School Committee - November 19th, 2025

001one. >> Uh, good evening. Uh, I call to order the November 19th of Milton School Committee. If everyone can please rise for the pledge of >> allegiance. I alian to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Um, and we'll start with public comment. In accordance with school committee policy, we welcome members of the community to share their perspectives with us during public comment. We have set aside up to 15 minutes for this part of the meeting, 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 the meetings when

002relevant topics are on our agenda. We strive to to engage in respectful discourse during our meetings and ask that the public comment speakers keep that in mind. Speakers should introduce themselves for the record. Is there anybody here in the room for public comment? If anybody is online, if you could raise your hand. >> Second. >> Screen. No hands. >> No hands. Okay. All right. There is no one here for public comment. So we will move to the superintendent's report. >> Thank you very much uh chairperson. Um we have a very good night tonight uh to celebrate some good news at uh the Tucker School and the Tucker School community. But I want to start with introducing our uh student rep. Uh we have Elias Elias Keros. Elias wants to come to the table. Uh Elias

003is a senior who is serving his fourth term as a student representative to the school committee for the Milton High School class of 2026. In addition to this role, Elias is involved in the Triam Music Honors Society, plays violin in the school orchestra, and is also an officer in the Latin Club. So Elias, welcome. We're glad you're here. >> Thank you. >> And please um give us an update on what's going on at Milton High. Okay. >> So, I have a lot of updates from our high school. Um, first of all, I would like to um acknowledge our music department um of which I am a part and um first of all, our Frozen musical has um sold out all three nights. It is wonderful um to have that much engagement with the community that

004that we can fill our auditorium for um three days in a row and it is such a joy um to celebrate the arts and um the theatrical production in such a way um and and many of my peers are involved in that and we're all very excited um for that. That's this weekend for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. And then um our MHS um small ensembles concert is on December the second. I believe that's a Tuesday. And um that is, you know, your more small groups like um chamber, orchestra, and um brass. um some jazz um small groups and um you know Christmas carolers um the squirrel groups pretty sharp. So um there is that happening. Then um following week is our main winter concert um which is always a big joy for you know strings

005band um and chorus um we will be having that and that will be wonderful as well. And then furthermore, um, football is playing against North Attleboroough this week. So, we wish them a good luck. Um, but best wishes. Um, the the student government, um, turning our attention back to us. We're hosting a quite a variety of fundraising opportunities to support each class. So the J for instance the juniors are conducting a raffle um for um the month of November um there are t-shirt sales going around especially for pep rally you know there's a lot of school spirit um now and then um we have an upcoming schoolwide dance in February sort of like a Valentine's Day themed um event so so that will be Um, wonderful. And then all more information about that will be

006in the weekly blogs and the superintendent's update and um all of all of that information. And then um for us school committee reps, we're currently exploring topics to focus on and discuss as a group um for this year. Um we have discussed potentially supporting um the school committee um in the conversation around graduation requirements and how that specifically impacts um all of our students um and especially bringing um student um input with that especially I know there was talk about um a two-year um world language requirement. So, um, we will potentially be discussing about that. Um, and that seems like it. >> Very good. If if, um, first of all, thank you for that comprehensive report out. I really appreciate it. And my question is, if I needed to go to the ensemble or the

007winter concert or the dance, which one should I go to? And keep in mind that I can't dance. So, I think it's really between the winter concert and the ensemble. So, uh, we are really excited. This is a really exciting time of year for all of our band and chorus and theater programs. So, I agree. Thank you very much for representing the group. Do you have any questions for the school members or the school members have any question for Elias? Do >> you have an inside track on some frozen tickets? >> Unfortunately, um, those have sold out, but um, it's great that that we are celebrating them and I mean there's going to be another one this spring. So we're looking forward to that when that will be announced and well what an amazing weekend

008for your friends. They have offered a uh staff only rehearsal dress rehearsals. So that's sold out by staff then three soldout shows over the weekend. I was here last week, I think, uh, over the weekend and they were all putting the set together and painting the set and there were, you know, at least 50 or so students behind the stage doing the work along with a lot of support from families uh, with the tools and the different uh, construction things going on. So, what a great weekend this will be to celebrate and then we look forward to the holiday uh, concerts as well. So, thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> You'll be back and we'll see you again and we very much appreciate you being here and you did a great job tonight.

009So, thank you so much. >> Thank you. Thank you for having me. >> You're welcome. >> It's great to have you back. >> Thank you. >> Um, next on my uh superintendent report, uh, I just also want to let folks know that Frozen will be happening this week. Elias took all my big notes, so now I have to edit on the fly here. Uh, very exciting weekend for the high school. We were uh, we're hosting the Frozen um, performance over the weekend. We also have our football team in the state semi-finals as was reported by our student rep. If they win on Friday, they go to Gillette Stadium for the Super Bowl, which is exciting. Um, it also reminds me to thank all of our fall coaches, all of our fall staff who do clubs,

010theater, arts, everybody who's working with our students after school, K to 12, and put in a lot of work to start the school in a way that makes it engaging for young people. They want to run to school. Some run for math, some run for theater, some run for volleyball, but they're all running to school at every level of the district because a lot of those things happen after school as well. And what we're also thankful for uh during this uh Thanksgiving season is also our educators, our staff, and our families, but also the PTO's uh that are supporting uh the schools and also right now supporting a lot of food drives and different things that give back to the community and also the Milton Foundation for Education for their work. uh most recently at

011the um at the holiday that thank the um the road race that they put on in an effort to support science in the schools. So we can't uh say thank you enough to the community and the PTO's and the volunteers that support our schools. Um today we had a very good uh professional development uh for our elementary educators. The early release today was for conferences for middle school and high school for families to meet their teachers. But our elementary staff was working on the through line of our five priorities. Uh talking about best practices for supporting students who are not renewed success and how we can learn together about what's needed in the classroom to support the good work that they do. And that will be the session that our middle school and high school

012staff do in December when we have that second early release. So, we're continuing the through line of our five priorities of supporting teachers in the classroom uh related to that good work. Um so, that is uh my update. Um as your superintendent, um the next thing on the agenda is all school members have received the 2425 annual report. Um, Stephanie O'Keefe reports that this is something that you should be reading. Uh, making sure that whatever is in there is accurate. If you wanted to add anything, please email your edits to Stephanie and myself and we will incorporate those. And if there are any edits between now and our meeting on December 3rd, we will incorporate those and then we will vote the final draft to be sent to the town at our December 3rd meeting.

013Any questions about the town report? Perfect. Uh it is very exciting. Uh our next group, if you would like to take uh the front table, if you want to add a chair, is our a hardworking Tucker playground committee who, uh I have had the good fortune to meet with on several occasions in order to support their work to support the uh Tucker School and the playground. uh very ambitious and very very uh fastm moving success uh that our Tucker parents have uh achieved already. So uh thank you for being here. Thank you for your work on behalf of the Tucker community and the Tucker playground. And I would ask if you could each introduce yourself and then we'll have your slides up here that we can go through one by one on behalf of your

014partner. >> My name is Ma Golden Silva. Um and Haley and I are co-presidents of the PTO this year. Leslie McCarthy, I'm past president of PT, >> and Haley Byron, the other co-president of PT. >> Good. >> And we're gonna ask you to to use your cafeteria voice because we have one microphone in the ceiling. >> Uh, and we're really excited and thankful that you're here tonight to be able to kick off uh the work that's happening and the planning work that's happening for the Tucker playground. And we're hoping that this begins uh a very big push uh for you and your team in order to bring attention and and support to your project. So, thank you for being here and uh the slides are yours. >> Great. Thank you. Um so, to begin, we're

015just going to give you a little bit of a background of kind of why we feel this is such an important project, how we got here. Um many of you know Tucker's current playground is o over 20 years old with outdated structures and ground surface of wood chips and asphalt. Um you can actually go to the next slide. Um the exist existing rock wall, one of the few features the children enjoy is broken and unsafe to use. Um, many of the children play soccer, kickball on an asphalt surface when the fence is up up um and rimmed with curbs and we have accidents all the time, whether it's going to the ER for a chip tooth or stitches on the face, falling from the slides, it's just not really a fun place for anyone anymore.

016Um, and we've had even, you know, kids and teachers say, you know, I can't wait for it to be indoor resource, which is never a good thing in the school. Um and so our goal is really to create a spa as a space that supports active and creative and social play. Um if you can go to the next slide about our goals. Um with a small landlock footprint um uh this redesign is opportunity for the Tucker community to really come together um and reimagine the outdoor space, make it exciting for the kids to be outside. Um we really have no grass space for the kids to play on right now. Um they just aren't excited by it. We want the kids to enjoy recess and take pride in the space where they learn and play

017together. And this is also a chance to support outdoor learning and environmental awareness through the gardens and the outdoor classroom. Creating a space where the teachers and the community can come together. Um there's not a lot of parks and green space on this side of town. So, we really want it to be for the Tucker students and staff, but also for the neighbors to enjoy as well. It's a we're a walking school. Um, and so people pass this by every day and right now they see caution tape and a broken fence and it's just not something that we really we really want to create a safe space for them. Um, so if you can go to the next slide, we just put some pictures of our existing conditions and I think we have a few

018more we could probably even add since these have taken place. Um so we are um and so we feel some sense of urgency in this that um we know you know if we really wait for kind of the capital funding from the schools in the town it could be five or six years and we really want our kids I know my fifth grader won't enjoy this but I hope my second grader will at least have um some some sense of pride when they um are out resource and we're also worried about our own and children's safety. So, I think we want this to happen before our children get in and more children get injured on the playground. >> And because Tucker is a title one school, um we certainly have families and community members that

019have been able to support it. But but the other schools have had the opportunity to make some incremental updates to their playground over the last decade or so. Whether it's different equipment, better fields, we don't even have the ability to have fields, new ground surfacing, extra play space. we just don't have necessarily the cap, you know, the funds to go to our community to fund the entire project. So that's why we're seeking grants and seeking support from the town and the wider community and really making this a big push over the next 18 months to get this done. And so if you go to the next slide, we can talk about the phases. So the early planning began last year. Um and I'll go into more detail on what we we did with that. Um

020right now we're in the design and construction preparation phase. um interviewing or he will talk more about that in a second. And then the goal is to have this built um over the summer next not this summer but next summer um so that our kids can start enjoying it by fall 2027. Um if you go to the next slide uh it began with the mural um which went up in the spring um last year and just trying to just visually change the appearance of the the outdoor place play area. um and which was a collaboration between a muralist and the kids uh as part of our resident artist program at Tucker. If you go to the next slide, um we uh had a phase one planning uh committee group which has consisted of parent staff

021um and our administration who's here today. Um, and we worked with Bill Madden to who's a um a landscape architect in town who helped us just uh explore different ideas and what made sense for Tucker, whether we could just fix what was currently there or if it made sense to redesign the area. Um, we had a staff survey that went out and just assessed what staff felt the needs were um in fixing the the the place area. Um, and we used all of that information to go, if you go to the next slide, create some different um, uh, design ideas. Um, and once we looked at the space, because it there's a lot of different moving pieces with, um, like trucks have to get through to get to the um the >> downstairs. Yes. And

022then uh it's such a small footprint and we'd love our like our gym teacher to be able to have gym outside in addition to recess and just redoing the or enhancing the outdoor um classrooms. We decided that we really needed to um redesign the entire space. Um you go to the next slide. Um, in June we conducted a site survey that we funded through PT PTO funds. Um, and that leads us now into phase two, which Haley will talk about >> where we're smack in the middle of phase two. Um, and we next slide. We've been able to complete a lot. Um, but as you can see, what we have left to do um, can seem a little daunting, but we've made progress that I'll describe. This is our estimated total budget of $621,000. Um,

023we've done the first two items. Right now, we're in the middle of hiring a landscape architect um and engineers in order to complete those plans. And then this is a very rough um projected estimate of how much it will cost to actually build this playground. Um, if you go to the next slide, please. So, like we said, um we've already completed the mural. We've already completed the site survey, and we received the really great news that CPC has recommended that we receive a h 100,000 approximately for design costs. And so, that will have to be approved in town meeting. Um but that's that's kind of what we're using to go forward and hire this landscape architect. and we've been meeting with our local officials, um, state reps, and they've just they have discussed with us

024and with each other that and committed to, um, seeking an earmark from the state for $100,000 for a construction cost. So, even though we we anticipate that this project is going to be quite expensive, we are already about $250,000 at least projected into it. Um, so we have we've made some progress and we actually are finally starting to see that this might this might happen. Um, and so if you go to the next slide, Um so right now what is happening is we received um proposals from four design firms. We're interviewing them and we expect to make our decision this month. Next slide please. Um and that's kind of now where we ramp up fundraising. So, we're going to have to we're going to be approaching the entire town essentially and asking them to um

025support this project because we can't do it with the Tucker community alone as we've already discussed. Um we are planning a uh a mailer that goes out to the precincts, all the families in the precincts that attend Tucker trying to get at some alumni. Um, we are going to have a spring event hopefully and we already have a website up that is tracking our progress and can give people information on the project um, whenever they want to see it which we'll be updating periodically anytime we have news or at least every month. Um, we'll be seeking uh, grants from different foundations. Um, and we'll constantly have a dialogue going with our community and all the people that are involved. So, that's kind of where we've been, um, where we are right now and where we

026anticipate being over the next few months to meet the, um, admittedly ambitious timeline of having the new playgrounds by next summer. Um, and we, we we're excited to let you all know this is what's happening. Um, and hopefully receive support um, from you and eventually from the whole community. they can come out and kind of show Tucker that this is a really important project and a priority for the town. >> Thank you very much. And and if I'm watching the show tonight, um how would I actually could I donate right now and what would that look like and how would I go about that? If you want to put a plug in for how I would go and do that, >> you absolutely can do that right now. You can go to um Tucker Ptoilton.

027I always forget the last >> tuckerpto.com. >> There's a new dropdown that says playground project. It went live yesterday. >> Uh, and if you click on it, it will uh earmark your money directly towards the playground ones. >> As simple as possible. You click it, you donate, and it will go right to the playground. >> Perfect. >> So, I encourage everybody watching this show uh to actually go do that now and don't wait till tomorrow. Um, and this will be great for us to be able to direct folks to between now through the spring. Uh, anytime you want to do something good for the Milton public schools, you can actually go on tuckerpto.com and donate for the playground. That would be a great way to direct your money to something that you'll be able to

028see, use uh, and uh, take part in uh, in the community. And so, please, if you're looking to support the schools, uh, you can support the Tucker Playground that way. And that is supporting the schools. So, we appreciate the availability of that being so accessible to folks. Are there any other questions or any questions for the the school committee >> and I'll just leave you um with a little handy reference point. A lot of that information is on the website and was in our presentation, but just something if you >> and the the the spring gala that we're hoping to plan, we also are hoping that it will be a uh reunion of sorts for alumni to come to as well. uh Tucker alumni, Tucker parents and but also the entire community and we're hoping

029to kind of gather more support as a fun event like that. >> So, speaking of alumni of the Tucker School, um the Lieutenant Colonel who spoke at the uh Veterans Day ceremony that started at Milton High and went up to the town hall here and spoke, who now works at the Pentagon, is a Tucker School graduate. Lieutenant Colonel Mark Denton graduated. uh Tucker, I don't know what year, but was at Milton High School in 1988. Uh I was his JB basketball coach. Uh and I'm dating the heck out of myself. And um he was an incredibly gracious speaker uh on on Veterans Day. Uh would love to give back to the community. He grew up in Milton. His I think his mom still lives in Milton. His family does. Uh, so he might be a

030nice reach for that that that group of generation of Tucker graduates who are now like in in their 50s. I mean, there's there's folks that go back a long time. So, I know we've met a couple of times in the summer and then once again in the fall, uh, connecting some alumni and finding names and getting back to you and things like that. whatever we can do to support the work and and also when we get to the um the construction part of this, we spoke about getting together with facilities and running it through that group so we can see whatever inind services that we can use through our facilities department in order to lower the cost and make the program uh happen and the project happen will be part a part where we can

031intervene and hopefully a positive way from a work uh relief perspective and a cost relief perspective. So, we appreciate very very much and we're grateful for the work that you're doing. This is fantastic. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. >> Um, yeah, thank you for all your work. Y'all made this progress. We talked about the playgrounds as a whole and facility advisory a couple years ago. So, you all made much more progress than I think we did. Um, the one of the things we were talking about with Tom McCarthy, I don't know how integrated he is, is the issue of the the trash pickup. I know this conversation at the time I might have before Tom um >> yes Chris of like can the can the trash pickup be moved to the other side

032of the building where the edge of the parking lot kind of thing uh in order to create that separation because obviously driving that giant truck is tremendously impactful to the design planning and like you know how close we can get to equipment and >> those drivers you know it's a big vehicle so if you run into things >> so anyways has that come up any like success on talked with Tom and with the landscape architect and I think we've, >> you know, as it as it stands right now because of the width of the alley and where how the school is adjacent to the neighborhood. I think the trucks still have to come through here unless there's some pretty big structural changes on the act to the actual school. Um, but Tom and the landscape

033director, I think we're we're trying to like turn that into a feature itself. If we have to have this um if we have to have this certain ride ofway always available, maybe that's a track. Like we're trying to turn that opening into a feature of the >> not just a parking lot. It's more of a kind of a windy, you know, it's something that that it is integral to the playground, but also it's not an eyesore and it doesn't feel like this is how the dump truck gets in. This is the kids track or this is the kids. >> That's why we have such a huge focus on the design portion because we have a lot of considerations like that that we're trying to turn into features. you know, visiting different schools throughout this, you

034know, I was up in Arlington and in Boston and just trying to find these other schools that have these small landlocked locations that really don't have the grass and the fields and the space to expand and how you can be creative. I think some schools have done it really well and some schools just plop a playground down and I think we don't want to just plop a playground down, which is why we really want to invest in the design of it and make it a sense of pride for everyone. And I think one thing we've realized going with grants, looking for grant support until we have designs, we really can't get funded by a lot of foundations and grants. So that's why we really wanted to get the design firm on board because then that

035will open up more doors for additional funding. Um, so we're excited to be at that stage where then hopefully the grant can process can happen in the spring. So, we're also hoping that our letters of support support that grant when you're going out to really appreciative of you and and Katie Blake have been really helpful in terms of helping us and guiding us to how we should be having these conversations. So, >> and Katie is who recommended we go after uh state uh talking with Representative Senator. So, let let the committee know who you've connected with and who you've already have visiting the site. I think that's Friday, correct? Well, so we talked with Senator Driscoll and uh Representative Fluker Reed and then we're talking with Senator uh Representative Wells to Friday. Um but Senator

036Driscoll and Representative Fluker Reed have both written letters in support of a year marking 100,000 and then they're going to go after the fair share um which is not a reliable >> newer program. >> Potentially they'll get us more. >> You guys have been busy. So, if it's okay, I just would like to say Ma, Leslie, Haley, like, thank you so much. The three of you are amazing. These three women show up every day to do this, but so many things at Tucker, and you have been for years, and I know you're going to keep doing that. And you work with an amazing team of other volunteer parents at Tucker who do so much. And I know that that kind of work can be thankless. And you know, I don't honestly feel like I or

037our Tucker community or the broader Milton community can ever like properly appreciate you for everything that you're doing. But the ambition that you're bringing to it, the urgency, like it really makes me proud to be part of the Tucker community to just see you like leaning in, stepping up and like showing up in this setting with this amazing plan and everything you've accomplished already, but just the confidence that like we can do this and it's going to be amazing for our kids. And I just really appreciate you so much. I'll be trying to certainly be helpful and supportive. I know we all will. Um, but thank you for everything that you've already done and everything you're doing and you know, >> thank you. >> You're very appreciated. We appreciate that. >> Many of us. So

038>> the colleagues that you're also representing um awesome. So thank you wonderful leaders too behind us. >> This is this is Tucker's night. So Good news story with the playground for our >> good new story with the work that we're doing to support the great leadership uh of the Tucker School on behalf of the wonderful Tucker School community and supporting the students and staff in the community. So you are representing that support in terms of what we're doing for the the Tucker community or what you're doing for the Tucker community and then uh Celeste and Caroline will come up and talk about the support and the leadership they're giving as well. So thank you. Thank you much. So, we'd like to welcome um Celeste Hoey, principal of the Tucker School, and Caroline Morton, assistant principal

039of the Tucker School. Um Celeste is in her second year as the principal of the Tucker School. Um Celeste and Caroline create a very very vibrant and um clear and effective leadership team uh for their staff, for the students, and for the families that they that they work with and their stakeholders. Uh very very excited tonight to be able to hear the um the concerns that that Celeste brought to us related to what she would like to do in order to support the students at at Tucker. uh reviewing the data, identifying areas of concern, being creative in her leadership to uh shift resources that we already have in the Milton public schools, seek partnership with the different um curriculum leadership folks that we have within the schools, and then seek funding, small amount of funding,

040but seeking funding in order to support the work of really creating an instructional leadership team at Tucker in order to identify and uh make take strategic action to support students who may not be meeting at benchmark, which is one of our five values and priorities this year. So, I'm very proud and I'm very very happy to introduce Caroline and Celeste and we have your presentation on the board and um again, thank you for making this the second half of a very good news story for the Tucker School area. >> So, thanks very much, Mr. Failen. I also want to just say thank you to our PTO leadership. We um we had a great uh PTO meeting last night. Carolyn and I go for like the first meeting, the first hour of a meeting and um

041and are there to witness the great work that they do. So, thank you very much. Um so, we're happy to be here this tonight and thank you for um engaging with us. We'd like to share some of the strategic approaches that we're taking um to some of the recent MCAST data that you seen. You saw it, I believe, at your last meeting. We developed um these strategies in conjunction with our partners at the school. We connected with um past leadership um that are connected uh still at the school and at the district level. We connected with um our um sort of union um representatives in the building and our grade level facilitators in addition to teachers as well. We've reviewed some most of the things I believe all of the things that we'll discuss tonight

042with the school community. We try to have an open dialogue um with our community members um that we get to work with every day and um and we plan to have sort of check-ins with some of these approaches that you'll hear about. So, this could be a um something that changes midstream, right Carla? And uh because that's what it's about, responding to data and whatnot. I also want to thank um Mr. Failen and Carla Kosa for being great thought partners. Um they they didn't know me well. um and I sort of came down with a pretty heavy plan and um presented it and um you know wanted their feedback on it um pretty soon after we got the data released. >> So and I also want to thank our assistant principal um she does a

043great job every day. She shows up um she's committed to our staff and our students and she's a real thought partner as well. So, >> we really do have just an excellent staff and it's a good mix of veterans who've been in in the district and in the school for a long time. Um, as well as some new teachers who bring some great energy building. So, >> Mark, you can go to the next slide. I'm not sure. >> That's okay. That's all right. Um so we um so the first couple of slides um I think this is the third slide maybe but is our um is our MCCAST data. You've seen the MCCAST data. We're really not here to dive deep into the MCCAST data. We've um we've analyzed the MCCAST data as um as

044instructional leaders. We've engaged um with our staff about that MCCAST data. We we continue to do that. We continue to look at um relevant um real- time data with our staff that's um ongoing including progress monitoring data. So um we use the tools that V spoke to about prog um with regards to that progress monitoring data such as performance matters which is a real tool that we lean on heavily. So we don't plan to sort of unpack some of this data um unless you have specific questions. Uh so Mark you can go to the next slide. I believe slide six. There we go. So, we have um we developed um what we're calling a schoolwide strategic response to our MCCAST data. Um so, we have four areas that um like Mr. Failen said that we

045sort of um thought about realigning because that's what it's about. Looking at the resources that we have in house and thinking about are we using them effectively? could we realign them? Could we strategically shift some of our practices? And um and that's what we're here to talk to you about today. So, we'll unpack each one, but the first one is going to be we're going to talk about um the creation of an instructional leadership team with existing resources. We'll talk about um how we've structured common planning time with grade level teams. We'll talk about uh some targeted increased um support from district leaders that I asked for and received um wholeheartedly from our district um partners. We'll also talk about the increased use of um a current position in the elementary inclusion specialist. And we'll

046talk about also a current position that we have a team chair and increasing that FTE from a point 6 to a point 8. The desired outcome um for all of these um strategic response items aims to strengthen um student um achievement and growth, improve the instructional quality and consistency, and strengthen school leadership and coherence. And it's bolded there on the slide over a three-year period. Um some of you probably know I've done some turnaround work in my past um appointments and um I don't consider this turnaround work. I consider this sort of a shifting of resources um realignment of um focuses and working with the resources we have and maybe asking for additional resources. But anytime you do anything like that for those of you who are involved with um schools and whatnot, it takes

047time. Um so that's why we're not looking for a quick fix and it also takes time to build that capacity. So that's why we've sort of noted that three-year period. Um, you know, we're looking I think in our next set of conversations with Mr. Failen and um, Carla Kosa, we're going to be looking probably we have sort of a tenative date to check in in January. We're probably looking to see some benchmarks um, and to think about how we know things are working and you know midpoint check-ins um, as soon as like midyear data and end of the year data for year one and things like that. So, um, so that's where we're headed. I'm just going to unpack each one with you and we'll take questions at the end if that's okay. All right,

048Mark, you can go to the next slide. Thank you. Um, so the first thing that we thought of was a great resource we have in our building, which I leaned on last year um, as the new instructional leader of the building, is our grade level facilitators. It's an existing position here in the Milton public schools at the elementary school level. Um, every, from what I understand, every grade at every school has what's called the GLF. Um, and they get a stipen. Um, I went to the superintendent and I asked for that stipen to be increased from $400 to $600. Um, and I asked, um, to increase that so that we could create an instructional leadership team at the building. Um, that's been something in some other schools that I've worked in I've been really able

049to leverage. um it helps to bring the school um around some instructional priorities and it's and it allows an opportunity for um peer-to-peer conversation. Um our GLFs are leaders in the school. Um they've already they're already existing in the school and um they have really good relationships with the peer with the teams um that they lead. Uh we will have a monthly instructional leadership team meeting. uh we we hope to start in December uh sort of develop some norms, develop some focus areas and then jump right into the work in January. Those team meetings um monthly will be about an hour long. There'll be some prep work for it um with regards to reviewing data or coming with questions or soliciting information um from their team members so we can really use that 60 minutes

050and hit the ground running. The meetings will probably occur occur either in the morning or in the afternoon and um it'll really be a time to sort of look at things from a from a from sort of zoom out at a school level and then go deeper at a grade level um and then possibly even grade spans too K to two or three to five um and then in addition to that which they are most of them already do I believe they um lead the common planning time that CPT um every other week when it's not led by Carolina and myself. So again, that desired outcome is to elevate teacher leadership um at Tucker, build instructional coherence and create that sustainable structure over that three-year period of that shared leadership um there. And we've asked

051um for some additional uh funding for that as well. And ultimately, you know, we think we believe and the research typically has shown that those factors have um led to increased student achievement growth. Um, if you could go to the next slide, I'm going to expand a little bit on that CPT structure, that common planning time that we already have within the school day. One of the benefits of being a smaller school is we have three classes per grade level. We also have three specialist teachers per grade level, art, music, and PE. So we're able to have for most days a common time outside of the lunch and prep time for teachers where they can meet with their grade level teams while students are at um at their specials. So common planning time is led

052by um either myself or Celeste um every other week. um we try to lead it together if we can um if the day allows it and it's something that's in the the contract that it's led by administration every other week and then on the off weeks it's le led by our GLFs the grade level facilitators. Um so with this shift we're we're looking to implement that structure. So student achievement and growth is the priority of each common planning time. It's something that we had last year but we've made a little bit more of an instructional shift in that time spent. It's about 40 minutes with with um with grade level teams once a week. And the shift that we've made for this year rather than having, you know, we still do a little bit of

053housekeeping. Let's talk about student concerns you may have. Let's talk about something that's coming up for the week that you have questions about. But really what we've been doing this year is using tools for lesson planning, lesson internalization, some tools from from Jessie, um and really unpacking the grade level standards that they're teaching. what does mastery look like? Um what what are you using to um assess students? What is the the knowledge that they need to have before entering the lesson? So, what's been been helpful about the common planning that we've had so far is really being able to unpack those standards with everyone and then make those shifts in the the curriculum if we need to to to ensure that students are really accessing that tier one instruction and then getting the supports that

054they need if they're not mastering um the standards. So, like I said, that's led by myself and Celeste or the grade level facilitators from the instructional leadership team. So the the strategy that Celestein just mentioned on the last slide will really go hand inand with that instructional leadership team. We can kind of take that um zoomed out approach and and we can lean on those expert teachers to lead common planning if on the week that we're not there to to keep that um message clear from week to week about um lesson planning and lesson internalization. So next slide. Yep. So, we've asked um we've asked them for some targeted increased district support from some district leaders. Um we decided to start small because we don't want to take on too much right initially. So, um

055Caroline and I reached out to um the math department head or curriculum director. We reached out to the literacy director. Uh we also reached out to the DEIB director and we reached out to the head of guidance. Um so we're asking folks to come and uh work with us. Um we didn't really specify how much time, maybe an hour, hour and a half, two hours. Um be at the school um typically every seven days um because that's what works for some of the folks that work at the middle school. and um to either attend common planning time with us, either go in and do some learning locks into some classrooms um to maybe unpack a little data with us and to also kind of look at classroom culture and um and structures. Uh so we've

056we're sort of in the middle. I think we've had maybe two rounds um of it and um it's been going well. We've been taking um that feedback and then planning ahead for upcoming common planning times. We've been taking their feedback and also kind of planning for um some student support services. So, it looks different with the different directors. The nice thing is Caroline and I, we were able um from me, she already had these relationships. We built some really good relationships with these four folks last year. So for them coming in, um it seems really natural anyways and it's nice to get out into classrooms and to see things through a different lens. Um Caroline has a great background. Um I try to keep, you know, my background up with my um my own professional

057development, but we're not math experts. and sometimes having being next to the math director looking at a particular lesson just a small shift that you can mention to a teacher of you know launching it this way or doing that it makes it makes a difference and sometimes that's not something that we're able to do. So um it's been really nice to have that support and um and again the focus is that we want to you know help teachers make any shifts. We want to as a school as school leaders make any shifts that they can suggest and really have that collaboration time with the ultimate goal for improving um student achievement and growth. >> So >> be able to give that um kind of real-time feedback as well to teachers in the moment with you

058know not so much pressure that it's a formal evaluation. Um >> and it's been all very public too. We've let the teachers know like this is when um this is when these directors will be here. um this is the time frame because we don't want any surprises, right? They're here. Um we might be going into this grade level or we might just be walking the building in general. Um and um and we don't stay in classes very long. I think um the other day Cat D Ro was in um I believe on Tuesday and we you know I think we're in classes for probably seven, eight, nine, 10 minutes and then we went we went into three classrooms and then we were able to kind of debrief and she gave us some feedback that Caroline

059and I can take and in our future planning. So um so we're not sitting for 30 minutes. We're not taking any notes. So, there's definitely deliberate things we're doing because we care deeply about our educators and our staff members and we don't want to create any undue stress or any undue anxiety. We want everyone to know that, you know, we're coming at this in a supportive manner. I can't think of anything better as an educator than, you know, looking and prepping for a math lesson and then seeing the the K to2 math director in the hallway and being able to stop him for a quick chat about it and make those kind of real-time adjustments rather than feel like, oh, do I need to send him an email and and it's, you know, it kind

060of takes away that barrier and gives you um that that district support, yeah, that access point to to speak with someone and then lets, you know, the staff know that this is a district priority. there are district staff here um coming to us to to support. If you could go to the next slide, please. I'm going to just talk a little bit more about the increased use of our elementary inclusion specialist. This is again another structure that's already in place, but we really really wanted to leverage her and maximize the the time that she spends in our building. She's at Tucker on Wednesday mornings for our student support team. um and she leads the student support team process at all four elementary schools. And she has a wealth of knowledge from her own background um

061in occupational therapy and in working in the Milton public schools for for a long time um and working in all four schools. So with with um Moren Butler, we're asking her to spend some time in the classrooms with either Celeste, myself, or just connect directly with um the classroom teachers for a consult. So, it's um a little bit similar to what we're asking of the coordinators in that we're looking for just a fresh set of eyes on students and somebody who has a different background than um being just a you know a classroom teacher. She has a wealth of knowledge of little instructional shifts that um that teachers can make to make that tier one instruction a little more accessible to students. um she might be walking in and identifying students who might need a

062different support in um building towards mastery of content or a skill. Um so she's been already in classrooms as well providing um some consult time to meet with teachers and staff and just providing resources and strategies um around student engagement and the learning process um which has been really beneficial. and she knows the students that um we might be keeping a closer eye on and providing um some additional tier 2 supports because she's she's leading those student support team meetings. So, she already has the background knowledge of students. Um she knows the building, she knows the staff, and it's someone who can, you know, go in um in a really nice way and provide some feedback that that doesn't feel like it's an administrator coming in. You know, we do like to provide feedback, but

063it's just a different lens um and and a different background that she has. So, we really wanted to leverage her because it's it's a system that's already in place. So, we don't want to create something new that it takes people time to get acclimated to. They all know her. Um they all know the student support team process. So, um our thought is to maximize that time that she's already in the building um and and use her with um just a little bit more um thought in the time that she's done with student support. So, >> and we track it too. We keep a we keep a log of um the classroom she's been in. Um she kind of completes um the engagement that she's had with the that classroom teacher and the teachers know that

064she's coming in. Um and sometimes we've also used our calls for assistance data to kind of say, "Hey, >> what's going on in that particular room?" Um you know, maybe we'll have um Moren kind of check in with them when she's here on Wednesday um with this um with this targeted use of her time. So, um, so far it's been about maybe two and a half weeks and, um, you know, people, um, we haven't heard any negative feedback. Again, we have a union check-in every month with our union, um, representatives in the building, and that'll just be that constant dialogue and any kind of small shifts that we need to make, we'll make as well, so that we make sure that everyone understands that the support. So and you know and again the the focus

065is so that students are engaged in the learning process in the class. So that's the desired outcome and then Mark if you want to go to the last slide. Uh team chair excuse me the next slide. Um so we have um sorry one back sorry about that it's been a long day with slides. So, um, so we have a team chair, um, for special education, um, in our building. She was budgeted this year for 6. Um, we the case loads, um, pretty large at Tucker. Um, the process is, um, is is is long. However, um, she's she's a great employee. She does a great job. Um, we meet every Monday. We kind of plan out what her week is looking like, what supports does she need from Caroline or myself. um and whatnot. She has

066meetings with um the special education team which is amazing at Tucker every Thursday. Um but we we're looking to increase her from a point 6 to a point 8. Um not only so that she can have additional time to do her current duties, but also to layer on similar to um the elementary inclusion specialist, also to kind of layer on like what's going on with our students with disabilities. um are they on track um to meet the goals on their IEPs? Um how are they doing in class when the special education teacher might not be pushing in for grade B services? Um so we're going to that will begin in December. That's when sort of that change happens. Excuse me. and um and we will uh be looking to do a similar leverage of her

067position in her time that we are using the elementary inclusion specialist. So, we plan to unpack that um a little bit more with our staff. Um they they're aware of it, but what does that support look like? Um there might be some classroom observations of a student who might be um struggling when the special educator isn't in the room or when the paraprofessional or educational assistant isn't in the room. Are there small shifts that can be done by the classroom teacher? Are there structures that can be left in place before the special education teacher leaves to service other students? So that's that's um it's all about student engagement again with leveraging this um position. So um and um we did ask for that increase there. And then I believe Marcus the last slide. Here's the

068last slide. Um so again this is just a review of what we've presented. Um and again just thinking that you know the this strategic response um with these five levers or action steps really we're looking to aim and strengthen student achievement and growth, improve instructional quality with consistency and strengthen school leadership and coherence. And again just sort of emphasizing that three-year plan. Um, and like I said earlier, we want to once we've gone through this for a month or two, check back in with Mr. Balin and with Carlo Kosa and think about what are some benchmarks look like over the next few months before the end of the year because I do think that with a plan like this, we need to be reflective um with are the strategies working, do they need to be

069shifted, um are the focus areas the right ones and whatnot. And I think you can do that when you put in place um some data points. It'll be student data. I believe it will be um observation data of teacher adult practices. Um it'll be um and the student data could look like the dibbles middle of the year, the I Ready middle of the year, but also calls for assistance um student engagement, student output in class. So it might be that um soft more qualitative theater as well. Um but we hope to do that and put that in place um and moving forward and be able to check in on that. So we appreciate um your your attention to our slides and we'd be happy to answer any questions we could try. >> So I I

070first want to say thank you very much and I want to say to the school committee and to the Tucker PTO um and families, this is educational leadership in action. This is what it looks like. This is what a an educational leader and uh uh leaders do. They look at data. They introduce themselves to the community. They take a good firm uh view of what's working, what's not working, ingratiate the families, uh build relationships with teachers, and then look at the data and decide what actions need to happen. And they go to leadership and they ask for it. They advocate for it. And that is exactly what Celeste has done. I want to commend her for being someone who came right into the district, did a great job last year, uh, advocated over the summer,

071looked at her scores, collaborated with existing personnel and staff and resources, asked for very small amount of additional resources, which the school committee has already approved, and now is taking those action steps in the same year that the data that she's seeing, what's working, what's not. So, um, as a superintendent, uh, Kyler and I have already been in learning walks at at the Tucker. I think it was there last Friday. Uh, the ability for this leadership team to observe teaching and learning, praise good practices, support the staff, unpack lessons, you know, know every child, understand and seek more supported understanding what children need in order to be successful, not just from a math perspective, but from an engagement perspective. um and and garnering all the resources and all the people in the right way that

072attack a situation. Uh that certainly needs support and ongoing. This is not a one-year thing. I I agree with Celeste and I appreciate her saying that this is a three-year plan that will adjust over time according to what the data says and what the students are telling us they need and according to what the the the teachers are telling us that they need. >> Yeah. and teacher voice in working uh in schools is huge. Celeste's ability to work with the the grade level administrators, the GLFs and listen to the staff, find out what they need, incorporate teacher voice into leadership positions now through that. Um and also want to thank the teachers for being open and and engaging and you know actually motivated and I want to thank the Milton Educators Association for saying whatever

073they need ask them what they need and we'll say okay there was no written document there was no big discussion what is what does the team need please have them talk to the grade level facilitators and then whatever they decide they want we will agree to. So this is a comprehensive leadership move by a dynamic team that is in um engage engaging a community in all the right ways that we believe will be important and lead to successful student outcomes. Uh and having been on learning walks in the school. Uh if if I was a parent, I'd be so happy to know that my my staff know every child's name, that they're in classrooms every day, that they're talking about teaching and learning supporting students. Um this is uh this is very very uh you

074know I'm very grateful for your work and your leadership and I'm very thankful to the staff that are jumping on uh the work with you and partnering with you and so and when we talk about at the district level we're presenting the data to the community two weeks ago. So what are you doing? This is what we're doing. This is what happens when you look at data and you see good news and challenging news. You come up with a plan from expert educational leaders. You help them implement it and then you get out of the way, right? I need to just get out of the way and let the good people do the work. So, uh we're trying to provide that support. So, thank you for the school committee for supporting uh the the small

075request of support that this team has asked for. It will go a long way and we look forward to hearing how it goes and checking in and also finding out what additional things that you need, which is part of our FY27 conversation that we're having actively right now as well. So, thank you. >> And the team at Tucker is very dynamic in every classroom and um Mr. Failen and Carla have been in the classrooms. Um teachers are teaching grade level standards. Um you know, students are engaged. We're asking for small shifts for reflection for um we're hoping to provide better supports um for that with the structures that we're putting into place. We in no way, shape, or form want to say things weren't being done. I think we're just looking for to make some

076shifts in focus. Um, and people are very engaged with that. Um, so I want to make sure I make that clear. Yeah, the learning walks are just so like you know watching a grade three teacher with seven students on the rug doing a lesson in math while the other 18 students are engaged in different groups uh at different levels of work differentiating the work using technology using workbooks using pen and paper everybody engaged one teacher 24 students right uh amazing going into a a class where we're writing students have pencils in their and they're actually using a graphic organizer. The teacher is at the board. They're going through the writing process. Um, you know, there's the students are working hard. The teachers are working hard and and good things will happen. Good things have been

077happening and these small leverages that we are asking for their opinion to do with the teacher uh feedback and their support and their voice in this, it'll all go a long way. Good teachers, good leadership will result in good things for students. And that's what Tucker is all about. Any questions for the dynamic dual we have at the table? >> Sure. >> Um can you explain just a little bit more um the role of the grade level facilitator like who who that is how they're chosen what how they work. Do you mind just Sure. Sure. I might lean on Caroline. something I um I was a grade level facilitator when I was previously a second grade teacher, but um it's it's almost like a volunteer position, but it's somebody who who's been in the district

078um or in the school for a while um and volunteers to kind of be the team lead essentially. Um so when Celeste and I have a question about something, you know, we we have a um hoop email with with one of those teachers for every um six of the grade levels. So um it's somebody who wants to do the work of kind of being the point person of the team um wants to facilitate, feels comfortable facilitating, has kind of built relationships with the staff members, feels comfortable with the content. Um you know, we we wouldn't want someone new to a grade level being the grade level facilitator. They're just getting used to your curriculum. Um same for somebody who's new to the school. So it's somebody who's more so a veteran of of the grade

079level in the school. So there's one in K there's one so there's one grade level facilitator for every grade in the building >> and this is something that's in every elementary school >> but they are the teacher leader for that grade >> and a lot of times Amanda they'll um they'll on the off weeks when we they don't have common planning time with us um per the contract that's when it's not administrative le they'll lead the common planning and they'll hear some concerns um from their team members and they might last year the grade level the GLFS at Tucker I found to be very dynamic last year um in this year as well. They're the same group essentially and they would reach out to the curriculum coordinators on their own CC Caroline and myself and

080say you know we were talking at our CPT um this week you know with just teachers and we're really confused about this particular standard or we want to move around um the module teaching with math um for this term because of some data. So it, you know, like Caroline said, they're leaders already. We're just looking to build upon that. We're looking to build in um some coherence um within the school um and to to have that time because there were a couple of instances last year where um I was used to having an instructional leadership team in my other buildings where I sort of was calling them to meet and then I realized I'm like, "Oh, they only get paid this much and this is their responsibility is that I can't call them, you know,

081as a team at 8:00 on a Wednesday morning because I'm confused about something or I want to get clear as a school about something and then push that message out um to the teachers so that we're all on the same page level on the page with that. So by by doing this um leveraging the existing role adding a little bit more having some set time to meet we'll really be able to have the coherence that's our goal um so and then with a road map um because every good ILT um that I've worked with either I've been a member of or a leader of a part leader of um you know you typically try and have a road map you know the road map might make some changes along the road along the way but

082there is a there is a road map there for the year you know what are we trying to achieve what are the pieces that we'll be looking at and um and then going from there. >> Yeah, I think this new structure with being able to have all six of these educators in a room for an hour will be really beneficial. Just one example that I can think of is, you know, if we're meeting with a third grade team and they're really trying to drill down on some writing to prepare their students for an open response on MCCAST or any type of writing project, you know, the question is, well, what's the expectation in second grade? What do they do in second grade? those projects. Second grade is in the middle of teaching their content. Third

083grade is in the middle of meeting. It's hard to to find that time to discuss with the the previous grade level. Oh, what were you doing? So, it's building that coherence. Let's talk to the grade leader, talk about what um standards they really focused on, what writing projects they did, um and really get a baseline of of what these third graders were capable of and and what they can do to kind of push the instruction and and push the rigor a little bit more in the classroom. I have been a teacher for a while. So I'm very excited to hear all those great planning behind and having the teachers voice and having them contribute to um lead the team and be be the voice of the change is very essential and I can foresee that

084this will be a very great plant to listen to in the next three years and every year you come back you will share with us a lot of great data. So, I'm very excited to see this. Um, I I'm just wondering like is the PD that we are providing in the district supportive of the things that you wanted to do with the teachers and do you guys feel that you have enough time um throughout the school day to to have everything accomplished? >> That's um so that's an interesting point, something we reflected on. um that might be something we come back to the district with. But right now um we have um the PD time that we have with the district is meeting our needs because we're unpacking some things. Um just today we had

085our PD time. it was district um sort of u led but school-based delivered and um we you know many things came up with talking about some consistency across um grade spans and I was thinking as Caroline was taking notes I'm thinking this will be the the information that we use at our first IT meetings because this is what's being generated by um by the grade level teams um there is there is also great resources within the building. Many many people um not many many but several people from our Tucker staff um gave presentations at the full day PD on November 4th and we went to um one of them together and we knew other staff that went to other ones and we've already sort of booked them to present at faculty meetings. We had a

086faculty meeting on Tuesday. We have an dynamic um math interventionist. she presented um her PD in a um in sort of an abridged version at our 45 minute faculty meeting this p just two days ago and today I observed a lesson with um one of the teachers you know using those math routines implementing it in and doing that. So that's great. I think it's great when you can have folks that you've worked with share things that they're presenting to the district, then take it back to the staff because then they're in the building and people can just go to them and say, "Oh, I like that. I can you come do it with me? Can you look at this?" So, that's what we're hopeful for that. Yeah. So, um right now I think we're okay.

087Um you know, we might come back. Um I ask a lot. I ask for a lot. So, >> teachers could always use more time. I would hate to say that teachers, you know, teachers always love more time. Yeah. >> Um, >> yeah, the math PG was something that was really helpful to see that full day PD. We were able to tap into the expertise we have really inhouse in the district, but in the building, I was so excited about the math routines. I wanted to do them at lunch the next day with all the students. That's their time to eat. Like that's um but actually one of the >> um the PD that we did this afternoon with staff and we were able to visit all the classrooms and really check in. one of the

088the grade levels in particular, I saw you could really see the grade level facilitator taking charge of that um of that conversation and being a notetaker and asking prompting questions of her team. So that was um just another example of that that strong um grade level leader. Um but the the PD for today was tied to priority four which is really focusing on those students who might not be meeting grade level standards or might um closing that achievement gap. So, I think the PD what we have right now um for the PD process is is really beneficial to to the staff and they're able to lock into what tools do we have that we could use, how um can we get other tools that we might need. So, you know, even though it was just

089a couple of hours of professional development, I think it was really um well aligned to to what we're looking for as a school and as a district. >> A little more context, too. So, as you know, we start with our priorities. We had our uh full day PD last week where we asked uh teachers about what they need and uh in regards to priority 4, um it was really about tools. I need more tools. And so, what we had them do today is meet in teams and surface what are we doing? So what do you know talk about it together and kind of um with you know just classroom educators, special educators, different specialists in the room and just surface everything that we think we know how to do uh to help our students who

090might be underperforming or not meeting benchmark. Um and then what might be we be missing and then what we will take all that data from all of the schools think it through as a leadership team and figure out okay what is it telling us? um what's missing as you know as a leadership team what's missing from what they're talking about and how do we fill those gaps for them we'll come up with sort of a plan in terms of PT and training that will happen in the spring but today was really about having the conversation and thinking through together what are we doing um and what questions do we still have and then leadership team will take all of that and so in each school and each team might have different needs and we'll have

091to assess that and try to figure out how to deliver um but that's kind of what they were doing today just to kind of give you a little more context >> and and at a district level like Celeste and Carolina listening to their staff and helping u respond to their needs. This is what we did at the district level. So at the district level two weeks ago we asked what they needed. They told us they wanted tools to support that kind of work. We then responded to that by having each building ask those questions and engage in that work and we'll bring that back. So, uh, I I'm we're we're hoping that the educators feel supported and valued and listened to because the other one's doing the work. And so, it's our job to hear

092that and make adjustments. And at a district level, that's what's happening. And at the school-based level, uh, it's even taken a step further with the pilots and the work that's going on with the type of school here tonight. Uh first of all just thank you for all of this here leadership. Um I just had a small thought. Um the So you're calling this a strategy which it definitely is. Like you could have come in here with a list of 10 ideas to to make change and instead there's like four or five which means you're choosing not to do some things and instead choosing to do the things and it's these are like hyperfocused grounded in your theory as to what will change student learning. So I love that. Um, and when I was listening to

093you talk about the um, uh, pushing into classrooms and doing observations to you or um, folks from the district. Uh it seemed like maybe you were I imagine you're thinking about the change that's happening as a result of this strategy of like how people are internalizing how building um and it seemed like you were worried about like the stress that this would cause people um and I was reminded of I don't know this isn't my quote it's someone else's that says uh how's it go amateurs need praise professional crave feedback and everybody deserves gratitude and so the gratitude is clear and everyone at Tucker is a professional. Um so they're all craving feedback and I would just like >> I would just say don't if you're going to if if this is going to be

094one of your small number of strategies like don't pull your punches like spend more time in classrooms. People want it. um uh lean in all the way to the choices that you're making this year. Um if you believe in them and you know I I think I think people will be grateful for it. >> Yeah, that's something that stood out to me um when Celeste had was hired um and I think this spring it was my first year at Tucker and um she she met with maybe it was June um met with some teachers who had been in the building and it really stuck out to me. One of the teachers said you know we we're we're looking for feedback. We want to see each other. We want to observe other classrooms. We want to

095see um kind of those quick little teacher moves that teachers do to to re-engage students. Um but it was something that maybe had I don't want to say fell off during COVID, but you know, it was something that people weren't going into each other's classrooms as much. Um and some of our classrooms were online, but it really stuck out to me. They said, "Well, we want that from from leadership again." So that they are definitely craving. And I think it is wise to like sort of be paying attention to stress that people may feel from from change. >> Um, and I would just encourage you to to lean into your IT to help you with that. >> Yeah, definely. >> And you could also I mean you're monitoring a bunch of information during this like

096this is a piece of information like how are people feeling about it? >> Check in on them. Do a couple pulse surveys or something like that to get that data. >> Thank you. >> But thank you for this. This is great. I'm excited to see what happens. What was great about Tucker is that the culture I I don't want to speak for you, but the culture was already there. You know, there had been a lot of turnover and I can just say I didn't tell you I'd say this, but I'm really grateful for for Celeste leadership. Um, and I know the the PTO representatives would say the same as well. And having that instructional lens and background, um, it's really made that shift, but the culture, the the teachers have really been the rock. When

097you think about we have fourth and fifth graders who have said >> who's going to be the princip who's going to be the principal next year because they've had a new principal >> next year like I'm going to be right here I'll be right here right now. I had like fifth graders saying what did I bet you you're not going to be here next year. I said well you're going to be at the middle school. Oh we'll be back to check. I'm like all right how much you want to bet? >> They just thought you know I have some kids that think we have some kids that think oh there's just a new principal every year. And that became the norm. So that's well who's gonna be next year's first year she's ever had a

098principal for the second time >> and she's in fourth grade. So it's really it's important that um some of this is just building momentum from last year. Um and so this is the first time you know not to say there haven't been excellent leaders at Tucker but um you know we're able to kind of build on some of that momentum and consistency a little bit. And there isn't you're not starting fresh every year with a new focus. You already have the context of the year prior. Um, and I do feel really grateful that we have um, previous Tarper administration still working in the district. They've really leaned on them as well to to kind of give us some other context too and um, just so we're not, you know, starting from from zero every every

099year. >> Um, so one of the things that I think is great that you talked about is coming back and looking at sort of like what are the benchmarks. So in a way it's it's not that it's like you've recognized um issues, you've recognized concerns on where maybe there's underperformance um and then putting things in place to address that. So I think from like the MCAST level or some of that data, it's there there are benchmarks or measurements that you can look at. um areas that are less um clearly defined are maybe around like the student engagement um and then um probably where the team chair is coming in. So is there I don't know from a process standpoint is there the thought that maybe you would come back or there would be I think

100I would be really curious just to see this. Yeah. I just to see well as you're talking about adjusting things and and all of that to it would be interesting to see >> you know sort of what >> how it played out but like what are the measurements around that student engagement is it time on task is it is it attendance is it you know those things I think that would be interesting to see >> we had our site council this morning um and um luckily we have two educators as parents um who sit on that site council pretty consistently um this year one was very consist assistant last year and um one member said um for the benchmarks because we went over these slides and we were talking about some other pieces um you

101know we should look at our um student with disabilities or students on IEPs um their progress notes you know um how do they shift um during the year and I thought thank you I hadn't thought of that yet you know what I mean so those types of pieces of information we do keep a um we started this right when we sort of got together. Last year, we do keep a um a call log for assistance. Um we do a room service approach. Um if if students are having issues, we come to you right in the classroom. Um because we want to keep students in the classroom, re-engage them um with um calm corners and whatnot. If students need a walk, we're happy to take them for a walk. If something happens, we're happy to deal

102with that as well. But for the most part, we um do our room service approach and um we come right to you. We reset, we stay, we might do a walk, we might stay with students or what have you. And um but that data gets kind of tracked in the office and it's not about we prefaced it when we presented it last year when I began um when I first started. It's not about the adults. It's more about the kids because some students might have a real aversion to math and then they're going to throw that water bottle when the math lesson starts. You know what I mean? So, it's about, you know, you know, when we know that when we've seen that over a fiveday cycle or what have you, um, you know, we

103can preview that with a particular student like, oh, we're going to be starting math, you know what I mean? We're talking about this, having those private conversations or giving that information ahead of time, and then we might not see as many calls for assistance and whatnot. So, um, you know, those are like the small shifts and, um, and that's why we do keep that call for assistant data. Our administrative assistant is the best employee. um in the building I believe and I think everyone in the building would say that she keeps that data and um she sometimes can't fill in the wise and the and the what's but she keeps the data and then we can kind of fill that in and then uh last year we were checking in um with the behaviorist and

104whatnot. This year uh Carol and I has done has done many of those check-ins just on our own and then been able to make some shifts um with that. Um but those and that's the data we're using to sort of engage um the elementary inclusion specialist as well. And that's the data I believe that we'll probably use um to engage with our um team chair when when that sort of shift begins in December. Some of that data but yeah >> and then more on like a classroom level too. It just makes me think about how we can engage the um instructional leadership team and in common planning. You know, we have implemented um like a calm corner in every classroom. It was kind of a soft ask at the beginning of the last year just

105because we wanted to make that shift and say, "Hey, is there >> um you know, if a student is, you know, feeling a little bit sluggish and and you want to get them re-energized or they're having a hard time with something, oh, take a break." We want them taking that break in the classroom, still engaging with the learning and still being with their peers. Um, and now it's something that we do have in all K to 5, even pre-K, preK to 5 classrooms. So, it's something that we can check in on in common planning. You know, the novelty of it is like, oh, I can go play with a fidget in the corner over there and I don't have to do my work. That wears off really quickly. You see first graders, you know, heading

106back to the comm corner, taking a quick structured two-minute break with some math manipulatives and getting themselves with a timer and then getting back >> to learning just like, you know, we all do if we're sitting on, >> you know, three hours of Zoom calls. You take you get up and you take that walking break. Having students be able to recognize um and regulate themselves, I think, is so huge. Um, so leaning on the teachers to see, hey, have fifth graders been taking less breaks? Are they are they engaging more in the work, you know, um, is something >> we do have students with, um, on their IEPs that know breaks and whatnot, and our PTO helped us out over the summer to buy some relaxation station in the hallway materials. Um, >> my favorite

107part of the school, like one of those secrets. >> So, we do have those, and those are on a timer as well. But um you know for the most part we're looking for kids to be in the classroom having spaces for that to happen. Um there uh again really appreciate it. I I want to thank you John. Thank you um so much for coming. I think like this is improvement at Tucker is incredibly urgent uh kind of thing that we need to be focused on as a school committee as a district. I am thrilled that you are coming with a plan to kind of the points that have been made by my colleagues. I think this is something we've talked about at school committee for three years. I think every time it's okay, what are

108we doing? I think we have not gotten a clear plan conversation like what is the step? What is the thing they need? What will change it? And I think there's I felt kind of urgency from former um leaders around this. And so I'm so grateful that you'll have come with a plan. and so grateful that you have prioritized this plan and brought it to us so that we can move forward. I think it's something that again prior school committee members shout out to Bev have like consistently kind of raised previously and so glad we are kind of at this point. Um I think there's so much opportunity at Tucker if you look at historical performance on MCCAST kind of where where it was prior to the pandemic which I shared previously. Um you know as

109you talked about like some other baseline data attendance is not an issue at Tucker. It is the 19th best school in the state uh with attendance out of 1,800 schools. Uh it is phenomenal attendance um at Tucker. Kids are showing up. You have a phenomenally invested parent community at that school. Like that is not an issue um that you know some some other schools that have performance um concerns are experiencing. So like you just have a as you've said like a very strong baseline. I think there's just so much room for quick and um sustained success within that community. Uh I a couple things uh questions I have is you know the given where we are and kind of the length of time that we have unfortunately been where we are with unable to kind

110of turn the ship with student performance at Tucker. It obviously means that every year we're compounding the issue, right? We have more students who are not meeting expectation, more students who need support to get to kind of grade level standards. Typically from my experience, what that means is like we need more time with those kids, right? Those kind kids need more time on instruction. That's one piece I didn't see within the kind of strategy. y'all talked about that like what are the opportunities where we can give kids more time on instruction either through pull out during the school day through um you know intensive tutoring after school um you know what are what are those opportunities that you've looked at or >> so um we have worked with Katie um starting last year and um

111with our site council member our only site council member last year Charles Davis um and we really thought talked about How do we use the title one funds differently? Um so at Tucker historically um title one has funded a math interventionist salary. Now you know um each year the salary goes up. So the title one money sort of um stays the same >> stays the same or goes down. It decreases. Um Katie was graciously enough um helped us last year to kind of maneuver some money um so that we got a little bit of a bigger pot and we were able to begin a pilot program which extended the whole year and we used um because we didn't want to have we wanted to introduce it as a pilot and to use students who were

112already there in school in working in the um extended day program in the afterchool program. So, we looked at data. We worked with our afterchool director Jesse Connley and Martha Sandaval and we were able to compile their lists of students that um are at the afterchool program um routinely every day or you know set days every week. We looked at their data. We identified students. We um we secured uh Tucker teachers to provide that tutoring after school. It was um 3:30 to 4 and then 4 to 4:30. And then we piloted, we developed a pilot with um uh Curry. So Caroline has a connection over at Curry through some family members and we were able to connect with um a lovely new director there um an undergraduate person and we sort of have this pipeline

113of students that we bring in. Uh we do some training on some literacy materials. Cat D. Ro helps us and we were able to um get some tutoring for students um last year on a consistent basis. We're doing the same program this year. We we didn't have to reinvent the wheel with our connection to Curry. She already knew our game plan. She knew everybody came and was happy. And um so we have our title one tutors that have begun this year. Um so that's up and running. It's about three weeks in and um and we're we're now we have expanded it to not just students who are enrolled in the afterchool program because we did get some um parent feedback about that like why can't my student be in and whatnot. And what we do

114is we um we harness the the time frame from 3:30 to 4 students who might be a parent pickup at 4 because you know moving it from 3:19 to 4 isn't too tough for most families. And then for our students who might um qualify or or signal for additional support that are in the after school program, we just put them in the 4 to 4:30 slots. Um so we we do have that in. We did not put that in here. We looked at their data and uh last year and we did see some impact on it. We've worked with Cat D. Ro this year to better identify um set materials to better identify the consistency and to better identify the mechanisms um with the progress monitoring that's already going on during the school day. Um,

115so this year I think we have and Caroline has also had >> I was gonna say we have well we got some additional grant funding through Cat Roa Burn at Butler the um early childhood director and so that's an early childhood literacy um going to say the word consortium grant um through Stonehill um also with Randolph. So, we have some additional funds with that that we have some early literacy work happening with students in um right now we've identified second and third grade um and we'll move that you know once we give first grade a little time to settle in with the curriculum and the UFly program um >> and those groups will change every six to eight weeks. >> So, we look at that benchmark data and they're getting you know um they're really

116drilling down on the UFly lessons. So I I ran a group um on Monday and we were going through the UFly for one of the students. It was something that that student had done in the classroom that day really giving that double dose and we're we're working on the diagramraphs that the students learn that day um just in a small group of four. So that um we're really looking forward to. I really enjoy the UFI program. I think the phonics it's it's really exceptional work that's happening for early literacy. Um, and we're seeing kind of the growth in students already who are getting that curriculum and that K to2 um, in third grade band. So, we're we're happy that we have that fund as well. But that was I'm glad that you mentioned that because

117that was something that came to mind, too of kind of expanding the the the day for students and have having the gift of time to to give a little more um, instruction. >> Yeah. I Yeah. I mean, if you're trying to catch students up beyond kind of the average student, you either need to have better than average instructional delivery or you need to have more time on instructional delivery or ideally both. >> And it's also about like thinking about like the student time in the classroom. So last year, um I told you I asked for a lot. I went to Katie and we we talked about how the Title 3 money is used for language learners. And um we had language learners in the building. Um, we use Boost. Um, a lot of districts use

118Lexia. I had come from districts that had used Lexia. So, using Lexia to build phonics skills and language learners, it's a little bit easier from my perspective as a former reading specialist than using Boost. Boost is a little bit more um language heavy when they're interacting with the screen. So, just as a former ESL teacher as well, going into classrooms, seeing language learners at Tucker engage with Boost, I sort of said, you know, this we could use this other program called Imagine Learning um specifically designed for language development for language learners um because in my previous roles, I had had relationships with folks from this national um company that puts out this program specifically for language learners and it's been out for about five, six, seven years. It's well grounded. Um, they were able to

119give us a pilot. I think they charged us, even though I didn't want them to charge us, but they charged us $500. I believe we were able to pilot it at Tucker. And then, um, again, Katie and I tried to work some magic with them over the summer. We've got 40 licenses. It's across all four um, elementary schools. And, um, I believe it just began either last week, and I'll do a check-in to make sure it's up and running um, for students, language learners. Um so it's for students who might have proficiency levels one through like a 3.5 um in grades one through five um I believe or maybe two to five I can't remember exactly. So really thinking about we've done some time last year and this in this year to your point Mark

120about like what are the what's the student experience? Are we leveraging their time effectively in the classroom? because putting language learners, we saw firsthand with a newcomer from Haiti um in grade three, you know, putting him on Boost was not the right use of his time, you know, but yet when we switched him over to putting him on Imagine Learning once we were able to get the pilot up and running and then we were able to also give him additional support with um a reading interventionist in addition to the ESL support he was getting from the ESL teacher. Um we've seen great growth and he speaks to us in >> great sentences. >> Yeah. So um and his writing's coming along. >> How many kids are currently participating the the after school tutoring? >> I

121believe we have a combined amount for about 36. We're still um we've sent out the invitations and um we've done some more invitations out. Um so we have slots for about 45. So, it's we're trying to get um connected with families to make sure they saw our bright orange paper and then um get it back to us. And if they can't do it for some reason, then there's a second tier. This is the same model we did last year to kind of get that capacity up. It's like planning for a wedding, right? You have, you know, 200 seats, you might invite 225. So, you know, to get that 200. So, >> you'll see me on the Parkway running after people at the Oregon. I don't I got a signature in the best of you all

122the other day. So, we're excited about and the family is excited, too. They might not just have seen it at the bottom of the backpack. >> Um, so we're just trying to really engage with families so that they're aware of that support. >> If you're able to fill all those seats and you're able to looking to expand those further, I certainly would love the opportunity to hear that request from y'all and see if we can do even more. >> Yeah. That we just need more title one money. Yeah. >> So Katie knows that Katie's gonna >> um just another question you mentioned around like teachers wanting to see best practices. I totally uh agree with that. Not even just within the classroom, but outside. And I think as I also heard you talk about common

123planning time, it sounds like it's something that's been in place for a while, but you're looking to improve its effectiveness um by kind of revamping some some processes within it. Have y'all had the opportunity to see effective common planning uh at other uh schools in the area uh either in Milton or beyond Milton to kind of steal to phrase you used previously like not reinventing the wheel like steel strategies around like what does highly effective common planning time structures look like in terms of utilizing that very limited but precious time with teachers to move the needle on student learning. I think that's where we've um leveraged some of our district um curriculum directors to kind of help us with that. Um you know, the school day is pretty busy, but we will that's something we

124could definitely consider moving forward. Um you know, my previous two schools, um that was probably the guiding force that changed instruction and got us out of turnaround and got the commissioner to change our status from, you know, underperforming school to performing school. So that was definitely one of the big pieces. Um, so I'm bringing those learnings with me as a school leader and trying to implement them here. So >> yeah, I think being able to see that in practice is sometimes helpful for people. >> I think it's helpful for like teachers to see that as well. So that's that's definitely a piece. So thank you. >> Yeah. And also that and also just you know high quality instruction general to your point of like see each other like what what does >> how how can

125you make this type of rigorous lesson? How can you teach to the standard when kids are like just more exposure than they have to be able to see what that looks like and pull that in? >> It's great. Um I'm sorry a lot. Um I guess the last question I have is um not really a question but just maybe a request you like I would love to do another school visit at some point to talk to kind of work in action. Um and again really appreciate the opportunity to have this kind of joint conversation and hear all the great work. So we do learning walks every week. Uh we'll be at the Cunningham tomorrow. We were at the Tucker last week, >> Friday. Uh so you if you want to go to any school or

126just one specific school, just let us know. We plug you into that routine or we can go and do a special walk uh in that for any school committee member who would like to do so. The teachers are embracing the walks that are happening uh throughout the building whether it's with Kyler and I or with the administration. So it's it's not a big deal. the teachers and the students know who we are, what we're doing, and and they enjoy the process. So, and to to um Celeste's point, we don't go in there and hang out for a half hour >> and then stop and talk adult to adult. We're in there observing, we're asking questions, we're asking students, what's going on today? What are you learning? How do you know what's expected of you today?

127So, this very targeted work that we're doing while we're in there, and then we get out and talk about it. So, love to have you come by and be part of that process. I really appreciate this like substance of this conversation. I I am sure that I I haven't been able to listen to a conversation like this yet since I've been on school committee just as far as the depth. the sort of um very focused nature of discussing in real time like as you framed John the um sort of we've we looked at the data recently and now we're here able to talk about what what's being done in response to the data and even Carla being able to share in the meantime like what's happening at the district level that's connected to what's happening

128at the school level and And I just need to um sort of acknowledge but express like real sincere appreciation that this conversation is even able to happen because I do think it's a um it's the the like synthesis of the district leadership that you're providing with this amazing school leadership that is on display. And I came in just having seen the preliminary, you know, strategic response, the plan that, you know, was presented and that we kind of approved conceptually mostly. And then, um, you know, I did I think I did bring a number of questions like into the conversation and they've basically all been answered through the discussion. Um, which and also colleagues who've asked good questions. Um, but I I just am so um thankful for the opportunity to take this time to like

129slow down and really focus on your expertise and like how you're in the process of applying it um to be responsive. And I appreciated just hearing the theme of support that and and just the positivity of the conversation because I do think that you know when when we have seen discouraging data like year overyear it can be a natural response to feel frustration discouragement. I know there has been some of that in the community. So to lead with the positivity and the confidence of like what can be possible when we think outside the box and like bring um resources to apply in these targeted ways. Um, I just really appreciated the idea of the feedback that, you know, as you were saying, the educators want and appreciate the feedback and also your theme as well

130as Carly, your theme of like seeking the feedback from the educators as well that that's a two-way street. Um, and I'm just I'm I'm excited, you know, I just I'm very grateful and um heartened by the discussion. So, thank you. Yeah, I just I just want to add on to that, Lizzie. I think um you know, when you don't have consistent leadership in a building year after year, I think this is what happens. >> Um I'll be honest, you know, I mean, Tucker, I think, is right for like a case study. You have a group of people there who held the ship together. Um and and I and I learned that over the last, you know, year and um some months. you know, having Caroline back a second year was um you know, the best

131thing that could have happened. Having um some minimal turnover in teacher staff, but yet at the same point, when you compare it to other schools in the district, you know, some buildings have had zero turnover compared to us just having some minimal. Other schools have had leaders in place for um 10 plus years, right? Tucker has had, you know, a new a new principal. We joked about it, you know. Um, shame on me though for joking about it because, you know, that's something very serious. You know, when a fifth grader says to you, you know, you know, where you gonna be next year? I'm like, uh, I'm gonna be here. You're going to be at the middle school. You know what I mean? Like that says something about the culture. That means that every year

132that fifth grader, and like Ma kind of spoke up, um, you know, has had a different focus, has had different expectations, has had different responses to whether behavior pluses or minuses. So, um, you know, I think with with a set of numbers, there's a story. And I think that, um, you know, the praise, we can't say it enough. The praise really needs to go to the teachers. I mean, you're a parent of Tucker, you know, who kind of held the ship together, you know, um, and kept that building grounded. Um, you know, and even though the scores might be not comparable to the to its peers in the district, it's still better than the state. Um, so and I mean it sincerely and I think um, Mr. Fail can speak to it. You know, I

133have no qualms with anybody going into any classroom at Tucker, you know, and that's typically not how you feel two of a school that you're trying to make some changes at, you know, and I've been in that situation twice already in my life, you know. So, um, you know, just small shifts and I think, um, you know, that the scores will be reflective of that. Yeah, >> that's what I mean. like time will tell but that's something about the conversation here this evening feels like a watershed type of a moment and I am you know I am I am of a cohort of the community that has been through a lot I have a the past um yeah seven years have been a lot and so that's why I feel um like I don't take

134for granted that something feels like palpably um like you know not not better in a way that is critical of like what anybody has done in the past but just I feel more I guess like sense of um like the the optimism grounded in the like the actual plan, >> you know, which as you were very rightly point out, like it's just >> when you're in a you're in you're in a staying afloat mode, you know, one year to the next with um with the leadership turnovers and the teacher turnover, you know, it's it's really not feasible to get to this point. But now you're wasting no time and taking us to this point cuz you did come back, you know, and um and so I just I feel like um I'm I'm really kind

135of hoping that this is um a conversation that is possible to look back on and point back to and look at, you know, whether you can are able to come and provide updates. Um you know I I think the setting of the benchmarks is so important. I mean that those that those are not set arbitrarily that those are set you know informed by um the inputs the data and everything else. Um so you're you know you're managing the expectations and helping us think about the three-year time frame. Um but you're also like putting a stake in the ground around the expectation um that there will be changes and um and that the district is here to support and is encouraging you to show up you know with these this advocacy you know is that's huge.

136Um and that that is like equity in action because we have seen from our data that we need to be doing some things a little bit differently and um anyway so I could go on all night. I will stop. Thank you. >> So I I will finish by saying that this is a great new story for the techn community. We have great leadership uh that's supporting and and also valuing and and encouraging great educators. um that that stakeholder group along with our teachers union who was right on board to support uh a school committee that heard the request and granted the request immediately uh to a wonderful PTO that's not only here tonight to talk about the good things that are going on in Tucker but the wonderful investment that we're making in um and

137how people are the the entire group of stakeholders really investing in the Tucker community what's good for Tucker and this is a great time while everybody's emotionally just Pete to say that if you want to donate to Tucker P, you just have to log on to the website uh because you got to get them when you got them, right? So, uh but it is a good news story. All stakeholders involved. Thank you for coming tonight. Great stuff. Appreciate all your work. >> Thank you. >> Make your last question. >> Um great. So for the chair's report um we just wanted to discuss uh last at the last meeting um superintendent um brought up the uh introduction of a curriculum review advisory committee um which you appreciate um so he's come back with a description of

138that committee and so that you're going to go through and then you so we will vote on the program description as well as on the um two members who have been appointed to as we can. >> So a after um several meetings of discussions about different things that are happening in the district related to uh cur curriculum instruction and programming um uh I did make the recommendation to see if the school committee was interested in taking part in a curriculum review advisory committee. Um, and the the way that I have um experienced and utilized this kind of committee uh in order to get school committee feedback and guidance on different programmatic and instructional shifts that the district is making is to have this group meet as on an as needed basis when curriculum reviews are

139coming forward uh in preparation for the school committee meetings. So school committee members can have advanced time with the folks who are doing the work, ask the questions that they feel are important, provide that school committee lens into it in that parent lens because it's it's a representative group uh that the school committee is and help shape and inform what that final product could look like. So uh the curriculum review advisory committee would be a school committee have two school committee members and I'm going to read just from the the definition of what we're hoping to have it shape and look like. The curriculum review advisory committee will provide guidance and feedback on school administration's proposed shifts in existing curriculum and programs andor new and proposed curriculum and program initiatives. Um after the review of

140these proposals, school administration, the curriculum review advisory committee will present to the full school committee. So the way we look at it uh is that whenever we're going trying to move a teaching and learning part of the district and before we get in front of the committee, we want to make sure the committee has a chance to ask in-depth questions, have two of the members of the committee uh ask those questions, ask for additional data, additional information. So when that group gets to the school committee table, they have two allies in the school two members of the school committee that certain questions have been asked. uh and that that voice through that subcommittee is is part of what the school committee's role is in this work. And an an example of how this would work

141would be uh Kat D. Ro talked about the literacy work in October. Um had we had this committee in place, the members of the curriculum review advisory committee would have been in meetings with Kather Ro and her team along with Ker and I as we begin to ask her questions. The committee could have been there asking the same or different questions from a parent and school community lens. shaping the conversation and making sure that when we came forward to the school committee that some of those basic big picture questions were asked from the school committee perspective. The next time that this might be helpful is that we have a curriculum I'm sorry we have a program of studies that usually gets voted by uh the school committee annually in February. Uh so if there's any

142shifts in that document or any discussion about that those set of expectations, we would ask the uh high school principal along with their team to sit with the curriculum review advisory committee along with Ker and I to talk about the potential shifts, what they look like, why they're happening, the rationale, any information that we would like to discuss. Um and that could be one meeting, it could be two meetings, it could be three meetings that would happen with that group before they would come in front of the whole group to present the the uh program of studies to the entire um school committee. So this would meet when needed. Uh I'm sure we'll end up meeting two or three times a year because there'll be curriculum proposals that we kind of begin to talk about

143and move through the district. uh and we appreciate the the school committee lends into this work and uh the advocacy and the support that it would bring to the members of the administrative team and the curriculum team when they look up and they know that they're presented to school for members and there's going to be good questions and dialogue and good feedback that's already been part of the process. So this is our opportunity to be more inclusive in that work. >> I have one question um um are we going to include student voice in this um subcommittee? So tonight, our friend um Elias uh gave me pause uh for thought for that for that discussion. So, uh, I don't know if they'd be involved in this committee, but I think if we're talking about the

144program of studies, very much would like to bring in student poison into that process for sure. >> Because when I met with the high school representative last Friday morning, um, they they have bring that up from um from our previous uh recordings and and was very interested and wanted to participate in this conversations because it affects the teachers and the students at the same time, right? So we wanted to increase the student outcome then the students voice should be a part of this conversation. So they're very interested in participating in this uh conversation and at least at least one or two of them in the group are >> I think for our high school and middle school folks it might be really helpful to have that kind of voice on those curriculum discussions. So we

145we don't have to make them part of the school committee piece but we can certainly make them part of the group of discussion points when we meet as for sure. >> Yeah. Okay. Because the other one we have coming up is the world language discussion as well. >> Yeah, >> we'll start the pilot and talk about we want student voice in that for sure. >> Questions comments on discussion. >> Guess that doesn't need to say the two members of the other committees but we can take that piece out. And then um did you question? Great. And then um and then the two members would be um Anna and B. So, as with some of our other subcommittees, there be the opportunity to crossost the meeting. So, those of us not on the subcommittee can still

146participate and um be informed about that discussion. And I think the other thing that's come up is that I know that this a version of this subcommittee existed before and then it sort of got sunseted for whatever reasons. I think keeping in mind that this um we're doing this year if there's feedback on frequency or you know number of members anything like that there is that fluidity. I think it's just seeing how it works this year and then you know as with many we need to adjust it or change it. We have that ability even to the point to your point about student membership or something like that. So um but I think it's a great place to start and I appreciate you bringing that given given the um you know the questions that have

147come up and the opportunity to be involved sooner. >> So thank you. I I I only want to add because I know we're going to go into finance uh after this, but uh I'm thankful for the comments that everybody provided uh Celeste and her team and that presentation went a little longer than I thought it would. But talk about spending time on the right things. This is exactly what we're supposed to be doing as a committee talking about data, talking about responses to that work. What did that look like? Having voice in curriculum, how do we do that? This this is the work. Uh this is what these meetings should be about. This is healthy dialogue for the community to see us all taking part in asking for some results. Having people come and show

148action plans, getting people involved in the curriculum discussions. Uh this is what the work should look like. And um I'm glad that we gave as much time as needed for the Tucker team and celebrated that work and that initiative. And uh so I just appreciate the the time and effort that was put in tonight by the committee on behalf of how wellreceived that was and thankful obviously to Caroline and for their work. So >> yes.3 sure. Uh, I'll make a motion to approve the updated 2025 2026 list of Milton school committee subcommittees and advisory committees adding the curriculum review advisory committee and appointing Anna Bar who has got committee members second. We have uh the finance subcommittee report. >> Um uh finance subcommittee uh we met last week. Um we were began the discussion or

149continued I guess slightly about the revolving accounts policies started to look at kind of a draft um plan of the different kind of revolving accounts um and focus to those. How we want to again as part of budget priorities for the current year. How do we strengthen those as John has said many times kind of the shock absorbers process. So um had that conversation had some good initial dialogue continue that next week. Um next uh and then we had a meeting today where we had our first real conversation on looking at the FY27 budget. um could be for next year sort of looking at some level service numbers. So that's some of the information that um Katie has put in the school committee folder today. There are three PDFs we're going to screen share and

150one of them that get the high level two documents are one has a more detailed um 27 budget cost center which you have questions on more than me to discuss. And then the other is a similar kind of more detailed question. Um we talked about finance. So this morning was our first opportunity to um discuss and review the um draft level service budget for fiscal year 27. Um we've been working internally with the district leadership team um over the past several months and having budget conversations and talking about next year. Um, but this was kind of our first opportunity to be able to um update the finance subcommittee on our initial draft for fiscal year 27. Um and so the information that we reviewed this morning primarily focused around um some of the major budget

151drivers that we are seeing um that will lead to the level service budget increase for next year. And so this was a document that we talked about. Um, and you can see that this document shows the current year or the fiscal year 26 final budget. That's the 72,873,000 that's shown at the top. And then when we're looking at building the budget for next year, you can see the overall budget impact of increases or in one instance um, a decrease. the changes that we're projecting for next year that leads us to the overall level service budget increase and that increase at this point in time is a 5.2% increase. um some of the major budget drivers that we discussed um and reviewed. And there's more information kind of at a more granular detail in um one

152of the other documents that is in the folder for tonight's meeting. Um but the first major budget driver for fiscal year 27 and the largest increase um is due to salaries and that of course is um due to the fact that 82% of the overall budget is um tied to our salary expenses. So you can see that even if we did um if the only thing that we did to change the budget next year was just to increase the salaries due to the contractual um bargaining agreements. We would have a 4.56% increase and that's just due to steps and lanes for our existing staff. There's also some moderate increases to some of the substitute coverage. So you can see what we've projected as a budget impact um on this document. And then we're also um

153showing that we will be increasing one of the revenue offsets that we use. And there's a supporting document in the folder for tonight's meeting that breaks down each one of the revenue offsets that we're using. And that um document shows the information for the current fiscal year and for next fiscal year. You can see that we're also accounting for increases in special education out of district tuition and special education contracted services and transportation. Um an important note in the out of district tuition number is that that increase is set by the state by the operational services division and that um percentage increase was set at 3.04% for next fiscal year. And so we um have very little discretion in what those increases are um because those rates are set by the state and they uh

154push that information to us in o October um of each year so that we can plan for the upcoming fiscal year. >> So it was 3% for this year and is this is what it is for next year? It's it was um it was 3.6% for fiscal year 26 and then for fiscal year 27 it's 3.04%. >> And that's the increase that's in here. >> All right. Thank you. >> Um we're also taking into account that we'll have an increase in transportation. The increase that we're showing in this top portion of this document for transportation is just a contractual increase and that does not reflect any changes in the number of buses that we're providing. So that is just showing the overall increase in the cost of transportation services if we were to provide the

155same level of service next year. And that transportation line takes into account um our general education transportation, foster transportation, and also homeless transportation. We're also taking into account changes and increases for our facilities budget as well as some miscellaneous adjustments that we've made looking across the district when it comes to office supplies, textbooks, and other general expenses that help support the overall um operating budget. So that is the top portion. That's a very highlevel um general overview of some of the major budget drivers that we're looking at for the level service budget. Um but all of that being said, we're also trying to incorporate the fact that we have a number of different changes that we'd like to make for next year. Um, but we'd like to be able to do that in making some

156allocations within the existing budget instead of um asking for a potential ads above level service. And that is the information that's shown in the bottom portion of this document. It's kind of in that tan color um shown below. And you can see these are examples of some of the changes that we've talked about during our leadership meetings and we've talked about at the district level of initiatives that um we'd like to see be funded in fiscal year 27. But you can see at the bottom all of those increases also will come with a corresponding decrease or adjustment. So that the overall um budget ask for fiscal year 27 would fall under that level service number of the 5.2%. >> So um thank you Katie. I wanted to say thank you to Katie White because one

157of the biggest compliments I think you could give a finance director is to say, "Wow, after reading this, talking about it, it made so much sense to me." And I think that was a comment that Amanda made after the meeting meeting. It's it's a very very clear view of what we're doing. So, just just to recap, the blue uh table uh on the top is really saying out loud that we are uh rolling over our existing staff and embedding in uh potential increases in in salaries related to contract negotiations and we're staying within a 5.2 5.2% increase, which is level service. Uh and so uh then we're going to take our own work to task of how we want to organize that increase to 76,662,000 and make any changes within that budget. So we're not

158a as of right now given the assumptions that we've been talking about with the warrant committee and the town that this generally is the arena of funds available and we're trying to work within that. Uh that doesn't mean if something happens within the revenue cycle that we'll get information on related to what um uh Nick might present with health insurance etc. Right now we're working under the general assumption that rolling it over along with uh contractual uh uh needs is is the amount of money we should predict to work with. So, uh, and we're prioritizing that if we are to make any changes in what we do and offer that we will do that realigning the resources that we have. So, we made a commitment to the community that we would be very thoughtful about

159our financial planning, make our budget sustainable, and also be thoughtful about how we organize our approach to put resources where we think the district needs it. Uh we are also while doing all that at only 5.2% increase, we are also embedding in here the needed um task of putting deposits into our revolving accounts in order to stabilize over a three-year period our future budgets. So that's part of the sustainability piece. So, uh, Katie has devised these increases in a way, uh, that we within the this budget, we're supporting funds that will go into revolving accounts that have been, um, uh, lowered over the past few years that need to be reestablished. Not all in one year, but over the next three years, if we continue to be disciplined with how we spend our money, how

160we allocate resources to revolving accounts, and take care of the work that we need to do in order to support students uh, and teachers. Uh if we do that incrementally and we stay disciplined, then we're going to wake up in three fiscal years with revolving accounts that have sufficient balances that gives us greater flexibility in order to make shifts and changes resources in order to maybe add things that we want to over time in addition to the budget because we'll have room and flexibility to do that. So we are in year one of this disciplinary approach. We we need to have another year too. We need to stay in that path. um uh if something this this budget has assumptions in it uh that that could be uh there could be a hole pulled in

161any one of those uh assumptions over the course of the year, the natural things that happen in school uh districts. But this is I hope uh seen by many to be our attempt to work with the the the funds that we have while making changes in actually building a a financial uh plan in and um in uh a financial plan moving forward that's sustainable for the town. We did just receive a $9.5 million right. These funds have to be used uh with very uh you know incredible thought and care in fiscal discipline and fiscal planning and that's what this represents at this point in time. >> Yeah. I just say I appreciate the robust discussion that we all were able to have about this minorities. surprised to us in finance. majority of them discussed priorities

162not final into kind of questions. >> So, basically, just to kind of clarify, we're working with our 5.2% increase and then adding these things in without adding more to the increase, right? Like that's basically >> so that so the next stage of this work uh and we talked about at the end of the meeting today was whatever we want to do within this uh new budget amount for next year this projected budget amount for next year will be done internally. So right now we did not fill several vacancies for this fiscal year which gave us leverage to put dollars into certain budget line items that shored those items line items up. We have a year of that kind of flexibility that we've added to that adds into the flexibility that we'll have in FY27. What

163we will what we have gone back to the leadership team to talk about is we need to tell the story of what we want to shift and why and we need to give that story to the school committee and we need to give that story to the community. So if we if we um start with the vacancies that weren't filled, which ones do we want to bring back and why? which ones do we don't want to bring back and why are there any positions that we currently have that are being you know put in place right now do we want to reduce any of those positions in order to reallocate those resources to something else that might be more productive uh towards student outcomes in any one school or anyone grade so we're trying to

164work within the amount of money we have to realign those resources and it's our job to demonstrate the why that that's more important in the priority list than anything else that's on that list that we're going to have to compare to. Um so when we look at that vacancy list, someone might say, well um are you going to bring back the fighting for fine and performing arts director? Well, we're not sure. We're going to pilot a a different model for this year. We'll see how that goes. If we think that goes well, that might be a model that we can keep that might be less expensive but still meet the needs of the district. Uh are we going to bring back the assistant director of student services? I think we have to. I think that

165that's a big department that involves a lot of work that um is really rooted in the foundation of our inclusion model in Milton. So I would say that we definitely have to put that back. We we want to give the director of support in that it's just a director position. So we're evaluating those one by one with the principles and the leadership team and we're also asking them is there anything that you want to move within your building to you know I I could use less of this but I need more of that and we're we're making sure that we give them permission to explore how they can implement their strategy by reallocating resources either within the building or at the district level. This is our example of what we would like to do just

166generically. Um, I think that, you know, we need a full-time assistant superintendent. Uh, in addition to Katie's assistant superintendent role, we found out very clearly we need an extra bus. So, these are examples that are just related to the work that we're doing now. Uh, we need more professional development. B asked about is your PD enough? Is your time enough? We have a literacy program that we're going to get up and running. We have other work that we want to take part in. So, these are all targeted to our five priorities. uh but the first remember when our budget memo was fiscal sustainability and in and being good stewards of the dollar and then the five priorities. So we're trying to approach it in that order. So what you can expect from us moving forward

167in in rather short time is what are those proposals look like? What does that give and take look like? So you can understand it and the community can have it in front of them and they can talk about it. And then I think when we get to January, uh, whether we have, you know, when we have our open budget meetings, we want to invite parents to come in and families and guardians to say what they like and what they don't like. I I I support this more than I support that. Whatever those things are, the community would be very helpful. And if that means going out um I've been going to uh to PTO meetings, but maybe doing a budget just a just a budget at the high school auditorium one night for the for

168the uh community where they're not they don't have to um incorporate their voice within the the structure of a school committee meeting. They can just ask any question they want. So, we want that feedback and and when people call about the bus or people call about something and I say you should go to school committee meeting and ask and we'll just we'll take that feedback. It doesn't mean that you're going to get what you want, right? It means that we need to hear that though to hear the value of it and the scale of it and it might shift that conversation. I mean, the parents who came to talk about transportation shifted the outcome because we were able to fix that problem, but that feedback was important. So, this is really about trying to get

169feedback from the community, make sure that we're doing things in front of everybody, uh, but also meaning that we can't do everything, that there's going to be some yeses and there's going to be some nos and there's going to be priorities around that and and contextual uh, proposals around that for folks to to be ready for. So, and I don't think this is going to be a really big shift in one year. Uh, you know, we've been Katie's been here a year and three months. I've been here three months. Kyle has been here three weeks. So, um, we're we're really leaning on and respecting and valuing what our educators who are in the district already need from us to facilitate that. And we might, you know, we always want to be hearing that voice because

170we what we don't want to do is unilaterally implement something that then we walk away from, >> right? We need to do what the people who are going to be here for a long time need. And so we're trying to weigh that that that uh healthy tension between giving the space for the educators to decide how they want to make shifts um because they're the ones that will have to carry it out over time and we have an interimm situation that we want to be respectful of and they've already seen that do blue they do blue then blue leaves I mean I think that the Tucker story is a microcosm of the district story right so we want to be respectful of that Celeste is listening to her teachers giving teacher voice, we're listening to

171principles and giving principal voice and we're trying to use that on behalf of how we represent the needs of the district. I have to say I really appreciate the correlation both between how you're talking about the budget how Celeste and Caroline spoke about utilizing the resources that they have and utilizing it differently you know and like leveraging you know Curry College for instance and thinking creatively about how to do more with what they have and then just going and asking like the request from them when I look at it from a dollar amount is very minimal. So I appreciate that they're looking at it like that. So, I just love that everyone is in sync and moving in the same direction with these goals and trying to figure out, hey, let's let's let's think creatively

172about this and, you know, all you know, the points that you were talking about with extending the school day and um you know, so and more time on learning. So, we're giving them more with what we have had because we're trying to think outside the box as Lizzie mentioned. So, great. The only other piece I'm sorry just obviously a key piece here is the coordination with the town financial forecast how this fits. So >> we would say to the town if they want to give us 6% we will take and and and shepherd those funds very very effectively. So we will always take more if there is more available but we're trying to be good stewards with the money that we're projecting that we will have but this is to your point Mark um contingent

173upon the continued conversation we're having at the town level relates to revenue and the other town departments etc. So a very good start questions or comments. Uh then we have one warrant which I sent out this morning signed today. Uh there's a motion here but there's not actually a motion. So look at what I even did last last week. I just named that I signed Vendor 20 in the amount of 1,97,99782 policy. >> Okay. So, um policy met yesterday. Uh we reviewed um policy IH AD the wellness policy. It's you have a redlinined version in your folder. Um this policy is uh reviewed by a thirdparty consultant that needs to be submitted every three years um to the government for a grant. Um so um since we sunseted the health and wellness committee that was

174here a few years ago um we uh the consultant that we use recommended that we change um the wellness committee structure so that it no longer needs the school committee members as it's listed before. So uh there are some proposed um wording changes. Um it's towards the bottom of the uh policy. uh basically saying that the um we're going to replace it um where it says the school committee will create a health and wellness um advisory committee um to uh a wellness committee will be composed of teachers, administrators, community members, students and families which they're already um doing and they meet um as um John mentioned quarterly um at this point. And then there's also some language above it um where um that they also recommended um in terms of staff training. Um so those

175are really the only changes um and again this um this is just a redline version. It's a first first reading. Uh we'll um do a second reading and vote on it at our next meeting. >> And that's it. That's all we have. the grant nutrition focus grant. >> I had one kind of comment that I just wanted to confirm because I I'm not yet familiar with all of our policies. Um is this our main wellness related policies? We have other health and wellness policies. >> This is our seems like it because I don't recall seeing any other ones. >> This is our main one. I I guess I feel I'm glad it's focused on nutrition. That's important and it's necessary for this grant. I feel like the biggest threat to children's wellness is social media,

176excessive screen time, and synthetic AI relationships. And I feel like our policy should talk about that so that we can have a starting point as a district as to how we want to support students as they navigate that. Um, so I'm wondering if we could consider that as as part of I'm happy to share more of my thoughts here, but uh I think you know like and I don't I don't you know I don't know where exactly it could fit here. like there is the policy does speak to healthy and safe environment although it's just focused on the physical environment the social emotional well-being part just talks about the survey that happens um but I think if if we you know I would love it if we could assert as a district that we want

177to support students to you know something to the effect of like leveling up their awareness of and improve, you know, helping them establish healthy relationships with technology. Um, and then we can figure out what that means as a district. But I think establishing it as part of a a policy framework would be I think my familiarity with this is through my school. Like the world's policy generally is a USDA requirement. This is supposed to be the first school breakfast lunch program. And so most of these things are that's why it's nutrition focused and there is are requirements through that around physical education development uh curriculum over time staff training you know all these things access to water that's in there. Those are specific language requirements that are needed policies. A lot of that is there

178are some things that are outside of this. So, I just don't know if that I I like exactly what you're saying. I think that's good important stuff and it likely could fit here. I don't know if that just a separate policy to create separation between like what is being created for USDA kind of that school lunch and food program like it's just it had it does have a very specific purpose kind of to that in it's not just like one that is built crafted but there actually no problem incorporating that language overall or maybe it needs to be separate >> I would almost see it as separate but I think you rais a really important point. I think that's something that we should, you know, in addition to having a policy, I think more just

179practice of, you know, are introduced to social media. A lot of students are come middle school for instance, right? and they're they have so much access and they don't know what to do with it and they don't know to like you know sometimes you'll see >> um kids will use it during the day you know like and that's just just you know just their um that's human nature right at that age to be able to no one's looking I'm going to look at it you know so what are some of the kind of practices that we could use to make sure that they have a healthy relationship with social media AI as you mentioned and devices. Yeah. >> So, so my recommendation would be I'd like to go through the policies to see if there's

180any policies that may be connected to social media and in that kind of access and screen time and and if it's not, we need to either talk about it through this policy or another policy. And um one of the positions that we reduced was AJ Millansson's uh technology group. they had drafted AI policy language that every time you brush your teeth, it goes out of uh it becomes old, right? Because it's just moving so fast. >> Uh but we want to and have already met with folks that have been working with we're working with AJ on that policy that we we will be bringing an AI policy to this group uh through the policy subcommittee um as one way of attacking this issue of um the relationship between students and technology. I like that how

181that sounds. Um there have been AI workshops already this year with staff and I think that the u the small team that's left over in AJC went down to the middle school uh already but um we need a policy in place around AI from a teacher lens from a parent lens or from a student lens from a what to do what not to use AI for but also what to what you can use AI for and what AI platforms are student and school friendly and which are not and then engage and leverage the school friendly ones in a way that are the teaching tool to support the healthy relationship between technology and and students. So, um why don't why don't um Charlene and I explore those three areas. We know that we uh will be

182presenting an AI policy. We can kind of update it a little bit from last year's version and um and run by some peer communities and we'll be presenting that too. But I can give an update on that. >> Okay. Sorry thing that might relate back to the other subcommittee is that could it be an area of exploration with whatever the health curriculum is. So in that, you know, if there is a health class, like is there something around that? You mean >> In the health curriculum as opposed to maybe a policy, is it more is it getting to that idea around a new area of health that kids need to start looking into? >> I haven't dug into it yet, but I I have a feeling that that we're probably addressing it in different pockets.

183>> Yeah. >> Um you know what I mean? So, um, so that's kind of the work I want in the bucket. I'm like, I want to pick up and try to figure out what we're already doing. And then, uh, Desi has guidelines already on this and I think MASC is thinking about helping us on policy. So, right, >> helping districts on policy. So, you know, we're getting we're kind of converging into a space where we can start to talk about it more fruitfully. So, >> just two other thoughts. Thank you. Thank you. um on the AI policy you're talking about. Um and I I don't know if my comment belongs in somewhere else like an employee handbook, but I think it should also address uh employee interaction with with AI. Um >> I heard you

184mention health and student use, but just employee should be in there as well. >> And then we may want to if we have AI policies or tech policies, I agree with you. Every time you brush your teeth, your kids's out of date. I think we have a three-year policy review cycle. I would suggest that we have something else for our AI like we could review them twice a year. >> Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. >> Um so just food for thought. So we'll do a second read at the next >> and then facilities didn't meet >> and then did budget you guys have a budget coordination that you didn't >> no formal they had a working session on some >> okay so then uh the next thing is the approval full of minutes for the November 5th

185meeting which are in the folder. Any edits? >> Second favor. And then the last thing I have is um looking at the um agenda items for the next meeting. So we have a vote on the 202425 annual report. We're having a community schools presentation. Um subcommittee reports would be capital improvement planning committee. That one um facilities won't meet >> finance. Um oh is that the FY27 budget calendar budget discussion? So, I'll just put finance finance. >> I don't meet with the high school rep until December 12th. >> MF doesn't m today. >> Yeah. Right. Could I and the community schools presentation will be related to summer program fees, not the full school year after school fee and programming discussion. So, we're doing summer fees first so they can get ahead of it and get it

186out to families in January. So, we want to get that part done and then we'll do the second part after that. building. I'll put it down. Not sure when the next. >> Yeah, I don't know that it's I don't have one on my calendar. It's usually the first Friday of the month. I mean, it's unlikely because we're not going to have one this week. >> Okay. >> Thank you everybody.