001p.m. on Monday, June 23rd, and I would like to convene this regularly scheduled meeting of the board of education. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Miss Davidson, Mr. Here, Miss Den here, Mr. Miss Feressa here. Miss Hosking here. Miss Palumbo here. Mr. Malagoodi here. Miss Lton here. Mr. F here. Board members, you should have received your do the motion now. Board members, um we would like to add an agenda item. Can I please get a motion to add an agenda item E prior to the superintendent's recommendations and report titled an update on the Swift uh middle school schedule? Do I have a motion?
002Yes, Madam Chair. A motion to add an agenda item E prior to the superintendent's report and recommendations titled an update on Swift Middle School schedule. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? I opposed. Abstensions. Motion passes. Board members, you should have received your packet on Friday, including the meeting minutes from the board of education meeting from June 9th. Does anyone have any questions? Seeing none, do I have a motion to accept the meeting minutes from our regular schedule board meeting on June the 9th? Yes, Madam Chair. I move to approve the minutes of the regular board of education meeting on June 9th, 2025. Do I have a second? I second. Any discussion? All those in favor? I. All those um sorry, opposed. Abstensions. Extensions. Motion passes. Moving on to the
003new agenda item E. Thank you. U Mr. Dalton, if you wouldn't mind bringing it up. Okay. Um so I have a uh a statement and then I'm going to provide some additional information here. I just want to share that we've continuing to go through the process and so there's other pieces of information that will continue to come out, but um I just wanted to start to share just because there's some things uh that I think need to be addressed. Um, so Dear Swift Middle School community, faculty, and members of the board of education, um, leading up to the last day of school in this past week, there has been a flurry of messages out in the ether regarding the 2025 2026 middle school schedule. Um, it's important that when we are in process, which I
004shared we are in process, it's important to remember that means we are not done and that we are still taking a step towards the day that we actually press go to provide as clear information as possible in a public forum and acknowledging that several more conversations, meetings, and professional learning meetings still need to take place. I would like to take this time to shed just some light and perspective on various topics that are swirling in the ether. Again, I can't address everything, but uh at least some. Everyone has their right to their opinion and perspectives, and I do understand that change can cause feelings of anxiousness because something new and something you haven't quite tried before hasn't started yet. It's also understandable that, you know, just part of the human condition wants to know that
005every single detail of something new as reassurance before actually trying something new. It's also understandable that speculation and sometimes worst case scenarios, and this happens to me too, um can also take a grip on us when moving towards something that is new. And so, it's also important to remember that we have the ability to see processes through from beginning to end. We have the ability to ask questions and engage in conversation to tease out unknowns. And we have the ability to give things a go to the best of our ability and then return to debrief with constructive feedback in order to make tweaks, adjustments, and improvements and to refine a plan. What is most helpful is when we can assume a positive intent for specific reasons and not allow ourselves to be stymied by fear
006of initiating something new just because it's different. And so it's also important to consider that the differences that take up so much of our worry and is the cause of anxious feelings or worse yet sometimes refusal to initiate or try new things may not be as different as they may seem. And so today this is an attempt of many more to come in a process to provide some additional context and perspective to why the middle school schedule is changing and what in it is changing. Lastly, I would like to note that the budget process begins in the fall every school year and is an ongoing process to ensure our school district proposes what is needed by the first presentations by administration and then the superintendent's proposed budget and then it's approved by the board of
007education shortly thereafter and then it is moved on to a longer process where we wait for additional adjustments to be made by the municipal side. And when proposed items that are necessary cannot be fulfilled, it is in the district's right to make operational adjustments in accordance with contractual agreements to keep moving the district forward without being completely hamstrung by budget reductions. Since COVID, there has also been much feedback that we have heard that schedules come out too late in the summer. And so this year, we made a genuine effort to use that feedback and provide schedules prior to the end of the year so that educators can move into the summer knowing what their schedules would be at the start of the following academic year. The summer is often time for educators to not only
008take vacation to rejuvenate from 10 months of teaching, but also to mentally prepare for the upcoming school year. In addition, some educators are paid additional monies in the summer to work on brand new curriculum, sometimes program development if approved by administration. And I do want to acknowledge that this year is particularly difficult, which in a budget reduction year, um, it's difficult to approve these additional hours, but we are trying our best to provide as much additional paid time over the summer as possible. Um, see if I can get this moving. As you've heard me share time and time again, when asked, Dr. be why can't we just have a year that's status quo? My answer has always been that every year we must make progress even if it's a little teeny tiny step. Staying stagnant
009is not a choice if our BOE goals are truly focused on the four focus areas we set out to achieve each year. Um this multi-year longitudinal process of taking steps towards each one of these goals must move forward. If we maintain the status quo, we don't move forward. then we lose a whole year of possible learning and capacity building for our faculty and staff. We lose continually refined teaching and learning experiences for our students. And we lose opportunities to demonstrate our fiscal responsibility by managing our resources in a way that we can move education forward and also transparently and proudly say to our taxpaying community that we've done all that we can to be as efficient as possible and that we don't shy away from making hard decisions or getting creative to help mitigate as
010much as possible for the average taxpayer. We surely prioritize the educational experience of our students. That is for certain. While we also deeply respect and recognize what it is like to earn a dollar, to spend a dollar, and to essentially try to keep a dollar. So, these are our four board of education goals. Again, they are multi-year. They are longitudinal around student achievement and performance, around increasing communication, around continual innovation and support, on research-based theories, and on upholding that fiscal responsibility. So, here's just a little comparison, and again, these are select highlights. So in our current schedule right now we do have recommendations on the table from the state for uh least restrictive uh environment LRE models. In the new 2526 schedule we are narrowing the gap and fulfilling state recommendations for LRE models. Right
011now in the current swift schedule we are limited to one grade level of the Eagle Block in sixth grade only. Next year's model we increase to all three grade levels having Eagle Block in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. Right now we have limited to half a year small group in ELA or math and in next year's schedule we have increased to a full year of small group in ELA and math not or right now we are limited to 38 to 42 minute periods and the reason there's a range there is we have a 42minut period on paper but knowing how children arrive to a classroom it takes a minute for them to sit down and the children get up to get their stuff and to leave a classroom in actuality it's about 38 minutes we
012are increasing each of those periods to 47 minutes and again in actuality will probably range between 40 43 and 47 minutes in all subjects and then we have a dedicated 90 to 94 minutes in ELA and mathematics which are our priorities right now in our current schedule at Swift not because there was any malicious harm but we just had to live with 42minut schedule which did not meet program fidelity as recommended we had a separated second block of ELA and math but again two different programs at 38 and 42 minutes piece. Next year's schedule offers program fidelity met as recommended with the combined ELA math blocks at 90 to 94 minutes a piece, which gives us 60 minutes to provide the program resources with fidelity and approximately 30 minutes or give or take uh for
013some small groupoup enclosure activities. We also did a deep audit of our enrollment numbers and select classes. We had select classes that were ranging between 9 to 15 students and so we did adjust enrollment numbers in all classes and we are now between 18 to 26 across all classes. We also right now in our current schedule have single classroom teacher classes with wide ranges of student needs and we do hear feedback that it is difficult in this day and age to be the only sole teacher in a classroom. And so with the new schedule we have increased co-taught classrooms for both special and general education students. We have to also acknowledge that when a schedule is created that we have to uh look at the landscape of parameters. We have contractual requirements that we need
014to stay within collective bargaining agreements for example planning time, work hours, reduction in force language, transfers. We also are facing personnel eliminations this year. So we had budget requests that are reduced and we had actual transfers and reductions in actual people at Swift that are currently employed. We also have to stay within the lines of state requirements, compliance with laws and state guidance. And again, we are always trying to prioritize student learning in ELA and math right now and specifically special education to progress moving forward to be able to scale up when we can to be able to reduce, increase or eliminate practices that may or may not support or help um and to of course be within the researchbased best practices. This is a slide that you will recognize. You see the red slashes
015already. I had requested a number of new andor restoration of positions. Many of them were eliminated. And so because of that, these were not just wish positions. They were positions that were needed. We are looking to the schedule to help mitigate some of the impact of this reduction as well. Um again resulting in an elimination of four new needed positions just specifically at Swift at the teacher level and then the elimination of two actually existing faculty members right now. um which was a total cut of six needed teacher positions whether it's interventionist special education teachers and MLL teachers two CTE teachers the dean of discipline and the special education supervisor so we are living within that impact we have seen and I want to commend our swift faculty for this they've heard me say it
016we have seen great growth in the double block this year we had a double block in ELA in mathematics we had in on average grades six seven and eight between 111% % to 200% average growth. And that means we are slowly moving our children up from the red is usually the red is the color of of the students who are most struggling and then we're trying to get them into the green or the blue. Um you've also may have remember my analogy that right now because we are trying to double or triple the rate of improvement, we almost need to move two or three times as fast in how we're trying to grow. Um, and here we are for math. We're seeing rates of growth between 107% to 120% based on our uh, universal benchmarks.
017We heard lots of feedback that Eagle was missed and so providing time for Eagle at all three grade levels was also a priority for this year's schedule. We are having an increase in multilingual uh, students that are coming to our school district, particularly at Swift and also at Pulk School. And so we are reinstating a full-time multilingual teacher and or tutor uh who was split last year across two positions because we had some budget adjustments there. We are also maintaining the performing arts program in order to provide students with theater and musical opportunities. The middle school is the only level that we do not offer theater and musical opportunities for our children. We have a very heavy-handed musical experience at the elementary school and then we hit it very hard again at the high school,
018but nothing in the middle school level. And so it was important for us to keep that music and performing arts program together. And again, when we buy resources that are um in the effort of keeping our curriculum moving forward, um we not only do that by committee, but we also do it through comparison of what's available. So this year we do have a new 6 to8 ELA program called Amplify. You heard about it in the K to 5 grades uh the year previous. their required time for the program to actually be taught is a minimum of 60 minutes. We don't have that in this year's schedule, but because it was the first year and teachers were learning and coming on board, we said, "Let's give it a go. Let's learn it for the first time."
019And so this year, it was very important to us to try to give at least a minimum of 60 minutes for them to teach the program with fidelity because then we should see results. It is not too unfamiliar coming from the K5 experience where right now children in kindergarten to grade 5 range anywhere from 90 minutes to 120 minutes dedicated to just ELA a day. And so to move into grades 6 to 8 with 60 minutes and then 34 minutes or so approximately for small groupoup instruction and or closure activities will not be quite different for our middle school students. And again, it allows us to turnkey the programs that we have purchased to move our curriculum forward with fidelity. Um, it also allows us, this new schedule, to maintain class sizes that can be
020rationalized to the taxpayer and still uphold educational integrity in the classroom experience. Now, I'm not saying that we're looking to put 33 students into a classroom. That is not where we're trying to get to. But it is difficult. And as much as we're talking about Swift, we're also talking about certain programs that feed up into the high school. When we have sections of classrooms that are singletons of only three and four students at the high school that are being fed from Swift, it's very difficult for us to run a class like that and have a full-time teacher with a full-time case load um to be able to do that. And so we did do an audit of low enrollment unified arts and world language classes and tried to rectify those numbers. So I do want
021to give a student view and again every student is slightly different. Um, but here is a current schedule of a grade six student. Um, I'll try to break it down slowly. Um, and then show you this here is to do one version of a comparison. You can see along the left hand side that there are 42-minute blocks at this time and then a 30 minute lunch. At this time, the red line signifies kind of like a middle of the road halfear mark. You will see that we have math and ELA taught every single day. However, we had ELA the second block only taught for the first half of the year and then we had math only taught for the second half of the year. And so, as you know, if we exercise our muscles in
022any type of sport all year round, there is greater possibility that we are going to increase our ability in that sport as opposed to just only half a year and then nothing in the postseason or for a remainder. So this year's you'll see that there is a double of the math and core instruction every other day all year long. So, it's continuous and it's there's continuity. And then every day they do get a single ELA or math so that we are truly prioritizing that ELA and math experience all across the year with an increase in numbers and also with the same teacher so that we're not bouncing between two English teachers and two math teachers. In seventh grade, again, you have that halfyear mark in this year's schedule, and you see that they do get
023ELA in math all year long, but again, you get the half double block in ELA and the half double block in math on the latter half. And again, with next year's, you will see that we get continuity of cross math and ELA every day, but also the double block and Eagle is returned to seventh grade. When you look at the teacher view of the SIF schedule compared to this year on the top and next year on the bottom, you will see that this year teachers in sixth grade teach five sections of ELA and Eagle because this year we hold Eagle for sixth graders. They teach for a minimum of 42 minute periods. There is a different teacher for the second block of ELA or math and again only half year of the double block. All
024teachers get two preps, one lunch and wraparound time. As for the contract, next year teachers will have three sections of ELA plus Eagle. And again, they get the co-eing opportunities in the blue blocks to push in so that we have two certified teachers to provide high support in classes where we have wide student range. Teachers still get two preps, one lunch, and wraparound time. And we get full year of double block time every other day, continuous all the way across. And in eighth grade and seventh grade when we have um accelerated math options, you will see that we still continue to provide those accelerated math experiences and we still have opportunity to also provide the co-eing experiences in some of our classes. So again, still within contractual guidelines offering more support in co-taught classes, not
025just for special education students. We give higher numbers of minutes in our ELA and math blocks so that they can um turn key the program resources with fidelity. And our teachers also have less sections because they're doubling up. Contractual agreements are very important to us and we stay within line of them. So keeping time for preparation as consistent as possible was very important to us. So you can see that in this year's schedule on the left column in 2425 we have 42 minutes per day two times per day which is a total of 84 minutes daily or 420 minutes per week for teachers to have planning time. There's also wraparound time of 10 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the afternoon which is an approximate 25 minutes a day or 125 minutes per
026week. Teachers are required to engage in PLC's or collective team times three times per week. And even with that, we do have contractual minimum for prep where we have 419 minutes right now in this schedule, minutes per week for teacher preparation or non- studententf facing time where they are not in meetings. Now, I do have an asteris because sometimes we do pull pts into our 504 meetings, but they don't happen every single day and every single week. In the new schedule, again, it was our goal to try to keep preparation as consistent as possible. And so, you will see now that we've increased to 47 minutes per day per period. We are actually increasing the amount of planning time and the minutes per week that is non- studentent facing teachers uh student facing time. And
027so, moving from 419 minutes of non-f facing student time to 454 minutes. So there's a little bump increase there, but we know that our teachers use that time wisely and they use that to prepare. Um I think some of the also opportunity to talk about just common language and common terms is going to be important. So I'm going to um ask Gaelic to talk a little bit about this. Um sometimes differing on districts, sometimes differing on how the state does it, sometimes differing on how people just know it from the past. terms like co-taught, adult supported, resource, self-contained, special programs may be um different. So, just wanted to share what those are. Thank you. Um so, just for purposes of kind of making sure that we are consistent because oftentimes we will use the same
028term interchangeably or my definition won't necessarily match someone else's exact definition. Um so, those are kind of common language terms that we use when we are talking about education and specifically the education of our special education students. Um, so when we talk about co-taught for us here in Watertown, that is a situation where we have a classroom setting with two certified teachers. Most typically it's a general education teacher partnered with a special education teacher and they team teach for the entirety of that course period. So when Dr. Villan Noeva talked about um a single block of ELA, that would be two teachers who would be in that room for the 47 minutes. If it was a double block, they would be together for 94 minutes. Um, an adult-supported class by contrast is typically a class
029that is supported by a PAR educator or a tutor that pushes into the general education classroom. So, it would be one certified staff member with a non-certified staff member. Resource is perhaps the term that is most frequently kind of used or interpreted differently. So, when we talk about resource here, it's important to remember that resource is not a location. So, it's not a room that you go to where resource happens. Um resource is a type of support or service that is provided to students with disabilities. Um it can be varied widely kind of by um the students specific needs. So it's to work on specific goals and objectives, but it can take place in the general education classroom or in an alternate location. Um so that's kind of the most again kind of frequently misused.
030Um self-contained is a more specialized educational setting. So, this is typically a student who has significant or more complex needs and receives instruction primarily from a special education teacher. Because their curriculum differs so vastly, it often takes place in a different classroom. And then our special programs are kind of again are more highly specialized and very specific. It's typically for a smaller percentage of our students um that they cannot be met in a general education classroom or sometimes even in some of our special education classrooms. Um so again very very small programs typically for our students with autism or more um emotional or behavioral disorders. So the next slide um is to just clarify uh some of the pieces about um federal state law, state guidance and research. Um so the board actually uh we
031prepared some information for you that was uh excerpt from um Mary's gonna pass it. Oh, Mary's going to pass it out. Um, which was pulled from slides that we shared with our department earlier in the year that kind of gave um some background information with respect to uh state law, federal law, state guidance, and then research to support some of the practices um that we're trying to increase and grow in our district. Um so I think it's important to mention that all of those pieces are very much aligned. So the federal law, the state law, research, they're very clearly aligned and they require LRE, which means that students with disabilities should learn and or learn in the same classroom as their peers as much as possible. Um, they should only really be separated if you
032cannot educate them with other supports and modifications in the regular classroom. Um, and there is abundant resource research to support uh, co-eing. Um, so there are a few bullet points here for the board's information as well as um, we some slides from our last presentation that we shared with our department that just give some good background information about the law and about research um, to support some of the choices that we're making programmatically for the special education department in Watertown. Um, so the next slide just shows the timeline that occurred this year. Um, so throughout the year we had monthly department meetings at Swift but also across all of our schools. Um, and in these monthly department meetings we had robust conversations about LRE, about the continuum of services that's provided here in Watertown and
033also about the co-eing model. Um, and again those took place right from the get-go in September through till the end of the year and will continue again next year as well. Um, our plan had been in February to hold a PD on one of our early release days with the entirety of the special education department on co-eing. However, we had one of our snow days that day. Um so we ended up moving that to March which actually allowed us to pull the special education department for the entire day um to participate in PD with our partners from ED advance um and then also talk through um together as a department with some of our department level goals moving into next school year after April 1st each year. Um any student who has an annual PPT
034that is scheduled those PPTs are also held as moving up PPTs. So for students who are moving from fifth grade into sixth grade or from eighth grade to the high school, we typically try to schedule those PPTs um simultaneously. Other students who are moving up and transitioning from one school to another um that don't have a spring annual PPT have a separately scheduled PPT as needed after May. Um so those PPTs took place again as is our normal process in district and has been um for a long duration. Then we had our referendum in May which fortunately passed. Um and so after that there is always the possibility of amendments based off of kind of the outcome for staffing and the impact that it may have on master schedules. Uh on May 27th and 28th,
035Dr. V and I rolled out the swift schedule with the swift administration um to all of their staff and then did hold some additional um specific department level meetings. In June, Miss Vecky and myself, um, Miss Edwards and Mr. Bliny, the two special education administrators and the Swift admin, all met in small groups with case managers to discuss the implications with with the Swift special education team. And then on June 5th, we met again um, in a half day of release time with case managers to kind of talk through the the specifics um, of the schedule and the impact that it might have and to provide some guidance. I think the most important takeaway here is that a master schedule does impact special education services. This is not a new issue. Um, IEPs have to
036reflect correct service hours and settings. Um, and when a master schedule is released after some of those PPTs take place, there is an impact and we do have to make corrections so that minutes are reflected accurately. Uh this next slide is just uh a different snapshot of what this year's schedule and model looks like. Um so as Dr. V talked about for um classes this year the blocks are 42 minutes on paper, sometimes a little bit less in practice. Um and students always had their core instruction for ELA or math um all year long and then they had a different teacher for the second block of ELA or the second block of math. And those courses took place for a half of a year. The ELA and math core courses were um typically supported with
037PAR educators in those classes. Um and then again the second block may have had um special education students with a PAR educator or that was a time when students may have received pullout services like the resource that we talked about um or they may have received structured literacy or related services like speech or OT. By um comparison this is the model for next year and it's focused on increased support in core instruction. So again, there's an increase in all classes to 47 minutes on paper. ELA and math core take place all year long. Um, and then the second block is every other day for the entirety of the school year. The goal is to again increase support. So in specific classes for core ELA or math instruction, there would be two certified teachers. So you
038would have potentially 20 students with two certified teachers, one being a certified gened teacher, one being a certified special education teacher who would receive training and ongoing support through our partnership with Ed Advance over the course of the year in how to successfully partner and meet the needs of those students. Um, again, during the second block of ELA, just as we saw this year, or the second block of math, um, you might stay in the classroom and receive your resource within the GenEd classroom in a small group with the special education teacher. You might also receive related services or go out for structured literacy instruction um, across the year. So the next slide is just another um iteration of the same information but just kind of packaged a little different of a way. I sometimes
039operate my brain operates this way where I like to look at what's the same and then what's different so that I can really wrap my head around it. So if you look at the center of the ven diagram, these are all of the things between the old schedule and the new schedule that remain the same. So what will remain the same is there will still be two blocks of language arts. will still be two blocks of math. Um, there will still be small groupoup individual work on goals and objectives that follows the hours that are noted in the IEP. Um, there still will be PARS assigned to classrooms for additional help. Um, students still may be pulled from the second block for structured literacy or related services um among other times which is not indifferent
040to this year. So typically when um special education teachers and service providers are creating their schedules, they try to have the least impact as possible and pulling students away from core instruction. So this is one place that is a place to start for pull out and this will likely continue. Um so if you look in comparison the old schedule, the second block was half of half of a year every day. So for the first half of the year, you might have every day a second block of language arts. the second half of the year, you might have a second block of math. Um, so once you've kind of left that first half of the year, you weren't necessarily getting that instruction, the small group instruction in language arts for the latter half of the year.
041Whereas in the new schedule, you have that second block all day, but it alternates every other day. So, you're consistently over the course of the year receiving um in instruction in the second block, whether you are a special education student or a gened student across the entire year for consistency. Um in the old schedule the second block uh instruction for both math and language arts was delivered by a different teacher. Whereas this year the second block is delivered by the same teacher. So the teacher that teaches you for core instruction and knows what you may be doing well in or what you may be struggling in will be able to take that information and immediately turn key it in the second block in small groupoup instruction um because it's the same teacher. uh the 42-minute
042block versus the 47 block is the other big difference. Um and then you know this is also from the lens of a special education student but really gened students as well. So right now um for the most part many of our students um in core instruction are supported by a pareducator whereas in the new model students are supported in the core instruction by a special education teacher. So essentially what happens as a special education student is that I am there my special education teacher is there for the duration of my core instruction and my special education teacher is there to provide me with my resource time in the second block. So I have access to two certified teachers um for the duration of all of my language arts and math instruction. Um and certainly goals
043and and objectives um individual working with individual students or small group students still occurs with a special education teacher in both models. But I think the difference is that in the old model it was always in a completely separate classroom. Whereas in this model um it is delivered in the general education classroom certainly any of our students that ever need a quieter workspace that is not an issue to to pull but it's not an every single day thing. it's based with some fluidness on what's happening in the classroom. So the next slide just kind of unpacks this a little bit further. Um so again before um students in core instruction with PAR educators providing support um we will be making pareducator placements and we hope to actually in many times and spaces will be able
044to have two certified teachers in addition to a pareducator really further allowing small groupoup instruction for students. And in the new model, um, the students are in core instruction with a special education teacher. And really what this creates is a 2 to 10 or a 2 to11 ratio. So you have, if you had 20 students and you have a gened certified teacher and a sped certif special education certified teacher, you're at a 2:10 or 2 to11 student ratio. Um, which is very nice instructionally. Um, in the second block before, all students are working in small groups. special education students receive resource instruction in a separate location. Um, and by nature, this creates some specific limits because that would always have to be via IEP for all tasks even when perhaps that's not needed or even
045when it's it's perhaps a goal and objective like say related to executive functioning where you're trying to get your instructional materials organized. Some of that makes much more sense in the general education classroom and leaving the classroom can be stigmatizing for students. Um they often want to remain with their peers and learn best in that setting. In the new model, um students in core instruction again are with the special education teacher. And in the second block, all students are working in small groups. Special education students and general education students. Resource can be provided right in the general education classroom with support from two certified teachers. This reduces stigma. Um, and again, any student that may need for a specific task a quieter space, whether that is a gened student or a special education student, it's
046always okay to pull those students into a quieter setting, but this allows things to be more fluid and task dependent. So, if a student, a special education, is doing perfectly well and learning fine in the general education classroom in a small group or in onetoone, why would we pull them? But if they were struggling and needed a quiet space, again, gened student or special education student, this gives us the ability to do that with a little bit more fluidity. Um, so this next slide just talks a little bit about the communication that occurred around some of these changes. Um, so first a detailed letter was sent to all parents and guardians of special education students who will be attending Swift next year explaining the circumstances and letting families know that their child's case manager would
047be reaching out. Um, we met with special education teachers as indicated on one of the earlier slides um to just talk through specific student situations, provide guidance. Um, we gave out a sample service grid and talked about specific talking points to ensure that we were in compliance with students IEPs. Case managers then reached out as needed to each family that was going to be impacted to talk through the adjustments and discuss different options. Um, we were clear in our communication that all families always retained the right to request a PPT or to decline the proposed changes. Um, and every family that uh asked for a PPT was of course offered a PBT and those PPTs were scheduled. Um and then this last slide just goes through um the summary of the amendments that occurred this
048year. Again, just bear in mind that oftent times amendments are necessary to um ensure compliance between IEPs and the master schedule. So um as just a point of reference two years ago when we moved to a co-eing model at PULK which was budget contingent because there was a hiring of additional staff to support that um there were a number of amendments that were required because those students were being moved into a co-eing model based off of recommendations. Um and so there were a number of amendments that had to happen that year as well. So can I just inter make just another statement about that? The other thing that we did this year that really is best practice and and that will help us moving forward with compliance is that we looked at all of the
049PPT the IEPs lined up against each other and made sure that they were um calibrated to each other. So students that are re receiving similar services that their IEPs were written clearly and in the same manner. So we were able to really calibrate that special education service grid across all of our students to make sure that they were consistent. Um whereas one of the things that we found that is that historically you sometimes have different case managers or different people facilitating the PPT. So that was just like a fringe benefit of that. Um so I just wanted to mention that as well because that was that was a very good thing for us to determine and to move forward with. Absolutely. So there are currently 106 um special education students who attend will be attending
050Swift next year. Um there were 74 amendments needed. Um and then this just breaks down of those 74 amendments. There were two parent requests for PPTs. There were 68 amendments um because of a change to correct the hours. So the 42 to 47 minutes. Um for ELA, 57 to correct the hours for the overall increase in math instructional minutes. And again that was for the 42 to 47 minute. Um there were 65 site changes for ELA instructional delivery for resource. So that was typically listed um as a a kind of a pull out go to a separate classroom and so now it is listed as a push in the special education teacher does it with you right in the classroom. Um 54 site changes for math for that same exact reason. Um and then there
051were less than five out of the 74 amendments to change from self-contained to a co-taught and less than two for um a change from self-contained to cot in math. Um, and those changes were based on conversations with families, um, and based on assessment and performance of students in those specific academic areas that supported their ability to be successful in the gened classroom with a special education teacher in a co-op model. I think it's important to say too, the reason why we don't have exact numbers there is because special education is very confidential. Um, and because there's so few students that fell into this bucket, if we wrote out the number, the exact number, then those students might be identifiable. So that's why the the um the numbers are written that way to maintain student confidentiality.
052So I think that hopefully this answers some of the outstanding questions. Jen and I are of course always available to answer any additional questions or provide any additional information including we will be happy to show you the letter that was sent to parents if you haven't seen that or um anything from our slides that we share with the department like we're more than happy to share any of those resources with the board or answer any additional questions. Thank you. And again there and sorry you you'll have that question. Um there will still be more questions. I know that I have more questions specific to the world language department. I have more questions specific to sixth grade that I am in the midst of responding to. Um, again, we have carved out time at the uh
053start of the school year in the PD days that we have once we return to uh school from the summer to give time to this. Um, and so again, we are in process. We are not done. Um, and once this does uh move forward, we will always debrief and reflect and if we need to make any adjustments and tweaks, we will certainly do that. Your question? Just quick question. Um, you said this was given to everyone, all the teachers. Yeah. So, that was part of the slideshow from the March professional development with the special education department. Okay. And this came from the state. Yes. Um, the data and resources in there are from the state, but Miss Becky and I put it together with the other. Okay. And so, the state of Connecticut. Yes. So,
054the the data in here is from the state of Connecticut. So, clearly this is being done in other school systems. Correct. Correct. So Ed Advance um in our partnership with them has also successfully supported a number of school districts through similar endeavors. Okay. Because we did receive some communications that were actually exactly the same thing saying that there was no data to support these changes. So I just want to make sure I understand clearly that they were all given this with data from the state of Connecticut. Yes. Okay. I think it's also important to mention that we um upon uh our positions this year, there were a few um pieces from the state that came down the pike. Um, one of which we ended up in mediation and it was about the number of self-contained
055well it was about one particular situation in self-contained classrooms and with that opportunity that the pe those when we were in mediation with the state they started to take a look at how widespread our self-contained classes were and made recommendations with respect to that and we had a couple of other um things that we needed to clean up with the state um I think it was the CT Yep we were cited for um an overidentification of students for taking the CTAA and the CTAs, which are the alternate assessments for smarter balance um for students with um IEPs. Um and so the state has a a formula that they use to, you know, to kind of identify around what number you should be based off of your special education population. And ours was significantly over that.
056So we had to attend like a retraining for that um and outline a plan for addressing that as well. I have one more question. Um so you met with parents then you roll out to teachers this is the change in schedule you met with parents again the special special education parents again. So I I think to clarify what had occurred was that there were meetings that were that happened with families as they always do after April 1st, either the annual with the um moving up PPT simultaneously or the moving up PPT. By the time the schedule was released after referendum, all of those PPTs had already occurred. So then now we were in a position where a master schedule is going to impact IEPs and they have to be accurate. And so we were in
057a position at that point that we needed to reach back out to families and say we're happy to have a PPT or these are the changes that we're proposing. These are why we're proposing them. Whether it be just the increase in the minutes or we're able to achieve a co-eing model, etc., etc. Um, we met with our staff. We gave them talking points. We did a special ed grid. We sent a letter ahead of time to families explaining that this is what was happening. And then case managers reached out individually to families via phone and they were always offered another meeting should they opt to have one because I just wanted to make that clear that parents were contacted after it was rolled out as well and they had a choice to meet or not.
058Correct. Okay. Um and and it was you we here are the changes. If you feel okay with these changes then we can do an amendment. If you'd like to have further dialogue or if you're not happy with the proposed changes, then we're certainly happy to have a PBT meeting with you and we can talk through those things and figure out the best path forward that was offered to every family. Um, and you can see from from the numbers that was it extensive amount of amendments, yes, but if you look at the parent corpse, there were to date two requests for PPTs, which is their right. and we will have those PPTs and we will have dialogue and collaborate with those families. We want to do what's right for kids and we want to collaborate with
059families. I just wanted to make sure everyone was aware of the timeline that while parents were communicated with because I want to make sure that we are not at risk for any federal issues. So, thank you for clearing that. Do any other board members have any questions? Just I just wanted to make a a small observation. um you mentioned that research had shown that uh students were stigmatized by the fact that they were being taken out of the classroom. I just and feel free to rebut this, but um I wonder if I feel pretty certain that students would still feel stigmatized by being uh addressed in the classroom by parents and by special services teachers, but maybe in a different way. And I don't know if that's been researched because probably haven't gotten to that
060point yet. Yeah, I I think you make a very valid point and I think adult supported class by nature when you have a par educator in your classroom and they're working with a select number of students, it's it's very obvious perhaps who the students are even though our parent educators are excellent and they try very hard to kind of feedback supports and help other kids if they need it. But within the co-eing model, and I'll defer to Jen too because um you know we've had co-eing at Poke when I was there and then when Jen was there, we've had a very robust co-eing model at Poke. One of the things that's the beauty of that model is that kids are always in small groups getting what they need. And so you could have a GED
061kid that joins a group of special education students because they have a similar need. It's much more fluid and it's less obvious perhaps because every student needs help with something at some point. Um, so I mean I don't know if you want to The only thing I'll add to that is that um in our partnership with at Advance who again will be coming in to um do another round of training with all of the special education teachers and their co-eing um general education counterparts that's planned already for August and then they'll have a series of trainings um across all of next year. Um the beauty of the model that they use is that for part of the time you teach in stations. So myself as the general education teacher, let's say that u Miss Becketty
062was a special education teacher in my classroom. The students would rotate through stations where they would come to me for instruction whether gened or special ed. They would also see Miss Becketty whether they're GenEd or special ed. So we are equal partners in that classroom to the hope honestly and the extent that like kids might not even realize like which one is the teacher and which one is like the special ed teacher um because they work fluidly with both of us. Um, so it is definitely um the intent of it is to make it less stigmatizing for students as opposed to, you know, the teacher comes to the door and they're like, "Hey, I'm here for Johnny." Um, and Johnny steps out. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. I through the chair a couple questions
063which you may or may not have the answers to yet. So the information was um kind of heavy on the ELA and the math and the special ed impact regarding um the schedule impact to other coursework like for example maybe the science or the world language. So you mentioned that the um there will actually be a decrease in sections for the ELA teachers. Would that be the same for other coursework? Are we anticipating that with the every other day schedule they'll actually have an increase in number of sections they're responsible for? So, I I think I understand your question. Um, and it would be best if I could try to model it on the screen for you. Um, but social studies, science, and all of the other um subjects will still continue to teach um
064more than three three sections because they won't have a double block. So, they'll have more than three, but will there be an in will there be an increase in number of sections that they're responsible for as compared to now with the schedule changes? So, not for social studies and science, I don't believe. Um and again I just want to make sure that I can model it right on the screen for you but for world language there will be okay. Um and in addition to that we also had a reduction in two staff in the CTE department and so we do have uh one remaining CTE staff member who will move across um woods and and other type of technology experiences for our children. Um that's always kind of the difficult part when you have to
065have eliminations and reductions. But we're still offering Spanish. Um we're still offering a world language. official offering to unified arts. Um, but I do believe world language will have an increase. Um, and that's why those are uh some of the questions I still need to respond to to that particular department. Um, and the UA, I don't believe there will be an increase in their sections, but there will be an opportunity for all teachers that teach social studies, science, uh, mathematics, UA to be able to be a second certified teacher in another classroom in ELA or mathematics. Okay. And with the change in schedule for something like the world language um being every other day that would still be equivalent to the like some students would take it in middle school some students will take it
066when they get to high school the coursework and the credits will be equivalent still. That is correct. Now the only thing that we are experiencing and this is when I was talking about the low enrollment um our French language uh takers or students who elected into that have been dwindling quite quite dramatically. Um, and so when you look at the high school enrollment numbers for French this year, we took our 1.0 French teacher and she is now, I believe it's a point 8.2 split or it could be a 6.4 split. I can't remember. She's still full-time, but she is duly certified in world language and social studies. And so now she's teaching a portion of French and she's teaching a larger portion of social studies because the enrollment numbers are coming down. that is typically
067a symptom of not enough students coming up from the middle school with French to continue taking French at the high school level. And so because of that, we are um fulfilling all of the Spanish requests. We will grandfather in those who have already completed one year of French so that they at least earn that French credit. And then at that point, we are uh prioritizing Spanish. The goal, and you've heard me say this before, over the last four and a half years, is as a district, we would like to be able to offer many languages, not only Spanish and French, but perhaps Italian, perhaps um well, I know in back in the day it was Latin. We're probably not going back to Latin, but um even Albanian could be a language that we offer. Right
068now, we are not in a space um to be able to do that at the moment. So, we are going to purge Spanish at the moment. questions. Okay, moving on. Thank you. All right, superintendent's recommendations and report. Um, I actually just wanted to wish everybody a wonderful uh summer break and uh wanted to welcome officially a new person to the um to the counter here and I'll turn it over to Miss Becky just to do a very quick introduction of our our new new member. Yes. So, I would like to uh cordially welcome Alyssa Al to our table. She's interim director of people personnel services and special education. Um, Alyssa has experience in the Bridgeport public schools as an administrator in special education and most recently has worked at the Keller Law Firm as a
069special education advocate. Um, so I think her unique skill set of having a school uh sense and a parental sense will be an asset to us. So we're very happy to have her here with us this evening and for the duration. Thank you. Okay, moving on to public participation. In accordance with policy number 9050, public participants must state their name and address for the record and limit statements to three minutes. Board encourages speakers not to express defamatory comments about Watertown Board of Education personnel or any other persons associated with the Watertown Public School System. Would anyone like to come to the podium and speak? Cindy Murphy, 179 Gilbert Road, Watertown. Um, before you start your time, I presented the what I'm saying in this form because I know I'm going over three minutes by a
070little bit. Um, I tried to get it down, but I have a lot of passion. So, if I could present I am presently a special education teacher at Swift. I've been there for 26 and a half years and all I've been teaching for 37 years of which 20 were in elementary and 16 and a half were in middle school. As a parent and educator, I've been asked to sit on focus groups, curriculum de development teams, committees to hire a superintendent, director, supervisor, and staff. I am the Swift special education department chair and I've held this position from its inception. In February, a group of special education teachers used one of our PDs to dis professional development days to design a co-eing platform for our special education students. It would have been a pilot program for
071the incoming sixth grade. The idea was to limit the number of students that came into Swift that have been cited for self-contained classrooms. We would keep the self-contained population to a minimum and service the others in a co-taught program that would be designed around a Jenna teacher who had previously demonstrated success with special education students willing and capable to modify, accommodate, and demonstrate a clear desire to help that student meet with success. Not all teachers have this unique ability. A key component of this proposal was the use of pullout resource time. The dignity of students with growing skill disparities would have received individual specialized instruction in a separate setting, not among their typical peers. It would also provide time to pro progress monitor IEP goals and reflect on the positive and negative effects of co-eing.
072It would have been a gradual roll out of what could be a very successful program. We presented this to John Anastasia and Sha Blay. It was met with encouragement. The specialed staff across the district was then given an extraordinary opportunity to participate in a full-day presentation from Ed Advance on co-eing. We left anticipating success for our proposal. The plan that was presented to us on the last days of school did not reflect what we had imagined. There would be very limited self-contained classes, a schedule for which had not been made as part of the plan. General education teachers would be asked to volunteer. As of yet, there are no volunteers. Special education teachers were not given a choice. They would be co-eing all classes either in language arts or math re pullout resource was minimal
073within the co-eing block. The disparities and ability levels would be exposed to their peers. Many tend to withdraw because of this in the middle school. There are a couple of blocks in the rotating schedule in which some pull out resource time would be given, but it's also progress monitoring time for IEP goals, testing time for trienals, and finally approximately 10 to 15 minutes are given as that eagle block. Now for students in home room, possibly resource in addition to many special ed students receiving support services for speech, language, OT, and counseling. Without a resource block, they would have to be pulled out of PE, music, unified arts, or Spanish class that all students have now been scheduled for. At a as a side note, the pull out resource is what special education teachers have been
074trained to do. We work with individuals with a variety of needs and capacity. We design remediation plans for each individual. If you would allow me to read or I can ask my husband to read. You can have him read. Sure. Tom Murphy, 179 Gilbert Road. Continuation. I'm going to start on the top of the page. As a side note, resources what educ special education teachers have been trained to do. We work with individuals with a variety of needs and capacities. We design remediation plans for each individual. This will be much more difficult in this new model. I am asking this board to take a closer look at this plan and postpone it so that it will meet with ex with success when all stakeholders have had the same opportunities to understand the complexities. Jennet teachers
075have not been given an opportunity to participate in the advance professional development for co-eing as an equal stakeholder to special ed staff in the roll out of this new initiative. in Hammond and recently a similar plan was approved but now they are moving forward with a select group of participants as a pilot program and on behalf of my wife I would like I would gladly have represented the middle school on a committee for this plan Cynthia Murphy Bruce inch 22 Malvin Hill Road, Porttown, Connecticut 06795. Uh, at the last meeting, I submitted a petition for the naming of the back field softball field in the honor of Keith Borowski. Um, reviewing your policy. Um, I'm kind of lost on what the next step is. I know that there's got to be a committee to be
076uh made, but there's no timeline. And like the superintendent said, we're in summertime and I'm taking off at the end of June, keep my wife happy. But um I like to know what are the next steps to get this moving forward. And the second thing um uh our organization uh put the batting cages down at the landfield and there was a big kaboom down there that Mr. Valardi took care of. I was wondering who's in charge of that field. Does insurance take care of that? Is that park and wreck? Is that you guys or I'm just looking for a point of reference on that. So I think I think the land is not ours. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Because I think uh Johnny Bono in fact they mow it all the time, right? So that's a
077park and wreck. I think so. Okay. Thank you. If you guys could give me some kind of answer, actually we can we can answer you now. So, um, we got your letter about the naming of the field and we'd be happy to review that just as part of the policy. It just needs to be accompanied with, um, a certain number of signatures. You did that. Yeah. Yeah. We have all that. That was the paper. Yep. It just didn't make it to this agenda. It's going to be on the next one. Oh, I wasn't here at the last meeting. She wasn't here. That's I wasn't there at the last meeting. Okay. Okay. So, it will be addressed. It'll be voted on at the next meeting. Okay. The committee will be put together. Well, I'm sorry. The
078committee. Okay. Ok. Thank you. Sorry. Anyone else would like to come to the podium? Good evening. My name is Mindy Davidson and I live at 444 Buckingham Street, Noville. Dear members of the board of education, I've had the pleasure of working with many different students in this district over the years. I have run PTO's, coached sports, participated in music events, and shared many fundraising events. I have watched my daughter's team win the NVL's in soccer, and I've watched students that are friends of theirs, and students that I have had come up through the years with numerous awards for academics as well as sports. Over the last 12 plus years of being at the board of education meetings, I have seen countless students come up to be awarded on so many different levels. Sadly, we recently
079missed an extremely great opportunity to bring students in before the end of their time in our district. As a member of the team that puts on the plays and musicals at Watertown High School, I have seen some great talent come through our district. But in all my years of doing this, none comes close to what we saw this year with Phantom of the Opera. Some things of note. Watertown High School was not only the sole school in the state to perform this musical. It was the only school to do so in the Northeast and in the company of other only four other high schools in the entire nation. We performed six shows with four of them selling out, including a line of over 20 people hoping to get seats for the last show. We drew
080people in from surrounding states, some of which who called after midnight to ask the producer for tickets and others who came to see it more than once to see different cast members. That alone is phenomenal for a school the size of Watertown High School. As a crowning achievement, we were nominated for 17 Halo awards. What is a Halo? It is the Tony Awards for high schools. It's the best of the best competing for awards and we took home six of the top awards. Bless best classical musical, best actor, best supporting actress, best student director to name four. This is simply incredible. And while these are not academic or sports awards, they are just as important, just as magical, and just as close to the hearts of their parents. These students should have had the chance
081to be recognized before they graduated to go on to do great things in their chosen schools. We can now say that Watertown High School has one of the best theater programs in the state. And considering our smaller size, not only of the student body, but as a town of well as well, we drew in over 2,000 people to this theater and to this school. These actors and actresses deserve to be remembered by their school and by their board of education for their talent, advocacy, dedication, and work ethic. It's worth repeat. It's worth repeating to me that it's unfortunate that we miss this opportunity for those students. Thank you. Would anyone else like to come to the podium? Seeing none, moving on to finance report from Miss Koshuba. Good evening everyone. Um, as promised at the
082last meeting, I promised to give you guys an update um, mid midmon if you would um, to show you the progress that we're making on closing the uh, loop on um, the negative balance because everyone's concerned about whether we're going to make budget or not. So, I did provide you um, earlier in your binder um, the report that I gave you as of May 31st, 2025 showing that we were uh, at a negative balance of $720,000. Um, I'm happy to report that as of this past Friday, um, that balance is now down to only $200,000. We did receive um the third installment of or the supplemental excess cost, which was a good chunk of this. The remaining part of the the changes that you're seeing um and the shift in the money is again, if
083you were to look at the incumbrances, you'll see that we were at about 8 thou $8 million in incumbrances um at the end of May. um chasing down bills to finalize all those bills to make sure that we're not either over encumbered or under encumbered and we're really closing the gap on all of those. So, um I can say very confidently I believe that we should be coming in at budget by the end of the week. I could probably affirm that completely. So, um it's it's been a an arduous trail, but um well worth the effort and I'm happy and I'm hoping that town council will be just as pleased because we're coming through on what we have uh at least promised to do our best. And uh I'm I'm happy to report that I
084think we're going to come in a budget. Thank you. Thank you. Moving on to items of discussion. Meal prices increase from storm. Great. Good evening everyone. Um I don't have a presentation tonight. I already spoke with everyone two weeks ago about meal prices and the need to go up due to a variety of factors, food costs and labor costs and decreased participation. However, after the presentation and after we voted on the motion, we did notice a small typo that was in the first slide of the PowerPoint. It carried over into the rest of the PowerPoint and then unfortunately carried over onto the minutes. So, we just want to make sure that the board of ed members as well the public have the correct information on what our we are requesting to set our meal prices
085at next year. The small typo was related to the current middle school lunch price and the current middle school the current middle school lunch price and the current high school lunch price. So, everything breakfast that I presented two weeks ago is still remains the same and elementary lunch still remains the same. The current lunch price at the middle and high school is $3.50. So again, I proposed a 25 cent increase at Swift Middle School, meaning next year lunch will be $3.75 per meal. Um going up 50 cents at the high school because of the larger portions, because of the higher quality of food, because of the more choices, that will bring the high school to $4 next year. Um, again, all the other numbers that are printed were the same as you saw two weeks
086ago, but we just wanted to be really clear. Um, and of course own the the typo that was in the presentation. Any questions about those new meal prices? Thank you very much. Thank you. Moving on, communications, Miss Russell. Um, yes, correspondence has come in from three separate sources. Um, the board of education has received an email from a former coach. A letter came in regarding a foyer request by a former employee in relation to a data breach which the district is working to resolve. And a pition a petition came in today from 39 educators at Swift Middle School respectfully requesting a delay to the middle school schedule by one year to allow for a thorough and thoughtful transition that prioritizes the academic success and social emotional well-being of all students. Thank you. Moving on to
087committee reports, curriculum and instruction. Miss Hosking, no report at this time. Policy and labor, Mr. Meligudi, no report at this time, Madam Chair. Budget and finance and facilities, Mr. Gavales, there is no report. Governance and community engagement, myself, no report. Report from the board chair. No report. Action items. Adoption of items to be approved by consent. Consideration to approve the revised meal prices presented for the 2025 2026 academic year. It is recommended that the board approve the meal prices for the 2025 2026 academic year. Do I have a motion? Madam Chair, I move to approve the meal price for the 2025 20226 academic school year. Do I have a second? I second the motion. Any discussion? All those in favor? I opposed. Extensions. Motion passes. Consideration to pro approve a donation. Miss Dorothy Rinaldi of
088Watertown donated a Yamaha Grand DX500 to Watertown Public Schools with an estimated value of $900. It is recommended that the board of education approve this donation and a letter of appreciation to be sent to the donor. Do I have a motion? Yes, Madam Chair. I move to approve the donation of the Yamaha Portable Grant to Watertown Public Schools by Miss Dorothy Raldi with an estimated value of $900. Do I have a second? A second. Any discussion? All those in favor? I I opposed. Abstension. Motion passes. Moving on to future agenda items and board member comments. One comment through the chair. Yes. I just wanted to say thank you and wish Dr. Villano luck as your last regular board meeting with us. I have very much enjoyed working with you. You have from the time I've
089been working with you stayed steadfast to the the big picture and the long-term goals from Watertown. Um and have met that with with empathy. Um and I appreciated your your leadership and wish you luck. Thank you guys. Appreciate the greatness. Thank you through the chair. Yes. Um like to say the same. It's been a pleasure working with you, Doc, for all these years uh being on the board, hiring you and obviously being in uh numerous negotiations and all that throughout the years. It's been a pleasure working with you. Thank you for all you've done for our district. Thank you, Jason. Any other questions or comments? Yes. Through the chair. Yes. So, um I just want to um just speak to um my passionate testimony, I guess board member comments a couple weeks ago. So, while
090I do understand that in my passion for advocating for the students and staff of this district, I may have come across a bit stronger than usual at our prior board meeting dated June 9th, 2025. Um however, I do feel that my questions and very strong concerns regarding the district's master schedule at Swift School are not unfounded. As we can see by tonight's public comment by Mrs. Cindy Murphy as well as the petitions from the educators at Swift. There is something to be said when you have 38 out of 54 educators at Swift Middle School asking for a pause in the implementation of this new schedule. Of the 38, three, Maria Shannon, Cynthia Murphy, and Janet Sween are Watertown were Watertown teachers of the year. And of the three, two were special educators. When you have
091this whole scale level of concern by this many educators coupled with my personal special special education background, not only as a parent but also working within this community with families, attorneys, advocates, service providers, fellow nonprofit founders, as well as being on various boards and councils. My zealousness was not unfounded and this change greatly impacts all the students, not just special education. My ask in light, my respectful ask in light of this amount of vast amount of experience is that we just simply pause a bit before rushing into this and work more collaborative collaboratively with the schedule with the special educators so it truly benefits all the students while upholding the district's commitment to equity, excellence, and well-being. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Seeing none, we will now be moving into executive
092session. Do I have a motion to move into executive session with the purpose of interviewing candidates for the current interim administrative positions at Pulk Swift and Motortown High School? Yes, Madam Chair. I move to go into executive session with the purpose of interviewing candidates for current interim administrative positions um at Pope Swift Middle School and Watertown High School. In attendance will be Kareem Bellica, Cindy Failen, Christine Veressa, Karen Hosking, Christa Palumba, Dr. Villanoeva, Jason Maludi, Jim Gamberella, Lisa Fecky, myself, Elizabeth Lton, and Marie Kashuba. Do I have a second? A second. Any discussion? All those in favor? I oppose. Extension. Motion passes. We will be moving into executive session. Thank you everyone.