001that [laughter] there. All right. The Situate School Committee is committed to providing an environment of respect during meetings. We ask all members to interact in a polite manner, even when there is disagreement. We value the participation of our community and want all participants, including marginalized and minoritized communities, to feel welcomed and respected. We ask our committee members and all who participate to commit to these standards to support and respect our community. Okay. Uh some opening remarks for tonight. Uh thank you all for being here. Tonight, we'll discuss a draft job description for a new leadership role in our district. A director of support, engagement, and advocacy. This role will focus on social and emotional learning while building directly on our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. DEI is an essential part of social and emotional
002learning, and it will be woven throughout everything this role oversees. As we discussed at our last meeting, we are evolving from our current DEI role to this new expanded position because our students have growing unmet social and emotional needs. We don't yet have all the expertise and resources we need and we lack structure and consistent leadership to coordinate our efforts across the district. This new role will help us close these gaps, bring more resources, more expertise, and more consistent support for all students, especially students of color, students with disabilities, English language learners, economically disadvantaged, LGBTQIA+, and any marginalized students. Moving to this expanded role does not diminish our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Our commitment is as strong today as it was when Jle joined us. In 2021, we were proud to be one
003of the first districts in Massachusetts to create a role dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Thanks to J, we've made progress and established a new foundation. Now, this new role will enable us to build on that foundation and meet our students pressing needs. Social and emotional learning and DEI work are inseparable. Part of social and emotional learning is helping our students develop essential skills like empathy, relationship building, and self-awareness. These skills don't just strengthen our students individually. They strengthen the climate of our schools and contribute to the type of positive, affirming community we aspire to build together. Many people expressed concern that this change means we are stepping away from our commitment to diversity, equity, equity, and inclusion. Again, I want to be absolutely clear that is not the case. Our commitment to diversity, equity,
004and inclusion is unwavering. This change strengthens it by creating a structure where DEI work is embedded throughout our entire district, not siloed in a single role. The following is a quote from Castle, the premier resource for districts looking to develop systems of social emotional support in their districts and one that our own state framework relies heavily upon. SEAL can serve as a lever for equity addressing issues such as power, privilege, prejudice, discrimination, social justice, empowerment, and self-determination. This is complex work that requires systems alignment and continuous improvement. At our last school committee meeting and in the days since, many of you have shared your perspectives on this new approach. We have heard that some people are feeling fearful about what will come next. Some people are truly grieving the loss of this role and the
005individual who filled it for us. Thank you to everyone who spoke at our meeting, completed the superintendent survey, sent emails, and attended office hours with the superintendent Maria and me. I'm grateful to be a part of a community that cares so deeply about our students. Our hope is to offer reassurance and to rebuild trust with those who have felt that trust has been shaken. The person in this position will partner closely with school administrators, staff, families, and community members to ensure that every student is seen, heard, and valued. And they will champion a safe and supported educational experience for all of our students. I look forward to tonight's discussion of the job description. Thank you so much. Like to have public comment now and uh knowing that we have a bit of a time constraint
006tonight, like to um really try our best to keep our commitment to our 15 minutes of public comment. Um knowing that we have our special town meeting beginning tonight at 7 pm. uh but like to um open up to public comment uh start in person and of course um have remote as well. So anyone who'd like to come to the microphone for public comment please go on over or raise a hand remotely. No hands. >> Right. I will turn it over to our interim superintendent, Dr. Ra, to discuss uh our job description for our director of support engagement, matters. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Before [clears throat] I do that, I thought I might discuss a few key takeaways from the survey. We did receive 187 responses as of this afternoon. I didn't shut it
007down on Friday afternoon. So, we left it open through this meeting and the responses really ranged of the gamut and so I just wanted to represent them and so that the committee understands kind of what we heard from the survey. [snorts] >> Am I not here? Okay. Is this better? I'm really close. Okay, I'll try. Um so you know we did have an assortment of responses about a third of the responses did urge the committee not to replace the position at all. The other twothirds of the responses really talked about different ways that we could look at the position. It was clear that people enjoy the lit club and the this is our house celebrations. that was stated over and over again by several responses and the respondents urged us to keep those things in
008place. Uh many people said, and I think we did tonight, include LGBTQIA plus in the job description as an underrepresented minority. And I think that's [clears throat] something that we can consider later on. In addition to focusing on minority students, also include the needs of mental health and bullying support, which I think we've included in the job description. And there was a lot of discussion about clarifying the supervisory role. Many people admittedly felt that this was too big of a job for one person. And it is a big job. There's no question about it. Um being able to supervise our DEI efforts as well as our SEC efforts is a big job. I think the way I see it is that we have a lot of these efforts happening right now, but they're a bit
009disjointed. We have our HSA pair data. We do character strong. through second step at the middle school and we need somebody who can come in and help us coordinate all of those efforts. So they wouldn't be acting on their own. This person would be acting as part of our district administrative team and working closely with the directors and the principles and guiding the work that they're already doing and u what I hope is is organizing that um explicitly mentioned bullying and title n compliance in this was another recommendation. a lot of support for the current Medco program and a lot of support for the three people that are currently supervising that program. A lot of information about families needing support with digital literacy and we saw that in the spring and we made some adjustments
010in fifth grade. But in general, um, a real call for embedding digital literacy as a curriculum in our library time at the elementary schools and in anytime we can find at the middle school and high school. In addition, needing college access, readiness, study skills, research skills, critical thinking, public speaking, and presentation skills. And also, somebody who can really dig in and update the curriculum to a more DEI focused. Although they mentioned that there's a lot of excellent readings in our current curriculum, some of them are a bit outdated. And so, was asking that we include in this um somebody to really dig in and and put a more of a DEI focus on the curriculum. And in addition, we do the HA I can't say the word H today. HSA pair focus. And one of
011the things that we we look at in that are academic motivation, action orientation, assertiveness, conduct problems, critical thinking, emotion control, emotional symptoms. And we collect data on each and every student in that area. and somebody to coordinate those efforts and somebody to help the adjustment counselors and the guidance counselors and the health and wellness teachers in terms of actually unpacking that data for our students. Right now that falls to the principles and it's too much for an individual principal to look at. Certainly we catch at risk students and we catch the students who are struggling but to look overall each time we give that test and allow us to really evaluate that would be very very helpful. So again there were some excellent responses. We have all those responses. We collected all those responses. But
012that's just some key takeaways from the surveys. Really appreciate the time that committee members took to fill those out and I'll be keeping those and using those to reflect upon as we go through this whole process. So in terms of the job description itself, um, and I did put I'm sorry I did put that out publicly. Like I said, this is a big job. The director of support, engagement, and advocacy is a district level leader leadership position [clears throat] responsible for championing a safe and supported educational and school experience for our students. And there are five overall objectives that we're going to be expecting. I'm not going to read the whole job description committee. Um, but it's comprehensive and coordinated student supports through our MTS framework appropriate year [cough] on. [clears throat] And so continuing
013that work again with a coordinated effort uh school culture and climate and that is where the diversity, equity, inclusion piece comes in. That is a key component of this job description involves providing professional development for staff and fostering a culture of belonging and restorative practices as appropriate for students, staff and families. And the one thing I wanted to mention is this job description wasn't developed in a vacuum. I did have input from directors here and from other members of the staff here as we put this together who know the needs and live those needs every day. Um in addition family and community engagement we heard loud and clear how the current position does interface with our metco program and particularly with our GSA students as well. We want to make sure that those needs are
014met. Additionally, policy and compliance assure that all student support engagement and discipline pro policies are in alignment with local, state and federal laws. And finally, curriculum oversight and implementation of evidence-based curriculum, including but not limited to SEAL, DEI, bullying, and digital literacy. We're looking for somebody with at least a master's degree in education, five years experience, preferably a licensed clinical social worker or a lensure in mental health counseling and somebody who can supervise staff. I really see this growing into a position where we're actually creating a new department in the schools and this is the beginning of that. Somebody who supervisor adjustment counselors coordinate their work prek to 12. So happy to answer any questions, happy to make any changes. Um we will take out the I in LSSW, it's LCSW and I do want
015to specifically include LGBTQIA plus students among the marginalized list. >> [laughter] >> So, thank you for the um summary of the data. It was good to hear that. I appreciated everybody's feedback as well. So, I had a couple of thoughts and wonderings in terms of editing the job description. I think something that's going to be really important to this role, and you sort of alluded to it, um Tom, was the data piece. And I wonder if it may make sense in the qualifications somewhere to say experience with data or familiarity with data interpretation, data analysis because I do one thing I would love to see this role take on is you know I know we've invested a lot of time and effort and people power into the pair and I would just like some asurances
016that that's the right one. If it is are we using it well and as effectively as we can. So I think something around data um because we are saying evidence-based curriculum. So I feel like data could be throw out. The other thing I wondered about and I'm curious about my colleagues on the committee when I read the position summary um especially after both the the statement from Nicole and your statement last last time we met. I'm not sure the summary reflects this beautiful integration of SEAL and DEI that you have both articulated. And I want to make definitely clear to this person that we are it's not either or. It's a yes and and I really want to attract someone who who is bringing that equity lens into every part of this job description. And
017so I think it says it in a few places, but I just feel like we could say it clearly, loudly, and you know, unapologetically because I think we all have always had a belief in that. So those were the those were my thoughts. if we can just make sure, you know, I see it in the curriculum, I see it in the faculty enga or sorry, the family engagement. Um, I just would like to see it just explicitly stated in the summary of the position. >> [cough] >> toward that endure. I think it'd be great to hear any feedback and then if I could take the next two weeks to incorporate the feedback and then perhaps revote on the 17th that'll give me a chance to slowly reflectively because because you're right some of the stuff
018that we read at the beginning of the meeting actually articulates some of this a whole lot better now that we had some time to think about it. So I love to incorporate that Yeah, agreed. >> Um I had a question on the um curriculum bullet point. Um I think I know the answer to this, but I just think this could be a point of clarification where it says oversight and implementation of evidence-based curriculum. My assumption is that this person is not directly implementing curriculum, but rather overseeing the implementation of curriculum. And I don't know if this is a common phrasing in jobs of the of similar, you know, I just um it might be the way that you say it. Like I know Ryan has sort of some implementation oversight roles um in his work
019and I don't know if that's how it's described. Um so I think if it is, then we can keep it that way. But if it's not, then maybe we want to just think about that phrasing slightly um to indicate that you know, while this person might do a model lesson, occasionally they're not themselves. Wait, I was wondering about that 3,000 students. >> Agreed. No, certainly they're not actually doing it, but I we were thinking of things like Second Step, Character Strong. >> That's what I thought. >> There may be others that we haven't even thought of. So, I would hope that a person would come in and make those recommendations to us. >> Um, but it would be the health and wellness teachers that would be teaching that the people who are currently teaching it
020now. Um you know earlier on at another meeting when we look at the budget for next year we had talked about library media specialists at the elementary level things some of those new position this is all kind of integrated and we're all kind of figuring out this new role new department >> so maybe implementation isn't the right I'll come up with another >> I think it's like adise and consent or something adise and maybe something more similar to like what a department chair language is I don't know what language is but just yeah well I think that language is important because to the extent we want this >> integrated across everything, we have to use the right verb there because it's not implemented something else. >> Yeah. >> And we already have a ton of
021people that do that well. >> Mr. Lynch is really good at this. >> Yeah. >> The only other thing Well, I had two two questions. One's a clarifi clarifying question. The only other thought I had, I know we have these five big pieces. Given that you Tom see this as a future department. I don't know if there needs to be something in this job description that's about building teams. I don't I don't know if that's too quick or where we could put that but it just feels like not just working with stakeholders but can you sort of bring I'm thinking like the adjustment counselors and like can you bring existing resources identifi right like be able to identify where our gaps are where our needs are where our strengths are that kind ofation >> language
022what was that >> yeah collaboration um so really I mean I feel like it's a you're building a system right in another system so that feels important um the other question I had and this is because I don't know about Massachusetts the qualification the desi admin shirt is that standard for this level of job is that why it's in there >> question >> yes that's standard okay >> whether it's a supervisory but it could be somebody with principal assistant principal certification even superintendent assistant superendent okay >> in order to properly evaluate staff >> they have to have that one of them >> that's what I thought but I just wanted to clarify >> Nicole when you think about I know from your background the lure do those seem to cover the two >> I think
023so Janice and I were talking she's a social worker adjustment counsel I support the >> the eye should be out >> oh yeah yeah yeah but those seem to be the two like areas okay >> great I think so >> okay >> I mean they could probably have a ph I mean you might just don't know >> yeah yeah yeah but I mean this would be this is catching the right minimal but above that makes We say preferred there for that reason. So that it gives the person who's interested in the job the kind of the minimum qualifications. If I don't at least have this or something close, >> yeah, >> that probably makes questions for just see the edits. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Can you share the timeline? >> Sure. >> For what would
024come next? So, if we approve the job description at the November 17th meeting, we would immediately post the position. I think it posted probably through December at that time, we would uh probably a month. It's hard to interview a week before Christmas. So, likely [clears throat] we leave it posted through the end of the calendar year. And then we put a committee together of representative parents, administrators, teachers, u you know, probably eight or nine people headed by our HR director. She does the interview process for all the um district level positions. And we would interview beginning of January and hope to have somebody in place by February 1st. >> No. Um, I guess my only question is do we know about other districts that have some a similar position in their district or they're local
025or somewhere? >> It's research I need to do, but I've seen it really range. So, sometimes people will task a school psychologist or head psychologist with with this position. Other places do it very very difficult. So I don't there's no consistency. I'll put it that way. Um but there's bits and pieces of it I'm going to do. >> I did look at that too. I looked at some other districts to try to see what other places are doing. I think what Tom said is accurate. Um but I think where I what I seem to have understood from what um both Tom and Ryan have shared, this position feels really tailored to the needs that we have. And so I think that's important that we are thinking about where our specific gaps are um and how
026this is like the missing puzzle piece that might connect some of the work that's happening that we has been ongoing. Um that might be some of that connecting piece to strengthen. So I think that's kind of how I and I think that must be what other districts do too because when I look at these similar [clears throat] roles they're they seem really tailored. >> Yeah. >> In ways that are so it's not like a standard like oh this is what this means and this is what it always means. It looks like it means something slightly different kind of wherever you look is what I came to understand. >> It's called different things in different places. It's hard to track. >> It can also depend on the size of the district. >> Yeah. Great. >> So
027allow to get at it tomorrow. >> Okay. >> Redirect that we've had and share. >> Okay. That sounds great. >> We have um so we'll table a vote, let you reconstruct the feedback, dig into anything else you found in feedback from the community. um from over the weekend since you kept the survey open. Um and then final presentation on the 17th to us all then we would vote on 17 so you can get it out there posting you said for December. Yep. Okay. And then you're looking for February start date person ideally. Okay, that sounds good. That's the timeline. Sounds good to me committee. That's good. Uh, we have our approval of minutes from October 20th here as well. >> Yeah, very well written. [laughter] >> I make a motion that the school committee vote
028to approve the October 20th, 2025 minutes as presented. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. All right. Finances. Okay. Any other business? We have our next week is the >> Yeah, we have our mask the conference next week. Uh future agenda items other than the ones we just discussed on November 17th. Right. Motion to adjurnn then >> special town meeting. >> It's a special town meeting. >> Yeah. >> Not really. Sorry. >> Not really. [laughter] >> A special town meeting at 6:30. >> Second. All in favor? All right. Cheers.