001We'll call our March 11th school committee meeting to order. Superintendent, if you could call the role. >> Mr. Begley. >> Mrs. Cahill. >> Present. >> Miss Campbell. >> Present. >> Mrs. Huby. Mr. Le Young. >> Present. >> Mrs. Berios. >> Present. >> Mayor Ko >> present. Quincsey High School student representative Sasha Najawan. Thank you for attending. And North Quincsey High School student representative Marco Mano. Thank you both. >> Would you all please stand with me? Join in the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God indivisibley justice for all. >> You remain standing for one minute. We'll have a moment of silence. Uh, as we see in the news every day, we live in a troubled
002world and uh, we have a lot of men and women serving this nation to try to keep the peace and I know there's a lot of Quinsey public school grads who serve in the military. So, let's keep them in mind for a minute. >> Thank you. Okay, first item in the agenda is open forum. Anybody for open forum? Going once, on twice. Okay, on to the superintendent's report. >> Thank you and good evening everyone. Hope everyone is doing well. Uh the first item on the agenda is the updated 2025 2026 QPS school year calendar. As you know, due to the snowstorm in late February and the three additional days of school closure, the Quinsey Public Schools 2025 2026 school calendar has been updated and shared with families and staff and posted on the QPS website.
003If there are no further weather related closures, the last day of school for students will be Thursday, June 25th, and the last day for professional staff will be Friday, June 26th. Special thanks to the mayor and his staff, the department of public works and natural resources and our own QPS custodians for their assistance in clearing snow from school grounds and parking lots and streets around the city. The joint legislative committee on education will visit Quinsey High School on Tuesday, March 24th for a presentation on Quinsey public schools career and technical education programs, including teacher, student, and community business partner perspectives. Six state senators and six state representatives and uh joint commission vice chair representative Bruce Ess will be attending the event which will which will highlight the growth in demand for CTE programs across the
004state and certainly here in Quinsey and the ongoing need for resources and provide insight into the career readiness pathway and program and the programs that we provide. Tonight we have uh multiple high school academic teams to be recognized for some outstanding accomplishments. The North Quincsey High School academic decathlon team has qualified for the national finals for the second year in a row. Congratulations. The team is preparing to defend their national championship from last year with the competition being held from April 23rd through April 26, 2026 in Garden Grove, California. The North Quincsey High School Quiz Bowl team has qualified for the national competition again and will be traveling to Rosemont, Illinois in June. Uh the team will compete in a minimum of eight matches for a chance to win the nationals. Uh the North Quincsey
005High School Junior ROC Leadership and Academic Bowl, also known as the JAB Bowl, uh team qualify to advance to the 2026 Air Force Junior ROC Academic Bowl Championship at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC from June 12th to June 16, 2026. JAB is a national competition designed to challenge junior ROTC cadetses on their knowledge of the Junior ROTC curriculum as well as high school subjects like math, science, and English. Competition for the 16 Air Force Junior ROTC Academic Bowl Championship spots was extremely competitive and the team demonstrated outstanding academic achievement. The Quinsey High School math team recently placed fifth in the regional playoffs and is qualifying for the state tournament for the first time since the team was established four years ago. This is a tremendous milestone and a testament to the hard
006work of our students and advisers. There's still more. Uh Quinsey High School's history bowl team are New England champions. Amazing. The Quinsey varsity A team earned first place in all of New England, bringing home yet another championship plaque. In addition, in the individual history B competition, senior Eddie Giza took first place and senior Ramona Benzel took third place. Quinsey Varsity A will once again compete in the National Championships in Washington DC this April. And of course, we'll keep you updated on all of these uh amazing uh opportunities for our students. We of course wish all of our academic teams much success as they prepare for the next round of competition. So, best of luck to our teams. It really is amazing. Uh upcoming Quinsey Public Schools and City of Quinsey events. Quinsey Public Schools is
007hosting high school course selection events at each high school for incoming grade nine students and parents. Quinsey High School's event was last night in North Quinsey's High School will host theirs on Thursday, March 12th at 6 PM. Course selection will begin with grade 8 students at their middle schools next week. So these events are important are an important opportunity for parents and guardians to learn more about the academic pathway options for their students. The Combined Quinsey North Quinzy Drama Club is presenting the musical Sweeney Todd, the demon demon bobber of Fleet Street on March 13th, 14th, 20th, and 21st at 7:30 p.m. in the Quinsey High School auditorium. Tickets are available in advance on lutus.com. That's luddus.com or at the door for each performance. The annual middle school citywide swimming and diving meet will be
008held on March 21st at 9:00 am at the Jeriff Community Center pool at the Lincoln Hancock Community School. The virtual parent academy on substance use prevention in partnership with Bayate Community Services will be held on Monday, March 23rd at 6 p.m. via Zoom. This was originally scheduled for February 24th, but postponed due to the snowstorm. Middle school STEM fairs will continue for the next few weeks at Southwest on March 12th at 5:00 p.m. at Broad Meadows Middle School on March 19th at 5:30 p.m. at Atlantic Middle School on March 26 at 5:00 p.m. and at Central Middle School on March 31st at 5:00 p.m. Uh, the city will be hosting the annual Remember the Ladies event on Saturday, March 28th at noon at Quinsey High School. This year's event will recognize the nurses of the
009Quinsey public schools and also honor Grace Angy for their valuable contributions to the Quinsey community. And finally, uh, today, Dr. Perkins, Mr. Morani and Miss Antonelli and I uh were asked to present at the Commonwealth's Department of Early Education and Care board meeting along with our partner schools about our experiences with the Commonwealth preschool partnership initiative and the early implementation grant we received. We are thankful for the opportunity to present in support of the governor's proposed increase in funding for this critical initiative and the successes we have realized already with our partner schools here in Quinsey. Uh the board was very impressed with Quinsey's preschool programming and very impressed by the support these programs received by the mayor, the school committee, and of course the district. So with that, that ends the superintendent's report. Any
010questions or comments of the superintendent? Good. >> All right. Next item on the agenda, old business. Item A, this is Cahill to report. Um yes, tonight we're just presenting for a vote um the proposed revision to the school committee policy um in regard to CTE recruitment, admissions, and retention. So required a roll call vote. >> Okay. Motion motion by Mrs. Campbell. Second Mr. Le Young, superintendent. Call the RO. >> Mr. Begley. Mrs. Cahill. >> Yes. >> Miss Campbell. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Hubley. Mr. Le Young. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Perios. >> Yes. >> And Mayak. Yes. >> Thank you. >> Item B. >> And next is um establishing the school committee policy for middle school pathway exploration and policy. Also needing a roll call vote. >> Second. The motion. Mrs. Bios. Second by Mrs. Campbell.
011>> Mr. Melvy. >> Mr. Begley. Mrs. Cahill. >> Yes. >> Miss Campbell. Yes. >> Mrs. Hubley. Mr. Le Young. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Perios. Yes. And Mayoke. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Next item on the agenda under new business, we have the school nutrition department update. There she is. Sarah >> Sarah Dufour, who does a great job as we as we know uh with us to present. We we do this at least once a year, right? >> Uh once a year. >> Yes. >> Seems like you just here. Thank you. Thank you. >> It's too empty. That's very nice. >> Hello everyone. Thank you for having me again. My name is Sarah Duour. I'm the school nutrition director here at Quincsey Public Schools. This is my 10th year here. Um, and tonight on the menu,
012we made some samples. If you can see here, everything's wrapped up kind of tight, so you can't see what it is in your little uh boxes. But the first is a chicken bonme sandwich. It's um it's a government product, the chicken. It's pulled chicken with a soy sauce, honey glaze. And the second item is a curry chicken salad wrap. The third item is a black bean chipotle veggie burger. And the final item, a little dessert is um Irish soda bread given that it's March. So have a little treat for yourselves. So I know there's some new faces here. So I just wanted to give some um information about one the food service program, how we make our menus, um how the nutrition regulations work for us and what we do in Quinsey every day with
013these kids. Um the first slide should have done that first. That's your menu items. The the first slide is about our fresh fruit and veggie program. All of our elementary schools participate in the fresh fruit and veggie program. We've been doing this since before my time, but it has expanded since COVID. We actually have all but two elementary schools receiving funding, but the food service department does still run the fresh fruit and veggie program at those two elementary schools, which is Mry Mount and um Richard D. Christopher Learning Center. So this is some of the funding that you can see for the entire school year for the 2025 2026 year. It's a significant amount of money. Um each school receives about $50 to $75 per student for the year for fresh fruit and veggies. The
014fresh fruit is packaged by our vendors or vegetables and brought to each of the elementary schools for two days a week where the kids get to have a fresh fruit or a vegetable as a snack. And the kids love it. They prefer the fruit, but we do as part of the the fresh fruit and veggie regulation have to provide vegetables and we give them a little ranch pack too on the side. So again, just a little quick overview of the nutrition regulations and I'll also go through some of the changes that we've had this school year. Um the every um cafeteria has to serve five components. It's fruit, vegetable, a meat or a meat alternate, milk, and a grain. Every child has to have access to those five components. And they need to take at
015least three. And one has to be either a fruit or a vegetable. So, if you're ever walking through the cafeteria and you're wondering how the menus are made or why they look as they do, why the kids are choosing what they choose, just know that when they're getting up to the cafeteria register, they have to have on their plate three components and one has to be either a fruit or a vegetable. Milk is not required but encouraged. Um the protein is not required but encouraged and the grain is not required but encouraged. So you can see from this graph it's a little bit small but these are the numbers that represent what a child has to have access to for the entire week. And you can see how the vegetable subgroup is pretty detailed. We
016can't just serve French fries Monday through Friday as your vegetable. Every day of the week represents a different vegetable. So, we might have a leafy green on a Thursday, a red orange on a Tuesday, um, and then they can have their fries on a Friday. Grains have a certain amount that they have to access every week. Same with meat, and same with the fluid milk, which is the 8 o containers you see. When we make our weekly menus at the very end of the week, we have to look at the compilation of the food we serve and make sure that doesn't go over on the total calories for the week, the total sodium for the week, and the total saturated fat. And we have a computer database system that helps us with this. And then
017finally, we are this is the sodium chart. You can see for both breakfast and lunch, we are in the first column that we have to keep this going um up until June 30th, 2027. And then on July 1st, 2027, uh we have to go even lower. So, they really make sure that our sodium isn't heavy. Changes for this school year. Um other than the sodium having to go down next year, the only big change that has happened is in January of 2026, the um the president signed a whole milk and healthy kids act and which that means that we are not required to serve whole milk. We're not required to serve 2% milk, but we can. Before that, we could not. Um it is it's been challenging because our vendors aren't able to keep up
018with that instant need and we haven't had families or children asking for whole milk or 2% milk. So we always have our skim chocolate. We always have our 1% and we are able to access those other two should we need to and we always have our lactade and this does not include the regulation for breakfast. So breakfast cannot have whole milk. I just wanted to also show you a chart. I've added to this chart each school committee meeting to show how our numbers are changing or growing through the years. And since we've been universally free, so that started right at the 20 2021 2022 school year. We were free during COVID, but CO was just such a crazy time. It's just not a good year to measure. But as you can see, the years have
019gone on and we've gone up. And last year we were serving over a million meals, over a million lunch meals. And we haven't yet done that in my time here or the years previous. So we're busy. So the biggest change in this school year, which we're very proud of, um Lincoln Hancock had a complete remodel of their elementary school kitchen. If you haven't been over there to see it, it's awesome. Um the graphics are great. Uh it's very spacious and they did such a great job. I had such great advocacy from um the superintendent and Paul Hines and Walter McDonald and the mayor to be able to get this done and the kids love it. And from there we've been able to offer two to three meals a day, different types of meals, so the
020kids have options and we are able to really hone in on some good allergy meals for the kids that need it, too. Just showing you some pictures of some fun meals that we've done this year and years past. We have um the one that I have the most fun with is coming up on April 1st. We make um meatloaf cupcakes with mashed potato frosting as an April Fool's joke. This year it's going to be brownies because they're a little bit easier. They don't topple over the um the lunch tray when the kids are carrying it. but uh with a cherry on top and some bacon bits as sprinkles. And here's some more culinary inspirations that we've done. We really try to tap into some different cultural dishes that we know the kids like or should
021try based on the very multi multiculturally diverse group of people cooking the food and the people enjoying the food. So, we've had a lot a lot of fun with St. Patrick's Day meals and Chinese New or Lunar New Year, sorry, Lunar New Year meals and um Lebanese dishes, curry chicken salad, as you'll try today, chicken katsu curry, Korean barbecue, chicken or beef um not so fried rice and adobo chicken, schwarma chicken, boni sandwiches, and different um types of tacos from different parts of the world. One thing that's on the horizon that we're going to try to get done before the end of the school year, we've made a commitment to try to a new pilot program at North Quinsey High where we will have a vending machine in the lobby that kids can access breakfast
022as a graband go. It's a refrigerated vending machine. Um, inside the vending machine, it's a complete meal, so the kids will have a full nutritious complete meal. if they don't have time to come to the cafeteria, they can run and grab it and um get right to class and it just be a way to get those kids that are coming in late to help build our breakfast numbers, give kids more variety. Should this be successful, we were considering even converting it into a lunch vending machine, too, in the afternoon if that's possible. Our lunch lines at North are wild, as they are a lot of different places. We're trying to get a thousand kids in and out of the cafeteria eating within an hour and a half. So, having one of these vending machines away
023from the cafeteria might pull some kids who don't have time to get to the cafeteria or just want something quick. Um, and we're going to see how that goes. If it is successful and the kids do like it, we will bring it to North Quinn or sorry, to Quinsey High School, too. And it's linked to your POS system. So, a child, everyone's free. So, it'll just connect to their child's POS system and it'll just count that as a reimburseable meal. Um, so that's really the whole bit of the 2025 2026 school year for school nutrition. But I also brought with me the compost um and food waste manager. His name is Finn Bar Heislop and he's going to sit and talk about the compost program that we have at Quinsey High and North Quinsey High.
024Rob Meadows and Atlantic. >> Hello everyone. Nice to see you today. Uh, for those who don't know me, my name is Finn Barhees. Um, yep. I'm the food waste diversion program manager here with the Quincy public schools. Uh today we're just going to um give a brief, you know, update on how the program is going. Last time I was here, uh it's when we first started the pilot program. Um it was a few months after we started the pilot program at Quincy High School. Um, so from there, uh, we've grown into, uh, so we started at Quincy High School and we've launched at North Quincy High School and we're in Atlantic Middle School and Broad Meadows Middle School. So now we are in all four schools. Oh, it's the mouse. Um, some of the program
025takeaways uh, is that we in all the four schools, we collect recyclable and compostable materials from the cafeteria and kitchens daily um, which all went to the trash before. With that being said, we've reduced the amount of trash collected in all the schools. We collect an average of 2500 pounds of food waste each week. We have those numbers because we've had um consistent weigh uh weighing at each of the schools on scales. So, that's a number that we're happy with. Um we turn the food scraps into compost uh by a company called Black Earth Compost. They service us and they pick it up and they bring it to one of their Massachusetts compost locations where uh ito supports local agriculture um in farms and gardens and whatnot. Um so it promotes local agriculture and the
026environment and it also prevents harmful greenhouse gases from being emitted into the environment. um which either way the trash would originally go to either landfills or um burning uh you know waste to energy uh facilities. So this is a way better way to uh that's better for the environment to take care of our waste in the proper way. Um our main thing is educating inspiring students on the importance of sustainability. every, you know, every school that we go to, we make sure to make it fun with students, educate them, have quizzes, have games, um, really get them, uh, hands-on what they're doing. So, um, next step in the program goals is we'd like to launch the three-way separation program at the remaining three middle schools and to be fully operating in all seven schools by
0272027. Um, we will be wrapping up at Broad Meadows uh, soon. We're uh going ironing out some details to find the next middle school and um yeah, that's a realistic goal for us. So excited to get things going. >> And that is it. Any questions or comments? >> Okay, any questions from the committee? Mrs. Pios, >> thank you. Thank you very much for the food and for uh for being here and telling us about the program. Thank you for always trying to make it exciting and creative for the kids, even if it doesn't always go that way for them. But, um, I appreciate all the thought and the work that go into making it healthy for them and fun. So, thank you for that as always. Um, I was noticing on the fresh fruit and
028vegetable program, um, I see Point Webster on there. Um, does Southwest, is that part of that program as well with the fifth grade there? >> It's it's uh part of Point Webster because of the economic need at that school. They met the threshold, but Southwest did not. that they It's because they have fifth graders that kind of push them into it. I know Southwest does, too, but Point Webster is the one that qualified. >> Gotcha. Gotcha. So, fifth grade, even though it's at Southwest, it wouldn't qualify. >> No. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> All right. That's that question. And then, um, you mentioned the Lincoln Hancock remodel, and I think, um, that's not the first school that's had that remodel, right? So, how many how many schools now have the updated kitchen facilities that can
029offer the different um alternative meals, and how many are you still working on updating? So Lincoln is the first um >> first. Okay. >> RDLC was kind of separate. It it you know had its own new building and everything like that. So they are an elementary school functioning as a full functioning kitchen. Um Squanum will be the next one, but we are hoping to sneak in maybe Snug Harbor. We were hoping this summer. I don't know if that's going to happen, but definitely next summer they will be the next school. Great. >> Um I would love to do them all tomorrow. Yeah. uh it's funding and it's it's takes time and um and it's it's nice to roll them out slowly because it kind of entices the other managers and the other schools to say,
030"Hey, this is what's going to happen and this is so exciting and the kids really like it." So, it's it's been great. >> That's great. It's great to know that that's the goal, too. So, that's great. Um >> and um my kids still love the wings and fire. Wings of fire is the favorite in my house when it's always they bring their lunch and then they eat wings of fire and their lunch from home. So, there's always a good lunch day on that. Um and for you Fimbar, just a couple questions. Um do you still use volunteers in the schools to help with the separation of the compost and the trash? >> Uh yes, but um in in different forms. Um when we first launched, we had uh volunteers through the Wall Garden Club. Um
031however, we have a paid employee um Julia H. Hotton at Quincy High School and Mike Chen at North Quincy High School. Um, Atlantic Middle School is the first school that we've had where they fully adopted the program. Um, they put it I helped uh with them put together like a green team. I helped train the students on um, you know, on how to operate the program and that's going to be the mold that we're going to try to stick to for the middle schools. So, for students and staff to be uh, aware of what's going on there and to operate it that way. >> Okay. And you find that kids follow that if there's not like a dedicated volunteer kind of >> Yeah, it's been going very successful at Atlantic middle school. So, um, definitely.
032>> That's great. And do they still do the um I know at Quincy High they had that share table sort of thing. Do they still do that at both high schools or even at the middle schools as well? >> Everywhere. Yeah. >> Everywhere. Elementary. Yeah. I think it's fantastic. Yeah. A lot of the kids I saw one kid pound like nine yogurts back to back to back and I don't Yeah, it was a lot of yogurt but it was healthy. So, um, thank you both very much for all you put into it. >> Thank you. >> Anybody else? Mr. Leon, >> I uh thank you both for coming in here and sharing uh that information with us. Um, I I know firsthand how uh difficult your your job is. Um, my kids friends uh give
033me a lot of feedback on on school lunches. Um, so kudos to you for um being creative and um trying to expose uh the kids to um just a wide variety of foods and um you know, of course um uh looking out for their nutritional needs. Um my question is about the number of of meals. So a million meals, it's very impressive. Um I'm wondering uh first of all are students able to get parts of a meal and if so how um what constitutes uh how many components are needed to get that count incremented? >> We only count it as a meal if there's three components and one has to be a fruit or a vegetable. So, if they were to come through the lunch line and take a slice of pizza and say, "This
034is my lunch." They would be told to take a carrot pack, um the cheese on the pizza would be the protein, the grain of the pizzas, the bread, the dough, and that carrot pack would create the the full component, the three components they need because that'll be the vegetable. They would not be able to qualify as a free meal. We couldn't count it, >> okay? >> As a free meal. So if they go up to the line and take something because they're required to take three, that means they took a meal. >> Yep. And so they're the register people are trained to make sure that they know they need a fruit or a vegetable and we always keep that at the register. So it's an easy quick conversation. Oh, here you go. You need that
035for your meal. >> Okay. >> And then same with with breakfast. >> Same with breakfast. Yeah. It's it's a little the components are a little different because we don't require um a vegetable. So it's to serve at breakfast. So if they they have a cereal and a milk, it's here's your fruit. >> Gotcha. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> And then um pertaining to uh food waste, uh thanks for your continued efforts there. I'm wondering if um food packaging is part of that because I know at central the pack has some program where they're trying to collect like certain yogurt containers, lids, >> right? Uh well, for instance, there is a lot of compostable materials that we end up um you know, putting in our food waste barrel or compostable barrel.
036Um so we collect trays are the trays are compostable some bowls are um some utensils are uh things along those lines. As far as anything else as far uh you know it depends if it's recyclable or not. We usually check them I'll check with the the kitchen staff but it's either recyclable or or trash or there's a chance that it's made out of uh compostable materials. It could be composted as well. >> Okay. Thank you. And the utensils, are they plastic? >> Uh, for the most part, yes. >> Okay. Any thought about um using like wooden utensils? >> Yeah, we've had conversations before. We've >> um Yeah, we we attempted and I believe it was last year the supply was challenging. So, we would at one point have all the compostable stuff. He was teaching
037the kids to compost and then we would get shorted on the supplies and they'd sub for regular stuff. So he was dealing with no this this time it's plastic. No, this time it's compostable. And it kind of made it a little chaotic. So we switched to the to the plastic. It's it is a lot cheaper. It's it's significantly a lot cheaper. Um so that's just the biggest challenge when it comes to the the containers we use. We've slowly as we've gotten to this point gotten rid of a lot of the things that we shouldn't be using. We no longer have styrofoam anything. Um but the the utensils have always been a challenge for us. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Yep. Okay. Um, what's a meat alternate? >> Great question. Um, they it's basically anything that's
038not from a cow or a chicken um body part. Like a a milk or yogurt is a meat alternate because it's not the meat of so it's basically a vegetarian option. So the the um >> the veggie burger is a meat alternate. And how do you feel about the changes in the rules on the milk? >> Um, I think it adds a little bit of confusion it unnecessarily. Um, I think that if you want to drink whole milk, you should. And if you think your child could use the extra calories, then you should advocate for that. Um, but I don't think the American population needs another way to increase their saturated fat. I think the the 1%'s just fine. Um, but again, if you're one of those students that could use a little extra calories
039in your day for various reasons, then definitely whole milk is perfectly fine. >> I'm glad I went to school when I did. The meatball subs were great. >> The meatball subs are still great. >> I may have a question for Finnbar. What's the contamination rate on the composting? I mean, is it >> uh Well, it's significantly lower. Uh, you know, once we get to uh, you know, being there a lot and training the students and whatnot. Uh, if we just throw the barrels in there any random day, it's going to be terrible. But, um, for instance, at the middle schools, they were, for instance, we wrapped up at Atlantic Middle School. Um, I was able to fully teach the students and train them in the way that there really wasn't any contamination at all. Uh,
040students took their time at the barrels um to make sure that they are separating it properly. Um, so it depends. I would say the most part on average it would be about 80% um, correct, but again you're going to have students always that are zoned out that might make a mistake and aren't going to go after and reach reaching the barrel. So, the big thing that we uh emphasize passing off the school is that we have um someone there to make sure after each lunch, check the barrels for contaminants. And that's one of the uh main >> How strict is the company? Like if stuff gets through. >> Very strict. >> Yeah. They'll um some they if they see trash in there, they they won't pick up the barrel. Okay. >> So, um but it's
041not something that we haven't uh we don't have to really deal with, which is great. >> Mrs. Khbar, >> I didn't I didn't recognize you with the mustache and the beard when sitting there. >> Nice to see you. >> Um you too. I think the what I what I like when I volunteered a couple of times at Quinsey and at North um and we talked about having the younger kids getting involved so that because they're more um engaged in and trying something new like that, you know. And what I think is going to be as successful is having them start at the middle school. So then when they get to the high school, they're already into that mindset of doing it. You know, watching the kids in the high school in the beginning when the
042program was starting, they were just like, "Yeah, I'm I got to get out of here. I'm just throwing stuff in the barrels." And talking about putting your hand in the barrel to take out something, you would do it all the time. Um, but I I love the fact that you're you're going into the middle school so that it will translate, you know, as they get higher into the high schools and stuff. I think we'll be more successful with the program. >> Right. Thank you. I'm excited to see what happens being in Broad Meadows this year and uh going into uh potentially another middle school that uh where most of the students will go to Quincy High because when we started with the freshman this year I talked to um who was at North Quincy High
043and I was like how were the freshman? like a lot of them, you know, knew what they were doing because I was at Atlantic last year and then Quincy High was like any luck with not not too much because not too many students from Atlantic >> already been exposed to it. Yeah. >> Yeah. So, that's a great move. Yeah. Thank you. >> Well, thank you both. Um I doubt Mrs. Lebo's watching, but I know Emily was so involved in this this program Pinbar. I just want to give her a shout out because she really got us going. >> Yeah, absolutely. Emily Lebo was great in this and Ruth Davis has also been a big help in the program and so shout out to both of them. >> Great. >> Excellent. Thank you both Sarah. Thank
044you Pima. Nice job. >> New business item BC District Review Preliminary Information. Dr. Perkins to present. No. See if I can Okay. Well, thank you for having me. Um, I just wanted to update you on um where we are in terms of the district review. So we uh we completed the district review as the superintendent had mentioned in his superintendent's remarks um at a previous meeting but we have since received and you all have a copy of the observation summary report that they provided to us um and we also had a debrief phone call with the department of ed. So there's multiple steps. This is still the beginning steps. there will be like a comprehensive report that will be provided at the end of the review that will incorporate all of these things and we
045will have a chance to make any factual corrections. So, but right now they just they shared the observation feedback and they also shared um highlevel themes with us and so I just wanted to go over um the observation summary report. So, the observations were completed by seven different observers over a two-week period beginning the week of January 28th. Some of you may remember that we had uh quite a snowy week and so we did have to reschedu uh u many of the observations. So, uh that did complicate things, but we did our best and we got them done. Um so, the observation the observers completed 144 observations that occurred across all 19 schools including the RDLC. Um and uh I think we figure that this is probably about 10% maybe of our um classrooms within
046the district. And the primary focus was on literacy, English language arts and mathematics. They they did not go to any special education classrooms, any EEL classrooms. They rarely went to social studies or science classrooms. Um and um they only went really to different classrooms. If the um there was something going on like there was a test in the English classroom, then they might go to the science room. They they spent um a half day at the majority of the schools with the exception of the two high schools where they spent a full day each. Um the class observation tool was used to guide the observations. So just as a reminder, the prek to3 protocol includes 10 dimensions which we'll talk about related to three domains. And the domains are emotional support, classroom organization and instructional
047support. in the upper elementary and secondary protocols include 11 classroom dimensions related to three domains emotional support, classroom obser uh organization and instructional support in addition to student engagement. I will say I I do think that one of the best decisions that we we did fight the fight for and we were able to do was that we had our leadership team escort the observers because they are not core or fingerprinted with us. Uh, and so we escorted them around and so we did get a pretty good sense and I I'm sure that um Gail has from the QEA has also heard some feedback on the observers. The observers did not have a background in education. The majority of them, it was their first job out of college. Um, so they had participated in a two-day
048training and that was it. And so I do just want to point that out because I I I personally have a very hard time with um that level of educational experience evaluating teachers in many cases who have been with us for 10 years, 15 years, 20 years um and and you know and they're making these judgment calls on on the quality of our educators. So um so I just wanted to say that because it bothered us and I'm sure it bothered the teachers as well. Um so just uh in terms of this is just a picture of what the what the um different dimensions and domains are what makes up emotional support what makes up um you know uh some of you know the uh classroom organization and instructional support and we'll talk about each
049one of them. So this is just an overall picture of um the scores that we received and they do take the aggregate of all of the scores and they put them together and they create the report. So um in order to kind of figure out where we fall, so a score of a six or a seven is considered to be in the high range, which is a good thing. Um a middle range is three, four or five, and a low range is a one or two. I do just want to point out also that I did um look at other reports from Chelsea, Fall River, Taton and Quinsey has scored high is higher than um these schools these districts in almost every area. some areas, a few we were the same, but um the majority
050of the areas we were actually higher than. So, emotional support, we received uh scores that were considered mid-range. Classroom organization was definite strength for us and we uh received scores across the board that were in the high range. instructional support, we received scores that were in the lower um mid-range and student engagement was in the upper mid-range. And I will just say was it's interesting to know as the superintendent mentioned he and I were at um the board meeting for the department of early early education and care and they use the class tool as part of their protocol and and in their report the instructional domain was the lowest and they said that is historically accurate that for whatever reason the instructional do domain across the board is always the lowest score in the class
051observation report. And so then when I came back, of course, I did some research on it and that is the case. Uh and so just to go through how we did in the different areas in positive climate, we did pretty well. Um you know, we were middle to high. Uh and um this basically looks at um the emotional connection between the teacher and students and among the students and the warmth, respect and enjoyment communicated by verbal and non-verbal interactions. Um and so what they're looking for uh according to my research, I've never administered the class protocol, but according to my research, they're um looking for teachers that share a warm and supportive relationship with their students. In terms of um teacher sensitivity, this was another relative strength for us. We received an overall rating of
0526.2, which is in the high range. Um and so this encompasses the teachers awareness of and responsiveness to students academic and emotional needs. Um there there's high levels of sensitivity and facilitate students ability to actively explore and learn because the teacher consistently provides comfort, reassurance, and encouragement. And so they're looking to see that the teachers are aware of the students and their needs and that um they how they support that is consistent and accurate in the classroom. So regard for student perspective was one of our lower scores. And I I do just want to point out I do feel that personally I feel that many of these scores contradict each other. So when you have um you know the the previous score teacher sensitivity is relatively high and then the regard for student perspectives is
053lower but yet the description in the you know in the um in the teacher sensitivity would lead you to believe that they're considering students perspectives. So I I do think that some of these things contradict each other. So, regard for student perspective captures the degree to which teachers interactions with students and classroom activities place an emphasis on students interests, motivations, and points of view, and encourage student responsibility and autonomy. and um what they're looking for here, which I also think I I don't find it surprising that they would not see it because I think educators are nervous when people come into their classroom that they don't know and that they know that's a it's a part of a district review, which is a big thing for an educator. Um they're looking at a teacher's uh
054willingness or that they demonstrate a willingness to follow student interests and needs rather than their pre-planned agenda. So basically, they're looking to see that if a student brings something up, the teacher's going to switch their lesson plan and respond to the student needs, which I I can pretty much guarantee no educator is going to do that when they're getting observed. They're probably going to panic that the student is going down a rabbit hole and um that they, you know, need to bring them back. Um and so, you know, so that is so that was um regard for student perspectives. uh negative climate was a strength for us which does not surprise me at all. Um so we in this um instance they do inverse the the scores so they reverse them. So higher is good.
055Um so we want higher scores. So just so we know that that means there they did not see any examples of negative climate. So um that was of strength for us. uh too late to this and behavior management uh refers to the teacher's ability to provide clear behavioral expectations and you and use effective methods to prevent and redirect misbehavior. This was another strength for us. Um th in this um domain they are looking for proactive management of behaviors uh clear behavioral expectations that the teacher uses proactive strategies sets clear expectations and minimizes disruptions rather than just reacting and so um this was a a definite strength for us. Uh productivity was also um a strength for us. It was one of the highest rated dimensions across all grade bands. Productivity considers how well the teacher
056manages instructional time and routines and provides activities for students so that they have the opportunity to be involved in the learning activities which again I think is contradictory to some of the other things that I just said. Um, and so high productivity is indicated when students are actively involved and engaged in the learning process, which definitely contradicts some of the ones I'm going to talk about in a minute. Um, so this indicates that classrooms run very smooth and teachers are prepared for their lessons. Teachers provide a steady flow of activities for students, so students do not have downtime and are not confused about what to do next. Classroom routines are efficient and all students know how to move from one activity to another and where the materials are. Um so instructional learning formats is the
057next one. And so this refers to the ways in which the teacher maximizes student interest, engagement and abilities to learn from the lesson and activities. And we did pretty well here. we were middle uh middle range in some cases on the higher end of the middle range. Um and so they're looking to see that uh teachers are incorporating varying modalities within their lessons that they're providing hands-on opportunities um clear learning goals. I will point out that in my research on the class observation tool, this one specifically said it's supposed to be calibrated over multiple observations and that was the case in a couple of areas. And this was a 15 to 20 minute observation one time and one time only. And I I should have said this probably at the beginning that because something doesn't
058show up on this report or receives a lower score does not mean that our teachers do not do it. It means that the observers did not see it at that in that moment in snapshot in time. So concept development concept development refers to the teachers use of instructional discussions and activities to promote students higher order thinking skills and cognition and the teachers focus on understanding rather than on wrote instruction. This one, um, we scored a lower on this area. Um, and what they're looking for is that the questions that teachers are asking or, uh, prompt students to analyze information, connects concepts to previously learned material, um, integrates different concepts into the learning. So, you know, pulling something from science maybe into an ELA lesson, uh, something like that that they use open-ended questions to guide
059discussion. Um, and I can say personally, this is a preK to3 only, um, dimension. I can say personally that I have seen this happening in all of the classrooms that I've I've observed in and I've observed in in pretty much every building. I mean, I have observed in every building across our city. uh content understanding. Content understanding refers to the depth of the lesson, the content and the approaches used to help students uh comprehend the framework, key ideas and procedures in an academic discipline. At a high level, this dimension refers to interactions among teachers and students that lead to an integrated understanding of facts, skills, concepts, and principles. And uh we had some variability here. we were middle uh range with a a little bit of a higher score in six to eight. Um and
060it's looking for um you know the teachers focus on analyzing reasoning um again connecting concepts to their own lives instructional discussions that promote analysis and reasoning and analysis and inquiry was probably our lowest area. They did tell us in our debrief call that this is the lowest area across the board in all of the um district reviews that they do using the class observation tool. um that this is a really tough area and um the reason for it is because analysis and inquiry assesses the degree to which students are engaged in higher level thinking skills through their application of knowledge and skills to novel and or open-ended problems, tasks, and questions and opportunities for engaging in meta metacognition are also included. Um, and so again, when I was looking into this a little bit, this
061is an area that is it's it's a very complex area. It's asking students to do a lot um and teachers to do a lot and it's not something that you would necessarily sustain all day long. And so depending on the moment that they come in um and I do also think that again there's an element of when a outside person is in your um in your classroom you're going to try to keep it tight and controlled and you're you're not you want to make sure that the kids are perfect. You know even though we all understand that kids say silly things you know things happen when you're in classrooms. Everybody understands that. But um but I think that the teachers take great pride in that. And so when they have an observer coming into their
062classroom, they want they they they want their kids to act a certain way and they want to keep the lesson as controlled as they can. Um and so I will just say um in this one, this was really interesting because they did tell us in our debrief phone call that in the student focus groups, so we had a middle school student focus group and a high school student focus group. So in contrast, during student focus groups at the middle and high school level, students reported that teachers across subject areas expect them expect them to explain their thinking, for example, by showing their work when solving a math or a physics problem or explaining their reasoning for a response in English class. So when they put this together in the big report that we will get
063they're going this will they will not be able to triang triangulate this data because they have kids who are saying yes this does happen and a 15 20 minute observation that is saying they didn't see it. So the the kids are reporting that it actually does happen. Um so the quality of feedback um was within was in the middle range. So the quality of feedback refers to the degree to which teacher provides feedback that expands learning and understanding and encourages continued participation in the learning activity. In the upper elementary and secondary classroom, significant feedback also may be provided by peers. Regardless of the source, the focus of feedback motivates the learning. Um, and so in this one, they're looking for educators to encourage students to keep trying, assists in understanding the concepts without simply providing
064the answer. And um, in this area, I do think some of our new curriculum materials will are absolutely going to help with this because the teacher, you know, in Desmos and in IM and in CKLA, the teacher is more of the facilitator. um you know and so I do think we we have things in place where these are things that we are working on. Language modeling was uh middle um uh and so language modeling refers to the quality and amount of teachers use of language sim simulation and language facilitation techniques. Again this is another one that said that it's supposed to be done over four observations and it was only done once. Um, so the frequency, depth, and effectiveness of the conversation is what they're looking at. Uh, frequent conversations that include open-ended questions, repetition,
065extension, parallel talk, and advanced language use is some of the things that they're looking for in this um, standard for this dimension. Instructional dialogue was also um, a middle score. Instructional dialogue captures the purposeful use of content focused discussion among teachers and students that is cumulative with the teacher supporting students to chain ideas together in ways that lead to deeper understanding of content. Students take an active role in these dialogues and both the teacher and the students use strategies that facilitate extended dialogue. So this is looking at how educators question and then follow up to encourage communication and uh student engagement was a relative strength uh a little at higher than some of the other areas which again some of the other areas said that the student engagement was not seen and here it was
066a little it's a higher score so it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me but um student engagement refers to the extent to which all students in the class are focused and participating participating in the learning um activity that is presented or facilitated by the teacher. The difference between passive engagement and active engagement is reflected in this rating. Um so this directly I would say even though this is um a a higher score I think that it does contradict the productivity score because the productivity score also takes into consideration student engagement and that was our highest score. we were um you know in the high sixes and this one it's a 5.2. So I don't I don't understand how those two things um correlate. So um it looks for time on task, participation
067rates, actively engaged uh students versus students kind of just passively sitting there. So here is just a summary uh by grade band for each of the dimensions. You can just see the the breakdown. Uh this is the prek to five and this is the six to eight um breakdown and this is the am I in the 9 to 12? The 9 to 12. Uh and um so just a a quick summary of our debrief call because this was only one component of what the district review looked at. It was massive. It was all-encompassing. It looked at HR practices, budget practices, curriculum practices as well as observing um the you know the teachers as I said um and so they shared some higher level themes with us. So just to share with you you know kind
068of the direction and the things that we can expect to see in the comprehensive report. So in the area of leadership and governance, this was a a strength for us um and a very positive theme that came out of the district review. So they informed us that we have which I think we knew but that we have strong collaborative relationships among district leaders and you all the school committee and the municipal officials with all groups describing close coordination on budgeting planning uh to support the schools. Um, the mayor's position as the chair of the school committee contributes to the collaboration and alignment of work between the district and the municipality, which I think we all see that in how how well our schools are taken care of and the facilities um and the things that
069we're able to do in the in the district. And that um the QPS leadership team was another strength that because we demonstrate strong longevity with many district and school leaders having advanced through internal promotion was also a strength for the district. And then in terms of curriculum and instruction, there were some strengths and some areas of focus which were not surprises to us at all. we had already identified um these areas as areas that we know are kind of are on our list to address. Um so many elementary and middle school we we we know that we just adopted brand new programs and they are um you know aligned to ed reports and curate in particular the elementary ELA and math curricula meet expectations they're very highly rated on ed reports and curate which we
070knew. Um and then middle school ELA is an area of focus which we had already identified. We're doing we did math this year. Next year we will focus on ELA. Um and so we are we use currently collections which is pretty old. Um and it partially meets expectations in ed reports. So it's an area that we'll start working on next year once our teachers get used to the math program. And Desmos is very highly rated on ed reports and curate. So we knew that at the high school levels um an area that they you know highlighted again that we knew is that most curricula is teacher developed with the exception of amplify desmos which is also used in nth grade. Um but a strength was that teachers across the departments from both high schools have
071engaged in the curriculum curriculum mapping process. So although the materials are teacher created, we do we have been the district has been taking a really strong um initiative to align across both schools across content areas and provide up-to-date curriculum maps with the input from our teachers. So that was viewed as a strength. Uh and then another strength was for us was our assessment process. That was a a big strength and they told us that many schools do not have this in place. Many districts do not have this in place. Um we've had it in place forever. Thank you to Mary Frederickson. Um and so the district and school staff reported using a range of academic data sources to inform instruction. School staff and leaders report um reported having time allocated to analyze data. We have
072as you know three assessment days. We have student support team meetings and IL meetings very frequently. In in many cases the SST meetings are once a week. Um ILTS anywhere from three times a year to six times a year. Um and the district has focused a another highlight and a strength for us which we were very proud of was that the district has focused closely on monitoring attendance data and as part of a district-wide attendance initiative called attendance matters which obviously we love and that um the QPS chronic absenteeism rate for 2024 2025 was 15.6% and nearly a fivepoint improvement since 2223. So something that we're very very proud of. And then um next steps as I mentioned at the beginning um they'll continue to analyze the data that we provided which was just tons
073and tons of documents um and they will triangulate and identify strengths and areas for growth. So they'll provide us with some more recommendations and also um some additional strengths. They will write a report. Um we'll have another findings call. They'll share a draft report with us and we'll have an opportunity to provide any factual corrections that we need to make and then the report will be provided to you. We'll you know uh share that with you and present on that. Um and it will be publicly posted on our website and on the department of education website. And that in a nutshell is where we are with the district review. And I'm happy to answer any questions. >> Thank you Dr. Perkins. Any questions? >> Mr. Campbell. >> Dr. Perkins I use you know as part
074of uh department of early care and ed for my program we use class all the time and >> it's it's feels challenging if the protocols aren't followed the 15 minute cycles aren't followed it's hard it must be hard for your educators to sort of look at this and know um that that process wasn't there for them because concept development pieces are so hard to capture if you're only in there for 15 minutes and those are generally the most complicated ated pieces to score, >> right? And as someone who's gone through the rigors of being certified, the class of being able to come out and do class observations, it's generally a steep lift. So, it's a little disappointing to hear that those coming out didn't >> have that piece, >> but I still say, "Wow, like
075this is genuinely very positive." You know, you look for scores that are in the high fives to the sevens. And so there may be some smaller pieces and maybe that that don't generally feel like you feel like you are at a higher bar. >> So overall some of this stuff is just really good data. >> Yeah, I appreciate that and I I I was wondering I know you know your background so I was wondering if that was the tool that you use and so I do appreciate you sharing that and I think we we in general feel like this went really well. Yeah. >> Um and so you know, so we're we're very happy with our teachers with the report and I really appreciate you sharing that. >> Sure, >> that's it, Mr. Kahill. >>
076Um so a a little bit again, I think we talked before about it's a little bit of a snapshot in time, right? Um if you can clarify, so it's a two-eek period. They were in how many schools? >> They were in all 19 schools. >> All 19 schools. Half a day was the norm, right? >> And how many classes did they go into in that half a day period? >> Between five and six in a half a day. So depending on the size of the school, at the middle school they went into six. At the elementary primarily five and then the high schools they were there for the day. So I think they did around maybe 10 or 11 observations >> and and each observation was about 15 minutes. >> 15 to 20 minutes. Yeah.
077Okay. Um, did we determine what classrooms they were going to go into or did they just randomly pick? >> They randomly pick. We gave them a schedule, which is what they initially wanted to do was that we would give them the schedule of the classes. So, they would have that predetermined. And they do have backup classes in case a teacher is out or um a class is giving an assessment or something like that. Um, but and so they basically said, "You're going to give us the schedule and we'll say bye. See you." and then they'll they'll kind of go on their way. And we said, "No, no, no. You can't do that. You're not fingerprinted and quarried with us. We're not going to do that." >> And so after we had multiple meetings with them,
078um we did finally come to an agreement that we would escort them. So people from our team um and the curriculum and assessment team and and uh the superintendent's leadership team were with them the entire time. >> Okay. Um, and then the other thing I mean I think we have to take this as a with a grain of salt only because of the I mean to your point you know we're having people without an academic background assessing our staff and curriculum and I find that you know for me I have more confidence and I am confident in your evaluations continuous throughout a year and over years on our staff and our curriculum and how we build things, you know. So, I don't know how I mean, I guess it's it's a tool to look at,
079but I don't know how much stock I'd put into the recommendations if they're not coming from someone with the background that I mean, when I had the interview with them and we talked about a new hire, um, they were asking us about budget and the young girl that was in the interview didn't even know how our budgets work. like I basically had to explain the different components and where budgets come from in in the district. >> So to me that's like a difficult conversation to have when how are they going to assess what they're what we're doing without the background, you know, right? Um, so I guess, um, I just had a little bit of a concern about the short amount of time they spend evaluating a staff member and also their background in academics
080or, you know, curriculum or budget or HR. So, um, I would just take this I'm curious to see what the end results going to be, you know, when we get the full report, >> right? And the statute is written to say that it will be conducted by a person with an educational background. That is what the statute says. However, that was not what we experienced. >> Okay. It's just a comment on my behalf. Thank you. >> You made that very clear, Dr. Perkins. >> Yeah. >> Thank you, Mr. Kale. Uh Mrs. Pios, >> thank you. Thank you for presenting this. I um similar to my colleagues uh you know I'm grateful for the current relationship that the QEA and the educators have with the SLT and and you specifically and just um and Mr. Moran
081and just going into the schools and and you know our teachers, we know our teachers, we know that they're excellent. So um I didn't I wasn't looking for this as an evaluation or to give us more information than we didn't already know. Um I think I think you know where the strengths and you know potential weaknesses are and I think you're always working on it as Mrs. Kale said. So, um I that's kind of how I took this to be. Um and hearing that they didn't have the background we would have preferred them to have was just even even more um kind of led to my feeling. I was curious though um why why is it bad that um that teachers create material? What like why is why do they want to have to use
082like a Desmos? And why was it why were we given a negative score because you know we're not trusting our teachers to use the background and the training and all the education they've had to create curriculum to get the standards across to our kids. I feel like that that's always what they used to do when I was a kid. Right. So why is that looked at as so negative now? >> Yeah. So that's a really good question and I don't personally view it as negative at all. Um but they will that will probably be a recommendation to us is to look at the high school curriculum and looking at you know highquality curriculum materials and the reason for that you know usually is because it's it's because of equity you know amongst teachers right in
083amongst students. So if I have a teacher in one building or in one grade level and you know they're teaching this way and then I I have this other person you know they that might be teaching a different way or providing different materials maybe not as rigorous you know maybe not as high quality like that's how they're looking at it. Um I'm a huge believer in teacher autonomy and I think our teachers are very talented at the high school level. Um, and I also know that going in, and I'm sure as a former high school teacher teacher, Gail can totally attest to this, that we it would that would not go over well with our high school educators if we were uh trying to change their curriculum. But, um, but they they view that as
084and they because they want scripted programs. They want because that controls for teachers really, you know, and so um, that's what they want. They want a scripted curricula that can, you know, prevent issues from happening or some kids getting one thing and another group of kids not getting something. Um, but we have curriculum maps. That's why we have curriculum maps, you know, and we cover the standards and I feel absolutely content confident that our teachers do a phenomenal job and cover everything they need to cover. I I totally agree and um I I think it's working fine the way it is and I'm sure you address it if there's you know you you look at the outcomes, right? And if there's a class that is consistently not doing well, I mean that's how you would
085find that out and and address that problem, right? So I I think that um I agree with you on that and I'm glad to hear you read it like that. Um did the educators know these specific areas they were going to be evaluated on before the observers came? >> Uh we did. I provided to all the principles the the like dimensions the list um that said you know like emotional support and it said like what the different things were. We also I also shared it with Gail um the Gail was with me on the call uh with AIR the consultants. She and I did it together where they told us how the the observations were going to go what what they were going to be looking at. Um, so she actually was with me on
086the call when we found out what was going to happen. >> Gotcha. Gotcha. Um, and then I think my last question was, um, and then I just had one kind of, uh, thought, but, um, did they go to all the levels at the high school? Did they go or even the middle school? Did they go to some advanced classes? Did they go to AP classes? They went to all the different levels. So they went to whatever was available at the time which meant that it could have been an advanced, it could have been a CCP, it could have been, you know, any any one of them. They, you know, they didn't discriminate. So they they saw a wide breath of classes. >> Okay? Because I would tend to think that some of that would actually
087factor in like some of those classes, they're a little more built for having a little more like you can go down a rabbit hole a little bit more because that's what that class is designed for, right? or that level might be designed to encourage that where maybe a different level isn't. So that that wasn't even really addressed in here either, which was frustrating. Um, did you know so you get the numbers of each like the instances of each, but did you know like which school got which number, so you just got the Yep. They just give you the aggregate. They don't tell you where or what grade level, you know, other whatever what um who it was or anything like that. No. And I just my last comment was that I'm not surprised in the
088high teacher sensitivity scores and the um the high on the negative climate but the in a good way. Yes. Um just you know every every school the teachers are doing just great work you know caring for the kids making the kids feel valued and we see that in the vocal survey. So I mean I wish that they would look at the vocal survey in conjunction with this because a lot of that is the same. Um, and so I so I I'm I'm just super proud of our teachers and I don't I hope this they're not feeling like this is a negative reflection on them. So, and thank you all. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> She recognizes Mr. Le Young. >> Thank you. Uh, thank you Dr. Perkins for taking us through this uh debrief data.
089I can um read survey data and data and tables as well as anyone, but your context and analysis um make this actually meaningful. I mean, dare I say, it wouldn't be useful without um the context and analysis that you've added, right? Um so just um watching you and hearing you kind of um you know link the the different topics together provide nuance um mentioning the additional research you did into the tools uh super impressive um so all that is to say I'm glad it's you that uh you know is is getting this data and acting upon it. Um my question slash comment is uh related to kind of the um I would call second order effects right so uh for example um the part about the negativity scores >> um almost perfect scores right >>
090um that's interesting uh what's more interesting to me though is is your comment that you were not surprised by that right because maybe that is something that has just been emphasized um throughout the district with your educators. So, I'm wondering if there are other things in here that surprise you and um you may have already touched upon some of those. If so, that's >> No, I think that's a really good question. Um and so, you know, um I think that the the analysis and inquiry surprised me. That definitely surprised me. Um because I you know and and Mr. Morani is behind me and he can attest to this. We have done collaborative observations with principles. Um you know we were just at Point Webster the other day with all of the middle school principles in
091two of our math classes. We went to Broad Meadows and we were um in history classes. We went to um uh Atlantic and we were in science classes looking observing open SIED lessons with all of our PR middle school principles together. Um and we've done the same thing at the elementary level in addition to just the observations that Mr. Morani and I have done in every single school including the high school across our district. we have observed in many many classes and I have seen the analysis and inquiry in action in every single one of our schools. So, I don't know if the teachers were just nervous or when they came in and, you know, they were, you know, um, but I I definitely or it was just bad observers, which could absolutely I' I'd
092go with that before, um, you know, anything to do with our staff. But, um, but so I absolutely So, some of those areas that were like a little bit lower, I've seen the teachers doing it. I have absolutely seen the teachers doing it. So um so I think that you know that that kind of surprised me. I was not surprised by the fact that we have really positive climate in our classrooms. I wasn't surprised at all by the the productivity. Um because when you I go into classrooms our teachers are well planned, the kids are engaged. Um and if and if you know there are kids who are struggling, we know about those students. We're working with that staff. They're reaching out. We're helping. are supporting, you know. Um, so, so I wasn't I was
093not surprised at all about the the positive things. I I see some of those things. I think that if if they had had the opportunity, as Miss Campbell said, to do multiple observations, you know, which is how the tool is actually supposed to be used over time, you know, if you'd done four or five observations and then you, you know, kind of aggregated all of that data, I think we would have seen a very different picture. Um, and and and I don't think that what we saw was bad at all. I really don't. I I and I'm very very proud of our teachers because this was a big big inconvenience and very disruptive, you know, to their day um and stressful and so I'm very proud of how they how they performed and how the
094the things went. Um but those would be the the areas. >> Great. Thank you, >> Mrs. Cah. I think to your point too about the observers, if they're not trained, how do they know what they're, you know, how can they really be focused on what they're supposed to be rating us on, basically, you know, assessing us or evaluating us if they don't even really have the skill set or the experience to know what what to assess, >> right? Well, they have they have a training from what I understand from the the AIR people. It's a two-day training um that they receive. And so, they do have a training. However, and and and then they're given basically like a checklist and there's things and I'm sure Miss Campbell, you could probably speak better to it than
095I could because I've never used it before, but they're given basically like a checklist and they look for different things. they time things, you know, how many times a teacher interacts with students or how many times, you know, students are participating or are they sitting there passively like over, you know, over a five minute period or a, you know, so I think they do do things like that, but there's so many nuances to classroom instruction. Yeah. >> Um, so, you know, Yeah. So, yes. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Great. Thank you, Dr. Perkins. Thank you. >> Another great presentation. >> Thank you. >> Next item on the agenda, uh, item C, new business QPS policies, practices regarding access to student information. We're referring this to the policy subcommittee brought in by Mr. Lee Young. >>
096Question by Mrs. Pio. >> Would we be able to have that um policy meeting that that topic is at be a meeting of the whole, please, so that we could all hear that presentation? >> I don't see why not >> that discussion. Thank you. >> Okay, under the consent agenda. Any questions on the items in the consent agenda? They'll pretty much speak for themselves. Say no questions. Right. Can I get a motion? Motion by Mrs. Ko. Second by Mr. Campbell. >> Superintendent, please call the RO. >> Mr. Mrs. Cahill. >> Yes. >> Miss Campbell. Mr. Leon. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Perios. >> Yes. >> And >> yes. >> Thank you. >> Okay. See no additional business. uh later May communications upcoming school committee meetings March 25th April 8th May 6th and 20th and June 10th
097all at 6:30 here at the Cardington also upcoming subcommittee meetings March 18th athletics and wellness special education and March 25th policy. So that will be the meeting we're going to take up the item we brought in tonight. >> Um we're not sure if it will be on that agenda. >> Is this for athletics? No, the the policy subcommittee will the item we put into policy subcommittee tonight go into that one not be at the next policy meeting because the next policy meeting is going to take up the school year. >> Gotcha. All right. So subsequent to that correct >> and we'll make it a committee of the whole Yes. that meeting. Okay. >> Sorry. Can I say one more thing? The athletics is going to be rescheduled. >> Okay. >> Director's availability. So that's >>
098all right. >> Are we still having this special ed? >> I believe yes. Okay. Uh, next item is uh item nine, reports of subcommittees. We had our budget meeting. It kind of spoke for itself. We're pretty much close to on target. We're watching some things to get through the end of the fiscal year and then of course uh there may be some items we learned from for the new budget. So, uh, with that, I know I think those minutes are online so people can look at that. Next item, executive session. There's no need for an executive session. I accept a motion for adjournment. >> Motion. Motion's been made. All in favor? I close the eyes. Thank you. >> Thank you everybody. Thank you.