School Committee Meeting - 2/26/2025

001good evening everyone welcome to the February 26 2025 meeting of the class school all members of pres roll call Mr Carr pres Mr dial pres Mrs leki M Hannah is not present she may be late the chair is present giving us a forum of four out of five members which means I will formally follow the meeting to order and ask all those who are able to please rise for the recitation of our nation's Federal Allegiance flag from the back there I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right thanks very much and welcome everyone we'll move right into public comment this section of the agenda or the meeting rather is reserved for

002questions or discussion points or comments uh that are not related to an item that's already scheduled to be discussed it's on our agenda so if you have something that is not on our agenda and you have a thought that you want to share a concern or a comment please do so I don't see uh any uh unexpected members in our audience uh so this would apply to everyone that is watching virtually and if you have utilize the zoom um link uh to access the meeting then you can use the Q&A feature to share your thoughts you can just type in some thoughts and we'll be monitoring this periodically as well so if you don't get this comment off in time don't worry I'll see it pop up and we will address it but we'll give

003you one one minute here to uh to type something in if you're watching and you want to share a thought please do so in the meantime I'll note that this uh meeting is being a broadcast on coass at 143 TV it's also being live streamed on Facebook and as I just noted you can attend virtually by following the zoom link that appears on our agenda I don't see any questions or comments uh in the Q&A section so again if you if you feel like you missed that opportunity just type it in any time and we'll get to it once we have a break in the proceedings here uh from public comment we'll move right into our invited guests and uh we our one and only invited guest is Amanda Fox who is a member of

004our uh superintendent student advisory Council and she's here to provide an update from a student perspective to the committee Amanda than being here my name is Amanda Fox I'm a junior at compa High School uh one new change that has um been put into place recently at the high school is the new phone ban um I think overall it's been pretty well enforced so far um I've noticed definitely um more kids paying attention in class um and just more engaged um um I think at lunch uh some kids have voice siing that they think it should be allowed but there's very mixed like opinions I've been hearing me personally I think I've seen the most difference in class with all the kids um so yeah I think it's going pretty well so far uh also

005right now it's the winter sports are wrapping up and I know hockey is at their playoffs right now I'm pretty sure they're winning 3-1 currently um and then the boys basketball has their playoffs tomorrow and then the girls basketball have theirs Friday so that's great thank you so much for that update Amanda did any members of the committee have any questions for Amanda about her update or about any student related issues might have we'll just go around in alphabetical order as usual Mr car none I have my daughter is a senior and is remarkably Qui on her phone which is I think something's working so that's great all right thank you Mr car Mr di anything uh nothing for me thank you for the uh update Mrs lki thank you for the update I'm just

006happy to hear that that the phone sort of I don't like it's called a band putting the phones away for a bit of time when you're at school situation is sort of having the intended effect of increased engagement in academics and hopefully increased engagement socially at lunchtime too um I don't know if you're feeling that way or if it's just that really kids feel like they need to be press and look at their phones and connect with home and things like that or if there is sort of more indal compensation and socializing yeah I think it's a mix of both I think like during lunch in utility some kids use as a break but at the same time I have noticed I think a bit more communication and interaction going on especially during lunch it

007helps you digest better you can check that fact not on your phone during lunch not on your phone L meting thank you very much Mrs um Mrs Hannah appeared at 623 welcome Mrs Hannah um Amanda I don't have any questions other than well first of all thank you for participating in superintendent Shannon's uh advisory Council it takes a a lot of extra time and uh I think it's a great exercise in repres presen in your classmates and their interest and also uh communicating some of the concerns to Upper levels of our District's leadership and I think uh it's probably a great experience for so for a young person that is uh on the brink of adulthood uh to that end I almost always ask our um student aison if there's any and this isn't meant

008to put you on the spot you shouldn't feel pressured at all um but you also shouldn't feel uh reticent to or or um or you know reluctant to share um any concerns because we are genuinely interested in it and it's not going to get anyone in trouble or anything like that um but I always ask our student Representatives if there's anything um that maybe you didn't mention that isn't positive about the student experience right now anything that you think there's may be room for improvement in anything anything that's on your mind whatsoever yeah I know at the um some of our meetings recently we've uh talked about the curriculum and a lot of people have been um mentioning I think adding more variety to the curriculum and more um like Hands-On activities rather than just

009like packets and uh just more variety rather than the repetitiveness that I think happens in some classes um another one would probably be um just the grading classes I think especially different teachers that teach the same class um can have different grading and different uh teaching and activities so just helping keep that consistent I think throughout the classes and teachers okay um could I ask you to maybe elaborate on on both of them a little bit so when you're saying more variety to the curriculum are you talking about maybe I don't want to put any words in your mouth but I'm I'm trying to just identify exactly what you mean are you saying like maybe a little bit more of a like Dynamic experience like like not like can you maybe describe a little bit

010more what you mean I I just I I want to ask you a question but I don't want you I don't want to plant any ideas in your mind yeah well um like currently I know especially in like my a math class and like other people's uh classes some are more like uh just lesson uh packing practice lesson and then like test um and then I also have other classes that like for for example a science class I have it's more of a lesson uh we do some practice but then there's also a lab that uh we learn through and maybe like a group project so I think just adding more different activities um than just the same pattern of practice lesson okay great job using those examples that was excellent that's exactly what I

011was looking for and uh that helps us identify exactly what you're talking about um and then with regards to the grading um um so are you talking about and just to be clear obviously don't we're not looking for any teachers names anything like we don't want to identify anyone right we're not looking to embarrass anyone or anything like that but we trying to figure out um with the grading do you mean that there are teachers that teach the same subject but apply sort of different grading standards depending on which section you're talking about or they teach different courses like what I'm trying to I'm I'm confused what you meant by that yeah um in general I just heard I've been hearing from a lot of kids that uh for a subject or a class that's

012the same level and two teachers are teaching that same subject at the same level that there's just inconsistency and that uh some kids believe that one class is harder than the other even though they're supposed to be the same excellent um thank you so much any uh followup questions for Amanda before we let her go this was great Amanda you did a great job okay seeing none then uh thank you so much you're welcome to stay and watch but we so we're not throwing you out but thank youa thank you of course okay um Amanda was our only invited guest so we'll move right into our uh superintendent report uh section of the meeting and I will therefore turn the meeting over to our superintendent of schools M Sarah Shannon great thank you um so

013first of all I would like to welcome everybody back from February vacation I hope people had a chance to rest and relax and reset a little bit um I'd also like to thank all of our custodians for the work they did over vacation to sanitize and clean our schools um leading into vacation there was a influx of lots of viruses and I think we're in a better place and we hope that um with what the custodians were able to do and with the warmer weather that all of that starts to go away um I'd also like to take a moment and thank officer Greg Taylor and officer Greg laurance our two sro's February 15th which happened to be over vacation was National SRO appreciation day and since this is our first meeting back I wanted

014to recognize both Officer Taylor and officer Jil which is what the kids at osgard and dear Hill called officer laurance um for all that they do to protect our students and staff and really to build relationships with our students to enhance both their in school and their community experiences um losing track of days but La yesterday last night we had our final feasibility study Community forum and so um I have been communicating after each of those forums and sharing the updates from those forums in my newsletter I will continue to do that this week so people will have a chance to review the presentation that ai3 gave last night um it continues to share out what some of the conceptual options might be should we get invited into the msba core program process um and

015also last night what was new was potential costs for potent for a future building project um um while no decisions have been made because we aren't a part of the core process with the msba at this point the whole point of this study was to identify some actual options rather than continuing to have conjecture and so ai3 I think did a really nice job in presenting us with exactly what we've asked for and giving us a feasibility study report report that will be finalized in the coming weeks that we will share with the community but that we'll be able to support our upcoming statement of interest that will be submitted by April 11th um I just want to thank ai3 specifically Troy Randall and Julie Rivera who are two partners in that organization um for

016their partnership and collaboration their professionalism and their design process and ideas I think we landed in a place where we have some really good designs we have some really good ideas and some options and um we no longer are living in a world of Whata ifs we have some more probable options should we get accepted by the msba and just as that process wraps up we're ready to begin our strategic planning process our first meeting of the strategic planning committee will happen next Tuesday March 4th and will continue through the end of May when we expect to be here at a school committee to present to you our new strategic plan we have a committee of approximately 32 people who represent you the school committee administrators teachers parents and students and we're all going to

017be working together to do this work I'm really excited to have such a diverse working group to dig in and to plan the future of the Cohasset Public Schools um yesterday Dr scollins and I along with our Meco director Alisa gens Carl attended the Mecha legislative breakfast at the State House many state senators and representatives were in attendance with superintendents and Meco directors from across the state um we were there to hear both meco's legislative agenda asking for an additional 3.1 million to support the program and to hear about some compelling research data that has revealed the significant impact that the Meco program has on students enrolled in their program the Meco program is a program that not only benefits those students who are Cohasset students who reside in Boston but also our students who

018reside in Cohasset all of us benefit from the opportunity to build a diverse learning community and we're going to be back at the State House on March 20th to continue to support and advocate for the Meco program um finally I want to take a minute to revisit last meeting's conversation about Athletics um as I shared last week I do believe the students who are involved in the athletic program are safe when they participate that said I know that there are at the same time some questions about the program with regard to some of our practices and policies as our district one of our goals this year has been to engage in the analysis of our resources and so some of these reviews have been done internally and some we've engaged outside Consultants to support us

019given the conversation last or a couple weeks ago in our own desire to evaluate the athletic program against the new neas standards for athletics that have been created principal Scott and I have reached out to Mark adav vianelli who is a former athletic director in Taunton and a designer of the new new nesque athletic standards to see if he's able to do an independent evaluation of our program the evaluation will include forums with students parents coaches Administration and the school committee as well as a document and financial review Once We Set dates with Mark um we will be publishing those dates to the entire Community to encourage anyone who has anything to share to participate um he is able to start and perform this evaluation for us once we sign our contract and at the

020completion of the evaluation we will have both a written report and a presentation of findings to you at a school committee meeting um as soon as he wraps it up so if he finishes in May it'll be in May if it happens earlier we'll he'll come and present his findings to you at at that time um where we believe this process will help us independently identify the strengths and opportunities for growth in our Athletic program as our goal is to continue to grow in enhance the student athletic experience the last thing I wanted to share which is not part of my updates but is um something that has been asked for um in the last couple of meetings since I've arrived and we've had conversations about field trips I'm going to share my screen if

021that's okay um as a school committee you have in the short number of months I've been here approved several out of state and some out of country field trips as well um and as those discussions have happened questions about what are the field trips that we offer across the district have come up and I didn't know the answer because I'm knew and so I took the opportunity to ask all of the principles what the field trips are that we offer and in those conversations we talked about both off-campus field trips and and on campus ski trips because sometimes just as valuable as an experience is a a speaker or um a program that we bring to the district and so our principles have filled out an overview of the field trips that we offer um

022and as I just sort of you have hard copies of this so you can review it at your leisure but some of the highlights that I wanted to have as key takeways are that starting in first grade every G grade level has at least one opportunity for an off-campus field trip um they grow with students so our first graders are taking field trips that are pretty local they're staying in Cohasset um but you can see by the time they get to second grade they're going to Sharon they're going to the Museum of Science so they grow with our students so that by the time they get to high school they're going to different countries um um and experiencing things of that nature that there is a mix of In-House assemblies and external field trips to

023maximize experiences to enhance the classroom curricula and that this document what it really showed to me is that it's it's a starting point for additional conversation and discussion um I think and I've talked to the principles about this that this gives us a chance to now talk about what's the purpose of field trips how do we utilize them how often how much should we be going on field trips you know are there enough are there too many those are conversations we need to have um so we're going to be continuing this conversation as a leadership team and I think you'll find that we're going to come back to you at some point um to talk about maybe how this how we think this should evolve um but I appreciated the fact that you asked these

024questions because it was something I wasn't aware of and and I think it was really good information that was gathered um and I was surprised by how many field trip opportunities our students actually have across the district thank you for that update superintendent Shannon uh any questions for superintendent Shannon moving around in alphabetical order Mr car no I think if you took a minute to just look at this list I mean this is a fantastic thing to see the broad you know the the spectrum of things that our students can do it's great and it's um it's just it's a it's a tribute to how much people care about making sure they get to see things outside the classroom as well so it's just really well done thank you thank you Mr car Mr D

025um thank you for the for the overall update appreciate everything um definitely appreciate the field trip thing CU that that is something I had uh personally asked for and this is this is a great compendium um the one thing I'll not is just and just by virtue of circumstance I think that my older son in seventh grade there have been times where he's not been able to he's not had a field trip yeah um and so as you're thinking about and getting your hands around what the field trip policies are just making sure that every and it looks like there's plenty of room for this that every grade level in every class in every grade does get an opportunity to have a field trip uh as a matter of kind of a district practice would

026be great um I stopped from calling a policy but like you know just making sure we take um intentional efforts to to to create those opportunities because I think you hear from this committee all the time that those and we just heard it from Amanda Fox those experiential learning um experiences that's terrible word wording but get the point uh are are of high value students so thank you for putting this together very much appreciate it yeah and and I would say that not all of them happened during Co so it's been a work in progress to bring them back and I think we're seeing more and more being added over time because I think you're right that there are some students who haven't had as many experiences and I think all of us really value

027the opportunity that a field Tri can bring to a student So yeah thank you thank you Mr M Hannah um yeah just to reiterate that I think the Middle School in general sixth seventh 8th grade were the ones that suffered from Co of like getting things like the aquarium and Museum of Science and all that cancelled so it looks like we're trying to get that like even the you know we talked about it last time with Miss leki of um the Grand Canyon field trip which is was a voluntary or whatever it wasn't for everybody but um so I think I think we also talked about like could we look at grade level of like what field trips they actually have gotten to do and and compare that and just make sure like it when

028they go into high school that maybe they're even like we add in a couple extra experiences for them or something from a field trip perspective to kind of help that side of it so because I think seventh and eth grade absolutely have not gotten a lot of field trip experience and then sixth grade I think has gotten a little bit um but not that much and I just got the one on the Gillette Stadium which I think is great so yeah and those are definitely the conversations that we need to have now that we have this have this yeah to and then I think from an Athletics perspective I appreciate what the you know um what is trying to take place here with the investigator and everything um I think my concern is is that

029there is more of a trust issue and parents and and athletes willing to come forward with having their name attached to it there's no way for them to come forward in an anonymous way giving situational things that examples that have happened and so I think this investigator can hold forums and everything I think we're going to have a real problem of having parents come forward students come forward unless their kids have graduated and are out of the school system um and so I think we need to figure out like how do we get this information where their kids aren't the ones that are going to suffer from it so that I guess build on that if I can just a moment would is there a way to have a way for the investigator to have

030kind of one on ones with parents or invite individualized Communications certainly ask them to do that um because maybe that's a way to going to and I can understand that there are people who are in a in a atmosphere of distrust they may not want to speak in a forum and have their name attach to it but certainly if we're paying for an independent consultant to come in that could be a person who has who can keep that confidentiality and and and help and give people a safe space to speak that's a part of the scope yeah or like an email I don't know how we do it but I don't have a solve for that where people really actually feel like they're they can come forward anonymously and I think when you throw situations

031like we need hard facts we need situations and unfortunately when you have a situation it becomes clear on who that student is or who that coach is or anything and I think that's the hard challenge of doing this investigation is to get that information and also offer we talk about this little before you have conversation people who are worried about it they can certainly come to any member of the school committee and you know we we are literally their representatives and so if they said if they tell us you know hey want to talk to you confidentially about a situation we're going to honor that confidentiality so so we're also a resource for for parents as well and I would just want it's not an investig it's an audit of the whole department um versus

032an investigation but also used he's um he's a completely independent evaluator he is not someone that either I or principal Scott or Mr rotundi know um the only reason we know of him is because he developed helped develop the neas standards and Mr Scott happened to see him at a conference where he was presenting them and I think so so he is not connected to anybody in the district um and the forums are you know for people to come forward with that information so I would encourage people that this is an independent person who's not connected to us in any way he should be somebody who people feel comfortable talking with um and I can talk to him about you know the ability to set up one-on-one conversations should somebody request that great thank you

033Mr Hannah Mrs leki thank you um I really appreciate this field trip look but in my mind when I looked at this list and this is sort of contrary to maybe what everyone else was saying is that I see a separation for me as a as a parent but also as an educator as a difference between events and opportunities and field trips and I think some of what you your comments towards the end of their presentation of the list I think it sort of brought forward the idea of like let's really look carefully at this let's develop um sort of a philosophy around why we leave campus how often should we leave campus um where are we going when we're off campus um I don't want to paint too broad of a stroke but I

034think many of our students um have the opportunity to see um the Paul Pratt Library before they even enter prek they run wonderful programs and I think that that's for for example a community um resource that while there are different programming that they can do there it the fact that several grades go and I mean kids walk in there like they own the place um they love it um I I just feel like this could be more robust given we are so close to Boston and we have public transportation um and I know that this sounds crazy but you can take kids on the commuter rail and take them to um the museum of Fine Arts and um do all of those things it does require you know a little forethought and some bravery and

035some really working with kids and getting appropriate chaperon but um I'd love to see the district move in a direction that really more broadly utilizes um those resources available to us particularly with our Suburban location um I just think they're just amazing things for our students to learn that are even free at the Harvard libraries at the Boston Public Library um just the the resources available are incredible um Boston Symphony does um student programming um just in in all directions and I think our student population would really benefit from that that being said I think this knowing what where we are and knowing where our starting point is is absolutely the best thing ever and I also know that when I was a teacher I was most exhausted the day after that afternoon after a

036field trip I felt like I had been to battle so I know that it's an undertaking and I don't want to diminish just like oh yeah just take the kids on the train I but I do think that kind of thinking outside of the way in which the district has operated to this point it's worth at least the conversation that would help the bus situation yeah I do kids on the train all the time a you have to get them to the train though so you ironically still need the bus to get ready oh true good point walk they can bike with Mr youu Right There our sidewalks committee thank you Mrs leki um my first question superintendent Shannon relates to the Medco programming what say Mr car went first oh good I'm sorry um

037riveting you didn't miss any um but thank you for that J um my first question relates to the Meco programming that's coming up uh is that so I have attended in the past it sounds like one thing you've already went to it wasn't twofold last time so is the event that's upcoming the like advocacy day that's what we did before I don't know that they're calling are they still calling it I don't know I can't remember but yes but it's SAR to what we we're going to be meeting with the representatives correct so we'll have our set times and so I one shortcoming I found with our participation in that last time is our failure to bring students and um it's not a huge amount of students but I'm sure that um and I think

038it's appropriate for secondary school um students but I'm sure that Mr Mills or Mr Scott would be willing to identify a few students that might benefit or or could participate in that process it's a really great experience for kids and I noticed that some districts at Dr scolin I'm sure noticed as well I think we actually talked about it last time had brought their students and it is such a wonderful opportunity for them um for a number of reasons um I will also likely go again um but it's it's it's it's a great so consider that and maybe we can I think we have the time to make that happen oh yeah um with regards to the field trips um Mrs lesi uh per usual stole a little bit of my thunder there I agree

039with some of her sentiments um however I wanted to uh so I feel like there's kind of four different categories right there's we have oncampus programming we have Cohasset site visits which I barely want to call field trip then we have field trips in the true sense of the word and then we have trips like oneoff trips that are available like the the the traveling trips right that aren't necessarily that's not like a classwide experience that requires a financial investment so um I I would like to segregate this list into those categories to see that'll help us identify deficiencies a little bit better um I also 100% agree well I don't necessarily agree with I feel like the buses might be easier just from an efficiency perspective although the experience might be good I don't

040know whether I I don't know the logistics of that like that the teachers with the trains I don't know could be a good could be a good could be a good experience for the kids if we could pull it off know if they SP but as students you are you it's free there's also a Bo so and it may the commuter rail may be better than the Subway because I feel like it's a e it's easier for the for the chaperon whether they be teachers or parents whoever to ensure that everyone's on there before the Train's leaving whereas the subway is sort of a quick situation um so it might be a little bit more difficult to Marshall a large number of students but but the the commun rail may be more condu to that

041but that's not really my hill to die on um my major issue is I just see a and I think Mr celeski alluded to this if not expressly mentioned it there's I think there's like a a void of um Boston trips we need to get into Boston more specifically something that is is is uh in line with the current curriculum so we're talking about like Civics um you know law history Arts things like that um so I like there's no trip to the state house there's no trip to the Supreme Court there's um you know uh I saw freedom trail with a question mark thinking like we're going to do something like that for fifth graders in the future I feel like many levels can benefit from the Freedom Trail probably fifth at the earliest

042because of the being on the street and walking around Boston uh the maturity developmental stage that they're at I think is is probably appropriate to start of fifth but like many students could could benefit from that freedom trail I mean it is a treasure that we have here um the USS Constitution is is not on here so we need to embrace Boston a lot more um we need to do that and I also as far as the trips like the offsite trips go um I think we we did a DC one or it's happening soon we we approved one in the recent I don't remember yes we we recently approved a dc1 I thought talk no remember they talked about they were going to try we're you're going to see one come through but it's

043optional in the um it's for a small pilot group I I don't want to steal their Thunder for when come but um it's really designed to provide an opportunity for students to visit a couple HBCU and to go to the African-American museum while they're down there and do a few other things um and it's crossgrade level they will share um Alisa and Jenna Wen will be coming to share that with you are we sure that we didn't like I thought there was like a a Caribbean one that we thought was too expensive and as them to reconsider and then they did discussion with last June there was a DC trip same thing it was small it was uh for anybody interested they ended up taking 25 students yes that's yes it was actually because of

044the timing Mr lingon wasn't it Mr ering and he actually took them after school ended just with them cast testing and what we couldn't schedule it before but and it was a success it was successful trip it was a small group that was the one that the kids deemed as the replacement to the Grand C right yes okay and then this year there is no trip that they're doing okay so that was what started that whole conversation last time sorry I didn't know that so that's okay you there may not have been a way for you to know that um but we need to do more of that DC is we really really need to get our kids like you know uhor United Nations there's all sorts of cool stuff sure um I just think

045DC especially and Boston is easy it we just need to do it we just need bra I'm just looking at that list and I I just I had to agree with with Mrs leki that I I see a lot of shortcomings there and I don't want to be negative but I'm I'm just I'm being critical where I think it's necessary I think we can do better there and um so let's try it sounds like superintendent Shannon you guys were already planning on reevaluating so but that is the that's the that's the feedback I would give you just as you as you as you begin that process okay uh thank you for your report superintendent Shannon sorry on the segmentation I think like field trips I mean the field days I don't like maybe it's like

046activity as opposed to like a trip right like yeah that's why I was suggesting the four categories right there's on-site programming there's local visitation of you know I think that's like an activity I don't think it's an education like there's on-site programming that's like an educational value where field let's have fun together right versus like a museum of science coming in and doing yeah programming or theater company coming in right I think you're making a decision to come I just I think we have work to do right this was our initial attempt at providing a just a general list of what we offer um and there's a lot more conversation to be had after this one comment from a family perfect um syia family if they could send their address along that would be great

047and the comment is thank you for all the field trip my kids love all of them and appreciate the opportunity any idea if the middle school will be going off campus for any field trips in the future thank you so there's a group going to Gillette in the next group going to Gillette um next week that's sixth grade and then eighth grade we have a trip uh to tree chop adventures in Canton which is sort of a team building into the school year celebration with help from CDF in P so two off-campus trips coming up planetariums listed as well for grade seven on the seventh grade yeah the teacher that organizes us out on right now so we just need an update that's a planetarian mment as opposed to Boston unfortunately we found that getting

048in and out um there's not often not enough time to uh with our buses to be able to get the planetarian in so so the Sy has just followed up their address 40 F Lane they also asked are we talking about specifically the seventh grade they did they yes yes and that was just the answer from said thank you all right thank you sorry just to P up on that maybe because I have seventh grade as well so is the seventh grade planum trip up in the air or it just hasn't been announced yet oh it hasn't been announced yet okay so they'll do that okay good good all right we're going to move on from the field trips now and we're going to move into the next block of the agenda which is section

049turning the meeting over to our assistant superintendent Dr some academic updates great so um really the Crux of tonight will be the presentation of programming studies for the high school and the middle school but some just kind of pre-information just as a reminder um one of the things that you'll see for the high school is some language around um competency determination because if you were remember in the fall the state voted and so mcast is no longer going to be part of a consideration for um for competency determination so um principal Scott has conferred with his staff he's also spoken to principles and has come up with some language and we've reviewed it around what that might look like um the department of Ed recently has decided to do some work on it as they

050realized that um that Law changes things and of every District making their own determinations so um they're in the process right now of doing that and so um I'm sure that there may be some changes but what we are um are presenting in the program was studies is um what we have right now and so we may have to come back in the spring on some determinations they're going to make some recommendations they said by May so we'll see what happens with that um and then um one of the big pieces for the middle school is that um and across the district but you're going to see this in the middle school program of studies is that last year there was um Comprehensive Health and physical education standards and so those uh Frameworks have made

051some changes uh around what is taught at what time in all the grades so the um Department as a whole has been working on it since last year but um you're going to see some changes in the program of studies for the middle school so that's the uh the big news that we have our own teaching and learning thank you Dr scollins any questions Dr scolin car Mr D okay M Hannah m leki okay thank you very much uh so moving on we have uh the presentation of our capacet middle school program of studies uh by the school's principal principal Mills we'd ask him to uh have a seat at the front table here to present that for us think we be confused but know uh all right thanks for having me and uh as

052uh Dr scollin said the the program of studies uh for next year for 25 26 is um mostly the same as it was for this year and the changes as I described my document it really has to do with the wellness curriculum and uh desie did uh put out new uh Frameworks in 20 2023 uh with Dr scollins the Department's been working on unpacking those standards looking at what's being taught and making changes um as necessary so that's kind of what I I lay out um it is important to note I think if you haven't seen the standards unlike other standards which might be laid out on a grade basis so that fourth grade math students should be able to you know demonstrate these things the wellness Frameworks are actually group six through eight around

053seven guiding principles and much more General so it gives the teachers the ability to sort of make sure that the Frameworks are represented uh there there they are um so there yeah there's seven uh practices and then overall 24 subtopics essentially under each one so they've laid out a scope and sequence that uh covers all three years covers U horizontally all seven practices and there's some repetition there for instance sixth grade uh is the kids work on bullying well that is around decision making but it also connects to some of the Frameworks around social awareness and self-awareness and information and resource seeking so you see it in multiple places only because they connected it to various standards uh I think one of the big takeaways is that the both the Frameworks but also it's I

054think what the teachers believe in is things like bullying and and connected like cyber bullying they've covered it in each three each of the three years so the kids are getting it to an increasing depth U because it really affects the culture of the school and the safety of individual students uh and groups of students so they've done a great job with that so if we jump into the changes document if you don't mind what they I laid out was a a table where um it didn't affect every unit but uh with some units um uh language was removed but really what happened is like with the first aid uh unit it's on page one what the teachers really did is they didn't they haven't stopped teaching those things but they created language that maybe

055connects more explicitly to the curriculum framework and I site in the document with you would find those things so um underneath like remove the following learning outcomes four four bullets there they haven't stopped doing those things they've just changed the the word for the program studies same thing with bullying they didn't um it's not that they weren't teaching it but they added a couple of items that really I think nicely reflects uh the Frameworks uh Dimensions of Wellness and assertiveness same thing that just sort of I've shown the language that they removed and then how they've um uh refined in most cases and connected to the Frameworks um I will certainly walk through each bulleted item if you want or if the group wants to sort of look at each one and then ask questions

056I'm happy that way I there are a lot of sort of refinement changes and no I I appreciate that uh suggestion principal Mills I think everyone had the materials ahead of time and so if anyone has any questions I'm sure they'll be prepared to ask them right now as we go around um once you complete the presentation so it's that if you're not going to go read through the docum it's really like I say the biggest pieces they introduced uh bullying each each year and they've made some modifications uh the last piece as far as presentation um they in eth grade they've worked in a a unit that uh they refer to as sort of believe in you it's a curriculum that encourages uh healthy relationships and self-acceptance it also helps them achieve some of

057their bullying uh goals and that's done through uh explicit uh skill uh instruction as well as a lot of reflective writing um I think it's one of the things that uh is a strength in our Wellness curriculum is that there is a lot of um uh coincidence with literacy goals and whether it's eth sixth graders reading a novel whether it's the eighth grade unit that's really based around reflectiveness I think the teachers do a good job reinforcing those literacy skills um and then this is a work in progress It's it's a multi-year uh group that's going to be reviewing the curriculum it's this point they've really focused on the wellness learning objectives as their work continues for the rest of this year into next year they'll be focusing on the bized standards and hopefully I'll

058be here um same time next year talking about the changes of the requirements to the physical education standards all right well thank you very much Mr Mills any questions for principal Mills on the uh program of studies has presented this evening or highlighted ch has presented Mr Carr I just think it's such a nice compliment of things at the right age I think on selfawareness and you know like bullying it's all related I think I think it's a great age to sort of get that message across so I think the Frameworks here they're they're rewriting the states ores is rewriting for the 2023 um update I think they did a really good job emphasizing those things that we now recognize as important that holistically we have to think of kids academically but we have to

059think of them emotionally um uh you know physically uh spiritually how they feel about themselves and I think the Frameworks uh really encourage teachers to work that in the curriculum and then with the process of Dr scolin um stewards uh year and year out they do a great job of going back and asking themselves are you know are we teaching what we should be teaching are we you know why are we teaching this should we maybe shift to this this is what our kids need now so the curriculum's reflexive and Alive thank you Mr K no questions from me thank you very much for your presentation thank you Mr di m h um this is great I appreciate it for sure um curious I know there's like a bullet in here around use of technology

060and I have to assume like the cyber bully and all that also carries it so um I guess comment is I love that it's coming in in sixth grade because the the reality is is even if they don't have phones they're on iPads at home and other things so I think that that's important um and then just curious it doesn't like call it out I think I'm just assuming that it kind of just especially based off of anxious generation like we're kind of weaving it all in so by the time they get to the high school there's kind of like it's embedded right yeah they're much more critical users um and the unit they they refer to it as sort of media messages but each year it becomes a um as as they cycle through

061um it teaches kids at an increasing level of rigor and an like a higher level of analysis to look at the way media affects them as individuals and certainly affects the way they feel about themselves with images that um they're shown about what for instance like beauty is supposed to look like and then lastly it's effects on um their relationships okay so and once again I appla both the Frameworks that that the teachers build in the curriculum off and the the teachers do a fantastic job at it and are they going into like specific apps like Snapchat and yeah they do they talk about uh it at one point they just recently did um a discussion of um the the old image was you know your digital footprint so they actually um have the kids

062draw a footprint and then list to draw the apps that you use and then talk about specifically unpack kind of what what each of them might do or you know pitfalls or um you know how they get used what are some of the dangers so they become like I say critical more critical users of the technology yeah awesome I will throw in a plug while we're talking about it CMS in collaboration with our PSO is uh we've invited Elizabeth Englander from Bridgewater States uh progression reduction Center she's really an expert on uh bullying and healthy adolescent use of Technology she's going to come to um be available at uh in the auditorium April 3 it's an evening that we're inviting um certainly any parents but especially dear Hill and CMS parents to attend to learn

063about uh how to become how to develop Savvy strategies around um supporting their students using devices and the PSO has also uh created um a student event actually in the learning commment of mystery a mystery night so envisioning Deer Hill or CNS parents who want to bring their kids send them in with the high school's National Honor Society and some volunteers to do the learning Commons thing and allows them to go in and enjoy the presentation so we're trying to continue the work that we the community really began with anxious generation that's great yeah so April 3rd look for the newsletters save that date I like that thank youki just just a question but one I love the the format because it actually was really interesting to see the changes side by side and and

064where they went so I appreciated that um format um I'm wondering if under the umbrella of assertiveness and relationships and believing in yourself is there also sort of teaching children assertiveness within sort of romantic relationships um you know sort of protecting our own bodies um about saying no to being touched if they don't want to be touched and things like that or when does that does that not happen in the Middle School it gets introduced in terms of just assertiveness and and it could be in any relationship and then in the ninth grade uh Health curriculum then that's taught even a little bit more explicitly okay as um it's just it's who we are as a school and a culture that uh students don't tend to start to develop those relationships so we we focus

065on on making sure that they have those skills that could be applied to any relationship and then uh at the high school they become a little bit more pointed about the Romantic relationships bring one 12 cover 12 especially partners with one love kids are going off to college yeah thank M leki Prince M the only question I have is this scope and sequencing document that was um displayed earlier on the screen was that it had this the three grade levels was that linear in other words the was it in order of of sort of chronological order in terms of when those Concepts was presenting pres no you know what it is that scope and sequence uh is a document they developed is they were working with the new organization of the Frameworks and those seven

066practices and they wanted to make sure do our units like are we connecting are we hitting all of the seven practices because like I say it there there aren't seven practices for sixth and another one for seventh another one for eth the states given the framework six to8 so what they did is they sort of laid out what are the sixth grade units and in that which objectives are we achieving to make sure that they're doing a full job of covering all the all the practices okay is there is there some uh consideration given to the timing of some of the topics um so by way of example puberty sixth grade um makes sense to me to cover that towards the beginning of the year um as some students will be experiencing um you know

067early stages of that earlier on rather than waiting till the end of the year to sort of touch on that I mean is there any consider that's just an example but like is there consideration given to the timing yeah I I don't have the I'm sorry you de Hill in grade five right so they have that and then um and then it rolls into the following year I don't know that you have the actual we don't have the lesson plan who this overall yeah and typically the um overall uh because Wellness incorporates both the the these Health uh objectives but also uh physical education very often at the beginning of the school year and at the end of the school year when the weather's the very best that's when they work on those standards and

068uh Wellness class typically is outside and then um from November really until New England spring you know it's April uh that's where they focus on the the these Wellness standards okay and they tend to be indoors except once once a week they'll either go to the gym or the fitness center for usually refer to as like workout Wednesday just so the kids are still getting some physical activ ity um I don't have the con and the uh the length of time spent on each unit um but it's something I could I could check see we working on it with our curriculum mapping too so there'll be there'll be a document that everyone would be able to see but I probably won't have as much detail but parents can always ask their yeah I don't think

069it's like critical it was just it was just something I thought of when I was looking at that like it might make sense to think about some of the the timing of it but it sounds like there there is some thought in terms I mean know some of the are better served Outdoors things like that so I understand uh okay well thank you very much principal Mills for that presentation um along the lines of the what they call Media messages I think or something like that uh we had prior to uh your joining the district superintendent Shannon and Hannah's joining this committee we had looked into like a digal digital citizenship uh curriculum um at the elementary level in terms of trying and in fact we had even had like a meeting with a representative

070from nor County District Attorney's Office in terms of trying to develop some programming around responsible use of technology and understanding you know in in a developmentally appropriate manner uh for elementary school students understanding the permanence of some of the messaging that that appears in social media and and online and uh and the damage the long lasting you know damage can do because we were encountering situations where uh students that have very early age um even at like the third grade level um I think probably earlier but at least we were seeing it percolate at the sort of in in the sort of uh collide with this with the school Community um in in the in the Deer Hill levels so we wanted to explore what we could do there and um the District Attorney's Office

071ended up not being a fruitful Avenue um and so so because there's always so much going on I think that effort got a little bit sideline but I think it's a really important one to continue to pursue um because I think we will see that uh I think we will see those types of issues to continue to surface probably um in in in greater numbers or in Greater volume as as time goes on and uh it can I think uh really damage the school community so um maybe we can just I'm just throwing it out there because I I feel like this is it's great we we we I think we there's some some robust programming around those Concepts in middle school and and the high school right now but I think that um those

072issues which I forget when they had it was the last Academic Year the year before there were some some you know not insignificant issues that cause problems for our elementary students and um we want to avoid that so maybe we can start to regroup on that we are in Common Sense Media that's a great site everyone should they have a curriculum and I just saw that um some pieces to it so um it would be you know worthwhile to look at those and I know that they do use that at the elementary level and they do use it U and they do talk about digital citizenship and then social media and they starting to do that but yeah I think it's important to look at look at those pieces and yeah just maybe continue to

073reevaluate we're doing it dear Hill just to make sure that it's it's meaningful and value Laden um so that we're avoiding those situations in in the future because it like especially at that point um I mean it can always be extremely uh traumatic but you know it's just the technological confidence or capabilities far exceeds the emotional um the ability to emotion confront the consequences at that age especially um so I I I'd like us to be really sensitive to that make sure that there's something like I said really meaningful in that in that um curriculum I'm I'm I'm happy to to talk more but it sounds like Dr scollins you know we're looking at that but please let's be really sensitive that I mean you know exactly the issue is you and I had had

074directly dealt with it and we sat on that in that meeting with the norfor County District Attorney's office so you know what I'm talking about yes I know really high you know parent um because that was the other piece too is you know having um someone be able to speak to parents too right because it's a community yeah it was we we had High Hopes there it just didn't it didn't work out so um I don't want to just let that I don't want to let it die because the nor County D DA's office didn't want to move forward with it we still have responsibility all right well thank you very much principal Mills do you want do you vote to accept the program studies we we um M Hannah do you have something no

075I okay um we did not mark it on the agenda to vote okay so um we didn't we didn't mark it for a vote so we can't take a vote well also so here's an interesting thing um in Canton we weren't voting on them but I so maybe that's my mistake if we were voting on them here yeah to be fair I'd be fine voting on it next meeting you know I'd like to spend little love the presentation but like I like to look at the stuff and digest a little bit and then also I think there's a whole program of studies book that um is there so I can take a and so M principal Mills yours is updated with the changes correct but the high schools is still what it there's no changes

076made to that because principal um Scott is waiting for you to approve those changes all right but you'll have you have both in the packet they're large documents the the fact remains that it's not marked in the agenda so we can't take a vote because it wasn't we didn't notify the community that that was the case so we can do it next time and and and we you don't need to I don't we don't need another presentation we'll just we'll just be able to vote because we'll mark it up for a vote and and it may be prudent to do with that anyway because everyone had just seen it presented and it can sit in and then uh or people people can uh it can sink in rather for for our viewers and then happy

077to answer questions if people have them fear not though principal Mills we won't make you come to MERS we love having you uh but so thank you so much appreciate it thanks for having next up we have principal Brian Scott to present the high school Dr Scot you want to pull up the memo um if I could I'd like to make comment on Athletics if the comme would allow it I know that's not the point in the agenda but um um I I I would not want to raise that right now principal Scott because it's just not on the agenda but if you would like us to put it on the agenda I can put on the agenda for a future meeting I just want to make just want to make a comment but if

078that's isn't the time that's fine too I feel the reason is uh obviously uh this committee High holds you in high regard I I just I I feel like a comment could then spark other comments and then the next thing we know we're discussing something and uh you know so why don't we put it on the agenda for a meeting that you feel that you can come it can be next time whenever um just talk to me and I'll put it on there sure I just that has been a uh and uh I and I'm likely going to recuse myself from any of that so Mr dial is going to chair that part portion of the meeting because I feel conflicted so um just talk to me we'll put on the agenda next time or

079whenever you want and uh and then then we'll we'll have a discussion totally fine all right I just feel like obviously it's all a reflection on me it's all my my will so some I I I I I completely understand I I completely understand so let's let's get it on there and we can have a that's why I feel like if we start talking about it it's going to it's going to become a discussion and I just don't want that is not on the agenda um so two things in the program studies one Dr scullin alluded to was the compet competency determination language and competency determination goes back to Ed reform in 1993 when the mcast was developed and later made a graduation requirement to pass and the the purpose of the mcast at the

080time was to align schools across the state with common standards to make sure that everyone had basically a baseline of what earning a high school diploma entailed you have your state requirements and you have your local requirements our local requirements have always far exceeded the state requirements so the compens determination initially was just an add-on that students also have to demonstrate Mastery of the mcast itself with the vote in November it took that graduation piece away and the state has asked us to um basically describe how we are going to show that we've met that standed in the absence of the test which we very easily do so um the only requirements that the state has is algebra 1 geometry and 10th grade English I've added on there Algebra 2 because I think any high

081school diploma a kid should have a fair working knowledge Valor to you know even as an English guy I think that's the most important class from a logic perspective uh in the entire school so I've added that up consideration and the other piece that I added on for consideration was around taking the mcast itself now I know there was a little bit of confusion and I'm going to defer to the committee because I think you have a better sense of what the voters in coass had voted for we're still required to take and participate in the mcast we're still held accountable to the mcast measures and we benefit pretty substantially from that and families benefit substantially from that when it goes to colleges because that for some schools many schools our stature as a as

082a high performing School translates into tens of thousands of dollars in college marit um so what I've added and it's not a hell I'm willing to die on but um I do think it's interesting to consider and I've talked to some other principles in the sou schools I would like to add that students at least by the if they're student up until the 10th grade that they participate in yass uh because I think that that whether they pass it or not is IR relevant but I do think that requiring students to participate in it will help us our accountability and I think collectively although it's not maybe ideal for an individual student I think collectively our student body benefits and I think our families benefit financially if nothing else um so those are the two

083pieces that I've added on to kind of the state requirements um in terms of the conty determination all right so let's start there does anyone have any questions uh you can just fire at will regarding com the competence deter determination um comments that uh that principal Scott just expressed I I'll start um agree on Al too I appreciate as an English person you you've uh you recognize that's that's important also looks like you've added some physics and science so the state requirements are just that you have to be competent in one of the right major lab Sciences okay so we got those so that so that's good on the the mcast comment it's a it's a potentially politically loaded uh discussion um so I'll just lay out my own personal view that I was supportive

084of the mcast as a graduation requirement I think it's good to have an objective standard across the State vs are spoken it's not there um I I'm not sure and I want to think about it and I'd like your reaction to this but when we're talking about graduation requirements things that someone has to do to to demonstrate the competency um of you know a a high school graduate I don't think that squares with having taken the mcast you know what I mean it doesn't just because you've taken the te test doesn't mean if just because I haven't taken the test doesn't mean I can't be competent to graduate I agree that all of our kids should have to take it but I don't know if this is the location for that requirement I guess I'd

085like like your thoughts on that I don't disagree with you um and again I I'm I'm I don't have a particular bent one way or the other I think when you I think it's a mistake that the mcast had to require passing that as a sign of confidence in general because I think and I've said this kind of publicly if that's all you need to graduate we should just stop school with 10th gr and save a bunch of money right um having said that I think it's the only way that they could have some teeth in the exam where people took it seriously so in the absence of that as a as a a measure I think our Collective participation in that um is only beneficial and I wouldn't want people to think that that

086there's no ramifications for opting out now there's always exceptions that we can make I guess what I would what I would say is I support the goal I want I I I think it's a valuable tool and and and you know as we know we work together for years it helps us Benchmark our students helps us find gaps in our education helps us make our program better so I think it's a valuable tool and I've talked to parents who who've had their kids not take the test and I I I feel like it's kind of we all don't do as well when that happens so I would like for us to think about in the absence of it being a graduation permit ways to encourage or require people to take it seriously I just need

087to think a little bit more about whether or not including as a competency determination for graduation is the right is the right way that makes sense for sure I don't know where else we would include that um I mean you know the state says everyone has to participate now there's no opt out there's no right there there's no such thing now having said that get pened the reality of it is that you know there a testing window if you don't show up for it you don't show up for it I do think it's different in high school than it is it's something lower levels too because of the weight that the high school transcript has for colleges um so it is a little bit different than opting out of third grade test or something like

088that but again I I I put it out for consideration M on it yeah you know because I don't disagree with you it's it is I I'll just close by saying I think it's a real issue and maybe we should think about if not this or there other there other places and I I can't think of anything off the top of my head either but I you guys know what the various inflection points would be better than I would so and I don't think I kids wanton take it seriously I think they do they have a kind of win all test mindset are you saying like other places like it would be administered like right now it's administered on a school day or saying like it would be like a Saturday administered through it just

089wouldn't be this but it would still if someone if someone just went through somehow arranged their life so that they went through all of school and never took the mcast because they just didn't show up in the testing window then you know if they we could say they they they can't graduate that's they can't demonstrate the comment but you're right participation is not a measure of Competency any other questions for Mr Scott on the competency determination piece the only other change um that we have and it's not so much a it's a change but it's more of a realignment uh what I talked to department heads about and talk to our school council are something called we're going to call Pathways now in edges speak Pathways typically refer to Career and Technical education which we

090don't really offer um so a lot of State Pathways have trades you know that lead to internships that lead to jobs here because of our community makeup because of the types of courses that we have and because of the block schedule block allows for about 12 extra courses and so what I talked to people about is bundling some of those extra courses into likeminded um disciplines so if someone's interested in finance and they take economics and they take you know Personal Finance and Accounting um if they take 25 credits worth of courses in the same type of discipline they could potentially almost like considered a college major or a high school major they could have a concentration in one of these these areas that could then end up in a fourth quarter or you know

091first semester independent study for seniors where they could demonstrate the cross connections that they've learned over four years taking a variety of courses uh I've identified six or seven school counil had a great idea that if if students wanted to identify and bundle them in different ways that they should make a pitch and see if they can do that and it would you know ultimately result in the Capstone project whether that's a presentation uh you know a position paper uh or something else I think it's a great way for students to kind of dive a little bit more deeply and figure out if they like it or not you know if you think you want to go to bton and be a business page and done accounting and statistics and um economics and don't particularly

092succeed in it then maybe that changes your opinion of absu on the flip side if you are very well versed in that and and can demonstrate a Capstone I think that's a very attractive application uh add-on for students to show their their interest and ability and commitment to it I love that so um any uh questions for Mr Scott or comments on uh on the pathways piece would they and I haven't read through this part of it but so essentially if you pick one of these would you have like an advisor kind of guiding you through it yeah so with any independent study you need a faculty advisor um so if you're going to go into engineering you might take uh you know Mr Sears might might head up um if you were to take

093something in CICS and legal studies it might be something between social studies Department but there's all kinds of cross disciplined kind of pollinations and really it could be anybody overseeing you know your research your you know betting your research coming up with thesis coming up with evidence to support your your thesis and and coming up with a you know particular product and principal Scott's done a lot of work with his team around really tightening up what an internship um what is an independent study what are the requirements that you must do so a lot of that work has been done the past couple of years yeah and it it could very well lead to an internship it could you know right now internships are difficult because of the number of kids in AP classes but

094if you had a second semester of really very few requirements you have a semester where you could do an internship somewhere and this would be a nice lead into to a a potential company to say here's the work I've done do you have anything that I might be able to work on um I also think it gives parents and kids a different lens through which to view their course of study yeah uh because I feel like there's 400 courses in the program of studies and people say all right well I'll just go with this one because it says AP and I'll go with this one because my budd's in it and I think it could step back and say all right if we packaged all these together and this is really an interest of yours

095you might be able to do something really neat with it you know and I think that's the piece that I really like it's you know not showing up on a college campus trying to figure out what you want to do in your life yeah if you don't know eics is yeah don't in it right away because it's already overwhelming experience so I like that a lot um okay how many kids are doing independent study right now probably 15 or so okay yeah we've had some great independent study projects and one of them you know I think there's somebody who's doing an independent study on bar language and medical profession uh particularly with nursing okay and so that kind of is what led I think you're in the the meeting to you know some of these

096alternative Pathways that kids might identify U we had somebody years ago was looking into music therapy um so you know they come up with these things that they they see and might be interested in and you know if we could help them kind of navigate that path I think it's great for us I think it's great for them that's awesome and I just think that this is one of the big benefits of our block schedule because this is not while kids could do something Sim similar to this in a more traditional schedule not to this extent and I think it really does allow our students to do something different as if and as we think about the future of the district and we think about being an Innovative District in a district that is a

097model for other schools across the state and the country I think this is getting us to where we want to be yeah I think it provides a lot of opportunities for cross-pollination cross disciplines teach a collaboration students could certainly work in groups on it um you could have a science and and a English person T kind of tag teaming a project which I think is great uh so I think it lends itself to a lot of behaviors that we're trying to encourage for our kids and a lot of Project based experiences are there any other districts who've done something like this is this nothing I'm aware of so is this this is a homegrown idea this is it y now there is I mean Pathways is a thing is a thing with the state uh

098but it does like I said earlier it does kind of lend itself more to Career and Technical education in that aspect of it this is cool yeah I really really um like this and and thank you for putting it together every now a blind swirl gets a nut awesome yeah I'm always this this program studies discussion is usually my favorite discussions that we have because it just drives home just how deep our academics are in the classic schools like this this is you look at this this is there's no other school I mean I'm sure some private schools May compete with this but I mean this is amazing and I don't think I don't think people realize that this then I always go for like six years I've done the same thing but I'll say

099we should do a brochure and we should make sure parents know about this and do a menu and and you fancy glossy pictures and put this out there so people know just how how good our schools are one of the things that we're working on doing and I'm kind of waiting on this to get approved before initiated because I know put things in there that get taken out but our guidance secretary has offered to make an electronic viewbook similar to what you might see it at some of the private schools that's a little bit different than um a traditional Public School knas driven program studies um because I I do think that we need to Showcase better what kids are doing and who they're doing with and the level of depth that they can get

100into the best thing about the block that I mean there's a ton of benefits of the block I'm a proponent but you don't track you know it is very much a choose your own education model and a lot of schools kids just don't have the ability to switch out of what they've been put into in the ninth grade because of the sequencing no this is this is tremendous I I very much am looking forward to hearing about its success do you onboard like eighth graders with this as they come in or is this something kind of introduced this itself is brand new so we have not yeah but what we do do we have a curriculum night coming up in two weeks on March 11th um 8th grade parents will be invited in our guidance

101and our department heads will kind of give an overview of the fouryear planning and when I've been able to attend uh I've had I had a conflict last year and I have to work a conflict this year we scheduling but um I do often highlight how kids end up and and because a lot of especially in the e8th grade parents meeting people will come in already talking about advanced placement courses without any understanding of what advanced placement is other than that's the word on the street uh and how many AP courses can they take as a freshman the answer is zero right um I went to a seminar today at Stonehill about a potential AP sophomore English offering I have no interest in bringing AP into the sophomore English curriculum but I think pedagogically some

102of the things that they're doing are really useful so we do try we do try to emphasize a couple of things with with parents coming in one is trust your recommendations know that they're not written in stone so if Miss milia says that you know you should try this level first it's a recommendation based on where she thinks you are right now it doesn't mean that's where you're going to end up and if you look at the track of our kids if we have six sections of nth grade English three CP and three accelerated with 100 kids in the class we have 80 Junior taking AP language so their ability to get into that subject matter deeply and move up at their own pace is great we also try to tell kids you might be

103really strong in one area and not strong in the other it's okay to mix levels you don't have to feel like you are accelerated at everything or CP at everything you know do some things that interest you and and that's the big push is is really getting kids to and parents to to not be as afraid of what they think has to happen in order for them to be successful when I first started 12 years ago I had a school Committee Member asked you know if I could just outline the process to get into Harvard and if I could do that I wouldn't be working here because I'd be super rich but I also don't think that that's the best choice for everyone um so kids really need to be selfish and and and you

104know explore things that are of interest to them get into those things deeply work with people that they trust and care about and um and and really make it their own and not make it into what they think is the could cookie cutter model for what a coass kid is supposed to do Mr Le Mr car anything great Scott question for you uh so this is the pathways are immediately accessible uh to a freshman right not just upper classman no so this is over the course of four years now some of the courses in are required like a bio cam of course so you can count those towards it you don't have to okay but especially if freshman coming off you know one of the things that we need to kind of wrestle with is

105Kids come out of 8th grade research with these great Civics projects and is there a way for them to continue it when they come up into the high school or does that shut down when we do the required stuff and then we get back into it I think this is a good good way to allow students to continue that path if they really find um some success with it although I wouldn't have a freshman do an independence to I don't think that's they're ready for that yet okay yeah they could be Sor to think about it I I always try to have kids think at least two years old you know and where you where ultimately want to end up now that's going to change right and that's that's my sort of so I I

106I love the idea right I love the concept I'm just I'm I'm just um thinking like how is um like a 14-year-old really like what do they really know about what they they might have an interest in something right and like are we are we I just I I don't want to like I don't want to box them out of other disciplines right because they thought they were interested in once they sort of like sort of front loaded a lot of that um but I also wouldn't want to like I I also love the concept there's just that that like consideration of make making sure we're not sort of allowing them to pigeon hole themselves right um for some reason that you know like Mrs Hannah alluded to Undeclared major in college like I I

107I I I support that right because I can I can see someone finding themselves in in like college and figuring out what they want to do I mean I was UND declared and look what happened but but um you see what I'm saying so just some I'm just I'm just I'm just a little bit concerned about like us like I want I want to be to serve as like an inadvertent limitation as well right yeah we don't want to become a a mini College where you declare your major year exactly that's what I'm saying this to to to to Really articulate a Pathways possibility you need to get through your freshman and sophomore schedules are relatively set sure you when you get into junior year and Senior year there's a ton of freedom because the

108block pushes the the requirements early so your the beginning of your junior year is really where you would start to say like all right what academic electives do I want what non-academics electives do I want what did I pick up in those first two years that I think might be interesting is there a cause that I'm passionate about now let me think about like all right if I'm going to do an elective do I want to do global studies because I have an interest in international politics or do I want to do that because a bunch of my buddies said that that would be a cool thing to do okay so that makes that's why I asked is it like immediately like nth grade and you're sort of choosing this P it sounds like would

109be a little bit it's a little bit graduated in terms of like when that would happen because there's so much required course work it's really like a beginning Jun year or end sophore you're scheduling conversation with guidance to say all right like have you found anything that you think you might like yeah that I think that that alleviates a lot of my we had a great student years ago who would tell the story about how he came in as a math person and he was super psyched to do math and he wanted to be an engineer and he you know gung-ho on doing pre-calculus and then he took Patty Thompson's bio class and decided environmental science is where he wanted to go and then he was going to go to Oregon and be an environmental

110science major and then he decided he really want to be the athletic director at Notre Dame and he goes on this whole story right he actually started with the athletic director at Notre Dame he goes on this whole story about how his journey evolved and he said and now I still think I want to be the athletic director at another name so you know it's like everybody else's career paths go you know they they they don't there's no linear path to it perfect uh all right so uh moving on to the uh the like I said we can't we can't vote on that tonight so we we'll do that the next meeting moving on to the cell phone uh update yeah I think Amanda said it well um I think she she put it as

111kids it's been well enforced and it has um but I don't I would put it as it's been very well received and I'm really impressed with the level of maturity that our kids have I've only had one question from parent and I've had one question from a student same family um and they were pretty straightforward questions what do I do if or what does my my child do if and the lack of questions to me means that they understand the why you know they don't they don't whenever you run into student controversy they need to know why that's a rule you know why can't we have coffee in glass why you know can't we wear hats in the building whatever the rule is like it make it make sense to me we don't need to

112we've had those discussions but kids know that and so even Mr Ford was telling me earlier he has a freshman Wellness class or a group and he had 45 kids take a survey on you how they felt the cell phone policy was going and you know 50 or 60% were in favor he then had them watch screen agers and gave them the survey after and 80% of them agreed that it was a good thing so you know there's a little bit of U you know I'd say the kids who are really pushing it I could number on one hand um there's really there's a lot of chatter in the in the cafeteria I'm up there every day I've never seen it as an issue I've never seen it to break as an issue um it's

113louder you know um it's it's just more vibrant and you know I can see the the claim that my students might want to make that they want it back at launch and break and I'm I I'm very willing to entertain that you know based on what the committee decides and what the data comes back I don't I haven't had any negative interactions with it at all um and I'm pleased that the committee wanted to do it a little little bit longer we would have ended it by now in my original plan they want to continue to the end of the quarter and that hasn't been an issue at all um so all the feedback that I've got I emailed the committee and the kids on it and said you know I'm going to go for

114a school committee they're going to ask let me know what you want me to say and it was just crickets you know everything's fine great well uh any comments or questions just please ask it will Scott about the cell phone policy P pilot program I want to impose one at home I know I can't get my 13-year-old to buy into my handbook what is the like if they're caught with their phone what's the does it just go to the office it could um it kind of depends on the context you know the kid's pulling it out to check the time puts it back in his pocket I'm not making a big deal of it um if the kids you know if there's a group of kids standing around it I might look across the aisle

115and just say like I'm watching you but if if a kid is constantly out and doing what they're not supposed to yeah we've had some phones in the office um but again I could number those on one hand you know and usually it's just conversation with the student like what are you doing do you really need it no I don't so which I you know I like the approach that we've taken because I think it's very respectful of the kids and I think they appreciate that you know it's not um a lot of schools do pouches you know Brockton East Boston they presented a couple weeks ago at msaa which is the um School administrators Association and that to me gives a bit of a punitive we don't trust you therefore we're going to lock

116it up first um we just basically said to the teachers you control your own domain and kids put in your backpack and don't let to see it if you need it for some reason just ask somebody um and you know if it's a reasonable request we'll figure it out someone says a coach is going to call me at 12:00 yeah use my office you know come in use use the schoolb if you want but if that's what they have and and you want to take that call by all means no I think they they appreciate that the kids know how to get into the pouches by the way of course yeah and then it becomes an exercise and who can destroy the pouch so for 5,000 bucks we just you know broken a bunch of

117pouches it's a truly community-led initiative and uh it's been interesting to see how it's been going so thanks to the update principal Scott and uh I loved your uh first text to me when that first started that it's noticeably loud in the C cafeteria that was like uh that was like the number one impetus behind it right like get them interaction face to face interaction rather than watching a screen right yeah so thank you so much principal Scott for being here tonight appreciate that and like I said uh you uh uh are welcome to come next time but we'll we'll make sure it's on the agenda to approve the uh program of studies um next time around and don't forget to communicate to me when you want to put the Athletics on the agend as

118well sure all right chairman there's just one comment oh yes didn't their address I did ask them for it but they they haven't um given to me but this is back to the mcast um and so it's uh Mar T um do you feel that adding the language and we probably already answered this but I want to give the they did make the comment do you feel that adding the language around taking the mcast as a competency determination participation is circumventing the vote that was overwhelmingly pass so that's the question right and the vote itself I think was misinterpreted by a lot of people I think a lot of people thought the incast was going away forever and it didn't it just removed it as you have to pass in order to graduate um so

119if if the and this is where I defer to the committee if the spirit of the town is we don't want mcass at all you don't get that but I don't have to include it in the as a participation requirement you know that doesn't bother me one way or the other but it will if there are large numbers of people who decide they're not going to show up for it it will impact a lot of families um financially okay thank you and um oh you already asked for the address I did but I haven't the other thing that I would add for any of the parents watching we are coming up on course scheduling so I'm going to send out an email to families about what that process is we have a course Fair scheduled

120for next week um during our utility period and I'm inviting all parents into that to talk with their kids and the teachers about what potential courses are offered what they might be interested in so that people can kind of go into course selection um with an educ view of what they might want to take because that's the best chance of getting the courses that they register for do okay thank you principal Scott and Orchard Drive give us a number that would be helpful too uh a number in your you just listen if um I should have said this at the beginning of the meeting so if you're going to participate you have to state your name and your address so uh initials don't do and just streets don't do um it's it's for the record

121it's for the minutes that become an official memor moralization of the meeting we're not picking on you everyone's required to do that um just like at time meeting and I didn't cage anyone who's nervous about the mcast just going be absolutely so for anything to do with the High School contact principal Scott right I mean so always open door uh and uh you know how to reach him um but thank you for participating um my myof 9 orra drive thank you so much appreciate it and thank you for your input and your participation so thank you principal Scott appreciate it uh moving in the next block which is budget resources and governance we turn the meeting to our Director of Finance and operations Susan Owen thank you be as inter tonight I because I was

122going to do a small piece of this after you my computer's about to die okay could I do the Fe piece first yes okay if that's okay only because I want to make sure that I can share my screen so miss super chanon was just going to present on the fees on the potential fee increases that we're looking at to partially address the um the shortfall so please do that yes super Shannon thank you um so yes I was going to share this as part of um Mrs Owen's presentation but just to make sure we can get it in um we are as part of the budget process going to be discussing fees and so in order to do that in a timely way because the fee discussion in your eventual votes on that fee

123discussion do impact our both our ability to finalize our budget for FY 26 but also it impacts the number of reductions that we may or may not have to make and and we feel that it's really important that if we have fewer fee increases or additions and have to have additional reductions that it's only fair that we let those staff members know sooner than later that that could be an impact on them um and if you choose to do accept as many of the fees as we present then it has fewer impacts on Staffing and that also is important for them to know because I think it alleviates a lot of stress so that's why I think it's important to today just review those fees that are going to be up for conversation so that

124at the next meeting which is next Wednesday night we can have a full discussion about each of these fees and then at the meeting on March 19th vote upon those fees that'll give us a really good timeline for moving forward with the budget so just as a reminder these are the fees that we're going to be discussing um and so one of them is kindergarten fees uh in fy2 24 the district and I'm not going to go through this all in detail but just as a reminder that um in fy2 24 the district moved away from requiring families to pay a $3,000 kindergarten fee for full day kindergarten um that does have a significant impact on the budget and so we Institute that kindergarten fee could bring us approximately if you went back to 3,00

125$3,000 per student could bring us close to $300,000 to the district is is that qualified I'm sorry just is that qualifi all by uh the change in Chapter 70 funding because there's a offset there right we lose some Chapter 70 funding if we yes we need to figure out exactly what that would be and we'll have that for you for next week yeah I want to know what that matter is y um also we were looking at transportation fees um we are towards the high end of transportation fees the only District that has a higher transportation fee right now um actually not until September will be hang of they've gone to $360 per student for riding the bus um with a cap of 625 so in all of these cases we've tried to give you

126as much information and we're actually also Gathering some information around which schools still have kindergarten fees as well um so we'll give that to you but area information is also helpful because you know to see if we're at the top of a a fee schedule versus in the middle or at the bottom I think is really important um also have provided you with what potential transportation fee increases would do in terms of Revenue impact and again they're based on current ridership as opposed we don't know yet cuz we haven't normally we would be putting out Transportation um requests so that parents could start signing up for transportation but we are holding on that until this conversation and decision are made also looking at athletic fees um let Just sh this a little bigger and what

127we are currently we are in the middle of the pack for our athletic fees for our first sport closer to the bottom if you have a second sport again closer to the bottom for a third sport so the proposal was actually that we'd create a two-tiered fee structure for athletics um with hockey swim and football being in tier two at a higher cost because of the additional cost to run those Sports um others would be tier one at $350 they would all still have a family cap um the one caveat is to mention that the ski team which currently pays $250 and it gets a ski pass to Blue Hills as part of that $250 would go to the 350 but resp be responsible for paying for their own ski pass um we did look

128at gate fees we are very much aligned with other districts in terms of their gate fees and so we're actually not recommending right now that we shift our gate fees but we thought it was important because it's a fee we currently collect and we actually bring in about $40,000 with gate fees to to look at that and and evaluate it um we are actually proposing a new fee in terms of Student Activity fee we are looking at a $60 per student fee at the middle school and the $100 per student fee at the high school um and actually I saw today some data around other schools that have Student Activity fees um and I was actually surprised by how many schools do this um and so this would be another fee to consider adding that

129we don't currently have student parking um many of our area schools do charge their seniors and their driving Juniors to park um it is not something we have done here in Cohasset for I don't know how long by the a long time um and so we are proposing that we Institute a student parking fee where our students would be paying $2 per day to park at the high school it would be prated based on when they start driving to school um and that could potentially bring in you know close to $40,000 as well and we are looking at our building rental fees we do earn again around $40,000 in building rental and we are looking at what an increase to those fees could do um in order to bring in additional revenue and so those

130are the fees that you know if you could do some thinking about that between this week and next Wednesday we can have a more broad discussion we can answer questions we'll bring a little bit more information as well and then on March 19th will ask for a vote on the different fee structures super Shannon would you mind taking those slides yes and compiling some sort of you know file that we can um email to the district just notifying them that we're talking about these fees at the next meeting yes um so that everyone's aware of that and then um I can also help you drop the messaging too in terms of like you know and then that we're going to be voting um meeting just so everyone has the information um and that'd be great

131and then we'll have more of a disc discussion next time on that yep thank you so much can I ask a question sure um for the additional information the extent that we can show how these fees are related to the costs of the providing Services I'm thinking for example Transportation yeah uh that'd be helpful uh from a philosophical standpoint you want your fees to be aligned to cost I know we're in a dire budget situation and so my inclination just turn them all up to 11 and see what we can do but um you know I would like make sure that they have a relation to what they're what what service are being provided and you know it's another tool for having a larger discussion with the town and the citizenry generally about what the

132schools cost to run so you do that thank you all right thank you super Shannon Miss ow we can go back to the monthly update now so just little the FY um 25 finan report um as we all know there was a short call a short call um has increased slightly it went from $740 347 to approxim some of that is due to utilities materials um there's still something even if the even if the budget Frozen um there are things that we have to do required to do um we need to provide supplies we need to we had a lot of stuff getting ready for graduation there still something that even though we're Frozen we have to move forward with um which is why the deficit is has grown um We Are CL to monitoring

133it we're reviewing all our salaries and our conferences um but unfortunately is driving the special education um also we you know want to closely there was a shortfall of 18,35 right now um which remain unchanged um from last month but our spect exportation has increased from 5644 to 11134 um not going to get into details um special Transportation just based on [Music] student but you can see our budget line item shortfalls our tuitions our utilities it's the same areas inition of Transportation supplies materials and some Sting um we have course credit course course col changes happening right now um the window hasn't closed yet but that's also has increase some of our again plain information just showing you um each each school and what their budget was in um percent used and some information on

134circuit breaker um for anyone who doesn't you know understand C massach program 75% of eligible special education costs that exceed um four times the same average for people 50 $50,000 is the base rate Capital um we're still working on Capital I believe they meeting next week but this is where we are with our Capital requests um the security enhancements we got the quotes in today I think it was about six $6,000 or $6,500 um for the two additional PA system for Safety and Security um Mr sh and I next week grants again um very limited what we re for Grants um unfortunately each year those numbers go down you can see where our grants are a grant fund across the .3 positions in our district are evolving again um you can see there some areas

135that like our after school program um we only see transfers from that program um qually lucky um just to I think lack of Staffing in the town hall um but we are bringing in the revenue we just haven't been transferred only further down and then same thing with the the atics um when The Season's just about over um so we will bring in with these for and this kind of goes in line with what Mr D said let's make sure what our fees are are covering um equally um andol account um on approximately 22.9 personnel just the Break um no changes obviously we haven't added any St 6% of our budget is regular education salaries um break down FTS per school and how each School position is funded whether it be by the school budget

136or by a gr of evolving again there's no changes happening here down our enrollment as of February 13299 and here's a month for Monon look at our and our utility um again our utility costs are up our usage is slightly up it's been a been a very cold winter um electric rates we now are through um and still Contin to grow and then our our gas um utilities this is through December we have used Less in gas th um and we have so less um my guesses with the last month or so we've had the really cold weather we're going to see a jump um in these numbers going forward quick update on our food service I'm just giving you a comparison our meal counts um comparison last year we're at 59 month of January

13759% participation which is tremendous December we were at 60% it could basically be just um based on meal served and we had the holiday break in there and then just a few happy thoughts happy thoughts sometime always bring bad news um here direct V making orange juice the elementary school without juice um if you have not tried the orange juice you absolutely should try it um it's delicious it's very sweet even though it's it's all natural um the kids love it um the elementary students do participate and make and and making it um but he's just kind of showing what's being done here and here the students enjoying getting their their fresh H ju at the elementary level um just a couple highlights you know recently they did a pineapple fried rice at the middle

138high school if you haven't um eaten or tried lunch at the Middle High School you absolutely should stuff in um it's better than some restaurant foods and then um here they are with fresh baked um homeade reference definely push um transportation just you know we're currently reviewing our transportation needs um do increase rise ship um some of this is a repeat of is retired permanently um we're coordinating the town to S um and hoping that we can finance a new bus to Capital um for next year the conclusion of the you know so far are there are concerns um we've talked about each month utilities tuitions transportation and salaries a budget disposing um there are still things going through um we go through the approval process of the superintendent um with everything that that that

139needs to be approved and paid for and that's it thank you m z any questions from m z we're going off alphabetical order Mr Carr no thank Mr D no questions thank you m m Hannah no question Mrs leki no questions thank you for the pictures thank you Miss Owen moving on we got reports from subcommittees the on positions anyone to have any report you just report at will I have no report thank you all right hearing none then we'll move on to the next block know of any topics that anyone have anything no um approval minutes we do have three sets of minutes to approve those are from the January 8 2025 January 22nd 2025 and February 65th 2025 Mee respectively uh at those [Music] meetings uh all members were present except for the

140February 5th 2025 meeting at which our vice chair was not present so you need to recuse yourself from that vote Mr dial obain um so uh we'll just move in chronological order and because one of our members will be abstaining I'll just take three separate votes um are there any uh questions comments additions revisions to the January 8 2025 minutes as presented by our secretary Mr car can I just mention one thing and of course on the day sorry I'll come up with the which one I'm talking about here on the day where we talk about the art program and three very eloquent students came in um we have um butchered their names in the minutes could someone they italicized if someone could help us correct the spelling of their names that would be yeah

141any questions for our secretary relative to the January 2025 minutes hearing none is there a motion to approve the minutes as presented by the secretary motion been made by Mr car there second second second by m leki all in favor I I all opposed extensions motion carries by a vote of five members next is the and those meetings will be approved posted uh next is the uh the meetings minutes for January 22nd 2025 regular school committee are there any questions comments revisions secretary hearing none is there a motion to approve the minutes as presented by the secretary so motion made by Mr dial any second second seconded by Mr leski all in favor I opposed exension motion answer pares approved and be posted lastly uh the February 5th 2025 meeting minutes are there any comments

142or questions for the secretary hearing none is there a motion to approve the minutes as presented motion been made by Mr leski is there second second seconded by Mr Carl in favor I I opposed exension one exension motion carries by a vote of uh four members one exension are approved and weos Mr chairman I just want to continue to thank C for her excellent work she wonderful to well we thank both of you put Miss Miss Bo certainly she is not the delay I am the delay my it is a is a thankless task and very appr keep car we are that's true that's true we give thanks so but we are up to date now I think that so I'll double check the list I want to make sure we have everything posted once

143we get these up but I think we are one moment um future agenda items anyone have any suggestions hearing none we'll move on to the uh well there is no reason to move into executive session time so we'll we'll move into uh seek a motion to adjourn the meeting sove s motions made by Mr DS or second second second by miss leki all in favor I I all opposed extensions motion carries obiously meetings adjourn thank you everyone for joining us have a pleasant evening please always reach out with any questions or concerns to central office or the school committee