Scituate School Committee Meeting - 11-04-2024

001ready have a good meeting thank you all right we'll call the November 4th situate school committee meeting to order at 6:01 PM uh the situate school committee is committed to providing an environment of respect during meetings we ask all members to interact in a polight 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 part participate to commit to these standards to support and respect our community um we going to do a roll call vote since we have M rosi remote tonight um take a roll call vote here um Fenwick yes Gates yes brandan yes l w yes Orosi yes all righty okay let's start with a public comment seeing

002no one remote or in person we will jump forward to our student report Jane Ryan hello everyone thank you for having me tonight unfortunately Jonah can not make it this evening but I will be doing all the updates um so our first update is for athletics um congratulations to the golf team gr soccer team and football team for all winning League titles um our teams are on to their playoff games um this week and hopefully forward some other updates our homecoming dance is on Friday October 15th it was well attended and students had a great time thank you to all the students and staff who participated um congratulations to kayen leang for being recognized for her service leadership and patriotism by the cwood high school fac faculty kayen is now eligible for scholarship money through

003the Daughters of the American Revolution organization um also congratulations to athletic director Scott Payne for receiving the 20124 M AA William n game Junior sportsmanship award this is a this award was developed by the MIAA sportsmanship committee to honor an individual for distinguished leadership and promotion of sportsmanship throughout inter Scholastic a Athletics Scott was selected based upon his leadership service and tireless commitment to providing a special inter Scholastic athletic experience for students across the state so high school is very proud of him for receiv receiving this award a secondat congratulations to Mr Payne on behalf of the Massachusetts um inter interc Athletic Association for being selected the recipient of the 2024 Mia John Young distinguished service award um they want to share their sincere appreciation for the impact that Mr pain has had on students

004by helping them develop skills and values necessary for their lives um another award EXL student Claire peski was recognized for the MIAA with the Massachusetts woman athletics distinguished service award at Gillette Stadium CLA plays tennis UniFi track and UniFi basketball she also loves and the last UniFi basketball basketball game of the year was on Tuesday October 29th um they had an incredible season and want to thank everyone involved in making the team happen on to guidance news um last week we had college career Community day or two weeks ago on October 23rd um school counselors spent the morning working with all ninth grade students they used students use their mefa Pathways account to explore their own interest skills and values as they set goals for the school year and the counseling department F administered the

005digital PSATs to the ENT entire sophomore class in 130 Juniors um some benefits of taking the PSATs include um they help you prepare for the SAT um it connects you to free tutoring through Con Academy and connects students to colleges scholarships and more helps them explore career op options and based on PSAT scores students can um receive personal recommendations about what AP SC courses might be good fit for them um counselors have met with College Bound seniors to ensure application deadlines are being met as of October 30th 100 seniors have submitted to 741 colleges um sorry 741 college applications to 192 colleges um and our final counseling update College admissions Representatives visit are coming to a close this month we have hosted 24 reps this fall and many students have taken advantage of this wonderful

006opportunity um on on to some more student feedback have same survey from last week um I thought I would share some other responses so for tell us what you'd like about sit at high school two responses that stuck out to me were um my favorite we actually had a lot of shout outs to the teachers and staff at cart High School um one student said my favorite part about situ high is the teachers they are all very welcoming and create a friendly atmosphere for students to be themselves in um another um feedback in that category was I like the freedom we have during periods such Wind Block or lunch Wind Block is our like um roughly 40 minute period after lunch where we can meet the teachers or clubs or so whatever um so we

007are able to use that time for ourselves and allow ourselves to take a break during that time um for our any positive changes that could be made to the school um one student said that we could do something like lift after school for all grades lift is a program for freshmen where teachers help most freshman teachers meet after school I think Wednesdays for about an hour and help them with their homework um the student suggested that we expand that to the whole school and then another response was we could try to pitch SRA High School to more incoming students um because some students are lost to BC high and NDA I know straty the past but um they still are so please and then for our last category please share one activity we could do

008to improve School culture um one student said bring back back live music on Fridays I think that is Mr mlin with his guitar but and then another she said making Anonymous kind notes to teachers and students um each home base could get assignments to write notes to a certain teacher and or and give kind Anonymous notes out to everyone that was sweet um and then oh another student said more events between upper and lower classman seniors barely know freshman right now that's I we had the homecoming dance but yes that was so are updates for you guys any feedback or questions thank you great thank you so much you're welcome all right uh we have Dr RAB up next our uh leadership report budget update for FY 26 thank you madam chair members of the

009committee I wanted to start providing the committee an update on next year's budget starting now uh our financial forecast committee met on October 10th and as a committee is aware the financial forecast is a mechanism here in situ where members of the school committee members of the board of selectman advisory assessor's office Treasurer's Office Finance director's office and town and School administration are able to get together on a regular basis to look at the budget and make sure that we're on the same page in terms of budget situation for FY 26 right now the financial forecast is looking at an $895,000 increase for the schools and while that may seem like a lot of money on the surface it's a 1.8% increase and only a little more than half of what we received last year

010so last year we received closer to $1.7 million a 4% increase which was fantastic um this year we're only looking at about a 1.8% increase and that makes it particularly difficult in a year when we're negotiating with all six unions and I have to be very careful about what we say publicly because I don't want to compromise the negotiating position of the school committee but I do want to make it Crystal Clear um that next year is going to require a little bit of bell tightening and as we met in financial forecast there were three factors which caused the decrease the first is a change in federal and state law which we have very little control over on how health insurance is managed for our retirees um the bottom line is there's a $2,000 ceiling

011on the amount a retiree can contribute to their Medicare and as a result that's going to increase the amount that we have to contribute as a town second uh New Growth was very low for FY 25 so our new growth which is something that we have counted on in Prior years to make a little bit of extra money for our budget beyond the 2 and a half% levy was certified at 795,000 and we budget that at 800,000 so you might say to yourself well that's pretty good we budgeted for 800,000 it came in it 795 the problem is in the last three years New Growth has come in at 1.6 million 2.4 million and 1.9 million collectively or over the last three years so even though it came in just about what we budgeted it's

012not the kind of increases that we've enjoyed from one year to the next and so again it's another thing that's impacted our ability to increase the budget for 26 and third and less so uh sore Regional Vocational Technical High School took in five more students than it had the year before and we needed to account for that so what does all of this mean as I'm working with the principles and the department heads and administration um putting together the budget for next year it means that we're going to have to look at all our expense lines evaluate all the areas we might be able to save some money and look at our expenses um we know that our next large curriculum purchases are slated for history and English we did math this year um we

013might have to stretch those purchases out over two years over 26 and 27 um we're looking at all of our vacancies and we're looking at any savings that we can realize through retirements I think the important thing to remember is while this is not great news it's not panic mode we're nowhere near a situation where we need to panic we can maintain the staff that we have we're not looking to cut staff we're not looking to add staff either but we're not looking to cut staff we're just going to evaluate vacancies and adjust for retirements um we can still continue to run the schools um I think you know the way I explained it to the principles and what I meet with the department heads next week what I'm going to explain to them is

014it's a bit of belt tightening and strategic thinking to get through a tough year the situ Community committed one point 119.4 million to the new hatherley elementary school we want to honor that commitment um and stay focused on the education of our students I did a back of the napkin budget for FY 26 last week of course the back of my napkin is five spreadsheets but I did the back of the napkin budget and um you know we can balance it we can make it work um but it's just going to be require us to do some bell tightening and really be strategic in all of our thinking um I asked the question at Financial forecast you know was there any opportunity for additional Revenue come January and there are a little bit extra money

015we may get some extra money in Chapter 70 or unrestricted government Aid the health insurance once finalized might come down um but at the end of the day we might see an extra $200,000 split between the town and the schools so while I'll never reject an extra 150,000 or 160,000 it's not going to be you know a lot of extra money it'll certainly be helpful um but it's not going to be a lot of extra money so we need to plan um based on this 1.8% increase so I'll be keeping the committee fully informed as we as we go along but I just wanted to be clear um some of the increases that we've enjoyed in the past you know know last year was a 4.4% increase next year it's 1.8 we're not going to

016be seeing so I know Mr Gates you were there if you want to add anything feel free but I think that's you know kind of where we're at um no thank you very much for for for those comments I think it's really helpful I don't think we've ever really enjoyed comments this early on the budget cycle so it's really nice and I know the last couple years as you mentioned we haven't really had any pinches relative to belt tightening I guess so this is obviously different environment for us and it's nice to hear this early on in the cycle the only thing I would um um I guess add to is that uh Dr RAB mentioned new growth and I think think it's important for people understand what new growth is um it's gen and

017I'm not an expert it but generally think of it as new houses that are being built um that weren't taxed in the prior year but will be taxed upon in the current year and or major Renovations of homes that um that are being torn down and rebuilt um so I think it's an it's an interesting concept because um as a town we want to increase our tax revenue but we also want to keep the small town field theoretically um so we have it this this difficult balance to make and I think just we're seeing it across the country that with you know interest rates higher economy may be um you know changing that we just don't have that new growth that we have enjoyed in the past I think also to some small degree they

018changed the definition of New Growth um I think if you if you added a deck or redid your kitchen I think technically that was added to our new growth number as well um for the current year or going forward those no longer renovation small Renovations are going to be considered New Growth so um it is a big impact as Dr R said it was we were 1.6 million last year or the year before then this year it's roughly half of that so um it is a signific an impact um on our on our budget but also from the town side as well but I appreciate your comments I I feel better hearing that from you that it is going to be some belt hting but nothing dramatic as a this point uh Dr just a

019quick question so I'm just curious if you know when the next sort of Health Point is I feel like you once mentioned maybe January or so for sort of just a next check in in the cycle of the budget or yes exactly so January is when Chapter 70 and unrestricted government Aid come out on the Cherry sheets you might heard them reflected that way it's also when they finalize our health insurance rates for FY 26 so both of those things happen in January I would anticipate uh Mrs Hal reconvening the financial forecast sometime around the end of January okay thanks questions thank you Dr AB I was wondering if you could give um like an example of how the new health law about Medicare and retirees in um contribution like like a scenario for example

020of how that affects our budget sure so retirees and I I might read directly from Mrs Hal's comments because she did give a little bit more detail um in terms of exactly how that happens but basically what she said is when people are on Medicare their part a deductible has increased by 4.9% and the part B deductible has increased by 7.9% raising the reimbursement rates for outpatient services as part of the inflation reduction act and all retiree plans have this $2,000 out of-pocket member maximum so all retirees who have insurance who retired as employees of the town the town still contributes a bit to their health insurance and up until now there hasn't been a cap on how much the retiree could actually contribute but because Medicare part A was increased by 4.9% and Part

021B by 7.9% that's far in excess of what we usually see for increases and they so they increased the premium and they capped the amount that the retiree could actually contribute in order to help the retirees you know um so both of those things happening together are make it making it impossible to keep the health insurance the way it was um and so that's the primary reason for the change um the impact to individuals who are retired is that there's a $22,000 cap on how much that they can contribute but that increases the amount the town has to kick in in order to maintain that insurance um I can get some more information but that's the basics of what Mrs Holt explained when she when she told us about it so do we have um

022do we know is it like a FL flat amount that we're expected to cover or is it going to fluctuate between retirees like depending on what they get for care I believe it's pretty much the same per retire but let me do a little bit of research I want to be able to answer that confidently okay I was just curious if you know we knew how much that was going to cost us or if that's like a moving Target we know for next year for sure beyond that I'm not sure thank you anybody else all right thank you Dr R sorry Dr boski want to check in with you I'm good Al righty uh thank you we'll move forward with our celebrate student learning Megan Gregory and Heather Allen there so H good evening I

023just wanted to provide a little bit of context for this section so we're excited to present our celebrations of student learning we wanted to start with our elementary curriculum coordinators uh Megan GRE Gregory and Heather Allen they're going to share with us on the heels of our mcast and accountability presentation and the superintendent goals a little bit about more information about benchmarking how we use use early literacy uh screening data and how that informs our our wind groups uh intervention and progress monitoring so they put together a few slides to to share that information um so without further Ado I'll project these and then they can present that weird gr BL yeah is it okay you're not going to miss anything a new mystery feature um all right so we um as Brian said we're

024going to fill you in on sort of the benchmarking process at the elementary U level and then how that helps um helps us plan out our wind groups and our wind access so here are our core programs um for ELA and math our Core math program is um Eureka which we fully adopted in 2020 which strange time but we did it and great we're still sticking with it it's been great and then um our supplemental program that we're using now is stmath and we um adopted that in 22 um and then on the literacy side we adopted my view in 2022 we're in our third year of implementation as our core literature-based um program for building knowledge and building critical reading skills um K to2 we you supplement with foundations for our foundational skills thinking

025about phics and explicitly um teaching uh our youngest kids how to read using an evidence-based um method along with um common language and common instructional approach uh based on the science of reading I didn't put it up here because it's just two grade levels but we also use um hegerty for K And1 which is phic awareness which is a critical precursor for um for learn CH so we make sure we um have all those pieces in place for our students and Foundations was adopted in uh 2021 uh Integrity actually was in 2020 so the same f um so for Arc 5 benchmarking all of our students are assessed three times a year in math and literacy we have a one-on-one interview based assessment both for Math and Ela and then we have a computer adaptive

026assessments um for grades two to five so for the um interview based assessment for math we use the universal screener for number sense and that's for grades 8 to four um this is a one-on-one um interview the students are sitting down they don't have to write anything it's really just a conversation um so the teacher gets a really good understanding of what the students can do and it's pretty low pressure and like kids aren't stressed because they just feel like they're having a conversation a lot of kids are excited about it because they can sort of talk about it and they they feel like there's no wrong answer um which is great um and then for on the literacy side we have Dibbles which stands for dynamic indicators and basic early literacy skills they're one

027minute probes all oral um that were either um asking students to tell us the sounds that they hear in something or presenting text and having the students read to us for one minute um same kind of thing it's low pressure low stakes um we we are dip sticking um these early literacy skills that are the most predictive in learning to read so we know if students are are able to um segment words segment pontings and words we know if they are able to read nonsense words but they're going to be more um uh skilled in in Reading as they move up um in the grade level so these are a little one minute probes that really um focus on the most predictive skills um for reading so that we know if kids don't have those

028skills they don't have the building blocks that they need to be successful so that we know um exactly which um which skills to focus on an instruction and then our computer adaptive assessment we um we used start math and start reading for students in grades two to five um this is computer-based I mean it's pretty yeah and this is the more global view of it instead of um having individual skills like for reading it's students read something and understand it so this is the end goal this is what we want kids to do um it's highly correlated to mcast we're actually using the um mcast correlations this year to to make some predictions about you know where students will um will fall so that we um have kind of like an early red flag about

029which students we to focus on and we they've had star reading for a very long time not last year was our first year first star math the re reason behind it is because one we wanted um continuity and ease of use for teachers but also for students so they're used to the platform and we're not so much assessing their Tech skills but their math skills because they're familiar with the platform um they can navigate it easily and also so teachers um aren't going to a bunch of different places for these benchmarks so um we did a good amount of research we piloted um and this is what we landed on for lots of different reasons and we um were happy with the choice it's been great are these administered by classroom teachers or is this

030through Reading and math Specialists that that's a great question that's a great segue um so here is our um our data cycle so the first part um underneath the very top of that it says assess that's being walked out so the first step in our cycle um is assess our student so um whether we're in the benchmarking cycle it's it goes through all the same phases the benchmarking cycle um is just a a longer cycle longer amount of time so the first step is going to be assess um so the math and literacy Specialists work together to create um an assessment schedule and they're going to coordinate with the classroom teacher special Educators um to create a plan and what we started three years ago or four years ago um as having a group of

031teachers so usually the classroom teacher math specialist literacy specialist and special educator go into the classroom at the same time um and we have a substitute cover the class so you're pulling out students so everyone's being tested at once um so there minimized disruptions for the class so everyone's going in and it also gives um all teachers a chance to work with students and really understand their their profile and what are their needs what are their their learning styles um so it sort of all hands on De in terms of The Benchmark um process that no I was just saying it you know all in all when you have all those teachers going into a class room it's really only about an hour um three times a year so it's not we're taking a lot

032of time out learning to pull each kid out individually with you know one or two people um the star assessments the computer adaptive assessments are administered by by teachers um all the teachers last year were um trained when we adopted starm math and then all new teachers this year um got an additional training at the beginning of the school year for um how to use it how to use the platform and how to look at the data um so then the next step is analyze so we have um data meetings so the specialist will input The Benchmark data into shared data sheets and then they're going to begin looking for Trends um they're going to ident identify um students areas of strength and areas of need and then they have a grade level data meeting

033that's run by math and literacy specialist um they have these big data meetings Benchmark data meetings um three times a year but they'll have smaller more informal ones all throughout the year led by Specialists so there during that phase you're going to analyze where um what what are the groups of students put um kiddos into groups with similar Focus areas um and that's when your groupings are going to happen during those data meetings you're going to have really deep conversations um so it's going to bring in Benchmark data but also teachers will talk about classroom data and you're really talking about the whole student in these meetings and then you're going to group them up into similar um into similar needs and then what we have for the plan part is we're identifying instructional Focus

034areas for every student so we're saying um you know know this group of kids uh is still working on identifying their letters and this group of kids is ready to start reading words and this group of kids can can start reading um um some longer text at this point so we're identifying those instructional Focus areas that are based in skills um so that we can say um during our wi group we're identifying what each student is working on um based on the based on the data um and and like profiles of students so that um about what each of those students needs to move forward and where see your math um which Cycles up into teaching breaking those kids into those wind groups where the um the smallest groups um are those um kids who

035are the most needy and are um being taken by our literacy and math Specialists who have the most specialized knowledge about how to um support those students and how to you know create um instructional plans that are really tailored to kids who are struggling um and then um the kids who um might be some kids are are taken by um special Educators um to work on IEP goals um and then um we have um classroom teachers taking other groups of students who might have specific um instructional goals that they have to work on as well and some kids who are working on enrichment opportunities too so we kind of have the range of thinking about um what are goals for each of these groups of kids and then taking a look in those data meetings

036about what are the materials that we have to support each of these last year um on the literacy side we worked a little bit on making um a win menu saying okay you have a kid you have a group of kids who need help with fluency here are three different resources that you can go to for third grade kids who needy so helping streamline for teachers where to go and how to find it and what that instruction might look like there's a document similar to that for maap as well um tied to standards and tied to um the different modules for Eureka so teachers can go there and look and pull things for small group instruction as well as blng groups but they're very targeted to standards this good question to on this slide so

037just for frame of reference what does time look like for this so how much time is spent on data meetings in a three times a year cycle or you know our teachers involved in that as well so they're out of the classroom so now we need coverage there or are they not involved and then with when groups how often are they meeting yeah great question so for data meetings three times a year it does not impact time on learning it's during their regular um grade level meetings um so it just takes place in one of their weekly grade level meetings um math Specialists come prepare I always say math I'm sorry specialist math and literacy Specialists um come prepared typically with the data ready to go a lot of times they'll have a slide deck

038they'll present the data sort of trends that they're seeing and ask if teachers are also seeing the same Trends they'll solicit sort of teacher input what are you seeing in the classroom and from that data meeting during grade level time they create their wi groups um um no for the yeah it's it's not taking any time and it's similar from when we're talking about like the benchmarking process is when we're talking about the progress monitoring process when Specialists have um progress monitoring data to bring we typically don't want to jump and make decisions after we have you know one data point we want a couple of data points to to make some decisions about going through this cycle again before the next Benchmark period saying here's the data we have maybe this is going well

039we want to keep doing this with this student or maybe it's it's not going well we have to move back um and fill in some gaps or the students rocking it we can move them into a different group so um we can go through this entire cycle again not just those three times a year but um in between those times also when we're taking our progress monitoring data we typically progress monitor the students who are below Benchmark so we're really paying close attention to those kids who didn't make Benchmark at each um uh Benchmark perod period and monitoring their progress to see is what we're doing working and do we have to change it or can we is is this things are going well we keep um keep on the course so I have go

040ahead Mar go I had a quick question um I was just curious how many specialists we have for literacy and math in the district I'm so glad you asked so we have two literacy specialists in every building and one math specialist in every building so each building has their own little team okay yeah thank you it would be great if there were ma in every right after Tom justed yeah and do they specialize like primary and upper grades or do they sort of just do what's needed at each school for the for sorry I guess for The Literacy for literacy yeah [Music] um when I first started we uh and I was a Le specialist at Jenkins it was there was a primary and a and a secondary I mean a primary and an intermediate

041um we've kind of found especially starting when that it's a lot more effective when you have two people going into a classroom so when you're talking about supporting um you know first grade during wi typically both the um first Specialists are in during that time they do sometimes separate for I'll go to the um K12 meetings you go to the 3 four five meetings just because of bandwidth they can't be in every meeting all the time so the ratio of their meeting time versus their time of students is approximately 5050 or so for you know attending all the grade level meetings weekly for each grade so typically like for reading specialist they're dividing that up so they're attending three and they're not attending them every week they're attending them every other week because math Specialists

042will go to one week the 3D specialist will next yeah so it's about every other yeah so three hours a you know a little bit more it's you know about 40 minutes so each and three every other how long do we have this model of specialists in each building has it been a really long time or is it kind of is it newer the number of Specialists just the idea of having them we have we have we always had them I have prating you guys 14 years I one of the two reading specialist when I was hired so for yeah a long time okay I was just curious so so I have a question it's related to time but a little bit different and so what I'm hearing when I talk to families is first

043of all they're so happy that you're doing all of this work right that you're collecting this data you're analyzing it they love to see the team the collaboration the question that I hear over and over again from family families is the worry around time to intervention so for example I met with a a family a couple of weeks ago and their child has been below Benchmark for a couple of years and so the question is what sort of best practice around this isn't working we we really need to change gears so that this child has a chance to succeed they just feel like it's taking so long to move through the intervention process I'm just wondering like how do we how do we sort of shorten that time so that that we're really getting those

044kids to move off of those you know not um not meeting expectations so I guess I'm just need some clarification so you're talking about the T the time that students are in an intervention or yeah so like so for example if you look at mcast data or you look at the Dibbles with a family they can see that their child isn't making a lot of movement there's not a lot of progress right and so the meetings are are we know this person needs this attention we're trying this and it's not working as well we're going to keep trying this and doing this thing and so I'm just wondering like what do you do in that situation because it feels like we have the data that's telling us the child's not progressing and so does this

045mean they need an IEP does this like I'm just wondering like what are what are sort of the tools in your toolkit and best practices around how do we help this child progress I think that's what I'm asking if that makes sense yep um so one tool in the toolkit would be you know going through a cycle of intervention and it's um you know we're we're using evidence-based practices and the student isn't making progress and that's a point when um a student might be referred to um the uh student support team and that team takes a look and thinks about um if there needs to be a refer to special education um it also might be thinking about changing the intervention and so when we're thinking about this cycle and looking at those kids who

046aren't making progress um thinking about you know what are we doing and the tools that we kind of have um are can we increase the frequency um of the intervention with the student can we decrease the group size um with this student or can we change the approach that we're using with this student so those are the kind of the three parts that we take a look at um when we're talking about um going through this data cycle and looking at um data that maybe isn't moving yeah is there any cross collaboration or any benefit to cross collaboration across the elementary school like do they do that or are they really in their own School you talking about the Specialists yes sorry yes yeah so um math Specialists meet once a month and literacy Specialists

047need once a month as well okay and this is a big focus of that what's what's happening in when in benchmarking process okay thanks um and then so our next steps um for5 and Beyond um so we started on here um we put that I know I think um Ryan be is probably talk to you a little bit about the S3 Academy the student support Academy that they piloted starting last year at Gates Jenkins is piloting this year um Heather and I are a part of those meetings so that we can think about how the whole child approach of S3 can be um merged into what we do um with our benchmarking process because we don't want to make things additive for teachers or for students um or for a school but how can we

048um think about how we can blend these two together we're very very new at this I think we've gone to two meetings so far so we don't have a ton of information right yet we're still asking a lot of questions and trying to figure out what that might look like um The Next Step also Brave Buble collaboration structures um so a lot of feedback we've received from teachers um was that during Co we had once a week all Cross grade or cross District Cross or same grade cross District would me um and they would have a lot of time to just chat what's working well for you what are you doing um for the magu or how is eure working with this module so having those that time to collaborate and really talk about best

049practices so we are doing our best to bring it back um within the schedule that we have so tomorrow um for grades 2 to5 in the ECC during our PD day that's a lot of both of the work that's going to happen tomorrow um um so grades are going to have a full day to work together and um guide that work um and we're hoping moving forward we can continue that also we looked at the specialist schedules um math and um literacy Specialists and thinking about can they attend these grade level meetings because they have this wealth of knowledge and making sure they're bringing it to classroom teachers and sharing um what they're learning about students in these wind groups making sure that they have that t to collaborate so making sure that Specialists are

050able to attend those um twice a month is typically what most School sometimes once a month just to make sure that there's that communication between the classro teachers and Specialists um the next thing we're thinking about um is the parent reports for Dibbles and star and Aspen currently after a benchmark period uh an email goes out you can check your um students Benchmark achievement and assment it tells you if the students are um below or approaching or at or above um I talked to Steve toos this morning and he is amazing and um we are going to try and upload the actual parent reports for the January um Benchmark he kind of gave it a go with the mcast parent reports and it worked so that was our guinea pig um and so we'll be

051able to upload those um to the portal so that parents can see the actual report and the breakdown of um each of those sub tests for store this is not a this is not a question for the the the the folks presenting bill this is a question for you is there any way to make it so that Aspen looks nicer on our phones because otherwise it's like you can't zoom in you can't see it you have to go to your computer so that's just something for your very long to-do list thank you thank seems like we always have a long list for yeah I just I just gave up and started opening on my laptop it's way easier same here but we can make it known because I'm sure we're not the only School District

052dealing with that so no I do the same but my high schooler does know how to do it on her phone somehow put it on desktop you but it's like I think well I don't think my eyes too small uh will those reports be available no matter where a child falls on the okay is that separate from when you were saying about the grade level collaboration structures and all that is that separate from math and literacy councils so this data meetings Council and grade level collaboration kind of horizontally those are three separate okay what is literacy and math Council it's the math the literacy specialist in Megan is Literacy Council and sometimes principles pop in when they have time um and math council is math specialist in myself is there an instructional leadership team also

053at the elementary level that teachers participate in does everyone participate in that or just teachers who volunteer sign out yeah it's a it's a stien in position at each Elementary School I have a question about the um the assessments and you said they take about like a minute um the the DBL the dibles a minute for each of the pros yes and how many so how many it depends on what grade level you're in it's about four um K to four it sometimes if like if you're testing a kindergarten student and they they don't um can't identify letters we're not going to go on to the next one ask you to start reading words because they don't have the letters and vice versa when you're in the upper grades if kids are reading um really

054fluently we're not going to go back and ask them to start reading individual words so it depends sometimes on how there's a gating measure on how they do on the first um the first assessment if we might not go forward or back with those kids um but it's about a total of 4 okay did you feel that that's enough time to get a good picture of where the the students are at it's a great screening it's a great screener and so if kids do well on that screener we're pretty confident that they're um you know they're doing well we'll get we'll get information from the teacher to verify that if kids don't do well on that screener it's it's a flag for us to do some working so we don't end it right there we'll

055say Okay um this student really had difficulty with um phone name segmentation maybe we'll do um phonological awareness test to learn a little bit more about what they need to work on is it they don't have you know Beginning Sounds yet is it they don't have any sound like we'll do some digging for those kids that we're focusing on an intervention and when you do the um the star math and reading tests uh two to five do you look back at the kindergarten like the K to four or the when the test the assessments they take when they're younger and say oh this child isn't where I thought they should or you know maybe they're better than you thought guess you do that so we have um data sheets homegrown which leads us to our

056next um data sheets that combine from year to year so you can look at student progress so we usually have their mcast score we'll have benchmark assessments from the prior year their current year Benchmark um so it's a data sheet that really houses all of their data points we can look at sort of a a big picture longitudinal picture of this is making me think of when you have your kids with the doctor and they're like on that yes like that yes when you actually pull up a Dibbles report that's what it looks like and it goes from kindergarten all the way yes thank you um but that is our next um our next bullet on here is um we're looking into a a data platform that can house all of this data instead of

057us entering um you know individual data points into a Google spreadsheet that that is sounds yeah it's it's it's just there you know you can make a mistake if you you know type one number wrong and we've had some you can catch it but we'll say oh I could how could this kindergartener you know read 300 words a minute I don't think that was was 30 yeah so we're looking into something that can house all that data and um give us more usual reports right now Dibbles and star give us um reports that that can show longitudinal that can organize the data in more sensible ways and so we're looking for ways to do that um cross um Dibbles and star and Universal screener instead of having to go to three different places to pull

058the data from or right now we get putting all that data together in a home reg and then just Ideal World additional Personnel for supporting when you think of a true win model you want every student in a small group um if you only have the classroom teacher and a literacy or math specialist so there's if a specialist is taking a small group the classroom teacher is left to manage either a big group or manage three different wi groups at once so thinking about what can we do um to support all of those wi groups whether it's um borrowing paas or just moving Personnel around during wind time so getting creative um about making it really all f that for supporting and for that we've also talked about the need for professional development for other

059people who are supporting students during that time and how can we support all the Educators who are helping kids during um I love all your next steps I think these are all exactly right and I'm excited about the parent reports um I think that'll be really helpful for a lot of families um I was curious about whether you guys feel like The Benchmark data that we're collecting throughout the year um is reflected in our mcast course do you feel like they like when you see mcast you're like oh yeah this is what we thought or are you surprised I think for the most part they I mean once in a while of course you're going to have a kiddo who exceeds your expectations or sort of didn't live up to them um but those are

060a few outliers I think for the most part um a very good indicator would you and I had another quick follow up to your question that yeah so with that so given that we're we see sort of a large group of sort of partially meeting or not quite or approaching and per what Carrie shared about you know kids sort of not quite getting into that steady stable confidence Zone what is what do you need you know you you guys have the sort of bird's eye view to know what goes on at the four schools is there are there elements in one that you feel like would be successful at another so what are what do we need to get kids to to get out of that that sort of underlying Zone that we're just not

061sort of seeing that growth I mean I think one of the the big parts of that is those that grade level collaboration across schools um which we haven't had um in a couple of years we're really excited for tomorrow to be able to have that because I think when you're one teacher or one team of two or three teachers working in isolation you can only get so much done but when you um you know have 12 teachers across a grade level there's just a larger knowledge Bank to draw from and there's more experience and more ideas and I made this and I'm going to make this and so everybody's not Reinventing the Wheel from the beginning each time um I think that having that opportunity to collaborate with colleagues and bounce ideas off of each

062other is really really critical so we're very excited yeah so have that tomorrow I think in addition to that one of the things for fifth grade specifically is departmentalizing we've seen how well Jenkins did with their model um and their data reflects that like if you're goinging in on one um content area and you're digging in really well like it reflects work so making sure that all four elementary schools are are doing that I think we're GNA we're going to see that for fifth grade and thinking specifically for the SDM Cass I think we're it's GNA um we're going to see the benefit of it for the crossgrade collaboration are you able to sort of structure that so that you can identify like hey these people are really good at this thing can you you

063know be prepared to share this are you able to kind of do you feel like you're able to do that so this is the first one in a long time okay um so the goal for tomorrow is really thinking about tier one instruction we feel like we've sort of nailed down um Ela and Ma but we want to make sure that um science and social studies are integrated into those because what we're finding is that the day is really short and we're not able to integrate science social studies like we like we want this is their opportunity um to check in like how is science being brought into laa or how are how is that writing being brought into social studies um so the focus for them for tomorrow because we we know that these

064are going to lead to other conversations which is great but the focus is going to be how are we integrating science ins um into Ela and math um to not have everything so siloed so that's the goal for tomorrow I think we will get there and that that's the goal for sure um but with being the first time in such a long time um thank you I've been thinking how to ask this question I'm not quite sure the most appropriate way but I'm going to ask it anyways um like all of us you know have our day jobs and we have our own stressors of like oh like worried about this or whatever like what what one thing are you guys worried about about this like what keeps you up at night science I think

065the day is so short and the ele level and specifically keyed to they need to learn how to read so when you're really heavily focused on that what is getting pushed science is science taught in the yeah one and two as well yeah it starts in K okay um and the teachers are incredible and they're really doing the best they can but we want to make sure that's why the goal for tomorrow is how are we integrating it because we need to teach them we need to teach the kiddos how to read and write but I really them to have science because as we know the s m it's not just about M we want to create lifelong Learners um and we want to kids that are excited about science and the world around them

066um but we need them to hold on to it so just reading a story is not going to get them so getting them Hands-On activities for science that's what keeps me up the night how can we how can we have them how can we build time into our schedule um they don't have the answer because we need them reading especially I'm think about the little but that's and but I'm like as the literacy side of this I complete agreement because you know one side of when we think about reading rope is teaching kids phonics and how to decode words the other side is the comprehension side and kids need to have World Knowledge to be able to understand what they read and if kids don't have World Knowledge if kids don't have science and social

067studies they're not going to have great comprehension because you have to have background knowledge to be able to comprehend something you can't just be able to to Rattle off words um so that's a focus for um for me too is that we know that proficient readers have a lot of background knowledge and that putting um putting science socially on the back burner in favor of focusing more on Ela backfires because you're not going to have anything to draw when they reading something thank no it's interesting you said I I didn't know to expect but I think that that's help one I would say um anecdotally from my child's experience that you kind of hit on exactly what is caught up to them now as the is the they're great readers phonetically but the comprehension piece

068is is a challenge because they missed what exactly you just mentioned back yeah yeah and that that is um you know that was one of the big drivers of of purchasing my view was that we want to make sure that you know my view is taught in in units that are knowledge based and so there's six weeks focused on one piece of knowledge and so it's not just you know reading a book here a book there a book here and just kind of getting the sing of things but saying we really want kids to focus for an entire unit on um one topic and really get to know the vocabulary from that topic um ask good questions about that topic and have a deep knowledge and not just a service knowledge so it be something

069like worms like you would teach an early Elementary student something about worms and then that would be kind of your science topic that provides some background knowledge and it also allow you to work on math and the LA is that something is that what you're talking about that's that's the goal and that's what we're hoping to work on tomorrow is talking about um you know in third grade one of the units is you know um about animals and in science they work on animal the life cycle and how can we put those together so that we can work smarter and not harder great thank you this good um I was just curious about writing so it does my view include writing instruction it does and how is writing assessed outside of mcast or kind of

070teacher created assessments is there any type of benchmarking for writing so we have a common common rubrics that we um have been using but don't have a formal um like a formalized benchmark writing we actually um have had it and when Ryan um was the department chair um and we have not um that's definitely an area growth for us of thinking about the Benchmark writing that's what keeps me up at night actually it's just like because I know that that's just it's like part of the whole thing but it also is one of those things that it's kind of easy to leave behind and it was mentioned you know during thecast presentation as an area of weakness and it is honestly um and so I just you know I know we have the new my

071view and that took time to get people up and running on but you know the writing piece is something yes feels really important it is it's critical and it's um it's definitely now that people are feeling more comfortable with using um my VI as a tool like digging into you know what does the instruction look like and what do those assessments look like throughout the units my question was just like how do the teachers feel about It's seems like a lot to so they're will fifth grade be different because of the departmentalization so that would look a little different with the science piece than the younger grades would so is this a big shift for them to have to sort of Now integrate science into those other subject areas or I don't think it's a

072big shift I think it will be helpful to them because um they're always been teaching all of the the content areas anyway and it's just getting creative with your time um so I don't I don't think that anyone is like losing sleep over it I think they're just excited to sort of have the conversation what are you doing and like how are you bringing this in um get creative with their time to make sure that they can get everything in so we recognize that there are not enough hours the day for teachers for everything they're doing right now MOSI anything to add before okay thank you guys so much all right uh school committee goals dry and Miss benwick I will want me to share screen Maria or um somebody have them Nicole does I

073do I can okay great um while Nicole's getting that I can just kind of remind everyone of the process so we wanted to um we looked at The District's template for some of the goals that have been happening at the district level because we feel like it's important that our goals are in the same vein we don't want to come out of left field with something that um the district isn't doing because that's going to make it very hard for us to meet our goals um and also we agree that the things that the district has identified are also really important um for us and so that's kind of was our starting point um and so um The Retreat too Maria it might be worth noting that we did a brainstorming session at our Retreat

074so we've been even though we're only presenting the first week of November we've been thinking about these and talking about them for a while and then waiting for Bill to present his so as you said we could align them so yes that is true and we had such a large brainstorm at The Retreat that we've ended up with four but we also realize that not we don't need to think of these necessarily as annual in the same way that you know bill has the freedom to sort of think a little bit bigger than that because it's very unlikely that we're going to feel like oh yes slam dunk we did that and we're done um in in in a year so um we we also were giving ourselves some freedom to sort of think of

075these as not necessarily being like you know we have to do the once um so maybe we can just kind of uh rotate I can start with this first one which is about data so um one of the things that we talked about last time we were talking about this was just trying to think about how we can ask the most useful questions and draw the best conclusions possible from when we have data shared with us and there's a lot to learn about education K K12 data there's we just heard a lot of examples to you know there's mcast there's AP scores we are constantly hearing from a lot of different data sources um and so one of the things we thought about was just you know strengthening our our ability to do that to

076look at the data interpret it at the right level and ask the right kind of questions it's not like too too tiny but also not missing the mark completely um and so we thought that one way we could think about this was to initiate a data subcommittee of us um and that that group would be able to kind of further articulate and Define its charge u meaning like we think this is a good idea but we're not we didn't feel comfortable in saying this is exactly what the data committee would do we think that we should let a couple of people explore that and come up with you know what feels right um and so our timeline for that would be initiating that by January articulating its charge by March um and then by June

077we were hoping that that data subcommittee would be able to Pro provide a minimum of two either like little trainings or resources to the whole group that would support our own um data literacy so Carrie do you want to add anything no I just appreciated that you reminded everybody that this is something that we think is important and we don't have the final answer and so this year is really figuring those pieces out because I think the other piece that's inherent in the benchmarks or even in the description is the collaboration so what does it look like for our data subcommittee to collaborate with the district and be supportive um and also Elevate our own knowledge to ask better questions so all of those things need to be figured out so just a question sort

078of um in some research that I've done over the years just looking at what other or even at some of these conferences or something it's really interesting and even Janice and I were just sharing about another district and they're different process it's interesting how other towns and cities have completely different approaches to everything I'm wondering if anyone else has a data subcommittee if they do and it's called something else even or if it's like an element of some other component or you know who knows that's that's happening out there do we know that yet or no we can ask it like some have communication subcommittees and you know it's like when you see on different school websites under that school committee tab or something like it's interesting to know how how they break down their

079groups and sub commit yeah the reason we suggested that approach of a subcommittee was just that it feels like we never have enough time and in these settings towards like all five of us it's just hard really to get much done like we really need to like be able to sit down and sit with a computer and be like okay this is what we need and I and so I don't know another structure that would allow us to do that that's you know so I don't know that it has to necessarily be this but that felt like right thing because it matched up what we felt like needed to happen which is just like rolling up our sleeves and spending some time um okay but we can ask it there's others yeah there might be

080we can be at the inaugural yeah you can present on it years well and I think the other thing that I mean Maria made the point of sort of is this question small or are we missing the mark right I think the thing we want to remember is we're all we we all have uh students in the district and so we have a parent hat and a school committee hat and so what can we do to even offer to folks who present like these are the questions that come up for us as parents maybe you address these in the presentation right away so then we like don't have to have that conversation we get to the next level of questions which is also important right so like I think it can be helpful to our

081presenters to sort of know what's on the minds of you know not just our school committee identity but also as as families in the district so yeah back to the summer Retreat I think you know helping to give guidance to people who come to present was definitely one of our you know what we were thinking about when we thought of this because we don't want to waste anyone's time we want people to come in feeling confident about what they're presenting and that they're going to give us what we need to know and that we then can sort of receive that information and be like oh yes this is what we needed to know thank you now we know it um and so I think that's also one of the factors that we were thinking about

082Mak sense anyse right to you want to take this one Carrie sure um so we thought it was really important and we collaborated with Bill of course on this one as you know we've had the equity audit our uh group in the district has combed over that Equity audit and identified you know items goals for that group and so we thought as a committee we wanted to be supportive of that work and also expand it for ourselves so I mean you can read you can read the goal um but just to you know progress in these Dei initiatives and we really want to be able to give a good sense to the community RIT large of how we're using resources time and attention I think what's interesting is that this goal is actually very related

083to the data goal which is like what do outcomes around Dei look like right like all this amazing work that J and the lit teams and the students and the teachers are doing how do we show success I mean we require the principles we require our Math teachers and science teachers to show outcomes so what does it look like to think about outcomes for Dei to help that progress so you know we gave some benchmarks um develop a system to track that progress um as outlined in the Equity audit Gathering more information about who's being served right like who's who's really benefiting who's loving this who has ideas about how we can expand this um you know adopt the district developed Equity tools so what can we as a school committee do to support that

084work um and hopefully by January I have some clarity I'm going to be meeting with Jam in November um just to figure out sort of again how do we best support J his team and the work because I think um that's something that at least I don't have Clarity on so I'm looking forward to to learning more so Maria anything to add there um no I don't think [Music] so well I think it's good I think it from our level sort of aims to definitely sort of clarify things and I that's always going to be good to to sort of support the work and yeah good okay um we can go on to number three so this was something we also have been talking about a lot which is just kind of this concept of

085having cried in our schools and uh lacking a local newspaper and other channels aside from social media it can feel hard to get the word out about all the great things that are happening in our schools in our district and I think we feel like we are lucky to have a front row seat to knowing all of the awesome stuff that's going on um but how can we think about how to sh sh that more broadly with the community and so um we thought that we could think about this on a monthly basis so in most months we will have had two meetings um we could think about this as something that maybe rotates through the five of us or again maybe it's like two people per month or something and we come up with

086a couple of you know points of Pride things that we learned about that we think the community should be more aware of like I think even about you know um when the model un team came and presented the kids were obviously extremely persuasive um very eloquent and it was really neat to learn about the scenarios that they're working on in those conferences like that's very sophisticated and I think that's so cool and I think the whole Community should be like wow we have this awesome thing you know um and so that's just one example but there are many um and so we thought that one of the things we could do is identify at least two mechanisms for sharing these so we have to first you know commit to identifying them but then we have

087to think how will we get these out into the world so we thought um you know we used to do the school committee updates maybe we somehow change that into something that is more focused on this um there's obviously social media um there are the town updates I know the video version of that is very popular um with some people in town they really watch that um and so that could be a way if we wrote take turns and you know this month it's so and so's turn to go and share um that could be something that we want to do um or maybe even there's a chunk of time than our existing meetings I'm not I mean that might not reach the Right audience um some people watch the recordings to that maybe some

088people but like you know beyond who's logged into the app you know beyond who's logging into YouTube to watch like how do we sort of think more broadly um was I think where we were going with this so we thought we could treat this maybe as a pilot if we aim to start doing it in January we can reassess in June and think like is this working was it ton of work work that we don't have time for you know maybe but we thought it was at least worth giving that a shot so again this is something that came out of our retreat in the summer do you think we would have it as a sort of recurring uh agenda item even just to sort we sort of used to informally like you know when

089the student updates were Happ I was thinking about credit for life and yeah participating in that I didn't I think this is good for accountability because like that was a great experience and I love that event it's so positive it's so awesome for the kids it's just great all around but without being pushed to sort of formally maybe even put together a few words I don't think I would necessarily I could share out impr promp too but it feels more appropriate and giving the respect to that the hard work of you know yeah everyone Greg and I don't think we have to overthink it like I think you know each month if we can say come up with two or yeah three you know small examples yeah and actually commit to putting something together a

090little mini write up because I just think I don't know I just I know yeah no newspaper it's a hard it's hard it's hard but I I think we have a lot to be proud of I do too I love that I think it's great talk to Miss H about the she has the situation oh yeah situation give us a corner yeah I think I think I I just want to find ways also to reach people who are not necessarily in the schools parents who are newer who have kids that are little and will be here or community members who are older and their kids went through the system a number of years ago I think those feel like really important audiences that are least likely to know kind of like what's going on agree

091I like this do you think we need a subcommittee almost in trying to over subcommittee but how you done without a subcommittee that I don't understand sub committee for points of Pride yeah I don't I mean do we just make a schedule and people sign up yeah I think we I don't think we want to like I mean I'll do what the group wants that feels that feels excessive to me but we do need someone to like take the first step of like organizing this and I I I don't know how we would get on that video message so that's S no wait are you talking the video like the weekly update yeah so well there's a little bit of history that we were we used to we used to be on that okay let's

092bring it back well we have to ask Seth right I me no you don't have to ask se you have to ask uh J or the select board yeah okay we I mean I even I mean I even think in a pilot year if we instantiated this into our agenda and then did something on I'm just saying like I think we could think about lwh hanging fruit to sort of get it to be routinized and then sort of start building it out right like what's the point of Bride and what makes it a point of Pride like those are the two questions I I thought of right so like just making it I just think not having to work too hard is gonna make it easier for us to do it yep I agree I

093do think there's some bigger questions in here about like social media and the ethics piece and you know there's opinions for mask and all that like should we or shouldn't we be utilizing that you know and it's totally unfortunately that's the easiest way to reach people no I know so yes I like the low hanging fruit easy for us to do that and I think there's maybe that's something that comes from that at some point but yeah yeah so maybe we start by just inserting it into the agenda and then we can kind of yeah figure it out okay I mean we could also ask Jim I I love the idea of doing the video maybe we do I think he does it every week with the select board isn't that right yeah do it

094weekly yeah so we could do we could ask for time once a month right so weate it and do it I'm just saying like if that's I would to me that's a great like I think that would be I work and it me and it does connect connect with people who may not necessary it's a different group so it would be important absolutely I think they get good viewership on that too pretty decent I think fantastic all right goal four yeah so goal for is it I mean it has to be right the new Cushing hatherly school it really has to be the the piece that um when Maria and I met the piece that really kept coming up is communication and I think this aligns really nicely with what Bill what you've been saying

095for a long time now right so it's it's not just communicating pushing out information it's also including the voices that show up at the meetings it's thinking about the voices that are not showing up at the meetings and like how do we represent all the constituents and so thinking and I know Bill you've already talked about this like thinking about you know having a community Forum to gather ideas and inputs as we continue in this process and again like what are ways that we can you know talk about enrollment you know get that out there being really transparent not just um developing it but also the timeline like what does it look like to start making those decisions because we know that families are already asking so even if we said this is when this

096process is going to start that gives that gives families some clarity so I think this goal yes it's msba but it's really specific around Community parent family engagement and communication and bringing voices to the table to be a part of the of this whole process so it's very specific in terms of where where it sits with M msba so I think that's that's it and I think Nicole don't we just Pres present them tonight everybody reads them and then we vote on them the next time we meet I think yes exactly yep we can digest a little bit and feedback or anything and perfect appreciate you both taking this on and will comment that these are definitely most comprehensive I've seen so well done absolutely concise well we all know who that is right that

097influences Maria we appreciate your attention to detail your thess I have ideas but Maria brings it home so like personal grammarly I just I just have one I guess clarifying question on goal number one sorry did you what did you want me to put it up again or you don't need it oh no I don't need it up um just on draft on sorry goal number one is is the goal really for us to be more knowledgeable about what kinds of questions to ask is that what the goal is I think the goal is for us to be more knowledgeable so that we can best interpret so I think it's a couple of things like I said we want to provide the right guidance people who are coming to present to us and so that

098is like us knowing what to ask for you know and I think when people are presenting also having just a better understanding so that we can yeah ask the right grain size of questions not too tiny and I think the offshoot of that is that we are going to kindly and critically push the District to to analyze the data in ways that we can have deeper and expansive conversations not just be sort of right so like the the better our questions are the better and more useful the information that comes in front of us will be and and Mar and I just felt like this has to be a collaborative process right they they don't need to be guessing what we're going to have questions about like why don't we just why don't we share

099what our initial questions are and then they can start from there instead of starting two or three steps back great and we just get so much data shared with us it's like the mcast presentation alone is like so complicated and if we are coming into that better and especially because we won't always be here but we can create resources that could be P forward um I just think us having this better understanding will only help us and help yeah right I mean we don't want and I know we've said this before we don't want presenters to have to the extent that we can minimize anxiety for people who have to come present anything by having Clarity on what we're looking for is going to be us supporting teachers students you know that's the umbrella so

100I agree question yeah I just have to I I I agree with the I agree with having data as a goal I like it but I I just have to process a little bit more about how that is written that's so yeah yeah if you have suggestions yeah that was a yeah my next question how would you like us to provide feedback just email coms or does it have to all separately maybe just email one of you directly like Peter if you need a Clarity on data you know sounds good okay we'll have to do the chain all right okay thank you all right uh we have superintendent burkhead's goals that were presented at our last meeting um any questions or additional input comments feedback on superintendent foret goals no okay we'll take a motion

101then to uh adopt superintendent for head School I make a motion that the school committee vote to adopt superintendent birads FY 25 and FY 26 superintendent goals as presented second second by Miss benwick uh roll call vote uh limam yes brandolini yes Gates yes benwick yes barosi yes fantastic uh we also have some minutes to approve from October 21st question any questions I make a motion that the school committee vote to approve the October 21st 2024 minutes a second okay uh lwam yes rolini yes Gates I'm abstaining abstaining benck yes bosi yes all right uh no warrants no correspondences any other business superintendent no um well you got I know that we'll have some attendees Mas at the Mas uh annual Peter is going first for the share out go ahead no I just saying

102that and then maybe some of we'll be able to provide or for those of you or us that ATT and maybe be able to provide some feedback on our goals and see if they you know are realistic I mean maybe there'll be a workshop on goals I don't really know um be wed we're gonna be meeing it next year yeah yeah I think you will I mean again like Nicole said we our goals really have never really been um this clear and defined so this is great um but no I just wanted to I guess I just wanted to mention that for those that are going it's a big commitment to take a day or two or three off of work and um I know I always encourage all of us to go and it's

103just difficult to sometimes make it happen I think that we can if not learn anything at least make ourselves more well represented in the in the State uh do you want us to put like almost uh on our next agenda maybe just like a recap share out of what we B has all the the mass portion you does Mass have their own specials it combined or all totally combined a little for everybody all right maybe we can all kind of Nicole does everyone know that we're presenting at the National Conference in April have you no yeah I know do you want to tell them I feel like I kind of just did yes yeah we had a a presentation accepted so we'll be going April 4th yeah what is the topic um we're doing it

104on um how the district has um engaged in parent engagement and communication yep should be good all right umill oh yeah sorry yes thank you um I just wanted to thank em for the goals I do agree they're some of the strongest and clearest that we've had so and they do align with um my goals or District goals and you know I liked what I heard tonight about Dem aligning first of all to strengthen District goals but also the term you know support but also Clarity I think that's really awesome uh you know to get expectations as you know um school committee members but I also think this board's unique in the fact that I don't think all boards have uh full representation where all committee members have children in schools uh in fact you

105know I don't know many that do so that's a really great opportunity to see is that we get that perspective so appreciate that and I do I do want to also congratulate the school committee for the third consecutive year presenting at National Convention they're very very uh competitive to get um you know chance to present do it three years in a row it's shows that you Nicole's been doing a great job and now Dr mowy coming on to even strengthen that I think it's a nice Legacy to go for you 10 in a row so you back and I did want to give a a little um Coming Attractions because it was mentioned tonight uh the first uh superintendent um Thursday thoughts will be November 21st I wanted to wait to get the goals uh

106clarified and approved both of ours so I can really wanted to kind of be Cornerstone of kicking that off and sharing with the Greater Community that a few other surprises we'll have in there so that'll be a monthly thing so that'll be 21st and then uh good timing tonight was brought up about the first um staff and parent meetings regarding the new school project so um December 11th we'll be meeting with the staff um thanks for feedback for the community to involve them we'll go first because it's important to get our our staff and not just your teachers entire staff's feedback on the enrollment process but vision for the new building because as we talked about in the process even though this the new building uh philos any philosophical and educational experiences we want to

107replicate those in the other buildings as well um you know minus any new equipment or things like that but we can we can certainly do that so those conversations are going to be open to uh the entire staff get good feedback for that we kind of talk about what we're anticipating sharing with the community on that agenda and get some feedback so we'll be uh well informed to go into the next week and that's purposely on the uh December 18th um at 4M and I'll get this out um we'll be having the U Community opportunity and that might be an opportunity as part of the school committee goals to have you all come there as partners to uh be part of that we can talk about a shared agenda and what we want to accomplish

108at that meeting but there'll be multiple events I I foresee of those so you know if you're not ready then but there'll be other opportunities to align and get that communication I agree I think M Fenwick said it that I look at these as more more than just a new school but a great Avenue to open Communications about teaching and learning in general and just having those conversations ations about what's the a great great opportunity to open a brand new building physically but what's great education look like we have a chance to re Envision that this new building and then transfer it over or take other ideas that we're already using of course and bring that in so um that'll be exciting it'll be nice to just sit down because I think the seaside chats

109were some of my favorite times like sitting with the community and you know just getting to listen and learn I get yelled out a little bit sometimes my skin nice and thick but I don't t that being the case on these meetings do a little different different Focus so I hope there's excitement energy and people feel included and having a voice about what this new school and our new vision of that looks like so those are upcoming in December and by December break we'll have met with or given the opportunity for our entire Community including our staff to sit down I think we'll have a weth of information after that opportunity and then we'll go from there for having more uh follow-up meetings and to talk more about our enrollment plan specifically but also include

110other um opportunities that first meeting will be a listening be an informational just so give you all idea what we're thinking um like because last time we've been out in the community was more like getting the eso and showing what we had now we have a lot of really good information or Visionary uh visual excuse me um pictures of what the new building looks like teaching learning spaces we've got teacher input now uh so to share that back with the community to give them more information update them timeline and then the rest would be kind of a listening uh piece on what they what they would like to see um in the enrollment plan what's their goals and it'll be very interesting to see what the teacher thoughts are and the example I keep giving

111is um for those that are listening redistricting is the old word we're using the new words enrollment because it will impact all of our enrollment and where kids go to school and all that kind of stuff um really have an impact on all kids and families so it's important we we look at it like that through that lens but the example is okay again this a hypothetical at this point if we were able to get all kids and their siblings that are in the current two schools into the new building could we do it with our busing schedule would would be realistic and practical and then if we were to do that what would the class size then look like and our people willing our families in then we have to think about teachers too

112um to bounce up because I think that's been a a staple of our something we're we're very proud of I think as a whole here and I know the families are keeping that average at 20 or under um that's an average now keep in mind so if we were to get everybody in there at the cost of increasing class sizes would be be comfortable with so those are tough conversations that we're going to have but it helps getting those that feedback and things like that so when we finally make the final plan you know everyone can say I felt listened to I felt hurt and we have information to make strong decisions based on not only the geographical data the enrollment data but also the you know human voice and what people are feeling emotionally

113um as a community so looking forward to those the um public forums is that open to the general public yes okay now it's just restricted to like hily push correct everybody are you having those Library we're going to have we going to start at um hadly just to um nothing else just to because that's going to be the the location so if people U for example come from the community and want to know where the new building is physically can say okay we can take a walk outside after and take a look at where it's going to go that kind of stuff because we'll have the Architects there and stuff so we thought the first one would be there then we thought we'd rotate to to go to other places into other venues all of

114us go probably Cushing second just to to on bases and then move around from there got Perfect all right thank you than you anyone else comments okay um any other future agenda items all right nothing no school tomorrow oh or next mids or next Monday homeschooling homeschool tomorrow all right we'll take a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn at second second byck you should chew it a little bit here Lindam yes randini yes Gates yes denwick yes rosi yes all right meeting is a Jed