001good evening tonight is February 28th 602 this is the Ashlin school committee meeting as always we start by reading our vision statement this is our new and approved vision statement and it reads the ashon public schools strives to be a model District that creates a culture of inclusivity for our diverse students and staff who feel safe and supported are empowered with academic and social emotional skills to Purser pursue 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 I'm going to start by asking folks to um I'll review the agenda then we'll do attendance um order of business is we've done our call to order opening procedures will'll review our agenda in a minute we are now um public
002comment and then uh administrative items for tonight include review and approv correction to the school year calendar 2425 um we'll have a a presentation from Miss St k at the high school about weighted courses we have an update from Miss Arnold uh regarding English language English language education department um an Eagle Scout project presentation from Nathan Gan I'm pronouncing your last name correctly Hi Sam um assistant superintendent update superintendent update warrant approvals gifts and donations member updates action items and then adjourn um I do believe we want to take things a little out of order to allow um Nathan to go first and then allow him to get to a meeting I think um so I'll ask to do attendance make sure people are okay with the order and ask if everybody's okay with uh
003resequencing to move our fourth item up to just follow public comment Ry yes okay and you're here too right and I'm here you know here and yes Paul yes I'm good with that as well and remotely Lori ER in yes all right and as well for me all right um first item on the agenda is public comment is there anybody here for public comment going once going twice moving on okay um Nathan want to come up to the podium and anybody else who is going to speak with you is welcome to come up as well I believe it is yep you're good thank you all right hello uh my name is Nathan groven and I am a junior at Ashton high school a member of Ashland Boy Scouts troop 232 in Ashland um and I'm
004working on my Eagle Scout project environmental sustainability is very important to me and when I started to think about completing an an Eagle project my goal was to help um promote this in our community last summer I consulted um ashen's Town sustainability project manager um Miss Samantha Riley as well as the Ashland High School principal Miss Kelly sterr on how I could complete how I could complete an Eagle project that would help the schools become more sustainable uh Miss Riley Miss s Cur mentioned that they were both hopeful that the schools would start composting again and requested that I build a structure for the high school cafeteria that would facilitate both Recycling and composting before moving forward with the project I met with various um Ashland High School staff who would play a role in
005the ongoing maintenance of the system and I started to get a better sense for some of the challenges that the school would be facing um with composting um working together the final project that we came up with was for me to design and build a permanent wooden structure um that can house two large plastic bins that are the bins will be about 42 in tall 24 in wide 32 in deep um and the bins would be currently used for plastic water bottle recycling um in the cafeteria but would be a compatible size or the shape would be a compatible size um for the composting bins um if and when the school decided to move forward with that part of the project um the recycling bins will have an immediate um good impact on the high
006school because we are selling over a thousand water bottles um a month at the cafeteria many of which are being found in the trash bins um the environmental action Club at ashon high school um generously agreed to take care of the recycling bins as part of their bi-weekly recycling pickup um and if this plan is approved by the school committee I will go through with the approval process with Boy Scouts Council and I will have the full support of the troop both leaders and Scouts have a couple of the Liv Scouts here um to design and build the structure in a way that's durable and longlasting for the school thank you for your consideration thank you Nathan so I wanted first just thank you for um W you stay up there for a sec don't
007you hang on um thank you for you know as you're thinking about your Eagle Scout project thinking about serving the schools and we always appreciate when members of the community and particularly students are looking to give something back and help um let me I think it's probably important because the logistics in this get some understanding from Administration whether it's Mr Adams or or Miss Haner to talk about um sort of how this would work and whether it works um and then we can also get some questions in from the school committee but why we start with you Jim sure first and foremost thank you for considering uh working doing something with the the schools we've had a number of projects uh Through The Years uh I think back all the way to Craig Barrett in
008the initial um Courtyard at the high school and and to watch how we um had transformed that place into you know an area where our students can actually use it um throughout the year which has really been wonderful so my comments are are from uh John Murray who's our director of facilities and and um I want to make sure that his concerns were brought forth I know you'd had conversations with him yes and certainly the the conversations with regard to composting and how you've adapted uh your project from there uh certainly um it's something as he said to me he said Jim I'm I'm certainly in favor of sustainability uh projects that and also in favor of composting but he also believes that from all literature uh educationally we need to actually start it much
009earlier U not just at the high school but much earlier uh at the elementary schools and Lead its way up um but with regard to this project in particular uh with the recycling bins he still has a number of concerns with it um in terms of where it would be located how will it impact uh the custodial and maintenance staff on a regular basis on a daily basis in terms of their time uh whether it's I'm glad to hear you talked about the environmental club uh being responsible for actually removing the bins and putting them into the the bigger recycling bins otherwise that's another um aspect of the job that the custodial staff would have had to have undertaken which I didn't you know catch the first time I really appreciate you said that because
010that was a concern that Mr Murray had was additional work for the custodial staff of taking it and putting it into the bins that Waste Management uh needs to use so when they wheel them out and waste management picks up all of the the recycling it's another transfer that has to occur so I appreciate you that you clarified that so that was one thing that he had he had mentioned um in terms of sustainable where it's going to be placed that's a concern that he had I I don't think we have enough details with that uh where is it going to be in the cafeteria and if so how will that look in terms of uh cleaning of the calf all the time but is is it if it's then put in the the back
011area in the loading dock area uh what is that going to do in terms of space um there as well um so those were his his concerns and I just wanted to bring those up um partly because again as you know Nathan you've had those conversations with him I think throughout this process um and and it's fair to say he still has some some concerns about that component of it he's absolutely in favor of trying to figure out something for you to do with the schools with from a sustainability standpoint but he doesn't know if this is the right project so okay do you want me to just like try to address those things certainly if you you're welcome to I think the board would like to hear they're the ones who will vote on
012this but I just want to give the feedback from Mr Murray okay y so the problem just to be clear is location basically of this um okay so I discussed at the meeting I should can elucidate a little more about what the meeting was so I had I had a few meetings I actually got to meet with Mr Kyra first to talk about things I could potentially do and you sent I was really I really appreciate you sent an email out to all the principles and stuff like that um end up coming back to the high school um looking at stuff and had that um next meeting which I talked about with Miss Riley and Miss aner where we talked about the composting and then the third meeting which I've had with people which is
013separate from emails and stuff which I actually unfortunately never got to John Murray wasn't able to make it to the meeting um that timing didn't work a couple people weren't able to make it to this meeting which I'm now talking about the third meeting um even though we got to talk um a fair bit over email about these concerns um so at the third meeting we had a few people present we had the custodian actually um as well as um Miss iner Miss Riley um Mr O'Brien was there as well and the chef chef Tony so we could get his um advice and opinions on this he's actually the one who brought up the whole idea of recy um recycling water bottles cuz I didn't realize how big a thing it was in the high
014school um but he's the one who told me about the Thousand over thousand water balls a month but to get back to your question um the location that we discussed was sort of close to I don't know how recently everyone's been in the high school um the old place where we used to stick um the reusable trays which we've moved away from that sort of corner having something that goes along that wall doesn't block the door anything like that the size fits I've checked that like if I build the stuff that's compatible for these things and they slide in then it would fit nicely um but it would be by and against the wall of well next to I should say the place where we used to put reusable trays to get washed um and
015that's the plan that we had talked about in that meeting okay I just want asking like follow up with that so thanks because I'm learning this as well part of the the conversations we've had again in the 10 years that I've been superintendent and the projects that we've agreed to and and the board has supported we've actually had the a visual of what you're looking at and what you're planning on doing there and I think that's important uh partly because of where you're describing I don't think they're all going to know exactly what you're looking at and and I get it I know where you're talking about um but I think that is important uh information to to see exactly what you're envisioning um want we see if we have some questions and and sort
016of where the committee is as a whole because I think if if there's General support for the project but there's some Logistics that need to be worked out I think we can approach that differently than if people are for some reason anti- composting or anti C which I'm guessing it's not guessing not the case but you know so um I'm anti anti sustainability so great only in big buildings yeah so anybody have questions or comments um I have one question um and of for when I was originally reading through um your summary I was picturing this outside so I'm glad to know it doesn't sound like it's outside um but one of the things that that kind of came to mind and Mr Adams mentioned this a little bit in terms of best practice practices
017around composting obviously we're not quite ready to compost at the high school yet and I think the research shows that in order to be ready to compost at the high school we need students learning it from an early age and as they age up eventually we'll be ready to to do that at the high school too so my thought is around the materials that you're going to be using to build this um and making sure that whatever those materials are they're sustainable if you will for lack of a better for lack of a better term to make sure that it's there's not um a lot of concerns or or maybe thinking through how to alleviate concerns or how to deal with issues around if um if they're getting wet if there's mold if the if
018it's wood depending upon where it is again I can't quite visualize yet where where you're thinking of putting this but to make sure that if it takes 10 years I don't know when comp when we're going to be ready to compost at the high school and so it may may be more focused on recycling for a while so thinking through making sure what are the materials you're going to use to build it is it going to last uh for kind of the duration that we're hoping will take to get to the where composting will be a reality so i' I'd love to learn a little bit more about that and that you may not have that detail yet um but I think that's something that would be important to think through as well too okay
019do you want me to talk a little bit sure you I don't have the full flush out thing it's actually part of what I'm working on for when I propose this um to the Boy Scouts Council cuz they they're definitely going to be asking about materials and looking at that exact um thing um I'm lucky to say that as someone who hasn't done said everything about materials I've looked into um different types of wood how we could whether it's lacerate or have it be pressure washed whatever it needs to be or have a coat of some sort of plastic thing that goes over the wood um I'm lucky that I have my project coach who's done this for a fair few projects before and also a couple other very handy um leaders in the troop
020who really basically all the leaders show up to every Scout project and most Scouts do as well and it's a team effort and they will definitely be talking it over with me on what they think is right um I think definitely durability and sustainability like you were saying of the structure we build itself will be important I guess I don't have that detail for you but I can definitely tell you that that's something that it's already a requirement quote unquote or something that I would be thinking about and is something which we've had some discussion on and certainly will have more in the future well just I mean in general again thank you for thinking of the schools thinking of sustainability I applaud your efforts I think this sounds like a wonderful project I think
021a few more details would be helpful though so that we can better Envision exactly what this looks like um to to see how it will come to fruition and what the different stages will look like okay Marcy Paul and and Lori chime in if uh or put your hand up or something but yeah I mean so I Echo I won't regate everything but he said about uh appreciate you wanting to uh use your Eagle sou project to for the schools I think that's great when I read through this um uh I I really immediately wanted to understand the process right not of your project but the the vessel or the you know this the structure is kind of an end point of a process that I don't know that we have uh right so we
022don't we don't currently compost and there's certainly uh some some uh some training or or or conditioning of people that need to occur we need to have a process for that um all those things and so I balance the I I have some questions about the process and understanding that uh understanding how this integrates with the other components that we already have our Waste Management collection and and all on all those things and and then you kind of piggybacking on that when you start to it's one thing to have recycling um and then when you talk about composting in the cafeteria in particular right uh sanitation we don't want this to become where our health inspector comes in and says what's that smell what's going on and in in a cafeteria right we have to
023be very sensitive to that and as we talk about it especially around the composting piece uh cuz cuz I want to I want to value your project and what you're going to do as well so I don't want I don't I want to make sure that it's something that's going to be valuable to us and that we're going to use and not uh not just be a token thing that's that's sitting there so I also when I look at composting in particular I'm wondering about something constructed like this as opposed to something purchased that is metal or what whatever that's purposely built that will force something like that because you're going to have those materials if if it's metal stainless steel or whatever it is those are sanitary those can be wiped out easily where
024a porous material like a wood or something like that you know you can put something on it uh a lacquer or a fish or something but then you have to apply it you know again in that maintenance so uh that those are the initial things when I read it I'm like okay we we we don't do these things today at least some of them um and so if we don't have that on the road map or a plan to do them uh I I want your your what your efforts to be not done in vain right um and so those are my initial thoughts of just questions around it because I think it's great that you want to do this because yeah the the amount of recycling that doesn't get recycled is is is something
025we want to address um so maybe at least for what you already do know you can talk about a little bit of the process that I'm trying to understand what you envision the process being of students or or faculty what are individual uh person's roles in this what are our students supposed to do what are our staff supposed to do uh and what is that life cycle of hey someone comes in the cafeteria they purchase water they do what whatever they do and what does that look like because the Box you know the the structure is just a one component in a in a system and I'm not I'm I'm just concerned that if we don't have the system we don't have a plan for the system I don't want I don't want to waste
026your efforts okay that makes sense yeah yeah um I think you're what you're saying is very important um the truth is that for now I mean the reason that I don't think my efforts would be in vain is quite simply that it is going to be functioning as that recycling bin which we don't have and that I have seen myself and people like Chef Tony have told me that like there genuinely are people who just because they're not a fan of the taste of the water which you get from the filters which I don't really mind myself and I use um but they don't like it is what his um theory is and so genuinely there are people in the calf who just buy the water bottle dump it and then walk to the trash
027can and throw it out um so I think that the efforts I'd be doing to have something in the schools instead of nothing would already be a benefit um I'm not as Focus right now in terms of building this and putting it in there um about the composting part in the sense of that I I think the recycling part is already helping and that's sort of the in your mind this as a standalone recycling would be of value um you you absolutely come on up Kelly yeah okay just a little history that I know we talked about um way back but um our our um environmental action club actually did obtain a grant um to bring in um uh composting recycling bins um I think it was back 16117 maybe um so we did have
028a process of getting that started uh the composting was a big concern at the time because of the upkeep of it um and but prior to that recycling students recycling their plastic in the cafeteria was something that happened and it for some reason doesn't happen anymore um which is part of why I found it this to be a very valuable project um and so we do have have um the composting outdoor squares in our court one of our Courtyards where students were bringing some of that compost um and we you know in talking through this whole process um really um you know those of us that were part of it really saw a need to say we need to uh you know our high schoolers do tend to recycle in the classroom bins um I
029think yeah you actually do quite good job yes and our club comes around and helps the custodian my understanding is that the custodians do um work and empty those bins into the big into the big bins um but the club wants to be a part of that and help with that um but we really saw the glaring issue of um the bins in the cafeteria went away um and we want to find a way to bring them back into the culture um so we've talked a lot about the education that will be on our role and the the um you know part separate from your project the education will be do with students um and part of I think what you you have been talking about is um you know Divi designing something that we
030can put something in that only allows you to put in a water bottle or something like that so that other things aren't getting put into the big recycle bins we have I just wanted to share a little the history that we have had some persective if we if we never do uh composting in the cafeteria this as a recycling project is valuable definitely definitely and I would say when we talked we used to have um our scraps went to a pig farm or something and and we I didn't know till we came back to the school year um that we didn't have that um relationship anymore with where some of our kitchen scraps were going yeah because I have a different concern when it comes to composting you know my wife composts so in inside
031we have a small canister it's got a special bag it's got a special lid you know and so and that's just in our house it's not in you know had the things that you experience the fruit thighs and the the mess and and and so I I think I think separating those out and saying hey is this good with just the thing that we think we can accomplish you know in the near term um why don't me see if Marcy or Lori has anything and then I want to sort of throw out an idea for folks I don't know mercy of anything yeah I mean two things that come to mind and Kelly you just said it one is if you can when you're documenting your process talk about how you're going to Loop in
032the education of your peers to take part in recycling Andor eventually composting I think that's really helpful and was also just curious if you had spoken about putting this in at the lower schools like if you had gotten into any of that in the meetings and you don't have to answer that now it's just a question um if there's you know literature that as you go up through the schools that would be a helpful way to start it and I guess the other question I have because I'm an accountant is what's the cost to maintain this going forward and have you thought about that and is part of it and again you don't have to answer that tonight it's just a just a question and you're doing a great job answering all the questions by
033the way very impressed thank you um I can definitely focus on the last one first because I think that's the one that's most fresh to my mind and it's pretty simple in the sense of um I have to do fundraising for my own project in the sense of I'm not asking you guys for money to complete this work I would be building it and implementing it using the resources that I'm able to fund raise and I'm lucky that some of the leaders have trucks and stuff that can help me drive it over and um we can all work together and get it put in the right place so MoneyWise that's all set um as well as um with recycling we already have a recycling contract and if the um environmental action Club so is taking
034care of it then we wouldn't need any custodians to be working on it in terms of just picking it up so that should be zero cost as well so the recycling portion of the project would definitely be zero cost um yeah from a from a location is would this is this near the trash receptacles as well because it probably won't work very well if this is off in the corner and the you know the trash recept are in the middle of the room just like at the at the grocery store can I can I hold on that thought because I'm I think where what I was going to suggest and I want to get Lor an opportunity here too but um is I think there are a lot of details right that we can make
035a decision about that we want to hear more on or we want to say look he's he's trying to do something that's really positive here and I think everybody's responding by saying this is a great idea and thank you and so I think generally speaking we want to encourage that and support that but we want to make sure you know all the concerns are addressed and so we can either look for Nathan to come back with more information or we could also sort of refer this to Administration and look at and say if superintendent and the building principle and our director of facilities are okay with the implementation do we need to do we feel the need to hear anything more and the only reason I cut you off all and I apologize for doing
036is you know sort of getting into the logistics I think you're raising a valid point of if one bucket's over there and the trash is over here kid's just going to go to whatever his closest right well if they got to go to the trash anyway they're they're going to make one stop right um so I I think that's it's a valid valid consideration but I don't know that's one that we need to get into um so before we kind of come back to sort of how do we want to proceed let's see vasy from wherever you are in the virtual land any any questions comments yes we can um so first of all thank you so much for bringing this forward um we love a great Eagle Scout project and and we've had so
037many great ones and this sounds like a great one too and we um certainly are all very much Pro um Recycling and sustainability my concern just for tonight or at least in this moment is that that um if what I'm hearing our if our facilities director isn't 100% like on board in this moment at least with what was initially presented that would be a big obstacle for me to be able to support it I mean you the school committee does have to approve anything where there's going to be an installation on the property and so if there was any concern on that end I really would either want to hear more directly from him or I'd want the administration to go back and answer questions and even if some alternate things come up tonight I
038also feel like there's a bigger conversation here that we haven't really had as a group that is it's glaringly obvious now that it's that it's necessary that we talk about you know these are important things and Miss St Curry did get up there and say we haven't had Recycling and we need to fix that but I feel like you know there's some kind of managed conversation where we need to understand understand what needs to happen in each building um what needs to happen first how is the education going to happen who's paying for all of this instead of letting little projects go along here and there unless there's some kind of variation of this that can you know be a quick fix for something um that wouldn't be the end of the conversation for me
039I I so I I feel I would feel like I need more reassurance from um the administration and our facilities director and I would want to get together with the school committee and whoever needs to be there to educate me more on how we have a thoughtful process about how to move forward in this realm so Nathan can I ask you are you do you have a time constraint that you're working under that you know you need to get your project done by May 1st or or something like that or is this something you're going to work on over the next year um um well the time constraint is technically my 18th birthday but and which I have time time for cuz I am a junior and I turned 17 not super long ago um
040the hope that I definitely had was that I could do it this year like sort of finish the whole um planning process this winter and start working on building and then implement this spring um so and yeah and I mean I'll be gone for chunks of this summer and then all of a sudden you're back to school and it's close so right so it definitely sounds like there's there's a need for some sort of more detail work and to sort of hone in on what the project really is going to be now and how it's going to work and again I'm looking to both to the rest of the school committee as well as Administration to see whether people want to sort of have a final approval after we get more details or people comfortable
041sort of deferring that to Administration to work out and sort of um sort of generally give some blessing on at least going forward with this um so let me just pose that question to folks and see where we are it for me it it would depend on where Jim uh John and Kelly think it is right because most of the time when we we approve something you know uh sub to you know subsequent staff or or Administration approval or whatever it it has some it's a little further down a little further down the line and so I don't want to pass the buck as it were I don't I don't want to just hey we love stainability we have the fact that you want to do this and and and it should should be able
042to be great and then just ship it off our plate if we should be looking at it deeper um and I don't want to put the administration in in a position so I i' I'd want more information about how they where they felt it was in the process to to because I don't want to you know just kick it kick it down the kick it down the road prematurely I agree um I think it it would be helpful if if you're able to come back to another meeting with some of the details that we've asked questions about U maybe if you have a visual to share so it can give us those of us who aren't as familiar with the cafeteria kind of to be able to visualize what the project looks like um and
043you know kind of uh some of the bigger picture questions that we have as well too I agree um is I I trust our administrators fully but I also don't want to leave something else on their plate when we could could work through some of the details at this level as well too Mercy any thoughts I agree with all your thoughts Okay Lori thumbs up all right so I think what we it seems like we'd like to do is is hear back and I'm kind of throwing this out just for not ofe or consensus to do a little more work with building Administration director facilities so that all the concerns are kind of worked through to their satisfaction so that they can come in and support the project as you presented in the next version
044But please understand that we're we're supportive of what you're doing and this is want to make yeah absolutely just need we just need a little bit more detail before we're ready to rubber stamp it and and and and and it doesn't mean that everything has to be ironed out 100% with the you know with everybody because there's plenty like I said we we approve a lot of things uh you know that would just be uh you know pending you know working out the details with the administration or whoever is appropriate so doesn't need to be 100% but um it's I think we just feel it's a little premature to to say yes we we say yes to the concept right and the idea if that makes sense does that work yes I wonder if it
045would be helpful to get a slightly if you guys could potentially spend time like listing the main concerns that you have or you want me to be more clearly explaining next we can all articulate me an email and you and I will set up a time and we'll make sure that Miss senker and Mr Murray were there so we can we'll walk through the concerns within the calf itself yeah and and what we we can do is we can we can send an email to Jim about the things we that they want to have answered everything we've talked about is also recorded and we can go back into the questions that may have been asked and you know you got you got Pepper with a lot of questions so if you didn't catch them all
046it's perfectly understandable um and we can talk you know talk with you through the administrative staff to make sure all the concerns really are addressed and then hopefully we'll be in a position to approve what you come back with yeah I can I can say personally thinking of the separately composting and and recycling is easier for me um and it is meant to be thought that way it's a it's something that's purposefully meant it's purposefully built so that it could be helpful when the time comes but the truth is it's trying to sort of like um M toasty said saying um that you're fixing sort of a smaller problem and more of a putting a patch on something that I think it's going to be easier for us to say recycling we understand that and
047we you know the the scope of issues is smaller if we're trying to solve sort of the bigger problem as well now given you know the sort of the health concerns sanitation concerns education concerns that's I think a more complicated project um and probably one that is a little harder to to approve so I think if you if you're able to focus as Paul's saying on the recycling component first that that probably is going to make it easier for us to vote we're meeting every two weeks so so we can keep this moving quickly yes okay thank you all right thanks for coming in we're excited about it we just ask a lot of questions more details and and don't feel obligated to stay go to your next meeting go go do what you got
048to do I know you're already late all right thanks thank you for coming in great project all right um do we want to I know Miss Sinker is going to be fairly brief do we want to allow Miss S Kerr and Miss Arnold to do their present presentations first and then go to our calendar just to allow them to be done a little bit quicker okay with that yeah I I think we should have more conversation CU she wasn't at the Chistina wasn't here for our last meeting so I think going over how we arrived there would probably be help all right so I think um Kelly that puts you up next are you pulling up the presentation yes ma'am I am it's easier if I get on Zoom or something why it switched it
049over sorry it doesn't matter so thanks for having me here tonight I just wanted to give a brief overview um um I know Mr Terry's been keeping you updated on some of the conversations that we've been having um at the um High School site Council over the course of um mostly this school year we started last school year um so just wanted to um start with um this is a slide from um presentation that I've shared with uh three parent meetings that we've had over the last couple weeks and um and basically started that conversation with saying it's not you know whether to wait or unweight GPA is a conversation that's happening um in isolation here in Ashland it's a conversation that I've been having with my colleagues across the state um and this is
050just um some thoughts from an article from my Professional Organization um that kind of summed up some of the thoughts we've had and the conversations we had as a site Council when we started this conversation in terms of you know where do we need to be and thinking about that were encouraging all students to reach their academic Excellence um and we as a faculty have had um a lot of conversation over the last couple years um um regarding the rise of competition that we have seen among students um so those are just some points that I wanted to include um that I think speak to um what we stand for at Ash high school and that we really want to provide students with an opportunity to um take classes that are challenging take classes that
051will help them Reach their goals in the future and um will help them balance what is important to them um as as adolescents who have a lot more going on than just School even though um from our point of view you know school is is their number one job right now um so you can go to the next one yep sorry um so you know one of the things that we had a lot of questions when we started talking about this and some members of the council and I will say both uh teacher and parents brought this up as a topic as a request for us to talk about um last spring and so thinking about um our school Improvement plan obviously based on the Strategic plan you know where we were talking a lot
052about social emotional learning uh student Mental Health Equity um we had a lot of questions that came up about um we to GPA why do we do it how do we do it what does it mean to us at Ashland High School um in our meetings um with students and parents we spent a little time talking about this as the role of site Council and um that you know the site Council works together to research and explore different topics and from there decide whether or not we you going to make a recommendation um to the school committee when it is something that's a a policy that um you would be responsible for voting on um so we you know our hope over um the meetings that we've had recently was to educate people on that
053piece um and to say that we're having some meetings to get your thoughts and inputs on where we are and what we do currently as a school um you I shared four questions that are um you you know not the only questions we had when we started but um some of the some of the guiding questions we had um about whether or not waiting GPA continues to be relevant at the high school level um you know there's always es and flows and um I know um you know we talked last night that we have faculty that do remember when we were unweighted um and um are currently looking into that history of when did we move to waiting and why um we talk we talk a lot about um does our current system um show
054that we value the work of all students and does you know is there a message we're sending in terms of how we weit things to our students that we value work at one level differently than we value at the other levels um we had a lot of conversation about and and this has been ongoing um about getting um to the place where students are taking classes that are of interest to them or at their appropriate level um and are not just a class that they're choosing to get an edge in their GP pa um and you know we talked about would these changes um and we don't know the answer would these changes if if we were to recommend a change um would there be an impact on student mental health um you know we
055hear regularly from our counseling department um and our teachers that the level of stress students are feeling um you know whether they are um you know recommended or override a class um you know how do we get better at looking at that balance because students um the level of students in our counseling office seeking social emotional support because of how they feel in classes overwhelmed um has continued to increase and it's continued to be a a concern for us you can go to the next one um so part of our process is um you know again I started by saying these are conversations we're having um across um you know I I am part of a group that's email about 40 principles in the Metro West area and you know probably 15 to 20 of
056Us come together once a month um and talk about topics like these and how every school is is approaching it um we share resources uh constantly so we started with um you know I had received resources from schools that had already have always been unweighted schools that have recently unweighted um so shared some of the information and research that the schools that you know three of the schools that had most recently gone through this process um and shared that with our site Council and that was one of our you know first or second meetings this year is kind of just looking over what other schools had done not that we're trying to compare ourselves to these schools in any way because they're very different districts um but to have some conversations about what are the
057steps they took when they went through this process which included a year or two of their site Council to having discussions and some research Etc um and some things that we took away where we want to we want to be having some conversations with the colleges um and we want to be having conversations with our students and parents um and so we really just started with a very brief um survey to the 35 colleges that our students apply to the most um to get some feedback it was very brief it was three questions I believe um counseling department developed it just to kind of get a start for what do we want to look at um again we held some Focus grp groups with our students you are attent there to ask what do you
058know about weed GPA what do you understand about it um how does it um impact how you make your choices As you move through high school um and then you know our attent was to get some of that same questioning done with our parent groups um I don't think that was as successful but we were able to share some of the information we had collected um at this point and really hear some good feedback um from the parents that did participate um and then we have um you know we have as a um a group I think we've talked about this um at three meetings um and have had discussion that with every question we ask it brings us three more questions um and you know my experience with this site council is we are
059very thoughtful about making sure we're asking those questions and thinking about what is uh what are the pros and cons for our students and and wanting to be really thoughtful and take our time if we were going to make any recommendations um so um these are just some of the um oh I just wanted to share a snapshot of some of the things one of the questions that was asked for the college um of the colleges and um you know we laughed because the college was going to say you need to do what's best for you um but I shared this because that was one of the the big pieces of feedback and questions that came to us um as we've gone through the process that we've gone through over the last couple of months
060is um you know we really need to get more information from colleges and see where they're at and where they're headed um as we make any thoughts or changes or ask continuing questions um you know we have gone down the the road of should we you know um should we be considered you know using weighted and unweighted should we be looking at other you know and parents have brought some of these questions to us should we be looking at things like limiting APS should we be having questions about what our override process all those types of things um are questions that you know we are being thoughtful about is this even the right question we're asking right now and should we be looking at other questions as well um so you can go the next
061one so really we where we are at um we just came from a meeting um where the the agenda item for tonight was to share the feedback that we had received from students and parents um we were um I think halfway through having student meetings um the last time we had um a site council meeting in January um because we did those during our exam cycle and um just finished parent meetings last night and um you know so our tent tonight was kind of talk about where we're at and what do we think our next steps should be um you know we talked about that we um out of uh area schools the majority still do wait um it's you know out of out of my responses just reach out to our local group it
062was about 22% on weight um 77% to um you know we had a lot of talk about um our understanding as High School staff um how that most colleges have their own process for what they do and that they unweight um and that because of the disparity of how schools weight you know we and we have information about um you know schools in our own our own League each of us do it differently um so really wanting to look at um the college process and what colleges are looking for is kind of um a next step for us um you know we were able to see in some of our our research early on I said one of our early questions was is this going to help students make better choices for themselves and more
063related to their interests and we do know from the schools that have already done it that they do see um especially the students that are looking to take really challenging classes that that that didn't not change for them those students were still choosing um the most challenging classes um regardless of whether of the onwaiting um one of the questions that came up um that we' have done some followup with some colleges um is the question of where that GPA and that rank as the school reports it falls in U merit awards um for students um so maybe you know so that some of the feedback we got was that perhaps colleges are using that information from the high schools when they talk about whether or not a student is going to get Merit money and
064we don't want to have an impact on that that might be negative but we've stopped ranking we only school's report we you know our Merit money goes to the students that are in the first desile GP some Merit money is given out via right right but we're doing we're doing we're doing desile rank we're not we're not doing ranking so correct changes within that desile I would assume that that shouldn't be a consideration I would imagine cuz we're not you're 35th you're you know we're not we're not ranking it that way right no but some school strictly look at GPA to determine Merit not the class rank or death well and some of the feedback we got was some schools look at where they fall in the death AIS right right for for merit um
065and then we you know as I said every every time we ask a question we get three more so we've been talking about what does this mean for our honors Awards you know Val and cell what does this mean for our criteria for NHS what does this mean for what Naviance looks like um you know and how do how do schools that have made those change because everyone uses Naviance how does that impact them because if you haven't been in there yet you get a scatter gram of you know where your child Falls based on their GPA and the colleges they're looking at so so Kelly with uh with the waiting we do uh I think you said it but I want to confirm our way of waiting isn't necessarily the same way somebody else
066is waiting right correct very correct so you know I guess if there's not a standard way to wait across uh schools then use that's why that's one of the reasons why that the school the colleges have to have their own way because they have to somehow normalize something that's not normalized right right so U that also then you know is is something to to consider that it's not just waiting versus un waiting everybody else is waiting but we're all waiting it differently right so there's not a consistency there so uh going strictly off GPA across you know for students that are applying to a school uh they have to be doing something just not just straight GPA to compare an naon student to a hon to a Hopkinson to right to the other schools as
067well they're right they're looking at our school profile along with our transcript and what we offer what students are able to take how rigorous of a course load is is the student taking in relation to their skill level Kelly when you guys got feedback from the colleges did and this may be one of the new questions that you have right as you move forward but were any of the questions relative to um you know kind of where at how they how they determined the rigor of Ashlin because obviously I know like if and this was new to me as my son was applying to college this year that they pretty much every school he applied to strip strips down that GPA and they Rec they add points their own points back in based on honors
068or AP courses um and so you know what his stri down GPA was was not necessarily what they found his GPA was but their GPA wasn't necessarily our GPA so they kind of figured out for for themselves and so he still got extra points for those honors classes and those AP classes in the eyes of the colleges he was applying to but I know kind of they may not give Ashlin the same amount of points for an honors class as a different high school we may get more than some high schools based on the rigor of our program so do you have any understanding or information from the schools and how they determine that rigor and kind of where where we fit in and just kind of if they're looking at us without any weight
069in those GPA you know and it this kind of I don't know if it's a loaded question or complicated question but um I I think it would be helpful to hear some of um because we have a rigorous program I think ashon High School is seen as is is very rigorous and in competitive program um whether you're in cp2 or whatever whatever level you're in um and so I think it would be helpful if the colleges were able to share any of kind of that thought process as well too you know I can't answer that question I would um I would say that I would assume Mr McAn could answer that question um in in terms of one of the things we talked about you know helping students understand is you know not only does
070your transcript go to the school but our school profile um and I did see one of the pieces of feedback that was um a comment that one of the colleges made was you know Ashland has a a good profile that does a really good job of explaining what your school offers and what your school does and that's one of the things we look for we want to be able to understand what your school does and and you do it well um but yeah those are yeah I mean it's that question may not be able to be answered because every school does it a little differently but that's certainly like I think a piece of information that's helpful for people to understand cuz I didn't even I didn't know that until I went through the process
071you know with with my own son but it's um but it's refreshing to know that they added they added back in on their own whether we put it there or not that that extra boost Mercy um well I have lots I mean I was in the meeting last night so there's clearly a lot of questions and what struck me is right now we have a lot of qualitative discussion happening and I need more quantitative discussion I think we need more facts and there's a lot of questions and I'd like to understand all the questions I'd really like to understand from an admissions office perspective especially outside of even where our students go like because it's all over the board what those perspectives are and how they would impact our students I'm definitely the Merit money
072is a a is a concern um because there are students who have received scholarships from ashin that was based on Rank and so how does that waiting or onwaiting I mean I know it's one of the many questions but I think it would be really helpful and I know you you're having focus groups or whatever but there's so many clearly a lot of engaged parents so it' be really great to really get a good list of data that we could collect understand figure out a way to formulate and present I mean you're very brave to have gone in front of all those parents with you know kind beginning information I think there's a lot of information that I would want to understand as a parent of a high school and incoming high schooler and how
073that would impact their you know going wherever they choose to go because from my perspective we want to give our students the best shot they have right and so while the waiting or onwaiting may only make a difference to however many you want to give those c those kids their best shot and I know everybody in this room wants wants that so I I would just say if there's a way we can formulate and collect data so it's it's more going to give us um I guess something that we could formulate an opinion on that's not just people's opinions or anecdotal to the extent because a lot of it's hard to measure and so I'm looking for what is measurable data that people have collected who have been through it or does it exist and
074I don't know the answer to that I want to say Mar you're making feel really good about something I shared with Miss iner earlier today which was that I thought this committee was really going to be looking for evidence that demonstrates if we're making a change somehow it's going to positively impact kids right right right and and it's not just about what we might do but what's the goal of a change and how do we know if we make the change we're going to achieve the goal and I think those are all really difficult questions that you know it's way too early in the process to have answers to MH um but as Kelly says you know every time you ask one question you get three more and they're all good you know well and
075that's why I want I why I was asking those other questions is because people will say oh everybody else waiting but does that matter if everybody's waiting differently right so how do we you know put context around any of the data points to make it so we can judge those data points appropriately just to just to say that sounds on its surface hey if everybody else is doing it we're going to stand out and it may not be a good way but you know if the colleges have to figure that out anyway because everybody's waiting differently then you know maybe that's you know maybe that's not such a a valid data point or or it is right I don't know and and you know I'm I'm going to look at it from the point of
076uh the same way we look at we look at our entire student body and not just this you know the thing about National a society all these different that's valid things we need to look at but you know our student body is you know that's a very small subset of our student body right and so how does this impact our entire student body and almost you know I'd love to say that everything we do has a positive impact on every student it it doesn't there's a lot of times it's balance and we do something and you know the student you don't get you know it has a has I don't want to say negative impact but it doesn't impact that student as positively as it in impacts this other group and and we have to
077weigh that right and I think that goes to what you're saying is how do we go from a very passionate because I've had conversations with some people who are asking me about it right they're very passionate about it but I don't know that their passion is based on uh anything other than wanting their kid to have the opportunities you talked about but is that a fallacy right uh or is it trending to be a fallacy you know if if you went back you know 10 years what was that percentage of unweighted schools right probably less is it trending to is it is it trending towards doing this and should we even if we don't make a change now be looking at how we adopt something that might be right you I I will say this
078it did take on a life of its own it was typically we and we talked tonight um at site Council that we have had a lot of things that we have talked about and and looked to make changes at the school and some that we have brought here to um school committee and often there are conversations that are happen over the course of two or three years or at least a whole year um and um you know after one or two meetings this was um so I don't think in in other situations um we would have been seeking information or holding meetings to say this is what we've been doing this is where we're at um as early on until we had some more questions answered um but we had to address it on a
079larger scale because it was such so many parents who are so vested in it like take their questions right and let's explore are the answers to the questions and I think you know what struck me in the conversation last night is there seems to be a real focus on kids and their stress and their perceptions and so I think I need to spend some time with Jen Cutler and understand you know what what we're doing for counseling and all that but that's what struck me like okay is is changing this going to change that I don't no so um and those are the conversations we're having yeah so I think again I just think there's a lot of questions that have to be and to that point in ter this is kind of a process
080question but I have so I was on the zoom last night as well too and I had a sticky notepad in front of me so I just filled it up with my questions wonder why You' been holding that was all I had and I didn't have time to rewrite it today so I just brought the pad with me but the questions that you know that we have or and I don't know if you've already determined a process for this for either parents to submit questions I know your this conversation is going to be ongoing I know you last you mentioned last night you're going to be seeking input and getting greater input from students and and Gathering some more information from that front but in terms of the questions we have as a committee um
081what's the should we share them with Mark and he can bring them to site what are your thoughts I think for for me and and I want to make sure Lori gets a chance to get in here too is you I think the point of this discussion tonight was for Kelly to let you know what's going on in more detail um you know there is it may not be time to submit questions yeah yeah yeah there there's an ongoing dialogue around the site Council um you know the agenda had other things on it that we never got to today because this conversation took up an hour and 20 minutes and then Kelly wisely said I don't think we're going to get to those other things yet um you know I think if you have questions
082I me my view is sen M Kelly is things that you know because I'm not at every meeting I I Tred to get to them all but I I missed a couple when we were talking about this you know share them with her by email you things you're thinking about because I think um a they probably have already been discussed to some degree my gu fil right Kelly can filter those and and I'm sure you've got something there nobody's talked about um it'll enable them to sort of think about it I tried earlier today to give them my two cents and it was the comment I made to in response to Marcy's comment a minute ago of what I thought the committee would be looking for and it was you know really said look I
083think if we're making a change we've always been driven by what's best for kids what we're going to need is some something that shows us if we're making a change that what we're doing is best for kids right and I don't know how that's going to be defined it's could be a million different things and I think Paul you're right like the chances of hitting it for all 200 or 200 plus kids in in a given graduating class or all 800 and something in the building it probably isn't going to be that you know it's not going to be perfect um it's not perfect now it won't be perfect whatever we do but if we we're going to want evidence that says if you do this it should achieve this outcome and that to to
084to focus a bit on what are we trying to achieve and then how are we going to figure out whether this makes a difference at all um so I think I think you know for where things are and my guess is this dialogue is going to go on for a while we're joking at the end of the meeting today said you know it's probably the parents that are going through kind pre enrollment now that might see something change yeah um I mean to sorry just one thing about for me also because I do this at work as well it's not just about a change that whether it has a positive impa it's also we do something right it's not that we're not doing something and we're going to add we're doing something and can we
085evaluate its impact you know um and just because we've been doing something doesn't mean we should continue to do something um even if it doesn't demonstr you know because I don't want to put the the hurdle in that if it doesn't have some significant or you know impact you know positive impact that we should make a change but if we are doing something we should also understand the value of doing that thing right um and so just I want to add that in there fa point it's it's it's also about hey it's not like we're going from zero and we're adding you we're looking at adding something that but we are doing something and just the same way we evaluate uh we should be evaluating our programming and everything like that and we should be
086evaluating the things we do um so this I think is a is a is an opportunity to do that um the other component is do you have anything that kind of lays out you know not not a timeline as like hey this date but a process because part of me wants to say hey I have some questions but I want to I want to throw them out at the right time right I don't want to if if if I so I and I I appreciate you coming in and and giving us the the where things are but just an overall if there was something that says hey we it might change but here's the vision of the the the steps we would take before we would even make a decision where we we would so
087that way we know what you kind of lay out a journey and we understand where you are on the journey because we have this discussion and you know I still don't know would we want to have some are we going to try to vote on something you know at the end of the year beginning next year I don't I don't know that where where that what that Journey looks like and like I said the journey might change but in your current view maybe having something that says hey I think typically when we start a year we have you know a plan to to and with a a larger topic we have a plan to talk about it for the year and and come by the end of the year with some sort of resolution of
088whether or not we're going to make any kind of recommendation or not something that's bigger um you know I think about more something recent in terms of community service that was a three-year discussion before we felt comfortable making a recommendation this this one seems like like like one that's a tall task for a single school year yeah so no we do not have a road map because again a lot of you know every question brings a new one if I may Kelly I just say I think the the next point in the dialogue that we were going to get to in site Council that we didn't was next steps yeah right and so there was starting to be a dialogue of at least what do we want to look at next um that'll be next
089month and that's what I was getting at and that's why I said not a timeline not not not a journey timeline but hey here are the steps we want to take and I you know until we get to this point I can't tell you you you may not be able to tell us an estimate on how long a step will take but just kind of a a flow of hey these are the types of things we want to go through to get there regardless of the time frames just so I could better wrap my head around the let me try to get Lori a chance CU I keep threatening Lori do you have anything you want to to share you do have to unmute first though oh my gosh um I've been thinking about this
090for like 20 years and I've been on the site Council and I I know it's been a conversation and and there's been a lot of fear-based stressful conversations too even when we went to the desile system instead of the rankings I mean there's a lot resting on this for lots of different people my kid in full transparency my kids are at the other end of all of this they already got into Great Schools they already had their education and I would say even benefited in some ways from the system we've had Merit money we've we've um had uh shortened College experiences because of all the additional credits and so forth and so on on the other hand um I really also have always felt like you know just the system we have is not right
091uh not we us Ashland but just one that we've all kind of found ourselves right in the middle of this sort of Merit system and I mean are we who we say we are and and what we say we're doing if the focus the system is really built on you know how many feathers can you collect by the end so that you can get into the best whatever which is a concern of all of ours including mine um but I'm not sure that that the person who easily gets an A in the top class and it's going to position them well for the Merit etc etc is any more deserving than the person who is trying their best in um a cp2 and working really hard and uh I think it also takes the focus
092off of you know just education in general like learning and love of learning and also learning how to go through your whole life and not constantly find yourself in this kind of system where you have to earn points to get to the next level it's like some kind of video game you know you're just leveling up with all these things that you're collecting all way without really a true connection to your what you're even doing there so um and I also don't think we're ever going to answer the question you know if we ever decide to make a change or take a risk it's probably going to be without having the level of comfort that we would all want to know well how's this going to improve things and can you be sure and unless
093we're the last to do it and we've seen everybody else do it and get great results but I think you know I I think that the reason why we're having this conversation and why it's been ongoing for so long is that at least to some level we all know that there's something a little off about it even though we also understand that um there's a lot of fear involved in taking ourselves out of that and certainly none of us wants to place our children at a disadvantage so me I don't have an answer I'm just saying that I think something about how it works doesn't sit well with me and it never really has and I don't know the answer to what's better but I think other people feel the same way or we wouldn't
094be constantly having this conversation and I I do also think that you know whether there are baby steps that can be taken or whether it just has to be a hard you know give it a try but I think it is going to be one of those things that if it comes to the decision-making point it's going to be a risk and we with any risk we may find that we're way better off than than we were before we took it and we may find that it was a mistake but um it certainly don't love me there's a lot of mixed messages out there I remember even it's a long time now but when my kids were touring colleges I mean we would go to the high school and listen to the talks about picking
095your courses you should pick the class that's appropriate for you and at your level and then we go to our schools and they'd say you know if you want to come to this school you better take the highest class that your high school offers and you better get an A and you better be number one kind of you know what I mean these kids are just getting so many if there's a lot of pressure and I'm not sure that it serves them well in the long run even if they do get the Merit like so what if at the end of the day they haven't learned anything and they're miserable so and again I and I say that as someone who has um you know benefited from a lot of that and and know of
096regrets about that but I I do um I I do want to make sure that we are doing things for the re right reasons and that we're in line with the values that we say that we have thanks sorry really I'm sorry I was just gonna say I didn't I didn't share any teacher feedback um regarding this this topic and I think something you just spoke to is um very much what teachers are are feeling right now is a a a very big increase in students who are taking a class just to take it um and and and the teachers want the reward to be uh the knowledge and the love of learning and um have found that that is um in a not there in a way it probably was there 10 years ago
0978 years ago um and then it's more about the number so if I I can I think the purpose of this conversation was to let the full committee know kind of what's going on um we're certainly we don't have a recommendation we're way away from debating the final decision on it um and so my sense is that we probably should kind of leave the conversation there but um Kelly are you okay receiving feedback or just even emails sort of about questions because I think the more information you have about what the school committee is going to be interested in hearing about um and you're certainly welcome to send to me I will do my best to for whatever is easiest for that's why I asked process why you send M Kelly would copy me on
098them can I just ask a quick question the site Council minutes mentioned focus groups are the focus groups the ones you already had or are you convening more no no no more although no actually I I will say uh what those groups showed us is that we need to find ways to reach out to to to more students and parents and I would but we have to talk about how what that's going to look like I would say and my sense is that there's probably an increasing body of understanding going on out there right now but there's a lot of misunderstanding out there I mean I've gotten at least a few questions directly that clearly demonstrate people think it's going to happen tomorrow right and and I've been pretty clear I will say this I
099spoke maybe a little out of turn just saying at today's State Council I said I think it's highly unlikely that we would be doing anything sort of that affects the kido's in the school now you know that it's more likely track would be for an incoming class of nth grade or something like that and I said no promises but but the way we've implemented things over time is and I think that's a barely safe B um so Kelly thank you for coming in anything else you want from the committee now okay perect thank you for undertaking this process too it's and having the parent groups and student groups I'm sure there will be more to come I appreciate the thoughtful process you're underg actually Kelly just one question for the focus groups and stuff how
100do you how do you feel you reached uh a did you feel you reached a good uh cross-section of which is why that's also part of my concern same concern we had when we talked about programing Mendes is I don't want to just hear from from these very engaged families and I want because we want to look at it holistically yeah how do we do that yeah I we had the same conversation this morning if you didn't catch your answer is no yeah and with this is probably is also an educational piece because those other families made a GPA what is what are you even talking about right I I received a lot of those emails right yeah um yeah I mean I was say like just waiting to your point earlier like I think
101the high school I graduated from we had a 13o scale my GPA was like 11 something you know and I still don't know what that means thank you Kelly Christie next up hi how's everyone doing good good thanks for coming in no absolutely thank you for having me I um I'm just giving a brief update on what's going on in the English language education that was code for don't ask me that many question question right told her yeah you you no you told her the right thing you know what happens up here sorry christe go so just an update on where we are um the last time I was with you we I had some goals um for the year and so it's an update on some of those things and some of the great
102things that are happening I started with the numbers because that's always important um and so I put where we were in in June Sims so the end of last year and then where we are currently Sims is just for Marcy and for anyone else it's just the data that we present to the state that's the actual date at the end of the year where we ended okay thank you you're welcome thanks acronym police um and so for at that time um and so the first box is um multilingual Learners um and what that number represents are the number of students within the district whose first language is something other than English so whatever they put on their registration and it's reported in our data management system um those 933 students currently 926 students speak another
103language at home as their primary language there's more that speak other languages in the home as well as English or whatever it is but it's not their primary language so the number is even greater of multilingual families if you will um of those students 21 are currently in the English language education program and that's prek to 12 so they are considered English language Learners they have um direct English language instruction as part of their day um then the next number the 196 CHR for maybe maybe you explained it and I just didn't get it yep I'm looking at those two first lines and they went like this right one went down not a lot the other one went up by a fair amount but I would expect them to kind of almost be in a
104similar Trend but so so may help me help me understand not necessarily they they um not necessarily so two things one you're dealing with June data which also includes students who may have graduated correct or moved on so they're not part of this year's numbers so the numbers that have come in at 926 the the new students could be English Learners um so so they're not Apples to Apples I was looking at Le so then it would also say more of the multilingual families multilingual children are qualifying for the English language program so that so if you looked at it that way so within that we we qualify okay yeah there's two factors I didn't expect them to be perfectly parallel going in opposite directions just struck me as as odd but and then um
105for former English Learners or Fels are students who have exited out of the English language education so they are now considered English proficient if you will um and we monitor those students for four years and so that number that 196 of the students who are within that 4-year period so there are more students who have exited out but we're not keeping track of those numbers um in this data is there any kind of data about like an average period of time that is student would be receiving yield services or too variable to um average 5 to seven years okay is it probably depends on when they enter and I I yeah understand there there are many there are many factors but that's the what the state guidelines are that's what we're expecting okay around that
106um and then so then I have the numbers broken down by the schools high school middle school minda warrant and that warrant number June doesn't include the incoming K students so that's why that number goes up so it doesn't quite and I kept looking at I'm like that doesn't make sense but that's why because we don't report on the incoming K class is that the same with pway because their number went up pretty so that again kids move got right and so um there are probably a few more at pitway this year than they were before so with with that warrant so last year so that's but but you but you also shifted some so so an increase is still an incre I'm trying to grab it's about the same of what Warren had last
107year it's around the same so so so when you're you're not counting the second graders uh at the June so you're not counting the second graders that would now be mindz students at the end of June cor so you only have two two grades okay that that's why all right yep because the shift happened and then the shift happens but you you don't have uh the you don't new cohort yeah so you only had two two grades as opposed to three yes got now I and then the number at the bottom new to US schools so that's a number that's also reported to desie um in its students within their first year so like 12 months um so right now that's at 59 students within the district that are is that is that a new
108reporting statistic and that's why we don't don't have it for last year um it's not new reporting it's new to the slide and and that when you say new to US schools that's not somebody entering prek or k that's actually does include K A K English learner that does count for them okay but not the prek but even if they lived in the US for three years and then they just start the age into the school system that's new okay they're still considered new because it's their first time in schools and they're an English learner so then this slide just talks about the languages um because I know this has come up before so I again digging out of um out of iPass our information system and this is what's reported as the primary language
109in the home um so the top language is Portuguese then I had to compile the Indian languages and dialects into one section to see actually how many that was and that's 198 then we have Spanish Russian Arabic Chinese um which includes Mandarin and Cantonese Romanian and French and then the bottom box or all the other languages that are less than 10 many of those are one two five something like that but I thought that was um interesting to look at the number of languages spoken in in District um so then I will just talk about some of the highlights that are going on um at the high school level um last year a new El teacher was hired and that really helped us to be able to separate classes by level and really they created
110curriculum to really teach the students at their language levels and really differentiate by the courses um and so that's been going really well um uh Middle School uh one of my goals was to have some dedicated collaboration time between between the El teachers and the content teachers that they work with um and so that's been happening mes and Warren um they have data team meetings where the classroom teachers um like the third fourth grade teachers are looking at data to make decisions about instruction for students and the El teachers are participating in those conversations so that we're looking at the student um holistically to make decisions for those kiddos and that's been going really well and and those are pictures of high school kiddos um and then K12 um there's a new uh progress monitoring
111software tool that we're using it's called flashlight 360 um and what it is it's a speaking and listening tool that the students are using regularly within their classroom and the teacher able to do progress monitoring and measure the speaking and writing skills and see how they're progressing throughout the year and actually um flashlight 360 there was a study at John Hopkins that just came out today I got an email about that saying that flat using flashlight 360 is making a significant difference with students in learning the the expressive language piece um so that was exciting that and the teachers all are using it K through 12 they love it um they actually flash light 360 I'm one of the ambassadors because I'm telling everyone about this great program and it's it's going really well to
112make decisions for our English Learners um access 2024 is the state testing that our English language Learners do every January February it's a test for listening speaking reading and writing we call it the mcast for English Learners if you will um because that's their year-to-year measurement so those um results will come back in May and we'll be able to look at that data compared to last year and continue to make educational decisions for our students so is that that data kind of similar to like growth percentiles but in in eel yes yes so in the listening speaking reading and writing um and so they give them the student growth percentiles like what they should make um what the so that they could exit the El program in five to I think it's five to seven
113years so it's like this is what the growth should look like over time and if students aren't making the growth then we make plans for them similar to like the mcast if the students aren't making growth what's the plan and how are we going to make sure that these students are successful and how are we sort I don't know if there's a like I understand the student growth percentile 50% is what you expect in the year you know and and we have many of our schools or grade levels where we're doing better than that in certain areas is there something comparable here and and if so what does it tell us about how we've been doing I don't know about the 50% percentile but I know so for each student they give them a targeted
114goal of what they should get the next year again depending on when they arrive their age their starting level and like what the growth should be so it's more based on the students individually so that maybe the better way for me to ask that question is you know are are students hitting those targets that are being set for them at a fairly High rate I mean or one that that you are satisfied with I would say right now yes I think there's pockets in areas that we're working on there's a term called long-term El so so English Learners who have been in the program what we would say long term like it's maybe it's too long and like targeting those students and what can we do differently for those students but overall there's been good
115growth yeah thank I just have a quick question about the flashlight 360 so is this kind is this a program where the El teachers can go in and say and kind of set the levels for a student of where they should start learning or is it they all kind of start in the same place and the program is built to determine what they need to do next it is it kind of self-directed or teacher directed it's it's very teacher directed and it's not like um where it's not like an I ready where they they're just going through standards right like they're going through like first grade standards this is more where like so The Benchmark all the students kind of in the elementary got the same Benchmark so it's a prompt there's a picture and
116they're asked okay describe what you see in the picture so then every student is at their level so if they're a newcomer level one and they can say ball tree house that's what they're saying then the teacher is scoring it that way if they're a little higher then they're saying phrases if they're higher they're saying sentences and and going growing the language that way so then the teacher can then say okay this group of students we really need to work on vocabulary or transition words or something like that so then they can give them more practice in that way so they can set the program to say these students need to work on these skills as and as they and so then they have practice that way and then they're using it to inform then
117their direct instruction is more on that so it's less of an instructional tool more pract is a practice and another really good thing about it is the students are practicing speaking into it and the access testing is speaking so if you go back a page the picture the kids um in the top picture they're actually on the program there and so they're getting practice and speaking and what I found and what the teachers are telling me is now those kids when it's their turn to talk they're saying more because now they've had real practice in speaking and speaking and one of the biggest problems or issues if you will with English Learners is they don't they don't have enough there's not enough practice in speaking so this tool is giving them practice now everyone in
118the class has a turn to say something versus one at a time and calling on and the hope is that that will then and translate into their classrooms and now they're raising their hand and they're more confident in in speaking thank you J so then this was um Family engagement and partnership um Lexi is the interpretation um um product that we're using and I I did some data on that we had from September to now over 4 500 calls and meetings I broke it down special education is also using this which translations interpretations for their meetings um so they had 127 meetings with interpretation or calls if you will and then everyone else is 389 just to give you some numbers um and the fall y family night was a huge success thank you for
119those who came um the next one will be in the spring at Warren we'll focus on the summer programs um summer activities that families can get involved with and how to read the access scores for the family because they'll get a score report that's kind of complicated but like what does that mean for your student um so we'll be looking at that I'm still uh working on the lpac which is the English language parent advisory Council and looking for leadership um for that so the leadership it needs to be a parent of a current English learner or a former English learner um and I'm also participating in a series from the Federation uh for children with special needs a newcomer Family series it's about welcoming um newcomers U welcome scent is in the notes there's
120all the list of workshops in there I can't remember them off the top of my head but it's I've gone to two so far and it's really good and I'm looking forward to building that welcoming environment um and working on how to welcome families into town along with um Caitlyn who presented I met with her yesterday that was that was I queued up name I went got the email and I wanted to check on that see if you um and she's working on uh a project with the with the library and so we're we're going to help support her in in that and awes and esmer and I we've been working on that that's thank you anybody have any questions Lori no you're good okay thanks chrisy appreciate you coming in all right let's um
121go back to item number one it'll feel better when we get past number one go back to five I guess um review and approve you Cas um review and approve correction to school year calendar 2425 so do you want me to te this up Jim or you want to sure you can te up all you want all right so in our last do I have to separate the two of you no we were just looking at the Google drive because ours look different to make sure we have the same Bo so at the last um meeting we had we approved a school calendar and then there was an oversight in that calendar in terms of when the April break was scheduled it was showing the week before and so Jim caught that afterwards and what
122that did was it meant that the Friday before which previously fell with in that school vacation week now is a holiday we've recognized in the past meaning Good Friday so we needed at a minimum to make sure we're approving the correct calendar showing that as a holiday um we had a lot of conversation about sort of USS and holidays and things last time um Tina you weren't here I was not here last time so quick summary on that but she said you but I did watch the meeting you don't have to summ for my benefit you don't have to summarize thank you though um so I think the only question we have here is is the first we have to at least again technically approve the the corrected calendar the one point I think is
123fair for further discussion at least in my humble opinion is does because that ultimately pushes the last day of the school year out one more day does that change anybody's opinion about the two days right after New Year's which the vote was in favor of extending the break to there was the second and third I assume would be those two days correct um to the point where people want to revisit that I'm not going to since I voted sort of against those days I feel like you know I said my peace on it but for those of you who were supportive which D obvious you weren't here um you know it's a question I think of like nope we still want to leave it that way we're fine but I don't think we have to
124have the conversation about holidays generally again um so I don't know who wants to well I mean if there was you know we've all set our peace on some of these things so not the holidays necessarily but anything you watched it deserve put you on first kind of like many of you I don't I didn't have a super strong opinion about it one thing you know that that I was thinking about and and did speak to a couple of parents I didn't have the opportunity in to there was no ashack meeting so this wasn't a discussion I had with anybody outside of a few personal friends um who have students with disabilities one thing that came to mind was is two weeks too long of a break but conversely is coming back for two days
125and then transitioning back in for just two days then transitioning back out for two days then transitioning back in for to kind of go back full-time would that be more difficult for our students with disabilities and I think it's six and one half dozen of the other I think for some a full twoe break is going to be better for some coming back for two days is going to be better and there's no kind of quick but that's just my thought process that was the one thing that I was thinking of in terms of is this going to impact some of our students negatively to have that long of a break and I don't think I you know landed solidly a yes or no I think it's different for every every student so um you
126know I I I think looking at the the thought in terms of those two days tend to be uh very low attendance days I think looking at our calendar the the last day school is going to be probably the last two days of school will be super low attendance days and so I think it may be a trade-off when we're looking at the strictly from the attendance piece um but I don't have a a strong opinion on it um either way I mean I can tell you even after the meeting I didn't I didn't like it you know I still don't like it uh you're looking for a better answer right yeah I mean because yes I'm the proponent of I I really didn't like coming back on you know that early because you know
127that new year is not a daytime thing it's it's a nighttime thing so coming back doesn't allow for unless it's a local unless your family is local you're not spending it time with with your family right so um that said especially how this lays out right the way it lays out right now getting rid of those two days allows us to have the 180 80th day before juneth right and if we have one snow day still completing it in that week right um so I don't know I I was almost regretting going with the flow uh last time in in voting for it even though I like I said tried to stop you no you you were you were too late you were the you were the last vote yeah maybe okay so I mean
128you know and I I asked about I was thinking myself do we revisit it here I I'd almost be willing to reverse that based on how this lays out right uh that we can end on the on the 20th even if we had one snow day which is basically probably what we're going to have this year hopefully we should just vote on like no snow right and because problem yeah the Mendes students from a from a heat perspective are not going to be a problem right but everybody else you know that last week in June could be it could be could be fine but it could be brutal right and I don't know I I don't I don't love it I'd probably lean towards flip-flopping and going back to the other one especially how it
129lays out now but all right anybody I mean we can we can do this two ways um you can get a motion to do one thing or the other and then just have the dialogue or get everybody else to chime in but I'm I'm not going to die in that to okay Marc anything you you know your view on it I just I would leave it I would leave it like it is I mean I think we had a robust discussion I think there was evidence to you know keep the days like they were in January we cannot predict the weather it could be hot in September and we could have to call day I would just leave it how it is and then we move on with our lives well moving on making decisions
130sometimes good thing yeah I mean the the the counter though is so say we have no snow days not a single student's going to be in there on the 20th why why the 23rd yeah yeah they're not going they're not going to come back why why you know well I mean last year the school calendar ended on a Monday and plenty of people came back so I think you know but it wasn't this late though that you know when you're so I don't know let's see let's just see if Lori want time INE all here it was the 17th last year I know because I was one of those people who pulled their kids out of school so I mean all I'm saying is parents are going to choose to do what parents are going
131to choose to do I think I think we made a choice I think we should stick with our choice and that's my opinion fair enough I rest Madam tosy yeah I mean I I was tossing it up in the when we made the decision six of one half a dozen of the other but I also feel like since we've made it if I had been hearing from people that they didn't like that or were disappointed I haven't had a single email about any of it um I had some verbal feedback in the beginning that people were looking forward to that extended break so I don't I don't have a real reason to change my vote um and it's been out there for a couple of weeks I don't know if people have started to make
132plans so I'm I'm going to keep my position not that I ever felt strongly about it to begin with but I have no reason to change it either all right let's why me just get a it's not been out we voted but nothing was published so I kept on getting people asking me when are we going to get it when are we going to get it even afterwards but so nobody knew about it unfortunately all why don't we why don't we get a motion on the table um it sounds like the motion's probably going to be in favor of adopting the um corrected calendar as presented by Jim which is to keep us closed on January 2nd and 3rd um and to recognize Good Friday Friday holiday on the 18th of April that's okay so
133do we have a motion so moved okay is there a second second all right roll call Vote with M to and virtual Marcy hi tinina hi Paul I'm gonna join you on the no side but we're going to lose but that's totally fine I Le I'm not going to die on the H Lori bye all right I'm going to maintain my positions to know on that all right 3 to2 calendar is set moving along and if nothing else as Marcy said we've got a decision decision we can tell people what the deal is there you go all right um assistant superintendent update Michael I I really just wanted to um bring to your attention some pretty great data that uh I was just able to to see um after our winter benchmark assessments were done
134specifically at Warren um as you know we've adopted I um from K to8 this year uh to do all of our assessment data um and it's now a a assessment which is going to be fantastic and we can watch how our students are progressing from K through 8 uh but in particular the uh Ela data from Warren is really worth highlighting uh in in the fall on our Benchmark um only 34.3% of our students were um scored on grade on or above grade level and on the winter Benchmark um that that rose up to 60.4% so I know that we've talked a lot about l literacy here and a lot of specifically the early literacy that we're teaching at Warren and all the work that has gone into that um you know with with Kate
135Alman who now has moved to Mendes and Pete and Kathy FIA and I just really it's a it should be a point of Pride for those teachers there and I really wanted to just be able to talk about that publicly of what a great jump that is from the fall to the winter in terms of how our students are progressing um that's specifically the I data you that's specifically the I data and that I ready data I I I think that we're probably overdue for me to kind of take some time to go over a lot of that data um in a meeting where we set some more you know intentional time for that but I just wanted to you know let that be known that we're really proud of that and and you know
136in we saw it in math as well we we saw a pretty significant increase in math to um 18% of our students were on or above in the fall at Warren and in the winter data 43.8 so we're seeing great growth and this was also there was there was great growth throughout the entire District um with what we did but I just really wanted to point out the work that's been happening there and I think some of that math is also probably directly related to the St math program that we adopted this year um and Pete and Kate wrote a grant for it and I'm excited that that uh Jenna has decided to write the same Grant to try to bring stmath to Mendes and stmath is a program that provides students an opportunity to
137um solve math equations in a really different way in a in sort of a game style uh and I think we've we've seen that our kids are benefiting from that uh so I'm excited that they're trying to get that same Grant at at Mendes um beyond that really exciting stuff um you know I talk about our year two three Mentor program that I'm really proud of our our partnership with men and Upton in Milford uh over the next month we are going to have uh 37 teachers 37 of our teachers visiting Milford and menen Upton on various stes and we'll have 26 teachers from menen Upton and Milford on March 4th and 24 teachers coming on March 13th to see the great work that our teachers are doing and one of the things that we
138focus on when when they visit us we talk about student engagement um and we have them look at at how our teachers are engaging our students um and and finally I know I said it last time but we've got a Wonder a wonderfully robust uh drama Department here here in Ashland and uh we should be proud of that uh Chicago is is coming on board here on on this weekend Mr Harrington's uh students are performing that Friday Saturday and Sunday and uh at AMS uh The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tain debuts tomorrow evening and Saturday afternoon at the middle school U Mr Lang Meer and ashon high grad has come back as our as our Drama teacher and he's excited to have a performance with his students uh so I'm looking forward to going to
139that tomorrow night and hopefully heading to the high school on Sunday great thanks Mike any questions for Mike Lori yeah fantastic thank you uh Jim just briefly just a couple things we have uh continued our work on our budget uh we have March 16th is a workshop for the school committee uh and we have an admin meeting Tuesday of next week to to really clean that up a little bit I'll be meeting with Mike Herbert on Monday uh to see where he's he stands right now currently with the budget so we'll be having a conversation there scheduled for 8:30 to noon correct it's showing in my probably it's going to be school in the music room that's okay yeah um I L my um yeah first I heard about so uh the process of um
140negotiations are underway uh with our PA professionals our ESP unit and uh that's uh going well um and was one other thing I was thinking about the budget PA of professionals is it the overnight trip oh yes just a update on uh during during February break our wrestlers um were in participating in the states in new englands and needed uh you know had an opportunity to stay over because they weren't quite sure if they were going to play in the morning our policy is that normally would come before the school committee for approval but we do have a section within uh the policy uh that allows uh Administration to make the decision to allow folks to stay over uh and then report it out so that's what I'm doing uh there is also that potential
141uh happening again this weekend uh coming up um so we had six wrestlers last weekend stay over in p uh and we potentially have a couple that might stay over and and Jim because it was a little confusing based on your message to us um it's because they because we drove they went down on the bus is the reason because you said that they stayed with their their parents not everyone stayed with their parents yes no so that's the reason why not everyone's with their parents okay so that's the part I was confused about where where do it Fallen with our it falls within the that frame school trip so yeah yeah okay that's all I yeah thank youa for reminding me no problem all right uhul warrant approvals sure uh between February 15 2024
142and February 28th 2024 I Paul Kendall authorized by my signature payables in the amount of $745,000 36 revolving expenses of $94,900 184 Grant expenses of $4,299 and meals tax expenses of [Laughter] $938,000 hi Dina hi Paul hi Lori hi and I for me and then uh committee reports of activities member updates let's start with Lori since she's way probably Lor nothing to add okay Marcy anything no Tina I have nope not this week no uh nothing in particular I just uh we did receive our supplemental reimbursement last week from uh I think I mentioned it previously and Marcy might have been prior to you being here so so uh the legislature approved $100 million uh of funding to the msba to um uh add supplemental reimbursement to projects that were adversely impacted by uh the
143pandemic and uh we were one of the first ones uh on that list and uh we did receive we we submitted U about a it was actually pretty quick so I think it was the end of last month we submitted and last week we did receive the $5.5 million reimbursement supplemental reimbursement for that so thank you the legislature for that that'll that's uh it doesn't as I said before it doesn't increase the project budget it just decreases uh uh the amount increases their their portion of that P and and how much we need to do for long-term borrowing so probably too late to undo some of the value of engineering decisions you we've had a lot of conversations about that um and we I was being somewhat fa no it's a valid it's a valid
144question because we we've talked about it multiple times and there uh most of the things um we uh as I said as I said it D didn't change the overall budget but most of the things that we uh removed we had as add-ons afterwards so we've gotten most of those things back there's there's certainly changes um that didn't come back because they're too late uh but I don't think they're subsid to ons okay um and for me the my biggest one was with SE Council earlier today um we've already talked about it you know all the topics we've talked about I just say they're they're really having very thoughtful conversations um and in the room is Kelly um M Gant um both the Deans typically um Sullivan wasn't there today uh one two four parents
145are present today one student um Miss Tumi and Miss Eagan were all there and they're really really just doing a really nice job trying to sort of work through the issue so give them credit for the time energy they're putting into it other than that I have nothing with that we have a motion to adjourn so moved I have a second second I like keeping it keep it consistent that's I give me the give me the deer in the headlights Lori it's my new role I Marcy I Dina I Paul I and I for me we are adjourned good night everybody good night good night everybody good night