School Committee Meeting - 6/4/2025

001Good evening everyone. Welcome to the June 4th, 2025 meeting of the Capacit School Committee. Would all members who are present please indicate so in roll call. Mr. Dial present. Mr. Evans present. Hannah is not currently present. Mrs. Ley present. The chair person is present giving us a quorum panel of four members. So I will officially call the meeting to order at this time and ask all who are present and able to please rise for the recitation of our nation's pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of American. Um, with every town election comes the need to reorganize our school committee in terms of officers. Um, we would have done this at the last meeting, but we did not have a full panel. I I believe Mrs. Hannah will be here. So, what I

002will do is maybe we will just um get into the invited guest section. I'll go through public comment first and then invited guests and then maybe we can come back to that if that is okay with the committee just to see if I can arrive. I'd rather have everyone hear that, but we really can't go much further without doing that. But uh I think she I have not got any messages. She's not going to be here. She might be running late. So public comment. Uh if anyone has any public comment, I imagine everyone here in person is uh an invited guest. But if you do have a public comment, just simply raise your hand and I'll recognize you and you need to state your name and residential address. And this section of the meeting is

003reserved for comments or discussion points or thoughts um concerns that aren't related to something already on the agenda. If you have a point that's related to something that's on the agenda, just simply arrive, wait until we arrive at that point in the meeting. We will hear you, hear your thoughts, discuss them. But otherwise, if you have something that's not on the agenda, please either make yourself known today in person or utilize the Q&A feature uh that is on Zoom and you can access Zoom using the um the meeting information at the top of our agenda. I'll give everyone a few moments to do that. if they're watching at home, I'll look at the Q&A section. While I give everyone an opportunity to populate their comments, I'll just note that this meeting is being uh broadcast

004on 43TV and live streamed on Facebook as well. And as just mentioned, you can participate participate in person or virtually virtually by using Zoom. I don't see any comments uh in the Q&A section of Zoom. I don't see anyone that's here to make public comments. So, we'll move on to our invited guest section. Uh, Superintendent Shannon, the first section of the invited guest is recognition of our superintendent student advisory council. Yes. Uh, is everyone that you expect to be here for that year at this point because we can go to the next one. We actually don't have that. We don't have many students coming. They're very busy. They have sports. They have Yeah, they have exams. And so we actually I think only we have one but we would like to recognize all of them

005by calling their names. So maybe do we feel that any would be coming? We only had two we only had two will being one another student that said they were able to make it. That was it. Okay. Do we want to wait or we want to just do this part now? I think we can do this part now. Okay. Well then I will turn the meeting to you momentarily. So, you were able to represent but also the student that is here. Yes. Excellent. Great. So, first um I'm going to rec recognize all of the members of the superintendent student advisory council. Um this is uh something that has been ongoing for years prior to me. Um but it's something that I have continued and absolutely love. It's one of my favorite times each month. Um

006I get to sit with students grades seven through 12 um to talk about what is going on in their lives and in school and they have been amazing. They are our main clients and they provide really good input and feedback that we are listening to. um they have helped shape the district through their involvement. Um and we're thankful to all of them for their time. And so this year's SSAC included and I'm grateful to Nathan Ashier, Ella Lynch, Grace Shaughnessy, Jack Kierney, Natalie Hefner, Emma Lee, Shara Gibson, Amanda Fox, Dylan Juel, Sparrow Wilson, Graham Simmons, Stephanie Williams, Luke Curley, Dominique Fiola, Amara Marshall, Ellen Ella Renie, Brendan Sullivan, in Charlotte Tapazinski. Um, all of them have been great and several of them also participated on the strategic planning committee and so they did a lot

007this year to support our district. And then I have um the pleasure of recognizing our wellness committee and this has grown over the past couple of years and we included students in it uh probably well probably five years ago and it was the best thing we ever did. Um and so we've had a very strong voice from our students and they've made a lot of uh great recommendations and changes that we have made and so it's been an absolute pleasure to work with them. We meet four times a year and outside of that four times they're actually doing subcommittee work and looking at things. So I just want to um recognize them and um we have Will is right here. Oh, you got it. Okay, there you go. Um and so so glad to um

008recognize him in person. Thank you so much. And in addition to Will, we have uh Norah Palashri, Caitlyn Sims, um Iden Teryaki. Did I say it right? Taraki, um Brooke Smith, Llaya Jackson, Laya Jackson, Leila Hadad, Jack Gabriel, Quinn Kierney, Olivia, and Aaron um Taraki, too. So um congratulations to all of them for such an amazing job and all of the things that they've done. And Will is off to Nor Eastern next year. But Will, where are you going to start? Yeah, I will be starting with my first semester abroad in the Czech Republic. Be in Prague. So huge huge luck and will been a very um consistent voice in the wellness community. So you're going to be missed, but expect pictures from when you hear all about it. So thank you so much. Have

009fun on your big day on Saturday, too. Thank you very much. Um, right. Well, most of the students aren't here, so I don't need to uh make any real comments here. Just move on because I saw the next invited guest um who is going to talk to us about our high school French exchange student program. Uh Mr. Brassman, could you come up and Hello. How are you? Hi, good evening everybody. Sorry, I didn't rock. How is everyone tonight? Well, how are you? Fair. been happy to be here and happy to present this trip. Um I'm really excited that um thanks to the approval of uh another trip the Guadaloop trip it was quite a success and I feel that there's positive noise building about the possibilities about seeing a different kind of to a travel

010experience which is what I really enjoy offering something where they're more infused with the culture it's not so superficial and that years of practice and schooling really can pay off. And I saw that in Guadaloop with Grant Wilson and Dylan Juel. They were Sorry, your own I'm filming you right now with their names. I'm putting it out there. Um, we invited about 13 students that were uh local to our villa and for three hours Grant spoke nothing but French. It was wonderful. And even the shiest, so Dylan fantastic too, hours and hours as well of French and not giving up. The shiest of students even had 10 to 20 just doing their best and phones didn't come out until the last hour. That was the unexpected wow. I was like, "Wow." Um, so I hope

011to do the same kind of thing. I hope to offer the same kinds of experiences and the same kind of growth uh for this proposed trip of December 2026. Okay. Well, thank you Mr. Grassman. I don't know. I mean, this has been presented to us before. It's here today for official approval from the committee so that we can uh commence with the program and allow our students to take advantage of this opportunity. Um I know that one issue that had been outstanding previously was the issue of ensuring that the host families were appropriately background checked through whatever process um the um the French authorities had in place um and that has been sorted out and so um I don't know if there any committee members have questions you can just ask at will I won't

012call on everyone because this has been before the committee before and long meeting full agenda in front of us today so any questions from Mr. grass before we seek a motion. Seeing none, is there a motion to approve? Okay. Uh has anything changed since the um the last presentation since the last last spoken details come into focus that we were aware of? the the timing of the trip for December, the duration of the trip, which I found in the middle of the school year, students were worried about missing class. So, it's been reduced to one full week to try to get a little bit more participation and less anxiety because students share so much here about their schoolwork. um and the company that we're using because they came in at a better rate and are

013giving us more of the tailored needs of what I'm asking for our students. What's the What's the cost again? Uh it should be $32 to $3,400 per student and that is 12 students going two shops attending. They all staying at different host family houses. Correct. And they ask that all the time. could be with their friends. It's like if they're both friends and you want to double up while you're here, we could possibly do that. Think about who's sleeping on the floor and who's not. It could be up to them, but yes, a priority in theory. Okay. And just to confirm verbally, we did ensure that the French authorities conduct background checks on those. Correct. Okay. Any other questions? Seeing none, is there a motion to approve the uh 2025 French exchange program for the

014high school? So moved. Motion be made by Mr. Evans. There second 2026. Yeah, it is. Sure is. So 2026. So the student that motion made by Mr. Evans, there second. I'll second that. Seconded by Mr. Dial. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries by a unanimous vote. Thank you so much for providing this opportunity to the students. Very excited. And the students will be French students from Straborg will be coming here in February of 2025. Fun 2026. Have a great night. Thank you. Thank you. Jedi mind trick. Um next we have our high school principal, principal Brian Scott to talk to us about the cell phone task force and uh potential changes in the cell phone policy. Mr. Scott. Um so I won't go through what I went uh through last meeting laid out what

015the process was and what the results were. Um so I guess I'll say questions. Sure. And so just to I guess want to provide you an introduce um whatever you want to introduce but to sort of review um this is going to be one of these three tiered discussions that we have because it is an impactful policy shift or could be an impactful policy shift. So, um, at our last meeting, Principal Scott, um, presented that we had a task force that reviewed, um, in the wake of the community read of anxious generation, we reviewed the, um, cell phone usage policy for our high school students who, uh, at the time had, uh, sort of an unfettered use of them throughout the day. And we were viewing whether that was appropriate, in the best interest of

016our students. And we had a committee that met several times. Principal Scott went over that last time. We wanted to have the item on our agenda this week for full discussion for anyone that had any interest in it. Um I know that there is at least one representative here from the wait till 8 um movement that we have in pass. So um just want to provide anyone that wanted to share any thoughts from the community either virtually or in person uh the opportunity to do that and then uh the school committee will have some discussion. Nothing will be decided tonight. We will take a vote at the third meeting which will be the next school committee meeting and that's when we will decide on ultimately what the policy for the next academic year will be

017for self. So I don't know uh Sylvia do you have anything? I was actually here for the meeting before. I was going to go home and zoom I might as well just stay. I was very interested in what Mr. Roberts had to say. Um, but I guess I just wanted to say I was thrilled when the task force force was formed. I was just had chills, was so happy because myself and quite a few other parents just don't see a reason why kids should have access to their cell phone. School the middle school has the put away for the day. And as we know, just having a phone near us is like can cause us anxiety or just like we're addicted. We have to look at it. So, I was just thrilled with that. And

018I guess just the one thing I just the feedback I heard when they did this pilot was that the kids were talking, they were laughing and they were loud. And I just I I mean, I could cry. It just makes me so happy because that's what it's about. School school should be about school shouldn't be about them staring at a phone at lunch or in the hallways. They should be interacting and having fun. So, I'm thrilled that it's pilot excited to hear about from Silia. Could you just for the um for the purpose of meeting that state your full name and your resial address? April Silia 40 Pharaoh Claim. 40 Pharaoh Claims is the microphone pick it up. We have someone listen. So, thank you very much for sharing those thoughts and thank you. We

019saw you on the uh what's the magazine called for the stroll. Stroll, right? The group the group the wait till 8th group. My son was not happy with that. No, no. Hey, look, but it's getting the message out and it's, you know, I think it's an important consideration for everyone. It's a community issue. So, thank you for all the work that you've done around that. We appreciate that. Anyone else? Any thoughts they want to share? Anyone that's watching online? Anyone else that's here? Do you feel as if there are workarounds to any of the challenges that were mentioned by families, um, staff or students? because I'm looking at I'm thinking I think we could kind of work around some of these things whether it's the use of a portal or or you know an online

020bulletin that parents can access for for updated information about sports or other actual activities um or things of that nature you know lockdowns and fire drills of course faculty have use of their phones and and probably having kids without use of their phones keeps information in the hands of adults during those emergencies. So I I just was sort of sorting through and thinking that I was seeing a lot of like opportunities to sort of eliminate some anxiety, but I was just wondering from your perspective whether or not you felt like there were workarounds to some of the concerns. I think it depends on the workound or the issue, but yes, I do. I mean, I think in terms of communication, people have to change their hats. So that's a bigger lift than I think people

021anticipate. Um because I think we all have something pop into our head and then want to text our child, you know, go around for catch buster there and stay active for whatever or somebody's picking you up. But we have landlines and those have worked for a long time. Um, so people can call the school, we can get a message to the student. We could, we have morning announcements, we have um, we still have Chromebooks, so we have, you know, rooms where coaches could communicate with players. So I don't think in terms of communication it's as big of an issue as people realize. I think the bigger challenge and it's just going to have to be communicated by the kids is work. You know, if work is texting you, your shift has changed. You have to

022let them know you're not going to get it until 3 o'clock. Um, and that's okay. You know, I think people just have to get into different habits. I think in terms of the fire drills and safety, I think it's actually better. Like you said, with adults, too much misinformation spread, it creates more chaos. And the the best thing we can do in an emergency is have, you know, from the fire chief down through um building administration to the teachers of kids. Um, and we all have protocols in place. So, you know, I think that's actually a plus. Um, I think the Wi-Fi issues can be fixed. You know, I don't think that's a insurmountable problem. I understand why they go on their hotspots. Uh, and even the DAS team visiting said that that was an

023issue for them. So, I think that's on plans to be remedied over the summer, but I think it's a fixable problem. Those got fun, right? Yeah. So yeah, I don't see anything that that can't be addressed. I think I think the biggest challenge is going to be changing people's habits now and getting some buy in because even if you there are some people who you will convince to change their habits and there are some people who will say I don't care I'm going to do it anyway and it's going to be a challenge you know so the more we can be unified the more it is and I think it points to the message of the anxious generation in the subsequent reports is it's not just a school solution it's not just a school problem

024there are multiple uh stakeholders that need to participate in this. Thank you. Anything else? Any other questions? Again, this is just a sort of discussion meeting. I mean, no decisions are being made tonight, but anything else. Okay. See, I don't think anyone shared any thoughts on Okay. Well, thank you for that, Principal Scott. you can stay right where you are for the next section of this uh invited guest portion of the agenda which is a review of all the handbooks from all the schools. So all of our principles who are here mills goette I'll come forward to present any changes to your handbooks can you give me yes yes I can um How's that working out for you up there, Dr. Stones? Did you get it? Perfect. All right. Why don't we start with our

025littlest learners with Principal Godhead? There you are. Hi. How are you? I'm well. How are you? Welcome. Welcome. Thank you. All right. Lay it on us. So um the only updates we have are updating the uh mission vision and core and including the district motto and um in a graduate. We updated dismissal procedures. We did a little bit of work on that. This year we added language about unexcused absences for family vacation absences. A lot of these are going to be similar to Deer Hill. We added a sentence about the bullying prevention and intervention plan. Um, we edited for concise language, uh, updated for language for early release versus versus half days to align with district calendar and updated websites and links so that they went to the right places. Okay, sensible changes. Um, and

026it makes sense that it aligns with Deer Hill. I mean, I think we're trying to make it so it's fairly uniform. We started that few years ago. Um, thank you, Principal Gota. Any questions about any of the handbook changes to the Ozgood handbook or move on to Deer Hill? Seeing none, Princy similar list, we added an addition of the notice of non-discrimination. Um, we added the addition of the new assistant principal as the CHS 504 coordinator. uh district mission, vision, core values, district motto, vision of a graduate, the removal of the equity vision statement, the early release versus half days, which is a special one of mine. I know that one. I've been a a champion of calling it early release, and I'm so excited we made it. Um addition of language to family vacations

027um to say that they're unexcused absences. We also added um something different from OSC. One thing that I think is different um an addition of a section on lockers because um we borrowed some language from middle school handbook around lockers and uh again addition of language regarding the district's response to bullying and we updated website links that expired due to the launch of the new district website. Any questions for Sullivan relative to the change in the deer handbook? Just a quick one. It's probably for um both Miss Godette and Miss Sullivan around the changes to language. It's not changing policy, but just um uh being explicit that leaving early for a family vacation will be an excuse. Yes, it was listed somewhere else that well it was it was kind of like a an exclusion.

028So earlier it says these are the things that are excused and so then in the vacation section we had language around um you know teachers aren't required to provide work in advance collect back and then we added kind of the converse of that by saying please note this is an excused absence complemented the other section. Um thank you. Anything else from anyone else? No. Um, I'm excuse absence just sort of I want to make sure because everyone gets those those letters and it irritated me the first time I got one. So, so maybe our superintendent can sort of explain the impetus behind those. Okay. So, um, the law is the impetus behind the letters. Um, and that's something we're actually going to spend a little time working on next year because I think we actually

029need to get a little bit more closely aligned with the law. I think that um it's really important for parents and families to understand that by law we have to send communication out to families at a certain threshold of an absence and then we're actually required to have meetings with families at the next threshold and then beyond that it becomes much more serious. Attendance is really important. When children aren't in seats, they don't learn. We understand things come up. We understand children get sick. We understand once in a-lifetime opportunities, but things like regular vacations, early dismissals or not not attending due to ski trips, things like that, they are really difficult for the operational part of school. teachers have a hard time teaching half full classrooms and our time is limited to teach students. So,

030it's important to us to capture the kids for the 100. We only get them for 180 days. There's a lot of learning that happens in those 180 days. So, it's important that we get them. So, um we are following the law. It is not something we have made up. It is a consistent law across all schools in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Um, and it's something we are continuing to encourage families to attend. And I will say like even personally, I've had a child who has said, "But that's an increased absence." Whether it's used or not, you're still missing the learning. And as a district, we actually have to report student absences to the Department of Ed every single year. And the Department of Ed is is really making a strong push. They did last year

031and they are continuing to for schools to be more consistent with the law with regard to attendance. So I think that's an important factor for people to know and it's all absences that get reported not just just excuse you know the the unexcused ones it's all of them that it all factors into when we do our report for you from the state that progress report that's all included. Yes. All right. Well thank you. I just I because I wanted everyone to understand why those things go out. We're not just being party poopers. We are required to do that. We are. So, just want everyone to know that because I didn't I didn't know that the first time I got one a long time ago and I asked then Principal Pharaoh. Was it really necessary? She

032said it was. It is. And it is and it continues to be. Um, principal Sullivan or Principal God just obviously the update of the mission and vision that's what we just came up with in this Okay. Strategic planning groups. Um, and principal Sullivan, could you talk to me a little bit about the locker section? What what was the evidence behind that and what does it say general? So, it just explains that lockers are school property. Um, middle school free to chime in your language. Um, and that it's school property that we have the right to go in lockers and that students are responsible if they damage lockers or families would be responsible they damage lockers. I think it's all okay. Sounds sensible. Any other questions? I would just add that some of these changes are

033for alignment purposes and then some of them we actually sent all of our handbooks off to our school attorney and so some of the changes were her recommendation. Okay, seeing no other questions for Principal Sullivan, we'll move right on to our middle schools. Yep. Uh and that was a perfect transition from Superintendent Shannon because uh all of our changes are either about consistency across the district or uh advice from our council. So uh just yours is the only multi-page one. That's some extra detail. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Well, the number of people involved in the law profession I feel like and you would expect I appreciate the detail. Yep. Um, so I updated general school information. Obviously, we do that every year, dates, uh, calendars and so forth. Uh, as was described at Osgood and

034Deer Hill, we included the, um, recently approved mission core values motto, uh, and vision. Down to the bottom, page 21, makeup work. Uh based on our legal council's advice, there was a line about kids not being allowed to make up work if they miss class due to uh disciplinary reasons and we had to remove that. Even when a child misses class for disciplinary reasons, they're still allowed to make up their work. uh lockers [Music] uh is you know I already have the section that uh principal Sullivan had mentioned uh the lawyers uh recommendation included lawyers are subject to reasonable I'm sorry lockers lawyers were at school subject to a reasonable search but demonstration just a reminder to students I think it's in uh the dear health handbook is consistent with ours um a non-consistency and

035lawyer change with page 25 around dances, social events and school activities. There had been a section about guests and we've found in order to maintain a safe environment uh that we are removing um uh kids ability to invite non-school members. Uh we had uh a couple of incidents over the last couple years where nothing nothing was nothing happened that um where anyone was hurt. Uh but we did have students just arrive and try to mix in and our dances were very well attended. We usually have twothirds at least twothirds of the school. So to have people who our teachers don't know kind of mixed in and maybe um their behavior being inappropriate uh we just thought it was a bad situation. So our dances are really for our students. So we proposed removing the u

036the section about guests. Uh next section page 28 uh where there is a a statement about harassment uh being um obviously not allowed. uh the the lawyer's advice uh she thought we should make sure that we include on the basis of protected class including race, color, religion, nationality, sex, sexual orientation, age which was already there but also include gender identity along with ancestry and disability. So she uh made sure that our protected classes were in line with the law. Uh the dress code uh dress code is school committee policy will be added is just a set of the section based on the council's recommendation and does not violate the rights of others is at the end of that to reflect the support rulings. the uh page 32 sections around drugs and alcohol. Um the sections

037had previously stated that uh there would be a minimum of 5 days uh suspension and instead uh replaced with the district holds a disciplinary hearing in accordance with the laws. So 37 agents reporters recently last couple years are promulgated to protect due process for students and she wanted to make sure that our um those serious infractions still um mention the uh due process as protected uh by those laws. So that's page 32 and page 33 and page 36. Uh we uh well and I could probably do 36 and 37 together in school and out out of school suspensions. We removed the old language and replaced it with the language that comes out of uh the 37 3/4 that really specifies the due process rights and steps that school administration has to follow before suspension which

038includes having a hearing and um putting uh really important relevant details in writing and provided to the parent during during the hearing as well as the meetings um to explain the consequence. Um once again that this comes out of the law but you know the law really was in reaction to the schools uh around the state and maybe in an earlier time where students would just be uh sent home quickly just hey you know just just sent out without really having any due process. So the law really protects it and organizes our our steps. We've adopted that in practice. We just needed to make sure our handbook reflected it. So I'm all the way between in school and out of school all the way to page seven which is page 38 of the handbook. Emergency

039removal. Same thing. It just basically uh specifies the steps that we have to follow to protect me process in the event that uh a student has to be removed for the safety of the school uh pending uh a suspension guarantee. And we go to page eight in the update which refers to page 40 update long-term um absence. And what we did here is um we updated our language around um times where students might uh need tutoring because they're out of school for a long time. So, we changed it once again on the lawyer's advice from a parent can make arrangements to having the parent refer to um a very clear policy that's cited a little bit later in the handbook. On page 44, that that appears on page 10, 11, 12, that policy on page

04040, family vacation. I'm sure I've lost everybody. uh and stick out to town. On page nine, family vacation, we aligned with the district-wide uh practice. We had already said that it was an unexcused absence, but extended absences may uh result in unenrollment from school. That would be, you know, 10, 15, 20 consecutive days because of extensive travel may result in unrollment. uh the makeup work. Um on page 40, page nine of the brochure of the document, it we included um in our makeup work section the existence of our bright program where the student adaps it for five consecutive days. They could be referred to the Bright program to help them re-enter school and get caught up. Update student dismissals. We just included um the phone number because previously we had said that uh parents um

041have to send in a written request before um the dismissal, but in reality you parents should be able to call the office to request a dismissal. It happens frequently. And then the last uh really large change was the adoption of the temporary home or hospitalization education tutoring when students are out for a while and that's consistent across the district. That's it. All right. Thank you very much, Principal Mills. Any questions for Principal Mills relative to those uh those handbook changes there? So on the adding the phrase uh for the U dress code does not violate the rights of others to this that just strikes I don't understand that sentence. So there's a this recent court case just because this is something which is a hot button topic. Um so just in a clean format what

042what does that mean for for our students or how we judicial uh uh court had said that students do have a right of expression to their their dress in school but they don't have the uh the right isn't extended to maybe a message that would be offensive or make other students in school feel unsafe. Thank you. Or violate their civil rights. Tinker previous um agree with you Mr. I was that that raised an eyebrow for me as well. I understand the court case came down but um I guess if council council had proposed that language. Yes. So uh well now if we have questions we have a very reasonable explanation of why we're here. Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. I'm just uh I had the same concerns you do, but we're guessing they're dealing with this

043issue all the time. I feel like that's the appropriate language comfortable with that. And the only understand is it's civil rights. It's not just I don't like the sh it's going to violate, right? And that's what that's kind of what my concern with it was. It's a little bit vague, but again, I'm not going to argue if council, you know, I'm sure they're updating these making these updates to handbooks uh in mass throughout the state. So I'm not going to be someone who's kind of trying their spin on it. The decision uh outlines the criteria for what would constitute violating the rights of others. Great. Okay. I guess are you guys doing any sort of staff training on how to identify stuff that might trigger this? How what how how does this look instrumentation beyond

044just revising? Similar to how dress code violations work in general, a teacher is questioning something, they typically report it to the main office and then the administrators have conversations with those kids and that gives the administration the opportunity to either in conversation with the teacher determine if yes or no, it violates the dress code. So, I think it works the same way it has worked. It's just adding another category to it. But yes, having conversation with the staff so they know that there's an update I think is important. Anything else? Okay. So, uh why don't we just do it individually? One more. I know it seems sorry not that I almost I have been since the early morning hours anticipating this uh I don't know how I on all the excitement I just must have

045forgotten but please principal Scott um yeah I mean what they say so we had some technical changes updating personnel updating um you know library records to include books that type of thing we had some legal language that was updated uh for recommendation from council. We had some health and home hospital language that was updated to reflect um current practices and we really only had a couple of more substantial changes. One was that we created an honor code that's consistent with the vision of the graduate and that was at the recommendation of school council to put some clarification into what we expect in terms of student integrity and work. Um so that's at the beginning of the updated handbook. We did update some language on image altering technologies that continues to evolve and we did that

046to expand the scope of what is prohibited to provide some educational con context for it to offer some supports for students and to provide exceptions um where that might be permissive in an art class for example. We also will update whatever the recommendation is in terms of self. So those are the three big major changes. Okay. Uh thank you Scott and uh not to make light obviously handbook which are important especially in disciplinary situations because that's what controls um but these changes are all heavily vetted and it's the group that talks about them council talks about them uh council CIL and then council legal council uh also reviews them. So, um, you know, we appreciate these, uh, these concise, um, summaries of the changes. Um, with the exception for Mills and appreciate, um, we appreciate

047bills very much. Just giving him a hard time because, you know, it's the end of the year. Why not have a little fun? Um, any uh, let's I'd like to approve them one at a time. So, we'll just quickly do that. All in favor of uh approval of the changes to the Joseph Ogwood school handbook as presented by principal Godette here tonight. Should we do a motion and second move process? I'm asking for motion. Oh my apologies. Just said everyone he didn't ask for. He didn't ask for a motion. Thank you. Hopefully Mr. Dial won't be vice chair for my Is there a motion to that effect? Yes. So moved. Uh motion has been made by Mr. Dial. Second. Second. Second by Mr. Evans. All in favor? I. All opposed. Abstensions. Okay. Uh that motion

048carries unanimously. So thank you. You may those changes. Uh as to the Deer Hill handbook, is there a motion? Motion to Is there a motion to approve the um changes to the Deer Hill handbook as presented by principal Sullivan tonight? So made by Miss Leki. Is there a second? Seconded by Miss Hannah. All in favor? I opposed extensions. That motion carries unanimously as well. Sullivan those changes. Uh as to the Cohasset Middle School, is there a motion to approve the changes as presented here tonight? Principal Mills. Motion's been made by Mr. Dial. Second. Seconded by Mr. Evans. All in favor? I. I. Opposed extensions. Motion carries unanimously. Mr. Mills, please those changes. And finally, is there a motion to approve the changes to the Kassid High School handbook as presented tonight by principal Scott? Been

049made by Miss Leki. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Miss Hannah. All in favor? I I extensions. Motion carries unanimously. Principal Scott, please changes. Thank you all very much for your presentation and for the work that went into those changes. Um, Principal Goddette and Principal Sullivan, could you please stay up front while we move into the elementary school improvement plans? Uh, turn the meeting over to the two of you. You can take it in whatever order you'd like. It's tell me who's going first. I can put your plan. I'll first. Thank you for letting me keep my emotional [Laughter] in the absence of I know I know you guys not here. Amazing line. Now, now what? I am um going to stick. Um first, thank you for welcoming me to pass it. It's been

050a wonderful year. I feel like I'm involved in a community that really for the lack of s of of just really does put students first and I'm in a building where they cherish children and that makes a big difference for our dayto-day. Um well regard that congratulations on finishing your first year. Not yet. We don't we don't say stuff like that out loud yet. Oh, we don't. Maybe that's a California thing. It's a me thing. I'm a I don't like the jinxes. Um I do have updated data for um the accompanying documents that were sent. Um we just finished the bench. Yeah, we just finished our uh I Ready with the exception of three students I think for I Ready Math. Um we finished our I Ready and our um doubles data. And I have

051to tell you, I'm actually excited because when I first populated the two boxes, I was a little bit nervous. And then I remembered that the smallest children um blossom in the spring. And my goodness, the data really represent that. So, I just wanted to make sure that you had that um in front of you as well as we think about the wonderful year we've had. So, some of our highlights that I'd like to bring forward, I um share some photos of our year. Um, one of the highlights was really having that studio, student student, family, and community engagement. We worked hard to provide um events that were in the evening, but also during the day that that families could be involved in. Um, some of the ones pictured there are our curriculum nights. We had

052a family picnic before school started. That's the bottom left there. One of the things that I thought was fantastic and unprovoked by me was Mrs. Diminy um presented at Mosaic her second graders um research projects on countries which was really um an an awesome part of of that evening. We have many community partnerships. We work with um Deer Hill. We work with Cohasset working dogs um thanks to Alex. Alex kind of brought that on for us and we piloted a program um to work with them. We have um we had several um assemblies and one of those was the um the zoo came round and this year for the first year in a couple years we had field trips. So sounds like they hadn't been happening since co. So we had first graders going to

053Holly Hill. We had kindergarters did an in-house field trip. They brought in um the barnyard babies and Leslie and Sarah got to enjoy that. Um yeah, it was it was really wonderful. Um so if we can move to the the next celebration. One of the other things that I'd like to highlight just um as part of getting to know a building really focusing on the professional development and the team building are important pieces. Um so you see pictures of team building things like on the bottom left, not a cup. We did one. It's like the um secret staff spirit day. they brought their beverage in anything but a cup. Um so things like that, things like um connectors, which uh Sarah kind of introduces our meetings with connectors as well, so I brought that into

054every meeting that we have at school. Um and really just celebrating one another, but also the PD piece, that is another chance for teachers to really appreciate one another's one another as professionals. And so we have lots of opportunities for that with TLA, but also um in-house with our own reading specialists. Um I also coming from the outside was very impressed by the social emotional and wellness piece at Yazgood. The counseling um is remarkable. Um but understanding that that's in response to a lot of things that happen at school. There are things in place that help children not get to the point of needing counseling and those things are zones of regulation and work and language around that. Those things are um morning meetings. There's a picture next to the zones picture of students doing

055a morning meeting. Um we also had lots of activities in terms of just getting bringing the joy to school. One of um I know uh Craig's favorite was the election day. That's the top left. Um, we also introduced an extra recess and that was kind of in response to um kids being in a a special for a little bit longer than really was developmentally appropriate. And so we added an extra recess with a twist. So when um first and second grade teachers were in CPT um the kids were are out on the yard with very little to keep them busy intentionally. So the idea of what would you do if your parents said go outside and play and all you had was a box. So you see some pictures of boxes. So um that's been

056a really fun addition as well and a nice way to get kids back outside. So we had four goals um this year and it understanding too this is a a plan that was inherited. So um the description of the goals looks a little bit broad. So this first one was a student learning goal. Um we had as I mentioned professional development in-house um but also and that flexible group professional development was an in-house offering and it was based on on teachers um prof team professional goals. So we had um some teachers who had that small group um work with our specialists and some teachers who did math fluency work with our math specialists. Um, we also kind of honed in a little bit on our MTSS training and refined the structures that we use for

057that, trying to be intentional about six to nine week cycles. Um, where we're monitoring kids progress. Um, you'll see that that's still something we need to to continue to do and to refine and um, and make sure that we're building in that piece with parent communication. Um, but also really focusing in on that tiered instruction, not just tier three when kids get there, but what does tier one look like and and what are we doing to meet the needs of kids within a classroom before it gets to that point. Our second goal was around social emotional aware um wellness and I mentioned zones of regulation and that language is used everywhere in the building and there's visuals everywhere. I tell you, I have adults using that language and it's it's great. I mean, for themselves,

058I'm feeling a little bit in the in the yellow right now because I'm a little nervous. So, um, we also have protected time for morning meetings and that was something that was really important as we were looking at the master schedule and we'll continue to do that next year um, just for that community building piece within a classroom and it ties to um, responsive classroom. Um, we do need to get more training for for staff members in responsive classroom. And we would like to have in the past, I know that there's been three curriculum nights, a math, language arts, and a cell night. And we would like to bring that back. And Mr. Vincent and I were talking about doing it the beginning of the year so that we can parents and families can have

059those tools at the very beginning. The comm uh the family and community engagement piece, again, very important for someone in their first year to really hone in on this piece. So, um, getting to know families and getting to know, um, the community around me, but also, um, doing that as a building and reaching out. It was, it was really cool to see the pieces of the puzzle when we did start to talk about field trips, like, oh yeah, we have this resource, we have this resource, being that small town, then we can do that. Um, one of the things that I, um, started to do this year was a weekly bulletin. every Sunday you get the Sunday smart four with the exception of last Sunday that was that came on Monday but and uh that's

060my way of just keeping um parents informed and and it kind of lives it's the tool we all use um for our newsletters it's similar to what you'll see from Sarah's um but we have a lot of things going on in school and out of school because as a building we also believe that that joy is a really big piece of learning um and then Did I mention field trips? I might have mentioned field trips. Yeah. Um, one of the things we would like to do is systematize the work that we do to partner with our um our partner CL our partner schools. Um, that what we have right now is kind of kids reach out to us and we try to partner them up. So, we would really kind of the four of us

061have talked about systematizing that as well. And then it's going to be ongoing to be seeking out partnerships in the community. We do a lot of work with kindergarten transition. It starts from um this year, for example, we in May, we had um families come in for screeners for kiddos. So, we got to a touch point with everybody there. Um we will do a another family picnic over the summer. Um we also have the first day of school when other grade levels are teaching, kindergarteners are going in for their meet and greet, um which is fantastic. they get to go into their classroom, they meet their teacher. Um, and then that night, um, last year, and I will do this again this year, I did a Zoom call to help tuck them in and read

062them a book that they all received that day, um, so they could read it with me. And then, um, the other piece of that puzzle was any families that had concerns over the summer, we did offer a lot of tours and those kinds of things. We had a lot of this year coming in anxieties with first and second graders, but the lynch pin for the kindergarteners was wreck. Having wreck in our building, we had I think 88% of our kindergarters participated in the wreck program. I had one kindergartener crying walking into school and she was walking into school. She was coming. It was the first and second graders. We were peeling off parents. So it and she's done remarkable. Um, so that that piece of the puzzle I think is really working functionally. Um, one

063of the things that we'd like to do is work a little bit more with preschool and how we get kids transitioned into our preschool and keep those families part of our our bigger picture. And as you know, next year our strategic plan will kind of guide us in thinking about our school improvement plan um, but then also funnel down into teacher principal and teacher goals. Some of the questions that I'll be grappling with um staff members about and and um school council about is um how do we look at each grade level every teacher in a grade level owning the whole grade level. So instead of just this is my class, how can we think of it as this is these these are all our kids all these and starting at second grade you know

064and then it then it filters down to the whole school. But really all kids are our kids in that perspective. um how do we fit in play? Um I know you'll probably hear a little bit about an added recess from my colleague here too, but um but how does that fit in in the classroom? We understand that that's how children young children learn. So how does that look in a classroom? Um and how are we mining our own expertise so that we can leverage all of the strengths that our our staff members are bringing to the to the table? Um how do we capture student voice? There was a picture earlier of Sarah capturing some student voice when she came to um talk to students about all the things that they love or would improve

065about Ozgood and how do we do that in a more deliberate way? Um and then how do we just make sure that we're using our time and resources super efficiently um to ensure students are getting what they need at any level. And I am available here for any questions if you should have any. Thank you very much principal Godette for that presentation. Uh any comments or questions for principal Godette? Let's move around dial. Um nothing I guess one generic question or first thank you for the presentation. I think this may I don't know if you've come to the board but this I think it's the first time you come when I've been here and I thought that was excellent. Thank you. So thank you. Looking forward to how you how you guess as a as

066a as a new joiner. I guess yeah, you started with some initial reactions, but um more on the kind of improvement side, are there things that you bring with you, some experiences that you have that you might think that we should also think about doing here that we could be doing better as a system or just at Osgood? Either one. Can you take that whatever direction? We've actually been talking a lot about um you know I'm I'm from California so I'm like way on the other side so there are I know so there are things that that um you know we might have done differently but one of the things that we've been talking about is is teacher evaluation and kind of the systems around that. So I'm participating in that group um with the

067lens of of having just gone through revamping an entire district system of of teacher evaluation. Um so that's piece of the puzzle. Um, I also really feel strongly that our preschool really needs to be more a part of our overall school and they need to be included. Um, I I have gotten feedback that they've been included more, but more is needed and I think um that's going to be a piece of the puzzle too. Thank you very much. Yeah, thank you. Rebbits, you're looking that way and you said my name really. just your two are I have two at school right now and it was a great year. So thanks for everything you do for all the kids there teachers as well and you know universally great. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Evans.

068Miss H. No questions or anything. Um, I think you actually answered what I was thinking if you didn't just kind of hear your perspective on that interest. [Music] That was a wonderful presentation. I you've had a wonderful year. Um, and we're so happy to have you as part of the district. And I can't tell you how much I my heart sings and it brings me joy to think about educators, focusing on play, focusing on multi-age connections. Um, I think that they not only benefit our littles to have older kids to look up to, but I think it really benefits our olders. Um, and I I I know I call them olders. They're 18 and they're almost adults now, but our olders to to be role models and to to have um to sort of have

069that feeling of of caring for others in our community. I think just it overall deepens um everyone's experience um in such a nice small town um to do those things and to do them within the school community is just um a gift to everyone um who lives here. And play, let's get outside. Let's let's cut up those boxes. Let's be creative. So I I actually went to um I looked into playful learning institute. It's a um an initiative um under DESIE that is that introduces play in a very structured way. I had folks on board. I didn't think I had the bandwidth to lead it well the first time around. So I ended up not applying for the grant, but we're going to be doing that this year. Y thank you God. Um love the

070additional recess considerations that we're doing there. I think that's in line with some of the things that we saw generation do. So, um I don't think I see any questions for you online. Nothing in the audience. So, move over to your um emotional support principal. Rolls are switching now. All right. So, looking at some highlights for our school year. Um, we've just really focused a lot on collaboration. One of our goals was around the idea of social studies and science and what kind of opportunities are we offering our students. Um, some highlights of that were examples in third grade where um the grade levels um uh designed three science innovator days and on those days they they buddied up. Um some days they were across all six classrooms. Some days they had kind of two

071tracks of three classrooms and they created hands-on um science activities around magnets, engineering and climate and weather were the three topics and so students got to experience other classrooms. Leslie and Sarah were there on the last day and we had like a rainforest in one of our classrooms and um Mrs. Clark thankfully it was a cooler day was in a parka and you know and so it was just a very experiential and hands-on approach to science. Um social studies was another area where we wanted to build some capacity. We definitely have some work to do with more like the scope and sequence on the daily but again looking for making it come alive. Um we had oh I want to go back to science for a second. Uh, we also partnered with CSCR and science.

072So, fifth grade best I I have a a display in my building of all of our community partnerships that were on our C t-shirt this year. And at the beginning of the year as I'm putting up photos, the one the only one that I wasn't able to attach our school to was CSCR. And I thought, oh my gosh, my my only child went through CSCR. Like, this is a huge gap. So, I called Jack Buckley and we got on it. and fifth grade is in the process right now of doing the most amazing field trip where they are down there. They're with the college level interns. They're rotating, they've got waiters on, they're in the water, they're holding things, they're doing all kinds of things like that. So, those are the kinds of science and

073social studies opportunities um we want to bring. We partnered with Bridgewwater State this year in fourth grade where they brought a um a new thing was a ginormous globe that the students was like inflatable. they could actually get inside and see all the regions and things like that and they got lectures from that that was part of a PSO grant. Um and then also again in third grade a conversation that started over the summer with the Cohassid Historical Society really blossomed. Um I had a volunteer third grade liaison Kelly Frasier and she met multiple times throughout the year with the historical society. Shout out to Katie Holden and other members of that society. And last week they did a hop on hop off bus tour of Cohasset and they went to multiple sites. They went

074to the Beachwood Meeting House. They went to the Wilson House. They went to the Maritime Museum. They went to the Cohasset Historical Society and then they had a picnic lunch on the common and the number of volunteers from the Cohassid community that showed up for these kids and talked to them and shared their passion for our local history. We've been outsourcing it for the last couple of years to Marshfield. Um and uh which was lovely and Marshfield appreciated that we paid because their own schools go for free and so we were like a little cash cow for them. Um but it was so nice to bring it inhouse and and just and um to have those opportunities for our students. So many of them, you know, walk to Seabird and never know they're walking by

075the maritime museum. So uh that was really exciting. Um, another highlight of our year was really looking for opportunities in a very systematic way for uh, families to have direct input into topics of high interest. So, we had um, donuts and discussions multiple times throughout the year. We did one topic on the anxious generation and um kind of an extension of the the whole group activity and where we talked about wait until 8th and we did some you know some conversations around our digital practices and digital citizenship. We had one where Sarah came and talked about our building um proposals because it's our kids that are going to hopefully benefit from that. Um and then we also had a topic on homework um which was also a part of our um school improvement plan. Oh

076wait, sorry. Let me just see that last one. Make sure I hit that. Uh yeah, so there's the technology piece as well. And so again, we were able to be brought on board with another PSO initiative with the middle school where we had um Dr. Elizabeth Englander Englander who came and um so we were able to address it that way as well. Um so again, our first goal this year was the opportunities for social studies and science. So, I think I've really touched on a lot of the highlights um this year and then this kind of just goes into a little more detail about uh those things. I think I pretty much touched on we also really established a nice partnership with the fire department this year. They have a new educator coordinator who is

077like like very eager and um they met and we talked and he came multiple times and and met with all first he met with third grade or the the firemen came and then he has recently been going I he was just there yesterday. Um been having lessons with all the grade levels around fire safety and responsibility and things like that. So that was a new partnership for us as well. Um so it's pretty exciting. It's someone new in that position. Yes, it is. Someone new in that position, John. Invigorated. Yes, he's he's super excited about it. It's a great program. It's really He's really does some lovely lovely things. So, there here's just some highlights. I at the time I needed to submit this. We hadn't done our hop on hop off tour, but if

078you look at my latest newsletter, you'll see some great pictures of that CSCR pictures that started this week. So, those pictures will be in this Friday. But you can see the globe. Um you can see on the left, that's the third grade uh science innovator day. That was the um engineering one I believe. And then on the right um that says science inhouse with the North and South River Watershed Association again hands-on but also leverages our parent volunteers. Uh our second goal was around homework practices and the development of a um cohesive expectations. So we were a little bit ahead of our time on this one and so we started this process and then soon it became clear that this was going to be a bucket in our upcoming strategic plan. So we did host

079a uh parent information you know one of our donors and discussions around this was actually we used a somewhat we used a modified dialogue protocol and we had some very clear questions. It was a great turnout and I've got those charts on my wall. Um, but in terms of moving forward with my student advisory council and working with staff, I came reached an agreement with Leslie and Sarah that we were going to hit pause and reinvest in that as part of our strategic plan. And so this is one that in my my formal report you see more red than green, but that was intentional because I wanted to make sure we were we were timing it right, jumping into the jumper at the right time. And so that's there's some of the the work that

080we did. And this is kind I I had taken pictures that day, but it was just like adults sitting around tables. So I deleted them from my phone. And then when I was like, go make your presentation and add some photos. I was like, they were gone from my deleted folder. So you get a picture of the chart. I missed my moment. Um and then uh this goal was again written very specifically around Epstein's model of parent involvement. and then thinking about three new engagement opportunities. Um, Epstein's model wasn't something that we focused on as a leadership team this year. It had been introduced in the past. So, I would say that I wasn't explicit in naming it in in the work we did, but it was it it drove that kind of work. And

081so, again, those those parent caregiver forums, I was really pleased. I was really looking for a way to bring more people in to our PSO meetings. And I found that if you call it a PSO meeting, even if you give a topic of discussion, it didn't have that same draw. But by calling it a forum, the donuts, I don't know if the donuts really helped. I think I ate them. Um, but then also really making it focused in terms of what we're talking about in a very different way and really just being targeted about what we were talking about and making sure we're hitting our topics made a a big difference. And then again, originally this goal was written to include um the Norfolk DA and then that partnership wasn't able to evolve the way

082we had envisioned at the end of last year. Um and so that's when we were so lucky that Jen Dial and uh the middle school were like, "Hey, we're doing this thing and we'd love to include you." And I was like, "Yes, this aligns with my school improvement plan and we would love to be included." And I was so pleased that night to see so many Deer Hill families that came. And so that that that checked our box just in a different way that we'd envisioned. And then another piece that we did um as part of our original goal, we um we had envisioned a student component and we were able to address that through our instructional technology specialist Cassie O'Brien who um developed a a week-long kind of um deep dive into some of

083these topics around digital safety and digital citizenship and everyone was really on board. And then in our morning, we have a daily morning bulletin to staff. She kept it updated throughout the whole year and so it was always available and that was at staff that was based on teacher feedback. They really enjoyed the week and they asked if we could keep it going. So it was um something that we were able to offer students throughout the year and have those conversations. Uh and then all again always looking for ways um that we can bring parents in and um an example of that is again that North and South River wershed that's run it's like led by that organization but then run by parents um and then also our community expert days that we have throughout

084the building and then we were able to an area of my school improvement plan that I I do feel like I want to keep at the forefront is how how do we specifically engage our population of families from Boston and the initial work that we did this year I've been fortunate the last couple years to send staff to the MECO conference and I think that helps them think of ways to engage their families and build those connections and so I think that's a way to do that and so here's some examples on see look donuts um and so here's some examples of some of those things on the right that was a parent who's a beekeeper. We actually have a couple different beekeepers in our in our school buckets. Um, so this was we've had

085the Dhys in the past. This was another family who came and did a full lesson with third grade. We have our Lunar New Year celebration with the Sullivan family. And then that's an example of one of our forums with the donuts and discussion. I believe that was the digital one. You can tell them I stole your breath. So, it's called collaboration. It is collaboration 100%. I was really proud that I figured out how to make an arrow. Um, so our Deer Hill School improvement plan. And so looking ahead into next year, some areas again, there's that homework again. Now we're in in alignment better with the district. And then we're really excited at Deer Hill about kind of an aha moment for our building this year was that MTSS isn't a meeting that you go

086to once a week and you refer students to. It is a way of thinking about students in everything you do. And one way we do that is how we and this kind of goes along with what principal Godette said about how they are all our students and how we look at data in a way that's very collective and then how we plan teaching around that. And so when we talked about this at our most recent staff meeting, I used an analogy from friends when Phoebe Buffet talks about someone being their lobster. And somehow that language has really stuck in my building and it is really funny. It's coming up in a lot of meetings where people are talking about lobsters. And so if you hear that in our building, it's them thinking about who are

087the people that are going to help them move the needle with students. And so that's really exciting. And I want next year um to capture that in my school improvement plan in a very sandbox way. I don't want it to be scripted. Um several years ago, we did have a what I need time. We had a committee. We told the entire building this is what it's going to look like and this is the data we're going to use and this is how we're going to all move and this is what we're going to do. What I'm looking to do for the next year is to give teachers opportunities to think about how they want to work with each other. How do they want to group students? How do you swing open the door between you

088and the person next to you? We actually are doing the great classroom migration over the next couple weeks. I have several teachers moving classrooms and a lot of times that's very angsty to tell a teacher they have to move rooms, but every teacher I went to where I said, "Hey, I'd like to propose you moving rooms." Their face kind of went down. And then I said, "And here's why." And they went, "Oh." Because I'm like, "I want to get you next to somebody that I know you're going to work well with. I want to make sure that we are wrapping around our new teachers to the building and making sure they have a teacher on either side of them from their grade level." Making those kinds of decisions. everyone was on board and excited. And

089so it really comes at all levels of planning, you know, from where you are teaching to what you are teaching to who you're teaching with, what students you're addressing. So I you saw I'm really excited about that goal. I'm really excited about what flexible teaming looks like. Um other things we want to look at are um opportunities possibly for our PBL work. Again, really closely aligned with our new strategic plan. And then um this was an area that was in my professional goal this year that I didn't get to develop as much as I wanted to and how we are looking at um student wellness and positive behavior and what are some things we're we're doing around that. Um how and that goes within our school day and also kind of those extra events and

090how we establish norms for behavior and make them system. And I have a bonus slide because he didn't he wasn't in my school improvement plan in any way, but I just think it's really important when I think about this year to think about the impact of um and and also out of gratitude to Superintendent Shannon and the school committee and working dog Foundation, just so many people, the staff who welcomed um Hugo um that it just is something that really brought a lot to our building this year in terms of joy and safety and community. And it helped me connect with students in a whole different way. It helped my husband connect with students because when he's walking down the street and people recognize him with Hugo, he's like making all kinds of new friends.

091So, our dog walker is making new friends. Um, but I just think that um, Hugo I I I just couldn't not talk about um, what he has done for our building. and also by extension to Osgood. He's now made a few visits to Osgood and I received a lovely lovely email from an Osgood parent this week who just said, "Hey, I just want to reach out and and tell you why this was so important to our family that Hugo came into my child's classroom today." Thank you, Principal Sullivan. Any uh questions or comments for Principal Sullivan relative to the school improvement plan, Mr. Dial? Um Princ, thank you for that. That's an excellent presentation. Lots of good stuff going on at Deer Hill School, which is which is fantastic. I do want to seize on

092a couple things that um are are points to to encourage um further, but I love and I think this committee loves as a whole. U the efforts that the schools in the district take to bring in other alternative learning, experiential learning, and through your plan, you there were a couple instances that I picked up on where you were looking for ways to bring things in. we saw the beekeeper, we saw the the um the the collective work. Um so I think that's great. I'd love to encourage you to continue that. Wanted to express my appreciation for that. And then uh it is another theme that we've been talking for years about. Um is the you know tapping into our community. We have a lot of a lot of parents with a lot of expertise. Love

093the DP for example. Um, and so that's something to to think about how we can rekindle or put together, you know, a list of of parents and their skills be willing to do things. And I'll just go ahead if you want anyone to ever come in to our dear hill to talk about tax enforcement for mutual funds. So we have done this was the the last I could start section 17 of the 194 loan officers come in and the kids are fascinated. So I would be fascinated by that. It's really interesting. inflatable version of the code. You can actually step inside it. I do want to make a 40X pop-up, but that's a different story. We um for the last not this school year but the prior two school years we did a a schoolwide

094community expert day and we had again that's when we had the mortgage officer come in and and we had all different kinds of things across the building and the PSO sometimes when you do something for a couple years you exhaust your community partners and they need a break and so we're kind of like okay let's hit pause and how do we start one of the things we talked about with the PSO is how do we cycle things so maybe over a threeyear experience at Deer Hill you have one year where you have community expert day and then you have one year, you know, and so we're kind of looking at some of those opportunities to keep things fresh and keep our our partnerships engaged and things for sure. But yes, you are on debt for

095law. You guys could be a team. So, thank you for that. And also, thank you for leaning into our our partnerships with our community organizations like PSO. I think that's it's that's an easy resource. Absolutely. We have amazing PSO. I last night I had my um second grade informational night for entering families. It was the first time it had been in person since before COVID and we had an amazing turnout. We actually had a really fun time and we talked for so long that the tour we were going to do became optional but everyone stayed. Um we caught the rusty skippers off guard. They were rehearsing and then all 40 of us were in the cafeteria watching them. Um, but I almost train. Oh, but I felt like on the tour and within my presentation,

096every other thing I talked about was and this was due to the PSO or here are our bikes. Thank you, CE. And here is our we're sitting in our innovation comments. And it was just such a it really it is just when you look around Deer Hill at the courtyard and all the things, it is because of our CF and our PSO that that we are the building that we are. And so it it really is it's very easy to sing the praises of those organizations. Well, thank you for all the Thank you. Thank you, Mr. D. Mr. Evans. Here we go. Thank you very much. Um u my wife attended the the um preview night you had last night. Okay. Says enormously helpful. Um I know my my children are still good, but the

097days we have at CSCR, the stuff on High Hill, those are the days that they always run. So, um, but he's got such great people in this town. So, I love that you take advantage of it. And of course, you know, anything you can do to fit in those experienc um I guess my only question is we filled out a form about the parent that parent what parents do. Whatever happened to that? It just needs to like it's going to be something we're going to have to roll out several times before it's like we're looking to get like at least like a hundred people to like, you know, so right now I we're not I think we're around maybe 20, right? 37. Oh, well there you go. So we're 37%. I will say that. So

098that's been the goal of the school committee and now it's also a action item in the new strategic plan. And so the district is going to partner more closely with the school committee to make this happen. And I actually wrote up all the actions. Haven't shared them with anyone yet, but wrote out all the action steps to really create a more robust um database. have some ideas. I mean, you're right. I mean, just like anything here, like we just have to keep on like like pounding it, you know, in people's heads and eventually like people will we'll get to the hundred mark. We'll get to the 100 mark. And then I feel for that person. If you're the hundth sign up, what do you get? You get to get theund first sign up. Was it

099with Hugo? And that was my next thing is Hugo has been a huge hit in Oh, Duke and Hugo are and I know you have a new puppy, too, but Well, thank you for that. That's a huge addition to that. So, no, but it's been great. So, thank you for adding everything and everything you guys have been doing there. Thank you. just um I will briefly echo my appreciation for your not only your report but your real focus on collaborations particularly in town. I think that sort of understanding the gem in which our kids live is is absolutely wonderful. Um and again creates that sort of bigger sense of community I think like you know kids classrooms schools district but then we also live in this this wonderful town. So I I think that that's

100um wonderful. Um, I also really appreciated your thoughts around flexible teaming. Um, having been a teacher myself, it is hard to move um, out of your beloved classroom. Um, but knowing that there's some intentionality around who your neighbors are and why they're your teaching neighbors can make a a profession that can sometimes feel kind of lonely, a little less so. Um, so thank you for that because I think it's really important that we care for our um, faculty in addition to all that we do. Aunt Hugo grandmother. I have to say I' I've run down the street. Um having I am Hugo's grandmother. Um and I actually meet children in the woods and other places because they'll come up to Pat um Dolly who's Hugo's mom and I'll say, "Do you go to Deer Hill?"

101And the parents at first look at me like I'm a little crazy. I was like because this is Hugo's mama. And they're all like absolutely enthralled. Um, so, um, thank you for giving me that little teeny bit of stardom, um, that allows me to connect with others in the strangest places. Um, anyone who wants to pat a dog, I happen to have, too. All right. Thank you, Miss Leki, and thank you, Principal Scottette and Sullivan, for your passion and your infectious enthusiasm. Um, we have to approve the school improvement plans. So, or it is asking for a vote. They're not. Yeah, these are just a review. You actually don't have the school improvement plans in front of you because we're going to do them in the fall because we just plan. All right. Well, we

102marked for a vote. So, you know, didn't want to mismanage everyone's expectations. All right. Well, then uh then we will uh thank you and bid you a do. There's a lot of meat left on this bone for us tonight. So, thank you very much both of you. Thank you so much. Very odd analogy. We'll we'll we'll uh only your second mutator. Get ready. we'll we'll move right into uh the the next and final item in the invited guest section which is our uh review of our athletics department that was just completed. So we'll welcome Mr. Mark Otto Viennelli. Did I get that right? I guess you did. All right. And principal Scott um I don't know I think our director is here. Mr. Tony, do you want to come up too? You're welcome to or

103you welcome to stay right where you are. Yes. All right. All right. So, um, I just want to welcome Mr. Mark of the BNL. Close. No, close. No, you got it right. Okay. Um, I'm gonna go with Mark. Um, so Mark's a longtime and now retired athletic director who helped write the standards for athletics for the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, which is sort of known as NEAS, which is who also does the review of all high schools and and small colleges and things like that. Um, interestingly, last summer, Mr. Scott actually called me and said, "I'm at this conference and there. NIASK is here and they're presenting on the new standards and they're looking for schools who are willing to be a part of a pilot program where NEAS would come in

104and do the whole review. Can I sign us up? And I think I've been like a couple weeks. So I said, "Sure." Um, we unfortunately weren't chosen and had plans to be a part of the actual process this coming school year, but when concerns were raised about the athletic program, we decided to go directly to the source. Um, and where Mark was so intimately involved in writing the standards, we reached out to him to see if he could come in now to do the review. And so since early spring, he has been in the district. He's been meeting with stakeholders. He'll talk about who he's met with and he's done a thorough review of the athletics department. And so tonight he is here to share his findings. I am going to turn it over to

105him. I'm going to share slides. He's going to tell me when to turn the slide. You can turn that one. Okay. Well, first of all, thank you very much. Really appreciate your time and all your efforts here. Uh, one clarification. I did not was not involved in writing up the standards but in the development and how it went through how it worked out was taugh high school last year was the original guinea pig I guess for a better word not for a better word of going through a review. So I was involved in that process with NEAS our superintendent school committee in our community and then we were able to go on the road during summer superintendence conferences, principal conferences and we were I was on a part of that page. So I've been involved

106in the process. um longtime athletic director, 24 years, two years at Coyle and Cassidy High School in Taton and then the TW the final 22 years at Tad and tremendous run. Um it's a wonderful place. Sorry, graduate from T. It's and we were able to do a lot of good things and I found out over that time period the difference between me as an athletic director and as an administrator okay when I first started out and when I ended I was two different people I grew into the position positions times had changed I tell a quick story all the time I ended up coaching eighth grade basketball we had an eighth grade at the high school wasn't able to find a eighth great basketball coach. I coached college basketball for 14 years. I took the

107job myself. My mother, who's now 86, would come to the games. She said, "Mark, you're very political." Said, "Mom," said, "I'm sometimes the third most I'm in the top three most political people in the city of T." She goes, "No, you're not." I go, "The mayor, the superintendent, and myself." I said some days I'm number one because what happens it's it's very important what happens between 8 and two every day and from all the what I heard today and all the wonderful things that are going on in this district. It's amazing but there's also from 2 to 8 is where all the passion lies and you have a lot of wonderful things going on between two and eight also. So you should be very very proud of that for sure. But if you go go

108back a little bit please. So NASC you have to go through a every 10 year and accreditation. They're going to start NAS is going to put athletics into that process that is coming. That's why they wanted to start start this pilot. Okay. They going to be adding that in future. Got a call from Brian asking asked me if I would be able to come and be part of this. More than will is outstanding. What we wanted to do to do is evaluate the athletic department against best practices and we also wanted to evaluate the validity of complaints pertaining to aspects of the athletic department. Next slide please. So the methodology that NAS uses is stakeholder engagement. You should be so proud of what's happening in this community. Your student athletes, I'm telling you, totally impressive.

109Totally impressive group of students. They are proud and they are driven. They are great kids. Your coaching staff is dedicated and you have some high quality members. Okay? and your parents are involved in community. That doesn't happen everywhere. It's sometimes difficult certain places. You have all three of those components. School administration, school committee. I had cop here. I got to talk to a number of different people on my own, different times, different things. We went through this whole review. I met with the seniors and junior juniors in a group auditorium by myself. Then I met with the freshman and sophomores and I met with parents in the community. I got emails. I called parents. I had Zoom meetings with parents. There were about 20 individual parent meetings. What I tried to do, I think I

110was successful for the most part except for the last two emails. I tried to answer every email within 24 hours. The last two I think was 48. It was over a weekend. Must have I just missed it. Um met with the coaching staff, met individually with them, met together with anybody that wanted to talk, anybody that wanted to come back and talk again, we were able to do that. Met with school committee. So it was a wide open process. I got a lot of good information. And when you have people that are passionate, driven, and involved, there are going to be conflicts because that passion leads to what is best for the kids. And that's what everybody is involved in is what is best for student athletes and coast. So, you should be very proud.

111You got an impressive number of athletic offerings for such a small school. You have 406 students and you have 86% 349 participating. That's amazing. That is absolutely amazing. You have over 30 programs, excuse me, 30. Yeah. 30 programs with 20 different sports. The opportunities that you provide here in this community for your student athletes are fantastic. There are high expectations not only athletically with sportsmanship but with also academics very very important that they all come in in a positive and constructive way that we can do what's best for our students I went on on-site observations facility reviews and went through a number of the different documents that was provided by principal Scott and superintendent couple other things that we've already went over. Highly competitive. Your there were all of your teams except for one this

112year made the state tournament. That one team is a new program that made the state tournament last year in Wimble. So they had success in their first year. The second year was a little down. They're working hard to get it back up. So over the two-year pro year process, all of your teams have made the state tournament. That's unheard of. Unheard of. State championships in boys soccer and girls lacrosse over the past year. Number one seeds. Your teams are I think every team in the spring is qualified for the 20. Number still playing. Boys lacrosse, girls lacrosse. baseball was playing today, boys tennis, girls tennis, track. It's amazing. Absolutely amazing. The requirements that were online, registration form, user fee, physical and impact testing, and sports information. Now, what I'd like to do in the standards,

113I know everyone's has a copy of this, and we given that to I think last week, correct? Instead of going through the beginning of it and all that, I would just like to read the my observations and then go through the commendations and recommendations. That is the goal of this process with DSK. It's not to come in and say you should have done this, you should have done that, you should have hired this person, you should get rid of this person, this coach should do this. None of that. It's observations and looking at policies and procedures and where we can be helpful to move forward. with what you're trying to do here. So the first one, standard one's program and guiding principles. Without question, Cohassid High School athletic program is a source of passion and

114pride as evidenced by the comments expressed by all stakeholders. This passion and pride appear to be the foundational elements that motivates and drives the success of the athletic teams and performances of individual athletes. Recent and historical events of success have strengthened the stakeholder mindset. MIA state championships been secured by girls lacrosse and boys soccer and numerous teams and individuals have qualified and won championships within the Southshore League. The winning ways of cohassid athletics has led to the development of new and exciting programs. Remarkably, success has has been achieved without a clear clearly articulated or understood mission statement and belief system for the Cohassid High School athletic program. Stakeholders expressed differing ideas and/or opinions what the mission and the expectations are for the program. This lack of clarity regarding the mission of the program has led

115to highly visible and divisive conflicts within and about the athletic department. Without a clear and well- definfined mission statement, the stakeholders will fill this information with the belief that decisions regarding the program are being made capricciously and influenced by individuals or groups who may be acting in a self-serving manner. Moving forward, the establishment of a mission statement and expectations for the program will form the basis of all decision making. This action step will potentially increase the likelihood of minimizing conflicts regarding the program and will ground the work of the adults in seeking what is in the best interest of passive student commendations. I'm going to say this a lot. A lot of the commenations you'll see a common theme throughout this pride sense of belonging. There is a great sense of pride in this community

116and through your student athletes, dedicated coaching staff with an understanding of the importance of athletics and student development. And there is a strong parental and community involvement in the athletic department. That those three thing those commendations those three are consistent throughout what goes on here every day. You don't have that in other places. You're very very fortunate. Very fortunate. Recommendations. All those stakeholders have to be heard. So the recommendations development of the athletic department mission and expectations with input from all stakeholders including student athletes, coaches, school administration, school committee, parents, and community members. The mission The mission statement should be aligned with the school's mission, vision, and core values. The mission and vision should be reviewed, revised, and reaffirmed on a cycle with the district's strategic plan using information from all stakeholders involved. Expectations should

117be reviewed, revised, and reaffirmed on an annual basis. Preseason meetings should be consistent in communicating each athletic season. Consistency is the is needed because you have so many two and three sport athletes. What happens in the fall might not necessarily happen in the winter or the spring. The kids are very smart, very intelligent, very passionate. They like how some coaches do things and then when other coaches that they have later on in the year don't meet up to that standard, it's a difficult transition. Coaching uh coaching staff involvement in the development of preseason meeting agendas will be beneficial in reinforcing the mission and expectations of the athletic department on a consistent basis. The mission and expectation should be published, communicated, regularly reviewed and available to all stakeholders involved. Communication is a is a key especially

118throughout on all six standards. There's got to be a better development of communication between all the statements. Does anybody have any questions on standard one? Do you want should I do it individually or should I just keep going? I I I think in the interest of time maybe what we should do um uh Vielli is maybe just for each standard focus on the commendations and recommendations more of a summary. It's more of a highlight rather than going through the observations as well because the report because you you I gave you you created this comprehensive report that is published. We're going to we're going to make sure that everyone has that. But I feel like for the purpose of this presentation that might be the best way to go. No problem at all. Because I feel

119like the commendations and recommendations kind of hit on the observations a little bit where they drive, right? The athletic program accommodations, student athletes willingness for leadership, training, and mentoring opportunities, especially your upper classman. You talked about tonight through this whole meeting of the connections between the students. high school, middle school, elementary, preschool. Your kids want to do that. They're yearning for that. They want to work with the younger kids in their programs. That's outstanding. It It's mind-blowing to me how much they wanted to be part of it, but they want to learn more on how to do that. The Cohassid coaching staff, Southshore League and the MIAA have developed and implemented team educationally based programs, high number of multi-port athletes in the mil building of a new training facility and athletic turf field and practicing

120for a small school in a small community. You have some good facilities. Pretty good recommendation. Create a schoolwide educationally based curriculum for athletes to address sportsmanship, health and wellness, time management, and leadership leadership skill development. Provide a formalized leadership program for coaches, student athletes, and educational staff during the development process to ensure buyin consistency across all sports programs and relevance. School administration and parents and guardians and our caregivers should also be engaged. investigate the feasibility of developing a strength and conditioning coach SLcoordinator position to utilize the new training facility and provide connections and opportunities between sports teams emphasizing positive attributes of multiport athletes. That's very important because a lot of these a lot of your student athletes are looking to go on and play at a higher level. Whether they will or not, that's all

121depends on the coaches at the higher levels. Okay? It's not us deciding. It's not the parents, not the kids, it's the people who are in those positions. But that transition between sports and to in order to keep everybody involved is that's your lifeline is your two or three sport athletes. They're looking for that strength and conditioning piece to get to that next level. How do we do that and keep them involved? It's difficult, but it can be done. Establish and strengthen the cooperative relationship between the school's guidance department and the athletic department, assisting with college exploration and placement along with any student athlete concerns. The student athletes feel there's an expectation in town. They feel the weight of what school are they going to go to, what are they going to do at that next

122level. They there's there's a little bit of pressure on We have to work with them, make sure they can handle that and get to that next level where they want to go and continue to celebrate team and individual student athlete accomplishments through formal and informal recognition experiences which may be either in person or strategically through social media posts. Program standard three program resources and equity accommodations. The ability of the athletic programs to adjust to and to accommodate to the needs of all involved. The commitment of the athletic department staff. The passion and dedication of people in the individual booster clubs supporting the teams and student athletes in various ways. Again, your parent involvement, especially in the booster club, is so important and it's it's it's constant throughout the program, which is fantastic. The collaboration between

123the athletic department, community recreation department, school facilities maintenance department, and off-site rental facilities in providing athletic facilities for Pahasset High School athletic. There's a lot of moving pieces there. And there's a number of thing your youth programs are outstanding and beneficial to your high school programs. So everybody wants a piece of the field. So there's a lot of hard work in that. Recommendations. Review the roles, responsibilities, and mission of the Cohassid High School Athletic Booster Club. This includes but is not limited to the development of a booster club athletic program advisory board. discussing the positive and negatives of having individual sports program booster clubs versus one unified booster club and providing financial support for volunteer boosters. My first my interview at Taton High School, I was told they didn't the individual booster clubs didn't want

124to be touched. I used that for 22 years because I had come from coil which had one unified. There's pros and cons for both. You have to decide what is best for your community and what is best that are going to serve your student methods because that's as adults that's what we want to do. We want to provide our kids with opportunity. Develop a long range plan strategic plan in regards to purchasing, maintaining and refurbishment of all athletic equipment. Investigate the feasibility of additional athletic athletic department clerical security and game management support. maintain open lines of communication with the community recreation department on the future rehabilit rehabilitation or new construction of athletic facilities used by the cohasset high school athletic programs and proceed with a capital outlay plan dependent upon the MSBA school construction that'll

125be important once you know what happens there where can you go after standard Four, program administration accommodations. Pride in the behavior of student athletes, coaches, and spectators at sporting events. Student athletes support for their classmates is apparent at athletic com contest. There is an understanding of high expectations about behavior, professionalism, and respect for all stakeholders. You all should be proud of that. Not not only your school administrations and school committee, but your staff, your coaching staff, your teaching staff, your parents, your youth coaches. That's all big part. They learned from right right from the start. That's awesome. Recommendations. Follow recently developed procedures for all athletic coaching positions, head coaches, assistant coaches, and volunteers. Continue the developing onboarding process for all new coaches at all levels. Create and make available a student athlete and parent handbook.

126Create a coaches handbook which includes components to address the expectations and support of volunteer coaches and assistants. Develop a process for the evaluation and professional development of coaches. Create a mechanism for stakeholder input from student athletes, parents, school committee, and the community into decisions impacting the athletic and develop a process to communicate information to all stakeholders on a consistent basis. Communication is the key. When I first started out, I didn't want to talk to anybody. When I my last 10 years, I talked to everybody. It's part of the deal. Standard five, program and player evaluation. Recommendations, the number of multiport student athletes that you have and the relationship between the coaching staff and the student athletes. Recommendations. Develop a program improvement plan that takes into consideration the high number of multiport athletes participating in Cohasset

127High School athletics. Investigate the feasibility of developing a process to assess and provide feedback on the skill growth of all student athletes and implement a consistent system of exit interviews with players and coaches. Talking to the kids when they leave, what was good, what was bad, what could be better. They're the ones that are going to give you that feedback that you need to improve the program. Standard six, safety and well-being and inclusion commendations. The athletic program provides a safe environment for student athletes and adults. Pride in being a capacitive high school student athlete is evident. Parent and community involvement is apparent and appreciated. That's a consistent theme throughout this community on all levels as I heard tonight. recommendation. Communicate the MIAA and Massachusetts Department of Health regulations to all stakeholders. Continue to evaluate the

128student athletes parental concerns on an individual basis. Continue to review eighth grade waiverss opportunities based upon the sport and continue to make athletic use of fees accom accommodations if needed. Final thoughts. You got a strong successful educational program. Your student again, your student athlete pride. They love playing there. They love their teammates. I went to the couple of games. You can see other kids coming from other teams, supporting their teammates and their classmates. It's it's outstanding. You have a dedicated and committed coaching staff and school administration. your parent and community passion and interest is off the charts. Your student well-being and you have an opportunity to build upon this success. There are a lot of good things going on here. Are there things that need improvement? Absolutely. I think with Superintendent Shannon's leadership, principal Scott's

129leadership, athletic director Ratundi's leadership to bring that all together working with all the stakeholders involved. You have something really, really good. Hopefully, you can take some of the recommendations, tweak some of the things that are going on and make it better. But you should be very very proud of what's going on in this community because everybody is involved. Thank you so much for starting to add at this point. No, I appreciate um all Mark's work. You know, I I very much value the NES process. I think it's a a great way to get outside non-biased feedback into what we're doing to compare it to a much larger pool of what other schools are doing um and to provide some some feedback for us to improve. I think we constantly improve both in school and in

130athletics. Athletics is an enormous component of what we do. So yeah, I'm very appreciative of what he's able to do. Thank you. I think there's no such thing as perfect school district. Athletics department is one pass of that. So there always opportunity growth. So, uh, any questions or comments related to, uh, the, um, athletics department review report as presented by Mr. Andelli tonight? Let's go around in alphabetical order, Mr. D. Mr. Thank you very much for that. Sounds like a very thorough process. Sounds like with couple dozen people at least, parents, students, um, faculty, staff. Um, couple questions. Uh, as as you know, the genesis of this project, uh, came about because of some concerns raised about the athletic program. Um, and your recommendations, I think, are are great. There's a few of these that

131that certainly, right, um, certainly resonate with me. Um, the mission statement and belief system, I think you're you're you're spot on that a lack of that can create um, distrust or or at least concerns. So, that seems to be a low fruit almost. and also a booster club advisory board. I had not even thought about that. Uh and the amount we know about kind of what's going on with booster clubs at the committee level, I think um could be better. So I think that those are areas that I think we can immediately start to start to move. uh you also um went through your presentation and and so said we would and I picked up on the theme of parental involvement and parental appreciation and the relationship between the athletic programs and and students and

132parents uh is is absolutely paramount uh as well as the broader community. And one of the concerns that had been raised that that bothered me was that there were some elements of that relationship between the athletic program and either parents, our athletic program and the broader community that were not good that uh were were people were distrustful. People were um were you know worried about the athletic program to to um with respect to their their kids. Did you pick up on any of that and if there were any elements of that? Are there any things that we could be doing better to to facilitate greater levels of trust in among the broader community? So, there was some of that and the people who brought that up were very passionate and very vocal. They I don't

133think they're distrustful. I think they want to be communicated to more. in a more open style. So I think it's more of a lack of information in their particular situation, but I think there were a lot of indiv there were a couple of individual situations where that happened. I think if it was a better discussion, I think that would be helpful. Uh and then another another leg of the uh journey is um safety issues, following policies and the like. uh in your review did you see I mean certainly there's always as chairman news there's always room for improvement but did you see any uh anything that we should take immediate action on or focus on immediately from a safety perspective so I know especially with a lot of community involvement especially you sports there's a

134difference between the MIAA rules and the mass department of health regulations and organizations like safe sport Um, all well intended, all good. I think there's just needs to be better communication and what the differences are with the MIA department and and and your who would own that director is the school committee is that I guess where does that where does that start? Right. It starts with the athletic. So, so one of the problem so that but but it's but it also goes to the athletic director for principal. I think ultimately it's all by ownership. Um and there are differences and I think you know one of the things came up around concussion protocols. We are bound by MIA and mass board of health regulations which might be different than what some people are used to

135from their involvement sports or other organizations or even the wider medical community but that's what we're g to. So all told though seems like a very positive report very positive athletic program uh bringing lot some areas for improvement um and I appreciate your diligence and thank you thank you style Stevens nothing. Thank you very much. Um, you know, I second what Mr. Dial said just in terms of and everything. I know there's some concerns around parents being able to come forward anonymously. Um, I don't think that was necessarily fully addressed with parents as a whole in general. Um, but it is what it is. They're not going to come forward. They're not going to come forward. So, I don't know how to get into in a way they feel like they're protected or anything. So,

136um I think it's interesting 86% of the student body is participating in sports. I mean that's a huge number or it's more than a lot of you know some of these other things that we've talked about having you know an athletic committee um that we're I think is was voted in and everything. So, I think that's um going to be an important step, you know, just making sure that these athletes are getting um you know, the full positive experience from a standpoint. So, um I think from a safety standpoint, the concerns around concussion weather, like a lot of these things were that were brought up in the early stages of this whole process have never been addressed in terms of what we did. So you didn't find anything from like a confession protocol protocol all

137that sort of stuff or even training but that would be that would go into the coaches. Okay. So that's what I wanted student athlete. Okay. And coaches would be trained through that. Okay. And then how are coaches trained right now? So a new coach comes in. How are they kind of how are we ensuring the train? I know there's like background check gaps, things like that. So, I just want to understand like what we're doing now to make sure none of that happen. So, I believe and maybe this isn't a question for you. I mean, well, I can only answer a little bit for you, but hiring a coach is is the same thing as hiring teaching is a step that the district has that they have to go through all that process. Now with

138the onboard what's happening is in that particular sport it depends upon the coaches the head coach how they deal with the assistance how are they doing that is there a formal program no that's something that we would like to work on coaches um but there is for quaries and background checks and all that you have to go through and I will say that one of the things that we did this year is in the past um Mr. Roandi has done training at the start of each season for all of the coaches. This year he's colle collaborated with Dr. Collins because we've enhanced the coach training at the start of each season um to include all of the things that are necessary like process procedures but also title n title six all of the things that

139everybody who works in our district needs to have. Yeah. Um and I think we've done a far better job um between Mr. Otendi and Dr. balance of making sure everyone is attending and um there are some some people who have had one-on-one sessions. Yeah. And I think it's important to note that there's a difference between what's happening and what's written down. Yeah. Um and our biggest criticism on the academic side was that we didn't have a written curriculum. I don't think anybody here would argue that we didn't teach anything for the last 10 years. But the evolution of the curriculum hasn't been for our lives, hadn't been consistent. So we did that. And so I think for the communication perspective for you know covering all our bases for including some of the volunteer people that

140I don't think were uh always included before I think that is happening and um and then I think just trying to understand like I think this is great and I think you make some amazing really good recommendations in terms of going forward and I think I just asked the school committee like what are the next steps here you know or or maybe the question to what are the next steps in terms of all the work that you've just done? Yeah, I think we do this the same way we do our NEOS findings and our strategic plan. So, I think we take the strategic plan, we take the visual to graduate, we take the findings that are here and we basically create an athletic improvement plan just like we do a school improvement plan that's linked

141to the strategic plan that is collaborative um that we identify timelines and targets and actions and responsible parties and we present that in the fall. Um, you know, I don't think we're in a position just like the school improvement plans are to present that tonight. I think tonight information session taken and you know, weigh what makes sense for us. I think the booster conversation will be an interesting one because I do think it has some title N implications. I think it has funding implications. I think there's definitely an equity conversation that needs to be had around um who funds what and and to what level um and what should be kind of collective resources that everybody can benefit from and what are sports specific things that we focus on. So I I think this is

142this is what we do in the summer. Yeah. Shannie, thank you. Um I appreciate the opportunity to have met with you. Um and also I think to um it's so valuable in my mind um to hear outside perspectives. Um and not only that but people who come with a lot of professional experience um I feel as if you gave us a higher level view. It's really easy to not see the forest but for the trees. Um, and I think sometimes when we're dealing with lots of passion and lots of excitement and sports are important to a lot of people in class, um, that that we see the trees and we don't see the forest anymore. And I think this is an opportunity to step back and see that forest. um and you helped us to

143do that and and gave us some really I think good big picture things to think about sort of values to think about um when sort of uh thinking about improving our um athletics department and our athletics programming for um for our kids. Something as simple as making sure that sports equitably get acknowledgement for their achievements. For someone like me who has a child who plays a non-traditional sport, like that's huge. That's huge. um this, you know, for those kids that that compete, you know, miles and miles away from um from our home from our home fields. Um that's really that's huge and I think it makes it's a changing culture and I think that you've offered us some um really sort of important sort of ways to look at improving culture around um athletics. So

144yeah, sure. And I think it, you know, the clarity around what our mission is is critical because I think I played sports in high school. I played three sports. I play division one and college athletics. So, it's it's it's for me personally, it's made a major difference in my educational evolution. You know, the things that I discovered about myself or that somebody else saw me that I didn't think I I could do or the ability to do hard things. All of these things are important. And when you look at the volume of the students that play athletics and the resources that we dedicate to them, there are 80 coaches that we have on staff. That's twice as many coaches as we have teachers, right? With about the same number of kids. Now, I have two

145administrative assistants, eight department heads, a transportation coordinator, an athletic director. Um, I have a lot of resources that help me manage that. I'm very proud of what we've been able to do with one person because ultimately the the all of it falls under my responsibility and the day-to-day operations fall on person. Um, that's a big responsibility and there's a lot of moving parts and it's something that's very personal. you know, it's something that costs a lot of money, especially with the development of of, you know, youth sports in the last 10, 20 years, you know, probably more 10 than the last 20. Um, so there's a lot of emotion that gets brought into it and it's a human being business and anytime you're in a human being business, you have conflicts and and that's to

146be expected. I don't think we're ever going to avoid that. But I do think that it's very important for us to articulate what our priorities are for educational athletics. It's not the same necessarily as a club team. It's not the same as an independent school. Um, and the goal is not winning championships, although that's really nice. You know, I I enjoy giving up, but that isn't the sole purpose. Um, it's it's personal growth for for kids because at some point they're going to get to school like I found out in my first med. I think too to that point, there's also such academic benefit that's been shown over and over and over again that getting some time outside, moving your body, and also having to learn how to plan your time and use your time

147efficiently um is are are are really just life skills. Yeah. And kids are in school by default. they're in athletics by choice, right? So, you have you already have built-in student engagement and you have a willingness and an enthusiasm to share that with the younger kids. So, you have those built-in community connections um and a real sense of of pride that kids are able to do those things and share them with younger kids. And that's something that I really want to because it's it is when you do it right, it's it's a wonderful. Thank you. Um, so thank both. I I um I'm very appreciative all your work. I think that um this report uh the need for it I think arose out of you know some controversy and has helped I think give some

148positive direction to this. Um, I think that it's important because I I just did this last meeting when Principal Scott was here highlighting some accomplishments of the high school. And I think that it's even though this, you know, this arose out of I don't want I don't know if it was controversy, concern, right? Um, and and that's what we're here for. We're here to address concern and and take it seriously and and and and evaluate, you know, strengths and weaknesses of our programming. But I think a lot of what Mr. Vinnie and Nelly's's report just stated was very positive. I think a lot of it was positive and I don't want to get lost in the opportunities for growth and I think that it's important just like I did last meeting uh on the academic

149side of things to just take a brief moment and step back and acknowledge what we've accomplished um you know with all these students participating and Mr. Vielli was just saying that our students one of the things stood out about your board and your student you said our students love playing for the school. they love they love playing on the teams. They that that that means that you they're they're they're generally happy, right? And there's going to be exceptions to that. Um just like every rule, but I think we just it's important to always step back and recognize what we're doing right. And there are a lot of things that I think were just highlighted this right. And I think that um Ad Ratundi and his team and our our staff of coaches um and everyone

150that contributes to the success of uh our athletics program should should should be commended and should be you know applauded for that because we do win championships and we have a lot of kids that are having a lot of fun uh and learning a lot from participating in the team sports and the athletics program. Um obviously there's room for growth like road for Brooklyn. I said that that could be said for any facet of our district's operations. Um and we're constantly trying to improve. I think that, you know, we want to make sure that Miss Hannah brought up um you know, what what comes out of this, what is the next step? And I think that principal Scott's suggestion um you know uh and I'm I'm sure that our central office is going to have

151to have discussions about this amongst his leadership team, but I think that you know what you suggested uh out of the gate seems like a really positive way of dealing with this. one that I think focuses on our north star which is making sure that we're acting in the best interest of the students and what this what is best for the students and if we were students what we would want to see. So um I I I I love approaching it in that you know in the in the school improvement plan manner or or even like because I think a lot there were a lot of a lot mentioned about involving like stakeholder input and communication and collaboration. So it it may be important, you know, just like the SIPs involved school counsel or the

152cell phone issue involved the task force or the strategic plan invited students and and teachers and parents and school committee members to be on that. I think there should be some thought given to how we structure that. But I loved how you thought we might I I think that is a lot more of a um purposeful and and probably more constructive approach than just having a specific school committee le committee to do that because I think it'll first of all you're going to involve a lot more uh like professional expertise from the ed and athletic uh programming side. Um, but you're going to I think you're going to be inviting more stakeholder input that way. Um, I think it'll also seem less daunting um and uh less uh indicting uh to the staff. So um

153and we want to make sure this is like like I'm looking at these um these recommendations and a lot of them seem great. I think a lot of them seem like they're going to take a lot of work, right? I mean, we just did a strategic planning process and like developing missions for the district, all this stuff. It's it's it requires a lot of thought. I think it's best if there are a lot of minds involved in that inquiry. So, um I don't think this is going to be like I I don't think you're going to be able to accomplish like everything over the summer. I think it's going to be I mean I I I think even if you have I think an improvement plan is going to take a while, but I think

154it should certainly start sooner rather than later, right? That's that's my position. So, I I don't No, I mean I I think that Superintendent Shannon I I think it's important that you talk to your leadership team and I don't think we're going to reach any sort of like I I think Miss Hannah's question is important because we just had this done and it was done for a reason. There's a lot of great information in there. We need to tell the community what we expect to do from this. I don't know that the first time it's presented we're going to be able to give a comprehensive answer to that. So, um, you know, I just ask that maybe you consult with leadership and figure out, you know, what you want, maybe have some sort of recommended

155course of action for the the committee and we all talk about it and thought partner on it. Um, because I just don't want I I this this doesn't have to be, you know, controversial or Metriolic in any way. I think be really positive. Yeah. And I think, you know, they're all intertwined. So, it's a little bit different than like cafeteria services, right? Or custodial services. Those are also intertwined, but not to the extent that kids having a happy fulfilling lunch is not going to drive culture. Kids in a community that prides itself on athletics, maybe disproportionately, but it does, right? Focusing on that strength and recognizing that as an opportunity can drive belonging for the rest of the kids, whether they play sports or not. You know, these are the kids that are being held

156up, who have opportunities, who can take it upon themselves to act with an inspiring character, can recognize their own weaknesses, can grow purposefully, and can share that with the other kids. Absolutely. That will grow both academically, it'll grow the arts department, it'll it'll demonstrabably change the cult. I I I I agree. So I I superintendent Shannon I don't know if that's like I'm just I'm just to take a suggestion but I I I you know turn it to you to decide on you know what like how do you envision us I think very much like that I think that um just want to thank somebody I would like to thank Mark really struggling with that one um for all his time and effort. Um it was great to work with you and get to know

157you throughout this entire process. I think he brought um a great perspective and a level of expertise that was really helpful. Um, and I just also before I get to I just want to also say that there were a lot of really great things that were highlighted in this report and I've been here for a hot minute but that really is a result of the work that Scott and athletic director Roachundi have done and all of the coaches. Um, and so I want to thank them for the athletic department that we do have. Um, I think everything that both Principal Scott and you have said is the course of action that we'd like to take. I think that we've just come out of the strategic planning process and that using a modified version of that,

158not with a group of 30 but smaller, but um using a modified version of that to build out what our plan will be um is what I think could be most beneficial. I think it's um it's well timed because we have just finished the NEAS report for the academics as well. We have the brand new strategic plan and now we will work to develop this and so everything will be aligned. I think that um principal Scott is absolutely correct that um athletics and academics are incredibly intertwined as are the staff members um who provide the athletics and the academics and so bringing them together will be really important um and I think that this is a huge component of the culture of our school and um this is a moment where it's it's created a

159really culture and it has the power to make it even better. And so I'm excited for that. Thank you very much. Well, thank you so much. Uh like I said, we have a full meeting tonight, so I'm going to continue to move on. And that athletics review report authored by uh Mr. Ottoelli will be published somehow. Yep. So, it's already in the packet that went out, so everybody has had access to it, but I will put it in the next newsletter as well. Yes. That'd be great if we could somehow highlight it just so everyone's aware and everyone's able to read that. Yeah. Okay. Um even though people have had the opportunity, but maybe highlight Thank you so much. I appreciate it. All right. Um as we suspended earlier uh this topic, I'm just going

160to revisit the reorg because we didn't have a full panel at the very beginning of the meeting, but now we do and I wanted to wait until we did that. Um this is to uh this is to select or elect um different officers um for the 2526 year for the school committee. As the chair I will take the opportunity to make the first nomination. I nominate Jennifer Ley to serve as chair for 2526. Is there a second nomination? Second. Seconded by Miss Hannah. All in favor? Assuming that you uh Thank you. Yeah. That's true. No, no, no. That's true. It's different than a typical motion. So, do you do you accept that nomination? Okay. So, is there now a seconded nomination? Miss Hannah second that. All in favor? I I opposed extensions. I can't. You

161abstain? Yeah. So, the motion carries by vote of uh four members to one abstension and passes. So, uh these um changes take place uh and are effective as of the next committee meeting. It's how we usually do it here at the school committee. So, um, congratulations and condolences, Miss Mleski, on your appointment to chair of the school committee starting next meeting. Uh, vice chair, is there a nomination for the vice chair position? I'll nominate President, you have chair experience. Get you an accept. I do. Um, okay. Yep. I'll do it. All right. Can you take uh Oh, all in favor? I All opposed. Vote carries. 4 zero. All right. So, we have vice chair now secretary which uh first of all I ask that we change the name of secretary to clerk. Is there any

162objection to that? Can we logistically just do that or do we need to go look at bylaws or I think we'd have if there is something we'd have to make a change to it. But question we have the authority to do it by town. No. No. No. I just think it I I mean I just think it makes by something. Doesn't the select board use the term clerk? We use the term clerk, but Lance's question is if in the school committee bylaw says we will appoint a secretary, then we appoint a secretary. We don't appoint a clerk. I'm just whatever the bylaw. I guess I'm I'm unaware of that. So, uh if I don't have the answer, I I just I nomenclature more than anything. Why don't we appoint a secretary and call them a

163clerk just by parlance or we could just find out and look at the and see what we need to do to change that. I'd be I'd be for changing. That's one extra week. It's a long meeting, so maybe I should have brought that up. Uh, Secretary Clark, whatever you want to call it. Is there a nomination for someone? Is Is there anyone willing to do it? It's um I can't do two jobs. I would do it. I mean, I guess I I can I am speaking so I will I will um I will I will assist you, Mr. Dial. Yeah. Okay. Okay. It's it's a it's a it's an unenviable role, but it's really not that bad. Well, and it's called secretary. Like, it was called clerk. I'd be all over. All right. Well, I'll

164nominate I'll nominate Lance Dial then. Okay. Is there a second to the nomination? I'll second that. Seconded by Mr. Evans. All in favor? I I opposed. I mean, I'm sorry. Extension. Motion carries by a vote of four members. One extension. So Mr. D will be the secretary moving forward. I'm working my way down the only this uh that's those are the only officer positions that we need to assign. Um so we'll do subcommittee uh positions or assignments later on in the meeting. For now we'll just move into the superintendent update which hopefully is fairly brief. Superintendent Shannon, it is. Yeah. I'm going to be quick. Okay. First I just wanted to share a quick calendar note for next fall. Um, and we're going to remind people in September over and over again, but Deer Hill

165and Ozgood, due to a couple of um other events at the swap, they're back to school nights. So, Deer Hills open house will be on September 9th. Ozgoods will be on September 11th. Our um website already reflects that and we will give notice about it again in the fall multiple times. Um, it's been a busy couple of weeks since we last met. Field trips, egg drops, snapper, sneaker day, biking to school sort of sums up a lot of our activities. Um, it's been really fun to watch the fifth graders use their science, math, and perseverance skills to protect their eggs as they get dropped from the Deer Hill roof. Um, and we're excited to see what iterations they make for next week when it gets dropped from the firetruck ladder height. Um, I haven't been

166to a snapper sneaker day in many years and but I did get to go this week and so that was super fun. All the kiddos decked out in their crazy hair and their socks and all the things as they played relay races. And I can remember, you know, last minute my kids telling me they had to get their hair spray painted, but they had such a good time and the weather could not have been better for them. Um, and CSCR, one of our amazing community partners, hosted not one but two field trips in the last week. The second graders also went and did a field trip with CSCR along with and so just a thank you to them. Um, as a followup to the presentation we just had, um, and to recognize all of our

167teams, uh, it's amazing, but I'm going to give you a little rundown of all of our teams that are currently still in or have participated in the um, postseason. So, boys track specifically um a very small but mighty team of 12 participants went to states and finished second overall as a team for all of division six with many finishing in the top eight in their individual events. Nathan Ashier won the state championship in the pentavlon. Will Mclofflin won the state championship in the 200 meter run and the long jump. Nathan and his brother Nicholas along with Mike Giglio and Will Mclofflin are have qualified and are going to participate in the meet of champions tomorrow and Saturday which is like all states. So it doesn't matter what division you are. It's just all of the

168track people. So we wish them good luck. Um baseball was the number 19 seed. They upset their first opponent and so they are in Hamilton winning them as we speak playing. I don't know what the score is because we've been here. Um softball made the playoffs but lost their first game on the road against Gardner but they've made the playoffs for the third straight year. Girls lacrosse is the number one seed. They've won their first two games. They're going to play the winner of Net Manchester Essex. Um next, um boys lacrosse, also the number one seed, also won their first two games. They're waiting for the winner of Lynfield Littleton. When those two games are going to be is a bit up in the air because of all of those schools, lots of graduations are

169happening. Um and so we can't have games on the days of graduation. So stay tuned. Girls tennis number five seed won their first two rounds and also played at Hamilton when this afternoon. I don't know who won yet. Boys tennis also number five seed won the first two rounds and is playing number four fair haven tomorrow. Um sailing though not an MIAA sport won their class B championship which is very exciting. and girls golf had a great season. They did not qualify for the postseason, but Zoe Willick did qualify and played for the sectional tournament. So, every sport had someone playing in the postseason, which as Mark said is quite an achievement for such a tiny little district. Um, I also want to give a huge shout out to Miss S Morardi, Miss B Murkowitz,

170Mr. Scott, all of the teachers, and the class of 2025 who made this year's prom a great and memorable event. Um, I was there at the post at the pre-prom. Um, it was a little drizzled. People were still happy, excited, and I don't know, everybody still looked perfect after coming in from the rain. Um, I also would like to thank the prearent pre and postprom event and for keeping our students safe during the postp prom. The night from start to finish was a huge success. Um, it's definitely senior celebration time. Their last day of classes was last week. They have been in school here and there all week doing senior activities. Tomorrow is their clap out where they walk through all of the schools that they have been in and then they leave the high

171school to cheers and they get in their cars. Um, and then Saturday at 1 is graduation. Um, so we're looking forward to celebrating the class of 2025 more formally on Saturday. And as we wind down, a few reminders. This coming Tuesday is CMS Art Nights, and it's already being set up, so I can tell people it's going to be a great event. Come see it. The last day of school is a true um half day. It'll be Tuesday, June 17th. I will be sending out what times all the schools are being dismissed at. um probably on Friday. And a reminder that everyone is invited to Southshore Unity Council Junth celebration. Celebration is being held after school gets out on June 19th. It's from 4 to 7:00 p.m. at the band stand in King Harbor. That

172concludes my report. Thank you for that report. Um and thank you for mentioning the clapout. uh school committee members if you want to see something really awesome and somewhat emotional come to the high school to see them leave. It's awesome. I try to make it every year and you have to just know which time you have to just call Principal Scott or Superintendent Shannon figure out what what time exactly will happen. It's it's a really special moment and all of our high school staff sitting here will know that. It's incredible. It's a really cool thing. So um this just in master laws chapter 71 section 36 requires us to appoint a secretary. So end to that controversy right there. So that's why we keep Mr. Dial around and uh and secretary. So you know we

173know no more that this fly by night operation will cease to exist as next meeting going to cease. Um moving on to our teaching and learning updates. Sorry you have a comment. Yeah. just um I know it's end of year, but there was one day I think it was Snapper sneaker and the egg drop was the same day at Deer Hill Ozgood and it was just chaos. So, yes, it was. So, back to the talking having people in the room having be sure we've got the parent groups and this everyone that way we block off those things. Okay, just we all totally agree. Yeah, we tried so hard because we were heads apart too. Yeah. And and apparently no one talked to somebody else. So, back to communication. So, thank you. All right. Any other

174comments? Superintendent's updates? No. Then we turn to our super assistant superintendent of schools, Dr. Lesla Sins, to give us some uh academic updates. Quick. So, as you know, it's the end of the year. So, sure is um but assessments are winding down. MCCAST has finished up for the actually all schools actually. Um there may be some um makeups, but it's but as far as I know, we're all done with MCCAST. High school is the last ones to have theirs in early June this week. And then uh all of the benchmark assessments for our K through 8 students that is winding down will be complete on Friday. Reports will go out on the 17th the last day of school and those will be available in Aspen. So if you are in K through five, you'll have

175Nibbles reports and I Ready. And if you are for uh six through seven, you will have your reports from I Ready. We decided last year that if kids were at benchmarks in in the eighth grade, they did not have to continue on because they have so much um additional testing in eighth grade from MCCAST and Civic. So um we'll look at that again this year and see if that's that's what we did. So we'll see we'll look at two years of data on that. Um and I think that was really it. Otherwise, we're just winding things down and it's been a great year. Sure has. Thank you, Dr. Scon. Any questions, Dr. phones. Moving right into our uh our esteemed director of student services and his report. Um I'd invite our CPAC representative, Miss Davis,

176president of CPAC, to come to the table and join us. Anyone else? We have invited guest Melissa Looney, the new guest. Please come join us. Welcome. Thank you. Great. So the first agenda item um is the introduction of you know this past spring I um in my first year as the director of student services was tasked with finding two new team chairs at the elementary level and the secondary level. And I have to say that after a very competitive search with a number of highly qualified applicants Melissa really rose um to the top of that pool. Um she comes with a lot of experience both sharing initial evaluation meetings, re-evaluation meetings, kind of running the full gamut of specification, process, procedure, program development, um and then you know through like a second round with meeting

177staff. Um she really rose to the top as the candidate and I'm happy to say that she's accepted the position. Um so she'll be starting this summer for a few days and then really taking it off next year. Um so we just wanted to introduce her since this is such a forward you know parent facing position, student facing position. um and again comes with a lot of experience and aligns really nicely with some of um I'll talk about in my presentation tonight just ways to move forward um to the strategic plan. But I'm not sure if you want to say anything, not to put you on the spot, but thank you. Yeah, it's been wonderful being here tonight and hearing about the initiatives and planning that's happening in Cohasset and I look forward to supplementing

178that and enhancing what's already in place under the direction of Michael. So I'm very happy to come on board and get to know you all more this fall. You're welcome. Well, we're grateful to have you and we're glad that you appreciate all the information that you heard tonight because that's meeting every single time I listen to all kidding. Don't scare her away. Well, welcome. Thank you so much. Happy to be here. Yeah, I'm excited to work with you. Okay. All right. I'll put my kids to bed. Thank you, everyone. Um, and I'll jump in just to share. I might need a request to share the screen. Granted, Mr. State. Perfect. So, um, for my presentation tonight, this is my last, um, you know, update of the school year. So, I wanted to kind of talk

179about some recapping of information and So the first piece is just my initial um you know monthly data report which as you can see here at the elementary level there are 17 annual review meetings. There are eight uh reevaluations. Out of those eight, seven students are eligible. one student was found not eligible. There are nine initial evaluation meetings which was um you know higher number than in previous months. Um out of those nine, one of those came through MTSS and that one student was eligible. Eight of those came from family requests and uh three were eligible and just to clarify where those came from as we think about process and procedure and identification of students um one came from a private school. So they were not a student attending class public schools. One of those

180eligibilities came from early intervention um which I've talked about in previous presentations and then one came from the preschool. So again, not really full members of of our school community, but um you know, still active members. Um and then five of those parent requests were found not eligible as not presenting with educational disabilities. There was one class of resident evaluation and then there were four independent evaluation reports that were reviewed. At the secondary level, there were seven annual reviews. Uh there were six reevaluations. three were eligible and three were not eligible. And then one um initial evaluation came from parent request and that student was found eligible. Uh I ran two out of district annual review meetings and then one re-evaluation meeting. Um so probably the busiest month in the office of student services I

181must say with 56 total meetings um which spread us all pretty thin. If I have to give the evaluators, you know, whether it's speech, language, school psychologist, um, across the entire district, we, you know, obviously hit compliance timelines, we juggled scheduling conflicts, we juggled snapper sneaker day events. Um, it was definitely a challenging month for the for the office. Three meetings a day. Correct. So when we think about and moving forward, this is something that I do want to like address moving forward, we need to think about how that impacts like the front like the student facing work of our staff um when we have this many meetings. And so I'm thinking about how we structure meetings moving forward um how we handle like this evaluation process, how we move meetings up potentially as you

182can see 56 is more than in previous months. Um, and so I think when we think about the end of the year with progress reports, with report cards, with events, um, it definitely puts a strain on the department. Um, and so something that I feel like we we managed this year, but definitely something I want to look into next year for how we structure and sequence things out. Um, so that is that'll be really important, Mr. So let's hear more about that. Yeah, that's that seems I mean that's that's not tenable for like multiple months. Correct. It also plays into like the full-time employment status of different positions when we think about school psychologist who's doing the testing. Um this was an interesting month definitely. Um and so I have some thoughts and I'm looking

183forward to some downtime this summer to kind of process the end of this year here and how that went and then I mean also being down a team chair has played a factor in this too and how like things get scheduled and coordinated. So it's all interconnected and definitely something to look into forward. for the IEP return data. Again, we're um in very good shape here. You know, we have 238 accepted IEPs. Um we do have some partially rejected ones which I'm working through and then response pending. Um so again, when we think about how we've rolled over into new IP format, I would say this is, you know, highly successful acceptance rate um with it across all schools within the district. [Music] Um, keeping it with the previous director, I just at the end

184of the year, and I'll update this after the last month of school, first September 2025, I did update the percentages of active IEPs in each school. So, we did see a jump at Osgood School from 16% in September up to, you know, close to 19% of students receiving special education services. What is that in number of students? Um, I could put 20% of 300 probably. Yeah, because we're not including prek, right? So, no. So, it's prek through two. Oh, it is. Yeah. Out of total students. Okay. So, maybe? Yeah. It's be like 72 students or something like that. I can pull if you don't wonder how to translate that jump percentages just like of kids. Yeah. So, it's it's a few I would say like five five to six. All right. Um and again like

185state averages fall between 18 to 20% of students is where we should be. So, we're like a little we're within the range of of public districts. Um at Deer Hill there's you know 18% of students um receiving special education services. The middle school 17.45 and then at at the high school a drop to 12 which again to me speaks to the process working right. We really want to see students develop skills to no longer require special education services. Um so again I think this is just helpful data. We look at the disability categories similar to last year. the health disability category and the specific learning disability category are the two highest um within the district which again is similar um trends across the state. Sorry, repeat that. I I sorry. Yeah, the two highest categories

186of disability categories are health um and then specific learning. um when we think about what the primary disabilities of our students are. I wanted to correctly distract. Um thinking ahead to next year and after you know this first year here um I did want to highlight that a lot of my updates have been special education focused but the office of student services really um does oversee you know multiple services and supports and so as I think to next year and different presentations I will be kind of touching upon some other areas. um one of my major projects this spring um and I had talked previously about the integrated focus monitoring process happening next year for special education and a lot of data collection working with the state um for compliance purposes um you know that

187will be for special education but it is also for our English language learner education program and so I had to complete the self assessment for that this spring which was similar to the special education one of um meeting with staff you know uploading data looking at the numbers and patterns and trends over the past five years and so that will be something that will be coming out. We'll get, you know, some findings on that moving forward into next year. And so that will be, you know, a focus of a future presentation of mine is um, you know, serving that. Um, and then also continuing to look at students who are eligible through section 504 for accommodation plans. I had touched on my last um, presentation that our determination had come out and it had been

188very close to that. And so I just wanted to highlight some key takeaways here. As you can see the special education determination matrix outlined by the state of Massachusetts. Um we did meet requirements this year which was um improvement from last year with a score of 93% and it breaks it down into performance and compliance as like the main possible points. Um you can see we scored 18 points for for performance and then a full 16 out of 16 for compliance. Compliance really looks at you know the followup with formal PRS complaints making sure that we submit data in a timely fashion. And so we did receive bul points there. But I did want to highlight um for the performance matrix and this is available on the website and through desi. Um some observations and

189so these are really the criteria that were looked at that created this determination. Um some observations that I noted are really when we think about MCCAST. The only area we where we did not receive a full score which you can see a full score will be two was the proficiency percentage of fourth grade children with disabilities against grade level standards um for reading. And so we were below there and that's where we did not receive the full full points which again I think this year with CPAC we've had a lot of dialogue about you know reading instruction even today um this afternoon I would say and so this is an area that we're addressing and that we're looking at but other observations you can see we're above the state target in every other area and

190but we should really continue to monitor the reading and you know also why I think it's important to note this is a very small percentage of students you know within that grade level and so I always get cautious about oversharing about just them and their their profiles, but um when I knowing the grade level and knowing some of the the makeup of um students um it's definitely an area need to watch, but it is a significantly higher level of need. Um and so again, that could contribute to why the percentage points um are lower. It's an area to continue to monitor. Can you just break that down a little bit for like what is LEA performance and versus the state like what am I looking at? So the LEA performance is how cohassent performed against

191these standards and then the state target is outlined by the state of Massachusetts. for where they would want to be where you know district LEA should fall. We are the LEA, right? So So and I'm I'm So I'm guessing like the the sort of like the bare minimum that we're looking to achieve is the state target, right? Okay. So we're so we're going to be focusing on like the areas where we're obvious like obviously the one you pointed out. Yep. And then there's even though we got like a full score on uh like in the second where there's 6.67% that's a reverse that's a reverse percentage cuz sorry no so that is like my third observation percentage of children with disabilities who dropped out. Um that's like an alarming kind of like criteria I would

192say. I did note and this is part of the reason why we were flagged previously um with the last determination. This is coded as students who receive services until age 22. So like they aren't these aren't students at class high school who are actively dropping out of class at high school. They're students who would be eligible until their 22nd birthday and they don't receive a diploma which is why they're coded into this category. And you want that to be low. You want that to be low. Yep. So So we're we're good on that one. Percent of students who drop down. So you want lower percent. Right. Right. Okay. And then um Right. And then these other ones that are like kind of floating around the state target, we want to look at those too because

193those aren't inverse percentage. Those are like like for example proficiency percent fourth grade children with disabilities get grade level standards. Context was important. Yeah. Yeah. The context of that glass is that's like the main right. So I was reassured by these findings. Again, always room for continuous improvement in growth, but it was a significant, you know, we weren't flagged as needing intervention um anymore, which is positive. Good job. Yeah, I mean it was a lot of the year before, too. So, a lot of a lot of pieces went into this. Um and then looking forward just into the future um and how the office of student services aligns with the strategic plan. I won't spend too much time on you know just for the sake of time tonight but um compass point number one the

194teaching learning and leading and really the initiative tied to multi-tered systems of support will be a major focus next year it was a focus of mine this year but um just as the year evolves you know there's definitely more work to be done across each building you know tied to both what you know principal Godet and principal Sullivan shared tonight with their plans um but this will be a major you know area that I'll be supporting as well as different um different ways as we think about tier support and just strengthening MTS process, communication, and procedure. And then related to the other compass points that aren't necessarily tied to the strategic plan, but things that have come up and that I've noticed through my first year as the director of student services, um the wellness

195compass point, really looking at stress level of students and how the office of student services supports mental health services, wraparound services and continues to look at, you know, social emotional programming and access to different community based supports. Um, and then thinking about how we continue to develop inclusive practices for community engagement. You know, really thinking about increased family involvement in special education in section 504 process, which I think we made some great gains this year, but how that connects to just overall community engagement. I'm continuing to work closely with CPAC and thinking about how what presentations we'll be working on next year, the scheduling and how that works with our um with our Apple partnership this year. And then a major area that I'll be continuing to monitor and you know keep a close eye

196on related to compass point number four for resources um out of district placements you know the cost of those out of district placements and how those are supported um and then moving forward as we think to the future program evaluation and visioning um and then also continuing to think about special education program development as we think about you know the least restrictive environment for students and how we can build programming here instead. And then again, some final staff updates. Um, I mentioned, you know, obviously Melissa was here tonight, um, our new secondary team chair, and Megan Greeny couldn't make it tonight, but she has worked as the classic school psychologist for the past five years, and she's accepted the position as the elementary team chair, which I'm really excited about as well as we think

197about building out that team at the elementary level. Um, and then we're underway for hiring for a number of positions within the department. Um, we're looking for a preschool and kindergarten special education teacher. That is a change from just a full-time preschool teacher. Um really there was a need for a more designated special education teacher at the kindergarten level and based on preschool enrollment numbers, we were able to split that this year. That will evolve and change. We'll keep a close eye on that. But I think that was a nice way to kind of expand um special education offerings at the kindergarten level where we did see an increase in referrals this year um within that grade level. Um, we're in process for hiring our seventh grade special education leaison and then we'll be looking

198to fill the classic middle school psychologist position since Megan's moving to the elementary level. And then just because I'm hyper sensitive to it because these these are not ads to staff. These are these are replacements. Correct. Um, and then just thinking to the future the work that was driven by the sped strategies work this year. So thinking about co-eing differentiation how that connects to the strategic plan. Um, you know, tonight through the reading dialogue, we also talked about just materials. And one thing that I'll be doing is looking for an audit of what specialized instructional materials and resources we have for reading, writing, and math. We can formalize that to build up for the future um to improve that direct specialized, you know, materials. Um, and then continuing similar to the last presentation about executive

199functioning and test taking and then looking at um absenteeism and assigned connect to students with disabilities. Um, so those are kind of what I'm looking towards next year and year number two. I went quickly tonight, but it's been a long night. It's great. Thank you. Sure has. Any questions for our director of student services. Uh and or before we do that, any any additions, any comments from CP? The only thing I wanted to say, I saw your faces when you got alarmed with the six kids added at Joseph Ogood for services. But the only good thing about that, I think, is that that means they're identified early, which we were below the percentage, right? If we were only at 15 16%. and then they'll be off their IEP sooner. So like your number should I

200would think go lower over time and the whole idea is identified early. So that was a that was a good face because it's shows that our identification procedures are working. That's why our early intervention is work. That's that's why I was and it also is more up of like the the 20% figure is kind of like like with like at least dyslexia the number population 20% of the population. That's all I was that's all I was I wasn't alarmed. I was I was actually happy that I was sure people were a little like it did seem like a big number. Stop indicting me, Miss Davis. Like I want to just jump in too. So Melissa is bringing a lot of like program development experience and experience like facilitating team process. Megan who will be new

201to the role at the elementary level is a school psychologist. And so I think that really helps strengthen the team to lift us up even more. We're thinking about the identification of students, what evaluation tools we're using. Um so I'm really excited to have both of those personals. Um Mr. An Oh, Mr. uh just uh if we move the question main question is what's the best time to do these evaluations because you said moving them up but is there something we lose by you know do we have to do them in May? Is there a real benefit to that? I mean yeah so it's a good question. So, what I've learned over my time in special education is that there will constantly always be a flow of evaluations. Some re-evaluations we could look to move

202up. One area that I've noticed this year, having been really involved at the elementary levels, is those transition years. So, if there's re-evaluations happening in second grade, right? Yeah. Um like that would be those would be good ones to move up to the early spring so then we can talk about planning for the next year. Same with fifth. So, there's a e and flow to it definitely. um it's the initial evaluations that we can't always predict, but if we are identifying students early enough in the school year based on like different assessment data, then it could change. But parent requests can come in at any point in time. Okay. Yeah. I'm good. Thank you. Thanks for all the work you're doing. Miss Wesky. Yeah. I think my question was along the lines of Mr. friends

203around that sort of end of year panic like is my kid okay and whether or not there and and also as teachers like actually I'm not okay with where you know now that we're really coming to the end of the year and whether or not there there are triggers in place um or mechanisms that can be put in place like in an April break kind of time frame that might ease that or probably even earlier it's like February break to sort of ease that that load because that's that seems like a lot and I think to that piece about um teachers having to be out of their classrooms at a critical time for students for just general classroom management and um things of that nature. It it makes I think it makes it stressful for

204everyone. Um so yeah, definitely. And I I think the uptick came after parent teacher conferences is what and I hadn't experienced that at the lower level before. It was like a oh like um and so I think about like a goal for next year for me too would be like work with teachers ahead of time. So like we're not giving surprising information at parent teacher conferences. Not to say that that's what was exactly happening but it definitely like that's where that that trend picked up which then led into like the spring request there. Yeah. Sort of the empowerment to to connect with the family outside of conferences maybe will would allow for um evaluations to happen in a in a in a way that's a little bit more even. Yeah. And then also just strengthening

205MTSS and like that process for how kids are getting intervention which is like closely aligned to the strategic plan. Amazing. I think one other thing too is that as we go into the fall like all the the kids that are on 504s like it's not communicated to the parents that the teachers are reading 504s like and so I don't know if there's a way to do that to like as they enter in especially in those transition years between schools to like reassure the parents like don't worry we got your kid like we know the accommodations and everything because it really is like you you it's not communicated. Then you go into your first meeting, you're like, do you know they're on a 504 or not? Like what are we working with here? You know, so

206I think there is like some communication. Yeah. So they are legally required to read them ahead of time and but as a mom I don't know that. Yeah. Right. Like I found that out because I asked the question. So I think there's So that's something as we think about like professional development and those opening days of school. I know in previous years it's been like allocated time given to teachers for that. Um and that is part of the opening days too. But yeah, we can help with some addition. Yeah, I just put some of these I think especially when you go from tier over here to the middle school. All right. Anything else? Okay. Well, um, Mr. Evans really likes to hear me talk. So, uh, but the best thank you I can give you

207right now is I want to give you a big thank you. You're amazing this year is to let you leave. So, I'm going to let you do that. Thanks everyone. All right. Thank you. I think Principal Mills is already on the book actually earlier. Bye, Miss Davis. Thank you. Thank you all. Have a great night. I hope that soon, too. All right, moving right along to budget resource and governance. Uh we have our um high school library collection refurbishment. I'll hand it over to Miss Superintendent Shannon. So on behalf of our cohabs at Mill and High School library media specialist, Miss Kathy Serudi, I am going to share an update on our Milan High School library refurbishment project. Um, this is a project that is really generously sponsored by our cohasset PSO and it is

208a multi-year project that this year alone resulted in 603 new books on our shelves and 1,322 checkouts in September, which is a 56% increase over last year. Um, I think that's amazing. As a former English teacher, the fact that kids are reading that much makes my heart happy. Um, and I think it's a direct result of the more up-to-date collections and relevant resources that um, Kathy and Monty have been able to bring in for projects and research. And so, as we continue with this refreshment pro process tonight, we need to do thing two things, but don't do it quite yet. But the first thing is going to be to vote to approve the weeding of the books that are on the list that was in your packet and to vote to accept this year's um

209PSO donation of $10,000 to continue the project. Um but before I ask you to do that vote, I would like to thank Miss Moni for all of the hard work she's done for this project and the PSO because without their hard work and generosity for this project, it wouldn't be possible. Um the PSO is a true partner for the schools as you've heard tonight and over the last over the year. um they support everything from field days to field trips to staff lunchons and more and they are essential to our work and we're incredibly grateful for all the big and small things they do to help make the district who we are. Um and so at this point I would ask you to vote both for the weeding of the books that are listed in

210your packet and the accept to vote vote to accept this year's PSO donation of $10,000. or any discussion. Just one quick thing, and we did this last time, and I apologize, but the list has some kind of what seemingly are cool books like from like the 60s and 70s. And I was about to say the same thing. And if I remember correctly, what we do is we take them, put them on a bookshelf, and anybody who wants them can grab them. The ones that can be donated are, and the ones that remain are ones in such physical poor shape that they are basically ready to be weeded. Yep. And I've been fortunate to see emails from Miss Sudi that like offer and remind people to come down and check out the shelves and take their

211books and things like that. So they are definitely being shared out before they are being donated or sent somewhere else. I was sad to see the number of uh Bald Doll doll books on this list like books that I can just Well, it doesn't mean that we don't necessarily have any and it doesn't mean that they don't exist at maybe more grade appropriate levels. Yeah, it's just got y I if I could find the the 1976 edition of UFOs, is there an answer? Um would you like to preserve that book? I'll just I'll I'll look over this. Mr. D, if you'd like, we could just if you'd like to read into the record the number the book title and the author and we could do that if you'd like. Although minutes will just Okay. No,

212I'm I'm I'm happy with the description of the process and thank you both very much for for the work you did for our kids. Thank you. I will make the motion to approve the weeding. Okay. It's been a motion to approve the weeding for the list that you have in your packets. Document G1. Second. Seconded. Uh motion made by Mr. D, seconded by Mr. Evans. All in favor? I I post. Motion carried unanimously. So please uh proceed with the weeding. Thank you so much for all that hard work. Second, we need to accept the extremely generous gift from our uh PSO of $10,000. Um is there there's a motion by Miss Leki to accept that gift. Is there second? Enthusiastically second. Second by Mr. Evans. enthusiastically. All in favor? I opposed extensions. Motion carries unanimously.

213Thank you. The PSO, uh, Miss Owen, can we send a letter to the PSO thanking them? Yep, absolutely. Thank you so much. And, um, moving right along, uh, is our community relations. Thank you, Mr. Thank you guys so much. Thank you. Moving right along. Reports from subcommittees or leazison positions. Anything seeing none, we'll move on to school committee governance. Um, we do have the subcommittee assignments to consider. Do we want to do that right now or do we want to table that to next meeting when Mleski takes over? Why don't we do that? Why don't we table that to the next meeting? Is that okay? Is there a motion to table that till next meeting? Second. Seconded. Sure. Second by Mr. Evans. All in favor? I opposed. questions carried unanimously. We'll table that. Uh superintendent's

214evaluation just on there for me to have an opportunity to remind everyone every single meeting to get me your superintendent evaluation. Mr. Evans, you are excluded from that. Correct. Miss Leki has um sent that to me. Uh others have not. So um uh please do so if you can uh as soon as possible so that I can compile that and then we can because I actually have a goal of doing presenting the superintendent eval at the next meeting. Okay. So everyone be aware of that. Uh approval minutes. We have four sets of meeting minutes to approve. We will do them individually and move in chronological order. First is the uh meeting minutes that are I3 in your packet. January 24th, 2024. Are there any is there any discussion to those minutes? Any corrections, suggested revisions?

215Mr. Evans, you can't vote on any of these. Abstain. Um no motion. Motion to approve. So moved. Second by anyone. Second by Mleski. All in favor? I opposed. Extension one. Motion carries by a vote of four members to one extension. Next meeting minutes are February 4th, 2024. Any discussion or corrections or revisions. Motion to approve is presented as I3. Motion made by Mr. Mr. Dial. Excuse me. It might be I4. I4. Mr. Dial. Uh seconded by second Mrs. Hannah all in favor I I opposed extension motion carries by a vote of four members to one extension are approved. Next set is the April April 10th 2024 public hearing um on uh on school budget. That is I5 in your packet. Any discussion? Yep. Might have to return. Yeah. Any any discussion on this one though?

216Any provisions? Okay. So, my title. So, everyone here except Miss Hannah and Mr. Evans, you can't vote. So, Miss Ley, Mr. Dao, and I can vote on these I5 minutes. Uh, 24. Yes. Yes. Oh, no. My title was right. Never mind. Yeah, it was out of order. Just Just wait. We have to go back to that. I didn't realize how much. So, we might have to go back. Um, it's it's, you know, it's 9:00 at night. Worked the full day. Sorry, guys. Um, let us down. Is there uh is there a motion to approve the April 10th 24 minutes for for public hearing? So, made by Mlesky, seconded by Mr. Dial. Um, all in favor only. Jen Lance and I can vote. I I opposed. Abstension should be two. So, motion carries by a vote

217of three to two. Um, I'll go back in a second, but the the regular school committee meeting minutes of April 10th, 2024, we do have three members here that are present that can vote. That's Mlesky, Mr. Dial, and I. So, are there any discussion points or corrections to those minutes? None. Okay. Motion to approve. So moved. Seconded. Second. Um all in favor? I I opposed. Extensions. Motion carries by a vote of three members to two extensions. All right, we're going to hop in the Delorean and go back in time to the January 24th, 2024 minutes. So only Lance and Jenna I can vote. Uh let's so let's do another motion to approve. Second by Mleski. All in favor? I opposed extensions. Motion carries by a vote of 3 to two and um February 7th, 2024.

218Our agenda is uh mistaken. There's a clerical on the script on the on the agenda. It says 24. It's actually February 7th, 2024 meeting of the school committee. So, same members can vote on this. Same three members. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. Motion made by Mr. Dial. Seconded. Second. Seconded by Mleski. All in favor? I opposed. Extensions. Motion carries by a vote of three members to two extensions. That should do it. Uh there is unfortunately a reason to move into executive session right now briefly. So we could postpone that next meeting if that is there a motion to this is not an urgent um or an emergency matter. So is there a motion to postpone the executive session till the next meeting? It will be a lighter meeting. Motion made by Mr.

219Evans seconded by Miss Leki. All in favor? I opposed extensions. Motion carries unanimously. We'll table that for the next meeting. Uh that brings us to the last item which is adjourn. Is there a motion to adjurnn? Please move. Motion made by Mr. Make work for it last chair. Seconded by Mr. Evans. All in favor? I I I posted extensions. Motion carries means adjourned. Thank you all so much for your participation. Have a great evening. As your new secretary, I will not let the minutes go for at least a year. So,