001Uh good evening, Hollist, and welcome to the August 28th uh school committee meeting. Um welcome back everyone. Uh at this point, I'd like to call the meeting to order and um should we start with the consent agenda? >> Sure. Um, so we've got minutes from the June 12th school committee meeting and a whole bunch of warrants. >> I make a motion to approve the consent agenda. >> Second. All in favor? >> That passes. Uh, we do not have student representatives tonight and I don't see anyone here for public comment. Um, is there anyone Are we on Zoom? >> Do we have anyone? [Music] >> Is that Damon Jordan or >> somebody? >> Oh, okay. [Music] I think we have to let them in the room still. [Music] >> Okay. >> Um, so if anyone online
002would like to make a comment, just raise your hand. >> No. Okay. Um shall we start with school committee individual comments? >> Um I just wanted to welcome everyone back to school. Um I heard that uh day one went relatively smoothly which is great and uh just wanted to wish everyone the best of luck this upcoming year. Do want to welcome everyone back. I had the uh honor of being there on day one, mainly with Dan um at the front entrance on Lynden Street. Um, while it definitely nothing is ever perfect, it was pretty smooth to the expectations. I thank all the parents for their patience. Um, I know buses are still working through the cycles and hopefully everything gets smoother through the rest of the year. >> Um, I also wanted to welcome everyone
003back and just thank our our the administrators, the district and the principal administrators to um all the communication um that went out over the summer about the new school start times, the transportation. Um there's just so much information that was shared with parents over the summer. So, thank you. >> Yes, certainly agree with what everyone else has said and I'd also like to thank the families for their patience. I know anytime something new happens, it takes a little while. So, thank you for your patience and a special thank you to our educators. I know September, end of August is really crazy personally and professionally. So, thank you for being there for our children and for supporting them as we would want them to be cared for in your classrooms. Um, yeah, I'll just echo what
004everyone else says. Welcome back. And it sounds like things are going uh as smoothly as possible given all the changes. So, >> insane. Um, thank you everyone for making it such a great week for all the students. Um, thank you to the staff for the time they put in to set up ready for everyone. And um so and I'll echo all of those same thanks, but I also wanted to um special shout out to the PTO for providing a wonderful breakfast, a welcome back breakfast to all of the educators, all the staff here um on that very first day. The staff actually came back on Monday. So um thank you to everyone to you know come here, show up, say goodbye to summer and um welcome everyone back here. So thank you Okay. Um, so
005I think we're going to move just a couple items up. We've got um David List here who's going to uh we have something further on down about the handbook. So I thought we'd move him up on the agenda just so he can um talk about his stuff and we can let him go. Ow. [Music] >> You should have a document that outline. >> Yeah, it's in a folder. >> So, we just made um a couple of edits um to the handbook uh for this year. We will uh we're working just so everybody knows here working with the committee of teachers on larger handbook edits that are uh more impactful with the new schedule for 2627. So, this will be a little bit longer of a presentation next year uh with the new schedule, but uh
006this year um we just clarified some language um around makeup work um because before it uh kind of left uh everything sort of open-ended um and uh students had uh sort of different rules in different classes for when they had were sick for a week. Um, so now it just um articulates that students will have as many days to make up as they were out um in their classes if it's an excused or verified absence if they're sick. So there just sort of aligned things for students there. Um the next is a little bit larger of a change for us which is our directed study block. Um I I will admit it's been a challenge uh the past couple of years. Um but uh thanks to uh Dr. Kob and Mr. Lasser who have really
007uh put in a lot of hours um on the back end um and Jody Renee um and Dan um in sort of building our backend so that we can uh stu we can schedule students into directed study block locations. Um students are allowed to uh pick which teacher of theirs that they want to be with. Um there are some restrictions on that regarding you know certain grade if they had certain uh been on a passing grade in a certain class then they would have to stay in that class. Um our goal really is to make the directed study block um a space where students are getting the extra help that they need or spending extra time with their teachers. Um the staff has been wonderful in helping us trying to implement that. um you know
008few grumblings from the students uh with the change uh which is understandable. Uh but just in the this the past day or two of seeing it has been um pretty cool to see it actually working. Um we have a few kinks to work out but uh the directed study blockchain just sort of outlines the the new process. Um and just for those here basically students have until 10:00 a.m. um each day to pick where they want to be that day um for the rest of study block. So, those are the two changes. I do have one other thing I'd like to bring up, but I wanted to answer questions about these first if anybody had any. >> If they don't do it by 10 a.m., what happens? >> So, then they get they get scheduled
009into the class that they're they're sitting in for second period. 10 a.m. is the uh the time when they can like if you're in English, but you need to go see your math teacher, you have until 10 a.m. to change where you are. So, switch from your English class to >> just keeps you. >> Otherwise, it just keeps you where your your scheduled be. >> Under teacher override where it says a teacher can require you to stay in your second period class or require that you be a specific one. Does that mean you mean in a specific one? >> Sorry. Is there Yeah, I can just add a typo. >> Just a typo. Yeah. So, the the So, we have we have teachers that like share rooms, the teacher replaces. So, it's meant to say
010that basically the teacher can require you stay where you are or a teacher can require that you move because if we have a student who needs to make something up and they have to actually move just to I can fix that. There's a typo there. >> How did you decide on on D or F minus >> closest to the F I guess was where it is. I mean, the idea being when you actually look at like final grades and look at grades, we don't have that many D's and Fs. Honestly, if you actually look at the breakdown of grades, um, really the goal with this is really for students to to have time to be in their class. Normally, when they add D's or Fs, a lot of it has to do with missing homework,
011those type of pieces. You can really fix a grade with getting your work in on time and and uh uh doing all the work that's asked to be amazing with. Um, so, uh, it's really a chance for the student to be there. Obviously, you could do C's, C minus. This is kind of a a pilot run and trying to put something in place to see if it makes an impact in that way. And obviously, D's and Fs can mean different things. You could have one bad test and then you have a D or an F. Um, I think the idea was just for us to think about that there's that at any given moment there are students who really need to be in certain places getting that support and this is just a space where
012we could start and how we think about that. No, I think it's a great step just well no I mean but it is a good question because it's really there is there is more reasons that a student would need to be in a specific place. So it's actually an important question to ask. I think for us this was just a starting point um and a a a piece of data of where to start that's readily uh available to students and teachers and parents to see. So the the other question I had and would like to bring up is um so uh as you as you know we switched to 81 minute classes this year um and uh before I put in the handbook I thought I'd open it up to questions here which is the
013idea that for the seniors um at all high um that uh if they had a substitute teacher that they would be allowed to have open campus. they would be allowed to leave for that period um and not be um in the school building. Um you know, as we talk about like the gradual release of responsibility um thinking about them going off into into college, um it more mirrors what they will experience um their freshman year. Um our teachers do a wonderful job of putting everything up on Google Classroom. Um and you know, it's something that uh our our our main office staff get dozens of calls. not obviously today or yesterday um but dozens and dozens of calls a day once we get into the year when teachers when a teacher is absent for their
014kids to get dismissed. Um it is probably our number one dismissal reason um in the building is not sickness but is a teacher is absent and they're sending their senior home. And so with that being said just the idea came about really taking the opportunity to say you know what that's happening anyway. Um and so uh and just an idea in terms of travel and equity um out of our 200 uh 200 a little over 200 seniors um we handed out over 180 pass parking passes. So the majority more than the majority of our seniors are driving to campus. Um most of them are getting dismissed when they have a sub. Um and so to alleviate some of the pressures on our front office staff and to um you know give those students responsibility um
015that they're going to f that they're going to see later um wanted to bring up that idea and to you know answer any questions and um something that I would obviously to bring forward in the handbook as a vote later on but I I wanted to hear your thoughts on it this evening possibly. >> Sarah, can I just say something? David has talked to me about this and I support the premise of it. You all know that when we've changed some of the um procedures I've come across with the school safety and my concerns with the open campus. So, I was just wondering if there's a way if they do go that route. Um is there a way to better ensure that kids do have to swipe in or swipe out with the because I
016think that's been something I've been really concerned about just so that we know where they are at all times during you know already they're leaving on Friday. So, if we could come up with a better system, make sure that's happening. And I think you started some of that. >> So, I asked Dan uh Dan Mabad and Spencer Carlin to look into ways for students to use their IDs so they can just scan or out because we do have to know who would be leaving. Um because obviously if there's an emergency in the building, we need to know that they're not here. >> I think it's a great idea. like, you know, having had four go through quite recently. I I agree with you that when you know that the kids have a phone and they
017will often text you, my next two classes don't have teachers. Can I come home so I can you know work on a paper or or I I think it's happening and I think it makes a lot of sense at least for seniors at this point. >> Yeah. >> And and it's not this isn't something that um there are other schools that do this I believe. Right. I think >> many schools. Yes. I mean the I will say the movement started because most schools couldn't find substitute teachers so they had to find ways to what to do. I mean for us I think really it's about this is happening constantly once teachers are out now. Uh I'm sure you may have gotten texts like that. Um but like the two of you may have gotten them
018recently like last year but it is something that happens constantly where the office is just getting inundated with calls and just their kids are being dismissed constantly. And here is typically instruction something in the Google classroom or assignments for them to do something for them to do but they would suddenly do it at home. [Music] >> Yeah. I mean there's still expectations but the classroom teachers are really good about putting up their assignments or what the kids have to do. So >> uh in mixed classes where you have underassmen in there as well with the this school be a substitute assigned to the class and all that. they wouldn't be getting a free pass just because they're class mainly seniors. >> Yeah. >> Um my one concern or or question here is um if students
019have a substitute for in like a morning class but not for the afternoon. Will we see a spike in absenteeism for those afternoon classes? So we I mean so what I'll say right now is that many of our teachers write like will make get notes to their the students that they're not here like in the morning and they'll know about that so they don't show up anyway um for that period. Um in talking to other principles around they don't really see that spike. Um but one of the pieces that would definitely go into the language in the handbook around this is that this is a privilege not a right. Um and so that you know monitoring students attendance um around this um cuz we also know senior slide and and uh and senioritis and all
020of that that you know that that we still have to monitor. They're still kids um but still need to monitor what they're doing. Um but you know this is more coming up because it's it's sort of what's already happening within the building. >> I like it. I think that maybe something that we expose for juniors maybe even at least in the second half of the year go with the seniors but you know just seems like a good idea. >> So what I would like to do then is I can write up what the what the rules would look like around that and I'm happy to bring that back here um to then share and answer any more questions about it. Do we need to vote on the >> Oh, sorry. On that. Sorry. >> Can
021I mention one thing that is not here? Um um you had asked about all the handbooks and the only changes made in the other three handbooks was related to title 9. As you recall, the changes in the federal regulations have reverted back. So, I didn't bring the language with me. It's really the old language, but if you recall, um that would be the change. And he is changing back to that language as well. Okay. should be. Um, so I I guess I'll entertain a motion to approve the >> current handbook changes. >> Okay. All in favor? That carries. >> Um, great. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> And then do you want him to bring the other language back to the next meeting or just >> Sure. Whenever. Yeah, >> that'd be great. Thank you.
022>> Maybe you could just send it to us a couple days in advance. >> Yeah. And then if the chair, you know, through the chair, if we don't have any questions and we don't need to come back. >> Sort of. >> Yeah, that sounds good because we've already talked about it. >> My stream going from last year. >> We love having you here. >> Thank you. Have a good night. >> Thank you so much. Good night. >> You're welcome to come. It's an open meeting. I was just trying to, you know, >> I don't know if you like that idea. real quick. >> Yep. Yeah. Is it the It's the substitute rates. >> Yes. E personel E. >> Okay. So, next we'll talk about the substitute rates. So, we can let you go as well.
023So if you want to come and >> is this >> so did you want did you have something to speak or do you want us to just >> let me introduce myself >> and I'm the nurse leader um this year for the Hollist public schools um and we were talking over the summer um about hopefully some changes that we can make um to substitute um pay. We have a long-term sub position open in nursing um that we've had no hits. Um couple of things there. It's a long-term sub. Um so people a little concerned about um you know what will happen next year is their job security. Um but the other reason and I've been asking um many people many other nurses um the pay is a large issue um that we have and so
024um honestly I've been working on it all summer and some of you are aware with a lot of emails um and I'm I'm really stuck and um and looking for some help. um to try to attract more um nurses for the sub positions. That includes helping us do screenings um and uh field trips and you know if we're ever sick um having some backup for that also and we're just not getting submissions to fill these these positions. Um, so right now the long-term sub position is in Miller. Um, all our nurs's offices are extremely busy. Um, and to have just one nurse is really not not safe, I guess, is the best way to say it. Um, so we've we've been working together um and trying to think of some ideas. um as to how
025we could get some more people. Right now, for example, um Miller has four field trips uh end of September, beginning of um October, and I cannot get any nurses to go on the field trips. So, that is quite concerning. Um so, anyways, I will turn it back. >> Yes. So, we did um discuss Dr. Bill and I talking with you. >> Yes. Long-term sub rates in particular. So, I think um we do you will hear us bring up during the priority needs again this year that we do want to make that that 1.5 position which was at the high school last year. The LTS has moved to the Miller just for um staffing reasons. However, budgetarily we still only have it as an LTS for that reason and we will be proposing that during the
026budget process that we do want to get that finalized permanently for all the reasons you're citing. But at the moment, we do want to at least um ask you to consider increasing the long-term sub rate just for nurses right now to $300 a day. So that the 0.5 position would be $150 a day um at this point in the hope that we can at least fill um it for the long term. And then moving forward, the hope would be that we can appropriate it in the budget for next year as a permanent 0.5 in addition. So that would be the school committees and happy to answer questions on Dr. about that. >> Yeah. And just we we reviewed this in in budget earlier today and obviously we haven't had a chance to to give that
027update, but uh we I don't think we officially voted on it, but I think we were supportive um in in in concept of we think that that it makes sense. We look at the comp for for surrounding towns and and we think that it's will make us more competitive and hopefully allow you to to fill those roles. >> So the long-term position, just so I'm clear, I'm sure I'll have some texts later on um is $300 >> for the full day if it's a long-term sub position for nurses. Yes. If they vote I mean they've not put it. Um and then as far as subs, is there any change there or >> we we did not put forward a proposal at this time for that. Um >> I think Dr. Jordan and I would be
028happy to speak with you further if we can if we see this as on ongoing concern then we could come back at a later date. Absolutely. >> Um we didn't see that as a I was not hearing that as a huge problem last year. We had enough subs in the rotation, but we do need to talk about you know those um field trips have to be approved. So we haven't seen those come through yet. So we need more information. >> I think what what we decid talked about a little bit budget sub but also Dr. C talked about um we we know that these are a tough budgetary time. Um and you know we don't come forth with this change lightly. Um and uh we see this as an essential need for for nursing. um
029and the needs of of Miller at this time to kind of fill that and for us to be competitive for these positions and active openings that we have. >> Okay. [Music] >> Motion. >> Yep. >> So, um I'll make a motion to um increase the long-term sub rate from $250 a day to $300 a day for nurses uh for for the current school year and and and you know, and going forward. >> Second by D. All >> in favor? carries. >> Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. >> Uh let's see. >> Okay. Shall we return to >> back in order again? >> Yeah, back in order. >> I think that comes to you. >> Yes. So, um we're excited to be back for the school year. It's been a very busy uh early
030starts for all of us here. um getting our little ones especially off today. My first kindergarter out of the car was crying. I felt very badly. My heartstrings um but I did get him safely into the building and then I did um shortly thereafter have a preschool crying but most of them were very comfortable coming in with us and they had a great start to the day. I did send out a message today that you probably saw just thanking people for their patience because today certainly was our you know our most challenging day. yesterday was incredibly smooth I thought almost you know knock on wood I was pleasantly surprised um given the changes we've made particularly to Pleasantino Miller um and that today we knew to anticipate that it was going to be challenging so
031we do appreciate the patience of all the people involved all the parents and um having to wait and staff that had to stay you know that don't normally are not required to so we appreciate that I did want to also just take a quick moment of silence to acknowledge the shootings in Minneapolis and I sent out a message about that as well. [Music] >> Thank you. Um, as you know that school safety is of a paramount importance to us and we continue to revise each year. We review and revise and we may come back to you in the future with other safety proposals when we with our safety committee. Um but we are so far pleased with how things are going here in Hollist. Um for personnel personnel updates, we are also pleasantly surprised that
032our openings are far less than they have been in the previous years. We um as you know we had been challenged with finding enough pair of professionals and we frequently I mean this is not just unique to Hollist this is everywhere the uh turnover in par profofessionals over the summer. Some of them that have been par profofessionals and are moving into a teacher position. So, it's, you know, we we know that we're going to see a lot of turnover in the summer and it's happening all year long um at this time, but right now and tomorrow I might have a different number, but at the moment, and actually I should I checked this this afternoon, so that could have changed, too. Um 1.5 positions open at Plantino, two at Miller, one at Rams, and there
033are four at the high school, but they are managing at the moment. They had six and they're down. two fill but one day it's three one you know so I mean you know that number is constantly changing but I feel that compared to where we were last year and the year previously that's really strong um to have that filled and as far as open educator positions has one permanent building sub so that's also promising that we've been able to fill because we had added different um additional permanent building subs over the years I think we have three at the high school and middle school is that correct so we used to have two and then one so that's also um significant Miller we already mentioned the LTS.5 nurse position and RAMS currently has a um
034after school starting resignation. So we have one special ed position open at this time but again really promising. Um I just had met with a new the new Montasauri teacher at Miller so she's already started and I just met with the French Spanish teacher at REAM so he just started today. So we have teachers in front of students and most people really need to be. So that's great to hear. I did also want to just share with you and I thank you Sarah for um joining us in DM the other day. We had um a very um low-key but I think worthwhile opening to school this year. We invited Dr. Peg Dawson to come in and speak with staff and she had a really just a very um concrete opening about her experience working with
035students and teens that struggle and of all ages and the executive skills that they need to perform. like all of us, the daily routines that we do and how important it is for us to tune as as educators and develop relations with students, but also not jump to judgment so that when a child's acting behaviorally or seeming unmotivated, trying to find out the underlying reason for that and some little tidbits that we can use. And the reason we brought her in is because she's coming back in January for full day, half a day with elementary, half a day with secondary, and she's going to really dive in deep and connect this theme for us about little things we can do to support all students and hopefully help them then be able to perform academically as
036a result of those little tidbits about information. She's a school psychologist. She's worked for many years um and she has multiple awards. She's also an author. So um you can look for her books as well. while I sent that out I think to you so you have the information on that but you know again it was it was low-key but I thought very well received we we received a lot of compliments and um thanks from staff for that information and that's all I have for now okay um in front of you you have a memo regarding the prison grant and I sent out a communication to the community but I just wanted to acknowledge that we did receive 2242 $200 for the Partnership for Reading Success um grant. We are on track two. And on
037the back of this, it does give you details of the breakdown of our budget, but just to let everybody know a little bit more, um these grants that were awarded across the state are funded through Governor Healey's literacy launch, reading success from age three to grade three. And all these grants are designed to help districts strengthen early literacy instruction, helping equip students with the reading and writing skills necessary for academic success and life and lifelong learning. Huge shout out to Jenny Man who helped write this grant and Elsa O'Brien who also helped write the grant. Really excited. We've already met with some people. um part of this grant we are continuing to do the implement curriculum review uh network through DESIE. So very exciting news. If you have any questions, please reach out to me.
038Um next I'm going to uh do it out of order and then Dan can bring up the next. I gave you two samples of two draft report cards and I wanted to tell you a little bit about this. So, beginning in October of 19 uh 19. Wow. October of 2024, we started to meet a standardsbased report card committee for just the elementary schools. On that committee, myself, Dr. Slaney, Principal Kim, Assistant Principal Morrow, Jenny Man, um Natasha Merin, a teacher, Aaron Snyder, a teacher, Michael Glenn, a teacher, and Carrie Pal a teacher. So we've been meeting quite regularly just to kind of take you very brief briefly through the process. So we started with the need that we have for a standardsbased report card and we really tied it to the strategic plan linking it
039back to we need to improve our communication regarding standards and how students are doing and also how we use data to inform our teaching and learning. So everything is tied back to our plan. Um, we the committee spent a lot of time reviewing current report cards that were used last year for all grades and then we reviewed other districts report cards and we used a rubric to rate those report cards. We looked at clarity of learning standards, um, personalization and feedback options, ease of use for teachers, parents, and students, visual design and structure, and a grading scale. We then ranked those report cards by category. We identified key strengths that we liked, weaknesses and interesting features from all those um samples. And then we worked with teachers identifying the power standards they wanted to have
040on the report card. So teachers had a huge say in that. We then identified the performance indicators we wanted to use, how we were going to rank them and also the social emotional learning progression and we were very conscious and had very rich dialogue around okay what does it look like for a first grader? What does it look like a second grader and really took that um that thread through. We got teacher feedback all along the way and then thanks to Dan Mloud and Jodie Renee Harrington for working with us on all of our out there ideas and they came up with here are two samples. These are in draft form. Please realize that we do need to make some corrections. We wanted to show them to you guys though. If you look at the
041first grade report card, you can see the at the top there's performing. You can see it says right here what grade it is on the top. And um Jody, Renee, and Dan set up Muppets, you know, made up Muppet names, right? So, we're not disclosing anybody, but you can see there's academic performance indicators. Those are the same for the all of the elementary school preK through five. And then our social emotional learning performance indicators, the same for all elementary school students. Um and then you can see this is just one sample under grade one on the left you have literacy and then you go to the right you have social studies you have math go to your second page you have continuation of math then you have the social emotional um items that are going
042to be graded and then you have unified arts so we have art music wellness and science I wanted to give you the fifth grade one because it's a French immersion example. So you guys can see the difference. So the other one you can look it's uh gonger muppet and you can see it's the same on top the academic performance indicators the social emotional learning performance indicators but if you look there on the front page the left hand column you have French fluency checklists and you can see we have oral language skills cultural knowledge and understanding and linguistic comparisons. This came out of the world langu language curriculum review and a lot of world language teachers had say on that. Um our standards for world language has changed and um we are really going to dig
043deep into that and we're going to look at bringing that down to the younger grades ne potentially next year. And then you can see here they have um literacy underneath that. Then they have math. go to the next page. You have a continuation of math. Then you have science, social studies, writing, enrichment, and then you have the unified arts underneath there. So for grade five, you have art, digital learning, health, PE, music, technology, and engineering. And then you have those social emotional uh learning standards underneath there too. The social emotional learning standards are all based on castle castle's concept which is a very well-known um in uh way of measuring how students are doing. We did put it in parent friendly language though um this committee is continuing on next week Dan and Judy Renee
044are coming and we're reviewing for any last minute changes. Um, once we get this settled, we will be havingformational sessions for parents. We will be making a digital landing page. It has videos in it and tons of information. Um, but we're really, really excited to show you guys this. It's very comprehensive. It's um much more connected than what it was before. They had the teachers had been asking for new report cards for years. So, they're really excited for this. So, I just wanted to share this with you. These will be used this school year. >> Is it possible to share with you right now? >> Yeah. >> For just new folks like what the current one looks like so we can see versus >> what current looks like. >> Oh, sure. >> To have that
045comparison helpful. >> Sure. Sure. Sure. >> I actually just pulled up one of my daughters cuz I had that question. >> Yes. like with the new one the yearly progress that was added. Um cuz I know as a parent with the old one sometimes it looked like they were going down but it was like the skill had increased and so that yearly sort of summary I think um it's great. >> They get the same >> yes. Yes. >> Does Montasur have a separate one or is there >> uh no they will have the same Yeah. same standards. Yep. >> I just want to show you the French one just because it is a little different. Right. Okay. And then last, if Dan can bring up the presentation, please. Let's have a short, it's mainly pictures
046so you guys can see um of what was happening for us. Let's go on to the second slide, please. For new staff orientation, it happened on August 18th and 19th. And um instead of having pictures, these were slides of what we talked about. the presentations were on day one. So you can see in the [Music] >> sorry keep going. >> Okay. Um the top left Dr. Kusca uh kicked us off um with everybody there and then we went over the strategic plan. Jerryel talked about safe and supportive schools. Uh Dr. Katado went on to student services and informed them. Dan and his team went over technology overview where they also got their um Chromebooks and then finally Dr. Jordan went over finance and operations. We also had a bus tour that was very wellreceived getting
047feedback um and learned a lot about Holliston. Just so you guys know, in day one we had 13 paras attend, 12 teachers, um it's throwing me off. Sorry. Um the administrators, all central administrators and and curriculum leaders. Um all central came, all principles came during lunchtime and they met them. On day two, 11 teachers attended and four mentors. If you can go to the next slide, Dan. So on day two it's just for teachers and on day two we got into details that only the teachers need. So it was about evaluation. It was about teach point which is what we use to house our evaluations in so they know how to navigate that. And then also Jiel talked about safe and supportive schools and what we're doing in Hollist. Give you a little bit of
048taste of that. We can move on please. Staff's first day and Dr. Kuska talked a little bit about it. You can see um a little bit there on the first two pictures. Thanks to the PTO, there's breakfast that a lot of people took advantage of. We had the union there uh sharing contracts and lots of different information there. And then just some pictures of smiling faces and some some of the curriculum team right there. Um some more pictures that we had speakers. So Dr. Kuskus kicked us off. Peg Dawson was there. Chair Sarah Fitzgerald also presented along with Jatone Union President and she had a meeting afterwards. And if you can go on to the Oh, I'm sorry. >> I'm sorry. If you can go on to the next slide, that's why I mentioned so
049we have Dr. Kusca, Peg Dawson, Sarah Fitzgerald, Sher Fitzgerald, and Jamie Katone. You can go on to the next one. Okay. So you can go on uh look at the first day. So it was really exciting to see people coming in all sorts of different ways. We had bikers, we had walkers, we had people coming in cars. Can you go to the next slide please? Um and then the normal way that people were taking buses. You saw administrators all sorts of different places all over the place. Just so you know, all of Central does go that whole first week and we're assigned to different spots and help out. So it goes a little bit smoother. If you can go to the next slide, please. And I a huge shout out to HCAT that did a
050really nice video for high school's first day of school. It's only a minute and 47 seconds. So Dan, if you could play that, please. [Music] Did you always have a banana the first day? Comfort dogs. [Music] >> Hi, this is Mr. Liss, principal at Holl High School. I just want to welcome everybody back from summer. I hope they had a great summer. We're very excited for the 2526 school year and all that we have in store for all the students. Welcome to our freshmen and we had a great senior sunrise this morning and congratulations to our seniors. Looking forward to celebrating you throughout the year and again just want to wish everybody a great year at Holland High School. [Music] Get down. [Music] What's his name? [Music] And I apologize. I was just asking Dr.
051Kusca. Um, I am sorry. I cannot remember the gentleman's name right now that brings the comfort dogs every year. >> I'm drawing a blank and I just saw him yesterday. >> Yeah, I can't. I apologize, but they do come. >> I'm sorry. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you. I apologize. >> And we had Spencer and in the past and now we have the new dog, which >> I didn't get to see them yesterday. Usually I get to greet them, but we were so busy with our little year that um we did not. So, that just gives you a brief glimpse, but I just want you to see all the smiles. Um, really nice start to the school year. >> Uh, so transportation. First thing I I've got um I got some good news
052is uh Woodland Street Bridge will be open tomorrow at 300 p.m. >> Whoa. >> Yeah. I didn't I was thinking like 3 weeks from now after they uh the people that were putting the final touches on the railings uh drilled into the water man um uh the pictures of it and when I was down there looking at the bridge then uh made me pretty nervous as far as things. Um that said, having uh the bridge being closed these last uh three days and then the fourth day um being tomorrow, transportation has still gone uh above expectation to tell you the truth on what uh my thought. So I've been uh pleasantly very pleased with how things are going. Um we have delays, but they're expected delays and they were not looking at colossal delays uh
053in certain locations. Um we're still looking at the types of delays you see when um you pick up kindergarteners and everybody wants a photo with their child and you get those kind of delays as a result. So we're looking at 5 to 10 minute delays uh not you know 20 and 30 minute delays that we've had in the past. Um the we do still have plenty of buffer space is our ability to um to to uh to create some additional time if we needed to address some delays. Um, right now, uh, our earliest bus time is still after 7:00 for a pickup. So, we're doing, uh, in most cases a 25 to 30 minute run, um, is what we're trying to do. And we've built in, um, the ability to add in up to a
05450-minute run, uh, to still be within our our time constraints that we're looking at. So, um, as far as dressing, uh, busing, um, we it came it comes in three shifts. You have the first day of school uh which has its immediate delays. You wait another day and see what works its way out. And we had a big successful second day of school as far as the timing of the second day. The third day which was today was kindergarten and preschool. The first time that that comes. So you see another bubble up of transportation which we which we saw a little bit. Um and we had some issues on Woodland with the preschool drop off and there's some things that we needed to kind of do with that which we'll have addressed tomorrow. Uh so
055we should see a drop um in our times for transportation tomorrow. Uh and then we should see some settling a little bit by Tuesday of next week. I'll probably make some if there are some trends that continue tomorrow. I might make some adjustments tomorrow, but I will definitely make kind of my hope is to only change uh pickup times for families at bus stops once uh and do it right the first time if we need to make any adjustments there. We did have um five buses uh last night um that we did make adjustments to their routes cuz they were already showing consistency and being late. Uh and we know knew that uh kindergarten was only going to complicate that. So we decided to immediately do those. Um and then we'll make any final adjustments
056either either tomorrow afternoon or sometime on Tuesday um after those routes settle. I kind of want to see what happens when the when the bridge is open, which that won't be the first test until Tuesday. So, I'll pro I'm I'm looking more towards making those adjustments on Tuesday afternoon after after the first arrival on Tuesday. >> Um, >> can I add one thing before you move on? I shouldn't know if you go. Um, I did want to add to your transportation comment about the bridge. >> Just to clarify publicly because, um, Jamie Seleni and I were talking about this today. Some parents wanted to know that if once the bridge is open, does that mean the transportation procedures at Plastit Miller are changing? No. The bridge is for the buses to use. The transportation still
057has to go out to the right. There's lots of reasons for that to streamline. So, just want to clarify the bridge being shut down had nothing to do with the routes. That's still going to be in play for the whole year unless something changes and we come up with a better plan. >> Yeah. I mean, if there was ever a silver lining to a drill going through a water mane, um, one one silver lining to that is that like a closed off traffic in both direct in one direction and so we kind of create a trained behavior as far as like how we turn one way um in there and because no one was trying to turn left, everybody's trying to turn right. So, we did have a few days to kind of um do
058that. Um the uh I I would be remiss if not to just you know thank Dr. Slaney uh Mr. Kim, Brenda Marorrow, Cheryl Lassie, uh Cheryl Cordderero um for all the work that they've done in putting everything together um our teachers um for and staff uh for assisting in kind of getting our little ones and youngest ones um into our buildings. I've also been uh very appreciative of uh Chief Stone and the Holl Police Department. they've really been a presence out uh in the community to kind of help with traffic and kind of move that along um as well. So that's been that's been very very nice and very uh appreciative. Um so uh thinking about some of our projects um MSBA uh so we're looking at our our roofing project that we have. Um
059I have been in communication over the last couple weeks with the MSBA. um they will likely will not announce the their roofing projects until they're after their October 29th meeting. Uh which means that we will likely will not know uh before the fall town meeting as far as the award. What I will say in kind of the work James Ke um and I who's the director of facilities for the town um is that we've had more back and forth than either of us remember as far as in the past. Um so we're hoping that's an optimistic um uh feature for us. Um, we did however find out that we're we're not eligible for reimbursement for the middle school uh roof um as a completed project. I did learn that um earlier today. Um so we
060are looking for kind of like the elementary school um project uh as far as doing a partial uh cost of that. Um capital updates. Uh so the track uh looking great. That's that's all set. Um and uh we're monitoring kind of its integrity and what's going on um there. Um we also uh with uh Dan who really assisted with the majority of that project is um our lighting project at the high school uh and completing um that piece uh which was exciting and um I don't know if you wanted to elaborate any more on kind of our lighting project. Uh I got a quick video if you want to see it, but uh pictures. Um but I just shout out to Jim Shepard, our electrician. He was instrumental um very instrumental project um as far
061as keeping the cost down. I'll just show you two two things. We had a training uh last Friday. Okay. Uh this is a group of people that were trained. I was there for a little bit and it went a little too deep for me in the soundboard, but you can see the uh that's called a site in case anyone's in theater that basically a giant white sheet the back of the stage. So we had always struggled to get the spotlights on that and lighting correct. So this is an example of the new LED lights showing the red on there. But, uh, you can see there's a bunch of people here, including about four students. And we have one senior in particular that's very savvy with the whiteboard. So, we're going to, uh, rely on them
062for some of these events. This is our vendor took this video. He just just showing what the cap some of the capabilities lighting. Dan, I'll just say that a staff member came up to me at opening day. They said the police system was awesome. So very pleased with it. So >> great. >> That's great. >> See that it's all completed except for um a couple of we have we have new panels in the auditorium. Uh the administrators can turn on lights like 50% power, 25% power, the house lights. It's very nice, but it's just missing a couple pieces. And so he's coming back to finish that. It's m very minor stuff. All the major stuff is done. If you ever want to see what it used to look like, I've got those pictures. >> But
063again, shout out to Jim Shepard and uh David Jordan's team. uh really instrumental in my list. >> Um the school choice uh so we ended up um registered uh so we had 41 seats that we the school committee approved um for uh for school choice. Uh 26 were filled uh for the fall. Um that is so that you have kind of a an understanding of where we are. um we we graduated 15 uh and then we had an attrition of an additional six. So we're up um an additional additional five that we have um there in school choice. Um our target is to I mean we're not trying to target with the open seats that we've got, but we're trying to stay with within the range that we are. Um we uh were able to
064fill uh several seats within kindergarten French immersion um which have been carrying some lower numbers um out of kindergarten and that's kind of a primary location that you want to do uh and where we were even able to put a couple um into French immersion from first grade um as well uh out of school choice uh and and round out those numbers. But all in all, as far as what we've accepted, this is um this is what we were hoping for that. That's Sarah, before I move on to the um stipen position, I did want to um I neglected to introduce Dr. BJ Catalo as our interim um student services director. I think you all had met her over the summer um but people have not seen her um yet. So, welcome Barbara to the
065table. And Barbara has indicated that she would like to be attending these meetings as much as possible because she wants to be able to be here as questions arise. So I have no problem with it if she wants to attend. So just wanted to know that she will be here um whenever possible. >> Thank you. >> Yes. Thank you. Welcome. >> Thank you. >> Did you have anything that you wanted to share from your opening? >> Well, I will say everybody's been wonderful. Um, I came in, I think I shared that these are the cleanest schools I have ever seen on opening day. You should be really proud of staff that worked in this horrible this summer to make this happen. Um, the staff has been wonderful. I'm still getting up to speed now that
066we're all back in one place. Uh, I will say to the opening, I met more members of the community who were so patient with me because as the new person, I couldn't figure out what line they needed to get in today, which is part of the backup, I'm sure. But nonetheless, I had more fist pumps and more high fives from the kids all excited that when I would wait till them, they broke the window down. So, I thought that was a good sign. We have a lot of work for ourselves this year. We're really excited. We start the the work really getting into the work next week. So, after that, I'll be reporting out as I start to meet with all of the various constituents and stakeholders throughout the district and, you know, regularly weekly
067being in the schools to see what's happening. So, thank you. Okay. To move on. >> Okay. Going to keep going. We >> got the statements. Yes. >> So, for those of you who have not been part of this process, we haven't actually voted um stipens in a couple years. We had one year that we had a lot of new stipens. Um if you look in the back of the teachers contract, there's quite a few stipens in there. We don't necessarily fill all of them. Um and at some point, if we don't fill them for a number of years, we may end up taking them out. But um what we do try to do is each year not go beyond the um the monetary a lotments. Typically Dr. Jordan will let the principles know how much
068they can fund the stipens and they will stay within that um parameter. So even as we potentially add new stipens, it doesn't mean it's going to cost more money overall because they know that we can't just keep adding to the budget. So often it's because they're taking away something that they're not filling and that's why you'll see these sections come forward as a need um as we go on. So it has been a couple years since I presented new stipens and um typically I would be presenting these in the spring. Um what happens is that it gets piloted normally at the beginning of the year which would have been last year the teachers piloted these and then um the principal recommends to me for consideration and then if it moves forward I end up u
069meeting with the union and we negotiate the factors to this. It's a very complicated process. So if you have specific questions Dr. doing it could speak to it better than I, but you factor in the time, the responsibility and experience and that equates to the um the numbers that the staff would get that take these type of positions. But um due to the fact that Karen Manning was new last year, she was a little unfamiliar with the process. So um I didn't want the staff to be penalized and not be able to they're doing the work. So, for example, the corner closet advisor, the a staff member took that over last year as a pilot. Um, and they were not getting paid for it. And if we didn't move it forward now, they would not
070get paid for a second year, which is unfair for all the work they're putting out. Um, and doc, um, Jamie Katone as the HFT president was willing to also modify those timelines as long as you agree to vote for this. So you'll see um the corner closet is a program where um people donate clothing and then the students help organize it and um they have to man this the closet after school for people to come in and sometimes it's closed for interviews or just whatever occasion. So it's been a nice um charitable opportunity for some of our students to attend. So that stipen if you look at it um it says that the stipen would be 1,87722 that would be the first year stipen then but then each year if the same member staff member
071takes it over we would add a year of experience and that in that becomes another 31287 annually but anytime it's a new person it would just be a factor of one for experience. Do you want me to go through all of them and vote at once or how do you want to manage them? >> Maybe go through all of them. Okay. And then the next one is the assistant musical director. Again, this is a position where um we found out recently that we have had an assistant musical director and that was not brought forward as a stiper position because it was being generously funded by our um booster program. They were they were helping to pay this person because it required a lot of time. However, it really should be funded by the school appropriated
072budget. it's not really fair to be asking those. We we want our um boosters and our PTO to be funding things that should not be funded by the schools that are more enrichment. So in fairness, this really does need to come back to the school. We really can't be funding them that way equitably. So we put forward and again I met with Jamie Katone and Karen Manning and these are the factors that we came up with for the assistant musical director program. The third one is JB Golf. That is not a new stipen. However, um the program has increased in demand and it has required more time. So I think it was a factor of two for time last year and there was a request for it to increase by one for time. Um and
073that's why it was I believe a 4.2 last year and we're asking for 5.2 consideration before the experience and I did reach out to Matt Baker as well. He was in agreement. So um Jamie Kona and I did sign off on that if you're in agreement to vote that in. I'll pause there for the statements. Wanted to make a motion on that. >> Any questions on any of this? >> Those are yearly or how are those time based? >> Each year, yes. Each year we post all of them and then anyone can apply for them, but some of them do, you know, continue on. Sometimes the same person will request to be part of that. >> I'll make a motion to approve the statement for corner closet, assistant musical director. >> Second. Sorry, sorry. Assist.
074>> All in favor? That carries seven zero. >> Thank you. And then um you have in your packet a math tutor job description. As you know, um we have had math tutors at the elementary campus and we did manage to appropriate in the budget last year for a math tutor at the middle school, which is a really um important position working in conjunction with our um STEM curriculum specialist interventionist, Carla. And this person um will now be supporting students with the interventions as well. Um I was asked even though in the this is actually part of the par profofessional contract and there's no requirement to have a job description on um whereas it's different in the teacher contract that doesn't mean it's not important to do so. So I was more than willing to work
075with um Jamie. I implement I gave her this job description that I put together. I met with the principles and got their input and then there was some tweaking made and um she did agree to sign that as well if you're okay with it or want to recommend changes. >> Any questions on the map? >> Motion to approve motion to approve the job description of the map. >> All in favor that carries. Swing zero. Right. So, we're moving right along. Um, thank you. So, reports from subcommittees. So, I guess we'll start with communications. >> We will schedule first meeting for the next uh meeting. >> Excellent. And then policy. Uh, we scheduled our first meeting for um September 8th. >> Budget. >> Okay. Okay. So, the overachieving budget subcommittee um has already had a meeting.
076>> Wow, look at us. >> Had our first meeting of the year um this afternoon at at 4:00. We discussed a number of things um that some of which may come before you. We're obviously into the capital uh season. Uh town meeting is is closed upon us. Unfortunately, while we have town meeting, we don't have a lot of money. Um so, uh we're working on that. But um one is a proposal that we're going to have to we're going to discuss about um putting solar on the Adams roof and the Plastentino roofs. Um there's a build versus lease or or own versus lease option. Um and the the savings I'll say are not nothing but are are not you know eyepopping but um then there's a secondary effect of you know of being uh more
077socially and environmentally responsible but >> sustain there we go sustainable area >> and and a comparison was done between a 25-y year lease and owning >> they're still working on the numbers. There are um a lot of assumptions that that go into it. Uh for something as as pretty standard as you know something you would think would be output rate. There's a lot more to it. But there's a real sort of um push now to to to do it um because of the sunset um of the tax incentives um as part of the um um big beautiful bill. Um so um we're also we have a um a request to look at uh doing some work on the um softball field that we have to look at. Right now it's just design engineering but then
078there would be a larger ask um >> the high school softball >> high school softball field. We've done a lot of work on the baseball field. So looking at the softball field um and then there are a number of other capital requests that that that we're uh that we're looking at. Unfortunately, we just, you know, there's not a lot of capital money. So, we may have to be um selective in in what we do. The good news with at least with the solar is if we choose, it's it's not as um l not loop, it's not as uh it doesn't save us as much money if we if we lease, but it does the upfront costs are almost zero. Um so, you could theoretically do that without having to put put money in. But, you
079know, there's the big priority of also getting the Plastino Miller roof um fixed and making sure that our our schools are not raining on on teachers and students. So, I don't know where everyone else is, but that's kind of my priority is to make sure that we we we get that fixed. >> And you said that solar roof was for um rams and plast at this time. >> There was a report some number of years ago that said the Miller roof could not support solar panels. So, we could relook at that at some point, but at least at this at this point, we had not seen numbers for RAMs that kind of told us how to interpolate, but we have not actually seen numbers. Um, let's see. We went over the final numbers for for
080the budget for last year. Um, we finished at zero. We spent all of the money that we got from the town. Um, and let's see. Uh we we also um attended a CPC meeting last week uh to discuss the flag field project. Uh they're still delivering I guess that they're meeting on the 9th for a final vote I think. >> Yes. >> On whether to support that that project or not. Um but along with that that is can't be supported by CPC because of legal for legal reasons would be a sort of a a redoing of the uh of that uh >> driveway that we now use as that was sort of patched to get us through at least this year. Um so there may need to be a capital request for that. And then
081we discussed the the prism grant uh that Dr. Menard went through and it was a really I mean a $225,000 grant is uh you know quite a substantial uh win for the for the district. So we thank everyone involved in in in in that. Um and then we ran out of time. Um so we have more work to be done. I will say that I you know over the summer um I had some conversations with with the town and finance committee chair about the preliminary look at the 2027 budget and it's very very early but um it's looking very very tight um for us. that. So, um, budgeting this year is going to be a challenge all around. So, just stay tuned. That's all. >> Um, and then we've got some old business. Just an
082update on the superintendent search process. >> Yep. So we ran um we published the RFP in early August uh for the search firm um did not receive any uh proposals um given the amount uh we're looking at working with James Key. So thank you James um to get the process kicked off. We don't need to reissue the RFP. So we've started reaching out to firms directly. We've received interest in a proposal from one uh it is in everyone's packet. Um, I think at this point we're going to reach out to a few more. Um, and then by next meeting I think we need to have on the agenda a discussion on where we want to go. Our target still is to look bring on one as soon as possible. Um, and candidates to start coming
083in September. Decision made in the October time frame and all that information was in the AR date. Um, we're trying to stick to it as much as possible. decision on the search firm in October. >> Decision uh well start fielding candidates in September. Decision on the search firm in September. >> What what's in October? >> October we want to start getting candidates to field a this is where we want to head. So search firm decided by midepptember. So next meeting >> ideally again all this push is based on how we push it. them start fielding candidates in September, late October to be clear, we have candidates we've been assessing likely to make a decision on it. >> It was all stay in the RFP. >> Okay. Um towards that. >> So just looking through this
084proposal, it would be great if we could get some um uh searches that they've completed. >> Yep. Um, and so hopefully you guys are able to >> do you think by the next meeting you'll have a recommendation for us? And if so, would it be possible to potentially set up at least for for the recommended group to to maybe um attend the meeting via Zoom or something? >> That would be my request. >> I think absolutely. Um, it has been challenging to find firms. Those that do respond, we will invite. But I do think we might only have one or two. We'll uh respond back to that providing evidence. >> Okay. So then new business, we've got the accept representative to the board of directors. I think that's in the folder as well. >> Yes,
085there's a letter in there. Um, but there is a need to take a vote on um just appointing me my annual appointment to the board of directors for both accept and then for tech. And um we draft Lisa drafted a letter pending your vote um that would then be sent to the accept collaborative for you to attend the board meetings and tech does not require a letter. They just require the minutes of the vote. Okay. >> So that's why there's no letter for tech. >> Okay. And we have to vote them separately. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> I would make a motion to appoint Dr. Kusca as the house school committee's representative to the accept board of directors for the 25 to 26 school year. All in favor? That carries. And then and I I
086can also make a motion to appoint Dr. Kusca as the Holston School Committee's representative to the Tech Collaborative um board of directors. Second. All in >> favor? That carries as well. At this point, we're at the end of the agenda. >> Pretty amazing. So, it's 8:10. You reckon? >> I think I beat you. >> I think I just want to sit quicker than that. >> Yeah, you might have, but >> just one. >> Um, so at this point, I'd entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Uh, all in favor? So, thank you very much everyone and have a good Labor Day and good