001Good evening. Tonight is Wednesday, December the 3rd, 2025. Time is 6:42. We'll call this meeting of the Westport School Committee to order. Pursued Governor Healey's approved legislation H62, a bill extending authorization for all local boards and committees to hold public meetings remotely or in a hybrid. The timeline amending section 38 of chapter 20 of the acts of 2021. most recently amended by section 40 of chapter 2 of the act of 2023 and replacing the current expiration date of March 31st 2025 with June 30th 2027. Therefore, this meeting of the Westport school committee is being conducted via remote participation. I would ask everyone to stand >> for the pledge of allegiance, please. >> I pledge algiance >> to the flag of the United States of America. to the republic for which it stands. One nation under
002God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [snorts] >> Thank you all for joining us this evening. I'll now uh offer a moment for comments and statements from the public. There are any members of the public that wish wish to speak? Hearing none, we'll move on to the first item in ourformational agenda, which would be the superintendent report. Dr. Roy. >> Yes, thank you. Um, we don't have our student representatives today to to give the usual update. Uh, but I do want to point out that it's a busy weekend here. We have the 11th annual West Mack PTO holiday fair and we also have the production of The Little Mermaid. So, uh, please come out and support and it'll be, um, a nice time. I'm very excited about it. I also want to, uh, just
003a couple updates from the schools. I was at Westport Elementary School today where I see that the student council elections are about to take place and I was very impressed with the elementary students and their advocacy for themselves and what they can do for our school community. I also today was able to see I believe it's our first ever volunteer fair here at the high school. Um we had quite a few vendors and the high school kids were walking around signing up to get their volunteer hours. It it was um nice to see these strong lines like the United Way was present. There were some other community partners that were present. Um, but it's good to always see that outside inside community partnership and that's it. >> Excellent. >> Any uh questions of comments from
004members of the committee? >> All right, hearing none, we'll move on to the next item which is the business management report. Mr. Boza. >> Yes. So, we are currently having ongoing budget work sessions. We have another one in a couple of weeks and then we start again in January and we'll be presenting to FINCOM. I believe it's February 2nd. So, we have a lot of work to do to get this rolled up and finished. Um, on another positive note, so at the elementary school and the middle school, we received a parent email today and I'm going to just read it briefly to you. Um, dear Dr. Roy, I have a daughter at the middle school in fifth grade and one at the elementary school in second. I wanted to write to encourage the administration to
005honor the nutrition services department at both schools. The food items offered to the students are absolutely fantastic, homemade, a lot of local sourcing. I have friends with children in other districts who have expressed how Westport is far exceeding other school standards with its breakfastes and lunches. So, we appreciate some good news for change when it comes to this and nice to have a parent reach out to, you know, all of our schools try to do the best they can. um middle school, high school sometimes has a little bit more of a struggle because of the timing for the students eating lunches and how many students are getting lunch in a very short period of time. They have 25 minutes from the time they walk into the door till eating and finishing. So, you know, sometimes
006that school probably is a little more like fast food restaurant for the speed of it all, but for the most part, we're proud of the food service staff at all three of our schools that continuously work hard to provide the best meals that we can for the students. And that's all for me. >> Excellent. Thank you, Mr. Bo. Any questions, comments from the committee? >> Nice job. >> Thank you very much. Uh very very good to hear the feedback there. Uh so the next item on theformational agenda is the curriculum director report. Miss Hart Graves, >> I don't have anything to report at this time. [cough] >> No worries. Thank you very much. Uh next item is committee liaison report. I'll start tonight. >> Chico star. >> Um nothing new. Um, I do have a
007cable advisory committee meeting on Tuesday the 9th. Um, so I'll have a uh report for our next meeting. >> Thank you, Miss Sanders. >> Uh, nothing to report. >> Mr. Bel, >> nothing at this time. >> And Mr. Gendro. >> No updates since our meeting on the 20th. >> All right. Thank you very much. And uh the only update I have is that the CIPC will be meeting uh on the 10th next week and I'll certainly report back to the committee uh the going on for that meeting. So all right with that uh we'll move on to the next item which is to acknowledge the Westport Community Schools bill warrant dated uh November 28th, 2025 in the amount of $795,4719. Any questions, comments from the committee on that, Bill Warren? All right, hearing none, we
008shall now proceed to the next item, which is discussion of school improvement plans. So, we'll start out here uh with the uh with the MAC Humber. And I believe Miss >> Det is is joining us. >> Yes, she is. She's here. >> She doesn't look there, though. Who's gone first? Stacy, she's right in the corner. >> She's next to Laura, but I don't see her face. >> She's frozen. >> So, we might jump to Do you want to do Wes and then go back to Stacy? >> Sure. >> Um, you ready? >> Sure. >> Yeah. >> Come on over here, Robin. >> Hop along, Cassie. Keep it short. They like that. >> Try to move any roadblocks for you. [laughter] >> Okay, I am on now. >> Oh, >> well, we already got set up
009with Rob. >> We already got Yes. Hold on. [snorts] >> You're gonna go. Go ahead. You can go. >> So, um the West school improvement plan um for the West, our very first goal is in teaching and learning in ELA. Um by June 2026, 100% of our um students in grades 1 through four will demonstrate growth in reading proficiency with at least 80% meeting or exceeding grade level benchmarks as measured by our Dibbles assessment. Um the next goal would be in math. Um by June 2026, West will implement a comprehensive math intervention model across all grade levels. Um success will be evidenced by a documented intervention schedule, staff assignments and pre and post assessments data showing measurable improvement in math achievement scores um uh for students identifying as needing support. Uh the next goal would
010be our datadriven decision making. Um we'll be by the end of the school year we'll have a fully functioning functional data team. um will be established and meet monthly to analyze students performance data and inform instructional decisions. And then the last goal is our tier one instruction. By the end of the school year, Wes will improve the quality and effectiveness of tier one instruction to ensure at least 80% of the students meet or exceed grade level proficiency in reading and math as measured by the state and district um benchmark assessments. >> That's it for me. All right. Excellent. Uh, do we have any comments or questions from the committee at this time? >> No, I I would just like to point out and maybe Miss Hogre is going to point out as well that how
011how hard the staff at West is working on the literacy piece um with the interventions, with the schedules, with new learning. Um, I I have to say I'm really impressed about the dedication to these goals, especially around literacy and the work that everyone's trying to do. So, I want to thank the staff for that. >> Thank you. I'll let them know. Thanks. >> Absolutely. Well, thank thank you very much, Holly. Uh, any other any other questions, concerns from the committee at this time? All right. With that, we'll go back to the uh the Mac Cup. Mr. Ken, are you uh you available now? >> Yes. I'm very sorry. I'm at my daughter's face. [laughter] >> No worries. Thank you. >> Case High School's behind me. All right. So, good evening everyone. The MCumber school improvement
012plan uh was created with the goals that uh students will show measurable growth in early literacy. Our actions towards that will be uh evidence-based literacy instruction focusing on phmic awareness vocabulary comprehension. We're going to use universal screeners such as dibbles with beginning, middle, and endear benchmarks. Uh we're doing progress monitoring throughout. We do have smallroup interventions uh within the classroom and out and our professional development that uh Miss Hargraves is providing and working on with us uh will also complement those areas of phonics, decoding, vocab, um comprehension and bringing uh new programs in for us. That's our first goal. Our second goal revolves around early numeracy in math. Uh we'd like to strengthen early numeracy instruction and interventions. Uh we currently uh implement math routines through our I Ready program. We use uh we focus
013on number sense patterns operations. Our students use uh technology [snorts] within that within the um STMath program. We do also do a small group interventions. Those are all within the classroom provided by teaching assistants as well as our uh teaching staff. We also again look to our professional development. So that um another thing that Miss Hargraves and Dr. Troy are working on our curriculum teams both in early literacy um in our ELA programs and math. So that'll look towards vertical alignment which hopefully that will um help us strengthen our program so that we can you know strengthen uh students foundation for moving on. Any questions so far? [snorts] Our third um goal is around safety and security. Uh we're reviewing and enhancing our safety plans and security plans. Uh we're looking at our emergency procedures,
014working with the Westcore Police Department, our SRO and district staff. We're strengthening our security measures looking at um we currently use the uh Raptor visitor system. We do door checks. Our camera updates uh have been a a huge bonus and we're getting some some more cameras that's already in process. So that is helpful and already working towards the school. Um we are participating in fire drills as well as Alice drills and taking um in feedback at from staff as well as the Westport Police Department. We communicate to families um how those drills go. We're talking to staff as well as the students on what they think um they prefer. Uh Alice drills, I will let you know that uh there's no fire alarm. So, they do enjoy that versus having the fire alarm and it
015be loud, but they've they've done excellent in all our drills. So, that's has been wonderful. Our fourth um goal is around family and community partnerships. We'd like to strengthen our family and community partnerships by looking towards um our website update our social media. Every classroom either uses dojo grooms or the app our we use different modes. We are using emails. We're using one call text. uh we had a bump in the road at the beginning of the year. Our communication wasn't going out, but we've worked with our tech team and uh it's been much more positive. So, that has been helpful. But we've been trying to use different modalities because um just in the busy uh you know, everyone's life they depends on checking emails, not checking emails or as well as even having a
016you know, home phone to leave a recording or not. So, uh, we'd like to create volunteer opportunities for families and community members. Uh, we're focusing that on new year, but we have different ideas for our our volunteers as well as community members, but of course, we need to make sure that they have poor H checks and fingerprints. So, we haven't focused on that um in the fall. And of course, we want the kids to get in routine. Uh so we have waited to bring in uh the volume that we would hope to have. We're building partnerships with local organizations to support students and families needs. Most recently the France hospitality has um been a big big benefactor uh in helping provide supplies to our school uh providing support for teachers. uh the United we work
017hand in hand with the United Way, the um watershed alliance, our PTO, our um the WE group and many other groups. So I think we're on our way for that too. Any questions? >> Excellent. Thank Thank you, Mr. K. Any any questions from the committee? >> None. Thank you. >> Excellent. Thank thank you very much for presenting this and with that I think we'll move on to the uh middle high school. >> Wonderful. Good evening everybody. [snorts] So this year's school improvement [clears throat] plan was designed around the four priority areas that NEAS identified for Westport Middle High School at our collaborative conference two years ago. So those four priority areas were written curriculum development, vision of the graduate implementation, intervention and support systems and active learning and student agency. So priority areas one, two,
018and four are addressed by goal number one, which is that the school will complete a written curriculum in a consistent format for all courses in all departments that includes units of study with guiding essential questions, concepts, content, skills, instructional strategies, and assessment practices that integrate the school's vision of the graduate. The third priority area which is um interventions and supports for our students is addressed in goal number two which is that the school will provide a range of timely coordinative and directive intervention strategies that meet the academic, social and emotional needs of all students and create a formal defined process to identify and refer students who need additional assistance. Um I feel very proud that we um have already made progress towards both of these goals and I hope that that will be evident when
019MIAS arrives for our dennial visit um this coming Monday. They will be joining us [snorts] um Monday, Tuesday [clears throat] and Wednesday of next week and they will be looking at all four of our priority areas and how we have made progress um on those in the past two years. Happy to take any questions anybody might have. >> Excellent. I I Commissioner I do have just one quick question. I said the first goal surrounding the building of a uh complete a complete root curriculum. Um that is that is no small task that that's probably that would be that one goal would probably be enough. I just uh I am I am curious are are things on track in terms of identifying the uh the the curriculum department curriculum teams. >> Absolutely. So um we are
020very fortunate with the change of schedule that we had a couple of years ago to be able to have common planning time for all of our staff. So a lot of this curriculum work is taking place during the designated common planning time. I'm very confident that all of our core classes have a solid written curriculum and we are slowly working on finalizing our elective classes especially those courses which are new to us this year such as entrepreneurship, technical writing, communication studies. The one piece in goal one that we c need to continue to focus on is implementing the vision of the graduate and how we're going to be assessing that our students are meeting the elements of the vision of the graduate. >> Indeed that's I know we will speak to a little bit of
021that here in a few minutes as well. So all right [snorts] thank you m any other comments questions from members of the committee. All right, hearing none, I would like to thank all of our building leaders for joining us uh this evening uh to to go over these. And at this time, I think I believe um we can move on to our next actually actually if with the indulgence of the committee, I I was wondering can we just go ahead and while we have Miss Sharette right here, we just go u we'll come back to item GD and just go straight to item H, which is the competency determination policy. second reading. Uh so M Mend, was there anything additional you'd like to uh address, especially considering the governor's um release of certain graduation uh
022ideal ideals, I guess, going forward? >> Yes. So, um I did see that Governor Haley had um held some sort of press conference yesterday at Denim High School. And so, we'll be awaiting more information as it becomes available in regards to what that's going to look like. But I know a couple weeks ago when I spoke in front of the committee about the competency determinations, that was a lot of information and a lot of heavy information. So, tonight I am more than happy to just answer any questions or address any concerns with the policy. >> Thank you. And and just so I guess just to reiterate what I had mentioned last time as well is that should a change should change need to be implemented, we certainly have the ability to to alter this policy
023on the fly so to speak. Um but it is necessary even despite um the governor's just just releasing this um this is still something that the committee needs to act on in time for a desi deadline of of the first year. Is that correct? Correct. >> Yes. >> Okay. I just [clears throat] Mr. Chair, if I could uh so as part of that um the release that was done by DESIE, the statewide graduation council. So the that report which was released on Monday the 1st is 108 pages in length. Um, so you know, I I'm sure working with Desi and the preliminary guidance that was given, we're we're probably we're probably there. Um but I'm not I haven't had enough time to go through yet to see if you know I'm assuming that we're you
024know everything lines up but um you know I don't I'm not aware of any change significant changes that were in that from the initial guidance from DESIE but >> right and >> just wanted to note that >> there was a lengthy accompanying document to that as well >> and and if I could uh just add to that I was on a um a Zoom meeting today with the commissioner and the secretary of education on this. This is um we their timeline these this is just their interim report. Their timeline for a final report isn't until June of 2026. So, uh, they have a lot of work to do yet, uh, on those initial requirements. And, yeah, there's a there's a quite a I did read almost all 108 pages and, um, there's there's an overlap
025with the work that we're already doing, but, this will be this will take a while. So for now, what you're approving tonight is the compensity determination as it stands now because we won't even be getting into something from Desi and until a minimum over uh the summer. [clears throat] >> Thank you for that clarification. Any other comments questions from the committee at this time on the competency determination policy? I thought the um you know the original draft was was really good. Um well thought out and and well done. Um you know looking forward to you know diving a little bit deeper and seeing you know more so what um some of the individual requirements will be you know in in the different subjects and and your core classes and and things like that. Um and
026just hoping for some alignment there um you know amongst departments or how we're going to do things which I'm I'm sure will uh will come down the road. So um job well done on it. >> Yes. Thank you. Thank you Mr. and everyone who's working on this. I mean as I mentioned before uh a lot of this was happening in a vacuum. Uh but I know that a lot of districts are have have been uh speaking amongst amongst one another or trying to find the best the best path forward here. Um I would also like to uh to encourage uh you and everyone involved to potentially update the committee as time goes on, especially when it comes to u how how the reception is for the alternative pathways. uh that that in particular I think
027is is something that that bears watching to see um how how it is is working and and whether adjustments need to be made. But uh but again I commend all the work that's been done on this. I from from from you know starting from scratch basically with no with no guidance to you know a trickle of guidance coming in. This is a this is a a very impressive uh product. So thank thank you very much for for all the work. Um, at this time, unless there are any other comments and statements from from the uh committee, I would entertain a motion out of order to act on the competency determination policy. >> So moved. >> Moved. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Uh, there's no further discussion. We'll take a roll call vote.
028Miss Dro. Iendro. >> I Jason I. Jason Patiggo. >> I Caitlyn Sampers. I Fred Melvin >> and I Christopher Thrasher. Thank Thank you all once again. And we'll move now to career technical education policy. Met once again you you're up and and again this is a uh this is the second week. We discussed this at length our last meeting. >> But m you have anything to add. >> Yep. The only thing that I have to add is that a quick reminder that next um Wednesday, December 10th, is when our students are going to be transported over to Diamond um to to get a tour of their facilities for those that have signed up. Um and then we're continuing to push in to our middle school classes, our upper middle school classes to talk more and
029more about the offerings of Westport High School. and we are continuing with those shadow opportunities for our kiddos to go over from the middle school to the high school. Thank you. And again, I will mention that uh most of of what is contained in this policy uh has has are things that have been done uh for for many years prior as far as uh the efforts to to to drive students to technical education, including at Westport High School. um with the added bonus of now the vocational schools are paying for the transportation for for business. So that's always nice. Uh but uh I again appreciate the work that that has gone into this particular policy and I will ask if there are any other comments and state or statements from the committee at this time.
030Hearing none with the indulgence of the committee I'll take uh entertain a motion out of order to review and act on the career technical education policy. >> So moved. Second move and second. We'll take a roll call vote. Miss general starts off please. >> I have a gendro. >> I Jason Pico. >> I Caitlyn Sampers. >> I Fred Melnik >> and I Christopher Thrasher. Thank you again Mr. Shet. >> Thank you everybody. Great to see you all. Have a wonderful night. >> Thank you all very very much. Uh the next item on our agenda I'm going to go back to item G which is the acknowledgement of the U. South Coast Educational Collaborative uh first quarter report. >> Yes. Um as the superintendent of Westport, I am on the board of the South Coast Educational
031Collaborative and officially we need to read the um this first quarter just minutes into the record. It's just reallyformational purposes, but it does officially need to be read into the record. [snorts] Excellent. Any comments, statements from the committee, the questions? >> None. >> All right. Thank you very much. And thank you, Dr. Roy. We'll move on to the next item uh down to item J. It's the acknowledgement of the assigned MOA with the US Federation Teachers. this u MOA dealing with u with clubs has been approved and we're acknowledging the approval of of this MOA that details uh some items regarding clubs at the uh at the various schools in within the district. Any comment statements from the committee on this on this agenda item? We'll move on to the acknowledgement of a Westport Educational
032Planning Foundation grant in the amount of $3,670.13 to the uh to uh for Westport's middle high school's engineering teacher uh any uh comment statements on this? >> Thank you to the education foundation for their support. >> Yes. child is in this class. >> Thank you as well. >> Most appreciated. So with that uh we will move now to our action agenda. Uh we have acted on items A and B. We'll now entertain uh item two which is review and act on the regular school committee meeting minutes for Thursday, November 20th and school committee budget work session for Thursday, November 20th, 2025. Make a motion to approve the minutes. >> Second. >> It's been moved and second. We'll take a roll call move. Mr. I >> Jason Pico. >> I Caitlyn Sampers. >> I Sir approved.
033[clears throat] Our next item is to review and act on field trip to for the Westport High School 11th grade to Newport Mansions on December 19th, 2025. Any questions, comments from the committee on that particular trip? Seeing that uh the uh the request here is in order, I would entertain a motion to approve the trip. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Moved in second. We'll take a roll vote. Mr. Dendro, >> I have a Dendro. >> I Jason Pico. >> I Caitlyn Sampers. >> I Mr. Rasher. Thank you. We'll move on to routine matters correspondence and notices. have none. Uh at this time I'd also like to I'm sorry I thought I heard did someone does someone have any correspondence and notices? >> No. >> All right. Hearing hearing none, we'll move on to the
034uh >> discussion of future agenda items. If any uh >> All right. >> Any school committee members would like to mention any agenda items at this time, please feel free. All right. Hearing none. Of course, at any time, please feel free to reach out to me with agenda items for our next meeting. Uh topics the chair could not reasonably anticipate 48 hours in advance. I have none. Uh leaving us uh with uh I I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Been moved and second. We'll take a roll call vote. Mr. J. >> I gender. >> I Jason Pico. >> I Caitlyn Sampers. >> I Fred Mull. Christopher Thrasher. We are adjourned at 7:14. Thank you all very much.