001Good evening. The uh finance and law subcommittee shall come to order. I'll start with roll call. Mrs. Shavs present. Mr. Vieiraa present. Chairman Dlo present. First item on the agenda we have disposal disposal of surplus equipment request uh to Hamilton Street. We'll start with that. Superintendent, any comments? Thank you, Chairman Dlo. Uh so as you as you'll notice there is some surplus items being declared surplus at two Hamilton Street. Uh the pews in the chapel area are being declared surplus. Uh we have a sander that's no longer of use to the district that's being declared surplus. And those are the two items that uh we we could bring before the finance and law committee to declare surplus. And if you'd like, uh, we could reach out to local parishes to see if there's a use,
002uh, for the surplus pews. And if not, then we can make them part of the auction that we're planning to host at Summer Street. Great. Thank you, Mr. Vieier. I I'd like to make a motion to declare the items uh surplus with the stipulation that the superintendent reach out to um a local church to see if the items would be of use to pews more specifically. I'll second that. Okay, great. Uh uh all in favor. I I opposed. Eyes have it. Thank you. Next up, we have the special education expense service. See attached memo. So when we uh enter into the warrant portion of this meeting, you'll notice that there is a charge for Lions Law Group who provides special education services on all student related matters. Uh so through January 25 uh we have
003expended $43,353.96 with the January total coming in at just over 7200. So we have a a balance of about $6,6464 student legal services. Uh so I believe either the first meeting or the second meeting in March. Uh we will plan to bring another budget update or quarterly budget update to the school committee and then make requests to transfer uh transfer or make transfers within the budget to balance any of these lines that are in deficit or coming close to deficit. Okay, wonderful. Yes, Mrs. Shves, it doesn't seem like we have a lot left. Are we on par what we normally are this time of year? It's a little higher than what it was last year, the year before, because during the summer, there were some cases that were very involved uh that required um a
004lot of time on behalf of our legal department. So, do you think you'll have to do you think you'll exceed this for the year? I think we'll probably surpass for the year, but I don't think we're going to surpass on the labor management side. So, I think we'll be able to balance balance. Yeah. I think in the end, we'll we'll either come right on budget or come in slightly under budget. Okay. Thank you. Great. Mr. Ver motion to accept the report. Seconded. All in favor? I opposed. The eyes have it. Next up, we have the coaching for change. See attached. I guess it's just a supporting documentation for the March 25 invoice. Uh any comments on this, Superintendent? Uh no comments. Again, justformational purposes. So you understand what the charge in the warrant is for?
005Great. Motion to receive and place on file. Seconded. All in favor? I opposed. eyes have it. And final uh item is bills payable for FY25 in the in the amount of 2,16,52583. And I'll open it up to the committee. Motion to pay the bills in the amount of $2,16,525.83. Seconded on discussion. Yes, Mrs. Shves. I just have a couple of things on page nine. um that new era technology for $14,590.85. It says contracted services. Yeah, I think my my warrant is off your by your warrant. So, new era. New era. It's uh it's on for me it's on page eight. So, that is a technology contracted services at le school. It's an airphone for the Taton High School. So, the first charge of $7,244 is an airphone for the Taton High School security booth. Uh,
006the second charge of $6,934 was a card reader for the Taton High School cafe. And the last charge was technology contracted service work done at the Lety Elementary Ley preschool. Okay. Thank you. And while I'm awaiting further questions, I just want to note for the public and for the school board, it's a large warrant in the amount of $2 million, but 1.6 million of that 2 million total is coming out of state and county grants. Okay, Mr. Vieira. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Back to you, Mr. Okay. Thank you. Um um page 10 that um Hamlick Landscaping and Construction. That's that 1,375,600. Is that the softball field? Yep. Heimlick is the vendor that was awarded the bid and I believe we have about 300,000 left on that on that purchase order. So,
007we are nearing the end of that. We're nearing the end of it. Okay. And most of that is contingency. Okay. Excellent. And the last one I had was on page 13. One goal instructional software for five for 50,000. Yeah, that's a program that I think some board members visited last year. There was a graduation um there was a graduation last year. students, juniors and seniors who were not on the college track and they would they took a class and this class helped get helped them get on the college track and they graduated uh in from high school and they were able to uh metriculate and attend college and university or junior college. So that's what this software is. So this is this is software for that class that is part of the part of the
008vocation part of the business department. So it's at the high school at the high school. Okay. Thank you. Great. Thank you Mr. Shavs Mr. Vera. Thank you Mr. Chairman. question on page two, Bayate uh Interpreters, Inc. in the amount of $40,8957. So, that's a that's a software or program we use to help translate all our documents or to attend meetings or to assist principles, department heads with translating translation services. Okay. And then on page five in the amount 8,000, if I could just go back to Mr. Vieira, uh those are services January through February. Okay. for 40,000. Yes, we use them quite often. Okay. Just it's stuck out, but there's an explanation attached. So, my next question is on page five, $8,811, and it is electrical con uh Dagel electrical construction. Yeah, that was a
009light pole replacement at the Freeman complex. Okay. And on page six in the amount of $11,900 professional development outside provid that was uh so we're implementing a new social studies curriculum called investigating history and that was the professional development that was offered at the March PD. Okay. And my other questions were all answered through Mrs. Shabs. Thank you superintendent. Thank you Mr. Beer. If I can just revert back to the Bay State interpreter. So help me out here. So this is we're paying $40,000 for two months of what services is that again superintendent? Uh all translation services in the district. So communication that goes out communications curriculum documents meetings uh IEP meetings uh meetings in buildings if a translator is needed. This is the organization that we utilize. Okay. Interesting. I I've never Anybody recall
010seeing this on the wall? Yeah. Not this high though, huh? Yeah, I don't recall seeing it in that that amount. Well, and also keep in mind that we have 22 languages spoken in the district. So, I mean, I know somebody who speaks Portuguese, I would handle a lot of those translation services when I was the principal, assistant principal, and even now, if somebody comes into the office, I'll assist. But if with all the new languages that have moved into the community, all the the languages that existed, having this program is very helpful, very useful. Can we maybe just get an update of uh what we spent so far on this year to date? Yeah, year to date. And uh is this is this a contract or it's a contract hourly or? Yeah, I can get
011you the backup. Okay. Yeah, if you could for the next meeting, I'd appreciate it. Okay. Thank you. Uh that's all for me. Wishes of the committee. Motion was made and seconded. It was okay. Sorry. On discussion. So all in favor? Opposed? Eyes have it. Thank you. And that's it. Motion to adjurnn. Seconded. All in favor? I opposed. Eyes have it. We are adjourned. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Good evening everyone and welcome. Thank you for joining us. I call the meeting to order. If you could please join us in the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Oh, say can you see by the dawn early light what so proudly
012we held at the twilight last gleaming who brought stripes and bright stars through the peril us fight. Or the ramparts we watched were so gallently streaming. And the rockets red glare. The bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. Oh, say does that star spangled then wave or the land of the free and the home of the brave. Mrs. Fagen will lead us in 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 care. And if you'd please remain standing, we have uh one we're asking for a moment of silence for Maria M. Gild
013Day who died recently on April 10th at the age of 89 after a brief ill illness. She's she was the beloved wife of the late Robert F. Gilde, daughter of the late Frederick and Ellen Neato Demurs. Marie was a li long long lifelong public school I'm sorry lifelong resident of Taton having attended Taton public schools and graduating from Taton High School in 1953 and after raising her family she worked as a teaching assistant at East Taton Elementary School for 25 years before her retirement in 2012. Marie's students brought her tremendous joy and were the subjects of countless stories throughout her life. She was an avid reader, poet, and crossword buff. Mar and Marie's imagination, mind, and spirit were sharp. Her stories, knowledge, and humor will be deeply missed by those who had the pleasure of
014her company. So, we ask you for a moment of silence and keep her family in your thoughts and in your prayers. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Fagan. Roll call. Mr. Enus, present. Mrs. Shabs, present. Mr. Powski is absent. Mrs. Fagan is present. Uh, Miss Santos is absent. Mr. Vieira, present. Mr. Laura, present. Uh, Dr. um Dlo present. Our chairman present. and Mayor Okonnell present. Thank you. Approval of the minutes of April 5th, 2025. So move that. Second. Approval for April 5th, 2025. Motion and second to approve. All those in favor? Opposed? None opposed? So voted. Uh we do have some folks signed up for public input. So and Dr. Dlo will Thank you, mayor. So just a quick uh reading here. In accordance with Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 39, section 23C, we kindly request that
015individuals wish to provide public input sign up in advance. A copy of the regulation guidelines will be provided upon sign up and the individual will be asked to state their name and address for the record. The amount of time each reg individual will have to speak will be determined by the number of people who sign the register and will be announced prior to the start of the public input portion of the meeting. Uh we only have two folks signed up. Mayor, I believe two to three minutes should be sufficient, but we don't limit anybody at the podium. So first up we have Audrey Reese, 123 Washington Street. Topic or or comment is communication. Hello. Um, I'm mostly here today because I had a situation this morning that really affected me emotionally. The school um was
016trying to get a hold of me, but once again the phone system was down and they had to use parent square. I am really here to ask you to all work on communication with the parents about our children in school. We need to be not all of us are on technology. Some of us don't need even know how to use it. So, there needs to be more paperwork or a better way to communicate with us. The way I found out my son was sick at 8:30 this morning. I did not find out until 11:00 and that was because the nurse asked his teacher to get a hold of me through Parent Square. So, my son sat for two and a half hours in the nurse's station. It could have been an emergency because he was
017complaining of abdominal pain. Could have been appendicitis. I didn't feel comfortable with this reaction that I had. I tried repeatedly to try and get in touch with the school. There was no contact. I had to keep communicating with this teacher who was teaching at the time who had a hard time getting back to me in a manly time. And as I talk, I'm very out there in the community and a lot of parents are very upset about us not knowing what's going on in our school because it's all on the computer or on our phones. There is still a culture out there that do not use technology. We still, unfortunately, yes, you can call us dinosaurs, but we're not. We're still paper people, and we would like to know what's going on. and we would
018appreciate it that you respected our way of living and keep us up to date as to everything that's going on in the schools in Taton and we don't feel that it's that much to ask with the technology that you have you can print out those papers we can get a weekly statement and also too as I was thinking about this all day I mean I ended up having to take my son to the doctors and deal with all that today but you've been having trouble with your phones and your internet Especially at Gallagghan, they've been having trouble with their phones a lot. So, the easy solution to that, everybody has a cell phone. All that person in the office needs to do is try to call the school when they first come into the school,
019see if the phone system's working or or use the phone at the school and call their cell phone. So, like I said, two and a half hours today, my son was in a panic mode and I was in a panic mode. I was someplace where I couldn't go right there. My son is not someone that goes to the nurse's office frequently. So, when he does and I was unable to get there until 11:00 this morning when I finally found out that he needed me. So, I just wish communication would get a little bit better. And I know I like I said I don't know much about technology because I don't live in that world and the paperwork that gets put out it should be able to be put in everybody's language. Taton is a well-
020diversified community right now and I I inter I interact with a lot of people from different countries and they don't know what's going on because of the communication is not coming in their language. So please, if you could work on that, it would be much appreciated with the people that I'm associated with that we get more papers or just don't you don't rely on technology. Please don't. There's still, like I said, dinosaurs out there that want to know what's going on. And we would really appreciate to be included in your little group of people. I don't mean to sound mean or cruel, but we feel left out because we don't have technology. We don't we don't we we didn't grow up with it. We didn't use it in our careers. We're retired. We still want
021to be part of it. We want to help our children, but if we don't know what's going on, we can't be part of that circle. So, it's not inclusive as it should be. And Taton should be a very well diversified inclusive school system, not one that just if you got technology and you got a young age, it's not fair to us. Thank you for listening. Thank you, Mrs. Ree. Next up, we have Mr. Arthur Deont, 19 Shore Street, uh, bathroom at the high school. Welcome, Mr. Deont. Thank you. I'm here tonight to discuss a problem that was brought to my attention. I have a granddaughter that goes to the high school. She's 14 years old. She's in the eighth grade. And was brought to my She told me a story that I said to myself,
022"Nah, I mean, okay, you you might be telling part of the story, but you don't have all the facts." But I did a little digging myself and it seems to me that at any given time of the day, there's only four bathrooms open up open in the high school. Now, with a capacity of 3,000 students, that seems to me like an impossibility for you to go to the bathroom and be able to uh go to go to your class on time. Plus, it's a destabling factor where students who have to make the sacrifice to go to the bathroom enter the class late and disrupt the class. Then, if you do get to the bathroom, you have to uh wait in line. And if you get in there, there are people in there that are standing
023in front of the stalls playing the game, sitting on the sinks, smoking, uh vaping, and it's just a 14-year-old is it's just too much for her. She's not thinking about her classes anymore. not thinking about coming to school and, you know, enjoying her day. She's trying to figure out how she's going to be able to go to the bathroom without being harassed or what you call it, being late for class. And she is a good student and uh so all due respect to the school committee, I just uh would like you people to uh take a look at that. I know there's people that are supposed to be security people in the high school and uh either they're not doing their job or the administration's not backing them so they can do some law and
024order and get more bathrooms opened. I just don't understand how they came up with that plan. Four bathrooms is enough for 3,000 students. And if I don't have all my facts right, I'll uh acknowledge that fact. It could be a problem. But yet, I did a little digging and I think that's what's going on. So, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Deont. For the two community members, we don't engage in a conversation at this point. we refer to administration uh either the superintendent uh we'll get back to you directly or we will bring it up at the next meeting and discuss what was talked about tonight. So, thank you for being here tonight. Thank you, ma'am. Okay. Thank you. Next, we have multi- language learners update. Superintendent Cabraw, will you be introducing
025that? So, as uh director of multilingual learners makes her way to the podium, it's a pleasure and an honor to introduce Delila Mendoza, who has been leading the program. This is my eighth year for almost a decade uh to share some of the work that is taking place with the students who are new arrivals, our students who live in our community and how they benefit from and how we're working to engage the students and make sure that that they have the resources and not only our students but also our families have the resources to be actively engaged and active members in our schools and our community. And I think when you see the slide deck and hear Mrs. Mendoza's presentation, you'll see that there's been some substantial growth over the last three or four years.
026And you'll also know that with this growth, the Tom Public Schools has committed know hundreds of thousands of dollars to new staffing to make sure that we continue to keep pace with the growth of our community as well as programs and curriculum to make sure that the students get the access and the supports that they need so that they feel included and inclusive in our school committee in our school community and in our community. Thank you, Mr. Cabraw. So, my name is Delila Mendoza. I just want to give uh background for those of you that don't know me. I'm a resident of Taton. I've lived in Taton for 48 years. I was an English learner in the Taton public schools. I attended the bilingual program as a kindergartener, a first grader, and a second grader.
027I am raising my two boys here in Taton as well. Um they I now have a freshman in college. She goes to Rhode Island College and I have an eighth grader at the high school. This is my 24th year as an employee for Taton Public Schools. And throughout my years in Taton Public Schools, I started as a bilingual teacher. I then went into the general setting. I was a second grade teacher for a long time. I was an assistant principal, a math coach, and a literacy coach. And then now I'm director. So this is my um as I said earlier my eighth year as director. Um I just wanted to note so these are all our countries that we represent in our school system which I thought was really cool. 37 countries. So we represent
028five out of seven continents which is awesome. And we have 21 languages thus far and that's four additional languages since last year. So these are some acronyms that you're going to be hearing. So I just put them up there for your reference. Uh SEI is sheltered English immersion that has to do with programming. EL is the new um the new acronym for English learners. It goes under the multilingual umbrella. The the difference is the EL students receive the services where the ML students can be former English learners or heritage speakers. So it encompasses everybody that's uh multilingual. Uh ESL is how we refer our teachers. So English as a second language. So I often say my ESL teachers. EL is the course at Taton High. It's called English language development. and access is the state
029mandated state statemandated test um for English learners and that is our one criteria of exiting our program. So that's essentially our MCCAST. So these are our eight pillars that we pride ourselves in our department. The one I want to point out the most is the first one, the language connections. The more we connect the students uh primary language to the new language that they're learning, the more they can grasp. So this is something that I often talk about and I will be talking about through my presentation why we need to continue with grade level standards. Do not water it down. Um and have that rigorous learning but using their primary language as a resource. So our identification procedure starts with a home language survey. So every family gets the home language survey in their uh
030registration packet or registration. I know it's online now. So if there's any other language noted in that home uh language survey, they have to come to our office. We have a district assessor who um screen does the screening assessments with the students and there's criteria whether they will be identified as an English learner or not identified depending on their scoring and the initial placement is a decision made but with the family. So, the district assessor, regardless of the scoring and regardless if they're newly in this country or not, um the assessor, Mavva Cole, she calls the the family and tells them what programming we have and what do they feel their child um would would be best for their learning. So, it's definitely made with a family, which I think is um key. So this
031initial Slife identification procedure, this has been huge lately in the state of Massachusetts because of the influx of Slife. So Slife means students with limited or interrupted formal education. So what we're finding I mean we can call even our students my children as life students because of COVID but we are finding huge um influx of students from other countries too with this um life identification because of the traumatic events or whatever might be happening and why they landed with us. The state of Massachusetts has had um guidance since 200 2015. However, um they never really they told us what Slife was and they were working on this like the Department of Ed is is continuously asking for our our um our feedback. Um but we don't know what assessments we have to give these students
032because they have to be like two grades below the grade level. But why are we giving them tests that are American and not from their country? So, there's a lot of talk about that. However, this sh uh 2024, they came up with an awesome uh handout that or a guideline that really walks us through that cipher identification. And I've been part of the community of practice with DESIE and districts are able to upload to them resources that they use in their in their um school system that we can also uh use. So currently we have a focus group of um I think like six of us I believe um and it's administrators right now um along with our district assessor in order to see what what structure do we need for this identification to be
033formalized. Um and our next step that we're going to do is who is responsible for what. My district assessor currently screens all new students, monitors all former English learners for four years, screens preschool uh prek and kindergarten students because kindergarten students have to be screened again whether they were identified as pre in prek or not. And if they don't qualify as an English learner in kindergarten, they're no longer identified as kindergarten as an eel regardless of their prek identification. So this is a law on one person. So we are working this is our main thing with our focus group how we can use what who we have in our district to help with the the whole process and part of the process is interviewing the family having a conversation with the family as far as
034what the education was, what is interrupted um or what is formal like all those questions. And again, the guidance that Desi has now provided to us has has sample interview questions. It's really awesome. Um, so we came up with this on how to identify the Slife students. So this came out of our focus group so far. So, like I said, the the part that we are at right now is who's going to be responsible for what and in order to really support our district assessor. So, who we are. So, when I made this slide and gave it to you, we've already added three students, which was last Friday. So, it's now up to 1,1 students. This is the first year we hit the 1000 mark. I was so excited. So, um, this is an increase
035of 310 students from last year. Um, our former English learners have increased by 28 students, and I think we should be proud of that as well because that means that our ESL teachers are rocking it. Um, and our top four languages are Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Cape Verdian Creole, and Spanish. And this is a huge shift in what we've seen. I mean back in my day the Portuguese were Portuguese from Portugal were the majority. Then for a long time Spanish speakers were the majority. Um they fell Spanish speakers fell into number two and now into number four um this year and Haitian Creole has really moved up. We also have 100 students who were born in the US that are uh English learners as well. So that's kudos to parents keeping their native languages going in
036the home uh with the students. So this has been our enrollment increase since 2015 COVID we saw a huge drop lack of um we couldn't travel anywhere so we didn't have an influx of students coming in the last number so we've increased from last June till now till April 182 students so we're not even done with our school year yet here is our newcomer academy And we have it categorized as elementary, middle, and high school. The influx, although you see the numbers there, the influx kind of is the same in elementary. I don't see a lot of elementary. Like we might see a lot of elementary at the beginning of the year, but then we see a lot of middle schoolers in the middle of the year, a lot of high schoolers. So, it's kind
037of the same uh the influx according to level. This I'm very proud of. So that last number should be 29. I don't know why it doesn't show there. So we have 29 ESL teachers. We retain our ESL teachers, which is amazing. So um teachers that we lost are due to retirement. So, I'm I just I'm so proud of them and I love that they love Totten as much as I love Taton, especially being an English learner in this district. And what you see there are all the general setting curriculum and that's what they use in the newcomer academy. That's what they use in the SEI setting, which I'll explain. So, we use the same amount I mean the same exact curriculum resources that the general setting does. And the newcomer academy, it's key to do
038that because it's already a shocker when they go into the general setting. But now they'll know the routines, they'll know the language, they so that won't be shocking to them. So um this has been a huge shift especially this year and with that we are seeing tremendous growth with our multilingual learners. So here the gaps in student growth closed between L's and non-L's in both reading and math in 2025. And based on our winter I Ready data, I'm going to give credit to Hillary Breahan. She's our data guru. She's the one that came up with these graphs. Um the L and non-Lel student groups had the same median growth in reading in 2025 as the non-L's. In math, L's students had 16 percentage point higher growth compared to non-LE's. So here this is newcomer only.
039So these are brand new students to our country. Okay. So they came in September to January at any point of the school year. The expected growth at midyear is 60%. 100% is considered typical annual growth or the equivalent of one year's growth. From just fall to winter, the students of the newcomer Academy are showing a medium growth of one year or higher in math and reading across classrooms, which is amazing. Some students had like 230% increase in their I Ready scores. Newcomer Academy blew everyone out of the water. It was awesome. This is Parker for our newcomer academy and their growth. And this is the different colleges that are L's and former L's. These are just some there's more but these are some that they have attended which I think speaks a lot about Taton
040public schools. Okay. So now our different programs. So we have I'm kind of going to go down to up because I think it makes more sense. The newcomer academy is just for students that enter the US and it's their first year in US schools. So they go to the newcomer academy. Now like I said before the initial identification, if a parent doesn't feel that their newcomer needs to be in the academy, they go in the general setting. So that's something that um is is talked about. So the newcomers they get screened by our district assessor so that we have an idea where their English proficiencies are. We have expanded ourmies to now three classrooms in the elementary level and we um divide them into grades as you see there the middle school level. What we've
041done is combine the eighth grade with that. The eighth graders don't go into Parker. However, the teachers float around to all all grades fifth through 8th. So that be prior eighth graders just had one teacher for all subject areas and it's impossible to be an expert in open sedative math in study sync. So we have four content teachers that teach all four grades and that you saw the growth that is working tremendously. We do the same thing at the high school level. N uh grades 9 through 12. When I first started Newcomer Academy, all students e 8th grade to 12th grade were in one classroom with one teacher. they did not get any content or or the only credits they got was for math. So they lost an entire year of gaining credits for their
042education. So we have shifted that and now they float around to um dulylicicensed teachers who are ESL teachers but they're content specific. So we have a history, a math who teaches algebra and geometry, an English and a science teacher. The SEI model is all the other students. So any student that is not a newcomer is considered an L is in the general setting. We are working to have an inclusionary model which I feel at the elementary level we've done a really nice job where the ESL teacher goes into the classroom and works in the classroom with the ESL student uh with the L student and there's constant communication between the classroom teacher and the ESL teacher. So that's working um very well too. So, some focus areas. Oops, was this on twice? So, our four-year
043graduation rates, there's a huge gap there between English learners and um all other students, English learners and former English learners. So, that's something that we're looking at. um and enrolling in post-secary education. We're seeing not necessarily the former English learners. However, the English learners, there's still a huge gap there. So, moving forward, we um work with KFIA, which is a consulting company that coaches, provides professional development, and we work with KFIASA on how to better serve our English learners. Last year, we did walkthroughs with elementary principles and coaches through the buildings to see what inclusionary models were there, what can they do better, what do they like in another school that they can do in their school. And this year we walked through again to see how the implementation is going, what tweaks we have
044to make in the in the elementary setting. Next year, what we want to focus and as we saw the graduation uh rates, we want to focus on working with coaches and coordinators at the high school with confa on how to support teachers that are in the general setting in teaching English learners. So, we want to expand to that level as well. The elevation platform is an amazing platform for all. It offers professional development points that teachers need for SEI the sheltered English immersion professional development points that they need for their lensure. It offers it free through that platform. It also offers strategies for teachers for all teachers and it categorizes the kids according to the strategy like this student has this level in speaking. This is how you could provide support using this strategy with
045that level of speaking. Um, and also it it's where I get like the chart that I showed you with the languages. It's where I get everything. It pulls right from school brains, which is great. So, it's it's always um up to date. And now I'm just going to do a little bragging. So during our I think I did brag a little bit already but during our tiered focus monitoring which is essentially our audit um one of the areas of need was what I was saying about the newcomer academy how it was all in one class and the students were missing credits for that year. So we totally revamped and we have an amazing program now. in year one that we we revamped the program, four of our newcomers exited the program, which is we've never
046done that. So, it is working. So, uh Allison Balter is the director of office of language acquisition for DESIE and she's the one that did did our tiered focus monitoring. She has reached out to companies to reach out to me to do trainings with the companies on what I have done in the high school so that they can consult with other other school districts and what how they can um how they can structure their newcomer academy. I was asked to co-present with Allison. Allison is a superstar. I love her. Um, and we presented to a bunch of districts throughout the state of Massachusetts about the same thing. And these are just quotes that um, through our emails. And then we had the districts that we presented to come visit our newcomer academy here at the
047high school as well. So, we are doing amazing things. My teachers are absolutely amazing and the students are the most amazing, I should say. And these are just some quotes about our kids. And these are our kiddos. This is they I know it's not capitalized, but this is them, you know, sending sending emails to their teacher. So that's the end of my presentation. All right. Well, thank you so much for that presentation and congratulations on all of your well-deserved recognitions. Thank you. Um, I will open it up to the committee if anyone has any questions or comments. Mrs. Shabs. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Dila, excellent job with your presentation and you have the data to support your accolade, so you should be shouting them out because nice job. I just had one question about the
048eighth grade because you have the eighth grade listed under the middle school level and you mentioned something about so the the proximity of the eighth grade classroom is close to Parker. Okay. Okay. So, what the teachers do is they go to the eighth grade classroom and so like my math teacher is technically a Parker teacher. Okay. But she walks over and teaches the eighth graders the math and then the sixth grade um you know like the Parker teachers come here. Yeah. So we have uh math, English, history and science. So the four of them have um their own content and they just float between the different classrooms for the different grades. Excellent. Nice job. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Laura. Thank you, Madame Mayor. Excellent presentation. Question on the um the 330 that are USORN
049that growing up probably with grandparents etc. they learn more of their language of the native language that the grandparents or parents speak when they come into the school system um in the elementary level do they exceed because they have they have an introduction to the English language through TV through social media etc but don't they also seem to exceed more in acquiring the full knowled knowledge of English do you mean through ESL or through well when they go into formal education learning. Yeah. Uh because they in other words you were saying earlier that most of them kept their heritage and language at home but they also are learning the other language maybe not as in a formal sense but they're acquiring vocabulary and language etc. Right. So does that help them when they come to
050school to succeed in learning the process? Yeah. So the the main this is why I always tell families to keep the native language because the more solidified that first language whatever first language you had the more solidified that is the better they're going to pick up the next language and living here they're like you were saying are exposed to English all the time right so keep having that conversation in the native language is so key to all students in all grades. Yeah because like any language acquisition if you have the basic concept of grammar you know nouns verbs etc right it's just transformation yes so basically now kids coming in from other countries uh depending on their ages of course some if they come in at 10 years of age they might have already had
051two or three years of education in their country do they seem to um I guess what I'm trying to say is do They come in, their desire to learn is always there because they're probably the best students of all because they come in with a the ethic of learning and doing well and making their families proud that they're here in this country, but also the fact that they are uh do they transition quickly into regular English classes or is it is it take longer like any other student? Um I I feel like the students transition well like they are with their English speakaking peers as well. Like at the high school they have two classes the two electives are in the general setting. So they do have that exposure. So once they get out of
052the newcomer academy they do already have those connections. So I feel like they adjust very well. They do. Good. Yeah. And also now in some of the courses I'm I'm talking about the subject matter. Some of the foreign students seem to excel in like math and certain categories that are not they're very strong learning the techniques of math problems etc. And so is that something that you notice learning? The less language the more they can pick up. So once you have more English language, that's where it's not that they don't know, it's just harder for them to understand because of the language. So if they're doing just an equation, yes, they can do that because they understand numbers. Right. Right. But if it's So this is why it's key to have the new um content,
053the curriculum resources that the general setting has because even math has a lot more verbiage in there that it's not just technique anymore. Um, so them doing that in the newcomermies is so key so that they don't have that shock value once they get into the general setting. Good. Thank you. You're welcome, Dr. Dilla. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you so much, Director Mendoza. So, I'm one of those students that always spoke Portuguese in the household growing up and uh I'm I'm where I'm at today in my career because I have the dual language ability and the foundation was very important. So, uh kudos to all those households. two comments and one suggestion. Uh on the slice slide, I'm I'm finally happy to hear that Desi got it right after nine years. So, congratulations on assisting
054them to that goal. I know you were instrumental. Uh the ESL teachers, we have 29 uh community facilitators because of the four major languages that we spoke about. How are we doing? How's the interaction with community facilitators? I I always hear pieces and bits and I just want to know if we need more support on the community facilitator side. How do you interact? The community facilitators are my lifeline um because of the how they know the resources in the community. They help with registrations and all of that. Um we are there are some languages that we don't have represented. Cverian Crayola is one of them. Uh, a lot of Cverian Creole speaking parents speak Portuguese, but what I'm finding is Cverian Creole is now becoming a more officialized language in their country. So, they're learning
055it in their schooling. So, students aren't necessarily coming here knowing Portuguese where in the past they used to, right, have that. So we could always use more community facilitators because okay it's just a lot of families coming in and they they really are fantastic. I can't speak more about them more good things about them. Great. Thank you. And one last suggestion. I personally know at least one student that is one of the postsecary enrollments at Bridgewwater State University and I'd like to send the official logo of Bridgewater State University. You can put on your future literature. Is that okay with you? Of course. All right. Thank you. That's all. Thank you so much. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm from BSU, too, so I'm sorry about that. No problem. Thank you, ma'am. You're welcome. All right. Well,
056if there's nothing further, superintendent, thank you. So, um, as a former bilingual student, uh, this presentation hits near and dear because a lot has changed from when I was a bilingual student back in the 1900s. And, um, yeah, so I'm very proud of the work we've done. A couple things that really jump out is I didn't realize how much we've grown on the staffing side. and I consider myself somebody who monitors the finances. to see that we've more than doubled the ESL staffing since uh I began as superintendent in Ton Public Schools. That's something that's very gratifying because I also believe it translates into fewer ESL students being identified for special needs because they're receiving the services that they need in the classroom in the school. And in speaking to that, we also have formalized
057the student support meetings with special ed where if an English learner is there, I'm invited so that that doesn't happen as well. So I'm proud of this committee for again supporting the budgets when we're increasing staff to support students who are who are new to our country and when I last urban superintendent meeting we spent the entire session talking about Slife which was something that I wasn't very familiar with and we and I heard Mrs. Mendoza talk about interrupted learning but I think it's important for the community and for you to understand what interrupted learning means. A lot of our students have left war torn countries. A lot of our students have left countries that are in political turmoil. And a lot of our students have arrived here because of natural disaster. So when you
058talk about war interrupted learning, it's not because their parents kept them home is because they literally could not access school or education. And what I see happening in time reminds me a lot about my my own childhood where you're seeing a lot of kids coming into these buildings happy, smiling, and thirsty to learn. So we're very proud of the work we're doing here in our community. We've had a large influx, but I think you're doing a great job. You all are doing a great job. The city is in supporting our budgets and making sure that our neediest learners who are new to this country, new to our school system are getting the supports and the resources they need. So, thank you. You're welcome. Good point. All right. All right. Well, thank you so much. Thank
059you. Moving on to administrative business, we have the Taton Public School staffing update. Very excited to report, Madame Mayor, that we are 99% staffed. Wow. a tea classroom teachers. We are missing a ROC instructor at the high school and a special educator and we are working closely with other superintendents to identify a potential ROC junior instructor. So we hope to get that number down to zero. Okay, excellent. Motion to accept report and be placed on file. Motion to second. All those in favor? Opposed? None opposed. So voted. Then we have Taton Public Schools District enrollment update. So, sorry it's been a while since I provided you with an enrollment update. You'll notice since the January report, uh we've increased from 8,375 students to 8,423 students. Tarton Alternative High School has seen a large influx as
060uh during semester 3 or trimester. They received some students who are credit deficient. Also, TPVA, they've exceeded last year's enrollment of 75. They are approaching 90. and then I provided you with data across all the other grades. Uh again, I continue to be proud of your support and the work that we're doing around prek as we have almost 400 prek students, which is three and four year olds that are either attending halftime or full-time. So that's a credit to Mrs. Moan and uh Mrs. Hoy who are pinch hitting for assistant superintendent Chris Barada and assistant superintendent Brenda Moahan who couldn't be with us this evening. Same procedure. Second. Uh motion and second on discussion, Mrs. Shops. Discussion. Thank you, Madame Mayor. Um Superintendent Cabraw, a couple of things. First off, it's a 5% increase. So
061where over the last two years, you've gone 5%. You know, I worry about some of the construction that's going on, what it's going to do to our schools as we see families come in. If I could interrupt, during our strategic planning meeting, uh based on the data, it's we've actually grown by almost 10% over a four-year period. I believe it. Yeah. Because I was looking at the two years since. That's an entire elementary school. Yes. Yes. So, um, so I just wanted to point that out. One of the things that I would like, I had brought it up before and the next time you do this, my concern is 12th graders, um, in that we have lost 26. I'm assuming that a lot of them went to TV, TPVA or TA, TAHS, but the next
062time you do it, could you let us know that whether or not? Yes. a little little something. So, we know that we didn't lose 26 kids, that they're not quitting school, that you know, we make sure that they're not falling through the cracks. We want to make sure that if we look at those numbers, where are these students going? Are they still with us? And I think that's an important thing to look at. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Josh. All right. So, there's a motion in a second to uh receive place on file. All those in favor? Opposed? Not opposed. So, voted. Next, we have field trip requests. So, I I can do this. Uh, so the Martin Middle School to New York City museums uh looks in order. Um, I've reviewed it. I
063have no problems whatsoever. This is now a uh what's the incremental date on this because we we already approved this on March 5th with just followup. So I guess everything's in order. Okay. So are there any approvals needed tonight or is this justformational? I think it's justformational because we Okay. Is this a final approval stage or Let me see when they're going on the trip here. They're not going until January 20th. Oh, I'm sorry. May. May. This would be a final. This would be the final. So, you have you have the 30-day check-in and then the final approval. Motion to approve. Second. Motion and second to approve the field trip requests on the agenda. All those in favor? Opposed? None opposed? So, voted. And the next one, mayor, is the uh taunt abroad to Greece.
064It's a 60-day approval. Once again, I actually just did both of those at the same time. I thought we were doing both at the same time. No. So, all right. So, I'm sorry. The So, the first motion was just on May on May. Yeah. For May. Okay. And the second one is the Taton uh to Greece trip uh with um June 20th of 2025. This is the uh 60-day review. Once again, just another motion to be in order to approve. Okay. So is there a motion to approve uh B field trip to approve the B field trip abroad to Greece? Second. Motion and second. All those in favor. Opposed? None opposed. So voted. Both trips approved. Uh subcommittee reports. Cafeteria collective bargaining. Mr. Vieiraa. Yes. Thank you, Madame Mayor. The cafeteria collective bargain and subcommittee
065met on Thursday, April the 3rd, 2025. Myself, Miss Santos, and Mr. and negotiations are ongoing. That concludes my report. Motion to accept the report. Second on that. Motion and second. All those in favor? Opposed? None opposed. So voted. Next we have custodians collective bargaining. Uh I'm sorry, Miss Oh, Miss B is not here. So Oh, you're doing it. Mate that form. Yes. Uh so the committee custodian collective bargain and subcommittee also met on Thursday April the 3, Mr. Powski and Mr. Laura and negotiations are also ongoing. That concludes the report. Motion to accept. Second. Motion and second to accept the report. All those in favor? Opposed. Thank you. Not opposed. So voted. You're welcome. TEA collective bargaining agreement. uh collective bargaining. Mrs. Fagan, TEA met on April the 7th of this year with the TEA
066and negotiations Oh, I'm sorry, with myself, um Mr. Vieiraa and Dr. Dlo and the negotiations are ongoing. Same procedure. Motion and second. All those in favor? Opposed? None opposed? So voted. Taa collective bargaining. Dr. Dillo. Thank you, mayor. The uh TAA subcommittee met uh on April 14th. Members of the committee and Mrs. Shaves and Mr. Laura. Uh first meeting was just to set ground rules. We have four dates on the calendar and negotiations will be ongoing. Thank you, ma'am. You're welcome. Motion to accept. Motion and second. All those in favor? I opposed. None opposed. So voted. Elementary subcommittee, Mr. Laura. Thank you, Madame Mayor. The elementary subcommittee met this this afternoon. uh president with myself as chairman, Miss Donna Shavs and Mr. Dlo, Chairman Dlo came at the meeting to participate uh along with Superintendent
067Cabral and Principal Claudine Nichols. The meeting was called to order at 4:45 p.m. Principal Nichols presented the improvement plan at the East Tart Elementary School for 2024 to 2026, highlighting the areas of focus with the overall goal to achieve proficiency in key academic areas, improve student performance, and enhance teacher impact. Area of focus. All educators, particularly in grades two to four, will have a clear understanding of grade level writing standard and demand as demonstrated through the consistent implementation of rubrics and exemplars. Item one, action items. Principal Nichols states, "At the end of the school year, students will improve their critical thinking and analytical writing skills by composing written responses to text, thus demonstrating clear understanding and critical analysis in progress. Monitoring will occur through collaborative writing and peer review. Improved practices would build a supportive
068learning community where students feel confident in sharing their work. Increase inclusive practices where classrooms celebrate diverse writing styles and perspectives. At grade level and curriculum meetings, staff will analyze writing performances through formative assessments, I ready data, and MCCAST results. They will implement a common graphic organizer, conduct many lessons to teach students how to utilize the organizer and apply this skill to writing. The ILT will identify areas that's the instructional learning training system will identify the areas that need additional focus and interventions. At the end of the school year, the teacher will compare students progress and collaborate on specific scaffolds that have shown success and areas of need of marginalized groups of students. In the second area of management, by the end of the school year, there will be an increase in students sense of belonging
069and improve attendance rates for all students by implementing schoolwide initiatives. in adopting and implementing at least three practices from the book building thinking classrooms. Create a book club aligning the book club members with broader initiatives such as improving student discourse engagement or problem solving skills. allow students to develop learning professional opportunities with staff members during faculty meetings focusing on ways to promote student discourse and collaboration. This will enable to analyze attendance and vocal data and conduct learning strategies in ongoing manner. And the third area of focus, educators will utilize MindUP curriculum, PBIS support, and SEAL resources with commitment in grades preK through grades four. At my monthly meetings, staff will collaborate and reflect on data, observations, and behavior specific tools to reinforce learning and behavior expectations. Mental health teams meet weekly to discuss data from
070vocal celus and classroom and student observations to determine the appropriate seal supports for successful routines and strategies in the classrooms. provide provide positive behavioral supports to all classrooms through modeling SEAL focus sessions, guided conversations, and behavior charts that promote focus, regulation, and engagement. Staff members will conduct will collect data and reflect using tools such as behavioral data, office referrals and data tracking, check-ins and reset space data and teacher logs. In her presentation, Principal Nichols highlighted numerous benchmarks to be achieved at each level with a main emphasis of an annual increase of improvement in the areas of academics, teacher development, student engagement, parents and community, and social emotional learning. And finally, attendance initiatives. Principal Nichols presented the school improvement plan in a very positive fashion. with great enthusiasm detailing the plan utilizing a multitude of resources
071to ensure her goals and objectives are fully implemented and thus creating a more effective learning environment which will offer greater results in to our students. The total students at uh East Elementary is 597 as of today. The meeting concluded at 5:27 p.m. And this is my report. Motion to accept the report. Second. Motion and second to to accept the report. All those in favor? Opposed. None opposed. So voted. And lastly, we have finance and law with Dr. Thank you, mayor. The finance and law subcommittee met earlier this evening. Members of the committee and Mr. Shaz and Mr. Vieira. I chair the committee. Uh we had four items on the agenda. The first was the disposal of surplus equipment. Uh the first one was regarding to Hamilton Street. There were some pews uh 12 pews as
072a matter of fact uh that uh should be going out to surplus but there was a recommendation for the superintendent or his design to reach out to local churches to see if they are interested uh and offer it to them. And the second item was a um groundskeeper uh a Fisher and steel caster steel hopper. Uh that's uh 2015 value of $300. That's also designated to be sent to surplus. Correct. Uh that was voted unanimously in favor. Uh the second one, second item was special education expenses. Uh it's just an update. We set a $50,000 annual budget. We are nearing that budget. We're about $6,600 to go. Uh we may have to uh move some line items from other uh law expenses that we have on retainer uh to satisfy any above and beyond the
073$50,000 budget. Uh that was again uh recommended and voted unanimously. The third item was coaching for change. Uh it's a monthly update. Every time an invoice is uh sent to us on the warrant, we ask for supporting documentation like other organizations. And of course uh everything looked in order and was voted unanimously to accept that um that presentation from coaching for change. And the last item was bills payable for FY25 in the amount of 2,16,52583. There were various questions but the superintendent did point out that out of the two plus million 1.6 1.6 was from external grants both state and federal and other grants. uh and that was accepted and uh unanimously by the subcommittee and that concludes the report. Okay. Thank you. Motion to accept the report and adopt the recommendations of the finance
074and law subcommittee. Second. Motion and second. All those in favor? Opposed? None opposed? So voted. Under new business, we have healthy communities grant application. I'll be real quick because this is moving faster than I anticipated. Um part of my goal, part of our goal is to make sure that our schools not only are welcoming to our students but also welcoming to our community. So, we have the opportunity uh to apply for this grant and I was uh I was informed yesterday that we've been awarded $40,000 to help fund this project. And we've also already identified $97,000. So, we've already covered more than half the cost to fund this project. So, at the next meeting in May, I anticipate coming before the committee with request to allocate the remaining resources. And who knows, maybe our friends
075on the city side might want to split this, but uh we'll see what happens in May. So, more information to come and I hope you enjoyed the video that I shared with you. Okay. Thank you, Superintendent. Accept the report. Motion to second all those on discussion. Um, if you want to see one in person, Swansea has one across from Swansea High School. So, it's Bridgewater State. And Bridgewater State. So, yes, that was our inspiration. Excellent. Of course. Okay. Um, and I understand uh Mr. Vieira has some new business. Just want to remind the members that new business may be brought up. That isn't on the agenda but cannot be discussed. It would be referred to the next agenda. Thank you, Madame May. So, I just want to let the committee and the community know that
076uh Tuesday the 29th, we have a long range uh plan and public property meeting uh that the superintendent will send other communication on. Another thing that I wanted to do, the second thing uh Tom Public Schools bullying prevention and intervention plan. I'd like to refer that to a committee of the whole. That way we can have a a discussion about it, analyze it, and um have a better understanding as it of it as a group. So if I could make that in a form of a a motion, that would be wonderful. Okay. So motion. Is there a second? Second. Motion and second. All those in favor? I opposed. Not opposed. So voted. Thank you. You're welcome. Uh just under unfinished business, we have the action item update. No action this time. Okay. There is no
077press here this evening and oh there is uh are we doing executive session? Yes. Okay. motion to go in executive session on uh can you read it as it's listed on the agenda just to make sure it's um executive session to go in executive session to discuss the security protocols pursuant to to exemption 4 general laws chapter 38 section 2184 and to not reconvene in open session on roll call vote was there was a second yes motion and second on roll call please Mrs. Mrs. Fagan. Mr. Enus. Yes. Mrs. Sh. Yes. Mrs. Fagan votes yes. Mr. Vieiraa. Yes. Mr. Laura. Yes. Dr. Dlo. Yes. Oh, Mr. Mayor. Uh, yes. Okay. Okay. Motion to