School Committee: January 22nd, 2025

001e good evening everybody it is January 22nd 2025 the Ashlin Public School 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 order of business this evening includes our call to order opening procedures agenda review and adoption we'll have time for public participation and we'll have Sarah Davidson from the preschool and the PBIS team at the preschool um competency determination regulations superintendent Adams and assistant superintendent Dr Kyra warrant approvals superintendence report assistant superintendent report and our action items discussion updates and votes this evening include five first

002reads of policies bdb school committee officers bdfa School councils e FD School nutrition program charge policy GBE Personnel use of Technology [Music] innd access to digital resources jnd DB use of technology and instruction and J JN DC acceptable use of digital resources our consent agenda includes the approval of gifts and donations Grant approval and the minutes from January AR 8th 2024 then we will have reports of school committee members and then I will move to enter into executive session under mgl chapter 30A section 21 A2 to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with non-union Personnel superintendent Jim Adams or to conduct collective bargaining with the intent of not returning to public session then we will adjourn so I will take attendance and ask if you all are okay with the order of business this

003evening Marcy he and yes Paul yes Mark yes yes for me and um Tina is absent this evening um I will then ask if there's anybody from the public either online or in the audience who would like to offer any comments tonight and seeing none um we are ready for you Sarah Davidson and team hello good thanks can we get your shirt always be kind a a awesome welcome everybody hello that is green yes there we go hello so at the preschool as um all the schools do in our district we have anal team previously um it was more devoted to PBIS but after a few years of kind of adopting multiple different things under seal we have um made it under anal umbrella but specific to PBIS which I feel like we do a

004lot of at preschool a lot with our theme be safe be kind really works out too with um our small kiddos it gives them kind of something to focus on um we have a mascot you will see later in one of the slides um so really going with that theme um next yep um if you want to press play these are just a couple wonderful friends saying our core values volum we did this the last time what was it g to be cute so so working to get preschoolers on camera um kind of depends how that works it's mine because I thank you want many keep going awesome um so those little guys were stating are two core values at preschool I know that they grow as schools go on of their core values but

005ours are be safe be kind and you'll see later kind of how that's um explained um can go back oh sorry um but what you will see is just an umbrella that kind of explains everything we have under seal so PBIS is still there we have some pieces of responsive classroom zones of Regulation um and thank you and pass our actual curriculum where all kind of have lessons and different ways to teach our small ones about social emotional learning how to regulate themselves how to um play with each other but specific to PBIS we it um PBIS stands for positive behavior interventions and supports so it's research based um in what we see from it through the research also that it kind of limits behavior um behavioral interruptions really increases instructional time um so it

006is something that is across the whole school it is for all students there are obviously different ways for kiddos need more that gets um specialized but this is kind of our overall um way to approach that and it's across all classrooms and all um common areas of the school too that's okay I don't mind talking through it if you want to um but some of this so that is um our lovely Mrs be there on the bottom kind of showing some of our um daily expectations where she is reviewing what our be safe beind rules and core values mean um so that is from our most recent b-day and it's really important we have that visual representation but it just this kind of just shows how we um work in the classroom and the common

007spaces so in our classrooms each one has a beehive it's kind of that top picture um where we're earning bees as a class either everyone did something great we're all working together or individuals are also doing great things are super kind to their friend they were safe and they're really getting recognized and we're putting those on throughout the day where they can earn something together as a group you know fun dance parties bubble parties things like that big screen movement breaks going to the gym extra recess um and then in our common spaces um they can have individual B stickers something they can kind of have and keep whereas in the classroom that's kind of working on it together out in the common spaces it's the B sticker they can keep or a be stamp

008we added a few years ago um so they can have that with them a little reminder it goes home sometimes they wash off so if they have the sticker can go home and they can talk to their parents they can ask them what they did it's a little hard for preschool to kind of relay what that was but they can kind of know oh they got kind of recognized for being safe or being kind um perfect and it's very um so what you're seeing on the side right now is our Matrix um so this is actually available to all of the staff and students to use throughout the school um and it's a way to kind of guide our teachers and staff their use of positive language so it gives us some examples of phrases

009to use um and we use the positive phrasing especially with our littlest Learners because it explains what we want them to do as opposed to telling them what not to do because if telling them what not to do they might not necessarily know an alternative so you know we're using language such as walking feet instead of stop running or we're saying maybe um quiet voice instead of stop talking so it gives them examples of exactly what we're expecting from them um and this is really important at the preschool because a lot of times our students are this is their first time in a school setting so they might not know some of these expectations or have heard some of this language before so it's really important for us to be using these um this language

010to teach them um so this is an just a close-up example of something you saw on a previous slide of our core value beehive so these are in all of our classrooms as you heard as well as our common spaces so they are in some of our therapy rooms our gym our hallways and they provide visual representation of our core values as well as some of our Behavior expectations so you can see like listening walking feet eyes watching um ways to be safe and be kind and these are really useful again for our students who are maybe learning language um and they have some of those visual supports to help them remember it's also a way for as you heard our teachers to review some of those expectations not just in the classroom but sometimes

011in the hallway if our friends need just a quick reminder we can point out to them you know oh our expectations are that we have a quiet voice in the hallway and so we can review some of those expectations using the visual instructions um and so we also have two days a year um which we call our PBIS B days so you'll see us now in our black and yellow and B themed clothing um we have some teachers who might wear some antenna or things like that um so these are the days that we designate as our B days and we also um reach out to families to let them know that students are also invited to wear B themed gear or black and yellow um and these are the days where we really focus

012on our PBIS initiative so we set the routines and expectations in September um and so we'll review what our core values are what the expectations are and then we'll do a reboot in January so we just did this a couple weeks ago and the teachers will reinforce all of those routines that they had been learning about and all of those expectations and retes needed and we typically do this with that first week back from our um December break it's a bit of an extended break for some of our friends so it's just a nice time to sort of reboot remind our students what the expectations are and just have fun we do some really fun activities on those days which you're going to hear about um At a next slide okay so this picture is

013a picture of our um BJ that we just had and this is bumbles he is our mascot for PBIS and um bumbles shows up every um time the students we have either um the first day in September or in January and the kids get greeted um in their arrival time and they get to you know shake hands and give a hug to to bumbles um so in this next um slide here are a bunch of the activities that we um did recently um the very top one if you look to um the left um left top Corner that is bingo with pictures of different ways to show being safe or being kind at school um another activity in the center in the top row was a b activity an arts and craft activity that the

014the students were making um and on that last picture in the top row um is another um is another activity with save the bees activity where students were kind and save the bees from being stuck in the Model Magic so that was um a fun activity for them to find motor skills as well and then in the bottom um left corner um that was a kind theme coloring sheet that that student was completing and then in the middle um there's the students showing us their completed B crafts that they had made very proud that day um and on the very last picture is a student receiving their B certificate so the students um will also receive a certificate um every student that day um showing if they've been um kind or safe um I can

015enjoy it a little bit but um so as mentioned before during bday the student no running in the classro that's one of our Little Learners um giving an example of how to be safe in school and like mentioned before the students on the B days the students get little certificates either be safe or be kind or both certificates so on those days we as teachers are kind of more more intentional on finding something that that each student in the classroom does that we kind of the behaviors that we're looking for so often they'll get like one B every couple days here everybody will get a certificate and here next you're going to see a couple more students that are explaining how they got their be certificates help the so that's our that's our youngest Learners

016kind of from the mouth of babes exping it better than we could um as you can see here T um us dressed here and in our picture that was the morning of our most recent bday so we have signs welcoming students kind of showing being safe being kind um just different posters made by teachers and staff bumbles is there um so um you know antenna black yellow it really helps the kiddos really kind of you know not that they need it because there's a mascot and they're excited but to kind of Buy in they're kind of buying into everything they're excited about life at this age which is amazing um but so that is our most recent one um and any questions for us any answers what bumbles oh it varies sometimes you kind of

017have to you know keep it quiet so they don't recognize the voice might be P trying to out our bumbles no it berries fumbles is bumbles yeah yeah bumbles is bumbles but there are questions from kind of you know the older crew right do I know you yes oh very cute it's nice to see them like making all the connections between their behavior and your system that you have so and it all works like all four of my kids went to paway and I'm a huge paway like parent like I love it and I used all those visuals with my children yeah so I still have them I still have them laminated in a folder at home I'm not kidding and I them parents they work so I just it's so wonderful to see it

018still going transition easy they love being reinforced they love being kind of able to shine being recognize so even just little simple moments of in the hallway oh waa that was super safe they kind of sit up straighter and they kind of have their moment or as a group they get to kind of earn as a whole group which they enjoy too because then they get something super awesome super fun to do yeah that's like a Common Language understand it's great anybody else thank you thank you all right next up competency determination regulations sure plug this in because we go back and have them do their thing again exactly might need them to give me some positive it's kind of like a weekly theme like what a bummer the first topic is after our determination

019yeah thanks ladies right uh so we have Miss St CER here as well just to have a conversation it we're not looking for any um votes or anything that tonight it's really about providing uh an update to the school committee on where we stand on uh what the company determination means at the state level after the ballot to um the mcast ballot uh was passed uh in in November and um we had a recent presentation from Rob curtain uh from the Department of Ed back in December uh and yesterday Mike and I attended our our Tri County Superintendent meeting with probably 40 superintendents there yesterday to really focus on this topic and what people are doing around the state and what does that really mean for us and what is um I'm going shorten everything

020now to CD because sometimes the word competency gets me like some other words I have in my my vocabulary um so the CD is is what we're going to be talking about and what I think is important before we begin the slideshow is that in Massachusetts um before and even after uh in order to receive a diploma uh to graduate from from high school in the state of Massachusetts we in public school system you have your local graduation requirements and then you have what the state has deemed as a compens determination a CD in years past that CD was passing of the mcast okay so both of those go hand inand in order for someone to receive a diploma when the ballot passed in November it did not get rid of the CD it just

021said the mcast is no longer the CD so we've got to be careful in terms of that conversation and that's what I'm trying to clarify tonight so when folks are listening listening to this or reviewing it uh they'll understand so first slide again here was the proposed language um I don't want to you know read the whole thing but basically they were saying you need to complete coursework certified by the district that demonstrates Mastery of the topics covered under the mcast from 2023 so the freshman and sophomore English Math and Science Frameworks that's really what the language said uh in terms of the change in the law so you can see that here so this is the actual ballot that was provided they got rid of as measured by the assessment instruments described in section

022one which was but remember the assessment was the mcast that was the instrument to change the language to by satisfactory satisfactorily completing coursework has been certified by the students District as shown Mastery of the skills competencies and knowledge contained in the State academic standards and curriculum Frameworks in the areas measured by mcast high school test described in section one uh administered in 2023 so that relates to math science technology history and social science foreign language and English um there's a knowledge base that kids must have so it didn't get rid of the CD it just said the mcast is no longer the CD okay is that good frame for for folks here yeah and can I just ask maybe you're going to get to this y um one of the questions that we talked a

023little bit about last time and I think has been point of discussion is whether or not the MS can at the local level be chosen to the CD the answer is no but it can be chosen to be part of the um requirements of a diploma but it can't be the CD it can C CD is state level assessment or however they determine and we'll get to that in a second but the the mcast can and some districts are choosing to add the mcast into their graduation requirements and we'll get to what our requirements are um as stated currently in the in the hand but if if a district I'm not trying to indicate what I have no idea what what we're going to but y um nor do we so if if um the

024mcast were given any weight it would be part of the local graduation requirements but would not satisfy the requ for the competency determination that is 100% correct so the challenge that we have in front of us is determining what's going to satisfy the competency determination correct and that's and and we can end the conversation right there because that's really what the slide shows about you just solved it for I want to go back to bumbles right so so what's important to understand is really um we're in a scenario and this was really the major topic of conversation yesterday in the Tri County Superintendent group was what what do we do as as districts right we have this short-term issue which are the is the class of 2025 right what do we do with those kids

025who if they've already passed the mcast their CD is done but if they haven't you can't they can't and they haven't passed the retest you can't use you have to come up with a CD you don't need um you can't continue to retest so Kelly will tell you that we're they had their one opportunity and that's it then there's a medium term who are the students are currently in high school what about next year the students who are sophomores Juniors who have to take and sign up for classes currently to ensure that they're meeting whatever requirements we set for and just be we meaning the state we meaning combination of state and locally well but the Crux of really the state because if they get off there the CD needs to be determined by the

026state no well we can determine the local CD Now on our own but eventually the state is going to weigh in and say the courses that you might choose to meet the CD are not certified and do not count I'm going to get to that in a second but they but they determine whether we we can say hey these meet the thing the the this this meets what the what what should should qualify as determination and that might pass initially but after their review they could say no that's correct but it's the it's the state CD that we're trying to that we're trying to meet fulfill 100% by we're trying to fulfill the law based on how the state is interpreting okay so go ahead mer sorry that's okay um class of 2026 some of

027them already took the mcast so that does not fall into bucket that is correct right or it does huh so that if they took the mcast Y the 2026 as far as I'm reading what the department of Ed said does not count towards CD the CD only class of 25 it ends with the class of 25 okay however we are required by law to continue to take the mcast because of the federal funding that comes flows through the state we have to have an assessment so then there's the long-term right so there's three three buckets that we've got to start thinking about so what we talked about yesterday at the Tri County was everyone stop basically and just focus on this year just focus on 2025 and then let the department of Ed or the

028um you know work through it or the Board of Education work through language to tell us what they're going to accept as the CD moving forward what we learned yesterday as well and with Governor Healey's um you know opening remarks on the new year is that um she's creating a task force to determine what to do next now from what we heard today Mike and I met with um Senator spilka's office today uh they're not going to have anything ready for 20 until 2027 so we're still waiting for guidance and and we'll get further along there so so again shortterm class of 25 that's what we're going to focus on as an admin team in the high school right um examples of top topics covered in the in the FAQ I shared the FAQ with

029you it's online I linked it here there are some things that are important about the mcast one I think it's important to understand it still has to occur two the Adams and copx scholarships for local for state universities and colleges right those are impactful meaning if you have certain scores there's tuition um that you can get as scholarships and our by SE by literacy students have to pass mcast for that component which also has an impact on our students as they go into college um so we have to think about that we have to think about the students who have graduated previously who have who had met all of the graduation requirements but didn't necessarily meet the CD which is passing the mcast so we're looking back to see I don't know we don't have

030many students but we we've got to look back through those transcripts and see who didn't graduate who did not get a diploma because of the mcast requirement only how far back do you if you were talking to attorneys they would say go back I think I think it was five six years anyway but we don't have many either way it's an interesting thing to have to go back for that yeah but to Marcy's point if you took the MCAT when this was was the sophomores it's like yeah it's kind of it's kind of like hey I filed my building permit and the code was this and you changed it out from underneath which is illegal to do you can't do that but in this case they are changing it out from underneath right the children

031sure but then you have to go back for the other people who it doesn't make any sense at all doesn't and again this slide deck was um you know presented to us from the Department of Ed and I'm just sharing the medium term so the current high school students not the graduates of 2025 desie has to provide oversight to us and they have to give us Direction they're not right and the Board of Ed also has to propose areas that we have to look at similarly longterm what are the recommendations for state are they going to say to us every District in the Commonwealth must have this as the graduation requirement so the majority of districts you'll notice for local have adopted the common the mass core right the the four English three Mass two

032World Language all of those things um and we'll show ours in a moment that's what most high schools have done in districts however the CD was the mcap and it was interesting um Dennis jetti from Senator spook's office said to me today what what do you think is the best thing what best approach is there having a Statewide say you know assessment again uh that's consistent across all districts or to in ask all districts to have the mass core as the requirement therefore passing all those subject areas um it's a mess in other words and the Challen challenge of that is consistency how much fality can it be done with across those districts and that's where the test that's right helped with that normalization and what does that mean in terms of our L students

033our special education students Etc there are so many factors to this that those who were gung-ho to get of the mcast and the language that was presented were very shortsighted oh yeah um in my opinion and that's only Jim Adams's opinion not the opinion of the astr school committee I just want to put that on record yeah so so what does it mean to graduate from you know ashon public schools graduation policy what have we said in our policy and do we need to be thinking about changing our policy or or procedurally right now so that's the other question that we we we talked about yesterday so let me just narrow this down for you what's in yellow it's hard to read but it's in yellow the and complied with all state accountability requirements that's

034the mcast we did not identify the mcast we just said state requirements so for us all we have to do is identify what those requirements are in our mind and and what we approve as courses that are um or Kelly looks at and says they're equivalent to freshman English sophomore English Frameworks so if we have English language learner students who are not taking freshman English but they're taking um a beginner English you know language class do those Frameworks that we're teaching match up with some of the Frameworks of the English n English 10 right and if they do we're comfortable saying that they make the the the intent of the law change which is the Frameworks of English for grades nine and 10 we have older students who are coming great transfer students as well

035right we we talked about our graduation requirement here how we're very specific in English which we might want to change it says you have to have one course passing course one credit of American literature the mass core does not state that it says four credits in English like we're very specific so we have to go back and look at our our requirements for the diploma the graduation are not only are are our students meeting this but also the CD remember some folks in years past have met the CD they've passed the mcast but they don't graduate because they haven't met this policy right so they're they go hand in hand you have to do both to get a diploma from the as public schools and I just ask sure if premature to the discussion the

036whole if you want to table that's fine but um I look at using that example literature yeah you know what's the history behind why we did that is the same true social studies with specifics yeah so we've been here 16 Kelly's been here 20 we don't know knows oh so yeah so we we actually the three of us met this morning and we said huh we need to go back and look at right that Mak sense the historical cont of this like we shouldn't be that specific in my mind but we I think to me you may be right me it just should be conscious decision to we're just doing it because we always did it right right yeah it's got to make sense to somebody and I wouldn't be in favor of removing it

037if we found out what the reason was just just because sure because ours is more specific ours can be more specific because it's going to but your point why we we need to be able I don't know if we can ever find out the why hey your kid people aren't there anymore right you're not going to graduate with a diploma unless you pass this right but they that's that's what's holding them up and we need to be able to justify that right so the point is here right we may have kids coming from transfer student again I think we've got to be thoughtful we have transfer students who come from out of state right and world history early American history are not part of their curricula that they've been you know but yet they're a

038senior and they've had passing grades and all their other we're going to hold kids back and not graduate them because they've got to meet very specific requirements right and and that's I I struggle with that a little bit and and again I think language can be in we've had this conversation I know where you're going with this and I agree with you it's Andor at the discretion of the high school principle of of course equivalent to right something of that nature because day this yeah this should sculpt an ashin student that spent the four years us agreed and we can and we can then have language in there that helps us accommodate the exceptions but we shouldn't uh you know then say this isn't now what we want out of a four-year student in Ashlin

039because of an exception so so I would look at it from that definitely that lens yeah and want to keep the things we find valuable um and be specific where it makes sense right we may have some history the only like forer might be able to help us with that or Patty um it's not to me history is only helpful in so much as it might help us understand the intent of well that's what I mean right but but if we all look at this now and say you know what having history having wor in world history and having a deeper knowledge of American history and having we might said that's okay no but I don't think we have to understand why somebody did it to begin with I was curious right for me I

040think I mean one could argue I think a Civics course you know I I mean it's you know could meet that requirement of a credit I look at this as an opportunity to revisit it make sure we're doing everything with intention Y and get the get the history so that we're not going to just throw something out because we're not thinking the same way you know thinking of it and we're not looking I'll be clear we are not looking to change this policy at this point in time we are not we we are looking to eventually come and say we have to adjust the student handbook or the program of studies to for the CD component that's what we're going to be coming to the school committee with currently this is just an example why

041why I like to refer to things in general yeah yeah exactly if this had mcast we'd have to actually have to if if the CD requirement changes Jim and determines that some of these things are going to fulfill that would that affect changing the policy no okay no yeah it's just it's inclusive of it it's fine okay so is it it's one of the things that's on the table for discussion allowing for our graduation requirements to satisfy the competency determination say that again I'm sorry I was worried about that screen people is is it permissible to consider that meeting the graduation requirements also satisfies the competency they have to be separate they're they're separate but they can be they overlap they can overlap for sure right we can I and I'll give you a couple

042examples of that because I think it's important to to delineate that for and that's what some ders are doing ex they're they're trying to they're be very and they have some of them gone way too the most recent ones again that we we received over the last couple days um are much um I would be much more inclined to propose on their language versus the ones that first came out so um so what are yeah what are our next steps right what what are we coming to you for in the next um probably in the next meeting or two um review the graduation policy do we adjust or leave alone for the 2025 students so meaning the policy you just saw do we just leave it alone th those are the graduation requirements in terms

043of the courses that are being required for the as public schools I would say yes right what would be the reason to change the only thing you could do is in future years some folks again are putting the mcast in as a graduation requirement we're not there yet we're not looking at that we're just saying we have to look at the policy it did not include mcast some districts wrote specifically in their policy that they had to pass the mcast so for me unless we were somehow just hanging our hat that we don't need to address something in our policy because it's addressed by the state CD that would be the only time where I would say hey let's make sure we address something in the shorter term but I don't think that's the case

044right it's not Paul you're right yeah so so second thing you know make recommending changes to meet the CD right so but that means the program studies in the handbook we have to adjust those for the class of 2020 or for the school year 24 25 because it's specific specifically we should let folks know and that's what the department of Eda said you need to let folks know what the CD is going to be right right and then so it's clear so it's clear so you but you vote on the handbook right so this is part of the hand and so just to understand the the process from their perspective they don't have the time or capacity to really certify this year this year so they're providing more discretion for us to determine that right

045I would say yes but subsequent years years they will you'll because I mean and the reason for this is you have a lot of differents that would be like oh look at our graduation rates now because right uh so that happened during mcast or during Co we were actually going back and forth and we haven't found it I haven't been able to find it uh what courses they said were certified and what were not in terms of leading towards graduation um so so they do have a process there's a lot of again I get into the politics but there's a lot going on at um the department of they do not desie does in the process of hiring a commissioner that being said we don't know where that new commissioner might come on and say

046this is what we're looking to do um that's important I think it's important to understand that there's legislative um action that could be taken on the Pol the actual law and what does that look like um but I don't think any of this is going to come to fruition until 26 do they have any guidance on once you come up with a local competency determination where they want us no so should it be in the policy yeah it should be in the handbook the it should be in the handbook and distributed to families immediately okay yes yeah yeah Paul so we talked about yesterday the big p versus the small P right ver policy is the big p and the St from the school committee procedurally you know what it looks like at the at

047the at the school school lens right so so are but who are they looking to prove that competency determination right now it's the school committee approves what the CD will look like under the um from the recommendations of really the principal who has the authority to review classes see if they're equivalent to and and and the reason I asked is is policies are our documents correct right y um so if we're involved in that decision we have to obviously take a vote and as long as that's going to suffice for an update to a handbook the answer yes but we won't do that until they're ready to come forward with Rec I'm procedurally like you know hey if we have to prove that we did it it'll just be it'll be in the minutes it

048be minutes and some so I'll give you some examples of that too right in a moment because there are some who are looking to change immediately ikf the graduation policy and some are just looking to change the handbook and procedures within the handbook for what CD means but the state has provided guidance that the handbook is sufficient sufficient right they're they're actually taking their hands off from most of it right now they're pretty upset yeah um let's say are they taking their hands off or washing their hands I think both Mark it's a good question um so one of the next steps is and we've already done it identifying impacted students um and you know we Kelly we're having this conversation today what we have five students five students who who are are are being

049impacted by this but we have three students who were negatively impacted because immediately because in the retest they would have passed it under the partially meeting expect like they have different levels right in the um education plan that they could we could have written doesn't exist now so those and so Kelly called today the department said well sorry while they may have that that number it doesn't work anymore because you can't do an EP they don't exist just ludicrous but that's the way it is that's that's that's the challenge with only pushing a very small Narrative of what the process actually was yeah so here are some examples and I've shared them all with you I I think um you can get really into the weeds of these um here's a simple one uh complete

050two of The Three core science classes with a passing grade complete n9th and 10th grade math with a pass grade what does that mean what is nth and 10th grade math well what we know the state is saying is there needs to be Frameworks of Algebra 1 and geometry those are typically freshman and sophomore math classes um similarly with English there's most people call it English n or English 10 or whatever it is the framework's there so it's it's matching up and Kelly's having staff looking at the Frameworks so some of our students who might be Kell you can probably come to the podium and talk about specific classes that we might have um for remediation Andor um pullouts for students or yell students that aren't necessarily called English n or 10 or math algebra

051one or two like integrated math for instance right right integrated math one and two uh covers the concepts of Algebra 1 and geometry um we've integrated three as well that um I think goes maybe deeper into some of those courses and gets into a little bit of Algebra 2 um you know I'm thinking about some of our El classes um those students they're taking their English with the El teachers um but they're certainly working on um math Frameworks um and we have three different levels there beginner Advanced beginner and intermediate and and what you'll know is again I I want to be clear no matter what we determine like if Kelly is saying these classes meet the the intent of the law change right the scope of it with the Frameworks that's just one part

052of it right they still have to meet our graduation requirements in addition to that CD component I think that's what um that's why I tried to highlight at the beginning it's both of these equals the diploma it's not one um but it's both of them um so here look at Blue Hills they're very specific English n English 10 but you get into there was one um in Barnstable uh which I I didn't share here but they actually outlined the courses that are not eligible in their mind and and a lot of them related to special education courses as well as English language learner courses which was ludicrous but that's how they're focusing that's their problem that just doesn't make any sense from well anyway you can look at it here's what not to so so

053here's here's one again these are s that folks are looking at uh one I find actually very useful to us this is Newton um who have said basically we're just focusing on um you know the 2025 right now um and then we'll let things play out um students who have not yet taken specific mcast there are three categories uh local certification will be determined by satisfactory completed coursework that has been certified by the students District that's us I showing Mastery of the skills comp competencies and knowledge contained in the State academic standards and Frameworks right so we we can do a crosswalk of the courses that Kelly thinks um are appropriate for all of our students and say okay yeah we think they meet the the high standard of learning uh you know based on

054the Frameworks can I back up from the weeds that we're in just a little bit we're weedy right now we we are weedy I know we need to be weedy yeah um that's um but when I mean when I think about this whole thing feel like we have to be into the weeds I think what's probably most said make sure kids who graduate have earned itre right like however you measure that whatever stand it's meaningful right it it it means something to achieve it right but it's also Equity right so that we have students have either challenges or that come from different backgrounds or different places think that they're not un we're looking to graduate people we're not looking to not graduate correct and and so I guess my question all three of you is

055you know at the end of the day do you have any concerns about this change with respecting the changing expecting I understand logistically right in the sense that have pass test that but really are we lowering stand that's the when we get past sort of the weeds what we have to do thatass also want to sure that is oh we don't do that it's not important students and their education learning like to he yeah you love it go ahead call we're all on the same page for the most well I just think you know historically students that aren't earning the diploma it from here in Ashen High School it has been students that have failed a class and not met the graduation requirement as opposed to most of our students pass mcast um which to

056me says the classes when whether it's English 10 or uh El Advanced is they're getting the content um that they need um yeah that we have not had students that are not walking that stage because of mcass so I have a similar question in in a little bit different way the our graduation requirement is vague in somewhere right say number of math credits it didn't say that that math credit that's right right so a student might have said okay I struggled there I didn't pass it but I I got some support I passed the mcal oh crap now I can't graduate if competency determination is now that specific class that they didn't go back and retake so my concern is for those kids that are in that Quagmire that you know how are we going

057to identify support those kids who now need to pass a course they can't they can't take something that shows that they have those skills anymore that's a few hours at of time it's a course so so that that's hugely impactful if anyone Falls and I don't know if anybody will but I'm more concerned that the goal post was back there you're ped it now we've changed it and what does that what does that do for those any if there's any students that are in that situ I don't even know if there's any students in that situation but this kind of Quagmire leaves that as a possibility and how do we help those kids that they're gonna have to stick around in in school for another whole semester what or whatever that the term of that

058course is just to do something that they could have shown competency in in a few hours right and I don't know if how many would ever fall into that category but we're because we're changing and we're gonna now say a specific course that was a year and a half ago for a student or however long and now they might need to change their schedule or take something and lose out on on something they're take they should be taking their senior year yeah just so that so Paul your point too I think that's why I look at I look at the Newton language to a certain extent where it just says like math credits earned in the equivalent of at least two years of high school math not being being specific as to what the class

059is but saying listen you know we don't identify Algebra 1 two geometry trig whatever as a requirement and that's why sometimes I question the English and the social studies right in terms of right why there specific classes but not math yeah um so the the CD is basically just saying okay you've passed what Kelly has deemed to be appropriate in the math department is be deemed appropriate meeting Frameworks okay that's fine we're we don't need to be specific I guess even that if if they're giving us latitude right we're GNA take it use the latitude because even if you say right that meet that framework well if that if that 10th grade course is the only thing that me that framework then you're still in that same boat they have to go back to that

060one at least until we get the kids that are potentially in this you know this spot right right once we then the next year next year now we'll we'll be able to ident identify that CD and we're getting the kids as they go through they'll know they need to pass that and they know they need to do whatever the case is um and I mean I guess that's a general concern I have with this shortsighted ballot question too now we're putting a lot we're going to be putting a lot on that conversation with teachers the kids that are right on the edge of these that we're not going to how do you okay you missed it by this much sorry it's passing the course retake this entire thing as opposed to get some supports show

061competency if it's something that's that's going to really I think be impactful to students that are right on the edge there they're gonna have to retake a course as opposed to get supports and show competency in something that doesn't take an entire semester Jim is there going to be um like bri in suggestions from school districts to the governor kind of task force St we don't know so when we met with when we met today with um sen Senator sp's office we we have a meeting with her on the 12th of February superintendent from this area in her districts and Dennis was bet was saying this is Hot Topic obviously he said we haven't heard if any superintendant are part of the task force so the task force is just being mentioned and what 31

062folks 31 areas section of that it sounds like she's the governor is trying to pull together but as of yesterday Mary Burke who is our Mass ex executive now the the director um was notified that she was going to make this announcement but we haven't been told um Armen fires is our president he hasn't no one's been told that this superintendent will even have a voice at the table which is amazing to me right I mean I would think if you're in start of task force you might want to say hey the people who are in the trenches need to be having these conversations they it may happen sounds like sounds like they haven't even identified the makeup of the Heen but that but that's typical right it's typical just throw it out there we're

063going to do this and in 27 you'll have an answer well it needs to happen now yeah and it needs to happen more quickly uh to get that through so again I just share with you some things that are you know interesting to me the Lincoln Sudbury one just came out um you know they just talk about English n or equivalent right so so we have flexibility latitude if you will any upper class literature elective or special ed equivalent at the CP level algebra one and geometry you know again they're being specific Earth Science Biology again um I love how they ended their we will wait for the guidance from desie prior to determine ls's comp determination requirements for the class of 26 and Beyond we're focused on 25 and then you need to give

064us some guidance as to what this is going to look like which I think makes total sense um so what we're going to do uh clearly um is and that was the last slide I guess um was to come back here with our recommendation for the change in what the CD looks like um because it can't be the M right uh and it is impactful to five kids and we want to make sure that you know Kelly's doing doing her due diligence with the classes that they're taking to ensure that the CD has value as it as it relates to the diploma right because I want to be clear again the diploma we have specific requirements that again if transfer students Kelly's got the ability to wave certain classes based on transcript reviews because they

065may not offer certain courses in the districts that they've been or we have a student who's been with us for two years from another country who took English at her High School in you know Guatemala so so we want to make sure that she's got Kelly's got the ability with her team to review it and approve it that's my most important yeah and so kind of to that and we we mentioned a little bit we met policy yeah um in that front as you go through that if we want to provide that discretion because you you know as you get into the weeds of figuring that uh you know it may make sense for us to look at a minor modification in our policy to provide that discretion to Kelly which it's one of those

066things to back it up and give that weight because essentially you're only provided the The Authority you're given right you have to be you know so if if that if that ends up being the case that we need uh some flexibility there that might be a minor modification of our policy that we would want to do um to ensure that whatever is done you know can't be questioned that's right Kelly Mike anything to add with regard to the conversations that we've had just regarding CD and I mean Kelly I think it's important to to weigh in on your principles groups um I I think we're all in the same boat but I I don't think there's anything that I'm going to say super LEL everyone you know being kind of in a different place and

067just trying to figure out the best way to make sure um kids who deserve to earn a diploma do that's the goal ask one tangentially related point that is think far less urgent than this with elimination of competence do we have any concerns about the level of attention or Focus giving test impact and we use that for assessments right we use that to all sorts of data and like you know it's have a that's my biggest concern in this whole personally I I I have a tremendous amount of concern about it the the fact that I've spoken with students who are who are sophomores who feel like it doesn't matter anymore um but obviously there are a lot of things that still matter right first of all we pointed out the the importance of students

068who could be eligible for those scholarships right right we also talked about um the fact that uh anybody who is getting their seal of by literacy that that those things still matter from my lens accountability we're still we are still going to be for a lack of a better term judged on the success or the struggles of our students who are taking the mcast that accountability piece is not going away so yeah it's a it's a major concern from my lens and I think from some of the Educators as well I mean if if we are if our students are not taking it seriously you know what what happens well I guess a question is does there anything that includes teachers from making the mcast part of the grade for class in the year they're

069taking it so could you for instance because you take Ela every year so could you make an mcast gr but even like the IR diagnos I'm just trying to think of like you know you take Diagnostics as you go just I just didn't know if there was something yeah so I hear that I think one of the reasons that that we appreciate the assessment measures is it is it allows us to learn about how our students are making growth because it it measures the growth from year to year and it allows us to see how we're doing as as a district and where to focus right you're teaching and and really be able to dig down deep into the data and the data analysis of it all to see you know are there certain Frameworks

070that we're just not hitting we're missing the mark in certain areas as a district and less about how a certain individual is doing that's that's what I'm concerned about is that we might not anymore get the real important information that it provides to us to make us a a better District in terms of the education that we're providing for our students I would you know obviously Mark brings up the point you you wouldn't be able to use it as a grade because we don't even get the results until later you and I don't want to get into the weeds of saying that's what we would want to do because it's utilized for from My Lens it's utilized for a different purpose which is that formative assessment piece to understand how we can better serve our

071students yeah that's my biggest concern is see my kids doesn't matter like it's a free day at school like check check circle circle and whatever and be done with it click and and then when something comes out of it teacher were to look at that and struggling with it see this is what we should do may not match or it's just hard to take seriously as an assessment to if everybody's s because they're not to be concern I don't have any answers to that yeah I mean because part of it also is kind of touched on the false narrative that they teaching to the test well the test is supposed to test on the Frameworks you're supposed to be test teaching the Frameworks so whole false narrative is part of that that problem right it's

072like you're not teaching to the test you're teaching to the Frameworks which the test is designed to evaluate you on so uh so it's kind of just and the competency determination is based on having a show showing competency in the in the Frameworks that were that are tested by by the right so yeah it and but that false leads them to say oh you know because it's unrelated to anything else in their mind they were teaching to the test but no you you know so it's yeah just problematic all around got some work ahead of you yeah no I no I don't know if I mean I think we feel good about 2025 I really do I think we we feel good that that how the language can be I don't say for a lack

073of better term generic right but interpreted so we can we can make sure that the courses that we're identifying and we're going through them and we looked up a couple kids today and just said okay they would meet the requirements so and they passed it except the EP doesn't exist anymore right I mean that's that that's what bothers me it goes both ways with these tests we also have kids who haven't met right but we know have passed the classes that would be required right I guess I I big picture I'd like to be able to see this is an opportunity to do something better and more meaningful but I still want the value of thec as tool for assessment both for us as a district benefit [Music] of somebody says hey I got an

074idea let's put this on the ballot you know and everybody well that sounds good I think they think that's dumb and they don't think about it shouldn't be legislating by by like um don't so any further discussion on that no just let us know like I said it'll be in the next meeting if we if we need to do anything even like to provide the discretion needed just there's a couple different tracks one is like what are we going to do opportunity to graduate and then there's bigger philosophical discussion what are we teaching how are we teaching how are we understandings are I do fully understand like you're only testing what you're supposed to be teaching anyway but on the other extreme you know if if the teaching went too far into how to pass

075just this one little way of assessing it but there are other ways to creatively teach things that might appeal to other kids that weren't as successful in this one I mean we could go down a whole rabbit hole but I I just want to be the voice we Haven no I know but but I but I we really didn't go down that that other side of it yet but I I do want to be the voice for like what if yes this was um Hasty and nobody was prepared and all of that but is there a world where at the other end of all this better right yeah that's what I said like an opportunity it should be an opportunity I I don't disagree with you on that yeah if if if only there they

076they would have changed it when they looked at it after the ballot to say at time equals X in the future I disagree with how it all went down so so we could thoughtfully do something and not leave everybody in alert and not affect kids I mean this is all you know yeah it's a pain in the butt for the people sitting here but it's going to impact kids right this wasn't the way to go about it it's impacting the kids that they're supposedly were trying to you know champion and Mark that was brought up yesterday about Equity too I mean that I think that's the lens even today um Dennis J and bet talked a lot about that Karen's going to want to hear is how whatever we do whatever state state does how

077is how will it positively or negatively impact the equity of opportunities for kids right let us know if there's any way we can Advocate to get the superintendent on the task I'm sure there's got be I think Mark and Paul were right they probably just haven't it's just you said this is what we're going to do right I'm sure the mass is very much to of right they've got their lawyers and spokes people yeah so without a doubt y so okay yeah thanks Kell thank you Kelly thank you Kelly always Paul do you have any War approval yes uh between January 12 excuse me 2025 and January 22nd 2025 iul Kendall authorized by my signature payables the amount of 447 this includes general fund expenses of 26,631 revolving expenses of $265,250 51 and Grant expenses

078of uh $465 thank you you have any I I do again I think there are a couple things I just want to mention one um you know Mike and I have met with uh today we met with um two members of Senator spoka staff um they routinely come over and just have conversations about what what are Hot Topics uh and a list of the Hot Topics that we had today uh one is uh Chris myself and Mike sat in yesterday on an msba um webinar for a couple hours hour and a half on us um submitting a SOI uh which you know is one of the things that I've been working on uh and looking at a statement of interest for hitway and Warren and what that entails um because the some of the the

079process has actually changed since um we um submitted was it eight nine years ago now 2017 uh for mes um but I still have to go before the select board as well as the school committee to get approval to submit an SOI um because what that would entail is potentially having if accepted it would be uh the feasibility study which is what you remember um we had to fund locally for that um so that is my intention is to get to them before the middle of March because it's du in April I'm working on it now and we'll have that hopefully ready to go so we we we mentioned that to the senator sp's office we talked about Chapter 70 and the continued funding and ensuring that uh if you are a district like we

080were last year um hel hold harmless meaning we're we're not getting a lot of money it's $30 a kid or $50 a kid ended up being a hundred last year per student uh that we need to continue to raise that much as possible for local communities who are not getting that significant Chapter 70 increase um um fully funding Circle breaker as well um conversations centered around immigration and how we handle those situations and in light of um you know president Trump stating even this morning that ice could actually go enter schools as well as churches now whereas the policy beforehand was not to um his comments were I'm going to leave it to their um using good judgment we have certainly know stop I send an email out to our staff and stop measures in

081place and saying listen if anyone comes halt them they call me call Mike we'll deal with it and our local police and go from there um it just it's just more about concerns than anything um are you you're aware of the PG's guidance out there on yeah we got yeah I think I even shared part of that uh it came out through the mass for us um and that was our part of our conversation yesterday as well with um the uh superintendent in the area what was the last topic we had with them oh the confidency determination yeah yeah CD making sure that whatever they do they on top of that any discussion about revenues tax no no and there wasn't a discussion on that it was just continued the Cherry sheets should have been

082out today they were okay I haven't looked at okay I have not looked at it yet um they were supposed to come out no circul okay yeah okay so I mentioned that I just haven't had a chance to look at it um and now the last thing from from my lend and perspective we have another budget meeting Saturday uh only be a couple hours at the most uh we're going to focus on special education as well as the pre and Jenna will'll be there um we'll start at 8 and Jenner will be there just to talk about a little bit of changes made at Mendes as it relates to a budgetary impact because it relates to the middle school schedule that Aon had talked about last so that's pretty much Where We Are had a

083great meeting yesterday with our Ela curriculum leadership team uh talking about different Focus areas that we have and one of the things that you know we're really trying to focus on this year is is our writing across all grade levels um so we decided to take some time to dig into our rubrics um and and how we are utilizing rubrics in the area of writing to ensure that we're looking at common um common areas common mistakes and have some consistency in the use of rubrics so it was a it was a kto five discussion as well as a 6 to 12 discussion uh so trying to get us all on the same page and it was uh really purposeful um and one of the things that made me excited in our you know Jim and

084I do regular walkthroughs but I also on a monthly basis meet with principles and and talk to them about what's happening in their buildings and then do a walkthr with them and I think you've heard us talk about you know writing and and and how we want to incorporate some different strategies and one of the strategies that Suzanne Rod our new literacy coach has brought to to Mendes is the use of two column notes and taking two column notes and teaching our students how to do that and ultimately give them a template but then have them understand the purpose of those notes and how they can create them on their own and as I walked around with with Jenna um last week three different classrooms of students were using that skill it was just great

085to see them you know putting the the work that suzan's bringing and put it into action and know it made me excited I I talked to our team yesterday about that you know we we're moving in the right direction there so hopefully we see some improvements in the in writing you know when it comes to the mcast in a couple you know in a couple months um midy Year's window is open for common assessments I ready uh K to 8 that that closes on January 31st so folks are finishing up that work uh for ELA and math uh as you know our those of you who have high school students midterms start tomorrow I go until Tuesday so I know that our high school students have been working hard I'm assuming that's why AB is

086not with us today we know he's probably studying studying hard for his his midterms uh and Dibbles as well as part of that um midyear assessment data dibles is happening for all students in kindergarten through third grade um in terms of Ed evaluation update uh formative assessments are due by all administrators who are evaluating folks who are um either in their first year second year or third year so are non pts St staff gets a formative assessment and that is due by January 31st so folks are working hard on finishing those up uh and in terms of some professional learning updates we are we have plans underway for our March 14th date one of the things that we talked to talked about um today at our safety committee meeting was the ne taking the next

087steps in our Alice work um and we're going to be talking about our reunification plan and uh talking to our staff members MERS about what happens in light of any type of major emergency how are we going to be you know reunifying students um and where we would go for our certain points of reunification um if we have to evacuate so that's going to be something that we're discussing with our whole staff come come mid-march along with many other things be more of a a building based uh professional development but we will have some districtwide initiatives talked about and finally I've got to give a shout out to um the ashon Middle School theater group because Mr Adams and I are are next door to them on a regular basis so we we hear them

088throughout any meeting that we have uh after school they have been working really hard uh I know how how those students who working they've been after school like crazy getting ready for their performance that starts this weekend um they have shows on Friday at 7 p.m. Saturday at 2: p.m. and 7 p.m. in the Middle School theater they're performing ing the sfic of Romeo and Juliet I think it's probably going to be wonderful based on seeing the costums and and and the work that we're hearing them do uh for those of you who are interested in attending that are out there in the public it is a cash only event and it'll be $10 at the door so that's that's my plug for our middle school friends who are performing this week any indication from

089last year oh last year was fantastic so I they do great work they really do they've got a great program going all right we're moving on to policies the policy subit meeting met recently do did did we change make any significant enough changes that any of these need a second read they do I I I would say some of them are brand new uh and I apologize the links were not there uh they are now there so when you get an opportunity um to to read them again it's the first read I would then recommend if you have any questions to to reach out to me uh so I can then make adjustments uh as necessary um the one policy there's a policy that we never had on the books there are a couple and

090the I'll just highlight um the school nutrition program um charge policy right there was a there was a policy that our nutrition services program had it was it was never a policy written by the ashon public schools so all of these policies relate specifically to masc and going back to March of 23 I believe it was so we're just going back and reviewing some of our policies and and the jnd DN DB IG and DC it's really removing them and putting them in separate areas of of where they belong um so if it's instruction versus um you know they classify it as redrafting policy moves of language to more appropriate location um and you know the only I guess Lori the only one would be the the school committee officers we just the only language

091change was uh clerk versus secretary it was like one word which we didn't we decide not to even change it correct yeah I think I think the policy subcommittee was like fine and just this kind of technical question I understand you I'm looking in the folder for this meeting and only two that I see listed are the ones that you re emailed to us they called in here when I looked both they're both labeled as Redline but the red lines didn't show the red lines aren't there so right so here's the problem with that and I I mentioned it the last time um and if you go if you refresh um into the school committee count the folder all of the all of them should be there so if there's the redline version right that's

092the problem is I was having just TR to give you an example of one uh I had to learn how to do this um when did that get refreshed because I all done uh so if you go into like IG n DB copy of Redline version do you see it in Red Line it got refreshed about 30 seconds ago because I the links weren't there and I had to relink them and not all of them have changed Mark there were new policy so it was not red so like the igb up above is the red and everything else below is what we had and and that's what was struck okay so I apologize for that I I I noticed the links weren't there but I that quickly why we're sitting here so I'm fine either

093direction I know you're they're new two reads does this really qualify as a read if Mark literally 30 seconds ago can now see that was do we want to start start the process at the next meeting for the number one or do we want to just take the time this week to evaluate and then come back to the second read next week if I think we can all read them in between in between yeah and then yeah and just you I know you're the the two read is a policy of ours any subst of changes requires two reads at public right so my question is does this really count as the first read so I think I think of that as being for two purposes one it's for us to sort of have like an

094initial look and discussion on right and obviously but it's also right which this does it does do that I guess the way I'd look at it is I'm fine taking this think if we come back and mayd I'm fine either way but just it's a fair point right well that was that was the question I was it doesn't meet all of all of our reasons for the for but it does meet the notice requirement I think we everybody still has a week to weigh in and I think if we get to the next meeting you got till February 12 right there's a month so if there's some discomfort with we didn't have enough time to really make our changes or whatever we can always not vote and put it off till the kind of our

095our conversation I just wanted it to be intentional that we said yeah thisif right okay so I apologize I didn't quite catch that they weren't linked dropped into the yeah okay um so um and I'll give everybody if if anybody did look at anything and you want to give input right now and if not we will um go to the next meeting for the second read and then take it from there okay for the cons consent agenda Mark had a good point yeah says Grant approval but there's no backup on I don't know what that is there I I I think it was just a I think Gretchen left it on okay it's something that we typically have um there were no Grant approvals okay just gifts and donations all right so so uh we

096we will make a mo motion to approve the consent agenda minus the grant appr we don't have second all in favor hi hi I all right we are heading towards the end reports of school committee members Marcy um so our Middle School site Council was cancelled today so I would have had an update but Aaron did email us and we're going to look at the site Improvement plan next meeting which I think is following our next next meeting meeting so we won't have an update there for a bit she also said that she's going to come back um on the schedule updates at the next future meeting um so just stay tuned uh not a lot uh we do have one thing that's probably not the best news in the world um so one of

097the executive orders that was signed instructed all agencies to to cause all dispersement of payments relative to the in inflation reduction act which are reimbursements for that are part of that now our hope is that it's already in the ma the check's already in the mail and uh and it's already been quote unquote distributed but uh as of right now that looks like it's on old hear that we we'll we'll keep it updated but yeah it was uh significant dollar amount whatever so unfortunately uh order number yeah so it it's but hopefully there's enough pressure that that'll go through but there'll be pressure from every demographic in the in the country so one of the first uh schools to get a check right so there this isn't just Northeast thing this this is all over

098the place and um so hope is we we'll get it eventually but if it isn't already in the mail it's it's all W um I I was not able to attend the high school state Council this month I did go to the Warren site discussion take a look at how they do their report cards that's a process time and it was an interesting awesome uh does anybody have anything else before I move to right I move to enter into executive session under mgl chapter 30A section 21 A2 to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with non-union Personnel superintendent Jim Adams or to conduct collective bargaining with the intent of not returning to public session um take a roll call vot oh second yes I always forget that step do we have a second for

099that second thank you Marcy hi Paul hi Mark hi hi yes okay we'll see you there staying here yes we're going to stay here um we don't need to have a link because we're all here and any needs a minute to get your stuff together and we'll let cable get