Quincy School Committee: January 8, 2025

001good evening everybody I'd like to call to order the Quin public school policy subcommittee for Wednesday January 8th at 6 PM Mr superintendent if you could call the role Mr G presid Mrs kahill pres Mrs Leo please do this subcommittee meeting is not a meeting of the whole school committee therefore per of a meeting law only sub commmittee members may discuss deliberate and vote ontee subte members I think it is no yeah okay one more time you do this subcommittee meeting is not a meeting of the whole school committee therefore po open meeting law only subcommittee members may discuss deliberate and vote on matters before the subcommittee the subcommittee members are Mr grro Mrs kahill and Mrs Leo thank you Mr superintendent we have uh three matters before the 6PM policy subcommittee which is the

002draft school committee policy revision uh 9.2 school year school calendar we also have the draft 2025 26 school year calendar and we have the draft 2025 school committee uh meeting calendar the first item on the agenda is the draft school committee policy revision if you remember we took this up at the November 20th policy subcommittee and what we did was we took the mass Association of school committee version uh which um Mrs Owens put together and there were several motions that were made that incorporated changes by members of the the subcommittee including Mrs Lio and Mrs Cahill with uh specific language so uh put it to the subcommittee if there are any questions regarding it happy to read it out loud if we want to or or have a discussion committe I think who actually

003edited this Mr full committee the full committee have we have edits in there from everybody in the Comm okay without uh further discussion if there is a motion motion to um accept the policy as amended and sent to the full board for a vote yep motion seconded by Mrs Leo just all in favor all in favor say I I I all opposed so that passes 30 that will come out I'm sorry cor it is a policy so I have to do a roll call we do have to do a roll call according to superintendent uh Mr grro yes Mrs Cahill yes and Mrs Leo yes thank you yes yes three members attending three voting in the affirmative that passes that will go to the full school committee for further discussion at subsequent school committee meeting

004next item on the agenda is the draft 2025 20 26 school calendar this mirrors the calendar that was passed by the school committee last year is there any discussion Mrs weo or Mrs k no okay so uh with that is there a motion to accept and move this on to the full school committee motion motion May Mrs Lebo second by Mrs Cahill Mr malvey if you would Mr grro yes Mrs Cahill yes Mrs Lio yes three members uh attending three voting in the affirmative that is passed by the policy subcommittee that will go to the full school committee for further discussion and deliberation at a subsequent school committee meeting the third item on the agenda is the draft 2025 2026 school committee meeting calendar and uh with that i' I'd like to turn it over

005to Mrs Owens for a clarification um yes so uh since the draft was shared with you Mrs perdios actually pointed out that there's a conflict for the November meeting date with the mass conference for next year is actually going to be that week so the suggestion is we if we could bump out the meeting till November 19th so just amend what you have um and then we should also probably add a note for the January 7th meeting that that would be an organizational meeting because um there'll be have been an election so they'll be uh a swearing in ceremony for the members any motion or discussion Mrs Lio motion to accept with those two changes motion made by Mrs Libo to accept with those two changes second seconded by Mrs Cahill no further discussion by

006the chair Mr M Mr grro yes Mrs Cahill yes Mrs Leo yes thank you three members voting in the affirmative uh that matter as well we'll move to the full school committee meeting I believe that meeting uh the next meeting is the 16th is that it it's the January 22nd January 22nd so those matters will be discussed uh at the meeting and then it has to be put off for an additional school committee meeting for the final vote is that correct yes y okay okay uh any other business before the policy subcommittee no very efficient that meeting is adjourned for Wednesday January 8th 2025 at 6:30 p.m. superintendent roll call Mr present present Mr Mrs Hub Mrs Lio Mrs peros pres Maya Coke pres quinsey high school student representative merulo sugathan yamini and North quiny

007High School student representative Amy Tan thank you both for coming tonight thank you stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all superintendent immemorial thank you we do have uh two memoriams tonight if you could please keep the following for MC quiny Public Schools staff members and their families in your thoughts and prayers first is Patricia Butler um Patricia Butler was a special education department secretary for 10 years and next is Martha Sue Harris a longtime quinsey College employee who retired as a seventh President of quinsey college in 2010 she started her career as a teacher at Atlantic middle school for five years again if you could

008keep Patricia Butler and Martha Sue Harris and their families in your thoughts and prayers thank you at this time we' like to open up open Forum which is an opportunity for Community input regarding ing the quinsey public schools community in this context is defined as a resident of the city of quinsey a non-resident parent or a student who attends the quiny public schools or a non-resident employee of the quinsey public schools after giving his or her name and address each speaker may make a presentation of no more than three minutes to the school committee an individual may not exchange their time or yield to others residents or non-community persons May submit written statements of up to 300 words to the school committee at QSC openen Forum at quiny publicschools.com by 4 p.m. of the day

009prior to the posted school committee regular meeting written statements will be posted on the school committee section of the quiny public schools website by noon on the day of the posted school committee regular meeting there's anyone here for open Forum come on up and speak hello um happy New Year school committee members my name is Kim Horgan 139 westw Street I have three kids in uh QPS I grew up as a Chinese um immigrant and attended QPS in second grade Monclair Atlantic and north um actually we just had our 25th uh High School reunion last year and proud to have uh raised my kids in the city but I have been so disappointed for the past four years and baffled why we still haven't passed Luna New Year after getting the mayor and the super

010and the city's Council support I want to be the voice for my three kids here tonight among the 40% of the students in our quiny public um schools who identify as Asians I want to be their voice because they can't be here tonight and they might not have had the opportunity to stand in front of you for the past four years to hear the rejections from this committee but I am so moved to see our non-asian neighbors and those who have celebrated um Luna New Year stand with us in support of our cause because they two also understand and know how important it is to give these kids a voice I know all parties one of the best for our students tonight is my first appearance but I have been supporting this effort for the

011past few years in various ways and have renewed and have reviewed many recordings of these um meetings I hear consideration from both sides however I hope that we can persuade this community tonight um to make changes for the better as schools propose their Improvement plans to embrace diversity and inclusion I am here hoping that the city of presidents can pave the way and set an example to other cities to embrace inclusion and diversity in our schools and vote to celebrate this very special holiday for our Asian students I plead with you please don't treat Luna new year as a sick day it is not an excuse it is a celebration of thousands of years of culture shared between the old and the young Generations on this special day Chinese families celebrate spending days in preparation

012and cooking and feasting and especially to nowadays it is very easy for kids to lose their identity under peer pressure and feel the need to fit in please don't take this holiday from these kids this is something that gives these students their identity please empower our students to be proud um to be to be proud of their to be their own indiv holiday as I remind my kids all the time they're not only Irish but they are also Chinese too please help our kids have a sense of ownership for a holiday that defines their culture and say to them you may not celebrate Christmas but your holiday is equally as important if you can address the need for these 40% of the student body that we are discussing now then you did a great job

013as a school company I thank you for listening and your consideration I hope this is not just a checkbox on an open form but you truly hear my words I appreciate your [Applause] time Judy Browns 273 Adam Street as a former teacher at Parker school I know the absentees that happened during the Lunar New Year I think it's disrespectful not to make this a holiday I now sub at marry Mount school and again the absences are way more than usual I think that we owe our citizens consideration and I hope many of you will change your vote thank you [Applause] hey there my name is Maggie mcke I live at 117 rosson Road um I'm here um I definitely support it for the students having the holiday but I also wanted to say something for

014the uh teachers because I know and appreciate that this body has been trying to bring more uh diversity to the faculty and staff and so that it will be a bit more represent of the population um and I just think it would be it's a shame that stud uh teachers would have to take a personal day for such a major uh cultural holiday um and I think to show respect for cultures and to show that Quincy is a place that um is welcoming to people and bring these bring higher diversity to The Faculty um this should be School holiday [Applause] officially hi um my name is Kim Vu I I live at 93 wible street I'm also um a teacher at Atlantic Middle School I've been there for 12 years I teach English Learners where

015I would say over 90% of my students are Asian immigrants and um um I will tell you that like the day before Thanksgiving the day before Christmas you know you ask I ask my students oh what are you guys doing tomorrow or how you celebrating your holiday and a lot of them or most of them will say nothing my parents are working and um and and that is the case for a lot of Asian uh people in this city is that they're working in restaurants they're working in supermarkets and the one day that they take off in the whole year is Lunar New Year and if you want to bring in religion and culture well it's not a religious holiday etc etc well I mean a lot of these countries are communist so there are

016no religions and the one holiday that they all celebrate is Lunar New Year and it brings together everyone there are Traditions there are things that you know they do that that you know they visit their ancestors and and so it's kind of a combination between religion and culture um what else uh and it's not just about schools it's about Community because if you walk down or drive down any Main Street in gindy you see all these businesses that are asian-owned supermarkets and oh I'm kind of nervous I never participated in this but I feel like this is a very big issue for me and you know I I feel like because I'm Asian I have kids in Quincy public schools that will have to go to school in the new year um I just think

017that there needs to be a change um you know asian-americans have made this city in my opinion so much better and um have you know brought life to the city renewing um restaurants and just so much Commerce in the city because of asian-americans so the least we can do is kind of give back to our community and say Hey you know we appreciate you um we know that this is the one day that you normally would take off and we want to show our appreciation by giving your kids the day off so you can stay home and celebrate with your families [Applause] hello I'm Andy I live at 154 suer Street down the road a let's see I'm trying to think of of concerns why this day of to make it a holiday in quinsey

018would be a concern is that if you don't celebrate um Lunar New Year uh in that case finding alternative Child Care would be kind of first among mind with parents and quiny so I'm thinking if we we launch a little campaign just to say hey let's uh let's just start asking each other who here in this classroom celebrates Chinese New Year what are you guys doing for Chinese New Year and or Lunar New Year and if it actually sounds really cool that you know you get you get together there's a feast and there's cooking how about we we encourage the Asian students to to maybe invite them over um and and that kind of alleviates some of the child care Alternatives uh but also let's say 40% of the school population of quiny would appreciate

019this uh this day off but then it also gives up more room for for other students and for the students that can't find can't make an Asian friend in in 20125 today uh then let's have a a list of teachers that are willing to you know stay behind and and and you know form a little form little groups and they can learn about that Lunar New Year and and uh and see if they want to adopt it as part of their their you know family tradition for for 20 2025 and that that uh that concludes my thing D was a three minutes you can make it a test year don't like it we can vote I like the feast I like eating um my name is Tri and I live at 24 Clive Street I

020have two children one child attends Parker Elementary School which has 60% Asian-American students so if 60% of my the students are absent on that day what are you teaching um my other child attends Atlantic Middle School which also have fctory % Asian-American again what are you teaching um and then he will be attending North Quincy High School which has 54% and for those who don't know what 50% is half half of the class school will be absent so um I am standing here for the fourth time fourth year well more than fourth time but in four years I've been asking this request and the two people who I think really need to be here or not here today um this year luny new year falls on Wednesday January 29th and I believe that in the

021past we talked about you know superintendent sending an email to all the families to remind them that it is a day that students are excused they can take the day off there's no there should be no testing there should be no assignment there should be no homework but I can tell you and spoke to many teach teachers that and many students there are assignments there are homework there are new assignments or new uh introductions to new categories of academics so hopefully uh superintendent mayor uh please send an email to all qpf staff schools to remind them not to do any of that um and follow through on your words you may think if mute effort as for the year 2025 2026 Luna New Year falls on Tuesday February 17th during school vacation so you're thinking

022guess what maybe we don't have to then to all these people talking about luny New Year asking luny New Year to be a holiday off because it's got to be school vacation off um and I think it's great because then the students don't have I don't have to stand in front of you guys begging you to put the Looney New Year on the calendar but I also want you guys to recognize that it is a holiday and not just vacation day my child will stay home he will be cleaning his house cleaning the house cleaning his room vigorously we will prepare to welcome in the new year without having to do homework we don't have to go to bed early we can stay out we can celebrate have Feast go eat dim some on the

02317th and not have to worry about missing assignments not have to worry about oh my God is am I missing homework is my teacher giving me um new assignments or I'm going to Mar be marked at aen and ruin my perfect attendance and so I'm grateful that it's going to be on um holiday of vacation week but I want you to think what would you feel if your child had to go to school on Christmas Day I know you were out there buying presents wrapping it up to surprise your child and also you probably went out and celebrated new years's and welcom in the new year with your family this is an important holiday for us and I really really hope that you think about this and add this to the calendar and recognize it

024as a school holiday but also a day for students to be off we ask you because many immigrants families don't know that they can take the day off and to make it accredible please AC this as a holiday thank you [Applause] Mary Joe Bara 18 cledon Street I'll make this really short there will come a time when the Lunar New Year will be a school holiday I just hope that it's sooner rather than later I don't know how many years the school committee wants to be on the wrong side of this [Applause] issue my name is ter Rodriguez six Dow Road I'm here as a non Asian immigrant a citizen you know in support of my fellows celebrating cultural celebrations that are new not new but long-standing in this country that just enrich you know

025our lives the lives of our kids in the school and um as somebody else mentioned this is It's been year after year that we have been here standing here to ask for this as a holiday you know my kids have been through the public system here and definitely do notice the absence of their um fellow students you know but then just to think that these families you know are going to be Mark absent or um you know that there is not a holiday you know I think that it's a big message to everybody in the community within the school and throughout Quincy to celebrate this year as a holiday as you know it was just mentioned it's going to happen happen just be part of that big change and that acknowledgement right now today you

026know make it a holiday and make a big mark on this city that has been enriched by the cultural um presence of asian-americans so I do ask you please please think of the kids and think of the teachers also that come they you know on that holiday to teach and also to share their knowledge about this special celebration in their lives it's not fair that they have to do this um as a day of work they should be celebrating with their families thank you [Applause] everyone is doing well and happy New Year uh first item on the agenda for the superintendent report is student recognitions uh the annual quinsey Lions Club speech contest was held on December 11th with three students from each High School competing quinsey high school students Eddie Giza Leah Gomes and

027Mary Lulu prono and North quiny High School students Marco Mano Caroline fam and Julia Zinda presented speeches on the quote the best advice I've ever received quiny high school student Mary Lulu prono was the winner and will advance to the regional competition congratulations and North quiny High School student Caroline fam was the runner up congratulations Caroline the quinsey Lions Club commended all participants for their hard work and emphasized the importance of fostering public speaking skills and Young people which is extremely important so again congratulations to these students and of course thank you to our partner the Lions Club as well uh please join me in congratulating quinsey High School senior Alysa hops who was who has become the fifth student in school history to score 1,000 points as a member of the girls vity basketball

028team it's amazing congratulations this incredible Milestone is a testament to Alyssa's hard work dedication and talent Kudos also to her teammates and coaching staff for their support and helping her achieve this wonderful accomplishment again congratulations uh next is as a result of the recent screening assessment 44 seniors from both North Quincy High School and quinsey High School have qualified to be awarded the Seal of biliteracy nine of the students will receive the seal with distinction and two students were deemed proficient in two World languages in addition to English in March the registration window will open for both retake and new registrations for the April testing Administration will occur so of course there will be additional students to recognize later at um at a later meeting but I definitely want to make sure we congratulate these

029students for their excellent work and their um C in their um recognition of achieving the sale of B literacy so congratulations on Thursday January 9th there will be a signing ceremony to recognize the 13 grade n students who are committing to earning and accelerated associates degree at Quincy College while simultaneously completing their High School graduation requirements really amazing congratulations to these students and their families this is an important commitment to hard work and perseverance that will be rewarded in their postgraduate years next is upcoming quiny public school events and they include the following Central Middle Schools drama club is presenting Madagascar on January 16th and 17th at 7 p.m. and January 18th at 2 p.m. all in the Central Middle School auditorium the city of quinsey and quinsey 400 are hosting the annual Dr mtin

030Luther King Jr Day breakfast on Monday January 20th at 9:00 a.m. at the Terell room the keynote speaker will be former Boston Police Department commissioner William gross and this event is free and open to the public uh there will be a parent Academy on supporting literacy development for students in grades 3 through 8 on January 21st at 6 PM via Zoom uh the quinsey high school and North Quincy High School music programs will be holding a winter recital on January 22nd at 6 pm. at the Peter Chism auditorium at North quiny High School the recital is a showcase for coral and instrumental performers from both schools and all are invited to attend uh with that that ends my superintendent's report thank you um there is nothing under old business um new business we have a

031presentation on Big Brothers sister Mentor program by Mrs pel Miss C Carmona and Mr Gordon thank you welcome thank you so much um I am really really pleased to be here tonight um I couldn't be happier to um present with um this team from Big Brother Big Sister um it's with great pride and gratitude that I present to you the outstanding partnership between quinsey high school and the Big Brothers Big Sisters Futures program this generous collaboration has significantly enriched our school community and I'm pleased to share the positive impact with all of you tonight as part of this partnership we have the privilege of hosting an on-site full-time coordinator uh director of Pathways and um the executive director for Big Brother Big Sister um the talent and the warmth and the care that they bring

032to quiny high school is so greatly appreciated by the principal the assistant principal um the counselors who they so closely work with um I can't say enough how much I appreciate them they also participate in the um quiny Public Schools Coalition meetings that we have every month um and they've been such a great resource for us I'm going to let them talk about the program and the implementation um so with me tonight we have Aaron Gordon who is the quinsey high program coordinator um we have Constance Carmona who is the director of pathway programs and we have Terren uh Terren sorry Terry McCaron who is the chief program officer so I will hand it over to the team to present to you thank you awesome thank you so much for having us here tonight we're

033very excited to talk about Big Brothers Big Sisters and the relationship that we have uh with Mora and the team at quinsey high school that's kicked off this year uh for those of you who don't know Big Brothers Big Sisters is a onetoone mentoring program pairing uh caring adults with young people helping them aspire to achieve their goals and dreams in life uh Big Brothers Big Sisters of eastern Mass has been in existence for 75 years we've served quiny for 75 years but this year we want to talk about how Mora her team and being being included in in within the community at quinsey high school is transforming the ways in which Big Brothers Big Sisters is able to serve students at quiny high school really quickly if we just go back one slide uh

034actually you know what I think we did intros right we're good all right let's get let's keep let's keep it moving um so next slide more sure yeah so um I just really quickly want to frame up like uh why mentoring as a priority for quiny public schools we know that for students um in the year 2020 and Beyond are reporting having less access to caring adults in their school setting in in their community that is decreasing every year over time if you are a vulnerable student in the school maybe based on your socioeconomic status or based on your racial identity that is an exacerbated statistic so young people are having less and less access to caring adults in their life we want to try to upend that statistic in quinsey inut yes is that

035unique to Massachusetts is that a stat nationally nationally okay thank you nationally um and so we know that putting caring adults in the lives of a young person is critically important so we set out to do that for as many quiny students as we could afford to do um and on the screen if you just really want quickly want to look you can see the incredible effect that having a mentor can have any young person's life Big Brothers Big Sisters mentoring is one of the most empirically tested interventions for young people that's ever been studied uh and there are immediate uh intermediate and long-term effects that can change a person's life forever and so we're going to talk about how we show up authentically in quiny schools and uh try to deliver these exact results

036for young people here next slide more constant so I'm going to talk a little bit about our program that's unique to Quincy um we're a one: one ratio with a a student to adult professional Mentor um the big futures mentoring program starts freshman year in high school um and goes through senior year in high school um that's um I I just want to set us apart from the regular Big Brothers Big Sisters program I think a lot of people know us as the little kids and adults on the posters that big futures mentoring program is a little different since we are specific to high school um what's also unique about our program is we can go beyond high school we also have a postsecondary program so this can go up to 25 years old uh

037we can offer those resources for the students um this is specific to Quincy so we um get our mentors from you know the Southshore we're working with Boston companies organizations to network with the students to find internships and jobs um a little bit about the history of our program we've been around for seven years we started in Boston Public Schools and then last year we launch in rier and this year in Quincy we worked with a consulting company um this is my third year with the program my first year we worked with the consulting company um and did some focus groups talk with constituents about how the program you know are some challenges and how we wanted to strengthen it and one of the things that we found um students wanted more exposure to Career

038Pathways and they wanted more in person with their Mentor um in the past we were using a a virtual platform where they would talk to their mentor and students wanted to be more in person with their Mentor so that's something that we changed in the Rev program last year and we copied and pasted that to Quincy this year so it's a different model it's super exciting we can go to next one so how did we start the process of this program coming to fruition how do we select our students um back in may we started right out of the gate with the middle schoolers um I presented to all of the um middle schools at assembly style I also did FOC focus groups with the students and I met with Middle School coun counseling leaders

039and came up with a targeted list of students who would benefit from a mentor um from from there during the summer we followed up with that targeted list and then me and Aaron were able to present to other groups of students like ladders for Success that was um a really great opportunity to work with those students and we got a lot of students from um that group and then from there we open up to the general population of freshman students at Quincy High School um when school starts in the fall Aaron has his own office at Quincy High School he's in the Counseling Center which is um really awesome um he is able to interview the students to be in the program at school and his doors open to connect with the students there and

040he begins matching the students um in in the fall to the next one sorry so excuse me the students match with a mentor based off of commonalities and interests and the mentor pool that we have available and then they are onboarded um with the the the guardian the mentor and the student and then monthly support begins so Aaron will have a monthly call with the mentor every month and he will also have a meeting with the student every month and that will go on for the rest of the the four years um and then um for October November December we'll have a monthly event on campus and he's going to talk a little bit of about that in a minute and then this provides a public space to bridge the gap for everybody to get

041to know each other in person before they go out into the community and do their own thing um this is also an opportunity to build community for our group um I like to think that not only is a student getting their Mentor out of this group but they're also gaining a huge group of friends right and also the mentors is getting a network of other mentors uh we are definitely a really special Community um oh sorry sorry from from there the mentor menty are um expected to do their own outings out in the community some of the things that our pairs have done um I would say my favorite thing we have a pair that go and walk their dog together super simple um and some of them go to Celtics games um always following

042our safety guidelines starting in the spring actually next week is our first career exposure field trip every month we're taking them on a different field trip um next week we're going to PA Consulting um in seport and every year the scope and sequence will build upon itself so by junior year they are doing resume writing um internship planning senior year they are preparing for what they're going to be doing after high school yes and I'm going to pass iton yeah hi oh wow that's loud um my name is Aaron and I'm the program coordinator for the big futures mentoring program at quinsey High um I've been asked to report a little bit about our fall events so far this fall uh we host one a month uh the main goal with these events is to

043Simply build community whether within the student body or within our Mentor constituents or between our mentors and their Littles um 's a big brother's big sister jargon the mentors and their mentees as well as myself right to embed myself further the community get to know our children and our students on a more personal level and a space that's safe and easy um and where everyone was kind of coming together to do the same things we started in September with the kickoff event that was just says it sounds we just brought all of our students we had about 50 we're averaging about 50 per event uh they're typically on like a Thursday so around 6 7 o'clock so sometimes a little bit more difficult for everybody to get there but you know 50 of our 75

044kids showing up really isn't it's a good number uh I believe so but yeah uh they come together that first one they just kind of hung out and played games together you we had board games we actually had a student Le charades game that kind of just popped up organically you know and so uh the students kind of coming together to know each other getting into practice some leadership and collaboration skills kind of just playing games together right it's how kids learn best through play uh and then our second event was our match celebration ceremony so at that point we had had about a third of our constituents matched and so we brought them bought them dinner brought them into the school and just simply shouted them out and celebrated the fact that they had

045been matched celebrated their compatibility celebrated the fact that we were kind of kicking off this program in a more official way by having made made those matches so far having made a strong number of matches at that point in November was probably my most favorite we did a trivia night for those kids um which was amazing I think that was our most attended event there was about 65 I wrote most of the questions and I'll tell you they're pretty hard um quite challenging I had to Google Chat GPT was my friend on that one for sure um but it was challenging they had fun I think uh their mentors came together their mentors had fun you can read some of the comments below though I think most of those were from our trivia night obviously

046there are some PL some spaces where we need probably to be a little bit more engaging even still but that was a really fun event and again that probably had 65 uh kids parents and families mentors at that event as well then our last event this Halloween or sorry um this past holiday season directly before our break was just a holiday celebration we had the Kims come together and make non-denominational ornaments uh we had kids come together and do a community service compact where they were stripping plastic bags that our coworker um our amazing coworker Carrie is weaving into sleeping mats for people experiencing homelessness um and then a lot of them again just kind of got together with their mentors and mentees and played games uh with so we have like two or three

047big friend groups that all have mentors and mentees and so now they're all coming together and doing this is something that we do together um and that's helping create Community within our schools next slide please oh sorry this uh this got switched um but anyway I guess I for there will be a slide here in a second speaking to the under of the power that at least one of our matches has made so far uh the match we were going to highlight was between a student and his mentor uh vies and G gajendra um they've had amazing results so far gajendra actually put in so that's gajendra's quote or sorry that's ves's quote and that's great but of course I asked gendra to send one uh last week and I got it this morning uh

048working with 15-year-olds and I actually believe that that's the most powerful one so if you wouldn't mind and we had a little bit of time I would be privileged to read that to you but basically all it says is I've had a lot of fun in the big Brothers Big Sisters program going out and doing fun things with my mentor also doing a lot of fun things and new things and meeting lots of new people at the events has been an amazing experience so far this fall and gandra is a he's he's a great kid he's in the photo there he's there he's early he comes we start our events at about 5:45 6 o'clock he's there at 5:30 setting up tables him and his mentor come together and help put stuff up together and

049they're one of the handful of like blossoming relationships that we're seeing actually the other day I do mad like I said I meet with these people every month uh vies uh called me and said hey you know gajendra is seen some things at school he's witnessing some bullying is there some ways I can help him with that I spent five years as a substance education and prevention coordinator in Alaska uh where we' had a violence prevention framework it's very very simple called the 3DS distract delegate direct direct means you directly intervene not always the case delegate you find someone older than you distract you kind of maybe make a little bit of a scene kind of draw the attention away and I just kind of from this previous experience told VES about this framework and

050he said man that's amazing even just a way to talk about this a language from which to be an active bystander I think would be very helpful and now since that's a conversation they've had together and that's one of the ways it's making a very tangible difference not even just to the their relationship right but the safety and fabric of our communities already in the short three-month time span built that over four years I genuinely believe that this program can have quite a powerful impact yes please thank you Erin Aaron will lie and say that I cheated at trivia that's not true um so just looking ahead to the spring like I said um next week will be our first field trip we're really excited about we'll be going to Seaport to do PA Consulting

051and we'll be doing kind of like a shark tank activity with some of their consultants and the students um on all of our field trips they will provide lunch for the students um next month we're going to blueprint biotechnology um in March we're going to be doing a college tour April we're going to Google I've been to Google before with some of the students last year at R it was amazing um they they really wow the students so I'm super excited for that and then in May we'll come back as tradition we always do end of the year celebration on campus um and I welcome everybody in this room to come back for that I will send out an invite and then just a peek into our scope and sequence over the years so sophomores

052um will do more of career exposure where we'll do field trips for government Finance we'll do a deep dive on all the trades arts and Entrepreneurship um in junior year we'll get more tactical doing workshops on cover cover letter resum writing we'll look into internships help them actually get internships in this community uh we'll look into how to put a business um Senior Year we're looking at defining their pathway and we're also you know teaching the mentors on how to work with them to do these things and then also as I mentioned there's an option to get support after graduation so we do have a a postsecondary program um one thing I wanted to touch on is how much we've grown this year so our community based program in the Quincy Community over four years

053we had 62 matches in total and over the this past year we've made 76 matches in Quincy so that's really exciting we're super excited about that in climing go to the next one so a couple um next UPS like I said everybody in this room's invited to the end of the year celebration um would love to share ideas on how to um get more people involved every year we need to add on um more mentors so we're always looking for more volunteers as we grow um and and we would Lov to be invited back to show our qualitative findings with our beginning of the year end of your surveys on what we found learned from our program thank you so much so that concludes the um presentation we'll be glad to take some questions I

054do want to say um the incredible work that's being done and it was opened up to everybody um so you have um you know not kids that are just kind of identified that might mean need that kind of boost and support but anybody was welcome to participate in this program um and the fact that they have 76 kids voluntarily sign up um is a good thing I really feel like it normalizes that we all need each other we all need to be in community and it has a caring these people are incredible like caring adults giving their time showing kids like this could be your future and connecting them to Real World um success it's just an incredible opportunity and they're going to follow these kids every year so each year there'll be a new

055cohort with a new coordinator that's an incredible investment from Big Brother Big Sister they're paying for that with us we pay a little bit but a very small amount um of money um for this program but they are carrying the weight of this program and it's a gift to our community they've been incredible Partners so I just want to say that and principal Ford has been extraordinary in welcoming um this program as has assistant principal Ed Smith and the counselors they work so closely together um and the families are so grateful it's a really spectacular program and I'm just so grateful to Big Brother Big Sister so we'll take questions if you have a minute or so um excellent presentation I want to say I have a very dear friend who's the executive director of

056Big Brother Big Sister in Southern Maine great so I know the lifechanging work that you do firsthand you know I I've I've seen it through her eyes and her experiences and and what it means for her community and so I just want to express my gratitude to Mara and Aaron and you Constance and Terren as well as the principal for this collaboration with Quincy public schools because I know that it has made a difference and it will continue to make a difference and I hope that it does for many years to come thank you y thank you uh sounds like a great program um was this just initiated this year or yeah okay um constant you said you interviewed uh you met with all the counselors in the middle schools is that correct or is

057that middle school counselor so there were um so the feeder schools um for Quincy High School um because the program is just at Quincy High School for this year it's a pilot program so we're looking we're talking about um how we're going to expand that across the district and um you know we're working with Quarry also um because um we think that partnership for North quinsey High will be important so um we're working together to figure out how we can just keep growing so um there was a lot of recruitment that was done through lce through success I mean these folks worked really hard over the summer um to um get to know the Middle School um students and present as like through assemblies to the feeder schools to quinsey high school well that was

058that was my followup was is it going to be expanded and I hope it will be because it's uh a tremendous program and uh be nice to have the other High School involved as well absolutely that's the dream okay thank you I think that'll be big learning in the pilot is to understand you know how to best use our resources and capacity across all the students in quinsey at the high school level um and the company Cory and some of the other great organizations that are already doing good work thank you thank you thank you guys um I have uh one of my kiddos is in the program now and uh we haven't made yes now I've remember yes um and we haven't been able to make a lot of the community events because they

059overlap with some of the other extracurricular activities unfortunately but um but it's great and I'm glad that the program is there it sounds like you know all the the different um community events you've had going on have been great I love a lot of the matches that what they're going off and doing that's great um and I love how it doesn't have to be you know a big trip into the Celtics they can go walk dogs I love that because every kid's different and needs a little you know feels more comfortable in a certain environment so I love that um so as far as expanding which I would love um as Mr boli was asking as as well as you guys uh so there's 75 kids right now at quinsey high that are the littles

060how many bigs do we have right now and is there's still some Littles that don't have matches right is that correct yeah so we have 76 signed up we have 65 matches we're working to get all those kids matched um as quickly as possible we do consider things like Dei representation obviously personality match characteristics if a certain kid really wants to be an engineer we take that into account as well so finding and we're not here to make bad matches that's the thing right like I think the research also shows that bad matches can be harmful so we take our matches very seriously and we don't I meet with our recruitment Team every Thursday and we have a 30 to 45 minute conversation about why these things are going to be good what they're what

061they look like what they could look like and I guess to sum it up we take that quite seriously um and so yeah we need especially more bipo mentors bipo males I have a handful of students of color who need mentors um I we do especially if we're going to expand I think that would be a huge thing even for next year year incoming cohort of freshman um we're going to have need some help finding mentors again creating more Partnerships with more Community organizations with more local businesses especially for our kids who want to be either in the trades or they want to be entrepreneurs I have a handful of young men and women who want to be cosmetologists and I haven't met a single cosmetologist we have as a mentor yet um and I

062think one that's just a bit part of being new right I mean it's our we're piloting here we're figuring this out um but yeah so I think we have enough mentors right now but do we have enough mentors that match our specific student body and the kids we really need to match I can't say that that's 100% true at this point in time though I'm optimistic that as our recruitment team works really hard that we'll get everybody matched as soon as possible we just made two new matches today actually so maybe one thing to say on top of that eron is once we're done matching this year's cohort we got to start repping start prepping for next year so the the the flywheel is already spinning thankfully the hardest year is the first year so

063getting the first 65 we have a bunch loaded up and the Canon we'll have 75 soon like having those set you know our program germinates we use we get a lot of referrals people love the program once they're in it so we'll we'll we'll have a huge head start next year right but the the commitment to continue to recruit for mentors and have you know we're going to have over 320 to 400 matches when we're all in in for quinsey high school students when we're done developing this program over time and maintaining at that level in perpetuity so that's the vision that's great and that's why I was asking is that there's only so much you can do to help like the community sort of needs to partner with you to to make this expand

064so um because I would love North quinsey High kids to have this too and I didn't actually realize it was a multi-year um until this presentation so I'm so glad you're here but also I so I thought we had a pool that could go to the next year so now knowing that those mentors are already kind of tapped out so now we need a whole another group for next year and we want to expand so what can we do to help you do that or is there something we could do for seniors that are leaving now that we could say hey when you graduate if you're going into cosmetology or fashion design or anything like that consider like being a big or any way we could work with you and and try to expand that

065pool so we have more mentors or what can what can we do to support is kind of yeah it's a super generous offer and we'd love to sit with you and explore you know like we're we're connectors so we would love to be out in the community we have full-time staff recruiting here in quiny talking with different corporations talking with Community groups networking with alumni it's something we would absolutely positively love to show up for so looking for opportunity for us to plug in you know we want to be part of the fabric of quiny schools we want to be indistinguishable to the culture of community that exists within quinsey schools so wherever There's an opportunity to come together as a collective and talk about the power of being there for one another right that

066that can have a tangential change in someone's life have a transformative effect on someone's high school experience experience who might fit out but because they have this Mentor because they have a space to be in they're going to feel like they're a part of a community that's going to change their academic outcomes and and ultimately their trajectory in life so you know we want to you know we'll take every we'll we'll shoot every shot we get right um and so I think maybe what we would ask for is an opportunity to beat with you individually and explore your networks and where we might be able to plug in and just keep thinking about us as part of the community here whenever there are things going on we love to to be present to support sounds

067great thank you superintendent thank you um so I just of course want to thank the team as you know we met in the summertime Mara brought this idea with Dr Perkins um to the SLT um and we met with you via Zoom I think our first meeting and um we thought it was a fantastic idea initially I thought that the um the goal of reaching 80 uh Littles would be with pairing them with the bigs would be um something very difficult to accomplish so if you think about it though we're in the fifth month now of this program and we already have 76 Littles and 65 to 67 bigs I I know that you signed another big on today so we're making you're making uh amazing progress already and I can't wait for the day

068when we're actually at those 400 Littles and we have quinsey high well established and we're moving into North quinsey High as well so we couldn't do it without you we thank you for everything you've done you're a great partner uh we look forward to every meeting that we have with you and we look forward to expanding this program in quiny and of course servicing uh our students and families the main initiative the main reason we brought this forward was to really combat uh chronic absenteeism among other things in in the district but that's certainly a goal of the school committee uh and I think you're seeing and we're seeing already um some important uh results with regard to tackling that big issue among other issues in in this city so um we thank you for

069your assistance with that we look forward to working with you in the future so thank you for everything excellent thank you thank you thank you first um I for the guidance Department I and I also heard the student I've seen him in school and I've heard so many good things how frequently how impactful it has been night right I will say that I do know in the work that I do will present a lot of opportunities to in our commun and having an opportunity available and having have someone come to you is different than bringing your work to the table so by coming thank you for the work than you thank you good night yeah okay next on our agenda we have the Quincy public school professional development plan by Dr Perkins and Mr morani

070and [Music] [Applause] team is it y you can the thing okay thank you very much for having us we are just going to do H just a quick it's the middle of the year um for us almost to 100 day of schools or I think about like 85 86 somewhere around there so we're going to just do a quick update on uh professional development and how that has been going for the school year and so just quickly we are will talk about the quinsey public schools professional development planning team and the role they play in developing our professional development uh we had a really successful another year of a professional day of learning that went very very well so we'll share um some highlights with that uh to you and just give you a little

071update on the professional development that's been taking place this school year um upcoming professional development dates and then of course answer any questions and comments so we're very fortunate we have a really wonderful professional development team um that's composed of both Educators and administrators it does represent all three levels so elementary middle and high school uh there are a total of 24 members we meet about two to three times a year our last meeting was actually in October um on October 24th and um you know we're probably about due to have another meeting uh coming up now we try to do uh beginning of the year middle of the year end of the year and their role really is to help provide feedback so they help us um you know assess what our teachers need

072in terms of professional development what people are asking for what people think are relevant and then provide feedback um after we've offered professional development so uh we had as I mentioned at the beginning we had an extremely successful professional day of learning it was our second one we're already working on next year we have an unbelievable team that um helps put that together many of them are here with me today um and you know we have all of the names that you'll see in a minute but this year we did have 132 professional development offerings we had 70 presenters um and for the first year we had actually 30 Quincy public schools Educators who also were presenters at the professional day of learning which was very very well received they were amazing and they did

073a phenomenal job we had asked people to submit proposals uh to be professional development presenters we went through the proposals we shared the proposals you the topics with our professional development team um and uh as a result we had 30 Educators who presented to their colleagues on the day and they were excellent um we had a keynote speaker who was the New York Times bestselling author Matt eichinger he was excellent very heartwarming he's a teacher himself um and he's a middle school teacher and so that was really well received there were three 60-minute breakout sessions uh thank you to the qea who sponsored a really wonderful lunch and as always we did collect feedback and so I think you can just see from the couple of pieces of feedback that we share on on the

074screen here it was a very well-received day uh most almost all of the people agreed that the topics were relevant to their content or um educational role the registration uh we which we worked really really hard um you know I think we did well last year with registration but we tried even harder this year we had heard that once we had released the uh registration people were frantically trying to sign up for what they wanted and it caused you know a big backlog of people maybe not getting into what they wanted so we ended up previewing the registration about two weeks ahead of time this year so we really take to heart what people are saying and uh consider it in the feedback and so as a result this year most people were pretty satisfied

075with the way the registration went um and in general um the the the day met our professional Educators expectations and we do a ton of communication to get ready for this day because it is a massive day there's over 950 Educators all coming together at quinsey high school um and administrators and so is it we it requires quite a bit of communication and so we do do a lot of communication leading up to the event and we just have a really quick video to share because it is such a big day for us just to share how wonderful the day was [Music] I can have an immediate impact in my classroom not 5 years from now not tomorrow I can do it right now my name is Matt eeling I was the keynote speaker today

076the event is going phenomenally well it's so cool to see all these Educators brought together there's a lot of emotions today people high-fiving and because they get to come together as one and really see the impact they're having with kids and so to be a part of this with Quincy public schools is absolutely phenomenal thank you so much [Music] goal as a team is to build the tallest tower you can you have 10 minutes teachers here are challenging the process by building leadership in action they' be sturdier they'd be smaller they'd be stronger you know what I mean use [Music] so it's just a quick highlight it really was a wonderful day and we're really excited to uh be planning and getting ready for next year and I do just want to thank Ryan McQuade

077who put together the video for us and the clips and the highlights um he did a really wonderful job and uh with that I will turn it over to Mr morani or actually Miss Quinn good evening everyone um as Dr Perkins said um this really is a perfect time for us now that we're halfway through the year to reflect on what we've already done and look ahead to what we look to accomplish in the coming months um we were thrilled to have um math consultant Analise record back with us this year at the professional day of learning teachers um got to hear her expect expect te on um fostering problem solvers and cultivating flexible thinkers in addition to this um Miss record will be hosting a parent Academy for us in April um fluency doesn't

078just happen this is similar to the one she offered in October where she um shared with parents how they can help their children be more flexible with numbers through math games um in October the concentration was on addition and subtraction and in April she'll concentrate on multiplication and division um we have math consultant Christine arosta also with us um during that professional day of learning introducing clothesline math to our teachers this tool brings the number line to life um with movable cards and rope offering an engaging Hands-On um learning experience for the students participants received her book and a starter clothesline kit and many teachers reported going right back to their classroom and using it the next day in addition um as Dr Perkins mentioned we had several QPS teachers who presented um particularly with

079math topics including integrating math vocabulary and writing into the curriculum AI in mathematics and teaching with Desmos math consultant Molly vogi has made a significant impact across the district this year um she's she's doing everything uh she was at our professional day of learning and in addition she continues her ongoing support of Southwest Math teachers by by meeting with them individually each month um to lesson plan these lessons integrate the building thinking classroom strategies along um side personalized goals each teacher has made Molly also leads monthly curriculum meetings with this year's focus on formative assessments during these sessions teachers bring student examples and together they discuss next steps based on assessment results m is also um working collaboratively um with this um snug harbard teachers dedicating two consecutive days each month to support their growth

080on the first day the grade level um teachers plan together a lesson incorporating building thinking classrooms strategies and the following day one teacher co- tees with Molly um While others observe afterwards the group reflects on lessons sharing feedback and discussing key ideas such as student engagement and visible um student thinking they also explore potential adjustments to to improve the lesson um for future lessons or for classes that haven't had math um yet that day Molly's also with us during two of our systemwide afternoons in October she worked with the three to five teachers um taking a deep dive into problem-based learning focusing on the importance of strategic planning as well as um we discussed mcast constructive rep response questions um where um they were analyzed and the teacher teachers looked at the desie um slide

081decks on how the questions were graded and um discussed those in that slideshow was shared with the teachers in February um Molly is going to work with the Middle School teachers during our systemwide day continuing with learning about the building thinking classrooms practices similar to the 3 to five group um time will be spent on analyzing those mcast constructive response questions and um discussing the Desi grading system and for K to 5 teachers the main um the remaining systemwide afternoons will be dedicated to preparing for upcoming updates to illustrative um illustrative mathematics based on feedback from teachers Nationwide um illustrative mathematics is revising some of their um units so a crosswalk for each grade level will be shared and reviewed to help teachers prepare for those updates um which will take place in the fall

082in September a team of Middle School U Math teachers was formed to review and evaluate high quality Core math resources as a potential replacent for our current program Big Ideas the team has participated in presentations from multiple Publishers and they've tested each program in their classroom next they'll visit nearby districts that have been using um these resources allowing them um to observe the program in action during these visits they'll have the opportunity to ask teachers questions questions and gather their Insight on the program and finally the team will um meet to determine which program they'll recommend to the superintendent for implementation next year and currently nine of our schools are using stmath and through our partnership with the 1 18 Foundation each School receives three in-person professional development days during the three first three years

083of our implementation these sessions are customized to address each school's unique needs and progress the 1 18 Foundation all also offers Champion hours um these are one-hour sessions where teachers can ask questions share feedback exchange ideas and learn um effective strategies um that are working in other districts and earlier this year Megan Healey one of squantum Champions um was invited to present and she created a bingo challenge to motivate teachers to explore new strategies with their students while meeting um classroom goals with prizes awarded um for each completed Bingo this session continues to be the most well attended of the year and um Additionally the school Champions participate in three Champion days these full day um conferences feature breakout sessions designed to share ideas and resources that support successful implementation these events provide invaluable learning

084opportunities for teachers to connect with their peirs um across the state and lastly this summer will be offering a new um a newly developed foundational math mini course for our teachers this course will delve into the developmental trajectory of number sense providing teachers with valuable time to explore how students build and contextualize their understanding of numbers and I'll now pass it on to Dr Mor Mr morani thank you Miss Quinn thank you for the promotion I just became Dr not yet maybe one day um I'll try to be brief just out of respect for everybody's time but I'm certainly happy to go in depth uh during any Q&A to you know answer any questions that you might have uh looking at science um the the PD back in October 9th for uh teachers covering grades

085three through five we covered the savis platform training uh within the Elevate curriculum that's not a new platform uh but it's now we've had that platform for some time and we just want to make sure that you know all newer teachers that have joined QPS in the last three to four years are able to optimize their use of that platform so we devoted a little bit of time on the ninth for that we devoted the rest of that time towards just curricular research and exploration there's a lot of changes happening in science so it's just important that we're constantly looking at what materials we're using and what materials are out there so the three specific uh curricula we looked at um is experience science Mystery Science and of course open Sayad uh at the three

086to five grade levels more exploration to be done but there's a lot of potential in all three uh we are also looking at the Desi local level uh SE performance tasks we're reviewing those and planning those for integration so those are really great in terms of offering opportunities for students to take the skills they're learning in the classroom and apply them to real world type problems and so what we're looking at is taking these Desi developed performance tasks and integrating them so that they fall in line with our scope and sequence so there isn't too much change in terms of the order and what we're teaching but we're kind of U strategically placing these within the uh scope and sequence throughout the year uh as I've mentioned before uh we're piloting open CET across the

087middle schools we're going to devote time February 12th and I believe the next the one after that is April 9th we're going to devote PD time to get feedback from those teachers check in on how it's going I know Dr Perkins and I just saw uh one of those lessons in action on Monday it was phenomenal to see certainly a lot of work on the part of the teachers but it was a great engaging experience for the students so uh lot of Hope in open Sayed however uh with all that work uh requires a lot of thought and planning and we just want to make sure that it is scalable across the district before we move forward so a lot of feedback and and further investigation within open Sayed before uh any districtwide moves there

088uh introduction of the gizmos platform we've had that platform for a little bit teachers have already begun using that however we wanted to offer opportunities throughout the year so we've uh done so already we will continue to do so just to help teachers feel comfortable using that platform with their students that platform is what we're using to help students get exposed to digital simulations being able to manipulate data using the simulation and answer questions based on those changes and finally I would say you know the core of all of this science uh is integrating the storyline model and phenomena um into the classroom to engage students that's so crucial that I would say those are the two pivotal differences that desie is trying to kind of um make happen throughout the state uh I believe

089it's already happening pretty significantly but we're certainly going to look at opportunities to enhance that in our instruction on a regular basis uh moving on to social studies so uh similar to open Sayed we have some teachers piloting investigating history now that only goes from five through seven so that that is not a curriculum that goes up to eight there is a eighth grade civics curriculum um but we're we are happy with our existing Discovery aded um curriculum but we're always going to look at what is out there and what changes we need to make so similar uh to what I mentioned for open Sayed we'll discuss with those teachers together as a team how that implementation is going uh what sort of tweaks need to be uh utilized to make implementation more effective and

090then again looking at uh whether or not it's worth taking a more formal approach across the district um performance task development pretty much the same theme the only differences for that um as compared to science is the performance tasks that we have are only for eighth grade so Desi only provides them for eighth grade and that's because of the Civics mcast that we have so what we've been taking time to do what we've started last year what we'll continue this year is actually creating our own performance tasks for grade six and seven so that students are comfortable taking on these performance tasks prior to when they enter eth grade so the con content might change but just the approach to answering questions uh there'll be some continuity for our students uh and then teaching students

091to think like historians this is great and I think this is so important essentially what we're trying to do is help students develop their own critical thinking when they're learning new content when they're when they're learning about different historical topics and then be Analytical in their approach to formulating their opinion and then using evidence to support why they believe what they believe and I think that's so crucial very topical now very important so it's something that's a priority for us and that was offered uh during the uh professional day of learning and we'll continue to focus on that and I do you know the last piece I want to point out is uh 2024 field test data analysis so we will have our teachers uh look at the results from the field test uh that

092we had last year uh take a look at that and see how that can guide our instruction so we'll devote some PD time there as well and I will hand it off to miss Von thank you Mr morani good evening everyone thank you for having me and happy New Year um I'm excited to present the um the exciting and impactful work being done in the realm of ela and reading professional development within the district um I'm proud to share how our PD initiatives are equipping teachers and leaders to deliver the highest quality literature instruction for all students there is such a wide variety of literacy training happening this year so I've broken this update down into district and systemwide offerings School based offerings team offerings and conventions conferences andies for systemwide professional development initiatives you

093first heard about the QPS professional day of learning from me during the literacy program Improvement plan presentation uh on December 16th and a few moments ago from Dr Perkins so I'm not going to go into details um about specifics from that day but I will mention that we offered over 20 sessions across 15 different literacy topics and they were tailored to meet the diverse needs of Educators and students across all grade levels so tonight I'll focus on the additional systemwide professional development happening this year uh for educators in grades K through two we focused on reading and writing that reflects brain research ensuring that ensuring that our youngest Learners benefit from evidence-based strategies aligned with how the brain acquires and develops literacy skills we had over 120 Educators at the Terrell room for part one

094on October 9th and part two will happen in May on the 14th Educators in grades 3 to 5 participated in part one of connecting syllable work in morphology that took place on October 9th and part two will occur on March 26 also in grades 3 to 5 teachers will have a session on integrating the core knowledge language arts curriculum with the writing Revolution method to align literacy instruction with social studies and science standards and that'll be on May 14th coming up on February 12th Ela and reading teachers in grades six seven and eight will take a deep dive into morphology which is the study of word formation and structure I'm very excited about that one um then on April 9th they'll have a session on building knowledge through writing using the writing Revolution and this

095will help them um help their students master the skills needed to analyze synthesize and communicate effectively through writing on March 26 principles and assistant principles will engage in leadership focused sessions on building a data-driven culture for literacy using amplify mclass um to empower them to lead their schools with Clarity and focus using this data also on both March 26th and May 14th our specialized teams including the literacy team the language development class teams and the special education inclusion team will have training sessions on goal setting and growth outcomes and explore the use of of amplify intervention tools to provide targeted support for our diverse Learners moving on to school-based offerings uh beyond the districtwide initiatives we also offer school-based professional development to address specific needs of individual schools key offerings are ongoing and they include

096Advanced thinking through writing with the writing Revolution this is a course that teachers take to enhance analytical writing and critical thinking skills amplify cka coaching which provides Educators with Hands-On support for imple implementing this curriculum effectively in the classroom we also conduct in-house site-based training for various groups of teachers for example today earlier this afternoon I did a workshop for science and social studies teachers at Atlantic Middle School on how they can incorporate and integrate more writing instruction into their lessons this of course is to help students improve their writing skills but more important importantly to improve their thinking and understanding about the complex content they're learning about in science and social studies um I have another similar session at Broad Meadows next month uh we recognize that professional development doesn't end with a single

097session or day so that's why we've established ongoing resources for educators such as the QPS District writing team the literacy newsletter there's a literacy padlet and a Google Classroom these platforms Foster collaboration provide access to high quality resources and keep our Educators connected throughout the year um our commitment to professional growth extends Beyond The District this year we were fortunate to actively participate in the National Council of teachers of English NC convention Heart Hope and Humanity uh this past November on the right hand side of this slide you can see a group photo of our Educators in the lobby of the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center this was an incredible few days of learning with over 600 sessions to choose from below our photo there you can see um awardwinning author kwami Alexander with his

098Emmy Award um we also had Keynotes with associate Justice of the Supreme Court to catch Johnny Brown Jackson and Saturday Night Live comedian and turn children's author um Kate McKinnon and I must thank my colleagues on the superintendent leadership team building principles and all of you for supporting us so that we can attend events like these that are so so amazing um coming in March is the Massachusetts reading Association conference um that'll be at the Newton Marriott and finally we include parents and families and caregivers in our professional development literacy to that to that end we have um parent acmis which engage families in supporting literacy development at home um in December we had a recent Parent Academy for families of children in grades K through 2 and coming up on January 24 21st we

099have another one for families of students in grades 3 through eight um we offer resources and interpreters for these and they are posted on our website so each of these initiatives reflects our shared goal to ensure that every student has access to high quality literacy instruction that empowers them to succeed academically and Thrive beyond the classroom so by investing in this professional development we're not only supporting our Educators but laying a strong foundation for our students futures um and I will pass it over to Mr morani and just to close this presentation we just wanted you to see you know what the Educators throughout qpsc and what they receive at the start of the school year so uh across this uh slide you'll see at the elementary middle and high school level uh each level

100is issued a PD calendar so they're able to see these dates ahead of time but I should just add we do everything we can to expand upon this uh when the opportunity presents itself so the NC convention uh that Miss Von just presented that's not on there but that was an opportunity we that we thought was a worthy opportunity to seize and so we did so this is somewhat of a starting point I think is the way to look at it and then we just try and build upon that uh throughout the year but with that I'll certainly turn it over if there's any questions or comments but thank you for your time tonight Mrs perdios thank you um wow there's a lot going on and um just the thought that's gone into the um

101the topics you guys picked and also you know the Um passion with which you spoke about each of those items you can tell you really um handpick those and and feel comfortable and confident with uh the speakers that are coming and the content that's being out there um I haven't heard uh that there's any need for uh any additional things I haven't heard anything like that so I think you're doing a great job the only thing that I was noticing that isn't here is um and maybe there's more PD than just what you presented today but you know social emotional EDI lgbtq gender identity any of that type of stuff are we doing those type of PD um opportunities in addition to all of the academic stuff too and maybe you could just speak on

102that for just a quick minute yes yep yep we do so we offered obviously some of that stuff was um on the professional day of learning there were definitely opportunities but I know like for instance I can give you an example that Walker Therapeutics did a presentation today for the Middle School staff um I think they were at Broad Meadows I don't know if more is here but I think they were at Broad Meadows this afternoon so yes we do um we didn't go through we didn't also didn't have El or special education necessarily up there but they all have their own topics as well so we have a I mean this was like a snapshot but we have lots and lots of different topics that um we provide professional development on okay thank you

103Mr gutra so uh remind me at the professional day of learning which looked unbelievable you know I mean you all outdid yourselves it was pretty good is this an annual tradition and and if so I mean it just looks like it's that on steroids this year it's just yeah it's it's the election day um is when we have it and it is so far it's you know um we it's been an annual uh tradition for the past two years um and yeah it it's really it's an awesome day I think we all love it um I don't you know want to speak for the qea but I do think that they they are also pretty happy with it as well so I think it's just a s really successful day and I think the teachers

104get a lot out of it yeah that that's superb you know and and is there teacher input into the design of it yes y excellent yep um I mean you're all killing it you're doing a great job you really are I appreciate the presentation thank you than Mr boli great presentation the offerings that you uh are offering the teachers are phenomenal it's so much more involved than when I was in the classroom and in guidance uh the offerings are so much better and uh it's critical that this is office so that we can continue to develop our our staff uh on their time and not uh after school or going to a take a course or something something like that because that's difficult um so I'm really impressed with h with the with the amount

105of offerings and what you've done just one quick question from Mr morani uh piloting piloting investigating history um is it concentrated uh on American history uh no so those are the curriculum for investigating history is actually five through seven so grade five does cover US history but six and seven is ancient civilization okay ancient I don't remember I don't remember the thing of that it you all set I'm all set that's great job really thank you everyone thank you thank you thank you next on the agenda we have the consent um consent agenda which is a roll call vote um if there is not any questions or concerns um motion to accept second by Mr boli and um roll call vote please yes yes additional business there is none Communications upcoming school committee meetings 6:30

106pm regular meetings on January 22nd February 12th March 12th and March 26th subcommittee meetings at 6m January 15th we have quarterly budget and finance special education and policy and on January 29th we have a teaching and learning reports of subcommittee um Mr gutro to review November 2024 policy subcommittee meeting it was to discuss uh school committee policy section 9.2 of the school year and 9.3 of the school calendar which were on uh which are on the agenda for review and discussion the um Mrs Cahill asked uh about language on federal state and Municipal holidays and suggested making a deadline for approving the school calendar uh Mrs Libo suggested uh some changes the first uh sentence School sessions uh shall begin the Wednesday following the first Monday of September uh Mrs Libo ultimately made a motion

107to move forward with the revision of the policy to reflect the mcast policy language adaptations that the calendar will reflect federal state Municipal and contractual holidays SE uh seniors being scheduled for 168 days and the beginning of the school year being the Wednesday after Labor day the motion was seconded and it passed and it uh came before the policy committee today as amended and passed out and we will bring it up at the next school committee meeting thank you and um oh next we are going to go into executive session will not be returning can I get a motion to go into executive session Mr boli second by mayor KO and um meeting is oh roll call vote please yes yes yes yes thank you meeting ATT returned thank you thank you