001Right. Good evening and welcome to the Milford School Committee meeting. Today is October 23rd, 2025. This meeting is being broadcast and recorded by Milford TV and any copies can be obtained at the request of this board or through central office. We're starting tonight with the recognition of the Lewis Bertnazi outstanding teacher of the year nominees and recipient. Please Hello. Good to see you again. >> Good evening. Thank you for having us here this evening. Uh, so this has been a little bit of a difficult year for my family with the passing of my dad, but um, this was truly a special award for him and so I know he'd be quite pleased to know that we're gathered here this evening to honor and recognize the uh the outstanding teachers in the Milford school system. So
002for those of you who are not familiar with our award, uh, we've been making it since around 1992. Um and uh we present it annually to an outstanding teacher in the in the Milford school system. Uh nominations are made by each building through their respective school council. We encourage members of the staff, students, members of the community at large to participate in this nomination process. Um we the winner is ultimately chosen by a selection committee that is comprised entirely of members of our community at large. Uh the composition of this board is determined by our board of directors uh and changes annually. So this is truly a a community um a community award. Uh I uh we are incredibly grateful and will continue to be incredibly grateful to the members of the Milford school committee
003and uh the Milford school community for the manner in which uh you have supported and assisted us in this whole process and really for the manner in which everybody has embraced the award. Uh we you know we really couldn't do this without all of your help. Um I am not the public speaker that my father was and the benefit of course to of that to all of you is that I will always be brief. All right. [laughter] So with that said I am going to move on to introducing you all to our nominees. All right. Now, I did want to say though, although we do select a winner, um all of these nominees are are winners. I I review the packets and you know, these are really outstanding teachers and I'm so happy that we
004are able to recognize their many outstanding contributions to the education of the children in this town. Um I can't see anymore, so bear with me for one second. All right. So, our nominees are Renee Walzik of Shining Star. I believe everybody's here with us today, right? >> Um, Jelamina Gimbardella of Brookside, and I'm hoping I'm not butchering their names. >> That That was okay. >> Yeah. >> Hilda Johnson from Memorial School. [snorts] >> Uh, NDA Aoyo from Stacy Middle School. >> She was sick today. uh and Caitlyn Small from MHS. [snorts] Uh and this year's actually last year's uh winner of the Senator Lewis P. Bernazi Foundation Outstanding Teacher Award is Emily Switzer of Woodland Elementary School. [applause] So, I don't know whether Emily wants to [laughter] a couple of utterances. Uh if not, we'll
005we [laughter] turn everything over to you guys. >> Excellent. [clears throat] Um if I could say one thing, um David, um I know that speaking for the school community, we're very appreciative of um the foundation for recognizing teachers. Um, I think in all the years that that I've been in Mil Public Schools, um, this is one of the things that I look forward to at the start of the year to see all the the different nominees. Um, this year's, uh, teachers are just an outstanding group of teachers. Um, I think the other thing that that is important to note is that each school council nominates a number or or Each school nominates a number of teachers and then the school councils um choose one from the school. So I don't know what the exact number
006is, but I'm guessing we're somewhere in the [clears throat] 20s of teachers that were nominated this year. Um and then the school councils choose the the one from each school. Um but it really truly is it's an honor. Um it's really one of the one of the things I think that not only I'm looking forward to but uh many staff members look forward to at the start of the year. Uh so I want to say we're grateful for you and I also want to say congratulations to all of our our nominees and winners. >> Thank you. >> Why is everyone looking at me? [laughter] >> I don't know if anybody wanted to say anything. No thanks. >> No problem. [laughter] >> Um any comments or or anything from the uh the committee members? >> I'll
007go first. >> Thank you, Christopher. [laughter] >> Congratulations everybody. We really appreciate your you know all the hard work dayto day. We we know your job's not easy. We know what on the other side of the table sometimes us parents are aren't always easy. So but no, we really appreciate working with our children, working with parents and families throughout our district. So again, congratulations and thank you very much. Thank you. >> Yeah, I'll just say congratulations and thank you as well. I I did have the privilege of sitting on the selection committee back in 2014 and um it was a very rewarding experience. We had again seven great nominees then and um you know we're just lucky to have teachers like you in our district. >> Yeah. Um congratulations just echoing what everyone said. Also,
008I just appreciate that this award exists in the first place because this gives everyone an opportunity to really think about our community as a whole and then recognize all the hard work that you do on a day-to-day basis. So, really appreciate you and your family and all of you and your families and uh for making the world a better place. >> Yeah, I I I agree. uh have kids in the school system. Uh [clears throat] they had had a great experience and it's all because of the hard work of the teachers. You guys are really putting everything into them and I'm glad to see you guys getting honored. So, thank you. >> Thank you, David, to you and your family and the foundation. You know, it is an honor to be able to recognize people
009that work so hard day in and day out. So, thank you for that. While we appreciate the brevity, we certainly miss your dad. So, [laughter] uh there's that. I would love to hear just from each of you like one thing that you love about working in the Milford public schools or our school community because we spend so many hours in this room and truly like the best part of that is seeing you all and seeing students and we don't get a lot of opportunity to do that. So you spend day in and day out giving your heart and soul to our children. I I just like to hear what you enjoy about it if you'd be willing to share. >> Sure. Um, I love I love teaching all the kiddos, but I love the most
010when I see them outside of the classroom and whether it's their fifth graders because I teach fourth grade >> or if I see them like I just saw two students here with their families at the Monster Bash, I think it is. >> I love it. >> And it was just so great because they were so happy to tell me about it. So, it's like, >> yes, I love to teach them so they can learn, but I also love to hear about their lives and your lives and that sense of community. and I'm not from Milford, but I feel like I am part of Milford just because of your kiddos. So, thank you for sharing them with us [laughter] because that makes my day. >> I love that. Thank you. >> I just love being a
011part of this community. Um, I was on the receiving end of this community and the teaching staff for a long time. Um, I graduated from Milford High as well and to now get to be a part of the faculty that made me who I am and now I get to give back to the community and work with students that uh might be my colleagues one day is a lot of fun. >> [clears throat] >> I love when the kids come in in the morning and I get to hear about, you know, things that they did and stories that they share um with me. >> I bet you have some good You probably write a book about that. [laughter] I'm just going to guess. I don't know. >> I love the diversity of Milford. I love
012celebrating their differences and what makes every kid unique. And especially in my classroom, I just love seeing them grow. Um especially from when they come to where they leave. Um I think for me is like the families that I work with. So most of my students are non-verbal. So it's like really meaningful getting to work with my families on such a different level than I think a lot of other teachers get to. So um they're like what motivates me every day and it's it's wonderful. So >> awesome. >> Thank you for being willing to share. I really appreciate it. Thanks man. >> Thank you. >> And I'll just keep it short. I know everybody else said pretty much everything there is but thank you for everything you do every day. We have wonderful teachers in
013this town and you guys are a great representation of that. So, thank you. >> All right, I have to get a picture. So, you have to get in attorney [laughter] Bazi back there. >> I'll stand in the middle here. >> Um, should you be in the picture? >> I think that's not your job. [laughter] >> I'm not I'm not the photographer anymore. >> No, I think that's actually a good point. You got to Chris has got it. >> That's also I think they want us in front of >> him. [laughter] >> Closer. >> All right. Congratulations. [applause] >> Thank you. >> I Yeah, >> I don't touch. >> I'm just Yeah, >> you got it, too. >> We're still on here. >> All right, >> we will move on to invitation to speak. I don't
014see anyone here for that. So, we can move past that to announcements, correspondence, and distribution. Does anybody have anything for that? >> No, >> just in the announcement from I would just say thank you to town meeting for supporting all the initiatives that we needed to bring forward. Um, appreciate everyone coming out for the night and certainly supporting all the work that we need to have done. >> Absolutely. Thank you for that. >> Thank you, Nick. Thank you. >> All right. Um, we'll skip over the general chairperson update. There is nothing new on the MSBA project front. So, we can pass over that. Which will bring us to the Eagle Scout proposal that's going to be given by Aiden Bushell. Hope I got that right. >> Uh just let me can I start with one
015thing? >> Yes, please. >> Uh Aiden reached out to me. Uh he's a a a student in our our district. Um he participates in theater. Um, and he he had reached out to me about a proposal for um well, he had a number of different maybe proposals. I I won't steal your thunder, I promise. [laughter] Um, and it was a pleasure meeting with him. I I spent a little bit of time with him and his family uh and and on the stage. I'll leave it at that. Uh, and then also with um Miss Pomemeroy. Um, and I think this is a very worthy project and I'm very excited to see what what Aiden does. So Aiden, you can describe your project, please. >> So my project would be to there is a on the stage
016in the high school, there is a concert grand piano that I have noticed is a little little bit I wouldn't say worse for wear, but it needs a little bit of TLC. I have a proposal here if you like to pass it around. There's that details everything that we could do to the piano to restore its musicality and help it be a >> a great m musical instrument for any future uh performances or concerts or anything that would be held in the auditorium. I'm happy to answer any questions. Can I ask you two questions, Aiden? Of course. >> Where did you get this idea? >> I [clears throat] I was I don't exactly remember when, but I was I was in the theater. We were doing our rehearsals and I saw the piano. It was
017just sitting there at the back. I was like I was I looked at it and I was >> It looked like it hadn't been moved in a while, let's just say. And I don't think I've seen personally >> that big of a piano like in person. So I was surprised to find one at all. >> And when I asked about it, I was I was told that it like I don't exactly remember. It's been it was it's been a while, but I looked at I was like that could be a great thing. So, I looked into if it if it was like I mean if it had just been redone wouldn't exactly need to do it again, but if it looked like it had it looked like it kind of needed it. >> Great. And
018I'm curious if you played it, you know, >> a little bit. >> Excellent. Maybe I'll play more refurbished. This is >> not as much as I could, but I do but I do kind of. >> Thanks for bringing this, Jess. >> This is great for for now and for the future. This is this can't wait to see who's going to who's going to jump on it and start playing. Aiden, great great to meet you. Thank you for bringing this forward to us. Um, I think this is a great initiative. I have a couple questions for you as well. Um, do you have an idea of what the cost is for the uh for the renovation or restoration? Um, we would have to do a like analysis of the entire thing, but all the entire cost
019of the project would be >> uh I would fund raise the entire thing >> as an Eagle project and it would bring no cost to the school board or the schools. >> Yeah. And I was curious because like this is aired live and we can certainly support to our network. Do you how would we be able to donate funds to your project if someone in the community wanted to? Do you have a way to set that up yet or are you still working on that? >> Not quite yet. After the proposal is done, that's when the fundraising efforts would start. >> Okay. >> But I will definitely find some way to get it out to the community that yeah, >> this project is happening and when money and how money can be shared. >> Awesome.
020And I'm sure >> Yeah. And I'm sure there's going to be plenty of resources at the school that's going to help point in the right direction such as the Milford Cultural Council. I know they do grants all the time. Uh there's other community groups as well that also would be willing to donate. So certainly reach out to them. Um and then my last question um what do you enjoy most about scouting >> or an experience that you could reflect on? >> Honestly, it's just like the the experiences that we get through through scouting through all the campouts and the service projects. Everything add basic adds to everything else and they're all wonderful experiences that make it >> it's just very enriching. >> Nice. >> Totally. No, I agree. Good luck. >> Thank you, >> Matt.
021Aiden, I apologize. I wanted to start with this. I just want to say congratulations for making it this far because I know many years and hours have gone in to be able to bring this to us. I just want to say congratulations and we look forward to seeing the finished product. >> Thank you. >> Sorry. >> Thank you very much for being here to present. Really appreciate it. is you're hearing, you know, to get this far in the process through scouts and staying with it and and all the steps to get to this this point is is a great accomplishment and this is kind of that that last big step from what I understand. So, um I think this is a great proposal that you've put together. Look forward to hearing about some updates um
022as Mr. director had said, you know, from the fundraising side of it, um, as as you kind of set up a pathway and he kind of gave you some resources, if one of those resources is coming back here for another proposal where you can, you know, kind of be on TV for it, uh, be happy to have you as a guest here, but, uh, continue on with this effort and anything that we can do to help support you, let us know. >> Right. Thank you. Yeah, I mean I'd echo what everybody else said and I just add that I love the idea of restoring something and something so um substantial as this this instrument if that's what if it's even called. [laughter] It's more like a I don't know a fixture or a piece of
023furniture or whatever it is. But I I love the idea of um restoring something um you know we've had a lot of great um new building projects from from scouts over the years in town. I I just I really like the idea of the restoration of something that's you know so significant. >> Fantastic. Any other comments or questions? >> I'll just layer in one more thing Matt. So my husband is many many decades older than you and being an eagle [laughter] still comes up in his conversation. So he's very proud to have achieved that. So it'll be something that'll impact you for the rest of your life. So although it'll be a big effort, it'll definitely be worth it. >> Definitely. >> All right. Well, thank you for your presentation. And I agree with what
024uh what everybody said. Obviously in in a world where we tend to run to replace things with new. I love that you're restoring some. Do you know how old it is currently? Is that information you guys have yet or not yet? >> I believe we looked at the serial number. >> Do you remember how do you remember? >> It's over 100 years. >> It's definitely overund years old. >> That is amazing. >> That makes restoring something like that even more meaningful. >> That's wild. I when I had I had the pleasure of um watching Aiden, his mom and dad like going through the piano um preliminarily and the excitement that they had um just going through it and looking at I don't know what any of this stuff is called but [laughter] the strings and
025then the the hammers. You know where the keys are, right? [laughter] >> We couldn't get into keys. The um >> what was that? >> The fall bar [laughter] lock was broken. >> So, >> it was awesome. And I know that I know it's in good hands. Um so, I'm I'm also excited about the project and and just seeing what they they come back with. So, >> awesome. It's a good project. >> Thank you for coming. I know we're all excited to see how this goes, but good luck with it. >> Thank you. If I could add just one thing just you might not know in terms of the fundraising. So in an eagle project all the funds do have to go through the troop but the school system or whoever the owner of the piano
026is is the beneficiary. So none of the resources or um funds uh are remain with the troop but um all fundraising if there's any fundraising out there anyone who wants to donate to the project can um write a check to troop four. This is uh he's a part of troop four here in Milford. >> Okay, >> perfect. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you for that. >> All right. Thanks for coming. >> All right. Policy. We'll go to the policy review. There are three listed on the agenda. I'm going look at you guys. Are there three that we're ready to move forward with next? >> There's actually a fourth one that's not listed. Are we allowed to vote on it? >> No, we'll save that one for the next meeting. >>
027Perfect. That's fine. >> So, we have um I'll list out the three and we can take them one at a time. Um the first one is file JF-1, middle school pathway exploration policy. >> Yep. >> And then there is file EBC emergency plans and file EAA walkers. Let's start with the uh middle school pathway exploration policy. We'll discuss that first. Absolutely. So tonight we met um as the policy subcommittee and discussed this. Uh so this is actually stemming from Massachusetts state regulation 603 CMR uh 4. Um so this is a compliance issue and what it does it allows for um a more clear pathway for our middle school students to explore our vote options or CTE uh programming. So, uh, this is giving, um, information to both the students and the parents as to what
028those options are. So, there's in district options at Milford High School as well as our regional vote school, which is Blackstone Valley. Um, what has changed this year, and I think Dr. Conigley can certainly clean this up for me a little bit. Um, there's a new process for applications to get into BBT. Um, so it's a more of a lottery based system and you can earn points along the way um to increase your chances of getting in. So one of them is simply applying. Another one is uh doing a school tour. So um in the past this has been a an option available to our students that they could do a a school tour. Uh but our district really and most of the districts have not participated in this because there's been just questions around
029it. Um but we are or Dr. Sigley is recommending this policy and we approve this policy in the subcommittee to uh do these school tours as it counts for one of those tokens as an extra lottery ticket if you will. Um and this is actually sponsored from Blackstone Valley. They they have to provide the transportation. It's during school hours and does not count as an unexcused absence. So that is one of the criterias as well. So um this uh policy is reflecting the changes of the admission process and also how we are identifying these changes to the stakeholders in the district. Uh Dr. Con at that. >> Yeah. Um yes uh basically um the policy was put in place over the summer. We need to have a the I sorry the rules and regulations from
030Desi was put in place over the summer. We have to have a policy in place by no uh November 1st um just on how we're going to explain to our middle school students how what their options are with uh for us it's Blackstone Valley Tech. Um we do send a number of students over to um other um CTE schools uh but those aren't necessarily in our catchment. Right. BBT is the only one that's in our catchment. The other schools that we send kids to are um we tuition kids over there. Uh so we don't have to put it in the policy. Um but basically what we're doing is outlining how we let kids know about uh what PBT has to offer. That's basically what this policy is. The other thing the I think the other
031thing that I'll point out is uh the career exploration piece of it for middle school students um Desi is requiring starting in 2027 this MYAP program which basically says that all students have to use this MYAP um it's really I think a guidance tool to help kids uh figure out as early as 7th th grade where they want to go with their career. So it it um it talks about all these different things. Uh and this is something that they would have to go through with an adult alongside of them just so they can understand better which um which high school options um would be best for their post-secary um planning. So we need it we need this policy in place for November 1st so we can upload it onto Desi and um I guess
032check the box for our compliance in on this uh regulation. >> All right, any discussion on that? Can >> I just ask two quick questions? >> Other than the tour sort of enhanc like communicating that there's no real process change happening. I wouldn't think >> not really. Um, I think it's just documenting for us, um, how we let families know about BBT and and our our own CT. >> That's where I was going to go because I felt like Crick, when we did the California trip, a lot of the discussion was around like pathways at Milford and how we're going to enhance those. So, is that also a piece of this? That's super important. >> It is. And and and it's right in here that we we talk about two things, right? We talk about
033our own CTE programming and we also >> provide the um >> provide the information about what's offered at BBT. >> Okay. >> Thanks. Thanks. Anything else? >> Just quickly, so currently we're not doing my cap. This is just something that's coming down the pipeline and >> we we're not currently doing it in middle school. >> Okay. >> Um it's mostly a high school thing right now. It's going to get pushed down into middle school where I think it it belongs honestly. or at least the start of it belongs in middle school. So, >> I would agree with that. I think that's an an excellent way to kind of focus on Don't wait until you're already there, trying to figure this out. It should be part of pre-planning like everything else, >> right? >> You know
034what I mean? >> Yeah. A motion to approve fire JF1. >> All right. So, discussion is over and we have a motion to approve file JF1. Is there a second? Second by Megan. All in favor? Unanimous. Thank you. >> Great. Thank you. >> We'll move on to file EBC emergency plans. >> Yep. So, again, we uh just went through this uh briefly uh two meetings ago, but there's a couple questions when we asked for additional feedback from um the director of nursing as well as the district response team. So, they did review this document um and made two minor edits um you know uh being a little bit more general with using the word administration as opposed to specifically like the athletic director for example. And then the um fire department um put in statemandated
035fire drills just to be uh compliant with whatever the new state mandate is. So, currently it's four, but next year it could turn to five. So, instead of switching it, you know, just to be a little bit more broad. And then number eight was also something that was brought to our attention to add a method to transport students to an alter alternative location. So those are the big changes and they're not very big at all. >> Cool. Any discussion on that one? >> No. >> All right. Is there a motion to approve file EBC emergency plans? >> So moved. >> Motion by Chris, second by John. All in favor? Unanimous. Thank you. and we'll go on to file EAA walkers writers. >> So, this one also got kicked back uh from a a previous meeting,
036so we were able to vote on it tonight. Uh we added two new sections or or I guess modifi I get added, right? Yeah, added two new sections of I and J. Um just to more defi define this policy um including what is considered school property and when that uh rule kind of applies. So that was a question that was asked previously. Uh this obviously does not address any of the ebike discussion that we've previously had. I think that needs a lot more thought and community input. Um I shouldn't say just me personally, but uh we felt like that was as a subcommittee felt like that needed more input. So uh that might be added to this or it's different policy in general, but this is what we discussed and approved tonight. >> Great. >>
037Any other discussions on this? >> Just commentary. Can we just spell out IEP when we publish the policy? >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Oh, yeah. >> Section F. >> Yep. >> Please. Thank you. >> Excellent. Anything else? >> I'll make a motion to approve with that. >> Okay. Motion by Megan to approve file EAA Walker riders with one edit to section F spelling out IEP. Uh, is there a second? >> Second. Second by Chris. All in favor? Unanimous. Thank you. >> Thank you. We will move on to the report of the assistant superintendent for teaching and learning. >> Great. Um so last week we talked about accountability data on MCCAST. I shared a little bit about what we are doing um with the math results and tonight we're going to hear from Carol Severki
038about the literacy results and kind of where we are um in literacy this year. So, Carol, I'm going to maybe share my screen for you. >> All right. >> Thanks for having me tonight, everyone. >> Hopefully, my computer doesn't die. Seems to be the perfect timing. Okay. So, Carrie shared um some of the data with you last week. Um tonight I'm going to talk about MCCAST data, but I think what I really want to get everyone up to speed on is how the implementation of K5 expeditionary learning is going. Um SL share some glows and grows. um and talk about year two of high high quality instructional materials at Stacy um early literacy. So, we got a lot of lot of stuff on the agenda tonight. So, um Carrie did share last week the accountability
039data um and we did see that we are um we are making strides um in our lowest performing students. We have increased by so we're four out of four. We um are looking at an overall one out of four points in the accountability for ELA which is no change. Um we do see some declines across the board similarly in math as we do in ELA. Um and so I want to next just look at the overall MPS ELA MCCAST. Um so for this year we have 31% of students meeting or exceeding. Um 486 is the scaled score and the SGP is 49.1 and the graph all the way on the left is the um the SGP overtime. So, we're kind of compared to the state, we are pretty close to where we were in 2024.
040Um, we made some gains in 2024. Overall, we were 29%. Um, and our SGP was 49.6. So, we're kind of staying steady in those areas. For Woodland, um, we have 31% meeting or exceeding. We can see we are above the state. Um we're increasing steadily there. We are up from 26% in 2024. Um and our average SGP in 2024 was 61. So again, we're making gains there. And at Stacy, um, this is reflective. We were in year one of the adoption of Amplify ELA. Um, so we're at 27% meeting or exceeding, which is exactly the same as it was in 2024. Um, our SGP in 2024 was 40.7. So, we had a slight decline. Um, and I think that goes back to, you know, the the implementation. Um, you know, we're still getting used to
041it. We're still making adjustments. And grade 10 ELA MCCAST, um, we have 42% of students meeting or exceeding. That is a slight decline. We are down from 48% in 2024. Um, the SGP in 2024 was 53.5 and now it's 51.1. We have a slight decline there. Um, so we are making gains. We have some areas that we have room for improvement um specifically with our students um with disabilities and IEPs and our multilingual learners and our high need students. So, we're looking at the adoption of HQIM as a a lever of equity to provide all students with grade level content. So, we're making sure they're equipped to handle it um in all the different ways. So, I invite you to ask any questions. >> All right. Thanks, Carol. This is super helpful and I know
042there's so much going on, so I won't like spend too much time on this. Could you just speak though at a high level? Obviously this is very high level data which is very appropriate for us to be reviewing. Could you just speak to how you and the coaches and the leads sort of really like dig in in terms of like is there a problem area or content just like how do you take this and then sort of make it tangible in terms of how we execute. >> Yeah. So on a on a on a deeper analysis, we'll look at the different strands that MCCAST is measuring like the language strands, the reading strands, um the essay and the writing and we'll use that to guide you know where we need to focus support in teachers
043and students. Um, we see that overall the essay and the writing piece is an area that um lends itself to a deeper focus and room for growth. And I think that's where we're going to see along the vertical spine some consistency with writing instruction. Um making sure we're hitting the standards so we can use that overall like that microlevel data to help support our teachers. >> And are you able to overlay I ready and say like okay this is something that really stands out. Obviously there's you know improvement that you're looking to make everywhere. I totally understand. But does that ever give indicators? >> It does. Um especially with the the distinction between reading com uh the literature strands and the readingformational text. Typically students re readingformational text is more challenging. Um so we can
044cross cross reference the I Ready data. Uh, I Ready also has a new feature that's called their their projected proficiency where they can anticipate um proficiency on state assessments based on I Ready scores. The only thing we really can't cross reference is writing. >> Um, and so that's that's an area where like we don't previously haven't had up unless the high school, you know, we we got writing locked in at the high school. Um, we haven't had a lot of common writing assessments that have allowed us to norm on student writing and calibrate. >> Got it. >> Thank you for presenting tonight. I appreciate it. Um, obviously, I know when you look at this, the numbers don't look great, right? I mean, we're only >> we're not even at 50% meeting. >> Um, >> but
045I know this is we're we're now focusing on this because we've seen these numbers. Um I think I'm trying to remember when you presented with math and we kind of looked at almost like individual students and are they making progress and and do we do that? So right now this is very general >> but is there a way to extrapolate out data that shows like you know a a student that they're not they're they're not meeting the expectations but they're make they're still making gains right? They're they're they're they're they're making gains. They're not into that, you know, uh next category of sorry of um of meeting those expectations, but we see that growth there. >> Is there a way so that way we kind of can tell that what we're putting forth is working,
046right? You know, we're eventually we hope to see that gray area become the blue area, but there's still going to be some within that gray area of not meeting that are slowly approaching the blue, but they at least they are approaching the blue. >> Yeah. So, we we can look at um student data, student level data, and look at student growth, what growth percentage they're making. Um, so even if they're not meeting or exceeding, we're keeping a close watch on the progress they're making. I Ready also allows us to look at that data and it gives us um each student a typical growth score and a stretch growth score to make sure we're on the path to proficiency. >> We can also look at like SGP is the first number that we would we would
047expect to increase before we see proficiency rates increase. Right? to be honest, I don't think grade 10 is a good um example. So, if we look at Stacy, for example, um if you look at the SGP graph here that she uh we have on the left, we're seeing actually a dip in SGP. Um which although we're staying flat on proficiency, the kids are not as high in their SGP as we would want them to be, right? We really want SGP on MCAST to be between 40 and 60 for typical growth. >> Okay, >> we're seeing a dip at 38.2. It's year one of implementation. Is that what's going on here? If we continue to see a dip in SGP like this spring, we've got a bigger problem. Um but we were um Craig and I
048were at an urban superintendent network meeting a couple of weeks ago and we heard this is only true about grade 10 MCCASTs, but we heard like across the state they were seeing three times the amount of essay topics off topic >> on the grade 10 MCCAST by removing the CD um requirement. So, I think that's why I'm saying I don't really want to talk about this one right now because I I'm I'm wondering how many >> essays were graded off topic. Um, but across the state we're seeing three times the amount previous years. Um, not true at the 38 level, which is why this number of an SGP dropping is a little bit more concerning. >> And this is similar again year one of of adoption and you had gone over that and I asked
049that question from math, right? I think one and two and then three starts rising up. I'm assuming that this is what we anticipate to be similar in from the aspects of it students are now learning differently the teachers are teaching differently >> right >> so >> but also I mean I do I I haven't done a huge analysis here right but like there is some things to celebrate if you look at the red here in SY24 Stacy was at 33%. Well, after year one of implementation, we're at 31% in the red, right? So, kids that were not meeting expectations shrunk by two percentage points. Although our students meeting expectations stayed the same, you did close that red gap or that not meeting expectations gap a little bit, which is a something to celebrate um and
050to think about. >> But a better I think a good example is Woodland, right? for the question you asked. If you look at the the column on the left there, that's growth, right? >> Right. >> Where the blue, the state is the gray, you can see that's something that we definitely should celebrate, right? Our growth score is going on an upward trajectory as compared to the state, right? And it it bears out if you look at the right side and you look at the um not the gross scores but the um what is it the percentage of proficiency is that what that is. >> Um you can see that starting to increase and starting to go the right way and it it is >> um mirroring what we're seeing in the growth scores, right? >>
051And that's with um that's with a uh inconsistent program throughout Woodland, right? So materials that were in kids' hands that weren't exactly the same or we had no control over, I guess, all the way through each grade level. Um we're we're anticipating perhaps there's a a drop but perhaps um we continue to see the increase with um with high quality instruction materials in in teachers and students hands. Uh I think the the implementation um dip is real and it's real because teachers are getting used to the materials and getting used to um the program. But the fact of the matter is um the teachers uh are are demonstrating here. I think that their higher expectations and the quality of their instruction is is bearing out here. Now hopefully putting the materials in their hands, the
052high quality materials coupled with the the skills that they have, hopefully that the implementation dip and I think you have a slide later than this is is decreased. So we see that uh maybe there is a dip but maybe it's over a short amount of time >> and the nature of the the curriculum is you know we're it will spiral from one year to the next and we're not there yet just similarly to math and you know teachers have recently shared like they're seeing the routines they're seeing it in the classroom so we we're anticipating a similar trajectory >> but it's I I I don't know I In my opinion, it's hard not to be happy with uh when you see results like that with a SGP of almost, you know, over 60, which is
053what you want to see and u an increase in in percentage of of meeting and exceeding. That's what we hope to see every year, year over year over year. >> All right. >> I guess and then quickly then going back to that, I think that's kind of maybe what we want to throw across the top as a highlight, right? >> Because what do I what do I see as a highlight up at the top? >> 31%. >> Our meeting, >> right? >> Because so that's that's what my eyes are drawn to. >> Yeah. >> But you just made the point of >> but our meeting grew by so many percentage points. So >> again, just percentage, right? I I looked at it and that's why at first that was my first question, right? Because that's
054what my mind and eyes were drawn to. So let's, you know, let's keep celebrating the victories, >> right? The wins. And I know we're going that direction. >> This is a snapshot from Open Architects, too, right? And so like maybe also getting them to like when things are good, highlighting for us. Exactly. >> We still have work to do, but but when I'm sitting here, right, well, tell me what the gains were so that way I'm not so focused on Oh, boy. 31%. So >> thank you. Um, now I'm going to talk about our in high quality instructional materials update. Um, I'll start with Stacy. So, we are in year two of Amplify. Um, students are engaging in blended learning. So, I know there's been a lot of talk about in concern about students on
055Chromebooks all the time. Um, this is a very technically heavy curriculum. There's a very robust platform that allows for a a huge amount of differentiation for students um which teachers like but we also want to make sure our kids are reading text in front of them. Um so teachers are engaging in more of a blended learning approach using paper pencil materials using the student readers. Um, I was at Stacy today and I saw um more classes than not reading from the actual student readers and taking tasks offline um which was great. As far as PD goes, um Stacy has one department time monthly dedicated to um the ELA and reading departments meet together and teachers meet weekly with their grade level peers to work on collaboration and lesson internalization. So, we are more comfortable with
056the text and content in year two. the pacing is eas easier to gauge. Teachers are better able to um look for the high high leverage questions that have a high depth of knowledge um to make the adjustments as necessary so we're not dragging the pacing out. Uh we also are continuing to work on norming on student writing and that that's kind of guided by looking at our needs based on MCCAST. Um, we have common assessments now for writing. We're making sure we're bringing samples of student work to department time meetings, making sure that if I say something's a four, it's the same as Carrie says it's a four. Um, and just making sure we are all aligned in our grading processes. We are also Desi um we were part of DESSI's learning acceleration network for
057K5 last year and since we were awarded the Prism grants we had shifted the support of the land network to Stacy now because I'm dedicating a lot of time to K5 and this will ensure um sustainability for the implementation of Amplify. So um we have site visits from with our TNTP partner to collect additional data and they are also supporting professional learning. Um some glows as in at Stacy Middle School is um teachers are working to embed the culturally and linguistically responsive protocols into lessons. I actually saw one of them in action today. It's called jump in reading and um it's where a student volunteers to read aloud and any student at the end of a sentence or the start of a new paragraph can jump in and take over. Um >> and you would
058have thought it was like they were giving away money for whoever was jumping in. Like the kids were so excited. We had multiple kids jumping in to read. Um, and it actually like it it was electric in there. It was really great to see. Um, and it allowed the teacher to make sure everyone's participating and on the heels of it, she followed up with some really like deep thoughtful questions about the text that kids were able to just knock out of the park. So, um, it's nice to see those two things we're doing as a district align um, and not be at odds with each other. So that was really great. We have recent walkthrough data that demonstrates our lessons are focused on high quality text. Teachers are using the materials. Students are engaging with
059grade level text. Some grows um because Amplify is such a tech heavy platform. There's issues. We've had some significant issues this year um which has resulted in frustration for teachers, students, myself. um we've resolved really the main pressure point um and we'll continue to work to make sure that is not going to happen again. Um and because of pacing we're teaching new units. So teachers are still learning new content, teaching new texts, but um overall I'm really I'm really pleased with the progress and you know I think this is part of what we'll see trickling up to the high school. kids are ready to tackle grade level rigorous texts and Questions about Stacy. >> All right. >> The only comment I would really make I think when it comes to the Stacy piece, and I'll
060speak only for myself with this statement, but coming towards budget, >> if there's an option for more physical books, I will >> always support spending money on physical books. that is something that I would battle >> across the board. Um, so if there's an option to get more away from the technical piece, which is weird coming from somebody who literally [laughter] has a tablet instead of paper in front of them, um, >> I I would prefer obviously that. So if you need something like that, if that's something that can work into the budget season, please bring it to us because that is something that I would absolutely support. >> Yeah. And that's something we are exploring like um we had initially purchased like a class set of the student readers. Um and grade seven specifically
061is trying out like a onetoone because so students can highlight in them and write all over them which is like I operate like that. I my sticky notes all over the place. So um that's certainly something we're looking at and considering. So I I agree >> on that topic. Is there a balance with on-screen time versus, you know, on paper time that you're trying to shoot for? >> I don't I not a percentage-wise, but I think I'm I'm really looking to the teachers to make sure they're meeting the students needs and keeping them engaged. And obviously once you get the Chromebook out, the potential for distraction, >> right, >> increases exponentially. So, um, you know, and that's all part of the lesson internalization, like, okay, we're going to be reading this really dense text and
062it's going to be tempting to drift and click on this. So, knowing when and what to take offline is has been really intentional this year. Now, on to Brookside Memorial in Woodland. Um we are really about 30 days into our year one adoption of expeditionary learning. Um we ultimately chose to go with the 2025 version which I will say has been unanimously like really wellreceived. There's been a lot of updates to like the lesson slides, the um embedded supports for our multilingual learners. So, and just the materials themselves are streamlined. There's not like 15 manuals to go with one unit. Um, so that's been really great. We started professional development right out of the gate in August um at each building facilitated facilitated by myself. >> [clears throat] >> We had an early release date
063on September 17th that was facilitated by expeditionary learning. Teachers were very um receptive to it. They responded really well to it. Um we have contractual time. I'm facilitating at least one time per month at each building and I'm pushing into grade level TCT times all over the place. Um so it's been really amazing. teachers are reporting that um students are really actively participating in a lot of active academic discussions knowing that literacy lives on the foundation of language. Expeditionary learning has a lot of embedded activities and protocols to get students talking to one another um responding to text. I've been working um with Carrie, our building admin, and our prism partners to make sure the implementation is running smoothly and have a lot of sounding boards. We will have a first round of baseline data.
064Um we're doing our first data collection the first week of November to get the data. The data that is collected will span the course of three years um of our Prism partnership. so we can keep an eye and be responsive to the needs of our teachers and our students. Um, just some anecdotal feedback. Uh, you know, our teachers have been giving it like 150%. They have been putting their heart and souls into this. It's a very challenging curriculum. There's a lot of points to it. There's a lot of preparation. Um, and our teachers are really giving it their all. So, I'm trying to give them grace and be, you know, responsive to their needs, but I don't think any person is as hard on themselves as teachers are. Um, so trying to balance that and
065be responsive to their their own emotional well-being um while we're implementing this. So, [clears throat] a few great things that teachers have been telling me is that um students are seeing themselves in what they're reading. Um, grade two is reading about a bunch of learning across the world or what classrooms look like in different schools. and they were reading about a school in Scotland that um was designed for visually impaired students and all the accommodations and universal designs that were [clears throat] were part of the school and a student um a teacher shared she gave me a bucket filling moment um that there was a student she has that very rarely participates has a hard time um responding to the text and immediately said this is like what I need. So, you know, that's that's
066very powerful. Um, there's also students making connections across ELD. So, our multilingual learner students, there's a lot of emphasis on grammar and verbs and, you know, they're doing a lot of learning about that and that's directly translating to what our multilingual learner students are learning. Um, Miss Switzer, who was just here, our outstanding teacher of the year, shared um that her students that are reading Love That Dog, are just dying to get their hands on Love That Cat. So, it's like love of reading by getting them into a book they love and you get another one at the ready. So, um, that's been really nice. The, like I said, the spiral effect of the curriculum hasn't hit yet. I was just having a conversation with grade five about summary writing. They're like, "We don't know
067how, you know, what's it look like in the other grade? We can start to have those conversations so we know what um kids are coming in with." And [clears throat] just thinking of all the time I've spent with the staff and professional learning, it really does give us a springboard for focusing on collective efficacy as we have like something common to ground ourselves in. So um that's where we're at. K5 questions about our adoption there. Just one, Carol. Do all the assessments come from the program? Like, are they provided with the material? >> Yes. So, there there's assessing um speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Um and we're learning how to like assessing speaking with a class of 24 students and you're trying to assess them individually um presents some challenges, but it's it's allowing us
068to have the the student discussions, >> right? All right. Um I just want to share the this is from the opportunity makers. Um and these are the three things that really help to provide equity for students. Belonging, consistency, and coherence. And I think what we're seeing um as we embark on this implementation is we're hitting these three. We're seeing students that feel a sense of belonging in what they're reading. there's consistency and there's coherence. Um, so I just included the module topics by grade level. I think it's really interesting. Um, and I just having the lens of prek to 12. I look at this and I see where it's going to build um, in future years. The Aiden's presentation tonight about his Eagle Scout proposal made me immediately think of the um grade 2 unit
069art in the community and the importance of art and just how we're giving students a springboard in providing a common background knowledge that's going to set them up for future success. Um there's a lot of really cool topics. Um you know, grade one is immersed in inventions. Kindergarten is learning about toys. They're developmentally appropriate um but equally rigorous. Um you know, learning about schools across the world, the importance of learning to read. Uh it it's really there's a lot of really cool things that kids are going to enjoy learning about. Here's the dip. Here's the graph. >> He's not here for >> I know he's not here. I put it in just for him. [laughter] So this is kind of what we can expect. This is what we're seeing. Um the dip will go up.
070That's our hope and this is what we're going to be looking for. Um so as we look at our assessments including I ready throughout the year and as we build more familiarity with the assessments embedded with the eel, we'll look at how we are where we are in the dip. But the goal is to reduce the length and depth of the dip. We don't want a deep dip. All right. Early literacy K3. So, Desessie kind of groups K3 as branded as early literacy. So, that spans Brookside Memorial and Woodland. Um, I think we all are familiar with at this point the early literacy screening regulation which went into effect in July 2023 which states that t um all students must be screened at least twice a year with a desi approved universal screener. Ours is
071I ready reading and based on the outcomes of the screening students who fall significantly below grade level have to be notified and given the opportunity to connect with the schools about um what they're doing to support students in early literacy. Um, the DESIE requirement does require that every single student be screened despite um despite where they're at in their language journey, where they're at in their um needs. So, it is [music] difficult when we know some students may not be able to be proficient and we still have to send that letter home. Um so what we're doing is really looking at ways to support all students. So we look at the data, we use I ready. Um we look at the outcomes, we look at the skills that students are needing. The I Ready measures
072phonics, funological awareness, comprehension, vocabulary, and high frequency words. So based on where students needs are, we'll group them um for specialized skill instruction. So this could be with the child's classroom teacher, a special educator, an English language teacher, a reading intervention teacher. And we have again partnered with Ignite Reading to primarily support our grade 1 students. Um I included this data. This is our partnership with um 18 over the past two years was to essentially um deliver proof of concept that this is an effective intervention for our students. So 18 and John Hopkins University partnered to do um research and collect it over the two years we partnered with the 18 foundation which eventually led to Desi's funding of the high dosage literacy tutoring grant. Um and this is just our 23 24 data to
073show um I can't even read the percentage myself because it's so tiny. Um but the the amount of impact it has on moving students who are significantly below grade level to proficiency is is fairly significant. Um and we're seeing that and again we're looking also at the growth students who are coming into first grade with kindergarten grade level skills. We just want to make sure they're growing. the goal is to get them to grade level, but we're always looking at growth. I think one thing um with all the talk about high quality instructional materials at the end of it is like we're the like we're literally the circle here. Um part of the bigger circle that whose job is to really just support the teachers, supporting the students. Um, I try to use that to
074drive every professional learning we have to make sure it's meaningful for our teachers and trying to pivot as needed, get a lot of feedback from teachers, um, to make sure they are feeling that the time is worthwhile and constantly looking for ways to make sure they're supported. And really the the the slide I want to leave you with is that you know we know materials don't teach students teachers teach students. Um I recently attended the reading league conference where you know the the science says the the thing that has the largest effect size on students is the teacher. So you know that's that's the work. implementing the materials is one thing, but supporting the teachers in that process is really going to make the difference. And um just as far as what we need to
075do, what we're working on is connecting with families like looking at um continued literacy events at the K5 schools, sending home the parent letters for the topics that and texts that students will be encountering um at the beginning of each new module for expeditionary learning. um sending home the I Ready reports and looking for more opportunities to educate our families and community about the importance of early literacy and how to support students at home. Um partnering with the town library, they've been great. They've attend a lot of events. We sign a lot of students and families up for library cards at these events. um looking at how we can get some informational sessions for families and caregivers to learn more about supporting literacy at home. um and making sure you know it's difficult the letter
076we send home for the early literacy screening is formatted based on um a desi template they give us it and making sure that we're equipping our teachers and our families with what questions they need to ask if they do contact um the teacher or how can they become more involved. So something I I think that will be the forever that's never going to reach a benchmark that's satisfactory until every kid is reading at grade level. >> Comments or questions? >> Just a question. And so I know so much work has gone into this. So thank you for that. Thank you for continuing to push it because it obviously is so critical. When you see those numbers, there's work that we could do and obviously we want to do it. I know there was a point
077in time, Carl, I think sometimes those letters went out unaccompanied and I think that's a big miss. Yeah. To inform parents. I I think that's already been remediated. I just want to maybe confirm that's been remediated. >> Sending them home with the parent reports, >> sending them home with nothing like you would just get the letter that like that that had occurred in the past. So, I just wanted to make sure that's not today happening. >> No, we and it we'll be sending out the first round after the January um administration. So just making sure that >> we are >> there should be another communication with it is my only recommendation because as a parent I can tell you it's very disheartening to receive that and without additional communication. So just that we would include
078something so families know what to do or what the school's already doing or something like that. >> Yeah, great. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> Thank you. >> Makes sense. >> Just just quickly to everybody refresh my memory last spring town meeting article we we obtained money. What was and that money was for which grade levels? >> K to it was K to five. So that's why I just want to yeah correlate that's amplify person six to eight. So we >> that's what I thought. Yeah. Just one. So then then back to the budget. Do we foresee expanding upon I know we thought a little bit last year we had talked about some more we we rolled back the request I think at town meeting right to not >> so company >> expeditionary learning they have the
079required texts and then they have recommended texts >> okay >> um we purchase just the required texts based on what I'm seeing this year that's sufficient but I It's something we can revisit. We also have um been awarded half the cost of materials via the prism grant. >> So that will offset some of the cost and we'll be able to give some of the money back to the town. >> Okay. Great. Thank you. >> Well, the only other comment I want to make is that you recognized it a couple slides back that um that the materials don't do the teaching. We talk so much about high quality materials. We talk about the cost of them. We care about providing all these tools, but we rarely talk about the fact that if you just put >>
080a handful of books in some kids's lab and walk away, nothing's going to happen. >> Correct. >> So, I think it's great that you guys are recognizing that the staff are still the ones who have to take this stuff and they're the ones making the meaningful change and helping kids learn. And um we can only buy so many tools, >> right? >> But they have to be able to turn them into those those pieces to help these kids learn. So, I think it's it's great that uh that you recognize that and obviously as Chris was getting to there if if more comes down the line where you decide we need more books or different books or whatever. Um that that comment I made earlier still stands. The more physical books, >> the better I mean
081I I've handed a Kindle to my fifth grader and she gave it back to me. She wants physical books so I will not fight that obviously. I think it's a great thing. So, >> um anything else before we move on? All right. All right. Thank you for that. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> All right. So, we'll go to the report of the school business administrator next. There are two items there. Thank you. >> All right. The first uh report is um the quarter one report. We are at the end of quarter one like 20 days ago and um almost two months into the new school year with mostly pleasant weather. So um the budget is um is looking healthy right now uh with 5.9 million in the balance. um in the
082report itself on page two and page three I kind of explain the negatives and um some of them are just it's explainable itself um but I I do want to point out some areas that I'm watching and may need administration's attention and need some actions on. Um the first is the postage um cost. Uh I already noticed a big jump big increase from last year. Um partially because of the MCCAST result um there their new requests required document [clears throat] with more pages >> enclosures with more pages and uh you're talking about like translated letters too. So a heavier envelope can cost us up to one point a$1.70 and USPS um forever stand increase too in July. >> So um and we we have the dual language uh lottery confirmation and resolve mouth to the
083families. So I think those are two big jumps from last year. Um so we are we I asked all the department heads and we are working on a list of what need to be sended to the parents like mandatory um list. Um we we want to find the balance. Um parents need to be notified uh of important information but we want to look look at the alter um alternative ways to um reduce the cost of postage. for example, the after the the kids have having test and the screening at F FRC, uh they're not returning back. So F FRC just to mail everything home. >> Um but we're thinking um if we just enter office to the schools and the home teachers can send it home in their backpack, >> things like things like that.
084>> One thing can I add one thing please? >> Sure. Um this year, uh I would say two weeks before MCCAST was supposed to go home, before we were supposed to get the result, um Desi informed us they weren't going to send us results and they were going to open up a um a portal so that every family could look at the the results. The problem was they told us two weeks before the the the thing was coming. So they got a lot of push back from um all many districts across the way. So then then here they come here here come all these things that we have to mail. And um I think they I think it's coming um and I think that the more we can send home digitally, it's going to save
085us money um on the postage side, but I also think that families are going to appreciate it. Um, I also think there should be a way that families could request a a paper copy, but I think most folks are going to be okay with digital copies of of report cards or um, I Ready results, MCCAST results, any of those things. >> Absolutely. >> Do we have 100 email addresses for the entire population or would you go through Craig and say, "Okay, these are whatever 40 families don't have email. We're going to send them." I mean, we have we do know who we have email addresses for because of the talking points. Yep. Right. Um, >> do I think we have 100%. I don't think we have 100%. I think we know who >> I think
086>> but you could use talking points also, right? Like that's isn't that with your phone number? I don't even know that's an email, right? You need >> some folks it's a email. I think some folks it's a a phone number. You certainly could. Um, I I don't know if it's um I don't know if we could upload everything and then send them through talking points like that. I think somebody would have to individually do it. I think I'm not sure though. >> Okay. >> I'm not sure it's 100% secure. >> I don't know that we could send like something like an MCAST through Talking Points. >> Um >> I think we can actually. I think we can because um just >> came up today. It did just come up today with um like health records
087and and talking points is secure versus like email where it isn't secure. >> So school results would be okay. school results would be okay, but sending something like a physical through an email is >> no, that violates a for >> which is part of the reason Desi was getting so much push back on their like new portal because there was a lot of these types of questions that they wanted to answer. >> Got it. That's great. Do we still been a couple years since do we still have that portal where parents can log in to look at student activity, right? Like grades and and >> Yes. >> things of that sort. >> It's it's Stacy up. >> Stacy up. >> Yep. >> So, >> and is that a location where you could post? >> You
088could I think you could >> because you need apparent you need a login to get to it. >> You could. So you could send out an email saying that the here this is where the information resides. You need to log in with a username and password. >> You could the issue I think is that we have to put them individually in every kid's um account >> versus like this Desi one >> uh where it's like you're going to get you're going to get information how to get onto the uh portal you get on there. Yeah, >> this we'd have to say, okay, we're going to take this document and put it into the journal feature or whatever or the documents feature on um in Aspen and you can go and look at it, but I
089think everyone has to do it individually, which is the >> Yeah, that's I get it. >> A lot of time. >> Yeah. >> Question on transportation. Um, obviously >> not there yet. >> Oh, you're going [laughter] to get settle down. I thought you were I thought you were done on your side. [laughter] >> Um, I'll give you time to answer questions. So, u teaching and instruction there are two areas. Um, first the, um, substitute account. So um right now we can't see um the the substitute um cost is really um heavily like teacher absence related. So it's hard to predict this year but uh last year we ended with a big deficit. Um we budgeted the same amount this year and last year we spent almost a million on substitute cost. Um so just some
090something we need to watch and um attendance is um what we are working on um both student attendance and staff attendance and also we we have a very limited substitute pool. Um so for that significant increase our substitute cost um because for example we pay a regular sub 95 to 110 per day but if we don't have the substitute in class and we need uh teachers to to cover class it's one hour is the highest is most 90 an hour. So we can hire three subs >> potentially five, right? >> Yeah. >> Costing us five. It's costing us to cover one teacher, >> five subs, >> right? So that's a challenge. Um but our substitute rate is relatively low at this point. We haven't increase the rate >> Couple years. So maybe something we can
091look into. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. Um and the other thing is on the teachers salary. Uh we had a a big large big amount of lane change request this year and um it just step 11 like top teacher alone cost us um almost 270,000 increase in the salaries. So um it's just something we need to and when that's PD driven because obviously we would have been able to predict the tenure piece. So it's correct. >> Question on substitute and I know we probably don't do this but >> would it be any benefit to looking at substitutes in in kind of in two buckets. One bucket is the teacher is truly sick and not and called in sick and the other is the teacher is out of out of the classroom for professional development or
092from some other reasons, right? Just so we can kind of look at is there a way to help offset that cost and be more predictable. So again, two it's one bucket of substitutes, but there could be multiple reasons >> why the teacher is not in the classroom and why we would need a substitute. >> Y >> and you know would that be beneficial for us to track? We we track it. Um I think um what we don't do right now is a um a good job of analyzing it, I guess. Um >> I think that's probably a a next natural step is to analyze all that data. Um I also think that an increase in in sub may although hurt at the at the front end over the long range over the long hall if
093we increase, you know, some amount of money. I think um I think it'll actually save us money. >> We also had that concept of like another permanent building sub on the budget for last year that didn't go forward. It might be just time to reanalyze the cost. >> Yeah. Um >> or district sub or however it could work. I think um I think I think the benefit of having a an additional building sub is you have that steady person that's in your in your school. Um the problem is whoever that person is, they're already here, right? We're just um giving them an added benefit. I think if we maybe if we increase that that um rate for the just the permanent building sub that might bring in certified teachers to to want that position because
094right now >> there was a time where you know we'd have building subs that are certified teachers. We just we don't have those right now. >> No, the >> we have retired teachers. daily rate. >> The daily rate for permanent building sub is the same as the daily sub, which is much lower than the long-term subs. Um, >> so maybe we can find some point that balance the needs. >> Yeah. Do an analysis and increase it all and see what we get. see if we can find a way to maybe um I don't know what the technical term is. So maybe poach some >> district some ones from other districts who want to come to Milford and >> I'm okay with that. It's happened to us. [laughter] >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Add that to the
095budget list. >> Okay. >> So that's a budget discussion soon. >> Yes. >> Um >> okay. Did you want to talk about that other piece, that last sentence on the instruction piece? Did you talk about that? The step 11. >> Uh yes. So step 11 has step they they're not stepping up. So the >> that's the piece is only >> the lane adjustments. >> Correct. >> Yeah. that they we it's it was unpredictable for us this year and and in the past, I guess. >> Okay. Okay. Transportation. >> Go ahead, Chris. [laughter] >> Well, I'll ask my questions after you give your your uh overview if you want, but I can ask. >> Um well, it's a it's a student needs driven. >> Yeah. I I mean, basically where I'm looking at obviously, yeah, we're
096showing a deficit. You're you're stating how that we're waiting on that circuit breaker. >> Do we know yet how much that circuit breaker amount is? >> Yes. >> And do we know when that circuit breaker amount >> is due to land in the accounts? >> Um the circuit breaker is 990 100,000 sorry 990,000. Uh it's if you look at the summary lines the fourth line. >> Okay. Where am I at? On the >> it on the >> budget report itself. >> The budget report or the report with the green page two. Page two. [clears throat] >> And also if you look at the >> transation right circuit breaker offset. All right. Gotcha. >> Yeah. >> All right. So that and that number is is a known number. I know sometimes circuit breaker can fluctuate. So
097that um and then the other question is have we looked at where are we at today versus where we were at last year at this time and and are we spending more spending less spending the same >> because it seems like >> I'm sure we can do a comparison um >> like the actual spending and the projection throughout the year just based on students. Yeah, transportation has always been that that bucket that seems to go down a lot faster than we always anticipate, right? So is this year are we seeing that that same trend this year that what we expected for for costs has increased by 10% 20% you know so where are we now compared to last year against as we just continue to look at that and know that those those costs continue
098to increase just how do we how do we keep keep tabs on it >> yes I agree I think we track uh transportation in a different angle um it's similar to out of district tuition. Um once a student in the placement, we know the the cost for the whole year. Yeah. >> So we we probably just project based on student placement. Okay. >> For transportation because most of the cost of goes to out of district transportation. >> Understood. >> Um and the in district transportation is a known number. >> Correct. Yeah. That's it's contractual. >> Yeah. And other costs are um like compared to those two big bucket is um relatively minor cost. >> Okay. >> For example like bus drivers >> um repairs >> um we can track that too. >> Yeah. But yeah
099as you as you stated yeah it's that out of district >> you know placement >> expenditure that we see the that is the the the largest amount of expenditure. Well, yeah. Like I said, in comparison to last year, I think would be a good comparison to just to see where we're at. >> Yeah. Okay. Yep. Okay. Um so, uh we're not in the winter yet, so the operations maintenance um looks okay now. Um we just had some um major repairs um on the pumps at the high school this year so far. Um the the the first the pump system um covering wing B1 B2 and the cafeteria uh was on um Carlos radar and um he showed me in the summer and it did need major uh attention and it will cost um somewhere between
10030,000 to 45,000 and um the second pump repair was a emergency and I had to um let Matt know about that because um We we didn't know if we have time to get quotes before we have we we have the the vendors coming in as the water drove down the wall. >> Um but I think Carlos did get three quotes. Okay. At least they sent three emails back um to the vendors. >> Awesome. >> Um and we do have additional elevator repairs at Stacy. And um Carlos is doing good job um spending money on the maintenance and um uh prevention preventional actions on the building. >> Can I ask a question about that? >> Yeah. >> Uh so does operation and maintenance also include like the electric and heating? >> Yes. Utilities. >> So for
101that piece, I mean I know rates are scheduled to go up like 15%. Is that like I mean how do you feel about that knowing going into the second half of the budget year >> probably? So yeah. So the new contract will be in um January. >> January. Yes. >> Um >> yeah. Well I don't know what you budgeted for for an increase. I don't know. That's probably wasn't 15% though, right? >> I I I didn't budget for 50%. >> Because it it uh we negotiated later. >> Okay. after the budget was voted. Um we'll see. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And um yeah, tuition similar to transportation is um it's based on student needs and compliance. Um and we do have um some behavior reports and uh hopefully we can take care of this
102in district. um not to place them out. >> Any questions? >> There are none. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Okay. [clears throat] >> No problem. >> All right. Does that cover all of it? >> Uh yeah, personnel update. >> Oh, yeah. Just a personnel update there, too. Okay. Thank you. So, we'll move on to the consent agenda. I am going to start by pulling the minutes out because I have a feeling there's going to be some uh people that will abstain. So, we'll start quickly with a motion to approve the minutes from the October 9th, 2025 meeting. >> So, moved. >> Motion by Chris, second by Brendan. All in favor? I will join you to get these through. We got four in favor of opposed or abstained, I should say. >> John
103and Megan will abstain from those. >> Thank you. All right. [clears throat] So, I'll run through the rest of the consent agenda and then I'm going to uh be a little more specific on the gifts because there are some rather um substantial gifts here. So, starting with the consent agenda, we will have the approval of the warrant which is 14 warrants in the amount of 1,294,13018. There is professional development in the amount of $4,481.50. There's a total of six gifts that add up to $73,69.38. And grants that were approved for September and October. There's 10 total. That amount is $2,916,293. I'll look for a motion to approve the consent agenda. Motion by Brendan, second by Derek. All in favor? That's unanimous. Thank you for that. Let me just run through these. gifts quick. Being a
104little more specific, we have um a gift from the Community Foundation for Metro West for after school math tutoring. This total is $32,619. Um there's $1,000 from RTX Corporation for STEM programming at Woodland. Um Ben's challenge for MHS wellness campaign, that's uh $2,950. There's a $15,000 gift from CHNA6 for summer camp transportation. Uh Whole Foods donated $3,500 for Prevoke um high school garden and Milford softball is also donating a shed and concrete pad that will be roughly around the total amount of $18,540 for the softball field as well. We'll need those uh signed at the end of the meeting. We'll move on to subcommittee updates. There's quite a few listed, so who wants to go first? Just finish off policy real quick. Um the only other policy that we discussed but did not vote on.
105Um so stemming from last year's change from the um uh vote to get rid of um the uh MCCAST as a graduation requirement. uh we we updated our compensate determination and graduation requirements. Uh Desi is asking us to go back into those uh with having a mastery component as well. So that is due by December 31st. The administration is working on getting us some language on that. Uh unfortunately DESI is putting this mandate in place without providing a lot of context. So uh competency could be uh quite wide ranging. Uh but the administration team is trying to focus on a really meaningful and impactful way to determine what that is. >> Thank you. >> We have uh labor and management. >> Uh >> neither of us went to labor management. So we'll defer to um
106>> to the superintendent who was there >> with two people at Prairie College. you said >> uh on the I guess the labor side of things there were I believe two people there from their side as well. Um there were the the the the talking points that they brought. Um there were some some issues with heating and or I don't want to say issues questions about heating when we were going to turn the heat on. We turned it on this week. Um, you can feel it's it's rather toasty in here right now. Um, it's a tough We all know that like like I said to them, right now in the fall, it's it's tough cuz it's warm in the it's warm during the day but cold at night and I don't know that heating it's
107not like heating your house. It's not as easy as like just changing the thermostat. So, um, we Carlson we worked with Carlson decided to turn the heat on this week. Um, that was one. um they had brought up some um challenges that they're having at the K2 level with um some uh student behaviors that they're seeing. Um we are working with administrators at K2 uh and also um the union, the teachers union on that and um just working together to to um make sure that all students and staff are safe in our our classrooms and making sure that we have all the protocols in place um should students become disregulated in class. Um so that's something that was brought up. Uh and I think um finally the the the last thing that they had brought
108up was um some of the meeting time that we have uh in that they were looking for some opportunity to have off agenda meetings I guess is the best way to say it. So, um, we're pushing a lot of professional development during the day, um, during contractual time. Uh, so everyone gets their prep, but then we also have built in at some in some of our schools, uh, common planning time. uh and they are used to having some common planning time where they can have discussions about students or um discussions that aren't necessarily facilitated by an administrator or a professional development provider. Um and they were looking for some of that time back. Uh so we're working on it as an administrative team to to come up with ways to ensure that there's a little
109bit of a balance where we can continue to have our professional development time um and continue to have uh facilitated meetings but also being mindful of the need for for teachers to have a little bit of unstructured time during that um during those meetings to have some um time for discussion about things that maybe um is new business I guess is the best way to say it. Um so those are basically the the three things that came kind of came up during labor and management. >> Excellent. And did budget meet? >> They we're deferred. We're going to meet we got to reschedule that supposed to be today. >> facilities met today. My notes are all over the place because we met earlier today. So I have not organized them yet. But, uh, you know, basically
110whatever, uh, Craig or or Matt, uh, correct me if I'm wrong on this. So, yeah, we have a memorial roof assessment that's going to be happening. Uh, as you said, the the boilers were fired up at Stacy MHS in Brookside. Um, as you heard Wednesday, the there was a u the boiler booster pumps uh needed to be replaced here at MHS. So, we talked over through that. Um, you know, also the woodland, uh, there's a roof HVAC roof unit that needs to be fixed in the amount of 60 $60,000 and we're looking to do that in our local budget for every was replaced. Sorry. >> Yeah. >> All right. So, I can make sure I that correct. Um, and then for the as far as the HVAC assessments that that HVAC assessment that we paid
111for at Stacy, first we're going to go through with National Grid. National Grid does offer a free service. So, we'll see how those two compare, right? It could be very generic and we may have to go through and and pay for one that's far more comprehensive like we did at Stacy Middle School. So, we'll we'll see how that goes from that standpoint. Um, let's see. Other than that, uh, MHS roof over the gymnasium that is scheduled to be looked at and worked on from that standpoint. And I think the only other other one was uh Brookside edition which is still ongoing. So we still got some retainage that we're holding back. We're finding out exactly what still we believe it's still a sump pump and a plug that need to made up and and and
112be properly installed. Uh so again, we're still still holding off on that as we go. So Stacy's back. >> Oh yes. and the St. Yeah, obviously as Meg alluded to, we thank the uh uh the voters of town meeting for the Stacy HVAC and so we will start looking at that because it will be a summer project but obviously procurement of the necessary units and and all the materials uh we expect to um have a good amount of lead time. So that will we will start with that immediately and and move forward uh with that. >> Can I ask a quick question? This is a future facility question. in Christ. Can you just remind me the timing of feasibility like >> the like where we're at and when we expect? >> So, as far as
113uh when you say feasibility for this this facility, >> the new the new >> Yeah. So, um right now uh we we brought on our own project manager. And so now the next steps uh for the the school building project will be looking at our architects. So, we'll we'll go through we will post they will create the um >> RFP. Yeah. Yeah, the re the RFP that will go that again and goes through the we create it goes to this to the MSBA. They approve it, comes back, but then we'll send it out. So, I believe that gets sent out end of this month. >> It does. >> If I'm remembering the timeline right, there will not be no position for a selection until like the end of January February. >> Yeah. So, >> selection
114is truly an architect. That's essentially what you're >> next. Yeah. Next phase is truly Yeah. So if you that bold point architect is the next. So but sending out all the information to get to that point >> to get to the uh an architectural pick in January time frame. >> Awesome. Thank you. Just need a refresh on that. Thanks. >> Nothing else. >> All right. Well, while we were just talking about that, since we're going to future agenda items, I will be putting something on next meeting's agenda. We as a school committee are responsible for appointing one seat at the designer selection panel, which is the group that is going to pick this designer. There's uh 16 total seats. MSBA fills 13. The town fills three. >> So we are responsible for appointing one um
115as a school committee. So we'll discuss that a little further. But that would be a process where they'll take >> all of the applicants review rank determine whatot and then uh the selection happens from there. So, we'll have to work out that. Um, more details on I think what the ideal person for that will look like. I'll try to gather that and get it to you guys for uh for next meeting. But, we want to get that done because that is due um I believe those those nominations or appointments are due to the MSBA within a couple months, but we wanted to get that paperwork in early. So, >> November, December time frame. >> Yeah. So, any uh any other future agenda items? We had talked sort of I think I don't want to say
116pre-budget Matt. I think it was more pre-contract process connecting with our finance director just in terms of general planning. That's not an immediate need. I just wanted to I apologize. I couldn't access just that that was still on the list. >> It is. I have it on my list. Um now we actually uh Craig and I and Chris um talked about that very briefly today about um what the timeline's going to look like going into negotiations. We're probably going to start something as a group in December. >> Awesome. Thanks. >> Right. If we have nothing else and we can move on to adjourn. Um, we have no executive sessions, so I just need a motion to adjurnn if we're finished. Motion by who raised their hand? Brendon. Megan. [laughter] Megan. >> Everybody point. Motion by
117Megan. Second by Brendan. All in favor. Unanimous. Good night. Thank you.