Scituate School Committee Meeting - 12-08-2025

001[Music] Okay. Call the December 8th, 2025 school committee meeting to order here tonight 602. Uh we will start tonight's meeting here with public comment. Seeing nobody in person, we will go to anybody. Oh, yep. Anybody uh virtually? Not seeing anyone remotely here tonight. we will move forward with our student report. Um, so I feel like a lot of us know this, but our football team just played at Gillette for the third year in a row and they won the second championship, which was back to back. I think it was like their fourth in total this whole time. Um, but they the football team, cheerleading team, and band all traveled to Gillette early on Saturday um, and played Jukesbury. So that was an exciting win. I think it was a very close game. >> Yeah. Uh

002the November sailors of the month were Aroko and Bibbola. Uh Ryan Tinkham, Sasha O Sullivan, Taran Cas Grande, Cas Grande, uh Robert Garcia, Jana Downing, Dan Bowden, and Jeff Gross. Uh congratulations to Julia Newuhall for receiving the National Merit Scholarship from the Eversource Energy Foundation. Um, two Situate High School students, Rose Guzzk and Charlotte Lynch, are the GIS MA um are using the GIS mapping skills they acquired throughout their summer work um with CSCR, which is the Cohasset Center for Student Coastal Research. Uh they're using it to map Situ's walking trails. Uh their goal is to create a public resource which will profile trails for walkability, pet friendliness, uh terrain, and points of interest. uh to learn more or get involved uh you can email Rose at her school email. >> Um and the civic

003action project has kicked off for the sophomores. Um so this month our 10th grade social studies students officially launched the civil civic action project beginning their year-long work to identify and address real issues facing the situ community. More than 50 community members, including town officials, nonprofit leaders, environmental advocates, and other change makers, visited SHS to speak with students about the challenges they work on and the impact of civic engagement. Students came prepared with thoughtful questions, gaining meaningful insight into local government, community leadership, and advocacy and action. Along with this, Spanish 2 CP and Spanish 2 honors are being offered as a dual enrollment course in partnership with Quinsey College. This new opportunity allows students to earn both high school and college credit while continuing to build their Spanish language skills. The course not only supports

004language prof proficiency, but also helps students get a head start on their college transcript. >> Uh we've mentioned this a few times before, uh but SHS held its second MTSS meeting on Wednesday, uh which was the 19th, uh November 19th. Uh it has a clear vision, uh and a focus on school achievement. Um, and although supporting struggling students remains a main focus on the MTSS initiative, the administration team at SHS is looking at students they want to challenge and raise the bar academically. >> Um, as for guidance news, the school counseling department will host a post-secary planning event for caregivers of collegebound juniors on Thursday, December 14th at 6 PM in the high school library media center. The purpose of this presentation is to provide parents and caregivers an overview of the post-secary process, including

005score, SATs, and ACTs, and we'll preview the steps students and families should consider as they plan for post-graduate options. We hope to see you there. >> Um, and then we wanted to add some points on the student perspective, too. I just wanted to touch on the swim season that started up. Um, it's really exciting. Everyone there is, uh, hoping for a great season. Uh but I just wanted to mention that practices are pretty early. Uh they're from 6:00 in the morning uh to 7. Um which gives kids plenty of time to go home um and like shower, you know, get ready for school. Um but I've talked to a lot of my friends and they've mentioned how it is pretty stressful, pretty tiring getting up that early in the morning. Um I know it was

006a tough situation with the pool. Um but I just wanted to point that out. >> And you're getting up at >> Yeah, like five o'clock. Yeah. and then uh driving it's like 45 minutes >> all the way over. >> Yeah. So, it's a it's tough spot for for these students. >> Yeah, it's tough coming to the early classes especially with a lot of like the upper classman taking tough APs in the morning. I know focus is hard when you're super tired from practicing and I feel like the pool especially takes a lot out of you. But um um in addition to that, we know that seniors are going through the college process right now and a lot of decisions have been rolling through with early decision and I think early action is going to start

007to come out with mid December into January. Um but I feel like we've gotten over the major hump of the super stressful season which is exciting with everyone submitting all the college applications. There's a lot of November 1st and November 15th deadlines that people are super super glad that those are over now and like passed and everything's submitted. So it's been exciting. And we've had a lot of recent commits. I think I want to say like 10 people have committed so far. >> 10 or 12. >> Yeah. >> So, it's exciting seeing where everyone's going, which is fun from the senior perspective. >> Um, yeah. I think that I think that's everything. If you guys had questions, >> you can follow along Instagram. >> Yeah. Yeah. Follow Instagram. I always check. >> I love following.

008>> What's that? Do you know what the what it is? >> I think it's uh SHs 26 decisions. Yeah, some like periods or underscores there. >> It's great. It's exciting for everyone. It's >> fun now that it's our year especially. >> It's been fun following in the past, but I feel like this year's a lot of fun. >> And Anna, we want to say welcome to student rep life here >> on school committee. Thank you. >> Thank you for joining us. We're really happy to have you. I'm sure Luke is happy to have shift here. >> So, we appreciate having your perspective and your input here. >> Yeah, thank you for having me. What else want to >> Can I just up? So I was reading all this unless too like I we love I

009think we can speak it. It was cool being say we love hearing all these updates. One and so it's a yes and I was wondering without too much burden. I think it would be al awesome to remember that we also have four elementary schools and a middle school. And so if you're able and we can help you think about like how can we find what's going on at those schools to also celebrate. For example, because I have twin uh fifth graders, they there were winter concerts last week that were fantastic. There were two young two young ladies that accompanied Mr. Mont on the piano because they've been playing piano since kindergarten. So, there's some cool stories there. >> Um Mr. Mont is retiring in December. He's been with Situ for 17 years. So, so I

010think there are little nuggets. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, I think, you know, and some of the elementary schools have student government now. And so I think even, you know, talking to a few of them and I know there's so much going on at the middle school always. So even just a few nuggets I think would be fun. And again, we can help you figure out sort of how to do that if if that's possible. >> Yeah, this is like kind of random, but like has to do with the middle school. Um I think like super exciting, but I don't know how long this is going on. I've been tutoring um like a sixth grader and a seventh grader and they have like for team A, they have a Google classroom that tells them all their

011homework assignments. And I don't know if that's been going on for years now. and I've just been like totally blindsided. But I thought that was super helpful because it's like even if students aren't super motivated because I feel like sixth grade and like middle school is when you kind of start to get the hang of that. But um for parents to be able to check and everything, I thought that was like super cool and very helpful um to have especially for me as like a tutor when students don't really want to 100% do anything when you're there. So it's nice to kind of like get the boat going. >> Nice. But something for the middle school. >> Yeah. >> I love that. Har to put a bug in your ear on how to connect with

012those younger grades and so we can sort of some of that really good good stuff that's going on. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Okay. Uh we have some action items on our agenda tonight through the second reading of our policy IKG competency and determination policy uh which is otherwise noted in appendix A. Any questions or um feedback since our first reading anyone on the committee has >> I do actually. Yep. So um if anyone's been paying attention to any of our um online AI news sources that are local. Um, they've all been reporting on this as though it's like this groundbreaking news that all these school committees are doing this amazing work, but actually it's just everyone becoming in compliance with Desi. Um, and so are we. That's what this is about. But it's

013been interesting to read the ways that everyone else is approaching this. And I think we are largely in line. But as I was reading our policy comparison with some of the other district policies, I realized that ours currently says um to meet competency determination requirements, students must demonstrate mastery of skills in English language arts, mathematics, and science by satisfactory completing relevant cowork aligned to state standards for each content area. The MA this master is attained by successfully completing the coursework below with a passing grade during grades 10 through 12 and it lists it. Um, I actually wasn't 100% sure what a passing grade meant. Um, and I think and that's a point I've heard other committees really deliberating on. And so I think for us to define that in this document would be helpful. Um,

014I imagine it's the type of thing Jesse probably wants anyway in here. I know we have it in other places like in our handbook and things. Um, and people who are in high school are certainly going to know that um, off the top of their heads, but for people who are not um, currently in high school and might be looking at this policy, I think it would be nice to have that right in there. So, I believe the answer is 60. Um, and I think we should put it in there. That's what a lot of other districts. So, that's an addition that I would recommend this. >> Yeah, just clarity. Yeah, that makes sense. So that you don't read through it and then have a new question >> immediately. Exactly. >> You thinking it should

015link to where that information should be found? >> It can link and I think it should just say passing grade 60 or above. >> 60 or above. Yeah. >> Well, at least 60 would be either either in the same Maybe you're just checking. >> Yeah. >> Did you want to add anything to that? >> I was just going to add that the number comes from the minimum numerical score that a student would need to earn to earn credit for a course. Of course, we would aspire that um all of us that students would would do better than that numerical score. But if you earn that score, you receive credit for the course and would pass it. So that's where the number comes from according to our program of studies. >> So do we have to

016define it as 60 or would we put it more >> 60 is consistent with program of studies just like said >> I just think it would be helpful to have it right there. Um and again this is something a lot of other school committees have been talking about. >> Um some have been advocating to have it be a little higher than that. Um, but I think for many that's the bar that is being set. It's a 16. Can I just ask a question? The um the graduation requirements does it uh have to successful completion of coursework. Is the competency determination separate from the graduation requirement? >> It is. Yes. There are two components. >> Okay. >> Do you want to explain a little more? >> Yeah. Can you just help us understand that a little

017bit? Sure. Uh to graduate uh to graduate from high school in the state of Commonwealth of Massachusetts, uh students have to achieve the compet competency determination. They also have to meet their local graduation requirements. Uh previous to question two in uh 2024, uh the MCCAST at the end of sophomore year in ELA and math or at the end of uh freshman year in science stood for the competency determination. So students had to pass each of those MCCAST exams and then complete those graduation requirements and in turn they would earn a situ high school diploma. So with the passage of question two it removed the MCCAST as the competency determination requirement. So then all districts were uh basically compelled to come up with the competency determination criteria. Uh we made some and passed them last year.

018Um and then the and then Desi uh and the state clarified what all districts should do uh to to have a slightly more uniform competency termination requirements and uh so this is the process and and policy that we've done. So in order to graduate uh students have to meet the competency determination which is passing the courses listed here. Then they have to complete the situ high school uh graduation requirements with 16 credits in ELA in math down the list and then they'll earn their diploma. There is um also currently a statewide graduation council that is creating some new um state level guidance and kind of by chance I got invited to go and speak and give the parent perspective on the um intro stage of their policy this Monday. So I ended up getting to

019hang out with Mora Healey and have very cool um but it came out very out of nowhere. This is the report. It's called Reimagining High School and it uh has all of their recommendations thus far. So, it's actually really interesting to take a look at what's in here from anyone's perspective, students, parents, educators. They're definitely looking for input on what they're thinking. It's a little bit complicated. I will say they have like they want to have, you know, a portfolio and they want to have end of course exams. They want to have kids filling out the FAFSA um for financial aid as a requirement. um they want to have kids doing um civics and um uh uh financial literacy courses. They want to expand how they have the seal of bi literacy perhaps expand their

020skills of distinction. Um so there's all these different components that they're looking at right now. So I think what Massachusetts did was instead of just saying okay we're going to just go with everyone gets a 60 and that's fine they're using it as an opportunity to really rethink high school and what it means to be competent. Um, and so I'm happy to pass this around, but also it's obviously online. Would definitely encourage everyone to look at it. They're definitely interested in in input. Um, they've got students, educators, and family members on the committee, but they're definitely seeking more. Um, so it's really interesting and this is like years out, so we don't need to worry about it. Um, but we do need to worry about it because it's coming and it's important and it will

021eventually. So >> as a side, >> is that how they presented it in this? >> It is. This is the report. >> That's cute. >> Yeah, >> that's it. >> Um, yeah. So, it's great. >> Okay. So, >> but in the meantime, yeah, our little policy still >> Thank you for I think I in my mind I thought but when I see it in paper on writing it's like looks different. >> Yeah, >> it is two separate things. >> It's complicated. Yes. Because someday we could add financial whatever you'd have four credits of financial. >> Someday we might have to. >> Well, we could but there's also additional credit so they could take it as part of their >> um and there are other districts in the state that currently have a capstone project as

022a requirement. I mean there's all different ways that people do this right now. Um but >> are we voting? >> We do need to vote on this policy. Yes. >> With the with the language. Yes. With Yeah. Okay. Um, I make a motion that the school committee vote uh to approve the policy I KG competency and determination policy as amended. Second. >> All in favor? >> I Okay, we have our model UN field trip. Um so thank you for having us back here. Um again we're here today to talk about another sort of exciting step forward for Model United Nations. Um, as you know, when we've come in the past, we've discussed the number of kids that have tried out and not been able to go on the trip. Like our our last trip where

023we had about 75 students come out, we were only able to take 40 of them. Um, we've been looking for opportunities to be able to expand and allow many more students to take advantage of these academic opportunities. Um, but again, not to overburden, you know, a particular conference. So, we've been looking for opportunities to do that. And in talking with um Mr. Langer, um he agreed that this was something that would be really beneficial not only for Model UN, but for Situit High School as a whole. Um when you have students that are excited about doing academic work outside of the school day and um writing and debating and talking about international issues, that can only lead to good things. Um so one of the things one of the objectives today that I you know

024in addition to proposing a trip is just to sort of um explain a little bit of the vision of what this would look like um in addition to you know the first trip that we might be wanting to take. Um, so the thought for for us is that um we wanted to provide an opportunity like I said for students that maybe did not make the cut or maybe also chose not to try out because they were intimidated sort of as a freshman or a sophomore. We have students that sort of self- select and you know withdraw themselves because they don't want to try the try out process for the travel teams. Um so what we were hoping to do was to open this up as sort of like first come first serve for students. It'd

025be no tryyout process um that students would select to go on um probably one overnight trip a year and possibly um some one-day conferences. There are some that happen in the fall and a few more that happen in the spring, but we would kind of take those as as things um as things that rose in different places. Um, we also really wanted to use this as a building opportunity um in leadership skills for some of our students, not just our officers, but really targeting more of the the juniors or maybe some seniors who aren't in the leadership of the club. Um, to provide guidance and support and training to the newer um, delegates coming in to sort of build an entire program kind of like a sports team that you have sort of a theater

026program to sort of lead up to. um a more robust uh model UN travel team. So again, this team would be primarily local. Um, and our hope is that we would like to take, you know, on this particular trip in February, um, is through Boston University, um, we would be looking to take about 40 to 45 new delegates on this trip. And I've sort of envisioned that we would also then take five experienced delegates who have sort of committed their time ahead of time to help prepare students. Um my thought is to maybe look at you know like one student per 10 um younger or less experienced students. Um which is basically would be the same breakdown as we have like on a chaperone. So you'd have sort of a chaperone group with a student

027sort of I I thought of it as being sort of like a counselor in training. Um and for sort of in exchange for their extra work, you know, they would also participate in this conference, but then for for in exchange for their additional work that they're doing, they would pay less um for the trip. So if you look at for this particular court, this particular conference, um we are looking at sort of like novice new delegates coming in and paying $350, which is about what it would have been otherwise. Um and then our experienced delegates were only asking them to pay $175. Um so this way it would maybe incentivize them. they'd have to, you know, um they'd have to commit themselves to coming to the meetings to prep students and also prepare them like

028in the conference itself. So, this conference is from February 6th to February 8th. Um it is an overnight conference. It is one that we've gone to before and they really put a focus in this particular conference on um on newer delegates, but they also have some really awesome interesting committees for the students to be involved in. Um and this particular conference they'd be gone um only one block of school. So they'd leave during windb block on a Friday. Um so they would miss last block on the Friday and then be gone Saturday, Sunday. So then they would return um you know to school on Monday. So they'd be missing really minimal amount of time. And even those students I know there was some um concern at one point about you know our experienced delegates being

029out again and again and again. But in this case, it would still only be one block for a couple of them that might be accompanying um the group. Um I brought with me Mr. Kerman as well um who has volunteered to sort of take the lead um on the local conference um and the local model UN team. Our hope is that after, you know, a year or two or three as sort of like the interim club sort of activity that we could build it in as a stipend um to reflect the amount of work it does take to take all of those students away. >> So, I don't know if you want to add anything. >> No, that pretty much covers. >> Um, but I'm happy to answer any any questions. You mentioned that it

030was first come, first serve, no try out, which makes sense. Do will you have still like an application or something so that you have a sense of the kind of student you're attracting? >> I you know, we haven't thought it through in terms of like what we would ask. I've thought about that from the experience mentor side um in in terms of having them fill it out, fill out an an application about why and leadership experience and all that. I'm trying not to put as that many hoops in front of students, but maybe thinking about why are they interested, what, you know, what interests them about going on like some small >> little hoop that isn't as daunting maybe as a as a tri. >> I was just saying if you're building a bench, it

031might be good to have a couple screening questions or something. >> Sure. Absolutely. >> Um, no, this is great. A couple questions. Um, is this idea kind of would it be unique to situate or do you think that other schools also have this kind of intro UN? >> I don't know many schools that have this many students going on to begin with. So, I think we're pretty unique in general. >> Um, whenever we go to conferences, we have well more delegates than most other people, especially given our size. Um, so I don't know of any other schools. I know a lot of schools that are trying to start a model UN program, but given our, you know, the the numbers and the um success that we've had, um I think we'd be kind of setting

032the setting the bar high for other people to maybe follow follow our lead, but I think it would be exciting for us to sort of >> Great. And uh my last this is just I think you might be solving for this issue, but um with a lot of these conferences, I would assume that student athletes may be excluded from going because they have a competition or something over the days that we're out. It looks like this could be solving that for someone that maybe couldn't go in the fall, but they can attend this winter one. Are we kind of looking at that as well when if you potentially have more similar um like intro UN like that you can do each season so if someone's an athlete in two seasons they go to the third

033one >> you know I think that could be something we could think of down the line I think right now especially um given the fact that Mr. Kerman will be doing this for about $500. I don't really want him to have to put on too many conferences. I would imagine that maybe as a stipen was included in the contract that we would increase the the number of possibilities for students, but I think it's it's a lot of work to put it together. Um, so I think we're going to dip our toe in now and then see where it goes from there. But I would love to be able to build it as a full program that would offer multiple conferences. Yeah, I think just sort of adding to that because I think this is again

034is is a it's a a small not terribly hard step to get a number of kids who are very very interested but are a little bit daunted. Um but use that as a stepping stone to really start building this thing building it up and then successful here would lead to successful later which lead to bigger. >> That sounds great. >> Um I just wanted to comment. Yeah. >> No, stop. >> Oh yeah. Yeah. Um, I I just wanted to say like I've talked to a lot of underassmen on the last trip um who maybe weren't able to go just because there were so many people. Um, and I know I definitely felt this way as a freshman, but like you said like really daunted um especially because we have so many kids and so I

035think that having this other opportunity is just a great Mr. Cronin like you said like stepping stone. It's almost like a baby step um to sort of getting to the real thing. Um, and then for the leadership, I also know a lot of juniors and sophomores um, who are interested in the leadership and so I think that this is a great way for them to almost like prove themselves um, and sort of, you know, put that on their model UN resume and, you know, gain experience so they can become better leaders as they run senior unit. So, I think this is really valuable. >> It's exciting. It's something that has been rolling around my head for years. So, I'm excited to sort of finally pitch this and hopefully we are able to get it going.

036It's really cool. It's such a great program that it just speaks to all the hard work and effort that you've you've all been doing that you have so many students that want to be a part of this. It is so much work on everyone. The kids work so hard, students are dedicating so much time to this teachers are. I mean, it's just it's a big deal. And the fact that your program is massive, it speaks to just like how awesome it is. It's really it's a great thing. >> And this particular conference is really awesome, too, because it is a legitimate conference. It's not like they're just going to a one-day conference where it's just sort of like some high school students from like locally like people come from all over the country to this

037conference. It is a pretty competitive conference still. So they're still getting the benefit of the level of debate discussion um but just with some supports that are there um which I think would really benefit them kind of going forward. >> That's great. Just two things to kind of just real quick. One, have you thought about taking the train? Is that an option? And would it be any cheaper than the bus? It may not be. Nothing against the buses, and I know we have great drivers and good buses, but could be some cost savings. Uh, and second, if you're going to take the buses, the possibility of sharing with another school. Um, some years ago when we were a small little DECA club at Dery just getting started, we paired with a larger school with like

038your UN club, a huge DECA club and um that helped bring the cost down, you know, certainly for us by just piggybacking on their bus and it helped them because we gave them a little bit of money towards the cost of the bus. >> The the challenge in that is just honestly the times of the of the um train as well. No, because I Yeah, the commuter rail is great, but >> and we would need to still have transportation to the commuter rail and then sometimes traveling with 45 kids on a train and we've done that in Europe gets really challenging and and again sort of like not the on and off. It's not the same thing, but it would still be on and off the tea at a time where people are commuting. >>

039Well, you you you will um it'll take you close enough to Marriott you don't have to worry about transportation. That's that's easy. I just thought I'd throw it out there. I wasn't sure if he had thought about it. I'm a big I'm big on rapid transit. I looked into doing it for myself. >> It's going to take three hours. That wasn't an option. >> Yeah. And I think sometimes the Sunday when we come home, it's a challenging time to to take the train as well. In terms of sharing a bus, we tend to take up the entire bus because 40 there's only about 50 seats on the bus plus our luggage. So, it really wouldn't be an option. >> Oh, yeah. I was just wondering if you were going to have to spill into a

040second bus, in which case you would definitely want to find someone to >> to the path though with like the French uh um going to um >> Quebec to with Yeah. So different certain opportunities have arisen to be able to share, but >> Yeah. Just ideas might help or if they don't help then just >> Thank you. Um, when does the conference officially start? Like Friday night? >> It starts on the Friday night. Um, which is, you know, like typically when we've gone to Boston conferences, we've gone on the Thursday and done some touring. But I know the concern was being out of school. And so we sort of shrunk this. There's not a whole lot of activity for the kids to do in Boston. It's primarily just the conference itself, but the um they

041would get in in time to check in and then the opening ceremonies is usually around 6. Um so it would be enough time for them to get in, get settled, but it's not quite the same sort of sightseeing type but but again you're going to Boston, >> you know, >> I was just curious because it said it's a three-day conference but like Friday is like a meet and greet type. >> Friday is Yeah. So the so they'll have um opening ceremonies where there's speakers and sort of the like ceremonial stuff to sort of get started. Um and then they usually I believe that night have a night session that's usually at least a few hours long and then they'll have multiple sessions. Luke, you can tell me if I'm wrong, but like m like two

042or three four depending on how they break up on Saturday and then Sunday there's usually one session and then closing ceremonies. >> Yeah, that's pretty much it. They'll have um like I know in Canada they had it for like an hour and a half after opening ceremonies. Um and then the day after you're usually really booked with committee with like breaks in between um and then Sunday is like your last session. You sort of wrap up your resolutions um and then go for closing ceremonies. So yeah, you have committee all three days, >> right? Fantastic. Take a vote on model UN to Boston. >> I make a motion that the school committee vote to accept the instate field trip local model UN Boston Marriott Cockley February 6, 2026 to February 8th, 2026. >> Second. All

043in favor? >> Thank you again for all your support. Appreciate it. >> All right. Special education job description. >> Okay. So, um I'm here today to answer any questions you all might have regarding our um director of special education job description. judge no ball. I need to approve anytime we um suggest um revisions for it. Michelle Gerbert um our current special education director has indicated that she's going to retire in May at the end of May. And so anytime we have someone that's been in a position for a long period of time, this is her sixth school year. I work with them to look at the job description they were hired into and ask them to update accordingly. So in the um document that you have, what is it? Appendix B. appendix C. >> Everything

044in blue is um the verbiage that um Michelle has added to the job description just to just accurately um and just fill in some gaps here and there um to the job that she's been doing the past five and a half years. >> You know, the ask would be that you guys would um vote on it and then um I would look to posting it um next week and then um our goal is to start the hiring process in February. We'll be running the other um sea job description um that posting and that process in January. >> Yeah, it'll be fun. The only thing I saw I mean it's I I assume like you just outlined like yeah she knows what she does for the listing better than anyone was just in the one two

045three four one two four five six it should be prepares contracts for individual just so it's all the same tense there just like a tiny little and then the next one coordinates just so they're all the same tense but I don't know going through it all it's As we know, special education director is a very important and huge position. >> Yeah. >> I liked how she the position overview that the the blue um you know >> part that she noted about the early childhood program and all of that. That's really important. Call that out. >> Yes. >> Is there anything that you thought was from your view? Not really. She did a great job. We tend to work well together with job description as you know with um pair of job descriptions we worked on

046together. So um it was more so just making sure she had the time in the um before we got to this point to really think about what the role has become and she was hired into it. Um and I'm just thankful that she you know was able to do that so we can actually get someone to you know to fill her shoes. Do you know if anyone else had a chance to look at this? Like when she was providing her input, did she work with anyone else who works with her? I was just curious if like anyone else also gave input from their lens, you know? >> I did not ask her who she spoke with. I just asked her to like put her um her ideas in here. I know that I gave it

047to Tom to review as well um before we sent it over to you all. If you would like me to get back to you with that, I could. >> I mean, I know the committee will be, you know, a representative group. And so, I think that's another opportunity for some of those voices to be heard. And I think it's just at some point in the process important to make sure that >> people who will work with the person in this role have an opportunity to, you know, share their thoughts on what the most important aspects are. So, I think it doesn't have to come at this stage, it can come at that stage, too. >> Yeah. And I think that's an important thing that you pointed out that having those voices does come in the

048interview process when you're talk when you're talking about a job description. It's like the overall foundation of what is needed to do the role. Yes. >> And then that that input can come into like who is that what does that person look like to fill those shoes looks really thorough. >> It does. I think to Maria's point, my wondering and maybe this will happen when because I've been on a search committee where you have these conversations feel like this this job description as it reads is super technical and I'm just wondering about like Dr. Bober does such a good job of communicating and translating data and bringing D. So I just want to make sure that those skills are captured. I mean, I think they're implied >> and so I would just hope the search

049committee would make sure, right? It's one thing to come to a meeting, but it's another thing to be able to converse with folks who don't know the specialed world and Dr. Bober does that so well and is so versent. >> So, again, so I think um you'll um be a part of one of the committees coming up soon, so you'll get to see how I navigate those. But just to give the committee um a little bit of the background when I run a um interview search committee um I meet at least once or twice via Zoom with the whole committee to go through not only candidate reviews but also to like words with questions and like have them work together as a team in different breakout groups to then come back together to like to

050really understand like what those questions are that the whole group wants to get through so that everybody's view is there. So we'll have like we'll have community members, we'll have teachers as team members, we have paras questions. Yeah, that's fine. >> So I don't like come to it with like these are the questions you will ask. I'll give like ideas and then they'll work and then like we'll come together as a group and determine what those questions like seems very picky downwards terms on the work year probably just say 260 days versus school days. Yeah, >> it probably doesn't matter, but just days. >> You just don't want to leave something hanging out there that might cause >> trouble. Not school days, though. That's a good days. >> Thank you. >> All right. I make

051a motion that the school committee vote to approve the director of special education job description. >> Second. All in favor? >> I. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Report on teaching and learning assistant superintendent. >> Yes. this child. >> Great. Thank you. So, this section um for the teaching and learning update, I'm going to share a little bit. The the committee requested uh to have an update on the beginning of the year benchmark data. So um I've tried to provide a concise but clear update on beginning of the year benchmarks. So the goals of this section um I think one of the most important obviously I just explained the first one but one the second one I think is very important um that we just wanted to highlight um that we're that

052we're really um enhancing our monitoring of student progress. So with our um benchmarking system and our use of the benchmark data meetings, we feel like we're uh improving our keeping a pulse on how students are doing and who needs what. So we have our beginning of the year benchmark, middle of the year, um end of year where comparing that to the previous uh springcast data were available. So I think another goal of the presentation is to just provide additional clarity into uh the ways in which we're trying to improve our monitoring of of how students are doing. Um and as part of this I'll I'll talk a little bit about what our efforts and area areas of focus are this year. This is just a reminder of uh what we use for um for for

053benchmarking in ELA and math. So in grades K through four, we use the uh dynamic indicators of basic early literacy skills. Um really that's um phone sounds um how letters work together. It's really the building blocks of literacy in grades two through eight. Uh STAR is used um for comprehension as well. Uh so that's a little bit about the ELA side and for math. um universal screener for number sense is used uh K4 and the benchmark is is 2 through eight. You know that uh at the middle school uh star the star benchmark system was added this year. This is the first year um that we're keeping a consistent assessment uh through 8th grade with with star. We appreciate the efforts of math teachers um Heather Allen and Tara Simonac as well and our principles

054to uh do the work to build the fluency with that information. We also um STAR can assess students at the high school level given that they take different courses. We're still aligning where um how to benchmark those courses, but uh we feel like with a little more time uh we can track that into high school as well. So this is the data from the elementary level this year. Uh so as I've just explained on the left hand side um basically we're sharing what percent of students are meeting or exceeding the expectation on the given benchmark assessment. So just like we talked about uh KN1 we're using dibbles. So in ELA you see that uh 54 and a half% of students um are meeting the standard you know at the beginning of this is a typical

055number you'll see at the beginning of kindergarten we're seeing students developing their letter sounds how they work together when two vowels go walking that sort of that sort of thing. So that would be a typical beginning of the year um percentage. Same with math, you see it a little bit lower, but by the end of first grade, uh you do see those numbers bumping up. So, we believe that those are pretty consistent for the beginning of year uh for where students are at uh in math and um on the dibbles assessment. For the other grades, um where possible, we provided the cohort data for um the MCCAST assessment last year. So we see that for example in fourth grade in ELA currently um 61% of the students are meeting or exceeding expectations at the beginning

056of the year um that percent was um 68 at in the previous spring and third grade and on the star assessment math currently at 69.3 in fourth grade and when they were in third grade it was it was 67%. So, um, our teachers are looking at, uh, the data that's, uh, provided by the benchmark and looking for those areas where students could need, um, more support. I'll explain a little bit more about when they would do that on the next slide, but I just wanted to pause here to see if there are any questions about uh, this presentation of the beginning of the year, the the fall data. >> I have a question. So, I like how you have the MCCAST information, but so those fourth graders, you know, the previous year they got the

05768%. But I'm curious for the other grades for the um the dibbles like um let's say second grade there's 60 60% for the star. >> Correct. >> But like how how did they do last last year? you know, because it's always interesting like we can look at each grade, how they're doing right now, but how are those kids how did those kids previous? >> Yes, thank you for that question. That's an important distinction. Um, in second grade, this is really the first time students have taken an online assessment. So the beginning of the year in second grade. So dibbles is done with an adult um you know working with physical man manipulatives and uh talking star is not. It's done on a Chromebook. So um one thing is it's their first time taking assessment. It's

058not an excuse. It's an explanation. Um but even their performance on that is measuring comprehension a little bit and it's a different you can have students who um are performing at core or core plus that may not do as well on some of the comprehension pieces. Um so at second grade our teachers and our literacy specialists are looking at both. Um I guess that's just a long way of saying um those numbers can be because look at the drop off. Those students haven't receded from first grade to second grade. They're building new skills. So it's really the built the foundation >> is being measured with dibbles and star is asking it's incorporating uh some more standards and comprehension. So we look at both measurements. um it's just important to remember that they assess um different

059different skills. >> That said though, I do think it is helpful to have some historical sense of what fall benchmarks typically are. And so in our um data binder, we do have um for grades two through five at least. It is it is uh collapsed. It is an average across those years two through five. But um we do have those historical numbers in here, but I think anytime we see a single data point, it's kind of hard to situate it sometimes. Sure. >> Um it is helpful to have at least some like historical sense. And so just like the headline there, I again these are >> compiled like they're averaged over, you know, the years two through five. So it's not going to be as specific as what's up there, but it looks like these

060are slightly higher fall averages than we've seen in the past. at least in math uh which is good. I don't know how that would break out according to grade level. So that's like the question but I think they did test later. Yeah, there's a number of factors, but I just think looking at any, like I said, anytime we see a single data point, it's just helpful to situate it in some other pattern if we can and we can. That's the good news. It's great. That's why we're doing star because we're about to have a lot of data. You know, every time we give it, we're going to have that historical pattern. And so I think that cohort tracing is helpful definitely, but it's also helpful just to see like in general in the fall are

061we looking about the same? Are we looking a little better than we typically look in the fall? Our goal is to be inch forward always, right? And so like I think that's what we're looking for. So, I don't know, maybe next time we look at this if we can get some sort of sense as to what those are looking like based on past trends. I think that would be helpful. Um, and then my other question was just a number a couple years ago, we talked about using a star benchmark that was not the national star benchmark of proficiency, but was one that was closer to the MCCAST. I just wanted to make sure we were still using that because it looks like our numbers are off. Like the MCCAST is still a harder test. Is

062that star? >> Is that accurate? We are still using the one that's aligned with the Massachusetts standards and there is there's a there's a little bit of variation between the two, but >> we believe it's a very good assessment for um well aligned to the MCAST and and gives our teachers >> um some pretty good predictive information. But >> you can you'll definitely have >> you'll have variance. There's a research article from Renaissance about it lineup to it. Um, but yes, that's good to point out that there can be some >> I just wanted to make sure we were still using standards because I think again the most important part is that it's giving teachers the information that they need and it's actionable and it's fast turnaround and that's those are the things we want.

063That's why we're using STAR, you know. Um, but it is still striking to me the difference sometimes, you know. So, I just wanted to make sure that we were still using that higher standard. So that's great that we are. >> This next slide just has some pieces on um some efforts that are underway and areas of focus K5. So one thing we've added this year are some cross district grade level meeting days. So teachers always um talk about the value of uh collaborative time. So for one day um there's two days over the course of the entire year the K5 teachers have an opportunity to come together and collaborate on areas of focus. Those meetings are already underway. Um I saw some of the grade five ELA meeting and um we have reading specialists and

064um Megan Gregory like highlighting areas where talking about writing and uh vocabulary and context and teachers sharing their strategies that they were doing. So I found that to be um very valuable for for them and it is a lot of work for teachers to to be out of their classes and they they do you know they want to be with their students and they're also working really hard to both provide for the students and contributing these meetings. So we appreciate their efforts with that as well as our curriculum coordinators. Just want to highlight to the bridge cycle. So just the summary of that is that um for students that were receiving intervention in the previous year, we start school by continuing to cry those interventions and not so do doing welcoming routines right away and

065then doing some benchmark testing a little while after that and then doing intervention a little while after that. Whereas we know um we have some good data on how they performed the previous spring. So we try to get right to work while also doing the beginning of the year routine. So that was like enhanced this year. Um we've also um provided more time for those important benchmark data meetings. So after the benchmark um benchmarks are given and the data is assessed and intervention groups plan planned. um that data is shared by um the specialists with the classroom teachers and we have our adjustment counselors and school sites attending as well. We have the HSA data as part of that conversation too. So I think that speaks to the improvement that we've seen with our MTSS

066process to really have it be academic, social, emotional, and behavioral. So um that format has um has been improved and consistent. talked about this before with um teachers having access to the data right in open architects. Um MCCAST data takes a long time to come back. Maria just talked about how after students take the benchmark, the data is there um two two days later for them to look at and they don't really have to wait for anybody else to to process it. So I think that's a step forward. Um we have a new um platform to support students u math skills for math fact fluency. So that's also a highlight. Um and in line with our uh curriculum review cycle uh we are starting um the curriculum review process in elementary uh for ELA and

067science. Both of those communities were started by our curriculum coordinators. We have teacher volunteers from the elementary level as well as principal volunteers. So, um we really appreciate the teachers, principles stepping up to do that. Both of those groups have have gotten underway. So, these are just some areas of focus. Um and then at after the second benchmark, our plan would be for which would be uh in February for our coordinators to come and share some of that data with you um as well. Um, I was just wondering when you when you guys think about the fall data, um, is there any talk about or maybe you're familiar with research on um, kind of the effect of summer slide and summer work, how that factors in. You know, some parents hate summer work, some parents

068wish we had more summer work. Kind of compare our town to other towns that have more robust summer work. And I was just curious if um what the research says on that or if that's been the topic of conversation all we looking for fall in particular we're thinking about you know our kids losing skills over the summer looking at like mass back lab that's making that >> kids could really um study over the summer >> research I know some of your slides long longitudinal work on >> tutoring mentoring support and how it either maintains or buffs the kids by the time they get to the ball. It's a real and it and it's exacerbated of course in our students that need even more support or Yeah. >> like what's that math fact lab? I wonder

069if that's something that could be available for the summer. I just think if we're going to spend all this time making sure kids are knowing that >> for them to then lose it or get rusty for two months only to have us then have to ramp them back up and fall. Like anytime you look at the data on the star and you see the dip in the fall and it comes back up the dip and we know teachers are working so hard and anything we could do to make that curve a little less drastic. It just to me I think about that. I'm just curious if you guys are talking about that at all. But with solid data, that's a great area that I mean I would love to see almost even like proposal of

070something creative on that because with solid data that's a really valid point of where a good investment because if then we're just investing nine months of catchup versus like six weeks of good like not having to catch up and then then making progress. >> Different kind of >> and it's also an equity kind of >> a different kind of >> different kind of road. Yeah. And then we're also getting into equity and access and things with summer. >> I think parents could be motivated too by seeing some of that data maybe to say like this is really why you know and doing this math fact back lab or whatever it is you know is going to be really what helps your kid to not have that. >> I mean I agree with Nicole. I mean,

071we have so many creative professionals in our district that, you know, I feel like having a semistructured thing available in the summer, I think you have interest and, you know, I don't know. I think it's something to think about, especially if the return in student learning is, you know, visible. >> Well, it's something we have those we have. Um, I don't think Desessie does those anymore, but either it could be the type of thing that could be done in house or I'm just even thinking about basic summer. >> Well, yeah. Yeah. You know, just like a little more robust, you know, bringing that back a little bit more. >> Like anything we can do to support families in it too is, you know, like >> I mean, is there a way to use anyway? >>

072Yeah, you know what? So >> I had a question tutor could be an opportunity for >> older students. I would love that. >> Um with the cross district grade level meetings, were there any sort of themes or consistent sort of messages or like what what were the sort of anything that sort of rose to um rose out of those or any you noticed? It's a little early to tell right now because we've only run two my just off the top of my head two grade levels in ELA. We we have a map one coming up. So they're spread over the course of the year to just to minimize how much are out. Um so it they're they're plotted for the whole year, but >> that would be that'll be a great question for >> Okay.

073I thought it might be >> late winter. >> One thing I would I would highlight is just that the work that goes into running those. So one of the things that our coordinators just want to make sure that it's they're valuable time is time for the teachers is valuable. So they start by going into each of the classrooms of the teachers who will be participating in the day. So they have a real sense of like you know what is um you know what are some really good things happening um what how do things look across the grade level. So um they're probably collecting pretty good data on that. So I think we just need a little more a little more time. >> So one thing I would just like to add and it's different but

074related and I and I will say like clearly there's a lot of really good things going on. So I want to focus on the positive. I think the one thing that we need to keep working on and pair is communication because I don't I don't know what's happening at the middle school or high school because I don't hear from many families but I do hear from families in elementary school and some elementary schools are still sending home those sealed envelopes that have a couple of sentences about the child's benchmarks and what that means. Even when you look at Aspen, there's not right like there's not a lot there. Some of them have the interpretation and I recently I was contacted by a family and they were in a panic because the child was needing a

075support that they didn't realize they needed and so they immediately everything worked out but it's just like how can we and I know we have parent conferences or guardian parent guardian conference how can we sort of think about delivering so that students parents and guardians feel equipped they feel like they they know what the next step is. You know, I I get that the teachers are super busy. I know that's another thing, but just thinking about like what if we're gonna if we're gonna make the effort to send home those envelopes, then let's like think about what the envelope says and how it's going to be received by the person who's like I mean, this mom was like, I was coming home from work. I had seen the benchmark. I was really happy about my

076child and then I get this and I'm in a panic. turned out not to be anything, but like you know just the the sort of 24 hours that the parent had to sit with what's going on. Um so just making sure we're mindful of what those things say or maybe not sending them and just emailing quick call or something. Right. >> Sorry. Just going back to the um like summer slide stuff. I think um from my perspective, I was always interested in working with children, especially as a tutor. Um and I know a bunch of other kids are too. I think the summer time can sometimes be tough, but if we were able to like start a program through the high school or like even a club that um like high school students could get

077involved in and whether it's like just for volunteer hours or like if there could be some sort of payment that I think a major incentive is like a resume builder, especially a lot of kids that are very academically driven, I think it could be beneficial for them to um be given the opportunity to work with children and um like have like what such an important thing and like time dedicated um that colleges will look at and like see as a really good thing. So, I think if we could put that forward with the high school, whether that's something that they could get hours for or not. Um I think that would be something that children are interested in or high school students are interested in. And um I think elementary school and middle school students

078might also be interested in because um like my experience of working with children like as a tutor or through like volleyball and I coach gymnastics um they love like working with high school students. seeing them. Yeah. It's like exciting for them to like work with older children and like be able to like understand their life more intricately. So, I think that could be a a minor solution if that's a win-win. >> There's also a lot of clubs that are like already sort of formed for tutoring. Um, >> you know, whether it's like starting something new or reaching out to, you know, existing clubs, we can definitely do that here. That's something interesting. >> That's great. put that on our list of things to explore. I love that. I mean, >> could could you guys give

079some perspective on um what you thought of summer work like math summer work? I know I think last year we didn't have any the first time I believe, but like how did student how did >> they AP college board work? >> How did um like a summer work like how did you guys treat summer math freshman sophomore during this? Um, yeah, I thought it was a good intro um to what we were doing. Like I know I'm in um Cal BC this year, so there was a lot of prep um before that, which it was a little stressful, but I thought it was great um sort of as a refresher, you know, so there's not that slump like you were saying when you hit the ground running. Um and I know like as a as

080a kid, I really like hated summer work, but now looking back, I really see the value in it. Um, you know, even if I was like putting it off till the end, like sort of retaching myself that over the summer, um, it sort of made the beginning of the school year a lot less stressful going into it. So, I hated it, but now I know now now I see the value in it. There's a lot of value in it. >> Yeah, I'm kind of on the same page as Luke. I did start out in Cal BC. things have changed since then, but um I definitely saw the value in that summer homework particularly because the two days I was there, we did start out um like taking off from the summer work and it was

081a good refresh and well now I'm at AB but um so like the only difference is that we started without the summer homework, but I thought like dropping was honestly very helpful and it gave me time to focus on my other classes. But going back to summer homework, I got off the tangent. Um, I thought as a student it was kind of redundant and I didn't love it. Um, but I've always loved math so I thought the packets, especially when it was fun or like in elementary school when there was like ways to like there was a coloring sheet with it like this answer you like get like this color or something. It's just like a silly example, but um I thought if there was ways to make it fun um it gave an incentive

082to do it and I think if you were to work with high school students it would like make more like elementary students work like worth their work. It's great. >> Thank you. Two good ideas. Um the last two sides are just the same um sort of the fall benchmark data. Um and because we're talking about grades six through eight, um you can see the sideby-side comparison of um ELA and math. So, and it looks like we're um either aligned with how students performed um for ELA in all um in all three of the grades for six, seven, and eight. Um for sixth grade math, uh we're seeing on the um star math um some pretty good progress of of where we're headed versus the um the same cohort's performance in the in the spring. So

083um in math it seems like uh there's some good growth and heading in heading in the right direction in grades uh six, seven, and eight. obviously with more time um and you know more work we'll see after the uh middle of the year benchmark as well but uh this is data that the teachers use as well to see um you know where are the standards that need more focus um so this again just a reminder that this is the first time that our math teachers have used um in six seven and eight have been using star so they've been working hard to become more familiar with the assessment see how it lines up with their new program that's only is in its second year. So, I just want to give them a shout out for

084their um you know, for their efforts to um to build this up here in the in the early stages and um you know, just point that out and um Tar Simon's work to um also implement that and line up the frame uh the standards from from STAR with the framework um has taken some work. So, we appreciate that. Here's a little with the efforts and areas of focus. I just explained how uh this is the new new benchmark uh for ELA and math. Um we were using the achieve um and ELA and for the same reason with math, we want more consistency. So, we put STAR in place. Um we're in the curriculum review cycle um in uh in in the phase where um really the pilot phase. So one of the things that um

085Laura Mesner has done 6 through12 is partner with Hilford literacy and really think about what are the needs identified um for ELA 6 through2. Uh we did the literacy review last year and one of the things teachers talked about was really needing some more uh you know depth in the best practices in ad adolescent literacy. So on our November 10th PD day they had um two two sessions with Hill. So they've been excited about um that work as they think about um enhancing our curriculum uh 6 through 12. Another area of focus is uh being really data data thoughtful with wind block. So um after the initial boot camp at Gates uh where the new windblock was put in place, students have been assigned to to interventions based on uh data and where they need

086support. So that's a step forward this year. Um just using student performance data to figure out which kids need extension, which kids need intervention. So that's been exciting for all the staff to be um flexible there and keeping the momentum going. And at the high school uh on Wednesdays, they're working in their MTSS groups to review student data uh in open architects and thinking about which students need to be need a little bit more support from. um the case team and then which other students um you know seem to be improving or could use more extension and we're keeping our focus going on uh math with um our partnership with Allison Melo. She's uh visited the district um in September. She has walkthroughs coming up um next week uh with Tara Simon actually getting in

087classrooms in the middle school and high school and then Allison will be presenting uh to secondary math teachers and working with them on our our March PD day. So we're grateful for that partnership and the investment in u making sure our instructional strategies are matching our new program. So that's a little bit of a quick update on uh efforts in areas of focus 612. I was just one thing. Sorry, I'm trying not to ask for the moon and I might be, but I just know that um when we looked at our MCAST data across the district, uh writing was an area of concern and it's not assessed on STAR and so I was just curious if um you've had any thought. I I just don't want it to get forgotten because it's not assessed >>

088and there's not a wind. >> Yeah, I'm just thinking about and I know a lot because it's we're doing a lot and a lot of this is new, but I just don't want it to be forgotten and then us to be surprised another year when we're like, "Oh, wow." You know, because if if we're not putting the attention to it, that's going to have, you know, thinking like, "Are there ways to bring that in some thoughts or any plans?" I guess >> I think it's a really I think it's a really good question. I remember our principles um yeah they they know that it's an area of focus um at the cross district grade level meetings I saw some really good um highlighting of u some areas where we can spend more time on the

089places that we could be stronger um and I know for 6 through 12 that there's some as the budget process develops. Um there's Laura Mesner's working really hard to find some very good writing professional development and and um those so those are just some quick >> thoughts I have about it. But I I would I think >> um our we continue to remain focused on that and think about ultimately someday having >> writing benchmarks again. Um so we're just trying to beat the elephant one bite at a time. Yeah, >> like I said, I know it's a big ask, but I just feel like it's important to keep bringing it up because it's like if we don't, you know, another year passes where we kind of haven't really sunk our teeth into it, you know.

090Um, and so I'm just here to keep bringing it up. >> Well, and it is I mean, we have these great wind blocks. I'm still surprised that it's not >> like I'm still surprised it's not a wood block. I feel like, you know, if we are eating the elephant one bite at a time, we have structures in place where we could have at least right and we we don't assess it but we know from I mean I know the teachers drill down on MCAST data so you can see I mean I can see it so I know the teachers see much more than I do so we do have some data that's telling us >> um so I just wonder what that decision is about I mean I know they're I think they switched wind

091blocks this week and now there's an organization windb block and so I'm just trying to oh look my kid needs that and I'm happy to have him, but he also needs writing and so I'm torn. >> It's just curious that like what what was the decision-m process to sort of prioritize that skill over writing? >> I don't have the answer, but I'm just saying I can tell you a little bit as a gay school council. >> Oh, great. Uh there were I think they were placed according there were like conversations about that and there were you're right like there's like certainly there were decisions that had so many kids in moving parts and they didn't want them mixed up especially in middle school to be with different faces and different like part of the process

092was to get them all kind of moving motion to keep them engaged for that 20 minute block and they are going to keep cycling so they do get to sort of like go through different >> get different skills So maybe writing will be one of them, >> right? Like yeah, you might hit things along the way. It will sort of come together when you get that sort of like buffet. >> Yeah, that's >> I don't know when uh all schools do this, but I think it's really great that Gates puts what your kid's windblock is in Aspen. So parents would like to check if you go to the details tab about your kid, it's right there. I just checked because I was like, "Oh, a new windblock." Really? Um I was not told this by

093my 13-year-old. Sometimes teenagers are not forthcoming with these details, but it's right in there. So, I think that's really nice for parents to be able to check what your kids would blog is. Um, so if anyone's curious, it's an aspect and it can be like what the thing the particular was that was most of the top, not necessarily that there weren't other things, but that might have just taken a slight edge. Yeah, >> I just want to get general comments because I think this every time there's a presentation with data that I don't think the average parent or guardian realizes how much work goes on in the background. like they might think teachers are just like teaching the subjects and I'm like exhausted on their behalf for all this work that they do to help

094the students. It just amazes me that that it's it's a lot of other work. >> Very important, but it's it's a lot. >> Yeah. I think it's and it's work people care about. And I think we're all it's very complex work too because we're working with humans and these aren't excuses. It's just the dynamic situation and it takes time for kids to >> develop these skills. And I think one of the most important things that we've done in the past couple years is to make sure that we're really paying attention to how things are changing over time. um and to be positioned to we're seeing areas where students need work or where they're doing very well to try to spread out these practices that are working and then maybe curb the ones um that that

095aren't working as well and um I think that people are invested in that work and which is really good. Thank you. hand it takes it takes time but I think there's a lot of really good energy on teachers part and our all staff you know and our our leaders and coordinators too and so we're just we'll see when we come back in February we'll share more and we'll see what the areas of need are and what's um what's panning out and um hopefully we're getting some good traction but I feel like we're like was on the second side we feel more confident in our our tracking um and that we we we can see when things are working and when we need to change direction. So, thank you. >> That's a huge step forward. Honestly,

096thank you. This is like just we have this data that's available that we're able to see it in real relatively real time. You know, the fact that soon we will be able to have historical data and we have a phrase two through five now with two through eight soon. That's going to be really helpful. I just think it's a really big step forward. Thank you. >> Open architects too is just a really >> Yeah. teachers having immediately be able to >> feel empowered to use it more. They get familiar and comfortable and confident in that >> is going to be straight >> amazing. Yeah, it's fantastic. Um, apologies before Irene opens up with the financial report here. I skipped our minutes from November 17th. We could just quickly go through that for approvals. um comments

097or sorry I did bypass that accidentally approvals of those November 17th minutes. I make a motion to approve the minutes from November 17th, 2025. >> Second. All in favor? >> Okay. All right. Business and finance report. >> Okay. So, it's going to be quick. Um, good news is everything looks exactly like you expect it to. So, I'll just talk about the report a little bit. If you take a look at the um the file, the first page is what I call the bird's eye view, you know, so looking down from thousand feet and it just breaks it down into the major functions, admin, instruction, student services, building more grounds. We don't track capital and debt that's done on the town side, but it could be added if anybody wanted to look at that again, but

098it's not part of our budget, you know, that we're responsible for on a yearly basis. And then, of course, the out of district spending for various and sudary things. And I give you the FY26, the amendments for transfers. Currently, the only thing you're seeing there is either prior year encumbrances. You know, that stuff that we had placed an order for but didn't get before June 30th, so we carried it over into this year or when they gave us extra money at the special town meeting. Uh, as time goes on, for example, in the January meeting, uh, we probably will have some requests to transfer on G. we want to take a little bit of out of instruction because we're going to put it into student services. And that's just I have no idea if we're

099doing that or not. Just giving you an example. So those numbers would then reflect those items we came to you got your vote on and then made the adjustment to the budget. So then you've got the amended budget. Um our current expenses versus that budget. Uh the incumbrances and I'm assuming everybody knows what an incumbrance is. Nobody don't I'll be happy to explain it. Uh and then the remaining available balance. So we started out with a 48 million 930,258 budget. We had as of November 21st, this is already up week stated had actually spent 15,653731. We've got outstanding orders for 2,682,911 and we still have 30,593,616 to spend. And yes, it will go quickly, but we're not anticipating going over that. We should be well within our budget. If you go to the second page

100where it says detail, I take each of those functions and break it down into a little bit more detail. So you take the admin and you break it down into school committee, superintendent office, assistant superintendence office, um other admin, okay, which is your primarily um I do know this, the team leaders, the team chairs, uh the business and finance office, uh human resources, uh legal services, legal settlements, which fortunately we don't have any of and we want to keep it that way. And then um administrative technology which currently seems to be running a tad over. I'm not concerned about that so long as it doesn't suddenly blow up but I'll be watching that since it is over. I'm not going to go through this line by line. I would just say if you have any

101questions let me know. Uh the one line that you will notice we seem to be over over on is utilities and that's a function of having encumbered the entire budgeted amount and we're hoping that again we'll end the year pretty close to the original budgeted amount but I'll be watching that. I already have some ideas going forward for uh for utilities. I don't know if anyone else is a big fan of these, but I love solar panels in parking lots. So, that's that's a project I'm willing to look into and really push to get going. Um because it helps. So, if you have any questions, let me know. And my my plan is to present this to you every quarter. So, the first meeting in January, I will do this again. and it'll be for

102the first two quarters, the first six months of the year. I'll do it again in April and then I won't wait until June 30th. I will make a presentation in June to let you know here's where we are and here's how we anticipate, you know, ending the year. >> When the new building comes on in 2027, I assume we anticipate >> So, we're I'm sorry, say that again. When the new uh building opens in 2017, I assume the heating and utility costs will see those go down. >> They should go down because we'll have more we'll have one one less building, >> but also more efficiency, right? >> Yes. So, number one, it'll be one building instead of two. And number two, it will be built to current >> standards. So, we'll have much hopefully

103much more efficient equipment. >> Yeah. >> So, yes. So, that will that will also be very nice. >> Yes. Thank you. >> This is helpful for easy to read. Yeah. >> Again, if you have any questions, you know, and this is why I break this one out. If you have a questions on an item, let me know. >> Yeah. questions down there. Few questions. >> I always expect a financial question. >> Looks good. >> Okay. >> Yeah. No action required. This is strictly an FYI. >> No, just it's it's helpful to have this just because >> as I think Maria said through um AI generated local news reports we hear of other districts that >> Yes. Maybe didn't have regular updates and I just think it's important that we do. >> Oh, yeah. No, definitely.

104And I know you learn this when you go to the MASC meetings. They recommend the quarterly report. Uh if your district is in trouble for some reason, you might want to go monthly, but otherwise quarterly is what they recommend. The level of detail on the page that I gave you is the recommended level of detail. Again, if you've got a district in trouble, and I was in a district in trouble, you literally go line item, and that is brutal. But you can do it if you if you have to. Uh I I don't see us getting there anytime soon. That's the good news. >> You've been fortunate to have really good, thorough reporting. And um it's been great. >> Yeah. And again, and I mentioned this at at the last meeting, Tom and I certainly

105will be looking at this more than every three months. >> This is something that he and I would probably be checking about every two weeks. >> Yeah. Yeah. Great. >> Thank you. >> Excellent. All right. So, we're going to do some policy subcommittee um discussion. BDFA. Beg. >> Yes. So, this was um BDFA is school council and we read through uh beg which is minutes of the meeting. It was actually a relatively small chunk and I read too much today. So um but if anyone uh would like to kick off with any reflections on those policies, >> there was just one place where it talks about the school committee meeting starting at that. >> I also I know we're going to link out to the policies. I would encourage families to be reading. I would

106point them particularly to the school council. I thought that was really helpful to sort of hear more in that policy, what their charge is, how their charge aligns with school committee goals which align with district goals and and I think the other piece in there and I know we've talked about this a lot is it really is clear about the whole process for elections. >> Yes. like for the teacher from for the parents for the teachers the co-chair so if folks are interested in that process and helping out I think it's a good policy to go and review if you have interest in getting on that so I was happy to read that again definitely that's one that I think we would like to potentially update as well but not in this current school year

107because we don't want to disrupt the work that's ongoing but uh we had talked about how um the last time we updated it we moved from uh monthly meetings to four times a year. And I think we're all discovering that four times a year is not enough. That's not enough time for these groups to accomplish their their jobs. We also had adjusted the um uh membership or the kind of like membership terms. Yeah. And our thinking behind doing that had been to create some movement um on them. But I think unintended consequence there was that it's too much movement. Um, and so I think we would like to maybe entertain some idea of a staggered term so that there is some movement but people are there as close as some possibility otherwise it's like you're

108on for a year you're off for a year and we have no one to sort of like >> carry forward. Exactly. Mask had recommended that and I had heard from >> it's more school council members that they had been taking. So I think this is something that we would wait until the summer to do so that we don't interrupt current groups but I think it's on the policy that we'll we'll bring in June or July one of the last ones we do this year so that we're ready to go in the fall. Um similarly the school improvement plan one which is one of the main roles of the school council. This policy is actually pretty prescriptive and something that the school councils could rely on when they're thinking about their role in crafting books. >>

109Yes. >> Yeah. >> There's no vote today, right? >> Yeah. Anything else that anyone wanted to These ones were fairly light, I thought. I don't know anything else. Don't need to be labor. These will all be the ones that don't have like a date. >> Some of them. Yeah. So, what we would like to do is add >> reviewed reviewed date. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Um, and I know we had is is our next job to go through the rest of the bees. I believe it is. Do you know, Ryan, our next chunk? >> I just need a minute to look at the agenda for the policy subcommittee meeting. That's >> Here I have it. >> Yeah, it is. >> Yeah. Through BK, >> right? Yep. So, for next time, we're going to read BE

110DH through BK. That's correct. >> Public participation. >> Okay. Great. Thank you. >> Okay. Um donations. So we have our shore uh sent agenda here with an appendix F. Uh any questions or anything there? So these this these amounts have already >> these are expended. >> Yeah. >> These are approvals that they've already >> they've already gone into their organization. We're just accepting accepting their donations. They've already acknowledgement of the receipt of um services or goods. for the >> I guess I just thought we would be looking at things before but in theory you are technically if you disagreed with any of these you would have the right to say no we don't accept this you know in this particular case with the ones you've been presented I think that's extremely unlikely but let's say

111that for example somebody came in here and said hey the um you know, strip club, you know, over on the highway wants to give you $1,000, you might want to say, you know, we really appreciate that, but we don't think it is appropriate for a public school, you know, educating ch, you know, minor children to accept a gift from that particular establishment. Uh and I just throw that out as as an example. Um or if let's say it was a reasonable enough group, but they were putting limits on it that you didn't like. Oh, here we're going to fund a hundred books for you. By the way, they all have to be by white European authors. You know, again, do I envision that happening? No. I'm just giving you examples of why they want school

112committees to take a look at what's coming in. Is it really what you want? And is it coming from a group that you feel is not inconsistent with the mission and vision of the situ? >> I mean I mean I guess per the policy I I guess I you know the purpose of having it is so we're aware of where money is going and making sure that it's being spent appropriately. >> Yeah. So shouldn't we know ahead of time? >> I know this is called this is like yeah these are done but I mean what is the point of the policy? >> I don't think we've actually received the money yet. >> I'll have to double check right this this is what they've approved. We approached them and said hey we'd be really happy to

113get some money towards Ultimate Frisbee. We said you know what Ultimate Frisbee sounds great. We'll give you that. But they I don't think they have yet. Don't quote me on that because I, you know, I haven't been here long enough to know. Um, so at this point, we're asking you, you know, do you allow us to accept, you know, the money from this group for for the ultimate cruise fee? >> I mean, I guess the this what they're donating. >> Yeah. >> Seems like in line what I always thought the amounts, you know, would be >> except for the golf simulator. >> Um, >> okay. >> Where is that going? Oh, to the golf teams. >> No, but like where are we keeping it? >> Oh, you know, do we have >> it? I don't

114know. >> And I would have to contact either the golf coach or the athletic director to find out. That's a good question. I I don't have a clue. >> I don't want to be like a Debbie Downer. Just seems >> Okay. But it's a good question. Let me ask you. >> They can play in the winter months. I have >> I get it >> to your earlier question. Um I think like the mentoring funds for the freshman breakfast as an example like that event according to their proposal happened in November. So we are approving something that did already happen as in the past. We cannot >> we cannot resend it at this point. >> Right. Right. That's what I mean. I understand what you're asking about and I think in an ideal world we would

115be seeing these before they just still a little bit playing catchup. >> Yeah. I that that that is pretty much Yeah. Our our ideal is to come to you before. >> Okay. We don't want to be asking for forgiveness. We want to ask permission. >> Yeah. We're still just getting up to speed. >> Yeah, that's probably true. >> But I get an answer for you in the golf simulator. >> But like that jumps out at me. As I understand it, our golf team does very well. >> If you read the proposal though, it's not for the golf team. It's for people in like gym classes and things who want to be exposed to golf. >> Oh, so it's not just for the team. >> It's for everybody. >> Where is it going to go is

116a good question. >> Well, that's but I because I I was reading this and I asked my husband. I'm like, "How big is a golf simulator?" And it was like kind of big and I'm like, "Well, how >> how is that going to like in the gym. >> I don't think it's I don't know anything else about it. >> If it's what I'm thinking of something Yeah. It would be on wheels kind of like this. >> We're happy to report back on it. >> Sure. >> But in my head, I'm picturing something like that that gets rolled around. I don't know. I mean is it something like it seems like a very large expense other >> right but it's coming but it's coming from or not >> I guess we're not >> so that was

117my so that's so that's my struggle because we're not as school committee members managers who am I to say that a golf simulator is the appropriate or not appropriate activity because that's not my purview because I started to think They only funded $5,000 of the music. But that's not my my purview is not to decide who gets what money because they went through a whole application process and sure decide that >> this is like going to be in the school. I'm just curious. >> All I'm all I'm saying is a school committee member. I feel like I have to trust at some point that the folks who made this request talk to the other like the Ryan, right? And so they so I don't feel as strongly about why are they spending $14,000 on >>

118Yeah. But I I will get an answer to you in terms of >> club is that would >> that example would bother me >> shut down >> that would bother me but >> but I feel like sh puts them through a whole process. So >> but Ryan's gonna report back to us on >> maybe we can be invited to try it out. Wonderful for the psyche. >> I'll let you know what we learn. >> And I figure it out. >> Yeah. I'm just curious because we just had to find >> I said I want to test. >> So where is this like if it's something that's manageable? >> I wonder if they're able to break it down and put it up because some simulators you'd be able to do that. Put a screen up and

119they take it down. >> Yeah. So that's true. >> Be good to know more about that. And I think the step forward is that previously the district was accepting gifts sometimes from great organizations like Shore or SEF and we want to make sure we're able to like quantify and identify those. So here $23,862 where it's itemized consent agenda following the policy. So thanks for keeping track of those. Once we accept the golf simulator, we own >> right, right, that we have to maintain >> an ed foundation, which is what is likes to do is fund things that >> probably wouldn't otherwise get funded. >> Absolutely. >> Yeah. That's that's the whole reason they exist. They recognize that some of the stuff just isn't going to make it into the regular budget, >> right? report back

120to what it is and what it maint you know, now >> so that we can we can pull that out. >> Yeah, we can vote on everything. >> Vote on everything but that like we do. That's how I >> I did just I just I just sent the email to Scott. >> So, um >> yeah, >> I should have answered for you. >> They had like a picture of what they have in mind, you know, just >> we will own it. >> We will report that. Yeah. >> So, on a matter of principle, do we want to pull out the golf simulator and vote on the rest of it? >> Just I can I don't mind voting on I just was like what's going to happen if we get it >> because like you said,

121we will own it. So, >> okay. I make a motion >> that the school committee vote to approve the shore consent agenda. >> Second. >> All in favor? I >> Luke had one of those, right? >> Congratulations on your grant. >> Oh, thank you. >> Actually, it's Luke's golf. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Yeah. No. Good idea. Yeah, I'm excited for it. Yeah. [Laughter] >> Business pitch. >> Great. Close his breath while we business. >> All right. >> Florence did good, man. Yes. Yes, we do. Um, subcommittee reports. >> So, um, we just wanted to review and discuss the liaison subcommittees and working groups, uh, of our school committee. So, Maria and I sort of out of um the mask uh conference. Thank you. Looking for that word deep in the brain. Uh, we've gone

122to separate uh sessions. Thank you. I need some assistance on this one and but could come to similar conclusions on just wanting to do a little bit of housekeeping on ours. Uh we have a lot of really great things going on, but we thought we could do um do things even better. So, uh we we're going to start we thought um kind of cleaning things up and just prioritizing maybe um fine-tuning things. So, we wanted to just bring it to the board sort of before we really dig into the work a little bit more and just um see what everybody else thought about a plan like that. Really go through our working groups, our um advisory groups, other groups that we have. We've got um new there's all these different like we group is it

123a task force? Is it a liazison role to another existing committee in town? You know, we do town updates, we do office hours. There's all these like kind of things floating out there that we do. And so, we're trying to put it in one document and say when it's a this, it looks like this. Here's what the expectations are. >> Yes. This is a subcommittee. This is what it means. This is how it works. Subcommittees are actually more formal than some of the other ones. They're supposed to have a chair and a secretary of minutes and public postings and all that. Then we have you know working groups or task forces that may arise for a particular need and then they may go away. Um then we have um yeah those various leaison roles to

124all the other boards in town and I think those are also something that we have the opportunity at the outset of each year to decide um what which groups do we need to have a leazison to and what will that role look like in that given year. Sometimes like when we were in the height of the new school project, it might have made sense to have a deeper leaison role with some of those groups, but now that that project has moved into a new phase, we might not need that anymore. Right? So, we kind of have to be a little bit responsive to the time. And so, we're trying to get this all in one place, but we're also trying to do research to make sure that we're doing it >> right legally. Yeah. >>

125Look at how other schools, other districts are doing it. So, we're looking to making sure we're doing it right. mask and policies and all that stuff. We're cross referencing. So, it's taking a little time, but we wanted to preview with you all that we started it. >> We're also trying to be mindful of everyone's time and the commitment because when you start really digging in and sort of looking at all of these, there's quite a few. I mean, there's honestly over 20 to 30. If you look at the the commitment levels that each of us really is expected to do as a school committee member in addition to the general responsibilities of you know by monthly meetings and just everything being on hiring committees and just everything totals up to be quite quite extensive. So,

126um, we just really wanted to sort of like prioritize things and then, um, you know, also we're looking to create a document that is something that we can sort of pass on to future school committee members and really give them something to, um, go off of to learn from as well. So, on that note, one of the things that we need to talk about is office hours. So, we had wanted to pilot that um, which we did. We did three opportunities. Um we had thought maybe we would try to do them monthly. Um so we had those three scheduled. We do not have any scheduled in the new year yet. Um and so the question is just do we want to continue them and if so at what frequency? Just to give you a sense

127at our first one we had probably about 10 people. At our second one we had two. At our third one we had zero. We did offer them at different times of day. We were trying to figure out like just trying to see what would be best which was more attractive. Um, I don't know. You know, also it has obviously depends on our availability. Um, one of the things we learned was it's better to do it at the library because having it at school is tricky with people who may or may not have a Corey form. Um, and just like the coordination of finding a space in a school and having people to be escorted, right, is just tricky. So, the library is the best location. That's one thing we learned. I mean, I think it's

128a great opportunity to offer um you know, but on the one hand, if we offer it and no one shows, you know, is it a waste of time? Sort of. Nicole and I did get a lot done on our thing the other day. Well, we had an extra hour work that you have to do. >> I mean, I'm happy to do office hours. I'm not doing the weekly updates. So, I feel like this would be a way that I could pretty easily pop over as long as I know ahead of time. If you could find a time, you know, usually, you know, it's like a monthly hour. >> Yeah. I don't really I don't >> That's great. >> I'm totally happy to do that. >> Yeah. >> Does it make sense to consider doing them?

129>> I would rather meet in person. I spend so much time on Zoom. I just don't know if we can. Obviously, I think the first office hours that you that we offered. There was a particular topic that was hot at the time. So, I think it has >> we could alter. Yeah, we could alternate monthto month and see if people come. I just I just think it's I do think now I'm speaking blank. I do think a lot of people spend time on Zoom and so sometimes having face to face is like >> different, but I would be happy to alternate. I mean, >> no, I'm just thinking to encourage participation when there's not an issue, a hot item. I would think I'm not I'm not sure. >> Yeah, we can experiment. >> It apparently

130doesn't matter. >> Yeah. I was gonna say, >> but this, >> you know, I like person too. There's something really nice about getting to just meet. >> That's the benefit for us is we actually get to interact as opposed to not really able to interact. >> I would agree. Um, >> we could try. I mean, there's nothing wrong with doing >> you try one like we could do January in person, February Zoom, and then go back and see what happens. >> Keep talking about it. I think that's >> totally fine. Let's do that. Do that. I'm also I just also want to say I'm very happy that you're doing this work on the liaison piece >> because I just think there are so many committees that I don't understand why >> yeah, >> we're there.

131Like I I guess I just want to change the culture which is if planning or capital planning or somebody needs us Exactly. then they invite us instead of us just automatically being leers because I just end up feeling guilty for not going even though I know when I get there I have nothing to contribute. So I'd rather spend my time on office hours or search committees and that might be the path that we take is like maybe we are ultimately our outreach might be to them just that we're here if you need us. We're not ignoring our neglect day, our duty, but know that like this doesn't make sense. >> We're here, there, everywhere, and we want to be a part of the conversation. If you need us, please know. All you need to do

132is email, call. >> I think that's a great us. We'll be there in a heartbeat. >> That feels more doable. >> Be there every other week because we have 12 other committees, you know, or whatever it is. But >> just because it feels like a lot of pressure, but >> we're glad you're doing it. Um on another note, so tomorrow night there is um a community forum um topic of the redistricting um that will be tomorrow night at 6 pm via Zoom and um one of the part of part of that will be a launch of a website that will have on it a feedback form and um the advice of the um folks who are leading that process for us proper GIS is to ask people who have input or feedback or questions about

133redistricting specifically to use that form instead of emailing us because when people email us as they want to apply all sometimes it goes just to me and maybe you but not you guys. So just this way everything will be in one place and part of their role as this firm will be to go through all the all the feedback they're getting organized there. >> Centralize it. Exactly. So if we do get that that's tomorrow 6 p.m. If we do get emails on that topic um push them there >> to try to ask people to put it there instead. Um because that that's just a way to kind of keep it all all organized. Do you do you think I don't want to create more work, but this this whole length agenda is amazing? >> I'm

134just wondering for for something like that. Could that just be like a running message for the next several months at the bottom? That way that way if I'm talking to someone, I can say if you look at the last agenda, >> then the link is right there instead of me having to have the the link >> like some sort of >> helpful helpful links or something. >> Yeah. Remember feedback is you could get feedback. >> I don't know. I just think it'd be a good thing to use as a great idea. >> Tomorrow night it's strictly online. There's no >> It is being recorded. Yep. It will be recorded. >> Yep. It's going to be a 30 minuteish presentation and then time for questions and answers and it will be recorded and the recording will

135be posted on a just wanted to make sure I didn't have to be somewhere. >> No, no, no. Fully remote and it's just the first one. There's many to come. >> Yeah. The other question >> I was I was just gonna ask slightly unrelated but um parent square I know is like seems to be working pretty well. I just have a question relative to me. I can only I can only get news on the school that my student goes to. >> But I want to be able to get all of the schools. >> You can. So >> I can >> as a school committee member. They set up the school. They set up a special group for us because when we give up, that's what I was struggling with. >> Yes. High school. >> You

136will start getting everything and it is a lot. >> So, you will show me how to do that. Okay. >> Yes. >> Not just I'm doing the weekly update. I'm like high school stuff. That's all that I have access to. But I know there's other stuff going on. >> You will be ready. >> Yeah. >> Excellent. >> Great. Any final items? Okay. >> Meeting motion to return at 7:53. >> Second. >> Okay. All in favor? >> Right. Excellent. Have a good night everyone.