10/14/25 School Committee Meeting

001Okay. Good evening. I'd like to call this meeting of this family school committee September no >> October 14th 2025 to order. We all stand 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. Okay, as we begin our meeting tonight, we will first hear um the Fmouth Public Schools mission and vision and then our operating protocols. >> Okay, Zoom. >> Felmouth Public School mission. The Felmouth Public Schools creates worldclass student learning experiences. Our clippers are empowered to pursue their goals with curiosity, integrity, and resiliency. Found public school vision. Clippers are creative, inquisitive, and engaged learners who participate in their community as socially responsible citizens. Clippers effectively communicate and

002solve problems that impact the world around them. >> Thank you, Sue. Kelly, >> um, I'll do the introduction since this is the first time so people know what we're doing. So, um, as elected members of the Fountain School Committee, we, including the superintendent, accept the high honor and trust that's been placed in us to ensure that the Fountain of Public Schools creates worldclass learning experiences. Our clippers are empowered to pursue their goals with curiosity, integrity, and resiliency. And to that end, we hereby publicly commit collectively and individually to the following operating protocols. We shall represent the needs, interests, and achievements of all students in the district and place these above all else in the decision decisions that we make. We will make every effort to promote a positive image for our school district. We will

003keep an open mind and strive to make decisions by consensus using the best information available at the time considering available facts, research, best practice, public input, and the superintendent and other members recommendations, proposals, and suggestions. >> Thank you. Okay. Um, now I will read the statement. The school committee meeting will be in person for school committee members and the public. A remote option will remain available for community members unable to attend in person. You may join from a PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone or Android um device and listed below is the link for that. Okay. Before public comment tonight, I would like to hear from our school. >> Excuse me. >> You want to ask recording? >> Oh, >> okay. Hey, I'm sorry. I forgot the recording statement. Okay. >> Um, they pay me a lot

004of money. I should do a better job here. Okay. Um, the meeting of the Falma School Committee is being recorded in accordance with Massachusetts open meeting law. Anyone who wishes to make an audio or video recording of this meeting must first notify the chair. Please raise your raise your hand and make your presence known if you intend to record the meeting. Okay. Nobody nobody does. Okay. Um, so Belle, would you um give us the latest news from the high uh the high school? >> Thank you. >> Um, so last week was the midpoint of first quarter. So the fall season's flying by and then a few weeks ago we had homecoming Friday night um with the football game and then as well as like the senior days and the home um home games. So we

005had football and then boys and girls soccer as well as field hockey and those were all awesome. It was a beautiful day to support and we also had the Taco Blanco truck there for families and friends coming to hang out. So that was great. A lot of um support and then recently football had a huge win 40 to7 over Martha's Vineyard. So that was awesome. And then girls soccer same thing with a 2 to1 win over Sandwich. Those are some highlights fields. And then another upcoming event that I thought was important is the um grade aid stepup. So, it's an activities, athletics, and um election electives fair for eighth grade students to come to the high school. Um it'll be happening next week just to see what it has to offer and get excited about

006what their plans are um for the next four years. And then in student government, junior workday is happening for um the junior class. So, it's an all day um fundraiser in with the community. So, it's um yard work and outside jobs and it's raising money for their class, but it also involves um a lot of the community supporting class. So, it's great. And then another exciting announcement, the high school's DECA club has reached um Falmouth. So, it's the largest studentr run organization globally that um prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs and it focus them on careers in finance, marketing, management, and hospitality. It's very competitive and I'm glad it's finally made it because I knew um a lot of people are working on it but it's got to the high school so I think that'll be

007a great addition and yeah it's tough application and there's only 10 spots available so I'm excited to see what that brings and then tomorrow there will be the annual college and career fair so for upper classman so it'll be good. >> Wow, always a lot of things going on. Thank you. Thank you Bill. Okay. All right. >> The next item on the agenda would be public comment. I wanted to say something before we started. I was approached about having public comment by people zooming this meeting. I do not have an answer. Our policy on public comment is on the agenda tonight for a first read. So I will send the um inquiry about Zoom to the policy subcommittee for review. Okay. So now I'll read the public comment statement. Public comment will be limited to

00820 minutes. Members of the public are welcome to speak during public comment. Comments will be limited to 2 minutes in length. Due to the open meeting law, the committee cannot respond to or act on public comment. Additional comments and feedback can be submitted by email to school committeem.k12. us and also in our dropbox that's outside the door where you came in. So, now we'll begin our public comment. Um, we time it on that clock over there, so you can glance up if you so desire and see where you are in your twominut aotted time. Okay. And thank you for um all volunteering to speak. First person on the list is Megan Zati. So, Megan, >> thank you. I'm Megan Zodily and I live at 812 Carriage Shop Road. Tonight you're being asked to remove language

009from JICA, written language provided by the Massachusetts Department of Early of Elementary and Secondary Education. That Desi language is not a filler. It is protective, a safeguard for student rights and civil liberties. It states the responsibility for the dress and appearance of students will rest with the individual students and their parents and guardians. That means families, not administrators, decide how a child presents themselves as long as it is safe and non-disruptive. Before striking this protection, several steps requested by this committee still have not yet happened. One, an unbiased presentation of the unifor uniform policy. Two, an unbiased legal presentation of settled Massachusetts case law. Three, a survey of all stakeholders as promised. And four, a town vote about chapter 71 section 83. Until these are complete, removing that language is premature and unjust. If you

010vote tonight or at the next meeting, I urge you to vote on each policy separately, not as a group. Last time, several members of this committee objected to grouped votes and they were ignored. And remember, at your last meeting, you wore orange shirts for orange shirt day, a day honoring a child who was forced to remove a shirt that expressed her heritage and made her feel safe, all because of a school uniform. That story is the very reason this language exists, to prevent harm through forced conformity. The ACLU, an organization that defends civil rights, opposes uniforms like this one because deciding what success should look like is not your role. It belongs to our students and their families. Tonight, you have a choice. Protect student rights or take them away. Please stand on the right

011side of this decision and the right side of civil rights. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Okay, the next person on the list is River Zati. >> Hello everyone. My name is River Zadalia Hearn and I live at 812 Carriage Shop Road. I am talking here again to express how I feel about the Lawrence School dress code and about what you are taking out of the dress code. Specifically, how you are taking away the responsibility of parents and children to decide what they will wear. I believe that this is unfair and wrong in the eyes of students. I have talked to my friends and they agree with me. I believe that students should have the right to wear what they choose to wear and I am sure many other students would agree with me. The reason

012I think it is important that students and parents have the right to choose what the student wears is because without that right the student has no control over what they wear and that could affect their daily life. I still think what you are doing is wrong and I will keep fighting until the end. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay, next on our list is Matt Gomes. >> All right, good evening. My name is Matthew Gomes and I live at 57 Vidal A in East Falmouth. I'd like to start by saying thank you all for serving on this committee and giving your time. Tonight though, I'm speaking not just as a parent, but as someone who spent 21 years wearing a uniform while serving in the United States Army. I understand what a uniform represents. unity,

013professionalism, and shared purpose. But in the army, everyone wears it from the lowest rank to the highest. Because leadership means setting the example. No one is above the standard. That's why I'm concerned about a policy that asks students to wear uniforms while teachers and staff are free to express themselves. It unintentionally sends the message that individuality belongs only to those in authority. And that is not the kind of lesson we should be teaching our kids. If our goal is to teach discipline and professionalism, those lessons come from best of guidance, mentorship, and example, instead of mandating uniforms, we could maintain the wording that is currently in the policy to place the responsibility where it truly belongs. With parents and guardians, it's our role to teach our children what dressing for success means in the real

014world. Understanding context, taking pride in their appearance, showing respect for themselves and others. It seems misguided to take only a few words out of a policy instead of supporting the mass law section 83 which states school officials shall not abridge the right of students as to personal dress and appearance except if such officials determine that such personal dress and appearance violate reasonable standards of health, safety, and cleanliness. Uniforms also don't erase socioeconomic differences. Branded shoes and accessories can still highlight them. What they can erase, however, is a student's sense of individuality, something that is crucial in growth and confidence. I know the intent behind this policy comes from a good place, wanting equality and order. But Falmouth has always valued creativity and forward thinking. Let's reflect that in our schools. Let's help our kids learn

015that success isn't about conformity. It's about character, effort, and how we treat others. Thank you for your time and for considering this perspective. >> Thank you. Um, next on our list is Zoe Burns. >> Zoe, give me two seconds. >> Of course. [Music] >> Okay. Good evening everyone. My name is Zoe Burns and I live at 57 by Dela. I'm currently a sophomore at Fmouth High School and I have a brother entering Lawrence next fall. formerly was on the warrant committee at Lawrence where we worked towards making changes we saw necessary in our school. We were always told that writing to make major changes about our dress code of polos and khakis was a waste of time and we were told by administrators that dress for success was meant to ensure quality and allow everyone

016to learn in a safe environment. The Clipper experience highlights every student every day, stating our unwavering commitment to personalized learning for every student, including healthy social, emotional, mental, and physical development. In what way are we adhering to every student every day by placing a dress code on junior high students? I was a straight A students while attending Lawrence and I'm a straight A student at Helmouth High School while wearing clothes of my choice. I took my final exams in sweatpants this past spring and I passed every single one of them. My outfit does not define my success. I believe that this dress code policy should be reviewed and students voices should be heard and considered. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Okay. Um, next on our list is Amanda McGonov. Just as an

017aside here, you don't need to say your street number. Just your street suffices. Hi, my name's Amanda McGonagal. Um, Edgewood Drive. Um, I was going to read something that I had written, but I'm hoping to just kind of speak and appeal to each of you of like just to acknowledge like outside of these four walls where we are as a community and like as a country, right? And I feel like there are some people that might agree with me that everything feels like it's on fire. And um we are currently like it's a scary time for a lot of people. And I don't want to get political, but like it's I'll stick with facts. Like people are are disappearing from our streets while their kids are attending school. And you know there's like there's there's

018a gun crisis in America. There's a mental health crisis in America and with the decrease in funding for mental health like that gun crisis is probably going to get worse. And the fact that this agenda is two pages long and safety isn't on here in light of what just happened like direct to our community within the past couple of weeks is wild to me. Um because and I want to talk optics because that's like what I do for a living. Your words say that safety is a top priority, but your actions say that you want to discuss and act on all of these other things, that stuff's not going away. Like all the stuff that's on fire that everybody's afraid of, like we need to know that all of that aside, you've got our kids.

019And like this agenda doesn't show that you've got our kids. like this was just three weeks ago. How is it not still on this agenda? My questions went unanswered at the forum and I followed by the rules and I know I'm not the only one here. Like this needs to be a continuing conversation and I'm really disappointed it's not on here. >> Okay. Thank you, Amanda. Um the next person is last name of Matt. I'm not sure what your first name is. >> Travis. Okay. I was a teacher. I should be able to read these handwritings, but I I'm not. If you could just say your street address, then Travis. >> My name is Travis Map. I live on Felmouth Landing Road. I want to talk about two things that are seemingly unrelated but are

020very much connected. One is the lack of parent teacher conferences after middle school and two, schooly access for parents. These two things are connected because when my wife inquired as to why we don't have our son's schooly access, we were told, "Well, have a conversation with your child." I don't think that person has ever had a teenage child cuz teenage children don't share a lot, especially in things that could incriminate them. Um, this is important because as an educator, a career educator for 21 years, it has always been my experience that when home and school are talking, there's less latitude for a student to go astray. It's very easy to rein them back in. And when I have a student who scored four on the computer science AP exam as a freshman with a C

021in a class and his teacher doesn't even have a conversation with him, far less a conversation with his parents than I need to see what's going on behind the curtain. There is no technological reason why family of public schools can't grant parents access to schooly so we could see our students grades in real time. There is no reason for that. The other thing is parent teacher conferences. I mentioned the length of my career. I've taught in Maryland DC. I've even taught abroad. And I have never been in a district that does not have quarterly parent teacher conferences as a temperature check for students grades and to communicate with students and families where students are and where they should be. So not looking for an answer, just raising the question. >> Thank you very much, Travis.

022>> Okay, the next person on the list, is it Mark? >> Um, >> I just realize public comments. >> Oh, okay. Well, thank you. Thank you for all taking the time to um express your comments in public to us. Again, if anybody has something that they would like us to see, you can email us. >> I know I didn't list, but do we have enough time for >> Sure. Sure. Hi, my name is DM Rockwood. I live at Jeffrey Lane and I had no intention of making a comment until looking through this agenda this evening. And when it says navigating the future timeline for special meetings, it lists November 19th as a presentation for early childhood center and elementary school discussion. It lists December 2nd as the discussion of early childhood and elementary schools. And

023then it lists December 16th as discussion and act on early childhood center in elementary schools. And I was under the impression when I attended the last meeting of last calendar year that this whole year was going to work towards gathering public input, staff input, family input before we made or acted on any of these decisions. And that's literally two months away. And I haven't gotten any questions. I haven't been invited to any public forums. I haven't seen or heard from any parents or other staff members that have been asked about any of these issues. And it just makes me think at your last meeting a couple of weeks ago, there was a question from a committee member that asked, "If we vote on one portion of these, does that mean we're voting for everything and

024navigate the future?" And I never heard an answer to that. My answer is yes. I never heard anyone from this committee say, however, and this says to me that we're not doing or you're not doing what I was under the impression was going to happen. So, this scares me a little bit because it's a really short time frame and I haven't heard any cons of any of the proposals. Thank you. >> Thank you, De. >> Okay, that will end public comment and now we will hear um the reading of the Wong No acknowledgement. >> Fmouth Public Schools acknowledges that we are gathering on Dmit public schools acknowledges that we are gathering on the unseated ancestral land of the Wampaog nation. We recognize and respect the Wanog people including those of Sakanesset Woy Cipoiset Tekk and

025Chapquat as original stewards of what is now known as the town of FA and honor their enduring relationship with this land. This land acknowledgement is an intentional act to counter the eraser of indigenous people and to demonstrate respect for their sovereign rights. We are committed to educating ourselves and our students about the long-standing history of the Wampenog people. In alignment with the core values of the Felmouth Public Schools, we pledge to build on ongoing partnerships with the Wampenog nation. >> Thank you, Glenda. Okay, next on our agenda is an update from the superintendent. >> Thank you, Terry. >> So, the first um item on uh my update is about safety. Um we have the police detail uh will remain in the four elementary and Morris Pond school as I have stated in um my letter

026family letters home uh and you know on Friday, but I do want to repeat it tonight. So, the four elementary schools in Morris Pond until further notice. Um the police cars will still not be at the schools for um foreseeable future due to the ongoing vehicle maintenance um program. Um we are conducting Alice uh drills um during October, November. We have not given notice to families prior to drills in the previous year. So, this is a new practice this fall, but we thought because of the recent um safety concerns that it was important for us to uh make sure that parents had prior notice to the drills. So, parents um kind of alleviate um concerns and know that these are drills. Um we also are protocol in the schools with students um is to repeat

027that these are drills multiple times and and students are trained with that. Um so um but we do think it's very important for us to move forward and continue to have drills in the schools. Um so um we after the drills are done in um you know the last one done in November then we're going to reassess about our practice moving forward. you know, if we'll return to our our practice in the past, um we are keeping track if any uh parents are um sharing any concerns they may have and we'll revisit this um if we'll return to our past practice or we'll continue this year um you know with giving notice. Um also I've shared in the past about um upgrading our camera system. Um the team is uh reviewing, researching um and pretty

028close I think to decision- making on that. uh what we need is uh to wait for the funds at the November town meeting to be appropriated. I will say that it'll probably also necessary for us to uh request funds at the April town meeting. Um, so as I give you updates um at each school committee meeting um on safety, we'll we'll let you know certainly once um it's voted at the town meeting uh we can share a little bit more about that appropriated amount and um what we're able to do and then we'll talk about what we're also going to need to ask for in April. um with that. Excuse me for the throat. Um okay, so um so the next thing uh is the competency determination. Some of you might be uh remembering this

029from a discussion last year. As a reminder, uh in November 2024, this was a question uh statewide uh and the vote was to remove the high school MCCAST assessment uh as a part of the um graduation requirement. Um prior to the vote, um the MCCAST assessment was the compensate determination um and that was handled at the state level. Um so although that the MCCAST assessment was removed, we're still having MCCAST at all the grade levels. Um and we'll hear more about in a little bit from um last year's MCCAST. Um the competency determination was not removed. Uh so last year we um came uh to view to vote on um IKF conditions to receive a diploma. Um and that was kind of revising um about what the graduation um was requirement was going to be.

030since um that was removed but still uh required a CD which is what it's called the counseling determination. Um so we did a first read early in January and then on January 28th um we complied with the law with your vote um for the revisions um to that uh policy and a couple ancillary um policies as well like homeschool etc. that was also um related to it. So, um, we mentioned to you at that time that that that it was a it was very quick turnaround from the November vote to us having to have that in, uh, in January. So, um, we figured the guidance would come. Well, guidance did come from Desi and, um, our team had spent time, um, and I'll talk about the team in a second, cross- referencing the guidance with

031our policy that we had. Then, MASK also uh, released the model policy. And so um the team um Dr. Tyer led the team and we had Dr. Harris um our system principles department heads the guidance department um recommended revisions um to um what our new local policy based on the guidance and based on the the model policy um will be. So um we uh are going to present it to policy subcommittee um at the October meeting and the November meeting and then we will um bring the first read to the school committee on November 24th and second read and approval on December 9th and the DESIE submission um is in December and that was a push back timeline. They did have it as October. Uh I think they recognized that um there wasn't enough time

032for districts to actually review everything and get it together. So they did push that off, but it is due on December 31st. So as I said, our team has been working on it. We do have the revisions now ready to go to policy subcommittee and we'll follow our our regular process on that. So I wanted to give you an update on that. um our solar leases. The town has approved the uh the leases and uh that includes the solar uh new solar agreements for the town which includes North Falmouth and Falmouth High School uh solar plans that we've uh reviewed with you and the select board will vote on the agreements on October 27. So I'll have a update uh hopefully that'll go through. Uh I just want to say that that is the the

033last uh this is the last time we got in just under um the timeline um for the um Biden incentives for uh solar. Uh so um this will be the end of that. Um we today we received uh an abutters um notice. Uh the um uh Habit for Humanity um of Cape Cod is building four um properties, four homes. Uh and so they're asking for a variance of the title five property. The reason we received it is because a butters received this and the houses will be built on a a piece of property that abuts the Fmouth High School. Um so there will be a meeting. If you're interested in attending the meeting, um you may do so. If you let me know, we'll we'll work that out. At your seats, um is the uh

034the guidance u newsletter from the high school which always has lots of great things. I will say that the college fair is mentioned in here, the college fair which is phenomenal. Um it's just unheard of the amount of um schools and etc that um that you know branches of service career opportunities that actually attend this. Um but the date and the times here if the school committee is interested in attending it's it's really fabulous. But the whole newsletter is great. >> Come visit me if you go. >> I'm going to be there. >> You'll be a table >> about health education. >> Great. Um and then um in here I wanted to also share um you know as the year of the clipper we're sharing something uh each time and the show um actually showcases

035our artists and writers uh at Fmouth High School. So um there's some fabulous um artwork and writings in here from our students um high school students. So this was last year's and I just wanted to to share this is perfect example of excellence um in education. So, want to share that with you. And finally, um I'm going to share a little bit about a um a book that um that we've been reading uh and it's called We Move Together. And I have to tell you, it is it's a um children's book, but I will tell you, I believe that some of our best messages are in children's books. And so, uh as adults, uh last year, I I brought um one of the books that we were really concentrating on last year. And so this

036this year and I have a copy for you I'll give out in a few minutes. Um but in found with public schools I mean we try to recognize and respect and embrace our commonalities and our differences. And you know so when we think about belonging and we think about high achievement we think it goes hand in hand. So when we give space uh where kids feel like they're seen and valued and supported, they'll be able to thrive in their learning and also thrive in life and they'll be able to reach their potential. So in order to have this vision um we need to to foster that culture um of belonging uh equity and excellence. And so that what we hope is it's really is the fabric of Fmouth public schools of our district and that

037every every member does belong. So one way that we share that vision is through books. And so this is our book um that we've selected to really focus on. Um so we move together uh speaks volumes about inclusive education where every student uh and every staff member um feel like they belong. So, you're going to hear a little bit more about this from Henry during the um presentation of Day of Belonging. He and Sonia will I believe are up very soon. Uh but uh also want to let you know that Henry provides 1-hour workshops and so if anyone's interested in actually um being a part of a workshop, if you'll let us know um that's available as well. So, I just I'm going to >> Do you mean listening or be part with him? We're

038working together, >> working working with Henry in a workshop, an hour workshop. >> You do not want to live. >> But this this is a lovely book and I really encourage you to read it. >> And then seriously, please get up with us if you'd like to be a part of a workshop. And that does it for my update today. >> Thank you very much. I've read this book and it is from the mouths or to the mouse heads of children. You can often get a lot of wisdom. >> Yes, you can. >> Okay. Next on our agenda is a presentation on a day of belonging. I believe >> that would be Henry, right? >> Henry and Sonia. >> Yes. >> Tag team. I've never been across the room from you, Sonia. Usually you're next

039to me. So >> that's all right. I I'm trying to get it up in presenter mode. I think I've >> I don't know what I've done. >> Questions on the >> I'm sorry. >> Excuse me. Questions on the superintendent update. I don't see it presented. >> Ask questions. >> Yeah, we we do. >> We ask questions. >> I didn't see it. >> But we moved along. Can you >> I know I'm trying to go. >> Thank you. >> There it is. >> So, um, thank you for the opportunity for Henry and I to share a little bit about last Friday's full day professional, uh, development workshop. This was our fourth annual, uh, a day of belonging. So, with a day of belonging, we start out with an overarching focus. And over the past few years,

040we've really spoken broadly about our work around diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. And this year um at the request of a number of our teachers and instructional leaders and through the feedback that we've gathered over the past couple of years, we focused in more on the sense of academic belonging or what it means to belong in a learning environment, how it relates to our work on MTSS or multi-tered systems of support and really capitalizes on our partnership with Katie Novak of Novak Education. And uh what I like about this aspect is that this work is not you know additional or side or some people it's all of us. What is the expectation for all staff not just teachers or all staff involved? And so that was a a very powerful time to to just work

041these out these issues out. >> So as we focused in on that we were able to welcome uh a member of Katie Novak's staff. So Dr. Chris Bronkey who has um over 20 years of experience both as a teacher and as an administrator. He was a English department head at a high school in Chicago. He came in and he kicked off our day with the opening keynote and we stayed and continued to present throughout the day. And when he set up the keynote, he had two goals attached to our focus or our theme for the day. The first was reflecting on what it means to belong in an academic setting and how that impacts decisionmaking uh for educators in an understanding and applying the un uh universal design for learning framework and principles the concept

042of what it means to academically belong in classroom culture. So here here's what he said in in order to understand this a little bit better. He said let's talk about an analogy. The idea is that you go to a party and you can be fed, but when you leave, right, you're not only full, but you're fulfilled. And he walked us through the analogy in terms of, you know, if he's going to host a party and all he provides are hamburger hamburgers, how many people couldn't eat? And so people who are vegetarian or people who just prefer not to have a hamburger, they're like, "Well, we can't." And he said, "Okay, now take that and think about what it means to be in a classroom and making sure that everyone in the classroom can participate. Everyone

043has a chance to eat. If you follow the analogy, not only eat to be full, but actually eat to be fulfilled and enjoy what they are having." >> And I think just as a as a system, someone that's looking at academically, I want every kid to go to class and say, "I got the the most the best thing out of it. I'm so filled. I don't like that raw burger, but I like that. Mine's well more more well done, but I just want it the way I like it the way it's presented. And I just I I like to see um students coming out of class, coming out each year going I've I've totally experienced it and this is a powerful thing. And that's the message of belonging that that this class was meant for

044me, designed for me and uh now I can be thriving. So that was a unbel the academic we if we sit down and talk about what is academic belonging that would be a great discussion of like what does it mean for each student. So uh this was a powerful analogy >> and so while we're talking about food one of the other things that we changed just around the sense of belonging was um finally being able to realize our hope and intention around food trucks. So during lunch a great number of those who participated in the day remained on campus and they had an opportunity we had four uh different food trucks there each representing a different type of cuisine and people either gathered in the cafeteria uh some joined they brought their lunch to the

045equity leaders meeting in the library um and some sat outside but an opportunity too for people to continue the conversation from the morning but also celebrating with >> and you can see me on the you know I was going to say you can see me on the far right there and I did go to every single truck to decide which one I wanted and it took like I think the the the the choices was really difficult for me. So I did choose the small line but I really wanted to sample each one but that was next time we have to bring them over. If we have trucks we have to bring >> What did you choose? >> All right I went Filipino but there was them Jamaican and then there was there was too many

046too many too many options but I went Filipino this time. I don't know why I must have put the website. I'm trying out Canva from presentation and not downloading it separately to Google. So, sorry about that. Ed, >> so you've got your book and this is not just something that we're just giving you. We are using this is a motto. This is a a way of thinking when people are going what is what's our equity team are doing? This is what we're doing. So, we delved in uh each equity team came into the library. We had him sit sitting by their class uh by their school and uh we engaged with this book and really there was some there's three powerful pages. One dealing with you know if you're different you have differences of opinion

047how do you feel belonging? There was a couple of others that we really diged into and um through those discussion if I do if we do a workshop we have to discuss it through that discussion they started thinking about ways that they can do uh belonging throughout the year and then after that discussion they started to work on their plan for the year and some of the um teams um basically uh informed the whole all of us what they're doing so uh I think one team is doing a book and trying to learn that way and others are doing just are collaborating. Um, so it it was a powerful time and I'm so glad that we're doing this each year that that the the equity team can come together and say this is what we're

048doing this year and then we can move together. So that was a powerful time and uh it was it was really good. I wish we had more time but um that was uh that was very good. So this is not just a kids book that we just said this and we went to elementary. said this the high school got one and said how are we moving together in high school as well as elementary. It's powerful statement. >> So as we think about moving together and um our day together in the day of belonging there were a handful of choice sessions available designed by department heads and made available to some of our teachers. They range from looking at some of resources that Desi puts out for multilingual students in sheltered English instruction, um the science

049of reading for adolescent readers for what it means in the secondary classroom because we've put a lot of time and attention at the elementary classroom with our new literacy program. Uh amplifying native and indigenous voices and stories uh across subjects. So not just limiting it to social studies, for example, but what it could mean across all subjects. And then um we had a team uh of our math and science department heads offer workshops on the science of retrieval and brain science and aiding with memory for uh learning and for study habits. And then we had some added areas of attention. So we focused in through uh the work introduced by uh Dr. Broni in lesson planning. Uh not just preparation for different student groups, but more universally for our new literacy program in EL education

050because we want to continue to support the implementation um culturally responsive teaching in the brain and digging into the work of Zaretta Hammond who our department of education partnered with to change uh our educator evaluation rubrics and to develop a lot of the different workshops that they have available around pedigogy and teaching. Um we did spend some time working uh and and sort of uh exploring some curiosities with artificial intelligence. Uh part of the lesson planning tool introduced um by Dr. Broni included some prompts that could create efficiency and planning for small groups or individual students. So we explored some of that. uh we offered an opportunity for language ambassador training which is provided by the department of education for how to engage and work with interpreters and translators efficiently. Um and then we had

051a session also in the morning on outdoor learning and so uh that particular group was outside navigating as the food trucks pulled in. So they got uh a first view right of everything coming in. Um so really we had a lot of opportunity across the day to diversify experiences. Some were um provided specific to different teams of educators based on their roles and some cross people across subjects roles and grades. I think uh Sonia and I were tag teaming on the culturally responsive teaching in and the brain and uh that that session was derailed because this was the first time we really dugged in on what is AI how is how how can it be um used or can't be used and just just that first this is the first time we just kind of

052like let's look into it instead of you can't do anything about it but we just looked at it and it caused a lot of heated discussion. It was like what are you doing? So it was really cool to uh get in uh to you know what what is appropriate usage of AI in this time and so uh >> not heated in a in a challenging way heated in a like super curious like wow look at everything that it can do. >> My voice was raised. I'm just going to say that my voice was raised. Can I add in because I was with the the uh the um K to6 uh group with the um EL education and uh it's really remarkable because they were by grade level across schools and just some really great planning.

053They were very excited about uh a lot of feedback um about um the presentation in the morning and then they were really digging into their lesson planning but the cross school collaboration was um was really great. So I just want, you know, it was it was nice to to get to see all the >> I I think the the plan was it was really good that the teachers ask for this. Sometimes we have speakers and then the speakers leave and then that's it. But this time we have a speaker that stay there and then the teachers and staff got together and digged in and I thought that was powerful. So not it's not just like up here but now what does it mean uh to do it and that I thought that was that was

054very a very good addition. And um I'm glad the teachers asked for it and we we were able to um to to serve that. >> So the premise of the um the presentation about the universal design is that when you're designing your lesson plans, we really are making sure that every child is feels that you belong, right? And that's the whole, you know, the party analogy that you gave. But when you're doing your plan, what is it that every student needs? And I have attended a lot of these over the years, but um never presented so great as the keynote that we had that that they really and that's what the teachers were saying. It just made it >> like you could really understand it like it just brought it down and you knew that

055you could walk away and you could do something that to make you know the lessons and all accessible for everyone. And so that's that that's the premise. But it was it was really good. It was powerful. And then um Henry and I decided that we didn't do enough picture taking, but we do have a few last pictures we can share with you. Um just to kind of show the level of conversation. Um these are sess sessions that were situated in classrooms. Like I said, we were uh pretty well all over campus in a number of different areas. I think we made use of nearly every room in the high school on Friday. >> Um >> I'm going to add the one on the uh the far um left are secretaries. you know, the the the

056work of belonging is not just one. It's secretaries when they were engaging, they were like, "What what can we do in our workspace that that when students or parents come and they feel like they're getting what they they need?" And so, um, I I like the the aspect that it is for all of us to, um, we're all in in this in this, um, especially you, but, we're all in this, um, endeavor to make sure that this is the worldass, uh, educational, uh, institution that we have. So, that was I I love that. >> And so, we've dubbed the day a day of belonging. Um, in the past few years, we tried to pause on just strictly digging into a particular content area for a group of educators and really tried to be more intentional

057around being uh interdisciplinary um sharing out as Lori was talking about, Dr. Dor was talking about the collaboration among schools and grade levels. Um, and this is an opportunity that it's uh catching the attention and actually was developed internally uh at the school level and then ideas were presented to us uh for us to create the day. So, thank you. >> Yeah, thank you. >> Are there any comments or questions starting with our usual rotation? Kell, >> sound sounds like a great day. >> Susan, >> I'm good. Thank you for >> I'm sure there was, but I'm just asking, was there a staff feedback form that was sent out and and have you collected the results for that? Um would you mind sharing that at some point and not you know not at a meeting

058but maybe just letting us know how it was received? >> Yeah I I mean we can tell you uh just the initial responses were largely positive people asking for more resources but we can we can take another look. >> Sure. I usually wait till the end, but mine kind of goes along with Glenda's. Um, if we could hear from the mouth of a teacher or students, just an example, if people doing things is very powerful in my opinion. So, you know, you could throw that in. Okay, I went out of order, but that's okay. Michael, >> um, >> Mr. Halen, >> I have I have nothing except for what, uh, Glendon and Terry said. I'd like to get not specifically but an overall you know some kind of a chart how people thought it went

059and what they could do differently. Um that's a thank you. >> Yes I would be interested in that also. Um, I I really was excited by what the way you were describing the cross school collaboration and the way Lori and your yourselves were describing that sounds amazing. And then to hear that the ideas were presented to you from below is wonderful and I hope that there can be more of that. The idea that there can be a workshop as powerful as this sounded like that was originated by the staff um is I think what you said. Yeah, >> that's great. I was so excited to hear that. Um, I wondered if you could just elaborate um Sonia a little bit on the outdoor learning >> portion. What did that actually entail? >> So um Carmela

060May, our learning partnership specialist um presented on the power of outdoor learning and how to support students. We use the high school campus, but really um set it up so that it can cross over all of the different learning experiences our students are um attending as part of the partnership. So just focusing in on how to make sure that those are successful and students feel like they can access them regardless of their needs. >> Um just to elaborate a little bit more, is that like Ben Harden's is there more than Ben Harden and the ropes course for outdoor learning? >> So all of our exper I'm pointing as if you know that Carmela's office is just outside the door. Sorry. Um, so beginning in kindergarten with Oceans Day, each grade level has at least one

061experience situated in the community relative to our um either science or math standards. Some go to social studies and are more um civic oriented, but um each grade level, like I said, has at least one. Then we go up to third grade where they start to have three or four and it kind of expands out. And so just making sure that anyone who's attending those trips with students can help make it as impactful and support it as well as they can. >> Thank you. That helped because I was imagining on campus physically going outside learning. So that helps. Thank you. >> Sorry you. >> I know but I had a question. >> Yes, >> maybe it's to Henry. I'll ask I'll start with Henry. The AI the AI discussion. Are you all looking at different

062programs for certain industry standards or are you just overall talking about AI? I >> I think with this this situation, we're looking at at uh the AI as a um as an assistance. So, we're not looking at one particular and I think that'll be in another group that to talk about which one we're doing, but basically the speaker was saying this can be an incredible uh assistance. So, you need to know all the information, but then you can basically say, "Listen, I have a student that has this needs and um and needs uh this standard and what are good strategies." You plot that in. They give you a prompt and then again, you have to use make sure this is appropriate. But for some teachers, they're like, "No, no, no, no. I can't. I will

063not." And that's fine. But those who will, this might be a good assistant for you to help you instead of going through a thick big piece of book, a little, you know, all these things and going here. And here you have something that goes real quick. But I'll tell you, you know, where we are at, some are like yes and others are going no. And so that was the where we're at that kind of situation. But we have a group that's meeting >> well and that's in the context of of a day of belonging, but we're using the Department of Education's guidance document that they released I think it was early August um to guide conversations and decision making. So we continue to take that a little piece at a time about a 40page document

064to guide conversations. >> Yeah. I mean AI now is similar to the late 90s early 2000s coding with C++ and all that good stuff. So I mean yeah you can use AI to make funny pictures and you know that stuff but it's it's very takes a lot of time to actually make it worth. That's why it asked if it was for a a specific industry and just a general overview and how it can be used. >> Yeah. Starting with the overview, but the idea of literacy, right? And even just like digging in and talking about prompts and the power of how the prompt creates what you may or may not have. >> Yeah. >> Yep. >> It's a lot of work to get your prompts right. Okay. That's it. Thank you very much. >> Thank

065you for your presentation. >> Okay. The next item on the agenda is a presentation on enrollment. All right. There's all this stuff. All right. And we're ready to go. All right. So, um the this school year's in enrollment uh by school. Uh you can see um the high schools at 686 um Lawrence and Morris Pond um being you know mid mid 400s uh East Bamouth at 314. that does include the preschool. Um, and the preschool um on as of this presentation, this is all October one official data um or unofficial because it doesn't really become official until it goes through Desi, but um but our official data um that we sent to DESIE uh was 135 um for the preschool. Um so Mllen Hall at 337 um close behind at North at 324 and Ticket

066at 226. Um you'll see out of district of 29. Um this may seem a little lower than we have seen in the past. I just want to um caution that. Um already um this was October 1. We're on October 14th and we've already had two additional students. Um so we're at 31 right now. Uh, and this changes throughout the school year. >> I just want to make that's out of district special ed, right? Not just like kids out of district. >> Yeah, out of district special. >> They're out the out of district place. That's what we refer to. Um, and um, let's see. So, uh, enrollment by grade. Um, I want to point out here, um, as grade four, you can see is our, um, biggest grade level, um, for over 250. It was just

067a few short years ago uh when we were all excited. Uh we had over 250 come in at kindergarten. Um so that was a big year. So you can see um the uh differences. Our uh kindergarten this year was 173. So that's 80 between our fourth grade which was our largest group um at 259 and kindergarten this year at 173. You can see that that's an 86 um student drop from fourth grade to kindergarten. Our school choice um it is um kind of unheard of. I'm not sure how this happened, but um FY26 is the same as FY25. Um so this school year, same as last year at 175 um each. And you can see um you know the different years from 22, 23, 24. We had a drop um there um right after um

068the co years um and then we are picked back up with our our school choice. >> Can I ask a question as we go or you want >> whatever? >> Okay. So this is like gross students in right. This is not taking into account anyone any students at school choice. >> Correct. This is school choice. Just making sure. >> Yep. School choice >> and all the school choice. So >> right. >> Yeah. Total school school choice. >> Um here's our enrollment a five-year comparison. As you can see, it's um you know, as we have presented many times, it's a it's a steady um decline. Um using the uh Cape Cod collaborives method of that we used um over a year ago. um looking at the the enrollment, you know, it's about 2% each year and

069it's continued to show that our multilingual learners um same percentage as last year at 7.9. Um so it's holding steady. Our students with disabilities were slightly up at 24.9 the first point. Our economic disadvantaged um up slightly. We were holding for three years. We're holding right there on the up uh upper 30s and now we've pushed into to the 40. Uh FY2 um 2 shows the the 41%. And um here is uh broke down by race, ethnicity. Um as you look at these numbers, they're pretty steady from last year. There's not a lot of change at all. Um uh that's it. Okay. Any comments or questions? I guess we'll start in this up. >> Um I I would find it I don't know if we can do this, but I would find it helpful to

070have some time to look through that and then have comments and questions at a future date because that was a lot of um data. I don't know if we can do that, but I was not able to absorb that or process it or have any commentary really. Um I think the thing that stood out to me the most was slide two with the grade four the highest and then it drops off before and after that. And that's curious to me. Um I would love to dig into that more and find out why grade four is the highest enrollment. Um >> well that was a kindergarten coming in and so we've always had bubble years on that slide. The next highest was 8th grade and that was our other kind of bubble year. So we've had

071those periodically. >> That's what I mean. I didn't have time to really analyze it at all. So I'm not going to have um >> No, I know. I'm just trying to explain that that it may have been the highest, but we we tend to do it, but it then it kind of it drops into kind of like the next level when we um were showing over like the the longer period of time. >> I heard you speak a couple years before. >> Okay. >> Um so I don't know if it's possible to revisit this at a future meeting after it would be also helpful to have a printed version of it. >> Um which I think we usually do and then I can sort of take notes and refer and look at it. Those are

072my comments for now, >> Mike. >> Um, yeah, I agree with the printed thing because normally when you all are talking, I'm looking at my pieces of paper cuz I can't see that far. >> I was also hoping I don't know where Ryan went, but if uh we can hit that X on that participants button, does that screen get bigger? Because I couldn't. The presentation was smaller than it normally is if that makes sense. But anyhow, um yeah, having it on paper either before or at least during so I can go along with it because there was one slide um I don't know towards the end oh I know what it was the enrollment right and the enrollment bar chart it's like goes down but I didn't know what the numbers were whether >> increments

073>> yeah I couldn't read the side numbers so I'm like oh that's a big dip but I couldn't read like if you go back to that one just for a second I didn't want to ask in the middle. I think I should have, but um I thought it was like 3100 down to 23, but I couldn't see that far. >> Okay, I got to set it back up. So, hold on. But other than that, I I agree with my colleague, uh Miss Neans regarding printed copies. Um there's a couple more over there. >> Yeah. So that one I can't see the like the lowest number. I think it's 2600. >> No. So here's the total of this year is 2825. >> Oh 2825. Okay. So if we go back to that one, what's the highest

074one there? >> So it's um almost 3,100. >> 3100. 2825. So you that's uh what's that? 275. Okay. I just I couldn't see the numbers. So, because of the the bar chart starting off at whatever it is, 24, it it looks like it's a much larger decline than if they were full bars. And my only issue was, and I'm not I'm not discussing the numbers themselves, but just the view of it. I couldn't see what was happening. So, printed would be good. I still want that participant window closed, but >> don't do it. Wait for wait for Ryan. >> I'll like lose the whole >> Exactly. >> Any comments? >> Um I have two um question and then a comment. Following up on Kelly um my colleague Miss Welch's um question about the um inmigration

075of school choice that was 175 students but um do you have or could you get us numbers on the out migration of school choice? >> We can it's I don't know that the report is ready yet. >> We can do it for last year. >> We can't do it for this year yet. >> I have I don't have all the information for this year. reported January 1st >> and then I usually share during that time. Yeah. >> So it's not the October 1st. Um >> they're they're getting all their October 1st certified and then we and then we we'll hear from it. So >> So is the school choice number of 175. Is that >> we know which kids are here? No, we we know who's here >> because they're part of our enrollment of

076October one. >> Okay. Okay. >> It has to be verified where the other students are. >> Okay. um that would just be helpful to to know that. And then my other um just a comment, we sort of touched on it when we had our last meeting um about the numbers for Lawrence school um and how you know kids may opt to go to the tech schools and um so I'm hoping at some point we could maybe discuss um ideas for a retention and a recruitment ment um plan for students not only who are in the district but also I know other schools are are really getting kind of um savvy about out of out of district uh or school choice school choice um students and I know there's a pipeline Valmouth to Mashp to Bstable

077and you know so everyone does it and so just how we can kind of capitalize on in that that system too to get kids to come here and stay here. Um so >> um in in every grade no matter why they're leaving. So um so that's those are my comments. >> Okay, we can we can we can share some we've increased um our um opportunities to meet with the students at Morris Pond and and Lawrence and talk about the high school and and such. So we we can talk a little bit about that. We're going to end up having a presentation soon um on the new regulations around um CTE, care for technical ed um and what we have to do there. So um we're on our way getting that presentation. There's more new regulations

078on that. we will encompass what we're what our new what our previous plans and what our additional plans are with making sure that that students know um with high school >> and marketing because like when we started on the committee there was no marketing but now we have like videos on TV and social media and stuff. >> Yep. >> So we can share that. So good question. Thank you. >> So >> I'd also like to have the presentation in print. Um but also what strike is striking to me is the fact that kindergarten is now down to 173 from 203 last year and so much of the information that was provided to us by uh NASDAQ is coming true including the Falmouth high school in the 600 range >> and that's not a healthy environment

079and East Falmouth isn't a healthy envirment. environment. Um, so if we could just update some of the information from NZDAC adding 2025, um, I think it would be helpful to us. >> I don't any questions. It's not a surprise. It looks exactly as I anticipated it probably would. Um, thank you for reporting on it. >> Yeah, >> just one follow. Um, I heard my colleague, Miss Cohen, ask for um ideas, I think, ask for ideas for how to stem flood out for all grades. Um, that would be interesting to me. I've heard a lot of talk about the high school and retaining at grade nine. Um, but, uh, I know also for the superintendent, it's helpful to know how many people on the committee are interested in ideas like that. So, I'm not sure, Chairwoman

080Maduras, if you could give like an informal ing at one meeting. That would be helpful so Dr. Dor knows who's interested in that. >> Um, so you want this particular question hand raised? >> Well, uh, Miss Cohen had asked for a presentation and I don't know who else is interested in it and it might be useful for the superintendent to know how many of us are. Can I ask a clarifying question through you to my colleague over here? I'm assuming that she's looking for a presentation on a plan for retention of students across all grades. >> That's a question from she's >> Oh, I'm sorry. Um well yes that would be part of it but I'm also wondering u given our given the environment on the Cape where all populations seem to be diminishing and

081you know these are challenges that schools are facing Capewide more of a strategic plan I guess um as opposed to we made a brochure for this or you know that's great that's that's But what are forward thinking? Is there a is there a strategy? Are we thinking of doing um doing things collaborating with other school systems? I I I don't know. Um but I think that this these numbers are pretty dire and maybe call for some um long longer range thinking. Along that line, um the um collaborative has data on populations of every town and schools and everything. We can reach out to them and it it's always good to look at what's going around on around us. I mean, you know, how are things going on the Cape? So, you could throw that into

082future. >> Yes, Mike. >> If I if I could again echo what uh Miss Cohen had just said, if everyone's dealing with the same population issues and we all have very similar pros and cons living on the Cape, I would think that we're looking for some kind of a new idea, a new initiatives to bring students here as opposed to born, Mash, Sandwich, Barsville, etc. um with that CTE if we if we we widen that out but a presentation of like what are we doing to stand out from the the rest I think is kind of a good way to say it >> I would be interested in that presentation also for the record >> okay one thing too that people don't like you to say but sometimes um putting two schools together might not

083be such an outlandish idea in this day and age like born in Falmouth, you know, putting them together and sharing, you know, I don't know, just something to look in the long range, you know. So, so any other questions or comments? All righty. The next item on the agenda then would be um presentation on MCCAST. >> So, Dr. tell you easier to navigate. Use Google Slides for this one. All right. Thank you uh for the opportunity to share with you uh information relative to the spring 2025 administration of the MCCAST assessment. Um, one of the things that uh I think is a standout and we've heard it uh in a number of different media outlets and the Department of Education and their own press releases is that in some grades there was uh sort of

084a plateau of progress. We're going to see some of that. And then also for us there's particular bright spots in achievement and growth and I want to be able to call those out especially relative to um a variety of different um undertakings in which we're involved including updating our curricular resources. So in this presentation I'm going to start out with English language arts. I'm going to talk about achievement growth continue on to math and then conclude with science. So this is a summary of our progress uh in each assessed grade from grade three through 10. So the grades are laid out left to right at the bottom and then the percent of students who are meeting and exceeding it's combining those two levels of proficiency. Um so the darker or the maroon bar is Felmouth

085and then the lighter uh I guess displays over there is peach bar is the state and you can see at each of the grade levels we are either coming alongside or ahead of the state with the exception of grade seven. Um so one of the things that we focused in on in grade seven is unraveling where in particular in the standards um we need to spend more of our energy and in particular uh with this with this cohort it's in the standards around writing and so the team has developed common assessment and they are reviewing the curriculum at grade seven to respond to uh the particular need of that cohort as it wasn't a demonstrated need in the cohorts that preceded them. So they are focusing their attention on that. Um also in our EL

086education there's specific curriculum that um the writing is included within. It's not a separate curriculum where we're doing exercises independent of what the students are reading and discussing. So all of that being integrated is also um part of our responsive plan. And um I would also like to call out so in grade three you can see that for Falmouth the percent meeting and exceeding is at 47% and for this state it's at 42%. Um that cohort at grade three so each year we test a different cohort of students but the grade three itself year-over-year so different students each year has continued to increase the percent that's meeting and exceeding. So students continue to have the explicit phonics instruction of foundations which is now switched to the phonics that's embedded in the um e education and

087then we're using foundations um for student intervention and more small groupoup uh instruction so the phonics will move at a slightly faster pace in our new e education. So we anticipate seeing as those new routines are in place um that to continue to rise. So that was just one of the pieces that we're seeing in the earlier grades and then over time seeing that play out um across other grade levels as the students advance. Digging in a little bit and focusing on student groupings um and student membership in these groups. So um all students is on the far left and then there's three other student groupings. lowinccome students with disabilities and high needs. That's moving um left to right on the bottom line. Um we group grades three through eight because at some grade levels

088we don't have a high enough um number of students in each of the groups to report out at each individual grade level. So yeartoyear it's hard to to show that through line. So pulling the grade three through eight report allows us to consistently year-over-year report out on the performance of students. Um we see that in grades 3 through eight we are ahead of the state in each of the student groups with the exception of students with disabilities. And so one of the things when we were digging in and studying this is we can see that um as we go back in grade so at grade six we had an increase in students meeting and exceeding expectations uh above the state and for the their own cohort year-over-year. Um so students with disabilities um 13% met

089expectations uh met or exceeded this year, 8% uh in the prior year. So we're seeing increase in growth there. Also true grade four um 9% of the students um met expectations this year versus 5% in the prior year's administration. And in grade three, we're seeing students start to show up, and that was that um call out group we talked about a moment ago, exceeding expectations, um which is something we had not seen in a few years prior for students with disabilities. So, we see that grade three through eight report and we show that that we can see um movement happening in the earlier grades that'll start to um bring that cohort forward. And then um also we look at that report where we identified at grade 10. Um at grade 10 um we're continuing to

090outperform the state in writing which is the opposite of what we're talking about with the grade seven focus area. Um earning a great majority of the points about 70% of the points in writing. um centering grade level texts. But one of the the things uh excuse me um challenging texts that exceed uh the grade level in reading. But one of the things that we don't know and it showed up in the media and it came up in the DESIE presentation uh when they released scores is we don't know the impact of the ballot question and um the change in how students may see the MCCAST at grade 10 hearing that it's not tied to their graduation requirement. We don't have a way to necessarily isolate that and see how it impacted scores. Um, but we

091do anticipate it had some level of impact when students heard, hey, I'm taking the MCCAST, but it doesn't matter for graduation. We just don't have a way to isolate the actual impact for the for their scores. [Applause] >> Looks like Kelly, do you have a question? I do. >> Is it all right to interrupt along the way sometime? Yeah, >> it's with so much data, it's hard to remember the question by the time you get to the end. So I'm just wondering you're saying that we don't have like the state is not doing any analysis to try and ascertain impact of the graduation requirement shift. Um but have we or could we like could we literally just ask kids how seriously did you used to take down gas and how seriously do you take it

092now and see if we I mean it might not be it's not going to be as valid as like a large statistical study from the state but it might tell us something. I mean we have heard students say >> oh okay anecdotal data says that >> oh well this doesn't matter for my graduation right I need to pass my courses and that's what matters um we haven't done a focus group but we have heard >> okay >> some feedback like that um and you know of course teachers are like right but it matters right and they're trying to explain to students why it matters and how they use the information but >> I'm sure there's still a bit of a disconnect there >> sure okay >> um >> can I just say think back to

093when you were a kid what how would >> I you know. >> Yes. >> I can't remember that far back. I'm a lot older than you, but just kidding. >> I just think about it from the perspective I have a child where it mattered and a child who's coming up, right, just entered high school where it doesn't matter and hearing their cross conversation. >> Right. Uh and how that plays out and I'm telling them all the reasons why it's important. >> Um here's just another look at it. So this is looking at it from growth. So we forecasted looking at the achievement of grade seven um and attending to writing. So that uh plays out here in the growth as well. But grade 10 where we saw some of the scores uh a little bit

094lower. Um we do see moderate growth with the exception of the student with disability cohort which we just discussed. Um and then we can see the u moderate growth playing out at grades four, five, and six. And in some of those cases, um, their growth score, uh, or their student growth percentile went up, um, between one and three points. >> Some held steady and some went up, but they're all in that moderate range. >> Can I ask a question? >> Sure. >> Not to be naive, but what do these numbers mean? They're just numbers. I'm assuming it's a scale from 1 to 100%. So 49 means that they're 49% better. So they take um every student who's taken the test at a particular grade across the state >> and they say that average growth they

095they take that whole cohort and then they set the state at 50 and then they compare the students testing in each district relative to that state of 50 >> also 50 is the average across the state. >> So 50 is sort of that that central focal point. So 49 or 51 means that we are growing in line with the average of the state. >> Correct. >> Yeah. >> So the number is all relative to the state average. >> Yes. And this is the And then the second part of that um is that with growth >> they compare a group of students to themselves in their previous MCAST. Okay. >> Whereas achievement is comparing a different group same grade level. But the the 50% whatever the average growth rate is is an average of all the

096school districts in the state, >> right? Yeah. >> If we if every student grows 50% that just means that they're average with the state average. So, okay. >> yeah, it just makes sense to me now. >> I probably asked that last year, too. I think >> I don't mind. We're solidly average. Is that what that says? >> We're making uh continued growth. So, one of the things about growth that we've learned since the state started reporting the growth percentile is that when you are at high growth, whether it's one or two years, you often have that cohort sort of take a a dip down because you don't always grow that. But if you stay in that um moderate growth range, you tend to make stronger steps in your progress year over year because your your

097um instruction, the material that you're uh exposed to and what you're learning continues to get more challenging. So, you want to continue to rise each year with that. >> Since you're already crossed and the grade seven is highlighted in beige there, >> um is there something about being in in grade two during COVID? Is there something about the writing curriculum in grade two that they really suffered more than their peers in other grades? Not necessarily because I mean similarly, right? I think about the change between grades two and three and that eighth grade cohort and the impact they have on grade three where they start to write some longer passages. So, I mean, it's hard to rationalize it that it could impact one grade level different from another in that way. >> So, there's nothing

098particular about the second grade writing curriculum that they missed. >> Not I wouldn't scale that up as a a primary cause. Yeah. >> Can I ask a followup to my colleagueu's question are in grade seven? Is that something that we see the last let's say three years where grade seven has that dip? Because if every year was the same grade having the diff with different students, it would be an environmental factor changing the way one gets taught from a team teacher to >> you know a bunch and and I I don't know the answer but if we could in the future or by email get like this chart for the last like four years >> because that's the best way to see trends and if that is if Katrina has something with that grade seven

099if that's a trend it it would continue the last few years if that's the same thing >> which would rule out the co second grade thing Katrina but at least let us know >> I would be interested in that also >> I made a note to >> look at that >> I won't interrupt her >> um so we're going to follow that same format but look at math um so the achievement summary and mathematics again where the maroon is founded and that peach color is the state. Um you can see that we've made uh consistent strides in our earlier grades to continue to increase uh or to perform at the same level as the state or to increase where you can see the increases there in six and seven pulling ahead of the state. In

100eighth grade, uh we tend to average a one percentage point um against the state in comparing students who are meeting or exceeding expectations. And then um the difference here in math. And one of the things in talking with our math department head and with u some of our math teachers, we were talking about the fact that our new I Ready curriculum meets the standard in the Commonwealth of highquality instructional materials. And this 10th grade cohort is the last cohort that wouldn't have had any years of instruction in I Ready. Um so even the current ninth graders have had at least one year of experience enrolling backwards. We also talked about the fact that at grade 10 um in the areas in which they've concentrated their priority standards and looking specifically at the geometry curriculum which

101is what the great majority of um our 10th grade students take that and or algebra 2 where they've had geometry the areas in which they've identified priority standards and adjusted instruction. we've seen increases in points. And so following that same um process of strengthening instruction and responding to what we're seeing in the data has allowed us to uh redesign some of our common assessments to be able to follow the students and respond and make sure that they have the skills they need and the confidence they need to continue to move forward in math. Um and then um so this is that same view of looking at student groupings following the um grades three through eight report in each of the student groups achieving um just ahead of the state our low-inccome students uh of the

102subgroups or student groupings here um pulling their uh their percentage up by a couple points. And then again um looking at the performance in math and then following it through and looking at the the student groupings. Um one of the other things that we continue to try to understand and again we having a hard time isolating that is the impact of the ballot question and then the conversation around that and this assessment being conducted about six weeks after the ELA assessment and whether or not there was any greater impact there. but also looking uh at the standards and revising our common assessments to follow particular standards or areas in which students um need some additional support. Yep. >> Sorry, >> if you go back one slide if you could. And actually, it's the same thing

103for English as well, but can we get this chart broken down into um five colors, one being the state average or six colors, let's say, one being our average, you know, three through eight. And then if we could have four bars of all of the four elementary schools, because I think that would be and I I think we've asked for something similar in the past. It'd be very telling. Um, I did research a couple years ago and it seems that when I looked a couple years ago, one particular school was definitely carrying another school. And I don't know if that's changed that's the same, but it would help us say like, okay, so one school is above the state average, one's below, and this this is the the school average, but I think that'd be

104helpful for us to see the four. And I won't interrupt again until I do again. >> I concur. I would also like that. >> Glenda has it. >> I I was going to wait till you were done, but since the questions are coming, um, high needs, what what what groups of students are those >> students have membership in any one of the following three groupings. So, lowincome students, students with disabilities, and multilingual students. It used to be that they had membership in two of the three, but um when I last looked up the definition, it said membership in any of those three. So they get grouped together as high priority or high need students. >> So I'm not understanding that because the um low low income >> students with disability and then high needs >>

105and multilingual students. >> So multilingual students are just the high need students. >> Nope. So we don't have consistently a high enough number of multilingual students to report out at any one grade or on any one test. But high needs combines together low-income students, students with disabilities, and multilingual students. And one of the things that we saw um this year was some increases in our multilingual student performance. And when we uh looked at some of the early indicators of accountability, um they continue to increase their English language proficiency, which then shows up in some of their scores as well. >> Is that so is this consistent with how the state reports data? is that >> yes these are categories that the state um identifies and and provides data on. >> Okay. Um and then my

106only other question similar to the um that kind of digging into the weeds question. This this is very interesting data but it would be very helpful to get context individual schools and also cohort schools. you know what schools because when we do averages we're like you know the exam schools in Springfield so that's all together what what about schools that um are are typical peers um that gives us some context into some of these numbers because um I think that would tell us more Of course. >> Just to ask I wanted to ask uh Glenda if I could. You mean instead of using the state average use neighboring schools that are similar to us? >> Well, that could be another bar showing the state average, >> you know, the different and you know and we

107wouldn't probably want to use u big schools like you know whatever or like Plymouth or off the Cape but what this the state groups you with schools of like uh profiles and I think that would be very helpful to see. >> Yes, they do. We have reported different times on that and just as a reminder we are not in any category with any other district um uh on the Cape. So, I know there was differences. Someone said, "Yeah, like other Cape schools." I just wanted to point out that when Desi groups us with like districts, >> there's no like district on the Cape. >> So, which is fine. I just want to make sure that we're talking about the >> Yeah, I I think that's valid a valid point. Um but then to take what

108the state groups us with and and that would be very helpful. >> Yes. Okay. I just wanted to make sure that we were all talking the same here. >> Yeah. >> Um so, two things. one, thank you for mentioning the high needs is now one category because it's always been two. So that was new information. Um, so I just want to make sure that that I'm understanding the direction that we're taking. So, did I hear you correctly that you can take the content from the MCCAST exams and the grades that we didn't that we by our standards we underperform >> and then dig into that to figure out which content specific areas are the areas that we so it's not just this student needed this. It's also as a grade collectively we need to do

109better at >> correct Pythagoras or whatever. >> Yeah. >> Okay. I just wanted to make sure that that that I heard it right. >> Thanks. >> You're welcome. >> Um so grade 10 uh which we've we've discussed in part and then here's that growth comparison. So the the shift here um matching the achievement where you see grade seven had performed higher. They move into that moderate growth category in math. uh grade 10 having performed u a bit lower. You can see uh the growth shift here. Then taking a moment to talk about science, technology, and engineering. Again, they don't test uh at every grade. They test at grades five, eight, and then again at the high school. We um while it's considered a high school science exam, we largely test at grade nine because that's

110when the majority of our students take biology and that is the test in which we typically um assess. So um this is comparing Falmouth with the state grade five exam on the far left, grade eight in the middle, and high school biology um on the right. And this is looking at the aggregate or all students at each grade level. Um grade five saw increases in meeting expectation by three points um and also saw a reduction of not meeting by five points. Um grade eight they've been able to identify that the particular area of focus uh Kelly to your point for them was on uh for last year's grade eight was on molecules and organisms. So the grade nine teachers have already started to shift some of their lessons to put more time into those those

111two areas. Um and then at grade 10 exceeding expectations increased by three and meeting expectations increased by four. So seeing increase in all students in that cohort. So here's a look at grade five uh specific to the student groupings that we've continued to look at across. So low income matching the state, students with disabilities matching the state and performance again percent meeting or exceeding and then high needs performing um slightly above the seat. >> So since high needs is a combination of those previous two and multilingual would it can we infer that having a bump in that category is attributed to the multilingual learners? >> Yes. and they saw increase too in their um their language proficiency as well demonstrated across the assessments. Um and while um students with disabilities at grade five matches the

112performance of the state, it was a 7% increase in the number of students meeting or exceeding in Falmouth and only a 3% increase um in the state. >> Could that be our Woodsole connection? I mean that's certainly when we think about right hands-on learning and experiences for students we don't have a a perfect way to isolate right and identify that that's the impact but we do believe that it has a goal >> um looking at grade eight um and again we just talked about um that they've identified molecules to organisms as an area in which they're focusing in on um instruction to support grade nine students in high school biology. And then this is a look at the high school biology um in the student groups. >> Is that grade nine? Is that what you

113said? >> High school bio is in grade nine. >> Yeah. Okay. >> There are some um students who may transfer in from somewhere else who may take it in grade 10. Um but predominantly it's grade nine for high school students. And then um across our subjects. Just taking a moment. Uh we want to recognize that um there are 55 schools in the Commonwealth who are identified as um schools of recognition. Only one of them uh was in the Cape Islands region. So we want to recognize and honor East Falmouth Elementary School. [Applause] So um they earned 90% of the um points that they could earn in their accountability rating. They earned the highest number of points available in achievement in both ELA and math. And they earned the great majority of their points in their

114growth for both ELA and math. Um, and so it's just a culmination of efforts, but uh, we just wanted to make sure that we shared that information with you. And that's, you know, um, pretty remarkable. >> They gonna get a big sign or something. >> Did they get a banner? We >> Well, we can make a banner. >> Okay. Um and so I their name does appear uh on Desessie's website in the schools of recognition list and again um there's 55 and it's the only one Cape Islands region and then uh last time we were together we spent some time talking about um the old colony region and I think we're only one of only two schools there could be three uh I think there are three one of only three in that region as

115well. So for we're really representing our side of the state. >> If we if we as a committee could send a letter to the administration at East Farmer School and recognizing the teachers and their efforts especially last year during the atmosphere that was going on. >> Um that's phenomenal. >> Love that. >> No. Yeah. >> Pretty please. So, um, you know, the comments about looking at year-over-year and like have being able to look at trends, looking at the growth boxes for um, for both English and math, I noticed or I remembered, I guess, that, you know, back a a decade ago, we would see those and there would be a smattering of blue boxes and we've lost all our blue boxes. So, um, just I just want to make a plug for while we're focusing

116on every student that we that we really are offering enough opportunity for kids to really soar. Um, so we can see some of that like really high growth again. Um, >> that's just a fresh. What's the blue box? >> Oh, I'm sorry. The blue boxes are the high growth. um box on the chart that had the green, pale pink or pale peach or whatever. We didn't have any blue boxes which demonstrates really high growth for that. >> Oh, in this presentation, >> right? And in years past there would occasionally be not, you know, you're not going to see a lot of them, but every once in a while there'd be a a blue box of a cohort that really like just so much growth that year. Um just a plug for focusing on that. Mike.

117>> Um, Sonia, can you go back like three slides? This is a good one. One more. Wait, one more. All right. So, this one right here, I don't know what grade this is. >> Five. Okay. And then if you go to the right one. >> No. >> Next slide. >> I do need glasses. My ears work fine though. That side of the table. All right. So >> just trying to be >> this is the science and whatnot. It's the only category that we we had one student with special needs or disabilities rather which is a little bit under the average but every other category we're at average if not surpassing. My question is a two-parter. Do you know like whatever our best ranking is of this science technology 10th grade like where do we rank

118in the state? Are we top 10, top 20? And I don't know the answer because this seems to be the category that we excel at the most. Then my second part to my question, as we had talked about retention and whatnot previously, because we're we seem we're seemingly excelling at this category for for various reasons, this category and like what Kelly just said about the blue boxes, this would be the lowest hanging fruit where we can excel even more and also possibly add in retention or >> or new students because >> and I'm not saying the English and half we don't continue to to strive to do better in but this particular category we seem doing on across the board better than the average >> so I didn't know how we stacked up with like

119the top school the top 10 whatever and how close we are because this seems to be a much more attainable goal short term to excel where the math means I understand that we're working we're getting better but in this particular subgroup we seem to be doing the best. >> So, I just didn't know how we are, you know, as opposed to the state average just like what roughly >> they used to rank schools. They don't rank them that way anymore. So, we'd have to try and dig into, you know, whether we use a dart region and kind of make some comparison. >> Good question. Um, yeah, you know what I'm saying? >> I do. But and and to that same point, you know, we're all we already are committed to our partners in what's whole

120and to all those experience experiential hands-on science and math learning opportunities. It would be nice to see and be able to to articulate that those contribute to our success >> and use that as a reason like yes, you want to be here because in an age where field trips are getting cut everywhere, we're building them up and look what we see as results. >> Okay. >> Can I just um So I'm just hoping because there was a lot of interest in in hearing a more of a comparative data presentation. Um so that um could we not to make anybody schedule a date now but like in the next couple of months could we before the end of the year at least could we have that presentation? And as a complete followup to what Miss Connor

121just said, I wanted to just summarize what I had written down of what uh what more information people were interested in just so we have it all in one place for myself. Um Mike uh Mike had asked about uh seventh over the years. So if we could look at seventh grade and see if it's consistently having a trouble. Um you had also asked for math 3 through eight. Could it be broken down school by school to see per grade and per school? Um, and Miss Cohen had asked um about high needs in multilingual groups. Um, wait, hold on. What was that? Oh, you wanted that graph by school and by cohort uh to see typical peers with the other schools or Yeah. Like comparative schools. >> Yeah. >> Did I miss anything? >> Um, I'm

122curious why you decided to make that summary. Um, I think we have it in our notes and has been taking it down too. >> Sure. I I've recently learned that it's helpful if the committee can state out loud when they agree with something and would like it. >> Oh, okay. Just curious. It was new. All right. Are we done then with this topic? >> Okay, >> that was great. >> Um, yes, we learned a lot from what I consider to be a pass subject. Um, you know, you live in your Thanks, Sonia. >> Okay. Um the next on here is the presentation and discussion of taking more spons. So >> yeah, thank you. >> Um Paul and I are going to u do this presentation and Sonia's going to bring it up for us. >>

123And I will also say you have um this one at at your your seats. >> Oh, nice. All right. And so, um, the Morris Pond School, uh, as you know, we've been talking about, um, uh, the need to, um, downsize by one school in our district, uh, based on our, uh, continued decline in enrollment and certainly the, um, fiscal responsibility. There we go. So, our recommendation is to return the Morris Pond building and property to the town for repurposing once the Lawrence school renovations have been completed. Expected timeline um is 2032 2033 school year. Paul, you want to talk about details? >> Okay. >> Oh, you click it. Yeah. Something >> as Dr. just mentioned that these are the key challenges uh that we're addressing with the recommendation uh the overall decline enrollment and we'll

124speak to that in a moment. We need to consolidate uh schools and particularly with Lawrence Colola having the capacity to house three grades. um reducing overall the number of transitions uh for students and then there's uh the fiscal responsibility not just in reducing the size of the campus but also the um the capital uh needs as you'll we'll get into uh going forward as well. So these are the NASDAQ uh not this is from the NASDAQ report. This is a historic view of our enrollment. Um, and uh, I'm I'm going to breeze through these next two slides only because that they're summarized in the third slide. So the the next slide is the enrollment projections. You can see in the red box there for the 2032 33 school year 20 28 students in the fifth

125grade uh, 196 in the sixth grade. So the summary is that this slide here uh historic aroma this again this is using the same data we used for uh Lawrence discussion uh the grade configuration on the last uh school committee meeting but for 2015 2016 there were 613 fifth and sixth graders. Uh for last year uh our official number was 472. Uh for this year, Dr. Dur just uh mentioned the uh fifth and sixth grade totals 444. So it's down about 30 uh uh from last year. And then the projected enrollment for grades five and six for the 203233 school year uh for NASDAQ's uh projection was 404 and if you look at over this period roughly 17 years that's a 34% decline which again goes back to you the populations student populations declining about

1262% % per year. All right. Um so what are the reasons? What are the economic factors in the decision in the recommendation to uh to turn the MOS pond back to the town? First of all, you know, from a budgetary perspective, um we're spending roughly 638,000 in custodial maintenance and utilities expenses on that on that building. Uh of which 279,000 uh is in custodian salaries. Um, while we're not looking at laying anybody off, if we're consolidating buildings down uh down the line after the uh Lawrence renovation, those those custodians would be spread out to different buildings, but the net number of custodians would be reduced through uh retirements and attrition, normal attrition. Uh so there, you know, in as a whole there'd be at least 638,000 in savings uh by turning the most building back

127to the town. Another key area as I mentioned at the beginning was in capital expenses. So, if you remember back in uh 23 uh we had SLAM Collaborative look at three buildings, East Falmouth, Morse Pond, and North Falmouth for roofing, air to air conditioning, and solar panels. Uh Morse Pond was the only building that actually could support solar panels on the roof. Uh but it has one of the oldest roofs uh in the district outside of uh uh Lawrence. Um and so the roof is in need of repair and you if you did the entire roof u the entire building that would be $9.6 million. Um and uh and but then the consideration is you is whether you add air conditioning which would be 6.2 million or if you added solar panels uh which would

128be 37 million uh 3.7 million. Now why are these numbers on there? You could certainly get away with just putting on a new roof at 9.6 6 million. But then once the new roof is on, it's going to limit any air conditioning. You now come back and later do that decision to add air conditioning. You're going to end up by punching holes on the roof to add the units on top of the roof. And the same with the solar panels. You're going to end end up by putting solar panels on the new roof. If you don't do all of this at one time, you're uh you're going to end up by damaging the new roof you've just put on. So, that's when you that's why I just want to caution when you think about what

129the capital needs of this building, it really tends to the $19 million uh dollar in cost because you're you're not going to stop at just a new roof. So, does that make sense to people? >> All right. >> Can you tell me the total savings because I didn't see it here and I just don't wanted to save myself the math. You had said the total savings of um 638 plus the 279 and I just >> Well, the 638 includes to 279. So, out of the 638 would be the total savings of which 279 of that is I just broke out the >> I just thought you had said a different number at the end. [Applause] And that's but that's the baseline that is the savings just from not having to maintain a physical building doesn't

130mean uh other savings that won't be generated. So that again that's the economic side of it uh from both capital and the budgetary. Um, I I I really think it's important to consider this decision in the context of what the need is in in Lawrence. And I have to tell you from personal experience, uh, what I've witnessed in the need to renovate Lawrence School over the last year has only made me more convinced that we need to do this sooner rather than later. And I really want to emphasize that that there is continuity risk at the Lawrence School for deferring decisions on renovating that building that it can't continue indefinitely to operate with the steam system that it has or with the current plumbing that it has for for water. And then also because of

131the age of the electrical system. So that any one of those could break down and end up if the steam system um if a steam pipe goes there goes your heat that steam pipe is going to go in the middle of winter and you're going to have a shutdown at that school until that repair has happened. So there's continuity risk to not having this building uh renovated. Um the other component of it is that this building too is it reaches into the '9s uh in May and June in classroom time in the uh in the third floor of that building. It it really significantly needs air conditioning. Uh it is extremely warm and in the summer when the custodians are working on this building it's often times well over 100 110° for they're trying to

132do all the floor stripping and waxing that goes along with it. So the building is beyond old. It needs to have new air conditioning put into this building. Um, and one I one practical story and this is this is a re uh is a real example of the the need for renovation. I'm going to go back to the steam pipes on the ground floor of the Lawrence building. There are uh there is a steam tunnel that runs throughout the ground floor uh the cafeteria floor of that building. Right? That steam tunnel carries all the steam pipes etc throughout the building and it's access it's only about three feet wide and it's accessed by various trap doors uh within the building and if there's a b if one of the steam pipes burst or leaks often

133times you're going to go for a long time without seeing that because you're going to have to wait till that steam builds up to a pressure point where it starts to come out through one of the trap doors. But in order to get a replacement pipe down into that tunnel, you can't take a 6 foot long pipe. You have to cut it up into pieces and then you have to literally when you're crawling along inside this tunnel that you that tunnel is not just 24 ft long as its longest point, but it takes 90° turns. So you can't, you know, these carrying these pipes throughout that tunnel is really difficult. You you have to slice them up. And then to get men in there, you have to push fresh air down into those tunnels. Uh,

134and then you have to have them on walkie-talkies. You have to have men on either side of the coming. It is an enormous risk to to continue operating this facility with steam uh uh steam heap going forward. Now, it's not a safety risk uh except for I wouldn't want to be the guy climbing through that tunnel, but it but that the point of this is that we cannot just we cannot keep deferring decisions. What can get us through 8 years from now? Well, 2032 is one thing, but to go on in time uh beyond that, you know, that building has continuity risk and so it needs, you know, it needs to be uh uh renovated. And then just other features that I want to talk about, front entrance, it is currently inadequate for safety. We

135only have one elevator in that building. uh if something happens uh individuals who have limited mobility uh uh need a lot of help to get down those stairs. Uh we have equipment that can't fit into that elevator. Uh a ADA access overall in the building needs enhancement and the lab current lab spaces need to be uh significantly upgraded. Um, so that's that's the state of of Sorry, M. >> Yeah, >> if I could. Um, if you go back one slide, the first line under building safety and security. >> Yeah. >> Says front entrance, the front entrance is currently inadequate for security. Are we going to address that? >> Sure. >> Like, I'll refra my question. What are we doing now >> to address that? Because if that is if that's one of the reasons why

136we need to run away to the school that's not good like that should have been addressed and I I know the entrance it is inadequate for security >> right now for so well we we have people stationed at the top of the u when you first walk in the safety monitor often times is standing right there >> at the top of the stairs goes down the stairs >> well you You could see him say coming coming in through the building. >> There's usually administrator or the safety monitor at that door at all times >> at the front door. >> Right at the front. Yeah. Either standing at the front door or right inside at the the top of the stores where you can see like no one could come in without >> Yeah. >> without

137being seen. >> So presumably those >> and we have cameras. >> Hold on. Is that entrance? Are those doors bulletproof and like double dead bed bolted? Because we are now advertising that our front entrance is inadequate for security of our students. >> Now I don't understand. >> If you were to redesign this building today, you would put a front entrance where the front desk, >> okay, >> is visible to the doorway. So you have direct line of sight of people coming through the door. >> And I have two different issues here. One is in the future, what do we do? And I don't even know if renovating that building makes sense. I know that my colleague, Miss Neans, had mentioned over a year ago if we can get pricing for a whole new school, which

138we have not got. My issue today is that says in black and white, our front entrance is not adequate for security and we have students in there today. >> So, what are we doing today? Well, as I said, my this building right now does have people monitoring physically monitoring that entrance. Where it's inadequate is that it would be moved. If you would uh you know renovate the building, you would move the front office down to the a more of a ground level and eliminate that capability of going up or down at the u at the beginning of the entrance of the building. >> So in 2032 the building will be secured. >> No, Mike, we're talking about a facility. >> I understand. But >> the design the design of it the building is secure. The

139building is secure by people. >> Yes. >> And cameras. >> I didn't make this presentation. This says the front entrance is inadequate for security today. >> He's talking about the physical building the way it is set up. >> And my question was, what are we doing in the meantime to address that? >> Paul's answered it and I've answered it. We have people people are monitoring. >> Are people at that are people at that door every second kids are in that building? They're there all the men a and adult. Yes. >> And and we have an SRO at that building uh as >> every second of every day >> because again I didn't make this presentation. It says it's inadequate. >> Yeah. >> This is not >> okay. >> I had a question about the presentation

140which I have yet to get an answer. What are we doing today to secure that building 24/7? And I think Lori and Paul said that they have people because the building the building part isn't right, but they have people. That's what I understood. >> Um, we have uh safety monitors, we have an SRO, the principal's office was located, the cameras are focused on that entrance, etc. Um, go ahead. Um, beyond that, but somewhat epo. So, some of the the things that you talked about with steam, but can we wait for eight years in this building or do do we I mean, I know that's what the f financial timeline, but I'm just talking about the the everyday use of this building. Is it is it going to it's it's that's hard for you to say.

141Is it going to last for eight years until we can do this project? >> Right. Well, the a the timeline is dictated by the MSBA, >> right? >> Um so you can't shorten that timeline at all. And the you know the MASBA likely reimbursement level is somewhere around 37% 36 37% in that range. So it's a substantial. Do I think that this building can last the 8 years? Yeah. But would I push it to 10 to 15? I these are significant issues. The building does need to be renovated. Uh so the ste you know a decision of keeping it where it is in my in my view. No. >> Okay. All right. Um, and to one other point and, uh, as part of the, uh, next stage, if we're into the MSBA program, uh, accepted,

142we'll hear in December, uh, part of the, uh, the first stage of that $2 million in study will be an evaluation of a new building cost versus a renovation cost. that is a requirement of the MSBA program. Uh but I will tell you that the the the EMA the MSBA uh experts uh as well as our own who did uh Habib and Associates who did the evaluation of that building think it's a solid building and that it can be renovated uh and more cheaply than uh than they just you haven't gotten to that full redesign stage yet. So that's coming, but that's not until the next stage of the MSBA process. So in the comparisons uh of Lawrence and Morris Pond School, and this is something we've been talking about over the last year, again,

143the Lawrence School is 132,000 square ft. Morris Pond School is 103,000. Lawrence school was built in 1953 with the addition in 1999 96. Um uh Morris Pond was built in 1962. Uh so they're not too far in age. And and one of the points that uh you you know again when you think about plumbing and so on that uh you know one of the causes of plumbing leaks is just the the mineral content of Cape Water. So uh when that not too far difference in age you know it's worth noting uh in the Lawrence school you have 50 classrooms uh equivalent uh in Morris Pond you have 40 classroom one of the key benefits is the Lawrence is that you have that large auditorium that's large enough to host the town meeting. Uh in the

144Morris Pond School, you can only fit about half of the current school uh in that small auditorium. Um uh large school also has a high school size gym. Uh Morris Pond is an intermediate size gym. Um loca the uh the location of Lawrence uh is is a very big positive for transportation uh especially uh because it has multi multi- uh ent entry and exit points. However, the um it also allows you to to split the traffic um as you're coming out. If uh you had a consolidated school with three grades, they're going uh you know uh left on Lake View as well as right on Lake View which helps uh as the posted today they're coming from Lawrence going down Lake View crossing Gford going down Jones Road. Um and the location of Jones Road

145is just a big challenge and a growing challenge. It's just uh it's a difficult uh location uh for getting the buses uh in and out of. It's also a big it's a difficult location for parents picking up their children at school as well because they have to park either stop and shop or down at the uh at the hotel. Uh the law school, as I mentioned, it's >> I'm sorry, Paul, can you Did you just say parents have to park off campus to go visit the campus? >> No. No. If you're if you're at uh picking up your child at the end of the day, uh often times they have to you have to wait for the buses to leave before you can pull into the parking lot. So parents typically will gather and at

146those last moments and wait at the holiday in our up at this top and shop parking lot. Then >> it's the same thing in regards to drop off in the morning. >> So they're idling and waiting. They're not like walking from there to >> uh and then the other need. So if you um in order to if you would try to put in three grades and and more pawn, you would most likely need a significant addition to that building uh in order to fit a new grade in that building. Um and you're limited on three sides here. So you got, you know, property line limitations, you know, on three sides. The only way of doing that uh addition would be the moving out the front uh into the playground area. Uh and then as I

147mentioned the new roof needs uh you know in the section the major section is the original roof. So finally it's building to uh going back to the building needs task force recommendation. Um, and here you can see it. So, the building needs task for recommended upon the completion uh of the Lawrence school renovation that the Moss Pond building be moved to the town to back to the town. >> Um, I have two Thank you. Um, I have two questions. I'm wondering um Sue if you can if there's anything from building needs um if you want to remind us of since you were on that. Um yeah, I think I I think Paul has brought up a good portion of the um access for parents and drop off and the traffic conditions on on Jones Road

148as well as um the the overwhelming opinion of the Dilling Ness task force was that Morse Pond was the school to return to the town. Um there did not seem to be opposition from the the staff at least that was not expressed through their representatives on the building task force. Um trying to think what else. >> No, that's just helpful. You know, it just helps to be reminded of some of the um because your report back was last year. So, I just appreciate the the reminder. Um, and then my second question was, um, Lori, are are you going do you have a recommendation either now or in the future? Um, >> can I get back to the beginning? You did put it in the beginning. That's why that's why I stated it. >> Oh, it

149did say recommendation. I just read it. I'm sorry. I didn't read that that was coming from you guys. Okay, perfect. Thanks. >> Okay. Um, go ahead. Are we going round or are we doing it by hand? >> Um, it's changed midway through this meeting. People started going out of order and everything which was fine because it was following along things. So, let's go back to our order. Sue. >> Okay. Thank you, Paul. Um, I appreciate the fact having been around when when Lawrence School was renovated in 98 or whenever it was. Um, your comments regarding the building are something I really appreciate because I had never heard some of those major issues before and um, having attended the Morris Pond School when it was a brand new school and then having graduated from Lawrence High

150School um, you're old >> and uh, with our decreasing enrollment, we need to do something. So, thank you for your support, >> Linda. Mike, >> yeah, I have a question. Um, I have two questions, I think, but this says here, return the Morse Pond building to uh the town in 2032. >> Mhm. >> Yes. My first question is, why is town meeting voting on a4 million dollars to look at the school when we haven't voted on this yet? I asked this last meeting. I'm going to keep on asking it. Doesn't seem very fiscally responsible. Um I might have three questions. My second question is if I could through you chair dearest did did the building needs task force discuss anything about new construction or is it all just this plan? So >> we we discussed

151in regards to Paul had presented us with in regards to we for instance we would not be approved by MSBA in regards to the size of our auditorium or our size of our gym or even the foot Paul can probably explain that a little bit better. But those things were pointed out to the task force >> but there was no again through the chair there was no discussion of what a new build would entail. Well, there are limitations that the So, if you're building a school for this grade level, y >> um you would not be allocated the uh the money to uh for example have an auditorium the size of >> what's at Lawrence. You could they wouldn't allocate any money to an auditorium. You would have to pay for that on your own.

152that Sue just mentioned, the size of the gym would be uh in in half and the footprint of the building itself would be smaller. >> Yeah. >> Um because you're not you don't have they don't allow you excess classrooms. Uh so you know if a room is unused, they expect teachers to rotate in and out of that room. So the number of classrooms would be even smaller. So there's disadvantages to it. >> So quickly to the auditorium point on this slide it says large auditorium host town meeting. That's not the school committee's perview is town meeting. And I understand it's great but we have other auditoriums in this town. That should not be a bullet point for any of us to think about. That's not what we're here for. Second thing without having numbers. I

153think last meeting you said about 100 million. I'm okay. 100 million just to renovate that building to bring it up to snuff to code >> to code. >> So what I Yeah, >> it's only to bring it to code. Uh >> so and that that does not involve any movement of of walls etc to redesign the interior of the buildings or do the labs etc. So we do not have any and what we can't get to that point until there's enough money allocated to then go out and hire the architects to do the redesign. But part of that effort is also under the requirements of the MSBA, a study has to be done with that allocation of funds to then look at what a new building would cost. But the MSBA has no requirements to

154study the building we're giving up potentially for their funding. >> No, they actually do. They have to you do do a review with that. >> You have to review the building you're giving up. >> You're giving up. Yeah. >> Um I read an article recently that the MSB I think it was on the vineyard. It took like seven or eight years to get funding. Something ridiculous. 10 years. Thank you, Katrina. Um so 10 years. And as you had mentioned earlier, this building might not have 10 years left. So, us relying on the MSBBA does not seem viable if we don't get it right away. I I Yeah. >> Yeah. Well, let me let's be clear. The the the decision on Moses Pond is contingent on the renovation of Lawrence. >> Yes, I understand that. So,

155I don't understand. >> The second the second point to your >> the the MASBA pro some schools can go 15 years. >> Okay. But but a lot of schools don't. We have one of the oldest buildings in the in uh in the applicant pool for renovations. They you know the last in previous year the average age of the buildings was in their 70s. This is a building in their 50s. That goes in our favor. The second thing that goes in our favor is that we haven't had an MSBA funded project. >> Okay. >> So, we're being new to the well, more or less >> uh boosts our chances of of getting funding. The third thing is we're in a great year this year for an application pool. the number of applicants going after MSBA funding

156is relatively low >> this year than compar comparison. >> So you're not guaranteed >> uh you you know if you were to wait a year in and uh you could be at up against a much more competitive MSBA pool >> where your chances are far lower. I understand that. >> I think my question about the Morse pond is if we need the Morris pond till 2032, even if we get accepted this year, >> why would we vote on this and why would town meeting be looking at what the building's being used for if it's at least 7 8 years away? This is I I will say this, my my feeling of this whole project has been cart before the horse. And I feel like we're going to get so deep into this that it's going

157to be like, well, we can't go back now. There's no reason for us to study the Morse pond for town use right now. And there's no reason for us to vote on this before the MSBA application approval or denial has even come in. Physical responsibility is part of our job. And spending a4 million dollars to study a building that we need at least until is not responsible in any way. Can I just >> I think I think we should clarify that it's not our money. Town meeting. >> No, it is our money. I pay taxes. >> Yes. But that's an issue for the town to take up. We didn't put that article in. Correct. >> Yes. It's only it's 150,000, not 250,000. And the reason why the town is doing it now is that there

158there are going to be decision points uh along the way. Um, and for example, if if you're going to the town and asking them for a substantial amount of money, knowing as a voter that the number of buildings uh are going to be reduced uh and there may be a value to that property that Morris Pond currently sits on. And if the town had decided, well, we don't want it for a town hall, but we may be able to sell it for affordable housing or some other example, that money could help subsidize the renovation of the Lawrence. So, the study for the town is doing is for what are their long-term options and that value. So when it comes time for the voters to vote on Lawrence renovation, they can have that perspective. Sorry. Um

159and and uh and put that in their calculation. But that's why it's being done out. The second thing is they the town has to plan for the ultimately taking over this building if that's the decision. And that planning process you can't wait for the last two years. Let's let's say that we're traveling along and we're now approaching, you know, uh the Lawrence school is under construction. The the uh you know, seventh and eighth, sixth and seventh grade are in Mos and now there's a sudden roof issue. >> All right. Well, now you're looking at a $9 million project. That's not going to be the schools if it's that close to the end. the town has to now make that starts to make key decisions on its future of that building. So it has to be

160prepared before that in order to make those decisions. So it's it it's not too soon. We've we've brought the town uh managers over to Morris Pond to start that thought process rather than end up by being in 2032 having an empty building >> and and now the town waiting to decide on what to do with it. In the meantime, that building is left empty for two years. You don't have a building. That building starts to go. the plumbing starts to go, the roof starts to go, etc. That's you have two years on the building left empty, untended, uh, and that building is is really damaged. >> But again, we could vote on this five, six years from now. That would still be two. I don't understand the constant urgency of of doing this when we

161don't have the MSBA funding approval. We don't. It seems to me that we are, and this is just my opinion, that we're working for not the children, hosting town meeting, giving the the town a building. None of this stuff helps the kids at all. And I believed when I ran was to help out the children of our town. And I don't understand many of these bullet points. I'm going to stop talking because I'm getting more upset because there is no need to vote on this anytime soon. And if you need two years, we can vote in 2030. And also, I will say to the point about what the buildings be used for. If it is affordable housing, that's a whole different thing than senior housing because that is going to affect the schools in some

162way. And I think as a committee, we should have some idea of what the town is thinking. I also have an issue with last year when Chris Lumping, who's not here, asked about it and Nancy Taylor said, "We didn't want this building at all." And now all of a sudden they're they're studying this building. This whole thing makes no sense to me. This is not how we should do it. We should take it step by step. And the first step shouldn't be step nine. It should be step one, which would be a plan of what the town and the the schools need and kind of, you know, any I'll stop talking for now. >> I think since this is >> I haven't had a turn yet. Can I >> um I'm sorry, but I'm latching

163on to what Mike said. So, I don't want something to come in between it. It has to do with the money that Mike is talking about. I think we should let the town meeting members, the town finance committee and everything weigh in on this. Do you know there's a possibility you're going to have something? So, what could we do with it? What can we start planning to do with it? If they think it's the money well spent, that's their decision. It's really I mean I know you're a tax favor and I am too but I put the trust that they have that knowledge to look at that and if they if you have time to make a decision it's always better and as we know every day things go up and up and up in

164price. So if you pay for something now 5 years later it may cost you a lot of money like things just keep going up. So I'm saying on this money topic let's let the town we win it. We haven't heard their point of it either. Um, so that's one thing I think just would be very helpful. >> And if I can just add to that, I mean, we are a part of the town. We're a department of the town and we're doing longterm strategic planning is what what we need to do. And we can't do it alone. We have to do that with the town. And so, um, for them to start their best use, um, study, which is what it is, what can what can this school and property be used for, so that

165they can get that back and then they can start some decisionmakings about what the possibilities are sooner rather than later. And and our recommendation is at the end of the Lawrence school renovation. So, it's very clear. Um, but I think we also need to know that the town has a purpose for that building. And that's what they're, you know, so just just say I think it's important. I will tell you if we do not do the the um if we do not do the renovation on Lauren school then our team as administrators need to go back to the drawing board and come back with a different plan because we cannot think long term that this is going to be a school. >> Mhm. >> Okay. So Katrina another topic or question? >> Nope. I just

166haven't had a first uh first time giving comments. So, um last year, about a year ago, in October, I believe, we had that meeting with the building needs task force, and I asked um could we work with the town on a strategic plan and a vision for that property, and Nancy Taylor yelled at me that um the town would not consider what to do with that property until after the school committee had voted to release it. So, the fact that they've chosen to proceed with this and we are now rushing to meet the deadline of releasing the property before they've had a meeting for the entire town where they're asking for money for a study of that property um strikes me as strange and hypocritical since I asked a year ago if we could work

167with them on a vision and I was shot down in a public meeting. Um, aside from that, hearing Paul give his report, I was starting to have heart palpitations because hearing that the building can last 10 years, eight years, excuse me, but not 10 years, and similar to what my colleague said, if the building can last eight years, possibly nine years, and districts near us have applied for up to 10 years for MSBA funding and are only just now getting it this year, what will we do If we have voted this month to release Morris Pond and we don't get our MSBA funding and then we apply next year and what if we don't get our MSBA funding and then Lawrence is in a state of perpetual decline that can't be recovered and we've given

168up our other property. Nobody wants to see Lawrence torn down. But if you go into a state where it's unreoverable without that kind of funding for um rebuilding it and we've given up our other property, I don't see any alternative. Um to me, it seems like that's a beautiful building. I've said this before, it's a beautiful historic building. To renovate it for the town's purpose would be much simpler. You don't have to comply with all of the educational formatting of classrooms and they would not have to tear down interior walls. It is fine as is. The ADA compliance is on par with most um old town halls that I've seen in this state. They are all like that with bad elevators. It would be easy for the town to renovate that building for its use

169and probably less costly, although I would have to defer to somebody else for that. But that auditorium keeps being brought up as an asset to the town for their town meetings. That's wonderful, but it's not our job um as the school committee to accommodate meeting. So, I was very um disturbed to hear your description um of the state that the building is in, the steam pipes, the tunnel, the venting of steam, the breaking of pipes into sections, how difficult and transparently impossible it's going to be to maintain that building if we don't immediately get the funding that we're hoping we will get, but we are not assured of getting. So, I guess my question, one question, and then um I do have some other thoughts, but I would like to ask this. If we vote

170this month to release Morris Pond to the town, and then we do not get the MSBA funding, can we retract that vote or is the property forever gone? >> Isn't it all contingent? It's all contingent and that's how the recommendation. So I heard you say that earlier that it is contingent upon the renovation of but if we voted to release the property >> it's key voting contingent upon the renov renovation of Lawrence so that >> it remains it >> once complete that's good to have clarify >> but it's date specific >> yes by 2032 so hopefully expected it as expected 2032 Okay, >> Linda. >> Wait, hold on. I'm not done. Hold on. Sorry. >> So, if we're talking about um >> Do we have a >> I have two more I have two more

171questions. >> Okay. How long have you been talking? Is it more than 10 minutes? >> No, Carrie. I did that one time to That's what's in our policy >> just because to give other people time. Okay. I just was asking. >> So, two two other things. Chris, Melissa, and Margaret. I'm sorry. I should have used their last names. They are not here tonight to be part of this conversation. I don't feel comfortable >> discuss >> moving to it's a discussion but our next meeting on this is action. So if they are not here for this meeting and then we're acting at our next meeting that's just something I feel uncomfortable with. Um >> they can watch the film of it. They can read the news. >> Yes. But they don't have an opportunity to to

172share their thoughts um until the day that we will be voting on it which to me is not um fair to them. And I'm sorry that they're not here. Um, my other thing to the point that we should be letting the town create a strategic plan and a vision. Um, I have been all for giving up Morse Pond. Honestly, I have since I ran for this and the newspaper asked us three candidates. >> If they if it came to it to release Morris Pond for the town's purposes and I was like, "That's a great idea. It sounds fantastic. What a great use for the town. We could do some cool things." Strategic planning. If the town is going to be strategically planning to use that property, can we not stipulate or request or kindly infer

173that we would like to be part of that strategic planning? Because if they put in affordable housing, could part of the property be a universal prek center? Can we think out of the box? Can we work with the town? Can we be part of that strategic planning? I was told no, absolutely not. However, they're now moving ahead with the funding of a best use proposal before we've voted to release it, which to me says maybe there is a possibility to actively participate in a collaboration that's for the best possible outcome. We have the same problems, declining enrollment, short housing, we need a prek center, the they need their municipal center. Can't we work together >> so that we achieve >> I don't understand why we wouldn't be working. We work very collaboratively on everything else.

174I don't know why. So, can we stipulate yes, the Morse Pond property is going to you and we would like to have a new prek center built on that property in addition to whatever you're doing. I >> I don't think the conversation's about anything until the best use comes back >> until they have people go in and evaluate the building. >> Cherry would like to stop. >> I'm sorry. >> No, it might be good just to get another view in between. Okay. Just just very quickly, we are we are not voting tonight, but at some point we will be asked to vote, which will then give the town um support to do the best needs analysis for $150,000. That's why we're voting on that this >> partly. >> Okay. So that's we're not voting to

175give up the building. We're go un it's contingent upon the the financing for Lawrence. It's really setting into motion the best needs study. That's really why we're we're voting on it. >> Well, no, this is also our time. No, our timeline. I'm going to interject here that we talked about after the building needs task force made the recommendations, then the school committee would start taking up all of the proposals. They finished in June and so we waited till the new school year to start with the school committee going through this process. >> Right. But but the reason for us to be voting on it is to to be giving the green light to the town that you know this is this is something that we're that we are in theory supporting when we get the

176financing so that they can then do the their analysis. Right. >> I think they can vote on that money and do that best use study whether you vote or not. Will it strengthen for town meeting members that the the school committee is interested in giving the the building back to the town before that? Sure. Just the same as if you vote for the Lawrence um grade configuration strengthens our uh position with MSBA. It's not required, but it strengthens. >> Okay. And I'm not I'm not tipping my hand either way. I'm just wondering what >> So it say we vote against it. Um what does that do to the process of the town doing the needs analysis? >> Well, I'm not sure. Well, if you vote against it, they probably won't do it. >> Okay, that's

177what I'm saying. >> But but the other component of this is the credibility going to Felmouth's taxpayers next year. So if we're invited into December, we could in theory be going into April in for the first allocation of roughly $2 million to do this start the the design process um that the MSBA requires. Now when you when we start to in into that process, you know, a voter can legitimately ask, well, what is the campus size of the public school system going to be in in light of all the decline in enrollment? And if and if we're being asked to potentially fund a renovation of a major building like Lawrence and and not have a reduction in campuses or number of schools, then you know then you're you're you know that you now have additional

178capital expense that's going to be coming down the road for renovating u most fun. So they're I mean the dollar signs keep growing unless we back down the number of schools in the district. And I think the strategy has to be where sort of the we can afford the renovation of Lawrence if we're giving back one of the schools as the tradeoff for that in that same time frame to emphasize not beforehand in that same time time frame but that's the essentially the trade that that's being made. >> Thank you. Okay. You have more, Katrina? >> Um, I do have Oh, sorry. You know, I do. Um, so when when we say that it's important to know that the town has a purpose for that building because we don't want it to sit empty for

179more than two years, what all I've heard of the purposes that the town might have for that property don't involve that building. The building will be torn down as far as I can understand because if that building, >> then you're not going to put affordable housing into a school. This is a best use study of what we can do with the building and the property. >> It could be mixed use. It could be >> there's a there's a world where the building stays. >> Yes, absolutely. >> That's what they've just done in Sandwich. >> Okay. I've seen so many towns around who leave the building empty for more than two years. They do that, right? Which we don't want. And >> which is what we don't want and the town doesn't want. >> That building

180takes up most of the property and all the proposals I've heard in town. >> Actually, it doesn't Katrina. It's a 20 acre property. that town does not take or that building does not take up the entire property. >> What I have heard is municipal use like the MASHP fire emergency services center or affordable housing or senior housing none of which can slot easily into the existing building. So that's where that assumption came from. I'm sorry it doesn't >> No, that is not any of the conversation. >> So point of order and I can interrupt for a point of order. Um we've had each had more multiple opportunities to talk. So, I'm motioning to move this this agenda item. We've we've had our presentation and we've had our discussion. We have a long agenda. >> Is

181this a debatable motion? >> No. Um, it it's not and it has to pass by two twothirds of the committee. So, we need to take a vote on that >> to move this agenda. >> No, I just wanted to know how many people >> there were. >> So, this is we're motion. Are you calling? I >> this is important for more discussion and I think >> so but this is not debate this is this is not debatable so it's it's um we it's >> we have to vote on it now >> I would like to discuss more because this is a very important thing and shutting it I said no >> I said no I don't want to stop discussion >> okay um >> I was the first one to vote >> Katrina I don't

182have too much more to say but I wish our other three members were here so if I could amend end your motion that we continue the conversation. >> It's not it's not debatable. It's just a straight up vote. >> Then I have to vote no because I would like it to continue. >> Yeah, I think we're >> yes. >> Okay. >> So, no, I already figured it out. That's 2/3 of people. So, I hope everybody considers that we have an awful lot of business left too that we need to get done. Um, and we do have another opportunity for discussion. This is not the one and only time we will have this discussion. Okay. Mike, I hope you heard that because I know he want to keep going. Okay. So, next um item on the

183agenda is to act on the superintendent's evaluation. >> Oh, did I say that wrong? >> You just have time. >> I'll make a motion that we approve it. >> Second. >> Okay. Is there any discussion on the timeline? just thank you for adding the one um thing that I brought up last time about having um I think it's the second one down that people can meet with Lori and offer their feedback um before we get too far along in the process because I thought that was a great addition this year. Thank you for adding it. >> Okay, there any other comments or questions? Okay, all those in favor of accepting the timeline. I any abstaining? >> I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I was not following along. There was a Can I just ask one question or

184is it two? >> Sorry. There's an asterisk and I just meant to ask about it. Uh, school committee members received summit of evaluation at full school committee meeting May 5th. What is the asterisk? >> Oh, I I actually know the answer to that because I added it last year. Um, it was added last year to note that we had to schedule a special meeting because we didn't have that meeting in our regular u meeting schedule. So, I put that little note to make sure we knew that it was a new meeting. >> Okay. >> Yes, we can take that off. >> Sorry, you can proceed. >> Did we vote? >> Okay. So, we were voting um I'm not sure. Let's start it all over. Okay. How many people um vote to accept the timeline? I

185>> I any abstaining? Any voting? No. Okay. Passes. The next thing on the list is to act on the superintendent's goals. >> I make a motion that we accept the goals as presented. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Okay. Now, there's is there any discussion? >> Yes. Okay. >> Yes. >> Nobody else has discussion about it. >> No, cuz we've already I mean we've been talking about it since August. >> I think a point of order we speak through the chair from now on >> because that seems to get kind of lost here. >> And a side talk as well. Thank you. >> Um so how does that work? People have to speak through the chair to be recognized, not just speak out of turn. >> No one's really been speak during the

186presentations as we went along. People for out of turn just they were following along with the presenter. Pretty much we still just go >> I disagree. I feel that when myself or Miss Nevin speaks, other people are making comments the entire meeting. So, and I pointed them out previously in the meeting. I just want that in the record that we're supposed to not do that. >> Um, okay. I agree with you. We we we're working on that. We've >> Okay. So, I apologize if I um let that happen. So, where are we now? >> Uh discussions. >> Discussions. So, um I guess we'll start over there and go around, right? Um I did have a meeting with the with Dr. Der um which was very productive and helpful. Um and having gone through my notes

187again following that meeting I wanted to just um point to a few things that I feel are missing in the action steps. And at this stage I don't believe there's anything to be done. But I just wanted to say um during public meeting the um goal one standard 2C the in order to achieve an exemplary grade the superintendent would need to empower not only her administrators but also the teams. Um and that comes up in goal one standard 4 D collaborate also with the teams. Um, so I I wish there was something in there about the teams since that is um I believe part of the goal. Perhaps I've misunderstood the um goal and action steps, but the administrators are specifically named and the teams are not. So I wanted to just draw that out.

188Um goal 2 standard 4D um again is for the teams. There's administrators mentioned but not uh the teams and the schools. Um and I was wondering how we the school committee would would learn about whether the efforts um and the meetings that you're having to have a collaborative meetings would be having the desired effect of staff collaboration um all of the efforts that are in goal two. Um it's not clear to me from the action steps what how we will learn whether the surveys, the walkthroughs, the oneto ones are having the desired effect. Um goal three no comments. Goal four similarly it says um and I believe this is relevant to the actions and the goals to achieve exemplary on goal 4 standard 3A you must actively engage stakeholders from all segments of the community.

189Um and furthermore, it says uh collaborative practices are also mentioned and the the action steps for that goal don't mention any collaboration. Um so that uh concerns me a little bit um given that it's in the rubric and I would like to be able to give a proficient or exemplary um goal for standard 3D family concerns. To get an exemplary grade here, you specifically must promote, this is a quote, promote collaborative problem solving processes informed by relevant input from all families, faculty, and staff that result in equitable solutions that are in the best interest of students. Um, you must have regular and informative outreach to staff, families, and community members, and school committee, and regularly seek and consider feedback and decision-m. Um there's a lot of mention of development of processes and it's not clear

190to me which stakeholders and how will be involved in the development of those processes. It's clear that it will be the administrative team. Um so again I wish in the action steps that there was some mention of who exactly and how will we be collaborated with since that is in the rubric for goals for standard four and three CD which have been selected and that is it and I realize that at this late point and following a late and delayed meeting which is on me um there's probably nothing that can be done to amend those but I wanted to just have I have been. >> Okay. So, are there any other comments? >> Um, I just want to say that our job as the school committee is to work with the superintendent on the what

191it is her responsibility to do the how. The subcommittee met with Dr. Door. We relayed the feedback that we heard last year um as well as talk to her about it. Um requesting that her priorities be in communication, integrated staff feedback, student achievement, and navigating the future. And she came back with these goals. And the subcommittee felt that they were um comprehensive goals. and it's not the time now to be deliberating performance. If you feel that uh the superintendent did not meet the objectives of the goals, that's the time um to do it during the evaluative process. Right now, these goals um we gave her the what and she gave us the how and and I'm very comfortable with um with the result. Okay, any other comments? >> I meant to uh start my comment

192by saying that I thought I wanted to thank the evaluation subcommittee for the work they did and overall I think the goals are very good. It was about the action steps points taken. Thank you. >> Okay, next year maybe we'll emphasize the leading up um dates in the timeline. Okay, more. Okay, that always is helpful. Okay. So, are there any other comments? Um, then the vote motion's on the floor. All those in favor? >> I. Any abstaining? >> Any voting? No. Okay, great. Now, the next item on the agenda is training on evaluation process. >> This is super abbreviated because we have all gone through this. Um, there are no new members of our um committee. So everybody's pretty pretty um familiar with with the process. Um right now we're in the analysis, goal setting

193and plan development and the dates. Um all year Dr. Dor is going to collect her evidence. We're going to meet um I think January the 19th through the 30th, the midyear mark to discuss the progress and the deadline um for the year end evaluations is going to be April 24th. Um and those dates are reflected. I'm I'm kind of whizzing through this, so tell me if you want me to stop, but we have a long agenda here. Um we already know that the um It's an assessment of her roles and um the only thing that I wanted to point out is that based on the comments that we had last year, the subcommittee um decided with Dr. door's um approval and support that we were going to revert to the um the DESIE the comprehensive

194um document as opposed to cutting the focus indicators and just having those um appear on the evaluation. So um so it's bigger. >> Yeah, I can't see that. >> I don't know how to make it bigger. Okay, don't worry about it. the the um slideshow button up with the >> top right >> slideshow >> it'll take it in presentation >> presenter view >> y >> no slideshow >> oh gosh did I just mess this up >> oh that's so much better >> oh can you see it now I can't see it but that's okay I don't even know how >> then look up there >> okay but I don't even know how to um >> down arrow >> okay the down arrow okay so Um, this is all right. >> No, I have it, but

195I can't move it. >> Um, I'm sorry. >> It's okay. Move it. >> Oh, okay. I'm sorry. Um, okay. So anyway, um so the cover page is going to go back to the front um as the Desi instrument recommends. Um Dr. Door once she starts collecting evidence is going to put these as her live links. They're not live right now. Um we have highlighted her focus indicator. Um >> and um as you did um colleague Welsh last year you um put links to the rubrics that was very helpful and that is on the document this year um just a just a note however in the scoring and I know I'm stating the obvious that the scoring will only consider how you score Dr. door on these focus indicators. So if you for I E data

196informed decision making that's for focus indicator. If you give an exemplary for that but then you get give it all the ones that are not in yellow a U. Well it doesn't matter. It's only the focus indicator that she is going to be scored on. These are there to give you context for what the um the standard is. that was what people had requested. But the scoring is only going to be on the focus indicators. And um if you click on that link, just like last year, a rubric is going to come up that will help you do the scoring. And similarly um the other I didn't do a screenshot for everything, but that's uh how it's going. So yes, I just wanted to this is so smart to do it this way. So, thank

197you. Um, I don't know how we've never thought of that before. I mean, I've been on evaluation for like nine years and things come up, but I just I really appreciate being able to see what the other categories are, but being able to have the evaluation focus on the things that were agreed upon. It's just a because this was the main topic that came up last year. People were frustrated that they couldn't evaluate on the other things. So, this gives an opportunity to weigh in to give feedback to the superintendent. and it just doesn't get am I right? That's the intent. So, so then yeah. Um I just think that solves the problem that we have. >> It's an ingenious way to solve it. >> Um so this says draft now, but it after we

198voted that you we've just voted your goals in. So it will be the the document after tonight >> and we'll get a refresher in this closer to it. And um along the way um there's um midway through the cycle there's time to make meetings with Lori to talk along the way rather than um wait to the end which we've as a committee I'm proud to say we have gotten very good at I think we have almost 100% um success rate last year at talking way through the um right didn't you meet with everybody say Yes, >> I don't remember it. >> Say yes, >> but we did. I I remember thinking that. >> I'm not sure of the data. >> Yeah, I think we did. Okay. So, um we don't need a vote on that.

199Was just information. Okay. All right. Um so, this um the next item is to act on the additional school committee date of May 5th. Um I think Kelly partially explained that. Is that >> Yes. >> Yeah. I'm assuming that >> Yes, that is the same thing. So we can get the evaluation. >> Okay. So we have to vote on that. Um >> I'll make a motion that we add the date of May 6th. >> It's fifth. It's it's a type out here on the agenda. It's correct in the timeline. >> Oh, sorry. >> It's May 5th. >> We add the date of May 5th for the purposes of getting the evaluation. >> Second for discussion. >> Okay. There's one question if I could through you to Kelly here. That's just the the handing out. >>

200Yeah. >> Okay. That's all I have. >> We had to do that last year, remember? >> Um to make it >> totally um open meeting law >> Complant. Okay, that's why. >> All right. Um so there's a motion, a second. All those in favor? I any abstaining or voting? No. Okay. All right. The next item on the agenda is to act on navigating the future together special meeting dates. And I just wanted to um point out this. This is just simply to vote on these dates. Then we're aware that they're coming down the pike. Um as to what is part of the presentations, that's not what we'll be discussing tonight. Um there will be opportunities to do that. So this is just simply voting to approve these dates. There's three dates which I don't remember

201what they are but there's three dates in the future. >> November 19th, December 2, December 16th. >> Okay. Those Kelly, >> sorry. November 19th at 6:30, December 2nd at 6:30, and December 16th at 6:30. >> Okay. >> Are they in our packet or >> Yes. Short little >> It's that little half. >> Oh, okay. Okay. All right. So, that was that was my motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Okay. Now, comments. >> Can I just ask a clarifying question? >> Sure. >> Um, where did the dates who who originated the dates? Where did they come from? >> The superintendent. >> Who came up with the dates? Okay. >> The superintendent. >> Mike. >> Um, the dates I have less of an issue with. And I know you said that the content could be

202changed. However, I'm going to vote against this because the content is all early childhood and I'm not going to approve something based on these words. There are far larger fish we have to deal with than this. So, I would vote no and I would I would hope that other people would wait until we get a more detailed discussion or description of what we're going to talk about and also for our three other colleagues to be here because last meeting all three of them had had talks on more studies and f focus groups in the future. This again seems rushed and the wording on this timeline is not what we should be focused on. >> Okay. >> Um, Linda, >> I'm just voting on dates. That's what what the what the what the motion is. We're

203just voting on dates. So, same thing dates. Um, yeah. I mean, I I don't love the idea of setting a timeline to then follow, you know? I I appreciated the way that you guys did it before where we just sort of like hold some dates in case we get there. But, um, but I think I'm fine with it because we can always change them, right? If we if this doesn't meet our timeline, if we are not ready or whatever, we'll just revisit and we'll change the date. >> Absolutely. This is just holding times >> which is for us >> for us, right? Which is and people um were wondering everybody's spoken, right? Okay. So people were wondering um about why we didn't publish things before, but these are just they were kind of spaceholders because

204things come along that you can't foresee like how long this town meeting going to last and things like that. So we can change them and there is absolutely plenty of opportunities if you don't feel you have enough in u information, if the public hasn't been able to give adequate input that we can um move them ahead, move them behind, reschedule them and things. This is just to set those dates there and know that they're coming down the pipe. >> I appreciate that. Thank you. >> Okay. >> And two clarifying questions. Can we change the dates as the school committee if they were set by the superintendent? They are her dates, not our dates. >> It's her and my decision when we will have meetings. Okay. >> Okay. So, I guess the followup is what is

205the mechanism that we would use if we want to change those dates in the future. If anyone knows that, >> we would vote in public together to do it. >> So, somebody would make a motion such as myself or Kelly to make >> and that would be fine to make that motion at that time. >> Um, you know, I'm going to look that up and find out exactly the way to do it. >> All right. My my other clarifying question is in other places we have referred to this as the early child care center. Here it's the early childhood center. I'm not It's written differently, but um it doesn't seem like consistent language. >> Um I lost that little >> I lost that little >> It's right after the >> I might just I'm sorry.

206Could you repeat what you >> um elsewhere in the last year it's been referred to as the early child care center and so here it's the early childhood center. Um >> I don't know if it matters. >> It's just different. Um I if it's possible I would like to make a motion to postpone this to our next meeting so that all of our members can be here. >> No, I can't table but postpone it and I don't want to postpone it indefinitely because I want to have the conversation. But >> I'll second that. >> Postpone it to our next uh regularly scheduled meeting. >> Um to vote on it. >> So are you making an amendment? Is this an amendment or >> um we've made the motion. >> We have a motion. Okay. Somebody who

207knows the the the laws here. We're working on it. not doing it, you know, doing it right as we learned together. We have a motion on the table. >> You're moving to amend the original motion. >> Yes. Okay. So, I would like to make um >> So, you need a second for that. I liked it. So, now we have to vote. >> Okay. What's your um >> um I would like to move to amend the motion that is is under discussion to postpone this vote until our next regularly scheduled meeting. >> Second. >> Okay. Um, >> now we have to discuss. >> No. No. Yeah. >> You want me to vote? >> Yep. >> We can discuss. Can we discuss this also? >> I'm Can you discuss an amendment? >> You can. Yes. >> Okay.

208>> I would say for for fairness for the three who weren't here who all made motion made mention rather of additional community forums and timelines. I think it would be disrespectful to them to go on this tonight. July 2nd. My colleagues motion. >> Okay. All right. So >> any discussion, >> anything to say, Sue? >> No. >> Okay. My opinion is um we want to start off on a good foot and I think having everybody on board is a good idea. So I agree. Okay. So is that now we have to vote, right? >> Okay. All those uh Oh. >> In favor of the amended motion. All those in favor of the amended motion, let's raise hands cuz you know there's not that voices. All those in favor of the amended motion. >> Okay. >>

209Now, what did Margaret What did Margaret say to us >> when tie? Somebody can change their vote, but they have to do it immediately. You can't move on to any other >> otherwise motions. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> And then we take up the regular motion. That is why she warned us because well actually she didn't know there would be six of us. She thought there would be eight of us. >> If I could um chair maduras if this is ends in a tie and then we were to take the original motion and that ends in a tie then the original motion will also fail. >> So there will be no vote. So I'm okay with a tie here if we continue to the tie in the next round. Thank you. >> Okay. So we

210have to take up the original motion. >> Okay. Okay. >> And we already discussed it >> which was >> to prove these 38s without our three missing numbers. >> Right. >> Okay. So, >> okay. For this the the sake of expediency tonight, I will change my vote because I will change my vote. It's it's not going to we can still keep these same dates even if we vote >> uh at our next school committee meeting. So, I will change my vote so that we can move things along here. >> Okay. >> So, it's it's going to be to the next meeting. >> Okay. >> All right. Okie do. >> Now comes policy land. And you were just starting to hope the meeting was going to roll along. Well, we're in policy land. So wake up

211everybody and >> why don't everybody just stand up for a minute? >> I I really I really stood up. We've been sitting here >> quite a long time. >> Thank you. Three hours sitting here. [Music] >> Okay. So, um I guess Lori will talk about these policies. Thanks for letting us do the stretch. >> Okay. All right. So, our first policy is um BEDH. Um we simply the sub uh the policy subcommittee u was simply um inserting uh what the decision has been made about how we're doing public comment. So, um that is spelled out um in >> this is the first >> Yep. We can do questions questions as we go. >> Sure. It makes it easier than going back and forth. >> There's so many. Um, so I just wanted to make sure

212that this is still going to get kicked back to policy to try and figure out what to do about our zoomers. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. So, >> they'll all get kicked back. Um, either no comments or comments. I >> just meant for that particular topic. Yeah. >> Uh, yeah. Beed number three. There was some discussion about a majority vote for time extension, but we're not putting that in there. Correct. That's not one of our if that makes sense because it says here the the presiding chair may permit extension. We deleted that. >> But is there an avenue for >> I think pretty much anytime you can in any situation not just here. >> Yeah. Just to make it smoother flowing. I think we eliminated that. >> Okay. Again, this is first

213read, so you can send in any questions you have afterwards on any of these. Uh, and we'll take it back up to the policy subcommittee. Um, BDE-R um, this was just cleaning up the policy, so it reflected um, the actual committees and assignments. Um, name changes, you'll see some name changes. We went to official uh, name changes and then left on what our policies are now. So that one's um pretty. The next um uh few policies are um updating the guidance um there was um the mass guidance was updated uh regarding the raffles uh as fundraisers so that it's more aligned with the state law and so we were um aligning GBBC um to include that language. Um, also JJ E to include the correct language. Uh, KBE to include the correct language. Uh, and

214so that's about the um fundraising raffles specifically about raffles. JICA. Um the subcommittee committee discussed and um decided that because um we have in the hand student handbooks each of the dress codes and you vote the handbook policies and you um within the handbooks that the language here um would be deleted. The statement would say uh student dress codes are published within each school's student handbook of which you still vote. um policy JQ. Um this was um inaccurately reported that we could withhold report cards uh if um students still owed uh fines. That is incorrect according to the law. So we're not sure uh when that was added, but we um I'll give Mary credit here. She found that one. Um, but what we were missing is that it is okay, and we're not saying

215that we're going to do any of these things, but it is permissible to um hold uh someone from graduation exercises and activities as well as extra class activities um if these fines aren't paid. And that's it. >> Mike, >> uh if I could to Dr. Door, uh the last one you said exercises and activities, is that like field trips? Is that actual graduation? >> Actual graduation. >> Okay. Now, does that mean that they do not get to participate in graduation but get their diploma or does that mean no diploma? >> That they still go to graduation. It's the practice for graduation and any activities leading up to graduation. They >> still graduate. Thank you. Okay. >> So, I know >> I don't ever know we ever have done We actually have never done any of

216it really. It's It was cleaning up to match the law. Yeah, >> I understand like missing the Red Sox game versus not graduating. Okay, thank you. >> Um there's a lot in the policies and you know we say um send an email if you think of something along the way. >> We usually pick the person who isn't here to direct the emails to, >> right? But um since I open my mouth, you can send them to me if you want. Okay. Um all right, then we will act on surplus science materials. So moved. Oh, >> is there a second? >> Second. >> Lori, do you have anything to add or >> No, I think Sonia said it. Um, everything in the U memo. >> I was just writing down what Dr. George had just said.

217Are we We're not uh discussing the policies tonight. Okay. >> Um, >> it's been a while since we've had a big batch of policies. >> I know. I know. Um, and we we we don't like to admit it, but we do go second reads on policies because they're so complicated. So, um, but if you have any questions along the way, okay, you can ask me. Okay, back to the science. Uh, we have a vote in a second. So, all those in favor? >> I. Any opposed or abstaining? >> Okay. Next, we have some grants that Dr. Gworth explained to us. exciting. Um, so the robotics team, as you know, it's it's an expensive club and they have been uh fundraising, but they've also received some donations. Uh, so you can see there and many thanks

218to Felmouth Toyota, the Valley Group, Cape Cod, um, and the, uh, Jean Hos Foundation. Uh, as you can see, there's a total of $7,000 that we're asking you to accept. um so that uh uh the robotics club can continue to compete and a lot of this u will go toward um the trips for competition so those of course will come back to you as well sorry second can I ask quickly is it keep five orical >> no keep five it's missing there >> thank you >> okay all right no other just questions or comments Okay. Um, so all those in favor. >> Any abstain or opposing? >> Okay. Now we have uh two field trips. So >> both both in New York City um the Spanish group um uh would like to take a trip

219to New York on March 6. It is a one-day trip. They'll leave at 5 in the morning and they will return at uh 5 in the afternoon. Um I'm sorry, they'll depart at 5 to come back. So it will be longer than 5 to 5. Um so they will um be able to watch the play Don Kyote uh while they're there. They're also u visit a Spanish restaurant and they'll do some sightseeing and take in uh the Hispanic uh society uh museum. >> So move second. >> It's so awesome. >> Yeah. >> Mike, >> uh if I could through you, Terry, the first page says costs and it has a breakdown that's 140. Is that per student or are we supplementing that in some way >> just the overall cost? I don't know if we

220can do something. >> Uh the first page Carla Steel >> they raise money. There should be a fundraising page in there that says how they're going to fund raise. So that's just a second. >> Okay. >> They'll do a car wash >> and they'll raise they'll raise the money for us. >> Thank you. We'll have to pay attention to when they do it so that we can give them some business. >> Yes. >> Good. >> So, act on the National Art Honor Society. >> Yeah. So, um this is their annual trip that they take to New York. Um >> I'm sorry. Before did I miss something? >> We never voted. >> Oh, we vote separately. >> Yeah. The Spanish one we have to vote. The Spanish. >> Okay. I'm sorry. >> All those in favor?

221I. >> Any oppose for abstaining? >> I'm not hope you're not keeping record of how many times I messed up tonight. >> It's a long >> moving on to the National Art Honor Society. >> So, this is their annual trip to New York and so u we're just asking um to uh vote on this trip. Uh this is largely I'm trying to see if it's listed here, but um FEF does support this >> and I do think there's some fundraising. >> Yeah. And I think if Melissa were here, she would say she'd talk about how great it is. Okay. >> Yeah. >> I just I have to give a shout out to the teachers who organize this and take all those kids and >> amazing, >> you know, and it >> and this is a

222one day trip. Should have said that in the beginning. >> They leave in the morning, come back late. >> Okay. >> Second. >> Any other comments or discussions? >> Okay. All those in favor? Any opposed for abstaining? >> Okay. Never thought we'd get to routine business, but here we are. The minutes. Okay. Do I have a motion to accept the minutes for September 9th, 2025? >> So move. >> Second. >> Any comments or edits? >> Okay. All those in favor? >> I. Any opposed abstaining? Okay. Approval of September 30th, 2025. >> So move. >> Take it, Katrina. No second. >> Okay. Any comments or edits? All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed or abstaining? No. Okay. Committee reports. Um I just have a quick sentence. I'll be giving you a lot more information.

223The um Cape Cod Collaborative celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. So, a lot of good things happening. Um and they are also working as we do with the Wampa Noah um tribe. So, I'll have some more information to come on that. >> Okay. >> Um, the school committee student advisory was meant to meet today, but due to conflicts of scheduling unexpected because of the long weekend, uh, the students weren't able to come to that meeting. So, we are rescheduling for December 4th. Okay. >> I'm very much looking forward to it. >> Okay. Any other meetings? I attended the safety meeting with representatives from all the different schools as well as police and fire etc. um and heard comments in regards to the current government on in regards to the um safety efforts within the system.

224I also attended the um sports hall of fame and Steve did an awesome job and it was it was just a lot of fun to see the teams that we had been cheering on over the years. >> Yeah. >> And individuals be honored. >> Yeah. >> Literally, one of us was cheering them on and one of them was >> Twirling baton. >> Okay. Any other reports? I'm sorry. I went first. I didn't mean to do that. Another mess up. Yes, Mike. I don't have a report, but I would like to say that two weeks ago, a junior at Felmouth High School, Liam Matthews, hit a hole in one in golf, and that was pretty impressive. >> So, that's it. >> Okay. We love those kind of things. Anything about the kids? Okay. Are there any

225requests for followup? >> Um, just two quick things. Um, at the next, um, school committee meeting, Dr. Door, could you talk a little about the um elimination of the special Department of Special Education federal level and how that may impact us. Um, and then I just wanted to say that because it's the third Thursday, third, I'm so sorry, >> third Saturday, um, this coming weekend, we are going to attempt to host our uh, discussion time at the the main library um, at 10:30. And um you know we know what we can and cannot talk about but we do want to hear. So um so we were asking for people to come by and and you're welcome to join us >> 10:30 10:30 >> this Saturday. >> Yes. Okay. >> The third Saturday of every month

226we will be at the library. Um as many school committee people can go until we have a quorum and then you know then somebody's going to have to leave. Um but it's just an opportunity to engage with uh the community and parents and staff. >> Okay. Who wants to say it? >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Okay. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Any opposing?