Salem School Committee Meeting - May 19th, 2025

001All right. Call to order the meeting of the Salem School Committee of May 19th, 2025. This meeting is taking place in person at 29 Highland Avenue, room 227 in Salem. You can also join via Zoom using the link posted in the meeting agenda. Uh we have uh a couple of members missing tonight and one participating remotely. So roll we'll have roll call votes until uh we have all attending members in person. Uh first order of business is approval of the agenda. Motion to approve. Seconded. Motion made by member Cornell, seconded by member Campbell. A roll call vote. Member Campbell. Yes. Member Cornell. Yes. Member Cruz. Yes. And myself? Yes. 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

002the 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 school committee meetings. We encourage all meeting participants to model respectful and productive public discourse for our young learners. We have public comment in the room. Hi everybody. I'm Ben Cherto. uh district music coordinator. Um and I'm here um just to celebrate the fact that um by proclamation from Governor Moore Healey. Today was the um I believe the first ever uh Massachusetts Day for Music Education. Um and we just came back from Yeah, it was excit really exciting. Um the Massachusetts Music Educators Association has been working tirelessly behind the scenes. Um and our Salem High School indoor percussion ensemble was one of nine um performing

003groups selected to perform at the state house today. It was quite the adventure. Um but the kids did phenomenal. Um um Mr. Cruz was actually there um with us to watch the performance. U members of um Senator Lovely staff um we bumped into Lieutenant Governor Driscoll. Everybody was sort of flying in and out. Um, but I just I didn't want to let today go by um without acknowledging the significance of the support from our state. Um, and of course here locally in Salem. Um, we know um, and I don't think any of our music educators take for granted the fact that uh, music is um, supported and loved here in Salem. Um, and I just wanted to come here and publicly thank the committee, our administrators, our fellow teachers, our parents, and of course our

004students, um, for all that they do to, um, really make this, in my opinion, the best job there is, um, because it's just a blast to watch them do what they do. So, that's that. Any further public comment in the chambers? Any public comment on Zoom? Our next item is approval of the consent agenda. These are the minutes of the school committee meeting of May 5th. Approval of a field trip to Canoby Lake Park for the new Liberty Innovation students of June 16th. And approval of the warrants of May 8th and May 15th. Motion to approve. Seconded. Motion made by member Cornell, seconded by member Campbell. Roll call vote. Member Cornell. Yes. Member Cruz. Yes. Member Campbell. Yes. And myself? Yes. Matter carries. student representatives report Mark. So unfortunately I was not able to attend

005last school committee meeting due to um the National Honor Society induction and but thankfully I'm here now and so can you hold your I'm sorry I can't hear you. Oh I'm sorry. That's good. Um I'll repeat that. Um, unfortunately I wasn't able to attend last meeting due to the uh National Honor Society induction and thankfully I'm here now. And so over the past couple weeks we've discussed elections for the new chair and vice chair that would replace me and Barbara Rowley after we graduate. Speaking of graduation is on the 6th next Friday the Friday after next week I believe. I think you got two Yeah. two weeks from Friday. Two weeks from Friday. It's you just don't want to leave. No, no, not at all. Um, we have the last student advisory council meeting at

006New Liberty. Um, that's to get a more of a sense of where like other students in the student advisory council like learn and where they like have a lot of their day-to-day activities because for most of the student all of the student advisory council, we've had it at Salem High School. So, we really haven't had a chance to see how New Liberty and Sil Prep run. So, it was a big idea that we want to have to have the last meeting there. And I'm in full support of that and I wish I could go, but I'll be gone. Um, the last day of classes for seniors is 5:29, uh, May 29th. I just like to announce that. And that would be the last day for me. And is there anything else I'm missing? Uh, no.

007I think we're going to miss you, Mark. Uh but we we know we got a couple of meetings left. We're going to recognize you and uh Mark's been a great leader for the student advisory group this year and uh it will be a loss. We have two seniors in the group but like the other 22 students are coming back next year which is great that but without Mark and Barbara we wouldn't have had um the leadership to uh recruit more folks. And so I want to grateful to Mark. I know he's going to do big in big things at BEu next year. I just remember us, Mark, one day. You know, when you're famous one day, I'll remember you when I'm famous. Don't worry. Okay. Please, please do. Thank you, member Cornell. I just want

008to say congratulations on National Honor Society. That's a big deal. Thank you. Thank you. Superintendent's report. Uh yeah, we're going to start by honoring um one of our educators and I'm going to turn it over to Deputy Superintendent Carboni to uh to share some great news about one of our um coaches in the Salem public schools. So, do we make her come up here or Of course we do. All right, come Hither. Um so uh last week at the state house on Thursday um our esteemed colleague Shauna Herps was recognized by the state university state universities of Massachusetts educator alumni award ceremony or at that uh ceremony um it was held at the state house um Dr. Reich and I both attended and Shauna's parents um and children were there um as well. And of

009all the alumni who have graduated from the SSU um educa through their education program um Shauna was selected by um the faculty, the state college presidents and um educator deans um to receive this year's award. And so Michelle Pierce um associate dean for the college of art and sciences read the following testimonial which I shall read. Uh Shauna Hersps is the early childhood coordinator and lead literacy coach for the prek5 uh group in Salem public schools. A graduate of Salem State's undergraduate education program, she began her career teaching kindergarten, first grade, and integrated preschool. She subsequently earned two additional graduate degrees from Salem State and has been a visiting instructor at Salem State University for nine years. The second half of Shauna's career has been devoted to lit literacy development with Salem's youngest students. She

010worked as a reading specialist and then moved on to the role of literacy coach. In her most recent role, Shauna has been an instrumental force in the district's efforts to implement free fullday preschool in Salem. Through the Department of Early Education and Care's Commonwealth Preschool Partnership Initiative, CPPI grant, she coaches teachers across eight public and community-based preschools, building their capacity to provide highquality learning environments. Shauna's dedication to promoting literacy is rooted in her firm belief that all children can achieve high literacy rates and deserve highquality literacy instruction. Deputy Superintendent Kate Componi notes that educators routinely feel a report feeling supported, encouraged, and enriched by their engagements with Shauna. Salem State University is pleased to honor her excellence and dedication to um education with this award. And I think we can anyone who knows Shauna as

011I do well uh knows that this is a welldeserved um honor. I really um you know need to say that Shauna approaches all that she does with joy and optimism and that smile that she has. Um she has a you know brings such a high level of expertise and knowledge um to the work. And what I find very endearing of her is that she's a staunch advocate for our youngest learners and has played a a really pivotal role. It's understated. I don't think we can ever um acknowledge all that she does in building um you know a a strong early education um bolstering the ed early education across the city of Salem. So not just in um Salem public schools. When we visit the the partners they um talk um very um endearing of Shauna

012and of her work. she's going to play a lead role in the prism work, which is the upcoming um work across the state in um early literacy. So, we're just um I'm proud to have you on my team and really feel privileged to work with you and couldn't think of anyone um more deserving of the honor uh than you. Thank you. Yeah. So, congratulations. Member Cruz. Thank you, Mayor and uh Shauna. I wanted to be there last week, but schedules were a little bit hectic. I always love greeting my Salem folks up on the hill. Okay. And uh I just want to echo the sentiment expressed by the deputy superintendent over the eight years that I've served on the committee. It's been an absolute pleasure to receive your invitations to see the work that you

013do and that you've led in the district. Uh I'll say that for my own personal uh life, my daughters at the early childhood center. One of our goals this year at the ripe age of three years old is that we wanted Ivy reading. and uh two two months ago she started reading books to dad and mom. So it's been an incredible uh journey. So your leadership has certainly felt even in the cruise household. Um and I did prepare a citation for you and I I just wanted to talk about you as an advocate. I think that the work that you've done and led in Salem um we should be writing Boston uh Globe opeds about what we believe here about what our students deserve when it comes to you know high quality instructional materials, professional

014development. So, at some point, you're going to have to help me persuade these folks that don't believe uh that we can achieve that for all of our kids. Uh so superintendent I'm going to ask you to loan Shauna uh to the legislature uh in a couple months for a really important hearing that Manny so to that end I prepared a citation for you and it reads uh the Commonwealth of Massachusetts House of Representatives be hereby known to all that the Massachusetts House offers its sincerest congratulations to Shauna Herps in recognition of receiving the 2025 Alumni Educator Award from Salem State University. Uh you are a proud uh Salem State alumni and are dedicated to uh literacy uh and an advocate. Your exceptional leadership in the Salem Early Childhood Education Center uh and literacy programs has

015made a lasting impact on students, families, educators, and the broader community. Our entire membership extends its very best wishes to you and expresses hope for future good fortune and continued success. Um it was supposed to be given on uh the 15th, but I'm giving it out today. It's signed by the speaker of the house, Ron Mariano, and offered by me, your state representative, and the vice chair of the Salem School Committee. Congratulations. Thank you. I think Steve asked me how long I've been in Salem public schools. I think I've been in Salem public schools since I was 19. So, um, I'm a proud Salem educator. I've spent my entire career here by choice. Uh, and I'm excited for the work that we're doing. So, thank you. Got to take a photo here. just gonna stand

016in the back and her father was a superintendent for those of you that don't want to know. Amanda and I don't know what to keep your eyes open. We like to not be impressed. No, I don't need to. Story time. Thank you. I just wanted to also say I got permission to speak. Um we're very formal. Uh, I just also want to say I think I think that I have known Shauna for like 17 years, right? When my oldest started kindergarten and it's been you were you were an unbelievable kindergarten teacher 17 years ago. And to watch that trajectory is like makes me a little teary. So hopefully um member Cruz can take you to this to the state house because um she will convince everyone. I she walked me all over town looking at

017preschools and I I was convinced in five minutes. So um congratulations. I'm super proud of you. Member Campbell. Um I just wanted to add that it's been my immense privilege to get to work with Miss Herps um when she was also a kindergarten teacher. Um and just want to echo what everybody else has said. um incredibly proud and not at all surprised because you as everybody has said were an incredible kindergarten teacher and we're just really lucky to have you and I suppose if the superintendent lets you borrow her yes but it is a loan and she must return so just a loan she's got to come back. Thanks. I just Yeah, I just say when you come when someone's new to a district you start to realize like there are people that are just

018forces of nature that just get stuff done. They don't complain. They just work hard on behalf of kids and Shauna was one of those people. It didn't take long to realize like she's one of the jewels of the Salem public schools and we wouldn't be where we are with early childhood if it wasn't for her. And there's no doubt the team of her and uh Principal Smith have just been able to do tremendous work around expanding uh the programming and she has she has the gift of a coach who uh can move people along but do it in such a um respectful, kind um and supportive way. and uh we're better for it. The system is better for it. Over the last 5 years, I've seen the benefits and you all know her as a

019teacher. I know her as somebody that's made the um our um our early childhood programs among the best in the state of Massachusetts. So, I'm uh I'm grateful to you, Shauna. And uh um we'll just keep celebrating you, you know, until the end of the school year here. Yeah. So, thank you very much for coming tonight. Celebrate her by letting her go home. Yeah, you can go home, right? Yes. Uh so um next up on very excited because I think we have a big crowd here uh for the Salem Education Foundation. I want to acknowledge that we have um the president Ellie Bloom here. I think you're the president. Uh board president and uh Steve uh I want to make sure I get your name right here. Bo Parlant. Did I say that right? Okay.

020Uh who both are parents in the Salem public schools. Uh and Steve is the vice president of the foundation. And I just want to say before you come up just how appreciative and grateful we are to have you as partners in this district. I know I speak for a lot of teachers who benefit greatly and then obviously our students from uh the generosity of the foundation. Uh it's been a pleasure to work with you. You're very supportive of our priorities and what we're trying to do as a system. Um, and it doesn't always work that way. And we're very fortunate to have um you in this um district for and and I don't know how long the foundation's been around, but I know for for a long time has been tremendous partners to the Salem

021public school. So, I'm going to offer you the microphone and I know you have some guests that you want to introduce. Do I have to fill this out? Uh, no. No, you're Yeah, we know who you are. We know what's behind you. All right. Just want to do it right. All right. Um, thank you everybody. Uh, thank you. Um, members of the committee and the general public, uh, my name is Steve Balant and I'm the vice president in charge of grants for the Salem Education Foundation. Um, as Dr. Zich said, I'm joined today by Ellie Rounds Bloom, our president, and also Lydia King, our communications officer. I'm here today to briefly share our mission, summarize our efforts for the last year, and highlight one of our best grants. The following info was shared in the

022meeting materials, so there's no need to make copious notes of the numbers. The goal of the Salem Education Foundation is to raise money through a variety of efforts, including the Dinner for Two Anywhere in the World raffle held in October. This money is in turn given back to the students of Salem in the form of teacher-driven grants to offer opportunities uh outside of the scope of the general funding within the Salem School Department. This year we ran two grant cycles last spring and uh this past fall, first time we've done that. Um and we funded 21 separate projects for a total of $26,530.80. These projects run the gamut of topics and experiences from math to emotional social learning and music. You'll be hearing from one of these projects tonight. I would also like the to

023take the time to announce that our spring cycle for next year opens today. Please look for social media postings by Lydia. Uh notices from the district and school leadership, Dr. Zeke. Um and go to salemucationfoundation.org for more info. This application cycle will end on July 1st and the money will be available for the start of the fall. Tonight, I'm very happy to introduce Linda Gutierrez, the author of one of our top grants this year, and her students to show the real impact of what we do. Miss Gutierrez was the recipient of our first named grant, the Nelson L. Dion Jr. Grant for History. Through much of his life, Mr. Dion devoted himself to his love of Salem history, and his family wanted to instill this passion in the youth of Salem. This grant does just

024that. I'll hand it over now to Miss Gutierrez and her students to talk about their experiences with her project entitled Young Archaeologist apprenticeship sixth grade connecting to the ancient world through museum experiences. With that, good evening. As said, my name is Linda Gutierrez. I teach sixth grade social studies at Collins. Thank you to the Salem Education Foundation for our grant for the Young Archaeologist apprenticeship and for the school committee for the opportunity to speak about these amazing experiences. Our goal for our for the um grant was for students to be able to see artifacts from ancient worlds and to bring what we learned to life throughout the year. Tonight you're going to hear from three wonderful sixth grade students who will tell you about their own experiences on these learning immersions. Thank you. Hello, I

025am Larry from sixth grade south. And something that stuck with me from the Ipsswitch Museum visit is all the stone tools that were held that were used for different things and their unique shapes. Hi, my name is Ashley Palanco Amansa. I am in six South and I'm going to be talking about how the field trips really helped me understand more of social studies. When we saw stone tools, they really helped me visualize how they used to live in the stone age and how they found their resources. And the Museum of Fine Arts was a helpful trip that helped me understand more how Egypt Egyptians lived and most of their rules and their type of clothes. Hi, my name is Bela Skyler Boage. I am in sixth grade south. I have been on field trips and

026one of them is the Museum of Fine Arts. The Museum of Fine Arts showed and told me about the stone tools in the Egyptians and also the stuff that they used like animals for clothes and blankets for the Egyptians in Mesopotia Nia River. I've learned from this museum that it's a collection that includes a range of art and cave art in BC E CE and CE2 and how they found their resources and before they entered the new years. This field trip showed me how they lived over the years and how it helped them learn with cave arts. too. Thank you for listening to us and you're welcome. [Applause] I don't know if you guys have any questions, but it'd be a good time. Member Cruz, I just want to express my gratitude to the education

027foundation for their support of our educators and our students here in the district. Long-standing partner uh here and so fantastic that you brought the students. My question is actually for them. Um, so y'all got to go to the Ipswich Museum and you highlighted the MFA. Can I just get like a straw poll? Have you ever been to the IT IPS Museum before this trip? No. What about the Museum of Fine Arts? Had you've been there before? Excellent. So, I just want to highlight just how amazing that is for students from Salem to be able to explore and see these places. So, um, I think when we talk about supporting the Salem Education Foundation, um, that dinner for two around the world, it just makes all the sense. Uh so thank you for creating those experiences

028for our students and empowering our educators. Uh just to go with that, thank you um for having such a wonderful district that these teachers are so active and care so much to submit grants. Um we're doing everything we can to make the application easier and we're encouraging people. We want more grants. We always want more grants. So, it's exciting that the teachers are going outside of the the standard day and submitting for all these projects and we we love it. Member Corell, I was just going to say what Steve said, which is that writing grants, whether they're big or small, is is work. And our teachers work so hard. And to like take this extra time out of their day to, you know, do something that's really meaningful for kids. It's just I'm so grateful

029and so grateful to the Salem Education Foundation for providing them the opportunity to do it. Can I just um I'm neighbors with Miss Gutierrez, so I'm glad you highlighted Miss Gutierrez. She has been a fixture on this floor despite some of the changes at Collins over the last few years. we're on a great path here and Miss Gutierrez has uh been here from uh and been a strong educator and so I'm glad you highlighted her work um because she's done e I I can tell I've been able to tell not that I I snoop on what's going on but um but you can walk by and you see what the the level of engagement so uh you know we do have excellent educators who are dedicated to our kids so and I want to thank

030our students. It's not easy getting in front of people and I appreciate you guys coming tonight because I know it is a school night and you love being at school until 8:00 at night, right? This is where you want to be, right? So, um I'm uh thank you for coming tonight and sharing with us what you what what you've learned because of this project. So, thank you. Um just want to say also my appreciation to the to the foundation for everything you guys do and to the students who presented. uh thank you for for demonstrating the the uh the grants at work. That was really really helpful for us to see. So, thank you for to bring them here. Thanks. Thank you. All right. So, I have a couple of updates which I'll just share.

031Um I know folks are welcome to leave. I was going to say you're also free to go unless you want to stay for the um Thank you. All right. Good job. Nice job. Good job everybody. So, um I just wanted to share a couple updates. The first is uh the Seme Festival is happening this week. This is a big event for the Salem Public Schools. This is our third annual event which takes place at the PM on Thursday, May 22nd from 5:00 to 7:00. We'll have performances from 5:00 to 5:30. And then the student voice summit is from 5:30 to 7:00. That is our student participary participatory action research projects which are change projects from almost every school in Salem which will be going on from again 5:30 to 7:00. And I gave you a

032list um in an email I sent of the uh topics but I'll just read a couple. uh students some uh schools will be um answering some of these questions. Why are students having a difficult time building and keeping peer relationships? Why don't students treat school bathrooms with respect? What opportunities are activities can we build for teachers and students to get to know each other um and have stronger relationships? How can students and teachers build stronger relationship? And what changes can be made to increase on-time attendance and increase classroom engagement? So, those are some of the um the the um the genuine uh research that students have done and they'll be sharing that evening. Concurrently, we also will have an art exhibit um at Oldtown Hall. So, Lake Salem Public Schools is going to be taking

033over the downtown over the next couple days. It kicks off, like I said, on Thursday, but then for the next two weeks, the display will be um at Oldtown Hall of the uh student work from K to 12. Um and um we hope that you can join us and check out what's happening at the PM and then what's happening at Oldtown Hall um on Thursday evening and then into the uh long weekend. Um our budget hearing is next Tuesday evening at 6 p.m. with the city council. That's when we have the opportunity to present our budget for approval. Uh that happens on Tuesday evening. Um I did want to also uh note that senior signing day is um on Friday, which is where we do a signing day for future educators. I think we have

034about 10 or so students who have committed to being educators and we'll be acknowledging them and recognizing them. They'll also get a letter saying that when they graduate they can come back to the Salem public schools to be teachers and they'll automatically get the bump in the contract that we offer for graduates of the Salem public schools. Um and so we're looking forward to that at 8 a.m. on Friday. Um the senior CTE awards uh unfortunately is the same night as a CI festival. There's just too many things happening and not enough days. That's just unfortunately um you know when you have a music program that has you know performance every night I you know I can't I can't we love it. We love it. We wouldn't trade it for anything but it just makes

035it hard you know hard for us to be in every different places. So I will point out that that the CTE awards is that night uh May 22nd from 5:30 to 7:30. I also want to call out uh Mr. Cruz had reminded me today that the statewide K12 graduation council is meeting to recommend a new vision for the statewide graduation requirements that was voted down as part or was um the MCCAST was taken away as part of the graduation requirement this year um uh or in November um from u on a ballot referendum. There is a um a listening listen listening sessions across the state to inform a new approach for graduation requirements. There are a few sessions upcoming. Uh, one of them is virtually on Tuesday, June 3rd from 6:00 to 8. The only

036other one that's close to us is um, Wednesday, May 29th, 28th, sorry, at Somerville High School um, from 5:00 to 7:00. And surely we'll be sending that information to all of you so that if you're interested in participating, they really want to know um what you they want they want feedback on what a new requirement might look like that takes into account what students need to know and be able to do once they leave um high school. Um so um we'll be sending that along. I did also um those are my comments, those are my brief updates. I want on your agenda is also the Bentley Innovation Plan update. I do want to just share um I did not get any feedback from school committee members, but I did get some feedback from um the

037STU. I also got some feedback from um uh members of my team. And I just want to share with you some of the changes that were made from when Miss Rogers and her team was here. Uh a couple of things that I want you to note is that we did make it clear uh that there isn't the autonomy autonomy to be able to carry over money from one fiscal year to to another. that's not part of the city's policies. Um, and so we took that out of the plan. Uh, regarding the length of the student day, uh, we did make it clear that this would be in consultation with the school district and the school committee so that we don't perpetuate inequities. Even though we acknowledge that in the case of Bentley, maybe lengthening the

038day would be an example of um, an equitable practice, but we wanted to make sure that it was done in concert with um, you know, obvious committee, teachers union, as well as um, the school district. So we we noted that um we also did take off take out some language about you know naming the the prior schools the charter school we we just we spoke about um there was some qualifying language about successful and you know we don't we're not there it's we don't want to use evaluative language like that we ended up just talking about um so some of the um some of the ideas came from the other iterations of the Bentley school so we took out words like successful um because that we didn't feel like we you know we wanted that

039kind of qualitative language in there. Um we did also talk about schedule and calendar um so that it does not did not result in significant budgetary implications. We did want to note that the school would consult with Salem public schools about the schedule and calendar. Um we we we're trying to get a little more aligned with our calendars as a system. And so when you know uh we we want to be careful that um that decisions made by innovation schools don't end up having budgetary implications because the way the calendar is set up. Um additionally um we did talk about uh there was some language about advising the principal on major decisions affecting working conditions. Well, we we uh we made it clear that the that the um that the innovation team or the uh

040the innovation board would work with the principal, with the school district, with the teachers union around like any school does. Um they would act more of a site coun like a site council in giving feedback around um working conditions at the school or just um the needs of what the the needs for the school. So, those are just some of the minor changes we made in the content. I do think it's ready to move forward for a vote tonight. I don't know if you want to add anything to that, Kate, because I know you we talked a little bit about that. Um, Principal Rogers and I just talked about there definitely is, you know, the provision in there around autonomy around uh the curriculum. We did talk about um making sure that we do that

041in advance so that we can plan for budget. Um so like if I don't know about it, I'm not budgeting for it. And so I think some of those things can kind of fall through the cracks so that we just have good communication between um what she and her team are planning on doing um and we can support um you know with the budget requests that will fund um different pieces of the curriculum. That's all. Yeah. Yeah, and I think we're very sensitive obviously because of the budget we just went through that the innovation plans don't circumvent our budget process processes and that they don't lead to unintended equities which we're very sensitive to. I mean, in the case of Bentley, we we have some of the, you know, among our neediest schools, and we

042do intend to provide uh as much support as we can to the schools that need the most. But just as a general practice, we want to be careful with any if the innovation plans of any kind uh bind us to um to financial commitments that might lead to inequities across the system. So, we obviously talked about that, but we just tried to make sure that the language um indicated that there would be, you know, consultation and partnership with the school district. Those are my uh comments there. I don't know if anybody has any questions. I'll be asking for a vote later on. Okay. Any questions? Member Cruz. Um I just my only question is on the timeline with the innovation plan. Uh I know we have a few members that aren't able to join us

043today and this is typically a pretty um I think substantive uh vote that folks will take. So um is there an urgency to do it at this meeting versus the next or um No, there's I don't think there I mean we want to get it done by the end of the um school year. Um we no I mean there isn't any I don't Kate there's probably no no specific urgency around it. He just wanted to get it uh you know we we put it on the table last week but if you want to add you want it to carry on one more week we I mean one more uh meeting we can certainly do that as well. Member Campbell I would think given that you received no substantive changes from school committee members and the

044feedback was generally supportive. I I think that for school planning purposes to be able to move on. I don't think that there's a technical reason to not be able to delay it, but I think from like a school leader perspective, the delay on it, it just can cause sometimes some unnecessary concern around the reasons for the delay or what the support is. And I think just kind of being able to vote and move on would be very helpful if I were the school leader anyways. And so again, like given that there hasn't been any comments or feedback that would indicate that school committee members would want any substantive changes, we've had it for quite a while now. So I would I I mean I'll obviously defer to this committee, but my preference would be to

045be able to vote on it since it's here and and the school is expecting it to be voted on. I agree. Um I'm agnostic. You're aostic. Okay, fair enough. Uh I'm comfortable voting on it. I do have a question. So you had indicated that the uh retention of unspent funds was being removed from the plan. It's still the one that we have in our backup materials for May 19th. It's still listed on page 37. Okay. As an innovation. I thought that had been removed out of there. Um okay, let me uh Well, then let maybe you could take the vote that that will be supposed to be removed out of there. I don't know if that's another version. Um, that's the one that's that's dated today. Today. Okay. Yeah. I mean, is there we do

046a motion to approve the innovation plan for Bentley on the condition that we're striking the uh autonomy requested for retention of unspent funds. Are you asking for it? Yeah, I'm asking. Is there a motion? Oh, do we want it now? I thought we were voting on it later, but I'll I'll Oh, yeah. That we can also do it now. That's No, we'll do it. Okay, we'll do it in the proper order. Sorry, I couldn't tell if you were out. I didn't realize you were When we get to it, that would be the motion, I suppose. Okay. Okay. Um at this time, I did want to u we do we have a brief update about special education. This is something that had been asked for previously. Um and so um Jendu Setley, who's in her second

047year as exe executive director of special education, um has a a brief presentation that's in your packet to provide some information about the current state of our programming and where we want to continue to move um our services. I I would just say this. I think we um we've seen some important improvement. Um, while I think our our track record is a bit better than other is better than other gateway cities, it does not mean that we feel like we um have arrived in any way and that we do have a lot of work to do. And I'm confident in the direction of Jen and her team um that we're headed um um you know, we're that we're in a good place. So, I'm going to turn it over to uh Jen. All right. Thank

048you. Uh so tonight I'm going to go over a few things that we've been doing in special ed, give you some information about our population and some DESIE findings that we've had recently in the last few weeks. Okay. All right. So just to remind you the buckets of work that I had spoken about when I came here in August last year. Um so we were talking about cap uh capacity building, supporting all learners and uh working with our community and caregiver support. So um this year we focus on all of them and we were able to make big improvements in most of them. So we'll talk a little bit about that. So just to bring you back to the data around our students about 70 about 72% of our students are receive their education either

049in the inclusion setting or the partial inclusion setting. That means they receive the majority of their education within the general education classroom. about 7% of our students are educated in the least restrictive setting for them um in out of district settings. And then uh the other about 20 20% of our students are educated in a substantially subsparate setting. That means that they receive the majority of their education within a special ed classroom. And where are our students identified with disabilities? So about um 16 17% of our students are identified with an under the autism category. that is a little bit of an increase over last year. Um, which is a nationwide phenomenon. Um, as as practitioners and physicians get better at diagnosing ASD, we see a rise in that across the nation. Um, the one

050that did go down was our emotional disability. As we as we come out of the pandemic, we're seeing a reduction of students that are identified with a social emotional disability. And of course, uh, our biggest category is the specific learning disability around 22%. So that would be a disability in the areas of reading, writing, or math. It could be one or all three. Oh, and just one other thing, we have about 1100 students with an IEP this year. That is a slight increase of about 14 students over last year. Um, and that is with about the increase of students in the entire district, too. All right. Recently, we heard from Desi uh about our special education determination under IDA. Um every year annually every district receives a report of how they're doing. Um and the

051highest that you can get is meets requirements and the other one levels are needs assistance, needs intervention or needs significant intervention. And this is based on different data points such as MCCAST reporting compliance and complaints. Uh MA uh Salem is part of the mass urban d uh districts for special ed that includes Boston, Lynn, Lowel, Lawrence. so many districts that are just like ours. Um, and we were one of only three of those districts that were that met requirements. So, that's a big honor and I also think that says a lot about our district and our providers, our commitment to students. Okay. Uh, some key findings that they had um that they said were big strengths of ours was our fourth grade math uh MCCAST for students with disability. We scored higher than the state

052average. our percentage of K students that are in inclusion settings that was higher than the state average. Our rate of PRS and TFM findings, we only had one last year that was resolved within the year. And then also our early childhood reporting. So early childhood reporting includes um the reporting of when students come to us, at what level they are starting with us and when they exit the uh preschool setting, where where do they leave us? So we have very high numbers around that. They identified two areas of growth which we also identified last year as an area of need. Uh the first was eighth grade math MCCAST for students with disability disabilities which is was also a district initiative this year. Special ed addressed that um this year through partnering with Landmark around math

053instruction for students with disability in the inclusion setting and also through um extra professional development for teachers around Orton Gillingham specialized math instruction. The other the other uh category where we we found quite deficient and we had identified it as well was around outcomes for students with disabilities one year after they graduate. The reporting not the actual outcome. Uh so as you know uh trying to get a hold of students a year after they graduate is quite difficult. Um a lot of times they don't answer their email. They're not they've changed their phone number. Uh, so this year what we did is during the 12th grade meetings, IEP meetings, we let parents know that we were working on this and that we wanted to see where their students were at in a year and we

054let them know that this summer we would be contacting them for that information. So last year we had about 6% which is not unusual for urban districts. Um, but we want to see that much higher. We want to know how our students are doing and if they if they said they were going to college, if they went to college or if they're working on the work field. All right. So, there's a lot of things to be really excited about that's going on in special ed right now. This year, we rolled out the new IP, which was statewide, but in Salem, it was a very smooth roll out. Um, teachers reported that it was in line with our district uh district initiatives and the way that we we operate. We often uh talk about our ML

055students, which is now part of the new IEP. We talk about co technology often. that is also a big part of the IP and the transition to adulthood which is also another big part of the IP. Uh we also started our aspiring educators for special ed teachers. We recognized that it the pipeline for special ed teachers it was kind of growing a little bit thin and so what what people kept saying that they would love to do is to have a way that would be no cost for them to get their special ed license. We had 11 educators that were interested in getting their special ed license. It was a combination of pair of professionals and special ed teachers with waiverss. Um 11 participated, two have already received their license and two have finished the

056modules and are in the process of getting their DESI license. So we're working with them. They do this through a pro uh they do this through a combination of uh working on modules around special education and working with mentor teachers. Uh when I first became the director, the one of the things I heard loud and clear is that teachers want to receive professional development from other teachers. Uh so in special ed we created a teacher leader for of for the different disciplines. So this was our second year of it. It's very wellreceived. Teachers report about 95% or more satisfaction with this model. They've really enjoyed that. Unified sports we expanded to the middle school into some of our elementary schools. And next year we're hoping to have that in all of our schools. So unified

057sports is um an initiative between students with disabilities and their peers. and they uh they compete with other schools and they also compete within the district as well. Uh last year we had our inaugural landmark scholars that is a joint partnership with Landmark. They provide Landmark provides a scholarship for our teachers to receive more training. Um and we also provide a small stipen for teachers to buy materials and this this is identify teachers uh special ed teachers that have show promise in the areas of reading instruction and writing instruction. So last year, our two inaugural scholars, they studied um reading disabilities for students that are dy identified and the other teacher chose to work on inclusion instruction for students with reading disabilities. This year we're in the process of of identifying two more landmark scholars.

058Um we also had our first parent forums this year. So this is professional development for parents. Um, so we did one around the new IEP and transition plans. And we also partnered with Exceptional Lives, which is a nonprofit organization made up of parents of disabled of students with disabilities. Um, they came in and they uh spoke with parents around how to create a positive relationship between the district and their and their team. This year we started the year fully staffed and we were fully staffed for most of the year. Uh, we did have one resignation towards the end of the year. Uh we had a lot of babies born this year, so that was challenging to fill. Um but we were able to either shift uh case loads around, hire contractors and retire teachers to

059fill all those. Um so we also received for the second year in a row, we've received an IEP improvement grant. So this is going to fund professional development for teachers around progress monitoring, writing good IEPs, and working with students with the IEP process. We also rolled out asynchronous training for all teachers around a multitude of specialed topics uh such as discrete trials, ABA, um reading disabilities. And so those are available at any time for teachers and pair professionals um if they want to learn more about a special about a topic. We also include it as part of our PD. So maybe they might go off and do a little bit of learning on their own and they come together to talk about it. Uh we also did a pilot with Lilyad. Lilyad is an offshoot

060of Cartwheel, which we all know we've we've heard about before. Um, they provide bilingual uh educational evaluations in in academics and psychological in 39 different languages. So, we've always offered our evaluations in Spanish, but now we're able to offer it in a lot of other languages as well, low incidence languages such as Cantonese, Vietnamese, uh, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Erdo. Um, and so they're able to communicate with families around the around the evaluation process and complete those uh evaluations in their home language, which is really exciting. This year, we also start our early childhood screenings. This is something that most districts did before the pandemic and most districts are just starting to get that off the ground this again this year. So, we started our our our early childhood screenings this winter and spring. And those

061early childhood screenings are to see if students need extra support or if they need um a special ed referral. We also started our first school readiness playgroups and those are for students that are 3 to 5 years old in our community that might need a little bit of a boost in communication, language, gross motor, fine motor, play skills, and social emotional. And here's my bucket list for next year. So again, looking at the the three buckets that we talked about at the beginning of this presentation. Uh what do I really want to work on for next year? So we're really looking at continuing support for inclusion and we've just started this summer. We're doing a teach special ed teacher to special education leader uh program. We have two uh specialed teachers that are that would

062like to be special ed admins and they are working on that this summer. They're going to be working in our extended year programs on their leadership hours. So that's really exciting. Uh we're also want to expand and formalize that aspiring educator pipeline. Uh talk we also want to with the new jump rope which is our new report card system. We're updating and expanding the curriculum entry points for students with disabilities. Um expanding our practice around disability identification. Um updating curriculum for severe special needs. So we uh this year we've purchased quite a bit of uh new software for those programs to be implemented next year. Um and then also expanding our scope and sequence of discrete trials so that it would be ACEA ABA training for our severe special needs next year. We also for

063our educators we have two affinity groups coming. One for our educators that identify with a disability and one for educators that are going home and taking care of children with disabilities. it's very it's very challenging to be an educator and be in one of those categories. So, I I feel um you know that this will be a nice way for them to find peers and camaraderie within the district. And also, I've been approached by a few of our Spanish speaking families to start a Latino families for a special education group. So, uh those are the exciting things I have for next year. And I think that is it. If you have any questions. Excellent. Thank you very much. Um so, we have member Miranda has now joined us on Zoom as well. So, um any

064following votes for the rest of this meeting will be by roll call vote. Are there questions? Member Cruz. Thank you so much for that presentation and the overview of um what's happening in the district with respect with respect to special ed. Um my question was around uh one of your things to be excited about the parent forums. I just found that to be uh very interesting. Could you just talk about um you name it as the first which means hopefully they won't be the last. It won't be. what's the vision for these parent forums and how often um because I just think it's a great family engagement tool uh and then wondering um with that other affinity group that you had mentioned uh if there's any thoughts about who you might be working with to

065ensure that um we can also replicate those same types of trainings for our our Latino families as well. So just want to hear a little bit more about that. So, our first parent forum we did, we did it in partnership with the exceptional lives. Um, and they are an organiza, a nonprofit organization that does all of their uh PD and resources in Spanish and English. Um, so they were able to join us. We did have a translator for that and it was actually almost as many Spanish speaking families as we had English-sp speakaking families. Um, so we were able to do that mostly in Spanish um, for that one. And I'm hoping that our Spanish Latino families for special education is going to be completely in Spanish and I will be the one with the

066translator. Um, so I'm really excited about that for next year and getting that off the ground. Uh, when the parents had come to me, they're like, "How many parents do you need?" I'm like, "Five." They're like, "We can get you at least 30." Um, so I'm really excited about that and having a venue where they can talk about uh what is going on for them and how they can access uh resources in their first language. And what would be the frequency of these parent forms? Would they be something that you would do monthly, bimonthly, quarterly or? So, our parent forums were we our aim is to at least do them quarterly. Um, and it's usually to partner with different organizations in our community for them to so so families can access. So, for instance, like

067one that I envision having is one around transition services. Um, the transition going from school services to adult services at 22 can be quite challenging and difficult and needs to start before a child even turns 18. Um, so that is one that I want to do as well. Also working if you have a a child with say a reading disability, how can you help at home and how to access different services outside of the school organization as well. Excellent. Thank you. Okay, other questions. Member Cornell, I just have a question about jump rope. I think there's been positive feedback around the use of jump rope this year. So, I'm just curious, is it um does it meet the needs of our special ed families? Is there something you mentioned it so I'm just wondering how

068how it's going for folks for special ed it's a it's more flex it's it's flexible in a way that we can pull out the entry points for students uh for in for right now though through Aspen it's quite difficult to do that for special ed um so either it's everything or nothing so with jump rope we're able to pull out the standards that are appropriate for our students that are in front of us um instead of say addressing 10 standards and only having maybe three of them apply to a student with a disability. So much easier. Any other questions? Dr. Just two things. Uh, you know, I want to thank uh Mr. Lee. I I think you know, we've been fortunate under her leadership um to see a lot of improvements and I want to

069thank Mon'nique as well who's Miss Osgood who's in the audience. Um, two things that I think as that I I would ask the school committee just to pay attention to um moving forward. I do think we have more work to do. Uh and and Jen referenced it uh in making sure we engage our Latino families around um special education services. I think there's still um a lack of certainty around how to navigate the process. Um and a lot of students are coming to us as newcomers who with IEPs. Um and uh you know from our travels to the Dominican Republic, we also know that services look very different or not existent at all for students. And so we really need to support our families um our Spanish speaking families as much as possible. And I

070think the we've seen um the importance already of these workshops and the I love the idea of the mobilization of a Latino leadership group. This the special education pack has not been the most diverse group historically. Um and so we need to make sure we get other voices into the um discussion right about how to support the needs of of students who are both developing language and may have a disability. Um, so I just want to call that out. I also think that we also um I worry about expectation levels in our special education classrooms. Um, I think too often we uh shift what we expect because kids are in substantially separate classrooms or pulled out of classrooms when kids are quite capable of being um pushed to do um more challenging work and grade

071level work. Right? So, I think we have to uh and and I we want we do need to push to include uh to um increase, you know, our inclusion opportunities for young people. And I know Jen and Monnique believe strongly that we have to do more of that. That's not easy to do always. It requires sometimes more resources. It requires more training, but it doesn't mean that we shouldn't do that. And um I do worry about outcomes for kids. uh if you look, you know, we do have lagging outcomes as does a lot of the state, but that doesn't mean we should follow suit. And part of that is some of the exclusionary um settings, right? And this is part of like educating parents to um as well that like just because a child has

072a disability doesn't mean that they need to be excluded from the general education setting for large periods of time. And so um I think that's that's mindset work that we have to continue to do. I think we need to offer more support, training, coaching. Um, and I'm really proud of the work that our team chairs have begun to do as they've seen themselves now as more than just compliance managers more and more as you know leaders um and coaches and they they should be our experts along with our teachers to coach parents um along the process um so that you know we could see better outcomes for students with disabilities. So I just want to lay that out as work that I think we have ahead in the system. Agreed. Agreed. And and that is

073a big reason of why I invested so much money this year of our budget into updating the subsparate uh curriculum. Uh oftent times what you see it might be a grade a grade level or two below when we really should be addressing them with grade level content um that is adapted for their needs. Mhm. Any further questions? Great. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Jen. Thanks, John. Um I'm going to pass it over to uh member Cornell um around the update for the school building, the new school building. Yep. So, I did send this update to members, but uh and I think we're doing a pretty good job of getting the word out about where we are in the process. Uh but uh generally speaking, the building committee approved uh new

074construction and by unanimous vote. We had a couple of different options including um just a code update uh kind of partial renovation and this we chose the the new high school for a few different reasons. One is that it limited the timeline uh to 30 months, which was the shortest timeline, and therefore limits the disruption to kids. So, we're basically building the new high school um closer to Highland Avenue so that high school can be, you know, we can kind of get going while kids are still in Salem High School and then sort of move them into the new building. There will be a little bit of disruption because part the automotive uh the Seno Center has to be demoed in order to make room for the new high school as does like a tiny

075little wing of the high school all the way to the right. Uh or not even a wing like a a small space. Um but it's you know hopefully we can avoid having kids in trailers and in you know a huge disruption because it'll just be a new construction in a different space. Then once we get all the kids into that building where we demo the old building and then that building uh part of part of what is great about that is that we'll have a lot of um outdoor athletic spaces that'll that are MIAA regulation spaces that kids can actually play on on campus. So we'll have soccer fields, lacrosse, we have tennis courts, but we'll have updated tennis courts with a pickle ball overlay for both for students and adults. Not you can come

076back, Mark. You can come back in the summertime. I'm sorry. I know you're a tennis player. Um, and uh, so that's really great. Uh, I know a lot of people have thoughts or I should not skip over cost. This is the lowest cost option. Um, except for a code just a code upgrade is the cheapest option, but a code upgrade really doesn't address um the teaching and learning goals that that educators in the high school have. Uh the last thing is just I mean there's a lot to it but the indoor athletics piece is worth noting because I know a lot of people are really uh devoted to the fieldhouse which I think we all are. Uh but our current fieldhouse doesn't use very efficient use. It's not an efficient use of space. We can

077only have one team practicing on the basketball court at one time. This way we can have three we'll have three parallel courts for practice. So our JVS and our varsities or our girls and our boys can all play at the same time and then the court will be regulation size. Then we'll have a separate space for wrestling and cheer. Uh we'll have a overhead track. Uh one community member which was I have to send this to the building. Uh the architects wants to make sure that our um what is the team that throws the things in the air? I just lost it. Color guarding something. Color guard. Geez. Gosh, I I don't know why I have a hard time with that. Um that has to be a part that has to be a particular height

078and that hasn't come up. So, we're just going to flag that. Um although I blew it with what it was called, so I've already undermined myself. Uh, and um, it also just the music space is going to be a sort of state-of-the-art music space where everything's kind of located around the performance space. So, kids aren't lugging. I can see Mr. Cheer back there very happy. Kids aren't going to be lugging stuff up and downstairs. Yeah. U, that wasn't in the original plan. So, it was It's really important that the community looks Every time we get stuff out, people should look at it. I had a parent actually uh Sarah Hunter emailed me and said, "Hey, you got to make sure this is on the same floor." We had a parent email about the location of

079uh the special ed classrooms were in a really odd spot and nobody flagged it. So there there's been real community input. So anybody who's watching at home, like the architects are paying attention to all that feedback. So you can send it to me, to the superintendent. Uh I'm going to skip the mayor because he's got he's busy, but you know um the uh you know and and we will get that information to the architects. It's been super valuable. Um and then the last thing is just our our CTE programs are just going to be they're going to be more uh integrated with our more traditional academic spaces so that you know things that make sense can be near each other, right? like chemistry and culinary, we can have those things in proximity to one another

080because they relate to one another. Um, you could tell I'm very excited about this building. Uh and uh just lastly, we're going to have a public session on Tuesday the 3 at um the community life center and it's for anybody to come. But we're really urging parents of our younger kids who really aren't thinking about high school right now uh to come and check it out. So if anybody knows uh parents of littles uh who are going to experience this fabulous high school, please urge them to come. But we'll be publicizing this a lot in the next two weeks. I miss anything? Uh, no. You said that you mentioned June 3rd, right? Okay. Uh, no. Just the only other thing I'd call out is that there's going to be a session for Salem High School

081teachers to look at the plans coming up on June 11th because we want to make sure those that will be living in the building have uh input on the um and I do want to stress that like just because they voted on new construction doesn't mean that I think people think the decision has already been made. We still have a a fair number of months here before the final design is complete. So input um can still be received and adjustments can be made and that's why we need people to weigh in to point out the things that Bethanne mentioned that we you know just because a lot of people have looked at it doesn't mean that we've thought of everything and so we need as many eyes on this design as possible before I think

082it becomes official sometime in the fall. Go ahead. Well, and I just want to give I I think that's the fall. It's it's October is is where we have sort of a hard stop for public input. Um, and certain things really aren't going to be, you know, like if you would like to have the auditorium somewhere else, that's probably not going to happen. It's probably going to stay where that is. It's sort of a central part of the building. Um, but th like I said, those those other interior design things are are really up for conversation for quite a while. Like, you know, if you give it to us in September, that might be a little rough. But um but yeah, it's it's that's every time any you know, we're going to be out in

083the community a lot. So anytime like let people know. Yeah. Do you have a Yes. Go ahead. Member. Uh thank thank you member Cornell for those updates. And uh I guess these these questions would be for the superintendent or or for you member Cornell. Uh so appreciated hearing the CTE update and just the consideration around co-housing um and making sure that uh they're not kind of segregated from uh the rest of the high school. I think that that's going to be a marked uh change for students. That would be uh tremendous. Uh the I just had questions about any updates you could provide around uh the library space and what that would look like in a new construction. And then the other piece was just um I know that the the current high school was

084built for I think it's about 2,000 students. Has there been discussions about capacities with new construction and any projections knowing that um when you build it, people come uh and we're making a lot of progress? We're the number one gateway city for public education. Salem continues to be an attractive place for families to move into the district. So, just wondering what conversations around census have kind of been um and what we're thinking we're going to land at. Uh, I think the capacity is a thousand. A thousand. And you know, we I' I'd be lying if I said it it wasn't something that we've been a little concerned about because um, Salem public schools are doing great and I think we are a lot more attractive to families than we've been in quite a while. That

085also comes up against the reality of birth rate. you know, the birth rate is declining and particularly in Massachusetts. So, I think it's a really difficult projection to make. So, I agree. I think if we build it, they will come. Um, but the birth rate is declining regardless. And Salem is still only eight square miles. So, I think, you know, hopefully um this will be um you know, the the demographic stuff is going to kind of take care of itself, but hopefully we'll be at capacity. And then what was the second? I feel like I missed the library. Library. Oh, the library is not called the library. It's called the learning. Learning commons, I believe. Um, and so, but I I feel like I can't. Yeah, it's it's not like your traditional library in terms

086of size. In the newer high schools, it acts more as like a multi- media type center and it's not as large. a place for some gathering of students to work in small groups and um but not to the extent of like what libraries were built and the collections are nowhere near as big because so much has moved to be digital collections. Um, but I do think there's some discussion about like, you know, what exactly is in the going to be in this library space and where it's going to, you know, and sort of how much does it act as like a in some of the schools we saw there. It's like a um everybody passes through the library as a cutthrough. Um, but I think that's something we can talk more about with I that

087I think there's some discussion still left to have. I can I just add about the space. You know, this has come up about how big the school is. I am worried about it and I'll go on record as saying I am worried that the school was uh you know this this is not an uncommon problem but our enrollment has increased by um close to 200 students since we got in to the pipeline of the project. So even when the mayor and I were talking that was about a year and a half two years ago and our enrollment has continued to to go up and that's doesn't that's not inclusive of like the shiny people are coming when we don't have the new building right now or returning. So we've got to talk we're going to

088have to have those conversations with the MSBA. We we are cognizant of it in like in terms of the number of classroom spaces. We're trying to build as much contingency for that very fact. So this is something we all should be paying attention to u because it's possible that we would be at a thousand students or more before the building is even built. And ju just to that point that you just triggered my memory about this but I remember them oh I'm sorry I didn't ask you if I could speak. You may speak. I'm going now. Yeah it's happening. So, um the uh I think it's like that when that conversation came up, they were basically talking about like, okay, how do we how do we kind of make room for I think the number

089was like 13 like additional classrooms somewhere that you could reconfigure in some other space. So, we're having those conversations are happening. Um we're I think we're continuing to have conversations around the daycare um in the high school and whether or not that's the best location for that. So um I forgot about those those conversations, but we are still having those conversations. Member Cruz. So appreciate the answers uh there and just the insights. I think on my part I'll just express my concern is um uh recognizing birth rates, we've been talking about declining enrollment. We've we've been seeing a boost uh for the last I I would say five years uh in enrollment at the high school and I think we're really competitive with some of the other places that uh our students and families are

090choosing to go. Um and I know when we look at like historical trends u before um you I think folks had some of those other options. U you know Salem High was having around like 13,400 students uh enrolled uh less than like 15 years ago. So, I would just name that, you know, I I think for me that that's going to be a persistent concern is that we build uh we might underbuild uh for what um we might we may see an influx, especially um I know that there's other uh high schools in the area that are thinking about uh new buildings and facilities and if that doesn't materialize, what does that mean for us? Uh and whether or not we'd be a more attractive options uh for uh families that are located here in

091Salem that aren't sending their kids uh to the traditional public schools. Um so you know to the extent possible that uh whatever monitoring we're doing around this or projections that we can just take that into account um going forward I just appreciate uh having an understanding of that just so that uh when the ball uh comes to my court with my other hat on um I'm able to you know continue to make the case to the MSBA about uh what communities like Salem that are seeing um you know boosts in their enrollment uh uh might may need in the process. Um if if I'll just weigh in on this that you know I think we we worked with MSBA pretty early on on the projections around the future enrollment based on you know the both

092the uh the demographics of the community and also the MSBA's own experience in like districts with similar projects and you know what what they have seen. Um I you know I think the uh just to to speak a little bit about the communications part you know in addition to this upcoming meeting there'll be lots of other opportunities for people to get engaged. The building committee meetings are all public and folks can come to those. We'll be doing a a road show um over the course of the next several months to talk about this project. And then beyond that because I think it's important for people to understand that um you mentioned the MSBA the Mass School Building Authority is partially funding this project. um they they only u reimburse up to about $600, a little

093bit more than that per square foot. We're looking at a project that's close to $1,000 a square foot right now. Um and so we have some work to do to convince MSBA and and um our state partners to maybe adjust the um the reimbursement cap to reflect the actual costs of constructing in this day and age. Um, and I also want folks who are who are maybe following this project to know that the cost consideration has been foremost in the mind of uh the building committee and this committee. We've made a lot of decisions along the way that have been very reflective of a concern around the affordability of this project. Um, when we were talking about grade configuration, um, we were starting with the probably the most expensive proposition which was a a combination

094uh, grade 7 8 and also 9 through 12 building. um the decision to to maintain the existing grade configuration was was very much driven by concern about the cost. So that decision plus the decision made at May 8th at the building committee meeting to go with the new construction option effectively reduced the uh about 25% the cost of what we had initially started with to bring down the project cost to a more affordable number. It's still a big number. Um, and one of the things I think the public needs to understand is that we're going to be uh, most likely having a ballot question for a debt exclusion override vote on this um, a year from now in the spring. And so it's important for members of the community, whether they're part of the school

095community or not, to understand the the scope of this project and how we're affording it uh, and why it's so important for our community and for our kids and for our schools. Still your update, Dr. Still. Okay. I didn't know if there were any other comments. Um the last thing on my update is um budget budgetary. There's a budget transfer and I think Miss Paulie is on Zoom. Yes. Um good evening everyone and thank you for allowing me to participate um through Zoom. I wanted to call your attention to a transfer request that I think is on page 87 of the packet. We are requesting approval of a transfer that is $8,000. So, as you know, that is below the threshold required that requires school committee approval. However, it is transferring money from a non-personnel

096account to a personnel account. And so, um by past practice, we bring those to school committee regardless of the amount. So, this particular transfer um is due to uh an employee at the Bentley School um went out on parental leave and the principal felt like we needed to bring someone in to cover that position. So, this position was a behavior specialist. It is not a position that we typically have substitutes for. So, the principal asked if Bentley could hire a behavior specialist who would cover the leave, which um was was budgeted and something that we could afford to do as a district, but then keep that person through the end of the school year. And so the principal came up with this very creative solution to transfer $8,000 from non-personnel to personnel expenses to cover

097the cost that would be for when the original employee who had gone out on parental leave, they come back and the employee that was hired stays then through the end of the school year. So this is covering the difference of of the salary um following the end of the parental leave and the end of the school year. So, we are requesting your permission to move the money from Bentley's contracted services line, which is a non-personnel line, to their behavior, elementary behavior specialist line to cover the difference in the salary costs. Any questions? All right. Any further updates? Oh, that concludes my comments. All right. Any subcommittee reports? Okay. Member Cornell. Uh I just want to explain the changes to policy 3204 and 6402. So 3204 is lease and rental of school facilities. So, as this

098committee knows, we um we've got a lot of budgetary concerns that are going to kind of um follow us through the next few years. And um we were supposed to have been um reviewing all leases in excess of 10 months, but we haven't been doing that as a committee. And so the subcommittee uh suggests that we actually change that to 6 months and actually vote uh as a school committee on these on these uh long-term leases. So this is a full-time occup occupancy lease. So uh and we define that as any use of Salem Public School facilities in excess of three days a week. So um space is going to be important to us in the coming years. Uh so that's why we decided to make that change. We also um kind of in that

099same spirit added that the superintendent in concert with buildings and grounds shall be responsible for any part-time rentals for leases under six months duration again because we really as we all know we really need to start thinking about the way that we use space um throughout the district. And then lastly, we added uh leases and rentals shall not be granted to religious organizations, which is not uncommon in school districts in uh throughout Massachusetts. Uh and that is to address concerns that, you know, we may have a religious organization uh who uh whose values maybe don't align with the districts. And so uh we decided to adopt that provision. Uh I don't know if anybody has a question. Yeah, member Cruz. And I'll just add on on the advice of council that that uh needed to

100be either a blanket ban or um you have essentially anyone could come and rent the space, the religious organization. So there wasn't room to kind of uh review or to cause um uh to use like a more I would say like nuance tool to evaluate uh religious organizations and rentals. So, we went with the blanket ban just to ensure uh equity um to all. So, we'd be rejecting all applications. The only other part um member Cornell that I would just uh point out is I think we did talk about um I think we need to get the policy in place but it would be great if the superintendent uh could actually get some data to the committee about the number of leases that we currently have within the district that are full-time occupancy uh and

101then part-time just so we get a sense of um kind of who's using space as we have some larger conversations uh over the summer. Yeah. Uh thanks for raising that Mr. Cruz. I I actually had a conversation with um um assistant superintendent Paulie today that at the next meeting the the June 3rd meeting or uh I guess that second meeting we are going to bring a copy of the leases and just review them with the committee just you know uh briefly because there's you know number of ones so you have them all and then we can discuss what we want to do. Many of them are expired right now. Will those be sent in advance of the meeting? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Any further questions? Do you have the other? And then uh policy 6402. I

102just wanted to explain this. Um it was really prescriptive uh and uh the amazing Shirley Dai brought this to our attention and said because it's so prescriptive, we were ending up having uh back-to-back Monday meetings where we weren't getting a lot done. So, this is just a lot less prescriptive and says that we will con we shall con we will convene at least once per month uh at 7 p.m. during the calendar year. That doesn't mean that we won't meet twice per month. Uh we're still setting the calendar in advance, but it's not so prescriptive so that we end up having to, you know, take meetings off the schedule or have these back-to-back meetings where we're not accomplishing very much. Uh and I think that's about it there. Any other subcommittee reports? Okay. Motions and

103resolutions on the Bentley Innovation. Yep. Member Cruz. Uh move to uh approve the Bentley Innovation Plan uh and to move to strike uh the section that um notes that u balances on the budget could carry over to future fiscal years. Second. All right. Motion made by member Cruz and second by member Cornell under discussion. So this is striking the request. Hello. Hi. Um may I speak? Yes, this is Veronica. Go ahead. I just wanted to ask and my apologies if I if I missed um some of the discussion around that, but what was the um the reasoning behind striking the section where they couldn't carry over? Was that recommended by the superintendent or it it was recommended. It was inadvertently not removed from the version of the plan that was presented to the committee tonight.

104So was that? Yeah, it was removed from the table of autonomies that was requested under the budget section in section F, but the full text from the narrative section was retained. So it's striking the narrative text on page 37 of the plan that was provided to the committee today. Otherwise, adopting the plan is proposed or approving the plan as proposed. Okay. Thank you. I remember that coming up in the last meeting. Um, but I think I got a little bit confused there. So, thank you for clarifying. Sure thing. Any further discussion? Seeing none, uh, roll call vote. Member Cruz, yes. Member Miranda, yes. Member Campbell, yes. Member Cornell, yes. And myself, yes. The matter carries. Is there a motion on the budget transfer requested? Move to approve. Do you want them read? Second. Motion made

105by member Campbell, seconded by member Cornell. Under discussion the budget transfer. Seeing none, a roll call vote. Member Miranda. Yes. Member Campbell. Yes. Member Cornell? Yes. Member Cruz? Yes. And myself? Yes. Matter carries. Motion to this is a first reading of policy 3204 and 6402. Motion to approve. Second. Motion made by member Cornell, seconded by member Campbell. Um, a roll call vote. Member Campbell. Yes. Member Cornell? Yes. Member Cruz? Yes. Member Miranda? Yes. and myself. Yes, the matters carry. Any announcements from committee members. Seeing none, is there another Cruz? Uh, so I just wanted to um circle back to the information that I shared with the superintendent on the um on the forums. I I I would just encourage uh this committee through the superintendent, our high school leaders uh and then it would be

106great if Miss Ducet Lee uh could attend uh or send in public comment um on this portrait of a high school graduate, what this should look like uh moving forward. Uh and in particular, I think we had talked about at previous school committee meetings as we think about graduation requirements, especially for our students with disabilities um to confer a diploma. we had a a very antiquated system uh and folks were getting those certificates of completion uh instead. So, you know, I just think that it would be great if we could get some um public comment and testimony in front of this particular group uh during these listening sessions um that could kind of I think push the envelope um and and to get that feedback from our leaders within the district. Um because I I

107just I would worry that um uh what we would end up with uh wouldn't be reflective of what we experience in Gateway Cities at some of these forums. Anything else? All right. Move to a chair. Second. Motion by member Campbell, seconded by member Cornell. Roll call vote. Member Cornell. Yes. Member Cruz. Yes. Member Miranda, yes. Member Campbell, yes. And myself, yes. We are journed. Thank you everyone.