August 14th. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> So moved. I'll second >> discussion. Seeing none, all in favor? Any opposed? Matter carries unanimous assuming there's no student representative report. Superintendent report. Good evening, Mayor. Um, welcome back to the start of the, uh, upcoming school year. We're excited, uh, that next week, believe

003it or not, we welcome students back, uh, starting with Carlton um, on Wednesday and 9th graders at Salem Prep and Salem High and then everybody else except for prek and kindergarten start next Thursday, the 28th. So, looking forward. Uh today we had new teachers back in the district um and had a good session with them and slowly others are uh join coming back until we welcome all teachers back next Monday when we have our convocation. So we just have a a brief presentation to share with you about um back to school um updates like we do every year just to give you a sense of what um to expect. What we we're sharing tonight are really just highlights of what's new and different for the upcoming school year, what parents, what staff, and what students

004can expect for the upcoming school year. Um, so I'm just going to start and then pass it over to members of my team. Okay. Um, so let's see. There we go. So again, we're now moving. The committee should be aware because this is an important year. It's the third year of our strategic plan. So um our priorities remain the same but we will be uh looking to re-up or u rethink our strategic plan for the next iteration. Um but our priorities uh going into this year remain the same as I gave uh as I shared in my update over the summer or in the month of July. Okay. Our work I'm not going to um strain your eyes. You don't uh I just want to highlight what our work is in the three buckets that

005we have for the upcoming school year. Um the first around I I'll just quickly just uh update you. Uh our focus is continues in our academic work around monitoring and lesson internalization which involves how we prepare for to address student uh misconceptions um in the moment. Uh data meetings will continue. We're going to continue to use the information we have about students to make adjustments as we go. and early literacy. As all of you know, we have a uh we were awarded a prism grant um by the department of education to really focus on our early literacy uh work, which has been a place we feel stuck a little bit as a system. Um and um you'll see a lot of uh we'll we'll be um sharing throughout the year updates on that work um

006around empowering educators. The amount of in quality of feedback is something we got to continue to get better at. not just the amount but making sure it's meaningful and useful for teachers. uh ensuring that staff have input in professional learning and then as we talked about in the last meeting the recruitment and retention of e educators um very pleased that we have less turn it appears that we have well I know not appears we had the fewest group of new teachers that we've had probably in over a decade which is actually really good news because we're a stable um you know and we've talked about what those reasons are but schools are putting in their school improvement plans very clear um uh action steps around recruiting and retaining especially staff of color. And then finally

007around centering belonging. We're going to continue to focus on absenteeism um explicit social emotional learning. And then we've added a goal for schools around post-secondary planning for both middle school and high school. They have goals in terms of students um having a post-secary plan. Um and so you'll see that in the school improvement plans this year. Um, our theme for this upcoming school year is I am somebody. And this was a um an ex excerpt from one of our students, uh, Lake Lewis, who read this, um, during, um, the summer solstice day that they had, uh, as seniors were leaving. And this, um, she really talked about, it's a be I think I shared it with the school committee, but I just want to point out these words, especially the end. You are here because

008you are powerful. You are here because you are brilliant. You are here because you deserve to be. And that's our theme for this year. Our students are on the, you know, there's greatness within our students and we have to cultivate um the um the, you know, the platform for that to happen in all of our classrooms. Uh we're committed to making sure we we talked about this with new teachers today. Our kids, our students are capable of more than than we think they are. They can do hard things and we can push them uh to greatness if we create the conditions to do so across every one of our schools. Um and along those same lines, this is an to for me uh an important quote that we shared with our uh at the um

009our leadership retreat for school leaders. Um if a classroom does not operate as if the young people in it were capable of greatness, it will never be a just classroom. But but operating as if young people are capable of greatness does not mean pandering. It means loving young people enough to push them with warmth, grace, and humanity to work harder than they may be inclined to. And I think that sums up how we plan on entering the year. Um we we want our students to realize the potential we know they have and they tell us if you ask kids, they'll remember the teachers who got the most out of them. And that's what we hope to do as we head into the u upcoming school year. At this point, I'll turn it over to um

010Deputy Superintendent Kate Carboni, who's going to give you updates from her team. >> I'm actually going to do just one slide and then I'm going to turn it over to my team who is actually in the house. Um no need for me to do that. So, um I do want to just a couple of things that I do think the committee is aware of but want to um be able to share uh with the public that we did start as the superintendent said the summer off with our two-day summer leadership institute was which was really um wonderful. We had all of our principles, assistant principles, um our team chairs which constitute our school leadership teams. We had all our instructional coaches from across schools. They're part of their school leadership teams as well. And then

011central office both on the finance and operations side as well as um the teaching and learning uh leaders. So it was a quite a room full um of leaders and um it was a great uh opportunity for us to reflect on the impact of our collective work and the outcomes of the year that just closed. Um so we met for two days in that last week of June and we were able to um the superintendent did sort of a state of the schools and we were able to celebrate where we were knocking it out of the park. It's important to be able to celebrate but also um identifying where we need to dig deeper and where our opportunities still lie. Um we did um uh galvanize around the priorities that the superintendent just um uh

012mentioned um and we worked um in differentiated teams to make sure that the content was really specific to the leaders in the room. I do want to elevate one thing that I think really um made this year's leadership institute stand apart from others. We took a bold step um this year and embedded our learning in homegrown case studies. So we elevated um the practice of two teachers. So Karen Tucker from here from Collins and also Sandra Castillo. And at the end of the year we followed them around. We had um a video uh group um that took some video of them and their students were able to interview them and we were a able to um use their classrooms and their teaching and learning and practice and what the kids were experiencing in their classrooms

013um as the sort of learning entry points for our leadership team. And we really were p pushed by our staff to to do that. that when we use examples from charter schools or other schools, they don't resonate. Um and so um I would say it was um very very powerful. So I just wanted to elevate that. Um I think everyone knows that we got the CPPI grant. So we apply the um this is the Commonwealth Preschool Partnership Initiative grant. Um the the three-year grant ran its course. It was reissued um as a new grant. We were uh we applied for the full amount which in our case we were able to apply up to a million dollars. We of course applied for that full amount and we received word um about a week and a

014half ago that um our full grant was um approved. And I just listed on the slide some of the things that we're going to use that uh grant for. I do want to mention a couple of other things related to grants. I think everyone knows that the entitlement grants were held up over the summer. Um, but those grant applications were finally released about a week or so ago and we've been working on our application, our applications ready to go. Uh, Elizabeth and I are meeting tomorrow to to get that ready to go into the system uh for approval. So, we're feeling much better about things on that front. Um, there are a couple of things that we have our eyes on. I won't say that we're worried, but we're definitely watching. Um, one relates to

015the 21st century grants, uh, which, um, fund many of our afterchool and enrichment, um, activities. And, um, one of the areas of that we're watching is, um, the Collins Middle School grant is up for renewal. We've been told that the other grants that are in process are, you know, pretty stable, but we haven't heard uh, word um, about the renewal grant that supports our partnership with LEAP. I met with Linda Sris and her team last week to talk a little bit about this and you know what we would do in case there you know anything were to happen with that grant. So we're watching that closely and we'll let you know um if anything arises with that. Superintendent also mentioned that we were grantees of the prism grant. We applied for and were awarded in

016exc it was slightly over $800,000 but we were asked to revise that budget down to about 30%. Um, so we received only about 30% of the original grant award, which was slightly over 2,000, $200,000. We've been told by Desi that we should get the full rest of the award sometime late in October, but again, that's something we're watching. I I never like to say, you know, the checks in the mail. We like to have the check in hand. So, uh, we'll let you know um what, if anything materializes there. Oops. And sorry went too fast there. And Sonia Lo, our new um executive director. >> Thanks everybody. >> To talk about what's on deck for academics. >> Absolutely. So as Kate mentioned, we had a wonderful summer leadership institute uh for two days at the

017end of June. Uh that's where we launched a focus on lesson internalization, which is really a fancy term for really deeply knowing the lesson that you're about to teach students, both from the content perspective, the instructional practices that you use, and then really tailoring that lesson to meet the needs of students in your classes. Um we have a lot of high-quality instructional materials in our schools. And it's really about maximizing those to the fullest potential so that students see themselves in that curriculum and can uh participate in it to their fullest potential. So that's really what we focused on with um principles and coaches. Connected to that is the idea of academic monitoring. So the idea of really paying attention to learning while it's happening in school. Uh so if you know the lesson, you

018know what you're expecting to see from students, you're able to circulate and uncover misconceptions as they're happening and have a plan to address them. So very excited for this real commitment to highquality instruction in our classrooms. It really just builds off of the work that our educators are already doing. Um I won't say a ton about Prism, but we are really excited for year two of the Prism grant. The goal of that really is 80% of students to be proficient in foundational skills by 2029. It's a really ambitious goal and one that's essential for our students and and um I guess our future. Yeah. Um through that we'll be deepening expertise and foundational skills instruction. It's a small part of the literacy block for educators but a really really important and critical part. Uh and

019we'll be doing that through our partnership with TNTP uh which is sponsored by the Prism Grant. Finally, this is really exciting. Uh, and I know my colleague Mark will also talk about this from the technical perspective. We're launching Jump Rope, which is our new grading platform in uh, PreK through 8 and at Salem Prep High School. We're excited. It's a really, really slick platform, very accessible to families on mobile devices, uh, etc. And ultimately, it really makes success criteria very very transparent and clear to students and to teachers so that we can engage students in conversations about the work that they're producing. Um it's an excellent tool for reflection and goal setting and we're really excited to have that roll out in classrooms um this fall. >> Thanks, Sonia. What am I doing? Where's the

020computer? >> Where is the computer? That is Oh, is it over there? There we go. All right. Now, I went too far. >> Okay. All right. Um, special education. This summer, we're really busy. We're working a lot on uh strengthening our pipeline of of teachers and leaders and also working on strengthening our programs. So, the first thing we I want to talk about is our student to paraprofessional and paraprofessional toteer and teacher to leader pipeline. This summer, we employed um five uh Salem High School students that worked as par profofessionals in our special ed programs. And we also had six uh college students that worked in our summer program to get experience working with children and possibly thinking about either a teaching career or in something in in human and health services. Um we also

021uh have our first parrot a teacher apprenticeship program starting this fall through the RTAP program. We were able we were awarded that um we we have three par professionals that'll be working handinhand with a with a mentored teacher learning how to be a special education teacher and then um over the over two years um they'll be working on their lensure. Um we also started our first teacher leader opportunity this summer. We had two special ed teachers that are want to be uh special ed administrators. So they worked as summer leaders um under one of our summer directors. Um so they worked on that and also during the school year we have our teacher leaders um for different programs and for different uh program strands throughout the district. Uh we also are expanding our languagebased uh

022disabilities program um at Salt and Stall Collins and the high school to address the needs of our growing population. And also this uh this year we're going to have greater support for our youngest learners. So last year we did a few um citywide screenings for children that are three to five. That's looking to see uh children's readiness skills for for preschool or kindergarten. Also looking at possibility of identifying students that may need a special ed referral. So we did a few of them last year and this year we we're going to do three citywide screenings also with our partners as well. Um and from that we identified students that could use more time on intervention um using school readiness intervention groups. So we had one last year that was very successful. We um and we're

023able to help kids get ready for preschool or for kindergarten and this year we're going to be doing it three times >> and that's supported through the CPPI grant just to make the connection there. All right. Student supports Ellen Windgard. >> Hi there. Um, all right. So, to highlight some of the things that we um are doing this year, Kate mentioned earlier that we will be um elevating once again explicit instruction, really empowering our teachers to be able to teach kids specific skills so that they have agency and autonomy in their learning. Um um to measure our progress around that, we're going to be um checking in with kids monthly, doing what we're calling sort of pulse checks about how they feel like they're learning. um throughcling about belonging. So I think there was a

024question in our last committee meeting around um you know kids and and their sense of belonging. And so having monthly pulse checks this year which is new will allow us to be able to be more nimble um throughout the year and responding to the data. Um checking in on belonging at the beginning of the year and end of the year feels a little like not enough information for us to be able to act on it. Um and we're going to continue to to build our restorative practices, moving from building community to making sure that we're repairing harm in a restorative way. Um this summer we welcomed Taylor McDonald into the student support department. Um and so we'll be helping to support her work with out of school time programming. So she's really looking at this

025year making sure there's vertical alignment with our out of school time programming. Um which I think you've probably heard about before. You've also been witnessed to our youth voice projects. Um and so we want to make sure uh those projects not only get done but they are followed through with within the schools and their voices really um enacted. And then um Taylor's really interested in making sure that the prek afterchool program is tied the is their programming is tied to what kids are learning in school. And so looking at both the social emotional and academic um standards that kids are learning in their prek uh school day are carried into um the after school so they're reinforced. And then finally, um, for attendance, you know, we're really proud of our schools for impacting, um, chronic

026absenteeism over the last couple of years. So, we're going to double down on making sure we're doing some, um, good quality early intervention. So, really helping support families quickly when we see things um, go off track. And then on the other end of that, um, we'll be working with our attendance coalition, our community partners, probation, DCF, courts to be able to build what we're calling a truency panel. And this is a a formal yet informal way of helping to support families prior to filing a formal CRA uh, with the courts of child requiring assistance. And so we're hoping to get that up and running by January, but it'll take a little bit because it will require um folks from, you know, stakeholders, community partners to be able to commit to monthly panel meetings where we

027invite families um and services are present right there to help um parents understand both the implications of a CRA, but also um that we want to be able to support them um with whatever barriers are in the way. So that's what's on the horizon. and it >> all right. Uh yeah, summer is a very busy time for technology. We have a lot of stuff going on. Uh a lot of deferred maintenance and different things that we just can't um do during the school year. But um some new things that we have coming, we have new applications. Um Sonia had mentioned earlier a jump rope grade book which we've been working on configuring with all the standards and grading criterias and all the things that go along with that as well as developing training. Uh we

028also have two additional products in the powers school family. Uh one for professional learning and one for called perform and they are basically for uh teacher evaluation and for professional development tracking. So we've been working in the summer to build those out uh build training documentation and videos for staff. Um so when they come back they'll be ready to go with those all platforms that are upgrading um old platforms that we're not uh cutting it anymore for us. Uh in the hardware world, we are uh continuing our planned replacement cycle for Chromebooks. So we have new Chromebooks in grades two and three as well as for incoming sixth graders and incoming 9th graders. We were able to install interactive displays at both Salem Prep at Carlton replacing um aging short throw projectors. Uh we did

029a full inventory and repair of repair of all Chromebooks u in grades K through 8. Um the high school has they have a onetoone so we do the inventory when they return them at the end of uh senior year so they keep them over the summer. Um and then we're also working on a refresh of the iPads for the special education department to get those all um updated and ready to go for um students. Um we have a big shift this year in Collins where we're returning to a true onetoone. Um the last few years Collins has been a cart model where the Chromebooks are teacher managed in the classroom and don't leave a student doesn't get their own Chromebook. We're moving back to the model of um having students each get assigned a Chromebook

030um that they will walk around the school with and then leave in school at the end of the day to hopefully build some more um ownership for the students and some accountability and some you know just just those types of skills to manage um that technology so when they get to the high school it's not as such a big jump between um levels. Uh and we're also expanding our library and digital learning um to witchcraft and salt and stall. And every school except Carlton um will have a um full-time specialist teaching library and digital skills. Thank you. >> So, good evening. Uh Jill Conrad, director of human resources. Um, so probably the most exciting thing in my opinion that we're doing right now or that's happened over the summer is that we um have hired

031two teachers from the Dominican Republic here on J1 visas and they are here. And the fact that they are here is really exciting because there was, you may recall, there was a long pause on the visas, but it finally came through and so they're here. They're getting settled in. They attended the new uh teacher institute today and and um are doing well. Uh we are still trying to support them in finding housing. So if anyone has any leads that could potentially help with that, I'm going to put a plug out for that. Um the second uh I don't know these are equally exciting. Um Jen uh my colleague Jen mentioned the registered teacher apprenticeship program which we are part of the pilot uh across the state for launching an official registered apprenticeship uh to lead

032to uh teaching lenture. We focused it on special education. We have selected three uh what they call journey worker teachers who are mentor teachers who will be full-time mentors to the three apprentices. is we're still in the process of selecting the apprentices. We haven't finalized that yet. Um but we will uh very soon and you'll hear more about that as as we go. But we're very excited about both of those uh initiatives. Um we are also in terms of sort of the overview for staffing. Um we have over 65 new hires in the district, 45 are teachers. Um that's about half of what we had last year. So, uh, we don't have as much turnover, which as Dr. Zich said is is great news. Um, and, um, allows us to kind of settle in. And

033I also would say that the, um, qualifications of the teach new hire teachers coming in, um, are either much more experienced or fully licensed for the roles, although we do still have a fair number of of those on waiverss and still working on lensure. We continue to see a high level of transfers uh not necessarily from school to a different school, but uh it to different roles as we always do. Um we're getting much better at tracking that as it happens within a school than we used to a long time ago. So that's good news. Um and then the 30 who were reappointed. So they were teachers on a waiver last year who uh we've hired back. they have to be non-renewed at the end when they're on a waiver, but we have hired them

034back. Um, and then the other two columns are really continuation of things that we've been working on um over the past several years, which is, you know, streamlining the onboarding process, trying to become more focused on our data systems, you know, so that we can better use them to do analysis and make and make decisions. So, this is just a quick overview of where we are as far as vacancies as we head into the beginning of the school year. Um, everything seems to be running about half where we were last year at this time. Uh, both on the new higher end and as well as the vacancies we see at this point in time. Um, so five uh actual teaching roles. Most of those are either due to new classrooms opening up due to enrollment

035or uh lastm minute resignations that we weren't counting on. Um and then we have uh as far as the paras vacancies, one was just filled today, so that should come off. Um and we're looking for a couple of substitutes. The administrator role I think may be close. Um >> okay. So, you know, we're we're gaining on it. So, I would expect by the time we do open school to see um if not fully staffed, maybe just a little handful of of vacancies left. So, we're in a much better place uh to be fully staffed this year than we have seen in the past couple of years, which is great. >> Yeah. I just would point out that the kindergarten opening at Witchcraft is due to enrollment. you know, the size of uh this is the

036biggest class we've had um in over 10 years for kindergarten. And so that's a good problem to have. But we did not anticipate I every year I misc I shouldn't say miscalculate every year, but I did miscalculate because the numbers are so much higher. We we are >> there may be a potential of having to add another kindergarten depending on where the numbers fall because we're still getting enrollments every single day and we've closed school choice for kindergarten because the numbers have been much higher than we expected. So, we have plenty of room in the schools. So, uh but this appears to be seems to be a little bit of a bump coming here with COVID. Um and hopefully that means that that bodess well for enrollment in the system for the the next few

037classes. So, >> any any questions? >> Okay. >> Good evening everyone. Laura Assad, director of DEI in the district. Um so I wanted to just focus on a couple of um areas of new um happenings uh in the department. Um, we've been very busy this summer with a lot of transition and staffing and trying to work through um identifying better efficiencies within the district and um having an opportunity to collaborate better not just with our families uh but the community and also within departments and um school principles and other leadership um across the district. Um so for um one of the areas um that I wanted to continue to focus on is with our new staff. We have had a uh a bit of transition and um and and I'm referring to the entire district.

038we have new staff um that we want to make sure that if they are interested in participating in some of the developments of our affinity spaces um that they are informed about that and also thinking about any other opportunities that may come about whether that may be opportunities to go back to school um to obtain their associates or bachelor's degree um so that they can um uh tap into any other opportunities and areas of growth um within the district and then thinking about how to through the um welcome center. There's been a lot of transition um within from being a parent information center to a welcome center. Um, and what that means is we've had an opportunity to think about some um, parent learning opportunities and thinking of ways to make sure that our center

039is more than a registration office, but a hub for us to connect families to either services um, whether that be through other departments and opportunities that may come from uh, the community to offer those right out of the center. Um, so with that, we also want to center parent voices and we still have a survey out um through Panorama that's been shared um through our social medias, our newsletters. Uh we'll be also distributing that um for upcoming back to school fair next week. Um and then really be able to share some of those findings with members of our district um in case we need to make any shifts in um the ways that we support students in their learning. Um in terms of a uh strengthening foundation again um thinking about um different ways for

040our district and schools to know what is happening the students that are coming in, how families and students are being welcomed into our schools, what information that they can be provided as soon as they um enroll, and for them to be able to learn about um programs so that families can make a an informed decision on where they'd like their student to attend. um particularly in the elementary school level because there are more options at that at that level in um early childhood through fifth grade um and then also learning about high school and beyond. Um and a lot of those opportunities can happen right from the welcome center. Um, lastly, we want to be able to think about um what we do at the welcome center is crucial because we are for the most

041part the first um interaction that families and other members of our district have. So, it's important for us to make sure that it's not just you come in, you register, you go, and then it's we hand you off to the schools. It's more so you're going to get connected with a nurse. Now, um if your student does not qualify, we have um student support, special education just right up the hallway. Um and then also have a chance to be able to think about what does it look like to have my student be part of a particular school community and that it we do that by way of having the family engagement facilitators um presence there so that they can talk about the schools that they're going to be representing and also thinking about um what

042are the unique things that make the schools what they are. so that they know what their student is walking into and then also when they walk into the schools they're also making that connection with the family engagement team. Um so all of those things we want to be able to have that structure um right from the beginning so that families know that they at least have one contact person and then grow within their networks once they become a member of that school. Um and then with that, uh thinking about continuing to build the capacity of the family engagement team. Um not just working out of the welcome center, but how are they supporting with the um training of staff at the schools and building their capacity so that schools have a better way to continue

043to um communicate uh with families and students. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. Uh thank you, Laura. um enrollment numbers. You can see uh we're up um where we were at this time last year. It's always hard in August to know because uh although I do think we have cleaner numbers of students who are not returning um than we've had in the past, but you can see every school for the last three years and what their numbers look like. Um we are again trending up uh which is a little bit of a surprise because I thought we would struggle a little bit with you know with fewer newcomers coming um because of you know federal policies and so forth. But um I will point out the places we have pain points right now uh kindergarten with

044the number of well again it's a double-edged sword um but uh our numbers are higher than we thought and sixth grade looks high right now. Uh we don't know in the end how many of them will actually show up because um so we're going to wait to see, but the classes are in the upper 20s right now in sixth grade, but that changes a lot on the first couple days of school because we wait to see who actually comes. Uh they don't always tell us uh if they're coming. Um and so largely I think that bodess well for us that it's it's still moving in the right direction. Um but you can see where we're at. New Liberty will be uh much higher enrolled than they were at this time last year. Um same with

045Salem Prep is about where it was and obviously uh Collins is much higher because of the shift from Salts and Salts is much lower because they lost their uh middle school. So that's our enrollment. uh we'll give you a status update uh you know at our next meeting and we'll obviously follow it through the month of September before October 1st which is the big date for uh setting our funding for the following year. Uh next slide >> and I think that's me. So our facilities and grounds crews have been very busy this summer. They have so far closed 328 work orders. Those are everything from projects that the schools would have put in to our planned summer upgrades. Every school um will have by the time school starts have had all the walls washed, the

046rugs shampooed, changed out the light bulbs, um scrubbed, stripped, and waxed the floors. So, uh if you get a chance to visit the high school, the floors are so shiny there. Um it is it is we're very close to being ready. Uh we've done a lot of painting this summer. Our staff has done um touch-ups and refreshing at all of the schools and we're doing a full repainting of Horus man and the first floor of Salt and Stall. So those schools will um be fresh and new for the students when they arrived. We've changed all the HVAC filters and we've made repairs to the exterior ramp uh to increase accessibility at Horus Man. We also um have uh been working on generators to make sure that we can maintain our HVAC all winter long. I

047included a picture of the generator that is no longer there at Bates. Um because that generator had died. Uh it was inside the building and this is turning out to be a huge project. Um we are getting a new generator for Bates but it will be outside. So the work underground, the electrical work has been completed and we're expecting the generator in the fall. We are also expecting the generator in the fall for Collins. That will be not as big a project as it has been at Bates, but still an important one. And uh the new generator is already installed at Witchcraft. So we had been renting a generator to make sure we could maintain power. So we're very pleased that now we'll have working generators at all of these schools. We also will be

048replacing the fire pump at Bates. All other schools have had um fire inspections conducted, tests done, and um to both their fire panels and their sprinkler systems, and we've made repairs as needed to anything that wasn't working. For play spaces, um this is a picture of Bertrram Field. Um we have been working to repair the track. We've repported uh the the the track that had the holes in it. We have relined the track um and then rebuilt slashreplenish the sand pits at the track. So, I think that's going to be a great experience for our student athletes. We'll have a new sound system installed uh at Bertram and we're anticipating having that installed before the first home football game. So, uh, I did skip over, uh, an exciting, uh, large project, which is the preK

049and K playground is almost complete at Bates. We are having a ribbon cutting on September 2nd. So, I hope folks will come and join and see this joyful, beautiful playground that children will get to enjoy at Bates. Um, while on the subject of playgrounds, we know that the Carlton Elementary School's playground is a city playground. Um, the Curtis playground that is being redone. So, that will be an exciting new playground for the whole community to use. However, it does mean that it will be closed to the students at Carlton for the better part of this year. Anyway, we believe we will have our students will have access to that playground until construction begins, but we don't have a clear date on when the construction will begin and so how long Carlton students will be able

050to use that playground. So, we've worked with the principal this summer to make sure we have an alternative play space for uh the students in the upper grades at Carlton who are the ones that use this Curtis playground. where um we've ordered some materials including basketball hoops, cornhole, and other games that the principal identified as um something that the children would like to do. We're going to cordon off the back corner of the parking lot. There's a green space, a very small green space, but a green space. And then uh a parking lot, the corner of the parking lot that we believe can be made safe from traffic. Um we'll put cones up. So, it will be specifically for play. We'll pl we'll make some paint some things on the asphalt. So, we think it

051will be a an adequate second option to the Curtis playground and we look forward to them returning to the Curtis Playground when it's available. For the little kids, I think there's been a lot of um community and parent interest in um taking a hard look at that the small playground that the young children at Carlton use. So, for this year, we um we've ordered some play things that are not permanent climbing structures for the Carlton small playground, but will give kids activities, bikes, um and games to play, that kind of thing. and we are adding the Carlton small playground to our rotation of um playgrounds that will need to be uh repaired, refurbished so that we're making sure we invest in playgrounds for our smallest children as well as our larger children. So adding that

052to the list um and appreciative of all the input related to the Carlton playground. And then the last I would say big update on this slide is thanks to the generosity of the Commonwealth and the partnership with both the city of Salem and our legislative delegation, our rep state rep and our state senator. We have funds for a new gym floor at Salem High School. So, the fieldhouse at Salem High School has a rubber floor that is not great for athletes. it is um more likely that student athletes will injure themselves on this floor and it doesn't allow our athletics teams to participate in or to host state tournaments. So, we have this funding that will allow us to buy a portable floor. Um we met actually this morning with the company that's going to

053provide it and they are giving us the same kind of floor that they give to the NBA. um they're one of the only providers of these portable floors so that when the fieldhouse comes down, we'll be able to take this beautiful floor and the significant investment that will be only 5 years old and move it to another school. And so we anticipate getting the full life's value out of this floor and we look forward to our athletes playing on a beautiful new wood floor. We expect to have that in place um in November. So, uh, that is moving forward. We are very excited about it both for what it will mean for the athletes at the high school now and for the, um, probably elementary school athletes in the future. Uh, and then looking ahead,

054we will continue to use operations hero. We really think that having a QR code and having broad access to our work order management system has made a difference in the overall cleanliness of the buildings because people are catching things quickly. We will continue our monthly walkthroughs with the school staff. Usually it's the principal and the um senior custodian and the head of buildings and grounds um to also strengthen the partnership and make sure we're addressing things and getting ahead of them as we can. And then also this year we're looking to establish common cleaning standards and practices across the schools. So making sure that every school meets a a common standard of what we consider to be cleanliness and what we expect for our students. So really excited about that. In food and nutrition services,

055we have a new menu platform. So what is exciting about this platform and this tiny picture that you can see is you'll be able to parents, kids, anybody will be able to hover over the menu and see the nutritional information for each of the items being served. So we're really excited about that. So people can see, you know, what will go into our school lunches. We've also set a goal for September of using 50% of our meals will be locally sourced food because this is the time to be eating food that is locally grown and fresh. Um so we're excited. We're excited to start um preparing our meals and to also share what's in it. We um have had a practice of offering free second meals to any kid that would like to have one.

056We've struggled a little bit at the high school with how to manage that because if we don't know it's the second meal, then we force the kid to take everything that was on the first plate. Um but and and at the other schools with smaller cafeterias, it's easier to know who's already been through the line. But at the high school, you could go one floor for lunch and then come down and get a second meal. And maybe you just want the entree and not all the other things, but we make you take all the other things. So, we're going to have a second meal kiosk so high school students can just go almost like an alle cart system and get the thing that they want for their second meal. And if it's the full tray,

057great. But if it's not, they can just take what they are looking for and that will reduce our food waste. So, we're very excited about that. We look forward to continuing our successful dinner program at the high school in Collins. Just on that, we launched the dinner program at Collins on March 1st of this year and our average daily participation was 153 meals a day. So this year together between Collins from March to June and the high school we serve 16,152 dinners every or we total not every day total. So we are looking forward to continuing that program. And underneath all of this, we'll have a new inventory process that the head cooks will be using so that we make sure we are ordering smart and making sure we are minimizing food waste and food

058cost. Um, we also plan to expand our farm-to-school program. So, we will be opening salad bars at all of the elementary schools. We'll be expanding student composting in all cafeterias. Right now, our kitchen staff all compost and we have composting programs at Carlton, which was the leader in this, Horus man and Carlton and Horus man. And so, we'll be expanding student composting to all cafeterias. And um we've had a team of Salem educators working on creating lesson plans that are aligned to the Amplify Science curriculum that incorporate the school gardens. So, we'll be rolling out eight new um farm-to-school lesson plans this fall. transportation. So, uh this year, uh all students who ride the bus will be asked to swipe on and off. We're doing that for two reasons. One, it is a safety measure.

059We need to know where the students are, that they're on the bus, and where they got off. But also, it's an attendance measure. So, we'll be able to know if everybody who is rooted to a bus is riding the bus. If we have a wait list, um, then we'll be able to, uh, turn over seats that are not being used. So, we're excited to be able to implement the Wayfinder attendance tracker. Um, the bus passes will be available on the first day of school and families will be notified this week about their um, their routes. So, we're finalizing those now. We sent them to NRT bus company for test runs last week and so we were waiting for the feedback today. So, in the next day or two, families will be getting um their bus

060assignments. This is a picture, which it's a little bit hard to see, but it is a picture of the back of the bus pass. So, the back of the bus pass just gives the instructions and reminders for for all riders. Um, and so we're excited to partner with families and kids for uh to ensure we have safe um travels to school. The last thing on transportation that is exciting for the year ahead is the ID. This year, Salem High School students will receive ID badges that look like this. They're not security badges. They don't unlock the doors, but they are um they will have a student picture on them and they will be able to be used as bus pass, library card, and lunch pass. So, um, we're excited to see, uh, how that goes

061at the high school and then could potentially roll it out to the younger grades in years ahead. And last from me is, uh, a safety update. This is, in case you ever wondered what it looked like to print out the badges that you get when you come to the school. That's a picture of the system. Um, we will be rolling out the Raptor visitor safe visitor management system across the district um, this year. We currently have it in place at Salem High School and um at the central office, but we think this will do two things for us. One, it'll move us away from pen and paper. And two, you know, sign in and sign out for our visitors. And two, it will help us always know who is in our building. So, we'll have

062this at every school. Um and last, we plan to continue um implementing the Sandy Hook Promise, which we launched this year. Um and through our commitment to both safety and student safety, we're going to continue that as well. So that is it from me. Um Dr. Zich, I think this is you. >> Yep. Last slide here. Um other updates. Um I just want to remind people we did at the school committee, we are changing school start and end times based on the contract negotiation last year. So we have a standard workday for teachers, which is 6 hours and 55 minutes. and we have a standard elementary day, a standard middle school day, and a standard high school day. Um, and so that's obviously shifting the time. Some schools are going longer for kids, some are

063going slightly shorter. So, just as a reminder, there might be some uh adjustments to uh the traffic patterns and and shifts uh that have to do with the start and end times this year. Um, and we are implementing before school programs at later start schools. We got a lot of feedback from parents who have at the elementary schools, particularly Witchcraft, Carlton, and Saltinstall, about making sure that we had like a drop off for families that work. Um, and we are able to do that without uh charging families. Um, some of the schools already had it, but now uh we have a consistent opportunity for and and Collins also offers it um half an hour before school starts. It's at least a help for some families. So, I just wanted to um note that we're doing

064that. Um, and then just to a couple other exciting items is we're about to send out our first alumni newsletter that Chris has been working on. Um, we hope to drum out up connections with our alumni and keep in the loop and share stories about them. So, that'll go out quarterly. Chris, is that the idea? Okay. And then we also added a donation button, which has taken a long time, but we finally got the donation button for people that want to make contributions to the Salem public schools. a lot of lot of charters have that private schools and now we have that opportunity. Um and then just finally on the Salem High School building project and this will serve as my update. Um obviously this is going to be a very busy year for the

065Salem High School building project. We are headed to you know final design by uh December. So we're still uh iterating on that design. There'll be an update at the building meeting that we have on Thursday. We also got feedback from the MSBA that we need to respond to um on our educational program. Um and then um as many of you know, we are um there'll be a debt exclusion vote sometime in May, I believe, mayor. Um that's uh coming up. Um and so um and the last thing update on the building committee is we are in the process of selecting the construction manager for the project or the construction um firm. Um and I we'll get an update on that on Thursday. I'm not exactly I'm not part of that subcommittee, but that is coming

066and that's a big decision for the project and who will lead that work. I don't know if you want to add anything to anything anything that I just said. >> I don't have anything to add on the high school building project, but I just wanted to open it up if any of the committee members had questions on the back to school update for any of the the staff or team. Yep. Cruz. >> Thank you, mayor. I appreciate the comprehensive overview of back to school activities. Um I had a couple questions across a few different areas. The first was around the uh the prism grant and the goal. Um where where does the 80% goal come from? Is that is that the state? Okay. So the state's two-year goal for anyone receiving the grant is that

067we're all working towards the 80%. But what's the target for Salem? Is it um is it is it does it roll into that? Is it higher? Do we get to set that? Was there any discretion or is it >> we can set the interim >> goals and we're in the process. We've had one or two meetings with the Prism team. So, we have leadership representation um both teacher leaders as well as um school leaders um in a district-wide team. And we've been meeting with TNTP this summer to look at our um the landscape analysis that they did and so forth and setting uh goals. So we are able to set the interimm goals for ourselves but the end goal is set by the state. >> Understood. And then with respect to the prek program you

068had mentioned that there was the afterchool uh program as part of the update. So is that in-house uh in terms of that's offered by the district or is that one of our CPPI partners like the YMCA that's offering the program? So the um prek afterchool um programs that we offer, we offer in-house. We do partner with a variety of different partners, inclusion sports, we've had yoga, we've had artful life, we've had lots of different partners. Um helping with that. Um and we run those on site at every building where we have a prek uh program. >> Great. Uh >> it's I might just add that it is offered on on a sliding scale. We want to make sure that it's accessible to all families. >> Thank you. That was actually going to be my next

069question. Uh I'm going to move to lensure uh based questions. So Steve, I really Dr. Shrek appreciated the updates on kind of where we're at with staffing. Um and it's good to know that we have some increases in the the staff we were able to retain. We had we had a good amount of folks that were on waiverss, uh emergency licenses, etc. Uh, so I'm just curious, you know, how are we getting information out to our staff about the new opportunities for alternative lensure? Um, the waving of certain testing requirements. Uh, have we seen folks been reaching out about those opportunities? Like what is the strategy there? Because we know that that's one of the challenges with some of our newer folks um that we've hired over the last four years. So, just wanted to

070hear a little bit more about that. >> Yeah. Jill, do you want to respond to that question about reaching out to staff about alternative lensure folks that aren't waivers? How we're keeping them informed about how to get reertified >> or to get certified, not reertified, but >> absolutely. So, um they all get u messaging from me right away when they get hired about the process. Um and um it's a process that I work with the principles uh with in terms of preparing for the license uh for the waiverss and what they what they need. But with our work with RTAP and other work with pipelines, we're working to kind of really build a network of support that would really support um all of our teachers in getting becoming licensed over time. But each one kind

071of has a different pathway uh so to speak because it's sometimes they're enrolled in a program, sometimes they're not and need to maybe consider that. um it depends on which lenture they're trying to pursue and that sort of thing. So um we still have the partnership with Salem State University and the work that we started last year with that. >> Is that answering your question? >> It does. >> Okay. >> I think um my thinking on this, Dr. Reich, is it would be helpful for the committee to just get an understanding of where we're at just with respect to the the data on the number of folks that are on waiverss or are pursuing one of the alternative lensure tracks. Yeah, >> uh the state released a series of um some of those alternatives, but

072they're still working on >> some of the other areas. So, it would be good to know if there are gaps that we can identify for the state to try to I think uh urge them to consider those tracks to be taken up a little bit sooner. I'm thinking about um multilingual uh education. You know, that's one area that the state really hasn't touched too much. Um, so I just think it would be great to think about like anyone who again might have a waiver that had to shift over from positions and how do we, you know, make a compelling case to Desi that they really need to turn their attention to these areas um so that we can retain staff within the district. >> Yeah, absolutely. If I could just make a comment that I

073think what I've learned, you know, for the last three years in working on this is uh the communication early upfront in their initial hire is really key because what uh and fortunately I feel like in my office we now have more capacity to be able to stay on top of that. The because the staffing turnover was so high the last two years, it was really hard to stay on top of that. So I think unfortunately we did miss the opportunity to support people, you know, in a way that we maybe could have back then, but I feel like we learned a lot now. Our principles are more attuned to it. Um, at the end of the year last year, we we talked with school leaders about bringing this conversation into their feedback conversations with the

074educators instead of treating it like a separate thing that's more of a compliance thing. So, I think there's more attention to that so that we can be clear on who really does have a viable pathway to become licensed um and be able to support them for with that. That's our goal. >> Excellent. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Y Cornell. >> Um I also have a couple of questions um for Steve. I'm just wondering if we can get Taylor to come back in here. I don't know what the appropriate timeline would be, but for her to give us a followup on student voice project, you know, I'd like to close the loop and just sort of see where where those student voices are now. You know, all they propose really concerned about the Bates bathrooms,

075you know, that was that was a greatation. How'd it go? >> It was they look good right now. And we saw some signage in there that were that was from the students about how to treat the bathroom. >> Excellent. But yeah, I'd love to I'd love to have her come in and give us an update maybe like halfway through through the school year just so we could see where where students are. >> Um for you know everybody all the people tuning in at home, Steve, could you explain why Carlton doesn't have a digital learning specialist and all the other schools do just to give a sense of like >> Yeah. was >> why that would be the case. Well, I think the the overtime I mean our initial plan was that we were going to

076phase this in overtime and so in the initial plan it was always that Carlton was going to be and Mark you can jump in at any point that we were going to fa phase in slowly and that Carlton was going to be the last part of that. You know, part of our thinking is that, you know, Carlton, when you look at resources, Carlton does have more resources, um, per, you know, per student than any of the other elementary schools. And so, uh, you know, we we didn't feel we do feel an urgency that they do that all kids get access to it. But we wanted to do the right way. And we felt like Carlton had other resources that it could, you know, they have extra uh, specialists um, as part of their um, you

077know, their learning model there. Um, they have, you know, extra support staff. So that was part of the decision. Uh but it is our intention that every school have access to it eventually. So >> Mark, I don't know if you want to add anything to that. All right. >> Thank you. I just didn't want to leave that out there hanging so folks wouldn't sort of wonder why. Um for Elizabeth, I you know the food Salem food policy council and the Salem Pantry and Pantry and other organizations that try to that are providing healthy and affordable or free food to people in our community are worried about, you know, cuts to um federal funding. And so I think it would be great if you could just um remind us and folks watching about sort of how

078we're feeding all of these kids. We feed a lot of kids. Um kind of where those dollars come from. Um I think that would be great for us to be able to communicate to people and and just for folks to know. >> Uh yes, our food program is fully funded um using state and federal funds, primarily federal funds. So, our staff, our food costs, they do not appear on our general fund at all. It is a fully reimburseable model. And actually, I'm glad you asked because I realized I forgot to mention that our summer eats program, which is also fully funded um by federal dollars, um we have a few more days of serving meals, our programs wrap up on the 22nd. And so far this summer, we've served 27,451 meals, not including dinner tonight.

079Um, so we are providing a lot of food to the community, and it is um something that we are watching very closely to see what will happen with the federal government and our funds um for student meals. So, thank you for asking. >> Can I just ask one more question? This is uh this is actually for Jen. Sorry, because you're sitting, but um you said we're not I don't know if this is new, but doing citywide screening for kids three to five. And so I'm just curious about what if this causes any kind of logistical problems and if it's not a problem, just sort of how it's done with folks like moving around from school to school. >> So it's part of child find. So um we before co we offered screenings once a year

080um and that what that did is looked at children's readiness skills if they have if they might need to be referred to special ed or other services in the city. Um during co that went away and we're starting to come we're starting to bring that back. Uh so this past year we did um two rounds of screenings and this year we're hoping to do three. Out of those screenings, we were able to identify skill uh students that maybe needed a little bit more school readiness skills. Um we focused on play, SEAL, um speech, language, fine motor, and gross motor skills. Um and we're able to have some intervention groups. We're hoping to expand that intervention group. We're planning on doing three rounds of that this year. So students can join an intervention group of from

081four to six weeks. And at the end of that four to six weeks, if we don't see improvement, um then we were referring them to a special ed evaluation. >> Okay. So, do those specialists who are working with those students, are they sort of driving from school to school or just the in all of that stuff? >> So, it's available citywide and it happens after school. So, it might be like 4 to 4 to 6 or 6:00 to 7:30. Um um and it's a a wide variety of specialists that come that do the intervention. So, it might be an OT, it might be a special ed teacher, might be a speech therapist. So it's a they do like stations and each station is focuses on one skill that a student may need. >> Awesome. Thank

082you so much. I appreciate it. >> If you can stay actually do anything further question I just have a follow question. I was going to ask about the screening as well. So is that open to any any child and family in the city? It's not just in the prek partnership or incident three to five um in the city of sale. So, they only have to just bring one proof of, um, residency, whether that be a bill, a license, uh, for the parent or guardian, and then we do a screening. It's it takes about 10 to 15 minutes. We do a quick history about the student, any concerns the parent may have, and then we do a quick screening around different skills. >> Okay. >> Good. >> Thank you. >> Any further updates? >> Just uh

083final two final things. Tomorrow night is the um back to Oh, not tomorrow night. Wednesday night is the back to school bash. Now, I'll be there alone. The weather's going to be beautiful both nights, but it is Wednesday night 4 to 8 at Salt and Stall School. We hope to see you there. Partnering with the Salem Teachers Union, with police, fire, the city of Salem. So, it's always a great event. So, hope to see some of you there. Um, and the last thing I just I meant to put on the slide, but it is in the news quite a bit is we the committee does have to um work on the competency determination again for um the school district. We did uh we we made a policy change uh this spring, but there have been

084updates to the requirements that department h department of ed is requiring districts to include in their policy. It has to be a policy. I know um you know I know that uh how much the policy team loves shifts in the policies but this is required that it be voted on by the school committee and we have till December 31st to make those changes. So that is um an important step that we're um a vote that the school committee has to take before the end of this calendar year. So I just want to preview you all to that. And with that um turn it back over to you mayor. >> Is there any finance and operations report update besides what you >> No report this evening. Okay, we've already made a report, pretty substantial one. So,

085thank you. Any reports from the subcommittees? Yep. Member Miranda. >> Thank you. Uh the buildings and ground subcommittee met at the beginning of August um and we took a look at the updated facility rental forms um and provided some feedback. The document was created by the facilities team and um I think during that subcommittee it was um clear to read and um for those that apply to rent space in our schools and Elizabeth I don't know if there's anything else that you wanted to add on to that >> just that we modeled that one page after the Framingham public schools template for communicating their facility rental. >> Perfect. That's all. Any subcommittees? No. Uh, we have no motions or resolutions for this evening. Are there any announcements from committee members? Seeing none. >> Oh, yep.

086Member Miranda. >> Uh, sorry. Um, August 10th, I think it was, we received uh a letter about the Hall of Fame. And I just wanted to ask if I don't know if anybody can clarify like >> what are I mean I can speak to it. Yeah, we did receive a letter about um including uh teams for consideration for the sports hall of fame or the athletic hall of fame and that was referred to the hall of fame committee and they had a meeting on last Thursday night and my understanding is that they are very um interested in um in in um inclusive of teams which is a very common practice for hall of fames. They just wanted they had to they needed more time to like officially vote on it and then it'll come back

087to the um the I I guess the policy subcommittee is where it went before. But I um back to the policy. All roads lead to policy and um but I I my sense is in in talking to uh the policy subcommittee chair that there's support for for that. But we wanted to go to the Hall of Fame committee um first and there seems to be universal support for like being inclusive of teams and we communicated back to the person that sent us the email. >> Awesome. um the con like the process um was kind of what I was trying to figure out like what our our role is there. So that's helpful. Thank you. >> Any further announcements? Seeing none. Member Cruz. >> I'd like to make a motion to adjurnn. >> I'll second. >>

088Under discussion. Seeing none. All in favor? Any opposed? We are ajourned. Thank you everyone. Everybody needs to stay.