Quincy School Committee: March 26, 2025

001there you go good evening I'd like to call to order the regular meeting of the quinsey school committee for Wednesday March 26 2025 um superintendent could we have a roll call please Pres you stand for the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge of algi 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 memori any memorials no okay at this time we have open Forum which is an opportunity for Community input regarding the quiny public schools community in this context is defined as a resident of the quinsey public of the city of quiny 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

002name and address each speaker May make a presentation of No More Than 3 minutes to the school committee an individual may not exchange their time or yield to others residents or non-community persons May submit written statements of up to 300 words to the school committee at QSC open Forum at quinsey publicschools.com by 4M of the day prior to the posted school committee regular meeting written statements will be posted on the school committee section of the schools website by noon on the day of the posted school committee regular meeting is there anyone here tonight that would like to speak at open Forum good evening Tom Le young 40 Huntley Road I want to say three things uh first I was encouraged last meeting when this committee used the terms fundamental fairness uh common sense and courtesy

003when discussing the uh idling policy for uh School pickup and tonight I want to ask this committee to apply those principles to the morning drop off process at quinsey high school so as you may or may not know uh every morning the there's a line um at the bend of uh Huntley Road right where parents um queue up on the wrong side of the double yellow line to drop off their kids um and uh at at the same time uh if I'm coming back from dropping my kids off at their school um I have to get around this line and uh lately uh the other side of the road has been blocked off right and so it is the expectation that uh residents that have to access um their homes have to wait in that

004line so uh that seems neither Fair nor courteous uh nor common sense so I urge this committee to uh you know convene a meeting of of uh stakeholders and find a better solution uh second um the lawn uh behind the two administrative buildings uh on ceville is being used as effectively a dog park um so that's another data point for your um issue with dog waste that you mentioned last time and finally uh I wanted to thank Mr gutro for his two decades of service that is quite admirable um and impressive uh that a HomeTown guy devoted so much of his life um in service of his community and neighbors so uh enjoy your retirement or or whatever uh is next for you but thank you for your service thank [Music] you hi hi mayor

005um Miss K and fellow members of the school committee uh so I learned something new every time I come to these meetings started coming here in October last the last meeting earlier this month awesome learning about the CVT program The Early College in high school I got home pretty late so I sort of woke my son up he was he was getting ready for bed so he wasn't asleep yet but I was like I was telling him all these things and I'm and I have to stop myself like oh uh I'll tell you more we'll talk more tomorrow but amazing programs and then uh looking forward to hear about the update to Dela from superintendent Moi um it's great to hear that we have all these initiatives in the city for new schools refurbishing current

006structures in the meantime I'm telling my co-workers they're like in Melrose they're couple 4.2 million short in in their budget recently saw in the news that Boston's closing four schools and then uh North Andover some similar deal and sounds like uh brain tree might be considering closing school but we're doing the opposite so awesome um and then uh just same thing with uh Mr gutro thank you for your service um that's all thank you can you just can you just give us your name and address oh sorry um Kylie 42 presidents have thank you okay we good all right thank you next on our agenda is the superintendent report um superintendent thank you and good evening everyone doing well our first item on the agenda tonight is our student recognitions as you may know project

007351 is a Statewide service organization that brings together eighth grade students from every city and town in Massachusetts on Saturday January 25th students participated in an in-person day of service project at different locations which say we'll tell you about tonight I'm looking forward to that I do want to congratulate the following quiny Public Schools project 351 ambassadors for 2025 at Southwest Middle School we have Jackson Davis at Broad Meadows Middle School we have David deboner at Atlantic we have through Newen at Central Middle School we have mesara Raman and at Point Webster we have Yang Kang woo and I want to make sure all these students are congratulated we're going to ask each one of you to come up to tell us about your projects and of course I do also want to recognize all

008the Middle School principls who are here tonight principal D Christa Faro principal aarn uh principal Mitchell principal schneller and principal Barrett if you want to come in and and join us and we'll ask um the first student from Southwest Jackson Davis to come forward and tell us a little bit about uh your project hello my name is Jackson Davis I'm an ambassador for project 351 and I go to Southwest Middle School when I was first told that I was selected to be an ambassador for project 351 I was excited and at the same time surprised I never thought I would ever be selected for something so important on launch Day January 25th I was excited but at the same time anxious that day I made new friends and I got to help the community by

009making packs of rice and beans for the people experiencing California wildfires and cold weather packs for the homeless I really enjoyed my experience and I look forward to helping out our own Community with a clothing drive that is in the works thank you for your [Applause] time thank you Jackson and next I'd like to call Broad Meadows uh student ambassador David deona to tell us a little about your project hello I am David Deana um I go to Broad Meadows Middle School and I am honored to be able to join 351 and I was happy and surprised to be able to go around and help other people and I would um at the 351 day we went out and we made hygiene bags for kids that don't have enough to buy their own or be

010able to go out so we made those and I enjoyed the day I made new friends like Jackson did and I just had a great time and I am excited to have the clothing drive and see more kids have um things that we have so we can all share together thank you thank you thank you David uh next is our Atlantic Middle School Ambassador through Newen hi my name is t Newen but you can just call me Kel's I am so glad that I'm part of Atlantic and just the quiny itself because I am selected to be a part of project 351 and I just want to thank my principal and everyone surrounding me and with that thankfulness I can really I really want to just pass it on instead of giving it back and

011by passing it on I hope to continue more community service and at launch day I was able to go to cradles de crons and with that experience I was able to apply that to schools and now I'm working with Parker squantum I think Monclair and my school Atlantic itself I just want to say thank you so much and I'm excited I hope you'll remember me because I'll make a good impact in the future thank you thank you so next is our Central Middle School Ambassador mesara Raman good uh good evening everyone um I'm isar rman and uh I'm Central e8th grade Ambassador and uh there were three service lights for launch day it was an absolute pleasure there was laiva Brighton High School and gradles crayons and so I was at the latter location where

012the main focus of that organization was fighting children's clothing security and so my service team and I did that by shorting uh clothing and shoes based on quality and before launch day I kind of expected it to be a kind of a solemn activity just because these issues like clothing security uh food in security and homelessness they're such heavy topics but to the contrary it was actually a really Lively day and I was I learned that um sorry uh I learned that uh service is and can should be Joy um that day I was taught by my peers my mentors and the guest speakers that in order to help anyone you need you need to emphas you need to emphasize their consequence with their circumstances and consequently you can provide them happiness kindness and a

013growth mindset and sorry um in fact we later learned that day that we helped more than 34,000 people that's more than a third of quin's population and if anything that number is a testament to how productive our service was and how joyful our service was thank [Applause] you thank you m Sara and last but not least is our Point Webster ambassador Yang Kang woo good evening committee I would like to first thank you for inviting us on behalf of everyone here for um project 351 and I would like to first thank you thank um principal Barrett for allowing me this opportunity on the 25th of of January on launch day we did I went to CL um cradles to crayons excuse me and I cleaned shoes for people so I can can give them back

014out to people in more in need during that day it was very chaotic I would have to assume I would have to admit but it was F it was fun and as my SAR said remind me what you said it it was very fun in general that was I'm going to leave at that what else I have on here sorry I think that's all I got to um auditorium at JFK for launch day at the start of the day at roughly 7ish or 8ish that's Mo mostly all I have some fers here if does anyone want them sure we'll take them thank you no problem great job thank you yeah we have we're good thank you great job thank you and if we could have all the students and principles come to the um front

015of the de here so we can get a picture of the students for e yeah we're going to take a a brief recess so if the students want to leave you can you can stay if you want but we we'll open it up so you can leave thank you to the parents as well that are here tonight thank you Al set superintendent you and next on the agenda we're honored that Congressman Steven Lynch will be visiting Central Middle School on Friday March 2 8 to visit with 8th grade the eighth grade Civic students social studies teachers Paul Griffith and Bill Pavo will be moderating as Congressman Lynch shares with the students about his work in Congress and answers their questions special thanks to community development director Sean Glennon for his assistance in arranging this visit

016and of course thank you to principal D Christa Faro for also facilitating uh this great opportunity for our students at Central next is congratulations to the North quiny High School acad MC D cathlon team on qualifying to represent Massachusetts in the upcoming Nationals in De Moine Iowa in May best wishes to team members Matthew Amador Louisa banzi Emily Co Matthew Lynn Marco Mano danani paal Philip Wang and Steven Yu as they prepare for the upcoming competition with Coach Benny damore so best of luck to the Academic Decathlon team at North quinsey High School watching to see how you do next is the Quincy High School competitive math team secured a commendable Seventh Place Seventh Place finish at the Southeastern Massachusetts Math League playoffs earlier in March competing against a field of over 30 talented teams

017the Quincy High School president's math team demonstrated exceptional problem solving skills strategic thinking and collaborative spirit this year's playoff qualification was a first for the team who have been members of The League for the past past three years thanks to coach larri Cannon and team members Ramona Benzel Jacob Chan abh Harry Chandra Edward Chen Imam Habib Ulen Lynn and Lucas snow uh and of course our student representative as you know is mar merulla sugathan yamina is a part of the team as well as um men tan Tran and Matthew Wong again congratulations and best of luck as you progress uh on that team uh next is at the recent skills USA District 3 competition 45 quiny public school students participated in a variety of competitive events showcasing their skills and dedication to their respective trades

01810 quiny high school students earn medals for their impressive performances and eight of these medalists have qualified to advance to the prestigious skills USA State leadership and skills conference scheduled to take place in May congratulations to the F in students John Hune bronze medal in Information Technology Services Bradley Chason bronze medal in Internet working Solana Selinger Batista civil medal in criminal justice Ali Al rabi and Ahmad aner for the silver medal in cyber security uh Katherine Malanga Regina laruso Anna Sophia Valena Asado and Giana deona silver medal in health knowledge and Elizabeth Wong wwom Mint gold medal in nursing assistance so congratulations also to the members of the uh quiny North quinsey vasi J Jazz Ensemble for earning a silver medal at the recent Massachusetts Association for jazz education state finals individual outstanding musicians as

019selected by the judges are Nathan Aronoff tenner sax alto uh Johnny Chen clarinet trombone a Viana Garcia pizaro voice and Dave Jean Philipe base congratulations to all of these students Great accomplishments uh next is upcoming quiny public schools in city of quinsey events include the following North quinsey High School will face off against St John's Prep in the first round of season 16 of WGBH is high school quiz Bowl show on Saturday March 29th at 6 p.m. best of luck to the team and we will of course update you on their progress through the tournament historically done a great job and I'm sure they will continue to do so this year as well uh the Atlantic Middle School players are presenting the musical Mean Girls on April 4th at 7 pm and April 5th at

0202: and 6: p.m. in the school's Auditorium in celebration of Quincy's 400th anniversary there will be a historical Family Walk on Saturday April 5th starting at 9:00 am from adamsfield students and Families staff and community members are invited to join as we explore 15 local landmarks so I certainly encourage you to in attend this this great and fun event the next Parent Academy on Behavioral Health Navigator will be held on Tuesday April 8th at 6m on zoom and feature local community partner-based date Community Services finally the combined High School choir concert will be held on Tuesday April 8th at North quiny High School at 6 PM in the combined High School band concert will be held on Thursday April 10th at 6 p.m. at quinsey high school with that that concludes the superintendent's report thank

021you next on the agenda we have old business um first item is school committee policy 557 motor vehicle idling on school grounds which is um ready for a roll call vote Mr gutro would you like to say anything we sorry there you go Al yeah no we took this up subcommittee we talked about at the last meeting it's at uh for the vote tonight I thought we had a productive discussion so I will make a motion to approve is there a motion to approve Mr boli second Mrs Leo on the motion thank you um as per our conversation last meeting I just wanted to remind um anyone who's watching tonight that uh we talked about while this is our policy on the books we're also going to do some kind of um communication some clear

022communication to families and parents uh both at the start of the year and maybe just before the real cold weather hits um reminding them again what our idling policy is when they're picking up their children um and I just again want to say my uncomfortability with the uh penalties uh the fines that we have on here but I understand that it is law state law on that but um that we're going to be uh a little not not seeking to enforce that on a in a hard way uh on any family so that they don't have to feel it's a hardship financially for them but we are going to do a good job uh communicating that out um so I just wanted to put that out there thank you all set thank you okay superintendent

023roll call vote Mr moli yes Mrs kill yes Mr Gat yes Mr H yes yes may yes thank you next on the agenda is the approval of the superintendent goals for 20242 also roll call vote um do we have a motion motion motion Mrs Libo second Mr gutro um all set ready for a roll call vote Mr yes Mrs kill yes Mr Mr H yes yes great thank you um now we're at new business and item a is reopening of the delaa Early Childhood Center Dr Perkins and miss lus I'm turning on all the microphones so hopefully two of them work and it doesn't good evening there we go thank you for having us so um we are here today tonight to share our proposal for the reopening of amelo deaa and I have here

024with me Janet Loftus the principal of Lincoln hanok Elementary School U because the proposal that we're going to present for you tonight to discuss um is absolutely directly impacts uh the school at Lincoln Hancock and so Janet has very graciously agreed to be here with me tonight to talk about some of the spacing concerns and how um bringing this building back online will help address some of those concerns and so our proposal for you to consider for the Dela building um is that in the future that we would have uh additional pre kindergarten classrooms um particularly for the West quiny area because we feel that that is a really um High need and uh so that we would have we were looking at three um integrated halfday pre kindergarten programs and what that means integrated

025is an inclusive classroom it is eight what we would consider typically developing peers and seven students with disabilities U our halfday model is what we currently have we have um we are also proposing two full day inter grated pre kindergarten classrooms and I'll talk a little bit about why that is but I know that we have discussed with this committee that we've been working with the on the cppi Grant and we have collected and at some point at a future meeting we will present to you the needs assessment and the data that we've collected and in general I would say the data really supports that parents want a full day program and they want an integrated full day program um and uh we currently do not have that and and I'll talk a little bit

026more about that when we get to that slide we are also proposing moving six classrooms from Lincoln Hancock to alilio Dela those would be kindergarten classrooms and also adding uh a transitional kindergarten to ailio Dela moving that from a and how a and how has a very large Port population of uh students with disabilities in substantially separate classrooms we did have to move um the second transitional kindergarten classroom to aen this year because of space issu at Lincoln Hancock and we really would like to provide that opportunity back um for those students and also to kind of spread uh the program a little bit so that we're addressing both ends of the city in terms of the transitional kindergarten and so in front of you you do have um just the floor plan for the

027Dela so I just wanted to go through what the space does look like and will look like so on the this is the first floor uh and you can can see the multi-purpose room is in the middle um and uh around the edges are the classrooms and um on the corner there over on the leftand side is the community space th those rooms were broken into two classrooms they are very small classrooms not they would not be big enough for kindergarten classrooms so we are proposing you know when we think about this that we think about that for therapy spaces there's bathrooms over there and there's also offices off of that Community um space and so for things like um OT speech PT that really would be a wonderful area um and then the second

028floor uh you have the rest of the classrooms there are 14 classrooms Al together at Deliza the two that are in the middle there that are eight and labeled eight and seven those are small classrooms you see that there's like storage uh bathrooms and storage areas is kind of in the middle of the classroom space so they are broken up spaces so in dela in the past they were used for therapy spaces and all of the therapists um shared those spaces and so here we are proposing that we consider using those spaces for Library eel and special education classrooms um and so that would basically bring the total number of classrooms down to 12 classrooms uh between kindergarten and pre kindergarten and um which is what you know I shared with you on the in

029the proposal page in a previous slide so now I will pass it to Janet thanks thank you Aaron thank you everyone for having me uh as you all know and we've said before during school Improvement plans Lincoln Hancock is a different building uh built in the 70s with open classrooms out of 30 home rooms only eight have doors uh and walls that go from the floor to the ceiling uh so there are concerns when you talk about actual learning environments um three of the classrooms that we have are not behind a locked space while these classrooms do have doors it's a hi traffic area from parents coming in on the Water Street side which is technically downstairs through the building and upstairs to get to the main offices unattended um right now we have grade

030level home rooms that are split between floors with six home rooms at each classroom uh at each grade level we cannot fit them all on the same floors so we do have some outliers which can be hard for collaboration uh as well as just management um on the third floor we have two classrooms in the middle of the floor that have been built from nothing which is so impressive and they're lovely uh but what happens is we have the perimeter of the building housing 9 to 10 10 home rooms upwards of 180 children and now two home rooms popped in the middle so another 40 to 45 children all open um our highest need students and we've talked a lot about that um at Lincoln Hancock our El students our special education students our students

031receiving literacy Services those service areas are shared created spaces that are open um they are loud they are not their own space uh for instance I have a special education classroom that is a sliver of a space between two kindergarten classrooms uh to say that those students um really have to pull it together in order to focus on what they're doing um when they're receiving their intervention services is it's a challenge uh in summary the learning environments particularly our students with highest needs are just not ideal uh as we look at growth that we look at data this is something that is glaring the photos that you see are a sample of our student support areas the photo on the left is the special education space on so on the left side of that partition

032with the beam in the middle is where we're servicing 8 10 children and to the right is one of our kindergarten classes with 22 to the left of the projector is another kindergarten class um and as you can see I took that photo from the hallway so it's just open to the hall uh the middle photo is a excuse my photograph skills um it's a panoramic so the left arrow is one El class that has approximately 10 11 children in it then if you're standing in the same spot this is a literacy space that houses about five children for intervention services and then the arrow to the far right is another El space that houses about 10 now if you're looking at that and you turn to the right you're now looking at the photos

033on the right side um another El space that is split in half each with 10 on each side so when you start to add up the the number of children in this open space receiving services at the same time in the middle of the floor um it just again shows that there is a little bit of a need in terms of a better learning environment for these students for our proposal the main priorities would be uh all classrooms moved back behind the locked space so that when people enter the building they are not crossing paths with students uh we would have our grade one classes on the same floor right now they're split uh grade two we would be able to house together as well um in grade three the classes in the middle uh

034would not have to be in the middle of the floor uh we would be able to get them on the perimeter which would be a little bit quieter um students would have larger quieter spaces for their support services because we would be able to move them into classroom spaces um and finally the special education students would be prioritized to make sure that they are in a learning environment that is a little bit more isolated and quiet to make sure we're meeting their needs from start to finish one of the other things we we probably should have pointed out too is that one of the spaces that has become gradually smaller and smaller and smaller is the library um so the library is practically non-existent at lincol and Hancock it's basically a hallway at this point

035um and so I think that being able to when I went to Lincoln Hancock that middle section was a beautiful Library so being able to return that to a library I think um would be another huge benefit of this proposal um and just some additional concerns for your consideration So currently quinsey Public Schools does not offer a full- day integrated pre kindergarten option for families we are applying for the next round of the cppi grant which is currently um they're telling us it's about $750,000 hopefully we'll get it we would love to be able to offer some full day integrated classes for our families um the only option for full day pre kindergarten are the substantially separate cares classrooms right now and so we do have some concerns with that so increases in the number

036of special education services uh students served in substantially separate classroom program end up as a result of only that is the only option so even um you know students that are you know may require might have been able to handle an integrated classroom but they need a full day the only option is a substantially separate cares program and so that makes it really difficult once we put students in the cares program for them to then transition into a general education setting as they move on it it just becomes more and more challenging and as a result of you know the what's kind of happened over the years we have approximately 23.8 of our eligible special education students are served in a substantially separate program the state rate is 13.2 so in in our most recent

037um coordinated program review we were actually cited on that and it is something that we are working on and uh you know trying to figure out thoughtful ways to increase our inclusion opportunities eventually with the goal of obviously moving students out of substantially separate if they can at all do um the least restrictive environment and uh we know that parents are looking for a longer school day uh for their three and four year-old children um as a result of the needs assessment that we just completed we did get that information 44% of the family surveyed for the cppi needs assessment shared that the hours of the quinsey public schools part Day program did not meet their needs and just one additional um fact that actually Laura shared with me today is that we currently have

038200 students on the wait list for prek in quinsey public schools so it it is it is significant um you know and um you know we're we're looking for creative ways to work with those families and get students what they need but you know we we definitely think that this proposal would help with both of those areas and so with that we will answer any questions m s I agree that it's a challenging environment it really is I mean it's I've been hanging around that school for many many years and it is a very challenging environment so I think some of those proposals are are really necessary really necessary to make make sure we're giving the kids the services that they need I can't imagine how difficult it would be to teach in those spaces

039really the teachers are miraculous that they've been able to do it and I don't think we're solving that problem still we're just making it better somewhat better we're still not solving that problem I don't even know if it's solvable what we could do to make it Sol but um thank you for this work I think it's so important I love the idea of increasing the um integrated preschool even even for typically developing peers it's difficult to find parents who have the time to to drop those kids off for two and a half hours and get back and get them so it's it's been difficult on both LS to find kids who can do that so I I think this is an amazing thing I think anything that serves that population is the right thing to

040do so thank you very much Dr B you said um the parents were not um the hours were not amendable to what their needs are can you tell us what they were looking for and they looking for all day so they're looking for at least a 6h hour day 5 days a week some families are actually looking for an 8 hour day um just because families work it's it's unusual now for you know there to have the ability for a family like a you know a parent or a guardian to be able to stay home you know with their children so to be able to do that drop off the drop off for prek currently in Quincy public schools the the morning program goes from 7:35 to 10:10 and the afternoon program goes from 11:10

041to 1:50 so if you are um if you're so as you can imagine where we do a better job probably filling our morning program but the afternoon program being able to do that drop off in the middle of the in the middle of the day is next to impossible for a lot of families so they're looking for a full day program in just you know better better hours more conducive to families at work and I'm I'm concerned about the uh unlock classrooms how is that going to be addressed the city has done a beautiful job we have every floor is locked you cannot get anywhere without this key card at Lincoln Hancock um the stairwells are locked unless you're within the locked space so in terms of the second and third floors that have open

042space uh you can't get into those hallways uh because those doors are locked without a key card um the the three classrooms that are on the outside of those doors on those hallways do have doors that lock uh so when children are in those spaces they are shut um but it is um just a different building and you know as we got all these key cards back when that happened they really did take care of Lincoln Hancock in terms of not being able to move around the building um without these cards and just one one question the resource officer do you is the resource officer there part of the day um can you give me not regular he um the resource officer goes there as needed but it's not um I mean Janet does a

043phenomenal job as does her staff so it's it's not you know typically needed but he you know with Brian Mahoney who works with the Elementary in the middle is always available he he is everywhere and all at once I don't know how he does it but he's he's a he does a great job and he's there whenever we need him yeah I was just thinking the president of a resource officer in the building is walking around is is a deterrent oh the kids definitely know um officer Mahoney he's he's he's a presence he's a very positive presence he's great he I mean I honestly cannot say enough good things about him yeah he's he's wonderful thank you thank you um I will start by concurring that officer Mahoney is he's fabulous he's he's really great

044um heard a lot of positive things from families regarding him as well um this is a great proposal it sounds fabulous um and I anything that adds more full day integrated prek I think is is wonderful one thing I hear from parents all the time is the need for earlier care especially ear earlier in the day um care is definitely something I hear a lot and full day is definitely I hear a lot so um so thank you very much for the presentation and I think this would definitely be very helpful for our teachers our our students and our famili so thank you um thank you Dr Perkins and Mrs lus for the um time that you put into this proposal the work you put into it for sure um and definitely that there are

045areas at Lincoln Hancock that need addressing um thank you for highlighting that thank you for showing those photos um and I have heard how overcrowded that is um so I sort of have a couple comments and we haven't really seen this proposal until just now so uh they're probably going to be little jumbled in the order in which I kind of discuss them but um so sort of separate from The Proposal uh we have overcrowding at many different schools across the city um we have had presentations by the superintendent from um with the enrollment data um and there's many schools that are in the red um so Lincoln Hancock while obviously the need is there the need's there for other at other schools too so I guess I'm a little confused as to sort of

046how this concept and this proposal came about where I feel like sort of this body is the one that's should really be discussing the overcrowding across the district and what we should do about it kind of on a 30,000 foot level um we have uh overcrowding like I say at many different schools uh we have other issues across the district that uh we could be talking about and be and be discussing at the same time um we have long-standing inequity I mean Lincoln Hancock's here before us they don't have their fifth grade anymore because of space issues similar to Clifford Marshall um so we have this long-standing iniquity in our system that our 10-year-olds at those two schools um are in middle school so and nine of the other Elementary Schools they're not so we

047have that long-standing inequity that we could fix um we have two QPS owned buildings we have the deles and we have St Mary's currently both empty um we haven't redistricted in close to 40 years so it sort of feels like and we also have a facilities subcommittee meeting uh or subcommittee rather that hasn't met in quite a while so it sort of feels like this kind of stepping back from this proposal the proposal's you know solid uh it would certainly do help a lot of different of those issues but it feels like we're biting off a lot here we're biting off space with this proposal um reworking classroom spaces uh full day prek and inclusion opportunities for special a kids that's a lot to put in one proposal for one building when we haven't really

048looked districtwide at what we're doing um this isn't addressing overcrowding at any of those other schools uh if full day prek does come down the pipe there may not be enough room if we put the kindergarten kids there to expand that program at the Dela um what about fifth grade can we use that building at any level to to try to inest bring those fifth graders back to elementary school um at Lincoln Hancock and Marshall so for me I'm really uncomfortable moving forward with any plans in the delesa until we have till we sort of look districtwide at a master plan for what we're doing we have I just read the Quincy sun today there's 58 new units coming to West quiny I'm assuming they're going to have children in those so where are these

049kids going um so I just sort of want to be a little bit more intentional um and smart about the way we're planning what we're doing with our spaces before we kind of put this Band-Aid on a problem and then it's there for 20 years like we did for the fifth graders we we move those kids over because of space 20 years later they're still there so I'm uncomfortable moving forward with this until we do that survey which a couple years ago you guys might remember that I had asked for a survey to be done of all of the ways we could get fifth graders back which sort of goes into this how we deal with overcrowding and sort of master plan issue um especially if we're bringing in full day prek uh so I

050think we need to go back to that study and find out where that's at I know Mr Mayor you had some money put aside for that at some point I believe it was $100,000 when I looked back at my notes I really think that we should have that survey first and then this body should deliberate how we're going to handle this instead of just voting on this proposal which is just one part of what we really need to be doing this is our job to it's why we're here to sort of fix these bigger problems so that's my two cents on it it's not to say that the proposal doesn't have Merit and is invalid and I appreciate your work for sure um I just think that we have to kind of step back a

051little bit um and talk about it in a bigger sense thank you oh one more thing I'm sorry one more my last thing I wanted to just make sure I remembered to say so if we moved kindergarten from Lincoln Hancock to Dela I just want you to follow the path with me so a family would send their child to kindergarten at Dela first to Fourth at Lincoln fifth at Southwest if they're in the APC program they're moving to Central for sixth and 6th through 8th then they're going to high school that's four schools that they're attending before high school when if you go to school in walliston or squantum you only attending two schools you have that continuity between K to five that you won't have the opportunity for in Southwest quiny so it's things

052like that that are long-term effects of doing something like this that does sound good on paper so thank you thank you a couple of things um one is how many students are in Lincoln Hancock today What's the total body count we're right about 565 and then how many would be moved over to Delhi with this about 115 okay so that that space that I saw in the hallway would go away the learning space in the hallways that uh on my last visit to the schools uh that was um a little challenging to see uh and that school was built in the 70s under that whole the old um PA you remember em remember it was kind of a crazy time those were open Campus High School years and it was a bit crazy and I

053know over the years our public Buildings Department and maintenance division has been building out classrooms as best they can to help alleviate some of those situations I think this is a good responsible plan today what I challenges uh um I I don't necessarily agree with we got all these buildings with overcrowded I think we have buildings that are full and uh one of the issues that is different from when I was in those schools particularly North I remember talking on the principle there last year how many were when you were here I said well the big difference is the class size is smaller the special education space is smaller there's a lot more demand square footage uh to teach our kids and to deal with some of the challenges so I don't think there's a

054a perfect solution to all of this but right now I think linking Hancock is is the biggest challenge and I think this helps us to alleviate that um now I've been in touch with my public buildings commissioner and the Del AA needs some work we're going to we're going to have to come up with some Capital Money In The City side and address the hva system and a number of the infrastructure issues in the building um and the times we're in with backlogs and equipment and all uh you didn't mention it but this isn't probably till September of 2026 so we have time to continue to talk and deliberate on some of these things we don't have to vote on this tonight I I appreciate the presentation and I think it's the right direction we've

055also alluded to I certainly have uh a new school in West quinsey that's why uh the city council authorize me to buy the St Mary School site for future use because when you look at the demographics you look at the geography uh that part of the city they go the longest distance uh probably to get to the elementary school which which is a big impact on Mon cleair so I know we're going to be talking uh we're engaging um on the city Side just for conceptual plans for this body to look at what we might be able to fit uh at that West quiny site and then that will then help us alleviate some of the challenges particularly at Monclair that opens up some more space for perhaps that prek down the road we don't

056have room right now for prek in all our schools I mean I I don't know if we'll ever have that room without building additional buildings um so and you know we've we've been successful and I'm grateful to the state treasurer and the school building authority obviously we're in the ground for squantum uh and uh we've been successful obviously with a number of buildings over recent years so we're in a pretty good place overall and I would also say that I I'm proud of the school system across the board no matter where where our kids go they get a great opportunity they get great education we get outstanding teachers and Leadership and principl so um I don't know that this Silver Bullet here to fix all of those things that uh my colleague brought up um

057but this isn't something we have to vote on tonight and I think we continue to discuss some of these things but I think it's a it's a good step forward and uh you know I look forward to further discussing uh this and I just want to say publicly because that West quiny Elementary School concept is out there a little bit people ask me about it um and I think I talked this a couple of years ago but I would recommend the committee that someday that school built would be dang for Abigail Adams so just so we get that out there thank you madam chair get the get the public thank you yeah um thank you for the presentation I mean it's I can't I'm trying to think of if it's been a year or two

058years since I've been a l Lincoln Hancock but the photos are really tell a hard story um and and when when you talk about the the entrance you're talking about the main entrance where people walk through that it's open right right where the parking yeah so the Water Street side the technically the address for the school is the Granite Street side U but our main entrance for families uh is down on the Water Street side so if someone is picking up a sick child or uh dismissing someone or coming in for a meeting they do come in the Water Street entrance through the lobby up the stairs before they come to any one of us in the office and there and you're saying there's no security there so we have the security cameras outside um

059when they ring the doorbell like all the schools do and that's where but then they move up to the they go up to the office they come up to the office from there yeah and um in the return of that space will be Library Services is that what you're saying or or that space would remain the same there just wouldn't be classrooms and students in that outside Lobby space yeah I'm asking what that outside Lobby space will be it would be a Lobby okay so understood um I mean I appreciate the proposal and and I think the mayor said it's a proposal so it's an opportunity for us to kind of digest it I I also understand and and respect Mrs pio's perspective that you know and I'm sure Ain you you and the superintendent

060are thinking at the 10 or 30,000 foot level um about about some of those inequities I mean the fact that any student would have to go through four four schools is is concerning um and we're solving one problem and and maybe not looking at it a little holistically I think the mayor talking about the St Mary's site has promised that that discussion should be in the mix as we think through you I mean there were a lot of pieces at play here juggling uh to before we get there so I do think there's a little bit of time to figure that out but I do hope that we have an opportunity to talk about it a little bit more in depth maybe at a slightly higher level to see how those pieces could potentially juggle

061before a vote is cast depending and how quickly you need a vote to be cast thank you I I have one question for Dr Perkins when are we going to or are we going to be required to offer preamp what is the state saying I I'm not sure I mean that's an initiative from the governor's office 2030 by 2030 yeah I don't I don't know I mean I haven't heard anything like official like hard hard and fast but it's coming it seems like it's it's coming so they're putting a lot of effort into it this is putting a lot of effort into it across the state and a lot of money behind that effort yeah so it looks to me like they're going to be so I think we really need to be on a

062higher level making sure that we're thinking about that too because to the mayor's Point our schools are all crowded and I don't know where we're going to put and it might be another change for those kids but when they're in Nursery School there already a change mod them you know if they're into a private Nursery School someplace so but it might be another change to them if there's a prek program someplace at St Mary's or wherever so thank you additional considerations um our our uh numbers of students in the high school level in for class size we self-impose that that's not dictated To Us by the state am I correct right so we could change that and help out that way um and I've suggested this before and it's it's um a touchy subject because

063it impacts people across the city I mean we might have to take a look at redistricting I mean it's a hard subject to address because it people are attached to their schools and their where their siblings went and maybe where their parent parents went but um we may have to do that because we're we we are running out of space um unfortunately we we're a product of our own greatness the more we the better we get the more people move into the City and they're taking us spaces in our in our schools so um it's just something that we may have to look at and then lastly uh and this is like out there but we may have to take a look at how we configure our schools in general in terms of um where

064we put our one through fours and our five through sevens or eights and maybe break that up in a different way so that maybe Middle School is not uh the way we have it currently because we had junior high schools before and it was different and then we moved to a middle school concept and now that's different so who's to say we can't change it like again and take a look at uh maybe taking uh the ninth grade out of the high school and putting it with eighth grade and I'm just thinking out of the box here and just um because there there there has to be a solution there has to be multiple things we can do to try to solve this we we can't build buildings because we don't have the money we

065don't have to space uh we're lucky that we have St Mary's as an opportunity to use um uh unfortunately will it and G Bryant were closing that into the city we're not getting those back um so you know we have to take a look at uh our other means to to address the issue so and I'm not proposing any solutions tonight or proposing anything specific I'm just saying we need to start thinking maybe out of the box a little bit thank you the follow to that I I do think if um and I know this committee has to deliberate and take votes so don't make any assumptions but if we build a new Elementary School in West quinsey that will trip the redistricting uh at that point I don't know that much would change right

066now in helping us anywhere until you have a new building to then create the room to make the moves so I I don't think that's a solution yet um but but I I I I don't disagree with what you're throwing on the table I think you know if we were starting a school system today from scratch I would have K through 8 and 9 through 12 just my opinion um but but the point is those are things we can talk about absolutely my parents went to North it was 7 to 12 um so a lot of lot of changes over time so so again this is a step forward to alleviate the situation we have at Lincoln Hancock um we don't have to vote on it tonight but I think it's a good step forward

067and we should continue to have these disc discussions I mean I just want to give Paul credit for raising a difficult issue and that decision will happen after I'm gone from the school committee but I know that every 10 years based on the city census the city clerk red does the the precinct lines and the ward boundaries and all of that based on where population shifts within the city and I'm not saying that the school committee should automatically consider it at that point but maybe there's a mechanism that we put into policy that says every 10 years after population shifts and we get the the census that we give a look at the boundaries there there might be some you know hard data to look at around those times and clearly the mayor's right if

068a new school is built that's going to trigger it as well but instead of being in reacting mode why not be in planning mode and and the the 10e census might be a moment to do that not to be argumentative I do think that uh I do think that voting somewhere is not a big deal people buy a house to be in a certain School District so you got to be a I think I think it's a little deeper dive for discussion you still get calls in the voting precincts I'm not worried about that people vote twice a year I am thank you I know Mrs kale you probably haven't had a chance to have your comments yet but I was just wondering where does this where does this go next like Mr Mayor you

069said that there's plenty of time to talk about these larger issues Mr boli brought up a number of topics there that I think it it would be good for this body body to have some brainstorming around maybe in the facilities subcommittee or maybe in one of the subcommittees but what is the I don't want to I kind of want to understand what the timeline is if we have an opening date for this proposal already on the table I feel like the clock's already started so I sort of um I don't want to wait too long to have that conversation before we've done the work in the public building in delesa that is set up for this proposal when we may have a discussion and decide that it's going to have a different um group of

070kids in it so what is the timeline from here and when are the those conversations going to happen just so I understand body those discussions as I said there's no solu um but but I think priority wise I agree with what's in front of us uh I'm not going to force a vote tonight at all but all of these other issues we're going to be talking about you you may have an idea putting something else there that may solve something else none of these specific uh proposals are going to solve the whole picture so no matter what road we pick it doesn't solve everything um so we just got to keep chipping away at it now Paul brings up I never expected that out of you quite frankly talking about different configurations and grades we

071should we should talk about that uh but I am not a professional educator and and I know the team's got a lot of your play I'd ask the superintendent is this something your teams can take a peek at in light of some of what Mr boli said which may solve some of what Mrs Pio said as far as um taking a different look at it yeah I guess I we would just need some guidance on is it are you looking for a districtwide analysis on redistricting or um something less than that I think the several points to address right so where are the pinch points right we obviously have classrooms in a Lobby in a school that's a challenge you know you know the fifth grade thing is a preference that's not necessarily an immediate

072challenge we can agree to disagree qu longterm challenge not longterm I guess we can break that down in any way you want um yeah the floor is yours so we don't need an answer tonight if you need some outside help I'd be happy to provide the resources we can definitely we'll take we'll um the SLT and I will meet and we can talk about that and look at everything from potential analysis on redistricting I agree with you that that redistricting would not be possible without an additional School in West quinsey St Mary so that would absolutely trigger a need for redistricting and what that would look like we would bring off options to you um we did our own analysis with regard to need and obviously we're here tonight proposing that Lincoln hanco need be

073addressed immediately or as soon as possible with the use of ECC because we feel that and looking at all the concerns the district is facing Lincoln Hancock needs the help and needs it sooner rather than later that's why we put Lincoln Hancock as a priority knowing all of the um challenges that this district is facing uh with regard to fifth grade and with regard to space we felt uh based on our longterm knowledge of the district and long-term needs of each and every school that Lincoln Hancock deserved and needed uh the assistance first that's why we're proposing this proposal to you tonight um I think the data and information speaks for itself with regard to the physical plant at Lincoln Hancock and why we need to move sooner rather than later to assist the students

074and staff at that building so that's why we're proposing what we're proposing tonight um but we can certainly meet and discuss a greater um and uh overall review of the district and where the pinch points uh may be you know from the last presentation we gave to you where the schools are again not necessarily overcrowded but certainly reaching capacity and those are the schools that were in indicated as red uh again not overcrowded but reaching capacity um the school in West quinsey would certainly help with redistricting and realigning that and assisting with that it may not fix all the problems that were identified tonight um but our goal is to do the best we possibly can with what we have at the moment and opposition uh my position the slt's position is that at the

075moment based on what we have using ECC for alleviating the concerns that Lincoln Hancock should be the top priority U but having said that we'll be happy to look at um districtwide considerations with regard to space but really in order for us to do that we do need that St Mary School online I think part of part of what Mr boli was suggesting was not necessarily any additions but over time long-term plan if we're reshuffling uh what grades of wear more equally distribution throughout the city I that's that's another look at it well what we can do is we can assume if you want that we will be having a building built at St Mary's and put together scenarios for you to take a look at and where the shifting lines would be and what

076students would be taking from where to populate assume a k to5 school at St Mary's um we can certainly do that if that helps put together at least a basis upon which we can build for overall redistributing if necessary in the city I think that's a good start yeah yeah Mrs Le I just want to talk about some unintended consequences if you move to ninth grade out of quinsey high school I don't know how you would perform your exploratory program which is a requirement if you have five or more programs you're supposed to have the ninth grade is exploring them um so I think that there just unintended consequences if you start making those kind of changes and so I really think two things this is this probably belongs in facility but more importantly it

077belongs in teaching and learning because what we've heard tonight was really teaching and learning driving a facility question and that's how I want to go about it from now on is teaching and learning driving fa absolutely I agree yeah can and I yes um so this proposal here with with you know what all my colleagues are saying and the mayor the superintendent first of all I believe it's an initial proposal brought to us from the research done by the superintendent the assistant superintendent and Miss lits um this building is here it's an early childhood building that was its initial um use correct and it's alleviating a problem that we're having right now um if we were to build a new school and and I love you know what the superintendent's saying we should do a

078review see what it's going to look like with the new school how we can alleviate a lot of the um the space issues and some of the other schools based on that new building but we all know this is now that new building by the time we look at the feasibility the cost getting the shovel in the ground having it done could be a few years and then we can look at if we need to change some of these things but having a a dedicated Early Childhood Center makes sense and especially in light of the fact that it's going to alleviate the issues that they're having at Lincoln Hancock I mean it's just an it's an immediate um opportunity for for us to address that while we are considering the other options that we have

079in front of us and I think to um the mayor's point when he he stated that we have to look to you for guidance in what's best and to Mrs Leo's um comment um in the teaching and learning aspects so if this is going to help those students that in this area and then we're going to have some kids like the students that are at Aton how that the cares program that moved there because they needed space and we have them all in the same building they'll have what they need it's going to be there for them um and I understand the having to do the research to see how we can affect the whole system but that can change too because we don't know where people are going to be moving in where they're

080not going to move we were going to have you know the enrollment numbers change so if we can do this in my opinion at this point I trust the superintendent the assistant superintendent the people in the building to give us um their assessment of what's happening at Lincoln Hancock and the needs that they're having um and I don't think that doing this affects us going forward and making any other changes if we have to down the line so that's my opinion this peros thank you I just had one additional question and two points um so we moved all the prek to the rdlc so explain to me why we would put any prek not in the rdlc so we what we were looking at was um I hope I'm answering your question but what we

081were looking at was the idea that if you lived in that area which it oftentimes is challenging for families to like SRA where we have that neighborhood preschool that we could provide that neighborhood option um at you know the at Dela um Kiza we did move those classes because we knew that delesa needed work so we moved all of those classes if we could put some classes back there then those students could actually stay at delesa from when they were three all the way to when they were six so that was that was one of the things that we were talking about and this is you know this is our recommendation this is what we you know I understand that you know the committee May disagree um we understand that but but this is our

082recommendation we also did look at the idea of moving the fifth grade we looked at it all we looked at moving the fifth grade back to Lincoln Hancock but it doesn't solve any of the spacing issues at Lincoln hanok it's still going to have classrooms in the hallway you're still not going to have a media center it literally is just taking a 100 kids and moving them to Dela and then a 100 kids and moving them back into Lincoln so Lincoln will stay the same if we move the fifth grade back so that was where that was why we were concerned about that it's because what our goal goal was was to solve the spacing issue that it currently exists at Lincoln Hancock um and Janet in the team at Lincoln are phenomenal I mean

083any child is lucky to go to that school you walk in that building and the vibe is amazing um you know it it's just a great place to be but you know we we these the kids deserve to be able to be educated in classrooms that are more conducive to you know being able to do what they need to do during the day um and so so those were the things that we thought about and so I I totally appreciate um miss peros your your concerns about the fifth grade and we I just want to and and I I understand you know that if you disagree with this but we did look at that and the issue was that it did not resolve the spacing issue at Lincoln Hancock it just shuffles one group of

084kids um you know yeah I totally um I totally understand that and that's right said this proposal on its own is totally solid um it's just there are other ideas like in addition to Lincoln Hancock like an addition at Marshall there are other things we could talk about to bring that back so my comment was just we should as a body be looking at the 30,000 foot view can we add an addition and as we're moving those kids there could we move these kids back with an addition what would that look like and having bigger discussions like that than just the proposal but I do appreciate you having looked at it a little bit and just um so that was my question my second my just my two points were um Mrs Libo you had

085suggested maybe going teaching and learning first then facilities I would suggest maybe a joint teaching and learning in facilities meeting we could kind of have both of those conversations together where they sort of impact each other um moving forward I could see us having a conversation in that and having that be a meeting of the whole that would be perfect um would be my suggestion there and then just my just my uh Amusement that uh the assumption that St Mary's will be a k to five and squantum the Assumption and we're moving forward with the K to 5 and that is always the K to 5 is the ideal but yet the fifth grade that aren't in there is not a big deal so it's just it just constantly frustrates me that we we say

086that it's not a big deal but then every other way we show them it is so if fifth grade in Middle School isn't a big deal maybe the new St Mary should be K4 maybe squantum should have been K to four but I tend to think those squantum families would freak out if you said that that was going to be a k before and you'd have a line down the hall so if it's not good enough for them why is it good enough for our families down in South quiny thank you can I just make one comment when you talk about um the the badges to get into the hallways and stuff um are the teachers really make a concerted effort to make sure those doors are closed after they come in and out so

087they close automatically and I am very grateful to Mike drao um at any point if there any issue if one starts to beep which is a signifier that a new battery needs to be replaced coming down the pike um they have Grant lock there that day um it is a very smooth system that's impressive um so yeah it's uh the the doors they're the big you know almost fire doors I would say that they shut automatically um so no one props doors um it's everyone's in the same boat in terms of priority for that okay great that that would be my only thing okay CL can just a closing remk and then want to leave that comment hanging um reality Clifford Marshall was obsolete when when it was approved decisions were made back then and

088they knew at the time there were going to be challenges so this body's not responsible for that dealing with that issue and Clifford Mar was a new school for that neighborhood we have a new school of Southwest decision was made it was made by this body to put the fifth grade at a brand new facility at Southwest the build building was designed for it the school building authority approved it uh and they in a brand new brand new building so um whether it's a fourth grade or fifth trade transition transition is a transition the same group of kids are going together it's not like we're pulling them apart and splitting them up so um I don't I don't want to create this this image of halves and halves and Nots decisions are made over time

089by different bodies uh with different priorities so um I just want to say that thank you move on to the next item thank you thank you I'm sorry give you a minute Mrs Perkins don't move okay next on the agenda we have the proposed career Vocational Technical regulation changes now my glasses on yes okay Dr par Parkins and Mr sagala thank you thank you Vice chair kill and good evening everyone Dr Perkins and I wanted to take a a few minutes to share a significant matter that um that would affect our CVT programs our teachers our students as well as their families and many comprehensive high schools and Vocational Regional Schools across the state on March 10th the Board of Education held a meeting where the department of Elementary secondary education CBT unit presented proposed

090amendments to regulations on uh cvte uh admissions please know that uh in advance of that meeting we were never notified of these changes at least Comprehensive High Schools were not we didn't have any input any feedback um of these regulation changes and so it's a little bit disturbing on behalf of my colleagues throughout the state and at least the Comprehensive High Schools before you you should have a variety of CBD admission documents including um the school committee policy your policy 10.53 CBT admissions Communications um from Russell Johnson the the acting commissioner of the DZ um referencing the proposed amendments to the regulations of vocational education and in regards to admissions a copy of those proposed ch es there's also two drafted documents by attorney Tim Norris legal council for mava Association of vocation administrators which

091um we quiny Public Schools is an active and a voting member of that organization as well as a sample letter of opposition from the school committee it's just a draft I want to first start with highlighting our CVT program admissions all students requesting admissions uh and those students are incoming grade 10 uh to an over subscribed CVT program will be reviewed by our by quiny CVT admissions team using awaited admissions criteria each applicant is assigned a score calculated from the total of the criteria of subtotals you'll notice that on page seven in the CBT um admissions policy those those criteria include grades excuse me grades yes uh earning up to 25 points attendance earning up to 25 points discipline earning up to 25 points student statement of Interest which is 10 points and teacher recommendations

092can all students can also earn up to 15 points totaling a 100 total points so to give you an example um electrical if Johnny Jones receives a 92 points total and Stevie receives 80 Johnny would get first access to the program and Steve would come in second in in the quiny policy all right our policy your policy is fair Equitable it sets high expectations for programs and for students it also um provides good academic and Vocational standing for our students particularly in the grade nine exploratory program it assists in preparing students for College and Career Readiness it incentivizes students to do their very best in grade nine before entering grade 10 in the pathway it works for quiny this is an example this this slide over the last four years the over subscrib programs in

093Quincy Andor wait list so 20 2425 two of our vocational programs we inst instituted the admissions process automotive technology and Healthcare at North quiny High with the two programs that we um administered the emissions process to give you an example 35 students in automotive applied for the program 25 were accepted and 12 were placed in their second or third choice Healthcare technology at North quinsey High 57 applied 37 accepted and 15 was not accepted but were were put in there were placed in their second or third choice in 2023 24 you'll see there was no over subscribed or weight list and 2022 23 once again automotive technology was uh there was a small weight list and 2122 Healthcare technology at quinsey high there was a wait list and now for the proposed new regulations the

094changes so beginning uh with 2526 admission cycle students who are entering in the fall of 2026 where there are oversubscribed programs or more applic applicants than there are seats the students will be accepted for admission by a weighted Lottery system and I'll talk a little bit about what that means all of the lotteries that are conducted must be done so in a public setting so for instance like the auditorium at uh Quincy High School they can be electronic but you do need to provide public notice the process must be fair and the selection must be random and I'll talk a little bit more about this last uh Bullet From the regulations but if this the cvte school or program hold holds at least two open houses and at least three virtual information sessions each school

095year then we can require applica applications for admissions to contain an indication of the student interest in the CTE program so what that means is we cannot ask students to demonstrate interest in a cvte program or a CTE program unless we have done those meetings so unless we have done those five additional meetings we cannot ask whether or not students are actually interested in the program so awaited Lottery system um is a lottery for admission to a program in which all of the students are entered so every student is entered no matter what um and the students who meet one additional permitted criteria are given one additional weighted uh weighted per Criterion now well I'll talk a little bit more about that it is a little bit confusing and we're really really not quite sure

096how it even it's not very clear in the regulations how this is even going to look like does that mean your name goes in a hat twice we're not really sure um so a student with a weight of two has twice the chance of being selected in the lottery as a student with a weight of one and I'll talk a little bit more about that so in terms of demonstrating their interest so again in order to demon to ask a student to you have to demonstrate interest for us to consider you as part of our admissions process we remember we have to have done those five additional nights which um Mr sagala and I were talking to a principal of one of the the C CTE schools who said that that would cost somewhere around

097the range of $70,000 for him to have all of those staff be uh available and working to offer those five nights just in order to ask a student are you interested in a CTE program and so um so the things that you can ask them to do if you've done those nights is you can ask them to potentially participate in an interview participate in a tour attendance at a presentation by a CTE program attendance at a virtual information session attendance at an open house submission of an audio video presentation personal essay letter of recommendation or other measure proposed by a CTE school or program and approved by the department so these are the things if a student has done one of those things even if you've had the five night night but they showed up

098for a tour they've expressed interest and that's all they need to do so in terms of the lottery um the lottery again you really cannot use any kind of selective criteria at all anymore for admissions um they tell you that if you are a school system or a program that has use selective criteria this is basically what you can do if a student had was absent fewer than 27 unexcused absen full day absences over the 270 school day period so basically that's like a year and a half so 27 I do just want to point out is chronically absent over that time period because that's 10% so if they if they are if they are 26 days absent they get one extra weight again I don't we're not really sure what that means does that

099mean all of the names go into a hat and I have only been absent for 26 days so therefore my name goes in twice I'm not and we don't we're not really clear on what that extra weight actually means um and so and then in terms of student discipline students who have not been susp suspended or expelled or suspended or expelled for more than 10 days so if you have been if you have not been suspended or expelled for more than 10 days you will get an extra weight so potentially a student could end up in the lottery with if I if I go to school I go to school every day I have pretty good attendance I have not been suspended for more than 10 days my name will go in the Hat for

100being interested everybody's name goes in for being interested my name may go in a second time because I have really good attendance so now my name is in twice this is what we're assuming and now and I also have pretty good discipline so my name is going in a third time so that is how we think that this is written um and so um so as I just said the student will be assigned one additional weight so their logic according to the Department of Ed is that a student with an extra weight according to the Department of Ed is twice as likely to be admitted via Lottery and a student with two extra weights is three times more likely to be admitted than a student with no extra weights and that is because everybody's name

101goes in once so the two extra weights would be for attendance and discipline so potentially if you if you're have good attendance and no discipline your name could potentially I guess go in three times or you get three weights so as as I think you can tell we oppose this we are not in agreement with this uh we definitely think that the we we feel I know that I speak for Mr sagala I know I speak for all of the CTE people across the state who are I think also pretty upset about this that the proposed system give students extra points for poor attendance and another concerning thing is that I could be absent three days over a year and a half period and I'm getting the same weight as a person who has been

102absent 26 days you know that there's a huge range in there um and and obviously you know the concerns that we have with attendance we've talked to you about chronic absenteeism this absolutely does not incentivize good attendance um and the proposed system it's sets no bar for the most egregious student Behavior so because you're still entered even if you have been suspended for 30 days your name still goes in the Hat you could still be selected over someone who has not had any discipline record it's in the cvte programs in the over yeah in the over subscrib programs so um so the we the proposed regulations try to measure student interest but more is needed we just do not think that that's enough to assess whether student is really interested in one of our cvte

103programs or not and I think most importantly we feel that we are preparing our students for College and Career Readiness where these criter criteria showing up every day and being able to function and behave in a in in our society is extremely important and we do not want to be in the business of teaching students that that doesn't matter and because it does and it can absolutely impact success or failure in the cvte professions I we think it sets up a very bad precedent and sends a very bad message to our students and families so we strongly oppose these changes so what what are what are we doing um we're going to continue to share that we're talking to you tonight um you know Mr sagala has certainly talked to the high school administration other

104C cvte programs um his program advisory team his business partners to express the concern and what this could potentially do you know we're concerned that the business our business partners won't want to take our kids if there's if there's no criteria you know in place um and which would be really really a sad sad thing to have happen where um we have working on which I believe you have in front of you a letter of opposition um I think there's many many people that are also writing a letter of opposition um we would love to be able to send one from the school committee and so we have one drafted for you tonight to take a look at uh the public comment period does end April 18th uh and the board will vote on these

105regulations on May 20th 2025 and so that in a nutshell is the cbte thank you madam chair um what I haven't heard here anywhere with theate state is what's driving us what's the point what where's the I think there were lawsuits two schools or there were two two vocational schools in the state that weren't compliant so why don't we deal with those two high scho good that's a good point by the way just for public information this also affects Nal gagi we get kids that go to Nal gagi it's going to change things there as well we pay for those students as as you know I I am so sick and tired of federal and state bureaucracy is telling us what we need to do and you know there's two cities comparable to quinsey we

106get 70 million in local Aid they get 300 and the districts aren't even close to what we're accomplishing with quinsey Public School District so my advice and I'll be happy to say it in my letter and I'll be happy to be part of a letter with this group is going and fix the districts where there are problems why create all these other uh crazy issues and obstacles when things are running fine and the kids are doing well it drives me crazy I'm sorry you have to call your friend she not happy either so the reason the reason this actually came up is because the Regional Schools uh have an have a competitive admission policy so it's hard to get into a Regional Vocational School unless you meet all that criteria but they don't know those

107kids when we have kids in our school we know who's in our exploratory program and to take the decision making away from the Educators and the administrator in that building is ridiculous as a vocational teacher myself there were students that I knew would not be safe working with a patient I know that there are students in the school who could have eight days of suspension and they could be unsafe to have a knife in their hand and if the teachers recognize it and the Deans recognize it and the student support people recognize it then we need to be able to make those decisions we absolutely it's so insulting for them to say 27 days like that's nothing 26 stay and you get an extra point I mean it's insulting really especially for the kind of

108time and money we put into our vocational programs if somebody's going to be absent that long they're going to fail they're going to fail the program that's all there is to it and so I am I am furious at the state for doing this I really am I think it's I I think it's difficult for the compreh for the Regional Schools but this is ridiculous solution we don't have the problem we do not have that problem with cherry picking kids we take all of our kids that's right and even it's it's infuriating it really is infuriating so I'm really glad that you I I asked to have this on the agenda because I'm so angry about it um as an educator and as a school committee member that they would be pushing this on us

109and they you're right and they don't even know that there's still questions that they don't even know and of course Russell Johnson's leaving so I don't I'm I'm furious about this so I think we actually have to sign a letter I have heard people say call the governor's office she's getting calls all day long saying that because she's not really sure where she stands on this yet either um so I really I think it's really important thank you I'll send my own letter as well but I'm more than willing to sign this was the comment com does no public hearing I don't believe so no there isn't right this current time let me research that for you so they did have a public hearing at the 10 meeting because people knew four hours before the

110meeting or something like that that the regulations were changing that way and so there was a small group there were teachers students um some superintendents and some Advisory board members who went to that meeting and commented I don't think it was supposed to be a public comment but they went to speak before the board thank you they they had initially presented this Mr sagala and I sat in the initial presentation it was a while ago and we did not think that we were going to be impacted and then all of a sudden days L these regulations came out and they were like completely different Regional Schools and in uh comprehensive schools are completely different animals as far as I'm concerned yeah um Mr Johnston is a acting commissioner he's resigned resigned he's resigned he's leaving

111he's had it too he has I just wondering what his credentials were uh how does he get appointed in this to this position who who does he know and then who we going to get to to follow him and what credentials does that that person have and then who are these people on the on Elementary and secondary board of education you know what it's it's it's being driven by the people behind commission Johnson he couldn't get out fast enough because he had had it so all these wackadoos that go in this bureaucracy I don't know they they meet in groups whever and come up with these crazy ideas but that's what's going on and I can tell you that's why he left so they're unelected public officials that's correct well we don't we shouldn't have

112to listen to them we shouldn't we're elected am I correct everybody agree with that so who's the genius who decided to propose these regulation changes for admission is there I don't know but Emily's right uh the door of the governor's office is was this will land and will stop if she gets enough opposition to this so right now this these this criteria for admission to the the program is not Merit based am I correct no not Merit based you you really cannot have any criteria whatsoever there is no criteria every student gets put in a lottery and it's a it's a pick of the Hat you are not allowed to have literally any criteria I just I I'm g a loss for words because that's insane we agree same that's it I I just will

113say that the people who are on the board of education um mainly come from Newton and West it's heavily flowed with that population um just out out of Interest they do they have oh yeah they do actually have Comprehensive High Schools Mr thank you I don't think I've seen Mr sagala this fired up since since I've been here's he's pretty fired up um and no and and I agree with all of my colleagues I agree with the presentation I mean it makes no sense for quiny or probably many others um and and I'd support the letter I do have a question about the letter I I just peaked at it beforehand the last bullet in the letter talks about data but I didn't see a discussion about data uh in your presentation it says past

114few months have raised questions about Desi's data until the data issues address the board cannot rely on this data Mr G we don't know what the data is oh we believe it's fraud we we don't know what they're using we we haven't heard from them about the data they didn't share the data so we don't know what the data is data data about that that inform this policy change that's correct that's what you're saying so uh questions oh data that that was can we put something in that says that was relied upon for this this proposal yeah I mean that that that would be helpful because I was wondering what what data we were talking about that that was relied upon for the development of this policy so that's fair that's good yep thanks thanks

115I just have one good question so if this applies only to programs that are oversubscribed didn't they need to voice their interest in it to get on the wait list in the first place yes yes they do yes so in the spring when scheduling comes about they enroll in their first they enroll in one program but they do choose three they top top one two and three so is that allowed because you said that you're not supposed to ask them we would have to get that try to get that approved by the board which is something that Mr sagala and I were talking about the Freshman seminar would that be in that list with that but it has to be approved by the Board of Education we can't just say that okay so right because

116that would be criteria so I'm just I'm just wondering how you get to the weight list portion or over subscribed portion of this if you haven't asked them if they want to be in it you wouldn't know who wants to be in it I mean you can't just pick a kid and say you're going to go in um Automotive when they're like I don't want anything to do with Automotive during the scheduling process you enroll in one of your program right I know that's how we do it now but I'm just saying if this with what you're saying I don't know if this criteria because on the one hand they're saying you can't look at student data uh to use that as criteria for placement you can't do it you have to go through the

117weighted Lottery first and that's another major objection that falls into this whole um data piece that the regulations are requiring so they're blocking us on one hand from looking at the students who are interested in the program only after we do the weighted Lottery and identify the students then can we look at their interest it it's it's absolutely backwards it's the wrong approach and I think that like right now right if a student was applying say say they were interested in automotive they do have to do something to say why are they interested in automotive right so they have to express that in some way you know with the the cvte with the application process we would not be able to do that unless we had done the five nights that would be the piece

118that we would not be able to to ask them so normally you know like when you apply to anything right you might do an essay or you might do something you know to say why you want to do this um we're we're not allowed to do that unless we've done five additional nights and could those five sessions do they have to be at night could they be during the school day um I think the regul it doesn't I guess it doesn't really say um I'd have to look and see if it says what like if it has to be at night or not does no restrictions so if it's during like a lunch period or SSB or something or in theory they could sort of do that without having to have instructors stay um just

119a way around that well I actually would I don't know how you what you think about this but can't we write something in here that it's a burden to even suggest that they have to do these five days it's a financial burden it's a Time burden you know when we we're going to do it at night if kids don't come you know so can we add something like that in this letter as well does everyone agree with that um because I think that's also you know pulled it out of the air and makes us have to do something that we can't do financially and you know physically course I think that would be a good um this is just for the oversubscribed programs that's correct so they want us to do five more sessions to

120get even more people to apply to the over subscribed programs yeah and then just do this random Lottery that's not based necessarily on criteria or desire you have more disappointed yeah that families that it's just to oversubscribe programs crazy okay Mrs Leo I think you know I know North Quin is a little different but at quiny high school every student sees every single program so what else can you do for them then you have to bring them in five more nights I mean that's ridiculous the students get to explore the program yeah we we're not we're not really sure but I I mean it it is I think noteworthy that the that the exploratory program is not one of the criteria that is listed under express interest they know that these exist in Comprehensive High

121Schools obviously and in every Regional School too so yep and so you know so and that's not one of the options for how students can demonstrate interest so I I think we think that that is interesting that they would not put that in there me too probably because they're not counting it but at the same point m m leap I think it's referring to the reg Regional Schools because you go in grade you enter in grade nine right so there's where your and promote but you don't get into your program until either the second half of grade n that's correct or or grade 10 so even though they get into the school they're not admitted to their programs right but they don't explore all programs necessarily either understood yeah because some of them have 25

122programs I agree with you about the cost and also what do we take attendance at these things at virtual open house we take attendance you would have to yeah you'd have to I mean that no it's this unfunded mandate another unfunded mandate we just I almost agree with Mr boli said we just but everybody should everybody should call it is a shock okay so if we want to send a letter make some amendments and um we want that want to send it by before what's the first date the seven the 18 before before the the vote right so so as soon as we can so can can we do this for can we do this electronically will we get the letters with the amendment we can look at it through an email and then and

123then email back and say we approved the Pro the way it is if we need to sign it in a timely manner you'd have to separ yeah but at that point that's fine when are we meeting April 9th oh okay and then we can the letter there so you can send send comments yeah have have like a final version okay okay yeah yeah and I would I would like to see some um some com it's not my turn to talk yes they you want to rise it send it sounds good okay o oh sorry yep you're on I'm really I'm really about this I really would talk about the compromise safety standards I think that's really important to mention certainly the unclear compliance measures what do you mean how do we do that how do

124you figure that out um and uh weakening Workforce readiness I mean our our business partners do not want us to send them kids who have been absent 27 times in a year and a half right unexcused absenc they could have been sick a couple of times too or who have had seven suspensions or who have had an infraction that didn't warrant a 51a because you can do a whole lot of things in school before you get to a 51a I just it's infuriating so I have a question um based on what Mrs Lio said are you sharing this with our business partners who might equally Express outrage and send letters that would be our plan okay send them this letter with their names on it actually they created they created a specific letter for other

125business partners our program advisory teams as well as business partners to how many business partners um through our program advisory team there's probably 102 yeah well I was just thinking even even a 15 or 30 minute quick Zoom call with them fill them in on it it will inspire them I think greata and have and send them this letter yeah with for them to sign and send along local control restore the control to us I'm done so letters of opposition says April 7th what those are just draft those was just a we to so the nth so we'll we'll okay okay thank you thank you so much thank you okay and next um video monitoring for school bus safety enforcement for referral to facilities Mrs Hubley yeah the mass Association of school committees had lobbied

126the legislature on this and back in December um the governor had signed signed on it and so I'd like it brought into the facility security and transportation subcommittee this is for outside video cameras just so people know this is for the um traffic that would be going around our school buses for safety okay it's going to go to facili go to facilities yeah thank you um next we have the consent agenda which requires a roll call vote um motion to approve by Mrs Lio second by Mrs huble I don't think my thing is working um superintendent roll call Mr yes yes Mr Gat yes Mrs Hubley Mrs Libo Mrs perios and Maya C yes thank you next we have communications upcoming school committee meetings at 6:30 P p.m regular meetings on April 9th May 7th

127May 21st and June 11th subcommittee meetings at 6 p.m. will be April 9th quarterly budget and finance April 30th special education joint teaching and learning and policy reports of subcommittees Mrs Libo to review the March 19th teaching and learning subcommittee meeting thank you Mrs kahill yes we had a teaching and learning subcommittee meeting and um we were presented with a uh writing proposal the writing goal for our school students K through k through eight uh in which we are mainly three through eight but what we're doing is improving our writing skills one of the goals in our um of our mcast goal for these this team was to improve our writing it's been an issue for a long time that's been brought up many times before and now this literally looks like this is going

128to have a significant a significant impact as a matter of fact our classroom teachers are seeing the impact already so we're really excited about that uh and then we had a presentation from Mr morani about the two mcast tests that are going to be as given this year to the in Civics and in science the civics assessment this year is a real test I believe Mr Ronnie has two parts one part is one deep focus on one particular topic and the other part is covers all seven of the main topics in this in the Civics test the Science and Technology test is still I believe a field test in some parts um for grades five and eight in both sessions they'll complete a range of questions and it's really it's very cool I hope this

129works because I love the kinds of questions that they're using on the science he presented some of those to us they're more performance-based um so we'll be looking forward to seeing how the results of those come out and these minutes are posted online if anybody would like to read the whole thing thank you great thank you um okay so that's that right now we we're going to move into executive session um and we will not be returning so we need a motion to go into executive session Mr boli second by Mr gutro and um and roll call vote Please Mr moli yes Mrs kahill yes Mr grro Mrs hu Mrs Lio yes Mrs peros and mayoke thank you everybody thank you everyone