001hello good evening it is September 1st can't believe that um this is our school committee meeting and we'll start by reading our vision statement the Ashen Public Schools is a forward-thinking district that cultivates the academic and social emotional growth of each student through a supportive collaborative Innovative and challenging environment students will develop into self-motivated resilient lifelong Learners who Embrace their role as responsible contributors to a global Community this meeting is not being recorded by waca cable TV but Mr Adams is recording it for future use our order business this evening we have a call to order agenda review and adoption public comment um we will not be doing new staff introductions we'll do that at our next meeting um new high school club the cares team review and approve Club advisor stien proposal to add
002additional student council advisory position at AHS Student Activity accounts Bank reconciliations school committee goals for 2022 2023 which I'm going to ask the committee if it's okay that we do that first change the order a little bit bit um Equity audit and strategic Plan update approval of minutes from July 25 26222 warrant approvals assistant superintendent update superintendent update member updates and then we will adjourn so I'll take the roll call and ask you guys if you're all okay with the order of business as well as the changing to the school committee goals will be item number one so Aaron Williams Janes Mark Terry yes and yes for me Kendall is absent this evening so yeah because the microphones aren't working so I'm gonna ask Tina first um we had a Retreat this summer where we
003spent some time talking about school committee goals and the next assignment was for Tina to put some of those thoughts together so we can continue our discussion so when you're ready T sure so are we echoing there we go um as Lori mentioned as part of our Retreat this summer we discussed the you know our school committee goals because we're going through the strategic planning process and we've also recently done the equity audit we discussed the um the the outcomes or the the data we've gathered so far from those processes and looked at the our goals from last year to update them um many of them are basically moving kind of the next step in each goal that was already there there aren't um drastic changes but kind of changes you know we as a
004committee discussed taking the next step in each one of these initiatives so I updated the language to reflect that uh so we now just need to take a look at it and see if it captures our discussion if we want to make any changes all right let's hear it so I I will confess that I had trouble accessing um that because they came Google Drive and I didn't get permission to look at it so I'm gonna look over Tina's shoulder here we necessarily have to vote on anything tonight if people need more time to digest but at least to hear you know what you summarized from our discussion do you want to just do a quick sort summ of it sure yeah am I still on mute let me just check you're good I'm good
005okay I'm not on mute okay I'm losing everything hold on so um you know the the the first goal um really was updated to basically um State and I apologize because I don't have last year's goals in front of me but I'm just working off of the the language for the the new proposed goals but are basically to use the findings of our strategic planning process and the equity audit to to use that data and information to move forward and assess the continuing needs of the district and the things that we want to focus on um and from those creating a strategic plan um creating that document outlining um the anticipated changes and long-term goals of the district um in essence and also um taking steps to incrementally commit resources to make those goals a
006reality um also you know developing um updating and maintaining policies to that support Equitable education for all students this is very very similar to to last year's it's kind of continuing um that initiative um and and really um you know there's there's a line about the policy subcommittee reviewing policies um which has been an ongoing effort but taking the feedback from the equity audit that we just had done to continue that effort as well um continuing to prioritize the adoption and integration ofal um that that's you know obviously a a a core um commitment in our district and we'll continue to have that be one of our goals um you know and also continuing to provide an excellent Equitable and current academic curriculum um infused with social emotional competencies this goal goal number four is
007also very similar to last year it's kind of continuing um you know our goal of staying informed um about the curriculum and staying um engaged in the conversation about that um and to make sure that it you know we are aligned our goals and and districtwide um around that um you know the the other two are are very similar from last year as well continuing um to adopt policies and budget positions to attract develop and retain high quality and diverse staff um and then collaborating with the director of Communications on how to develop and improve our school committee Communications which has been something that um you know I think has been a goal for a while and that the district as a whole has taken so many steps towards it and so continuing to work
008on you know our communication as a committee anybody have any feedback especially you eron if your time is short anything missing anything you want to add anything that discuss think it's great I think because this is based on a conversation that that all five of us had over a couple days I think it's okay to vote on it um but unless anyone feels differently about that I think we can take the motion I have I have placed the goals here too yeah you're just looking can you mute um and it was Paul given an opportunity to an opportunity to the I move to I move to approve the goals as presented for the 202 23 school year second all in favor Ain hi tinina hi Mark hi hi excellent that's done okay new high school
009club the team Rie and approve uh Kelly you want here thank you thank you I am can you explain the new club the car team um I thought that had been approved a couple years ago that is our Equity team um is there a new yes okay um so yeah I Kelly and I spoke and I think there um at one point you um you just needed to approve the account last time the uh the stien itself was already approved last year so I think this can come off the list correct I think they just created a club A they didn't create a CL a an account right away when they opened the of the club okay great thanks it was just unclear okay all right that's done and then proposal to add additional student
010council advisory position at ahs's second co-curricular position you want to speak to that Kelly yes I'd be happy to um so as you know our student council does uh quite a bit and is very involved in um everything we do at the school raises a lot of money to support School needs um and and um has 100 100 up to 150 students at a time involved um doing activities almost weekly um in terms of meetings with um the officers and the events that they plan so um Mr wixer who has been the adviser for years has proposed um getting some support um for all the work that he's done um and I understand there's been some discussions about um you know support ing that that extra person so we are hoping that um Miss Thompson
011who is one of our other Math teachers um would be approved to come on board and Chris you've worked with Michelle on determining the stien amount yes okay does anybody have any questions or concerns about that I think we can take a motion it's gonna be you to making the second yes correct approve the advisory position AHS [Music] second still here ask her yeah I from me too okay from me too did we want to um just open it up for public comment just in case because we didn't take chance for reminding me I don't see anybody here in the room um who who would make public comment but if there's anybody um online who would like to comment I did not give you time for that I apologize okay we'll get back to our
012business the Student Activity accounts the bank it is this is a quarterly reconciliation from the prior quarter sorry M it's just because you guys are so close to each other so you're getting feedback so I think if you just mute and then you know when you need to speak then I think you'll be fine so this is a quarterly reconciliation I've reconciled the uh um the three months prior um so it's a standard reconciliation happy to answer any questions um but it's um everything looked fine um we're we're balanced no I believe quarterly you you vote for that you approve I will approve I will move to approve the which quarter is it Student Activity Student Activity bank reconciliation for the quarter ending June 30th not hearing anybody else but I from me not we're
013not quite there yet okay so just to restate the motion I move to approve the Student Activity account bank reconciliation for the period ending June 30th 2022 second and then all in favor Aaron are you there are you in favor yep I from me I Mark I I plan update so the only thing I'm doing as an update here is that uh the final report has come in from the equity audit we will be reviewing that it just came in this week uh and the Strategic Plan update is uh we had a workshop this evening we've got a couple more workshops coming up uh so again our goal is to actually get the Strategic plan and the equity audit uh enveloped into the Strategic plan uh hopefully by having a final document in the January
014time frame that was really um the goal tonight just to let folks know it's still on the radar we had a good discussion at our admin Retreat a week ago uh on both these documents and uh we look forward to bringing that together uh with the school committee thanks Jim okay approval of minutes from July 25th 26th does anybody have anything Dina Mark Aaron nope don't have anything I move to approve the minutes of July 25th 20 22nd 25th and 26 from 25th and 26 second all in favor Aaron I Tina I Mark I I and Warren approvals Paul's not here think he's the only Warren approvals will be moved to the next meeting uh do we have an assistant superintendent update sure great open PA we we had an excellent opening um our first
015two days of uh professional development with staff went very well principles were able to to do some building based um work I know that the middle school they did some work with ADL um we had some training um around I ready an I ready initiative that we're going to be bringing to um the war Elementary School the MZ school and the middle school which will help us in assessing students in math uh to really you know give us more databased decision-making in math which is great um this the preschool students are not in just yet they'll be coming in uh next week and um Miss Davids the staff has been doing a lot of professional development there and our kindergarteners will be joining us on Tuesday so we are we are already enrolling excellent you
016have a report sure um I just really the beginning obviously of the of the school year uh in Earnest started uh with teaching staff coming back as Mike said Monday and Tuesday with some good professional development the last two days uh it was exciting to have students uh in our building uh and while we've we've had you know a couple hiccups here and there with our transportation overall I think we're in a way better position than we were last year at this time where buses were running routinely 20 to 25 minutes late uh I think even at the high school and the middle school those combined routes uh we've seen um a couple buses each day be anywhere between one and four minutes uh one in five minutes off uh which isn't bad uh in
017the first uh couple days so uh thank you to the principles and the work you're doing to to try to improve the efficiency of our Transportation uh I would say you know I'd be remiss if I didn't have uh our admin team here just introduce themselves uh to the group tonight um obviously we didn't have the new teachers here uh because it is backed up against a 4-day weekend uh but we do have a couple new administrators um you've met but maybe not the whole community so why don't I just actually have all of the administrators introduce themselves who are here tonight um I will call your names I don't know what order you're in on your own screen so um Kelly Kelly St C principal of the high school Sarah hi everyone Sarah Davidson
018preschool director of pway Pete hello everyone Pete Regan principal Warren Elementary School Dave Dave D Dr principal of Middle School Christie chrisy Arnold director of the English language education program Chris good evening Chris Matthew Director of Finance and operations Brittney Britney smop director of student services Jenna good evening I'm Jenna laena principal of Mendes Jen Jen Cutler director of counseling and social emotional learning Stephen Stephen marks athletic director and esmer esmer Gus media and communications director great thank you everyone and thanks for and who oh Paul Carpenter where are you I'm right here oh there you go the director good to see you Paul thanks thanks for really helping tonight um oh Michael Kyra Michael Kyra assistant superintendent so as Mike m the only the only other component I wanted to talk about a little
019bit was again we're talking about transportation and registration and and I want to say thank you to um you know our staff um Tamara Leela and and Karen um Johnson for the work they're putting in with registrations uh as well as transportation um we've had on average uh since Monday um probably about 40 different uh bus routes and stops and registrations that had to occur every day including today uh we had just under 30 uh changes to bus routes um partly folks who have not registered uh new registrant new enroles in the school system um and I think you know they're all three are pretty stressed out uh and working hard um and and I can't thank them enough I hopefully by next week it'll settle down a little bit uh where we can you
020know focus on really just tweaking a few Roots here and there but I'm I'm quite pleased with where we are um we have a couple buses that that um especially with the older kids the middle and high school that are packed um and uh you know we're certainly looking at do we move a couple students here move a couple students there to to relieve some of the pressure um but statistically I think I it's important to note that um pre pandemic we were averaging we had 1930 students riding the bus and this was the same The Roots the three root system um during the pandemic we had 1300 students riding the bus and uh we actually were later getting to school um in the middle and high school I don't think we were ever on
021time um like all all the buses we currently have as today this afternoon um just under 1,00 1767 student Riders um which is you know not still at that 1900 level um and we have more students now than we had during uh the pre-pandemic um time period um but it's interesting to see the Middle School uh and the Mendes school have about 73% of the population riding the bus um the Warren school is at 63% and the high school only has about 48% of the students uh riding the bus so so Jen I have I have a lot of good hope that Mendes that means only 27% are being driven so so that so so conquer Street might actually get better over the next couple days um and and Dave hopefully you're seeing that more
022students are riding the bus and and even the traffic pattern at the middle school um is um is going to get uh more you know more smooth as we continue on um so that's really just the update I have uh it went well thank you everyone here for making it smooth we've got work to do we've got a tweak some things with registration with busing and um but we'll do that and and I'm really confident and comfortable with our team uh that we can make things uh work uh here in the next couple weeks Jim can you speak to as of today good question um I had printed that out just like Prem I left it um but I have it I have it right here maybe it's in Prem folder it's in Prem folder
023actually I did run it before we am I on mute still I'm unmuted I ran it before we we came so as of today uh we have 2800 students not including pre Sarah what are you up to about 708 yeah I think just around around 80 we're still waiting on some paperwork so right so we're looking at 28 um you know 2900 students again right around that same including prek the biggest Delta we're down 38 students total from last year end of last year um we're 57 students down from PE ended the year at 229 kindergarteners uh we have 172 as of this afternoon so there's still a huge you know Pete and I had this conversation today we don't know where they are but but that being said we are still seeing uh thank
024you for adding that second grade teacher Pete would tell you that um we're up seven more kids from that large group last year that in first grade we're at 244 students right now um so that the average class size is still 22 because we have um you know 11 teachers in that grade level so thank you for that and I the teachers have commented as Mike and I walk through the buildings routinely thank you thank you for adding those positions it's really helping at 22 uh students um per class we still have room uh should more kindergarten show up uh and again kindergarten starts next week so I think we anticipate more kindergarten students coming um but the to the tune of 20 more students I don't think so um but that being said um
025that's where we are uh we have two classes uh in the district uh that are above uh 230 um that's the 244 second grade and Dave has as of today this afternoon 239 um at the eth grade level uh so um and that was a class of 241 at the end of last year so if kindergarten was where it would normally be uh we would be right exactly where I anticipated we're two students ahead of what NASDAQ thought we would be uh and that's again they anticipated 195 kindergarten students so that's enrollment as of today yeah okay I think member up we are who's got a update anybody I know we're just getting started here say it's been so long since um we had the the summer Retreat which was I thought a very productive
026meeting yes um obviously led into the goal discussion we had and the uh strategic plan and Equity audit that we have ongoing conversations on I don't think I have anything else besides that yeah the only other thing I would say is it was really amazing amazing to be in the building on Monday is all of the entire staff all of the teachers were there it's my first year on the school committee of being being there on that first day and it was just really it was amazing to just feel their energy their excitement their you know back to school nerves that everybody you know that just it was really cool to have everybody in the same building and I think it was a really nice um kickoff great excellent Ain are you still there and
027do you have anything if you are I I was sorry to miss the um opening day but I had a work commitment I couldn't get out of um but that's all I had just welcome to all the new staff and can't wait to work with you all SAR okay that's it I'll take a motion to adjourn move to adjourn second all in favorin IA hi hi I thank you all everyone hope you have an excellent start have a good long weekend everyone thank you thank you