001Um, this is the East Kingston School Board meeting, Tuesday, October 14th. Um, I'm calling to order. We can go into non-public uh at any time accordance to chapter 91A 311 AB B CDE E I K L. Um, we will start public input for 30 minutes. Each individual comment um will be limited to three minutes per person and that can start at any time at this point. So if there is public comment we will we will accept now. Okay. Uh at 30 minutes I will I will uh remind everybody that time is up. Um, okay. Approval of minutes for September 8th. Um, we had public meeting minutes and non-public minutes. I need a motion. >> Motion to approve um minutes from uh September 8th, public and non-public. >> I second. All in favor? >> I >>
002uh and now central office updates. Superintendent, I am filling in for your superintendent designate, Allison Bryant, and she did not give me any new business to share with you all. So, I'm going to pass it over to U. Michelle to talk about the finances. Standing. >> Good evening. So, this is your first financial of the year. Um, and was included in the board pack for you. We currently have ending expense of $31,420.31. Um just for comparison, I looked at last year's um board pack at this time and we had remaining expense of $1928. So we're doing very well. Um, we also included in your board pack, um, a list of all your grants and where those stood so you can understand what grants are being allocated to the East Kingston area school district and um,
003how much we have remaining to spend in those. Does anyone have any questions on the financials? I do on the table have manifests for you to sign. There is also what's called an engagement letter. Um I just need one person to sign that engagement letter. Preferably Preston the chair. But what that engagement letter is is it's just a letter from the auditors saying that we agree that we're hiring them basically to do our audit for the next year. And you haven't seen that before because previously they just had the director of finance sign that but now they they feel that they want to have the board see and read the letter or whatever it says to do. So >> is this the same company we've used in the past? >> Yes. Yes. >> I don't
004have any questions. >> Yeah. Good. >> Hello. Okay. Uh, principal's report. >> Thank you very much. Um, we, uh, recently had, um, our, sorry, let me go back. I'll start with number one. So, we have our student lo conferences coming up, uh, for all of our students K through five. Parents got the sign up forms last week. Uh, they are scheduled for the 29th uh, of this month and then, uh, November 7th. um which will be on Wednesday for our students. Enrollment numbers as of actually today uh we did have um one change um we had a third grader uh register and start today. >> Uh so we are up to 119 students total 24 kindergarten students 18 first and second grade each uh 26 now in third grade 21 fourth graders and 12 fifth
005graders for a total of 119. Uh a few weeks ago we had our EKS open house which was attended by over 90% of our families. Um and uh this this upcoming weekend on Saturday we have our uh it's one of our biggest fundraisers if not the biggest fundraiser for our PTO. Uh they are hosting a fall festival here in school outside on the 18th from 1 to 3 p.m. So we encourage anyone in town to attend. Um and again that is pretty much our biggest fundraiser for the PTO. Uh we talked at the last meeting um a little bit about summer um learning and summer ESY and I had told you that in October I would typically do my um my update with special ed so I included that in it. Um so currently right
006now we have uh two full-time special education teachers. They also case manage uh they provide specialized instruction to our students uh who are on IEPs. They provide consult to uh classroom teachers. They are this year um doing uh academic evaluations um the referral process and they're writing IEPs but the big change for them this year is providing um uh our students with the academic evaluations um which is typically done by the school psychologist um but they were trained over the summer to do that. So our case managers will be doing that this year. >> Can I ask a question? You want to finish first? >> Go ahead. >> Okay. So, academic evaluations, when kids are up for IEPs and doing their EVLs, they're not doing their three-year EVELs, they're doing the in-house EVLs. >> It
007would be both. >> Okay. >> So, the school psychologist for some students will do the whole battery. >> Um, for for for some other students, he or she may do the cognitive and our our case managers may be doing the academic. So, it'll be on a student by student basis. >> Okay. >> Y >> and you're obviously in letting parents know that who's doing the assessment >> at the meeting. Parents will find out if it's the special educator or the school psychologist that is doing it. Yep. >> Okay. It will have to say on the permission to test which test and who's the evaluator in terms of their role. >> Okay. >> So, parents are signing permission to test knowing who's doing what evaluation or at least know the role that's doing the evaluations. It's
008pretty typical in all of our schools that our special ed case managers do the academic three-year rivals. Um, East Kingston's one of the last um schools to adopt that and it was um money in training for the special educators. >> And who does the training for that? Who do you who do you seek for that kind of training? >> We uh we had a a veteran specialed teacher from Mexico school district that provided the training over the summer and and is providing ongoing training throughout the year. >> Okay. So, it's almost like a mentor situation. >> Similar. Y >> and when special ed teachers come out of teacher prep or come out of their M's program, are they usually in that position to do that? >> They take a course. No, >> because this is
009what happens with all teacher prep programs where they teach you how to teach, but then the real learning happens your first couple years. Um, so it's really on the job training as it was with me. I'm my mentor teacher taught me. all the other teachers learned through other mentor teachers teaching them they learn in one standardized evaluation tool at a time diagnostic and then how to write the reports and so that was the training that Brandon set up starting last year and it will lead through this year for the special educators. >> My question is just you know inform educating parents too right so that they understand >> how and where and why their evaluation is happening. Yeah. >> Um and with whom right? >> Yeah. Yeah. Okay. >> Okay. Sorry. So, that was the
010>> those are great questions. Um, we also have a full-time speech and language pathologist. Uh, she provides speech and language services to our students um with IEPs and also provides tier 2 instruction to those students that may be in um in uh the tier 2 world just living in intervention. Uh she also case manages. Um she provides tier 2 intervention like I just said. She provides consult to special education staff and teaching staff and pair professionals. She participates on our student teacher assistant team. We call it our stat team. Um and she's also our Medicaid coordinator and preschool coordinator. Uh we have a school counselor here, full-time school counselor. She provides tier one services for all EKS students. She um is also our social emotional curriculum teacher. So she pushes into classrooms and teaches the
011second step curriculum. She's our 504 coordinator also and she participates on the student teacher assistance team and she oversees um all of our all of our staff >> process our student teacher assistance team process y >> part-time special education staff we have currently and this is a year-to-year basis but currently we have a board certified behavior analyst which we call the BCBA uh we contracted with her two days a week this year um she creates functional behavior havior analysis and behavior plans for our students. She supervises um any registered behavior technicians and RBT that are typically par professionals. We don't currently have any on staff, but if we did, she would supervise them and she provides consult to staff. We have an occupational therapist that we also contract with two days a week. She provides
012um services to students with IEPs and 504s and also provides consult. our physical therapist uh we have currently uh less than one day a week. Um she provides physical therapy uh and provides counsel. And then we have a school psychologist that we also contract with. Uh he or she does special education evaluations and participates in the process. All of our special ed teachers uh well the two that we have are speech language pathologists and all of our K to5 teachers are all trained in or Gillingham. Uh currently right now we have 28 students with IEPs preK to 5. Um we have two students in the referral process and we have four identified preschool or students that attend charter schools that we are responsible for. Our current population 20.3% of our EK's population uh receives specialized
013instruction or has an IP. Um we provide small groupoup instruction or provide instruction as on an individual basis. Uh and we provide both pull out and pushin services. One thing I did want to share today u based on some information that we recently received all of our parents um that have students with IEPs were given a survey last spring on uh how we're doing as a special ed team. Uh we scored very well. We we we received a 3.2 out of four on that scale. Just some of the sample questions that parents were asked um were um how the school team communicates with uh parents regarding the child's progress on their IEP goals. Another question was um I feel my knowledge and opinions are included in discussions. Um so those are just some type of
014questions and again we we we received a 3.2 out of four. Brandon that percentage that you said to 20% how does that do we know how that compares sort of like across the average >> is 17 yeah >> um so it es and flows there is an influx in prek special education needs >> okay that's I was going to wonder if it's different levels elementary school >> and that doesn't include 50s right >> does not include >> yes >> the amount of kids that teaming is probably higher So that team typically is not supporting students with IEPs, >> the special education team. I'm sorry. >> Okay. >> Um so summer last year, last summer we had um 29 total students that signed up for summer learning. that included um summer skills, which is students that
015do not have IEPs but came for basically tutoring and um and students that participated in ESY, which is through special education. Out of those 29 students, 19 of those students had IEPs. Um and we had 22 total students participate in summer learning. So, we had some students participated in the IEP process through Miss Y and received tier 2 or three instruction with um with uh the of the teachers that were not teaching special education. >> And so, so you said so 22 of them, how many came per week? >> Yeah. Um >> yeah, let me just let me get to staffing. We have an ESY coordinator uh who receives a stipen. She starts coordinating uh probably around March um through August. Um she receives a $1,000 stipen. We have one special educator uh provides the
016instruction to students. She works 13 hours a week. Uh we had two regular education teachers that provided um the tier 23 um uh instruction. They also worked 13 hours a week. Uh we had two paraprofessionals that worked 12 hours a week. Uh we had one speech and language pathologist that worked four hours, one occupational therapist that worked four hours, and one BCDA uh we've contracted with in the past, but we did not have any students that needed services this summer. So we did not need that service in the summer at 25. Um, student attendance. We had uh five students that enrolled in special education, signed the paperwork, but never attended one day. >> Uh, and we had two students that attended out of the four weeks, we had two students that attended one week. Uh,
017you asked about pre and post assessments. We typically don't do that given that it's all individualized instruction and uh, there is such variability in attendance for many of our kids. So, so say those numbers back to me again. Each week, how many kids showed up >> each week? We had um out of the 29. So, >> six. >> Each each week we had at least 22 students attend. >> Okay. >> But not every day. So they might come Tuesday, Thursday, or they come Wednesday, but they don't they didn't come for the three the >> Some of our students only required like >> one day of speech a week. >> I see. Okay. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Okay. All right. I just think it's it's it's something I was asking about because um it's an it's
018an area that we look at programming for what we're giving out and how much is come and how many kids we're actually servicing. I also think because of the the way it's scheduled, it's really hard for working parents to kind of balance coming in for an hour or two hours like an 8 to 10 or a 10 to 12, which is what the scheduling was last last summer on the summer before it was differently whereas lots lots of parents have said, I just I'm not doing it because I can't leave work or drop off and then go back and pick up and whatever. So kids are just opting out of it completely. I'm just wondering if there's a way programmatically we can look at it to make it more meaningful for the kids timewise and
019for the the amount of hours these teachers are spending and the ratio that we're at. Um how we how we can I don't know. I just like to look at it more. >> Uh the positive thing um as I was reviewing the data after our last meeting with uh with Jess Casey, she's our ESI facilitator. The positive thing is we're coming out of co we had almost 50 students participating. >> Okay. >> And um you know we've worked so hard with not only the tier one instruction but the intervention side of it also that we've reduced our tier three sorry our tier two and three number significantly over the last four years >> and only students students are um are nominated by teachers based on >> basically the tier two and three instruction. So because
020we've been doing so well academically in our building, we we don't feel the need for probably that many staff you next number just based on need. Um and the other thing that we really have to think about you when we're um when we're looking at this is we you know the students that qualified qualify for ESY services if those parents sign their students up and sign off on APS that they're coming and we you know we had four that didn't show up you know for one day >> right you're planning for those have to Yeah. Yeah. You're still planning for those those four. Yeah. 100%. Yeah. you can't control what the parent does, but I'm just sharing >> the five, you know, the five years I, you know, I've been here, I think we've we
021shifted how we provide or the timings because we've taken parent feedback and it's it's changed, I think, every single year we've done it >> trying to figure out the best way to make it work and >> I don't think there's any perfect way to do it. So, that's something we're always talking about. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Right. I just like to keep it on the table, I guess. All right. Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> No. >> Okay. Um, next on the agenda is the board report and committee report. I need to um go over some policy reviews. Um, so I'm going to read those numbers. They're in your reports if you want to look specifically at something. I just have to read them, right, Renee? >> Yeah. Did anyone have any questions
022on the policies the board's be voting on tonight? They're pretty straightforward. Um, some couple of the policies are brand new, but I'm sure the board has talked about them before and then the other ones are up for annual review. The board has to review every year. It's really not big changes, >> right? So, um, policy JIC is unauthorized communication devices. This is a new policy. Um policy I J which is instruction materials. This is a review and revision policy. Policy IKB which is the homework policy. That is a review and revision. And policy AB which is parental bill of rights that is a new policy. So we have to vote for that. So I need a motion. >> Motion to approve the parental bill of rights policy a call policy code AB. >> We have
023to approve all of them. >> I'll approve all. >> Yeah. So >> do I have to say all of them? >> Yeah. You just make a motion. >> Make a motion and then list all four by letter. >> Back up. Motion to approve policies J I CJ, policy I J, policy I KB, and policy AB. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I Okay. Safety uh safety and security. >> Yeah, we had a meeting uh first of the year on um the 25th of September. Um it was good for everybody to get together. Really was focused on housekeeping and >> I was just making sure everybody's aware of kind of how we were kicking off the year. Um talked about lots of exercises and forms and all that. So again, mostly housekeeping stuff. Um no
024additional meeting scheduled to date, but I assume it'll be probably before the holidays at some point. >> Yep. Usually. >> Um >> four times a year, so >> Yep. >> We'll have one in the winter. >> Yeah. So, uh, yeah, that's that's mainly it. >> Okay. Uh, superintendent evaluation committee. Um, I have no new reports. Um, our superintendent has updated his goals to be more specific. We're looking for more measurable goals. I explained that last meeting. Um we will meet in the next two weeks for our second um review of the goals and then we will start the 360 which is um everyone um in the superintendent office actually doing a a feedback tool for the superintendent and then we will work uh work our way out to um our committee and the boards for
025their feedback and strategic planning. >> Yep. Uh I was not able to attend the August 27th meeting because that was the night we had our first meeting or I should say planning meeting. Um but I know that we're working to get the next one scheduled. Um it sounds like the August meeting was productive though in terms of reviewing uh Dr. Andrew's proposed KPIs um in the platform. So >> yeah, I can update the board if the board chair would like. Um there's we haven't rolled out the strategic plan yet because Dr. Dr. Andriski, just receiving it in August, wanted to look at some of the KPIs a little bit more specifically and pass them down to building administrators for feedback on whether or not the tool um picked to be measurable made sense to the
026principles and their lived experience and if the measurable tool that the committee picked would actually give the answers that the that the overarching goal was seeking. Um and so he's still working through that with building principles and um got some feedback. He wrote he he brought it back to senior leadership. We went through and tried to identify maybe some better tools to get to the answers that the strategic plan was trying to come through and then we're going to send those back to the building principles and our K through2 administrators and ask them like how are these tools? Do these can can you work with these? Will these give us the feedback that we want um for our key indicators of success? um some of the areas that Dr. Andriski was really looking at was
027sort of what is the lived experience of the MTSS system in our schools. Are we really um measuring what we want to measure around MTSS? So, it was it's just a really a much deeper dive into um the key indicators of success that he wants to do with the building administrator. So he anticipates um being able to share with boards including the joint board second half of the year really January but he's not ready for it to be forward facing until he's really proud of what the measurement tools are. >> So that's really what he's been working on. >> Okay. So likely won't have another meeting scheduled until >> probably January. >> January. Okay. >> That's my that's my best educated guess. Okay. Um what's not on here are the our board goals of um
028the three board goals that we have. If we want to update on that, >> it's up to you. You can you >> So my the goal of recording academic um measurement and success is the first goal. We're meeting in November. So I will be part of that team. Um, goal number three about the capital improvement plan. Uh, brand item when we last met. Um, we're working to sort of update the list. Um, refresh that. So, >> I don't believe I have it. >> Okay. I can I can do that as soon as we're done. >> Okay. >> It's it's um >> I mean there are some some things I mean it it really started in 2023 >> and there were plans. So, there some things out there that we've already completed which I highlighted on
029there. But, as um as we go along, that. So, I'll share that with you. >> Okay. >> We'll set up a meeting with the House to talk more about it. >> Sounds good. >> JT, you want to update? >> Second goal uh community engagement. Um no real updates at this time. Uh the last meeting um Mr. French indicated that he uh sourced um wood chips for the new outdoor learning area. Um and I believe we'll have some discussion tonight in regards to that, but outside of that um any updates. >> Okay, great. Um, I just want to state that there's 5 minutes left on 30 minutes of public speak uh public input. So, if anyone has anything to say, it'll be open for five more minutes. Um, I do want to go back, Brandon, I'm
030going to put this um go back to the special ed report that you just gave and I'm sorry I'm moving backwards. >> Okay. >> Um, and then it will be quick. But we talked about being prek through five on your IEPs. Yeah, >> we are we are doing early intervention in within the town for um incoming kindergarteners. I almost said incoming freshmen. That deals with library. >> Not freshman, but yes, incoming kindergarters. We are incoming kindergarteners >> starting at three years old. >> Thanks. Not 13. Um uh >> so so they are under our umbrella. Yep. >> And they go to private preschools >> um >> or home they're at home. >> We have a combination. So we have um we have students that >> um may come here just for speech services. You speech
031as an example. Yep. >> They will come into the building, the parents will bring them here and the student will receive our services. >> We also have students that um >> we partner with Seway School in Brettwood. Okay. >> Uh they have a preschool. So we have students that um we try to keep students in the SAU either through exit developmental preschool or seway. >> Okay. >> Preschool. >> So we partner with sees for anyone who might go full-time. >> Currently we're partnering with >> Okay. Okay. All right. I just keeping that in mind for summer stuff too. >> Yeah. >> Yep. Okay. Awesome. Any any further comment questions? Okay. Um, so next on the agenda of new business, um, tonight we have a special guest. Uh, I'd like to invite Jack to come up.
032Um, Jack is going to present his Eagle Scout presentation, which is in um, I guess an integration to our community engagement project, which is the Kingfisher Community Park that we're building out back. And so Jack, why don't you introduce yourself and I'll be happy to pass these out for you. >> Hi, my name is Jack and thank you guys for letting me present. Um with Troop 223 and exit uh I live in East Kingston and I went here uh from kindergarten to fifth grade. If you see, um, I would like to make, uh, flexible seating for the outdoor classroom. And with one kit, it can become a desk or convert into a bench. So, it can be both. And with two, you can make like a picnic table. >> And the sizes are customizable, but
033they are limited to 8 ft. And for pricing stuff, um, for an eagle project, I organize all the, uh, volunteers and I have to fund raise all the money. That's part of the project. >> So, the cost for it is $86 per kit. That does not include the lumber, and 350 for four kits. Uh, the wood will come separately, and it's $12 per 2x4, and they are pressuret treated. Um, and I'd like to have eight, which is 96 per bench. And I'm thinking of having four benches or four kits. Um it's around $1,000 for the whole project which includes like any extra expenses or and um like refreshments for volunteers. And then if everything goes well here and you guys approve it, I have to go to my uh Eagle board and once they approve
034it, I'll start fundraising in the winter and spring. And then if time allows, we can I can complete the project in the summer of 2026. >> So, so Jack, how do you plan on fundraising? >> Um, so my troop, we do a Christmas tree taxi. It's basically where we drive around exit. We usually do an exit because that's where our troop is. >> And we pick up Christmas trees and we It's like 10 or $15 to take them. And then we take him to uh a farm in I think it's also or stratamar exit >> and I also think of doing like some bake sales either here at the school or other places. >> So when you talk about the volunteers you would uh gather volunteers to help you build the benches. >> Yes. >>
035Okay. >> And how do you plan on soliciting them? Um most of my troop will help and then >> other standing. Okay. >> Um so Mr. Brown here is in charge of right he's been charged with that goal for our um our board. Um the the ironic thing is that we just purchased these same exact >> No, not on No, it's actually perfect cuz they'll match and you know matching is important. Um right and so it's it actually works out really nicely. I would encourage you, Jack, to work with Mr. Brown on getting volunteers from our school to engage out back. Um, and also trying to connect with our community members because the goal of the park outback is all of East Kingston, not just the school, right? It's it's really to engage the full
036community. Um, my second suggestion would be to work with Miss Zoe at the library where you can probably do some advertising or do um maybe even put one bench up and work on it at the library as a way to show or model what you're building. and you might be able to recruit some some curious creatures uh looking to, you know, do some work. There's plenty of children after school there that would love to probably do some of that work, right? Um so, you know, I guess my question is, do we need to vote on this Renee as as a like a >> a way to get him to get going? Yeah, you'd have to give them permission to do this project and use the facilities and put the finished product on the property here.
037>> Okay. >> Do you guys have any questions? >> No. >> I was going to say you mentioned obviously the library and Zoe, but is there other resources that we could lend to Jack to get something out there? I don't know. Maybe the newsletter, something of the communications that you sent up, Brandon, could also be helpful. >> Yeah, if if you wanted to um do a little write up. I send a newsletter every Friday at the families. So, you can just email me that and I'll make sure I get it in there. >> Yeah, we can share it with PTO, too. Good outach. >> The one question I did have for the other one of you. Uh, because Jack and and a team is making it, is there anything wise that we would need to
038be aware of as far as putting them out there for people to use? >> Um, I don't I don't know. It's a donation. So, the board would approve the donation and then you would put the picnic tables out on your property. Um, I guess you would just inspect them to make sure they were were strong enough, but you have some out there already. >> No, we ordered some. >> We we went through a process of ordering them. Um, >> I don't know when they're arriving. >> They're they're here. They're not the exact I mean they're not they're the exact type of bench but it's different materials. >> Okay. >> Um and the reason I'm asking is because you know it's made by a manufacturer. >> Mhm. >> You know and not you know >> Yeah.
039I think >> I mean whatever our insurance covers that location for public use covers that location for public use and whatever our primex or carrier says. I mean, even if it's just put signs up, be careful or or something, but I mean, >> I don't think that that would preclude this project. I think I don't think it would preclude the PL because that is sort of a public setting even though it belongs to the school board >> um in the T but it belongs to the taxpayers and the school board governs the use of the land. So, it's really people walk their dogs on our property. people do things all the time um that we don't like worry too much about that. So there's some sort of clause about it >> and once we accept
040the donation it falls under our >> rule responsibility of making sure that it's maintained. >> Correct. Yes. >> Okay. >> Um the only last thing I have is I would just like updates. So, you know, maybe throughout this if you could come and just share with us a a two-minute update as to where you are with volunteers, how much money you've raised, communication that you've had. Um maybe in a couple months, we'll we'll have you come back and and share with us. So, I'd like make a motion >> motion to approve uh donation from Jack Ganon as part of his Eagle Scout project idea for >> Community park. I second. All in favor? >> I I >> And you can come get my Christmas tree. >> Yeah. Come get to work. >> Nice job, Jack.
041Thank you, >> Jack. Um, deliberative session date. >> Is this something you guys need? This is on your agenda. Allison didn't fill me in. Do you guys need to switch the date? You guys need to vote on a date? >> So, what um we have a date. I think we are the last day before the last day before it has to happen. So Allison has asked us to move it to the Saturday before >> 31st >> because >> January 31st because the February date that we have only gives us 24 hours before it lawfully has to happen, which doesn't give us a snow date. >> Right. >> Also, the town just voted last Monday to have it on the 31st at 10 a.m. >> Okay. So the town is having it on the 31st. Okay.
042That would be one of the big reasons to move it. It is rare that a deliberative is canceled for snow. >> Yeah. Yeah. It's like So, um I would just put I would motion that we change it to January 31st at 8 a.m. >> knowing that we have now a week if if there is snow. >> Second. >> Okay. All in favor? >> I >> Great. Close public comment. >> Yep. So now I need to close public comment and um any old business that needs to come up. Okay. Um adjournment is at 610 uh when we are done. Thank you everybody.