001Good evening everyone. I'm I call to order the April 8th uh 2026 meeting of the Milton School Committee. I'll rise for the pledge of >> allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the standy. >> First thing is the approval of the April 8th agenda. Are there any changes? have any changes, but before we dive in and let you lead this meeting, Amanda, we just wanted to acknowledge that this is your final meeting as a member of the school committee and of course as our chair and so we wanted to acknowledge that by just thanking you for everything that you've done for us over these past couple of years, but especially this year. um your leadership has been so steady through a difficult budget season, but you've also just kept us
002all kept us all together. And we did um as your fellow school committee members um just want to acknowledge that we got you a little gift which we'll give to you. Um it's your opportunity to just go and enjoy um steal and ride with your friends and family which you have really earned and um yeah there's not much to say that captures it but want to see what other people might want to add in just words of gratitude. No, I I can. Sorry, J. Um, we will miss you very much next year and so so sad that our our time working with you will come to an end. I hope our interactions continue outside in this meeting room and uh wish you all the best, but it's been great. You've been a fantastic chair uh
003and just a great colleague and all things. We're gonna miss you a lot. I thank you for all your hard work on behalf of >> Thanks. Appreciate it. medical. >> Sure, I'll go. Yeah. Thanks, Amanda. It's been great. This is my first year and I've learned so much from you. It's been a real pleasure to work with you on a bunch of on a bunch of issues. And you make uh I'm sure being the chair of the school committee is not easy. Make it look easy. Um and I just really appreciate your service to the town and to the students of Milton. Um we're going to miss you. Wish you all the best. >> I echo everything they said. Um, I hate to say goodbye. So, stay in touch. Thank you so much for making
004our meetings productive and short within within the the reasonable time frame. So, thank you so much. >> Thank you. It's great knowing you and appreciate it. Thank you guys. I really appreciate it. It's been great. I've loved working with all of you and learned a lot and um just appre have even greater appreciation for everything that the school administration and the school committee does and all the teachers and and and the passion from the parents has been great. So thank you appreciate it. >> Keep sorry to put you on. >> It's okay. I appreciate >> you may now proceed with your >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Thank you. That was very sweet. Um, we will move to public comment. Um, in accordance with school committee policy, we welcome members of the community
005to share their perspectives with us during public comment. We will set aside up to 15 minutes for this part of the meeting. Excuse me. And individuals may speak for up to three minutes each. While the school committee does not respond directly to public comment, there may be opportunities for members to address issues that are raised over the course of meeting when relevant topics are on our agenda. We strive to engage in respectful discourse during our meeting and ask that uh public comment uh speakers keep that in mind and speakers should just introduce themselves for the record. So is there anybody in the audience or in meeting who is looking to speak for public comment? Is there anyone online? If so, if you could raise your hand. >> No hands are raised. All right, we'll move
006to the superintendent report. >> Uh, thank you uh, chairperson. On behalf of um, Katie Colin, I we also want to thank you for your steady leadership this year. Uh it has been great to work with someone who really uh comes to the work with great um uh ability to think and ask good questions and have good ideas and be a thought partner and support the work and to always be even in the way that you conduct everything that you do and all your conversations and so it's much appreciated. Um I would like to welcome uh Taylor Scully. Taylor is a ninth grader at Milton High School. She's a student representative to here tonight. Welcome, Taylor. A little bit about Taylor, she is a freshman. She's currently uh a softball player, but more importantly, she is
007uh a member of the state champion girls hockey team. SO, so welcome Taylor. Give us a big heads up about what's going on at Milton High. >> Um so, first we have like spring sports are underway. So, baseball, softball, rugby, lacrosse, track and field, unified track and field, all of it like starting up and getting into full swing this week. Um, term three just ended. Um, Monday was the last and final day of the term. I believe the teachers have up till Friday to put grades in and so we're now fully in term four. Um, we have school day SAT um on April 15th. Um, financial literacy fair April 17th and then we have April vacation in two weeks. >> Go week and a half. No one's coming. >> Yeah, >> that's about it for
008right now. >> Any questions for Taylor? >> What was it like being at the garden? >> It was really fun. >> Yeah, it was so cool. The environment's awesome. >> Tell us about the parade. Did you have a parade last Saturday? >> I wish I could have been there. I was sick so I had to miss it but I heard it was really fun. >> So the the town of Milton came out there were people at the at the Boston Garden who were parents, staff, students and then community members as someone who has children that graduated. I saw so many people there that would just residents of the town. So happy to be part of the hockey program and watch you guys win the championship. So it was a great great morning. Uh great day.
009So congratulations. You guys did a great job. We're >> underassman on that team. >> Yeah. and you'll be back again next year. So, state finals last year, state championship this year. No pressure. Keep moving it. Keep moving it through. >> But we appreciate you coming uh as a freshman and representing the school and we look forward to seeing you again this year and next year and have a great spring semester. >> Thank you so much. >> Um other updates that we have very quickly, the girls uh hockey parade was last Saturday. We want to thank uh our athletic director and also all the other uh town uh departments that helped support that parade across the town. On Saturday, uh I was able to attend the unified track meet today. Uh we had over student uh
01015 student athletes uh in uh 50 student peer athletes. So we had 65 students take part today. Uh coach Claire Written and Coach Andrew Hunt were uh well organized and had everything moving. Uh we played Brainree. Uh it couldn't be a better day to be on the track. Uh javelin, long jump, uh shot put and 100 yard dash. Uh amazing to watch our student athletes in unified track take part. Um it's just a great day. If you have not been to a unified track event, there are still, I believe, three or four more. I suggest you go. It's just it's the best place to be. Uh great day. Um as we I think we put out in some of our literature about the Milton High School Theater MEG state champions. They won the state championship
011in theater two weeks ago. Um, it's amazing that this theater group for the second year in a row as well has been in the finals uh at the Boston uh Predential Center uh they did a production of the Sparrow alongside the Joseph Case High School in Boston Latin School and they and they won that uh two weekends ago. So congratulations to them. And if you want to go to the next event, it's the Drowsy Chaperon from April 30th to May 3 uh and it will be at Milton High. So, please go on to the website if you want to get tickets. Our eighth graders um uh met the Milton High School National Honor Society. So, our Milton N Milton High National Honor Society students went down to the eighth grade to talk to them about
012the high school and the coursework and the program of studies. We're really uh thankful for both uh principal Karen Cahill of the high school and principal Bill Fish of the middle school. They're doing a lot of connecting of our eighth grade to 9th grade and middle school to high school work this year and leading into next year. And we're very thankful for that. It's going to be great for the students to find out what the high school looks like. Uh there's a lot of good things coming forward for them as they enter 9th grade next year. Uh our elementary future problem solvers went to Clark University. 15 represented Milton Public Schools at the Massachusetts State Future Problem Solving Competition held on Saturday the 28th at Clark University in in Worcester. Uh the 2026 challenge was
013surveillance and the future problem teacher Debbie Green Muse shared with the students did a tremendous job. So congratulations to our elementary future problem solvers. Um elementary school celebrated the franophhone uh March is uh the month of la franophhone when the diversity of our French language and French speaking world is celebrated worldwide. So, we congratulate our elementary and we also should say that last week our students who took the DEL uh we had a 100% um passing grade for the DEL which is a uh incredible feat for our students uh in the language uh of French that um gives them certification in France as a as quarter native speaker. It's a really big deal and a big thing to celebrate as world language is a big part of our our school district. Um, jazz night at
014the high school is Tuesday, April 9th. That's tomorrow night. The spring cabaret is at the high school auditorium on April 13th. Music discovery night is April 16th, uh, from 7:00 to 7:30 at Milton High. Um, the Tri will be hosting the second annual Music Discovery Night on the 16th at 7 p.m. Uh, it was a huge success last year. We hope that everybody can get out who's interested in music in the Milton public schools. Um, as uh our freshman student rep Taylor said that we have April break coming up uh not next week, but it's April 20 to 24 and our annual election will be held on Tuesday, April 28th. The school committee will have a reorganizational meeting on Wednesday the 29th. Uh we will do the reorg, but we do also have a couple
015of items on the agenda to to get through as well. I think we talked about that earlier. So, um that is the superintendent's update. Next up, we have the review of the district data. >> So, we would like to have come to the table uh Brian Celic who is our K to2 director of mathematics, Cat Young, who is our K to8 um English language arts uh director, and Hardy who is our 9 through 12 department head of English language arts in Bel High. Um we're very thankful to have them come tonight to share uh what some of the data sources are that we use in building public schools to inform our instruction in our curriculum work in our uh assessment work in our work with children. Uh as well as the process for how we
016use that data. Uh so we're thankful to have you here. Uh and you know really important I think for when we talk about our five priorities, one of them is using data to inform some of our instruction and what students need. So, we're very excited to have you here tonight to display that to the uh school committee and school committee. So, welcome and thank you. >> Thank you, John. Thank you everyone for having us. Uh we can go to the next slide to start off. What we're going to be doing tonight is focusing on district priority number two, which is the increased use of data to inform instruction. And we're focusing tonight on ELA, ELA, and math. Uh and just to road mapap how we're going to do this, we're going to be talking at
017elementary, middle, and then high school levels. We're going to show the sources of data that we use, how we use it, and then when we're done going through those three, we'll talk about the challenges that we face, and what our next steps are. And we have in the back of this deck an appendix of examples of the data that we'll be talking about as we go through it. >> So, this next slide um may look familiar if um you remember we've come before to talk about data. This is something we do to level set our understanding of what certain data sources are and what they're defined as. So in general, we think of sumitative assessments as our assessment of student learning whereas formative would be the assessment for future learning. And so some of those
018examples of formative assessment are screening screening data, diagnostic data, um progress monitoring for intervention, um and then informal assessments that teachers and interventionists use on an everyday basis. Uh this next slide um sort of gives a little bit of the structure of the the next several pieces of the presentation. So, uh, as H said, we have sort of broken this up by level, but there are, um, a lot of ways in which there's consistent use of data regardless of the level that we're talking about. Um, so just on this slide, which is focused on elementary, uh, there are things that are specific and only used at elementary like I Ready um, as a diagnostic tool for math in K to 5. Um, as well as the Dibbles literacy screener is used only in our elementary
019schools. Uh and then some of the other items here listed um including the educator informed informal assessments that are uh most commonly built into our um high quality standard aligned curriculum uh in the form of an exit ticket. In the case of the elementary math curriculum, there's a component called check your understanding which serves the same purpose. Um this is a tool that is used in our elementary classrooms for purposes of um sort of just quickly uh getting a pulse on um how students are processing the instruction that they've received. This can also be done through hand signals or you know sort of thumbs up, thumbs down, thumbs middle um and and this is a practice common to our teachers regardless of subject area and regardless of level. So you'll see some repetition there. Similarly
020with our summitive uh end unit or in the case of elementary math and module assessments um these are built into the curriculum. Uh and these are used to sort of measure each student's um proficiency with the grade level content that was taught within that unit or module. Uh and then MCCAST spans obviously elementary, middle, and high school. Um so it has similar use uh and purpose for us uh regardless of the level that we're speaking on. So in um a little bit more specificity with regard to elementary how the data is currently being used um as I mentioned we have uh sort of built-in what we call curriculum embedded uh common assessments that are used across the district at grade level um and measure proficiency based on the sort of most recent um instructional um
021material that was covered. Um in the case of MCCAST at the elementary level, um we uh myself and C uh meet most often with grade level teams of teachers within elementary schools um early in the school year to um unpack the uh most recent MCCAST data when it's released. We typically tend to do that from an item analysis perspective. That gives us some um insight into where are the areas that we performed well as a team in a grade level relative to the state. What are some areas that maybe we um did not perform as well um relative to the state? And could there be some explanations for that? Might that have been content that was relegated to after MCCAST um based on our scope and sequence? Um and I'll show you a kind of
022more concrete example of that when we get to sixth grade actually because that's common across middle uh and high school as well. And then in the case of the I Ready Diagnostic, which as Cat alluded to, we've been uh appearing in in previous years sort of to unpack uh some of that data in in great detail. Um we use the diagnostic in the beginning of the year to see where um students proficiency level is um new in the school year um relative to both overall and within the four uh domain areas that IRA measures uh proficiency in. um we administer it again in the middle of the year to look for growth and and where there isn't we try to figure out uh maybe what might be going on there on a student by student
023basis. Um and then the end of the year is a sort of great way to capture all the learning that's happened over the course of the year and we tend to see um pretty impressive and significant growth from beginning to end of the year with the iity diagnostic tool. Each time the students take the diagnostic, as you might recall, it unlocks sort of a personalized pathway worth of lessons that are built into some of the instructional routines in our elementary classrooms. And in the upper elementary grades, often used as um a sort of built into outside of school day uh routine. One or two lessons per uh per week done for homework. And different from I ready but similar in its interval. Dibbles is administered three times a year in K5 with up to five
024subtests that are very short in nature depending um the number of subtests depending on the grade level um and what that assesses from a developmental standpoint. And that data is used um as a foundational measure to triangulate uh information to know how how many further assessments we might need to determine what type of intervention might be needed if any at all. And I'll go into a little more detail here with this example. Um so I'll kind of walk you through what our process is um for for like a beginning of year assessment um screening. So, in the fall, um, all students K to five take the Dibbles assessment with the assigned subtests that are recommended by both the state and, uh, Dibbles, um, producers of the assessment. And when we have that data collected, I
025sort of aggregate that data and sort by a subtest that we've already determined are measures that most indicate need for intervention. And I sort that from lowest to highest regardless of school to really note what are our lowest cortile of students, who are they, where are they, what kind of supports exist for them already, and what might we need to add in as a support or layer of touch point for them going forward. I then meet with the reading team, um, so the interventionists that do the assessments who have a better idea of who these students are and what's what's going on more locally. Um, and we have a discussion around case load numbers, um, what that might look like schedule-wise, and then that information goes to building administration to discuss again even more granularly,
026um, what that looks like for students over time. And then that that information and those supports are offered to families with the data that was collected um, and what next steps we are offering as a district. Um, and then conversations ensue around what that looks like. Um, any questions they have related to any longitudinal um, information they might want to see. Um, and then from there on a more holistic level, common planning meetings take place at each grade level. Um, and I'm often invited to those meetings to go over um, a teacher's class as a whole. And then we look at instructional groupings and what resources are there for in the classroom tier 2. Um, and then as I mentioned, um, we have worked the last couple years to make this data readily available to
027families so that they can see firsthand, um, as part of their students profile. >> On the next slide, we um, get a little bit of a glimpse into um, an example of what the uh, support uh, with teachers that I would do in the middle of the school year with the winter I Ready diagnostic data might look like. Cat made reference to common planning time as a great resource and opportunity for us to get um face-to-face time with a small team of teachers uh at the same grade level in a particular elementary school. Uh and I alluded to that earlier talking about kind of the MCCAST item analysis. This is um a screenshot on the left side excerpted from a class level growth report from the I already diagnostics sorted um by students who uh
028at the top with a solid blue bar have already exceeded the growth that was predicted for them from the beginning to the end of the year all you know just in the time frame from September to January. Um and then uh as we go a little further down, we see some examples of students who grew very little during that interval. Um this report also includes kind of what their starting or baseline placement was in the fall and where it is now in January. Um and so uh the this report allows me to make sure uh and help teachers to acclimate and understand what they're looking at. um we look for opportunities to find students who may not be their highest performers but have demonstrated um impressive growth from the fall to the winter. So I
029bulleted that as find students to celebrate um with high growth. And then we do want to kind of dig in a little bit to individual students who may not have grown much to try to figure out if you know what might explain that and are there still some reassuring things that this data is showing. So the second uh sort of on the right side of this slide um screenshot is in the um overall placement and then placement by each of those four domain areas that I mentioned before. Um and what we see in the case of this particular student is that they uh maintained grade level placement in the in two of the three areas that they started with it in at the beginning of the year. They moved impressively up in number and operations
030which is one of the priority domains and that was offset or negated a little bit by a drop in geometry which is not uncommon. There's not much grade level instruction that happens in geometry in third grade from the beginning to middle of the year. And um it's also happens to be at the end of the diagnostic uh assessment. So students tend to um lose a little engagement um and so sometimes that subcore is a little bit of an anomaly. And then we'll look and see because the uh path of lessons is determined by their placement. Um is this student getting lessons for example in geometry that are below grade level and not a good use of their time? And I work with teachers to essentially make uh appropriate adjustments to maximize that learning experience for
031that student. Um, so just looking at the growth itself can be a little bit um, if not deceiving, then maybe not quite as um, as informative as a little bit of a deeper dive. And most importantly, especially in the winter of the year, the winter, pardon me, the middle of the year, we want to, you know, not overreact to things um, that we're seeing. It's it's um a good good opportunity to kind of look in celebrate the wins and and see what's going on with the students who um are not showing um the amount of growth we would expect. >> And similar to the assessment list that we had for the elementary, as Brian explained, a lot of these are the same. Um the the one difference is and this is an error I didn't
032catch but where you see diagnostic I ready for ELA for middle school it should say administered three times per year to all six to eight students. So u we try to remain consistent with our wording and in in that in that way I didn't catch that so I apologize. Um, but that is something we do at the middle school as a way to because at that point the normed assessments available for students in middle school as it relates to ELA. Um, we don't really call it a screener. We assume and and and have experience that we've screened students up until middle school. And really middle school is where we move more into the diagnostic to see which skills are they exhibiting they're they're stronger in and which skills are they exhibiting they're not as strong.
033Um, and so we use that data to inform as teacher teams in the English department. Um, similar to the elementary that I described, you know, are there students that are that are newly identified to us as maybe needing some intervention? Um, are there students that maybe were recommended for a reading support period class in their schedule that we might need to um, cycle them off of because they're showing that growth. Um and we use this data along with classroom summitive data and more diagnostic once that student has been identified. Now how is the data being used? So for the middle school um we administer as I said the I Ready reading diagnostic three times per year. We adjust student schedules as necessary. We often balance out once, you know, if a schedule does need to
034be adjusted, we ask ourselves a series of questions in terms of does this student have the opportunity to take an elective, which um at the middle school um level is a very important right of passage as well as a motivator. Um and so we balance out with guidance counselors, families, and student input. um as much as you might need a reading support class, does that take away a layer of um the rest of your day? So, we we do some negotiating that way. Um as Brian talked about with the MCCAST item analysis, the same is true for the middle school. Something that we do is at the very beginning, our first depart or first or second department meeting um both for math and for ELA and Christy and science as well. We look at both
035sets of data. So teachers will get their item analysis for their previous students to look at how did my instruction impact an item analysis and where in the curriculum did we get it really right and where might we need to adjust our pacing this year in response to what we saw from last year's data. So there's a curriculum in implication there and then we look at the data and item analysis for the current students that they're getting this year. So how did they do in fifth grade? how did they do in the previous school year to see who are the students that will be sitting in front of us where we might need to adjust our instruction in real time with those students. So, um we look at it a little um in that way
036in those two data sets with the different cohorts to impact our planning and instruction. Um trying to see. Oh, and this year and going into next year, we we have been adapting our Amplify assessments that have been um we found using Google Docs um are a better experience for our students. And so we've been making appropriate adjustments to increase complexity of questions um and refining the questions we're asking based on what we're seeing in other summitive sources um and what we know that students might need more support with and infusing that into our teaching and assessment. >> We've done and continue to do something very similar um within grade level teams for math at Pierce. Um the the curriculum that we use the amplified desmos math comes with well aligned um mid and endunit assessments
037and um we have uh since we adopted it now three or four years ago uh mostly completed the the revisions and tweaks that we wanted to make sure that we believed we were putting the best measure of student proficiency in front of our students. um striking a balance between endurance and making sure they were long enough that they got sort of the testing experience that we feel is important for middle school students to get while also being mindful to avoid sort of redundancies in multiple items measuring the same exact um skill or concept. Um and so um that's been a successful endeavor. are um the assessments themselves uh come with a scoring rubric which is um sort of a um standard based um idea around how we're scoring students proficiency um that have been well
038adopted across all three grade levels with this curriculum and those sometimes just need to also be adjusted a little bit anytime we make any tweaks to the um original version of the assessment. Um on the next slide actually but there's one more point I wanted to make here on this one. Um this year in particular, although this dates back to last year as well with some of the um with a student learning goal that uh many members of the Pierce math department adopted, was really kind of putting particular attention on students coming into their class into their grade level having fallen below meeting expectations on the previous year's MCCAST. and in particular those students who are in the sort of close to meeting but just a little bit below that scaled score um we chose
039somewhat arbitrarily is 485 to 499 and it captures um in any given year um at least 50 and sometimes upwards of 75% of students who didn't meet or exceed expectations are within 15 scale points of getting there. And so last year, um, many of the teachers adopted a student learning goal around just kind of looking at the scores once they're available, um, from the end of the school year that they've taught of those students who were identified the previous year. This year, we've kind of built that out within the math department to also be tracking their common assessment data over the course of the year and and try to just give that little bit of extra priority and extra attention to these students. So, if I'm an eighth grade teacher, I I received my seven
040my at the beginning of the school year, the seventh grade MCCAST score, scaled scores of my students and I filtered those out um anyone that wasn't in that 485 to 499 range. Now, every unit we go through, I'm keeping track of and reviewing the sort of accumulation of their um end common end unit common assessment scores with the intent to really try to help get them over the hump and and really see what there is that can be done. Just little adjustments that can make a big difference. And obviously, we won't know until the fall kind of how how much that's paid off. And if it feels like we didn't do enough, we'll revise it. We can then as well. The next slide is an example of what Cat spoke about and I had alluded
041to earlier as well. Um, this is an example of something that I would do throughout the school year with the sixth grade math teachers at Pierce. So, kind of in the background is that item analysis uh document or an sort of a screenshot from it. Um it shows um a list of several items by description, by item number, by standard um and then by comparison, how we performed relative to the state on each of those items from um the 2025, so last spring sixth grade MCCAST. Um and what we're looking for here are where are the items that we performed significantly better than the state and does that reflect um that the way in which our curriculum addresses that standard is sufficient is effective. Um and we have now three or four years in a
042row of being able to make this analysis and and comparison so that we're not just kind of getting lucky one year and then paying a price the next. Um and then we sort of pair this with the actual items that DESIE releases to us um that were on um the test itself. And in the case of the highlighted uh top row there, that that question that 87% of our sixth graders got correct last year. We can actually see what that item is and we can do a few things with that item. we can kind of anticipate where students if they weren't if they were one of the 13% to answer incorrectly, where might they have gone wrong? And then we'll even if we don't necessarily include it or add it into the uh common assessment
043within our ratios unit, we'll build this into some some review, some practice, and we'll expose students in the process to what actual items that were given just a year, less than a year ago actually look like. Um, so we we do this basically unit by unit. We we analyze how we've performed on this in the past and we then look to see what items the state has released and made available to us and um especially with a topic that's really important that we've had students struggle in before, we'll we'll sort of be more intentional about incorporating some of those actual items into our instruction. And now that we're into April and the MCCAST dates are coming up in May, um, you know, we'll be even more purposeful about incorporating this as a spiral review exercise
044for our sixth, seventh, and eighth graders before they sit for the MCAST next month. >> Get up to high school, half of this is going to look familiar. We have the formative assessments uh and we also have the MCCAST. Uh the only difference with the MCCAST in the past couple years it went from being a requirement for graduation to being required to take it. Uh but we are still using that data as I'll talk about uh in the next slide. But there are also uh two different categories in here. We have the SAT and PSATs that uh students are taking and 10th and 11th and and sometimes 12th grade. And then we also have the AP exams which are going to be grade level uh courses that students can elect to take. Uh and that's
045another standardized test that we use in part of the data. We can go on to the next slide. Uh so how are we using it? Uh the non-standardized uh ones we're using uh in terms of what we've done. This is going to be our third year doing it at the high school. We have more traditional final exams that you may remember as used to be common in high school, but we're doing them not just as traditional final exams, but we're doing them as bigger projectbased ones that are trying to sum up all of the standards that we're looking for. For example, in ELA, we're going to have a formal writing component. We're going to have a critical thinking component, and then there's going to be a speaking and listening component, all related to tying together
046things that they've done. and they those all vary by each grade level and are designed to get uh to more challenging with each grade level as they go through in ELA. Uh we use that data in our first meeting back in the fall to to go over and we do this both at grades 9 through 12 all of the teachers department and then each individual grade level the teams meet. It's a little trickier because unlike in in middle school none of my teachers are teaching just one grade level. So the ninth grade teachers are also going to be in the 11th grade teacher meeting or they might be in the 10th. Uh so there's a little bit of overlap in those meetings, but it tends to work out well. And the the data that we'll
047use from that will be how we talk about what what sort of changes we want to make to the curriculum for that year and then what that end of the year assessment is going to look like that following May. Then we'll get the MCCAST in early October, I believe, or late September. And we'll sit down and I'll show an example of that on the next slide. And we'll do the same thing that uh Brian and Cat were just talking about. We do an item by item analysis. Uh and we especially focus on the ones where the students aren't doing well. We dig in and try to figure out why. And then we adjust our curriculum based on that uh for that year. Then the PSAT and SAT data is largely used to help students learn
048where their own strengths and weaknesses are. We also use it uh to inform students of their AP potential which is a formula that college board uses which says you it says for each individual student you might be successful in this this and this AP and we give the students that information when they're making their choices on what courses they want to take as they're planning their high school course program of studies. The final one is the AP one that we use. Uh, and Brian, when I'm done, if there's if you want to talk if there's anything different about how it is in math, but at the English level, we have one 11th grade AP uh and one 12th grade AP. And for those, they do not do 9 through 12. It's just the those AP
049teachers sit down and look and do an item analysis. Because again, you'll have the questions released and they'll say, "Oh, here are the ones that our students did not do well did not do well on. How are we going to adjust the curriculum for that?" Um, and that's just for those specific courses. Whereas the MCCAST and the common assessments, we sort of look at that at each grade level. Here's what we're going to do at at 10th, 11th, and 12th because of what we saw happening at 9th. Uh and then my next slide is just uh a very specific example of this year. Uh one of our lowest scoring items was one where the students had to read a a excerpt from the Odyssey. uh and their scores their scores analyzing the Odyssey were were
050fine, but then they were given a poem that was related to the Odyssey and they had to talk about how the effects of that poem tied in to to impact the message of the Odyssey and they struggled with that. So we looked and saw we sort of maybe been not doing enough poetry at the ninth and tth grade level. So we increased it this year so they're going to have more exposure so that they'll be more comfortable and have more experience with those types of questions when they pop up. And that I think moves us on to our challenges. >> So some of the challenges as we discussed our use of data across the the three levels um is that the as you can imagine we've listed and talked about a lot of assessments and
051it kind of could feel like that's all we do. Um, and that's not the case, but the administration of some of the standardized assessments does take up um, a lot of instructional time as you might imagine. Um, it doesn't always capture a fuller accurate measure of learning in isolation. Um, which we don't, you know, you heard how we used them all and really when you take them all together, they build a picture of a student learner profile. Um, but the actual logistics of administering it can be cumbersome in term as related to instructional time. Um, as Brian talked about, the best work that we do um with elementary teachers in particular is when we get to meet uh with them through school-based grade level teams, but there are 24 teams across the district in the
052four elementaryaries and there is a logistical challenge when it comes to trying to to catch everyone in that in that way. Similarly, the structures similarly but in a different way. the structures at the secondary level um with the team model appears in the bell schedule um do limit the opportunities for flexible student grouping and targeted interventions. So I mentioned that the middle school when students take I Ready um and we may get some different information than teachers have seen in the past, we do have a conversation about adjusting schedules and we take that seriously because that occupies a students every there's a slot every day that that student um will change what they're doing and that does create a challenge. >> I'll pick up there just with um we thought it made sense to kind
053of identify some high school specific challenges. So, H mentioned um a couple of these MCCASTs uh related already. Um it is no longer a graduation requirement the way that it was. So, we're mindful of of whether that um impacts u student motivation to perform at their very best their effort. Um we didn't necessarily see that last year. Um but it's something that we're concerned about. I know all all high schools are. That's that's sort of >> and and on that front we have off we've gotten an incentive at least out for ELA where we started offering the seal of bi literacy this year and for a student to get the seal by literacy they have to achieve a certain score on the the ELA MCCAST so that just helps them take it more seriously if
054that is if they're a student who's interested in that >> kind of related um the MCCAST and 10th grade for ELA and math unlike in each of the other levels is not grade level specific it's sort of a blurring or blending of content 10 standards that are met in ninth and tth grade. So, it's not quite as straightforward to sort of like own it. Like H said, sometimes we have teachers teaching nth grade, but not 10th grade or only 10th grade, not ninth grade or neither. And um so um it's it's a it's um certainly attainable, but it's a little bit of a different process that leads to identifying from MCCAST data where the holes in the curriculum might be. PH gave a good example um from his department but um you know it's it's
055interesting that they are so specific at least for math in terms of what is supposed to be taught during the course of each grade level K through 8 and then it gets a little um nebulous from there on. So we're constantly having to kind of keep adjustments and changes that are being made at early high school in mind but also not at the expense of what we know is needed for success in 11th and 12th grade. Um, regrettably, there really are to this point um pretty limited uh options that are developmentally appropriate and well curriculed well to curriculum at the secondary level in particular at the high school. So where I ready continue it feels like to give us um meaningful data in its use at elementary. Um we moved away from it at the
056middle school because um it was taking up a lot of instructional time and not getting um much um what we felt like was useful, informative or accurate data in return. And we honestly haven't even efforted it at the high school because um in the limited pockets where we've seen it, it's not it's not been fruitful. And so, um, we're the need still exists, but we're not interested in just doing something for the sake of doing something. It needs to be something that we'll get, um, high school age students to buy into, that they'll see value in, that the teachers can use and, uh, to inform their own instruction and and help to truly identify and close uh, whatever gaps in learning uh, there are that exist. Um and and sort of until that um until
057we identify that, I think our our best course of action is to continue to to hold off. Um and then just with regard to SAT, I mean this is is is probably intuitive, but um coming out of the pandemic, there was uh a lot of uncertainty about what role, if any, the SAT would play in the college application um and admission process. um test optional was um for a couple years kind of the norm and it's sort of started to um shift back to the way it was pre- pandemic and so we're seeing uh slightly increased numbers of our students interested in participating in the school day SAT and the more students who participate the more useful those results become um as a reflection of the quality of instruction and uh learning that's happening in
058um in their classrooms. Um, not unlike the MCCAST though, the SAT is not aligned to specific courses or necessarily specific curriculum. It's someone's is the College Board's idea of what students should know roughly threequarters of the way through high school. >> Why we we find the AP data a lot more useful because it's aligned to specific courses so that you can much more accurately judge, did we teach this well and if not, what do we need to do? Whereas with the SAT, you're often guessing what they they're going to end up testing. Not not in the the global sense, but in a very specific sense. Then on our final slide here, we just want to share what each of our next steps is within our departments. Um specific to math, although this does spill over
059to ELA at Pierce, um we're continuing to re-evaluate the role that I Ready plays in our assessment and instruction suite. Um, you know, we were particularly um got some some uh concerned feedback from um many teachers in different pockets in the winter administration and feeling that uh maybe that data was not as um useful a reflection of where their students are at that point. So, we're looking closely at that. Um, and much like I said about the high school, um, we're not interested in either spending the community's money or more, I think importantly, our students time taking an assessment that isn't going to give us something really rich and valuable and informative in return. So, it's appropriate to constantly evaluate the way you're you're approaching assessment and um, not be afraid to make um, changes
060and and difficult choices. um if if there's a need to. Um and then uh this is pretty specific to math. We're I'm looking to incorporate um more um assessments that sort of spiral through multiple different topics. I described our common assessments currently in practice. Um and this is true at elementary, middle, and high school as being specific to the most recent content that was instructed instructed on unit or module. um and that is um leaving a gap between that experience for students and the MCCAST which is sort of a free-for-all. Any topic from any point in the year September, didn't even get to it yet, could be assessed on the MCCAST. And so, um, my next, uh, goal for for each level is to incorporate, um, more spiral assessments that not only measure whether students,
061um, are proficient on what they've most recently learned, but have they retained it, which is always a concern in math. >> And as I shared at my last visit with you all, um, we're very excited about new ELA curriculum uh, coming online. um the suites of assessments that are available to teachers will help um to more accurately illuminate where student gaps are and where the successes are. Um and really the module assessments will be consistent across the district and we're already talking at grade level teams about how to make that happen in a real smooth and seamless way and what that analysis will look like. Um you can also you know some of them are online so you can disagregate by standard and school group and um so that will be a big next step
062for ELA in general. Um, and as Brian was saying, just the refinement of unit assessments. Um, as I look more to the six to eight, we're always looking at, you know, where are we hitting the mark? Where do we where might we need to dig in more? Um, making sure we're um assessing what are the things that we're teaching um and especially, you know, using the m the multiassessments to more accurately assess where students are. Unlike math, these ELA standards are are very generative and they're similar year after year. So, it can be um it can be a little I don't want to say more difficult, but it's difficult to pinpoint exactly um what they're demonstrating. Is that a true gap or is that an off day? So, um just always looking at that to
063to use for deeper analysis from our department meetings each cycle. talked about end of year >> covered that. So that is that that was a lot but that is everything. So we you have questions. >> So first of all I want to thank the three of you and I know Kyler wants to speak as well. Um the hope was that the and I think you delivered on that is what kind of assessments do we use? How do we use them and why? And how does that help us measure what's happening for mastery from a inter year from you know September to to winter to winter to spring but also over the course of years with the hope of um seeing growth in each part of our school year that ultimately we'll see growth in our
064summit of evaluations our summit of assessments like MCCAST as an example and uh exciting to to know that in our learning walks we've actually seen examples of this we went into a great fifth grade class at the Tucker who used MCA scores from the fall and decided that they were going to shape their grade five writing lessons connected to science and the teachers were getting together in their common learning time and talking about it and adjusting practice according to what the data set of that in their fourth grade MCCAST and how they wanted to generate success for those students in fifth grade. Um, we started at the Glover and Math where our fourth grade teachers uh and the math specialist were looking at the mid-winter data and decided to shift the instructional uh schedule of
065our math interventionalists and spend more time in a couple of classes that had some students that needed to have certain topics addressed and readressed uh in time for successful completion of the MCAST knowing that that was areas of completion that they wanted and and also in in middle school. I think I've talked about this one lesson a hundred times, but the grade six science lesson where the word mastery was on the wall like five times like the mastery, the looking for understanding, you know, all of our teachers using things like Google Docs and I ready for exit tickets, you know, electronic exit tickets or it could be hand exit tickets. So, uh, we're really thankful that people are using data to inform instruction from a year-to-year standpoint, but also throughout the year, uh, and making
066adjustments on behalf of what students need to be successful at any given year. Um, so, thank you for leading that work. Um, thank you for our new system where the data is actually communicated out to families. So, when these midwinter data uh, points are made, submitted to BVU, they go right out to parents. So, it's communicated. It's there for everybody to look at and see. And uh and if uh families have questions, they can always give a call and I think teachers use them for their um parent conferences as well. So uh always get better, you know, I mean and and the challenges and the things that you want to think about doing next year and the years forward are always helpful for us to know so we can support that as a school committee
067and as school administration and I want to thank you for all that work. I appreciate it >> that and thank you each of you. Um we should be really grateful to all these three people who are dedicate um their work to really looking at what we do in all aspects of their content area. And I learned a lot from each of you and thank you. And um I really appreciate the fact that the three of you are constantly looking at practice and trying to figure out what are we doing, what can we do better, what can we let go of. And to your point, Brian, you know, if we're doing an assessment that doesn't seem to be giving us something, maybe we need to look at something else. So, I appreciate that piece. I also
068appreciate the work that you're doing on common assessments, I think that's a huge um aspect of understanding student learning is is making those common assessments a reality and uh as much as possible. So, um thank you for all the work and explaining it all to us. And um I'm excited to see what comes next. Questions, I guess. understand it was data. >> It was at one point I was like warming up. Um couple you mentioned that u the seal of biiteracy is contingent on some meeting some benchmark on the MCCAST ELA. Is there a and sort of a clever way to to incentivize focusing on that test and taking it seriously? Is there a math equivalent or sorry uh yeah math equivalent that we could consider for for this >> the tri literacy stand? >>
069Yeah, try literacy. Yeah, exactly. Math literacy. Yeah. >> Well, there are scholarships um connected to performance on the 10th grade MCCAST. I don't know if they're subject specific or combined. Um there's the fact that we have such popular teachers in the maths department at Milton High School that students rarely want to let them down. So, um the pep talk goes a little bit further, I think, maybe uh here in Milton than it does other places that I've been. Um, but no, nothing specific like H described with the C of literacy for math. >> The the carrots we dangle out in front of them. There are these scholarships that you can win based on your combined math and ELA scores. And then there's also the syllabi literacy you can earn with based on your world language
070and English scores. That's that's what the state offers right now. And that's we're maximizing everything that they they let us use. >> That's great. Okay. And then um the I'll probably butcher this a little bit, but you're talking about how you pay special attention to students who are scoring 15 points below the meeting expectations cutoff and you track them. Is this a it seem it seemed like a simple yet sophisticated approach to to sort of zeroing in on students who have high potential for getting over that benchmark? Um, is that a new You said you don't you won't know the re results until next year and I couldn't tell if that meant this is a new strategy or if you were just saying teachers won't know if it's working until they take the >> Yeah,
071you you're dependent on the new data which won't be available to them until those students have moved on to the next grade level. So, it's it's not real time. Um but um the idea of trying to identify students who are performing below grade level which I guess is how I would describe a partially meeting or not meeting MCCAST score although again we do I I think it's important when we're talking about data especially around MCCAST AP SAT um uh I ready this is one day or two days so there are explanations for why students don't score consistently or what you would expect them to or but um you know that does that's not an excuse to dismiss them all out outright but um so scores that students who are not able to demonstrate uh meeting
072or exceeding of MCCAST especially those that are just below that benchmark um with some extra attention we believe are going to get kind of over the hump if you will um and that's sort of the purpose behind it. We used to focus more on students that were when we used I Ready at the middle school for math that were performing um just slightly below grade level. We we'd use I Ready as that sort of car at that goal that we would try. But as I mentioned before wasn't students were were not inclined necessarily to buy into that tool. So we weren't getting what we felt like were accurate results out of it. If they're not accurate then what would be accomplished? Um I did just want to circle back to your first question. I mean,
073I I think it's also worth noting that in my experience in Milton, most students just by virtue of putting their own name on something are trying their best on it. So, even if they don't I mean, not not a lot of students were in jeopardy of not getting their diploma before with the 10th grade MCCAST. So, I'm not entirely surprised and won't be surprised if we if we see consistent results. would be, you know, maybe beneficial that they don't have that little bit of tiny pressure that if things go really bad for them that they might have to take it again. Um so, um, you know, I I think it's important to note that is the sort of culture of our schools is that students generally want to do their best regardless of what the
074reward is. >> One of the biggest fears we had when it first became non requirement was are students just going to sign in and then five minutes later shut it and say I'm done. Uh, and that's not happening. They're they're all in there for the same amount of time that they were in there working on the test beforehand, which is a great sign. >> Hi, thank you so much. This is a great presentation. Um I appreciated the information that you shared and the examples. Um I did have a question. Um I know Dr. Fitz was in at our last meeting and he was explaining kind of the um 8 to 9th transition. Um and I was wondering uh some of these um examples that you shared and your strategies like how could that kind of
075help those efforts as well. It just would be um helpful to kind of understand how how you would use some of this to kind of bridge the gap and like kind of the lull that you're like uh the drop that you're seeing in from like let's say from six um from seven to eight for instance like how can we I guess from your um kind of looking at all this data like it would be great to just kind of get your perspective on it. Do you mean which part of the Hi Ann which part of the transition um >> like because I I know like you know getting students ready for ninth grade. So when we're looking at kind of the assessments and seeing where they're you know mastering um areas and looking at like
076the various data and saying okay we really need to focus on this and we need to focus on that. like and then just kind of like how does that kind of play into I guess the eighth to ninth grade transition where there's you know it seems to be a a drop in terms of expectations of the high school versus where they are at the middle school. >> Can jump in for math if you want. Yeah. >> Hi Anna. Um >> so I'm really proud of the changes that we've made to our course sequencing at the high school particularly in ninth grade. Um we we created um basically a um drawn out two-year version of our ninth grade integrated math 1. We call math 1A math 1B that that um sort of allows space and opportunity
077for some of the students who I think you might have in mind who have who are really coming into nth grade without a real solid foundation in middle school content. and we have data to support that. And we rely um more so on what we're seeing in the day-to-day in the classroom and the those common assessments that I described before, students who are scoring really low consistently on those in 8th grade in particular, but sort of throughout middle school, even though they're metriculating up sort of chronologically, we use 9th and 10th grade as a way to sort of not pump the brakes entirely, but slow down to create space. Um and and that has um so far proven really effective. We have that first cohort that started in that course in 9th grade now in
07811th grade and they've succeeded as we had hoped into the next course and they're positioned to take u any um I shouldn't say any they're positioned to take um from a few different options a college um ready course in 12th grade which was our goal to be able to say that if you go through this pathway in this sequence you'll be you'll be prepared to continue on with your education postsecary if you So choose. Um the other thing that works really to the advantage of math is there is a fair amount of overlap between the ninth grade content and the eighth grade content in particular. So even students that have some gaps coming out of 8th grade are generally well positioned to still be successful in our nth grade course whether they go into honors
079or college prep level. So uh we share the eighth grade MCCAST data with our nth grade teachers just like I described before. They go in, filter out their own students, look at the students who have been um performing in eighth grade below grade level in the MCCAST or below meeting expectations. Um and and do some of that concentrated targeted uh support there as well. Um, but we're, I think, well positioned, at least as far as math content goes, to make the transition smooth from 8th to 9th grade, and we we don't see a lot of casualties from that experience. Um Brian connected to that can you describe a little bit about how the district utilizes the calculus project and the high number of students participating in that um that are the high school age students
080that I think we had over 85 or 95 students in it last summer when I arrived and how that might be a good leverage point for some of those students who are on that >> that brink of being successful and that might push them over the edge and talk a little bit about that. >> Absolutely. Thank you um for that for that um suggestion. So yeah, the calculus project is designed um specifically to um it it's designed for several different reasons, but specific to summer, it's designed to preview content that students um typically struggle with in the following school year. And they get this preview from um our teachers or a certified teacher that's hired to um instruct during the summer program. And so they're cohorted grade specific starting with rising eighth graders. Um so
081uh students are identified and recruited to join the calculus project in the spring of seventh grade so that they can attend um during the summer in between seventh and eighth grade. And that just continues to carry forward all the way up through senior year. Um, it's an open enrollment program, so students who want to um participate are able to. And participation during the school year includes access and opportunity for tutoring. Uh we cohort calculus project members within the same sections of classes which has proven uh through research to support um uh performance um in in traditionally marginalized uh students uh groups students from traditionally marginalized groups. Uh and so um just as John kind of alluded to, we we the calculus project serves as uh the with the intended purpose to bring um students kind
082of up along and and metriculate successfully into the advanced level version of whatever course they're going to be taking all the way up through AP calculus and senior year. And from an ELA perspective, Cat, the uh what Bill reported on was the connection of uh trying a um eighth grade >> Oh, yes. >> pilot and um and also right now we're having teachers in ninth grade go down and observe teachers in eighth grade and teachers in eighth grade will be going up to the high school to observe nth grade classes. So we can really start to sink in. Yeah. not just with curriculum but also teaching strategies and how the students engage etc. Yes, which is all good stuff related to Anna Bill's presentation to >> and we've been using um so Bill is Dr.
083fish has that group um working together, the ninth and eighth grade teachers. Um and so I've been using some of the information that they've developed in terms of what are what are things you expect out of a ninth grade in in each course for ELA. And I've taken um that information and built our department meeting agendas around that. not exhaustively every time, but it's an item each week where we talk about um as we plan our final unit, what are some of the practices we can use at this point in the year? So, we don't want eighth grade to become like ninth grade junior because that's not, you know, developmentally appropriate, but what are the ways in which at this point in the year can we elevate the expectations to mimic some of those practices?
084Um and actually our books just came in today um for that and so we'll be able to actually um have those in hand and um you know just really really start to infuse that into the practices from now through the end of the year. Um and it will be it'll be great to then hear from H and his staff what that felt like for those students going in. Um both from a a data driven perspective but anecdotally too. you know what what are the what are the things we're noticing about student behaviors in the academic sense um and do we see an impact in that I'm sure that we will I don't expect that this will not result in something positive um but if we can identify those lever you know those levers that were
085most impactful can we expand those you know then say to a seventh to eighth grade or a sixth to you know seventh or things like that so >> and then an anecdotally one thing that uh came out of a professional revel last year where eth and nth grade teachers got to spend a couple hours together talking uh that that Kat and I have talked about for some changes that are going to be made is that the there was a lot of more excerpt based reading going on uh at middle school and then they were immediately jumping into lengthy readings. Uh so we're trying to figure out how to to sort of make a bridge to do a few more longer readings in Pierce and then sort of ease them into the longer readings when they
086get to the the high school versus just throwing them in uh to the deep water right at the start. And it's that balance too because we heard from H, you know, the a stumbling block of the MCAST was that they got an excerpt from a separate poem that they then had to compare and make connections to and that we've seen the last 10 years or so that's sort of the direction of how we consume reading material. um which is why there have been these swings in curricula being offered and what sort of high quality and what um so I think what it leads us to know as as you look at the long-term educational you know waves we've been riding is that there is a balance to be struck and I think um you know
087because I'm not at the high school it's important for us to keep that line of communication open >> I I really appreciate this and you know I I appreciate all the work that is being is going into all of this and you know want to we want to be able to support you as much as possible. So when you kind of figure things out and look at what's not working and what what is working and where you need to make changes and where you need support from the district, you know, um we we want to be make sure that we support you as much as possible in in making any tweaks that you need to so that our students can be successful. So thank you so much. >> Thank you. Um, thank you so much.
088I definitely feel like I've noticed just the past couple years, you know, the increased sharing of um the diagnostics, the um data, at least at the elementary level, which I've really appreciated. I mean, it really was not that long ago that honestly it was practically possible to access your students data. um from a parent perspective it felt like so it's been a huge progress and I also love this um taking a like 30,000 foot view on the process of how you're working with the data. I think that's really helpful not just like for our school committee like you were saying Hannah but for the community to sort of often when we're at this table talking about the data it's like we're talking about the actual data you know and we're hearing the analysis of the
089data So then like work that's going into it. So I'm really appreciating that. I guess I think even during this most recent conversation to the questions I've started to um maybe get answers to the question that I was sitting with kind of during the presentation knowing that the goal the priority rather that you're highlighting here is the increase use of so I think I was um listening to you share all those great practices and examples. I think sometimes you seemed to allude to and just in the past few minutes like pinpointing things that are new and different this year um compared to like how you've done things last year or the year before. But I was just wondering if there was any like anything else you would highlight maybe that you shared that I wasn't
090what that you were sharing is like this is just how you've been doing it versus this is something you've started to do this year as part of increasing use what I mean >> yeah I think yeah I think >> are there any concrete things I guess you've been doing new and how have teachers been responding to this I guess is my question what seemed to be the most promising for new practices that you're putting. >> The most promising one which is so brand new that we haven't the teachers haven't even started to go and look at is the 8th to 9th grade transition that we have. So the yeah the the teachers actually going in the from the high school to the middle school and middle school to high school to see what's going on
091I think is going to be be really instructive and useful for them. So that I would call that is the newest of of what we're doing. Uh certainly the MCCAST that we talked about that we've been doing all along. Uh so that's not that is not new. Um to be able to try to get more time to do that as a department would be a new priority that I would would try to push for uh because the we don't get a lot of time to do it. So we tend to only hit the major issues. I'd love to have time to go deeper into it and get do a more global analysis and not just focus on the problems. Yeah, I'd say um gr granularly the sixth grade ELA team this year something new that
092they've infused into their um units is they're calling them MCCAST mini rights. So starting at the beginning of the year, writing is just globally, you know, a skill that is very complex and is hard to, you know, the mastery piece of it as measured by MCCAST is a really um challenging domain. Um, and so as we looked at the writing and the teachers were reflecting on it, they um have enacted periodic I don't want to quantify it exactly, but periodic MCCAST mini writes where it's a cold read of a prompt that they might see that's been a released item from MCCAST and and they do just an ondemand writing and then the teacher will give feedback and they'll reflect on it and discuss, you know, what was challenging about it, what why did you get
093a two and not a four, you know what that might look like. Um so that's definitely something this year. Um a similar example in seventh grade, you know, they're developing a new unit at the end of the year because they found a gap in certain, you know, skills and standards. So I think I think there's not like wide sweeping newness. I think we're refining the processes that as described we've been doing for a while, but each year kind of finding a new way to to make it actionable. I think that's sort of the key that we've talked about at the leadership level. Um is sure, we have all this data. Yes, we look at it and we analyze. Are there things we could do to lead more actionable items? Um and sometimes the answer is
094yes, and sometimes it's no, we're going to keep staying the course. Um and I think this idea as Carla was talking about, you know, common assessments, you know, we we do have them. I think the we can always be refining the work and looking at um you know there might be reasons to have different assessments at different times. It's just all about what is the purpose of that that assessment. I think that's a big part of what I do. I I don't want to speak for everybody. >> Yeah. I think when our leadership team constructed those priorities, we were not super attentive to exact language that was chosen. I think and that's not a criticism. It's just that under the umbrella of increased use of data to inform instruction doesn't inherently mean new assessment tools
095or additional assessment tools. Um you know to me my interpretation and how I've um implemented that within the departments that I support. Um, you know, for one, the example I gave about the I Ready Winter growth deep dive, um, that making that a district priority incentivize more teachers to seek that collaboration with me. >> So, the practice itself may not I mean, I've tweaked it. Um, I mean, I could I could talk all night, but um, the the sort of incentive for this to be a focus area meant that um, I could be more valuable to teachers in a broader way this year than maybe I would have been in previous years. And Kat alluded to this also. We're constantly revising, refining, or adopting new curriculum materials. In the case of math for this year,
096we have the newer version of the ninth grade or the high school curriculum that we adopted a few years ago. And with that comes new and improved assessments. So it's not I don't know that I could describe that as an increased use of data to inform instruction, but certainly better data more purposefully and consistently applied. That's that's like really I think what I was trying to get at which is not increase as in quantity of data per se but just like the use is what's being increased like you're working with maybe more teachers in the way you similarly worked in the past or like I think that's helpful also for the community to hear about is that always need a brand new assessment to improve this drive it forward. Like it can just be um
097you know and I liked how you framed Brian this idea of like looking for those high leverage like I forget how you phrase it small tweaks that can lead to big games like being strategic. I think you were talking about that in terms of like students data >> but it seems like that's kind of what you all seem to be doing >> efficiency >> seeking bring people focus towards that not to maxim Yeah, I mean I think um >> appreciate that. Yeah, I mean I I think we're mindful of um the difference in um the experience and responsibilities of a classroom teacher. And if we're not there to provide some expertise and some focused and targeted work, then it is less likely to happen or at least to happen well and consistently. So I mean
098I I I think that's a a huge aspect of our of our roles and ones that um both are enjoyable, fulfilling and and try to be effective at. Could I add you as >> um in terms of increased use of data another layer is that we did for lack of better phrase plugandplay goals for evaluation that some teachers K to 12 chose I'm going to focus on using more data. So that's another layer layer that um teachers accessed um to kind of dig in. They found an interest in that and they wanted to dig in some more. So it's just another layer. >> And when we met with them, all teachers in the fall and then all teachers in March, we asked them, "What do you need to be successful in these five areas?" And
099teachers said to us, "We need more help with actionable looking at data, we need actionable steps and support with that." So we we met and talked about what are the different menu items we can give them to be able to give them tools. Uh so the the motivation of staff to uh to get involved and take part at a higher level is we're shining a light on it. We have support being provided to them. We're getting meeting time and then when they say we we're really into this but we need some help with these certain things then we go out and try to find those things and give them to them. And it's just a professional um relationship of um you know really being attentive to the needs of our staff when they say we
100we need some help with this and we want some and then turning around and providing that on the next professional development day. And I think they've been responsive uh the the leadership team has been ex exceptionally responsive to uh meeting every day with teachers in their rooms at these grade level meetings and department meetings and um but also the the cycle of feedback that they're giving us and the responsiveness to that. Um, I think Kyle did a great job and the leadership team and the PD team did a great job of being respectful of that and that that I think that that energy is good energy that is the difference maker of people taking part at a different level or a high level along with a lot of other things that are going on in
101the district. It's a great step and I want to acknowledge that at the elementary level we have uh assessments and reading assessments at in our French program uh and our world language does similar work as well and that uh on behalf of uh Christie uh for her K8 work in science a lot of good work is happening there that looks the same as well as at the high schools as well. So just because science and world language and social studies with barber are not here, these practices are embedded in how uh a lot of our all of our content areas are starting to approach the work. >> Um thank you very much again. Um quick question on uh screeners for math because I know we have uh dibbles for ELA. Do we use any screeners
102on math or you know multiplication fluency things like that that are really foundational for being able to access to higher levels math and >> No, but one of the concerns that we have um with I Ready is it doesn't actually provide that um same level of sort of um what you're describing is kind of grade level agnostic a little bit. Um and um you know I've seen different versions of numerousy screeners um they're a little bit more arduous to administer but um that's not a reason not to do it but we don't currently have that in place but um the um we're um in my work with the math interventionist team um Mr. Failen alluded to one of the math interventionists, Meredith Camp Glover, who had been um in a third grade classroom during one
103of the learning walks that that um he participated in. But um across that whole team um we are um seeking um a a screener that can be used to drill into really where students number sense is lacking because that tends to be among other things sort of the biggest barrier to their success um as they move forward through elementary content. um you know and what the students that they have on their case loads have most in common is um is is a um you know sort of call it gap or or missing connection of numbers numeracy number sense. So um it's very appealing to be able to measure that. It's very appealing to make instructional decisions and and targeted intervention decisions using that tool. We've actually found I ready to be pretty limiting in terms
104of identifying students as candidates for um intervention. A lot of times when we started that way, students would qualify for service and then we get them into a small group and they actually didn't need the intervention that the interventionists were delivering. They just kind of zoned out during the test. Um or they had needs but they didn't match the needs of the other students in the group. So it didn't give you that. So, so yeah, I think you're hitting on something that is a good next step that that um could drive our um instructional model and support system for math at the elementary level. >> Yeah, that sounds rough. >> Um so, appreciate you you looking into that. >> Um I think um I assume that kind of carries into middle school too and because
105you're using still use I Ready. No, in middle school, I Ready moves to an ELA assessment. It's not a math assessment, etc. >> Right. We're looking to replace something that is um supposed to be released in in as part of the curriculum that we use already. It's it couldn't be more confusing here. So, I already shifts from uh math to reading between elementary and middle school. And the screener that we use for uh literacy dibbles is put out by Mclass who happens to also be the publisher of the new um benchmarking uh tool that we will look closely at next year u when it's available in 6 through 8 because it's embedded in our amplify curriculum. >> Yeah. >> So we'll come back next year and generate even more questions than answers. >> Maybe an
106infographic or something. >> There's a ven diagram here somewhere. >> Somewhere. >> I appreciate that. Um yeah, I mean I think the you know I appreciate you all statements of like how we're using data to um inform instructional practice, how we use that to raise rigor um all of those things. I think you know I appreciate the questions from other members about the middle school this in particular given that's a place I think when we look at the data right of student growth in particular and the middle grades is not kind of keeping up with what I think we would all want for those kids and certainly not even what we see in the elementary level. So, uh, just as a place of kind of continued focus and growth. Um, uh, I appreciate the work
107you're doing to identify screeners and diagnostic tools that allow us to assess what they're doing. I totally agree with your points too on if a if a metric is test is not actually giving you any helpful data as it relates to pulling kids out and providing services or even predictive as it relates to how they'll perform on the air, you know, in cast assessments like it's not worth the time. Uh and so I appreciate the critical eye with what you bring. I was thinking about some of the challenges you flagged. I was just wondering in particular about the structures the secondary level schedule that that you mentioned. That's a huge challenge if you don't have the time and the ability to pull kids out and provide them the information. Even if the data is giving
108you good information, you can't do anything with it. Um, so have there been discussions around schedule construction? I know Desi High School schedule work as like they have a whole department kind of um trying to create models and work the districts on that type of stuff particularly for this like to create intervention blocks for students. Um, >> it's definitely a discussion in in pockets. I'll say um I mean I'll first say teachers are certainly using their data and I don't think you insinuated otherwise. No, you didn't. But I just want to say like they're using their data and pulling kids, you know, that they know need extra and doing that tier two within the classroom for sure. Um, in terms of adjusting the model of the schedule, I know in sixth grade in particular, you
109know, we've talked a lot about um, you know, just hypothetically like what might it look like to think about where a wind block could fit in, you know, how would we structure that? It's not, and I I don't I don't want to say it's it's raised to the level of um, you know, implementing that or codifying it with a schedule change as of yet, but it's definitely something we've talked about. But I think there are so many implications for the impact of that on you know the domino effect of that. Um you know in our leadership meetings that we have every cycle we we've raised that um kind of talked about it thinking about how we could work within the current structure. Um, we certainly find a lot of value in the rotating periods because
110it, you know, it doesn't put the first class, you know, that they have every day if they're not, if they're late to school, it's not they're not missing, you know, math every every morning. So, I think there's a lot more to determine before we could make a structural change like that. Um, but it definitely is something that we've discussed. I don't know. Um, oh >> I I just have a question because in middle school I from what I heard is that there's a flex block in the middle of the day every single day and that that period is actually longer so that the student rotate the lunchtime and they it's supposed to be also the time for student to seek extra help from the teachers. So is that working for supporting the students? It is
111it's it's short. Is it 20 minutes 15? >> The advisory is 20. At the high school it's a called advisory. It's 20 minutes. So it is a short period. Students do use it. Teachers do use it with their students. But but it's short. >> Yeah. The hard part um and the good part about flex is that it's flexible. Um and so it it isn't um it isn't dictated that you know on Monday it's math, you know, go to your math teacher or Tuesday it's ELA. it's more um student driven which was its intent and purpose so that students could have agency over that period of time. Um but you are right there is time built in there. Um and that's certainly been um helpful for students to be able to access teachers during that time.
112>> Yeah, it's um I'm not sure it's design was for like a full kind of what we would have as like a a win or intervention block in mind. It's not really an instructional block of time in the day. It's meant as an opportunity to start to build some agency and some independence in our middle school students. Uh that carries forward into what H described about the advisory. Um it's not to say it couldn't be repurposed for that, but it isn't currently serving that. Um students certainly use flex time um more if they have an assignment that they need to submit or a quiz that they need to assessment they need to make up or something like that. Um and or they're have access to their teacher that they're with during that particular day. But
113who they're with and flex changes dayto-day based on what period um the lunch block falls during. Um, and like I said, the way it's been, um, I mean, it's it's in the schedule because of the necessity to have four lunches, >> and it's there with the current goal of just having students manage their time, have some some choice in what they're using that to do. And so I think that um it wouldn't be easy to repurpose it for an intervention or a wind block, but um it doesn't mean it couldn't happen. And if not that, then we should be considering other alternatives. And I was going to sort of jump into what you had said and and recognize that this is not a unique built-in challenge that secondary um has con you know constraints that
114elementary um schedules generally don't so much. And so um it would be well worth I think our while at Pierce to see what other middle schools have done to kind of make this possible and what the implications for doing so at Pierce would be. Like I it just popped into my mind that because we are doing this rotating schedule so we're doing like different blogs and then I assume that because of like performance arts and like in sixth grade we have the seminar classes right so I don't think they will meet every single day or every single cycle on all these F block for example so perhaps they only miss like once per cycle on F block and perh Perhaps the student who identified to to need extra help in math and and English could
115sign up for um a FB block tutoring section I guess and and student who does not need that can have a self-study class. I I don't know it just idea of how we can work it into this >> rotating schedule because it seems like a lot of schools are going with rotating schedules. high school also does that and it drives me crazy because I don't know what what class I'm teaching. I have to look keep looking at my Google calendar otherwise I was like which class am I teaching today? So yeah um but but then we do have that kind of flexibility of having the this rotating block that we can plug into different things like self-study like PAB performance art classes or computer classes and things like that. So yeah, but thank you so
116much for being very reflective about the the teaching and about the result that you guys got and it is very promising to see the um the growth mindset that you really demonstrating right here with the presentation. Um I I also have a a few question. Are you done with your question? >> Sorry. Um you mentioned about how the K25 K2A actually K to 5 have a three test three screeners. >> Yes. Yeah. >> Right. But then we do have MCCAST on third grade fourth and fifth. And those MCCAST usually administer in spring semester. Do you think we could just get rid of that end of the year uh screener for the I Ready to go and just use the MCAT score to address what the gaps would be and >> yeah, I can see why
117you'd think that. Um but in particular for Dibbles, and I can speak to I already a little bit, they they do drill in on um some different skills. So for the dibbles in particular, um also in grades four and five, the dibbles is only two subtests, so it's quite brief. Um and the screener really is meant to be a two one to two minute assessment to just make sure we're not um missing some really foundational skills that students u might be missing. Whereas the MCCAST, we would not know if they're missing those foundational skills because they're more performance-based. it's asking them to do like reading comprehension which involves like 27 skills, you know, so we wouldn't really know what the diagnostic problem is or challenges. Um, and so we do use dibbles for a different
118we couldn't compare their middle ofear dibbles to the MCAST because it wouldn't really show any growth or any regression. Um, but I do see what you mean to try to reduce the amount of assessments we're giving. And we are legally obligated to give those through the dibbles for the DI um, dyslexia screening law. >> Yeah. >> For I Ready, I would have two reservations. One would be that you get the I Ready data right away where we really don't get MCCAST data that can be analyzed. I mean, we see like a raw score in the summer, but we don't really get a full scope of how the student performed relative to how they had done previously. That SGP takes a little while to generate, and the um item analysis takes a little while to generate.
119So, it's usually into the next school year before we'd be learning that that student had performed um below grade level, which feels like a long time to wait for that information. Um, and the other which is pretty specific and unique to I Ready is that each time that diagnostic is taken, it changes the learning pathway that the student goes. So I wouldn't expect too many students to spend much time during the summer on a device on I already but the option is currently available to them to do so. And so would we'd have to find a way to try to replace that as an optional learning experience for students to have over the summer. It would still be available, but it'd be so out of date that I'd be worried that it wouldn't be purposeful.
120>> So you're saying that over the summer if student chose to use I ready as a summer work is available to them? >> It is. >> Yeah. Go. It's uh until about mid August, about two weeks before the school year starts, the system shuts down so it can roll over for the new school year. >> I don't like I I I teachers include that information to families in their newsletters at the end of the year. It's a little >> it's not without reservation because you don't want students sitting on a device in the middle of their summer um sort of un unchecked or unsupervised, I guess, if you will. Um there's just um you know no no math learning experience is meant to be done in isolation without access to a trained knowledgeable instructor available.
121So um but it is something that is a perk and and some students I know um take advantage of. Um, sorry. Um, you guys mentioned about the scholarship connected to a 10th grade MCCAT score. Do the students and family knows about that? Because this is the first time I heard about it. >> Well, this is the first year we've done it. Okay. >> We rolled it out and we we communicated to the point where I was afraid that people were going to issue a cease and desist order against us, but we we sent a lot of information home. And in fact, there were the students at the high school. We just rolled it out for seniors this year. Next year we're going to be offering it to juniors and seniors. Uh but any senior who
122qualified this year who did not apply for it, I I don't want to say hunted them down, but I hunted them down and said, "Why are you not applying for this?" and and explained what they what it was because they didn't know what it was and they hadn't read it closely. So I I've been doing a lot of education of what it is to the students this year. But we did send things regularly home to all the families and and I will next year also any student that could qualify that doesn't sign up I will I will go and ask them like hey you should probably do this do you want to >> this is the seal of literacy it's not a scholarship but it's from the state it goes on their transcript uh and
123it just it's very useful it's a useful college application to one is a useful job interview tool But information about the scholarships is also provided to 10th grade families before and during and after the MCAST. >> Yes. >> The Abigail Adams and the COP. I'm sorry for getting the first >> is it MF that the scholarship from MF because >> well this is statewide. This is available to all Massachusetts public school students who meet a certain score. I mean it's not I don't think subst a substantial amount of money but and it might be that the Abigail Adams is only for students can going to a public university. Yeah. Okay. >> So um >> Oh okay. So the scholarship is have been existed which is given by the state >> for student who apply to
124public college. >> Correct. >> Okay. And then the seal by b by literacy started this year for student who have passed a certain ELA score on MCCAST. >> Yes. And and they also have to have a qualifying world language test score. AP AP is one way to do it, but there are other ways to do it. Um and there's a a whole a number of alternative tests for for students. If it's their home language, then they don't take an AP course in that language. They can still test on it and get the get the the seal of bi literacy. and they can get it in more than one language if they if they're triilingual or >> to celebrate one of our student reps, Elias just successfully completed it in Latin. >> Oh, nice. >> Congratulate
125him when he comes back and sees us before he leaves. But really big deal for him. So you you guys mentioned about one of the challenge in high school level is that the teacher teach more to grade and not the teacher might not be able to go attend all the grade level meetings that one teaches as someone who also teach for late levels at the school and it's impossible for me to attend all the grade level meetings. So what we did is like fifth and sixth grade meeting and then seventh and eighth grade meeting at the same same days. So is there any way that the administration team can help with the easing these kind of meeting and spreading them out throughout the year in different day or different time so that student who the
126teachers who teach multiple grade level able to attend these grade levels? >> So I'll answer that question. This is an active conversation with our um high school staff uh currently and we're trying to figure out ways for teachers who teach like courses like we both teach English nine can we get together and have those conversations and then teachers just in the department whether it be math or English or social studies where is that time so uh that that's part of what we're we're really having good conversations about when we think about structural shifts that we can try to make in order to support that challenge that this group brought forward. Uh that's something that we're talking about with folks as well. So, I applaud this group for not only letting us know what they do
127that works and that they're really proud of with their teachers and their students, but also what the challenges are. So, when Anna asks, "What can we do?" It really is taking a good look at this list of challenges, finding out, is this a policy change, is this a budget issue, is this something we want to talk to our educators about through a schedule shift or or however we do that. So, these are all definitely things that are conversations that we're having uh that you'll probably end up learning more about later in the meeting, but um yeah, those are all active conversations. What are the vehicles for professional development? What are the vehicles for giving educators time to talk to each other about student data in order to support students in their endeavor of, you know,
128increasing their student outcomes is is part of what we're we're always talking about for sure. >> Sounds great. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. behind us the whole time. >> Enjoy. >> Thank you very very much. Have a good night. >> Thank you. >> Okay. I don't have anything under the chair's report tonight. So, we will move to the finance committee report. >> I have no more time. >> Right to it. um finance subcommittee. Uh we uh I wasn't here uh two meetings ago. I appreciate uh Nathan providing the update. So again, in general, we are in a a good spot with the FY27 budget. Um the next step is the town meeting presentation. So this morning we met school committee. We started talking about that a little bit. That'll be part of
129our conversation um at the finance committee meeting next week where we'll try and talk over a draft. uh and certainly as we're developing that we'll share that with other members. Uh I think we initially talked about is we'll be taking a lot from what we presented to the war committee which is slides we've previously shared with other members and then again just think about other ways that we want to uh adjust that for the um different group that is town meeting. Right. Um so um that was one. The other thing we've been working on as we've kind of reported to you all is the um fiscal policies. And so two of those are in the folder tonight. Uh we've been working on the special education stabilization fund policy. Uh as a reminder that is a
130joint account between the select overseen by both the select board and the school committee. Uh so to withdraw funds from that needs a vote from both of those boards. Uh we talked to the select board finance committee uh about this kind of within the context of the free cash allocation that they're uh looking to put into that and is on the town warrant um for the upcoming town meeting. Um we had had initial conversations got had some pretty good alignment and uh we took on the step of I should say we Katie took on the step of drafting a policy really um big thanks to Katie. what we talked about at the finance committee meeting, sent that over to select board, got some feedback. What you see in front of you is kind of the
131most recent version from that feedback based upon conversation we had this morning uh with some final edits. Uh I've sent that back over to the select board. We've gotten some initial feedback from them already that I think we're like 99% of the way there. We're just trying to figure out kind of some last um some last kind of minute uh things around um how we potentially allocate funds to the account moving forward. So um we expect to have that flushed out before the next meeting where we'll have the second reading of this policy. Uh and I promise I will pause and read through the policy here in a second. I just wanted to get that overview first. Um, and I'll pause here too before I jump into the circuit breaker. Makes sense to y'all. Maybe
132we'll just go into depth and I can read through the special ed stabilization lo policy. Walk that through with y'all. Make sure we're all good on that and then we'll jump to the reading of the circuit breaker policy. Before I go and like screen share and start talking through the policy, any um other notes you want to provide on anything Katie, anything I missed? Okay. All right. Uh well, and let me I'll share my screen just so I try and do my best Anna impression because she does a good job with these policy reads. Uh so read through it and kind of talk the purpose. So, uh, a lot of this is, um, the structure is kind of taken from what we've seen in other towns and what some other kind of sample policies were.
133That was kind of the initial statement. Uh, so it starts with the objective u pursuant to mass journal law chapter 40 section 5b special ed reserve accounts are allowed by Massachusetts journal law allow savings to be set aside. So again, this this section tries to say, you know, what what is the purpose and what was the objective of this fund? It's to make sure we have savings to address um unforeseeable special education costs and provide stability to the department. Okay. Um the goal uh again is kind of connected to that provide um opportunity a way to pay for those unbudgeted costs uh in a given year without forcing cuts in other school services. Obviously, that's something we've unfortunately seen in past fiscal years. Uh we have a section here where we talk about the process
134for transferring in funds. So again, we've talked about this fund is really based within Mass General Law that chapter 40 section 13E. You can Google that. It's not very long, but um it lays out pretty clearly what this is. So we have identified in here the target funding ceiling. That's the maximum amount of money that can be in this account. We are tying that to what it states within Mass General Law, which is the fund cannot exceed 2% of annual net school spending uh within our district. And so Katie was able to provide kind of an example of net school spending from a prior school year. And so that is how they they calculated and therefore we would so that's an estimate of kind of what the current maximum funding level could be. We also
135try and set a minimum funding level. we call the target funding floor of $100,000 to ensure that fund does not um drop below zero uh or drop down to zero. And then we talk about a process of if the balance of fund does drop below that floor, the town and the schools uh must formulate a plan to restore the funds above that level so that there is something within there to give the school department buffer. Uh and it's identified to say do that within two funding cycles. Uh we then talk through kind of the avenues for funding which I mentioned before is a place we're still a little bit talking with the select board on. Our primary uh source for funding that a lot of districts use is free cash derived from the school department's
136budget ending the year under budget. So you might remember like in the Q2 forecast that we presented uh Katie was currently at that point projecting about like 26,000, right? So pretty pretty darn close. But that's still $26,000 that we would have savings in that scenario. Potentially that $26,000 would be able to be allocated into this account, right? If we were under budget by that amount at the end of the fiscal year. So that's a pretty common way for this to be funded and that it provides us incentive to be under budget and it allows the schools to have a mechanism to fund it themselves without being completely reliant. You need to go to the select board and the town administrator for free cash allocation because free cash is tight. There's a lot of demands on
137free cash across the town. Uh yeah please. >> I'm not very good with numbers. So correct me if I my understanding is wrong. So what you the example you gave is that like in quarter two Katie had already identified that by the end of the school year based on the projection that we we will have these amounts of money left in our budget. So you're saying that if that is the case then by that time at that time we >> not at not in quarter two >> but at the end >> at the end of the year if that happens if that's where we end up >> okay >> uh then yeah whatever that number is 12,000 because that's where we end up or 30,000 whatever whatever it might be whatever that number is if
138we are under budget then that is funding that would go into this account to fund this. Okay. >> Yeah, that's the piece that we're we we're talking to the town administrator about that. That was my understanding is it would have to be certified as free cash like any department that is under budget. It goes into free cash has to be certified by the state and then would have to be allocated to this account through a vote of town meeting through a warn article. That's why I assumed would need to happen. town administrator thinks there might be other easier avenues for uh kind of automating this process, but that that's a piece we're just we need to tie tie loose ends on. We we 100% know that we could do it this way. The way I
139just laid it out, that is absolutely allowed. That's how typically works, but there could be other avenues. So, when we figure that out, we'll come back to you. I'll let you know. But the goal is still the same of whatever the school does not spend within its allocated budget from the town that um additional funding then could be pushed into this special ed stabilization fund. That's >> yes. So the next line is other undesated funds free cash may be used to uh be transferred in the stabilization fund that's such as the $500,000 that the uh town that select board is um looking to allocate into that fund this year. Um state there's obviously no mandatory annual contribution that has to be made. Uh we're not committing the town to anything. Um, and if we hit
140the target funding ceiling, even if we have additional funds, we aren't contributing anything else into that account because we can't. Um, there's a line just kind of it's pulled from the section 13E that says the town treasurer can actually invest those monies. Um, so they don't just sit there unused. They can be invested and earn some income for the town, which is great. Um, sorry. >> Who if if we decide to invest this money, who is overseeing that? >> The town treasur. >> The treasur. I got it. >> Town treasur oversees all that income can be deposited into the stabilization account. >> Um, and then we have uh clarity on how we would transfer out funds. This was something we really wanted to get clear on um to make clear for future school committees and
141uh future select boards given both those boards need to align on this of how we would go about requesting funds out. Uh, and so it talks about kind of a reporting process to compare actual expenses versus budgeted expenses on a line item analysis and it lists those particular line items um that would be looked at and would be um shared out to say hey this is budget this it's actually going to be this we are over and this is why we need some additional fund. Uh then we talk about the withdrawal procedures and say again that obviously the school committee will create a budget uh for each of those lines which has done already for FY27. So that's an annual part of the process. Um we can initiate a withdrawal request. The site asked that
142we put a minimum amount which we agreed to uh of at least it would have to be $50,000 which made sense to us. Uh the withdrawal amount be limited to what is the deficit. So, it's $50,000 deficit. We can't ask for $70,000 um of additional funds. Um and then, you know, if we determine it is necessary, this board would need to vote to approve that to make their request. We then present that request to select board. The select board would then have to vote to approve the request. Both boards vote to vote to approve it. Majority votes. We just have some additional information there around kind of confidentiality of student records. Obviously, you're talking costs associated with it. Those costs have students behind them as do every cost within our district. Uh and so that's
143important to note, but it's also important to note that we cannot and should not be sharing kind of sensitive student information as we're also these kind of budgetary implications. So we'll be keeping information kind of on the line item level. So that is the walkth through first reading of the policy. other questions folks have. So where it says that the board is there is there um is there language around not approving the as long as it like is there any reason that if it addresses one of these four areas and it's minimally $50,000 there would be >> um there could be >> there have you ever seen language in there around a reason for not that weird question but I'm just >> to require this like will a reason for not approving it Yeah. I'm
144just wondering if it's $52,000 and it's for special education transportation. Is there you know if it fits that criteria maybe maybe a situation is pretty much not I I would never I'm not saying but is it is it is this really typically just procedural nature is that >> I've never experienced a situation where that it has not been approved um when I was looking at the different sample policies which I think we had provided those samples in the finance subcommittee folders I don't remember seeing any language um I would offer that you could potentially say no reasonable request could be withheld or I mean there is some language that we could use but I did not see that in any of the current policies that were um that I had found from other districts. So,
145it's definitely >> Yeah, I see it's specifically for this. It's not like it can be used for anything else. >> Right. Right. >> And I think that's why it's really important to have the policy that's um reviewed by both the school committee and the select board. I think if both parties are mutually agreeing that the policy fits kind of the intent of the utilization of the funds, then I think we would think that the hope would be that there shouldn't be any issues with us as long as everything's being followed. There any other questions? Have >> not a question? Had a slum under the target funding floor section says if we drop below the the funding floor, we'll make a plan to get back into budget within two budget cycles. Uh, I assume budget cycle
146is synonymous. I wonder if we should just uh again this is the first reading. We will um a joint policy so we we need alignment. I think we're 99% of the way there. Uh so we'll work to get 100% away there. The goal is to have the second reading. Uh John alluded to previously at our April 29th meeting, which is the reorg meeting. We don't have too much at that meeting, but we're going to try and add this in there so that we can try and vote and have this policy in place prior to town meeting. There's a warn article about funding this account. We'd like to have this share with town meeting if they have questions. That certainly was something that came up at warn committee of they thought we should do this. We
147agreed we already um been trying to work on it. So uh that that is the goal and the reason >> do you know what the timeline is for to try to >> they >> Winston uh kind of said offhand that he thought maybe they could talk about it next week. Um, and so but I'm not 100% sure what their meeting cadence I don't know if they have another meeting scheduled because they met last night. I don't know if they have another meeting scheduled before town meeting and all that. So I'm not I'm not 100% sure they're ability. I think what I expressed in an email to Megan is I think ideally given the funds even though they'd be allocated to town meeting they wouldn't be accessible by anybody until July 1st which is a point
148Katie made at her meeting. And so um at least trying to hope that they would adopt this policy by July 1st so that kind of going into a fiscal year where the funds you know in theory could be allocate um used if the school department needed it that we start the year off with kind of the aligned policy but I haven't heard about their ability to kind of meet that timeline. Uh if there are no other questions about that, we'll move over to the circuit breaker. So mentioned to you all we've been trying to work on establishing some reserve fiscal policies uh across kind of all of our reserve accounts. Uh special ed stabilization fund was one that moved up the list as the the 500,000 was allocated. Circuit breaker is obviously one we've talked
149about a lot and so that has always been really high on the list. So it's similar format to the other one. Again, thank you to Katie for uh kind of putting together this draft um helping kind of craft this. Um so I will try and walk through this policy um as well. So starts with that top the objective and why are we kind of funding this? You can see it's different master law um reference circuit breaker is kind of a different part of it but still under master law. um talks about how the funds are directly deposited by the state into this account under the control of the school department. Uh we withdraw them to support the annual operating budget. Um what we're trying to do is maintain a minimum rollover, right? That's what we've
150talked about within our budgeting practice. Um and have that minimum rollover and to maintain those funding. So that's that is kind of the the objective and then the goal and kind of restates it a little bit more clearly of we want that minimum rollover in order to provide um offset the high cost of special education services uh that it can come up with for kids um and to make sure that we are you know having this um so that we can increase the utilization circuit breaker if we need to for unexpected costs um cost increases from what this will be to the So that is that is the point of kind of building this as we've talked about time and time again within our our school committee meetings and our finance committee meetings. Uh the
151transfer in process. So we talked about the target funding ceiling for this case. It's 100% circuit breaker reimbursement and that is the maximum allowed under Mass General law. Uh similar to the target funding ceiling for the special ed stabilization fund. uh we identified the target funding floor as being 75% of the circuit breaker reimbursements received in the state. So that's also kind of a number that we talked about you know what what actually is amount that really provides the um school department robust number um that gives maturity for the unexpected. And so 75 is where we ended up as the funding floor. Um for the transfers out it it notes what these funds can be used for. Again, they cannot be used for anything. Um, they must be used for very specific expenditures. Um, and
152it talks about how um to request to transfer out the fund in excess of the proposed utilization. The school department has to give award to the school committee showing why they will need to withdraw more from the circuit breaker. Um, and compare kind of actual versus budget expenses. Cases, you know, similar to the special ed stabilization program. lay down the withdrawal procedures. Uh if the department determines they need the additional funds, um they must uh receive an authorization to pull those funds through a vote of the finance subcommittee and a vote of the full school committee. Um and then if they and that's if they want to pull any funds, even if it keeps the funding above the target floor. if they want to make a withdrawal below that pulls it below the target funding
153floor. Um they must also at that point present a plan that shows how they we as a department and school committee will get the the account back up to the funding floor similar to what Katie and John have kind of presented previously on the the four-year plan at this point to get this account up to that target funding floor. Um uh and then we just talked about each year uh codifying that each year the school department will report on the circuit break utilization again as Katie has done last year and as John and Katie did this year. Um so that is a process we have been doing but just be codifying it within this policy and we have similar note on confidentiality of records. So that's the circuit breaker policy questions. So, let me just
154paraphrase what I just heard. >> So, the circuit breaker um fund comes in usually in the summertime. >> It comes in quarterly. >> Quarterly, yep. Throughout the year. >> And so, these funds, if they're not being used as planned, the actual money will go into the circuit breakers restore fund. the money is always so it's money from the state and it's always deposited directly into the circuit breaker fund. The um unique part about this fund is that it we can carry a full year's worth of funding into the next year. So we we don't have to use the money. It's not like the operating budget um that we have to use it within the fiscal year and if we don't use it we have to we essentially turn it back to the town. We can
155retain up to one year of circuit breaker money in that account and carry it forward into the next year. >> So this is the amount what we've talked about like we carried this year what we carried over was $8,000. Yeah. >> Right. Which does not provide cushion for any anything any unexpected costs, right? A pizza parties even more, you know, it's a fancy pizza party, I guess. But um yeah, so the the goal is here to identify as we've kind of talked about >> what is the level we want to get that rollover amount to in order to provide some assurances for the department uh that they have mechanisms to address unforeseen costs around special education expenses which are particularly difficult to foresee given kids can move in and out of districts, you know, needs
156and students change and costs quite quite ex certain situations. >> Okay. >> So, can I understand this special education stabilization fund is the one that is already in the the the school year budget that is already predicted in the school year budgets. The one that before the first one that you >> that's not in the school year budget. that's in a yeah a separate account that sits there similar to like a reserve account that the town has um for what's called a rainy day fund right um so that is what that account is it's completely separate from the school's operating budget circuit breaker Katie does utilize circuit breaker funding shouldn't say Katie the school department and us within our budget utilize circuit breaker funding within the school budget on an annual basis how much we
157utilize can vary from budget to budget based on what we get from the state, what we choose to utilize versus not utilize in order to build up this reserve. And so that was part of the conversation we were having with the budget cycle of should we increase our utilization or not based upon the needs of the positions that were at risk and the need to build out this fund over time. So the that's two different things they are both of them. think that potentially some of the confusion you have which is valid is that both of them their goal is to support addressing um unexpected costs that arise from uh special education. They do that through different mechanisms. Um and again they are the circuit breaker is a wholly school committee policy. It's account that
158is overseen by the school department school committee alone and it's funded through allocations from the state. So not through anything the town does. Special ed stabilization fund is a joint account policy overseen by both the spike board and the school committee. And that is a fund that is funded solely by the town through free cash or other through >> circuit breaker. So it's a reimbursement special education cost prior the way I thought about stabilization fund is circuit breaker is the one that you're using to fund like ongoing special education I think or the other one is almost like emergency break glass do you know what I mean it's like when it's over and above the anticipated costs and what we projected something bigger you know happens that just puts, you know, that was completely unpredictable
159that >> Yes, definitely. >> Nathan has said before the phrase that suspenders approach to there. You know, one of these is the bill ones, the suspenders. They're both supporting the district in different ways, giving the district different avenues for addressing these uh potentially unexpected costs. >> Okay. >> So, the goal here is these policies are meant to codify what these accounts are, what are the purpose of these accounts, and how are we looking at the funding um of them. and how can funds be removed from them over time because prior years I mean the circuit breaker account obviously was strained um through I think what we determined was was not enough oversight and not enough conversation around that that decision. So this this provides I think the school committee more ability to just um make
160sure they are aware of know what what is happening with that fund that there's good conversation between the department and the committee as we've seen over the last two years but it wasn't necessarily the same >> much much clearer now I'm not very good with numbers so thank you for explaining this >> um any other questions Sorry, just want to decide on this tonight. The stabilization fund says that if we fall below the funding floor, we build it back up over two years. And I wonder if we should impose a similar condition on ourselves in this policy. >> Uh it's a good question. um two years. The funding floor here is much is higher, right? >> Yeah. I don't know if it should be two years, but this doesn't have like a buildback clause on
161it. >> I wonder if that should >> Well, we have the that they must present a plan showing how they will get the funding level above the TFF in future fiscal years with the draw procedures. It doesn't say a specific number of years, >> which again, I think gives a little flexibility. I think within our like we had a three-year plan and then we we chose to elongate that to a four-year plan. Um so yeah, so exactly how many years I could vary based upon the context. Um I think the $100,000 number such a a different level of a number like the ability to fund $100,000 over two years within a $140 million town budget should be doable. Um, >> so I would only say I I want to thank Katie for the work last
162fiscal year and this fiscal year for the work on the circuit breaker and then um then working with the folks in the finance committee to uh prioritize this work. This was a big chunk of work that we said that we wanted to get done at the beginning of the year and this is a real big concrete step forward for the for the district and the community should know it's a really important piece of policy. Both of these policies that ensure uh you know supervision and a responsible way of spending that everybody would know about if the needs arise. It has to be votes. There have to be plans put forward and um you know it's it's really good work and good business uh financial planning. So thank you to the finance committee and thank you
163to Katie. The drafts and the different iterations of this that Katie explored and brought to the table have been really helpful and the language is really tight. So thank you to everybody and thank you to Katie as well. >> Uh last thing for finance update uh is the warrants. Um, the following warrants uh have been signed and approved. Warrants 39 dated April 2nd, 2026. The amount of $473,56124. That one I believe I've sent to you electronically. Also signed warrant tonight. I signed warrant 40 dated 42 2026 in the amount of $440,586.35. That one I have not sent to you electronically. Um and so we'll do so tomorrow when I get the electronic version. >> That's it for MF update. >> Okay. Um so I attended the MF um teacher of the year subcommittee meeting last
164week. Um and we we have look at um all the the recommendations that come in through the Google forms and there's tons of recommendation come from parents, current students, former students and also colleagues of uh teachers. So after long conversations within the subcommittee we have like over 12 people I believe um we decided on 10 educators who are welld deserved for those awards this year and I have to keep them secret. So um the celebration is going to be at each individual school is going to be on the 14th of this this month which is next Tuesday. Yeah next Tuesday. So we'll we'll hear about all those celebration at each schools from the principles and also most likely from John's emails as well. So look forward to the educators that you admire to be awarded
165this year. Um that is one of the biggest news and because we're talking about MF and we all know about the the district wide um MF as a districtwide PTO group they are doing the celebration for education um for all the educators on the May 2nd which is a Saturday and at the the party starts at 5:30 and it's loc the location is at Blue Hill Country Club. So we highly recommend everybody to register and to help celebrate the educators um who have contributed a lot of their work and hard work in the school year to to to help all our students fry and learn in the classroom setting. Um and the tickets the early bird ticket sales ends tonight at midnight. So, for those of you who are listening, please um go online to
166the website to grab your ticket before it increases prices starting tomorrow. Um yeah, that's hopefully you get this um flyer postcards in the mail. So, if you register by tonight is you save 25% on the tickets. So for uh educators who are actually award getting the award on that day um physical award on that day then they will have a like they can bring their whole whole family there as well for free. Yeah, I think that's the biggest news. Um and also if you know of any local um business some like your kids music teacher music schools or any kind of like sports um organizations if you want to reach out to them and let them know about the MF celebration for education event and if they wanted to become a sponsor for this event
167their logos will be posted on their websites and also in their emails to the community as well. So, it's a great promotion effort. What else? Okay, so the teacher of the year awards, the 10 awards teach educators come from all the schools in the in the district. So, and including special um specialty teachers as well. So that's something that we we should look forward to to find out the full list later on next week. Um so that's the main main news. Um they also mentioned about there was a Cunningham mother who passed away on April 5th who has three children in the um in the in the school district, a fourth grader, third grader and four yearear-old child. um and someone who was very involved with the PTO um at Cunningham School and um they
168so they they uh one of the the the MF members is uh raising this and hoping that we like people in the community could help with a GoFundMe to help the family pass this uh challenging time. So that's all the important updates from Google. >> Um I'll take it just because we haven't had a meeting. Um but we've there's been work on the computer essentially with um the MSBA. We've been um Sean, Nick uh and to me to a much lesser extent than Sean and Nick have been just updating. We got feedback from the MSBA on our RFP document that we send out to biders for our OPM. And so I've just been taking those edits and updating the document to send back. We have the approval of that document from MS before we send
169it out. So that has been the work. It's all related to just finalizing the process to secure the OPM. So that's the work kind of behind the scenes. We hope to get that approval soon and um still move forward with securing an OPM here in the next or have interviews for an OPM here in the next. >> Sure. So, um I think at the last meeting um I provided a brief update um and signaled that at this meeting we would be um going into an executive session to discuss a little bit in more detail some of the substance of the um negotiations thus far. So, we will be doing that at the conclusion of this meeting. Um but in terms of um just update for the public um negotiations continue to progress well. Just definitely
170continue to appreciate um the collegiality of our negotiations with the MEA with unit A. that is um still the unit that we are engaging in negotiations with. Um but we've now um having fully exchanged proposals which occurs over those three main bargaining sessions. We are now um back and forth uh responding to one another's proposals and uh it's been productive so far and that will continue. We'll be picking those um sessions back up after the April vacation. Um and then I know we're going to approve minutes and talk about the next meeting and then we can adjourn into um executive session. I have some motion language for that and I'll share more of an update for the full school committee. Um the next item is approval of minutes. So just make a motion for this.
171Um, in the folder there were the minutes for March 11th, March 16th, and March 25th. Um, so I will make a motion to approve minutes of the following school dates. March 11, 2026, March 16, 2026, and March 25th, 2026. Second, >> yeah, a couple typo. Um, on the March 11, he's not going to comment. It's just um people's name wrong or spell >> it's very minor. It's not >> you have comments on >> All right. So, um, >> yes. >> All right. Um, yes. >> Yes. >> Um, the next meeting agenda items at the school committee, the county. >> Yes. Uh on the 29th meeting, in addition to the reorganization, we'd like to do um uh the final vote of the financial policies that we just discussed tonight um from finance this morning. Uh that
172will be a vote. Uh we would also like to have uh Katie will be presenting the Q3 from the FY26 budget uh at that point in time. And then um the school committee will need to appoint me to be the social collaborative representative for the next school year. Um there'll be a meeting with those folks on Friday and that's just an indoor vote that the school does each year. So that should not be a heavy lift that that night. Uh so we appreciate folks being part of the reorg and doing some business that night in order to get done. If not, I think that I will take a motion to a motion to >> um so it would be a motion to adjourn to executive session, not to return to open session in compliance with
173chapter 30A section 21 A2 to discuss collective bargaining strategy with Milton Educators Association. Second. >> Yes. Anna. >> Yes. >> Hey.