001I will call to order this meeting of the Somerset Berkeley Regional School Committee at 6 PM. Six. Due notice having been posted. Pursuant to the open meeting law, any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium. Attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions may be made whether perceived or unpreceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible. We'll do a roll call of members present. Miss Barrera, >> present. >> Miss Ashley, >> present. Miss O'Brien, >> Miss Solomon, >> present, >> and the chair is present. Um, also with us this evening, our superintendent of schools, Dr. Jeffrey Spoonver, our chief financial officer, Miss Raquel Pelerin, our director of curriculum, Miss Elizabeth Haspel, our principal, Dr. Susan Bellsford, and our recording
002secretary, Robin Vicaro. I ask you to please rise for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you everyone. Please note that the next reg regularly scheduled meeting of this committee will be held on Tuesday, November 18th at 6 p.m. here in the Somerset Berkeley Regional High School Library. Um our uh student reps were unable to be here this evening. Did they provide you with an update, Dr. >> Okay, so we will um skip that agenda item and we will move on. Um at this point we would like to recognize um our September visionaries. Uh the following students should be congratulated. Um CJ Alexander, resilient. Hunter Bert, resilient.
003Emma Goncalo, academic. Isaac Lauro, academic. Cadence Lefave, independent. Ryland was digital citizen. Louise Queso, empathetic. And Logan Almy, respectful. Congratulations and thank you to those students. The next item on the agenda is public input for topics on the agenda. Is there any public input? There is none. Um um with uh the permission of the committee, I'd like to take some items out of order and ask that we first um go to business and financial matters. Um so u Miss Pellerin first item on the agenda is an update on the 2425 and then the 2526 budgets. >> Thank you. There are a few documents in um the folder for FY2425. There are two documents. One is the revenue year to date and one is the expenditure year to date. Gives you an idea of how we
004ended the fiscal year. Again this is preliminary. It's on audited. We're working on filing our end ofear report as well as our do report. At that point we would have final numbers after certification. Um so combining the revenue and the expenditure not not so much budget now we're dealing with actual. Um we are ending the the fiscal year with all bills paid at um a surplus of 128,3879. That includes the prepayment of special education. We still have outstanding conferences of $45,000 and those are for prepaid tuitions that are in September that we have not received the bills for, but we do intend on paying that out of FY25. So that brings our year-end balance to 82,637 to end the fiscal year. We have a little bit we can talk about excess and deficiencies, but I'm
005going to move on to um 25 26. Our um report is up there which is actually not ending 9:30. It's to date. Uh we wanted to give you an idea of how we're doing with our incumbrances salaries. Um right now we have about 80% of the budget either um extended or encumbered. We'll continue to finalize those. As you know, we've made some changes um with our staffing from the original budget. Um we what we really want to do is make sure we finalize all the bills, prepayment, and then we'll come back in November with a budget adjustment for those few changes that we does anyone have any questions? So bottom line around 82,000 to the good is the answer. Okay, great. Thank you. Um, next on the agenda um is the update on um excess
006and deficiencies and stabilization. Um [clears throat] so we are looking at filing well we have our preliminary file for um department of revenue and what's on the memo in the folder is really what their calculation is. Um, so right now we take our previous fund balance of 1.146 million. We're adding the 128 as the balance pre um incumbrances gets us down to the 1.2. We then back out the incumbrances that have yet to be paid. And per the calculation for department of revenue, you also have to back out your receivables. And that's part of the calculation that gives our excess and deficiencies unencumbered to 1.1 million 1.148. Looking at if we were over any of the calculations that uh the do which is 5% of the operating budget we are slightly below that. So therefore
007no money would be going back to the town. Um so that's how we're ending. I know during budgeting if you want to assign anything to capital anything that we can um discuss that once it's certified we'll bring back the certification and then we can talk about during we'll be starting butterfly that does anyone have any questions that's a nice close shave >> so close okay and Um, is there anything on stabilization separate from the END or that's >> we once we get everything certified, we'll come back with that piece of it. I want to make sure that we um Dr. and I did look at stabilization and and how we're doing. Um, and we want to make sure two things we have the certification which should be by the next meeting. Second thing, we want
008to make sure that we have accurate balances and we're reconciling all our capital for that. So, we'll come back with what we have in the capital account, what we have in stabilization, the certified access deficiencies. So, we'll work on thank you. Okay. Um the next item, if there are no questions, the next item on the agenda is to discuss and act on um non-UN personnel the hourly rate for hallway monitors. >> So that this was one that um inadvertently had left off the last list. So we're bringing it forward. >> Okay. Everyone has the rate. Are there any questions? If there are no questions, I would entertain a motion to to approve the increase in the hourly rate of pay for hallway monitors reactive to September 17th um 2025, which just to note that's the
009date that the um other hourly staff received their pay increase. >> So moved. >> Second motion by Miss Ashley and seconded um by Miss O'Brien. Anything further on discussion hearing? None. All those in favor? I >> opposed. So voted. Thank you. I think that that are those are the business items, right? Thank you. Okay. Um we can revert to the regular order on the agenda. So the next item on the agenda under new business would be the superintendence report. Dr. Spooner. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, first I I'm assuming that if we did have our our students here tonight, some of the things that they would have mentioned um is that one, we have our fall production this weekend. Uh, it is third 30 Reasons Why not to be in a play. Uh, it is
010uh October 23rd, 24th, and 25th each night at 700 p.m. in the uh Perry Performing Arts Center. Uh we have uh Saturday we have um some Berkeley Education Foundation sponsored 5K road race uh that begins at 9:00 a.m. at Pierce Beach. Uh a couple of uh events that are coming up in early November or the first half or so of November. Uh we have a college fair uh on November 13th uh in the gymnasium from 5:30 to 7:00. Uh that happens the week before our next school committee meeting. Uh and the day after our next school committee meeting is the uh Somerset Berkeley open house uh which is uh November 19th and it starts at 5:30 p.m. in the open center. Is there >> I would just just because I know public could be watching
011anyone's welcome to the open house. I think there was some confusion that it's just for eighth graders. And I realize that sometimes now there's seventh graders that are looking at their options in seventh grade rather than eighth grade. So anybody anyone's welcome at the open house. We're not going to kick anybody out if they want to come see what we have to offer. So it's 5:30 to 7:30. >> Thank you. >> And the homecoming dance is November 21st. It's the most important piece of information [laughter] to the student body that exists. And that's also in the gym, right? >> That's in the gym. It's going to be kind of a sock hop. So, we don't wear the gym floor. >> No one wears their shoes anyway. 5 minutes into nails. So, >> all right. Uh,
012and then a couple of the items that are listed on the agenda here. Uh we're very we're very happy to uh receive the news a few weeks ago that coach Bob Slater was recognized by the MIAA as the 2024 2025 boys basketball coach of the year. So the the accolades continue from the success that the team had not just last year but over the last uh the past several uh seasons. Uh we have just for your information uh an appointment and a resignation. uh one is uh appointing an admin assistant and a food service uh resignation. Are there any questions? >> Great. Thank you. Um the next item on the agenda is to discuss the competency determination requirement. >> All right. Uh thank you. I I shared this with you. This is in uh the
013folder uh Dr. Brford and I will uh sort of tag team on on this. As you know, I've been sharing some information with uh the school committee uh as we've been learning more about the requirements for competency determination. Uh so this um All right. So, this all started uh really from last November's election uh or um ballot uh vote where MCCAST was um was eliminated as a graduation requirement. Uh when we are looking at this, we do have to account for there a few different requirements for a student to earn their high school diploma. Competency determination is a requirement for graduation, but it's not what we would normally look at as graduation requirements in terms of four years of English and and so on. The policy that you approved at last month's meeting. Um, so
014MCCAST has been the the state's measure to determine competency determination up until last year. uh now uh and I I'll have a slide just summarizing uh what competency determination is for mass general law but it's it's now a more of a local decision as to what it is there are some parameters that we have to uh work with um but it is more of a local decision at this point so anyway uh last November we had the ballot vote in May the board of education uh changed the regulations regarding uh competency deter determination and by December 31st of this year I have to submit uh to DESIE the school committee approved policy on competency determination. So competency determination and this is in the upper right corner you can see it's master general laws chapter uh
01569 section 1D. It essentially says that students have to demonstrate mastery in the subjects that um had been tested by MCCAST. Uh so English 9 and 10 uh algebra 1 and geometry a science or technology engineering. So we is for us it's been intro to physics but within that uh the state is also allowing chemistry and biology. Uh and then a new requirement beginning with the class of 27 is going to be US history. So what this is saying is that not only do you have to pass the course but you also have to demonstrate mastery. Uh so and we'll get into that and satis uh satisf satisfaction of the requirements uh is a condition of high school graduation as I said. All right. So uh I have that uh cost work for CD requirements
016is different than the cost work for graduation. So for competency determination it's two years of English. Um obviously for graduation requirement it's four years of English. Uh for science we require three but for competency determination it's demonstrating mastery in one year of biology, physics, chemistry or tech engineering. in mathematics as I said it's it's really demonstrating mastery through geometry and uh it's one year of US history beginning with the class of 27 which is our current junior class so what the state has done is they uh they've said that we have to demonstrate mastery um in one of three different ways and really four the middle one here really two options uh so final course assessments are one end of course exams uh either a capstone or portfolio is another pathway or some other equivalent
017measure as determined by the local district. Uh so this is something that we've really been Dr. Beller and I have been uh discussing quite a bit. We've been uh I've been talking with other superintendents, Dr. BS been talking with other principles just trying to figure out uh how most districts are going with this and and seems like most are going down the path of final course assessments. And I'll get into the reason um why in in a second. Um so when we started looking at this and and I should say I should pause for a second. I do want to thank and acknowledge all of the work that Dr. Bzford has done just in the last it's probably three or four weeks, right? This has been probably the number one uh thing on her plate
018and not just not just Dr. Relsford, but the assistant principles and the content coordinators, they've they've been working meeting at least weekly. Um, they've invited me to uh to all most of those meetings along the way. Uh, and they've put in a lot of work, a lot of really deep thought into trying to create a system that works best for uh not just our current students, but our future students. But along the way, some of the things that we were some of the challenges that we're facing and questions that we had that doesn't make this a really easy decision to make. Um, one is let's unless if we just keep the class of 26, the current seniors in mind. Uh if we go down the path of end of course exams, we're now looking at
019students who did not pass potentially did not pass exams as far back as 8th grade because algebra 1, middle school algebra 1 is the only exception to this that it's a course that doesn't have to be taken in high school, but we can look at that. So now looking at students coming out of Berkeley Middle, Somerset Middle or probably uh a dozen other middle schools where kids come in for either from school choice or transfers or whatever. So we're looking trying to get final exams from possibly four years ago and determining does do the middle schools still have access to what the actual scores were and did those final exams actually match up with our algebra 1 final exam. Uh and then we uh Dr. Ber and I and and Mrs. Ferrara, we did talk
020about this with the student advisory committee uh earlier this month, last month. Um and we heard from them that something that probably wasn't much of a surprise, a lot of students did not take final exams very seriously. When they were taking final exams, they were not thinking, oh, this could potentially be a graduation requirement. Uh so there was a little bit of shock from them when we were describing what the potential options are. Um so anyway, so like just addressing all of that. So now now we're going back and saying, "Okay, seniors, this is you should have taken that test 3 years ago a little bit more seriously." Uh, as I said, middle school alignment, uh, we know that some of our students, probably about, um, I would say less than half, but maybe 50
021to 75 students every year, um, perhaps a third or so of our, uh, freshman class uh, are successfully took algebra 1 in middle school. But then again, as I said, uh, what how what was their achievement on the final exams? uh did they do they demonstrate the mastery and do we have proof of that at this point? Um I alluded to transfer students just coming in and transcripts say one thing but finding out whether or not someone demonstrated mastery in the class that they passed. So they're not the transcript say if they passed it doesn't say how well they did on an end of course exam if they even took an end of course exam. uh and we discuss right out of the gate portfolios. But then just like with all this other stuff, if
022there is a senior right now and we're trying to demonstrate uh if they were if they mastered say the English 10 content, we don't have a record necessarily of what they did. They weren't collecting their work and reflecting on their work and being able to demonstrate at this point uh what a portfolio would really be. So looking at some of those things and even capstone projects uh which we haven't really considered. We have capstone within the building but not as a competency determination. Uh to do that retroactively would be near impossible. Uh so those were some of the challenges that we had and are there any that I'm missing that we also kind of struggled with along the way? >> These are the four major ones. Uh so after a lot of work what and
023and thought what we've uh really landed on as a proposal at this point is really this tiered approach where uh for grades 9 and 10 we're looking at a combination of final exams and and MCCAST. Uh we can uh local school districts still can use MCCAST as a requirement. It's not, it doesn't have to be, but we can use it as an alternate measure. Uh, and when we look at our MCAT scores, whatever the cut scores were, we still have about 85 or so% of our of our students, if not more, who are achieving the partially, you know, the the upper threshold of partially meets meets and exceeds. So, we already have a high percentage of students who who qualify into, you know, through that lens. But we also heard the voters and we don't
024want to make that the primary measure. Um but it it does help a lot of students at this point get them to their high school diploma. Uh so really this first tier that Dr. Blesford will uh walk us through, you'll see it it involves a combination of the final exams that they took in grades 9 and 10 as well as uh MCCAST. If students after those first few measures are still if they haven't demonstrated mastery then we look at uh and of course exams in grades 11 and 12 because even though MCCAST is a it's a measure up through grades 9 and 10 if a student can demonstrate mastery in grade 11 then clearly we can say that they've mastered something in the previous grade. Um and then if if that still doesn't uh if
025a student still hasn't demonstrated mastery at that point then there there would be a portfolio option in their senior year. So we think that uh this aligns with the state's competency uh determination definition while also reducing um the portfolio needs for the majority of the students and gets uh the vast majority of our students across that finish line. So then we also have to look at this in two phases. Uh we see it as the the students who are currently in the sophomore, junior and senior years, classes of 26, 27, 28. Uh and then since we're still so early in this school year, really the class of 29 and the classes that come after that. Uh so again, Dr. Dr. Plesford will will kind of walk us through the the tiers that I just described
026really are the ones for classes uh 26 27 and 28. Uh and then in 29 and beyond will be uh more of a portfolio-based system. Okay. So with that, Dr. Brford. >> Okay. So it's going to be really hard to see this unless I think everybody has it in front of them. So again, there's a difference between passing the the top layer is uh passing the class. So you have to pass the class number one or you can't even get to mastery, right? Um but then mastery stage one would be a student that either meets the expectation on the grade 10 final exam, and we're just talking English here right now, or meets or exceeds the expectations on MCCAST. So one or the other and you've hit the common determination for English, you're all set.
027If that didn't happen, then you move to stage two where you'd be required to pass the grade 11 final exam. If that didn't work, we move to grade 12. But once you get to stage two, what we're also doing is kind of putting the backup plan of the portfolio into place. So at that point, we're starting to collect work for that student, putting a portfolio together so that in the event that they don't hit that mastery in some type of assessment, we have the portfolio. Uh we are also saying that because if you look at the uh passing score for MCCAST, it's about 57% of the material on an MCCAST exam. We're saying that our threshold for passing a final exam, we would move down to a 60 for competency determination only. We're still going
028to hold to the 6% of the grade. The grade for the class will still be a 65 is a D. A 64 is an F. That's still our threshold. But in terms of competency determination, it would be a 60. And I think that's that's really probably the hardest thing I think for people if if you're not diving deep into this to understand is there's a distinct difference now between graduation requirements, the credits that they need, and now this is kind of the competency determination instead of the MCAT. It's kind of a third bucket of things that you have to do in order to hit the diploma. Are there any questions right now? Because if you understand the English plan, you'll have a better shot of understanding the rest of them. So, kind of stopped there.
029We're good so far. Okay. So, then for mathematics, um, we go back to the math is different because there's the two courses. There's algebra 1 as an expectation and geometry. So, you mash them together on the MCCAST, you pass the MCCAST, you're good to go. If not, then you have to wait until the end of that student's sophomore year because you have to pass algebra 1. Great. we passed the final exam for that in whatever capacity. Um, but we have to wait for sophomore year where they pass geometry or they've passed the algebra 1 final exam in Somerset Middle School or Berkeley Middle School because we can control quote unquote those two. So, I can tell you that even though you know um the superintendent of Berkeley is not here tonight, I can assure you
030that they are taking our final exam as eighth graders over in Berkeley. We know that. We know that our Somerset Middle School students are taking our final exam. So, we just need to now get that data. We can use that data. Um and that's competency determination for math. If not, then they would go to something uh went wrong with algebra 1, geometry and algebra 2. Those two finals would be equivalent as well because if you pass the algebra 2 final, you can say that you've achieved mastery in algebra 1. And then again, we would still be collecting the work for the portfolio in the event that the final exam doesn't work. So that would be math. Science is really really tiny. get your your reading glasses out for that. And that's uh because there's lots
031of different pathways here for mastery. Now, again, we have to go back to remember we have our graduation requirements. You have to hit the three years of science, but we also have a lot of other courses in science that could hit the mastery uh final exam plans. So, we have the project lead the way classes. when they get to be seniors. We have various electives that we don't offer every single year because students don't opt to take them, but should we offer them, um, for example, we're offering an oceanography class, we offer environmental science. If a student were to take that their senior year and they still needed to pass the competency determination, they could use that final exam information or that portfolio data to hit mastery. Um, and I think it's also important, um,
032where we're talking about the MCCAST and and you know, the idea that we do want to listen to voters and the fact that MCCAST shouldn't be the the beall endall is in every single plan, we will have the final exam data before we have MCCAST data. So, with science, students take the MCCAST freshman year. We would never get those results until we never would get the uh, results until sophomore year. They've already taken the final. So the hope would be freshman year they pass the midyear and the final I should say in the case of science because science doesn't do a cumulative uh final exam they do a January midyear and a uh June final exam. So that would be an average of those two grades and it says that in there uh would have
033to be a 60 in order to pass but they passed that course exam and they're good to go. the MCCAST would then kind of be the backup if we didn't do that. Same thing with sophomore year. The sophomore final exams, even in the case of math, would hit first and hopefully that would hit the competency determination, but if not, then we have the backup plan of the MCCAST and then the third backup plan of the portfolio. And in social studies, which is kind of the newbie to the group here because we didn't have to assess this before, we don't have to worry about the current seniors with that, but we do have to worry about class of 2027 and beyond. Uh the state is saying you only have to pass one US history course, not
034a compilation. So, US one freshman year, they pass that final exam and midyear because this is another one where they split it. uh get that average score of a 60, they're good to go. If not, then you move to US2, which is our sophomore year class. If not, then we would move to the required civics class, which has a portfolio project at the end that I know you're all familiar with. That would be stage three if one and two didn't work out. And then again um we'd be kind of collecting the portfolio of data from their civics projects in order to hit mastery if stage three wasn't met. So that is the competency determination plan and I know Dr. Skoonover said, uh, if you go back to the two-phase strategy, the class of 26 through
03528, our proposal would be that that would kind of that would be it. They would they would be expected to hold to this competency determination. Um, we would kind of put that together in some type of digital portfolio so that all the data is in the same place. Um, because this is kind of a bear when you're sitting down and trying to collect this all. Um, I do not believe anything in Aspen would do this uh to any kind of capability that that we have right now. Maybe in the future we can create something. Um, but then the class of 2029, which are our current freshmen, they will be sophomores next year and beyond. So, the freshmen that come in, what I'm proposing right now is that we create um a digital portfolio and that
036there would be three pieces to it. Um, so the first part would kind of be the the my cap or the kind of a who am I page that we would start each year off with having the student really look at themselves. What are their goals? What are their plans? Where are they going? And if we started that each year, think of a freshman, you come in from middle school, who am I freshman year? Then we start sophomore year the exact same way. Okay, how have I changed over the course of the year? And we keep going with that. So that would kind of be like page one if you will of the digital portfolio. Part two would be this exact plan having the students put together their competency determination. As they hit the marks,
037those go into their portfolio. So you know fingers crossed they pass all their final exams freshman year. That data gets uploaded into this digital portfolio and we start building that competency determination piece. And then part three would be assessing which we were trying to come up with a plan anyway on how to do assessing our vision of the graduate assessing our radar. Um and I'm sure you're all aware the department of education's also coming down with an expectation for the statewide level that we are all going to be held to a standard vision of the graduate. Um, it's unclear at this point how and how that's going to work, if we're going to be allowed to keep our raider or go to theirs or if there's going to be a kind of a decision in
038the middle somewhere. Um, but whatever that is, that would kind of be part three of the portfolio that would get assessed kind of right now of a student's senior year so that we would have time for remediation for any student that did not hit that. Um my plan would be that we're completing this in blue raider block on a monthly basis. So like the first blue raider block of the month instead of doing a traditional blue raider block we would all go into our um kind of portfolio groups. So each student uh each teacher would kind of lead uh a curriculum designed by us which is here's the portfolio start putting it together with the students. um they would facilitate that and kind of move them along the four years. Um we have four years
039to figure out the particulars on that. So I I think there there needs to be kind of a a decision made on how to do that. But that would kind of be where we would be going with that. Um, but to go all the way back, who I'm most concerned about right now is the class of 2026 because by the time we all accept and send off a plan to the state of Massachusetts, we're talking about January of 2026 and now we have uh four months. What I can tell you is, as Dr. Swinver said, I've been sitting with the content coordinators on a weekly basis. We are not looking at this at a global level. We literally took all the data when we went back and made all those charts and said, "Okay, let's
040look at the seniors. How many seniors would not meet competency determination?" And we're down to four kids that we have in coursework right now that would hit the competency determination. And we believe that competency termination will be met by every single student of the class of 2026 based on this plan. I'm not saying graduation, right? because we still have graduation requirements. We still have um credits that they would have to hit in order to obtain a diploma. But in terms of competency determination between the MCCAST, between their final exams, between even portfolios that we are creating right now in the case that we don't get anything else through, we're confident that everybody can hit the competency determination of the class of 2026. We're now looking at the class of 2027 to make sure that we
041have a plan for those students between the portfolio and the exam work. Um, but that's that's where we are. And I I still, you know, certainly I can probably sit here for an hour and tell you what my concerns are with this whole thing because, you know, we one of the biggest concerns I think are students that transfer in um and and what to do with them because as it stands right this second, if a student were to transfer into Somerset Berkeley tomorrow, you get a transcript with final grades on it. You don't get final exams and midyear exams and all of this information. So they come with a bunch of final grades and and you interpret that as you will. Now that you have to hit a competency determination, now that becomes a little
042muddy, if you will. And uh I would hope that statewide we would all kind of work together if we [laughter] were uh trading students, so to speak, but as of right now, like there's there's no there's no plan for that. Um so those are things that we when you look at student by student by student you can come up with the whatifs. What if what if this kid is different than every So those are the things that it's it's a work in progress but this is our proposal right now uh for where we are. >> And just to add I I know Dr. Dr. Brford mentioned it, but uh the state, if you have seen it, they released a draft vision of the graduate. Um it looks like they're going to allow school districts um
043to do a a crosswalk between what the state's vision of the graduate is and what individual school districts have knowing that there's uh there's a lot of alignment between the two. Uh so uh again, but we don't we don't know exactly what that's going to look like. A and um I shared with uh the committee this afternoon an email um with the draft recommendations uh that the statewide graduation council has um has created already which is supposed to go to Governor Healey. I think it's to first to governor Healey in early December. um for ultimate board approval before the end of the school year. So, we don't know exactly how graduation requirements uh not counting competency determination uh will be changing and for what classes. So, there's just a lot of things that are moving
044and evolving right now uh that we don't have answers to. And just um to kind of outline where we have to go from here. So my goal tonight was just to provide you with this information, have some discussion, get some initial feedback. Uh but to come back in November and have the first read of a um of the competency determination policy. Uh MASC did create uh a template for school districts that we are currently working on. And there are a few components of that. Uh Mrs. Ashton is um is working on some of the the appeals process for students with disabilities. So we still have to uh enter that information in. But we'll have that policy for you um to review well in advance of our next meeting, but to have as a first read
045then uh with additional discussion in November in December uh the second read of that policy and then uh that allows me to submit the policy to DESIE by December 31st. uh as I have here at the end. Obviously, the goal is to ensure that all of our students have a uh a clear uh path to graduation that is meaningful and fair. Uh and and I I think when we're talking about the portfolios, uh we really do want to have a meaningful we want the diploma to always mean something and and there's so much research behind um student reflection and student self assessment and that portfolio pieces has a really strong component. Uh so embedding that in we think uh really puts a lot of weight into what the students um just a demonstration of what
046they've learned, what they've mastered. >> Questions? >> I do. Um there'll be some place I know you said doesn't ex exist now, but you're going to look for some type of Aspen solution that parents can track that their students are hitting these milestones. That's the plan. >> Or the portfolio that we're going to create will be kind of a template that everyone will be able to see that you're kind of putting the information in so that it kind of looks like like a transcript so to speak, at least the competency determination part so that you can kind of track your progress as well. >> I'm a little overwhelmed. I share your concerns about how to navigate this. I'm sure that we will all get through this. [laughter] Um, I'm very grateful that you've looked at
047individual student data for the upcoming, you know, class of 2026 to really address their needs first. Um, it's unfortunate that, you know, we're doing this backwards and I I think there probably are a lot of students who would have benefited from the portfolio option right from the start. um you know just having been an educator I just know that not all students are um awesome test takers because they a lot of students get nervous and then they panic and then it's not that they don't know the content and we don't want to be you know putting students through unnecessary stress related to that sort of thing if there's an alternative but I like you know that you're looking toward the future classes you know sort of bolstering up that option perhaps in future. I think
048that would be great for our students. I like that you're using MCCAST as like a backup plan. Um, a little life raft for students if you know if things don't go according to plan, you know, for those final exams, but they pass the MCCAST test. I I think that is a good solution and I think that it does acknowledge, you know, the the wishes of the voters last fall. Um, but also utilizes it as an option if it's going to support a student, you know, meeting the requirements. So, that's my feedback at this time. >> Yeah, I I I love this. I think it's great that there's options for the kids because I know that was one of the things when we were talking, you know, we were talking about this when we talked with
049the kids, it was before this was all kind of ironed out. So, one of the options we were saying was if they had to pass all their finals and you can see the color drain out of some of their faces because they're like, "Well, if we're getting rid of MCCAST now, you tell me now I have to just pass final." You're kind of like giving them back a test that they have to pass, which kind of defeats the purpose of what the voters were getting rid of the MCCAST. So, they didn't have to just pass a test. So, I like that there's options. So if they're passing MCCAST, they're all set. If not, then you know they're finals. And if not, there's another option. So because that was one of the concerns, just what Miss
050Ashley said, not all kids are great test takers. Doesn't mean that they're not good at the work. It's just sometimes they don't do very well on a test. >> And I think the data is really important, too, because at le younger students, they're at least in it right now. So we can say to them, listen, your midy years and your finals are really important. >> Important correct. When you get to the juniors and seniors, I I personally struggle with looking at a student and saying, "Oh, something you did three years ago or two years ago, however you felt about that, maybe you're a final, whatever you did, now it matters." That that's tough because what can you what can we do at this point? There's nothing you can do. But looking at the data between
051the MCCAST and the finals and midy years and the ability to move freshman, sophomore, junior year and the portfolio is the final. We believe that every student will will be will be okay. There'll be a plan for everybody to get there and it won't be heavy lifting on the stu. It won't be a like a another thing [laughter] for the students. It will be manageable for a junior or senior without >> additional stress. freshman and sophomores, they'll be a little more self assessment and there'll be a little more responsibility because at least they're they're in real time. >> But [clears throat] for the juniors and seniors, >> the data looks good. >> Mhm. >> I just want to say thank you for the thoughtful, thorough work that clearly went into this. And it's it's frustrating,
052I think, when Desi decides to move the goalposts on kids um 8 months before graduation. And I'm grateful that it sounds like we have very few students who could be impacted by that, but even one is. So, um I think we're all confident that your team will get those kids where they need, you know, where they need to be. Um I have just a question. Um I noticed on the for science for mastery if you're if it's going to be um achieved through MCCAST that it's exceeding meeting or partially meeting. But for ELA and math it's just meeting or exceeding. is can you just explain to why that is why there's a difference there or >> so I I don't think there is a difference um I think we did say 486 right for >>
053yeah so um it's following exactly what DESI has established already uh it's meeting exceeding and the upper the upper half of partially meeting for science that's 470 and and above for math and ELA that's 486 and above. Meeting starts at a scale score of 500, but anything between 46 and 499, which was the upper uh upper 50% of the partially meeting category did allow them um to uh demonstrate that mastery. So we are sticking with >> it follows the same. >> We were following what the MCCAST was allowing for graduation. So we we can change that wording. that it's all equitable wording, but we're following what if a student had passed the MCCAST and been able to graduate. That's cool. >> I want to say I I share your concerns. I think too about transfer
054students, students who are coming in from a private school where MCCAST isn't a thing >> or out of state or a school that maybe doesn't do final exams, which a lot of schools are getting away from, right? and might be have some other end of course measure that isn't easily transferred onto right with their records or transcripts. So I think those are really legitimate concerns and that might not be a high number of students but that's a real that's a real worry and I would hope that >> students who haven't taken MCCAST though if they're coming from out of state they're allowed to sit for the exam once regardless of where it is. so they would have that that backup plan opportunity. >> Um, but that is there's a concern and I mean we're we're
055talking about all kinds of students right now. It's small number, but it's a it's it's more than we think that that have transferred in um even senior year. I think we've had five or six students transferring senior year >> uh this year to Somerset Berkeley. So to your point, there are final exams. There are no final exams. Um, and that usually doesn't come on a transcript. So, and if they were to transfer into SB as a senior with, let's say, no MCCAST data, whatever, they came from somewhere else. and um the MCCAST ELA. Well, I guess could they would they be eligible for the November retest or are we talking about >> November retest, but you're not going to have those results until it's just really >> it's really putting kids um and parents I'm
056sure like it's creating this uncertainty, right, for them that's that I I know concerns us all. So, I'm hoping >> and it's why those students would be building a portfolio while we're waiting on the data because at the end of the day, if they've passed the class, hopefully there's a compilation of work that also shows mastery in that class that we can connect to the specific skills in the class and the curriculum to create a portfolio that's meaningfully. So, a student that's meeting on that data senior year is also in the process of putting a portfolio together. My other concern is obviously the the burden this puts on staff to track this data um and um like options are great, right? And that's I think the intent behind the ballot initiative, right? was to not
057put all the eggs in one test day basket, right? That's the intent, but we know about the road to good intentions. And I feel like my worry is that um there's so much the the time lag. A final exam, you take it and in theory you can have the results the next day, but the l the lag between when a student takes MCCAST and when you get results is so much more significant. And then so we've got, you know, all these hedges. So we'll build. It's just I I'm I'm concerned about the um the burden I think is the word that this places on staff just in terms of getting our arms around all this and tracking it in addition to all of the other things like attendance, all the other measures. Right. Um I'll
058be honest, the first person I went to with this plan was Mr. Croft, our instructional technology person to say, I need a an awesome template you need. And so wrapping his mind around that was like the first thing that I felt like I needed to do because that template and creating something that when you hit that confidence determination, whenever that comes in, it almost makes the checkbox you go green or whatever and you know that that you've hit that is is really really important because even sitting down with the data that we've been sitting with, you know, you're you're eyeballing it. There's no other way to get this much data without going student by student by student. And anytime you're eyeballing anything with 900 kids in the building, there's human error that can happen. And
059Aspen does not do I don't think there's I don't think it's Aspen, like I'm not calling him out. I don't think there's a student management system on the planet that's going to be able to track this amount of variation >> across four disciplines >> um and multiple grades. Yeah, it's my I definitely would recommend reaching out to them though to see if they can do a custom build of what you designed because I think that Miss Ferrer's point of parents having access to the information in the family portal is critical and supporting students, you know, to meet these requirements and work towards these requirements. Um, and then like you know, I'm just a believer that student data should live in the student information system because then it lives on in perpetuity. We can generate reports
060and we can really like analyze the data. Um, so and they all when when you custom do anything in Aspen, they they provide you with an invoice, right? So I think you need to just tell us what it would cost an estimate of what it would cost to go that route because I think that we need to find the resources to support that >> for everybody's sake. >> Right. [laughter] Right. or um link it or some of the other right things where some of that data lives. So I would say as we as we transition into budget season um I think we no one at at this table is going to be surprised if there are needs um brought forth to address this work. So and my only other question just specifically on the social
061studies. So, um, with the new US requirement, I'm assuming there's not going to be there won't be an MCCAST option that gets added for social studies or is >> perhaps down the road. We don't know. Uh, we just had the civics test in 8th grade added this past year. So, I don't know what future holds for this year >> for those students who love to do standardized tests. And Okay. And then the last question, sorry, is for this if if we get to stage three >> um >> uh for social studies and the civics project. So all of our juniors take the civics course and do the civics project. So if we got to stage, it feels like we're talking about cancer staging here. This is horrible. Sorry. Um, if we got to stage three
062for the social studies or the the US, um, we've got that already sort of there in terms of the students all have to take that as part of their graduation requirement anyway and do the project. So, okay. Um, those are my questions and observations and just to say thank you to all of you because this is a lot of work. Um, and My initial impression in terms of bringing it back for at the next meeting is that I feel like this is as good as it can get given the constraints and the demands that are um being imposed. I think it's flexible. I think it's sensitive to where our kids are and um it's thoughtful. It has options. But I am concerned or the data tracking. So we're prepared to support whatever is required because
063we don't want folks spending all their time tracking data. We want them to actually spend their time. >> Yeah. >> Right. >> And we can try to find districts that have implemented portfolios. Uh now a number of years ago the state of Rhode Island they went down the path of capstone project or senior projects or portfolios. So there are many districts in Rhode Island that have been doing portfolios for many years. So there could be some districts there that we can just try to learn from and see what what programs they use to track the information. And I don't know if it's as extensive as uh what we are proposing here, but certainly there are districts that have gone down that path before. >> No, thank you. >> Thank you. >> To be continued. Okay.
064Next on the agenda, we have several um items that we are I would suggest we table. Um, so the next item on the agenda was to consider and act on appointing a voting delegate and alternate for the resolutions at the masc joint conference. I'm not sure that there's anyone who's attending. So I think we can skip that. >> Okay. Um, the next item on the agenda um was to consider and act on the resolutions. Um, and I think we can also table that. So for folks following at home, item four under new business all the subsections. Everyone okay with that? >> Yes table. Thank you. >> Um okay. Um then the next item on the agenda would be the collaborative um quarterly reports. Dr. >> Sure. Uh I shared with you uh the quarterly reports
065for the South Coast Educational Collaborative and Reeds Collaborative. uh the the two ed educational collaborives that Somerset Berkeley is a member of. Um this is something that uh the state is uh really pushing collaborives to ensure that uh quarterly reports are shared with school committees. Uh so so you can just see what is what is happening in in each of the collaboratives and you can have some understanding there and you if you have any questions about the information that's shared uh please ask me and if I can't get the answer for you right then and there I will make sure I can uh come back to provide you with the information. Uh the next one uh so we'll we'll try to have these uh reports in October. In January, it will be the annual reports
066as both collaboratives approve those in December. Uh and then April and July or or so. Uh so about every 3 months we'll have a report uh to share with you. >> Thank you. I don't have any questions about 175. >> Great. Thank you. Um the next item on the agenda is an update on the superintendent schools and central office models subcommittee. Do you want me to Sure. >> Okay. Uh, sure. So, actually the subcommittee met today at 5:00 um with Dr. Spoonover um the on the agenda we essentially um reviewed Dr. spoon over um draft proposed goals. Um he presented us with six um possible goals that covered um professional practice goals, student learning goals, and district improvement goals. We had a I think a great conversation about um uh they're all important initiatives and
067work that he's um either already in some cases doing um and expanding. Um, so Dr. Skoonover is going to sort of take the feedback and probably narrow those holes down uh to three for presentation to the full committee um at our next meeting. It doesn't require a committee's vote. It's more forformational purposes, but just to be sure that they align with the um committee's goals as well. >> Did I capture that adequately? I think so. >> Yes. >> Okay, great. Um, okay. Next on the agenda, we did business and financials. So, next on the agenda to policy. So, we have a policy subcommittee report. >> That was a long time ago. Now, I'm trying to remember. Um, we have some very minor amendments. Um, we actually had a joint subcommittee meeting. Yes. Sorry, it's it's
068been almost a month and I'm forgetting. But uh nothing earthshattering pretty much uh like I said very minor changes which are in reviewed for our first reading tonight. Um so with that um I would um entertain a motion to approve the first reading of the following policies. Access to building and grounds, which is to amend. Gifts to and solicitations by staff, which is to amend. Student fundraising activities, to amend athletic concussion policy, to amend. Relations with parent booster organizations to amend. Parent advisory councils, a new policy, and school visitor policy to amend. So, I have a motion by Miss Fer. Do I have a second? Second. Seconded by Miss O'Brien. Anything on discussion hearing? None. All those in favor? >> I opposed. So voted. Thank you my friends on the policy sub committee. Um the
069next item on the agenda are uh updates from um Berkeley and Somerset Public Schools. Do you have anything from Berkeley? >> Sure. Um just a couple of things. one noteworthy unfortunate um our director of business services um Andrea Trip has announced her resignation resignation yeah retirement sorry I knew I was giving the wrong word um her retirement so unfortunately um she's a vital part of our I'm sure we all here can relate um we just went through this so we have posted for that position um she's not she will not be easily replaced but here we Um, >> we have to let people retire. >> I know they have to, right? She's staying on through July, so hopefully she'll that will allow a transition, but as we know, it's hard to find those >> niche
070kind of positions that just work. Um, anyway, so she'll she'll be on through July and we're currently interviewing. Um, we have just so just a couple of other little things. Um we have an election this weekend in Berkeley for a new um selectman. We've currently been working with um two after one um Mr. Freighus resigned. Um so we're filling that seat this weekend at we had meet the candidates night this past week. Our eighth graders in in civics um presented questions to the candidates and um things that were topics that were important to them. um they were received very well and um got an opportunity to speak on behalf of the student body there. Um so we have an election this weekend and just some fun things. Trunk or treat this weekend at the school
071that we do every year um at the community school from 5:00 to 7:00 and we have kind of falls in with that. The town hall and the fire department also do a trick or treat where you drive through the fire station and then go through town hall. That's the same night from 5 to 8. Thank you. Um, okay. Somerset get eight updates. >> Yes. So, we had a meeting last week. Um, we had a presentation from some of our Somerset Middle School students about some of the win offerings, what I need lock offerings. And we had an update on our Spanish class, which Spanish has returned to Somerset Middle School in a different model. So, we were uh excited for some pretty immediate feedback after re-implementing a Spanish class this year. We approved the grade
0728 trip to Washington DC. Um we and there's um a DC dunk fundraiser that occurs in January, I believe. So, if you're interested in freezing for a good cause, I'll let you know the date, the exact date. >> January 10th. >> Thank you. I thought it was the 11th. So, thank you. The 10th. Um we received um an update on student intervention services at Somerset Middle School as that was um a a topic that we discussed thoroughly during budget season. Um we had a great teaching and learning update. Uh notably North Elementary School was one of 61 schools who uh is identified as a school of recognition for their growth in their MCCAST scores. We're very excited to celebrate that. Um, we also got some general feedback um from the administration about the MCAST scores
073across the district and we're going to be uh receiving like a full report probably at an upcoming meeting. So, we're looking forward to that. Um we also discussed some articles for um special town meeting including um MSBA funding approval for the North Elementary window project um which is timesensitive which is why we would be going to a special town meeting. Um we talked about traffic signals for um purchasing you know traffic signals for outside the streets outside of our schools as well. Um, and we talked about just some prior year invoices from a specific vendor that would have to be dealt with at um, the next town meeting. Um we talked about possible plans for our upcoming retreat which the date has to be determined but we've um sort of locked in that we're going
074to use that retreat to develop protocols um through the guidance of the MASC so that way we can um more effectively efficiently run our meetings and have an understanding about the expectations from all parties. Um we had our financial and business updates. I provided an update on the redistricting subcommittee. Um and the update is that we are we have currently selected a redistricting model for the elementary level to explore for further research. We are not saying that this um is what we are going to be recommending to the full committee. We're just deciding this is the model we're going to research and compare to our current neighborhood schools. Um, and because we can't research every possible model, it we don't there's not even there's not even enough time to research one model, never mind, right?
075All of them. Um, and we also had an update on the Somerset Middle School building committee. Um, as we are still continuing that project, you know, it goes on long before the long beyond when the school actually opens. So, and I think that was pretty much it. Thank you. Uh, next on the agenda, topics not anticipated by the chair. I have nothing. Anyone have anything? Great. Um, action items for future meetings. Anything in addition to what we've discussed? >> Would you like a uh MCCAST AP presentation as we've done in the past? I know we haven't really I gave you an high level overview of AP at the end of the summer, but I know that's typically a Novemberish item. I'm not sure what your thoughts are for that. we can >> move off. I
076>> Well, I I my personal is I I I always love that information, but I feel like the November meeting um I feel like there's plenty of work to do on the around the competency determination which there's obviously informed by cash, right? So, I don't know about the other folks committee. Um I know the AP news was great. >> Um so, we can punt on that for a little bit. I think if unless you're really dying for us to put it on the agenda for we can wait. Um anything else? Um next item on the agenda is to um consider approval of open session minutes for September 16th, 2025, which you have in your packet. Does anyone have any amendments or questions? If not, I would entertain a motion to approve the open session minutes
077of September 16th, 2025 as presented. >> Second. >> Motion by Miss Ferrer and seconded by Miss O'Brien. Is there anything further on discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I >> opposed. So voted. Um, we did move um public input to the beginning of the agenda, but I didn't but I'm happy to open it up again if there's if there is any. >> No. Okay. Um, in that case, I would entertain a motion to adjurnn. So move. >> Second. >> Okay. Motion by Miss Fer and seconded by Miss Ashley. All those in favor? I opposed. So voted. Thank you everyone.