001Okay. Um, good evening everyone and welcome to the May 7th, 2026 meeting of the Cohassid School Committee. Would all members who are present please indicate so in roll call. Mr. Carr Carr I. Mr. Dial uh Dial I S is not present. Mr. Leki present. Chair is present giving us a quorum of four members. I will officially call the meeting to order. Would all those who are able please rise for the recitation of our nation's pledge of allegiance and maybe our kindergarteners and Mr. So you can help us with that. Whenever you guys ready to United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you guys. Great job. All right, just a reminder at the outset that this meeting is being uh
002broadcast on Coast 143TV. It's being uh live streamed on Facebook and you can participate virtually by utilizing the link that appears at the top of the agenda logging on to Zoom and you may uh use a Q&A feature to let us know what is on your mind. Um the first agenda item is always uh public comment and this is the section agenda that's reserved for members of our community to share their thoughts on something that is not already on the agenda. If you have a question or comment about something that is on the agenda, just please wait until we arrive at that point in the meeting and then we're going to be more than happy to hear from you. So, I'll just give everyone at home a few minutes to generate any comments using the
003Q&A feature on Zoom. And I think most of the visitors in person are here for uh our exciting presentation that's up next. But if you have something to say, surely raise your hand, let us know. Just ask that anyone that is participating in tonight's meeting at any time, whether it's public comment or otherwise, to simply state their full name and residential address. that is so that we can keep an accurate record of the meeting. All right, I am not seeing any questions or comments uh virtually, nor do I see any hands raised. So, we'll just move right into the invited guest section of our agenda. And uh I think what I'll do is turn it over to our superintendent of schools to introduce our visitors for the first uh for the first segment of this
004agenda block. Superintendent Shannon. Great. Thank you. So, we are very excited tonight. Um, we have Miss Owen Rippy, one of our kindergarten teachers, here with six of our kindergarten students. Um, and they are here to show off their literacy skills. Um, we have several programs that make up our literacy program in general. Um, two of those components are foundations and heard. And we a couple years ago showed in a school committee meeting the um the literature piece of the programming. And so tonight is about the phonics. And so I would invite Miss Rudy and our students to come to the middle of the room to show off your skills. Come on around here this way, guys. So impressed. It's such a long day of learning. These guys can sit right there on the floor just
005like just as though you had a rug in your classroom. You know how you all sit certainly. Maybe a little closer to closer to you guys get to see yourselves on TV. Exciting, right? Oh, you can see yourself. Fantastic. Thank you so much for this opportunity. Um, our kindergarteners are very excited to be able to show you the hands-on engaging learning programs that we are using at Ozgood, namely Hegy and Foundation. So, we're going to start the lesson with Hegy and Heggerity is a phmic awareness program and our students know it as basically word games. So what we do with these word games is students learn to um segment sounds, blend sounds, manipulate sounds, which are all very critical skills for reading. Okay, are we ready? Okay, so we're going to start with our first
006game is going to be I'm going to say some sounds, then you'll say the sounds, and then you'll blend them together to say the word. Ready with your choppers? Okay, here we go. C- cur. Very good. Next word. SW. Your turn. W. The next word. Wish. Excellent. Very good. And let's try one with a long sound. Ready? A d. Nice job. Okay. Our next game is going to be I'll say a word, you'll say a word, and then we're going to find the middle sound of that word. That's where mine is. Okay. Ready? Here we go. Say code. Roller coaster. Say O. O. Oh, I hear a long vowel sound there. Good job. Next word. Say hi. Hi. I love vowel sound. Here we go. Say e. Long vowels in a row. Last one. Say
007date. Date. Someone chop everybody. Really good word. This time I'm going to say the word and you'll say the word. You'll chop each sound in the word. You ready? Say much. Much. Here you go. Excellent. Very nice. Next word is spy. Spy. Say spy. Let's chop it. I spy. Spine. Yeah. Think about the sounds in that. S I think about how many sounds each word. Say rich. Rich. Let's chop it. This time say touch. Touch. Chocolate. Touch. Good. Last one. Say scope. Scope. Ready. O. So, some words with three sounds and some words with four sounds. Great. In our next game, I'm going to say a word, then we'll add a new sound to the end of the word and make a new word. Are you ready? Say store. Store. Add. The new word is
008store. Say freeze. Freeze. Add z. And the new word is say cry. Cry. Add. Cry. Very good. Say one. One. S at the end. And the new word is excellent. Nice job everyone. This time we're going to say I'm gonna say a word and then I'm gonna ask you to say it without the last sound. We'll make a different word. Say grape. Great. Without the what's left is great. Say free. Free. Try that one more time. Say freeze. Without the what's left is that happens sometimes. Say tried. Without the Z, what's left is subscribe. Say once. Without the S. What's left is one. Fantastic. Nice job. All right. Now, let's get our word changing machines ready. Ready? We're going to be changing the last sound of the word. Say hen. Change the N to D.
009And the new word is. Let's think about say hen. Let's change the M to D. And then head. Good. Say we change the P to And the new word is say word. Word. Change the D to C. And the new word is work. Work. Work. Work. Good job everybody. That was excellent. Okay, good job guys. It's very complex. We're at the end of the year now. It's very complex. So, we're going to move on to a little bit of a foundations lesson next. And in foundations, our students learn the relationship between letters and sounds. You can see with Hegy, students aren't seeing any words. It's all done by hearing the words. So, we're going to be looking at some letters, thinking about the sounds, and then using those skills to blend and read some words.
010We're going to start with practicing a few sounds that are going to be really helpful. Are you ready for some letters, key words, and sounds, everybody? All right, let's start with some letters. Here we go. Xbox. Your turn. Xbox. U up. A apple a apple a I itch it I itch it to you queen to you queen octopus a otopus a n Good job. Let's try some. Ready? SH ship ship sh WH whistle whistle ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch chin ch ch h ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch chin ch th ch thumb thumb ch thumb c k k k k k k k k k
011k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k k so sock, c k sock. Excellent. You might be seeing some of those when we read and spell some words. Let me give everybody magnetic cutter board. Ready? Go. Open up your ready. We're going to build a word for the sounds, blend them together, and read that word just like we do in our classroom. Okay, here comes our first word. We'll just spell it for you. Everyone find the W part of your word. Let's find a right in the middle of the word. So we have our beginning letter, our ending letter, our middle letter. Let's find X for our ending letter. Okay, get our pointer
012power ready. Excellent job. Nice. All right. Real word or not real word? Which one? Wax is a real word, right? H. Maybe we should try something else. Okay. Ready? Find L. L. Find E. Put that as the middle letter. Let's find the diagraph. C A end of the word. Stop. Let's get our pointer power ready. We're sliding through these sounds. I don't know that word. Do you know that word? I bet if we change one of the letters, we should make it into a real word, right? We do that sometimes in our room. All right, let's go ahead and erase. This time we're going to use our letter boards to help us. We're learning also learning to spell words. So, we're going to use our letterboard to help us spell words. Are we ready everybody?
013The first word we're going to spell is rush. Take your time. No need to rush. So, let's get our choppers ready. We're going to chop all the sounds in rush. Ready? Okay. Okay. Now, first job is to think about hm what's the letter that goes with the sound. When you find it, put it the beginning of your word. Good. Okay, let's chop again. Say rush. Rush. Now, we have to think about what is the letter that goes with the a sound. Good. Nice job. Ah, which letter says ah. Okay, chop one more time, everybody. A brush. I see people checking their diraphs. Excellent. Put that right at the end of the word. Fantastic. Hey, how did you spell it? Can you read the names of the letters? R U S H. Nice job with diraph.
014Okay, let's slide through the sounds and make sure we spelled it right. Nice job, everybody. Excellent. All right, let's try one more word. This time it's not going to listen to the word carefully. The word is fit. Fit. Fit. Let's chop it. So, first job, we're going to find the letter that says put it right at the beginning of our word. Great job, everyone. [Music] Ready to chop for the middle sound? Here we go. F. Which vowel says it? Done. And one more time. letter says P. Okay. What? Let's spell the names of these letters. Ready? What did you put? I excellent. Slide through the sounds. Let's make sure it sounds just the way we said it. Nicely done, everyone. Good work. Good job. Yes. So, we're going to lift up our letter boards. Let's
015just maybe tuck them right near us on the floor for now. And then we'll just have one more thing we want to show you. We also learn to read words. Words that don't necessarily follow the rules, right? So, let's take a look at a couple of our couple of our trick words. This one is spelled T O and it says this one is spelled L I K E and it says now we're going to see those words in this sentence. Are you ready with your pointer power and your slider power? Everyone looking this way. Here we go. Ready? We like to read. Let's read one more time. Put all that emotion into it. Ready? Here we go. We to [Applause] thank you so much. Thank you so much for inviting us. We're super excited to
016be able to come and show you. So, um I don't know if any of the new members might have a few questions or comments and just go around. Mr. Car, anything? I think this is wonderful. Oh, I want to especially compliment that young man when his tie. You like his style? Congratulations. Sorry, Mr. D. Great job, guys. You like to read? Yeah. This if you could see our students during literacy time in book groups and partnerships, reading privately. It's just amazing. They're really doing an amazing job. It's fantastic. It's it's we hear a lot about this program and it it's great to see it in action to see how the kids are engaging with it as well and and not being an educator myself I can still see how breaking it apart in the sounds
017can draw those connections together for them. So this is this is fantastic. I guess one of the things that um I know we've talked a lot about the committee um there are people who have concerns about either heity or foundations or which and I would get confused which one I mean seeing this I see it seems like an effective program that engages the kids I guess what what are I mean and maybe a topic for another time but I'm still curious as to what the concerns are with it maybe are those and I know we addressed those concerns by the way we blend the programs together I just saw that in action here which was very helpful but I mean what are I guess what was there an element There was nothing I saw there
018that seems objectionable or discerning or seem very effective. I guess you know I think it's one of the biggest things is that you can it's very hard to buy a program or a box of program that has everything in it. Um because as you saw these are very important um skills that the students need to learn. And so when we when we looked at our comprehensive literacy we wanted to make sure that we got all those parts. So, um I think that you have to make sure that you're attacking all of it. And so, I think sometimes there's concerns that that um that not all of the components are being um that that not all the components are being addressed. So, this is the part where I think most people are concerned about. They want
019to make sure are they learning how to um learn about the sounds and the connections to the letters? Are they learning to segment and pull those sounds together as you heard them do? Um, and so when we looked at it, we made sure that we had foundations which was in place and that's been in place for quite some time. And then we added integrity. And then the other component is the comprehension and pulling it all together, which is the other part of the literacy piece, readers workshop, where you were talking about how they enjoy their reading. They learn how to comprehend and understand what they're reading, not just how to read it, which is what you just saw here. And I don't know if you have anything I just Oh, and do you want to
020talk about it? So, I live 10 foot and my dad's name is not long. So, we had the short for Ted. I hear the same thing. Yeah. My real name is Edwin. So, you made such a good Ted. Ed here. Thank you for sharing. That was wonderful. That was a really good reading connection. Well, he it's a scalable skill. It is. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Dial, Mr. Bless. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That is such hard work. And I think um it's worth pointing out how hard your brains are working and absorbing information when you're doing this because you're not only listening and using your ears, you're seeing and using your eyes and you're also moving your body um and your body and all of those messages are really helping you to read.
021And so one of the things I used to be a teacher too. One of the things I really like seeing is the how this is called multiensory approach to reading and that we really saw that today in that you were using all of your senses to figure out how symbols and sounds relate. And that's pretty amazing. That's the first thing to do for readers. And gosh, we're reading names and doing all sorts of other things. We better cover up our notebooks, right? Our secrets and they're only kindergarten. and they're only kindergarters. No more spelling that we're having ic for dessert anymore, right? Thank you, Mrs. Blessky. I can see that this has been a long day for these kindergarters and we're losing a little stamina. So, uh I am just going to thank you guys
022for being here and maybe get another round of applause for our kindergarten television performance. You guys look great, right? Thank you for being here. Awesome readers. My pleasure. I'm so glad to show you what our kindergarters are doing. Just amazing. It is. Thank you, Mrs. Mr. May. I also give a shout out to parents who got them here. Absolutely. And I'm sorry, Principal got you're welcome to add if you anything if you'd like anything other than that. I'm sorry. I just was focused on educator. I have one more thing. I have a fifth grader um who is a reluctant reader and um I do feel like if he had this program along with the units of study, he would be a child who loves to read because it's not just these mechanical pieces that go
023together. It is also this other piece around learning to love reading and learning to do it with a partner and independently and in a group and all of those things. And um I have been really grateful to see what the children at Osgood are able to do because of a very comprehensive program. And I appreciate Mrs. Ricky and her six very, very charming students for coming out and demonstrating what those um pieces of integrity and foundations look like. So, thank you. Oh, great. We do some amazing things with six-year-olds in this district. Thanks to our very, very talented kindergarten staff. Amazing program and we're so thankful for them. Thank you so much. It's tough to give a lesson in front of audience too night. So, uh, thank you so much. Well done. Well done. Glad
024to do. Thank you, everyone. Thanks, guys. Always good to have the Oscars in here. Reminds us what we're doing here, right? All right. We'll just give them a second and then we'll move on. Come on. Okay. [Music] Okay, next up we have uh the leaders of our cohasset education foundation here with us. And I don't know whether uh our officers of CF or our superintendent want to go first to introduce this. I'll start if that's okay. Please do. Um so we are really grateful to have Mary Steel here with us this evening. Um from the CF Coassa Education Foundation for those in the public who don't know. Um the CF is an amazing organization. um they fund raise and they provide grants for the district and their support allows us to do so many things.
025Our teachers and our principles have great ideas and they want to be innovative and they want to try new things and they want to bring new things to our students and we can't as a district always fund that. And through the support of the CF, they help us make those dreams happen for our teachers and for our students. And they um just recently had their spring grant cycle. And we just found out today actually what they were funding. But I think one of the reasons I wanted to do this in person this evening is because both Megan and Rudy have been so much a part of the CF and are have been in their positions as president and the head of the grants and they're stepping down from those positions because their terms are up.
026And so this not only gives us the opportunity to publicly thank the CEF in general, but the both of you for all of the the years, the hours, the dedication that you have given to the schools. It is very much appreciated. Um it does not go unnoticed by anyone. I even our students know a lot of the things that we have in our district comes through the support of the CF. I love, you know, seeing the kids actually be the ones who do some of the phonathon and things like that. So, I love that you're involved in so many ways and support the district. And I just want to say thank you um for all that you've done over the years. Um we would not be where we are without the support of your your
027the two of you really and your entire organization. And so just as an example, so tonight um they're going to present their spring donation which is going to provide funding for a playground communication board at the Osgood for some of our students who need additional support in being able to communicate with their peers. A ninja so ninja warrior equipment for the deer hill gym. Um that is for Mr. It's going to expand the gymnastics unit. Um, and I I don't, you know, I know American Ninja Warrior is a fun-filled adventure to watch every night, you know, with families. Um, and some more indoor recess supplies for the Deer Hill. The middle school is going to bring in a speaker, Edgar, who I've actually seen before. He's a wonderful speaker for middle school students and talks
028about finding who they are as people and finding their, you know, true selves and their passions and being able to share that with their classmates. Um, supporting some additional cameras for the yearbook. And a few maybe a weeks ago, month ago, um when Alisa Gittens, Carl, and Jenna Bloom were here about the Washington DC trip, the CF is very generously supporting that trip as well and providing some subsidies for students who want to be able to attend but can't um financially. So, we're very grateful for that. at the high school. They are supporting an an arborist presentation because we're going to be planting some trees and they are awarding the middle school high school um a new courtyard outdoor wellness classroom which is a huge undertaking. I I haven't mentioned um costs with other ones
029but they've donated $47,000 to complete this project. And so as we think about play and all that we've learned through the community efforts of reading anxious generation, this is a way to bring ADA compliant, um, games and fun to our middle school, high school students. And so, um, it's something that the secondary level has been looking to have and Ron Ford as the head of the wellness department has been championing. And so we're very grateful and I know that he he came and talked to me. He is very grateful for your support of that project. Okay. Thank you very much. Was there something you were going to share? I ended up just talking. Okay. All right. Well, uh, turn it over to you uh, Miss Barry Steele. Thank you for being here. We're excited to
030hear what you have to share. Thank you. It's been a great six years. It's been a really fulfilling um, role to be on the CEO and I'm really proud of the board that we've had in the past as well as the board that we have in place currently to take this organization forward in a strong position. Uh Ruth, did you want to share anything about this particular grant cycle as well? Um I think I've seen the grant cycle be very varied. We've seen all sorts of different grants coming from each different school and um we're really proud that the schools and teachers have really embraced the CF and we're seeing more and more grants coming through and it's exciting to see how um these grants come to fruition. Our favorite thing is to see photographs
031and anecdotes from the kids about the grants in action. And um recently in our scholarship program, we asked our scholarship uh applicants to write about a grant that they participated in um and we we heard some wonderful stories and um we loved hearing them in our board meeting about their experiences. So, it's been a pleasure working with uh the deer hill as liaison for the last six years and with the administration in all the schools. I've loved working with everybody and I leave it in fabulous hands with Lauren Don. Yeah. And we wanted to thank you all the teachers for applied for the grants and the support of the administration. Uh but also to thank all our corporate and personal or family donors that have donated because without them it would not be possible to
032fund these grants. Um, so we have one final uh large chat demonstration that we can do a picture with everybody. Sure. But we're welcome to take any questions. Well, presentation. Um, I sure we can go around if anyone has any questions or comments at this time and then we'll then we'll do the picture. Mr. Car, just wanted to say thank you for all you've done with us. It's just been wonderful to have you and takes a it's a big commitment. We appreciate it very much. Thanks, Car. Second that CF makes a huge impact to our schools. Uh and I mean on on down to a student level up to the macro of the entire operation of the division. So we are a an excellent district in large part because of the CDF and people who
033donate. So thank you for donating your time for that organization. Thank people uh who donate to the uh CDF make all this stuff happen. Thanks Susie. Well, I actually had the privilege of working with both Megan and Ruth um on the CDF and we'll just echo e echo what superintendent Shannon said about the hard work that you both have put into that organization and the hard work of the board members um from events to fundraising um and everything in between. Um it's an exceptional group of people and thank you for your your service and all that you do for the schools. Thanks for showing. Come join us here. It's a natural next step. Thank you, Mrs. Leleski. Um, I have uh found the CF to be an extraordinary organization. I've gotten to know a lot
034of the members of the CF uh through their efforts and it's extremely active uh and and and present um organization. I find that um I it's no secret that I'm extremely underwhelmed by the physical plant of a lot of um our district. And uh I think that most of the nice things that we have are like the room that we're sitting in right now. Um it's they're all a direct result of the efforts of the CDF and um you know I think that it's a great way for people to get involved. You know if if um and I know Miss Ley was was sort of joking but if school committee is maybe too much of a commitment for someone or daunting CDF is a wonderful way. It's an incredible group of parents, really friendly people
035that have that are all sort of uh coalesed around a great mission and you should really consider joining um if you have any interest because it it is kind of like the it's like the uh sort of unsung lifeblood of our district. So um and they have uh they throw wonderful parties too that sort of thing. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Uh job well done. We're so appreciative for you and a big round of applause. Should we do the chair? Final big check for me. That is a big one. Wow. Just like Michael. Yeah. Why don't we do it with the books? Mr. Perfect. There you go. See everyone? Oh, perfect. Thank you. All right. So, just Oh, wait. Wait, wait, wait. Before you guys leave, we're just going to do the formal
036vote. All right. Is there a Was it 81,100? Is that what it Yeah. Thanks. All right. Is there a motion to accept the gift from the Cohass Education Foundation in the amount of $81,100 as presented today by Miss Barry Miss Steel? So move. Motion's been made by Mr. Dial. Is there a second? Second. Second by Miss Leky. All in favor? I I. All opposed. Extensions. Motion carries by a vote of four members. Thank you so much. We'll give you the real that's not negotiable. Thank you. Thank you. All right, moving right along. Mr. Earles, would you mind coming on down to the front table here? We have the uh recognition of our school facilities committee who uh have I think um run its course and has done its job um very well. The school facilities
037committee was reconstituted in Mr. Rose might want to help you with this. Was it 2019 we did this? Last 2019. Yeah. Okay. And uh its mission was to uh explore the uh well it's a name the school facilities and how what could possibly be improved uh where we needed improvement where we needed attention and to develop a plan uh to do so. And u Mr. Earles chaired that committee the entire time. Uh so all five five six years it has been um I might need to go back to maybe O's good there with the math um but uh he's been chairing that committee for five years and six years six years six years just did it again the sixth year um and that's a commendable uh a commendable commitment and uh he had uh a
038somewhat evolving group I'm sure he'll share with us all the members of that group in a moment uh under uh their watch or under Mr. Earl's watch uh the scope facilities committee brought us the existing cond condition study uh districtwide of all buildings. It uh helped um propel the efforts for the um the uh feasibility study that was just completed for the secondary campus. It has helped uh it has helped uh catapult our efforts in terms of applying to the Massachusetts school building authorities core program and also the accelerated repair program. It has also championed uh the creation of a um a long-term repair plan for uh mid to large scale projects throughout the district. So it has uh proven very fruitful, very prolific, very useful and valuable to the district. And uh so at
039this point I'll just turn it to Mr. Earles to sort of uh share whatever thoughts he has. Then we'll turn over the committee. And uh the idea tonight is to recognize them uh for their efforts uh but also to vote to uh to dissolve it at this time because uh we feel that they have uh you know achieved their goal. So Mr. Earles, thank you for being here. Thank you for your service. Thank you. Uh, also the school stabilization fund. There you go. Which is a big one. Um, well, yeah, it's been six years. It's been a long run. Um, I'm happy to do it. I hope eventually we get into the MSBA. Um, so, you know, you'll you'll see my head pop up when that happens. Um, because I'm I'm definitely a champion for
040that, whatever form that may be. Um, we've had many members come and go. Um, but the current slate is obviously myself. We had Doug Schultz, Nan Roth, Kathleen Burns, Paul Kierney, uh, Kristen Rada, Melissa Mcdana. Um, I believe Jen, you were there at one point. I was there until I became committee member. Craig, me and you on the inception of it all. Um, so I just want to thank all the members of my committee. Um I want to thank every every person on this on this board um the select board uh for putting me on the committee that was their their choice. Uh so I want to thank like thank them. Um and yeah I'm glad that everything we put forward um I look forward to seeing the master plan. Um and I I am
041not going to be quiet. I'm just going to let you guys know that right now. Um I'm still going to be keeping an eye on it. uh because for better or for worse, it's kind of my baby. Um and I look forward to seeing what this district uh does with this information going forward. Thank you so much, Mr. BS. Uh any comments or questions, Mr. Carr, which is your group has been a gift. We've never understood our buildings and our facilities better ever in the history of as long as I've been kicking around this town. So, starting with that, that's a huge gift. So, thank you for doing that. It's a massive undertaking. Thank you, Scott. Yeah, I to start off with a positive. Thank you very much for all and we've worked together uh
042for that stabilization fund uh and you were incredible help in focusing efforts and just pushing things along. So, and joining meetings giving very generous of your time. So, thank you for all you've done for this. I guess a couple questions for me and and one maybe back at this committee, I guess. But one is I guess is the is why why dissolving the um committee now is it just I mean you answered it's run its course I guess uh is there I don't know thinking about because there there's still a lot of facilities questions that that we have are true but at this point I really don't there really isn't anything left for us to do our charge says one thing now if you wanted to change our our charge entirely and go in a
043different direction. Our charge was a factf finding mission. Y and that's what we did. We got you all the data. Charge really doesn't say to continue on and and hammer the the town to get going. That that's helpful. I guess I guess I was I was concerned it was it was less of a mission accomplished and more of a like we don't want to do this anymore. It sounds sounds like it's more this is definitely it's in my opinion I think it's run its course with what we can do. Yeah. Like I said if you so choose to in a year think that hey maybe we need to create something different to have somebody you know take care of the facilities because I know it's a it is a it is a big undertaking and
044my number one suggestion is either hire someone or have someone focus solely on the facilities of these of these schools because right now you share that resource with the town and it is a pain in the butt to get any information at anybody down there other than physically going down there like I have multiple times demanding things because I am a China shop. So that's one of my parting suggestions and we we benefited from that. Um I guess one other thing that I kind of thought in my head that you guys were working were Craig, you mentioned in your thing that the the long-term repair plan that's just with our stabilization fund. I know I' I've talked a few times about, you know, the long-term plan for how we're going to dispense those monies, how
045we're going to, you know, the scaling of when we do for roof replacements, roof replacements, boiler replacements, window replacements. We've got a long list of of stuff. And so I just want to make sure that lands somewhere either a subcommittee here or or elsewhere if it's not going to be at our facilities committee. So, um, I think that's landing in our strategic plan. Okay, great. So, with that, I'm just thank you very much for all your help over the years, and you will no doubt be called upon again to help. Thank you, Miss Lissy. Thank um I just wrote down steady and strong, and I really appreciate how your committee under your leadership continued, you know, in a very sort of quiet way. I mean, no one was like, "Oh, what what is this school
046fac?" There was no buzz about the committee, but you accomplished so much with the that wonderful group of really sort of focused um town knowledgeable, town centered people um to really sort of bring forward several projects to conclusion. Um and it was wonderful to serve with you and and to sort of watch the committee evolve over time um from this different chair. Um so, thank you. But it really was. I mean, the amount that you did did not get shouted from the mountain tops and it should have. So, well done. Well, I don't think if if I didn't volunteer, I think we'd all still be staring at each other at that the first meeting wanted to chair that. So, yeah. No, it's been fun. Uh, I've learned a lot. Uh, people that I worked with
047in the committee are very knowledgeable from all different backgrounds. So, we had a a collection of individuals um from all different viewpoints. I think that's really how we got it done. Um I don't mind being under the radar. That's fine. Slide in there and get what I got done. Um but, you know, as as always, I'm sure as as as things evolved, it's obviously it's going to have to be more public, more viable, more visible. I mean, I look forward to that. Well, thank you very much, Mr. I'll just add I I I echo, you know, your concerns about having a dedicated school facilities uh sort of uh employee, but at the same time, I want to, you know, voice my gratitude for our facilities department who um you know, I I think that they
048can be overwhelmed from time to time because of just the demand on them. And I I find uh you know, Nick Bardi and his team to be um you know, for at least for me extremely responsive and and I really appreciate their expertise. I mean, I think that, you know, a lot of times, especially with the MSBA process, uh Nick was um was key in providing some of that information that we needed about the uh and his team. Um uh that we needed for the application. So, um and I I know that uh you know, some of the building administrators are in touch with them a lot. Um Principal Sullivan I know is in touch with him a lot. Um so, you know, we thank them as well. But, um but point well taken, Mr.
049Ears, um about that. Um so I think that to the point to extent it needs a vote from the school committee. We'll do one just out of the abundance of caution. Um it is a choice of committee. So it is actually there's there's according to bylaws three appointees from the moderator, three appointees from the select board, three appointees from the school committee. So I don't know I dissolution was such a hard such a I don't know such a permanent term to me. I feel like suspension maybe is a is a better a better term. Sunset is what this looks like. Sure. Sure. Okay. So, I I I just Is there is there a motion to at least for now? I mean, we may reconstitute at some point in time like we have done because it
050was constituted in the past and then we revived it. So, is there a motion to uh suspend uh from the school committee's perspective the activities of the school facilities committee for now? So, move. Motion's been made by Mr. Carr. Is there a second? Second. Second by Mr. Dial. All in favor? I All opposed extensions. Motion passes by a vote of four members. Thank you so much, Mr. Earl. Really appreciate your service. Thank you. Don't go far. I won't. I'm going anywhere. Good. Thanks. All right. Um, somehow we are only at the superintendent report, but uh I will turn the meeting over at this time to superintendent schools, Miss Sarah Shannon. All right. Um so to start off my report this we are gonna start with recognition of Mr. Tar. Um so I have known you
051the least and have had the opportunity to work with you the least but I would like to start off um on this your last meeting as a school committee member um for how many time is this how many times have you been a school committee member? just one one term three years. Okay. Um you know I would like to thank you for being so warm, welcoming and supportive of me in my new role. Um I know that this is not the first board you have sat on that you have repeatedly given of yourself in different ways to support all areas of the town of Cohasset. And I am grateful that I've had a chance to get to know you and to be able to work with you. and I look forward to continuing to have
052our paths cross. Um, but thank you so much for your support of the schools all these years even though you haven't been on the board. I know you have been integral in sort of the success of the district and I um I wish you well in being able to just sort of work maybe your own career and not have this on top of it, but I hope that you will stay close and continue to provide input when you have it. because it's always helpful. And I will turn it over to the chair to continue to recognize Mr. Car. Thank you for that introduction, Superintendent Shannon. As we always do, we recognize someone's service when they've come here for it doesn't matter how many terms. It's a big commitment and uh it is a hugely impactful
053role for our community. So, uh I'll just start with Mr. Dial. Any comments you have to offer? And then we have a little something for uh once we go around, we have a little something for Mr. Tara. Ted, it's been an honor to to work with you. Uh, in fact, it didn't even occur to me until just now. This was your last meeting. Me neither. Um, you you came to read the agenda before I mean, you came on as as a true servant, a true public servant. Um, we were in a situation where we didn't really have a replacement for one of our committee members and you stepped up to volunteer because you wanted to make sure that the committee went in the right direction and I recognized that immediately. your contributions have been immense.
054Uh you've brought a lot of wisdom to this committee and you've brought a lot of strategic pack and and helped us through many many harrowing kind of situations and your perspectives will be missed at this at this table but um will be remembered as well. So thank you for for being a public servant and for what you've done and I very much value the time we we've spent together here. Thank you. Thank you Mr. D. Mrs. Leky. Thank you Ted. my seat name. Um but when I when I think um of you and and serving with you, it's not only the thanks we should be giving you, but you have this ability to give thanks to others and appreciation of others in the moments when it's most needed and in a way that just feels
055most genuine. Um and that goes a long way um at some of these meetings. Um, and I will I I sort of try to pick from all of my colleagues things that I want to carry forward and and and characteristics I want to emulate and that is one from you that your ability to just show gratitude um for the things that we have to appreciate even in the most difficult of times. Um but and you are a public servant extraordinaire. You are a community member extraordininaire. you not only sit on this board, but I think you go to every other single board's meetings um because you seem to always be in the know and willing to connect and willing to share. Um so, thank you. You're an absolute asset to our entire town. Thank you
056all very much. It's been my honor to be here with you and um so Beth taught my kids full circle full circle. But um I I want to thank you all and all the teachers and uh Jennifer who where Jennifer has to put up with me in the minutes and everything and um and you know Kathy Faul who is an absolute gift um who we could have never caught up without. So everybody's been wonderful. Thank you for having me and I won't go far. It was our pleasure Ted. You are by far one of the um one of the the kindest, most generous people that I have met uh in town so far. It's a pleasure working with you and um you and I share a passion for service uh and I I find you
057quite inspirational. Just to give everyone a little color before I read the um description on the plaque, Ted, if you didn't know, is uh highly involved in the federal government and he was involved in the state government at a very high level. And you would never know that about them about him because um like every good public servant does uh he approaches all those tasks with humility. So, um, and we used TED on this because I thought that you prefer that one. No problem. It says, "Presented to Mr. Ted Carr in recognition of his distinguished service to the Cohasset public schools." And Principal Sullivan, you're going to enjoy this inscription. A dedicated Cohasset resident who has always prioritize the advancement of his town, state, and country over self-interest. and in doing so has served as
058a remarkable example for our students as we strive to empower them to improve communities. We will we will miss your kind and insightful presence on the committee and thank you for your many valuable contributions, school committee member and secretary 2022 to 2025. Thank you for not maybe not the table of a picture. Sure. We'll go over there. Do we have a big check for it? It's our favorite line. from the middle. Thank you. Thank you guys. Congratulations. Oh, thanks. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right, moving right along. I think we have some more superintendent reports, right? Yep. So, turn it back over to you, Superintendent Shannon. Thank you very much. All right, so a few um updates and then I will before I move into our end of year report. Um so, first and most
059importantly, this is National Teacher Appreciation Week and so I shared in the newsletter and we will be sharing and celebrating our teachers tomorrow. they don't know that. So, this is a little spoiler alert. Um, but I I want to share how wonderful our teachers are here in Cohasset. Um, I want to express my deep appreciation and respect for all of our teachers and our educators. They are the backbone of who we are and why we are successful as we are. And so, to any teachers listening, thank you. Um, we would not be the district we are without you. Um, and I look forward to celebrating you all tomorrow. Um, also and because it's been three weeks since our last meeting, we also have had a few other appreciation days. And I just want to publicly
060recognize the celebration of administrative professionals day, national principal day, and school lunch hero day. um and thank each of these members of our school community. It truly takes a village to raise our children and each of our administrative assistance principles and school lunch folks help us do that every day. They make our students feel welcome, valued, and a part of the community and we're grateful that they're all a part of our school district. Um on a different note, um NEASK has been here this week. So NEAS is the New England Association of Schools and Colleges and they are the group that accredit all of our high schools across the state and all of New England as well as colleges and they were here for their centennial accredit accreditation visit. Um while here their teams met
061with high school administration faculty and students they talked with members of central office. They visited classrooms. They were a little bit of everywhere within the high school over the past week. Um, I had the opportunity to meet with them twice and really appreciated all of the positive accolades that they shared outside of the official process about what they experienced here at the high school. They also recognized our teachers and our students and principal Scott. Um, they are in the process of writing up their findings. The hope is that they will share them by the end of the school year, but they have to go through a process um with the actual NEAS folks. So once they write it up, they submit it to their administrative board who do does a review. So we may or
062may not get it back before the end of June. If we do, Principal Scott will share at a committee meeting, but there's probably a higher likelihood that he'll come back in the fall and share that report. Um, but they did give an unofficial summary to Principal Scott, so many accolades. Um, they did recognize sort of the growth from their last visit here a couple of years ago to where we are right now. And so, um, I'm looking forward to seeing that report. Um, and just it's a very busy time of year in schools. We always think that other times of year are busy until you get to May and June. Um, these are probably the busiest times of the school year. There are plays, concerts, art shows, celebrations, graduation, you name it. Um, in the
063last newsletter I put out, I tried to capture all of the dates. Just want to reiterate to families to look at that list to cross reference it with school calendar, individual school calendars. Make sure everything is is where it needs to be on your calendar. Um because there's a lot of great stuff going on. Field days, snapper sneaker, you know, spring for the arts at the high school. It so lots of great things. And so um just want to make sure everybody is aware of everything we have going on. Those are all of my updates. Any questions on any of those before I move on? Okay. Um so with that that it's being a busy time of year at the end of the year um I am actually going to share um our end of
064the year report with regard to our district goals. Um, I'm going to share my screen, but I'm not going to read everything on the screen. I'm just going to speak to each of the goals. And so this year was a little bit different of a year because we had just completed our strategic plan and we were sort of in this bridge year while we developed a new strategic plan. And so in August, the leadership team came together and we identified what our goals for the year would be. They served a few purposes. They helped us complete some of the tasks that we had set forth in the last strategic plan and they provided us with a really solid foundation moving into our new strategic plan. Um and we had six six different goals. Some of
065them were district goals. One of them specifically was a goal for me as a new superintendent. Um and so this document that has been shared and it's shared publicly in the packet that went out to all families. Um it captures a summary of each goal and what was done as well as providing indicators and measures of success. Um, and it is colorcoded. And so, anything that is green is an action item that we completed. Anything that is yellow is something that is still in process. And there are a few things that we didn't get to. Um, not many, but just a couple because we did have a busy year. Um, and so the first student learning goal is first goal is our student learning goal as a district. And really this goal was around strengthening
066our multi-tered system of support framework. And you'll notice that we did mark this as yellow even though we have, as you can see, completed a lot of our action items. Um, MTSS is a really important component of any school district. It is what we think of as tier one instruction. It is the instructional model and the curriculum that we provide to every student in every classroom. It is also tier 2 and tier three interventions for our students who need additional supports um and different levels of supports. And so while this was a goal this year and we accomplished many of the tasks that we had set forth, it is an ongoing goal. We are not done with this. This is going to actually sort of as a sneak preview be a focus of our strategic
067plan as well. But I want to give a lot of credit to our new director of student services, Michael Stapleton, our building principles, and our MTSS teams because they spent a lot of time trying to create consistent definitions, structures, processes so that when we talked about MTSS, we were all talking about the same thing. Um, we also did a lot of work or Michael and his team and the principles did a lot of work with regard to um, what communication with families looks like around MTSS. Um, and they also dug in to look at what our DECAP looks like. That's our district accommod curriculum accommodation plan which needed to be updated and allows for teachers to make general accommodations for any student whether they're on a plan or not. And a lot of times that
068is something that the NPSS team will turn to as they're looking at individual students. And so this was a lot of work and it is creating a really solid foundation for the work that we will identify next meeting in our strategic plan. Um the second goal was really my goal as a brand new superintendent. It was my professional practice goal. Um I think all of you know that I was part of the new superintendent induction program this year. I attended monthly um sessions. Some of them were half day remote workshops, some of them were were full day in person. And I also had a mentor who you met several times and Moren McCroy and she and I worked together twice a month. Um she came to leadership meetings, she came to learning walks around the
069district, she came to a whole lot of things to see how I worked. um and she provided me with feedback and um you know was a really good thought partner as I maneuvered through the the start of this year. Um and so I am happy to say that I have complete well I have one more meeting next week um but I have almost completed year one of Nissup and I will look forward to engaging in year two. Our third goal was around teaching and learning and this was really a goal that was written to give us the opportunity to complete some work that was identified in the last strategic plan. Um, this was really to complete the curriculum mapping process and to sorry to complete not create I lost my words there complete the curriculum
070mapping process and to complete the curriculum benchmark assessment process and so you know led by Dr. Scolins Mr. Roberts the principles they along with staff have been working on this for a few years. Um I think we can we can say that at the end of this year this is a action item that we will have completed. Um and it is through countless hours of hard work by so many of our teachers um who worked tirelessly on you know early release days old PD days in department meetings in grade level PLC's that this work has been done and so we are in the final stages you will see that much of this goal is marked off as green complete We are getting to the point where between now and the end of August, we will
071have gathered some feedback from families around the format and how we share these curriculum maps with families. And then they will be on our website um for the start of next school year. And so this has been a huge undertaking and you know I was here for just a moment of it. So it is due to Dr. Spolins and her team and all the staff that this happened. So want to give them credit. Um our fourth goal was is social emotional wellness and this was really um a continuation of a goal that was in the strategic plan around restorative justice and building community based circles. Um, a lot of work has been completed within this goal as well and this will continue to be work that we do as part of the next strategic plan.
072Um, we have trained enough teachers through um some trainings with SUFFK University so that both the middle school and high school ran community circles this year. Um the high school ran three different community circle sessions. The middle school ran community circles through their utility block. Um and that really helps us build the capacity of our students to talk with one another about things that they don't normally have conversations about. Get to know one another in a different way. Build relationships with students they don't talk to on a regular basis. and to um really think about how we interact together as a community. We're also really excited because we brought community circles to the adult level and we did cross district community circles this year. Every day that we had a full day PD, we brought
073all the teachers to this building from the entire district and we had circles where you had teachers from Osgood, Deer Hill, Middle School, High School, and Central office. And everybody was together and getting to know one another and building community. And on the last day in March, the feedback actually was, can we keep doing this next year because we're just really feeling like we're getting to know one another. And so the whole purpose of these circles is to build community and so that's something that we're excited to continue to do. Um the focus this year has been at the secondary level. And so now the next phase is to think about how this interacts with many of the systems and structures that already exist at the elementary level. Things like um responsive classroom, the deer
074team circles. Um, so where does it fit and how do we continue to grow it? As you know, I keep giving these sneak previews. It's hard not to into the strategic plan, but as we continue to really think about what a a a school culture that creates a sense of belonging for all students looks like, and this is going to be a key piece of that. Our fifth goal was around resources. Now when we wrote this goal, I don't know that any of us foresaw some of the challenges that we were going to encounter this year. Um so this goal was really around assessing and analyzing district resources including staffing, budget, transportation, class size, technology to forecast future budget needs. Um, I think this is probably the goal that we dug into the most, or
075at least I personally dug into the most. Um, and it's a goal that helped us identify the shortfall that we were going to be facing this year and for FY26. And I think it was as a result of this work that we figured out how to minimize as best we could the shortfall for this year and then how to close the $1.4 million gap that we had to close for FY26. Um this is going to continue to be a focus for us as we build out a more long-term financial plan um so that we can feel more confident about our financial future. And so this was this is a was a welltimed goal um because we did a lot of analysis in all of those areas. Our sixth goal was around communication and engagement. Um
076looking at how we continue to strengthen communication in areas to bring in families in meaningful ways. Um we did things like redesign the newsletter. Um we did a lot with continuing the conversation around the anxious generation at all school levels. Um principles in different areas did more work with families to get input. You know, Principal Sullivan had several family forums. Principal Scott had the cell phone task force that involved parents as well. I think we had some some higher goals of looking more at some theory with regard to family engagement um and creating some additional plans for family engagement. We just did not get to that this year. I think with the strategic plan and the feasibility study and the budget concerns that those sort of took center stage. Um so these will continue to
077live as we think about you know our next strategic plan. And then just sort of in summary in addition to the actual goals I personally really wanted to come in and um build and strengthen relationships between the schools in the town and to really get to know and build relationships with the teachers. I was new to them in in some ways. Um, and I was coming in in a very different role than those who knew me. Um, the role I had been playing. And so I really use this year to um, become familiar with the school district in a way that I had not been. And it's been a busy year for sure, but a very rewarding one. And it was very much a a bridge year, but I think it was a well-timed bridge
078year because it's allowed us to really wrap up some of the very important initiatives that we needed to complete and lay that strong foundation for the new strategic plan. And I think that next meeting when we come to you with the new strategic plan, you'll see how this year really was a springboard for a lot of that work. Um, and as I sort of wrap up the the goal report, I just want to personally thank everyone in the central office and our principles and educators for all they work all the work that they did to help accomplish all of these goals. Um, and to really sort of help me transition into the district. And so, you know, in that I would say this is the work that we did. We obviously are still working for
079the next six weeks and we'll continue to work on these goals, but for the most part, we are we are in a place where we are able to say we we've completed a lot of the work we set forth to do. Well, thank you for that comprehensive presentation, Superintendent Shannon. Appreciate that. Are there any questions for the superintendent? Bearing in mind that uh you know it's 7:15 and we're we still have a good amount of meeting left. Um having said that, Mr. Carr, do you have any questions or comments? Excellent. Thank you, Mr. SC. I'm going to take my full seven minutes. Perfect questions. And by the way, it's free. What? Thank you. All right. Perfect. Thank you for that. Does that conclude the superintendent's report? It does. All right. So, we'll move right along
080into our teaching and learning block. Um, and at this moment in time, I think I'd turn the meeting over to our director of student services, Michael Stapleton. I would invite our uh CPAC leaison, the co-presidents, I think they are um Miss Bryant and Mrs. Davis, if you guys want to take a seat up here at the table with us so you can join in all the fun. And then I have guests as well tonight. Um so we have them first. Yeah. So what can we I maybe Miss Bryant and Miss Davis, can you guys you guys sit on like the perimeter seats and then we get the educator in the middle there? No, I'm good. I Yeah. Well, I'll start and I know we um might be meeting tonight um with just my data update
081um as we get settled in um which I report on every meeting. Um so, you know, here you'll see the data for April. April was a very busy month considering there was a vacation week in there for the office of student services. Um there were seven annual review meetings held at the elementary level. There were five re-evaluation meetings also held. Um four students were found eligible, one student was found not eligible. We had six initial evaluations. Uh two of those came through MTSS and one of those students was found eligible while the other one was not. Four requests came from family. Um the student that was eligible came from early intervention. Um so a student turned three years old and then three students were found not eligible. At the secondary level there were 12 annual
082review meetings. There were six re-evaluations. So a lot of testing and evaluation going on right now at both levels. Um this is a very busy time of year for our school psychologists who conduct those testings and then the subsequent meetings that need to occur within the timelines. There were two initial evaluations um or so three actually so two came through MTSS one was eligible and then one came from the family and then I shared one out of district meeting totaling uh 39 meetings in the month of April. It's a busy busy month. Um so I'm going to stop my screen share for a second and talk a little bit. I'm excited. Um this is my first presentation where I've invited guests to come speak on a topic. Um which means a lot. So I also
083want to start with some good news. Um last year the um you know we received a notice from the from Desi from Massachusetts um that the special education department was fell into the category of needs assistance related to some state reporting um that's conducted you know each year. Um and so late Friday we received our formal um update for the 2024 year. And I'll just read you know you know the statement that came out. It says capacitive was determined to be meets requirements with a score of 93% earning 38 out of 41 possible points. Um which is a huge win and a lot of it was like data collection but it also led directly to the sped strategies work. That was a real focus of my first few months on in you know within this
084role in this year and a number of people you know that are here participated on those committees as we talked about closing the proficiency gap for students with disabilities. um making sure that we were in compliance, you know, with different components from the state. And so our new score, which again will come out each year, um we scored out of total 20 points for performance, we scored with an 18. And I'll dive more into this update as it connects, you know, hopefully in my June um update. But to score 18 out of 20 points for performance was really nice to see. We still have some targeted areas that connect directly to the spread strategies work. and like kind of perfect timing some of what we're reporting on today and some of the work that we've
085done um in different buildings this year. Um for compliance we scored 16 out of 16 which as someone being a stickler for the rules um is you know 100% there and then other considerations we scored four out of five possible points. um again with some data collection and reporting which I have to give a huge shout out to Lisa Porter at least too or it who really took that information when it was last reported and helped us create the right systems within Aspen make sure that we're reporting the right data that we're coding things the right way which is not my skill set um and so this is a huge team effort um for compliance and performance across the entire district um and it means that we no longer need to participate in the spread
086strategies like formalized you know meetings that were held multiple times in process With that being said, we're still going to do all of that work that we worked very hard this fall to do and to outline um next steps to really close the proficiency gap on state performance and just overall performance for our students with disabilities. Um so I think this is great news and I was happy to get this late Friday afternoon which is why it wasn't on the agenda. Um but news to celebrate and then also you know important to keep in mind moving forward. Um which brings me into why I invited um Ray Boris and Karen Johnson here tonight. um some of the specific work that we identified through sped strategies in the fall was targeting two initiatives um across all
087grade levels and I'm really highlighting the fifth grade right now um and some of the work that they have done which is really amazing and I'll share my screen in a moment but the two initiatives that we talked about was continue and have committed to is to continue to develop co-eing across the district and really thinking about how we bring that down to elementary levels I had talked in a previous presentation and through CPAC this year that when the initiative started in 2018 we were at the middle school and the high school and it's taken some time to move backwards you know down to the lower levels um which is an inclusive practice and a best practice for supporting students with disabilities and really all students in general can benefit from that and we'll hear
088a little bit about that today. Um so co-eing was one and then direct teaching of executive functioning and test taking strategies. When the sped strategies task force met this year multiple times, it came up over and again, you know, from parents, from students, from teachers that students with disabilities may be struggling with those test taking skills and what that looks like. And so, Marade and Karen are our fifth grade co-eing team, and I'm going to turn it over to them for their presentation about how they've directly taught executive functioning skills this year and test taking strategies. um which you know I hope we'll see you have payoff this spring as our students take MCCAST and just also become lifelong learners and think about the different strategies that you need to employ when taking you know
089assessments and tests. So let me share my screen and I'll turn it over. Welcome. I knew you guys were here. I just didn't know how long the initial parts of the presentation were going to be until yours. That's why I didn't invite you up at the beginning. Great. So thank you for having us. Um, like Michael said, there were a lot of different factors that, you know, played into us developing this kind of unit, for lack of a better word. Um, with our work on this bed strategies team and through, um, co-eing, it's really afforded us to have a lot of opportunities to meet students where they're at and to see, you know, areas of need for not just students with disabilities, but really for all students. And I think, you know, Karen, you could
090speak, you've been in fifth grade much longer than I am. So speak to the trends of, you know, what you've seen in the classroom. But yeah, I think this was great because obviously it's not something that's brand new, right? Like thinking about how students can access test taking skills, the wording in the questions, how do I attack this? And just giving them, you know, the some strategies to work on that. So we did a lot of practice with that. But if we did kind of set it up as a unit and um you know every day there was something new and um um and so those that are unfamiliar with executive functioning specifically with the classroom it kind of falls into these four buckets. So um I won't read it all but organization, time management,
091working memory and then impulse control and focus. So those are kind of our main areas of focus. And then can I just add? Sure. No, because I think sometimes like when you hear like executive functioning, you're like, "Oh, we'll keep your desk clean, right?" And and there's so many more pieces to it. And I think, you know, we were very, you know, open and honest with the kids about like this is about your thinking skills and how you're, you know, approaching different tasks and everybody does that differently. Um, so we're, you know, kind of giving them more language to use for themselves. Yeah. And I think, you know, especially in fifth grade, it's a transition year. Um, I have a lot of transitions to middle school. So, we're thinking about, um, how are the day-to-day
092tasks becoming more complex? Um, how can we set students up with those tools to become more independent and more confident in using and displaying what they know? Um, and really looking at having that self-regulation piece, being able to look and reflect and say, what do I need help more support with? Um, how can I show what I know? And really just that overall increase of independence. So, that kind of outlines, you know, our why. And I think um Mike said it too like lifelong learners, right? like these are skills that isn't just we don't want to say this is just RAMcast right like you know they they're finding like after we did this we had happened to have a math test and there was some wording that was wrong and they they caught it Hawkeyes
093right I was like you're right but they did what we taught them to do and so just having them recognize that it's not just for something you know not just for a test and I think that goes to this slide um you know we do want to clarify there is a difference with how to take a test versus teaching to the test. Teaching to the test is not what we want to do. You know, that would be looking at MCCAST, looking at that item analysis, identifying the power standards and only teaching to that and only teaching to that to the test in a certain way. And we have a very robust curriculum and many opportunities to engage in the standards. So, we don't want to hinder that. However, we want to provide students with the
094opportunities to display what they do know and really set them up with procedures that make them more independent. And it not only like Karen said, it doesn't just transfer to a test, it transfers to a lot of um life opportunities. So, it's important for us to make that clarification. We're teaching how to take a test, how to attack something we don't know, how to attack something that we're unfamiliar with. We're not teaching to the test and to give them the confidence that they know that they can do it. Um I think they you know think about you know certainly we did like a little you know little poll with them like about MCCAST and their you know anxiety up here and so teaching them these different skills we you know you'll see later in the
095slides but we did kind of like an after the test sort of um poll and you know they got that it helped. So, um, over the last two months, we've really been focusing on some of our co-eing lessons, um, with these different pieces, really that initiation of independence, um, and then providing them with the routines and procedures for, uh, tackling challenging tasks, being able to self-monitor and chunk things into manageable parts and being able to recognize, oh, I don't understand this, how can I go back or how could I look at this wording differently? Um, and then just to really identify what the directions were asking. that was a big component of um some of our lessons. Um so again here it's kind of outlined we talked a lot about efficiency. What does that look
096like? Um efficiency is not rushing but it's also not taking all day. Um and how can we manage our work vocabulary, open response questions, multiple choice directions, stress management, self monitoring in general. And then anxiety as a piece and I think we kind of talked about these is they're not on the slide. they're not quite split in half, but like the, you know, the functional skills and then kind of, you know, that anxiety, stress management, self monitoring piece that's just as important to acknowledge for them. And that's something that, you know, they can also work on managing with skills that help them address all of those other things that they need to do. And it's great to see this work happening now, too, as we think about future planning and just overall student health and
097wellness. Be having these conversations at different grade levels and at different developmental levels. It's great. And I believe the next couple slides are just some pictures of the classroom. Um so this is some of the work that we were doing um specifically with one of the big factors was really looking at um spec specifically open response questions but really questions in general and identifying well what are the action verbs what is that what are they telling us to do really creating a checklist to go through those uh problems and then using that checklist to then self-correct and edit um our work. So we worked a lot on open response problems. We created um routines and procedures for writing. So um the students kind of had a checklist. They identified, all right, is this narrative or
098expository? Am I being asked to write a paragraph? Am I being asked to write an essay? What graphic organizers could I use? And by the end of the day or the weeks, I should say. Um the students were able to do that independently. Um we also did a lot of vocabulary work looking at multiple meaning words, right? Drawing conclusions doesn't actually mean drawing a picture, things like that. um and looking at common vocabulary that tends to be on um assessments and questions. Yeah, these were there's a lot of words. Yeah. Um so like Karen mentioned earlier, we did provide students with a survey and we after um the assessment and just asked them, you know, how do you feel now that this is post ELA MCCAST um just how do you feel about the strategies
099that we worked on and reflecting on our own teaching practices? So up we surveyed um two different classes. So a total of 35 students are reflected in this data. And so before um the students felt kind of somewhat prepared. The average was about 3.51. I believe I don't have my glasses on but um and then after we took that data again and it was 4.17. And I know you can see there's some outliers with the ones and the twos not feeling prepared. So it's important you know once we did take this data we looked and you know does this student have anxiety? is a student on an IEP. Um, and really addressing those uh concerns with those students individually after we did the um survey. But overall, a lot of the students said that they
100were more confident and they felt better about taking the assessment. And we, you know, for them when you say prepared, they're like, "Oh, I know the reading or I know, you know, like they think about skills." And so, you know, we explained like what is executive functioning and kind of really, you know, named it for them and talked to them about like now you have all these things in your toolbox. Um, and they use I mean we started science today and they were not watching too carefully, but they were doing all the things and um so it's you know kind of saying to them we we did this already like you already have these skills and just because this is science you're still applying the same skills, right? And the goal of learning too is
101to be able to generalize these taught skills across different domains whether that's math, science. So we also asked students um you know for our own reflection like what academic strategies did they find helpful. So these were some of the ones that students um used they thought were most helpful and that can transfer um to a variety of different assessments and subjects. So we had TTQA which is spend the question around boxes and bullets which is a strategy we use for expository writing as well as races stop and jots which is that self monitoring of the comprehension piece rereading the passage and then using the prompt directions to check their writing. Um and then we also asked because that social emotional piece plays into it as well. Um just we did go over some strategies of
102you know how do we manage um when we're feeling stressed, how do we manage when we feel anxious, when we need a break in a testing environment or when we are recognizing that we're getting distracted. So these were some of the techniques that they um that were repetitive that were brought up. So taking a walk, being able to stretch, doing desk push-ups, uh thinking about something positive was my favorite, deep breathing techniques, and then taking a movement break. And I have to say like even like they take advantage of these and even like the stretching, right? Like so we're in a room and you can hear a pin drop. It's super quiet, but they I you know kind of watch them like they'll go with you know with their you know on the like a
103chair pushup. I actually had a student today that had took some science notes but also had a big eight like on the page and was like you know doing that for themselves and it was great. Um and then you know we asked you know MCCAST and high stakes testing um you know it does make students anxious and so we asked them to give a piece of advice to students um that you know have not taken it before um and so that's reflected there but a lot of it is that you've got this um you know what you're doing and just take your time faster one's how I approach life one step at a So I know that was quick but um any questions for us? It this is definitely ongoing work. I think the tricky
104thing about well the tricky thing but the great thing about being a teacher especially in special education is teaching is very fluid. It changes so what's going to work for this group might not work for it next year and Karen and I might be here with a totally different presentation. Um but it's been it's been really great to see their confidence and their independence grow over the last couple months. You can tell. Well, thank you both. Any questions, Scar or comments? I love the idea of the survey with the kids. I mean, what a great idea. It just gives them ownership, gives them impact. They can assess themselves. It's very cool. Great idea. Thanks, this is this is fantastic. I can see a lot of the stuff that you cover here are not just skills
105that you use for a test but like skills you use in life um how to break things apart how to think about a lot of times I think we get focused on teaching substance or thinking about substance and not thinking about the mechanism of application um is this something that could be rolled out more broadly to the the student body to a to a broader array of of students a kind of a thing that maybe it's not as focused, but I think a lot of these skills are something that all of our students get. Yeah, definitely. I mean, it started really in Karen and my co-eing class. Um, and then with I am also in a couple other classrooms um with Julie Lavine, we've started rolling this out as well. So, I do think it's
106it's definitely something that's feasible. and something interesting to explore if there's like a mini session or something that uh and not just not just about the MCAST but just about any testing in general and that again so anyway great job thank you guys for uh putting this together there's different executive functioning supports across like all all schools right now and so that's something that I'm working to kind of like organize and sequence out you know we have an executive functioning group that runs at the high school during utility where like this same type of work and so I think it's really great to use consistent consistent language across buildings and again like with developmental levels so that we see kids that are able to navigate you in a five block schedule at the high school
107and apply the executive functioning skills. So it's definitely something we're looking at expansion. Yeah, I can use this little I have a resource on my website Muski. I I mean I think this is exceptional um so important for students. I think it extends as as it's been said extends beyond tests. I'm thinking long-term projects. I'm thinking you have homework at home. And I think that at least in my house, when a child has a couple of strategies they can choose from, it allows them to feel autonomous as they approach their work. I'm really overwhelmed or this pro problem, I know at least I have to draw like a little grid first. And so these teaching of strategies um and multiple strategies so that students can figure out what works for me um allows us autonomy
108and confidence that I think is immeasurably important in terms of then the acquisition of skills because it creates like some calm and some relaxation that then allows the information to come into your brain. Or at least that's how the non-sychologist in me would explain it to everyone. And I think just because I haven't been in fifth grade for a long time, like their ownership of their learning is something that's really important and like recognizing that they can do more for themselves than sometimes they think they can. Um, and so I found that this doing this in a very structured way. Like I, you know, was thinking about what we were doing. I'm like, I feel like I've probably done parts of this, but not cohesive like that. And it just, it made so much more
109of an impact. And you know certainly can be across different rhythms. I just have to say Birdie never heard these words come out of his mouth before but he did tell me he found the MCAST enjoyable today. So I think he felt confident whatever you did seem to have resonated with him. Enjoyable. Enjoyable. Yeah. So, hats off to you. Right. Well, thank you, Siski, and and thank both of you. Uh uh huge assets to the district, wonderful educators. We're lucky to have you and uh thank you for for doing this. I love seeing the graph where um after uh the introduction executive function. So, the the answers got more pushed towards the extremely sideable. So, obviously making a notable difference for the kids. So, thank you for everything you do and I'm only totally biased
110because Johnson taught my daughter and I think she said the world of birth. So, thank you for everything. Thanks for being here. Thanks for staying late. Sorry, it was giving me anxiety you guys were waiting so long sometimes how it how it how it happens, you know. Um, so before we move on though, I want to ask Mr. Brian and Davis if you guys have any report from CPAC or any questions or any concerns raise CPAC that you wanted to sort of just like even though it's not on the agenda, we can at least raise them and we can sort of consider it for future agenda or whatever. If there's anything or if you have any comments or questions about any of this, there's the CPAC meeting tomorrow at 11 o'clock. Yep. I think Dr.
111Schol is going to be there, I think. With two topics. So, one of our middle school special ed teachers is preventing on the summer slide and how to prevent regression of skills over the summer months timely with, you know, the last inerson CPAC meeting. And then the second portion of the meeting, I know Dr. Collins um will be there to talk about the student opportunity act, which I know came up at a previous meeting um just to answer questions and clarify information about that. And Rob Bars will be with you. Yeah, it's a busy hour tomorrow, we do. Then we have our Apple is coming to a close the um collaboration we did this year. So we'll be ending that tomorrow as well. We're spending the entire day together. Where uh is that virtual? Yeah.
112They were sending out a link in the morning. It's it's it's it's been a while lately. So I know that I'm supposed to go. So So it's just like one o'clock tomorrow. But we we did great things this year um through Apple. So that was an awesome collaboration. And um our last meeting was excellent. We had um a parent and teacher um Aaron Dlo presented on goals and um accommodations and did a whole presentation which was wellreceived. So yeah, we have one more meeting after this one. That I think we're going to be implementing um CPAC office hours going forward. That was something that came out of our Apple collaboration and um just for like parents to come like at the library, we're going to do with them and think it'll be a nice addition
113for parents that might want more like um private setting or if they have specific questions um or they can't come to meetings. So just trying different ways to get people involved. That's all we have. Just great job. I'm so glad that you were able to present those stats. And I'll definitely have more information to come on that too. I'm still unpacking like the indicators, but it's like a kind of like full circle moment for me to look at like when I was submitting indicated data in the fall and not knowing how that lines up in reports. So like this report now I see how it all connects. Um and so again, a lot of it was like the data collection component and then really like some really positive news too which once I have a
114little bit more time to unpack about how we do see that proficiency gap close over time for our students. Um, and like a big where we were kind of flagged again and I'll dive more into this is at the lower levels, you know, the grade four MCCAST. And so to know that we're targeting it now, I think we'll hopefully see positive results too. And then to know that it does, you know, close over time with the high quality both the curriculum that we have and instruction by our educators is is reassuring. So a positive report for sure. Thank you. I'll just give a plug quickly to CPAC before we leave. CPAC is the special education parents advisory council. So, uh, if you are someone that, uh, has a student that's, uh, either, um, on IEP
115or 504 or is just someone that you see your learner struggling and it's starting to stress you out or frustrate you or give you anxiety, you do not have to go it alone. Uh there is a group of wonderful parents who are extremely knowledgeable about special education uh all facets of it and they work closely with the administration and the school committee obviously um to ensure that everyone's voice and perspectives are heard and that you know our district is doing um its best by our most vulnerable learners. So if you are in that position uh reach out to Miss Bryant or Miss Davis. You can go online and find them online as well. Um, it's the CPAC. S E P A C. Okay. Thank you all for being here. Thank you. All right. Uh, let's
116move right into the budget resource and governance section where we have some gifts uh to consider. Miss Owen, you want to run us through these fairly uh concisely? Absolutely. Thank you. So, um the first two I I'll combine because they're both from the Southshore Music Circus. Um one is Hill for the circus and residents for $1,500. Um and the second one is a check for $1,500 for the high school. Um it's the purpose of the sport initiating program that they're trying to put in place. Um so I want to thank them very much. They they said, you know, make sure we recognize it should sur um funded those. The next one is a check in the amount of $1,749.50 50 cents from um the Cohass PSO and it's going to bus bus grade sorry there
117it's for the middle school grade seven bus transportation to help with the trip that they went on or going on. They also um PSO donated $1,000 to the multi multicultural community event grant um which I believe Y and then we also have a check from Abington Bank in the amount of $250 going towards the credit for life. So we just need a vote accepting those gifts. Thank you very much and very generous. Thank you so much, Miss Owen. We'll take the first two together because they're from the same donor. Um, is there a motion to accept uh gifts um evidenced by items F1 and F2 from the Southshore Music Circus in the amount of $1,500 and $1,500 respectively? So motion be made by Mr. Carr. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Miss Ley. All
118in favor? I. All opposed extensions. Motion carries by majority vote of four members. It is accepted. Thank you, Miss Owen. Please, if we could send the form letter to the circus, um the music circus thanking them. The thank you letter that we have. Um the next gift is the gift from the Hassid um parent school organization for the grade seven bus transportation uh as presented by Miss Owen in the amount of $1,74960. Is there a motion to accept that gift? Motion's been made by Mrs. Leleski and seconded by Mr. Carr. Sir, all in favor? I. All opposed extensions. Motion carries by vote a majority vote of four members. Next gift is again from the parent cohesive parent school organization for the multi multicultural community event in the amount of $1,000. That's presented by our director
119of finance operations tonight. Is there a motion to accept that gift in the amount of $1,000? So motion's been made by Mr. Dials. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Miss Leki. All in favor? I I. All opposed. Attentions. Motion carries by a majority vote of four members. And last but not least, a gift from Abington Bank for the credit for life program in the amount of $250 as presented by Miss Owen tonight. Is there a motion to accept the gift? Motion made by Mr. D. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Miss Leleski. All in favor? I. All opposed. Attentions. Motion carries by a majority vote of four members. So, all gifts have been accepted and we'd ask that a letter uh be sent to each of our very generous donors. Thank you. Thank
120you. Thank you so much. We love gifts. Thank you. All right. Uh does that conclude the budget resource and governance uh report? Um Miss Owen? Yes. Okay. Moving to our community relations communication section. Any reports from subcommittees or less on positions from anyone? Just fire will nothing here. All right. The high school school council did meet. That's true. Um and they discussed changes to the handbook which will be um subsequently presented um I think next week to the school. All right. Thank you, Missy. Anything else? We're um continuing to uh research aspects around the electric bus with the vendor next week. Yep. Well, this is my last meeting apparently until the new guy shows up. I'm still responsible. You are. You are indeed. You own that, Mr. All right. Thank you. Any other updates? Moving
121on to block H, school committee governance. There are no topics. So, we actually have one. We do. We We Yes. Um I don't think I was a No, no, it weren't. It's a presentation that didn't make it into my report that we just want to make the public aware of. Um we have in sort of to continue to extend our anxious generation conversation on Monday, May. 19 19th um Greg Kulwick is coming um to do a parent presentation around AI. It's a subject that lots of parents have lots of questions about and so he's going to give um just a you know he's going to help us learn as old people help us learn and answer questions. So, and he's done a lot of work. He did a lot of work with us during COVID
122um and trained a lot of teachers and he's already presented to teachers and then he will um be working with students next fall. So, um and that came from a grant a CF grant. So, we're really fortunate to be able to bring him in. Yeah. Okay. Thank you very much for that. Um Miss Shannon and Dr. Collins. Uh moving on, we do have quite a few minutes to approve. Thanks to our committee secretaries, Mr. Carr and Miss Bach uh and Miss Cerus for pointing that out. We had worked to um some of these may have been approved. We're going to add out of a bonus caution approve all of them again because we need to post these. Uh our clerk um town clerk very uh helpfully notified Mr. Reus this need to be done. So,
123we want to make sure that we're in compliance and that everyone has access to the meetup meetings if they would like. So, we're going to do that. We're going to go through them uh one by one in chronological order starting with the Wednesday, April 16, 2025 meeting on school choice. Uh Mr. Carr, you must abstain because you were not present for that. The rest of the members present tonight may vote. Um are there any discussion points? This is uh all these minutes are included in your packet as item H1. All right. Seeing none, is there a motion to approve those minutes? Some move. Motion's been made by Mr. D, seconded by Mrs. Leki. All in favor? I. Um opposed. Abstensions. Abstain. Car. Car abstains. That motion carries by majority vote of three members. Those minutes
124are approved. April 16, 2025 a regular meeting school committee. Uh again, Mr. car you not present you will need to abstain is there a motion to approve those minutes as presented tonight item H1 so motion made by dial second seconded by Mleski all in favor I I I opposed extensions car abstains motion carried by majority vote three members the uh regular school committee meeting of April Wednesday April 24th Um, Mr. Dial, you were not present, so you need to abstain. Is there a motion to approve those minutes as presented in item H1? So by made by Miss Leki. Is there a second? Second. Second by Mr. Carr. All in favor? I I opposed. Extensions. Abstain. Mr. Dial abstains. Motion carries by a majority vote to three members. A public hearing on school choice from Wednesday,
125April 24th, 2024. Uh, same members voting, same members abstaining for this one. Um, is there a motion to approve those meeting as presented at item H1? Motion to be made by Mr. Mleski. Is there a second? Second by Mr. Carr. All in favor? I I opposed. Extensions. Mr. Dial abstains. Motion carries by vote of three members. Um, next is the Wednesday, June 5th, 2024 regular meeting. All members present tonight may vote on this. Is there a motion to approve those as the presented item H1 made by Mr. Dial? Second. Second by Mlesky. All in favor? I opposed. Extensions. Motion carries by majority vote of four members. Next is the regular school committee meeting of Wednesday, September 20th, 2023. This is not logical order. I'm going back in a time machine apparently. Um I apologize for
126stating that at the beginning. Uh, Mr. Dial, you were not present at this meeting, so you must abstain. Um, is there a motion to approve the minutes as presented in item H1? Some move. Made by Miss Leki. Seconded. Carr by Mr. Carr. All in favor? I I opposed. Extensions. Mr. D abstains. Motion carries by a voter, majority voter, three members. Um meeting minutes for the regular meeting of Wednesday, November 20th, 2024. All members present at this meeting may vote on this um these minutes. Is there a motion to approve those minutes as presented item H1 made by Mr. Carr? Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Mr. Leki. All in favor? I opposed extensions. Motion carries by a vote of four members. Uh next is the uh regular meeting of Wednesday December 4th 2024. Is
127there um Mr. D, you are not present. Is there a motion to approve the minutes as presented item H1? Made by M. Ley. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Mr. Carr. All in favor? I I opposed. Abstain. Motion carries by a majority vote of three members. Next is the regular school committee meeting of Wednesday, December 18th, 2024. All members pres I may not vote on this. I was not present. So um is there a motion to approve those meeting minutes for December 18th, 2024 as presented in H item H1? So moved. Motion's been made by Mr. Dials. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Miss Leki. All in favor? I opposed. Chair abstains. Motion carries by a majority vote of three. I woke on record saying that was one of my favorite meetings. Me
128too. That's very clever. Um the next are the meeting minutes from the regular meeting of the school committee on Wednesday, February 26, 2025. All members present tonight may vote. Is there a motion to approve the meetings as presented item H1? So moved. Motion has been made by Mr. Dial. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Miss Leky. All in favor? I. All oppose. Attention. Motion carries by a majority vote of four members. We're getting there. Uh, next is the or the excuse me u meeting minutes from the regular meeting of Wednesday, March 5th, 2025. All members present tonight may vote. Is there a motion to approve these meeting minutes as presented in item H1? Motion been made by Mleski. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Mr. Dial. All in favor? I. All vote extensions.
129Motion carries by a majority vote of four members. Next are the meeting minutes from the regular meeting of Wednesday, March 19th, 2025. All members present tonight may vote. Is there a motion to approve these minutes as presented in item H1? So move. Motion has been made by Mr. Dials. Is there a second? Seconded by Miss Ley. All in favor? I. All oppose. Extensions. Motion carries by a vote of four members. Last but certainly not least, the meeting minutes for Wednesday, April 2nd, 2025. Regular meeting school committee. Miss Leki, you were not present for this, so you may abstain. Um, is there a motion to approve these meeting minutes? So moved. Motion been made by Mr. Dial. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Mr. Carr. All in favor? I I All opposed. Abstensions. Abstain. Ley
130abstains. Those meetings have been approved by a majority vote of three members. Superintendent Shannon, please ask Mr. Reus to um post those or ask the clerk to post those and they have been approved. All right. Uh last but not least is executive session. I don't think we have any reason to move into executive session. So we reach our last block of the agenda which calls for a motion to adjourn this meeting of the school committee. Is there a motion appropriately made by Mr. Carr? Is there a second? Stay with us. Just want to keep you. Yeah. Okay. I second. Seconded by Mr. Dial. All in favor? I. All opposed. Motion carries by a majority vote of four members. Thank you all so very much for being here with us tonight. Have a great evening.