Webster School Committee Meeting May 26th, 2026

0013 2 >> Good evening everyone. With the time being 6 p.m. on Tuesday, May 26th, 2026, I will call this meeting of the Woods School Committee to order and ask that we stand for the pledge of allegiance. I allegiance 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. >> As a reminder, this meeting is being recorded both video and audio and will be posted on the district website. The first item on the agenda is discussion and approval of the minutes from the May 12th, 2026 meeting. Is there any discussion around those minutes? Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion to approve them. >> So move. >> Second. >> There's a motion and a second, please committee. Member,

002>> yes. >> Member, >> yes. >> Member Millet, >> yes. >> Member Scario, >> yes. Chair Sadiki, >> abstain. >> Motion passes. And the next item on the agenda is our superintendence report. Good evening, Mrs. Franelie. >> Good evening. It's nice to see everybody tonight. I'd like to start off with a personnel update. Um, in your packet, you'll have a list. Uh, we have no assignments at this time. I am happy to announce a new hire, Melissa Basquez, a power professional at Park Elementary, and we want to welcome her to the Webster Public Schools. Um, we're excited to have her on board. Uh, we do have a couple recent resignations. We have Miss Sierra Urus, a speech assistant at Park A. She louder. Sorry. Speech assistant at Park A. We'll forget we don't have mics

003here. Yes. Um and Mr. Keith Goodier, an assistant principal at Park A. We wish them the best of luck in their future um endeavors. Uh we have no transfers at this time and as you can see we have vacancies um which are posted out on school spring and it is becoming that time of the year. As we close out one school year and open another um we'll be very active with our postings and interviewing and looking for positions um for the upcoming school year. Any questions on personnel? Okay, moving on to an instructional update. Um, I have a couple announcements from Bartlet High School and I'll take advantage of them because I don't think Miss is here for a couple of weeks. So, um, probably not till after summer into the fall. So, the first

004one is, uh, Bart Bartlett High School level one graduation. I had the pleasure of going to a graduation for our Butler High School advanced manufacturing program um where our students were recently recognized to have a MAC with level one graduation ceremony um for earning their certificate through the mass MEP Massachusetts Manufacturing Extension Partnerships. That was on Friday, May 15th um in the Bartlett High School auditorium. Uh, if you're wondering, the MAP with level one credentials validates foundational manufacturing skills, including shop map, blueprint reading, precision measurement, safety, and quality inspection. Uh, the certificate also serves a as a machine operator pre-apprentice credential and helps prepare students for careers and advanced manufacturing and skilled trades. Uh Matt Barack, associate director of the workforce development for mass MEP, presented students with their MacBook level one certificates of attainment

005and level one challenge coins during the ceremony. The event celebrated the hard work and dedication of students as they completed this important industry recognized achievements. Family, school administrators, and community members joined to recognize the students accomplishment and future career readiness. Um it was really great to see the number of students we have involved in our programming receiving certification um having that skill that when they decide to leave here if college is not for them they can enter into the industry with some certifications. I'll put a couple pictures in your packets of the students receiving graduates. And then I also had the pleasure to attend the start graduation at BB Hub. I want to congratulate Michael Pagan who graduated from the Blackstone Valley Hub for Workforce Development Start Manufacturing Program on Monday, May 18th. The Start

006Manufacturing Program is designed to prepare uh graduating high school seniors for continuing their education and manufacturing fields or entering immediate employment opportunities within the manufacturing industry. The program combines technical training, career readiness, instruction, skill development, and real world experience, bridging the gap between local manufacturers seeking skilled level entry employees and students interested in pursuing um careers. As more graduates enter the workforce directly after high school, the program ensures students are equipped with the practical knowledge, hands-on experience, and industry exposure needed to succeed in today's advant advanced manufacturing se sector. help helping them build financial stability and rewarding futures. Uh during the graduation ceremony, students received their certificates of attainment from BB hub. Instructor RD Young Maver from also MEP mass MEP presented students with surprise gifts to support their transitioning into the manufacturing workforce. Um

007some of these students have been participating in this all year and they actually are leaving um this program and entering right into the workforce um with some jobs that they have filled for them that they've done interns with. Um graduates received the toolbox still with position measurement tools used throughout the course including a digital caliper, a micrometer, and a machinist ruler. Students also rece received a brand new Chromebook and a thousand gift card to help jumpstart their career. During the program, Michael completed an internship at Jeffco in Webster and was offered a position within the company. Uh he has in he has chosen at this time to pursue an opportunity with the electric boat in Rhode Island as he begins his career pathway in the manufacturing industry. So we wanted to congratulate Michael. Um it

008was nice to see him and his family there. He's off to start his career. He certainly has a goal in mind. He knows what what he wants to do and we wish him the very best. I am now going to turn it over to Dr. Mai um to speak about the seal of biency. Thank you and thank you all for coming. Um we are pleased to report this year that we have eight students who are recipients of the mass state seal by literacy. This is an extra special year because as we have uh one student who is being awarded the seal in two languages. Pretty spectacular. And for the first time since we started doing this in Webster, we have three students who have earned the seal with distinction, which means they earned a higher

009score on the MCCAST to start with and then a higher score, the highest score on the test that tests the other language proficiency. So, here are the students. The first is Javana Lopes Torres. Javana S. And Javana is uh has earned distinction seal of bi literacy in Portuguese which is her native language and in Spanish which she learned later on and so that is wonderful. Thank you Javana. You did great. Um, we have Ivy Bukas Ivy and Ivy tested in Tagalague, which is um her native language from the Philippines. And Ivy also earned the seal of distinction in Tagalog. Excellent. Thank you, Ivy. And we have Taes, who's not here with us tonight. Tais Tapia Martinez, who earned Spanish with distinction. and uh Spanish is her native language and what I don't know is how

010long ago whether she was born here or how long ago she um came to the US. Um and so just because Spanish might be or there's a different native language, if that student didn't attend school in their native language, um then they know like myself, they know spoken language but not necessarily academic language. And so Ty learned um participated in Spanish classes in the time that she was here and she performed high on uh high enough on the AP Spanish test and that is what qualified her for the sale of biiteracy along with her um MCCAST score. So another one with distinction. And then we have Katherine Nasimento. Catherine Katherine earned the seal of biiteracy in Portuguese which is her native language. Um not with us tonight is Gabriel Soua Masiel. Now a little something

011about Gabriel that is extra special is Gabriel this is only Gabriel's second year with us in the United States. And Gabriel earned a high enough MCAST score on ELA and um obviously did well on in Portuguese. So that's a feat in in and of itself within two years to get a passing score on MCCAST. Um so congratulations to Gabriel as well. We have Gerene Vasquez Centron who's not here as well. Um and she earned the seal by literacy in Spanish. And last but not least, we have Eric and I know how to say this name because I learned it a long time ago at Park Avenue. Eric Pivaric. Eric earned the seal in Polish, his native language, or his his was that the first language that you spoke, Eric? >> Uh, second >> his second

012language. So, it's called a heritage language, which is a language spoken at home, not your native language. So, congratulations. These students and their families have worked very hard to maintain their native languages or heritage languages or through study continued to uh maintain language while in Webster. the seal will give them advantages in the workforce, possible college credits to start with, and hopefully continued pride in being bilingual. So, congratulations to you all. Uh, just on behalf of the committee, I'd like to congratulate each of you and your families. uh maintaining your native language or your heritage language is a challenging thing to do when you're in an environment where it's not spoken every day. So, it takes a commitment by all of you to do that. Whether you did that at home and with your family

013or you picked up another language here at school, um it's through a a lot of hard work and determination. So, congratulations. >> I would like to congratulate all of you. I see how hard you work day in and day out and um you just amazing representation of what a Bartlett High School student is. Um so thank you for that. Before you leave, I would love to get a picture of all of you and your families and Dr. Mai if possible. Can we do that? Can we do that now? Cuz >> Yeah, let's do that. >> You don't have to sign for the rest of the other stuff. So if you want to take a picture now, let's do that. Can I be in the middle? Okay. >> Yeah. >> As Mrs. Spigley stated, you're very

014welcome to to stay for this meeting. Um, but not obligated. It It probably will be a long one. So, um, it's up to you. Stay as long as you like. >> You all don't have to stay if you don't want to. >> I'm giving you the opportunity to run. You can never stay from school. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Thank you. And congratulations. >> Thank you. Are you sure? >> Congratulations, Sarah. >> You have to he has to stay a little while longer. >> Um to continue on under instruction, uh walkthroughs. Uh our last one happened on May 14th. Um this was our final walkthrough of the year. in your pocket. I added the last message that went out. Um, we will send one more s we will send one more message

015out from May's um that'll be in addition to that. So, you have a copy of that. And then moving on, I just found out on Friday from Miss Shanahan, our um counselor at the high school. Um she attended a webinar for early college uh for the early college designation committee where our application with partner state university was voted on. Um I'm excited and thrilled to announce that we've received the require approval for that designation. With this miss with this news, Miss Shanahan will be working with Wester State on building our program to officially start this fall and move out of the pilot program. So that's going to be a great partnership that we're excited to have at the high school. We currently have 37 rising jun juniors who are interested in the early college program

016for next year as well as 32 rising seniors. Miss Shanahan will be holding an information night on June 10th for students as well as parents. During this event, our partner in this adventure, Wester State, will be present on what West State has to offer for college courses, expectations, and services available. So, I'd like to thank Miss Shanahan for her efforts and applying and working with the colleges and reaching out and um Miss Neves for all the hard work and effort that they put into this. Are there any questions on instruction? >> No, it's great news about the early college that's going to give our students a huge advantage to graduate with college credit. >> Absolutely. >> Financial savings as well. >> Sure thing. >> Yep. Great. >> Any jump is a big help. Um, next

017is the in your packet is the third quarter Southern Worester County Educational um, collaborative report. Um, by law we're required to submit these to the committee. So, this is for your reading pleasure. Um, it's a great rainy day read. So, um, if you're looking to know what's going on in the collaborative, it's right there for you. And then in other updates, um I was very excited to attend the junior and senior senior prom on May 16th. Um it was a great time out of all. The students were amazing and the theme was masquerade and what a great group of kids. It was a wonderful night. The food was great. Um we thoroughly enjoyed it. So I hope I think they had fun. I didn't hear one complaint all night. Um and it's wonderful to see

018that they don't leave the dance floor there. all year dancing all night, which is great. I love that. Um I' I'd be the one sitting, you know, back in the back row or something, so that's exciting. Um on May 21st, Wednesday of last week, I attended the CMC art show. Um we have some students there, so it was a great night. Um families to come in. They line the hallways similar to what we do at Ark Avenue. Um for our students, they line the hallways with art all the way down. Um, families can walk up and down, see the art, um, talk to the kids. They have some performances that are going on with music in in one of the rooms, and it was a great way to recognize the work that they have have

019done. Um, what I really appreciate about uh, the Central Mass Collaborative is they've worked really hard. Um, sometimes when students were going out of district, sometimes it we heard years ago that it almost felt like a punishment that it didn't feel truly like they were attending school and they've worked really hard to make the collaborative feel like a school community. Um, so when you walk in, that's what you see. Um, and it has that feel to it. So I'd like to give a shout out to Sue Farrell, the director, um, for really making that a school community. Um, and it was great to see the kids really excited to show off the work that they've done. And then on Thursday of last week, I attended the Webster Middle School play. Um, the students did an

020amazing job taking us on a trip to Neverland. Um, I'd like to thank the staff who helped to make this um, happen. Miss Burns and Miss Foster and all the volunteers, the kids, the large group of kids that they had in the play. I couldn't get over the numbers um and trying to corral all them in and and actually putting on a production. They did a fantastic job. They sang beautifully. They acted beautifully. Um and uh just kudos to them. It was great to see them in their elements, some of the kids. So, it's wonderful that we have all these types of different events um that our kids can really bring their personalities out and shine um through all the things that we offer, whether it's music, whether it's plays, whether it's sports. Um it's

021it's a wonderful opportunity for us students. And if there are no other comments, that concludes my report. Thank you, Mrs. Brangley. Any questions or comments from the committee? No. Thanks for those updates. Some great things happening. >> The next item on our agenda is our business manager report. Good evening, Mrs. Cons. >> Good evening. We're going to get started with the Bartlett High School building project. I gave a pretty substantial update at the last meeting, so this one will be a little bit more brief. Um so while in section A the abatement and demo work is going on our key focus areas coming up this summer are really planning for the receipt of the new furniture that's planned to be delivered assembled over the summer that's requiring a lot of logistical work because we have

022a lot of furniture that we need to get surplus. So you will be seeing that coming in front of you at a meeting next month. Um but as well as planning for um how we're going to orchestrate all this because we have some tight time frames. We have to work around activities that are going to be going on on campus as well as summer school. So we're doing a lot of planning um to be ready for those activities which will keep us busy for about 8 weeks over the summer. The other thing that's going on is a lot of um acceleration um or pre-planning of a lot of the what we're calling hardscape work around the campus. some of which was originally planned for phase 4 that we're trying to get done a little bit

023earlier over this summer rather than pushing that off and having to try to do it during the school year which would be a little bit more challenging to try to get you know binding done on the asphalt and get all of that done. So we're working very closely with our OPM and the GC on planning activities. Um, we're starting some work in the bus loop right now, which is really kind of pre-planning work and some digging that needs to be done for drains on the roof. Um, and then we will be shifting to when that work happens. Um, as it stands, we're looking for a good portion of it to happen the first couple weeks in August. Um, but the full schedule hasn't been solidified. Those are some of the preliminary plans. The other thing

024that's ongoing is addressing any punch list items that are coming out of phase 2 completion. Uh most notably, um once you get into a new section, the system gets up and running. We have some balancing that we're still working out with HVAC. So, we have some rooms that either get particularly cold or particularly warm and really trying to work out that balancing of the system based on all of the occupancy settings, the set points that they have in the system to get that worked out. So, we continue to work handinand um with the subcontractor who comes in to help us tune that. Uh also working with the subcontractor on some remnant AV related topics um either within the auditorium um or in um the gymnasium and the cafeteria. Uh and then also planned for this

025summer is we have some work that needs to be done on the Wi-Fi here at Bartlett. Um and that's planned hopefully um between the end of school and start of summer school. But again, we're looking for those dates to be finalized with the third party that we're working with. That's kind of a high level on where we are with the school building project. Are there any questions? >> Okay, moving on to other updates. I previously reported that we were awarded a green community grant in March. So, I'm currently working with the third party that's going to help us uh convert our lighting at Park AB to LED lighting. Um we're beginning conversations around the schedule and getting them on boarded. So more to come. Um it will happen over the summer and be completed hopefully

026before the start of the next school year. Um and hopefully I'll have it scheduled by the next meeting. Next thing is I actually attended the 60th annual Mazbo Institute last week. Uh this is actually a statewide gathering that's designed to support the professional development of school business managers and to provide dedicated time for networking and consultation with colleagues across the state. It featured a couple keynote speakers. We actually had Commissioner Pedro Martinez there as well as Inspector General Jeff Shapiro. Uh along with about 40 sessions that they had across 10 different learning blocks that you could select from. I attended a variety of sessions on budgeting, restructuring, SOA advocacy, health insurance cost trends, retirement systems, student activity accounts, nutrition programs, financial reporting, and AI and school operations. While all those sessions are particularly helpful, probably

027the most valuable part of this session is the networking, especially with business managers in in nearby districts. you know, the conversations sort of help you with some real-time benchmarking about how we're doing, uh, what other people are experiencing, some shared problem solv. So, um, this given that it's in its 60th year, I think highlights that it is a really high impact professional development opportunity that helps to just strengthen, you know, financial leadership, but helps the district itself stay aligned with statewide best practices because there's always something that you learn in these sessions that you weren't aware of that either changed or is new that you have to keep up on. Any questions? All right. I wanted to give everyone an update on where we are with the fiscal year 26 um budget. Um we are

028at this point in the year about 80% spent which is tracking correctly given the fact that we have a big balloon payment that we pay out in salaries next month. Uh we are projecting a deficit. Uh that deficit that we're projecting is not a big surprise to us. You may recall that during our fisc year 27 budgeting process, we had been talking about um where we started the fiscal year 26 budget relative to our tuitions and what they were already moving up towards. So um we're projecting a deficit of $322,000. So, as expected, we will be using um both the extraordinary that's actually assuming that we're using the extraordinary circuit breaker and so we'll be using some additional circuit breaker on top of that. The good news is is that it's not as high as

029we thought it was going to be. We were expecting that we were going to be using um close to 890,000 of the circuit breaker 26 money and in fact we'll be using less than that. it'll be 656,000 roughly is where we are right now based on our projections. Um so that leaves us with a higher balance um in that circuit breaker account as we go into next year. So that's where the projections look like at this given point in time. So we're in good shape. Um no big surprises um as we have been monitoring the tuition. In fact, tuition overall is really 1.1 million over budget. So, the fact that we're only going to be using 656 is a good sign in terms of the help that we're in and um some savings that we've

030been able to gain from vacancies and other things throughout the budget. >> Any questions? >> It sounds like so primarily tuition and things like that drove up were higher than what we anticipated. >> Tuition and contracted services. >> Okay. >> Y primarily related to special education. >> Absolutely. Yes. And while it would have brought us a little over a million over costsaving measures that we put into place during this year, saved us about a half a million dollars. Is that >> Yeah, we're we're we're saving from the, you know, using like 656 to the 1.8. So, >> half million. >> Yeah. That's a combination of vacancies and other things that we could forego and not spend money on. >> That's significant. >> Absolutely. We've been watching um closely knowing that our tuition was so high

031and it's always our goal um to preserve as much circuit breaker as we can to carry over that year because as you know anything can happen in a given year um with tuitions. So when we're picking up $900,000 of tuition in a year out of two tuitions, we have to be prepared um to cover those. >> So and we keep watching those tuitions because there are times where we end up having a a commitment and we liquidate those. Right. So there's some that have gone away, some that have come in. So it is it's extremely fluid. I'll tell you on a day-to-day basis. Um I can see changes that happen as a result of that depending on what's going on and who we need to service as a result of that. >> The extraordinary uh

032circuit breaker, the extra circuit breaker money coming in is a big help. You know, 333,000. So >> um >> yeah, we were originally looking at um I think 1.8 was our projection and you know, we're over 2.1 on the circuit breaker. So that was a big help getting that in there. >> So we are carrying over a larger balance than we had planned. >> Mhm. >> Or that's what we're projecting to do. >> What's the process of getting the extra relief? >> It's already happened. Um once we do our claim, >> do we we put a claim in? >> Yeah. Yeah. So we start usually circuit breaker you put it in at the end of the year, but for extraordinary you start they switch the process a little bit. So in February you start putting

033in your circuit breaker plane then. So they have all the information to review. If you're 25% over your prior year tuition, um you will qualify for um extraordinary circuit breaker. So we do and then again we'll go in in June at the end of June and we update all the spreadsheets um to say did anybody else leave? Were there added services that we didn't project for? Was there transportation? And that updates our final number going into the next year. So it's like a two off for that and it's done by the special ed office. Um Maria Sant here does that in the special ed department. So it's looking at basically what you're doing is you're collecting. You might have a student who has OTPC speech. So they have to look at the tuition of the

034student. They look at the services that they do. They could look at the if the student has a one-on-one. There are all these services that you can claim that add up and whatever is over that foundation that's what qualifies. >> And what's the split? Is this similar to the circuit break? >> It's the same exact thing. Yeah. Y good questions through the chair. But so considering but so like next year we have 20 vacancies and like so if by miracle because we need those positions filled if they get filled we're going to >> our goal is to fill the positions and have them we would have what we would have been doing is using more of the circuit breaker. The reason why we're able to save is because of that. But that's not necessarily what

035we want. We want to fill those positions. But, you know, I'd rather us not be sitting here saying, um, we have these savings because we know that the alternative to that is maybe something's not happening, >> right? >> So, this year we could be in a different hopefully >> assuming they're filled and we didn't have any savings from that. The other conversation we could be having aside from using more circuit breaker is putting a freeze on the entire budget, say come February, right? no more spending across the district on anything, you know, as a way to compensate for that if we were in that situation. I mean, we did that the previous year. >> Yeah, we didn't do that this year. We watched closely, but we knew there were positions that were not being filled.

036So, we weren't uh putting a freeze on everything that was happening across the district. But, you know, we watch it and that's why we do the projections. That's why we're looking at it quarterly. I mean, we're actually looking at it more often than that. we present quarterly, but what we we anticipate um we're monitoring our percentages as we go through the year to see um if we need to put any stop gaps in place. >> Yeah. >> And through the summer looking at special ed needs and IEPs, these vacancies might change depending on where students are at. >> We've looked at a lot of that already. Um, but we know since when we were doing budgets in February, staffing has changed. Needs have changed already. Students have come in. There are additional things. That's something

037that Miss Pierce had to talk about tonight. Um, because some of the needs shift. Um, so by the time we start the budget, we're starting in October. You know, by the time we're presenting it to the town, it's February. Things change. From May, things have already, you know, from town meeting. Things have already changed. Um, so yes, we could have more moveins over the summer, which could impact our our staffing even more. Um, or we have people leaving. Uh, goes in either direction. But, you know, hopefully we can manage with the staff that we have. That's our hope. Um, and sometimes we have to shift and make adjustments, which is something we're going to talk about tonight. >> Any other questions or comments from the committee? Thank you for the updates. Is there anything else

038that you wanted to update us on? >> That was it for this evening. >> All right. Well, thank you for your updates. >> And our next item on the agenda is our principal report. And joining us this evening from Park Avenue Elementary is Miss E. Kapico. Good evening. >> Good evening. Um, first I want to just give you an update on our current endofear assessments. So, we did just finish MCCAST recently. Um, I'm happy to say we had 100% participation. So, we're able to get all kids in and tested and through makeups, which is um quite a feat. So, we're happy to report that. We uh are also in the middle of our endofear dibble assessment, which is our early literacy assessment um as well as our I Ready for ELA and math. So, uh,

039math will be next week. So, we're kind of gathering all of that data and information, uh, celebrate our successes and also use that data to augment our instructional planning for next year. Um, so we'll be looking at that and kind of making early groups to be able to kick off the year running to make sure we're we're, you know, supporting our students as they need right at the beginning of the year. I also wanted to talk about our um blossoming partnership with the library. Um it's really been growing uh especially this year. We've seen a lot of growth in our partnership with the Glattis Eve Kelly Library. Um working with the children's librarian Paige St. Lawrence um who is new to the library. Um has been well new to this position. and I don't know

040if she's new new but um has really been great. We've had a lot of activities happening. Uh they have done three book visits this year to park a so in November they brought the red crayon which consists of a readaloud and then a um character visit of of the book character. In January they brought Penelopey Rex and just recently in May they brought Mother Bruce. So, um it's been really great. They get these um costumes on loan. So, they come in and do a presentation for our students. I think like the first one we did in November was just kindergarten and then by May we were able to get the scheduling down and have three of our grades uh participate. So, it's been great. Uh we also just recently did uh this past week um

041a K field trip to the library. They have the whale mobile there which is this giant inflatable whale and the kids learn about whales from the outside and then get to go inside and sit inside this giant humpback whale um called Nile. So um it's an it's a model of an actual whale that they track and have seen uh in the ocean and so they learn about the whales and then go inside. So we did a um rotating um shuttle to bring the kids there and the students also did other activities within the library as well. And the library also brought us the ecotarium this past week uh for grade four and the ecotarium came and did rockets um with the grade four kids out on the playground. They built their rockets, um had a

042pump up thing, shot them off, and then were able to re-engineer their work and try again. So, um then they the library got that program in through a grant. And so, um between our librarian, Miss Kennedy, and Miss St. Lawrence, they've been really working together nicely. And our grade three is taking a walking field trip um there this week. So, um, we've really been building that partnership, which has been fantastic. I think a really by us an underutilized resource. So, we're really happy to have that happening. Uh, some recent events, some you just heard about that we we've had with the library. Couple other recent events I wanted to highlight, we did have our kindergarten and grade two concerts. We're still utilizing the gym to do that, which is a great setting now that we

043have the with the bleachers. Um, our PTO held their me and someone special dance, which is always a big hit. Uh, we had two full sessions. Uh, it was the same day as prom. So, Miss Pangeli came all decked out to our me and someone special dance and then made her way to the prom. Uh we had the fire department in to do their safety presentation with grade three. Girls on the run ran their 5K at Polar Park. We've had a couple field trips. I just talked about the whale mobile. Grade two does a field trip to Buffamville Dam and uh grade four hikes Mount Wuset. So we've had um four of our grade four classes go already. The other two will go this week. And we also had the Harlem Tricksters in on Friday.

044So, their motivational basketball, Think Harlem, Globe Trotters um event. So, that was fun. That was a whole school uh event again in the gym. So, you know, when we put in those bleachers, we've really made a lot of use of them. Um bringing the whole school together, not only for community meetings, but for events like that. So, it's been great. you I have given you a list of our upcoming events. Um you know you're always welcome to stop by for any of them. One that is not on there that I just realized is um this Thursday we have grades one and three have their concerts. Uh those happen in the morning and afternoon. Um June 4th we do have grads on parade happening. It's a little more of a high school thing, but since Gina

045won't be back, um, as you know, we welcome our grads to walk through our our buildings, meaning we'll be back to speak to you before before it happens. Um Um, so they'll come through, we'll we'll set up. We usually also I'll get out into the circle as they do a couple rounds. So, if you haven't gotten to come see that event, please do. Grade four on June 13th. We think grade four will have their concert and recognition ceremony. Just a way to congratulate them on their years coming through park ad. June 12th is uh preschool's last day and they also have a graduation recognition. So our our four-year-olds who will be coming to us for kindergarten graduate preschool and we recognize the other students for completing a year of preschool. And then on June 16th,

046grade four will come over to the middle school for their step up day. They um come over, see some classes, and stay for lunch at the at the middle school on that day. And then on June 22nd is another library partnership. So, uh, not realizing we were going to have as many snow days as we did, uh, the library had planned their summer reading kickoff for the 22nd, uh, midday. So, we have worked with them to have it at the school instead. So, all of the kids will experience it, um, rather than them doing it and nobody being there because all of our kids are in school. So they will bring uh their kickoff event um which I believe is an uh Asian acrobat um performance. So they will bring that to the kids at

047at the school instead and do the kickoff that way. So another benefit of the partnership being able to support each other when snow days run over. And that is all I have. Thank you for your updates. Any questions or comments from the committee from M Miss Pico to the chair? Member screening. I think the partnership with the Webster Library is such a great opportunity and an easy opportunity and it's just going to build that bridge between your students at Park Gab and just accessing the library with their families and on their own time. Yeah. >> And I mean, and that's the goal, right, is to get kids to read. So, >> um I think it's phenomenal and I'm even with the Bartlett um relationship they have with the summer eats program too. It's just an

048awesome resource for us to use and free. >> Yeah. And the library has done a great job supporting all of our schools across the district and we've uh had a real great collaboration um bringing in authors. They're always looking for ways to, you know, help engage our kids in reading and and the love of reading. So, um, I thank them for their partnership. So, we look forward to more. >> Yeah, agree. Any other questions or comments from the committee? >> All right. Well, thank you. Lots of great things going on over at Park Avenue. And then next item on our agenda is an update from our student representative. Um, Miss, do you want to start or should we start with Eric's updates? >> Good evening, Eric. >> Good evening. So, a couple positives. Of course,

049summer's coming very close to us. And of course, us seniors, we're soon to be graduating. So, glad that we're all able to finally make it through the school year. Some challenges for us seniors are final exams. Some people didn't quite yet qualify for them, but some of us did. And also, of course, for the underassman who also have to take them. For testing, we had final study sync benchmark testing windows from May 18th to May 29th in all ELA courses that use the study sync curriculum. Final CPM benchmark testing window from May 18th to May 29th and all of the math courses that use the CPM curriculum. Uh, also of course this week we have senior final exams. uh from May 22nd we had periods 3 4 and 5 for the ADA. May 26th we

050had periods 3, four and five for B days. Uh the 27th we have periods 1 and two for Aday. And the 28th we have periods 1 and two for B days. Uh some student engagement. Today the student council had their ice cream party. Uh the 29th we will be having a schoolwide awards ceremony for all sports and other groups in the school. Uh May 2nd we had international thespian society induction. For sports, boys tennis had their senior night. And baseball, they also had their senior night and they won against David Crowy. So glad that they won. Some senior updates, of course, May 22nd to the 28th, seniors are taking their final exams. May 29th, seniors are having their barbecue where they also turn in their school issued Chromebooks and chargers. Uh, also the 29th to

051the 30th, seniors will be having their senior overnight in the gym and I also think the cafeteria as well. Uh, also on the 30th, we will be having our senior sunrise, which don't know who's really going to be wanting to be up for 5 in the morning to watch the sunrise. June 1st, seniors will be having their field trip to Brownstone Adventure Park. Uh June 2nd to the 5th, seniors will be having their graduation rehearsals. We will also be having our senior awards night with cap and gown distribution. June 4th, we will be having our graduation day parade across all the schools. And of course, June 5th, seniors will be having their graduation at Indian Ranch. >> Excellent. Lots happening. Hard to believe it's almost the end, isn't it? >> Well, it's kind of hard

052to believe, but finally finally done. >> I'm excited. No longer have to wake up at 6:00 in the morning to be ready for school. >> Pick your classes wisely next year. >> I will have to chair the member. >> Do you know where you're going next year? Uh, I'm going to be going to UMass LOL for engineering and more specifically mechanical engineering. >> Congratulations. >> I just want to say good luck to the seniors in all your outdoor events >> uh coming up at the end of the year. I really hope and pray that the weather holds out for you guys. >> Hope the weather holds up pretty nice and also hopefully it's not too hot. >> No, good vibes there. I was just watching on the news this morning. and they showed a graduation

053show like from some place. Did you see it? And it was raining it down pouring rain and they had it in the pouring rain. There were some >> not so great comments about it, but there were also some very positive comments about it saying this is what it is. It's a very memorable day that just made it one more thing. So, we're going to hope for sunshine and uh 75 with a slight breeze, but um that's my request. But >> we'll take what we get. Right. >> Of course, >> as long as you're graduates at the end of the evening, we'll have accomplished our goal. Right. But good weather is always helpful as well. >> Absolutely. >> Eric, I want to thank you. You've been a steady presence for us most of these meetings when

054you didn't have other sporting events, which I know um the benefit of having a student athlete on our committee is that we get a really well-rounded perspective of what's going on in the school. The drawback can be sometimes you've got you're overcommitted, right? Um but you've really done a nice job of sharing all of the information that's going on, both the positives and the areas where um students would like to see some difference or even just things that are real world struggles for students at Bartland. So we've done a great job of relaying all of that and I really have appreciated you being here and giving up your Tuesday evenings to be here with us. Of >> course, thank you for having me. Of course. >> Any other comments from the committee? >> Ask for

055the chair. >> Member Mill to meet the new student, right? >> We are, but not until we're we're finished talking to Eric. >> Yes. Don't have it be 95 degrees for graduation like last year. >> You're You're going to fix that, right, Eron? >> Write that down. Um, no, you've been great and I I know you'll do well at UMass alone next year and can't wait to hear about how everything's going. So, thank you for everything. >> If there's no other comments from the committee, I will turn it over to Miss Nether for a moment. >> So, Eric, I want to thank you for stepping in halfway through the year. I know that wasn't easy. You had a lot of commitment, so you definitely worked with all of us. So, thank you. >> Yeah. So,

056as Eric steps out, we have a new student rep um for next year. It's Dave Patel. Um who will be joining us every Tuesday night for school. >> Hi, my name is Dave Patel. I'm a junior upcoming senior. Uh and I'm excited for this. I'm really honored to be here and happy. Thank you. Well, as you heard Eric give his updates tonight, um we're really excited to hear what you'll have to bring to the meetings. And you can certainly take a page out of Eric's book and and share things from the student perspective, but you can also put your own spin on it and and deliver your remarks any way you want to and you'll settle into the role nicely, I'm sure. >> Do you have any advice? Um, >> it's just be confident. >>

057We got to have a little >> That's right. >> Good advice. You're a great role model for student reps. So, and and for students in general. So, >> thank you. Um, any other questions or comments? I would just uh through the chair like to say don't um hesitate to put areas that you hear from students that they think we should hear that there are we want to hear all the great things. Of course we do. Um but if there are concerns don't bring them. Please just bring them and because then it opens up discussion about how we can help if there are any issues that people that students are really having. So don't hesitate to do that. Can I add something like some please? It should have I don't have anything written but I talked

058at student council meeting last week about some issues that are having at student parking lot about um how some parents are dropping their kids off there in the morning. So like the students are coming to class late. Uh I was always late few times because parents took my spot. I have to do a whole circle before all the parents leave and like park in my spot park all the way in the back. But that's a issue that I saw this year with like all the student parking spots being taken by um uh parents who were dropping their kids off uh set up here at the student parking spot. So, >> thank you for bringing that up. And for those who are listening, um it is a nice reminder that um we have very limited parking

059here because of the building project and parking even if you're in your vehicle. You're trying to probably get to work on time as a parent and get your student to school on time. Um but we should be mindful to not do that at the expense of students not being able to get their vehicle parked so they can get themselves to class on time as well. So, thank you for bringing that up. And if I could add something to that, um, for those that are watching, uh, we actually had to put signs up in the faculty parking area because we had parents doing the same thing in that area. Um, so we often remind parents both at the beginning of the school year on the website in the superintendent newsletter about where the appropriate places are

060to drop off. And the only way that we're going to really be able to tackle this is that people follow the protocol, right? And sometimes people feel like it's easier to pull into these parking lots, but they do create congestion. They create risk because pulling in there and backing out could potentially cause an accident. Um, and it actually disrupts the flow of traffic much more by these little pit stops that they make. So, um, a plea to parents that may be paying attention. Um, we have designated drop off spots and if people could adhere to h that I completely agree with you. And when I've done crosswalk duty out there, I often talk to many of those parents who dismiss the feedback and direction that they're given about where to drop off. So, it's a

061challenging issue to tackle. And you know, the drop off line as somebody who drops off both at Bartlett and at the middle school sometimes can look long, but it moves pretty quickly. staff are there to try to get people out as quickly as possible and get the kids in the building. So, >> and I can't say enough about when you do pull up, be ready. Have your kids ready, be ready to jump out, have your bag ready, have things in your hand. Um, you know, just it it makes the whole process >> and it's safer. It is that we've had designated areas for safety. Um, so when we're dropping off in other areas, you know, there might not be somebody there to monitor, you know, the traffic or somebody crossing or not being seen by

062another car. So, um, just for the safety of everybody and our students wellbeing, you know, we would appreciate it if they would work with us. But I have some signs and we can put them up over there, too. >> I don't know that it'll stop it, but it might be a little bit of a deterrent, >> probably. >> Good. Well, thank you for raising that. Any other questions or comments or anything from anyone? Well, once again, Eric, thank you. And Dave, welcome. We're looking forward to hearing uh your updates. Um the next item on our agenda under old business is special education program and staffing update. >> Good evening. there. So today I'm going to be specifically talking about our ABA classrooms over at Park Avenue Elementary School. For several years, we've had three ABA

063classrooms serving students on the autism spectrum, and two of them have primarily been delegated for students with autism and severe needs, where the third classroom was for students that have that are on the spectrum, but are ready to transition and spend time in inclusion. So, just to give some perspective, each classroom should have no more than 12 students in it. and we're ending this year with 36 students. So, that seems to be great. Like, we have enough room for all of our students entering next year. But if history were to repeat itself and we looked at our trending numbers, we started this year with four moveins and we're ending this year with four moveins. So, that's how we received our numbers. So, we have some concerns about starting this program with the high numbers, but

064more importantly, how we service our students because all the students that are in those programs are not alike. And there are a subset of students that are reading, are ready to go into inclusion, and work closer to grade level where others are significantly behind. and it would be an injustice to combine the third classroom to accommodate numbers when it wouldn't allow for the students to really get what they need. So, we're here today to share that information to let you know that over there's four streams of streams of students coming in. One is students go through the IEP process. They try different least restrictive environments. They don't find success, so they may need a higher level of care. The other is moveins. The third one is we have seen a significant increase of students going

065through insurance ABA programs and they have returned to the district not for kindergarten but first grade, second grade, third grade which is really unusual but that has been a trend for the last several years. And then we also have students stepping up for for pre from preschool. So it's not necessarily the substantially separate program which could be more predictable but also when they have are not finding success in inclusion they could end up taking the route of needing a more restricted environment for um kindergarten. So we just wanted to share this feedback around our numbers and what they look like entering for um for next year. Um, so one of the things that we're looking at is reallocating staff uh in order to staff this program to stay within our current staffing number, stay within

066our current budget uh situation. But um and also considering our our class size and ensuring that our class sizes stay reasonable. Um, we do think that it is possible, we do know that it is possible to reallocate some staff to um that position. Um, at this time, we're not quite at the place of sharing where where that would come from, but we are able to reallocate staff to create space and staffing for that position. So, it's not as simple as just coming back and looking and saying we need an additional position because one, we don't have room in the building to put an additional position. So, that's a barrier for us. So, we're looking at our current staff um levels across all grade levels. We're looking at locations. We're looking at how we can shift

067and flow um within our building within our current needs um without coming to the committee and asking for an additional position. Um, we feel like it is in our um, best interest to really dive into our staffing structure and take a look at everything across the board and then make it work with them before we come back and ask for another position because we have to look at space and allocations. >> So these classrooms, the ABA classrooms serve up to 12 students per classroom. Are they traditional size classrooms at Park? Yes. Two of them are and one is one is on a smaller scale. >> Okay. And they're staffed by a regular classroom teacher >> by a special education teacher. >> Yes. And depending on the need um they could have more support staff versus

068less support staff. So depending on the need of the students in the program. So that's something also we take into account. >> Yeah. I'm just wondering about what is the staff student ratio in those rooms? >> They vary. Yeah. I I would say predominantly right around two two to one two. >> Okay. >> So this was more forformational um where you know we know we're getting to a spot where we've seen some changes in dynamics across we know that it's in our students best interest to add um an additional program um class. Um, without that we could be putting ourselves in the position when we're not supporting the kids the way we need to support them. We could also be put in a position where we're looking to send kids out when we really don't

069need to send kids out. Um, which is, you know, not the most cost effective and not always the best most restrictive for our students. So, we're trying to be creative internally. Um, we're looking at everything. Um, and we anticipate be a being able to make this adjustment inhouse, but we wanted to let the school committee know that this is something that we're looking at, we're evaluating, and we will likely be making some changes. >> Okay. Thank you for letting us know. I mean, anytime students can be educated in their home community and have their needs met, it's a win, I think, for everyone. >> Great. Thank you. The next item on the agenda under old business is superintendent evaluation. So um Mrs. Pangeli as a superintendent is in the unique position that most of us

070are not in in that she is evaluated publicly. So that is not um that's not common for most other positions really not only within a school district but really in any industry. So, um, I want to begin by saying that we value you and the work that you do here in Webster. And my intention is not to read every entry in evaluation. Rather, I'll go through the overall ratings and I'll read a selected comment from each section. Does that sound okay? >> On the whole, I think this is a very good evaluation. Hope you feel that way as well. Um so I'll begin with where it says step one here which um asks committee members. So this evaluation form was completed by all committee members and compiled by Desiree. Um this first area the professional

071practice goals two members rated you as having made significant progress on your professional practice goals and three rated you as having met those goals. For student learning goals, two members rated you as having made significant progress on those goals and three rated you as having met them. And for district improvement goals, one member rated you as having made significant progress. Four rated you as having met those goals. I'm going to move into the this is sort of the overall ratings for each of the four standards. Standard one is instructional leadership and all members rated you as proficient. Standard two, management and operations. Two members rated proficient and three exemplary. Standard three is family and community engagement. Three members rated proficient and two exemplary. And under professional culture standard four, four members rated the superintendent as

072proficient and one rated her as exemplary. So the overall performance rating is proficient um by three members and exemplary by two members. >> It's good work. >> Thank you. >> Um so some selected evaluator comments. Um one member stated during this evaluation period, Superintendent Vangelie has demonstrated exemplary overall performance. She has continued to provide strong leadership in navigating and coordinating the Bartlett High School building project. Additionally, during this evaluation cycle, she initiated a comprehensive policy review process and has made significant progress in that effort. Throughout the year, she has maintained a consistent and visible presence at both school and community events, particularly during a time when the community experienced significant loss. We're going to just move on. The next item over here is um your per superintendent's performance goals. So under instructional leadership, one rated

073as significant progress and four as met. Um I think this is oh no this is similar under management and operations um three rated as having met and two as exceeded. Another goal under management and operations which was related to the budget five rated as having met under the district policies. I'm realizing now I should have outlined these goals but under district policies which is related to the um reviewing and updating of the school committee policies three rated as having met and two as exceeded. And under mission and core values that's related to the uh implementation and finalization of the districtwide strategic plan to rated you as having made significant progress and three as having met and the timing of this evaluation as it relates to the strategic um goals is is interesting because we'll be

074reviewing that later on this evening. So um they are technically done so I can see where where those ratings would come into play like that. Um and next here under instructional leadership um I'm going to read some selected comments. The ratings were primarily proficient with one needs improvement and two exempl exemplary and a comment here is Mrs. Pangeli continues to provide datadriven analytics pertaining to growth goals throughout the district. This focus has allowed staff and administration goals to strive for but also to measure progress against thirdparty audits have performed that the data driven model implemented has clearly and appropriately identified areas of strength and weakness in which evaluations should be. The next area under management and operations which is standard two um primarily proficient but actually a maybe you could even say primarily exemplary. There

075were a lot of exemplary ratings in this area. Um sort of strong work on under management and operations. One of the comments by one of our members is um Superintendent Pangeli is thorough and detailed in completing her fiscal responsibilities while also making great progress in the area of policy reviews. She has met all timelines and leading her team to a successful renovation overcoming any obstacle with a minimum of disruption. Her knowledge and interpersonal skills along with the support of town officials have resulted in balanced budgets throughout this extremely difficult fiscal period. Strong work there. And under standard three, family and community engagement really resounding proficient ratings um across this whole standard. Um, one of the member comments states that although Superintendent Pangelie faced many unique challenges this year, she was always present with her clear

076leadership and consistent communication. This ability to communicate with staff, families, town leaders, local departments, and all members of the community truly fostered a collaborative system which proved integral to student success. Standard four is uh professional culture. Primarily proficient ratings here with uh some exemplary ratings here as well. So another strong area. And one of our members commented, "Mrs. Fangeli fosters a positive and collaborative culture by engaging stakeholders in the development of a shared educational vision for the district. She demonstrates a thoughtful and inclusive approach seeking input from a variety of voices and works to build alignment around district goals and priorities. Mrs. Pangeli's ability to communicate thoughtfully and maintain respectful relationships contributes positively to the overall culture of the district. Any comments first from the committee? Anything that anyone would like to add related to

077this evaluation? Mrs. >> Yeah, I'd just like to say thank you very much for your trust and support. And I'd also like to say you're only as good as your team. And I have a really amazing team. Um, which is why a lot of this stuff gets done. It's it's not me doing the work. They're out in the field doing the work and getting the work done. Um, so I I think that's most important that you know um this is due to their efforts and I thank them and I will continue to work hard um and continue to try and move this district forward in a positive um light um working to improve our instructional practices which I hope you see in our strategic plan. So, I look forward to presenting that tonight to you.

078Um, but I just wanted to say thank you for your support throughout the year. Um, it makes it easy when you come to a committee and you feel like you can be open and very transparent and have that collaboration. So, um, thank you for that and I want to thank my team also for their efforts during the year. >> Thank you. >> And I agree it certainly is a team effort. um your leadership has has made a big difference in in this district and in the the culture and and feeling that you get when you walk into one of our buildings or into the central office or really anyone else. So So thank you for your partnership. Thank you for your dedication. >> It has it has been a lot of challenging situations that have

079occurred over this year. Um just a blip on the radar. That's part of it. That's part of it. that's, you know, the world we live in and the job we do. >> Um, but, you know, when you work with a group of wonderful people and you come in every day, um, you know, I always say we do what we can. We do what we can control. We can only, you know, fix what we can control. So, the other stuff we have to take with a grain of salt and deal with those little moments and, um, don't want to get you down. That's it. >> Keep plugging forward. through the chat. Member Clarence. >> Um, as being a as a parent as well in this community, I just wanted to thank you for the amount of

080support you give the schools as far as just always being present at so many things. Um, I just think it's really important how visible you are to the whole school community. Um, the parents, the students, they all know who you are. Um, everyone feels like they can uh that you're accessible to everyone. And I, you know, there's so much work to be done and you do so much after hours and and we know that there's so many different areas, but I think as far as being in like a community, that's one big thing that I think really goes a long way and I think it's very appreciated. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Anything else anyone would like to add here? >> Well, we are looking forward to another successful year. We appreciate all of

081your work. Thank Thank you very much. >> Thank you. The next item on our agenda under new business is the pre presentation of the strategic plan. All right. So, in your packet, um do you have a copy? >> Nope. >> No. >> Want to share it with me? I can put it up. >> That's okay. Um you should all have a copy. Uh we uploaded uh this into the packet. Um it was there on Friday, but I've up updated a copy. Um as you can see when you look at it, we had started the process this year. It um took us a little longer than we thought it was going to take, but when you're working on something like this, you'd rather take the time to get it done right than to rush through it

082and not have um any meaning behind it. Um this is a document that um we live and breathe. um all year long and will continue to live and breathe for the next two years. Um just to kind of walk you through what our document is, we have the cover page which is here and then uh we created a graphic which outlines our um district logo with our new um model that we're hoping to present. Uh learn, grow, lead. um in it it has our strategic objectives and down the bottom our suggested mission. So this is a new um that we hope to put out around our schools and be a part of our strategic plan throughout the year. I am going to start off by reading the letter um that I put in the packet.

083Um it is with great pride that I share the Webster public schools on 25 to 28. I put 25 to 28 because it starts July 1st, 2025 and it runs through where we were in this initial year working. Our other plan ended in June of 25. So this will run through 2028. Um this plan is more than a road map. It is a shared commitment to our students, families, our educators and our future. Over the past year, we have engaged with multiple stakeholders. Um, this new strategic plan represents the best thinking of a deep deeply committed group of students, teachers, support staff, administrators, families, and community members. As a core strategic planning team, we spent a considerable amount of time envisioning the future of learning in Webster. Together, we affirm that every student deserves our

084commitment to these priorities. And I will list the priorities here. creating and sustaining safe and supportive learning environments where every member of the school community feel respected, valued and secure, where each student can achieve academically and social emotionally. The second is establishing, supporting and maintaining shared expectations for inclusive instructional practices and promote student engagement, curiosity and deep learning. And the third is strengthening collaboration collaborative partnerships among and between families, schools and the community to enhance engagement and improve student outcome. Uh we also looked at the reality of our current status which includes chronic underperformance at two out of our three schools. Um despite low accountability ratings, we are proud of the progress we have made. We have strengthened our instructional practices, opened access to college and career pathways, and provided more inclusive support in every

085school. However, we know um there is much more that we need to do. This plan outlines our next chapter. It challenges us to remove barriers, close gaps, and create classrooms where every student is prepared for the future. It also calls on us to lead with purpose, creativity, and a shared sense of responsibility for every child in our care. Um, I invite you to explore this pan plan and participate in what comes next. When schools and communities work together, our students thrive. Together, we can fulfill the promise we have made to our young people and to one another. Um, as I stated, we started working on this plan in July of last year. We had our kickoff meeting in the middle of July. Um, we started on August 13th. Miss Mlette represented the school committee. She

086came to many of our meetings throughout the year as we were um committed to working on the plan. We did um a full day of a full morning of envisioning working with our ILT bringing in uh teacher leaders to work on this plan with us. Um we had worked at all of our full DLTs which is all of our principles, assistant principles, deans. Um Miss Mellet joined us for many of those meetings at the administrative offices where we've worked. We've got uh family feedback. We've got student feedback. We received staff feedback on multiple occasions. Um we had two sessions with staff that we worked across at all schools on the mission and the visioning of Webster public schools. Um which is what has gotten us here today. And we have continued working on this plan

087through our full DTS through um after the first of the year. Um in March when we we finished around March, we submitted it into our um sauce partners at the state who also reviewed the plan and gave us some feedback on it. We then took that feedback at back. We worked as a DLT to incorporate that feedback, talk about it. It wasn't um much of there weren't really any major um feedback on changing our initiatives. They liked our initiatives. It was more about the progress monitoring. How are we going to monitor um how can we change our language and adjust? Um I don't know Dr. Mai if you want to take it and go through some of overview. >> Sure. Sure. Um so as Mrs. um stated there were multiple stakeholders involved in this process.

088Um and each there was like chapters of progress. So each stage ended up the creation of certain steps of the of the plan. The mission that we're proposing is updating the current mission, vision, values, and theory of action. So our mission that we're proposing is empowering every student to learn with purpose, grow through challenge, and lead with integrity, resulting in the motto, the new motto, learn, grow, lead. The vision that we're proposing is that Webster Public School students are innovative problem solvers and lifelong learners prepared to contribute to their society and persevere in an ever evolving world. And that was a really important shift for us from the current mission because we wanted to include and take into account the current realities of our programming and what we're striving um toward with the programming that

089we are building from little children to middle schoolers to high schoolers um to the future. We believe in the following core values. Trusting relationships are built upon open communication and collaboration. We all share responsibility for a safe, inclusive, and respectful learning environment. We overcome challenges and achieve personal growth through hard work and persistence. And positivity inspires commitment and promotes success. Therefore, if we build strong relationships, nurture a culture of respect and belonging, and promote perseverance and optimism, then students will develop the skills, the confidence, and the resilience to thrive as capable learners and contributors in an ever evolving world. As a result of all of that collaboration and information gathering and input from all the stakeholders and and really this was a process that included the input this in this particular piece the input of

090all of the stakeholder groups that were um involved. The district is proposing three major strategic objectives. One is related to safe and supportive learning environment where we say create and sustain safe and supportive learning environments where every member of the school community feels respected, valued and secure and each student can achieve academic and social emotional success. And underneath each um strategic objective are strategic initiatives that you can um read. The second strategic objective is related to teaching and learning. where we propose establishing, supporting, and maintaining shared expectations for inclusive instructional practices that promote student engagement, curiosity, and deep learning. Again, with strategic initiatives under that. And the final strategic initiative is family and community engagement where we'd like to strengthen collaborative partnerships among and between family, schools, and the community to enhance and improve student

091outcomes. That last piece to enhance and improve student outcomes travels across all of the objectives and the initiatives. Um, one of the pieces of feedback that we received from SSOS and and from our own observations of the work as as it was developing is that we really needed to get more robust in the articulation of how we're measuring success. So, these outcomes on the final page were um they're not all of the outcomes. These are selected outcomes because there were more outcomes under each initiative, but these are the ones that are highlighted that show our commitment to improving the experiences of students with positive outcomes for their future. Um improving the experiences of families that then will lead to positive outcomes for our students. Um, and these were we worked really hard to make them

092as measurable as they could be. Some of them are easier to measure or to articulate measurability than others. Um, and so again, this came from all of the work that was like a real iterative process that all of the work that um was conducted resulting in what we want to see as outcomes. >> Thank you. I think, you know, over my time in this seat, we have really grown at collecting data, diving into data, understanding what we need. We're in the schools. We know the work that needs to happen. We know it. We've just got to put it into practice and get it done across the across the district. Um, I welcome anybody on the team if they want to add anything about the process or about the strategic planning or about the plan itself

093that you know if you want to comment on I'm certainly happy to have anybody. I just wanted to add before um we open up for more comments that the final document after the I call the green pages of the strategic plan. Um the final document is a much more indepth uh version of than what was highlighted in the green copy um the the highlighted um strategic plan. And so if you have had a chance to review that and if there are any specific questions about that, we'll happy to answer those as well. But at this point, members of the team that are here can also offer any other insight. >> I could just talk to the process um because I felt like through the whole process all of the schools were really well represented in

094the building of this plan. Um, sometimes different schools get sort of left out. A lot of focus falls on kind of the end result of of where kids end up in a process. And I think when you look at these goals, you see that it's really a a building process from their youngest experiences all the way up to um their graduation and beyond as we build those partnerships. So, I do feel like it's it's very um representative of uh all the buildings um and really felt like equal voice in the building of it. If I could just add on to that, you kind of stole some of my words of what I was thinking, but it was extremely comprehensive. It was that 360 view where everyone really did have a voice. And when we think

095about the different schools, it was even breaking those schools up, right? So people were working in different groups um in getting down to looking at you know phrases that we were building and did it make sense and is if we just tweaked this one word would it be more acceptable or agreeable for everyone in terms of where we were going and bringing clarity. So um it was extremely involved. It was well connected in terms of how one activity would lead to the next outcome or deliverable. Um but I think the biggest thing was everyone had a voice in this process. I think of the word collegiality because it was a very collegial process and we were able to work with different teams across the district and it was just a really well-rounded process where I

096felt that everybody had a voice and there was a lot of talking going on by all key stakeholders and what else can I add? I mean everybody added everything. I think also that you know our main goal was um how do we support student outcomes and all of these goals and initiatives support student outcomes in direct and indirect ways and I think that you know always uh as a team keeping that in mind that the whole purpose of the um district improvement plan is to ensure that we are providing all the supports that students need which includes family, which includes our staff uh and how everything comes together in order to uh promote and support student outcomes. And as you know, we had a facilitator. So, we had Miss Amy Mckenstry um superintendent of Northridge

097public schools. She's also a Desi certified um facilitator for strategic planning. Um, and I want to thank her for her efforts also, um, reigning us in and keeping us on task, um, and helping us navigate through this process because it's a lot. You know, sometimes we've been, you know, she's facilitating with maybe 50 teachers um, at the elementary school and she's jumping around to buildings. She's trying to catch everybody's voice. And then to come back to a room at 16 and we're working in groups and we all have different ideas of what should be or what we think um and to really help us dig dig into our comments and dig into our thoughts to really come up with something meaningful and get to the root of what we're trying to say. So, I appreciate

098her facilitation and I appreciate everybody's work on this because it was a many hours that were put in to putting this together. And like Dr. Mai said, you know, the um the initial plan, uh I I'm a real fan of this. I hope you like it. I think it takes a nice snap of what we have in our district and consolidates it um for families and for people to see. Um and then we have the back, you know, where it says back pages 1 to 16. That's really the meat of our work. That's for us internally. That is our guide that'll help us um make this happen. So, so this is for your review. Um, you know, I wanted to give you time to digest it, to look at it. If you have any thoughts

099over the next week, before our next uh two weeks before our next committee, please reach out to me. Um, you know, we can get back with team if we need to quickly. Um, if there's anything that you really don't like or like about it, I'd love to hear it. Um, because your feedback is important. Um, so I don't know if you've had opportunities to look at it or have any initial thoughts. >> Any questions or comments? >> Chair member Miller. >> I've been thinking about this a lot. Um, and I'm going to use the the word administrator generally because I've had many, but I've had 32 years experience living with strategic goals. And the key two things I want everybody to think about are trust and respect. I've lived under survived under administration. I shouldn't

100even say survived because it was a pleasure with people who trusted and respected staff. And I'm talking about all staff. Not just classroom staff, all staff. And I've survived. Some of us have survived when there wasn't any. And it's not a pleasant experience. It's not a pleasant experience for staff. It's not a pleasant experience for students when that happens. And I think we lose track and my experience. I'm talking from 32 years that some administration loses track of stack as people people who may be taking care of elderly parents. How to do it? who may have family of their own that has that have extreme needs and they're coming in with that. You know, we talk about student baggage, but there's staff baggage. And when you're not treated with trust, with respect, there is no

101trust. I don't care what you present to any staff member. If there is no trust and respect, I don't care how much PD you give, it's not going to work because they're not going to be open to listen if you're not treating them as a human being other than somebody to reach your goals. And I've had it happen. I will tell you the ones that were positive had administrator who left notes on your desk. And do you know how many every single person that got notes kept them? Kept them and reread them. Little notes. Even you might want to ask this question next time. And what typ do we do? Then we'd go and we'd say, "Well, we're having a hard time with this lesson. Can we go in and watch so and so give

102this lesson?" Cuz that environment of trust and respect was there and it was returned where you would go. I can tell you I went to administrators and said, "I can't do this. I want to do it this way. How do you want to do it? I want to do it this way and I need this." Okay, go for it. But then once you get that environment where there is no trust and respect, it takes a lot to get it back. a tremendous amount and I am telling you from actual experience and what I had said about you don't know what somebody's bringing in. When my mother was ill, my administrator went to the office and said Blinda gets a call from a doctor or anybody else. She put it right through her room and said

103to me, "If you have to leave at any time, you leave and we've got you covered." Because they knew and they cared. I didn't make a big deal and it happened and I had to do it. You'd be afraid to do that with some people. And I want you to be aware of this because of I saw it mentioned again walkthroughs and all these visits. There's two way your staff's going to look at them. One is a visit. one as they're an observation to tell me if I'm right or wrong or one is a visit. And when you know it's a visit when you're included and the students are excited to see you as much as anybody else in that room, then it's a visit. What are you going to get out of that as

104an administrator? You're going to get more out of that than you've ever got before. >> Thank you. Oh, I'm sorry. Down to and I'm going to use a personal example again. I had a former administrator when my brother passed away drive at least two hours and come to my brother's wake. That is trust. and respect and it's still there. It's still still there. The only way you can have all the fancy words you want and do these goals look great. They do. They look wonderful. How do you know when it's not happening? What's the first thing? First thing is you're absentee rate because you're burnt out. They're stressed because I don't especially know a teacher who wants to take a day off and come back and do twice the work the next day. So if

105they're taking days, there's a reason. And it's part of looking at respect and trust. And they're easy words, but it's got to be something that's practiced all the time. And I know Mon'nique knows. I told her about this. When I had an administrator ask me to do something one time and they said to me, "You don't agree with me, do you?" And I said, "No, I don't have to. You're the principal. Ask me to do it." Why? Because I knew that they would do anything that they asked me to do, and they did. That's the example all administration anybody across from custodians up you need to set you need to have them are is this strategic goals wonderful it is they're very good but it's not going to happen if you don't create the atmosphere

106sphere for it to happen. And unfortunately, when you when you look at that last page and you see the percentages that have to go up, some of them haven't been happening. And that's when you have to say why why are they not happening. So I ask you to do this is to think of those two words trust and respect and as you're looking and to look at all staff as people. They're not just a custodian. They're not just a teacher. They're a human being. And all human beings want to be trusted and respected. And I only ask that you do that as part of your own goals to have this plan reach some success. Thank you, M. Just to add on to that, um I couldn't agree more with the trust and respect and I

107would add to that feeling seen And I think that that extends through every one of us here at tonight, all of our staff, every every person in our building. And um equally important would be our students feeling respected. >> Um and you know, I think that people get into education to have a positive impact on people's lives. And um whether you're a custodian or you're serving lunch or you're greeting our students at the bus stop in the morning or you're teaching a lesson, there's a real desire to positively impact students. And you know, our students have one chance at each grade level when June comes, summer comes, and they're they're on to the next grade level by and large. So that's an awesome responsibility to carry as an educator. I think, you know, you only

108get one, you only get 180 days against these kids each year. Um, and we do carry every one of us, whether we're an educator or any other role, we do carry the weight of the every other responsibility that we have with us everywhere we go. Just as adults look up to other adults, they look up to us. because I've always said the best part of living growing up and living here is seeing those former students and have them come up to me. Um it's the best thing in the world. I agree. And you know just going a little further about um about this responsibility um I believe the ongoing feedback is really essential to a growth mindset whether that be report cards and test scores for our students or feedback from walkthroughs or evaluative um

109feedback on end of year um formative or summitive evaluations I think is another way that we continue to grow our practice and grow as as members of the community and the school community as well. >> Absolutely. >> And we do have we have a lot of work to do for sure um with moving the needle here in some of these areas. Um I believe from where I said a lot of the groundwork has been laid when it comes to collaboration. I had respect written in my notes here too. Uh related to collaboration, respect and the collection and analysis of data. And one of the questions I had for the the group is what some of the challenges you anticipate with implementing some of these initiatives. I think the challenge is remembering what they actually are.

110But what I found to be really unique about these specific strategic um initiatives is that they're very easy to remember because they're just something that you should be doing in your everyday practice. Connecting providing good instruction, connecting with the community, connecting with with families. They all make sense and they're easy to remember. And I think that kind of lends itself to the trust and trust and respect because it is a part of in order for you to really buy into a strategic initiative, you have to know what it is. And I think that they're really easy to remember because it's something that you could buy in because you had a big part of creating and that that in itself to me defines what trust and respect is is having a voice. And I think when

111you heard from all the colleagues that was like a common thread is that everybody had a chance to participate and even the collaborator who facilitated went to all the buildings and everybody had a chance to speak. So it's not Webster public schools in it's our it's everybody in the community's strategic plan. And just to add to what Sharon just said, it is a shared responsibility and I think that consistency across the district is going to be super important in order for any of these goals or initiatives or the benchmarks to you know to live throughout the district. And I see that as you know as a shared responsibility all of us uh and that consistency and not only you know having it present you know uh seeing the work not only in paper but also

112through every single action what we model as as an administrators for our staff and for our buildings our schools is equally important because what we model we're modeling what we expect others to do. And I think that having that consistency could be a challenge, >> but also it's not in uh I don't see it as a negative thing, but it's it's a challenge for our own self accountability. What are we going to do as a team in order to ensure that we work together as a team to achieve the goal and how do we support everybody else? Because it is it is a team. It is a shared responsibility. >> It is agreed. >> I would add that a challenge that I I've given considerable thought to is and that was even evident in the

113having to develop the outcomes um together is that we have gotten really good at talking about where we are. We've gotten we collect an awful lot of data and and where we need to grow is into using that data to do something >> to do something different because of the situation and the predicament that we find ourselves in. And and that's hard. I think that that's that's a hard thing for everyone to feel like they have a piece of it because it's not just about what the parents are doing or not doing. It's not just about what the students are doing or not doing, but we're part of that equation as well. And it it's hard to take a look at ourselves that way. And it's hard to say perhaps we we need to do

114things a little bit differently. And if we do this because our data says this and hold ourselves to doing that, we hope to see different outcomes. And that's not the only piece. We need our students to come to school. We need our students to put their phones away. We need our students engaged in class. We need our families to support kids coming to school. We need our families to support us when there are situations that come up. We need our families as experts in the childbearing and what their kids bring to school. We need them as partners. Each one of those pieces can't function alone. And so two challenges I've I've talked about now. One is using the inordinate amount of data that we collect and being working smarter with that data so that we

115can actually make changes and create actions that are feasible and actionable so that we see better outcomes for our students and do better by engaging our families. And that do better is us and students. It's us and families doing better. So that's the you talked you asked about what challenges I I envision. Those are some challenges that I envision. We need each other. We need everybody to participate. The only way this work happens if is if we're all owning it, >> right? >> We all have to be a part of the work. And a lot of this work for all of us requires, you talked about feedback and being open to an environment of where you can have constructive feedback that comes from a school community that feels respected. >> That's in our that's in

116our objective one. That's there. We have to and we've been working really hard to create that environment where when we go on walk cruise, it isn't about Jeff. We're there to learn, to grow, to see what we need. We're not there to say, "You didn't do that." We have opened up different ways of people can get feedback. Do you want to have a one-on-one conversation? What did we see? How did we see it? um knowing the kids when we walk into classes and seeing what the kids are doing. They're excited to see you there, but seeing the work that they're doing when they're engaged in the behaviors and you know are under are not there. We're not seeing that because they're engaged in the work. How do we recreate that environment in another room where

117they're at or in another place to be to share and to give feedback to your colleagues? not necessarily principal to teacher, colleague to colleague feedback. We have to have a safe environment where that feedback is welcomed and and when we hear it, we think about it and we want to do something, you know, we want to try something new, we want to try something different. That's what I hope that that to me has been a crux for me over the past year or two. It's like we know the work and there are not significant changes that we have to make. We have a lot of talent, >> you know, we have a lot of good people here. Some of the changes that we need to make are just tweaks. They're not major changes. Um, but

118being open to see that and try something different is what we need. And and that to me is a challenge. How do how do I how do I help somebody? How do I work with somebody um to help them understand that this is our challenge? This is not just your challenge. And just because I'm giving you feedback doesn't mean that I think you're not doing a great job or you're not talented or you're not good or you don't care. It's about let's try something different to work collaboratively together. How can we make how can we twist that dial just a little bit that gets us over the hump? because we certainly have the people. We certainly have the information. We just need to do it. >> I think back to 30 plus years ago, Miss

119Millet, when you entered teaching and and students and what what the classroom environment looked like and what that looks like now. And you know, whether it be using a computer or sending an email or students on social media, kids have changed um at a rate that I don't know that we've ever seen in in the history of evolutionary changes for for societies. And that has necessitated, I think, everybody to rethink the classroom environment, rethink teaching, rethink their audience. and and what that looks like. Um when you're you know in front of a group of young people um I think of feedback as the gift that you give to someone who you believe has potential to for improvement. It's not something that's wasted on on an individual that doesn't have the capacity to grow and learn

120and make adjustments. So um and the same is true for our students, right? And we expect them to be that kind of thing as well. Um, so I think a lot of this work has begun in some ways, >> whether it being foundational or even some of the things that are being put into practice, that collaboration. Um, certainly I think we've identified some areas that we anticipate being challenges that will now not not be blind spots because we now have named them. Um so you know making sure that we commit them to memory and um are consistent about them use the data and get away from that analysis paralysis and really use that data to drive decisions and keeping respect at the forefront of our interactions and things like that. for the chair >> members.

121>> Sorry. Quickly, um I'm encouraged as an educator to look at my district's strategic plan to do my own personal and professional and student learning goals. Is that the same of our teachers? They're encouraged to look at the plan and maybe create their professional and student learning goals from our district strategies. >> So from our strategic plan, our schools will be creating their school improvement plans. So yes, our hope is that they will be looking at their school improvement plans and the strategic plan and creating those. >> Good. Um and then just secondly on page 22 of what we were given. Um I just I don't know if I'm misunderstanding um the X increase. I don't know if we don't have a baseline percentage or if that wasn't >> is that I don't my pages

122aren't numbered. Is that the one related to family engagement? Um oh let me look here that's the last page. Yes. So we talked about we talked about that. So um so we have participated in the um safe and supportive grant and so SAS we call it SAS. Um and one of the pieces that we have been doing which has been quite arduous is uh completing the the DESIE um tool which is the SAS tool state and supportive um schools tool. It's a series of buckets with a series of questions. I'm talking pages and pages of survey and the team um got to like each school worked with their own teams and then came collectively and chose two areas that we want to do a deep dive which is part two of utilizing that SAS tool.

123Again, this is something that's dictated by the state. And um one area that we need to further deep dive is leadership and culture. um that was decided and family engagement when you so we gave the leadership and culture survey to the schools to the entire staff because a small team took the first piece and it's pages and pages long and it's not an easy platform to >> get a final percentage of or >> no to encounter like as so many teachers were locked this is a state platform many teachers were access time doing it their answers weren't saved behaved like it's it was an arduous process. We'll get the data that we need from that side. We made a conscious decision because we also do the title one family survey which is happening right now

124and so far there are 46 result 46 submissions and I'm making a plug right now for people to get on their computer and do the title one family engagement survey because that's how we hear family input. Um, we made a conscious decision to review the questions from the SAS deep dive tool and not over survey families, especially using a tool that isn't hard, that isn't easy to maneuver. And so we picked some of the questions. Will that survey like the window's supposed to close tomorrow? So that X means we don't yet have it because we're gathering that information right now. Okay, good. Okay. Any other questions or comments from the committee about this? Mel, did you have something to add? No. I just wanted to thank everybody for their feedback and their comments. U please

125take time over the next week and a half. If you have any questions, please reach out. We'll do our best to answer them. and then I will be looking for school committee's approval at the next meeting. >> Thank you. Sounds like a lot of time and effort has gone into this process already. >> Um, thank you to all of I know that some of you are representing your group here. I'm sure there's many others out there who contributed to this. So, thank you all for your work. The next item on the agenda under new business is the discussion and approval of the new science curriculum for Webster Middle School. >> I am going to turn it over to our director of curriculum and instruction, Miss Debbie Rivera to present. >> Thank you. Um, so I

126try to keep up with the spring vibe in here. Um, I'm a visual learner, so it helps me as well. Um, go ahead. There we go. So, I wanted to quickly take us through uh back the last year and a half, which I can't believe it has been that long since we started this journey. And um in terms of the curriculum review for the middle school and back in the fall of 2024, we began to look into the different curriculum uh that were available uh that actually uh were qualified or highquality instructional materials uh based on um curate reports and also ed reports as well. Uh so we did a lot of investigation that continue on uh through the spring of 2025 and we were able to identify two curriculum um curricula that we wanted

127to um pilot during uh the spring of 2020 um fall and spring 2026. uh we ended up choosing as I uh presented earlier uh in the year uh open sad and amplify science. Um we actually piloted um different units for each one of the curriculum for uh amplify science. We ended up uh piloting the ecosystem restoration section uh or unit for open site. We did the ecosystem. So we tried to pick uh units that were equivalent and covered the same content. Uh we also piloted uh plate motions uh grade seven curriculum and rock cycling and plate tectonics. So again the two curricula uh were side by side and covered the same content area. And uh the final units were matter, energy and ecosystems and contact forces uh potential energy and kinetic energy. As a result

128of that uh the pilot began in November of uh 2025 and they just ended very shortly uh probably about a month and a half ago. So this has been it took uh quite a while for um some of the pilots to be completed. We wanted to make sure that we rushed the process uh and that teachers and students were exposed to both curriculum uh equally. Uh and then as part of that process uh we began some of the professional development not only providing teachers uh with how the curriculum covered uh the standards but also um how they could actually teach the specific units. So, you know, I share uh I think should be in your packet, but I share the curriculum review rubric, which is a pretty extensive uh rubric uh where we have three

129main domains that we have to assess through the pilot and also through our committee. uh the standards alignment, classroom application and culturally responsive and equity domains which each one of them have uh different criterias and as a result of that review we were able to uh we also had a form uh with a rubric. We completed the rubric. Teachers um completed the rubric along with student feedback as well. And as a result of that uh some of the highlights that we received from the first curriculum which was uh amplify science. A lot of it had to do with all three domains but most of the things or feedback that we received uh related to the materials and connection to the next generation science uh standards along with um both have anchoring phenomena which is basically

130the main idea and how it carries across the unit but also most importantly how the curriculum both of them support our student population whether you know the curriculum um uh has a variety of assessment, multiple means of representation, content which is all UDL practices and specific supports for students with disability and uh English language learners. Um so these are some of the curriculum uh highlights that we had for amplify science and um for open sed we have a lot of similar highlights uh related to again the expectations uh the standards and also the resources that were available to support students. And again uh the main difference between the two curriculum based on the rubric and the survey that we completed as part of the process was that uh opens built on the phenomena really slowly

131in each one of the lessons per unit whereas amplified science provided a little bit more um or multiple means of assess assessments so students were able to engage in more hands-on activities And a lot of our students they are very kinesthetic. They need to be engaged in the learning and not follow one unit at a time and then connect it all at the end. So uh as a result of all of the highlights and all the data that we collected uh the team decided that amplify science science would meet uh our students um needs more than opensighted. Now both curriculum are high quality instruction material. They both were rated at uh meeting expectations not only through the ed reports but also through curate reports. Uh both processes which is outside of this we're doing our

132own review but both processes uh involve not just um professionals or directors or administrator but it involves educators who are actually teaching the curriculum and are providing the feedback and assessing uh and also scoring each one of the curriculum. Um so both you know it both of them actually met uh the requirements. Uh and again what we took into consideration was and again the priority how the curriculum meets and supports our student population in their specific learning um needs and supports that they require. Um whoops. So depending on approval or not uh what are next steps? We be we began some of the uh steps already for this process. We provided some initial training just to expose teachers who were piloting the material and other science teachers to get their feedback as well in terms

133of what does it mean to uh launch the curriculum and what do they need uh in order for them to feel like they're ready to uh begin teaching the curriculum. Um so they had a session uh on May 8th that was a half day. Uh all teachers received training. They were exposed to the curriculum. Um, one of the things that they found uh that was a highlight of the curriculum for Amplify Science in particular was the different or the flexibility of the curriculum to still be able to launch or begin the process of teaching it without uh feeling like you're missing something. So there are different options that the curriculum offer where some of the lessons that may not be essential without sacrificing covering all the curriculum framework and standards. Um that would allow teachers

134to become more familiar with the curriculum as they start teaching it because it is a learning process not just for the students but also for the teachers. So they did have three different options for launching the curriculum. So they were really excited that that was available where you don't see that in other curriculum where you have to cover every single thing in order for you to uh follow the curriculum implementation with fidelity. Um the plan is upon approval is to provide uh summer planning sessions. Uh this is specifically asked by the teachers and uh we had budgeted for um summer stipen material to have and provide um guided planning sessions where teachers would not only have access to the curriculum but also start planning use time during the summer if they're available um to start

135planning with a stipen and uh opening days would also involve additional training. and um follow up with with again full day training in October as well. Uh the other option that we have that we are looking into is providing consultation and coaching and this is when we have a science teacher or specialist from the curriculum who comes into the school observes and guides teachers through that process and then they would meet with them afterwards to provide not only uh ideas on how to implement some of the units but also support as well. So it is more uh we see it more as coaching than consult than consultation. It's more providing additional support. A lot of these supports and uh professional development opportunities were also requested by teachers and uh we want to make sure that

136we provide them with the tools necessary in order to implement uh a brand new curriculum uh for the future. And um I don't know if anybody has any questions or I'll ask I try to cramp a lot in one short presentation but >> does anybody have any questions and the chair you know questions I was a science teacher. >> Um do you know the I'm assuming it's an online program. Yes, online and also >> do you know the reading level? >> They have the Lexile levels >> because that was a huge issue with the current one was the reading level. >> No. >> And are they as part of the program? Are they providing all the materials for the hands-on >> um yes >> labs and so forth? Yes, they have uh the kits available

137and also the online component not only has uh some variability in adjusting some of the lifestyle. I would have to look into that a little bit more because I don't know to what extent because you want to continue and the curriculum will keep it at grade level. So you can adjust some of it and differentiate it but not lower the standard for the students. But there are some scaffolds and accommodations that are built in in the online component uh along with uh they have I think it's like 30 something languages where students have that accessible to them if we turn it on in the case that we have like level one level two students uh >> and teachers going to have all the materials. >> We're going to be ordering it upon approval. >> Uh

138I'm working right now on a scoping sequence to ensure that mean the actual materials. We had boxes and boxes and boxes and things. >> But here's my big question. >> Do you have a budget for the consumables? >> Yes, it was included in the budget for FY27 >> cuz that's a big issue. I hate to say, you know, when you have to do it more than one time and materials are gone >> and maintaining it >> and you're going to the store yourself to buy things. >> Yeah. >> So there is money for the consumable part. >> Absolutely. Yes. >> Yes. So the kits for the curriculum both actually opens and amplify science they sell the kits and the kits come with all the materials that they will be needing for each one of the

139units. So it's all included in the quote. So and as we plan like if we get a multi-year quote we add the kits that are needed or the number of students. So we may order multiple kids depending on the total number of students per grade that will be uh exposed to the curriculum. >> Thank you the chair member calleros. >> How how much of the class would you say cuz they're 90minute science classes correct? >> Yes. >> How much of that class are the kids on the computer for a 90-minute science class? >> Good question. >> It depends on the grade and the classes. They do have um different options of launching the curriculum like if you have a 45minut block versus a 90minute block or a 75m minute block they have different pathways for

14090 minutes about how much is it then >> a lot of the curriculum is not all based it's all activity based it's all act you know action based >> with the pilot though how long were the kids online for about her >> um I don't think they used the online component often because they had all the workbooks, they had all the activities. So, a lot of it online. There's only articles that they can read through in order to investigate the different concepts. Um, but a lot of the um assignments were done on paper. They were also available online, but they did a lot of it on paper. It's a very different way. Um, and I used to be a science teacher too, but it's a very different way of teaching science. It's all phenomena based,

141which means that the students are exposed to different concepts lesson by lesson for each one of the units and they're building and putting it all together. So, they're basically um discovering what the main idea or the phenomenon of the curriculum is as they go through each one of the lessons. as they go through that process, it's not busy work. It's not like answering questions like it used to be back in the day, definitions and things to that effect. they do get a word wall and they do get exposed to the um terminology, but it's more about the concepts and how the concepts are put together in order for them to figure out what >> then how does that like go into MCCAST if they're not having like all that terminology to then have to use

142all >> they still have the terminology they still have the termin so the terminology has not been removed what they have added is more um activities where the students are implementing the strategies and the concepts. >> Okay. And then was there a student focus group or student exit tickets about how they enjoyed the curriculum? >> Yes. >> And what about that information? Part of the pilot uh involve uh looking at the student feedback. They did have exit tickets uh for each one of the sessions and units that we piloted and um the overall decision was also based on student feedback as well. >> Okay. And then I read a little bit about amplify and it's a lot of article based a lot. And so when I'm looking at our ESL students and our students who

143have difficulty reading and I'm looking at how heavy the reading is in science, which is typically a more of a hands-on type >> curriculum for kids, they usually enjoy science because of that. I'm wondering what are we doing to support that piece of it because it's highly rooted in reading. >> Exactly. So a lot of the students uh or a lot of the curriculum with the articles uh as I mentioned before there's different pathways >> and choices as well and the choices and suggestions for differentiating the articles uh and differentiating the instruction including a lesson that may include an article uh are included as part of the curriculum and that's part of the training that our teachers are going to be receiving and that we're going to be identifying as part of the scoping sequence.

144So uh the next steps for the uh curriculum committee has been to work on the scoping sequence which I already started for each one of the grade levels and again we have to identify what are the differentiating it's already included in the teacher edition or the overview of the lesson as part of the curriculum and they have uh different options on how to differentiate or supplement with a different article that is also part of the amplify science curricul curriculum >> and are the articles all online? >> You can have both. Um they have the student books >> so they can be printed. A lot of the assignments can be uh edited. So they do have the option of editing uh in updating information. Uh they will have uh student books. >> Okay. >> That are

145included for the units. Um >> are the assessments written or are the assessments online? >> Both. Okay. >> They're available because some students need the actual copy of the handout. So everything that is available online is also available >> available for print out >> in the student notebooks. Yes. >> Both. >> May I interject one question related to what you were asking before? >> Mr. Perry, you mentioned that this curriculum is available in 30 languages. So for the articles and the assessments, are those able to be translated to a student's native language? uh everything is translated within the platform. We can buy books, hard covers uh that are and I think they only have two languages, Portuguese and Spanish, but everything else is available in the platform in the different languages. So there's a little

146bit of limitation with that. Uh in comparison to OpenSite, they only had it in Spanish and they didn't have the digital component that would translate the content. So that was one of the things that we saw as a as a positive. >> I just feel the need to add that I appreciate the fact that many of the curriculum programs have different languages and we have ordered books in Spanish. Um and if available in other languages, we can get those as well. But it's really important to understand that students are here in our schools to learn English >> and we are not a bilingual program. >> And so many times the presence of translated materials becomes an overused scaffold that is actually holding kids back. And so as Mr. Rivera said appropriate for our levels one

147and two depending on how long they've been here because some kids stay in level two for a very long time and they are not uh in need of translation they're in need of something else they're in need of critical thinking skills right so so my my go-to for those resources are uh provide like pre-teaching so where the vocabulary for instance the content vocab vabulary for instance in a curriculum like even open sed or amplify is not as um like the words aren't bolded on the side you know you don't have your vocabulary on the side there isn't like a a page just for vocab and memorization that it is more for discovery but for your L's and perhaps for some of your students with disabilities you could pre-teach vocabulary you could pick that out ahead

148of time and provide that scaffold ahead of time so that they have my concern is like how much prep does the teacher have to do when we have so many students who are L's and who have disabilities who are going to need so much differentiation. Does this help with that differentiation or are they going to be doing a lot of work in order to differentiate for them? >> So, so I I do have a comment to that. But the other the other comment about translation like audible translation is that the best use of that translation is give it ahead of time. have the student listen to the article in their native language if it's if it's available so that tomorrow or in two days when they are sitting in the classroom they already have a

149little bit of that background they can translage a little bit and participate better in those critical thinking discussions right so I I just have to say like regarding that last comment that in many of our programs many of our programs at the end of each lesson have like an an L resource page or a differentiation page and those are not always gotten to. >> And so it's our responsibility to make whatever whether it's science or math or English or whatever subject it is accessible to all of our students and we're working to support teachers to be able to do that. That has been a big piece of the work that we've been doing. Um, and even that awareness of like how can I support, how can I scaffold, how can I think about in my

150planning, how can I think about what students who are L's or students with disabilities might need and that work has to continue to grow because it's I mean it's twofold. Like yes, it has to continue to grow, but two, we don't want to make their job harder if they're using a curriculum that's not like supportive of that either. So I just want to make sure that they amplify that the teachers are feeling as though that's supportive for those students as well and that they're able to do that scaffolding that it's going to in differentiation that's going to be needed to be done. Did the teachers feel that way with this curriculum? >> So realistically no curriculum is going to provide 100% support. >> I don't think they provide enough students feel like they they felt

151good about it like >> yes so they they were the one who made the ultimate decision. uh and they did feel that the curriculum provided enough uh >> and I trust the teachers piloted it and the other um side of that in terms of you know the languages these are specific options that need to be turned on by the teacher. So it's not available openly to any student. It's actually uh teachers will have the um the ability to either turn it on or turn it off for students in all assessment. The expectation is that all students complete their assignments in English uh to the best of their ability because that's the only way we're going to be able to ask um basically assess where they are in terms of speaking, writing in terms of the

152you know different components for the e language development uh English language development uh skill set. Um but again you know currently right now as it is uh for um just to add a little bit more for all of our curriculum uh any curriculum that we have bought in another language um like Spanish has been only for L1's and it has gone through a process of approval. So they will submit the request to me and then we look at the student how long have they have been here? Is it an L1? If it's an L1, then you know we're not going to purchase additional um and I agree with Dr. because we want them >> be immersing them in English language more. >> Absolutely. So, but at the same time, we want to make sure that

153we provide teachers with the support that they need in order to plan and you know, part of the reason why we're offering the summer stipen opportunity is for teachers and we have provided already a couple of different trainings to help equip the teachers and provide them with the knowledge and information that they need in order to feel ready and prepare to launch and begin a new curriculum. And we know that it's not going to be a perfect process from the beginning. It it's a teamwork. It's about support. It's about professional development. But it's also about, you know, having all the tools and all the materials that they need in order to be successful. Mhm. >> And I think there is some excitement around it because I know on our last walks I was at the

154middle school and I was in a classroom um where they were doing science and the pilot was done >> and so we were looking and I'm like what classroom is that? Because I know it wasn't our stem scopes >> and so the teacher's like well I'm using amplified. I hope that's okay. I had a great lesson and she was going on and she was very excited about the use of amplified >> and I'm like no it's wonderful it's great. So thanks. Um, but I have heard excitement about it. You know, I think there's going to be a learning curve to anything we bring in. Um, but they do seem like they are on board with this election. >> And it's probably it probably provides more than what we're providing right now. And >> through the

155chair, members, >> five to eight grades or >> five through eight. Yes, we're including the entire middle school. And at that time they're usually departmentalized or team you know math and science ELA and history. So they have some flexibility with their planning. >> Yes they do have department meetings which I will be joining in the next couple couple of weeks in order to work on the scope and sequence together as a as a team. >> Sweet. Let's do it. I really appreciate the thoughtfulness around the translation the and the expectation that students be learning and testing in English. That that helped me better understand how we can both meet kids where they're at and provide them with meaningful opportunities to take in the information that's being provided and also push them to um to be

156able to test in English. So, thank you for explaining that. >> So, we're looking for the approval to adopt the new science curriculum. >> I guess my question is though, oh, we're voting on specific program. Is it the amplify? >> Yes. >> Okay. Cuz that wasn't on there. It just said science curriculum on there. >> Oh, yeah. It's on It's on >> I know which one they want, but agenda. >> It didn't say >> Oh, I see. It's in It's in here. I think it's down one or two slides from where you are. >> Yeah. >> Sweet. >> If there's no further discussion, I'll entertain a motion to approve amplify science as our new uh science curriculum for grades 5 through 8. >> So, move. >> Second. >> There's a motion and a second. Desire,

157would you please pull me? >> Member Keros? >> Yes. >> Member? >> Yes. >> Member Millet? >> Yes. Members, >> yes. Chair Siki, >> yes. Motion passes. And once again, thank you not only for explaining this curriculum in such depth this evening, but also for all the work that went into the pilot of two two different uh programs. The next item on the agenda is review transfer signing of Lawrence Bills, Carol, and vouchers. And we have a transfer request in the amount of $6,49026 from the Webster Middle School student activity savings account to the checking account. I'll enter a motion to approve that. >> So move. >> Second. >> There's a motion and a second. Does everybody please pull the committee? >> Member. Yes. Member. >> Yes. >> Member Miller. >> Yes. Meia. >> Yes.

158Chair. >> Yes. Motion passes. Okay, I will entertain a motion to adjourn. So move second. There's a motion and a second. Deser, would you please call the committee? >> Memberos. >> Yes. Member. Yes. Member Millet. Yes. Member Scaria. >> Yes. Chi. >> Yes. Meeting adjourn. Good night everyone.