001actually wait one second five four three two one good evening everybody and happy New Year thank you Mark um it is January 8th that just G work out something's turned up so we're working with a new system so um thank you for your patience figured that out thank you um I will start as I did last year reading our vision statement the ashin 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 uh plans this evening a call to order opening procedures agenda review and
002adoption um there will be time for public participation our reports and presentations include uh student presentations um yes uh warrant approval superintendent report assistant superintendent report um and then we will have second reading of policies approval of policies dja purchasing Authority DJ bidding requirements bhe use of electronic messaging by school committee members the consent agenda includes approval of gifts and donations Grant approval minutes from December 11th 2024 um and we will not be entering into executive um session this evening we're going to put that on hold we get some further information so I will take attendance uh this is a hybrid meeting some of us are here some of us are on um and just let me know if you're okay with the order of business this evening I'll start with our friends or online
003Tina here and yes Paul yes Ry yes Mark sure yes okay so um we are ready to start by asking if there's anybody from the public who wants to give any comment tonight I don't see anybody in the room and I don't see anybody online other than people who are on our agenda so I'm going to move right into um the agenda we'll start with the student presentations hi Britney toar you are you ready good how are you doing you know Another Day in Paradise um I think Cassie is in right she just signed in I might have um sent the wrong link unfortunately to Francine Cassie do you need me to give her a quick call I just sent her a message so I think she's switching over okay perfect you want me to
004pull up that presentation Brit yeah that'd be great okay so while we're waiting for everybody to join um cassia has obviously been doing a phenomenal job with the students in her program um you know spending as much time with them as possible peeking into the office signing in and out of um our space has been pretty awesome to hear all of the things that they've been doing day in and day out most recently uh cassia supported all of our young adults accessing public transportation and the public transportation um was awesome to our group and hook them up with a whole bunch of swag um and is really supportive of pretty much doing whatever they need to um to help them be successful oh hey Sophia how are you can you hear me yes I see
005maybe a little helper in the background hi Francy yes all right cassia if you want to go ahead and give your update great welcome everyone Thanks for um giving us some time to just give you a little update on some of the fun things we've been doing um so do you mind going to the next slide I don't you just tell me when to switch okay thanks Cas thanks Sophia do you see the screen right now you want to tell everyone where we go on Thursdays yes YMCA the the YMCA in Metro West and we've even done some weight lifting with the assist of weight machines as you can see in the bottom right corner Sophia is very flexible we've done some great stretching right um they have some amazing equipment there uh sopia what's
006one thing that you like to do when you're on your bike listen video listen to some videos listen to some music right they also have a couple machines that um are almost like an interactive video game so as you're pedaling on your bike you can play games and you kind of can steer and the faster you're going the faster your avatar goes so um people are very motivated to go to the YMCA we have not had a chance to um try the pool out or any classes yet but um we go for about an hour once a week so far and we're trying to carve out another time during during the week that we can get over there um but all three of our students are loving when we go to the YMCA so that's
007been great you want to go to the next slide we just need a second not there we go awesome sopia do you remember where we go for our classes mon hour movement one hour count that's right that's right so we have been participating on Tuesday Mornings um we were doing almost every other week last semester but it'll become weekly this um for the rest of this school year where we go and we meet up with other um young adults um mostly in transition programs with Westboro Holliston and hopkington and they have um adaptive classes where we kind of will do music for a few sessions and we move on to art for a few sessions and then it's like a movement dance um for other sessions and they are graciously allowing us to also use
008their space afterwards where we can have lunch with each each other and socialize uh when the weather is nice we we're eating outside um and also just taking walks around the campus there we also will sometimes pop over to hopton's transition um space and check things out and see what they're doing over there too so it's been a great way to connect with some other um peers which has been fun awesome all right we can go to the next one this is my favorite picture of Sophia um you want to talk about this Sophia relationship relationships yep and social skills yeah yes so we a lot of our friends that we have met during our hopkington arts class we meet up on Fridays and we have done all kinds of things um we did some
009apple picking and took a hay ride in the fall we just recently went bowling we had a Yankee Swap where everyone went and they purchased a gift and then we had a a little Yankee Swap afterwards um we had a friends giving where we went to Westboro Sugar Shack and everyone brought dishes that they made and we shared um so it's been really amazing a lot of times we also just meet up at parks and we'll bring a lunch in the nicer weather um and do some walking around and so it's kind of a mix of activities that will cost a little bit of money and then just free time as um free cost activities as well um one of the favorite um times that we've had was just going to the natic mall and
010meeting up there and kind of going into different groups and finding stores that we liked and talking about different things and looking at prices so um that's been great to keep building our connections with peers too so we can go on to the next one all right this is what we did today right Sophia Pantry the food pantry and on what [Music] ni that's right and we did a food drive at the middle school this November um everyone was phenomenal there was tons of donations uh when they came into our classroom all the launch students were checking the expiration dates which was a great skill um for everyday life to work on um but also very helpful for the food pantry to do that ahead of time and then we brought everything in we help
011to organize the shelves when we go in um we put food back onto the shelves and make sure that they're organized by expiration date um we also help fill orders so we'll get a shopping list and we have to go through the food pantry and collect the items for um pickup and um so that's it's been great we're working on kind of these living skills but also in a very helpful way for um Asin so that's been great we can move on to the next one do you remember what our first fundraiser was Sophia last month what were we doing wrapping wrapping right we we offered a service to the Middle School staff that if they wanted to bring in holiday gifts that they could for a small fee um have us wrap them and
012I have to say we did a very lovely job they were very professional um we had different wrapping papers so people had to work on customer service um money handling skills reading the order forms because um people would request certain color ribbons or or wrapping paper um and it was following multi-step tasks which was great um so we did that for about I think it ended up being about a week and a half and we raised $76 so it was a great first fundraiser um we're going to put that money back into the program so um it'll either go towards you know future fundraisers and and purchasing some materials to keep that going um or back into the program such as going grocery shopping to to cook meals in in the classroom so that was
013great so cool and then this was on Monday so yeah Britney gave a little um introduction about this the Metro West Regional Transit um Authority has been amazing they have um a travel safety program so one of their coordinators met us at the middle school um she planned our route for us and she helped kind of tell us what to do um so we were able to cut through the field and slag down bus number five over on Memorial Drive and this is a public um you know transportation and um they do have discounts for um young adults who fill out applications um for using their services and so it was a great first step to practicing um using public transportation which we took to their Hub over in Framingham and she gave us a
014great tour of their building um and so it's something that we're looking forward to hopefully trying to use more often it um there there's set bus routes that we can use to get to hopkington and also to a lot of different places right in Ashland that we already go to so over by Shaws and and restor so near a lot of the places that we have some internships so that has been our our fun so far for launch Sophia what do you think about waiting for that bus on Monday outside Prett Frozen yeah it was very cold but people did a great job waiting for the bus right Sophia yeah yeah and that was all we had for today was there anything you wanted to add Sophia that you've been enjoying at lunch recently was
015it so fun what's your part of cooking cooking nice we made we made some mini pizzas this week so far right sprinkling on that cheese she did over vacation say in the middle of vacation I missed my program nice we missed you too it felt it felt long it felt very long I'm sure we all enjoyed ourselves but we were so happy to see everyone back after those two weeks does anyone have any questions or comments about the launch program just it's just wonderful to see the skills you're you're giving kids the opportunity to develop world to hear what you do and so yeah we've been having a lot of fun but it's it's been so nice to be we are everywhere in that community so it's been great I was going to say I'm
016I'm really impressed with how much out in the community you are and the connections you're building for all the students I think that's so crucial and you guys are getting out so much in the community I'm curious what is your transportation look like how are you guys doing that so we are still using the town electric car um so we are able to have myself typically drive and then the three students are in the car um we do sometimes also have our other um support staff Miss Siara in the car with us but she is also um sometimes in her car it can kind of feel a little tight um in the back seat but um it's been working out well with charging and uh you know we're not going super far the long distances
017that we're going maybe is is about 25 minutes so we're always fully charged and able to make it back well well done it sounds like you guys are doing a great job thank you it's been great and thank you so much for coming and telling us about all the wonderful things coming out of the launch program sounds amazing thank you Sophia for all the information I hope you're enjoying everything and we look forward to hearing more from you guys thanks for having us have a good night everybody good night bye all right Paul do you have a warrant approval tonight yeah one sec between December 12th 2024 and January 11th 2025 although that's interesting it dates dates in the future but um I Paul Kendall authorized by my signature payables in the amount of 71
01813,22 529 this includes general fund expenses of 353,000 revolving expenses of $347,500 expenses of $1,111 74 and meals tax expenses of $ 6226 thanks Paul do you have a report this yeah just quickly um again echoing abk's comments when Mike and I were walking around the schools uh the last few days days you know we certainly got feedback with regard to the length of the the vacation uh some certainly enjoyed it others were like couldn't wait to get back uh the kids were pretty funny at Warren uh as you walk around half and half we walked into a classroom and in one of the teachers had done a survey and and literally they like Mr Adams Mr Kyra look at the board it was split 50/50 saying oh we wanted more time or it was
019time to go back to scho it was pretty funny but uh a couple things one um just a reminder uh there'll be continued budget working um workshop on January 25th uh with school committee uh the the town is seeking an opportunity for us to come together as a the finance committee as well as the select board so that's out there just for I think for folks to understand this is a a long budget cycle this year uh we've been working hard at it um and the last thing is the next meeting I think it's important that that Mike and I do a presentation to the committee on the competency determination uh that relates to the mcast ballot to uh because there's certainly a lot of conversation uh in and around the Commonwealth uh as to
020what the roles of the school committee will be which is actually approving we have a policy uh with regard to our graduation requirements and just I think it's important that you understand what the next step is for the board but also for the district um and we're trying to maneuver through that right now uh with the state I think uh a presentation on the 22nd uh as to what really is changing and what did change with the ballot initiative or the ballot that was passed um it's every Community is struggling uh actually trying to figure out the right thing to do for their own Community but we must have uh compeny determination play which the mcast was that could I just ask perhaps I mean I know we'll talk about this at a agenda setting
021meeting yeah um but could you circulate against the current policy correct this is a point of reference for everybody to look at and absolutely Mark yep that's all I have thanks Jim Mike did you have anything toight we can't hear you oh Jim do you yeah I was trying I was just trying to unmute sorry about that okay yeah um so we had a fantastic educator evaluation committee meeting today just uh just wanted to point out the the work that that group is doing to be looking at the current rubric that we're utilizing and comparing it to the Desy model rubric that was recently put out um they spent some time looking at Standard 1 a and standard 1B and trying to determine if we want to move away from our current rubric and move
022towards the desie model rubric or are we going to be morphing the two to create something that is is um taking the best of both of what have what we have to offer and I'm just really really pleased with the rich discussion that we're having with the uh various Educators that are in the room there's you know some teachers some some service providers counselors and some administrators and just I just think it's just an excellent excellent group so wanted you to know how hard they're working uh open Architects is coming to meet with our administrative team on the 12th to introduce uh the next portion of that program which is called the student companion and that's going to be where we're going to now house all of our mtss um the tiered system of support
023intervention information for all of our students so as we talk about making those next steps towards um uh providing each student with personalized plans or intervention plans uh this is going to be a major piece to that puzzle so I'm really excited about what's going to be presented uh they have taken our entire dcap and bcap document and they have put it into the open architect system where we can simply utilize a drop-down menu and to choose different interventions that are being accessed by all students to put those in and they're going to be showing our our administrative Team how to utilize that and then get some feedback to make sure it's going to be um purposeful and meaningful for all of our staff members other than that our midyear win uh our midyear assessment
024window is open for I ready so all of our K to8 students will be getting their winter Assessments in uh Ela and math that is all I have for today thanks Mika okay moving on to the next section policies this is the second read so unless anybody develops some concerns uh since our last meeting um we should be set to vote on these policies this evening to certainly raise any concerns that you might have first one is the dja purchasing Authority any other comments or concerns or topics for discussion before we vote we have motion purchasing as would you guys hear that at home no okay I have my mic on uh again I move to approve policy dja purchasing Authority as presented second all in favor Marcy I Mark hi Tina I Paul I
025and I and next up is DJ bidding requirements did anybody have anything to add to that discussion do we have a motion to approve DJ bidding requirements move to approve policy DJ bidding requirements as presented second all in favor Marcy I Mark I Tina I Paul I I for me and then finally the bhe use of electronic messaging by school committee members any other comments or discussion about that move to approve policy bhe use of electronic messaging by school committee members second all in favor Marcy I Mark hi Tina hi Paul hi I and next we move to the consent [Music] agenda is there anything anybody wants to say about anything on there other not I'll take a motion to approve the consent agenda move to approve the consent agenda second all in favor Marcy
026hi Mark hiina hi Paul hi I um and there's no need for the last item on our agenda we're going to postpone that until we have further information so oh sorry uh reports of school committee members I almost skipped your ability to tell me what you've been up to we'll start uh Paul anything you want to share No Tina you know I don't think there's anything since our last school committee meeting no AB um I got nothing except we do have midterms coming up soon and the high school and I know the middle school as well so not looking forward to that but also it's it's coming up and we got to be ready we gotta go right back into study mode right yep Marcy don't think have wow we're just getting back to work
027here I did attend the waren sight Council so so uh that was no two days ago uh anyhow all good there and that's it all right move to journ do we have a second second all in favor I I all right the meeting is short but it's over and thank you all for being here and we'll see you next time good night nighte