School Committee Meeting 6 11 25

001Good evening everybody. It is July 11th, 2025. This is the school committee meeting and we start by reading our vision statement. The Ashlin Public Schools strives to be a model district that creates a culture of inclusivity for our diverse students and staff who feel safe and supported, are empowered with the academic and social emotional skills to pursue their chosen path, and embrace their roles as positive contributors to local and global communities. This meeting is being recorded by WACA Cable TV. Our call to order this evening includes opening procedures, agenda review and adoption, time for public participation. Our reports and presentations include the recognition of retirees, Ashlin Middle School improvement plan, Ashlin High School improvement plan, and handbook changes, warrant approvals, superintendence report, assistant superintendence report. Our action items for discussion, updates, and votes include nutrition

002services proposed meal cost increase, superintendence evaluation, and the following policies: BB school committee legal status, BBA school committee powers and duties, BBBA, BBB school committee member qualifications and oath of office, GCBA professional staff salary schedule, GCBB employment, of principles. The second read and vote uh including JH student absence and excuses. JHD exclusions and exemptions from school attendance. JJC student discipline. JJCFA prohibition of hazing. JJCFA E hazing. JJCFB bullying prevention. JIH searches and interrogations. J II, student complaints and grievances. The consent agenda will include approval of gifts and donations minutes from May 28th, 2025. And then I will move to enter into executive session under MGL chapter 3A section 21A2 to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with non-UN personnel. Superintendent of Schools Jim Adams, Ashlin High School Deans, Director of Social Emotional Learning, Jen

003Taylor, Director of Pitway, Director of Student Services, Britney Hawkins, Ashlin Middle School Principal Erin Law Chappelle, Director of English Language Acquisition, Chrissy Christy Arnold, and Ashlin High School Principal Kelly Sankur, or to conduct collective bargaining with the intent of not to return to public session. So, does everyone agree with the order of business this evening? Yes. And I see that you are all here. As am I. Madam Chair, can I ask that we add um a track and field overnight uh field trip that just came about on Sunday. We didn't have the opportunity to get it on the agenda. They're they're um going to we have a relay team who will be going to nationals and that was not we couldn't foresee that happening until it fits into the category of it's kind of an

004emergency but unforeseen and okay is everybody on board with I just want to put that in. We'll talk about it. And do do we have you do it's in it's in the folder. It's in the folder. Correct. Okay. Y and you have a sense of where you're going to add that? I'll just do it right at the end. You'll do it when you're ready. Okay. Um, I'll start by asking if there are any members of the public either here or online that want to give public comment. And seeing none, we will start with our recognition of retirees. Um, I'll start by just saying I we had a chance to meet downstairs, but I uh for the people who are watching, I want them to have an opportunity to know that we have a room full

005of amazing people that have worked in this district for a combination of probably hundreds of years. And um your dedication to our kids, our students, um the staff that you've worked with, um the people that you have supervised and have supervised you. Um, we're really grateful to you and we wish you all the best in your next steps. We hope you really enjoy your summer and whatever is coming next for you. And we're going to invite the principles up so that we can recognize you individually. Miss Lashel, good evening. Our first um retiree from the middle school is Meredith Stephano. could not be here with us tonight, but I still would like to say a few words about her. Mary Lou began teaching in 1985 and spent the last 13 years with us in Ashlin,

006where she has supported our English language learners with incredible heart. She talks often about the joy of helping her students acquire the language skills they need to succeed and the pride of seeing them grow and thrive long after middle school. Mary Lou's care and compassion have made a lasting difference, and we wish her nothing but sunshine and relaxation as she heads for the beach in retirement. Thank you, Mary Lou. I want to say one more thing. We do have prizes for all of you, but they weren't ready in time. So, my understanding is at the last faculty meeting hopefully they will be available and uh uh we will have something for you to remember us. Barbara charity is incur from India school. She is one of our teachers. She's been with us in the past

00712 years. Um what I will return most oddly me about working is dedication and passion into working in the kids and her ability to advocate and she really were the on member Edor background a lot of deep discussion her over the years and I truly enjoyed working this marvelous brown gear to recently her first grandchild sure she feels a lot thanks start. [Applause] All right. Next is Jane Murphy. Jane is here. Um she is one of our ESPs. She started as a building sub and was in that role for 10 years and then started working with Lauren Perry and is a dedicated wonderful person who constantly puts children first in her line of sight when she's working with people and you can always count on her to do anything that you need her to do

008in the building and we will feel her retirement for many years to come. She plans to travel next year. Um, so we're very excited for her, but it is a giant for us. [Applause] Thanks, Jenna. Next, we have Keith Trusdale from the middle school. He has spent 30 years in education, including 13 at Ashley Middle School. He has always cared deeply about doing right by his students, and knowing he made a positive impact on their lives and families is what he's going to hold the most dear to him. He'll miss the strong bond of the team purple crew. Thank you, Keith, for your decades of service. AMS will miss his presence, insight, and his quiet commitment to excellence. Thank you very much. Next up, we have Gan Ernest. Jean started teaching special education in 1985

009and joined the Ash Middle School team 15 years ago. Jean's included time off raising her children before returning to the classroom. With her energy and passion, she values student success and the lifelong friendships that she's made along the way. Jean is most excited to spend time with her newborn twin grandchildren, and we're excited for her to enjoy that next chapter. AMS will miss her warmth, dedication, and positivity. Thank you, Hi everybody. Um I was gonna say these two are going to hit hard for me because we all pretty much started together. Um Jonathan joined Ashen in 2006 as a special education liaison which is his been his role since then. In his 42 years as a special educator. His highlights have included teaching a language based program that he developed with speech pathologist Sharon Ames.

010um and then continuing to teach uh reading in English as the need for subsparate student support to the high school increased. He has always been willing to jump in where needed and I've always appreciate appreciate him for saying whatever you need me to do. Um he has coached a variety of teams over the years, but he's most proud of his time to the middle school track and cross country teams. They made an amazing video for him just last week. Mhm. Um he shared that working at Ashlin High School uh meant having the best and most supportive work atmosphere of his career and he has always been the constant team player going [Applause] and Mark Styles. Mark joined Ashlin making a career change after a 20-year career in a variety of jobs in the tech sector

011and a year at Hopedale High as a long-term sub. He started us with us in the academic center, which wasn't a transition from the high school evening program that we had 20 years ago. He moved to the history department full-time in 2008. Uh he taught primarily world history, which is a ninth grade class, but also had the opportunity to teach many elective courses to our classroom. And I know that many of them chose those um another chance to have him as a teacher. Um, uh, Mark coached several teams over the years, including indoor track, girls, JV, lacrosse, um, and mainly football. And he, um, share that he considers the players and coaches of the football team an extension of his own family and carries those special memories of Jake Silver and TJ, special players that

012we have lost. Uh, Mark is known for the relationships he's built with his students and families. students in his class know he cares and keeps in touch with him for years later. Um Mark has had some challenges with his health over the last couple years. Um but never ever fails to stop and ask a colleague, myself included, how they are doing. Um the high points of his teaching career have been the relationships that he's formed um with his colleagues, his students, and that wonderful [Applause] Peter Allen, English teacher, has spent all 22 years of his teaching career in Ashlin, bringing a thoughtful study presence to Ashlin Middle School. A lover of English since his own school days, Peter found deep satisfaction in watching students grow as writers. He often reflects on how welcoming the staff

013were when he began teaching at age 40 and how fortunate he feels to have landed in such a strong, supportive community. I will miss walking down the eighth grade hallway and hearing him read aloud to students into his microphone. In retirement, Peter plans to travel the world, meet interesting people, and finally read the books he's had set aside for so long. We thank him for his years of wisdom, passion for English, and commitment to our students. for the next two wonderful women. Um, Donna Lol um is on. She's on. She's on. I'd love for Hi, Donna. Camera giving her away. A huge congratulations to Mrs. L on her upcoming retirement for more than 25 years of invaluable service to the preschool community. From a parent to an ESP to administrative assistant. Donna has been the

014heart of our program, always ready to support students, families, teachers, administrators, and myself. And I know I have a lot of crazy projects that I throw at her. As an admin assistant, no two days are ever the same. Her daily work was ever changing and continues to be. Finding coverage, providing classroom coverage, setting up appointments, managing preschool registration, enrollment, tuition payments, working on the budget, fielding all of our projects and the list goes on and on. She has always met every challenge with dedication and a can do spirit. Her commitment extends far beyond the office, enriching the lives of our pit crew and the students throughout her care and leadership. We are deeply grateful for her tireless efforts to strengthen our systems and support to um make everyone successful. Wishing all her all the best

015in her welldeserved next chapter once we get through Thanks. Incredible words about Jeanie's um 27 years in the Ashlin preschool. Everyone who knows her affectionately calls her Mrs. B. Um, and she has always put her students, their families, and her colleagues at the forefront of every decision in all of her many projects and hours at school. She is the master of our self-created curriculum map and consistently provides guidance to any new teachers and staff as it relates to lesson planning and assessments. She keeps us all on track. She always brings joy and a playful attitude to school. Anyone who's gone through arrival and dismissal sees her iconic hat collection, her fun costumes and imagin imaginative classroom themes and openhouse displays. If you've ever had a child attend Ashlin Preschool, you heard or saw her incredible

016displays as she turned her classroom into animal habitats, Dr. Seuss's Huville, or even a construction zone, just to name a few. We're deeply grateful for her lasting impact on students and the program and wish her all the best in the next chapter. And whenever she's ready, we'll have a part-time music gig for her. Music with Mrs. [Applause] career in Ashlin. Teaching at Warren Mendes and Ashlin Middle School, she had the unique opportunity to watch students develop as readers and writers from grade 2 all the way through grade 8. Amy has loved seeing her sixth graders grow into confident eth graders and even more so when they come back to visit from high school. She spoke recently about how much she'll miss her colleagues and even how close she came to changing her mind about retiring

017after our staff retirement breakfast last week. In retirement, she's looking forward to sleeping in spontaneous adventures and especially spending more time with her two young grandchildren. AMS thanks Amy for her dedication and care. [Applause] All right. Um that's it. We wish you all the best. Thank you for joining us. And to those of you who couldn't make it, um hopefully we'll get a chance to see you at some point. Uh good luck, enjoy. And you don't have to stick around. [Applause] [Laughter] Oh gosh. That's what happens, right? Crazy. All right, Miss Aaron, you're back. All right. Um, so middle school school the middle schools school improvement plan is definitely a work in progress. and inherited a plan that was pretty pretty complete. Um so the site council and faculty and staff and I have really

018been working on what our priorities will be for the coming years. Um some of the items that you'll see on here that are not highlighted are things from the previous plan that will continue um and are constantly being looked at and revised. But the things that are highlighted in yellow are really the objectives and um action items that we're focused on over the next few years. Um so the first ones being um the change to the math placement um for students and the opening of CP2 geometry to freshman. Um this this freshman class is the first class that had that opportunity. So definitely spending time analyzing the data from that cohort of students after next year when they go into algebra 2 to make sure that um what we're doing at the middle school is

019preparing them for um for that transition. So we're looking ignment of the math curriculum um as we do every year, but really looking at that cohort as they transition into the algebra 2 core classes next year, excuse me, to make sure um that they feel prepared and that the teachers feel they're prepared and having some um vertical discussions between the high school and the middle school to make sure if there are areas or gaps that we need to address that that we're aware of those. Um, additionally, because of the change in our schedule um and um discovery no longer being a component of where students will have the opportunity for math enrichment. We are making some changes to our accelerated math program in just the pacing and kind of depth and breath that it needs

020to cover each year. Um so we were able to have students move from, you know, math six to accelerated 7 by using discovery in the past as kind of a gap close for some things. Um, and because we're not able to do that, the math team is really working on how are we going to address those those transitions and be able to still make those jumps for students who show they're ready to make the jump to accelerated level, whether it be the seventh grade level or eighth grade level um, and prepare them. So our teachers are working on both identification of students within the school year itself and the ability to move at the quarter mark the mid year mark um and be able to close some gaps within the year itself as well as

021um putting together um enrichment opportunities that students will have so that there's no closed gap to be able to not allow students to have the movement that we currently have. So that um is kind of the first focus and priority area that we have um that's highlighted. Um the next one is um with the equity team work in project 351. So at the last school committee, I believe it was last school committee meeting the playbook um students came and presented. Um and Miss Mucuchi who's kind of the leader of the playbook initiative at our school as well as the students who participated in that. Um we left that last session really wanting to find a way to be able to do more of those workshops throughout the year and to be able to hit more

022of our student body with them. So it's going to be a focus of ours on how do that, how we deliver that information. Um, really figuring out a plan that sixth, seventh, and eighth graders each year have some exposure to talking about challenging topics and learning about and having a safe space to talk about language and things that they're hearing um and learning how to be an. So, that is definitely a focus that um that we're working on. And then uh under um so looking at our discipline data um and really looking at some ways that we can use some more restorative practice um than the middle school as well as a revision of our PBIS programming. Um it's it's needed. It's wanted by staff for sure. um wanted to have just a clearer outline

023and articulation of um actions and kind of prescribe what should be the steps we're taking for certain um infractions given that there isn't really consistency right now and how those things are handled. Um as well as ways that we can use more positive behavior like incentives for for middle school students. We have clocker cash and they go to the store a couple times a year. Um but even the way that the clocker cash is used handed out is inconsistent. Um, students are showing up to the store with hundreds of dollars in pocket cash and can't use it. Um, and then finding ways to to provide positive um, experiences for them that they can be working towards um, and seeing how their behavior is linked towards, you know, positive instead of just negative consequence. So, looking

024at what other middle schools are doing and revamping our PBIS programming and our our model with that um, will be a work in progress, but is definitely behind changing. And then probably the biggest ones, I don't know if anyone knows we have a new schedule only two times that this year. Um, but number one is going to be while while we have the logistics mapped out now and the schedule I can say knock pretty definitively set. Um, it's going to be a continual monitoring of how that's going and what is what's the data showing? Um, as well as what is what is anecdotally how are people feeling about it and so so that's going to just be an ongoing priority area for us over the next few years as we as we look at that

025transition. Additionally, um an area um that site council really started probably more towards the last quarter of the year and the faculty started work is one of my most kind of glaring observations this year was our um our breeding practices at the middle school. Um, so we've had conversations with site council. I keep pointing to Marcy because she's on site council but on the middle school site council but um with faculty and parents and site council about what middle school grading looks like. Do we feel like the grades that students are receiving are representative of their learning? Are we taking too much into account other factors? We've had conversations about buybacks. We've had conversations about retests. We've had conversations about late work. So we have a lot of work to do. Um the number one

026priority is is to have consistency in a grade level among the two teams to make sure that there is no difference among what team yellow and team orange are doing. Um so that there isn't that well this team does this and this team does that. But what we really want to develop is an aligned progression where as students are getting to that eighth grade year what I hear from parents is that the jump from 8th to 9th is significant in how their students are graded, what their grades look like. Um so so not making that jump into into the high school for them from the grading standpoint and really giving our eighth graders specifically a strong understanding of the waiting of grades and how grades are calculated. Um so looking at a progression from six

027to eight that takes them from standard standards based grading in elementary to grading in the middle school but having it progress from whether that's a change in reading or 5x all the things are on the table. year at the very surface level just kind of looking at what we currently do but it will be a focus of ours over the next year with hope of some consistency and presentations for changes for the 2627 school year. Um, additionally, we are looking to identify skills per grade level um, soft skills, hard skills that students, um, by the end of sixth grade, we hope our all our sixth graders can do X by seventh, by 8th. And so, something we're also hoping to be able to work in and develop some sort of rubric or measurement for that

028we can say this is what we're hoping to see from our students. Those are our big our big priorities. Awesome. Questions, comments? It seems like we've we've seen you a lot this year. Yeah. Yeah. I think you've been you've been uh questioned over many of those things already by us throughout the year. So, thank you. Thank you. I'm so supportive. Go ahead, Kelly. Oh, are is waiting for Jim? always story. I think you have a copy of uh any adjustments we've made to the plans 2023 to 2026. Um so I'm just going to highlight a couple things that we did this year and let you know what we're hoping to be working on as we round out this plan. Um starting with and the highlighted areas are kind of the things that we um need

029to continue f there's a lot of things in there with the things that we know we need to really focus on next year. Um but kind of under equity kind of one of the things that I highlighted under equity and um curriculum uh is we spend a lot of time um examining the current course waiting system and considering whether or not we should unweight courses. Um the the council uh two two meetings ago um kind of came to the conclusion after you know a year and a almost two years um of looking at this is that we really wanted to go back and really look at what we're trying to get out of this conversation. Um I think the site council recognizes or uh feels that uh the way we weigh courses is very much

030an internal um um process the high school that we understand how it impacts students moving on from here um or may not impact students. Um but we were really feeling like some of those things that we wanted to get at in terms of looking at student stress, helping support students to take classes um that were more relevant to them um or of interest um making sure that we're recognizing all students um that there um you know often isn't um very much difference between the students number two or number 10 in the class. Um we kind of wanted to and we felt like this wasn't the time um for the high school to be having a conversation. Um so we were going to spend some time next year really looking at um how do we want

031to address some of those topics that we spent a lot of time talking about this year. which goes back to kind of some of our next steps are really that pre and post evaluation of the students growth across 9 through 12 and how are we really focusing on our students getting what they need and how are we recognizing that growth um both in equity and in curriculum. We're going to continue to focus on um how are we really looking at school and career options for students and making that we are preparing students for whatever their next steps are. Um we've had on them there for a couple years to be looking at the um innovation grant. Um and so hope to um to look further into that next year and have that be a focus.

032um some of our other successes this year when I was when I think of equity and social emotional learning um and curriculum we had a successful first year implementing the right program and that was one of the things that we had talked about is putting um as implementing in order to kind of meet the needs academic and social emotional needs of all students. Um so we had a great year working um in consultation with the national program. Um we had a consultant that works with us works with the staff in the program uh twice a month. I join those meetings once a month. Uh she joins us in person. Um once during the school year um we have two meetings. We brought in the entire counseling team as well nursing etc. really talk about you

033know this is what the national model looks like and what are we doing at um and we really did feel like you know moving from our academic foundations program that we have and that with the right program um we were in a really good to get this program rolling. Um, and we're excited to keep building that. Um, so really kind of jumping down to more of the things under social emotional learning. We also just wrapped up uh the work we've done with the Jed program. Um, I just received their post assessment um in May. So hope to share that first with the Jed team and then with the greater school community. But it was some great feedback. Um, if you recall, they're also their program that helps schools really look at what they're doing for

034social emotional learning and supporting mental health and suicide prevention. Um, and they came they did a preassessment with students um and staff uh December, January 22, 23 and then post um this past fall um students and staff again were surveyed um and our numbers our numbers were great in terms of some of the some of the increases we made in making students feel more connected in school. Um staff understand what they need to do if there is a student struggling. Um a variety of topics. Um but they also provided a lot of great um recommendations that I hope we can continue to implement. Um and some of them are things that we had already been talking about. Some of these action steps are from their original strategic plan. Um I think just looking at kind

035of resource management. I highlighted that we you know spent a lot of year a lot of time this year working on the safety protocols um and you know feel pretty comfortable and confident with all students students and staff processes. Um has that been off the whole time? All right. Um, you know, one of the things that we've been looking at, um, from that standpoint, we had some action items around trainings and practices and the use of technology and our focus this year was was on AI. Um, and I'll talk a little bit about what was proposed um, by our teachers um, with the student handbook. Um, but that's been a big discussion and we anticipate that being an ongoing discussion next year um, in site council. Um we've had some conversations about whether or not

036we need to have um you know have it be part of faculty handbook or those types of things how we're using AI um and you'll hear in a few minutes about for students uh and I already mentioned that we you know resource management is also exploring the innovation careers pathways um we are adding an additional um AP computer science class this year at the high next year at the high school. Um, and I think computer science is really a great place for us to start um, if we were able to uh, jump into that program. AP physics as well. AP physics as well. Yes. We haven't had AP physics in a couple years. Um, we had over 18 students do it um, through VHS this year. So um, we had stopped offering at the high

037school because there hadn't been an interest. And so we have classes next year coming back. You taking it? Uh, I was one of the 18. and I took it this year. Oh, all right. Heck. Um and so, um I also wanted to highlight some of the community service. Um there there's some action steps under, um curriculum there. You know, we were able to offer two community service days again for students this year. um looked at some of the numbers of where um our kids are now um without that requirement and um we have right now about 60% of the class of 2026 um has some community service has done some service that is being tracked by our service advisor um and 75% of the class of 2027. So I think um you know one of

038the things that we were recognizing was wanting to make sure we're providing opportunities within the school day um which we have been able to do and um that kids are still doing it for their genuine interest. Many kids are still doing it for their genuine genuine interest in service. Um and I think those are going to be the highlights questions comments. Now Mark you sit on the high school site council. So, and most of us um if not all of us, right, take part in somebody's site council. So, throughout the year, we've been sharing, you know, little tidbits. It's been valuable to have Mark there a few times. Awesome. Uh and he's been filling us in when we've had time to fill each other in on what's going on. I know Erin, you've been here

039several times talking about the schedule and hearing our questions. So, I think we're good unless anybody has any comments. Nope. All right. Thank you, Kelly. Yeah, I still have the handbook. The handbook. Yeah. Um, so not a lot of change for the handbook this year. Um, the one thing that's already in there, we like that highlighted one line. um that is something that we don't use very often, but we wanted to make sure that if we are in the situation of having to search a student for a suspected um infraction and that student refuses that search, uh we just wanted to add specific language. Was a little vague before about that that that student could still be um consequenced for what we are suspecting um and needing to search them for um if they and

040and nine times out of 10 that is not an issue. Um but we we um tightened up some language last year in terms of students um being searched if uh say two or three are in a bathroom stall together or um and so we often we have run into a few times where um students are not compliant with that search um and we want to just change the vague language to be more specific to okay we do suspect you have a vape in your bag that you are not allowing us to search. we are going to consequence you as if you have a vape. Um the speaking of vapes, um the next thing we're looking to add is um an in-house currently using that as an example um a student that is um caught with

041a nicotine vape um is um earns a a one day in school suspension. we are trying to find alternative ways to um make sure it is still educational like they are usually spending the day in the office teachers are bringing them work checking in with them etc. um you know um we are all part of job alike groups and I think um Carolyn came back from one with um a school that is using this kind of tracking sheet where in place of an inschool suspension the student is allowed to go to school for the day allowed to go to classes for the day but has very specific guidelines in terms of where they can be when they can be there when they have to arrive in class etc etc so um again we're just looking

042for something that is more creative in making sure we're not taking students out of class um but they are um understanding you know kind of under a different expectation for that day. So this is just a model of a tracking sheet from a different school that we're hoping to implement. And then the final thing is as mentioned we've had a team for two years now that has been working on um AI in the school. um they have done a lot of research um last year in terms of presenting to the faculty on um um great tools and resources that are out there and how we could use it positively. Um and then we've had a lot of conversations about how are we making sure that students understand it um and we understand it is a

043world that they're going into. So they have developed um both a guide a studentf facing and a teacherf facing guide. Um and so at this point this was presented to the faculty in May. Um department spent some time as a department reviewing it and providing the team that worked on it with feedback. They developed this um using some models from the college level of what they're doing. And we have had conversation about wanting to add this into our handbook. Um and it's going to be part of our start of the school year when we do our all school expectations. Um we're going to develop something where everyone is presenting the student facing piece of this um to all of the students. Um and then we'll have it linked um most likely with the acceptable use

044policy but figured we had to have some more conversation about that. questions, comments just um sort of procedurally, you know, we I guess we always prove the high school handbook, right? Because it's got some things in it there. Um you've got a couple things that I I guess these two things that were linked there are kind of work in progress. So if we're voting to approve is the only change that we're approving. the first highlighted there about the consequence of suspected need for a search and the other is just kind offormational at this point. Yeah. Or I guess if it you know things that you think are appropriate for us to move forward with if you vote on that or if you just vote on the final. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I guess I I thought

045they were work in progress. They're work in progress. Are they going to be I know there are things But are those things incorporated in handbook such that we're approving those or are they just things you're working on to be included at a future? That's all. No, we're hoping to have them included in the fall. You are. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I think today. Yes. So, so to Mark's question, so if there's there some things that are still in flight, um is there a desire to approve what approve the language now and then come back when the other things are done or wait for it all? Just curious. So, would you want to see like what our in-house suspension alternative would look like? It's going to be in the handbook. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we

046plan to go on this model. But it's not done. Right. Right. Yeah. So So anything that's going to be We should probably vote on everything that is before so they can start the year with a hand if we're not. Yeah. I think we were looking for feedback whether or not that's, you know, we're on board. Putting something in AI document. Entirely appropriate, right? Yeah. No issue there. But we probably should just see the language before we vote on that piece of it. Yeah. But I think we can vote on everything else and then when the language even if Jim brings it back to us in the fall or whenever you're ready with it. So you you'd have to publish before school starts. We usually publish it, right? So within the week before school starts. So

047I guess that that leaves us as a committee think two options. One is prove subject to just do it right. Yeah. um knowing the kind of framework and and trusting that minor or we have to commit to getting at least a form together to final approval sometime that works in terms schedule getting this out. So, in terms of the inschool suspension piece, is there specific language in the handbook that would need to change or are you just looking to see if we have any feedback on this? Because I'm just wondering I don't think there's any language that needs to change. We I or maybe just adding how you're implementing it like because that's what I'm are there actually any language changes that would need to be made or is the language that's currently in the

048handbook, do you have the discretion to use this model within the language that's already there? We may not need to change it, but I don't know. Oh, I don't. So, the use of a tracking sheet I don't think is a handbook thing because the handbook would be the things that precipitate in your decision making of an in school suspension. So, we do alternatives, right? So, as long as that language in gives you the flexibility to figure out what what in school suspension will look because I would imagine for different students it might look different, right? And so, as long as it but I don't know what the language is. So, as long as it you have enough discretion within that to pick which model is going to work best for each I I love the

049inclusion of this model. Obviously, you know, for the more kids can be in class, but still having the right consequences and structure in place to deal with whatever needs to be dealt with, the better. Um, but that won't be right for all students. So, obviously, you need the discretion to figure that out. Yeah. So, so if it's if it's if it's just utilizing a different, you know, I don't think we've ever looked at it and said, "Hey, you you know, I don't I don't think it's outline what what those things are going to do, how you're going to administer it." So, that one I don't think we need to vote on at all. Uh the AI one, if that's going to be included or linked to and be then have consequences based off that, that

050would be something I would think we would want to ensure that we we do vote on and in the language. So, so is that Yeah, I'm just looking at it quickly. I didn't get that before. Is it a guideline or is it a policy? Is it something that gets incorporated into to Paul's point to the handbook and really will be an attachment or an insert to it or is it something that's sort of stands alone? It would be an attachment to the language we already have in there about our expectations about not using it for cheating. that's already in. So, do you think you're changing the process, the standard or just is sort of elaboration on Yeah. You're spelling it out, but it already the policy. We just had a lot of conversation about where

051would be the best place to make sure this is right. I think it is. Could we put it in the handbook? I think it is important to to officially link this because it gives a lot more guidance about how students need to use the parameters of what their teacher told them to because there has been litigation about AI and what the pol there was in you know one specific case was specifically about well it wasn't in the handbook right so if we have clear guidelines in the handbook I think it'll which this spells it out a little bit more right so yeah so I mean this can be treated like the other one or can be treated as in like a direct link to the handbook. And if you're doing it that way, I would

052ask if Jen's reviewed this at all, right? Um, and I mean, I haven't had time to look through this to say, "Hey, whether I have any questions or objections, I'm assuming you all have, and I I trust your judgment." So, if you're looking to link it, then I think that needs to be voted on because that is essentially then part of the handbook and part of how you're evaluating and and then taking action, right? Um, so but that's that's where you're looking to do. You're not looking to use it as, hey, by the way, here's some informative stuff. This is something that's setting expectations that you're going to link directly, right? I'll be honest, I I read it and I think it's already something in the handbook that basically says I that's framed. To me,

053this kind of elaborates on that, right? It provides a little more guidance and detail and clarity as to what that might look like, how to know cheating or not cheating. Um, we might not need to actually take a vote on that. I think I think it can go either way. I really do. I think it's it's sort of standard is there. This is sort of like if we use our model of policy, right? Policy regulation. This feels like it kind of is a regulation version that goes with it. Mhm. And I'm I'm honestly if this were all set to go, I just worry about it. I'm just thinking about logistical aspect of it. Sure. Think we could go either way. and and the inclusion I of it in the handbook means that I think it

054needs more scrutiny because anytime you you want things in a handbook or in policy to be uh you don't want to go on and elaborate and go on and on and on about things because that's just more opportunity for things to be contradictory and all those other things and so conciseness is better but this helps so yeah I I think it's got a lot of great stuff in there. Absolutely. I guess here's here's a suggestion. It seems like this could go either way. It sounds like to your point, Paul, if this kind of thing hasn't vetted through council, think that's important. We could approve the handbook amended without this included. And if after reviewing it and you get guidance that says it should be included, we come back and amend it to that. So that

055allows for the possibility of not having to take another action if it's sort of an attachment, a guide, a supplement or whatever call it as opposed to something we need to include. That also gives you the chance to kind of do the eyes cross you want to do with it um and present it as a final version for approval. And I'm sure we do a motion that just says approve pending the uh uh approval of council. Well, I mean, I'd want to see the teacher facing one too, to be honest with you because I think from my perspective in looking at how I was just talking about like the litigation like I'm thinking about that case, right? I somewhere in Massachusetts. I don't even remember. So, sure. Yeah. And and so in in the student

056facing guide, it talks about, you know, looking at does my did my teacher allow me to use AI tools? Do I clearly understand when and how? Right. So then I would I would have to look at what guidance did the teacher give? Was that in writing? Right. So, so ho how are the teachers being informed to use this and do they have to have their own written policies to you know they all give out a document at the beginning of the year like here are my expectations that type of thing. Um so I would want to see both of them together just and I think it's a great idea to have it kind of vetted just to make sure is there anything else we should say in this based on what is the best way

057though to make sure some of the ways it is played out. Well, but but but I to Mark's point, if this doesn't if if you already have the meat in polic in the handbook that says this is cheating, then because if if you're going to tell me that this was developed asformational, right, and not policy, right, that can be l litigated if it's linked in there and then somebody takes an action and somebody and then a lawyer goes through this and says, "Oh, but this one said this you can't take this action against this student. So if it wasn't written through that lens and then reviewed through that lens, I would be hesitant about adding it if you already had language in the handbook that allows you to take appropriate consequence and then use this

058as anformational guide that you can provide to to help people make good decisions and then you'll have the discretion saying hey you know if Joe says but I followed this and you find an error in it. Okay. You you handle that at your at your level and you do the right thing, right? As opposed to this being then scrutinized in in in a a different setting, right? But I I do think I don't I mean I I would I would honestly air on the policy of including more detail in our air on the side of including more detail in our policy based on how this has played out in other districts because that's been the problem is that it's too vague, right? And there's too much like you know um discre you know kind of

059discretion over figuring out where it fits in and and it's so new and it can be used in so many different ways and show up in you know different contexts and um you know in some ways that it is allowed to be used in other ways it's not allowed to be used. So I think department of right even if this was just as anformational guide if I was litigating this case even if it wasn't spelled out in this policy I would use this as policy because that's what was handed out right so I think it even if it's not policy it has the effect of giving direction on what the policy means so I I feel like we do need to vet it because I think it will be because it's super helpful I mean

060I think we need to spell it out more right both for teachers and for students clean document so is it practical to say that when is something when something is ready, you can get it to us through Jim and that we can figure out how to get a quorum together so that you can start the year with whatever it is. Yeah. I I mean I mean I think I'm not hearing anything that isn't consensus to saying hey even if only three of us can can be at that if it's if it's gone through Jen and everybody's good with it that regardless of which three we can even get on with a quick Zoom call or whatever we can say that we had eyes on it and and that way it also gives you the opportunity

061to have it in time for what you need and I think the other reason to have it looked at is I live in this space every day this has changed this docu this document will need to be updated next Wednesday all the time. You're talking about a genic AI going it it's changing literally daily, right? So, um that's the other reason to have eyes on it because uh you know and and maybe Jen even needs to bring in somebody else that that would have a good lens on that because this landscape changes very fast. So is it if we're going to need to it seems like people are leaning towards wanting to approve the final version of this document just deal with it all at once. Well, so so is is that is the clarification

062should we do the clarif the clarification on the last bullet there and then no matter what hap because if that's an important thing for the start of school year and let's say that this the other document ends up just beingformational and not included then we won't have voted on right we can let's vote on what we can vote on yeah we can vote on this and then if you if that happens later in the year or whatever then it doesn't really matter right that so I'll Move to um amendment to the high school student handbook to include language with a consequence in line with suspected need search. Fifth bullet point search the seizure section as second. All in favor? Hi. Thanks everybody. Enjoy your summer. Yeah. Paul, do you have an approval? See you guys.

063Good night. Thank you. between May 29th, 2025 and June 11th, 2025. I Paul Kendall authorized by my signature payables in the amount of $286,1857. This includes general fund expenses of $83,1019, revolving expenses of $132,210.36 and grant expenses of $7,65.3. Thank you. Tim, do you have a report? Um, the only thing I'll report on is I wasn't at graduation. Thanks to Mike for uh I was at my own child's graduation. So, um, thank you. went well. Big news. Went well. Uh it's been a long week, two weeks, uh but we got through it. And uh but other than that, you know, we're we're wrapping up uh the school year. We're done on the 23rd. Uh many districts are done this week. Um but uh I know we're trudging through and getting uh ready for for next

064year already. We've already started having conversations about the budget, conversations about a number of positions that we still need to fill. For the most part, I feel really comfortable with our with our teaching staff in terms of the the open positions. I think Pete today uh recommended two or three teaching positions. So I think actually all teaching positions with the exception of maybe two special education positions are um completely filled or recommended to be filled. So it's great. So I feel really good about going into the summer with that work. That's all I know. Mike, we had uh 26 summer curriculum proposals come forward this year uh ranging from our new AP physics class uh to the work that's going to have to be done at the middle school level in particular because of some

065of the new program that we're going to be offering specifically with our our new writing class. So, we're excited to get uh folks the notification that the majority of our 26 proposals have been fully approved. Uh some have only been partially approved but notification to the staff will go out on Friday regarding those. MCCAST is finally completed uh despite some of our technological challenges that we had over the course of the last couple weeks thanks to um our amazing IT staff who has been working uh really hard to to help keep us keep us rolling. uh in all our benchmarking for K to8 our I Ready um assessment data that has to take place is almost completed K to8 um we are working hard to make sure we have all those things finished up by

066the end of the school year to be able to provide us some good data uh to see what our student growth was in those areas. Uh all of our evaluations have been shared for our teaching staff. uh finishing up some other evaluations in terms of um some administrative folks, but all teacher evaluations have been shared. Uh and just a quick professional learning update. It was really a successful school year in terms of uh our our top priority was really to talk about safety this year and um our I'm feeling really confident with the work that was done this year, especially in the area of implementing our protocols and procedures for Alice. Now, next year, um, our focus is going to get really back on instruction and how we are incorporating MTSS strategies, uh, to make

067sure we are fully meeting the goals that we've set for our district. Um, while I feel very confident in the fact that what's happening at the Warren School is they are rolling in terms of MTSS and now it's time to make sure we have a full district implementation. So, one of the things that we're going to be doing this summer, our entire our entire administrative team was provided with a book uh called Demystifying MTSS, a school and district framework for meeting students academic and social emotional needs. As a team, as an administrative team, we'll be reading that book over the summer together uh to to fully present and prepare some real high quality professional development, some in-house professional development for our staff where we're all speaking the same language when it comes to MTSS. We

068thought long and hard about bringing somebody in um from the outside, but after talking to some administrators and some staff members, they felt like it will be stronger and more impactful for us if it's really done in-house. And we're and we're so we've decided to go that book route and um I'm I'm excited to see what's going to happen with our administrative team to just really put ourselves at the forefront of this to make sure everybody is really speaking the same language. Our first year teacher program was a tremendous success this year. We celebrated them today. Uh we had 12 folks that um were just wonderful additions to our staff and we're looking forward to inviting them all back next year for year two. Um and then I I have to talk about the amazing

069class of 2025. Our our senior week was just a a tremendous success. Um highlighted by our senior banquet where we had a tremendous young man speak. Uh Noah George was was selected to address the the student body at our senior banquet. And then that was followed by class day where we heard from our saludiatoran Garrett Wolf and we listened to Vana Bagarian sing a beautiful song. And then graduation uh was a wonderful night of celebration for our seniors. valadictorian ragava did a great job as well as uh Claire Dempsey and class president um Amy Cardardoo. Uh Joseph Ramirez sang and uh it was really just a a really nice night to celebrate an amazing group that we wish well. Thank you, Mike. Next up, we have nutrition services proposed meal costing Hello. Have this document

070folder using the proposed. Yes. Thanks. So, um uh the proposal tonight is for nutrition services to have three meal price increases. One for adult meals, one is for um student meals, a second meal, and then also allocart. As you all know, meals are free for all. So, each student receives one free free breakfast and one free lunch. But we need to increase um prices for um for those meals. So, the the uh adult meal proposal um the DESIE gives us um guidelines to kind of come up with a a bottom line, so to speak, of how to come up with an adult price meal. Um, I receive federal reimbursement um through the um for my student meals. One of those prices um for a free meal, a student who's eligible for free is $4.30. Um

071then the USDA um uh food value meal price is added to that and then state tax. So that all added together would come to be $4.95. The adult meal now is um 425. It'd be a 70 cents increase. So that's that one. I don't know if you want to agree on this or vote on this or shall I proceed? We can do it. Okay. Um and then the second meal price, I do not receive any reimbursement for second meals. I get reimbursement for one breakfast and one lunch. So because it's free meals for all, many students purchase a second meal. So we need to increase those because of increase in labor, food, paper goods, and other um expenses. So um we're proposing now the elementary is $275. We proposed that we'd make that $3 per

072student and then secondary is $3. We're proposing that would be $325. And then for the aloc cart or second entree price, that would not include a milk, fruit, or vegetable. it's just for the entree. Many students, once again, because they're not paying for a meal, they'll come back for that second slice of pizza, a second burger, things like that. So, once again, food's going up, labor's going up, paper's going up. We'd like to um increase that. So we thought we would um just take the 50% um kind of benchmark but the um the students would be 160 for a second entree and adults would be 190. So um but once again due to uh increases in costs um and also to um go along um be compliant with my desi uh requirements I need to

073request for these uh increases. Anybody have any questions or concerns about that? Will these increases account for the total increase in your costs or is there still an additional amount that in terms of the you know you mentioned here the labor the food price and stuff is will this cover it? Yes, it will. It will it will make a difference. And then also once again I receive my reimbursements for all the meals that we are serving. Um since 2019 um be precoid we have more than doubled um the meals that we are um serving. Um our participation goes up every year. Um I don't know where all these more students are coming from. They're hungrier. We keep on thinking okay we've hit it we've hit the mark. Um but uh they just keep buying more

074meals. So yes so my my costs have been covered. Um but this other additional um uh increase will help cover uh the the costs that are going up. Just have a general sort of programmatic question not really about this. Um so now that every student has access to free meal is there any different treatment all like free and reduced right? Do those students have an ability to get for example the second entree at no cost or reduced cost or is it's basically everybody's free the first time? Yes. So um the federal guidelines are each breakfast each student receives one breakfast one lunch. So an additional entree is uh an added um uh charge fun. Yes. Oh, that's a good Yes. Any other questions? Nope. Seems reasonable to me to approve the increases in the um

075student adult meal prices. Second. All in favor? I appreciate it. Thanks for your patience. Come back anytime. Yeah. Good night. Thanks. Okay, next up is that time of year again. This is actually our last meeting of this school year, which I really can't believe how do the track track. Oh, you want to do the track first? It doesn't really matter when you do it. Best interest. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, you can put it wherever you want. I was going to say, is is valuation going to be hinged on it or Yeah. Right. Forget it. We're not going to forget. I have it I have it on my screen. Yeah. Okay. We'll do this first. Uh I I will remind folks um if you haven't followed along or even if you have, just a reminder

076of the process. Um we're here, school committee members, one of our jobs is to evaluate the superintendent. Um the cycle includes um usually getting together at some point prior to the school year and um starting to get some big picture goals in place um for the district or some longer term goals and then uh we will formulate some goals with Jim our superintendent um usually in the beginning of the year the goals that he wants to reach either um that will be completed in this year or sometimes they are goals that take several years and somewhere during the middle of the year we check in just to make sure we're on track and at the end of the year which is where we are now the school committee evaluates Jim this is called the summit

077of evaluation and the way that it works is that each school committee member fills out their own individual evaluation but we present uh all everything's tabulated and calculated and it's presented to Jim as uh an evaluation from the committee and it's a combination of the ratings that were offered by each each member here. So, I will take a moment to read the results. Hopefully, you guys all got everything. I'm not going to go through the um the rubric or any of that, but I will read the results of the of all of your input. Mr. Adams continues to be an asset to our district and community. His leadership is rooted in building strong relationships that facilitate communication and collaboration. Jim is a conscientious and thoughtful leader who is always striving to improve. He is self-aware,

078communicative, and thoughtful. For the 2024 2025 school year, Jim's been rated overall as proficient while receiving several exemplary ratings as well. He continues to excel in many areas. Although the model district is our goal, we inherently know that goal is always a work in progress. We have as a school district leaned into the idea of continuous student improvement in all its forms for many years and at all levels. Many of Jim's goals this year are therefore ongoing longerterm goals that won't be completed in a calendar year. The district continues to progress under his leadership. Specifically, Jim has excelled at prioritizing social emotional development, working towards curriculum alignment, and in particular with the budget, which we expect to become increasingly challenging. It's evident that Jim cares deeply about our students, staff, and entire school community. And

079his presence at district and school events, and building walkthroughs, meetings, and other events reinforce his commitment and accessibility. Jim has successfully strengthened family and community engagement by promoting open communication, building partnerships, and creating inclusive opportunities for involvement. There are several community events across each school throughout the year. to highlight a few this year that have returned or are new. Pitway implemented parent coffees to support new parents on topics facing their students and to help transitions into school. Warren continues to hold a number of school spirit events. Mendes held its science symposium in the spring with a record number of presenters from the community getting students excited about STEM. AMS returned to having full school assemblies for the first time since CO. AHS held a successful community service day in the fall, volunteering at several local

080businesses and town offices. Significant progress was also made in the middle school with upcoming schedule changes and increases in school spirit and exciting student workshops. At the high school, progress was made in decreasing student absenteeism and the occlusion of successful community service days. The committee is also pleased to see advancements in special education and English language acquisition. Our district continues to make significant progress towards our strategic goals. This is in large part to Mr. Adams leadership and the culture his leadership cultivates and we look forward to continuing to work with the straps. So hopefully everybody feels that that encapsulates what uh we've been working with Jim for a while now and uh your work continues to be sorry you've got the overall is um the there's the rating are usually yes I didn't I didn't

081write this out but there is a place in the um in the evaluation that I sent and I will get it up to say whether the go which goals were met and which goals had significant progress. so forth. I call that up. Yeah. Because did you because you typically do one of the rubrics combining the this and it's in the evaluation that is the committee evaluation to Jim has that page and I'm happy to read it aloud but I need I need to get get it. No I for me I if you can send it out but I think it's like the if we're accepting overall the overall evaluation the one that's like that one composite just get to the page and the overall yeah we we we definitely need the rubric itself yeah within

082within the rubric was the page that had I think that might be my evaluation this would not be my this would be the one from the have it as well. But I just Lor's doing funny want to acknowledge Lor's together given I didn't get anything 7:30 this morning. See that you incorporated some of my thoughts into the appreciate apologize for this is how the I'm sorry Jim that didn't come through. This is how the committee rated the goals as as a group on the uh resource management goal. By May 2025, each school now it's my eyesight that's the issue. Will conduct at least two safety drills. You want me to read the whole goal? You guys get the idea. That goal was met. The next goal, superintendent will review our current district policies that we've

083made significant progress on that goal. Um Paul and I are the policy committee. We've met been meeting consistently um with Jim on that and it's the only reason why it hasn't met is because it's going to take it's one of the goals that's going to take longer than a year but we have been um consistently working on that. Um the next goal working with the Ashlin Middle School to develop and in uh implement the new master schedule that has been met as we've heard from Aaron tonight and uh throughout the year. Uh the next one in collaboration with the assistant superintendent in the Ashlin Education Association. I'm reviewing procedures associated with the um educator evaluation. Significant progress on that. And uh the next one um was I've checked two boxes because some of us checked

084two boxes and and some of us Jim rated himself as not having met that goal just because the Henry Warren SOI did not happen and there are reasons why it didn't happen. Um but some of us um said sign uh uh not significant progress, some progress because we took steps to look into whether or not we could do that. So we uh but again that is obviously remains on the list. It's something that we're working towards. Um the next one during the 2024 2025 school year um press releases, social media post, and a minimum of two in-depth spotlights to students, faculty, staff. So that's we made some progress on that. Jim had highlighted that communication. Uh we're going to be re-evaluating how we do some of that um with and and which personnel we will

085be using for that. And then finally in collaboration with the uh assistant superintendent, the superintendent will create systems to impulpate the consistent MTSS and there's been some progress made on that. And again um the ones I just want to clear be clear again where there are some progress or significant progress. Um the the intent always was that it was going to take a little bit longer then. So but that is the compilation of what we all said. Some of us they were pretty consistent. Um the the four standards standards four standards. Yeah. the four standards were all proficient. That's why he was he received multiple exemplary ratings within that within the categories. Um but that's how the majority uh ruled on that but all the exemplaries were spread between the the standards. Correct. Yeah. or

086you know some people might have had uh exemplaries and in an entire category but um when it's a compilation and it's the whole committee I'm adding them all up and just whatever the majority voted that's what the evaluation says but I I I and this continues to be true for Jim I mean he's always earning multiple exemplaries from from us uh all the time so it's the I'm going to throw a need some yeah I just should mess with the So, all to say that uh we we continue to be pleased with your work, Jim, obviously. Um and we're glad you're here and we thank you for all you do and I hope you feel appreciated. I do. And I've said this every year I've been superintendent. You know, it's we're fortunate. We have a

087great team and I think the goals and know the standards that are being met, it's because of the team that's doing the work, right? We can organize it. I can organize it. Mike can organize it, but we don't have the right people in place to do the work and do it well. We're not going to make progress. And we're very fortunate. We have um you know, I think about Aaron this year at the middle school, right? It's a prime example of someone we've identified and we've groomed along the way as an educator um you know administrator and recognizing the fact that she's got a lot of talent and someone we want in our district who can do that work and do make really hard choices but do it in such a way that everyone feels,

088you know, their their opinions are valued. So I'm fortunate. I think that's uh as we all do. I probably rated myself harder than any one of you did. Um, but uh I think some of the challenges we had with the communication, we certainly have to revisit. Mike and I have had these conversations. How do we go about getting the messaging out considering um how we approach the the director's position this year in terms of budget cut um and thinking we can we can do a good job with this and a better job with this the two of us. So, um, but yeah, overall pleased certainly the progress we're making and and I know you'll always deflect and and the team is the and the team is doing the work, but as you said, we have

089a talented team, which means they have options. the idea that they routinely want to stay here for as long as they have. We probably set some kind of record for the longevity of of our administrative staff and talented administrative staff that has other options. So that's just testament to the culture team that you build and and foster a true team that wants to stay together. So that's that's on you. Thank you. I was you got credit for the team. job building that team. That's a reflection on decision making. Don't make a loan. Charge. Thank you. All right. I think we just need to move to approve approved. No, I think approve is the ratings over. Did everybody feel like their input was represented? Yes. Then thank you. Oh, thank you. Thank you for doing that.

090As always, I'll move to approve the uh superintendent summit of evaluation. Second. All in favor? I I Okay, great. You want to move the track now up to get these girls to Pennsylvania? Yeah. So, so exciting. So yeah, I don't know anything about it. What happened? So over the weekend, um you know, in the MIA meet of champions, our our girls 4x800 relay team, uh which did set a new uh school record, um uh qualified for the national event, the New Balance has a a meet, the national meet. So we have three young ladies um four, excuse me, four um obviously four by eight. Yeah, obviously, right? Um three juniors Yeah, Ava Denhoffer, uh, Sadie Gahuli, Maline Cal Callahan, and Sophia Wartnetski um are are the four ladies, some of my Make a Wish peep

091who we represent representing Ashland. Um, it's the the meet takes place on the 20th of June. Um, so that's next week and they have to leave on the 19th. It's an overnight trip and the four they'll be transported um by Emily Riley the coaches have hotel room. I know the families and parents are going. Uh I received a couple requests already from the families and uh that's again we didn't get it on the agenda because it just happened over the weekend and agenda was already posted. I make the motion to approve the girls to go kick butt at national. Is that a requirement at Penn State? Tell them that school school committee voted. They have to second. All in favor? I I I did tell Maddie Catalan she had to be back. She's supposed to

092be a cow, right? I know Cal is that she and my son. She's supposed to go, right? She and my son are counselors there together with Jack as well. So, um, so I said she has to be there. Yeah. Directly from Pennsylvania to to New Hampshire. We're all good there. It's right on the way. It is on the way. Yeah. All right. Good stuff. Policies. Yeah. Good stuff. So, you'll notice um the the first set of policies A through E. Um it's I I put them here and I believe we can vote on these without having um first and second reads if you will. They are policies that had very little change. MASC in 2022 I just set out new um updated policies. So I've included them here as red lines. And you'll notice uh

093I'll just pull them up if you want. Um I didn't see the red lines. I know I don't see any red line either. They're in Is that all it is? Is just the blue. No. So, how come I don't know why it doesn't show up in yours? Well, let me just I I can pull it up here. Uh and just so you can see it. I know because that's some of them did have changes and some didn't. Um where is my sharing here? Share this. Okay. So for example, does that show up? There's a red line on the screen. Yes. Yes. Okay. So, so this is policy BBA, school committee powers and duties. The red line obviously here was our current policy versus what the MASC was requesting was, you know, basically here was just

094bold formatting, but um they added the personnel matters in terms of, you know, who the school committee should can appoint by law. Uh we didn't have that in here. Um and that's this is what they were adding. Um super yeah that's right super shall be appointed by the committee directly report to the committee and then below the you the appointment of the school committee deals with certain roles superintendent uh school business administrator special ed administrator physician school nurse uh we don't have a supervisor of attendance but that's there. Um, so this is just one thing we didn't have in our initial policy. They just added it. I'm just I'm the only reason I'm strugg I'm looking at these and I'm not see changes. Yeah, I'm They don't show up on mine either. Even though red

095line it should be in the file and it should show it, but I think I think you might need to but you can see it on the screen. I'll just I'll pull them up either way. Yeah. So these are all MASC changes. is based on I looked at them in clean form and they look fine. So just I'm not worried about it. Yeah, I know it is easier when you So here's the red line of employment of principles but just for context like the the policy committee did not change any language uh recommended. So current certification they call it lensure now. Yep. there was that's or and the pronouns his there her, you know, to their that was the only change to um red line of the professional staff salary schedules. Um the administrators here

096basically just it cleaned this language up. It deleted this um salaries will be reviewed annually prior to July 1. Um up here it just talks about salaries will be reviewed annually prior to July 1. It was it was duplicative. Moved the word administration up to principal instead of making it two separate. Correct. Instead of two separate that's all it was. Um and this was the last red line. School committee member qualifications oath of office. Um they added they they got rid of town. We should keep you know in our we are a town. Um but they they used municipal or district and I just I don't mind keeping it with just town because we are a town know but um but they added this in here that newly qualified committee members shall by law receive

097and sign a receipt for within 30 days of taking office copy of the ethics commission summary of conflict of interest law. So just clarify exactly what you need to do if we have a new member. Those were the red lines. I'm sorry it doesn't show up in your these are first reads. Well they're right. These are first reads other but what I'm saying is I think we could still approve them without having additional they're not materially well yeah but when you said first reads yeah sorry thought that was implying that yeah yeah sorry we need two no no so um those are the but if people don't have any Okay. And the only one I didn't bring up, I think, was the employment of principles. Let me just show you that one. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

098Was I did lensure and there? Yeah, that was it. Yeah. Do them all. Do them all. I move to approve policy PB school status policy school policy BPAB member qualification office policy GCPA professional salary I'm sorry professional staff and policy principles second I next grouped us. And these have been vetted by council. I had it before. Go for Mark. We don't want to mess up the minutes. Gretchion will be appreciative. I move to approve policy JH student absence and excuse policy JH exclusions and exemptions policy C student discipline policy JF- A prohibition of easing policy JF- easing policy J I CFB bullying prevention policy JIH H searches and the policy J I students second. Excellent. That was an easy one. Yeah. You want to do a second and really just mess up? All in favor?

099Hi. Hi. Hi. Yes. Uh, so we are coming up on the end of the school year. It's been a long journey, but we all we all made it. Uh, we You're a senior now. Uh, yeah. Yes, I'm once they're out of the building, once they graduate, you're ranking ranking officials. But we did have the seniors just graduate. Uh we had a very successful class day and graduation as Mr. Kyra mentioned. And it's sad to see them go, but they're all on to better better things now. Um we are now looking forward to finals week. And once that's over, we're slowing down and ready to sleep in for summer. Hibernate. Yeah. Woohoo. Um, I don't have any my own because I've been running around to many fields, but I did want to give a shout out

100to the reality fair. Although I didn't get to attend. I heard many, many good things about it and I'm happy that people Yeah. And who was there? You were there. You were there. You were there. Yeah. You guys are awesome. Sounded like it was great. I'll try to go next. Yeah. It's my favorite event. So, that was on my my list as well, too. I always love having conversations with the students as they come through and they're excited and curious and thoughtful and kind of how they're looking at things and it's just it's fun to see them have kind of some of their own aha moments and um and it's just a fun day. Like it's a really great day. Um definitely volunteer next year if you're able to fit it in. Oh, I know

101them also. Well, that's more fun when you know all the kids coming through. Um so and obviously graduation was this weekend and we've heard a lot about that already. Um the I was able to attend Ashpack's last meeting of the year last Wednesday. Um and as they were kind of, you know, wrapping things up, they're doing a lot of planning for next year. I know Mike, they were going to reach out to you to talk about professional development next year and share their thoughts and um and whatnot. Um so expect an email. Um and we also talked uh you know, they brought up a few um different things that you know they wanted me to share with the committee. one, I know Jim, you had um you know, heard from Christine and had the opportunity

102to chat with her about um the hiring committees and so you know, they were curious and and hopeful to get kind of more specific direction about what the policy is for when there is a hiring committee pulled together for different um administrative positions that they would be able to be a part of or um what that would look like. And I know that you've had the opportunity to to um to respond to Christine um about that. And um you know, in terms of uh thinking forward about um unified sports and and how that plays out and you know, there were I think there were a few hiccups this year with things around transportation and and and whatnot. And so um you know they shared you know kind of some of their thoughts um with me

103about that which I will certainly pass on in conversations with Jim so they can be a part of the greater conversation with Kevin and the administration. Um, and that was Oh, one other thing, although I wasn't there, I you know, one of the um Brian Koen brought one of the middle school bands or middle a group of middle school students to a band competition this past weekend and they won platinum, which is like higher than gold. I think it's the first time they participated in this in many, many years. Was it? Um, I don't know. They got to go to Canoby Lake Park after the event. So, I and I have to be honest with you, I don't know all of the details. I just heard about it through the AMA, the ASA Music Association.

104I'm lucky. So, um, that's great news. Yeah. So, I don't all I know is that they did really well. They had a great concert last night as well. It was good to attend. My brother was there. Um, so they had a nice concert. They're playing beautifully and it's going to be nice seeing him in the high school band next. Yeah, absolutely. The jazz ensemble did a phenomenal job last week as well, too. They had a actually a parent stepped up to um to lead the middle school jazz ensemble this year. And at their concert, they had a a full jazz band. They had a young um a student who was singing and it was just a really phenomenal performance all around. And the banding course at graduation, I mean, we have such talent here. Really?

105Yeah. Yeah. Uh so I attended the uh high school awards night uh went to the reality fair. Kudos to the organizers Sarah Josh that ton of work uh and it's been improving every year. They get on tuning it and making it better every year. So look forward to next year. also obviously went to graduation. So kudos to uh everybody and Mike did a great job. Uh you know I'm seeing that and I'm always impressed with how well you site I would butcher literally 70% of the names. Uh you you do a fantastic job asking how long you sitting there. Yeah when you all you all do that and it's it's pretty pretty great. So, um, so yeah, I think that's that's the majority of the and I echo the same things. I, uh, was the

106reality fair and so the transportation booth, my favorite thing was with these kids who were coming up and I'm going to live in Oak Square, Bright, I guess. Um, I'm going to have a car. Okay, you drive your car every time you go downtown cuz you may need a tea pass, too. Let's go look at how much that all costs. Then we leave the car at home. every one of them like it's a good idea. That's why they call it a reality fever. That's right. Exactly. Right. Um it was a lot of fun doing that and also kind of having fun with the kids because um for those who don't participate, they get their credit scores based on their attendance. Oh, and so you're able to say h maybe you might have had a better

107choice to look at the difference in in terms of your car payment might be somebody else you had gone to class, you know. movie. But what's that? Shut up. Shut up. Yeah. Um, but it was a lot of fun and I think for number of us who've got kids that are in and around these age groups that are graduating know a good number I can remember looks familiar one who Mikey Flynn who I coached baseball like in first grade and you were on the same team. Oh, that's where you Yeah, I don't really know. Um, it was just great to kind of see all through that and graduations are 10, 11, 9, whatever it was. Just lot. It's my favorite time of year. Mark, I went to class day and graduation. Great job, everybody. I

108really like I love the gusto with Richard. It's just the energy that goes into it. I think he's got the MC vibe. Yeah. And it was really special to see you because this is the first class that was with you from kindergarten. You moved to Mendes with them. You You did really did. And it was very clear, right? It was really clear what a special place they held in your heart. And it was very it was really heartwarming. That was nice. Thanks. Yeah. It's it's uh it's it's a it's an honor to be able to do that. So, and I'm glad people kind of can hear the excitement in my voice when I'm introducing them. So, hopefully I'll get to do it next year because this will be next year's class, the class of 2026

109will be the the only class that I had all six years. Yep. So, all the way through. So, I guess that's my uh plug to Kelly to let me continue at least at least one more year to You might have three votes over here. That's what I was going to say because you might need to do it next year because while that was your first group, this this is your longest group as far as that group. Yeah, cuz you were you were until they went to middle school. You were the principal. Yeah. I'm going to be honest. I was a little offended. You said they were your favorite class. this year. It's this year's favorite. You guys still be here to get better. I was They've always been my favorite class. Uh because they were

110my first kindergarten class. All right, that's fair. So So you guys are the class I love the most. How about that? You run for office? Yes. Good answer. Okay, we're heading next to executive session. Um, so I move to enter into executive session under MGL chapter 30A section 21A 2 to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with non-UN personnel superintendent of school Jim Adams, Ashlin High School deans, director of social emotional learning Jen Taylor, Director of Pitway, Director of Student Services Britney Hawkins, Ashlin Middle School principal Erin Lash Chappelle, director of English language acquisition Christy Arnold, and Ashlin High School principal Kelly Ser. or to conduct collective bargaining with the intent of not to return to public session. So, I will have to take a vote by person. Marcy, can we have a second?

111Thank you. Can't get through the meeting without making one mistake. Are you seconding? Okay, Marcy. I Okay. Not to return to open session. Good night, everybody. Thank you.