001father I got 6 30. okay I like to call the water the regular school committee meeting of Wednesday September 13th I please excuse my voice I had a little surgery but I think I can do this so please stand for the pledge let's see the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all please remain standing and I'll defer to the superintendent thank you very much we have a number of memoriams tonight if you could please keep in your thoughts and prayers these individuals and their families Dr Elizabeth Betty Bostrom 31 years total she was the principal of Wallace and Elementary School for 16 years and also served as the assistant principal of Central Junior High School and a teacher at Daniel Webster Elementary School in point Webster
002Junior High School next is Constance Boudreau cafeteria staff member at Murray Mount Elementary School in Atlantic middle school for 34 years David Brown teacher for two years at the Adams Elementary School Peggy Joyce cafeteria manager at the Daniel Webster School for nine years Ed Miller 21 years total with the Quincy public schools first as a physical education teacher and then as athletic director for six years Mary O'Connor was a teacher for 21 years at the Gridley Bryan School Parker School in Snug Harbor Elementary Schools Ann O'Leary paraprofessional for eight years at Marymount Elementary School Paul picarski teacher for two years at Central and Broad Meadows junior high schools George sakovich 37 years with QPS retired as a Quincy High School assistant principal and after being a Spanish teacher there for many many years again if
003you keep could keep these individuals and the families in your prayers thank you superintendent it was a very long list of fond memories many um people I had close contact with those as I'm sure many of you so thank you and we're all sorry for their loss I'm going to ask how Mrs Owens if she could read the recording message Cahill Mr gatro Mrs Hubley Mrs Libo Mrs Santoro president mayor Coke president and North Quincy High School student representative Amy Dan thank you thank you okay Mrs Owens if you could read that pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived
004by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible the regular meeting June 14th Mrs Libo second of my Mr bragoli almost in favor opposed I'll take a motion to approve the executive session meanings of that same night an emotional Mr catrow seconded by Mrs Cahill all those in favor opposed the eyes have it we also have minutes from the organization meeting of September 6th motion and Mrs Julie seconded by Mr catro all those in favor opposed we always have it gonna call upon Mrs Owens one more time okay this is the open Forum policy open forum is an opportunity for Community input regarding the Quincy public schools community in this context is defined as a resident of the City of Quincy a parent of a student who attends the Quincy public schools or an employee
005of the Quincy public schools non-community persons not permitted to speak at open Forum May submit written statements to the school committee after giving his or her name and address each speaker may make a presentation of no more than four minutes to the school committee an individual may not exchange their time or yield to others interested parties may also submit written statements to QSC open Forum at quincypublicschools.com thank you very much there were no letters submitted for open Forum okay okay in Quincy Point and as a parent I just wanted to voice my concern over some scheduling conflicts that are coming up this week parents tomorrow night have some choices to make first of all all middle schools in Quincy have open house tomorrow evening this isn't necessarily a conflict for some families but many families
006like mine have a child who attends their District in Middle School in our case our youngest is at Point Webster and another child who's a middle schooler at Central Middle School in the APC honors program like my middle child is again this may not be an issue for those split families as one parent may be able to attend one school's open house while the other parent goes to the other however for those families who don't have two parents or who have two parents but one works nights or has to stay home with younger children this poses the problem of picking which child doesn't get to have someone there for them at their school there are also many families like mine for whom both parents would really like to go to both middle schools and meet
007both of their children's teachers this conflict happens every year for families with a child in the APC program at Central and another child in their neighborhood Middle School I'd like to suggest that in the future we consider moving Central's open house since that's the school that houses the APC program which pulls students from all over the city to a different night to make things easier for those families with children that attend Central as well as another of Quincy's middle schools Additionally the community meeting that the City of Quincy and Quincy Public Schools is co-hosting tomorrow night to discuss next steps in solicit neighborhood feedback on plans for the new squantum elementary school was also conveniently scheduled for tomorrow night now families in squantum have an additional decision to make whether to attend their middle school
008child's open house or be able to listen and be part of the meeting that their Community has been asking for so that they can hear the plans for the new elementary school that perhaps might impact one of their younger children how can the city and QPS in good faith co-host a meeting and say community feedback is important when they've set it up so a good portion of that Community can't make it wouldn't it make sense to have had this community meeting in a few weeks once families have settled into the new school year and open houses have been completed parents want to be involved parents want to know what's going on parents have ideas to share and good questions to ask it's not fair that we continue to make things difficult for parents to stay
009involved in their children's schooling thank you okay moving on anybody else for open forum item three superintendent's report Ida May Champions report mayor Coke thank you Mr chairman you're doing well thank you um I just want to mention three items one was just referred to tomorrow evening we have the squantum elementary school project community meeting going to be held at the squantum school and we did a letter out to the district appreciate the work to date be um from the building committee and the team and we've indicated in the letter that this is a meeting to solicit solicit opinions we're not showing any designs at this point it's really getting feedback from the community about what is today for example traffic issues drop-off pickup I know we have some Granite juices in the neighborhood to
010kind of get all those thoughts on the table from the neighbors so that as we proceed with planning we can address some of those issues addition we'll be introducing the team and then explaining the process of the steps with the SBA as we go forward and there'll be additional meetings going forward as we begin the design phases so certainly I want the public to know that 6 30 tomorrow night we have a special thing coming to Quincy next week some may be aware of it we just in light of the 9 11 22nd anniversary and the tunnel to tower towers Foundation is coming with the immobile exhibit we're going to be a ceremony opening ceremony next Tuesday at 3 30 and then it will be open on the 20th through the 23rd 11 A.M to
0117 P.M um it's a very large trailer truck that is turned into a museum with exhibits and a New York retired New York firefighters do the actual tours through that so perhaps we can arrange some of our school kids to make that trip uh while it's here and thirdly uh the dequistifier Learning Center is is coming along and we have scheduled October 22nd at 1 pm for the dedication ceremony and follow it at two o'clock by an open house on tours in the building for folks that that attend that so I just want to throw those out there I'm trying to Becca's superintendent Mr Mayor next item is the welcome back to school so in the last week Quincy public schools has welcomed over 1 200 new students at all grades including youngest students in
012pre-kindergarten and kindergarten preliminary District enrollment is currently at 9910 students with an additional 85 students in process at school sites and Central registration October 1st enrollment data and class sizes will be shared at the October 11 school committee meeting I do want to thank all of our staff for making this year a very smooth return to school for our students and our families thank everyone from our professional teaching staff to our bus drivers our uh our lunch attendance our custodians who worked tirelessly and maintenance staff who worked tirelessly over the summer to get our schools where they need to be for our students and our families and of course thank you to our SLT who worked tirelessly over the summer to hire over 100 staff members for our incoming student and families so thank you
013all to all the staff who helped make this smooth transition back to school this week on Thursday September 14th Governor Healy and speaker Mariana will visit the Snug Harbor community school at 11 A.M the visit is in recognition of the universal free School meals Bill recently passed by the Massachusetts legislature the Quincy delegation along with sponsoring members of the House and Senate will be attending along with Maya Coke and school committee members the governor and speaker will visit Snug Harbor students and staff in the lunchroom and classrooms as well as hold a press conference Quincy public schools is honored to host this event recognizing the importance of this very important legislation for our families so thank you to the governor for coming to Quincy and highlighting this very important piece of legislation next is fall
014Open House events the calendar of events with shield with school committee in their packets these events are a great opportunity for families to meet classroom teachers learn about curriculum and academic expectations and how to become more involved in the school community and I would like to invite personally invite all of our parents to become more involved in our school Community it is critically important for parents to be a part of the school community and become active participants in that and we really do invite all of our parents to participate as much as they possibly can in these events uh the first Quantum elementary school project community meeting as the mayor said will be held on Thursday September 14th at 6 30 PM A Letter of Invitation was sent out to squantum Residents from Maya Coke
015and what sixth City councilor Bill Harris the project team will be introduced at the meeting and the community will have their first opportunity for input at this very preliminary stage of the process additional Community meetings will be scheduled as the project progresses next is the combined Quincy North Quincy High School Marching Band update this summer The Quincy public schools combined Marching Band program had four students and four alumni go on to tour with a Spartans drum and bugle Corps from Nashua New Hampshire the students spent the entire summer rehearsing touring and performing in football stadiums all over the country 30 shows in 25 States in 10 weeks amazing the tour concluded at the Drum Corps International World Championships in Indianapolis where they won an Open Class World Championship congratulations to Quincy High School students Aaron
016Earnest and Nathan Aronoff North Quincy High School students Anders esselman and Anthony magnarelli and an alumni Leanna GAO and Ethan Earnest Geo McKenzie and Rebecca dang as well we could not be more proud of your hard work and amazing accomplishments so congratulations to this very impressive accomplishment and lastly the Quincy Art Association is currently hosting an art show celebrate Quincy at the Q Watts gallery on Hancock Street that features student artwork representing all elementary middle and high schools in the Quincy public schools this is the first in a three year art project leading to the Quincy 400 events in 2025. I can't believe it's coming up that fast a reception will be held on Saturday September 23rd from 2PM to 4 P.M and all are invited to attend uh with that that concludes the superintendent's
017report thank you superintendent comments questions Mrs Hughley thank you you noted that there was 85 students that are in Central registration right now are all of them spread out throughout all the schools or is there any one school that has like the large a large amount of students going to that one school that we would need to be aware of for the class sizes all along um and so yep I mean they're scattered throughout the schools and these students are not have they haven't been pending in central registration for a long time many of these students have arrived as of September 1st or thereafter you know five or six new students a day so okay thank you this is Libo can we make a note to check on that Central Middle School open house in
018the future and maybe not do it on the nights if you have a middle school thank you thank you okay item four whole business Mr bergoli uh we have a dilemma with the school year calendar 2023 uh 2023-24 with the scheduling of the presidential election on Tuesday March 5th 2024 an adjustment to the calendar is needed this day will become a no school day an additional day will be added to the end of the school year the last day of school for students if there are no snow days will be Tuesday June 18th the last day for staff will be Thursday June 20. these dates could be further adjusted for snow days that may occur during the winter any questions put that in the form of a promotion ality Brenda second it second by Mrs
019Hughley superintendent Mr begoli yes yes okay new business someone QPS summer programs a reflection Mrs Perkins [Music] good evening thank you very much for having us here tonight I am joined by Mr marani and Mr sagala who also were tremendous help with the summer program so tonight we're going to reflect a little bit on the amazing summer that we had this past summer I think when you see what our staff did and how many children we served how many staff we employed you will be just unbelievably impressed with the work that went into these programs I do need to also thank Bridget Vaughn and Kim Quinn who were instrumental Kim ran a program and Bridget you know helping to organize to make sure that the program got off the ground and Chris Tierney as well
020the amount of work Julie Graham the amount of work that goes into organizing these programs before they actually take off is basically like the opening of school but in the summer so it was it's a lot of work but it was it was a really great summer so just to share a little bit of information about what happened this past summer um you all know that we had a very active summer program that was based on enrichment and also academic reinforcement we also Incorporated health and well-being of students and staff so we had a total of 20 summer programs this summer which is pretty impressive we serviced 1742 students we employed a total of 159 teachers and 97 paraprofessionals and the programs ran from June 21st to August 9th and we'll talk a little bit
021about each program but the programming basically focused on our general education students special education programming and programming for English learner education so just a little recap of our bridge to reading and math program it was a very successful summer this is for students entering grades one to grade five it ran from July 5th to July 27th and it had an enrollment of a total of 189 students at Clifford Marshall which is pretty massive um students in Reading worked on things like letter recognition letter sound decoding comprehension or vocabulary depending on their grade level and need in math students reviewed addition subtraction multiplication and division they also played games to reinforce number sense and build fluency by practicing different strategies such as make 10 and count on addition to working on math and reading the students
022had some fun too they enjoyed a visit from Joe's crazy reptiles and they also had a visit from Wally and Tess from the Red Sox and meteorologist Sarah robleski from WBZ also visited the program in the Quest for learning program this was an enrichment program and it was again for students entering grades one to grade five and ran July 5th to July 27th this program serviced 295 students it took almost I think it did take the entire Beechwood no school and there were 34 staff members that worked at this program so pretty impressive um students participated in lots of different things throughout this program but they participated in reading math and steam activities the activities focused on things like collaboration Hands-On experiences and strengthening academic skills in addition the classrooms were supported with social emotional
023learning strategies and techniques by this our school psychologist Mr picarello who the students absolutely love in Steam students completed activities involving straw Rockets tinfoil boats Penny drops paper airplanes coding paper chains and more in addition students participated in challenges against each other to encourage creativity through Hands-On learning and the power of teamwork in Reading students engaged in book talks and activities focusing on comprehension and main story elements learning tasks range from crafts graphic organizers writing exercises and shared stories we also Incorporated physical education into the bridge program so classrooms have the opportunity opportunity to participate weekly in physical education classes during scheduled times in the gym students took part in structured games and learning activities that promoted teamwork and collaboration and we also really took advantage of the outdoor activities that Beechwood Knoll has to
024offer so we use the Outdoor Classroom and the spaces around Beechwood Knoll so and we worked on team building and exploratory lessons classes completed nature walks and scavenger hunts while learning about elements of the ecosystem and looking for 3D shapes so all in all a fun summer over at Beechwood Knoll we also had a program running at Snug Harbor for us Snug Harbor students and this program a service 60 students and for this program it was based on weekly themes so the themes included All-American week around the world week under the sea and outer space week and the pro some of the projects that the students completed were things like building roller coasters tunnels egg drop containers and bridges they also had a lot of fun too they were able to travel to the Lincoln
025Hancock pool twice a week and gain access to water safety and water awareness this summer and we do just want to thank Granite telecommunications because they also sponsored a visit for us now cover students to the Boston Children's Museum and now I will turn it over to Mr morani thank you good evening everybody before I begin I just want to acknowledge how grateful I am to be here as a curriculum director I recently took this role in July honored to be here and uh I just want to thank everybody behind me for their support as I transitioned into this into this role and of course everybody here so thank you with Middle School the the engagement continues on much like it did at the elementary level the first program I'd like to highlight is the
026summer boost program we had 105 students participate this took place at Central Middle School the summer boat the summer boost program focused on the core academics English language arts reading math science but it also Incorporated Spanish and it also Incorporated social emotional learning classes as well so this was for all participants at Ela they trace arguments in texts they found the pros and cons in topics of high interest for them that they chose and one thing that I found impressive within the ELA subject areas they learned to both academically and most importantly respectfully debate with one another about these topics of Interest which is clearly an important skill that we teach our students science there was a lab activity each day they learned about physical and chemical changes and were to and created elephant toothpaste
027I did have to Google search that I wasn't 100 sure what that was but I encourage you to Google it on your own time it looks a little too messy for me but I'm sure the kids enjoyed it and they also studied the engineering design process by creating Bridges and towers for math students connected math concepts with real life so looking at the stock market practice calculations in budgeting and looked at how math can be integrated into other subjects such as art and many others social studies they continued to reinforce their geography skills by identifying longitude and latitude and identifying specific countries and cities with those points and also being able they challenge one another to identify the every state in the U.S by looking at a blank map there so great skills throughout and
028a lot more Spanish there was uh you know in addition to basic conversational Spanish language they also learned Hispanic culture and and so expose themselves beyond their own culture many of them and of course SEL they learned about the importance of time management developing study skills goal setting identifying and articulating their feelings and then also how to overcome challenges in a productive way and in a respectful way with one another so again this was our summer boost program clearly a very productive program also at Central 65 students got to participate in our Hands-On math program as a former algebra teacher this is uh near and dear to my heart as a program once middle school students start to get deep into those algebraic Concepts those topics become very abstract so it is our job as
029Educators to try and expose them to as much concrete thinking as they can within those abstract Concepts it's very hard to do as you move forward into more in-depth math they used a multi-sense excuse me a multi-sensory program called Hands-On Equations and so it's focused on teaching students how to balance equations and how to solve for Solutions using manipulatives and then eventually going from concrete to pictorial to abstract building those skill sets all remedial support and also support to help them prepare for the upcoming year as well and again that was Hands-On math STEM Academy 58 students this was broken up into two sessions so there was one session I believe it was four days Monday through Thursday and then a second session of different kids the following week but throughout that students participated in
030small group activities throughout the week they built balloon Rockets they used multiple designs to do this they also competed in rocket Races they created Bridges out of sticks and spaghetti they tested their designs using various weights and then they ended the session so each session the first and second ended with an egg drop challenge um where they're similar to the elementary um I believe it was at snug or one of the Elementary programs where they're building containers dropping them two stories and seeing if they can save that egg from cracking as it lands it's a great great uh experiment it's a great process for those kiddos and then they also exploit chemistry uh in terms of making ice cream and learning about the freezing point and the different states of matter the last middle school
031program that I'd like to highlight is the Quincy summer Theater Arts Academy this is a very impressive program 27 students what I found unique about this program is it wasn't just students pursuing acting it was really about putting on a production and all the work that goes into it in terms of not just writing the script modifying the music writing the music building the sets doing all of those things that was all student-based so the experience for those kids was more than more than acting more than drama it was that and more I would say the most important theme that I got throughout all of this is teamwork these students practice their teamwork as they wrote and produced their own performance and that's how they ended their their Academy on on the fourth their final
032day they got to perform for family and friends a musical that they wrote uh shifting gears a little bit to high school these summer Pathways to success also known as the credit recovery program we had 142 students participate in this program it was held at Quincy High School a couple items I'd like to highlight this was for our core academics so English social studies mathematics and or science students were able to enroll in up to two they could enroll in one all said and done 121 courses were recovered across the students who participated so those are students who are able to gain back credits that they might have struggled to pursue prior to that so to me that's a tremendous accomplishment that these students were able to take advantage of that summer time and inch
033their way further in the right direction so we're very proud of those students and of course grateful to all the teachers and the facilitators of all the programs I mentioned I'll hand it off to Keith segala who will talk to you about the ladders to success thank you Mr moroney good evening everyone uh Quincy's line of success program assisted eligible grade nine incoming grade nine students transition to high school while learning valuable life skills including financial literacy technology employability entrepreneurship and health and wellness as well as immersing them into a various career Explorations in addition LTS students had the opportunity to tour each high school and meet various High School Personnel including principals Deans guidance counselors and the athletic director this summer in preparation for a seamless transition this fall 36 students participated 30 of
034of whom were eligible incoming ninth graders and six peer leaders who are grade 12 students both from quincy and north Queens High School this program was held at Quincy High School this also was a grant funded by the massive Mass hire social Workforce board in the amount of eighty four thousand two hundred students had the opportunity to work 110 hours at the hourly rate of 15 earning up to sixteen hundred dollars per person QPS summer youth works students had who participated in this year's program held various jobs various diverse jobs in the industries such as Healthcare education business and Retail and Hospitality students also gained valuable experience in stem in the Arts while working in public private and non-profit organizations across the city 115 QPS students participate in the program from grades 9 through 12
03528 community business partners participated and we're very grateful 80 of the 115 students received CPR training and are now certified in CPR 22p to 22 of those QPS students um participated in summer youth Works Institute they took advantage of attending Quincy College earning six college credits and also working part-time so give those 22 students a lot of credit students have the opportunity to work 210 total hours at 17 per hour earning a little over 3 500 bucks this grant this was also a grant by mass higher Social Workforce board in the amount of 415 thousand dollars and I would like to take a special thanks um to Allison Cox and the QPS Human Resources team Angela Kathy and Emily for their assistance with the paperwork and the onboarding you can imagine 151 students from youth
036works as well as a lot of success so thank you HR this next slide includes our community business partners that participated in our youth works I recall that Mr bergoli in the spring asked who the partner is participating and I was able to ramble four or five but there's actually 28. and so we're very proud of those business partners for providing uh students real real life real world experiences for our kids and the opportunities Early College High School pathway Summer Academy this was an opportunity for our students to earn additional college credits during the summer months 152 QPS students completed Summer Academy 134 of those students were great were incoming grades 10 11 and 12. 18 were recent graduates 63 of those students were early college students and 89 were non-early college students in 76
03750 of those students took two courses earning up to six or seven credits this summer incentives include free tuition and fees free textbooks and materials and BTA trolley cards as well as complementary snacks the program was held at Quincy College just a wonderful wonderful experience and we want to say thank you to our special partner Quincy college for all they do for our students this also was a grant by the Massachusetts Department of Education through the the mass DZ Early College High School program in the amount of 257 thousand dollars all right thank you so our next program that we wanted to just highlight is a program for students with disabilities and so we had our cares and learning center program at ECC in kindergarten program um they that this served just approximately 85 students
038and students had a lot of fun in addition to working on the individual goals and benchmarks they worked on communication skills and foundational skills in both reading and math and they had weekly visits including a puppet show Joe's crazy Critters sing explore create and the Quincy Fire Department all visited the program over at de la casa we also had our other cares and Learning Center Program which was located at Southwest Middle School this year again focused on students individual goals and objectives within their IEPs this served serviced 190 students so it was a very big program and they also were able to do some weekly activities so they had a weekly themed Wednesday a different theme every single week where kids dressed up according to the individual themes they also had visitors and some field
039trips they um had sing explore create come they went bowling they had a touch of truck activity at the end of the program and we want to thank the Quincy Police Department and all of the other um you know the fire department Brewster ambulance all of the people that brought their trucks to the truck a touch of truck activity and they also had an ice cream party we had another program running over at Clifford Marshall this program the language development classroom and the Stars classroom have been in existence but the transitional kindergarten program is actually new that we offered this summer these were five week programs so they went a week longer than the rest of the bridge program and again working on students individual IEPs and goals and benchmarks there were 60 students that
040participated in this program and similar to the bridge program they had a visit from Wally and Tess and the WBZ News meteorologist and they also received lessons in bike safety from Vivian from bike safety I wanted to highlight this program this our camp can do which was also located at Clifford Marshall this program our elementary program serviced 101 students this summer so initially this program started uh before covid with one classroom for Clifford Marshall students that were beginners for in in terms of el it then expanded during covid to grades one and two and this you know the Pat this year for the first time we were able to expand it district-wide for students in grades one to five that it was for beginners and we had nine classrooms it's very very impressive and the
041students had a great time they worked on communication with their friends they you know did scientific experiments about fruits and vegetables dissecting radishes potatoes Tomatoes celery and cucumbers to determine whether they were really fruits or vegetables they created monsters for descriptive writing and they played some fun games I also just want to thank to the family Liaisons for Camp can do because our family Liaisons worked this program because these were our beginner El students some of them brand new to Quincy public schools and so the family Liaisons actually translated for the students so that they can the family so that they could access the program so I really need to give them a big thank you because they were instrumental to the success of this program and we had our swell program which also has
042expanded significantly there were 64 students who participated in this program in six classrooms that were at Central Middle School for this program students broadened their Horizon on the city of Quincy's Rich history and land and the people through field studies the students had an amazing time they did all kinds of really fun stuff they met with rep Representatives Jackie Chan and Senator John F Keaton at Keenan at the State House they did some water testing activities at Nut Island they visited mayor Coke thank you very much mayor Coke at the city council chamber and they also got to speak with Abigail Adams at a peace field who was actually played by one of our teachers our social studies teachers so just finally as I said we are so fortunate in the city that we have
043an unbelievable summer program there is not a district around that offers this kind of programming to their students over the summer and especially it is free so that is really really really impressive and something that we certainly are very proud of and you know we want to thank all of you thank you mayor Coke thank you members of the school committee you so you've supported this program year in and year out which makes it possible for us to reach as many children as we can over the summer months and so we just want to really thank you because it's amazing it's something the city should be so proud of um and like I said it is something that's very unique to Quincy I also just want to thank the facilitators because this is so much
044work at the end of the school year when people are trying to you know you know close up their classrooms do all their end of the year assessments there's so many things that go into it and we were so fortunate we had amazing facilitators this summer so Kim Quinn and Justine Sullivan facilitated the bridge to reading a math program Donna nayossi facilitated the language development class transitional kindergarten and over at on the Stars classroom over at Clifford Marshall oops Megan Healy and Laurel Hendrickson facilitated the quest program Tracy Phelan and Danielle Perry were working in the Learning Center and cares programs Marissa Smith facilitated the Early College High School program um with Joanna compatello who I think is further down the list Patrick Lane um he facilitated the credit recovery program and I and I
045do need I know Mike mentioned it but that program we completely revamped it this year and it was amazing the kids did so great it was over at Quincy High School it really was impressive to to see the amount of work that went into that program and the amount of children that they were help they were able to help recover credits Michelle conniff and Nancy sariani did the summer boost for the middle school students and Tao ippolito ran the swell program Diane Babcock Snug Harbor Christopher Benson ran the youth works and Natalie Valente also um the youth works right ladder to success so I just want to give a special thanks I also just wanted the theater program was brand new this year as well another huge success Tom Doucet Joanna compatello doing double duty
046and uh Christopher bull who made that all possible so thank you to all of the staff and students as well we could not do this obviously without our students and our staff we had so many teachers way too many to list but we thank them and we really had a very fun and productive summer this summer at summer scene superintendent highlight another program that we had during the summertime thanks to the Quincy Police Department chief Kennedy um officer Ryan Donnelly and officer Greg Hartnett with the funding from the mayor's office and of course the approval of the school committee the Quincy Police Department Youth Academy we had 50 students participate in this Academy focused on everything from Criminal Justice um education for our students to day trips out on the police boat and other fun
047activities again 50 students it was seventh grade students 10 from each middle school and the students had a fantastic time and they all successfully graduated the Quincy police youth summer Academy so thank you to the Quincy police to Chief Kennedy officer Donnelly and officer Hartnett and thank you very much committee Mr gattro um first big welcome to Mr morani Big school committee welcome good to have you here big shoes to Phil absolutely um so Aaron in in the post-covered world summer programming has just exploded is that accurate oh yes definitely I mean the where were the numbers pre-covered I mean I know that we got a ton of federal money and and and summer programming was really the bridge to help get our students back on track do you remember where the numbers were say
048five years ago they were significantly less so we had um we pretty much had our special education programs which were much smaller I mean we didn't even include the students that got individual tutoring or speech therapy or you know PT or OT over the summer in our numbers um you know so there's those students at well as well but we had our special education programs previously so our our little one Learning Center and Chaos program over at De La Casa in our middle and high school Pro Learning Center and Chaos program The Bridge to reading we probably had about a 50 person math program um you know before covid and then the credit recovery and that was really it uh and swell yes we had as well and obviously Kim can do it was one
049classroom so it was significantly less me I would say it was probably maybe around at most 500 students and and how many new programs I mean we're up to 20 programs we have a ton of new programs I mean the theater Pro and we keep adding so we're really fortunate so we you know we've learned a lot the first year that we did this during covid when we did the virtual it was really crazy but but we did it um and and we were trying to offer something for everyone because not all of our kids that want to participate in the summer program need you know necessarily academic Support over the summer so we wanted to make sure we offered opportunities for enrichment for advancement for acceleration like considering for creativity you know um considering
050all different types of Learners um and so that you know that was kind of our goal over the covid summer and so then from there we fine-tuned so for instance the quest program when we first did it it was all individual programs and then we were like this isn't working so we combined it into one program um but it's one program that offers social study science art physical education so there's a there's something for everyone in that program reading math engineering so um so that you know those are the things we added the theater program this year um we added additional classrooms for the swell program with the I know Mr sagala's programs have grown tremendously our ability and that's an unbelievable program the ability to pay and a lot of times it's our most
051vulnerable children that get to you know that work in those programs and that have that opportunity to make some money over the summer and get a great experience as well so it's really it really is it's it's grown just it's just amazing it's growing so the planning time for for June 21st start goes way back to when oh we start like January February yeah we start talking um and you know getting our dates together when are we gonna you know we need to and we've gotten better every year so you know the sign ups we've smoothed the sign ups out significantly you know when are we going to release the sign ups when are we you know when are we going to post when are we you know for staff um you know all those
052things we've really tightened up so this past summer I would say even though it was a massive program because we've learned from the past few years we really kind of have it down to a science so one comment and then one question so to quote Field of Dreams if if you build it they will come you know I mean it sounds like you've built some pretty impressive programming and the numbers just blew through the roof here um which is incredible I mean just incredible the numbers that 1700 1700 is staggering um super impressive uh and and now comes the hard question which might be a subsequent question with Mr mullaney is uh is the funding streams you know I mean they were a Litany of funding streams that came out of covid uh which ones
053might dry up before next summer as you plan and are any consequential enough and and and the gaps I think that we're we're planning for next summer right where is [Laughter] September of uh next year September next year excellent news thank you Mr Molly thank you great presentation um thank you for for the great work it is impressively Roman I just have a question to clarify so is everybody that signs up do they get in are there limits anybody not get in or we well we close the registration at a certain point because we need to be able to establish like numbers and things like that but as long as you register before that deadline you will get in and we in fact had children from other districts that were trying to register this year
054that we weed it out so um but you know it is it's really it's an impressive program it attracts people apparently from other cities and towns good work thank you thank you so um did you do any type of an after review with the teachers and facilitators that worked on this to see what they thought was good not so good wanted to change and also did you do a survey with the parents to see how their feelings were on the programs at all we have not done a survey with the parents um we definitely talk you know talk to the staff we collect information for the newsletter for the staff as well so the facilitators do a nice job of that and we certainly reflect with the facilitators but we could definitely do a survey
055to the families absolutely I mean we have all of their contact information so that would be you know a pretty easy thing to do um you know for the fall to kind of consider as we move you know eventually we'll be in January and February again and are planning for the next summer thank you and um also um to the superintendent um when we had the Quincy police youth summer Academy did the Dare did they run as well or did this take place sort of there was a separate program from dear so dear also ran as well did their own programming this was a specially funded special program for seventh grade middle school students and again 10 from each school so 50 total students okay wonderful to hear I'm a big fan of the Dare
056program thank you this is really impressive it's so great to hear it sounds like fun and learning was happening so I'm really really impressed the number of kids but I also want to give a shout out to the recreation department for some of the incredible things they offered our kids this summer also you know just seeing some of the stuff in the newspaper in the sun like the golf thing was it's just great to see that kind of stuff going on so I think we're a pretty special City yeah and we really do take care of our kids so I'm just happy to be here thank you Mr bregoli I like to Echo some of my colleagues statements what we provide for our our children in the summer and throughout the school year is incredible
057uh the offerings that we give them um is is beyond anything I was ever exposed to when I was a kid because that was years ago but um it just it's impressive the amount of work that goes into this first of all in the way the the programming the way it uh it comes out is is incredible and we touch so many kids again through Recreation and the ropes program and and then what we do here in the summer program so it's uh it's great to be a part of it oh wait thank you thank you thank you very much okay moving on to Item B school program Improvement plan Miss Perkins and Mr marani a little switch gears a little bit to this year um and so we just wanted to before you know
058the principles are off and running um you know and the staff is off and running in their schools and they're you know getting ready uh to have their first assessment days um you know early in October the state data will be released at the end of this week right now it's embargoed but it will be being released soon um and so as we you know move forward and our we get ready for our school Improvement plans and our program Improvement plans we definitely heard from the committee that um you know there were you know some changes that you wanted to see happen and so what we would like to do tonight is to before our principles start working on them um and our directors and coordinators just review the process review what's required and um
059discuss with you what you'd like to see done differently so that we can make sure we then relay that to our principals directors and coordinators so I just wanted to just quickly review with you um the what is required by law for a school Improvement plan so a school and and I'm also going to just talk about where you would find that in our current School Improvement plan so required by law is an assessment um of the impact of class size on student performance student to teacher ratios and ratios of students to other supportive adult resources and so typically we do have school demographics in our school Improvement plans including class size and we also have Staffing and support services within our school Improvement plans um another required item in item is a scheduled plan
060for reducing class size if necessary this is really not a concern in Quincy um you know I think through the funding that we received from the mayor and from the school committee we are able to have really phenomenal class size numbers so this is not something typically that we need to do professional development for the school staff and allocation of any professional development funds in the school budget typically the professional development funds come through the district and not through the individual School budgets but they do in the school Improvement plan include a professional development plan within um their their actual plan you also need to include the enhancement of Parental involvement in the life of the school and we do include a chart that includes all of the family engagement and communication that our principals
061um you know do with our families we have also another required component is the school safety and discipline we do include this in the school demographics we have the school safety and discipline report data that we include within the plans and then we also include the vocal survey results which are the views of climate and learning which we did a presentation on last year additional additional required components are an establishment of a school environment characterized by tolerance and respect for all groups and so I think our principals do a really nice job of weaving this into their principal's message their reflection on their vocal data and um you know in their discussions in terms of you know what they need to focus on within their Wellness goal and their social emotional goals and then also
062any narrative elements that they include within the plan extracurricular activities is another required element and we do have a listing our principals have a list all of the extended day activities that are available within the school and then means for meeting within regular within the regular education programs at the school the diverse learning needs of as many children as possible including children with special needs currently assigned to separate programs and so again our principals do we have goals and action steps which talk about how we're addressing all of the students in our buildings and we they also do a reflection a data reflection on you know they talk about subgroups and different you know areas or strands where students might be struggling that they want to Target through their uh their action steps and goals
063and then any other further subjects of principle and consultation with the school council shall consider appropriate so for us we do have some additional items in the um in Opera land we have school demographics we have the facilities section we have a budget and then we have an appendix so just to remind you just what our current format looks like for our school improvements our school Improvement plans it starts with our principal's path which is typically a narrative and that is a data reflection like typically on MCAS and map scores and vocal scores um and then a goals reflection which is um how they what the goals were last year and how they did um how they performed on those goals last year and whether or not they'll be continuing any of those items or
064moving on to new items um we have the main bulk of the school Improvement plan which is the goal statements and action steps and typically our plans are they focus on English language arts is one goal mathematics is another goal science Technology and Engineering is a third goal and then there's typically a social emotional learning goal which is the fourth goal we also include a professional development plan in each plan we include a chart with extended day activities we include a chart that has family engagement and communication we include our school demographics facilities and budget and then we have an appendix this is just a sample from the appendix from last year so we had our spring data our map writ scores we have the spring vocal data was in there we we typically include
065account any accountability information like chronic absenteeism we include our staffing school council members and then the open we had last year we had an open parachute timeline to make sure that our our schools were implementing that new curricula now I will turn it over to Mr Ronnie thank you so you know as we look at the required components and we look at the current format as we assess how we want to move forward with these sips for this upcoming school year it makes sense to look at the goals initially to look at opportunities for principles and their staff to individualize what those goals might look like from sip to sip to sip across the different schools so the first is just a basic comparison of a math goal and so when you look at goal
066example one you'll see that it targets students in grades six through eight it's focus on math in general so as opposed to going into a specific standard it's a broader goal and we're looking at writ which which means we're using our map assessment as a potential metric okay so an increase of six rip points and then of course we specify the specific report that we use to ensure that we met or understand the status of the goal so that's one version of that and that could represent one school while another school depending on their unique needs and what and what they might need to focus on for the upcoming school year you could see a version of that again focused on students in grades six through eight however and you could see a school potentially
067targeting one specific standard so math operation and algebraic thinking also known as OA standards and so you could see where now we're looking specifically at a standard within mathematics so we've just there's a comparison there or I should say that you know we're seeing a difference there we're looking also at a different assessment so rather than our map assessment that we looked at in example one we're looking at MCAS as our assessment for goal two and specifically we're looking at the change in the percentage points per OA test item so these are two examples there's a variety of goals but the reason why I bring these up is because it's important to really compare these goals and then identify the core components of these goals to look for opportunities for these principles to individualize as
068they work with their staff members so that's an academic goal comparison just to also do one more comparison before we talk about the specific components if we look at an SEL goal comparison you'll see here that they they're they're set up similarly they're looking at some sort of core uh Focus so for example in goal example one uh they hope to enhance the understanding of the student understanding of diversity equity and inclusion through community building activities right so the idea is let's create these activities let's create these opportunities for these students to develop their understanding and enhance our understanding of diversity equity and inclusion and to to assess that the measurable component there is to look at the completing or the implementation of four lessons in this case through the open parachute program again one
069example only to emphasize kind of the potential difference when you're looking from goal to goal across different schools another example is again a focus on sense of connectedness excuse me connectedness and belonging along with the the ability to identify nurturing relationships and now the metric here instead of the implementation of open parachute it focuses more on the vocal survey questions and their specified questions so in this case the metric here is we you know we hope 80 percent of students surveyed responding respond with agree or strongly agree uh within targeted vocal survey questions so you can compare how they how they went from year to year or you can just look at the results for that current year so in this case 80 percent so the reason why I bring these up as we move
070on is really to break down the parts of a goal that a principal and his or her team have to adjust and make it their own to represent their student body needs and their staffing needs so it really kind of breaks up into three components the assessments that are being used the metrics within those assessments and then also the targeting so that could be the standards as you saw in one example that could be grade level doesn't necessarily need to be all six seven and eight could be one grade level and then also subgroups so obviously these are all data-driven decisions based on the data derived from the school results but when you look at that you can use different metrics to identify again the status of those goals and that could be achievement category
071percentage average percent correct so those are two MCAS metrics also average writ score average growth percentile now those are for examples there's many many more the list goes on for quite a while some of the assessments MCAS and map are the most common however there's access there's M Class there's vocal survey data and there's other opportunities as well so those are goal statement components so just within the goals there's opportunity for each school to individualize what that looks like and then when you shift gears a little bit and just look for additional opportunities to individualize so you can look at the overall sip structure so you know we went over the current format we could reassess what we want that format to look like obviously that's that's uh up to the school committee uh goal
072adjustments so whether or not we want to reduce the amount of goals making that an individualized decision versus you know four goals across the district prioritizing so maybe it's the same amount of goals but one or two are highlighted as priorities and also topic modification maybe uh you know depending on data maybe a math goal for that year isn't the focus for that particular area doesn't mean it's being ignored it just means it might not be included in the Sip as its own goal again these are all ideas Food For Thought among everybody here and again removal modifications of the non-required components obviously the required components of the set we we have to include but as you saw we have quite a bit extra so also opportunity there and then just the presentation format changes
073uh that principals give to school committee so all opportunities that we can look at and discuss further as to whether or not we want to modify or update in some way to help schools individualize their sips Aaron and so just really quickly while we're talking about school Improvement plans there's also the program Improvement plans which are similar to the school Improvement plans those um you know I I do think that those are maybe a little more differentiated based on the program needs and you know it may be the um this your concern with the school Improvement plans kind of all looking the same as maybe not the case necessarily uh with the program Improvement plans just by the nature of the programs but there is they have typically have a mission statement they have a
074director's message they have their alignment to the district Improvement plan the team organizational chart alignment they typically reflect on their goals they do new goals and action steps any related professional development the membership within their teams and meeting dates their Staffing and then in appendix and so but what we did here kind of loud and clear was the pit presentations we maybe you know want to take a look at those and change those a little bit so the Sip presentation typically occurs at teaching and learning of subcommittee principles usually you at that point you've had the school Improvement plan you all read the school Improvement plan and then the principles just kind of present their highlights it's they don't do a presentation like this they they typically do it pretty informally with kind of their
075notes and they go through them the pit presentations are a little bit different they occur during typically school committee meetings sometimes in subcommittee but typically during school committee meetings they typically are a slideshow presentation and I know that not sometimes they follow the plan that they have presented but sometimes they highlight various topics that are included within the program Improvement plan um and you know maybe the presentation doesn't always exactly match the the program Improvement plan because they're focusing on like one particular item or two particular items within the plan and so you know the we just wanted to take this time to be able to talk with you those are kind of our thoughts on you know some ways that we could potentially differentiate the sips we'd certainly like to hear your feedback and
076what you'd like to see as we move forward to work with our principals everybody on this side it's in Louisville I'd be happy to start I've got a couple of things um thank you very much for this I'm not concerned about the format at all I appreciate the format at the beginning of the thing I think on the goal statements and action steps is where I start to have some problems and my some of my problems are that everybody they might choose a different metric to look at but everybody is basically doing the same thing and sometimes we need to I mean sometimes like fifth grade math is a problem with sixth grade math is a problem district-wide and we really need to address that but I think each school has different student support needs
077and I'm not seeing those and I think um I I think I'd like to see more of that the schools being being allowed to talk about what they need so that we can find a way to give it to them if they need something they're not getting so I would like to see something like that um I don't know what I don't want to know that I want to be called student support but whatever you know what I mean you know what I'm talking about um no no I'm sorry no so so I think different schools have different personalities okay and they have different populations and they have different needs and that's all I would like to make sure that within the goal statement I would like if if schools feel they need that I
078would like that to be in there so and I don't know what the metric would be for that but it might be um discipline it might be absenteeism it might be something that shows that there's some snags going on I see what you're saying you know that maybe more support of some sort would help okay my other big thing is like the MCAS is such a difficult metric because it's not actionable you know I mean I love the map assessment and I know we have to talk about the MCAS but talking about what's going to happen with next year's fifth graders with totally different kids it's a little it's it's just I feel like we're making them do work that's not really going to be not that they're not going to do the work but
079that we're making them do the work to present to us because they think they have to present it to us right that's what sometimes it feels like to me um and my other thing is this is my biggest thing Miss Perkins Mr Mariani we get the school Improvement plans and we read them and we write notes all over them and then we get a presentation and it's a PowerPoint and it doesn't reflect back on it and we're all flipping through our Pages trying to find out where it was so it's very difficult to not have the PowerPoint or not have the PowerPoint reference the pages on the school Improvement plan because I've I've read every one of those plans and I have notes all over it and I don't want the whole thing presented to
080me I don't I really don't but I do have find I need a way to see when they're talking about something does anybody else know what I mean this happens to us a lot not just with the school Improvement plans but we get this a lot we'll get something to read we'll read it and then a whole different format comes at us when we get to the meeting and we we can't even figure out what we're trying to say so I don't I'm not sure how to fix that I mean I think we can fix that I think we can make sure that I definitely very difficult for us sometimes nope I definitely understand yeah I know I appreciate that whole plan present okay I've read it you got it so that's my comment for
081now I agree with uh Miss Lee well um the math assessments and I I think our map um testing is is much more valuable for us and for teachers in terms of evaluating uh the students and their progress throughout the throughout the year um as opposed to MCAS which is something we have to wait for um for almost a whole year before we get any information and by that time that class is gone right um and then we have to prepare what we have uh for data from that fourth grade class to the fifth grade class that's going to be taking it the next year which is going to take another year so it's it's I think the map is is far more valuable for us as a committee and for our teachers to evaluate
082evaluate their kids so that's just my opinion yeah no we love it too absolutely thank you this is Libo and I have talked about this many times so um I agree with everything that she's saying um the other thing I was going to suggest is so another thing the principals don't do is they don't brag I go out to the schools and I'll be there and they'll be having like a really special geography be or something and then I'll go in the presentation and it's not in there and I'll be like you've done this every year how come you didn't put it in there like oh well we just didn't put I'm like this is a great thing that your school does you know brag about it put it in there put everything in there
083so that we know what you're doing so one of us might not go for the Geography Bee and might not know that you're doing it so put everything in there that you're doing and like another thing is when they have like current um extracurricular activities I've noticed some years they'll only put what they're doing right now and they won't put in what they're doing at the end of the year so it's like put it all in there show us everything that you're doing because like Mrs Lebo said we are reading the whole thing and I'll notice if it's not in there because I know that if I go to the school and I know I saw something really awesome and it's not in there yeah I'm gonna say something so you can do that yeah
084thank you Mrs Caleb hi thank you um I don't just a couple of questions the I think you answered one um any of the goals that were from the prior year um would they carry them over to the next year if it's relevant you know does that typically happen or um it can happen definitely in program Improvement plans sometimes if they haven't met the goal or they're partially met the goal they may carry it over it does happen sometimes in school Improvement plans as well um you know but you know a lot of times it is based like if you're looking at Ma math or reading it's based on a new crop of kids you know a lot of times so it's usually a very similar goal I think what what Mr morani and I
085would like to see is for them to really own their data really take a look at their own data and you know maybe it is subgroups that they need to focus on or maybe it's you know something different maybe it's an individual strand that they've noticed historically has been a lower strand for them and like really individualized their goal I think they've been so used to kind of the district format of the goal we're just we're trying to break them of it yeah like you said so take the goals that you have look at how they how they did that year and then refine them right for as you go based on like based on your new data like that um my question I don't know if this is in a school Improvement plan or
086where you would report on this and we talked a little bit about we do the clock class sizes and what the class sizes are in each schools in the classrooms and everything um do we have some place where we report um on Specialists and their caseloads what the numbers are like during the year and also um maybe if each school has Specialists coming in and what the numbers are in different schools so we know again it gives us an idea of what the the needs are in those in those schools in this in terms of specialists and also you know I think there are some state requirements as to what the numbers are so that we're sure that we're staying within that that you know those numbers um so that's one thing and I don't
087know where you would report that but if it would be we could add that with the class sizes that's a great system and my other question and I think you know my colleagues talked about this in the past when we talk about the um incident reports and discipline reports the consistency of the reports across all the schools so that we know we're looking at the same kind of numbers you know the same kind of incidents or however you report in one school that it's the same across the board so that we aren't you know saying oh this school's doing great that one's not but in actuality they're they're really doing the same so that might be something that we look at too yeah um and that's it thank you thank you Mr gattro thank you
088uh first of all whoever's I did was to have this discussion at the first meeting deserves a thank you so this is super helpful I don't remember us doing that before I just remember us having all the meetings scheduled the school Improvement plans we get them we have to read 18 of them so this is super helpful to have this discussion so thank you I'm going to give this to Moroni credit for that because he's new but um I'll take it so um so I have a number of questions and comments okay first one is is Parental input which I asked uh all the principles that come before us so if you were to go before any board or commission so we're casting a vote accepting the school Improvement plan right so if you go
089before any board or commission the City of Quincy that casts a vote like a zoning board a planning board first thing they ask about is neighborhood input what's the neighborhood input so I would like to know and oftentimes principles will come before us and say that they will solicit input or they had a PTO meeting or whatever the case may be I I would like to know that there was parental engagement you know I don't know uh on the website they posted on the website they ask for feedback they do a PTO meeting whatever it is that there is a more robust solicitation apparent input before it comes before us so that they can say the voices of the parents shaped it in this way and I know it's tough the timeline is tough and
090getting it to us in a timely manner but to me that's meaningful just to hear that they've socialized it with the parents and they've got some of the input on that uh is useful when they come before us the second is the building needs portion of it um it would be useful to and and you know I could we could all pull out our 18 sips and bring them in and and all that but it would be useful to have a side by side on that this is what was there last year this is what's here this year and and we can from that at least deduce what's come off what's what's been um taken care of it'd be super helpful so that we don't have to go back and pull that out every time
091um the third the third is the goals and there was some discussion about the goals and again this is so we don't have to research everyone before we come in it'd be useful I I think at least from my vantage point here's what's new here's what's dropped here's what we're continuing you know on on goals from the previous sip because we've gone through all of that so it'd be useful to to walk through that and I know that in some cases there's new principles for that um and and that would probably if they did that that would obviate the need which I was going to ask for which was a paragraph about how they met the last goals and I know that that happens sometimes in the principal's path a path of course is usually
092a path forward not a path back but some some of it's retrospective some of it's prospective in the principles path so you can't really tell so I'm just looking for a comparison last year's goals what's modified what's dropped yep what's new um and then is there a place uh like an intranet site or or I I suppose it would be on the internet side or an opportunity where principals look at other principles sips yeah we we actually have them in Google um we have a Google Drive that we create that has all of the sips while they're in draft form and is there like a a time when all the principals get together at certain grade levels where they talk about talk about them and they say oh what do you do you know how
093do you structure it what what are you I think they do that internally it's just ironic and speak to that I know I'm pretty sure they do it internally but um we haven't we don't do any we haven't done anything formal but that's definitely a good suggestion we could absolutely do that yeah I think that would be useful and then on on the Pips um similar thoughts you know what's changed what what's dropped you know and and then get into the continuation would that would be useful to me so oh overall thank you for for doing this right out of the box and getting our input appreciate it very much thank you thank you yes Amy um I have two concerns uh hold on one second I think I have all the mics on is
094there a switch okay yep uh so my first one is that you said that class sizes aren't typically a concern in Quincy um in my personal experience I've experienced classes that are literally on there like at capacity and then I've had friends who have tried to drop from Advanced honors and they haven't been able to do so because honors is full but they don't want to drop to CCP so they're stuck in an advanced class that they can't keep up in but they can't drop so I don't know how you'd solve that and I know like the plan's already in place but I wanted to voice that I don't it might not be a concern that Elementary or middle schools but at the high school level yeah I mean I think that's a great suggestion
095Amy and I definitely think that we can have um The Heist I think it is I think you're right I think it absolutely is more of a concern at the high school um than typically Elementary or middle and I think that we could absolutely have the principles include how they handle that situation when students need when students need to shift you know in their classes when I know North Quincy High is is it's large right now and there's a lot of kids over there so I know that that's in particular struggle over there so yeah we can absolutely include that um her her comment was that um she has experienced classes either herself or her friends I think in particular at North Quincy High School where the classes were at or close to capacity in
096students struggle to switch when they need to switch if they wanted to go to you know I think down up or down up or you know Advanced honors or that kind of thing it's tough to switch because the classes are full yeah yeah yeah so but we I think that we I can absolutely have the principles include that you know in their you know addressing in terms of class sizes yeah and then arguably an even more pressing issue for people at this I think even both schools I don't want to speak for Quincy High but I think it is a problem there is that all the bathrooms have been closed and I think it's been like this for a while but it's like because some people will wander the halls with a bet from past
097forever and then I don't know how you write that into a school Improvement plan but it it gets a problem where like if you want to use the bathroom during class or even during passing period because there's only like two open in the whole school you really can't and then like a lot of people have expressed concern about this but when they open back up people abuse the system and I think there needs to be like something put in place because it is something that everyone like it's just such a problem because if you genuinely want to use the bathroom between classes like you can't because the ones that are open everyone goes to and then they're just they because the bathrooms are there in the school they're just not open because people are abusing
098the police yeah I think that we could include that in facilities maybe might be a good a good place for the principals to address that yeah thank you Amy I just want to make a comment if you look at the list of all the things we need to accomplish in subcommittees and you think about the time it takes for us to hear the presentations of every school of all the Pips it stops us from accomplishing many of the subcommittee items if we can make the presentations shorter in some way because we're reading them and maybe have it so it's just questions that are being answered rather than them going through the whole whole plane again us to deal with some of the things we have to deal with that's my comment thank you [Laughter] here's
099value and and we have been televising subcommittee meetings but I think there's value in televising the sips so the parents can see the school committee interaction the presentation by the principal on the symptoms so I know I'm just saying that there was a period of time when we didn't do subcommittee meetings and then during covid we did right am I right thank you yeah thank you very much Mrs liebo um so this is this is a little hard to say but we really do read these and we love our schools and we think our administrators are doing a terrific job and our educators are they don't have to tell us that even though they were five points below they're better than that school or that District they don't have to explain themselves to us we
100know what they're doing so I don't want them to feel that they have to make spin everything so that drop in the MCAT scores doesn't look so bad because of comparing it and then they're all comparing this goes to something completely different from each other you know what I mean so yeah we we trust them we really do trust them and we um we don't they don't need to they don't need to do that with us okay thank you thank you moving on to items thank you item C C student assessment update Miss Perkins Mr marani okay so this is just a just a quick update um on the um MCAS so we there are two new components to the MCAS this year uh so we have the Civ I'm going to talk about the
101Civics field test and Mr marani is going to speak about the new requirements in science um and so there is a Civics field test that is required this year it's for grade eight uh the testing window will be a and this is all very like preliminary we haven't even been trained on it so this is just what we know thus far April 29th to June 7th is the testing window there will be two sessions that will last approximately an hour in length for each of them and the students will be tested on test nav which is so it's electronic which is where they do all the other MCAS tests so the students are familiar with it the the two sessions are going to be a little bit different so the first one is a state
102level performance task and it's based on one of the seven Civics topics from the 2018 Frameworks um so the students will have to complete one task each each task is based on one Civics topic and consists of the following a three three questions three one point constructed response questions one four point constructed response question seven one point selected response questions which include multiple choice multiple select and Technology enhanced questions so that's the state level performance test so that's one session and then the second session they're calling it an end of course tests and so this is includes the full breath of the grade eight Civic standards and this is will run anywhere from 36 to 38 test questions including multiple choice multiple select and a technology enhanced question and all end of course questions are
103machine scored and many questions will be based on a text Source or some kind of graphic so each school will be expected to have a percentage of their grade 8 students participate in the field test so not every student will necessarily have to participate in the grade 8 field test but I do not know what the percentage is at this point so they have not released the specific percentage yet um and sometime at the end of October the or in October um the state will announce which performance uh task which Civics topic the school has been assigned so each school will be assigned a topic a Civics topic out of one of the seven and so that they can practice those topics so they do have what they're calling School level performance tasks that are
104already released and on the department website and so once you know what the topic is that like your eighth grade is going to be tested on there is a sample performance task that you can download that includes like all of the components basically of what the students I I mean at least that's what we hope what the students will see and so the students will be able to practice using that release practice test um and so that basically is civics and I'll let Mr marani talk about science thank you so with science effective this spring 2024 all of our fifth grade and eighth grade students have been assigned by the Department of Education to participate in the sde science technology engineering MCAS expanded pilot this will happen in lieu of the standard SCE test that
105they've taken in the past so this is not in addition to but in place of we're still this is very new so we received this notification just a few days ago so there's a lot more to learn about what this test is I'll offer you a brief overview of what's been communicated thus far the the intended purpose of this pilot is to offer an assessment that focuses more on depth versus breadth and to be more engaging for students and to emphasize quote doing of science so what that looks like remains to be seen again we'll we'll see we'll get more information hopefully in the near future but just a couple items um a couple clarification points I mentioned all fifth grade and eighth grade students this is for students who would be taking the standard
106MCAS if there's a student who takes the MCAS alt this is not applicable to so they would still continue on with the MCAS alt so those students will not be impacted by this pilot process uh Jesse does anticipate running a Statewide field test next school year so we are part of a pilot program uh this is not we did not volunteer this was assigned to us um but again it looks like uh in one year uh all all schools uh Fifth Fifth and eighth grade students will be participating in this so there's two test sessions as there have been one session will consist of operational questions from um standard sde MCAS so session one will appear to be very typical for these students it will it will look very similar to previous Ste tests session
107two will be the one that looks different for these students the reason why that's important to acknowledge as we talk about data and we talk about metrics is Desi will be looking only at session one as far as accountability goes so accountability data will only be reflected through session one for our students as they participate in this pilot um let me see and just a few things we're waiting on that they that Desi has communicated uh to us that we should be getting soon so where we should be receiving uh slides uh with updated information about this new test within the next few weeks so hopefully we'll see specifically what makes these questions more in depth more engaging we don't we don't yet know and our next steps are really to review that process but
108we will be because we are selected for the pilot we will be guaranteed um the opportunity to register uh for a training uh process there so we will be trained on this and you know we will get more information about what this looks like but it is important at least to put on all of your Radars since we were just notified of this a few days ago thank you on the Civics um I'm glad we're teaching Civics now so correct me if I'm wrong well and I probably misheard it but I hope I didn't um you're going they're going to give us uh what will what the kids are expected to know before they test them no so it's a performance task so it's a little bit different than like a traditional like item so
109there so what they're going to do is they're they'll this they'll there's seven topics that that's how I understand it so seven topics um and depend they could say Broad Meadows your topic is you know student rights and responsibilities which is one of the topics and so there is a practice item that is on that topic on the department website because it involves like discussion and there's task cards and it's a very different type of assessment then you know I I so that I don't know I don't know how it's going to work really but a performance task in general is completely different than what the traditional MCAS is that's usually like you're creating something you're you're doing something Hands-On um and so this is very different so we'll will you know remains to be
110seen we'll see how it goes but so they do have sample performance tasks that relate to those topics it's obviously not going to be the same exact task that they're going to ask you to do but it will at least get kids to be able to practice with a performance task I hope that makes sense you say they're going to have a percentage of the students so yes of 100 of our eighth graders whatever then they might say 50 of them they may they give you an understanding of how we were supposed to come up with that 50 is it you know across how do we not yet the only thing they have said is that and they did not say which accommodations but they said students with certain accommodations would not participate in the
111field test so but they have not said like I'd have no idea what those accommodations there's lots of accommodations I don't know you know is that all accommodations is it certain accommodations I'm not sure or even just the range of ability you know students you know be interesting to see how they want you to determine what that 50 who they would be how you choose them yeah how how do we you know determine which students are going to take this yeah there's a webinar um actually on Friday both with the assessment office and then also um with the commissioner and Rob carton from the dz's office on on the this topic um so hopefully we'll know more after that webinar okay this is Libo it's fascinating to me it's a much better sounding assessment um
112yeah but but it's fascinating to me how they're going to pull it off on on a computer I don't know it's I mean it's it really is a much more robust assessment than some of the stuff we've done before and it would be pretty cool it'll be interesting to see how it works yeah I'm really interested to see how these people really I must have had a quiet summer great thank you hey item d Point Middle School nurses superintendent thank you um before you um we have two recommendations for hire um Kelly Ann Coleman um she would be the uh school nurse at squantum elementary school we would need individual votes for these and then the next is Robert salvucci he would become a school resource nurse for us um the other candidate um is
113on hold until licensure is finalized which will probably happen tomorrow but we'll put that on the next school committee meeting agenda so the candidates that you have before you tonight is kellyanne Coleman her resume is at your locations as well as Robert salvucci also resumes at your his resume is at your location as well and again he would be a school resource nurse you take a motion for Kelly Coleman super goalie uh before I make the motion to put her name forward I know Kelly personally and uh outstanding young lady her father and mother Peter and Paula both were both educators and I think should be a tremendous asset to our uh the Quincy public schools motion Mr magoli is that going to buy the mail superintendent Mr pagoli yes Mrs Cahill yes Mr gattro
114Mrs Hubley yes Mrs liebo Mrs Santoro yes Maaco yes thank you Robert salucci I'll take a mostly motion motion Mrs Libo seconded by Mrs Hubley Mr Brooklyn thank you Mr pagoli yes Mrs Cahill yes Mr gatro yes Mrs Hubley yeah Mrs lipo Mrs Santoro yes and Maya Coke yes thank you he's doing resource more than yeah he'll be basically stationed at central to support that larger School population but he would be used district-wide in the event of an absence that's great and Mrs salfucci probably recognized that last name as well um family in the system um long history of being in Quincy resident so it's wonderful former student and former student yes okay hi to me backpack and school supply donation superintendent thank you 3 330 backpacks and school supplies have recently delivered across the
115city to students in kindergarten through grade five as you know distribution events were held on Thursday September 7th and thank you to the school committee members who participated as well as SLT members and principals for their assistance special thanks to Blue Cross a Blue Shield of Massachusetts cradles to crayons Granite telecommunications Mass Bay Credit Union and Quincy Credit Union for once again supporting the backpack and school supply initiative the donation is valued at fifty thousand dollars if we could have a motion to approve that donation that would be appreciated motion Mrs KO second by Mr catrow superintendent is that just all in favor Mr pagoli Mrs Cahill yes Mr gatro Mrs Hubley Mrs Libo Mrs Santoro yes Maaco yes thank you I do math Grant superintendent an additional 167 868 dollars in funding was granted
116by the department of Elementary and secondary education to support the Early College High School summer program bringing the total for last school year to 500 584 868 so a very large amount of money we're receiving thank you to Mr sagala Keith segala and his team for uh hunting down these grants and getting this money if we could have a motion to approve this grant absolutely thank you thank you second and by Mrs uh Libo Mr superintendent Mr pagoli yes Mrs Cahill yes Mr gatro yes Mrs Hubley Mrs Lebo Mrs Santoro yes yes thank you Adam G donation from Walgreens superintendent Walgreens recently made a donation of two thousand five hundred dollars to the Southwest Middle School to support social emotional learning and extracurricular activities if we could have a motion to approve yes thank you
117amh QPS code building temperatures refer to the facilities transportation and security it says Hughley and Mrs libel any comments on this topic and then want to move it into facilities for communications from um parents and the students and teachers about the condition I it was very unusual very unusual side to school because of the weather as we all know so so I think we need to we need to keep on this because who knows what the new reality is absolutely wait am I memorandum of agreement between the school committee and me s-e-i-u local 888 we're going to be discussing this this has to be on the agenda to discuss it in the executive session then we'll come back out okay any additional business upcoming school committee meetings let's see September 27th October 11th October 25th
118November 15. December 13 all at 6 30 here at Cardington and we have no reports of any subcommittees and we need emotion I'll make a motion when you go into executive session for the purpose of contract negotiations with the caveat who will be returning to regular session second by Mrs Hughley superintendent yes yes yes coming back coming back yes yes I said that I'm sorry okay we will adjourn temporarily we'll be back after executive session thank you you know if we're back do you know him way back okay I'd like to return to our regular meeting um we have a memorandum of agreement and uh between the school committee and local 18th local 880. superintendent yes thank you too quick motion do adjourn motion to adjourn second by Mr pergoli all those in favor opposed
119we are adjourned thank you