001All right. Good evening. Tonight, the first order of business is to seat the new conquered Carile Regional School Committee to elect its officers and discuss other necessary appointments. After a call to order of the committee is made, I will request that the chair of the conquered school committee, which we haven't done yet either. We're a little out of order this year. We're just we know that for the seating of the conquered carile school committee and for the election of officers for the conquered carile school committee and the conquered school committee. Other appointments can be made um at that time if committees have worked out assignments. So let's first seat the conquered carile school committee. So, a motion will need to be made. I'm gonna Yeah, motion will be need need to be made to I'll
002just read it and then someone can move it. Recognize Andrew Herchek, Drew Maglozi, Sandy Perardi, Tracy Morano, Michael Williams as conquered members and Brian Wat and Lynette Kellaher as Carile members of the conquered Carlilele school committee. So move >> second. >> Congrats to Brian and Lynette for winning our election. Sorry. >> Congrats to the question mark. >> All in favor? >> I I >> So now nominations will be accepted and voted on for the chair of the conquered carile school committee. >> I move to elect Brian Wat as chair of the conquered carinal school committee. >> Second. I I wanted to say I've spent a lot of time on the campaign trail recently and particularly in conquered not in Carlilele I must admit and one thing stands out that there are some real challenges that
003we need to address social bias closing achievement gaps emerging technology in schools and I think we need to hold space for some really difficult conversations that call our community in. Uh, and therefore I I nominate or I move to nominate Michael Williams for chair. >> Second. >> Yeah. Thank you, Michael. I think you have three qualities that make you an ideal leader. I think you have the time to do this. I think you have the commitment to create space for people to actually listen. uh and and most importantly I think you have the skill uh to bring focus and depth to the conversations we need to have. I don't think there are any quick fixes and these are not conversations most of us even want to have but I think we really need to have
004them. So thank you. >> Thank you. I think that's very important because in the past year and some months that I've been sitting here watching school committee meetings, Michael's the only person who hasn't repeatedly voted against equity on policy as it has come up. And I think it's very important for everybody at this table to consider equity when these policies are being voted on. Um it's not simply about just conquered residents or carile residents. These achievement gaps have existed year after year after year and we have to see why and we have to look at instituting framework to address these issues because they're not going to just go away if we don't make change. and the change is clearly needed because the numbers are going in the wrong direction. So, I've nominated Brian tonight. Uh
005Brian has served as chair of the Carwell School Committee for two years and the vice chair of the regional school committee for this past year. Brian and I worked really closely together on a bunch of projects. Um he represented the region on the financial audit committee. I think that his experience with negotiations and sharing meetings is going to be great for the region. I speak for myself. >> Go ahead. There's there's no chair right now. So, it's the chair. >> I was drawn to my work on the school committee through my efforts to advocate for those whose voices have not always been heard and whose needs have not always been met. I've worked through the year to support educational excellence by focusing on meeting our students where they are and giving them the tools they
006need to succeed. By focusing on making our good schools better through honestly acknowledging our proficiency gaps and student achievement and advocating for policies and procedures that work to close those gaps. and by leading through thoughtful planning, open communication, and honest two-way engagement with all facets of our congregate community. As we struggle with the challenge of anti-semitism, bias, and racism, I press for supporting those agrieved in our community and educating those who have created harm. I've stood with citizens from conquered, Carlile, Austin, and our surrounding communities in support of our Jewish friends and neighbors. Whether it was the amenities building, the release of academic achievement data, cell phone policy, or our community's concern about tech advisory needs, I pressed for our committee to have a better, cleaner process and honest and open engagement with our community
007with clarity of thought and openness to honest feedback. I work with our committee to bring commitment to address bias, hate, and anti-semitism into our committee's goals. Last September, Andrew, you noted for the first time in recent memory, I pushed to establish specific, measurable, actionable, resultoriented, and trackable metrics and our committee's assessment of our superintendent spots. I'm well connected to our community and to our town government. I've built strong relationships with select board members, the land use working group, the MCI vision and master planning teams, municipal bodies who work whose work product will directly influence our schools. I actively support the bias and hate incident reporting work group that Sandeep sits on and I worked with others to have Carlos Hoy give us informed testimony to that body. Testimony that profoundly affected the work group and
008the flood board's deliberation on incident reporting in our community. This year Michelle McDougall and I argued for more public clarity in tracking academic proficiency in all of our student subgroups as a matter of educational equity. Aisha Lot and Michelle McDougall and I at several points during the past year pressed for more inclusive and respectful tone in our committee's deliberation, particularly considering issues of bias, hate, anti-semitism, and race. Through our combined efforts, a Medco update and a bias hate incident reporting workg group update has regularly been placed in our committee's meetings agenda so that our conversations on these matters is public and visible to the community that we serve. I was humbled and honored to be nominated by 13th Middle Sex State Representative Carmine Gentile and recognized by the Massachusetts Black and Latino Legislative Caucus as
009a change maker and exemplar of black excellence on the hill. As as Drew stated, we are in a unique and challenging time in our community as we work to demonstrate that everyone is welcome in our community, that every student has the right to thrive in this space, and that everyone has a place at the table. For these reasons, I feel I'm uniquely qualified to stand for chair of the Congre car regional school district. Thanks. >> All right. So, I'm going to be procedural here a little bit because you have two motions on the table, which isn't how it's supposed to be. >> Oh, apologies. >> No, anyway, I don't need to. This is why. So, I think I think we have to do the first motion first or amend it and not have two motions.
010Those of you with more >> rabbit rules experience I think we've dealed the first motion first. >> Okay everybody okay >> I'm not sure I fully follow you. >> You shouldn't have two motions on the table. >> Oh I thought you would nominate people and you could choose but >> it's because we did formal motions and not just nominations. >> I see. >> So the first one was a formal motion that was already seconded. So in the discussion phase you shouldn't you can't put another motion in. You should amend the first one. Yes, I move to amend it. And Michael, I guess you would >> I'll stand by what I say. I'll second. >> Thank you. >> So, now we're going to vote on the amendment, >> which is two people or >> No, now
011the amendment is Michael chair. >> Oh, >> right. >> Yes. And then we'll vote on that. >> I see. >> And if that passes, then Michael's the chair. And if it fails, we go back to the original motion. Right. >> We have to get our town meeting like as >> right. >> Oh, that's interesting. I see. More like town meeting. >> Um, >> there's one question I had about Brian. But I actually Brian, I'm just curious. Are you also the chair of the Carile? >> No, not as of today. >> Okay. I was curious who was the chair for the past year and I said to the Carile school committee at our last meeting, I will >> either chair Carlile or I'll go to the region. Not doing both >> again. And so we have
012a new chair now in Carile. >> Got it. That's what I was wondering. >> They just seated today. >> Yeah, that's right. I was like I was wondering what >> And I will say they'll be a little grayer if the next couple weeks just as we wrap up or hopefully wrap up the superintendent search because I was leading the charge on that. So I will chair a couple of those meetings just to get them across the finish line. But >> we do have a new chair. >> Okay, great. Thank you for clarifying that. Okay. So the vote is if you support the amendment which nominated Michael as chair. >> All in favor? >> I. All opposed. >> Nay. Okay. So that amendment failed. So now we're going to go back to the original motion which
013is the vote for Brian to be chair. >> Right. >> Yes. All in favor? >> I I >> All opposed. >> Yeah, I'm abstain. I'm not opposed. I think you're a wonderful person. I think you'll do a great job. Um, so thank you for being willing to do it. >> so motion passes. So, >> motion passes. >> Are we switching now? >> Brian is going to be chair. Thank goodness now. So, I didn't have to do that. >> Switch box. >> It's always like the awkward like switching. Ryan, in a really odd moment as Carlile member, you get to see the conquered school committee chair. >> Let me do the chair or vice chair. >> I am very happy that I think first we're going to do um Yeah. So, first uh nominations have accepted
014and voted for the vice chair of the conquered Carile School Committee. >> I move to nominate Michael. >> Repeat what I just said. Ditto for what I just said. All right. Is there a second? >> Second. >> All right. Um, so we have Michael for vice chair of conquered carile school committee. Um, is there >> time we debate amend that? >> You want to amend it? >> Okay. >> I'd like to nominate Tracy to be vice chair of the >> Okay. Is there a second? >> Second. >> So any the I'm sorry. Any discussion on the amendment? nominator. I'll say a few words. You you've led the the the region for the last year. Um I I think done an incredible job leading it as the you're the one I look to for all procedural
015kind of information. Uh you've gone to all the the the chair's breakfast, chair's meetings, bring a lot of institutional knowledge which I think is extremely important to retain on the the leadership council for Any other discussion? >> I I am I I too am deeply appreciative of everything you bring, Tracy. You're an amazing leader and you've really helped me get a footing. I'm still getting it quite honestly on the committee. Um, so thank you. And you helped fix my email. I I wonder you said you're not planning to run again next year, so this is your final year. Um my understanding is the vice chair is sort of like the understudy would move into the chair role in the subsequent year. Is that that not I thought that's what you said about Brian. >> Well
016we have elections every year. So you mentioned every year. >> Sorry when you nominated Brian I thought you just said like he was the vice chair so he was >> so he's ready to take on >> he's ready. So, I worry that with no vice chair, who who would be ready next year to do the job is my own fear and concern about um having you do it again. Not that you wouldn't do an extraordinary job, but that's my only concern. >> I think the one thing I would say to that though is you also have the conquered chair and the conquered vice chair who >> you know are also getting that that hands-on experience as well. >> I see. I don't Yeah, I think some boards have that as a formal process. I've seen
017other boards where it's actually the other way around. Uh, whoever's chair then, you know, the next >> I think it really varies um board to board and Carile there's no >> rhyme or reason I will say. Um, okay. So, we have an amendment to for Tracy. Is there any other discussion? All right. So, all in favor of the amendment for Tracy to be chair, um, say I. >> Vice chair. >> Sorry, vice chair. >> Just like surprise you there. No, sorry. Vice chair. I'm so sorry. For the amendment for Tracy to be vice chair. All in favor say I. >> I. >> And opposed? >> Nay. >> Now a procedure question. So the amendment passed. Do we then vote it again? >> No. >> As amendment or >> that stands. >> Okay. Thank you. Um
018moving on. Um we will now do election of officers for the conquered school committee. Um and we'll start with the um nominations for the chair of the conquered school committee. >> So I'd like to nominate Sundep to serve as chair of the conquered public schools. Um over his first year on the committee he has brought a thoughtful and collaborative approach to the work that we do. Uh he has been highly engaged across our committees and liaison assignments and has developed a very strong understanding of our budget negotiation process and uh the broader district processes and has consistently approached issues with both preparation and perspective. Um, he also recently stepped in uh to chair for me in my absence a couple weeks ago and I think he did a really good job of of that meeting.
019I watched it afterwards. Uh, his ability to work collaboratively with our town partners combined with the clear understanding of our school committee's responsibilities will serve the committee and the district well. I'm confident that he will do an excellent job setting our agendas, guiding our work, and leading us on the um, conquered school school committee. Um, I'm grateful for your willingness to serve if you are. Um, and I'm pleased to nominate you as chair. >> Thank you. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> All right. Any discussion? >> I move to amend and nominate Michael. >> I think I know how it's going to go, but um I I feel like I have to. He's a wonderful uh leader and I think no offense Sandy, but I I think Michael has a little bit more
020of what we need right now, but I know he'll do an excellent job if elected. Um but I stand by what I said before. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Okay, >> I think we can move right. >> Any discussion on the amendment? Michael, do you want to say any words or >> again I think I said everything at the outset and again I would just say this is unique time and it takes challenge for us to be able to look around and make certain that we're making it clear that everyone is welcome in the community that everyone has an opportunity to thrive and that everyone has a place to tape and that speaks for itself. >> Any other discussion? Otherwise, I will just a reminder Lena and I cannot vote on this.
021So, just to make sure everyone's clear, but um so we're now voting on the amendment for Michael to chair conquered. >> All in favor? >> I >> All oppose. >> I excuse me. >> Okay. Um so, the amendment did not pass. So, we're back to the original motion for Sandep. Any final discussion? >> Can I say a couple of words? >> Of course. Great. >> So, like everyone at this table, um, I have a story that shapes how I see the world and those experiences give me a a particular lens on what it feels like to be included and what it feels like to earn trust rather than just to zoom in. I don't really fit into neatly 20 box. Uh, and I think that's an asset. I've had conversations with folks across this table,
022uh, folks with many community members, and I've listened. Many of those conversations were not easy. They were difficult. Uh, but I haven't let those conversations push away what I hold as my core belief, which is that we have a a school system that we can be genuinely proud of. And precisely because we're proud of it, we should hold it, continue to hold it to an extremely high standard. And I believe in being, in the words of Dr. Carlos Hoy, a critical friend, honest, rigorous, and always acting in the interests of our schools and students. I've put in the work. As Andrew pointed out, I've been on the the financial audit committee, the the bias and hate supporting working group, the bargaining table. Uh I've shown it prepared. I have supported collective decisions and I do
023the unglamous work that's required for um it to be a successful committee. So that's not just a promise. It's it's a track record for what I've done in the last year. Whoever the committee chooses, I'm I'm committed to continuing that. >> Right. Thank you. Any other discussion? >> All right. Then all in favor of Sandep as chair of the conference school committee. I >> I'm gonna vote I too. >> Right. Opposed. >> All right. Um now nominations will be accepted and voted for vice chair of the conference school committee. >> Can I make a four before I move to nominate Michael Williams? Is there a second? >> Second. >> All right. Any discussion? >> I'll I'll amend that. like to nominate Andrew vice chair. >> Okay. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Okay.
024>> Sorry. >> Let me say a couple of words. So, Andrew is one of the hardest working members of the committee. Much of it behind the scenes. Uh it's like a duck. A lot of the work, you know, does happen behind the scenes. Um over the past year, I believe he's demonstrated real leadership on the committee. navigated us through a a difficult summer, engaged with other committees around town, but what stood out to me most is something relatively small. If you look at your agenda, item 4A was added to the agenda to make sure that I met good representatives are not just uh have seen to the table but have voice. Uh adding that to the agenda, I think is a small thing, but that initiative reflects someone who thinks about whose voice is being
025heard and whose is not. What I value most about you is that you consistently seek out perspectives that are different from yours before forming a position. That's a quality I don't take for granted. We've disagreed a lot uh and I think that makes us a stronger team for the rest of the committee to leave. >> Thank you. Okay. Any other discussion? All right. So, we are voting on the amendment for Andrew to be vice chair of the Comfort School Committee. All in favor? >> Opposed? >> No. >> Nay. >> All right. Motion carries three to two. So, the amendment passes. Uh, thank you, Andrew. Thank you, Sundy. Now, moving on to the appointment of the school committee recording secretary. >> I move to appoint Erin Higgins as recording secretary. There >> second. >> All in
026favor? I I anyone opposed? >> Any abstain? Um >> thank you to her for doing all that >> behind the scenes. >> Um also, um need the appointment of a treasurer. >> I move to appoint Allison Brick as the treasurer of the Conquer Carell Regional School District. >> Second. Second. >> Perfect. >> It's that's easy now. >> That's easy. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Okay. Any discussion? >> All in favor? >> I. >> Anyone opposed? >> Okay. Um and then I think the last order on here is just liaison assignments. Uh Tracy sent around the leazison assignments earlier today. Um we will work towards making those appointments at our meeting on June 16th. Um, what I would just ask is if there are particular assignments that you're interested in, if you could just let me
027know by next Friday, June 12th. Um, that will give me the the weekend before we meet to just review and and compile. >> Can I just ask you get that meeting? Brian, is that a problem? >> It shouldn't be. No, if you want to just give me feedback before Yeah, >> I'm already imagining your waste management leaison. Um, >> and yes, if there are any that you're particularly interested in, please let me know >> or I guess I'm interested in. Uh, sorry, Michael, what's the question? >> Just the date the 16th. >> When did you want to buy? >> If I could just get your interest by Friday the 12th so that I can have the weekend to review it. >> Are there any current assignments where people know for sure that they do not
028want to continue? I no not in a negative way. I just have have a constant scheduled conflict making it to the CE a the conquer. I've had like such a hard time getting to the meetings at the time. So I just don't think I was being a very good leazison to them. >> Okay. >> So that's that's all it's not negative. It's usually noon on Fridays and I just happened to have a work meeting that often pops up the same Friday. So, I haven't been to many. >> Okay, that's good to know. Are there any others? >> That's by I would gladly do that one if you're >> Okay, I'll make a note of that. >> Great. Very informative. Just just the time for me. >> The only other thing is the CMS building committee
029has two more meetings including one tomorrow. >> So, we can we can fill it. There's two people on it, but it's going away pretty soon. Are you suggesting just continue with the current members till it's done? >> I mean, we can talk about we're literally um approving a couple more change orders on sprinklers and then we're done. So, okay. >> We can remove it. >> Add an additional leazison to this list. Uh the Mazio Donald Diving Center leas I would like to continue with that. >> Okay. >> And that's an one. >> Yes, that's that's on the list. >> That's on the list. >> I'd like to continue with the DEI commission. Okay. And again, if you can also just I'm making notes of these, but yeah, if everyone just wants to send them through.
030>> Um, one other one, financial audit advisory committee. I've been on it for two years at this point. Um, and while I'm happy to do it, I'm very conscious as a Carile resident where we're talking about the regional school district, which I have a stake in, the town finances, which no offense, but I've got less of a stake in, and then municipal life, probably even less there. Um, I'm going to suggest that it is somebody in conquered who um takes that up going forward. >> And we have had one person from the conquered committee do both. I think actually. >> Okay. >> So maybe I do you want me to check with Wendy and see if that's >> I can check with her. >> Want to check with her? >> Yeah. And what um what
031Tracy means is we have a representative from the conquered school committee and we have a representative from the conquered Carile school committee. So the question is does it have to be two distinct people just one person? >> Yes. Okay. >> So just I would just check with >> Yep. I'll check with her. >> All right. Any other questions on the assignments? All right. Uh, moving along then. The next thing we have is recognitions. I know the agenda says 6:30. Are we in a position to move forward? >> Are all the Sunrise kids here? Great. They're here. >> All right. Uh, would the Sunrise Club like to come forward up to the table? >> Yeah. Come on up. As they're coming up, I'll just um, you know, set the stage. So, the high school Sunrise Club,
032as some of you know, sponsored a Warren article among all the other things that they did this year um at Conquered Town meeting about composting. >> Here's >> Yeah, we'll get you chairs so you can sit here at the table. >> Yeah. >> About composting and making that more accessible. >> So, we asked them to come talk with you. They have some slides that I'm going to pull up here as I go. Why don't you start by introducing yourselves and I'll get your slides ready. >> Um, hi everyone. My name is Iana. Um, I'm in club. >> My name is Teresa. >> My name is Zoe. I'm a co-leader. >> Um, my name is Evan. >> Welcome. >> So, I'm gonna I this is the best I can do with your slides. I'm sorry I
033can't get them all the way in presentation mode, but I think you'll still be to go. >> Perfect. Um, so we first began working on this about a year ago. Um, Shelley Carlin first came to us with the idea of creating a composting warrant um, article. Um, we've worked on it since we've gone to a lot of different committees. >> Um, we've worked with organizations like Mothers Outfront and the Conger Climate Action uh, committee uh, to get support and feedback on the article. Um and we attended select board meetings and the town meeting um where we eventually got the article passed. Um in addition to attending all these meetings, we've done outreach like around the town and in the school. So we've handed out flyers to students like we had a big sale where we
034handed out flyers and we've also done outreach over social media. And then um so our initial motion was changed after a lot of the research we've done and through all the feedback that we've gotten from different committees. Um our final motion was basically urging the select board to request that the town manager investigator report to the board on the feasibility of adopting and offering a townwide rate um composting program. Essentially we asked the town to do research in regards to composting. Um, it was the result of a lot of research done by Shelley Carlin and everyone in the club. So, it was really great to be able to present there. Um, the next slide, please. Um at town meeting we received uh a lot of support from many of the groups that we um got
035support from and um I felt a lot of support speaking at town meeting and there's many other um informed citizens who are willing to support us. So that was really helpful. >> Okay. Zoom through all the the process in the middle of that. >> Yeah. And so we I passed by 2005 to 35 and we made it through the conquered public public works offering a substitute motion. So we our original motion passed which is great. Um and it was really amazing. >> I have to say I was quite impressed with the work that you presented that evening meeting. I'm so glad to see you here. I applaud you all for the work that you've done. uh question. Did you were you able to uh work with FINCOM to look at the prospective financial >> Oh,
036financial committee. Um I believe they reached out. We're still it's been really busy just because finals and all that. We're hoping to definitely um work with them over hopefully before the school year ends, but if not, we're definitely going to reach out back when fall starts. >> Thank you for your effort and your job. incredibly incredibly well done. >> Certainly not easy either. It was a fierce debate. You maintained your poise. It was remarkable. >> I'm wonder hopefully this is an inspiration to other students and schools to bring uh articles to town meeting as well. I'm curious if you've heard of anything that might bubble up to to meet the same bar uh that would come to the town because it's great to have citizens even who can't vote to participate. Yeah, for sure. I
037know there are so many clubs at CCHS, it's hard to keep track of who's planning what, but I'm sure I'm really hoping that um if anyone else has an idea that about something that they could present a town meeting that happens because it's a great way to get the town involved and raise awareness awareness about something. >> I know Simon Catalo was out two weeks ago and met with two clubs while he was there. So, there's a lot of activity going on. Um, and I just want to be sure Becky Meeks is the um, adviser and we want to make sure she gets a round of appreciation for all the time and work she put in as well. >> Couldn't have done it without Miss Geeks and Carlin and everyone else who helped. It was
038most definitely a team that >> um, I mean fantastic as you know anything forward to town meeting. I know how much effort is involved. you can relate better than most. >> Um, but can I'm just curious with this sort of behind you, um, thoughts on goals for for next year or other things that you're hoping to work on? >> We're really just hoping to build on this momentum. Um, to be honest, we're a pretty small group, so we're hoping to get more members and bring in more people to do more stuff. Um, we have LA this year, we also worked on the Mass Energize youth climate solutions project. Um, Ally Shepard, she isn't here today, but she sort of headed that. So we're hoping to make our impact like even bigger with that this year.
039Um it's basically just um a energy solution that you spread that committee. So we're hoping to use that to make it another a really big impact. >> Wonderful. >> That's great. Well, as someone who's also been up at town meeting when standing up in front of the microphone, you were totally poised and a complete professional and really I mean you should be really proud of yourself and you're off to college next year. Yes. So, I mean, don't have a junior. >> She's a junior. >> Oh, a junior. She's a junior. Okay. I was thinking you were a senior. I was like, "Wow, you're ready." So, um, it was just really great to see our students really using their voices in front of the town and for the whole town to hear what you guys have
040done this year. So, well done. >> Thank you. And we, it was everyone in the club was really did like all the work. I was just like the spokesperson. So, >> wonderful. >> Congrats. Thank you so much. Thank you all for coming. >> Last question. Is there any advice you would give to somebody else who was going to do this as well? What is the >> Okay. number one piece of advice you would give somebody if they were walking behind you >> in terms of just presenting this time meeting as a student. Yeah, >> I think the biggest piece of feedback is it's going to be a lot of work and you're going to have to like do a lot of meeting with different people, but it's definitely worth it because there's going to be
041people who will in groups who will have a lot of support for it even though it there's going to be most definitely setbacks. So, just get to town, get through all the meetings, all the re research and like setbacks and then get to town meeting and it's going to be great. So, yeah. >> Thank you. All right. Thank you. >> Well, thank you so much for coming out this evening. Definitely appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> Thanks very much. Have a great night. >> All right. Um and next we'd both like to welcome the conquered education fund to come up. So before we get to that um yes given my position on the board of responsible from discussion on this topic. >> Okay. Thank you for that. >> You need one more chair. >> You
042can grab one more check. fun. >> Thank you so much for coming. >> Thank you for having us. I don't know if um everyone knows who we are. We're Cockard Education Fund. We raise uh raise money to help support the teachers and the students in uh funding new and innovative uh pilot programs and and uh other things. Uh we we accept grants, applications from teachers uh at the at the school and um do a lot of hard work uh in raising the raising the money and then uh you know assessing the grants and and giving them out. And so this year we had had a great um grant season. We we received 31 grant applications which is a record for us. Was great. Um unfortunately we were only able to fund 17 of them. But,
043uh, fun fundraising is a little down across the board, I guess. Um, but, uh, but we we ended up, uh, raising, uh, granting just under $65,000. Uh, we have a nice big check for and it it uh it ranged in there. There were a few buckets that it it kind of fell into. There's mental health, uh, special education, uh, technology, um, you know, some of some of the it it was over all the different schools, CCHS, uh, CMS, the all of the, uh, elementary schools and, uh, uh, Ripley, CIP, uh, as well as well as the anchor program we were supporting. So, that was great to see to get, you know, applications from them. try to support the entire school system as as best we can. Um some of a couple of the highlights are
044um we uh we funded a sooth five pilot program that helps uh that will help the kids uh students at CMS while they're um doing research online and guiding them to uh good sources of of uh of news and and information. Um and uh it's a a good one. There's a a AAC classroom support where we're helping um the the severely disabled kids uh communicate with uh other teachers and kids uh in and uh supplying them with technology that that will help them do that. Um there's a we're bringing in a sports psychologist for student athletes. Um, you know, the mental health I think is a a huge uh issue. Uh, >> and nutrition, sorry. Yeah. And nutritionist. Um, and then we're we're uh, you know, helping support the the CI CIP gym equipment. Um,
045so they can get exercise when it's tough to get outside when when the weather's bad. So getting them active and immunicating is great. So um, just a couple of highlights. I'll keep it brief. I know you have a long agenda, but We just wanted to um say thank you for all of your hard work and and dedication and and uh you know we're trying to do our little part but >> yes thank you very much >> and and my apologies I should have introduced everyone Greg Lagald Liz Kan Julia Elliott Linda Ferrari all members of the conquered fund board >> that's been around since 1993 so thank you for all the work you do >> thank you >> yes thank you indeed Anyone have any questions at all? >> I was going to say yes,
046we will do a photo. We also will vote to accept um >> Did you forget to vote to accept money? >> Um we will do that as well. But did anyone have any questions, any comments? >> I just want to thank them because I I do meet with them along the way and I got to see all the grants and um it's a lot of work and really hard decision making um to vet who to fund and who not to. So, we always try to as a district at least pass along to the principles the ideas and see what we can do to keep those percolating and make sure that everyone feels like they're really valued in the in the uh applications that they put in. But the combined fundraising efforts and then the vetting
047of the applications is an enormous amount of time and we're always grateful for all that CF does for us. They do so much on a constant level and they're there if we pick up the phone on a dime because something unexpected happened and that's been the case for all the years. So just a really important part of the school life around >> this year was especially challenging because as as Greg said we had so many amazing grants but we had to really like >> go back and be like okay was this innovative you know so we had to really sort of think about it because you want to say yes to everything >> and it's hard to and then we had to we you know over like three different meetings had to be you know
048all right let's go back to that and see >> and as as Greg also said you know fundraising has been um slowing down so we need to sort of think about more innovative ways bringing in money. So we can do that. But >> what are the primary means of fundraising? >> What are the primary means of fundraising at the moment? >> So in the past we've done a sort of large event kind of a gala. Um I feel like co not as many people are are wanting to you know attend big events. So that's that's one piece. I mean we still like to do that just more for you know people's you know awareness of what we're doing. Um a big sort of two big things that we do is we do it's called operation
049celebration or operation graduation where we have delivered balloons to the seniors um and they and an individual card to the seniors. So people will buy a balloon and a card. Um this year we started operation graduation where we're doing signs for the uh fifth graders and the eighth graders and that has been this year was our biggest fundraiser between the two. >> Those are great. Those are awesome. It's been really fun and it was sort of a a brainchild. You know, the the celebration was a while ago, but this year was sort of a brainchild between two of our members and they you know, it's just taken off and it's fun to go around town and and see all the different like you know, Willard and Throw and Alcott and the middle school. So, it's
050that's it's lovely. And then we do a raffle for it was a conquered ed fund uh parking spot and and who as a junior or a senior they know how that's a hot commodity. >> So that's a big one. So that and then um you know we've got other we're talking about doing an annual appeal. Um and as I said we do this event so and then sponsors have also been a big piece too but that's also sort of been trending downwards. So we're we're always open to new new and >> ideas. Do do you do look backs on your grants and and see just like at a high level like efficacy like how they were worded were they successful and does that guide you know your future like granting >> a bit we we
051try to get as much feedback as we can from the from the teachers um and and make sure that it the money was used and and program was forward and then you know if it's successful ful. We try to make sure they're uh talking to their principles and and Lori to to sort of pick that up as a ongoing thing if if if it's appropriate. >> Um >> but we did talk about that as an opportunity as a board that that's something that kind of feedback loop is something that we could improve. Um I did get a we did get an email from um a thorough uh the librarian at thorough about the thorough family book club and the impact that that has made for the thorough school. Um so we really appreciate when they
052come back to us and acknowledge you know what we were able to enable for them. But I do think that feedback loop is one we can improve and and we do let them know in their grant that like if it's a sort of pilot that this is what we're we're you know funding the pilot. But hopefully it will be such a huge success and it will be sort of taken but we can't continue to fund each year. Um you know we can't do it next year. >> It it's really hard because like what does success look like in grants? Is it like you know you know it's hard to measure. >> Yes. >> Well and I think that like the goal is always new and innovative programming and so some of the things like from
053>> way long ago um the engineering certificate came out of the ed fund. Rivers and revolution started at the ed fund. I just steam steam lab over here at Ripley. So there were really larger scale projects and then I did see the weather balloon at the high school and that was an ed originally it was an ed fund grant that they brought back again and that's just such a cool project where you can track where the balloon is going. They lost the balloon that year but the ed fund um might have bought it but then they found it and it was like where's the balloon and it was all over Facebook like who's see the balloon. It's really I mean we really are grateful for your partnership and for the dollars that come back to
054the district for things that we could not fund within the school budget. So we really appreciate that and wish you best of luck in your fundraising too. >> Thank you very much. >> So what I would like to do is let's vote to accept first so we don't forget and then we go from there. So um I will entertain a motion to accept the generous $64,732 uh donation from CEF. So move >> second. >> All right. Any other discussion? >> And this is for both districts. >> Yes. >> Call out. All right. Uh all in favor >> for both. >> I for region >> for both >> and abstain. Thank you for the reminder. Um all right. Let's uh do a photo. >> Thank you. When is the window? >> We'll circle around. All right.
055>> I know. Sorry. >> Really awkward. >> Take a couple. >> It's part of my office decor. They're all They're all out. >> Thank you. >> Well, they're stacked, but >> we can do better than >> Sorry. All right. Um, we'll move on next to Superintendent and Chair's update as well as METCO update. Dr. Hunter, do you want to go first? >> Sure. I'm going to be very big picture and just mention a couple of very large scale topics. Um we graduated the class of 2026 on Saturday. It was phenomenal despite the weather. Um being inside has this intimacy and that's the pro. The con is not everybody in the family is in the room. Um but really just a phenomenal morning. Speakers, the students, I think it was just another really special morning. And
056um thanks Brian and Katie are here. So I'll just shout them out. It's a ton of work to put put all of that together and um it was very successful and a couple of our graduates or at least Evelyn's here. I don't know if Maddie came in but we actually have firsthand experience to hear in a few minutes. Um also I just wanted to mention that Q5 is coming up at the high school and I want to be sure all of you know what that means because some of you are newer members. Um, from June 12th to the 17th, there will be four days where we literally transform the high school into an experiential learning experience for students led by their teachers. So, months ago, they got a catalog of options. Teachers propose um workshops
057of what they want to. It's incredibly eclectic, which makes it amazing. And they're read leading things they're passionate about. Students are signing up for things they're passionate about. Many many of them are off campus. I was we were at the bus depot today with the drivers and they had to move their end of year celebration back because so many of them are going to be driving next week for Q5. They couldn't do it next week. Um it's just a really special time. We had re reinvented it last year. It had faded away COVID and took us a few years to get get it back and I think we all were a little afraid it might not come back and um last year it came back roaring. So we're just really excited. I don't think there's
058many places anywhere that can say they transform an entire high school into this sort of learning experience um for all students, freshman through juniors for four full days. So, we will be sure to report out, but it's a really exciting time for all of us to be anticipating it. The kids will do their finals and what a gift that's not how they end the year. They end the year doing Q5, which is a very different place to be as the year wraps up. So, just wanted to be sure we anticipated that with you so we can talk more on it as it plays out. >> Can I just say was reviewing the warrant last night like seeing some of the goat yoga miniature horses, amazing race, it was just fantastic >> to see some of
059the >> It does. It does live in the bills right now. >> The things we're paying for. >> My final comments are really just to honor the retirees this year. Um we're celebrating them in many many forums right now and I just thought it was important to do that here. Um at the high school this year retiring we have Bob Wilder, Andrea Gillis and Mary McCabe and I can't not mention Joel Tracy who's been in the guidance office for almost 40 years. Um, at Alcott, kindergarten teachers Colleen Desmond and Gail Shatlash at Thorough, Wendy Marada, Jackie McKenna, at Willard, Hannah Matrius, and Cheryl Brandwine and Mr. Lucy, which some of you have already spent some time on. Um, and we're excited for all of them. So, lots of celebrations going on over the next two
060weeks and just wanted to be sure we recognize them here. I've heard so many of the stories over the as they've started to be celebrated and the impact these these educators who spend their most or all of their careers with us is really hard to capture. Um hopefully we send them off well and their next phase of life is what they want it to be and for them and not for others in the same level that they've been doing for all of us. So those are my highlights for tonight. >> All right. Um I don't know that I have any chair updates in the last 50 minutes, but do you have anything? >> I do have a couple things. Um there's a chair's breakfast. So uh that is Wednesday 17th or sometime in that week.
061So that is Zoom only, but typically they do meet in person and they just want the new chairs to know when it is and start going to it or send somebody in your place. And what time is it? So that's at 8 o'clock in the morning. It's usually the I think it's the third Wednesday of the month. Um that was the first thing. At the select board meeting on Monday night, they put forth the town meeting calendar. Now there are a few different dates that were discussed and so I said I would bring it back to the school committee. There is now a Saturday preview meeting on January 9th. Um the tri board meeting with BCOM select board and school committee will be on January 11th. and we have a school committee meeting that week
062on January 13th. So, I did voice my concern of having three uh meetings that week for us and the professionals involved. So, I think that I would say to the chairs, if you could work with the chairs, the select board and kind of give some feedback back, that would be great. If anybody has any concerns on that, but I thought I'd just bring it to you guys. >> At the very least, we we can do it virtually some of them. Uh yes, you probably can. But the tri board is a little bit tricky because it's in the hearing room, >> right? >> Um and then lastly, graduation was just really amazing. U Brian and Lynette joined me and I mean all the speeches, Lori did a speech, Katie and Brian had speeches, we heard from
063the class president, Sierra, uh I think the Senate moderator Ley and it was just a really nice day to celebrate with all the families. Um, I think that the rain was the rain was what it was. But you know what? I they did a really great job. And big shout out to the junior parents who set up graduation. So that happens too. And all the custodial staff and all night live is happening at the same time. So it's really busy on the campus. And I think they just did a really great job. And just, you know, personally, thank you to Conquered and Conquered Carlo Public Schools because my kids have been here since 2005. And I've said it before, I think we've I've had almost 300 teachers and tutors and staff and everyone else and
064it's really been a wonderful experience pre-K to 12. So, thank you to all of you for everything you do. All of our principles, our administrators, our teachers. It's greatly appreciated. >> That's it. >> No, I do love graduation though. I am 0 for two when it comes to the weather. So, >> you've only been indoors. So, indoors. >> So, rising seniors may want to force me out of town. Um, is there are any updates on the conquered side? >> Not since our last meeting. >> Okay. >> Sean, do you have any? >> Yeah, the MECO staff is organizing a semiformal dinner for Saturday and the kids are really excited to get dressed up this Saturday coming and um they're going to give out some little awards to students and recognize the fifth graders going on
065to sixth grade. and all the kids are really excited for this event. Um, next Wednesday the Metco family friends are doing an ice cream social after school at Alcott. Um, with a late bus coming back. So, the kids are also excited for that because as we bear down on the end of the year, everybody is just like, let's do fun things and be done with school. >> So, you know, they're gearing up for that. And those are the two two big events on on the calendar coming up. All right, perfect. Thank you. >> Y >> um CCHS student update. >> So here you want to come forward. >> I don't see Maddie online. >> No, I don't think she's here. >> She sends her apologies. All right. And I think this is our last update
066for the school year, which is really crazy. And um I think we do talk about elections on our slides today, but um yes, that's to come. Okay, I'm joining the Wi-Fi. It is taking This takes forever to do these. Okay, let's move that window to the side. There we go. Okay. Um so, we wanted to start out talking about um the CC musical, which was 9 to5. I went to that. I had a few friends who were leads in the show and that was really great to see them, you know, their last show graduating. They most of them have been in all of these musicals and plays over the past four years and that was just like spectacular because they it was such challenging songs. I know a lot of teachers were there. I saw
067a lot of familiar faces, students, like the audience was packed. I think I went on a Saturday night and like there were no free seats. Like it was really great to see how sold out that was. And I mean, everyone did an incredible job, the leads, the ensemble, um costumeuming. It was really great. And I know they have a new director this year, so it's just really um exciting to see all that. And then also in that same kind of field of um music, like being musical, I think there's a lot of overlap with the students is there is the Coral Pops concert. I did not attend, but I heard a lot of great things about that. Um it's really lovely to see how, you know, musical our student body is. And then we also
068had kind of a lot of there's a lot of like wrapping up things or finals and things. And so along that um we have this moot court finals which I did moot court but I was out one of the first rounds but a few of my two of my friends or four of my friends um made it to the finals and so there's two teams um it was Brook Hosford and Sierra Fonte on one team and they just barely won over um Ely McMaro and Stephanie Lang and that was so great to I was about to attend but it was really amazing because they have like actual judges there and so a lot of them all four of them actually want to go into something with like law or government. And so to have that
069experience like really real world um was lovely and I think their case was really interesting. I think it was about like a cop and like some kind of like breaking in without or with a warrant but like it was it was very interesting. So I did read it out and then yeah week >> yes. >> Um yeah spirit week I don't know that really followed it this year. It's been hard to get to follow it, but I know that they did like the freshman colors and like the sophomore colors. I like when a lot of like the younger kids still do spirit week. I feel like seniors were kind of like done. >> I didn't even know that there was a spirit week. Sorry. >> Um but a lot of people did like there was
070like also like country verse country. So it was like country club country. That was a fun one. I did that one. But >> um yeah. Oh, and then also I think I put this one down just a moment ago because I saw it from my friend. there was the annual high school art exhibition which was really great because I saw that on Instagram um a few of my friends are like artists and it was really amazing because they were able to put up their art and showcase what they've done this year and then talk about it with other artists their families and I think that you know even me who I'm not like directly engaged with the art scene at CC and that was just like amazing and mind-blowing to see these people who I
071have like my site class with you know create this incredible self-portrait and it's like oh my gosh like I didn't even know you had this whole extra skill set so really cool to see that. I know there's also awards then. And then speaking of awards, um we both attended the junior and the senior awards nights, which do you want to talk about that? You attended that, right? >> I got the St. Lawrence University award. Um it's really nice to see everyone. It was also a surprise cuz you didn't know what award you were getting or who was going to be there. So, um yeah, it was just a really good experience and like seeing I was really excited for my friend Vivy because her sister goes to Twolane and then she got the two award
072and I like saw her face like light up when she got it. So, I mean it was just an overall really nice experience. >> And then senior awards, I remember last year being a junior and then seniors senior awards right after and I just saw the amount of people going into those award that awards ceremony. I was like, "This is crazy." And so this year as a senior, I was able to see all that and there are just so many people in the audience and even people who aren't receiving awards, they're friends. They're there supporting their friends. Um and so you get like the engineering certificates are handed out. um like RO Kappa, which is the social studies and honor society. Those um kids are honored there. And then you also have more individualized awards.
073So like um certificates of excellence in certain classes and then also um old like departmental awards and then you got um like principal awards and so um like Maddie Clancy and I were recipients of the superintendent award which was presented by Dr. Hunter and we are so grateful um and honored for that. Um so it's just really great. I think that really kicks off like the end of our really I mean we've already finished our classes but um really exciting to cap off the year with all that. So yes, um we also we added this last minute because you guys had just brought up when Sunrise Club came in um presenting you know articles to um the town you know Tom meetings and it I think someone mentioned the Simon Catalo like meetings and so
074I do know that last week or two weeks ago girl club um had a meeting with him to discuss I don't know what exactly it was but it was some kind of voting act or I don't know exactly what it was. >> You want me to fill that in? >> Uh free menstrual products. >> Great. There you go. in public places. >> Oh, and then I think I also saw the League of Women Voters coming in. Maybe it was the week after. That's what I'm thinking of. Yeah, >> they were all together. >> Um, but yes, Girl was really great with that. And then anyway, um, >> we also had our senior clap out, which kind of goes in the theme with, you know, all these senior events. I know we're going to be talking
075a lot about that um, recently, but that was great because I think last year was very informal and then this year I think it was a more formalized thing. Um, and we were able to just walk through the halls to see our teachers and our students. Some of us like my younger brother, I could see him in the hallway. Um, and that was really special. And then we all rounded out in a circle in the um, right be the amphitheater at the end of the in the other calf. And that was really, I don't know, sweet to just see everyone on your last day, last official day, I guess, of classes. Um, do you want to talk about prom? >> Yes. >> I co-planned the pre-prom. We actually just got the photos from the photographer
076today. You see like the bottom um left and then right above the Duncan one. We had I think somewhere near 200 plus people come to the pre-prom. Um it was like it was the day was perfect. The venue was perfect. I mean I don't know. I love prom. It was my first time going. So we're at the Boston Park Plaza if you want to add anything else to it. But >> not really. Yeah. Really exciting. >> Food was amazing, too. I heard that maybe they broke the dance floor because there was so much dancing going on. >> The dance floor was broken. >> It was like after the course of the night it like started like splitting and then you'd like cut like I still have cuts on my feet from falling on the floor.
077Um but that did happen. >> Um people's had too much fun I guess. Um and then also I wanted to mention the shout out the CC student interns which you guys might have seen cuz I think they were all highlighted on the Instagram page I believe. Um, but just so cool to again see, you know, some of your students like passions you kind of didn't know about like, oh, that person's interested in dermatology or they want to be a police officer or um like I know there was like a really cool like, you know, business or a few businesses that were made and that's just like so neat to see these like passions from your like peers who you don't normally like hear about that side of them um in your classes. So anyway, very
078cool to have that showcased um during lunches. And then um just more senior things I want to highlight because it was literally the most amazing like past two weeks just really sweet capping everything off. Um we had all night live. I mean of course graduation which yes it was rained out but I think that was totally made up for and we had so much fun. Um it was really great, really busy. Um impossible to take pictures with friends and family but somehow I managed it. Um Maddie and I have a picture. I think our heads might be barely cut off but we have our picture in this slide. Um, and we were sitting in the front row, so we were in a lot of those little cute pictures. I think a lot of them are
079in the conquer bridge. Um, so kind of special to have that all. And we went to Kimbells, we went to Six Flags, um, we had a field day. Um, just lots of stuff going on and really amazing to everyone. Thank you to everyone who hosted that and planned that out um because it really made our last few weeks here at CC so special. And I can't believe I'm leaving it all, but um, we're really excited. Um, and I'm I know Maddie would say the exact same thing if she was here, but um Yes. Okay. Do you want to talk about the car things, which I can't talk about anymore. >> I'm feeling very quiet. Um, so girls lacrosse is um currently in their playoffs. They won their last two playoffs games and I think they're
080number three in the state right now. Um, there's still time to climb to the top. They haven't had that many games. See what else? There's the photo on the bottom right which was one of the recent games I was I think in the conquered bridge that Amy took and they're like mostly just wrapping up and they're going to start having their banquetss and do you >> Yeah, I know. Like my brother does baseball and they're having the banquet like as we speak. So, um I'm going there right after this to deliver cookies. Um and then we also have which I think is very relevant to this. We have the student senate and government elections which that includes the school committee um representatives for next year taking over both Maddie and my positions. Um we won't
081know about that until next week I think but yes those two people who are elected will join because we're doing this again next year. >> Yes we'll join just checking we'll join Mark. Um so yes very exciting. >> Yes. And student government just had their elections also. So >> and those results are out now. Yeah. >> Yeah. Vice president and then um Alex is president. Abby Adams is another vice president. Treasurer Charlotte Jackson and um sector is Hannah Cohen. >> So exciting. In case you missed it, Mark is the vice president of senior club very slightly. >> Yes. I wanted to get it right. But so girls playoffs is there's another game tomorrow, Elite 8, and it's the last home game at 4:30 for so try and go out there. And then our upcoming things
082or I mean finals Q5. Um and do you want to say anything about those? But >> quarter five um I'm doing reboot your wardrobe and combat app boot camp which >> I'm actually excited to get my common app done and like have somebody help me with it cuz >> before summer I think it'll like relieve so much stress. And then I'm a little bit interested on your wardrobe. >> Yeah. >> Um and then of course summer. So, we're really excited and um Maddie and I are going to be leaving to go to college um sometime in mid August for both of us. Uh she's going to Dartmouth. I'll be going to Georgetown. So, we're both very excited. She's studying history and I'm studying government. So, >> yeah. Amazing. >> Congratulations. >> Congrats. >> Thank you.
083>> Um thank you for all of the updates throughout the year. Um you know, as someone who does not have students at the high school or children at the high school yet, it's, you know, just good to get a sense of what's going on. So >> yes, >> definitely appreciate it. Wish you best of luck. Um Mark, thank you as always. We'll look forward to seeing you back here next year. I you know, it'll be August and September before we know it, unfortunately. Um did anybody have any questions on the updates? >> Mark, what are you doing this summer? >> Oh, the summer. Um I'll be going to Nantuckle with my friend. And then besides that, oh, I just got into this program that I'm doing with the MECO CEO. I think it's called Bridgewater
084something. Um, the application is due tonight. So, but I'm really excited. It's about something with like civic and like business related stuff. So, >> awesome. >> I'll spend four days at MIT, which I'm really excited about. >> Okay. >> How about you, Evelyn? What are you up to for the summer? >> Hopefully working so I can make money over college. That's the plan. I'm working on my wrist bay right now. So, yes, >> I might know somebody else doing the same thing right now. Agent lives in my house. >> Yeah. All my friends are all in the same boat. So, >> the best of luck. >> Yeah. >> Thank you both. Good luck. >> Thank you all. >> Well done. >> All right. We'll now move on to public comment. Uh just as a reminder,
085our public comment period will be a period of 20 minutes. Um, as a reminder, this is a meeting in the public and not with the public. So, the school committee will not be responding to any comments. If you're in the room and would like to make um public comment, please submit a blue form to meet and you'll be called on to speak. If you're on Zoom, you can use the raise hand feature. Called to speak, please state your name and address before doing so. Um, we will go every other starting with a comment in the room and then taking a comment on Zoom and each person has a time limit of three minutes. Um, I don't have any blue forms yet. Is there anybody? Thank you so much. Hi. I just uh Cynthia Ready 80
086Hunter Ridge Road. I just wanted to bring the community's attention to the events this month for Concrete Pride. Uh they have worked so hard. um all the organizers, if there's anybody online who's more intimately con uh aware of all the events. I just know that this Saturday starting at 9ine there's a parade at 10:30 there's a flag raising um in downtown conquered and I think there's then activities for the rest of the day familyfriendly activities. So starting at 11 with a stage in the center of conquered so uh please spread the word. I think it's going to be not raining for once. So I think it's going to be a great day. It might be a little warm, but uh I think it's just they've worked really hard and it's quite a tradition now I
087think in conquered and uh so please uh join in. Come from Carlile. We'd love to have you. So thank you very much. >> Thank you Cynthia. >> Is there anybody? >> All right. Um moving along then. Jen Morgan. >> Little little something. >> Just remember to say your address. >> My address is 91 Riverside Avenue. Good evening and thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. My name is Jen Morgan. My husband Rob and I are parents of three children at Thorough Elementary School. Our oldest is in fifth grade and will be heading to CMS this fall. First, we'd like to share how impressed we've been with Principal Sparks, who's here, which is so nice, and the entire thorough staff, especially in response to the recent fire. Two of our three children's classrooms were displaced.
088And it has been clear that an extraordinary amount of care, intention, flexibility, and hard work went into supporting students and families through a difficult situation. We are deeply grateful for such capable leadership and feel fortunate to be part of this special school community. So, thank you. That experience also highlights something we value greatly in conquered schools. When challenges arise, our district approaches them thoughtfully with students well-being at the center. As our son prepares to transition to middle school, we hope to see that same intentionality applied to educational technology and AI, which we know significantly impacts the learning environment and potential of our children. Technology can be a powerful tool for learning, but how, when, and why it is used matters deeply. We are encouraged to see the district taking a closer look at educational technology
089through the upcoming assessment and we're hopeful that it will lead our school community in a productive and intentional direction. We are also excited about the work of the intentional tech coalition and fully support this group as we believe meaningful progress will come from strong partnerships between schools and families. We also believe that parents and educators share the same goal, helping children learn, grow, and thrive in a rapidly changing world. By working together, we can ensure that technology serves our students in ways that are purposeful, age appropriate, safe, and aligned with the values of our community. Thank you all for your time, your leadership, and your commitment to our children. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I'll just check again online. Is there anyone who wants to make a public comment? All right. And I don't
090have any more forms in the room. So that concludes public comment. Um we'll now move on to the consent agenda where we have warrants a donation for senior week. Um as well as a CCHS trip to the White Mountains. Would someone like to make a motion to I guess first anything that needs to get pulled off from the consent agenda? >> All right. We accept the consent agenda. Okay. Is there a second? Second. >> Any discussion? >> Favor. >> I uh in terms of correspondence, I think it was two. >> Um we got correspondence related to um signage at the high school. Um and then we also had um signage sorry from the All right, moving on to discussion. Um, the first thing is the Maisy O'Donnell um dining center update and as you have
091been leaison. >> Yep. >> There I will turn over you. >> All right. Um, we welcome Sandy Smith who is joining us on behalf of the Maisy O'Donnell Foundation and we have Betsy O'Donnell who is joining us on Zoom from Bulgaria. So it's really late um really really late and so they are coming to us to tell us a little bit about their project which are really looking forward to working with the O'Donnell Foundation the Maisy O'Donnell Foundation with the town with CC Pools. Betsy is currently president of CC Pools also. So I will turn it over to Sandy and Betsy. You guys can decide who goes first. >> I think Betsy you're you're up first. >> I am. So, I just want thank you, Sandy, and and thank you, Tracy. Um, you know, Kristoff
092and I just want to say once again how truly grateful we are for the support of the town in this initiative. Um, you know, really this has been a community endeavor to raise the money and the funds. And so, um, we greatly appreciate your help as we navigate these final last details. Um, and I will turn it over to Sandy who will walk through, um, those details. >> Great. Thanks very much, Betsy. And thank you, Tracy, for that introduction. I thought I might just give a quick rundown of what's happened since we were in front of you on August 20th last year. Uh we presented a conceptual design for the Maisy O'Donnell dryland training center, which would be attached to the Bey Center. At that point it was conceptual uh and we were delighted with
093the reception we got from the school committee. It was unanimous at the time. Uh and uh then our next stop was with the select board. We made a similar presentation to them on October 6th. They were unanimously supportive of the project as well. We asked the select board at that meeting if we could uh uh if we could run the project with a nonprofit organization as opposed to having the town uh build the build the project. And we did that for two reasons. One, uh we felt that we could do it for uh a lower budget and we felt we could do it faster. And the select board and town manager agreed um at that meeting. And so the uh town council then uh rendered an opinion that in fact we could we could do
094that because laws had changed since uh the original beauty center was uh built in the in the early 2000s. Um town council rendered positive opinion on October 24th. In November, we were actually able to revive the original CC Pools nonprofit organization with the help of Henry Dayne, who was on the original board of CC Pools. So, we had our nonprofit already basically in place, which helped uh tremendously. On January 16th, uh we signed a memorandum of understanding with the town uh which entrusts uh CC pools with the design and construction of the uh of the addition. And the memorandum of understanding is very specific in that the primary purpose uh of this addition is for the instruction and training of student athletes preparing themselves for participation in intercolastic and amateur competition and aquatic diving and
095related skills. That means the CCHS swim and dive team. So although it's attached to the BD center, this is for your this is for your students, all of our students primarily. Um uh on March 20th, we retained the architectural firm of Studio DSK uh to uh begin the design work and we're currently in the design phase of the project at the moment. Uh we're we're hoping to submit uh permit applications uh very shortly. Um and as you'll recall, the plan that we had last summer was to uh locate the addition in what I'll refer to as the lower parking lot. It's a small parking lot as you face the beauty center to around to the left and sort of down a level. Uh the attractive part of that is it's right through this. There's a
096wall there, very tall wall, 30 plus feet, but it's right adjacent to the dive well. And it makes absolutely perfect sense that that be the location. Um there's ve very little uh site prep that has to be done because the parking lot there is right at basically at the uh the pool uh pool level. Um so that's our current plan. Uh in order to execute on that plan however uh there are six parking spots there uh that are for a combination of uh staff parking and for delivery and service vehicles and we need to find a place to relocate those parking spots. Uh the special permit that was uh issued for the original BD center required a total number of 136 parking spaces and six of those are those those six. Um in in considering
097the alternatives that we had uh we wanted to find a solution which uh had as little impact on the overall campus site both high school and BD center site as possible in terms of adding imperous surfaces. That's not a good thing. Uh so we're trying to avoid that. We're trying to do something that can be done fairly easily and where we can um we can uh not have to divert a lot of our resources into something other than uh our focus on building a first class diving facility for for our students. Um so we have come up with a proposal which uh if you could Drew if you could pass those around. Uh I have 12. >> Um um which involves uh your help. Um, let me get to my second page here. Um, we've
098identified uh locations on the uh CCHS campus where we would like to strike uh six replacement parking spaces. Uh the fir on the first page of the handout, you'll see an area up by the radio station, um the TV station, and it's near the loading dock for the high school. And there's a small little uh sort of cutth through area that has just enough spaces for three three parking spaces. Um and that's what we're showing on on the first slide here, the first picture. Um that gets us halfway. And then we uh identified an area on the access road into the high school campus from Walden Street. On the second slide, the town forest is right across uh to the right here on this picture. You see Walden Street coming across uh on on the
099right. And as you turn up and the be center parking lot, um, one of the entrance exits is there on the left, but we've got identified a spot for three additional parking spaces. Um, this would allow us to comply with the special permit that we need to comply with. Um, and as I said, it it it um it's it's been reviewed by both the police and fire departments. They're they concur this is a reasonable plan. Uh and uh as I said, the these six spaces will not disrupt any of the current student parking. I know all the student parking spaces are all numbered and uh we certainly didn't want to disrupt all that numbering. Um these can be numbered or not depending what what you want to do with them. Uh but it doesn't disrupt
100the current student parking. U it will have no impact on imperous surfaces at all. Uh, and as I said, it will allow us to devote all of our resources to building a a terrific uh uh diving facility for the town. So, that's the proposal. We would uh appreciate your support of that and that will allow us to move forward to the permitting process uh finish up our design work and move forward on with a permit application sometime in the next several weeks. Just to clarify, is this the only thing standing between getting to that next stage, getting to permitting? >> Well, it's certainly one of them. I mean, we we have to once we get this done and know that we've been able to find spots to to satisfy uh the requirements, uh then we
101can finish up the actual design work. >> But we we have, you know, we had a good head start on on that. uh uh because it's fundamentally a very similar plan to what we had last summer. >> So, has the timeline shifted at all? >> Sorry. >> Has the timeline shifted since uh we spoke last summer? >> Has the timeline shifted? Um that's an interesting question. Uh we're not really in control of the timeline. The uh the planning board and the zoning board really are going to determine what the what the timeline is. uh we we will have to we we hope to be able to submit um an application to them uh this month. Um and looking at their calendar, it looks like our first meeting opportunity with them would be about six weeks
102out from the time that we submit the application. Um, then there's a 20 or 30-day waiting period after they approve it for appeals. Uh, we'll wait for that. Uh, and then we would probably begin construction sometime in the early part of the fall be my guess. >> Well, what a wonderful way to really honor Macy's life and to give a gift to the town. I mean, we're so grateful for the work that the foundation's done and for everyone that's contributed to it and we are definitely looking forward to partnering with the town to really make this happen. >> Thank Thank you. We promise you we'll do our best job to produce a, as I said, a first class uh facility that you and the town will be proud of. That's that's our objective. if you
103can help us with allowing us to stripe these six spaces, that'll be a huge hurdle that we will clear. >> So, what are the next steps? >> Yeah, so I've been involved in this for weeks now. So, we vetted these spots. It's totally fine. >> Okay. >> By the high school. Um, no impact really at all. In fact, some are already had parking. >> Yeah. Park and our maintenance team can stripe them tomorrow if you approve it. So, it's pretty straightforward if we're all on the same page. >> Okay. But we're not voting on this. >> Um, well, if it I think it we have one more meeting, but it might be best to vote on it tonight unless someone wants to wait till the next meeting, >> but it seems like to me it
104seems very straightforward and with the approval from police and fire and the district and everyone saying that this seems to be okay. I know we talked about um they had talked about putting additional ones all down that Walden Street, but now that's not gonna happen. So I feel like even from buses entering and leaving, if you've been on that campus during that time, this shouldn't have any impact on that. >> Okay. >> So people feel comfortable, I think we put to the vote. >> If I recall from the last time we discussed this, that was the only concern. >> There were six spots, three spots. And if police and fire is saying there's ample space from the intersection at Walden from the front, I don't see anything that should hold us back. >> I feel
105like this is the least we can do and we should approve it tonight and get them on their way. >> Seems like a no-brainer to me, too. >> All right. So, I I'll make a motion to approve the six parking spots as proposed at the meeting. >> Seconded. >> Any final discussion? >> All in favor? I >> All right. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Thank you all so so much. We really appreciate it. >> Okay. Um we will continue now to our school improvement plans. Dr. Over to you. >> Great. So we were going to reverse order here and start with the high school um and then make our way to middle and elementaryaries. So, I'm going to invite Katie Style and Brian Miller up to talk with you.
106Our plan is to um assume you've read them and highlight each administration is going to highlight a few pieces, but we really want this to be a dialogue um and not just sit here and lecture with you. We're cognizant of time and want to be sure it's a back and forth discussion and not just us talking with you talking with you but not at you. So Brian and Katie are here. I'm going to turn it over to them to kick it off and then we can discuss from there. >> Hey everybody. >> Hi to see you. >> Um okay so we are just going to choose two uh rows that we're going to talk about. So, first one we want to talk about is on the bottom of the first page, and it's talking about
107um expanding student driven learning opportunities, increase our understanding, understanding, engagement, and joy. Um that's something we're really looking forward to do. So, one of the ways we want to do that is we have been partnering with Levvenia, which is a um ed education consultant group for the past two years. They've been they've been amazing. It's taken us a little bit of time to find the right group to offer professional development for our staff, but they have really formed strong connections. Um, and they so it's just nice. They're not the one hit wonder. They many of them are on campus five or 10 times throughout the year. They know our staff's name. Our staff knows their name. They have a a real actual connection. Um, especially built over two years now. So, we really want they've
108been doing a lot of individual coaching with our staff, but something that we're looking to bring in next year is really look at strengthening our leadership team ability to do some of that work as well. So, three or four times over the course of the next year, bringing them in directly into our leadership teams. Um, the other thing that we are really looking to expand is or explore is our interdisciplinary offerings. Um I think many of you know what Twice Totales is. >> Yes. Okay. So we've always only offered that in first semester but we are offering it in both semesters next year. We're also expanding um uh offering AP environmental science and AP language in Rivers and Revolutions directly. >> So that will be a really cool addition. Um, and then also we've been
109talking with some of the ninth grade academy leaders about what opportunities might exist for um, within the ninth grade academy team structure. One thing you'll notice is that we have had a fourth goal for a long time about the nth grade academy, but we feel like we're doing a really good job at it and we just felt like we did. It doesn't mean we're not going to continue to keep it a focus, but it's not something that we felt like we needed a fourth goal in. But um this summer, some of our summer work is going to be about exploring the interdisciplinary opportunities that might exist in this academy model. So we're really excited about those ideas. >> Yeah. And just to um piggyback about Levvenia, um we're just really excited to continue that work
110next year with our English, social studies, math, and science departments. um the work that they're doing with our department chairs, getting into classrooms, observing with the chairs, kind of using that coaching model has been incredibly impactful and beneficial for all of our teachers. Um and really thinking about some of the transferable skills that they can use for students and um kind of shifting the cognitive load for for teachers and students. So um we're really looking forward to continuing that work with them next year. Can I ask a question about apes within um Rivers? Yeah. So, if you take Rivers first semester, you'll take first semester AP environmental and then you'll take either A or B block or whatever block it fits into second semester. >> Yeah. So, you can do it both ways. >> Yeah,
111you can do it both ways. >> Okay. >> You could take you could do like apes and rivers first semester and then do apes not in rivers outside of rivers. >> Yeah. Like it wouldn't necessarily have to be in a reblock cuz now you're no longer in rivers. >> Yes. So, um, >> and Twice Told Tales is over subscribed every year, right? So, this is a I mean, there's like a hundred kids every year that want it. So, I still don't know if we met all the demand >> for all the kids who Yeah. It's a great course. >> They they present here and we all wanted to sit up. >> Alex and Eric are amazing. >> Yeah. Okay. So, the next thing we're going to talk about um is on the last page, creating
112and promoting safe spaces where voices and needs of diverse students and their families are valued and heard. Um so we've had quite a few um new affinity groups pop up this year and something that we started to do um midyear was to bring together the leaders of those affinity groups so that they could have time together to talk about common themes, common challenges, um scheduling different things that they have coming up. and it's been really incredible um to have those leaders come together to kind of share, you know, the different things that their that their groups are doing. Um so that's something that we're definitely going to continue. Um we're our goal is to have at least one meeting um each quarter next year so that all the leaders can come together and just brainstorm
113um and share ideas. And um it was really cool to see just like after our very first meeting all the different affinity groups following each other on social media and talking about ideas for you know ways that they can incorporate their groups into fun Fridays and things that they can do together and promoting each other's events. Um so that's been really exciting to see and we're really excited to continue that work um with our student body next year. Yeah. Our student um reps came in and talked about how impactful that was and so it's great to see you guys lean into that a little bit more. >> Yeah. Yeah. We're excited about it >> and it's it's fun to hear the students talk about it and then you come in and talk about >> Yep.
114>> Well, we both mentioned it on Saturday as well. It was like >> we didn't really know that like >> we hadn't read Lor's. Lori hadn't read our >> You didn't get it done enough. >> And you can watch it on Minute Man Media if you missed it. I watch all my speeches there. Excellent. >> I know that uh I'm being led under the DI commission that the commission has interest in working with the student affinity groups and I've also heard from the student affinity groups that they want to work together not only with the other groups in the school but expand an envelope with other neighboring communities the like affinity groups. Is there any work going on toward that? Yeah. So, I know that our BSU has often had um potlucks with uh let's
115see, Bedford and Wakefield. >> Yes, >> I think those I think Wakefield. So, I and I know that our um Spectrum group, not only Spectrum, but a lot of students in Spectrum just went to a um LGBTQIA plus prom three a few Fridays ago >> uh held at Wuburn High School. So, I think that as the affinity groups become more um developed that I think right now some of them are just getting their feet underwater and trying to deal with navigating CC, >> but then they're ready like some of those groups have been around for a bit longer and are looking elsewhere as well. >> Yeah, >> a couple of questions about uh academic achievement. Um just says 95% retention of uh students in how far are we from that target? >> Um so dual
116enrollment we have no measure of because we've never done dual enrollment. >> Okay. >> Um so there's that. >> Um I think that we've made >> Can you explain dual enrollment for the committee? >> So I guess I should call it concurrent enrollment because that's really what it's called. So dual enrollment would be if our students went to Middle Sex and took courses at Middle Sex during the day. Concurrent enrollment will be students will receive CC but also Middle Sex credit but the course is taught by a CC teacher >> at CC. So you could have kids in I don't know like >> psychology and Katie could be taking it for concurrent enrollment credit and I'm I'm not or vice versa. Um, I think that we right now we have made a lot of progress
117recently about just getting these marginalized students into honors and AP courses and we've really started with 9th grade. So, it's hard to say we started 2 or 3 years ago with younger students. It's too it's really hard to just start with your 12th graders and say all of a sudden you're going to take the student is not really setting up a student for success. So I think this is the first year that we actually have a substantial number of students taking it. So it's hard for me to really give that data exactly but I think it's >> yes for sure. >> Um on a on a similar line right the enrollment in upper class courses by 10%. Is that the goal over the next year or few years? I think that that is our goal
118for next if for this coming year like sort of when kids have registered for courses in a year from now. Okay. >> 10% more than a baseline right now. >> 10% more than now. Yeah. >> Let's just ask questions of a few more asking. >> But didn't you also have students that opted to enroll in some of your English electives versus like AP English? So you can have the goal, but some they might say, "Gee, I really want to take, I don't know, I'll make it up French literature instead of taking AP L and so that's going to happen, right? But you can still take it for honors credit." Okay. >> Yeah. And there's so many I mean, I'm sure you've seen the course catalog. There's so many amazing courses for students to choose. So,
119so it's really about, you know, preference and what they want to study and what they want to spend their time on. >> And I had somebody ask me like literally today, they're like, "Well, does it matter if you take AP or honors? like is there any difference? Like and people always worry about what colleges think of taking AP class versus an honors class and I was like personally I'm like it doesn't really matter like like take what you want to take and take what you're prepared for. >> Yeah. I think it's all about fit for a student and thinking about like their their balance as a whole and their course load as a whole and what makes sense for them especially in their junior and senior years >> when they have more flexibility to choose
120classes that they want to be in. Um, I did have a question. I noticed um it said um grade 6 to 12 department chairs meeting to to collaborate. Um, and you probably know where I'm going with this. Where are the opportunities um for for Carlile if any? >> Yeah. So, we did so we've done this this year as well. >> It's uh Carlilele has absolutely been included. they don't have maybe it's less a department chair but there's certainly like a liaison from carile that they've been included >> in the discussions um >> so I think our goal is just to we started it this year and how I think we maybe did two or three >> our chairs love it they love you know streamlining and talking about the you know the vertical alignment so
121that's been exciting >> for sure >> so I think we're just looking to expand on that and just at least have it happen once a quarter. >> No, that's great. And especially as we're finishing our strategic plan where vertical and horizontal alignment from preK to 8 is going to be something we start on next year. >> Yeah, >> I think just great to hear. >> Did you go back to the dual? >> Oh, go ahead. The dual enrollment real quick. I love that you're committing to that and I wonder if there's any movement toward early college as well. typically is one of the best catalysts for low-income students to launch into college and complete uh not only saving them money but also getting them far along the journey to a degree. I'm curious if there's
122any uh momentum or thinking toward that in the future. >> Yeah. So, this is definitely this is new for us starting next year. So for us, like we're really excited about this and I think we'll see, you know, we'll see how our students do with it, how much they take advantage of it. I mean, I think that I think they're going to really like it for many of those reasons. Um, so I think anything to kind of think about the benefits for our students post high school, right? Earning credits and all those things is certainly something that we're open to um exploring and thinking about and will continue to. Do you imagine it'll have an impact on college enrollment rates? And I I know we have a very high college enrollment rate. >> Yeah. >>
123But I don't know actually what our college completion rate is of for students who graduate from conquered and I don't know if that is knowable uh or easily knowable. >> Not easily. >> Um yeah, >> we've talked about that. That's something that we Yeah, we don't we don't have great data on that. M >> um we just did an exit survey for our seniors and asked for their email addresses or personal email addresses for you know when they leave so that we you know as we think about how to capture more data moving forward we can reach more students >> but doesn't desi track like 16 months after but they don't track beyond >> yeah you'd have to do I think the best proxy would be 36 months national student clearing house data which is
124not >> it's not crazy expensive it's like $3 a student to buy that data. Yeah, >> but it's possible in theory. >> Yeah, I I I would posit I hypothesize that you would have an impact on it by the dual enrollment in early college uh initiative. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Maybe I'll keep asking. Um go for it. >> The the multi-tered support uh it spoke about 9th and 10th grade. Uh is is there a reason why it's starting 11 to and 12 or >> I think that we certainly are we focus a lot with our screeners and things with our um reading screeners and math screeners towards the younger grades and I think just building that foundation in in the ninth and tth grades has been um really beneficial to our students as they get
125to 11th and 12th grade. I think it's certainly we certainly provide students with the supports that they need. It's just we're not necessarily looking at the whole grade um at once. >> And I think if we're doing a good job at ninth and tenth, right, we're sort of pulling back those services, >> right, >> as we can getting them ready for whatever looks next >> and increasing their independence. Yeah. >> Um in diversity and retention. >> Yes. Um, do you have numbers of what the attrition has looked like in recent years? Because it spoke about uh trying to um develop recommendations for increased retention. Is is that a problem or >> No, we've actually been doing a really nice job um hiring more diver more diverse faculty in a year with riffs. That's challenging. Um
126but I think that it's certainly on our mind every time we've made a hire and they've been incredible. We've made good steps forward. Thank you. I have a question. This is certainly not the sum total of all you're doing it, but sometimes the things that appear on the list are the most important, but it's the things that just miss. I'm curious, is there one or two things that just miss being on here that you know, um, you know, not hit you? Um, for me it's I mean I think it's definitely shows up in the both the inclusive culture and the um second strand about well-being, but it's about like how do we ensure all students have a strong sense of connection and belonging. >> Yeah. >> Um to me that's super important. I don't know
127how you can like begin to learn well if you don't feel like that you show up to a school where people know who you are. Um, so I think that that's always our challenge to take a place where 1,200 kids and 200 to 250 staff show up every day and make it that kids like that it feels smaller and kids feel known and that they've found their space. >> Yeah. >> So that >> there's so many little things that we all do dayto-day that won't end up right like in our school improvement plan, but that mean so much to students and to educators in the building. So >> yeah, >> I appreciate that the answer, the honesty. It's hard to leave things on the cutting room floor. >> And um >> yeah, I'm interested in
128where we can go on that very topic. That's an important one. >> That's true. >> Yeah. >> Is there anything you need from us in particular as you pursue the things that are listed for next year's school improvement plan? >> I just I'm so grateful that our students can come here and talk about so many of the great things that they're doing. I know that recognition means a lot to them and they love that time. So, thank you. And if we can continue to have them come back to school committee next year, um I know that goes a long way. So, thank you for that. >> Yeah. No, we're super grateful. I think that we absolutely appreciate your support and it is felt from us and our staff. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >>
129Well, thank you. Thank you. >> It's fun hearing the students talk about the last two weeks because it's been such a whirlwind. I WAS SITTING OVER THERE getting Cheerios 9 to five. I go that felt like I was like >> I thought it was 3 months ago 3 weeks ago. >> Yes, that feels like a long time ago. >> Like a lifetime. >> Thank you so much. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Will we continue to middle school now? >> Yeah. So Mr. Cameron comes along which this is the only So you'll get gentler on him because he has partner Molly our comfort dog. Good to see you, Will. >> Uh just a very quick shout out uh to Mr. Houseman. We got 18 staff right now in DC, about 200 kids. >> Yes, >>
130they're in the hotel room preparing for dinner dance uh in the hotel. I'm sure they're watching on their devices. Um and as quickly as that, I'm very proud to share that counterprogramming that um with the group that's staying back from DC. For the first time ever, the state asked our middle school uh to come to the DCU center to do some showcasing of the civics uh action project that all eighth graders do throughout the Commonwealth. So that happened this week with the group that stayed back, a small cohort went to the DCU center. Second time this school year where the stadiums asked us uh to showcase and model. So >> wow, that's great. >> Special. >> I might have stayed home my eighth grade DC trip and it wasn't like that. It was very nice.
131That was the 80s though. >> All right. I am here to highlight some important foundational work um in tier one that's being uh focused on this school improvement plan. Uh very briefly, tier one um is the foundational work that all students have access to and strong foundational work that is done in the mainstream classrooms. uh quite frankly if you have strong one strong tier one instruction happening in SEAL focus then all your data improves and all your data source um you can have the best special education and intervention programs in your school but if you don't have strong tier one it will fall and it will falter so underneath the two objectives of multiple path to success and well-being and mental health I'm just going to briefly share some of the focus um that we
132had at this school year which launched us um to these two new goals. So the entire district um did some work very important work with Danisa uh Jackson Dr. Jackson around UDL which is universal design for learning. >> Uh there are two areas that are highlighted in this school improvement plan. One is tier one instruction um and making sure that all of our teachers in the mainstream classrooms are giving choices to students and have multiple paths to success for our students. Um and that UDL work um is again aligned very strongly with tier one objectives. The way in which we're going to be monitoring that work um and supporting the teachers is through professional development and uh what we already have in place with with is which is um some monitoring of data that we
133do um almost every other month. We do that at the team level, the grade level team level and then we do that as a student support team of administrators, guidance counselors, school psychologists and nurses about once a week as well. The data points that we measure um is through pair which is an SEAL assessment that all the students take um through Renaissance Star Math, Renaissance Star English um and of course MCCAST as well. We've been fortunate enough, as I mentioned just minutes ago, um to be recognized by the state um in closing some of the gaps that we've had at the middle school. Um but we are really committed to the strong tier one work and UDL priority that we have in place which gets us to underneath uh well-being and mental health some work
134that we're doing um through an initiative um called PBIS. PBIS is behavioral positive behavioral incentive supports or systems. Uh the middle school wrote a grant say five years ago um through the conquered ed fund that provided all of us with these pouches um and school story gift cards. Um it is aligned with our school values of compassion, motivation and self-awareness. We're really focused, which is the tenant of PBIS, in making sure that we are shining the bright light on what is essentially the 99% of kids and their amazingness and how well um they behave and focus on their academics. Um and we're looking to make sure that there's an exttrinsic u focus on those areas by all of us walking around with pouches have school store gift cards attached to them. Uh we started this
135work about 5 years ago and part of the grant that was submitted to conquered ed fund was curriculum in the area of teaching the kids about compassion, teaching the kids about motivation and then the one that's a little bit more nuanced, self-awareness. Um we've packed a lot in our advisory program and I feel like that education of those three uh core areas, those three core values have gotten lost a little. So, we're looking to recommmit. Uh, educators, you know, when we start out with something and we're new to something, I think we're really good at being intentional about it and then sometimes we forget every four years there's a new group of students in front of us that don't have that foundation. So, uh, under well-being and mental health, you see that we're looking to
136recommmit ourselves, um, to the good work of PBIS. The way we're going to monitor that is we're really looking as a school to get a cadence um with the panorama survey data. Um we really feel like you know we've had the panorama in place for a couple years. Um and we don't necessarily have but we will next year through the school improvement goal. You know any sense of what group is looking at it? What group is monitoring it? what group is looking at areas of growth and areas of needs improvement that we might have and how is all of that panorama data tied to the school improvement goal. So those are two quick highlights that I wanted to share. U both I feel like are paralleled in the work Denisa Jackson um and UDL. >>
137Thank you. Anybody have questions? >> Thanks. Thanks, Justin. The the the I'm recalling the 2024 25 and the most recent panorama data um and specifically the area looking at sense of belonging. Um I recall numbers 24 25 or low this year some recall is 38% number where the uh families concerned about that the school saw or understood their child's culture and their child's background with those two numbers prior was 19%. How can you speak to tracking over time and looking to grow that number? >> Sure. That was the parent survey. >> Uh the student sense of belonging was actually quite high this past one, but I'll answer the question focused on uh the families. There is mention um underneath the skull of doing more work partnering with families. Um, you know, I'm not sure if
138you've ever heard, but a lot of educators who are intentional about doing work such as this, if that work is not shared and partnered with the families, um, we have very little hope. Um, so we've been really more thoughtful and deliberate in the playbook work this year. um and sending home, you know, I think five or six days before the scenarios that we're doing with, you know, gosh, all I can say is a, you know, a packet of how we're asking parents to review the scenario, you know, the questions that are going to be asked of the students by the student leader. And all of that was a lot of work behind the scenes. Um but we've seen a shift very positive shift this year in the playbook. Um and we really contribute that shift
139to that partnering with the bands. Um I go back five years ago when we received um that grant from conquered ed fund in doing the PBIS work. Again, we were teaching the core values in our advisory program. Um, but I can't actually recall any sort of work or communication that was being done with families. Um, and I think that's the piece that's really highlighted here. And the that was really highlighted in the work that we did with Dr. Jackson as well when we kind of brought together a sense of frustration that you know um when we hit panorama uh data that we seem like PBIS our core value should have grown but we're seeing it stagnant or we're not seeing growth um and we were like you know we need to do more um and
140bringing the families in um listening to them but also sharing with them, you know, the instruction and foundational work that we're doing with their kids and asking them to do it at home. >> Um, >> so do you mind if I add something? >> Of course. >> So, um, on the on the playbook initiative, um, anecdotally, I I know my family's been one of the ones that have reached out to you with, you know, questions and comments about the the the content uh, that was, as you mentioned, like a week before uh, actual training in the classroom. you've been responsive to that. I know anecdotally other friends of mine who have kids in playbook initiative reached out, you've been responsive to the comments. So, thank you for that. It it definitely helps. I appreciate that.
141Um, you know, the other thing that, you know, I think we still haven't solved um is, you know, we're a school that communicates a lot. you know, and all I'm doing right now is saying we're going to communicate more. Um, and the saturation that I think happens in our community and I'm a parent myself. You know, when I toggle over to my personal email, the number of emails that are highlighted in bold that I haven't opened from my own daughter's school, uh, it can be quite alarming. Um, so I get that as well. you know, attending a music concert, you know, last week at middle school. I really think we need we can start using audiences like that, you know, um, as one grade level band was moving off and another grade level band was
142kind of transitioning in, I was imagining that could be a time where, you know, a student leader gets on a mic and said, you know, says something about the playbook. >> Yeah. um because that is I think where we have to start getting creative um and you know what I'm mentioning right now which is a place where some families feel a little bit overwhelmed. Um, so as much as it's a goal here to communicate more often um, and better, I think we need to be creative in in the methods that we do that. >> Can I >> The movie trailers are oftenimes the best part of the movie when you've got a captive audience. Sorry, Michelle. Um, may I ask how will you execute the uh tier one instruction for the students that are scoring
143low on the ELA and the math MCCAST? How how will that get pulled out and how do you see and envision that um just being you know scaffolded for the different students in the middle school? >> Sure. I I think it's through, you know, first I, you know, I want to give credit to the middle school teachers. You know, most of them have had what I'm about to say for years, and it's as much as, you know, really championing them, um, and making sure that they're modeling for each other. Um, so you know the world language teacher, the art teacher, the English teacher who has a student in their class who is struggling, you know what a lot of schools do, what some parents do, you know, is they race right past that classroom teacher
144and they're talking about assessment, you know, special education assessment, whereas good tier one slows all of that down. And you mentioned the word scaffolding. So I think it's in an area that the classroom teacher recognizes, you know, this project that I've been assigning now for 12 years doesn't really have much choice in it. And I don't know how many of the students really connect to it or have a sense of identity with it. So I wonder if there's a choice board that I can offer that gets this project off of technology and then gets you know calls back you know the the you know 1982 and you know doing a diarama you know and I think there's so much research out there and so much data out there that suggests that no matter the path
145that a student takes if they take something that sparks sparks their curiosity and their interest and that they can connect to and that's when they're going to feel success. Um so I think it's a matter of really making sure that the teachers just know that those are different ways that students can be successful. Um and again having the teachers model for each other. >> You're welcome. to follow on that. Um, looking back at our subgroup um numbers for the math, um, is there anything that we can that we need from us in terms of better supports? for instance, uh uh sort of breaking out some of the specific math support from uh assistant to math or anything like that. >> I you know Lori's going to laugh because >> you guys are killing me with
146the what do you need >> and I sit here wonder what I'm going to hear in a minute. >> Thanks for taking that text. Don't give me any more trouble. >> Um, no. The reason why she's going to laugh is because I I find a way every year to share, you know, I think in this question, you know, we made a pretty significant shift in our master schedule. um now maybe six years ago where all of the core teachers are enrichment teachers and interventionalists. Um, and I can't stress enough how significant that is at the secondary level because at the secondary level, the content gets harder and your special educators that again, schools and parents rush kids who are struggling too often to special educators who, wait for it, have only a special education license.
147So when you have a master schedule that offers your core teachers the opportunity to be in front of groups that you're looking to really grow that data. Even students who are doing well, we are responsible for growing their data as well. Um and those teachers hold that license in the area that they need to grow in. then that right there is the recipe. You know, that's the secret sauce. Um, and quite frankly, students want to reconnect with that teacher and see them in a different way for a second time in that school day. And that is what our master schedule is offering. So instead of a master schedule where the bell rings and a student who is struggling and was rushed to special education and they go to a special education class, the bell rings
148and all of our students are going to an enrichment block. We just call it simply enrichment. But you know about a quarter of them are going to an intervention class that they still call enrichment. and it is with their teacher that they've seen second period and it's all of a sudden sixth period and that relationship is often getting stronger. Um it's almost like having a real instructionally focused um afterchool program built into your school day. Um, and if you know anything about extracurricular or after school, if your teachers and educators are leading it, the kids see you in a different light and that connection, that sense of belonging that I have an adult in this school just grows so mightily. So, I think it's just a continuation of supporting that master schedule um, and supporting
149the three teams that >> it took us years in the budget to build that years. this this committee these positions have really done that work over time. >> Yeah. You know, Lori and I came into a two building model where all three grades had just two teams. Um and there was slightly more students then. So think about that paradox. Um we have found a way to take two team or three grades that just had two teams. We brought three teams to each grade and that offered up that opportunity for that enrichment intervention block which I will dare say if you look at the special education numbers and the cost of special education at the middle school um and even five years from now all of that should be lowered because of this important work. >>
150Thank you. >> Um >> I need to ask him one more. >> I want to make sure we get on to elementary because we've been waiting. So final question Drew. >> Sure. Yeah. Final question. Um, I found myself saying amen and hallelujah to most of what you put on here and I want to double click on one thing which I love and also I want to ensure that um, it's having the intended outcome which is grading for equity and I love that you encourage students to retake up to an 85. I think uh, productive struggle is one of the most meaningful ways to help someone make leaps and bound gains in school. Uh the question I have for you is do we track who is taking advantage of this and when because it is often
151times the students with the least helpseeking behavior that uh are left behind by by measures like these which are intended to create equity but sometimes can inadvertently cause inequity where the high achieving students with the parents that are going to uh poke and prod them but maybe the students that don't have the same resources at home uh are not necessarily taking full advantage. And I'm curious, are we aware of who and how often these things are getting used and um and are we making sure that they're they're equally distributed among the students? >> Excellent question. Um this, you know, our retake practice that's been now in our school improvement plan for a couple years is aligned with um our flex block. Um it is not a passive, you know, come to my classroom before the
152first bell to retake this. Um in fact, we're very intentional in not doing such a thing before the first bell or after the last because of equity and access. Um instead, and it happened to me today, I had a great plan for my advisory group. >> Yes, >> I have nine kids that I see every morning. every Wednesday is an extended advisory block. Um, and I forgot to check my spreadsheet of how many of them were being pulled by teachers to retake something. >> Mhm. >> Um, so like I did attendance and all of a sudden I had three kids in front of me. So I think this is answering your question. Um, you know that goal is tied to our teachers are calling the kids in during the school day. >> Appreciate that. to
153say, you know, you have this opportunity. You know, we're looking for mastery here. You can get up to an 85. Let's take advantage of this. >> So, you know, we're looking to build self- advoc advocacy. We even teach the kids how to write an email to their teacher about such things, right? Um, but at the same time, we're not leaving behind the kids who don't have the pets who are like, "You need to email your teacher and ask her if you can take this retake tomorrow." Instead, that teacher has a list that's sent out to advisory saying, "Here are the kids who have the chance at the retake. Send them to me." I I my hope for you is that in the future years there is a smart goal around the percentage of students who
154qualify for a retake that take advantage of it because I think it would be illuminating and would hopefully rally more teachers to be as proactive as what you describe. Um because until it's 100% it's probably not enough. >> Y >> thank you. >> Yeah, appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you all. >> So as they come up I have an introduction to make so the elementary folks should come up. um incoming Willard principal Stephanie Nephew is here. So, we wanted to use tonight to let you all get to to meet Stephanie. A couple few of you have because she's a Willard parent a Willard principal and you are parents there. Um as don't ask her any questions. >> Matt's here to still take the questions. um they have worked collectively as we have the past few
155years on the improvement plan with some school specific things but it's been a really big goal of ours and the synergy continues to build across the three schools um for all those same reasons you just heard about tier one it's really really important all the kids at all three schools are getting the same experience and it's not dependent on school or teacher or any other other piece so I'm going to let them talk on the things they want to highlight welcome Stephanie >> thank you very much >> thank you she's been here all day. So, she's we're testing out your stamina at 8 o'clock at night right off the bat. So, I'll let them pick the highlights they want to share and then you can talk about them. >> Right. Hi, everyone. Uh, so I'm
156going to highlight a couple of things from strategic objective one. um our school improvement plans are are very similar for the reasons that that Lori just um shared is that we've worked really hard to create that alignment and ensure that we're not implementing new curriculum in one building and not in the other. Um I think before I jump into some specifics, it's probably helpful to frame where we are because you'll notice um that quite a lot of what we that that we outlined this year is continue the work. So we are like one, two, maybe three years depending on the initiative into some really big initiatives. So between EEL and open circle and responsive classroom like these are really big undertakings and they're all um in the beginning years and so almost everything on our
157school improvement plan this year is continuing work that has been started in the past couple of years and going deeper with what what we've done. So I just wanted to frame that a little bit. Um, a couple of things that I want to highlight from strategic strategic objective one. First, I don't think we could come to this meeting and not talk about EEL. Um, so a a huge part of our work next year is going to be furthering the work that we've done with expeditionary learning. Um, I I like know it's not the purpose of this meeting, but I just like our teachers have done such an amazing job with such a big undertaking this year. um it's been really like a joy and a privilege to support them and watch them with this undertaking.
158Um and we feel really like we're in a really good place to move forward into year two. So with respect to EL um the work that we're going to be doing is twofold. So teachers who didn't implement this year because it was optional in the first year. Um they are going to be in what's considered cohort 2. Um and they are going to be implementing for the first time with the expectation of just get through it as best as you can. um we will be working to support them with the added sort of the the advantage of having done it once already. So they have lots of colleagues who have done it once already. Um and so a big part of next year is supporting cohort 2 in EL implementation. For cohort one the big
159shift which will be a big shift um is doing all four of the modules. So for this year, the expectation was do as much as you can. Make sure you do three modules, but we know that first year completely changing your sort of approach. Um you're you're going to like you're going to go slower than you normally would. Um for next year, the expectation is that everyone is doing four modules. Um and then the other piece that's going to be new is that um we're really going to be looking closely at the embedded the assessments embedded in EL to make sure that those are driving instruction. they administered them this year. Um, but without know like if you administer an assessment and you still don't really know what's coming next because you're you're in the
160middle of implementing for the first time, it's hard to use that data and say, "Well, here's here's what I would change because you don't even know what you're about to do." And so that is all different for next year. So next year, um the two big things that are going to be different for people in cohort one, um are getting through all four modules, which means we'll be hitting all of the standards, um and then also really using those embedded, um assessments. Um I think the other piece to highlight um so for a couple of years now, we have been using um dibbles to guide our instruction. Um we imple we started implementing it uh universally K through five two I want to say two years ago. Um before that we had just been using
161it in in the primary grades. Um and so teachers are getting really um skilled at using it using that data to drive their instruction. And so what I think we have to do now um is find the balance uh and if this is a structural um this is structural work but working with the master schedule to ensure that the work that Dibbles drives which is the small group instruction and the found teaching of the foundational skills um that there's a balance for that with um sort of the competing need for a really large literacy block for the EL piece. And so we are working to figure out how to fit all of that in um to make sure that we have space in the schedule for EL for the um small group uh you know
162skills-based instruction and then also for um for our MTSS supports. Um and and we I think it'll be an iterative process. I think each year we're trying a few new things to see how they work. Um and we'll be doing that again next year. Um and then I think the other piece that is probably worth highlighting is that a really nice consequence of EL this year has been really increased collaboration um across the schools and even within the buildings. So for the first time this year I think we've all experienced um teachers voluntarily observing each other and opening up their classrooms um and saying sure come see me do this. What is a language dive? Come watch me do a language dive and tell me how it's going. Right. Um and so I think our
163our goal for next year is to really capitalize that on that and continue um helping to support teachers to rely on each other um in addition to all the professional development that we will continue to provide from the district level but really um making sure that those opportunities continue um uh and I think that's a priority for all of us. Um, I will pause and move on to and move on to I really could talk about EL for a very long time. I really enjoyed it this year. Um, but quickly >> go ahead. >> Good evening. Thanks for having us. >> Yeah, we cleared out the room. I guess >> they're all watching online. >> Um, Lori mentioned it, Naomi mentioned it. It feels good that every time we come as an elementary group, the
164the um school improvement plans get a little more cohesive, >> right? And that's that's intentional. That's thanks to the work of Lori and Shelley as well. Um and as Nomi mentioned, it was a great opportunity with implementation this year >> to collaborate a ton, not just the three of us, but the teachers in our buildings observing in other buildings working together. Um and they find a ton they find a ton of value in this. So that's something we're going to leverage moving forward. So, I have a uh objective two, well-being and mental health. And um it's timely because um May was mental health awareness month, right? Um and you noticed uh our partners at the CF um made some commentary about the importance, Brian Miller as well. So, you'll see some lines throughout. uh really
165important to us um raising awareness um reducing the stigma and supporting uh both our children uh as well as our adults. Um sometimes we forget about the the the teachers >> and student success is is tied um to the well-being of our of our teachers. So really important um that we're doing um we're doing that work. When a teacher comes to work every day feeling seen and heard and valued and well taken care of, um they can create the type of classroom environment where all of our learners thrive, uh relationships flourish, um and and students can do their best learning. Um so that's that's a huge priority for us um this was this year and the work will continue on um to next year. Um so uh something that uh uh we were intentional about
166this year was the panorama survey. Uh we we did a survey for students, for families, and for staff. Um earlier in the fall, we took some time with our leadership teams and with our full faculties and really dove into this data, right? Um we analyzed it. We did some protocols at our faculty meetings um and discovered what what what's working and what what are some growth opportunities for us as a staff. Um just off the top of my head uh the staff at least from Plurau and I'm sure at Alcott and Willard as well u feel a tremendous sense of community within the schools. Um but you know staff uh burnout um and teacher stress is always is something that we need to make sure we monitor. Um, one of the ways we're we're approaching
167this is we were able to pull together an ad hoc wellness committee of volunteers about seven or eight teachers who stay after school um and and look at the data and talk about ways we can be um we can think creatively about implementing things for staff opportunities to get together to build culture and community um as a group just to keep morale and culture high. We've done things like um uh coffee and treat cards during a a busy parent teacher conference day. Um you know, little notes of appreciation, bulletin boards that honor all the hard work and respect the hard work. We um and we're including our ESPs, our education support professionals. I got that right. >> You got it. Yeah, >> you did. >> In this as well, because they're often a forgotten group,
168I'll say um and we're working hard just to make sure whatever we do, we're including them in in that conversation. um we hosted a a breakfast for them uh last week where we just got a chance to um sit down together and talk about what's working for them, what's stressful, what barriers we can remove as a leadership team. Uh it was and it was wellreceived. Uh we also connected with Helen down at Conquered Flower Shop and we were able to take a group of teachers down there and do a a class on flower arranging which is interesting. It's fun. Um so and then just to sort of uh pivot over to what we're doing around and Naomi mentioned it the open circle work. So this is our social and emotional learning uh our tier one
169our universal program. A lot of teachers had had training in the past. We sort of um um the the organization went defunct and then they revived it. Uh the new program is very similar to the former one and the majority of our teachers I would say have had some level of training um uh which was great. Uh, so we're continuing to identify those people and get them the professional development they need while at the same time um identifying a a go-to person within our buildings, a point person who can like a train the trainer model who's had substantial training who can come in, work with the teachers, plan, prep, go into classrooms, model or co-e uh which has been really helpful. um you know knowing that EL was was a big undertaking this year I
170said we're going to have a a soft roll out for for um open circle but the teachers have really embraced it and these lessons are working quite well. So lessons are 30 minutes once or once or more a week and they're integrated right into the morning meeting the beginning part of the day uh where they're learning um the lessons are designed to support things from self-awareness um uh relationship building problem solving uh emotional identification and regulation really important skills. The teacher can follow the scope in sequence or pull lessons as needed based on the needs of the class which is which is great. Um, and it's really nice. They always leave a a one seat open for a guest that comes in. >> I got to be the guest Friday. >> Yeah, that's fun. >>
171Really inviting. Um, and so it's got a great flow to it. They gather, class gathers, introduce the topic, regulating emotions, for example. Um, there's an interactive component where there's some role playing which gets interesting to watch. if you saw that but um there's always a an opportunity to share with each other um and then the important thing is the reflection at the end. The students reflect and then have the opportunity to apply with feedback um as they move forward. So that's that's work that's ongoing that we'll continue to focus on for next year. Um in terms of MTSS support, some kids we know just like with reading need need something a little bit more need need a double dose. Um and then we really bring in our our the experts, the mental health team. So
172we piloted something this year whereby um you know, we're using our data to identify and build that out. We're looking for a screening tool that works uh really well at getting us the data we need. Um we also have teachers who are our experts. They're with the students all day who now have an opportunity to um to attend an open office hour with our mental health team. they can go raise a concern about a student and have that opportunity to talk um with the mental health teams, our school psychologists, our guidance counselors, our BCBA, um the administrative team as well, engage in a a a discourse and hopefully leave with some strategies and tools um that they can use right away. That's the most important thing to a teacher. What can I use right away
173to help support this kid? Um so that's working well. We're looking forward to building that up uh next year as well. Uh and then I guess lastly just touching upon objective four uh the innovative environment. We're all doing something a little bit different in terms of building and um a facility and and and our campuses. We are excited to be moving into phase two of our playground project. U I feel like this has been a project that been working on for three years. Uh which has been great and a lot of fun. Um, and we're also looking forward to tying a a ribbon on it. Um, so phase two bids are due, I think, next Friday. Um, and we're looking forward to hopefully breaking ground and finishing that up some point this summer, early early
174fall. And this is an area, too, just in terms of innovation. U, we've got our our swings and our climbing structures and the monkey bars and all that great stuff. Um, a climber that's very very tall. if you haven't seen it yet. Um the kids are really enjoying it. But that's not for all kids. Some kids just like to be out in nature. Um you know, exploring and engaging in imaginative play. So this um I think this fits the bill for that. I'll say shout out to Brian for the collaboration with Carlile. We modeled a lot of what we did after what you guys did was really helpful. We're excited to bring that to a close and um you know see the benefits for generations to come. Um, our green space will be open next
175year. Our soccer fields will be open. Uh, and was the last facility project? Oh, yeah. We're rebuilding >> the fire. >> We're rebuilding the 94 wing. >> Oh, yeah. >> Yeah. It's that was not a great call. Uh, Monday evening. First it was Mario, our head custodian, and then Ron Hullinger SRO. So those are not two calls you want to get back to back. >> And then the superintendent. >> Then the superintendent. >> So um you know it was amazing. Uh as we were there we called put about 100 staff members Lori together the next day. >> Yeah. >> Developed a a plan within an hour or less. >> And then for the rest of the day watched a 100 staff members moving >> 10 classrooms. 8 to 10 classrooms. >> Pretty extraordinary. It was
176a sight to be to behold. So we talk about community and support and teamwork as the very definition of that for sure. >> Thank you Justin. >> Yeah. >> Adding more. >> And so we agreed we try to be concise and I don't think you got the memo. >> Did you notice he always goes last? >> We make him go last. Yeah. because he's sorry to follow. >> Well, I am going to miss you. I miss all of you and thank you for the opportunity for speaking tonight. Um it's uh uh my honor to talk to you about uh uh our strategic goal number three and inclusive culture and I'm going to highlight the work that staff is doing together uh within building across building and uh from uh senior leadership uh to u to
177impact the ability of our teachers to do their best work. And when our teachers can do their best work, students benefit, right? So, first uh the work of the DEIB leadership um which Andrew Namichi working very closely in each of our buildings working with our leadership teams. So our leadership teams are overlapping with our DBI u um leads to ensure that we are having uh cultural competency as a um a thread that is woven through our day and is present especially when we have times of crisis. So this past year when we had times of crisis when uh we were uh doubling down on our work uh to combat anti-semitism the work that occurred uh uh as a district was led by um uh the superintendent and by Shellyley by Andrew but then the work
178that occurred in the classrooms was driven by the DEIB leads within our leadership teams in each of our buildings. So case in point when we had facing history and ourselves in um it was impactful, it was important uh it was timely. It was well executed. What we needed to do for elementary school is to take these important uh issues and make them digestible and ready for staff to use in the moment. Right? So, our staff always want to do things well. And so, we were able to leverage um a speaker who Andrew and I had visited. Uh he he spoke to us when we went into a conference in Boston and it was specifically for our elementary uh grade teachers. And this is where we all came together. Now, again, you heard it from Justin
179before uh Dr. Hunter and I we came the same year. We were siloed, very much siloed nine years ago. and the fact that now we can not only have one plan but have moments in which we need to act with urgency and do so effectively when we gather all our staff together I think is a testament to the leadership but also the work of um senior leadership people like Nimichi the the leadership teams within our building to work again dovetailing all that work um additional um I would um we meet regularly um with uh across buildings as u the DEIB leadership team. Um another area that I'd like to stress is the work that our new special education administrative teams are doing is phenomenal. >> In the past, um boy, everyone did their their very
180best. We have earnest, hardworking, caring, compassionate, professional staff that do their very best. But boy, when you put um others, if you add additional members of the staff who help facilitate and structure purposeful conversations, kids benefit. So the transitions that have been occurring this year, right? Before they were good, now they're exceptional. Right? Where every child, as we say every single day, every child is known as an individual and as a learner. And it's difficult to give our children up to the next school. It always is. No matter no matter how well it's being done, we feel even better today for the work that those people are doing because those students are that much better prepared for success in the next step, right? And then we recognize with that comes the confidence that the parents
181have, right? And the parents anxiety is lessened. So when parents are feeling good about things, the kids will feel good about things which and that engenders greater depth of relationship and trust between home and school. So um kudos to and thank you for that was a support that was a budget ad that you made. Thank you is paying dividends. Um also want to uh say the work that the staff has already done um to welcome, support and acclimate uh Stephanie. So Stephanie has already been in um and um the staff is looking forward to working with her today. Long day, right? We met once before then today. Stephanie met with uh staff starting at was it I staff at like 11, but she reached out to the PTG to meet with the PTG today. Right.
182So masterful work on Stephanie's part and part of our plan to ensure the greatest opportunity for success of Stephanie. Everyone is 100% confident she's going to be a great great lead of Willard. Um, today we were on on the bus. You know, Stephanie knows the the importance of greeting each child in the morning and saying goodbye every afternoon, right? So, we get on the bus and you know, as we do and I said to my friends on the bus, "Hey, my friends, I'd like to introduce you. This is Miss Nephew from the back of the bus." No, I said, "No, this is your new principal." Back of the bus. Kids goes, "Hey, MISS NEPHEW, HOW YOU DOING?" HE WAS ON HER interview and he was beaming with cry. So again, it's not everywhere where you
183have uh constituencies that truly are heard and valued. So it's a very difficult interview process. We all know, we've all done it. But boy oh boy, when the the kids feel valued and the staff feel valued and the parents feel valued and this right, well done. And so I'm quite confident that things are going to move forward very well and very well supported for Stephanie as she moves. Um the work that uh the concrete ed fund was u trumpeting today we benefited at Willard. We're going to have a Willard garden after all these years right which is spectacular. Um there's a a garden at Alcott and Thorough. And why is it so important? Now, we've done we've we've always tapped into um our our bird watches. We've done our works, as you know, in the
184curriculum in kindergarten looking at trees and seasons, all the rest. But to have a garden, think about the work that you've done where you're learning something and it doesn't end when the lesson's over, right? That's great teaching. That's great learning. It's the motivation for you to continue to learn. So within EEL, as Naomi referenced, um where when we have an outdoor um classroom like the garden that we will have, we tap into e modules that include in kindergarten, trees and weather. In first grade, birds need our help. In second grade, the secret life of plants and pollinators and in third grade, water usage. Right? So it's real life application of what they're learning. uh high quality text that they're accessing and ready to demonstrate mastery in many different means, one of which can be within
185the garden setting. So, we're very excited by all of that. Um, one bit that we've all been working on is our playground. I'll end with that. that uh the one one of the action items moving forward will be to begin the process of reconsidering what's out there uh ac accessibility for all right and it's getting older it's 17 years right as we know um that things start to go at some point and just as our chiller went this spring which is fine everyone's rallying to it >> surprised Brian and Katie didn't bring up the lack of >> there but I tell you but it takes that the sense of community and um and uh mutual um willingness to persevere, right? Um I won't ask anyone whether they had AC in their uh schools when they
186were children. This guy didn't, you know, on bombing bombing Long Island, right? U >> talking inch. >> All right. Right around the corner. Right around the corner. Yeah. So we turn our pillows over at night, right? Right. Right. When it was hot. So um so the the building is super wellmaintained. And one last call out. I'm doing a little bit of you right now. Just running on is >> is the support. >> Leaving these two to the end was a big mistake. >> I understood the assignment. I picked your thing and I talked about them. No, just again the the support of uh all the staff within the building um our our facility staff, our drivers, our kitchen staff, every single day, every single one of them has a meaningful impact on all of our
187students and um it's not every district that still retains those important people, right? Um so kudos to all of you and gratitude to all of you for having this culture and this environment where that's important because it is important and it is important for teaching and learning and the success of our students. So thank you I guess questions. >> Yeah let's just maybe a couple questions. See, we could have more than one per mention to go by break, but in case we did not. Um, I think the goal across uh the the DV goals was hiring and retaining I think 20% of staff by 2025. Um, were we tracking that? Are we did we meet it or John? >> We do track it for sure. Um, did we meet it? What I'm finding is the
188tracking gets complicated when attrition happens for reasons that aren't about us. It's we're relocating or whatever. So, we're still mastering the data tracking. Um, they're having the same challenge. We were riffing people and so the hiring piece is a different discussion this year, >> but I I will this I guess a good challenge, but um we don't have much since we set that goal. We've had very little turnover. Um, like this year is the most. So I I have two people who are retiring. It's the most turnover I've had in I want to say three years. And because of >> rift I did like I didn't actually post for those positions because they because people were rift not rifted but um there was movement in the district. Um, it's a good not having really high
189retention is a good problem to have, but it it's um we're not I haven't posted for a new teaching position in a couple years. >> That wasn't just teachers, right? >> That goal um staff >> it Yeah, I mean we al Yeah, >> it's a good question, Sandep. And we post a lot of our pos all of our positions on school spring. That's our hiring platform. And I'm just having a conversation with Andrew and Nimichi, you know, how do we how do we broaden that because not everyone go uses that. >> So Andrew has a lot of ideas and is creative about spreading uh and broadening the the candidate pool and we do use two other networks um >> uh that Andrew has identified that has generated leads of diverse candidates. Exc did you have
190a question? >> I do have one question which is the plans being so similar baly the like unique strengths of each of your schools and your own leadership. So I was actually wondering if you would be so kind and generous as to share if there is anything from one another and be succinct as possible that you admire most and hope wish you could acquire from their culture or operations at their school. you know each other so well and sometimes you can see each other's superpowers better than even your own. So I'm curious if there are things you admire about one another uh or their schools or how they operate that um you wish you could absorb. >> I can start >> please. >> Um great question. >> I think there's so many things that I
191could say. I feel like I learned so much from well even sitting here I was like oh office hours for my mental health staff like that that's a really great idea. Um, but I think in terms of the like leadership style or like uh I think Matt is a phenomenal storyteller and I think that's really important in this role and um you know I I think that's that's something that um I would aspire to a little more detail oriented and like get it done and obviously I took my two points and spoke to them and they followed >> I follow I follow really good at following directions. know what they need to like it. >> But but I think like the storytelling aspect is actually really important in this job and um it's something it's
192something that I really appreciate and will miss even if it's late and you talk for a long time. >> It's a great question, Drew, and about each of them. I sometimes go from A to B without Laurest sometimes without thinking about all the things in between. Um, and Naomi is great about slowing down and asking all of the important questions in the moment. It's like sometimes, come on, come on, come on. But in the end, >> in the end, it it >> oh boy, >> someone the plan is always better off. The students are always better off as a result of your thoughtfulness. >> Um, and uh and and Matt coming in. um has been such a a tremendous mentor uh every classroom every day. >> Um I would echo, you know, uh what I
193admire um most about Naomi is her humanity. um that um in a complex uh world with lots of needs, she always sees the student and then will will develop an an action plan that is so thoughtful uh with deliverables that she stakes to right and has great success. >> It's a really really nice question. Um, and then Justin is um the just the lifeblood of the school. When you're with him in the building, uh, the staff brighten when he arrives. The kids all know him. Um, he knows the curriculum in and out. Um, he has an effervescence and a positivity that is second to none. So, um, you know, we I think we probably complimented each other and I'm quite confident that, um, Stephanie will jump right in and just be such a great new
194member of this team. Um, that will this team will continue to thrive with Stephanie's inclusion as we we say to a great question before and I should have whenever we interview for someone we always say who will make us better >> who will make us better. So to replace me, right, doesn't make the district better. It's to see who where my gaps are and what we need more of. And in Stephanie, now you have someone who fills my gaps and makes this team better. So I'm really excited for her to come and we look forward to uh finishing out the year very strongly. But thanks for your question, T. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, just I will finish it up by saying thank you so much for coming. We really love having you. This is
195my favorite meeting of the year. Um because we get to see you interact with each other and you know I've been around for a long time and the schools were not always this um cohesive at the elementary level and it was like oh buy a house at this school because your kid will learn to read at this school. That is no longer the case. So I really appreciate um the collaboration between the three schools and then even you know prek to 12 like watching all of that and the leadership team. I mean, this is something that it's a bird's eye view into our schools every single day. We wish you the best of luck with Teddy, Matt. Congratulations. Enjoy retirement. We welcome Stephanie. >> Thank you, Justin. Naomi, it's really great. >> Thanks, Tracy. >>
196Thank you all. >> All right. Um, moving on. So, we've got five more things that we want to talk through tonight. So, >> exact session. We got three and a half hours. >> Um, handbook. >> Yeah, I think we can do this at a high level because there's not that many changes. Um, I was going to project, but thank you. Take care. Thanks, guys. Thank you. >> The only thing I'd ask you, and we're not voting tonight, so you have time to look at it. We tried to really call out what was different logistical stuff that is clear. Um, we have to align the policies that are in here, the ones that are in here that are changing with the DOJ piece next week. So those are just partnered up. And then really the piece
197to look at is the AI piece which Shelley gets all credit for and the the committee she's been working with that we really wanted some breath and depth to at least a starting point for AI which I don't think I need to go through tonight but um you could see that's one of our major areas of change this coming year. >> Will we be having a sort of in-depth discussion on the changes at our second read or you do that now? Um, were there particular ones that you want to have a in-depth conversation about? >> Um, you know, I think Sandy, you and I had questions about um, ACR, AC, and GIC. >> Those policies are on the next agend. >> Yes. Just to clarify, we'll yeah, >> we had the first reading on those
198in May. >> We will be voting on those at the June 16th meeting. The handbook will reference what we approve on June 16. >> Got tricky. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Um and if you recall, like we had said in May, we're going to adopt the DOJ recommendations to make us compliant and then make sure that we're continuing that conversation. So the question the question was when are we having that discussion now or are we going to have it on the 16th? That's that was my question. >> We're not have we're not going to have it tonight. We we have the second read on the 16th. So >> everything just has to align. That's why this is >> so policies on the 16th >> before we vote the handbook. >> Yes. >> Technically yes. Yeah. because
199then you'll have the policies and the handbook in >> and between now and then I'm going to get you Brian and Katie are working on there's a few CCHS specific things that we need to in consolidating the book a couple years ago we just there's a few CCS EHS things we need to reference that they're pulling together this >> okay did you have edits that you sent through >> No I didn't have edits but I when we I saw they were up and they were in the packet. >> Discuss it bigger. >> Yeah. I didn't realize they made it into the packet. I think >> Yeah, I I think they're on next week. >> They're on the next agenda >> because we were going to do one meeting with all of this in it. Clearly,
200this meeting needed to be split into two, which is >> and so all the policies and a few more town things will be on the next meeting. Yep. >> All right. Anything else with the handbook for right now? All right, we'll move on then to adas working group updates. >> So, um we haven't had a meeting since the last update that I gave, but we're in closing stages of that working group. Um presenting to the select board on the 22nd. Uh we have a meeting coming up next week. Um and just to put the finishing touches on the presentation that we're going to make to the question for you. Is there I know when Paul presented the chair presented to the uh DEI commission there was sort of as an aside that there was going
201to be a hearing formal hearing thing. >> I did not know that happened. So I I did not attend the the DI on this meeting >> he he had mentioned that then and uh I guess the other point I would want to make uh since March when we've had this this item as Sandy pointed out this body is going to cease to exist in June 22nd. >> Yep. >> But our issues advice and I hopefully they'll diminish but they're not going to go away. Again, I bring up that we should consider updating the focus to look at what's going on in our school campuses and perhaps change the item name to make certain that we hold this talk about bias climate across our campuses going forward. >> I appreciate that. >> I agree. I agree.
202I think it would be helpful to continue talking about it. >> So, yeah, I've been asking since March and like to have some determination on. >> Um I hear you. I don't have any immediate um determination at this point, but um >> something that we can discuss as a commit. Do you want to I mean I'm wondering as we are putting together our um you know as we're working over the course of the summer and working through through goals if um >> I don't know necessarily has to be a goal. I'm asking for something to be a standing item for us to discuss a standing item on our agendas going forward. That's what I've been asking since March. Can Can I share my thoughts on it? >> Yeah. >> I things on the agenda I
203I believe should be items that we discuss and then we move forward to the next one. As you rightly pointed out, I don't think these are issues we'll uh ever get done addressing. So I I I don't again if if it's a let's say semianual update on climate culture, we'll look forward it. But it's a standing element just to say we're still tracking this. I don't necessarily see the value in it. >> Well, there are other things other than ordinary business meetings, Sandy, that could be vehicles for getting into this topic as well. Could be a working group, could be a forum, could be something maybe outside of an ordinary business meeting. Is that what you're getting at? Where it would have a sort of timebound focus where we would open in a more wholesome
204way than perhaps a 10 minutes can on a bi-weekly basis would even begin to approach which I agree with you. We want to make progress but how do we make progress in the best way possible? Is that sort of >> no >> like having it be a forever thing is hard I acknowledge but also having it be and that never is also hard to make progress. I also not what I said. I said let's let's have >> Oh. Oh, sorry. I misunderstood you. >> I said let's have periodic updates instead of every meeting >> regional meetings since we had made a point to make this something at the so we'd be at our regional meetings and also if I look at what our agreement was, we're supposed to be assessing our incident of bias uh
205timely at least over the next 12 months through June of 2027. That's part of the agreement that we signed. U is that correct? >> No, I'm the I'm the one who has to do that. I've been charged with that by the DOJ to do that >> and we shouldn't >> I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that I'm the official review of the incident because I have access to the >> agreed >> private information. >> Agreed. And again, we're not necessarily in private information. This is just sort of again a request to look at the what's happening in our camp in our across our campuses over time as suggested in our DOJ agreement and something I've been asking since March. >> So, and I do think it's a good idea to a periodic review. I
206agree with you, Sandep. Um, I can't think of an item on our agenda in the past few years that we've had on every single agenda except for this one because you requested it and I made the commitment for the rest of this year to put the hate and bias working group on. And now I think that, you know, maybe the chairs will discuss it together and figure out how we move forward and and what should it be every meeting? Should it be quarterly? You know, how we're going to do that. So maybe that's for you guys to decide over the summer. Um yeah that's that's good feedback I think yeah if we do it every meeting it might feel preuncter and >> be performative >> performative >> yeah um >> so have to be performative
207unless we look at it that way >> if if we do something with that it'll feel like us checking the box saying we're doing this things are done right >> my kids are still in the schools they have to deal with these issues every Right. So, so let's take tangible steps, tangible actions instead of putting something on the agenda and saying our problem is done. We swoop at it. Let's move on. >> Yeah, we definitely don't want to do that. I don't think anyone's proposing that. >> Definitely not. >> I think that will happen if we keep doing it every we nothing happened in the last two weeks. >> Well, maybe I think we're down a rabbit hole, which is like I'm curious in your estimation, what is the thing that would be most productive
208to have happen? You say >> I stated that >> regular updates but updates on from from the administration to us >> but is there something more we could do and simply listen >> talk to the community? >> Yeah. Well, there we go. Maybe there's something Well, that would be something like a forum perhaps. >> Well, that that's a different discussion. >> Yeah, for sure. It's a different discussion. the hate and bias discussion >> is your hate and bias working group um do they have a recommendation coming out on how to disseminate information? Um yes. So I mean that'll be the dashboard >> the dashboard >> that we'll present on the 32nd. >> Okay. >> And again that speaks to the town. It does not speak to what's happening in our going back to the agenda.
209>> And I do think you know we do have to be careful of how much we're dipping into the operations of the schools because you know if we really look into it we have one employee and that is our superintendent. Right. And so I think that the operations of the schools happens amongst as we listen tonight the leadership team and all of them talked about you know belonging and culture and um performance like we're hearing all of that through our administrators. So I think I just think we need to careful about like we may want to talk about it but it might not be our role to actually talk about it every meeting. And I have noted the select board has um they started with having anti-semitism on every single agenda and that's now moved
210off of the agenda. So, you know, I just think we have to be careful and and I think it's for the chairs to decide how often um and and what we're looking to hear because it isn't our role as school committee to listen to what's going on in our campuses, but we don't have a role in what to do about what's happening in our campuses as a committee. I think this is a nuance problem which is about the semi-p permeable membrane between the campuses and the community which is where we sit like we are in this unique third space as a committee and as elected officials and for sure we have to enable and empower the administration to kick butt and I think we have a fiduciary responsibility to the community as well um to
211really create the most vibrant atmosphere for the students and it it's a trick tricky one. It's really tricky. I don't know the answers, but I do know a performative refunctery thing is not it. I concur. And putting it all on Lor's shoulders. Well, you have strong shoulders, Lori, is also not fully it. I think there's something we need to absorb uh responsibility for ourselves. And I I don't know what that is, but it would be I think it would be a worthwhile discussion uh among this group to figure out what that could be. and and and perhaps the answer is we don't know or not now but I I I I would I would welcome that discussion together. I think it would be fruitful. >> Okay, I want to table it here. I want to
212give this some thought. I do like chatting with Sandep as the chair and um >> yeah, let me just think about >> by all means it's not going to happen in the next meeting. That's for sure. um mostly not. >> Um let's move on though to technology use in schools. >> Yeah, I just wanted to give you some updates on the work I've been doing and the team has been doing and it's in its infancy, but the plan is evolving. Um so there's I think two big buckets that we're growing here much because we had already started the path and partly because we hear the community interest. So, Shelley's going to run a district technology committee next year, which is the staff side of the house, just like she's doing math or any review work
213that she needs to do. Um, that'll that'll answer the questions that you've been hearing. We'll do the data work. I don't, you know, I'm not promising exactly what I can have for you in the fall. We might need teachers here to really do it. So, we're going to do what we can over the summer. Um, the second bucket is to meet the need to I guess sort of what you just described like bridge the community and the schools. And I think for me, one of the things I've been craving over the last couple of months is this topic has come up is just making sure that we're talking from the facts. Um, so, you know, we're going to create a a technology committee that is just like the sustainability committee or the anti-semitism coalition. Those
214have been very effective forums for us with a mixed representation, not a huge group, mixed representation of parents, teachers, students, administrators, at least a a school committee rep usually. Um, where we really just have these in-depth discussions about what we're all what we're doing and what we're all envisioning and that becomes the feedback loop as we all build those visions. um and it's been very effective in a number of situations. So, I've committed to that um a few times next year. I was able to meet with um the leads of the intentional technology coalition. Still getting their name down. Um Monday with Shelly and Angel and Matt came over and we agree on a lot of things. I think just really important to keep saying that um we have the same goals, the same um
215hopes and desire for balance and um we want to partner. So we I think the third leg of that is just continuing that leadership conversation across platforms with them and um it was a great start the other day. So we're going to get this all packaged into a master plan. um it will be some of the things that have been said in public and the concerns and questions the community has. But I mean and for us the AI is still the driving force. Um we because we put a little bit in the handbook doesn't mean we have feel like we have this figured out at all. And I don't know if there is a place to get figured out but we're not really comfortable with where we are. The teachers aren't comfortable. The kids are
216looking for direction. Um so we want to really hone in on that. Um, so that's just a first place. You'll hear a lot more as the summer and the fall comes with where that's all going to go. It'll certainly be in my goals. Um, and I think trying to evolve all of that into a package is is the goal. >> And were they receptive to the group, the intentional technology group, receptive to meeting a few times a year? >> Oh, very great. Very great. Okay. >> Yeah. >> Could I add something more on your plate? So, so the the the technology and the AI policies around it, I I think those need to be revisited a lot more rapid rate. Sure. >> Yeah. Totally agree. >> Yeah. So, we'll put that on the list of
217the package. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Yep. I almost feel like they have to write written in a Google doc you can change all the time because it's moving so fast. Yes. >> Yeah. >> Anyway, so that's the brief update. A lot more to come. >> Thank you. Did anyone have any follow- on questions on that? >> Good. >> Too many to fit in the timeline. >> I'll take that as a no. Uh non-union uh increases. >> Yeah. So, you want to >> we just need to we just need to vote this. >> You just need to vote the 3% for all non-union raises that you've discussed. >> Executive. >> So, I'm just going to formally make a motion if that's is that okay with with you. if I just make the motion and then we've
218discussed we discuss it. >> So I move that um >> we approve 3% cola for all non-UN personnel and market adjustments as discussed. >> I'll second. All right. Discussion. >> No, it's one number, but you guys put a lot of work into getting that. So thank you. >> Yeah, that's a very way good way to say it. And truth. >> All right. >> And this is for both districts. Oh, so we have to do a vote for both. >> For both. >> Yeah. Okay. Um, all in favor? >> I always >> It sounds really awkward, but >> it's better when it's a roll call, though. So, um, I think that was >> You can decide to do a roll call. >> Not for this. Not at 859. Um, if you watch the May Carlile School
219Committee, you'll see when I did do a roll call in person. Um, you don't take that lightly. Um, >> amenities building. >> I'm gonna throw this to Bob. He just wants to give you a status update on where the project is. Uh, we're working with Gail Associates, the design engineering firm, to go out to bid. It's been posted in the required state website. Um, and so bids will be due July 17th. Um, there's part of that is because there's filed sub bids because some of the work of subcontractors will be more than 25,000. So you you're required to have filed sub bids and you have to wait for the contractors to to see that information incorporated into their bids. Um so July 17th would be the date. At the same time, I'm also um conducting
220a it's called an RFS. It's specifically for OPM's request for services. Our retired facilities director had been serving in this role. uh Russ former former facilities director Russ Hughes. Um he kind of gracefully stayed on for a year after he retired, but it's it's gone on now and he's he's ready to disconnect from the district. So it was kind of doing a favor to extend it, but the multiple the long timeline it took to get it approved. Um you know, he needs to stop now. We're going out to do this RFS to select a OPM firm that'll just help with the last phase of the project. Russ helped with the design portion of the project and so they'll help with the construction portion. That's um required um for projects over a million and a half
221dollars. So um you know it's more cost effective to do it with a district employee, but at this point in time we feel like um at this point in the project be a little bit less costy since the last phase and we'll we'll get some good companies to apply. Um so that's it. I think we're um we're in decent shape. I mean, um, it'll be starting the work in the summer and we expect it to be, uh, to go through the winter and hopefully be, um, and then we expect to be done in the spring. >> So, is there anything you're going to need from the school committee over the summer as you're getting the the bids in or >> um, we typically ask the school committee to approve the bid award? Um, I can
222check to see through our policies if it's allowed for you to designate that to us. usually also just call a quick meeting. >> I think I'd rather do that just so have a chance to ask any questions. >> And I will need you to approve the OPM. Unfortunately, that timing is not going to be great. >> It'll probably be a virtual meeting and >> Okay. >> Can we do both at the same time, do you think? >> No. Okay. Right. >> And you won't have that before our June 16th meeting. >> Actually, I need to think about whether I could do it at the same time because the OPM probably could wait for us to award the construction. I I can think about that. Um I'm not sure. I need to think I need to
223figure out whether that's allowed. >> Okay. >> We'll try to do it if it's possible. >> I mean, if it's calling a fiveminute meeting in July, like I will I will do it based on the three years leading up to this. So >> cameras off. >> Yeah. >> But we also have the thorough nature space. Well, that's concrete uh public schools. So um there are some projects that we typically would bring to you if they're formal bids to approve. >> Okay. Concrete nature space is another one that's not on the agenda. >> Just >> Yeah, we're just gonna have to let you know when we need to bring you in. >> Zoom makes it doable. >> Exactly. Any amenities, building questions, >> right? >> Thank you. Exciting. >> Yes. Good to have all those votes
224passed and uh can move on to the next piece. >> Oh yeah, it did pass in Carile. asked and I will say it passed unanimously cuz it was at that point in town meeting where I voice nobody said >> I bet if it was clickers it would have been different but we were just like >> 10 o'clock we got to wrap this up >> um the cell phone vote come the same way >> one vote >> I know it's my fault >> all right um can I have a motion to move into executive session >> Oh shoot >> um >> yep >> okay I move Oh, go ahead. You have it. I can't read it. Go ahead. >> That the conquered school committee and the conquered car regional school committee enter into executive sess session
225under purpose three of open meeting law to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining with the K through2 administrative assistance K through2 maintenance and the CTA ESPs. One second. >> Wonderful. Um any discussion otherwise this is a roll call vote. Uh her check I >> Kellaher I >> Morana I >> Wat I Right. Thank you everyone.