001Okay. Uh, good evening, Hollist, and welcome to the May 28th um, Hollist School Committee. Um, at this time, I will entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. >> Moved by Don. Second. >> Do we have Okay. All in favor. That passes. Okay. We're going to start off with um, we have new student representatives this um, starting for the upcoming year. We're very excited to see you both. I'll let you introduce yourselves. >> Um so I my name is uh Jen Lasher. I'm a social studies department chair here at the high school and I'm also the student advisory council adviser. Um and I'm very pleased tonight to introduce Ethan Shahada and Elijah VR Green um as this as next year's um student representatives. So the way that it works at student advisory council um students
002are elected by the group to represent Hollist at the regional level of student advisory council and Ethan and Elijah were overwhelmingly elected for that last year. So they've spent the past year serving on the regional council um and they can speak to you about their project that they did on um teacher student relationships. Um and then sort of the reward for that is they get to be as seniors the um school committee representatives. So, they've been doing a lot of work. They've earned the spot. I'm very excited for them. >> That's great. >> You're welcome. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Go ahead. >> Take it away. >> Uh so for our first update at Hollison High, um first senior updates. Um along with the two previous representatives, Luke and Adele, uh the seniors have graduated
003and are receiving their diplomas at graduation ceremony on June 7th um at Committee and Field. and they finished their finals and um have their recent or have their last senior event coming up which I believe is senior sunset or they have a boat cruise as well I believe and um the yearbooks were also officially handed out to junior seniors and anyone that bought them and there was a day for seniors to get signatures of people in their class and we also had prom recently which was a big success and people love the food and the venue it was a great time taking Uh hello, my name is Elijah and uh to talk more on the academic side. Uh today the the whole school gathered in the auditorium to talk about a new DSP program that
004the school wants to implement and it's because the other one hasn't been very effective. And so they talked about incorporating this new program in which students will go to a separate website and then um just do their DSP scheduling that way. And the school uh hopes to uh make it a bit more effective, but like initially I know a lot of the students had a little bit of like concerns about it because it's so late in the school year, but um there's a lot of mixed feedback, but I know a lot of students are excited to see how uh things might turn out. And then also during the assembly they talked about having uh uh electing for the new student body. And so like the freshman, the sophomores, and the juniors are going to start
005doing their uh campaigning to get elected for the student body. So uh the school wanted to incorporate some new rules cuz last year there were a little bit of like concerns about giving up food and bribery. And so the school the school decided to shut it down before too much bribery happened and uh they also uh made sure that it was a bit more fair for all the students. So they're also giving students more of an opportunity to speak in front of the entire grade instead of just campaigning like on the side. They're trying to make it a bit more organized and hopefully it'll also get um it'll just get more attention and then students can be able to represent themselves better. Um also to mention AP exam successfully concluded and there was um a
006intruder response drill today that went well. And then also to talk about our project on the regional student advisory council a couple weeks ago. We submitted our project proposal to DESIE which was focused on like Pasha said connecting students and their teachers so they have that relationship that will um impact their learning as well but also their comfortability at school. And we'd also um like to congratulate the two new representatives to take our place at the regional student advisory council which are Shria Pachani and Claire Drum. >> And then talk a bit more about the clubs. Um in the last meeting it was uh addressed uh very briefly but the NHS induction ceremony had one last week on Tuesday and that went really well actually. We have 22 new juniors and 35 new sophomores that
007are joining the club. And then Holland Deca did send 13 uh participants to nationals to compete. And um two of the participants, Vishall and Jacob, they ended up placing second in the entire world, which is big accomplishment. >> Uh now on to sports. Uh today the outdoor track D4 state championship uh happened. I think it might still be going on. And then we have a bunch of athletes that are highly seated and expecting to, you know, come out on top. And um baseball has their first playoff game on Monday as a 26 seed. Girls tennis has a playoff game yesterday where they upset the 15th seed in North Quincsey and advanced to the Sweet 16, which is um a Toby determined date and opponent. and Unified Track completed their I believe final out uh outdoor
008meet yesterday and also boys lacrosse of the playoff game on Saturday against Oakmont as a 20 uh 23 season. >> And then the wrap-up uh kind of what we have to report. Uh we're going to talk about a little bit the performing arts. I know there's been there's still a little bit in the hallway if you walk around, but there's a lot of art work um being collected. We had it was very [clears throat] successful. a lot of students were able to represent themselves, show the work, and um yeah, students are now collecting throughout this week their artwork. >> But yeah, thank you. >> Thank you so much. And and again, welcome. We're thrilled to have you and we look forward to seeing you again a lot next year. So great. >> Okay, we will
009move on to school committee individual comments. Jess, >> I'm first. >> Yes, you're first. >> Um just wanted to say hi and thank you um to everyone. uh happy to be here. Uh thank you to the former school and current school committee members um who have uh really worked hard the last many years. Um and I'm looking forward to collaborating with you all and and continuing that work. Um I also um wanted to follow up. I made public comment um a couple of weeks ago about the Metro West Anti-bullying Coalition. I did go to that meeting and I did get some uh really good ideas. Um there were a lot of tools and resources that were discussed that I think will be implemented here in Hollist. So I'm looking forward to um working with Dr.
010Carter once he gets um onboarded a little bit more over the summer um to discuss how we can implement some of those things here in Hollist. Um also the HMASa will be holding a community arts festival at Blair Square tomorrow from 4:30 to 7:00. Admission is free um and purchases and donations are going to support the Hollist Music and Arts Parents Association. And lastly, I'm not sure if we were going to um talk about this, but just a reminder that there is still a vacancy on the school committee. So for anybody um interested, please submit your applications um by noon tomorrow to Donna Muzzy at the town manager's office. Thank you. Um, so I also wanted to welcome you, um, and congratulations [clears throat] and also welcome our new student representatives, Ethan and Elijah. Thank
011you. Um, I and also wanted to note, so I've been trying each year to kind of go to some of these different endofyear um, programs because there's so many um, at the end of the year between the arts programs um, the different pathway graduations. But last week I had an opportunity to hear the seniors present their global citizens um program uh kind of presentations and it was really a culmination of what they've been working on throughout the program from the courses to the projects that they've been working on and it was amazing to hear how passionate they were about um specific topics and this is leading into their post-secary plans from finding a passion to from um environmental science to political science um in international studies. They really talked about how the work that they've
012done um through this pathway and the courses here at Hollston High School really led to um finding a pursuit for postsecary. So that was amazing. I want to congratulate the students in that program and the rest of our seniors too as they close out the year. >> Welcome Jess. Welcome student reps. Um, I also there's so many wonderful events, but I also want to say a thank you to our teachers and staff that are doing it every day in like the small ways. Um, I know this time of year is a lot. There's a lot of uh nice weather brings out the best in some of our children. So, thank you for all you do on a daily basis because I know it's a lot. >> Um, no additional comment. >> Um, and I'm all
013set, too. But, um, welcome Jess and um, thank you for being here. Um, I'm gonna jump something up in the presentation, David, if you'd like to. Um, there's an award up here. >> Yeah. Yeah. Uh, I guess I' I'd first like to call up uh Margaret Driscoll, who's the executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Business Officials, um, to to potentially I won't steal her thunder as far as her what she has to to introduce for us, but uh, I had the lovely privilege to be a part of a ceremony um, at the Masbo conference um, a couple weeks ago. So, I'll let her turn over. >> Jerry, I'll slide the >> um slide. >> And Jerry, would you go to slide the mic down? >> Yeah. >> Thank you so much, Dr. Jordan,
014and to all of you. Being a school committee member myself, um I honor and respect all that you do every day with students in mind. So, thank you for that. Um it is my great pleasure um as executive director of the Mass Association of School Business Officials, also known as MASBO. Um we're so proud to share that this year's John F. Conway Distinguished Service Award is conferred on your retired assistant superintendent of finance and operations, Keith Budet. Uh this is a very prestigious award for us. It recognizes the accomplishments of MASBO members relative to enhancing the effectiveness of a school district in addressing its educational mission and comes with a $1,500 contribution to the district in Keith's name. His nominee, who is possibly sitting um in your horseshoe here, um described a career defined above
015all else by an unwavering commitment to students and learning. From the beginning, Keith stepped into complex and challenging circumstances. Early in his tenure, the district faced a significant budget crisis tied to the long-term impact of a building project affecting all schools. Through clear communication, strong advocacy, and deep financial expertise, he helped secure a 9% increase to stabilize the operational budget. At the same time, this work unfolded during an occupied high school renovation project, one marked by indoor air quality issues, subcontractors walking off the job, and the risk of delayed opening. Through steady leadership and problem solving, he successfully navigated each challenge. Over the years, of course, the challenges continued. State funding cuts, economic downturns, and structural budget gaps. In response, Keith repeatedly stepped beyond a defined role. most notably filling the position of technology director
016for nine years after it was eliminated, ensuring continuity of critical systems and services. During two separate town drinking water crises when there was real concern about whether schools could remain open, Keith worked directly with local officials to negotiate safe accommodations, personally procuring water and sanitizer and even even hanging shower curtains on a weekend to make facilities usable. Through it all, he never sought recognition or took credit. The impact extends well beyond finances. Known as both tough and fair, a trusted partner in negotiations and a steady resource for colleagues, Keith has built a legacy of trust and respect. Even as his full-time work tapered off, that commitment has continued through mentorship and guidance. So once again, and for a quarter century of exceptional service, it is our great honor and privilege to recognize Keith Goudet as
017this year's John F. Conway Distinguished Service Award recipient, which also comes besides the $1,500 with this lovely trophy. And I'm so glad there's a carpet here because my grand something like this, [applause] [laughter] >> this time you got to give a speech. It's not going to be as much fun as I was ready for it now. For me, it's a shame that everybody that's worked with me and for me um was is not able to share in this directly because again, nobody is a success on their own. It's about building those partnerships. It's about working with people. It's those relationships that you have to build. Um you may be the person who is tasked with it or responsible for it, but it still comes down to you being able to find the resources to do
018it. and whether it be through relations with the town again, people that work for you, with you, people you work for. Um, you know, that's the that's the reason that I think that I was uh some level of success here and and again being recognized for this award, I do think it is a Hollist award and people who have worked here for the 24 years that I was here. So, um I want to thank you all. Well, not all, some of you. Um [laughter] um for putting up with me over the years, um and uh and uh again, I'm I try to be a resource as much as I can be um in retirement because again, this is no matter what other people think, this is my school district. So, >> [laughter] >> um so,
019but thank you [applause] Okay. Um, next on our agenda is um Jackie Chen from HMPMA. >> Thank you. >> Yep. >> Pull up my cheat sheet. >> Yes. Read it, too. Um so I just wanted to thank everyone for giving us the opportunity to um come and talk to you. Um this year we had four different we were able to fulfill four different grants for different parts of the um of this school the music and arts programs um totaling I don't know why this does this to me $3,68 in total and it's across for like the elementary music program. They wanted some more of the resonator bell set so that they can have smaller groups of kids working on it. Um, for the theater program, we're able to help them getting a sewing machine and
020some other things to help with more on the techn the tech stuff behind the scenes. Um, for the arts program, they're able to give them some canvases and paint. And for the high school music, we're able to get them some acoustic guitars. So, we really thank you guys for the opportunity to help the teachers to be able to give these types of great programs to the kit. So, thank you. Well, thank you. I mean, I think the efforts of all of the volunteers, the parents that support all of these programs and the teachers and ultimately students are just so invaluable. So, we really appreciate all of your efforts and we're happy to have you here and, you know, come back anytime. So, wonderful. >> Thank you. >> Sure. >> We'll see you next year. >>
021Yes, that would be great. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um, we will move on to public comment. We'll start with Ben. Yep. >> And we'll >> Good evening. >> Uh >> good evening. >> That's Frell. I'm the chair of the select board. >> And uh just a couple quick things. Uh Jess already mentioned that the uh the appointment uh letters for the appointment are still uh uh can still come in till tomorrow. Uh so if you want to be on the school committee for that year then uh want to make sure that people know that that is available and to get that information to Luzie. So um I'm just going to say that again. Um probably the big thing that I wanted to just bring forward to everyone's attention here is we've had a couple
022conversations at the select board level from um neighbors of the high school. Um some of the residents have had some concerns about parking. Um, so what's been happening is, um, students have been parking over and as they get licenses and things like that, so they don't have necessarily a spot in the parking lot in the high school, they've been parking over in March Road, Robin Hill Road, and Green View, I believe, is the third road. And, um, it's becoming um, a I'd say a kind of a chronic issue. It's happened several years in a row now and especially in the spring where there's probably about um by some estimates, you know, this is a a pocketful, but I'll, you know, bring them up, you know, 30 to 40 cars and it's becoming problematic for uh
023uh buses getting down there. It's uh tricky for um mail trucks are not able to deliver mail, garbage trucks not being able to pick up the trash and things like that. But, you know, our main concern here is, I mean, obviously it's legal so that people can park there. There's no restrictions, but it's becoming a public safety issue because the roads aren't really built for that. So, um, we've taken it up a couple times and we're trying to figure out a solution, but inevitably any solution that we do, if it's restricting parking or doing anything in of that of that particular nature, is going to come back to you. And um, so, you know, we've we've had um at least three meetings about this. We had a several last fall and we had one a
024few weeks ago and some of the neighbors have had, you know, major concerns about speed, about um just being able to, you know, uh safely get through their neighborhood and that's been a coming issue um for them at several points during the day. So, I just wanted to bring it to your attention. Uh we'll probably bring it up again on the 8th of June and so if people want to come and participate in that conversation, we'd love to hear from other people. Um, and also we want to make sure that any solution that we have is partnered with you because inevitably if we do something, it's going to come back to you in some way. And I want to make sure that you know what's happening and that with if there's anything we can do
025to partner with you to to find other ways to to solve the problem, we'd love to be able to do that. Um, and we want to make sure that kids can park safely and that the residents can still enjoy their, you know, be able to do the things that they need to do on a day-to-day basis. Um, so I just wanted to bring that to your attention. you know, obviously not going to fix it tonight, but you know, um we'll find out next that at that time on June 8th when our next meeting takes place whether or not it's still happening. I recognize that the seniors have left, so there might be more spaces, so it might have lessened, but they were seeing it throughout the uh throughout the year. And one of the concerns
026they had was about um traffic getting in and out of the parking lot, which says to me that they could potentially even with spaces they might not go to them because they have they wanted to sort of find an easy way out to get out of the uh out of school quickly uh at dismissal time. So we want to partner with you. We want to make sure that we can find some solutions. If it's not chronic right now, we'll we can maybe hold off on the ETH rather than taking immediate action. But we need to take some kind of action, I think, to try to find some solutions and we want to work with you to do so. So, >> may I ask just a few questions? Are there um was there any consideration of
027like a parking ban from, you know, 7:30 to 9:30 in the morning? >> That's that's basically what we're talking about. Okay. um a parking ban. You know, one of the things a resident had suggested potentially something similar to that, which was a basically a morning parking ban. But another resident indicated that a lot of what's happening is kids are leaving at noon, going to lunch, and then racing back. So basically like if we, you know, are we moving the problem, you know, to one of the things we don't want to do is just say, okay, it's banned from this time, then they just come later in the day or and also we want to make sure that any solution doesn't just move it to a different neighborhood. Okay. And then what about police presence? Is
028there has there been police presence over there anymore? >> Yes. Okay. >> Yes. I I actually spoke to the SRO at another event and he mentioned, you know, going over there talking to the kids frequently. >> So, and they're definitely doing that. The thing is is because there's no parking van, there's not much they can do other than say, "Please don't do that." But other than messaging and communication at this point in education, we'd have to go take it to an an elevated step of, you know, policy changes which would come from you or restrictions which would come from us. >> Okay. And no plans to widen that road in any way? I mean, >> we know where to really widen it. It's too resid. Yeah, that's I don't think that's really a solution to
029that's a viable solution in that. >> And in terms of coming out of the high school parking lot and again this is also deferring to Dr. Jordan and his role as operations of facilities. >> Um, >> is there is there the possibility of police helping to move the traffic out of the high school faster and maybe that could be part of this? I >> mean, we could we could certainly we could certainly like talk about if there's if that is a a way to sort of solve that. We have basically we're getting one side of all of this which is the residents in that neighborhood. We're not hearing from many parents. We haven't heard from many students. So, we don't really know, you know, hey, if we could do this, we'd feel a little bit
030better and we wouldn't do that. I mean, parents are even picking up over there, according to [clears throat] the residents that parents are basically trying to avoid pick up in the high school to get their students that get the culde-sac at the end of Marchery Road. >> So, you know, I'd love to hear other options and other other points of view if that, you know, we could find solutions, but we haven't heard from anyone else yet. That's part of the reasons I'm here to Hey, anybody else any other ideas? please let us know so we can work together to find solutions to to whatever is uh you know if there's other other issues beyond parking >> to to address as well. >> Anything else? >> No, I don't. Are there any public comments on Zoom?
031>> It doesn't appear to be. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you, Ben. >> Thanks. >> Okay. Um, let's see. We can move on to Jerry. >> You mind making me close? >> I believe so. >> Good. Good to go. Hi everyone. I got some technical difficulties this uh this afternoon or this evening, but uh I'm excited to be here with you guys today. Um, today I'm going to share a little bit about um, let me turn my camera on as well. Um, so today I'm going to share a little bit about um, updates regarding the work that uh, we're we've been doing this year. Uh, oftentimes at the end of the year I'll start to turn the corner to start to highlight or talk about the work that's coming up next year. Um and in
032that work, I think the other piece too is that oftentimes my uh presentation is a precursor because I think in two weeks you guys will be hearing from our schools as well. And so in many ways I keep my presentation um higher level more around what's happening across the district. Uh because in many ways a lot of what I'm talking about you're going to hear from our schools. And so um why don't we dive in? So, um, one of the things that I wanted to do today was, um, I wanted to kind of frame our conversation, um, because we have a new member with us today. Congratulations. Um, and so in framing that conversation, I just wanted to highlight that, uh, since I've arrived, every all the work that I do have framed through this
033concept of safe quarter schools. Uh and for anyone at home, if you have access to the power to the presentation or the or the PDF, uh that link that picture there um right here in the middle is linkable. So um not linkable, it's linked with um to a framework around safe schools. So a lot of what you're going to be hearing is framed around the concept of safe schools, uh which is um kind of a desi piece as well. Get this out of the way. Um so one of the pieces that I've did when I started this work four years ago um here in this district there is a lot of and there's always been a lot of work happening but one of the reasons why my role came to fruition was really around the
034reality of like how do we start to integrate or connect pieces and so what you'll see is is in many ways an ongoing evolution of the work and so uh the gray the gray box is really where we were right we were kind of in this initiatives were separate schools were in their own spaces. There wasn't a lot of collaboration happening in the work that I lead. And we're moving from from a space of that to more of an integrated approach. Um where we're looking to coordinate our structures, uh talk about shared leadership, right? In other words, we have building based leaders, uh school-based leadership teams, but at the same time, we have leaders sitting in classrooms, counselors, students who are leaders. And so, what does that look like to kind of um share that
035share in that leadership? uh we've definitely moved towards a space of data informed reflection and how do and I've always been thinking about how do you sustain this work and so the other question that might come up for anyone at home is like so how does this happen right and so what I call this is we cook at the end of last uh my last presentation um last year I kind of for those that are here uh I shared a beef stew uh and the reason I share that beef stew and I've shared that pres I've shared that image is because in many ways this is like a cooking process and if anyone who has cooked something understands that um at any point you're adding different ingredients to what you're cooking uh and when I
036think of Sue you're adding different flavors different pieces uh and everyone might have their own recipe and so in many ways when it comes to kind of organizing this work I'm organizing all the flavors that you see here in this picture uh and and putting them into a stew right and so as I dive deeper let me kind of take us through like what does this look like? How how has this work evolved using this uh safe and supportive stew uh theory? So, every school in this district has its own reality, right? Developmental, cultural, they have their own culture, they have their own history as far as what's been going on in the school. And as a district, we honor that reality and we support them from across across schools. Every school has different starting
037points, right? um they have different initiatives, different things that have happened to kind of create that space. Um and then the piece is that and and when anyone who's cooked something understands there's no failure. Yes, we may have over overs salted, we may have overcooked, undercooked. Um the flavor I wanted may not have always came out, but there's no flavor. You learn in that work, too. And that's what safe to schools in this work has always been about. And so the other piece that's really important is around when we do this work, we bring our full selves into that kitchen. And so what I mean by that is before we cook, we we we take this aspect of reflection of what is it we want to do. Um but we have to all acknowledge that
038the work we lead and the work that's happening is shaped by who we are. And so leaders, we don't enter this work neutral. We bring our full selves into the kitchen. And if you see that bottom spice rack, if we all looked at a spice rack and said, "What flavors do I want to add to my beef stew?" We might pick up a different spice that that's that brings that's part of leadership. That's part of the work. Everyone brings something different to the work and everyone has a different starting point. So, I added adobo and and uh to my flavor, right? And that's the kind of leader that that the leadership that this work needs, but it's also the work that's happening. There's multiple flavors happening. Multiple people are picking up those spices and putting
039into their stew to think about how do we make this work? And so now if we start to think about the the context of that stew here in the Holl public schools um every every student is going to taste a little different but it's the same intention. How do we create a safe and supportive school at every level? How as a district do we help support a safe and supportive district? And so some of the flavors that we know have been working on is everything from PBIS, SEAL, trauma sensitive practices, culturally responsive practices, executive skills, data informed decisions, right? Those are some of the flavors and many more that you're going to hear about when the schools do the presentations as well that they're adding to that flavor as well. And this has been years
040of intentional growth, right? Thinking about how do we build systems as we go along. And so in anything if you think about cooking we need taste testers right and so those taste testers in many ways if you remember of my past presentation has been um about two years ago we started a saving support of MTSS leadership team which was a a leadership group of voices of of uh adults from across the district leaders counselors teachers coming together to think about like how do we do this work what do we want this to feel like and be like but we were missing another taste tester and that was students and so one of the things that we started this year uh in Our kind of beginning uh uh initiative of that piece was called the student
041impact council uh where we wanted to create this loop where we're getting taste testers of students um in adults to kind of give us feedback around the system we're trying to build. And so you know once again this this work is necessary and this approach is necessary [clears throat] because if we all think once again understand this concept of cooking uh is that we have to kind of enter this work and listen before we season. We have to taste this work often, invite others into our kitchen, right? Share in that leadership, adjust things when things don't work. Uh because at at times we will overs salt, under season, overcook and forget to preheat and we learn, right? And so what's some of the things that we've been cooking over the past years um PBIS and
042ruler has at this point now been three to four years in every school uh K to8 uh and I'm sure you're going to hear tons of progress and tons of uh pieces around that. We've been really focused around how do we start to build an integrated MTSS framework. Uh and MTSS is really around how do you build structures around how do we support students at multiple levels. Uh and we're really one of the things we really started thinking about this year is how do we make sure that's connected from school to school versus every school having their own kind of approach of how we're doing that. Um and then we really start to think about as we build how do these things come together in an operational way that feels integrated. How do we start
043to build cohesion and what does it look like to deliver strong services for students within that within this piece as well? You heard me talk about um the adding student voice to this work. Um and so one of the things we launched this year uh was a student impact council and anytime you start something is feeling that out. What does that look like? What does it need to feel like? Because what was different about this about this work was that this was a group of students coming together to think about how to provide feedback to the district. Right? Many times there's students who provide feedback to their schools or to an initiative within their school or sometimes when things come when things come up. But this is an intentional approach to say taste test this
044work. How does this work feel like? And if it's not, of course, we'll never get it to a perfect uh science, but how do we continue to build feedback where students can feel honest and open to be like, I don't know if this is working or my sibling told me in in at this school it didn't feel that way. Okay, so what do we do about that? Right? a a a progress focused uh group. And so really what we wanted to do was build this feedback loop where we were having adults and students constantly providing feedback to the system so that I as a leader am not leading this work without information. But I'm just really facilitating for leaders like students and adults at our schools to kind of step into that space. My role
045is to try to remove barriers, provide resources and help organize that work. And so, um, I wanted to say why not, um, I oftentimes bring people with me. Um, and so, um, one of the things that I wanted to kind of bring into the room was a voice of a student. Uh, and, um, we have another six, uh, member right here as well. But, um, Jay Patel is a graduating senior and he, uh, I asked him to lend his voice to just tell us about his experiences being part of the sick, uh, coalition. uh and I he couldn't be here with us today, but I just also wanted to share that um he also recently just received the Robert Craft uh foundation scholarship um on for project 351 uh where he's going to be receiving
046um support for college as well. Um and so he's an amazing student and I said, you know, would you love to share and provide perspective for what this work feels like uh for the school committee? So hopefully are [clears throat] you able to hear it over there? We'll see. Try >> if I turn it up here. And if it's not going to work in a second, I'll turn it off. If I turn it up here, am I able to um if I put my mic to it, will people be to hear what he has to say? the the mic would take it outside of here and we we can probably hear some. >> Okay. Is it over there now? >> If you put it full screen maybe double checking. >> Connectivity is locked out a
047few times. I'm back in now. >> I'll come back and if we can if we can get Jay in at the end. Um I'm sure that he has some power powerful things to share. Uh I'll try it again at the end, but I also don't want to hold this up, right? Cuz it is a school committee night and it is a Thursday. Uh and so um but so in moving on, we're also the other piece too is we've been building a data culture. And so uh one of the things that I've had conversations with different people I don't know if I've talked about that uh in this space um data is such a charged word and and it's such a charged concept that often times when we creating safe schools this concept of equity calls
048us to wrestle with data but at the same time it's not so simple just to say hey there's data let's talk about it. It it it is challenging for people to kind of step into a culture where they're where we built this continuous learning culture where we lean into data where we're welcome data where we say hey is there any data on that right and that was a culture we had to build because in many ways um in this field of education we've often seen data directly connected to measurable student outcomes regarding MCCAST or regarding some type of accountability piece and so we had to build this culture where people felt um not just connected to it but that they could that they felt comfortable to step into a space where they could talk about
049culture and then [clears throat] not just be evaluative but it be around how do we build that continuous learning and so in many ways one of the things that we've been doing over time uh is that we have been uh not just in this space but um in all of the spaces that I work with even um with the sick students uh the student impact council um they I they were sitting and wrestling with their data as well and prov providing feedback and and often times questioning and saying I've never seen that data before or you know that that data is exciting to think about is there other data is there more data we could look at right and so part of building a data culture is exposing people to data and saying this data
050is here data is ours what do we want to do about it right um and so on the left you'll see those are a lot of the pieces of data that we have but one of the challenges that that we've been doing is how do you bring them into a space where people can wrestle with them together and so part of the work was first starting from a space of let's look at data and let's not feel like it's evaluative but feel of how we how do we grow but now we're in a space of how do we put data pieces together where it comes into congruence where um where we understand that attendance data is not just an isolate but it's impacted by how students feel when they come to school the relationship they
051have with adults um everything from mental health to student support services to the school culture as a whole of that impacts when we just talk about this data point of attendance, right? And so really getting to a point where we've built that culture. So that's been a another piece that we've been focusing on um in every group that I lead in many ways has been we have been building that journey up where now data or data dies as part of a conversation and part of what we do. Um so let's share some data. Um so one of the things that I've been excited uh to see um is that this concept or the data point of chronic attendance is one that you probably have heard nationally if you've been part of uh been listening to
052some of those conversations um but not just in Hollist across the state we've seen we saw huge increases in chronic attendance after COVID uh and then schools have struggled to kind of shift that down and bring it back down to this baseline space uh and one of the things that we've been able to see is that um Hollison has been successful in shifting that back. And so, um, when I one of the presentations I did, um, last year, I talked about pre-COVID, that 7.3%. Um, what a lot of the data and what a lot of the the information tells us is that was under reportported. Right around that time, the state changed how they were calculating and how they were shifting not just data processes, but how we were reporting data, how districts were measuring
053data. And within a year, mostly every district saw data points go from sevens to sixes to jump up 3 to four percentage points. And so I say that to say because last year, if you recall when I was here, um I reported that we had gone from 16.7% chronic attendance to 10.7%. Uh and that 10.7% is estimated to be right on target, if not below where the district was pre-COVID. And so uh when I created this slide on May on May 18th uh we are currently at 9.7 which is continued decrease of another percentage point right and once you start getting into the into the numbers below 10 it becomes harder and harder to shift that right because that means you have less students who are chronic chronically absent u but the important piece for
054me to share this data is also to say that this data point is not just a singular data point this is because counselors and administrators and teachers and parents and students that people are engaging this work together versus a personal just hey come to school kind of thing right that old school of the way we used to do attendance or the way we used to uh work with students around attendance is not the way that it functions now and I'm pretty sure that if every school kind of shared what they were doing when they present they have a whole process a whole team a whole conversation of how they approach how they let people payments know about attendance um and that's the culture we're shifting the other piece to share is just that um every
055subgroup in our district has continued to decrease over Um, of course we want every student subgroup uh within our community to kind of be at that same baseline level of 9.7. That's our goal, right? And we'll continue to work at that goal. Every every student group has uh different needs. Every student, every student and every family has different needs. Um, and really the cultural work and the and the student support work is really understanding what are those needs and how do we continue to shift all of those data points. But positively, they've all continued to shift downwards. Another piece that's important for us to share is just when we think about um creating safe schools, it's also around how to expand mental health access and family support. I often call this and I don't know
056if people um my children used to uh watch this show called Handy Manny. Uh it was on Disney. Handy Manny had a tool belt. And so in many ways when I think about strengthening mental health access and family support, it's really around like how do we continue to provide resources and tools for our families? Not every tool is for every family. Not every resource is for every family, but how do we continue to differentiate what we have? So when families do need supports and resources, there's a multitude of resources that might speak to them. And so I wanted to share some of the data points around some of those resources. Um and so this slide here is speaks to Care Solace, which is one of our partners regarding resources that families could um connect to
057when they're looking for mental health supports or counseling in the community. Um I'm not going to go through and read through all of them, but they're really it's a really a visual um just so people can kind of see the not just the impact um but that families do access this um they they don't only access the resource support but um from onboarding to connecting families and students with counseling. It takes a lot of hours. It takes a lot of time for that to happen. And so uh here we have you know um just some of the the data from this year from Kolales which is just one of our tools. Another tool is um and we started working with them about two years ago was cartwheel. Um at this point they're working they they're
058connected with tons of districts in Massachusetts. Similarly to Carales it's a similar u resource but different. The way it's different instead of uh trying to get connected they get directly connected with a with a counselor. Uh, and there's usually, as you can see, less than 10 days in a wait list from the moment that someone puts in a referral to sitting with someone, right? And that is really [clears throat] unheard of when it comes to the speed of being able to offer counseling resources and and supports. Not only once you kind of get connected to cartwheel, uh, if you needed psych uh, psychiatric or psychiatry, that's available as well. We also have um all three of our main languages here uh for counselors available for teleaalth uh and and many more. Um and so in
059many ways when we think about the different tools and resources for some uh teleaalth may not be for them and for some this works perfectly within their life and they offer multiple languages to be able to provide that support uh and also um other pieces of like parenting support um and other things available through that as well. So another tool within our tool belt and then you could see some of the resources that around the impact around sessions offered, sessions delivered, etc. for families. That means those are our real students getting support. Uh and we know that students who feel who feel supported, who feel connected, uh do better academically. The data has said that. Another piece that you heard me talk about is this concept called handle with care which is about a partnerships
060that we've developed with our our community response partners specifically our school resource officers and our police officers. Uh [clears throat] and I just wanted to report since we've kind of instituted this process in which um we really once we kind of know of of students who are struggling with and it could be anything um we we let the school know that for instance Jerry needs to be handled with care and really the only concept is no one needs to know what the what's happening. They just need to know Jerald needs some TLC and and often times what what a trauma sensive response has told us that is extremely supportive to students for people just to have a heads up that he just needs a little TLC today a little hand to be handled with care
061um but we don't need to know what's going on and so since that since instituting that about a year and a half ago we've had 120 uh in our community um in in the ways we've supported our families and students. Um and so you've also heard me talk about we've continued to build professional development in this way. Um the work has been around not just adult capacity but really working with our adults to kind of think about like what are their needs. Um we've worked on trauma- sensitive practices in the past. Um executive functioning was another piece that the district tackled as well. Um, we know executive functioning and I'm sure the schools will talk about that as well because they had PD that they got a chance to build with Peg Dawson, um, who's
062a guru in the field, but they really built it at their school level like what what is what is my school going through and and how could executive function help kind of connect or support the work that we're doing. Um, and then when I think about as we head into next year, one of the things that I wanted to put in your radar, um, is that um, and I'll bring us to this slide. This is a you know how sometimes you'll get a save the date for a wedding. Um this is a save a month uh because I don't have a date yet uh but I'm working on it. And so what I'm looking to do is almost have is have a data uh district data congruence conference where it really feels like a conference
063where I hope that school committee can attend where our leadership our new leadership would be there as well. um community partners from um school resource officers to uh hopefully you know pediatricians, doctors, parents, students would be there. I plan to talk with our sick uh group as well for the for our student impact council to be there as well. Um because when I when you look at the the chart on the left um we just recently received the the incoming Metro West health survey data. We have tons of other data points. Um in when we think of our Hollison students, they're not just our students. they're our students, right? And so I I want to be able to engage um for every school and for our district to think about and have almost have a
064head start to start thinking about like how this might impact everything from their school improvement plans to just the the the work that might be going on that year. But I also want our community to lean in and say this is our data too and what can we do across our community? Um how can we partner differently across our partnerships? uh and if there's gaps in what the data is telling us, how do we start to think about some intervention supports for that. Uh and so um it's kind of a save the month in some ways. There'll be more information coming. Um but I'm excited because we're in a space where when we start to do when we do this for a lot of people, this is this is not going to feel foreign. It's
065going to feel like another another opportunity, but also a a greater giving a greater emphasis. Um, and if educ as educators, what we've always have felt has been, you know, let's work together, right? This data is is community data. And to be honest, all of this data, as a parent of three kids from high school to elementary, um, this data would be impactful if I had it in front of me for my kids, too. And so, um, that's the hope of that event. Um, and with that, I'll close. I don't know if you guys have an extra second where I can go back and see if I can give Jay a a a play and if not I'll close that out and people will have access to it on the PDF. >> It may work
066now. I think we've had some hope. >> Yeah, I think we can get the video now. >> All right. Unless there's questions to stop sharing. >> So you said stop share. >> Yes, stop share and reshare again. >> Click on something. Share sound. >> Yes, that's share again. You're good. >> Are you It's not on there. >> Not coming up. Back up. >> Go back. While he's doing that, um I'm just going to point out and echo your sentiments about student Jay Patel and many other students like him. Um but I remember talking to Jer the other day that I met Jay Patel when he became the eighth grade ambassador that was um nominated I believe by Dr. Jordan and um I remember him being very quiet and um didn't know much about him and
067I met him and he just seemed like this nice quiet person but he was a good student I think always but then his voice has come out and the following year when he was going into ninth grade we had I had um applied for us to be on the Celtics playbook which is a second part that's for the high school students the project I mean the student ambassador is an eighth grade student every year and then the Celtics split playbook. We reapply each year. The Celtics obviously sponsor that and they take high school students and mentor them and coach them and train them. So, we've had a number of students go through that process. And as a ninth grader, we had two students prior to Jay take that on. One step down and Jay asked
068if he could be the the student at the high school in 9th grade. And I remember going as I always try to do to the training with them as as at the middle school. they then have to do the training with this the students on racial um identity and antibbias work and I remember seeing Jay the first day there and he did not have the voice that he has today. So those opportunities for student voice are just so critical. This is the same student if we get to hear from him today. Um was it last year Joey? I think last year, I believe it was, I hosted the legislative breakfast at the double tree in um Milford through the through my role as president of Tri County roundt and Jay was at DECA and I
069asked him if he would present about um learning needs and things like that as far as costs associated with the the budget for the state level. he was unable to attend but similarly put together this amazing presentation that hundreds of people in the room were able to listen to and while it would have been more impressive in person as Jay always is the fact that he has so grown so confident from these opportunities that are funded through grants at the state level through DESIE and then through project 351 it's just I wish we had more opportunities like this for our students but he's obviously going to be very successful I think we shared last year that he wrote a book that he came and autographed for Yeah. I mean, it's to do an analysis of
070Project 351 and like the the alumni from Hollist and where they've gone and what they've done. I mean, I know some that are currently or graduated via full scholarship from some of the top universities uh in the country. We've got some that are in state leadership positions. We have many who have started nonprofits. Um, now granted these are probably to be identified as a an eighth grader to become a future leader. What comes first, the chicken or the egg or what is the catalyst or what would that be? Uh, I think many of these individuals been great leaders on their own. Uh, and just you can see that that um leadership already at a very young age and that's very I I appreciate having a program like Project 31. >> We actually have Michaela the
071what was she a 2016 graduate I believe? >> Yeah. >> I'm sorry I forget her last name. Then like 2013 was when she received the project 35 >> 2017 maybe 2017 then I remember I she started as a um working for the nonprofit so gave us another link to um Carolyn Casey and and so forth. So Michaela came and presented and worked with Jay and other students. So is is it going to work? >> I think so. If not >> okay >> I'm sure Jay will give you grace. If not, we will hopefully post, you know, the presentations to and send it to you so you can view it yourselves. >> It's all right. Uh I'm >> Please take the time. >> I'll show the video. >> Uh I'll put some people hear some of
072his uh his pardon words as he head kind of heads into college. And so with that, I'll wrap up officially and open up to questions. I'm I'm curious about the um the [clears throat] student impact council. >> Yeah. >> Are those all were you all volunteers or how how did you get involved in that? Are you you are on >> Yeah. I uh I got an email sometime I think this year or last year. And what it was is like one of my teachers who saw like a lot of potential in me uh nominated me and I just got an email that asked if I wanted to join and then I took a Zoom call. I got to learn a little bit more about it and then I just accepted to uh join it. >>
073Great. And do you stay on it throughout is it a one year or >> I mean they can quit us whenever they want. >> The hope is that students stay stay with us. Um we specifically looked for 9th through 11th graders >> uh because we wanted to we knew year one would be not just rough but trying to figure out like what does this feel like for students. They have so many things happening in their life, >> right? >> Um that also trying to figure out like what's the right timing for this because they also participate in school clubs. They have after school stuff. So really trying to figure out like when this could happen. Uh so year one we knew was going to be like a work in progress. Um this upcoming year is
074I'm really excited for it to take over. hopefully even starts in the summer when we get together with this data convergence. Um, and it really was really the simple ask of just reaching out to reaching out to teachers and saying, um, I'm looking for students who who who care about safe and supportive schools in this work. This is what safe schools is. Uh, and if you can imagine if any of them had a sibling or a cousin that they would be saying, I want that kid to go safe and supportive school. Who's that student? Send me a couple names. And then I just reached out to them. Jay and I reached out to them together and we just said, "Here's what we're trying to do." Um, you know, maybe once in a we could find
075some swag or I'll bring some cookies and and I'll bring some [laughter] cookies. That's how I got. Uh, and and we had 15 students come forward and be like, we want to be there and we want to talk about it and when we get in the room, we have an awesome conversation. Uh, and so that's really the beginning of the work. Uh, and and the next piece is connecting them to our district pieces, right? So, I'd love for them to come and share next year about some of the stuff they're looking at or some of the challenges that they'd like to address. And I hopefully starts this summer being in the room with us leaders, being in the room with educators um in that work. >> So, I have a question about sort of the
076the next step of that. >> Yeah. So, I love the idea of like these round tables conversations, but what is the explicit work being done in the classroom around all I mean, you talked about some big things with executive functioning and the PBIS lessons. Um, I mean, even so far as like anti-racist, like what who is actually doing the teaching of this and are we following a curriculum so that it's across all grade levels or is it sort of peace meal as we go along? >> So, it's not peace meal. Um, I could even put a, you know, that could be a separate presentation, but um, and for all of those pieces, there's different things happening in different ways, right? And so, um, for instance, the SEAL piece, uh, K to 8, they're using ruler.
077That's a set curriculum, but it's also a set u approach of how to kind of think and build. Uh and that has that started last year and has continued uh through this year. Last year was almost like getting their feet wet. This year there's lessons happening at different times. There's actually time built into the schedule at elementary level. Middle school Rams does it at different pieces during some of their wellness blocks and the different pieces. So like different schools have figured out where to build some of this in and that's an example of that. Um, another example that you'll probably hear from our schools is around like different spaces where they pushed in different pieces. So, for instance, about three, four years ago, um, there was a a group of students at middle school, if
078you remember them saying we have 80 students who who volunteered to be advisers at Rams. Half of those were focused on um lessons that were connected to like Sandy Hook and kind of welcoming students when they come in and acknowledging students, that kind of work. The other half were really focused on um safe schools but using kind of an ADL some of the lessons that they have available for the community and they were pushed using that and developing that and that was peer-led studentled um and they're supported by some adviserss uh and so that's that's how that plays out at RAMS and so many ways and when I talk about that stew um I wouldn't call it peacemealing because really what we're saying is is that for some of the stuff we have a a
079consistent curriculum for some of it is how are we exposing students to these different pieces throughout the throughout the throughout their journey and how does a school make sense of that, right? The the the resources that might be available, teaching resources, counseling resources, staffing structure, their schedule structure at RAM, it's very different to elementary, meaning they also have to think about it differently. At Platentino, I remember that about 3 years ago, teachers created um what they were calling their safe and ported readalouds. there was really kind of a understanding of like making sure they're uplifting books that are focused around equity and NCL and they were doing readalouds across Plantino, right? That was their approach. So, um that's why I say in many ways it's almost like a a presentation in itself because it would
080almost have to talk about if these is the framework they were trying to get to, how's every school living getting there? And in many ways, that's where the individual flavors and autonomy comes in for schools to think about is like h how are we going to create that and how do we make that work in our in our district. >> Can I add to that too? Just obviously mentioned the Celtics playbook. So that training is specifically done at the state level through that program and then the peer leaders from the high school actually train the students at the middle school. And now because we've had this so many years, those students at the middle school have become peer leaders at the middle school and they're also supporting that work. But that's a very um scripted
081and you know they lessons are given to the students to do with with the middle school students. >> And then how do you monitor that? So how do we know that um students the executive functioning, self-awareness, relationship skills, the kids are building and applying those skills in their learning and play spaces? >> Yeah. So if we just I mean in thinking about for instance like um I'll I'll build my way up to that. So for instance uh our schools originally started refocusing and readjusting their PBIS frameworks right um so that's measured using uh something called TFIS fidelity inventories which is really really which is really around um a yearly measurement of of fidelity of implementation and then also around fidelity around the action plan that was set out the year before but how much fidelity
082have that has that come to life and so if you recall um I've also had past presentations where I've shared shared that TFI that that tier fidelity inventory uh rising a and um we have worked with the May institute where they would do that TFI right so there's also like a little bit of fidelity where it's not like we're just saying like you get an A and you get an A and you get an A it's someone who it's an organization that specializes and this is what they do to come in and talk to students talk to staff to observe um a meeting with an agenda to kind of see where schools are at and then and then come up with a a TFI high score. Uh and so um I've reported out in the
083past couple years and and they've consistently been rising and most of our schools were at 80%. So that's an example of that. U talking about like for instance executive functioning where we started with that the first kind of exposure with um that actually we we exposed districtwide was our um what do you call that the first day of school? The um you had her as your uh keynote. >> Yeah. Convocation. >> Convocation. Well, >> uh, and so we we launched in in kind of the convocation structure to kind of start some foundation building. And where we kind of took it next was every school had an opportunity to kind of build their own um, like let's say three-hour segment at their school with their teachers around how executive function might connect to what they're doing.
084And so for instance um at uh Placentino and Miller uh they really talked about and worked with her around how does this live within the work that they're doing. Um but also um how does it connect to kind of like the teaching and learning that's happening every day. Um executive functioning isn't a curriculum, right? It isn't a something directly taught. It's a kind of it's a learned aspect around how can we um support students understanding executive skills and then think about how do we build that into the way students experience school. So it's not a directly one thing that happens. um we're not at the place where I would say um you can go in and we have a rubric to measure with how much fidelity are we seeing executive skills being imple or executive
085skills that shape the classroom structure or etc. Um but when as we all know or for those that have kind of spent connected with educators you first start with like learning that concept then you start thinking about how does it make sense in what we're doing within our building or within our within what like the initiatives we have where does this fit you also start to kind of think about how do I bring this into my own individual classrooms or the students that I work with. Uh and then over time you then start to be like how do you start to measure fidelity or where are we seeing the impact of that? And if we're not seeing the impact we want, where's the tweaks? Where's the kind of re reorganizing of that work for it
086to happen? Because it doesn't mean the work's not important. What it means is we have to continue to grow that work. And so, um, in many ways, every school had an opportunity to build that in. For instance, here at the high school, uh, they worked with Peg Dawson to think about if they're shift not if, they're shifting into a new schedule next year, what are the executive skill demands for students in shifting that schedule? And also, what does that mean for like minutes planned? but also what are the executive skills they I was sitting here where they were looking at their um their rubrics I mean their their standards and they were they were finding the executive skills within that standard and then thinking about how does this come out in chemistry or English or
087other spaces and that's how the high school worked with Peg Dawson during their time for that and so that's kind of working towards the integration but very school-based and individuated in that way >> I guess I'm asking both kind of the implementation piece which Great. I think you answered um very fully, but also the the measuring the impact. So, for example, I'm wondering like if we went into classrooms, do we see students taking u more academic risks because they feel safer and participating more or um are we seeing students kind of like a decrease in bullying investigations or office referrals because students are managing some of those behaviors or their emotions themselves? They're developing their skills in their way. Are we looking for in addition to like kind of measuring the implementation across [clears throat]
088the schools, are we also looking at the impact on students developing those skills and how they're translating into those learning spaces? >> Yeah. Um, and to answer that, what one of the things I would say is that really what you're talking about is how is this work impacting their their academic learning on a daily basis, right? >> And their play time too. >> Yeah. And so one of the things that I would kind of bring this to is that one of the things and one of the structures we've had established over time is everything from learning walks um that schools were doing on their own but also districtwide learning walks um where we would be looking for that. We're not at a place where we would say within this learning walk, you know, let's focus
089on executive skills or that exact skill, but we were we we definitely have been in a space where uh we come back from those data walks or I'm sorry, those learning walks and we have conversations around like we saw the implementation of a ruler lesson or we saw um the way the teacher launched this in a really trauma-sensitive way in which like she was encouraging students certain ways. We saw the positive feedback here. we saw opportunities for students to struggle. Um, we're not at a place where we have a rubric where that's like fully implemented in our learning walk structure. Um, but I think that that's something that I would say is even um I don't say bigger than me because it sounds weird, but a central office thing or a a a like district-wide
090administrative thing to really think about like how do we build this into the evidence we want to see when we're doing burning walks, we're in a classroom. um which really speaks to kind of a bigger piece of that >> and I can just add to that when we present um all the principles and myself at the central office input on our goals at the end of the year part of the work that I shared at the beginning of the year if you recall was that as a central team we've been trying to work on and I'm sorry a leadership team all districtwide MTSS tier one because that has been the struggle right we've been very good about getting our tier 2 interventions and then tier three oftentimes with special had. And so we've really done
091a lot of work on that, but what hasn't really happened in the same way we've tried, but we really need to focus more energy on that tier one piece to hopefully keep our numbers down and give kids strategies before they have to go into a tier 2 or tier three situation. So you'll hear that embedded in our presentation on June 11th. And then also how are we looking at that in the learning walks. You'll also hear me talk about the data wise training that we identified earlier in the year. We had four administrators. I'll give you an update on June 11 on that. they'll be able to about the work that they've done this year. So, a part of is building our capacity districtwide as a leadership team and then identifying what the needs of
092teachers are. We definitely know that this is an ongoing focus to really go back and dig into the tier one. I'll also be sharing on June 11th our updated decap. There's some of us in this room that have been working all year to do a a robust revision of our decap district curriculum accommodation plan. So, I'll give you a copy. It's not quite finished. should be finished tomorrow, but it's been many months in the coming and you'll see I I'll actually bring the old one and the new one so you can see how much work we've done in that. And part of that is getting into the teachers hands before the end of this year and the focus being for PD next year. Now, what does this mean that we have this all available? Because
093sometimes people think the accommodations that are in our decap for tier are really tier 2 and three. A lot of the things should be offered to all students in tier one. And I think that's the retraining and the rephrasing framing and really just culturally kind of helping teachers to understand that you can offer this to anyone and yet you don't have to put them out to an intervention. That's the next step if these things don't work. So that's really I think I'm hoping that focus will be continuing. Um I know that we've shared that work with the incoming administration as well and we'll we'll share that in the future with you as well. >> I'll save some of my questions around that for next or >> sounds good [laughter] on my next list. Um you
094mentioned the Metro West Health Survey. how what how do you use that um to influence um the lessons that are being taught in the classrooms um at both the high school and middle school level to sort of affect change in that data and the way students are self-reporting some of those issues. Um so the way a um when I when we first you know launched in kind of this uh space of like let's wrestle with this data dementia west health adolescence survey data was not data that was being utilized in a in a way where outside of leadership uh our educators and um students and other people weren't seeing it and wrestling with it. Right? And so when we think about like where we came from, it's really hard to kind of think about well
095what is the shift in our classrooms or downstream if if we don't engage with the data to look at what is the data even saying. Uh and so when we first started this work um I started we did something called a data dive where we kind of started a mini version of what I was talking about that I'd like to do for August. Um and we started kind of sharing that data. Uh from there I had opportunities where I brought that data to our school counselor, school administ I mean um uh our student support personnel um also with different groups um in our community um and I've shared that data. We also had a Metro West Health survey night online where we shared that data with families. Uh and that was kind of the first
096start is just start exposing people to the data and start allowing people to start to think about like what does this mean for me in their own role that they live in right as a parent or a counselor or educator or a student or administrator. Um and then to even start the conversations around, hey, even though this is a middle school and high school survey, what might this mean for Miller, right? What might this mean for that incoming fifth grade group? And so, um, it was really the first two years is really around creating that culture. Um, this past year, um, our schools started kind of building that into kind of like their focus school improvement plans based on some of this data. They started, um, talking about, um, some of the different moves that
097they're doing uh, for that data. Often times the data is correlative. So, if anything, it's trend data. Uh and so in in many ways what schools have done is really think about like what are their uh for one what are their student resources or supports that are available at their school and how are they making sure the students have access to some of those based on whatever the data might be saying. For instance, um this past year, Rans Middle School has focused on this concept of like um using not just the in the pieces around the anxious generation book that people may have heard of around anxiety, but also just how mental health plays a part in rising anxiety that our mental health survey has shown, but that's just not just in across the board.
098Uh and so their focus was around that. And so they did PD for families. Um they've done professional development for their teachers. Um they've they one of the things that I'm sure uh they're going to talk about is their I think it's called their wellness um classes where they do a lot of but a lot of that has been focused around making sure that they're targeting and kind of providing um uh lessons around everything from I don't say anxiety reduction but like how to kind of address some of those symptoms that students might be feeling within classrooms without naming it anxiety because just because that says it's rising students to see that as they may not be diagnosed with that. Um and that's how Rams has kind of like tackled going from a hey anxiety
099has been rising over time so much more that is higher than for instance like this concept the the symptomology of depression and a middle school saying so here's what we're going to do here because our sixth grade has shown a high rise I mean not high rise but has an increase from fifth to sixth right and that's a targeted approach at Rams Middle School that really started about a year and a half ago and she's really continued to build her initiatives around that um and that's just one example, right? And so many ways I I I don't want to say you're looking for that, but I know in many ways in in our field, we're looking for a we saw this data point, so this is what we're all going to do or this is
100what our we're going to do in this space. But the reality is that what our schools and what have autonomy to do and had autonomy um is to is to be able to wrestle with that data and then to really think about how do we want to address it in our building based on the resources, based on the things we're working on. um and to try to create an impact on that. On the flip side, that data is correlative, right? So just because um I may have provided some lessons around stress reduction does not necessarily mean that it's going to have a direct impact because that data as I talked about the attendance data is a correlated data point that is impacted by multiple things happening at once. Um so in many ways our schools
101are triangulating what they're doing from how are we ensuring that our student support services are supporting students and understanding that concept to how are we organizing helping our parents understand how to support that to how are we thinking around executive skills for instance at Rams and they created this whole like schedule so that students could understand what was happening when which is directly connected to executive skills and this concept of anxiety so it's a multi-pronged approach that is really school-based and really kind of um owned that way and to be honest what I have seen over time is that when that happens schools own it much more they believe in it much more when they're given the autonomy to live it and to kind of come up with those answers around how to address it.
102Our role or my role has been around ensuring that we're looking at it, ensuring that that our schools are thinking about it and that they're thinking about how to integrate it while allowing and providing resources for our schools to think about. So what does that how does that make sense in my school, right? And who do I need to engage for that to happen? and we have this new round of data and we'll see if some of those data points have shifted which may be as a result direct result of what we've done. It may not but that doesn't mean that we have failed. What it means is we got to shift something then if it hasn't had an impact that we wanted to see. >> Any other questions? No. Okay. Thank you so much
103and thank you for being a part of the whole student um impact council. I think that's I just I love hearing the student involvement because I think you guys are the experts quite honestly. So thank you. Okay. >> Sure. Um so next we have Dr. Cotaldo with a special ed update. >> So the next time He introduces soup at dinner time meeting when we haven't eaten. >> He's going to actually bring the soup. >> The soup. >> Still I'm sorry. >> She is I have it as back up as she >> one second. You miss >> I do yours now. >> Don't go away. >> This one here. >> Right. >> Really? What happened? Jesus. >> No. What's your password? >> That's true. >> Do you need me to put it up? >> It's my
104bad password. >> Do you need me to put it up? Yeah, it is. All right. I It's >> I can throw it up if you >> I might have to have you do it. Hold on. Let's just try to >> Well, it was It had to be >> I'm going home now. [laughter] >> All right. Wait a minute. >> I think it got it. >> Okay. >> All right. One more second slideshow, right? >> Yes. >> Fingers crossed. >> All right. I also have a video which is like the star part of this, so it has to work. I don't know what we'll do if it doesn't. All right. So, thank you very much for allowing me to come tonight and my last presentation while I'm here. I'm very sad that I'll be leaving, but
105I know you're in good hands having uh Jess returns. So, I want to be able to give you some updated numbers and talk a little bit about how the year has gone. Hold on one second. I have an echo here. Let's see. Is that better? Yes. Uh, so still an echo. Uh, I wanted to show you the numbers. This is a little bit small. I'm well aware, but what I want to impress upon you instead of doing the charts that I've been doing all year and following the process that's been done in the past, I decided to compare the fall, the winter, and the spring. And so, you can look at the numbers and look at it closer on your chart. And I am I want to apologize that this came to you so late.
106We were having some technical problems today. Um, and I'm sure you're not surprised to hear that the way the night's been going. But nonetheless, I wanted to take a look at the numbers and see the total number of IEPs we've had in the district from the fall, the winter, the spring. I also wanted to bring out I don't have all the numbers for the winter. As you can see, there's some blanks although I have a total number. But the other important thing is that when you look at those numbers, it does not include out of district. So, and the reason why I didn't is because of who we're servicing in district was what I was concerned with and making sure we could take a look at these numbers. What I also want you to notice
107is while it was 575 in the fall, 579 in the winter, 558 when we pulled our numbers last week, which means the number of students who are receiving services on IEPs has gone down at this moment. It doesn't mean that it won't rise, but it has gone down. Hold on one second. I can still hear the echo. Trying to see if I can get rid of it. There we go. Um, so I wanted to point that out because it just means the work that's being done in the classroom, and I know Dr. Kusker addressed it addressed it. The work that's being done in the classroom with MTSS assisting students through the process and looking at all of the work we're doing in order to figure out if students need to be referred. It's starting to
108pay off and you can see that's evidenced here. might mean though the numbers might go up, but overall I think we're going to start to see some trends that the more fidelity we have with MTSS in the classroom, the fewer referrals you're probably going to have to special education, which is a good thing. We don't want to put everyone out of business. That's not our goal here. But the fact is we want to make sure every student has an opportunity to learn in their classroom. So I wanted you to see those numbers. I also wanted to see the population is fluctuating ever so much. We can see, of course, the numbers are very, very high at Miller. Uh they're a little bit lower at Rams. They drop off at the high school, which is quite
109typical. And they're pretty close to the state overall, 20.9% when you look at the whole district. All right, let's try this. Why is this not advancing on me? the arrow. >> I'm using it. >> Should I just say do it says you want to switch on? I'm going to close out. >> Is it? Yeah. >> Yeah. taking over. Can >> we stop sharing and let her take over? >> I got it. It'll bump you up. >> Thank you. I don't want to have an echo and I also don't want it to last an hour and a half. >> Okay, there you go. >> So, thank you. All right. So, around the district, what I wanted you to see is some of the things that we've saw this year. You're going to hear a repeat of
110a number of these items, but what I had a chance to participate in and observe around the district during the course of the year, just a few things. Unified sports, unbelievable program. Unbelievable. I was so excited to see how joyous the students are when they're participating in these programs. And I've participated and observed students in other districts as well. But how it's handled here, it's done with such dignity. The students are so invested. The families are so invested. It's really thrilling. Our language-based programs, we're very fortunate to have the language-based program associated with the landmark school. They've come in, they've done a lot of training. We've seen significant growth among most of our students who participate in that. So, that is uh was it Marthur um Stewart who used to say that's a good thing.
111It's a great thing actually. So the other thing is the transition meetings that are happening this year. We had so many opportunities to work with parents for students leaving preschool, advancing to kindergarten, leaving second grade, advancing to third grade, leaving fifth grade, advancing to sixth grade, and leaving 8th grade, advancing to 9th grade. And those changes are really significant for families, for kids. There's a lot of angst involved. And there was some great work that happened. and I got to go to a number of those transition meetings. They were very well informed and and well attended in many cases. I also I'm sorry this isn't white when it's close up sitting at your desk you can see it perfectly and then when you get to the screen it's not so easy but uh closing the
112gaps and looking at how we do our work how we can close up some of our gaps and make sure our work is really done with fidelity. A lot of work has been going into that this year and I'm really pleased. There's a lot of other items and I could go on and on, but I know we're a little bit behind. So, I'm going to wait and leave it for the end since I have a video I want to share with you. In terms of one area of recognition I want to give is to the CPAC group. You have an astounding astounding CPAC group. energy, creativity, compassion, brilliant ideas. They're fundraising. They're constant. They don't come and go. They're committed. And I'm not saying that because I want CPAC to write me afterwards, say, "Thanks
113for saying all those great things." I'm saying it because it's true. I have been in other districts where the reception of CPAC is nothing like the group that you have here. The things that they are doing are amazing and the way they planned for the entire year. They were already working on their um Halloween event. Uh the trunk trunker treat. I mean, we were working on the last time we met, we were connecting everybody so they could reserve and get it all organized. If something doesn't go well, they reflect on it and they correct it and they move forward. But just the money that they've given in grants and things like that, I I am aruck by the CPAC here. I really am. You're so fortunate to have such a great group of parents who
114are invested and they're in these roles and they do it free of t of their time when they have families and so forth. And we know because sometimes the students are tracing back and forth in the back of the screen wanting to get [snorts] into the action as well. Uh they do a lot of that fundraising. There's constant activities every time I speak with them. There's ways to meet up with parents, ways to meet up and help the district. and then working alongside them has just been a really great experience as far as I'm concerned. I feel I'm lucky to be listening to them. I don't know if I'm really giving much to them, but it's been great being able to work with them and I think you don't all get to see it. Some
115of you do, but I really want to highlight that that's been a a great item. The other thing I want to highlight is and and nobody Frank isn't here, but the other thing I want to highlight is buy a shirt to support CPAC. They are great shirts. I unfortunately can't find mine since I moved or I would be wearing it tonight. But please buy a t-shirt and support the organization because they're cleverly designed and they uh really serve a purpose. Some other items I just wanted to talk about is what I've been doing behind the scenes and other people have been working with me in the district that I believe over the next four years we've been very carefully managing the money and trying to look I've been looking out 5 to 10 years as
116much as possible but over the next four years through some very careful management of our outofd district tuitions we should yield approximately $58,000 in savings And I think that's great because what do we want to do? We want to make sure we can support the district. So, and and it's it's not that we are are doing anything wrong. Everything is doing right. But I wanted to say we've been very careful in how we plan this. Also, I wanted you to know that over the course of the year, we had a number of PRS complaints come in. And that is when a a family might file something with DESIE because they were concerned something didn't go right or I should say the BSEA something didn't go right with their student and then we've had to produce
117um materials to show that we believe what we're doing is the correct thing and in each of the complaints that were filed with the the BSA came back and they did decide in our favor that we were meeting the needs of students. So, I just want to show that our district is really stepping up to the plate and doing what they need to do or else we wouldn't be able to show that. And the last thing is during the course of this year and the medi any mediations we've had thus far, we have a couple more on the books to go, but any mediations that we've had thus far have really been resolved without with um without minimal budgetary impact. And that's important because sometimes when you get to the end of a uh mediation
118there it can be really frustrating and at the same time there might be a budgetary impact in which we have to put out monies to make up for something that we missed but that hasn't been the case and families have been really easy to work with and cooperative and we've been able to come to resolution in each of our meetings thus far. So that's an important thing I wanted to highlight in this district in terms of some future suggestions that I thought would be worthwhile considering and again take everything with a grain of salt but I think would be really really helpful. The way I set up the numbers tonight, I know we've often done five-year comparisons, and I think that's really helpful to do it, but maybe only do it once a year. And
119then in between that once a year, I really think what would be helpful for all of you is to have monthly reporting on the numbers of students in special education, the number of students who might be part of out of district, the number of students who are currently on IEPs, the number of students who are currently on 504s. And then you if you do that over the course of 10 months and I've done this in other districts I've been in you can look at the some of the trends in your district at the end of the year and think about what's happening where there are things that are working where things are that you might want to tweak. But I find that to be really helpful. I also feel that as a district with the
120principles, I did this in another district where if there needs to be restraints of students that there is a monthly review of the restraints just to make sure where the district is sitting, what are we doing with our students, is there any kind of assistance we need from the outside to help train us and so forth. Uh I said that we should really and my recommendation is that we should do month of review of referrals to special education within the school so they understand why students are being referred. Are students being referred because we see that students are struggling in the classroom? Is it coming from the school? Is it that parents have concerns? We should really be looking at where those sources are coming from. uh a monthly review of the number of students
121who leave special ed because if you notice our numbers have gone down this time. It doesn't mean they won't go up, but I believe we're starting a trend. The more fidelity with MTSS, the more the numbers will diminish. It's just how it's been in other districts that I've worked in. And I think that is the course that you are now on. I also believed to hold at least two meetings per year with the entire special education staff together. I find it really helpful. This year I was running into schools and I know all of our SSAs will run [snorts] monthly meetings with all the staff in their buildings. But I think [clears throat] it's really helpful when the entire district-wide staff can come together and then have who'sever sitting in the director or assistant superintendent,
122whatever it is presently at that time, come and speak to everybody about goals for the year, what they're looking at, trends happening, things that are really working well. and give everybody a chance to see each other and and talk about it. And then the last thing I put in here is monthly building meetings to see the connections between MTSS and special education referrals. And what I mean by that, and it's actually something that when they're doing our review, they're they're sort of looking at that actually without documenting it, but if we're doing our MTSS with fidelity, are the students then being referred back out to special education services, they don't [cough and clears throat] need to be. Or is it possible that our students are getting the right kind of support right in the classroom
123because we can target the instruction the way they need it? It does go back to the decaf where the decap will talk about things that all that's good for all students. So you can't tell me that there every single student in this district at one time or another in the course of their 12 years here or 13 years if you count kindergarten hasn't needed to get up and take a walk. There has to be every student. I was one of those students and I believe that we look at all of our students and say what do they all need? And if we're delivering those items to them with fidelity in the classroom, you will see a reduction because the students will have what they need for skills in order to maintain their presence in the
124general education or inclusive setting. [snorts] I did leave up here and I feel like I don't have the whole slide up there. >> I don't know why it's not showing. I can't figure that out. >> Hold on one second. >> On my end, I can see it. So, >> is it there? I think it might be. Nope, it's there. It is. Sorry, it just seems very low today. So, what I did is I put up um just an outline of where the continuum programs are so you can see where the numbers are presently and what is happening. Uh in the last column, you'll see transitions NA at three of the schools. It's not that we're avoiding transitions. That's strictly an 18 to 22 program. So, I want you to understand why you might see an
125NA somewhere. Placentino does not have a language-based program. The high school does not have a language-based program, one that's attached to Landmark. That's why we we have some NAS there. But I still wanted you to see where the numbers are right now and how important these programs are that we have to maintain them in order to support our students and keep them welcomed in our district. Go to the I just went to advance the slide myself. It's not working. um a couple of recommendations I made about paraprofessionals and again these are things you can think about use them don't use them I recommend you you think about them and use them because of course I put them down in the slide but um more does not need mean better we could have 300 paris in
126the district we don't but we could have 300 districts in the paris in the district and it doesn't mean it will make the district better my feeling is go deep not wide as much as we can and make sure we support our pairs in a way that will help them be really effective with our students. Professional development is where all of that skill base will be built. So I really hope that you will continue to allow the par profofessionals to receive professional development. Uh a lot of times I hear the the paris saying they'd like more learning opportunities so that they can handle students when they have emotional setbacks or they might become disregulated. I think that's important. I know when I did the executive function workshops this year, I got a, you know, I
127had them write evaluations at the end and if they were critical of me, they were critical of me. But what I got a lot of was this was really useful information to use in the classroom. So, we might want to think about that as well. Uh, I said that paraprofessionals should be more programspecific. So instead of saying you put seven students in a program and each of them happens to have a parro with them which makes a very crowded room physically to be honest with you because the rooms aren't always that big. It would be a good idea to consider taking each of the continuums and making sure there's for instance two parasigned to every single continuum and then look at the needs after that and see if we need to add additional people in.
128But we want our students and I really believe in Paris wholeheartedly. I want that to be clear. But I also want our students to feel that they can gain more and more independence. And if you have seven adults and six students, that's really hard to do in a classroom. Not that they're not useful. I want to make that clear, but go deep, not wide. And then I feel really wholeheartedly that again this was happening in another district that parpel should not be hired maybe because we think it will help bring more money in its circuit breaker. It really doesn't is what I learned the hard way. So I'm recommending that we think use paraprofessionals the way we really need to use them. And the other recommendation I made is please don't use them as substitutes
129every day because it takes them away from students who really do need them. But you know upon occasion it's realistic. You might get a run of the flu. Yep. you might need them but or there might be an unexpected a group of teachers have to go out for a PD session but overall our paras if they're assigned to a classroom or assigned to students they should stay with the classroom or stay with the students as much as possible is a recommendation you can go to the next one please [snorts] and then in terms of the integrated monitoring review once upon a time it was called the CPR coordinated program review I also thought the fact it is an ironic thing that you would need to recover somebody if they have a heart attack and having
130the same initials is really not healthy. They did change it to the tiered focus monitoring. It is now the integrated monitoring review and what is it and what should we expect. So the purpose of the review is for compliance. It's more than that though as I try to tell people it's much much more than that. It's to help us really look at our work. If we are not doing something correctly this is an opportunity to correct it. In the old days, we used to send all of our information to Desessie and about six months later, a report came back. They went, "Yes, no, yes, no, yes, no, yes, no, fix this, fix this, fix this, fix this, no more." When they send it out now, they'll call you and say, "Look, this doesn't really make
131sense. Can you fix this now?" And they'll fix it. We'll fix it now. And then they don't count it when they do the final report. There's going to be some things that you will have in your report. It's a reality. I've only met one district this year that's had a perfect report. Uh we have a couple things that we really have to wait till the summer because I need to have just back to do them. So as a result, those might have a mark that says please fix this over the summer. It's not a bad thing. It's just to make sure it all coordinates well. But it helps us to refine our work, increase our capacity, and do it with accuracy. And it helps us all to be on the same page, which is incredibly
132important. It only happens once every six years, thank goodness. So, the next time you have another one of these is six years from now. There'll be a mid cycle in three years to just do a check-in, but you won't have a major review for six years. And then, um, a group of us, including Dr. Kusker and I have met with the reviewer from DESIE, who will be here next week with two other individuals over the course of the year, and she's been coming back saying, "Could you send me this? Could you send me that?" And originally the list was pages about 13 pages long. When we met with her last week it was five. Now it's down to like two. So you can see by doing that we've been able to do the corrections in
133advance. And then she's identified some items for us to think about as we move forward. So in terms of the three individuals will be here next week, June 2nd. All three will be on the grounds. They'll be visiting the high school. They'll be visiting Rams and they'll be visiting Placentino. The next day, the lead reviewer will be coming to the district. She will be going only to Miller. They're not here an incredibly long time during the day like we thought they would be. They sent out the schedule. We sent it off to the principles. They're only here for about three and a half hours each of those days and then they're gone. During that time, they'll be interviewing the principles. They'll be interviewing some of the interventionists. They'll be walking around and taking tours of
134the school and looking at some of the classrooms just to give you an idea of what it will look like. The SSAs will be helping by giving the tours and addressing questions about the classrooms that are specific whether it be OT or SLP or a continuum classroom. That would not be good use of the principal's time to be honest with you. We want them ready for the interview they need to participate in. Um, I'll be in the buildings jumping between the three buildings on day one. Obviously moving over to Miller on day two so that I can answer any questions. They'll be stationed in each of those buildings. And then after they depart, it's usually about 8 to 12 weeks before they give a report. But every time it changes, it's no longer 6 months.
135So if it comes sooner, it's usually sent to the superintendent and to in this case, it would be just for the assistant superintendent. We'll be leaving the reviewer the name so they know who to send it to because otherwise they'll be sending it to the wrong addresses. So, we'll have that all updated. Some final thoughts on the integrated monitoring review. Any adjustments that need to be made with the handbooks? There are a couple. They're going to happen during the summer. I'm going to have Jess Bey do it with our legal counsel to make sure everybody's in compliance across all four buildings. Some things have changed since we put them out last time. And so we want to make sure rather than my redoing them that they're done with Jess's voice and and our legal council's
136voice together. Our MTSS progress continues to grow. We just need to be sure that we keep really copious notes on our work. One of the things they want to do is see all the notes of the in between when we meet, things like that. We don't always have all our notes. So we'll make sure that happens in the future. Um if when they're looking at the classrooms, if there's any needed physical changes, I'll be notifying Dr. Jordan will be notifying facilities things that they can be working on over the course of the summer because we'll know now and why not get started when the students aren't in the classroom if we can work it in. I can't say we will, but I know Dr. Jordan can advise us. I also recommend that we enlist or
137contract somebody to come in and do a complete review of your special education programs next year. It's been a number of years. I couldn't personally get to all the things that components that I would want to do and interview the teachers and so forth, but what Desi is saying is they want to see one done every other year. I I'm not sure how you could do it every other year in some cases, but it has already been this year or last year, the year before. So, the earliest you had it was now four years ago. So, you really need to do one just to make sure your programs are where you want them to be. an outside person coming. It's very important because they see it with a different eye than I would being in
138the middle of it or Jess being in the middle of it. So, that's a recommendation I'm making to you. And it's quite possible the reviewer will make the same recommendation. And the other thing is to just keep an eye on your graduation dates and your end dates. The last day for seniors and the last day for our students. The state law is 12 days apart, no more than 12 days apart. So when you're scheduling your calendars looking forward, just think about that for yourselves. Okay. All right. And then I thought I had the names out of people. >> It doesn't really want to stop at that last one. Anyway, what I want to say is we're going to have a word with I decided to do something a little different. This is 17 minutes. I
139would have brought you popcorn. But what I wanted to bring out is I asked all the SSAs instead of my talking about each of the schools. If they would please talk about what's happening in their schools and be able to address how they're seeing things this year. I'm going to tell you I had to cut this down or you would be here for the next two hours. I said to them 3 to five minutes and I was getting 20 minute segments. So, we had to do a lot of cutting today, which is one of our tech problems that we had unexpectedly. Doesn't want to play. >> I didn't share because >> I used a different format than Jerry Elder. We embedded it in >> the slide presentation. >> I might need to send that to
140you, >> which hopefully will come up. >> Oh, there we go. We are not Academy Award people. Greetings. My name is Beth Fitz Mars and I'm the early childhood coordinator at the Pleasantino Elementary School. I'm deeply grateful to Dr. Pato for offering me the opportunity to come and share the good with you this evening. The preschool of Placentino is coming along. It's a lovely place for our children to learn and to grow and to play. Our children are developing positive peer relationship skills and most important social emotional learning skills while also preparing for a successful transition to kindergarten. We're in an integral part of the greater Pleasantino community and the dedicated leadership team takes care to incorporate preschool into all school activities. For example, in the preschool, we use CARE, which is the Plantino PBIS
141system, and we also use Ruler as our social emotional learning curriculum. As as the first school personnel that many families encounter, our staff take seriously their obligations for family engagement and work hard to connect and cultivate positive relationships with each and every family that we have the pleasure and the honor to work with. Our staff is focused on the future as well in creating more and more opportunities for children to learn and grow. The staff is embracing professional learning opportunities in communication in inclusive practices and comprehensive assessment systems. We do sadly say goodbye to one of our treasured educators, Mary Lou Redclick, as she enters into a very well-deserved retirement, and the leadership team, and Placentino is well on its way to finding a wonderful new team member. The future is bright at the preschoolantino.
142Thank you again so much for the opportunity to share with you this evening. I hope you all have a great rest of your year. Greetings. My name is Lisa Robinson and I serve as the student services administrator at Plastentino Elementary School. Thank you to Dr. Catalo and the school committee for the opportunity to share some of the important work happening within the student services department at Plastentino. This year, our student services team has remained focused on supporting the academic, social, emotional, behavioral, communication, and executive functioning needs of all learners while continuing to strengthen our inclusive practices across our school community. I'm incredibly proud of the collaboration, professionalism, and dedication demonstrated daily by our educators, specialists, related service providers, pair of professionals, counselors, and support staff. At Plastentino, we believe that all students should feel a
143sense of belonging, connection, and success within their school community. Our teams work closely together to provide supports and services within a least restrictive environment whenever appropriate to ensure students receive their individualized instruction per their individual education programs across the classrooms. We continue to strengthen our teaching practices to increase access to grade level curriculum for all students and to foster independence, confidence, and self- advocacy. One of our focus areas this year has been strengthening our understanding of executive skills across grade levels. Staff engaged in professional learning and collaborative problem solving related to the executive skills of attention, organization, emotional regulation, task initiation, flexible thinking, selfmonitoring, and independence. Teams have worked to identify current practices that are successful, embed new executive functioning supports into their classrooms and develop interventions through the use of visuals, routines, movement breaks,
144explicit instruction, environmental changes. And we know that this helps students to learn better. Thank you so much for allowing me to share the elementary school student services year. It has been a wonderful year and we're growing together and creating great memories here at Miller. From welcoming new special education staff to having the best day at Special Olympics. Each day in between, the 2526 school year has been full of smiles. As we said goodbye to Wendy Krauss and her retirement, we welcome Flora Veron in her place who has jumped in and continued to grow our motor group. Students work in groups of support for OT, KOD, and PT along with our amazing pair of professionals to improve their motor skills through games and activities each week. In partnership with Holland Park, we watched students participate in
145unified basketball this year and heard all about the incredible moments of our students came to school each week, sharing their victories and enjoyment. We joined Medway, Medfield, and Ashland for special this year. [clears throat] Students had the most incredible day. So, I wanted to share some photos with you. Here in the building, many fun Fridays were had by all of our continuums. Paint pouring and walking field trips along with, of course, some enjoyment of Mr. kind in his Friday weekly costumes. We can't wait to see what the 201620 school year will bring. This year will surely be hard to talk. Thank you. >> Hi everyone. I'm Tessa Pinadosi. the student services administrator at Rams and I want to thank you for letting me share have the opportunity to share um some of the great things
146we've been doing this year through student services. This year we really focused on our social emotional learning from a personal and a local focus. So these are some of the locations and activities that our students have been able to participate in um donate to and work with um to support and give back to the community. Here are some pictures. Um, our continuums were able to do a community trip to Unity Farm and Sanctuary in Sharon. They collected donations. They went to the farm. They learned about the animals and gave back to the farm. They also were able this year to um work through and um donate to two local homeless shelters. So, within um the school day, they collected donations for clothing during the holiday time. And then they also made sandwiches around the holiday
147time as well and dropped off sandwiches to homeless shelters. So again, our focus this year has really been about the community um and how we can give back and um learn about um everyone around us in the inclusion and acceptance. Um, another thing we've been doing is that we have really focused on working with um, other schools in the district. So, we had partnered with three different classrooms at Plastentino where our students would come up with a theme um to work with and they'd find books around um, social skills, social acceptance, inclusion. Um, and then we partnered with three classrooms. They would go down to the classrooms, they would read the books, and then they created an activity that um the kids could do after, so to leave them, which is so fun. Um we
148have unified basketball. Um this is our second year doing unified basketball. I'm sure many of you saw our highlight on WBZ. Parent [clears throat] was able to connect us and do an MVP story for our unified basketball players. Um which was so fun. Um this year the community really got involved in unified basketball. um all our events, our our games, there were so many students and teachers. Um it was just a fun experience to be out on the court with them. Our eighth grade um peer leaders are the ones that volunteer to support our students playing unified basketball and it was just um such a heartwarming um season. But on top of that, we were able to bring unified theater to RAMS this year. Um and this was um the work of a senior um
149Levi Donghue um created this project of bringing unified theater to really think about how are we um providing these opportunities not just in sports um but in the arts as well. So uh Levi Kane he did a project here. He partnered with Alicia Thomas, one of our special education teachers. He wrote a script. They um they had peers come through ramps block and with our um unified theater um participants and then they put on show and parents were invited to the show as well. Um this was again just another incredible inclusive opportunity um to provide um access and um this high level of um inclusion in outside of the classroom. Um, so we were really really excited and thankful for Levi and his project um, and wanting to bring it. We're hoping that this is
150something we can continue [music] in years to come and that there's other high schoolers that are just as um, passionate about theater and can partner with us as well. Um, we're also hoping to bring more unified sports to the um, middle school as it's been such a great turnout and I couldn't thank our teach our staff [snorts] more. Special Olympics is always a hit. Um, so this year we Medway hosted Special Olympics. It was a soccer theme, so all the kids have fun out on the pitch. Um, next year we get to host in Hollist and it's such a great time to bring in those five towns. Um, it's a special day for families, for students, for staff. Um, the new New England Revolution um was kind of one of the hosts this year with
151us in Medway. Um, and so we're so excited next year to think about how to make um, Special Olympics um, in Holland because that's great. These are some fun pictures from that day. There's so many. It was kind of hard to choose. Um, but you could just see the smiles on everyone's face of um, being able to share this day with our surrounding community. This was something new this year as well. Um we had a lot of student voice and advocacy um this year which is what we hope for as students become into middle school and going into high school. And this year what we had was we had a student who um is on the autism spectrum. and he came to um administration and he wanted to share more during autism awareness month about
152what autism is um and what it's not and to try to really um share facts and teach and um also provide reason of why these myths or stigma um should not exist. So, he came to us with a proposal um and we worked with him um to [snorts] kind of support him with this. And not only did he create this amazing bulletin board in the hallway for all students to be able to see, he created a presentation and got up into his seventh grade um social studies class and presented all about autism, what it is and what it's not in front of the entire class. his vulnerability um brought tears to my eyes seeing his video of it and just um the and one of the reasons why he was so comfortable doing this was
153actually after challenge day. So challenge day brought um an awareness to him of that others feel very similar things to him and he really wanted to share like how he felt. Um and so being able to get up in front of a seventh grade class and um present on who he is and was just an incredible thing. Along with this um autism advocacy uh we also acknowledged and recognized um women's history month in our pathways continuum. Every Wednesday had a famous quote from a um important female in history. Um and during the morning announcements, one of the students would come down and share the quote over the morning announcements for all to hear. Um again, just to have more student voice and more advocacy for what the students are hoping to bring to their middle
154school experience. Here um is our Rams Care. And so this is not new. We have really launched PBIS over the past few years. Jesse Conan has been a um amazing contribute um contributing to this um to really changing um our culture in the building. So, Rams Cares um it's our PBIS um model and so it means that we are compassionate, accepting, respect, we show our effort um for all and so we have a challenge every year um and it's a home room challenge and so every student participates um they go in they create a plan together so it's working in problem solving, collaboration um creativity, how do we as a home room want to represent care? Um so they design, they have to work, they have to split up the the um jobs across all
155different students and they um create these posters and [laughter] then they have um some staff members go around and vote on which ones they feel like um kind of show care. So these are some examples of how classrooms really were focusing um on care here at RAMS. Um this is something that we have really um it's been a big focus for us for years now and it's you can just feel it in the hallway. Um our students they just show um middle school is kind of a roller coaster but overall our students always show compassion for others the acceptance of everyone. Um it's just been an incredible experience to watch um us go through this. So, um I again really I thank you for taking the time and letting me share about these amazing things
156that we have going on here at Rams and um I couldn't um I couldn't love my job more um and always appreciate anytime um anyone [snorts] has any questions and thank you again for all your support um with all of these um amazing things we've been able to bring. Have a great evening. >> Good evening. I'm Kim Condan, the student service administrator for the high school. I apologize for not being able to join you tonight, but I am excited to be able to share with you some of the news from the high school this past year. Our teachers and students have been incredibly busy and creative. Starting with Classroom [clears throat] Creations, which is a small studentrun business designed to enhance learning experiences and promoting entrepreneurship among our students. Our classroom works with students that
157are in our lift services, which is ages 18 to 22, and who are working to build independence in employment and life skills. Classroom Creations aims to provide a platform for students to apply their creativity and skills to create and sell seasonal crafts to district staff. Here are a few examples of their work. In addition, we have expanded our course offerings for students who may require additional support and scaffolding in the general education classes. These are our bridge classes and the teachers have been working very hard to expand these opportunities for next year. I'm excited that we will now have these classes in math, science, history, and English. This year we have had families share that they are extremely thankful that we have classes that are just right for their student. All of our bridge classes
158are co-taught with a general education teacher and a special education teacher. The idea for these classes really came about from one of our amazing special educators who saw this need three years ago. through her hard work and dedication, it is very exciting that we are able to expand these offerings for next year. As you may know, we had many students across the district participate in the Special Olympics back in April. We are proud of our athletes and their hard work. At the end of the games this year, the torch was passed to Hollist as we will be hosting next year. We are extremely excited. Please be on the lookout for more information next year about how the community can support the athletes. Polist High School is also extremely lucky and proud to offer unified basketball,
159unified track, and unified theater which was started by a student. We recently held a junior senior prom where several students in our continuums attended and danced the night away with their peers. It was an amazing experience and highlighted inclusivity here at Hollist High School. I want to take a minute to thank the dedicated staff at the high school for all of their hard work in ways that they continue to find to support and include all students. I am grateful to work with all of them. Thank you and have a great night. >> So, thank you for listening. I would have loved to have had them come tonight, but everybody had an obligation and I felt they needed to be with their families. It would be great next year if they can come with enough notice
160to share what they did this year. You can see how much goes on and yet you don't really hear about a lot of it because it's hard to get that kind of news out and we cut those down. There was a lot more there but we couldn't have it here. You'd be here all night. [clears throat] So hopefully they'll be able to come. I'll also just say the Miller School student services administrators, Chelsea Cardinal, she didn't introduce herself, but I did want you to know where the voice was coming from behind the scenes there. So, I want to thank you very much for allowing me to come here and work in the district. It has been a real pleasure getting to be meet everybody, work with everybody, and observe all the incredible, incredible work happening
161in the classrooms. And I want to really wish everybody well this year for the rest of the year as well as into next year. So, thank you. Thank you. >> I I had one quick question. Um, is there any way we can put up slide two? I just want to make sure I understand these numbers because usually we >> I have to Dr. Kusa do it. Let me go back. I'll just >> That's the numbers one. >> It is. Yeah. It just it looks a little different than the way I've seen it in the past. So, I want to make sure I have an understanding of it. Um, I was I was pulling up the presentation from last May and just to compare because I do think it's sometimes helpful to see the the directions.
162I know between 2024 and 2025, our 504s went up by 79. >> Um, and it looks like if we went from a to a 286 and 504s this year, we also went up, but not by quite as much. So, um, an increase of about 21. So, I I mean I do think it's it's important to to monitor where it's going up. It looks like the out of district um stayed about the same. Is that your understanding? From 25 to 26. >> Mhm. >> Okay. The question I had was on the IEPs because typically it's always like presented to us as like one number and I know May of 25's number was 574. Um, when I add up these numbers of Placentino through high school, I get to 558. But I guess my question is, are
163there additional IEPs that aren't counted here? Because this is very school specific, like preK, Placentino, Placentino, Miller, Rams, High School, and I know we are also required to I think required to monitor IEPs when we have kids in other schools, right? But they're Hollist kids. Is that correct? You mean when parents place children in private schools at private expense like a Milton Academy or something? >> Correct. We still monitor the IEPs. >> We monitor the IEPS, but they're not included in this number. >> Okay. So, they're not included here then because in the past we had those. So, I just I would like and again this isn't this can be like a follow-up request. I would just like to know from May of 26 the total number of IEPs. So what we see here plus
164any of the privates just so we can keep we can compare it to our number of last year which because at first I was like wow we went from 574 to 558 but my concern was those numbers weren't there >> and then I mean honestly it not to get too excited by it because I think the percentages stay the same because we had a a enrollment dip from 200814 to 2665. So, I think our average is still around 20% unless there's some really high private numbers out there. And that's the part I just wanted to make sure. >> And I I did write that the total you saw it was 20.9 total on the um in the red there >> for the within this district in this school. But I guess I just I'm I'm
165interested in those other numbers too just so I can compare apples to apples. >> Yes, I will I will get that number for you tomorrow. In my head I'm going I think it's 28. But I don't want to mislead you. So let me look it up. >> Thank you very much. I appreciate at the bottom. >> Um, >> I don't know if that's the move that's being referenced there, >> but is that IEPs or just a total like that's what I'm trying to understand because they might be 504s. It could be something different, but I think we should be able to compare it year to year. >> Okay. And of course, I just want to also make sure we understand that sometimes when our students, it can happen in various ways in districts when students
166are attending a private school at private expense. Sometimes parents will bring their children back to get services in a district, but a lot of times now and more often than not, the schools are actually providing the services within those private schools. They have people hired who are delivering those services. So even if the students have an IEP, they're not accessing those services through us at all. They're accessing the services completely through the school they're attending. And then they're not reported at us. [clears throat] >> Exactly. >> Okay. Any other questions? >> All right. Thank you very much. >> Thank you so much. >> Okay. Always good to go last. Um, so I just wanted to put together some slides in response to a request um, a few weeks ago. I know there were a lot
167of I don't see them. Um, some of the information that was shared on social media, some of it accurate, some of it inaccurate. I think there's all, you know, things can escalate when sometimes just having the facts to be able to respond to is helpful. Um, so I know there was some conversations related to specifically bullying, but I wanted to talk more about just generally student incidents and investigations that we do as a result because there is a lot more that happens beyond just the bullying investigations that are investigated. And sometimes you'll find that the investigations that take place that may not even been a bullying request or alleged bullying um or end up as bullying are still thoroughly vetted in the same type of process. It's just how we report them as a result.
168So uh I'm going to talk a [clears throat] little bit about the types of incidents, what's the definition of bullying, some other definitions that are related to the bullying um law, what DESI requires us to report and just again on just on specifically the bullying the 2526 data related to that and then I will show you a little bit about the documentation process and some recommendations that I have put forward that I think would be um helpful for next year. But I also shared these with the staff that will be here managing this and they also um felt that the recommendations were valid for next year as well. So all the incidents that we do have to report I won't read all of it but bullying drug violence um anything we have related to specific
169disciplinary and actions by students that have been investigated does have to be reported in some manner to dese and there are different codes for that and we really have to document in school out of school suspension removal and all of those types of disciplinary actions. However, um I will say that's one of my recommendations. You'll see later is related to how we report. So, I'm fairly confident that we have been vigilant about how we're investigating and how we're responding to parents. I can't say it's a perfect science. What I will say though, in some cases, I think we need some more um improvement on how we're documenting it in our power school and moving forward and what gets reported to Desi. So sometimes we I have found out that what has been reported to the
170state may not be as accurate. I think this year you'll find we're getting better and better with that and that has been something you'll see in my recommendations as a result. So again I won't read the whole definition but all of the people in the school district have to be um part of this conversation. It doesn't have it can be staff students all of the above. Um and if we get an expectation or you know request from parent or a staff member or we hear something from students it can initiate a bullying um investigation as a result of multiple types of reporting. But there are five particular pieces that fall into the definition in order to determine whether it is or not bullying. So it really does it cause physical or emotional harm to the
171victim. places the victim in reasonable fear of harm to himself or any damage to his property. Creates a hostile environment at school for the victim, infringes on the rights of the victim at school. So those four all have to be part of this. It's not a one and done. There's multiple things that go into it. Or if those are not applicable, it would be number five. Does it materially and substantially disrupt the education process or the order orderly operation of a school? And this is work that we had. I took some of this information right from slides that our legal counsel Katie Minult has done training annually with our staff um for the administrative staff. I did also put in of course it's not showing here the screen has to be fixed but on the
172bottom of the slide I did link in the bullying prevention policy for people when this gets uploaded to the website and this definition also applies to cyber bullying not just physical or other types of bullying in district related to that the two definitions that I put forward here I think that also um is comes up in the process and questions from parents what is a hostile environment it's a situation which bullying and causes the school environment to be permeated with intimidation, ridicule, insult that is sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of a student's education. Understanding that definition is helpful to our administrators when they're determining whether or not it does rise up to bullying. And similarly with retaliation, making sure that anyone who reports does not have get does not get intimidated or
173harassed related to their reporting, people have to feel safe to be able to report. And the part that we really need to focus on is that it can be done anonymously. And that's almost like the, you know, that's a safe part is that they have to give you enough information, but that we do get sometimes students reporting things on like Sandy Hook reporting. But if we don't have enough information, it doesn't mean we're going to be able to investigate. But at least we can look into it if we get some information. It has to be reliable and it can't just be, you know, sometimes the anonymous part is hard because we can't tease out what the validity of that is. But we will at least try to do our due diligence and all of this
174is what DESIE requires from us. So we have to report all of the bullying in data to the department. The number of allegations, the number of nature of them, the number of students disciplined for engaging in any of this and then any other information required by the department. I have to say part of the reason I think our data is not always 100% accurate going to daddy is because this is a ton of work and I think uh people don't always realize that our the bandwidth of our administrative team we have not added positions we really do need more administrators in the district so I do in my conversations with our building leadership I do confidently feel that they are doing all the process I'm not always sure the codes are accurate because there's certain
175codes you have to put into power school in order for our data person to then pull that out. So I think that's where the work has to be done and better um understanding those codes and just certain boxes have to click. So this is a learning curve. We've been improving this area. We created a process on um power school a few years ago and this certainly is room for improvement but I do feel like the process is being followed at the district at the school and district level. So with that for this year as of May 27th so far there have been 17 bullying investigations and seven of those have been deemed bullying and they will be reported to desty at the end of the year. So th again the codes are there ready to
176go and I I will say having followed up after our conversations I did follow with each building to make sure that all of those are in there accurately. So, I feel very confident with the number that are going um to Desi this year. But again, this is an area that of work and ongoing improvement to make sure we're doing this all year long. I also wanted to show you a little bit. This is on the right side. This is a screenshot of Open Architect. We shared with you earlier in the year, just in last year as well, all of the work we're doing to enter our incidents for all of our data for students and triangulating all of that. Open Architect has been incredibly helpful for helping us see other areas of concerns. So, while
177I shared with you that there were 17 incidents of bullying that were investigated and seven of those have been deemed to have been bullying, these are the other incidents that you'll see were are being reported through Power School and some of them many of them still had to be reported to the state as well. So, I know it's a little bit small there, but you'll see um there were 63 things that were nonreportable and all of these other things. You don't have all the detail. There's much more detail in there, but I wanted to also not get too technical on that, but I wanted you to see that we do take it very seriously. And then powers school, which is where our staff administrators are putting all of this information in, uploads on a regular
178basis to open architect, which then our administrators are able to use as a tool to triangulate all the things that some of you asked with Jarielle earlier, and then it also will go to Desi from that from Power School as well. So given that, I know I'm going very fast. um by being mindful of the time. So, I really do strongly feel that we need to have better oversight with um having making sure we're putting the protocols in place that we're reviewing this regularly. So, I'm recommending that our tech director and assistant superintendent of student services review the reporting procedures annually and meet with our data specialist before some of these reports are uploaded to DESIE. I think that's been somewhat of a we need better checks and balances for that because our administrators, you
179know, it's it's a lot of work to enter this information. So, I think they need constant reminders so that they don't get bogged down with at the end of the year now I'm trying to put 50 incidents in. We need to document as it's happening so we don't fall back into in some habits with that. I also think and we have done a lot of this but as people leave and come annual training and retraining of all administrators about this documentation in our school. I also think it would be a very strong recommendation of mine that we do a minimally a quarterly review of the incidents. So rather than trying to panic at the end of the year when our desk you you probably have to upload this right Hillary. Oh, you don't. That's not
180part of yours. Oh, okay. Good for you. [laughter] >> I talk about But at the end of the year, sometimes our data specialist is looking for this information and now it's May and June. Crunch time is happening, graduations, all of that. It's very hard to go backwards and try to get all of that in there. So, I feel like having that oversight as we're going, I'd like to say monthly, but at least for now, quarterly having our assistant superintendent of student services because um that is the role that has helped uh create a lot of this documentation process on P school. And so I would highly recommend that they are going in there and then reminding because I feel like a central office leader does have to be have that oversight in order to ensure
181that we're getting the right information to families but also um out to Desi as well. And I also feel like um there's been some not always receiving that at central office when we do get bullying complaints. I think we need to put a better system in place so that at least we're aware. Um, we usually do find out when bullying has been determined, but we're not always aware as it's happening and being investigated. And I just think it's important that we provide some oversight support to our buildings um, related to that. And I think I mentioned at the last meeting that I've already worked on engaging with Katie Minult who again has worked she's our student services support person for legal and I already reached out to her and she's very excited to come work
182with you and also work with staff and families to help answer on all this information present on this however way you would like to do that. She would be also willing to come and just present at school committee as well. Um so but I think it's important to offer that with parents. So, I've connected her with Jarielle so that he can then um work with chemo to kind of set that up for the fall and start the year in a fresh let's roll out into this and hopefully hopefully inform and then also debunk some of the misinformation that might be out there as well. >> Going going back to eight the slide number of incidents by behavior what is the 63 that's designated non-reportable? >> So, I have my notes. [laughter] So um let me
183just pull up. So the the again these are these are having the building level so I don't have the intimate knowledge all the time but those are the non-reportable incidents that are there and it's because when it's just when it gets into the point of they're putting all the detail in there and it determines that there's nothing that as a result of the investigation should be reported. They still document it, but it's not going out to Desessie because it's there's been no finding related to discipline or all the other areas that I shared with you like whether was bullying, expulsion, all that, but that means they did go through an investigation. >> Okay. And then another question on a the running incident of the last 3 years a market like increase for um 24 25
184and 25 26 over 232. >> It actually isn't though. >> Okay. It's related to if you remember we implemented um open architect we started in 23 so that was a whole it wasn't being yeah >> and so now we have the process in place >> and again this goes back to the input of the data if the data is being input accurately and carefully in powers school it has an ongoing upload to open architect and then it's there in real time however we did we were not entering and uploading it at that point in the same manner because we were just starting to roll it out remember we had a little bit of a delay um in implementing that because we had to wait for some of the data to get in real time from
185open architect. >> Okay. And then the next one is same also slide eight number of incidents by grade and I guess this is for all of our administrators. Um I mean I I'm really alarmed by the middle school because middle school more than double. >> I wouldn't be. >> Um [clears throat] and I guess I need to understand what that looks like as compared to other middle schools. whether we see a decrease over the year, whether we're doing things that are effectively is it the same repeat offenders or or is something happening. I I guess those numbers do disturb me that it's more than double. >> I hear you >> in compared to the other school. >> I hear you and I agree. Um I also just knowing the brain activity that's going on in
186middle school, it's typical to see that uptick in those years when they're really getting to that uh you know, they're really trying to sew their roses for lack of a better term. you know, they're really trying to find that autonomy and taking risks more as they get older and then you'll see it taper off again in high school. I I I don't want to speak specifically to the percentage. I don't know if I can capture that from other districts or not because we don't have this access to their data that way. But I can certainly get you some more information about know why >> how to address it. Yeah. >> But I think Dr. Jordan would probably agree with the fact that middle school is that interesting time period. >> I will agree with Dr.
187as well like working in middle school myself like it does not surprise me that that's where we see the largest number. >> Yeah. It's just I think >> I feel like I've done a presentation before way back in the day that like did you say that like even the Metro West data health data shows that like middle schools in the Metro West just run higher than their district their than the schools in their district. It's an instant way. >> I will tell you when I started teaching middle school unexpectedly cuz I had planned on doing elementary and then got my moderate special needs and got a job in middle school. I was very intimidated by the middle school student because that had not been my skill set, expertise and real training. I ended up loving
188them. But that age group can be very intimidating to educators because it's a unique skill set you need and you also have to have >> well the the brain development on that that that age group is very like self focused um on that. So is is um and kind of like their their impression themsel discovering themsel all that but um you know they're not >> uh I think some of the other development comes at a later point later point in time >> it's very impactful age group but is there is there an opportunity to do more work >> as they're going into middle school and in like have are there known programs that can help bring those are high numbers. Yeah, and this is something we certainly can talk to um Jeremy when she comes.
189But I will say >> that number is also a lot of where we're talking about with the non-reportable incidents. >> Some of this is also the immaturity and the tattletailing on one another. No, I mean I I would say like the intentionality around PBIS that we brought to the middle school uh six or seven years ago um and the training that the admin and the teachers went at that time that's part of the initiative that was there like specific data points that were in not just around mental health but also just like how we treat each other inside the building. Um, and I mean even even the work that we did as far as bringing in San Diego Promise and different groups to kind of like work on like the conversations and what that looks
190like. The reason why we brought in challenge day and uh those are all initiatives to kind of address the these things that you see at the middle school level in particular. >> Um I I think it would be powerful to to see where we were to where we are the things that we've done. Uhhuh. So, >> and again, this goes back to documentation. They're doing a we're doing a better job documenting. So, while it may look like we're on the uptick, it's it's because we're getting better at the documentation piece. And um I think just what you heard from Tessa in her presentation, the halls are marketkedly different. I've noticed this incredibly. Obviously during co it was a whole different and then postco it was like and then we got cameras and all of that
191but the walking in those hallways is so much calmer like a breath of fresh air and people think it's feeling on I I walk in there and it's actually very joyful to walk through the building. Not that it was stressful before but it was more like hustle and bustle and kids not being as respectful and you'd have to be like getting bumped around my kids. I don't feel that when I'm in the building anymore. presented a little bit to our admin staff a couple days ago just on on kickboard which is the tool resource that we used for supporting our PBIS program which is also what we do to track all of our incidents uh at the at the middle school uh and has been able to show like a significant decline in our major
192incidents reports um bullying included but also just things that result in suspension or larger scale disciplinary action uh but then just our overall number of incidents of behavior um at the middle school um on a on a decline >> and I will I'm taking notes so that I will some of the things we talked about tonight I'm I'm asking the principles to embed in their presentations for June 11 that really focus on more targeted versus everything under the sun >> so one of the things I learned at the um Metro West Anti-bulling coalition was this active bystander training Yes. >> Um and I thought that was really really beneficial especially for like the middle middle school age kids. >> Um because I think a lot of them >> there are social repercussions to stepping in
193and and standing up for their peers who are being targeted. Um so this training kind of helps them navigate that and teaches them when to approach the situation. you don't necessarily have to jump in and and stop the incident while it's happening, but even just to check in on the student who is the target after the act happens goes a long way. >> I totally and I really that resonated with me and I'm curious if we we do anything like that. We have we have >> what I'd be curious about um if it's still one that that is one of the primary purposes of challenge day that we had as far as that training for and while we we come with a rotation of individuals that we're bringing through so we hit a critical mass
194of like trained students um and I don't know they're still teaching because I'm I'm now two years removed from middle school is the our seventh grade was the primary point for especially within the literature that we chose. Uh that they did do a piece of literature on active bystander uh translate a spec like a fictional novel um that they did use that as the process to kind of teach that that strat that that >> but to echo you are correct Sarah. So when we brought in the um Celtics playbook in addition to the um project 351 when we got that we've had that grant I forget what year I first applied but it's been probably four years now three four years and we have a high school staff member and a middle school staff member
195that work with the students around that and that is exactly what that training that's one big piece of that training is to see something say something so I think you're going to find especially at the middle school level now that we've had a number of years of that so those students are getting it much earlier in sixth and seventh and they're becoming peer leaders and as they travel up through the high school I think you're going to we hope right it's K and we should be seeing more and more and we are seeing the results of that I can even tell you just in my round table conversations when I have a really active group especially at the middle school they are really helpful with when having those conversations and we they actually talk about
196the bystander thing themselves so they are listening they are learning however that's today tomorrow their brain might be wiring a different and they forget what they you know so but I do say we have put a lot lot of time and energy into that and I think there's always more work to be done but and that's why I think I'm if you have specific questions for Karen on that I think she'd be happy to address that so I'm putting that in my notes that she can kind of embed some of that in her as well >> thank you and just to add on to that some of the um a couple of the high school students who are involved in project 351 >> yeah the Celtics playbook >> students they're they um are hopefully coming
197on June 11th to give us a small presentation here too so you'll >> get to hear like right from them. Um yes, >> it's the the >> I think the high school students and possibly some of the middle school students who are actually um some of the eighth grades they are going to give presentations at the seventh and eighth grade >> classrooms um about all of this stuff. >> There's some great stuff going on. >> There there really is. Um, so >> and I think you know we do start start this work in the younger grades as well, but again it's it's really we're getting better and better as time goes on, but then you train staff and you know that turnover. So we also need to make sure that we're continuing an ongoing cycle
198of training staff as time goes on as well. >> Yeah. Can I ask a question as well? Sorry. Um, so before you get to the reporting piece, I wondered um how do you calibrate as like a a a district and a school leadership team? how do you come together and kind of can you talk a little bit about like calibration and training that goes into like identifying what um constitutes as bullying and then um kind of that calibration around what what would be an appropriate response to different infractions. So this is why I have my notes because this is this is where I I'm limited in how it's I mean I work with and everything else but the actual day-to-day the the physical work is being done by our administrators and typically it's our assistant
199principles right they do a lot of this work um but one of the things is obviously our legal counsel is a big piece of this work and having that ongoing consistent training but then when in doubt reach out we always say make sure you involve legal counsel if you're not sure and she has walked us through a number of these situations and helping. So that's a lot of the calibration is working with legal counsel. And then there's the reasonleness, you know, like what is a reasonable person standard when you're having this because this is not a perfect science. You can't just check a rub, you know what I mean? Like there's really each incident is completely unique. So I wish there was a perfect calibration as you know that's not as it's because we're dealing
200with people. you try to remove the subjectivity as much as possible but there is a reasonable personal stand that you have to kind of go through all that evidence and then if you're not sure that's where we calibrate together so sometimes it's myself or Dr. Katalo in her role we meet with I mean lately that's some of the conversations we've had to if you're not sure and you're worried about it like talk to another person problem solve together and I think they're getting better but you know again getting back to the bandwidth they need those constant reminders because it is so much work and we always say also reach out to another building partner so that they can help like have another new lens on it so you're not just kind of sometimes when you're
201dealing with on a day with your students that you know very well it's harder to remove that subjectivity and sometimes it's good to bring in someone neutral that doesn't know those students or those staff or the situation that can then look at your data more neutally and then give feedback on it. So, but I will say um Katie has been um a constant resource with us in these areas of growth and we have certainly um found out that we still have areas to grow. My question was uh on slide seven you mentioned that there were 17 investigations but only seven of which were actually deemed bullying and that number um I mean more than half of them are sort of weeded out as not bullying. So what restorative work are we doing for those kids?
202I mean there's two sides of every situation. So those kids who have been accused of this who've got to interview go through this whole stat you know that's traumatic for them as well. So like how how are we dealing with both sides of a situation like that? >> Sure. And I think building leaders would be better to address because again it's not a one-izefits-all. Every situation is unique. So just because they may not have risen up to bullying that doesn't mean that restorative justice or discipline had not happened. We obviously cannot discuss. We know this is where an area is of struggle. Parents, staff, everybody wants to know what happened to that kid. I think he did this and we can't tell you. That's the hard part of this, right? You have to trust that
203the administrator is doing due diligence. Now the parent that dealing with their kid, they should be getting a report of some sort either way, whether it was bullying or not bullying. But I I think this is where each situation is unique and there are consequences of some sort. Sometimes it's the child was innocent, right? Or sometimes the child did something that didn't rise to bullying, but there's still potential in school suspension or other things that would happen. And in some cases, regardless of whether it was bullying or not bullying, the consequences could be identical as well. So each situation is unique. And again, that's really um while I deal with it peripherally and support at the district level, they they do manage the process well, but I think we found out that our putting the
204codes in accurately has been more of it. Not that they're not doing the work, but sometimes you'll see that we found out that the the power school and open architecture making sure the data is entered specifically because there's a lot of different discipline codes that you have to put in there as well. If you have specific other questions that you wanted me to get to the principles for the next presentation, please email me. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Okay. Um policy. >> Okay. We have three to review. Um the first one has very minor changes. This is ADC tobacco one school premises. Um we were just uh including a few words that had been left out at the recommendation of Chief Cassidy. So in the first line um use of any
205tobacco products including but not limited to chewing tobacco. We were adding that and then um it said school buildings not Holl public school buildings. So we were adding in the district language. Um and that is all the changes that we're recommending at this time. Can we vote? >> Sorry. >> Can we vote to approve it? Do I I never remember >> need to vote for non-stantive. >> Um and then we do need to add the um date that it was amended. >> Okay. >> Hillary, you can do that, right? Because I'm sharing. I can't. Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. >> Um the next one also has minor changes. This is JNDC acceptable use of digital resources. Um we are adding in a paragraph based on recommendations from um Dan McCloud. So we added in or
206revised this paragraph. Um use of enhanced technology tools for example chat GBT Gemini etc are emerging as important components of the digital information and technology landscape and the halls of public schools see their use as strongly connected to students development as digitally literate citizens. Such tools including AI deep fakes are subject to all the expectations requirements contained in Massachusetts law, the acceptable use policy and other district policies handbooks referenced below. So this is that's the only changes we're recommending on this one. So there will be some more review coming forward at later meetings on other um um policies regarding technology and digital resources to align with some new guidance and including some of the um resources that district has put up on their website around heat brings. >> So this one you might consider more
207than substantive. So you probably should vote as amended if you agree. >> Okay. [snorts] I'll entertain a motion to approve as amended. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All in favor? That passes. Thank you. >> Okay. >> The last one is not for a vote tonight, but just to review and open a conversation before we have our next policy meeting. Um, so we currently do not have a policy uh for or against advertising in the schools or really a policy that kind of addresses this in any way. Um, several districts around us in in our um sports leagues do have some policies that either um allow this, don't allow this, or allow it with some provisions and oversight from the superintendent and the school committee. Um this is the language from MASC and the reason
208that we're bringing this forward is um we have some um high school coaches and our athletic director who are interested in um generating some revenue for equipment uh through some local advertising where it says under guidelines or regulations it may approve. We probably need to have those guidelines or regulations set out too. >> Yeah. >> This are so this is the MASC recommend. >> This is the MASC. I think Framingham is more um in depth and actually >> um Huffington I didn't see one for them. Um but I couldn't take a look. Um, Framinghams was the most in depth that I saw where there's like specific provisions around who is going, you know, who's going to approve um, ensuring that the advertising is um, doesn't go against any other policies that we might have against
209um, you know, what kind of statements are in those advertisements and if they're appropriate for school premises and things like that. I have kind of a list of questions that were down through this that I think we need to consider. Um, and I think one of the big things for me was the oversight of this whole part. Um, not only just the solicitation of the funds and what that would equate to in terms of, you know, how long, how much money, like is it certain teams are we allowing teams to um say I need X Y or Z and then going out and soliciting for that? What about the teams that don't do that? What about the smaller teams? What about the male versus female teams? like there's a lot of inequity that I think
210needs to be really flushed out. Um, and I don't know that we have I don't think we're anywhere close to being able to actually answer all of those questions um at this point. Um, >> and even with the like I >> Yeah. >> is it just is it just athletics, right? Do we then expand that? It could be theater or music or even like robotics or you know >> it does it could grow very quickly and then how is there one person to manage it right >> like if money is coming in for from the robotics team I mean that's more of a club but like >> right >> the theater program does it goes straight to the theater program or is it a general >> fund that would have other things >> yeah and
211if you have someone who's like really you you know, I don't know, a parent who's involved in, you know, marketing and that's their they go out and get all this money for that program because their child's in it that again that piece that that's not fair to all the other kids who are doing, you know, equally as good work and might need some funding and, you know, for whatever they might need for their um group or team or whatever it might be. So, I mean, I understand there are districts that are doing it. I think we do need to look really hard at what those qualifications are um [snorts] across the board for other districts. Um and then who I don't think it should be one person like you said like but are we creating
212another board and like that board do um what are the tax ramifications like there's just so many parts of this that I don't think um have fully been investigated. >> Yeah, good questions. Yeah. Um the requ and just to answer one of them, the the uh request from the high school is to have a policy that allows for solicitation so that they could go out to local businesses and ask for a donation. >> What do we one team for one night? Like >> it would Yeah. Most >> it wouldn't be like a high school organization. It would be I as the representative for this one organization and asking you for this. >> Yes. Yeah. >> So, I guess my concern is I I think we probably this has occurred even in the absence of a
213policy. Like if you walk through the the fieldhouse gym and we have the basketball court there and you see advertisements for donors who helped participate in that part of it. So, I feel like there is a precedent where this is has occurred for other sports. to hear the the um like equity concerns about it and I think we have to just maybe look at how other schools are doing this because I I do think I think it happens and we probably need a policy regulating. >> Yes. So what do you think? How should we kind of collect a few more policies from and see how other schools are managing it and just we can revisit it in our policy meeting and um >> it's on the agenda for next week. >> Yeah. we can kind
214of sort through what might make sense for Hollist and and then bring it back for more discussion here because it does feel like kind of a newer like we haven't we haven't nailed it down in black and white for Hollist yet. So I I want to make sure it's done in a manner that everyone would support and that it can be supported ongoing. I'm curious what [clears throat] would also happen with the um like sponsorships that already exist like you were talking about. Um and I know there's I think there's like a banner or something in the elementary caftorium with the Coca-Cola like would that have to come down like that would be my >> Yeah. Or just like even yearbooks or playbooks that that um >> include a local sponsor. Yeah, I think so.
215Yes, I agree. I think some of this is already happening. We don't have a policy in place. So, that's why we wanted to kind of bring forth a discussion rather than a vote tonight. >> Are there any other questions about this policy that you would like us to kind of revisit in our policy meeting before we come back? >> No. >> Okay. So other than that strange language from the MASC of of referencing what's it say guidelines or regulations, right? Like you can't reference that if we're not >> identifying what that is, right? >> Okay. So we'll revisit in our policy meeting and then bring the draft or further discussion back to our June meeting. Thank you. Okay. Um, central office, >> I'm going to whip through. Um, I think you all know, but I
216think um, Mr. Kim had been honored on WPZ on 522. I can't remember if that was said earlier, so I apologize. >> Um, I did want to point out just that thank you for sending that link to us on the um, antiviol, excuse me, anti-bullying coalition. We were able to have two administrators go. We had more that were going to Cheryl Cordderero and Nancy Kof. So, what I what I have now in place is that I've identified at each and they may have to do this annually, but I've identified who is my go-to person for the data reporting. Even though both assistant principles and sometimes principal have to put it in, who's my go-to to clean up the data and make sure we're doing it. And so I've identified Cheryl at um Placantino, Nancy at
217the high school, um middle school. >> What was the question? >> Ron Ron at is the middle school and at Miller it's Brenda right now. So again, so that's to me that's really going to be important moving forward for the assistant superintendent for student services to really identify the go-to person even though it falls on everybody to document their own things, but then have those checks and balances in place. But they really appreciated that training as well. And obviously we congratulate Keith. That was very exciting to be able to honor him. And I saw his little granddaughter there that we've met a few times. I did also want to comment on the National Honor Society last week. I've been able to attend those annually. And it's always a pleasure to welcome the new inductees including
218um Don Vice Chairs. Uh I believe you had an inductee this year, did you not? >> No. Yeah. Yeah. Just there. >> Yes. So I did see him um as well. And then I do want to mention that we did get the the draft and then a follow-up NEAS revised report. So I've asked Mr. List to present on that on June 11th as well. We we're going to try to embed that into his slides. I don't I can't promise we may have to do it as a standalone, but we'll get that report to you at the same time with a link and then we'll I'll have him summarize that at that time. And I think that's it for me. >> I wanted to welcome Jess to the school committee. warm welcome. Um, and the new
219student reps. Congratulations to Keith Budday. Very welld deserved. Um, just to let you guys all know that I have put to bed our FY25 entitlement grants that I've been responsible for, 305, 140, 180, and 309. So, those are all spent. Um, so, uh, Karen will not have to worry about it. FY26 prison and genocide grants, those will all be spent prior to me leaving. um FY27 entitlement grants. Supposedly, we're supposed to be writing those in June. Um and they are due June 30th. So, I will write those, but they have not opened up yet. Um on May 20th, we spent the whole day with School Kid, who has been working with us on the Prism Grant and our ELA uh K through five curriculum. Did a really nice job. We're really looking at strategic planning
220and how we're going to roll out the curriculum next school year. And um I have met with Karen multiple times already and have another day scheduled with her just to let you know that we are working on the continuation of what's been going on here so she can continue the work. That's it. >> I wanted to take a second to read something that was actually read to the school committee in 2017 actually. So um in October 2017, a group of seventh grade teachers attended a PBL workshop at Regis College. We were discussing various ideas of what we could implement as a meaningful project for our students and we agreed that students voice needed to be heard. One idea idea that we kept coming back to was what we do with the plot of land where
221flag school used to be. Mhm. >> Therefore, we designed a project in which students were able to go outside to measure that piece of land. Once they had the measurements, they had to create a scale drawing of what they want want from the land. We encouraged our students to think about what they could design that would benefit both the school and possibly the community. After the scale drawing, the students created scale models and with the help of the art English department wrote letters to the school committee voicing why their design was the best design possible. students did a phenomenal job with their models and were able to share their ideas with members of the school the school school administration and also me uh with members of the school committee in a gallery walk setting. We
222are pleased to present four they were pleased to present four groups four top groups from their entire grade to the school committee in 2017. These student designs were voted upon by their peers and adult guests and were voted as the top. We've attached the student summaries. So these these students were Jonah Feldman, Max Israel and Michael Conig as one group. Uh Mia Quinzani and Lucy Spurski as another group, Sally Susa and Martha Walker were group finalists and Amanda Freeman and Lucy Morrow were a finalist as well. Uh to give you a sense of some of the their ideas that they came up with, uh our project puts uh puts being outside, sustainable energy and saving water allin one, we have picnic tables laid out on the field in order to eat lunch outside, have a
223class where class uh a class outside, another place to hang out in the community. Uh above the picnic tables, we had solar panels to generate electricity for the school. At the base of the pitch of the solar panels, we have rain barrels to collect water. Um so another group our project is an innovative outdoor classroom where students can learn in act very interactive way. Our project is very useful for the classroom to be used all around year round. Others were included um outdoor spaces with a walking track, a basketball courts, um outdoor pavilion. Um another was a a garden, a courtyard for outdoor eating with picnic tables. Uh but what I found interesting as far as now here we are about 10 years later uh we break ground as far as day number one on
224June 12th uh of this year um is our first day as far as the project uh completion making its full circle on uh June 12th. Uh that project uh includes many of the elements uh including the walking track, basketball courts, pavilion area, uh plant plant planters that are put throughout uh combined with a re redone courtyard that's been in effect for the last few years where additional picnic tables and mulching have done for outdoor seating uh combined with a solar project that also starts uh starts this summer uh as well. So, I just want to say while uh municipalities take a long time and there's a lot of, you know, different hoops and things to jump through, you know, I I bet those seventh graders at the time thought this is going to happen, you
225know, that next summer. Uh but I just wanted to acknowledge that that that was uh such a cool uh closing the loop of something of of a project and I know Don was there at that period of time um of that the kind of the origin of that that conversation and that presentation and one I just want to thank the school members who who came and participated in some of those gallery walks uh as well and the students who are since graduated off to college or what would they be >> senior year Amanda graduating graduating You're right. >> Cool. Cool thing to share. Yeah, it's cool thing to share. Um and I'm looking forward to to kind of observing some of the progress of that project this summer. Uh there is a lot uh that
226will be worked on um associated with the the flag project and uh the solar project this summer, including a lot of the paving of the roads. So, you should see a lot of things happening on the Woodman campus. >> Thanks. Oh my turn. >> I figure I've already taken so much of your time tonight. There's not a lot of new things to talk about. Just that we'll update you from the review after they come next week to give you an idea of how things went. >> Um and that will because it is next week I'll be able to speak at the next meeting ever so briefly after taking so much time tonight. >> Barbara, um when I think you had mentioned before they wanted to speak with school committee reps. Do you know when >>
227actually they are not going to need to speak with school committees. Not that they don't appreciate the work you do, but this is I had to ask her >> because I hadn't heard. And because it's more focused on civil rights, you'll be in the next one, which is six years from now. >> Okay. >> You might actually Yeah. you might actually get called upon for all I know in the next um three years when they do the mid cycle if you are a parent of a student that is on an IEP you will get a questionnaire from the individual because she asked for all the emails to have send the questionnaires out those often generate very low returns though has been my experience >> okay um so we have some stipens. >> We have a
228lot >> to vote on. [clears throat] >> Um, do do you need me to project them or can are you able to look at them where they are? I can talk to them, but but Okay, great. That's okay. >> I appreciate that. There you go. >> I think there's a lot. >> So, the process for um new clubs has been it's documented in the contract is language about having first the first year as a pilot. So students have to come up with clubs that they want to happen at the high school or middle school. Usually at the high school it's more driven by students. Middle school can sometimes be driven by a staff member. But then they then in the pilot year they have to seek an adult that is willing to help facilitate that
229for them. If the pilot goes well, well, first of all, the pilot has to be communicated up to the superintendent that it's being piloted. and then if if it moves forward with recommendation at the end of the year, the principal has to send it up to me to um begin to propose factors for the following year. So these are some of the clubs that were worked on at the high school this year and again they went through the pilot all year and then came up and then Dr. Jordan and I met with um was principalist there as well and Jamie Katone and Alex Strum and we compared our proposals for the stipens and we were able to compromise on some of them. we feel good and came in um agreeing on these type amounts and
230um from an administration view and from the HFT view. So um this this is a complicated factoring system which I've not is unique to Hollist and makes it challenging budgetarily and all that. However um just because we do this doesn't mean they would also happen every year year to year Mr. list or Karen Manning would make sure that they vet what they can offer that year, what clubs have been utilized, and every year they can change. So, they're looking at a 2.2 for um time and responsibility for the Jesus Club. And the the here the um steps for the school committee is to vote whether they would like to agree on this. If you have specific questions, I may not have all of those answers. So if there's something that you don't feel like you
231have information, obviously there's limited information provided. We just it's just voting on the um factoring process. But if there's the school committee would have to feel if they do want to mo move it forward as a possibility and vote on it. If you are not ready to make a decision and need us to get information, then you could table it. But but the hope with many of these is we have to put the stipen positions out for next year. So he's trying to bet that we're a little late already just because we ran out of time last meeting. >> Yeah. Do we vote individually on each one or >> you could actually you could vote for all of them if you like if you didn't have any that you were um you know that or
232you could table something if you didn't want to vote on that one and vote on all the others. So you can do however you feel. >> I have two questions. >> Yes, >> I got two. >> I'll try. [laughter] >> Um [clears throat] so are these all taking place after school and not during the DSP block? That is the expectation and the students and staff have been reminded because I will say that had been a problem in the past because they are supposed to be after school offerings um because it's beyond the school day and staff get stipened as a result. So with the new schedule and that's going to be the expectation and staff have been notified of that. So if there were clubs that were being offered in DSB before and a staff
233member didn't think it would work after school now, some of those will probably not be brought forward for next year because of that. >> Okay. And then second question, who's where does the oversight of that lie? So that if a teacher is still having things during school hours and therefore getting suspended during school hours, what >> So I I will say this is something I do think Mr. List has done a lot of work on. He's met individually with each of those clubs and activities people. um he actually has put forward that they have to um they're supposed to send attendance at from each um session with the students each time they meet and how many students attended and I think it's a Google form but I'd have to double check on that. So this
234has helped him to decide that some of these clubs from the past may not be continuing because we have limited funds. We can't just offer everything. So if two kids are attending obviously that's not one that we'll move forward with. So he has done his due diligence. I'm sure it's not perfect, but he's done a good job at trying to collect all of that. And if people were not sending that data, then he can't offer it. That's kind of what the message was this year. >> Where it says number of students, is that >> yes, so in the I don't have the Can you pull up the contract language? So there the factors go by >> X amount of students as a zero is a one, you know, two. So two means whatever it is,
23540 students as a n. Yeah, >> cuz I'm like these are all one or two students. That's the fact it means the range of students is zero to this and whatever. I just forget what a two is to ask you. >> Do the stipens vary? So like for [snorts] the first club that we're on here, it has a number of two. So if that's like a 10 to 12, I'm just making that number up, but like but we only have three students that actually show up. I know moving forward the year after that might be on the chopping block, but do we is there any sort of uh change in the stipend if they don't have the enrollment? Well, that's the interesting piece here and that's this is kind of this is something that you
236might want to consider during contract negotiations because the language the language is that if the HFT would like to propose that an increase in the stipen they can bring that forward to administration and then we meet and we did do that in the past but there's no ability for administration to do it the other way and it's not that we want to reduce but again limited funds we want to have as much as we can so there probably are some stipens in the contract that may have started out with 100 kids and now they're down to 20. So it doesn't mean it's still not viable with 20 kids, but should we be paying $3,000? I might be exaggerating, but you know what I mean? Like that's that is an issue because we can't bring forward
237the opposite. And I think it needs to go both ways for an equity standpoint and to be able to offer as much as we can for students. >> To answer your question on the factor of two for time, it's it's 41 to 75. I thought it was 0 to 40. So, thank you for one students. >> 41 students. >> No, if you have 0 to 40, it's it's a it's a one in the factoring system. If you have 41 up to 75, they get a factor of two in that category. And each factor is like three about $300 per factor. So, for example, a 2.2 here would be times that it's close to 300, isn't it? The multiplying factor for this year is well for for currently this year is >> 31287. Next year it
238will be $32,226. So you just b you basically take that number times the the factor. >> But the 2.2 is just the time and responsibility. Then there's experience. So a brand new club in a first year person doing that club after the pilot is a one. If that same person continues, they move to two. I think it goes up to five. So that five could be another 3 312 * 5 in addition to this piece. So this is not the full statement. I' say that that um I think there there there's agreement between the HFT and the administration on these numbers that they're they're both >> they're reasonable >> reasonable and meet all all of our needs. There's not there's not a surprise bigger. Yes, I think I emailed you that that meeting went really
239smoothly and very quickly and it was very collaborative. >> I think I think actually administration and the HFT as far as like finding consistency on the fat on that has been has been has been good. Um I think they're in built in the tatter there. So there there are a few stipens out there that are a little um based on where they've evolved to right now because I mean there there are historical clubs and sipons that have been there for 20 years where when they were negotiated may have been something huge at that point and are maybe something different now. >> Right. to my like again if we have a 100 students and whatever we are four on the on students then that's costing us for students that aren't attending it's only 20 we should
240be dropping down and we don't have an ability to do that even if we know that right now >> do we want to just vote on all of these I mean I feel like they're pretty current it will if you're all in agreement they seem to make sense to me but >> a motion to approve the statement factors for um clubs 1 through 10. All >> in favor? Pass. >> Thank you. >> Um and then Okay. Um data system job description. Is there a previous job description for >> So it's um it's connected there in the agenda. If you want me to put it up, I can. It's actually this is the former one with edits to it. Um Mr. Mloud actually proposed these. I don't know if you want to come up since you're
241here, Mr. Mloud. >> A new brand new position. >> No. So we did have um our data specialist currently has resigned to take a position in another district which opens up this um opportunity. And that Mr. Mloud took a time to look through at the old job description to see if it's applicable at this point. Yes. Would you speak to it? >> I think if there's specific questions and Yeah. >> Yeah. Any changes from the old job description? >> Uh, no, not really. Basically, we expanded it to be more descriptive and reflective of what the job is. It's been three years since we updated it. So, the first one was a little generic and so we wanted to add more um details so that the people applying knew exactly what they were getting into. And
242it also establishes responsibilities for that position. Helps establish responsibilities. >> And I think these are duties that the current person has been doing. Correct. >> Correct. She's done a great job. >> It just hasn't been in the job description. >> Yeah. Her role's expanded in three years for sure. And so this again, it's evolved and so this covers that evolution. >> We'll bring in a motion to approve the data system specialist job description. All in favor? Thank you. Um, okay. Report from subcommittees. Um, I did get a text from Frank about he has no new updates for communications. So, policy we've already >> we had a budget meeting today. Um Frank and I went over the FY26 budget update um that Dr. Jordan provided. We also reviewed the um K through5 ELA curriculum capital request
243and voted in approval of that. And I think that will bring us to another item on our agenda. But um but budget has reviewed it and has approved the K through 5A curriculum capital requests. Okay. Um Superintendent Eel and then MSBA update. >> Um we the uh applications for school building committee closed last Friday. Um we have a number of uh um several applicants more than I had expected. So I really appreciate the community um volunteering for what's multi-year um committee um which is wonderful. We are reviewing them on Monday and then we'll have some updates moving forward. >> Would it be possible for the school committee to see the names? Yeah, >> I think I think that would be >> just for our own information and to kind of get a sense of >>
244Yes. And then we'll be voting on those with um the select board. >> And then we need to appoint a school committee member to it as well. >> Yes. >> Yeah. So be thinking who's interested in that. I think I mean maybe if so June our next meeting we typically reorganize and kind of appoint people to policy budget um chair >> anyone do that >> you're doing so well [laughter] >> I don't know happy to >> give someone else the opportunity >> but will we also be >> but I'm wondering if we could do it >> then >> that seems timely yeah >> does that make sense So yeah, think about it. >> Um, >> okay. Um, so new business. Um, did you want to talk about the >> Did you talk about the French
245position? >> We did at the budget committee. >> Yeah. >> Yes, I can speak to that. So, um, in reviewing the schedule, we you know, we we talked about this and Don will recall from previous budget subcommittee meetings, it always came up that until the schedule's actually run, we may have some changes that we not we haven't budgeted for at this point. Um, we knew that we weren't looking to eliminate any positions as a result of the schedule. So, we have been able to manage all the FTEs as we've talked about. There have been some switches based on enrollment just like we do at every other building. we had moved a position that was um math science now was social studies because that need had grown with some of the changes in the schedule and
246then but because of the schedule being sort of in transition even as we move towards it there are some students that couldn't get all of the things that they need to graduate. So, we believe this is a one-year situation that we had to be additive, which was we hoped we didn't have to because it wasn't budgeted for, but um in order to fulfill the needs of our outgoing students that are further along in their academic career, um there was a need to add or to request a point 8 French teacher to be budgeted and we and Mr. List does believe it's a one-year situation. He's not looking to add it permanently. I mean obviously each year we have to look but he does think you know this process of we need to continue this every
247year like we do districtwide and look at all the subjects and needs of students and then determining which offerings happen as a result of again it goes back to sort of talking about are there enough students to fill a course some courses don't get added if we have two students we're not going to offer an elective you know so each year is a new year um with that process and then did you want to talk about um supporting that in the budget? Yeah. Uh so we, you know, where we're budgeted, um we things have still been pretty favorable uh for us. We're all the our openings that we have are projected at um a master's seven. Um I think if it seems like the way the hiring season's been going thus far, I think we'll
248we will >> not today, but we've had some come in under budget and some come in over budget. So it tends to balance it. I don't think that that this addition is this addition is not going to require any kind of access to any kind of reserves or whatever. We should be able to or will be able to access this within our approved budget. >> Okay. So, entertain a motion to approve the point8 position for the high school. >> Moved by Don. >> All in favor? That passes. [clears throat] And so the last item and I I want to apologize Dr. Jordan um with all of the discussion. I I think it was not um just not something I want to talk about. But congratulations to you for getting the job elsewhere. And so now
249that leads us to have to post a new. >> So anyway, >> I I can sit here awkwardly, you know, congratulations. I'm a big >> congratulations. You will be missed. Um and >> yeah, so I apologize for not addressing that at the beginning of the meeting when >> we were kind of doing that, but um >> really happy for you. >> We are. Yes, exactly. Not so much for us. >> Sad for us, but >> we're Yeah. Um so we just wanted to It [snorts] is tougher time to post this stuff, so we want to get this out. Um just I put no in the folder is the um the job description that had been used last year I think. Um and I think the only change is do we want to list it as
250a um director slash assistant superintendent? >> Yes. Um, >> and the my only other question was if it is a direct, what's the certification? >> So, you like would that need to change as well? >> Yes. If you were hiring a director, they have to have the director certification. You can't give a person a title of assistant superintendent. Let's say they have assistant superintendent, superintendent. So, you might want to reflect that in the job posting. We are also required to put a range of things. So this is tricky because the dange for director would be different than the So I don't know if you want to put a different range. >> I think we had talked about putting the same range that was for the director of teaching and learning. >> Okay. >> Um >>
251Okay. >> So >> yeah. So if you can just make sure Lisa knows that when she posted >> I will. Okay. Does that with those changes does does this um it's a >> yeah sorry I am not able to come up >> um so I just added director slash >> business administrator could you just head down >> yeah they would need school business administrator license and if it's a director they don't have to director and this is superintendent You could point us to superintendent preferred director, you know, I mean like this that's other word you can choose, but it's it get concerns. >> No, I think we we need to move forward. >> Okay. All right. Um I'll entertain a motion to approve um this job description >> for with the addition of director slash
252assistant superintendent >> and [snorts] salary too >> and yes this >> yep moved >> second >> all in favor [snorts] that passes okay >> just on the meeting date I just wanted to amend and say we do have a special meeting on June 2 And then also we might be meeting with the select board on June 8th as well. >> Yes. >> June 2nd being a little bit earlier um >> at 5:00. >> 5:00 and June 8th being is it 7? >> There's at 7. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> And then we'll be back here June 11. >> Right. >> Very busy. >> Before you adjourn, can I just mention one thing that I forgot to mention? I I do want to make sure we acknowledge because we do have a large number of retirements
253this year. We have years that have been flow, some years are quiet. So, it just depends on where we are in the cycle. But, um, I will make sure that I have a list to present to you of retirements so we can honor them. On 611, I don't know if you've got a placeholder from Lisa Duzio. We we when we have a quieter year, I've been going individually to give out a token of appreciation. When we have a larger group, we we do a breakfast. So, I'll I'll make sure you get invited to that. I think it's 6:22, but I want to confirm that. But you don't you're not required to come, but we you know, you're welcome to come and have breakfast with us and honor the retirees that >> Do you have a
254date yet? >> I think it's the 22nd, but I want to confirm. >> I want to say 9:00 on the 22nd, but my brain's a little fuzzy this time. >> Yeah, it's late. >> Okay. [clears throat] Um, anything else from anyone? I think we've had a lot. >> Yes. >> 22nd 9 to 10 at the high school, >> but I'll get it out to you, Joe. >> Okay. All right. With that, I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. Moved >> by John. >> All in favor. All right. Good night, Hollist. Thank you.