001All right, I'm going to call the regular school committee meeting uh on September 8th to order at 7:04 uh p.m. Uh and at this time and I just wanted to note that um we have two members joining us remote. So all uh votes will be done via roll call. Uh that's both member Manning and member Cornell. Uh and the first item on the agenda is uh approval of the regular school committee agenda. Do I have a motion to approve the regular school committee agenda? >> Second. >> Motion made by member Campbell, seconded by member Miranda. All those in favor via roll call vote. Uh member Miranda. >> Yes. >> Member Campbell. >> Yes. >> Member Hoffman. >> Yes. >> Member Cornell. >> Yes. Member Manning. >> Yes. >> Member Cruz. Uh yes. That is uh
002six members votings uh in the affirmative. So the motion carries. Uh this time we're going to move to the consent agenda. Um, and I just wanted to note that SAM school committee would like to hear from members of the public on issues that affect the school district and that 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 the Salem public school students regularly attend uh, school committee meetings and and we encourage all meeting participants to model respectful and productive public discourse for our young learners. Uh, Spanish interpretation again is is provided. So, uh, you can either follow, uh, the instructions listed on the publicly, uh, facing agenda, uh, or you can reach out, uh,
003on the email provided, uh, to receive interpretation. Uh, but at this time, I'd like to open it up for public comment, uh, here in person in the school committee chamber. Seeing none, I'm going to move us online. Do we have any public comment online? >> Okay, great. Uh, so we'll move to the next item on the agenda, which is the approval of the consent agenda. >> Do we have a motion to approve? >> Move to approve. I don't see anything on it, though. >> Yeah. >> Oh, there's nothing on the Oh, that's right. So, I think we can just skip over that item and we can at our back to school school committee meeting turn to our new student representative for your first report. Welcome. >> Thank you so much. Um, before I submit the
004report to everyone, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Cindy Sula and I am a senior at Salem High School and I've been living at Salem for the last four years where I was also introduced to the Salem schools in my freshman year. I moved here from Albania and I am certified through the seal of biiteracy in two languages, Alb Al Albanian and Spanish, three if you also include English. I'm currently enrolled in multiple AP courses such as AP biology, AP language and composition. And outside of the school day, I participate in an MUN, mentoring, tutoring, student advisory, skills USA, national honors society, and technical honor society. Something else that is not really related to academics is that I love to cook and I've also volunteered at a kitchen in an elderly daycare
005center. And I love to read, write, and do research. And after high school, I plan to go to college at NYU as a premed major. And kicking off the school year. There is a lot going on in the agenda. We just had our freshman orientation, which was very successful. And according to multiple freshman reports, many found it very helpful getting to classes, getting to know their teachers, and have even seen a gradual improving in their initial grades. I also wanted to speak on the new dates for PSATs and the seats that are actually almost full this year compared to the years before that, including the senior SAT seats, which are in October 21st. I also wanted to mention the AP results going up, which is a report that came out in the end of July,
006where 168 out of the 253 testers actually scored more than a three, which makes that 66.4% 4% of students and this was since the year 2007. I also would like to mention the new cafeteria options which are way more inclusive than they used to be in the years before that where now we have gluten-free options, allergen friendly options, and now students can also get dinner at school and also multiple lunches in case they need one. Um, other than that, there isn't really much going on yet. We are preparing for spirit week and fall sports have just kicked off. Grades are just starting to come out and students are pretty pumped to be there. Thank you so much. >> Thank you so much for that wonderful first report. >> Thank you. >> You did, I think,
007an excellent job. I would just note that myself and member Campbell are the committee's liaison to for student voice. So, we help support the student advisory council and yourself as student representative. So, we'll make sure that you get our contact information in the event that you have any questions as you on board, but we're really excited about your leadership. You've already given us a comprehensive update. So, uh I'm going to open it up to committee members for any questions, uh that they'd like to make of the student representative report if we have any. I'm going to check with both member Manning and uh member Cornell. Any questions for our student representative? >> Nope, I'm good. Okay, >> I'm also good. >> Excellent. Welcome. >> Thank you. >> So, with that, I'll turn it over to
008the superintendent for the next item on the agenda, the superintendent's report. >> All right. Good evening, everybody. I think that report is way better than any report I've ever given. So, like now you're making me look bad, Sydney. Um, no, but I'm excited to work with you. And we have our first meeting with the advisory group next Monday at Salem High School. And we have a really good group of students who uh are coming back from last year. And I know uh Miss McDonald's in the audience and she worked very closely with uh some of the student leaders over the summer on some change projects for the high school and we're going to continue that work throughout the year. So, we'll be in touch and hopefully we can get that meeting organized with the school
009committee that we've been trying to organize with the student um uh the student group. Just it's been hard logistically with schedules, but we'll work on that, Sydney. Right. If you can pull that off, that will be >> like the signature of your tenure here. So, um with uh just a couple things on u my report, I just want to thank everybody for um a smooth start to the school year. Uh well, almost smooth. We we have some transportation things we got to work on, but um I I really want to applaud our staff. Um I think our schools did a great job of getting ready uh to welcome students this year. I I really our facilities team did an awesome job getting the buildings um prepared and you know our teachers as they always uh
010do. Our kids were uh you know were greeted by smiling faces, excited, enthusiastic and I really want to call out the Collins team who really was gracious in opening their doors to a whole new group of students from Salt and Stall. That's never easy but even talking to Mr. softic today. Um it it's uh he he said it was smoother than the the last two years, which says a lot because we've added 150, you know, or so new students here. So, but that's a credit to the whole team um at Collins um who's who really worked hard to u you know to um to be flexible with the growth in this building. We're still trying to work on the growing pains of all the cars coming here. Um and I don't know what this building
011did when there was over a thousand students here. I uh different time, maybe more walkers, less cars, I don't know. But um uh again, very grateful for everybody for the start of the school year. Just a couple notes. I do want to just call out our um facilities team who did a great job uh with the city around the opening of the Bates playground. The playground is beautiful. If you haven't had a chance to check it out, um it is uh one that uh I wish we I think every child wishes they had the opportunity to play on. Um I do just want to note that uh we um uh on on u attendance and enrollment uh so far we are about 80 students above where we were at this time last year. 80 to
01290 which is a good thing. Uh I hope that that trend continues. We're still waiting to see how things shake out with students arriving um in school but by now we've been able to determine which students are not coming back. Um and so that hopefully that holds. that will be an increase over the previous uh year and we are still enrolling students uh each day. Uh students are coming to us so that's a good sign. Um transportation is always tricky for us and it's been tricky this year. I think that there's more traffic. There's changes in start and end times. Uh we've got uh we've you know we've definitely have um some growing pains in the afternoon that we're still working on. Um and so uh I just ask for everybody's patience. is I think
013we're going to need probably another week or so for things to iron out um in the afternoon in particular uh as schools um the second tiers get backed up with the first tiers schools and I uh deputy superintendent Carbon and I had a chance to ride the buses on Friday afternoon >> my week >> and that was a highlight. Yes, it we ended our week on the buses and I will tell you I am just blown away by everybody should do that at some point just to see uh because you you traverse the city multiple times and I will say that there is just a lot of congestion out there particularly on Fridays and um it's I have a lot of respect for bus drivers and bus monitors and everybody who does that work. Um,
014but it was good for us to see. There's definitely some tweaks we need to make in terms of route sheets and making sure our monitors have all the information that they have. We're fortunate that we have monitors on school buses. Um, and but I think they need more guidance and we're working with NRT on all of those things. So, I appreciate everybody's patience. Um, Elizabeth, I know you wanted to say something about um I also learned and Elizabeth will talk about this that parents really rely on the GPS on the um on the GPS as I system uh the uh the stopfinder and as I was seeing parents at the bus stop, you could see everybody's glued to their phone and they were quick to tell me it wasn't wasn't working on Friday or there
015were problems with it. And so Elizabeth was just going to give a brief update about that. Yes, thank you. And thank you to the parents and families and educators who have been so patient as the roots shake out and and um settle into what we hope will be a very safe and efficient and timely school year through transportation. Uh we do have an app called Tripfinder uh that families are using to track where their students bus and um it has been a source as the superintendent mentioned of great frustration in the last week because the bus actually disappears from the app when the bus is running late. And to us in the transportation office, that is exactly when parents want to see where the bus is. And so we were able to connect with Transfinder
016um which is the company that provides our rooting software and the app and adjust the settings during the day today. So the afternoon in today's afternoon commute um parents could see the bus for up to 40 minutes beyond its expected arrival time. And so we think that should help parents at least keep an eye on their bus um their child's bus for longer. So there was a problem with the settings that has since been adjusted. And so we hope this will be a good tool instead of a source of frustration for families. >> I would also just point out another challenge that we're having is Collins at dismissal. It's uh really really congested here uh where there's all kinds of people coming for sports. There's the, you know, staff leaving, which, you know, at the
017end of the day, there's parents coming. There's buses, more buses, more kids, more families. So, I want to just thank Salem police because they were here with me today watching um dismissal and we're going to try to make some adjustments based on input that we have. Um, you know, Salem is Salem, so the traffic is the traffic, but we're going to try to make as many tweaks as we can. Um, and they're going to assess over the next couple days and give us their feedback about uh what are the some ch shifts we can make to assist with Collins. I mean, it's part of all, you know, it's just part of the the growing pains of bringing more kids onto this campus, which in the end was the right I think is the right thing
018to do, but we these are some of the things you can never really totally plan for until you see it in action. So, uh, please bear with us as we make those adjustments. But overall, I'm really impressed with the way schools have started and I think we're off to a really positive start in the Salem public schools. So, thank you to all our staff and our educators for um you know, a great launch to this school year. Um the I just give a quick update uh on the school building project. Um since our last meeting, the MSBA board did vote to approve the Salem High School's projects preferred schematic report, which is an really important milestone. It doesn't sound that important, but it is. the MSBA um that's their uh support of the direction we're
019going with the new facility of a 9 to12 building new construction and that we got support to move forward. The next um part is to now uh submit the design uh the final design. So, between now and um the in December, uh we will be looking at um the final design and we're going to be engaging with Salem High School staff again to look at the now more of the details in the spaces. Uh you'll see those meetings upcoming in the next few weeks and months and ultimately we'll be submitting in December to the MSBA sort of the final design of the uh project. Um, I will note that the MSBA did uh indicate that they would be shifting some of the reimbursement for the uh for building projects, which is good news for Salem.
020It means that the reimbursement rates will uh hopefully increase after January 1st of this year. Um, you know, shifting in to respond to increased construction costs and so forth, which for the project and for the potential debt exclusion uh is something very um uh you know, will be beneficial to Salem. We'll also be uh in the next week I hope uh have uh designs the designs of the project up in every elementary school and middle school and high school um aboard with the design so people can see it, kids can see it, families and staff can see it at open houses um so that folks can begin to see what this building uh will likely look like um if everything goes as planned. Um, I will also note at the same meeting we also got
021approval for the Bates school roof project which is needed as as those of you who have been to Bates know that there's leaks uh particularly in the gym. Um, and so it's desperately needed and that project was approved with approximately $2.5 million in reimbursement from uh the MSBA and that project I believe will be next summer. Elizabeth, is that right? The Bates roof project. Um, that that will be work that's done. Um, yeah, next summer. So, uh, and then finally, we were visited by the lieutenant governor, old friend, uh, mayor, former mayor Kim Driscoll, uh, who came to, uh, learn a little bit about the cartwheel mental health program that we offer with the commissioner of, uh, DPH was here as well. I want to thank Alan Windingard for facilitating and, um, also Liz Yoder.
022and we had our students and we had parents talk about their experience with uh telemental health and the number of students that we've been able to serve over the last few years. So, those are my updates. Um and then we have two items to discuss tonight which I'm going to turn over to our deputy superintendent Carboni. Uh we're going to share some information about our summer programming. Um and then give you a little update on our favorite topic, artificial intelligence. um which we shared some information from with staff and we want to give you uh on the committee a preview of some of the work that we hope to undertake as a district this school year. So I'll turn it over to deputy superintendent >> before we dive in. I just wanted to take a
023moment to pause because I think you give a good amount of updates and just to check in with members of the committee uh if they had any questions or comments regarding the first half of the superintendent's updates and um Cindy for our uh student representative you're like any other member on the committee except for that you don't get to vote. So, if you just raise your hand and you want to be acknowledged with a question or comment, just I'll I'll track you down. Any Okay. Uh, member Miranda and then member Hoffman. >> I just had um a a comment and then hopefully we can get a little bit of followup, but a couple of parents have uh stated that there's no crossing guard at a couple of the crosswalks that are um pretty busy crosswalks
024such as North Street. Um, so just wanted to kind of like highlight that for you. Um, I know that we have the Salem Police Department taking care of that. Um, but I assume that they're in communication with you. Um, and yeah, so some parents might be a bit concerned. >> Yeah. And if um, if there are um, specific places that of concern, if you could email me those. I know there's been concerns that out in front of Salt and Stall and behind Salt and Stall there hadn't been consistent crossing guards. um that has now been adjusted. Um and I know Salem Police is uh trying to hire more crossing guards for additional areas. There's they they don't have enough funds for I think everywhere, but there are still some unfilled locations. And if there are
025particular areas, please have families email me um or school committee members can as well so we can look into that. I'm also happy to provide you all with a list of where we have crossing guards scheduled to be if that would be helpful. >> Sure. the two that I heard um it was North Street and then outside of Collins >> on Jackson Street. >> Yeah. Yeah. There should be somebody there, but sometimes that person isn't consistently there. But I Yeah, I I'll send you a list and those of you who know the streets better than I do can also comment on where you what you think about um the locations or lack of locations. >> Thank you, Member Miranda. Anything further? No, that's all. Thank you. >> Member Hoffman. >> Two things to kind of
026piggy back off of that. Um I was wondering if down at Jackson Street if we could talk to the police department about the remember the flashing light I had put by the bus stop at Salts on Lafayette Street. >> Yep. >> I know that that they had told me before that they can easily get those in place. I'm wondering if that could be something to kind of remind people that there are children crossing when there isn't >> on Jack >> school has more walkers I feel like. >> Yeah. >> On Jackson. You're saying on Jackson Street? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Yep. And then my other question is um I think it's a great idea to put all the pictures of the new high school in all the schools, but can we also consider the community
027center >> so that the general public can also see because I think we need to get the word out to families that don't have and haven't had kids in the public schools for a long time to see what the needs are and what it's going to look like and what the more information we give to people I think the better. So, because I also hear people saying that we don't need a high school or just fix up what we have and I think we need to get that messaging out >> in a in a good way for people to understand. >> Yep. >> Yeah, we're Thank you. And we're uh we we'll we're printing up a bunch of boards. So, uh hopefully we can Any suggestions you have for other locations that makes sense as
028well. Um yeah, thank you for that those suggestions. >> Anything further? Member Hoffman? Thank you. Uh I'm going to turn to the folks online. Member Cornell and member Manning. Uh any questions about the first half of the superintendent's uh update or comments? >> No, thank you. >> No, I don't have anything. >> Thank you. >> Can I just add one more thing that I've neglected? I we did receive good news today that Laura Assad has been appointed uh by the Department of Education to the racial imbalance advisory council for the state of Massachusetts, which is uh great news. um and they will they look at trends statewide around racial imbalance. They analyze information across districts around inequities and they make it um they make recommendations uh to the legislature and as well to the desi
029board relating to imbalances that they see uh statewide. So I want to congratulate Laura on that appointment which was shared with me today. So, um I know she's not here this evening, but if you uh that's a good representation and a voice for Salem on an important uh statewide committee. So, >> thank you for that update. Superintendent Ryak has done some really important work over the last couple of years. So, congratulations to Mr. >> You know the acronym, Mr. Cruz. I >> I know him well. Government soup. I I learned it in seventh grade. >> With that, I think we're turning to the deputy superintendent. >> Mhm. >> Okay. Uh well, I I definitely concur with the superintendent. I think we've had a tremendous opening. Um couple glitches with the buses, but overall just um
030things have gotten off to a really good start, but I did not want to miss the opportunity for us to give you sort of a retrospective on what we our kids did over the summer. We do offer a robust um uh f set of fun and learner centered uh summer programs and um we just you know the things have settled down from the summer and the numbers are in. So, we wanted to share with you um some information about enrollment and also content. And so, I want to welcome um Taylor McDonald who is our director of director of extended academics and enrichment. And she really is the architect of the summer programs, works really closely with leadership and our educators uh who uh work in the summer to um shape those programs, also with our
031community partners as well. Um, and I just want to, you know, say thank you to Taylor. When most people are off in the summer, she's really on. So, she's very hands-on and on-site in the programs, um, you know, supervising, supporting kids, supporting the partners, making sure that everything's running efficiently and making sure that she's monitoring quality. So, she really um is working hard in the summer. And I also want to just um tip my hat to her as well because a lot of what you're going to hear tonight, she is actually writing grants um to support that. So there are some monies in the operating budget, but the majority of it does come from a pretty um intensive grant writing um throughout the year. So um thank you for that, Taylor. And I'm going to
032turn the mic over to you. >> Thank you. That was very nice. Thank you. Um, and thank you for inviting me to talk about summer in September. Um, as the weather gets cooler. Um, yeah. So, this summer we had, um, a lot going on in our schools. We had, um, various students from preK all the way to 12 and partners, we collaborated with a lot of partners as well. Um so we will just review some of the numbers um from the high level and then I'll take you through all of the programs um with some quick highlights from each of the programs. Um so to start in total we had seven not seven 11 summer programs um and we served just over 600 students this summer. we provided and 1,125 summer program hours. Um, and
033we couldn't have done that with our fac without our facilities team. So, our food service department provided um breakfast and lunch to all of our students in our programs. Um, the transportation department was super, it was great in the summer. We had a great transportation experience this summer. Um, we served um 400 students. We transported them to and from program and that doesn't include our program field trips which there was plenty. Um the facilities department worked hard to make sure that the three buildings that we were operating out of were cool. Um we didn't have any big AC issues. Um they were safe, they were clean, and very welcoming for our students and staff. And then lastly, we couldn't have run um the large-scale summer programs without our community partners. and we we collaborate with
034various community partners um local and then also um we took some trips into Boston as well. Um yeah, so a quick overview. So to start um I'll start with our summer academy. And so our summer academy is our largest scale elementary program. We partner with the Salem YMCA. Um and so in the morning students are um engaged in project- based learning with the support of Salem public school teachers. And so we serve rising first graders all the way to rising fifth graders. Um the at each grade span the students are working on standards that they're going to see in the upcoming year. So it's almost like a preview of where they're going. Our first and second graders were doing a playful learning bicycle unit. So they learned all about the bicycle safety and paths around
035the city, brought in the police department and some other local um businesses and the students then developed like a bike safe city using recyclables. Our third graders worked with Salem Sound Coastwatch to learn all about pollution and how to protect our Salem Sound. And then our fourth graders were working um with various community partners doing more investigative work um thinking about what are the resources in our community and then also what are the barriers that um we can kind of address to help our families reach those resources. And then our fifth graders um learned all about composting and are being thought partners in our elementary schools as we kick off composting this year in our elementary schools. Um we served the um average service of students was 184 in that program. Um and it was
036a full day program. In the afternoon they went over to the Y well they were in the same building but the YMCA took over and it was bringing in that camp-like feel. So they did fun engaging camp activities. Um also at the elementary level we have our ELSA program. So our ELSA program services our multilingual learners. Um that program is a little bit smaller. We served about 35 students and the theme this year was plants and animals. So students are working on developing their English language um as they get to investigate the wonderful world of plants and animals. And in the afternoon we partner with campfire. Um so students go over to campfire and they get to partake in the pool. Um fun STEM activities and other camp-like um offerings that campfire provides. They this
037summer they went down to the zoo. They had curious creatures come in. So they really got to interact with a lot of different plants and animals. And then they had a wonderful showcase at the end of program um showcasing all that they've learned. Um, so our middle school program, we partner with Leap for Education and Leap for Education has been our partner for expanding horizons for many years now. Um, we served 84 students at the middle school program. And so it's a similar to the um the summer academy where we focus on project- based learning serving rising sixth graders to rising eighth graders. And there was various um project-based learning opport opportunities that the students parttook in. One highlight was the partnership with the PEM and it was the woven dreams um PBL where uh
038students were investigating and learning all about the various immigrant stories. Um a big emphasis on writing in this program and then they were also highlighted at the PEM. So their work got to be on display at the PM which was pretty cool. We this year we pilot piloted a second middle school program um a work-based learning program in partnership with the YMCA. This was a two-eek program and it was designed to um preview or begin to develop some of the rising eighth graders um workforce uh career workforce development job readiness skills. So there was two various tracks. the childcare track where they're learning all about the different careers in childare and then they got to um apply their skills uh with the youth that are at the YMCA and then there was also a fitness
039and exercise track which was very similar. Um we were also able to use our career connected literacy beable um to do the summer splash uh contest that all the middle schoolers were welcome to join. And that that program was it was a pilot. So it was two weeks. It went off great. Um so pending funding hopefully we can find something uh similar that we can offer next year. So moving up to our high school level one um program or this is actually two programs that I think um are very connected to our strategic plan. Um, so we have a 21C internship program and so we target students who are high school students who are interested in pursuing careers in education and we recruit them to work within our summer programs. So we had 14 high
040school students working alongside our um our summer academy and our expanding horizon programs. And each week the interns also are expected to participate in the job readiness um workshop where they're building their own skills and competencies so then they can in turn work better with our students. Um this program is also going to continue this summer I mean this school year which is exciting exciting and most of those student interns want to continue working this school year. So, it's very great to see that they want to continue with education. Um, and then lastly, we we piloted this year, which um Dr. Zich alluded to earlier, our YPAR internship where our three high school interns were working closely with our rising our summer connects program which will be highlighted next to learn a little bit more
041about our fresh our incoming freshmen and how they can help support the school in um making sure that the fresh freshmen feel supported so that they can find success in their high school careers. Um, so Summer Connects is our rising ninth grade program and it's for students entering the high school and it really helps build their foundation so that when they're in high school they understand the schedule, um, what the expectations are, how to best navigate the school while also building a sense of connection and community with their staff, the a few of the um, the freshman teachers and then also other freshmen that are going to be with them in the upcoming year and this program they got out and they got to do some fun things while also building their um working on
042some academic skills as well at the high school. Um every year our special education department runs a wonderful extended year program prek through 12. Um this year they got really fun. They had a mascot in that top left corner you'll see it was a sloth, Sammy the sloth. So Sammy was always giving updates and announcements to um parents and families with daily challenges. We had visits from um Derby and the fire department, the Salem Public Library and um there was it was highly attended. So we have about 102 students who attend that program which is based off of their um individual education plans. And then lastly, we did have our not yet academy, which is credit recovery for our high school students. Um, so that's for our 10th, 11th, and 12th graders. And this year,
043we serve just about 90 students in Not Yet Academy. Um, with very strong attendance. So, and that's it. That was a lot, but that's that's what we did this summer. Um, if you have any questions, um, I can answer them. And if not, thank you again for um, taking time to listen to what we did. Well, thank you, Miss McDonald. It's uh always good to see you and this is a comprehensive update and certainly want to echo the sentiments of the superintendent. It takes a lot of work to coordinate with uh so many partners to be able to serve our students. Uh so I I want to turn to members of the committee for any questions or comments about the summer program update. Seeing none in person, none from Cindy either. Uh checking with members
044online. Member Cornell or member Manning. Any questions for Miss McDonald? Uh, no I have no questions. Just thank you. It's wonderful as always. >> No, I have no questions. >> I do have one question um just regarding the summer internship program which I I think is just fantastic that we have 17 students who are really committed uh to exploring opportunities within education. How much uh compensation did they receive through the program if any? >> Yeah, they did. They got paid hourly if they can if they did their time sheet which okay was a learning curve. Um no we made sure they did their time sheet but yeah they got paid hourly and um they worked for the most part about like 90% of them worked the the time of the program. So at our elementary
045school um program that was 200 hours over the summer >> and then at our uh our middle school program that was 120 hours. So it was a lot. It was a they went in hard. going from 0 to 60. >> That's another growing future pipeline for us to explore. And my only ask would be if the superintendent could work with uh principal Burns on seeing if some of these students are potential recruits for the Salem High School's early college educator pathway. I think uh you have a captive audience there, if you will, uh superintendent of students who could be potential future educators in our district. >> Absolutely. >> Exc. Well, seeing no further questions from members of the committee. Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Taylor. So the AI. Okay. So we're going to
046move on to AI which Mark is going to come up. Um we recognize this this is a a rapidly developing area in technology the the artificial intelligence and um excuse me. We've had several members of our team connecting to networks um over the last year or so to learn about um how schools and districts are navigating this terrain. Um several of us went to the superintendent, myself, um Mark, U member Cornell, we had several educators join us for a day of AI at MIT last year, um which was really felt like we were at the epicenter of sort of the cutting edge around um AI. Um we Mark and I have also sat on um committees at um Desessie Mark for the IT leads and myself for um district leaders. Um so we're excited to
047start to work with um our teams here to share information about how to use um AI as a tool for both educators and our students. Um it's exciting and yet a little bit scary because it is so new and is um developing so fast. Um but we are committed to being thoughtful about how we navigate next steps. And a couple things that we are sort of you know committing to are is frequent communication both internally and externally to uh families to develop resources and guidance. And then we will at some point need to be working with the policy committee around some policies um to sort of frame uh the space. But last week we did uh put out a message to all staff and we put those materials in the um the packet for you
048to review. So it's a first step um in providing some guidance. Um and then Mark is going to talk about those materials as well as some upcoming um professional development and um uh like a task force committee um to work over the course of the year. So over to you Mark. >> Great. Thank you. Um yeah, so we spent a lot of last year learning and listening. Um so we I was on uh went to several conferences, lots of AI sessions. We were uh part of a desi cohort that learned all about AI and how to how schools can be implementing AI from other um national uh partners. And we spent a lot of time going to various committees um and existing groups to really hear what people thought about AI. We went to the
049teacher advisory group, the student advisory group, the family uh uh family improvis advisory group. Um we went to various uh teams that in Salem public schools really do some basic training and then do some listening like what did people think about AI like what are the things that we should be taking into consideration when we're looking at guidance and and training and different things that we can be doing. Um, so taking all of that information, this summer I spent time um, working on a a variety of different documents which are in your packet. Um, the most important one is our guidelines to our educators to make sure that they understand that AI is a really powerful tool that can really help in a lot of ways. Um, but there are some important dos and some
050important don'ts with AI. So we wanted to make sure that we have some basic information out there that explains um, what you can do and what you should not do with AI. Um, additionally with that, we also have a student function chart that we've provided educators that they can use when they're looking at their own assignments um that they can give to their students and tell their students number one, is AI allowed on this assignment? And if it is, at what level? Is it something that they can use as I use AI to do some research? I can use it for an outline. I can use it for citations or I can't use it at all. Um, luckily now that um, Google has changed some of their policies, they add include Gemini, which is their
051application um, into their blanket um, uh, uh, privacy agreement that we signed. So now that can be used by all students at any age level, which was not the case last year. So there'll definitely be some um, some AI training that we're going to be doing with students in library digital skills this year um, with those that are age appropriate based on the grade level. We also want to do some training. So, we have uh a variety of training sessions. We're going to try to do one a month. We have the outlines of our uh training sessions in there that will be afterchool sessions that educators could come to um virtually and get paid to learn about AI and the ways that they can be using AI in their classrooms to make um make their
052teaching more effective and make their lives easier hopefully. Um, we also are putting together a uh a technology advisory committee so we can continue listening because we want to be able to get voices from people in the field, people that are in the classrooms. Um, so that we're they're inform helping us inform our in our work that we're doing. Um, so that posting we I'm hoping that posting will be out by the end of the week. um we'll be able to AI will be a part of it but I think there's even more to AI that you know so when we're making decisions about hardware purchases software that we're using what's you know what what decisions and what things should we be thinking about as a technology department that we have voices of educators and
053community partners as well um involved with those decisions questions >> members of the committee any questions for Mark looking in person seeing none. Cindy, any questions for Mark? >> I don't have any questions, but I do have a comment. >> Please feel free. >> Um, my only comment is related to the student AI function chart. I was reading over it and I do believe it is a really great idea seeing that I myself am a student and oftentimes AI is very is a very helpful tool especially when it comes to resources or sometimes even reading a summary of a really long text something like that. So I really do believe that having AI as an available tool in certain assignments based on what the teachers would like to see is a really good idea. So
054yeah, that was really all I had related to that. >> Excellent. Uh any uh comments from member Cornell or uh member Manning regarding this update? >> I don't have a question. I would just like to note as I feel like I always do just how much I appreciate Mark's leadership on this that we're forward thinking and we're a district that um you know is thinking about how we're going to use AI as a tool to help our students succeed in high school and beyond. So uh I'm just very appreciative of how thoughtfully the district has approached this. Um it feels like it was a million years ago that we went to that conference at MIT. So, um, it's just great to see stuff moving and implemented now. So, thanks, Mark. >> Thank you, Member Cornell.
055Um, I'm going to just check with member Manning and then we have a question or comment from member Miranda. Member Manning, any questions about this? >> No, not really. I I would say thank you to Mark, but I don't have the uh the question or the um wherewithal to make a a statement tonight. Understood. Uh, member Miranda, I saw your hand. >> Yeah, I didn't see anything in here um as far as like mental health um but just wanted to highlight and and ask do we have any thoughts about really engaging the students and making sure that AI is um not used to replace like real connections with humans. And then also if a student uses Google Gemini um and there's some like language that's used with the AI will that trigger like some type
056of response from administrators? >> Yeah. So um to the first question that is part of the work that we're going to be doing this year is to make we have library and digital skills where we're teaching technology training and you know we're already doing that with social media. We're doing a lot of um you know instruction to students on like what the the potential adverse effects of social media. So AI falls right into that. Um our curriculum material that we subscribe to actually has AI modules that they've just released for this school year. So I haven't honestly I haven't even looked at them because they just came out. But yeah, that's it's very important that we're do just the same way that we treat social media. AI should be the same in my opinion. Um
057we do have a filter. Um we have a we have an alerting system that is built into all of our Google um products and Gemini would be part of it so that if there's anything that a student writes into a chatbot that is considered you know that that that raises some suspicion about some uh mental health or well-being of the student. There are uh designated individuals in each school that get alerts um that so they can follow up with the student. Sometimes they're like false positives but sometimes they're not. So, um, yeah, that'll be covered under the same alerting system. >> That's amazing. Thanks so much. >> And Deputy Superintendent, >> if I can just add that at the, um, day of AI, they did a whole session on, um, uh, AI and and school
058counselors. Um, and it was really informative and it might be something that we add to the professional development. it was really about students interacting with the bots and how that you know can get um a little um tricky and so it might even be something that we consider um for families too as a family outreach workshop. >> Any further questions or comments on this update? >> Member Cruz, can I just add one more thing to um what uh Kate just said? >> Of course. Um, one thing and and I think this is interesting for you also, member Miranda, so maybe we can talk about this at some point. Um, part of what I found really interesting, I'm not I'm not sure how I feel about it, but um, at the MIT conference, there were, uh,
059school counselors and, you know, professionals in the AI world who were talking about the fact that AI bots actually could be helpful with helping students who are on the autism spectrum to kind of understand facial cues, understand tone. Um, it it's it was it was extremely interesting to me. And so I know I for me I feel like my first reaction is to be a little bit fearful of like a pretend person talking to kids. Uh, but it's some of there's some potential there for uh I think some um some useful some usefulness from from that kind of u AI learning. Thank you, Member Cornell. And I'd certainly agree and I would just add on my end um that there's a lot more opportunity with AI and education. So, I' I've been on an AI
060uh learning journey for three years and uh outside of my role here on the school committee and I think that there's a lot of good emerging practices that I'm I'm seeing in the field. One thing that I would just note is that the federal government did just update their um their grants uh to allow for school districts to apply for uh an acceptable use of the federal grants uh for education uh includes AI professional development and other pieces. So as we think about our applications um to the feds uh we can consider that as one of our potential options. And then the other piece that I'm I'm happy to circulate this to members of the committee and then certainly to um the superintendent and the the deputy superintendent and Mark here um is that the
061uh as part of the AI uh task force from the white house uh they have released several initiatives regarding AI and education. One of them is a presidential challenge uh for AI and education um and essentially to allow for educators and students to try to use AI to solve you know real world problems. So there's some opportunities for uh students to be um engaged on civic projects using AI. So I'll send the information over in the event that it's of interest um to the district to see these our educators or students uh could partake in um that type of uh challenge. Uh and then the other piece is that um I think that there's about 60 or so signitories to a AI pledge in education. Uh so all the major companies are talking about releasing
062uh curriculum and workforce development opportunities. So I think that that's another place. Um I I know that we already have a curriculum that we've subscribed to that you said just came hot off the press. But um you know I'd be very interested in seeing in the next couple months. I think Google's going to be rolling out new curriculums and models. They're they're heavily invested in some new cohorts around professional development. And then um I was just really thrilled Mark to hear that you uh and the deputy superintendent had an opportunity to engage with Desi because I know that they recently released uh PD on AI and education. So you know I think there's a lot of opportunity here and as a gateway city. I think the only other thing that I would name about uh
063AI use is that it does also have some uh consequences for our environment. So, as we think about what we communicate around the use of AI, responsible use of AI, uh that we should transparently share with our educators and our students that almost every time that you put in a prompt, you're spending the equivalent of a bottle of water. Um, so, you know, those are the types of ethical considerations that as we continue to navigate how we are leveraging AI in our classrooms, uh, that we give our students and educators kind of the full picture of the landscape. So, not seeing any other questions or comments. Thank you, Mark. >> Thanks, Mark. >> Um, yeah, thank you, Mark. Uh, can I just add one thing before I close? I do want to just uh preview
064the committee. There's three policies that are coming down the pike that are important for the committee to eventually vote on um that are uh requests through the Department of Education um that we'll be discussing in the next two months. One is we do need um from the guidelines that came around CTE, we need to have a middle school pathway policy for uh middle school exploration, which we do already some work on. Uh but this committee is going to have to approve that path uh policy for that pathway. The second is the high school uh since we have our own CTE programs, a um admiss our admissions criteria needs to be looked at again to make sure it matches the new guidance. I believe that it mostly does but it needs to be looked at through
065the lens of the new guidance the state has provided. Um I believe we have until November to do both of those. And then uh finally the competency determination which we you you approved the policy last year. Uh but since that time the state has put out new guidance around uh the high school equivalency. Um and uh now each district is being asked to submit new competency determination um that the department will I think post and review for every district in the Commonwealth. And I think we have until the end of December to do that if I'm uh at the That's right. It's the end of December I think. So we'll be coming to you on those three. Those are really three important policies that we're going to need your support and want your opinion and
066your feedback to weigh in on before um you know they're approved by this committee. So with that uh I'll turn it back over to you um member Cruz. >> Thank you superintendent and uh I think when we get to the policy subcommittee update we can just refer those uh formally to the committee and then get the process started. Uh so moving on to the next item on the subcommittee reports. Uh finance subcommittee any report hearing none. Uh personnel subcommittee that's me no report. Uh building and ground subcommittee any report. Uh curriculum subcommittee any report. Uh policy subcommittee. Any report? Member Cornell? >> No. Um, I just uh I'd entertain a motion at this time to just refer uh the three policies referenced by the superintendent on CTE middle school pathways, admissions criteria at the high
067school level, and the competency determination to the policy subcommittee. >> So moved. >> I'll second. >> Motion made by member Campbell, seconded by member Miranda. All those in favor, roll call vote. Uh, member Hoffman, >> yes. >> Uh, member Campbell, >> yes. >> Member Miranda, >> yes. Member uh Manning >> here. Yes. >> Member Cornell, >> yes. >> Member Cruz, yes. Six members voting, six in the affirmative. The matter carries. So, those have been referred to policy. Um, moving us to motions and resolutions. Uh, we have one item here and it is the approval of a salary adjustment for the superintendent. And this is actually my update. Um, so per the contract with the superintendent, uh, just thought I'd give some context. Um, so annually as a school committee, uh, we are required over the
068course of the 5-year agreement that we set with the superintendent back in 2022, um, to meet to discuss annual compensation. Uh, we have not done that in 3 years. U, so, uh, we're a little, uh, out of step. Uh but since that time uh we've uh had a meeting with the superintendent where he recommended or requested a a 7% increase to kind of cover the last three years of um time in which we did not meet annually to discuss um his compensation. Uh so during that time we had a lot going on between uh our negotiations with three different unions. Um non-UN personnel got increases during that time. School committee members actually got increases during that same period of time. uh and then so did members of the executive leadership team. Uh so the the
069recommendation is currently uh to do a one-time uh 7% increase that essentially covers the back pay uh from the last 3 years. The annual average would be uh a 2.33% increase. Uh it's my understanding that this is less than uh what non-UN personnel received and certainly um some of those other same groups. Um, and what I would name is, uh, prior to putting this up for a motion is, uh, per the contract with the superintendent, I'm going to point folks, the public, uh, to article 4 of that particular, uh, contract agreement. Uh, so the school committee is supposed to meet with the superintendent prior to April 30th. Uh, the committee met to discuss this and we're going to ensure that we have an annual meeting to discuss the annual increase. U, we appreciate that the
070superintendent uh, was willing to take and make some sacrifices over the last three years. Uh but we want to make sure that for every employee in our district that we are following the letter of the law when it comes to our contracts and meeting our obligations. Um and so the the subsequent section um in article 4 lays out that uh following uh a annual salary increases shall apply during the terms of the agreement and it should be a minimum of a 2% increase uh for an evaluation of proficient or exemplary over the last three years. uh the superintendent in the first year in which we didn't have that meeting uh scored a proficient rating uh and then had two back-to-back years in which uh the superintendent had exemplary ratings from this committee. Uh so folks
071will recall that we usually talk about the superintendent's rating. Uh we start the process in the fall and then by February we're reporting out. Uh so we've we've had a superintendent who in backto-back years has been rated as exemplary. Uh has done I think a tremendous job of leading our district. I think asked for a lot less than quite frankly he deserves. That's my own uh personal belief. Um but I understand um that you wanted to uh I think be you wanted us as a committee to still honor the work that you had done uh without going above uh what other employees had received within the district. Um and I think that that's just a testament to your selflessness. And so appreciate you uh superintendent for uh taking um less than I think you deserve.
072Uh I think in other districts usually an exemplary rating is followed by a 3% increase. uh but that's not what you asked for here. Um so I just set that context to just provide members of the public with the full information on kind of uh the context of what we're doing uh as a committee here today. Um and so the the personnel subcommittee met. We referred to the full subcommittee in executive session. Uh we had further discussions about this particular contract. Uh and we put the recommendation on the table tonight. Members of the committee do appear ready to take this motion up this evening. Uh, and I did just want to note that the mayor is at the Derby Street Neighborhood Association, so he couldn't be here. Uh, but I would just note that he
073does support this recommendation. Um, and so at this time, I would entertain a motion from uh, members of the committee, and then we'll have some discussion um, for an approval of the 7% increase for the superintendent. >> Uh, move to approve. >> I'll second. >> Motion made by member Cornell, seconded. >> Campbell. >> Oh, member Campbell. I'm sorry, not enough coffee today. and then seconded by member Miranda. Under discussion, member Miranda. >> Thanks. Um, for all of the reasons that member Cruz uh stated, I just wanted to say publicly that I'm in favor of the superintendent's recommendation for seven 7% increase um for this one time. Um, and then just wanted to thank you for all of your your work and your leadership um in our district. I am so happy to be able to
074work alongside you in this work. Um and also to have you leading the district that um my child attends and so many other kids um attend and benefit from. Um so thank you so much. >> Thank you. Thank you. Other members of the committee under discussion. Member Cornell, member Manning, anything you'd like to offer? I wish there was more that I could offer because I like it when Steve is uncomfortable with this kind of praise. It delights me. Um, but I will just second what everybody else said and um really appreciate your leadership and uh an increase as well deserved and overdue. >> Thank you, Member Cornell. Member Manning. Okay. Uh so I'll I'll just note as the parliamentarian of this committee um I won't be here the next time that folks have to discuss
075this. So I would just ask that uh the committee agree to an annual date to engage with the superintendent in the meeting regarding compensation so that we don't fall out of step with the contract. I just think as a practice um we need to meet our financial obligations and follow our contracts to the law. So, um I I think it would be great if we could either have an annual uh meeting set when we're voting on our calendar for the year or if we actually set a policy uh because the contract spells for a meeting to take place before April 30th. Uh and there's a strong shall there. So, uh that's just me putting a stake in the ground for uh the new members that will eventually join the committee and then those that will
076remain after myself and member Campbell roll off. Um, so with that, I think I don't see any further discussions or questions. Uh, so I'm going to do a roll call vote. Uh, member Manning. Member Manning on a roll call vote. >> Sorry. Yep. Yes. >> Member Cornell. >> Yes. >> Member Hoffman. >> Yes. >> Member Campbell. >> Yes. >> Member Miranda. >> Yes. >> Member Cruz. Yes. Six members voting, six in the affirmative. Matter carries. Congratulations, Steve. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. Time to move on. >> All right. Uh, I'm going to move us on to announcements. Do we have any announcements for members of the committee or the superintendent? Seeing none, uh, quiet. I I'll make one announcement. I I was really thrilled at drop off. Uh this last week I got to see
077the ECC playground. It looks fantastic. And I just wanted to extend my thanks to the ECC staff who took the time to put together that playground for our youngest learners uh in the district. Uh I think every morning that I've done drop off, I see kids on tricycles enjoying the equipment and uh I know that that was a labor of love over the summer. So I want to thank uh the team at the ECC uh for the work that they did to put that together. So, if you haven't checked it out, please do. Um, and if there's any teenagers listening uh to this particular school committee meeting, please do not use preschoolers equipment. Uh, we'd like it to last for the whole year. >> They're going to. >> So, with that, I'll move to the
078next item on the agenda. Do we have a motion? >> Move to adjurnn. Okay. Do we have a second? Second by Okay, so motion is made by member Campbell, seconded by member Miranda. Uh, all those in favor, roll call vote or sorry, under discussion. >> Roll call vote. Member Hoffman, >> yes. >> Member Campbell, >> yes. >> Member Miranda, >> yes. >> Member Manning, >> yes. >> Member Cornell, >> yes. >> Member Cruz, yes. Six voting and the affirmative meeting is adjourned. Appreciate your comments.