001[Music] Wow. [Music] Okay. [Music] Okay. Heat [Applause] up [Music] here. I'm [Music] dead. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Grand [Music] Heat. [Music] Hey, Heat. [Music] me. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] be stop. [Music] Five. I got you. Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] Hey, be [Music] Hey, [Music] Peace. Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Good evening and welcome to the Everett School Committee regular meeting for Monday, October 6th, 2025. The time is 6:36 p.m. Clerk, could you call the role to determine a quorum? >> Student Representative Emma Perry, >> present. >> Mr. Almea Barrows, >> present. >> Miss Babcock, >> present. >> Miss Barrows, >> here. Miss Cornelio >> present. >> Miss Cristiano >> here. >> Mayor Di Maria. Mr.
002Denafhrio >> present. >> Miss Garren >> present. >> Mr. Le Monica. Madame Chair >> present. >> Eight members present. We do have a quorum. If everyone could join me in saluting the flag. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you everyone. Superintendent, the next order of business, >> Roman numeral number three, reading of the records for Monday, September the 15th, 2025. Make a motion to wave the readings and place on file. Second. >> Motion made by Miss Barrow, seconded by Miss Babcock to wave the reading from Monday, September 15, 2025, and place on file. All those in favor? I. All those opposed. The eyes have it. Motion passed. >>
003Madam Chairman, I'd like to make a motion to suspend our rules and uh take from uh Roman numeral six, item eight, and take it out of order. >> Second. Motion has been made by Miss Cristiano and seconded by Miss Babcock to suspend our rules and take Roman numeral six item number eight out of order. Request approval for Everett High School Music Department to travel to three out ofstate competitions in 2026. >> Favor action. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> All those opposed? >> The eyes have it. >> Favorable action. Madam Chairman, >> second the motion. >> Motion has been made and seconded for favorable action. Um, superintendent, do you want to speak on this? >> Yes. Um, as you all know that when our um, anybody travels out of state uh, from our
004schools, uh, we have to receive your approval to do so. We have three um, events planned for the Ever High School Music Department to participate in. One is the Winter Guard International Regional um, program on March the 7th and 8th, which is in New Jersey. The second is the Winter Guard International World Champions. As you remember, we did receive that distinction in this previous year from April 14th to the 18th in Dayton, Ohio. And the third is the National Memorial Day parade and concert from May the 24th through May the 27th in Washington DC. This is by invitation only and I've received a video invitation uh from the organizers of the parade and I'm um requesting favorable action. Um we do have funds to support these trips. They're budgeted as you know. We try to
005put everything we anticipate in the budget when we go through our process and we also receive um separately an earmark to support our music program the amount of $50,000. So um with your permission I would ask for favorable action. >> Motion made for uh favorable. >> You've already had >> these three trips. >> Yep. >> Roll call. >> Yes. Motion made and seconded to um approve the Everett High School Music Department, the Winter Guard, and the um marching band to travel out of state to New Jersey, Dayton, Ohio, and Washington DC. Roll call. >> Mr. Elmeros, >> yes. >> Miss Babcock, >> yes. >> Miss Barrows, >> yes. >> Miss Cornelio, >> yes. >> Miss Cristiano, >> yes. >> Mayor Di Maria, >> yes. >> Mr. Denafhario, >> yes. Miss Garren, >> yes. >> Madame
006Chair, >> yes. >> So move 90. Motion passed. Superintendent, the next order of business. >> Returning to the regular order of business on Roman numeral 4, public comment. >> Make a motion to open public comment. >> Second. >> Motion made by Miss Barrow, seconded by Miss Babcock to um open public comment. All those in favor? >> I. >> All those opposed? The eyes have it. Public comment is now open at 6:40 p.m. Uh, seeing no speakers on the signup sheet, is there anyone that would like to speak at public comment? >> Oh, yes. Go right ahead. You can begin by um stating your name. >> Right. >> Yes. Okay. Uh, good evening, Mr. Mayor Diaria. Good evening, Superintendent Hart. uh school committee members and every citizens here present. My name is Nikita Taramo. I live
007on Cross Street Men. However, I'm a us uh I'm usually a behind the scene person. I've been involved indirectly in Everest since my cousin's children were students were attended the schools between 1996 and 2000. So, it's been a long time since I've been involved indirectly uh with uh with with the city. However, directly I helped a a person start a ministry at Immaculate Conception when I was a theology student at the Western School, Western Jesuit School of Theology. Now, that school had merged uh with Boston College. So I can say since I helped that person I brought my classmate priests uh to that uh to m to Everett. So I brought my classmates priest clergy to the immaculate conception. So I can say since 2003 so I've been uh involved uh in the city even
008though I don't go to church every Sunday but somehow I take the bulletin so I'm aware of what is happening. So a a flyer that the mayor had in the in the library. So that brought me into that brought me to speak. Uh so I would like to say within the contest context of uh family engagement I would like to propose uh leadership training to the faith leaders to the stakeholders to those who are uh what the the parents ears. So I would like to propose a training uh curriculum training so the the leaders will know what the schools expect from the families and they can uh translate or they can transfer uh that uh knowledge of curriculum that knowledge of school expectations uh to the parents and families and I I want to say
009everybody's doing a extra extra extraordinary job work in uh hiring parent family leaison s which many communities in the regions don't have. Some may have one or two but u many communities don't have what you have here but we can bring it further we can uh amplify that by uh engaging uh the stakeholders uh of of the community. Uh I think by doing that so we will create more of a meaningful connections between uh families the stakeholders and and the children also. I mean I know it's not a school committee meeting. I mean it's a school committee meeting. You start a city council. So I want to say within that training uh we need to bring an understanding of the western culture of people's civic responsibilities. As a fact I was reading that the test
010scores in civics are not that great in the states. So we can bring that training on civic responsibilities. Just basic things like taking care of one's neighborhoods take out the trash. uh when I work as I work as a police I will tell the you know I will see houses where people will take the trash out so I don't know this is a city this is a school committee but some of those uh things can go in training the stakeholders to convey to their uh families to the people that they serve like take out trash rake the leaves now uh shovel the snow so just basic things that people need to know so in addition to the curriculum and the expectations uh that we have formed them as a school community. So I think my
011two minutes are over. I can go on but so thank you for listening. So I just like my chat and thank you for calling Mr. Mayor for calling the the faith leaders and I signed up for that uh uh workshop because you know that's I'm supposed to be a theologian but I don't do anything in church. I I just take notes. Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you for your time. Are there is there anyone here in attendance interested in speaking at public comment? Seeing none, >> make a motion to close public comment. >> Second. >> Motion has been made by Miss Babcock, seconded by Miss Barrows to close public comment. All those in favor? >> I. >> All those opposed? The eyes have it. Public comment is now closed. >> Superintendent, the next order of
012business. >> Roman numeral 5, reporter of the student representative, Miss Perry. >> Good evening, everybody. Some important dates for EHS are coming up as the fall sports season comes to an end. The golf team senior day is tomorrow. The boys soccer night is on the 14th followed by cross country senior day the next day. The football team and cheerleaders sported pink and taunt on Friday accompanied by the band for the start of breast cancer awareness month. The theater company has picked their cast for their fall play. The late bus will run November 20th and November 21st in the auditorium of Ever High School. The EHS student ambassadors are also excited for the upcoming events at the K to8 schools this fall, including fall festivals and parent teacher conferences. The first set of parent teacher conferences
013at EHS will be held this Thursday from 4 to 6. The senior class also wants to thank the staff and students of Ever High for their support of the rock paper scissor fundraiser two Fridays ago. It was great to see tons of participation from everyone. With that, the 11th, 10th, and 9th grade class elections took place today during advisory. Great work from all the candidates, film studio, journalism class, and Miss McWilliam as the adviser. The collaborative work from each of them is what makes it all possible. I just wanted to add that I'm very proud of each student for wanting to make a difference in the school and community. It is a rewarding experience and great opportunity. I eagerly anticipate sharing the results with you all once they're announced. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss
014Perry. Make a motion to accept the report of the student representative and place it on file. >> Second. >> Motion made by Miss Babcock, seconded by Miss Barrows to accept the report of the student representative and place on file. All those in favor? >> All those opposed? The eyes have it. Motion passed. Super. >> Madam Chairman, I'd like to uh make a motion to suspend our rules and take from Roman numeral 7 item number one out of order. >> Second motion. Motion has been made by Miss Cristiano, seconded by uh Mr. Mayor to suspend our rules and take Roman numeral number seven, item number one, out of order. All those in favor. >> All those opposed? The eyes have it. Uh Mr. Superintendent, could you read that item? >> Certainly. Under Roman rule 7, these
015are items submitted by school committee members. Item one is for the school committee to continue to support the pride flag raising on June the 1st, 2026 and to thank Everford High School's gay straight alliance educators for organizing the event and this has been offered by Mr. Almeida Barrows. >> Mr. Barrows. >> Thank you, Madame Chair. Uh just before uh we talk about these invite Mr. Salazar um to come to talk to us. Just want to make a correction to the agenda is the Everett High uh gender and sexuality alliance um instead of gay straight alliance. But we uh the GSA has been organizing this event. I believe next year will be the fifth year. Uh so for the past five years the uh superintendent's office and and the school committee uh have been supporting this
016event and they are getting ready for next year. And of course uh we always bring before the school committee uh to show our support. Um but they not only organize this event every year, they do a lot of work day in and day out with our students uh here at Ever High. So I'd like to make a motion to bring Mr. Salazar who uh leads this effort uh to talk to us a little bit about the GSA uh and of course the flaggraing that they organize uh which next year will be the fifth year. So if we entertain a motion to invite Mr. Salazar uh to come forward. >> Motion has been made by Mr. Barrow, seconded by Miss Babcock to invite Mr. Salazar before us. Uh all those in favor. >> All those opposed?
017The eyes have it. Welcome Mr. Salazar. >> Thank you very much. Uh, good evening, Chairperson Hurley, Superintendent Hart, and members of the Ever School Committee. The support of the school committee last year and the committees in previous years has been instrumental in building a program that celebrates a significant part of our community. When I first arrived at Everett High School uh seven years ago now, I was struck by the number of students who expressed their gender in many different ways, oftentimes outside heteronormative appearances, and how most of their fellow students work through ways of relating, accepting, and bringing together all of these students of other cultural and economically diverse backgrounds. Through our celebration each year, we have reached more students, more staff, and more of the community to draw attention to a segment of our
018population that has been generally marginalized, but also now thriving at Everett High School, the Ever Public Schools, and the greater Ever community. The importance of this event and the recognition of the need for these types of events cannot be understated. During last year's Pride flag raising, we received the largest to date number of staff who volunteered to pass out swag bags, food tickets, books, help with arts and crafts, and also just to be present. One staff member came up to thank me for organizing this event and including them in being able to take part. I took this comment in stride since I honestly felt that this person's help working the event was much more important than my role in organizing it, and I expressed that to them. The staff member turned to me and told
019me how important holding an LGBTQIA+ pride flag raising ceremony meant to them since their previous school district never made them feel welcome or even seen since they didn't hold events such as this, let alone celebrate it so publicly. Imagine the impact that we have had made on more staff, students, and community members, and how amazing a recruiting tool that just being able to bring your whole self to work or school is for this vibrant community. I want to thank you all for your continued support, especially during these dark and scary times where diversity, equity, and inclusion have become the latest boogie person and where we as the LGBTQIA plus community are being forced to hide who we are by our government, the Department of Education, and other elements geared towards fear and intimidation. for the
020city of Everett and the Everett public schools to proudly express their support for this event and welcomes us on a daily basis simply through recognizing the humanity of students and staff is a badge of honor and it makes me immensely proud to be a part of this ever family. Thank you. >> Thank you Mr. Salazar. Uh this event as Mr. Salazar mentioned uh and first of all thank you for the work that you do not only through this event but with our students day in day out. I do remember last year with after the event uh one of our students came uh forward and mentioned how that event was important for her because she was uh sleeping in one of her friends uh house because her parents had threw her out of her house after
021they found out she uh considers herself lesbian. And that's that was one of our students and she was very uh empowered by that event. uh and how she could express herself and having the support of GSA and and many of her classmates and friends and seeing that she was not alone. So uh thank you again and I'm not sure if my colleagues have any questions. If not, I'll put that in for formal motion for the school committee to continue to provide support for this for this event. >> Make a motion for the school committee to support these type of events in the future and forever. >> Motion has been made and seconded made by Mr. Mr. Barrow, seconded by Miss Cornelio, Miss Babcock on the motion. >> Um, I personally would like to add my
022my personal name to supporting this as well and maybe if we all feel that way, we can all say that we as the whole body support this um as well. I know that um this isn't about uh tolerance, it's about acceptance and and and this is a great place for that. So, I think this is probably one of the most important uh events that we have to foster um acceptance. >> Thank you, Miss Babcock. I think I can speak on behalf of the membership and say that we would love to sponsor co-sponsor this with you, Mr. Barrows. Thank you for bringing it up. >> Thank you. >> Um motion has been made and seconded. All those in favor? >> I. >> All those opposed, the eyes have it. And also is there a motion to
023excuse our guest? >> Make a motion to >> motion to excuse the guest. Good question mark. Thank you so much. >> Motion has been made and seconded to excuse Mr. Salazar. All those in favor? >> All those opposed? The eyes have it. Thank you, Mr. Salazar. Superintendent returning to the regular order of business. >> Regular order of business is Roman numeral 6, report of the superintendent. Item one, superintendent's update. I will be relatively brief as we have many items uh coming before us this evening for discussion. Um, first let me just remind uh folks at home that there will be no school a week from today on Monday, October the 13th. We are closed in observance of the holiday. Our next regular meeting of the ever school committee will be held on Monday, October the
02420th, same time at 6:30. Um, we have been very busy uh planning to execute a homecoming event which will occur on as you've heard before October the 24th and the 25th. So, Friday, October 24th and Saturday, October 25th. Um, we have been working closely with the city and I want to thank the mayor for um assigning staff to work with us and planning and executing what we hope to be is a return of the excitement of um of homecoming weekend. Um, and we have a kind of a kickoff for families um on the 24th from 5:00 to 7:30 uh right outside of this building in Glendale Park. will have um some entertainment um face painting, popcorn, fried dough, hot chocolate, and lots of other things um to support the excitement uh for families. I know
025there's a few other things in the planning stage and that'll be finalized and put on our website. All this, by the way, will be found on the Ever Public Schools website. On Saturday, we're going to kick off the day with a pancake breakfast right here in the high school cafeteria um with suggested donations. And this is going to benefit our Crimson Tide athletic program. We'll have the homecoming hustle. We had those this event years ago. This raised money for breast cancer. Um and once again, we will dedicated to a former teacher, but we've lost so many teachers to breast cancer. It was originally kicked off for Janet Connley O'Neal. We are going to um engage her family and other family members of those victims of um breast cancer to join us in kicking off uh
026that hustle. There is a home a specific homecoming page dedicated to register for um for this particular part of the day for runners and walkers alike. We will have a celebration out in front of um the Connley Center on Chelsea Street starting at 11:00 on that Saturday. There'll be some entertainment and it really will be in in all respects kind of a energizing um I'll call it a tailgate party for lack of a better reference, but I think that that's what it will be and it will um include all kinds of things for all t all family members to enjoy even if they choose not to attend the game which is at uh 1:30 that day. But uh we will have a walk of champions. We have uh reached out to um some former stars
027of Everett High School and now have made names for themselves across both the national uh playing fields and of course in their respective fields um in wherever their life had taken them beyond every high school. We'll have a field dedication at 1:00 um that afternoon of course at the stadium and that will be dedicated to John Debaso Jr. who served um Everett High School and the Ever Public School System for many many years as really a um a winning coach um a great friend and mentor to many of our students and athletes alike and we continue to respect his contributions through this dedication and of course the game itself against Lynn English at 1:30 which will be the kind of the final uh crowning moment of the day. I do want to um say that
028many of these events, in fact, most of these events are being supported by private donations that again, Mayor Di Maria, thank you. Um without the support of our business community and friends of Everett, um some of these things would just be out of our reach. So, I want to publicly acknowledge and thank the mayor and his team for supporting us and getting these pieces uh together. And as we get additional donations, we can add some more of our planning um suggestions and make them come to pass. So, please join us. Uh, again, follow our web page for information about additions to that kind of brief schedule that I just gave you. And, um, Madame Chair, that um, concludes my brief remarks for this evening so that we can get on to other items of business
029on the agenda. >> Thank you, Superintendent. Is there a motion to >> report? Motion has been made by Mayor D. Maria, seconded by Miss Barrows to accept the superintendent's report and place on file. All those in favor? All those opposed? The eyes have it. Motion passed. Superintendent, the next order of business. >> Roman numeral, excuse me, on the Roman numeral 6, item two is an MCCAST update. Um, and let me just uh before I ask you to invite Dr. Adams before you, let me just make some uh brief remarks. Um, you know, there's a lot of things that happen in the school district. There's a lot of programs and planning that go into um trying to produ produce results. Um these results of course um can vary depending on the level of engagement by our
030staff and our faculty um and the student. So the MCCAST u test is one of those measures in which um the state has decided that this is a way to kind of benchmark the strength of your your planning your execution of uh academic programs and supports. And so, um, I I first need to thank the teachers because without their dedication to this effort, to this specific work that we've asked them to engage in, and in particular this year, we would not be able to report results that we are going to begin to talk about this evening. And, you know, I I just I have to say this. You know, the teachers and the students are doing the work. They're putting the time in. I have been in classrooms throughout this district ac uh all over
031the last year, starting again this year, looking at the way in which we we drive the work that we drive our students and how we assess our own staff to be sure that they're imparting the kinds of things that we want them to teach and the way in which we want them to teach it. So they do the work, not reporters, not commentators, not people who post misleading and negative comments on social media. Of course, some of that is just AI generated um comparisons that are not real. They are just made up based on a search through an AI um format. And they're not people who necessarily believe in MCCAST. We know that this is just one measure of our students and their success or their progress or maybe even lack of progress. I say
032all of this as a reminder that any increase on any portion of an MCCAST assessment does not begin to characterize the collective effort that it takes to drive that momentum. And make no mistake, our teachers challenge, encourage, and support our students each and every day. We are seeing progress. If you emphasize the right things, from promoting literacy and learning at home through our title one department to providing social and emotional supports our students need to achieve success in the classroom, outcomes will improve. Sound educational planning precedes a rise in test scores. That is a positive transition we are making here as a district of more than 7,300 students and over,300 employees. This is evidenced by, just to name a few, our gains in ELA achievement at the middle school level, our improvement in grades five
033and 8 science scores, and the impressive growth percentiles in math here at Ever High School. We also continue to improve attendance. Our daily attendance is up and our crap our chronic absenteeism is down. And you know, I've reported on this before and you know that this was one of my kind of first initiatives. We have to have the kids here in our buildings to be able to do and move the needle that we've just going to begin to talk a little bit more about. Our students arrive each and every day ready and eager to learn. And for those that need encouragement and support, we have that for them. But being pleased about some of these results doesn't mean I'm satisfied. The climb back to prepandemic levels continued to be a very long one. But I
034am not shrinking from that challenge. Nor is Dr. Adams and the hundreds of teachers, paraprofessionals and specialists who are with our students each and every day. That is why we have prepared this detailed update for all of you this evening and those at home that are following us. We have highlights to share and opportunities for further further growth and to grow our students academically. As super as superintendent, you have my pledge to I will leverage every resource made available, maximize every strategy to benefit our students. And with that, I would ask for you to invite Dr. Adams before you so that she can go through a more detailed approach to the MCCAST results by grade and subject. Make a motion to invite Dr. Adams. >> Second. >> Motion has been made by Mr. Barrow, seconded
035by Miss Cornelio to invite um Dr. Adams before us. All those in favor? I >> All those opposed? The eyes have it. Welcome, Dr. Adams. Oops, sorry. Good evening everybody. Um, like the superintendent um expressed, I also wish to express my deepest gratitude to the educators and all of our staff who work every day. Um, all of this work is representative of their work every day as well as their hopes and dreams for our students as well. Um, in addition, I want to express a heartfelt thanks to our school and district leaders who as the minute this data came out um early um summer were was working to analyze it, think deeply about how to apply that information and reflect um and make plans for this coming school year. So, a lot of this work
036um that we'll share tonight of what's coming represents a collective effort of our school and district leaders and behind them as well all of our educators. So, I also just wanted to express that gratitude. So, as an overview of what we're going to cover, um the accountability data, there's a lot of information that was shared um and uh last week by the state and we're going to highlight three pieces of it. um instead of trying to cover all of it, try to go a little deep into three portions of it that really represent um areas of continued growth um as well as um things we would like to celebrate. We're going to focus on MCCAST achievement, student growth, and attendance. Um we'll also provide a brief overview of some plans, some overall strengths we saw,
037and some opportunities for growth that we as a collective will continue to work on. Um this is also a preview as um at the next school committee meeting we'll pre presenting school improvement plans from each of the schools. So tonight we'll provide sort of a general big overview um and then at the next school committee meeting you'll be able to see individually what each school and the efforts that each school is making um towards improvement both in ELA um and in math and as well as social emotional learning. So when you look at the accountability system um the state is using these six measures to come up with ratings um and I call these um buckets or indicators. Um first achievement which is based on our MCCAST scores in English language arts, math and science.
038Student growth which is based on um a student growth percentile where students are compared to like peers to see how they progressed from year to year. One that's very specific to the high school is high school completion rates, dropout rate, graduation rates, um fouryear, fiveyear graduation rates, progress towards English proficiency that is measured as um by the access and it's looking at students making progress so that by the by their sixth year um they are categorized as proficient. Our chronic absenteeism rate and bringing that down. That's where a negative number is good. um and advanced coursework. Again, that's specific to the high school, which is the percentage of our 11th and 12th graders that are taking advanced courses. So, then it gets more complicated um that there's non- high school and high school waitings. For
039non- high schools, there's four indicators or four buckets that we get weight um um ratings on. Achievement, student growth, English language proficiency, and additional indicators. Those are weighted. So it's a weighted average. So our achievement is weighted more. It's weighted at 60%, student growth at 20, English language proficiency at 10, and some chronic absenteeism at 10. So it's a weighted average. For the high school, um you have those additional indicators. So you have high school completion and um as well as advanced coursework. They are also weighted. So that achievement is weighted more at 40%, student growth at 20, high school completion at 20 and so on. So those are our the how the indicators are used and weighted. It's a weighted average. So if you look at our um accountability indicating weightings from 2024, you'll
040see that we were rated as making moderate progress. We had a 42% and it takes the 2023 and the 2024 and it's weighted. 23 is weighted at 40% and that year the 24 was weighted at 60, we came up with an average of 42%. And then for 2025, you'll see that our weight rating was the using the 24 at 45% and then the 25 at 61%. So we were able to gather gain more weight points which I'll show you in a minute. Um and our rate our average annual rating went up to 61%. Those two get averaged weighted a weighted average and we had that 55% which shows that we were making substantial progress towards our annual targets. So, this is a long complicated report and I'll break it down um further in a minute,
041but you'll see along the left side those buckets, achievement, growth, high school completion, progress towards English language proficiency, and those additional indicators. If you go across the top in the dark blue, you'll see that it's organized by non- high schools, which would be our K to8s, and then our high school. And we get rated for all students as well as our lowest performing students. And the lowest performing students is a rating a group created by the state which is the lowest 25% of students. Particularly the state is looking at how are we impacting those students and lifting the floor for those students so that they're getting closer to proficiency. You'll see in each of those areas points that we were able to get awarded and the possible points as well as the percentage weighted of
042that those particular points. And along the bottom you'll see that 61% again indicating that as a district um we made substantial progress um towards our annual um goals. So this just highlights out for you the non- high school again this is our K to8 you'll see the four buckets achievement growth English language proficiency and additional factors you'll see then in EA achievement we were able to get um two out of four math one out of four and science four out of four four out of the four possible points as the superintendent indicated you'll see that we have in fifth and eighth grade there were some substantial gains that were made in that particular area. You'll see also lowest performing. We were able to gain quite a bit of points there as well, gaining in ELA
043four out of four and in math three out of four. You'll also see our growth, our student growth percentile in ELA and math, able to gather some points there. Our English language proficiency, three out of four. And chronic absenteeism, we were able to get four out of the four points. Again, all those were weighted to get us a weighted average. for our high school. Just highlighting out um for ELA um we were able we were only we did not get any points there but did for our lowest performing students two out of four for math two out of four um and in science zero out of four. There was more growth at the high school around student growth. You'll see we were able to get three out of four points in ELA and math three
044out of four points in addition to our lowest performing at some additional points there. The high school also made progress toward English language proficiency to targets three out of four and chronic absenteeism three out of four. So just I remember I'm going to highlight three particular areas of the indicators. First for achievement which is our MCCAST scores in English language arts, math and science. So for an ELA you'll see that we made um modest progress in some areas. Our highest group to make um progress was our lowest performing. Um these are average composite scaled scores. Um and you'll see across the way the 2004 achievement compared to 2005 the difference as well as the total number in that particular group the the group as a whole. For our high school um we basically stayed the
045same. There was a little progress in our lowest performing as well as our low income. Um a little bit of growth also in our students with disabilities. Math um you'll see there is very little growth. um but stayed pretty much the same. Um some decreases, slight decreases. Um a little bit of growth again with our lowest performing indicating some of our efforts around moving and supporting our lowest students that I'll talk about in a minute. Um were gaining some efforts in results in um the MCCAST achievement in math at our high school. Um the high school had adopted um it was in the second year of uh high quality instructional material m new text. Um you can see that we were able to make some modest progress. You'll see more progress in the student growth
046um in a minute at the high school. Um those results didn't necessarily translate to increased achievement in the math MCCAST, but do show growth in the student growth percentile. You'll see that in a minute. um science as the superintendent indicated um at our K to8s we were able to see um some growth there um in the in the difference between the composite scaled score and you'll also um see that in some other places as well. The high school had some decreases. Um they um also were in the process of implementing a new text. Um sometimes when you do implement some new text you do have decreases. Um this is an important area at the high school that we're going to deeply focus in on this year. Um to think deeper about how we make sure
047that students um are getting that um content. And remember this is a grade nine test um and it measures bi students take it in biology. Um and so this is an important um measure that we want to continue to focus on this coming year. This is um a number just to throw in with this achievement piece. This indicates um for all of our students um on the DOE website, you can dig in deeper by subgroups um indicating over time how our students were performing from 2022 to 2025. Um you'll see in some places there are some great increases. We really want to celebrate. There are some places we pretty much stay the same and there's some slight decreases in some others. Um this is the kind of work that school and district leaders and and
048as when we came back in the fall that that school and district leaders are doing with teachers to deeply look at this um data and make some thoughtful and reflective um um analysis of it and as well as identifying next steps. How do we learn from this data? It's one measure, one indicator in time. Um, but we also want to take it very seriously because it does give us information about our curriculum, our instruction, and how we can continue to support our students. So, you in ELA overall, you'll see um great increases um for the most part, especially in grade 8, you'll see that increase of 10 um percentage point. Um in the middle school in ELA, um they're in their third year of implementing a new program. Um we really do feel that that
049in that third year you're starting to see those results and believe that that eighth grade um that the new ELA program is a big indicator of that. For math you'll see also for all students there was a slight there was a decrease in grade four. Um there was an increase at the um 8th grade as well as a little bit at the high school. Um this is an area um just this morning we were talking with school and district leaders about how do we support um our math instruction to make sure that we're seeing progress in our math MCAS as well. And in science you'll see that increase in fifth and eighth grade um and then a decrease in that grade 10 um nine nth grade biology science at the high school. an area where
050we're going to deeply look at um and try to support this year. So looking at student growth, remember that student growth is your com the student is compared to like peers who scored the same as they do. And so how much did that student grow? So they're looking at their score that year and compare it to their score from the previous year to see how much they grew. 50% is the average. So above 50 is good uh is considered higher growth and below 50 is considered lower growth. So you'll see our mean SGP um student growth percentile in ELA for the non- high school. You'll see some good increases there um um in in you know three um for all students high needs three as well as the lowest performing again 5.1 again also for
051um the high school you'll see increases including the lowest performing and our students with disabilities. So you remember for um in the MCCAST achievement it doesn't quite result in a higher target but those students are growing at a higher rate and it shows here showing that our efforts are working to lift students up closer to proficiency but we're just not quite yet there where it's resulting in increases in sort of performance and levels. They're not quite moving levels yet. And that's some of the work. Just this morning, we were talking about how do we take students that are really close that just missed it by a few points and making sure that we're also targeting them as as well as we're targeting the lowest of performing students. Um our non- high school um math again
052um some slight increases um pretty much stayed the same uh student growth percentile. Again, this is an area we're going to continue to talk about. A slight decrease for our students with disabilities. And at the high school you'll see the impact of the highquality instructional materials. You see some great GR gains in that SGP. So we want to build upon that success. Also thinking about how do we build upon the success of the math department and help translate that to other departments. What happened in math with that highquality instruction materials that we want to translate and use in other departments as well. So chronic absenteeism was the other um indicator we want to sort of highlight and you'll see here a negative is a good thing. Um so that you'll see that chronic absenteeism has
053decreased across several subgroups. Um students with disabilities went up a little bit. Um, in our conversations with principles um around their school improvement plans, we've talked specifically about how do we make sure to target our students with disabilities and a great amount of effort is being done right now in September because we know if we don't get it right in September, doing it later on and we want to set really good patterns um and habits with both our families and students right now in September. So there's a lot of effort being made to make sure that our students and families understand the importance of attending school. And at the high school, you'll also see um mostly decreases um as well as in the lowest performing um a significant decrease. These decreases aren't as the as
054as much as um the um K to8s. Um this is a very strong effort of Dr. Braga here at the high school ensuring and reminding students if you're a student here at the high school you will have heard him multiple times say over the loudspeaker and the more and announcements the importance of attending um so attending school and so he's he's doing a lot of work around engaging students to ensure that they know the importance of being here every day. So, what were some of the things that we did um last year? Um some initiatives from last year that we want to really call out um and really celebrate and build upon for um this year. Um we leverage title one funding um to provide afterchool and before school tutoring programs in the K to8s
055in ELA and math. Um we did two sessions last year um and this year we're going to go for three. we we started last week um and working to increase our attendance for those programs. As we learned last year, attendance seems to dwindle as the program keeps going. So, we want to really ensure that students and families understand and realize the importance of that additional opportunity out of school. We really focus a lot on our wind block. Um it's you what everyone needs. It's an additional block in the day that provides for direct interventions at the K to8s. Um, and we looked really carefully at what interventions we were providing and if they were not successful, we weren't seeing results, we pivoted and made changes in order to ensure that we were seeing results and
056we were looking at that data on an ongoing basis. We want to make sure that we have the best interventions, interventions that are going to accelerate student learning um in front of our students both in ELA and math. Last year was the first year of an implementation of a new K5 ELA program. Um we want to continue the support that we provided um last year for that program. It provided students more access to um grade level text including lots of science and social studies content. We leveraged last year common planning time um to support and teachers in looking at data and the implementation of instructional materials. Um you supported in through the budget process instructional coaches um that provide embedded professional development. Um, a lot of the research around working with educators is you can
057provide professional development where you're providing information and standing in front of them, but when it goes back to the classroom, you often need support. Um, and these are teacher leaders um, who are working this year very closely in a building with a principal to sort of develop that instructional vision for the school and really support everyone around um, providing for highquality instruction for all students. um as well as um not sort of reflected in the data but I think it's sort certainly devel reflected in um our chronic absenteeism lowering of that rate is increased support for social emotional supports for our students through school adjustment counselors guidance counselors in the building those all have impact on our students um as well opportunities for growth that we saw in the data is continuing to think about
058how we engage our high school students um and continue to work on um on dropout rates um building out our alternative high school and really focusing on seeing how and we can catch kids earlier before they drop out. I know this is a priority of Dr. Braa here at the high school. Um he's working hard with his attendance teams and his assistant principles to really focus in and identify students and intervene and support them earlier. This also goes with enhancing our secondary pathways for post-secary success. If we create opportunities at the high school for pathways where students are excited to come to school and see themselves, see the the future and the opportunities that are coming, we know that we can also increase their engagement. when we looked at um when school leaders and district
059leaders looked at MCCAST results, we also were able to look at the students individual long compositions and we did that as a team this summer several times. Um and we saw that our students are struggling with writing and we made specifically um an effort to outline um writing as a a priority this year. And I often say there are two things with writing. We want one to increase the quantity you it's like a muscle. you need to write a lot in order to be good at good writer. And so we want to increase the frequency that students are writing in classes. Second, we want to give them feedback so they're improving on the quality. Um and so and our teachers, one of our efforts will be um very soon is to have teachers bring student
060work to a common planning time a PLC professional learning community and look at the writing together to discuss um and and rate the pieces of writing as well as continue to think about how do they move the student to the next step. Here's where the student is. How do we what are the what are the strategies? what is the feedback that student needs in order to improve their writing. We also did some work last year at the Devons and the Webster about ensuring that our students with disabilities and this is specific for our students in the ILP as well as at the Devons had access to highquality instructional materials in ELA and math and providing support for those teachers. Um we're extending that work this year to the Lafayette um with the students with in
061intellectual impairments that they also are have access and have provided some training and are getting the teachers some materials um and as well as some coaching to ensure that those particular populations also have access to highquality instructional materials in ELA and math. So last spring um we um create did an effort with all of our school and district leaders um to develop a priority for this year. And this priority um had a lot of feedback, a lot of stakeholders. It went through a lot of revisions including some feedback from the department of elementary and secondary education. Um so we focused on um really high lever instructional strategies focused on literacy with a particular focus on increasing achievement for our students with disabilities and our multilingual learners. We want to ensure that they have access to
062rigorous instruction that is focused on getting them to grade level proficiency, raising fluency, comprehension, and um language development. Again, our purpose um was to support overall literacy for our students and improve our student outcomes. School leaders last spring shared this um instructional priorities with teachers last spring, giving them a heads up. This is where we're going for the f coming school year. We again launched the school year with school leaders um district leaders sharing that this is our priority for the coming school year. raising achievement of our students by focusing particularly on giving access to literacy to our students. How do we get there? We we are emphasizing it's through our collective effort. All of us working on a singular purpose on increasing literacy for our students. one leveraging our resources really clear clearly clearly
063communicating to our community that our focus is around implementation of the best literacy practices that there are. There's research that tells us how to increase achievement and we want to leverage those best practices. We want to leverage professional development so that we're providing PE professional development that supports that particular goal. Leveraging our highquality instructional materials, that's one piece of the equation. We have to put the right text in front of students. The other part of the equation, we have to invest in our staff and support them in using those materials to meet the needs of our students. Um, we've rebranded our common planning time and calling them professional learning communities, emphasizing we want to use that time to have teachers look at student work, analyze data, and think deeply with each other about how do
064they impact instruction in their classrooms. We believe singularly if we all are focused on that collective effort we will have success and raise um achievement for our students. These are some of those strategies we talked about. Two column notes um was one um that the high school even focused on the late entry this past um Wednesday, last week. Um that we collectively think about if students are doing this in their math class, their science class, their um history class. They're going from class to class using similar strategies. Teachers will apply it in different ways. Teachers will be creative. It will look slightly different. Um but we believe these are strategies if they're using them across disciplines that we will have um a stronger impact when we're collectively working towards some of these together. Um so
065at the high school these are being rolled out month by month slowly with the staff and trying to focus and ha help staff implement these in their classrooms and at the grade six to eight we're also focused on implementing these as well so that again kids imagine students are learning these strategies in grade six we're building upon them in grade seven we're building upon them in grade eight and we can also add to the repertoire our repertoire overall year after year as well in order to better meet students needs in the K to5. Our strategies are more focused on ELA and math and they're more focused on the implementation of the highquality instructional materials, but there are a great similarities between the grades 6 to 8. So, we're building um connection between our K to
0665 and our 6 to 12. So, thinking ahead for this year um and I highlighted I kind of gave a preview of some of these already. Um, we want to build upon the success of the before and after school title one program. Again, add an additional cycles. So, there are three cycles this year. Um, implementation, continue the implementation of our highquality instructional materials and the support teachers need in order to implement them. Increasing attendance. Um there were great efforts made um by led by um the principal um Mike Mclucas at the Whittier um and all the school and district leaders really focused on improving and getting students to school and families understanding the importance of attendance um and strategically thinking about the use of our professional learning communities. We want to support um district instructional
067priorities focused on increasing reading and especially writing in all classrooms. Um, this year we're implementing highquality instructional materials in grades 6 to 8 in science, math, and ESL. Both the science and math were outdated curriculums that didn't um necessarily align as well as they needed to to the um curriculum frameworks. So, we believe also these are good um um we'll also get some good results from these. Um we'll monitor our pacing to make sure that we're able to cover the curriculum throughout the year. Um we have these two structures um and we're trying to do more alignment of these two structures. We have a district instructional leadership team that is made up of school leaders um and district leaders. Um and they are working to help set the stage and monitor the implementation of that
068instructional priority. Each school has an instructional leadership team that's made up of teachers and the school leaders. And so we're trying to make this connection between what happens at the district level with the school. There are district leaders who are part of each of the school-based teams. Um we the district um team meets monthly and talks about what's happening in those school-based teams and how we can support not a gotcha not to say this isn't happening but thinking about how we thoughtfully support um each of the schools in helping them move the work forward at the school level. As I indicated, um you next um school committee meeting you'll have school improvement plans and we're trying to link the school improvement plans to the evaluations of our school and district leaders in order to ensure
069cohesion and consistency. We want to support our school leaders in providing effective feedback to teachers so that we're giving teachers feedback on an ongoing basis um on their work. Um, and as I highlighted, um, we want to continue that work of ensuring that our students with disabilities have access to high-quality instructional materials. It's an area of need in our data and we want to make that a a high priority. And I think I'm at the end and I'm I'm glad to take um any questions. >> And let me just add um if I could at this moment, what uh Dr. Adams has outlined for all of you this evening is, you know, kind of a big overview, but everything that's been done this past year was intentional looking at data, looking at how we could
070affect student outcomes, understanding where our deficiencies were, how do we capitalize on our own strengths, and then build upon those strategies and practices that based on research can work if they're implemented with fidelity. And then there is an intentional movement towards making sure our teachers and our administrators are following that kind of path that it's not just a conversation it's actually what we're executing and then finally at the end of a year did it work and some things work and some things don't. So we see that highquality instructional materials have an impact. some of those areas that we saw deficiencies, bless you, um that were at the high school were those of us those are our students that are COVID students, if you will. And so they're kind of inching their way up. But even
071those students will benefit by some intentional actions of knowing that I'll call you a co student. We're going to do something very specific. I've had the privilege of sitting in on a number of these um conversations, these PLC's as they're now referred to, and our teachers are really engaged in understanding why isn't, you know, little Johnny or little Mary doing what they need to do at this grade level. Why are they falling behind? Those tests, those assessments give you a snapshot so that we can intentionally put those students with interventionists and get them to a better place. It's not quick. It's not easy, but it's intentional and eventually you'll continue to see these numbers rise. And so I'm hoping that um again with all of your continued support, we will continue to work upon these
072strengths and make sure that each year that we come back in front of this board as long as you'll have me and others that we will give you those kind of results. We're inching forward. nothing happens overnight and and but we're going in the right direction and the areas that we have challenges in, we've addressed an action plan to get them to a better place. Again, it'll take at least another year to see those groups of people, but um as you heard at the very beginning of this presentation, um the kids that had the most challenges that were that needed to move the the most, if you will, up that kind of chain of proficiency did do that. So the strategies to address those kids at the lower percentile are working and we're going to
073continue to do that in the year and years ahead. So um and the instructional uh the instructional goal is is one of my goals that I'll present to you later. Everybody's got to commit to that. It's mine. It's every district leader. It's every every teacher. This has got to be our mantra and we have to live by it. And each of these steps I believe and I think Dr. Adams and and the research will tell you other that that's exactly what we're doing. So, thank you, Dr. Adams, for for that report. And obviously, we're open for questions. >> Thank you, Superintendent. Thank you, Dr. Adams. We had a few hands. Miss Cristiano, >> thank you, Madam Chairman, and thank you to Superintendent Hoden and Dr. Adams for this presentation this evening. Um, certainly sounds like
074we're on the right path. Um I'm I'm very pleased and I like the fact that while we have seen the growth um you you don't you're not just accepting it, you're saying okay I know we can do better but I did have a specific question about this school committee and I was hoping um you could provide some specific examples of things the school committee supported and approved during the budget process that may have helped helped improve student achievements. >> I thank you. I think Dr. Adams covered uh quite a few of those on the slide. Um the fact that you um approved us purchasing HQI highquality instructional materials, that's an intentional act that we knew would have an effect. That budget that was presented after input from stakeholders internally and others, we asked the school
075committee to support that kind of a purchase across across certain grades. and we're going to continue to do that because it's proving to be successful in one year. Um, other areas that you have invested in um and quite frankly the city did by um giving us some additional funds uh over a year ago is to put social workers in our schools. You've heard me talk about that before. Our social emotional welfare and learning is important to our students. We need those professionals available to our students kind of on demand. um not not sent out of the building on demand to help our kids um get to a better place. Um I know that attendance has talked about I think the fact that um you have listened to the this this reports that we have Mr.
076McLucas provide. Um while it's not necessarily a budget matter, you've endorsed that um initiative when I presented it to you. I've kept uh that group moving along with Mr. McLucas. As I said to you before, we have a lot of people involved in that internally, externally, students, staff, parents. That engages our community. We do provide um that energy in each of our school buildings with some of the um initiatives that they've undertaken to um kind of uh incentivize one another. So that wasn't necessarily a budget um initiative, but many of those on the last couple of slides was a direct result of your support of a budget that we presented before you that were to address the kinds of activities that we did and it's proving to be successful. >> Thank you. Thank you so
077much. >> Thank you, Miss Cristiano. Uh Miss Barrows, >> I just want to thank you for the presentation. It was good. I just want to I guess highlight three things that stuck out to me. Um, especially with like attendance too. I think increasing the pathways is a great initiative for like less dropouts and kids who don't learn the reg the way of sitting in a desk all day. Like the hands-on I think will be huge for us like going forward. Um, very into the CTE programs. The next thing is I like the increase in the writing. I think since like co and the pandemic the kids are on Chrome more and I know you learn more by like writing on hand you'll retain the information. So I like that goal for the increasing writing. Um
078my next question would be do you think with MCCAST not being required now that kids don't take it as serious that it does affect test scores? I I think that it definitely could have affected um the students um not taking it as seriously. Um I do think they did a good job trying to remind students that um it does provide an opportunity um especially for um students who are interested in the scholarship. Um could we do more? Probably. But it's an important issue that um I think they've looked at statewide that those students at the high school level may not take it as seriously as they need to um because it's no longer required for graduation. So it could have impacted if it did impact it didn't impact it as much and when you look
079at the data it you know you could have thought it would have impacted a lot more. Um so because basically we in some cases we stayed the same although saw some growth in some particular subgroups especially in math. So um I think our students um from what we can see tried to take it um mostly serious. Is there a group who may have not probably Thank you. >> Thank you Miss Barrows. Miss Garren. >> Okay. Uh thank you Madam Chair. Uh thank you for the presentation Dr. Adams. There clearly there have been some very uh good improvements. Just a quick question. um about the highquality instructional material. What What do you consider an HQIM and how does that compare to like I guess traditional instruction materials? What's the difference there? The state has um and
080this has been a national movement has created um a system of rubrics um where they look really deeply at materials to make sure that they meet certain criteria. Um and based upon that rubric, the state would say this material meets the criteria. Um for example, it might have criteria that it has culturally responsive text. Um and there's a piece of the rubric that they get rated on. Um and so when we make a decision and that decision is made by teachers, teachers go last year we went through a piloting process with math and science um and ESL in grades 6 to 8. The teachers look at all of those reports and research that's been done on those particular materials. Um there's a pilot done of the material so we can look at how it you
081know how how you start to use it a little bit. You see if it's you think it's going to work with our population. Um and based upon that analysis um done by the educators, we make a decision that this material meets our needs as well as meets the criteria of the rubric um and is well established. We also call other districts to say who are similar to us. You're using this material. Do you do you think it's doing a good job? What are your what are your concerns? Um sometimes so that we're even aware of some of the hiccups that that we might experience before implementing the material. Um so that's quite a the definition is really um kind of a national state created definition. I think it's important to remember that's a part of
082the equation as I said we also need to invest in our educators and helping them take often the materials are vast making decisions about what materials you use to meet the needs of the student. So here's my student. What of the array of stuff that I have best meets the particular needs of that student based on my own assessment based upon the assessments that we might have done as a district or at the classroom level. >> Thank you Miss Scaren. Miss Babcock. >> So um so I was going to make sort of a similar comment like the um interest in in the 10th grade MCCast and motivation afterwards. So I think tied to that was I know that we voted as a school committee when um the MCCAST was um no one waved as a
083graduation requirement that that you guys had come up with a rating criteria so we sure that the students were meeting the benchmarks that they needed to mention. So, do we have any way of using our own? I know it was passing certain level classes, you know, at all levels, 9th grade, science, uh, um, um, English and math. Is there any way we can glean statistics from that at all that we can use? You know, because this is just an MCCAST report. >> So, my question is like what can we get from that? And then I just want to say that, you know, tests have margins of error. Any test has a margin of error. And you could look at an ELS test and the test that they give this year could could impact how people
084score and the tests they have next year will impact how it'll it'll vary year to year. Um, looking at what I'm seeing here, you know, there are certain parts of this really definitely like the math increase is that's not a margin of error. That's someone working very hard with our students to increase their scores. So, but I just, you know, I think everyone needs to be reminded that MCCAST is a number and the things that are more concrete and measurable like chronic um chronic uh absenteeism and more students showing up to school um that that means a whole lot more than a statistic. I've seen a lot of things where people are sort of saying, well, look at MCCAST, you know, ever schools don't do well on MCCAST, but MCCAST is just a standardized test.
085It is important because it gives us like a tangible marker but in the end it's not what's happening dayto-day with students in the classroom or teachers in the classroom or principles in the schools or the administrators in our system. So you it's definitely not thank you for this comprehensive thing comprehensive report. So I guess long story short would be how can we look at the the other measurements not in terms of MCCAST and our student success you know using some of our own new benchmarks for graduation you know since the graduation report for MCCAST is no longer required. So, one of the efforts we started last year was the use of uh data dashboards um across K through 12. Um it's a program called Open Architect, often used in lots of school districts. Um it
086has an MCCAST one, but there are additional measures you can put in there and there's an attendance one. So, you can actually go in and you can actually see um the day after what your chronic absenteeism rate is, what your daily attendance rate is. You can drill down by student, by grade. I can see particular students that might be more chronic. I can look at it by my students with disabilities. I can look at my English language learners. So, it's giving data at the fingertip of our school and district leaders. We have dashboards also for our formative and summitive assessments. So, our I Ready Dibbles um our high school students took just this morning. Group of school and district leaders were looking at Dibbles and I Ready from this fall. that was administered literally a
087week ago, two weeks ago. And we were looking at analyzing that data and we were looking at um our performance over time. Um so we're doing that on an ongoing basis. Every meeting we're looking at data and talking and thinking about what are we doing? What's get having the greatest impact? Why? How can we do better? Um, and I think as the as the superintendent said, every school and district leader is laser focused on student achievement and looking at that data and thinking about what can we do in order to raise the achievement of our students. And that's looking at the daily our our common assessments that we're doing on a daily basis. Another dashboard that I think gets at your answer is student grades. We can see grades at the end of the quarter.
088we can pull up and start to see and drill down who are students are failing, who our students are not, what is their attendance. I can look at a student, I can see their grades, I can see their MCCAST scores, I can see their and I can see their attendance and I can see and look across to try to look for patterns um and think about how do we support individual students. One of our next steps is to make that data more accessible to stu teachers so that teachers are also looking at data. They're looking at data as well, but we also want them to have that hands-on ability to look at multiple measures in one place. Often you have to go to one place to see attendance and you have to go somewhere else
089to see your um data. And so the ability to see it in one place allows you to make stronger decisions. And the visualization of data is really um very impactful than looking at just numbers um because it's easier to draw inferences and conclusions when you have the visual of data. And that's very time consuming. So if someone via technology has figured out a way to do it and make it easier, you spend less time creating things and you spend more time discussing about how to improve um our student achievement. >> I wanted to talk about the writing just a little bit too one and that will be my last question. So I literally have spent the last 25 years of my life teaching writing at at the college level. And um I think that because
090students are feeling less prepared in their ability to write if that's the pathway that they choose that a lot of them are choosing to just go right to generative AI. And the increase I've noticed and our college has noticed I mean and I the whole university has noticed has been so extreme that they've actually set a policy of like you can't use this you know not there's e there's ethical uses of it as well. So I think that adding more writing in and crosscurriculum it isn't just the English teacher's job. Uh writing can be done in in any any class. It can be done in um even in a music class. You can be writing about songs you're playing, things that you like, keeping a writing journal, and just getting the practice of using your
091your own thoughts and putting them down on paper because students have lost um the confidence to trust that they have the right answer because they have a phone in their pocket and they can look up the right answer to anything and they don't trust their own thought. They're like, "What if I am wrong? I can just look it up or I can have someone else write it for me." So, I'm really excited about that. I know for me personally um and it is I was not a great writer when I was young. It is a muscle that can be developed and you can you can become better at it and there's nothing nicer than feeling confident in that area because in your future whatever job you have it doesn't matter what job you have even
092your own personal business writing a business proposal or running your own company or or what or becoming an English teacher which is I highly recommend um it'll be a useful skill. So I guess my last question is how could we perhaps adding a little more writing more crosscurriculum so they have more opportunities to do that. I know in the elementary school level they do it a lot. You're writing all the time in K through through five maybe small things but when you get to high school it starts to be more segmented. >> That is a focus. Um the I just had a conversation last Friday with um Richard King who's our director of visual and performing arts and he was talking about just that and planning for the November professional development about thinking with his
093staff about what low stakes writing is. They're quick um um of allowing students to develop that fluency talking about their process. Um, so those are ongoing conversations that we're having um at the K to8s where we're we've we've asked teachers to think about um from the curriculum of one specific question that students are writing in response to um and and it's again that muscle you got to do it frequently in order to gather that fluency. And then we also as educators need to be giving you feedback to help you improve that writing so that as the year goes on we're seeing improvement um including asking students to get off the Chromebooks and write in a notebook. Um so that they feel that pen to pressure that um I as research often shows and someone mentioned
094it tonight um does have an impact on learning. Um, so those are and we also want to engage our teachers in looking at that work, sharing with each other best practices and thinking about how do I develop students writing um, if I'm an English language learner, if I'm a students with disabilities, what are the best practices and building up our repertoire um, and our conversations about how do we teach writing overall. So that's a a strong focus of us. We saw it in our MCCAST results and it was very powerful when school and district leaders looked at students writing um were scoring them as if we were the MCCAST and looking at whether our students were able to meet the standards. So those are conversations we had we've continued to have this fall and they'll
095be conversations we have all year long. >> Thank you Miss Pepco. Mr. Barrows >> thank you madame chair. It's Dr. Adams. Thank for the presentation was great presentation and thank for these these numbers just one thing that I it's it's just a highlight it's not it's not a question but um and just I'm sure we are already thinking about this and working on this but for us to keep in mind when we are working on chronic absetism with the issue that's going on around the country on immigration uh there are a lot of kids not coming to school we are hearing that uh in the state in the state level with school districts across the the state uh kids missing school because of immigration uh concerns uh know parents being picked up by ICE and
096other issues. So I I I know that we when kids are not coming to school, it's not that we are punishing them, we are trying to figure out why they are not coming, but it is something that is uh very relevant these days and for us to keep in mind superintendent because as you know it affects a lot of our kids and that not necessarily has to do with the kids immigration status. Uh there are a lot of kids who are born here but their parents are not citizens yet and they could be you know on with immigration issues and those kids end up not coming to school or afraid of coming to school. There are actually a lot of volunteers out there uh you know US born folks who are actually now helping and
097walking uh kids into school. But for us to keep in mind as we are working on chronic absentism is for for kids for us as educators and as districts as a whole to keep that in mind. the situation that's going on uh not only across the country but especially around our state at this moment. >> We've been monitoring that the attendance and we we our attendance is higher than it was even last fall. So, but and I think it's a very good point. A lot of the school leaders efforts around attendance and staff efforts guidance counselors is supportive. How do we get your child to school? How can we help you? Can we have a neighbor come get them? Can we come get them? How can we get we'll walk them to school? how can
098we provide the supports that you need? How can we provide referrals to community agencies depending on what your needs? Um, often those efforts were punitive. Many of us might remember punitive efforts that were done around attendance. Um, that's not the case anymore. I think the field is really shifted to say how do we support you, ensure work with the family, work with the student as well to say how do we get you to school? What do you need? Um, and I I know of many individual stories where principles are going out of their way to try to ensure that an individual student gets themselves to school every day. >> Awesome. Thank you. And thank them as well. >> Thank you, Mr. Barrows. If I could just make a quick comment. I don't really have a
099question. I just want to um uh express my appreciation for the fact that this is a collaborative effort um with a district instructional leadership team, a school-based instructional teams. You said you're gathering data and sharing that with educators. This is more than just a test. Um every aspect of our children here at school um is involved in this. whether it's liter literacy, attendance, social emotional well-being, kids have test anxiety, all of that is going into student success. And I just want to appre I just want to extend my appreciation for that collaboration and attention to detail. >> Thank you. >> Um motion to excuse Dr. Adams. Thanks. Thank you. >> Motion made by Mr. Barrow, seconded by Miss Cornelio to excuse Dr. Adams. All those in favor? >> All those opposed? The eyes have it.
100Thank you, Dr. Adams. Um, seeing as this was just an update, I feel as though there's no >> no action necessary. I wanted to be sure that you had this information. We it was embargoed up until the September the 30th. Um, we had an opportunity to look at some raw data before that in order to make some um next steps for ourselves and to put this presentation together um with with good examples and um we will continue to keep focused on on this work. And again, next time that we come before you, hopefully we will continue to see growth in those areas that we've outlined this this evening. >> Thank you, Superintendent. Uh the next order of business, >> item three, superintendent's evaluation. Chairperson Hurley, >> I am going to take that over. I was
101feeling very confident about my PowerPoint presentation until Dr. Adams just came up, >> but bear with me. I was excited to do this. Thank you. So, while Mr. Okconor hands out. I decided to do a PowerPoint presentation because we like visual effects. I would like to extend uh my deep appreciation and thank you to the members of this body for dealing with um all of my communications regarding this evaluation. I appreciate your diligence and attention to this very important matter. I would also like to extend a thank you to Deputy Superintendent Gretchen Mann Manning who helped with the presentation, but also I decided to police myself. Um, when I did review the evaluations, she took the time out of her day to sit with me and witness and record myself reviewing the every single evaluation
102to come up with my composite summary. So without further ado, first slide. Uh, one of the most important duties of any school committee is the responsibility to evaluate the superintendent in a transparent, collaborative, and constructive way. The Everett public school school committee um ad hoc of the superintendent evaluation met on September 3rd and determined the process model and timeline to evaluate superintendent Hart for his first full year of service which is the 2024 2025 school year. The ad hoc committee agreed to follow the two-step evaluation process recommended by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education DESIE. The process model includes number one, the review of goals set by the superintendent and school committee. Two, the four professional standards. The process begins with the superintendent's self-evaluation. For the first evaluation cycle, the superintendent's report of
103findings typically serves as the self-evaluation document. Superintendent Hart shared his report of findings as well as his proposed goals for this current 2025 2026 year with the school committee at the June 2nd 2025 school committee meeting. Next slide. The Desessie evaluation model suggests that the goals for the superintendants should fall within three categories. professional practice, student learning, and district improvement. Typically, the entry plan and report of findings are the goals for the superintendence in the first evaluation cycle. Superintendent Hart took a further step and set student learning, set a student learning goal and district improvement goal. And those goals are to hire an assistant superintendent for teaching, learning, and student success and an assistant superintendent for student services. and to successfully negotiate five collective bargaining agreements in collaboration with the Everett School Committee. >> Excellent.
104Two steps. Uh step two includes evaluating the superintendent around a set of four performance standards which include instructional leadership, management and operations, family and community engagement, and professional culture. Each of these standards includes a rubric or scoring guide for the subcategories for each section and the suggested value for the rating. For example, under performance standard 2 management and operations, one of these subcategories is law, ethics, and policies. A score of exemplary for this standard would show that the superintendent provides the resources and support for all school personnel to understand and comply with state and federal laws and mandates school committee policies, collective bargaining agreements and ethic guidelines and that a superintendent models this practice for others. That's a direct quote from the DESIE rubric. Next slide. The school committee as a whole evaluates the superintendent.
105Therefore, the feedback and individual evaluations submitted by its members are used to create one single composite document. School committee members were asked to send the individual forms to me within two weeks of receiving them. All school committee members prepared individual forms and met the deadline to submit them to me as chair. This slide shows the composite school committee rating for superintendent received for each of his goals. The formal ratings that can be assigned as part of the rubric for step one goals can be did not meet. Some progress significant progress met and exceeded. Superintendent Hart received exceeded as the composite rating on all three goals. For step two, the process ratings for each of the four performance standards can be unsatisfactory, needs improvement, proficient, and exemplary. Superintendent Hart received a rating of exemplary on all
106four performance standards here. Again, this is when I um reached out to deputy superintendent for her to witness and record myself re reviewing each and every individual um evaluation from the members to create my one composite. Uh PESI guidelines evaluators are required to provide comments for any rating outside of proficient. I was very pleased and proud of my membership that regardless of their um rating, whether it was proficient or exceeding, everyone left comments. The next couple of slides provides a sample of comments provided by all individual evaluators. I had a hard time choosing, so there's three pages worth of comments. I'll just read a few. Uh the superintendent has achieved his three main initial goals presented to the school committee. In addition, he has prioritized family and community engagement, which is crucial for a diverse
107district like ours. The superintendent's communication style is open, and he is always available to listen to any concerns from anyone. His comprehensive report to the school committee members during meetings. It's much appreciated. Uh, in my years as a school committee member, I have never been more excited about the future of Ever Public Schools. Mr. heart keeps us focused on our students. Superintendent created a clear and responsible budget for FY25 by meeting with staff, families, and community members over 20 times. The budget balanced expenses without layoffs and was shared clearly with staff, the school committee, city leaders, showing strong financial planning and fairness. It's encouraging that Mr. Hart has taken the steps to hire more culturally diverse staff. I believe it is beneficial for the students to see people from their own culture in leadership positions
108who speak their own language. So in conclusion, the composite rating for Superintendent William Deart for 2024 2025 school year is exemplary. This composite evaluation is has now been on the record and should be placed on the superintendent's personal file. But before we motion anything, I would like to let members weigh in, ask questions. Miss Cristiano, I just like to uh thank Mr. heart once again for uh doing what we hired him to do and and to meet all of our students at uh where they're at. And certainly uh improving the scores is is not just uh talk. It's evidence of the hard work that he's put put into it and building a team uh that has one goal in mind and is that that is student success and it's clearly showing um and I believe
109I'm I've only this is only my fourth year here but I I can't remember a superintendent that has received an exemplary for his overall rating. So uh congratulations to you Mr. heart and uh thank you. Um it's I know it's not an easy job. I know you're at it at 6:00 in the morning to whenever at night and it's each and every day. And uh you know, there's some difficult times, but you seem to rise above all of it. And uh you know, we've got uh some teachers in the in the audience here that I'm sure would echo my remarks as well that uh you're a team player, a visionary leader, and uh somebody I'm proud to call my superintendent of schools. >> Thank you, >> Miss Perry. I just also wanted to speak on
110personally on behalf of the students at Ever High School that we're so grateful to have you as our superintendent. We love seeing you in the hallways with the smile and you're always working hard and we're grateful for your dedication to all of us. And personally, I'm always happy to see you in the hallways and at school events. I just wanted to thank you for all your hard work. >> Thank you, Miss Perry. >> I would like to entertain a motion to accept the composite. >> Sorry, I didn't see your hand. Miss Pepco, >> I just want to um just say one quick thing. I know that I I like spent an incredible amount of time looking at this. I looked at every area of the rubrics and when if you if the audience if the
111if the our city are could see how complex this process is. Uh looking at all the data that was provided to us. looking at all the notes from all the school committee meetings over the last year and all the superintendent reports and then looking at all the you know exemplary or proficient ratings and you know seeing is this person meeting this and at what level are they meeting it and it is a very very very challenging process and there is a lot to think about. So I just want to say you know thank you to all of you guys. I know how much work went into this to to evaluate it. And this this is the chairperson Hurley has given us the tip of the iceberg of what is actually the data and information that
112is on there from the superintendent's entry plan and all the data that he provided. Um I think that Mr. Hart is very good at finding people to help him meet the goals he wants to achieve. And I think that's one of the things bringing the people that can give him the exact right information to improve it. And a lot of initiatives that I've personally brought forward, one of the ones that is at my heart is the chronic absenteeism. It's one of the first things that I put on the school committee agenda. And for me to see that today, such an increase in those numbers just means more excitement for next year. So um I think that we did a good job. So thanks to my colleagues for for the report and congratulations to Mr. Har.
113>> I echo that. I was very proud of this membership. >> Right. So, >> um I would >> like to I can't make the motion. I'm requesting a motion to accept the composite evaluation as compiled and presented and place it in the superintendent's personnel file. >> In addition to that, I think it should be public. Um I believe that's standards should be on the school's website. So I think we should post an addition to his file on the school website for the public to have access to it. >> We'll put that in for a motion. >> Second. >> Motion made by Mr. Barrow, seconded by uh Miss Cristiano to accept the composite evaluation is compiled and presented and place it in the superintendent's personnel file as well as our website. Roll call. >> Mr. Almeida
114Barrows. >> Yes. >> Miss Babcock. Yes, >> Miss Barrows. >> Yes, >> Miss Cornelio. >> Yes, >> Miss Cristiano. >> Yes, >> Mr. Denafario. >> Yes, >> Miss Garren. >> Yes, >> Madame Chair. >> Yes. >> So moved. 8 Z. Motion passed. Superintendent. The next order of business. >> Before I get to the next order of business, I just want to also express my appreciation for working with a very supportive school committee. I know we've been through some rough times together and some difficult choices along the way and some things tend to divide people. But I will say um taking this job was more than just a position. It was an opportunity for me to support a city that I love and a school district that I know is important to families all across um
115this the streets of Everett. And I want to thank each of you for the work that you do and supporting the work I do. And I can continue to say to all of you whatever you chose to give me and I appreciate this exemplary uh overall rating that I will continue to try to improve on those areas where there's improvement to be made. And I also welcome anytime that you have opportunities for me to consider. I'm um I I believe that working together regardless of our differences that we can do great things. This has been a community that's been about that since I was a young person and I know in my family before me um we all have had our own personal struggles professionally and otherwise. But as a community, as a family of
116community, we do good things when we work together regardless of our differences. That makes the the conversation more lively. That gives us more to think about. That helps us to go beyond what we're comfortable. But it all works in the same direction to do good things to produce good results to get our children where they need to be so that they too can enjoy these kinds of conversations and walk away friends and family neighbors and community members. However, there's still division in our community. We need to look beyond that. And as a superintendent who has had his fair share of criticism by people I don't even know or don't know me, I want you to know that I'm working around that because my goal here and it has only been my goal since I was
117hired regardless of how I came here or during the difficult times that I was brought forward. I promised you when I started, I continue to promise you through these goals and through this performance that I will continue to do the work that you need to do so our students and our families can leave ever public schools and say, "Not only was that a good school system, it got me ready to where I wanted to be." Whether it was CTE pathway, uh furthering their education, going for a certificate program, maybe going into the military. I want our students to have the opportunities they deserve and they need to succeed. I will continue to look for ways to do that to bring people forward that can help me get there. Thank you, Miss Babcock, for noting that
118we do bring I do try to bring people around us so together we can work together collaborative collaboratively to produce good results. So, thank you to all of you. I really do enjoy this position and I love working on behalf of our students each and every day. superintendent. >> With that, I would with that I would like on item number four uh superintendent's goals for 2025 2026. As the chairperson mentioned um in um the presentation I made back in June, I included my uh proposed goals. I want to reference um if you want to move to slide one. Uh Mr. O' Conor um infrastructure facilities and overcrowding. you know, that's not a topic that any one of us um has put behind us. We need to keep looking at ways to improve the facilities that
119we have, address our overcrowding. We have done all kinds of things with the buildings that we do have and looking for more space so we can offer better um learning environments for our students. I will continue um to continue to do those things. Sometimes it's behind the scenes, sometimes it's just um thinking through some options with um other districts who have faced similar concerns. Technology will continue to be um an effort that I think we've made great strides in. When you think about our district, every student, every student at Ever High School has a new Chromebook to go home with. every student in our public schools will have the right kind of technological support to um utilize in their studies. Now granted, we don't want to think that they can't put that pen and paper
120together. We certainly want to do that, but we do have to have the technology to support learning. We have made significant investments um in this past year. Safety and emergency planning, employees, employees and staffing. This is the infrastructure. This is why I titled it that this is what keeps us all together. that this is what brings us a strength kind of behind the scenes. We will continue and I will continue to focus on this academic and student success. We mentioned social emotional well-being. We need to support our students wherever they're at socially and emotionally. And it's just not about reading and writing and arithmetic, so to speak. It's about the whole child. And we continue to look at ways to support our families through engagement efforts um through one-on- onsu uh for support that maybe
121they don't get at home. We try to make up the difference here with professionals who are trained to help bring out the best in each of our students. Academic achievement and literacy, CTE programming, co-curricular and enrichment programs. We have probably the most robust um extracurricular opportunities for our students between clubs and opportunities um not only just here at Ever High School but in our K through8 buildings. Um any opportunity that strengthens our our student we will continue to invest in and look at ways to increase if we find it that a particular event or a particular um enrichment uh exercise is of benefit to our students. Um, we will continue to look at student internships, early college credit, and transfer pathways under uh the leadership of our assistant superintendent of student services. We're looking at
122ways in which our students who choose to go in a path, not only in CTE path programming, we're going to open new opportunities um through a an exhaustive process that say put you through. Um but nonetheless, it's important to look at new opportunities for our young people to take a CTE program offering um along with ways in which we can make sure that all of our students have an opportunity to go to college if that's their choice. Making those choices a lot easier for them to obtain. Um uh Mr. Lynch has already made great um connections with our friends in the higher ed system and we're going to continue to find um that quick transfer of credit and our student to a state or community college or university because they are the backbone and educate
123the most students in the Commonwealth. So my my student learning goal item number one is just what you heard Dr. Adams say that it is our our um priority in the district. So we have adopted it not only as a district prior priority for our uh staff and faculty to follow but it is for me as well as as the superintendent. I will continue to to address the areas as Dr. Adams pointed out in her presentation under student learning goal number one. Um our district improvement goal is to create a culture of lifelong learning for our students and staff. Focus on growth mindset, resilience, and critical thinking. And here's those areas that um we will find ways uh objectively to look at creating the pathways for CTE. And I know I'm just um pointing over
124to um member Baros and I know if the mayor was still here um both of those folks have have been asking for a a more intense focus on CTE programming. We'll continue to look at those opportunities for our students, early college exploration. We want those kids who are on that track to have those options and opportunities to understand what's available to them and we are going to as I said with Mr. Lynch's help make that a lot easier for them to attain um if that's the path they chose. We also have to we also have to um provide professional development for our staff in order to be um the top at what we do. We have to be trained or at least become oriented to new HQIM. we have to become comfortable with the materials
125that we're asking um our teachers to provide to our students. So we have to train them. We have to give those professional opportunities. Um so we are looking at ways in which we can do that. And I will say that we have also exploring ways in which to we can have that paid for by other than the the school budget. We've looked at options um with grants. As you know the federal grants are um tenuous at best at this moment but it doesn't mean that we're not looking at it. In fact, we held a session today with uh a woman that we brought on that's highly talented um with professional opportunities and grant writing and um she's helped our team understand what their role is in looking at grants and how they have to align
126with our district priorities. Um another shout out to our governor who continues to find ways to support efforts across our K through2 systems. Um you couldn't ask for a better partner in the state level when we're um unsure of our federal partnerships. Our state partnerships continue to be there for us and um we appreciate the effort that her and Lieutenant Governor um put forward on behalf of the K through2 um community. Um, district improvement goal number two, I will implement needed infrastructure and operational management systems and practices that will address safety and emergency planning. Technology systems, as I mentioned a minute ago, will continue to enhance what we can provide. Um, obviously addressing school and classroom overcrowding. We we are looking again at ways in which we can at whatever place we are, whatever whatever
127building I should say we're at. Is there another space in a building that we can convert or reassign so to speak? Um, I mentioned to you before, we're doing that at the preschool program because we were able to take on some additional classrooms that um were uh open for us um as a result of um the old Everett High School being, you know, finally with the roof on, we can add more additional classrooms for our our young um our young students. We've had a big um jump in that population this year. Excuse me. Um we will continue to look at um human resource and payroll system management. Um it's an ever evolving environment and uh we continue to find ways in which we should um correctly manage our payroll systems. We've had some challenges in
128years past because of changes in software but we are finally on a path I think along with the city and um our new uh payroll system. we were able to make sure our employees get and receive the monies and benefits that they deserve and can actually see it in their in their paycheck. Um academic scheduling is a big piece of the work that we'll do this year. Um you know trying to get as many time on learning minutes per um academic area along with social emotional learning specialty courses. Um we will continue to find ways to schedule our building so that our students have the best that we can give them in the time that's allotted in a school day. Um and we'll continue to um get those schedules for example out of in the
129high school um at a much earlier time slot than I think customarily has been done. a district improvement goal, which we have labeled as number three, create opportunities for families in the community to gather, learn, and create through wellplanned and executed engagement programs, social media campaigns, and annual events. Um, we do a lot of that now and we are going to continue to find ways in which families can connect with our school environment. Um, and I'm going to Miss Babcock, you know this from working in higher ed. The more engaged a student is, more often they're the higher achievers. they're they're working um towards success, if you will. We want the kids here. We want to keep them engaged. We want families engaged. And while we've had concerns in this community and across the communities
130most recently, um our events have been very well attended. Our kids are coming to school because I think people generally um uh Mr. Barrows, they do know that we are a community of care caring people. our our administrators and teachers are just you've got to come to a school with we'll we'll arrange that you've got to see what happens on a daily basis. Our families feel good about coming to school. Unfortunately, some of the social issues that um they're concerned about. There's only so much we can do, but we do um our family liaison have spent an enormous amount of time along with um even clerical staff calling homes making sure people are okay. We will continue to do that so that our kids know that and our families know that we are a partner
131in their overall um comfort and success while they're here in Everett with us. We will continue to implement best practices that attract and retain exceptional educators, employees, and building leaders. We're having a creating a mentoring program for new leaders. Um, and also we will um update our manuals and training materials so that once we hire good people that they feel supported once they're here because if they feel supported and have opportunities um to grow, they're more likely will stay with us and and we certainly want to attract and retain those good people. Um, so that's kind of I'm quickly going through it because I know you have other items on the agenda. This was material as I said I presented in June. Um, I'm asking you to accept my goals uh officially now this meeting.
132so that um when we come together again on my next evaluation, I can um report on those goals to you. >> I make a motion to accept the superintendent's goals for the 2025 2026 year. >> Second. >> Motion has been made by Miss Barrow, seconded by Miss Cornelio to accept the superintendent's goal goals for our 2025 2026 school year. Roll call. >> Mr. Almeita Barrows. >> Yes. And thank you, >> Miss Babcock. >> Yes. Yes. And thank you, >> Miss Barrows. >> Yes, >> Miss Cornelio. >> Yes. And thank you, >> Miss Cristiano. >> Yes. >> Mr. Denafhrio. >> Yes. >> Miss Garren. >> Yes. >> Madame Chair. >> Yes. >> So moved. 800 Z. >> 80. Motion pass. Superintendent. The next order of business. >> Item number five, acceptance of a proficiency outcomes and
133world language grant in the amount of $46,375 from the Department of Elementary and Secondarya Ed education. I'm asking for favorable action. This is going to support as I mentioned earlier not only this that the state continues to support us but we will also support our teachers and this will be 10 world language teachers will be stipened into meet during the school year to review and analyze some data on uh proficiency supporting language and proficiency teaching. So helping them um be the best teachers they can be in in the world languages. So, I'm asking for your acceptance and approval and acceptance of >> move to favorable action. >> 46,000. >> Second. >> Motion made by Miss Babcock, seconded by Miss Cornelio to accept the proficiency outcomes in world languages grant in the amount of $46,375 from
134the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Roll call. >> Mr. Almeida Baros. >> Yes. >> Miss Babcott? >> Yes. >> Miss Baros? >> Yes. >> Miss Cornelio? >> Yes. >> Miss Cristiano? >> Yes. >> Mr. Denafhrio? >> Yes. >> Miss Garin? >> Yes. Madam Chair. >> Yes. >> So moved. 8 Z. Motion passed. Superintendent. The next order. >> Item number six, acceptance of a 2025 municipal cyber security awareness grant from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts valued at $ 38,720. I'm asking for favorable action. As you know, our chief technology officer, um, Mr. Patudo, secured, um, this grant from the state's office of technology services and security, which we call EOTS. Um, Ever Public Schools now will have 10,000 licenses for training of our staff. That won't cost us anything, but gives us that opportunity. Um, and
135just as a side note, October is cyber security awareness month. And during this month, we will continue to give tips to our employees um at uh in an upcoming staff meeting. We've fished our employees so we know who wasn't paying attention. Um, but we uh we are doing this to ensure that our our um that we're safe and I think that um we will continue to work on these efforts. This grant of $38,720 from the Commonwealth. I'm asking you for favorable action. >> Favorable action to accept a 2025 municipal cyber security awareness grant from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts valued at $38,720. >> Second. Motion made by Miss Cornelio, seconded by Miss Baros for the acceptance of the 2025 municipal security awareness grant from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts valued at $38,720. Roll call. >> Mr. Almeida
136Baros? >> Yes. >> Miss Babcock? >> Yes. >> Miss Barrows? >> Yes. >> Miss Cornelio? >> Yes. >> Miss Cristiano? >> Yes. >> Mr. Denafhrio? >> Yes. >> Miss Garren? >> Yes. >> Madame Chair? >> Yes. >> So moved 8 Z. Motion passed. Superintendent. The next order of business >> number seven is acceptance of 50 tickets to Hamilton valued at approximately $58,049 from the Rodman for Kids Foundation. Everett High School was notified that we have 50 tickets for a performance on Tuesday, October the 21st at 700 p.m. at the um Citizens Opera House in Boston. We um will provide chaperones and a bus for our students to attend this event. I'm asking for favorable action. Mr. Stuck, I'll go after. >> Quick question on the motion because I know that that we'd all like to
137go see Hamilton, but um so how will how will students be selected or how will they be able to take an opportunity of of those tickets cuz that's a lovely opportunity. >> It is a lovely opportunity and the tickets each are valued at over $100 face value, but I know that if you try to buy a ticket now, it's a lot more. Um there will be a lottery system and the students will have to have good attendance and be um a member of our visual and performing arts department. So that's multiple departments that will have an opportunity to take advantage of it through a lottery. And of course they'd have to receive permission from a parent like we do with anything outside of our school. Um the chaperrons would include um our faculty that are
138in each of those three departments and they will join those students um over to Boston and back and they'll be leaving from here and returning back to this location. >> Move to favorable action. >> Motion has been made and seconded for favorable action for the acceptance of 50 tickets to Hamilton valued at approximately $5,849 from the Rodman for Kids. Uh roll call. Mr. Alita Barrows, >> yes. >> Miss Babcock, >> yes. >> Miss Barrows, >> yes. >> Miss Cornelio, >> yes. >> Miss Cristiano, >> yes. >> Mr. Denafario, >> yes. >> Miss Garren, >> yes. >> Madame Chair, >> yes. >> So moved. 8 Z. >> So moved 8 Z. Motion passed. Superintendent the next order of business. >> So we've already taken up item eight previously. Item nine is request approval for the Ever
139High School History Club to visit the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York City on Saturday, November the 15th, 2025 um asking for favorable action. The um history club will travel uh via a bus from here and this is just a one-day trip with 40 students who are eligible in chaperones and they'll return back here to Ever High School at the end of the day. Um the trip is being planned by our Ever High School teacher, Mr. Wayne Bailey and I would um request favorable action. >> Favorable action. >> Second. >> Motion made by Miss Cornelio, seconded by Mr. Barrows for favorable action to approve the Ever High School History Club to visit the 911 Memorial and Museum in New York City on Saturday, November 15th, 2025. All those in favor? I. >> All those
140opposed? The eyes have it. Motion passed. Superintendent. The next order. Item number 10, requesting approval for the city of Everett health department to host an influenza clinic at the Lafayette school on Saturday, October the 18th, 2025. I'm asking for favorable action. The building will be open from 8 to 1, but the actual flu clinic will be from 9 to 12. It'll be open and free to the public. Um, so I would uh request favorable action on that motion. >> Make a motion for favorable action. >> Second. Motion made by Miss Barrow, seconded by Miss Babcock for favorable action to approve City of Everett health department to host an influenza clinic at Lafayette School on Saturday, October 18th, 2025. All those in favor? I. >> All those opposed. The eyes have it. Motion passed. Superintendent. The
141next order of business. >> Roman numeral 7. We've already taken up. Roman numeral 8, item number one, finance and negotiation subcommittee for Monday, September 15, 2025. Madam Chairman, um make a motion to uh wave the reading and accept the finance and negotiations subcommittee meeting and place it on file. >> Second. >> Motion made by Miss Cristiano, seconded by Miss Baros to accept >> uh wave the reading and accept the report of the finance negotiation subcommittee from Monday, September 15th, 2025 and place on file. All those in favor? I. >> All those opposed? The eyes have it. Motion passed. Superintendent. The next order of business. Roman numeral 8 committee report item two rules policy and procedure subcommittee for Wednesday September the 24th 2025. >> Madam Chairman >> Miss Christristiano >> I'd like to make a motion
142to wave the uh subcommittee report. Uh accept it and place it on file. >> Second >> motion made by Miss Cristiano seconded by Miss Babcock to accept the report of rules policy and procedure subcommittee from Wednesday September 24th 2025. Wave the reading and place on file. All those in favor. >> All those opposed. The eyes have it. Superintendent the next order of business. >> Roman numeral nine bills and payrolls for the amount of 3,459,833.36. >> Madam Chairman, >> Miss Cristiano, >> I'd like to submit bills and payroll in the amount of 3,459,833.36. >> Second. Motion made by Miss Cristiano, seconded by Miss Cornelio to submit bills and payroll in the amount of 3,459,833.36. Roll call. >> Mr. Almeida Barrows. >> Yes. >> Miss Babco, >> yes. >> Miss Barrows, >> yes. >> Miss Cornelio, >>
143yes. >> Miss Cristiano, >> yes. >> Mr. Denafhrio, >> yes. >> Miss Garren, >> yes. >> Madame Chair, >> yes. >> So moved 8 Z. Motion passed. Madam Chairman, >> Miss Cristiano, >> I'd like to um pay bills and payroll. Make a motion to pay bills and payroll in the amount of 3,459,833.36. >> Second. >> Motion has been made by Miss Cristiano, seconded by Miss Barrows to pay bills and payroll in the amount of 33 3,459,833.36. Roll call. >> Mr. Mr. Alita Barrows. >> Yes. >> Miss Babcock. >> Yes. >> Miss Barrows. >> Miss Cornelio. >> Yes. >> Miss Cristiano. >> Yes. >> Mr. Denafhrio. >> Yes. >> Miss Garren. >> Yes. >> Madam Chair. >> Yes. >> So moved. 8 Z. Motion passed. Superintendent. The next order of business. >> Roman numeral 10 is
144unfinished business. We have none. Roman numeral 11. New business. There is none before you. Roman numeral 12. He hearings. There are none scheduled. Roman numeral 13. There are two matters for executive session. One to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with non-union personnel or to conduct collective bargaining sessions or contract negotiations with non-union personnel according to Mass General Law Chapter 3A section 21A2 superintendent. Item two is a discussion of strategy with respect to litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares pursuant to mass general law chapter 38 section 21A3 to it MCAD case and Wallace versus ever at all. >> I make a motion to enter executive session and adjourn from there. Second >> motion made by Miss Barrow,
145seconded by Miss Cornelio to enter executive session um to conduct strategy sessions in preparations for negotiations with non-union personnel or to conduct collective bargaining sessions or contract negotiations with non-union personnel. Mass General Law Chapter 3A section 21A2 to wit superintendent and two discuss the strategy with respect to litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares pursuant to mash general law chapter 38 section 21A3 to wit uh MCAD case Wallace versus Everett at all with invitations to superintendent Hart deputy superintendent Manning attorney Attorneys Galvin Smith D. Nicol Antonio and colleagues. Roll call. >> Mr. Almeida Baros. >> Yes. >> Miss Babcock. >> Yes. >> Miss Baros. >> Yes. >> Miss Cornelio. >> Yes. >> Miss Cristiano. >> Yes. >> Mr. Denafario.
146>> Yes. >> Miss Garren. >> Yes. >> Madame Chair. >> Yes. >> So moved 800. We have entered executive session. The time is 8:35 p.m. Thank you everyone.