School Committee: November 13th, 2024

001e e e good evening everybody and welcome it is November 13th 2024 and we start each school committee meeting reading our mission statement the Ashland 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 w ACA cable TV our agenda this evening includes call to order public participation reports and presentations we have the AMS Middle School band we have an update from Miss La Chappelle we have mcast presentations Mr Kyra approval of the 2025 2026 school calendar warn approval superintendent report assistant superintendent report the action items and discussion

002updates include first read of policies JG IFR athletic concussion regulations ad vision and mission statement ecfa face coverings our second read includes and approval of policies includes AC non-discrimination policy including harassment and retaliation ACR non-discrimination policy including harassment and retaliation approval of gifts and donations 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 a collective bargaining with the intent of not returning to public session and then we will adjourn so is everybody okay with the order of events and are you here Tina yes Paul uh I just recommend moving the calendar out of reports and presentations and into the action em updates okay otherwise yes

003that make sense to everybody yeah Mark uh here and yes Marcy I see you thanks awesome okay we will start with our student well first I'm going to ask if there's anybody here from the public who would like to leave comment don't see anyone on zoom and I don't see anyone in the audience so it is your turn the AMS Middle School band welcome thank you very much so I should yeah please that'd be great U so uh we were just uh first of all thank you for having us here and uh I would like to thank you so students for volunteering to come out tonight and parents uh uh for making that happen because we have a concert uh tomorrow night as well at the high school and so we're going to take this

004opportunity to give you a little brief uh uh look into uh the parts of the concert so one of the things that makes the band very challenging but also fun is that there's a lot of different parts going on in the band at the same time so we put a lot of emphasis on music literacy being able to read your part because if you can't do that when you come into band trying to about 20 different parts going on at once in your typical band piece so um with that said we only have a few parts here tonight so it's not going to sound anything like it like it's going to sound tomorrow night with the full band uh but you get a little chance to hear some of the parts uh individually and uh

005if you come out tomorrow night to the high school you can you can hear the full bands it's going to be uh our annual concert with the high school bands and the eighth grade band is going to be playing with the high schol for the finale at the end of the concert chance for them to sort of get a preview playing with the high schools Mr M so uh at this time before we play we're going to have the seventh graders come up and play a short piece and then the eighth graders will play a little short excerpt as well but maybe the seventh graders could come over introduce thems and uh maybe say a quick word about why they join that would be awesome and while you're making your way up here I might

006have forgotten to say that this meeting is being recorded by wcaa cable TV um and um I'm with your permission some people might like to videotape you as well if that's okay yeah awesome all right welcome so you guys guys want to come up here and just introduce yourself and maybe say you go first just introduce yourself say hello so exciting thank you hello awesome I'm iose awesome thank you uh eclipses so they're going to play a short excerpt for you from uh the piece called eclipses which was actually picked out for for this concert by another member of the band really requested so it's at the right level so we ordered for the van it's kind of a a high energy piece here by seanin and so these instruments here bassoon and trombone are

007are playing most of the Baseline so you're not going to hear really a melody on this particular one you're going to hear a little except of the Baseline near the end of the piece you guys ready I'll come on right oh yeah it's a where we starting 55 all right there I'll count you [Music] right thank you before they sit down for good they're going to play for you uh also a little excer from In the Hall of the Mountain King which was composed by Edvard Reed and this is one of his most famous pieces in the modern era I think you probably recognize it it's been used in a lot of TV shows and movies as well such as most recently trolls I believe awesome in the Theo know where you're starting [Laughter] [Music]

008ready take two take two don't worry about it it's all good sounds good sounds great [Music] right woohoo fabulous job I should say that Ben just started onon what a few months ago right amazing that was so good beginning of the summer nice job so now we have some play for you a little short piece as well you guys want to introduce yourself first come on up who's first my and I because my great grandmother actually play the and like it's a fun instrument because you're not always playing the main awesome thank you samello hi mainly joined band just because I wanted to pursue music I always thought it would be interested pick the horn because it sounded funny love it thank you all right so uh so uh we just uh observed veteran thing

009on Monday so for this concert we're doing a a a tribute to the Armed Forces uh Armed Forces on parade and it has all the service songs except for Coast Guard and space force unfortunately so uh we're going to start uh so we're we're not going to play for you the whole thing I think we're doing the Air Force Air Force theme correct all right I did that g one two [Music] [Applause] well thank you for listening to us and hopefully uh you you're all invited to the concert uh tomorrow night at the high school and uh we're going to have another concert too in March that's going to feature some local composers and uh maybe some student composers as well well thank you so much I can guarantee that will be the best part

010of this entire meeting sorry Miss Lashelle yeah yeah thank you guys that was awesome and G yeah so good thanks parents for bringing them out thanks everybody have a good night have a good night see you pal so so uh I just wanted to preface the the conversation that Miss L Chapelle is going to have tonight uh is as with other principles when students have come to perform I basically just wanted all principles to give an outline as to what's happening in the schools obviously this is Aaron's first year uh as principal of the middle school it's not I want to just you know contextually there are lot lots of moving parts right now at the middle school and tonight's not the night for us to go into detail as to what's happening with regard

011to you know scheduling uh World Language other other issues that that may impact budgetary concerns uh as we move forward so with that being said I did want eron to just share with you uh how things have been going for her for the first few months since July 1 uh and uh give an overview so thanks you thank you for having me um I didn't know if they were be on so I was start by thanking Mr jumped at the opportunity when I said student performer so looking forward to the concert tomorrow um it's been a definitely a big transition from assistant principal to principal um but I am so supported by an awesome team um of other building leaders as well as Jim and Mike U so the transition's been going well I think

012I don't want to say I'm settling in because every day is a new A new challenge but um it it's been a really positive uh change for me personally in in the transition and the difference the provides you know every so often we need that in our lives I think to challenge ourselves so it's it's for sure doing that um I will say I've been overwhelmingly impressed with the level of Engagement in classrooms of the Middle School um it's it's really it's obviously very different than the high school but especially seeing you know sixth graders and their excitement for Learning and those aha moments um and the high level of Engagement 67 has been really really posi to basis um safety has been a big Focus for us this year um districtwide but the Middle

013School um we've had a couple other things at the start of the year that have caused us to really focus on safety not only safety in the building but making safe choices online and messaging and things like that so we've had a couple class meetings where we've talked about um Building Safety our safety plans as well as uh how to be appropriate online on social media things um we had class meetings on Wednesday where we reinforced our Alice protocols and then we rolled up a say something Anonymous reporting app with the grade six seven and eight and did a training on that um really really well received by students they they've done an awesome job of asking questions and bringing up concerns when they have them about peers and um I'm really proud of of

014the way our students are stepping out to look out for each other um I started the year putting parents of middle school as well as the staff that my entry plan really this this year focuses on mainly observing so I told them then I'm gon to see things I'm going to hear things I'm G to count meaning looking at data and then my goal is the end of January beginning of February to put together a very small report which I'm sure I will come here to present on kind of findings um of what I think is going really well at the middle school um and then areas that I think we can look to improve over the coming years um so I I I ask a lot of questions on a daily basis and I

015am so lucky that the staff has been willing to openly share so I've had amazing conversations with I can pretty much say every staff member at this point with the kind of their feelings on things that they really enjoy about the middle school things they want to see stay things that they are open to changing and their ideas for that change people have definitely felt I I feel at least comfortable coming to me and saying this is what we think this is what we hear this is why this has been done so it's been really positive for me to feel welcomed immediately by the staff and um that they have that Comfort level to to talk to me um I I said in the beginning of my first year I I wasn't going to come

016in with any major changes and as Jim alluded to um one thing that we do know we are looking at is is a schedule change for next year so I'm not going to get into details on that right now but I'll give you kind of where we're at with things just in very General overview um I I do have a good number of years of experience with scheduling from the high school um doing the master schedule for seven years and then was really lucky to be a part of the Desy scheduling cohort last year to evaluate schedules from an equity lens um so did some really really great work with with them and immediately when I started in July 1 looked at the schedule from that lens of saying where are areas that I think

017we can improve and make changes um and what are things that work well well um so I started the year again asking a lot of questions but then did put out a survey optional voluntary to the entire faculty and staff of the middle school and I think got really solid feedback of what they really really care about and want to keep and got a lot of honest feedback of things that they're open to for change so I think when we think of schedule we often think of things like times and blocks and that is something we're looking at but I think looking at some of our data I'm starting to throw out things of do we need to look at curric ulum and and options and changes and so those are things that I plan

018to come and talk about in the coming months with you you all um but really The Faculty I felt like anyone who took the survey was very authentic and honest in their feedback of what they really care about keeping and what they're open to when we look at saying we're going to change something what those changes might look like and giving some good suggestions um the biggest challenge I would say this year has really been um a staffing change in in needs um we still have some open positions at the middle school we have an open school psychologist position our other school psychologist is new this year she is absolutely fantastic um so we have we have a plan in place working with Britney Hawkins and director and the student services to use um an

019outside um company to help do some of the testing and then Kelly Roy our school adjustment counselor is helping with the counseling piece but that is definitely a ho that we're struggling to still fill we have an open special education teacher position right now which again we've been able to work to get emergency licenses and piece things together to cover and satisfy requirements but again a person that we're missing um and then World Language has been a real challenge to find qualified candidates that are licensed um and to keep them um and find them to be a good fit for our building so those are ongoing challenges that we're working on dayto day to make sure our students have the best experiences possible um and the highest level of Engagement and learning that that we

020can put out there positives definitely um I feel the positivity in the building every day I think the culture and morale I don't know what it previously was like but I feel really good about where it's at right now um we're adding a lot of fun to Middle School which was a big request of parents when I met with them this summer so we're doing a spirit day every Friday we've been planned for the rest of the year um and teams and grades have really jumped on fun things as well so grade level spirit and grade level fun and games and events um even the staff jumping into wanting to do some fun staff things um like staff secret secret underground spirit days that the kids don't know about which is going to be funny

021um breakfasts and again I really just reinforcing I think with the faculty and staff that I'm here as part of their team and to listen and to feel comfortable coming with you know questions concerns comments and that might door is open so it's been a a good transition it's been a lot but it's been good so thank you does anybody any questions for Aaron I'm just curious about the psychologist thank you um you just about the psychologist and and sort of what the case load is for a psychologist and is that is that a person who's available to kids who just want to talk or is that only a part of like I support for students and IEPs I'm just trying to get a sense of how sign the impact is of only having one

022set of two uh there's definitely impact um School psychologists do the testing for students on IEPs and student on IEP counseling um Sarah has done a fantastic job at working her schedule to meet as much of her case load as she can and Kelly Roy like I said we have a we have a plan in place so student services are being met um but it's definitely being felt with regard to testing and I think the unknown is um if anyone reest evaluations and things like that so Sarah knows her day-to-day management of case loads and can kind of schedule out re-evaluations and things like that um but when things come up that are new uh it's definitely something that she's she's fitting in which is where we're using partly using um uh contracted service to

023help with offset that testing need yeah and and that so that those folks are involved exclusive with the IEP process they not so that's so school counselors are three school counselors and then Kelly Roy our school adjustment counselor would be day-to-day access for any student who needs support yes yep that's my thought yep typically and I agree so but Kelly this year we've had to transition into some of the special education so she has a because of it y normally that's not the case right big team effort at the middle school great good to hear good I think we're good Erin thank you so much welcome to your new job oh thank you thank you we're so happy to have you it's good to see out the traffic when we come first good morning yes

024thank you okay next up is the mcast presentation Dr Kyra get it up there this is the accountability data presentation from last there you go okay yeah so thank you so much I'm glad we're able to present this today I know that we hoping to this at the last meeting but we are are now on film and and ready to go so my hope my hope today is to um give you just really an an overview of some mcast and some accountability data uh to to just let you know where we've been where we're going look at the landscape of our assessments um and then just sort of show you some trends that we've observed um there are trends that we want to show from across the state as well as how the ash Public

025Schools is comparing against the state uh and then take a little bit of time to highlight some areas of Celebration as well as talk about some areas that we need to make sure that we are working to improve and to continue to improve um as we you know always want to make sure that we are giving our students the best opportunity to succeed and the achievement scores are one way that we can measure that growth first and foremost I think it's important to talk about you know who we are who are we teaching who are the students that are in front of us uh because we are looking at the data from 20 the spring of 2024 I think it's important that we're actually talking about the students who were assessed so the data that's

026in front of you right now is actually um the the enrollment data for students in the 23 24 school year um I'm not going to go through the entire data point that's in front of you but I think it's important to know that these These are the students that that we have in front of us obviously we have a large El population um particularly at the war Elementary School 11.1% of our students um are English Learners and I think it's also important to note that you know our students who have first language not English know 35.8% of the population Mendes so so Mike is is that the student or is that the the the household that's the household okay the first language is not English yeah so it's not necessarily representative of that they haven't

027had English from the get-go but it's it's more like the the the entirety of the family that first language is is not English in in hous okay yeah and then obviously you see our our percentage of students with disabilities um you know I want to explain that the idea of the ashon preschool looks obviously High that's because we are an integrated preschool and that's the purpose of our preschool population so you see that as 35.5% comparative to the other the other schools but that should be much higher obviously and can I just ask a couple questions this just um looking at the progression of percent El right so we we preschool shows 23.7% then you get down to the high school 4.5% um is that a a representation of the progression of students that when

028they sort of I say test out a VL support and that occurs over time or is this an indication of the changing population yeah it's a representative of both of those things actually so um it's great to see that we we're moving from you know War Elementary at 11.1 down to 4.5 at high school and that is sometimes representative of the fact that students are now formerly known as English Learners because they are testing out uh but it also is just generally representative of the population of students but both of those things combined I think you might see a little different next year when we look at this data because we are higher at some of the upper levels than we are at some of the lower levels it has changed um but yeah Mark

029bring up a good point is really both of those factors would could create that discrepancy and then just looking at the the percentage of students with disabilities starting to understand the point you made about the preschool it does strike me as a little odd that like their lower elementary and our high school have similar numbers and then the two other schools in the middle age group are there and I'm like is there something there or is it just by Quirk so so we have to determine if there's something there you know one of the hardest parts about uh special education is determining that we are ensuring that students are getting what they need but also to ensure that we are not um over qualifying students and that we are looking at the systems that we

030have to put in place to ensure students are getting what they need before we go to the route of special education uh and that's something that we're really dedicating ourselves to particularly at the at the elementary level um I I I'd like to think that one of the reasons right now that our war numbers are a little lower is because we have been a really good job um looking at data and putting data teams in place there and that's where we have started that process uh I think that you know the work that that Pete and Kate had started and now that Erica is following along with with Pete over at Warren have helped to identify early struggling Learners and providing them with the interventions and supports that are needed to ensure that they are

031not ending up qualifying for Education plans uh so I think that that could be part of that reason um so we have to you know watch the trends and see if if you know the implementation of some of our mtss resources and and and looking at data in a a more detailed vein will will help to keep this trend alive here that's the goal and and and the students with disabilities those are you're using that phrasing there's ones that are receiving some form of special education services correct so so this any any student who is on an IEP is a student with disability so uh if if they are receiving speech and language support they are accounted for in in this in this percentage number thank you thank you so here's the assessment Lance I

032think this is important to talk about because we want to see where we are so in 2019 obviously there was a full mcast test Administration but then things changed in 2020 we did not take the mcast and then in 2021 we had the half of of a test and then back in 2022 was the reimplementation of mcast uh I just think it's important to see that this that things have things have changed slightly over time since 2019 and when we look accountability data we are still being compared to our preo data which is 2019 so when you look at the accountability numbers we're still in many areas as a state and as a district trying to get back to where we were and those are some of the things I'm going to talk about later

033on in the presentation um but it's just it's just a to me this is a good slide to show that this is this is a trend now that we have to get back to 2019 where they had the old full test Administration and then we slowly got back there now other things that we've implemented here in Ashland in particular to get more data about our students is now we do have the K to8 Universal assessment for I ready inds we are doing those things which we were not doing in 2019 for for our entire School District uh we have Universal literacy screeners that came into play in 2023 to Ure that we're trying to find uh any students who are struggling we showing a potential for dyslexia we have all those things in place now

034um we've developed data team meetings we've partnered with S3 to help us look at the whole child particularly at the Warren school and hopefully that work will continue on to the MZ and then we now we have a system too that I've showed you many times that open architect system and that is controlling or helping us to look at data in a in a really more rigorous way we have we have a system in place now where we can look at student data over time and um we have all of our assessment results in that in that one dashboard system to be able to make sure we have consistent use of it across the district so what are we seeing you know these are the trends uh massachus these are the Massachusetts Trends so in

035general um there was an average decline for all students particular in ela across the state as you can see in 23 2023 45% of the students in the State uh were meeting or exceeds and that dropped by 3% in the state um and then in 2024 there was no there was really no relative change in math it was about 42% meets and exceeds uh that was really no change from 23 uh and there was a slight Improvement actually in the state in science which was interesting um about 1% more students matter exceeded um based on their achievement score in science but one thing we do know is that across the state there's still significant ground that needs to be made up to our preo testing uh there there know learning loss is something that we've

036talked about it's a it's a topic that folks get a little bit antsy about but it's real did happen there there was there was a time in place for students the gaps were created and we've noticed that and we real it and we still have a lot of work to do to get to where we were preco hey Mike I don't know if you know the answer to this or anybody's has the answer to it but obviously when you when you have a standardized test and you take it this year you take the same you know I went back fifth grade last year and this year they're different tests they're meant to be the same level if you will but inherently there is some differences and so even with the same group of kids they

037might they might perform slightly different do we have any gauge to what the state would consider similar scores you know what I mean so like I said they're different and question a and question B could be thought to be the same level but you give them to the same group of students and they won't necessarily perform 100% the same right so uh whenever you have a test that isn't the exact same test uh comparing it to the other one there has to be some margin uh yeah I'm I'm not really sure how to answer that I I I think that not only is it a different test but it's also a different cohort of students as well that you're looking at each year right um I don't know if I'm answering your question Paul I'm

038not sure if I'm understanding part of it is like hey if if it goes from 45 to 44% meaning you know you draw you know at some level you don't draw a big conclusion about small differences because yes it's different cohort but it's also even if you took the same test you went back in time said okay I'm gonna give you this one and this one they're not going to score the exact same score on those two tests sure yeah I think the reason I'm showing this particular information is to say that across the state though there was there was an average dip right for for the entire state so if we're seeing potentially some dips in Ashland it follows the same model of what we saw overall in Massachusetts he's preparing us for what's

039next apparently not IND in a way us problem everybody if if we see some struggles or we see our our numbers go down that is on par with what happened across the state of Massachusetts in 2024 that's why I think it's important to show this right and I think your point is Paul like and it's a good one but however you correct I don't know what what the terms are the margin of error or the um the VAR right they they statistically are thinking about those things I'm sure it's not that they don't consider it when they score but at the same time you just can't you can't prepare for every single thing like maybe they make one question a little harder the next year and one a little easier and that's supposed to balance

040out but that's probably going to happen from year to year yeah no and and and I wasn't I wasn't comingling the two things one is getting the state data and seeing the trends over the entire cohort of the state is valuable and understanding how we did and that kind of normalizes it for that test right um but when you compare years right it's not it's really hard because it's not the same test and the test is the variable there as well not just right and that's like where the human imperfection comes in they have people saying that question in 2024 is is equal in difficulty to the same one that they asked the next year but abich did you have something you wanted to share my understanding is they what they do is they scale

041it so it's it's kind of like a vurve system in that they if they see that a question question a last year got 50% got it right 50% got it wrong and this year it's 60% and 40% they'll do their best to scale it so that they'll take they'll take a question that other people got wrong and and kind of weigh it out so I mean that makes sense the real variable there is not whether the test is actually more difficult or easier I mean while that does play a factor it's it's more actually the cohort so I think think the real the real actual thing that would further demonstrate the data is seeing if this cohort did better last year than they did and now it's a decrease or something like that like comparing

042this year to last year for the same group of students awesome that's helpful thank you so what I what I wanted to do to now is just to sort of show you subject by subject how we are comparing um to the state so particular in ela if you notice that you know our numbers in meeting exceeds we did drop um 3% from the previous year um and you can see that you know over time in 2019 you can see where our numbers were we we are we are on a downward spiral right now um we had a slight increase from 22 to 23 and then we dropped a little bit in 2024 in terms of our overall average U overall meeting exceeds numbers the percentage but we do remain 14% above the state average so

043we've consistently been about that if you can look at this these you know this line graph to see that we are about the same way we've been throughout in comparison to the state but there's some work to be done know seeing that we are 3% dip from the previous year is something that we need to look really need to look at um what I do like seeing is that our SGP while it didn't grow it remained about the same so any over a 50% SGP it means our students are growing the way they are expected to so 50% growth is the goal all the time that means we're getting about that full years of growth for a student um again our average scaled score was 503 um it was one point lower than the previous

044year but again we're above the state average by eight points uh in the LA and this this is our entire cohort of students I'll get into some more details about grade levels in schools as we move further on the present in map again we also saw a slight dip from the previous year 1% but we remain 18% over the state average 60% of our students are meeing exceeding in math um with an average scaled score of 506 which is a drop from last year is 507 but again it's it's 11 points higher than the state average our SGP went down slightly um by 2.2 points but again we are over the state average by 8.6 points but still I think seeing the fact that our our SGP is well over 50 gives me hope that

045our students are performing well in terms of our average growth Mike what what has been the um the score for high school graduation I mean I know got a whole thing changing there but but you know where we're seeing like 506 here in math is is there a certain number that was what people had to hit to graduate yeah so in terms of uh graduation you have to be partially meeting um the mcast requirements so that number can change based on year-to year um I I can take a look at when we get when we get into the the high school math data I might be able to glean what what the what the difference was in terms of the score between uh partially meets and needs Improvement was I don't know what the cut

046off necessarily was but there's a very low percentage of students in national public schools are not meeting um we we we're not one of those towns right now who were having a large number of students that we were afraid were not going to make that uh graduation requirement in terms of science no change from the previous year in terms of meets and exceeds and we remain 60% above above the state average but we but our scale score did go down by two points 4 there is no SGP in science so that's why there's no data there uh because we're only taking it every few years they don't they do not measure SGP for our for our students in the area of science there's a interesting bump up in 23 to 24 like there's a a

047bigger spread between the um State average and our scores as I'm reading it is there anything that we figured so if like I'm looking at the the line chart on the left hand side right yep there's a we're closer 23 to 24 yeah it is I don't know how big that number is um but is there anything we pointed to or think is the that has result in that positive change there yeah so as I said in the in the in that first slide um the state went up the state did go up slight Improvement in science so it went from 43% meets the St to 44% I I I don't know what accounts for that I'm not sure well I'm looking like we we I think we as a district right we went 23

048where the green where the green and the state is the the state it shows up it's blue on my screen but that's right right he's talking about the bump from two years from 22 to years ago2 that that huge bump like did we identify what might have contributed to that I don't know I don't know what yeah do I thought you talking no no 22 23 we did have a significant increase yeah and then we've leveled off since then so so Mark the cut off just for mcast 10th grade I looked up was 486 for for the CD the comp comp comp C determination yeah thanks thank you Jim now looking at it by school so at Mendes um looking at Ela first so we we dropped down in terms of our students meeting an

049exceed in the LA um but we increased in math so it's interesting data to look at um we went down by 4% and we're only 6% above the state average in terms of the students that are meets and exceeds in in our average scill score went from 500 to 497 uh average SGP also is under 50 which is which is an issue uh something that we need to look at and we need to understand why and I can I'm going to break it down a little bit further into the actual grade levels to see where we are seeing the most struggle U but it is something that that certainly brings a level of concern to our to our attention and things that we're we're talking about um at the districtwide level during our curriculum meetings

050curriculum leadership meetings as well as at the school level to dig into that to dig deeper into that data in terms of math uh it was an increase like I said 55% of our students are meeting exceeding and that is a 2% increase from the previous year and we're still 133% above the state our scaled score stayed the same and our SGP was a slight increase so in math right now I'm feeling very positive things are going well at the elementary level and it's interesting because we've we've talked a lot about over the course of the last few years um of looking at a different math program U but I think we've we've gotten really good at teaching using the program that we are using utilizing and we've also added some some great resources as

051well um so we're feeling confident in the area of math right now particularly at the 3 to five level uh but in the area of ela it's something that we have to make sure that we are taking a good hard look at breaking it down by grade okay now you know you can see that grade three um we were 7% down from the previous year uh we we were at we were at 60% meets needs and now we're only at 53% again I want to continue to say we are still well above the state average but we need to be improving each year as a district and when I see that our average skill score in grade three went from a 502 to a 498 that's something that we have to talk about um there's

052no SGP in grade three obviously because it's the first time student are taking the test grade four there was real no there was no change um except in SGP our SGP dropped by 5.4 points um this and it actually is an area where we dropped below the state average so grade four Ela in terms of the growth that students made is something that we have to take a hard look at um it's it's still the same in terms of students meeting and exceeding is that number didn't change but we're not at that 50% SG GP and we really need to be uh in terms of grade five we also saw a dip right we went from a 500 average skilled score in 23 to a 496 average skill score our SGP is just under 50

053but in in 2023 it was over 50 so we are we are indeed seeing right now a dip in grade three four and five in terms of bla uh when we took a deep dive into the data of the Cy it's really about writing our writing our writing scores are where we struggled our essay writing in particular our in our narrative writing so what have we already decide to do we have implemented already this year um some professional development some professional learning strictly in the area of writing I'm really proud of the work that our brand new literacy coach at Mendes has already implemented she has um held two if not three uh professional workshops shs uh for our staff looking at writing and looking at um narrative writing in particular uh we are we

054are talking about small group writing and what we're what we're doing in our small groups to make sure we are implementing uh small group instruction and um the teachers are taking to it and and and she is going to hopefully at some point come to the school committee to present some of the work we're they're doing I been meeting with our literacy coaches on Friday um to learn more about exactly how they're implementing you know these writing processes um but Suzanne has made it her task right away uh because we looked at this data in the summer and we said these is this is what our goal needs to be um also you know folktales folktales M hands up I don't know if that was in yeah my hand sorry I was just can I

055ask a quick question of course sure um sorry I don't know how to lower my hand now so um just a question following up on abash Shack's comment about following the cohorts since grade five is one of the areas that dipped are you are you going to have this writing skill in the sixth grade too because the grade five port's now at the middle school or what's the idea there so I don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves Mary with that but yes there is there is certainly some um we are certainly talking about um some some potential changes uh for the way we are teaching um Ela at the middle school and uh I don't want to give any any no that's fine I was just I was just curious like about

056because I thought it was a really good point like if you follow the the classes which I'm sure you do because there's so much data we um we are highly uh we are looking at some some potential changes specifically as we look at the schedule at the middle school and one of the major focuses is going to be writing okay I don't want to that politically correct well done can I ask a quick question tou on an important point they're both smiling I don't know if you can see what's going on over here but I can't see you guys but I'll I'll go it's something they're working on okay I don't want to go quick question about the the writing piece and it says like the idea development so is is are the the areas

057that you're able to pinpoint where students are are struggling or where they need where we need to see more growth I guess I should say is it around like the Senate structure piece is it around the mechanics and like the punctuation and spelling and that type of stuff or is it a combo thereof it's mostly about about developing their ideas and being able to take their ideas and write a coherence piece of thre okay cerent coherent asset yeah so one of the things that Suzanne has done is she has implemented a a graphic organizer for sentence and paragraph structure that type of stuff everybody is utilizing and and she has done one of her first pieces of professional learning for the staff was to introduce this new graphic organizer um we are also working on

058that at the kada2 level as well particularly our SEC our first and second grade team has developed rubrics and for writing development knowing that this is this is an issue across the board obviously it doesn't just start at MES right so we are looking at um creating better rubrics that can help us to uh understand where our students weaknesses are in writing but but knowing that it's about idea development we're taking a look at these graphic organizers and introducing these so students can now know I can develop this on my own when I go and and have to create an essay for mcast okay yeah they're more interested you in that development versus the the the grammatical errors I wasn't sure exactly which pieces they're not focused on that when they're looking at the grading

059aspect of it it's what's the development of the idea do you have evidence to to support that idea Etc and and I think with abash and then Marcy bringing it up I do think it's probably important to make sure understanding what we're looking at here when we say grade three and how that it's about our instruction and delivery to the students and how uh and it's not about following it's not those students compared to last year it's comparing this group and how we delivered and and and how they absorbed and performed uh it's so so it's different than following students with this information but we do have the information both from thecast scores and also I ready and all our other assessments for tracking students gr that's why SGP become such an important thing to

060look at as well because the SGP is really about the cohort right how how your students perform formed over time that's why I always I personally think that is the most important data point that we have and that's why I look at this data and I'm concerned that we are not at 50% as or at 50 for SGP in grade four and grade five am I right remember Mike that I mean we feels like as long as I've been on the school committee and we've looked at data like this you know Mendes has largely hovered around the 50% threshold MH in both math and Ela so I mean that I know you're probably going to go to it next but the the math data that's that that's There's real positivity there right sure it's huge

061I mean you're you're you're getting the kind of growth that we really were only getting at the middle school before and you know obviously the ELA data you get dig into it and what you already have and Implement a plan to to correct for that but you know there is there's some real positive stuff here too and um you know I think we've always like I said seems like mes was always the one that didn't perform as well on the mcast one tool right just one tool but historically that's the accurate that's an accurate statement that that has been M this has been the school where we have seen the lowest the lowest um achievement scores and and growth as well right right yeah but then we look at math which is a great segue

062Mark and I I was just t for and and I'm thrilled in particularly with looking at this grade four data if you look at grade four 62% of our students are meeting or exceeding and that is 6% higher than the previous year uh but not to get too positive about things because I I I want to make sure that we're we're hitting everything every every data point SGP went down in grade four so we have to determine what happened there you know only dropped 2.2 points but it still it still went down we're well over 50 but I I want I want to dig deep a little bit so we need to need to you know take this and see who are the students that did not perform you know or or move up in

063their SGP um although although SGP is one of those ones where you want to say hey is there something there to it but slight fluctuations when you're you know like if you had a great year we had a great it's like okay so so but you know you'd always want to build on that but going from 60 to 59.7 you know there may not be there's probably going to be some fluctuation there that's that's okay but when there's twoo difference was there something to look at and address right which is what we have look it won always be yes there must be something right absolutely and in grade five um we we sort of S held strong I you know we had you know a slight dip in our average scill score but our SGP

064improved we're at 60 and our 53% of students are meeting exceeding I think we do have a lot to celebrate in terms of you know what we've done what we've accomplished in math particularly at at the MZ school um the the the the the areas where we continue to struggle uh our word problems right that that's something that we've been working on for a long time as well and I think that um as we look into writing and we improve our writing we also can look at how we are EXP explaining our mathematical problems as well so those those are hopefully areas that we can improve upon at the mes other areas for improvement um decimals are always an issue uh that's something that has been consistent um and we've also continually struggled a little

065bit um with things like quadrilaterals um and you know numerical expression so these are these are typical problems that we that we have found uh and and we need to make sure that we're continuing to change our instructional practices around those all I can say is that list makes me ask that question about am I smarter than a fifth grader quad I don't even remember what some of these things are you know and you you're going to find some themes too that that that we are struggling in the same areas that that we struggled around this the state struggled as well and to to talk to you a little bit about how we chose these areas for improvement these are areas where we saw a significant dip in in how we performed the year before

066or in some cases we may have been actually below the state average and that's why we said these are the these are the main areas for improvement um looking at the middle school can I fre I'm go back yeah just for one second I'm just struggling to reconcile something in my head and and I'm sure it makes perfect sense so when you look at I'm looking at like grade four math grade five math right so grade four we had 62% of our kids were meteor exceeding at a 57.1% SGP in grade five you have 53% right smaller number in terms of those who are meting or exceeding but we had 60% growth even better growth Y and so it's sort of like how do we have better growth but fewer kids meeting or exceeding because

067some of our students um may have been a low partially meet but they may have almost reached that threshold of meats so they showed a great deal of growth but they never they never changed from partially Meats to to meets so they you know they may have just barely made it and now they're right on the cusp of meeting so that allows for that that increase in the there could be growth within you could go from meets exceeds that number didn't number wouldn't change but you know what you know back to the grade four you look at that green line or that blue line however it looks on your screen it's continuing to rise from 2019 we are we are absolutely On The Rise there in terms of you know our students who are meeting

068and exceeding so that's that's probably my favorite graph to look at in this of course in this whole presentation yeah you can see that in the data too um it goes from 30% um in in fourth grade at um partially meeting to 39 um and then it goes from 50 in fourth grade to 43 so that just that shift leads to more people actually growing and saying going from the not meaning expectations to a partially meeting expectations while still there's a set amount of people not reaching that threshold you have better eyes than I do we're also not smarter than a 10th grader right 11th grader 11 or 10th grader so look looking at the middle school um again Ela a slight dip from the previous year 58% U but our SGP went up uh

069in ela and then in math again a dip in our students meeting are exceeding we're still over the 61 you know at the 61% uh but our SGP went down as well so we so it's interesting that in math at the Mendes we're really happy uh but we're looking at the numbers at the middle school and that's where we have to take a closer look at what's going on and and just to follow up on something Mark said I mean I think just questioning the how the SGP and percentage of Medan exceeding relate to each other U if you look at Ela for middle school for example we went up 2.5 but went down a percent and and so when we always talk about uh closing gaps do we look at the data to ensure

070that that growth isn't just our students that were you know in the upper part of you know and we that we that were closing the gaps and not making essentially larger gaps because we really uh helped those exceed higher but we didn't you know do this you know get the same results so even if that Gap is the same we want to want to close that Gap not make them larger so I think those kind of correlations can yeah digging into that can say hey are we are we doing what we want to do as far as closing those gaps because that might indicate a little bit more of a spread right that hey we got we got that but we didn't get people crossing this particular line now it could have been growth within

071the bottom part of that we could have closed gaps because it could have been on bottom too and and the data shows it right there Paul because you can see that you know in 2023 12% of the population wasn't meeting but 13% the population wasn't meeting in the LA in in 2024 so that that that increased by one um so that is an area that we have to work on right why why are we seeing an increasing the amount of students who are not meeting that chart shows also emphasize the point you were making before Mike about if you look at 2019 versus 2024 like the growth and the meats all look decent but look back to where 2019 was we're not there yet that's right we have a lot of work to do to

072catch up to get to get to those pre-co numbers so there's an 11% increase in both or like an 11 Point increase in both uh meeting and exceeding and the average sdp from between the Mendes and then it jumps up to the middle school so do you think that could be like a a curriculum issue or what's what do you see that discrepancy being caused by these are these are the conversations that we you have to have out sh so I it it it could be a curriculum issue it could be a cohort issue and it could be um uh the fact that we are trending the same way the state trended this year but you're bringing up the exact questions that we're talking about during our our curriculum leadership team meetings and we are

073right now in a cycle where we have not taken a real hard look at our middle school math curriculum in a long time um and we we need to take a look at exactly what we're using uh so you're you're a step ahead of the game my friend that's something that we're going to be taking a good look at this year we H we have to identify the problem so we know what what problem we're fixing so by grade level um Ela by grade you can see that across the board um you know 56% of our students in grade six met are exceeded we went down a little bit in grade seven we went down by 1 percentage point in grade eight our average scaled score went down in grade seven by 3 points but

074in grade six and in grade 10 it went up uh and our SGP um increased across all of the grade levels so you know we're we're we're doing relatively well in in ela um at the at the middle school level uh where we see some improvement again writing narrative writing writing it was the same it was the same as as the mindes data in terms of where our struggles were um one of the common themes similar to uh finding about folktales at the at the mindz school where we struggled was poetry at the middle school level so a lot of the questions that were related to poems our students struggled with so we've got we've had to have those conversations at the middle school level what are we doing to ensure our students are understanding

075different passages understand the elements of poetry so so Mike I I know we're looking to get these numbers back up at the macro level but if you look at grade six and grade seven our curve relative to the state curve we tanked a lot more uh during covid than the state did y have we identified those areas and made the adjustments in their those areas in particular that uh because obviously you know particularly the grade seven right uh those those curves aren't even close to being so we we obviously went down quite a little bit for some number of reasons and and did we go back and understand that to make sure we're we we're we're adding those Focus supports not only based on hey but this past year but going back to ensure we

076we're closing that whatever gaps obviously occurred there relative to the state right we we obviously well underperformed relative to the State as far as yeah we can we can certainly go back and look at that 20 you know 21 data and see where we struggled the most and that's something that I can I can do we have that we have that information I I can't say because it could be lingering right it could be hey we never really recovered from because obviously something was very a Miss I can't speak to that right now because it was you know quite a few years ago but I can tell you that I know with confidence that one of the areas that we struggled with that was also our writing it's consistently been writing I don't know what

077the other you know in detail with the other areas were but it was definitely writing it has been throughout this is interesting to go back and look at MES the our curve you know more closely approximates and if anything we did better in that uh I guess it be 21 year um as compared to the point Paul's making about we had a right both in ela and math from I'm sorry 19 to um so I don't in some ways you could you could if that was a Statewide kind of thing you could say Well it hit kids in middle school harder right but and there's some some showing of That in math but Ela is different yeah we really do do yeah do you guys also have any any data on whether the areas that

078you did um like earmark for improvement are have actually been improving like say um you marked essay writing down say in sixth grade let's say we got 50% in saay rating do you know if that went up to say a 70% no the re the reason that those were were listed as particular areas need of improvement is because we we either dipped or below the state okay so you know majority of the time it was either on par with where we've been and we fell below the state or we actually showed a decline in that particular area so my math math again same thing right you talked about that large dip from 2019 to 2021 we had a slight increase in 22 and what we're still seeing a steady decline in every area except in

079grade eight grade eight continues to be on the rise so we were 67% uh meets needs but back to that why are we going down in our SGP we we've got to figure out you know the correlation there U but overall um in you know math in at the middle school level is something that we have to take a good hard look at particularly grade seven right we have a 7% decrease um in our students meeting and exceeding and the SGP went down by 1.8 points um why areas of improvement again solving real world problems it was the same thing at the Mendes in the same thing at the middle school solving real world problems is an issue uh and we've got to make sure that we're we're looking at how we are um assessing

080the students regularly to see if they're growing during the school year and how are we in instructing the students in those areas um and and Mike just uh this is the only place where we're tracking growth obviously right so when we see hey we didn't get a good growth here we're we're looking at our other data points and other assessment tools that also give you the idea idea of a Year's growth and you know if if this particular data point because it's only it's mcast so it's one of the data points if there might be an anomaly hey the SGP only says this but these other two assessments that we're using don't show that it went down 2% you know they didn't show the dip then we can you know uh you know take this

081for just one of one of n number of data points right for for the most part our I already data is is matching okay um it's you know there are obviously some there are some discrepancies but more often than not we are we are seeing that gives us confidence in this too so have multiple data points to talk so ashon high school um Ela and math uh we saw a slight dip in ela we saw a slight dip in math scgp uh went down in math significantly um for the previous year but you know I I think it's important to note though we still well above the state average in the LA and math um areas for improvement in the two essay writing again and um again we we just picked out this particular one

082of math because this one was was well below and it's uh calculating the measure of the central angle of a circle given the radius of the circle and the length of the arc intercepted by the angle we picked that one out really to show snow no just Kidd that that was that was a piece that that we struggled with and we just picked that one out U as as a as an area that really wanted to show you how how much we're digging into this to say this is this is one of those questions that we need to make sure and this is where the open Architects really make this something that is practical to be able to dig and get that thing those those information readily as opposed to before it be a vared

083manual and and intensive task right now looking at science um because it's just in grade five grade eight and at and at the high school either nine or 10 when they take it uh wanted to just show you in general um how we're doing we had a 1% increase in grade five there's no SGP in grade five obviously because the first year there's no SGP at all in science um we did have a slight decrease at Ashton high school going from 69 to 68% average scaled score went down by two but in general our science scores have remained on Trend um this across the board what's the what's the deal with the graph for the high school or or why did 22 suck well we don't have we don't have two years of data yeah

084there some missing data okay yeah is that just what wasn't wasn't in the system yeah we didn't have it in the system okay so then there's also that accountability data piece um and just just to say that is that one data point a true data point or or should we look at that I mean that they would be the first data point that's below a state average yeah that's that's a that's a skewed system youe in the system we weren't below this data average yeah uh in terms of the accountability data overall classification we get an overall classification based on all of this combined accountability data and we are not in need of an intervention or assistance as a district um we have made substantial progress toward our targets that the state has set for

085us we met the target um for our recovery path for all students in the LA so recovery path is essentially are we moving towards where we were in 2019 we haven't we haven't gotten there yet but that's like a recovery the recovery path so the recovery path is based on are you still making um progress towards meeting where you were in 2019 so we did meet the target data for that at ashon high school um our non- high school students though declined by 8% in ela so that's something that we are a little bit concerned about obviously it's not a huge percentage point but there's a slight decline in our students who aren't in high school um our SGP uh for all students was high we were 50% or greater in our SGP in all

086areas and um we did meet our Target for chronic absenteeism obviously that was one of our superintendent district goals so we did meet that goal and uh all students exceed the target for progress toward attaining English language proficiency we we we are proud of that as well there's there's obviously a lot more accountability data that we can look at uh I did link it into the slide presentation if you want to take a look at it uh there's lots of things that we can talk about but I know this is more of a 10,000 foot view of the data so I wanted to just bring on a couple important takeaways is a top classification sort of the the sort of best if you will of of meaning we're not requiring assistance there's not like a

087exemplary or oh there are exemp there there are districts that are that that are you know considered exemplary districts and districts that are given honors so there is there are classifications to work towards yes um and then the reason for the classification um is we've made substantial progress we haven't met or something like that or it there are there are still targets that we have not met yeah and there are targets that we have met but we're making we're making progress towards all those targets so there weren't any Targets where we you know declined significantly do districts have access to each other's results like for instance like if an exemplary District like is it worth looking at how they are addressing writing for instance since that's a districtwide problem here yeah so I they have

088the dart data it's all accessible in the state we can go on and we can see what districts you know have done fantastic in in writing and I can certainly make some calls and talk about what they have done I do I do feel real confident with the steps that we've already made um especially in writing because we we got on it this summer and we said this is something that we need to make sure that we're actively uh trying to make changes for so we're addressing it right away but but I think that is important for us to you know reach out to other districts and to see what they're doing awesome thank you and this is just you know quick overall things where the celebrations where areas are concerned nothing that I didn't

089already really talk about when but just to sort of summarize things right right it's important to note we are outperforming the state in all areas we should be we we we need to be that's we hold ourselves to a a higher standard and we want to be a moral District but so we should be outperforming the state but it's important to note that we are we are outperforming the state in all areas um we had we had great SGP improvements you know 2% in grade six in ela 3.4% in grade seven but there was some decreases right in our meats that ex seeds grade three 7% decrease in grade three average SGP dropped by 5.4% in grade four and our 8% decrease in Meats exceed in grade five so we know that there are some

090areas of improvement necessary specifically in grades three four and five in the LA again you can see the celebrations from math we talked about those as well um we've got we've got some things that we that we need to work on so what are we going to do okay we're having in-depth reviews during our data team meetings so we have had data team meetings in place at the Warren school um now we need to make sure we're putting data team meetings together at the at the middle at the mindes school at the middle school level um mindes has started that data team meeting process they are taking in depth look at the data um and they are using some of the protocols that have been put in place at Warren so obviously Miss Alman was

091a part of that process she's been a member of the cohort that's working with the S3 team they're taking some of those uh processes and procedures and putting them in place at Mendes to have those difficult conversations and now what are we doing also for our intervention strategies we've talked already about we're hitting the ground running with with the writing we we've noticed that that is a problem so we're we're implementing some significant changes there we have to improve our intervention processes we' we've got to take a good hard look at what we are doing when we discover that students are struggling um we we have to have a better system in place for identifying struggling Learners and that's why we need to do a better job of looking like Paul you said looking at

092our early data from I ready you know because it is a good indicator of where our students will end up so we've got to make sure we're utilizing that data during our data team meetings to say here's a student right now who's falling in the red what are we doing for them to make sure they're getting what they need when they need it so there interventions are happening uh we have to do a better job utilizing our open Architects to be able to say here's where all the data lives let's get in there and take a look and uh we are still actively developing with them a process so we can have student interventions within those dashboards so people can see this is what has been done and this these These are the improvements that

093we have seen based on those specific interventions and I and I you know think that we need to take a good hard look and examine our current practices um specifically in in elementary literacy obviously we we've done a lot of work in that area um we're proud of the things that we have put in place particularly at the Early Elementary level um those students have not necessarily reached Mendes yet um from those different things that we put in place the kids that have had a couple years of hegerty the kids that have had the foundations they have not necessarily gone up to get tested yet I'm really interested to see what happens with our students who go from third to Fourth this year because they had they they were not the ones that have had

094two full two three full years years of it but they've had a couple so we talked about this in the summer I'm really interested to see what happens next year with our third and fourth graders um but we've we've got to take a good hard look at at at how we're teaching writing in particular and um where our where our growth if our you know if we continue to see a a decrease in in the in the meats and exceeds and the growth we may have to talk about ultimately making some changes is it um unrealistic to sort of have as a a say a goal and I don't mean that from a formal adoption of a goal but but sort of a an effort to see 60% SGP you know across math and math

095and Ela for of all levels I don't think that's an unfair goal that that that I I think 60% SGP in math and Ela across all grade levels is a is a goal that we should aspire far I mean that's it's a legitimate goal I mean 50% means we're doing a good job but 60% means we're we're really doing wonderful we're doing a great job yeah just you I know this came up at in some conversation we've had in the past I don't remember how long ago when we talked about 60% remember you talking about J in particular at the time Middle School was just knocking out of the park with 60% numbers and and you know the idea being that you know you build a set of 60s on top of each other from

096grade four to grade 11 or whatever it is you know you you're getting kids an extra year plus right in because you're each year you're starting at a sort of higher point on average right I mean kids are still going to be all over the map but um but that leaves them more prepared for what's next I I mean I just wanted to chime in a little bit when we start looking at all of our num numbers and and even coming out of Co Etc I think the one thing we haven't even mentioned tonight is the demographic has changed dramatically over this course of time right so I think about Mendes and in particular uh our our English Learners coming in you know there were like 24% in 2020 2021 it Rose to 31% in

097in two years so as those students are learning English and learning to take the test uh that's significant in how they're performing right so I think as we start to disaggregate the data we do have to step back and say okay where are these students and what is that you talk about growth Mark right that's where that growth of that 60% that's where we've got a Target and to your point Paul earlier it's okay look at these kids here how are they growing and then what's that look like continue 6 60 on the sgb gets to be pretty difficult yeah because you know you you continue to grow at that rate rate and now okay I'm supposed to be treat you as curriculum but you know it may not be a sustainable thing we used

098to look at the percentage above State average right I mean that was always a calculation that folks were looking at was okay are we 10 or 15 percentage points on average above the state average and and that would relate to growth but again I was explained earlier too that growth doesn't necessarily mean I may be above the state average year one and year two my growth may not be 60% it might just be the onee growth of 50% which is what is expected right it's that's the but the the point I'm making is the overall increase is what we should be looking at I think the other thing that I want to make sure I point out is when we when we looked at this this was the the entire District not broken down by

099demograph we've done that in our in our meetings in in our data team meetings and in our curriculum leadership me meetings we know where our weaknesses lie and it is it is in our our population of of high need students right that's where we need to improve our instructional practices and that's why we really need to look at our interventions and what we're doing to ensure that kids are getting what they need um when we disaggregate the data we we we see that the students that are falling below the meets and exceeds category are our students who are receiving English language support and our students that are receiving um special education support that that's that's what the data is showing us so we've got to do a better job for those particular students and you

100know I I have great faith in the work that Britney and Christie are doing because they are working really hard to work with our our teachers to meet the needs of those students but it's not just them we've got a make sure that everybody is getting there and that we're we're getting to the root of what the issue is and we have to change some of the way we're we're instructing on a regular basis not just during our pull out time not just during our El time or our specific time for those those students it's it's what are we doing in our tier one support for all of these kids so you know that's that's the root of it right and as you're kind of diving into the interventions is it I'm assuming I mean

101you guys work really well as a team but I'm assuming it's like with the diving into those interventions or not just looking at the tier one it's like pulling christe and pulling Britney and having those conversations because there's so much I would imagine that kind of across that like you said not just having it be those the the pull out or the targeted you know uh pieces but the full picture all together I'll use Christy as an example and and I've written it four times already tonight that she's got to be the next person in um and partly because before she came aboard we didn't have the structured curriculum for our our English language acquisition students right we we just didn't have it she is she started implementing it last year at Warren in Mendes

102so it's there is something now that we have that is standardized that is really helping our students um and that was a big push on her end uh so I think having her come and talk about that will be really critical for you to understand that we will be moving these students um along uh at a at a pretty high rate so and she is she's attending the DAT team meetings so Christie is going to these data team meetings and she's discussing the data with you know the regular education teachers as well as the uh elel staff sorry no goe I was just going to say looking at the data there's a lot of data there I think context is is the most important thing like you mentioned that um um and so and you

103also mentioned that we have in our graphs the state uh which in some ways is is is is like this macro thing that we're looking at from a somewhat of a distance because we're not using it as a bar we're using it as a shape maybe to see if we're shaped the same way I wonder whether um how easy it would be to pull because we want to give some context that's meaningful that doesn't take an hour to present but uh we do do it for a lot of other things I don't know if there's um curricularly similar districts that we would be able to graph and even that it might even be a hey this is one that might usually be a little higher than us but we want to we want to track

104and here's one that you know just I know they might be different districts than we use for all the other Financial stuff yeah so we have that data it's the dart data right on the Desi website and you know the districts that are similar to ours but when you start pulling those districts we can argue they're really not similar to AR defining similar correct but that's but that's how the state looks at it like similar um High similar e similar budgets similar like deim I I always like look at denam and Burlington no they're on our list from the state right but are they really similar districts right and we but we also have the ability to do that through open Architects so we can ask them to get the data from the districts that

105we choose and they put it on a dashboard for us I would rather you choose similar districts which we've done we have it we have that we have the ability to do that yeah because to me that would be that would be good if you're like hey here the you know not 10 of them but like there's three or four districts that we track and we we we think we're similar to or aspire to or or or things like that so so so an example right for 2024 these are the districts the state says they most similar to us Chelmsford Danvers Easton Foxboro Marblehead Marshfield North Andover seon stonum and tuesy those are the most similar according to the state based on our elll uh low-income you know standards that's and that's what they're looking

106at in total enrollment like so yeah it is interesting and that's changed over the years yeah right because it used to be Burlington used be D him um so right and we're changing correct our demographic is changing therefore how they're viewing us against the state is changing as well so yeah so um I think my last question is you know have you guys taking a look back at either the Strategic plan or the the the sort of the measurements you know the indicators of of accomplishing the different aspects of the Strategic plan or even this year's goals um to see whether there's anything that is suggested by the data either a building level grade level or districtwide that would be worth you know what let's let's look at this I think it's mostly around like

107the way we measure things it's not like new goals right but whether there's you know something in there saying like okay we've now identified Che Point Mike subgroups that we're not doing a great job with and you know is there that needs to be added in as a specific action or what have you to address things that the test CHS that we that we hadn't identified before uh not necessarily because I think I think we have have it identified already that the the the place that we need to make our biggest number of improvement are for our subgroups and we have identified that and we've also identified the fact that we need to improve our our intervention processes so I I think that this this data didn't necessarily show us anything that we didn't already

108know and that we haven't already identified in the Strategic plan um and just to go back a a moment too we we do have the comparable data for a number of other districts that Jim and I have already chosen um that we feel like are more comparable to us and of those 22 schools that we've or districts that we've chosen we're we're like smack dab in the middle in terms of our our achievement ratings for 2024 um so I you know obviously we're not going to elongate this presentation anymore but if this is something that you want to look at I I can certainly put something together about that too so Mark to your point I I I want to highlight from the Strategic plan the two components of the equity component right Max maximize

109the academic growth of every student uh and provide more Equitable access to all levels of curriculum and activities to provide more students with growth opportunities so those are things that we're focused on right from an academic standpoint that falls into the Strategic plan from an equity standpoint yeah I think what I was I didn't think that that would be that level but it was more like um if there was some indicator of success I forget what terminology we used around that that would say you know increase X by 3% yeah I we correct we haven't and and I don't know if there's something there or not no I think it's but and it's I'm not looking to yep go back and redo goals or no it would be the indic success yeah I just feel

110like I want to make to this point I look just just a quick little check here in terms of SGP and and Ela of the 22 districts that we feel are the most similar to us we we rank third in SGP in 2024 Ina for grades 3 through eight so when we think about where we we felt like we're struggling clearly the other those districts those districts may have been as and that that provides us the context some context to say we need to address this but the sky isn't falling we didn't we're not you know we're not we're not the Unicorn here that's struggling uh uniquely right right right right and the purpose of this meeting is that for us to understand that you are in fact looking at all those different you know

111angles different ways of of viewing this and and getting to the bottom of what we can control yeah and and having having a graph that kind of maybe shows that shows where we are there and then you know the next page can say hey what's our per pupil spending and relative to those same districts right and you know we'll see you know to compare those two you know that just kind of to what we're doing with with the resource we have and it kind of highlights that right yep excellent so Mike Mike offer to either do a 20 minute presentation or an hour presentation and we told go with the 20 minute there'll be a lot of questions some questions 20 minutes so you know I just try to give you the I just want

112them to know cuz they weren't a part of the original conversation that that there's like four times as much you could be talking it could be a three hour presentation if you know there's there's a lot to unpack there you only had about 11 slides so that lasted an hour when it was only supposed to be 20 minutes yeah no this is helpful I mean obviously you guys have your um you know finger on the pulse of what needs to be looked at and it's already part of um you know the plan of what you're doing so it's helpful um to share this so thank you yes thank you appreciate I actually got a question I'm I'm not trying to beat a dead horse on this topic here but um with the passing of the

113the new referendum this year um removing it as a graduation requirement do you still plan to place as much of a focus on mcast or how does your approach change is what I'm kind of asking that's coming up in a moment good foreshadowing okay the superintendent report there you go excellent thank you okay first we get to the calendar no we're going we moved that below below thank you I didn't cross it off on my list thank you Wars please uh between October 24th 2024 and November 13 2024 I Paul Kendall authorized by my signat payables the amount of 9,488 198 this includes general fund expenses of $469,500 revolving expenses of 43,6 $161.2 in Grant expenses of $ 28,1 7212 excellent thank you Paul now you can answer AB well I'll get there right okay

114um yeah just a few things one obviously uh last week um number of us attended the masc masss conference uh it was well attended uh overall across the state uh Chris and I did presentation on the first day on Wednesday um basically how to navigate the financial cliff caused from all the federal funds uh it was pretty well attended um and uh you know thank you for Chris for putting together a lot of of the work in into it to give us the data um secondly we are in the process of revamping our website as you I think I've mentioned previously our vendor that we currently have has been sold uh so we're in the process of of working through uh what our new website will look like like and you know stay tuned to

115that the goal is to roll it out July 1 uh as our contract ends with the current vendor on June 30th uh today Mike and I and as along with a number of other folks I had the good pleasure of of heading over to Holliston High School uh where our um unified basketball team was awarded the MIAA uh 2024 uh Team sportsmanship award uh it was awesome it was great so we got to watch them play it was actually all the tri valley teams were there it was it was it was just an awesome uh event and congratulations to our team for winning uh the sportsmanship Awards awesome they were actually nominated by another team right they were nominated by another team for their um that's awesome their sport it was great so now let's

116get to ballot question number two um mcass uh in the graduation requirement so my notes is I was writing them uh previously was you know there's still this Fallout right U we don't know what's going to happen still uh I Shar with the community and with the committee um the department of Ed's guidance on um on question two uh which takes effect on December 5th uh and what does that really mean for the students of Ashland and um and across the Commonwealth was currently the the students in the graduating class of 2025 do not need uh the passing um threshold on the mcap has to receive uh a diploma or what they they call the competency determination for your um for your diploma it's going to revert back to local control at at this point

117what I would caution folks is to not get too um carried away with this yet uh partly because uh we will have to look at our policy uh included in uh the school committee policies there are policies I was um at meeting yesterday Tim pavar who was the superintendent of Westwood who was at bica originally in their policy it actually States specifically that the students must pass the mcass so the mcast is not going away it's still going to be used for accountability to so to answer your question uh abash I hopefully our teachers have never emphasized that this is the most important thing to do is to pass the mcast because I I do not ever want that being the the message that we're sending at least from a teaching and an administrative standpoint

118it was important because there was a requirement to pass to get your diploma that being said the state there's still no opt out of the mcast folks are still going to be required to take the mcast it still will um Mike you know will still be presenting information on the mcast because it is a uh a data point uh and it is still going to be used for an accountability standpoint at the department of Ed at this point in time again caution to the wind there is possible legislative um actions that could come down the road as to what a diploma might look like even at the state level so one of the things that's being U bented around and Mark maybe you've heard a little bit in your circles but is are we looking

119at the mass core right as the a a common determinant for all districts to have uh for a diploma or we truly going to to go back and revert to local control in determining what that looks like um and then we can determine as a school district uh and school committee what that assessment is there going to be an assessment in addition to uh the classes that you're required to take um so so to your question hopefully we're not putting tremendous emphasis on it to begin with uh it's it's just a tool that the sophomores had to have um in order to get their their diploma we don't have that anymore there's also a little bit bit of concern and question mark with regard to our and ttin you and I were in that setting

120together uh at the conference on our special education students and how many of our special education students previous years have not in or current year have not passed the mcass that otherwise would have received a diploma had they met all of the other requirements uh for the schools um that we've set within our policy um I think we've identified one in in our system system um so what does that look like um and again I'm going to defer to our attorneys and to determine what is the best approach of action um coming out of the conference it was hey December 5th comes rolls around December six you reenroll those students you give them a diploma I was very surprised to hear that to be honest right right but that's what was said if I did

121not misinterpret no you you heard yeah that's exactly what she said who's that offen yeah so yeah MH so sorry yeah but but that was um that's a conversation that needs to happen um at all levels uh so so here we are it's still up in the air uh I think you've got the on record the center president and the governor uh who were um vocal against the mcast ballot um so we'll see if it goes anywhere within the legislator slative actions have you had any contact with the Senator's office I have not um but uh I plan to in the next day or two for a couple of reasons so Y in conversations that I um you know where state representatives were involved before the ballot initiative passed even those that were in favor

122of and clearly this wasn't like the whole house or anything but just you know kind of interest groups that there was very much a feeling that even if it passed um that it's as it move as things as the legislature starts back up in January that that there would be definitive you know Direction they're gonna be working on some kind of either a replacement or standard yeah that so so I would anticipate hearing something more definitive as the legislature comes back to session in January but what that is I don't know right and it puts districts in a bind though right depending upon how long it takes to if they decide to pass something um so right we'll see it's not the first time the state's left off a bind no not the first time

123nor will it be the last oh my that's where we are you set i'm set we would be in this did you have anything else Mike or was that your your show for tonight that's that was you've heard enough from me if you have something feel free to share well we had our py day on on the on the 5th um so we we went over our Alice protocols and procedures we talked about um getting ready to have a upcoming safety drill in the schools um the next month or so okay uh so teachers took some time to do that we had some building based learning and we also um had a presentation on special education law uh from an attorney which is really important information for all of our staff to understand unfortunately we

124have had a collaborative effort with ashack uh tremendous effort from uh Tracy terzano uh who worked with an organization from Easter Seals to try to get some um folks who live with disabilities to come in and talk to our staff about uh their life in in their struggles and the importance of uh inclusion inclusive practices uh but there was a transportation mishap and um they were not able to get to us to have actually have us listen so we're you know Tracy's efforts were tremendous and I want to thank her for the collaboration and uh we were it was unfortunate that it didn't work out but we hope that we can work something out in the future uh to have that program for our staff great thank you okay um let's do the calendar sure

125uh so each year I come before you to start getting the calendar ready for the next school year uh as you know we had a roundabout last year um over and over with the calendar uh so I've got two options I want to share uh for the 25 26 school year I will pull them up uh on the screen um this is the first option that um that takes into account and it does recognize the the um the religious observances that we've discussed here in the past uh what you'll notice about this calendar there are two key points uh one is uh that winter vacation uh goes through January 2nd again uh with the last day of school uh being set for uh June 18th uh should there be a snow day uh obviously that

126would uh move us into the following week the 22nd 23rd so the last day would actually be the 26th if you had five snow days um we have averaged just frame of reference in my 11 years one snow day per year uh so um that's option one and then we can come back to this option two uh is really just the removal of the the January 2nd so coming back after um the 1 and then so that obviously moves the last day to the 17th so it provides a snow day uh opportunity on the 18th um and we would go into the following week with the 25th actually being uh if we had five snow days um on the calendar so those are really the two um the two options that I've looked at now

127again I've as I've always done I've run this by um the union to make sure ensure we've had all our professional development days our early release days accounted for ETC and Kristen and I actually talked today um and everything's been accounted for um from a contractual standpoint it's really what's the what's the preference of the board uh in terms of the calendar that we can then share out to the community um I know we might might have reconsidered our calendar a little bit this year um you know with that January 2nd in the the time frame um starting on the 20th but uh this goes to the 23rd which is a half day um and then from there we have the break so thoughts questions concerns I don't think anybody's going to come in on

128the second if we if we have I don't either but that being said I I think we might even have trouble Staffing I don't I I will be honest I me talking to Kristen um she was she said to me she said Jim I I'd prefer to have the second as a school day because it provides us an additional opportunity at the end of the year to get out a day earlier right I get it um it's impactful if we have one one snow day that's right and because of juneth it's just the way it falls again that's the that's the the struggle here right it's on a Friday um so but but if I recall our current calendar one of the reasons we made a decision to add was because of we were concerned

129about that of absentee as in day right and so but we heard some later feedback that after that the second would be a good day to come back again I think it's six and one half dozen the other if we end up getting a snow day no very few people are going to come in on that Monday the 22nd too so correct it's you know I think but that that's probably a less impactful day to miss than than it might be right I I don't know I I think it's a Frid it's a Friday before I mean it's a Friday it's a Friday coming back from a holiday with only one day so no I H I don't think you're missing anym one the other to beon that's exactly what it is and and I

130don't even have any personal skin in this game obviously but I you know I I would want to use my vote on what I thought was going to be right for at least the majority of the district which I'm having a hard time getting to the bottom of I've had many families sort of thank us for giving us that extra time and I've also had a group of teachers sharing with me that they would much have preferred to be back in school so they could utilize the time at the end of the year so um all I can really do is just put that out there as the different kinds of feedback that I got but I still am not clear on what most people want I I think coming back on the second makes

131the second makes that middle of the to your point a useless day right where coming back on the Monday you can actually start to build momentum again and and it's and well I'm coming back on that oh oh meet me coming back from the holiday on the Monday I thought you might if there was a the last day I think the fact that it's on a Friday makes this conversation a little trickier the other thing it's different between this year and next year is this year we have two days we have Thursday Friday second and third right correct that that's right that was I think the harder for me I was not in favor of of having basically full two week break when we had two days we could have been here Tuesday Thursday Friday

132but I think where you're talking about one day it's the third and it's a Friday it's well no no no I'm talking about this year it's the third was the DAT that was the question mark that Paul brought up even after I think the idea of coming that second feels like by definition a wasted day and I think there will be a lot of people who would be like yeah you know what I can take a vacation like after Christmas and get a full week here right um yeah I think to me i' probably in favor of not being open on the second this time around well I am looking for a vote are you so motion make sure motion would be option one option one yeah so I will move to approve um the

133option shown as option one for the 2025 26 Calendar and for clarity say that that would be the one where we are not open on January 2nd I'll second that and then I just want to just continue the discussion for one more minute in case Marcy wants to add anything I don't want to forget that you're there Marcy and if you have any feedback on do you have anything that you want to share about whether coming back on the second is a good idea or a bad idea well if I remember the conversation correctly part of the reason we didn't have people come back is because the absenteeism rate on the second is like the highest of the year so I am in favor of the motion okay to go with option one all right

134so any more discussion on the motion nope okay all in favor hi we have to Marcy I yes Tina I Paul I Mark I I right thank you so we'll publish that this week okay all right um policies these are first reads the next few the athletic concussion regulations JJ IFR y I think I need glasses would you like mine um so I I did share the policies with you this is the first read uh tonight uh the the nurses have asked that we make sure we get it on tonight's um agenda and December 13th's AG agenda uh this really relates to adjustments that they've made uh in the concussion policy you've got the redline version as well uh you can see there were significant changes um and it's really about procedure as well as

135um you know pulling out specific tests like the impact testing was was something that was very specific in terms of the test they used for concussions uh they've sort of streamlined that to say a I forget the term without pulling it up um um they got they got rid of branding they got rid of branding basically yeah so um we had the nurse come in or one of the nurses come in to discuss the policy changes um and um they're comfortable with it they are currently using our old policy just so you know in terms of of treating students um we had a number of concussions uh in the fall uh for athletics uh but they're you know again they're just making sure that they are fine in um proper protocols so and and uh

136just to to reiterate with something we talked about in our uh policy subcommittee meeting uh when we talked about the urgency of these changes and whether it's has any substantive impact as to what uh the care or or anything we're doing for students the only change that this would make from a substantive perspective is current policy has a non-industry standard more conservative uh back to-play model so you're out for longer with the current policy than is in the you know current best practices so there's no harm to the students right now so there's not an impet toy if there was if if it was say the other way around uh then I would probably say hey let's let's vote to not do the two read and get it in there but there's not an urgency

137for this uh from that perspective there all the professionals are still able to do um the right thing for the for the a student athletes just want make sure I understand say Paul so that to the extent that there's a change reflected in the getting back into the sport scenario there there has been a change in sort of what's best recommended medical practice I don't know if it's a change but it's our policy has them staying out longer than the current best practice would uh would would say so current best practice defined by uh a couple places um so I have them listed in the actual clean copy the department of Ed yeah uh the MIAA uh as well as um doctors and they they've been in collaboration with that and so Jim went back

138and and linked all the references to all the all the things in there so but uh but I asked that specific question like hey we do all this work you know are we still able are are the professionals there still able to do what they believe they need to do for for our student athletes and the answer was yes this was the only substantive change in what they're going to do um be able to do once we adopt the policy is get them back in Action uh you know based on different best practices as opposed to uh you know a fixed time timeline that's in the current policy anybody have any issues or questions it's just a first read so we're not voting but you have some time to um come back with feedback the

139next time sound good MH okay um a division and mission statement we have to add it yeah the second one um they were talking about division and Mission uh we just we obviously it was not updated since 2011 yeah uh and we've certainly voted here already to pass New Vision admission um so all I've done is U as you can see the redline version here uh here's the actual New Vision and Mission uh but we added a line because we felt it was appropriate uh that the school committee will will review and publish the vision and mission statement on an annual basis uh therefore we will be publishing it obviously on the website or wherever we have it um um and our conversations around this were should we either update the policy as here or

140remove the policy right um because we've already actually voted right we've approved it we just need to get the other one out of our policy manual and replace this but we've also added the line about making sure that it it's on review is it really a policy we don't know right it's just a statement of what we believe the policy is that we will look at the polic the policy is it here means we are we we are formally writing we need to do this and we will have this that's right so that's the the value of it other than that I I question you know like why do we have a mission statement or vision statement in a policy that's not policy but if it it you know kind of like a circular logic

141of having it there and having that last statement commits us to doing it so right so we're I I don't I didn't have a strong opinion either way um so again first read yeah first read we don't have to take any action face coverings was just you know where the continued relevance of it so the face coverings we put into play during covid um and uh again you know just looking for this one to be removed from from our policy handbook hopefully never to be seen again right so yeah this is long um right long time coming to get even into policy awesome um second read which means we've already had a chance to introduce and discuss these a little bit um the non-discrimination policy including harassment and retaliation so we had looked at this

142this is actually our third time I believe looking at it because the the first time we didn't vote and we added um Mike in uh into a section based on our our attorney's um recommendation at the bottom where it says inquiries concerning uh directed the um Dr Michael kyus is in super that was the only change that we had added from the the last time but we couldn't vote on it because I didn't have that language so this one is ready to be voted on so we can get it into play who's got the motion well any no any discussion so um okay so we're just looking at AC right now correct correct yep I I'll make a motion to approve policy AC nism policy including harassment and retaliation has presented I'll second all in

143favor I roll call so Marcy Marcy I Tina I Paul I Mark I I okay and the next are the regulations um that go along with it for the staff ACR non-discrimination policy including harassment and retaliation so the recommendation uh from our uh legal team was this can be removed uh because it's being picked up in AC that and that's what we had talked about last time but it was significant if people wanted to read it to make sure that um but everything in here is has been incorporated into AC we have to vote on removals yeah I would think so sending yeah we're getting rid of it so the motion is to resend so I'll move to resend policy e-r non-discrimination policy including harassment retaliation great second thank you Marcy all in favor Marcy

144I Tina hi Paul hi Mark hi I and then on the consent agenda do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda do we have gifts and donations we okay y they we in there uh move to approve the consent agenda second all in favor Marcy I Tina I Paul I Mark I I and we're near the end reports of school committee members I'll start with you abash uh so nothing really much going on uh student bodywise like significantly um I know Mr Kyra I don't know if you want to comment on the recent make a wish trip um I would love to however I'm going to let the chair discuss I was going to pass that along to you but okay because they're sick of hearing from me not thank you for deferring

145but I'm a broken record I will be as quick as possible um I had the absolute privilege of attending the make a wish trip the annual trip to the Give Kids the World Village in Orlando with 35 34 amazing students and um I was a firsttime attendee and I I will say that it was one of the the greatest things I've ever been around as an educator in my 25 years in education to watch our students interact with the families and the children who are tended uh Give Kids the World Village um to watch the empathy and um care of our students was truly impressive um especially for me to be able to see these students who I've watched grow since they were five years old to become just incredible young adults uh it was

146it was really powerful experience for me as a person but also as a as a professional and I'm just so very proud of our students uh Mrs Shields who organizes the trip deserves a just tremendous amount of of Praise um I admire the work that she does and um it really was a a remarkable experience to have so just our kids that went on it represented Ashland in their families in the in the greatest possible way we have much to to be proud of those those 34 kids really really showed um the Ashland the ashin way in and and everything they did it was it was a remarkable remarkable experience thank you yeah thank you uh that that's all for me um there's not really much going on right now it's been quiet awesome Chris

147did you want to share about the conference at all thank you for doing that oh yeah NOP uh no I thought the conference uh was great it was my first experience attending that particular conference um hope to go back in the future um I thought our presentation was was uh like Jim mentioned well attended so no that's that's really all I had but it was a great experience all around awesome thank you Tina oh my update is about the conference as well too um I was there for a coup two of the days um and I thought the the sessions that I attended were informative and um interesting my favorite the my favorite one that that I was able to be a part of was actually the keynote on Thursday morning um where um they

148it was Timothy Shriver who um is part of the the bigger picture candidate when Unice Shriver was his mom um he presented his project called the dignity index and it's something especially in the climate that we're currently living in that has I've been mulling over in my brain since since the conversation I've talked to multiple people about it and I think it's an excellent framework for how we engage with other people um the whole concept is being mindful of the dignity with which we View and speak to other people in terms of making sure that we treat others with Humanity um and being mindful of how much contempt is in our words and our actions and how we treat other people and so you know the goal is not to you know kind of put

149down your swords when you disagree with people and just find a happy medium that's not the goal of the dignity project or the dignity index rather the goal is to um to work towards recognizing people's humanity and not othering people all of the time um it doesn't mean you have to agree it doesn't mean you have to like them it doesn't mean you have to come to any consensus um but recognizing other people is is humans um it was it was incredibly powerful and I think the the the visuals I I I literally gathered a couple of the things that were on the table to bring them home and share them with some people I think it's a really powerful uh kind of framework to to help guide and engage conversations and and I'm hoping

150that you'll be able to share it with Jen Cutler too I think it's it that's a it's a it's a great um yep it was just it was very powerful for me especially given where we were last week yeah this here's the prop yeah so the dignity index so it's you know it kind of goes through you know kind of building skills for dignify disagreement where it talks about being curious and not Furious you know regulate then debate you know like if you're not ready to have a respectful conversation then maybe take a moment right um and it goes through all of these different things I won't do all of them but it was really powerful it was a really cool exercise I think that he he took the audience through and I've since checked

151out their website and their their social media pages and they they do a good job in terms of helping you um pinpoint or or recognize and a lot of this is about awareness right especially self self- awareness but um when contempt is in people's words and actions and and how it how it I don't want to say excuse a conversation but how it leads to a lack of conversation right um and it's just really interesting so I'd encourage you all to check it out um I think it was a very uh it like I said was my favorite part of the um the conference and I think it was a really powerful yeah you can have your card back I have a few of them at home you put it away um it was really

152power I found it to be really powerful thank yeah sorry to have missed that one yeah I will be a broken record that was that was an amazing thing and and you know I'll paraphrase what he said is you know it it also didn't say that you can never use contempt or anything like that but he said you it's about being mindful basically about and and it labels it and gives you the ability to to rate where you are and and he said um you know if you use contempt to press your point you're automatically creating an enemy of your point right so you're not doing yourself a service when you do that so it's about understanding when you're doing that so it it it was Pro it was the best uh right and into

153that point he that you're that's AB such a good point because it's not the goal is to not never have contempt sometimes that's just we're there right the goal is to balance it out so that there's more dignity in your conversations than there ever is contempt and in your relationships really it's not just about one conversations at a time and so that's and that's really because it's hard it's hard well and sometimes sometimes you it's actually pointful to do it right it you know he he made a point because there somebody was challenging in the back and he's like this isn't the you know be nice movement this isn't the you know compromized movement isn't any of that it's it's it's more about mindfulness and understanding where you are and and and to make sure

154you're doing it with intention to get the results you want right um and uh and I think that's the most powerful thing and you know hopefully most of the people got the idea that it's really an internal thing right it's not about judging other people it's not that that's not the intent of it isn't an intent to go say Mark you were you were a two on this what the heck it's it's actually more about I live in the TW you're more it's more about yourself so it would I I agree it was it was phenomenal um but uh I also one of the other interesting ones I did stay on Friday later than normal is there was a session that was uh had undaunted K12 uh msba uh eversource and everything about about some

155funding uh and uh msba is actually introducing a new program uh for uh for heat pumps as well so that's that's an interesting um industry one and there's also some other new programs uh that were being announced by uh Mass Save and and things like that so there are some interesting things there uh and that kind of brings me into hot off the presses we we've talked about in the past uh the inflation reduction Act and the changes the recent changes to that that allow tax exempt entities to actually file for um uh the incentive rebates for uh sustainability projects and this morning we actually filed for the town of Ashland so I say the town of ashon because we have both projects that were were found to be eligible uh to the tune of

156uh the overall is going to be uh 3,177 236 of which um the uh the Mendes project was uh a little over 2.3 million of that and Public Safety a little over 800,000 so until we get the check it is it is what it is but that was submitted uh today so that's uh if that comes to FR and that's a that's a big number that's a that' be a huge win for for the town so have any idea how long it takes to hear on this stuff okay so the the line is that it takes 45 business days from the filing deadline when we did the extension our extension went through the 15th of November oddly enough uh 45 business days from the 15th of of November is January 23rd so uh it might

157be a little wild well yeah well well we'll see what happens we'll see what happens I it's still there I'd love to think that he's got other things that he's you know going to look at that rather than on day one WR something that right that you know to check but hopefully we get it before that that's that's just the expectation so as long as they meet the they they beat the expectation by a few days you know there there wouldn't be a chance that it wouldn't go through okay I think so that I won't go out on anything better better than that so yeah right I got to follow I I was going to um would fully Echo Tina and Paul's comments about um the Keo presentation on that Thursday morning thought that was

158the highlight of the program for what I was able to attend um I did think the moderated discussion on Friday morning um led by John Keller from WBZ about sort of you know where do we go from here in terms of um potential changes in in education was was interesting you know obviously there's a lot of we'll see in that but it was interesting conversation um the one thing I was going to just back on the the um first program what I thought was interesting in there is actually talked about the Utah um school boards Association had adopted this dignity index and I think it's among the membership like the equivalent of the masc As I understood it but they started only at five and so what they're basically saying is we're not even accepting

159one through four and so sort of their bottom starting point would be the other side has the right to be here and right to be heard it's their country too kind of thing it's the sample statement um I just thought that was an interesting thing I think it you know from a from our board perspective um and we've talked at different times about you know are there any expectations that we want to kind of codify into policy I think we did that a few years ago to some extent and maybe it's an interesting conversation for a later date as to you what we want to be in place is sort of a quasi school committee bylaw or standard of expectations um but other than that I don't think I have anything at this point I

160think last site Council was before our last meeting so that's all I've got thanks Mike said it best you guys have heard me say it before uh the only part that I want to repeat is to shout out the students and the um the chaperon who put so much work into this and the students were amazing and I can't tell you how many adults on campus whether they were parents of wish children or employees of Give Kids the World approached us to um just talk about how mature and compassionate and hardworking our students were some people took my address because they wanted to contact the district and I think we should just all be very proud of the way they represented us out there so just a reminder Town meetings next week so be there

161be square Marc Marcy I'm sorry I'm looking for Marcy forget me but I have anything yeah Marcy and Mark both had students on the trip as well and and it was really great getting to know them so yes I got pictures ke on a plane next to Mike lying down yeah a random one from ke and Lori when it was Friday maybe yep Friday Saturday so y anyway and Jillian was in my group we all had small group so it was it was a nice opportunity to get to know your children and a lot of all the rest of the students that that came with us for me it's just um really the best way that keeps me connected to kids and I just really um treasure that time so all right um we I'm

162going to move to go into executive session Marcy just so you know I think I let you know but I'm going to be sending someone's going to be sending you a link okay you got your link and that's where we'll meet up in a few minutes so I move to enter into executive session under ml chapter 30A section 218 to to conduct strategy sessions and preparation for negotiations with non-union Personnel superintendent Jim Adams or to conduct a collective bargaining with the intent of not returning to public session so this is a roll call vote Marcy oh do we have a second second Marcy hi yes Tina hi Paul hi Mark hi hi for me as well see you there good night everybody good night for