001ready. >> Good evening everyone. I'd like to open the um school committee meeting for September 24th um 2025. So call to order. Roll call. Superintendent >> Mr. Begley present. M >> present. >> Mr. Mrs. >> President, thank you. >> Thank you. Could 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. >> Any memorials? No memorials. Okay. Thank you. Um tonight we'd like to um rearrange the schedule a little bit. We're looking for um a motion to move the student recognition for the um Quinsey High School History Bowl team so that they can sec first by Mr. Begali, second by Mr. Gutro. Um so, superintendent, we have student
002recognitions for the Quinsey High School History Bowl. >> Thank you and good evening everyone. Hope everyone is doing well. Uh I'm honored uh to present to you a student recognition tonight for the Quincsey High School History Bowl teams uh in their trip to the International History Olympiad in Paris in July, which was a huge success. Two members of Quinsey High School's History Bowl team, seniors Eddie Giza and Ramona Benel, completed competed having qualified at both the Massachusetts State Championships in March and the National Championships in April. The competition was divided into a group competition and a series of individual competitions. In the International History Bowl group tournament, teams from the United States represented their state or region and other teams represented their country or region. Eddie and Ramona represented the entire Commonwealth of Massachusetts along
003with Nikita Cladolf of Newton South High School. Team Massachusetts ultimately finished in seventh place in the world, which is amazing, in the International History Bowl Championship. For individual competitions, Eddie made it to the playoffs as the 14th seed. Eddie also won first place in the classical music B, while Ramona won first place in the popular music B, in the film history B, as well as second place in the French language B. So very impressive. In addition to [Applause] there's there's more. There's more. In addition to their impressive performances at the highest level of academic competition, Eddie and Ramona modeled excellent sportsmanship and made our school, our city, and our state extremely proud. They also taught a lot of people about the roll hats at Quinsey High School. Uh, special thanks to Mr. James Aikita for
004preparing the students for these competitions and parents Lauri Giza and Chris Bouncel for their assistance as chaperrons. And I do also want to point out that principal Keith Ford from Quinsey High School is here with us tonight to celebrate in uh your great achievements. So, how about a round of applause for the history of all champions and I'll open it to anyone that has any commentary on the committee. >> So, I am so incredibly proud. You make us look so good. Really, really, really. I'm so proud of Mr. Rick, thank you so much for continuing your efforts with our students and really bringing them to the next level so many times uh and letting them show what what goes on in your classrooms. So, I'm thankful for the teachers, all of your teachers and uh
005certainly your parents and the chaperones and and Mr. Heater, especially to you for for I know that this was a big commitment for you too. You also went away in the summer so and I I just really appreciate it. Thank you. >> Thank you. else. >> We can have them come up for a picture. >> Can I just say I just want to say one thing? I'm sorry. Want to make sure my colleagues had a chance. I had an interview today and um someone asked me why I I like being on the school committee and um and one of the main reasons and probably the most important reason for me is to for nights like this when we get to see our students come up here and share what they are doing in in school,
006what they're learning and how they're shining and it just like it makes me emotional honestly. So, um, congratulations, guys, and and congratulations for your achievements and and thank you for, um, being there for them. Thank you. >> And we have some certificates for you. And it says the Quinsey Public Schools. Come on up. Presents the this certificate of excellence to Ramona Benzel in recognition of your accomplishments as a member of the Quinsey High School History Bowl team. Quinnsey Public Schools is proud of your outstanding achievements at the state, national, and international competitions. And I have the same award for Ed Giza as well. Congratulations. Congratulations. You >> want to shake hands on the school committee? >> That's fantastic. >> You can shake hands and then we'll get a picture. Okay. >> Mr. Oh, yes. So
007sweet. I love it. >> Okay, >> take a recess. >> Y Okay. Um, at this time it is the open forum which is an opportunity 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 quinseyublicschools.com by 4 p.m. of the day prior to the posted school committee
008regular meeting. Written statements will be posted on the school committee section of the Quinsey public schools website by noon on the day of the posted school committee regular meeting. If there's anyone here for open forum, please come up to the microphone. Tom Le Young, 40 Huntley Road. My comment is for you, Mr. Mayor. I listened to your recent interview on WBZ and was shocked and dismayed when your comments insinuated that teachers and coaches are more likely to be pedophiles than church clergy. How do you justify making such an outrageous statement that is not based in facts and is extremely upsetting and dangerous to the educators that work in our public schools? You also seem to conflate pedophilia with homosexuality, which again is has no basis in fact. As a parent and proud graduate of the
009Quinsey public schools, I stand in support of our teachers and will speak out against your hurtful comments. I urge you to clarify your statements and issue an apology to the teachers. Hello, my name is Linda Monaco. I live at 21 Glendale Road. I'm here tonight as a parent, grandparent, retired Quinsey public school teacher who was also upset by the comments of the mayor on their very recent radio program. In the mayor's attempt last night, excuse me, to defend the Catholic Church, I believe he maligned members of the school community, the city, the country, members of the LGBTQ community everywhere. The abuse that occurred in the Catholic Church was horrific. And the fact that the Catholic Church covered up the abuse of the most vulnerable young people for so many years is completely indefensible. To say
010what happened in the church was, and I quote, mostly homosexual issues and not pedophilia, is disturbing. To equate the pedophile behavior of those horrible people with again most homosexuals is distressing and so very wrong. Just imagine being a young gay student and hearing or reading those words. Additionally, when the program host asked, and this is a quote, "Whether it's a teacher or a coach or clergyman who takes advantage of a kid 13, 14, 15, or 16 years old, that's unacceptable in my behavior." Mayor Ko agreed. I know the city protects our children, but it would have been comforting and reassuring for our community to hear the mayor stand by the teachers and staff of our school system and say every day, "We're doing everything possible to protect all of our children." In closing, what I
011have to say won't surprise you. Teaching and parenting are really hard jobs, and for us to hear the dangerous language equating homosexuality with pedophilia is hurtful, and it's not what I would expect or like to hear from a leader. This is a sad day in Quinzy. Good evening, Mayor Ko, Vice Chair, and fellow school committee members. My name is Kylie from 42 presidents. staff. Towards the end of the last school committee meeting, I uh suggested that we distribute laptop sleeves to our students to help protect our investment. And uh it's good to hear from the superintendent and Dr. Perkins that they're making it its way to our schools and students. Thank you for that. Uh also uh at the last meeting it was great that uh the Skugu committee invited commissioners Murphy and Hines to
012the meeting. It's amazing to hear the number of improvements that they've been able to make to our city and our schools and for the benefit our students. Uh actually my son and I recently bumped into Commissioner Murphy. I mentioned to my son what um I learned about Commissioner Murphy at our last meeting and the departments that he's responsible for. His ears perked up and once he heard that Commissioner Murphy is in charge of parks and reccks and then he's like, "Can I can I go say hi to him?" Um shook his hand and had a very positive interaction. Uh later on, I look forward to hearing about the QPS summer program review from Dr. Perkins and Mr. Morani, my kids recently took the MAP test. Um, not sure exactly if the MAP test is the
013the right uh thing for this part, but it'll be interesting to see how well our students that attended the summer program did versus the ones that didn't. And uh because having the summer program helps the students retain the progress that they've had throughout the school year. I also like to reiterate um please continue providing the funding needed to have this great summer program and expand it where possible. Some of the suggestions I've heard uh include baking class and for the summer quest program um more project based learning. So thank you for your time. >> Okay. Um, we'd also like to make another change to the agenda where we would like to um move addition additional business out of order. >> Oh, open form. I'm sorry. Anyone else? No one in line. Okay. Thank you. Um,
014would like to move additional business out of order. Can I get a motion to do that? Mrs. Lebo, second by uh Mrs. Hubley. Um, additional business. You want to speak here? Uh, thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I'd like to um try to clarify some things um related to the show the other night on BZ. I was invited to be on to discuss statues. Um, I didn't know there'd be other issues that would be thrown my way. Um, when uh Dan Ray threw out the the abuse things and talked about pedophilia, my point was to remind him that if 4% of it was pedophilia, um, I didn't have the facts in front of me, but I went back and refreshed before tonight and 80% was same-sex attraction uh, post puberty. Uh, but that doesn't that doesn't
015really matter. It's all horrific. I don't care what age it is. Uh and my my point was that it affected the entire society that um it was far more than just the Catholic Church that was affected. We've seen it in the scouts. We've seen it the Olympic Committee with gymnastics. Um um the US Department of Education and a report a number of years ago said that uh kids going through public schools between six and 10% would be a victim of sexual misconduct before they graduated. So, it wasn't just willy-nilly. You know, I I had had some experience over the years looking at some of this stuff. Having said all that, um I never meant to disparage anybody. Uh anyone that knows me, I try to treat everybody with dignity and respect. Um so, anyone that
016I offended, particularly I know Gail, I get a letter from the QEA. Um, I apologize and I apologize to every teacher, coach, anyone that was offended by my remax and uh I I take responsibility for it and I apologize for it. And the same goes for members of our gay community. If I offended anybody and I did get a few emails today, I apologize to each and every one of them for that. Uh, I should know better. Uh, and I will do better. Thank you. Um I would like to as the vice chair of the um school committee I felt as though it was important for me to prepare a statement as well. Um as a school committee member I strongly disagree and do not condone the mayor's recent statements on the Dan Ray show.
017Um those are his words and his beliefs. They're not mine. And um our role on the school committee and as members of the community, it's to ensure that our students are protected, they're safe, and they're supported. And that means all of our students and all the students in the district as well as our valued faculty and staff. And um I have to say I'm a little bit disappointed that we even have to have this conversation today. So, um I also extend my my sentiments to anyone who was offended by the um comments in that they are not reflective of the school committee and our business. Thank you. Anyone else? No. >> First of all, I want to thank the members of open forum for coming up and speaking on this issue. So, I I got
018a number of calls and emails and texts as well. And I appreciate very much the mayor for the words that he just shared, his apology, which seems sincere towards teachers, to coaches, to the gay community. I too uh as the vice chair said, I I listened with horror and disappointment to the comments on WBZ radio. Um, I I agree with the sentiment to conflate homosexuality with pedophilia is wrong. To suggest that if you were abused in your teens, it isn't pedophilia is wrong. To suggest that the behavior is more prevalent with teachers and coaches than priests is wrong. And I agree. And let me be clear, it doesn't represent my views, nor do I believe that it represents the views of the Quincsey School Committee or the Quinsey public schools. And I think victims of
019sexual abuse, the LGBT community, and coaches and teachers of QPS deserve our support. And I concur with what the vice chair said. >> I just want to add my voice as well to Mrs. Cahill and Mr. Metro. Um just uh my horror listening as well and uh uh stand firmly with our educators, our our students, um members of the LGBTQ community and uh and just you have our support and um our protection and we work for you every day as we do all of the members of the QPS community. So um please know that those comments were not the feeling of myself or um what I believe to be the majority of this board. Thanks. Thank you, Mrs. Cahill. Yes, I I too want to express my disappointment. I'm glad to hear the mayor's apology.
020I agree. It sounded sincere. Um I don't know how you take back something like that. It's really difficult because people have been injured and harmed by it already. Um but I think that he has done a job of recognizing his mistake. Um I believe and I agree with Mr. about how what the definitions really mean and that we have to be much more careful about how we how we respond to things and I know that he wasn't given time. It was an ad hoc question but I I do want to express my disappointment in his comments and um I agree with the the statement by this vice chair. Thank you. >> Okay. >> I I also agree with the vice chair statement. Um, I'm very glad that the mayor did extend an apology. Um, it
021is very disturbing. So, I'm gonna leave it at that. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Ko. Um, having been the only member of this committee who was a teacher and a coach in this school system, I know the mayor very well, and I know that uh he regrets what he said. because he knows me well and he knows our teachers well. Uh and I appreciate his uh apology and u I respect that. >> Okay. Well said. Okay. >> Okay. Next on the agenda is the superintendence report. >> Thank you. I have um next on my uh superintendent's report the QPS 2025 2026 preliminary enrollment. In the last month, Quinsey Public Schools has welcomed over 1,000 new students at all grades, including our youngest students in pre kindergarten and kindergarten. Preliminary district enrollment is currently at
0229,860 students with student registrations continuing at school sites and central registration. Our October 1 enrollment data in class sizes of course will be shared in great detail at the October 8th school committee meeting for the school committee's um consideration. Next up, backpack and school supplies distribution. Over 3,000 backpacks filled with school supplies were recently delivered to QPS students across the city. As you know, distribution events were held at Athetherton Denhau, Clifford Marshall, Lincoln Hancock, Montlair, Parker, and Snug Harbor on Thursday, September 4th. Special thanks, of course, to the school committee members who were able to attend as well as the superintendent leadership team members and principles and assistant principles for their assistance as well as the teaching staff at all the schools. Special thanks to Cradles to Crayons, Granite Telecommunications, Mass Bay Credit Union, and
023Quinsey Credit Union for once again supporting the backpack and school supply initiative. We can't thank our business partners enough for their great generosity for our students uh in all of um the schools that were mentioned, of course, throughout the district. Upcoming Quinsey public schools and city of Quinsey events. Both Quinsey and North Quinsey High School are hosting college planning nights for students and parents and guardians in grades 11 and 12. The events which will highlight important information on the college admission and financial aid processes are being held tomorrow, September 25th at 6 p.m. in the high school auditoriums. The Quinsey Special Education Parent Advisory Council is holding their first community meeting of the school year on Thursday, September 25th at 6:30 p.m. on Zoom. The link was shared with QPS families in an email and
024also in the QPS community notices. Also, in celebration of Quinsey 400, this coming Saturday, September 27th, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., um we'll there will be the Quinsey Open Heritage Day with over 30 free historic tours, activities, and programs at 12 historic sites throughout the city. Uh you can visit the quinsey400.com website for schedule and event details. The English Learner Parent Advisory Council is holding their first meeting of the school year on Tuesday, September 30th at 6 PM on Zoom. The ELPAC is looking for new parents to join the board. So, please, if you're interested, please reach out uh to my office or to um your building principal and we'll make sure that you you're added uh to this board. It's extremely important and we encourage everyone to participate. Information has been emailed to
025parents and will be shared in this week's QPS notices about the upcoming ELPAC meeting. And the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Squantum Elementary School will be held on Tuesday, October 7th at 5:00 p.m. will also feature the opening of a time capsule from 1948, which is very exciting. Uh, this capsule was found in the cornerstone of the 1950 addition to the original school building. So we look forward to that event and opening the time capsule to see what may be inside. So uh with that that ends the superintendent's report. >> Okay. Um old business. There is none new business. We have the QPS summer program review by Dr. Perkins and Mr. Morani. They barking. I'm going to just put them all on. >> Okay, >> there you go. >> There we go. Thank you. Good
026evening. Uh, thank you for having us. We're very excited to be here today to share with you what was once again an extremely successful uh summer this summer for Quinsey public schools. And um you know just to remind you that our objective when we are providing our summer programming is to provide high quality summer learning and enrichment experiences that intentionally monitor, promote, and reinforce the health and well-being of our students and staff. And we do just want to thank you and I know um we'll talk about this later in the program, all of the people that help support these programs. We we have quite a list of people that work on these programs and help make them as successful as they are. And I do just want to acknowledge that we could absolutely not do
027these programs if not for the support of the mayor and the school committee in terms of um the funding that we received to run just so many wonderful and outstanding summer programs. So this summer we were fortunate enough to run 20 summer programs. The total enrollment for our students was 1,742. We employed a total of 263 staff. And really exciting was that we also worked with 120 high school volunteers, which you will see were sprinkled throughout the program. And I have to say all of the programs that we visited, the the stu the volunteer students absolutely made it happen. They were amazing. Um and they really helped us be able to do what what we do every day. So the timeline this year was a little bit different than in past years and it's the
028program began on June 30th and we did have um programs that ran all the way through to August 21st. Um and so uh one of them being the new RDLC public day school summer program that was a six-week program as opposed to a four or fiveweek program. And then um many of you are aware of the I can bike program that was at towards the end of August that was very successful that we'll talk about. So the programming uh that we provided was focused on general education special education and our English language learner students. And so one of the programs that would off we've offered for a long time now is bridge to reading and math that occurred at Clifford Marshall Elementary School. It was facilitated by Kim Quinn and Justine Sullivan and I have
029to thank them. They have a lot of students in that building and they do an amazing job. So it is for students who are in uh rising first grade to fifth grade. It ran from the four weeks from the 30th to the 24th of July, June 30th to July 24th. And it had a total of 159 students and 25 staff. So, it was a really busy place, but they had a really fun summer and a lot of great things happened there. In the quest for learning program, this has been since we began this a few years ago as a result pretty much of COVID. Um, this has been a very very popular program for the the district. So, it's an enrichment program. It is a blend of um hands-on activities, create creativity, critical thinking. It
030covers the gamut. Uh it talks they talk a little bit about history, about science, technology, engineering, math, English. Um and so the program is also an elementary program. It is for rising first to fifth graders. It also ran pretty much the month of July and it had students, which is really pretty impressive. Um it was run by Megan Healey and Laurel Hendrickson and they are absolutely amazing. They are running a school for the summer. It's just as big as some of our elementary schools and they do such an amazing job facilitating it. Um we had 25 staff members and this year instead of at Beachwood Null uh we located it at Bernazani which actually worked out really well and um so we thank everybody that participated in that program. our Snuggy summer program, uh, which
031is a great program that we offer for our Snug Harbor students. This year was a little bit different, uh, because of the construction, the great construction that occurred over at Snug Harbor this summer, we did actually have to move this program over to the RDLC, which I do have to say the children loved because it was air conditioned. Uh, so that was a that was a big plus. U, we and we provided transportation. And so thank you to Mike Dracio for yeah, you know, he added another bus to accommodate this program and we really appreciate it. Uh so this program was again for students entering first to fifth who attend Snag Harbor Elementary School. It had 60 students. It was facilitated by Diane Babcock. Um it had five teachers and 10 high school volunteers who
032did an absolutely phenomenal job. They had a lot of fun. They went swimming every week. So, thank you to Lincoln Hancock and the recreation staff for helping to support that. And it was a really exciting and fun summer. And now I'll turn it over to Mr. Morani to talk about middle school. >> Thank you, Dr. Perkins. Good evening, everybody. At the middle school level, we had once again this year summer boost. That was for students entering sixth grade through 8th grade. It began on June 30th, went until July 24th. So that's a Monday through Thursday program started at 8:00 a.m. We had 110 students participate in that which is great. This is a remedialbased program. So there's a lot of students that are taking advantage of this offering who are able to close some of
033the gaps that may have formed the year prior as they transition to the year ahead. I do just want to point out u you know under the leadership of Michelle Kuniff and Nancy Serani that the teachers there really emphasize the importance of hands-on learning for these students. So it wasn't just about closing some of those gaps that they might have uh developed over the year, but it was also about making it as fun and as engaging as possible. Uh and it was all four core subjects along with uh PE and art. So great great program with a lot of participation. So we're grateful to have it. Uh this program is relatively new in the sense that it's a combination of two programs that we had. So hands-on STEM is kind of the marriage of both
034STEM Academy and hands-on math. And so what we were able to do with this combination is we were able to offer two two-week sessions. So if you remember last year, we had uh two oneweek sessions for STEM Academy and then a four-week session for hands-on math. The challenge was uh families wanted a little bit of both. So that's why we had combined them. What was great is a student could participate in both sessions, right? So it wasn't a problem to attend either just session one or just session two or they could attend both. So a student could have this be a full month or two weeks out of the the two sessions. Uh and the other I just want to point out that again the emphasis here is hands-on learning. So students are if you
035look at those images students are getting their hands on different projects and really learning by doing. And I think that's one of the added benefits to this summer programming is it gives these teachers an opportunity to really kind of expand on what they can offer in the classroom. Uh Quinsey Summer Theater Arts Academy. I'm going to uh say that that is probably the hidden gem. And I only say that it's a hidden gem because it's small. It's a two-eek program. There's 36 students. That's under the both the we have them as facilitators, but they're also the teachers. Tom Ducet, Joanna Martell, Christopher Bull. I mean, they're really unbelievable in what they do in terms of running that program, both as facilitators, but also as the instructors there. It's a phenomenal program. We've talked about this
036many years, so I know you all know that. But one thing that I noticed just as I look at those images and I think about the activities that these students are participating in, it's really nice to see students across the five middle schools have the opportunity to connect with one another uh as they start to head towards high school. So in that they're in that entering seventh, eighth grade, nth grade grade range. So it's a great opportunity for those students. You see that a lot with youth sports and that's phenomenal. But it's also nice to see it in the arts and that's the opportunity that these students had in addition to building those improv skills, those stage uh production skills and writing skills. So great great program. Shifting to the high school programming uh summer
037pathways to success, also known as credit recovery. Great numbers here. So this was a Monday through Friday program. It was a 4-hour day for our students, 8:30 to 12:30. We had 149 students. So, of those 149 students, 85 of them were participating in the in-person programming and then an additional 64 were participating in the online programming. But one thing I want to point out is that all 64 of those students participating in the online courses through the egeneuity platform had access to teachers for in-person support throughout the entire duration of the program. So whether they were taking their class in person or online, they had in-person support uh regardless. And I think as a result, that's why we're able to celebrate the fact that we had 217 total courses pass across those 149 students. So,
038averaging more than a a course per student, uh, which is phenomenal. Uh, and I do just want to give Mr. Lane and and that team over there um uh the credit that they deserve. This is really a welloiled machine at this point. They've been running it for so long. It's such an effective program. And as a result, you know, students are held accountable in that they do need to recover those credits, but they're doing it in an environment that is supportive and welcoming. And as a result, we're able to see the success that we see with 217 recovered courses. Uh for QPS Ladders to success, another great program. This is 29 students that are entering 9th grade in addition to the support of their five peer leaders in grade 12. This is facilitated by Amy
039Curtain. It's a great program where students can explore the uh Quinsey CTE offerings. Uh and along the way, they're able to earn up to 96 hours at $16 an hour. So, while they're getting this great opportunity, they also have the opportunity to earn some funds along the way, which I think I'm sure those 29 students are are grateful for that opportunity, and I know uh we all are grateful to be able to provide it. Uh so again that's QPS ladders to success. Before I talk about the youth works I just want to quickly uh acknowledge our partners who make youth works possible. Without those partners youth works doesn't really work. Uh so we just want to credit them and acknowledge them because it it's part of what makes Quinsey programming so great that there's so
040many stakeholders outside of uh Quinsey school committee, Quinsey educators outside of that that are still within the Quinsey community supporting one another. So, I want to thank those partners because it's really them who made the following information possible. We have 140 QPS students uh throughout grades entering 9 through 12. This was facilitated by uh Mr. Benson uh who's been facilitating it now for a few years doing a phenomenal job. We have nine total staff members uh up 37 community partners. uh you see that we have a variety of uh industries there in terms of students getting experience uh in a industry that might be of interest to them and I do just want to acknowledge the 35 QPS students who participated in the summer youth works institute that's their opportunity not only are they earning
041money throughout the summer and getting a job along the way but they're also getting the opportunity to earn some credits some college credits uh as almost like kind of two part-time initiatives they have the college credits along with the part-time work that they're doing. So, teaching them how to balance and juggle those two, I think it's a great skill. We're lucky that we were able to offer it to so many students. Uh early college high school pathway, once again, um just a phenomenal program, 317 students, uh with the opportunity of earning up to as much as eight college credits over the summer, fully funded. So they're not going into their own pocket uh to be able to earn these credits. It's yet just another opportunity that students get throughout Quincy public schools where they can
042get a head start on their post high school uh careers. So we're very very proud of these students. 117 of them chose to make to take more than one class. So when they could have just been, you know, hanging out looking at YouTube all summer, they chose not to. they they instead earn those credits in great courses with a variety of uh fields, nutrition, microbiology, uh fundamentals of business, pre-calculus, growth and development, so on and so forth. So, another great program once again that we were lucky enough to offer and then I will hand it back over to Dr. Perkins for uh special education programming. >> Thanks, Mr. Morani. I do just want to say I want I want to highlight or or reinforce what Mr. Morani said about uh Patrick Lane and the credit
043recovery course because program because that program a few years ago was faltering a little bit and we actually were not sure if we were going to keep running it and it's him that has made that really the welloiled machine that it is with the support of Larry Teleeri. It's it's really it it's astounding and he has phenomenal teachers and the teachers come because he's running it. So, I I just want to give a special shout out to him because he's really turned that program around and we are so appreciative. Um, so with the students with disabilities uh for our our CARES program, we had a lot going on. Um, we had our rising prek and our kindergarten program that ran at the Richard D. Christopher Learning Center. Um, it ran from July 30th to July
044uh June 30th to July 31st. There were 71 students who participated and it was facilitated by Danielle Perry. Um, and they employed 56 staff members. So, some of just the highlights and the fun things that these students did, um, they had Drums Alive come and work with the kids. They had Joe's Crazy Critters, which is always a huge success. Um, they had Sing, Explore, Create come in. And I do just need to give a special thank you because you are going to see this throughout the presentation with the um students with disabilities for our summer programming to the police, to the fire, to the DPW, to all of the organizations that supported Touch a Truck. They came to every single one of our summer programs for students with disabilities. And that is just so impressive.
045And we we really really thank them. And the kids absolutely loved it. So, um the also for students with disabilities, our car is in our learning center program for our um little bit older students. This is for students entering grade 1 through grade 12. That was at Southwest Middle School uh this summer and um it ran from June 30th to July 31st. It had 170 students. Uh and it was facilitated by Tracy Failen. Again, they our staff, you know, I think what we're saying doesn't really do it justice that the amount of time that they put in to make the summer program fun for our students and to always try to be creative and to try to think of new ways to hook them because it is the summer. Um, and we know that. And
046so they this year they had a weekly wacky Wednesday theme each Wednesday where they did things like crazy hat day, crazy socks day. Um to make it fun, they had drums alive. They had Joe's crazy critters also. They had sing explore create. They went bowling again, touch a truck, and they also had an ice cream party. So for our students with disabilities who are in our transitional kindergarten and language development and stars classes, those students were at Clifford Marshall Elementary School. They were students entering grade 1 and grade five. Again, it pretty much ran for the month of July. It had 63 students and 28 staff. And it was facilitated by Karen Matthews. And again, trying to keep it creative, they did weekly themes. So they did things like a space week, a music week,
047exercise week, superhero week. Um, and so that was great, great fun for the students. They also celebrated a student a star student of the week and they participated in bi-weekly fit math and they had a visit from the Quinsey Fire Department. So again, just so so grateful for our community partners who help make our programs a success. And then we had this was our first summer um that we did our K to8 for our public separate day school. Uh and it was it was really a very exciting and fun summer. It was a six-w week program which is longer for us and it was longer hours. So instead of our typical um you know kind of 7 to 11 or 7:30 to 11:30 programming, it was from 8:00 to 1:00, it was obviously at the
048RDLC as I mentioned. Um and it was for our students who were in K to8. Uh there were 44 students and I we do just want to highlight um the amount of staff that participated in this program because they all worked to make this a success for our students. So we had eight teachers. We had 23 paras and rbts. We had two OT's um one SLP, one PT and two BCBAS. And it was facilitated by Simone Buckley who did an absolutely amazing job. And again you can see they they also did themes. They had events u to keep the students engaged. They also did a touch a truck. Um and they did fun Friday activities. And then uh our I Can Bike program which I know uh I know um Miss Lebo and Miss Hubli
049are going to agree that this was a massive success. Um so we had I Can Bike and I I do want to thank the mayor for funding this program for us. So this program um ran the week of August 18th to the 22nd. It had 40 students from Quinsey and as I think the superintendent mentioned maybe in his report uh last time the students began the week not riding bicycles. In fact, I was there cajoling a student to get on their bike. Uh going back to my teaching days um at the beginning of the week they use what are called uh rollers on the bikes. The rollers get smaller as the week goes on and by the end of the week the students are riding bikes and it was emotional to to use Miss Cahill's
050phrase. It was emotional to see and very moving the work that they did and we absolutely could not have done this without the 100 student volunteers who made this possible. Um, I can tell you I I thank them tremendously because that meant that I didn't have to run behind a bike, which which I don't know that I could have done, but they did an amazing job. And um, they were moving. I think the first day they kind of thought, "Oh, maybe this might be a little bit easy, but by the end of the week, they were running about three miles for their hourlong session." So, they were um they were excellent. And I have to thank the coaches. Um, you know, they they all came from our coaches and our teams, you know, uh, from
051both high schools, North Quincy High School and Quinsey High School. And the coaches were there multiple days to make sure that the students came and Larry Tageri, who I think I drove crazy with with the volunteers. Um, we it was it was really amazing. But Julie Graham, the whole special education team, Keith Sagala, and this this took a lot of work in addition to um you know, Miss Hubli and Miss Lebo and then um you know, the the CPAC board members. It really kind of took a village to and and Matt Low, of course. Um it really took a village to get to do this program and um and and we're so so very grateful. So camp can do uh this is a a program for our e students. Uh we've offered this for a
052few years. It's a very successful program and thanks to your funding we have been able to expand this program which has been wonderful. Um so this program ran the month of July. It had 86 students in it. It was uh at Clifford Marshall and so it had um it was facilitated by Kim Quinn and Justine Sullivan and it had 21 students. Swell Academy is our middle school program uh for our stu for our EL students. This is a great program where they engage in civics and they learn about the community. They visit all kinds of different places. um they they really make it hands-on and and um experience driven. So the students get some really great experiences. They go on field trips. Um they go, you know, you see them there at the state house.
053Um I think maybe in at the USS Salem. They they they do some really great stuff with the students. And again, that's the for students entering grade six to grade nine. It ran the month of July and it had um 68 students. It was facilitated by Tao Nuen Epilo and it had nine staff members at Central Middle School and I'll turn it back over to Mr. Ronnie. >> Thank you. So just a quick highlight of the professional development that occurred this summer. So obviously our priority was making sure we could uh engage as many students as in learning and enrichment throughout the summer. Uh but alongside that we have a lot of educators uh working hard preparing for the upcoming year. So there's a lot there. I'll kind of breeze over it, but happy to
054go as deep into it uh as you'd like. Um curriculum mapping with that's, you know, an ongoing initiative that we're taking on. We were able to complete 29 new maps uh course maps across world language, social studies, science, and ELA this summer. Uh at the middle school level, we had a math and science uh PD. I do just want to uh highlight the amplified Desmos math PD. So, there's there's a lot there. I'm not going to go over all of it, but the reason why I want to emphasize the Desmos math PD was that was a PD run by Anna Pkovski. She is a Quinsey High teacher who has been using Desmos for three years. She met with the middle school math teachers because they're transitioning to Desmos at the middle school level as a
055new curriculum, which they're taking on this year. So, the reason why I highlight that is because truly I think some of our best PD that we offer is led by the QPS educators for QPS educators. And it was just great to see that occurring. You saw uh teachers being able to ask questions that are truly applicable to our students that are in front of us versus, you know, the Amplify vendor. No disrespect to them. They're great, but they don't know our students the way that the way that we do. So, that was a truly valuable PD. It also had teachers walking out with their initial plans to kick off September. So what starts out as anxiety about taking on a new curriculum, not that that anxiety is completely gone, it's always a challenge to make
056a transition, but at the same time they're walking out with tools to say, okay, I know what September is looking like and then we can build on that. So just want to highlight that one. I also real quick want to highlight the soaring to summer school success. So the soar in there is science of reading. And the reason why I'm highlighting that is because that was just a great timing u a great strategy in that we had all 50 educators in the quest program and the bridge to reading and math program they all participated in this and essentially what's happening is now the quality of instruction over the summer is going up when we in terms of reading instruction but then that pays dividends thereafter so not only are we enhancing the quality of summer
057programming because of this PD we just enhanced the quality of instruction thereafter for 50 educators as as we look ahead. So again, there's a lot there. I could go on and on, but uh just want to highlight those. And so as I think the theme of everything we've been saying, there's just so many stakeholders that make this possible. So special thanks of course to Mayor Ko, to all of you at the school committee. You all help make it the priority that it needs to be. Uh and as a result, we are able to just give this wide variety of offerings. Thank you to those facilitators. And of course, we have too many staff members to list there, but to all of them. Uh, and so, uh, with the next slide, we just want to end
058on that sentiment. We welcome any questions, any feedback that you might have, but thank you to everybody involved. And by that, I mean parents, students, guardians, community members, everybody. It was a great summer because of everybody working together. Thank you. >> Thank you. I just want to say thank you so much for all of this. I can't even go into detail on this. This is amazing. This is so great. And I want to do a shout out. Thank you to our teachers for being there. The consistency of having our teachers there is so important for our kids to have familiar faces there. That's consistency and that's just so important. So I love that. Um and I do want to do a shout out again to the I can bike program. Um to Beth and the
059CPAC and for them to bring this to our attention. It was an amazing program. It was so great to be there to volunteer and and watch the kids. Um it was it was beautiful just to see them in the on the last day being able to ride was just it was so sweet and um I can't even Yeah, it was a memory that I have that it was just a beautiful memory. So thank you so much Kill. Yeah. So almost 20% of our students participated in this. You know this is amazing to me. >> Amazing. And to see all of these educators stepping up and taking um leadership roles means we have >> principles in the making and >> absolutely >> really nice things to see. So as we as we say sometimes building our
060own we're building our own uh cadre of people who can go into leadership positions. >> Definitely. And the staff is amazing. The organization of this is amazing. So thank you all to the SLT. I really want to thank um the teachers because giving up five or six weeks of your summer even though you're paid is it's it's a lot to ask because I can remember teaching in those summer the summer weeks very were very important to me. But I also want to say that I was also at I can bike every single day. And as amazing as that was and how great it made me feel, the high school volunteers, >> they learned as much as the kids who were riding the bikes. They did >> on how to respond and encourage and participate and
061and Dr. Perkins is right. On day one, she was coaching kids who no one else could get to do the thing onto their bikes and moving them around slowly on the auditorium. And I said to her, "Boy, you never lost it. So you were amazing, too. So I I just And again, you know, this was funded originally through ESSER funding and the mayor has managed to come up with the funding for us for the past few years and I I it's a huge thing. I don't I don't know of any other district that does this to this extent. >> Not to this level. No, definitely not. >> I don't see it anywhere. So I mean it's one more great thing about our city. So thank you all and thank you mayor for the continuing to
062support it. Thank you. Um just want to echo uh my colleagues in saying thank you for this. It's just Yeah. I remember when my kids were younger and um kind of trying to find programs for them over the summer and um not only are they difficult to find and you have to drive them there and and everything, but um the cost it was always prohibitive. And just the fact that these are such great programs and they're free to our students and our families, which is just um it's such a great thing that, you know, no other community really has this that I know of. Um and it's not just busy work. They're getting great experiences. is I mean, you know, going to different places, going to the USS Salem and just having those real world
063experiences that it's just not, you know, keeping them busy. It's actually getting giving them value for it. And um it's just fantastic. So, thank you to um to your team and um to the the facilitators, the educators. U fantastic work for them. And I just also want to echo um what Mr. Moranny said about the uh you know, I'm going to say Dr. Fkins, the middle school theater program. It is truly a hidden gem. And next year I encourage everyone to go to the final performance that they have. It is amazing what they do in just this short amount of time and uh they are just incredible with these kids and for sure that feeder program uh kind of concept that you were mentioning um knowing that the the um spring musicals are combined with
064our high schools now. So, those kids do all get together again once they kind of move up to the high school and having um one of my kiddos has done this now for three years and um is now just tried out for the fall show at high school and she's in freshman now. So, it does carry through and it really does give them confidence to sort of say, "Hey, I could take part in a high school performance that might otherwise seem overwhelming from their, you know, smalish middle school experience." So, um that really truly is a hidden gem. Mr. Ducet, Mr. Martell, Mr. the team is just fantastic. Um, so just wanted to say that also. Thank you. >> One second. Make sure it's on. I also wanted to say like thank you so much
065for the programs. I participated in the ECS one like the last two summers and it was like a great way to like learn and also get college credit over the summer. So, thank you so much again. >> Oh, Missy, that's awesome. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um I'd like to say I'm so grateful that there's English learning programs cuz as someone who grew up speaking a second language and the only alternative I had was home letters being translated through Google Translate. Having English learning programs, especially when you're young, is so necessary. And I'm just so glad that there's more opportunities for people growing up. Although I didn't have those opportunities, [Music] >> I'm glad that future kids do. >> Thank you. >> That's Thank you. Thank you girls for participating. Um, thank you. I
066think we're set with that and um we will move on to school improvement plan organization. >> I can't see the president. >> He's doing it. down. >> Thank you. And thank you for having us back again. So, we just wanted to quickly, we've done this for the past couple of years um to go over what you will see in the school improvement plans and also uh it's very much aligned to the program improvement plans as well. And we have found it very helpful to share uh what the plans look like and what is required to be incorporated in the plans and other components of the plan and then get your feedback so that if there's any changes that you'd like us to make, we can relay those to the principles uh prior to the plan
067development. Um and we really appreciated your input and your feedback over the past couple years and so we thought uh we would provide this presentation again. So what we'll just quickly talk about tonight uh we there are required components to a school improvement plan. So we will just quickly go over those. We will discuss the most recent format that the principles uh have been using and um then just briefly discuss SIP presentation information. So in terms of the required component uh so these are required by the department of elementary and secondary education and I am going to just point out where you will see that information in the current template of the school improvement plan. So the first part uh that is required is an assessment of the impact of class size studenttoteer ratios and
068then ratios of students to other supportive adult resources. And so we do have all of that information in the school demographics section and then also in the support services staffing section that is um in the appendix. We the second item that is required is a scheduled plan for reducing class size if it is deemed necessary. This is not typically a concern for Quinsey. However, if it does become a concern, we do typically discuss it uh with the school committee and uh we could we would include that in the plan. Uh professional development for the school staff is number three and the allocation of any budget um that the school may have for professional development. This is included. We do include a special a professional development plan in the in the back of the school improvement
069plans. enhancement of parental in involvement in the life of the school. This is also included um in the school improvement plan. It's under section D. It is family and engagement and community communication. And I will say the communication was added uh recently based on school committee feedback and I think that's been a nice addition to this the school improvement plans. School safety and discipline is uh also found in the school improvement plan. It's under school demographics. We do uh update you on the SSDR data. It's also included in the appendex where we include the entire vocal results for that in those individual schools. And then just continuing on with the required elements. Um it number six is an establishment of a school environment characterized by tolerance and respect for all groups. This is absolutely included
070in the principal's path, the principal's message. They also reflect on their data and their V in particular. They include a vocal reflection um which definitely talks about any areas of concern that were noted within the results of the vocal assessment and it's included in the appendix um with the spring vocal information. Extracurricular activities are also a required uh component of the school improvement plan. And this we have an extended day section where they do list their um extracurricular activities, the means for meeting with the regular education programs. Um and this is also including the for diverse learning needs and in particular for students who are assigned to substantially separate programs. So this is included within the principal's path message. Um the student the pro the schools that have substantially separate programs in their school oftentimes
071will even develop goals and action steps for those individual programs and uh talk about how you know they they work with them and they contribute to the life of the school. Um and um the it's in the go so the goal statement and action steps and then any further subjects of principal in consultation with the school council shall consider appropriate. And so some of the other items that are found in the school improvement plan are the demographics, the facilities section, the budget section and the appendix. And so just the most recent format um you can see the beginning part is the principal's path message. It typically includes a data reflection, a reflection on the goals from the previous year and then a reflection on the vocal data. Um that's usually incorporated within their principal's path
072section. The part two of the school improvement plan has the new goal statements and action steps for the upcoming year. Um, it also has the professional development plan, the extended day offerings and the family engagement and communication. And as I mentioned, this was added based on school committee feedback. Um, I think maybe one or two years ago. Uh, we have a we have a school demographic section, the facilities section. We added I think not last year maybe but the year before we added school needs and again that was a result of the conversation that we're having with you now. Um and we also have the budget section which also was added uh I think based on school committee feedback. the um and then we have the appendix and in the appendix uh we it includes
073the spring 2025 or will include the spring 2025 MCCAST data the MAPRIT scores for last year the accountability information for each school and how they're doing in terms of their accountability indicators the vocal data we included based on school committee feedback the completed action steps that they are removing from the school improve improvement plan. And I should state in addition to that, a small change, but that did come back come as a result of our conversation with the school committee is that we did modify the actual goal action step template that the principles use to include like a status column that talks about, you know, whether it's a repeat action step or um a new one. So they that is included and that was included last year. And then um staffing support services. This was
074also uh brought up by school committee. We and we've added that into the appendix. And then of course the school council members and now I will pass it over to Mr. Ronnie. >> Thank you Dr. Perkins. Uh so pretty much what Dr. Perkins spoke about covers the entire school improvement plan. What I'd like to do is just very quickly uh go over a little a little bit of the depth in terms of how we develop the goals and what some of those changes look like. just so as you're reviewing the SIPS you know kind of what to look for. So in terms of the goal development uh once again we have uh strongly encouraged the principles and their teams to uh develop school-based goals. So we you know just today we had our first meeting
075with middle school principles for in terms of data analysis. Over the next couple of weeks we'll be meeting with high schools and elementary schools. So we do go over the uh district data so that they understand as a district how how things look but we're also in that same message talking about okay now how does this apply to your school in some cases maybe a weak point in uh the district maybe a strong point at another school and therefore it wouldn't make sense to focus on that uh for that particular school. So some of the ways you'll see variation in the goals are kind of three parts. So first you could look at the assessments. You'll see most common MCCAST map which you all know but you'll also see potentially access or MClass along with
076the vocal survey. So these are just some of the assessments not all of the assessments you might see in terms of the metrics within those assessments. The most common ones you'll see the achievement category. So that's the percentage of students that meet or exceed uh the expectations on MCCAST. You could also see the average percent correct which is you know a basic percent showing us how the students performed on a test or on a section. The average writ score that's a map data point. So again depends on the assessment. Uh average growth percentile year-to-year changes the year-to-year changes. Um you know one thing I probably should have included there uh but is also in addition to year to year you also might see cohort. So sometimes we're looking at okay how did grade three do
077in 2024? or how did they do in 2025? But we're also looking at how did grade three students do two years ago and how did they perform as fourth grade students? So on and so forth. So I think there's value in looking at both. But these are just some of the ways we kind of mix up the goal development and of course real quick how we target those. So we could look at domains and standards uh andor grade levels and subgroups. Uh so just looking at some of the samples again just to kind of help as because we know you're looking at a lot of these. So just to kind of help you see uh what they can look like. If you look at the goals to the left you'll see that there's various metrics.
078So these are all goals from the same school but there's different assessments and different metrics being used based on the targeted group. So that smart goal one is kind of hard to see on the slide deck, but you'll see that it's K1 students and they're looking at the Dibbles benchmark testing. Whereas smart goal two, now we're talking students grades two through five. We're looking at MCCAST and MAP, right? And then when we go to smart goal three, as Dr. Perkins mentioned, some schools will actually create a specific goal if there's a substantially separate program. In this case for LDC, you see that there's uh kind of back focus on dibbles but with a different metric within dibbles. Now if you look at the sample to the right again this is just to kind of see
079the differences. They can look a lot alike upon skimming but if you go deeper you'll see that there are differences. In this case this school had a consistent metric. So they used MAP as the assessment. They're looking for 10 RIP point increases across all grade levels. But if you look below that, they have targeted areas of focus broken down by grade. So this is the way these schools and the teams within those schools are really digging into the data to say what makes sense for our school, what should our focuses be, which of course all of these then drive the action steps. And if you look at the action steps, as Dr. Perkins mentioned, we did, I believe it was last year, we added the status of those action steps. So you'll be able to
080quickly look at those action steps and say, "Okay, which ones are new? Which ones aren't new, but modified in some way." So there might be a minor uh alteration to it, but still continuation or just an action step that gets continued. So again, we added that just to kind of help see like, okay, what's different, what's staying the same, and what's being slightly modified. And then with that same sentiment in the in the appendix we have this section called completing uh completed action steps. I really think it should be interpreted as these are embedded. So we do have some language uh above these act it's not included in this slide but when you look at the school improvement plans it will note that these are embedded in the day-to-day. So in other words they've been
081on the school improvement plan for years. They're now just in the day-to-day. So we move them to the appendix. They're still there. We're still acknowledging them. we're just not giving them the same highlight. If you look at that far right column, in case you're looking to see, okay, what does this uh action step support, you'll be able to see which goal it applies to. And so, finally, just as kind of a recap as to what happened uh most recently, presentations occurred over three teaching and learning subcommittee meetings. Uh the average presentation duration was approximately 15 to 20 minutes per school. And of course, you know, the principal, the toughest part for the principles is they want to share so much. They could each take, you know, multiple hours. So, what they're trying to do is
082highlight uh from here and of course answer questions that you have as a result. And so, we certainly welcome your feedback. If there's any suggested uh revisions or just an adjusted approach, we welcome that feedback as we move forward and work with uh the principles in those schools. >> Any comments on the site, Mrs. I want to thank you for this and it is helpful to see this before we actually get the plans in front of us so we can have a better eye refresh our memory. Um I'm really glad about some of the changes that you made especially the stuff about embedding embedding stuff that if it's embedded in the thing it's there. Um >> I really like the way we did it last year. I know they want to talk about their schools
083for now but we do read the whole plan. So we don't really I and I I want I know that they want to talk about them because I know how proud they are of their staff and their students. Um but it did work out much better that last year with that format because we did read everything >> and we all read everything before we come to the meeting. So we have uh questions that we'd like to answer as comments would like to make. So the process really worked well. I just have one question that's weird. I don't know all that stuff that we do in the summer. We don't get to put that in our school improvement plan. Should we put it in our district improvement plan? >> I mean we there should be some
084place that Jessie sees what we're doing. >> I mean we certainly can put it in our district improvement plan. >> I think we should. I think we should. I think that's an amazing amount of commitment and work that we have to these kids. So, I think it should at least be in our district improvement plan and it's spread across the district. >> But I just think I I I think we should take credit for that when things are going uptown. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Do you want to say I said it last year, I love the format. I love the fact that you came before us last year and and walked through everything. I appreciate the changes that you're making this year and explaining those changes. Were there any desi
085changes? Any state requirements? >> No changed. >> Nope. I actually checked that before um last week or the week before just to make sure before doing this presentation and no, there were no changes. >> Good. Great. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Thank you for uh going through all this with us. Um two questions. One, more reminder, I guess. Um I think Mr. Gastro a couple years ago or last year had um kind of made it a priority to sort of make sure that parents and PTO's had seen uh the school improvement plans before they came to us just so that we knew that um any changes that parents wanted to see in there or suggestions they had were incorporated kind of before it got to us. >> I think that's super important. Um,
086and I know it's hard because there's a small window of of when when we need to see it and when it needs to be approved and um, PTO meetings don't always line up, but I think that's really important if we could remind them about that. And then um, the school council members, I think uh, last year I seem to remember at least one school where um, some of the school council members didn't actually get a chance to read it and it was like an electronic signature. I don't know if I don't know if it's too difficult to ask for like a wet signature or maybe just, you know, just an acknowledgement to make sure before we electronically sign that all the school council members have read it. Just kind of a reminder to um principles
087on that one. Um and then my last comment was more on a program improvement plan. So, I don't know if that's an appropriate place to ask, but um I think last year we talked maybe about adding a advanced pathways program improvement plan. I just wanted to make sure that was still on the radar for this year to sort of um evaluate our our reach program, our um uh the the central program um and you know just kind of covering the offerings we have at the high schools and different things too. >> Thank you. >> That's good. Appreciate it. >> All right. Thank you. Thank you so much very much. Okay, next um on the agenda we have the school committee policy 1053 CVT admissions. Mr. Gutro, >> this just a motion to refer to committee.
088Need a second. >> Mrs. Hubley second by um Mrs. Lebo. Next >> uh next item on the agenda is the establishment of middle school CT CVTE pathway exploration policy. Uh this is just for a referral to subcommittee. Need a motion and a second. >> Mrs. Hubley and Mrs. Lebo. All set. >> Okay. Thank you. Um next we have the consent agenda which requires a roll call vote. Um is there any questions or discussion prior to second? A motion to approve. >> Motion to approve. Second. We all set. Roll call, please. >> Mr. Pagoli. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Cahill. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gatro. >> Yes. >> Mr. Jub. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Leo. >> Yes. >> Great. >> Um, and communications. Upcoming school committee meetings. Codington building, school committee room at 6:30 p.m. October 8th
089and 22nd. Um, and November 19th, December 10th. Upcoming subcommittee meeting would be October 8th at 6 PM for policy. Reports of subcommittee we have none. Um and there is no executive session. So we are adjourned. Motion to adjourn. Mr. Begley and Mrs. Hubley. >> All set. All right. Thank you.