001All right, good evening everyone. Today is Thursday, December 18th, 2025 and this is a meeting of our Milford school committee. So, we're going to start tonight with the student representative update from Emily Jansen. >> Hi everyone. Um, so for starters, we're obviously counting down the days till break, which starts on Tuesday, as I'm sure you all know. Um, and on that Tuesday, we will have our annual Joby band concert during the last two classes of the day, which is one of my favorites. Um, and then from there, we're kind of just looking ahead towards midterms, which is hard to believe. It's we're almost halfway through the year. Um, but that will short start shortly after break. Um, since this is the last full week before break, student council planned a holiday spirit week. Um, tomorrow
002is ugly sweater day, I think. Um, I don't know if I have an ugly sweater, [laughter] but um, and then the student council is also wrapping up the can drive. Um, so hopefully next time I'll have some impressive numbers to share with all of you. Next, just a quick update about sports. So, winter season is in full swing. started a few weeks ago and now we're just starting to get to games and meets and all of that. So, girls basketball had their home opener the other night on Tuesday and we actually have three teams this year, which we haven't had a freshman team in eight years, so that's really good for our program. Um, boys basketball has their home opener tomorrow night against Stoton. Boys hockey had their first regular season win last night, I
003believe, against Grafton. Um, winter track has their first varsity meet tonight at the track at New Balance. So, late night for them. [clears throat and snorts] And then swim had their first home meet last week and both our boys and girls teams won. >> Um, for the music department, we had a very successful winter concert last night and it was actually the highest attendant highest attendant attendant attended sorry um audiences we've had since before co. So, >> it's great that our program is growing back up again. Um, but now we're looking forward to we have the band and orchestra vertical concerts in March and then a new classical concert in February and that's going to be some coral groups and orchestral groups. Um, also today some of our musicians went down to all of the
004schools I think um to go caroling. Um, and then we're also getting ready for the winter musical, which is the Adams family. So, we just finished auditions for that. Um, and then lastly, I have some club shoutouts. Um, so the MHS Care Crafts Project donated over 50 handmade cards to Milford Regional for Thanksgiving. And this weekend we're donating, I believe, 80 cards and bracelets to Newton Welssley Hospital, their pediatric wing. So, we're really looking forward to that. And then we just wrapped up our Ben Speaks project. I don't know if you guys know anything about this, but back in the spring, our school was chosen to be the kickoff school for this new nonprofit organization called Ben Speaks. Um, it's an 8week long wellness program focused on improving mental health and awareness for it. And
005we were chosen as the test school for it. So, we just finished that up. Um during flex blocks we had um a bunch of different classes you could take or games. Um we had inter mural sports, yoga classes, wellness, nutrition, art classes, and my favorite that I took was a sports psychology class. So it was very fitting for me right now. >> Um and then lastly, Best Buddies has the most amount of members they've had in five years. And their events are all very well attended. So, they've had two dances, pumpkin painting, gingerbread houses, and a holiday party. And now they're getting ready for their spring pageant, which is their biggest fundraiser of the year. And that's pretty much all I have. No complaints or issues today. >> I like that last line. Any questions,
006>> comments? >> Great update. Thanks, Emmy. >> Thank you. Enjoy the holidays. >> Yeah. >> Happy holidays, everybody. [laughter] >> I'm really looking forward to it. >> Do you have any plans that >> Nothing big. We'll go to like New Jersey for a day, but >> we have a basketball tournament that I'll go watch. So, not much. But >> any fun plans in February? >> For February break? >> Just February in general? >> February. Oh, I'm going to Spain for the exchange trip. So, I'm really looking forward to that. It's like a two week long thing. Sounds awesome. >> Good for you. >> All right. I'm sure we'll see you before then. >> I I hope so. [laughter] >> Thank you. Let me get them. >> Yes, please. >> All right. So, our next agenda
007item tonight will be >> a recognition for the um high school varsity cheerleaders in their recent state championship. >> Let's go on. >> You guys could be quiet though because you're actually on right now. [snorts] >> No pressure. Okay. Um we we've invited the um state championship uh Milford High School varsity cheerleading team um to our meeting today in recognition of their state championship. Um I think last meeting, I think it was last meeting, we also approved their trip to um go fight for a national championship. Right. >> There's Caitlyn. Um so I just wanted to invite up uh the coaches Heather Johnson and um Caitlyn McGrath uh just to say a few words and see if any cheerleaders want to say any few words, too. >> Yeah. Well, thank you for having us. Um
008we're super excited to be representing Milford High School as our division 2 state champion. Um the girls [applause] um the girls defeated the 11time reigning D2 state champion. So huge feat. The last time we won states was in 2021, but we were co-ed. So being uh in division two, um >> we uh really fought really hard. Um they did so well all season. They worked together as a team. um their captains push them um every single day and at the end of the day we we aw [laughter] coach Bush would say >> that's great >> and now you're fighting for a national championship. >> Yes. So we um are reigning national champions um from a cheerier. Um so we are heading there in March to hopefully defend that title again. So thank you for approving
009us. It's >> great. >> Appreciate that. Yeah. >> I don't know if anybody has questions for them. I'd love to hear everybody. Yeah. I'd love to hear a little bit about the experience and do you mix like is what you did to win this one will be totally different than what you performed next? Just kind of curious. >> Um no. So we just started our winter season. So for cheer it's two seasons. So we have our fall um and we'll roll it into the winter with a couple changes, you know. Um we have a couple people, you know, coming in and out. So it'll be basically the same routine that we're doing during the winter that will follow through uh to nationals when we go in March. >> Awesome. >> We know you'll represent us
010well. So, good luck, ladies. >> Thank you. >> All right. >> Thank you so much. >> All right. Well, congratulations and definitely good luck. Good luck at Nationals. >> Thank you. >> Don't go anywhere. Dr. Conigley is going to take a picture with you. [laughter] >> So is Matt. >> All right. Where we going to take it? >> Wherever you want. >> You want to do it here? I mean, we're rocking some really awesome brand new sweaters. You turn around and give them a quick. [laughter] >> So, those all handade. >> Uh, yes. I put all the stones on myself. [laughter] >> Congrats. >> Was it extra satisfying because you knocked off the 11th one? >> Yes. I got it. [laughter] >> Excellent. >> Who was the 11 time champion? >> Doesn't matter. [laughter] They
011didn't win. >> Good job, girls. Good luck. >> Thank you. [clears throat] >> All right. Next up is invitation to speak, but I do not see anybody here for that. So, we'll move on to announcements, correspondence, and distribution. Does anybody have anything to share? >> Emily, I I guess um stole my thunder with our uh we had a visit from the music department today and they played some um they played some Christmas songs and then we had a chorus um group come down. Um I thought it was great. Uh and I thought that um it livened things up in our office. Anyways, hopefully it did the same around uh around the schools. So, they did a great job. Very good. Very wellreceived and they did an encore performance >> by request. [laughter] >> Extra credit.
012>> Excellent. >> All right. Thank you for that. Um for the general chairperson update, I don't have much um for the MSBA project other than last Thursday on the 11th. Um the bids for the OPMs were due and that process will roll on from what I understand. So I'm sure we'll get a better update, more thorough as we get closer to OPM selection. >> We'll move to the >> designer. That was for the designer. >> Is that for the designer? >> Architect the architectural firm. We had five um >> Five responses. That's good. >> All right. Thank you. >> Uh we'll move on to the SEO program update with Stacia Copeland. All right. Good night everyone. I am here to present to you the social emotional learning update for school year 2025. Um on the
013agenda tonight I have um across the district programming in individual schools the district social workers work that they're doing across the district or community partnerships and um looking forward. All right, across the schools in Milford High School, the SEAL is infused this year through the Bench Challenge that you heard a little bit about earlier. Um, Bell's challenge, Ben's challenge is a high school initiative that is was put forth by the principal. And this challenge was born out of the partnership between Milford High School and Ben Speaks organization. Um the Ben's uh speed challenge was an eight-week challenge program that encouraged students to improve their overall health and wellness. Um to capitalize on the efforts of this challenge, it was done during the flex blocks to leverage um as many students entering the challenge as possible.
014Um, some examples of the challenge were wellness activities such as strength and conditioning, um, mindfulness, athletics and f and fitness, and things like table tennis. All of the Ben's challenge activities were completely optional, and students could select to participate in it. at Stacy Middle School. SEAL is incorporated within their soore blocks and that that's the stratei strategies for outstanding academic results um block. This occurs on the first Thursday of every month and the lessons are um planned and updated by the Stacy Middle School instructional coach Alice Holland. Examples of lessons that students are engaged in are lessons around gratitude and perseverance and grit. At Woodland Elementary School, lessons are taught weekly once a month using the push-in model during their wind block. And these lessons are taught by the adjustment counselors at the school and
015lessons are developed from the wayfinder social emotional curriculum. Uh this curriculum is a researchbased em social emotional curriculum that helps students to really build belonging purpose and become future ready. you know, develop their future ready skills through building their self-awareness skills, adaptability, empathy, collaboration, agency, and purpose. At our K2 schools, Memorial Elementary and Brookside Elementary classrooms, um, social emotional lessons are incorporated using the responsive classrooms and zones of regulation. And these are there are many components to these um curriculum to the so uh responsive classroom curriculum but the K2 schools engage in the morning meeting portions of this curriculum. Um some of the things that they are working on in the morning meeting is that they're sharing news, they are practicing academic skills. um students are fostering care among each other and respect for their
016classroom. They also utilize language from the zones of regulation which is an evidence-based framework um that helps students to build emotional regulational skills that they can apply throughout their day. Um what it teaches how it teaches the students how to sort their emotions into four specific zones. Blue zone, the green zone, yellow zone, and red zone. All right. at Shining Star early childhood center. The SEAL is incorporated using the zones of regulation framework as well as well as part of the second step curriculum and the shining star staff and their director had developed and created their scope and sequence and so a lot of their lessons also come from that um scope and sequence. Each classroom at Shining Star also has a calm-down area in which students can use as a sensory area to go
017and regulate their emotions when needed. So across the district in general um students are learning and using um social emotional language common language to help them identify and recognize um when they're feeling less regulated. um some form of evidence-based SEAL is being used across the district. Although not comprehensive across the district, all students are being exposed to social emotional learning at uh Milford High School and Stacy Middle School. There's a tier three mental health support program called the Bridges program. And so the bridges intervention provides trauma informed clinical support, academic coordination, family support and care coordination services um for the students who are transitioning back to a full-time schedule after significant mental health um disruption um among other things has resulted in you know that has resulted in loss of learning time. The Bridges classroom
018is a tier three student success support program that provides both emotional and academic support um in designated blocks within the school day for these students. Um students the it's offers supports for students and families as they engage on a path towards re-engagement into the academic program. the district social workers. Um, can could you go back to uh middle school and just to give you a little bit more here? Um, in the Bridges program, students are um we have at the high school 30 students currently in that program. uh 10 students are in the full day program and 20 students are in the program one block of the day. And at Stacy Middle School, there are six students currently. These classrooms are staffed by a school psychologist at the high school, a special education teacher and
019a par professional. And at Stacy Middle School, an adjustment counselor, a special education teacher and a par professional. our district social workers. Um, since the start of the school year, our district social workers, Anita Amante and Toita Rudahvo have consulted on 150 students cases. Um, they have engaged 800 times regarding these students and this is a mixture of direct contact with the students and families as well as consultation to school staff and contact with community pro providers. Um they have also made 52 referrals again in these capacities which is a mix of mental health um services providing clothing supports, medical insurance supports, housing and utility resources. Um they continue to provide supports in a number of areas across the school district um including but not limited to monthly area provider meetings um bi-weekly counseling team
020meetings with each building within each building supporting students within a counseling cap capacity here at the Milford High School. Um they also provide weekly and individual supervision for adjustment counselor the the long-term sub and uh currently developing a framework for suicide prevention and intervention that is aligned to the educator goals and community partnerships. Um so with this um the district continues to foster and build and sustain um also acquire different community partnerships. For example, we have listed here the YMCA. We continue to maintain our relationships with the Chennas 6, which is the Greater Milford Community Health Network, Catholic Charities, uh Riverside, Edward M. Kennedy as well as we continue to develop new partnerships with um we just acquired a new partnership with Dell Technologies and we continue to and Metro's food um collaborative. So these
021partnerships provide us with supports um resources and help for students and families. Um we have a formal network as well. Um as you see the list of partners that were listed in addition to these that are listed here. Um these partnerships uh meet we meet once a month and I lead the the meetings. Sometimes um the social workers support with me leading the meetings as well. And these partnerships or the network was developed or was established in 2020 out of a requirement from the McKinto grant. However, we have continued the partnership not just because of the grant but because of the resources and support and the collaborative effort of all the partners to continue supporting our students and families in the district. looking forward for SEAL. So looking ahead um at trying to bridge the
022gap for all pieces that are currently across the school district. Um we are looking to is looking to engage with a comprehensive social emotional screener. Um these screeners would be able to give us a baseline for where our students are. Um there are some good screeners that are that are very um low cost or free that we can use that other school districts are also engaging in to set a baseline for um assessing the students needs. What you will be seeing what will be coming your way in terms of budget request will be a request for the implementation of a comprehensive behavioral intervention system PBIS. And the goal for this is to, you know, provide um vertical alignment across the district because while we have all our students are being exposed to some form of
023researchbased um social emotional curriculum and aspects of that, we need to align everything in order to support the social emotional growth of our students. And once that is supported then we can see the benefits of academic roles as well and that's >> all right comments questions. >> Thanks C. I really appreciate very thorough update and it's also super helpful for us to have an idea of what might be coming from budgetary perspective. So appreciate you taking the time to incorporate that. I was just curious for the district social workers, how do students sort of end up there? Is that you're typically with the adjustment counselor that then would recommend that or kind of what's the path to working with a social worker? >> It's a variety. Um the adjustment counselors do some recommendations but building
024administrators as well are able to do recommendations and just from their collaboration at weekly meetings they are consistently um collaborating with PR building principles and administrators and staff in so >> a variety of ways is how they students can end up with the social workers. >> It doesn't sound like your needs at this time include any additional human resources to support this. It's more just programmatically. >> Programmatically. >> Okay, that's great. Thank you. Thanks. >> That's good. >> Um, no, I just wanted to comment. Thank you for the presentation. Um, you know, I really appreciate just getting a little bit more insight as to what's going on. Um, I looked up really quickly the zones of regulations. So, um, something for me to consider as a parent implementing my child at home. Um, but no,
025I really appreciate all the hard work that you do and the support that you give. I think you know what you showed was a you know it makes the whole experience here for students uh complete. So thank you. >> Thank you. >> Yes. Not not not an easy uh not easy uh social emotional learning um and um yeah I just I just I thank you for for all your work um throughout the entire district. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thanks for coming. Thanks for the presentation. >> Thank you. So the next item of business is to review the outofstate travel request for the [clears throat] MHS music department. And this will also require a vote. So in the agenda, there is a packet outlining the trip to Hershey, Pennsylvania. Um I'll just
026breeze through real quick. The dates are April 16th through the 19th. cost per student is roughly $1,000. Um, and if you go down to like the third page, it outlines a little more what the cost is for, including um, travel and tickets and whatnot. Um, the only other thing I'll call out, obviously, they talk about here about scholarships being available um, if necessary to go through. Miss Palmray >> can I'd like to add also um this is this is a a trip that we used to do annually u not necessarily to Hershey Park but we would go to different places around the country um with our music department um to participate in these different showcases um I think it was around CO where we stopped going so we're trying to get back into um going
027to these showcases and and allowing our students to um compete and participate in these um worthwhile events. So, uh I think we fully support it on our end on the administrative event. So, uh just looking to get the vote to be able to send these kids off and show what they have uh to the the rest of the country. >> Thanks. I'll make a motion to approve the out of state travel. Motion by Brandon. Is there a second? Second by Derek. Any more discussion on this? I see none. All in favor? Thank you. >> Thank you. >> We'll move on to the report of the superintendent of schools. Looks like we're starting with >> Okay, we have two things. We have two things to review. They're both related. Um but I don't want to confuse
028the two because the first one is is um requires a vote tonight. Um >> Okay. So, the first thing that we're looking at is the competency determination and grad requirements. Uh, that's file IKF. Uh, you know, I'm not sure, we might have brought it up a little bit at an earlier meeting. Um, but this is something that we we created, sorry, we revised last year as a result of MCCAST as a competency determination going away. um the requirements that we had last year uh they've added uh I would say significantly more requirements for us uh I say they dese has has added some more regulations that we need to incorporate in our policy. So, I just I have the policy here. I want to go over it, make sure everybody understands what the policy says
029um so that you can uh hopefully vote um and hopefully vote affirmatively so that we can get this in on December 31st. Uh so the first part the redlinined pieces of it are all the new pieces but the but if we go over this this policy the top part uh in the black um ink I guess is the the just the grad requirements. So that's just stating that the the grad requirements basically you need 130 uh different credits and all of that all the credits that you need and all the requirements for graduation will be listed in um the student handbook and that'll be reviewed annually and you'll vote um through the handbook through the process of voting in the handbook you'll vote the the grad requirements. All right. So, that's one piece that determines
030grad requirements largely. Um, it lists out all the different courses that kids need to take. Okay. Now, the second piece is the the competency determination. So, you have the grad requirements and then you have the competency determination. Now with the competency determination, the competency determination used to be that's what MCCAST used to say like you you if you pass MCCAST then you pass the competency determination. MCCAST went away. We created this this bridge policy I guess in the the policy that we had previously that we had we voted in last year. um competency determination for for that policy. It was okay to say if you pass this class, if you pass this class, if you pass this class, then you've met competency determination. They further um provided guidance to say that there's two pieces now
031to competency determination. The first piece is actually sitting in the class and taking the class. The second piece is showing mastery in the class. So that's the piece really where it's where it's um different now. So if we go through this they and they've left it at this point they've they've sort of left it up to um each individual local school district to decide what mastery means uh to a point right like just sitting in the course doesn't doesn't prove mastery. So there was certain parameters that we had to go through that um I think that's highlighted at the bottom of page one. These are certain things that we could show mastery, right? So a final assessment for a course, a capstone or an equivalent measured. Um so if you go through on starting on
032page two, page two talks about um this is the this is the actual coursework part of the competency determination this chart. So two years of of high school English um in math you have to have the equivalent of one year of algebra 1 and geometry. Uh and then it it lists a couple other different things, but most kids will have the algebra 1 and the geometry. Also important to note that um our students could meet competency determination 8th grade when they take algebra 1 and eighth grade. Um but that's just again competency determination has nothing to do with grad requirements. So it doesn't actually count as high school credit. They still have to sit for the four math courses in high school, but they could meet one piece of the competency determination in eighth grade.
033Um, in science, uh, kids would have to, um, take either biology, physics, chemistry, uh, or a tech engineering course. And then beginning with the graduating course uh class of 2027, so next year's graduating class, this year's juniors, they're also going to have to uh have a competency determination in US history. So the current graduating class does not have US history as a a competency determination. All right. On starting on page three, it talks about the different ways that kids can provide um show mastery. the majority of our kids uh are going to show mastery through final exam. All right? So in English um in English for example, we're only requiring kids to pass the English two final exam, right? You have to sit for English for the equivalent of two courses, but you have to
034actually show mastery just with the uh English two. Um, I guess also important to note if they if they happen to pass MCCAST prior to December 5th, they've already met the competency determination. Um, so that's English. Uh, they could also if they didn't if they for some reason didn't pass the English two final, they could participate in a portfolio review um or pass the average of a English midterm and the final exam. And then they could also do a portfolio assessment. Uh in math, if they passed MCCAST prior to December 5th, 2024, that's one way. Uh they also have to requ um they also have to meet one of the following requirements in both algebra 1 and geometry. So that's important to know, right? It's both courses. um they'd have to pass the final. They'd
035have to pass the they could pass the average of the midterm and the final combined. Um we we had this in in the English course, too. So, the lowest they could if they're in an honors class and they they didn't pass the honors final, they could technically pass take and pass the CP version of the final uh and meet competency determination uh or also participate in a portfolio review of assessments. Um in science, our current uh seniors and I think juniors also juniors also, right? they they took biology as freshmen, so they probably have met most of them have met the competency determination through MCCAST. Um, but moving forward beyond that, if they haven't, they have to pass one of those finals, biology, physics, chemistry, they have or pass an average of the midterm and
036final um or participate in a portfolio review. Uh then the US history again beginning with next year's class um they'd have to meet meet it by passing US history one e the final exam or a combination of midterm and the final and then or portfolio review. Um some things to consider uh in our policy we state here that the the principal has the final determination on all competency determinations. Um there are certain things that we need to consider when we're talking about students with disabilities or English learners um or late enrolling students. So a late enrolling student would be a student who may be transferred into Milford from another state um if they've met competency determination in another district in Massachusetts. That's transferable. So if they come from a a different town, they can transfer
037their competency determination in, but other states don't have the same um competency determinations. So we'd have to do some kind of um transcript review in order to make that happen. And then the the final piece is the appeals piece. So, um, any student that wants to appeal, uh, the grad require, uh, the competency determination requirements can do so through the principal. That includes students who graduated um, prior to 2024. So if if students prior to 2024 didn't graduate because they haven't met the competency determination due to the MCCAST not passing MCCAST, they can um appeal that decision with the principal. Um and we can figure it out from there. Um so I don't know if anybody has specific questions about this policy. uh we need to pass this policy um because it it's due to
038um the Department of Education at the end of December, December 31st. Uh I think important to note is this this policy um Carrie Taylor took the lead on this policy. Um she worked with Josh Otland, the principal. She also worked with um all the curriculum team leaders uh in a number of folks in other districts um to ensure that this was uh when compared to other districts uh sorry there's other one other thing she looked at the mask the current mask policy and um what they're recommending um and this falls in line with everything that all the folks that she's worked with um have recommended. this discussion part of this policy. So feel free to throw in anything you got. >> Yeah, I [clears throat] just like to say um thank you to Dr. Conley
039and uh and to Dr. Taylor for all of your hard work on this. I mean this was uh incredibly difficult. I mean, we've been talking about in policy for a few months now, um, since October. Um, and with the shifting landscape and how many different variables there are for each class going forward, uh, this is quite an extensive document. So, I fully support it um, as written and hopefully it gets passed through at the state level. >> Yeah, there's a there's a lot of different moving parts here. some that are are um through the state, some that are not, you know, compet competency determinations from another town. Like it's it's we're doing doing the best we can what we got and I appreciate all the hard work. Curry, could you speak to sort of how
040the instructors deal with this like portfolio review of a like is that sort of still TBD or I was just curious like how we envision implementing that at a high level? Sorry, I don't need to get >> No, I I think it's a really good question. Um, first I want to name that in the English language arts you are seeing under the second bullet a portfolio review of the priority reading and writing assignments because the ELA department at the high school uses writing with colors which I know or I believe you've talked about a little bit here. Um, and so we're thinking that that's one of the portfolios that's already in place that they're really >> Yep. >> there's a comprehension comprehensive cohesive strategy there. Um, so that's why you see that one in there,
041whereas all the other ones you're seeing a portfolio review of assessments. >> Um, >> I think our hope is that we can kind of like check some of these boxes with the easier ones to pull, which will be your final exam. You can look at a number, an average of the midterm and final exam. You can look at a number. Um, >> that's the exception case that you have to go, >> which is where we're going to think about like end of unit assessments um, are starting to become common across these classes. And so >> how do we start to keep a portfolio of the kids of these end of unit assessments to then kind of look at their scores on the end of unit assessments to say >> got it >> they've met the
042minimum passing um number that we've hit. our teachers have not had to deal with this um in the past and so >> this does create some like need and importance of horizontal consistency um and also some shifts that might have to take place if we're trying to do a portfolio review. >> Okay. Um, to be transparent, I think the hardest portfolio review to do is going to be like our current juniors >> already took and passed the course >> of English one and English 2 and algebra 1 and geometry and we're going to have to go backwards now >> and kind of figure out which of these bullets did they meet. Our our goal is really flexibility. um if the kid is passing the course, >> we're hoping that one of these competency determinations will
043be easy to show >> the mastery piece, but the law does require both >> um to be present. Passing the course is not good enough. >> Um >> yeah, interesting >> according to the rules of DESI. >> Got it. Okay. Thanks. And I was just curious for the English language arts and I apologize I should probably be more familiar with this. Why do we call it English too? Like does everyone take that class? Everyone does. >> Yes. no matter what your path because I don't think my I'm like >> not yet >> they will be but they they >> so English two is where um writing with colors is really integrated so there's English one English two and then there's a number of like >> AP lang right so on and so forth um >>
044English two is the course that we're going to make sure every kid runs through >> okay >> all right because the the writing standards are really integrated within in English too and that's where most of the um writing instruction basic writing instruction takes place. >> Interesting. So that'll be another change starting in the fall over that we start >> most kids are taking it now. Um >> but here's an example. So in for EL students, for example, when they come into Milford High, there's an EL uh English that also integrates um some of the the coursework that they have to do. There's that course, there's a second course of that, right? And then hopefully by by the time they get to the third year, um they're more fluent in in English instruction. And what we've
045been doing is putting them into English into a different course. So like um American lit or something like that where really we should be putting them into English too to make sure that they're um writing the writing instruction that they get um can prepare them for the next level. Okay. Right. So >> that would be a shift as as an example where we would do that. >> Okay. That's helpful. Thank you. The only other sort of comment I guess I had was the what you I understand this references the handbook in terms of graduation requirements which that totally makes sense that gets updated etc. I would just encourage us when we're communicating it to ensure we're giving families all that information because this doesn't say you need four years of math and I just wouldn't
046want someone to say to just look at this and say I've met it but you actually haven't met it. And so I just want to make sure we're giving enough information when it gets communicated that we don't run into that. >> Right. And that's that's the tricky part, right? Like I tried to I'm trying to highlight that you got your competency determination and your grad requirements, right? >> But the title correct says grad requirements, but they're not necessarily in here because they're in the book. So just that we give enough information so that they know where to go. That's all. Okay. >> And make sure that we and I think we did that this year. If I I think we did make sure nobody the competency determination I believe is in the handbook also. So
047I think most people >> are gonna look at the handbook anyways, right? That's great. >> But I agree with you. Just make sure that people know to look at the handbook. That's where all the >> fair. Yep. And to the other >> most upto-date information is going to be. >> Absolutely. A ton of work went into this. It's an evolving target. So appreciate all the effort to get us to where we need to be. So thanks. >> Any further discussion? All right. So, I will open up for a motion to approve file I KF competency determination and graduation requirements. Oh, she's quick. Motion by Megan. [laughter] Second by Derek. All in favor. >> There you go. Thank you. Thank you everybody. Now, just when you thought you haven't been thoroughly confused by competency determination in
048grad requirements, >> there's more. >> There is more. Um, the governor has put together a statewide graduation council. Um, and really it's to um develop new requirements. I've um with the help of my friend uh Claude have created this nice cheat sheet for everybody that's kind of taken all of the documents that we have and put them into a nice um I guess cheat sheet's the right way to say it. Uh with all the basic information that you need to know that has come out of the council so far. All right. They just had an interim report. Uh they've been working since this summer. I think it was that when the the group was actually put together. There's a number of different constituencies on this group uh including secretary of education um the commissioner of
049education. Um MCIA has actually has a seat on there. There's a number of businesses that have a seat on this this council. Um the superintendence group has a seat on the council. The ma uh um school committee group has a a seat on the council. So, there's a number of different constituencies that um have helped prepare what we have so far. All right. Uh it's important to note that these these are only recommendations thus far. Um I think they're opening it up to kind of rolling these out and listening to what folks have to say about um all these different proposals. But I just want to review for you what the this this seven component framework is looking like currently. The first thing is um this program of studies um some call it mass core.
050Uh we follow generally mass core with us. So this doesn't represent a huge change for us. Um so when we in this in our original um policy here when we talk about grad requirements what you see here is basically what's in our grad requirements. All right. Um these make up the components of the 130 credits plus uh a number of electives. Okay. Um the I think the problem that we're going to find as we open up a um a new school with with you know nine to however many chapter 74 programs is that we're going to probably have to look at this because I'm not sure how we're going to be able to fit all of our chapter 70 program chapter 74 programming and with all of these requirements also. I think that's one of
051the limiting factors of of having um mass core. Um and it could present a barrier for a number of different groups of of learners too like particularly English learners and students with disabilities. So that's the first part of it that every every district in the in the Commonwealth will follow this basic program of studies. That would that's their first proposal. Second are these um end of course assessments. So basically um they would they would take the place of MCCAST and they would um they would be state created um like basically they I don't want to say final they're end of course assessments that supposedly aren't high stakes so you don't supposedly don't have to pass them in order to um to graduate. Um, but if there's no real meat on it, I'm not sure if
052kids are going to take it seriously and what what we're actually going to get out of it. Um, because the we still would be required to give a final for a kid, too, because we couldn't use this as a grade. So, kids would basically take this end of the course assessment and they would also take a final. So, that's something that doesn't doesn't feel very good that we're we're kind of testing them twice. Um so that would be one of the things I don't I also think that um our teachers our teachers um when they don't have say in the in the way an assessment looks um that's very problematic. Uh we want our teachers to to be involved in the assessment and creating the assessments um because that's how you really that's how you
053plan your course, right? You you plan backwards. you work from the assessment where you want kids to be and you work backwards from there. Um, and we want our our teachers to be involved in creating those assessments. So, I think that's and I think our our teachers would agree they want to be involved in that kind of a thing. So, um, that's the second piece. The third is this um idea of a capstone project or a portfolio. Um, and in theory, I think it's a great idea. In practice, I have no idea how we're going to pull that off. And I think that's the that's the furthest from um being implemented statewide in my opinion and I think in the opinion of many others like there's so many questions around um trying to create this
054this capstone project. Um there aren't there aren't I don't know if that we can point to any districts that are currently doing this um across their their student body at least the size of Milford High School or beyond or or larger. Um but you know questions of like what course does this live in? Um what subject area is it in? Who's teaching that course? like all these different things that um you just sat and thought about the the idea of of capstone projects um and kids completing them, it just it it creates all these different um questions at least in my mind. So that's the third um this idea my cap which is career and academic planning. Um, you all just passed the uh our our CTE awareness policy. I think it was last meeting,
055the middle school one. Embedded within that, it talks about um my cap and opening up my cap to middle school students so they be they can begin this career and academic planning. Um, but I think in order to do it well, it's going to take more staff. um in the my in order to do my cap the kid somebody's going to sit with the kids and and sort of talk through um what they're finding out and where they want to be uh beyond graduation. Um currently uh our guidance counseling staff in the the middle school there's one for the entire class. So there's, you know, 325 kids uh in each grade and one guidance counselor. So I don't know how feasible it is for one guidance counselor to sit with every single student and start
056career planning with with everyone. So um that's certainly one one drawback that I see with that. Um I'm sure there's others, but that's definitely one. Um the fifth part of it is that every student will complete the FASA or MASA. Um, and the hope is that it'll increase college enrollment and help families um be aware of the financial opportunities o open for them. Um, I just don't know how we're going to get every kid to to fill that information out. Um, there is a financial literacy requirement. We have a financial literacy um course right now. Uh we're we're revising it and trying to make it better um and trying to get more students through it. Um we also we've talked about it over the last couple years, especially at um when it comes time to
057budgeting. We believe that that this is a um important component of of our students experience here at Milford High School, but even starting below at Stacy Middle School. So, we're definitely supportive of that. Um, but we also know that the more courses that we require kids to take, it um eats away at their elective choices, right? So, if it's another course requirement, that's one less elective that they get to take. Um, and then the the seventh piece is this um this idea of seals of of distinction. Uh we currently have um a seal of biiteracy. Um, every year we we have students that have the seal of biiteracy that's on there. This would be uh sort of I guess like that. Um, it's unclear as to what it actually will mean beyond high school um
058beyond graduating with this seal of distinction, but um or or like in what regard colleges might have if you have these seals of of distinction. That's unclear. Um, but I guess time will tell and we'll see where where we go with that. Um, there are also some some some critical questions to think about. I've I've kind of touched upon um I think most of these um throughout the throughout my our conversation here. Uh and then some definite timelines and next steps. The the final report is due uh at the end of this school year, so in June. Um, beyond that, I think it's all TBD. Um, it's unclear as to whether or not these seven components are going to be in the final um, recommendations. Um, it's also unclear as to um, the financial implications
059of all these different things and where the funding is going to come from. Um I'm afraid that uh it's going to be left to local districts to try to to fund all these different um ideas. Um and it's going to be challenging if it's left up to us. So I guess time will tell. I've also heard, you know, from from the commissioner. I was I've been in meetings with um the secretary of education. They're looking at this as being a um not as like a next year kind of a roll out but a multi-year process even I've heard up to even 10 years um in implementing this thing in its um full ideation uh but iteration I guess um but again time will tell I'm not exactly sure where this is going but I wanted
060you all to know this is what came out of um the recent report. Um hopefully there'll be a time for us to give some feedback. Um if anybody has feedback, I'm certainly uh I could certainly take that and and pass along. But um this is where we are currently. >> Any comments on that? >> Should we go back to MCCAST? >> Just feels like we've there's a spectrum and there's a lot. Yeah. Okay. Thanks for the update. It's interesting to know that that's the conversation. >> That's a big update that I think is going to keep keep rolling on and we'll keep getting updates obviously. So, thank you. >> Yes. And and we're probably going to have to revise this again at some point. >> Excellent. >> Be ready. >> No. [laughter] No. >> All
061right. We'll go on to the report of the school business administrator next. >> Thank you very much. Um, I attached the budget update and the personnel update for your information. Um, for the budget update, I don't see any real concerns or highlights in the budget right now. Um, I was going over the deficits. Um, so in school committee line, the deficit was because of the um, postage um, which was historically charged to school committee contract services. Um, as I previously reported, um, we have like quite a bit increase this year because of the MCAST big envelopes and, uh, the US postage rate increase. Um, so I increase the budget by 50% hopefully. I don't know if we can go through this year because the big progress uh, report is uh, going to be sent out
062recently. I don't know. I was there was a big uh, mailing uh, needs uh, coming soon. So, Um, we'll see. We'll see. Next year we have to adjust the the postage budget. Um, and the family resource center, they have a um relatively small uh supplies line. Um, and this year they they they brought me usually they just buy their supplies um in a small smaller um quantity. And um this year they they need to buy more of the student records um folders and they said um if they buy over 4,000 and they can get the 20% 25% discounts and I said okay this is within budget and um if you have space go ahead and buy it. Um but I didn't know they had two of everything. So so it's a little over budget right
063now but it can last them for the next couple of years. um some um Christmas shopping spirit going [laughter] on. Um then the rest of the this uh deficit is um I was uh was reported before um um mostly due to the the offset um I haven't applied offsets. So that's it. Any questions? >> Yes, >> I have one question. >> Yes. Um, so I noticed the heating and buildings budget line item seems to be in the deficit. And I did see one of the bills just happened to flip through for the high school. >> Yeah. >> And apparently from this December to to last December from 2024, >> our heating is up 44% just in this building. >> Um, >> happens to families too. >> Yeah, exactly. And that was like just usage. That
064wasn't like just like simply the dollar usage. Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah. So the usage was significant up. So maybe if we just close a few more doors around here. >> Okay. >> I'm being a little facicious, but yeah, like that if you could somehow find I don't even remember which warrant that was through, but um it was usage. It wasn't um dollar amount. >> I see. >> Yeah. I mean, >> not really sure that >> Carlos in his um in his um facilities maintenance workers. Um, I mean, I think you can notice in here they're they're working really hard to make sure that every heating unit is actually working. >> Um, I think that might be part of what you're seeing. >> Things are actually things are actually working. What happens when heat works? Yeah.
065>> Yeah. >> Got it. Got it. >> We can go back. >> We're think that's what you're seeing though. >> Expense. It's very fancy system to control control all the heating units. I'm sure he's on top of it. >> Yeah, just I just happen to >> We can show the data to him. Maybe he can explain better. >> I don't necessarily need an explanation. Just happened to notice a few >> things. Thank you. >> Yeah, good finding. >> All right. Thank you. All right, we'll go on to the the [clears throat] consent agenda now. We have four items for this this evening. I'll start with um asking if anybody had any changes to the minutes. Excellent. All right. So, this cons consent agenda is going to include the following. The approval of 10 warrants in
066the amount of $630,96162. The approval of minutes from the December 4th, 2025 meeting. professional development in the amount of $10,335 and the approval of grants. There is one grant for the total of $25,000. Motion to approve. Motion by Brendan, second by Derek. All in favor. Thank you. Okay. We will move on to future agenda items. Does anybody have anything to add to the list? >> No. >> Yes, I do. >> What do you got? >> Um, hold on. I'm just opening in January. Um, shortly. I don't remember when. Um within the next couple weeks, um the department is going to um make public uh the new the newest discipline reports. Um, I think that in January I want to uh provide the um just the committee and and folks at home an update on um
067behavior uh conduct and and some things that we're seeing especially at the elementary level and then sort of look at what our reports say. Um so I think that's something I want to I want to see what the reports look like first. Uh, so I I'm probably will do it at the end of January. Um, but that's something I think I want to bring to the committee and have a discussion around. >> Okay. >> Thank you, >> Craig. When you do that, can you go back a couple years just sort of from a data standpoint, but then also from a just observationally, I'm curious how they align from a >> Well, uh, let me see what it looks like and then, um, we'll see what we can grab off of, um, off the website. Um,
068yeah. Okay, >> we'll we'll we'll talk about it. >> Thank you. All right, just note that down. That brings us to adjournment. We do not have any executive sessions scheduled, so we just need a motion to adjurnn. Motion by Megan, second by Brandon. [laughter] All in favor. Thank you very much. Good night.