001Ready? [Music] >> Ready. >> Right. Good evening. I'd like to call this meeting to the Northfield Public School Committee to order. Please rise for the [Music] 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. >> All right. As you know, we've had recent changes in the composition of the school committee. Um so tonight um we're going to start with re reorganization of the committee. Uh I want to extend a warm welcome to Maggie Woodward who is our newest member also to Christine Dra and Mike Grant who we're already welcome earlier this this summer but I want to welcome the the full committee tonight. Um so the the port the purpose of this portion of tonight's meeting is to
002conduct our reorganization. Um, and as the first order of business is to elect our new chair. So, I will now open nominations for the position of chair of Northfield Public School Committee. >> I nominate Matt Grant. >> I second. Any other nominations? Hearing none, we move to a proceed to a vote. Does he have to accept it or do we just force him into it? >> Um, >> do you want the position? >> Just for we'll take it. >> So, moving to a roll call vote. Tim Canada, >> yes. >> Kristen J. Grande, >> yes. >> Dan Rando, >> yes. >> Maggie Woodward, >> yes. >> Grant, >> yes. So now I will turn Congratulations Matt. I will now turn the meeting over to you as the elected chair of the school committee and the
003next position will be the vice chair position. >> All right. I will entertain a motion to accept the nomination for vice chair. >> Tim Canada. >> I will second. >> Any other nominations? Any discussion? Do a roll call vote. >> Tim, yes. >> Matthew Grant, yes. >> Kristen Jing Grande, yes. >> Dano, yes. >> Yes. And we have just secretary. >> So, the next uh position that we'll get a nomination for is secretary. I will take a nomination for secretary. >> Nominate Kristen J. Grande. I second. Any other nominations? Do we have any discussion? Seeing none, take a roll call vote. Tim Canada, yes. Matthew Grant, yes. >> Chris Grande, yes. >> Cano, yes. >> Congratulations. >> No idea what you just signed up for. [Music] coffee. >> We learn as we go. >> All
004right. So later we are going to discuss subcommittee assignments, right? >> Yes. >> Correct. >> Right. So we'll move on to number three, recognition. Do we have any recognition? >> Yes, we do. I like to call Mr. Murphy to help me with this tonight. Um, so as you probably know, every year we have a book fair at the elementary school, which kind of coincides with our welcome back to school evening, which happened last Wednesday, right, Mr. >> It's all a blur already. Um, so it's a well attended event. We have multiple grades who visit the book fair during the school week and then the families come on Wednesday evening and really start purchasing those books. So, um, every year we have a different parent who kind of organizes the events. Uh, and this year, uh,
005Kelly Cedarland was our parents volunteer, did a fantastic job organizing the events. U, the turnout was fantastic. You had a lot of little helpers helping out, but, uh, very well attended. Uh, just like the event on Wednesday was a fantastic day for our families and our staff. So, just want to congratulate and thank Kelly for all her efforts and her hard work and making sure the the book here was a success. Thank you. >> Congratulations. >> Sorry. >> Thank you, Lily. Any other recognition? >> Not for me this evening. I know that uh is it next Friday, Mr. Murphy? >> Next Friday is the start of the month. >> Yes. >> Breakfast. >> Uh this Friday. >> This Friday. Sorry. This Friday coming up is uh the fir the September start of the month breakfast
006uh for several welldeserving elementary school students. So I know he's going to share that news with those students coming up soon. It's a surprise. Surprise. >> I know it's a surprise, but it's coming. So that's it for now. >> All right, we're going to do approve number four, approval of minutes. I'll entertain a motion to approve uh school committee meeting minutes from August 18th, 2025. >> Move to approve the minutes from Monday, August 18th, 2025. >> I will second that. >> Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? >> I uh number five, we have public participation. Do we have any public comments this evening? Anybody going once? >> All righty. >> Can I just double check? I want to go back to the approval of minutes. Do we have a set of minutes from
007a summer meeting that we had tabled cuz you were looking to for clarification on how everyone had voted. Do we need to go back and approve that set of minutes? >> We will. We >> Yeah, we do. We'll have to put it in the next month just to get it in the record. >> Thanks. >> So, we have no public comment this evening. No public participation. Uh, do we have any correspondence? Anybody? >> I had some correspondence, but but we're going to address it later in a in a policy discussion. Okay, sounds good. Move on to number seven, student representative report. Noah. All right. >> Uh, past information, sixth grade orientation. We invited the upcoming sixth graders to an orientation on August 22nd to show them around the high school, teach them how to open
008their lockers and teach them about their schedule as well as answering questions they may have about what school's like in this building. Uh on the first day of school, we started in the gym for an assembly. We gave some important information about the day. We played a pep rally game and after this we distributed into our crews for the day. Activities fair. On Wednesday, August 27th, we held our annual activities fair, inviting students grades 6 through 12 to sign up for clubs and sports, as well as offering an opportunity to create clubs that they are interested in seeing in school. Upcoming information, homecoming on Friday, September 26th, we will be hosting our homecoming dance. The dance will be held from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. We will have pizza, snacks, drinks, and ice cream, as well
009as the dances for 9 through 12 only. We will also be hosting our annual homecoming spirit week this week, the 22nd through 26th. Class elections, the class elections will be held sometime the first week of October. We will holding class elections for sixth grade and positions need to be filled in all other grades. Students will be given opportunities to hold the class office positions for the rest of the year. social media. We invite all community members to follow our social media accounts to keep up with all NB StuCo MBHS Stuco events and activities. Our accounts are Instagram, MB Stuco, Facebook MB Stuco, Tik Tok at NB Stuco. StuCo meetings. All meetings are open to the school and community. Meetings are typically every other Monday in the high school Kea from 6:00 to 7:30. Please feel
010free to join us if you have anything you would like to discuss or just like to see how things are run. Our first meeting is the 29th, so next Monday also. And that's all I have. >> Thank you, Noah. Any questions? I have a question. No. What the uh what are some of the things you guys are doing for spirit week? >> Uh today was Crocs versus Birkenstocks. Tomorrow is Twin Tuesday/ Squad Day. Uh Wednesday's >> Stages of Life Day. >> And then throwback Thursday and Friday is spirit week. We have our pep rally. >> So, who won? Cross or Birkenstock? >> That's what we all want to know. >> All us older guys are >> I'm a Birkenstock guy myself. >> Our stuff is in style. >> You know, they didn't do a tally.
011>> No. Well, we did do a tally, but I don't have that information. >> We'll come back with it. >> The Birkenstocks. >> It's important information. Yeah, we need the report next. >> Something my wife would yell at me. >> Thank you, Noah. All right, we have school committee reports. Any school committee reports hearing? None. >> No, uh financial reports. >> All right. So, you uh this month we have uh three transfers. So that's our quick review and then uh the monthly statement uh that you received in your packets. The three transfers were uh from general fund to the first was from general fund to athletic revolve for $27. Second was for 1,320 that was general fund to grant 309 and the last was general fund to rural school aid um that was for 26,05601.
012And the reason that was so large was because we had not set up the rural school aid fund yet is now set up and we're accessing that money to offset parts of the budget uh that we had talked about going back to last spring. Um so those are the three transfers that you were again received in your packet and then is the the August statement here. Any questions? I have a question on the the rural school aid fund. Yes. Is that something that needs to be done annually that doesn't really jive with like when all these bills come due? Is that just a recurring thing that we'll need to look for just down the road or is that something that now the account set up that's >> No, we just uh so there's two rural
013there's rural school and small rural um so there's two they kind of sound the same two different grants that come into the district. Um, one changes every every school year based on different parameters. We talked about this last year. >> Um, we projected roughly $120,000 for that account. Uh, the other one was is roughly $40,000 which we get every year. So, uh, Miss Graham was setting up those chart of accounts and we had not set up that particular one yet. So, we're paying for those bills that we allocated for rural school aid out of general fund. So, now it's set up. We have that money in there. It's been it's paid for by by rural school. Did I answer your question? >> Yeah. No, I was just wondering if this is something we just need
014to keep kind of in the back of our minds. >> Um >> because I know sometimes the bills come due and you know the budget the the annual budget year is not there yet and there's there's some weird stuff that we have. >> Yeah. So so we don't so the the 120 that we projected we haven't got a firm number on that that one yet. Um but even if it if it's less than what we projected um we we have things kind of worked out. So we're in a good space for those those two funding mechanisms. So I will update the committee once we get that official number. So you know most of that grant pays for technology and software. >> Thank you. You're welcome. So these are annual fees for the technology. Is that
015correct? >> Yeah. Some so some of those some of that software and then obviously Verizon Business Verizon. Um uh Ed Leo is our is our web page. Alma Technologies is our student information system or CIS. So that's how we collect all of our student data. We report to the state. Our parents interface with our our what's going on for attendance. Mobile mystery science and happy numbers are all it's all software that we use throughout the district but mostly at the elementary school. Sounds good. >> Is that all we had for financial reports? >> Yes. Unless you wanted to read through the whole spreadsheet. >> All right. Number 10, superintendent report. >> All right. So, I have a couple different parts. my general uh memo that I attached to the to the uh packet with our
016hires and departures. Um we are in a very good spot as far as our hires are concerned. We only have one position as of right now. Um and that we have some positive movement on that position, but we are very pleased with school this year um with only a few openings and our principles, our directors worked very hard to get those positions filled. So I appreciate their efforts and like I said, we're in a very good spot. You know, I talked to colleagues around Central Mass and there are a lot of districts, a lot of schools that still have multiple openings and again, I think we're in a very good spot, knock on wood. Um, but, uh, I'm very happy with the hires we've made. Some fantastic younger teachers, fresh out of college, and we
017have a mix of also very experienced veterans that we've kind of put together. So, very happy with the start there. But again, I I want to just commend our principles, our directors, our faculty, our staff, our teachers, um, and our students. We're here tonight. We had a great opening. I think one of the better ones we've had in a very long time. Um very positive two days of professional development uh that were very thoughtfully planned. Uh we started off celebrating some of the the uh tenure of our staff. So we had members of our staff who have been here for 5, 10, 15, 20, even 30 years. So we recognized their service to the district. And then we talked about some of our ongoing initiatives. And what I'm happy about is that those haven't really
018changed over the last couple years. Uh we continue to to build a culture of a safe place for our students and our families and for our staff members. We continue to look at bringing in high quality instructional materials for all kids. Uh and we we look at making sure that uh students have opportunities for success both at the elementary school level and the junior senior high school level. Uh and then essentially our building principles and and and our director of special education took different cohorts and worked with those teams for the next day and a half. So again, we started off with two strong days and then we welcome our kids back on August 27th. Um this year again we are receiving uh $40,000 from the state for what is called our target targeted assistant
019grant, our TAG grant. Um we just submitted this grant last week. these this money will go towards uh community professional development for our leadership team and then our teachers around data cycles. So looking at all kinds of student data and making sure we're becoming more of a data-minded school district. Uh additionally we'll be looking at working with um a company called a software called EDIA which they uh it's an AI generative company that works with two major facets. One is around attendance and it's giving parents real-time communication and feedback when their their child is absent. But then also helps our schools build their student support team and their their plans for these kids who uh may have absenteeism issues. Additionally, the other component of this software is that it is linked with luster of math
020which we use for our high school math uh instruction. And what this program will do is guide our teachers and help our students with some in real time supports. Um so it gives students uh questions, responds to their their answers, gives them feedback on their answers in real time. Doesn't give them the answers u but it helps support them in their learning. And teachers can program this software to to to to kind of collaborate or calibrate with what the kids need. Um so we're very excited about that. Um, and then the last part, um, I think I said those two. Yeah, that's the that's the tag, right? Um, on a professional/personal level, I was selected for what's called the Mass Super Network or the MSN or MSSN, another acronym for you guys to to remember.
021But essentially what this is is 24 superintendents, three cohorts of eight. And this is kind of an extension of what I've been doing the last three years through the NSIP program or the new superintendence induction program. So what we do, we had a dayong convening last week and that now we meet once a month to review a problem of practice. So what that means is we have a protocol that each month a different superintendent or two brings a problem of practice to this confidential workspace to kind of let the team help them work through this problem. Um, so I'll have a turn at some point, but it's another way for us to kind of be connected with members of other communities in the state and also for us to have kind of for me to
022have uh some some thought partners when issues come up that that I don't have the answer to. Um, so that was last week and our next meeting is in October. Um, this coming Wednesday and Thursday, I will attend both the first meeting for the Worcester County Superintendent Association. And then on Thursday morning, it's a Southern Worcester County uh, Educational Collaborative or SWAK, which is our our receiving collaborative. We're one of 17 communities that send students there for for different services. So, um, throughout the school year, as I've done in the past, I will be sharing with the committee some updates from SW. Um, there, if you may recall, in years past, we've had a vote on on different things. if they have a surplus, sometimes they send money or tuition wage back to the districts.
023We've had to do that in the past. But predominantly, I'll give you updates on how many students um SW is is supporting and how many students are coming from North Brookfield. And then last but two more things. Uh the STEM grant partnership. I sent out an email today uh just kind of giving families an update on some of the things we're doing with our STEM education. I see some of our STEM students are here tonight. Um but we also received um a new company called True Robotics which is out of Worcester. They were founded by WPI grads. Um we through another grant opportunity with the Blackstone Valley Edhub. Uh we're receiving 31 of these robot kits for our elementary school students. So that that will be just used for our K through five students. Our
024middle school and our high school have 24 batch robotics kits that they use already. So, uh, we keep those separate. Um, the ones at the elementary school are a great entry- level robot kit that kids can kind of learn how to build robots and also program program them through some very simple coding um, programs. And then last but not least, uh, we have our first community outreach meeting tomorrow morning at 9:30. Um, this has been going on for the past three years and it's a great way for us to bridge uh with members of the community and share what's going on in the school district and also have them share what's going on in the community and kind of help each other advertise and promote um both entities together. So that will be tomorrow morning.
025We either have that at the elementary school. I sent out an email to the group. What we plan to do is starting in October sending a bigger email out to the entire district. Uh we do have in person and virtual options so you can come and join um virtually as well. All right. So the next part of my memo uh as Mr. Canon alluded to uh we did have some communication about this. If you may recall back in I believe it was mid or late May um the state passed some new regulations if you will around the lottery system for vocational schools. And essentially what they're requiring now for for junior senior high schools are or middle school um CTE program acceptance is they want a clear policy on how we're advertising how we're supporting
026the entry for these students uh how we're making these options available. Um and I will say that in my conversations with superintendents I had a conversation with uh Mr. Brener who's the superintendent Bath last week about this as well. um they're still developing their policy because it's a little more involved and robust because they are going to have a weighted lottery system. Um but what we're doing currently is not really going to change. So just so families know and students know um any student who's interested in going to Bay Path or exploring Bay Path, uh we allow them to go on the tour. The tour is is is sponsored paid for by Bayath. They send buses. The students travel to Bay Path. Um we typically have a counselor come to speak to those students here
027at the school. Um and then our counselor uh Miss Heheart will attend a breakfast with area counselors to discuss kind of the enrollment process at at Bayath which is our receiving vocational school. So the policy that I that it's a draft and we'll I'm sure we'll review this again next month is just kind of to firm up some of the language about what I just what I just spoke about essentially just giving kids the opportunity and I'll just kind of go through some of the highlights. So, um, the role of the North Brookfield Public Schools is to inform families and students of the opportunity to apply to Bayad. That's that's number one. Um, we always support equitable access. And I think if you look at the new law around vocational school entry, um, the goal,
028whether you agree with it or not, the goal was to make access more equitable. Um, they're not putting as much weight on the interview. Um, vocational schools do get to decide if they want to go for a weighted entry. Uh and and like I said, Bayath has not fully decided on their policy yet, but even in the even if if there is a weighted polic a weighted uh acceptance, the parameters are not going to be um so strict where they're going to prohibit students from having a fair chance of getting in. So, it really has become almost a true lottery in that sense. So, it's not, you know, there's no it's not as much weight, if any weight, on attendance prior to your seventh grade year. um there's no if any any weight put on
029discipline issues prior to your seventh grade year or even your seventh grade year in middle school. So those are two factors that there used to be more weight for those students and it would limit some kids from being accepted. Um like I said even in a situation if they choose to have more of a weighted model it will not um prohibit our students from being accepted. So I think that's a it's a that's good progress in my opinion um for this and I think that um you know we have we have students who are interested in bay path we want to give them that that fair shot to to take a look at those opportunities. One thing I will also add to and I this is on the last page um the the career awareness
030programming. So we have been using a a a program called my cap my career academic planning. So, this was something if you may recall, and I'll just refresh your memories, when we going through the ICP grant process, we had to make sure that our school counselor had that training. Um, it's it's used by most districts around the Commonwealth. Um but basically what it does is the counselor or counselors meet with students as early as middle school and even earlier to kind of talk about what are your goals? What are your goals for school? What are your goals your goals for college? What are your goals for uh the workforce? So they start to have those conversations even at a very basic level for our youngest students. And this program allows us to track that information.
031So we are using that program. Um, we will continue to use that program and you you'll probably learn more about it as your as your students kind of through the district. But that's the that's the the the component that if schools did not have that, they had to adopt that program, then we we were kind of ahead of that curve. My assumption is that, you know, once we have a a policy subcommittee kind of firmed up tonight, we'll review this next month and we can put this maybe to a vote. >> There's a time there's a time frame on that. >> Yeah. So, so it has to be submitted to Desi through the Champs portal by November 1st. Desi did come out last week and say if you need an extension, they will grant it.
032They realized that like many of their initiatives, they didn't give us a lot of answers to our questions. So, you kind of furize your fly. Um, >> well, they specifically said there's like no guidance. >> Yeah. Yeah. I was being nice, I guess. But, um, so if we do feel like we need more time, we can definitely get it. I think that we're in a pretty good spot. I think we could probably move forward with a policy um for approval by November or so. So, next month's meeting, if they had come back to us with their revisions, I'll come back to that with to the committee. So there's no change to the slotted number that North Brookfield gets per year or is that potentially going to come? >> No, no, that's not going to change.
033Gotcha. Any questions about the draft policies policy? >> No, thank you for getting ahead of that. Yeah, >> appreciate that. >> You're welcome. So, we'll have that, I think, probably for a formal vote next month. Next part of my presentation, I'm going to pass the baton on to Miss Malone. Uh, Miss Malone, as you know, has been a 12-year veteran, something like that. Also, our SUKCO adviser, also softball, basketball coach. But last spring, Miss Malone traveled to Denver with myself and Mr. Jorio uh as part of the applied learning cohort and she's going to talk about a program that she brought in uh that we kind of learned about last spring uh which is a a creative and I think more engaging twist on your typical advisory block. So I'm going to call up Miss
034Malone to speak about the crew program. >> Hello everyone. That's behind you. You can look on the water as well. >> There we go. Um, so our crew program, it really came from um, like M. McCormack said, from the discovery program. Um, I also have a background in outdoor um, education and learning. Um, I spent my summers uh at Spring Hill College, can't so it so that expeditionary learning um and adventure education um kind of was also brought into this as well. So there's I think a lot of things that brought all of this to North Brookfield. So we're super excited to be able to to do that for our students. Um so crew is really um this program that we want to be able to cultivate this sense of belonging with our students. I
035think a lot of times uh if you talk to North Brookfield students or faculty we know this as a really safe space. Um so this program is just taking that connection to the to the next level right and allowing our students and our faculty to be able to learn through growing and adapting. um with teachers right by their side. Um so some of the skills that we kind of go through in this program and we'll I'll kind of outline some of the things um that we'll do to kind of cover those skills. Um but there's a whole list of those I think in your packet. Um but most of these skills are those employable skills, right? ific skills that we want these students to be learning um beyond the classroom and be able be able
036to use beyond their years at Northbook High School. So things like collaborating, talking to other people, um taking initiative, being proactive, time management, um all of these things kind of fall under that. Um so we're super excited to be able to bring um these different skills uh but coming at them uh from a couple different avenues. So the idea um of crew was uh it kind of comes from this expeditionary learning term and outdoor education. This idea that we are crew and not passengers, right? So we have this kind of opt-in mentality or we we are trying things. we are everybody's helping everybody um is going to be involved in these new experiences um and help each other along the way um which allows these students to be able to hone in on these skills
037that we're working on. So what we like to also make sure that we know and our students know is what crew isn't. So I Mr. McCormick had mentioned that it's kind of in lie of our advisory program. we found it really wasn't working for our students. It just ended up being this 25 minute block. So the intentionality behind some of these programming and workshops that we're going to do um I think is going to be really great for these students um where they're able to again use these skills in a lot of other ways. Um so these are just a couple things that crew isn't right. It's not social time. It's not free time. It's not our typical advisory. It's going to be very different and intentional. So some of the things that our students
038and our teachers can expect in crew um workshops, we call them uh that in student council, but we also call them programming in uh in the facilitation world. Um so these programs and workshops are designed around those skills. Um and those list of skills were created by um the North Brook High School teachers. So, we were able to generate that list of what do your students actually need and what are the skills that they can they need to be able to to be successful in your classroom, but maybe beyond that, right? So, it might not just be how to collaborate and work together um one-on-one, but it also might be how to like structure a proper essay. We can really turn uh any skill into a workshop and into a program where it's being reflective
039in how the students are seeing that. So, it's all about the questioning and the debriefing at the end. Um, we're also really hoping to pull our project adventure. So, um, Garrett Kennan is our, uh, PE coach or PE, um, excuse me, teacher across the district, also our basketball coach. But, um, he is going to be doing and helping with the project adventure. So, a lot of the ropes courses that you might see in the gym as you go by, the rock wall, and then the ropes course outside as well. Um something also that we're really excited to bring back are student portfolios. This is something that both um faculty and um staff I would say students previously who have done them before um really loved this idea of student portfolios um where students are taking
040uh accountability for their work um and what they do. So they're creating these binders um throughout the year of really good work, things that they can do better on uh what they can improve on for next time. So these are going to be things that we're going to bring back um into that crew and use that uh within that time frame. Uh mine cap my cap is also something that we're going to be using this time for as well as secondstep activities. These are both well I should say my cap is um right at Desi um initiative that uh Miss Airheart is involved with um as well as second step uh that's our social emotional learning um platform that we use. So we'll be pulling different activities from there as well but then also using
041crew um for students to be able to start to build their my cap um portfolios and start to have those conversations within Miss Airheart. Um just a couple other things. We also think about class meeting time. So those will be rolled into there as well. Um and reflections are super super important with this type of um education uh and thought process. So there's going to be a lot of reflecting uh for students not just on how they are and who they are and how they interact with others um but how they can take that to kind of other places in their life. So, um, these were just a couple additional other, uh, some crew ideas that Miss Erheart and myself and some other faculty members had talked about of using this time. We're obviously still
042in the very early stages of the roll out program. Um, but our first day uh, was a crew day as well as um, we've had a couple since then. So, just starting to get kind of our feet under us. But these were just some of the other things that we thought we might be able to incorporate into this programming um to really allow our students um again to make those connections um with faculty and some other students. Uh one of the things that I love about um our crews is that we were able to lump uh our sixth through 8th grade uh they are in cruise together. um the freshman and the juniors are in cruise together and then the sophomores and seniors are in cruise together. So we also have this cross um cutting
043of grades uh which I also think is really important in this school. They always have this like mentor um mentality in here. So a lot of the upper classmen are always mentoring the the younger kids. So, um that idea of having um that mix within those crews we thought was really important um to have. One of the things you might also know in that list is having crew siblings. So hopefully moving through the rest of the year we'll be able to have middle school and high school mentoring um and having that cross over um calling them crew siblings. So, um, we're super excited about some of the ideas that our faculty has come up with and the skills that they really generated. So, I think that we're going to have a lot of good programming
044um, and workshops for our students to really be able to take those employable skills and transfer them to other parts of their life. >> Any questions? >> I can just add Great job. Okay. Great job. Um, Miss Malone does an exceptional job. So, a lot of what what she just spoke about is an extension of the applied learning that she's doing in the classroom, open site, which is the this grade 6 through8 science curriculum that we adopted last year. So, we're year two of that. So this this concept of really pushing it back on the students for their learning to guide their learning to guide their kind of connectiveness if you will for the crew uh is is really kind of born out of that applied learning concept. Um but the other thing that's really
045cool about this is that you know Miss Airheart and Miss Malone doing a fantastic job organizing this is that this all speaks to our vision of the graduate. you know, what we believe are the the core values and the major ideas that kids should leave this high school with or this school district with upon graduation. You know, outside of just doing well in the classroom, what's going to set them up for success after high school, whether they go to college, the workforce, or or whatever. Um, so I I again, I think this is a really fantastic concept. We saw it in action, like I said, last April, and this is our own version of it where I I really applaud Malone um for really getting this off the ground because this is something that to
046to to really kind of parallel what we're doing in the classroom as teachers, as educators, this crew idea, this crew concept is really supporting that whole initiative. So, it's great work. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. 10. That's all I had. Yeah. Thank you. All right. Number 11, administrators report. Who's up first? I'll go. Um, so started with map testing. So we have our map testing that actually just started today. So it's between September 22nd and October 2nd. Um, NBS will be given the annual fall map test. Map testing refers to the computer-based adaptive assessments provided by NWA measuring student achievement and growth in subjects like reading, math, language usage, and science. Known as the measures of academic progress, these tests are used by schools to gather data for informing instructional strategies, setting up
047learning goals, and tracking student performance over time. So the fall test is the benchmark for the year and then students will be tested in the winter and spring to look for any patterns or trends across the school. So we're getting that work started now. It's a it's pretty big task to get everyone tested in a few weeks. Um but our teachers do a great job mapping it out and scheduling it and we should be done like I said by next week which is great. Um second piece with our was our scholastic book there. So I know Miss Cedarland already left. Um, I put a picture in here, not just because I like pictures, but just to show the amount of work that she did. Um, and I don't think we understand sometimes what a rolling
048book fair bear looks like. Setup, breakdown each and every day. Um, the little posters on the top of the cabinets to just make this place inviting. And we're lucky enough to have that great area. um we call it the belly area in the back of the school where it it almost creates a natural bookstore um that you know couldn't have been done with done without Missland's um great guidance. So, every morning she would come in and set this up. And it was just unbelievable to see the kids walk through there and a nice flow to it and then go over to buy everything. And it's one of those years where you saw a lot more books than all the little doodads walking out of there, which is great. Um, and I just think it it
049was because of the space she created. So, another, you know, shout out to her and and just for our students who just did a great job walking through, you know, with their little pockets of change and some of them had, you know, some Venmo going on the whole thing and it was just, it was great to see. So, it was fantastic. The big Mac truck came today and picked up all of the books and anything that was left over, which which wasn't much. So, it was a huge success. And from those sales, um, the school gets Scholastic Bucks. So, it allows us to enhance our classroom libraries, um, and go through there. So, um, the kids aren't just buying books, they're also enhancing their own classroom libraries, which is great. And then UDL. So, we
050are partnering with Novak Education again this year um, to continue our implementation of UDL, which is the universal design for learning. It's a framework that helps educators establish firm goals and flexible means so all students have equal opportunities to access grade level instruction and inclusive classrooms. UDL is a standardsbased curriculum framework that ensures that all students have options and choices for learning, the materials they use, and how they share what they know as they work towards fur goals. We are strategically utilizing um our after school meetings, full day and half day PD sessions this year to give our staff the time and training to maximize the use of this framework within our high quality instructional materials. Um our first meeting was today. So um the old school committee room in uh MBEs, the room next
051to it, we turned into a ID room which is instruction and data. So we had our first instructional meeting today. Um, our teachers were given the time and the resources to look at a current lesson plan and we call UDL it. So, the great resources that Novak gives us gives flowcharts, little checks that you take the lesson plan and walk through it and make sure that students have these choices and have these engagement strategies within um the materials. So, it was a great meeting. the uh teachers shared out afterwards the changes that they're going to try and then we're going to check in in four weeks with them when they come back. >> Thank you. That's a great picture. How long did it stay like that? >> Oh, it was unbelievable to see when I
052walk in the morning and she's working on it. I go out to parent drop off. As I come in, it's set up. Um, and she had two of her little ones with her, preschoolers helping her, too. And then at the end of the day, I'd be walking down the hallway and they'd be all rolled into the library. >> That's a lot of work. >> A lot of work she did. It was unbelievable. And there were other PTO members and other people helping her throughout the day, but she was definitely the main cog that that off the ground. >> Sounds good. Bless you. >> Thank you. >> Welcome. And so for the high school middle school, um, as Tim had mentioned, uh, James Darkco joined us last week as a science, mathematics teacher. Uh, Michael Tiff,
053our middle school social studies teacher, attended a 3-day democratic knowledge projects, civic engagement in our democracy event. Um this conference which went on for 3 days was held in Malboro and uh included a variety of resources, lots of exchanging and networking with uh other folks that are part of this program um from across the Commonwealth. And so uh I still have to follow up with Michael um I think we're meeting on Wednesday. Uh I attended the first day um and I found it to be pretty fascinating. It's an it's an interesting and different way to teach it but very important skill to students um and basically how to be a citizen and and what what it means how you can impact um your own community and the impact that people do have in their own
054community. 11th, 10th, and 11th grade students will be taking a field trip to the NIKAC College Fair at Mount Wesa Community College on Thursday, September 25th with Miss Airheart. And on October 8th, the 9th graders will attend the maskmakers innovation challenge at the Basketball Hall of Fame. Um this is an event that um connects students to local labor markets so that they get an idea to see what kind of industries employ the skills that they're actually learning in their classroom and therefore helps them to make links not only to careers but to their current learning. Um, as Tim also mentioned, we began implementing my cap in the first mini lesson during the crew period last week. On October 9th, that true robog group who brought in those kits for the elementary schools will be hosting
055a workshop for our eighth grade STEM students. And Miss Saunders, our music teacher, has shared that there are currently 30 students in the high school band program. and she'll be soon sending out a communication to cultivate donations of used instruments so that we can hopefully increase the inventory in the district available to students. This worked very well um in my previous district where I served as a superintendent. Uh our music teacher Alyssa Kamo put it out on uh social media and we put it out through a couple of other venues and within a month had received more than 100 donations of instruments. And so for a small school like us, we got instruments from as far away as Pennsylvania and New Jersey. So it's worth it. There are a lot of people who have instruments
056lying around in their house from their kids, grandchildren, a niece and nephew. Um, and they can put it to good use by passing it on. And Noah had mentioned about the spirit week which culminates with the field hockey game and the dance on Friday. Thank you. Any questions? >> Makes me makes me very happy to hear there's 30 students in the high school band. >> Yeah. >> We've watched that band grow quite a bit in the last few years and that's just awesome to hear. >> Yeah. I'm hopeful that she's going to continue to cultivate more because it doesn't fit into every student's schedule who might want to do it. And so there are a handful of students who are um going to be participating in an after school aspect of it, but they'll still
057be able to be performing at the band. Um thank you to the superintendent, to the committee for allowing me to present again this evening. um in the student services department. Uh we things have things the the pace of work has has really picked up since the uh you know since the students are back and and I continue to be um just aruck at at the close-knit relationships that exist uh in this in this town. And when I hear, you know, something like there's 30 students in the band and seemingly a soon to be abundance of instruments, uh, it allows me the opportunity to reflect on, uh, the value and connections that exist in a place like like North Brookfield that aren't always prevalent in bigger communities, uh, cities and such. Um, like all schools, we
058we've submitted our grants uh applications and as uh as you've heard uh we have uh successfully uh been awarded our allocations uh for the school year. Um and we'll continue to monitor the spending and make sure that it's allocated in the best interest of the of the students uh families and staff uh here in North Brookfield. Uh I talked last time uh at our last meeting and you've seen in the report that we have regional collaboration that's taking place myself and some other uh special education directors and directors of student services to try to understand where we can you know where we can do things together where we can be better together together provide better more robust services for our kids and maybe save some resources uh along the way. uh our last meeting uh
059it took place last week and uh I'll have more information for this about this for you next month but we are um we're we're in kind of conversations around doing some work uh around transportation just discovering that you know the the students that we have in North Brookfield here are picked up by one van company and they're going to travel through many towns to get to the to the school districts or to the uh out of district placements that they need to get to. And along the way, there are other bus companies picking up other kids to go to the same place. And it's very possible that some of these vans kind of merge onto the same road uh and go to the same place. Um, so we're trying to find uh technical solutions to
060see if there are students that are along the same path where we might be able to save uh some of our resources and allocate reallocate them towards uh other needs um support services and um you know basically to the benefit uh to the benefit of our students. Um and that's just one example of the you know of what we can what we can gain through collaborating uh with our neighbors. So be on the lookout for next month's report and hopefully we'll have some good news there and if not there may be some other ways that we can uh collaborate uh for better services uh for our kids. Uh we conducted professional development as was stated earlier on the first days of school for um for all staff and uh professional development for new staff that
061was really um focused on the needs of our kids and how we can how we can all work together to service all of our kids without the need for if it's not necessary uh evaluation assessment uh IEP and special education uh services And I felt that uh those presentations went really well and that they were very wellreceived. On the side of compliance monitoring, a big part of the special education uh and EL program director's role is we have to make sure that we are meeting with our expectations that we have to submit to the department of elementary and secondary education. And this is going to be um a big year for North Brookfield. We have two audits that are taking place at the same time. Um, one, uh, the EL audit of our English learner
062program will be taking place on December 17th. And our special education program, uh, is under document monitoring right now. Um, and I have uh, we have, I should say, a number of uploads that we have to do for the department by December 22nd of 2025. and we will be physically visited by the Department of Education in January of 2026. Uh so there's a lot of preparation that goes into that. Uh we have to kind of go back in time to see uh where things are um and what we need where they were in the past and what we need to do for the future. And then finally uh as you're aware we have our first CPAC meeting of the 202526 year that's going to take place virtually tomorrow night. We have a number of uh
063folks who are scheduled to attend. Tomorrow during the day, we're going to do one last push out to the community to faculty and staff to see if we can get any other takers. And um tomorrow will be conversations about what we can do uh to strengthen the development of a CPAC and how we can be of use to our families uh our students and staff through the uh through the CPAC lens. Uh so I thank you for the opportunity to present. I'll take any questions that anybody has at this time. Thank you. Anybody have any questions? I I have a question. That audit you mentioned, how often is that? Um there there's a there's different cycles of the audit that take place usually every seven years, but then there's a midcycle. They once you're audited,
064you submit your audit and then depending on what findings they have, they come back half the time later to see how you did on your corrective actions report. So it seems like it's supposed to be every seven years, but it it's to me it seems like every three is when it actually >> So was our last one like roughly three years ago? >> Probably seven last coordinated program review. I can I can get that there's there's a report that's published online. Um but um I'll get the exact dates for you and get a report out to the seventh. >> Was it seven? >> Well, congratulations on your first year here. What are you going to do? A year packed into a very short period of time, right? But thank you. Any other questions? All right.
065Next here, old business tuition task force update. That's going to be me. Um, so since our last school committee meeting, we've only had one task force meeting. It was on September 3rd. Uh we started going over uh we went through a lot of numbers uh relative to uh you name it. Uh choice out uh numbers what we're spending now versus um looking at other districts um numbers um looking at our junior senior high school. So, we still have and then we also did speak um a couple of us on the task force spoke with a rep from DESIE on a conference call just about just to clarify some information um and she actually has to get back to us with more information uh just regarding uh dates uh things like that and also there is
066some discussion amongst at DESIE right now with choice out costs and different things and I I don't know that this is being looked at or not, but um when you look at the choice out uh I know we're talking about tuition, but choice out when you look at that, it was created in '91, 1991 with that price of $5,000. So, I don't know that they're talking about changing that amount, but it sounds like that could be something they're discussing. um because it is 30 something years old and at the time that was supposed to represent 75% of the student cost per year which obviously now that's nowhere near 75%. Um so we're waiting to hear back from her on some of that and then we just have a final few other numbers to button up
067and we're hoping the goal is just to have one or two more meetings then we'll come back hopefully in October uh with to give a final report on all the findings that we all the information that we uh discovered. Any questions? See, thank you. All right. Policy. I don't think we have anything on policy. We did discuss that we're going to >> address this policy issue. Yeah. >> So, if we have no policy issues, we'll move on to the next item, uh, new business. So, we're going to go through the subcommittee assignments. So, we have four subcommittees. We have the policy subcommittee, curriculum, buildinging grounds/safety, and the negotiation subcommittee. Um, my opinion is that we kind of just start fresh unless we I think we we do have something ongoing that you and I would
068have to definitely stay on for. >> Yeah. Uh but other than that we could why don't we just go through them and then it'll probably be the easiest. So uh for policy does everybody understand subcommittees and what uh we do on the subcommittees? Any questions before we does anybody have a particular interest curriculum? Okay. Anybody else have any particularity? You look like you like >> I'd like to do that. >> You know, you know a thing or two about that. >> All right. So, just trying to think how we should do this then. So, for policy, um, we'll start. We'll just go in order here. Um, do we have any do I have a nomination? Do we do we have to do it that way? >> We do. I think we could just I think
069we could just pick and then vote on total. >> Yeah, I mean we could if if someone's preferred to being on the policy committee and someone else wants to be on the policy committee, I think we just >> So I prefer that we pick our two for each and then we just do a total vote at the end. That's we can go one by one but that's fine. >> Yeah. So policy is anybody Nobody seems to be jumping into this policy. >> Maggie. All right. I'll join Maggie on the policy subcommittee. I was going to say I All right. So, we got Maggie and Tim policy curriculum. I know Maggie, not Maggie, uh Kristen was interested in doing that. So, we have one um I'll throw my unless Maggie I'll throw my hat in the
070ring as always. I'm not I'd like to learn more about it. myself and Kristen for curriculum building grounds. Um, we I know we have Dan. Are you interested, Tim, with your background or do you >> Yeah, I mean, >> no, I do it. I I just I think that you and I just stay on negotiations. >> Correct. >> Yep. >> But I'm I'm fine with doing building and grounds, working with Dan on that one, unless anyone else is >> that put you on How many does that put you on? >> That would put me on three. >> Yeah. You don't need to be on three. That's why I'm >> I have no problem doing the building and grounds as well. >> So, we have building grounds and then negotiation. You and I will stay on
071that for now and we can always revisit later if we need to. All right. So, I'll take a motion to so to be clear, we have two >> me and Maggie on policy. >> Uh Kristen and you >> stay on this in your motion. >> All right. So I I I would like to make a motion that we approve the following roster and correct me as I go through just so we can be clear on this following roster. So we have myself and Maggie on the policy subcommittee. We have Matt and Kristen on curriculum. We have Dan and Kristen on building and grounds. And we have myself and Matt on the negotiation subcommittee. So that's my motion is that we approve the roster as I just said because I just forgot it again. >> Do
072we have a second? >> I'll second. >> Any discussion? Does everybody think that's fairly divided? Anybody want to do something they didn't? >> I know you're only on one, but don't worry. There'll be your first there'll be other options. >> This is your first year. >> We already have an assignment on policy sub. So that's In all of fairness, she is on that >> and she's on the task force, so she's better attending a few meetings here. >> All right. So, we have a a motion made and seconded. Um, all those in favor? Uh, if there's no other questions or discussion, all those in favor? >> I I unanimous. >> All right. Did you get that whole list there? >> All right. So, no executive session tonight, correct? >> Correct. Okay. I'll entertain a motion
073to adjurnn. >> I move to adjurnn. >> I will second that. >> All those in favor? >> Any discussion? >> Discuss whether we go home. Get another copy of Robert's release. >> All those in favor? I I good. >> I do actually.