School Committee - April 1, 2025

001Okay, it is 6:38 p.m. on Tuesday, April 1st, 2025. Calling this meeting of the Westport School Committee to order. If we can stand for the pledge. Pledge allegiance to the flag of United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Under master law chapter 38 section 20F, this meeting is being recorded. We'll start first with comments and statements from the public. Seeing none, we'll move on to ourformational agenda. We'll start with our student representatives. Good evening, the school committee and everyone else in attendance this evening. I have a small amount of news to share with you about our middle school. Starting off with academics, the third term will be coming to a close on Monday, April 7th. Term three

002report cards will be available on the community portal by Friday, April 11th. MCCAST testing has begun in grades seven and 8 will be testing in ELA on April 8th and 9th and grades five and six will be testing in ELA on April 10th and 11th. Now for some other topics, the spring dance for fifth, 6th, and 7th grade will be held on Friday, April 11th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. The dance will be casual attire. Mr. Monest will be the DJ and there will be pizza, drinks, snacks, and candy available for purchase. Tickets are $5 and will be sold at lunches on April 10th and 11th. Permission slips will be coming home soon. There is an important guardian student meeting for the eighth grade Washington DC trip on Wednesday, April 9th at 6:00 p.m. The

003middle school student council is holding a donation raffle for Forever Paws Animal Shelter. It will be ending this Friday, April 4th. You can donate items from a wish list and earn raffle tickets for a food and fun gift basket valued at over $100. Donations can be dropped off every morning from 7:00 to 7:30 in the cafeteria or any other time at Mrs. Trips or Mrs. Py classroom. Please see the latest school newsletter for the wish list. And lastly, spring sports, with the exception of lacrosse, which started last Friday, have all started this week. We wish all of our spring sport teams a great season. Go Wild Cats. Thank you. Thank you, Matt. Uh, good evening, Superintendent Aubin, school committee, and all in attendance this evening. I'm going to start out with some information about what's

004been going on at the school. Term 3 is coming to a close, and it will end Monday, April 7th. Report cards will be posted to the community portal on April 11th. The fifth annual senior dinner was held last Friday night. seniors and their invited staff member had a fantastic night filled with food, raffles, laughs, and karaoke. Thank you to Mrs. Reel for organizing this memorable night for our seniors. And thank you to all the staff and their generosity uh for donating raffle prizes, setting up and serving dinner. Also, a special thank you to Bayost Bank and Lee Supermarket for their support in this event. The seniors had an amazing night and it will be sure to be a highlight of their year. Attention seniors. Graduation yard signs are now for sale and the cost is

005$20 or $25 depending on the design of the sign. Orders must be placed by Tuesday, April 29th. Emails have been sent out to all seniors with this information and the QR code to scan for purchase is attached to that email. A reminder for seniors, the senior class trip to Six Flags is on Friday, May 9th. Permission slips are in the office and in Mrs. Avala's room. They are due by Wednesday, April 9th. The Westport Advocats and Rise Room are sponsoring the second annual Jay Nujo bowling fundraiser. It will be held at Holiday Lanes on Sunday, April 13th from 4 to 6:00 p.m. Teams can pre-register now. The cost is $25 for 2 hours of bowling with shoes included. All proceeds go to buying Westport High School's Special Olympics T-shirts and a scholarship for Westport High

006School seniors. Please see Mrs. Avala, Mrs. Melo, or Mr. Marshall for details and to sign up. Seniors, you must participate in this event in order to apply for the scholarship. Now for sports, the spring sports season is officially underway this week for all our Wildcat teams. The varsity lacrosse team started their season with an exciting home opener last Friday. The record is currently 2-0 and their next home game will be tomorrow against Southshore Technical High School. The JV also has a record of 1-0. They played yesterday. The boys varsity baseball team currently has a record of 1-0. They played Diamond today in one. The girls varsity softball team has a record of 2-0 after their wins against Bristol Aggie and Norfolk Aggie yesterday and today. The boys varsity tennis teams have had their first match

007at home against Dartmouth High School on Monday. Their record is currently 0 and one. And lastly, the girls varsity tennis team played their first home match today against Fair Haven. They also played Dartmouth, I believe, and they currently have a record of own two. Good luck to all our teams and go Wildcats. Awesome. Thanks, both very much. Participation karaoke. Oh, I had to leave early. I had a man I stayed for a little bit. Thank you. Have a nice night. Thank you. Thank you guys, boys. It was very nice working with you the last few years. Very nice working with you. You're welcome. Good luck with you, too. Have a good night. All right, we will now, if there's no objection, we'll take item D out of order. Recognition of our two committee members uh

008who unfortunately are are leaving the committee uh after the election next week. So, just have two things. Uh but first I just wanted to say that uh both as chair and and before as as a member joining the committee, it's been a true pleasure working with both of you um I've learned a lot watching both of you on the committee and watching you work. Um the input that you've had um I think has been really valuable to our conversations and I think the students and staff of Westport benefit as a result of it. Um, so just wanted to say thank you to both of you uh for your commitment. We don't, you know, this isn't a it's not a paid gig. It's not a one does it for the paid. I know. So I think

009it really shows uh commitment to this district and the community for both of you to have been so involved uh during your time here. So I just want to recognize that and thank you. Two things for each of you. A thank you small gift. And in addition, um Senator Rodri's also uh has citations for both of you from the state senate, which I'll read. Uh state senate official citation. Be it known that the Massachusetts Senate hereby extends its congratulations to Dr. Melissa Pico and Gloria Cabraw in recognition of your years of dedication and commitment to the Westport School Committee. And be it further known that the Massachusetts Senate extends its best wishes for continued success, that this citation be duly signed by the president of the Senate and attested to in a copy thereof transmitted

010by the clerk of the Senate, signed by the Senate President Karen Spilka, clerk Mike Hurley, and offered by our state, Senator Mike Rogers. Oh, thank you, both of you. That's really nice. [Applause] So, I'll just say uh because no one really wants to hear me talk, I'll just say thank you to everybody and everybody that's here because it really takes um I know it's kind of corny, but it really takes a village to raise children and um all of you are so very important to our community. Everybody here, our teachers, our staff, our business office, our cafeteria workers, uh I mean I can't, you know, I wish I could name everybody. Um but my years on the committee has uh I don't know maybe that's why I feel sad today. It's nice that it's done

011done because then you know I have free time but um at the same time it's like the end of uh you know so anyways thank you all. Thank you. [Applause] So Melissa we're the village people. I've had such a great learning experience um for the last three years. It's been on the stepping stone of all the things I do. I just have to watch when I follow Evan because it's always something else I have to get done afterwards. But this has been um great with Chris and Evan and Melissa and Jay now. Got to know Jay and everybody else. Uh so I'd like to thank you for that. Not that I'm stopping anywhere. It's just continuing in a different path right now. But again, thank you for all you all have done and hopefully I'll

012be able to come back and visit. I'm not I'm not voting but no voting. But thank you. Thank you. Thank you both again. Melissa, you touched on the, you know, the time that it takes. I think there's a lot of, you know, behind the scenes that goes into a lot of the work here. You know, our agendas, even reading the supporting material here, getting into the budget, there's a lot involved in being a committee member. And I think you know both of you really embodied you know that commitment and dedication and showed that uh in your participation in the meeting. So I just wanted to thank you again. Appreciate what you did. Thank you. Is this where I can make a motion to make it a monthlong meeting? We will have a reorg on April

013where we'll discuss. Uh is there anything else from the committee before we just again uh you know thank you to both of you um obviously for your your time and dedication to the district. It was great working with both of you. although it's been a short time um getting to know you better and know you from the uh from the school committee side of things. But congratulations and thank you both again. Thank you. Just once again, thank you both. I um I I really have enjoyed even though it's only been a year, it really has been great serving with with each of you and and you both offer uh perspectives that uh I I have just come to appreciate every meeting and just want to say thank you very much and hopefully hopefully neither one

014of you will be strangers. So, thank you. Thank everyone. I realize I'm also now going to be the senior member on this committee. The youngest one is a senior member. All right. Um, we'll move back to item B with superintendent's report. Mr. Robin. Sure, Mr. Chair. Uh, it's a two-part report. Uh, good news first, bad news second. Um, if it's okay, I'd like to actually have uh Mrs. Kaminsky read the report on uh the visit we had to Boston uh with the Mass Business Alliance this past week as a result of the incredible work that both she uh Miss Duket and her staff did with the high dosage tutoring. So if that's okay with you, I'd ask uh Mrs. Kaminsky uh if she could actually report out. Great. Thank you. Thank [Laughter] you. Okay. Oh,

015I need mic. Sorry, John. Thank you. On the fly here. Okay, so yes, we were invited um a couple of weeks ago by um the Honorable Edward M. Lambert, former mayor of Fall River, now executive director of the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education to go up to the state house to take part in a hearing on high dosage tutoring. Um, a couple of years ago, we worked with the state to secure funding for 30 of our kindergarteners to get um, high dosage tutoring for a few months. And that resulted in 93% of our kindergarteners going to first grade with end of kitten kindergarten skills ready for first grade reading instruction. And this year, um, we all we got that support again for 30 more of our kindergarteners. Um but um um executive director Lambert invited

016us up there because there were two co cohorts of schools that have gotten funding. So, one of the one of the cohorts was pretty much the Gateway Communities and they worked with the 18 Foundation and um the 18 Foundation underwrote their experience so that John's Hopkins could study the results and the results were remarkable and then the state used some ESSER funds to support that work in other communities and they because they wanted it to be more of a cross-section of communities that had access to it. So, as a rural district, we we um petitioned them and were pleasantly persistent and finally they said yes. Um so, on Thursday, March 27th, after an invitation from the MBA MBA, we visited the state house for a hearing about high dosage tutoring. For two years, we've been

017successfully working with Ignite Reading to provide support to our students who need additional instruction and practice around foundational reading skills. And I want to thank the committee because if you recall um earlier in the year or last spring, you voted to use some of our remaining ESSER funds for some of the students at the West. So 11 of our students at the West are also getting tutoring every single day for 15 minutes a day from a one-on-one tutor virtually and they are making gains. So we joined a researcher from John Hopkins who presented data around the impressive success of Ignite in Gateway communities, the vice president of academics at Ignite Reading, superintendent from Chelsea and Fall River, legislators and their staff who were there to learn and invited guests from a handful of districts who've

018been using Ignite to accelerate success in their districts. We presented a one-pager that you have. Did you pass that out? There you have it. Yes. Um, we presented a one-pager that you all have that traces the timeline of work that we've been doing since 2022 around literacy. Um, and part of that work happened before I even um got here with uh the former curriculum director who did an intensive look at highquality instructional materials for the elementary school with u Mrs. Dukat at the time and they selected the Wonders program. Um the the one pager that you have will also post online so the community can take a look at it. I don't know if you know, but Governor Healey has allocated $25 million in her budget for high dosage tutoring, and the hearing went a

019long way in educating folks about its value and efficacy. So hopefully the legislature will support this um this line item in the budget and districts will continue to to get that tutoring. So what that means is um that will allow 10,000 students in the Commonwealth continue to continue to get this high dosage tutoring and really help us to be to continue to be the best state in the union for education. Thank you so much for sharing that and appreciate your advocacy on that. And I remember, you know, our first discussion on that in the committee, I think it was sometime last year, maybe it was last spring, when we looked at some of that baseline data and seeing where we've gone from them. I'm I'm first of all, I'm proud that we supported, but I'm

020even more proud of our staff for implementing it up to the degree that they did, which I think is is great shows. Really shout out to the staff because they have supported the work in their classrooms. So, thank you. So, Mr. Mr. Chair, I I did just want to mention um so going back again, I guess it was about a year ago when this was brought up and it uh uh thanks to Miss Kaminsky, I I I went down a bit of a rabbit hole looking into a lot of the uh a lot of the reading uh curriculum changes that had been made over over the past year or past years. Um I say this every time this comes up, I'll say it again. Thank you again for spearheading this and thanks to our staff

021for implementing it. This is something that where you see it say it right here actually in the the one sheet it is value evident in the data everything that is being done here uh you can there you can verify it with quant quantifiable data there is great progress here so I just want to say thank you again for continuing the effort and I'm glad to hear that it's uh it's made its way to the state house yeah so okay I get to be the skunk at the lawn party so here we go um this is hot off the presses from the Massachusetts Association of school superintendent I want to be abundantly clear on this. When I'm reading this, I'm not reading this for the political agenda or anything. It's simply a release that just came

022out, I'd say about an hour ago. Uh we are writing on behalf of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendent, which represents more than 700 district leaders from 276 school districts across the Commonwealth. In the 10 weeks since inauguration day, a barrage of directives have left our school districts and professionals who lead them in a state of upheaval, uncertainty, and fear. Like so many across the country, we are continuously trying to make sense of executive orders and federal mandates pertaining to funding, immigration, and the like. We are writing today to seek your advocacy on two critical issues related to the US Department of Education. First, we are deeply troubled by the swift and irresponsible dismantling of a federal agency that plays a critical role in the oversight of public education. While we recognize that a great

023deal of authority rests with state and local bodies, the United States Department of Education has numerous roles and responsibilities that must be upheld. We have extremely concerned about the more than two billion in federal education funds currently awarded to Massachusetts to the United States Department of Education. Last year, schools received more than 285 million in title one grants alone, the largest source of federal funds for K through 12 schools to educate students from lowincome families. Through title two, Massachusetts received more than $30 million last year to support effective instruction like you're looking at there. Um, including innovation programs to enhance teacher performance. Title three grants uh enable our schools to educate a growing population of ling English learners. And we currently have 14 English learners here at Westport. Um, our communities rely heavily on funding

024through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, including resources for early intervention and preschool programs, as well as special education services for students through the age of 21. Massachusetts continues to lead the way in career and technical education, offering innovative technical vocational programs to prepare our graduates for successful careers. And again, thanks in large part to the work of Laura Sharet, Lisa Kaminsky, uh, Regina Mercer, and I don't want to miss somebody, but a whole bunch of other people. Uh, I'll include Mr. Toma in his work with these ZSpace compare. We are offering vocational in a different way that I believe has allowed us to enroll more students than we've ever had before that or within my tenure. I'll leave it at that. Most critical. Second, we have outrage that school districts were blindsided last week

025by Secretary M. McMahon's sudden decision to repeal the extensions that were granted to the spend federal pandemic relief funds. Under this reversal, Massachusetts stands to lose nearly $106 million in American Rescue Plan and elementary and secondary school emergency relief. uh in some cases US DOE had approved the deadline to extend uh for the uh use of those funds. Now, 20 school districts in nearly every region of the state, including the South Coast, are scrambling to account for the potential loss of funds that have been spent or earmarked for pandemic uh recovery investments, including tutoring and other academic supports, mental health services, and facilities projects such as air quality improvement and security upgrades. And this is real. And the reason I'm saying it's real is because the so the schools in our area that have been

026impacted uh New Bethford is seeing a $15.6 million clawback of their funds. Um Fair Haven is seeing $250,000 clawed back. Uh Greater Fall River Vocational School District to use the vernacular diamond is receiving a clawback of $115,000. Um, and fair, like I said, Fair Haven was 250. Uh, New Bedford was uh 15.6. I want to point out that Westport, if they were to try and claw back, they'd be carving back 54 cents. And that is an unbelievable credit to the business office and the school committees, past and present, that saw the need to use this money. And I want to make it abundantly clear. Not only was the money spent well, but it was spent with the future in mind. The next pandemic comes, we don't have to buy 200 rabbits air purifiers because we

027have them sitting and ready to go. In fact, some of them are still keeping our classrooms uh safe. We spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on UV lighting in an effort to make sure that the common areas at both the MAC and the West had more protections for the students and staff. And I think it's played a role in the attendance of our students and our staff. So, you know, I could go on that nauseium about this. You read this stuff, people don't think you're serious about it. This is dead serious right now. And we better keep an eye on the title one in particular because that is we get hit on title one even at 25% again over $100,000. So, it is it is a credit to the business office and sitting next to

028me. I want to give a huge shout out to Michelle and her staff because what they did was absolutely amazing with that ESSA funding and it should be recognized by this community on the great job that this school district and the business office did to ensure that those funds were used and used not only for the students of today but for the students of tomorrow as well. And with that I yield. Thank you. Thank you. Uh the only comment I'll make is that obviously we'll see what happens with the funding that we're currently receiving and then go from there. I know this came up during the finance committee meeting when we were there. Um particularly on the formula grants that we have. Um so we'll I guess see how that shakes up. Yes. Uh thank

029you. So I I would just like to say that um that that that is a real issue. I mean there's a number of them but the the funding of uh education both higher ed and our K through 12 is is is a concern and there are ways of getting involved in order to advocate on behalf of of our students. So, you know, look for those areas um if that's of interest to you because um it's going to it has the potential to decimate our education and our um students moving forward. Thank you. And Chair Jro, they also in the Nav've talked about rural funding too. So, that is another area that we're going to have to keep an eye on because Westport does receive uh rural aid. So, and uh through you, Mr. Chair, I

030do have one question of the the superintendent. So you you mentioned I think it was 54 cents. Did I get that right? That is correct. So am I I assume there are no outstanding ESSER funds right now that have not been that have not been spent or earmarked. 54 I know I know New Bedford in particular that was earmarked for a new I think was it a health health center? I know they did the kitchen. They did a central kitchen as well. I don't know if they completed it. So yeah. So I know that a lot of a lot of the districts were were planning on projects and had been granted the extension. So that that really is a testament to the business office absolutely for making sure that those got used well every time

031but no we worked together as a team. So I think working together with all the schools seeing what everybody's needs were and what the students needs were was really the focus. We met we had plenty of meetings that we would make sure that we've covered all the buildings and what the needs of the students were. We spent right down from athletics all the way up. So it was not just academic. I mean even the beautiful sign outside the west was you know huge hugely important. We could not have afford that without these these funds. So all right um we will move to item C. West Westport Community Schools bill warrant dated 44205 $289,6156. Um I reviewed it look through the voices. I don't know if there's any comments from the committee that's for you. All

032right moving to item E committee leazison on reports. We'll start with Mr. Thrasher reserving the superintendent for that agenda item. I was just about to say Mr. Chair we'll wait till the next agenda item. Um, I will mention, although technically this one, this one's your thunder, but I'll steal it right quick. The, uh, for with the long-term building committee, uh, there will be a community meeting on the 10th, which is next Thursday night. Uh, it'll be at the old high school. Uh, I believe it's going to be in the media center. Uh, and this meeting will, uh, go over some of the proposals, or I shouldn't say proposal, but some of the ideas that are being, uh, kicked around with, uh, RGB architects in as part of their of their, uh, review. uh and uh

033feasibility study as to potentially uh using the the old high school building for something uh other other than uh what it's currently being used for. Uh and I think that it it's going to be a very uh it's kind of going to be a collaborative approach. Uh very interested in community feedback and I I think they're going to set up stations with I different presentation like uh project boards in different sections of the media center. So, uh, looking forward to that. Again, that's going to be, uh, Thursday the 10th at, I believe it is going to be at 6:30. And if you'll give me one second, I will be sure to sure that is correct. But, uh, I'll get back to you on the exact time, but again, it'll be Thursday night 10. Thank you.

034Anything, Lori? Not all year. Thank you. I I do not have any updates. Uh nothing besides um what I'm sure Chris will get to with the um superintendent or subcommittee. All right. Um the only one I had is the audit committee will uh is is scheduling a meeting likely for uh the first week of May, probably the 5th. Um but we'll keep you posted when we get a date and uh keep you posted on what comes out of that meeting. We had the audit report that was released. Um, no material weaknesses were identified in it. There were uh some items to watch that were consistent with uh some previous years as well. Um, that was all. So, we'll schedule a meeting in May and I'll update the committee after at that point. All right, we'll

035go to item F, the superintendent search committee update. Mr. Thrasher, I'll refer to you as the chair of that subcommittee. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, we have met several times. Uh, just the latest meeting was on Monday. Um I again thanks to everyone who is attending these meetings. Uh we do have interviews scheduled uh for next week. Um we have I believe we'll be interviewing five candidates. Uh and we uh we are uh wanting to move forward with posting a superintendent uh uh survey to the community uh both the Westport schools committee or excuse me the Westport schools community as well as the town of Westport at large. Um I I've passed around a uh a draft survey basically just uh have uh 20 different qualities uh and we're asking people to rank

036their top five. Also uh to identify what part of the community they they are in whether they're parent, teacher or or uh member of the community and also of course a uh uh place for some additional comments as well. So the idea is it's going to be a Google form um and uh would like to post a link not just through school channels but also on the on the town website as well. So um we did discuss this on Monday. Uh it was I guess approved by the committee uh by by the subcommittee and uh if anybody has any anything they would like to to add or change about this please feel free. So looks great. Yeah, I think it's great. I think uh it's good that we're using this as a method to get

037community input. I think that's important in the process. Um looking forward to you know the results and seeing how that plays out in the you know in the interview process and how the committee's interpretation of it. So looking forward to the community's involvement in that. I you partly answer my question uh on how it's going to be disseminated. So uh you said the town website. So it it we're hoping to put a link on town website as well as uh whether it's through an email newsletter or school the school website all the above perhaps. Um so yeah we're trying to get it uh disseminated far far and wide as quickly as possible. Um, I also just want to give a a shout out to to Michette here who who at first so you know came

038up with 20 qualities and at first I was thinking oh we'll just rank all 20 and then I I went back and forth and she she uh she assured me we'd get better with with a top five ranking and I think she is absolutely correct. So good job good call indeed. So, uh, but no, I'm, uh, I'm excited to get get the feedback and and we are, like I said, we're, uh, looking forward to the interviews next week and, uh, should, uh, we're we're still, uh, still, I'd say, close to the timeline that we're looking at, uh, and certainly should be good by, uh, by the, uh, or the June deadline, shall we say, right? So, very good. U,, thank you. Any questions, comments from the committee on that? All right. Um item G. So

039I guess related to that item, there were some resignations from the search committee. Um so I would recommend that we fill those uh at this time. What I would say is going forward, I think if there are vacancies, I think that's unfortunately just we'll have to have the committee the way it's at because of the timelines and the way the interviews are scheduled. So, uh, because it's only gone through the screening and not the interviews, I think we should fill them, uh, you know, at this meeting, so we can move forward with having a full committee going, uh, going through that interview process, which I think is important. Um, are the openings in those spots like are parent or whatever? It's it's kind of everywhere. Okay. Yeah. So, I would uh my proposal to the

040committee would be that we appoint uh Anne Hathaway, uh Nancy Tavaris, Rick Manis, and Christopher Dunn to the committee to fill those vacancies. And uh Mr. Chair, I I say again uh just with the timing, you know, we we like I said, we we've had uh had some resignations. Um I think this is a tremendous uh undertaking as far as the time commitments. So, um certainly understand if it, you know, not working for with some. Uh but I I would also just like to reiterate, uh we will not be starting over with the process. This is this is simply to fill these spots before the interview since we do have interviews coming up. Uh and our our goal is to meet uh on Thursday. Actually, the meeting's already been posted. We'll be meeting in executive

041session to get new new committee members up to speed. So, uh at this time, Mr. Chair, I will uh move that those me or those individuals you mentioned be uh added to the uh superintendent search committee. Second. Was that a motion? That is a motion. Okay. So second motion has a main second. Is there any further discussion on this item? I just like to say if if for some reason they can't do it, I think we just need to move ahead. Right. That's absolutely okay. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And I would think that only because the interviews haven't been done yet. I think is is why I'm, you know, certainly fulfilling them. There anything further? Right. Hearing none. Uh, all in favor? I I opposed. That's that carries. And we will move to item H, out

042of school time pay rates uh, benefits and job description. Uh, Miss Jobs is here. I will just note for the committee. I will abstain from discussion and vote on this because I have a relative that works at the program. So I will abstain from this but jobs will present and then the committee is I will I can facilitate discussion but the committee is welcome to ask questions. Hello good afternoon. Um a few things on the the table today. So out of school time pay rates benefits and then job descriptions. So um probably makes sense to go in job description order first. I know you have a copy of each of those. I do want to state these are not these are all existing roles. There's not a new position added. No changes to the job

043descriptions as as well or the only change is the actual title. Okay. And that's based on EEC recommendation. Yes. So these are all existing. What were the titles before? So as an example where you see assistant uh group leader the first one which is your high school student it was childcare assistant. Um second one group leader was child yeah was childcare educator. Yes. So when EEC comes to do their monitoring visits they kind of give you feedback on all sorts of things. One of the things was to be more consistent with what the EEC on in most sites has for their roles in out of school time programs. So, we just want to change the titles to be more in line with that. And these are all part-time positions, right? This is because it's after

044school. Yep. I don't know if anybody has any discussion specifically on any of them. Any comments? And you you I'm Lauren you're doing the program so you run it full-time and the kids are all so do you have a a lot we've looked at these well it's probably not the roles it's probably after that you have a lot of kids doing the program I haven't Yes. So we're at capacity right now. Right now we have 105 children. Is there a wait list at this time as well? Because I I saw a post saying I did put a Yes. So there's a wait list already for 2526 school year. So the kids that are currently enrolled in the program get first priority. After that, I put it out to the community. Based on what I received

045in those numbers from preschool up to fourth grade, I can't I've I'm at capacity for morning and afterare. A few slots in preschool and a few slots left in kindergarten, but one through four are maxed out. Is this at close close to the 105 number or I mean I know this is for the next school year but what what's the number that you're looking at as being capacity right now? Uh so right now I have 90 kids enrolled for this school year for this. Okay. And I have 105 kids right now. That being said, what I think is going to come in through kindergarten and prek will probably bring me back up to the 105. Understood. Yeah. Any further comments, questions on the job descriptions? Mr. Chair, I just I'll just mention I'll ask a

046question. I know the answer to uh this this comes out revolving account. Revolving account not the general budget. I actually was just going to say that, but yes. Um revolving account never out of the school budget. And you come out of the school budget? No, I don't all the revolving. Yeah. So, myself, the program coordinator, and then any staff underneath are um It's like your own little Yes. Uh supplies, everything comes from there. So, if I may, it also includes a little custodian, I believe, if I'm not mistaken, and also some business office funding as well. So, really what she does, what doesn't come out of that department is really just overhead as far as heating, electricity, lawn maintenance, you know, things of that nature. if you want to go. Oh, any other questions? No.

047Um, so out of school time rates and merit increases is the next one. This it was easier for Kristen and I. Thank you Kristen for your help with this and Melissa who's not here, but she helped a lot with this as well. Um, I don't know if you remember, we used to go by a step process essentially everybody just moving up every year. Step one, step two, step three, step four. I think step four was the highest. Uh former school committee member at one point, maybe a couple years ago, uh kind of put into my ear that having a merit-based increase or evaluation for an increase was kind of the way was a good structure to look at. And I agree that that was how we should eventually do it. Um considering we're not part

048of a union and we have the ability to be flexible like that. So these are rates that we would like to well like to be effective as of July 1st. And the first box are for new hires. So that first box is new hires. You'll see your assistant group leader, group leader, and then site coordinator/behavior support assistant 0 to one years, 2 to four, and then um five plus. That would be anybody coming in on July 1st. The middle box is a current staff on July 1 and then a merit increase. Um Kristen, this would that's right. It would be July 1, 2026. So this year would just go with the standard 2%. 2%. Yes. because we'll be introducing um a performance evaluation system that will be tied to these merit increases which will be

049new for everyone. We want to get through one full cycle of performance evaluations and then assigning increases based on performance in the job which is the bottom chart. So that's what's a little bit different is that you can see that the perform the um merit increase percentage is higher with a higher performance level. But we didn't want to make that effective 7125 because this is a new system. We want to get through a whole evaluation cycle with everyone and then assign those merit increases based on their performance in that. You have like a checklist or some something to say okay they did professional development they did all that stuff. So the evaluation tool is being created right now and it's all based off off of health and safety guidelines and requirements by EEC. So when

050that evaluation tool is complete, I can actually send it to Lori to send to the committee if you'd like to see that. Um not anymore, but Oh, yeah. But if you do want to see if anyone wants to see the tool, that tool will then give a score and based on that score, you'll see at the bottom the needs improvement meets or exceeds and that's where they would fall in line with their increase rather than just bumping people up every year on July 1st. Right? I understand that. But I, you know, I just worry about, you know, somebody says they got a higher one because they like me better. And I've seen that before on merit. They they don't like me so they're not giving me a higher raise. And it creates a problem with

051any of this, you know, people will just be with that. So that's why I wonder like if okay, you did this, you did this, and this is showing you're exceeding. That's why I was wondering about a checklist type thing. So it's very cut and dry. So in I don't have any wiggle room with the health and safety standards as an example. If someone is continuously doing their checks, their attendance checks, it's I spot check that. So that's a very like cut and dry, right? So they either do it or they don't. Um, I'm not necessarily worried about that because it's all spelled out for us from EEC. So, it's just here's what they need to do and then they're being scored. Okay. Yes. Most of the categories they're tied to the EC standards. They Yeah,

052they all are. They all are. Okay. So, through you, Mr. Chair, I do have a couple of questions. Um I I want to go back to the job descriptions for a second, but I just want to check on the uh Sure. on on the the the built-in uh the merit increase schedule here. Okay. So, have you based on Well, actually, let me let me step back. First question, is the has the cost fluctuated as far as what is charged either to the vouchers or to uh to the parents over the last few years? Has it gone up every year or? So our rate our private rate increase our our private rate tuition went up last year. Okay. Per afternoon. So it went from 25 to 30. This upcoming year there is no increase. Okay. Uh

053to apparent what I've gotten as an increase from pace out of that $30 per afternoon I'm now getting $26 and say50 per child that has a voucher. Okay. So realistically it's not implementing this is not going to affect the capacity as far as or the bad I mean correct. Yep. It's been gained out a little bit. So that Yeah. And you take a percentage, right? Isn't that percentage of pace percentage of private or how how was your or did you take more kids at a pace or I don't know how was how many kids would they come in class? Is there a No, it's not even a percentage. I just it's based on ratio. So, I know when I have a certain number of staff, I can only have a certain number of kids. Uh,

054if I had another staff member, I would add 13 more kids, but because I don't have that, I have to cap it off. Yeah. Do you give the opportunity for staff to have any their children there? Because sometimes there's benefits to that. Like some place I know BC if you had a child on a summer program, they would go free and then they would do it that way to help, you know, give a break to um staff. The incentive for a staff to have their children is 50% of the cost. So a discount of 50%. And that's both morning. They can have their children morning there. They can drop off as early as 7:00. They can have their child there till 5:30 if they do afterare. Um I don't really have any staff that's ever

055utilized it for the summer because they're with their children. Yeah. Um but morning is very I probably have eight teachers or so that are utilizing morning program. Um, and it's 50% so it's it's reduction savings. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, if I may, I I just wanted to ask about the job descriptions. Did these come uh and through you, Mr. Chair, I'll ask Miss McDaniel, did the did did you these come from recommended job descriptions at all or this all can actually um a lot of the information, correct? Yes. So EEC will give me I'm assigned a monitor some essentially the person that licenses the program through her um Nicole. I asked her what is was the best route to go in order to get these job descriptions. You're go they're very similar to the YMCA

056Boys and Girls Club um your standalone sites. If they're licensed by EEC they're almost the exact job description. Okay. So the only concern I have and if this if other programs similar programs do the same then sure it's less of a concern. Um but I do see a couple of uh mentions on uh under classroom support talking about preparing materials and setting up learning environments for activities uh lesson plans and curriculum implementation. And my concern is that this program the out of school time program is is explicitly not instruction time. It is not correct. It is not in instruction time. However, it is an EEC regulation that you have to have some sort of curriculum. Now, it falls into their guidelines. Um, not it's not academics, but it's a play-based learning. So, when when staff

057begin at the out of school time program, they need to take a training from EEC. It's got a about nine modules on it. One of those is about planning, planning curriculum, play-based learning. Um because in fact when EC comes to for their unannounced visits, the one thing they do not want to see is children in seats. And so we have art curriculum there, we have music, we have yoga. Those will are all encompassing of what the curriculum um would be. Understood. Okay. Well, as I said, my my concerns are are alleviated if if other job descriptions and other programs are are similar and that it would make sense. I just wanted to make sure that that distinction was No. Yeah, it it's a definite expectation, not on the high school student, but as a group

058leader that they plan um plan something every day. Doesn't have to be crazy, you know, go crazy, but they definitely have to have something for the the kids to be planned every day in addition to the offering. So in addition to the yoga the our physical activity obviously over there at the former high school we have that big gym um but they are absolutely expected to plan something. Yes. Gotcha. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other questions further than that? Um, so, um, I'd like to make, uh, a motion to approve the pay rate/benefits and job description for the OST program. Melissa, I just have to go. I just have to get to the benefits. Oh, thought that was okay. No, that's okay. Second on that motion. I'll second. All right. It's been second. You

059can continue on. Okay. Okay. We have it. Last page. Discussion. Last page are the out of school time benefits. So um if you look at the top so vacation there's one week in August that we close that um to parents we don't offer care. So because the out of school time program runs from January through December we at one point maybe probably a few years ago I'm not remembering when it was decided by the committee to give that last week the actually the week before school starts for the kids to the staff to have off. So what we are proposing is that um for anyone that's been in the program for one year in year two all the employees will get something that week. So how we did it last year again asking for the

060the same this year as a this is a new benefit package that we're kind of putting together here. Whatever they worked for hours in the past 6 months. Melissa goes back with payroll, takes a six-month average, and if they worked an average of 15 hours over the past six months, they will get 15 hours of pay for that week we are closed. And if somebody worked, there are people that actually, you know, do have five and six hours a week on payroll. Um, they just want to work a day or two, then that's what they would get paid that week. And is what on here is different from last year? right to the bottom. Uh the sick time. Just sick time. Okay. So, right now the employees get they don't get anything for sick time.

061So, um we're requesting proposing that after one year well after one year in working at out of school time in year two only a position that would work 20 plus hours obviously minus myself the program coordinator. um after one year getting 5 days after 5 10 after 10 um 15 should that occur. Right now it only affects two employees out of 22 employees. So we're asking that they at least be able to get that benefit. Is there anything comments questions from the committee? I think just the only concern obviously with it being a um self- sustaining program in terms of um funding and what they take in is if um we can encompass all this you know if if our staff members um in the program all say um you know gain the experience to

062get up to the you know to the top levels will it continue to be self- sustaining so I can tell you that or are we sorry are we that's okay are we free to make our own decisions or increases um in um tuition costs to offset that or is there like an EEC mandate or something like that? There's not an EEC mandate. [Music] Um I really go based on what's around us and local tuition rates. um knowing that it's been self self- sustaining. I mean, I don't know what it was like before I started, right? I don't know where that number was, but right now there's $30,000 in that account. Um even the cost to the the monthly the added cost on a 2% for all employees is an additional $3,600 a year. So, I'm

063not concerned really about not being able to then give these increases if that is that kind of what you're referring to. Yeah. And just to check, this is not contractual beyond a single year, right? This is approved every year. Uh or No, we don't approve that every this every year. We're bringing this now. This is Okay. So, this is Yes. Okay. So what we did do, what Melissa and I did was we actually took somebody at a pretty high like one of the higher rates right now and gave them as an example like a 2% 3% across for them to get to the highest level or step it would actually take us out four years. So maybe we'd be back here four years revisiting kind of the structure. Does that for existing staff? For existing

064staff. Correct. Yes. Okay. Now, how does your uh OST salary match uh with the district union salaries in that same type of I can't speak to the union. Is that what you need? That's what I'm asking. Yeah. Yeah. No, they're not equivalent. These are um lesser. I would I would guess much less. Again, I I don't know, but I didn't bring the contract with me, but yeah, you're comparing it to a TA. is significantly less. Okay. Um I was just thinking about the um benefits. Those aren't accumulating, right? They're each year like five five days after year one and then they go away. They're not accumulated. Correct. Um what was the thought process about because I don't I don't know that I typically see well maybe but you know after one year they get 5

065days after 5 year 10 days after 10 years 15 days um so each year they just go away at the end of the year and they restart. Yes. I believe it was a use it or lose it type of thing. And so they'll usually use it and then you'll have like I would assume like specific do you know because it's different than almost like vacation. So like when you think about vacation usually you know something like that is increased because you know you've been somewhere longer then you get you know more the benefit of more vacation time. But sick time while it is a benefit it's not like you can only take it if you're sick. Do you know what I'm saying? Like it's different than vacation time. So typically I would see that as

066vacation, not sick. So I was there a reason why it was done sick versus something else like personal or I don't No, it was just kind of hearing staff over the past couple years say, you know, when we need to be out sick, we don't have the ability to ever get paid for our hours on some days. So I kind of brought that to the table because they don't have benefits or, you know, they have Yeah. They have that one week of the averaged out hours, but over six month. Six months. Yeah. But we don't we don't have anything. So really, this is just like what we came up with. Yeah. Something. What you you sometimes, and I'm not saying that this is here, but what you sometimes find is if someone has 15 days,

067they're going to use it because they're not going to lose it. Use it or lose it, right? So, but that's why it's usually like sick or personal. So, um, are you kind of referring to like a PTO, like paid time off in like Yeah, but at the same It all depends on what the goal of that was. If you, you know, if you're thinking, well, if someone is there quite a while and then they start getting sick, yeah, they should get the sick time. Okay, then that makes sense. But if the goal was to give a benefit of a couple of extra days and maybe um after five years rather than you know five um 10 sick days, maybe it's five sick days and five personal or something, you know, just a thought like I'm

068okay with approving it as is. It's just as I started to think about it, I'm like I don't know if that's the best way to go. I think and I I see your point. Another way to look at it is if you have a longerterm employee that has a disability for a period of time and you know then they've got at least 15 days. They can do that with Can't they do that with FMLA? Well, it's not paid though. But this would be paid, right? Okay. Be able to substitute, but you know, it's different. Yep. That's fine. I just just throwing it out there. That was a good point. Yes. Um particularly to us. Well, yeah. So, one question I did want to check. You mentioned you had employees that say only work five hours

069a week or something, maybe a couple hours a day or something. Uh so I just wanted to check when when you're when we talk about five days, is that based on an hourly situation or is it just whatever you're scheduled for on that day? How is that spelled out? Uh correct. So if someone the person that I'm thinking of let's say works a four hour shift over five days. Yes. So she's only they're only going to get paid what they would actually work on that day. Yes. And keep in mind this is only for people that work 20 plus hours. So out of 22 people it's going to affect two. Gotcha. Okay. All right. That's just my salute. Yes. Good. Did the information discussion impact your motion at all? No, I don't think so. I

070I would say that I mean this is the first year that you're you're putting it through. I would say take a look at it. If after that you think it should be something different then you know if you need to bring it back to the committee do that but that was just kind of like a brainstorming thing that I was throwing out there. And no I do appreciate that because we didn't I just Yeah. It wasn't like that wasn't the thought at the time. But yes, I understand it. Yeah. But yeah, I'm still okay with with it going the way it would this be made like a one year a two-year contract to see it and look at it in two years and see if it's it's going to be abused or not. We we

071talked about that because we don't take sick days, right? So we don't take sick days. Certainly whatever the committee feels like if you want us to come back in a couple of years to do this, it can be approved. It can be approved from July 125 to 27 to 27. Yeah. That way you can Well, I won't be again, but it would be a way to see is it working? Is it not? Is it abusive? It's not like we've seen it when we take the attendance of every, you know, we get the monthly attendance and you'll see, okay, now we're getting to May. Oh, everybody's sick now. Mhm. Because it's and they'll be out in June. So, you want to you want to see if you get a year or two, then you can say,

072"Okay, this is working great. Can we continue it?" And that way at least you can you'll have some kind of your data of what's working and what's not. Yeah. I know. I think I mean it's easy to track for me because it's just those two people. Yeah. So that's but it's a good it's a good start. Yeah. Yeah. So uh I'd like to modify my motion to um approve uh to approve for a one-year time period. Also, I'm going to have to separate it because everything can be approved except for the benefits, right? Well, you're saying for the problem is if you do it for a one-year process-wise, you'd have this, it would impact the because it's kind of That's what I'm saying. And so, so, um, if I may, I'm just wondering that program

073being a revolving account has even more significant eyes on it because obviously the fluctuation of the in, you know, the money that is, you know, comes in and is allocated out. Uh typically if there was any type of issue that would require the school committee's uh attention, I'm sure that Mrs. Shaves and her people would come to the committee and say we may need to talk about this to modify something. Again, I don't want to speak for her, but I mean, yeah. Um, I'm trying to hope that would clear up your uh Well, no, I I agree, but I think it I think it would make sense to put that one year for the for the sick time benefit because then it's the committee saying that we've approved, you've gotten that sick time uh uh

074yeah, the benefit proposal approved for one year. So, you can also let the employees know that this is going to be a trial period for like a year and then it because if it changes then they know it has that ability to change. I mean, it might not. you might decide or for two years. Did you say one year? I said two. Two. The two gives it a little bit. So, um I'd like to withdraw my motion and make a new motion. Um I've never done this. So, I guess this is great that it's happening today. Is this a trick? This a camera rules. Um, so I'd like to make a motion to approve the um merit schedule, uh, the pay and the job descriptions for the OST program. So, it's going to be two

075motions. That's the first one. Do you want to do it want to modify it or do you want to do it separate? So, I'm doing a whole new motion. The first motion is to just approve the pay rate, not the and the job descriptions without the Okay. Yes. I'll second. Motion has been made second. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I have. One obsession. I'd like to make a second. Motion to approve the out of schooltime benefits for a period of two years beginning on July 1st. Second. Okay. Motion is made second. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I one absention. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you, Michelle. Yes. Thank you. Um, if since this is my LA, I

076just want to say thank you for all that you've done for that program and for the people who work there. It's an incredible benefit for our parents and our students that they have a place to go before and after school and in the summertime. So, thank you for for everything. Okay, moving to item I, discussion of school choice for the 26 school year. We have Mr. Aguar here, Mr. Cat, and Mr. Sheret join us. Thank you for joining us. Um, this is a continuation of our discussion at the last meeting. [Music] Um, so we can if the committee has specific questions, u we can direct them. What I would what I would ask uh of the building principles is their recommendations on these. So I know that they're they're noted here. Um I know in

077the high school you're looking at just nine and 10 at that level. Um Mr. Agger, if I if I remember if I recall your what you said last time correctly, you said there may be some capacity at the fourth grade level. Um but the other grades you wouldn't recommend. Correct. And then Mr. Cat, uh, again, if I recall correctly, you said you wouldn't recommend for the Mac Umber, correct? Okay. All right. Is there any questions for uh building principles? I I do have a question for Mr. Aguar. Um, so you mentioned that you think there is some room in the fourth grade. Is that is that 10 number what you would recommend at this point or or at least I would say that we have six teachers in the fourth grade and five in the

078other. So the 10 would be if you separated out amongst the six classes less than two students. So class size-wise I think that's the only place that we have uh room if there was the will of the committee to uh to add at our level. I I think we still have some issues relative to I think we still have some issues in um in general with school choices is a risk. I it's you know I serve in forever river on the school committee. It's a risk there as well. You know the students that come in you can um sometimes you take students that are ready to rock it and sometimes you take students that are needy and you can't really differentiate it. But that's where I feel like in in the fourth grade if we

079want to do it and I think you have to vote on this every year. So I think the 10 we could have the capacity at the west. Um so I I will make a proposal for the committee to discuss uh to agree on it but I'll make a proposal that we um for this coming school year and again this is approved every year so this can be amended next year but I would recommend five in the fourth grade five in the ninth grade and five in the 10th grade would be my proposal to the committee. We don't have to agree on that. Someone else can propose something different. That's fine. Whatever the uh the pleasure of the committee is that my on that through you, Mr. Chair, I would like to ask Miss Sheret. Um

080so I remember that you you specifically talked about the the issues with students coming over in the later grades of fitting in with the requirements. Um, do is um I know it says you're you're recommending no school choice for grade 11. Um, I is that have you have you encountered significant issues with this before? What I'm wondering is could we do five for grade 11 or would that really So, this is a very particularly large sophomore class. It's the biggest in history at almost 120. not history, that's not the right word to say, but like in recent history. That's awesome. So, that was the main um issue because then it would really it like it's already a large class. This current senior class like is this current junior class is only 70. So, that that

081gives you kind of a difference in why I suggested zero for the 11th grade. Gotcha. Yes. We also want to be mindful of our class sizes and and keeping them um you know at doable ratios. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Um uh so uh when we last met I was really in favor of um having um school choice and then I think um I've had some conversations and then also with the recent budget cuts. While I do recognize that this is a way of of revenue for having students come in, um I have to say that I'm really concerned with the revenue that's going to be coming. um coming through from the Department of Education and from the state and I'm just I'm really concerned with that and I think adding students unfortunately so I'm

082I'm doing a 360 here. Adding any students is is something that I I don't know that I necessarily want to do. Um I think if you know the whole if the committee wants to do um you know five and fourth and ninth and tth um I would do that but I would almost be in favor of not doing any uh this year because of the significant unknown and just the state of affairs that's happening right now. It's yeah so that's my kind of five cents. I would I I like the five 555 um just to see like I say you don't know what the waters are coming but that's a doable number. You know we've talked about it but um you don't know what it is. So everything everything is like a chance. So if

083you take more or less you don't know if you end up taking more and twothirds of them are special needs. Now you're in a bigger hole. So staying with a five five5 would be uh was it fourth ninth and tth? I would agree with that one. Mr. Thresher, I think I cut you off before. No, no, no. Dr. Chico was was next. I So, I I um at this point, I think it's important to have some spots open in in especially at the high school level. And I can understand simply based on the extra teacher I guess that we have in in the the fourth grade that that makes sense too. So, I I think at this time I am going to move, Mr. chair that we approve school choice for five students in the

08410th grade, five students in the ninth grade, and five students in the fourth grade for the next school year. Is there a second to that motion? I'll second. Okay, motion has been made and second. Is there any further discussion on this? Um, just a quick question. Um, the current enrollment of the third grade right now, that would be fourth grade next year. Do you know that off the top of your head? Is that right? Is this 116? That's the number I'm looking at here. Okay. Thank you. And then then right the column all the way to the right divides it by six where you go down to the 19 number. Gotcha. Thank you. Any further questions, comments on this item? All right. Miss Sheret, no concern in the fifth grade with either number. Well, you

085don't have a choice on on the lower number, but with the additional five in terms of your teaching. we met. Uh I I did say that I think fifth and sixth grade if we were going to add school choice five would be appropriate at each of those levels. Um I'd rather get them young and help them acclimate to the the Westport Middle High School way. Um but it's obviously the the decision of the committee on on those two grade levels. Thank you. Anything further from the committee? All right. Motion was made and seconded. Uh, all in favor I I say no. No. Okay, that carries. 32. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. K, Mr. Aar, and Mr. Thank you. Um, all right. Item J uh asks me of agreement. Uh, so this is just a um

086we have to announce after we approve a contract in executive session. So there was MOA signed uh after calling our executive on March 18th with the ASME uh bargaining unit and it's for a position that was previously here. Um and it's for a what was the exact title? Uh Kristen if you senior facilities and maintenance. Senior facilities and maintenance technician. Thank you. Um, so the committee voted to approve that and we're announcing it today because it was approved in the executive. And with that, we'll move to item K, light speeded update. Mr. Toma and I will defer on this item to Miss Cabraw who re who u suggested this be added to the agenda. So I'll I'll defer to her to Thanks. Good luck, Tony. What a great introduction. Good luck. Uh, so we've implemented

087the filtering piece that's been going on for um at least a week if not two weeks. The filtering piece was part of the implementation. The harder part was of course adding the grades, the classrooms, the teachers, the ability for the teachers to view the students in their classrooms. Um, we hit a snag on uh yesterday. Uh, it actually began Friday afternoon, but we really uh worked with the company yesterday as well as today. I was on the tech support with them. Um, we think we have that solved so that uh we're going to test uh a few teachers tomorrow to have their ability to be able to monitor their students live in their classroom. Um, I only discovered it around 3:45 this afternoon. So, didn't give me a lot of chance to to go talk

088to any any excuse me, anyone else, including in my office. And is it just in all the schools? Some of the schools, any of the schools ready because we're going to be it's all or none at at this moment. The the same um app is deployed to everybody. So, it's active right now. It's just nobody knows it. Okay. Okay. So, we need to work with the teachers uh beginning tomorrow to test whether it is live and usable. Once we determine that, then we will broadcast it to everybody that um you know, some already have the instructions, but then we'll make it formal. So, they're not as of right now. You're not SIPA compliant. You will be. As of right now, we are filtering. So, that is the SIPA compliance. Okay. And that has been working.

089Is it are you finding things or has it been good? So far it's been good. Um we've seen various small issues with uh websites, but these issues are benign. Uh for example, if they're going to a newspaper, um it's not part of their curriculum, but at the same time, it's pretty benign in terms of what they're going to see. I haven't seen anything that is X-rated if if that's sort of the angle that you're looking at. And who everybody's getting trained all the your teachers get trained on how to use this. I'm learning it in Fall River. So, um, there's a lot of things I can't get into, right? So, we me. Yes. You want to come over and share the mic? I have a chair right here for you. So, with the classroom management

090piece, um we did training with the Westport Elementary School staff uh last month on setting up their classroom, looking at the dashboard and seeing what you know the different classes that they have scheduled like ELA, math, social studies, science. Um and and what what has to happen is the extension has to be added to each Chromebook so that the Chromebooks can communicate with the teacher computer and the teacher can see what's happening. Um but they do have we every we have a Google classroom for professional development and all of the um on demand modules the asynchronous modules are loaded onto that classroom. So every teacher in the district has access to that training. We have specifically trained student um teachers at the west. They're eager to get on and once we get that the bugs

091worked out on that, we'll do trainings at the other schools. Um but yeah, so we're starting with the west staff. Everybody can use it and I'm certainly willing to go work with individual teachers at the middle high school that want to get going with it. Um, but we will do a schoolwide training later in the year before the end of the year so they understand how to do it before we come back in the fall. So, uh, through you, Mr. Chair, Mr. Um, I am curious if there is you mentioned it that the extension has to be added to each Chromebook. Is that correct? Yeah, but it gets deploy deployed in an IT kind of way. It's not like every Chromebook has to get collected in Okay, that's my question. So, it's just Okay, good.

092Mr. pushed that order out to every Chromebook this afternoon and we're hoping that for for some we've done it a couple times but for some reason the their Chromebooks aren't receiving it so we worked with tech today and we're hoping tomorrow when teachers log on it will be active. Gotcha. Is that is that the particular snag that you were referring to? Okay. Okay. Gotcha. And your IT staff is all getting trained to do that too because I know they're doing stuff with that. They're the IT staff is actually as neck deep as I am in it. We're all collaborating collaborating together. They're gathering Chromebooks and doing the testing as well as mine on the call. Mr. Aguia, how was it working with the training? Was that okay? You have to come up to the speaker.

093Are you trying to throw me under the bus? No, no, no. I'm just I'm going out. I would say that uh our staff is eager to use it. As I mentioned at the uh prior meetings uh on March 3rd was our staff meeting where the staff was trained. Miss Kaminsky had a PowerPoint like she said the Google Google classroom for PD was up on the board. So the people got trained the timing they were a little frustrated because of the snags technically and uh that's really what people are but they're jumping at the bit ready to go in the classroom and when you just can't see the students. So on their site you'll see that like if all of us were here they can see the names but they don't actually see the live computer.

094So that's the snag that we've been trying to go through over the past month. It's almost a month now but I would say the light's at the end of the tunnel and they are going to be ready. Uh people are very much interested in it. They were excited about uh the um GoG Guardian before and they're ready to to go. They want to help. they want to look at things and it's going to just help them to know what the kids are on but also be able to see the um what they're doing at any given time and I've assured uh them that we're going to be watching to make sure that they're not on computers all day which they're not. Uh there's targeted instruction and then they're not going to be on computers all

095day. So there's really just those windows of opportunity for instruction. So great, we're ready and hopefully from what I hear right now, tomorrow is the day. So awesome. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, is there a is there a timeline in theory, get the bug worked out, implement it at the elementary school first? Is there a timeline as far as the rest of the district goes uh to have it active and being used by teachers in the same same setting through the chair? That was my question as well. So, thank you through the chair. I just want to point out that this would normally be rolled out during the summertime. you wouldn't be rolling this out during the school year, especially in light of the fact that right now the uh tech department is short one

096person. So, you know, they're doing what I would consider to be uh as far as professional development from uh Mrs. Kaminsky and uh the IT people, I think they're doing uh uh the best they can under the uh pretty crushing circumstances that they're dealing with right now. Yes. Um, basically tomorrow if everything goes well, I'll meet with Miss Aguar, Mr. Aguar, um, and Miss Kaminsky, and then we'll talk about that roll out if it isn't already capable of being rolled out. From there, it it's my understanding that uh, the middle and and high school would certainly need to be phased in, but we would need to meet um with Laura about that to see how that would go. I'm under the understanding that she's ready to go as as soon as possible as well and

097we would be as well. Okay. So So all all everything going correctly in theory within the next few weeks you it should be rolled out districtwide in all classrooms. Okay. All right. Good deal. Yep. In a perfect world there could be a week but I don't want to you know rubber stamp it as a bet. Understood. But yes we could do exactly. All right. Six years within reason. Any further comments, questions from the committee on this? All right. Thank you very much, Mr. Tom, for the update. Thank you, Mr. Chair, for recommending that item. I I would, Mr. Chair, just like to have this on the agenda for the next meeting as well, if possible, just to see how it updates to see how how it's going. Yeah, that'd be great. Thank you. All right.

098Uh moving on to item L, discussion of competency determination. We have Miss Sharet here, Miss Kaminsky here as well um to speak on this. Sure. Thank you. So since 2003, in order to get a Westport High School diploma, um there needed to be two um requirements that were met. The first is that you had to um earn a proficiency score on the MCCAST and you had to meet the graduation requirements um which are have always been approved by the school committee. With November's vote, um the MCCAST is no longer uh passing the MCCAST is no longer a requirement to receive a high school diploma. So now we have to determine our local competency determination. what what what does a student have to do to earn a diploma? So, of course, we are still going to

099maintain that they need to meet the graduation requirements of our program of studies which is approved by the committee and they will continue to have to sit for the MCCAST because we do receive fund like state funding. Everybody has to take the MCCAST. We had our first um we kicked off testing season last week and I was so proud of how hard our students worked on MCCAST despite the fact that you know people were saying oh it doesn't matter anymore. They they worked harder this year than I think I've seen in in a while. So I was super super proud of them still eligible for their the John Absolutely. There's still the uh you could still be eligible for the John um Adam Abigail Adams scholarship. Yes. So, what we're looking for tonight is for

100the committee to um approve um the competency determination for this year, which would be fulfillment of our program of studies. And then for um following years, we would come back to the table um with with plans that include um for for our special ed students. But for this year, it would just be approving um the current program of studies as as what would earn them a diploma. And then if that's um approved, we can actually go back to any graduate who didn't receive a diploma since 2003. I've actually already had two people reach out to me seeking their their diploma. If I may, uh Mr. Chair, uh obviously the state is still working on what they're going to do going forward. That was my that was my next comment. That's that's I appreciate the proposal

101because I think in lack in in lie of detailed guidance from the state on this which I don't think has tackled this in a in my opinion in a sufficient way uh so far given the vote um and I have concerns too about now the removal of the requirement and what that means for you know it's sort of disincentivizing students to perform well on that. So, it's a difficult way to assess. That's my concern with the vote, which is beyond the control of this committee. But just as a side note, but I would say that um I think that when we review our program of studies, we always have conversations on like last year for example, it was the it was the uh senior project um among other things. So, I know that we always,

102you know, discuss this in in detail and have conversations about this every year. So I think this is a a good way to go especially in lie of more detailed guidance that says you know uh without MCCAST districts have to impose another assessment system or their own uh so I think in absence of that this is probably the the way to go for this school year and uh Mr. here. Um, I will also point out to our community that uh they are concerned about making sure that accountability uh exists at Westport Community Schools and I think uh Principal Sheret uh and her team have done an amazing job but she will inform even great in greater detail uh how Westport is holding students accountable. So, so Mass Core is the set of standards that Massachusetts

103suggests that um that schools are having. We meet mass core in all but one area which is a second unit of a world language. At present we only require one unit. It should be noted though that because we are going to be offering innovation career pathway courses those students are going to have to complete mass core in order to um get that designation at the end of their four years. So it's 90 credits to graduate. That's what I'm counting right. Am I wrong? You need a h you need so you need 120 credits to graduate, right? But 90 of them are required. Okay. Then you can take all the other stuff. 30 elective credit. Okay. That's what I didn't see down there. I'm like, wait a minute. I'm and through you, Mr. Chair, there there

104is no change in this schedule if you this or there is this year or so. just from two weeks ago when the committee approved to get rid of the technology requirement but we kept in there the 20 hours of community service. The the one question that I had also based on our discussion last meeting was on the business personal finance requirement. Yes. Um, have you all ever considered just having any business class potentially meeting that requirement as opposed to just the personal finance or is that has that ever been discussed just out of curiosity or is it Well, I think because of the limitation with staff within that department, but because the committee approved the addition of a a business teacher for next school year, we'll have much more um wiggle room to offer additional

105courses. So I think we could then bring that back to the table that um it could potentially be personal finance or another business course. We are, if I may, Mr. Chair, we are looking very heavily at financial literacy, digital literacy, and we're trying, you know, and thanks to uh Mrs. Kaminsky, we're trying to embed that into many of the courses, not just because quite frankly, a lot of the curricula aligns nicely with these um these these courses, for lack of a better term. So on the uh the language piece, if if the two isn't reflected here, but is in the innovation pathway designation, does does it still have to be reflected on paper in the graduation requirements for it to be considered compliant, for lack of a better term, with mass core, or is that

106a separate? No, because the majority of our students actually end up graduating with math core requirements because they're taking that additional year of a world language because they're college bound. Most colleges require two or more years of a consecutive world language. And we can also be creative in what denotes a world language. So for example, American Sign Language um can denote a world language. There are some schools that actually use coding and specific computer science classes as a world language um requirement. The mass core definition just says it has to be two units of the same world language. So you couldn't take Spanish one and then Portuguese one. You have to take like ASL one, ASL 2. If I may, Mr. Chair, vocational schools typically technical drawing would be considered a a language um a

107substitute for that. I would say that going forward uh long after I'm gone uh I think one of the considerations that certainly Mrs. Sharet as principal of the school is going to have to consider is uh and the college is going to have to consider is to what degree is that is it makes sense for students in today's day and age to continue to take two years of a language there's some that would argue that with the uh advent of AI uh and the uh translatable uh services that are available. So again, I'm just saying that this is something that the committee uh probably should look at on a regular basis because things are moving very quickly. Questions, comments from the committee. Is it typical to not list the additional 30 elective um credits here?

108So it it the link for the program of studies it would because it's two pages. So just for like the the one pager, we just cut it down to to the actual required courses. But if we bring the competency determination along with the program of studies that would include the credit set exactly and I'll be bringing forward by the end of the school year the program of studies for your approval for next school year because we'll be adding the addition of the ICP courses and some new electives including the business electives. Great. Mr. Mr. Chair, is this an action item to also on an action item? This is action item E. Would it be in order to take this out take it out of order and uh just move appropriate? Yes. I will uh I

109believe I will move to approve this uh competency determination criteria at this time. I'll second. Okay. Motion made second. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I that's unanimous. Thank you very much. May I say one thing? If anybody would like to join us on Friday at 100 p.m. Uh bear with me. I want to make sure I have the correct time. It is 1 p.m. We will be giving a diploma now that you've approved this to a student who um got a certificate of attendance previously from the class of 2024. So I think that's so awesome. And then I will be reaching out to offer this same to um the other student who reached out to me from the class of 2005. Nice. Thank you. You're welcome. that Laura where will

110that be done? Um probably in the guidance office the career center maybe before I before I forget too quickly on this item I know Miss Miranda isn't here maybe we can save it for then but I know there was some preliminary discussion on what that would look like there. So I know there was talk of portfolio maybe some other iteration of that based on what other districts have seen success with. Is there any just the plan is to start meeting very soon to kind of flush that out for you and bring something back to the table for you very soon. Great. Yeah. And if Miss Miranda could have been here tonight, she would have been. Absolutely. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you, Lisa. Thank you. All right. So, we will move to our action agenda. The

111remaining items on our action agenda. Item A, review and act on school committee meeting minutes of Tuesday, March 18th, 2025. So moved. Second. Motion made second. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I I unanimous. Item B, acknowledgement of the following. 3,600 Westport Education Foundation grant for math camp. $4,780 Westport Education Foundation grant leap summer enrichment program. $1,500 WE and assault systems STEM kits. $750 donation from Bay Coast Bank for 2025 senior dinner. I'll make a motion to accept all the grants. Second. Motion made and seconded. Is there any further discussion? Just a thank you as always. Absolutely. Yes, we rely heavily on uh the support of um the generous organizations that provide grants to support our programming here and provide services to our students. So, I'm going to always recognize that. Thank

112you. Uh all in favor? I oppose. That's unanimous. And that um completes our action agenda. Um routine matters, correspondences and notices. Uh I have none uh other than to note that our next meeting um we have the town election happening next Tuesday, April 8th. Uh there's more information on the town website on that. Um for folks who are who go out and vote in town, I would encourage participation in the town election. Uh, I think it's important that our voices are heard. So, that's happening next Tuesday. Following that meeting, um, we will have two new school committee members and we'll have a reorganization meeting um, following that election on Tuesday, April 15th, um, at our normal time in the auditorium. Topics chair cannot reasonably anticipate 48 hours in advance of the meeting. I have none.

113Uh other than before we adjourn to once again thank our two school committee members Dr. Kico and uh Miss Cabraw for your service and commitment to the committee. Mr. Chair, should we encourage them to open up their uh gifts? We we could post a German if or now whatever the committee is going to thank you for the box if you have a chocolate one. Misha's upset about that. I just want you to know I don't want to roll over on her but No, I don't mind. No. Great. Difference maker. That's really sweet. Thank you. Someone who can make a someone who can make a big difference in the world with just a few words or actions. An enthusiastic person who is dedicated to improving the lives of others and has the power to inspire and

114rally others to bring about positive change. Thank you. Thank you. This is beautiful. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you. Love it. All right. Entertain a motion to adjurnn. Uh so moved. No, you say it. I'd like to make a motion to adjourn the meeting. A second. Second. Any discussion? You're not none. All in favor? Hi reading