001e okay so at 6:35 I'm going to call the Tuesday December 3rd 2024 pemrick school committee meeting to order would you all stand and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you um did anybody want to speak [Music] no okay we welcome everybody glad to see a couple faces in the crowd um we do have an adjustment to the agenda it is um on the any agendas that are circulating it's number 8 C consideration for approval MIAA middle level waiver for girls basketball um that is the only adjustment that I'm aware of to the agenda um so we did have some Communications um
002both Aaron and I were asked by the town manager and the chairman of the board of selectman to meet with them to do a general overview of the Town budget and kind of go through the timeline that the town has where the town feels as though they are I believe you have materials um in your packet um that were presented that evening by the town manager um you know not a lot different than what we've been talking about right so what I really pulled out of that is um it's going to be a tough budget year in Fisco 26 and uh Fisco 27 is looking actually a little dimmer uh from some of the materials that were presented that Commonwealth hasn't met some of its receipt goals um there's some concern about uh what state
003aid may look like the fact that new growth has really been stalled uh likely due to the interest rate environment the inflation area environment the the labor environment um is really meaning that that that's not adding to the revenue stream for the town uh like one would expect so some work to do Aaron and I uh did share sort of where we were um that we really hadn't done a lot from a budget perspective that that would start in Earnest over the next several weeks our budget subcommittee is meeting next week um to begin some planning but it was a I thought a really good exchange a very collaborative exchange over about an hour and 20 minutes um and you know we may do that another one or two times during the cycle we'll have
004to kind of wait and see how things progress but Aaron anything that you wanted to add no I I think just keeping the communication open things change quickly it seems slow at the start and then rapidly it starts to pick up after the change of the calendar year so I'm just continuing to communicate our assumptions with with Bill um and the select board as as they did the same with us so we are we will have um before everything gets finalized I will ask um chairman Marino for uh a joint meeting like we had last year I thought that was very productive you know that we are about 50% of the Town budget so bringing the boards together to have a collaborative Dialogue on where things ended up and why they ended up there um
005and that will be likely in the the April time frame so just heads up to everyone any questions that you guys have that you want to ask on that uh so we're just going to only have like one budget one joint meeting yeah I'm not so I'm not anticipating what happened last year right where there were like lots of regularly scheduled meetings I think these will be more like check-ins to make sure everyone stays on the same page and stays in line but I don't anticipate what we have last year at all okay all right and are we going to do um like the when we present the final budget number I know it's really premature are we going to do like a joint with advisory and the select board again like we did last
006year yeah so that I'm sorry I forgot advis that's exactly what I'm talking about ask them to have because I thought that was that was far more productive right having all of us come together um and I think I also think it's good for people in town to see their government working through this I think to say yeah the one R request I'd have is that we meet first with the budget before that meeting so we can ask questions before it goes to the full yep town thank you um quick question if uh for the public what documents would be the most helpful to look at or places to look for updated information so we start a tab on our website that will say FY 26 budget and as soon as we present anything it'll
007go right into the tab awesome thank you other questions awesome so Ain alternative oh we are there are bills that are circulating I know some of you guys were kind of going old school and hand signing some of those before the meeting so thank you for doing that and Aon I will turn it over to you for your report first under my report we have our elementary content supervisor Melinda is here so you all remember that we shifted our structure a little bit um at the end of last school year to combine our secondary our content supervisor for Science and our content supervisor for math positions to make a stem um freeing up an opportunity to create an elementary content supervisor so Melinda is here to share with you kind of what her work has
008looked like so far what she's excited about um and kind of where she sees that work going over the course of the next few months great you just took my first slide all all of the above um so yes thank you for the opportunity I am excited to share with you the work that um I've been working on since July and different opportunities that have been created a little bit of background if you don't know I've been in p since 2006 um and I spent many of those years in grade five my last few in grade three and I think that since 2006 if there was ever any summer work or curriculum work um I've been on it I've had the chance to work with some amazing coordinators who have since retired and um Administration
009so I'm grateful for the opportunity to continue the work that sorry um that they have started um so my core responsibilities I kind of like to label that as my favorite opportunities um and it's given me a chance to work hand inand with building administrators and teachers I attend their common planning meetings which are a full day of meetings meeting with every grade level and I have the opportunity to be at all three buildings and kind of cycle through those meetings delivering the same message um I facilitate plc's which are personal learning communities um at least two of those and then just the opportunity to kind of walk around the building and share our glows we have so many excellent Educators and being able to catch glimpses and then bring it to our larger Learning
010Community has been amazing and I will share some of those experiences with you um my day-to-day I try to work my schedule around those common planning meetings at the elementary level so Mondays they typically happen at hobok to Tuesdays at branville and then Wednesdays at North and that allows me on Thursdays and Fridays to kind of rotate and be with teachers who are piloting our writing program or trying out a new science program um they're inviting me in to listen to their scientist circles in grade six with open side so being able to just kind of Target myself to teachers in different areas different grade levels in the three buildings um I had three different are that I wanted to focus on our first one being our district math benchmarks um really making them data
011driven leading to great conversation I'll be able to show you what that data looks like in just a minute um and the transformation that that have happened especially grades 3 through six with a new platform that we have access to um my second one being writing with data that we have access to knowing that writing is an area we could improve on that was something that was important to me not only writing but also just all Learners what do this look like for our elll population what do this look like for students with social emotional plans or academic plans um you know can we meet the needs of all students what do we have what are we lacking what do we need and then how do we support teachers um teachers right now are piloting
012a program called simplify writing and they're in the midst of it I'm getting the opportunity to go into classrooms look at lessons get feedback and have that conversations in all three buildings which is really important to me and then lastly our science curriculum this is year two where teachers don't have a physical Book Students don't have a physical book so just making sure teachers um know the work that has been done in the past with our science coordinator and knowing where our curriculum map is what do we have what do we need what's working what's not working um and then also just making sure that we're growing our fifth and sixth graders so when they transition to the middle school that we're setting them up for success so Melissa do you mind if we ask
013or Melinda sorry do you mind if we ask a couple questions as you go along sure so does anyone have any questions so far yeah um thank you so much just a quick question on how you prioritize how do you decide where to I know you said on Thursday and Fridays it's need based so how do you usually choose like what might be an area that somebody asks for support in um you know with our with our especially with our writing hey I'm you know starting narrative writing I'm going to be working on it for the next 15 days days um can you you know do you want to see a lesson yes or um you know math we give math I was able to go into a lot of the classrooms because that 3
014through six level we transitioned our benchmarks to an online platform that teachers were not we've never used it before so being able to go into grades 3 through six kind of just going building to building classroom to classroom and also the students didn't know this program so being able to model what it looks like do a practice assessment assessment um so they're comfortable with the program so just kind of here here is where we're going here are the things I would love to see here are things that you might need along the way got it so like personal goal setting kind of around whatever that initiative is one more thing to just to point out is that Linda is finishing up her training in terms of observation and evaluation and she will be an amazing
015resource for um our buildings principles and assistant principles to help ease that boad because that is a a very um labor intensive practice yeah definitely thank you that's great any other questions other questions no I'm good so I do have one question and I'm about to date myself so forgive me but she said there was no book and I'm like okay kind of get it but if for science then he talked about the materials correlating to the curriculum standards and you know kind of being able to pick up where things left off and what have you help me understand that a little bit right cuz with notbook what materials are are being used and to your point how are we ensuring that the kids are getting what they really need to understand and learn the
016material sure so in the past the work that has been done I've been part of that work um we developed curriculum maths and those live in our drive that our teachers have access to and you know we we bring it up beginning of the year like do we know where our Curriculum maps are within that curriculum map if it's earth science it will be listed all the standards for great three for earth science and then next to it will be all of our resources that are listed um you know we have programs like Mystery Science and we have programs like generation genius with are which are both science programs all that content is licked into it so teachers can click on it but it's not a physical book that we're presenting to students um and
017and there is great conversation about whether teachers do want it or don't want it so we're in that beginning phase where I I will um I'll get into the sciences that we are looking at but there's different programs there are books there are no books there's online portals so it's figuring out we what what we need and how we can continue to grow it um one of the great things that we were able to do working with um Jonathan Shapiro is we were able to have Lynn Fitzgerald from the Middle School come in and she was able to on our our elementary professional development um we invited her in and she worked with our grades three four 5 and sixth grade teachers so at the elementary level we could see where it goes and I
018thought that that vertical Vision was really important for our elementary teachers to see here is what we're doing but here is where it's transforming and where it's transitioning to we need to be mindful of that and I can have you be mindful of that in June so it was so great to have that collaboration with Jonathan and to be able so grateful for Lynn for volunteering herself sacrificed for tribute um um but it was great to have her in just great knowledge so as we begin this work with science having that background at the elementary level is huge and the assessments are changing dramatically so the Assessments in science are now more problem based task oriented you're manipulating figures on a screen it's it's a very different type of assessment it was very eye opening
019yeah so really the our material are now correlating more to the direction of the the assessment and to um just be fully transparent some of those materials are handouts so we don't have a book per se but there's definitely paper and pencil opportunity for students so that they can can work through things thank you sure feel free to stop at any time um I think this is what I'm most excited about because I am a numbers person and um I knew the program is existed in sixth grade and I met met with a teacher over the summer to kind of work with me and let me figure out this program and I fell in love with it I thought it could be transformational so I we have access to it starting in grade three so
020I took our math District benchmarks and put them onto this online platform called pair assessment for the main reason is it's fast it's efficient um it's giving students great practice on a different platform but also the data we can get which I'll show you in a minute is a game Cher and it can drive instruction change instruction and really focus on student growth and that's where I'm trying to go um I'm able to share this I just met with a title one staff um over at bryantville but being able to share this information with support staff as well and show them how to Target based on an assessment has been is proving to be very valuable we are in the process of just finishing Benchmark 1 so I was able to go into grades 3
021through six teachers were comfortable with it students took it were just finishing finishing up so I almost have all that data here's what that data looks like as a teacher is giving this assessment they have an online platform that looks like this instant and it updates instantly kind of like a mcast portal and what it does is it shows you the strengths and weaknesses of each question so every bar is a different question so I can instantly see oh my gosh what is wrong with question I can't read that far um I'm going to call it question 20 the last one on the end um but what is wrong with that question why are so many students struggling on that what I was able to do is link each question to a standard so now
022when we're looking at an assessment I have easy access I know what type of question that is and more importantly I also know that that's something I have to go back and retach my class and more importantly it will then show you wow everyone that got it wrong picked B what is about be that's the attracted distractor using this language with students getting them to understand it the other reason why I love it not only is it you know does it take all of your questions and spit out a report I can spit out a report per student which is what I did for those title one teachers was able to just print out the reports for their student we can batch it um we can also look at it as a district so I
023blurred out the teacher's name it says teacher a but then I'm also able to show teacher hey so let's let's take a look what do you think about your numbers our area of weakness was um number base 10 operations let's take a look at that um or if there's a standard that they're outperforming what is it that you're doing what does that look like can I come in and see it so I can understand it and then be able to share it what I was able to do then and this is the work that's happening at common planning it's just about to happen because we just finished we're just about to finish this Benchmark so I'm like I can't wait but this work is going to happen at common planning but it's also going to
024happen at my PLC which I'll talk about but I'm also hoping it'll be at professional development now that we have this data so what like why is this great well because now I can show you a tool that's going to show you how to Target this instruction our this program does so if if n standard and uh numbers based 10 operations uh A2 I can plug that right into the program and it will give me just questions based on that can we use that in Titan time can we use that as our support team can we use this in morning work can we take the areas that we have weaknesses in and use that and then the program actually has what's called a redirect button when we're testing students why is it just a onetime
025test why isn't it practice a benchmark let's practice it great we're stuck on this standard it's our lowest performing standard we're going to practice it and I can redirect them with the click of a button I can redirect the entire class or just students and I can redirect them only on what they got wrong or ski as they're in the software when they finish it yeah it I can redirect certain students and the great part is is I can redirect them with what they missed and what they skipped it's another cool thing that I was able to see is the amount of students that get things wrong because they didn't follow Direction what an eye opening sign we don't see that on mcast that you know they partially answer this can you correlate some of
026this or when you get more data obviously but as we're going through this I'm wondering how to correlate this with our achievement results with the mcast results with I think it'll be spot on bring it all think it'll be spot on and you could do it at so we could do it at the district level but we could also do it at a at a more finite level um grade level teacher level um and that I think depends on building Administration and and what where they want to take that we're getting back to teaching to the student right which was what I don't know 15 years ago or so was sort of the thing that we we really focused on teaching the individual student and this is getting in my VI view anyway back to
027that yeah and the tools that we have now right it's taking that time consumtion out of it I don't have to collect the data the data is instant so now let's take that data let's find out I can show you other tools that can Target it so then you can just spend your time on developing Hands-On materials concrete manipulatives how do we bring this to life for our Learners so so you just gave us a lot questions I see folks wanting to jump in go I have a couple so first of all privacy who con seees this does to stay where like so I have access to all of it and then I share it with building principles the teachers have access to their own class it's it's their classroom so they can see just
028their classroom and so it and they it so this isn't being shared like to the developers the pro like no no it doesn't report back okay and so like in all student is this ever shared with the parents like so this is our so this is our first year using it that is one of the conversations that I'd like to bring back to all grade to grades 3 through six and administrators at that level cuz I think it is an important question we should be proud of the work we should be proud of this work um I think it shows fantastic information um and then can you tell when a kid is just like going as fast as yeah so do you see these little how cool is this do you see those do you
029see the line that goes underneath it that tells you how long a student spent on a question and when you print out this student report it'll say like 4 seconds hey Johnny why are you spending 4 seconds on a question couldn't even write that number down that fast so yes it does it true so and the great part is is when I was in classrooms like if there was a teacher who's like I'm not comfortable doing it myself can you can you just come in and be there watching their face as this updates lives it was like it was really cool to see and it would like you could tell that their wheels were turning it so new that I would love them to be able to look at this this and dive more into
030it at professional development cuz I think it is an area of growth um and I'm I'm going to just skip ahead we have so again this was just kind of a I'm going to drop a seed and we already have teachers who have transformed their entire curriculum already on toare assessment for math all of their math topics are on here because they want the data and they want to know what to do with it and how to change their instruction it's really cool do they have anything like this for r yes so they have something similar called no red ink and our sixth grade uses it actually sixth grade 12 because I could see this being so useful and I already actually just C so our I ready program I have a training with them
031tomorrow they just release their literacy tasks I will find out more about that tomorrow um but it is it is the writing portion I'm not sure if it can do all of this but for our sixth graders they do have no red in that will help help analyze their writing and give targeted feedback immed um this also was previously called edulastic and it was purchased by par assessment um this is a program that um Mark Jey brought to the district many years ago and the teachers in grade 7 through 10 used pretty exhaustively and the program has just gotten better and better over the years and expanded to different disciplin and to what it now does is so far removed from where it was but it's the it's the same tool that we've been using
032in the upper grades for a while and so and even just talking with students like going into classroom hey what you think like thanks for being my guinea pigs I really appreciate you trying this out what' you think and they're like not a big deal even our third graders um they were very comfortable our teachers were very comfortable um they just kind of jumped right in and I'm grateful for that um so just to Showcase what the next St for teachers will be I'm going to be able to show them how to take their lowest performing standard put it into magic school and create documents like this instantly so we know that place value is a number 10 times more 10 times less one tenth up that was our weakest standard instantly being able to
033have more practice on this skill this took 5 seconds I copied it from the standard and assessment I put it into this program and it spit it out for me this is where I want to take teachers because this is where we can transform and Target individual ARS sorry am I not loud enough you wow um so that's the work that I that will be the next level the next piece um so again a lot of a lot of my day when we have meetings our spent meeting with grade levels at what we call our common planning meetings and this is that time where I'm working with administrators and we kind of have a 2525 split so I'll create an agenda in shirt with that they'll create an agenda and share it with me and
034we'll be able to be like this is what I want to accomplish student Wise teacher- Wise nitty you know just nuts and bolts of what a principal and assistant principal may need to do and then I get to do the same on my end for curriculum or things that I want to share or data that I want to review um and things like different tools that could drive instruction that would be the place that I could also do it as well um this is one of the things also just talking about curriculum and what I'm able to share with teachers we have programs such as um so we have I ready that's a district funded program we have generation genius that's a district funded program and then we have our math curriculum and Visions I
035was able to take all three and come up with a living document that integrates all three of them so if we have a new teacher that walks in here's our math program here's this document everything that you need just goes in order here is everything in one here is some math videos you can watch here is our our Intervention Program and then here is our curriculum and where it lines up with our envisions program so this is the kind of stuff that I'm sharing at common planning with staff across the three buildings so it's nice to have that continuity across the three buildings that's awesome quick question on that um with the standards is there any way to also at some point um figure out what the prerequisites skills are for that standard so that
036we need to teach like up or down the vertical alignment of the standards you could do that that would come in our irate yeah that would come in our Ira program we could correlate it to that but that is a great question there's a piece of Envision too for that where you can move back and forth and assign students based on where their progress is or where they're performing cool thank you this is also something that um I'm grateful to have the opportunity to do like Mary Beth was saying um finishing up my work with observations um getting to just see what's going on and be able to share it so these are you know going through walkthroughs and being able to be like oh my gosh I saw this oh my gosh I saw
037this or if there's a teacher that's like I just can't get my kids to buy into their minut oh my gosh I saw the coolest thing in a grade one classroom look what she did for I ready for for November unbelievable I ready scores being able to take pictures and share it um this what the bottom right hand corner was a second grade classroom I had walked in and I was blown away at how on task second graders were and I'm like where were you when I was in third grade like I should I should have came here last year cuz this is Magic and I looked at her board and it was genius so these are things that I feel so lucky to be able to see and just share out and I think
038it's so important it's like Hospital rounds and you know being able to share it across three buildings is is just Shining Light and and and many times I'm like man I want to redo like um so our PLC groups meet about once a month and we had four different so all the elementary schools pick the same four Personal Learning Community groups and one of the ones that I thought was really important was a reflective practice being able to share what's happening what are we doing questions that we have and also drop seeds that might spark change so that was one of them the other one is science so my reflective practice that's where PA assessment came up I was able to be like oh look at this program our benchmarks on here take a look
039and during that time like I said I have staff that are already transforming not just math but they've put science into here they've put social studies into here they've put reading theyve figured out that it Imports Google Docs so if you have a test that's made that you used last year in Google Docs pair assessment will read it if you have Google forms it will read it so they're learning all these things and it's just like ready you just drop a SE like that's all I feel like I have to do drop a seed and they're going to run with it so that's one and then the other one was magic school where they're able to take this data and make it real for their classroom come up with product that they can use to
040to really focus on that um the other thing that is really important to me is just kind of giving food for thought um how are we thinking about number sense are we doing anything to grow number sense it's not a really big part of envisions but it's something that's lacking so how can we figure out different creative ways what are we doing the emails I get Melinda did you find this Melinda did you see this or I went into this site and I found this I compile it all and I share it out with my group and that's kind of how we start that first session it's been great and and I love that I get emails like I just tried this and found this what do you think um um the whole the middle
041one is very important to me that's something that started with math academy through our essr funds when we had that past couple of years and so a few teachers are using this and through our PLC group the reflective practice group I'm able to kind of spread it a little bit more can we think of problem solving differently we keep using keywords more doesn't always mean AD it just doesn't and so really can we transform our way of thinking what if we use this approach what if use operational situations and what if we use the just do I have a total do I need a total in visualizing it for students and it's funny I'm seeing this more and more classrooms now and they have posters of it and they're using that language and it's great
042to see um the one on the right is an estimation routine I had two first grade teachers email me and say my kids ask for it every day now I have to start every day with this and that's just building number sense that's what we want and it will spread um so it was really important for me to reflect as I'm asking my staff to reflect and so some of the things they pointed out was Melinda I loved my favorite no my favorite no is a math activity it's being done in second grade awesome um number talks a teacher NE had never done number talks it was one of her goals she's like I know it's important I have to find time for it I'm going to make time for it this year she emailed
043me it's going awesome I love it and it's so easy um you know using magic school I had a fifth grade teacher take all of the data from mcass from her students from last year so she took the fourth grade mcass because they're now in fifth grade and she was able to take their lowest standards use magic school and create her morning work based on their needs from last year during that time so I it's it's a great time to have um with staff and be able to reflect the other group is science and again I know this is a work in progress along with writing um but our next three sessions of our PC groups for science they're going to be meeting with no atom stem Scopes in Foss and I've arranged at their
044PLC time that they're going to have an online Zoom call with these different programs and they're going to walk teachers who selected to be part of this personal learning community they'll get a chance to go through it with them and then they'll get an online account and get a chance to explore and the idea is they can report back to the larger staff at a faculty meeting or a staff meeting um or things like that so all of the programs whether it's writing or science this is pair assessment I ready no red in our writing program and grammar program these are things that I'll continue to work at during our professional development um with the idea that you know we just want continue to reflect and grow and improve that's that's our main goal and
045how do we meet the needs of all of our Learners while supporting teachers along the way any questions that was a lot I apologize sense her excitement I was just G to say every single day this every day I was literally going to say that the enthusiasm for this is like it makes it you know we're all like kind of on the in right person for the right job I I have to say I that's awesome and I I also feel like this is a missing link right like this is tying the three elementaries together it's it's tying all the teachers together getting everybody on the same page and I feel like it's a missing link that we've needed for a long time and um it's not just the programs which by the way are
046amazing but it's the enthusiasm and you know somebody there to tie it all together which I think is awesome so thank you great job um yeah definitely I think also showcasing teachers with what great work teachers are doing because they can't be in every classroom right and see what somebody of brianfield is is doing but you able to bring it to them and then at some point they also can be showcased so I think that also builds um enthusiasm from the teacher side I would imagine um and that was a double-edged sword right we used to have we used to have our professional development days districtwide and it just it was so hard cuz you wanted it to work but there are so many teachers that it's really not the most productive all times so
047it's like that was so important for us teachers because that was the one time we got to share so if we restructure our professional development maybe we can still have the best of both worlds and kind of be able to share that just in a different way yeah do you see that as a need it sounds like potentially uh like districtwide having more districtwide um PDS both I think we need district-wide PD but I also think the smaller PD where we're great level based School based I think they're more efficient and productive um so I I think it's a good balance we were all together once and then we were not all together once and I I think having a balance is important it's a challenge with the three the dismissal types I can imagine
048yeah yeah yeah um another question I had was I know you talked about researching and showcasing science programs and is that for potential new programs that might be added or um the beginning work of that was was what do we have okay what do we have we have and so that was work that was the work where PLC started and we have lots of great stuff and these curriculum mths that teachers have spent countless years on developing and continuing to work on and improve and now working with Jonathan like it's fantastic work we have a great plan do we need a book I don't know if we need a book we just need to make sure that we're able to support teachers and our students for where they need to be and then also just
049keeping in mind data right our science scores um could be improved so could this could this potentially fit our needs I don't know that's that's what the goal is do I think it's going to be a year solve no got so the beginning of the process yeah thank you and finding kind of going to to S the kind this all together like things that are you're finding that are working are you're I'm hoping able to share with the other content supervisors to see if what you're doing hopefully that's that's how kind of Jonathan and I were able to get ly it to you know we were talking science at the middle school level then at the high school level and I'm like well what we need that like I want her yeah to like see
050the results I love that I love that you connected the Middle School to yeah it's awesome and and the same thing happens with writing um I get to work with Dr gallagan and again we're constantly having conversation about what does it look like in Middle School this writing program came down to sixth grade with all of his work in research and um so it there's constant communication which is important good thank you um quick question what um what have been some of the major themes you've seen in terms of the positives that you've heard from teachers about just having this position and also I guess having the time and space obviously you haven't had a ton of time to do the PLC so it's still new I think it's just the opportunity to share like
051you know showcasing different things and then being able to revisit them that common planning that common planning time for me has been transformational being able to be with every grade level minus minus prek can't get there all the time but um K through six truly being consistent at every grade level for the entire time across the three buildings and then being able if there's right cuz if a grade level is asking a question I can take that to the other like I can do that right away and I think that immediate feedback and that immediate problem solving in communication is huge and I also think it like you had said it Bridges the schools and gives a sense of continuity and I think that that's really important for our elementary schools they want that and
052they need that and it is important MH and I think too like moving into budget Seasons like this will show like return on investment I agree totally age we're going as a as a team here to show that what we're putting in is you know with data like I think we're going to that's going to be critical in the next handful of years yeah and I think it'll show especially with the reteaching right like that cuts the time on when you grade an assessment to when you can retach you can do it in the same class versus you know at the end of the week after you've done you know all the other things you might need to do as a teacher great for the teacher but think about how powerful that is for the
053student to right away be having that conversation about why they made the choice that they made while it's fresh in their mind so it's actually relevant and one thing that I would never do right now but I think it's a I think it's a conversation for fifth and sixth grade for sure is there is a button that can immediately release the scores to the students I wouldn't do it yet but as a fifth grader do you need to understand that when you hit submit it's real yes but but again it it brings a different sense of ownership and teaching fifth grade for so long I I would be very comfortable with doing this with fifth and sixth graders and I do think it's something that by the end of the year could third graders be
054responsible enough and reflective enough to be like I need to give my best work because when I hit submit it means submit totally I think that's important and if not there's always a redirect button we can get back to you but um that's another Food For Thought um for future growth yeah any final questions I'm just super excited about this and yeah I think it it you know brings a lot of opportunities for students but also teachers um sounds like it's going great so thank you great job really good job thank you Melinda you don't have to hang out I Melinda gets here really early every day I appreciate the time and thank you for allowing me to share thank you thank you um under my report as uh we said during the adjustment part
055there's a couple of middle middle level waivers and an overall waiver so you'll see there's a difference in wording I'm going to start with cheerleading um so cheerleading is not an MIA sanction sport so we're not asking for an MIA middle level waiver for winter cheerleading we're just asking for a waiver um to allow 8th grade students to participate in cheerleading right now we just have eight girls registered um so opening up to eighth graders could get the squad up to 12 to 14 which is a better number for that so that isn't something we file anywhere it's just us coming to you all for approval to do that doing I was just going to ask you do you want to do them independently or all right so can I get a motion to approve
056the waiver for winter chair leading as presented so moveed second motion by David second by Katrina is there any further discussion all those in favor I opposed stand unanimous the next one is gymnastics um so we have been co-oping gymnastics with Silver Lake for several years um here we've had a waiver um in and out over time depending upon the registration numbers right now we have six girls on the pemg side registered and only three girls on the Silver Lake Side um registered so we asking for a middle level waiver to allow eighth graders to participate as well um as you all know gymnastics is more of an individual sport so there's no concerns around size or or anything like that so so can I get a motion to approve the MIAA middle level Weaver
057for gymnastics as presented so mov second motion by Sue seconded by David is there any discussion I do have a question sure um where gymnastics we're now allowing some younger kids in with some older kids bodies are a little different strength components are a little different is there any issue or concern there no so we are our gymnastics program runs with a coach and an assistant coach so they're kind of able to split the girls um in a in a manner that makes sense as far as coach so okay all those in favor I opposed abstained it's unanimous Natalie the last one is for girls basketball um so we are requesting a middle level waiver to allow eighth graders to join the JV team um we've had a waiver for the past couple of years
058um this year we were hoping that we would not need to request the waiver I want to talk a little a little bit about the numbers so there are currently 20 girls registered for the program that is enough students to have a JV and a varsity team um Brian is asking that we file for the waiver just in case at some point we need to add students um there's obviously today is the second day of Tri out so we're not super sure that all 20 are sticking with it um or I don't even know if l20 showed up yesterday I didn't have a chance to touch us with Brian but we want to have the waiver on file if we need to access at this point we're not looking to add eighth grade girls um
059to the roster with 20 high school girls but if the number drops to 15 or 16 then we're going to a add a few girls this is for the two levels you can only add to the JB I know but 20 total for for and correct and you don't have to use the waiver you could if you as long as it's it has okay got it so can I get a motion to approve the MIAA middle level waiver for girls basketball as presented so moved second motion by Katrina second by Sue is there any other discussion all those in favor I oppos abstained unanimous Natalie under the subcommittee and lay on updates I just want to give two updates before we get to the policy sub stuff so as Patrick mentioned um budget sub is
060meeting next Tuesday at 6:30 education subcommittee will be meeting the following week um Monday December 9th at 10 and then Tuesday the 17th at 1 those meeting agendas will be posted and pushed out but I just want to put that on folks radar um I also received a question about our student rep you'll notice there is not a student rep sitting at the table yet um they are going well they're I think it might have been our September meeting where you all discuss the three of you kind of rotating through that group they're excited to welcome you to their December 19th meeting okay um they are having a bit of a challenge selecting one rep to sit at the table with you all so and so there's more than one rep that wants to sit
061at the table they all want to sit here um so I do think meeting with a school committee leaz on on the 19th will kind of ease the fact that they're all still have a say even the only one of them is sitting here so so they won't sit here at all at this table one one will so they're supposed to elect one member to to come to our meetings and then you all are going to meet with them in the form of some small group has to elect the one correct yes okay that's tough Mark met with him yesterday and they're still deadlocked so so is it is it like a tie or something so there's five students on the advisory committee with one alternate um there's a number of students five that would
062like to be their is it possible to rotate it though to get them the experience or it wouldn't no it has the statute says it has to be the same okay oh yeah this is a great life lesson for them now to go I think everyone got one vote I think everyone got one vote everybody vote for themselves or so they are still working through that what grade levels are they um it is all the way 9 through 12 you've got a little bit of everything there okay a good problem to have I was just going to say in years past we did not have the longer they're dead long the less like time they can be here so like they need to figure this out correct much you're going to help them see that
063their way on the not we're going to flip a coin just kidding you can tell me what you want to do St Council so in your packet you have all of um the policy subcommittee work for a second read so the new policies that we were um moving forward to create policy section a um in our current policy manual as well as the um addition back of jie pregnant students and then the resending of policy jic KR because it is a duplicate of another one that's in here now so I'm not sure if folks have specific questions I think we talked a little bit about it when it came as a first read a few weeks back so do you guys have questions I don't have any questions I have one and I think it's
064a redundant question so I'm going to ask for little forgiveness but when I go through this and I circled it multiple times right right interestingly enough in uh e let me find it sorry in the EA non-discrimination on the basis of sex we referenced the title 9 of the education amendments in 1972 and then we go on and we talk about gender identity sex stereotype sex characteristics I I clearly know what gender identity is and I think I asked this before so and I might just be old what is a sex stereotype and do that girls wear pink boys were blue I'm sorry and we can't that's discrimination well I think if I say if somebody said to you like you can't wear pink cuz that's what girls wear no right okay but I think
065if I'm understanding it that's or I give an example just like um sections of a classroom like boys have to go to the blue seats girls have to go to the pink seats or something like that so it's making sure that we give choice and not saying like all boys have to do this oh girl I think it's getting silly quite honestly I I think it's getting silly and that's why I specifically why I ask the question right it's and and I don't want to turn this into some big thing but this was supposed to protect kids to all have a safe in reasonable learning environment and maybe that was just a bad example but I I just there's a point that I think we're getting a little silly I really do and then and
066and I guess my question is we moved a lot of this because of the new title n language and if that Title Nine language gets reversed I think some of this still has to be here because of the Massachusetts law all of it is still part of the Massachusetts law clear about that the only policy that references the Title Nine final rule is jie pregnant students and it references the section of final rule that talks about having a lactation space available for pregnant students when they return to education so that is the only reference to the title n i I guess here's what I would say and I do have faith in our administrative team on this because there's also discretion in understanding when you read through it about how we put these things forward
067and how we investigate this in in a bit of reasonableness [Music] but the goal needs to be to protect kids and let all kids have a safe and reasonable environment in which to learn I I would just really caution us to not the pendulum can't swing so far that it becomes almost punitive for some kids and okay for an incredible minority of kids it needs to be okay for all kids right and in my my wor it's exactly what you just said right whether it's a teacher or another kid that says why are you sitting in a pink chair why are you sitting in a blue chair why H why are you sitting in a yellow chair right sometimes kids are just kids right and it's not discrimination it is not harassment it's just kids
068being especially little kids right that's actually where I worry about this it's much less at the high school level and much more so at the elementary level we got to allow children the innocence of being children a little bit and and I just worry exactly what we just said about that overextending and 100% but it unfortunately we're in Massachusetts and it's the law but I agree with you sex stereotypes is the Massachusetts law I know making some amendments and changes um but that has most of this has been in place for Massachusetts it's not in other states it's m i get it but and I only mention it because I do believe here in Penbrook we have very rational I I trust you Jess is is sort of the coordinator that's investigating this to to
069be reasonable with with how it is I just I I do think I I worry about this stuff with with little kids right I'm not talking about 17 and nobody's worried about pink and blue chairs at 17 and 18 year old kids are at least I don't think it's much more severe issues at that stage and that age but that process that we have now and Mary Beth is um most of the time our decision maker on kind of cases that we have complaints for Title 9 there is quite as you can see in here through the grievance procedures a lengthy process so it isn't just hearing a student making a statement and oh you you know you violated Title 9 it's a large and it's B based on like preponderance of evidence and the
070impact it has on students um creating such a an environment that making them uncomfortable and a hostile kind of environment so one statement kind of alone as you read this yes that might be alarming to read to say to think about it at like a you know a 5-year-old's making a statement would they be accused of sexual harassment but there is quite a lengthy process for us to um and you know I know as teachers you all have um an understanding of what's developmentally appropriate so I think that that's a piece that if we wanted to we could add um an edit in there to talk about what is developmentally appropriate um based on age or based on you know we have to be careful there but I think that's all that comes out through
071the process I'm I don't want to add anything I think the bare minimum is what we should add I don't want to add anything extra I think that will happen anyways right but um uh I think the piece with the colors right like there's something you could easily do a teacher could just be like I'm going to count you off one two right and then just make a group or be like all yellow shirts go over there right um so I think there's different ways that um you can do the same thing without having to be like boys or girls or if you're short or tall right like pick a different thing you have to come up to the mic so that Folks at home can hear you it amplifies for pack uh for local
072scene I apologize I didn't U look at this beforehand but would you I know my name is Jane Corin I'm in pen Brook on Water Street sorry are you saying that that children cannot be divided boys and girls at all anymore is that discrimination nobody's saying that at all that's also not my decision no I'm just wondering is that what the like can you go through that's not what it's saying at all no and then um I just wonder are there protections you said you know for for all children are there protections for children that are brought up in a say a religious home that you know feel differently than than other people so there so we're just we're talking specifically about some of the additional language with title n and the non-discrimination and I
073did see Rel relig is a listed is a listed protect but what I'm saying is sometimes religion and gender ideology are very different takes on the same thing so if one person's religion and upbringing doesn't go along with what's you know what everybody else in the classroom is okay with it's Happ I think the best way to for me to put it Jane is it's about just respecting the individuals within the classroom regardless of whether it's a faith-based individual someone who is struggling with their gender identity with their sexuality with their name I I mean so many of that their military status a merital status a familial status it's it's simply about Pro making the the goal is about making sure that everybody gets that same level of of decency and respect um in the
074learning environment the the reason that I asked the question is eight some of these things I don't even understand what they're saying and then I worry about overextending some of these things in One Direction versus another which is why I brought that up but all those things that you talked about are are are protected under both the policy and the title 9 students are able to access a public education in Penbrook all relig all students that's that's what this is saying no I I know I'm just saying in a in a situation where somebody is is now claiming uh harassment or discrimination and somebody else on the other side is saying well this is you know This Is My Religion this is how I feel like th those are two that are supposed to be
075protected at the same time and this in in a very and I think that's what this lists the procedures if if there's a complaint how they're handled that's that's what these policies give that protection of okay what the Poli the procedure and I think there's a fine line between harassment um versus a conversation that's happening in the classroom where there's viewpoints or um conversations about um differences of opinion versus a harassment and discrimination um right on civil rights right your harassment and discrimination claim has to be proved that you are actually being denied access to the curriculum or to instru it's a very high EnV it's not a one-off comment or or a learning opportunity where kids with differences learn to say okay we can agree to disagree we're going to you know we can
076both have our own ideas this is different this goes deeper in terms of the behavior is so egregious that somebody's being denied their access to education yeah bar thank you um and just to point out and that's a good question um you know it lists several protected class classes and religion is one that is part of that same list so um that could be something um these are all protected classes so so what I'd like to do is take these one by one just because there's so many of them and and by the way I want to thank policy said you guys did a tremendous amount of work there was a lot of discussion in a couple of meetings about these and and about this type of thing um so I appreciate the amount of
077time that you guys spent to go through this and make sure that there is alignment I know that you have legal information and legal opinions going through it also so can I get a motion to approve policy AC non-discrimination policy including harassment and retaliation as presented motion by David second so seconded by Allison is there any further discussion all those in favor I I opposed abstained janous Natalie can I get a motion to accept for approval policy ac- non-discrimination policy including harassment and retaliation so moved second motion by Katrina is seconded by Allison is there any further discussion all those in favor I I opposed abstained it's unanimous can I get a motion to accept and approve policy ACA non-discrimination on the basis of sex as presented so move second motion by Allison seconded by
078Katrina is there any further discussion all those in favor I I opposed abstained it's unanimous Natalie can I get a motion to accept and approve policy acab sexual and sex-based harassment and retaliation as presented so move second motion by Alison seconded by David is there any further discussion all those in favor I opposed abstained it's unanimous Natalie May I have a motion to accept inter approved policy acga civil rights grievance procedure as accepted moved motion by Sue seconded by Katrina is there any further discussion all those in favor I opposed abstain can I a motion to accept and approve policy acgb Title Nine sexual discrimination grievance procedure as presented so mooves second motion by David seconded by Allison is there any further discussion all those in favor I I opposed abstained this and the one
079power was also unanimous that on could I get a motion to accept and approve policy j i e pregnant students as presented so moved second motion by Katrina seconded by Allison is there any further discussion no all those in favor I I opposed abstain it's unanimous not only can I get a motion to accept and approve the resending of policy jic - R student to student harassment regulations second motion by David seconded by Allison is there any further discussion all those in favor I I opposed abstained it's unanimous that that was a lot thank you guys um our next meeting is December 17th we're going to do maintenance of effort budget and some other exciting things I'm not sure what yet but they're going to be great I hope to have the um a second
080maybe draft of goals and Shir I'll email you about that I don't think it will be by December 17th because we're waiting for some Desy guidance but I am going to add to the agenda topic for this committee to have a conversation um as you all know question two um in in November was passed um however there is local Authority we can still keep the mcast requirement is part of the Penbrook requirement for a pen diploma and I would like this committee to have that discussion sure we talked about Ed sub tackling that subject first we're expecting guidance from desie on December 5th so hopefully by the time Ed sub meets on the 17th we'll have I think we're meeting next Monday they are meeting next Monday but it's for program of studies okay yeah
081it we're waiting for the guidance come Cassity on how they want to do it but at some point um I do think that that's our and then I know Paula was talking about the ROM policy that I had asked about the D they policy sub did not move and edit forward we talked about um amending some of the language in our athletic handbook which would come through um to the full committee as well and he yeah I think Brian was looking to some of the other like how other towns have boed comp put it in athletic handbook so not a standalone policy would that's we talked about it it would make more sense to put it the practice in our policy in the I'm sorry in the athletic handbook can we put it back on
082the agenda to discuss the next meeting yeah I I think I think we can um I I mean I think so what what you bringing forward then only because I made the request so that's why I'm asking about it so policy sub is going to come back and with uh we we're recommending no change totally fine well put it in put it but instead no that's my point right so what I'd like to do is at least have that discussion about kind of what you guys talked about what the reasoning was makes a lot of sense to put it and it might teally make total sense to put it in the athletic I think we were waiting for that to come yeah to come back from the athletic I'm okay with that too like once
083you guys are ready though I think just I think we were waiting to see what his proposed language that's totally F when you're ready when you guys are ready for that to come back and have that discussion I think that would be good are there other topics that I know we have we're going have a lot of budget topics coming up but is there any other longterm planning meeting about my favorite playround about Playgrounds yeah it has not met yet but it could possibly meet before December 17th and we could share back with you I'd love to hear how yeah I think I or maybe even very early January we to have it be that if we're going to ask it's part of a budget I think that the consensus was to ask for that
084community preservation preservation so I don't know when that process is and I don't want to miss that no I think it's fair we can either do it if we're not ready in mid December early January I think it' be okay too to ask about we should plan to have our new Senate and representative delegation come in or is that that the first of the year I just I wouldn't give them time to put it on their calendar yeah um when do they get sworn in January 1st yeah January 1st maybe February right I think you give let let them find out where the bathrooms in the State House are first right um and then I do think having both the new Senator and the new representative and I think it's a great idea as they
085begin their their Journey as after the representatives yeah I so maybe February ear look at I think that's great anything else okay so I'm going to need a motion to ENT our executive session pursuing to chapter 30A section 21 A2 and section 21 E3 to discuss a personal services contract and strategy related to collective bargaining as an open meeting May haveit thatal effect on the legal position of the school committee as declared by the chair so moved second so motion by Katrina seconded by Sue by roll call votes Sue yes David yes Allison yes Katrina yes and I'm a yes so we are in executive session cop e e