Holliston School Committee - December 15, 2022-Part 2

001potential with with the state in in math and then a significant Improvement for also strong numbers in seventh and eighth grade as far as that but I'm especially uh you know we look down at the high sgps in math for sixth seventh and eighth grade in 2022 but also just pointing out the low SGP of the entire state in 2021 so while we had a 57 a 50 and a 30 in 2021 the state was at 26 36 and 27 as far as their SGP so I would argue that the performance last year was also pretty good performance considering the the pandemic at that point so oh sorry those are the seventh graders that's a 72 percent would be the current seventh seventh graders they're smart kids and they consider 40 to 60 the average

002range for SGP with um 60 being the high end of average so that's why when you're saying 72 that's really really strong that's right yeah and we are um we've done a significant amount of work over the years with our sixth grade based off of parent survey data we've done in years past as far as the fifth to sixth transition to make sure that we're um it when it's a smooth transition for our students moving to fifth sixth but also that our fifth grade families feel like the middle school is a fantastic and viable option for them so we've made our sixth grade a very smooth transition with some really strong teachers and and made a very significant conscious effort we're also strong Believers that um if we put the foundational work in at the

003sixth grade level we'll see that dividend in seventh and eighth grade as well star math in the fall so this recent most recent one so this is with our our current sixth grade current seventh grade and current eighth grade that the predominance of our students are are at or above Benchmark these students the 4 6 and 12 like every single one of these students that are below Benchmark are in intervention either receiving some type of service or support but they're they're not um being just left wondering what's going to happen with with that group as well because I saw this too with the the star reading I think on these slides were doing really well with it but the data that you have the below Benchmark that um the red and the yellow so urgent

004intervention intervention on watch are those kids that weren't already identified so I guess interesting is how helpful is this were they already identified and on plans or is this and and I think it's a different analysis if it's a new student coming into the district right I could see where star assessment would be really helpful for giving that data about for that student but is it identifying students that we didn't already know so I think the visual report you were seeing right there every single one of those like if you look at sixth grade four six and twelve are identified um prior to start but I can run a different report within star that students that fall in the green who are performing bolo where they would we would anticipate them are ones that we

005identify similarly is you can run a similar report on MCAS and identify the students who may be performing wet like well or at Benchmark but their SGP is down below like 20 or something where they're performing way below where they should so something occurred last year or what whatever happened and we identify those and those are the individuals who work with Brooke Dory who's our interventionist um that were I presented before I think either early in the year at the end of the last year where the school Community had approved kind of grant funding for us to use to create intervention groups to work with students who may be performing okay flying under the radar group but their growth potential is like way below where it should and that we put those students into intervention

006groups and had a significant amount of success thank you so the these students would also have the IEP kids and like all the kids or ADI just hey I mean it's a mix like whether they're whether it's a student that's on IEP maybe a 504 baby that it's a student that is we're noted through like our Student Assistance team for like some academic struggles or somebody that works with kind of our tier two interventionists with which is Brooke Dory none of these students are new to us other than our sixth grade we we saw the data but we knew a lot of those students as far as the transition from fifth grade um as well so what my question is that have would you be able to identify the IEP kids who would need extra

007anyway and would those be the kids mostly in there or are this like an IEP doesn't mean a lower performance student I just have to feel like I want to say that like an IEP could be like every single IEP could be way at the top of the green it could be for many many different reasons so there's really not necessarily a correlation between need for an IEP or a 504 like performance so I think so maybe are you asking like does this flag kids that potentially should have some kind of accommodation that's not getting that yet yeah something yes it's pretty much that and then that is sometimes what could happen is then they bring them to the SAT team and they look at all this data and then they determine is this a

008child who we're just going to do some progress monitoring and intervention and they could be a short-term situation because it could be let's say the child was in a home hospital setting for a little while it would make sense this might be just a temporary give them a boost and test them again bring them back in or is this a child that continues to struggle now it's sat team and then we might end up referral to the IEP process yeah so they're all getting tested though like for example um a student that maybe we haven't identified before who has low growth from the prior year maybe put into an intervention class we have about 100 kids right now that are at a tier two intervention meeting they're not they don't have a 504 they don't

009have an IEP they are just performing below where they should they are intervention groups that might be for like a six-week cycle you reassess them using the star assessment as a benchmark just to see whether they are demonstrating where they demonstrate an improvement that may be all they need or we continue with them in the intervention over like six week cycles of time until they demonstrate Improvement or we keep them there ultimately if we're as Dr cusca said is that if we're keeping them there they're part of sat and we're providing these accommodations and interventions we're having bigger conversations about what kinds of long-term accommodations we might need to put into into place for them yeah is for the Vermont predominance of our students did something happen that resulted them in having lower growth that

010we need to fill that Gap in or improve that period of time with some short-term intervention to kind of kick start it a little bit and get them back uh back on track yeah thank you and the reason of my question was also because this directly ties in into the ACL thing that we are doing there's so many things confidence as you said it's not always the performance but also the like you know the mental health of the child and you know I'll be very interested to see how that affects the performance and sometimes I mean I remember when the teachers started looking at Star data last year and some of the PD that I have interested in it and the child might be overall green but when you start looking into certain areas maybe

011they have some visual spatial stuff so then you want to say well okay this child's green overall but you need to boost that one area and then they get up that's where a brook or someone come in and give some quick interventions reassess and they might be able to move back on maybe they just really David this this star test is done three times a year first Adams as well and I know when we first started hearing about it it was also to assess learning fostering epidemic and also this idea that you time data while you still had your kids as opposed to MCAS where you get it months later and it could even be out of your school pretty are you still finding it helpful is it still are you still able to identify

012kids and get the interventions and see grow I think I think what we're trying to determine with star as a tool um is the alignment between star and what our objectives are at school as a district there I think we're still trying to figure out that exact piece the need for having a tool that we can Benchmark like similar to a table similar to like these types of things that we can kind of Benchmark at the middle school level to understand the progress we're making with students is very very meaningful so if it's not star is the tool then what what is that tool that exists and so like I think we as a district are always trying to evaluate whether the thing that we've selected as The Benchmark tool is the best one that

013we need I think we're still trying to figure that part exactly out but we do find some correlation at least between like our ability to kind of use star and the performance we end up with on the MCAS ultimately and I I wish the thing that I wish that was a little bit stronger for us is that within our intervention groups um when it's it's supposed to be viable within every six weeks um and so we provide some type of intervention then we can Benchmark and we want to try to it's harder for us to assess the impact of that six-week cycle and I wish we could kind of do a better job of that but maybe that's wishful thinking for any tool that's that's not to tell you the truth but um I think

014we're still assessing um where that falls I don't think the answer is not having anything it's about about a constantly assessing whether what we've got is the right thing so this just to piggyback on what Don said because it's about star um did the teachers so the teachers have access to the kids results like pretty quick like immediately and so do you find or did the teachers find that they are able to effectively use star data um to inform their instruction um more so than they would with maybe just like the common assessments that they give um that's harder to say that because because the way that the star that's like assesses is sometimes like a kid who's excelling may end up in in content and standards that are not even within their subject area

015um so it like using the star to directly impact like the teaching of the exact standards that you're in I don't know if that that tool exactly does that well to over the aggregate of a school or a grade in assessing like reading and where they fall in maps and there are maps and then identifying the gaps um that's that's draw that that's where it's a little bit stronger where we see like it's Effectiveness especially with an ornament interventions or with our teachers is where you may have a student that's reading at grade level but they are in this specific thread or standard area are performing at like a third grade or fourth grade level even though they've come up with strategies or things to overcome that reading deficit because of this Gap that they

016have in this one targeted standard they may not that may continue to be like a a handicap or a thing that's going to negatively impact them as they continue it's right it's like building on a slightly cracked foundation you may continue to build it but you're it's a little suspect as far as what you're doing if you can repair that Foundation there it's gonna you're gonna build a be able to build stronger and taller in some of the other areas yeah I guess the exact conversation you and I were having with um Tina and Casey conahan because we're constantly revisiting and assessing and if if this tool find a better tool and this is not the tool that we think is giving us the biggest bang for our buck and we are very open to

017shifting away and going to another tool and and deciding I mean that was something we did last year you looked at different other things so we're not saying there's a one size fits all and that we're not willing to shift if we find something that will work better but it needs to be something we can do pre-k through 12 right or the tool could be different it doesn't have to be the same tool that's that's what we're trying to tease out right now right is there a tool that might be better for the middle school years sure so I think that's the conversation we're all exploring I mean the realities we're we're a customer of Renaissance and I think there are other places they're going to want our business and are going to compete and

018try to put better things together over time it's our responsibility to assess whether a better thing if this might be the best tool right now and may not be in a year or two years and it's start responsible you can assess that if whether Renaissance continue to keep up keep up with some of the competition that's trying to come in I did um just to kind of jump to science I know we were talking a little bit about that but um really strong Improvement uh in science this is actually the the best performance in science we've actually had in the last uh 10 uh 10 test administrations that we've had uh there so it's a plus 14 differential with the state and constructive response that's like the writing portion of science um just so it

019was at plus five percent in 2021 plus eight uh the last time it was given in 2019 our one area to think about is our waves and and applications this is like one maybe two questions on the math assessment it's hardly something that you want to like lose your lunch over but you know it is it is something to report on um and then kind of your your science comparison uh I I want to say that um if you were to take if you were to evenly wait uh student achievement against student SGP we are the strongest Middle School in Tri-Valley um the the I will say that like what um there are maybe a school that has better achievement but they also have higher median home income prices that's in correlation but like if

020you kind of compare your SGP to your student achievement um I I don't think when you look at many factors you're going to find a higher performing Middle School in the area I think that um whether it's the SEL work that we've also done some of the intervention work I'm very proud of the data that we've generated on things more than just just MCAS but um you know I I think we've done some some really good work that we're really proud of at the middle school and just a kudos to the teachers that we had there that have really gotten behind and aligned to each other we talk a lot about Collective efficacy and how we do that and how to collectively work together and I think they've done a fantastic job uh post covered

021my eighth grader is doing a ton of geometry all year she's done a ton so that's like the focus area for that grade so it's interesting that those are happening I think you should have a school-wide dance or something unusual I already did that but this time till 10. yeah no way that's great awesome thank you thank you thanks Dave hi everyone hello [Music] so I just wanted to start by discussing a little bit of the different data sources that are represented in this presentation so in terms of what we're going to talk about tonight we have M pass in there star we also the high school level have SATs advanced placement exams and then the seal it by literacy which I'll talk about towards the end I also would be remiss if I didn't

022talk about two future data sources one is our niask self-study we are about to embark on a significant self-study starting in January we have our collaborative conference coming in October of 2023 to prepare for that so it's a five number visiting team that comes in to assess the high school the niac process the last time they were here was 2012 and I'm sure I'll end up doing a separate presentation on the ask but to prepare for it because the process has changed a little bit we are embarking on our self-study and we'll be taking a look at a ton of different data points for the school we'll be looking at academic success we'll be looking at social emotional success will be looking at culture and climate on all of those pieces we do that based

023on five standards with 33 different elements or principles so there's very specific criteria that we look through everything and you know how safe and supportive do you feel the school is to what type of classes are offered to what is our written curriculum so I think we'll have a lot of really good data from that the other piece that I want to mention is a vision of a graduate which you've all heard me talk about many times and I will continue to talk about but the vision of a graduate with our six categories we're currently at the high school looking at adjusting the language the criteria within each of the six categories to be more specific performance outcomes so for example one of the criteria in global citizen is around social equity the way it's

024written yes of course we want our students to be moved towards social Equity but what does that mean in the classroom what does that look like and then how do we know if we're making progress towards that so we're looking at having them be a little bit more specific performance outcomes and then learning progressions throughout the district and I wanted to mention that I thought it was really important because those are going to be significant data points that we look at when we're talking about triangulating the data so that it's not one point with empaths or one point in the star or one point with you know SATs that we're really looking at the entire picture of the student so more to come on that in the future the other data sources are what I'll

025talk about now and that's what we have in terms of some of the graphs and slides so I'll jump into our Ela for MCAS are students in terms of meeting and exceeding expectations are at 71 percent which is 13 above the state average We are continuing to diversify the tax so that we can better represent all students and the different types of authors that are out there and also so that all of our students can see themselves in the literature that is taking place within all of our classes English 9 and 10 have done significant revisions to the texts over the last several years and English 11 is is in the process of doing that as well there's also the curriculum review that's happening throughout the district and so I'll be really excited to see

026some of the recommendations that come out of that and our sgb is listed up there at 47 and that's for grade 10 again the mcast data that we'll see is based on our students last year so in terms of focus areas or how we're utilizing the data data wise is an improvement process actually out of Harvard University it's a particular process or strategy when you're looking at data there's a group of English teachers led by Karen Archibald one of the assistant principals she's actually a data wise trainer a collaborative process so they're analyzing multiple sources within our Ela data to determine where are those steps where the interaction steps we want to focus on first we know that writing is a focus area you've heard that from all the principles throughout the district and so

027that's something that we're really looking at and then also analyzing subgroups to identify gaps and inform instruction as we move forward Nicole do you know and my guess is no that MCAS is not they have not Diversified their tax as much as maybe we have but it would be interesting to see when you better represent students if they're more engaged more you know better they'll do better so I'm wondering any changes in the MCAS that would I think it's really hard with the pandemic the last few years so without that as a without that is a major variable I think we would have been able to more clearly look at any shifts that we made in terms of the literature the texts that are are in place and what impact that might have had I

028think it's very messy with all the data from the last few years so I'm not I'm not sure what the answer is and I'm pretty sure we're still way above diverse you know diversity versus the state but I was just curious if they are starting to move along you know we don't receive every single question in prompt um but from anecdotally from what I've seen and heard over the last few years I do think the state is making an effort to diversify the passages that are included in the mcast test um the even names of students or names of people that are mentioned within it so I do think that there is a concerted effort to do that how far they've come I'm not sure so I'm going to really skip through the next few

029slides because this is the data that supported the overview that I just went through but you can see this is our Ela MCAS results so these would be this is the data from last year our students take it as 10th graders so this these are our current Juniors right now one of the slides I wanted to put up here is just to show you how we're utilizing star and MCAS when we're looking at some of the different standards that are throughout this doesn't work in every aspect of star and MCAS but here's a really good example so if you look at towards the top the vocabulary acquisition and use so the standard for MCAS I'm sorry the standard for star is vocabulary acquisition this was taken at the beginning of the course and you can

030see that a significant number of students are in in the green right and so they're they're only going to continue developing their vocabulary acquisition when you look at that compared to the standard in MCAS similar spot our students are doing really well in that and so this is one of the ways when we talk about triangulating data and we talk about pulling in multiple data sources we're looking at how does star compare to MCAS how does this compare to what the teachers are seeing in the classroom on a daily basis as well with students how is this comparing to sat how's this compared to AP and really making sure that we're not just focused on one particular test or one particular Moment In Time in terms of math so for meeting and exceeding 79 which

031is 29 above the state average we are working collaboratively with the eighth grade math teachers we actually adjusted our sequencing for this year so that all ninth graders coming in are receiving two semesters of math either one semester or two semesters of algebra one in the past we had different entry points for students some students would come in at algebra one some students would come straight into geometry this year because of the feedback and the data that the middle school was seeing and the needs that our students entering into ninth grade had we switched it a little bit so that they're coming in into algebra so some of our students are coming in and they're doing both parts of algebra one some of our students are coming in and they're doing half of algebra one

032so they're doing one one part of it before they move on and that was really based on the data that we've seen over the last year or two and what the needs were for students and we continue to make those adjustments and work collaboratively with the middle school so that we know how to best support our incoming students and then can I just ask a question about that and then they take geometry in the second semester students who come in and do the second part of algebra one would then go into geometry students who come in and do the first part of Algebra 1 would then do the second they take geometry as sophomores yep um which is is you know has always been the case it's just that there um were more entry points

033for students at different spots and now everybody's coming in at least with some portion of algebra one whereas in the past there may be in students who had completed what they needed and were coming straight into geometry and that's something that the curriculum review is is going to look at quite a bit so you know I don't mess where we're going to be next year or what changes we might might make because there's a really talented group of people who are looking at that right now so I'll be interested to see in terms of focus areas additional training in the administration and Analysis of star assessment that's one of the pieces that the math department in particular has been looking for as I mentioned we are embarking on the district math curriculum review which is

034underway right now and then again analyzing subgroups and identifying gaps [Music] so that just supports I gave the overall but that 79 for meeting for an exceeding expectations this was an interesting graph I just wanted to throw in Karen Archibald has actually found this graph this is a comparison between students with a star assessment and the prediction for how they're going to do on the ACT test so what this is showing us these are ninth graders at the beginning of ninth grade this is showing us that 67 percent of students based on the star assessment are predicted to already be at Benchmark with the ACT test so our students will either take sat or act so snapshot of this is this is great news right and this is what we expected to see but this

035is great news our students are already in a great spot when they're coming in ninth grade and that is in part you know that's due to all the work that they have been doing throughout their their schooling in Holliston and all of the work you know you've heard Mr Jordan talk about the efforts with writing and the efforts with really focusing on on target areas and we're seeing those results as they come in this is sat so you can see the darker green is Holliston the middle is the state and then the more bright green is National and you can see that we're we're still doing quite well with our SAT scores across the board I did put in a light district comparison just so you can see where Holliston Falls with some of the

036other districts around and um you know we're in a pretty good spot here for our safeties so I'm going to switch now to science Sciences a little bit Messier and the reason I say that is because last year the state changed the MCAS test so in Holliston our students take half of our students take mpass for science in February and half of our students take mpas in June in February they took the old mpas test which is the Legacy test and in June our students took the new MCAS test the Next Generation so just in the span of last year half of our ninth graders had the old test and half of our ninth graders had the new test so that's where it's a little bit messy when I go through the data and I

037just wanted to start with that when we look at the Legacy test so the old test that's our current 11th graders Advanced and proficient which was the old measurements now our new measurements are meeting and exceeding right so our old measurements Advanced and proficient we were at 86 percent which is 24 above the state average in June when our students who are current 10th graders when they took the new MCAS test in June our meeting exceeding was 68 which initially could seem like a big drop but if you look at we're still we were 23 about the state average so in terms of comparison we're in the same spot and maybe but we're still doing as well exactly and it's apples to oranges as far as advanced and proficient meeting and exceeding that the rating

038scales are different I mean they're just they're different tests the other thing which is interesting to note is that the new the Next Generation past the new science and past task is based on the science state standards which came into play in 2016 and we have been using those standards since 2016. however last June was the first time the state administered an mcast test based on the 2016 standards so there took a little while that's okay we're there um but I want to point that out because you know it this is why I said it's messy right so we had two different tests last year on two different state standards the more current state standards are what was tested in June our students still did really well even though they're being tested on Old standards

039in February the takeaway is we're doing well in science and next year it'll be a little more straightforward um and then you know two two areas that I do want to highlight in terms of strengths we expanded our computer science endorsement program and so we have a number of students who are doing that Sarah is amazing in what she's doing with the program and then we also increase the number of students who identify as female in AP Computer Science and we were recognized by the college board for this increase so we're excited about that we're looking to continue that Trend and continue expanding and our Focus area it's our first time getting a data set on the new science the Next Generation Um assessment so that's something that we need to look at we need

040to see what areas are students doing well in what are the areas that we might need to adjust a little bit but we I mean we haven't had a lot of time to actually analyze that data so that's something that we'll be focusing on with science what does it mean to be recognized by the college board for them um they essentially they send us something that says we recognize you you know it's a nice honor though I mean basically they're saying we see that you're making a lot of efforts to make sure that your classes are as Equitable as possible and that they are enticing to all students and we recognize that you have increased your percentage of students who identify as female in taking this course kudos to you that's essentially what something okay

041thanks it's a good thing that information is passed on to colleges yeah um so we you know as part of the school profile that the school counselors do a great job in putting that together so that colleges are able to see all of the US and then again this slide is messier than the other ones because we have both the biology grade nine meeting and exceeding 68 but then the top part is the old test so you're looking at two separate tests within the same school year two different groups of students like District comparison around meeting and exceeding expectations and um okay so we also have our our advanced placement scores here so you can look at across the board the green is Holliston yellow is the state of Massachusetts uh 2020 2021 there was

042a dip for everyone we still state above the state average but there was definitely a decline for everyone the test the AP tests in 2020 and 2021 were substantially different than what they typically are they actually took parts of it away they you know it was a it looked very different so part of it was covid part of it was the test really was not what people were prepared for because it was a little bit different so I we put that up there to see the four-year Trend but I'm not super focused on 2020 2021 um and we're right back up where we were before you can see percentage of high school students scoring three or above by subject so again you know you're seeing across the board the different colors represent the different years

043and you can see in ela language social studies math science um all of those different subject areas and again we're we're coming back up which is the trend we like to see and then the syllabi literacy is the last area that I wanted to focus on we're really proud of this the Seal of bi literacy is recognizing students who have who are proficient in another language 27 students are in the Seal of by literacy in four different languages last year and that's fantastic so we're looking to continue to increase that but that's something that our world language teachers are really proud of do you remember this in previous years not off the top of my head I do know that we were a little bit higher in our number of students the first year we

044administered it um I think that the impact is has been the pandemic the last couple of years so um this C feel of by literacy how do they how do the students get it like are they tested or yep so it's a assessment we typically give it in April Dominique treton and some of the other world language teachers administer it there are different components to it we do it right here at the high school and then the results essentially we look at the results and they're sent into the state and then we determine the state determines who are in the Seal of that literacy and then are the languages predetermined like what they would be tested in or any language any bilingual language is acceptable any language so what we're looking at is um these

045four languages represent last year there have been some different languages based on the year so it really is open to anyone I don't know if they have every language though my last look they had like 14 languages we struggled yeah we struggled a little bit um two years ago and I to be honest I can't remember off the top of my head which language it was there was a student who was interested in um sitting for the Seal of illiteracy and it was a language that um we hadn't offered before and wasn't uh typically offered Dominique treton did a tremendous amount of work with the state and trying to line up actually somebody that could come and Proctor in that language and we were able to make that work it wasn't easy but we were

046able to make that work so I think that they're continuing to expand [Music] good to know I think it's a great point to know yeah thank you sure thank you thank you so much this is so um I know it's a lot for you to all put together and to come and to present this but it's so informative and it's so you know we often hear things about things that are going on in school but this is this is in depth in a way that we don't usually get and I just want to say thank you that's it's so great to to have this level of information very well put together truly like so much that is it appropriate for and can we like could we put this on our website or anything to make

047it I've already asked um that's awesome thank you I wanted that's my goal as we start to things on the website is to try to get these presented presentations right up as words [Music] thank you all thank you again thank you great thank you happy holidays happy holidays thank you thank you thanks a lot and I think you know just you'll what you were hearing tonight is directly aligned to our strategic initiatives and the transparency and the communication the alignment and all the things that we've talked about in our Factory plans was framed tonight all right awesome so budget to know no less a light topic uh budget so Keith had put that um budget um spreadsheet into your packet so hopefully have a copy of it in there I'm gonna try to find it

048now and pop it up on you're gonna do a dance for us and again I apologize for not being in the package sooner it kept changing by decent sized numbers daily on Monday um within the exchange at least twice since then so it's just again some of this is because all the transitions were handmade staff on and most of them are favorable to the budget just because we're paying people who were at a higher rate who were leaving and now we're paying people at a lower rate when they come in because they come in at an earlier step so it's it's just again trying to have the most give you the most recent information as I said in the email I sent out today um that we're going to continue to hone this number down

049as we go through the budget process this isn't a static number at this point anyway it becomes a lot more static during when uh the superintendent makes her recommended budget but even there we will still tweak it until the so it says payroll sorry thank you you know until the very The Bitter End so let me just pop this a couple just appoint a couple of things to notice [Music] so if you notice here um again our total payroll um for offset we believe that is is just under 34 million dollars um 24 and a half of it is going to be made up at this point of teacher salaries the important things I think to notice here would be the adjusted payroll what the adjusted payroll means is that we budgeted a certain amount

050for a certain amount of people at a certain rate going into the 20 going into this budget year for the 23 budget year things have changed since then as we all know we've heard about the number of vacancies and things so this is an adjusted calm this is so I can re-state basically the 23 budget with 20 23 people and again it's not restating the budget but again we know every year that we have favorite build we usually have availability based on payroll sometimes things pop up we need two more Professionals for students or whatever it is but again it's something that this is not uncommon the number is a little higher I will say but that's based on turnover when we replace a you know from the summertime when we replace an 80 to

051100 000 teacher with a fifty to sixty thousand dollar teacher you're going to get savings that number usually is more in the order of two to maybe 215 maybe on the high end 300 have it at 380 is a is a bigger number but again that's consistent with what we have been telling you all along since July 1st probably so from that so that's one number to look at the steps column is this you know is again something that everybody knows about and goes you know again that's always the question on Lanes I actually lowered normally at this time of year we put about 65 now about I put 65 000 in for Lane adjustments um because we just don't know where people are going to be at and so from that um I actually

052lowered it this year based on the number of teachers who are and we don't we haven't hit that number in a few years so but based on the number of teachers who are at TOP Step there's no you know I think the top step Top Lane we've had a big matriculation towards the right hand side of the schedule so it's just I don't expect to see as many so I lowered that number down a little hole is coal ways to call that's been contracted or that we've planned out um for the people who are not on contract and so the total right now um I forget the 821 thousand dollar um increase we get to scroll up a little bit please so after offsets again 821 000 or about a 2.62 increase so we expect

053again that number is going to go down a little bit as we progress through with either turnover or when we hear about teachers who may be retiring and things of that nature so again we'll make assumptions on those on teachers or paraprofresh looking whoever as they as they transition out to a new number and that number almost always goes down from this point that's run rate this is run rate this is current staff rolling forward to next year at County vacancies as a projection of what we expect them to be so it's interesting the key's point is you know when people retire at the top step we don't we don't plan for people necessarily coming in a top step it's been a very interesting though with the turnover with covet so we've had more turnover

054than a normal year because people either retiring early or you didn't used to see people that were at higher end steps leaving it just because it used to be harder to get to hire people on top step right so with that turnover it means we were hiring some people at the lower end but we also saw a tremendous year where we've hired a lot more people at the higher end because the market is the market and you can't you know we're struggling to find somewhere we're willing to take someone at a 13A despite the fact that we're not offsetting as much availability but it still meant more favorability in the typical year because they were just more people that exited and started but you talked about it in the budget process we had the gas

055and different things these offsets will be needed elsewhere as well right so again it's not saying that we're in great shape or core shape I think it's about where I would expect us to be at this point in time so I'm not trying to be an alarmist or you know whistle faster graveyard either so but just to be clear this is just one piece this is one piece about yes special education costs correct I know that's coming in the month of January um first we'll be talking about what I call effective uh affectionately called Stuff um and uh you know basically not payroll and not special ed and um then after we'll do the special ed piece so and I think what you'll hear us talk about you know just predicting and sort of Keith

056and I already projecting moving forward we envision through our budget process and the priorities meeting in January that we may say to you we can potentially we may need X but we can get x with our one-time funds some of the grant funds that we had that we didn't know we'd be able to still use for the next two years but then in year three and I'll be asking you for that item in the budget but it buys us a little time that way so again that number will help us um position ourselves for the future because they know it's not a sustainable number either but it will help us sort of plan and projectile and my hope is to give you almost a four-year budget cycle where I'll say okay well the next four

057years was a strategic plan this is what we're predicting but we might say year one and two we've got it covered within our grants or as their money or things like that and then year three is when we're going to come back to you for now you're going to help us and you know find that number yep any questions excellent good job thank you John what's up I think that's the shortest amount of time I'm going to keep this on schedule just remember that I was waiting for part two what's happening all right it's all good to do that again for the next one okay I do one question but we have updates so this is this is the staff portion of the budget yes the other portion which is not staff um if payroll

058increases and special ed comes that are January 5th meeting yes and then this this special ed portion of our budget update comes January 19th January 19th and again the reason behind that for people who don't remember or don't know is since things like out of District placements are such an impactful you know expense item to our budget we really try to do that as late as possible because again the ideas for us to have is reasonable a budget as we you know can going into Susan's recommended budget again we hone it down procedurally after that but or sometimes hold it up depending what happens but um it's still the later we go with that big aligned item you know it's it's just the more accurate it's going to be go down the the budget path

059and there was one additional change the state approved they allowed up to a 16 increase 14. 14 increases yeah so the commission had talked about that today so that's that's kind of an interesting thing is that yes starting next year they can add on up to 14 to offset some of the special ed costs in these um out of District placements and what will happen is we won't see the circuit breaker funds until the following year right and this is another reason we may need well yeah do you want time though or is that yeah no it's a permanent change okay it's basically it's based on the inflation rate of the OSD operational services division is the one who does the special I'm going to talk fast I should talk some more operational services division

060OSD um is the one who authorizes and negotiates pricing for out of District placement schools for for Approved schools that pricing um they when they have a price and if you haven't done something odd that gives you a thing called program reconstruction so basically if you're the if you're School a and you're still doing school a business the next year OSD is a cola okay there's been years where the call has been zero most years the coal is in the 1.7 something to like 2.3 something it's not a big difference because of the inflation that's happened because of years of tasks where the number has been below inflation they kind of made a one-time correction correction good word thank you of 14 for this year is the approved Cola so um as Susan was saying

061that's going to be that's going to create an increase in the amount of circuit breaker we get the following year but we do have again a balance in our in our circuit breaker account we're allowed to maintain 100 of our circuit breaker for one year to the next and we do have that so we would be able to offset the impact of that so we don't harm the budget through this one-time charge up or increase in charge the the increase will stay there but it's a one-time step to that new level and then the new circuit breaker will catch up and follow along with it so while we and I've actually spoken to one of my peers about this because how are you going to handle at night first thing I say where's your circuit

062breaker reserves this is the exact purpose of a use your circuit breaker reserve for these one-time crazy things or our one-time you know a student going out of District who you hadn't expected who again you don't get extraordinary relief which some of you may remember some of our more senior members here senior and ten you're not in age bias here um wow wow you see that was now where did we file that complaint HR but so um but so again you you this is what that one time that's why that balance is there that's why you were allowed to maintain it because the state knows there's not a lot they can do if you've had a bad year but not a catastrophic year the year we got the extraordinary relief it was a catastrophic year

063I mean we had a 500 000 increase in our special ed cost that year that that but again the state picked that most of that up that year so so this is why you know I I feel like I'm hearing some of our surrounding districts talk about the fact that they're panicked about that maybe it's because they spend down there they probably had to don't right and the other thing I'm hearing um districts that got a lot of Esther funds we had as you know I used full day K as a need to set aside some of those funds and we might have an update on that in the future but in the meantime a lot of districts did a lot of hiring of new staff as a reaction to covid regression right we were

064very careful with that because that those were one-time funds and they're not sustainable so in order to keep that level of Staffing now right they're going to either look to have to have a heavy increase in their Town budget or lay off those staff so we really were careful about that because we knew the those one-time funds aren't going to buy us a need that we're trying to sustain over time and this goes back to the experience we had with the arrow funds back in 2008 and 2009 or seven and eight whichever one it is and when we get there one-time monies we we manage them closely we didn't you know do ongoing costs and again it's it's one of those things that we had experience with and and one of the advantages maybe having

065a veteran sitting in this seat so um not not an age um but um but no it's just sitting with someone pretty Frugal and careful with us but no absolutely it ends up being a good team in that way there's no question so I mean I'll have to clean sure to try to save money which is awesome but but from that perspective again I we have managed to tighten we have watched it carefully and I have no Panic at all in me with regards to this 14 increase so so again it's not it's not like we're rolling in money it's it's that we've been really mindful of trying to plan for a longer term versus Detroit absolutely contingency planning thank you all right policy um we've got a number of policies um to review I'm

066gonna Amanda do you want to start with your first two and then I'll move to mine in a minute do you want to do yours sure okay so this is the second reading of D.A fiscal management goals this on November 17th Plumbing quality of learning programs are directly dependent on the effective efficient management of allocated funds follows an achievement of the Holliston Public School's purposes can best be achieved through excellent physical management as Trustee of Local state and federal funds allocated for use in public education the halls and school committee will fulfill its responsibility to see that these funds are used wisely for achievement of the purposes to which they are allocated because the resource limitations are sometimes a temptation to operate so that fiscal concerns overshadow the educational program recognizing this is just essential

067that the school district pays specific action to make sure education remains Central and that physical matters are ancillary and contribute to the educational program this concept will be incorporated into the into committee operations and into all aspects of school district management and operations from the Halston public schools fiscal management is the committee's intent to engage the thorough Advanced planning staff Community involvement in order to develop budgets into God expenditure SOS to achieve the greatest educational returns with the greatest contributions to the educational program in relation to Dollars expended two to prioritize and advocate for levels of funding that will provide high quality education for all students 3 to use the best available techniques for budget development and management four to provide timely and appropriate information to all staff fiscal management responsibilities five to establish maximum

068efficiency procedures for accounting reporting business purchasing delivery payroll payment offenders and contractors and all other areas of fiscal management [Music] so just to highlight the highlighted section is what we discussed at the last meeting and then just made an adjustment based on the feedback that we got number two um but this is a new policy so this is our second reading so if there's no questions or concerns or revisions then we would ask for this policy policy and this third reading to be waived and the into wave the third reason yes move that on second invite Stacy Follow Me by Don secondary Stacy all in favor [Music] um so Amanda do you remember the micro machine guy who used the fast talker they used to talk really fast in the commercials um you you did

069a great job in fluency do wonderfully on the star I would do so well on my Dibble and and I appreciate your fluency um what is the second reading you only have to read the part that's been changed you don't actually have to read the whole entire thing you didn't stop at all it's never really been our practice though we've always read it all the way through well and every time well I'm the one who actually mentioned it because I'm used to just sorry no it's okay it's fine either way if that's what you'd like to do in the interest of time I think we should because it's a it's a we sold a long way to go so for second reason second readings just the parts that have been changed first readings all the

070way through thank you so that takes us to DB annual budget this is our second reading so I'm just going to highlight the fact that um we changed in the last paragraph we change it to say that annual budgets for the halls and public schools should be developed in collaboration with the Holliston school committee it shall reflect the priorities established in the Strategic plan it had previously said with input yeah that's good I like that so I moved to approve policy DB um and wave the third reading bye Stacy second second by Cynthia all in favor carries thank you [Music] then um this is the first reading of policy DD grants proposals in special requests so I am going to have to read the whole thing in accordance with state law all grants and gifts

071to the Halston public schools will be reviewed and accepted by the Halston school committee HSC press the HSC will encourage the administration to seek and secure possible sources of state federal and other special funds that will enhance the educational opportunities for the children in alignment with District goals and reflect shared values opportunities for children in alignment with District goals and reflect shared values the superintendent and their designee or their designated will submit spending plans to the HSA upon request the superintendent or their designee will be responsible for coordinating the development proposals for specifics for specially funded projects and for keeping the HSC apprised and updated on all such projects the superintendent or their designee shall ensure the district has and follows a written set of procedures in Grant Administration that aligns with state and federal

072laws and regulations the superintendent or appropriate designee is authorized to sign all reports for these projects and will be responsible for the proper expenditure of funds received for such projects there's a note from an masc this one that doesn't necessarily be in the policy unless we want it but the Holliston Public Schools business office must have a state and federal Grant manual with procedures aligned with state and federal law and regulation in order to comply with State granting requirements the approval of such a document is not subject to the school committee the administration should ensure such a document is being followed is there any questions this policy was reviewed with Mr buday and with input from Joni Menard as well as someone who's one of her main jobs was dealing with focusing on grants excuse

073me I'm glad to see the cross reference because I was going to say this sounds a little familiar [Music] and it's just codifying our current practice great thank you okay policy DGA okay so um Miss raffy asked the question last um last meeting whether or not um this was for payroll only it is not it should read warrants so that's what you see the highlighting on there to sign all warning warrants what did it say payroll before it said payroll before an analysis reads as well questions emotion and do you want to can we wave the therapy yes second excuse me move my dog second away Stacy all in favor [Music] all right Mini k all right so um this is the third no say the second reading sorry second reading and the only change

074that we made was we took off superintendent and the appropriate designee and that's what we took off so we just have made it into something and um because Mr bidet reminded us that I'm I'm on the hook that's right yeah she was trying to be collaborative by adding Mr bidet so initially it did say that in conjunction with the assistant superintendent of finance and operations when that was taken off because even the office like was not like weird so that is the change this is mafc recommended that no this is how they recommended it this is how they had it clear to being a team player yeah [Laughter] so we added a design and then it was taken off so right that's right that's right huh but isn't there a situation where the next in

075line is responsible well this is ultimately on me and that's why I'm supposed to check in frequently and he is the checks and balances to you right right he is supposed to that's why you hire my position in business he's supposed to also work directly for you so that if I'm doing anything shady he's got he's supposed to report that to you right and I have to do my due diligence to make sure that I can entrust that he's done his job correctly in presenting the numbers and that they make sense and add up yeah right yes I'm just double checking it no no it's it's please bidet I want your name to be on their name Keith bouday is responsible and we've taken names on it you know remember yeah we have found specific

076names and then you're locked in and you have to amend them for that reason no it's it's just following law on this point that that again law is clear that that the superintendent is the ultimate person that you deal with or deals with these issues while again as Susan described I again I'm offered a contract so that I've got an out in case I need to do something um but the fact is is that you know again ultimately that worked for Susan and she's the one who's responsible it's you know if if I mess up it's her job to fire me or report to you that I need to be fired all right then well then I moved to wave the third reading on policy d i and approved second oops sorry by Stacy second

077by John all in favor carries all right and finally DK DK so this is a new policy it's the first reading so I have to go through all [Music] so payment procedures new policy for consideration all claims for payment from school district funds will be proposed in accordance with procedures developed by the superintendent for uh it's the same one right here DK um this one's the first uh first yeah it's the first three yeah you've got to read the whole thing sorry yeah she read the word wrong School District funds will be processed in accordance procedures developed by the superintendent or actually there's nothing after the ore did we did we have the knee there and remove it or no we were actually debating it but we were ran out of time because we were

078not sure whether we should put the designee in here or not it okay because I think I think that must have just submit a mistake no no no no no but this is what makes sense it's and again my experience or my the things that are my specialty it makes more sense for you know for me to have he's processing it right yes I'm not directly involved right to be sorry we were just joking no that's fine so we didn't order their designee payment will be authorized against invoices properly supported by approved purchase orders or in accordance with salaries and salary schedules approved by the Hollister school committee [Applause] touring at the budget allocations are observed and that total budget expenditures do not exceed the amount allocated in the overall budget from the town of

079Falls the committee will receive periodic lists or bills once or payment from school department funds the school committee chair will be responsible for the review and approval of the warrants as correct and approved for payment warrants then will be forwarded to the municipal Town accountant auditor for processing and subsequent payment by the municipal treasure a record of this action will be made available to the committee on the agenda of a regularly scheduled meeting actual invoices and statements will be available for inspection by the school committee upon request okay and so was there a discussion about um it being the school Community chair to review and approve the warrants because prior to covid all seven of us it's assigned warrant so I just I don't I don't have a personal opinion on this I'm just did

080you have a conversation about it that was a past practice could someone question you know how come how come it's just the chair all seven of us used to have to come to central office and find and we did talk about and I think that's why the wording in the bottom sentence is there that can inspect them at any time and then if you had a concern you could bring it back to the committee too does that put any um liability on the chair where it's the chair him or herself who's I can Cahoots with me or something and I mean that respectfully no yeah you know that that yeah by the way I stuck 100 extra 100 Grand in for me and okay I get half well I'm saying like yeah it doesn't absolve

081the rest of the committee from being responsible that's my question is is yeah all right you know does that put the onus on the chair it always had the opportunity to designate one member to sign there's been an ongoing question over the years I mean years of whether or not because most committees do have one designee for payroll because payroll has to happen in a much more timely basis right you know people have to be paid in that in a timely fashion which is two weeks from the last day of work for that period but the fact is is that it's always been a question because the law is not clear about whether it whether you could designate one so some communities did designate one and nobody said anything so then with covet happening actually

082first start with the municipal modernization act which was just before covet and then subsequent covet it it facilitated or allowed for explicitly one person to sign it yeah I don't see that being repealed I just want to make sure that it presents how about adding the school committee chair or designee or designees um you'd have to vote them then the chair has been designated explicitly so you would have to at that point in time either vote that or vote that at the time when you approve the chair to that that's the only thing right it's not um I think it is different than like every every district has to have a finance person yep in addition to a superintendent so it's very clear the structure in place would be my team would be my identity

083was talking about the chair I know that's what I'm saying this is different than this yes yes because it's not explicit as to who would be the designee I think that's where it could be a little tricky right I'm I'm okay with this I just want to make sure that it does not put any if it so that it's still the responsibility of the committee and not the poor chair who's signing you know signing it all like does that mean it's just left to the chair yeah and it makes sense so now when you say that all seven of you or us were um like you know so all seven went every single time to sign warrants like how did it work well way back when the warrants came to the school City like this

084right and you would go through and some people sign them some people looked at them some people did a little about right you're right that's what we did in my previous District as well that they came through and right and summer times will is what would happen during the summer we would people would have to come into the office because we didn't have even in the even in the days when we still met the summer we met once a month right so that's not substantial enough when summertime is a big especially in June we have a lot of warrants coming through for a lot of the purchasing of supplies and equipment both from prior year funds as well as that Interventional audience that subsequent year fund so it was a very busy time in in

085the central offices with regards to having school opening hours needing to come in and do that yeah so this is the first reading so you may want to do a little you know a little bit do a little research and then we could always revise that in the next time put a note in there about it yeah we're just trying to save your butt yeah regularly scheduled meaning you're still going to be linked to what they signed or what do you what do you envisioned by that what what that what that simply means that's listed within you know within the warranty of the occurred you know previously uh before you guys did this consent agenda was a dissent agenda before you guys did the consent agenda um the school pretty chair would actually read I

086signed a warrant of such and such I signed a warrant of such a that's that's informing you of what occurred it's now part of the consent agenda so it's at least in I mean it's in writing for you and if you felt is that number off I mean you certainly have the question to ask that pull an Advocates that agenda and then come back to the offices and within a day or two and look at it and represent it the next school community meeting so I guess does that satisfy the fact that we would still see see it in print each month there could be a level of review so it's just something to think about right all right thank you okay except collaborative so the collaborative report as um was available electronically and I

087believe it's linked into the agenda as well so this is just an end it's really more a formality that if you have any questions I happen to be the chair of the board at the accept collaborative so I work very closely with Donna we spent a lot of um one of her goals this year that the that the board had asked her to put on there was that the budget process was done earlier in the year because last year with covet there was an enrollment decrease and the concern about you know some of the collaboratives have been less sustainable you've seen some collaborative clothes the fear of the board is always sustainable over time so she has done the process of disaster and backed it all up and then as part of um our meeting

088she had given all of this information and I'm really just here to answer any questions that you might have having reviewed that document the annual report I will say one of the couple of big highlights um related to things that are going on in um at accept is we went from 77 students to 127. and that was part of the concern of our board was if that number doesn't go up like she was about you know creating a budget around the hope that we get to the 127 or something students that was a big jump in one year but they they made it happen um and there's some students in the queue that may also go there and then one of the other highlights of the year is they hired the deputy director Gina I'm

089thinking out of Gina's last name and Gina's job is similar to Joni's curriculum and instruction professional development and one of the things that they were able to do that is create a very vigorous potential development program they increase their PD offerings and income as a result about what they say 400 in one year that's a huge increase this year so that also is helping to sustain our budget and um so there's a lot of good things going on there I feel comfortable with the changes that have been happening and kudos all the work she's done with her team there and again except over the years have been one of the more stable collaborators there's a number of them but we need there actually gone under um been kind of forced to do a quasi-emerge or

090have been barely hanging on and and they navigated the whole pandemic period which is tough for them because they generate a lot of Revenue through things such as PD which again during a pandemic we didn't know what we could do yeah I mean much less we're going to go get PD from some place and they weren't as prepared at that time obviously to do it in a hybrid fashion or in a remote fashion because it was the infancy of the of the pandemic but they've been really pushing the envelope and I have been very happy with the things that they've done in all honesty they handled the transition to this covet-like world very very well now so is that my job I like today except and they asked us offer recommendations for PD so they're

091listening to the theater districts so I think technically don't they have to vote to accept them [Music] it's not the agreement with them you know I was saying there would still be a member but I think it doesn't do any harm to except the findings or the report itself um just in case we need to have it since we also do it again yeah okay so I moved to accept the except collaborative angle report as presented bye Stacy second by Cynthia all favorite thank you an email went out today and the Levante are um I'm sorry Ann Labonte is our would have helped us infectious disease oh the the the first liaison yes sorry I was I'm trying to remember her exact title at Ian Labonte um had spoken with Missy Jordan on Earth's leader

092and they have I believe 70 appointments to give flu shots out to staff so we sent that out today I signed up for one because I think we need to get my flu shot that's all I needed to get sick right now so um that was just something nice to hear in addition to that you probably saw that I sent out about covet test kits so I'm really strongly encouraging people to um sign up for those because this time where it's not short notice we only have time to get those into the backpacks as long as parents opt in to collect them or accept them then we can put them in the students backpacks and all staff can get them as well we had gotten what 3 500 test kits I believe against seven thousand

093totally yeah because we but even though that's way more than we probably need we were thinking that not only good enough for December but I'm gonna work as well of course the flu is very high right now we're seeing a significant increase in flu and absences related to that and the respiratory and stomach bugs and things so it's we're being hit hard but at least for this one area I think it's a nice that Jesse gave us those and we'll get them into the kids [Music] that the 80 to 100 yeah yeah I've been hearing that um any given day we're having 80 to 100 absences of students on the bus I don't know the numbers at the other schools I haven't if I just happened to hear that today 200 in placentino but I

094think that's related to isn't RSV yes we have three viruses flying around and how many kids do we have in placentino close to seven I think over close to seven so that's I think that they would say students and staff but still that's really that's a significant number yeah there a percentage of student absenteeism or staff absenteeism that has any kind of impact on I mean have you seen the high staff absenteeism because of illness that we saw at other parts of the panel in general I mean Keith and I try to get a pulse on this daily because sometimes if I see a lot of absences I'll reach out to the principal and say how are you managing this they are managing but it is very challenging so one of the things that we're

095proposing is trying to get another full-time building Sub in there it doesn't solve everything but to have consistent people living a hard time feeling those positions as you know but the rate is a little bit higher if you're in there on a daily basis you have consistent work so students are coming home this weekend right difference the town has to process them so yes some of them might be in the system already though right no they when you get when you get when you get inactivated deactivated it's actually inactive you get deactivated activated and when you're inactivated you start the process every year yeah we're trying to hope for a change in that let me pull it back to it we're going to work on the big one we don't have control over that way

096it just takes time though to go through the decorations process I mean while the results come back quickly it's not instantaneous it's just it's it's again and to do that for a potential two week we have a week in no school in there too so I mean also the town has had to process as we have um as I mentioned when we didn't see apps we didn't see turnover happening in September October once the school year started most of the time people entertain unless it was a drastic reason for them leaving right they're going to finish up the school year when you have that kind of turnover and this is like I said not a Hollister thing everybody's saying the same thing but the town in the schools and then the town would have to

097process all that paperwork and they're getting frustrated trying to keep up with the supply and demand and the process as well so we're working on trying to help support the town and see if we can streamline the process a little more electronically moving forward but it doesn't happen overnight and then I did want to give you a quick update on the project 351 I think I mentioned at the last meeting but um we were approved for that Celtics Playbook portion of project 351. so we have two Junior students and I don't have the names in front of me right now but two Junior students have committed to that for the next two years right and they went with Sarah Kuhn our High School Technology and instruction yes so she often is up here you'll see

098her in the Green Space over there maker space but she had volunteered to be our educator attending a um all day training on Saturday on a Saturday the students in there went so I'll be reaching out to Sarah to get an update so they can get more specifics and share that out to the community as well because these students will get phenomenal skills on diversity Equity inclusion work and then they will be putting together a schedule and working directly with our middle school students it's a great opportunity we've gone through a lot of conferences Cynthia and Stacy you know how eloquent the project 350 of the students are so I'm really excited that our students have that opportunity Governor that's awesome yeah and then I just want to mention student advisory happened this week I

099met with my Ram students on Tuesday and my last was the placentino this week as well yeah positino as well I a lot of fun they give me some great feedback and things that I can focus on and work on and support our Administration teacher but and I'll continue that in the future two other exciting highlights coming up soon we are going to be putting out for a new program for unified basketball at the middle school which I'm obviously very excited about it's a great thing and that will be a because it's Special Olympics are going to give us the funding for that so they'll give us a 500 dollars amount that we can utilize for this purpose and then long term if that money is not available then we would consider trying to put

100it into our budget into our contract if it's going to be a long-term yeah I'm stipend but for now we have that funding coming in and we'll put out a policy for that and Special Olympics will be returning this year oh great so cool chess Beauty we'll have more information on that but this is exciting because I always loved Special Olympics and I haven't been able to experience that here and so are we the hosts down oh Ashland [Music] what when is that I don't I don't have anything April I put in my calendar I want to say the 14th [Music] April 14th ten to one in Ashland thanks [Music] yes sorry I I usually talk faster than Keith but I think Keith should talk faster than me tonight no I think Amanda has you

101all done Micro Machines okay great I'm going to wait to present um my PD that happened yesterday just because it happened and we knew we had a lot of presentations but what I wanted to tell you we have over 40 internal presenters teachers that are going to present at our January full day period really exciting so I'll give you more information about that we're going to be making some decisions this week in anticipation of that but a lot of great things thank you you're welcome and just speak there those are teacher presenters teacher presenters yeah but we will be inviting you do understand I don't think you did that we'll be inviting you to see the keynote speaker yes as well he wrote a book called kids deserve it Todd and sloney [Music] Jess and

102I and uh just BD myself David Jordan also him present before I even knew them and he's a very good speaker when is that on the 27th from eight to nine and it will be in a high school auditorium oh speaking of speakers we saw um Anthony Valentine at the middle school oh yes you know yeah I asked you Jordan could have I asked the students how that went for them because I wasn't there for the whole thing and they felt very positive about it so I thought that was good I actually I have to correct my error I did not have a student advisory at placentino this week just Rams the reason I was thinking it as I was visiting my pre-k2 students today three or four of them said you're a Dr Cusco

103I was at your meeting so they're starting to recognize my name and Jason so that's always I'm sorry I was wrong I think we're gonna have like 48 teachers Oh we must have just had a well I know I just looked again and some of them are called teaching some have not added their sessions that I know they're doing so awesome all right let's do a day um first I just want to uh publicly thank our retiring Town Treasurer we had a little celebration for her today over at town hall and uh Mary's retiring after two or three centuries of work here and um you know basically she's somebody who's uh always a great resource for us and always been a partner of ours and good times and in bad and she will be missed

104here and uh you know from a person I'm going to miss her so I just want to just publicly put that out yeah congratulations Mary and the new Treasurer will be introduced next week Chris uh he's yeah he's coming by for a meet and greet on the 20th I want to say five to six thirds so yeah well I'm trying to arrange a private audience I need a partner as a treasurer's office which I've had for 22 years um so moving on um you're entertaining your packets is your December Financial update um just a couple of highlights uh the budget balance was dropped down about uh what did I say here about uh twenty thousand dollars 28 28 000. that's about 20s it's up to the two um down to ninety one thousand um primary

105drivers for the I did like what I wrote here drivers of the decreased are an increase I just kind of made myself laugh a little um uh are the costs of substitutes we've obviously hired with all the absences we're having um and also the rate increase as well obviously fuel oil prices um we haven't locked in a price yet it's been advantageous actually for us not to the locked in price was going to be higher than the daily price so again at this point I'm playing the market as much as I can um at some point it will probably come to bite me but at least it'll bite me hopefully a smaller bite than the victories I get earlier so um and I'll just do tuitions we've had a a couple of students who have

106unfortunately matriculated out so but again that's the that's all the bad news there um you know again we've had some other things with regards to um uh uh some open positions which not that we want those but again they help the budget and then um non-instructional payroll with regards to turnover and and the rates that we've placed that turnover with so um again we're in good shape still um I expect it to continue for at least a period anyway um a little bit of warm weather would help so it looks like you know just 40 40 degrees on my way here I know but you know 70 I can turn off the heat so um but yeah so that's uh that's that piece so if any questions about that good we'll move on to the

107entitlement grants as part of our attempts to who are part of our plan to meet your new policies and our requirements I put together just a quick little spreadsheet I'm going to for a number of meetings I'm gonna go through and kind of review the grants we do have um following years what we're going to do is try to do this early enough in the process it's always a challenge with some of these grants because we don't find out about them on what the amounts are going to be like any homographs they've been telling us later and later when I first started here we'd find out at the end of January early February and now we're finding out literally what August august-ish yes I mean time frame so it doesn't really leave a lot of

108time for us to be able to get an official approval from you before we need to apply for them get approval for that application and then start spending them it's it's just the timing doesn't the the guidelines or the regulations that they want to have you all approve them who I mean you do because they're part of the budget process but they want it a little more overtly approval and just timing was not going to work so we have to find some sort of happy medium to to meet the spirit of of what of the laws or the regulations um while not holding us back from being able to spend the money so it's it's we'll balance it out but do you know what's causing it to be pushed later and later the state budget

109is later and later we used to have the state budget we never had the state budget run into the summer way back when Governor came out with his or hers you know the the the first pass the the house would come out with theirs that would always be done in February I mean this thing's pushed way out it just is they didn't approve the state budget overall until after August this year is this a ramification of cool nope this is the new pattern this is before covet this is nothing new this has been a pattern for over 10 years so it's it's just it's just tough because it's in order to meet these regulations that their timing of these things doesn't work as well as some grants because some of the competitive grants whether they

110be a rolling award or a or a rolling date of application it doesn't necessarily jive with school Community meetings so yeah we're going to try it next year do our best with it and we'll review it after that so it's just but in order to meet the spirit of this I'm going to take a few meetings to go over pieces of our grants so you'll have an understanding of them so on the the spreadsheet that I put together the little chart that I put together is for the entitlement grants [Music] um they're listed uh and these are all federal entitlement grants they're they're passed through grants flow through grants there the federal federal government gives the money to the state the state that allocates it out based on some formula they have um what the

111formula is sometimes is Magic we just let it happen um and sometimes we're Amazed by the results um but the 140 Grant that's something that that Joanie does um it's it's basically the the Ed quality improvement Grant it's it's Joni does it well you can do I'll let you only tell what she does with it sure um do you want me to see the amounts in September just just basically what you're doing so it's an educator a fitness professional development that's what we use thank you that the next Grant is is uh the 180 Grant it's title three these are the titles grants title three is is about about L's so again Johnny can say which is one of that you do have to I have to make sure to have three buckets represented one

112is for um English learner teacher professional development another bucket is for English learner materials for the students and then finally family engagement [Music] oh well or during the day too and actually if you have any questions or or anything about the grants it's easier probably ask them in real time than um waiting at the end so um the next Grant is the 240 Grant that's our large entitlement Grant um I I've been managing that even before I was fed director but there was obviously much work for you when I was um we really spend that 99 and 9 10 so that um now on out of District tuitions it's derived from special ed we have to put it on special ed needs truthfully it's the easiest way from an auditing standpoint it's the easiest way

113from an indirect cost per perspective that to do it this way it's it's something that we started doing and my auditor said why aren't you doing it all that way and I went you got it and so for again probably about a decade we've been doing it that way so as you can see it's a substantial amount of money 136 000 that we do we do have a component of that as well that um we have to allocate for um either home school or parentally placed special needs students it's a thing called proportionate chair and they get a they get a portion of that that we would do specialize uh seminars on training equipment curricular materials Etc et cetera the numbers in the single digit thousands it's not a significant amount of the grant so

114um because again it's based on proportion of proportional number of people that either homeschool their special lead student or parental replace them the 262 Grant is another one that I manage and that's the rationale behind that is because it really just goes to pay a portion of our um of a speech and language pathologist it's an early education grant for special needs so um 305 is a title one grant you all know the title one phrase that's one that Joni administers we have literacy intervention to school vacation tutors uh program Administration planning and evaluation uh professional development for Title One teachers as well as as supplemental materials for Title One students and finally the 309 Grant is the title IV Grant another one of Joni's and those are often to be used for curriculum materials

115after we do the curriculum models so again obviously this is I'll be honest this is a predominant amount of money that we get in Grants um they're not competitive they they're they're they're we're given an allocation of the of the state and federal um uh Awards and you know we we spend them in an appropriate fashion federal grants are all two-year grants now from the from the era days um those will be answered two-year grants so that ended up applying to all of these so if we do have an outstanding balance or a positive balance at the end of the year we can roll them into plans for the subsequent year so it's it's a way to effectively also potentially if you don't get a lot of money like the last grant that Joni's talking

116about is ten thousand dollars that she's planning on doing it's a federal bank that is a two-year Grant she could spend 2 000 on something but they haven't made a determination on it and then she could push that 8 000 forward to next year you know so again it's it's actually it's actually been a tool that we've been able to effectively use in this District over the years so um you know I want to thank President Obama for making all those hour grants two-year grants because it's actually given us more tools and I and I mean that sincerely if somebody could just give me his phone number um you know it's it's just you know again so death along the short of it this is the mo this is where most of your grant money

117comes from um and we will do subsequent one some of the competitive grants going forward um and a few of the small state grants so great thank you it's part of the policy do they need to approve the Grant I think it I think the horse may be out of the barn a little bit on this yes absolutely but so they can still do it but it's just moving forward yeah I mean if we want to have the vote I'm not going to prove the grants as presented by Mr bidet by Cynthia seconded by at least all in favor thank you anything else you're done with me okay or I'm done with you um reports from subcommittee community Communications we had a meeting on December 6th and we decided to Kick the Can down the

118road again we didn't think we had enough to report on for a newsletter um so we are going to have one in January and hopefully at that point we'll be able to have some kind of sketch out of the budget schedule and how that whole process is going to go but people have other ideas for um newsletter topics share some stuff from the data presentation like rub leaves a link to it the one we heard today are you volunteering to write that version it's like I think it will be up on the website as well right so our next meeting is going to be on January 10th so that's it for communications we'll work on the newsletter and office hours oh and I forgot to tell the subcommittee this but I did reach out to

119Ben Sparrow because we had talked about so Cynthia's idea we had talked about doing joint office hours with him at the senior center and he said great let me know so we can try to have one office hours in the next few months with him at the senior center he does it either the first or the last Friday he said it the other night and I didn't catch it but yeah on email about it so I'll follow up on that which is great thank you policy anything else um we're trying to have a meeting in January I sent out an email about January 5th I just didn't hear back from Minnie do you know if that works for you for January 5th it's Thursday at 2 30. [Music] budget we had a meeting on December

12012th our next meeting is January 9th um at the meeting we did discuss a statement of Interest update um and I think that Dr kuska had reported that Keith have received an update that they were selected to advance from 54 schools down to 24 schools we had not yet received any specific rejection but it was indicative that other schools had been informed that they weren't in fact accepted also discussed that the School Accelerated repairs program had been paused in terms of taking in new applications um you know Keith presented with an update just kind of going over the projections for payroll increase in the percentage that that would come in at we discussed a budget schedule in the timeline of the sped projections for FY 24 along with that other category we talked about before

121um see we we talked about that 14 percent increase to out of District tuition um without actually it doesn't adjust our reimbursement rate and think kind of went over uh the out of District reimbursement rate um I guess that's about it our next meeting is on January 9th thank you superintendent evaluation we met on December 14th and we started talking about the process for what will be a formative evaluation year [Music] um I think based on past years and I said I would just sort of put this out to the whole committee I think what we've done in past years for formative is kind of you know we don't have rating scales or anything like that so we just let individual members comment on the different goals and kind of keep it open-ended and then

122the subcommittee puts together all of that feedback so I'm envisioning what we'll put out to you guys unless someone tells me this is wrong is some kind of Google form where you'll just have an open-ended space where you can comment on Dr kuska's progress towards the four goals once they're finalized so um we so the next steps for us oh also in in subcommittee we went over the superintendent's draft goals and offered a little bit of feedback on that and we also discussed how we're going to observe progress toward the goals um our next meeting will be January 23rd at 11 A.M um I would like to add that we also discussed about setting up a process for the upcoming years um kind of having a rubric so that we could follow it easily instead

123of trying to remember and figure out what we need to do year by year I'm going to get you the electronic version that Desi has so you can have that earlier in the process but it's it is on their website but I will download it and get it out to you as well yeah so that we can also customize it I remember they had changed their process and with the 2019 into it program on that great thank you school start times we have not met since the last meeting we met on the day of the last meeting um we all have sort of divided up our bits of the pie and are working on them now so there's nothing to report at this moment um old business there's nothing there new business um superintendent goals

124Lisa you wanna take that this is actually I'm gonna turn it right back over to Susan because we talked to her about her goals at our subcommittee meeting and discussed um you know we gave her some feedback things that we thought would make sense to include in the action steps and we also went over the ways that were gonna observe progress towards the goals we're going to do a walk through at least one walk through again which many did last year we're also going to talk a little bit more about um the [Music] student God I'm forgetting the phrase now the student advisory groups Dr Cusco is leading and um we wanted to use this meeting just to get input from you guys our hope is that we'd be able to vote on Dr kuska's

125goals at our January 5th meeting so we were hoping to get you know the last of any feedback at this meeting from you guys on you know anything else any questions you have about her goals or action steps that you think would make sense that you don't see represented there um but I mean I think Susan should see Susan do you want to review the goals really briefly or how do you want to do it yeah I just wanted to point out maybe the obvious yeah um you'll see that I I'm required to do a student learning goal as well as a professional practice goal but I I have never done just two goals because I mean there's a lot of things that are happening and this year I made a concerted effort to tie

126it right back to the four archers of the Strategic plan because everything we've done professional development all of our priority needs you've seen us make that connection explicitly so that's the format I used I took the um each of the Arches and the goals there and tweaked them to fit my lens and then the actions have to directly tie to that so some of the feedback we talked about on the 14th was really trying I mean you've heard me talk about trying to really update some of the procedures and and make the process transparent related to the budget related to the Strategic plan with PD and also with um communication to stakeholders so we try to explicitly add some of that into this and and tweak some of this this there's not a lot of

127changes since the last time I sent it to I don't know early November maybe two readings ago yeah but um some of these changes were updated on the 14th after communicating with Lisa and and we were there right no no Catherine Minnie Lisa sorry yeah um yeah I think the major changes were that we were these are suggested about putting it in the action step or the transparency I think and the stakeholders I think that was the major change otherwise I think it is almost the same as she sent died this is an under the very last one says under an action step and I didn't understand what this meant adapt Boston Public Schools student and teacher look for us for the eight elements of the Houston Public School's value order tool can you just

128it sure yeah so in um Holliston that out of the 33 elements of the teacher evaluation tool Halston had picked eight I think this is something that we need to revisit as a district is here but my first year here there was a very like low-key with valuation given everything else we're dealing with so last year we got back to trying to do evaluation a little more normal or typical and I do feel like this is the year that we may want to look at are these still the same eight elements that we want to be using but for now those eight elements um were in our evaluation tool and in our contract but what we did is Boston public schools has a huge amount of Personnel in teams specifically doing just evaluation tools for

129example so if you go to their website they took the teacher rubric and they made teacher look for than student look for us so what I did is try to take some of the language rather than reinvent the wheel and borrow some of that and tweak it to um you know it's tied directly to the rubric Desi but we're going to be using this tool both for helping us when we calibrate the evaluation which is some of the work we did for PD with Gene of Flanagan and with our administrator team but also we're going to be revisiting our learning walks so I made up a little with a little booklet with those look for is when when we go in to calibrate some of our work to help train our administrators together so that

130we can support staff more we have that in there thinking when we take our learning walks what do we see what should we see related to this element and this is some examples of that and that's going to help us calibrate for learning walks and then that will also translate out when we're doing specific observations to help grow our staff in the district as well you know trying to be very positive with the feedback and support staff can you link that into this document so that wherever it is the Boston Public Schools oh yeah so we know where I can find it yeah what I'll do is I'll link but um any lines and help put this together for me so I'll link the document she created and I'll link the website as well so

131yeah I would just add something funny I mean it was actually written as BPS and I think that was something that jumped right out and I was like what so at least what's BPS so this is this is a great uh so I have one question Susan right here when you say evaluated to can you just kind of give an idea of what that means is it casting because no it's the death scene Desi created the evaluation process so that's a tool that we use and in our contract we had to um for teachers for teachers and for administrators as well but we had to take the Desi rubric and adapt it the parts that we were able to for Holliston this happened long before I say I probably 2015 or so or even earlier

132earlier yeah maybe 2013 I'm trying to remember but um so that's the tool that Desi has us use to evaluate our teachers and student as well I'm just a teacher specific to teacher evaluation and administrative evaluation and related to the tool that you you'll use for me but then we also have um what's it called our electronic the prince teach Point teach Point thank you yeah the priority elements were developed in 2013-14 through 2013. then we also have the teachpoint electronic tool which has the rubrics in there which has our elements embedded in there and all of forms and we use that when we observe and write up our feedback thank you um I have a question about the standards by month I thought we talked a little bit about that with the curriculum coordinators

133and I remember you Amanda had some concerns about the standards and I wonder whether it makes more sense to talk about what like the power standards or I don't know what the other I mean I I guess I know that you know especially for like newer teachers it's helpful for them to have an idea of what they're supposed to be doing but like that's a guide not a that's part of the curriculum process okay that we need to map out like all the standards so we know we're covering all of them right um something that will I'm sorry you just said something I lost my train of thought um I said Power standards yes thank you um we will uh be eventually looking at those power standards but you need to go in steps right

134you can't go from part of the steps correct yep correct okay but you still really want to have them linked on the website publicly as to what you're doing each month even though that's creates all of those other issues so yeah that's phase one correct so that's not the final correct what's going to be the ultimate but to have a starting place that's what they're starting isn't that for teachers not for no that will be on the website along with links to um the destiny standards and then also we will have stage one of the understanding by Design template we published on the website we will never ever have stage two and three that's specifically how the teachers teach right and the assessments and all that so that will never be part of it okay

135so I guess just the caveat that you know it's a guideline to do around that month so that you know if a parent is looking at it and they say well you haven't covered correct I don't know to jurors or something in month of January like you're supposed to like it's not like I'm not it would be hard for a parent to explicitly know you didn't cover that I'm not in the classroom I'm contingent it may not be an assessment that goes home on certain things and some standards are quick standards that they could do in a month and yeah I might carry on the entire year you know like but it's not a perfect science so yes there will be some there'll be disclaimers about that show that we are ensuring that they do

136get covered throughout the year and that's in curriculum reviews it shows by doing that too you can see what we are not doing we are doing really well that we're covering something that we're covering too much some standards that we're not covering and then we need to adjust and figure out who's covering them and when any other questions all right sorry can I just ask one more question so for Arch two social and emotional well-being um that's also really the art that deals with Dei from when we developed in the Strategic plan um and you mentioned that a little bit but I wouldn't mind if it were more just explicitly stated like maybe in your last bullet also seeking partnership opportunities with families in the community to promote SEL work as well as Dei work

137it's okay if I tell you SEL and yeah in equity work also because I know you do do so much this is something you seem to be working on like right now um yep and that's why we really use the phrase safe and supportive school right and you did mention that it's good to have that yeah thanks did you mention the equity audit in here you know what I don't know I don't know that you did that yeah I don't think you did do you want to put that somewhere as part of one of your action steps yeah is the equity audit under Arch too uh I'm trying to remember how was it under um Equity related to teaching and learning I'm trying to remember I think it might be it could be undercut yeah

138I will add that yeah because we're actually trying to finalize that process we've met again with um the LMP team yep and we're gonna you'll see information going on we have our we have our community group together I have all those names I share them with LMP and they'll be scheduling um they'll be me they'll be reaching out to you as well you have your contact info so they'll be reaching out to you to schedule a focus group seven of you and um probably will be in the evening and electric by Zoom they feel like they should do the interviews in person with the in the daytime of students and with staff but they feel there's no reason that they can't do it due diligence by Zoom for the nighttime ones helpful make it easier

139for everybody great okay on these right we're not going to vote on them I'm sorry fifth we're going to vote okay I mean I just wanted feedback so that if you would felt like there's something drastically different because I am we're already happy we're here and I will be presenting on them in February in our mid-year update related to uh district and school goals so I'll also be giving some updates because of that related to my goals right so but the idea is that we will vote on these January 5th so speak speak now tomorrow or forever hold your peace and I'll get something I'll get um acceptance specific to one that when the equity artificial [Music] we have already covered there'll be a newsletter in January right yep okay out of items of information

140all right [Music] as has been stated more than once this evening our next meeting will be January 5th regular time and [Music] so they want to say before we move to Executive session happy holidays everybody anybody all done okay um at this point I will entertain a motion to go into executive session to conduct contract negotiations with non-union Personnel from which we shall not return Ed by Stacy move by Don seconded by Stacy yeah yes saborski you have to say yeah you have to say yes yes Raffi yes yes myself yes