School Committee Meeting - June 6, 2024

001good evening everyone it is June 6th and we are having our um end of year school committee meeting tonight the first item on the agenda is that we will be doing a school committee reorganization and we will be taking nominations for the chair Vice chair secretary and um any liaison or additional subcommittee members tonight so I will be accepting nominations at this time um I'll make a motion for Dan to be chair a second any further discussion all those in favor congratulations danan obain for the record I'm also abstaining okay all right and that means you can now take and take the rest of the nominations so um know entertain motions uh for vice chair open a motion at nominate Dawn is there a second are there any other nominations right all those in favor

002all those uh opposed any exensions congratulations done um so there is a position that sort of mentions in our policies in different in one place but not in another place of a sort of a secretary or or Clerk and I think that I thought it might be um helpful to do that to help organize with minutes and [Music] um clerk in his title professional you're saying is you don't want it how does everyone feel about it because I feel like it could help us they could be that designated um person to help us with minutes on on occasions and then it doesn't mean we always have to do it we could hand it off but at least that person would kind of collect them from everyone else and I I don't see the harm in

003it i' I'd like to have that decision back and I agree I sort of set up a tracker for certainly executive uh minutes but then also just making sure that we're getting the uh uh sub unes and I want to open a motion oh open a motion nomin Joe I will second that motion you accept accept it I accept yes thank you so all those in favor opposed extensions it carries 501 we have a a secretary clerk um so now we need to we we still have um the superintendent evaluation subcommittee we have the liaz on us to do I did want to see if there was any interest in um given what we're we're sort of proposing as part of the the override if there's an interest or anything we should do as a

004a committee for for for bring back the starttime uh subcommittee or we could we could do that more at the the committee uh level so that's just something to talk about but why don't we take uh uh superintendent evaluation um is there someone who wouldd like to be chair or I can make a nomination for would you I'm already chairing policy well so of the of the four sort of senior I understand everyone has a chair position so there's going to have to be an overlap so if you don't want it that's that that's fine um but sure I'll chair if you want me to if you're willing I me okay so I'll make a motion uh to nominate Cynthia as chair for uh superintendent evaluation subcommittee second okay I in favor opposed I'll abstain

005okay 51 um and then breaking out the the the second two members I was just looking at kind of the breakout and where people were I thought it that Sarah and Frank might make sense but you know that's sort of up to the committee um that me okay so I'll nominate Frank and and Sarah to be the this is the the other two members of the superintendent valuation sub committee second second all in favor okay that carries a 4 to um so we now need to just go through oh so do we want to do a starttime subcommittee do we want to do that at the committee level what do we think I think it would be helpful to have it at a committee level um at the full committee level yes I mean we're

006we're taking on a lot but I think I I think it would be helpful to have that kind of or can we table this to our discussion of our our our summer workshop so we can talk about our goals for the next year we can yeah the only reason I brought it up is just given you know what we're no I understand but like we're a lot that we're all trying to manage right this second so I just yeah and and people would have more of an understanding of what could entail show that makes sense um we're doing the aison so yeah we're going to do the aison um just bring up the uh apologize to those of you are who are here um we'll get through this as quickly as possible um so we

007have uh arpa diverse Holliston Economic Development uh uh the flag field task force so I'm not sure we need that but we can certainly do it again habba hmap the PTO Youth and Family Services uh we did sort of have a start times task force again I'm not sure we need that if we're going to do um it at the committee level uh CPAC uh Wellness Council and those are the uh the um leaon I uh reached out to Hillary but she wasn't able to be here oh is there miss no divers okay so I reached out to uh to Hillary and she uh requested CPAC diverse holl and do something with star times since we're tbling star times put that aside but but she had requested uh those two uh liaison positions historically those

008two Liaisons have had at least uh two members so um we'll go through and um cyy would you like to stay as ARA yeah it's going it's winding down okay I'm sending everybody um reorganization request form if you just like check just so they can see what you're talking about like the different groups yeah um and select just shared it with everyone select board member um or select board chair Tina hind had reached out about the town MBTA 3A zoning meetings and having a Lea on from school committee on that the um NBTA 3A zoning planning like they were having they're having a meeting right now started at 6 um and I think it's something that would be carried through until at least well beyond October but I do think they have plans for an

009October town meeting so they would you know wondering if there might be a school committee Lea onto that and just in case for anyone at home what we're talking about is that there's uh the state passed a law that you have to set aside or zone for a certain amount of uh affordable housing um so we're going through that process now obviously why that would impact schools is obviously new housing new students we know when it meets I think it meets at all different times like tonight it was meeting tonight remotely at 6:00 okay um so we could get more information on their next meeting but I do think they wanted to finalize some level of plan by August and have something on the October town meeting so I do anticipate they'd be meeting in

010the summer what do we think I think we should should have one is anyone interested in doing it so when don't we go through the the the list that Cynthia sent out and we can add uh yeah let me just add okay all right so um for PTO who would be interested in being the Leon to the PTO Joe I'm interested uh Sarah do you want to continue just giving your history or okay no no do for two for two cynth you'd like do two yeah we usually both have on that yeah what say yes it can be an alternate though it's fine okay so I guess that okay okay all right so let's just go through and cynth will fill out the grid and then call that one fortina we we'll vote the whole

011thing or someone who's filling out the grid I'm put you're adding the okay and then we'll just vote it all at the end okay okay um and then there's no middle school PTO right now so we don't need to do that one um s and what I what's I'll start um safe and support of school don't know if we even have that right now do we have a do we have a separate we don't have one no okay so we can and then I guess add is is the equity steering to continue okay I was actually going to say that that will most likely be something that we that one okay so then let's add that as uh Le on position um oh perfect yeah I'd like continue with that we did have two is

012there anyone that has injures we can one is fine too I think it just okay so we'll keep with Sarah on that I think the other thing is some of them meet like during the day so it's more like whether you are able to do that uh so so CPAC was Hillary asked is there anyone else that's usually a two would be interested in in okay interest see that so Hillary and Frank Haba I would like to do Hava okay but anyone else like to do Hava want is Pro you yes okay so Sarah and and Don um haap I'd like to do haap okay Cy do you want to continue yeah I'll continue with hmap okay uh diverse hollison that was the other one that Hillary had called out and uh so we should

013add that and is there someone else that would like to work with her on that sure I will Joe okay you didn't men the oh yes how could I forgot that one um the I'm going to replace the middle school PTO with that yep um so you are you the Le with the hon Coalition against Hayden Vias would you like to continue with that uh would anyone like to to join her on that Frank okay so Frank and Sarah okay um flag we have have uh since want FL I yeah I'm still just it's just sort of like a liaison position so yeah it's not I don't need we don't have to have uh Youth and Family [Music] Services okay put SAR on for that one and then do Wellness council do we that's still

014meeting so um anyone interested in Wellness that looks like you okay I I we know those that has meetings yes yes it does yes it does all right I see I see a blank Road here down I know me too there's like nothing on that one I nominate you would you like 3 I'll took bonus bonus meets four times a year yes okay not a heavy lift I can manage that um so you didn't put an X there yes they do okay I I have to Tab and then 3 a I'd be interested it but I don't know when they're going to meet so I need to know more information um why don't we assign two or even two people in an alternate and then figur it out when they meet cuz I I don't

015know I think this might have been their one of their first meetings okay is there anyone who wants to be the alternate you're I know Sarah okay somebody hold Sarah's arm down yeah do do you really want interesting it is they are but you know they're kind of all tied together like theity the 3A go for it do you really want it it's fine okay okay but that'll be coordinated with Cynthia so yes absolutely we can we can tag team I will be alternate okay I'll put thank you and then I would also just point out that since my row is basically empty at the very bottom of say it says the chair also serves as liaison to the tri board committee select board finance and the to administrator so I have I have three

016additional uh Le on roles you know they're built in buil in yeah it's it's a built-in feature um so um all right so I'll entertain a motion to approve the uh the Le on uh and positions as uh as okay yeah and then if Hillary wants to to join some other ones we can we can add I'll oh yeah I'll have did she does anybody know what else she expressed interest in just those three yeah I two CAC and and right those what she express interest in so three two well start times was the third but I think we had talked about well let's talk about it like yeah okay so I feel like the scope of that needs to be really defined that's fine okay yeah um so all in favor of the Liaisons

017as presented in the uh in the spreadsheet in front of you move by Cynthia second sir all in favor that carries unanimously thank you um so I believe now we are done uh reorganizing um before we begin I just want to acknowledge that today is the um 80th anniversary of D-Day um and I just think that it's especially powerful uh to reflect back on the world at that time especially given the vision that we're seeing in the world today um and and recognize that you know the best of what can can do as we work together for a greater good and I just think that I just want to make sure that we take a moment to honor all those who fought on that day in that war includ both my uh my grandfathers um

018as well as those who have served after so um it's a a good day to to remember what's important um we'll take the consent agenda um Now quickly and then we'll go to uh Mr ke is he is he on yes okay show wants to be on yeah okay great so um I'll I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as uh laid out in your packet including some some gifts that are down there at the bottom in case people didn't see that move by da second sir all in favor it carries 6 to Z um so we're just going to take something a little out of order um just to uh be cognizant Mr Keith's time on the zoom uh we have an update on um it's a maintenance update on the hollon

019high school wall um mean people don't love the Crest toothpaste green we've got going on there Sears C I think I do too I'm digging it I think we should make it to an mural put some like whales on not the worst idea that's know that's actually can we get kids up no we're not putting kids up there definitely not oh well okay maybe maybe just like kids like the art Department like we'll just hang like Mr shiff and and we'll just hang them like you know as well so high school wall and and and the playground painter things you know you so Mr GE the floor is is is yours thank you for joining us thank you very much and I appreciate you uh moving me up on the agenda so uh you know

020Cynthia was talking about you know you know whale or Euro how about girl of I love it he'll always be with us forever and ever why are we taking the agenda out of order point of order Mr chair you're out of order uh so as you all know uh just noticed we have this nice trick boys color on the exterior of the wall of the uh Auditorium of course I'll back up this is all to being done to address the leaks that are in the auditorium hallways and the band classrooms um this is a multi-step uh project of which uh initially started with um adding mechanical Fasteners between the brick wall and the concrete block wall and that was done uh in the fall uh and now uh the contractor is um installing a water

021proofing membrane it's a fluid applied membrane uh you've seen it uh it's two coats uh it also serves as a vapor barrier for the insulation that's going to go on that wall uh so that that Vapor Barrier is being um completed this week uh hopefully it'll be done by tomorrow uh then they'll move to putting um metal brackets across the bricks uh to hang aluminum panels and these are aluminum panels that basically match what's on the Fieldhouse nap so they're they're beige uh metal panels that will basically line the perimeter of the uh of the brick wall um and that will sandwich the insulation and then have the waterproofing barrier uh after that is done they will then go along the top of the perimeter of the roof and add flashing to go over the

022top of these panels this is all slated to be completed by the middle of July uh and this will address the leeks the ongoing leeks that we've had uh around the auditorium for the past several years any any questions and I'll I'll add that it's very difficult to hear so if you don't mind talking really loudly but if you have any questions um before I move on can I just make one comment um James can you hear me yes I just wanted to thank thank you really because this has been a long time coming and I think Keith can weigh in on this cuz I rely on him for historical context but I believe he told me it's been about 15 years that this wall has been leaking is that correct Mr it's been leaking

023longer than that it's been on it's been on my Capital project since 2005 okay that's where I was getting so I think the issue we had it had not Arisen to Capital because it was going to cost upwards of a million dollars and it's gotten to the point that we finally do have to address it so this is the first year we've been able to move it as a capital project and thank you for taking on the extra work involved to get that to fruition we appreciate that my pleasure it benefits us [Music] all any questions from Mr any other questions nope why don't you uh move on to the second part okay um next are the playgrounds at uh Miller uh and placentino um as you know there are three in various uh uh

024stages in terms of condition um the lower playground the lower Miller playground which is basically the newest playground uh the structure itself is in good condition um but the surfacing around that playground uh needs to be replaced I'm in the process of getting uh quotes to to replace that with a rubberized surface uh I've received two um quotes I'm still waiting on a third which I should have by the middle of June um and um you know once uh we select the contractor that work can begin um and that that's really what's needed for that that what I'm calling the lower play ground is replace the surface um the swing area has this um ground up rubber surface um I propose that we remove that um and replace it with uh with wood chips those

025rubber chips are going everywhere um and also to replace the swings the chains the actual string structure swing structure will remain but the swings um would be replaced uh and the costs that are coming in for that are I consider quite reasonable and within budget uh so that's something that if uh if the committee uh apologize if the committee uh so chooses to move forward with we could we could do that um on the middle or the back playground also at Miller um I've had two uh quotes and two contract come out uh they reviewed that playground um they uh their recommendation just because of the the um the condition of it and its age is to replace it um it's a difficult location of where it is because of the way the ground slopes

026and all the wood chips that are rolling down the hill so the recommendation uh the recommendations I've been getting to replace that uh structure in its entirety uh move it a little further up the hill and then Terrace uh the the uh the area down to the swings um or if we want move the swings up uh you know closer to the uh existing location uh of the playground um that area would then get a rubberized surface and then we would you know terce with Timbers uh down to the lower uh lower area where there's you know the field and that round structure and I'm not sure what that what it's called but there's the round play structure that's that's uh there as well um I've received preliminary C for that and again uh it

027surprisingly reasonable um you know I did ask uh um the folks that that came through and said do you see an eminent Hazard with these with these structure certainly that middle structure they said no I said do you know do we need to shut this thing down and they said no it's still usable but cosmetically it it looks bad worn out it's it's it's uh it's old um so uh again my recommendation would be once we get all the pricing is to replace that structure um uh relocate it slightly and do some of the graving uh in that area and then the last structure uh which is the placentino kindergarten um uh area uh that's in reasonably good shape uh again no um you know big concerns from a safety standpoint but the recommendation was

028if you go through the gate uh you know that the children go through uh coming from the school the structure to the left the recommendation was to replace that a lot of the plastic components of depolarizes and Faded um and uh so the recommendation would be to remove that um rejuvenate the rubber surface you might not know it but because of all the wood chips but there is a rubber surface that goes all the way around that structure um and so the thought would be to um rejuvenate that uh and then add more around the base of that structure um replace the string this the uh the swings um a number of the benches that are in that that area are are bent and and twisted uh the recommendation will be replace those as well

029um and uh the preliminary costs that are received from that um I feel are reasonable I think we can do all three of these projects within the budget that Dr Kusa and Mr B and I talked about uh but it's a matter of going through the procurement process identifying the right contractor to get this this work done any questions James is this work that can be done well within our existing operating budget and can it be done over the summer in preparation for the fall yes so the goal uh actually firstly I'll defer to Susan and Keith on on the budget um in terms of getting to work yes the goal would be to have this done during the summer in time for fall school thank you want me to speak to yeah if you

030don't mind yes so this is what we had hoped to to be to do this summer anyhow and we've been that's why these um quotes coming in now and the time frame James thinks is going to be able to work out for us as well we didn't want to close it if it was not um an immediate safety need which we were told it wasn't and all so we didn't want to close it and have people working on school property with our younger ones if we could avoid that so summer is the best time scenario for that we've also been working with um Dion pulio from extended day we've had multiple conversations this year so one of the things our extended day program we offset a lot of the costs for that by absorbing the

031program in our buildings and there are some um so because of that they have some funds that they can help support the building of these projects because that Weare is I mean Weare I'm sorry extended day is using this um as well so it would be um they would help fund the project but then also um use it for all the hours that they are available Tok you so just to be clear this is not being taken out of our operating budget no it's one time fundp it's purpose specific uh funds and we've been trying this has been sort of a a multi-year goal we've been trying to work to that point of um making that a possibility and I've been meeting with you on the last couple years to talk about hopefully we could

032get to that point and now we are at that point Keith do you think you'll you can have something for us to just sort of vote on to authorize it by for either the meeting before town meeting or or the the 27th or whenever we meet next um it'll it'll all depend on when the the at least a preliminary look at all the bids come in James that I can get together and kind of wall po something even if it's not to exceed y i I believe we can do that when is it getting put out to bid um well the the the Miller piece the rubberized piece right now James is collecting the bids they're all from State bid list vendors so he's looking at three prices for that um for the other two

033projects um again it's it's with state state bid list vendors which changes the practice that we have to do we're going to have at least two quotes for the Miller one correct James and at least one if not two for the placentino correct we're going to have three for all okay that would be at least two so um but uh um yeah so we'll we we possibly could have that within about a week you think or at least ballp Parky yes so the um I literally today received um uh the second uh quote um and then um I'm meeting with a contractor on June 18th uh and we should have a quote shortly therea okay great so we'll have more information and James I guess just can you still hear me yes I can hear

034you and you were talking about talking loudly because it is difficult on the Miller playground um the kind of the the adding additional wood chips to the surface that's still we're still going to have that handicap access to those swings right the kind of um pathway that we have right now you're talking well all of the all of the playgrounds will be um ADA Compliant um after this this work they will have the appropriate ramps um and rubber ey surface um are you you talking specifically about the lower Miller playground I'm talking about the swing area at Miller um and and the handicapped access to those swigs yeah so there the the ad access will be um uh uh compliant if you will for all of these playgrounds with do this work once we have

035all three um reports back we can then deter which one is going to make the most sense for us and also financially as well okay okay great um any further questions for James uh this is great I think it's addressing some some big uh issues that uh concerns that have been raised in the community and uh I appreciate your time and uh the work that you've done uh finding these Solutions so yeah and uh there two other projects I'm working on okay sorry yep go ahead the uh acrylic Sky gones uh at Miller uh those are finally in but we're going to wait till school before we put those in uh so uh just not to disrupt so that's the delay on that uh and then uh we've ordered uh the new rooftop unit for

036the Adams School auditorium it's a very large unit 60 ton not weight but in terms of cool capacity uh unit um so that went out to bid we got uh good pricing um the good news is is that unit is uh you know provides natural gas heating as well as air conditioning and uh we uh have the funding available to put in a hybrid system so it is a heat pump so air source heat pump um with auxiliary gas heat so most of the time it'll run in heat putt mode for heating and gluing um and then on the super cold days it'll kick in natural gas uh so it should be um you know a very efficient unit uh especially if you know ultimately we put solar on on the schools it's a win-win

037situation excellent awesome thank you James just for those at home those two last projects uh the funding source from them is coming from prior um Capital request to town meeting so that's uh you know money that's already been appropriated from from time so um I don't want to cut you off again James so anything else before that's it thank you very much all right thank you very much I appreciate your time thanks James thank you James appr have a good night thank you you're welcome to stay he G you're doing an amazing job um so moving back up towards the top of our agenda under Communications uh we have the introduction of the 2024 2025 student reps it's that time of year so M ler if you'd like to uh to to take that away

038sure yeah um good evening everybody uh my name is Jen Lasher I'm the uh social studies teacher and Department leader here at the high school I also have the pleasure of being the adviser of the student advisory Council um and one of our uh greatest honors is that we get to bring every year two students to school committee meetings uh to share what's going on in the schools um and also serve as Liaisons between the students Administration and um school committee um so uh the tradition is that the two students who serve as Regional reps uh to the State student advisory Council um during their junior year um because of all the work and time that they've put in uh they are chosen to be the student Representatives on school committee so it is my

039pleasure uh to introduce to you newly senior uh students Caroline Harris and Ramia vampa so welcome welcome congratulations um so now we're going to put you right to work uh well first of all introduce yourselves and and uh and then if you do have any updates for us uh you know you should feel free to do that but uh this is really more of an introduction so tell us if I would I'm Caroline Harris uh I'm Ramy votti don't don't worry there're like only five people online watching so it's um so I mean it not really much has been happening graduation was last Sunday so congratulations to the class of 2024 and then we just had stepup day which I think everyone really enjoyed and it went smoothly yeah we also have finals next week

040but other than that I think you ready for I hope great will welcome and uh you know we can uh certainly talk about next year you know as we get into that and what how what kind of role you guys would like to play um from a week to week uh [Music] basis um moving on to uh individual comment from the school committee members Sarah um I just wanted to say I attended the um there was the global citizen um program last Thursday um and it was really impressive I was I was I thought the students did a fantastic job um it's a really neat program really encompasses a lot of great um qualities I think that the kids draw from their classes from you know they were public speaking they were putting together great

041profiles I think they're applying a lot of the you know sometimes you hear that kids students myself you know you take a class and you're like well when am I ever going to use this again and um I think all of the students who presented were really demonstrating skills that they were passionate about they were learning in their classes um so just wanted to really congratulate the students as well as um as Mr Clay Miss clay Miss Mills and um Miss Frost who really do a nice job with that program and so I just wanted to thank everyone for that and that's really all I have right now um just wanted to say I also attended the service learning uh event on May 28th uh amazing event um I learned a lot uh there's specifically

042a booth on civic education so I told her to connect with you Joe um but also learned just the varying level of things they're getting involved in in the community um all the way from helping kids in Africa to saving reptiles like I've I learned a ton um great experience uh we should definitely be promoting more of that in the community um pretty good audience too I'll be honest it was 7:00 on a Tuesday and there was about 2530 people here um obviously next year would love to even see more um I want to say congratulations to the communications team this week last week last week um they were able to work with Dan and many thanks to Dan I know he's not here right now um for opening up the email um ability to

043sign up for for hollison public school emails uh all year long um um I know it was a definitely a point of um conversation and Joe and then the committee worked quickly to pull that together so thank you uh so much um and yeah that's all I have this week um I just wanted to once again congratulate the class of 2024 um we were all there to attend at the ceremony uh Sunday and I think I speak for all of us when I say um that we were really Overjoyed um to join you on your special occasion and um I can't wait to see what you do in the future great thank you um I just have one thing today the French Consulate and I don't want to steal um Dr C Thunder over this

044but um I just I needed to you know just um congratulate Madame Picard who is retiring this year and she taught both of two of my kids and they adore her and so do I so I just wanted to thank her for all her years of service to the hollon public schools and um the French Consulate came today to give a distinction in Bilal education to the Miller Elementary School and Madam Bard was received that for on behalf of HPS so thank you and thank you to the French Consulate as well can I just add to that yes go ahead more appropriate now so yes I did want to uh recognize the distinction that we received yesterday at Miller School um from the French Consulate uh Mustafa soort the console general of France came to

045our schools with his team yesterday and as well as we had um I'm not going to recall but I know would recall our Olympian Judo um representative as well thank you uh but we received the very very timely and appropriate distinction called the label France education distinction award and we're only one of 63 schools in the in the entire country to receive such a distinction for all the hard work of our French emersion program um in particular Claire Bard uh worked with Ida papis thank you Dr papis as well for the opportunity to apply for this and then have them come to provide this distinction and award to our school so this is very um just a the work that we've done with our 45 years I think we said with the French ersion program

046was what I believe CLA peard had said yesterday which I was amazed because I thought it was decades but I thought it was in the 30 something so I will be sharing more information in our community newsletter about that but it really is an amazing distinction for our school system and I was disappointed that I couldn't attend but it was a lovely commemoration for both um the award and also for clear is retiring this year and just very briefly um tomorrow evening at 6:30 is the um hon High School Pops concert and if weather permitting it will be outside um on committe and field and and I guess if we do see some rain um it will be held inside in the auditorium um just wanted to uh let's see preschool and kindergarten Carnival we

047last week and also a shout out to um guidance at the high school for the senior scholarship um evening that was held last week Wednesday May 29th and um they were able to coordinate um awards from uh Community different groups over $157,000 in scholarships to 63 of our students I know it's incredibly uh generous and that the students were very grateful for that and that's uh for our class of 2024 graduating students uh so Cynthia and Dr kuska covered what I was going to cover but I was just simply I know we're going to deal with the retire not we're going to uh highlight retirements a little bit but I just want to congratulate uh CLA bicard on her retirement she had she taught both of my children and um it was a it was

048I was able to attend um and uh it was a it was a great event and uh thank you to the PTO for for sponsoring the uh the snacks and and and and food um for that so um appreciate that um so next up we uh we have invited our distinguished uh one of one of the distinguished select board members yeah um if uh Jen could you just move the microphone come over here if you want to wherever you're more comfortable but we're going to do public comments probably so we need to Mr Ben barel uh to uh give us a brief update on select board activities in regards to special town meeting that has been requested by the schools yes so Vice chair Ben SPL for the from the select board and do you

049want me to just give a couple comments I upate so we uh met last night and we voted to close the warrant uh for the special town meeting on June 20th at 7 p.m. in the uh Auditorium here and uh there's one article in the warrant no one else came forward with additional articles I mean with 48 hours I'm amazed we didn't get multiple um so the only thing that we changed um we certainly have your article as is but we also added um an adjustment for some Town employees um to maintain Equity across the entire organization for non-union personnel as well the union Personnel um we talked about and approved a transfer to um send out postcards to all residents so there'll be a um a postcard like we've sent out for the the

050last few Town meetings with a QR code there'll be um uh translation services on the website and there's uh the um the postcard includes I believe Spanish and Portuguese but the translation services on the website I think there's about 150 languages so um people need some uh Services those will be available um for the warrant and for the uh other uh supplemental materials um uh additionally um we don't have a date yet for the election uh for the for the ballot um September 3rd looks unlikely um it's a complicated day it's probably like the most complicated day to put something like this on so it's probably going to have to be a different day uh we recognize that the uh the speed with getting this completed bless you uh prior to September 15th to include

051it in the fy2 uh tax assessment um so it will be before September 15th but I don't have a date at this time we there's a lot of moving Parts there and the clerk um the town clerk needs to um answer some questions and understand some uh get some logistical things done is it's um there's going to be multiple elections happening at in that area so there'll be things Crossing in the mail and making sure that um everything is uh there's there's adequate resources to um uh look into each of those to make sure that they can uh sort them and then also at the time of the election itself and um so it's it's a complicated thing and we're they're trying to iron out the logistics so hopefully um My Hope Is and I

052cross my fingers I don't ever like having absolutes here but I I I would think we would have a date at the latest by special town meeting but I think it would be before then so just you know they'll there'll be something uh soon so um but I'm happy to answer any questions or uh so I just I'll just start briefly by by thanking you Tina and Damon Travis the whole sort of Staff Liz you know for for uh taking this on I realize it's sort of a it's a it's been a quick turnaround especially during a a a unexpected but busy sort of recount and and and everything going on so there's been a lot going on in town hall and people Town Clark's been incredibly busy and she's got a lot going on

053and she's uh making a lot of stuff work and juggling a lot of things so I you know so really appreciate does a nice job everyone's time especially you know given that it's a one article warrant uh just as far as uh the time of the election goes I mean can we narrow down for people a little bit just going to be July well it's so so the law says that it has to be within 90 days of the special town meeting so that is that works out to be like September 17th or something like that we have to get it done by September 15th I would guess probably sometime in August late August is probably my guess here when the intention uh that I think everyone has is to include mailin because of course

054people are out of town so that way there would be uh access for people to be able to have um to be able to participate if they're not in in Holliston that particular day that that is chosen so I can't give you a solid thing cuz I haven't talked to the clerk but I would say probably late August if I had to guess but you know we'll have a better sense of it hopefully we'll get an update on Monday night to be able to get a little bit uh more of a sense of it and as soon as you as I know you'll know so that that that would be great certainly if we could have it by Mondays so we let people know I hope so but I can't I can't guarantee it and

055I'll just put a plugin though this is to be clear from those at home this is not the date because the selectboard sets a date but I'm just going to put a plugin for the 2 7 of August 1 day of school well the clerk also has a we set the date but the clerk is going to tell us when she can do it so that is my understanding that you also can have early voting as well will that also be required to be take take place as well or is an option that they can choose to do or not do I have to talk to the clerk about that I think again I think it's what's complicated is that putting it like a week before another election it's going to be it's we want

056to try to avoid confusing voters want to make sure people have the uh ability to participate and also she has the resources to be able to do the things that she needs to do because she's basically doubling the work um so I would say possibly but I she'd have to answer that I can't answer that for her are we concerned with how close it is to a primary like a mail that's that's that's the main concern very concerned that because what what happened is that you know we wind up having multiple envelopes for people so so if they put it in the wrong envelope or they send it in the wrong time does it get excluded do they get notified there's lots of complexities there that's that's the main problem at school but is there

057do we want to separate that more well then you do well then earlier in the summer when more people are like do yeah basically I we have a we have a lot of bad options is basically the best way to put it so we have to pick the the least bad option so just be September 15th everything needs to be done and settled in order to get it to the tax for2 yes Sunday right and so if you did it say in after the the primary and there was a recount you I mean so there's you know there's a it needs to be settled before September 15th okay thank you thank you Ben um you did you more no I just oh actually I do have one one question for people here um I've been

058trying to work on um putting together a forum at the senior center um and um formally inviting you folks I I talked to Lisa porchetta and she said whoever wants to do it I'll give you the key and we can figure something out um and I just kind of wanted to know who should I work with to make that schedule it probably I'd probably wind up being next week I can't imagine there'd be a lot there's not a lot of time here um but I'd like to put something together and invite you I would also I'm also going to extend the invitation to to Kevin rod and the assessor because there's certainly some questions about um potential attacks um you to be able to have some abatements so um I I would um ask him

059to join us as well but um you know I I want to know who who' like to join and so that way I can work with them to make the schedule so so work through me but if is there interest we and if there's more than than three people interested I mean we can also just post it as a meeting and and that way more people can can I'll be there I I know I I didn't want to put that on you I know you're there but I'll already be there interesting okay Y what kind of time do we have any kind of time rough time I that's kind of like I based I would um based on what Lisa was saying um we can kind of figure it out but I wanted to sort

060of see who would I work with specifically to say hey let's figure out the times that we can we can go over there I know that I think the meet and grief for the candidates the new candidates was a pretty well attended event and I'm hoping that we could get some some folks there um to attend as well coated with a lunch what's that we coordin yeah well yeah so that would have to be a Monday or a Wednesday if we're coordinating with lunch we're big fans of snacks I my coffee on on Friday mornings It is Well attended by five people um so let's work together we'll work with the committee but it sounds like maybe just post it anyway just to that way yeah and so I'll I'll work through you to to

061schedule it and we can um you know and invite who would like to to join and uh answer questions because I can certainly answer questions about the logistics and things like that but I would need I I like to have somebody who can answer more specifically about the the school and education related questions maybe just throw two or three times I can share with the committee and and see what works and then we can sure work yeah yeah yeah we can we can figure I the only thing I have to go through the schedule to sort of see I don't want to you know if something's being used I don't want to create something that we're right we're we're doing it during yoga or something like that so okay and that's all I got and

062you'll stick around for a few minutes just in case there's any public comment then absolutely awesome thank you appreciate it thank you very much ben I appreciate thanks Ben um so now we uh are moving uh public comment we'll give everyone um 2 minutes um and we'll start with those in the room if there are any there is anybody on Zoom if you just use the raise hand function now and we'll we'll um take you after we take the people in the room um Robert Principe is is first on the list so I'd like to reserve my comment till after the steering audit steering committee presentation we're doing public comment now Robert see if there's I'd like to reserve my comment till after the AUD committee presentation I I appreciate that but we're doing public

063comment now we have a long meeting I'm not going to take any more time at that particular Point okay so you don't want to do public comment yes I do what have the right that's what I'm here for so so so so so now is the opportunity so that I'd like to register my discontent with the lack of ability to engage what I'm here for when I'm talking about this Mammoth adjustment in the schedule it's just a minute take two minutes now take two minutes later okay Al thank you um as I understand it public comment is scheduled to happen at this time in the meeting even if my public comment is related to something that's going to happen later in the meeting okay my name is Allison Quinn and I live at 37 Pilgrim

064Road um I'm a former president of the Holliston music and arts parents Association and mother of three high school graduates Holliston High School graduates all of whom benefited from the band program beginning in the fourth grade music and art are integral parts of the education of the whole child Myriad articles and studies bear this out Holliston families have been fortunate to have instrumental instruction for students beginning in fourth grade with opportunities for students to explore traditional repertoire as as well as Jazz beginning in fifth grade the Holliston school system has produced graduates who have gone on to be music educators performers technicians and award-winning recording artists like jod MSA I was recently made aware of some changes in the structure of the band chorus and general music program at the Miller and Robert Adams middle

065schools and would like to present some questions on behalf of myself and other interested parents my first question is how will two FTE teacher positions be able to manage the band the chorus and the general music classes is there a loss of an FTE because of this change in the structure of the personnel and the Staffing on paper the change may be cost neutral but I'm concerned about how it will work in reality having two teachers shared between schools which to my knowledge have dis schedules and will essentially be doing the work that is currently covered by three individuals how will the proposed change to the Miller School instructional hours due to the new teachers contract impact the ability of the schools to share these teachers will the middle school schedule also be aligned with

066the high school for staff sharing and busing purposes going forward so if there are schedule changes it it's in the past it's been very diff difficult to share staff between schools because of the schedules being off so I'm concerned that the plan to have two FTE each doing a 4 through eight grade level shared between the two schools will be really logistically challenging um there will likely have to be adjustments to the way in school and after school instruction is done can you elucidate for parents what they can expect going forward will the Rams the Robert Adams Middle School daily schedule be adjusted at all to make up for any loss of after school practice so that students don't lose instructional time on their music and Ensemble work will there be any gain or loss

067of ensembles for example the Rams jazz band the fifth grade jazz band or any select chorus and what will be the stipend expectations for the two FTE teachers where previously these extracurricular activities or after school parts of the program were covered by three individuals so I'm concerned about taking what was done by three people and having it done by two people and I want to make sure that there's no loss to instruction or opportunity to our students thank you you those we don't we can address it as we go through the the we will be speaking to that later thank you than we to give more details though a later date cuz I I jot it down a lot of the questions I'm not sure you em okay all right perfect thank you um Kathy

068Walters what we couldn't hear you Kathy Walters oh sorry hello I'm Kathy Walters the current president of hon music parents Art Association uh I've had three children come through Holliston schools two of which were in band through high school and one is currently in playing in college and one pln to based on the experiences they've had through hollon Public Schools the reason why Miller Rams and the high school has had a high turnover the past three years has revolved around pay teachers are not hired as a 1.0 instructor they've been paid at a 0.5 or 75 of the 1.0 salary and sadly we've had some amazing teachers work for Holliston but have only lasted 12 to 18 months because they've been able to obtain a similar position in another school district that would pay them

069better a banding a band teacher is necessary at both Miller and Rams the Miller Band teacher starts the students off with basic instrument instruction and currently has around 200 plus students which is a third of the school's population to teach a class of fourth and fifth students a wide range of new instruments when they're starting with absolutely no experience is quite a specialized skill that same teacher will then need to turn around and be a mentor to more advanced students at Rams developing their craft some of these eighth graders are already helping out with the high school jazz band [Applause] this change would be comparable to making the same person coach a soccer and swim team at the same time they all require different lessons and skills that need Improvement so it's a challenge to

070have to plan for all of it at once a core class teacher so say like history or English has about four classes they teach a day most of the time is the same curriculum the same one each year and few stay after school for an hour or so for clubs the current band chorus class schedule at Rams consist of small groups of students with mix mixed instruments for chorus sorry mixed instruments for band and for choruses mixed music Parts they only come together after school if you were to combine the elementary school and middle school band programs the band and course teacher will effectively be teaching seven different classes all with a curriculum that changes every year stay after school for course and concert band and Jazz Band rehearsals and have to constantly move in

071between schools that is not reasonable to think to ask for someone especially if the person is new to the school system there were only four afternoons available for after school activities due to the skill levels fourth and fifth graders have separate afternoon rehearsals same at Ram sixth grade rehearsals are separate from Seventh and eth graders we're afraid some after school music sbles will have to be cut when will Jazz ban rehearsal take place what will happen during half days who what building will this teacher be going to what will the schedule be for mcast days we're afraid one band teacher one course teacher will quickly burn out and the students will be stuck with substitutes with no music experience until a replacement is HED which unfortunately was the case at Rams this past school year

072for a chorus Co drasticly changed the number of students involved in band and chorus and that is very evident by the small size of ensembles currently at the high school however we have a large number of students currently at Rams involved in both groups who were at Miller and Co but these kids needed the musical outlet and they have persevered through hybrid and remote learning to continue their craft so we like to congratulate them for be able to do that with quick research today I found that over a dozen colleges and universities around this country are currently building new Performing Arts buildings to keep up with a large number of students seeking membership in musical ensembles I'm afraid that by combining Miller and Rams you're going to stifle Talent children are going to give up

073and that is not right what so what would you your ideal sort of position one two FS at each school is that where you're yes okay yep don't have them going back and forth okay thank you uh Sean my name is Sean Bido I'm the high school band director for those of you who don't know me I'm here today to express my concerns regarding the restructuring of the band program at Rams and Miller while I understand that costs and enrollment numbers as a whole must be taken into consideration the solution of eliminating the band position at Miller to roll it into the Rams position does service to our students the way that all of our Performing Arts positions are structured K to 12 relies on the idea that a lot of our teaching time is

074outside of school hours and therefore does not count towards our FTE on paper it can appear that we have less classes less students and therefore less positions can be called 1.0 the fact is that none of our music classes K to 12 are structurally set up with the best educ ational practices in mind examples include frequency of classes and rehearsals poor student to teer ratios which I believe is done in an effort to create fewer sections and therefore make it cheaper I do recognize and I do believe that part of this decision is to roll these positions into two 1.0 positions is an attempt to address some of our staffing issues make make the positions more palatable and get good solid people in here who don't want to leave I do 1,00% recognize this however

075there are several flaws and how I see this decision playing out both in the decision itself and how our Administration and Department leadership chose to take action to make this change over my 12 years 12 years in the fall working in this District I have seen the performing arts department get cut over and over and over again the band position at Miller used to be 0.9 and at Rams we used to have at the very beginning of my tenure here a full 1.0 band and a full 1.0 chorus over the years that has been chipped away so that the same amount of work has been expected to be done by fewer and fewer staff which has ultimately caused some of our most talented and hardworking staff to leave I'll be honest we are quite frankly

076a joke in the music education Community for how we treat our staff and the student outcomes that are a direct result of that this decision results in a net loss of 0.1 FTE if you look if you look at how the FTE is spread out now taking into account that the Miller Band position when originally posted when opened two years ago was listed as a 6 even if you take that into account and keep it at a 6 you're netting a 0.1 loss in FTE I am also concerned that when we roll these positions together that Middle School general music is going to take a hit our landscape of music education has changed Middle School general music is a hot bed of potential for students to explore what music means to them outside of I

077want to sing in a chorus I want to play a band instrument that's not what music education is anymore nor is it what it should be it needs to be broader than that by doing this as the parents eloquently put you're spreading people too thin and something's going to take a hit in my opinion to properly staff this District in the Performing Arts there needs to be three 1.0 positions at Miller and placentino one doing General music one doing General music in chorus and one doing General music and band there needs to be a reinstatement of the two full 1.0 positions at Rams one for band and general music one for chorus and general music and there needs to be three 1.0 positions at the high school one band an elective one course an elective

078one theater and elective now I realize that that is a pipe dream I get it I get get it but the solution as it stands is the equivalent of putting Elmer's Glue on a already disintegrating pile of rubble we need to be advocating for our staff I share the concerns of our parents that what looks good on paper is going to burn out the good staff that we have and is going to make the staff that we are going to be awesome I hope that we hire not want to stay because I see it over and over again this decision was done without any sort of effort of collaboration with proper stakeholders and was put into motion without an actual full-fledged flushed out plan and that to me is unacceptable I love this town I

079love working for this town I love the fact that we have someone who's stepped up like George Wan at the middle school he's done amazing awesome things in the very short time he's been here and I refuse I refuse to watch him and whoever we hire to get chorus get burned out frustrated and ultimately leave I expect because I know this decision is going through I get it I get it I expect that when concerns are brought forward by students by families by department members that those concerns be taken seriously and acted upon and that is my statement thank [Applause] you um so if now we we have one hand on uh so far anyway for for public comment on the zoom just uh another um sort of ask that if you are on the

080zoom and want to make public comments that you raise your hand now uh Sarah you may unmute yourself or do we have to unmute no you she can unmute Sarah you have to put your video on S can you unmute your video hi sah Hill yep sah Hill Pawn Road um I have a couple questions for you um you know there seems to be a lot of misinformation and not accurate information that it had been uh you know put out through social media and just speaking amongst the public I just have a couple questions are Hall and public school salaries compared by all towns in Massachusetts but by all towns in norx County all surrounding towns or all towns of similar District populations like how are you comparing us please explain how and why you

081use this method to compare I hear the phrase competitive W yet I don't understand who you are actually comparing poist against can you know are we talking about just Metro West uh other public school districts are you comparing us against you know all districts that are similar as far as uh the district size like how do you come to that number um or or how do you come to that by you know that calculation then two are teachers in hollon public schools currently receiving competitive wages and if not then how much less are hollon teachers receiving amongst the peers that you're comparing us to what ranking system does the hollison school committee believe is a valid source to determine the success of the district I often hear that you know people don't want to use

082you know uh the various ranking systems like Niche or Boston magazine to compare districts but I will say that a lot of towns you know when you have a young couple or young family moving into a new town the public school system is something that they definitely consider um and you know they do look at where public schools are ranked to kind of make those determinations of where they want to live with their family if they are seeking a public education um so I'm curious to know what you know over the last decade now Holliston has continuously dropped in our public school ranking so what you know system you know what ranking system do you believe as a school committee is a valid source to determine the actual success of the district so people can

083understand you know how did we go uh in 2013 when I moved to this community uh you know we were 14 and we've significantly dropped in the ratings over the last decade so you know why is that how come what has happened over the last decade that hollison has continuously dropped in the ranking and then my last question would be would it be reasonable to expect that with higher wages if this override does pass cash and additional learning time that our district will perform at higher levels moving forward you know when you're when you're investing there's always an expectation so if you invest money you expect a profit if you invest time you expect success or satisfaction so I'm wondering you know what would be the draw for the taxpayers to you know approve this

084override you know giving teachers more money doesn't give the elderly or you know low voters any incentive to truly vote for an override uh you know what is the added benefit for us uh as taxpayers to invest into our school system when we've continuously see you know when we've continuously seen rankings drop um you know as a parent now with a school age child who's lived in this community for over a decade but has not sent my child to public school until this year you know I'm very curious to know what the return of this investment is I'm not necessarily paying for Te You Know opposed to paying teachers more money but I want to know how this will help us you know amongst the comparable districts that we're competing against uh you know what's

085the added value um since we already pay a high a high amount of tax thank you so much um so I you we don't normally necessarily respond to these things but given this the the situation and the fact that discussions of the override are on the on the agenda I will address a few there was a lot lot there that I may not be able to get to all of them uh there's a in the presentation that's on the school Department's web uh website under the override there's a um a listing of of a group of different towns some surroundings some sort of comparable versus you know in different uh collaboratives and whatnot and so that's the the general grouping of towns that we look at to to compare ourselves um you know in general

086I think the Holliston schools uh personally have have been relatively competitive that we've certainly not um kept up over time I think if you look at some data from from 12 14 years ago we've Fallen back relatively slightly in our in our competitiveness um but one thing I think is very important because you are talking about return on investment um is is a couple things first of all of the comparable school districts we pay less per people than any other District that we compare ourselves to secondly this contract is not just about paying teachers it is about increasing instructional time for students I think it is very important that we do not lose sight of that when we're talking about money we were talking about about working to increase the education opportunities and um time

087on learning for our students is 15 minutes of increased instructional time per day for grades 3 through 12 and 10 minutes for K through 2 that's 540 hours of increased instructional time over a student's K through 12 education which equates to more than half a year of of increased education so it's it's not just looking at the dollars and cents that a teacher makes versus another District it is the fact that we are increasing our opportunities for students and I think that that is incredibly important and something that we absolutely cannot lose sight on and wi sight of when we were looking at that uh when we were looking um at this contract um there was one other point but um oh the other point I was just simply say is that there are have

088been a number of of recently settled contracts that are in the same neighborhood as the contract that we were settled that we were settling in so it's it's you Ashlin just settled at a 333 Franklin is a 444 just being Cola but and Ashen increased their their um uh longterm their longevity significantly and then Wayland was it just four 433 with last year so um we we we have uh the contract that we are proceeding with is an incredibly good contract for hollon it's good for our students it's good for our teachers um and it's good for the district and uh ultimately will be good for your property values are there any more questions from the zoom or would you like you she hand again is there any other questions from Zoom I don't see

089any other okay hands um so before so we have a bunch of presentations um that we're going to get into but um uh Dr manard if you wouldn't mind just discussing the uh the course and B since we have people here that discuss that I think I'm going to jump in and then can add okay sure however you guys slide that was is part of our coming presentation so what's interesting here is um when I arrived in hollist we've had this problem long before I arrived here that because of the um just these the class sizes and our enrollment even before now um we've had these part-time positions in place so um I know that it was mentioned as a 2.1 position overall um in the way we've been working at we we've had part-time

090positions at the middle school and part-time positions at the Elementary School and we have had turnover staff as a result they come in as a new new teacher we've gotten some good people but then they just settle in and they're leaving so actually um shortly after my arrival here um actually some of the band and course teachers actually talked with myself and the principles they wanted to meet to discuss proposing a model where we would combine these positions so um and this was something that taking the band at the elementary and the middle school and combining them that was idea that was brought to us as Administration to Mr Jordan we have multiple meeting myself and Dr Pap Dr papis was there also with they felt that this would actually help strengthen the program because

091we'd have that alignment we couldn't manage that at the time because of the fact that we had such diverse schedules that the principls couldn't come up with a plan to make that work so now that the schedule has changed at RS Dr Jordan and um Mr Kim did come together and said hey you know we still continue to have this turnover with these part-time positions this would be an opportunity to try to see if we can make it work um and have full-time people that travel with the kids and strengthen and grow the program that ultimately is the plan to grow the program I have to say just um my own children were in chorus band all three of my children were in different musical programs and my son when he was in Middle School

092to high school the same band teacher followed him from 6 to 12 and they had 130 students in the marching band with tubas that would dance on the field at every football game and I laughed and applauded every time when I saw the dancing tubis my son played saxophone and so there's a lot of research showing that continuity when we have strong people that will remain in the district full-time and then would follow up with the students it does the whole plan is to grow this program so that when they do get to the middle the high school I hope that we can add more staff because of because we have grown this program and we have an ability I'd love to see a marching band someday I mean I they add so much to

093our performance so that was really um this year Dr Jordan and Mr Kim came to us and said we do think this is an opportunity now with change and then we've had this constant turnover can we make this program work and get full-time um positions and that's that was the impetus behind this really to attract retain and and get them to just to follow the students up to the middle um and then hopefully again bring up to the high school and even grow that program as well did you want to add something Mr KH [Music] yeah deep kind principal and Miller um just conceptually so you can understand so we've got our our fifth grade and our fourth grade unified Arts block and so that's where the band like our fifth grade model our fourth

094graders are going to go during that music block like our fifth graders do it's not going to come out of recess so it's going to be every day the same time that a teacher will be with me at that that those first two then go over to middle and then at the end of the day come back over for the the band for me uh and the days that they have banned over there it it fit into the middle school schedule because they used to do a Six-Day schedule and now they do a 5-day schedule so the students are actually going to get 50 minutes of band instead of the 30 minutes that they would have out of recess and I was also getting parent complaints that their students weren't signing up for instruments because

095it was coming out of recess and we all know they need recess and so when Dr Jordan came to me it seemed to fit and so not trying to take any away from the band program the coral piece at Miller is only one afternoon we created it last year and so it's a 4 five one day after school just to get kids who are interested in singing singing after school and so that position is only one afternoon with me and so I just wanted to explain it to you not trying to take anything away thank you Mr I think done yes um so look I think if anyone El wants to to make a comment just about their feelings on on the music and chorus program I think it's a very important program to us

096um obviously the administration sort of Drive uh you know has within the operational role uh some of these decisions so but I think that it's important to continue these conversations monitor the um monitor the new the new system that's put into place and continually reevaluate if things are if things aren't working a job um I think that's certainly what what I what I can offer uh today so um so thank you all and are we good with public comment any one else I don't see any okay um thank you guys all for everyone for your for your public comments and if you guys would like to leave us ready to move on yes uh Mr Rene is going to bring up a team oh great okay we're moving on to the equity steering committee my

097uh screen sharing says I need to be posted again I got kicked out at one point okay y got it and just if we have it Y is there going to be anything more about the band or was that it that was the only slide we had had for tonight that was it if you want to send if you want to send your questions we can make sure that we get those addressed or at least responded to so like follow up with an email not mine's about the musical theater one so that's okay totally different thing I can email you please okay thank you all right okay um all right let's get some energy back into into the room right it's been uh a little bit of time I know people been sitting um but

098we are really excited to share with you um our recommendations from the equity AIT steering committee um but before I kind of jump into thing I wanted to take an opportunity to uh share with you who's here with me today um so with that um if you guys want to introduce yourselves good evening uh my name is Karim Porto carero heer I'm a World Language teacher in the high school Dave K principal Miller School okay I have a loud voice Chaya Goen I'm my son goes to s placentino and I'm also part of divor solistone in the tong thank you um you know as I begin um I kind of just want to paint a picture um if you look at that Sunny uh futuristic uh day um we had our last meeting this Monday

099right um and this Monday was a warm day beautiful lacrosse was happening in the field and I was like nobody's coming today right like I just made that assumption uh high school students had graduated students were enjoying their day uh and in walk to high school students super excited to be there they blew me away they blew my assumptions away um we had I think nine people in the room right for our last meeting and this last meeting was about tweaking our recommendations that we're going to share today which really tells me about the passion that people engaged with this work um and before I go I'll just share in the 3 years I've been here this has been probably one of the happiest things I've been a part of um I leave at 9:00

100or 8:00 whenever that wraps up energized sometimes more energized and I am at 4:00 because you're in a room with people who are really wrestling with this concept of equity knowing that there's no easy solutions but knowing that you have to enter the space with a creativity to kind of see it better tomorrow so that's the beginning of our uh presentation freezing I know there it goes are you in presentation mode yeah okay okay so um so I wanted to share some guiding questions uh for anyone listening at home for us listening here today um when I asked this question to the room uh on Monday and I said if we live up to the recommendations we're sharing today will the H in public schools be more Equitable than where we are today and the

101answer was resounding yes I as another question ha have we created structures and processes that move us closer to equity and that support the sustainability of our recommendations one thing is to make recommendations but another thing is are we building structures that can live past a year and the answer was yes and then here's the Hope right there is no way that in 20 to 30 minutes I can capture everything we talked about in successions that I can do any justice to the conversations to recommendations but my hope is that those watching those in the room walk away with just two feelings one is this is doable and the other is I'm excited for what's next that's my that's my goal for today right because I also know that I we have to establish other

102opportunities to share those with the community past a 8:30 o00 meeting right on a uh Thursday night so there's going to be more engagement about what we do today um but that's the hope as we walk in today so with that we'll continue um moving okay okay so um the I want to present you the committee participants um first of all we have we were um four students four parents four Educators one building administrator one office administrator uh and two people from the community um from the Holliston Youth and Family and sepac um so the equity audit steering committee um um has a diverse representations um this was intentionally composed to include members from diverse backgrounds identity and and leave experiences uh we have also members from the uh black indigenous people of color lgtbq

103plus and students with the special education needs and also a student from all range of Ages and backgrounds um when we uh did the uh committed uh what we try to um what we earn and what we understand and what we have what we're going to present is that we um ensure the diverse range of perspective of the community and we are amplifying the voices of those who usually are not successful or um they don't feel a sense of belonging [Applause] the phases of our work so we started in January at the beginning of this year and today we're presenting the first phase phase one and today we're providing the recommendation um so this recommendation is today and uh there's a journey for this that uh we're hoping to uh Implement during the year 24

104and 25 and Beyond the second phase is to integrate the implementation process the District of hollison will carefully integrate purposely um that the equity audit steering committees recommendation adapting and refining the recommendation to ensure effective implementation within the unique context of holon public school um and the third phase is to embed in in the school culture to become a cultural responsive school and this goes beyond and this will be first purposely um so beyond the 25th and 26 school year [Music] um we'll use this recommendation for hiring purposes support and and grow as a district sorry that English is not my first language you great thank Youk um so some of the district recommendations um there's a lot of so one of the things we did purposely is some of the slides we expanded because

105we felt that that was something people wanted to know and then some of the other pieces are in here which will be available on the website that people can jump into and actually read more in depth so some of the things that came out one of the first recommendations is we got to create a structure in a process so equally Monday evening when we met at 7:30 8:00 people were like we're going to continue this right and one of the things recommendation is that this be a structure that continues that we as a moving away from the equity audit to a hon Public Schools Equity committee continue to meet to provide feedback and support for the school district uh and at the same time um I wouldn't the word is not accountability but be able

106to offer uh advice suggestions found ways to continue to move this work because in the room will be students parents Educators uh and administrators so equally there'll be voices in this in the space to hear about how are the recommendations really coming out um incorporate the second recommendations is that our recommendation should be incorporated into the Strategic plan for next year um that's often something that happens in the summer so often times administrators meet in the summer we we think about where we left and we kind of recreate our new objectives for the year one of the suggestions is for these recommendations to land in within those recommendations for the Strategic plan but also every fall early fall our schools write School Improvement plans and we're also asking for these recommendations to find their way

107within those School Improvement plans um and incorporate in a way that isn't just embedded that it disappears but name it right name the work that is happening within our strategic plan and within our schools um in a way that's embedded with what's happening within the school the third one is um create a multi-year PD plan one of the things that often happens when we think about Equity uh is that sometimes in districts we'll have siloed PD right so today we're going to go to professional development focused on bias and then we never talk about that again or we're going to talk about math instruction and we're going to talk about math and culture relevancy then we never talk about that again so one of the pieces is could we create a multi-year plan which we've

108actually started working on where we can name the pieces from the recommendations that are embedded within the work but as part of the work not seen as something outside of the work this should be part of the work um so we want to see a multi-year plan where our recommendations are articulated within that so um the fourth recommendation across the district was um we want to create a a proactive protocol one that recom one that um the committee recommends creating a responding to incident of biased protocol we have a a bullying uh policy and a bullying protocol um we also want to create one for responding to incidence to bias um but we also wanted to name it from the preventative side and from the responsive side so what are we as a district doing

109to prevent incident of bias from happening this will never be a perfect a perfect um goal but our goal should always be to reduce the likelihood that incidents and bias occur within our schools um but also how are we going to respond to those when they happen that plan should have clear articulation around how are we going to communicate to those stakeholders were impacted um how do we communicate to the school community and at what points at times do we need to communicate to the Greater hollon Community depending on what occurred um outlining how we making decisions about how we engage with whatever May the incident may have occurred um and then articulating very clearly what are what's happening at each of our schools that sets up a preventative space for this to happen uh

110and then the last part to that is making sure we create Community Education it would make no sense for us to create a protocol that our community isn't doesn't know about doesn't know how to engage um and equally um it doesn't know how to access those supports when necessary that make sense um so the next goal is around a comprehensive uh Recruitment and Retention plan oh can we pass this down thank you jel um I'll I'll re I'll start by reiterating something that the first slide says Equity is not a destination so I hope we all understand this is work that's never going to be done we need to continuously work on making those changes so um with that background and also um i' would like to add some additional color on like the uh

111surveys that have been down across town done in the Holliston Town multiple times and a General survey of all the parents that they send their um kids to the Hollis and public system it this has been one of the biggest um things that have that they' have highlighted that the school system needs to work on which is um a comprehensive recruiting and retention plan that's representative in diversity one only needs to look at our current teacher population to see we're we're failing in that um it I will add an additional um fact um that I came to know recently um one of the two diverse folks in the visibly diverse folks in the force is actually their contract is not being renewed which means we've 50 lost 50% of the diverse representation in the school

112system this is something to look at like not only are we failing to attract diverse teachers into our Workforce um we're actually losing the ones we actually managed to get for whatever reason so why do why is it that why is that so important uh one only needs to look at our middle school and Elementary School and look at how the classes are populated today the demographics are changing these kids need to see leaders teachers who look like them who talk like them who feel like them that's the most important part for them to see look up to leadership the other aspect is not it's not only for the diverse kids right like it's for all the other kids as well that will tomorrow graduate into a Workforce that looks a lot diverse than what

113holem looks like today they need to understand how that works they need to know what it means to work across those visible differences and that's the most important aspect um and I think the only way to teach them to do that is to have leaders who model that behavior in schools and how do we do that like we we we're still that's the piece that we need to focus on is how do we put in structured processes that enable recruitment we need to think creatively and innovatively because we whatever we've been trying so far we've been failing that's that's that's visible in like how many diverse teachers we've been able to recruit and that's the reality I'm not saying it to throw it back in somebody's face I'm just observing facts so we need to

114relook at our process and see what we can do differently what we can do creatively to attract teachers so that's something I think that really really needs to change and uh I think that's that's probably what um the VIS um vision of a colleague program was focused at is to help both existing teachers as well as incoming teachers to feel attracted towards what would be a very supportive and conducive environment for them to come in succeed and respond to the community as well yeah going grab the mic and start uh riffing um I just wanted to add one piece to that one of the pieces that uh two of our community members added to this Monday night was why Holliston like let let let's be clear um when we start to recruit and let's let's

115intent say why is Holliston the place you need to be right so part of creating this this Recruitment and Retention plan isn't just a plan of like make sure we all are using you know inclusive language during you know interviews Etc yeah that too but also why hollison why should you pick hollison over any other community right we need to name that and be clear about that and the second thing is um and and one of our our partners mentioned this was um I just wanted to make clear for everybody in the room in for this when we mean diversity we're not just talking about the color of our skin we're talking about language we're talking about um lgbtq plus we're talking about neurodiversity um we're talking about low income we're talking about the whole

116plethora of lived experiences that are within our school so that's the other piece that I want to expand on is that that when we talk about this this is for that right how do we diversify who our kids see across across the spectrum of diversity um in our schools the next part is on um student services uh and you know building a student services leadership group and we've begun to do that we've got uh Jess Bey uh student services director for the building or district and then our ssas our school syes the the teachers in our continuums are basis our Pathways our networks our meeting to see are there alternate ways um that we could pull out students when we need to instead of just doing it during the World Language time uh because there

117isn't a you talked about uh time on learning and adding time to the day there's only so many uh places you can give services to students so that they're not coming out of the core instruction in the classroom and what has been a practice is coming out of the world Lang so we need to take a look at that and are there different places uh that we could do that the other thing is student voice and stakeholder feedback so you you form this student services leadership group but let's talk to the kids who are going through uh on IEPs and and Survey them how's it working for you you know get their feedback but also get the feedback of the parents whose students are going through this and then we triangulate that data and and

118you know we we've got a better uh we're better informed we have better data uh to to look at how we're servicing kids and you've heard me talk about this in February you heard me talk about this with our school Improvement plan but our our chronic attendance so back in 2018 and 2019 I bet we were about at 5% we are up to 10 plus now in students being absent so let's take a picture of Miller 600 kids that's 60 kids and if we look at chronically absent that's 18 or more days and so we are bordering that 10 we actually this week just saw a nine for the first time all year because we've been sending this home to parents we've been sending this home uh to teachers that we do want to focus

119on students being in school and that has a huge impact on student learning and um just to add to that piece um so I brought these goals to just Bey and I said hey what are your thoughts about these and she was super pumped be she loved them and and she she was really excited about creating a cord of students that she could just sit with and say tell me the TR tell me what's working what's not working because often time as adults we think we're creating programs that this is going to be awesome this going to be so beneficial and the kid might look at and be like this isn't working for me right um so she's really excited about creating especially at the secondary level a feedback group that she can meet with

120to get feedback about how services are being felt U what's working what's not and then be able to create change for that uh and then from that she also was like I want to feedback my stakeholders right the parents um Al those students who receiving Services what are their experience and how do I improve that as well so she was really excited about this so the next part I have is improving transitions I was floored by the first one monu uh to fifth grade and I was like boy we could have taken care of this long time ago if I I realized what was going on so seeing this information we're actually going to interview current fifth grade monu students to hear about their experience and hear about their transition we're also going to try

121to next week get them to talk to current fourth grade Monas students to give them a little heads up of of how that transition's going to happen separate from just the fourth grade going into a fifth grade classroom uh this is something that you know actionable we can do right now uh to take a look at this you know transitions are always tough but we can always do better we can always get feedback you know that second to third um the learning to read to reading to learn and we're finding that we're having more and more students still needing to learn to read and so it's how do we build that gap between the two schools how do we build it from fifth grade to sixth grade you know 8th grade to 9th grade and

122then the last part on this is how do we transition kids into the world you know not just college but you know some students are going into um the the the workforce right out of high school how do we transition our 22y olds who have been in our program till 22 how do we work with the parents and and make sure um they're going where they need to go yeah um he's looking at me like I'm sure you have something to but this was another question that was asked yesterday um Monday it feels like yesterday this like these things are so lofty how will we get it done principal K just shared how we start to do the work from a recommendation at the school level they're now interviewing students to create a different way

123we can transition kids to improve the experience of kids that's how change starts to happen right that's the reality of the work there's no perfect solution but that's how it that's how it works by highlighting something by saying hey something here needs to kind of Be Moved there's something we got to pay attention to it now creates the ability for people to stop and say huh what could we do differently and then to be honest I could feel the passion from them right saying we're going to interview kids right before we go right so I I just wanted to share that because I think and I always want to put a perspective we can move this work but part of how we move it is by stopping and taking a look at where where we're

124at and then starting to just take action to move some of the work and then obviously I got this one the uh Elementary recommendations so you know at the elementary level we're a big school and so combining both placentino and Miller and looking at how we're communicating early and I know Dr slany has started this already because she's read this report when they did their kindergarten um and and pre school um nights early in in the spring so how do we explain to parents the experience and how do we do it in different languages so that all people know you know what the French immersion program is is is like or the monu program is like and and what the path is going to be like going all the way up okay monu ends at

125grade four you know and so grade four they they are going to transition in grade five or or do they know at Miller you know you're going to stop doing French all day long and you're going to have it half day in English half day in French and what that looks like and and what that experience but how can we do a better job uh in in selling those and in in letting people know what those are looking like and looking at our enrollment Trends in these programs you know do we have people dropping out of these programs that and and and why is that um you know it it's I could you know give you a guess but I want to look at the data and I want to find out you know from

126interviewing or surveying people why this is happening no suggestion no no comment nothing I did all right there they all doing great um so we're going to move on to secondary and one of the things that I meant to mention earlier so our originally Equity audit report had 48 recommendations what we're moving forward as recommendations we're at 20 and in those 20 even even in the 20 we left things out but we also felt a duty to be able to say we're not going to be able to move things if we're if if we're aiming for a thousand things we have to start being more succinct about what we do and part of what we do is also seeing that each one impacts another there's not a lot of recommendations you're going to see that

127are completely isolated by themselves if we move one work it starts to impact other pieces as well so um we're next moving to secondary recommendations um so one of one of those recommendations is around vision of a graduate now you've heard vision of a graduate but one of the things when we talk to students and the report said it as well is that it's important for students to feel that they fully can understand and and be able to um articulate what the vision of graduate means to them and when we in the room and we were talking with some of the students some of the students were like yeah we kind of talk about it but like it's not as meaningful as it could be in my life so we need to make that meaningful

128we make we need to make it real and not just real for necessarily just even the students who are in the room but consider you know how is a vis a vision of graduate real for those students who speak multiple languages for those students who are you know have neurodiversity uh recommend um uh who are neurodiverse for students who have different learning profiles how's vision of graduate speak to them right so that's that that was a recommendation another recommendation is continue the curriculum reviews right curriculum reviews are are a necessary piece towards Equity what we mean is we always need people reviewing the curriculum that we have in front of our students every day to make sure it's what we want and and it's in line with what research tells us is the best practice

129for students to be learning but when doing the curriculum reviews we recommend a couple things one is um make sure that that in that piece you're providing education for the community to understand what are the changes we're making right um another piece is to to ensure that we can when making changes to curriculum we're providing ways to assess how are those changes going a lot of our recommendations for secondary are going to go to structure and what we mean is that um as we shift things or as we think about changes for the secondary level we have to create structures to make sure that whatever changes We Believe are happening they're happening and if not that we can course correct at any time for that um so ensuring Equitable access and curriculum decisions so um

130one of the things I kind of wanted to just address you know at the beginning is that there's been plenty of conversation this year and I think it may even started last year about leveling honors AP courses and at times people were turning to say like well what's what's the equity's uh uh Equity audits you know steering committee decision on this and the reality is we're a team of four students four Educators for parents um stakeholders we're not the experts to make decisions but here's what I believe we are the experts are suggestions for questions that need to be answered and structures that need to be put in place before changes are made so part of our recommendation is um and if you could see this piece here um once we make this online you'll

131be able to click um on this link but we want to create an equity-minded decision-making checklist and here's what it would mean um hopefully it shows it okay um it's a lot of a lot of questions but some of the questions that I post to the group for instance are what do you want this leveling honors or AP study group to consider and the P or the S or the e are the hat that that person was wearing right they were asking these questions as a parent or as an educator right or as a student and I'll just read one example what concrete steps will be taken to address any potential implicit bias and recommendations in placement processes for leveled classes in ensuring Equitable access to honors and AP courses that's a great question right

132what do we have in place to make sure that there's no bias in place as to how kids get recommended we were talking to a student who was in our Equity AIT steering committee who said I wish I would have recommended earlier this student was a senior and was taking four AP courses that's insane that's a lot and when I asked did you have the chance to take any earlier he said I probably did but no one really recommended me to do that and that to me just provided an opportunity of something we could do differently right that's not a criticism of the structure it's an opportunity for us to do something differently so part of our um going back to this part of recommendation is from these questions we're going to create a checklist

133that we're hoping uh curriculum review teams uh any teams that are looking at decisions that impact across a school across a grade span have to go through answering some questions for themselves before they make a decision such as are there un are there possible unintended in impacts that could happen as a result of this decision what's the current enrollment of any of these courses currently do students who want to take this class do they have the possibility to take it and are there scaffolds and supports built in place so they can succeed in that are we encouraging students from across all diverse pieces we talk to take those level courses do parents and students understand how they can advocate for themselves if they'd like to this is part of structures and processes that we believe

134need to be in place for decisions to be made so our recommendation as a equity a steering committee is to create a a structure where teams are answering these questions and and in all honesty when they come in front of a a school committee or they come in front of any committee to share their recommendations that they answer these questions our data says what we've looked at possible unintended consequences and here's what we're putting in place here's how we're going to support students in this new wh we're going with this Equity calls for that right Equity doesn't call for us to be able to tell people exactly what the decision is because that doesn't change the system what changes the system is putting things in place that that create a space where people ask those

135questions so that's in that's our recommendation for this piece is to create that structure that helps those teams make decisions that are informed this schooles connected to that is the when and the who uh this uh the uh recommendation number four speaks about um for schools to kind of think about when in a school year they might um for instance I know there's been conversation at 8th grade uh like algebra right um and one of the things that we're asking is for as decisions are made is people to be able to answer when would this happen and who might be positively impacted and are there anybody who might be negatively impacted by this decision right that has to be at if we're going to live through this concept of equity that has to be the

136core of questions we start to ask an answer in a transparent way and know that there probably will be no perfect answer but that we're being transparent about the informed decision we made communicate options and Alternatives and and and with this I'll just share a piece when we first had the report of the equiotic representation we heard from um I think an educator who said at the high school um we have options for students who who may not have been recommended to like override that and get into and get into that class and then we had a a a parent say my child wasn't allowed to go into a class and I didn't know that was an option that right there is an example of inequity although we may have a policy or a practice

137in place if our families and our students don't know how to access that if we're not living up to that then we can't call that Equity right we have to definitely call in an opportunity Gap and so part of recommendation number five is to ensure that we're communicating and our families and our students know how to access all options and know how to um advocate for whatever our policies and practices are right whatever our practices and practices are they know how to access them when necessary and number six uh is is goes back to what we were asking for the first part is make transparent equity-minded decisions right so utilizing those questions that are focused on Equity are we being transparent um and explaining to the school committee explaining to the larger Community why we

138made this decision what data we looked at how we made it the the decision and what safeguards are we putting in place for any students who might be impacted in a way that we did not see that happening there are uh from this piece there are three other goals uh in the secondary but I'm not listing them and here's why they're in the report that will be available online because they they can only come to fruition once we make a decision on what the high school recommend the high school schedule will be because they're directly connected to high school schedule such as ensuring the students don't have to make choices on courses they take and and have to um not take art of Music in order to get another piece of within their structure right

139we've heard from students that that's a struggle but until the high school makes a decision on where they're going to go with their schedule although we've made the re recommendations it doesn't make sense to bring it up in this space um so next steps for this group um I've already named it that we're going to move on we're no longer the equity audit steering committee we're now just the house and public schools Equity steering committee right this is going to be part of what we do and what we live we're asking that um and and pushing for this stuff to be this work to be embedded in our plans and named sometimes embedded can disappear right such as um we support all students right that's a way where it's it's a blanket statement but if

140our recommendation is we support our students and we're building scaffolds to make sure no students are left behind and we're looking at data yearly to make sure that our students all have equal access to that that's a really different statement right so we want it to make sure they're named and the last piece is we want to make sure that as we move forward and start to embed these that we create measurables and then we celebrate progress right there's already I've already heard several things in our presentation that we can celebrate we're we're talking to students at montauri we've already had changes at placentino um we're going to be creating different hiring plan right like our SSD director is excited about talking to students that's already change already happening so we also want to figure

141out ways to celebrate the progress not only that has been happening but the progress we see will be happening um and with that I'll say thank you to the the three people here who are here till 9:00 um and gave six six were with me for six months right and and uh Sarah as well um and then I guess I would open up to questions so the group that you are envisioning going forward because I do uh you know I do recognize you know this is or I think you this is the beginning right or the start it's or it's a continuing process and so we appreciate you guys coming here to give an interim update just given all the work that's been going on so but is the group that will be continuing is

142that the same or are you going to be looking for so we're going to have to look for some some of our students are graduating sure right they're moving on um some of our students are graduating um and once we kind of set the schedule for next year um it's funny so I was like we should what if we meet quarterly and once again um right I assumed wrong the students was like I think we should do monthly I was not thinking parents would be able to do right like be able to juggle that or teachers and people are that passionate about the work so I don't know if monthly and I think we got it maybe every other month but definitely I think think some of the a lot of people who are part

143of want to continue but and we're also going to expand based on the recommendations because there might be other voices that need to kind of come into the room based on where we're going can I piggy back yeah please um so just to follow up on that um Dan thank you for asking the question because um I don't think this is oneway Street where we're going to make recommendations and like everybody else follows it I think this is where we look to you folks in the school committee administrative leadership everybody principles we all need to get get together and get creative because whatever we we've been doing doesn't seem to be hitting the mark so how can we improve right like this is not a criticism or personal attack against what has not worked we

144know what that is we need to we need to improve on a daily basis so the challenge before the school committee the administrative leadership this committee is to collectively bring Improvement I think Jerel was saying how can we be better tomorrow than today right like that's going to be the uh Pursuit and it's not a onetime thing we do these 10 things and then we're in the top 10 school rankings or whatever right like it's about how we start year upon year of successful graduates who have great things to say about the Hollis public school system and I think the return on investment is better better citizens set better real estate prices that speaks to some people so either way it works for everybody yeah I think one of the things you mentioned is sort

145of the diversity or vision of a a colleague I think is it is that and you mentioned the diversity of our of our staff and I'd love to see some recommendations on how to sort of do that I guess because you know that's a it's not easy right because in some ways you put out applications and you get or you put out job re reck and you you get who you who you get so how do you go about doing that how do we attract those people so you know suggestions on that would be um I can I it doesn't need to me tonight I'm just saying like you know yeah I can RI one just now just they thought I thought about it a lot um um but but um I think just looking

146at the class right like that will change the perception that's seen outside of poist where it's it's like a predominantly white town and like people are uh looking feeling like one way just show them a different side of the school system that the students will speak louder than anything we can tell them right just look at the classes Miller and S placentino and uh Robert Miller and um Ram every all the middle school and two elementary schools if you look at the class demographics that will speak to a lot of teachers that might want to come and teach here um it it counters everything else that's out there that people are consuming about Holliston and that's the challenge right like so we teach to that speaks to a teacher more than anything else I think

147that's a that's something that we can do tomorrow have these teach have these students make a video um you know there very many Creative Marketing ways we can get done U on that front that's just one quick one I'm sure we can do a lot so Jerelle when you look at um the next incarnation of this group going into next year are you thinking about things like creating smart goals where you can say this these are action steps so we can actually see the work because this is it's very broad it's a broad brush right now but um to narrow that even those down into these are the action step we're going to take in this next year and and those as part of our goals is it too to ask for things that in

148in the to start working on some of those things I I think some of these things 100% smart gos and some of things are actions that need to be taken yes um such as create a plan roll it out the smart goals might be to start to measure the impact of those right so smart goals might be attached to action um to action steps that need to happen but um as we say kind of like the world if it's not measured it didn't happen um so we 100% need to create um you know smal for that um and I just wanted to say to the hiring piece research tells us that how do you retain and recruit is by living this work so if we if we create a community where this is Alive and

149Well people want to come here because this isn't alive and well everywhere right so this becomes part of our why is living this um and I forgot to mention that part of one of the goals there's homework for all of us and what what what we mean is um part of the recommendations was for the school committee and the school administrators from central office and our schools to uh engage in some professional development together around um equity and the concept of equity so what I mean is as we start to move forward and when we talk about the work we're all on the same page about what we mean what we talk about uh how we Define it and how we're going to name the work as we head into the future especially as there's

150been turnover um in our school committee um we thought it would be a great time and the recommendation was for all of us for to be aligned as we head into next school year so I didn't name that but that is a another recommendation for us to do that work together and so as you were talking you know we've been talking about trying to do workshops over this summer we didn't get to do any last summer but that's something that jel and I um and already work with the state he and I have been doing the racial Equity diversity inclusion work um with darnisa uh Anita Jackson and Lead tol and I actually would you know providing you're willing and able to do it with us we'd love to try to put together Workshop based

151on equity and I we're try to bring Dara in as the person I've already reached out to her to see her availability but I also don't want to presume that you're going to be able to do it but I think it would be a great opportunity for us to do a workshop together sure yeah talk about some dates and I I know it's a late night but like uh can I can I ask for Indulgence from the uh school committee and and the leadership sitting across uh if you can highlight one thing that spoke to you in the presentation today that that you want to think about going forward I would like to hear one at least one you have more i' would love to hear more go ahead down apparently s you sitting in

152the oh no I yeah you go okay I'll go first um something important was mentioned um was around you know I think you compared bullying to bias and how we you know communicate that and call that out I think an area where we could work stronger and how we talk about embed is unconscious bias like how we not call that out negatively but educate right how do we embed that in our education system I think it's important we don't lose sight of that cuz I mean our youth are going to say things we say things and we don't always catch on to that I think doing so in a positive way can drive a change in that education in that child for the future State um it doesn't always need to be a negative connotation

153um the second thing is I love the idea about it's a journey not a destination this isn't a check box so how we continue this conversation I love the idea of Workshop would absolutely be involved in attending um and then the well three things why Holliston um that really spoke to me because we need to improve as a town to become more diverse and doesn't always equal but if our town is perceived as not high-end not not highend in terms of income or anything but not the top of the the mountain you're not going to get interest or you're going to lose interest um where you could gain it so I think it's important we focus as a town to be the strongest that we can I'm good there I just had a question uh

154so you mentioned the faculty itself is not very diverse um do you think that's because hollison isn't attractive to people from diverse backgrounds or because uh for whatever reason they're just not applying or yeah so I would say this is a multifaceted question we probably have to work the workshop but here's a couple things um in education I've always been one of the only people of color in the room and that's past Holliston one of the only people who spoke multiple languages and that's past Holliston so this is the reality of the field but what I think districts are being called to do is in the pool of diversity bigger than just race and language neurodiversity lgbtq plus uh low people who had experiences around low income Etc how are we recruiting and and when

155I say recruiting it's it's not as simple as like we sent out a flyer right um I've seen um schools engage and I build Partnerships with schools and go directly talk to the kids before they graduate because when you're a person often times of color you're picked up like this as a person in the field of Education as Latino and bilingual I've never not had offers because there's such a lack of it so if we want to think about how we diversify and retain we need to think about how we recruit differently the the why Holliston right so like when they come here they're like I need to be here but also how do we retain because the other piece is when we look at um retain retention of diverse staff there's a much higher

156leaving the field of Education rate than often times with their with their peer um white colleagues um and that's true in administration as well right so there's a there's a higher there's a higher rate of people who leave the field and frustration or don't feel included or part of the community right so part of the work and that's why we labeled it recruitment retention you know process is that if you only invest in Recruitment and you nothing in retention you're it's like flowing the money out the window right because you're doing here and they're not going to stay we need to invest in both equally with the same effort just add to I mean this is something that's been identified as a state problem I I mean this is a huge problem um the licensure

157proc C is is really known to be um affecting our people of color more so if they don't pass the test the first time A lot of times what the data has shown that our people of color at the state level are not taking it a second time financially sometimes it's a challenge and we're so and people are giving up it's not an equitable test the state is doing something to address that but the numbers of people coming from higher ed into this field is is a is a real problem and a frustration so we're competing with other towns that are trying to do the same thing we are logis ically challenged with u public um transportation there's so many things J and I have attended multiple um diverse um job fairs and and try

158to recruit that way it's it's we're we're fighting against the tide I do think your best bang re Buck is to try to bring students from within and bring them into the field and and that would require funding obviously to try to create a program where our kids could then be brought back um and give back to the community but helping to fund their education in this field so I mean that's probably your best option bringing students forward to the field because we're struggling like every District in this I say we haven't had a plan yeah right so like part part of how we begin this work is by saying like let's cre out a plan how we do the work without a plan we're just doing things right so part of like the beginning

159of how we do that is by actually having a plan of how we're going to do it and then living up to it I also think the way you created this our the equity audit group was very intentional and you were really looking to kind of represent um many people from different backgrounds I think there was a lot of overlap you know some of us had multiple kind of multiple hats yeah hats but um but also the way you ran the group where we we didn't really talk about but we had um very clear Norms that um I think made everyone feel welcome and valued and their voices um they were comfortable sharing their own voices and it was kind of a model I think for how to do this work kind of outside of

160this little room where it's a smaller group so I just I think there's a lot of intentional a lot of ways to be intentional about creating that culture and that environment can I can I piggy back on that the first meeting we met and this is just one Sni and then we'll go back to the lineup um but uh um as I walked into the room there was um Spanish Latin music play and there were I I looked around the room and there were people visibly different looking and um then we looked at the recruitment process like darel was sharing with us all how he was going to build it up and it showed intention that there was going to be representation from various different visible and invisible uh diverse backgrounds which showed like that's

161the intention right like it's a small change that was made to the process that spoke and went a long distance um like these it doesn't it didn't cost him any money to to to do either the the radiation of the of the process that he's approaching or to play the music but like that set the tone uh for for how we were going to do the work together it felt light it felt different it was nice you know um and then that brought us all together I think that's that's something that we can we can all learn from from but yeah May um Joe I don't know if you have um any Reflections beyond the question yeah I had another question so you mentioned the um creating a uh responding to incidents of bias protocol

162um how has that looked in other districts yeah so I I how has it looked other districts have protocols and yeah what do it look like so often times the way it looks like is they describe what an incent of bias is um they often describe I'm trying to go back to it they often describe their communication tree so in other words like if something happens at recess with the four of us the communication tree might be the the four of us families get you know reach out to that happens in a classroom you reach out to the families of the classroom if it happens in the school like almost a a tree to think about H how to communicate because what has happened when we first arrived when incidents occurred we had multiple different

163ways of like who do we communicate and do we blast it out to everybody or do we blast it out to the in communication is really key um in that piece um they're also really clear on what are the interventions that could occur um bet both educationally and at times um consequentially as well um and have ways to and create ways where students can come forward and um uh what do you say um come forward and and uh report it instead of bias so they have like how do you report how do we communicate what is an incentive bias what are our options and how do we measure it in the future yeah so I I grew up in uh East Boston and Lynn so this is all very new to me so I appreciate

164it yeah yeah um oh where do I start um I I'm continually concerned about The Chronic attendance issues and um what who who and when are you know the students that are impacted by that and getting them messaging to Families how critical it is that their students are in school every day I'm I'm kind of Gob smacked by by that a little bit um I'm curious to learn more about um the wraparound services that you're considering for students um maybe that's outside of the classroom we're talking about how we only have so much time during the day how do we you know what kind of resources do we need to put towards wraparound Services maybe happen outside of the school day um and then your whole discussion around the when and the who in terms

165of like leveling um because we're having a a lot of robust discussion about that and um how Equity is in that piece so lots to reflect upon and and I guess the disadvantage of of going um fifth year is that many of my points were hit but one thing that that did strike me on um it's around slide 18 um the communicate options access and alternatives to all stakeholders under your secondary recommendations 4 through six um I just would like to know a little bit more about what you would do differently than what's being done now right and so like my understanding now is that there's communication um and conversations that guidance has they often have meetings with the students um that the princip kind of does a presentation that for the families that attend

166they're part of that um and the the students are also talk to in terms of what the process is um there's an email about it with the different procedures and I completely understand the distribution of that in different languages but how else what else can be done to better communicate that because I just feel like that's a piece that we shouldn't be waiting on I mean we'll be back here in just a few months with kids starting classes again so it's like a I I'm not I guess what were some of your s specific suggestions on improving communication Beyond what's going on now what I would say to that and it's kind of like a non answer is that our goal and our ask was to move up the recommendations we feel we need to

167focus on and then bring them forward so all the recommendations here weren't for the team to answer the recommendations here were for us to bring them forward and say hey District not hey District in a mean way but like hey District hey School hey stakeholders hey school committee we believe we need to answer this question we need to believe we need to create that piece so in all these recommendations we didn't we didn't answer exactly how to do them what we did do is say out of the 48 these are the ones that we all need to be wrestling with and come up with answers as a as a committee so we don't it could be a smart goal in the fall to have those answers but we don't have those yet understand I have

168a suggestion thinking creatively um I know you folks do office hours at Coffee Haven um it's a open open Office hour why not have focused office hours that say today let's talk about X YZ trust me the community will show up when there are focused pointed questions there is interest and and ability to consume lot of parents will show up but like when you have it open-ended it doesn't Bubble Up on on the priority list for them because and I'm not your uh typical U uh representation for a diverse background person because I have a safe job I can take time off from work and show up for coffee hour at a coffee Haven or whatever that's not your typical underrepresented underserved population they're working two probably three jobs trying to just make ends me

169they can't make time to come but but if you tell them this is the topic we're talking talking about now that makes it like a priority call for them and like that makes creates interest in the community to show up um I think that's how we can drive focused conversation as opposed to again the same thing right it's a blurry arbit uh picture of like everything you want to talk about we're here instead you're saying like here's today we're going to talk about x y z knock off the list of things that we want to talk about and have more than one session right like so we can get creative with uh office hours in different times different locations I know it imposes more work for you folks but that's if we want the community

170to engage that's that's how we get the it going like that's something that you can think of that's just one of I'm sure we can come up with many creative way to solve for that so that's a good opportunity to plug the office hours that we have coming up that are focused and targeted on on on special town meeting and they're they're this Saturday at 8:00 uh from 9:00 to 10:00 at Coffee Haven okay and then Wednesday the 12th from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the library so so we try to vary the times and and and days of it and they're focused on you know on this on the special time meeting though obviously if people want to ask other questions they can but um but that's interest it's an interesting thing if you

171if you focus it's so it's a good good idea you good I guess my only other um you know going back to the part about pull outs being during World Language I think in some in some of the schools I I thought we had also moved to um a program where we had almost like a designated block um you have a wind block a Wind Block some of the kids will those students also need that intense reading instruction they also need intense multilingual language instruction and so you know there are pieces of that and and so yes we are using that we're we're using every bit of the day um so okay and is is that similar then also with Rams block at at um Adams well we can follow up and ask about that

172yeah I mean I think the intent of it is with with that um student services leadership group is equally to engage and study across all of our schools what's happening where and and and and how I think the acknowledgement is is that there are times where kids might get pulled in things that could be not disadvantageous would be the negative I guess to their Journey and they want to try to reduce that right so I think every school might have a different something their study is how do we improve on those somethings at each of the schools that is not beneficial for kids right so also having more of a conversation with the kid and the family about this so for example as much as I didn't like pulling someone from World Language I also

173knew at at third and fourth grade if they weren't reading that it was a real struggle to try and learn to read and write and the Sounds in two different languages so at that point it made made sense but I could see how um you know if someone just instead pulled them from math something that they felt strong and capable in so is it is it an idea of having more of a conversation with the families and the students specifically about um about these decisions yeah I mean if we go back to the slide she had um student feedback groups staff I mean parent communication groups but also I think that this is like the beauty what we're doing which is and she's excited not that I'm saying the negative but J BD will now

174take those withow team and now they'll start to design their action steps and those will probably be some of the action steps right meet with students meet with parents it also be meet with administrators and figure out other times that we could be doing something differently um I just have something to say uh we have this same conversation with a World Language curriculum um and with Jessica did it because once they in high school they make their own appointment so they usually choose World languages to meet to with the guidance ccept so I you know it's it's hard for us because World Language is a it's a proficiency based so whatever you do in class it adds up and it gets practice so when we meet a student and then they have to you know

175they have absences and we have to catch them up it's harder so so even though in in World languages is a core uh subject according to the Department of Education it's not like a an alternative CL it's a core subject thank you okay um and just I mean I think I already mentioned mine but I thought the the vision of of a colleague was was great um also the absenteeism thing is concerning but my understanding is there at least trending in the right direction Statewide and and for us uh individually so um that's excellent um I I uh I I don't want to cut anything short but but we are getting getting Laten so I uh I I thank you guys and um and appreciate and look forward to to continuing the the work yeah

176thank you thank you thank you very much nice night sorry to the coordinators who had to wait Sherelle can you need to stop sharing please thank you Thank You by 2 points sou up by 20 points sorry 27 now 27 points okay go quickly up by you can stop watchings right now you can stop watching there up by 2 second sorry I'm trying to the problems what keth been doing the game that's what Keith's been doing for the last you know half 27 points thank you for hanging in with us um thank you to Dr AA papis James Lasser and Joe Hicks is with us on Zoom he had his own school committee meeting just so you know he is a school Committee Member himself in his own community and they had a meeting night

177at the same time we did oh boy yes so thanks for hanging in there I bet his meeting's done right no we are not done um we just we had I just got of our own teach learning report um and we still have a couple more things to do but I think we might be ahead of you all right okay so we're going to get going um in respect to time we're going to cover a lot of topics tonight and I'm not going to cover everything in the slides please ask us if you have any questions as we go or please email uh me afterwards but we're going to cover a lot of topics teaching and learning there are there is a lot that's Falls underneath teaching and learning and I wanted to touch upon

178some of those things tonight so we have and I'm sorry I need to get into our presentation um in the area of teaching and learning we have received received $143,900 in Grants and I wanted to thank Joe Hicks from writing the successful Grant 215a the genocide Grant um so we are using those in a wide variety of ways that you can see there I wanted to touch touch upon our multilanguage Learners does he still calls them L's English language Learners they fall under teaching and learning also I just wanted to touch upon a few points here they all in addition to mcast they have to take a test called access and access scores range from 1 to six and desie assigns teaching time with English as a second language teacher depending on their scores so

179D's guidelines are if a student is level one or two they have at least two periods today with an ESL teacher levels three and four at least one period a day this is where we are falling as a district last year we had 81 L students take the access test 12 of our students are entering which is the beginning level seven emerging 32 developing four ex excuse me 25 expanding um four bridging and one reaching so that impacts how we've come to you before about our request for support in English language learner teachers or tutors that we need H school students falls under teaching and learning also um just to remind you that they do receive IEP and 504 services and if they submit a homeschool plan I physically go down and work with Jess

180spey and I get her approval that they are Meeting those goals I am looking at the academic goals she is looking at the 54 I AP goals um just to remind you too all homeschool students can join in school and out of school offerings such as Sports classes all of that um and just to remind you they're required to submit a homeschool plan from age six until 16 you can see we have some students that are older than 16 some parents just really like that connection and still submitting them they've been doing it for years and years and years um and all follow the general Law chapter 76 chapter 1 um and just to remind you every plan has to follow the policy that you as a school committee has set so they do not

181meet that criteria I send them a letter back please send me this information back we go back and forth okay but once they've homeschooled they know the lay of the land and they know what they need to do so we currently have a total of 25 students students this school year we did have some short-term students too that were not included in that total um since I'm the first curriculum review to talk I'll kind of give you a lay of the land as to how the they basically sort of start up um our world language curriculum review uh was very accelerated we were had a goal of finishing it and one school year so and we are on target so um phase one really is about establishing Norms of our meeting which I think helps

182us sort of take everybody's viewpoints and make sure all voices are heard we establish a vis Vision but we also crosswalk that with a lot of uh data that we receive from the equity audit to nask uh reports um and we also looked at our past um uh curriculum reviews um we have three streams of languages so we developed philosophy statements for each of them and then we looked at current research and we did a gap analysis um we created surveys you probably received one um for the community um but we also created surveys for a faculty and for our students and uh we just this Tuesday looked at all the data from that um we are now in the process of after having uh done an inventory of our um resources we have identified

183things that we wanted to uh purchase and we're in the process of creating a list to bring back to you um as to where we want to go with the program and our new resources and then the very end of it in September we will write out or I will write a review of the entire process and present it to Dr Kusa um the next curriculum viiew is the science Technology and Engineering uh started this year in September it was our goal to finish this year but I think we're going to uh push that out till next year a little bit uh we started off doing the same basically the same structure um creating a vision creating Norms um and then we started to look at what um doing a gap analysis and looking at

184uh what standards we cover at what grade level um then we start diving into mcast mcast scores mcast testing and seeing where weaknesses are doing a full Gap analysis uh We've looked at some curricular resources there's stem scopes at the Middle School discovery education has some good resources uh they have a free trial going on right now of those resources so we haven't decided if we're going to move forward with either of them but they are piloting them currently uh and testing them out at the middle school the high school is going to dive deeper into the biology and the physics mcast that uh results from last year uh they're in the process of doing that now and they're going to continue into the fall and that's where we are with the science uh math

185has a slightly different visual here I did this we started the math one in uh 2022 so was started a year before so I had a different template when I made this one uh similar process we started off with our vision um then we identified I did a gap analysis looked at any weaknesses strengths within the um within math and the curriculum uh we then looked at all the resources that are out there there's tons of math resources tons of different curricula out there we narrowed down to several and piloted uh three at the elementary schools uh two at the middle school and two at the high school um and we ended up choosing at the elementary school uh Eureka MTH squared uh which we have already purchased and it's already delivered it's actually sitting

186at the loading dock over at uh Miller and placentino so we're getting those materials distributed uh before the end of the school year so teachers have teacher manuals to go home with if they'd like to to look at over the summer or prepare um and all the student stuff is going to be stored until the fall when we'll um distribute it the high school uh picked reveal as did the Middle School uh the orders are being processed um now so those hopefully will be in by the um end of the school year and we're wrapping that up I'll have a final report for all of you uh by the end of the school year as my plan so I just got to write that up with all recommendations uh there's also the recommendation use all

187Learners Network um to facilitate PD thank you and I I really appreciate being able to zoom in for this meeting thank you all for allowing me to do that um so for ELA secondary um grade uh we recognize that we couldn't do all the things at once especially with math being such a a significant change in terms of curriculum instruction for the younger grade so last year in the fall 22 we started with just the secondary there at Ela in the middle of the high school um we did all the same stuff as everybody else we did a lot of the work around um investigating some materials um looking at what we currently do and Trends and current research um last year um at this time we showed you some of the um intern recommendations

188that we have um and we began to do some of that work last summer um bring more diverse books in um developing some more choice in literature circles for kids in the early grades um we met a couple times this past year to finish that work I've been writing the report um and we'll have that to you by the end of the school year and J of like what our final recommendations are um it'll be final in that we've done all the work we can do and it's a it'll be a strong copy of of the report but um Jo can go to the next slide um we can't have a final thing done until we finish the K5 curriculum review because the last step would be to make sure that all the curriculum um

189it all aligns with each other so it would mean that we would have to go back um and not necessarily make changes to the things we recommend at the secondary level but make sure that both um both halves are informing each other and it all makes sense um so it'll be like an all of a 98% uh draft done to you um soon we just started the K5 uh Ela G review um in January um we're having our second meeting um on Monday um we got together and started establishing our strong mission and vision for ELA and um then myself and Elsa O'Brien and man at plastino and Miller um met with uh student groups uh through the superintendent Round Table process and we got to talk to some kids about their um Ela experiences

190and what they like and what some of their struggles are um and we're going to share some of that feedback uh with the entire curriculum review um group on Monday and we're going to do some uh continue work with um en visioning and that will continue um through next year um it could result in the work when we look at our at what we're doing one of the end products could be or could not be um thinking about are we using the right resource and do we need to um make choose something different and that's a that's um a decision I have to make um next year um and hopefully and one last thing sorry uh joury um that would then U result in us going through the pilot process um and looking at materials

191and choosing if that's necessary um a new product um we're not sure we're going to end that spot just yet thank you we've already covered this slide so we're going to move on um curriculum uh documentation The ubd Curriculum maps um so unified Arts is a little different than some of the other areas um it's definitely been a marathon to do this work um and I say that because uh many of the members in unified Arts write six years of curriculum and they don't even get a textbook they they they created themselves all the materials so this what you're seeing here is a great deal of work I'm really proud of them um and also unified Arts their only required courses are k through eight except for the high school Wellness courses of um Wellness

1929 and wellness 10 so these are also all the electives in unified Arts that um are here so pretty much everything is 100% done there's a couple areas that will be done by the end of the school year we're just finishing them up selecting a couple standards editing formatting they will go up by the end of the school year and wellness all 100% and Performing Arts um Visual Arts uh 67% um that teacher is the only one in the building so doing all the work by themselves which most groups at least have a partner um so um and then we have our world language curriculum review on the next slide so most of the um things that are going to be um developed will be in response to some of the curriculum materials that we're

193going to purchase through curriculum reviews so that hasn't been included here but because it's required course the elementary is 100% done and Spanish has like one or two more units in the eighth grade um and Library again this is a teacher who is writing C uh six years of Curriculum by themselves so right close Mr Hicks thank you so um been working a lot on social studies um in particular this year especially the elementary school and class team I've did so much great work with um on our PD day to just get that done um across the Commonwealth field like social STS um in elementary schools gets the get short change and we're really working to to change that so I really appreciate hard work on that day being very thoughtful and um coming together

194to really get um the their ideas um met so we start making those changes in ela we're at 67% in plastino um Miller we're in R draft for just has been posted I need to do some final edits um Rams in the high school um we're all done two um 12th grade we have put in for it's making up some changes in the 12th grade from three different courses to one a s course um and that was part of Summer work that's happening this year or we put into that for a proposal um so that will get done um Miller is hard at work also trying to really capture a writing uh scope and sequence um and I have all I think I have all the information there um things done for two out of

195three grades um and thank you to Elsa Brian for really working with teachers to think critically about what the writing scope and sequence should look like and how to build that um with kids over the course of their time there um and in Social stat it's um I have all the things to um have two other three grades done there for 67% um and will will be done I imagine to but a lot of great work has happened all right so for stem uh science Technology and Engineering first uh platino has um three uh science I guess kindergarten first second grade they're all done Miller um for third fourth and fifth grade they're all done uh the engineering course uh that Michelle Hastings teaches that's all done for all three grades um Rams two out

196of three e8th grade isn't done yet but the other two grades are done uh in the high school um biochem and physics are completely done for math at PL and Miller there's a new resource and so we have a scope scope and sequence of um Invision which they were using but the new curriculum has not been mapped yet ashy bashard will be working that on that next year uh Rams all three grades are done and the high school algebra 2 just need some tweaks to be done um I can probably do it by the end of the year but we're getting a new curriculum next year so it's all going to have to be tweaked anyway um a lot of it a lot of the standards will stay the same but they'll have to be

197moved around um next year and then for computer science uh placentino uh winning carry um put together uh all three grades uh at Miller Ally Curley did those three grades and then at Rams um Cole Perkins did those three for 6 seven8 so 100% done we're totally shiing oh I'm sorry yes can I just mention one thing about those when we say three out of three that means we're talking about the whole grade um and just to recognize that within a grade there's multiple units that go into doing that so like there might be five six or seven different units that uh a grade that um has to be had to be done and mapped and worked out so there's those numbers might look small but they are actually represent a substantial amount of work

198right that's for a whole course not just the three out of three is for three courses that are completely done and multiple units for each course andk some of the lower grades even have like 12 units if you look at kindergarten they're they're short units so they've done a lot of work thank you for reminding us that everybody um a couple school committee meetings ago I shared with you the teaching and learning survey questions these are the results so I'm going to very quickly go over it um but 88.6% of the teachers are either confident or very familiar with the curriculum Frameworks I just want to point a few out here because you can definitely you read these on your own but this was asking how can a district support you and effectively utilizing your

199content standards to design units a couple things I wanted to point out time is the biggest thing right and the biggest thing the most people said PD days they want us to use that um also Department time School business days um that's when a principal will get coverage for them so they can go to a meeting during the school day um also grade level meetings and course Partners they also ask for professional development or PD in curricular areas we heard them loud and clear we are concentrating on that next year there'll be a lot of math there be a lot of World Language I mean we're really listening to what they're saying they also said summer work I'll be talking to you about that later on and also part of the summer work I just

200wanted to point this out is they brought up monor how to intertwine curriculum for third and fourth grade in Elna and Ela and math math is happening this Summer that is part of the summer work this was the same question um I just wanted to point out the the first one you know and I did literally take direct quotes um this one really spoke to the incredible work that's happening if a cordinator were to um uh I'm sorry oh this is the the the quote not the same quote I was thinking of I apologize so in this quote they're talking about um how curriculum coordinators have helped them but it's also going to get better next year with building base positions we are going to have more support for teachers to Quicken that process up

201I'm sorry I was looking at the wrong one okay the next question is in regard to development of stage one ubd documentation in which areas do you need more support overwhelmingly you could see finding time to work with colleagues again it's about time the second one is more training on transfer task that is one thing that we realize we need to give more support to teachers so I'll be asking Ida along with the building based people to really work in curriculum time on oneon-one working on having them understand what that is a transfer task is the next question um we were asking them the most effective ways to collaborate with their colleagues to continue working on scope and sequence Lessing lesson planning and transfer task number one professional development here you can see some themes

202that we got from the survey right the second one was common planning time so that's during the day third um is grade team and department meetings and fourth curriculum meetings so we will be rein uh imagining or Reinventing some of those times we have with teachers after the school day or with the school day and principles and I have already been talking about that the next question was asking them what additional support they need to effectively integrate ubd documentation and State Standards to impact student learning outcomes the number one response again see a theme during professional development and second one is additional time identified by building administrators it's that school-based time that they can get out and work with teams and the curriculum coordinator next question I have two slides on I'm not going to

203go everything but the question was in what ways have you been most successful in ubd document mentation and transferring it to your daily work some of the ones I just want to point out um further down on this I've been most successful at threading the course level essential questions throughout the units to help students develop the concepts as they are relevant to the content they retain throughout the course and hopefully Beyond another quote it has been easier to plan in advanced in order to make more engaging lessons and with more Hands-On activities more comments for that same question I just wanted to point out um this was a Spanish example I want to talk about that Ida was working with uh the most successful thing has been getting everyone getting everyone teach the same Concepts

204and skills after writing our Spanish curriculum as a Spanish team we worked on a common agenda to ensure um viable lessons for students regardless of what teacher they have that's what we're trying to do vertical and horizontal alignment the agenda includes the OB and can do statements as well as links to the various activities we do in class and transfer assessments included in the ubd documentation another quote ubd documentation has been most useful in implementing scaffolding and strategies for struggling students another quote I think that it helps me better prepare for classes as I get a chance to critically analyze the lessons we have and the bottom ones coordinators helped us by doing pre-work brainstorm storming and collecting possible eqs That's essential questions and Knowledge and Skills so that's some of the work the curriculum

205coordinators were doing the next question was how have you seen well-designed transfer tasks positively impact student learning and engagement outcomes um three quotes I want to point out from this page when they can personally apply it to their lives they are more engaged and more vested in the knowledge of how they can benefit from it another one students understand the expected outcomes and a third Hands-On activities make kids more engaged and their attitude towards the learning experience is holistic they learn without thinking they are learning same question I just wanted to point out some short ones once students are able to use the learning in the real world it positively impacts the outcomes another the udl framework positively impacts student learning by creating more flexible classroom experiences where teachers can deliver meaningful learning activity activities

206to all students and finally I've seen students grasp a better understanding of material presented in class due to the transfer task so some very powerful answers next question to what extent has ubd documentation helped your team develop common assessments and common experiences for for all um very much or somewhat is 71.5% which is really encouraging Ida brought Dr papis brought up the other day that is what's in stage two so we're already getting 71.5% of teachers to say they're feeling confident about the stage to um next question to what extent do you think the process of ubd documentation has helped to vertically align the curriculum 68.6% of teachers said very much or somewhat have you used the ubd documentation to bring new team members on board more efficiently we have 34.3% Ida and I were

207talking about this so we have some work to do there we need to show them how it really is so powerful when somebody new comes on how they can effectively use that and we'll use that knowledge in new teacher Institute when we get all our new teachers to kind of explain the power of that okay we are very excited um to have I'm sorry I hit the wrong thing um to have building based stem and Humanities curriculum and intervention support next year so you can see the shift there those people will report to both myself and the building based principal we will have meetings on a regular base basis that those people will be present with me and the principal so we're all on the same page I is going to remain the same so

208she would be joining those conversations in those building based meetings so there's going to be a lot um of very transparent conversations which I think will um we'll see some great gains from that professional development um just so you know we do um ask for PD feedback from every PD day we have um we take that feedback and we talk about it in PD Council meetings I also provide it to administrators PD council members and curriculum leaders we have those same conversations about what changes we need to make as I said before there's a huge want for Content area PD just to remind you we have four full PD days for next school year we're already in the weeds and planning that um and reaching out to people and we want to make sure that

209we have that content area PD focused um okay so just to talk about benchmark assessments and mtss supports they really falls under teaching and learning and also DM M Cloud's areas I just wanted to remind you that I ready we are going with for K through 5 I EXL for 9 through 12 I just want to remind you though we did not use star in grades 11 and 12 next year so this is a huge addition for the high school but never mind um it being a benchmark assessment I wanted to remind you um either one I ready and I Exel are both provides individualized Pathways for student intervention we are going to actively use that for our interventionists and curriculum specialist it provides small group Hands-On lessons for differentiation and intervention it provides reports

210that relate students Mastery of standards and um it's based on academic needs identifies what students can do and what the next steps are in supporting students teachers can customize domains and lessons for students to work on um so that layer of tier one and two tier 2 support and uh Mr mlad and I were talking about it we just wanted to make sure that you realize that it will be integrated into the data dashboard but we will be able to bring over that star Legacy information into the dashboard also and then finally we have a lot of Summer work going on and these are just some of the focus areas that we are working on you can see a lot of these are tied directly to what's happening in the L in the um curriculum

211reviews you can see there's things on there from um idas that's are Pap's area those second and third bullets are from there you can see a lot of them are from James area with a math curriculum review and you can see that top bullet is a continuation of jerel's work at all four schools do you have any questions for us it's a lot it is a lot and that's why you can think about it in email me if you would like I'm glad about the last slide CU my very first question was uh when are we doing all this cuz I'm assuming there's going to be a lot of Summer work so yes it is a lot deliver I'm assuming yes and we are going to and to go to your point we are reimagining

212like I said though how we can use the time that we do have during the day right so we want to be um you know we did not have those building based people these guys did an incredible job but they're working for the entire District so I'm going to be working closely with the building based people that we can have a very a wellth thought out plan for curriculum meetings and we couldn't clone these I would love to have cloned all three of them but they could not be present at all the curriculum meetings either and so those building based people will be able to move the work quicker because they can concentrate on their building meetings and we heard we took that feedback we heard from teachers despite all the feedback and the changes

213that we're making I I can't even like when you see this coming to fruition it's always a slow start when we I mean we were starting from scratch in a lot of areas we did have things work done I'm not saying we didn't but you know we talked about 2011 the last math curcum review so in two years to have I mean I just want to thank you all so much I think you've you've you've taken our strategic plan you brought it to life with the vertical alignment this is much needed change in the district and it's really positive for our students so thank you very much and Joe I know he's not here but yes and Joanie thank you very much for leading this if you have any questions please reach out to me

214yep sir I'm sorry go ahead um just a couple quick questions sure so I I there were a couple um instances where there was a single teacher having to do how like a single teacher so like the middle school art teacher like what kind of support um is cuz I know she's already got exactly for her specifically she's got a whole bunch of students right already yeah there and they have 700 students a week you know and six curricula to write so I totally agree so um having time I think this actually speaks to what Joanie was saying uh sometimes the schools have curriculum meetings after school at the same time and so I have to pick and choose where I'm going to go um because Rams often they have Casey and she can I

215can give her a very detailed list of what I'm hoping to happen so it was a little bit of a tag team but I can also meet with people individually not outside of that and we do that um but it is often times they'll hand me this is what I'm doing in a bunch of documents or sometimes they'll invite inv me to a Google classroom and I'll just start putting together the structure of the unit and then we can meet and sort of flesh out some things I I'll say I I I I see an assessment here is this the end of the unit how how it looks like it's about this many weeks so yeah it's it's a lot of guessing and then a lot of sort of backtracking and just saying is this

216what you intended so and then another quick question hopefully um you mentioned that you were referring to um you would go back and look at mcast um especially for some of the science stuff I'm just were there were there many gaps in terms of so we're in the process of going through at the high school um the last meeting they actually pulled out um at the middle school the middle school yeah the Middle School the biggest gaps that we identified we really need to figure out where the engineering standards are going to fit okay and honestly a lot of schools every school I've been at struggles with that because there's so many standards for science an appropriate tool power drill and it's like clearly designed for like a shop and we don't have that so

217we're trying to figure out how we can um cover this stuff okay yeah um and then my last question how many teachers got the survey cuz I got it got 355 responses which I know I it just so it's it's a sampling it correct and I get if we look at the some of the responses we're talking about time is probably their biggest um so it I just was curious you can see if you go if you look at I just wanted to point out see in the top like underneath the question the top left you can see how many responses yeah no that's but I just but I assumed that you it it went to everybody it went we have list Serv for teachers and went to all four schools yeah yes okay that's

218all I have thank you are we able to see the PD feedback since that was the number one reason like that was a number drive a huge driver for teachers like seeing that feedback on an ongoing basis wait say that the feedback the PD day feedback see all of the oh sure I mean we do on every PD day so what we can do is Jo put together a few slides just to see trending too is improving because I mean it's such an important area absolutely I usually do a a brief thing but I can do the trends and everything and sure absolutely nothing special just not a problem anything else okay thank you guys thank you thank you please only only Dr would I just math done I'm not I just know you I

219owe you good the top thank you very much thank you thanks everybody thank you what are we talking I'm talking oh now yes stay yes please stay thank you it's like four slides very just a quick overview yes this up I apologize sorry about that all right [Music] and oh I can't get the sliding one second this up a little sorry my machine's not going I'm out of the meeting now so I'm not just try to share no there we go all right so we had talked a number of times about how we're moving towards elare 1 and what is our plan to get there and when we had that conversation I'm going to go through a little bit of the timeline of where we um started this conversation I'm just going to go through

220it myself since Joan's presented a lot already but if you look back at the Timeline events the team came together um James you were at that as well our December 13 math Community Forum we heard from parents we heard from school committee and then March 14 we had the survey results that came from the math um Forum as well talked about establishing a study group and that was where you voted to bring alge algebra one back to grade 8 for 2526 I know there was a hope that we might be able to bring it back for next year but honestly with a brand new math curricular resource coming in at all levels the teachers need time for that they need the PD time to try to now shift all of the standards and the pacing

221there's just there was no way they could get it done from March and and have it ready for September however um we are working towards that process in April the Rams teachers did work on power standards grad six to8 then we also had um they're Shifting the geometry standards that was happening in May June 3rd we've had um already just recently Rams had Learners Network come in and training with them I was it high school as well and Rams no that's why that was just Rams and um this is a partnership that we're going to continue with all Learners Network going to bring um elementary teachers are going to get Learners Network next year as part of the PD plan and it's not just helping them learn the math curriculum it's also helping the curric

222resources it's also helping them to learn how to differentiate with those resources so it's a really uh rigorous um planning and a multi-layered approach to to improve our math program overall and just to be clear it's not algebra one for all it's algebra one offering no and that's what that study group is going to involve I'm going to talk about that a little bit more so just ask what you mean by Shifting the geometry standards are we covering less geometry in middle so an example is like there's a seventh grade standard about um the volume of a circle and so shifting that down to sixth grade so sixth grade will teach that after the MC so they have a little bit extra time now so they're teaching it currently so they actually already made that

223shift this year and so next year there'll be more of a shift and so in the following year even greater shift so as we shift those geometry standards down to earlier grades it'll open up more time in eighth grade for more of the um algebra sty Pate was looking for redundancy as well are we doing the same standards over again we we not need them three times things like that as well and those are all based on the teachers having very thoughtful conversations with each other right about where can that fit right it's not it's not James deciding it's not me deciding it's them having collaborative conversations figuring out where would fit and when we talked about the geometry standards the high school teachers were involved with that because they have a geometry course obviously

224at the high school level so they know what's going to be coming up for them so that's uh that's where the summer work comes in place as we start working on pacing guides and working on the power stand is and making these shifts so that it will happen really effectively for 25 26 but we're already moving in that direction for next year so pre- 5 is going to work on the Y math unit development over the summer 6 to 12 is also working on math development um of units and then grade 6 to8 is going to have some of the work on the power standard shifts the pacing that we talked about and then also work on the udl implementation with all Learners Network so this is a really I mean we're excited for this

225the teachers are really excited um I met all Learners Network as well and just I feel like we're we're rebuilding the excitement for PD that we haven't been able to see as much so I I'm seeing a lot of enthusiasm throughout the district so with that we talked at um in that March meeting about putting together Math study group to really do this effectively and give the teachers time to learn the new resources and then figure out where the shifts really need to happen to have an effective launch for 24 I'm sorry 2526 so again we identified that need at the 2024 March meeting and then we're going to seek teachers and administrators to volunteer at the beginning of the school year to be part of that work group and we'll have monthly meetings through

226February I Joanie will be leading that but I plan on attending a number of those as well and then we will come back to you next march and we're going to make recommendations for any potential changes and whether we're going to um make you know have you vote on any of the potential changes in Spring of next year and then we'll be ready to implement math cced changes fall 2025 so I know the big question is about leveling or not leveling and things like that that will be part of this process as well and I'm hoping some people from the group other than us can come and speak to you that would be great so you can hear from them that would be awesome the the one thing I would ask and and I don't

227want to too much more work on but at the same time um could we get like a December entrum update just so I I just I don't want it to get to March be the first time we see what I yeah I hope is to stop meeting early in the school year so I'm sure we can do just something sort of an inim update I think that would sure be helpful so this is some of the focus areas that um Joanie and I have been discussing and and we'll work with the group on really the research what you know sometimes people are operating on guts and emotions and what they believe but we haven't done a lot of um looking at research on pros and cons there's multiple facets and U multiple opinions and perspectives

228on this but what does the resarch tell us about leveling or not leveling and then if we go one way or the other what is the impact because it doesn't just affect one subject when you when you if you add more levels you now attract kids into different way and it could create other inequities or you know so there's so much that goes into that so whatever decision we make we really need to make sure we vet it out and we we know what the the other effects of that so that we can adequately prepare for any other changes that are needed as a result and this kind of goes back to what we talked about tonight ties hand in hand with our Equity steering recommendations um and some of the um recommendations that the

229equity audit gave us and we really also we talked about the data dashboard being such a a critical piece for us we have really started to move towards looking at data in a more meaningful way you heard that tonight with the curriculum um discussion we had not done as much I talked you about that when we did our data rankings we had quite a shift around 2017 of saying we really don't need to look at that data we're doing great and unfortunately what happens when you stop looking at it things may start to shift and now it's time to have that balance back and we've done a nice job already St moving that direction and the data dashboard is going to really help us with that um James already talked about that we're already identifying

230some of those math gifts gaps and making those ships happen and then um the pathways and equal entry points is going to be a big part of this math study group I mean that's a real so if we're going to alra one which we are in grade eight what are we doing to ensure that the maximum amount of kids have a possibility to enter that it will not be for every child but how do we maximize and not lock kids out so the the process is going to be really important if we decide that a student might not make the test grades of whatever criteria we use are there other ways they can enter other sports that we caning and this is where I think those intervention rules will be really helpful to this process

231as well um so really having consistency around the process and gaining consensus with recommended change is making sure you're never going to get everybody coming in the same direction but trying to get consensus so that the majority of people getting that buy in early along in the process and making action steps as a result so I went really fast because I know we're behind schedule but I do want to remind us that even though we're behind schedule we did Start 45 minutes or so late so we're actually in that respect we're on schedule sometime I I appreciate some of the things you just said because I I want what we what we use the work of the Equity Group I I don't you know I want to make sure that the sort of the the

232the underlying teaching sort of um science if you will is is what drives us and then we look at how we can layer on the work of the Equity Group to say so if we if we say you know maybe the most sort of Equitable thing to make it sure that everyone gets the same thing is to Del right but maybe if you keep levels but we add resources to to help kids get to that place that actually is really in the long term the most Equitable it may just take more resources right so let's just say we decide to add some levels back right that's certainly a decision that could be made if we do that then what should we do to make sure we have as much Equity as possible within that decision

233what this committee would be saying right so if we went this way they're going to say if we went either way like what are the ramifications right and looking at the schedule and the resources we have we would need to like add this or we would need to do this right so you have a full disclosure of everything that would need to be needed to do that and it might be that the recommendation there may be multiple recommendations you either go this way and these are the resources you need corre you go this way and these are the resources you need and then at least there's sort of a a more transparent sort of I don't a menu of sort of choices and a cohesive consistent process because I think we've done this is where

234you know I've talked about this for my entire career here that we have had um we went to a very siloed approach each building was operating completely differently that's really not the most equable for kids right so now it doesn't mean every building is going to be doing the things the same but procedures can be the same for how we decide and make those decisions for kids and we'll have t different tables of Post-it notes so we can see which one looks like it makes the most yeah it's like Dr Jordan I mean it wasn't the greatest visual but it's you know it was a little wonky but at the same time no offense to Dr Jordan he thought it really looked the way I mean you wouldn't figure that out right in person it

235probably looks a little different I bet in person yes yeah but that does feed into the equity a recommendation of transitions right so really looking at how you're transitioning between and and the fact is we already have recognized that some of our lower level classes are overloaded with our special needs students and our uh multilingual Learners and that's just not fair we've got to do better on that I really want to try to start reimagining since we're going to have building based people too if we could have like they could run a building based information night on opportunities like in math you know what I'm saying like so we need to re-envision that like I haven't like I want to get together with them and brainstorm like what we what that looks like but there's

236a lot of ways we can capitalize and do a lot of things that the equities I I'm lucky enough to be on that but I need to embed that in a lot of the curriculum and teaching work right that we're doing going forward so try to be really brief on that but we just we're we're off on another Journey here for next year any other questions James thank you for staying you thank you thank you thank you up James thank you um so we no policy um we have a meeting on Wednesday at 4:15 in central office perfect yes yay um that didn't get to happen in May at all are there any other central office admin updates I'm okay um can I just say to be real quick um just wanted to recognize uh

237Miller Band had a concert on Tuesday June 4th fantastic and then um last night just last night we had a wonderful presentation by Dr slayy and Jenny man for title one at placentino from 6:00 to 7 and that's a requirement of the title one gra that's it great thank you keep you good thank you um oh want want to do this first and then I'll do the retirements so we can do the retirements the only thing is at 10 12 maybe we also do them again you the next time or something I'm just you know have a little earlier but but let's do them quickly not quickly but let's just put them up on the screen and highlight them and uh and then highlight them at like 7:30 we can all cry over them for

238a second yes it's always sad to bunch of wonderful names up there veteran teachers exit especially some we've already talked about so I do want to highlight um a tremendous amount of um veteran expertise in education moving on this year this is a higher um retirement year than last year um just people are at that point in their careers and at placentino we have Gail bour with 26 years Kim Flynn 24 years thank you to Stacy Kenny 32 years at placentino Felicia lovely 16 years and then at Miller Vicky Blackmore with 22 years Donna J 17 years CLA peard we already talked about early with her work with our French Consulate for 23 years in the district Lydia Shields at 27 years at Rams Wendy luier 20 years in the making at the high school

239an Brady has been with us for 16 years Rick man for 35 years Don quinnley for 21 years and we had one addition that is not on here John robshaw has been with us for 35 years in the maintenance department as well so thank you so much to all of these people we will be doing next week um a breakfast we started that tradition I brought that tradition in a few years ago I think um I did it at my previous I thought it was just a nice way because we were doing the things after school and I noticed that people really would rather I mean enjoy it more if we can bring them to breakfast during the school day and honor them in that way so it's on the 10th 10th or 11th I

240think I think you were invited so it's should be there so if you can make it we'd love to have you I would like to we understand it's challenging for you during the work but we appreciate um and want to we will nobody kisses me this year what's that Kelly C kiss me goodness we we didn't get keep on the list but that's probably because we're not really letting him go um that'll be an update um okay um so after 10 going off the rails already well the select board claims that nothing good happens after 9 so I don't know what 10 means it's it's going it's going to go the reason that you're just getting this and it wasn't in your packet is it literally just got approved and was on the Comm so

241he knows um I had been working on this with um what one of the positions in the teacher contract is any of the curriculum um specialist positions that are altered that the union has involvement in the job description we do not have job descriptions for all of our teaching position that really would be impossible to do so and it's not contractual either but you know it' be wonderful we could we just can't um at this point but this particular um anything to do with curriculum is part of our contract expectations so I took positions that were um in previous had have been voted on either for our curriculum roles or interventions roles that we've had in the past and I kind of looked at redundancies and put it all together and then we were finally

242able to meet um this week um after I had shared out the uh graphs a few weeks back and we were able to look at it and try to compromise on some of these things and make it more again eliminate some things that seem redundant and really uh organize them in a different way so this is what we've come up with for our uh final job description for these new roles whether they're stem or Humanities and we have an agreement in place today that we'll be signing as long as you agree to vote this in as a final um subject to change in the future if we decide but right now this is our version moving for forward and we're excited that we're going to be able to do this work together with our teachers

243so I was part of the back and forth anyway so I you know I think that it's is a a fair compromise with the uh the the hft uh one thing that we talked about a budget was just sort of tracking a little bit to sort of see the difference in time between interventionist and curriculum more of a self-reported type of thing but just so we can get an idea of of how it's being used um not a big ass just simply saying you know I know yeah I think if we and we talked about so one of the things that I added in here was that they're going to be like tracking um when they when teachers are doing interventions with students because they'll have small groups that'll be in their schedules but they'll

244also help support the tutors that do this work so the teachers themselves will have you know they'll know how many hours they put in then we can kind of percentage wise calculate out over time how much you know it's probably not going to be an actual 0. 5.5 split there'll be sometimes that they might be doing more intervention work and other times it may be so that's why it's hard to divide it up equally but we want to see if it's Equitable overall and based on Dan's recommendations I'll be sending out a monthly questionnaire of self-reporting for them so I could give that information back to you then there's a stipend attach to it too yes these roles already in the contract you have and if you look some of it's because they are actually

245like the coordinators presenting they'll be presenting um to the bigger part is because they're going to be doing intervention and curriculum in these roles it will also be I'm envisioning that they'll be doing activities at night with kids which they sometimes do already I want just clarify why they also that typend attached so yeah um so I mean I think you you want this tonight because to help with with the posting I just want to be able to it we've hired a number of these people already have shifted from other positions or different um so we're but I want to be able to show them what we are expecting um overall because they're not 100% sure yet so so I'm comfortable voting this tonight but I know I've seen it so is that everyone have

246any view on that so are we hiring any now or they're all hired in this St not some are hired okay um so I believe you know our Middle School are already in place and our elementary I believe are in place now High School is um oh in Rams as well right middle I'm sorry both Elementary and Rams are all the three schools are in place High School I think is still doing so we will use this to recruit new potential new well they've already applied we have people already but we will we will share out what the expectations are we put folks in the role before we had this now we have this and then now we're going using this to go find is there going to be a discrepancy I don't think it's

247going to be a problem just because we've had people in the interventions curriculum role already and these were taken from job scripts we already had we just tweeted to make it the same stuff we and it's agreement between the admin school committee and and the hft so it's y okay um so if we're ready I'll entertain a motion to accept this uh this job description as presented for the curriculum interventionist uh stem and Humanities role work I'll second it well you're firsting it oh all right then I'll first it I thought you just said I'll entertain him sorry it's after 10:15 it's after 10:20 10:20 is there second there you go all in favor that Carri 60 to the dat and then I signed or you signed and then I just signed and you just

248I to put the date yeah date um I'll take draft off though so okay or I can yeah um just quickly because I I for got um we were we need to appoint a uh a liaison or a representative for the uh maintenance workers we I think we talked about it Hillary thought she had been voted in but I I don't remember actually doing that and it wasn't in the minutes um so so tag Hillary's it you're not here no she she knows she knows she's but so entertain a motion to point Hillary is the uh the negotiating Le on to the maintenance second all in favor I Lisa if you could just also just get that up with the rest of the liaison in the uh in the minutes but um okay um we're

249getting there right FAQ do we have an FAQ I haven't seen an FAQ we do it's on the website no I thought this is a different FAQ no so we have an fq that was that was sort of adopted by the communications uh subcommittee yes and so this would be uh to adopted as as a full school committee thing you read so you've read it it's on the website um the other thing as part of this is just to discuss kind of a strategy to be a little bit more Nimble going forward um as far as just kind of officially sort of authorizing the communication subcommittee to to do some work and put some stuff out not necessarily on our behalf but at least just you know so that we're sort of blessing in in

250advance uh or we can schedule you know full Sub full committee meetings uh you know for the next couple weeks uh nightly nightly so so there there's there's there's options we do need to be responsive and put information on this is how government works folks um right so so I'm saying if you want I can post us every other day amount of Facebook post with that's the case then yeah um we do have a Communications meeting scheduled for tomorrow but I would love to cancel it if we don't need it well part of that also I think was uh to get out of sort of a uh summary of what we did tonight that's up to that's up to the communications we can certainly have creww um so um does anyone want to make a

251motion to sort of adopt the FAQ as presented on the website currently in I wanted to add something now I can't find it just go to Holliston K12 hit the hit the uh please click here for to see important information in the popup to me a while did you did you hide it for good no get a public school I'm on it hold on let me just go back what drop I don't know it just went to some weird clicked on it at the top there should also be a selection speci information it just disappeared before I could do it all right know one of the things that I not sure that we touched upon was um about the salary adjustment and one of the reasons behind it in terms of the benefits that are

252offered in the district and and the benefits that that our teachers and other staff are um their portion of that it's like it's a 60% right is paid for by the town keep's looking at me um and in other districts it's not it's in other districts you'll see that at more like the 70% rate so your dollars don't go quite as far is that fair it varies quite a bit to you I mean I I paid I paid in one District I was paying um I was getting I'm I'm not trying to put anything on I'm just saying that that's just a fact of where how far the salary go make sense to follow up and ask a few more questions about how it varies offline and we can we can bring it up yeah

253I just it was something I just wanted to no I I hear you but I feel like it's late there's a couple more things but let's I mean I think Dr kuska maybe if you guys can connect and and then if it's yes probably some of them okay okay thanks y so we're ratifying this but as new questions come up which they likely will are we looking to add to this potentially we certainly can yeah I think that that's what I'd like to sort of empower the the communications subcommittee to to to do um and then I think that um if there are questions and concerns from the members who are not on the communication subcommittee um if they could email them to uh Dr Kusa or or Keith or someone and and she can

254share them with the communications some trying to to not um to not sort of trip something like that um and and then we can you know obviously at me figure it out I'm just you can't send them to me then we're getting it you know then we're going to end up midle right if there are concerns about something the communication sub puts out to take them to then give to them so that we you don't have change delation to no no no if if members have issues to funnel them through just so funnel them through S is what you're saying well through an admin or Dr Costco okay who will then yeah just so you don't have any oml things right yeah we just have to be careful right this is why we don't do

255that this is why it happens okay no I I understand I would be supportive of that in the temporary as we're dealing with this particular issue but globally not okay with it no no no no this this is this is a a cuz I just don't think that it's appropriate for us to do we can definit get ourselves into trouble yes no this is this is not a and I see this more as like the June 20th right and then over the sum re summer I think we should more be able to really get back to our regular practice of full community um so I'll take a motion to sort of adopt the FAQs as a as a hollon school committee um set of FAQs and then also sort of authorize the the communication subcommittee

256to continue the work that they've been doing um in the manner that we've laid out move by Dawn all those in favor okay great let's car 6 to Z is there stuff you want us to review for tomorrow um well we can review mean there's stuff that we that in the um in the folder the uh uh special town meeting over through that with them okay yeah well since we're since we're in session might as well I think that would you know I want to I'd like to get an email out to the community tomorrow just uh summarizing some things and then also C the most important is really the process June 20th then there's a vote we don't have a date for the vote yet um and so Sarah pres provided a couple things

257uh two sort of one pagers uh one with a great QR code which I'm I need to learn how to do and then and then a uh then a a longer form um those are in your in your uh in your folders We should look at let's maybe look at the long form first and then there's also a uh um something that I put together which is a we we need to provide comments that will go in the warrant um that then when the finance committee provides their comments and the S board provides their comments that'll be wh people will see so the the uh the select board has closed the warrant posted the the warrant but it was a very Bare Bones just sort of getting the article out there when the finance committee

258um votes its recommendation it'll be a more uh comprehensive and and we have the opportunity to put in uh what we'd like um and it can be as much or as little as we want but it is will sort of be our initial opening to to town me gu if if you will in addition to a and then you know we'll be doing a presentation so when I put this together I was basically copying and pasting from some other documents that we that either we put out or I'd written and so that so so we have a few things to look at we can take time to to do that or um just approve them consistency is key what's that I'm glad you pulled from other documents cuz I think consistency will be key here

259[Music] where's the one pager going what's the plan so so the one pager can either be something that we have to hand out um that we can if we go to do a a information night or information at the senior center we can we can hand out um or um at at our um if you want to print them off and bring them to the um uh the office hours uh just to kind of so then that's why the Great QR code is is there and it brings yeah the QR code one is for any printed version right they can and so then there were two ways I thought of put putting out an email tomorrow uh one would be the other short version which is essentially the same as the one with the QR

260code but without the QR code but then links to the longer statement or just putting out the longer statement do the shorter to the longer people will they'll lose it but if that's what I that's what I thought but I I just want to provide um options are we going to have to restate this once they we decide on the election date we'll have to resend these out we we we won't be sending this out we we'll probably it'll be very short like I'm assuming it'll be after the town meeting so that we could take that piece out I wouldn't foresee let's see what I you know it it it sounds like they're going to decide on the date for the election anywhere between June 10th and June 20th yeah which is so let's see

261what happens I mean the question is do we just focus on one we we lay it out here but we focus on one step first and then get to the next one um no tot totally it's just there have been questions see on Facebook and I've had in person from people who who are pretty well informed about what's going on in town who are just confused about the overall process the town has we haven't gone through this in 14 years um granted is it's actually the same as what happens for the uh for the Deb exclusion overrides you have a warrant article that approves it and then you you vote but that it's just it's sort of all wrapped up and it's it's been a while yeah but as for an operational override it's been

262a while so you know just for anyone still watching uh it is a two-step process it's now 10:31 nothing the letter Dan again it's a two-step process um we first go to town meeting and and vote June 20th 7: p.m. huson High School auditorium we're working on getting babysitting there'll be uh there'll be um by Gerald providing babysitting uh we're we're working on that but it's it's it's likely children of uh children of schoers Don Don's children all Don's children it's normally run by I think the Community Action fund and Youth and Family Services but because it's after the school ends um they're able to do that um so okay um so um and then then you said two steps and you got to the special town meeting yep don't want to forget the second

263special town meeting vote we we vote overwhelmingly passes because the town supports the schools um and then there is a subsequent ballot question which is essentially you go to town uh you go to the high school and you vote like you do at any other election uh and you vote yes but um no I can't actually say that but anyway um you vote it's 10:3 it's 10:32 no one's watching um record bad wrap it up wrap it up wrap it up so can I can I can I get a motion to approve the the one pager the longform and the town meeting warrant uh article as presented move by Dawn I didn't even read the article where is it it's in the folder I know I you can't send that stuff to me like I

264I know but it's like I don't even have any chance to read it I get home from work and I'm coming right here um it's not the May one I I uh I will not let's approve appending any sort of non largely subst changes I will look at it I'll get feedback if there is any but okay can I I'm just going to obain because I didn't even look at it I don't feel like it's responsible for me to vote on it okay is there a second second second all right I in favor I'm abstaining Lisa thank you one exension so thank you'll get we ending we'll get that out tomorrow by um hold on um we doted the FAQ voted on the warrant comments oh so wait hold on where are we in the

265what's this June 27th business so um we don't TP I already told you all we don't typically meet after the end of school and I get it got stuff that we have so there a few things it has to be like an hour so there are a few things we going to there are a few things that we're going to need to deal with one of them relates to an executive session that we're about to have because you know as much as people go get to go to sleep once we sign off we still are here working um short really short it should be short um uh how do you met us oh oh hold actually take it back we need to actually vote to uh adopt the new uh budget that includes the override

266amount to officially have that as the school commit position after we have the override after we have the the town meeting the special town meeting so that's happen after we need V vote that now yes yeah the amount it's in the warrant okay okay folder and go to is override Financial details yeah go to STM we're voting as our budget but it hasn't been officially allocated yet has the top folder under June 6 it says STM request and the top one details with the Delta being the amount that we're requesting over it's the thing in green right so we're going to vote to to increase our budget requests for fiscal year 25 to 42,900 we did meet in budget today at 6:00 to go over these numbers um and budget voted to approve this these

267numbers and and make it our recommendation to you this evening and that number of 1, um $126,200 [Music] have been raised by by the community so and then with the following year that then we're not voting on this for the following year but that would then turn into the bus money to allow us to move uh from from 3 to two start times so that 100,000 in the 275 that 100,000 then gets taken out of the of the maintenance and into the into the two it's part of the g75 got got okay for [Music] okay [Music] do we want to um clarify $21 per average household what do you mean because it's based on their property of being certain uh what what document are you looking at um the onepage communication uh maybe that's just

268in the weeds do the other so we we're going to link do we Link in here we're going to link to the um I think we link to the assessors we we link to the the um the towns website which has the accessors impact so people can go into to there and calculate their own okay impact um the average household is not a perfect um tool obviously but it is a way to compare the size of overrides across towns in some ways um but it shouldn't be used imp on H Tax and then there's I think the one pag didn't have a link oh he increased his milary so good M you might get some questions it went from 195 average to 2011 because of the included non-un um well I I mean in there

269inclusive additional funding the s word for nonunion personnel yeah the S words for [Music] 4,000 um I will say that you know it's for nonunion personnel at at in town government um you know these are people that uh traditionally have have fallen behind I guess from the schools and so I think it's it was more than fair that the like Bo look at this um the message of it keeps creeping up yeah can't change now yeah [Music] just let me know when you're ready to vote or if you have any other questions [Music] in the onepage communication we call out one to two lost jobs in that bullet is the reason we don't call out cuz those are done now right um or are they still pending have the all the moves been made as

270far as like the the $400,000 of uh Cuts how many people lost their job not reductions in positions but how many people did that end them so I believe it's one but possibly two since we haven't finished let me one related to any reductions from the budget and there has been um maybe one other that would be related to the reorganization of these roles so that was not budgetary we weren't trying to save money with these roles this was really structurally but as far as the 400,000 goes it it was eight positions that were cut one one person that I believe one person you want to update that yes I'll take the that we s do you want to do it sure sorry right I mean definitely non pts it's not yeah and that's the

271only one there are always personal decisions that are being made year toe that are not included not in any sort of job sorry any cost reductions but um and and as I sh it was like related to enrollment as well we we just had less class okay what are we doing now we're voting on the Warren article sorry sight so so at this point I'll just I'll uh say it again entertain a motion to increase our budget by uh to 4 m973 1178 or by uh 1,126 21 uh which would be adopting our new budget request with the Delta being the override request mov by Dawn second by Sarah all in favor thank you the carage unanimously um do that okay good are we voting on the one pagers or did we already do that

272we did that already okay thanks it's getting all right so I think so um we do also need to we'll also I'm going to we post a meeting before town meeting uh that way we be that one I might post a little bit more in advance than just the hour so that we can go over the presentation discuss topics that that may come up that we need to discuss but we'll also have flexibility uh on that so uh two weeks that being said uh we have come to the end of our agenda um we do have uh the need for executive session uh we have two purposes listed to discuss uh so we now entertain a motion to adjourn from Open Session two executive session from which we will not return for the purposes of

273discussing strategy with respect to collective bargaining um if an open meeting may have a detri until effect on the bargaining of the public body and the chair so declares and this is related to just collective bargaining with the hft and just to be clear to the community we because our the um override is contingent the contract is contingent on the passage of an override there are still um issues that need to remain confidential and then further to conduct strategy sessions and preparations for negotiations with non-union Personnel or to conduct Collective bargaining sessions or Collective contract negotiations Keith you screw me up and with non union personnel and this is related to the assistant superintendent for finance and operations a move by Cynthia second by Don all right Sarah this reques R vote Sarah yes okay

274yes yes Joe yes yes Don yes Dan yes uh okay it is now 11:45 um we are actually only 15 minutes 10:45 pal 10:45 we are actually only only 15 minutes late for the thank you very much good night like put lipstick on for