Scituate School Committee Meeting 4-27-26

001Have a good meeting. You're good. >> Thank you. >> All right. We'll call the April 27, 2026 school committee meeting to order tonight here at 6:09 p.m. Uh we'll start with public comment. >> Let's turn this off. My name is Liz O'Reilly, 179 Maple Street Situate. Um, I just came tonight because I wanted to address that you're discussing the new school name tonight. And as you're aware, I did make a public records request for the meetings of that committee and emailed all of you about my concerns of transparency and the process. I received three things. A timeline which was already on the website and two summaries. No agendas, no minutes, no attendance, nothing. I then read the minutes of the meeting from 3:16. And I'm going to just read you the public comments very quickly

002that were posted. Miss Brandolini opened the public comments and welcome students to speak first. Situit High School students Ava Schilberg and Naomi Summer spoke in support of the options for the new school naming. Parents of the elementary school and residents of Situit also spoke and shared their feelings and thoughts about the new school naming and the new school redistricting. Crystal Hoffman, a parent of a third grader at Cushing, expressed concerns over third grade students being split up for fifth grade. After careful considering all comments, interim superintendent Tom Rabb shared that he would be willing to separate that class from the overall redistricting for now to for the conversation right now. There were four other people that spoke at that meeting. I being one of them. We spoke about transparency concerns, open meeting law, the names

003that were put forward. There is no mention of any of those comments that were made only that the positive comments were made. This appears to be selective reporting. As a reader of the minutes that this committee approved the I there is an issue that no one understands that there was concerns about other areas to be addressed. Tonight when you discuss this, I ask that in the process you become transparent, document and report both sides for or against going forward. >> Good evening. Joseph Given, 223 Ganet Road. I'd just like to second what uh Liz said. Um, I spoke, Dra Kulovich spoke, and there was nothing in the minutes about any of us, and we all had issues and dissented from um the three names that were um determined. And I think in the meeting minutes,

004you need to communicate what people said at the meeting. That's it. Okay. Any hands raised uh virtually or anyone else in person that wants to make any public comments tonight? No. Okay. Um our students are not with us this evening. Some are traveling. Uh we have some action items on our agenda. We have our approval of our March 30th and our um April 13th minutes. Questions or comments on those from the committee? Um I think you know one of them Not all >> separately because right so I wasn't here on March 30th and Peter also was not here March 30th so we moved those for that reason so um he and I will probably abstain from those I'll make a motion that the uh school committee vote to approve the minutes from March 30th 2026.

005All in favor? I >> three eyes and two abandon. >> Thank you. >> Yes. >> All right. And we have our April 13th minutes abstaining from those if she's not for that meeting. whoever the four of us were for our quick uh meeting which was the same night as town meeting. Uh all right, I will make a motion that uh the school committee vote to approve the minutes from April 13, 2026. >> I'll second. >> Okay. All in favor? >> I I so abstain. >> Thank you. >> You have Okay, great. Okay, we have an out of the country field trip to Paris and Normandy for approval. >> I'd like to welcome uh Miss Sophia Lidell um one of our French teachers at the high school to discuss this trip. >> Hi. >> Uh I

006this is very nerve-wracking actually. We are happy to have you here. >> So I just yeah know I came to see Rubble for the trip we've run now I think for almost two decades. This would be taking place next year. Uh dates to be determined but over the April break. Uh and it would be with the intention of um keeping it to the senior class of next year as long as they are participating in a French class um and um with the hopes of then continuing a yearly trip. But um we are planning the trip as it's been run as I ran it when I went last year. So it would be a time in Normandy. Uh but really the essential part would be the home stay for the students so they can utilize what

007we've been teaching them for the last six years. >> Um yeah appendix inspect here questions anyone? I have a question. Um, so when so the French students will come here first. >> From my understanding, things got a bit wonky after um co where we kind of have a lag between when the French students come and when we go. So we're trying to get it back on track so it's back year to year. Uh, but essentially we would be going next April and then the students that will be hosting our students will come in the fall, the following year. Uh so we're just trying to make it so it's back to having the same exchange families which having a lag has created um issues with that. Um so it's it can be solved I I think

008over one year span but that is our end goal so that the exchange is a true exchange between the two families. So if the scene just for seniors next year. >> Yes. And then afterwards the following year we would have the junior the the uh juniors um >> how did we uh work it out with the second yes so the following year we would do it with the juniors to travel so that we could do that >> back to back. >> Okay. I'm just curious. So that when the following September the French students that the seniors stay with >> Yeah. So they're gonna >> So because there's two classes in France as well. So we're trying to like consolidate the two groups which is it's a very I mean I can go through the sort

009of planning process. That's why it's multi. >> My daughter's in Spain right now. >> Wow. I see. Love it. Yeah. >> And it's amazing. Yeah. I'm just wondering like so we had the Spanish student this previous September. So she's now staying with her. >> Exactly. >> But if you have the seniors that go in April. >> Yes. >> Well those some of those seniors might not even be here. >> That is correct. So we will like reerase almost and start it at that point. That's why we're not letting we're making it strictly a senior trip next year. Usually we combine juniors and >> seniors will start. Okay. All right. I get >> Yeah. Yeah. No, that's okay. She's having >> Oh, I'm sure. >> I was just curious when you will determine the exact dates.

010They say there's a window. Yeah. Like >> will it just be determined according to >> So, we're we're looking at flights that and we're also waiting for France to confirm their dates. Um I would like to obviously with everything that's happening right now um you know we're just kind it's a waiting game especially with flights but uh predominantly what we're waiting for is uh on France's side to confirm >> uh their dates because usually our vacations don't match up but they seem to constantly be matching up recently. So that's problematic for families who are traveling to do home stays. So, we're trying to make it um in a way that works with the families and also facilitates as many homes days for our students. So, it doesn't just become a trip, but it remains a

011an exchange experience. >> And for a little bit, >> it's a very narrow window because it's a nine day trip. Yes, >> but I was just curious. >> Thank you. >> Um, I make a motion that the school committee vote to approve the out of country field trip to Paris and Normandy for 4:15 2027 to 425 2027 approximately as presented. Second. All in favor? I >> thank you. >> All right. Assistant Superintendent Lynch. We're going to talk about the new school redistricting plan. >> Uh thank you. At this time, I'd like to invite up Mr. Matthew Craropper uh from Craropper GIS. um it's going to sit right here at the uh the guest table as we go through our slides. So um in the next few minutes, I'll just provide a little bit of a

012refresher um of the our process so far related to redistricting. Um and then Matt will talk about um one of the specifics uh related to option three. And then our goal is to make a recommendation for the consideration school committee uh that keep keeps in line with the deadlines of our process. So uh this slide just reminds um everybody about our gu our guidelines for redistricting. So um just as a piece of history on December 9th uh Mr. Cropper was here virtually, gave an overview of Cropper GIS, um what the goals were related to redistricting, our move from uh four elementary schools uh to three, and how we would design a process that would essentially uh change the map for all of our schools in situ because we're moving uh from four schools uh to

013three. So um some of those goals were making sure that we gave public the public an opportunity for feedback as well as minimizing the social emotional impact on students. So one of our key criteria was trying to be balanced class size and also be as minimally disruptive as possible. Two additional guiding principles were keeping families and neighborhoods together. Students who typically went to school together, our goal was to keep them together. Um as well as offering opportunities uh to collect feedback u and improve our models based on input from um families and other constituencies. So here are the uh the five redistricting priorities as I've mentioned balancing enrollment across all three schools with 20 students per classroom uh to the extent possible keeping students close to home. We all have discussed how now with the

014design of our three schools many of them are located on the east side of town. We know that we have a large portion of our great town which exists on the west side of 3A. So, we do want everybody close to home, but our schools are sort of all on that side. So, we acknowledge that's a change for many of our families. Um, we want to minimize the impact, um, maintain um, our neighborhoods and try to make transportation work as effectively as possible. This chart just has the timeline that we laid out in December. So on December 9th, like I said, Matt was here virtually, gave us the public information session. We held a public information session on March 4th, um when two options were uh presented and feedback was collected. Based on that feedback,

015we went back and offered a another public session on the sixth where we reviewed options one and two and also uh then produced option three for the review of the public. Um kept the survey open and closed our survey um just um just last week to make sure that we could have captured everybody's feedback. Then you'll see tonight in purple is uh April 27th when the district is making its recommendations to the committee and the committee would decide on May 18th. These are just definitions for review. Um I think we've all heard these several times. One piece I would just point out that is a common confusible is that when you see utilization percentages, those percentages reflect the extent to which um we are meeting our 20 students per class um class target. So when

016you see a 97% utilization, that doesn't mean that the building can't is nearly full. It means we've we've almost perfectly achieved our target of um 20 students per class. We just want people to know that our classes could handle more than that if we needed to to adjust. That's just a little bit more on utilization. At the bottom of this slide, it just provides some detail on um what led to the development of option three. So, um when we presented options one and two, we collected a lot of feedback about um certain parts of town and how the students at Cushing were redistributed. So in the fourth bullet, um I just want to review that we wanted to reduce the impacts of Wampuck Elementary. That means maintaining the minet neighborhood at Wampuck, reducing some of

017the impacts to Jenkins um and keeping our 20 students per class size target while also providing a plan that would hold for 20 years. um in the history of the district, we know that there was some minor redistricting at different times. This led to disruptions for um some of our families and schools. And so really the goal here working with Mr. Crawford is to uh produce a plan that will u be consistent for for 20 years. Um and based on the review of the school side team and our internal planning team, we recommend um to the school committee for consideration that option three best meets the priorities that have been outlined um through the process and that is our recommendation to the committee this evening. These are two maps that uh show the current elementary

018school zones in Situit. Um on the right hand side is the com the completed option three recommendation. Um I know it probably appears small behind Mr. Gates. Um and Miss Fenwick you'll see on the wall a larger version. So perhaps at a convenient time during the meeting if you need to see it more clearly that's a uh a more accurate representation without um the planning blocks on it. But to talk about those impacts uh specifically um Mr. Craropper is going to walk us through the changes that were made or the improvements that were made um to the first two options um in a little bit more detail. So Mr. Cropper, I'll hand it over to you to talk about the changes that were made uh to result in option three. >> Thank you Mr. Lynch

019and members of the board. Thank you for the opportunity to be here. Matthew Craropper of Cropper GIS. Um, as as it was described, uh, this is the recommendation and we're zoomed in here on the current Cushing zone, which you see is the black outline. Um, prior options that we were working through had more movement than what the recommendation has. There were areas that were moved from Wampauck to the new school and also Jenkins to Watuck as we were trying to model options. Um that was that was uh given we got feedback from that about um there are other ways to balance and u utilization and meet our objectives without without moving as many students. And so what we've done in the recommendation is revert it back so that anybody who currently goes to an existing

020school other than Cushing would remain at school and of course the new elementary school. But um nobody from Watuk is moved out of Wampauck and nobody from Jenkins is moved out of Jenkins in this recommendation. Um the area in green that you see on the map is the area that's in Cushing that would be um reszoned to the new elementary school. Um and that's uh uh west of 3A and then north of the the current Cushing Elementary School. You can see those are areas that are currently in Cushing that are going to the new school in this recommendation. uh areas in Tan that are south of Cushing and uh right where we're sitting and east along First Parish Road towards Watuk that feeds into Watuk in the recommendation. And then um areas that are off

021of Old Oak and Bucket Road and um Country Way that are currently in um in Cushing would be going to Jenkins in this recommendation. So, uh, so this is a minimal impact scenario that we feel positions the district in a in a good good spot for longevity and so that these could hold as long as possible and uh while accomplishing our objectives. This slide just reflects um our, as I mentioned with utilization, our approach toward the 20 student per class target. So there's the estimated enrollment purple for each of our new three elementary schools um in 2728 with 476 at the new elementary school, Jenkins having 434 and Wuk having 396. So the percentages on the right show to what extent um we're achieving our 20 students per class um target. The reason that one

022of the key reasons we're recommending this, like we talked about at the beginning, minimal impacts to students, we recognize that this is a change for every school in our district, but we want to try to have an impact that's um with the least number of students moving as possible and that low the lowest number we can get to is 607. Uh finally, this is just a refresher of our the presentation from April 6 when our principles talked about um their transition goals that are going to be in their school improvement plans, which we'll hear a little bit about in a few moments. Um but each school during the 26 27 school year um has action steps focused on preparing students for the transition um and getting them ready for um the closing of the Hadley

023current Hadley Elementary and Cushing and um getting ready to open the the new elementary school. So this concludes uh the information that uh Mr. Crawford and I wanted to share tonight on the district's recommendation to the school committee on which of the three options we feel like best achieves the priorities of the district. >> Happy to take any questions uh from the committee if if you have them. >> Thank you so much presentation. Thank you both. Thank you Mr. Crober for coming tonight too and for flying in to be with us today. do appreciate you coming in person. Much appreciate it. Um, anyone on the committee have any questions or the internal planning team? >> I have a couple questions slash comment. Um, first of all, I think we all know that redist one of

024the most difficult things to do in especially here. Um, and I think that option three sounds like the the best of the three. My question is I guess I'm glad that we have come to option three considering option three as a potential solution but my question is what are we missing and why wasn't that considered in one of the first two options like what are we giving up to get option three from my perspective it was more of um transportation issue that we focused on one and two and didn't look at something like three curious what we're giving up in not going with one or two to get three which is ultimately what what I think and I would like to Steve, I'm just curious what we're giving up. >> I I wouldn't necessarily consider

025it or think of it as giving up and sacrificing something that the other options had. Um as we were working through options development and preparation for the community meetings. Uh we were um putting out two scenarios that we advertised as draft subject to change to get feedback from the public on um we had prior options that we had developed and drafted that that didn't make it to those one and two maps that were shared with the public. And so when once we when we shared those two scenario the original two scenarios at the second public information session, we got feedback from the public about um a scenario modifications that could be considered because when we do this work, we we work to empower the public with the ability to give us constructive feedback. So we

026put together what we call planning blocks that says how many students live in different areas of the district. Um, and we as a planning team work with those planning blocks, but it also enables the public to give us constructive input on maybe changes that could be considered to better align with our objectives. Um, they came back with some feedback that actually aligned with some a little bit some of the prior scenarios that we had looked at in terms of uh, for example, Minet not moving out of Wampauck and into the new school. Um and so they gave us some feedback and some suggestions on areas that we looked at looked back at and actually revisit some of the prior scenarios and that aligned with a lot of the things that we had done. And so

027I would say that the third option is more of an evolution and a sort of an improvement on the first two. Um, I think that the when when it's all said and done, this recommendation does uh balance your enrollment at your schools very well in in terms of available space. Um, and being able to leverage ups and downs and bubbles and enrollment, things like that. Um, so I don't know if there's any the if there's one thing that may be a little bit um weaker on this one than the other two is the proportion of students that are being split to all three buildings. Um, in some of the prior scenarios that was almost an even third uh like a pretty 30 33% almost across of the Cushing enrollment going to different schools. What we

028heard was that the the Cushing community um was interested in the new elementary school as well and and so listening to all the different feedback and the the recommendation has a higher share of students from Cushing going to the new elementary school and less proportionate going to Wampauck and Jenkins. I'd say that that may be if if I were going to look at the pros and cons. You know, it's kind of like when you're getting interviewed, you ask what is your main we main your weakness and um and so I wouldn't necessarily say it's a weakness that this is a weakness, but it is an observation that I had looking at the recommendation versus the first two scenarios. >> I think that's helpful. >> I just wanted to clarify too, this is been really helpful

029because Dr. Rab had made a commitment to think about the fifth grade class separate and apart from this. That's still a process that he is going to go through with those families. Is that >> That's correct. Thank you for that question. So um Dr. had stated publicly at our April 6th meeting that once the recommendation is made uh to the committee and the committee makes their decision on May 18th, then that would give um an opportunity for us to look at where uh those fifth graders um where they've been assigned and then to try to look at a process, describe a process for those families. um no promises were were made but to a commitment to look at it was made and that would happen after the committee makes a decision yes. Uh this is

030also a good opportunity. Um I did miss a part of what I was supposed to say, so my apologies. But um one thing I would share with all all families is that um there are policies in our district even before redistricting that allow for students to and families to um in some scenarios to petition u the superintendent for assignment outside of their zone. So if a family were to have extenduating circumstances, this is not new. that's already in our policies JC and JCA. The family feels like they're um that's something that they need to take advantage of. I just want to point out that still exists and families could um reach out to the superintendent to follow that process. So if there are extenduating circumstances that perhaps weren't surfaced in this or there's a family

031that in a new way is impacted, they can follow those processes. um it's in our um policy manual policy JC and JCA describe um that that process. So just wanted to explain that as well. to Matt, you touched on something too that I think is really important through this process and it's the longevity of the decision and the plan and that it's not just for today or the next five years, but just the financial investment in this plan, the time, the effort, and just the detail and the professional work that's been done. We really want it to stick and be you don't want to come back in seven or eight years and say and have families that aren't don't have kids in the district yet be you know, or have teachers and our principles saying,

032"Oh my goodness, why are class sizes at one school really low and skewing? We're hitting, god forbid, hitting 24 or it's looking like we're going high or mid 20s, you know, what are we going to do?" So, I think that's a really important factor for us in decision- making, if not the most important factor in decision- making. Uh so with plan one, two or three here, you feel solid that this work is good for any of those choices? >> Yes, ma'am. I I do feel that um anytime we do this work, um they hold for a for a good while. So I don't anticipate any surprises unless something drastic happens with labor, a large employer moves in, something like that. So, >> I'm not asking you to talk at all, but >> Yes. Right. Right.

033>> To this to the degree that you're able to. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Thank you. >> I guess on that, and I know that this is kind of part of your projections, how frequently are we updating our I guess our census with families that move in? I just think because I just this over last week, I think I learned of two or three different families that are moving into sit. I'm just curious when those get picked up in our these kids might be two years old or three years old in our system. Just curious if and when we'll pick those kids up in this but I just I just anecdotally I just I heard of a few families that are moving in and I know they're not being picked up. I'm just curious how that

034does how we do it now and how it >> we do have a NASDAQ in one of our presentations. We have we have some NASDAQ projection data over the next five to six years which shows a gradual increase in the in the number of students. One that an increase that certainly can be handled by uh you know by the plan that we have. Uh but other than that we u post our kindergarten registration and we keep track of the numbers and um we just keep doing the work we do. you know, that came up a lot at the IPC meetings actually. And I think one thing that helped me to feel better about it because we I live kind of close to the new development next to the new school. Um, and there's tons of

035new families in there and I we get very nervous about this too. But then what made me feel better is when Mr. Crawford kind of helped me remember that while that neighborhood is new and full of very young kids, my neighborhood is in fact aging. And so there's this constant replacement factor. And there's also the statistic you have about um kids per household. That is the kind of the gold standard. Do you want to >> Sure. Sure. I felt a lot better after. >> Yes. So, so when you look at new new housing on average a single family detached house and a sort of standard subdivision was around 4 to 7 students per unit. Um but multifamily is much lower and then single family attached sort of like condo developments are even much much lower

036than that more like 0.1. So, um, they don't, when you look at it holistically, a lot of people assume that you're going to get two students out of every h house that's being built, but it's actually much less than that. And then what Miss Spenbook said is that the point that I always make is that it's kind of like a balance in your checkbook. When you're looking at new homes being built, those are the posits putting in your account, but you have to also factor out the withdrawals, which are people who are aging. As kids age out of elementary and middle and high school, there's sort of a net effect of of pluses and minus that um ins and outs that kind of give you a a leveling effect. And not just not just adding

037on top of what you have now, but you also have to factor students that are uh households that are aging um with fewer students in them. >> Yes. We look at those nest numbers. They are slightly increasing, but they're not wildly increasing. Something that I would add because you're asking, you know, how are we tracking this almost yearly, I'm not familiar with how Situ does it. I only know how it's done in grafted, but there is an annual household census done. Um, how clo if or when we get those numbers, Ryan, and you may know this. Um, we take a look at that and if we suddenly see, oh my goodness, we've got, you know, 20 more three-year-olds and we're going to think about that and we're going to start planning for it. But I

038I suspect what I've seen so far anyways is that it's been pretty steady for a while. But we do get that annual household census. >> I say we meaning the town >> 23 year olds that get the same too. So that's the other thing. >> It doesn't really m I mean >> yeah you can't predict which of the zones the population >> but going from four to three schools is a huge it's actually help to the larger the school the better it absorbs. You know, when you have four classrooms in each grade, it's much easier than complying with two classrooms, right? You've got one bubble. It's really tough. If you can spread the kids across the four, >> the four classes across all three schools is actually for every we also already do a fairly

039good job of managing because even at Hly, I can't speak. We've had a lot of >> classes that were large and so teachers >> adapt and flex and move and so we have a class right now that there's like three instead of two because it was larger. So I feel like >> we we already do some of this. Um and so I don't I don't worry that much about it because I feel like with the numbers and with our own practices around this, we're prepared >> for that kind of change. >> Going from four to three, a little relief in that little All right. Anything else, anyone? So, no, we're not going to vote. This was just a first sort of reading, if you will, of the presentation tonight, but um we will vote. Yeah,

040it's on the website and everything. So, um vote next on the 18th. >> Yeah, the plan one of the three plans. >> Okay, great. Thank you. >> Great. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Crawford. >> Thank you guys. Have a great summer. >> Travel >> going down to Rhode Island to redist another district there for tomorrow night. >> Hopefully not. >> All right. Uh moving right along, we have our teaching and learning report for elementary school improvement plans. Uh yes, we're really excited uh this evening to share our four elementary school uh school improvement plans. Um I would welcome uh Principal Oldac to our table, Principal Reen, and um in just a moment, we'll share their school improvement plans uh for Jenkins and Watuck. Um I just wanted to take one minute just to provide a

041little bit of an overview um on the school improvement plan process. So um DESIE provides uh some strict requirements for school improvement plans as as you know uh the first part has to be connections to your district strategic plan. uh studenttoteer ratios, professional development, parent involvement, um school security, school environments, extracurriculars, and also just a breakdown of um selected populations and making sure we're meeting the needs of all learners. So, um you'll see those in our presentations tonight. One thing that's changed in the past year is that um each of our school uh councils, which are also required by Desi, each of our school councils has a school committee representative. So, one change from last year's um each member of the committee has served as a le liaison to one of our schools. So, we're

042um we appreciate that opportunity um to have school committee members helping with the school improvement plans. Um and lastly, uh this year each school was encouraged to have four goals that are consistent across the district. One would be an ELA improvement goal. The second would be a math improvement goal. The third would be a goal around social emotional learning. And lastly, our fourth goal is um a focus on the transition at the elementary level um from four elementary schools to three. So that's just an overview of how they may um appear slightly different from last year and per our policy. Um it's we this question came up last year. The superintendent um is asked to approve um the school improvement plans. The committee is certainly welcome to give feedback and our policy says that those

043improvements would need to meet the requirements of the superintendent. So that's a little bit of background and at this time is W that's super then W first I'll just pull up the um that plan so we have it if you just give me moment You just go. Okay, good evening. Tracy Rearen, principal of Latuck. Thank you for having us this evening. Um, so I'm gonna, like, um, Ryan said, we each had four goals, so I'm going to jump right to the goals. That's okay. But, um, I do just want to acknowledge my school council members. We met six times. We had some great meetings, some great discussion. Um, some of them are here tonight behind me, but also on Zoom. And then of course Peter Gates was our school committee member. Um so we just

044appreciate everybody's time. Okay, I'm going to just scroll down to the goal one. Um so our first goal is an ELA goal. By June of 2028, 80% of the Wuk students in grades two to five will demonstrate grade level proficiency in ELA, English language arts, as measured by the STAR reading assessment. Um, I just want to talk about that real quick. Um, we only give the STAR to grades two to five. Um, but we just want to be clear that we're not leaving out our K1 students. Um, we had a lot of discussion about that in our um, school council meeting, but you'll see in um, the action steps and the evidence and the outcomes. We're also considering our K1 students. So, we used Dibbles for those students um, that assessment, the um, dibble date.

045Um so um if our students are performing um on grade level or above the benchmark in the dibbles then that would lead that's building the foundation for them to be able to um be on grade level or above benchmark in grades two to five. We had a lot of discussion about that and how do we incorporate that into the goal. Um, but ultimately we want all of our kids before they leave us um to head on to Gates and be meeting or um exceeding the benchmarks. Um so you'll notice, I'm sure you did when you looked at the school improvement plans. Um some of the action steps appear to be like things you've heard before, things you've done before. But I just want to speak to that that even though they're um like for this

046first one, it's really our MTS system, our multi-tiered systems of support and how we assess kids and how we take that data and we analyze it. And remember, every year those groups are changing. Our second graders are moving to third, our third graders are moving to fourth and so on. Um, so even though it's an action step that we've talked a lot about here, um, and we still talk a lot about in our schools, it's always ongoing and we're always looking for ways to improve and get better. And one of that is just continuing to deepen our understanding about new researchbased opportunities and also um, deepening our understanding of how to analyze that data so that we're really targeting what kids need. And in our um MTSS system, we are setting goals for students that

047help them grow to achieve so they can get to that meeting we're exceeding. Um so the first action step is really around that. Um then we had a lot of discussion about strengthening our tier one instruction um in ELA because if we have a really strong tier one instruction happening in all of our classrooms and all of our grade levels um you know ideally that means we won't need as much of a tier 2 and tier three supports. Um so we've we've already started a lot of this work um just as administrators where we are um deepening our understanding of how to support our um educators and staff in the building. Um so we participated in a course um all year. Um we're working to get better at um you know doing observations and giving

048feedback to our educators so that that will help them grow in their practice. Um, as educators, we are also going through an ELA curriculum review. So, again, super important to make sure that we're using high quality instructional materials. Um, and that is something we're doing at at all four elementary schools because we don't want to get like stuck in using the same thing over and over. We always want to be growing and learning. Um, so we have a curriculum reduced cycle and we are going through that with ELA right now. Um, one of the things, oop, sorry, I should be scrolling. I'm sorry. Um, one of the things we always talk about is there's never enough time, right? There's never enough time to do everything that we're being asked to do. We cannot teach subjects

049in isolation because there's just not enough time in the day. Um so um we're going to at Watuk we're going to start focus and again some of this work has already started but really focus on developing crosscurricular project based units that bring um science and social studies into the ELA as well so that um we can teach those subjects um in deeper understanding of them. Um, we're also working to provide targeted cross-d district professional development. Our classroom teachers super important, especially going from four schools down to three. That, for example, all of our third grade teachers are on the same page. Our third graders are having the same experience across the district. Um, this is something I think we've grown a lot in, at least in my time here in Situit. Um, but we're we're

050continuing to get better at that. So, that's one of our action steps. Um, and then the last one is improving writing instruction. Writing does fall under ELA, but it's a little bit its own beast, let's say. Um, so, um, we felt like that was important to have that as an a standalone action step so that we can really focus on growing our students into authors and talented writers. The second goal is the math goal. Very similar to ELA. Um, sorry, I'm going to scroll up here. for my online people go. Um, by June of 2028, 80% of Wuk students in grades two to five will demonstrate grade level proficiency in math as measured by the STAR. Um, again, for the same reasons, we give STAR to grades two through eight. Um, we also give the

051universal number screener to all of our grades K to five. So, we're not we're not forgetting about our K1 students. um we are assessing them but very similar to using the dibbles um if our students are doing well in universal number screener building that foundational base then um we would expect that they would be performing well on the star again the act the first action item is similar to our ELA one is just working on that MTSS assessment cycle um something we've been working on for a long time um it may sound very familiar but we're always working to improve and get better at that um same with the next action step is strengthening our tier one instructional practices and just like in ELA um well kind of like in ELA where we're talking about

052developing crosscurricular units in math um I'm I'm actually jumping a little ahead here in math we're going to look at opportunities where we can include math in our specialist areas so um we have our specials art fizzed music there's a lot of math in all of those specials. Um, and again, same thing, we don't always have enough time to teach everything. Time is always um, precious. Um, so the more that we can integrate all of those, the better. So, we made those action steps in our um, school improvement plan. Um, we're also continuing to provide targeted professional development to our classroom teachers um, just like in ELA. And I think I skipped one, I'm sorry. No, that's Goal three is our SEAL goal. Um you're familiar that we use the holistic student assessment um only

053in grades three, four, and five. We're actually administering that this week right now for the post assessment. We used the data from the pre-assessment this year to help determine what this goal would be. Um we found um that learning interest is um across the district identified as a challenge for students. There's a lot that goes into that, not just in school, but also like in the community and kind of in their life. Um so we decided to focus on trying to build that learning interest from a challenge to a strength. Um lots of different ways to do that that we came up with. um elevating our schoolwide positive behavior intervention system or our PBIS system. This year at Watuk, we introduced a whole new PBIS system. Um and that's actually gone really well. We've incorporated

054all of the character strong traits every month into that. And um next year we want to add in um where we're doing student spotlight and highlights to try to just build interest not only in each other but also um in learning. Um we we as the four elementary principles have been advocating for an assessment for our K to2 students because again this is a three four five assessment. So the data we're using for this goal is really just coming from our third fourth and fifth graders. So we'd love to see um and we've been working on that and trying to find one for our K2. Um we have afterchool clubs and um at Wampauck we've averaged about um six clubs a year. we have the capacity to do 10 a year. Um so our hope

055is to um improve that so that we make sure we offer all 10. Um and we right now we've just been taking um staff members who have volunteered to do them. But we'd like to start soliciting input from students on what they would like to see in after school activities and um provide those We have amazing PTOs and um at Watuk our PTO's very generous in offering enrichment opportunities for our students whole school assemblies as well as field trips. Um it's been a little bit of a process coming back from COVID when we couldn't have any of those or they had to all be virtual. So, um, we've really tried to start thinking about what they do and how they align with our curriculum and also with our social emotional curriculum, our academic and social

056emotional. Um, so as a way to boost learning interest, we'd like to think more about what the the enrichment opportunities we bring in to help expand students ideas and um, their learning interest. And then of course we always need to continue to evaluate those programs. So we have our social emotional curriculum which is character strong. Um this year we we added the tier 2 supports. Initially we only had the tier one supports for character strong. We found that our school psychologists and school adjustment counselors um were needing something when they're working with those tier 2 and tier three kids. Um, so we did add those tier 2 interventions this year. They're absolutely amazing. Like they're so good, but they're there's a lot to it. So like everything, we have this great resource, but just having

057the time to dig into them and use them. Um, so we put that in as an action step so that we can um spend some time digging into those resources and then also sharing them with our classroom teachers. So it's just not the school adjustment school guidance counselor who who use them. Um and then our last action step is just incorporating um playful learning into our school day. This is specific around our lunch. Our lunchtime is a um a time of missed opportunity for our kids right now. They they're almost like asking for more to do, but they're asking in a way that isn't um maybe the healthiest. So, um, so we've done this a little bit at Watuk. We do play, um, bingo quite often. Um, we do have dance parties. We do do

058trivia. But we'd love to find a way to make it's right now it's kind of like random. When when when I have a moment, I will go there and play things with them. But I'd love to make this more sustainable where there's board games available, there's card games or STEM challenges available during lunch for kids to have the opportunity to engage in. And then the final goal is our um our transition plan for the redistricting and onboarding of our um new staff coming to Watuk and new families. Um you know, we're we're excited for that opportunity. We love that we're starting to talk about this so early. We have plenty of time to plan for it. Um you know, some of our action steps will be u making a plan to welcome the new students,

059family, and staff into our community. Um we're talking a lot about how we're going to be increasing the staff to meet um the needs of the new students coming to maintain that average class size of 20. Um we're doing a lot at Watuk to prepare the building for an increase um in staff and students. Um you know we do have the ECC leaving. So for us it is balancing out a bit. We have four classrooms that are going to be moving and then we have four to possibly five classrooms coming in. Um, but we're thinking about how to um um outfit those classrooms because it's pre-K leaving, but maybe like fifth graders coming. So, the furniture is going to be need to be addressed. Um, and the bathrooms um like um Mr. Lynch said, um

060it's going to be the 70th birthday of Watuk when the new building opens. Um so, we're excited to celebrate that. We've already started planning for that and um we would like to do a rebranding. We've we've been the Wonka Wildcats for a while, but now that we have new staff and new students coming, we'd like to take that on and investigate um a possible rebranding of that. And those are our goals with a quick overview of the actions. Do you have any questions? I I would just say um it was really strong. So, thank you. It felt really cohesive, connected to district goals um but also had multiplex. So, hope it was a good process for everyone who went through to really dig into goals and the teaching and learning together even though I know

061it was somewhat arduous but hopefully it felt overall worth it in the end. Um, the only thing I would suggest is when you look at it all together, um, it might it felt like a lot to me. So maybe in this presentation of it, I don't know if it felt that way to you, but as you take one final look, I would think maybe um, is there anything you would want to prioritize or maybe deprioritize only because we'll be revisiting this next year and the following year. So kind of maybe one last opportunity to say, you know, gee, I have all these things that really is at the heart. Is there anything that you maybe want to say like just because you're doing it, it doesn't have to necessarily go in the plan. So I

062would just need to give yourself that moment now that you've done it, you've been through the revisions and all that. It's like one final moment to just say, okay, looking at it all together, is there anything that maybe like goals three or four particular particular goal? You have a lot in there. It's my only like little tiny piece of advice for you to think about. Um I don't think it's like a must do, but it was just one thing that struck me as I was reading it today and also listening to you talk about it. I don't want you to put yourself in a position where you're over your head. My only that's good advice. Thank you. It's the only thing I thought of but I thought it was awesome. So thank you and your

063team. Great job. I have a question, not just like a random question. I love that you guys were able to meet six times. I've always been an advocate for us increasing the number of times that we have school councils meets in the past. We used to meet a lot more frequently and I know COVID and during those times we did what we could and you know got away from those that frequency. How did it feel having your team meet more and being able to get more time with them so you could develop a better plan? Was it helpful just to have that, you know, more time facetime with the group? >> I mean, it it definitely took the six times to do this for sure. I think four goals is a lot, but I we

064we initially started off with three, but we added the redistricting goal. So, I think going forward once we get through the new school opening and we're all settled in our buildings and we've transitioned and I don't foresee us always needing that fourth goal. So even though I know Maria you said it does seem like a lot I agree but that fourth goal was added because of what's happening right now. So I think going forward um you know focusing on the ELA math and I feel like that's fine but but this is where we're at right in the district. Um so um so I think especially with that one we definitely needed six times but yeah but I also did find that um we were able to keep our meetings to an hour hour and 15.

065So when you meet a little more often, you don't have to meet as often, which I appreciate because it's hard to be in a meeting for >> two hours or two and a half hours. >> Yeah. You all have so many meetings on your plate. It's hard to add more, but if they have value of course. >> Yeah. But if there if there's shorter time, you know, more just great. I want to go to 125. >> Good evening. I'm >> Thank you. Sorry. >> Is that better? I messed up my scrolling. >> You can do it. >> All right. Um Mary, principal of Jenkins Elementary. Um this uh was a really wonderful experience. I just to piggyback on the six meetings um that we did meet every month once everyone had been elected and we

066did meet all six meetings. we actually had to form um a working group um to work on the draft outside of the meeting. And I just wanted to acknowledge our members here um just our parents are so active and engaged and our staff who really pushed us to really focus on Jenkins specific action items. And I really um wanted to thank um Gary Bosski also for her insight and advice um from more of a district level um look at um what we were thinking about and it was really really helpful and um so those are our members. Um we had two parents and staff members and a community member Kate Duffy who is a retired fifth grade teacher from Jenkins and um Dr. Okay, I wanted to just look at page three for a minute

067um and just say that Jenkins just to um uh mention the size of the school right now we have 338 students approximately and our average class size this year and projected for next year is running um around 18.6 18.2 2, which is well within our goal as a district of an adverse class size of 20. Um, I did want to just skip down to slide six here and just say that um, our populations for our high needs group, our select student populations generally reflect that of the district and certainly um, much more favorable than that of the state overall. we do run a little bit higher in our low-inccome population and our English language learners um than the balance of the district. Um and then we're going to just jump down and get started with

068the first goal. So, as principal rearen um discussed, we all have the same ELA goal um and the same math goal. Um so, I'm going to start with our ELA goal. You'll see under data rationale um in the fall of 2025 61.1 of our students in grades two to five had grade level proficiency in the reading assessment as measured by STAR. Our goal is that by the end of um 2028 June 2028 that 80% of our students will have that proficiency. So looking at that um 61.1 in the fall, we did um um do um we saw an increase in that uh in the middle of the year. Our students are now at 64.3. So we're on the path. We're moving ahead and uh we were able to adjust our interim goals um just stepping

069towards that 80%. You can see that um those three bullets there for the end of the year for 26 27 and 28 how we'll be marching towards that 80% um proficiency. Um as we look at the action items for Jenkins, I did just want to highlight and reiterate something that Principal Rearen said. There are so many district-wide initiatives that you will see in all of our action plans. And you know, we can say yes, we're doing those. We're all doing those. But I think it's really, really important to recognize that all of these, almost all of them are brand new this year. Um, our ELA curriculum review just got started, our grade level data meetings that we have, um, which now incorporate all of our academic and data. That's brand new this school year. We've

070been through two cycles of that. We've um gotten open architects up and operating and that's a central way for us to look at students um all students in our schools across the district. It's it's just so much more productive and efficient for us. And then our cross district P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P PD with our teachers um where they're meeting with each other, all the third grade teachers across the district, all the fourth grade teachers, every grade level for both um ELA, math, science, and social studies where they're sharing this alignment. So, you know, it's all things that we are doing, but I think it's really important that we have to give this time to work. uh we've really just been

071through one cycle or two cycles for the work that we've started this year and I think we're really going to see the payoff on that as as we move forward um next year and into our third year of our plan. Um it's really um was very important to my school council it sounds like as it was to Watux who really recognized that K and one our kindergarten and first grade um supports are really what my school council called our feeder system if you will for two three four and five and that we need to maintain and um continue to focus and strengthen on those early literacy supports. So you will see that mentioned in our uh action steps as well. What we also um put in every goal, you'll see a statement and an action

072step around just focusing on equitable resources as we transition from four to three schools. Jenkins will be taking on um probably five classrooms of students around a hundred new students and uh we want to as a school community ensure that the students have the same um equitable access to all supports um in terms of class size specialists um special ed supports and so you'll see that repeated in every single one of our goals. the Jenkins specific action plan um for ELA or for reading um you'll see the theme of writing I think in all of our school improvement plans and at Jenkins what we're going to be looking at is our vertical alignment from K through five in terms of identifying any gaps and working on the skill mastery across that continuum. Um and the

073teachers will be able to have that time in their collaborative planning time which they have twice a week as well as our collaborative staff meetings that we have uh now developed. Um that's new this year as well. So they will have plenty of time u for us to make sure those meetings are happening that K and K can meet with one can meet with two so that we can uh formulate this plan. And we're really excited about creating writing portfolios that will travel with the kids uh from the time that they they start. I they're just uh really powerful when you have a folder of a child's writing say when they're in third grade that contains their writing all the way back even to K if they've been with us that long. It's a really

074powerful exercise for them to see their growth and for um parents too to see that at conferences and um um it's it's really fun um to be able to give their writing samples to them and they can see their growth over time. So b moving on to our next goal for math. There we go. So um similarly for reading uh we have the 80% proficiency goal for mathematics and in the fall of 2025 um Jenkins had 65% of our students at proficiency. Um in the middle of the year that had grown um not a lot but uh we're still headed in the right direction to 66.5%. Um so we were able to work out our interim goals um for June of 26 27 and 28 um showing the progression towards 80% which we will you

075know be monitoring through all of the systems that we have in place that are in our action plan. Um all of the um initiatives that we're um have started this year for reading carry over to math as well. our cross district PD um our data meetings or MTSS process. So, um, the Jenkins specific action plan, I'm not sure what slide that's on, um, for math. Here we go. Is, uh, similarly to Watuck is at the targeted cross district. I'm sorry, I lost my spot there. Yeah. crosscurricular opportunities to increase um the application of math across um uh you know science, social studies, reading and you know we do have some of that happening now but um the kids um students really do enjoy when they have more project based um and more connection across the

076the uh content areas. So that's something we're going to be looking at as well. Um it's exciting to hear that other schools are doing that too. I think what there's an opportunity for us to really share and learn from each other. Okay, moving on to the third goal. Um as principal Reardan mentioned um the learning interest has been identified as an area of challenge um for all of our schools which you know is is alarming uh because we are a school and talking about learning interest being a challenge and so you we're our school council is really interested in understanding more about what exactly does that mean? Um the HSA that the third graders take has 41 questions. The um version that four and five um take has 86 questions and within that there are

077four questions around learning interest and um they they are I like to learn new things. I try to learn new things outside of school. I want to learn as much as I can whenever I can and I'm curious about new ideas. So, it's um it these questions are interesting um because they also mention outside of school. So, it also led to a discussion which was a a real topic of interest for the Jenkins School Council around screen time, video games, what are the kids doing outside of school? Um and you know which is a much bigger conversation. Um so as a school community the uh way that we chose to uh tackle this is by asking the kids what are you interested in learning more about. Um so we are going to be um surveying

078the students um before school gets out about what they are interested in learning about. What are they curious about? I'm going to use the word curious and curious sharks. Um, and we're going to take those surveys and um probably organize it by grade level band, K to two and three to five and uh see what it is that they're interested in learning about and leverage that information in a several different ways. Um the first one is clubs. Um then our enrichment offerings, field trips, and maybe uh classroom opportunities through the wind block. So um we're really excited about leveraging the club opportunities. Um as principal rear mentioned, we have 10 club stipens that we can use per school year plus three for our lit clubs. And at Jenkins, we don't run a fall session. We

079only run lit in the fall. Um, just organizationally, it just has worked better for our school. And in the winter and spring sessions, we use those 10 siphons. They get all get used. So, there's an opportunity to run a fall session and use um community volunteers. And we've already had discussions with the PTO. They're all very excited about um we're going to provide them with these survey ideas that the kids have, things that they're interested in learning about and creating a fall session that's run by community volunteers with the um that it needs to be um costfree just like our other clubs are and u focused on these topics. And so we're really excited to see um how that goes this coming fall. um using that same survey information. We're going to be um looking

080at um that how to incorporate those um thoughts and ideas into our um field trips, our enrichment um offerings that are funded by the PTO. Um incredibly generous um assemblies that we continue to have there. We have a PTO volunteer that that is all she does is look at programs for us and bring them um to Jenkins. And the um last action item is maybe being able to weave this into wind block somehow kind of an independent study. um if there's a topic that a student's particularly interested in and that um is more um the 2728 school year once we get this up and running and um get a um a feel for how we could implement that within my blog. So um that is our third goal around learning interest and our fourth goal

081um is around the transition to um our new elementary school and being able to welcome our new families um to Jenkins and our new staff members. Um Jenkins is going to be celebrating our 125th anniversary and we uh really want to um celebrate just the evolution of Jenkins um over time and that that welcoming our new staff and families is and students is is just an evolution of of Jenkins over time. Um, this current building has been in place since 2001, but it is the third Jenkins school to be on this property. It was um given to the town by the Jenkins family with a stipulation that the land only be used for school. Uh, so that's really um a wonderful heritage. Um, the back field was donated by um a family uh whose property

082is adjacent to the school. Um it just is um uh incidentally our nurse Conway that's her family. Uh so it just wonderful community connections. Um again you'll see that we want to be sure we're securing appropriate staffing to make class size intervention and special education supports with the addition of our new students. um that we're preparing our facilities um for the addition of um the classrooms of students. Um for this summer, for example, we're going to be reworking the systems um for our network hubs um that are antiquated and we need some of them are in classrooms and are very noisy. We're going to be pulling those out. Um, and then, you know, outfitting the the classrooms with appropriate furnishings and, um, we're going to have to move staff around the building, consolidate some, uh,

083specialist spaces and things like that, but I feel very comfortable in um, opening up five new classrooms. At Jenkins, we have the space to do that. And, uh, they'll be in, you know, um, just traditional classrooms that are being used for other purposes at this time. So that that's um role four for Jenkins. Anybody have any questions? I just had one one thing I thought it was great again. Thank you. >> Um I really liked again this feels a lot different and in a good way had together. Um, one question or something to maybe think about as you think about putting the final details on it is um, in your goals one and two is thinking about bridging putting perhaps a little more detail in bridging the gap between sort of like where your data

084is, where you want it to be. I think um when I was reading it, I think there's a lot in there about assessment and win and making sure you're knowing what the kids need, but I was wondering if you would think about adding a little bit more to the teaching learning tier one piece. Um I know you have the ELA and the portfolios. Um that's not that's not Cessnar, so you won't see that, you know, right? Um and so I was just thinking about >> how you will see like where that where that where that how that change can happen and I think you thought of it but it's maybe not documented so I'm just thinking that might be something to think about um for you to add thank you for that as I was

085looking over >> yes and I think um for reading the way that I think we tried to include that was through the ELA curriculum review >> okay >> but um that's in in process right now But for math, I can I can see where >> effects would be more flushed out. >> Yeah, I was just thinking I know you're doing so I was just thinking it might be out calling out or making it a little bit more obvious. >> Okay, that was the only thing that I just wonder otherwise. >> I love the curios curios. Thank you. >> Yeah, ask the kids what they're interested in. Maybe that will result in them saying, >> "I cannot wait to see what it is." >> Yes, >> thank you. Something for us to think about is the

086learning interest and how it's come up across all four schools and how those questions are sort of asking about within the school day. It's just something for us to explore further. >> That was going to be almost like my question comment. I'm not on an elementary school council. I'm on school council. So, these have been really cool to read from an outsider perspective even. Um, but what you said about WIN made me think about my middle school hat. Um, and what's going on there with Win and talking to Ryan might be interesting because and it may be this may be a road nowhere, but just the thought of what they do there and how that wind block looks and the different sort of interests that come and how that structured. Maybe there may be some

087cool design of how things are being addressed there with kids. The middle school is such a great zone and space for capitalizing on kids unique interests that you're It sounds like you're sort of trying to bring that into Jenkins and the other elementary schools in a way that fits for developmentally appropriate level. So >> they have more choice about where they're going for. >> Yeah. Yeah. There's just something going on at Gate. I don't mean Ryan, you can explain it better, but there's a little more of that going on at Gates that maybe could fit somehow. >> Thank you. >> I don't know. >> That sounds interesting about it. >> Yeah. Or maybe even fifth grade. There's like some bridge. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. I think the other thing we've heard twice

088now, we'll hear it two more times, is just the idea about how um the goals are focused on the star, which is grades two through five, and how um we don't want to feel like we're leaving out the littleer kids. And I think that it's natural to maybe have that fear or that worry, but I think um it's inherent in that goal that if you're not paying attention to K1, you're never going to achieve that goal. And so I just want to reassure that that is part of achieving that goal is of course that we're setting that foundation for those early years even though we're not explicitly also having a devil's goal. I think I'm assuming you know at our level that we think about goal setting at the district level. We don't want to

089have like a million small goals. And so sometimes we have to kind of zoom up and say what's this, you know, bigger goal and we know the building blocks to get there will involve other things that are not necessarily called out in the goal. And I just think that's helpful to you can't say it enough. I think just to remind people that of course we're not forgetting about >> anyone or anything kindergartener would let us. >> I think our our school council >> understood that. um when it was at grades two to five and it was STAR and the need to have measurability, right? You know, if you have K to five and you have so many different assessments, it's kind of back to where we were >> a year or two ago where it's

090almost like how did we hit it or did we not because there's so many um >> different things to consider. But I think our school councils understood the two to five and the star and as my school council called it the Peter system. They just want to acknowledge it. >> Yes. >> Right. >> Yeah. Yeah. No, I think it's good to say people know that for sure. And then they're they continue to be assessed out all the way. >> Right. >> So, thank you guys. Thank you. Thank you both. >> Thanks so much. Uh, next I'd like to welcome Principal Schula and Principal Shien to the table who will present our um, Padawi Elementary School and Cushing Elementary School improvement plan. Hello everyone. I'm Christine Sheen. I'm the principal of Hatherley Elementary School. And I

091want to take just a moment um just as everyone did, but to recognize our school council members. Um this process was amazing and with their dedication, their willing to give up their own time. Um and just the amount of thoughtfulness and the questions that they were willing to ask has made this document so much better than it was. um before and so I really do feel very lucky to have had them on the team and they really care about the Hadley community. So just the same as the other two schools, we have the same, you know, very similar goals, two academic goals, um first one being ELA. Um still trying to reach that 80% mark by the end of 2028 or by June of 2028. The data rationale for us is that um in the

092fall of 2025, 67.1% of Havly students in grades two to five demonstrated that grade level proficiency. So one of the first steps that we really needed to take was set those interim goals. What we decided to do is we set the 70% mark as our goal for the end of this year. We are on our way uh to getting there, but we decided we'd take a look and see where we are at the end of the year, set the goal for next year with the ultimate goal of hitting that 80% by June of 2028. As um Mary and Tracy mentioned, the big piece of reaching this goal is within our MTSS process. Um they did a great job explaining that. I won't um def won't delve into that too much. But this is a process

093that we've worked on um over the past couple of years really kind of going in on our data meetings um making sure that our wind groups are fluid and have a targeted focus skill and then this year really focusing on that tier one and tier one is your classroom instruction. What does every student receive? And um Tracy mentioned we were trained on our evaluations to streamline and align our um observation process. But within that also was really focusing on what are the high level high lever teaching practices. For this year we focused it on formative assessment and learning objectives. Next year we'll bring in criteria for success. So there's been professional development around that um and a lot of conversations and that is something that when I'm observing when anyone's observing we're looking for those

094things which helps us to align across these schools. The other pieces of that which are maybe more Hatherly focused is that we want to ensure that we're working on writing and this is something that we've been thinking about at Hatherly. And the way that we've approached it is that this year we've really did a deep dive into the writing standards to see what are the standards for your grade level, what are the ones before, what are the ones above. um just to make sure that we're really hitting them and that we really understand what they are. Um we've attempted this year and started to make some gains with instituting a team approach to evaluating student writing. So coming together with writing samples and looking at student writing and using that as a formative assessment to

095say what are our next lessons, where do we go from here? and vertically aligning um our graphic organizers and and grammar and things like that with the opportunity to move into next year and say, "Let's evaluate where our writing scores on MCCAST are." That's a a a good place to start. It gives us a view of what our students need and then make plans for where we need to go next year with writing. So, I think it's become a focus. It's something that we talk about a lot. Um, and writing is that bridge to reading. It really helps students to start to comprehend what they're reading, to be able to explain uh what it is that they're learning. So, there really is that deep connection between writing and comprehension. And we're looking forward to sort

096of aligning more practices um with our grade levels and getting teachers talking about what they're doing and what we can do um just to improve in that area. Another place that I think that um the district has improved in is the professional development. And I want to just give a shout out to our curriculum coordinators because they go in to classrooms and observe grade levels across the district to determine what our needs are. Um and then they have a full day professional development for that grade level where they can address those needs and also share best practices. So if they see teachers doing a phenomenal thing, those teachers are able to share which helps with that alignment across the four schools. So that I just I think that's a really big part of what we're

097doing and I just want to give them that shout out is a lot of work that they're putting into it. And we want to be able to give targeted cross-d district professional development to our teachers. So we've been doing that this year. I think one of the other principles mentioned that next year we will have an additional staff meeting. It's one of our staff meetings will be dedicated to that great little collaboration um being able to work on our district priorities during that time. So allowing teachers to have that time to be able to do those things and focus on what we need to do. Our next goal is the math goal which I'll have up here. Also very similar. Um, just so happens that however this happened, the same percentage of students in ELA,

098um, I've checked this so many times because it doesn't make sense, but um, apparently it's true. So, we had the same percentage, 67.1% of students proficient in math. It's we did the same thing without looking for 70% at the end of this year. Then we'll come up with what that number should be with the ultimate goal of the 80%. All the other processes are are the same. We still have our MTSS process format. Um it's interesting to see how similar things are across the school. So I don't want to bore you. Um we are going to be doing like PD for STMath for math facts. Um we are also looking at those crosscurricular opportunities. Um and then sorry I lost it. Anyway, um we also have been looking for that ability for our specialists to

099pull math concepts into there and this year uh we have been able to do that with Laura Burton, our art teacher. Um, so during that second staff meeting, she's been able to collaborate with a particular grade level. Um, she just likes to listen and sort of see where she can find access points for that. So, she's been able to pull in measurements. She pulls in shapes for kindergarteners. You walk in there and they might be creating a dump truck because trucks are part of our life right now. But, um, and she's saying, "This is a square. This is a circle. this is a rectangle. It just allows children to see what they're learning makes sense and applies to real life. So, I think that's something that we want to expand in future years um to

100other specialists as well. The third goal is the SEAL goal. As they mentioned, learning interest is that number one challenge and we want to focus on just making sure that the number of students who report that or identify that as a challenge decreases. Um our rationale for that about 20 just a little over 26% of Catherly students have learning interest as a challenge. It is our number one challenge. I've listed off the grade levels there. there is um there's been a trend over the years that learning interest is that challenge or grade four is not um particularly a challenge for them but grade three and grade five those are over 30%. So that is not something that we want to see and as they mentioned it is across their day and so as a school

101council we really kind of thought about what could that be what are the things that are affecting that similarly to Jenkins um we want to survey students to find out what their interests are make sure we're maximizing the amount of clubs that we're offering but also making sure that those clubs s fit with the interests of our students a a lot of times because um we are asking teachers to take on a club. It's sort of what what their hobby is, what they like to do. Um and that is understandable, but I think uh being able to share the input from the students with teachers might kind of open that up a little bit. Same with enrichment, using their interest to make sure that we're bringing in things that might just spark their curiosity. Um

102how to make things, how to stud, how do things work. Um so really trying to coordinate those themes based on their interests I think will be a big improvement um for that and then when we're looking towards 2028 that's the first year of the new school and trying to make sure that we're also then figuring out what does this new population of students what are they interested in. So, um, I'll talk about the transition later, but it feeds into a lot of the decisions that we're making. I think Tracy mentioned the tier 2 character strong. We have the same thing u on there. We haven't really used it much this year. Came in mid year. So, this year just making sure that we're evaluating it, taking a look at it, seeing where we can use

103it, sharing it with teachers, and then finding those opportunities for invent intervention next year. One of the things that the school council really talked about a lot was this idea of playful learning. Um, and we want to investigate further areas where we can do that. One of the pilot programs that we did this year was called lunch and play in the Hornet Cafe. And basically that was for all all grade levels. We haven't done it every month but it has been um pretty popular. will survey and find out how all the stakeholders felt about it. But essentially, families and caregivers can sign up to come in during a lunch one time during the month and they come in and play board games like old school board games, cards, um math games, all those things that

104you're learning while you're playing. Um we have coloring sheets on the wall. Um, it allows them to have a little bit of of freedom and it's just been a really nice thing to see. We've had to limit the amount of parents coming in because of our parking. Um, but that just goes to show the interest in in doing that. So, overall, anecdotally, it's been positive uh feedback, but we'll find out for sure. I know the um the lunch ladies really love it, which says a lot. So, um, that is something that we want to keep doing. Our fifth grade started last year. They can play games any day at lunch. Um, they get up and grab a board game and play. We've expanded that to fourth grade and third grade this year. We find it

105a little different with K to2 because they don't always know how to play and need um, someone to do that with them. So, that's something that we're working on and we want to expand that to be a monthly event and then evaluate how that would work um going forward in the new building. We're also looking at exploring recess alternatives for grades K to two. Um they have a new playground out there. It was a little different for them. Not as much room to run and just making sure that they get some different things out there to be able to do. So just um trying to incorporate more hands-on within their learning and then just building on that as we go. I think I missed one. The other piece of that when we think about the

106home piece is we decided we would love to have some sort of parent outreach about the impact of screen time on students. So this year really kind of looking at how we could do that. Um possibly bringing a group together to do that. Um to think about how we would push out that information because it does seem as though that might be a pretty big piece of it and when you get into attention span and so forth. So um looking at that this year, putting in one opportunity to do it the next year and then expanding on that into further years. So the transition um our transition is a little different because we have two buildings that are closing and Brian had that screen up earlier that was about celebrating the legacy and what's coming.

107And so we want to make sure that people are able to say goodbye in the way that they need to. So we want to make sure that we have an event where the community can come in and see the building before it closes. Um there's a time capsule in there in the front that people have reached out about that they would like to see. So we will make sure that before the building is torn down that we do that. So that's something we need to plan for. Um the redistricting team is already looking at things. We've already had our meetings. Um we talked about that earlier. Communication with families is such a big piece of all of this this year. Just we were having that timely um gatheringly happenings coming out and making sure that

108we have a construction piece in there. There's a lot um for us to share about parking and about um events and other things of that nature, but just making sure that we're continuing to give out that information over the next couple of years. We want to make sure that we're welcoming new students and families. This year, we created a new onboarding packet that we shared with new families. Um, we're going to be developing that for the new building that will be put out to all students in the new building and all families in the new building. Um, making sure that we're talking about the exciting things that we get to do because we get to create a whole new um set of core values for the new building, new mascot, new everything. It is um

109they are two new schools. It might be on the grounds of how to rule, but it's new staff, new families, everything. So, that is something that we're really starting to think about and making sure that we're communicating that with families, that families and students have a voice in that process, staff has a voice in that process. Um, next year we want to be able to hold, you know, a meet and greet, uh, more families put out that information. And sorry, that was by October 2027, holding the meet and greet. But, you know, in the summer, things like that, making sure that staff, students, and families have the opportunity to meet each other, be able to combine those the PTO's together, school councils together, making sure that we're so we're really focused on the academic and

110social emotional support for students and making sure that we're ready um to provide that because change is difficult. Um, and people will be coming in with different types of issues, but we need to be ready to provide that um, and have that transition support, make sure that our, um, staff are able to provide that transitional support and help students make new connections and make new friends, meet new staff. Um, the idea of staff, there's going to be new staff. there's new teams, new staff. Um, we want to look forward to identifying ways to develop connections for the staff in the new school. Ensure that staff understand the expectations and the updated enrollment, the schedules, um, all the support systems that exist so that we're all on the same page. hold transition meetings with all grade

111levels to gain an understanding of the students strengths and challenges and um just making sure that we're starting on a positive note and that we are ready for that big transition and that is everything for me. Does anyone have any questions? >> Just because you said uh change is difficult but it also presents opportunities. >> Yes, >> it can be very exciting. >> It can be. >> Yes, it can. >> It will be difficult but it also looks like it. >> Yes. The moment it will arise. >> Yes. >> It's exciting. >> Yeah. It's nice to be able to start >> Yeah. something with with your voice ability to participate. >> Yes. >> I have I don't know what my question is. I have more of a wondering and I I see this playful learning

112across all of the and Mary and I had some conversations about it. I would just love for us as a district to be mindful of the students take the HSA and it says learning interest and it says I'm learning this or I'm learning. We want if playful learning is going to work, we're gonna have to figure out ways to make sure we're using language that connects games at lunch with learning, >> right? And so I just want to be really intentional that that's being right because I don't know I think about my kids, they love playing games at Hather. I think about whether or not my twins would associate game time at the cafeteria with learning interest. So just just sort of that was what I was thinking about in my brain about sort of

113how we communicate that. >> Sure. Um, the other thought I have is I appreciate and I heard I've heard it a lot the concern over screen time, but I also want to be really mindful it's not a but it's an and. That the research is really mixed. That we know that technology including AI is also opening a lot of doors and opportunities and could actually arguably spark learning interests. And so if we have programming about screen time, I just want to make sure that we're bringing in all of that and that there isn't a like no no screen time. What I what I found really interesting because Mary was great, she brought in I have to say I love working with Mary and I was so grateful that she invited me, but she brought in

114data about how how many minutes their students actually use screens in school. And she said to me, I don't want to put words in your mouth, but my interpretation was really as low as it can be. So, I just want parents and families to hear that our students actually aren't overly using screens in school right now. At least that's what the data said in and so anyway, just my um >> my thoughts around that is again >> first of all learning interest it's it's four questions. >> Yeah. >> However, we see it in front of us. >> Yeah. every day. There's also I would agree I do not believe that our students in school are on the screens for too long. And part of what it makes this challenging to tackle is that there are

115benefits and drawbacks. There are different types of screens and some are more valuable than others. And but I think the point of it being on here is that we often hear just screen time, screen time, screen time. However, there's so much more um involved in that. Um and what is what is a good use of that time and what isn't? And um so that's really where I think it would be going. >> Yeah, I think it's a great I I think it's a great conversation. and I just want us to make sure it's a sort of full and comprehensive with different perspectives and like you said good screen time and not so good screen time. So I appreciate that. >> I agree. actually wrote down the same thing, the learning interest piece and I was

116curious like I didn't even want to go into it too deep today because I was kind of curious more about that HSA question in general and kids even understand like what they're being >> in that like because that seems like such a high number for just our students to even >> respond like that. So I had like bigger questions even about it like so I'm glad you mentioned it Terry just in general like a third grade is just being told what what they need to do. >> Yeah they know. Yeah but I love that you got >> I will say to that for sure it is a more recent trend. >> Yeah it's interesting. >> So that was not learning on Christmas is not a challenge. >> Yeah. So something's changed and you're you're you're

117on it is the big picture. But I I like that's great, but it is definitely new. >> Um I just wanted to say one more quick thing or two two I guess. One um I wanted to just say I really liked your focus on investigating the standards as a strategy. That's a very high leverage and researchbacked strategy for tightening up instruction. And so I just thought that was lovely um to see in there. And I think this is in everyone's plan too, but just the addition of teacher collaboration and conversation around practice is another super high level strategy when it comes to really thinking about how to change that teaching and learning, how to go from that here's the number we're at versus here's the we want to be. Those are two really nice things

118to see and those are I really appreciate saying. Um, and then the other thing I would add is just when I was looking at yours, the um, stuff that you've laid out in four redistricting is great. In any other circumstance, I would say it's really detailed and like I would ask you to do the same as um, what I suggested to Wet, which would be to like maybe take one layer back. But but I think in this case it makes sense because I do think um it's reassuring actually in this one case to have that much detail in that particular role because I do think it really would help families and the community at large because of your particular situation to really see that you've really thought of so many things already. Uh I feel

119like if you're on planes that is going to be built you've already started to build it right there. you know, you really thought of everything. >> I was like, "Wow." They kept going and I was like, "Oh my god." Um, so I would just say normally I think when we're trying to calibrate the level of detail that's appropriate for these plans, that is too detailed, but in this one case, I think it's right. So, thank you for putting it all the time. And I mean, obviously you are. We've got to be wellressed. >> Yeah. >> Oh, getting around it. But that was >> Thank you. >> Good evening everybody. Last but certainly not least, um I'm going to present the Cushing Improvement Plan to Kul, the interim um principal over there. I want to thank

120these lovely and incredible uh school council members, some of whom are sitting here in the audience still um for their dedication, their passion, their commitment to Cushing School. Um and their willingness to participate in five meetings from the middle of January to the middle of April as we pulled this plan together. Um, and without further ado, I will present to you what I think might feel a little bit like the movie Groundhog Day because it is a lot of the same of of what you've already heard this evening, which I think is true testament to the collaboration that's happening among the four principles as we prepare for this unique time and the history of our schools as we redistrict. And so I think it's important that our community know that um we are invested in

121this process and we are so tightly aligned um that like I said you're going to hear a lot of the same things from me. So without further ado, Cushing School um it shares the same first goal in terms of having 80% of our students in grades two through five performing grade level proficiency um through the STAR reading assessment. Um, if you scrolled through our action steps, you would see a lot of what you already heard this evening, which is a strong commitment to the MTSS assessment cycle. What I want to highlight that's a little bit different is we fully acknowledge that our students are being dispersed to three different elementary schools. So what we have also included in our action steps is a commitment to ensuring that when we pass our students on to their

122receiving school, their data goes with them and their story of growth and their story of targeted um supports goes with them. So we've already started to talk about how we can ensure that when we send our students to their receiving schools, they are immediately receiving the targeted support that they were getting from us and that they need to be successful from the very start um of stepping into their new building. Um, you've also already heard a strong commitment across all four buildings to strengthen our tier one instructional practices. I'm really looking forward to taking that work on at Cushing. Um, working with teachers on objectives, formative assessments, adding criteria for success and feedback next year. That's exciting work happening across all four schools. In addition, another bit of work that's happening at Cushing is a

123real investment to analyzing a true implementation of a windblock and how we can support students with tier 2 interventions through that model. And so I've already seen huge leaps and gains in that in just the few months I've been at Cushing. Um but that will continue to be a priority um for Cushing staff as we work through next year. We will also see a commitment to um professional development which all three principles have spoken about about this evening and a commitment to our ELA curriculum review um which is tremendous work happening with classroom teachers led by our curriculum coordinators who really do deserve um a pat on the back for that work. Something that is unique to Cushing that I wanted to highlight is our last action step. Three of the elementary schools this evening

124spoke to um the focus area of writing. Cushing school council when we drilled down with the data, the star assessment data really wanted to focus on um reading comprehension, text structure, vocabulary, items like that. And what we thought we needed to do was a drill down of reading standards per grade level. And so that is work that we'd like to take on. We also, which you'll hear me talk about when I talk about the HSA data, we also want to incentivize reading at Cushing School. We really want to um create passion around reading for fulfillment for our students. And so we want to develop a program next year um to incentivize reading across across all grade levels, K through five. So that is something distinct to Cushing School, but something that our council really felt

125passionate about. I'll quickly transition to our second goal, which has to do with um 80% grade level proficiency in math based on our STAR assessment data. And you will see all of the same action steps from our first goal. A commitment to the MTSS assessment cycle, a commitment to tier one instructional practices like formative assessment, criteria for success, feedback, etc. A commitment to looking at our windblock practices, crossdist collaboration, professional development, and a math curriculum review. Am I going too fast? >> No. >> You like it? >> Yeah, we're ready. >> Is it groundhogish? A little bit night. Um, goal three, across all four elementary schools, we saw the same challenge with learning interest. Again, we've talked about what those four questions look like. Um, and what the Cushing School Council really hung their hat

126on was this idea of student voice and choice. That was something that pops up in the wording of the four questions that deal with learning interest. And so what we would like to see happen at Cushing next year and what we're already sort of piloting is an idea that came from Gates. Um and I think uh Nicole Brandolini spoke to this a little bit, but Gates has a tremendous um interpace club opportunity for students and we're sort of taking a mini version of that, implementing it during our library time, allowing students to tell us what things they're interested in exploring. and we piloted this with our grade five students. We did um beads and board games. We are ready to tackle um a school newspaper um and crocheting. And it's been so successful and the

127feedback from the students is so tremendous that we'd like to expand that programming down to grades three and four next year. In addition to that, we'd like to expand our extracurricular club programming, which you heard from all three elementary schools already about, but we want to hear from the students. what would they like to be doing after school? We'd also like to implement a grade five student council as another opportunity for our students to share voice and choice and ownership when it comes to their learning at Cushing. And we would like to see um a student principal advisory council next year at Cushing School, an opportunity for our students to sit down and meet with me regularly to talk about what it is that they love about school and what we can do a little

128bit better for them. Another thing that came about from our school council, which I think is a tremendous idea, when we drilled down and looked at the questions that deal with learning interest, there is this piece about what's happening at home. And we've talked about screen time. and we thought maybe we could support our our parents, our caregivers at home and create some wonderful partnerships with them and offer quarterly workshops with them that would assist them in supporting their learners at home and perhaps decrease um learning interest as a challenge at home. So, we talked about providing workshops on our tech tools, Google Suite, um how to support students with executive functioning, social media, and screen time or four um buckets of topics we thought would help support our families and would also help decrease

129learning interest as a challenge at Christian school. Our fourth goal tackles the redistricting goal. I think Christine did a lovely job talking about how we're really detailed in this work in our plans, but it is because it is so at the forefront of of what we're doing each and every day. Um what you'll see if you look at the action steps at Cushing is just a strong commitment to all four principles working to together collaboratively to ensure timely communication with our staff, with our students, with our families to ensure that everybody is in the know about these big changes because with change comes all the emotions. What you will also see in this section of the school improvement plan is a strong commitment to ensuring that our Cushing students feel good about these transitions and

130they know that we're sending them off to their receiving schools in a really good situation. Um, one part of the Cushing School improvement plan that's unique in goal 4 is this idea of a legacy. Christine Shen talked about this from the Hadley perspective, but we've talked about hosting a once more through our doors event prior to officially closing the doors at Cushing. We want to give our alumni, our families, our community members an opportunity to walk through Cushing one last time. We'd like to talk about creating a time capsule and then some type of whole school community legacy project so that Cushing, although its doors will be closed, our kids can take something with them. Our staff who has worked in this building for decades, can take something with them uh to always remember Cushing

131um as we close its doors, but also look forward to opening new schools and joining other school communities. So that's a piece to our school improvement plan that is unique and might not be in the other. So I think what you've heard is a strong commitment across all four schools to ensure that the elementary experience in Situit is consistent no matter where your child attends elementary school and a strong commitment to ensuring that this redistricting process is a pleasant and happy one for all. Although it will be full of all the emotions, we're ready for those. Um, and so I'll take any questions you have, everything. I love that they were all similar because this has been a long time coming years. um that all and even you know even if we didn't even if

132we weren't going from four to three schools it's fantastic that all the you guys are all so insane it's it's very clear >> I have a question maybe administration caught up we we must have spoke for four meetings about that 80% number how was it coincidence that all of the schools came up with that same 80% >> well we wanted to be aligned to the strategic plan we Yeah, >> but we talked about it forever. >> Well, so I think what you'll see in each plan, >> we didn't. Did we not talk about it forever? >> We're a team. >> Where is your interest? >> We are What would I take this? >> No, I just remember that we were debating it should have been 100% or 90% >> pyramid the circuit board and me

133as a district all the analogies s >> Yeah. But I think if you drill down and look at these, I think the the important piece is whether it's 80, whether it's 100, we're all working towards percentages that are attainable. Um, and so, you know, if you dig deep, I didn't read mine out loud, but they're a little bit different than Christine's to be totally honest because we're just at a different place. But the important thing is that we throughout the year are assessing where our students are at and ensuring that everybody is making growth. Although it looks a little bit different and our percentages are a little bit different, our goal is that by 2028 we are at at least 80%. >> Thank you. >> Please don't change it. >> No, we're not. >> That's

134still wrong. Fantastic. Really impressive. Really happy to have you all. >> Students are lucky to have you. The teachers too. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, we really appreciate all the work that our principles do, our curriculum coordinators, the hundreds of hours to prepare the presentation, uh the work of the committee to set the goals, all the parents, community members, uh the teachers, pair professionals that are involved in creating these. So, um it's a ton of work, but very valuable. So, thank you for >> the work of our principles and for the feedback. And uh we still have our our high school and middle school ones to come. So, this is a very good >> um start. Yes. Setting the tone. >> Okay. Second side. All right. Report of the school committee. We're going to talk

135a little bit about the new school naming task force. The discussion quickly for tonight. Um wanted to discuss um adding a bit of additional process to the new school naming. Um, we'd like the committee to consider um handing this to super uh interim superintendent Rob and assistant superintendent Lynch um to run a bit more process into things. Um maybe we could see um if they could reach out to the original task force members to see if there's interest to reconvene um set up some meetings with those folks. Perhaps adding a few new members of the broader community given the interest in the process has been significantly high. Um after our outreach to the community increased through our survey. Um we want to of course you know include the work that has been done with historical

136society. The original task force group which was you know upwards of 12 to 15 people. All of our students the work that they have done our staff and faculty members. Um obviously this will be a buildout of that work and include that. Um ultimately the school committee is voting on a name. So um and our um architect team wants there is a timeline here but originally we were under the assumption that that needed to be done by spring. Lo and behold our team has told us that we had more time than originally thought. So, um, we want to take advantage of that and give it, you know, give it the time that it deserves and and that that building and our community, um, wants and needs. So, um, I wanted to get the comm the,

137uh, committee's sort of feel and input on that and have a little discussion and see if what everyone thinks about, um, having Dr. drop and assistant superintendent Lynch um expand that task force, set up some meetings, some public meetings, have that, you know, run a bit of a an expanded task force, sort of build out a little bit on what's already been started. >> Comments, questions, we can put parameters into what we would want that task force to bring back to us. >> I just Yeah, just like to what end? What's the I guess I'd just like to hear more about like feel like there was a >> task force last summer. >> Yeah. >> It was re convened or rechanged around a little bit and handed and we had lots of students >> who

138did lots of work. >> Yeah. >> Went back to the task force to be reviewed. They voted on it. I guess I'm just wondering what to what end like what's the what's like what what will Ryan Not that you're not great at? I mean, I was on the bullying task force. You're very good at facilitating these conversations. So, this isn't about like what what what will Tom, Dr. Rob, and Ryan add that we're missing from the process currently, I guess, is what I'm wondering. >> Yeah. >> Well, I think >> fair question. >> Um, yeah, I mean, it is a fair question for sure. It feels like it's been going on already quite a long time. It was last spring that we first talked about, you know, committing this. But I guess from my perspective

139um and what I went into this thinking, wow, this is so exciting. It'll be such a positive and fun and cool opportunity. And it has taken a shift away from that. And I think ultimately I would like to see it return to that feeling um and not be something that sort of leaves a bad taste in people's mouths. And I think part of that as I reflect on how that came about um is like the people who who were on the task force I feel like have felt a little bit intimidated or I'm not sure why but they haven't been really for at the forefront of sharing work that they have been part of and I think that has created a feeling as though like there was not a proper process model or there wasn't

140enough repres did have community members. We did have historical society. We did have parents when we did have a lot of people, but those people have not felt comfortable speaking about they're part of the process. And right so I think I would like to sort of I think that if we add you also it was a task force it was led by people who have shifted right here. So we can't go back and recreate those meetings. um some of them where I were at, some of them we weren't, you know. So I think there's just like if we go back or we sort of build build on that, we have an opportunity to sort of shed some light and say, "Hey, no, this is how this is working." You know, I think we can um

141perhaps bring that back forward to the positive feeling that I think it deserves to have. Um, obviously, you know, at the end of the day, five of us have to make a choice. Um, there will perhaps be a sizable percentage of the population that doesn't like the choice we make, and that's fact. >> Yeah. But it also, but if I could just interrupt for a second, it sounds like you're actually potentially with this process changing the choice that we will have to make. >> I don't we don't know. We don't know. >> Yeah. I think for me part of the problem too was that the original task force was charged with this job. But then when you know transitions happened in the fall, there was never like a loop back to us say like, "Hey,

142as a task force, um, here's the criteria we've come up with for coming up with a name and given us and the public a chance to hear that criteria and say, "Oh, yeah, that makes sense." Or, "What does this mean? Let's get some more thoughts on that." you know, like I think we never had that process step of saying like here's what we value in that kind of I think that happened in that task force space but didn't kind of make believe and so I think if we were to reopen this we can say it sounds like something that was valued in part of this process was honoring names that haven't already been honored now um let's talk about that what does that mean why are we valuing that is that something we want to

143value. It sounds like a name that's pronouncable is something we're going to value. You know, is that something we're going to value or not? Like what do we, you know, I think like kind of those conversations while they may have happened or, you know, did happen, we didn't have anyone to then sort of close that loop, right, and make it public. And it's not it it's I mean we just talked about a third option for redistricting because we we came up with that third option because of feedback from the community. So this is similar. >> I would like this to be recommended to the committee by this task force and by Ryan and >> have it come to us from the task force where Maria's just felt disjointed. So, Maria, to your point, can can

144you just help me understand the process? I I remember clearly the task force that was present, they came with like five names, something just generic names that they were going to continue to work on. And is it it was my understanding or my uh yeah, that once we gave this task to the high school students per se, that that task force was going to review all of those potentially. That >> they did. Did that happen? >> They did. They did. >> That did happen. Yes. >> Okay. And then so between the student suggestions, historical society and this task force, they came up with these. >> That's where we got down. >> Yeah. >> That's why I don't understand what. So, I don't think we're saying that those three are out of the running. I think

145it's just let's take a step back and say like why are we why are we saying that these three are in the let's go let's like be kind of I think the task force had these conversations but they're not they're not documented they're not part of this public you know forum we don't have a we don't have task force members who are saying like hey this is what we why we said this you know I think that's to me what >> I think would help um shore up the process bring back some >> so I hear that just I hear that um I that there's an opportunity with perhaps some extended timeline to make sure that um I heard the phrase like the build out like build on the work that's been done. Um I

146think that that the task that we can take um to your point about like running task force and things like that like that's what we do in the district. we have access to the students um community members like the historical society um you know our leaders and and we we can bring forward a a plan uh maybe at the I would propose like the May 18th school committee meeting that would talk about the way we could build on the process and so Dr. Rob and I could present that to you. A little bit more detail about um who would we include? What's our timeline? I don't think we would actually need a significant number of meetings to build on this. So perhaps there's two or three summer meetings. um we should make a plan for

147what we're going to do with the pre how we're going to expand or build on the previously identified names and then maybe outline some um the values that we would want the group to continue to have. And so I think we can do that on the school side and then present some recommendations to the committee. So, if you can give us um until the 18th just to maybe present a more formal process to see if it meets um what you're looking for, we would be happy to do that. And then I would just say from what I know that this is a process that would have to be done by mid August because of the timeline that we're under for the building project. So, >> that's something that we can come back to you with

148and then any feedback that you would have on the plan that would maybe just clarify it since we >> um Tom and I would have a little bit more time to >> right >> um put detail to it. >> Yeah, >> in my brief conversation with Tom, he was saying like we wanted to say like we already have three names that have been generated. If you wanted to say the committee does not want more than five names. Like if we're vetting around more than five names, like now it's just why we just pick up the names ourselves that why are you asking for any names? Like why are we doing this at all if we can come up with 10 names on our own? Like that's just silly. So we could say could the task

149force please provide us with two additional suggested names for our own >> consideration. >> Can I just also add >> You would not like to consider the following. you do not want to talk about it. >> Good idea. >> I'm not going to be voting on this at some point, but um >> I guess to add to this and I'm not I don't want to make it more complicated, but I had mentioned I think at the previous school committee meeting, are there other naming opportunities? I.e. we don't want to make it too complicated, but there is an ECC. You know, does that have a separate name to the school? U does the library or does the wing? And I'm just asking that because that may be an opportunity to integrate a variety of maybe >>

150I think that's a good question. >> I don't know. Probably confusing, but >> you know, >> could be something that the task force could we could at least know whereas before we're kind of sitting here being like we don't know what are the opportunities. You know, I think at least we would be would be helpful to at least understand what those are and look at our policy and look at the opportun that. And I would also just advocate again for in whatever process is developed from here on out to have more checkpoints along the way where task force members are presenting publicly to us, right? It can't just be put on school committee members. >> Yeah. and saying like, "Hey, where are the criteria that we are thinking about using?" And have us give have

151an opportunity to say, "Yep, okay, that sounds good." Because what I don't want to have happen to Carrie's point is to have them go too far down a path and then have us say, "Oh, no, no, no, no." You know, but we didn't have that conversation ourselves initially. I guess I had thought initially that the task force would do more of that work and come back to us and say, "Hey, this is the criteria we're thinking." Like I just don't know how you do this without criteria. >> And not that we have to all go in thinking like it's like lock step these things. I'm thinking broad, but not like nothing, you know? And I just think that that's part of what where we went through the path is that we just didn't have those

152checkpoints. I don't know if you guys agree with me, but I just think that like that part made it really hard, you know, because then when the final names came out, even the task force conversation that we had about those names, it we were kind of like we didn't know what the name the task force were going to choose either, you know, and so um you know, I can give an example like and vinyl was in the running up until the very end until the task force felt very strongly that there's a vinyl school in Norwalk that felt really problematic to them. But that's like the perfect example of like why did Ann Vinyl make it to the top five if that was something that we should have considered like a long time ago because

153that took up a slump. Do you know what I mean? >> Yeah. But absent knowing that, I guess the other benefit we have honestly is that none of us came to this committee with any naming expertise, but we certainly learned some things and so we can put some of that to to use. So, we're happy to come, if it leads to the committee, we're happy to come back on May 18th with a plan that outlines um some of what we've discussed tonight. And if you approve of that plan, we can move forward and amend it um accordingly. If you have feedback on the 18 or we're happy to do that um policy subcommittee all right um in everyone's backup packet there is a memo um which I would direct you to it's G1 because the

154PDF version of the attachment did not come through track changes. So, this is our masterpiece. Um, it's like 60 pages. Um, so let me just get back online and get to it. So, it's in the first paragraph of the memo. It is a long Google doc entitled the policy updates parenthesis file. So just to orient everyone to the format of the document, this is the same document that we used a while back to discuss uh the bean policies. So uh the very first skinny column is either my initials, Ryan's initials or Janice's initials. We initially started by dividing it into thirds and each of us took a third and made initial like a deep dive into our third and then present it to each other at our web committee meeting or in two meetings. So,

155it's been quite quite a long kept time coming here. It's been really fun. Um, the first column shows our proposed updates with the tracked changes. So, you can see like anything that's crossed out would be crossed out. Anything that would be replaced with is replaced. Um, and the middle column is the mass model policies that we don't always use, but we often use as a reference um because they have a whole team that they employ to write such models. So, it makes sense for them to use them. And then the final column is a note um that we try to just jot down in short what we've done to change the policy. Um so hopefully everyone's had a chance to look at this. This is just our first reading today. Um our idea would be

156for us to uh look at these and we can approve them as a whole chunk. Um, if there's anything in here that the committee would want to hold back, we can. Kind of like a consent agenda. We can take it out and look at it more closely. Um, there are some heavy hitters in here that I would like to just point out. Um, I mean, there's there's a bunch of important ones, but a couple things. In row two, we propose adding a new policy, which is evaluation of school committee operational procedures. So, we did not have this before. Um, so this would be essentially a policy to validate ourselves. Um, >> we have that. We think it's important. So, that's kind of something to draw your attention to. We talked about that. We have talked

157about that before. So, here it is. Um, let's see. Uh, scroll down. Um, the I want to go a second. um school councils. So BDFA um school councils, we want to revert back pretty much to mask um which would allow us to um have the school councils meet monthly, which they used to. We've established even tonight they don't need to meet more than whatever we had put in there four times a year. doesn't make any sense. Um, this also allows us to have the flexibility to have um members with kind of alternating terms that you know overlapping. Yeah. So like two years, right? >> There's not like not all on the same schedule so that we can have some >> Continuity. Thank you. um of the knowledge of that group which I think was really

158important particularly as we get you know into these a little bit stronger sips and just everything we have going on I think it really matters so that's one that I think is really important to pay attention to um and the other ones I wanted to oh school committee meetings um be so this um we are advocating to adopt mask which takes out a lot of unnecessary detail that cars used to have and I don't know at what point someone added in something about like presentations but just all these kind of extraneous um details that just somebody was very wordy someone was very there was an era a wordy era >> yeah so I'm not sure what happened there but I think that's another one is because comparing our policies to mask >> what is our

159succinct Yep. The other one that I think is important is um the EDH public comment. So this one is um we are would change the title just to mask match the mask title to make it a little bit more um specific and then to align more with what we do in practice. So we ask people to identify themselves by name. We don't ask people to sign in. So we spot that. Um the presiding chair may commit an extension of the time limit and extending circumstances. That's something we do in practice that happens in our policy. So again just aligning with practice. Um we ask people to state their name and school affiliation or address. Um you know school affiliation is the honor they practice. Um, yeah. And then we would advocate taking out BEDH, which

160is the exhibition guidelines for public comment because we no longer would need it. It would be repetitive with the prior policy. >> So, mask doesn't have that. But also, I think that just is clearer for anyone who's looking to come and do public comment. They just have one place to look now instead of two, which I think is helpful. Um, okay. So, those were the ones I think I wanted to highlight. I don't know if Ryan or Janice, you have any others that you wanted to particularly point out. >> No, I think that that the more we align our policies with masks, the better because they're just so much cleaner. >> Yeah. >> Eh is another example of bringing us into this this century. there's message there's like internet chat rooms referenced um but like

161not text messaging. So like you know again it's all it's all things we're already compliance with but it's just modernizing our language a bit. Um one other thing we'll want to do at some point is agree upon a format for um adding a date notation at the bottom. So in some places we have put the date of first reading. >> Yes. >> And the date of second reading um and therefore vote. Um so we just want to decide what exactly we want to do and do that for all of them. So some of them if it's anything that is updated the language would read that we updated it on. If it's anything that was reviewed but not changed the date the date would read that we reviewed it. That's noted. >> Approving all the >>

162like if we approve them all. >> Yeah. They're all approved. Yeah. So like we don't have to like they're all voted on. >> Yeah. >> So we should just you know approve approved this date. >> Okay. So you don't think we have to know whether we update or review? >> No. I feel like we're voting also anyway. >> Yeah. >> Why have one here like two different >> that makes that's fine. I just don't know if sometimes it's helpful. >> I don't know if it's some it's helpful to know like >> because we are we are them and then we are approving >> and we are this is the first reading of all of these policies and then we're going to vote on them. >> Yeah. >> So they'll all be approved. >> Okay. I

163just wasn't sure if there was a reason why we would ever want to know like it was changed on this date versus it was just reviewed on >> if there weren't any changes we put just put review >> or is that why it says reviewed no change made >> probably >> I put reviewed >> I don't know why I'm looking >> is that why >> that's probably why we we looking at them and we're growing on them so >> hit my Yep. >> Limit for the day. >> Yep. >> Okay. We can we can revisit that next time when we come next. How about that? I will do some thinking and you guys should too about whether >> you guys present value preferred method that you like. >> We'll meet on Thursday morning. We'll discuss

164it then. >> We're open to what you think is best. That >> we're doing all this work. >> Credit. We're definitely getting credit. >> You guys want it labeled Thursday at 7:30. That's >> Yeah, I think that you deserve to. This is a 54 page document of size 10. So, we're gonna >> Okay. Uh, great. So, this will have on a second for the next >> I love it. That's great. But Jan's point is well taken it up to this one. >> I like that. >> Okay. Awesome. >> It's clear for people to read and understand. That's what we >> Yeah. Um and then next uh we will be discussing on Thursday morning our policy JDB student responsible using technology. Yeah, this is a policy actually did last year, but I don't know if you

165guys have been meeting in the globe and also mask has sent out some stuff about this. Um, and Bessie actually has also had some stuff about this to ensure that um districts policies are up to date with regard to AI and deepish. You don't know what that is, Google it. >> Ask our kids more. But um we just want to do a look through of our policies and make sure that they are up to speed with where they should be. >> We're going to look into that Thursday and just double check and make sure everything's good and if we think that there needs to be any updates, we will let everyone know our next meeting. Yeah, definitely good for us to review it just to stay >> stay up to speed and current on that.

166>> Jesse was very clear that it's a criminal offense for absolutely something that is not acceptable in schools in any way, shape or form, but we also just want to make sure it's our call out in our policy and then we're doubly covered. >> Perfect. Thank you for that work subcommittee. We appreciate you. We appreciate that. >> I know you want a gold star for your work. I know. >> Okay. All right. Um, Lawrence, >> yes, I do have one. >> Oh, yeah. There it is. There it is. >> So, you've got one to sign. >> There it is. >> And I have one to read in. >> Yep. So I will read in warrant number S26 in the amount of $349,56964. >> Excellent. >> I believe you all have copies of this. >> Yes.

167Thank you. Oh, and the date on that which is built into the warrant number is April 8, 2026. Just reiterating that subcommittee reports >> dying. >> Okay. No, I'm not dying. I just don't want to forget. Um I just wanted to say that we are gonna have um Patty Nicole from the first speaking group coming to our meeting on Monday next Monday. May 4th. We don't know how that happened but here we are. Um so she's going to come and give um an update and kind of share her findings from the needs assessment work she's been doing. Um so I just wanted to let everyone know that that's happening on Monday. Um, I just wanted to give a shout out to um, Miss Halan and um, Paul who aren't Spanish teachers and are in Spain

168right now with 13 students. They I mean they're having a wonderful time, but um, they did a lot of the like planning >> themselves and um, I just, you know, I appreciate that so much. Um, I can't imagine trying to coordinate themselves plus 13 students like flights, hotels, you know, just I like it's just amazing and I think um if they hadn't stepped up to this like the kids probably would be gone. >> Wow. So, >> thank you for that. >> Yeah, it's I really appreciate what's great they're doing. Excellent. Um, anybody else anything on some we do have to discuss, but we don't have to do that right now. >> Exactly. I don't think I have >> a motion to adjourn here. >> Motion to adjourn at 8:38. Second. Hey. All in favor? >>

169I >> Hold on. I'm looking for the stop bar. Does They changed it on me. One second. Oh, hold on. But they found