001e r hi I'm Shannon taper I'm a kindergarten teacher at Main Street school as well as a resident of town I'm here to read a letter in uh to nominate Beth karette as the next principal for Main Street School dear members of the exitor elementary school board the individuals who have signed this document strongly support Beth karet as the next principal of Main Street School Beth has been an integral part of our school Community for over a decade providing steady and compassionate leadership as assistant principal Beth is a thoughtful detail oriented and highly reliable leader she Fosters open and proactive communication while addressing challenges with honesty and care she has extensive experience overseeing attendance behavior supports mtss intervention programs Equity work and campus safety her ability to plan strategically and Implement systems wide change ensures
002that all students and families receive the support they need consistency in leadership is more important than ever as we roll out a new Ela adoption a new math intervention model and enhance social and emotional supports Beth's deep understanding of our school her relationships with staff parents and students her commitment to professional growth and her ability to mentor and support staff make her the ideal choice to continue leading Main Street School forward we respectfully ask that you consider Beth karette as a next principal ensuring stability and continued progress for our students staffs and family can you absolutely y thank you all right good evening um I am standing in for um Sarah DT this evening and here is the update there's a lot of great things happening with the PTO today was the staff appreciation lunch
003at Lincoln Street um for both Lincoln Main and EDP rather um this year we moved up the lunch to be during an inservice day so that all staff and teachers could sit down with their colleagues and enjoy some food and conversation we provided sandwiches and salads from Victoria's Kitchen and soups from SE Co soups parents and caregivers dropped off drinks and desserts we also had a centerpiece from the sidium um for a raffle prize there were notes of appreciation and volunteer parents and kids help set up serve and clean we hope Main Street School staff and Lincoln Street School staff and the EDP know how appreciated they are um and if I could just Echo the um gratitude from the staff that I spoke with today they were um deeply appreciated with just the amount
004of effort and thoughtfulness and you know just appreciation um shared by our families and community and our PTO um suino came to our PTO meeting this month and talked about what a par professional is and described their role at the schools this was really informative and the teacher shared their positive experiences we are starting to organize our annual teacher raffle where kids can win experien prizes with their teachers in the past kids have been principal for a day had lunch with a teacher or had their name come up on the Marquee this is always a popular fundraiser for the kids and lastly our get fit in get fit in May 5K and funr run is coming up on May 17th a fifth graders art has been chosen for the t-shirt we are starting to get
005sponsorships from the Community Partners and registration is open you can register now at getfit in.com this is a great Community event and big fundraiser for our school so spread the word and get those miles in thank you great stuff report and um I did want to mention Patrick and I did have the opportunity uh since our last board meeting to meet with the two co-chairs of the PTO um just to learn a little bit more about kind of what they're envisioning and to share some information with them about the board um and one of the ideas that we discussed is the potential of um having a member of the board um serve as a liaison to the leadership of the PTO so that we can better facilitate communication and realize maybe opportunities um for just
006aligning our work um I know there was a discussion at the last PTO update of just you all the things that the PTO is planning the requests that they get um certainly they're attending our meetings and so Patrick and I um just wanted to open that up for discussion to see how the rest of you all felt about that um so did you have yeah well I guess I guess I just I would add when we were just talking about this in theory that um my understand is that the chairs are meeting almost monthly right now with the principes and other administrators and so it wouldn't be that a member or two members of the board would join all those meetings but maybe three times a year or four times a year this kind of
007like a quarterly time to be there so that if it was something we could sort of coordinate what's happening between the administration the board and the PTO so that resources can be put to the best use so making making folks aware about what's happening the ra right or the fing part or making sure the board is aware if there's a need that's not met and I know a lot that gets communicated with the update but it would sort of a planning session to talk through options and and then to be able to bring it back to a board meeting if there's going to be action so it'll be potentially setting up you know sort of a new committee position meetings those meetings are already happening but we'll just be adding a board member or two
008to um those meetings occasionally have anys on that well it seems like a great idea so that we can stay connected with the PTO in a in a much more seemless way should okay um I think it's also a great idea staff members do you guys have a yeah so I think it would be nice the staff is there there to have a a board member occasionally we felt like you know in having the conversation to just to make sure um you know we're not all like doing the same work and really being clear on sort of who's doing what and and where the opportunities are being able to communicate that out to community staff and teachers all as um I don't know Patrick if we need to take or know take a establish um
009I don't think v i just obviously can do whatever they want to do but the ultimate purpose for the PTO is the parent teacher organization so to have a board member insert themselves into that might change a dynamic and the purpose of that I wonder if it should be the superintendent do need that goes in four times a year to explain bu like that certainly you you can all decide what you want to do but it it defeat it kind of to me defeats the purpose of having a PTO report come every month that's the purpose of when the board communicates with the PTO asks questions things like that but want to have another committee that you have to attend that's up to all you um the other thing we could do is think about
010it and talk about it people think about it I just I just thank you heather um and eser rather you know for those comments too um I mean one of the things I would say is this this was partially the idea of the PTO because when we met and we we're sort of filling them in on on different things in terms of what we've done like wow we didn't know that and we didn't know this and we didn't know that and if we had known that we wouldn't have done this and that so I think the idea was to try to make their life easier it was certainly is not to try to tell them what to do at all it was more their invitation to potentially do that but we wouldn't I I mean
011we wouldn't assign anyone to this sort of committee until the new board you know was in place and reorganized his next month so you know it certainly could put wait people could sleep on it so to speak for a month and then come back to it at that time and and talk through the pros and cons of when not we want to want to do that or or or keep it more informal and not actually set up a committee you question too when you're done yeah I was just going to say I think one of the needs came from um sometimes there were staff requests that came to the PTO and the PTO wasn't exactly sure if that was something that was funded in our budget which largely is until this year with our freeze
012or if it was something that could be additional that was outside of the scope of that and so I'm wondering if part of the issue is just like a process to make sure that people understand and so that's what we we asked is when you get a request to include both Administration and PTO and then when we have those meetings we can say this is what we're going to pick up this is something that's already covered I think it was just a confusion on staff of like where that funding source might sit and so we said if we we could be included in those requests then we can help decipher which might be a PTO which might be a good wheel right which might be something that is already covered in the budget so I
013think it was just confusion and communication and figuring out how to address the requests that were coming in but we did meet with the PTO and it feels like we have a good system so it might be worth trying that to see um and our monthly meetings with them a lot of it is actually not very budget related a lot of is just planed and so I don't know that that would be the best place to have that conversation because it really is just like an update on what happened last month what are we planning in the future what work is the committee doing how can we help it's that kind of stuff it's like a very small portion of it is actually budget related just some information yeah I guess my comment is like
014explaining hearing like sort of the impetus behind it is it more of just like an orientation that's needed for like the new leaders to help them understand like the where and the what of how things work opposed to like having to meet I think that is some of it too and both of them they're amazing they've gone so above and beyond this year but we do meet with them over summer to review their budget and so we talk about what items they help to cover and pick up and we explain but just as requests come in they're kind of like well does this fit in this line does it not and so I think the more time that they have in there will become more clear right as to what types of things their budget
015covers I think that's really really help to hear and I think that perhaps um also maybe at times of like sort of inflection points in the budgeting process to be able to like if you're already looking at their budget right and you're like that really should be something we proposed to the board to include in the budget that they could alleviate some of their fundraising pressure to like allocate their to you know more Community engagement or things that I mean I know there's always a desire to for the PTO but they you know I know their goals are expansive and so if I guess that's another thought as you're talking if there if we could sort of pinpoint times in the year where um they know there's that opportunity to say we're hearing this request
016or do we still need to cover this or something we should like you know we could we could sort of weave into the yeah budgeting process that might help too because I think you know we've had the wheel right then we also have this whole cycle of the budgeting process where there's opportunities forward that PTO had to fund raise for before yep that did happen like for instance PTO used to fund technology and then it was picked up in the budget and so there's times where we'll review it and say actually like that's us now we were able to put that in and we've picked it up so that's happened through a couple of Cycles but I don't think it it would be a problem to look at it more frequently and just to review
017and and sometimes we're not aware of the requests that are coming in so just for us to say like hey what have you got anything recently and like what's the need that maybe we're not hearing because there may be an assumption that PTO picks it up but we have a line item so we can make more of an effort to do that too yeah and it might be to best point that we just have new leadership and we just sort of yeah I feel like the to Esther's Point like it's the parent teacher organization and their line is up through you guys and I would hate for us to like usurp any of that like pathway by put inserting ourselves in a committee fashion yeah and I think there regular updates at the board meetings
018have been helpful to us right so yeah I think it really was about fundraising and resource resources you said those requests we'll work on it yeah okay it'll get better is like what is the tenure though of like the leadership is just until for a PTO chair and co-chair is there like a term limit I mean I think they can stay as long as they want to so it's very St in our system so it could potentially be very infrequent that you have Chang your in leadership and have these sort of and this is like normal yeah probably questions for them to be asking I was just GNA say it seems like there's actually been a lot of transition with leadership that that can happen fairly frequently but um but there's no requirement that you
019have a child that's in the elementary school to stay on the board I think I think Don bin was still involved with PTO even after her kids were in the elementary school for example um and she had a long tenure but then we've gone through a lot of PTO folks that have had shorter ten years in leadership so yeah I whatever is helpful I think I think it was really more brainstorming than a proposal per se that we just we just wanted to I think Heather and I we couldn't speak on behalf of the board of course just as members of the board we felt like we want to be as supportive as possible to the PTO it was really that was sort of the impetus for this it wasn't like we want to have
020the PTO go in a different direction or anything it was nothing like that it was just if it' be helpful for us to come to some of those meetings we would be happy to come if you want us to and and they were like yeah absolutely so it was more out of out of that um that's more how the conversation went than that we were proposing we need to be more directly involved and control of this it wasn't my that at all okay great thanks patri so um great I I appreciate that um and everybody's perspective on that and we'll um Circle back to them and keep posted how we can help too um great so next on our agenda is the sa6 administrative Molly's ready all right somewhere up there are the oh they're
021over there the Manifest thank you for signing them um included in your board pack is a current year Financial I did put notes on the ups and downs from last month we did have some added expenditures um you will see that it currently is over the appropriation limit however um our special education department has gone through an analysis that is yet to be reflected in the financials um so and we also hope to relieve some money I say every year as soon as I take out the snow plowing we have a major blizzard so stuff like that hasn't been removed yet and um once we go to a trust fund you can't then give it back so we really want to wait till the end of the year to ask for the amount if we
022even need to go go to that um but the good news is is because of the close out of the kindergarten Expansion Project that we're doing this year you are going to have a healthy fun balance so if we are to have to go to the special ed trust fund that contributes to the fund balance which hopefully today people voted to contribute on the trust funds um that that could be appropriated right back so did anyone have any questions on the items in the board pack great so I'll grab the Manifest and that's all I have thank you for all of your work during this budget season yes next on uh our agenda under here is timeline but I'm going to ask that the board consider going into non-public um we can review a timeline
023we can talk about um public input Etc but we would do that in non-public so I'm going to ask to hold on that presentation until we do that okay okay other than that we had a wonderful professional development uh day today we we uh started the morning all together at the high school and a lot of colleagues uh Main Street Lincoln Street all the schools had people presenting to each other feedback on that was exceptional um I went to I don't know four or five sessions and um all of them were well attended and high participation and a lot of um engagement I went to uh brain breaks and Ai and um one around um cyber security one around tips for teachers on how to how to engage students and so a real nice variety
024I think for folks some people came early and started the day with a yoga session um so that was fun so the professional development today I think was very um I'm looking at people to get that I read the room right um I think that it was a good day for everyone obviously we're all waiting and hoping fingers crossed at our budgets and our par professional contract pass um like I told the staff this morning as soon as I get that we'll put it into a spreadsheet Sharon does a nice job with that and we'll get it out as soon as we can tomorrow so everybody's informed um it does take a little bit so don't panic if you don't see something in the first when you get to school it doesn't mean good or
025bad news it just means Sharon and I want to just double check and make sure we don't put anything out that isn't accurate um so I should be getting after a poll's close pictures of ballots and start to put that together so hopefully by midnight tonight I'll know anyone's welcome to call me after midnight if you want to know um but it usually takes about that long for me to get all the information in after they count depending on how how high the voter turnout was but um I'm hopeful it was a nice day so I'm hopeful voter turnout was High um so and I I do want to publicly again thank Molly and and the Business Office Team for working so hard on the budgets Administration um particularly special ed um there was a
026lot of trying to make sure that we got good numbers in that proposed budget and so um Diana and Abby who isn't here tonight but I want to recognize that a lot of a lot a lot of work was done by Administration and the Business Office Team to ensure that we had a budget that um we hope will pass and we'll meet the needs of our Learners um and certainly we are really hoping that the par professional contract passes um that was a good negotiations and um if it passes we're hopeful that we will be able to reduce contracted services and have um hire employees that will want to be hired by extra School District so a lot on a lot on the on the fence tonight let's hope it all turns out positive for
027us but if not we will carry on because why we can do hard things thanks Mr we'll keep our fingers and our toes crossed um right next on the agenda is the approval of last month's um um minutes from the Tuesday February 4th meeting um and I know we have one person that has to abstain um any any questions about this no I have a motions motion to approve the minutes of February 4th okay second we have a second all in favor I I and Susan has to obain Great those are pass wonderful um and next we have Ryan first on the docket for the principal update and I don't know if you all are doing this together or separate we're doing our and we are doing a data presentation that's why I asked if
028they doing together do we have to move I'm G first on the slideshow how a gentleman switching it up all the time okay I from meain she giving the First Data presentation Beth's gonna give it and Beth you know this um great for there's gonna be a slide Tex so I'm gonna with me and we're moving right yeah yep you're gonna move all right so I'm going to present winter I ready data for our students at Main Street um and you know the past couple times we've done this we have started with uh a slide that looks similar to this where we have the triangle that uh gives a descriptor of like how we provide uh supports in a tiered way for students and so um we actually put a new visual up here we
029felt this this um kind of helped to explain it a little bit better than some other visuals for the um what we call uh response to intervention triangle so we start at the bottom with our tier one supports that's like our uh research-based uh program and um instruction that we provide for all students um when we roll that out um what the um ideal number is we're looking for that it reaches 80 to 90% of students it helps them Master skills Concepts um and um things as um we move up the triangle so that's like 80 to 90% of our students then above that we have 10 to 15% of our students who um require some additional supports um and so those are um supplemental to their tier one uh instruction which means they get
030the tier one and they get tier 2 okay and it's targeted to the skills that they might need so it might sometimes be in a certain subject area math reading but then we even drill down even further and we and we find out what skills are they actually meeing and we provide those supports on top of our tier one and then we go to the top of the triangle and that's um typically 1 to 5% of our students who uh receive tier three supports so they get the course support they get the supplemental in addition to the Intensive um and like I said that's 1 to 5% of our students um so as we're moving through um looking at some of the data from our our winter I ready assessment um keeping in mind like
031how many students fit into these categories we always look at that like where are we in relation to the numbers and the percentage of students um who fit into uh each place and also another reminder too is that the I ready um Diagnostics um provide opportunities for kids to demonstrate end ofe skills so it's a progression as we work through the year so here is our um our whole school reading data um from the winter session and just keeping in mind I'm going to jump the gun a little bit but keeping in mind that um kindergarten This was um this is their first year um taking the I ready Diagnostic in Reading um for uh the fall so there's our data is there also something like the beginning them yes yes because because we're measuring
032end of year skills so when we see um students like one grade below coming into the school year that's where we would expect them to be yep I have just a quick question about just your your mention of the kindergarteners do you do do you all do some kind of prep with them around even like how like how to take the test like I'm just thinking those little you know so not only the skills part but just actually taking the test yeah the I mean the kindergarten teachers are really well-versed on how to give them opportunities to like get onto the devices how do we get on the devices what you know how the that whole process um as far as accessing the diagnostic it is their first time taking a test right in that
033format so um sorry to cut in but it was actually a teacher request which was really interesting because our kindergarten team had felt for a while like we don't know and that's why we we waited and then as we've gotten into more like student by student skill by skill they said it' be really nice if the kids had taken a diagnostic and I said you want to try and so they said that would be great if we could give it a go so this is kind of a trial run to see where it goes and to follow it for a little bit of time but I think it's interesting that it was a teacher request to do it so that the students were getting very targeted instruction for reading so it's kind of cool and
034um just keep in mind too it's an Adaptive test so they are actually given material that is above and beyond where we would expect them to be because it adjusts based on their response um this slide um shows reading by grade level so um we don't have any comparison data for kindergarten because it was their first year um and um we don't have any uh in the red for kindergarten because there is no such thing as 2 years behind so that being said this is our um our winter data um we also we did a little bit of a shift this year too um we we gave the diagnostic a little bit earlier than we typically did do because we had the we had the twoe break in December and so we're we are very
035methodical in the way that we roll out our assessments because we want the most um the reliable data that we can get from our kiddos and so because they're young we also want to give them time for growth and so we decided this year to give to give the I ready diagnostic for the winter before the break um so just to to to measure before we had that two week break one more question I might be like getting ahead of us so it's coming up um I'm just curious because we just we have a new reading curriculum right literacy curriculum if we if either we have or we have the potential of comparing sort of you know is that making a difference is it you know helping to improve scores and I know everything is
036changing all the time we were postco and all of those things but sort of I think that's that's a new Factor right and we've been using using this measure for 3 years now um so we would be able to have some measures you know looking back as far as like when we were using um our old program to see how our kids are measured because they're they're not um curriculum based measures it's just this is where they're presenting at at that time of year yeah so think that would be really helpful I maybe but I think could be a little like because we're like figuring it out and so here's a slide it shows our national um what the National Data is telling us State data and then what our district is telling us District
037refers to SAU 16 so um for Kinder first and second um if you look all the way to the right hand column in each one of those grade levels it shows us uh where we are um within the district the state and then nationally and now we shift to math um here's our uh whole school math data um where um you know the bottom line is the the fall data and then the bigger one on the top is the winter data um and considering um cons some of the factors that that um that we changed this year um we changed our math uh win model this year year so when stands for what I need so students um get what they need whether it's um additional support um that tier 2 support in math um
038whether it's um some pullout math work um whether it's some extensions because they're meeting grade level expectations and we provide extensions for them um so that that um time in our schedule is flexible based on what the students need um and so the the shift in the model this year was that our our um our teachers were actually uh providing the tier 2 support so they were working with our students who are most at risk during that additional time in the schedule so that they're you know they get their core with their classroom teacher in addition to their tier tier 2 um strategic explicit instruction C in some um in some areas for math um in that um time frame yep no it it the window starts at the beginning of the year to November
03915th and then the window for winter starts after November 15th so the I ready in the fall um for um first and second grade we typically do the second or third week for the fall of of school yep yep end of September mid to end of September and then we did the math diagnostic for the winter um right before the twoe break in December so in roughly two and a half months you went from 30% being green to 157 right yes that's kind of amazing it seems like maybe that shift wind having your teachers thater May yeah for a short amount of window now the window for to the end of the year will be a little bit larger we have more time for ruction so um I have a a question so for the
040like for the win maybe I miss this but so now we have 33% of students are already now mid or above grade level so do those students does their win like is it iterative like they CH I see so there so so where you're asking is because we have that percentage of students like proficient with skills right now so we're able to provide um math extensions during that wi time and so um depending on the numbers and how the the groups flow some of our teachers provide that extension some of our um interventionists provide that extension opportunity during our win time and Jackie carosi our steam teacher also um works with kiddos as a part of an extension group during that wi time so that's really tremendous that you all can be so responsive to
041meeting students needs as they change over the school year I just want to acknowledge you think that's Trend when is the winter testing period it February 2nd I think so it starts interesting because when you're comparing the State national like I I bet some districts do it super early and then super late so you get the most instruction time to to be refle still perform yeah and we're h i mean we're happy because you know we changed that wind model because it's we believe it's what's best for kids um and with any change there's some growth there um but it it it seems to be paying off so we're happy with what we're seeing and this breaks it down even more by grade level Kinder first and second and just a reminder too um once
042our kids take the diagnostic um they have access to their learning pathway so that's a individual um um paste um you know that that adjusts to the their level that they have access to um and the recommended time is 45 minutes per week so it's not a huge ask throughout a school week and then there's the national and the state comparative data for Math and again the district is considered to be SAU 16 alls chel uh no nope no we we shifted our math win model this year I know Lincoln shifted theirs uh a couple years years ago so any questions no okay thanks thank you good yeah I'll hang with you okay hi hi thanks for having me um so I'm going to start by presenting the Lincoln Street School data to you and
043um the slides mirror the Main Street School slides but I want to just give a little bit of information regarding Lincoln Street um so we can see here as you know and you've asked about we are implementing a new literacy program this year um just as a refresher we had a full day of training in May a half day in August Lincoln Street access a half day of training in January for our teachers to work with a benchmark trainer around the writing process and the writing EXP expectations in the program that was very well received we are um anecdotally I can tell you that our teachers are very impressed by the amount of writing that children are doing now um much more so than in the past and at a much higher level so we're
044really excited about that it'll take a little bit of time to uh have data to hopefully prove that to be um the case but anecdotally lots of writing going on so our January training on writing was very well received and then this afternoon Lincoln Street classroom teachers actually spent time digging into the online Benchmark assessment portal it's an extremely robust portal with a lot of information it takes time to learn how to access it how to read it how to filter through to get the information you need depending on the purpose of your test and and what you're looking for so um third and fourth grade spent two hours working on that today fifth grade spent one hour on that and they um had to transition to some CMS placement stuff but um that was
045exciting and people were glad to have the time so um what you are seeing here is uh back in the fall we started with 21% of our students in the red and that has uh dropped down to 133% and we're really proud of that and we're really proud of um all of those students because what that 133% doesn't always show is the amount of growth that some of the children who are in that category um what's reflected for example um you know there's a student who started at a as a low kindergarten reader um in the fifth grade and made progress to towards the end of second grade the child is still in the red but that's incredible growth and and we're celebrating that success um in the green which is you know early gr
046grade level and Beyond we started at 56% that's grown to 67% um we're also really happy about that we spend quite a bit of time looking particularly at that 44% in the dark green to make sure that our highest achieving students are continuing to grow and continuing to have opportunities that challenge them so we do spend quite a bit of time on that um just one other note about the implementation of our um literacy program both schools had many many staff members who participated in the pilot uh the Lincoln Street pilot group requested to continue to meet this year and so they meet twice a month in a CTT and um bring their um successes and their challeng es from their grade level so that we can process those as um a vertical team for
047grades 345 and special education and that has been a really fantastic uh experience it's one of my favorite ctts of the month yes sorry so yes great question um so CTT is collaborative team time it's um like a professional Learning Community we just have do you call them ctts yeah um professional Learning Community we call them ctts so each grade level meets in a CTT our special education department meets in a CTT and then we have this vertical um reading program CTT okay next slide so this breaks it down by grade level um you can see here we like we're pleased with the trends um I did want to also comment on the fact that what we're finding in the new benchmark assessments is they much more closely mirror the New Hampshire SAS and we're
048actually pretty excited about that because the rigor of these assessments that our students are engaging in it it's there and um we're spending some time uh working with the students to make sure they understand how to approach the test and test taking strategies and things like that but um again we only have anecdotal information at this time but I'm hopeful that sooner rather than later our data will prove that the new program is really everything that we want it to be and that we spent time selecting and so here we have um SAU data and the state and nationally and these Trends um were not surprising to us go ahead Heather I just want to not I have a son in fifth grade that they were I can't they were the pandemic grade they were
049in kindergarten 2020 um and I know we've talked about this right of sort of like mapping that grade sort of like the last grade to leave our elementary schools that were in the thick of remote school and I wonder if you I I don't know how to make sense of that here but what what you see yes so um absolutely the last grade level that was significantly impacted by covid we actually have been tracking um our New Hampshire SAS data for that cohort and so I would love to come back later in the year with um the chart that shows how those um how those students have their growth over time and we've talked a lot about I think in these meetings how um our fifth graders particularly in the Ela realm um they missed
050all of that foundational face-to-face foundational work that happens in kindergarten and first and it has been a a commitment to catch up um and all of the work that's happened over the years with Maryann nice and then with the new program and our um our tier 2 interventions I think are are really paying off I feel like our fifth graders are um pretty impressive with their reading skills right now yeah thank you um yeah think I got it you're up thanks all right so as we transition over to um our math data you can see the growth from um fall to midyear or winter um and again you know we we'll be very excited in anticipating um as get to the spring kind of where we land but you know right now we're at which
051is about 62% roughly um have are at or above we have a bunch of students that are right on the cusp of where we want them to be and we'll certainly be working very hard through our math wi model to um give them that extra boost um before the end of the school year um I think our math data is really looking or trending in a positive direction and you know one of the things that I think is worth bringing up is you know as in the first year of our literacy program with Benchmark this is our fourth year with I ready so our teachers and their level of comfort and expertise in their their ability to teach at the tier ones as well as tier 2 in special education supporting through other programming as
052well um I think is reflective of the growth that we're seeing um we can go to the next one there thank you so much and we can see once again um really nice growth um and as truly had mentioned I won't belabor the point too much but we um really do take the time to look individually at students and so when we look at the far left and at the far right um we're looking to see that are we seeing stagnant numbers are we seeing numbers that are trending in the right direction there's always going to be outliers because you know an assessment like this is a snapshot but by and large the vast majority of kids on both ends um um of this are are making really Positive Growth you know some students as
053Julie mentioned making multiple years of progress within a half of a school year which again we're really excited about but again also looking at as a singular data point and just another piece of the puzzle um but we're very excited about that thank you um and then the last piece you know this is this is just a chart that we hadn't used in the past we thought it was a nice comparative piece when you look at the SAU um compared to New Hampshire and then you've got the New Hampshire year to date which is reflective of as you can see on the bottom National year to date winter 2425 but then the very far left was the last time they did their National Norms so that's from a few years ago but it just gives
054you a couple of different perspectives um so just to reiterate you know as we talk about family communication you know these I ready midyear reports were sent home um in January when we sent home our first semester learning reports as well so families have had an opportunity to look at this um so excuse me so this just gives us again multiple data points um when we look at our students that are more in that tier 2 and tier three we have other data points that we're using for through progress monitoring such as programs like um Acadian and and a few others so again I think that we're really moving in a positive direction we're excited about the Benchmark program it's a very heavy lift um to introduce a new program our teachers have really embraced
055it and I give a lot of credit to Julie and Carla and the pilot committees last year who really got staff Buy in at a very high level which is not easy to do um and we've been able to carry that momentum through this year in literacy and then again I think that our teachers are really doing a nice job of you know in year four with the I ready or ready math program just um we we're really kind of in a nice rhythm with that we take it one more yeah we'll we'll take um a spring we'll call it assessment season um we'll have our New Hampshire SAS and then we will also squeeze in our end of year I ready yeah so we'll have that final data point and I think typically if
056I remember correctly we do that presentation in the fall um because it's it really is right towards the end of May that we um get that data that's I hope that I know that you're crating it but I can tell you not all our elementary dist have that and I guess that's what I think just to go back to my point about I I think what we've talked about with the fifth grade year is like over time we see those gaps Clos and that's what I'm seeing if and that's pretty trous too would know over time with this data if like all the different work curricula and when and all the decisions that have made been made over data would um would would really help to close that Gap and it's beginning to translate over
057to the Middle School the math data is really looking much better at the middle school so this work that's happening here with the consistency of the program is now carrying over to the Middle School we're seeing starting to see the benefits of that consistency kid in more prepared right so that common program I believe is what's helping because that carries through now prek through me do they do midd scho yes yes um how do Beyond listening in as everyone is to this board meeting um how you know this is really compelling and I think the public and the taxpayers and our parents caregivers would really benefit from really not only seeing the data but understanding what you shared with us today and I'm just curious if you guys have thought about how this might at
058what point you know we share this data in what ways with yeah I know I I I believe the schools try to share it as a whole but with parents the community I mean we we post it on the web page is that is that consistent at the community level I mean we talked about our survey think we had 31 community members fill out that strategic planning survey yeah that you know that's not count that's just no affiliation with the school only community members not a grandparent nothing like that which is very L yes and we I mean those people this committees push it out everywhere trying to you know to have an interest which on one hand we talked about this at the at our strategic plan me last night is an indicator that
059overall our community pretty happy because when you send out surveys people that are unhappy or really really happy tend to fill them out right and so with 31 people it wasn't it wasn't by any means all negative it was you know a mix um and only 31 people chose to engage um at that level as a community member we have a good student turnout because both middle and high school provided time in school to do that and we had a decent family turn out and staff turn out um but our community I think the another indicator we talked about this last night will be how budgets go right those are our two that's our big indicator sure you know if budgets are passing overall we're looking pretty good that generally means the community because that's
060the community's voice right that's the opportunity to say yay or nay yeah and so I'm hoping that that falls in line and um that's that's our best indicator I believe around Community engagement is did our budgets pass yeah because that's where they express happiness or unhappiness around how it impacts them which is a taxpayer right yeah and so I just knew when I came on the board which was during just after 2020 you know there was there was so many questions right how are we doing and how are kids doing and how are they being affected and this is to me such a good like it's just such a great story about how the work that you all are doing um and how we're doing over time and coming out of that so so our
061strategic plan will have um an interactive dashboard we set action steps and right and so pretty much last night we narrowed down the core values to be uh personal excident Excellence which relates the stuff will be in that Dash metrics I'm sure for personal exellence um gr mindset another area to indicate growth whether it's the you know level there a fifth grader that still grew we still want to celebrate that and report that as we are making good growth um equity and um wellbeing so I imagine those four pillows will probably carry through in some way shap form as we go through um because that's where the committee landed that is more familiar with the data so if that's the case then we take that information at the end of the Strategic plan and internally
062develop metrics and how we're going to measure it and then an interfacing dashboard okay great so in another a year from now the goal is we will have that interactive dashboard with F's help with building that dashboard based on the pl of progress on those goals and that's why we have to do those metrics internally etc etc yeah I just love this like seeing it sort of compared to State and the national Norm it's really it's really great brainstorm we were just talking there's a couple things we could do like even in cam we have like some slides and you could do a voice over link that says like you want like AI presentation on like there's some things that could mess with see I think this data we could probably do we get a
063Jill kind of do the district data and kind of a little short overview and Link that on the web page you know I know again Community don't always go to theage but the community members are interested in that do go to the web page as well as parents or if a question comes up we can point them you should go check out the website you know it's just it's there for or newsletters like principal newsletters like if were to do something we could plug it some we get something I mean the district data we can certainly I can ask J to do something recing the newsletter which goes out everywhere with links you know maybe she can do a voice over so there are ways that we can get this kind of out later thank
064you Patrick are traveling your G right here can use my thank you guys so much for that um we're going to move into our committee reports and our first committee is our de J committee um Susan and Patrick Patrick and I were both on AA complex sadly okay and I don't see Abby so sure ab's not so we'll follow up on on that um for our next meeting um I think oh I was there we read a really interesting um article from an oh we read an interesting article go yeah I'm pulling an Abby she wasck SE we read the this really interesting article from an indigenous author that was just talking about um when people are feeling like they might be in moments of chaos how to be grounding which is really lovely and
065then we just talked about as a committee like what are our core values and building our core values out to commitments and so when we make school decisions that we are making sure that we are aligning with what our initial commitment of that work was and that that becomes like our solid guide as we move forward so there were lots of thoughts of like how are people coping with things in the world what are some things that they are doing to be grounded and take care of themselves and then what might those commitments be so that we have some grounding work was good great thank you all right I think and next on the list is policy but why don't we wait and put that one at the end because there's quite a few to
066to talk through there um so we'll move on to superintendent evaluation not meet between since last meeting okay no update um School Safety and Security task force we have our next meeting on Thursday the 20th the last one was postponed because of the ice yeah we had snow i s ice something okay and we've heard a little bit about strategic planning but yeah I wouldn't add anything sorry I think you did a great job better than I could have done um I think we've met twice since February 4th though so really gearing up for the summit that's going to happen on March 27th 28th and 29th so be sure to register if anybody's listening um 5 to 8 that Thursday Friday and 9 to 12 um on that Saturday morning have to go for all
067three it's a progressive Workshop so um to really March through a lot of the data that we've got from the surveys that will be facilitated by qualtrix um so we will have help in navigating through some of the information but we have a lot of data a really good starting point and came up with the and child care is being provided and food yep child care and uh dinner Thursday and Friday and more of a lighter continental breakfast and coffee and things like that on Saturday I will say the sign up was very nice asked a lot about allergy food allergies any sort of thing you might need to make it your ability to be there if you need transportation is on there translator if you need translation so we Tred to make it as
068accessible as possible people so if anyone's listening for the folks at home because you're not here Patrick to say it um certainly call uh Sharon Galler look at that uh form that sign up form um but I think if you have a need we try to identify it so we could have people anyone come y great that's and are you feeling good good about registration so far or we're right around um I think 50 people 10 more than yesterday yeah which is which is good I mean I mean it's a commitment right it's three sessions it's it's some not easy for folks to always do that so 50 and that's counting administrators and staff and parents that's the whole group um but if we have 50 people I I I'll be happy with that because
069I think that's more than we would have had if we had made a committee and met once a month for a year and a half yes you get a of about 12 that way you just lose momentum doing it that way I think too so hopefully and I do I feel very informed about that so as a as a community member I've gotten lots of reminders and um so great who know to you all um and then I uh the facilities task force yes to you again so we met at Hawk unless Patrick wants to take this but we met um last week and have in front of you the markups of the playground signage um there's one for the EDP and then one that would be at both uh Main Street school and up
070at Lincoln Street school and so it just goes through some general General recommendations for using the play structures um so you guys look at that the only question I had was I mean this would wouldn't apply to probably a student but like heels like no seets are heel like right so we talked about heels Patrick do you remember why we went with just cleats uh I I don't have the piece right in front of me in terms of what the language is that that we that we were suggesting it says no it just says I think it was about the C right the you know just wanting to make sure we Preserve of the surface and so you have a note about washing hands and then the last bullet point is no cleats which of
071course makes sense but I'm curious in so many Community member if if there was a discussion around other kinds of Footwear that would puncture it potentially or yeah we talked about um different language there and um the cleat seemed to make the most sense because that's the closest proximity to the playground um it wasn't like heels no heels because I don't think very often you bring your kids to the playground in heels was part of the discussion um then we thought about gonna be spiky dress heels I mean there are some heels too that are more squared in the back that wouldn't be problematic it would really it's really using like a spike that could damage it and I think that's why cleats in particular are problematic okay um you know winter boots are fine
072we we try to and the kids are using them right now there's all kinds of of different sorts of Footwear that that wouldn't be acceptable in a gym is fine for an outdoor play structure right but it's more something like a cleat that could actually potentially penetrate the surface and dislodge some of the material was the concern yeah we tried about we talked about like athletic wear but that doesn't but then when you're wearing boots in the winter so that doesn't that didn't fit so it seemed like no cleats was the clearest message okay sense so as long as everyone's okay with this I I will have Rusty the signs from a grammar perspective I think we don't need periods at the end bullet say what I'm really I am Terri I I'm the worst
073at grammar so I'm glad that that was correct no you do Chang you don't need um uh periods at the end of each of these bullets okay so no periods right okay can you um oh I think helpful because I know there's been some Community interest in what is going on the sign would it be possible don't think it's very long just to read aloud what's on the sign do you want to do that F sure they are both the same so one is for grade ages 2 through five and the other is 5 through 12 but the wording is the same um adult supervision recommended um second playground surfaces may be hot third always remove helmets drawrings and neck accessories before playing fourth do not play without adequate safety Serv surfacing below and around
074equipment fifth washing hands thoroughly after playing is recommended and six no cleats and I'll just point out there's a typo on thorough it's all right any other input on this baby nope no thank you guys for doing [Applause] yes thank you to Rusty and and Mike just said Mike Mike from the company the playground company he had yeah he joined us also oh that's great and Beth I think you mentioned this and I just uh when when are the once sort of this is finalized what when do you expect the signs would be I don't I don't know what the turnaround is but I will talk to Rusty tomorrow so okay great thank I would assume pretty quick yeah um great thanks for that and then um the wheel light trust oh we haven't received
075any new submissions great um and I'll just lift up I think there was a suggestion at the last board meeting and Susan you weren't here so I'm just going to mention it that that in the future it would be wonderful sometimes to have um you know one of the representatives of a project that was funded by the will right trust come and join the board meeting and just share um how it went I think they're going to come in May that's awesome I think that would be great great so um just moving back to policy and Patrick I'll go through this but if I leave something out please feel free to to come off mute and um chime in there are quite a few policies but um they are kind of many of them are
076connected to each other um so the first policy is policy code a IAM and the name of this policy is health education and exemption from instruction and I'll talk about these two policies together first and then we can maybe um they're related to each other um so this is a current policy that was revised uh due to uh reflect updates to the law um it requires parents and Guardians notification regarding specific curricula and I just want to underscore that um one of the things we talked about in the meeting was that um this is curricula pertaining to sexual orientation gender gender identity gender expression and it was just sort of noted to clarify that this policy um specifically applies to those topics when they are the focus of a unit or lesson um so this
077policy is about um not you know notification if a district employee uh or if if that is going to be included and um in that process um and I'll just go ahead and and talk about the second one and we can see we have any questions the second one is the policy code IG G um and this is uh the policy name is Parental objections to specific course material so again this is a revision to a current policy um also to reflect the updates of the same um same law um and it just sort of stipulates um how notification is required um this is may be a dumb question this was not required before it is now required it was okay y oh Patrick go ahead sorry no I was just gonna say the the
078language that's added about sexual orientation gender gender identity and or gender expression comes directly from the RSA from the law and that wasn't previously in the law there was there was more General notification but it wasn't specific to didn't have those specific words in there and we're required to add those words the committee talked about well can we say something more general or what not we all went back and looked at the law like nope this is exactly what the law says we don't really have flexibility like this these are the words that we need to use in our policy okay yeah thanks Patrick for clarifying that so um I'm gonna let's vote on these um do I have a motion to approve policy code I AG am and policy code IG G I move
079to approve IH am and I new uh revised policies great any discussion oh second second any discussion okay all in favor I I and Patrick has his his hand up as well um great um moving on the next um I'll do these together too the first one is policy code ebcd um this is on emergency uh closings again this is a a a revision of a policy we've had um and we've updated it um to be more uh comprehensive um and um I think there's some inclusions around the section on distance education um as well and the section on early release really have much more to add about that one do you Patrick okay um and then uh the second one that is um kind of related is uh policy IC and this name is
080school year and school year calendar and this one is a new policy um so IT addresses the school year school year closures distance education when there's inclement weather um the school calendar it is a policy that uh is being introduced in alignment with the emergency closings policy um and let's see oh yeah there I guess this is one thing just to note I think we've talked about it but it it includes a reference to um RSA 28843 which um requires in the count um and the schools to designate names for certain holidays that are in accordance with um State what the state calls those holidays Patrick anything to add about that one nope okay so do I have a motion to approve policy code I see uh andul and then can I do them together
081Patrick M like I just did that right and policy ACD motion okay to approve the two policies was that motion to approve them both second second any discussion nope all in favor I I and Patrick has his hand up as well all right moving along uh the next one is policy code ACD this is uh the policy name is commitment to religious neutrality um and so this is a policy that we have but one thing I'll note is the um we uh did a revision of the name it used to be special observance days um so we've changed the name from special observance days to commitment to religious neutrality um uh and that was to match um the New Hampshire School Board Association model policy um and so it just in generally this is a
082policy that that just uh stipulates that um know uh School Employees can endorse or prohibit participation in religious activity and that um students may have the opportunity to pray or Express religious views um if it's in a non-disruptive manner during um times when school activity and instruction are not are not happening um I think the other uh part of this was and correct me if I'm wrong Patrick I think um from our discussion there used to be sort of a list of of of holidays am I remembering that correctly Patrick and we sort of moving away from that to say that if there is a student that is going to be absent on a religious holiday that the parent parents or Guardians just notify the school and the intent to be absent um because there's
083no way we can be inclusive of of all holidays in in in a list Patrick anything else to add on this one okay um can I have a motion to accept policy code ACD motion to accept ACD second season second any discussion nope I guess I have one comment for discussion please I I don't know why we need the Bold after we're striking it out of the title why we have in the middle of the policy the Bold special observance days in there it it doesn't seem like it's really needed I mean the whole thing is about this I don't understand why there's that sort of section marker in the middle of a of a relatively short policy seems like we could we should take that out the the all caps part in the middle
084that makes sense to me strike that okay great um I think I some head nodding y um so I'd like to move that actually Patrick could you go ahead and make a motion with your suggested revision well so we already have the we have a motion that's on the table so I guess I would it that made the motion well withdraw the motion was me yeah I guess I'm asking for sort of if you would accept a friendly Amendment to the motion which you be to strike the all caps in the middle of the the page I accept would you like to and I will read second the second to if she accepts it then she then she'd have to okay go ahead so Beth could you accept the motion to strike the bold face
085in the middle of the of the policy great and is there a second and I think Susan you seconded it I did second any further discussion okay all in favor I I I I and Patrick is also in favor all right we're getting there guys okay policy code imda this is pretty straight forward the policy name is the Pledge of Allegiance and it is a current policy uh it's a a revised policy and according to the law which states that schools must set aside time for the pledge of allegiance to be given and that participation and the pledge is voluntary um do I have a motion to accept policy imda motion to accept policy imda and do I have a second Susan any discussion NOP none all in favor I I and Patrick is also
086okay this is our last one before we get to some policies to withdraw this is policy ACAC um the policy name is proh prohibitions of sexual harassment policy and griev um procedures so this is a policy we had um it was revised in October this justce fall um to reflect uh Federal Regulations pertaining to title um four or nine nine sorry do it's okay nine um and so it's basically reverting back to a similar policy that uh was um in effect in um and uh there's some changes there around definitions um change in title some other defs this is a particularly long one um we didn't have much discussion on the board level but I know they so this this was originally approved by the board back in 2020 or before that yeah this was
087a policy we've had in place Cas I think it it's because the it's because the executive order said we had to go back to 2020 so we approved the new new regulation and the policy that aligned with that now we have to go back and align it to the new executive order that say we are supposed to align to 2020 so there's not a lot of Wiggle Brom here folks no this is a this is the US District Court all right right right yeah just I mean I think I think both of the things are right what you said and what what said I mean even if the executive order was for whatever reason overturned there's a there's a federal court be prior to the the new Administration coming in that said that it had
088to go back so so either way we have to go back okay to the to the prior to the prior version it changes some of the standards and the and the process and the timelines and the roles slightly I mean a lot of it's there's a lot of overlap but it does make some changes but we don't have a choice we have to go back to that okay so on that note a motion to have a motion to approve motion to approve ACAC a second second okay all in favor okay great so I'm just going to read through all there's um four policies uh to uh requested for uh to be withdrawn and that's mostly because um of other policy revisions and adoptions so the first uh is policy acdr this is that special observance
089days list that I just mentioned so instead of the list now we um have the updated policy uh there was uh policy AA which was the school year policy and now that's embedded in our new uh policy IC that we just voted in on um and then there's uh policy ITF which was a policy around graduate um requirements um oh no that's not that doesn't pertain to us sorry those were um next two don't pertain to elementary schools so I would like to make a motion for us to withdraw I think that I think the last two do pertain to Elementary Schools they're they're currently in our policy manual oh we have to withdraw them they so graduation requirements and and the competencies don't really don't need to be in it they just need to
090be at the Co in the co-op policy okay thank you check so I'd like to make a motion to withdraw these four policies policy code acdr R policy IA policy ikf and policy I lva second second any discussion all in favor I I great thank you [Music] all and thank you Patrick a lot there that was a lot nice work policy team um keeping us busy um great so um before we move on to uh old business um I wanted to ask first if anyone else has any new business and if not um I would like to just take a moment to um say thank you to our colleague Cesar Brinker um for just just being such an incredible leader on this board and always leading with your heart and playing students and teachers and
091staff first and decision and I know for myself I've learned so much from you as someone who is a a seasoned educator and longtime U champion of our schools and I am so still so connected to so many people um in our schools and I feel just incredibly privileged and grateful to have served alongside you and to know you so thank you it was such an honor really to um sit on this table at this you know this side of the table as an educator and um definitely a learning experience um and uh credit to all of you guys thank you no that's here have a little token of our appreciation a certificate of appreciation thank you thank you guys we'll miss you I'll be I want to come and here the springtime um I
092ready yeah I ready you should yeah it we'll be like amazing I know and um the will write presentations so not getting rid of me and um Patrick we're not going to say goodbye to you because you're on the ballot today so um but I do want to I know your term is up and so um I just also want to acknowledge publicly just your incredible dedication to this board um up to this point I know I think 19 years of service on the exitor elementary school I know you've had kids who've moved through the district and you also have kids coming through the district that are younger to and um have a deep commitment um I think uh just to all kids I know have been a real champion of the you know development
093of the kindergarten program and the pekk and the um and special ed and um I know I have learned tremendously from you in policy and negotiations and I think um just really appreciate your leadership and really steadfast um commitment to this community and to our school so thank you so much I think this is what it feels like to uh be sitting at your celebration of life when you're well I just want to know because I know that're we don't know what what will happen today but I want to make sure that we have a chance to publicly um thank you so thank you huge gratitude um not hearing any other new business um any don't think we have any old business well we have the just the nonp the business of which was on
094the agenda I'm sure ESO bring it up but which is to make a motion to go in on public yes that is my next that is my next move so um so you can help me out with what I have to say here make a motion to go into nonpublic under RSA 91 a3a I would like to make a motion to go into nonpublic under RSA 9183 a um and that do I read what a is you don't have to and that that's what I'd like to do make a second um and I will take a roll call so all in favor I I I I I and so we uh are going into nonpublic at 7:26 great so we are coming out of non at 7 and I would like to make a motion
095to acceptation of