001Committee will come to order. Attendance. Mrs. Shav >> present. >> Dr. Dlo >> present >> and Mr. Vieiraa is present. First item on the agenda, use of facilities. See attached. Super assistant superintendent Moyahan. >> Thank you, Mr. Vieira. Um again these this is just a normal memo that we provide to the school committee and there are three organizations that are asking for the use of the facility and then which ones we are charging um the rental custodian and there and so forth. >> Any questions from the committee? >> Motion to receive place on file. >> Seconded. >> Motion has been made and seconded. All those in favor? >> I. >> Chair votes I. Motion passes. Second item on the agenda, procurement card see attached assistant superintendent moan. >> Um this is the memo for um
002the district PC card for September through December and year to date. And this as you will see each of the charges they are different colorcoded. Blue is colorcoded for grant funded. Green charging to the department's revolving account. Orange charging to the stu school's student activity account. Charges in red are charged to food services and black are to the FY26 school budget. So in the month of September there are total charges of 17,759.11. You will see the um the description of each of the charges. again for October um $13,13.94. For November, $25,519.34 December $12,878.52. And then on the last page of the memo, you'll see the breakdown for each of the months um how much each was charged to the PECARD, to the school budget, grants revolving, student activity, and food services. So total year to
003date we have charged $98,126 um to the PCARD and that just under 47,000 is um or just under half is charged to the school budget with the remaining balances charging to grants revolving student activity zero and food services. >> Mr. Chairman, >> yes, Dr. Damo. >> Thank you. Uh through you to Mrs. Monahan or to Superintendent Cabraw. Uh as as we know, we're we're being presented with four months. So from se September to December. Uh why don't we get the September uh pro card charges in October, October, November, and you know, so forth and so on. I mean, this is a monthly statement, and we're getting getting this presented all at once, four months at a time. >> That is correct, and I apologize for that. That was a misunderstanding and um the department was
004uh forgot to go ahead and include that and that is the reason why we have it for the four months. But going forward, I can assure you that I will have it each month. I do have a um a an ongoing um re reminder on my calendar that we will have it each month as it closes by the auditors. >> Thank you. Uh Mr. Chairman, if I may. Uh, so when this these charges are here in front of us today, what is the expectation of the finance and law subcommittee to do with these charges? >> Approve the approve the charges as uh presented. >> Okay. So I I'm very concerned through you, Mr. Chairman. I'm very concerned. I did send out a request to superintendent and assist the superintendent requesting breakdown of various expenses. For
005example, hotel checkout folios, who was in the hotel, who for how many days, so forth and so on. Uh flight receipts such as e ticket receipts, uh meal expenses, who was part of a meal, uh transportation, uh airport transportation expenses, who was part of that? So I mean it's very hard to approve uh you know almost 77,000 uh in this particular warrant. So September, October, November, December, 77,000 where I don't know what I'm approving, you know, and and yes, I understand the the the breakdown between uh activity accounts and and reimbursements and so forth, but still the fact of the matter is is that we as a school committee are trusted to a budget and this is part of a budget. So, it's very concerning to me that, you know, this is just presented to
006us four months at a time. And I understand we're going to change that. But I I cannot faithfully approve any of these expenses today without knowing who was in a hotel, who was taking flights, who was at a meal, who was attendees in a in a transportation service, so forth and so on. And and actually since I wasn't able to get a response because I think I sent the response on Friday, granted Friday was Friday and Monday was a holiday. Uh you know, I I'd really like to make a motion to just pause the PE card uh until we get the actual breakdown of all these expenses going forward immediately. That's my recommendation. >> Mrs. Shabs, thank you Dr. Damala. I have a question too in that how how many cards are there? How many
007PE cards do we have? >> We have three of them. >> And so yes and what I have done is I've gone ahead and identified each one for specifics like one for travel, one for more grant funded. So that way we are able to see when we charge um when we uh are finding them out. But that is how we are controlling it. We have it in the office that it is locked up in a in a safe and everything. There's, you know, again, there's a process for everything. They sign it out what they're going to be charging to, what their funding source is, how much they will be charging, and that of course and who approved that. >> And I think um similar to what Dr. Dlo was saying that, you know, there's a
008lot of like at the bottom of the second page for October, there's a lot of money charged for the grants, but it doesn't this doesn't really give us a lot of information on whether it's a person traveling. Is it a group of people traveling? You know, like they have platinum transportation to the airport. Was this like a bus for a bunch of people going? So, I think that's the not knowing what it is. and you know that you know you've got lunches and dinners and we're like who who who went on these trips. So I think not knowing I agree with him it's sort of hard to say okay we we we obviously these have already been paid out so so I mean we're proving it but they've already been paid out. So I think
009if we had some specific information as to okay this was a bar trip you know 10 teachers went one person was in charge of the pec card and this is what transpired. I think it would be easier to understand. >> So going forward, is that something the committee would like to have? >> So I yeah, I agree with my colleagues who, what, why, when, and where. And it sounds like I agree. I think we should probably wait to vote on this tonight until we have that information. >> So again, is that in the for >> I do Dr. Dilla, >> I'm sorry I have to interrupt because, you know, I can't raise my hand. But anyway, I I believe the intent of the PECARD, okay, let's go back to my idea because this was my
010idea was to alleviate reimbursements from travelers. Okay, but for a traveler to get on a plane and leave the state of Massachusetts or even within Massachusetts, there has to be a form in place for some form of approval. Okay, so why when I travel on university business, there's a form, an expense report, right? Why am I going? What's the benefit to university? What are my prediums? What am I allowed to spend? You know, XYZ. All of those things are established before I even get on a plane. Okay. And yes, I have a PC card in my name, but you know, I have to abide by by by by Massachusetts state law for for vendors and and all of the above, just like a top public schools employee should be doing the same. So I I
011I think that we need to better understand the ultimate use of a PE card. Why I I you know I brought that forward and I don't think it's being intend it's used for the right intention to be honest with you and I think we need to come up with a system. I'd be happy to share the system that come with Massachusetts. I mean it's the same tax dollars, right? So I I think that that's the underlying issue I'm having is that you just don't leave on a trip without various steps of approvals, the reasons you're going, who you're meeting with, what's the benefit to the institution, so forth and so on. Uh and and that that's that's why I'm struggling with this and you know, so I I I will not be voting on this
012today at all. Absolutely not. >> Okay. Is that everything, Mr. Dr. Damala? >> Yeah. Yeah, that's it. I mean, you know, you know, and I know that >> I know Superintendent Monahan's working on the list. Until that list, you know, hits us, I think that we should just pause the PE card for now. >> All right. So, if that is everything, Miss Mrs. Shaves, >> so two things. So, first off, is there a protocol that how how this is done similar to what Mr. Dlo is um talking about? >> Mrs. Mohan can uh can explain how we have to follow the city ordinance. >> Okay. Correct. like the superintendent did say, we have to follow city ordinance. Um, and what happens is the the person who is asking for the PE card, they will go
013ahead and sign out the PE card. There is a list of checklists that they need to know that they are to bring back itemized receipts. Um, uh, anything that's showing like a charge if we're talking about a flight, giving us flight confirmations and then showing the the list of attendees to who is paying for who's being paid for. Um and then of course we do tell them that they have up an an allowance um per meal that they can charge on the pecard and that that is happens as well. So this is all per city ordinance that we have and I'll be happy to bring that to the committee if the committee would like to see that as well. >> Okay. >> Dr. Della, do you want do you want me to make a motion
014to put a hold on this right now? So till we get further information. >> If I could just if I could just add. >> Yeah, absolutely. Just if I could just add if I could just add quickly, we do have the backup. It's a it's a very comprehensive uh stack of documents which will probably be too large to email um to the board members. That's why we brought the backup today. So, two of the three board members can leave with the backup today and Dr. Dr. Dlo, we can have the backup delivered to your home. So, when you return, it'll be at your home for review. >> Yeah, Mr. Chairman, through you again. I'm not looking for a breakdown of dis for example September discount school supply for $76.20 target 911 ceremony. I'm not looking
015for that. I was specific in my request to you superintendent and to assistant superintendent Monahan of what I'm looking for and those are my concerns. So please let's not get into you know all these little stuff here that we're looking for food services and foundation fractions workshop. No, I'm not looking for that. I'm looking for the issues that hit the front page of the paper. Okay. Which is travel 99% of the time. That's all I'm looking for. >> I'm going to make a motion to table it to the next meeting. >> Second. >> Okay. Motion was made and seconded on discussion. Any further discussion from the finance and law subcommittee. Okay. If there's no other discussion, uh all those in favor signify by voting I. The chair votes I. >> So voted. >> Okay. Okay.
016Item number three, food service update. See attached. >> Assistant Superintendent Morning Henry. >> Thank you. Thank you. Um, this is for December meal summaries. Um, as you can see, we have our enrollment has dropped a little bit from December of last year to December of this year. We have an average daily um, meal count of over 9,000 meals between breakfast and lunch throughout the district. Year-to date we are showing that we are still on an uptick of the amount of uh meals served throughout the district. So that is a breakdown for you. And then uh attached to the memorandum you will see the menus for February throughout the district um for each of the grade levels as well. But again, as I've stated before, our food services uh staff members are working very very hard
017to produce quite a bit of breakfast and lunch to uh all of our students. >> Motion to receive a place on file. >> Seconded. >> Okay. Motion made and seconded. Discussion hearing none. All those in favor? >> I. >> Chair votes I. The motion passes. Item number four, FY26 quarter 2 budget update. uh appropriation quarter 2 report uh FY26 revolving account quarter two report and FY26 grants quarter two reports assistant superintendent Mingan >> thank you Mr. Vieira as we are we are now halfway through for quarter two um and again what I ask you is you look at the last um column the percentage expended yes some lines are a little bit higher while other lines are lower but if you look at the bottom line of where we are through December 31st 2025 for
018quarter 2 we have um just spent just under 38% of our budget so again financially at 50% we are under 30 for 37% we are definitely ely in um in a good um a good place for the FY26 budget. >> Any questions from the board? >> The only the only comments I'll like to add is we we uh as has been our practice in the past, we're going to freeze the budget. Um I believe January 30th, June 29th, we will freeze the budget. And just want to make the board aware or the subcommittee aware that several recently negotiated contracts, retros have not been applied to the appropriation and we still have one contract that's outstanding. So you you that percentage will shift once those retros hit the appropriation. >> Thank you, Superintendent. >> And I
019can assure you I have been pulling um reports to making sure that we are in a good place for all of those um retroactive salaries as well. >> Okay. >> No other comments. What is the pleasure of the board? I I'll make a motion to accept it and place it on file. >> Second. >> Okay. Motion made and seconded. All those in favor? >> I. >> Chair votes I. Motion passes. Item number five, coaching. >> Still I'm sorry. We still have additional. I apologize. That's okay. Um revolving you'll see for quarter two for revolving. We've brought in revenue just over a million dollars and that brings our balance of all revolving accounts just over $3.5 million. Any questions on that one? You want to go on? >> Okay. And then the last budget update is
020your um our grants update for quarter two. Um you'll see how the um each of the grants for 25 26. We actually have one for 27. um you'll see how much has been expended, how much of the grant balances, and then of course we always look to see when the balances um when the grant is ending and making sure that we will expend all of the grant before um the the grant is over. So if you turn to the last page, you will see that we have um over $10 million in grants in balances in right now. Motion to accept the report and place on file. >> Second. >> Okay. Motion was made and second. All those in favor? >> I. >> Chair votes I. The motion passes. Ready for item number five? >> Yes.
021>> Okay. Coaching for change. See attached. Assistant Superintendent Mouring. >> Thank you. So FY26 budgeted for uh coaching for change is $51,000. For December, the services that were charged were $6,7716. The amount spent year-to date is just under $18,747,464. Uh, and we have spent thus far $24,171, leaving a balance for coaching for change of $26,800. Behind that you will see the supporting documentation of what coaching for change did um present at Bennett and at Freriedman. And they are um they are working with the students 10 hours a week and only for a week and a half because of the college uh break. So that is the reason why they've only worked for about a week and a half. But then you can see um that what they have been doing. They've been doing tier one
022supports, classroom support, working with uh social and emotional um support in the classroom and you'll see the progress that they have been making with the students listed in uh the documentation. >> Yes, Mrs. Shabs. >> Thank you. One question. It it doesn't seem like there are new students that come in. So, are students do they select a group of students and those are the students that tend to stay in the program throughout the year? I'd have to ask because as I was looking at some too, you did see that the same number of students would go in and then there were no and there were some changes. So, but I can definitely follow up to see exactly how they choose the students or how the students come in. >> Right. >> Identify the kids. But
023I wondered whether in the middle of the year if a kid is identified, can they jump into that? Because it just seems like the numbers have stayed consistent and I would hope that if there are other kids that would qualify for something like this that they're allowed to come in throughout the year. >> I will follow. Thank you. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you, Doc. >> Dr. Deal, do you have any questions on coaching for change at this time? >> No. A motion to uh pay the amount stated of 670716. >> Seconded. >> Okay. Motion was made and second. On discussion hearing none. All those in favor? >> I. >> Chair votes I. The motion passes. Item number six, bills payable FY26 in the amount of $291,1623. Motion to uh pay uh the warrant in the
024amount stated. >> Seconded on discussion. >> Motion made and seconded. On discussion, Mrs. Shav. >> Thank you. Um on page two, American commercial appliance for $251.19. >> This is a food services vendor that um will do services to uh the grill, their warmer. So that's what they do. They are a specific school. >> Um, this one here was the first one was at Pole. The other two were at Taon High School. >> Okay. THS. Okay. The next one's on page three. Um, BR regional school programs with others for a thousand. >> This is an out of district um alternative high school placement fee for the full semester that we have. And the last one I have is on page nine. Ganet New England local IQ school committee other expense $330.78. >> This Oh, I'm sorry.
025This one is for um the Taunt Daily Gazette where we had to place the um the school transportation bid into the gazette as part of a per to go ahead and go out to bid. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Chairman. >> Yes, Dr. Damalo. >> So, on page 16, uh the Rotary Club taunted total $790. Is that the uh the meal expense that uh is a weekly uh particip I mean, we're we're members, correct, superintendent? >> Correct. Okay. And and that is a membership fee. What what does that amount to? >> They are annual dues and then uh September October uh for the 160 and then November and December for $120. >> So the dues of $510 >> that's the annual due. Yes. >> Okay. So um th this has come
026up in another uh commission I belong to where uh you know everybody asks for donations and sometimes we uh don't spread it out evenly but we have a policy where we spread out evenly. So what is the process if an organization for example like the Elks wants to public schools to become a member uh how does that work? I mean, are we able to join uh the Portuguese American Civic Club, the Italian Social Club? How how does this work? Because I want to be equitable to all these organizations. >> I will have to go ahead and look into that for you, Dr. Dlo. Um I don't um I'm not too too sure about that, but I can come back and report back to the school committee. >> Okay. Because I definitely don't want alienate any
027other organization that wants us to be members, and we for whatever reason are members. So that's all I want to be aware of. That's all. >> Okay. [snorts] Any other questions about the warrant? >> No. >> Okay. So if there's no other further discussion, uh I think we're ready to vote. So uh all those in favor to approve signify by saying I. >> I. >> Chair votes I. The motion passes. >> Mr. Chairman, may I interrupt please before you adjourn? >> Yes. Dr. Dalo? >> Yes. Yeah, I I I was expecting uh that we were going to receive not in the first meeting but by the second meeting the two Hamilton Street update expenses and again it's not on this >> I would say uh so I I would say have it placed on the
028next agenda that way there can be a robust discussion about it. Thank you for bringing it up. >> I keep ask Mr. Chairman I keep asking and I don't receive. So what how do we formalize this to make sure it's on the next regular scheduled meeting? Please, >> do I need to make a motion? Can we make a motion? >> Yeah, let's make a motion right now. Sure, that sounds >> excellent. So, would you like to make the motion? >> I'd like to move a motion that we uh are presented with the two Hamilton Street expenses for uh fiscal year uh 25. So, I don't think we have that update. And year to date, FY26 from July 1st through uh January 31st, whatever cut off date you want to use. That's the motion. I'll second
029that. >> Okay. Motion was made, seconded. All those in favor? >> I >> chair votes I. So voted. >> Motion to adjourn. >> Second. >> All those in favor. >> We are adjourned. Thank you everybody. Good evening everyone and thank you for joining us. I call the meeting to order. If you could please join us in the pledge and remain standing for the invocation. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands nation with liberty and justice for all. Oh, [singing] say can you see by the dawn early light what so proudly we held at the twilight [singing] last gleaming who brought stripes and bright [singing] stars through the perilous us [singing] fight. Or the ramparts we watched were so gallently [singing] streaming and the rockets red. The bombs
030bursting in air gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. [singing] Oh, say does that star spangled then wave or the land of the free and the home of the brave. >> All right, Mrs. Fagen will lead the invocation. Lord, as we begin this session, let us acknowledge your goodness and mercy and ask your blessings on all our deliberations. We thank you for this opportunity to be of service to our community and to the young people entrusted to our camp. Thank you, Mrs. Fagan. >> All right, we will do the roll call now and we will just note that Dr. Dlo is joining us via Zoom. >> Good evening, >> Mr. Powski. Present. >> Miss Santos. >> Present. >> Mrs. Fagan is present. >> Where am I? >> Mr. Laura. >> Present.
031>> Miss Mrs. Mullen. >> Present. >> Mr. Vieiraa. >> Present. >> Dr. Dlo. >> Present. >> And Mayor O'Connell. >> Present. >> Thank you. >> You missed uh the chair. President. >> Just for the record. >> Mrs. job. I really apologize. I am I, you know, I was used to sitting you see you over there. >> I'm present. Thank you. >> Okay. All right. Great. Everybody's here. Um, so now we have approval of the minutes of January 7th, 2026. >> Move to approve. >> Second. >> Motion and second. Seeing no comments or questions. All those in favor? >> I I >> opposed. None opposed. So voted. >> Does everybody have to be on a roll call? You know what? Yeah, I haven't done this. We haven't done Zoom in a while, but yeah, you are
032correct. So, if we could do that on a roll call vote, please. Mrs. Fagan. >> Mr. Palowski? >> Yes. >> Miss Santos? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Fagan votes yes. Mr. Laura, >> yes. >> Mrs. Mullen, >> yes. >> Mr. Vieiraa, >> yes. >> Dr. Dlo, >> yes. >> And Mrs. Shav, >> yes. Thank you. >> Thank you. And thank you, Superintendent Corell. Uh, student advisory committee report by Isaiah Wendell. this evening. >> Thank you. As Mayor Okonnell said, my name is Isaiah Wendell and I am part of the Taton High School student advisory committee. Um, a couple updates from Taton High School. As I reported last time, as of Tuesday, students began their new classes, particularly those enrolled in half-year classes. While schedules change changes always take a little adjustment, students are settling in well,
033and classrooms are already finding their rhythm. In addition, report cards will be available for viewing next week in the community portal, giving students and families a chance to review progress from the previous term. This transition also marks the start of the second half of the school year, which always feels like it comes quickly. Students are getting back into routines and focusing on finishing the school year strong. That is all I have for today. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you very much, Isaiah. It's always a pleasure to have you join us. We have a couple of people signed up for public input. >> Yes. >> Public input. In accordance with Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 39, section 23C, we kindly request that the individuals wishing to provide public input sign up in advance. A copy of
034the regulation and guidelines will be provided upon sign up and individuals will be asked to state their name and address for the record. The amount of time each registered individual will spake speak will be determined. So, we ask you to please limit your comments to three minutes. We have two people that have signed up tonight. Um, first person is Heidi Lebron. >> Thank you. >> Hi, my name is Heidi Lebron and I am the mother of two children in Taton public schools. One here at EOL and one who is 13 years old and an eighth grader at Taton High School. An incident occurred um Friday at Taton High School which I as a is not informed about by the school either by parent square through email through the school's Facebook, through the school's website, through
035any of the robocalls. After the school was let out for the day, the students were waiting in sub freezing temperatures when back were about 10 degrees for the gatra bus. Um, they always wait a little bit on half days because the gatra is on a schedule. That's something as a parent we know about. My daughter informed me through a very panicked phone call that she was doing her best to walk home because all of a sudden while she was waiting at the school bus, the school security came over to her and informed her and the kids who were waiting for the bus gatra has been cancelled for today. You will not be allowed on the Gatra bus. Go find your own way home. The students were not invited to go into the school to warm
036up, to call their parents, to let parents know. Parents did not receive a phone call that students who they were expecting to be on the Gatra bus were expected to walk home some as much as two miles. This was not related to students in any language other than English. There was no explanation given when students pushed back and questioned what was happening. They were told figure it out. My daughter and her friend, again, my daughter's 13 years old in 8th grade, which in many cities that's still middle school. She just got off the kids menu at most restaurants. She was walking with her friend. She got to the intersection, turned around, happened to notice that the gatra bus number seven pulled up, walked back with her with her friend and was assuming, okay, maybe there
037was some mistake. At that point, the police were there. The police were very escalated. The police were not kind. They were not quiet. They were not in control. They were extremely emotional. Now, this was a bunch of teenagers. The police clearly were not trained on how to work with teenagers. They were screaming at the kids that the bus is a privilege, not a right. They were not providing any explanation to the kids about what was going on. Again, all of this was in English. Nothing was translated in any other language. You have a very neurodeiverse population here. You have kids of all all different kids who take this gatra. So, this is a heightened thing that's happening. Parents were not informed. So my daughter and her friend who had no cell service had to walk.
038They finally got cell service right on the um the Gordon Owen Highway. I'm sorry. I don't if I got the name wrong. And she was able my daughter was able to call a friend's mom to pick her up and she um told me that the Gatra driver was not aware of what was happening. They opened the door and trying to let students on like they normally do and the police were standing in the doorway saying you cannot let people on. drive on. No explanation. Again, at that point, my daughter was not told that she could go back into the school to warm up. None of the students were told they could go back into the school to call their parents. None of the students were asked, "Do you have a plan?" Figure it out. Walk
039home. 10 degree windchill factor. These are high school students. That means maybe two coats among all of them. This is normal high school. This is what they do. Some of these kids grew up in warm climates. They don't know what hypothermia looks like. They don't know what frostbite looks like. Many of the students walked almost two miles home. When my daughter got hold of their friend, she walked back to the school for a third time. And at this point, she noticed that there were still 15 to 20 kids standing around looking lost at the bus station. No adult in sight. She did mention that before the security came over. A lot of the kids were talking about a fight. It was all over the school that day. Kid was going to get it real bad.
040It was a planned fight. A lot of the students knew about it. I know that the staff caught wind of it and a lot of the kids rushed up to the Alexa skating rink and you know a few minutes later they were by the police told to come back down. I am a parent. I have not received again any communication from the school. This happened on Friday. This happened around 12 12:15. No emails, no communication. It's been two school days now. Still have not told about it. I was I talked to um the director of transportation. I did talk to um the Tatan High staff who was just here for their um subcommittee meeting, which is great. Still have not heard about it formally as a parent. The reason I'm here tonight to bring it
041up is so that it goes on public record so that other parents know about this. There's a parent here today with student that taught in public high school. She still has not heard about it. I would not have heard about it if I had not given my daughter a cell phone. I got a panicked call from my 13-year-old daughter that she was being forced to walk home. She didn't know how to get home. Luckily, she had a cell phone. She could Google map it. Many of her friends don't have cell phones, or if they do, it relies on Wi-Fi. No public's Wi-Fi at the school. That's not a problem with me. But it means that they couldn't GPS how to get home. There wasn't a simple explanation. Let's put a cop on Gatra. Keep the
042students safe. We're worried about a fight on Gatra. Let's put a cop on Gatra. We're clearly bringing a detail. Let's put them on there. But that wasn't the case. They simply kicked the kids off public transportation, told them to figure it out. I called DCF because to me that's child endangerment. These temperatures are the temperatures that they open emergency shelter for the homeless because they're considered dangerous temperatures. I was told by DCIF bring it up with the school. >> So that's what I'm doing. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mrs. And I just want to let everyone know that um the entire committee is listening intently and takes your concerns seriously, but are not allowed to comment at this time on things that are not on the agenda. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Just
043would like to refer the matter to the superintendent for an explanation. >> No other statement. >> Is there a second? >> Motion and second. All those in favor? I I a roll call, please. Sorry. Do I sit back down? >> Yes, please. Thank you. >> Yes. >> The next person The next person to come up is Sarah. Is it Aubber? Aubber. Thank you. Hi, my name is Sarah Arbor. I live at 49 Bennett Street. I have a daughter at Ton High and a son at Parker Middle. I was here last week and I want to begin by apologizing for some of my behavior in the room. Um I don't know if people at home could hear me, but um I get very anxious in a room where there's a power dynamic and a power differential
044and I get defensive and that's not how I want to behave. I don't want to be reactive. I want to be proactive. Uh and I want to lead with my heart. And so I'm here in uh with that intention and I would like to share some observations I made over the past two meetings. Um but I want to ask your permission before I provide the feedback in case you're not receptive. I want to begin with Dr. Dlo. >> Uh >> Dr. Dlo, are you receptive to hearing feedback? >> Mrs. Arbor, um, you can say what you want at public import. There's no limits because of the open meeting law. Um, however, the committee members cannot interact with you. >> Thank you. That's Thank you for that clarification. Um, so Dr. Dlo, I believe that your
045intentions are good. I believe you are a good man. I believe you when you said in your speech last week um that you believe in servant leadership and humility. But what I didn't see in the speech itself and in the language you used was actual humility because humility to me looks like not only being able to praise the whole group. Like you used language that praised the entire collective, right? What we're doing together. I think that's important to recognize the togetherness. It's also important to recognize where we're not succeeding to own the places where we're failing ourselves, our children, the public. Um, and the evidence of the failure is in the parents who were in the audience last week whose children are struggling and suffering and the parents do not feel heard. And that is
046the end of my feedback for you. It was humility being about owning your weaknesses as well as your strengths and being able to speak into that. Miss Delora, >> I'm sorry. I don't mean to interrupt you again, Mrs. Over, but if you could just direct your comments through the chair uh is kind of the process for the public and I don't expect you to know that. So, >> and I'm not really good with following the process because I'm speaking from the spirit and the spirit doesn't follow those kinds of rules. So, Mr. Laura, you came over to me and the other women that were in the room. And those women were here because they needed help. And you came over and you told us your self narrative, the story of yourself as a helper. And
047I believe you. I believe you have committed your life to helping people. But there were women in the room who needed your help in that moment. And you did not respond with curiosity. You did not ask, "How can I help? What is your pain point?" You told us that you were a helper. You told us the story of you. I don't want to hear your story. I want to see you do the actions that you say you're doing. I want you to live it out. I think you can do it. I think all of you are here for the right reasons, but you've got a lot of blind spots. Um, and my last comment goes to Mrs. Fagan for a comment she said when I was not in the room, but I have seen the
048footage regarding uh people who have English as a second language. And the issue I take with that statement is that it centers the narrative of the English-speaking the dominant culture person. Right? You're in a store and the person who works there doesn't speak English. But are you thinking about what it feels like to be that person in a new land, in a new community, in a new school, in a new environment, who has this huge hurdle of language to overcome, and the person they're interacting with is just thinking about how it's difficult for them, like check your privilege. The end. >> Thank you, Mrs. Arbor. Okay, moving on in the agenda, we have a humanities presentation from Danielle Kurt, um, director of humanities for K through2. Uh, superintendent Cabraw, did you want to introduce >>
049I'd love to introduce uh, director of humanities Danielle Kerr, also former PR principal of the Freeman Middle School. So, Danielle has been in the position a little under three years, I believe. So, this this year will make her third year as a director of humanities. And I had a privilege of reviewing the their presentation prior to this evening. And uh the work that Mrs. Kerr has led uh throughout the district in support of sister lieutenant Mr. Barata is outstanding and I believe after hearing the presentation you'll see that we are on strong footing when it comes to English language arts as well as adopting a new history curriculum. So Danielle, the floor is yours. Thank you for being with us this evening. >> Thank you Mr. Cabell. Thank you all for allowing me the privilege
050to speak to you tonight about the wonderful things that are happening throughout the district in relation to our humanities. The first few slides will be will focus on English and language arts and the last few slides will focus more on social studies. So as you may be aware our literacy curriculum from preK through fifth grade includes the curriculums that are listed on the screen. Our core curriculum is the Wonders curriculum which is used in all preK through fifth grade classrooms. We also have supplemental curriculums that help support phonics and phenemic awareness which are found within Hegy and foundations. And just this year we received a grant in order to partner with DESIE in order to bring Ignite reading tutors to our students in first grade. Uh Mr. Speaker Brawl, I believe, provided you with a
051memo this week within your packet regarding our potential proposal at the Senate level in terms of um the early literacy bill. These curriculums that are listed there are all highly rated at um edit and ed reports. So, we are definitely doing what we need to here in Taton to best support our students and in compliance with potential policy changes at the state level. Ignite Reading is a phenomenal virtual tutor that we have here in Taton. It's serving currently 266 first graders. Sometimes we get a little nervous when we hear the word virtual. These are actual people that are tutoring our students that have been trained in the science of reading and are able to provide specific students with specific strategies and skills that they need to become successful readers at the first grade reading level.
052Um students were selected based upon their September dibble scores. So any student in Taton that was below grade level in first grade was allowed and offered a seat >> water >> sorry was offered a seat um within the Ignite tutoring platform. So every single day the selected 266 students meet with a specific virtual tutor the same person every single day for the same 15 minutes every single day. We've found that that high impact tutoring is making significant differences in our first grade students that have qualified for this program. This is our first instructional round that occurred between October 6th and mid- November. So this was the first set of data that we got on the 266 students that we had. It's important that you notice the chart at the bottom. It's the continuum of learning
053to read. So when our students were selected based on their dibble scores, they were given a pretest through Ignite in order to figure out exactly where they are on the reading continuum to target skills for them. Many of our students placed in those beginning kindergarten skills that are it's like a purplish color. The goal obviously would get all the way through the first grade skills which are the pink colors and each one. The first one starts with basic alphabet knowledge and it goes on to using letter sounds, using letter patterns, blends and diagramraphs, archival vowels and so forth. You can look at the kindergarten skills as beginning of kindergarten and middle of kindergarten, end of kindergarten. Similarly, first grade skills. So, our goal is that by the end of first grade, all first grade students
054are on grade level because, as you know, foundational skills build upon one another. And if our first graders are not being successful with those foundational skills, they're going to continue to struggle as the years go on. So, it's really important for us to target our first grade students. So, in October, as I said, there were 266 students in the program. 100 students in that first instructional cycle were able to close out kindergarten skills. So, they went from the purple to the pink. Obviously, we know Ignite is significantly helping our students, but also the classroom teachers, the reading coaches, the instructional support throughout the building as well. It's a conjoined effort for our students to begin to see these advances. You'll also see that 77 students who were in that kindergarten section went on to move
055on to using letter sounds and letter patterns onto blends and diagraphs. So that's significant. In October, only 50 students of our 266 students were actually at first grade level. Now, this is mid November, 150 students are there. What's really nice about this program is as you finish each unit of study, there's progress monitoring. If a student doesn't pass that progress monitoring, there's reteing. So, we're not just going to keep moving on and on and on and hope it works out. So, if they struggle using letter patterns, they're going to redo those lessons with more intense interventions to see progress. Now, I believe Cynthia Johnson left you a slide that looks like this. When I first created this presentation, it was for December. And I generally don't like messing up things once they look pretty good,
056but this data was too great to not share with you. We call it hot off the presses. So, this was yesterday was the end of our second instructional cycle. And I'm a visual learner. You look at that barraph real quick, Mrs. Shav. Look at that bar graph. They flipped. And I'll explain what I mean by that. But just looking at it quick, there's a significant something's going on that we like. So, as I said, our instructional cycle ended yesterday. We're preparing for instructional meetings, um, instructional impact meetings. After each cycle, we meet with the school team and discuss students progress, who's still struggling, who's advancing, what can we do to provide better supports at the school level. And progress reports are distributed through um parent square to all parents that have students that are on
057this program. The cool thing about the progress reports is there's a QR code at the bottom that provides parents a web address or the QR code in order to access more resources to help their children at home. Simple videos, simple site words, simple things that any parent busy or not, they can help their child at home too. Um some of the highlights from our preliminary data that I like I said was released this morning. Um, we have a strong attendance. The 266 students, 89% of them are showing up consistently every single day to perform that ignite tutoring. As I said, at the end of each unit, students per um have to pass a progress monitoring. Right now, our rate is 86% with every school at least 77%. So, 86% of our students did the progress
058monitoring and they passed that. So, they moved on to the next unit. There's a few that didn't pass that got more remediation and intervention in order to be more successful with that unit. The next point about accelerated early literacy growth. This has to do with the barraph at the bottom. In October, as you may recall from the previous previous slide, we had 214 students working in kindergarten. By January, we only had 59 students still in that category. The rest of those students have moved on to first grade skills. So you can see the baseline of the first two bar graphs. We had I can't see that number in purple, but you can see the barraphs basically flipped. So the students that are now in first grade skills in currently as of yesterday, 207 students are
059in that in those first grade skills when we only have 59 left still trying to get through the kindergarten skills. So that's a enormous impact. Crazy amazing like gets me all excited. Hence, you have the extra addendum. So, moving on from Ignite, we're going to talk about middle school and high school literacy. Our core curriculum in fifth grade, as I said, is still wonders. In sixth grade through 11th grade is study sync. Some of our 12th grade students do more elective based English classes, so like dystopian literature and things like that. Um, within that curriculum, we're focusing on close reading instruction, um, graphical organizers, annotating, really trying to sharpen our students comprehension skills in order to be able to thoroughly analyze different texts and then apply those modes of writing into their own writing. Since
0602023, we've really been focused on writing. Prior to 2023, we didn't really have an equitable literacy structure throughout the district. Each school was doing the best that they could with what they had. However, in 2023, we began using the common language across the district. Everyone was talking about the same stories, the same language, using the same different terminology that you can find in our common graphical organizers. We now are utilizing high quality curriculum across all classrooms within Taton and they have a similar scope and sequence. Within that scope and sequence, we have created with our educators common writing prompts that are textbased aligned to the scope and sequence that we have addressed throughout the district. So if you were a elementary student that moved from e- pole to east and more than likely you're on
061the same story within a week or two of each other. You're learning the same way of writing. You're learning the same processes of writing. The graphical organizers are the same. So, if you look at the um top right hand side, you'll see a common graphical organizer that's very common to all of our students. And we're using that same graphical organizer from second grade, obviously, at a differentiated level all the way through the high school. I have a fourth grader who was he had to do his common writing prompt this week and he was begging me to stay home because he didn't want to have to write another claim and another evidence. And I'm like, "Yes, you are. Those are the standards, buddy." So even my own child is loving me for this work. Um so
062anyways um we have formalized our systems and structures in order to create a more equitable learning experience for all our students. All our now that we have common writing prompts and a common graphical organizer common rubric we're able to collect that data and we put it onto open architect so that we're able to analyze student data and really target our instruction for what students need. So the open architect is on the right bottom and we also can track students by student group which is what that graph on the left side shows. Every month all of our schools are having literacy meetings. During those literacy meetings, coaches are working with educators to look at student work, look at holistic scores, really look at how we're using our graphical organizers, how can we differentiate our graphical organizers
063so that we really can target our students that are struggling and our advanced writers. We're looking at our ML students or students with disabilities. What exactly what tier two or three interventions do they need to be successful? So, we're really targeting our instruction to meet the needs of our students. You've seen this data before. Our MCAT scores, these are overall, not just writing. Um, they're obviously on a positive trajectory. Um, but if you know me at all, I don't love those numbers. I want them to keep on growing much higher. So I believe if we continue with our systems and our structures and our equitable reading reading program that will begin to continue to see greater results in the positive direction. Obviously tier 2 and tier three supports are needed to fill in those gaps.
064Um our students with disabilities and multilingual learners, we really need to focus on what types of strategies will best support them. The MCCAST data highlights that we've talked about in the past. We're in most grades at prepandemic levels, which is a great accomplishment. Our ELA achievement did move up by three percentile points, and we're meeting our typical targets of growth. English language learners are meeting the highest levels of growth, which is a huge highlight for us, and it shows that the great work that we're doing throughout the district is actually working. Switching gears, moving on to social studies. At the elementary level, we are our teachers use the socialist curriculum and frameworks in order to center their lessons. We spotlight children's cultures. You can see in the photo that was a picture of our students
065at Bennett last year at a culture fair. They brought in a lot of um identity within that. They were able to show where their families come from, their culture, food, artifacts. It was an incredible experience from our students to learn from one another. Um, in third and fourth grade, Investigating History is going to be releasing their spring materials in 2026 this spring. They're still in the revision phases, so we'll be looking to adopt that either this September or the following, depending upon when the materials are available for our students and teachers. In fifth through 7th grade, we have been doing investigating history for the past three years with great results. Our students and teachers have definitely en enjoyed their experiences. They're being able to not just memorize random facts. They're actually using primary sources to
066analyze artifacts to ask questions the way a historian would. So, it's those soft skills that we would want our kids to learn more than just memorizing dates. So, it's it's great discourse. It it's very engaging. You can see at the bottom um students are really into looking at the primary sources and discussing rather than taking notes off a slideshow that the way we used to probably do it. Totten High School um we are eighth grade is in a very special spot in that they have history all year. It's a civics class. They have it all year because they have two major components that the other grades don't have. They have to have a studentled civics project. Many of you may have received letters from our students wanting to change something within Taton. Um, many of
067you have been judges. Mr. Dlo, you'll see him in the photo on the top right. And Miss Dona, they were here to judge our student science h science fair. Good lord. Um, civics project. So, students within their class are able to select something that they would like to change within our community or our state and they go through the stages of researching it and what it would actually take for actionbased change. Um, it's an incredible experience. If you have an opportunity to judge it or see it, I highly recommend it to really see students thoroughly engaged in something they really care about. Um, after that they are invited. It's sort the first phase is sort of like a science fair and the top students the top projects move on to UMass Dartmouth for a showcase
068at more of a regional level. Students in eighth grade also have to take a civics MCCAST. Last year was the first time they had to take that. This will be the second year. It's two parts. It's like two different test days if you will. Um the first one is performance based in which you are doing a lot of reading and looking at primary sources responding to different texts. Whereas the end of course is more your typical multiple choice short answer type questions. And then you'll see our nth grades doing world history 1, 10th grade US history 1 and 11th grade US history 2. We also offer a lot of advanced placement courses and other electives that students have really enjoyed being a part of. And finally, we're doing phenomenal things in Taton, but I'm never
069happy with just good enough. We're always setting the bar much higher. We want to continue to see our students strive to do better. Um, we want them to be ready for college and career. We believe if we continue to have meetings that we're really internalizing our lessons and really think about why are we teaching what we're teaching based on the standards that will continue to drive our instruction in a positive way. really looking at student work so that you're creating intentional interventions for those students. The whole class isn't going to learn the same exact thing at the same exact time because they all don't need that in particular with writing. Um so civics teachers are going to continue doing their performance-based tasks that will prepare them to practice the standards outlined in the Massachusetts frameworks
070and then we're offering two term time series in the spring. one on teaching writing and how to teach writing best to our students and secondly foundations which is again our phonics program that is a supplemental that's used in the elementary grades and that's all I have. >> Okay. All right. Well, thank you Danielle. That was probably one of the best um pres presentations uh I've seen and it was just so well delivered and your you know deep knowledge is evident um as you stand there. So, thank you. Thank you. >> Um I will open it up to the members. Uh councelor Laura I mean Mr. Laura >> before I was now. >> Thank you Danielle. Thank you very much for your presentation. Quick question. when students are in the initial learning K grade one two
071if if a student falls a little bit behind in their phonics whatever it mean you're teaching them uh and they you make them repeat it until they learn the process >> the phonics piece yes >> the phonics piece so Ignite like I said is a great addition for our school system but even without Ignite students are rarely progress monitored through dibbles and they're every two weeks they get progress monitoring so if there's a skill they're struggling with like in phonics, the teachers are well aware of it and then they put in different interventions to best meet that student's need. We also have title one teachers that help target that as well. >> So, so once that occurs, do they fall a bit behind or you make sure that they once they learn that process again?
072>> Yep. >> So, we keep progress monitoring and if they need more intervention, we keep giving it to them. Ignite really showed it nicely because it's on that continuum until they pass that unit of study. They kind of stay there and keep practicing it. That's tier three intervention, if you will. They're still learning the whole group sections, too. So, they're not falling behind what everyone else is learning, but they just need a little extra practice in whatever they're weak in. >> And now, what about students that have uh English is not the primary language? Is there more challenge to that student uh learning the phonics the the change of >> so we research shows that the younger grades it's easier to teach that our brains are more susceptible to learning another language much easier it's
073obviously if students have a native language we can do a lot of cognates and things like that depending upon when they've come here a kindergarten student you walk in a kindergarten classroom it looks like you can learn any language in there they have all the colors on the wall and all the everything so it's very visually rich other students that are maybe brand new to our country, brand new to English, but they join the newcomers academy and get support like that. So, it's an individualized basis. Obviously, learning any language is very challenging. Um, I currently have a first grader and trying to teach him how to read requires a little extra hair dye. >> But, but that's that's a very true remark when you say that children that age can adapt a lot faster because
074in the European studies, in the teaching method, they start teaching through two or three languages in the first grade. So that point is well taken. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Thank you, Miss Laura. Uh Chair Shars, >> thank you. Um I just wanted to point out what you had said about students moving from school to school and the consistency. Um because I think that's really important that was missing for quite a few years with our with our district and people don't realize I think how many students do move from school to school. So, I think that consistency of like you said, you know, they may not be more than a week apart from each other, but not only just what they're doing, but how they're doing it. Like you're using
075the same kind of techniques, you're using the same kind of forms, they're using the same wording. Um, and I think that is important to stress, which which I will hope, like you said, that you will see more advancement when we're looking at our numbers, but you've definitely made some strides. So, congratulations. >> You're absolutely right. When before I was in this position and I did my initial walkthroughs, everyone was everywhere doing everything that they could based on what they knew. Everyone was doing what that was best. But now I do walkthroughs and it doesn't matter what school there. I'm like I saw that that same story at Mar and now I'm seeing at Freman like it's amazing that continuity. Um and like you said the common language is huge. So a second grade is talking
076about a claim and an eighth grade is talking about a claim. So it's similar language and not having to learn new terminology based on your new boss. >> Yes. Excellent. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mrs. Mullen. Thank you. Fabulous presentation. I wish they had this Ignite when my kids were there. Um because I know firsthand when they don't learn these critical skills for reading, they fall way behind and they can't catch up. Um so speaking to that and piggybacking on Mr. Laures because you kind of stole my question. um what happens if those 59 kids don't get their skills to the next level. >> So they Ignite promises that by the end of the year the students for the most part will get on grade level because we have the rest of the year to
077still go. So we only have 59 students left. As I said, they're also working with our title one teachers for additional support, tier two, tier three support. We're also looking at potentially students that maybe have a disability that hasn't been addressed yet or identified yet. So, it's really shining the light on I want to know who those 59 kids are and do they need more support than we can give them right now because as you said reading is a fundamental right like I don't know what you can do if you can't read. So, we need to get them their foundational skills so then they really can focus on that comprehension piece. >> Perfect. Great. Thank you. >> Okay, Mrs. Fagan and then Mrs. Santos. I was just going to respond to what you said about
078having the kids in. I started with books called Sun Up >> and that was all phonetically based and you learn sounds so there was all repetition of sounds and I loved that series and nothing disheartened me more than we went to whole language which uh you could only know the word if you're saying the song >> and if a song was in the word Yeah. You lived it too. Yeah, I understand that. >> I was a child then. Yes. >> Yeah. So I, you know, I this part I don't know about. I I know the other day when I was watching the news and this report came out that nationwide the reading levels are absolutely tanking >> all over the place. So um this is probably a little bit off what you're talking about. Um
079and I I appreciate all the hard work you're trying to do. I've gotten several letters in the mail >> and there's concerns about some of what the kids are reading. >> How are you picking some of the books? And this I think all of you did you all get this letter from the student that so this is from a student that came in online and it's concerning the Hunger Games. So I heard so much about it. It was on TV one night and I'm watching it and I'm I'm really getting the creeps with that movie. >> The violence with kids towards one another. I don't really like those dot kind of things. It's kind of like Fahrenheit 451 when everybody starts burning the books and um so books like that I've always found kind of
080troubling and particularly when you talk about destruction of North America and I mean you know all this stuff I I I'm really not crazy about it but the the tenant of what some of these students are writing and I've talked to Mr. cabroll about it and I know there's some kids that like that but a lot of the kids are starting to say and parents and you know this thing here I don't know I respectfully asked the committee to consider requiring the Hunger Games for students of this age to offer an alternative book um who for those who are uncomfortable with its content. I believe it is important for school reading materials to challenge students while still being appropriate for their emotional and developmental level. Um, you know, I thought this was a very nicely
081written letter. And I know we all got I don't have to I'm sure you all read it, but um some of these things I think they start to trouble me because I remember so many books that my kids read that I thought taught beautiful moral lessons like a book called the K. And I don't know if you're familiar with that. My my students had to read that. And >> excuse me. Would would you like Miss uh Mrs. Kerr to respond? >> Mrs. V. >> Yes, I would. >> So, generally speaking, when we pick novels, they're coming out of Study Sync, which is highly rated by Ed Reports. So, each unit within StudySync offers two to three selections that students can choose from. Hunger Games was one of the books found within that unit. So it
082was either Hunger Games or another story. We put it out to our staff. They took a survey which story would be best suited to teach the standards for your students in seventh grade. So that's how Hunger Games was selected. There is an alternative text that the teachers felt as though the students wouldn't connect to as much. Throughout literature, there's going to be stories that teach different themes, different stories in different ways. They're not all what we may deem what we really want to do with our personal children, but it teaches different themes and different lessons. So, Hunger Games was chosen because it is one of the two novels that Steady Sync had recommended, >> but I mean, we certainly can get into an alternative selection if needed through that process. >> Well, this person just
083happened to mention um a couple of books that they thought taught nice lessons like The Giver. >> Yep. The Givers Read The Giver and The Outsiders in Seventh >> and my kids had read those. I I just wonder if but I know that I also hear that when when the whole class is doing it and two kids don't want to do it, it's kind of awkward because they hear it all anyway. >> So, it's also indicative of our teachers creating relationships with their students, we're not going to just start reading a story that has different difficult themes on September 1st. We're going to build those relationships with our students and make sure they're prepared to read different types of texts. Um the other novels that you had mentioned are read by seventh graders. The Outsiders
084and the Giver are also read. So we can let that student know that we are reading those as well. And many stories I talk to teachers a lot and it's not necessarily the story we're reading, it's the standards that we're teaching. So what standard are you after and is that the best selection for it? Maybe, maybe not. >> Okay. Well, I just wanted you to know that I I get I've gotten letters in the mail this thing today. Um I I received this and I just wanted to ask you how you select some of the books. >> We start with study sync and they're recommended because that those were approved through reports. >> Madame Mayor, c could I ask you I don't like getting yelled at from the um the crowd that's here. I I
085hear I've been on this committee 30 years. I've worked darn hard in this school district and I don't like any of my colleagues and all of us put our heart and soul into this to be misunderstood or just misinterpreted for what you think you see. I don't appreciate that and I don't think any of my colleagues do >> definitely um work to keep order in the room. >> I just want to assure the committee that Mrs. Kerr and Mr. Barata have addressed concerns regarding the texts that Mrs. Fagan has referenced with individuals who have reached out to the committee via email or sent letters. However, we don't address anonymous letters. >> Thank you, Superintendent. Mrs. Santos >> Oh, okay. >> That's why I didn't read that one, Mr. I knew that. You have addressed it
086as an administration. >> Yes. >> Excellent. Uh Mrs. Santo, you're welcome, Mrs. Santos. >> Thank you. Um and this is just I mean obviously the literacy levels as as Mrs. Fagan has mentioned is is at a pretty all-time low especially amongst adults. It's not even just children, right? Um and so you had mentioned something that goes home to parents because I was just wondering is there any way that we can better involve families how to get them building up their literacy skills too? because I mean if they're read to a home you're more likely to to continue reading things like that. So, how can we better support whether it's a financial issue, whether it's a cultural issue, it's a language issue, how we can better support families in that, maybe bringing them in doing kind
087of workshops to so they see what their students are doing kind of leading to more of a collaborative. >> Sure. So, what you bring up is a great point and it definitely a lot of it starts at home and a lot of parents I consider myself pretty educated and when my son is struggling to read, I'm like, "Oh, that mom guilt comes out. I don't know how to help him." So, you're absolutely right that we need to support our parents further in multiple languages and all the different things because our parents have so much to offer our students. >> Um, in terms of Ignite, as I said, there's a website and a QR code that parents can access that they can help their students if they're on Ignite Skills. Any student can use it if
088they're struggling with those foundational skills. Um, also, I Ready is another great opportunity for parents to access what their students are struggling with and how to best help them. I know our libraries offer different or outreaches to our parents how to get library cards, things like that. And most of our schools, if not all, have literacy nights that show some of the structured reading routines that we're using in school. Parents are invited in. They can experience it. Um, last year I went to one at Bennett. It was excellent. And it really got the parents involved with what they were doing because we always hear that's not how I learned it when I was a kid. So, we definitely have lots of opportunities for parent outreach, parent engagement, family engagement to really help build that partnership
089further. >> Thank you. Okay, Dr. Dillo, are you all set? >> Yes, mayor. Thank you so much. Thank you. Well done, Miss K. All done. >> Okay. Thank you, Isaiah. Did you want to say something? >> I usually comment on presentations, so I didn't want you to feel left out. >> Thank you, Isaiah. >> Um, first, I wanted to start with, um, commending your passion and knowledge about this topic. Um, it's definitely apparent through your presentation. uh you did a great job with that as always. Um you're very passionate in all that you do and I do have to say that I commend your strive to do better. Um not everybody has that outlook on things. So um your service to the students of this district is commendable. Um to get away from the topic
090of English a little bit, I wanted to commend one of the history things that we've done. Um I've always been bigger on history than English. Um 8th grade civics. Um I never get to take it myself. When I was in eighth grade, that was not the class that we took. We took world history. >> Um, but our eighth graders in the building love it. >> Yes. >> They get to present to members of this board, um, whoever's the senator, uh, and so on and so forth. And it gives those eighth graders great presentational skills, great skills, um, reaching out to committee members, uh, trying to improve things in the building. And that's just a great thing to see. And that's a great thing that we offer our students in the high school. So, I'd like
091to commend um you and your team for offering that for our eighth graders. Thank you. >> Thanks, Isaiah. >> Thank you, Isaiah. >> Okay, if there's nothing further Oh, Superintendent Cabrell. >> So, Isaiah's stealing my thunder. So, I want to commend you on your enthusiasm and your passion for the work. Uh I also want to commend the school committee as a school system. Over the last seven years, despite a little disruption called COVID, we put a lot of systems and a lot of structures in place and now we're getting good at it. Seven years ago, Mr. Barado and I uh applied for competitive grant with John Hopkins. And one of the things that John the John Hopkins report through a competitive grant process identified is that we lacked coherence as a school system. And one
092thing that jumped out with the work that Mrs. Kurt is leading in the district is that now we have coherence. Mrs. Mr. Charles, you'll remember pacing charts >> were was a nasty word many years ago, but you'll see the benefit of the pacing charts when students transition or move from one building to another that they're not behind their peers in in other schools. So again, I want to commend you for the outstanding work and just remind the committee, you've done a lot of work. You put a lot of support behind the curriculums we have in place, a lot of trust, and anytime you see 2% growth or 2% increase, that's significant. So outstanding work on the English language art side of the house. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. Excellent. Thank you, uh, Superintendent
093Cabra. All right. Well, thank you so much, Danielle. Everyone, uh, really enjoyed your presentation and learned a lot. Um, so with that, we will move on to the superintendence report. >> So, I'm I'm very excited. And we'll give Mr. Jake a second. Super excited to have Mr. Jake back full time, too. How about a round of applause, Mr. Jake? [applause] Thank you. So, I'm I'm very excited to provide you with a quick update on how things are progressing with our strategic plan and I I'll move quickly uh because u again I'll just move quickly because I know we have a media agenda today. So, so similar to the John Hopkins uh curriculum work seven years ago, this strategic plan, we were able to qualify for a competitive grant that Mr. Barat and I applied for
094and we were awarded funding through the Bar Foundation to do this work over a year-long process. We also have to attribute credit to two of our thought partners at Attuned Hadley Huberman and Adrien Endrris who are in the district this week doing some progress monitoring work and we will be meeting with them on Friday from 8:30 to 11:30 to talk about what they're seeing as far as progress monitoring in relationship to our strategic plan. So our strategic plan again uh in the newsletter I explained to you this week that it's very important for high functioning organizations to have a strategic plan. Think of the strategic plan as the north star. This is what we aspire. This is what we hope to attain over the next five years into the next decade. So the strategic plan
095will define the impact that we intend to achieve. It helps us narrow and sequence our efforts. It helps us align resources. And again, the I need to commend the committee. You have really supported this district when it comes to providing our students with high quality instructional materials and robust professional development. It also enables us to look at our plan and reflect what are we doing well, what are we not doing well, and what are some areas we can improve because we always strive for continuous improvement. And again, I want to emphasize it sets it provides us with that guiding light or that north star that we aspire to reach over the next five years. So, one of the things that we're excited about and why we apply for this grant is that school systems that
096have partnered with Attuned have seen 69% growth in ELA and 85% growth in their mouth math outcome. So again, without having that document, without having that north star to to aspire to, you really lack focus and you lack direction. That's why I'm very excited to have a strategic plan that will guide us for the next five years. Knowing that my first strategic plan, if you remember in our previous budget presentations, we hit all our benchmarks in my previous strategic plan. And nothing has changed with regards to our mission or regards to our vision. I need to give a shout out to the main drivers who are leading this work on on slide five. These are the members that are part of the steering committee and it involves a lot of time and and a lot
097of effort in the steering committee. This is what we landed based on all the feedback that we received from the community through interface conversations through surveys in meeting with teachers input from our students. Uh this process was much more robust, much more comprehensive than my first strategic plan. When my first strategic plan, I probably spoke with about 88 individuals and the survey didn't have the tentacles or the outreach that this strategic plan did. So this is a true reflection of what the community identified as the areas that we need to stay focused on for the next five years. So, rigorous instruction, student culture, which you heard during the high school school improvement plan, talent development, which again the committee has allocated resources and restructuring in the human resource department and Mr. Barata leads with our
098five-year professional development plan and also with our professional development council and also stakeholder engagement. Uh, Parent Square has had remarkable results. super excited that we're going to be launching a new website and uh we actually will be adding a bot an AI bot to our website. So talk about being able to reach parents in multiple languages, multiple modalities and no longer Mr. Palowski having to drill layer after layer after layer after layer to find what street address goes to which school. Long overdue. And what I also like about this uh strategic plan is that we have a module or we have a monitoring system that we're able to see what are the strategic items that we're working on this year. So for rigorous instruction, you'll see that we're in the design phase for vision for
099rigorous instruction, design phase for professional development and design phase for principal and AP instructional leadership. And then in 2627 those three items that are in design will launch and then we'll start designing data driven instruction. So you have a road map to guide you over the next five years. And then with each of these tabs if you were in this module you could open it up and see the work that is being done or the work that is yet to be complete and what the person who was leading this charge in this case Mr. Barata know what are some of the obstacles what are some of the wins and what are some of the unintended uh items or issues that have popped up over over the year or while we're aligning this work apologies. So
100again, you'll see notice that as I stated, most of our initiatives were in the design phase and that's the first bucket that you see there on the left. And given that our initiatives are in the design and not yet launching, they will not have the implementation. We will not have the implementation data to access progress in year one, but we will have the deliverables. And then when we get to the launch, right, the initiatives and design, they're going to be launched next year with beginning in fall of 26 through June of 27. And then you see the cycle know setting the vision and the strategy implementation and the initiatives and then the monitoring. We cannot emphasize the importance of the monitoring because how do you know you are doing something well unless you are able
101to monitor it through qualitative data and quantitative data. So again very data focused very datadriven. You'll also notice that we have the next steps. So we meet monthly on the initiative team meetings. know that's led by the initiative leads. We have multiple leads that are leading this work. We have our monthly meetings with myself, Mr. Bara, and assistant superintendent Moyahan. That's led by Chris and our thought partners with the tunes. And then we we also meet three times a year, which we are in the process of doing now with our steering committee. And then on Friday, we will have our step back. And then again the work is ongoing in support with my through my my work and also with the school committee to share with you the winds the grows and the glows and
102the work that is continuously ongoing throughout the year and over the next four years and you'll see some of the initiatives for 2526 vision and rigorous instruction professional development principal AP instructional leadership vision for student culture and discipline strategic communication and stakeholder input plan in multilingual communication. ations and you'll also notice in parenthesis to the right you have the name of the individual or the administrator who is leading this work. So these are all initiatives that are ongoing and that we are monitoring for 20 for this current school year and this just gives you a kind of snapshot. I won't go through it in detail because you have this information but you'll you see what we provided as deliverables to 2526 what's been completed and what's still in progress. So this is our vision for
103rigorous instruction that is being led by Mr. Bara. You're going to notice a lot of Mr. Barata in this presentation. So for professional development uh you'll notice that we have in progress a lot of work that is currently in progress uh for the principal instructional leadership coaching and you'll see what's been completed and I believe this work will kick off next month in February and then you also see what's in progress for the rest of the year. And Mrs. Hoy is leading the and she's been leading this work since the beginning of the year. So you'll see what Mrs. Hoy has already completed as far as work and what work is still in progress and Mrs. Hoy meets monthly with all our assistant principles and our assistant principles at the elementary, middle, and high school
104level have all created a little task force where they're responsible for diff different items when it comes to student culture and student discipline. So again, great work that's going on behind the curtains and I have the privilege and pleasure of sharing with you that work throughout the year as we hit as we reach our milestones and this will be the first of several presentations that you'll receive this year regarding the progress we are making with regards to our strategic plan. strategic communications again the work that is being led by our communications coordinator Cynthia Johnson and then our multilingual communications with the Leila Mendoza is leading this work in collaboration with other district leaders and Cynthia Johnson who's our communications coordinator. So this is always a great opportunity to reflect and discuss any questions. So are
105there any clarifying questions that the board has regarding the process and our plan? you know, what are the hopes that the board may have for the rest of this year and possibly next? And does the board have any concerns that I can address at this time regarding our strategic plan? >> Okay. Thank you, Superintendent Cabraw. I will open up to the members and call on Mrs. Santos. >> Thank you. Um, so just just a couple of things and I I I' I've said this before, so I'm just going to say it again. Um, some of this still feels kind of abstract to me. Um, so like I mentioned when you first what does rigorous mean and what is that going to look like? So is there going to be something kind of more detailed in
106what that is actually going to be in practice and what that looks like? Um, and I I say the same thing for the student culture um because it says establish strong and inclusive student culture um and respond effectively and compassionately to student behaviors. Still kind of a little abstract. Not really sure what that means though, what that looks like. Um and and on top of that, so on on page seven, so this is where you have like the design, launch, monitor, monitor, right? And you said at the top example of sequencing for priority one and all the other priorities look like that. Where are we as far as those other priorities like priority two? Are we in the design phase? Are we in the monitor like the line? Because that's I don't see that here
107as far as like the priority 2.1 for what have you. So that that's one question I have as far as that goes. >> So it was intentional. This is a this is just an overview snapshot highle overview of what's going on with our strategic work and how this is working. So as I mentioned earlier behind these tabs you might might be difficult to see there's like a little drop down. >> So behind each of those tabs is where you can see the work that's actually being done and the litany of initiatives that follow each of these when it comes to the design implementation the progress monitoring. So again, this is just to give you a snapshot of the work that is being done by the leadership team because we've had the strategic plan in place
108since September and this is the first time you're hearing about the work that we're being done. But I also wanted to share with you the progress monitoring tools that we have in place that we didn't have with our previous strategic plan thanks to our partnership with the tunes and the bar funding where we're able we're actually able now to be very thoughtful and deliberate in our design. We're also able to be very thoughtful in how we launch and we also have built-in systems where now we are able to progress monitor throughout the this year and over the next five years. So again it was done intentional highle overview but moving forward when the plan becomes more developed and uh you'll be able to see we were able to show you and it's also something that
109we can do individually if any board member wants to see how the tool operates. I'd be happy to walk you through and show you all the initiatives and all the work that's being done. uh because this is a robust platform that uh we are very fortunate to have for the next five years. >> And I just have one more question. This is on page 16. So this is the 2.1 vision for student culture and discipline. And it's kind of it's kind of the same thing, right? I'm just I'm struggling with how culture and discipline are combined. Um because to me they seem completely two different things, but one can impact the other in very real ways. like the effect on culture and because I think it was about suspension rates and how high his Hispanic
110students are, you know, suspended and more higher rates than white students so on and so forth. So, I guess I'm a little concerned that they're combined. >> So, schools that have very strong culture and I won't identify any of our schools, but a couple of schools come to mind where students feel seen, students feel heard, students feel like they're they're part of the school, they're seen in the school. uh you have very low discipline issues, you have very low office referrals. So when you have a strong culture, you have a strong team culture, you tend to see high attendance and you you tend to see decreased discipline. So culture and discipline go hand in hand. If you have very weak culture where students don't feel seen, students don't feel like they identify with the school.
111Um you tend to see low attendance and you tend to see high discipline. So >> culture and discipline >> as far as this leadership team is concerned go hand in hand. >> Okay. And just so for the hopes for culture I hope that that's very inclusive. >> Anything we do in this school system is inclusive. >> I just I just that's one thing that I'm I'm really going to look forward. >> Anything we do in this school system is inclusive. >> Okay. Thank you. >> We're a very inclusive school system. >> Thank you. >> Okay, Mrs. Shabs. >> Thank you. Couple of things. So that software that you're using, you said there's all kinds of drop- down lists. So is that something that you can share with us as a readonly type of thing? So
112it's something that we'd have to sit down with you to go through. Okay. >> Um training staff. So are there we'll pick on um the culture and discipline because obviously what you just said some schools are doing really well with that and other schools not as much. So will there be um specific training focused on improvement in these particular areas? >> So the training comes about through the professional development council. >> Yes. >> The professional development council uh each collective bargaining unit has at least two or three seats. So they and Mr. Barad is able to work with principles, administrators and district leaders to identify the professional development that will align with lifting and leading this work. So we we will for example last year Uh last year part of our inclusive practices and part
113of our um implicit bias work, we had a keynote speaker come in and address the entire faculty at one of our convocation days because that was a that was something that was lifted uh brought up during our work to develop the strategic plan and that was something that Mr. are working with the professional development council identified and that we should bring in to address the whole staff versus a pocket of individuals. So yes, the strategic plan will drive the work on the professional development that the council in that our school improvement plans also lead there has to be strategic alignment. So like I've said in the past, if it doesn't align to our strategic plan, we're going to tell our principles, we're going to tell our leaders to pause because where is the strategic alignment?
114>> Excellent. Um and then my last thing is this is the um summary for 2526. So you're going to this is a five-year plan. So every year we these will be updated and we will get the updates as to what's going on for that particular year and what's still in progress. >> What's the what's the beauty of my previous strategic plan or off previous strategic plan? It was a living breathing document. I'm not a believer in having a document that sits on a shelf and collects dust. uh we we continuously will revise and that's what's great about the progress monitoring and having sorry having this tool. >> Yeah. >> Because we can pivot right we can pivot we can make changes we can identify working with our thought partners where we're being successful where we're
115not being successful uh literally we get an email every week Mr. Barata >> every two weeks >> I receive one 4:35 every morning so we get we get an email that identifies which lead has not updated their their tap. >> Okay. >> So it is there's a level of accountability that um again a level of accountability that we didn't have with the strategic the previous strategic plan that we now have that holds all our leads accountable to make sure that they're leading this work into the next decade which is you know for me that's really exciting. >> Excellent. Thank you. Okay, Mr. Laura, >> question. >> Uh, as far as the funding source, this is one through B Foundation. Uh, is that are they involved with a five-year strategic plan and funding every year? >>
116No. So, the so the strategic plan work last year to develop the plan that was done last year in support with the bar foundation and Mr. Bara has a professional development grant that he oversees. I believe it's title 4A, title 2A, I apologize. Uh so we're able to utilize that funding for professional development. So a combination of funding, but the bar foundation probably funded close to 80% 75% of the work last year. And then the progress monitoring tool again through the bar foundation and through the title 2A grant we're able to have this monitoring tool for the next five years. >> Thank you very much. >> Okay, Dr. Dlo, are you all set? >> Yes, Mayor. No questions. Thank you. >> Okay. All right. Okay. So, seeing no more questions, thank you, Superintendent Cabra. >>
117We now move on to G, administrative business. The first item is evaluation of subcommittees. >> Thank you, Madam Mayor. >> Oh, >> I'm sorry. Is there Dr. Dlo, are you all set? >> I was going to move a motion. >> Oh, for what? for uh to move a motion that uh we accept the uh bargaining subcommittees that remain to be assigned which uh are listed as cafeteria, custodians, secretaries and assists, unit A, unit B, nurses, TTA, and sick leave bank as presented at the January 7 report out uh by the organizational subcommittee. That's the motion under the motion. >> Second on that discussion. >> Okay. So, there's a motion and second on discussion, Mrs. Shuffs. So, one of the questions that came up was um evaluating the subcommittees and seeing whether we need all the
118subcommittees that we have. There's some overlap on some of the subcommittees, maybe possibly a retreat activity. So, it's it's up to you guys. >> May uh ma madam chair, may may I ask for clarification? >> Sorry. >> What what what do you want to do? Evaluate the already assigned subcommittees. >> Well, we wanted to look at the It was brought up to look at the description of the subcommittees to see what each of them do. We haven't really looked at them in detail in quite a while. >> Okay. Who who brought that up at what meeting? >> There were different people that reached out and and wanted some descriptions about what the subcommittees did. So, we were having a conversation. I would sent them a list of the subcommittees and there is some overlap when
119we look at some of them. So, we thought maybe it would be a good idea to look at that at the retreat because we added a couple of things in like for example, we added in the um the um special ed, but special ed was originally under curriculum. So, we never really had a discussion on whether or not that should that be separate or should that stay with the curriculum subcommittee? >> I'm sorry. Uh Madam Chair, what what special ed are we talking about? >> Chapters we had eight and we added three, right? We have 11 subcommittees. >> Yes. So we we added >> we added the three additional subcommittees. >> Yes. Uhhuh. >> Space utilization, community outreach, and chapter 74. >> Chapter 74. Yeah, that's the one I'm talking about. Sorry. Chapter 74. So
120we didn't we really didn't have a discussion about the those particular subcommittees and actually what their what their goals would be. Well, if I may, Madam Chair, for you mayor, uh, we we did have a discussion on chapter 74. There was a a very vibrant discussion concerning the need for a subcommittee to address chapter 74 because of the growth in numbers and it felt like it needed some uh more attention. That's why that was created and we actually all voted in those three. Space utilization was another one. uh with two Hamilton Street project coming on board, we have either individually or as groups taken tours through Parker and through two Hamilton Street to find out what's our next move uh as far as the space utilization and that's not unique just to the those two
121buildings. I mean we have what 12 buildings throughout the district and the other thing is the Cohana School. I mean we keep talking about the Kohana school about moving district offices uh turning over the third floor space to make it you know usable. uh because we're at a lack of space. So, that was why that was created. And the other was community outreach. Uh you know, with the community family resource center, I believe that uh they need some help. I I get a lot of calls saying that they're overworked. They don't have enough folks. Uh and maybe we can provide an outlet for that. So, they just they just didn't come out of nowhere. They came because there was a purpose for them. and we duly voted accepted them in a December meeting and then
122assigned those committees at the first regular school committee meeting in January. So I don't know why this would even be up for discussion at a retreat. >> Thank you uh Dr. Dlo Santos. >> Yes, thank you. Um, so just going off of that, I think part of the retreat and I had made this motion to review policies at the retreat, the subcommittees and I yeah and I just saw that so I don't know if I'm skipping over it but I mean part of this is a policy right the subcommittees it's a policy it's in the agenda so I mean I think it would be appropriate to at least have a discussion about perhaps because at this point those new subcommittees are not on this policy so that obviously ly needs to be revised. Um, and
123you know, as far as some of the other ones, if any of that language also needs to be revised, again, this is why I brought up the fact that we should review our policies for this retreat. So, I don't see an issue with just waiting one more week because the retreat is next week, right, to make some of changes and we have more input from others. So, I just wanted to say that. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Mr. Laura. >> Well, that was my understanding. Mr. Lores wanted to the floor just one moment please. >> That was my understanding that this would be go to further discussion and the retreat was my understanding that policy because it is a change. It is uh a new addition and therefore there will be discussion then decide what
124we're going to do thereafter. >> So we have a motion on the table from you. >> I second a motion for discussion. >> For discuss >> right only for discussion. >> For discussion. So >> do we need to do an amendment? >> So >> motion was to accept the >> Okay. >> Yes, there's a motion in a second. Uh Miss Dr. Deill, would you repeat the motion? >> I I can't raise my hand, so I apologize. >> Sure. No, no problem. >> Uh I just want to clarify the motion. The motion is for the remaining subcommittees that I mentioned that we did not vote on January 7th. >> The other 11 have been voted. They've been assigned. We're not changing that. There's no need to change those. With all due respect, that's why we voted,
125right? So, the motion that is the the motion and the minutes that read on page six clearly state the bargaining subcommittees will be determined at the January 1726 school committee meeting, which is actually incorrect, January 21st, when they get a ruling on Mrs. Santos conflict of interest question. So that's what's on the table today and that's what's on the first item, evaluation of subcommittee. So that's why I moved the motion. >> Okay. >> So that >> Mr. Vieira, did you have your hand up? >> No. No. I just I I was under the basically what Dr. Damo said. I was under the impression that we were voting on collective fiveing subcommittees, but it it seems like the way it was written may be a bit ambiguous. So I'm glad we're having the conversation and making
126it clear what we're voting on and what we're not voting on. Thank you madam ma'am. >> You're welcome. >> So we have >> Yes. So we have >> bargaining sub committees. >> Yes. So is everyone clear on the motion? >> Yeah. >> So on keeping the collective bargaining subcommittees >> that was assigned at the last meeting. >> Correct. >> Okay. So there's a motion and a second on the floor. >> Isaiah, did you have >> Do we not have a copy of those committees? >> It's on page six of the meeting. >> It's in the packet. Did [clears throat] I not? >> Um, >> they're in the >> Oh, in the minutes, not like just because I'm thinking about the subcommittees, how they were how we had them the first time >> where, you know,
127it was listed out the three people just as a reference, but that's >> okay. So, is everyone ready to vote? Okay, there's a motion and a second on the floor. Everyone understands the motion? Uh, >> roll call >> and we need it on a roll call, please. Yes, >> that's to keep them the way they are, right? >> That's to accept the >> what the subcommittee >> subcommittee bargaining committees, >> right, >> that you all chose the last meeting. >> Santos. >> Yes. Yes. >> Yes. >> All right. Motion passes unanimously. >> Okay. The second thing that we have brought up the school committee handbook 2017. So as it was stated there is some online could be some language that um is dated. And so we wanted to have a discussion on this and we
128thought that it may be a good idea to make a motion that the rules um subcommittee take a look at that. >> So the motion would be to refer that to the rules subcommittee. >> I make that motion. >> Second. >> Motion and second. >> on discussion, Dr. Dlo. >> Thank you, Mayor. Madam Chair, I I think we need to uh better understand that we pay thousands of dollars to the MSBA so we have our policy online. And I thought it was a tool that we could use to uh fix and make adjustments and and be you know everybody on the same page. So when we do meet about the policy manual review uh we need to bring that in discussion because like I said we paid thousands of dollars to the MSBA as a
129tool for our resources and that needs to be part of if we could amend the motion to include that I appreciate it. >> Part of the motion. >> Okay. >> MSCA correct. >> Yeah. I I believe so just a little bit of historical context for some members who weren't here the last time this happened. So back in I think 2017, Mr. Barata 2018, Mr. Barata then as a director of student services led a comprehensive review along with MASC to update and revise our entire policy manual and then it was uploaded on the MASC website. So, I believe that is the intent of this motion is for a comprehensive policy review because it's been nearly 10 years. Um, and we'll have somebody from the leadership team. I believe the rule subcommittee will work with MA MASC
130rep to update the manual. >> Correct. Thank you for that uh explanation, superintendent. Mr. >> Again, I just want to reiterate for clarification purposes. So, we're adding the language for the new subcommittees and also revising it in its entirety or evaluating it in its entire I just I want to know what I'm voting on. And again, I apologize if I misunderstood you >> to go policy by policy and update it accordingly. >> Okay. All right. >> Thank you, Superintendent. Thank you, Madam Mayor. >> You're welcome. Which is the task of the rules committee. Correct. >> Yes. Let me just give you an example. So online it states that um uh chairs are picked every year or we actually pick our chairs every two years. So there are some things that we do that may have
131been amended but may not be on our online version. So, we need to find out when it was amended. Is that what what was voted prior to maybe some of us being on here and we need to make sure that that is in our our handbook. >> And if I may, so I apologize. What's also helpful is working with MASC. As Dr. Dlo mentioned, any new changes by law that would require us to revise a policy, the MASC will advise us on where those changes need to be made to. >> Okay. All right. Great. All right. So, there's a motion and a second on the floor. Everyone's clear. >> All right. On a roll call, please. Mrs. Fagan. >> Excuse me. Mr. Powski. >> Yes. >> Miss Santos. >> Yes. >> Mrs. V. Yes. Mr.
132Laura. >> Yes. >> Mr. Vieira. >> Yes. >> Dr. >> Yes. >> And Mrs. >> Yes. >> Motion passes. >> Okay. the the um the next thing is uh sub subcommittee referral to action items. Well, I think we've took care of all of that in the in the first one that's there. So, unless there's any further discussion, >> I think we've we've covered excellent covered the bargaining subcommittees. So, the last thing is the conflict of interest disclosure form discussion. So, this is twofold. First off, um, as I send an email to everyone, you have to take an online course. Some of you have to do two parts. Some of you only have to do one part because it's done every two years. So, just please make sure that you've done it so that the city
133hall gets that that you've done the conflict of interest. The other thing is is there is a form in here in your packet that is a conflict of interest form. If you have any conflicts of interest with anything that you would be doing on the subcommittee or a on the school committee, you need to file it with the city clerk at the city hall. So, there's an example there. If anybody has any questions on it, you can um refer it to them or ask one of us. I I filled up mine and I filled it um sent it to city hall. They stamp it and they put it in your folder so that you disclose for transparency purposes if you have any kind of conflict >> Mr. Laura, >> the conflict must be completed by
134January 31st. >> Thank you. I did not know that. So, thank you. >> All right. All right. Very good. Thank you. M Please, Mr. Santos, um obviously this came up because of discussion about my affiliation with the MTA. Um and so I had stated to the school committee that I did file um with the city clerk. Got the stamped copy. It's in my file. Um, but I just I I did want to um address just what that it's called the 23B3. That was the form when I spoke to and just for the record, I did speak to a lawyer for the state ethics commission and it was deemed that it was not a conflict of interest. It was just an appearance of a conflict of interest. So, in order to um to kind of add
135transparency, he suggested I filed the disclosure agreement, which I did. um but also obviously recuse myself from those bargaining committees as well. Um but I I wanted to add this to the agenda because I want to read this. So it says um the the 23B3 requires a public employee to consider whether her relationships and affiliations could prevent her from acting fairly and objectively and avoid valulation by making a public disclosure of um the facts. So I think it's really important that we don't just think about affiliations, we think about family relationships as well too. So if I am going to be held to account for my union affiliation, I think others need to be held to account for family relationships as well too. >> Okay. >> Thank you, Mr. Santos. >> Thank you. >> Okay.
136>> Just I thank you and I thank you for clearing that up. And I just want to make a note that just because there's an appearance that there be could be a conflict doesn't mean there's a conflict. >> Okay? So it just means that there's an appearance. So for transparency purposes, I appreciate that you've decided not to be on the bargaining um that are with the MTA. That does not mean that there was any kind of conflict. It just means that there there could have been an appearance out there in the community. And so we want to be transparent. So I think if you have anything that you possibly think could be a conflict, I think it's better to fill them out and be transparent than later on someone to say that you weren't transparent
137about what goes on. So, I appreciate you driving that force and and letting us all know [clears throat] what to do. >> Well, and I I think that's what was important is just um you know, when I see I hear appearance of conflict of interest, I think bias, that's the word that comes to my mind. Um but I do want it to be not an admission of guilt that it was a conflict of interest. I would never go into anything not being fair in in impartial. Absolutely not. Uh, so I'm I'm glad for clarifying that because I didn't want it to seem like that's why I was recusing hindsight. >> Understood. Thank you. All right. Next, we have the governor. >> Dr. Dlo. >> May I thank you, mayor, uh, through you u, mayor, madam
138chair. I I mean, we we all know we take an oath uh, inauguration day. Uh, the oath I think speaks for itself. uh there are public records uh very accessible to anybody whether it's at the state level, at the city hall level of who gets money, who gets endorsed, who does this, who does that. So, you know, it's it's not like we're hiding anything. If the public needs to know, they can just go down to city hall or go to the state uh uh office of campaign public finance and follow the money. That's all I want to say. Thank you so much, mayor. >> You're welcome. All right. Number five, governor's FY27 budget release schedule. Superintendent Cabo. >> Uh so as as I shared with the board, next Wednesday, the governor will release her house
139one budget for fiscal 27. So uh when that when that budget is released, we will go through a thorough analysis and analyze the impact on our chapter 70 funding. But I also want to go on record of making the committee aware that we did see a decrease of 88 students. So, a decrease of 88 students equates to about 1 million a little $1.1 million in chapter 70 funding. So, uh it doesn't mean that we're going to lose $1.1 million in chapter 70 funding. It just means we're not going to receive $1.1 million in chapter 7 funding because we saw a decrease. So, in the past, we've been held harmless. So, we wouldn't lose the funding and we would get credit for any student that is enrolled plus the plus the cola. So again, I just
140want to make the committee aware and again when the when the governor's budget is released, which we used to set our budget for fiscal 27, that we did see a decrease of 88 students compared to last year's October one report. >> Thank you, Superintendent Cabal. >> Sorry then obviously I will provide you with my superintendent's budget update for fiscal 27 sometime in uh February. >> All right, Mr. Cabraw, would you like to address the next the staffing report, >> Madam Chair? >> Oh, sure. Sorry, Dr. Dlo. >> Yes, Dr. Dlo. >> Thank you. I apologize because I can't raise my hand. Uh if if you know if this superintendent could start thinking about the budget discussion dates uh because I think it's going to be a tough year here that uh we can put on
141the calendar. I know we have uh you know, eight members that sometimes coming together is difficult. So maybe want to throw that out sooner than later because I I really don't want to be under a crunch where we have to evaluate a budget that's quite different than previous years. uh please consider that. Okay. Thank you so much. >> Yeah, we'll uh we'll make sure you get a copy of the budget schedule and what we'll do is uh we'll schedule those on outlook so you have it on your calendars as well. >> Okay. Excellent. So the following few numbers uh six and seven are staffing report and staffing school staffing update. >> Yeah, just that's just apologies. That's just forformational for purposes receive and place on file. >> Okay. We don't that it's not necessary to
142vote on those things. So, we can avoid a roll call. U it's already on file if it's in the packet. And then the schedule of joint meeting with city council discussion. >> That was just more of a conversation uh with the board. What are the wishes of the committee now that we have a new board, we have new subcommittees, and I believe there's a new city council. Is there any desire on the school committee to make a motion to have me reach out to the city council to schedule a meeting? >> Dr. Dr. Dillo. >> Yes. Thank you, mayor. Madam Chair, if we could put that on the agenda for our retreat so that we can better put some thoughts together of why we're going to meet with the city council, I think that would
143be much appreciated. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, mayor. >> You're welcome. Okay. Subcommittee reports. Uh Tesla collective bargaining. Mrs. Shave. >> Thank you, Madam Mayor. Tessa Collective Bargaining Subcommittee met on Tuesday, January 6, 2026 at 3:05 p.m. This was our seventh meeting. The Tessa subcommittee was in attendance, including Mrs. Fagan, Mrs. Miss Santos, and myself along with representatives for administration and the bargaining team. Negotiations are still in progress. The meeting adjourned at 8:10 p.m. This concludes my report. >> All right. Thank you, Mrs. Shuff. Uh motion and second on roll call, please. >> Yes. >> Motion passes. High school subcommittee. Mr. Vieiraa. >> Thank you, Madam Mayor. The high school subcommittee met today at 4:45 p.m. 215 Harrison Street. We uh received a presentation from the principal of Taton High School, Dr. John Harrison.
144The high school's FY27 school improvement plan. Plan is centered on four priorities. Raising academic rigor and MCCAST outcome through stronger curriculum implementation and instructional leadership. Strengthening student support, school culture and operational systems, especially attendance, behavior, and climate. Improving grade 8 literacy and writing through study sync, fidelity, and common assessments. Reducing chronic absenteeism through targeted tiered intervention and family engagement. plan includes clear FY26 targets for MCCAST performance. Uh 94% graduation rate, improved attendance to 92.5%, chronic absenteeism down to 24% and reduction in suspensions and conduct incidents with intentional focus on equity. THS will be monitoring progress through regular data reviews, walkthroughs, PLC work, and ongoing implementation checkpoint. What is Taton High School improvement plan for 2024 2026? Outline ths priorities, measurable goals, and key actions for FY26. Strengthen student achievement, school culture, and operational systems for
145grades 8 to 12. Academic rigor and instruction. We're going to focus on strengthening curriculum implementation and instructional leadership to improve rigor and outcome for MCCAST graduation. Uh college going course success. Uh FY26 targets include increased MCCAST scores to exceed benchmarks, increased graduation rate, um and other key strategies. Student support focus on culture and operation. We're going to improve safety, efficiency, and climate by strengthening systems and uh other student supports. And that concludes my report. >> Motion to accept the report as presented. >> Motion and second on roll call, please. Mrs. Fagan, >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Santos. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. Mr. >> Yes. Motion passes. Finance and law. Dr. Dlo. >> Uh, Madame Mayor, I defer to uh, Chairman Vieier for this uh, report. >> Okay. >>
146Thank you, Madame May. The Finance and Law Subcommittee met today, Wednesday, January 21st, 2026, 2:15 Harris Street at 5:45 p.m. First item on the agenda was use of facilities. Organizations include dance theater in New England, Martin School speech and debate club and boys and girls club metro south inc. Motion to receive and placed on file um was passed 3 nothing. Second item was procurement cards um there was discussion about the pro procurement cards. We we had bills from September, October, November, and December. A motion was made to table until further backup could be provided. That motion passed uh 3 nothing. Uh food services, uh total number of meals served, uh December 2024 was 137,000 meals. Um the daily average was 9,134. Uh a motion was made to uh receive that report in place on file
147and was passed by the committee. Other item discussed was item four. We receive FY26 appropriation quarter report two. We receive FY26 revolving account quarter 2 report and FY26 grant quarter 2 report. Motion to receive and place on file was made and passed by the committee 3 nothing. Fifth item was coach and for change. Presentation was given by assistant superintendent Monahan along with all the other items. Uh motion was made to pay coaching for change in the amount of $6,7746. No 16 cents, excuse me. And that motion passed three nothing. Final item was item six, bills payable in the amount of $291,1625. After uh questions and great discussion, questions being answered by assistant superintendent Monahan, uh motion was made and passed 3 nothing. That concludes my report. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Like to move
148a motion, Madame Mayor. >> Yes, Dr. Dlo. Uh move a motion to receive and adopt the recommendations of the subcommittee as presented. >> Second. >> Motion and second on roll call, please. Mrs. Fagan. >> Mr. >> Yes. [clears throat] >> Yes. >> Okay. Motion passes. New business is Massachusetts literacy bill update. Superintendent, >> I believe Mrs. Ker addressed this during the presentation. I would just reiterate if you look at paragraph 2 that if and when the Massachusetts literacy bill does get passed, uh, the Tom public schools will be fully aligned with the expectations outlined in the early literacy bill. >> Okay. Thank you, superintendent. Uh, no comments or questions. We will move to unfinished business, which is the action item update. Uh if is there any business with the action item update? >> No action
149at this time. >> Okay. There's no press and so >> motion to >> motion and second on a roll call, please. Mrs. Fagani. >> Yes. So ordered. >> All right. All right. Thank you everyone. Have a good night. >> Thank you.