Quincy School Committee: October 8, 2025

001six o'clock. >> I would like to call to order the Quinsey School Committee Policy Subcommittee for Wednesday, October 8th at 6 o'clock. We have one item that we'll be discussing tonight, which is the proposed revision to school committee policy. It's section 9 115, which is the high school promotion and graduation requirements. We have Dr. Perkins and Mr. I'm running here to do a brief presentation followed by questions. >> Oh, wait. Hang on. Is that right? Try it again. >> Oh, >> one more time. >> I think that's Yeah, there we go. >> Well, thank you for having us. Um, so we are here tonight because uh the although that we just did this competency determination policy, the state um passed new regulations at the end of the school year and so unfortunately that means that

002we need to make changes and those changes do need to be submitted to the Department of Education by December 31st and they're actually uh pretty extensive. some of the revisions. So, um I'm just going to go through what the changes are and why we made them uh and what the state is asking for in terms of the policy. And I will just say one of the things that was very helpful is that um MASC put out a draft uh version of a policy that was aligned to the new regulations. And so a lot of this we actually just took right from them. Um and so the first part of the new requirements for competency determination is that um you need to explain how a student satisfac satisfactory completes the coursework for the courses that are

003required in the competency determination and also shows mastery. And so you'll see um so what how what we did to address this is basically we added a definition section. And so we put what the definition of a satisfactory completing coursework shall mean that it will mean that a student earns full credit in the courses listed below in accordance with the district's grading policy. Um and we defined show mastery. We we tried to be broad on this to give teachers flexibility in terms of what show mastery would look like in their classrooms. So, in order to meet the requirements of the the new policy, we said that um show mastery, a student must successfully complete in accordance with the district's grading policy or by any other appropriate methodology as may be determined by the school committee

004a final assessment for a course, a capstone or a portfolio project or an equivalent measure identified by the district as reflecting the skills and competency and knowledge outlined in the Massachusetts curriculum frameworks. So all of that is new to the policy and all of that is required by the new state regulations. What we say in terms of what mastery is is our choice as a district, but it does have to be reflected in the policy. And I do just want to thank all the department heads um that that looked this over and gave us some feedback. Um Gail Cavalo from the QEA reviewed it and gave us some feedback. Um and we did also have some parents take a look at this as well. Um so the the next section that is actually required is

005for the class of 2027. So the class of 2027 which is on the next page we must add the equivalent of a one-year history course. Uh so you'll see that we da we added that bullet at the bottom the equivalent of a oneyear United States history course. and they were very careful to say um the equivalent of a one-year because there are many districts that only have a half a year US history 1 class in actually the way we do it in Quinsey is our 10th grade year is called uh America in the modern world. I believe in the past it actually used to be split into two classes. It was US history 1 and then America in the modern world in the second half of the year. For the ease of the scheduling, we

006combined it into one class and we now call it America in the Modern World. What we do think we might have to do in order to align with this is actually change the name of that course in the in the program of studies to be US history 1 and America in the modern world. Um because they do cover the standards um in the for a US history one one course. They also take US history 2 in 11th grade. So if there was an issue with 10th grade for some reason, they do have the opportunity to pass a year-long US history course in 11th grade as well. We just consider it US history too. Um so that is new uh for the policy and as I said required. Um so the next part uh has to

007do with the appeals process which you'll see is at the bottom of the page. So um we do need to describe the appeals process for students who are denied a diploma. So we put together um an appeals process for the district that uh says that if you uh in order to request an appeal for the competency determination, the uh person would have to in writing appeal to the principal prior to the start of the fourth quarter of the student's senior year. And we did this in, you know, we've talked a lot about this when to have the appeal due by. And we did this because if someone is appealing, we need time to help that student do whatever they may be missing. So for someone to appeal the last week of school of their senior

008year is just not reasonable for the principal to be able to resolve that in a timely manner. Um, so the principal will confirm receipt of the requested appeal and will conduct a transcript review. uh the principal will then notify the student, parent or guardian of the outcome of the appeal within 30 days of receipt of the appeal requested. Um and so that was what we developed and again the appeal process is required. They don't necessarily specify what that appeal process has to look like but it has to be detailed in in the policy. So certainly open to feedback um and comments from the committee. Uh the next section is late enrolling students. we needed to discuss how the district would handle um and evaluate the competency for late in enrolling students. And so um we

009have just a couple of bullets here and again this is was recommended by the MASC policy um that we would do a transcript review. Uh additional course requirements um may be required determined by the district by one of us an administrator in the district office and for students in the class of 20 2026 and 2027 and this is the limited instances when a qualifying MCCAST score um may be used which is actually still the case today. right now that the the graduating class this year, we can still use MCCAST um as a determinant for the competency and or by meeting the standard for a substituted equivalent that the district certifies satisfies the same academic standards. So for a late enrolling student, that would be the process that we would use. Um the next required new

010part which we did have in our last policy, we just expanded it in order to meet the um new regulations was to describe how students with disabilities in particular students in outofd district placements will have the opportunity to earn the competency determination. So we already had language um in our last policy that had addressed students with disabilities. We did add um information about how we would handle students with disabilities placed in out of district programs. So we did add students with disabilities placed in out of district programs are also required to meet the Quinsey public schools competency determination policies. Discussions of the competency determination will be part of the IEP team's transition planning. Um and so that is there. And so then um the the next part that we needed to have was English language

011learners. Again, we did have this in our last policy. We didn't actually change this one too too much. Um we broadened it a little bit. Um but we did say Quinsey public schools shall on a case-byase basis determine the appropriate courses necessary for English language learners to both achieve language proficiency and meet the competency determination requirements. And we did that because our ELE students oftentimes don't take English 9 or English 10. They're taking EL3 or EL2. Um and so so you know, we wanted to have flexibility that a student um who's learning the language was not um prohibited from earning their competency because of a a language issue. Um and so uh so we we put that section in there. And then finally, the last additional requirement was that we needed to detail um the

012the cons the uh pl the process for diploma eligibility for previously enrolled students. And so you can see there that we um detailed for the classes of 20 2023 through 2024 for the students who did not earn a diploma, they may appeal the decision through the following process. It's very similar to the uh appeal process earlier in the policy and we um outline here to request an appeal to the competency determination in writing to the principal and that would be the current principal of the school that is currently you know residing as the principal at that moment in time and the principal will confirm the receipt of the requested appeal and will conduct a transcript review. The principal will notify the student parent and guardian of the outcome of the appeal within 30 days of

013receipt of the appeal request. Um, and so the rest of the policy, um, we did not actually change, but we did try to streamline it a little bit while we were doing this. We we tried to kind of condense it and, um, just make it a little bit easier to read for, uh, families and people that might be looking at this policy. So, we didn't the some of you'll see some of the strikethroughs. We did not get rid of that language. We just simply condensed it into a chart. Um, and we did put uh footnotes at the bottom for some of the things that have to do with ROC and band to um just try to condense the the policy and make it a little bit more reader friendly. Um, and so that in a

014nutshell are the changes that we made. >> Okay. Um, before I take questions from the subcommittee, let me remind the folks watching at home that this is a subcommittee of three. I suspect that other members of the full school committee will also have questions or comments. We'll talk it through tonight, make any changes, adjustments, and potentially vote if we are eligible to vote it out. It will go to a subsequent school committee meeting for discussion for the full group and then we'll uh take any further amendments. So with that, Mrs. Lebo or Mrs. Cahill? >> Mrs. Lebo. >> Um I just have a question about the title. It says high school promotion graduation requirements. >> And the only thing I >> You're in Mrs. Hub seat. That's why I had it wrong. Sorry. >> The

015only thing I see about um the credits is on I can't see the second to the last page where you talk about how many points to graduate. >> 10 grade 10 entry. You need 20 points to get into grade 10. >> Yep. >> And so is that what what you're talking about here when you're talking about the promotion? >> Yes. Just I think would be better if you just said that somewhere too. >> Sure. Like a definition of what we mean for promotion. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Because it's on the on the top. >> Yep. >> Um my other question is how and will student how and when will students know that they have not met the CD the company determination because a lot of kids >> and parents just won't know. >> Right. So

016the guidance counselors do start working with students on that at the beginning like after the end of their 10th grade year. So you know once they see that because the majority of the c coursework will be done right now all of it is done during their 10th grade year for the most part with some exceptions in terms of biology could be ninth. Um so they should know by the end of their 10th grade year if they're in danger of not meeting the competency determination. But we run lists at our office too. we you know communicate with the guidance counselors especially last year we we did a lot of that because it was a change um so they do start working on it and start making plans you know the kids have to make up the

017courses if they if they didn't pass so I would say you know the the end of their 10th grade year and they would they potentially could even start making it up over the summer >> and do the parents find out also? >> Yep. >> Okay. So there's a formal way of notifying the parents. >> Yes. Yep. And um have we had any of students from 2003 2024 appeal their non >> Yes. >> diploma many. >> Um handful 15. Yeah. >> Yeah. Good. >> Um >> one other question. It's going to be weird. If we have somebody transfer in, say from a paroial school >> where they don't have fizzed and they come in as a junior, how do they make up four years of fizzed in two years? I think the principal like the principal's

018discretion there, the principal could use something else and and wave that um especially if they were coming from a prochial school. I don't think they make them make up the foyers. >> I'm good. >> Yeah. >> Is that Mr. Lebo? Mrs. Kale. >> Um I had similar questions to um Mrs. Lebo. My my one qu my So those were answered, but um one other question is the the history. >> Yes. Yes. So if they're only doing one semester in 10th grade, that's counts for a full year. >> Yeah. It's the equivalent of a full year course. So meaning that as long as they cover the standards that would be expected in a fullear course, which we do, um then, you know, then that that would count mo a lot of districts. That's why they wrote

019it specifically that way, the Department of Ed because a lot of districts do a halfyear US history 1 class. >> Okay? And they just do more hours of it in the first class. >> They do more hours, but I'd say they move faster probably. They >> more content in that. >> Yeah, they cover a lot more content. Um so it just it has to align to the US history one standards. >> Okay. And um so when we have in here um about the um case by case basis for English language learners and um even in the comp competency determination appeal process do we um are we going to have something that is um you know a process that's for everyone or are we going to just come up with a process like who's going to

020review for an example um an English language learner um student to see if they're competent in their materials and then maybe their language isn't cutting it but the materials are cutting it. So who would who who oversees that process? >> The the principal would >> the principal >> and so and that would be the same for um the total appeal process that we talked about for students in the um CD appeal process and the the first page. So it would be the principal and um my question was um earlier is how early do we let students know that they're going to have a problem um and not meeting competency and if they might need an appeal process. >> Yeah. So um okay so principles run those two and is it dis is it at their

021discretion on how to evaluate these students or is there a rubric or is there something that so that it's a you know kind of equal across the board or how how do we do that? >> Yeah, we we've pretty much been uh guiding principles that like a a language level three class would would suffice because they do so it's based on the standards. So as long as the the material covered in the course like so in the syllabus align with the grade nine and grade 10 um English standards, we can use that you know in order to count as a course that would fulfill the requirement of the competency determination. But the the scope and sequence of the course, the class syllabus, that has to align and cover the you know what would be covered

022in the grade nine and 10 um >> in that content. >> Yeah. In that content, >> right? So, so but would a student not be passing or not be eligible for um graduation because of their language skills if their competency. So what I don't understand what I guess my thing is it's a case-bycase basis determines the appropriate courses for ELLL students to both achieve language profic proficiency and meet. So >> is that because they're taking a test or something that their language proficiency isn't at a certain level like you said level three and but so we're going to appeal that and just making sure that their content they're they're meeting those standards. Right. Is that correct? >> Yes. Yes. So, we don't what we don't want to do is what you just said is not

023graduate someone because they're EL, you know, >> but they had all the other um pieces of the >> puzzle. As long as we can say that they were proficient in the standards like the comprehension standards and you know like those kinds of standards for the ninth and the tth grade, you know, that they've shown mastery um and and satisfactorily completed that coursework, then we can we can approve their competency. >> So, basically the the trigger is their language skill. >> Yeah. is what's going to How do we do we think that's going to be something that we see often? >> I I think it will be, you know, um I definitely think so. I think that we'll be looking at a lot of those. And we do have in here too that if there's a

024dispute, you know, that the superintendent or his or her design would be the uh the person that would uh step in and then be the arbiter of that dispute. >> Okay. >> So, >> um Okay. Okay. And I think that's and so the and then the 2003 to 224 students their um appeal is based on it would be the same thing. They would be getting their um a notice that they may not be meeting um competency and then we'd have to do the whole basically like the the first step >> pretty much. Right. Okay. And they the the schools are like, you know, actually pretty used to students being in danger of not earning the competency determination because in the past this actually we're going to see far less kids that don't meet the competency

025determination because in the past it was b based on MCCAST, right? there was a whole lot more kids that potentially were not meeting expectations or not within the band to be considered passing for MCCAST and either would have to go on an educational proficiency plan or you know they would just have to keep retaking the test >> just based on the test results. >> Yeah. And so, so this actually a lot of kids when we looked at it, I don't remember off the top of my head how many kids, but it was quite a bit that that actually would have earned a diploma if not for the MCCAST. So, they're passing the class, but they're not passing MCCAST. So, >> just for public over, you know, for public um consumption here, we're not watering down

026competency. >> No. you know, because the MCCAST was a one day test, let's just say, and this may be in in our eyes a more >> um fair way to assess what the students are learning through the year and making sure that they're competent in all these areas as opposed to just having them MCCAST as the as the reason for them to be able to graduate or not graduate. >> Yes. >> Correct. >> Yep. Absolutely. >> Okay. Thank you. for me. >> I have a couple of questions and comments. So, is there a competency determination appeal process today? If so, can you explain it? >> Uh, currently in the policy, it says that it would go right to the superintendent and his or her designate. >> I believe that's what's currently written in our policy.

027>> Okay. And uh so, so two comments around um competency determination. It says students who do not meet satisfactory coursework completion of mastery and the above reference da da these opportunities will provide to the student is yet to meet CD determination and and it says what did you say by date certain the end of the third I'm looking for in the text >> yeah before prior to the fourth yeah >> that's in yeah there it is prior to the start of the fourth quarter >> of their senior year. Yeah. So, uh, my comment would be that there would need to be robust communication with those parents and students >> to give them kind of sufficient time >> before the start of the fourth quarter. >> So, should that be stipulated, prescribed in there? because I

028would hate for a parent or a student to find out a week before the fourth quarter and then really not have an opportunity like is there a reasonable window for communicating that they may not meet it >> several weeks out >> uh I think what we could do is put something um above that that talks about the type of communication that should be expected between >> that would be um because there's a lot that happens yeah so between the end of their sophomore year and that the you know, the beginning of their their last term as a as a senior with us, the guidance counselors and everybody there is doing everything they can to make sure these kids have everything they need to graduate, including their competency determination. That's like current practice. And so, um,

029so there is a ton that happens all like, forget about this policy already that actually does occur, but you know, people may not realize that. So, we certainly can add that um, prior to. So when you get to the point where you're appealing, you know, before like the guidance team has already tried to get you there. They have already tried to do send you to summer school or, you know, do different things to try to help you make up or or recover, you know, double up on a class um your junior year, something like that. So they have definitely tried to do everything they can at that point. And so if you're still not meeting the competency determination, then that's where the appeal would come in. But we can certainly outline that that that's what

030happens. >> I think that would be helpful. I mean, as I think most of my colleagues know, when I first came on the board, you know, using Aspen about grading I I thought was super important and at the time there was discretion. Some teachers used it and some didn't. And I had a personal experience with my son that a teacher that did not use ASP and he was unaware that he was struggling to the extent that he was in a certain course and he found out almost at the 11th hour that that was to the case and he's a super conscientious student and wanted to remedy it >> and but the window was short >> and he did remedy it and that's why I want there to be some clarity in the policy around competency

031>> that's communicated to the students and their parents. with sufficient time and you know what the vehicle is that they can expect to get a little bit of clarity around that so that they can think about it have a discussion with whoever is appropriate guidance counselors or principles to to understand what they need to do to remedy it in in the period of time. >> Yep. Absolutely. We can add add that detail. >> Thank you. And then uh I have another another question on the uh diploma eligibility for review for previously enrolled students and I I think Miss Morani just said 12 or so right 15. Um so what's not here is the timeline on that and my question is is this on a rolling basis or is >> yeah so I think there needs

032to be some clarity that at any point students from 2003 to 2024 that did not earn a diploma may appeal the decision on a rolling basis or however you want to characterize that through the following process. >> Great. Yep. We'll do that. >> Okay. Uh, any other comments, questions? >> No. >> Uh, I I'll first I want to recognize that Mrs. Hubley, Mr. Burggalie, and Mrs. Pertios are in the audience. I'm not sure people can see, so I know they're hearing the presentation. I suspect that when this moves out of committee, which sound seems like it will be tonight, they will have an opportunity at the next school committee to ask additional questions and we'll have a presentation on that. So, I'll entertain a motion. >> Motion. Motions made by Mrs. Lebo, seconded by Mrs.

033Cahill that we move it with the amendments that we discussed tonight. Great. >> Can we take a voice? All >> All in favor? >> I. >> All opposed. I >> uh motion carries. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. So with that, policy committee stands adjourned. >> Good evening everyone. I'd like to call to order the um Quincsey School Committee meeting for Wednesday, October 8th. Um, call to order, please. >> Mr. President, >> present. Stand 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 for all. >> Um, we do not have any memorials tonight. Okay. Thank you. At this time, we have open forum, which is an

034opportunity for community input regarding the Quinsey public schools. Community in this context is defined as a resident of the city of Quinsey, a non-resident parent of a student who attends the Quinsey public schools, or a non-resident employee of the Quinsey public schools. After giving his or her name and address, each speaker may make a presentation of no more than three minutes to the school committee. An individual may not exchange their time or yield to others. Residents or non-comm community persons may submit written statements of up to 300 words to the school committee at QSC open forum at quincseyublicschools.com by 400 p.m. of the day prior to the posted school committee regular meeting. Written statements will be posted on the school committee section of the Quinsey public schools website by noon on the day of the

035posted school committee regular meeting. Is there anyone here for open forum? Okay. >> Good evening, vice chair and fellow school committee members. My name is Kylie Lee from 42 President Zav. Yesterday was a beautiful day. Uh it was great to be at Squanum Elementary invite uh great that Squano Elementary invited the city to the opening of their time capsule. They could have done it in a assembly in the lunchroom and open it on their own, but that's not the Quinsey way. We open our doors and invite our neighbors in. Thank you, Squanum Elementary. There were newspapers and documents along with a few coins, uh, some pennies specifically in the time capsule. One of the newspapers mentions the record enrollment in Quinsey public schools with 15 pupils. you know you're in a different time f period

036when they use the word pupil uh which is also very timely uh with the superintendent sharing the enrollment data in a few short moments. Other items included were school committee um minutes and come to think of it that means um someone had to key it in stroke by stroke on a typewriter since that was the day before copers and laser printers. One of the things I wondered with the family as we're driving to Swanom, would there be a special guest, someone that attended and was around when the time capsule was put in? Yes. And her name, I hope I have this right, uh, Ruth Anne Weatherbe at 92 year years young. Something I was a little disappointed with uh, in the time capsule is I didn't have a baseball, Lincoln logs, or Twinkies. I chatted

037with some of the attendees and suggested that the new time capsule uh should be put in and we should maybe put a fraction of a bitcoin or something like that. Uh who knows what that's going to be worth in 75 years. Um also maybe a lubu and um it's not Twinkies anymore. Maybe uh Takis. That's what the kids like these days. Uh thank you again Squad Elementary for opening your doors and letting the rest of the city be part of your special event. Thank you. Thank you. Is anyone else? Okay. All right. Thank you. Um, next we'll move on to Superintendent's report. Superintendent. >> Thank you. And before I begin, I do want to recognize Quincy High School student representative Sasha Najawan. Thank you, Sasha, for being here tonight. >> That's no problem. So, I'll

038uh start with my superintendent's report. First on the agenda is the QPS October 1st enrollment and class size data. Um the data was shared with the school committee at their places. Some highlights of the data include the following. Um, I also do want to take this moment to thank Laura Owens uh for working tirelessly uh with all of the central registration staff and the attendance officers and SLT in putting this uh comprehensive data together. So, thank you, Mrs. Owens. the this the official October 1st enrollment number for QPS is at 9,854 students, a decrease of 121 students from October 1st of 2024. Uh this year's kindergarten class has approximately 150 fewer students than the class of 2025 who graduated last June. So our senior class last year was very very big and our kindergarten classes

039uh this year are 150 fewer. So that kind of gives you an idea of the discrepancy between or the difference between uh last year's enrollment numbers at this time and this year's enrollment numbers at this time. Since October 1st, 15 students have completed registration and another 30 students have registrations pending. So QPS enrollment will continue to grow through the school year. Uh the last page of the document has a breakdown of new registrations in transferring students by level for the 2024 2025 school year to provide insight into the administrative workload related to the over 2,000 transactions into and out of the school system. So that is really a tribute to our obviously our central registration staff and our clerical sta staff as well as our principles throughout the system uh managing all these um incredible

040amounts of transactions that happen throughout the year. The elementary class size average for kindergarten through grade 5 is very favorable as you'll see at 18 students. 88% of elementary school classes have 20 or fewer students. For grades six through eight core curriculum classes, 89.9% of classes have 24 or fewer students. The low end of school committee's class size range in an increase of 5.8% over last year. For grades 9 through 12 core curriculum classes, 85.9% of classes have 25 or fewer students. an increase of 2.8% over last year. There are corresponding decreases in the number of classes with students at the higher end of the class size guidelines. 37 sections with 27 or 28 students versus 51 from last year, which is great. And of course, that's a tribute to this committee and the mayor

041for your support in adding additional um educators to get our class sizes down. and sections with 29 or 30 students, 15 this year versus 17 last year. Uh detailed class size information at the school level will be shared during the school improvement plan presentations in November. Of course, uh in March, we will present updated enrollment and class size information based on the February 1 data. Uh that presentation will also include projections for school building capacities for the next school year. uh and the effect on open enrollment. And of course, all of this information will be placed in the teaching and learning subcommittee for further exploration um at the committee's will. There are a number of few um classes um particularly at um Parker and at Squanum that we're watching. potentially Parker um will need a

042an additional um kindergarten teacher. Now, we're watching that carefully. If we have a couple more enrollments, that may be the the case, and we'll come we'll of course alert you to that. We're also watching um the grade five um classes at Squanum as well for similar reasons. Um, and uh, there may be a couple of others that we're monitoring as well. Obviously, we'll monitor all class sizes throughout the district, but I just wanted to highlight those as a couple areas that we're absolutely watching this year, but again, we've made improvements from last year with regard to class size, particularly at the high school, particularly at North Quincy High School. So, we're grateful for your support um, with that. Um, I don't know if anyone has any questions. uh now or we can explore in greater

043detail at subcommittee assuming the committee wishes that to be moved into subcommittee. Just have one question Mr. Superintendent. So Parker seems like it's every every year continues to grow. Are there space concerns within the building >> at this point or can they sustain? I mean it's been a 10-year upward trend of growth. There will there are some space concerns, but we're working with uh Commissioner Hines to help maximize the space at Parker. And so, similar to how we handled the space concerns at Monontlair, which have waned uh over the last few years, so Monontlair is not as much of a concern um as it was in the past few years about working with Mr. Hines and maximizing space. We should be fine with regard to space and if we need to add classes, we can

044certainly do that there. Thank you. >> Um, thank you for this. I uh I haven't had quite enough time to go through it um with a fine tooth comb as we just got it tonight, but um just a couple questions I see right off the bat. Um is there was there a program that moved or something that may have moved out of Lincoln Hancock um as to the reason why that might have dropped 49 students? That seemed a little bit more than the average um drop. No, no, no. Actually, the TK program moved the moved last year and that usually only has 10 to 12 students in it. So, no, that's strictly >> moving in and out of the city. >> Wow, that's a big difference. >> It is. Yep. Um, so that so, uh,

045Lincoln Hancock is down 49 and then Point Webster seemed to be up 27. Is that any any reason there just again? >> Same. Okay. >> All right. Um, and then I just wanted to make a reminder to families who may be watching that open enrollment is actually happening now for next year. So, um, that's already started. So, uh, some families I think think about it later in the year for the following year, but it's important to think about that now. So, uh, if you do have an open enrollment request, you may want to start getting that in. Um, so just Yeah. Thank you. >> All set. >> Yes. Thank you. Okay. >> Okay. Moving on then for the upcoming November 4th professional development day for QPS educators. Over 80 different small groupoup sessions are available

046for 900 and 50 professional staff members to choose from with topics ranging from literacy, STEM, English learner and special education supports to integrating music and movement, educator wellness and restorative practices. We are looking forward to this special day for Quinsey public schools professional staff members and special thanks of course to Dr. Perkins and the SLT and of course the QEA for supporting this um very very important event that we now hope will be an annual event. So uh last year was excellent so was the year before. We have the same expectation for this year as well. Uh also on that day, uh and we're excited about this, later that same day, 250 educators will be recognized in the ceremony at Quincsey High School for having achieved professional educator status. Um this event was last held,

047believe it or not, in 2019 and due to co and other considerations. It has been delayed up to this year. But we are happy to uh inform you that we will reinstating this tradition for this cohort of educators and it will be for all educators who were not recognized from 2019 to the president. Again, that's approximately 250 educators. So, we're looking forward to that event after the professional day of learning. So, thank you for everyone involved in putting that event together. The QPS music department update uh will be deferred until the next meeting. information is pending on upcoming events such as the Micah Festival and other festivals. So, we did not want to give you inaccurate information. So, we will have that information for you at the next meeting. Again, the Micah information and other

048festival information is uh currently delayed for various reasons. So, we'll give you that accurate information at the next meeting. Thanks to Commissioner Paul Hines and the city of Quinsey's public buildings department for securing grants for new energy efficient lighting at the Monontlair Elementary School. This is really amazing and of course as you know we've been doing this at various schools throughout the district. In particular at Montlair, the total project cost is $93,000 with National Grid contributing $ 39,000 in a green communities grant of 33,000 leaving a balance of 21,000 for the city. Um the work is expected to be completed in the summer of 2026 and will save the city over $800 per month at current electric rates. So that's that's great. The updated Quinsey Public Schools language access plan was recently posted on the

049QPS website and is also available translated into Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, and Vietnamese. The language access plan outlines the services and supports available to help families who need who need interpretation services or translation services so they can fully engage with staff and district resources. Recognizing the rich rich language diversity in our community, Quincsey Public Schools is committed to providing resources in multiple languages to facilitate effective two-way communication. And again, thank you to the SLT members who helped facilitate all of those efforts. Recent Quinsey Public Schools events, the first ELPAC meeting of the school year was held last week on October 1st on Zoom with a record-breaking participation of over 200 parents and guardians. Several parents have expressed interest in becoming involved in the ELPAC board, which is great. So, we're looking forward to seeing the continuing

050growth of this important educational partnership group as we move forward. The city of Quinsey officially broke ground yesterday on the new Squanum Elementary School. The ceremony was extremely well attended by city officials, school leaders, project partners, students, families, and community members. Uh, Mayor Tom Ko led the ceremony with opening remarks followed by Mary Pachetti, executive director of the Massachusetts School Building Authority, State Representative Bruce, School Committee Vice Chair Tina Cahill, W 6 Council William Harris, and of course myself, grade five student council members along with assistant superintendent Dr. Erin Perkins and principal Steve Sylvia participated in the unveiling of the contents of a time capsule that was sealed in the cornerstone of the school's 1947 edition. Inside, as um was indicated at open form, were two newspapers dated July 1947, the Boston Herald and the

051Quinsey Patriot Ledger. Unfortunately, the Quinsey Sun was not represented, >> but maybe next time. Uh, a handwritten letter from then Superintendent Paul Garzard and other historical documents relating to the city and school committee were also enclosed. Following the ceremony, dignitaries gathered in front of the historic 1919 school facade to participate in the traditional groundbreaking ceremony with demolition of the existing building nearly complete, which is amazing. foundation excavation for the new state-of-the-art Squad Elementary School is set to begin within the next week which is amazing on actually I think they're ahead of schedule uh which is great news. So thank you everyone for your participation yesterday in that great event. Next is the upcoming Quinsey public schools and city of Quinsey events. North Quinsey High School and Quinsey High School student support services are hosting the

052annual QPS college fair for parents and students in grades 11 and 12 on Thursday, October 9th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. in the North Quinsey High School gymnasium. Representatives from over 70 colleges, universities, and career and technical schools will be in attendance to share information about their degree and certificate programs. So, thank you for everyone who helped it put that um event together. Fall middle school athletics are well underway with co cross country and tennis meets sk scheduled throughout the month of October. The city championship meet for cross country will be held on Thursday, October 23rd at 3:30 p.m. at Pageant Field. in the city championship matches for tennis will be held on Saturday, October 25th, starting at 9:00 am at the Quinsey High School courts. Lastly, October is fire prevention month, and thanks to

053the Quinsey Fire Department, our elementary school students have been engaging in fun and educational activities to learn about fire safety at home and at school. The fire department is also hosting an open house on Saturday, October 25th from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the 115 Cresant Street training location. So, with that, um, that ends the superintendent's report. >> It's a lot. Thank you for your patience. Sure. >> Quick question for you. Um, Mr. movie. Uh so the college fair um on this Thursday uh is there a list of schools that are going to be in attendance there that students can access and families can access? >> Yes, there will be a list of schools. >> How can how can parents find that? >> Um so uh the schools will have them, but we can

054also post it on our website as well. >> That would be great. I think that would be great just to head to make sure if if a student's interested in a particular school and they're there, that would be great. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next on the agenda is old business, which there is none. New business, we have a presentation, health services program improvement plan. Miss How Huer Hower, >> how are we saying that? Huer. I knew that. [Applause] gonna read with my new eyes. See if they work. Good evening, superintendent and members of the school committee. Thank you for having me and supporting nursing services in our schools. I would like to take this time to review the health services team goals from the 2425 school year and to share our team goals for

055the 2526 school year. Our nursing team worked to educate stu staff, students and families in the prevention of infectious diseases with our focus that was on the spread of illnesses such as measles, streptoccus and stafylocus infections as well as respiratory viruses by creating a schoolwide public health campaign. Newsletters were sent home, bulletin boards were utilized to provide information and nurses taught students on an individual basis. When the students visited the health office, there were 123,744 health office visits last school year. So, that was a lot of teaching that they were able to accomplish. Um, we recognize that one of the most important things a school nurse can do is to increase school attendance rates by using their skilled nursing assessments to keep students in school when they're deemed healthy enough to stay at school. Our

056professional development meetings focused on enhancing our nursing assessment skills regarding cardiac and respiratory assessments. We also attended a class to get reertified in basic life support for the healthcare provider. As we enter the 2526 school year, one of our goals, as listed on page nine, is to help decrease chronic absenteeism by educating our community about the importance of staying upto-date on immunizations that are required for school in order to help prevent the spread of vaccinereventable illnesses. By targeting immunization compliance, we're aiming to reduce illness related absences and support improved student attendance and wellness in our schools. Some of the initiatives will include a staff training um the first week of school. So, that was already done. The guidelines and information for healthy school year. It's a more newsletter that goes home. It also gets posted

057on the website that goes out the first week of school. Um, people are still accessing that as well. So, nurses send home notices to the parents or guardians of students who are not up to date with their Massachusetts immunization required vaccines. Um, we track those immunizations utilizing the electronic health record, SNAP. Um, that is connected also to the Massachusetts immunization registry. So, that helps us um keep things up to date. Each school is hosting an on-site flu clinic. Uh there have been dates that are posted at the schools. They're sending out flyers at each school. Um the high school level, we will also be able to offer the maninja coakle ACWY for those 16 and older. Um and that is in partnership with Walgreens. Individualized health teaching is always provided to our students and to

058family and staff as well. Bulletin boards are designed with colorful messages reinforcing the importance of vaccinations and what illnesses are vaccinereventable. Um we'll communicate as always with the community health department when there is some infectious disease outbreaks. Um, so this year during our professional development, as I have listed on page 10, we'll be learning and putting into practice the changes in the updated Massachusetts regulation 105 CMR210, which is the administration of medications in public and non-public schools. We will learn about the medical aspects of what's called PANS or PANDIS in schools so we can update our medical knowledge base. and we will be learning how to utilize the new version of our electronic health system, SNAP, which is going to a version five. Its appearance is completely different and will be a a challenge, but

059we're ready. Um, we will continue our day of vision initiative listed on pages 10 and 11 in partnership with Manet Community Health Center, King Optical, and the Lions Club of Quinsey. Last school year, we ran this program on two different dates to address the low response to the completion of the vision referral process. In the completion is measured by the parent sending in the referral completed by the eye doctor that you know or the hearing specialist that the child has been seen and either needs treatment or doesn't need treatment. Um, so the low rate, it's been an ongoing issue as far as people bringing those referrals back, not only in QPS, but you know, across all of our communities in the state. And it's unknown as to why that is. Um, but we're happy to

060give our students the opportunity to be able to um receive a comprehensive eye exam at Manet Community Health Center on a given date. Dr. Gan Hopkins, Dr. Dr. Ben Stra at Manet in partnership with King Optical and the Lions Club and the QPS nurses are hoping to increase the number of students who access vision care services. After a student had their vision exam with the eye doctor um if they take part in this program, if it was determined that prescription glasses would be needed, the student could pick out their glasses um the frames. They pick out their frames right there. The Lions Club will provide financial help if needed. And when the glasses prescription are ready, the parents can choose to either pick it up at Manet or Manet will send it to the student

061school and the school nurse will get that um pair of glasses to the student. Manet had translators available. So last year we had 28 families make use of the program. The previous year there were only 10. So we're we're moving in the right direction. 19 of the students who had their eye exam needed glasses and they all got them. So that was great. Um we hope to see more families using the program this year and our first date is November 12th. So parents, please be on the lookout for referral letters uh from your school nurses. And if they could bring that referral letter to Manet, that helps Manet to communicate back to the QPS nurses that we've completed the circle of care. Um, let's see. Mass Healthy Smiles, our dental health program initiative is coming

062back to our schools again this year. They provide cleanings, sealants, and fluoride treatments to our students. If students require treatment beyond this, then the hygienist will refer out students and connect them with local dentists for ongoing dental care. There were 817 students treated by the hygienist last year. All of the students received at least one cleaning and one fluoride treatment. 491 students received a second cleaning and 540 had a second fluoride treatment. There were 1,37 dental sealants applied. Those are to individual teeth. So, not, you know, students, but individual teeth. And there's a a protocol for what they have to do to apply the sealants. According to Mass Healthy Smiles, we still had a far higher participation rate than they typically see in most school districts, which was the same as last year when we

063used them. Um, you should have a copy of the program outcome that was provided to me by the hygienist, Jackie Ventura. Um, and that is in the appendix. It goes into more detail. So, starting on page 16 is the appendix. It includes a link and a couple examples of the PowerPoint presentation that we offer to staff, the healthy guidelines more newsletter link. Um the link is there that parents can use to um towards meeting the health services goals. The data from our 2425 end of the year report on page 17 in the appendix reflects how much work it takes the nurses to keep our community safe and healthy. As I said before, there were 123,744 student encounters. This is up from 105,928 in the 2324 school year. I'm going to go back to the 2122

064school year, which was my first year in this position, and there were 75,870 visits to the nurse's office. So over the course of three years, it's a 38.6% increase in the utilization of nursing services in our school district. Of the UN Sorry, I think it echoed back. Sorry. Um, of the encounters that we saw, the 123,000, 118, 596 students were returned to class after visiting the health office. So, it's a an approximate 95.8% return to class rate, which is up from 95.1% last year and 93.3 the year before. This clearly demonstrates the impact that school nurses have on keeping students in school and supporting good attendance. There were 24 diagnosed head injuries which occurred during school sports um or in school activities and there were 31 that occurred during other activities outside of school. So

065we are we have more outside of school than inside and that is um true as of last year as well. School nurses work closely with students who've been diagnosed with concussions. They collaborate with the student, parents, primary care providers, and school staff to monitor the medical management of the student and work with the school staff to adjust the students academic schedules when necessary. There were 13,76 scheduled doses of prescription medications administered. This is an increase of 1,18 doses from the previous year. There were 8,830 additional medication doses administered and these are the as needed medications. This shows an increase of 92 doses in a year. As needed medications include not only Tylenol, Motrin and Tums for which we have standing orders for but include prescriptions that parents may have brought in uh requested by the

066parent and the family doctors. It should be noted though we do not as a first line of treatment give a student or push any medications as the first line. We always go back to kind of the old school of ice, heat, rest. try those options first. Um, relaxation techniques, things like that. There were 18,999 documented nursing communications to parents or guardians regarding student health issues, 8,611 nursing communications with school staff, 971 documented communications with community agencies. There are six QPS nurses on staff who are certified CPR instructors. We do continue to offer CPR AED classes to our staff throughout the school year. We certified 89 staff members in the nursing team. Others may have gotten certification elsewhere, but they are not required to let us know, you know, when they were certified, where they were

067certified. So that is the number that we have um trained as a nursing staff with the help of Brewster ambulance. The matter of heart initiative resulted in all eighth grade students learning handsonly CPR. So it was approximately 700 students in five days that learned CPR. This initiative will still continue in the 2526 school year as an inschool program teaching handsonly CPR. As you can see, our nurses are working diligently to provide quality nursing care to our community, and we are committed to keeping healthy children in school. Thank you for your time and support. >> Thank you. >> Great. Thank you so much for this. I'm a big fan of everything you do. I think this is amazing. Your nurses do a great job. So, thank you so much. Um, just a couple questions. um the

068um immunizations. Do we uh do you have access to having the um family liaison come and help you at any time if you need translation or anybody to come with you for that? >> We use we use the um translation services. We have the language access line. We use those services. We have some of our letters are translated as well and when needed, you know, we definitely reach out. >> Okay, great. um in the um dental program. So the students that don't take part in that, do you know if they have a dentist that they're already currently seeing or if they're just not aware of the program or not understanding what it's offering? >> So we don't collect that information. What the program it's not an additional program. So the for your dental insurance you

069get two treat you know two cleanings a year. Some of the students with Mass Health can't find a Mass Health dentist. So, this will take, you know, place of that finding the Mass Health dentist. They help them plug in to a regular dental home. Um, I think that when it first started, a lot of people thought that this was extra, you know, so I could get four cleanings a year instead of two, but you can only get two. And we do get a lot of forms filled back and some parents will say no, they won't don't want the treatment, but we're not collecting that information. The dentist comes, picks up all the forms and goes through everybody to see who's eligible. So some students aren't eligible um whether private insurance, Mass Health, doesn't matter. Um

070if they've already received their two cleanings for the year. So that's kind of how they determine who gets the treatment, who doesn't. >> Okay. somebody who was saying no, I don't want it, but didn't understand that they and their child wasn't getting it someplace else. You wouldn't have any. >> Most of them fill out on the form like do you It asks, "Do you have a dental home? Do you you know, the nurses aren't really going through them piece by piece. That's what the the dentist is doing. They're trying not to put a lot of it on the nursing just, you know, because they have so much else that they're doing. The dentist comes, they pick up all the forms and they let us know, okay, you have x number of students. These are the

071students who qualified, who don't have a dental home, who need treatment. >> Okay, great. Thank you very much. You're welcome. >> Perfect. >> Our nursing staff is a valuable component to our uh the health of our kids and uh you're doing a great job. Thank you. Um, I'm glad to see that the CPR is still ongoing as I suggested this years ago and um, glad it's continuing. U, and I just want to bring up you and I spoke uh, probably 2023 about something that's sabotaged on TV. It's a life vac >> um system that um appears to be uh something that works to stop children from choking on something. >> Uh and I asked you why doesn't don't we have it in the public schools? >> Can you uh edify the >> Sure. >> community

072about what's going on? >> Sure. So nurses have licenses given by the board of registration in nursing and we can only train people based on things that are FDA approved. The life fact is not FDA approved at this point. So the nurses would not be able to train people to use it. That that is really the ongoing thing. the FDA has um registered it which is different than FDA approval. Um we are also American Heart Association as I said CPR certified. The American Heart Association does not authorize to teach as well about that. They go with the abdominal thrusts. So our hands are tied a little bit on that end as far as training staff. So if you were to have it in the schools, who would provide the training because it would go against

073our lure to do that? And you know, if if they approve it, I I'm sure we would be right on board with training it. >> So it's been an ongoing issue at at the federal level. >> It has, >> not the local, >> right? >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, so Miss Huard, I just the your department is amazing. We have an amazing staff um at every school. Uh, the nursing staff is top-notch. Uh, the resources that you guys give to your staff that they and then turn on um for for the kiddos and the and the families is great. I don't know how many districts have the extras like the vision program and the dental program, but um you know, not only that, but healthy eating, healthy habits, um and all the

074rest that you're that the health department does are fantastic. Uh in the elementary school, I know it's not just they don't just see the kiddos when they come down to the nurse's office. They go in and teach different different things, the my plate and things like that. So, um it's huge what you guys do. It's it's just such a critical um element. Um, so thank you for that. Um, I wanted to talk to you about a concern that I'm not sure how you feel about it, but I feel like you guys are in a tough spot where you're balancing um, the push to kind of combat chronic absenteeism, getting kids back to class. We know attendance matters. We're going to be hearing about that next. We know um, the state's really looking at that. We

075know it's important for our kids to be in school, but it's also important to keep our kids healthy. Um, and we don't want to be sending kids back to school if they're genuinely sick. I mean, if they're coughing and they're spreading it to their peers. Um, so I must imagine you're h you have a tough balancing act to sort of do that. And so your number of student encounters versus your return to class rate. While I'm glad it does show efficiency that your staff is, you know, working to solve those problems, it does concern me a little bit that the higher the rate of return to class is, the more potentially, you know, contagious with just cold symptoms that we're sending back into the classroom and just kiddos that just aren't feeling good. So, are

076they in a place that they're ready to learn that material if they're really just, you know, maybe not so sick with a fever that they have to go home, but they're just really not there. Um, so I feel a little uncomfortable with the with that push to keep kids in school, but knowing you also want to prove your, you know, effectability as as staff to do that. So, I don't know if you want to discuss that at all. um you know maybe that and then I'll just ask my second question but if you want to discuss that at all. >> Sure. Sure. So you know the pressure that a school nurse feels when a teacher walks in and says this child doesn't feel good send them home. The nurse then has to do their thorough

077assessment based on a medical assessment. So medically there are guidelines that we follow and assessments that we follow. If they're in the guideline that they stay home then they go home. If they're within the guidelines of they're well enough to stay at school and don't need to be excluded from school, then our first option is they go back to class. That's not a medically excused absence. If the child continues to return, they may not be ready to learn. They may not be sick enough, you know, where you have to send them home. Then it becomes a parent choice, right? So now you can't medically excuse that child. They didn't meet that guideline. Yet you can still reach out to the parent. You can still say to the parent, "Hey, this is the third time they

078came to me today. They don't have the fever. They don't and we give the parent the generalized nursing description. You know, you're not going to get the full indepth description. It would take way too long with the number of kids we see. But um and then it's a parent choice at that point. you know, the kid could be coming down with something. They're not quite there yet. Um, I don't know how. >> Yeah. No, that that's helpful. I guess I just um I do worry about the, you know, a kiddo that's gone to the nurse's office. I don't know how comfortable they're going to feel saying again, I still don't feel good. I want to go back. But so I just feel at some point um I wonder if the parent outreach not that I

079want more work on the plate of any of the nurses because they're doing so much. But um where I see there's uh 19 basically 19,000 communications with parents versus the 123,000 encounters you see that's you know it's only 10% of the time you're reaching out to families. So, I just wonder if some of these kiddos I I wonder if there should be a, you know, more of a parent like my kiddo's really never sick, so if they're saying they're sick, maybe maybe I'd rather them come home and I'd rather know about it the first or second time they come down as opposed to the third or fourth. Is there >> How do you feel about that? >> Typically, it's the second time they come down. And I will tell you like that number of parent

080communications truly doesn't reflect the number of communications because of the templates that we use in our SNAP program. There might be, you know, they scraped a knee. We're not going to call a parent for that. Yet something else is going on and then we called a parent and we didn't add that piece into the SNAP template so it's not captured. >> Okay. >> Um >> yeah. No, I'm sure I'm sure everyone does a great job and like I say, I know it must be a tough balancing act to sort of do that. I just um you know I I don't want it to be such a push to get kids back in class that we're we're sending kids back that really really don't want to be there and I know parents you know know a

081lot with their kids about whether or not are they just using that as an excuse or are you know were they really not feeling great going in and maybe you know try it for the day and if you're not feeling good you can come home but if they don't know that the kiddos come down once you know sometimes that communication gets lost so I just I don't want to be so hard on pushing back into the class that we're you know risking the kiddo not learning and you know infecting all the other kids in the class with another cold and now we've got tons of people out or the teachers you know >> the increase that you're seeing in the percentage rate is really starting to come back to the preandemic levels is that's where

082we're at good so you know that that's why you're seeing that >> thank you thank you for um discussing it makes me feel a little bit more comfortable thank you >> welcome >> thanks miss kahill yep >> so thank you so much for this it's an incredible amount of work. It really is. I just have a question pertaining to what Mrs. Pertios was just saying. If you're the student who thinks you you get a feeling that they're not really sick, but they don't want to go back to class because something's bothering them. You have other resources you can use like the school adjustment counselors and the guidance counselor. And I'm sure you do that. >> Yep. We use them all the time. I didn't capture in here into these but we have a lot of

083students who they don't fall under that return to class number but they've re been referred you know so there's a number of students that are referred to guidance and then we don't know from there >> because there's many reasons a student might want to go back to class maybe it's just that one class in the next period they'll be fine so I know I know we have those resources so I just wanted to make sure that people understood that you were using them >> yes >> thank you Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> We need a motion to approve the plan. Motion by Mrs. Hubley, second by Mr. Begley. All in favor? >> I I Okay. >> Approved. Thank you. Thank you. Next on the agenda, we have the QPS initiative of attendance

084matters with Dr. Perkins and Mr. Morani. >> Thank you very much. Um, we're excited to be here today uh following Andrea's presentation about uh the work that we've been doing on the district-wide attendance matters campaign. Um we we think we've actually had a really great kickoff to this campaign this year and the principles and everyone have been amazing. Mike um the entire team, Katie Delaney, Ryan Mcuade from QAV, everybody's really come together to, you know, try to work on this campaign and make um coming to school as positive as as we can for our students and our families. And so with that, I know that you all at your places have some of our swag that um you know, don't tell the kids. We're going to be using them as prizes. So, we have our

085attendance matters bracelets and um our t-shirts that we'll be giving out. So, Mr. Morani will talk a little bit about what we'll be doing with that, but some of the the st the the students and families who have participated, we really want to recognize that community involvement and um highlight it moving forward. So, we hope you'll wear it with pride and uh advertise that we want everyone here and um we're excited when they when they're here with us. So, what we're going to talk about today, um, we'll just, you know, kind of go through our our message, which I I will repeat pretty much what I just said. Um, talk about we we spent pretty much the whole summer um or or a good amount of the summer working to update the uh the website

086page so that we had all of the resources. You know, when we presented the new high school policy to you last year, um we heard loud and clear that it really needed to be explicitly explained to families and there needed to be materials and resources available. So, we think we've done a really great job of put creating that on the website. Um and so, we'll share that with you and go through that. Um we'll talk a little bit about the multi-tered systems of support that we have in place. So although we do, you know, we have the new high school policy that does talk about the credit reduction, our first line of defense is a multi-tered system of support. And so, uh, we we want to talk a little bit about that and some of

087the resources again that are available on the website for parents to look at. We will just review for everyone out there listening the new high school attendance policy just to remind people of what that is as we're kind of smack dab in the middle of the first term of high school. And we've as you've I'm sure you've seen on Facebook and Instagram and all of those places that we have really really tried hard. We're going to continue to try hard to encourage a district-to-school connection and also community engagement. Um, that's been something we've felt really passionately about and we'll talk a little bit about what we've done and what we plan to continue to do moving forward. So, just a a quick summary. This is our message that we have or part of our message

088that we also have on the Quincsey Public Schools website. But basically, you know, our feelings around attendance are that consistent attendance, it doesn't have to be perfect attendance, but consistent attendance help students keep pace with their learning, engage fully in their class activities, and develop habits that prepare them for future success. So, what we're really asking for is for families and um and students to partner with us in making attendance a top priority. So really making um that effort to you know make make attendance and coming to school one of our number one priorities as we move forward through the school year. Um we're we're we're hoping to develop partnerships with families so that although we have some new policies in place and we have a lot of new information available. Parents feel that this

089is a partnership and that we're here to support them when their student is having attendance struggles. That's what we we want to do. We want to support our families and we want to support our students because we we really want them here. So, um this page just shows you a little bit about the uh the new web page. So, if you haven't taken a look at it, I would highly recommend that you do. I think it it came together really really well. Um, and so the homepage has kind of the summary that I just went over quickly with you about what our message is around uh, positive attendance and it also has our news feed. So as we add new videos, the the news feed updates on the website as well. Um, and so that's

090been a really nice feature. So we and we we do have the history there of all of the videos and information that we've posted so far. Uh it also has a section that talks about um the multi-tered system of supports um that I mentioned. There's templates on there um for you know different uh levels of support that you know we'll talk about in a minute. Um so lots of resources resources on that page that like absolutely explain what a multi-tered system of support is and what it looks like in the schools. Uh a way to monitor attendance. So, there's a section on there that helps parents if you if you're not aware of how to monitor your students attendance on Aspen. There is um that section is on the website and uh credit recovery information.

091I know that this was something that the committee, you know, expressed to us last year that we really need to include specific information around credit recovery. So, we actually did upload a credit recovery plan uh template that the schools will use. Uh and we're we're as explicit as we could be about what those different options could look like on the page called credit recovery. Um we also highlight the appeals process on the website. We do have the attendance policy is available, the new policy, um excused versus unexcused, what that looks like. And we do have some more to come on that. We're we're working on some fun videos that we'll be releasing soon on what excused versus unexcused are and we will high we'll thank Lincoln Hancock in advance for uh being willing to participate

092in that and do that for us. So we'll stay tuned for that. Um and then we have a section about what happens when absences add up. We have information on tardy and dismissal procedures and we also have FAQs. And I will say the FAQ, the frequently asked question section is a living area of the website. It really all is and as we get, you know, people express concerns or ask questions. You know, we'll we'll go back and we'll tweak the the website to make it as accessible and user friendly as possible. But the FAQs we are updating. So, as we get questions, we just added another question the other day that had come to us. Um and and Katie Delaney is working on putting that up on the website. So as we get questions that

093we don't have on the website right now, we will add them up there because if one family's asking it, chances are probably another family wants to know it as well. >> Um and so uh just a little section on the multi-tered system of support. So this is the chart that we created to highlight what that means in terms of attendance and it is available on the website and it does have um templates there as well. So I'm going to go from the bottom up. So the tier one is the schoolwide campaign or in our case right now the district-wide campaign which is our attendance matters campaign. So that's it's appropriate for everyone. Everyone can participate. We've asked all of the schools not only to participate in our uh attendance matters campaign but also to have

094those tier one interventions at their schools um and really you know daily monthly as they have assemblies you know incorporate what we're doing and what they were already doing but really highlighting that in a positive way. um you know giving prizes, promoting awareness, giving incentives, um highlighting kids who've really improved in terms of attendance. So all of those things and so available on our website is we do have a tier one attendance framework that if someone was interested, you know, and what does that mean and what could that look like and what are some of the things that our schools are doing that is available on our website. Tier 2, we have uh for students who are missing 12 or more school days. So those are students who are not quite yet considered chronically absent

095but they are in danger of becoming chronically absent. So this is where we would um institute a more personalized approach. It would be individualized for the student. They could be on an individualized attendance contract which we have a sample of what that looks like linked to the website for a parent that wants to look at it. Uh we would be meeting you know with the the student and the parents and guardians. we would be doing check-in checkout systems. Um another example is we have had attendance mentors and attendance liaison particularly at the high school level where the the teachers um met with the students they went on an attendance plan and then they met with the student once a week and checked in set individual goals things like that. We had great success with that

096last year. Um and uh tier three is our most intensive and so this is for students who are missing 20 days or more of school. So these are the students are who are considered chronically absent. We also have the a framework available for to you know show some of the interventions that would typically happen for a student who is in that tier three bucket. And this is typically when we're working with deans, we're working with the attendance officers, we're working with guidance counselors. um we may be connecting them with outside agencies for things like counseling um th those kinds of things and really working with that family um you know to pretty much do whatever we can to get that student back engaged in school. And so that's in a in a brief nutshell our

097multi-tered system of support. And if anyone is interested I would just highly recommend go to the website. We've got lots of resources on there and if anyone has any questions obviously, you know, feel free to reach out. So, we wanted to just remind people of the new high school policy um because it is, you know, getting to be the middle of uh the term and it's October now and you know um the the colds are coming into season and things like that. So, we wanted to just highlight the difference between excused and unexcused. So to be excused after a third absence in a marking period, that is when the attendance policy kicks in. So the attendance policy would not kick in until the fourth absence. So the student has to be absent for uh three

098times that are not considered excused. But to be excused, a student must have professional documentation such as a note from a doctor or a nurse practitioner, a physician assistant. Um if the student had a court appearance, some kind of legal legal documentation of a court appearance, a parent, if it was a funeral or some a bereavement day, um the parent could write a note just letting us know that um the student was at a funeral or whatever uh it was and we would excuse that. Um a co a college trip is also considered excused and a parent note for religious or cultural observances is also considered excused. the document the documentation should be submitted by the end of each marking period and parents can absolutely go back and get um days excused. So if it

099wasn't excused initially and a parent has a note or you know that they want to turn in then we will go back and ma mark them as excused and change that. Um so what happens when absences add up and I do just want to reiterate again that all of this is on our website. We literally took this right from our website. So if anyone has any questions, it's all available there. Um so students who uh do have attendances that the absences that are unexcused um that add up are in danger of um you know missing things like extracurricular activities such as the prom, um graduation, sports, things like that. Um four or more unexcused absences in a single marking period may result in a loss of credit of 1.2 two credits per course. Um, and

100the students who lose 15 or more credits, and this is a typo, it should say per term, and it it says years, I apologize about that, may be required to meet with the administrators and their families to develop an attendance and credit recovery plan. Um, and so we're working with the schools right now on looking at those lists to see who's falling in that bucket, what are the excuse, excused versus unexcused, and who do we need to follow up with? Um, and so just an important note is that credit loss does not impact GPA or require the course to be replaced, but it may delay graduation if credit if required credits are not recovered. And I will just say if anyone is um, you know, wants to learn more about a credit recovery, what the

101credit recovery plan would look like, again, we have tons of information on the website and we're working with principles. It could be attending a Saturday school. We're pretty specific about how many days that would even require um to make up an absence. It could be um you know participating in an attendance contract with the uh teacher and or the teachers and the school and the principal coming up with an attendance contract with steps for that student that they need to meet, you know, milestones that they need to meet in order to recover the credit. So, we have lots of different options for how um you know students can go about uh recovering credits and it's all available on the website. And with that, I will turn it over to Mr. Ronnie to talk about the

102fun stuff that we're doing. >> Thank you, Dr. Burks. I was actually just going to mention that, you know, I got I got the fun slides to share tonight. Um you know, policy is obviously important. Uh no question. Uh but the items that I'm going to share with you, they're equally as crucial because really what we want to do beyond just shifting the policy uh is continue to raise awareness around the importance of attendance. And so we're making a variety of efforts to do that and I feel uh pretty strongly that we've seen a lot of success already. And really our focus moving forward is you know how can we continue that momentum a as we go. Uh so just a couple of the things and Dr. Perkins did mention this a little bit in

103the beginning but I just want to go a little bit deeper. Um talking about those tier one interventions you know that is not a new process. Every school has had tier one interventions whether it's school assemblies making announcements on uh you know in the morning announcements celebrating the the high attendance for that day. Uh whatever it may be. What we really tried to do was create consistency uh across the district in some of the language that's being shared uh in those tier one uh interventions. And so we've started that by saying, okay, let's come up with districtwide monthly themes that we think are going to raise awareness uh around attendance, keep attendance on the radar, but also do it in a way that makes it clear we're celebrating attendance. We want this tone to be

104positive and supportive all year long. So, when we're talking about a a student who's in tier three, really struggling with attendance, that's when we're getting all sorts of support services, individualized help for those individual students as they deserve. But we also want to make it clear that whether they've never missed a day or whether they're struggling to attend or whether they're under the weather and they miss a day or two, we're happy each and every day that they're there in school. And we want to celebrate that. And so September it was an appropriate time to say okay let's make the theme be building healthy habits. In other words, how can we get out of that summer mode into school mode and what habits can we kind of uh implement individually uh to get ourselves to

105school consistently? And I'll talk a little bit about how that's shared uh throughout the district, but that is language you'll hear at every school. I was just at Athetherton not too long ago and that was absolutely posted there. you saw attendance matters everywhere you looked and you saw how do we build healthy habits uh and so and that's the case at you know all the schools uh October this current month is be here be engaged so engagement right so we really wanted to emphasize the importance of not just being present during the school day but there's so many opportunities before and after the school day we want our students to get involved in all of it um you know you talk to some students and you ask them you know like why are you happy

106to be here today now we'd love them to say oh because I love to learn math math. I love to learn science. But for some, it's to, you know, go to robotics after school. Or for some, it's, you know, because they have basketball practice that day and they're excited. And for us, it's okay. Whatever incentive we can put there to motivate you to come, we want to celebrate that and acknowledge that. And so again, that's what drives uh the engagement theme for October. Uh and then in November, so I won't go beyond November because we don't want to give too many sneak previews here, but it's obviously gratitude. a great month uh to focus on gratitude. But the idea is how can we express gratitude in being together as a community, right? And that's so

107important. And you know, I think it's easy if a if a student has a test the next day, they're not necessarily looking forward to that test. Some might be, but if it was me, I wasn't. Uh so, but the reality is we want them to focus on, right, but you're taking that test in a classroom filled with some of your buddies, and that's a fun experience. So, let's focus on all that we can be grateful for as we're here together each day as a community. So, we're really driving that message through social media. I'll talk a little bit about that in the next few slides. And as I mentioned, that's creating the mechanism in which you're seeing a lot of the common language across the schools. And uh the other piece there is school visits.

108So, we are absolutely planning on visiting some schools probably by the end of next week celebrating the students who engaged in the September theme. I'll talk about the October challenge, but we had a bunch of students submit photos and videos of uh their ways of building healthy habits. So, those students, I I I don't want to say names and I don't want to say when because we want the surprise element there, but they're going to be getting called down, getting some Quinsey swag, some great prizes, some of which uh you received this evening. So, again, we're just trying to build in those incentives to say you're here. We're excited that you're here and we're celebrating that you're here and we're we're here to help you. And so, that's what we'll be doing across the district.

109So, a lot of fun things. As I said, I got the fun slides. Um and then you know shifting gears so a lot of the themes that I just mentioned you know September, October, November and beyond um these are conveyed in a variety of ways. So as Dr. Perkins mentioned we have a pretty robust uh updated web page. Um I highlighted support and solutions and the FAQ page because truly we are looking at we're looking for more inquiries. We're looking for more feedback because we can update those pages as more needs arise. And so it's something where we feel like we've got a great start to it, but we absolutely plan on building that out even further as more needs arise. So we're very proud of that. And I do just want to convey that

110we intentionally made the web page very simple to go for go to. So when it's quincseyublicschools.comattendance matters. So a lot of times you see links and they've got all sorts of like codes in there. We wanted it to be very simple so that if somebody wanted to look it up, they could easily type it in, go right to the web page. uh the social media campaign. I'm going to say that's the that's kind of the star of tonight's presentation. Um I have to I I know Dr. Perkins did, but I have to thank uh Katie Delaney, Ryan McUade. They are the the driving force between getting the content together, making it look so polished and then putting it out there in the social media channels. I am very very excited to go over the next

111few slides because I get to give you a little bit of data of the engagement that we've seen. uh but the content is in the form of QPS staff videos. So I have to acknowledge the members of SLT, the the staff throughout all the schools, the administration throughout all the schools. I know September I think it was uh Sarah Dufour from the food services, Andrea Huer from the health office along with members from their teams talking about ways to help establish healthy habits. Right? So again, just sending that message over and over and over again throughout from a variety of people with a variety of perspectives and of course the student family videos and pictures which are shared throughout social media which we include uh in the news feed that Dr. Perkins mentioned. So you'll

112see that on attendance matters on that homepage there. And then we also have the monthly newsletters. So so far there have been two uh that have gone out. one for going into September and then one recently uh for September and October. So essentially the the the basic structure of that is we're looking at the previous month. So we're acknowledging the students who participated. So those images that you see there, those were all people sending those images to us in their participation. Um and so you know we're we include them in the newsletter highlighting them because we're certainly grateful that they're participating. We need their participation. We also in in that newsletter talk about the new theme. So the theme for that month which again for October is um engagement and then tips and resources. So

113we will try to include helpful information. You know you think kind of the more obvious ones are as you start to get into cold and flu season, right? Different ways to stay healthy, different ways to uh take care of yourself, guidelines around when you should come to school, when you shouldn't. Um and so there's a lot there within that monthly newsletter as well. Uh so a lot being done and the data around the social engagement. So I was shocked. I knew it was good. Uh we we knew that uh the this all kind of kicked off when we did the school year countdown, right? When we had every school along with SLT and thank you all school committee members along with our mayor for participating as well. Uh we had a countdown the last 20

114days of the summer preparing for the school year. Um, and you know, we knew we were going to continue on throughout the year. We knew it wasn't just going to end there, but we really were tasked with the challenge of, oh, wow, this was this was significant. A lot of people engaged, a lot of people participated. We have to keep that momentum going. So, it was a little bit nerve-wracking because it's how, you know, it's tricky to do, right? It's hard to get people invested for a long period of time. But uh I'm happy to say that just in the last 21 days, so a little bit towards the end of the summer and a little bit towards the beginning of this school year, we saw uh approximately 492% increase in just the overall views.

115And I should just say that this is general uh social media campaign channels. So it's through Facebook, it's Instagram, it's the combination. Um so again, o over 200,000 views in just the previous 21 days in our in our channels. uh interactions I mean under you know 1700% approximately uh in terms of uh the increase in interaction. So that's people who aren't just viewing it, but they're either liking it, they're adding a comment, and it's really great because you see community interacting with one another, celebrating uh you know, these some of the stuff that these kids are showing us. They're daily brushing their teeth in the morning, getting ready, right? Walking to school together, those little things that are happening. Uh and certainly, you know, I got to acknowledge all the principles who over the summer

116made their videos, which again kind of piqued everybody's interest and I think kicked this off in an effective way. But the other number which I think presents as small only because it's compared right the interaction 3,400 reactions over 200,000 views. And so we look at the follows as 112. It almost seems minuscule comparatively but the truth is that's that's over aundred people who have said oh okay this is stuff I want to continue to see. And so now they're just going to get alerted every time that information is posted. That's up 409%. So a couple highlights. Um, just to show you the impact that just a single image can have. I mean, this adorable little girl over here, there's no question that it went viral, but that that post on Instagram, uh, a little over

1176,200 views. And I do just want to add that graph there, it's hard to see. That's over seven days only. So those views are not the lifetime of that post. That's seven days of that post. So I would guess if we were to check that post now, uh, it's probably gone up. So again, just under 6,300 views on that Instagram post. Uh so thank you to that student uh for giving us great uh great content. The numbers keep climbing. So when we look at a recent Facebook post, this was posted on September 19th. We had 19,536 views, uh 159 interactions, all within seven days. So, we're just seeing those numbers climb, which is fantastic. And I should add, too, that it's attendance matters that's driving this campaign, but at the same time, these are our

118social media channels. So, it's bringing more people in so that even if it's a notice that we need to send out that has nothing to do with the attendance matters initiative, it's just getting more people looking at it and it just builds that form of communication, makes it stronger along the way. And last but not least, I had to save this for last. So there, this is a Facebook post. It was posted uh I believe on September 3rd. Um and so this had a total of 19 pictures. So it's across different schools. It's all students who submitted uh pictures. We had just under 35,000 views of this post, which truly I I almost didn't believe it. I had to double check it a few times because in no way did I think we would, you

119know, have something go that viral. But again, it just kind of emphasizes um the buzz around this. And for our intents and purposes, we're trying to just keep attendance on the radar. We're trying to do it in a positive way, in a supportive way, but we're trying to keep it on the radar. And so far, I feel uh pretty strongly that we've been effective in those efforts. So, um, thank you to everybody who submitted their images. And so, for October, so if people are wondering how to get some of those incentives, I will plug it, uh, during this this meeting here. So, students, families, and staff, uh, if you would like to submit an image, a video of participating, whether it's a a game, a music lesson, art class, drama rehearsal, whatever it may be,

120an activity that you love to do, send it to attendance matters at Quinsey Public Schools. The first 20 will receive some of those prizes. And the prizes we gave today are just some of them. They are not all of them. So, we hope to see people participate because that's just going to keep that awareness uh at the at the top of uh people's list. So, again, we look forward to October, the rest of October. And you know I I want to kind of end this just by saying you know we h now have the task of maintaining this momentum of monitoring the attendance making sure that it is effective and and encouraging students uh to attend school making sure they're healthy enough to attend school and supporting them not just in September not October but

121each and every day throughout the school year. And you know our goal is to remind everybody that in Quinsey public schools learning lives here. So we hope to see you here. So with that, we welcome any feedback or questions that you might have. >> Okay, >> Mr. Gutro. >> Thank you. Um, love the campaign. The buzz is real. I was I I was waiting. I thought the last slide was going to say September 2025 attendance versus September 2024 attendance. >> What's the results? >> Go ahead. Well, we looked we did look at that and I'll I'll let Mike So, you know, I think it's it I just don't think there's enough data yet for us to we haven't been in school enough time because when we look at chronic absenteeism, you know, if you if

122you were out two days, then you're going to be considered chronically absent for September. So, I don't think it's really an accurate picture of the impact. So, we went back and forth about it. >> Yeah. And so, we we did take a look at data. So I I just want to add some of the data. It's it's the attendance is strong in that it's 96 97%. >> And what was it last year? >> Uh in in that same range, right? Because again it's ear it's it's a tricky month to really assess this. So when we looked at that we we agreed that you know we're going to continue to look at it each month but I think what when we'll really start to get a picture of the impact I think we'll be for high

123school at the end of quarter one >> you know we'll start to see that. Uh what I can say is we did look at um unexcused absences uh students who had three or more and students who had five or more and in in both schools and in both cases those numbers went down. The issue is if you were to just do a percent because there aren't that many days within the school year. We're talking a difference between two days out, zero days out, three days out. But in in those cases when you look at that data, the the numbers went in the right direction. So so far we're on the right track. I just don't think it's going to convey uh the p a detailed picture yet. I think in a couple months we'll be

124able to. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Good, >> Mrs. Lebo. >> Thank you. >> This is great. It's a great presentation. Your enthusiasm is amazing. Um it really is amazing. So, if the kids are feeling that from you guys and the teachers, it's going to it's going to be remain positive. But it's incredible work. Um you must be exhausted to be this excited this long. We've had a lot of We've had a lot of fun with it. It's it's been really fun to participate in and you know, we I've I'm like a nut with the social media like can't wait till the post comes out. So, you know, it's it's been fun and it's been fun to see everyone participating. >> That That's great. I really think that's great. So, congratulations on the campaign and

125I agree with um with Mike and you about the the numbers. You can't really tell until it's the end of the first term. And it's going to be a little harder with the seniors, but if we can get the young younger kids to get there, then in a few years, >> That's the hope. It is. So, thank you very much. This is great. >> Thanks. >> Thank you. Um yeah, I it's a fantastic idea and it's a lot of work and um and you guys rolled it out um you know without you were really excited about rolling it out and taking on this project and you know I'm so glad to see you still so excited about it and the engagement is great. Um agree with Mr. Gar. I'd like to see if it has

126those results, right? You want to have it make some results so that it's worth the effort. But um and thank you for addressing a lot of the concerns that I had about the attendance policy sort of on the website with all those um uh information for families. Um and this is probably a question for Mrs. Owens, but um so the community uh notices that go out every week, do we have a flyer in there that will um tell families or have a link to uh these resources online? >> Yes. So the >> newsletter newsletter is link click on it right there and we get about um between 10 and 11,000 hits on that newsletter. I've been actually sending it out every week >> this year because there's been so much going on. So, you know,

127we get also get significant views on that. >> That's great. Okay. just to make sure that we're putting it out in as many ways as we can to families because I think there's still there's going to be confusion and people are still going to be uh confused about this for a while until we're used to this. So um >> uh and I like the consistent attendance push versus a perfect attendance. I think it matters. I think um you know if there's an achievable goal, if you've already missed a day, well I'm I'm giving up, right? So consistent attendance I think is a great message. Um it makes me think of so my kids are at Quinsey High and uh their yearly theme is win the day and um every day is different, right? So if

128you didn't do something as well as you wanted to today, the next day is a new day to do that thing. So it's the same type of thing where you know am I going to get to school today? I didn't get there yesterday, but I'm going to focus on that next day. Um so I I think that ties in really well that with what my kids are hearing and what I'm hearing uh there at that school in particular. But um what I'd like to hear is um so as we're I know again it's still early days, but as we're kind of into the first quarter now, I really want to see um I'm concerned about and interested in hearing how much work the new attendance policy and the credit recovery tracking how much extra work

129that is on the staff at the high school levels. Is this this is I assume follow up to guidance or the deans to track which classes and which kiddos you know this isn't just you've missed a whole day it's that you know there's all those classes in a day how many of each one are you missing um so it's a lot of work to track that and a lot of kiddos so do we need to add additional staffing additional supports so that that so that their other duties aren't getting affected by this new tracking influx that they're needing to do it actually um I don't think it's as bad as you think because we have Aspen and the teachers take attendance for their each period. So Dan Pacho can actually run a report that and

130so it so he he literally just hand can hand the data right over to the principles um and the guidance and the deans and you know all of the people that are going to work on it. But um so they don't have to like manually track anything. the teachers take daily attendance and it you know we've asked them all they they've been doing that for a bit taking the attendance for their class periods and so then Dan um Dan runs a report periodically and you know updates them we we have it um he even created like automatic report so the principal can run it themselves or he can do it >> okay all right so I I think I just want us to keep an eye on that and just stay in contact with the

131high school principles to just make sure that >> staff feel that they're um supported enough to handle all this because it I think it is go maybe significant for them to have to figure this out for the kiddos and help them through it especially in the early days where people are still figuring it out. Um, and then I'm just we talk a lot I think we need to be careful sometimes when we talk about so the MTSS you had in here is addressing chronic absenteeism which I feel like is looked at from the whole year standpoint so it's 12 plus absences 16 plus absences but our specific new attendance policy is more on three right so you could have four unexcused absences in the first term never have another unexcused absence all year but you've

132lost credits now >> but you're not chronically absent so I think sometimes we're smooshing them together and saying chronic absenteeism is the same thing as or we're addressing them the same way where maybe um I think we just have to be careful when we do that because our attendance policy does allow for just four unexcused absences for the entire year. Um and that creates a problem for that student. Uh but it's not a chronic absenteeism problem. It's an our attendance policy problem. So, um I just think we need to be careful when we're and we still have to give supports for those kiddos that are that have just those four. >> Right. Absolutely. >> Um yeah. So, I continue to just want to watch that uh that policy, but um you know, hopefully it'll provide

133the impacts that we want it to. >> Yep. And I we can promise you if it if it becomes unmanageable or we'll be back, you know, to ask for changes. We're we're not going to let people suffer. We we you know we can we promise you that. >> Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that. Thanks, Miss Cahill. >> Just looking for the button. Why can't I find it? >> I I do have one more question. And this is not actually a question for for both of you, but I mean the metrics are there, the outreach is there. We're measuring engagement. What I'm interested in is hearing from our student representatives on is there are you know we're talking as if there's a lot of outreach but is there any discussion within the high schools uh about

134this? Is it resonating? Is it connecting with the people that it needs to connect with? And is there anything we should do differently? So that that would be my ask through you. >> Well, hello my name is Marco. I'm from North Quinsey High School. Um so pertaining to your question, um specifically in my experiences with the new attendance policy, it's overall generally positive. Um all the school staff specifically at North Quincy High School are very attentive about attendance. Um pretty much every day over the announcements at least Mr. talks about attendance does what you just mentioned where mentioning like people who had perfect attendance or it's presented like their names are all over the school just like these people are like something you should look for and it's like gives an incentive because at the

135end of the month you might get a gift and everything you just said >> great >> and beyond that um again this is the entire staff not just Mr. Gilbert. Um, we have our home room teachers, our regular AC core academic teachers. All of them really reiterate the point that we really need to be in school to learn and they really put an emphasis on it. Like we want you to be here and they want you to be open. So overall, I think it's a real generally very positive experience at North Quinsey High School and yeah, I have nothing else to comment. >> Thank you so much, Marco. It's on on this side. Is the button? Is there button? >> Hello. Okay. Um yes, I absolutely agree. I think um uh we are getting so

136much support from the teachers and the guidance as well and I think you are all doing a very good job and especially like um I love how creative it is. I remember last year we had like an a competition at Quincy High School. >> You did? >> Yeah. We were like whatever grade gets the highest attendance gets an ice cream party and my grade did win. >> It was an really good experience and yeah, I don't think I have any complaints or anything. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. I mean I I call it ground truthing you know basically to hear from you matters to us because another um you know repetition breeds awareness but is it sinking in and are we seeing it and are there results are people saying yeah you got to be

137there you know or or do you think students are saying >> yeah I better show up you know what I mean like in a different way so that's and hopefully it will be reflected in in the numbers as we over the next month or two y >> absolutely >> so thank you thank you guys for for um chiming in. Appreciate it. >> Um I did ask if they wanted to say anything and they both said no and you called you called them out out loud. >> Um but that's great and and there you go. There's proof in the pudding for you. >> Very excited to hear that. And and you know and I do want to say you know when you talk about the engagement of on um in social media that as a group

138when I first came on one of the things that we really advocated for was to bring on um like Katie Delaney to to um oversee the website and the social media and because today this is how people are getting their information and when you talk about all the engagement on the social media you know we have >> I don't know 10,000 students and you're having 30,000 um you know likes and and sharing. So we all I know I think my my colleagues probably do it. I share everything especially you know the good stuff like the one with the four kids with the backpacks and everything. I love that so much you know and um so that actually also spreads like parents like to see their kids on these um you know on these posts and

139then they get excited about it and share it with their families and things like that. But what that also brings is um a perception of you know um kids wanting to be in school >> and and when when we talk about perception you know I think at one point we were talking about perception of one of the high schools and it's a perception it's not necessarily the reality and when we can show what's really happening it ends up you know showing people that you know what we have we have good schools and the kids are thriving and they're happy and you know so it just um and maybe that is also a reflection on why pe the kids want to be there. >> So I think um the awareness campaign um even on the outside

140is really helpful and and I'm grateful that we um were able to um bring someone on so Laura Owens wasn't having to do all of it. But um thank you. Thank you for what you're doing. It's great. Thank you. Thank you kids for um chiming in. >> Okay. Oh, I'm sorry Mr. Begley. forgot I forgot I forgot you were there. Oh, sorry. >> This is a great initiative. Uh and it should be a statewide model. >> Thanks. >> Uh it really can be. Um I have some questions about um uh the attendance. Some kids, a lot of our kids uh have to get themselves off to school, >> their parents, particularly at the middle and high school levels. Mhm. >> And I think that's where we run into difficulty with kids not coming or being

141tardy. And um I was wondering how the attendance officers uh help out our uh our school system with getting kids to school. >> Yeah. Um I mean we work with families, they work with families. I mean obviously you know they'll do home visits, things like that. um if a student isn't coming to school, we get um you know tea tea passes for kids. We give out tea passes all the time, you know, so kids have access to be able to ride the bus. Um you know, I can highlight actually something that I I think Southwest did an amazing job. They had, by the way, an open house that had over 800 people participate, which is unbelievable. And one of the things they did is they actually had the MBTA bus come to the open house

142and show kids how to use the ride the MBTA which I think it was such an amazing idea. Um and you know so I think the other thing when we really have to we will work on arranging transportation you know if it's something that's it's a real crucial need. Um but so we you know so the attendance officers they work hard to help figure it out. um help figure out how to get kids to school, but those are kind of the common ways. It would be the T pass and then eventually if if we get to that point, we may need to look at transportation. >> Um when does a tardy become an absence? Uh during the day. >> Um so I think it's in there. It's the it would be I mean if if

143they're after like I want to say >> it's somewhere in the 11 o'clock. I don't have it in front of me, but it's in the day of policy. >> It's a it's it would be a half day, whatever the half day is. >> Okay. >> So, like if you know what we literally split the day, and if you're not there, I'd you know, I' I'd have to look it up, but if you're not there by whatever time, then it's considered an absence. And it's around 11. >> All right. And then in reverse is um when you're in school and you're dismissed, when does the um attendance become like you're not you're not in school? >> I just give you an example. >> Uh again, you'd have to be in school for half day. >> Because

144um I don't know if I shared this with you before. I think I have, but when I was coaching, 35 years of coaching in the school system, there wasn't one day that there was a parade in Boston >> and the kids wanted to go and they went >> and they were there for part of the day in the morning, but they quote weren't there enough time. So, those kids are all marked absent. And when you do that, um, the MIA says you can't participate in any activity after school. So we had to forfeit a game. >> Uh and that was not clearly delineated to our kids. They were told one thing and it was totally the opposite. >> Uh so I mean I I'd like to see it spelled out um more succinctly and >>

145um >> I I there is a there is a time and I can I can get that and we can make sure it's um >> but if we could put that so the parents could see it too. >> Absolutely. We can put that on the website too on our attendance matters web page and put the the time for the high school. >> And are there when the attendance gets taken in the morning, uh there's a tardy excused? >> Yep. >> And then tardy unexcused. >> Correct. >> How does that work? >> Uh if the student has a note like one of the notes that we talked about, then they're considered it's a tardy excused. >> Okay. So, if they just show up at 9:00, it's >> unexcused. >> Okay. >> Um, I think that's that's

146that's about it for me. So, but thank you for answering those questions because they're important because >> yeah, >> they the parents need to know and the kids need to know >> you know what their responsibilities are. >> So, >> yeah. >> Thank you. Great job. Really, >> thank you. Great initiative. >> Thank you. Thanks. Okay. Next on the agenda, we have the appointment of the MASC conference meeting delegate by Mrs. Hubley. >> Thank you. On November 14th, I will be attending the Massachusetts Association of School Committees delegate assembly and I need a voice vote in order to be the delegate for the Quincy School Committee. >> So, second by Mr. Begley. All in favor? I >> I >> Okay, all set. >> Um, at this time, we need a motion to go into executive

147session um with the intention of coming back. Um, so is that correct? >> Right. >> Um, so can I get a motion? Um, Mr. Begali, second by Mrs. Hubley. Do we need a roll call vote? >> Yes, >> we have to come back. We're going to come back. Yeah, we're going to do executive session, come back to do this, and then we'll finish. Okay, >> um okay. So, we're going to go into executive session. Um students, brief recess if you know, follow the C crew and then we'll have you come back in. Okay, back in um session and um um superintendent. >> Good evening again, everyone. Um I'm happy to report that the SEIU Local 888 Quincsey Par Professional Union ratified today approving the memorandum agreement for a success of three-year contract. And we would

148like the school committee to also vote to ratify the MOA. And so we would need a motion to ratify and a second and then a roll call vote. >> Second. >> Mrs. Lebo and Mrs. Huby. Um, roll call vote. >> Mr. Begley. Yes. >> Mrs. Cahill. Yes. >> Mr. Gro. Yes. >> Mrs. Hubley. Yes. >> Mrs. Lebo. >> Mrs. Perios. Yes. Mayor Coke. Thank you all. >> Okay. Great. Okay. Thank you. Um, next on the agenda, we have our consent agenda. Um, is there a motion to approve? >> Motion by Mrs. Huby second, Mrs. Lebo. Any discussion? And roll call vote, please. >> Mr. Begley, yes. Mrs. Ko, >> yes. >> Mr. Gro, >> yes. >> Mrs. Hubley, >> yes. >> Great. Um, additional business, there is none. Communications, upcoming school committee meetings at Codington

149Building, school committee room at 6:30 p.m. October 22nd, 2025, November 19th, 2025. December 10th, 2025. And then we have upcoming subcommittee meetings on october 22nd at 6:15 quarterly budget and finance. Um reports of subcommittee we have none. And with that um a motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn Mrs. Lebo. Second by Mr. Gutro. And roll call. No. And that's it. We're >> Thank you. >> Thanks everybody.