Acushnet: School Committee Oct. 16, 2025

001[music] Okay, I'm going to call the meeting to order. Today is Thursday, October 16th, 2025. This meeting is being video and audio recorded for future cable broadcast. Please silence all cell phones for the duration of the meeting. Can I have a motion to open the school committee meeting? >> I'll make a motion. We'll do a roll call. >> Mr. Hood? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Gorder? >> Yes. >> Mr. Ellis? >> Yes. >> Mr. Elcross? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Wood? >> Yes. >> And I'll ask everybody to stand so we can start with the pledge of allegiance. >> To the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, the first item is the consent agenda. Everything listed in the

002consent agenda was distributed in advance of the meeting. Does anyone have any requests for something to be removed from the consent agenda and discussed or voted on separately? >> Seeing none, may I have a motion to uh approve and accept the items listed in the consent agenda, including the minutes for the September 30th, 2025 meeting. >> So motion second. >> All those in favor? I >> I any opposed? >> Seeing none, motion passes un opposed. >> Uh Dr. Bailey, do we have anyone signed up for delegation? >> No. >> Uh seeing no old business, I'll turn it over to you, Dr. Bailey, for new business. >> Okay. Good evening, everyone. >> Um tonight there's a few things on my report, but most of them are fairly quick. Um the first one is a policy update

003and it's only the first read. So we had an audit for our food service program. So you see in your packet anything that's highlighted in red has been added but they're very minor ads like you see including school meals. Um so the first policy is ACE non-discrimination on the basis of disability food services. Um the district shall make reasonable modification in policies, practices or procedures and what was added was including school meals when modifications are necessary etc etc. So that's the first one. The second one is policy ADF school wellness program. Um and if you could see all the things in red that basically we do not do any food and beverage policy marketing. So that was just the recommendations um as a result of the audit. So tonight is just the first reading and

004then what we will plan to do is in the November meeting put this on the agenda for a second reading and a vote to approve. Any questions? >> That's the only thing that's changing. What's in red? >> Yep. What's in red? >> Simple. >> Yep. All right. So moving on. The next thing I have is the Kushnet public schools middle school pathway exploration policy. And this basically is the department of elementary and secondary education recently released guidance regarding the updated career and technical education regulations um which can be found through the DESI site and it's all outlined there. But basically our district um has been doing all of these things for career exploration. So we put it in writing and you see that attachment there. It's actually we got some guidance through MASC because when

005they said policy we thought it had to be added to the MASC policies and that's not the case. We were recently told that it as long as it's part of our curriculum of studies is that we have a pathway exploration policy that our kids get to um explore vocational options and as you know in a cushion our students have the two options of Bristol Aggie as well as Old Colony Regional Vote Tech High School. We have field trip opportunities, we have career days, etc. that we outlined there. But um this is just something that we needed a vote on prior to November 1st where we have to submit to Desessie that we actually have it in writing. So does anybody have any questions on what's outlined there in terms of what our school district does

006for our eighth graders and students actually before 8th grade? Um they get different field trips and opportunities for the careers. >> Okay. Well, so you need a motion. >> Yes. Uh so can we have a motion to approve the APS middle school pathway exploration exploration policy please? >> So motion >> second. >> All those in favor. >> Any opposed? Seeing none motion passes unos. >> Okay. Great. Thank you. Next I have um PJ Keing representatives here and they have um asked them to go to the podium and introduce themselves. They have a donation that they would like to share with us tonight. and they've been great partners of our school district and we thank them very much for their support. >> Uh, good evening. My name is Derek Hill and I'm the president of PJ

007Keating. >> Good evening. I'm Rick Dale. I'm the area manager for PJ Keating. >> Rick's really the brains behind the golf tournament and uh the funds we've raised at the Aushnet River Valley golf tournament. Um, we're we're we're bringing a check for $14,958 to be your Kickstarter for the reviving um and thriving in your library cuz we know it starts here. Um, so we're excited to present the check uh the big check. The cash will come by by another means but um so you know rocks build America and if you think about it we're you know we're an essential business. So the quarry that has been in existence here since the 1800s um it's a big part of of how your quality of life is and if you just imagine no rocks, no schools, no

008quarry, no roads. So, you know, uh yes, there there are some trade-offs to that, but we're excited to be a partner in the community, be a good corporate citizen, and and there's no better way than we can think of than to give back into the school system and for the kids. And and we're excited to see what happens here over the next year as you uh as you fund raise to uh to bring bring this building or this this part of the library for the kids to a different a different and and cool experience. So, we're we're very grateful to be part of that. So, >> very much appreciated and you've been very generous um in your donations to the school system, but I just want to thank you. And I would also ask um

009I know you might have comments, but if we could also take a picture with the big check with you, that would be great. >> That would be awesome. >> Yeah. I I mean, I would just like to thank you. It's a really generous uh donation. We can't wait to see how it um helps transform this space, and we certainly would welcome you back and hope you'll come back and see what happens here. So, we really appreciate it. Great. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> So, we just ask if we could do a picture and then we'll do a vote after that. >> You can be in the [laughter] >> Can you see everybody? everything. Okay. Sorry. >> We're going to ask you to use our phone, too. >> Okay. >> You don't mind?

010Thank you. >> Big smile. >> Thank you very much. Oh, >> you can use yours right if it's easier. >> One more. >> Yeah. One more if you don't mind. All right. Charge extra for that. >> Yeah. In a second. [laughter] We'll be back with another $20,000 donation, please. >> Yes. Thank you. Wonderful. >> Awesome. >> All right, guys. Have a good night. >> Thank you very much. That's >> just ask the committee to take a vote to accept the donation of $14,959 from PJ King [snorts] for to be earmarked for the renovation of upgrades for the FMS library. >> Yeah. Can we have a motion to accept a donation from PJ Keing for the library renovation project? I'll be more than happy in the main motion. >> No second. >> All those in favor.

011>> Any opposed? Seeing none, motion passes unopposed. >> Thank you. Next up, we have another donation and I just need a vote again to accept a donation from Jesse Dlo. Um he donated a trumpet and a snare drum to the middle school with a value of over $550. Can we have a motion to accept the donation from Mr. Jesse? Is it Della? >> Danella >> uh for FMS. So motion >> seconded. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Seeing none, motion passes un opposed. And I would also like to thank Mr. Dell for his generous uh donation. I'm sure it'll go to good use. Yes, >> absolutely. And we send out thank you acknowledgements from this whole committee. So, um, next up I have the high school tuition agreement update. Um, just

012to let everyone know, we in the district have met with two out of the four high schools. We're meeting with another high school tomorrow to talk about, you know, tuitions and and what they could offer us um, in terms of transportation. Those have been the real two big main categories that we've been talking about. I've also passed around in your packet tonight um some options for tours for the high schools and they did offer some evening options as well. So we would have two school committee members at each one possibly or one with some of our central office. So I would just ask tonight before you leave if you could sign up for those so that I can confirm those times. Um and one of the schools free time bill we actually have a second

013meeting coming up. She had more questions than anything. So, they're going to come back with more answers for us hopefully in the next meeting. Um, but I feel like we're in a good place in terms of timeline. Things are moving rather quickly. Um, you'll see on the tour sheet all the high schools are listed there with options. The only one school we haven't heard back yet is for Haven um with times. So, we're just waiting for dates and times from them. As soon as I get those, I will email that out to you and we can have you sign up for that as well. >> Did you Did you say I'm sorry, Dr. Did you met with two? You have one tomorrow and did you say that the other one is when is the other

014one scheduled? Do you know? >> Yeah. So, tomorrow is scheduled. We already met with New Bedford. And then Fair Haven is scheduled for Tuesday the 21st. So things are moving right along. Um and I think the next step is the tours and then we'll take it from there. Um Aldo's working very closely with me and um superintendent on coming up with some type of agreement if we were to go in the direction of each high school. So and then we'll bring it back to the committee. Uh do you anticipate I forget what the date of our November uh meeting is or do you anticipate you we'll be ready for a um more robust discussion at that meeting or we might have to schedule something se I'm just curious timing >> I think you know I'd

015be interested maybe in November after you have a chance to go on the tours because you've listened to the curriculum and programming already you'll have a hands-on on tour um at the schools. I would be interested in listening at that point to what [snorts] you're thinking in terms of, you know, what makes sense, what makes fiscal sense in terms of being fiscally responsible to our district, what your vision is for um moving forward for agreements. >> Yeah. We can see how it plays out timing wise. I think if if we're not quite ready by the November regularly scheduled meeting, we should maybe think about another meeting >> to to have that discussion and not wait cuz I know we wanted to make the decision by December. So, we need to kind of get in front

016of it. I'm sure >> we're all anxious to to get moving as our um you know, the residents, but I think we're making good progress thus far. >> Has any comments, questions? I mean, our goal is really to get answers from the districts for you so that we can see what makes sense and what they're agreeable to. >> Um, but so far the meetings have been going really well. >> Do you um as an admin team have like do you want any specific asks that we as school committee members might have that would apply to like the financial side of the discussion? Like I know for me personally, I'm pretty passionate about having some light bus loss service because I know that that's a big deal for a lot of parents, especially with kids that

017are out of town, >> but there's also a big financial um aspect to that as well. >> Um would would would there be any other topics that would be helpful for us to have some discussion about before you have some of these more financially focused discussions with the other schools? Um, so like I said, the two main focus areas have been transportation that has come up, late busing as well as tuition. Those are the big topics that we've been discussing. >> Um, but if you have something else that I should be discussing, please let me know. But I mean that takes up a good part of the discussion. Those two topics are the big, >> you know, budget items, right? Um and I think everything else in term they all want our students to attend

018their schools and they want them to feel a part of like and you saw the programming. So they're all a little bit different in some ways right so I would be interested in hearing from you in November your thoughts on what you've seen heard toward all of it and what you think would be in the best interest of the accession students. Yeah, I >> think one of the big pushes for me is the special education too and supportive services and what they have to offer. >> Well, it's how many they how many students they send out of district and how many they're able to support within district? >> Mhm. >> And we can certainly get that information for you. Have there been um discussions either with the schools or amongst the administrative team about what

019like the target like term of these contracts is going to be. I know we've had some very very long-term contracts in the past and like granted this is a pretty heavy lift in terms of just a selection process so it's not necessarily something that we'd want to have to go through every you know 3 to 5 years but 20 years is probably also too long >> too. So like what's that happy middle ground? I don't know. >> So I agree 20 years is too long because we had trouble, you know, addressing things with a 20-year contract. My thought was because this is new and I think depending on what the committee decides to do, we possibly could do and I would talk to legal about this too is a a three year with a two-year

020or three-year extension. Um, so keep it all in one, but like try things out. If we're going to do something different, try it out and then we can reassess it after the length of time that we think is appropriate. >> Um, >> yeah, I personally even 10 feels a little long to me unless there's some uh options in there that allow for us to get out or renegotiate if we find out that something really isn't working. >> Yeah. three years feels maybe too short in some ways because if it's three years you're going to be in that negotiation like >> it's like a congressional >> congressional election cycle like you're just constantly >> but three maybe that's work you know working >> yeah a lot changes in 20 years right so if it's a little

021shorter with an extension >> it negotiating will be a little easier with things that are hopefully similar right um >> and you It's four. It's It would feel a little weird to be three like less someone goes there for four years that that we'd be negotiating before someone was actually able to go through the the process. >> We always put in the contract though that um no matter what students would be grandfathered were break the contract they would be grandfathered into stay and the schools have been extremely agreeable to that. So I don't anticipate that being an issue. Yeah, I think that ingring on that shorter end like maybe in like the four to five year range probably makes the most sense because then you know a freshman isn't going to be you know there's

022not really a worry of them not being able to continue to attend because of the grandfathering language in their contract but you know we're not constantly interrupting these kids school experience by these schools having to go up for rebidding every you know three years >> right >> um you I I think that's probably a good good time. >> Yeah, obviously I'll consult with legal on what they recommend for something like this. Um but definitely I don't think the district is in favor of a 20 year club 20 >> and you know especially where we're dealing with some new schools. They're essentially, you know, unknown unknown quantities and long. So, we wouldn't want to be in a, you know, long 10-year contract with a school we've never sent this to before. >> That's why I thought

023we did a shorter contract, shorter duration with the option of an extension. >> Yeah. >> So, that it could be longer. >> Yeah. I just naturally I think as long as it even if it's with extension and it gets us to our five or six years, that just feels like it's probably kind of the right >> sweet spot. But we can have more discussion about it. It feels long enough, but not too long. >> Not too short. >> Yeah. I guess my only my only concern if we did like a like a threeyear with, you know, possibility of like a two-year extension is I don't I wouldn't want to see the school district be in a position where we have to do any sort of renegotiation or see tuition rates change or see anything, you

024know, unexpected at that extension time. like if I would really I think it would be wise if we made it just an extension of the existing contract unless both parties agree that something needs to change like maybe we decide the transportation arrangements that we've put together aren't working. >> The only thing I would say to add to that is possibly looking at chapter 70 funding because if that formula changes it may have to change the tuition agreement. So I again I think the legal team will put in language that would address that. Um, but I think I agree with you that we should be not changing. It should be minimal changes, right? >> You know, things are going well. >> Yeah, I know just from like the town's ability to absorb cost. I mean, my

025the hope is that we wouldn't see significant increases in tuitions over what we already have contracted because if we see a big jump in those, especially with all the unknowns related to the old colony project, >> I mean, it it just creates a lot of uncertainty in the town's ability to even pay. >> So, good. Yeah, >> I agree. cuz we're struggling now. >> So, we want to make sure that we make a fiscally sound decision. >> I have two questions. Number one, would be able to get any performance-based feedback on perform student performance as far as how our students testing. So we know, you know, that we're getting our money's worth. Polish placements, we we've been through that before the question and they in inability to provide that. >> Uh but I'm just wondering

026if that can be pursued. So So it allows us to look at what, you know, what we we've, you know, bought into as far as the performance we have. So therefore we have to re-evaluate the the contract you know or the understanding uh that so I I I think that you know that it should be a almost like a performance-based type of contract you know and and so we have valuable information and it allows you know the superintendent administration if we do have any shortfalls we pick that up that we turn have to look at you know our inner reexamine that curriculum you know and find it or whatever or whatever situations that we you know encounter. So that'd be my first suggestion. >> Sorry. >> The second one is if we were regionalized the

027state picks up the transportation. Is that correct? >> I'm not sure. >> Is that a >> That's correct. They reimburse [clears throat] you for it. >> Right. >> But in two tuition agreements, they do not. >> Now, is that a a r ruling from the state department of education or is it in the legislation? Do you do you know? >> Um I've been communicating [clears throat] with the department of ed on this. Um >> Thank you. >> I've been communicating with this. That's been my question because with Chapter 7, there's a base rate that you get for your students. Then on top of that, if they're English language learners, you get additional funds. If they're low income, you get additional funds. And if they're special education, you get additional funds. So what I found is

028that we get the base rate. But when those students get placed at whatever high school they're at, according to how they're classified, whether they're low income or not, those additional funds go directly to that school. >> So all we ever have is the base rate. That's what basically will we will be negotiating the contract that I would add. >> So those funds follow that. >> Okay. Um the question I have if is can we have a possibility of exploring that we have the same uh reimbursement for as if we were regionalized because we're tuition >> tuition agreements may may be part of that uh >> reimbursement. >> So Mr. How we did look into that last year because we looked at a school for example like Old Rochester they get uh reimbured for their transportation.

029My question was could we get reimbursed if our students went there for transportation and the answer was no >> based on yeah >> not part of that region localization right >> so I was trying to b is that based on a state department of education ruling or is it in the legislation in in legislation >> right I don't know that was the answer we got from desi and the legal team from desi >> when we inquired >> if We if we say it's in legislation, is it possible therefore therefore that we have a uh we pursue maybe an amendment to that legislation uh with our state legislators and have them change it? So I think we're the one of the very few in the Commonwealth that's tuition based as regionalized and whether that we could

030be in you know change that so we we can be reimbursed for you know transportation you know expenditures which will ease ease some of the the burden. I think what you're requesting is a home rule petition, >> correct? >> That our legislators would have legislators have to bring forward and we'd have to get approved directly. It would be a legislation written just for us. My understanding is that there's five districts in the in the state that have our situation. So, it could be something that could be looked at. Um, I have no idea what would happen, but I've been through home rule petitions before and it usually depends on how much weight you carry at the state house as far as getting something pushed through. >> Right. I thought it was I thought it might

031might be worth, you know, pursuing. So, we it's, you know, possibility of finding additional revenue. >> That's a great idea. I just I don't think it's a quick >> No, no, it's not a quick fix. >> It's not a quick fix. >> At least we >> Yeah. and something where, you know, we could even, you know, reach out to those other, you know, districts and kind of just see if they've explored this process and kind of, you know, stand on the shoulders of those that have come before, so to speak. >> So, um, I've been in touch with those other districts and they're asking me for samples of what we have and I've explained, >> yeah, everyone seems to be going through very similar things. Um, and everyone's situation is also a little different. Um,

032but just to go back, Mr. Haloff, on your first point about student performance, it's a great idea. We have tried. We don't have access to our high school students once they leave us through the Aspen system. Um, and they don't seem to divvy them out by a cushion student, fair haven. So, we are unable to get those individual scores. >> Um, but I will tell you factors, could be placements, could be >> Yeah. I mean when we get the list for you know the validictorians or the top 10 students in the high schools we are very pleased and very happy when we see a lot of Christian students on those lists right but we don't get specifics [snorts] um unfortunately but it's something we can certainly continue to work at um but I I understand

033you know why your question is there it makes sense >> maybe is negotiations right say that may be a factor Mhm. >> Uh in our decision making of what high schools we we choose to you know participate with >> and maybe a little competition they may find a means by which someone come up with an >> one of the things we do do is we're in touch with high school principles uh department heads as well as the superintendent. We want to know that when our students are entering high school are they ready? So we've done work in that area. We've had teachers and administrators from a cushion talk to their administrators. If we had a weakness in math, let's say, or are kids come in strong in Spanish, not so much in math. That kind

034of conversation. Okay. So what are you doing? What can we do? Those conversations will continue. We want to no matter who is chosen. Um, I believe the goal would be for us to have strong uh partnerships with each school that we choose, whether it's one or four. We want to make sure that we're in touch with all of our stu our students, high schools. >> Yeah. I I just feel that we should, you know, for performance of of our students that it should be more than just anecdotal. Yes. and opinions and that's basically what we have you know received in the past and I think we should have a lot more because then it allows us to make to make you know some some more concrete type of decisions of what you know what high

035schools because we really want the best >> absolutely >> and and and I think we're going to be paying a good amount for the best so basically we should >> I think what we can go off of right now is their overall scores for each high school. That's a great starting point and then we can try to do a deeper dive to the students. If >> leave it to them, they might find some. >> Okay. >> I'm wondering if there's a way to follow them too. Just for us, if there's somebody here at the schools that could follow the students that go to high school, I feel like there's such a not I don't know the right word that I want to think of, but once they go to high school, it's like, okay. And

036then it's that district, which I get. We want them to fully assimilate to whichever high school it is. But the other thing is maybe there's a way for us to keep in touch with them so they know still like I know a lot of the kids that I work with anyway. >> They like to have that continuity. So if they know somebody is checking in that's familiar and kind of like to bridge that gap. And if we can keep tabs on them from this end maybe we'd be able to track that our own way too. Although that adds more work. One thing that I'd be interested in, and this will probably come with, you know, Angie and and the rest of the admin team touring the schools, but especially from a curriculum standpoint, you know,

037I know a cushion that's been pretty progressive in terms of pursuing new curriculums, um, new formats for teaching. And it'd be it'd be really interesting to see Angie's feedback on what the curriculums look like at these other schools. Is it going to be a smooth transition? Are they teaching in a substantially different way than we're teaching in the Christian public schools? That would be more jarring, more difficult for us to get accustomed to it. >> So, for me, that would be really great feedback. >> Okay. >> All right. And the only other thing I wanted to say in the update is one of the things I think I would recommend is a parent survey. >> Yeah. >> Um I'd like to send out a survey um soon. Um, but if you have any suggestions on

038that, you want input, whatever, I'm open to that as well. But I think that's really important. We have a lot of families that have connections with all of the schools really. And um, I think them having a voice is important. And our high school night is going to be after um, we have all these discussions. And [clears throat] then I think it's important for those eighth grade families also to have some type of a survey after they see the presentations after the high school night. So it's not just the eighth grade families who we want to survey. This will impact families all across the grade levels, right? So um and I think it's important that we get multiple um sources of information, not just one survey, right? So that's something that we're also looking to

039do. Yeah, I think it would be great if we could get it out to, you know, any kids that are currently enrolled >> or, you know, parents and guardians of any kids that are currently enrolled in any grade level in our school system. >> Um, and then honestly, it would be great if the town could mirror it and maybe we could just put like a little selection like the first question could be like, "Do you currently or do you plan to have a child enrolled in Kushnet Public School?" Mhm. >> Um that way, you know, there might be folks that are in town that maybe are educators or have thoughts and opinions on school selection, but maybe they're, you know, grandparents or their kids have aged out. Um, but I think that feedback could still

040be really valuable. Just having that qualifier of, you know, whether they have students who plan to versus not would help us kind of differentiate the responses. >> To me, this is a wonderful opportunity for the town. this is why people move to the town. And um I think having a choice in high schools, you know, people might look at it as a a downfall that we don't have our own high school. We're not big enough, but um we have choice and and our kids can actually choose what fits them, which I think is a wonderful opportunity for our families. So >> I I think survey is important. I think the challenge with the survey is always trying to strike the right balance of making it um relatively streamlined and efficient, >> not too cumbersome for

041people, but also be able to get at the information in a clear way that's useful. And I don't I'm not that's not my area of expertise. It's tough a balancing act, but not to, >> you know, I think the first thing I do when I open up a survey and I think it's going to take me three minutes and I see it's like 48 questions is like I'm out of there. >> So, on something like this, I might take the time. >> I [laughter] always look at the time, how long it's going to take to complete the survey. I that's the first thing I look at. So, I think that that's a big consideration. >> And I think that, you know, in other we need to kind of think about the timing at which we

042get the survey out. So, I mean, realistically, I would think that the sooner we can get something together and out to the community, the better. Um because you know we do have some tours coming up and if we have responses before we go on some of those tours you know certainly not all of them but some of them that might help us to kind of guide the questions that we ask while we're in the schools. >> And then you know we'd probably also want to have responses finalized before um I mean I presume the December date is when we're going to actually the December school committee meeting is when we're actually going to take a vote. Um, but you know, if we could even have responses finalized before the November meeting to inform some of

043that discussion, that would be phenomenal. It's just a matter of if we have time to do it. Sorry, Patrick. >> But I I mean, I think we have it we have to >> do the surveys and get the results before we make a decision because otherwise it's >> and and we're all going to have to we we have a rubric and that's great. There may be things that are not on the rubric that might be important to any of us or um and we're all going to have to determine on our own kind of something that might be super important to me might be less important to you or you or you, right? So, we all kind of have to wait through that that territory of kind of figuring out what makes um [clears throat]

044you know the most important things that you ask. But all right, next. >> Okay. Next, I had uh Miss Bentonquet scheduled to talk about the transition plan, but with the change in meeting, she had another meeting tonight, but I've asked Miss Doyle, our new director of student services, to talk about the transition tonight. So, I would like love to call her up to the podium. Miss Doyle, she's uh finishing up her second week here in a Christian. We're just very happy to have you. >> Thank you, Superintendent Bailey. Good evening, school committee members. I'm happy to be here tonight to be able to share with you how I've been able to spend my first few weeks as your new director of student services. Um it was wonderful that Superintendent Bailey was able to take the

045time to walk me through the building so that I was able to meet the students and the staff. And from there I've arranged individual meet and greets with teachers and related service providers. I've been able to meet with some of them already with the goal of beginning to build relationships as well as to listen to their smart goals as related to the educator evaluation system. And in addition to that, I've been able to work with the other members of the central office staff to get a status overview of things like curriculum, technology, and the budget. In addition to that, Kim Bettton and I will be spending some time next week reviewing all the details of student cases and some of the other details for things like information input to systems like Medicaid circuit breaker and

046some of the other um things that we need to do to make sure that all of our data is updated and um and accurate so that we're able to provide the best level of service that we can. [snorts] And um thus far everyone has been extremely welcoming and um I'm I'm really just grateful to be here. So thank you. >> Thank you. And I have to say it doesn't always happen this way, but we're so fortunate that there is some overlap. So I feel like the transition is a nice smooth one for our district and our students and families. So I'm really thankful that you were able to come on so quickly and um it worked out with Miss Bettton's schedule. So, I I appreciate everything that you're doing. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank

047you. >> Any questions? >> Okay. >> Thank you all. >> Thank you very much. Uh, next I have my goals. So, in your packet you will see I have outlined goals. I've been meeting with the chair and vice chair of the school committee as they um are on that subcommittee for my goals. So, I want to review those with you. Um so the first goal is these are two-year goals. Um and the first goal is a student learning goal and typically in the past we've been doing you know achieving academic excellence and and we've been doing well in that area. We decided to switch it up this uh this round because we do have we did spot some weaknesses in the social emotional areas of um engagement, safety and environment with some of the questions

048that students were answering on the vocal survey which is the survey that the students take after they take MCCAST. And I always say like MCCAST is not just a fourth grade or you know fifth grade pro issue. It starts preschool, kindergarten. We all have a piece in preparing for that. So I feel as though if students are feeling good, comfortable, safe, engaged, then that will lead to academic achievement. Um so students will report increased engagement, safety and positive uh school environment as measured by district benchmark surveys uh beginning of the year, middle of the year, and end of the year assessments for students in grades 3 through 8 with at least a 4 increase in positive responses across those domains compared to the spring 2025 baseline data. And that is the baseline data is based

049on the vocal data. Um so for environment we're looking at the instructional environment, mental health environment, discipline environment. These are how students are answering questions about those subcategories. For safety we're looking at bullying, cyber bullying, emotional safety, physical safety, and for engagement we're looking at participation, cultural competence, and relationships. So, this is something that my administrative team will be working on and it will be a part of the goals menu um as we work on it for the next couple of years. But the way this works is um you'll have an update at the end of this year, but I I do one in the middle of the year actually and then another one at the end. At the end of the year, it will be considered my formative assessment, which is like a check-in,

050and then my summitive assessment will be at the end of the two years. Okay. So on the second goal, that's a professional practice goal. That's more of an individual goal. Our teachers have them and our administrators have them as well. So I'm choosing because you can never uh get great at this. It's always something we're always striving to be better at, but strengthen districtwide strategic communications to enhance transparency, trust, and engagement among all of Christian public school stakeholders through targeted professional learning. And as you know, I just um got a grant for that leading now program. I went to Atlanta. It was all grant funded for training and we have virtual meetings monthly. Um but that's a nation a national cohort of superintendent who are working towards the same goals as myself. So um it

051was a very competitive process. Got involved in that. So that's listed there. Um I will refine systems, practices and messages that promote clear, consistent and effective communication across the district. And then it talks about you know how it's measurable, achievable, time bound etc. If you go to goal number three that is a district improvement goal. So, Aushnet public schools will collaboratively develop, approve, and provide professional development and implement an updated district strategic plan. So, our strategic plan, as you know, ends at the end of this school year. This is a huge undertaking. As you know, we started the work last year. Um, I met individually with every single employee in the district to get their feedback. We will be doing parent meetings this year. you will be collecting more data. We also did student meetings,

052student groups. Um so it's not the Dr. Bailey strategic plan. It is a plan that's truly from all of the stakeholders across the district. So that um we hope to have in place and your school committee as a school committee very much a part of that and I would love to hear your voice in that as well as we move forward with that goal. And then the last goal is um to continue. It's another district improvement goal and it's an important goal. It's very important to our staff especially here in the district to continue to provide a safe and healthy learning environment that prioritizes the well-being of every accretion public schools community member. And as you know we have had some concerns with the air quality at the elementary school. We've done facilities audits and

053this is something that hasn't ended. We're continuing to look for funding for that. We're keeping this at the forefront. Um, our safety and wellness committee who has parents on that committee will be very involved in this particular goal. We've established a joint labor management committee that will include stakeholders from throughout the district to talk about issues that are related to safety and uh wellness. And um we're continuing that work because it's very important and I don't want to see anyone feeling uncomfortable in the district in their environment. We should everybody students staff alike should be reporting to work or school and feel comfortable that this is a safe and healthy environment. And we know that our our buildings do need some work. Um and that's something that I will continue to work with the town

054um to focus on getting some of these projects completed. Does anybody have any questions? >> And I'll I'll just add um Melissa and myself have been working with Dr. Bailey on uh on these goals. I think we're comfortable with them. I think the other thing that Dr. Bailey referenced is goals are not necessarily static. Uh she mentioned that there's several check-in here along the way. So if things come up that need to be added or changed or adjusted, obviously we have the ability to to do that because things happen. Um and I think what Dr. Bill just one question you know the goal is to develop the street strategic plan. >> The strategic plan itself would then also would that be approved by the school the school committee. So that is that's a pretty big

055goal that ultimately we'll have to sign off on as well just for clarification but but I have no other comments. >> I think alignment is really important. So from the school committee, the administration, the teachers, the families, the students, we all have to be in alignment with our mission and vision and goals and action steps. And I think that's what has led to the success of our previous plan because everyone was so aligned and everyone was so focused. You see when we have educational spotlights and presentations, they're always pointing out and how they're aligned to the district plan. our budgetary decisions align to the district plan. So, that's really important that we keep that at the forefront of everything we do um and everything we discuss. Any other questions? >> Um yeah, so with regards

056to smart goal number four, um obviously that one's pretty expansive. you know, that's a that's a pretty heavy lift and I frankly I'm congratulations to you for wanting to take that on kind of head on. Um, one of the questions that I had was it looks like and I could just be missing something because there are quite a few bullets in the strategy section. >> Um, it looks like most of this is related specifically to like physical health, well-being, um, facilities issues, um, Allison and fire drills, that kind of thing. Are there any aspects in here that are related to the like social social and emotional well-being of um students going through those schools? >> I did not put that because that's more related to goal number one. Okay. >> The SEAL. Okay. >> So,

057the biggest focus of goal one this time around will be SEAL. Um I just want to say like you might see something why isn't that there? But we focus on everything constantly all the time. Um, but these are the ones that for the four goals we'll focus on and they're goals and I tell the teachers this all the time like chew for the stars um and see where you land because we want the best for all of our students. Um, and we always say that nothing is written in stone that we can certainly look at them again and we might be at the end of the year and decide let's change this one and that's something we can certainly do. Um, I just ask the committee. I don't like any surprises or, you know, nobody

058does. So, if there's any concerns that any of you have along the way, definitely give me a call, contact me. We can talk about any concerns you have. Um, but if I don't hear anything, I assume everything's fine. Okay. >> All right. May I have a motion to approve Dr. Bailey's 2025 to 2027 goals? >> So, move. Can I second that? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Second. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Seeing none, the motion passes un opposed. >> Thank you. So, next up, um we have a spotlight on education tonight and we want to review our MCAST data. We know that the um reports have gone home to families today. Um but I would call Mr. Jerry up and Mrs. Chesny to do this presentation. And again, because the

059meeting was changed, we had a couple of people who couldn't be here tonight. >> Good evening, Chairman Hood and members of the school committee. Um, so we're going to present on the spring 2025 MCCAST results for grades 3 through 8. Um, so we're going to tonight cover our accountability ratings for each school performance um, and next steps. >> Mr. Jared, can I ask you a question? >> Yes. >> If we have questions, do you want us to ask them during the presentation? Do you prefer that we wait till the end? I'm okay either way. >> Okay. >> Sure. >> Accountability percentiles. So, what we have here is a history of the AES and FMS accountability ratings since 2018. Um and the indicators for how this is calculated includes um student achievement, student growth, English language

060profic proficiency, and chronic absenteeism. So um each school [snorts] in 2025 had a slight dip in accountability ratings from the previous previous year. So, um just to go over a couple of um bright spots, we did experience a high level of achievement and growth um this year and that's for AES it's from third to fourth grade. um areas that we are looking for um to grow. Um we really need to look at our lowest performing groups of students um which we have identified um often in our meetings as um students who receive special education services and we really need to reduce um the absenteeism that we are seeing in the school. We um did a lot of things last year and we'll be talking about that a little bit later. But we also think there

061was a different calculation if you want to talk about that with the way that absenteeism or chronic absenteeism was reported by the state because the um they they were counting COVID as unexcused for the previous um school year. We think want to talk about FMS. Yeah. Um so FMS a bright spot uh was that we h we actually had lower chronic absenteeism for the lowest performing students and um we for areas for growth at FMS we'd like to see an increase in achievement and growth for the all students group and the lowest performing um student group. So DESIE just so you know um they do two different calculations. They'll take all students compiled data and then they also pull out the B the lowest performing um 25% or 20 students whichever is greater. So that

062may include students who may need services but it also may not. Um and so what they're looking at for that for that um lowest performing group is comparing that group of students from one year to the next and they're looking at their growth [clears throat] and achievement and also their um rates of attendance. So um at FMS we need to increase the achievement and growth for for both groups really and to reduce the chronic absenteeism in the all students group. So um these charts just basically show our comparison from um the averages for ELA from 3 through 8 as compared to the state and we outpaced them in um those students who are exceeding or meeting expectations. Same thing with our math as well and do this one and science as well, right? >> I

063was looking at that when that was FMS. Sorry. Um, yep. FMS grades. Uh, so science MCCAST is only given in grades five and eight. Okay. And now what we're looking at is um student achievement and growth. So the star there in the center is the the state performance for achievement and growth. And then we're kind of comparing how did our schools and district do to um compared to the state. So the green circle um is showing AES and we're showing higher growth and um also higher achievement there. And then the yellow is FMS. [clears throat] So we're showing lower growth than the state at FMS and kind of >> combined. Yep. The red is combined. So that's the district. The yellow um is FMS and kind of showing their lower growth and um about the

064same achievement levels. Oh, and that was for ELA in grades 3 through 8. And now we're looking at math 3 through 8. And sometimes they change the colors depending on the subject area. I don't know why. So the star is the state and the green is AES. And um the middle school is now red and the district is yellow. And again, we're looking at um a little bit um higher growth and higher achievement for AES in math. Um so this would be just our students who went from third to fourth grade um last year. So last year's fourth graders and um again FMS kind of lower there on the growth and similar um close in achievement but a little lower in growth for math. Now I just added this. This is kind of a lot

065of the similar data but it's broken out by grade level. Um this is AES. Can you see that already? >> Yeah, I can see it. it. It's just a different way of representing each subject um area and how many students were either meeting or exceeding. I just think it's a little bit easier to see that than some of the other representations. Definitely bright spots that were outpacing the state as we mentioned before. talk about FMS and for FMS um oops for FMS um again broken out by grade level and subject area um then the percent of students at each achievement level. And we can also see um the the average growth all the way to the right. >> I was too. >> Okay. So this um comparison shows the number of students who either met

066or exceeded um proficiency across different local school districts. So you can see it's sort of um comparing we're we're at 56 for ELA kind of in the middle but you know definitely higher than some other districts. Same thing with third grade math and so on. I you can see that those differences there. And I'll just add that we put this uh slide in because this is something in the past that the school committee has been interested in. Uh looking at the other towns in the area. >> Do do we ever um so like if you look at math for Rochester, the number kind of jumps up because it's pretty high compared to the to the other groups. Do we ever um find out some of the things that they might be doing and how that

067compares with what we're doing? >> Definitely. We actually um collaborate a lot, right? we we're talking to for just foundational literacy, not necessarily exactly correlating to MCCAST, but when we find out that somebody's doing something, well, we um talk to them, have visits, find out what we can do and investigate it ourselves. And I will tell you that, you know, going back to the high school conversation, the superintendent that we've talked to so far want to work with us to work together sooner than 8th grade going into 9th grade, that transition. So, it's it will be a true partnership. So the green they are under a cushion is just kind of that comparison to the state where we're showing um green would show that we're outperforming um [clears throat] the state. So now we're looking

068at FMS grades 5 through 8% of students meeting or exceeding by grade level and subject area. And um we've got the green and the red there kind of again comparing to the state how we performed. One question on the civics that this is the first year that they they have that. >> Uh >> looking at the results, do you plan maybe re-examining your curriculum, you know, to to increase those those scores? >> So, we're not planning on making a change at this time. We just adopted a new curriculum that is supported by the Department of Education. um and we were last year was our very first year in that um curriculum. The teacher was receiving professional development. It is a new way of learning for students. Um there's a learning curve I believe anytime we

069adopt a new curriculum for the teacher for the students. Um but we know that it's rated as a high quality curriculum resource. Um and we have an excellent teacher in the classroom who is becoming very highly trained in that curriculum. So at this point we are not looking at abandoning ship on that one. Sometimes you know they say it takes a few years um to really start to see the results. >> So we'll wait till next year. >> We'll wait. We'll wait and see. Um, again, we are utilizing a curriculum that is supported by the 18 Foundation, who you've probably heard quite a bit about that we are receiving grant funding for for professional development. Um, the same the same group that funds professional development for opening SIED and um, investigating history and some other

070activities that we've done. They are supporting the eighth grade curriculum that we're using. they are providing the professional development and that is also supported by the department of education. And then this is the district um comparisons again but now we're looking at um grades 3 through 8 in the areas of ELA, math and science, technology, engineering. Okay. So summary in summary overall accountability percentiles dipped for both FMS and AES mostly because a need to increase achievement and growth for the lowest performing students at AES and all students at FMS and chronic absenteeism just kind of continues to be a nagging problem in our district. We have we are doing regular outreach to families and students. We're providing counseling resources, monthly contacts, monthly letters for students who are being flagged as chronically absent. Um, phone calls,

071homes, meeting with counselors, providing those resources. And we just really want to continue to reiterate um that school is really an important place to be um for students um that it you know not just because Desi is looking at our chronic absenteeism but we can often kind of track that that also does affect performance um and growth. So overall, the district has outperformed the state in ELA, math, and science achievement, and AES is showing higher growth than the state, while FMS is showing lower growth than the state in both ELA and math. So what are some of our next steps? Um, we're going to be doing some root cause analysis of the data. We're going to really continue to try to stabilize and rebuild the attendance culture. This is something that sprung out of COVID

072and just is not fully recovering um the way we would like to see it recovering. Um we want to embed stu opportunities for students to practice item types that mirror the MCCAST. We're seeing a lot of really great teaching and learning happening at the middle school. We're doing a lot of learning walks. We are um seeing just huge amounts of effort that teachers and students are are making to um to use that applied learning that we've been talking so much about. We had the 8th grade or actually it wasn't eighth grade, it was students um from the middle school 6th through 8th come in and talk about the learning that they're doing in the science classrooms um that applied learning. So we're seeing the results of that. What we're not so much seeing is the

073results of that on the MCCAST. Keep in mind that the MCCAST is kind of that traditional um assessment that hasn't necessarily caught up with the way that um some of the teaching and learning is um being pushed in the new standards quite frankly and also the teacher educator evaluation rubric. Um and so while yes, MCCAST does matter, um it's a good measure, it's good to have a universal measure, it's also um one factor of the many that we want to be looking [clears throat] at to say, are we having success in our schools? And when we do our learning walks, we are seeing a lot of what we want to be seeing um in that student engagement. And um so we maybe need to spend a little time um just again like embedding opportunities for

074students to practice that more traditional type of assessment so that it doesn't look so unfamiliar perhaps. Um intensify support for our lowest performing subgroups. And then um we continue to just review curriculum that we have for for many reasons. One, we want it to be performing for our students. We want it to be work. We want to we want to see growth and we want to see achievement. Um and also we're kind of getting at that point where some of our curriculum, we have now had it for a length of time where it's we're at that point where we can start saying, do we want to continue or do we want to start piloting? And there is interest in the district to pilot and we actually do have small pockets of piloting happening um here

075and there with math and ELA. >> I can assure you that the teachers and the staff are working extremely hard with our students. I also want to point out that as you know MCCASS at the high school level is no longer a requirement and what we've seen happening across the state is that sometimes people don't take it seriously anymore but we've really been trying to instill in our students that it is important um show what you know but I can't reiterate enough about the chronic absenteeism the students cannot learn if they're not in school and It's one thing to be out one day here if you're sick two days. But when you're taking vacations during school time, it's not helpful to the students. So, I would just ask families um to be cognizant of, you

076know, they miss a lot when they miss the day of school. They miss a lot of direct instruction and that's hard to get back and everything scaffolds and builds on everything. So I would just ask that you know we make an effort as a community [clears throat] a school community to get our students in school each and every day learning. Um you know we know that when we have fun things at school we have great attendance on that day right um but we are seeing >> can you quantify like precoid the average number of days absent was x and what is it now >> we we can do that and I believe we have done that I don't know off the top of my head but yeah we can look into that >> I know

077from the mental health perspective I've seen huge jumps in anx school anxiety and social anxiety and that really does attribute to it and it just awareness and self-confidence too for the kids to be out in the school has really taken a toll on the kids. I also think for MCCAST testing the multiensory approach is so necessary and MCCAST really doesn't do that unfortunately. So, we can't really assess all these kids that have these needs that to learn different ways, which is why we have vocational schools and and traditional schools um in agricultural schools. But I do think that there has to be a I I know we need some kind of testing to be able to evaluate our students nationwide really. But as far as being able to I I don't know. They just have

078to redo that the test if it were that easy. Um, so I do think that there's a lot as far as since co Yeah, definitely a lot. And then testing anxiety too, right? A lot of that >> and that's why going back to my goals, that first goal for student achievement is focused on the SEAL because that's what we're seeing more of. Right. So we're very cognizant of it and our people, our staff, our team, they're everyone's working really hard um at getting it right. question that we haven't had much discussion on. Are homeschooled uh youngsters included in in this testing? >> No. >> Do we have a higher percentage of people in homeschool than the average state? Are we >> I believe our numbers are up. um that's like the digital TEKA program for

079example, but we're definitely seeing more programs popping up than what was available previously. And that is something as a district that we're looking at because you're only supposed to have a certain percentage of students going into homeschooling. Um and then you kind of have to cap it and we were slightly over that I believe last year. >> But is it up? Is it up everywhere? Maybe again some of the result of other things. We're not higher than other >> No, no, no. We're not higher than other districts. Other districts, the enrollment in these programs, it's much more competitive now. I can tell you that the tuition rates have gone up for these programs because they're filling the seats right away. People want and again, it could go back to the SEAL where some students um

080are more comfortable doing a virtual program, right? Um, so what Miss Reggeri said and I'm really pleased about and I can vouch for this is at the middle school I see a huge difference in the handson and engagement even though our students aren't reporting that to us. They don't realize when they're working in these small groups together, they're teaching each other. And when the question on the survey says, "Do you teach, you know, your friends or your peers?" and they're saying no, but they don't realize, well, maybe you're not standing in front of the classroom teaching like traditional, but when you're working together as a group, you are teaching each other. And that's what it's all about. We had a fire drill the other day and I saw all these scientists, these wildcat scientists come

081out in the fire drill with their goggles and aprons and you and you talk to them, they're excited. They are engaged in the process. So, uh, and I hadn't seen that when I first started 8 years ago. It is very different. And another factor I I would point out, and I think we've talked about this, is we've sent our teachers, especially at the middle school, to a lot of intense professional development because of this new way of learning. And you have to keep in mind when the teachers are out, it is never the same. um there's a substitute and we do our best to fill it, but we have to give our teachers the right training so they can implement this program correctly. Um so that's another factor I want to look at in terms

082of how often were they out last year, how often are they going to be out this year, right? Cuz we don't have the same intensity in terms of training year after year. Um, so I think that's another factor to look at as well because our teachers spent days in Norwood and but the excitement and joy that I now see from teachers teaching these subjects that they've taught for years in a different way is it's wonderful. I mean I that's what I look for when I walk around the classrooms is do I see the joy in students? Do I see the joy and and the happiness from teachers? Because for me that's what it's about. And I I this is one measure and we do we report on a bunch of measures as you know. >>

083So you guys talk about next steps like what is that what is that I know it looks like that but are there ongoing conversations and do you meet periodically like how does that flow e and flow like throughout the year as far as making changes and if this isn't working then let's do this type of thing. Mhm. Um so we'll start diving in, we'll start sharing more and more data out as it was embargoed at the beginning of the school year um with the staff and they'll start looking at um you know trying to do like kind of like a root cause analysis of what you know where are the sticking points and and what is it and um is it something that we need to look at with our coaches as far as um

084like instru instructional instructional moves that people can make or is it um again like is our curriculum are we sure that our curriculum is covering the standards that you know um we're we're seeing maybe some patterns start looking more for that um and yeah so we have a upcoming professional development day where we'll be having the staff do a deep dive our leadership team regularly looks at data um and also kind of does similar root cause analysis um and really tries to parse it out by the different subgroups too to figure out like who is it that's having a hard time. Is it everybody or is it certain um groups? Um so yeah, it's a cycle, but it's important that the teachers have this data in their hands because they're the on the front lines.

085They know that they can put a face with the number, right? They understand what happened in that previous year. So we also have the silt team, our instructional leadership team that looks at this. So those are the teacher leaders. So it's con it's constant. >> Who's looking into the attendance >> into the attendance and what's getting in the way of the attendance? Who's in charge of that? >> I mean all of us. >> Well, I didn't know the letter. Yeah. >> Yeah. I know that cuz like after 5 days absent you get like the attendance um the concern about attendance and then I didn't know at what point does it go to a CRA. >> Oh, how we do that or how what we do preventative measures to >> as far as the school goes

086and to just to go into like going into the home and seeing what the issues are at the home and how we can who is there a committee that's doing >> it's a team. So it's a team and it's generally you know by the school. So, the building administration is kind of the people who monitor and raise the flag. Um, and then they'll involve counselors and whatnot. Um, the CRAAS are kind of like um more kind of they're not as helpful as one might think because one oftent times so what the state considers an absence and what the courts consider an absent might be two different things. So whether or not there's a doctor's note, an absence is an absence in the eye of the state. Whereas um with the judicial system, they'll see it

087as um an excused absence. So even though a student may be absent 18 or 10 uh 10% of the time, 18 days in a school year, they may have a medical note for that, they're considered chronically absent and that is affects our rating. Um so a lot of these students may not necessarily even the the crawl might not be the appropriate action. When it is then yes we'll go that route. Um but if not then yeah it might be more like um getting services from child and family or um the counselors um really trying to get the families in getting um contract sign uh contract signs with students for attendance um and looking at it on an individual basis. We're a smaller school district. I mean, a few people, a few students who are out

088chronically can really throw our numbers. >> I think sometimes families from what I in my discussions with them, they feel like they have the excused note from the doctor. It's fine. Well, it's it's fine to have a note, but the child missed a day of learning or a week of learning or two weeks of learning and it does add up and that's how students fall behind and we have gaps in their learning and we don't want that. We want to close the gaps. So this is something we work very hard at every day. >> If it's not too much work, if you could pull something together that maybe over the last 5 years, I don't know, that shows kind of on average what the number of days are on that student. It would be helpful,

089I think, for all of us to see when we say when we talk about it, what is that translating to into numbers? >> Sure. And maybe it helps us um when we think about things like resources and what's available like maybe there's things we can look at to address some of it. But it'd be helpful to us see the numbers I think at least for me. >> Yeah, it's interesting to see that absenteeism is on the rise more so in the elementary school than in the middle school. It seems like it's actually gotten better in the middle school, which is fantastic. Um, I'd be interested to see. I mean, I don't really know if we, you know, the if the ad if the admin team logs like reasons that kids are out, if it's sickness,

090if it's family vacation, if it's other, you know, to death in the family, whatever. Um, but it would just be kind of interesting to see. I don't know that it would be helpful, but >> I think it would be helpful. >> Yeah. >> Cuz Griffin missed the whole week and I got a letter. He had the flu. >> Yeah. >> So, and obviously >> he had the flu. I couldn't send him the school. I got the letter. I was like, >> and we're not talking about kids who are sick, right? We don't want students who are ill to be in school and spread germs, right? Nobody wants that. We're talking about kids who just, you know, [snorts] >> don't come to school. >> Yeah. I think that postco there's probably also a lot more tendency

091for parents, especially of elementary school kids, to keep them out if they are feeling under the weather. Whereas in, you know, prior years, maybe they would just get, you know, kicked out the door and said, "Well, you're not puking or running a fever, so >> you got to go to school." >> Um, there's probably a little less tolerance for that, especially with young kids these days. >> Yeah. But is it appropriate that there's a chronic absenteeism in among certain individuals or families whether a home assessment may may be one of the options there may be you know uh so you know it's more you know could be something more serious is in a way >> and then you know deaths and families and so forth and uh so I I think maybe you know maybe

092this be one of the options to be at least discussed and looked into. >> Mhm. I think the [clears throat] relationships with the families too would improve. Like if they're having absence, maybe they're struggling. Maybe there's something going on at home. Maybe who knows what the reason is that's going on. And if like if we're like assuming, okay, no, they're just not going to school. But there's something there's a reason they're not coming. So find out. >> Yeah, we pretty much know. I mean, we know that kids who go to the nurse get sent home. We know they're sick, right? We know a lot of families call in. Um I would say a good majority of the families let us know when students are sick >> and if they don't we're calling home every day.

093I mean so like those next steps are being taken and we are our counselors and our building administrators are very well aware of the reason that students are chronically absent and they've also are again connecting people with services. it still continues to be a nagging problem. And so I I like the way that you're thinking with like, okay, what's the next step we can take? And I think that's where we're at. Like with given all that we're doing, then what is the next step after that? Because again, it's like a nagging um concern that despite all of the efforts um continues. And as as um Mrs. Cordera mentioned, she got the letter, right? like you get you get the letter if your child is absent because that's part of the policy and we try to

094stay on it from the very beginning. Now 5 days of absences in the beginning of the school year that's considered chronic because chronic is 10% at any given point but as the days go on and we register more days of school in the calendar all of a sudden 5 days won't be considered chronic anymore. Um, so we promise we won't keep [laughter] >> I was gonna have a doctor's note. >> It doesn't matter, right? >> Yeah, it does not matter. It does not matter. So, everybody gets the same kind of like everybody kind of gets pushed through that. >> Yeah. >> The checkpoints >> and like ultimately, you know, as a district, there's certain things that, you know, the district bears some responsibility for in regards to school, you know, absenteeism and some a lot

095of things that they just don't. I mean, you can't help it if a kid gets sick. you can't help it if something, you know, extraneous uh happens in the family and the kid just can't come to school. But then, you know, if if there's an absenteeism issue with the kid who's maybe, you know, exhibiting school avoidance behaviors or is having bullying issues, then that's a different animal. And I'm sure, you know, the school certainly takes pretty serious steps there. But, you know, recognizing that, you know, to your point, you know, it's a small school and there's going to be a certain number of absentee issues no matter what because of illness and whatnot that you just can't really do that much about. It's just a matter of staying connected with the families and encouraging them

096to get the kids back as soon as they can be, you know. >> Thank you. Yes. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um and that is all I have today. >> Uh so do we have uh technology up here? >> Anious man. >> Good evening uh school members, everyone. Um funny enough, I actually have on my agenda. I I put a note in here. This is usually not a topic we talked about in October, but I'll get to it. Um data update. The district's ahead schedule in regards to required data reporting, some of the procedures that we've implemented to help streamline this. We talked about attendance. We're kind of working in the back end to send notifications of kiddos, all that kind of fun stuff. Uh to our principles who do a phenomenal

097job keeping an eye on it. Um so we actually add more valid data u much cleaner approach. We work with other other departments to clean up their workflows, etc. And I want to give a special thank you to Kathleen Bourne and everyone for working towards better data systems. um something that we don't get to talk a lot about but we get to see a lot of other districts data and some things get blown out of the water when we notice that we're reporting properly and they're not. So it's kind of entertaining that we get to see for instance some district will report that they have 15 pair professionals some show zero and you know it's just a bad data accountability um we're not that district uh security update we've completed setting up vector um uh

098professional development and evaluation system uh in the SSO um we have automated all of our staff uh from the student information system into vector we do that with most things um to date we have frontline clever analytics and a few others fully automated the goal is to remove the need for someone entering data into those systems because kind of what's happened and it happens everywhere is manual entering causes data issues. Correct? So, uh we've cut that out. We we've kind of did the gar jing gel. So, if one system is bad, they're all bad. So, we can fix it quickly and address those issues. Uh but it saves significant time and makes it incredibly efficient. Uh we've got a lot of uh great feedback because teachers don't need to keep 16,000 passwords. Um so, that's

099been fantastic. Is that what I was going to say? Uh so October um and and just to go back to what Angie and Lee talked about, uh last year was also the year that um MCCast changed platforms. They went from Pearson to Etric. Uh and that's why I made this note in here to tell you guys about this now because you might hear other districts complain about the new changes this year. So they threw out the app that they had was brand new last year and they put a brand new progressive web app in and they made some significant changes in the back end which were needed. Some things are going to be much better for the teachers to see, but yet again it's a brand new adjustment. So you don't know how the calculations

100work. You don't know a lot of things, but we're we're hopeful. Um so uh the reason why I wanted to mention is we're ahead. We actually have already implemented to every Chromebook. Kidos don't know that of course. They'll just see that it shows something similar. Uh and we've tested in the back end to make sure that it's up to speed. Uh we're also on um uh some talk groups with them to make sure that they have everything implemented properly and they even have a dashboard. I don't know if everybody knows this. They have a dashboard to show if any parts of the MCAST testing system is failing. Uh you'll actually start to see that start to pop up and fail as more districts get to that time because you start stressing their systems. But we

101are way way ahead of schedule. Um and from a student's perspective, it's going to look very similar to last year. Um and that's it. Uh any questions, concerns, comments? Great seeing you all. >> All right, business manager. >> Good evening everyone. Um, I gave you an FY26 budget update. It's my first second draft that I'm working on. I'm trying to make something that's um more clear at every meeting that you can see as we go throughout the year. Uh eventually have it to where you can compare this period to our last year at this period. So period one is July, period two is August. Um that way you'll be able to um see if we're on track and make sure we stay on track. So if we know we did well last year, we ended

102with a surplus and we're on track for this year, then you know we'll be doing the same. So, I'll be working on that um each month as we go as I extract data from UNICE and format it into a spreadsheet. Our um FY26 grants u some of them are in place. We're waiting for the federal government to release funds um so we can move forward on those. And the indication we have is that they will be coming. They'll just be delayed. Uh we work off of a kind of a a credit line anyways from the town. We we spend the funds before we get them. We apply for reimbursements. So I don't anticipate any situations there. Heating season is upon us. Um we're looking I know that there was problems last year told a lot

103of classrooms were too hot, some classrooms are too cold. So um although we're looking at you know getting new systems upgrades to our buildings, we're going to look at right now the facilities department the unit events and the and the controllers that control the flow of the basically the water that goes through them that gives you the heat. we're going to um work at see if we could replace one or two and and get them to work. Every system's different. So, I spoke to our plumbing supplier and he said, "As long as we get something that's similar in the same voltage, we may be able to cure some of our problems." So, we're going to begin uh with one or two classrooms and test that out. Hopefully, we can fix that cuz I know I

104asked what the big problem was last year, big concerns that it was some classrooms are just too hot in the winter and that's, you know, again, it's a waste of energy. So, we're working on that. Um, I have a company lined up to come in and seal some more leaks on our roofs. Uh, they're hopefully going to be out next week. We're looking at weather. So, they need um, basically a sunny day. They need temperature a certain amount. They'll come out and for literal, like I said, a small price, they're going to go through and fix a lot of our roofs. And then shortly after that, we'll be going through replacing ceiling tiles that have water stains on them while we do the classrooms. And that way there hopefully we can see if there's no

105more issues at that point. we realize there's no more water coming in. Uh in the same respect, we have a contractor lined up for the uh gym closet uh and AES and we put it together the contract for that but we have to wait for town meeting to happen to approve the funding. They just push that off another week. Hopefully the weather holds out because they have to do that in basically warmer weather. So I don't want to put off to the spring. Uh contractor's going by tomorrow. We're going to talk about it. I'm going to ask them if there's a way that maybe they can work through the weekends or whatnot to speed the project up to get it done. So, we really want to get that done, get it kind of off our

106plates. >> How long do we anticipate that's going to take again that project? It's >> supposed to take 2 to 3 weeks, but sometimes that's what they tell you. You know, they they under under estimate and overperform. So, hopefully if they're willing to work on weekends, we're willing to work with them and make it happen. Most of the work is on the exterior anyways. So, it's not as if we have to open the building for them. But, uh, we do have to work around the morning buses, the afternoon buses. So, that'll put a little damper in the schedule. We're going to try and see if we can do to make that happen. Um, we are continuing to push forward on the on the HBAC project. Um we're basically at the point now where um discussing

107with the town um various ways of funding it, whether or not to go up for debt exclusion, whether or not they can fit it in the next budget. So that's progressing. Um our soccer fields and our basketball courts are being used. Um everything's going well. So facilities are basically underway and uh the public's happy. We've got good schedule put together. The lunch counts and the breakfast counts are slowly up. uh slightly up from from last year. We just um initiated in the middle school here a grab and go for breakfast in the morning. We're trying to promote that to increase the number of breakfasts that we serve, but also um give the students opportunity to get a little extra uh snack um which we know in turn helps with learning when they're not hungry in

108the morning. So that just rolled out last week and we're going to be pushing that going forward hopefully increasing the numbers that we have. If you increase the numbers, you also increase the money that's in the bank, which in turn buys us new equipment for our cafeterias. Busing is running very smooth. We're still fine-tuning. We still have every now and then parents that call in asking if we can change a a pickup location or change a drop location um to better meet and and Bonnie in my office is wonderful. She'll Google map it, search it. She'll see there's no sidewalks. She'll see if there's trees in the way and she talks to the bus company and they go and they work them out. But uh hasn't been any problems that we haven't been able to

109solve so far. So I think every family is very happy with where we stand on that. Um I know that in the morning um in the afternoon getting the buses in and out there traffic issues. The superintendent has reached out to the chief of police asking for their assistance. Um if we can get you know some help in the morning with you have the people that do slow down. You have the traffic trying to turn in. We also have people going 40 miles an hour by our schools. So, a safety concern, but um that's been brought up to the town. So, hopefully they'll work with us on that. And the largest item you have in your packet is the solar project. Some of you are familiar with it. Was started I guess two years ago.

110Um it's progressed along to where the town has um actually said to um Select Energy was a company they looked at. They gave a letter of intent. So, now we're discussing how to move forward with this project. We'd like to get a vote tonight from this committee that we'd like to pursue it and move forward so that that can go to the select board who then will make a presentation to them uh about this project. It's it's from what I've read, it's no money out of pocket to us. They come in, they build the structure, which would be the parking lot between the elementary school and the middle school. The panels on there will produce electricity. They in turn own the overall structure. we get a very discounted price of electricity that's coming out of

111it. So, in turn saves us, saves the town money. It's a 25-year agreement that's put together. They have tax incentives that help out their end of the bargain. That's what gives us the savings on our end. And at the end of 25 years, the contract will be that either they remove it or we discuss them leaving it. And um we take over. I don't know how that would work, but the lawyers would work that out. So, um, we do have a meeting scheduled for Monday with one of the select board and the, uh, representative from select, we have someone on the, um, board of select that's very knowledgeable about solar, which is great. So, um, some of the pages are highly technical, so he hope they get in and look at those for us. And

112again, this will be before the, um, entire project goes to the select board on August 21st. We've been invited, superintendent, myself to present it. Um, but we'd like to bring a letter from you saying that we've spoken about it and if you are in favor, hopefully in favor of it, we move forward with it. So, some of the um steps outlined in our pack I gave you. >> I'll be looking for a vote tonight on that. >> I didn't realize we were looking for a vote. So, is is that a timely issue that we need it before the select board meeting? >> I Yes, it's saying we should bring it with us to the select board. It's not really so much a vote. It's more that we're in favor of this project. So, um, like

113I said, it started 2 years ago. I don't know what was presented before, but >> I think that's important because we have a couple of new members since we started the project. So, are you looking for a vote of support? >> Yes. >> When is the meeting again? I'm sorry. >> October 21. And just I it's been a little while since this has been discussed and it was uh prior to to my time on the board, but from what I remember from the publicformational sessions. Um this is a a canopy that would go over the parking area in between the two schools. Is that correct? >> Correct. >> They're doing a a rendering for us which we should have I think next week. >> Okay. >> That'll show the picture of it. But basically that's

114it. >> Okay. And is it I know that they were also at some point discussing putting panels on the roof of I think FMS or AES. Is that part of the scope? >> I don't think that's part of the scope. From what we discussed in the latest presentation we had, it was simply >> Okay. Okay. >> But for me, the rendering was important. I'm a visual person and I think a lot of people would like to see what this is going to look like, right? So that should be to us soon, right? >> Yes. was supposed to be by the they said the 17th I think >> right? >> Yeah. >> Do you know off hand like it's not like people are flying in and out of the parking lot all the time but you

115know in the event that there were like a collision between a car or a bus or something like that and the structure. Do we know if the school district would be on the hook for repairs or is that assumed by the select company? My guess is it's their insurance their project because they'll be asking the town to wave tax as a pilot waving the taxes payment in L taxes for the project because it's being used to to service out. So they own it. So they would have to carry their own insurance on it. >> Okay. >> And this is something that we have to have final approval done before the end of this year, right? and otherwise the tax incentives disappear and then it becomes kind of insolvent. >> That's what they're explaining to us.

116Um, one of our board of selection said he thinks that for this type of project it could actually go beyond that point. So that's what we'll be discussing on Monday. >> Okay. >> Either way, that's why we're kind of trying to move this forward. At least by the time it gets to the board of select to be voted on, we'll have all that information. >> They're they're voting on on Monday at their meeting >> the 21st. Um, I don't know if they're actually voting to hear our proposal and I don't know if they have to go to a finance meeting first or a town meeting. >> So, I'm just trying to I don't want to these these guys are new to Paula's point. The last time we talked about it, they weren't here. So, I

117want to make sure that they if we're going to say that we support it, that they feel comfortable that they've seen enough information. And so I don't want to necessarily um make that determination right now at this moment, but I'm just asking if we have a little bit of time to allow these guys to get the information that they need to see where they stand. >> I know for from my purposes, and I won't speak for ebony, I was pretty engaged in the initial discussion phases of this project, even though I wasn't a member of the board at the time. I paid a lot of attention to it, so I feel pretty comfortable. Um, I'm assuming there have been some changes of, you know, scope and scale since that, but you know, that really is

118ultimately up to the the board of selectmen and this company to kind of come to an agreement on. >> So, I feel comfortable, but I don't want to speak for anybody else. >> Has a school committee taken a position prior to the to this proposal? >> Jennifer Downing was the chair at the time and she actually, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe she sent a letter in support from the committee for this project. So, this has been going on. The talk about this project has been going on. We've had a change in a business manager. Um, now we've reconnected with uh Select and we're back in business for this project if it's something everyone is in agreement with. >> Yeah. I I certainly support it. Again, Miss McGlet, I don't know if you

119if there's any other information that you would like to have or see. I want to make sure that we're able to get um folks the information. Um >> I think part of it is knowing for sure that who is liable. It's important for us to know before if it does happen just to know if we're walking into this what what we're responsible for what that means. It didn't seem to me when I heard it. I was assuming that it would be them, but that's an assumption. So I don't I want to make sure that we do know that >> you can put that in your stipulation. >> Yeah. >> But other than that, I mean I'm sober anyway. I think it would help out. >> Yeah. And like ultimately, you know, I have only a

120a a passing understanding of solar technology, but that 25 year lease that would line up roughly with essentially the end use date of the solar panels like they they would need to be replaced in all likelihood by the end of that. So then it would be in the in the wording of the contract if they're going to remove it or what recourse there would be. And who knows what supply is going to look like in 25 years for getting the panels replaced. But >> yeah, >> it's probably too diff difficult to project. >> I think the other thing is is it going to I think only from past experience with solar paneling. I'm just wondering making sure that we have in the contract that it covers both schools because sometimes it will drain one school

121like the building will cover one school first and then or one building first. >> It's for the middle school. >> Just for the middle school. >> Only producer can only produce it not for the middle school. That's why they wanted to put him on the roofs, I guess. Okay. But >> the other thing we could certainly do, um, we could have Allan Guiles from Select come to the school committee meeting with the rendering and talk to the committee. Um, and if you want to send us your questions, concerns in advance, we could, you know, have him be prepared at a meeting. >> Good idea. >> If if that's >> I know he's offered in the past to do that. >> Sure. I think it's a good idea. I mean, it was two plus years ago

122at this point. So, >> I think it's >> going to be fine and at least from my perspective, I let's at least have him come in and make sure that we tie all the >> tick all the boxes. >> Yeah. I guess the only the only concern that I would have just from a timeliness standpoint is, you know, if we ask that the gentleman from the solar company come in and present to us at the next scheduled meeting in November, well, that's that's going to be after town meeting. Obviously the school the select board will have always will already have had to meet with this company and make their determination. I mean I just don't know if us delaying things is going to be for we have the time. >> I would I would still

123suggest the vote of support if that is the you know the voice of the committee. But I also think it's a good idea even after the fact because we wouldn't engage in this contract for a couple of months right not until December. >> Exactly. >> January, right? I think it's important that we have a meeting so that you can feel comfortable throughout the process. And you're right, it was two years ago when we presented all of this information. And I think also the public would probably want to see what it looks like and um hear about it again and refresh. You know, people probably thought it died, right? Project died and it didn't. >> Okay. So I I think I heard we have support to send a letter if we can confirm that either it's

124in the it's going to be in the agreement that we're not liable or that we make it we get clarity around that. >> Just say providing there's no liability on that. >> Absolutely. So so I think I think we're comfortable saying we're in support and we'll have Sandy come in. >> I think if the timeline did become a problem um I think if we had to call a meeting just to do a vote, we could have a presentation and a vote in time. Um, you know, we could do that. >> So, do we need a formal vote is my question. >> I think to make it easier for ourselves, we would just say we support the project. We vote to support the project and then we could if the if the town requires something more

125formal. >> Yes, >> we'll do that. >> That's a good idea. >> Yeah. Yeah. Did I derail you? I was >> say so. Basically, we're looking for a motion to uh send a letter to the board of select that we're >> I have a motion to send a letter of support to the board of selecting related to the solar project. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Uh all those in favor. >> Any opposed? Seeing none, motion passes. >> That's all I have. >> Thank you. >> One one question. >> Sure. I know it's early the budget season. Anything that concerns you? Anything that that you're worried about? Anything you're looking in the future and saying? >> Um, not concerned. Our special ed costs are up a little higher this year than planned, but we also

126received an extra I think $57,000 in circuit breaker that will outweigh that. And I was just told that there is a student that might be leaving. Um, so we'll have that saving. So other than that, everything else is going very well. Can I chair? I I just want to for the record I do have concerns because I know um last year we were told expect level funding which again I need to point out we cut several positions last year 12 the year before it was five or six. We cannot continue to cut positions. Um with inflation and all the rising costs we can't stay level funded. we have to at least a level of service so that our students get the same amount of service that um is a quality education. So that's something that

127we're going to be paying very close attention to moving forward as we uh work on the budget. But I just want to put it out there that you know we're we're going to strive for level service. We know that the town the funding is perhaps lacking. We're also working and advocating for uh the formula for chapter 70 funding to be fixed. So with that, but that's not an overnight fix either. We're just continuing to advocate for level service because with inflation, it's impossible to um stay level funded. I might also add to your thoughts is the cost of the you know tuition with other communities and what impact that's going to have on the budget even though we have level of service in all areas. So I >> we want to be fiscally responsible in

128everything that we do, which we have been. Um but uh we know that times tough right now, but inflation is ridiculous. So we can't stay level funded and not we we're not giving our kids what they need and especially with the cuts the last couple of years, we're feeling it in our schools. Um staff are taking on more. So I will be advocating for at least level of service as we move forward with this budget. >> I I I would suggest and I I haven't raised this at this point because I think um I was I want to allow some some progress on the high school situation so we can see to that point how that impacts budget. But I suggest that the budget subcommittee, you know, get together pretty soon >> uh and start

129to look at that. I'm looking at my Parker there. Uh crowd. [laughter] Um >> you're going to disturb my sleep. Stop that. >> No. Uh because I do think that it's important that we engage with our um partners in town early earlier this year uh to allow oursel a little more flexibility and time to work through whatever issues and challenges may we may have. And I hope that um we can all come to the table and have a very serious discussion about how to approach um the budget situation this year. And if we anticipate that the next two years or three years are going to be a challenge, we should kind of take a short and long-term view on how to how to deal with that. So that's my >> I mean we've got kind

130of a confluence of a lot of major town expenses this year. I mean, normal, you know, annual budget increases because fuel oil is more expensive, insurance is more expensive, people want raises, like you can't blame them. Um, but then also we have the old Colony project which I know there's a lot of folks in town, both in, you know, town administration and residents that are both excited and very apprehensive about. It's a significant price tag for the town. Plus, we're still working on getting the, you know, the air quality project off the ground. It seems like the solar project isn't going to be any out of pocket for the school, which is great. But, you know, in addition to that, we've got the the town tuition agree or the high school tuition agreement. So, there's

131just so many things happening all at the same time. And frankly, a lot of them are unknowns. I I think that bringing the finances to the front forefront as soon as possible to chairman Hood's point is super important this year because otherwise it's going to be January and we'll all have been so busy dealing with this other stuff that all of a sudden budget season is going to be right on top of us. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Okay. School committee member reports. Anybody? I have one thing, but >> I just have one one issue. No, not uh I just want to thank you the school committee and the superintendent uh for their support in my my recent uh health challenge that you know received some flowers and cards and they were very supportive.

132They really helped me get through uh another challenge that I've I've had. So, I want to say again thank you. >> Thank you. >> You're very welcome, John. You're an asset to this uh committee and have been to this town. So, we're lucky to have you. So, we appreciate it. >> Thank you very much. >> Um, [clears throat] one thing I wanted to raise um and at one of our upcoming maybe next couple of meetings is, you know, each year we've kind of taken a pretty serious look at safety and security. So, I'd like to have uh in an executive session with our new committee to sit down and talk about what our safety and security priorities may or may not be. Uh that's not something that I ever want to feel like we haven't

133at least had a conversation about and looked at because um we know how serious it is and how common it is for things like that to uh be needed. And so anyway, I just want to have that conversation maybe at one of our upcoming um executive sessions very soon. Right. Any questions on any of the communications and other information? Oh, you >> have one thing under B comprehensive health and fizzed framework letter to families. I just wanted to give a quick update. As you know, we have new health standards that came out in 2023. Um, and over the last couple of years, we've been sending teachers and administrators for training so that we can understand what it's about. We this year have done a crosswalk from the old previous standards to the new ones to

134see which we're keeping the same, right? We um could never do all 300 plus standards. We don't have the time. Students at the middle school level receive health class one time per week and they do not get health class at the elementary school. So there is some scuttlebutt out there that we're teaching all these new things to kids. We have not done any of that. I would just ask the public um to get their information, the accurate information directly from the schools and we have had a couple of parents email reach out. Um that's always the best most accurate source. Um we've decided to just crosswalk what we were doing with the new standards, the same standards. That's where we're at right now. Uh we'll look at next year we'll put out a survey to

135families because we want to be fair and see what people think. But we did have a survey link um on this letter that was sent out and initially we had 14 respondents which a couple from the same households were up to 27. So still very low. Um it went out to the entire district. But the idea will be that we'll look at this data, we'll put it in front of the safety and wellness committee um which consists of staff, parents, etc. um to make the best decisions moving forward. But nothing will change at this point. And if something were to change, we would certainly notify our families. But again, I just want to stress um I know there's a lot of things on social media that is not accurate information coming from the school district.

136So, I want to reiterate, please contact the schools directly by email or phone. That's the best way to get accurate information. >> Any other questions on any of the communication and information? >> All right. So, there'll be no executive session today. Our next school committee meeting is on Tuesday, November 18th, at 6:00 p.m. in the FMS library. May I have a motion to adjourn tonight's meeting? >> Some motion. >> Second. >> And we'll do a roll call conference. >> Mr. Hood. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Fur. >> Yes. Mr. Ellis. >> Yes. >> Mr. Hro. [music] >> [music] [music]