001e e e good evening and welcome to the May 22nd apologize May 22nd 2024 ashin school committee meeting uh as is typical after the elections we have to do a reorganization meeting uh so I called the meeting to order and first and foremost we need to look at having um a chair and a vice chair and then we'll go through the agenda uh topics as listed today so um sorry I've got someone here waiting to come in apologize uh so can I have a nomination for chair of the ashon school committee I will nominate Miss Lori tosy to serve for a record setting whatever it's been 11 years have a as our chair second that discussion do you want it Lori are you okay I'd be honored to do it again thank you so seeing
002none can we get a do we need to do a roll call here Mark or no no just a a vote on Miss tosy as the chair please hi yes oh four Z so miss tosy you can did you vot didn't three Z Can I with one exstension so okay would you like to take over then sure we still need a next up we are going um for nominations for vice chair I'd like to nominate Mark if he's open to the position again we a second for that yeah second discussion are you willing I'm willing anybody have anything to say just thank you for all all you've done for so many years appreciate working with you awesome so all right all in favor I hi I'm voting for myself hi right standing and then secretary
003the fun job unless anybody want to volunteer you can have it that's not relinquish the SE I know do you want like 6,000 page minutes right I nominate Tina Tina are you up for that I am that's yeah do we have a second second all right all in favor I I I everyone I 4 Z thank you all right same old same old everybody it ain't broke don't fix it yeah thank you okay um getting back to the order of business this evening we're starting with our call to order agenda review and adoption there will be time for oh I didn't read our vision statement I'm I'm messing up on my first night of my new job you've done this we start every meeting by reading our vision statement which is the Ashland Public School
004strives to be a model dist District that creates a culture of inclusivity for our diverse students and staff who feel safe and supported are empowered with the academic and social emotional skills to pursue their chosen path and embrace their roles as positive contributors to local and Global communities this meeting is being recorded by waca cable TV um after time for public comment the administrative items on the agenda this evening uh we've already done the reorganization of the school committee there's a field trip proposal New York City November 9th and 10th 2024 a field trip proposal Costa Rica April 18th through 26 2025 the Warren school Improvement Plan update uh we will not be having the counseling update this evening um the World Language update Ashland Middle School and Ashland high school program review sixth grade
005World cultures curriculum AHS handbook recommendations AHS School Improv M Plan update school committee summer Retreat superintendent evaluation assistant superintendent update superintendence update warrant approvals I'm not sure if we'll have warrant approvals tonight probably not uh gifts and donations minutes from April 24 2024 committee reports of activities member updates action items and then we will adjourn is everybody okay with the order of business this evening yes excellent um so then we will move on to public com comment anybody here for comment Miss CCE doet got three minutes yes uh what prompted me to come visit with you today is there's been a breaking news story about telecom companies coming in and offering Financial incentives to put cell towers on schools and I just want to be sure that Ashlin Public Schools is aware of the risks
006uh there are severe fall risks fire risks and as you're familiar with the biological effects of Wireless radiation so just wanted to put that out there for you if the industry comes in and says hey we'll give you $1,000 doar to put a cell tower on the schools please be very wary of that at an earlier planning board meeting Lisa me who is Our Town Council indicated she is not a telecom expert and you really need to have a good land use attorney to look at anything that the Telecom industry would put forward what we're finding out in contracts that were drawn up in un knowing schools is that they roped them into contracts that start out for a few years but then the language if you don't know to look at it carefully and
007I'm grateful we have three attorneys on our school board no Telecom attorneys but yeah but they're doing some pretty tricky things you don't want me on that job that would lead you bound into these contracts for like 35 years so I that's what brought me in here today but earlier when we did the open house at our beautiful new mind school I took a radio frequency radiation detection meter into the building with me but first I measured out in the parking lot and it was a beautiful green because we have not allowed cell towers on our schools when I got into the schools though it was very high and very dangerous because we unwittingly put wireless access points in the ceiling of every single classroom that's a Non-Stop microwave radiation transmitter and Lori I want
008to give you a shout out when we first visited this conversation back in 2013 I think there was a gentleman up in Vermont by the name of Ray peeler who's a building biologist and he specializes in the biological effects of electromagnetic radiation you were the first school Committee Member in the 11 years at that time that he had been doing this that actually picked up the phone and asked good questions so thank you for having a curious mind and ultimately Ashlin became the first in the nation to even have a sign hanging in our classrooms with best practices for mobile devices can you confirm are we still hanging this in all of our classrooms I think that's what we put in the handbook we we can't respond this is public comment so we're we're not
009going to be answering any questions but and I I personally don't know okay kudos to Ashlin because we became the first in the nation and now it has been positioned as a national example with a nonprofit organization called Tech safe schools so what I would like to do is to offer you this meter to go into our schools and see what you can see because I measured the gym the cafeteria I measured all over that building and it was red hot wherever I went the message is not no technology and if you look at those Ruckus access points that were put up each one has two ethernet cables in it you can just drop a wire to the center of the room plug in devices there turn off the radiation and have perfectly safe technology
010so I would like to work with the school committee to one measure the exposures in our schools and two look at the incredible resources we have today because what the science is showing us is this and I think you guys will be able to relate to the anxiety the depression the learning disabilities children who have nausea headaches nose bleeds we know scientifically now that this microwave radiation pulsation is a huge contributing factor and I know that our social and emotional issues are only growing in the children in our care today so I would love to work with you proactively uh summertime is a great time they're really easy sorry CeCe I'm GNA have to cut you off just out of fairness to everybody else who's up there U who only has limited time but um
011certainly we can't respond but um and I can't answer any of your questions about your device but certainly if you but can we set up a meeting um I'm not going to answer that question right now um but certainly will somebody can be available to at least answer that question at a later date okay thank you thanks so I will leave you at this I'll come back the next meeting I do not want to be responsible for that take it and if we decide that we want it I'm sorry I didn't mean to I'm just want to make sure that you have it um if after at at the appropriate time that we have a chance to discuss it if the committee somebody wants to be the steward of that equipment we'll reach out to
012you but I don't personally want to be responsible for it right now okay thank you thank you okay next up field trip proposal any any other oh sorry anybody else here for public comment this evening thank you I think maybe you should have been okay field trip proposal New York City November 9th through 10th 2024 hello my name is Mary nth I'm teacher at the high school and Mike Worster and I are partnering to um present this proposal for New York City trip that would highlight um history and music awesome um and the dates are on the agenda and how many students yes so we the motor coach can take um up to 50 students and so we think the kind of The Sweet Spot is 40 to 50 students is this similar to the
013trip that you've taken in the past or is this a new so there was a trip that was proposed and approved I think maybe two years ago we couldn't get the numbers um so that trip didn't end up going gotcha okay anybody have any question who is the trip targeted towards is are there certain classes that are invited to join is it open to anybody it is open to anybody um so grades 9 through 12 um certainly Mike is going to be you know uh advertising it to his students and me to mine but yeah it's 9 through 12 and and so are you trying to pull I this this sounds like a sort of um somewhat interdisciplinary type of thing right history and music you bet so is it going to be try to
014be pushed out through both the history department and the music department certainly Ander the entire school okay all right and like is there criteria for being accepted is it like first come or is it if there are more students than you have room for on the bus yeah I think first come first served yeah okay and I was just gonna say I noticed that um for a for a portion of this part of what goes along with it is like a travel journal and you know kind of a critique of the play that you guys watch and whatnot so obviously some you know if this is open to all students some some students have supports in school when they're working on writing projects and things like that so is there a plan if there are
015students who may need certain structure or support is they're working through the assignment piece of that how do you envision that being what is like what does that look like to to execute the assignment part of it so Mike and I are going to offer um a a few X blocks leading up to the activity to kind of talk through expectations what they're going to be seeing and doing and then the travel log how that is going to run and how it should be structured um and like how to write a musical review and I will you know I will lead the X blocks on music prepping them on the musical kind of um introducing the musical numbers and the plot so they're familiar with the show and then how to write that and then
016after uh we come back we will also offer xblocks you know writing workshops and I see Mr Worster on the zoom is there anything you wanted to add yeah I I mean I wanted to be able to come here at least virtually and support Miss nameth in this um this this kind of came out of a series of conversations that we've had over the last year or so about certain locations that we could bring the kids to and double team in a cross-curriculum way very specifically to kind of address and circle back to some of the questions that you all had I I teach a modern issues elective that's really geared towards seniors but it's open to all kids and to pull some of that curriculum into the X block was one of the discussions
017that we've had because and I and I've mentioned the several times to miss nameth there there are just a number of students who are unaware about the magnitude of the Attacks of September 11th and I can't understate how surprised I am on a regular basis when they come to me as Juniors and we hit that part of the curriculum at the end of the year which we're about to do this year and when they come to me as seniors if they haven't had me they they are just not aware of what happened that day because they weren't born yet are yeah of course of course it's beyond that though I mean it's about what we're telling our kids at home what we're teaching our kids in the school and you know they know that image
018of the plane about to hit the building the second tower actually but they don't know what happens next and many of the students believe that the Boston Marathon bombing is a numerical equivalent to 911 in New York City Pennsylvania and so forth so it's it it really is I think it's really important to be able to take a week of xblocks and kind of bring them through what happened that day which I do in my class but this would be a very condensed version of that so that when we go down on that Saturday and they are there at the national September 11th Museum on Hallowed Ground that they can appreciate what they're seeing and they're not just simply seeing a waterfall per se as part of the memorial as designed but they are seeing
019something of of significance so we we we spent I I mean Miss n if you jump in I feel like we've spent a lot a lot of time actually going back and forth over uh this year and last year actually and even when we were in Italy kind of talking about cross-curriculum stuff and I've been there it's very U yeah it's am powerful and impactful and to see all the names carved in and yeah you definitely can't escape an understanding of the magnitude when you're there um I just want to ask a question about and this where all our volume went up um it's sort of a question that that Paul Kendall always seems to ask and in appropriately so which is around what are we doing given the cost of the trip to make
020it accessible to students and families that can't afford it on their own um and I'm just wondering what kind of conversations you've had around that and what the Outreach would be to make sure students understand that regardless of their means um they should be at least coming forward and seeking support to be able to attend the trip you bet um so we have spoken with Dan Shields and she has a fund um that has a few thousand dollars in to help support students who want to go on school trips um so that is an option Mike and I have also talked about um looking at potentially doing some programming to fund raise either doing like a um like fall like Halloween themed dance or a Halloween themed 5K Fun Run where there you know where
021people can dress up and run uh to raise funds to provide some scholarships thank you I know when Miss Shields has been here she has said that like when the trip is introduced to the students that there's some kind of information if you feel like finances are an issue please come to me for a private discussion kind of thing you bet and and I think that um we're also going to include if if families who are able would like to contribute additional funds to support students who to make it possible for other students to go on that there' be an opportunity to do so that's fantastic that's great may I speak a little bit to the music part of the the field trip um so I uh ble Broadway I love Broadway musicals um and
022there are some incredible shows that are going up in New York City um with a lot of literature and history tiin as well so Great Gatsby is one of the options um uh Like Water for Elephants which takes place was a really famous uh fiction book book in the 1930s circus it's really incredible about the depression um and the one that I'm really excited about is called suffs it's about suffragettes um so there's a lot of really wonderful Rich shows and there's also tremendous benefit to students going to performances and learning the etiquette of how to sit in an audience at the high school we don't have a like required um like in school performances for like the band or the choir or the plays or the musicals and so there really isn't an opportunity
023aside from assemblies and assemblies are a you know a horse of a different color and so there is a real benefit to how do you behave um in an audience and we just came from um the choir and I from a tour around ashin visiting all of our schools and Kinder Care and the residents at Valley Farm and you know all the schools are are learning and teaching while we are there how what is appropriate behavior when do you clap when do you not clap and how to sit and enjoy so so that I think is really beneficial as well sounds wonderful I'll make a motion to approve the field trip proposal to New York City on November 9th 10th 2024 as presented second all in favor I I going thank you thank you very
024much enjoy the show thanks okay next up we have another field trip proposal Costa Rica April 18th to 26 2025 ra hi I'm Tina lock um I'm looking to bring back a program that the high school students used to used to go to in Costa Rica the dates have changed a little bit so it's um shorter it's one day shorter it starts on the 19th which makes the price go down a little bit like $140 um but the students it' be a small group of students like 6 to 12 um and it's based on interest so if Stu whoever wants to go in the school it's open to it and then the students will go to um research and take data on leatherback sea turtles then they're endangered so they'll contribute to helping them um
025in their habitats but they'll do measurements they'll relocate them if they need to they'll also get the opportunity weather permitting I guess to go um on like nigh hikes in the rainforest with guides and it's just an overall exciting sign experiment or Adventure um and the teacher that went on this before just Raves and Raves about the experience that they all had while they were there and that's why I'm like let me see I'll take it over you know how long it's been since we ran this trip it's been a while I don't even I don't even remember I remember hearing about it yeah no I think was I still principal you you had last yeah okay so it's spent at least eight yeah is there a group that you know facilitates the all this
026scientific experimentation how does that work yes it's the um ecology project International and they do offer like a small need-based scholarship so um if people need it they can apply and they do whatever paperwork they need and I think it's only like up to about $600 of it but they also offer like GoFundMe type fundraising for every individual student can have this um link or whatever I'm not sure how it will play out um and then also like once I have a group and I know who's going we can talk about fundraising ideas um I got it once the commitment is made and that same organization they pretty much set the agenda for your day they do it all they do the travel they do um all the and they're used to having student groups
027come in yeah and I think the woman who used to run it she told me that like if they had a small group and there was another small group of school they would just work together and they would get to meet other people from other schools in the country or wherever awesome am I I correct assuming the dates that are on the form overlap with our school vacation week for the most part yes yeah it is all during the school vacation is this targeted towards a certain class like is or it's just kind of open to anybody who's interested there's no necessary prerequisite of information or anything that AP environmental I was trying to think you know what what classes would I'm sure obviously some kids who have targeted classes may you know have a
028greater interest but um it's good to know that it's open to anybody and I noticed you know kind of some of the curriculum pieces that this touches on I didn't notice like with the last presentation any specific assignment that goes along with it so was it really just an experiential learning yes that happens yeah sounds s like a ton of fun they used to have a situation where students could get like college credit um they don't have it right now but they're working on it for next year 2025 so I don't know if that will so students may be able to do that so they may be able to Y they get 30 hours course work hours or something is what they kind of Promise them as a part of sounds great their experience I
029want to go back to high school I know it also sounds kind just for the fun sounds very exciting yeah who's got a motion unless you have more questions no I was to say somebody else want to yeah um I mov to approve the um High School field trip to Coast R oh I lost the dates hold on April 18 to 26 now it's the 19 April 19 through the 26th 2025 as presented second all in favor I I going forward to hearing about it thank you yeah oh boy as someone who's been to the uh to Costa Rica when the turtles were being laid or the the eggs yeah it was it's unbelievable sounds really phenomenal oh my gosh been there country absolutely that's where I just was yeah yeah my daughter's going to
030be like going I just went for April vacation beautiful unbelievable good night thank you and safe it's awesome all right hi Pete Warren school Improvement Plan update hello thank you for having me and Lori this will be a review for you as you heard it at site Council excellent I'm very excited just with the progress that our schools been making towards the goals that we set uh it's still a journey you know where this is a three-year plan but we we've got a great start we're further head that I anticipated uh when we began the year we started our partnership as you know with S3 through desie the Strategic student support system and they've worked with us we've now created whole Child reviews um so we have completed one this year with a small group
031of Staff that's part of our training team we'll be doing another one next week without the support of S3 so they were with us for the first round of this um our school's a little different in what we've been doing with the S3 group and know at the beginning it was a little frustrating because when we were part of the whole group sessions with the state um and other communities we would be in breakout sessions and we would hear staff members from other schools saying I don't even know why I'm here right now and our staff was getting very frustrated by that because ours were dedicated professionals they making a difference for our students uh S3 made some great adjustments and they started grouping us together and really just letting us work together with the
032support from their uh leadership team uh they also visited our data team meetings and observed our data team meetings and just saw how these two pieces overlap each other in great ways but that they shouldn't occur at the same time in their opinions that the whole meeting whole child review should happen twice a year but that our data uh reviews at five times a year where they they felt that we should actually present to other groups at the state level because of what we're accomplishing um so with our progress towards that we're doing really well uh with our whole Child reviews the team will expand next year based on recommendations from S3 it will still not be a whole school initiative until year three um and the goal really tail us back to goal of
033gyms which is that every child has an individualized learning plan um and our teachers are doing that right now for reading for mathematics and their social emotional pathway next year we're going to be increasing that to be writing as well uh so we're moving towards those pieces of what our district goals are uh as some other pieces that are still under the that heading uh of the equity pieces is we've also continued to be recognized as a unified school Champion uh with our Special Olympics pieces and that's just exciting of what we're able to do uh for all of our students and the Partnerships that we've grown there as we've continued as well with social emotional learning uh as I mentioned a moment ago in our data team meetings Jen Taylor is working with us
034as well so she's supporting the counselors with meeting with the teachers to create those individualized plans of where students need some additional small group work uh or tweaking some lessons for classes based on data that we're finding the CL uh staff we have eight staff members who are being trained over the next two weeks weeks with responsive classroom so our commitment that we made years ago that all teachers will be trained in responsive classroom has continued our new hires we will have three new first grade teachers next year uh they are already scheduled and signed up to be taking the course at the end of July um so we will have all of our teachers again will be uh trained and certified with responsive classroom U our community service projects that's our one that I
035don't have a great update to give yet um our team is working hard to really develop about what are going to be those pieces that our students will be doing this year as well um our staff has done quite a bit of where they've jumped forward into future years and I'm trying to bring them back to the here and now still and say what are we doing for this pieces uh with some adjustments that we're going to be making with some just weekly tasks that classrooms will be responsible for different areas of the playground and how we're going to be really cleaning because if you've driven by the school anytime in the last few years you'll see that at night there's probably on any given day five basketballs three soccer balls 14 jackets different things
036I doubt about there um and that's part of the plan of where we've been talking with the students about how each day different classes are going to take time to really take the care for that area that that's needed uh but we are not in a place yet where I have the specifics of what will be the occurrences of this year we've got quite a few ideas and they're just narrowing them down on that team U on Resource Management our drills have continued u under Mike's Direction with the district Safety Committee working very closely with the Ash police department and Ash fire department uh We've continued to make great strides uh we continue to throw different wrinkles into our drills as our staff has realized that they need to make decisions at the moment to
037keep the children of themselves safe um and we'll continue with another drill coming up in the next week or so um stmath has been a great success this year as well stmath set a lofty goal for all the schools so when we went to the training back in August they told us that the goal needed to be that 80% of our students have made the progress through the Journey that it's called of these math U puzzles and they did tell us about how districts are dropped each year because they haven't met that lofty goal uh we did have it till the end of the year to reach this goal and as of last Friday uh the goal being 80% 87.9% of our Journeys were already completed and we still have the remaining part of the
038year uh really credit there goes to our teachers um our teachers have bought in and they understand the importance of what we're doing with this and I credit that to the teachers are the one that brought this to me and they asked they said we need something different to help our children here are the benefits of this we want to visit other communities and look at this um so when it came time to share here's our plan of how we'll implement this um everyone was on board immediately and that's why we've had the buy and that we've had the great success P can you just say quickly what Journeys is so the journey is part of the stbath piece so there's a penguin name right right all right so that's yeah so there's a penguin
039named Gigi and Gigi needs to go on this journey through their math lessons of the course of a year and what they're doing is they're getting exposed to all the content of that grade level and there's actually U differentiation that happens as well of where they can get onto some higher pieces as well uh I also have the ability that we can change grade levels for some students so if they need to come backwards a little or go forward a little we have that piece teachers can assign individual puzzles to their children as well so that journey is that they're really trying to move the penguin through through this large map of puzzle after puzzle after puzzle the kids love it they are they are really excited last Friday as a celebration for reaching our
040goal we had penguin day um it was just a fun day at our school where the kids were very excited that did you dress up I had my white uh my tuxedo t-shirt on there you [Laughter] go love it thanks so we will be continuing to push forward in these goals as there still progress to make uh from every area that I spoke about from S3 with the whole Child reviews that as I mentioned the team will be getting larger next year by expanding our data team meetings um another major component of our data team meetings is how we're sharing information what was accomplished this year with the next year's teacher so we're not starting over uh the community service pieces and as I said the teachers are excited about the future just keeping them
041in the here and now um responsive classroom will continue for all of our staff and then as well with joury this is a three-year uh grant that we are connected with as long as we continue uh to meet the qualifications which I have no doubt that we will great thanks Fe any other questions good stuff sounds like a lot of good good progress thanks P okay World Language update ashin middle school and ashin high school program review so I'm going to just do a quick introduction with this um I think I think the school committee knows that over the course of at least my 10 years as superintendent and even going back to principal of the high school uh we've had conversation about the World Language department and what it looks like uh in the
042ashon public schools and and we've really worked hard at trying to drive uh the two languages that we currently offer French and Spanish uh and building programs is important and and I want to be really clear um that Aston Public Schools is not a system that believes in one language to be offered we don't know what the rest of it looks like uh in terms of where we're headed um from a curriculum standpoint but in the middle school we made some adjustments and and Dave can talked us a little bit two years ago uh coming out of Co um where some of our students were missing part of the year in French and part of the Year in Spanish and we we we thought how can we drive the the language department at the middle
043school to help add numbers at the high school in both languages right French and Spanish and so we're doing exploratory half year French half year Spanish then they would do the same in in the seventh grade in the eighth grade they would choose which language they're going to um f focus on at the e8th grade level which eventually leads into the high school right um so we're a couple years in and we're looking at the numbers and uh it's still not great uh in terms of the French numbers and as we look at programming I think it's important to understand that it's not just an Ashlin phenomena right I was just in Vermont over the weekend my two best friends are French teachers uh and they are actually both teaching Spanish next year um and
044they're only French speakers like in Vermont where you would think French were near the Canadian border those numbers are dropping significantly there as well uh it's a challenge so what I wanted Dave and Kelly to do was to present to you the data that we see happening in terms of enrollment what are students choosing uh for next year uh how does what does it look like and then the second component to this is uh and Dave will speak to this afterwards what are we going to do for next year right how can we approach uh World Language but also uh culture and um exposing our students to diverse uh cultures and uh we'll get into that in a moment but I think it's important to have Dave and Kelly talk about the numbers themselves because
045the data drives the decision we make decisions we make with regard to um teachers yeah in programming that we offer so um Dave do you want to start and I'll pull your slide deck up put my glasses on so I can see it okay I think each of you should have this okay yeah I just want do Paul Kendall's not here to yell at me is what you do or or to no I have it up but so so Jim would explain you know what the program looks like this year and the graphic shows you in terms of Staffing uh right now three Spanish uh teachers and two French teachers so you're right now you're sixth and seventh grade or exploratory half French half Spanish this was something that we've done for the past two
046years to try to reinvigorate to see we can boost um numbers and invigorate the program so uh that was for the past two years and for this year then we uh pulled our seventh grade students to say you're going to choose your language now for next year so these are students who've had essentially a Year's worth of exposure to both languages right so um after doing those numbers out in terms of eight selections your French selection in the grade was 28 yeah and your eighth grade was 169 so decrease even from what we were seeing so we didn't see an increase we we saw a decrease in language so that's presenting challenges for the staffing we have and being able to be able to run the program like we want to be able to run
047right the program right so with the next slide sorry oh sorry Dave y that yep y okay so um based on So based on the the request numbers we were looking at just the number of classes we would need running those classes right so for your seventh grade French and I have the request numbers up there as well so we pulled sixth grade students 33 students um selecting French 160 pretty similar ratio in fact it's a little smaller because going back three to four years ago the class sizes were a little smaller too right so actually not in for eth grade you're looking at 15 students which would be one class of course and 155 for seven to eight classes that's based on what are the numbers and the other grades and whether we need
048to utilize Staffing so Dave can I just ask excuse me um when you're when you're doing these um surveys or whatever they are are you asking the kids directly or are the parents involved in that at all so I just let parents know that the students are going to be selecting it uh and they they do select it in the award language classes with their World Language teacher okay whomever it is right so it's not it's not about the teacher you're it's who you're with at that time right so in the exploratory in sixth and seventh grade you're right you're splitting to different teachers so we did the poll uh not not a month ago so relatively recently so whoever students have right now right for the second semester they did that in that course
049gotcha I was only asking because I know in that age group sometimes you know what the kid wants and what the parent wants be different but but but still if the interest is that low then right we make parents aware because it's the same thing if you just pull parents you might not exactly exact you know representation because ultimately they have to take the class and they encourage students when they present it speak to your parents regarding your choice right every discussion because we want the numbers to be accurate right uh it can be challenging in middle school but we let the parents know as well and we're hoping they have this conversation yeah sounds like the right approach so is this a poll or enr like what kids have enrolled in or we said
050running the program which would you select to choose this is what you would be enrolled in for the fall of 20 okay so it's not a commitment though it's a poll I mean we P we we pulled it but we'll send another email saying you know we're scheduling according to these numbers yeah so so Mark to your point it's not a commitment yet because we're going to be asking specific things of the school committee tonight with regard to changing curricula right right I mean if if if you're not on board if the committee is not on board with the direction that we're looking to go then these numbers could significantly change and we're just pushing kids into programs that may not be what they're interested in right I mean regardless of who was pulled these
051numbers are pretty striking well well and it's consistent with what we've seen over the course of 10 years right we've been talking about it and and especially Marcy you know knew and I don't know how much of the time you've been involved Tina in these discussions but they've been going on for years usually at the summer Retreat where we talk about you know stuff like this so but it's time to to make some changes numb are really dictating that you can't they're moving in a the other direction they're moving in the other direction and we tried as we said to to do everything we felt we could yeah to reinvigorate and it just results were yeah it just didn't happen so um so in terms of our needs now um you don't have the need
052for two French teachers because we don't have the numbers to create those classes as I said unless you force students to take a certain language um so the need for for us this year was a four Spanish teachers and one French teacher based on the numbers I just showed you um so if you look up at French so you would have two French seventh grade classes and you would have one uh French eighth grade classroom right because you had 33 roughly so you're looking at two classes of 16 17 and a class of 15 um for your e8th grade in Spanish You're probability looking at eight eth grade classes I get depending on the size of the sixth grade class but that extra French teacher now goes to teaching all those Spanish classes so it
053it does work so that should a typo s seventh and eth sorry about that yeah um so yeah I'm sorry the first should say seventh I apologize um so for sixth grade what I would also mean is instead of teaching the exploratory now again because you don't have that French interest need the Spanish teacher um just having conversations about instead of offering a course that teaches a basic introductory to the language introduction to the language to teach a course more that focuses on um cultural responsiveness the Customs the Traditions um you know aligning with sort of our Dei um initiatives in giving students um more of those experiences uh encouraging them having them understanding um to appreciate other people's differences and other cultures so which which is needed um especially now so it's an opportunity
054for us to shift from uh a introduction to French and Spanish to our sixth grade students taking instead call it a world cultures class where they would be exposed to a range of cultures Traditions um and and be able to stress that and we even talk with our teachers about uh in sixth grade talk about what it means to learn a language the following year what skills you're looking to develop what does it mean so I think there's a lot of opportunities to also sort of set the stage for that seventh grade year where they'll be choosing uh essentially choosing their language for this model right so after that world cultures class they would choose their language or following year looking at the programming so um that's what uh we're asking the change that I
055think we would like to make so primarily is our sixth grade class going from a exploratory introduction to a world cultur model for us and we'll come back to that that's the next top do you have any like Frameworks yeah Mike we'll talk about that that's the next agenda item yeah I just want to give you the numbers first can I was going to ask can I just ask a numbers question um so I'm just are there any kids and I don't know that this would change proportions at all but are there any kids that are not currently taking want an exploratory right I mean that that for whatever they don't take foreign World Language and aren't reflected in these numbers or might have made a choice without having had the opportunity to participate in
056the exploratory program so we looked at those numbers as well so to answer your question there are some students right who are getting other services so they wouldn't be factored into that number so that if those students were then going to be in World Language we reached out to those students to figure out what their selection would be so you're you're taking those students into account but to your point it's not 100% students because of students within their schedule or needs getting certain services that any difference in sort of the proportion of French ver Spanish from the kids who haven't taken had any exposure at all is pretty much the same thing it's pretty similar unfortunately you know that it's reflecting the same thing we're just having a lower Ratio or number of students who
057are interested in taking so in terms of you know the students who aren't taking of foreign language because they're receiving services or or whatnot um during that block of the day I'm assuming that that means that in sixth grade they'll miss out on this world cultures course is is is that how the schedule will still work and what does that mean like yeah correct so how the schedule runs now then yes that's what think like yeah great question that's what it me yeah and that so those are the parts where the way the schedule works now that yes that's what it would mean the same as it does now they're getting Services they're missing that exploratory in sixth grade so it's in that same block so yeah you're right with that so let me chime
058in there because this is actually a great conversation that the three of us had on Monday uh is how how do we actually create an opportunity for these students to be exposed right to the world cultures class because we we we do think it's critically important that all kids right and whether you're getting Services outside uh and you're not required to take a World Language Etc this is part of the reason why uh as we move forward with whatever schedule we have for next year that we're really re-evaluating the schedule we have at the middle school so in future years um all students have an opportunity to experience um the totality of the curricula but but that being said yeah I mean it it's the way the schedule set up students who are um you
059know typically receiving Services don't have the ability to be taking uh or language they're just pulled for other reasons at that time so are you saying that the schedule would would be potentially different next year or be in 2526 Mark yeah yeah we don't have the ability to change it right now yeah this is so the way we're working with the schedule based on the numbers is we have to make modifications to the current schedule with teaching staff uh and to be able to provide a course where students can go we can't just have sixth graders going nowhere so we want to make sure we create a course where within Dave's wheel if you you know if you will or that it's there for those students so instead of taking a half year French half
060year Spanish in sixth grade there's another option and that option could be World cultures drama whatever else that we add into the system right and it seems like this is the beginning of like a longer term conversation because if French is not sustainable as an offering which it looks like it could be headed in that direction then there has to be another iteration of this anyway yeah program change you know theu changes because this isn't sustainable either right those numbers are going that direction because then you stop be predicated on the numbers each it's it just right it's not good for anybody even the person who's teaching French it's it's a not a stable situation right yeah and so who's teaching the world cultures class is this going to take the place of teach the
061so like let's say the French teacher because there aren't as many corre students teach so that this would go into their rotation of coures and fantasy as well yep yep if the um and this might not be the right time for this question but if they're not getting the halfe intro in sixth grade does that put them behind of where you expect them to progress when they get to high school no okay so be pre um you know pre-co it was you know seventh grade exploratory going into e8th grade you choose okay or sixth grade exploratory and you choose two years and you get in the seventh and eighth grade the bottom line is in many most districts if not all um grade World Language should be the equivalent of whatever the first iteration ofman
062year freshman year at the high school Spanish one French one that's what it needs to be okay so we've got to change that's a great question because we have to actually change our instructional model to ensure that the students who are in the eth grade are actually ready and confident to move into whatever that Spanish to Portuguese to whatever it might be right whatever we decide on Y and move forward with in a year that's the equivalent of a eighth grade should be equivalent of one year of whatever language it is shouldn't be predicated upon seventh grade right now we've got seventh and eighth grade trying to get a year worth of instruction in so actually should just be the eighth grade year okay okay in my recollection too when my kids were at the
063middle school was even when they had those half years um it wasn't purely language instruction there was a lot of culture and that it was that was a part of that halfe curriculum it wasn't purely foreign language instruction and so it sounds like this is going to broaden that that look at culture right which is a great thing um but also it it's not brand newre yeah yeah like I said Mike will talk a little bit about that yeah when we get to the request yeah it just looks different right y okay questions for Dave so we move into Kelly like I want to because it really yeah it's all it's all one correct thanks Dave thanks hi Kelly you have Castle tonight yeah okay let me see this is this so similar to Middle
064School we've been doing some work to build the program back up French this is these are the numbers from this year this is the first year in a while um able to offer a French one this year and you know the hope that was going to be started building um look at the other sections with French we have for a couple years now been running that differ than we do for a lot and you so all of our classes with the exception of our year combin I'm sorry we had two of those they were all combined EX four was students so this year we have. Spanish teachers and there're a lot so when we shared our requests with our ladies oness April two students ji we have some kids are language classes that relms on
065these um charts um you're showing CP slh right so that I assum it's College Prep two are and honors can be combined is that um maybe this on the next slide but is that do you have to do the same thing with Spanish classes sear so that's definitely students iners it so it I mean I think on your two slides they do show the same way um so maybe I may made an assumption on the French one that wasn't right you know shows like for example French 2 cp29 and has the breakdown it shows the same way um in the Spanish right CP slh and then but the classes you're say are separated out are not okay so when the kids come out of eth grade and they've taken the language I know that the
066expectation is they're supposed to be ready for French 2 or Spanish 2 but is does that automatically happen or is there some kind of test to make sure that they shouldn't do French one versus French two um we are not we do not test we just automatically put everybody in two no no I think the teachers make recomendations based on what studies they should be ready for yeah proficiency so there are there are students every year that Middle School teachers might say don't ready they're going into one and so if you can't offer a one then and so that what is that they go Spanish they go to Spanish one okay interested in French Spanish okay gotcha okay thank you which like they're starting over anyway right yes so yeah um so when looking at
067our numbers we realized we need to take our2 Maybe obvious ouring at the sections that we needing spish teach we are very lucky in the fact have do languages the teer that we already have currently she teach Spanish next year she will teach more French sections than Spanish she toen this year um so you know we're looking at these are the section numbers that we are anticipating for next year num next I don't have it's the last one you don't have it that's it K I don't have another it's the last slide maybe the French there you go okay yeah um so right now French C Hors is 29 students which is a big we have as one section which is a big number especially for an introductory more introductory level class um we know
068from experience that um an anticipated some of these students um are um you know a couple of the older students again that might transition and um so the number St steady at 29 and we just started running ouru now that we would anticipate and then we havean we also know from experience that the both Spanish and French and the numbers that we get for request do tend to drop quite a bit once we start schuling um because with the twoe requirement students tend to they're making choices around classes they want to take and El that they want to take the langues dropped so that's where we're headed now the to start the year having some discussions about student interestes that we might offer very about not being a one language School langage departments very when
069we did our survey with students back in December 22 and about what classes were to when you approve a business teacher um you know we asked a question about what other class students wanted to see um in Portugues any other questions no thanks K thank you thanks Kelly and then next up the sixth grade World cultures curriculum are we gonna hear more about that or yeah so I'll have Mike speak to this and Dave if you want to ask some or answer some questions but again part of it is as we look at the current schedule that exists at the middle school we we clearly have to have places for students to go uh we know that the uh French language component isn't sustainable and so what does that look like we we believe in
070making sure that uh our students are exposed to diverse cultures and so we we had a conversation between the three of us that what are the things that they're teaching in the sixth grade in seventh grade level to be honest with you uh that they could pull into um a class for students and for exposure right uh for an appreciation of diverse cultures and the world cultures class and mik go ahead and Dave yeah from a curriculum standpoint I think what Tina pointed out uh makes this not seamless but easier to do than to just introduce an entire New Concept to our to our students right we have the staff that can do it and they have to a certain extent then incorporating World cultures of the nations in which people speak this language into
071the curriculum already um so what we will also do is we will use a portion of our summer curriculum um funding to fund um projects for our teachers to write some curriculum towards this so we're going to obviously put put money towards that um and work with them um to to provide them the time that they need to be able to have solid plans to make sure that we're teaching our our students what they need to learn um it's it's going to be an introductory course obviously um I think that you know we're not going to be going so deep but we're going to try to go as wide as we possibly can to really allow them to understand the different cultures of the world and as Dave said earlier this is a great opportunity
072for us to introduce some of the work that we've done with thei as well to really you know learn how to understand appreciate um the different cultures that are across the world not just Spanish and French um you know I I I didn't get a chance to talk to one of our teachers today but um I I get approvals on a regular basis for teachers who are taking courses well I find it very interesting today that one of our Middle School Spanish teachers um put in for four pgca credit courses um just today all about learning cultures of different countries in South America so she clearly has has talked to Dave and sees the writing on the wall here and she's taking an initiative to go and and take this this course work so it
073means to me that at least a portion of the population of teacher is jumping right in to to understand that this is a need for us and I think what you also have to consider is that as we look at our numbers coming from mind school right we we recognize during the budget cycle that we've asked for another reading teacher uh at you know the middle school and we've recognized that the fifth grade class coming up there's there's a significant portion of students who need some additional support and those students wouldn't necessarily be you know again part of the world cultures classes or language classes that currently exist in today's model so those numbers again would be significantly smaller uh if you know if we ran the same schedule and structure that we have so
074we just want to be cognizant of that too uh that we have areas where these students will be going uh in meeting the needs of the kids who are coming from fifth grade into sixth grade so so just to um I think you said this before when you talking Dave but the the so the model is this new sixth grade World culture program and then in seventh grade so kids next year's sixth graders go through this when they get into seventh grade they would have the choice at that point of Spanish or French to the current model but as discussed earlier I think it's something you need to look at the given those numbers you have to be looking at the world language program which means you're looking at the schedule so I think those
075are things that need to be examined and will be determined by that as how it's run this year yes okay but disc Sur those things are going right in the longer term with these numbers does that like continue to make sense or even like and I don't want to start any trouble here this is just a question but do all um Junior High middle schools have language no I mean I did that's why I'm asking I I I did not have it but I was a very good Spanish student in high school so and again I'm not saying that I'm in favor of getting rid of it but is it something that we have to have if there if we find that there's a something else that we could put in there that might be
076more beneficial to the entire population there so the answer is no not everyone does and some districts just have one language uh at the eth grade level so to to Dave's point this is a topic of conversation that needs to occur starting in the summer uh where a decision a decision that is made right from a district lens at least at the middle school level by December it's that because it has budgetary impact correct and it has impact for students who are currently in the system I I I'm certainly would never be in favor of denying students who are currently in a specific World Language to not have the ability to continue forth in that language so when we're looking at the high school for instance we have students who are maybe in French one
077two or three who are underclassman we're fortunate we do have an educator who is certified in both languages so we can sure that those students always have that option right and many districts have may maybe four or five at the high school level options to ask for classes and then you determine if those courses are going to run depending upon um enrollment or you know so so at least at the middle school we're keeping the same structure of the schedule next year for now but we're what we're asking for the school committee approval is to move from the model of having teaching the in the exploratory French and Spanish and it is a curriculum change and that's where it comes into your purview right uh to a world cultures class um for these students coming
078into sixth grade right so it's two parts there's something that needs to happen now which is that right and then this is the beginning of a longer term conversation uh it's it's been already been a long term conversation right I mean this it's a phase out process so if it is going to be if there's going to be a shift don't use that term because of Mendes okay and there's something phasing in and another one phasing it's not something that you said can just stop right we have kids who need to have the opportunity to finish what they started but couple questions about where we are now so in terms of the world cultures class I I I I'm in favor of the idea um how we've addressed culture in those halfe courses now has
079been through the lens of countries who speak the languages we're teaching culture when you just use the word culture it can have a much broader definition right in terms of not just languages but religions and all kinds of other criteria so how are we defining culture and what is going to be included in this because I think it I don't want to say it can get controversial but it could it it can be a very wide net and how are we going to cast it what is it do you have you like what is it going to look like so I I wish I had a more detailed answer for you but in a broad sense we're going to be looking at um the what folks celebrate celebrations um uh I I don't see I
080I hesitate to say religion because we're not going to be looking at religion because but we will in in a certain aspect because you have to talk about that as part of culture so I I I can't give you you know a full good answer right now on that we we've got to develop this curriculum um this summer but it's really going to be looking at celebrations Traditions I I I you know I hesitate to say the word food because that's that's always people just associate that with culture immediately and it sounds like a really singular minded view but it has to be more but it has to be more than that I don't want people focusing on that there's so much this part of it right we want this program to have educational value
081it needs to be robust right it needs to be rigorous but it's going to incorporate those types of things so will they be will there be more will we have the opportunity to have more conversation about this this summer to give you input as you're putting together the program like I'm thinking I mean I'm guessing you're not going to have more details by in a couple weeks with our next meeting but as together we could we we could because this is again this these discussions were very new for the teachers who have to be who have to be creating this we don't even know if it was going to be accepted so I I know I sound like a politician right now that's pushing this off but it is it's too early for us to
082tell a fra a framework or an outline would even be helpful just to contextualize by the by summer not tomorrow so that could happen so so there are a couple things right I I want to be clear we have contractual obligations that that we need to meet with regard to our teaching staff in terms of a any change within what they're teaching and and that's critically important it's June 1st so what we're looking at presenting here is is hey are you okay with the framework being accepted that we're moving to this model do I certainly think that the focal point will be on on French and Spanish Heritage and language and culture the answer is yes because that's what our St that's what our staffing exists it doesn't mean that's going to be the only
083thing and they're not year-long courses sure right so I think you know as we look at the development of the curricula for the that from that lens right then most likely but you can have a very different you know culture in Argentina than you do in Ecuador and so or in Spain or Mexico right or France and Guadalupe like there are so many different ways of looking at the culture that exists within or Haiti right I mean so my guess is with our staff as they look through the summer and look to develop the curriculum they're going to focus on their skill set as well and their skill set happens to be in French and in Spanish and in the culture pieces that are already taught is part of those classes but instead of having
084it be half culture half language it'll be the culture piece in sixth grade and the language piece in seventh grade okay yeah yeah well I no I well Tina I don't think you can ever teach a language without embedding culture no matter what what grade level at more focus of it yeah yeah but I don't think you can ever again I'm married to a Spanish teacher right who who does this and we talk about this and culture is happens to be embedded in everything they do and every one of our world language teachers does it's not just the language it's art it's music it's food it's religion it's U belief systems um that's all embedded and I think what we're trying to do at least at the sixth grade level is to to build this
085appreciation for the diversity of cultures and language and yes it will be more focused on the French and the Spanish because that's what the teachers have for the skill set and that and it's for this next year I don't know what and I can't pretend to know what it's going to look like moving forward after next year because I I really think we need to look at the middle school schedule and make some significant adjustments to it yeah and that's fair and but I think that um and obviously once we approve you know a change in curriculum the details of what goes on in the classroom that moves over to your side of the street but I guess also having this responsibility of saying we are no longer gonna um Ashlin does no longer do
086this and now we're going to do that I guess we just want to make sure that is a fully developed you know and I know you want the same thing to yeah yeah it it has to be so like you know we certainly understand that we're not going to be writing the curriculum for you you know yeah but it would be helpful As you move forward obviously to give us some some opportunity to share our thoughts on what what you're pulling together um I'm in favor of I think it makes sense to to focus it's almost look I don't want to say a slow intro but it kind of is a slower intro into like a broader look you know with the world and helping you know one of the things that we want to
087help our students be is you know more informed citizens right and so it's a piece understanding different cultures as a piece of that exactly the definition can be so broad right and I know different people are going to have different opinions on what that includes so any um and I'm guessing it'll morph over time too like if the kids are really responding to to like a certain aspect of it then we have the opportunity to to develop I I think there's some flexibility and autonomy that we need to give to our Educators right right and to allow them with their experience and their expertise to have a voice here right AB but you can't have a voice unless we approve that we can do this I mean that's my only struggle with it right do
088I think in the summer to present to you hey this is where we're headed with this and then get feedback absolutely because there's still time for these Educators to to to do some professional development surrounding this yeah I mean I guess I'd certainly say I actually really like the idea yeah um of the world culturist program particularly from the Dei perspective I think that's in some ways if somebody said you know go back and you're starting from scratch what would you want to do in terms of World Language versus World culturist program I might choose this you know um and so I like that develop I like that direction um I I well I appreciate the practicalities of um people sort of going to what they know a little better knowing what's safe for them
089you know as to what they've known because what they've been teaching um you know one of the aspects of our former vision statement our current one is global communities right and and so um to me you know I think it's really important to push that right and to have an appreciation of what um Chinese culture or Japanese culture or you know Far East Asia wherever all around the world um and I think the the more we can expose our kids to in terms of different cultures the better agree um I would say that you in terms of sort of how I see our role as a school committee and involving we we do approve curriculum right we have to vote on this or they can't do what they need to do but I really also
090do feel strongly that um we're improving the sort of program level stuff and it's up to not to Dave but to to Aaron and Mike and Jim and those involved it's staff um to really develop this and I personally don't I mean I'm very interested in the updates and knowing how it's going but I'm not sure that I feel like the committee should have sort of more too much more than the level of approval that we're being asked for I'm not thinking level of approval I'm just share it with us where you are so that we share our thoughts with you we trust you to do your job that's what you're there to do and um for me it wasn't details it's just more the high level like if we're placing a with B to
091have it be you know on the same level of expectations of the kids and all that other stuff which I'm sure you're going to do anyway but that's what we're voicing because sure we're here talking about it no I think it's yeah yeah but i' certainly agree with with the the direction and the uh suggestion and all that you good Mar quiet on this one well yeah no I'm just absorbing I was thinking too it's just like a great opportunity to link in with other things that we have like performance arts and music and like maybe there's some whoops cross pollination so um you know as a parent of someone who's going into the sixth grade I would you know I'm very eager to hear how it unfolds because I'm sure I'll be hearing about
092that there's a change right it's just good to understand the outline of what you're thinking to respond to people who ask that's all y absolutely fair so you will probably get the most questions about that than than the rest of us because you're in touch with that if you're lucky right I mean I'm separating my parent brain and my scho brain they they they cross over yeah I'll I'll make a motion to approve the um sixth grade World cultures curriculum as presented second all in favor I thank you done thanks Dave okay M and Kelly yes he he he had the ask on this one hand Improvement plan and handbook and all those together all the good stuff I'll share the screen um handbook is first on the agenda but it doesn't really matter if
093it's more conven you want to go to the handbook first then go back it's your call no that's how it on the agenda yeah no I understand do you want me to just jump right to the handbook where's Mr Kindle when you need out of your agenda it's really okay all we have to do is approve to flip the agenda a little bit everybody motion to flip the agenda agenda is flipped Kelly all right so starting with updates of our school Improvement plan what you have there is um the underl part there's a link to our Improvement plan I kind of highlighted the things that we worked on this year um if you want to go there and read but so this is just kind of a breakdown the bed areas are action plans and
094kind just each of them I think have in all of in terms of some time as looking at certaines process I think we have a lot more work to do in that area um but we you know all of our department spent some studies and were consist are made for cles the math vertical team did some work and you know we are going to be having some students take geometry C2 coming are in terms of Contin to look at alternative needs for our students and Contin to see students leaving school without a dioma year last year approved to join the department of high schooling SCH the state year that came together to about ouru specifically we need to for the school and changes because that location all students we got to the end of the
095year thinking we went into it change for years we did we a lot more out ofms at that we hope to Jessie your approval in terms of St we're excited to bring in our bridge program that we think will help me some of the needs of these students andss AR build processes but you know we going to have kids that maybe are working full during the day I actually was very excited o State when students withraw to send a every year come and to us about options and IGN and just Monday talk to him about these are some things that we might be able to offer next year and to come back in September discuss and terms again looking what is in our offerings stud we this had second year in another which is focused
096on computer science equ we started that progam really looking collaboration between myself computer science teachers and our school counselors and we started off looking at male female Equity we as a school had already doing for a couple years we joined the program and shifted our Focus this year to different language too so don't feel threatened um by our courses it's really a great place for you and to build some some real life skills the evaluating or not those num increased of our schol head to computer science conference tomorrow and pres work done our busing cles over aw um in terms of social emotional learning I think I've spoke here before about invol the jet program um we have a team that is working with this start college level school they really come in and help
097School create a vision aat for how to carry out Heth supports we felt like were doing a lot really sped develop vision and we've around our goals areal heines hopefully stocs around when we have school around Health Etc so that's happening we had that part of that plan we talked about Sude that will happen next week we are ad surve geted of inters UC the last couple years part of has supported us that's a threee plan and so next year is our third year the end of the month um we we were I just learned yesterday and we have not met yet our socialm survey that we administered this year we not able to use the um because we' talked a lot about students being sured outp R um in terms of resource management as
098Pete mentioned earlier we've done you know a lot of drilling this year a lot ofers building um this was our first year having to man sh classroom space and trss in terms ofy High School teachers and that is having on students are doing espe outside of the classroom um we had a great teacher team that took out goal our mear effec shared some Inc resources the STA terms tools that can support students and as well Ong discussions about how do we change what we're doing in the classroom so that you don't have to worry about students and I already spoke a little B about we keeps in school um and finally with C program we started those conversations about our current system that means um around GPA um I will mention you know in that
099conversation one thing that our language Department in particular has been having conversations and has had some PD recently around efficiency based um learning language andp kind of a different lens I'm teaching World languages that really look at the skills the students need to learn rather than I got an 0 in Spanish too so just can see a question on that one so I I certainly appreciate the the focus on proficiency right as being I that's what we're supposed to be doing right it's not just getting a good grade on a test it's with everything but um how is that necessarily inconsistent potentially with like the weighted or unweighted creating model I can answer that question but I'm okay a model they to maybe next year I'll still be on that site Council and about that
100if we can get rid of grading all together I'd be happy with that but that's a whole different story talked about the different opportunities for diploma you know we've done some things over the course of the Year where eluc St shared aot discuss ours collaboration SKS graduate ales still there the community service um falls under under this action item H our nth and 10th grade community service day back in October that um I thought was successful I think definitely experience Oran it we want to I anticipate proba change really helped to drive that and really give us an opportunity to do something different with students on that can I ask you a quick question about that I know this this past year the hope I know the students got a survey like would you particip
101like what would you want to part I don't know I forget if it was what would you want to participate in but or or kind of would you do something on your own or participate in something from the school and I know like you know my son my son in in particular because I just know what he did he said he'd participate in something that the school did so he didn't organize anything outside of school but then there wasn't something that happened in school so do you anticipate having opport o unities that you help cultivate for the students um and then what about 11th graders because if it happens in the PSATs there's no it have you thought about kind of how to address those things so that community service is still something that you
102know all students are I know it's not a requirement so there's not the impetus to kind of push them to do it but you know the hope is that we're still giving them the opportunity to so have do you specific um I will say we still push out OPP Comm service and we have more opportunities than we probably have students excellent any more question on the plan no I guess the only one I I just have um Jim this is a general question not just the high school one you typically we we get the the Improvement plan for the next year right um around this time or over the summer and I Guess My overall senses to the extent these are all of course tied to the blueprint and the blueprint is a multi-year um
103are we not necessarily doing updated site um site Improvement plans School Improvement plans sort of for next school year because we're all in these multi-year programs right now or will there be sort of modified documents from each school coming forward so so would I anticipate this in the fall we have modified documents yeah okay yeah I think we've got to sit down as a group so I just asked question yeah so part of our discussion we've got a couple days this summer as an admin team to come together and see where we are I mean everything's predicated upon obviously the Strategic plan but we want to go back and look at and make sure that okay are there certain areas that Kelly Pete and Dave uh really focused on the equity the the resource management
104Etc what was accomplished what wasn't accomplished what do we need to continue to do in those areas and then bring that back I think we can start the year with that in in years past I think in site councils we would create a new site School Improvement plan I don't know if we're doing that specifically anymore because opposed that we have a you know that blueprint if you will of where we're headed so I think we're supposed to have one from each School correct I'm not saying we won't I'm just saying what I'm asking the principles to do now is to give you an update on what happened this year that with the Improvement but as we get to the fall approve the plan for the next year right they need time to look at
105the current plan yeah what was accomplished what wasn't accomplished look at the actual strategic plan and say okay here are the next here's the next iteration yeah so yeah just a process question was 2023 to 2026 I just ped out this yeah yeah thank you Kelly that helps yeah same I yeah I know it's the same but I still think we should have to bring it back yeah yep really changes thisy coming out we were all using you know adults and students Alik using technology a bit more I think we went from a place of having an expectation of students not having using their they schol um and I believe that'se appro for school students um and and teachers I think changing their mindset in terms of making students need to have more access to
106technology you know we've had conversations about different different tools that the provides students social took the hand last year and adjusted the language that has been in there for many years to per to set individual policies around C but really the rest of the language not year with a schoolwide expectation on every classroom is going students areed to put their their not anywhere many of our teachers already were us the adjustment in our language is really about the school so this is the statement that's coming out of the policy we a little more debate tonight which I wasn't expecting counil meeting an hour ago so after left I didn't hear it at all we added what an iPad is again but we still have that end of that first sentence that says without teaching permission
107because there is a lot of um belief on the part of many teachers the times that they say okay I'm giving you permission right now for this academic reason or for this downon to your pH it this is what our policy has been for many years is that cell phones or any devices should not be used during class which includes study which includes which includes Wellness classes art classes um unless your teacher gives you permission and but you are allowed to have your phone when you're in between classes passing and when you're at lunch um Etc um I am at lunch just about an and a I do think there ation that kids are sitting in the cafeteria at a table looking at their phones and that does not happen they are sitting talking and
108may sometimes their pH and pH there andon invol we are just the only change so will the expectation be that like every class will have like one of those shoe holders and unless the teacher says you in my class you can use it as a calculator take it out as you need it type of deal I don't think we will get to the point that everyone has one of those holders um our English classes all purchased I think basers that hang of each desk okay right teers want a little more there is concern on some of our faculty part that I I don't take the phone away from a student I have to say the conversations on this topic were really interesting particularly hearing from The Faculty members who go to the site Council and
109the Deans about some of the things that kids do just to have it with them my my favorite one was the phone case they they have these just extra phone case pieces so that when they're supposed to put in the shoe holders they just put the cone the cas in there it looks like there's something there and they've got the other one hi some yeah burner phone case really it's just a case um yeah it's it's I mean right it's like as I always I've always said to my children if you can use your powers for good instead of evil right and it it was fascinating to hear some of the challenges that they've had well the challenge will be when the legislature changes and actually wres law into place and approves law into place
110that cell phones are not allowed in schools and that's common that will be forthcoming I believe when I see it I I mean I really do believe it is it's well into the pipeline just going to say there's lots of conversation it and we've been many are just manage it and you know while I understand the anxiet I mean I have it myself sometimes the anxiety of not having your phone on you because you want to be accessible or get directions or whatever uh you know some of the elderly people in the room you know I my whole life I didn't have you know we we made do and we didn't have a phone people who needed to find us found us if we needed directions we found our way you know it's really not
111we've developed a Reliance on it that you maybe in some situations it's it's been lifes saving but in general you didn't need a phone to get through your life do do you make them oh I was just gonna ask do you make them take their watches off like how does that work because that's the like I can just hear the well I need to watch now yeah right um so yeah I I think um our teachers that have a process where that is their expects isue once the kids understand right they meet the expectation so this just basically standardizes the expectation right that's fine yeah yeah so we have we have to approve the hand the handbook right High School corre for the high school so I'll move to approve the um High School handbook
112as presented second all in favor hi hi hi done thank you Kelly thanks Kelly okay school committee summer Retreat just an update um we have chosen one specific day uh that we are planning on uh meeting and I just want to confirm can everybody thank that is July 23rd uh it's a Tuesday uh currently at this time um Mark and Lori and I talked a week ago was it Monday or last week um we're going to stick with the one date at this point and if we feel like we need to add something later in the summer uh we'll check our calendars then but it's the war on conference center um that's the one day they actually had available they didn't have the Monday available so we did have two days of back to back
113that we could have chosen but uh Tuesday was the one day that we could actually rent the CL and we're going to do our very best to keep it on Retreat topics rather than just got to prove this got to prove this do we have like a timer where we each get three minutes when we and then we get C chest clock yes I told Jim if I'm chair I'm going to have to lay down the law a little bit better bring one I just wanted to make sure it's on everybody's it is okay that's a fair enough we're good okay and then next up your evaluation sure um you should have received a document that I shared with you um earlier in the week just in terms of uh the evaluation process uh and
114I I forget the date we put in there Lori uh when you need all the information um I can pull it up here if you want me to I can find it sum of evaluation right here we said uh by June 5th uh to have the documents back to Lor uh the evaluation will take place on June 12th which is so it's a so you had a week uh before the 12th um and I will have I will share with you and again this is a a challenge for those who don't use the Gmail account the Ashlin um uh school committee Gmail account I will share a folder with each of you with the evidence as it relates to the four goals um and I I typically write a narrative of how I thought the
115year went uh and whether or not I feel as though the goals were met um some goals will have less evidence uh I'll give an example uh the absentee chronic absentee goal that we set for the high school uh for the reduction in uh low-income Hispanic and high need students uh our data just came back from the state we clearly met all of our goals which is awesome um but that's really just a small piece of it's the evidence right and what I'll share with you is oh by the way we sent 200 letters out to students uh for high needs you know are Hispanic Etc um over three quarters of the year right you took action yeah these are the actions we took it's small evidence and really it's the the date of the
116show that we met the goal so right um the bigger piece happens to be uh the Strategic plan right we had lots of little goals that we're sharing with you so if you look at what Kelly and Pete were talking about tonight it goes back directly to the the school Improvement plan um so if you have questions on this uh I know Tina Lasher we we sat and talk if you have questions you want to come in and have a conversation about hey you know what about this right Jim's available I'm available for any part of it um and while a week in advance of our meeting is great and if everybody just gets it off their plate fine if for some reason you can't I'm it's also fine as long as it's not like
117very last minute just because um it's harder than it seems to create The Narrative piece of it the numbers I can just toll you know they are what they are Marc are you familiar with how the whole thing works yes okay I am and I'm familiar from my work experience as well so it looks pretty familiar to my past life yeah so if people need a little extra time that's fine as long as I am not doing it on the day of plus I also like to give Jim the benefit of sitting down with me and Mark or one of us so that he knows generally what's coming at the public meeting um and and H have a chance to give him a heads up which I can't do if it's not done in time
118generally there's there's no issue with with this group but I'm just because you're new Marcy explaining my process if I at least have a couple or a few days to work on the narrative then I'm good okay but if you can get it done sooner you just you'll be done and it'll be wonderful for you Jim did you already send us the form I did you did okay I did uh yeah and what I'll do is like I said hopefully by Friday if not by the weekend at the latest you'll have a shared folder and again I think we have to understand is when we actually meet with our teachers and we evaluate teachers as well as administrators every single piece of the rubric and indicators and and uh they're not all going to be
119focal points right it it's sort of like the goals that we set meet specific indicators um and and that's what I'll highlight so so there's a goals component of it did we meet or not meet goals but then there's uh the four standards there's the ratings part of it so it's you know two-part y um and certain areas ask for additional comment uh in particular if the rating is going to be higher than proficient or lower than proficient y uh some explanation is required on the on the Massachusetts state form um and again I for for your just for Marcy's it sounds like you've done this and I just I typically try to be reflective of how I think the year went it's not just the stuff that's happening within the goals but um and
120we've had these conversations right we opened a new building uh this year and it's not part of the goals it's just part of my job right right but you know it was pretty significant you know the things that we did but um so we're just focused on four little components of it if you will or not little but four comp it doesn't it doesn't cover everything um that is that's why I'm always open if you want to have conversation okay okay good do you have anything to add on by way of um update superintendent's update uh we'll go to mik mik's first um I'll try to be short but have a little bit more than usual today um we did have a professional development day on Friday uh really excited about the work that was
121done um our esps all met with our Special Education team chairs and they introduced them to the concept of the new IEP and I think it's good for everybody to be aware of that we're going to be doing a lot of work with the new IEP with all of our educator our our general Educators special Educators and teaching staff uh in the fall but we had other plans for our our teaching staff so we decided this would be a good time to at least introduce the concept to our ESP so they're aware of it um all of our teaching staff every every person um in Mendes uh ashon middle school and ashon high school was introduced used to the open Architects dashboard platform it was it was finally our official teacher rollout for that dashboard
122uh now all of our staff have access to three specific dashboards one is called my student Explorer which you have not really seen but that's the one that collects all of our student data in one comprehensive view so you can view any student but what they were able to do for us is our teachers can see their specific students so they've broken it down using our iPass Tech our iPass technology and to utilize the schedules that we have so they are able to see the students that are in front of them on a daily basis and they can break them down uh by demographics by all the different data that we have um they're also able to see student attendance which is great and they can see combined assessments which is the one that I
123showed you folks uh which is where we house all the different um Summit of informative assessment data that we provide and what really came of that meeting was some Fant fantastic feedback particularly from our high school teachers who said we need more data on here specifically can we get um just you know as a small example can we get our AP data on this so now I'm working with the folks to improve that dashboard to make it even more impactful um for for our high school folks so I'm excited about what was done I'm not sure if it was the most exciting thing for our staff to take part in but I did get some positive feedback of well this is this is going to be really good for us it wasn't you know the
124most enjoyable yeah there're going to be some people are track the data yeah right got a bunch of them sitting at the table here and then others who are kind of like but I think they're going to dive in and see and see that it is is going to ultimately really help us and you know just alone talking about uh the fact that we've made our goal for um chronic absenteeism I mean I love the fact that I I look on I see Jim's looking at it every day to be able to track that and no we knew that we passed our goal before the state came out and did it because we can track it throughout throughout the entire year and I will say I mean open Architects was great because there were there
125were pieces of data that I was like Mike how do we like get the the low income or the Hispanic students because that was really our goal right and so they were really receptive and responsive to hey we're going to add this into as a category so you can actually grab it the data which is great um some of evaluations for all of our uh teachers who are on year two of a two-year plan as well as all of our teachers who are our one-year plan which is our teachers who are nonprofessional status all of those those evaluations were completed and delivered to those staff members uh principles and other evaluators are currently working on our formative evaluations for folks who are on year one of a two-year professional learning plan uh those will be
126due on June 1st uh we did have I'm not sure if I talked to you about our third and final um collaboration of admin administrators where we did our last walkth through I just wanted to let you know that that's that's part of our goal process we did our third one uh and it was great because our our Focus throughout the year really ended up turning into um a calibration to ensure that we're all utilizing student impact statements and that's where we kind of ended up Landing you know we we started this with the idea of calibrating but then we had a really broad approach and we ended up focusing there and and you know as I review some of these evaluations it's it's wonderful to see that every you know I was so far
127you know 95% of our commendations and recommendations are including these student impact statements that really are the most important thing when you providing feedback to our teaching staff uh and finally um I thought that last year we were going to set the record but this year we have even more we have 40 uh 40 summer curriculum proposals for me to review um from our staff um I had a feeling there'd be a little bit more because the um the price went up a little bit on on on the on the the hourly wage um but it's exciting there's evidence that changing those numbers sometimes has a result but it's exciting to see some of the work that folks want done we are in the early phase right now of prioritizing those lists and seeing what
128actually needs to be done um you know there are things that are going to take a higher priority than others for instance the world cultures curriculum is going to be the top priority um there's going to be some other work that's going to be done at the middle school that's directly related to the schedule and some things that we have to incorporate that will take some precedence um but you know I was really excited to see a variety of different um proposals we've got some world history we've had Ela at every single level um Sarah and her staff wanted to do some significant work at paway um so there are a number of things it's going to be a long a long meeting when we meet with all the principles to sit and prioritize and
129I plan on beginning that process early on Monday I'll I'll meet with every principal to say you need to prioritize with with me the um proposals that came from your building and then we'll get together as a group and we'll and we'll kind of fight it through because there is a finite you know amount of money that's how many do you know how many you can fund or does it depend on hours does each one take a different amount yeah each one takes a different amount um so you know think giving you the range the The Proposal that asked for the most was um just over $5,200 the proposal that asked for the least was um about 200 something so it's it's a huge it's a huge range and and what we do try to
130do is we we try not to say no but we Tred to say yes you can have a portion of it um but with that many this year we could we may have to deny some or push some off and make it possible for folks to have some professional development time during the school year to do some of this work what do we budget for that type of work um it's it depends on how much I have left uh after the after the cycle so it's part of the PD budget um so right now it's we should be able to fund a majority of it um but it's part of the PD budget so we do have a we do have a good amount left because I was fairly I was fairly conservative this year
131so I think we should be okay excellent J uh just a few things one um I want Chris just to mention uh his new role at the state level uh I recently joined the board of directors for masbo wow congratulations Chris excellent congratulations it's been a wonderful professional experience for him he talked to me probably month even a little more than that ago about the opportunity to join the board uh which I think you know any you know opportunity to to be a part of a professional organization which relates directly to your job is critically important sure and it's it's a great recognition I means you you get on that because your colleagues think you're worthy of being leader in the organization ation and congratulations well done K yeah it's great uh so a few
132things one um we are certainly well into the hiring process for next year uh for faculty and staff um we're continually tracking that um as you know as part of the budget cycle um we you know budget with anticipation of savings so um I'll go on record and say Mr Regan is one of my favorite people right now um and we'll leave it that um he's he's doing a really great job of hiring and and uh um the I I encourage principles to be done the process by the end of June so we don't have to worry about it over the summer inevitably we'll get some folks in the summer who move on uh decide to retire whatever it might be so um we've been working diligently with the custodial and maintenance negotiations uh so
133Chris Mike John um Murray myself and and their board um I I hope if all goes well um we can have something to you uh for the June 12th meeting um that's the goal anyway you know Jim that just reminded me that um there's a part of we ratified yeah from is that on your list of things I figured you can well it's your report so if you want to report out we ratified four of the contracts um uh so the uh teacher um the esps education support Personnel nurses and administrative assistants all those contracts uh were ratified by their respective bargaining units uh and at a meeting um a couple weeks ago uh the school committee uh did approve those contracts um as ratified by the union um and we do have portions of
134that up on the website already uh in terms of the salary scales because we have found it helpful uh when interviewing folks who ask us uh you know what what does it look like uh and I can certainly tell you we've had some highes um new hires that looked at our salary scale and were impressed with it and therefore chose us because of the way we uh structured that we would hire at the Second Step um immediately so that it's been very positive um guys yeah no it's it's it's it's good um and I think the last thing is when we talk about Retreats uh Mike and I have had conversations um to really on board uh our admin team this summer uh with a a lot of different um components to um where we're
135headed as a district I mean we might be talking about World Language but from a budgetary standpoint uh we've got Aon lelle coming on board um as the new principal of the middle school and what are the you know ways we can support her um you know yeah the new building at Mendes is open but what's now what's next for that building in terms of okay let not focus on the building itself but Jenna what do you need uh to move that that forward um the building forward so that's in we originally said July but it looks like we could probably do two days in August now that are um set aside specifically just like we might do for a retreat for the school committee uh so that's exciting um other than that um I
136think that's all I had graduation coming up it's our first Friday graduation um in in na history High School history it's the seventh um did you missed that one oh it's coming out you will also be getting uh on June 12th uh that's the night we'll be recognizing our retirees um typically we do um some punching cake um I had that in my calendar for today and showed up at 5:30 to find out there's no June 12th uh downstairs um Gretchen will be sending out an invitation uh to folks um and uh ordering up the the trays if you will that we typically present to those folks uh we do two we do have two retirees at the beginning of next year so October and November like Dave is one of them um I've invited
137them um to to be a part of the conversation so they don't have to come back next year um and uh and go from there I think that might be all I have for you good thanks and without Paul we're not going to do warrant approvals do you have gifts and donations I do um Ohio pile prints $27 for gifts and donations miscellaneous uh local area Girl Scout Troop $300 um for a picnic table uh at the Warren school it's awesome uh Mike and I saw when we go visit the schools like oh wait a minute uh there's a picnic table out there and we saw actually probably on Friday um the uh nutrition services staff was out there having their lunch at the picnic it was a beautiful day and they were like oh
138this is awesome which school is that at waren War yeah it it was done like I Believe by a group of sixth graders because I as I saw I recognized all the names said I know these Nam that's awesome um ashy PTO uh donated $4,000 for the David mes grade five field trip uh and various vendors and orders $460 for gift cards uh for the ultimate frisbee ultimate Jeopardy um activity so for $ 4,762 7 Dee move to approve the gifts and donations as presented second all in favor I that's it excellent all I have for you okay minutes from the 24th anybody have anything motion to approve the minutes on the 24th April 24th 2024 so moved second second all in favor I I uh member updates Marcy I don't have any yeah that's
139okay that's okay um last week there was an ashack meeting that I was able to attend um and you know it's always a good discussion it was a a tough though there wasn't as many parents there this week I think it was just a tough week last week for for parents they were actually supposed to in the second half of the meeting they have um like their executive meeting basically when Britney and I leave and they were going to have their elections but there weren't enough people there so they decided to to move it until their next meeting but um you know the the questions I was asked you know were about the budget and where did things stand and so they had previously you know we had pre Britney and I both previously shared
140an update let them know that it passed as presented so we were good to go they were also you know happy to hear that um you know the the teacher and ESP contracts uh were approved um which you know something that they had advocated for was an increase in Pay specifically for esps um you know I think of they have many of those parents have felt the challenges with Staffing in esps and so um they were happy to hear that they move forward that's always a productive discussion good um I'll just share that um we had site Council high school earlier today um conversation that I left early because I thought we had a retire reception here um but um they had um our athletic director come in and talk to um parents in particular
141but but everybody about some of the things that they had questions about um so Kevin was with us for an hour and 15 minutes and um the one thing I guess I would share as a takeaway for for this group um is the concerns about space um the concerns about um so a number of things that we've already talked about I mean that the battle between um Town organization School organizations control over the fields the maintenance of the fields and condition of the fields um were all themes that they got a lot of discussion there a lot of questions around that and I will say I thought Kevin did a a a phenomenal job um talking about those issues and those challenges and I was able to provide a little bit more history than than
142he had of course because it's been going on for forever um but just you know wanted to voice that concern you know as is clearly one that was um prevalent for people who had kids who have participated in athletic programs and um I would commend Kevin also for sort of freely acknowledging sort of the the things he might have done different in terms of field maintenance and dedication repairs but um I think you know he really just um present himself very well in terms of that that forum and um showing leadership and how he wants to move things forward but resources and resource condition I think is a significant issue and not that we don't know that already but that was uh that was what we ended up talking about for hour 15 minutes today
143among among other things really Athletics but but um that was the the biggest one excellent uh since I've seen you last I have been to the Warren site Council and I participated in the um Driscoll scholarship selection so that's all all I have and then I I did and Mark too you can weigh in want to say a few things about action items because it's always on our agenda Mark and I talked a little bit with Jim at our last agenda planning about trying to you know maybe be more forward thinking about some topics that we can bring forward or maybe even in the way that we organize our agenda and just a reminder to everybody that anybody can bring an action item forward either at the meeting during this period of time or you
144can email me or Mark you know outside of this meeting saying like I'd really like to explore X and I'll even say you know before we even got to this part in the agenda at one point during the meeting I was looking over at Chris I'm like poor Chris has to sit through these meetings he never has to like say a word um it must be miserable unless we have like a financial I'm sorry that you have to put up with this but um but you remember like back in the day Barbara would do like the quarterly reports and stuff like that you know so I don't know if there's like just anything along those lines that we want to hear more about like obviously we know you're taking care of business or whatever but
145we don't have to wait until we're voting on the budget to do like a deeper dive into something so just all of us I mean even Chris if you have something that you think would be of interest um or if um and we'll do a lot of this brainstorming at the summer session but um just you know thinking out of the box about something there's some things that go on like every September we're going to deal with X every May and June we're going to deal with you know site counsel reports and um and there's a bunch of things that happen in between that just have to happen when they happen but just falling into into a pattern of that without um you know just for all of us to be thinking about what could
146we do yeah what I what I shared with Lori on this one we talked about it was certainly when when I first came to the school committee it felt like every meeting there were a list of seven action items that we were that were coming up and it wasn't necessarily for the next agenda but it was these are things that during the year we wanted to make sure we put in and we kind of started with all right that's a February issue this is a December issue what have you um one of the things I've been thinking about just generally and was kind of interesting to know the lawyers thinking about similar type of issues was um one of my fears is that I think generally speaking we feel like we do a decent job
147as a school committee as Administration and and the districts going in the right direction and and doing well um I always worry about being self-complacent with that stuff and and sort of how do you make sure that you're you're not that you're looking at things accurately and so one of the things that I'd love to find some time for myself to do is is just poke around at agendas from other school committees see what kind of things they're talking about you know what what kind of things that that might say gez you know they're doing something really interesting in Medway and um and things that we can bring back and you know maybe they're right for us maybe they're not but um so that was kind of part of the the discussion that we had
148was trying to think about those things to you know maybe slip through the cracks of our blueprint um things that aren't really strategic at that level but might be things that are worth a conversation or an action item so um you know I think certainly we were yeah thinking about that as maybe something we talk about in more detail at the at the retreat but I just want that context sorry I'm going to cut no one thing I think you all see more of next year is um policies coming forward like we you know Paul had the building and we had some stuff going on this year by um you know generally there's a couple policies up for review or reconsideration or something so I think we need to get better about just making sure
149our policies are what we want them to be and up toate and you know that's a job of this policy subcommittee to bring them forward but we need to we need to in fact do that instead of just responding when a situation comes up so that sort of thing the TRU yeah so that's what we have to say about action I think I think what started to happen from my memory is like we would have this list of things which most ended up being summer topics so we would read the whole list and we'd be like that's for summer that's for summer that's for summer right and so I think we stopped putting the items on the list um but at at the same time I think it's a reminder to to just don't let
150something fall off I think there were some of those um there were also things that we we really all because there's been so much stability in this committee for the most part we felt conf they were no like Jim's evaluation I think might have been something that went on there oh like in December somebody said well when do we do Jim's you know midyear evaluation which by the way we screwed up and didn't do this year um so maybe there was something should have AC right but there was there was some of that stuff um the other example you used about looking for quarterly financial report I was a point that Aon had brought point at one forward at one point to say like you know just being responsible as as the Fiscal Agent for
151the schools getting an update on a quarterly basis is how we're doing against budget where the problem areas things like that um and so some of that fell into a good routine and then sometimes you lose that with changes and things so sort of just trying to be as I think Lori said right you know more Forward Thinking and moving things forward rather than having them come to us first yeah yeah so give that some thought and and U is this a topic for the summer to talk through some of this it we will talk and to let you know that it's not necessarily like a La Mark and thing like anything that's important to you it's fair enough for you to say like we haven't really taken a deep dive into X like would
152you be willing to put that on an agenda you know it's it's a group effort and I'm not saying I'm not giving anybody homework the point is just to let you know that you're welcome to bring your interests forward and you know certainly if it's appropriate and it probably will be if you're bringing it forward we'll have a discussion about it yeah it used to be a thing we Ed a lot to sort of think about the agenda not only in a moment but breaking agendas out over multiple meetings saying okay we don't want to have all of this stuff on one meeting what's the priority you know those kind of things so right um you know so just good communication tool about yeah and I don't know if Gretchen has it I had a
153calendar at one point did she got the list yeah Karen had uh I had a calendar that of topics that should happen month per month but that's kind of the the have to but then there's also the like where you know where can we be creative so yeah so that's that's all I have if we have a motion to adjourn I think we're done so moved second all in favor hi we're off we're out good night everybody on that one yeah for