School Committee Meeting - 5/21/2025

001Good evening everyone. Welcome to the May 21st, 2025 regular meeting of the class school committee. Would all members who are present please indicate so in roll call. Mr. Dial is not present. Um Mr. Evans >> present. >> Mr. Hannah is not present. Mrs. Leki >> present >> and President the chair is present. That gives us a quorum of three panel members. So I will officially call the meeting to order and I would ask that all who are able to please stand for the recitation of our nation pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the republic which stands one nation under God indivisibley and justice. >> Okay. Thank you everyone. Welcome again. Just a reminder the meeting is being broadcast on class of 143 TV. It's being livereamed on Facebook. You can also

002tune in virtually utilizing the link that appears at the top of our agenda. Log on Zoom, join the Zoom meeting, and you are able to send your questions and comments and concerns via the question and answer feature on Zoom. Uh, speaking of which, uh, the first um, well, I guess there's one item before public comment, but I'll just talk about public comment now. When we get to public comment, you're welcome to use the Q&A feature in Zoom to make public comment, share any sort of uh concerns or questions. Uh if your concerns or questions related to something that's on the agenda, just wait until we get to that point in the meeting and we'll address them. I will be monitoring uh the Q&A uh intermittently throughout the meeting. So, do not worry if you didn't

003have time to make public comment. We'll get to that in just a minute. Though, there was one issue that is an atypical um agenda item uh following um the election. With every town election comes the need to reorganize our committee. And I would like to formally welcome our new committee member, Mr. Corey Evans, who comes to us after having served his town uh his community of Cohasset uh in a number of different capacities, including but not limited to as a select board member, as a capital budget member, a capital budget committee member, excuse me, and as a member currently chair of the steering committee of our uh safe harbor organization in town. Um again, it's not everything, just some highlights of Mr. Evans's past service to our town. We're lucky to have him. He is

004also a school public school parent. And uh we thank you, Mr. Evans, for your continued dedication to the education of Cohassid's children and your willingness to volunteer your time and serve on this committee. Welcome, welcome, welcome. We're lucky to have you. >> Uh we do reorganize the committee in that we um nominate every year. We'll nominate and consider different officer positions and different subcommittee and liaison positions. However, we obviously don't have a full panel of five members. So, it doesn't make a great deal of sense to do that at this meeting. So, we will suspend that uh for the next meeting, but I would like to formally ask for a motion to suspend that item till the next meeting. Is there a motion to that effect? >> Is there a second? Seconded by Mr. Evans.

005Motion's made by Miss Ley. All in favor? I >> opposed extensions. Motion carries by a quorum of a majority, excuse me, of three members. So, we shall do that. Now, we get to public comment. So, if you do have a public comment, uh, please use the Q&A feature. I'll give you a second to generate that. In the meantime, I'll see if anyone in the audience I think they're all invited guests we're going to hear from in just a moment. I think people have had a few minutes to generate a question answer anyway. So, I don't see any. Again, I'll intermittently check these. So, don't worry. Uh, we'll always always always hear from you and take your input in consideration. even if it's out of order a bit, we will always air on the side of

006participation and input from our community. So, we'll move on at this time straight into our invited guests. Uh, first we have our um high school principal with us to present um his school improvement plan. So, I'd asked Principal Brian Scott, our wonderful and talented high school principal, to please come forward and share with us his school improvement plan for Kasaka High School. Welcome, Principal Scott. >> Sure. >> Um, so we can pull the um >> PowerPoint up. That would be great. >> Um, our school improvement plan for next year is is on hold pending um some work around the strategic plan. So we'll align that very closely and it'll drill down from the school improvement goals to um my goals and and teacher goals um as it relates to what the initiatives are that take

007precedence that will decide between now and September. Um the school improvement plan for the last two years has really been dictated a little bit by Nesk and that's our accrediting firm the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. We had um if you've ever watched the movie Back to School, it was one goal in 37 parts. So um really it was involved in aligning our curriculum, having that in a written and consistent format um and then coming up with some benchmark assessments that are common and common assessments across similar courses so that ideally it's not teacher dependent on the experience that a student has. Obviously, there's some uh teacher autonomy with with how they teach, but ultimately we want students to be able to lead with the skill same skills and content regardless of the

008teacher. We did a lot of work in that area and made a lot of progress. Before I get to those couple of highlights uh from the year, uh in September, we were voted as what could be perhaps the last blue urban school um from the Department of Education nationally. We invited down to DC for a nice reception. Um it's an award that you can only get every five years. It's very rare. Um and so we're very fortunate to the the recipient of that. Aligning with that, uh Massachusetts Desi uh named us as a school of recognition. This year we found out that the state also nominated us to to the um federal government for a national green ribbon. Uh and they have not continued with that practice. But if it's anything like the blue ribbon,

009it really would have been just verifying what our application was. So very proud of coach A and the green team for um being able to achieve that. Couple other academic distinctions. Uh we were an AP honoral platinum distinction um school from the college board. That relates to AP testing both the number of students who test it is open enrollment um and also the results of those tests to students scoring three and above which is considered mastery. We just went through our accreditation process and anticipate that we will get our dennial accreditation. Obviously in the fall the boys won the state title which is their first state state soccer championship and our seniors are currently mostly deciding schools. We have a couple of kids who are waiting on some weight list decisions, but everyone who applied

010to schools uh got into a 4-year college. Um with about 50% of students reporting they were accepted to over 151 different schools. Um and 99% of students will attend a four-year college next year. So very proud of their their efforts and the results. Uh we have a couple of schools that were listed u based on about half of the kids reported so far. Like I said, some are still waiting. Some are waiting for financial aid packages, but uh the list is broad and national and diverse and um you know, runs from the Naval Academy to uh Dartmouth College to Alabama and schools in the south and all the way out west. One of our students just got off a wait list at USC. So really um really proud of not just the caliber of schools

011that they were able to get into but the the thought process that went into finding the right fit for each one of them. Um and I think that the kids are very happy with their choices and you know I hope that um it's a very wonderful four years. I think they have a lot of opportunities. >> So not to interrupt you but just to pause there briefly yeah and uh really let that sink in. Um that list of accomplishments was tremendous. Um, we have an incredible school system here in Cohassid and uh, if anyone's seen our high school, especially our upper classmen present, uh, or any of their projects, they're impressive. >> Yeah. >> They're, uh, they perform at a very high level. And um that uh this time of year is it's um it's

012my favorite time of year because um it causes me to reflect on the achievement of the entire district. It's not just the graduating class. The graduating class is a reflection um of the passion, the dedication, and just the incredible um academic product that we deliver these kids from the time they're prek up and through their metriculation senior year. And it's because of our dedicated, incredible staff. We have a ridiculously passionate and committed teachers here. Um there's a huge amount of intellectual horsepower in this district. and uh our building leaders and our administration is also excellent and dedicated um and uh you know you're sitting there I've said it to Mr. Mills behind you as well as well as to principal Sullivan and principal Godette. Um but you know you are an excellent building principal. You're

013an excellent high school principal and uh that is certainly a large contributing factor to the list of achievements just rattled off and I know we casually do that and they're part of the slot representation but it's a huge deal and everyone needs to know the level of education that their kids are getting in the school district. So >> I would put it up against any school in the country in terms of our examples. I think u and you're as good as the people who are around. So I I don't step foot in the classroom. I haven't taught a course in cohasset. I am just lucky to work with people who are really passionate about what they do and I'm really energized about the direction that we're going. So >> thank you. >> Yeah. So it's

014great. >> Sorry for the interruption. It's important that we think about that stuff. >> Um so we had one goal which was really to develop these formal processes for collaboration and and PD and that broke into several parts. One like I said was the development of a written curriculum. Um so we did that uh NEAS um evaluated that they they loved it. They thought it was very clean and and current. So uh we have that going forward which is great. The next part of that was to develop some benchmark assessments. We did that as well and that took the better part of a couple of years. We started with um some courses are kind of prescribed like AP courses. They have a set curriculum. They have a set timeline. They have a set exam. Um

015and then we have some interim assessments that we do along the way. But other core courses is where we really started and then branched off to the electives which are usually one ops taught by one person. So theoretically everything is a common assessment if you have one teacher. But our focus really was on the chemistries, the biologies, the US histories, the English ts, the courses that are shared. Um and we're when we meet as a faculty on Friday, we're going to share out uh as a common faculty what we did and what some of the driving questions and forces were around the choices we made for what to be assessed and how we were going to do that. So I'm proud of the work that we've done there. A couple others um are going to

016take a little bit more time. And one is uh really the process the more formal process of looking at at student learning uh looking at student wellbeing and using that data to inform instruction changes and our assessment practices. Some of that's embedded in the new strategic plan and some of that we're going to redefine uh or renegotiate what the role of department heads is. Um so some of this is tied into uh some more district level conversations around uh who and what is responsible for whom but I think we all agree that and we do this now we just do it in a little bit more informal way. taking a look at the types of data we have whether that is larger kind of satellite data or whether that is student focus group anecdotal data

017that we get and and measuring our progress uh both on of the academic rig area and of the student well-being and making sure that we're aligned in how we support all of the students that come through here. So that's in process. Uh the next one is to kind of develop those those structures around that. So once we kind of negotiate the technical pieces of it and put this into motion next year, then we'll have a good kind of running trial of what types of data we should look at, how often and for what purpose. Um I think sometimes schools can have data dictated to them, sometimes by outside forces, you know, MCCAST results, SAT scores, AP results, but uh I think our our metrics are pretty good. And I think uh what Superintendent Shannon says

018often is we're really looking to make sure we cover 100% of the students. Uh not just those students who really excel at those um broader level tests and metrics, but really making sure that field students feel like they belong here, that they are welcome here, that they have a purpose, that we want them to be here, and that they have a voice. And I think the more data we can look at in terms of that stuff, the more um full education we can give students. And it's one of the reasons that I love working in a small district because we really can individualize our program of studies and our our career paths or college paths for each and every kid. And and I think uh we have the horsepower to do that and I think

019we have the data to do that. I think we just need to put in some structures that make that streamlined. Um we've done that with our NTSS process. I think that's that's pretty robust as it is right now. Um, but I think there's always room for improvement and uh, as I said, I think we have a faculty that's invested in it and and energetic about doing some of the things that we all know will drive a a happy successful student, you know, student with a sense of purpose really. So, to that point, um, there's there's a number of things in the strategic plan that I think we want to start. the ones that are in italicized. I think we can start a little bit quicker than some of the others. Um, we do want to

020deeper student learning. And I won't get into too much because I know we're going to go over the strategic plan today, but we want to come up with some um deeper learning strategies that falls under our tier one intervention bucket. You know, what are we doing for all kids in the classroom? Uh, how are we assessing student work? What are we assessing? Um, does it make sense? You know what? I would love for our students and our parents to be able to walk into a a student conference and know specifically what skills our students are falling down in and what they can do to improve as opposed to student receives a B+ or a B minus on a report card. It doesn't tell me much. If I go into Aspen and there are 35 assignments

021and some of them in Spanish, I don't necessarily know what that means. I don't know if the student can write and speak uh and read in the the native language. Um so to put a finer point on that and and give students a roadmap uh to be successful in those particular areas I think is one of the things that we can we decide to do. The other thing that we want to do is balance that academic rigor. And again, we'll talk about this a little bit later with um celebrating student wellness and really getting them engaged in authentic dialogue that one has them articulate their story, has them value their own story, has them see that story uh as having a place in our school system and in our classrooms. uh and really um using

022the community as leverage to be able to articulate their worth and their skill set in a way that benefits everybody in the community. And I think um if we can communicate what we already do a little bit more, that's going to go a long way in really uh demonstrating the the skills and the compassion um and the energy that our students have. uh but also I think it's going to make them feel good about what they're learning and make that learning more engaging and have more of a a practical output and and see a real connection to uh what we're doing in real life. So, um so those are some of the things that we'll work on. Again, you know, we'll we'll talk about them in the strategic plan, but once we put a finer

023point on timelines and actual initiatives, we'll have a more robust strategic uh or school improvement plan for next year that will be voted on in the fall. Okay. >> Yeah. >> Thank you very much, Principal Scott. Uh, any questions for Principal Scott? Comments? Uh, just go around in alphabetical order. Start with Mr. Evans. >> My first presentation, so time. Thank you. Great. Have some in the future. Must >> Thank you for this. Um, I I always feel like when you get to that last 20% >> of any project is the hardest part. Um, and so I love how you you sort of took you've really sort of um >> made that concrete um for yourself and for the the the school building to sort of say like what are those steps that we're going to

024need to take and what are the what's our timeline here to finish up those last sort of those sort of in the yellow zone um um items. So, um I just think strategically I appreciate that and of course um where it's going absolutely. >> Yeah, me too. So, thank you. >> Yeah, >> thank you very much, Mr. Leski. Principal Scott, uh thanks so much for the presentation. I don't have any specific questions. And I did just want to add a caveat to what I had said earlier. Um because anytime that I sing our praises um which is really important to do in this case. I also uh I I neglected to do this and I always want to recognize that there are certainly families that still struggle. Their students still struggling >> despite uh what

025I think is a really excellent education we're offering here. Um and uh it is an unending quest. uh we will fervently endeavor to ensure that each and every student uh has all the have all the resources that they need to succeed. We always will do that and we recognize that the district is only as strong as our most vulnerable learner and I just want everyone to know that you know as you hear if if your student is still struggling you're hearing us talk about how great a school district we we have. We do believe that, but at the same time, we understand that it's it's it's doesn't mean that every single student is currently realizing the level of success that they can, and we'll continue to to ensure that they have the support that they

026need. >> Yeah. And that'll be my personal vendetta. You know, I want kids to come through here and say that it was the best experience they had up until this point in their life. Um, and I think as an educator, you want that on a philosophical level. I think, you know, one of the things that's changed me is becoming a parent and seeing my own daughter's struggles with certain things and and watching how things could be done a little bit differently and really listening to her and um what she has to tell me about her experience because it's different than our experience. Um and I think we continue to do same things the same way. Yes, we will probably continue to test well and whatever, but it was never the goal to be in school.

027The goal was to deliver the best product for each each student individually, and that's still the goal. if we get awards in the meantime. Wonderful. Makes the walls look nice. >> That's right. Well, thank thank you for saying that, Congressman Scott. Appreciate that. And if your learner is struggling, just let us all know. Every one of our building leaders, our teachers, our administrators are all very interested in that ready and willing to help. >> Great. >> Principal Scott, thank you so much as always. Uh, and we're going to just uh I'll note that um the handbook is for both the middle school and the high school. uh they appear on our um agenda but they're not quite ripe for discussion so we will need to table those topics um but they will be presented in

028the very near future I believe at the next meeting >> we do need to do that >> yes >> uh so just question we're going to as we have principal Scott here right now we're just going to >> go to the task but we want to go to the cell phone now okay >> all right so if we can shift gears sure >> maybe entirely here to different concept, the cell phone task force that you've been running for the last several months uh in conjunction with the community read of anxious generation and us trying to respond to that. Could you please uh provide us the intro sort of a little bit of background for the community and then whatever you'd like to share with us? >> Yeah, absolutely. Um so as as um Mr. McCullen

029mentioned, we had a community read on the anxious generation which does talk about um a couple of different things. talks about technology and the impact that that's had on students and it also talks about the parenting styles and the the need for students to have a little bit more unstructured play uh in the broadest aspect of that. So, one of the things that we did in response to the the read was to come up with a committee that had parents, teachers, students, uh school committee administrators. We had about 19 members, 20 I guess if you include me. And we met nine times between October through April and then ran a pilot period in April where we the students would call this a phone ban. I think that's a little harsh. I think it was a

030phone experiment. Uh where we didn't allow um cell phones in the building for any purpose. Um we didn't use yonder pouches. you didn't um you know overly scrutinize the kids. Um you we'd have to add some gentle reminders here and there, but for most parts we asked the kids to put it away, which is what they were used to in middle school, and had very little resistance and saw uh anecdotal improvement. Um I don't think it's ever been a real problem in class. Uh I think the the bigger social aspect was always a concern around lunches and break time and sometimes in passive periods. and we did a pre- and post survey with the students and we we found a couple of things that that were I guess disappointing uh in terms of student stress

031and there wasn't necessarily a direct one to one correlation between student stress and cell phone usage because there are other factors you know that we did it over the use of the quarter when you get into the spring the tensions get a little bit higher around college acceptances so there are a lot of things that that contribute to student stress but one of the things that really came out were some of the challenges that students had. We saw less social media um I don't want to say bullying but less social media challenges for students um in that regard. That was a benefit. We saw more talking at lunch. We saw more conversing and really even after we've gone away from that, we haven't seen a big drop um in students talking to each other at

032lunch. So I think they see the value in that. So, and our our findings kind of mimicked a survey that came out in the Lancet, which was a survey of about 30 different European schools that have had no cell phone policies for about five or six years. And they had the same findings. They said that that on its own banning phones in schools doesn't change student behavior. It just transfers that behavior to after school. And that's what our students reported. They they also reported that there's a real fear of not knowing. um I wouldn't say a fear of missing out, but a fear of not knowing what their parents are up to, not knowing what their rides are going to be, not knowing um kind of what's going on in their social world in a

033way that I don't think a lot of the adults in the building ever experienced. And so it was interesting to hear their their responses to those surveys. And the Lancet's recommendations really were that schools can do a piece of that and we need a partnership at home which I think is the right message to send uh and a difficult one as a parent um because it's tough to monitor and there are other obligations that um you know you have to do besides watching your kids 24/7 and what they're what they're on. But I do think that there's some benefit to it and I think that our cell phone task committee and then our school council both recommended that we restrict the use of cell phones in school. The the kind of um challenge point seemed

034to be around whether or not we should allow it at all and how much. And both groups ultimately decided it should be off limits in class. It really should be off limits in lunch. school council took it a little bit further and said it really should be off limits and break. And so then we were just talking about policing it on the hallways. It is going to be very difficult to police if we do it. Um I'm not that concerned about it. I I'm I I feel like we can manage it. I feel like there are some individual circumstances where you know, yeah, we do have some students that sit um kind of by themselves at lunch and would read a book during the trial period and and are on their phone during the other

035periods. We have some students who would watch March Madness games. that doesn't really bother me because it is a little bit of a social event. Um, >> I apologize. Just to be clear, when you said >> it doesn't really bother >> doesn't really concern you, did you mean that >> you wouldn't have trouble enforcing it or that the student behavior even on the edges isn't isn't such that it would cause concern >> the like depending on the student behavior. If everyone's gathering around watching a madeup video of somebody else, that's a problem. >> Yeah. if a group of boys is sitting around rooting for Indiana State, I don't see that as necessarily a huge issue. Um, and I don't know how I want to treat that individual student who's still struggling to find his or

036her place in in in the lunchroom. I think we need to work on that. Um, >> but you see flexibility and enforcement as a positive. >> Yeah, I think I think that we can deal with that on a student by student uh level. Um but really the the question for the committee will be uh because ultimately both groups said that it because it's more of a public problem it probably needs more of a public dialogue. How much we want to restrict that in schools and it could be as much as we don't want phones at all which I think is the way the state's going anyway. I don't have a problem with that. Or it could be potentially during passive periods where students will check to see what what their messages are. I don't have

037a problem with that either. Um, one of the things that that students found challenging is that they thought that some teachers were overly aggressively enforcing that, which kind of soued a relationship if you don't know the student well enough. Um, that's something that I would transfer to myself and the assistant principal to try to enforce and work with our adjustment counselors and um, again look at every student individually and try to figure out what exactly they're doing. there are students who are very distracted um and are on games and you can see it in some of our filters and stuff like that that I think has no place and I think the the cyber issues that that cause student relationship tensions are real and we saw those go away. So I think to the extent

038that we can eliminate social media that's great. I think the practical reality is that it's it's going to be a work in process and it needs to be a little bit of cultural shift. So, uh, I think both models can work and I would defer to the committee to, um, choose whichever one you think is most effective and we will implement it. >> All right. Well, thank you, uh, very much for that, Principal Scott. Um, Mr. Evans, do you have any other questions, Principal Scott or comments? >> So, I've got comments on the policy. Do you want to just with Brian here, Mr. Scott here, or is this what do you want me to reference at this point? >> You have comments about the policy, >> thoughts about where we should go? Yes. >> Okay.

039Yeah. So, so the there's been a there's a new book that came out which I think would tie off for the most anxious generation is the disengaged team. This came out in January. I'm sure this has come across your desk. >> And I do think as we go down your point earlier about how hard it is to kind of pinpoint a data set that really gives us clear direction is true. But I think in the broader data set, we're really seeing the damage that these are that >> devices really are doing as a broad thing. And as as I read more, you know, I I'm drawn to the conclusion that less connectivity, less devices is a better way to go in a macro. >> The other thing I think I lean on is if you're

040going to set expectations, I think there's a benefit for those expectations to be very clear and very easy to understand. And I I absolutely agree deferring to your individual judgment, but I think if we try to slice up a schedule to say yes, no, yes, no, it just invites those kind of difficult conversations you're referencing before. Well, this is a between period. Well, I'm waiting for So, I land on this that fully restrictive phone policy, I think, puts students first. I think it puts experience first. And I think if as things come up, we have the leadership. Yes, that's that's one. >> Thank you. Those thoughts, Mr. Evans, Miss Slesky, >> any questions or thoughts? >> Oh, lots. But I'll keep it to my three minutes. I have no I don't have lots. Um, having

041sat on the school council and being able to hear from students was and and faculty was really helpful in terms of my understanding of this issue. Um, but like Mr. Evans, I think ultimately um and maybe it's because I don't understand the high school student, I understand the middle school students, so I understand those kids that are coming to you who see the gray area as being really unfair. >> So not being able to say like, "Oh, well, this child in particular, this student in particular gets a little wiggle room, but I don't." >> Sure. >> And that and I think it just it it it impacts morale overall. Um, that being said, I have a feeling by the time you're 18, you get it a little bit better than your average 12 or 13year-old.

042Yeah. Um, and so perhaps that's not an issue, but it was something that I thought about. Um, and that I see all of this as teachable moments. >> Um, I think there are um really wonderful teachable moments about how to deal with the discomfort of not knowing, >> how to deal with personal discomfort in general. And I think we've become we're we're all in an age where our comforts and our need to know can be met in a second instead of sitting with the discomfort of oh my gosh like mom said she was going to pick me up but now I'm not sure cuz it's raining >> right >> or it's 3:02. Is mom late or not coming? Has she forgotten me? >> Um and and those that's actually a teachable moment. >> Yeah. >>

043Um I've been forgotten before. Um and and like you kind of >> and you're still here. >> I'm still here. I've survived. Um, and now granted I I grew up that way. I did, you know, it was a pay phone or collect call. So, it's a very different generation as an adult imposing my own um, experience on this. Um, but that being said, um, you know, I think there's some addictive qualities of phones that play into this, too. So, taking those phones out completely of the school day, I think eventually that need to look will subside. I think teaching children, well, what do you do when you don't know? If you're really panicked about it, can you go to guidance and use the phone and make a phone call? You probably can. >> Yeah. You

044probably send an email. >> Yeah. I I think your point about having students sit with the unknown is huge and it it market changed from when I started teaching 20 years ago. >> Yeah. >> Um because you're not in your room by yourself living with your own boredom. Um and to your point, Mr. Evans, there is a movement now even in edtech that we've overtechnologized students and we need to pull back from that a little bit and I think there's a lot of merit in both of those. >> Um, and then I feel like that the other teachable moment that I would just encourage you and your team to look at is the socially supporting one another. It breaks my heart to know that their kids even at 18 and even if they say they're

045choosing to sit by themselves because they need some downtime that they're sitting by themselves and they're distracting themselves which again I'm just projecting means that there's potentially there's some discomfort that I have to look at my phone if I'm going to be by myself or I have to read my book because I'm going to be myself. Granted, I've sometimes wanted to just be by myself, right? >> But when you have habitual kids that don't have that support, >> I think they need it. Um, and they need it for when they're saying like, "I don't know who's going to pick me up." And they can say that to their friend or is is lacrosse gonna be canceled? I don't know. I mean, and they should be able to help each other with that and not just

046turn to getting an answer. Yeah. >> But so I Yeah. So I I would be in support of a complete >> um ban on cell phones um >> in school. >> Yet Mr. Um, first of all, thanks for leading that charge, Principal Scott. Um, they were early morning meetings. Uh, I I was at a number of them and, uh, they were they were interesting. There's a lot of discourse. Um, and then the faculty members, it was a great discussion actually. It was good that we had students there as well. So, thank you for that. Um, I uh will note that, you know, this will ultimately be a policy consideration that will fall on the school committee, but we'll want to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to share their perspectives on it. It's something

047that I think will be considered as impactful for our high school families. So, we're not going to be making any decisions tonight. Um, we'll have to message when we are. Um, and uh, let me ask you, what is what is what's going on right now? because we're past the pilot period. Are is it back to what it was? >> So, technically it's back to what it was. Some people asked if we could extend it because it was working so well. And my personal response to that was we told the kids it was a trial. We need to honor that as a trial. >> Um but having said that, it hasn't shifted back to really where it was. they've kind of taken the good um and and kept going with that because ultimately I've always found

048that students are self-interested and they see the benefit for them personally. Sometimes it helps to have an enforcer or helps to have a rule to say, "Sorry, it's not my fault. I'd be on it all day. Got to get it. I don't have to." You know, um so I I've seen residual benefit from it even though we've gone back to no policy basically. Well, I think that that underscores the importance of this effort in that to me what's happened and this is I think sort of what the anxious generation to me the major takeaway was that there was this there was this culture shift towards technology >> and that wasn't necessarily a wholly beneficial culture culture shift, right? So we needed to course correct. That was what the author was advocating for because we were

049depriving ourselves especially developing adolescent minds of important social engagement of uh those those lessons that you Mrs. Lisu you talked about. That's exactly what we're stripping our young ones of the abil their their resilience. Um you know this is going to be another culture shift, right? And so they're going to have to get used to it a little bit, but it's going to I think be a gift for them in the long run. And um because because the way I see it is that they they may now think like, oh, I'm worried about, you know, my my usage is going to go up after school because I have to get it all in because I'm I'm worried about that. But eventually they'll be relying on that less and less, right? It's just this it's going

050to be a slow roll. So the immediate consequences are are what we're seeing in the in the survey results. But I don't feel that that's what's going to be the long term. Eventually the the point is to become less dependent on these devices. >> Yeah. >> And I think return to a little bit of a state of of higher resilience. So um I think to me a lot of people are looking at this like it's a distraction in the classroom. To me that wasn't the major takeaway with anxious generation. to me it was the social the social elements were the most important and and the most striking. >> Yeah. >> And uh and the most concerning. So uh you know we're going to have I don't know we'll figure out a way to make sure

051that everyone's able to share. I mean, there's not a I think we'll want to do this so that the upcoming academic year reflects the policy change, but we obviously have a a little bit of time to make sure that we get um uh everyone's input and we're messaging about it, advertising that so everyone can share their thoughts when they when the time comes for a decision. >> Yeah. >> And we'll just adhere to the the standard. This will be the introduction. we'll at some point message about a robust discussion that you know a full deliberation and then we'll do vote and implementation as a third sort of time where people have a third opportunity to share perspective but um in the meantime this was uh I think a really worthwhile endeavor thanks for all the

052time >> I think what's important for people to know is it's it's not a singular issue so when we start to talk about the strategic plan more broadly in this meeting the connection to technology is can be replaced by human connection And there are different ways that we can do that that have no bearing on technology. It's really encouraging face to face conversation and and genuine authentic dialogue. And I think once you are connected to human beings, you don't need to be connected to Instagram uh or whatever it is. >> 100%. Mrs. Ley's concern about someone by themselves at lunch, >> right? Do you do we think that students that are able to use their phones at lunch are less likely or more likely to look over and see, you know, someone that might be

053by themselves and maybe someone will take it upon themselves to go over there. To me, they're far less likely to do that if they're on their phones. Right. >> I think if we can build more authentic connection, then that naturally resolves that challenge. >> Yeah. >> so uh to be continued. >> Yep. >> And thank you very much for all that. Thank you to all the members of the cell phone task force, I think we called this. Yeah. uh that uh that that came here in this room very early uh in the morning. Students, faculty members, parents, thank you all for doing that. >> Great. Thank you. >> Thank Principal Scott. >> All right. Uh our middle school principal is also with us today. Principal John Mills, come on down. >> Testing on the Price

054is Right. Principal Mills is here to talk to us about the school improvement plan at the Cohassid Middle School. Hand meeting off to you. >> Thank you for having me. Uh similar to the high school, uh this presentation is more about um an end of the year look at uh CMS and school improvement plan as next year's school improvement plan is really going to be uh aligned with the strategic plan that'll be presented later. Um, by way of just a couple uh highlights for the year, um, we opened our CMS garden this year and I think it was a great metaphor for what happened uh, throughout the year at CMS where um, we continued to grow and uh, we were able to really produce some some great things and some memorable moments uh, besides the

055garden. Uh academically uh our kids continued to uh find success on MCAT ELA MCCAST. Uh two of the three grades were in the top five in the state including uh uh we're tops in the state in ELA for grade six. Uh MCAT math continues to grow. uh at the beginning of the year our first I already benchmark showed that uh pool rate almost 85% of our kids were already at grade level uh might be at or at the beginning of grade level and just a little under uh this is the high 70s for math. So we started the year in great shape shows that last year had a lot of success and I know that kids have continued to improve. We're doing the last already June 2nd. Um and then also to focus on our

056eighth grade civics class. Our kids who do uh projects around sustainability and fulfillment of the state civics requirement um uh throughout the year had great success and uh several are going to be in the state uh competition for uh best projects. So academically I think it was a really successful year. Uh as far as wellness and where our kids are, we do um anal survey called pair. It's an acronym. At the beginning of the year, I think it was the our best year for when we look at strengths and challenges, uh the numbers of challenges, especially more intense challenges tended to be lighter than it had been in prior years. So, I feel like kids are doing well and then uh our with our connections with community and after school things uh with new field

057trips throughout the year um both in town and uh places like uh Patriots Hall of Fame. Uh in just a couple weeks we're going to BARB with a whole grade and um to treetop adventures. So, there's some great community building that's going on within the grades. Uh the um student council continues to grow and they just put they had a great year of fundraising in the fall for hurricane relief and then they just put on a great uh really successful dance. uh our afterchool activities, our after school enrichment program continued to grow and really the highlight there um was the uh a parent had initiated uh a a group a curriculum called TURPs that I don't think I could come up with an explanation of the acronym that produces TERPS but it's very similar to

058DECA. It's it's about uh developing young entrepreneurs. Uh we had hoped for five or six kids. we had almost 20 and uh as a culminating event, a capstone for their experience. Uh we had a marketplace set up at the district's mosaic event and really it was really wellreceived and the kids did a great job. U so they you know they they were talking about having established the tradition and they'd like to keep doing it. So like the after school >> they're really proud of themselves >> was they were very they should have been uh we were proud of them as well. And then uh both the courses uh being offered after school as well as the number of kids involved went up. Uh notably in the fall, our cross country team um cross a lot

059of finish lines, but they crossed the line of 50 uh our biggest team previously had been about 50. This year we had 55 to 57 runners through through the fall. So we're only a school of 299. So we have one out of six kids competing. It's a success. So, we had a great year and uh like I said, it's like the garden. We continue to grow and it's it's robust and uh we had a great year. So, those are highlights. As far as the school improvement plan, our school improvement goal number one was around academic growth. We uh strengthening the MTSS process. I think we showed uh we had a lot of um uh we made some uh nice achievements. First bullet speaks to the establishment of benchmarks uh in all classes that really will

060allow us in the future to um really support tier one instruction by know you know figuring out or being a able to identify whether or not students have identifi uh I should say acquired uh targeted skills in each of their classes. Uh our use of data has continued to improve. Uh we established a data dialogue to look back at I Ready and MCCAST in the fall around ELA and MAP. Um uh through the year our tier 2 and tier three advent uh interventions continue to grow. Specifically, you're we did more pushin services as opposed to identified students being pulled out and missing a class to work with kids. We were doing more pushing in with our interventionists. So the number of students when a when an interventionist like a reading specialist pushes into a class

061they they they're there to help some targeted students but invariably they help the whole class. So the numbers of students in these settings that uh receive benefits and support from our interventionists uh had to be our highest year this year by by being able to make those changes. Um we still have work to do on um uh around intensive math support. We piloted a a program. Jury's still out. We're going to give it a second year. Um and that's for a very small group and um as is we made progress, but we're not there yet around PD, especially for our MTSS team around uh being able to um measure growth and uh and goals. And then as we look ahead, we'll continue to refine our intervention models and continue to grow our PD and and

062uh the knowledge of our teachers around tier one, which connects to other things and um really sustain our support for all learners. So, uh we made a lot of good progress. We still have, you know, some work to do there. School improvement goal number two was around student wellness and positive school culture. Uh a lot of green lights here. We're really happy with the growth of uh restorative justice or or not not so much the use of it in a disciplinary uh vein but really around culture building and our use of uh circles during interventions. We did it in six uh grades six and seven. We've grown the number of facilitators so we're able to do two grades at once and um we we really saw a growth in that with the establishment of that

063program in a very grassroots way. Um lots of community building events as talked about uh both in school as well as field trips. Um our inclusivity club is really uh continue to develop and take a lot of leadership uh around the building as well as um uh some of the work our counselors have done uh around uh support groups like lunch bunch groups and executive functioning groups. Uh we continue to use things like pair and vocal to sort of see where we're where we are and it helps us identify programming at the beginning of the year and then gives us an opportunity to assess like our development uh by the end of the year. And really for next year, we just we look forward to expanding the use of circles for all grades at 8th

064grade so that all kids will have those opportunities to experience that which gives them a chance to develop voice and uh connection. Um and then lastly, our third student improvement goal is around our uh work with our community and our parents. Uh I think we the same thing. We made some nice uh growth. We've added parent PSO parent reps. So we have a parent rep for each grade uh which has been great for planning. Um uh we invited parents to come in and work with us our kids uh in the afterchool enrichment program and be able to grow our offerings. I mentioned turfs. Um with our relationship with PSO we had a really great digital wellness collaboration and we hosted a speaker at the beginning of April Dr. Englander for BS Victoria State and really

065focused on providing resources and and strategies for parents uh to help them help their students develop responsible tech use. It was sort of a a bookend to um the uh anxious generation evening in September. Um, one of the areas for growth is uh parent uh parent um involvement and participation in things like a parent survey which we didn't get much of a response for this year. I'd like to think that maybe that means everyone's happy but uh would like to see more parents reaching out and giving us feedback and um continue to grow uh our collaborations with our parents. So looking ahead, uh really the next step will be to sort of incorporate some of the areas that we're still working on with the the district strategic plan uh and build our strategic plan for

0662526 uh align with both the strategic plan and those areas that we've made some progress. We still have some work to go. >> So it was a great year. >> All right. Thank you very much, Principal Mills. Any questions or comments relative to the Cohasset Middle School school? Mr. Evans at this time. Thank you very much. >> Yeah, sure. >> Mrs. Le. >> Well, having two middle schoolers, I think the middle school is great. >> It is great. It's and I think it's such a challenging um or maybe it's not challenging. Um it's it's a really interesting time in children's development. Um and it's it's confusing and exciting all at once. um that the same kids that you know are really standoffish also want to lean into you or hear hear their teacher read aloud

067or something like that all within the same day. So um you've got the roller coaster. Um >> sort of >> we share the >> Yes, >> we're we're on it too. >> Yes. Yes. Um so thank you for that. Um I think the staff is just absolutely fantastic um at the middle school and um happy middle schoolers um for the most part is a wonderful thing. Um, I was thinking about the the parent participation piece and I'm I it just made me think about and wonder just now that I feel like parent participation in the elementary schools is super intensive that as an elementary school parent I feel like you're at school feels like every other day >> to help out to participate in things like that. And I think sometimes when parents get to

068middle school they're a little burnt out and like okay yeah I'm ready for middle school too. Go take them. And I wonder how to create to to make that bridge a little um less abrupt um because I think it it is nice to still be in your students um school from time to time and whether or not that's you know parent adviserss on the yearbook or whatever it might be that there might be some roles or some ways to get parents to to sort of continue to engage in education the education of their children. But you should take lots of credit that at the AI presentation on Monday evening, >> it was all sixth grade parents. >> That's great. So yeah, >> you did a really nice job sort of pushing that out and in

069the newsletter. >> I'm also really uh pleased with the turnout for uh Dr. Englander in April. One of the things we learned from that and this is once again planning with uh my PSA is that we had the event for the parents but we planned a parallel event for students at the same time. we kind of it used as a fundraiser to help support uh learning commons and the acquisition of books, but it enabled parents to come in, send the kids in here and they had a great time and they had dinner and then we took the parents in the auditorium. I think sort of those sorts of uh family planning events might be easier than asking the parent to leave and come in by themselves. >> I agree, Pat. and maybe even an opportunity

070for high school students or seniors to help out with doing something planning something for the for the stu for the younger students for young families. >> And we had high school students that came in to help us facilitate uh the the the student event was a series of mystery rooms to solve around the school and a number of them were supervised by uh students from the high school. Absolutely wonderful kids. >> Yeah, it was really nice. I love the older younger. >> Thank you very much, Mr. Mr. Mills. I think goal number two is to stand up most to make ready to get the freedom of school culture. You and your team has have done an amazing job of that with the middle school, I think, in in past years as well. So, that is

071definitely a uh a continuous uh goal. I mean, that is not something that's new. I mean, I think there's a very positive school culture with middle school. Um, something that I think really jumparted with your coming on as middle school principal. And I know I'm going to take the words out of your mouth because you're going to say you're only strong with your amazing team. And you you always do give credit to your very capable and passionate staff. Uh but I I I do think that there was a there was a a a a market difference in the overall sort of independent culture surrounding CMS uh from the direction that that that you took it in as the building leader. Um and and and that our that our entire middle school staff continues to to

072take it in today. So that is just that that stands out to me when you're talking about the school improvement plan. I mean I love that we're constantly improving but it is all already very positive. I think culture in middle school I've been very happy with it. >> So, uh I can't agree with Miss Leki that I want more engagement when my my students get to middle school. I think the elementary school engagement process was enough for me and I'm ready for them to learn middle school. >> Um but uh but I welcome I I I applaud Missy's passion to be involved continuously. But there are there are lots of we we're exploring lots of different things and that includes you know parents coming in as as experts and we had um a parent in

073the other day in our eighth grade civics class who was able to speak about her experience uh within the criminal justice system and um you know whether maybe some students will go that way as far as a career but for everybody else it was boy the things that we've studied I can now talk to somebody in the field about it. Those are wonderful opportunities for parents. >> Oh, that's great. >> Yeah, >> that's a school committee goal as well. We're trying to we're trying to sort of build that and well, Scott also mentioned this in the the last presentation, but so I love that. I'm talking about, you know, coming in to do some sort of classroom uh work. >> Also, fill out the survey. Sorry, just >> It's true. It's true. Fill out the

074survey. There's a survey out there, you know, for if you have any skills you'd like to share with the kids or post shadowing programs or a one day internship or observation of what you do. We would love we would love that. The teachers would love to have that resource to incorporate into um their lesson plans and curriculum. So, please uh do that uh if you're at home. And it's called the what are we calling it? The community resource guide. It's been sent out >> every newsletter. Every newsletter must be towards the bottom, but it's in there somewhere. >> It is. >> And uh I don't know if it's available on the website. I don't know. I have the link. I'm not sure. >> Sure about that. >> We'll be pushing out again by email. So,

075just look on the lookout for that. So, thank you, Principal Mills, for everything you do. >> You are an excellent building leader and we're lucky to have you. Thank you. Nice to be here. >> All right. So, moving right along uh to the next block of our agenda, the superintendent report. I turn the meeting to our superintendent of schools, Sarah Shannon, finishing up her first academic year with us public schools. >> Almost almost there. Um so, thank you. Um so, first of all, I would like to also welcome Mr. Evans to the school committee. It is nice to have you. Um it's great because we've had the opportunity to work together capital planning process and so to have you more involved is very much welcome. Um so a few updates before we get to the

076main event of the strategic plan. Um this past not this past no was it this past Monday? No town meeting. >> I'm losing track of my days two Mondays ago. Um, I just want to thank the town and all of those who attended last week's town meeting for their support of both our capital budget request and our operational budget. Um, both passed the meeting and will be in effect as of July 1st. Um, truly this past Monday, the district hosted Greg Kulawick. Um he is somebody who has done a lot of work over the years with us as a district with regard to technology um and was also brought in first of all through the generosity of the CF. Um but in response to the work we've been doing all year with the anxious generation

077um he's also going to come back in the fall to speak with students at the high school level. but he really came to speak about AI and its growing role in our children's lives both in school and out of school and our lives as adults. Um, as educators and as just parents. Um, what I appreciate most about Greg's approach is that it's very balanced. He's cautious. He's optimistic. He's realistic. Um, and he does a really good job of sort of scaring you first and then bringing in some of the rational and relational parts of AI. Um, he doesn't have all the answers and will be the first to tell you, but he is the person who Desi just hired to help districts create policies and practices around AI. And so he shared with us that

078he is actually going to be creating resources for districts to do this work which is really timely because in our next segment we're going to talk about a strategic plan and that is going to be one of the pieces that we pick up as as an action item for next year. Um and I would say that Dr. Collins and I took a lot away from the presentation and we're looking forward to really digging into um this topic and what it looks like in the Kohasa public schools. Um there's also been a lot of really fun events over the last two weeks since our last meeting. Um a lot of showcasing of our students and what they produce. Um couple last week um we went to the Deer Hill performance of Aladdin which was super fun.

079Um it was always one of my favorite movies years ago and so to see it performed on stage was wonderful. Um the kids were funny and talented and just a big kudos to all the folks who help participate backstage as well. I don't think that you always um get the same acknowledgement because they are not up in front singing and dancing, but they are equally as important as those who are at the front of the stage. And want to celebrate our Ozgood students and the art they produced with Mrs. Miss Helston over the course of the school year. Um, the Ozgood Arts Night was last week and then last night all of our visual and performing arts students were showcased at the high school. Um, that was an amazing night and a great way to

080kick off the senior events um because they recognized all of the seniors who have participated in both visual and performing arts. I think there were moments where there weren't dry eyes in the audience. The chorus chose to sing some songs that I think if you are a parent sending your first child off to college were a little emotional, but they sounded wonderful. Um, a few upcoming events that people should be aware of. Tomorrow night at 6 PM, Safe Harbor is sponsoring Kevin Rosario as a speaker for district families. Um, that will happen right here in our auditorium. Kev Kevin is an experienced wellness ed advocate and the founder of addiction consulting and educational services. Um he's going to share valuable insights on how to talk effectively with teens about making positive decisions, building self-esteem, developing

081refusal skills, and fostering healthy communication. It's designed for parents, caregivers, and community members committed to fostering the well-being of youth on the Southshore and beyond. Um he's going to talk specifically about strategies to help prevent the dangers of peer pressure, particularly related to vaping and substance abuse as we talk about, you know, teachable moments and helping students develop tools and sit in moments of discomfort. A lot of our students turn to some of these unhealthy ways of managing those moments. And so I would encourage families to come, especially, you know, younger families who are entering into these phases of life to come and learn some of these strategies so that they can be having these conversations with their kids so that it becomes more proactive than being active. And so we're grateful to St. Barbara

082for the work that they've done to bring Kevin to the district. um anyone who is around Friday night and on the town common as long as the weather is good, the prom will be happening. And so that's always a fun town event. A reminder that there is no school on Monday due to Memorial Day. And just to let folks know that this coming Friday, the 30th, is our senior's last day of classes. So we really are nearing the end of the year. So, those are all of my updates for this week. >> Well, thank you for those updates. Uh, Superintendent Shann, anyone have any questions or comments related to the updates? >> Got a fairly robust uh topic coming up. So, we'll get right into it. I think we have a few invited guests. I

083see Mr. Savage here who I know is on the >> committee who is uh I think the current chair person of science department. Okay. Yes. >> And uh I don't know if either our principles are sticking around for this as well. Okay. So, we already introduced them. >> We have our student representative from the um from the uh uh strategic planning committee, Gabby. And we have um Gary Mestus. Am I saying that right? >> From um our consultant >> agency TLA, right? >> That helped us develop the strategic plan, not just this one, but also the past cycle. So, why don't you guys all join us so that we're all part of the same conversation here and I don't know who's taking the lead if it's our superintendent or >> I'm going to start. >>

084Okay. >> Um and they're going to jump in. I am going to share my screen. So, give me one moment. >> Thank you all for hanging in here till 7 o'clock. Appreciate this. Not only that, but all the meetings that we went to for three hours. So, I am very excited to share with everybody tonight the new Cohasset Public School strategic plan um for the years 2025 to 2030, which just sounds wild, but that is a five-year strategic plan. Um this plan formally is the work of the last five months, but informally of the last year. And I am incredibly proud of this new plan and the people who helped bring it to fruition since early March, this group of individuals um have come together six times for three hours at a time to review

085and analyze data, revise our district's mission, vision, and core values, identify our priorities, and write our strategic initiatives. What was most exciting to me about this group was that it truly represented all of our stakeholders, administrators, teachers, parents, and students. So, I do want to thank each of them by name because the amount of time, energy, and commitment to this process that they gave was quite a lot. Um, so thank you to Dr. Scolins, Rock Roberts, Miss Owen, Michael Stapleton, Brian Scott, John Mills, Alex Sullivan, Amy Goddette, and Alisa Gins Carl. And to our teachers, Bob Erson, Karen Johnson, and Ed Savage. To our parents, our two school committee members, um, Craig Mlen and Jen Weski. To our other parents, Gareth Bell Mcdana, Jessica Brooks, Danielle Toppo, and Allison Corbett. and most especially to our

086students. Um I have done this work in other districts and students are always the best part of this process because they are why we are here and they come with such great ideas and such a new perspective and it's a refreshing perspective and it is never easy to be a teenager in a room of adults and actually speak your mind. And we had students from 8th grade all the way up who came every day. They dug in and they shared their ideas. They weren't afraid to speak and they really brought um their current life to this plan. And so I am really grateful to Maloney Yemen, Gabby Madden, Katie Connealy, Patty Foley, Dylan Juel, Stephanie Williams, Charlotte, and I apologize for this Tabazinski, Dominique Beckola, Kira Lynch, and Madam Weski. Um, thank you to all

087of them. and not on this slide, but I really do want to thank Gary and Ed Lee who was the other member of his team for the work that they did from TLA. They facilitated us. They kept us on track and on target and they reigned in some of our conversations. Um, and they were exactly what we needed to move this process forward. So, um, I've been fortunate to work with the GLA team times before, but so glad that they were here with us this time. Why it's not There we go. So, I'm actually going to turn this plan, this um, presentation over to Gary. I do want to just mention that it was really important to me that all members of ours group were representative in this presentation because it truly is a community

088plan. Um and so that is why we have so many people here to help present tonight. So Gary, I'll turn this over to you. >> Yeah, thank you. Um, again, my name is Gary Meest and I am a retired educator uh from Massachusetts and I've been working with Kle and I was honored to actually be part of the last strategic plan process here in the district and as Miss Shannon has highlighted tonight, uh, we had a wonderful experience leading this process and I think I I want to highlight the whole idea of um how students made a strong impression on the adults that were in the room time and time again every meeting. And I think it really helped this plan to really be a plan of people, not a plan of administrators and adults.

089And I think that really started uh our discussions as we talk about the process. The first phase of the process was really looking at information that really helped us to understand the conditions of the district. Keep in mind there was a lot of information that was already there because we had a strategic plan in place. So we had to take a look at all the information that existed because there was work that was done to actually build a district on a previous plan. We have to actually understand how well that worked and there was a lot of progress made. Now I think we realized that but we also were able to look at uh post-pandemic type of conditions and that brought up a lot of information and data that we really needed to take a

090look at. So that first part was really digging in looking at data. The second phase was really understanding what the data said. So our teams, we broke up into different teams and we really dug deeply into what the data was telling us based on what we did before, based on the conditions we have today and based on what we really believe the conditions need to be for the future. Keep in mind there was a lot that we had to look at and I think the strategic plan if we didn't have some level of restraint could be about 400 pages. But we also have to remind ourselves that within a school district, we want to make sustainable change that it really reflects the district's mission and vision. And we'll talk about that uh later on tonight.

091And the next phase was really taking a look at how can once we understand um all that data. We we look at it now how do we design a plan that can really help us to attack those big rocks those big pieces that we know we want to have some level of sustainable survivability. And I think for strategic planning um it's absolutely wonderful. I used to tell uh my school committee back in the day that a strategic plan protected the community from me because I like bright and shiny things. As a superintendent, I like new things. I like this. I like that. But you can't do all those things unless you focus in on what the community believes they really need. Primarily what students believe they want out of their education. And I think this

092process helped us to understand that the students had to recalibrate and reenter some of our conversations. But I think that's what makes the plan that you're going to hear tonight that much more valuable because they were the ones that actually were able to help us fine-tune when we needed. Okay. So with that said, I'll turn it over to uh Michan so she can help guide us to that next step that we need here on for tonight. >> Thank you. Um, so going into this work, the committee talked about the fact that as a district, we really had two different guiding documents. One was our strategic plan, but the other was the CPS vision of a graduate. We also talked about the fact that we wanted to have a clearer throughine between the two documents and

093to have a more coherent approach um for who we want our students to be. So to that end, the CPS vision of a graduate will now live in our strategic plan and our mission, vision, and core values, as you'll see, are actually directly aligned to this vision of a graduate. And so with that goal in mind, we revised our mission statement. And we kept parts of it and revised other parts of it because we, you know, as Gary referenced, we had a really strong strategic plan before. And as a result of that strategic strategic plan did really great work. So we weren't trying to sort of throw the baby out with the bathwater. We were starting from a really solid place, but really looking at that vision of a graduate and looking at our mission,

094we came together and we landed with a new revised mission. That is, we place students first. Together, we inspire character, purposeful growth, and a commitment to authentic scholarship for the fulfillment of our collective potential. And in addition to that mission, we revised our vision just a slight bit. Um it's almost exactly the same. We took out the word empower because we felt like students were we had a really um great conversation about the use of the word empower. Um and we landed with our vision students are improving community. Um it is very much what we had in the past but it just gives a little bit more power to the students actually because they can improve communities at all ages. Um and actually we talked about this vision with the superintendent student advisory council and

095we said we want third graders to be able to improve their community in some way. We want our middle schoolers to be able to improve communities, our high schoolers and then all of us. And the other part of this we decided as a group was that we wanted our mission, our vision, our core values to apply to everyone in our district, not necessarily just our students. And so we also as adults want to be able to communities. So so these are our new revised I don't like the new word new because they're just revised mission and vision. We did make some greater changes in our core values. So in the prior strategic plan, the core values actually um basically bulleted the mission and we felt that our core values should actually be expressing what we

096believe as a district and how we want to work together as adults, as students, as community members. And so when we and we had a really robust conversation. I think this conversation lasted us maybe a meeting and a half. Um and where we landed was our core values should inspire us. And that inspire is an acronym for what we believe in. And so we believe that as a district and as community members within this district, we should be unlocking the power of individuality, nurturing belonging and empathy, creating authentic learning for academic success. We're encouraging partnerships with student learning. We're inspiring innovation by cultivating curiosity. We're building resilience through perseverance. and we're ensuring active engagement of all CPS members. So those are the core values that will be guiding us for the next five years. And

097so with all of those things in mind, um we started to develop our priorities. What are our compass points? The compass points are what the language was around the four pillars of work that came out of our last strategic plan. We are continuing that language because it works for us. And so, um, I'm actually going to turn our presentation over to Mr. Savage who's going to talk about Compass.1, teaching, learning, and leading. >> Thank you, Superintendent Shannon. Um so compass point one teaching learning and leading um aims to enhance success for all by delivering inclusive highquality aligned curriculum and innovative purchased education. So a couple of highlights um part of our discussions informed or involving more project based learning tapping into those community resources experts in the community that we spoke about earlier. I'm actually

098looking forward to working with some of those folks. Um, excuse me if I have a bias towards science, but a lot of the work we do with environmental science, marine science at the high school level, um, is just that. It's authentic learning experiences where, for example, we're looking at water quality in the harbor. Um, looking right out at our garden right here in the courtyard where we're doing sustainable organic gardening. Um, I had a few students in the environmental class that were just recently at the deer at Deer Hill and Osgood schools um, educating people native pollinators and giving them little seedlings to take home. Um, I attend the sixth grade science fair which is a um, initiative under Catherine Indra. Um, I just wanted to highlight that was it was great to see the

099students develop. If you had another highlight for middle school, that's right. Um, their skills in inquiry. So I'm excited to see that districtwide. Um so a lot of the work we've done over the last few years um with superintendent Shannon assistant superintendent Scolins is looking at vertical alignment of curriculum using high quality materials um as part of our curriculum review cycle. So one of the commitments is looking at K to2 some authentic learning experiences involving project based learning at least two annually by 2030. Um I think this really speaks to engagement of all students. Um to that end, we're also looking at multi-ter systems of support MTSS um developing effective MTSS systems PK to 12 um to support the needs of all students. So that's academic, that's social emotional needs. Um playing paying uh close

100attention to tier one instruction. Um, a lot of the work we've done, especially at the middle and high school level over the last few years, is looking at benchmark assessments. Um, developing and revising um, high quality curriculum, looking at consistent assessment opportunities across common commonly taught courses like principal Scott said earlier. Um, but also looking at um, supporting student wellness, which I know we'll speak to in a bit. Um, how do we maintain that rigor, balance the needs of of our students? Um, AI integration is another area we had spoken about earlier. Um the district is looking at developing um a committee to explore integration with AI and policies surrounding AI. There's a few teachers um that are looking at um the summer opportunities where they're training um how that can integrate into the classrooms.

101I'm looking forward to some of the work we're doing there. Tech courses we offer in the middle of the high school um are looking into that new curriculum as well. Um so how do we maximize using those resources responsibly and also prepare students for the future because that's changing rapidly as you had noted earlier at the Monday meeting. Um another piece um that was brought up with the data was the interest in um exploring world language offerings at the elementary levels to support learning at an earlier age. I know there's a lot of cultural interest there. So um the district is committing to exploring options there. >> Thank you Mr. Savage. Um, and as we look at compass point two, I would like to invite um, Principal Scott and Gabby Madden to talk about wellness.

102>> So, I'll start and then I'll I'll turn it over to Gabby. U, one of the things that we really value in in these meetings and I think collectively is the sense of student voice and student agency. Um, and I think the emphasis on wellness is really an emphasis for me primarily on belonging. And that's not it goes beyond inclusion. It goes beyond tolerance. And the best way was described to me was actually from a parent of former graduates, Paul Freyo, who was describing two colleges that his um children were deciding between. And one of them, he said, you walk onto this campus and the the message is that you're lucky to have us. He says, ' And I walked on to a different campus and the message is we're lucky to have you. And

103I think there's there's a real difference in the two. The one is driven by elitism and the other is driven by humility. And I want to be the latter of the two because I think there's real greatness in in humility. And this is where the student contribution for me was the most um dynamic. So I'm going to turn it over to Gabby who um is a 10th grader. And as I described in my last newsletter, that tends to be the source of significant distress. Um, so I'll let Gabby tell you in her own words what some of that data was. >> Yeah. Um, as a sophomore, it's I would say it's known at the high school as being one of the harder times of the like of your academic career at Compasset. You have double

104sciences, you have your first AP, you have English with Pary, which can be pretty hard. Um but and Cohassid is known for being like very rigorous and very much like high achieving high MCCAST scores, high SATs, high AP enrollment. And there's just a lot of pressure for kids to do as well as possible, do everything they possibly can to get into that college, to get that scholarship, to get all these things. And just sometimes it can be too much to the point where it goes ahead of other really really important parts of your life. I know as a as a kid going through this right now, um like sleep has been a real issue for me, like I get like because of the amount of work that I'm given at school, I end up going

105to bed at times that are not stable at all. Like, and I've seen this with so many other kids, not just in sophomore class, but in junior's class, in senior's class. And I feel like also there's just been with the creation of Aspen and making it so accessible to kids, there's been a major pressure for kids to like constantly be checking their grades and constantly like it's almost like a new social media. It's like the amount of times people check that every day is concerning. Um and there's like a constant like oh what'd you get? What'd you get? which I know is normal at schools but it's I feel like with Aspen especially it's just becoming excessive and there's just a there is a massive achievement pressure too as well. So I think yeah just

106being able to kind of because I do think there is a certain drive in class of students that's like very remarkable and something that we should be proud of but I also think that managing that and we have done that with like new initiatives. Um, the substance abuse awareness club did this lovely thing like for the sophomore class actually, but we went to JPH Wellness and it was actually really fun and I think a lot of the kids like came back like we all like, "Oh, this one of those trips, we didn't get to go to treetop adventures like but um but like we actually but a lot of the kids like went back and like yeah, I actually really like that." Um, and that really helped me out. and coming tomorrow class in my

107time is also a thing that's happening which I think a lot of kids are excited for. So um we have been doing good good things to kind of help manage stress because stress is a good thing at a certain point and helps you get things done. But just being able to like dial that back a little bit and make kids feel a little bit more like they're healthy in their skin and they don't need to be doing everything I think is just the best thing possible. if we could record that and play it on the loop like I cannot underscore that enough and I feel like I talk about it to death and and people have a hard time hearing it and for good reason. I don't apologize for the academic rigor that we set

108forth. I think that's it's a high standard and I think we have a lot of satellite data that um you know we showed in the school improvement plan across the district that is really something to be proud of. At the same time, um, you know, we didn't become a blue ribbon school because we went all in on MCCAT scores and learning gaps and reading strategies. We went in because we we realized that it was a traumatic period when we focused on students and adult homes. And there's, you know, increasing expectations around college acceptances and increasing pressure there. And the the residual of that is that students are taking sometimes more than they can handle. And even the college board doesn't recommend that you take more than five AP courses. And when you know I started

109in 2012, you'd have kids who took two or three. Now you have kids who take five and six and seven. And while that's laudable, the byproduct is really dangerous. Um and the the the antidote to that is that we really have to look at not academic motivation, not how do I get from that 89 to a 90, not how do I get from that, you know, 4.5 to a 4.6 six because it's artificial. What we have to do is start to redefine what success looks like. We have to redefine um you know what we are assessing and how we are assessing it. And we have to get kids engaged in their own learning process. And as Gabby said very eloquently, um, have them be comfortable in their own skin, not have them try to live

110up to this stereotype of being perfect in all things, being, you know, the the captain of the team and the validictorian and a member of NHS and the lead in the play and and and and because they're all at the end of the day relatively superficial. Um and it's um it's it becomes very damaging and I think you'll see that when our YBS uh data comes out that kids are feeling that stress more and more as are the adults. So I think we have to really redefine what success really looks like as as an adult. number one um because as a satellite data, we're going to do very well. But on on the the more ground level data, uh the student stories, the student anecdotes, those are really the ones that I want to capitalize

111on and lean into because those are the ones that are going to build confidence and a sense of self-worth and a sense of um resilience uh that are going to help them when they get out of here, which is really the point of the whole thing. And that begins by getting us talking to each other. You know, having authentic dialogue, having authentic conversations, as Gabby mentioned, uh tomorrow we're taking a break. We're we're going to have St. Harper come in and do a wellness afternoon, but prior to that, we're going to watch a film that was suggested to us by the Black Student Union. You can have some guests from Dover Shiver join us. And it's it's the film is the six triple 8 uh which talks about a historical story of an all women's

112black army corps that faces some challenges and doesn't get necessarily the the opportunity or the credit that they deserve. But we're going to try to make that universal. What we want to ask students is u not to really delve into the depths of racism and cohass and that type of thing or gender issues but really to ask them about scrutiny. You know when have you felt overly scrutinized? When have you felt like you can't get away from the public perception of you? Uh, and when have you felt really seen and really valued, you know, and and what does that do physically and emotionally to you when you are seen or when you're not and you have to live up to this thing that really maybe isn't the true you? And I think cracking that nut

113is the key to all of our cell phone issues. I think it's the key to our ability to dialogue because it isn't being modeled very well for us by um you know the leaders in our our world right now. And I think the more we can engage our kids in that and and get them comfortable with it, our kids are very privileged and they're going to leave here very privileged and that means that they have an opportunity to do some real good in the world and our kids are very good at at heart and they want to do good and they want to find purpose and they want to find meaning. So, our whole wellness compass point is really designed into tapping into that and really um um you know bringing that out and cultivating

114that in our student body and I'm of all the compass points that's the one that excites me the most. >> Well, it shows principal Scott energy. >> Thank you, Principal Scott. Thank you, Gabby. Um and as we move into compass point number three, community engagement, excuse me, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Mills. >> Thank you. Uh so compass point three is uh first of all it's a continuation of all the good work we're doing to stay engaged with our community. Uh Mr. Savage, you mentioned some of the, you know, work that say science is doing with CSCR, but uh really uh as we looked at what were our priorities, we sort of grouped them and they sort of worked in compass points. We had a number of things that uh all stakeholders

115thought were important and they sort of uh were about community, they were about communication and they were really about collaboration. So a series of uh five uh areas uh sort of coalesed around community engagement. I think the neat thing as we put this together, we kept recognizing through the four different compass points that we there might be an area that we wanted to focus on in one compass point and then we realized well that's going to completely support work that we're doing in another compass point. So I think as you look at compass point three, this strengthens our engagement with the community, builds on what we're already doing, but it really uh supports work that's being done in especially in Compass Point one and two. So uh you know here we've got areas like community

116partnerships which we spoke before that really I I get excited about like with that database as we said before because that ends up uh connecting the community uh providing the school with resources. so that as you're doing uh deeper learning in PDL, you might have a way to access knowledge that's already in the community uh that would support that that sorts of that sort of thing. Uh a more robust communication plan. A number of stakeholders felt that we should do a better job making sure the community knows what's going on in schools and with students, students daily uh lives, but also student achievements, accomplishments. So we had talked about the need to focus on uh communication and then really uh cross generation uh learning which we spoke about earlier whether it's high school and middle

117school and uh uh the elementarymentaries or students working with members of the community who might be from a different generation. We really wanted to see some structures put in place that would bring different generations together to facilitate learning student voice. We thought it would be critical to come up with the structures that really support the development growth of student voice districtwide, not at just one age. And once again, that ends up supporting a lot of the the goals that the work that come out of Compass in two. And then lastly, uh an overall increase in uh parental engagement that we talked about earlier, both with the community, but also strengthening our connections and our communication with um our families that live in Boston whose students come to a student medical program. So I the exciting

118thing to me about this compass point is it really sort of uh aligns and sort of reaches out and helps support the others as well as being completely worthwhile in and of itself. Compass. >> Thank you, Principal Mills. And compass point four is around resources. And I would say similar to compass point three, this is a compass point that is really threaded throughout the entire strategic plan and is the compass point that really addresses the things that are going to allow the other compass points to happen. Um, this is where we're going to work. you know, Miss Owens and I will will Owen and I will work to come up with a long-term financial plan so that we can ensure some sustainability over the over the years and some stability. Um we're going to continue

119to look at our facilities and build a long-term plan for our facilities and hopefully um there is you know that MSBA project strategic initiative is a hopeful um because it relies on the MSBA for partnership but we think we can get there and so that is a goal as we think about what this middle school high school building can be. Um, the professional development piece is really important because in the wellness compass point, there's actually a lot there about teacher wellness as well. Um, we've talked several times tonight about our amazing staff and they are amazing and they do a lot. And so when I took this strategic plan in its draft form to the teachers, I I did an elementary forum and a secondary forum. One of the pieces of feedback that came from

120both is this is we we agree with this. We like this and how do we do it in a way where it doesn't overload us. And so we're going to have a lot of conversation about that because it's really important that we keep our teachers happy, healthy, and engaged because they're the key to the success that we are having currently. Um, and so part of that is how do we provide the right professional development for them. One of the data points that was really coming out strongly was this desire from staff to have a clear professional development path that they would be taking. And so we're working towards that for them um and to have meaningful professional development. So that's something that is really on our radar. And as we continue to do work around

121HR practices and our and our general policies and keeping things moving process-wise and systematically within the district is really important because if we can get all of that working smoothly that can happen seamlessly behind the scenes while we focus on many of these other things. Um, so those are our four compass points and in wrapping up I wanted to bring in Simon Synynic's golden circle. Um, I think this is something that a lot of people are familiar with. He is I'm going to say sort of a guru in the leadership and business world and business development world. But I see it int inte um because his message is that when you know why you're doing what you're doing that is the key to success and our why is really clear. Our why is that we

122inspire character, purposeful growth, and a commitment to authentic scholarship so that our students can while they are here and once they leave us improve their communities. That is why we come to work every day. It's why our students come to school every day. It's why our families and the town support us. And so with that as our why and our core values as how we're going to do that and our strategic initiatives as what we're going to do to get there. I think we have a really amazing opportunity to reach our vision by the end of this plan. Um it will be a lot of hard work. We're doing a lot of talking about going slow to go fast because there's a lot of foundation setting that has to happen within this plan. Um, so

123year one may not feel like we've accomplished and been able to check boxes, but I can guarantee you we will have had a lot of really deep meaningful conversation as a entire community that will then help us move the work forward in a faster way. Um, so we are being really intentional and aware of those pieces because we don't want to overwhelm anybody and we want the work to be sustainable over the course of the five years and beyond that. And so I think that this is a really exciting strategic plan. I think it's a strategic plan that builds upon all of the success that this district has had over the last few years. It captures some of the things that were in the prior strategic plans that haven't been fully developed yet and it

124moves them forward and it takes us from where one strategic plan ended and moves us forward in in those areas as well. Um so we have some next steps. The leadership team has been working on developing action plans that go along with this. Um and in developing those action plans, it's helping us um see what as Mr. Mills talked about those through lines. So it's in compass 3 that impacts compass point one and it's helping us actually align timewise what needs to happen first, second, third, and so on. And so we're looking forward to coming back to you in the fall with a an action plan for year one and sort of drafted out beyond that as well. Um it's been really exciting to have these conversations. It's been really exciting to have parents and

125students and teachers and administrators all in the same room having this dialogue. Um and it's something that we hope to continue to talk about as we move forward. So happy to answer any questions about the new strategic plan. >> Thank you uh for that presentation. Super Shannon and uh Mr. Savage, Scott, my assist Mills, and Gabby Madden, our student representative. Thank you so much. Uh are there any questions or comments from the committee members relative to our proposed uh 2025 to 2030 strategic plan? Bearing in mind that this is a living document. It is a road map. It will constantly be revisited uh but does need to be formally approved tonight and our school committee goals uh which may be a revision of the current ones will be uh will be reflective of this uh

126or will reflect the uh this current strategic plan uh should it be approved tonight. Mr. Evans so you know obviously to to Mr. point, you know, I'm looking forward to getting into it and chewing on a lot of it. And I mean, there's there's minutia, there's big stuff all at the same time. It's all swim together and all of it's important all itself. So, I mean, the umbrella level, we got a lot to do. Uh, and I don't really have much to to to add or critique at this point. Um, I do think as this goes, I hope we'll we'll learn and we'll get questions and we'll get answers. And uh Gabby, I know you're from Safe Harbor. Thank you for being such a great student voice. Um I want to echo what was said

127earlier that you know I think it's really easy for adults to sit in meetings behind desks and make decisions and we really have we're we're blind and deaf to what's going on in your lives. So um we're here to guide, we're here to support. Uh but it's really important that your yourself, your fellow students, and everyone in the student population feels that they can bring up their experience to us. Um because we really have no idea what your lives are like. Uh we can only guess. So never forget that. But thanks for your work. >> Thanks Steph. >> Um I will just say thank you to everyone who participated. But for me personally, this was one of the best experiences I've had um being a member of the classic community. I'll even go that broadly.

128Um to be in a room with people who are so incredibly thoughtful, bright, caring, um curious, creative. Uh it really was like an energizing experience and I think anyone who's listening or as parents sort of dig into this they should know how much just love for the district and care for the district um went into this particular um project. Um it was it was really incredible and I absolutely enjoyed every single minute particularly the student involvement. I learned so much and oh my goodness you all are grammar. I I think I'm I I think I'm good. >> You all are better than I am. Um it was it was amazing finding finding where those semicolons went. Totally appreciated it. I had to go back and um revisit. But I think the other the last little

129thing I'd like to say is that I really appreciate how this plan is people first. Um I think that it it sort of resonates that not it's not just students, students come first. Um but also the people that are working with and caring for our students. Having been an educator, it is one of the most joyful and satisfying and meaningful careers. um on this earth. It can also be extraordinarily stressful. It it breaks your heart at times. It can be really lonely. Um and to make sure that both the adults in our community and the students in our community are cared for equally is so important. And I think that this strategic plan does that um in in such a wonderful way. So I I really appreciate um Superintendent Shannon really going again going back

130to the faculty and saying what do you what do you need here? What do you need? do you see yourselves in this plan? And I think having our our faculty members also being a part of the process allowed for that and our students being a part of the process allowed for the for those really critical voices to be seen in the plan. And so just want to say that I thought that was really well done. Thank you very much. >> Thanks, Musleski. As Superintendent Shannon noted, this strategic plan builds upon an already strong strategic plan that uh has already, as I noted the outset of the meeting or the outside of Scott's initial presentation, uh already took the district in uh an amazing direction, but it serves as a roadmap. It provides our north star,

131which to me is uh placing students first. That consideration is always at the forefront of all of our minds, and that's why we move in the right direction. Um and uh that students improving communities is such an excellent vision and we see it in action tonight. Um it's one example of the many students that have presented here. Gabby Madden here now so she's going to be the benefit of this praise. But I said it earlier in that, you know, we are producing impressive students. And if you just listen to Gabby present, that's not average for a 15 16 year old person to be able to do. And uh Gabby, you did a great job. You should be really proud of yourself. But we see that anyone that was on that that strategic planning committee or

132anyone that's been on one of these meetings will will see something like that happen like that. The students present like that consistently here. It's it's in an adult level and uh it's extremely articulate and you don't even notice it because we're just used to that. But you got to remember that, you know, we're going to be lucky enough to have Gabby here and see her develop for another two years before she graduates. So just think about that, right? So um you know these strategic plans are there's a lot of thought that goes into them for a good reason and the the result has been incredible. so far and I look forward to seeing uh where this brings us in tandem with an incredibly talented teaching staff and um and leadership team here at Kohas Public

133School. So, thank you to everyone that was involved, especially our students. And Gabby, great job tonight. You should be really proud of yourself. >> Awesome. >> So, uh thank you all. Uh we got we got more meat left on this bone, so we're going to continue to push along. Oh, I need we need the formal vote, right? Excuse me. Sorry. So, uh, could we have a motion to approve the, uh, proposed 2000 to 2030 strategic plan for the class of public schools as presented this evening? >> Second. >> Motion has been made by Miss Leki. Uh, is there second? Seconded by Mr. Evans. We're by process of elimination. All in favor? >> I. >> All those extensions. The motion carries by a majority vote of three members and the strategic plan is formally approved. please

134implement for the next five years. Superintendent Shannon, thank you so much. Thank you everyone >> and thank you to all of you who came to present. I really really appreciate your time. >> Miss Leki, I think you were born for that strategic planning process. >> I want to do it every year. I was right right in your >> All right, moving on. We uh turn right to the next block of our agenda, which is our teaching and learning section. And I think at this point, I would turn the meeting to our capable assistant superintendent, Dr. Leslie Collins. >> Thank you. >> Unless I'm mistaken, it is present. Okay, good. No one left. So, >> so it has um so just a couple of updates. One of the things that um I want to talk about

135is how we are addressing some of the questions that actually came up when we presented the S SOA, our student opportunity act in early May around a couple of questions that some parents had when they came to the audience today. So, we thought about different ways that we could communicate. Over the years, we've communicated what our program is. We've had Spotlight on Excellence where we've had teachers come in and on that May 7th, we had um 3B coming in with students and we did it a few years ago and Michelle Pepsi came in and had students around workshop but we felt like we still because parents are constantly changing right so we're getting new parents and the importance of really sharing with them and so we met with the CPAC on May 8th also to

136present the student opportunity act with them um but prior to that um Miss Shane and I thought about how can we what other things can we do. So when we were presenting to the CPAC, we asked if they would like to come along and take a walk with us and look at the literacy at the elementary level and they said yes. So on the 20th of this week, we had two parents from CPAC and we went and visited Deer Hill and Osgood schools and they could just get a snippet of what is happening. And so um we had a great conversation with them. and we kind of set up really things for them to be looking at and thinking about when they were um walking around the classrooms. And then after it was all over,

137we kind of sat and then talked more about questions. What do you think? And and just kind of opening that dialogue with them. So I thought it went really well. I think they really had a good time and they got to see a like you said a snippet of what was happening and I want to thank the teachers. Everyone was wonderful but it is also a very busy time of year. So, um, we had several staff members say that we could pop in and so I want to thank Liz Dinger and Caitlyn DS. Um, Jen McFillips, Michelle Fecky, Erica Pell, and Karen Johnston. So, they mostly saw components of the reader workshop, but there was also um some other components that they saw uh around the foundational skills that that happened in the school. So,

138that was wonderful. And then the other part that we are what we talk to them about is having a literacy dialogue on June 4th at 4 and that will be at 4:30 p.m. All right. 4. Now I'm questioning myself. It might be four. >> Okay. Sorry. I wrote it. Now I'm questioning myself. Um but anyway that um I will send an invite out to everybody and any parent at the elementary level who wants 4:30. Okay. um to come and we will have a conversation and answer their questions and and facilitate um some open dialogue about what the literacy program looks like and because there's a lot of information out there that parents are looking at reading listening to and so I think it's important for us to have those conversations. So we're excited about that.

139Um an invite will go out and there'll be a um a Google form though for families to respond and RSVP to but also to give us maybe some of the questions they have so that we'll prepare this Friday half day uh for professional development. It is all about transitions and placements for next year. So that's always exciting. And one thing that um Ed Savage was talking about, he briefly talked about a grant that he's going to participate in this summer and it's actually out of Northeastern University and the National Science Foundation. We were very lucky. We've been working with um Dr. and Jennifer Love um for quite some time. And so they finally got this grant that they've been working on. And so we were able to from our district send two high school teachers

140for the summer and it's actually called AI and Ed and it's AI powered education building AI competencies and so they are going to participate with other teachers that have other towns teachers that have agreed to be part of this grant and so they'll be working at Nor Eastern and it will actually go throughout the year and so we're really excited for them to continue their work and the hope is that there will be additional that it's over a couple of years. So, we'll be able to add teachers as we move forward. So, I'm really excited about that because to get professional development for our teachers and at this level and then this uh collaboration with other teachers around the state. That's amazing. So, that's it. So, we're excited for >> Oh, and for free for

141always free and they actually are getting paid to do more for them. So they get PD and it's >> almost a must for us at this point. >> It is a must. >> Yes. And we will continue to >> Thank you uh very much Dr. Solins. Very much appreciate that. Uh any questions? Fire will. >> All right. Seeing none. I have just one. Who are the two faculty members that are representing Khasa public schools of the AI? >> Oh, I'm sorry. I had it written down. Ed Savage and Adam SA. Thanks for asking. >> Thank you very much though, sir. >> Very appropriate represent for that particular. >> They jumped right in. >> Okay. Well, if that concludes your report, Dr. Stins, we will move on to the next block, which is our budget, resource,

142and governance. I shall turn the meeting to our director of finance and operations, Miss Susan Owen. >> Thank you. >> Tonight's brief report is on the um April finance report, monthly finance report. Um the good news is not that there's a whole lot of good news, but our our shortfall um which we've been watching grow of last month that was $953,920 is now down to $74,986. So that's an improvement of about $260,000. So um everyone's efforts to cut back and freeze and scrimp has paid off. Um on top of some of those are just due to um some resignations mid year. Some people they have gone out on absences and have come on the payroll. Um some closure of purchase orders that we've decided, you know, staff decided they didn't need um or didn't need

143as much of. So hopefully that number is going to continue to go down um as we finalized the last few months. Um that that was good news. um still being posted. Still everything's frozen. Um special education there. Um tuition shortfall is down to 172,161. Last month we were up at 206. So it's another area that's dropped. Um spread tradition has remained the same at about 112,000. Um chip fall and you can see between the month of April and March um spent tuitions have gone down, utilities have gone up. um student supplies have gone up slightly. Um regular transportation has gone up slightly. So it's it's a it's a fluid um document. Um it'll continue to be fluid. You can see here um each school and the breakdown of what percent um of the budget they

144they've used and what's left. Circuit breaker um we received three out of the four um payments. So, we're just waiting for our final payment from second grade, which will probably not come until last week of June, first week of July. Thank you to the town and the community for voting on capital. Um, very pleased with with what the outcome was. We we've got at least for our buses. We've got our electric bus. We've got an additional bus, which we're desperately in need of. um replacing the projectors half in Oscar half in De Hill and I think we'll finish next year with the other half a security equipment and PA system and the more security systems at high school furniture for the middle school counseling offices in the high school department if you've ever been in

145there it's um probably still has the original furniture that's been in there um and we have a new picture athletic activity bus fan bed um that will help get our transportation and our teams um to places they need to be on time and then gratefully this has been on this for years. was kind of a matter of who who was going to budget for and who was responsible and we're going to study sidewalk here this building um to pawn street because there's a piece where there's no sidewalk for the capital um our grants are limited um each year we get less and less Leslie and I got to go to a seminar to figure out how we get um I don't know if we can squeeze any more out of it but we'll try And

146then our revolving as well. You can see we have some areas that are in deficit. Um we are collecting fees currently. So hopefully athletic revolving um after school program. I've asked for the transfer to happen. I haven't seen it yet. So that should fun after school and school transportation. We're collecting fees now. So that deficit should also go away. Um >> do you have accounting for apologies? Do you do you want questions or do you want >> Nope. Just wait until the full if you don't know. Just wait until the full report and you'll have all the time you want to ask for. >> This just gives you the school budget, the head count um by department of grouping summary here by personnel type. tells you what percentage you know 68% um is regular educational

147salaries 18% is special education and then 14% should be cafeteria um this page gives you breakdown by school um FTPS what's funded by the budget what's funded by grant what's funed by revolving Okay. And again to grant FTE's headcount from the FT heads do help fund some positions in our district. So um we're thankful to have our enrollment. This is just an updated enrollment for May 1st enrollment and class size average class size at the elementary levels. You can see here how many sections. Um this is a month-to-month comparison of enrollment. And then we get into our utilities. So you can see um our electric our utilities cost are up over last year. Our usage is up slightly over last year. Um and gas is slightly down in cost. Um and almost the same as

148uses from last year. Um this is for the month of through March because April's um bills were in they come in a month later. Um and then in food service um just a comparison from year to year we are up to 76% participation rate which is fabulous um considering a few years ago we were down in the 40s. Um food and anyone who hasn't tried the food should definitely try the food. We did just settle their their cafeteria. um negotiations. So, we're just waiting to see if they ratify and then you can see some things that are happening food service. So, this is what's happening. This is kale come right from our harvested middle school garden. Um and they made kale pesto. You can see the process of them making it and then the end

149result right from our garden which is great. Um same thing, made tomato sauce made from scratch. um with the tomatoes that we had and then we had um we're moving over to freshly squeezed orange juice at the middle high school which is a big hit. Um so we're still growing that food service program. Um transportation as we spoke about we will have an extra bus and we'll have an extra bootlet next year. We voted to have um a van dedicated to athletics. Um we can also use some field trips and um community classes that are going out um out of the building to do studies. Sorry, off my train of thought. Um and you know, conclusion, you know, the leadership team and central office are still, you know, actively exploring ways to reduce the current

150deficit. We're hoping it it's going to continue to go in the direction that it's going. Um, and we will end with a balanced budget and hopefully. >> Thank you, Mr. Owens. That concludes your report. >> It does. >> All right. Uh, so now uh any comments or questions, Mr. Evans, who we most certainly want your comments or questions. Just uh always wait for her to get through everything. >> My apologies. Um >> first time. >> Yep. Um so past like six years, I've had the luxury of not having to get into this budget and that luxury is behind me now. Uh so just on the uh revolving funds, you mentioned that it sounds like there's some receivables that are still out there that we have you said a transfer from for the um after school

151program and then there were payments that you hadn't received yet for the athletic department. >> So athletic and transportation which we're collecting. So a lot of times like we start collecting now which will bring up the deficit. Um so we're collecting fees for next year but it's kind of a year behind that makes sense. Oh, so we're not collecting. So the so the the negative the fact that we have a a negative fund balance in those revolving funds is a reflection that FY25 has closed in the negative, not that we are missing payments. >> Correct. >> The way you phrase it, I thought you were saying you're saying we're waiting for a transfer. So I was going to ask for >> No, that one we are. >> That one we are. So the after school

152care or the rise program um they bring in all the the finances and then once or twice a year the child accountant um makes a transfer over to the school department and that hasn't happened >> but for transportation that's not the case. >> Correct. >> Okay. application athletics was not um so we're collecting fees now um for spring sports and transportation for next year and that offsets >> that's will be in FY26 >> yes >> okay >> entry so it it rolls immediately it's not going to end >> all right yeah I'm going to I'd like to dig into this a lot but obviously not tonight now so if we can set up I'll send you a list of stuff and >> um you know uh try to so I I want to understand so

153So, Mr. Evans, there is a finance subcommittee of this committee. So, >> it makes sense given your background that you should we're not doing that tonight. We're not a full panel. We're going to do it at next meeting. Hopefully, everyone's here. >> You should try and volunteer for that because I think that we we'd benefit from your expertise in that role. >> And that's when you can do deep dives. >> Yeah, that's absolutely. >> Um, is that all? >> Okay. Yeah. Well, I also obviously want to have the upload. >> Yeah. Well, I'll talk to you about that after. Um, is that all though for now? >> Um, yeah, for now. Uh, I think um I love the um the numbers for the um meals uh participation I think is great. I mean, the studies

154on and I don't I know a lot that's still state funded. The the free lunches that are still >> Do we have any news is that going to continue for the next Okay, that's gonna >> it's >> the more you read about that I mean just it improves outcomes for everybody. like this is not a, you know, need or not based thing. It's kids that are not hungry learn better and they disrupt the class less and it's just I mean it's a win-winwin. So I love that we have better food and even my children are like I like the pizza now and okay great you know. So I just I like that that's that's the direction we're headed. I hope we have the resources from the state to continue this because I know it's not

155free but I do think it's worthwhile. So that's that's my thought. >> That was a very purposeful growth item. >> Yeah. And our free lunches really are state >> Funded, not federal funded, which is really an important distinction for us. >> Yes, it is. Yes. >> You said state though. >> I did. Yeah. >> No, but that's important too because a lot of state funding actually comes from a federal grant. We had this problem safe harbor, right? Yeah. Exactly. So, thank you to our state delegation for fighting legal. >> That's it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Evans. Mki, anything? >> Not at this time. Thank you. >> Well, thank you very much. So, while I, you know, I'm not going to applaud our $700,000 deficit, but obviously it's moving in the right direction, right?

156So, that's good because we I thought we were bound for the seven figure territory and all of a sudden we started moving backward. Great. Uh, we need to keep it moving in that direction obviously. Um but our superintendent in conjunction with uh many different individuals from the town uh and and our school staff uh our district staff has been able to identify uh plan in which we're going to be able to operate in a balanced budget and uh we should be able to look I think it was overall it was an expensive one but it was a learning experience and I think it's better prepared us for uh future future fiscal challenges in order to be able to anticipate them better. So, I think we're moving in the right direction. But, uh, thank you for

157that. That's much better than last last month. >> It was good news. >> Right. Right. Okay. Uh, thank you very much, Miss Owen. We'll move right into block H, which I I don't have any uh updates. Um, Mr. Evans would not have any having seen the brand new committee member, Miss Leky. Do you have any? Okay. So, we'll move into school committee governance. Um, some of these items we're not going to do tonight as I mentioned uh at the outset of the meeting. Uh, we can, however, I think set school committee dates with a with the current majority. I, um, in looking at the calendar think that, um, whoever did this the first time around did a pretty good job. We we we kind of took care of the the the the >> the touchy

158calendar issues earlier on this year with Good Friday and the the the winter recess. But um so really just looking at the school committee dates here. >> That's really >> we just try and space them out every other week except we don't usually meet in July. We I one issue I identified and and everyone can speak. I'm just sort of opening this up is um personally I'd like to see a meeting in August before school starts. Um, so I had just circled the 20 the 20th um for a potential um date. I don't know if that's already been I I don't like I thought we were planning on on meeting then. >> I did. Yeah. And and I actually would maybe hold the 6th as a potential date as well cuz sometimes August gets busy

159and there are things that need to happen and the 20th feels really close to the start of the school year to me. >> It it is um it is. So that's fine. So I mean are would you like the committee to meet twice that month? We can if you feel that it's necessary then we will. I I I think yes. >> All right. So, why don't we why don't we why don't we amend this draft to include 86 and 820. >> Mhm. >> And then I'm going to open it up to our committee members to opine on the rest of the meetings, the the highlighted in yellow there, the school committee meetings. Do you guys see any um do members see any issues with any of these? Do you want to know if you have

160personal issues? >> No. Um, just if you like, in other words, if you thought like, you know, this is uh actually in conflict with some, I don't know, major community event or religious holiday or something like that that's on the top of your mind, then that's kind of what I'm looking for, like unintended consequences. But, uh, they look it looked it looked pretty excellent to me, >> which I think may have been a maybe a first for me in six years of doing this at this moment. I mean, something I'm sure will pop up, but this all makes sense. And I I noted that the scheduling was solved. Yes, >> it does look like we have a meeting on the last what's predicted to be the last day of school. >> Yes. >> I don't

161know if our esteemed >> Well, you know what? Now that you mentioned that, now that you mentioned that, I kind of liked it at first because it's like, but however, >> the kids are all going to want to be doing things. It might be hard for us as parents to be making that meeting. >> That's a really good point. >> And for any faculty coming with resent or or anything of that nature, I just feel like >> Yes, that's a really good. So that's a really good point. I like it from like a closure perspective. Uh but it it I think practically speaking that's not a wise decision. >> So we may want to um Superintendent Chan, what do you think about June 24th as that that meeting instead of the 17th? >> Yeah. >>

162Is that okay? >> Yes. The other thing that we want to maybe shift is October. October 1st is young. >> Okay. So maybe we want to do the >> sometimes we can do backtoback meetings. >> Um what we might want to do is um maybe the 29th instead. So >> also do the 22nd >> which still gives you two meetings in October which is nice. 22nd won't work because it's a it's a school break. >> It's a conferences. >> Oh, is it also April? >> October. >> Oh, October. I'm sorry. >> So, we did the 8th and the 22nd instead of the 1st and the 15th. >> Perfect. Well, I'll ask Jennifer to make these changes and then we can bring it back in time. And >> well, no, let's approve it. >> Okay. >>

163And she can just uh So, everyone knows the changes, right? We're doing 86 820. We're changing the last day of school to 6:24. And as proposed by our superintendent, >> we're not changing the last day of school. >> We're exchanging. No, >> make that motion clear. That may change depending on whether we have a winter where it actually snows, but um but uh we'll wait to see if that and then we're as the superintendent um just present proposed changing the October to 8:22. Uh as long as you have those written down and the school committee members understand what we're voting on, could I please have a motion to approve the calendar uh with those revisions? >> So moved. >> Motion's been made by Mr. Evans. >> Seconded by Miss Leleski. All in favor? I >>

164I >> opposed extensions. Motion carries by a majority vote of three members. Superintendent, please ask Mr. Reus to make those changes and publish calendar. >> Fantastic. >> I think that's a good plan. >> Great. >> Thank you. We're able to get something done tonight there. >> Um, okay. So, uh, leazison subcommittee assignments. Uh, we're going to table that along with a reorg because that's a reorg related item. Uh, superintendent's evaluation. Maybe is this just an update? I think I asked for this to be on here every meeting from now on because >> I have to email Mr. Evans the same thing I've already emailed the rest of the group. Um which is >> um just so you can see it. You wouldn't actually participating in it, >> but um I want you to understand what's

165happening before you know we present it. >> Um I've sent it out I think maybe last week it went out to the school committee so they all have it. Okay, your summit of email form and then um I've asked I don't remember when I as there's like maybe like I give it like two or three week date >> and then I'll create the the composition of of you know that the the combination or what um what is the word I'm looking for >> combining all of the input into one compilation exactly is the word I'm looking for thank you very much >> um and then we will present that at a meeting in June Okay. >> All right. And Mr. Evans, I will share that with you so that you can be prepared for that,

166understand what we're doing, and then you will obviously start taking play part in that process uh after you've been able to serve on the committee for you. There are no topics that were not that were brought to my attention that we do not reason anticipate. Uh we cannot approve the minutes because we do not have a quorum of um school committee members that were present at those meetings. So, we will just have to tack that on to next week or excuse me, next meeting >> and uh there is no basis to move into an executive session that I'm aware of. >> Seeing no suggestions or corrections to that statement and I will entertain a motion to adjourn tonight's school committee meeting. >> Motion to adjurnn has been made by Mr. Evans. There's a second by

167Miss Leki. All in favor? I >> opposed. Extensions. That is a wrap. Thank you all for watching. participating. Have a wonderful evening.