001Good evening and welcome to the Greenfield Public Schools School Committee meeting on Wednesday, May 14, 2025. This meeting is being recorded by Greenfield Community Television. If any other persons present are doing the same, you must notify the chairperson at this time. I don't see any. Secretary Den, will you call the role? Chair Johnson. I am here. Secretary Den, I'm here. Vice Chair Sexon. I'm here. Member Goodwin here. Member Childs here. Mayor Disorger, are you with us on the Zoom? Mayor Disorger, I see the mayor. Um, I don't know if she can hear us. Oh, because I don't have the Sorry about that, folks. Uh, we convened the meeting and I forgot to turn off on the microphone. Um, we were on Mayor Disorger um for roll call. I'm here. Member Martini, are you present? Here.
002Okay. Yes, here. We are all present. You have a quorum. Thank you. And um members on Zoom might have missed me saying that we are being recorded by GCTV. And if you're also recording, please notify me. Okay. I don't see anyone on Zoom doing that either. We'll move to public comment. We'll start public comment with folks in the room. And if you are on Zoom and wish to be recognized, please raise your virtual hand or put a comment in the chat um so we can know to get you. And you have three minutes. Good evening everyone. I want to thank you for all your hard work. This is not easy and this is not an easy time of the year either when we all start talking about budget. Um oh sorry Pamela Goodwin 54 High
003Street. I live over at the Weldon. So, I was very excited to read um that Senator Cmerford has been fighting really hard for money for education purposes and transportation. I don't know if that's coming as fast as we need it. So I just want to state ASAP would be wonderful um because we are talking about um possibly cutting staff uh teachers uh TAs which are very necessary as my education background can substantiate and um maybe even programs. So, um I like many people in the city are heartbroken about that possibility and I know that you have been pulling your hair out, every one of you trying to figure out how this is all going to work. So, I have no idea how fast Cmerford will come through through the state. Um but in the meantime,
004um you have heard Doug Suellan speak numerous times at the school committee when I was deciding not to attend school committee in the past. And I would just echo that it's going to take a whole lot of communities pulling together to try to deal with the lack of money that the state will not fund. When the state says we need title this and title that and we need special needs, then that is critical that we have to figure out where where is that money coming from or do you want to just scrap the IEP program which is not going to work. Um we have more and more kids in great need as a result of the remote learning as we all know and uh you know there may be kids with lots of emotional needs
005even though and they've just gone backwards in so many ways. I have six grandkids and it was very difficult for them to try this. But well, right now the youngest is seven. So for her to sit still and try to do something on a computer that was a touchcreen that my kids had to go out and buy was extremely difficult. She's a hyper kid anyway. Um the 10-year-old has is doing well. They both are excellent at reading and that's because people have taken it and made a big effort from the home. Um, so there's just so many needs and I guess I will just wrap up by saying I also have taught some special need kids in their own home. Um, so I have a history of being hired by school systems to work one-
006on-one with kids and we want we don't want a school size that's going to make that impossible. So my son-in-law laid off a lot of teachers in the Attalboroough school system and the union wasn't strong enough to insist and they're increased immensely. The larger the class sizes, the less attendance you're going to get, you know, attention from those teachers and TAs. Thank you. I hear it, Glenn. Thanks for your time. No other people in the room for public comment. Anyone on Zoom? Not seeing any. Thank you. We will uh move on to the report of student representatives to the committee. All right. Um so we're going to begin with student council. Um the student council recently elected their board of officers for next year. Um the president is Megan Collins. Co-vice presidents this year of
007Holly Babau and April Rooney Adams. Secretary is Caitlyn Roberts. Our tech master is Ivy Ray. historian Kza Nazula, parliamentarian Julia Belleville, and WMASC delegate is Auburn, Mass. Um during teacher appreciation this last week, we delivered room service to the staff. Um they were able to select either a sweet or savory crepe and have it delivered before classes in the morning. We partnered with the life skills program to make and deliver those breakfasts. Um unfortunately, we were rained out for our annual flagging event. In preparation for Memorial Day, we would work with the veterans agency replacing the flags at a local cemetery. But again, unfortunately, this was canceled due to rain. Um, at the end of the month, we will hold our banquet and celebrate our year of leadership, service, and friendship, as well as wish
008our seniors well as they move on. Paperwork for class officers will be available soon, and we will hold elections at the beginning of June. All right, so for Key Club, officer elections and senior celebrations are this week. We are in the process of planning our field day at the Academy of Early Learning on June 3rd. There will be field games, reading, relay races, and fun will be had by all. All right. And then get ready for the athletic section. This is a lot of different records and rankings and leagues. So, I'm sorry if I stumble in the process. Um, as of yesterday, the rain had finally stopped over quite a few weeks. So, there's a very busy week ahead for all of our teams. Baseball is 9 and six with three games left until the
009Western Mass playoffs. Softball is 10-4 with four games left until Western Mass. Baseball is ranked third in class C and softball is ranked first in class C for Western Mass. Playoffs start May 21st with um the finals May 27th or 28th. The MIA playoffs start May 30th. Boys tennis is 5-6 with one match remaining. Girls tennis is 5-7 with three matches to go. Boys and girls track will compete in the PVIAC finals at Mount Greylock on Saturday, May 24th with the MIAA finals at Tus University May 30th to June 1st. Um, recently Brad's Place has taken up the athlete of the week program that Mesa Verde had started. And so the athletes so far have been myself for boys tennis, Devon Brown for boys tennis, and Arthur Fitzpatrick for baseball. Um, we hope as the
010season comes to a close, you go out and support our student athletes. for Library Club. Library Club has had a fantastic field trip with the 10th grade to Smith College where we heard renowned Filipino American poet Patrick Rosel give a poetry reading. They visited the Botanic Gardens and tooured the art museum. We have already started planning for next year, but have a couple more events planned for this year, which are a video game and an end ofear picnic. The French Club hosted a very successful coffee house event last week. It was well attended by students and families and featured many exciting performances from both students and staff. Also, French Club continues recruiting and planning for their trip to France, which is next April in 2026, which is open to all GHS students. If you are
011interested in learning more about the trip, please attend the info meeting this coming Tuesday, May 20th, at 6:30 p.m. in the lecture hall. And you can also contact Madame Hartman for more details. for drama club. We are in the middle of deciding what play to do next year and are considering whether we will do two smaller productions, one in the fall and one in the spring. An announcement will happen in the next two weeks, so stay tuned. Um, the Students of Color Club is finishing up their visits to the middle school to share their presentations on how to address racial slurs with the sixth grade advisories. They're also planning a trip to Boston in early June thanks to a grant from Communities That Care. The day will include a visit to the Museum of African-American
012History and a Park Ranger guided tour of the Black Heritage Trail. Sustainability Club. We attended the Phillips Academy Andover Climate Summit where we heard the president of Massachusetts Audabon speak and attended multiple workshops on lobbying, climate literacy, and more. We also attended the Four Rivers Charter School Climate Summit where weworked with students from the local area and attended workshops that revolved around the theme of climate action and activism. We're hoping to end our year by hosting a thrift swap event at the high school on May 21st, which will promote sustainable fashion practices. And finally, trivia club, which is finishing up a virtual competition and are still actively looking for new members. So, if anyone is interested in trivia and has a good memory, um they would love to have new members. The club is planning
013a fall match sponsored by our club at GHS with local school trivia teams to prepare for future competitions. Um that concludes the report today, but if you have any questions, we would be happy to answer. Any questions from the committee? The superintendent has something. I just wanted to recognize Shane. Tonight is his last meeting with us. He is graduating on May 31st with the class of 2025. He's headed to Brown University in the fall. And really just want to commend him as a student representative for the school committee. he has really expanded what you bring to the table for students and how you highlighted student life this year so that the public and everyone watching really has a better insight to all the good things that kids are doing at Greenfield High School. So, Thank
014you very much on behalf of the committee as well. Have a good night. Okay, we'll move on to reports of the administration and the business manager. Good evening. In your packets were the financial reports for May uh and the cover memo summarizing where we stand with things. Um we are truly in earnest beginning the year end I should say continuing the year-end closing process. Uh we've been repeatedly uh reviewing purchase orders with administrators with budget authority uh etc. looking at incumbrances both for salaries and other uh related expenses. Uh you have the summary as to uh where we stand as far as a projection to year end. Um I just want to say also included in the report uh in the packet and uh in your packets that your thing was we've heard uh there
015are some comments made as to balances that were left in ESER 3. Um, I ran reports to show that it is fully expended. Um, and so that report is included in your packet. Uh, and just I mean I heard like the mayor mentioned last night like $196,000 balance. Those are incumbrances. Those are purchase orders for expenses that the ESER 3 is allowed to run till December of 25. So those are POS for actual expenses that we'll be incurring between now and December 3025. Um, just to make sure I wasn't losing my mind, I actually talked via text with uh, Mr. Number and he actually agreed that the Easter 3 is fully expended and encumbered. So, you know, to hear I just want to clear that up that I heard like a balance of like 190
016some odd thousand to a million remaining in ESER 3. Uh, the reports are in the packet for you and also again I double check with Mr. numbercow that indeed it is fully expended and committed. With that, I can answer any questions you may have. Can you show us what the handout looks like that you're referring to? That was my question. Okay. The ether three report. The ether. Yeah. It's a munis report. It says right. It shows 193,797.50 cents encumbered. And the far right shows zero balance available. Thank you. Other questions? Okay. Excellent. Thank you very much. Move on to the assistant superintendent. Good evening. uh my report tonight. Um in terms of grant updates, I just want to give another shout out to the folks who supported the April acceleration academy as well as the
017February acceleration academy. Um we had over 20 students in bothmies. We had much more interest from teachers and IAS in the April Academy, which is a good sign. And I think the work moving forward is about how to find that balance between the students and the staff now that there is some interest. Um so I look forward to seeing um that program grow. It was supported through a desi grant. Um and I'm hopeful that that grant continues to be offered because uh we've we've had a lot of really positive feedback both from staff and students and families who participated. We also received notice in the past few weeks that the summer food service program expansion grant um was awarded. Um they received a grant for $17,130 to support the ongoing efforts to expand access to
018meals during the summer months. Um, if you think back to August or September, I think um, the superintendent announced last summer our food service department served over 60,000 meals. Um, and this is money that will go towards continuing that and growing that um, opportunity for the community. Um, we're also starting to wrap up another grant, the Mass Cultural Council Creative Project for Schools. local artist Sarah Hearn Belair has been working in all three of our elementary schools. Um I did make an announcement about this before, but just wanted to bring it bring it back to the forefront as we start to close this out. Um in all three elementaryaries, there's still some work to be done, but I know um Sarah has talked about finding space at the library over the summer and things like
019that. So the students artwork can be on display for the community. And this is also a grant, my number two, but I I felt compelled to separate it from the other grant update. The innovation career pathways is something that I've probably reported to you five or six times at this point. We found out last week that Greenfield did receive a designation from um Secretary Secretary Tutweiler, the Secretary of Education for the Commonwealth. And um you know now the work can really begin in earnest. Uh there we anticipate additional grant opportunities through this and start rolling it out as soon as next fall. It is a a grant that allows us or a program that will build one year onto the next. So next year we'll start with likely a handful of ninth grade students and
020then that will be the first cohort and anticipate growing that opportunity and looking at other innovation career pathway opportunities down the road. But credit to the innovation career pathway team. Um we've worked really hard over the course of the year and had been waiting patiently on this designation. um and it was announced at a STEM event late um middle of last week. Terms of professional learning, we're we're planning our final district uhwide professional learning day, which is next Friday. It's a half day for students and teachers will engage in professional learning um for the second half of the day. And our focus has been on the continued implementation of our high quality instructional materials. Um, and we're going to continue that work. We actually had a meeting this morning looking ahead to next year, closing
021out this year. And, um, I can anticipate we'll continue to deepen our work on lesson internalization, prioritization, um, and supporting students to take ownership of their learning and um, be engaged in new ways and opportunities. Also wanted to shout out the admin team. We had five administrators, principles, and department heads um participate in mock interviews for prospective teachers at the University of Massachusetts on a t on a Wednesday evening before the April break. Um it was a good opportunity both for our staff but also for prospective students. those students went through a round of interviews with our administrators and it allowed us to um pitch the district as well. So, we've talked a little bit about our recruitment efforts, our partnership with UMass is something that we value and um another thing that we continue
022to want to grow and foster moving forward. The extended year, extended school year program, our summer program planning is underway. Um, again, we had a lot of interest from staff and we're working out some some details, but if people had questions, they can certainly reach out to my office or pupil services. Um Sarah Crawford, one of our assistant special or pupil service directors is the coordinator for the program. So, we're working closely um on offerings for the summer. And then finally, I was fortunate enough to attend a short portion of the training active bystandard training happening happening at um Greenfield High School today. This is for from Quabin Mediation's training active bystandard program. Had approximately 30 students attend a training over the last two days. And the idea is that this program will empower these
023students to bring this curriculum to students across the district starting next fall. Um be it middle school, elementary school, supporting our students in understanding what active bystandardship is and how they can be active bystanders. Um, and I want to thank the Franklin County Sheriff's Department. Uh, due to a a grant that they're supporting, we were able to receive this training at no cost for our students. Thank you. Thank you, superintendent. Thank you. I'm going to start with the summit of assessment EV evidence for uh the superintendent Eddie Bell. Um you have electronic copies of this but due to its volume I did not print it out for each of you and then I have a short report after the presentation. So, if you recall, um, in August, uh, the school committee and I agreed on
024four goals, one for each of the standards, and then would be evaluated in agreement regarding the focus indicators for administrators for 2024 25. You have been shared a Google Drive where all of this information lies as well as additional evidence that's not presented in the PowerPoint this evening that you can peruse at your leisure. So, just a reminder that um the core values and beliefs of the Greenfield Public Schools are that students are first, that we share a vision with stakeholders, that we are supportive and engaging, and we are collaborative with our families. These were the agreed upon goals. I'm not going to read them verbatim, but they are in your packet. And these are the focus indicators that align with those goals. When you are looking at the evidence, you could be looking at
025the indicators and looking in each individual folder that aligns with these indicators. The first standard was under instructional leadership. That goal was to provide administrators with professional development for the review of student data and evidence-based instructional practices that directly impact student growth and learning. Some of the things that we've accomplished this year is uh our district instructional leadership team and engaging in professional development there. We've put in place data protocols and analysis that start with the admin lead team. Educator evaluation and professional development for our administrators on how to provide quality feedback. Early literacy professional development on diagnostic assessments. We've been working all year with the teaching lab um with regards to our instructional strategy focus. We've been working on literacy PD with a focus on uh new diagnostic assessments with the core and pass
026implementation. We've completed an administrative book study and we are also in uh professional development with the collaborative for educational services on climate and building a culture of a belonging. Some of the things that we've been doing with the teaching lab is really trying to deepen the expertise of our school leaders and equipping them to build data driven systems in their buildings so that all students are receiving what they need. Some sample ELLL fifth grade population uh map score comparisons for you. Our three subgroup focus areas this year with regards to our statewide system of support turnaround status have been our L population, our students with special needs, and our Hispanic and Latino students. And you can see the fifth grade sample that I pulled shows an increase in MAP RIT scores for our fifth grade
027L population from uh fall to winter. Our spring MAP testing is not complete as of today. it should be done in the next few weeks, but I didn't have that data available for tonight. In addition, um another one of our subgroup populations is the special education population and you will see from fall to winter, we have had um growth in our high to high average and as well as reducing the number in our low low to average. So, we are making steps. We are certainly not anywhere where we need to be, but we are seeing some uh definite impacts on the work that we've been doing with the instructional strategies. One of the things that we've really tried to uh focus on this year is giving feedback after professional development. All of our teachers receive
028feedback surveys when they have completed, but also our admin team does as well to make sure that we are actually implementing the support that our administrators need. And this was from a February e team where administrators really improved their ability to ident identify trends in teacher mindsets in their schools and their school's ability to serve student subgroups. So just wanted to share some data there that the professional development that we received really helped administrators grow in that area. In addition, um, our middle school access scores were in and, um, I picked middle school because those are students who have had at least three years of, uh, high quality instructional materials in ELA and math. And you can see that the performance over time, the progress that they have made this year is uh, showing great
029growth. So I think the implementation of those high quality instructional materials is really having an impact. the teaching lab uh year-long work. These were some of the goals that we were working towards as a district. I won't read them verbatim for you, but these go goals really serve towards building structures and systems that have helped us to engage in data a data culture of literacy. So, it's been uh nice working with them and they've been really supportive for our admin team and our teachers. Um we had conducted a book study leading with dignity and we also had professional development on the science of reading and we have engaged with the collaborative uh each month the admin team has a culture and climate building professional development and this was a highlight of the breakdown. Our May
030session is next week and we will have one final one in June before we close out with them and decide on next steps. They are also working with our restorative practice uh subcommittee who is working to implement restorative practices in the district. And then we have been focusing on that building a culture of belonging not only with our administrators but leading them in a place where they can build culture of belonging for their staff and staff can then build that culture of belonging for their classrooms and with students in their classroom. Under this uh standard as well, we've conducted six district walkthroughs. Um we as assistant superintendent and superintendent spend time with the principles and do site visits. We not only do the six official, but we spend time in their building every week. Um
031you will see the growth from September to March. Um, we just finished up our May walkthroughs as well, but there has definitely been some increases in the uh, look fors as we call them in the learning walk tool and we are excited to see all of the growth across the district. These are just district-wide trends. Each principal receives their own building based data. Some classroom visit shots, my favorite part of getting into those classrooms. And then these are just some uh specific look fors that came out of our last learning walk where we were deepening what we were looking for in each classroom. And we solidified the learning walk tool to be a little more succinct so that it wasn't as lengthy and that we were focused on two uh indicators instead of I think
032the original walkthrough had 12. And you will see that we have some positive growth. teachers are beginning to plan for higher order thinking and discourse and really designing tasks that support support deeper understanding. The second um indicator was management and operations and the goal there was to ensure district resources are delineated equitably to address improvement in student attendance and access for all students to highquality instructional materials, appropriate curriculum to improve the district's overall student experience. One of the things that we've really tried to do is uh hone in on our chronic absenteeism rate this year. Um you will note in most of my parent updates I add a blurb about attendance and encouraging folks to think about how attendance matters for our students. We also had implemented a second chance bus. If students miss the
033first round of the bus, they have a phone they can call or a signup sheet in our principles and we can go get them. Uh the building level each week they have attendance meetings and they look at those students who are chronically absent and try to work with families on getting um a pathway back to getting to school and getting to school on time. We've been working on unity messaging, making our schools a place where students want to come and learn. And we've been doing a lot more parent and family outreach at the building base level as well. You'll see this is just documentation of when those attendance meetings happen. We have them at different times so that if necessary, Stephen or myself can attend, a nurse leader attends. We also uh had our director
034of behavioral services attending, too. And we did see some positive improvement and although it's incremental um I thought it was good to highlight the December data that I had shown you from the formative assessment is in blue and the data I pulled as of April is in yellow and you can see we are inching towards progress. Um we still do have a long way to go and want to make sure that we continue this focus in the future. Additionally, um part of this standard is around budget and finance and uh highlighting all of the ways that we engaged with the public. Uh PTO's school committee uh attended city council. Um they also attend um PTO meetings and school councils at the building level to get feedback. We highlighted it in the parent updates so that
035we could have that engagement with stakeholders about what they valued in a school budget. We have been very strategic and um implementing high-quality instructional materials across the board in numerous content areas. Um this is just a highlight of some of the products that we continue to invest in so that our students have what they deserve. We continue to look for grant opportunities always to expand the student experience and assist with offsetting budget costs. And this was just the grant sheet from FY25. We are very excited as uh Assistant Superintendent Sullivan uh recognized tonight that uh the press release that just came out on May 7th is we are one of those 20 new high schools that will have the expanded innovation career pathway. So, we're very proud of that and look forward to Greenfield High
036School having that manufacturing career pathway. We are always trying to be innovative in how we attract people for our district and we advertise on our website. We advertise on schooling. We have put ads in the recorder um schooling links to Indeed. We have you know partnered and collaborated with local communities uh colleges. We've also done mass hire collaborations, always trying to figure out better ways in order to get people to apply for our openings. We have uh really tried to um focus in on uh the leading with dignity and the book study and how that relates to um really making principles and department heads have that driving voice in the climate and culture that they're building. and then working in collaboration with the boots on the ground in their ILTs to transfer that uh mantra
037down to the building base level. This part is also about the environment and addressing safety. Um when we were walking into the high school last night, Glenn had commented on how nice the new emblem worked. Um it looked and we want to uh thank the moose again for donating the funds to have that fixed. but certainly does uh make a nicer entrance for Greenfield High School than previously. We also are trying to highlight social and emotional needs in our students and these are just some highlights from my parent update. Every month we have a diff different castle competency that we focus on in each building and our social and emotional lessons in advisory highlight those same skills. And we also try to share tips with families on what they can do at home to support
038the work that we are doing socially and emotionally in our buildings. The uh be amazing awards um constantly are a highlight in the parent update about the unity messaging that we're trying to create as a district and celebrate students and their highlights for being supportive and welcoming. Uh each week we highlight students or staff who have been caught being amazing. We give out t-shirts, pencils, stickers. Um we have little bees from Greenfield Savings Bank that kids love and really just try to recognize them for all the good that they're doing in each day. The third standard is standard was around family and community engagement. The goal was to provide access in multiple formats to families and community members with engagement opportunities at each school. Some of the highlights we've uh taken up are my weekly
039parent updates in using S'more, the radio spots on WHI and Bear Country, the numerous community and family events and site visits, and our transportation and translation services. I try to highlight for folks so they know where to find me in my where's the superintendent going to be next in the parent update. I will be at the band concert tomorrow night at Greenfield High School. if you don't read the parent update before 7 o'clock tomorrow. So, if you want to come, please join me there. I try to engage in the community and uh events that happen districtwide, really showing the importance of being involved, being available. We had a wonderful yellow conference at the high school recently. It was great to listen to student voices. We had the district-wide band concert earlier this year and really
040uh plan on, you know, going to more places as the year unfolds. We always love our food truck supper nights in the summer, so those are always something to look forward to. We had the taste of world cultures recently at the high school and we celebrate bingo for books. We had a math night as well at the elementaryaries. It was a highlight to join Nate Woodard. He received the MLK Junior Bright Light Award at GCC. And then I always try to attend all school meetings u because they're always such fun because they're led by our students and they always do such a great job. Then we had the polar plunge. That was something. And uh quite cold. I was in the chicken coupe not jumping in. And uh the first middle school band concert that
041actually has happened in a while. And shout out to Hannah Cherry for making that happen because it was amazing. We are back on the radio which is part of the marketing plug. Um folks had answered a family survey at the end of the former superintendent's tenor here. And one of the things that they were looking for for uh us is to get back out there on the radio, to get back out on social media, and to really be more uh apparent in that uh technological world. So, we have partnered again with WHI and Bear Country and every Thursday we tape a message about Greenfield Public Schools. It plays on Fridays and Tuesdays. Um, we also have language bridge interpretation now, which is really beneficial for all of us. Um, years ago, we used to have
042to wait for translation services and now all we have to do, no matter who you are in district, is dial a phone number and you're connected with someone who can translate on the spot. So, communication with our families is not stalled. So, it's a really great service. And I want to shout out to our director of pupil services, David Messing, for making that happen. Um, this was just some of the results from the parent survey that really showed they wanted some alternative ways that we were connecting. And one of those has been our social media launch. Um, if you don't follow us, please do. Greenfield Public Schools. We're on Instagram and Facebook and a lot of great things are posted on there and we try to highlight all of the wonderful things that our kids
043are doing each and every week. We've adopted S'more across the district because S'more can be um translated on the spot. I think it's 130 languages. So all the person has to do is click the translation. So there's no need to even call LanguageBridge. you can just read it in the language that you want to. Um, all of our principles use this for their newsletters as well, which make it very convenient for all of our families. The last standard was professional culture. The goal was to foster and support the use of data and data analysis to increase student outcomes with a focus on our three subgroups and the use and implementation of best practices and highly effective teaching strategies to maintain high expectations districtwide. to enchie to achieve improved results. So that goes back to a
044lot of the site visits, the PD, the data analysis, but it also goes through with um relationships with teachers and union representatives, classroom walkthroughs and pathways that we're trying to create to make our schools more exciting and engaging for our students. Um, one of the things that we're doing at the high school was uh making sure that our guidance counselors have the support they need. One of our um focus areas is on ninth grade failure rate um because that is something we're very concerned about. So uh Assistant Superintendent Sullivan hooked our guidance counselors up at the high school with Helen O'Donnell who's been doing some work with them and really creating some opportunities. They now have their own uh link on our website which has made it easily accessible for folks to access them. And
045then they've actually engaged with Helen in really talking about strategies they can use in order to provide some supports according to the mass model or framework for comprehensive school counseling programs for our students. This was just a sample of the agenda of one of the uh meetings that they had but really supporting supporting our students on am I on track to graduate? You know what is this mean to set and achieve in a goal? Am I empower employment ready? and really having those conversations earlier. The other thing that we've implemented this year is really a deep dive into the data and really trying to uh support our teachers in understanding the students in front of them and what those students um progress monitoring means and what they have to do when they actually find that
046the data is not meeting the goals. So one, this is just a spreadsheet that we've been using and it really makes them be reflective about how are my students performing from progress monitoring pinpoint to the next one. And then of those students that are not meeting growth, who are they? Do they fall in those subgroups? And what do we need to do to address the still the skill gaps that are there? We have um been working year-long on goals and you'll see I know it's very tiny but you do have it in your packet the district level goals the school level goals and the classroom level goals and we've really tried to streamline them so that all of us doing this work have some uh ownership in it and that it is not just teacher
047heavy but that it is all of our responsibility to make the student experience better. We are in um our year three of work with teaching uh lab and you'll see that part of that is progressing into years four and five so that we can really solidify the work that we have begun in the past three years and then just some more data from E team on ability to identify those trends and serve our student subgroups and then our restorative practice work that we've been doing with the um collaborative really discussing common language, how to develop and share common language around restorative practices, how to really get family and student feedback, and how to support a positive school climate and culture. There is much more evidence, but I thought that was plenty at least for this
048evening. But you have access to all of the um Google Drive folders. And then I just have a quick update. Um the normal enrollment uh numbers. There were uh a couple of moves really significant at the high school that you'll notice five. We had two students that moved to Orange, one student who was placed out of district, one who aged out, and one who moved to Connecticut. So I just like to highlight some of the shifts. Um, and then I was asked to give a business manager update because um, we had uh, I had been directed by you to go out to bid for the business manager um, on the March uh, meeting and I had sent the bid proposal to the city because uh, there was a conflict of interest obviously for Andy to
049do the procurement for us. Um, I posted it again on school spring. it was refreshed and it was also refreshed with MASBO. Um, as of May 1st, I didn't have an update on the bid. Um, but we did receive two qualified candidates on School Spring. So, I have contacted them to engage in interviews. On May 9th, um, I met with the school committee chair just to seek out an alternate vendor to complete the bid process. Um, I had indicated to the city finance director that we were going to use a different vendor. The collaborative for the educational services is going to conduct the procurement process for us. I've been in uh conversations with them this week and we will be moving forward the bid uh with the bid and then one of the qualified candidates
050who had applied actually withdrew their application on May 13th. But we do have one interview set up on Monday the 19th at central office and uh member uh secretary Deniv will sit on that as she had in the previous round along with the other members of the interview committee. That's it. Thank you. Um let's divide up our questions I guess first for just kind of regular uh the regular report and then we'll um open questions if people have followup around um the superintendent's presentation. Um so any questions on the regular report from the assistant superintendent and the superintendent? Member Goodwin. It's a surprise. I only have one really simple question. So the May 12th the collaborative. So I didn't know the collabor So is the collaborative actually advertising for a business manager? What is process?
051Wow. Sorry. They're going to do the bid process for us. So um I wish I could remember her name. I'm sorry I can't remember her name. Um Lincoln. Thank you. Miss Lincoln is handling it. And uh we were just communicating on the final pieces this afternoon and it will be posted Monday. So she'll post the whole position across the state. Well, so there's two tracks that we're pursuing simultaneously. One is to seek an employee and that's the interview that the superintendent mentioned and the uh the other is the procurement to seek a vendor who would provide the services for us. And so yes, that would be advertised statewide on combis and there's a whole procurement process that they'll follow. Yeah. Any other I'm looking at the Zoom now if anyone on Zoom um okay not
052seeing any. Okay. And now let's Oh, sorry. I'm either looking at one or the other. This is less of a question and more of a comment about the community engagement. So last week the middle school had their bike rodeo and it was such a phenomenal event, very well attended. Uh the police department was there supporting the kids and they had mobile bike repair there so all the kids could get their brakes serviced because you know how bikes not being ridden all winter will deteriorate. And I just wanted to compliment the administration all the way down to the middle school staff volunteers for doing such a wonderful thing for the kids and I hope that that is a program that is continued. Thank you. Any other questions on the general school business? All right. Any questions
053or comments for the superintendent on her uh her self-evaluation? I certainly appreciate the time and effort you put in in your presentation. I'm looking forward to digging in to the materials. Um I guess one just observation that I have is um that your presentation showed a breath of so many things and I guess I have kind of a close-up view in particular to your engagement with city councilors and the school committee and that's been extremely timeintensive and so I've been kind of like had a magnifying glass on that part of your work and it's very good to see all the other things that are happening as well and I don't know how you do it but I appreciate it and I hope we can um free up more of your time to put attention on
054the educational aspects in the future at least getting through this budget period. So um so some logistics about the superintendent evaluation. So tonight or tomorrow you'll receive from me a link to an online evaluation form. Um you will in the past we have evaluated the superintendent on every single characteristic in that um form and that rubric that's been developed. Um but actually we are only evaluating the superintendent on these particular items that she reported on tonight. That's part of the agreement. We don't evaluate on absolutely everything. There's certain, you know, areas that we're we're evaluating her on. So, those will be the focus of the form. So, you'll notice who people have done it in the past that it may be shorter and hopefully will give you a time chance to go more in depth
055on the items that we actually contracted with the superintendent to evaluate her on. So, um the deadline for that is going to have to be pretty firm because the um collaborative will need about two weeks to compile the data and we'll need kind of a week to get it together before next month's meeting. So, you have one week from whenever it is issued to um to complete that. Um and then we will um have our our evaluation of the superintendent at the next meeting. Secretary Denive, just to confirm. So this time we're doing it online and the collaborative is collating the results. Yeah, I think they did it last year too. Um, in the past, school committee members have been responsible for collecting these hard copy forms and like tabulating everything. And I thought if
056we're taking this seriously, it's uh the collaborative has a very reasonable rates to have a professional evaluator gather our data and summarize things for us and also kind of leaves um gives it maybe more credibility credibility because it's not someone with an agenda who's compiling the data, I guess. So I greatly thank you for that. Yeah, sure. Any other questions about the process? Okay, thank you very much. Next on our agenda, uh we next have the uh consent agenda which includes approving the minutes of April 9th, 2025, approving the administrative receptionist job description, approving high school library book weeding lists, not reading lists, weeding meaning getting rid of books, approve summer eats pay rates, approve the donation of three play structures for the Discovery School at Four Corners Play Area and approved the city capital
057planning committee vote that approved the purchase of the combo oven with a not to exceed dollar amount of $120,000 funds for the purchase to come from the food service revolving account. Are there any items on the consent agenda that any member would like to separate out? Um, not seeing any. So, I would hear a motion to approve the consent agenda. So, moved. A motion from Secretary Den. Is there a second? Second. Second from member Goodwin. Uh, any [Music] discussion? Okay. Uh, yes. Vice Chair Saxton, I was just wondering where do the books go after we get rid of them? Do we donate them to places? So, city departments have the opportunity for two weeks to come and take whatever they want and then we usually coordinate with roundabout. They have been very receptive to taking
058most of what we're discarding. Um, so that's usually our next step, but if you have other avenues, we're always happy to make sure they get donated to where it might be useful. Not that I can think of, but I'll I'll put my thinking cap on it. Okay. Any other discussion? Member Goodwin is the um item F the oven for the middle school. Okay. Yes. Vice Chair Ston. Sorry, I had one other thing about the proposed pay rates for staff. Do we think that that's going to be enough to entice people to do the work? We're just pretty confident. I just want to make sure. They're finicky tonight. They are um they are increased from last summer. So, uh Greta wanted to make sure they were posted so she can post the positions and um she
059usually has a lot of interest, so hopefully that will suffice. Thanks. Any other questions or comments on the consent agenda? Okay. Secretary Jane, will you call the role? Chair Johnson, a yes. I'm a yes. Vice Chair Ston, yes. Member Goodwin, yes. Member Childs, yes. Mayor Disorger, Mayor Dorger left at 7:18. Okay, thank you. Uh, member Martini, yes. Okay, it passes with one abstension. The mayor not being here. Okay, thank you. Um, next we're on school committee reports. I'll just say I want to uh thank you all so much for our special meeting last night to discuss the budget moment that we're in. And I appreciated the discussion um and working to kind of broadcast the message that we um re reolved on together last night. Um, and so we um encourage people to um to
060to spread the word that um we're kind of trying to do our part here with our budget and we're asking the city council and the mayor to meet us halfway. Um the ad hoc redistricting subcommittee any report? Yes. Secretary Deniv, we met on May 12th at central office. We reviewed the configurations we worked on two years ago and received a report on three meetings held by the superintendent to explore new possibilities. Two possibilities were outlined based on the outcome of those meetings. Our next meeting will be Tuesday, June 3rd at the Greenfield Library at 6 PM in the conference room. Thank you. Yes. questions or comments for Secretary Denive about the ad hoc redistricting? Okay, thank you very much. And then uh please Secretary Den continue with your Massachusetts Association of School Committees mask division
0615 report. Okay. On May 6th, um, Ann Stacy and I traveled to the UMass Club and State House in Boston to attend the MASC, that's Massachusetts Association of School Committees, Day on the Hill event. We joined forces with Ammerst, Sunderland, and Hadley school committee members to discuss increasing chapter 70 funding, special education, transportation costs, rural school aid, and charter school sending tuition. We met with senators Eldridge, Olivera, Domenico, Lewis, and Kumifford. And we met with representatives Gomez and Cabraw. The next possible steps are a planned event at the Delaney House in October hosted by our division 5 chair to invite legislators to have a more in-depth conversation about these issues as well as photo ops and dinner with other school committees in our Pioneer Valley area. We'd like to thank Jesus Leva for coming with
062us to support and arrange many of the meetings we attended. his help was invaluable and thank you to member childs for driving us all the way to Boston and back. Any questions? I want to thank you all so much for um making it happen. Um it's exciting to see now I think two years in a row the school committee really having three years in a row. It's really kind of growing and building and we're becoming more mature as uh as advocates and lobbyists and I really appreciate the work that you're doing on that. Your leadership in particular, Secretary Den, um let's see, next we have old business. Does anyone have any old business that needs to be addressed before our um our June meeting? Okay, move on to new business. Uh, I asked that we
063have this on our agenda. Um, Greenfield Pride is coming up and I just wanted to have a conversation amongst us about how and how or whether we'd like to attend. Um, there are many different options for um, participating. I personally think it would be a great thing to do. So, anybody got anybody got any ideas, thoughts about it? I'm also in favor of that of showing up and participating because we won't be the like city councilors go. Some of our other elected representatives also attend and participate in the march, but more importantly, some of our staff and many of our students are also there. And I think it would, you know, be a really nice gesture if we could be there in support and collaboration with each other. Um, letting them know they're not alone
064and neither are we. Nice. June 7th. 7th Saturday. And uh I don't remember exactly what time they gather at the middle school, right? and then march into town. The parade starts at 11:00, but I don't know what the meet up time is. Earlier. Yeah, hopefully. Earlier than probably 10:30 would be fine. Sunscreen. Um, yeah. Go ahead. The one thing that I sort of have questions about is I mean, we can go in March and just be in our plain clothes, but is there some way that we wanted to be identifiable as school committee members or um generic, you know, school related people if there's a t-shirt or something that's already available to us for that. Um, I was just wondering if you had more thoughts on that. I would love us to have school committee
065pride t-shirts. I think we could do it. Any What do you think? I love it. Okay. I want to wear school committee pride t-shirts and I have rainbow wings and I will hand out all of the rainbow craziness that I own to all of you. We have rainbow suspenders working. The other question is um there is a part of the parade uh where elected officials march. So we could march there together or there may be other places we could plug in. I'm kind of agnostic I guess at this point. I guess I have a slight preference for marching with the elected officials, but I could go anywhere. Does the school have an official marching section? Are are teachers and students planning something official? Students and staff do march. I don't know how they actually align
066them uh in the marching order, but I know our band usually also marches. So, um, I can find out more information for you if you want to know where they will be or I don't know who actually organizes it and might have parade order, marching order. You mean Oh, yeah. The the pride organizing committee. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Well, um, I don't think we need an official vote or anything. It just sounds like there's no objection and we'll we'll try and get some t-shirts made and um maybe we can we'll be gathering some information, but maybe we can plan to meet there at like 10:15 and sort out where we're going to march and all that. Okay, great. All right. Um that's the last item on the agenda other than adjournment. Is there a motion to
067adjurnn? So moved. A motion from Secretary Deniv. Is there a second? Second. Second from member Childs. Any discussion? Secretary Den, will you call the vote? Yeah. Hold on one second. Second. Okay. Chair Johnson. Yes. Army. Yes. Vice Chair Ston. Yes. Member Goodwin. Yes. Member Childs, yes. Member Martini, yes. We are adjourned. [Music]