2021-11-09 School Committee Meeting

001um would you please put your mass on and if you don't have any we have some right here thank you [Music] sure day seductive uh oh [Music] i feel thank okay [Music] hey [Music] hmm [Music] hey ryan you have one and two [Music] okay good evening everyone i'd like to reconvene open session please rise for the pledge of allegiance also during tonight's silent meditation let's take a moment to remember sheila grover who passed away on october 27th as a member of the shower host school committee she will be remembered as a strong advocate for the charital children and their families her positive spirit will be missed by all i pledge allegiance to the lack of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty

002and justice for all thank you very much i recommend that minutes pertaining to collective bargaining and ea esp negotiation update remain sealed until such time as agreement has been reached second there's been a motion in a second to close seal the executive session minutes of the collective bargaining nae esp negotiation update to remain sealed until such time as an agreement has been reached any discussion those in favor any opposed abstentions mr day refusal thank you thank you i was getting there thank you [Applause] i recommend that minutes pertaining to collective bargaining nea certified staff contract negotiations remain sealed until such time as an agreement has been reached so moved second there's been a motion in a second to recommend the minutes pertaining to collective bargaining nea certified staff contract negotiations remain sealed until such time

003as an agreement has been reached any discussion on those minutes those in favor any opposed abstentions one two abstentions recruit recusals one recusal thank you i recommend that minutes which relate to the privacy of students and their records approval of home instruction requests remain sealed second miss benevotion by mr luzon in a second by dr callahan that the minutes relating to the privacy of students their records home approval instruction remains sealed any discussion those in favor abstentions opposition recusal that was unanimous oh good mr day sorry i got you catherine yes thank you we had seven votes in executive session the first was to move sections two and three to the end in favor abbott callahan chambers juicy luzon lyle macaruso mcallister spears and reynolds the next vote was executive session minutes of october 26th

004nea esp negotiation update um abstaining abbott approved by callahan chambers giusti luzon lyle macarusa mcallister spears and reynolds the next vote was executive session minutes homeschool instruction october 26 2021 abstaining abbott in favor callahan chambers juicy luzon lyle macca russo mcallister spears and reynolds the next vote was home instruction requests from this evening november 9th in favor abbott callahan chambers giusti luzon lyle macaruso mcallister reynolds and spears the next vote creation of negotiation subcommittee in favor abbott callahan chambers juicy lyle macaruso mcallister and spears the next vote was addition of a huffington member to the negotiation subcommittee in favor abbott callahan chambers juicy lyle macaroos and mcallister and spears and finally to return to open session in favor abbott callahan chambers giusti lyle macaruso mcallister and spears thank you thank you please join me in

005congratulating the following charleston school teacher assistant cheryl ali october employee of the month and our new school committee members and donna spears from hopkinton and karen reynolds from richmond [Applause] welcome we are now on to public forum um this is the time where the public has a chance to speak um on items that are not on the agenda i would ask that you keep your comments brief there are a lot of people here so we want to be able to hear from everyone vice chairperson ms giusti will be helping us remind us of our time we're going to keep the comments to two minutes and then hopefully we can get everyone an opportunity to speak um when you come to the podium please introduce yourself and where you're from sir scott phil harris hopkins terre

006haute class of 71. i'd like to take this time to challenge you adam chairman and vice chairman giusti on behalf of texas david stahl and myself the debate on terre haute was listening uh to discuss terre haute matters education in general in events dealing with the terre haute school district and i i make that challenge publicly also uh i'd like to suggest there's one email address for school committee members natana hopkinton we have one email address to be called council members there's no reason for terror not to have that situation for the people in our district to reach all members at once uh i would appreciate if the school committee starts taking some more public officials i mean except excuse me more taking official position and also uh uh you know look at their agenda

007policy where uh the chairman cannot block routinely uh request the things on the agenda and i would suggest that a certain number like two or three members of the school committee if they feel that something should be on the agenda the chairman shouldn't be able to block that there are other government bodies that have a certain requirement of requests but consideration there's no reason that the charitable school committee could not operate the same way also i would like to before i sit down i would hope that the school committee will adopt a policy about employees using school district email to promote a candidate for public office either elected or appointed uh to uh because i do have a concern about politics in the school district thank you [Applause] hi my name is phyllis panharlow i'm

008from charlestown i'd like this committee to revisit the two policy changes that they made concerning the library media and curriculum the decision is that all taxpayers don't have a say you have to have a child in the district to be able to follow the procedure if you have a concern about the curriculum so i have one question i'd love to get answered tonight and i have four points to make about this the first point i'd like to make is that you excluded an entire group of taxpayers older people who have wisdom ex-teachers grandparents teachers some of you couldn't even use the policy because you don't have children in the district you have educators who might have more time that can contribute there's home schoolers so all that wisdom is completely taken away because you're saying

009you have to have a child in the district secondly the superintendent um last two months two weeks ago said that this came from legal i don't even know what that means it came from legal so whatever legal says we do there was no meeting there's no discussion just legal said something and then it was just done the third point i want to make is that what has changed that now there's such a worry about these voices that you're going to exclude this whole group so something has changed and now there must be worry that you want to just tell this group they um don't have a say the first thing is um if there's a lot of people who are concerned with something that in the curriculum wouldn't the administration say hey wait maybe there's

010something going on maybe i should look at it but no one thought of that it's just no just quiet the voice and maybe there there is something that we should be looking at the one question i would like to get answered is how many taxpayers have used this procedure to question curriculum um or the library media and let's say the last five years and how many hours has taxed teachers that administration that you would actually make a rule that this whole group can't speak so is there was it three was it 15 was it 40 we couldn't answer that tonight but we might be able to get that so how did you not answer and vote so you you so there was a vote taken and no one even knows how many people sure thank

011you okay thank you [Applause] i'm here for the my name's goldie williams from richmond i'm here for the kids who are in that cala program and getting bullied on a daily basis like my son was when it was rise i'm here so they don't get pushed out before they are ready they should have a program like they haven't led your connecticut high school that they're able to graduate then they have a one-on-one aid for work preparedness taking them to work or taking them to college they should make sure that every child gets transitioned to work and to college and they have one on eight until they are ready and not anxious to go like my son the first time around he never got transitioned he never got prepared he flunked the first time around now

012he's on a second time around and he made the deals with last semester because it was online and now he's going to make it up and for a paralegal because he's prepared we had to pay tens of thousands a hundred thousands outside where charjo never gave him the services he needed and i think this should be in the special needs category thank you thank you and also you shouldn't be teaching gender queer because it's porn the book thank you [Applause] dave stahl ash away i brought my sign up because a lot of folks here have signs and they can't be seen by the people at home they're 45 to 50 people gathered here tonight because they're concerned about these issues and being taxed without representation and uh the general consensus of the group of people

013that are gathered here tonight is that you as a committee and as administration are not listening so we will continue to rally in an effort to be heard i like phyllis would ask you to revisit two policies several months ago you voted on the change to the curriculum policy making it so that only a parent of someone currently in the school could object to curriculum that is taxation without representation i don't think it's legal and i don't think it's ethical and i don't think it's good last meeting you made that same wording change to the library and media policy so i am asking we are asking and will continue to ask for you to bring back those two policies and change that wording back to the way it was so that any stakeholder in the

014community can object to a piece of curriculum would also like to add my condolences to sheila grover's family sheila during the brief time that we overlapped on the committee i found her to be really reasonable and really objective and really listen and if you know anything if you've listened to me at all you know how much i value that and i appreciated sheila for that and and i offer my condolences to her family the last thing i'd say is that i came last meeting and i spoke here to you and a few folks here on this committee responded not to the issue not not with points regarding the policies i was asking questions about but with personal attacks attacks about my job misquoting me saying i'm trying to do things i'm not or banning books

015when i'm not if you want to create a culture where people listen personal attacks against people when they bring objective issues would go a long way there [Applause] my name is joe moreau i live on old depot road in hopkinton rhode island i've lived there for about 21 years i was recently elected the director of public welfare for hopkinton i moved here along with my wife from coventry and that's where i first met the late barry ritchie and i've had several conversations with with barry i think barry would be very disturbed that that's what's happening here in the town of hopkinton for an example our operating budget for expenses is about 27 million the education portion is about 20 million so rounding that off it's about 74 of our budget goes to education as i

016said being the director of public welfare i'm constantly on the phone with clients that are having a difficult time putting food on their table paying their utility bills myself as a senior citizen um what i would suggest if of our funding is going towards education then i should pay 26 percent in my property tax if i can't have a say in what's going on in this building or in our school system my wife and i have been heavily involved in the coventry system for many years we still have friends from that district and i just don't understand david already mentioned the tax taxation without representation why should i pay the taxes that i pay and 74 percent comes here and i can't come before you with a question or an issue because i don't have

017a child in the school system that's really disgraceful it really is thank you good evening my name is jim sullivan i'm a resident of charlestown and a concerned citizen i have comments that have been typed up for me by my wonderful neighbor erica wilkinson and i will distribute them to whoever would like them after i have what i have to say they're my comments in bullet form anyway here it is uh anyway i've been a educator for 35 years i've been a teacher i've got a school administrator and i've been on the school committee and uh right now we have the silent majority is now a vocal majority and that is a great thing happening uh i should people kid students should be taught a person should be judged by the content of their character

018and not the color of their skin we should all agree to that just because a person is smart does not mean they have common sense i do not support at this point the anti-racism task force i am concerned about their bringing racism into the terrible system there are curriculum development materials on crt everywhere in this let's keep them out of charitable it is a divisive doctrine racism is not embedded in our legal systems and policies of the united states many state legislatures have supported outlawing crt in schools idaho iowa oklahoma tennessee to name a few reviewing teachers curriculum in the school system is not enough parents should uh talk to their children when they come home and ask what the teachers have been teaching them excuse me mr sullivan your two minutes is up okay

019your two minutes is up if you just want to finish your thought can we have my two minutes so he can finish reading please my time is up already yeah i'm sorry i'll i'll i can finish reading it for you if you like leave that to you i don't think that's necessary this is going to be we do have it in writing sir so we do have it we should ask principals teachers and school committee members whether they support a critical race theory or not and they should be told strongly that this is not acceptable crt is destructive and rejects the fundamental ideas on which the constitution of the united states is based uh as far as sovereignty is concerned with the right to be free of question and makes and to question and make

020decisions concerning our students in education in the school system and we are not domestic terrorists finally i respectfully request that school committee give more time to people like myself and others five minutes would be nice uh the terre haute community to make particular comments during the committee meetings god bless america and charles school system [Applause] how you doing oh i feel sick tonight excuse me sir i feel sick not because i'm ill could you please tell us your name my name is jeremy palmer mr palmer i feel sick tonight because of the fact the lack of respect that's given by this board for one i'm glad everyone is partially paying attention to what everyone here who pays your paycheck has to say to you i also have a headache from listening to my community members

021speak without being heard because i feel like the majority of the people who would be attending this meeting tonight wouldn't be here if you guys were doing your job correctly on top of that i completely disagree with the curriculum that's being taught to our children which is obvious by the amount of people who are here and in general uh assembly uh throughout the internet uh i definitely feel like there should be a different format because there's no way anyone could possibly put together and then formulate an idea within two minutes but yet we're gathered here to listen to what you all have to say to us i feel like at certain points we may need an interpreter to distinguish what you all are saying throughout this meeting because everyone just raises their hand and puts

022their hand down and you guys just speak a completely different language why i would assume to throw everyone off topic so there there isn't a common understanding don't look around and surprise because no one understands what you guys are saying the majority of the time you just do mumble into a mic and then everyone raises their hand and says yep i agree but no one here has any idea what you're saying so the suggestion that i would make again for everyone who's not paying attention at this point still everyone's too busy writing their notes down i would assume not what i'm saying but your own agendas a combative one because if you were paying attention like this is the first time you looked up at me man i have to take minutes well now you're

023not allowed to interject remember you're not allowed to answer people you're attacking me i'm not attacking anyone i'm stating the obvious and what the obvious is is that your community directly does not agree with what you're saying my two minutes is up let me guess thank you again i would say that you would correct the format because there are some people who are more articulate in the room and others who are not so a half an hour is not enough time for everyone to formulate an idea in two minutes enjoy your day [Applause] okay let's all be respectful here um uh donna is not one of our school committee members she's our um our associate secretary administrative as a administrative assistant so and her job is to take notes copious notes so um there was

024no need for that excuse me excuse me you're it's not excuse me it's not your turn i just need to keep this meeting respectful excuse me okay enough i'm sorry your name hi i'm raising two children in the district i had uh watched the meeting last meeting it was rainy night really windy i watched from home so i'm not sure what prompted the policy to be revised but from the woman's name that she had a list of 30 books she finds questionable i'm curious if what prompted the revision was an inundation of requests also i believe that mr anderson provides legal advice for other districts so maybe that suggested free he suggested preemptive action based on his experiences in the other districts as you may be aware there's been increased scrutiny placed on schools and

025especially school boards as part of a nationwide movement which we see a lot of evidence of tonight i certainly agree that all stakeholders deserve representation but i also understand giving parents of students the using the library priority in this instance the library plays a supportive role in the school system by providing students a wide range of materials to choose from with emphasis on the concept of choice i think we should be cautious when it comes to a decision that would strip students of their own choice in regards to what materials are available to them i think it's also important to remember that the students are the one in this equation who are most impacted by this decision and they do not pay any taxes i absolutely understand the importance of discussing these issues in regards

026to taxpayers since our public schools receive funding from our property taxes but i don't want to forget about the students by narrowing our focus to taxpayers only we must help students understand that their choices deserve respect too that being said i can understand how this issue would upset residents in our district i do believe that the policy before revision did hold some protection against a sudden increase in request because the form suggests that the person questioning the materials should have read or viewed the media in entirety and also answer numerous self-reflective questions these questions alone could have reduced an overburden i'd also like to point out yes so it takes nuance and context to understand the work of the school committee and what they do to balance the concerns of community members parents guardians teachers

027staff administration and students in the instance of this policy revision the committee recognized their greatest concern as written in the principles and ethics which is for the educational welfare welfare of the students sorry what's going on caleb was like so she can finish like um um i don't know if there's a lot yeah right yeah me yes yes i could i was like i think that's paulie i'm not sure why did you want me to read some lawn boy for you no because i got it right here i got it i wanted to speak i didn't i don't want to cut anything excuse me sir we you if you wanted your trip let's move it on okay i think i have like 30 seconds no you have two minutes please identify yourself and speak thank

028you yeah sorry about the characters name is caleb grant i'm from hope valley and in general i find myself trying to walk a middle road um i do believe there are misunderstood intentions on both sides of the issue and i do agree with uh i people on bo i both just i remember the gentleman who was speaking before spoke about the format being really not conducive to communication so that's i guess that's my two cents i don't i know i already took up time with the confusion here but um i do think unless we have more transparency and more communication and listening then the heat's just going to stay on high and it's just going to get worse and i care about these people i care about people on the left and the right and

029i just think as a community we need more something better to work through this stuff and work all together so thank you [Applause] good evening my name is excuse me tyler chaplin from huffington for the past six months i've sat in this room and listened to everything being said by both parents concerned citizens of this district and by you our elected school committee members i've truly sat here and listened i've listened to all sides i find myself to be a lot like caleb i like to hear everybody in everybody's opinion i try to keep an open mind something which i question of the members sitting on the other side of the table in front of me we push diversity inclusion and equity in our schools which i believe has value in a place but only

030if it applies to everyone i've been unbelievably disappointed to watch listen and watch and listen to members of this audience be disparaged and attacked because they have a differing view than that of the members of this committee just because a person sees something in a different light doesn't make them right or wrong or make you right or wrong the only thing that is wrong is to dismiss their concerns without listening to them with an open mind that is something that has been lost here in this room and around our country we've lost the ability to compromise i believe at times we confuse the common ground with compromise with issues that i've heard coming out of the school committee there may be at times not any common ground to be found however with good constructive criticism

031there may likely be a place to find a compromise doesn't mean you get what you want or i get what i want we both give up something to work toward a solution that is good for all that has not been what i've seen or heard i've heard calls from parents to have open town hall style meetings with our school committee to allow us to interact with you guys to ask questions and truly understand your position on issues facing our district as well as our views people in this district want to be involved but they're not being given the opportunity and they're now being silenced by policies that have been changed which disenfranchises a certain population of this district i am now one of those people my kids were pulled from this district and are now

032being homeschooled by my wife at the beginning of this uh yeah now on top of that the funding that comes from our town to our kids was also pulled from your district at this point it's the only thing we have 76 of my tax dollars funds this public school district as a concerned citizen you should know where your taxpayers are being sent we have a voice and we will be heard come june of 2022 some of us will be declaring for your seats thank you [Applause] yes i'm bill dale i'm speaking as a citizen and not a member of school committee i've been around school school district meetings since andriodi days which i don't know there's not too many people in there who know who superintendent andreatti is but uh this is to me uh

033the wrong battle to be fighting uh we have probably the only time we ever had this many people attending school community meetings is over a budget this this district wants to pass a budget and by approving policies that shut out the voice of the taxpayers there's not way any way to get a budget pass so i would hope that this school committee would rethink some of the things that they've been doing here lately to stifle the citizens and the taxpayers of this district would change quickly [Applause] okay well thank you that ends public forum oh sorry hello my name is jennifer sylvia i'm a resident of hopkinton um i also agree with revisiting the policy issues but i also want to ask that the school committee maybe think about revisiting or visiting cancellation policy of

034school i think what happened on october 25th was absolutely horrendous you guys put our students in danger and you put the people driving the buses in danger both my parents are school bus drivers and on my mom's route um because she had she was on route picking up kids there were three downed trees um on her she was near james trail in richmond um one tree was completely blocking the road she had to stop her bus and the the there was a fifth grader on the bus who went up he got out of his seat and he's like let me at it let me out i'll go move that tree and though the whole bus kept screaming on the roof we're gonna die we're gonna die so what you did miss picard by calling school

035off so late in the day was awful absolutely shameful and if you're going to make a decision to close school it needs to be it needs to happen before the before the kids get picked up and put on the bus that was just completely uncalled for and i i don't want that to get not addressed because it just should not happen so thank you hi my name is kim colter and i too went to the cherehou school system and graduated from here i'm a resident of the town of charlestown and i'm appalled at what i've been seeing i've been to a couple of the meetings so far i have been following it from home from museum meetings and i'm embarrassed i'm embarrassed from my town of charlestown representatives that sit on this board and now

036you've made set policies that those of us that don't have children in the system now can't speak if we can't speak you do not need our finances in this day and age where the monies are very tight we don't know what the new administration is going to bring about and i'm going to pay for something that i can't speak on none of these people here can speak on are you crazy that's not right has anybody ever heard it takes a village to raise a child and everybody has anybody watched advertisements on tv bullying if you're being bullied you come see us what the heck do you think you people are doing to the parents and residents of these three towns you are elected here you are elected officials you work for us and i am

037sick and tired of us and these people have to come down here and be watch dogs they're our children not yours have your own children and raise them how you want but i'll be damned if you're gonna raise mine reading writing and arithmetic and at the last meeting i believe that it was you donna chambers that said if anybody here doesn't have a child in the system and we got an issue we can come talk to you what are the odds and i'm a betting person i do like betting on the ponies what are the odds those questions are going to see the light of day just tell me and how many here have children who has children in the system now but yet you can dictate to us i'm sorry but this is wrong

038you need to revisit those policies you don't need our money [Applause] yeah this is the last sir excuse me sir because i'm sorry for interrupting um this will be the light you'll be the last speaker tonight honestly thank you thank you good evening excuse me you know we can't hear the gentleman speaking i can't speak this thing on canadian school man my name is michael geary i live at 16 tomorrow road hospital rhode island also my daughter's alumni of tarahua high school which graduated 2012. i'm also a member of the hopkins town council i am not here to speak on behalf the hoffman town council or my fellow colleagues however i do wish to speak on behalf of numerous residents that have reached out to me be emailed phone calls about policy change that went

039into effect october 16th i find this deeply concerning excuse me deeply concerned that the school committee would vote on a policy to limit residents participating in school committee meetings with 75 to 80 percent of our tax dollars go in the educational system every taxpayer in the district deserves the respect to join the conversation regardless whether they currently have children enrolled in the school or not the school district is an essential part of the school of the community therefore citizens should be allowed to engage in ongoing discussions venture thank you thank you yes i move that we suspend the rules to allow more people to speak uh mr abbott made a motion and mr day seconded it um any discussion on that those in favor of the motion thank you we have um we have a

040lot we have business to attend to school committee business so i appreciate i appreciate you giving us the time to do that did the motion pass no the motion did not pass we voted you're welcome to stay we have business to conduct amy yeah that's true so um just a comment before um we move on to business um just for public knowledge and just so that you guys are aware the district does have an appeals policy that any citizen can make i am no i'm just saying that there is in community relations there is a an appeals policy that any person any citizen can appeal any issue question that they show shoes i just wanted to make people aware that this is in our policy so people do have a voice anyone can use this

041appeals policy yeah let's move on okay we're on to business special education advisory committee 2020 2021 annual report i recommend that you accept that madam chair i can't hear you okay we can wait then do you want to take a five minute break motion to recess for five minutes okay so there's been a motion to recess for five minutes donna seconded it those in favor okay we'll recess for five minutes yes it was well no i don't know mr dayden oh come on guys come on did you vote on that oh okay okay i need to go to the ladies room because i need to break two these are battles that we don't need uh it's 48. no i okay let's get back to regular session thank you you ready donna yeah i'm okay okay

042thank you very much okay superintendent picard hey item a special education advisory committee committee 2020 2021 annual report i recommend that you accept the seac 2020 2021 annual report and place it on file thanks to committee members polly hopkins nicole allen erin safranac and sarah algieri for all their work this past year so move second there's been a motion and a second to accept the special education advisory committee annual report i open this up to discussion or questions yes donna yeah um before we accept these minutes from the last meeting i would like to suggest that the goals be reworded because i don't see them as a lot of them as goals it's a process like to explore ways to make it easier for parents to access well what's the goal okay and so i

043would like it better defined in terms of the goals of what things they're doing to get to it i highlighted three four five and six and question what the goal of those items are so if that could be re revised um i'm sure the committee would they know what they're trying to get to what they want to achieve so that's my comment on that pass that along okay feedback okay all right so do we still vote on it or do we table it and i certainly appreciate their efforts um miss chambers do you want to make a motion with the changes um i would like to make motion that the the items on the items three four and five and six he stated in terms of actual goals so you're amending them yeah ending the

044motion before i could vote for this to accept these minutes okay so yes if we don't have their goals in this though [Music] that's my question i'm sorry yeah so so basically do do we want to vote on the notion that they will amend it or do you want to table it yes miss macarusa thank you thank you we have to use the microphones i think yes um so i was in attendance as the liaison to the cf meeting and they've actually changed leadership um so the person the person that was the chair at this time is no longer the chair which was ms hopkins um there was some procedural um challenges running the meeting and coming back after the pandemic so what i might suggest i don't know if this would be amendable donna

045is that when i attend the next meeting i could advise the new chair as to how to write smart goals if that's a good format um and give them your feedback therefore we can accept this and i'll go on record as saying i'll give them that feedback as well i i'm fine with that okay i'm fine with that and i appreciate that suggestion but please pass that on okay thank you so you you'll you'll accept these with the understanding that when we see more minute minutes be reintroduced that they would have specific goals identified yes ma'am okay mr luzon i know are you pulling your are you pulling your are you pulling a motion yeah okay okay you're pulling the amendment okay so we're back to the original motion to accept the minutes and the

046um the annual report as as filed okay okay any more discussion or questions those in favor okay any opposition no recusals or abstentions no i think that's unanimous thank you so much and thank you for all the work that the advisory committee has done over the years so the next item is girls ice hockey co-op requests it is a memorandum of agreement with warwick a two-year agreement is being proposed for girls ice hockey co-op to include our high school pilgrim and tool gate character would pay based on the total number of girls that join the team and participate if there are 20 total players of the team and charo has three athletes that participate then we would pay three twentieths in our month three twenty percentage of the fees for the following coaches salaries for

047three coaches and officials fees for games estimated costs were around two thousand dollars for us there would be no transportation costs as parents would be responsible to provide their own transportation for their child to and from their arena where there are team practices where they play their home games and where they uh go for away games parents guardians will need to sign a waiver releasing character from any liability in regards to transportation we would also not pay for ice time at their arena we would however pay for uniform patches that would be installed on the uniforms to designate character as a member of the co-op closes a copy of the parental agreement which would mirror the boys which does near the boy's ice hockey agreement with narragansett i also would like to note that this

048is contingent upon the warwick school committee which moved their meeting until next week they originally had plans with their different district who had backed out and would like a commitment moving forward from the new district prior to them making a decision it is contingent upon their vote i recommend approval of the moa with warwick for a two-year agreement for a girls ice hockey co-op and once the warwick school committee approves or votes on this moa we would move forward as signed and we do have mr harvard if there's questions okay there's been a motion in a second to approve this moa the member of agreement with wellwork to um have a co-op program in the girls ice hockey mr day you have a question or a comment uh i was just curious as to have

049a ballpark figure how many girls might be interested in participating in this or i believe we have definitely won three people that have expressed interest at least two players so at least two possibly up to four two to four players i think jim knows probably is the biggest supporter of athletics over here in the history of terre haute so i'm not against it but uh i'll just uh it's a two-year agreement it's a two-year agreement uh what happens if for some reason they find it's two the girls that are participating find out it's too uh cumbersome or too time-consuming to go back and forth to work would we still be be obligated to uh to make a contribution to the team even if it would be based on the number of players that that we

050that we don't have any if we if the girls for some reason decided it's too far to travel we wouldn't we wouldn't be on the hook that's my understanding but i can clarify okay okay is that good okay mr busan can i just miss the prevention he has the answer jim can you come to the microphone thank you so jim what numbers are they looking for possibly three we may have but what do they i mean to have a co-op means they need bodies no well no they have they're with another school too so uh i'm under the impression speaking with mike today that uh you know you folks can vote to agree to have our girls participate whether it be two three or four but they may say you know we don't need another

051co-op and vote it down and now girls still wouldn't be able to play so and i can provide some context so we've had some parents reach out with specifically one who was interested in the co-op a copa has not been available to us for girls ice hockey um and there's all kinds of rules that come into play it one opened up because the district backed out so mike knew that we had a parent who continued to ask and and just classically reached out to mike knowing that there has been a request to join a co-op if one comes available now that it's available we're asking warwick based on you know feedback from the parent that would like his daughter to play on this uh on a girls ice hockey team to allow us to participate

052with that which i understand all this but for for a school system to reach out to other school systems to create a co-op team means they don't have the bodies in the first place to fill their needs to feel the team per se i'm just asking i mean are they looking well what one school dropped out so it created a void this is toll gate and pilgrim here correct right so so a third school dropped out together and pilgrim was still in the third school job right i just want to make sure three's gonna be suffice that that's all well i mean they had three in the previous years so i don't think they would be looking for more schools to co-op no no no i'm not i'm talking three bodies not three schools mike

053said we have uh two to four bodies okay thank you um lisa uh so i i suggest that we support the motion based on gender equity so we've had the boys ice hockey co-op with narragansett for i think almost four years it could be a little less than that and as superintendent picard pointed out this policy has parity with that policy um into whether it's one or three um i think at this point we really need to support it just as a matter of title ix in general equity and also the opportunities that it'll give our female students so i will be voting in favor of thank you any other questions or comments no okay thank you um i will take that to a vote those in favor of the minimum of agreement with warwick

054to have a co-op ice hockey program for girls thank you anyone opposed abstentions or recusals thank you very much thank you for the information um the next item is the rhode island comprehensive assessment system also known as rycasts and these are our state assessment results that were released last week october 28th i believe so dr camilla has a presentation goes also in your packets and he will review um the current assessment results [Music] thank you jim went to sleep i don't see the red light ever at least i have to stand in the chair there it is got it okay good evening everybody so happy to be here tonight to talk through the ricast results with you all um it is popping up on the screen um so let's get into the objectives i know

055you've had a chance to preview the slide deck so tonight we'll talk about the impact of covet on teaching and learning and assessment uh talk about the key takeaways do a data review so talk about current and historical district data grade level comparison and state and district comparison as well um and then take a look at um taking action so what we're doing as a district uh to address uh the data the new data that we got through our ricas results and then questions and that should take us right up to about midnight okay so as we know covet did have an impact on teaching and learning um in an assessment so the commissioner has been clear to say that this is a new baseline so the results that you see tonight for us really

056represent a new baseline of data for math and ela kobit impacted most aspects of education learning disruptions were inevitable due to quarantines illnesses that took place throughout the year students either missed time or had various forms of learning such as in-person virtual or a hybrid depending on if they were sick or quarantined in rhode island administered the full assessment one of the few states to actually do that um so administered the full assessment as is and while few fewer students took the test um cherijo did an outstanding job of getting students in person uh to take the test as we'll see in a moment so this next slide really talks about um the impact on the outcomes so rhode island led the nation in bringing back students in person character was a big part of

057that in terms of the numbers so you can see where um we character brought back 70 of students in person more than 75 percent of the time doubling the state average likewise with students who missed or in person less than 25 of the time only 15 of our students fell into that category uh 32 now it's important to note that in-person learning did have an impact on outcomes as we're going to see in math and ela so in math 30 32 of our students who were mostly in person were also proficient in ricas versus 22 percent of students who were mostly virtual in the la 51 percent of students who were mostly in person were proficient on rycasts ela versus 42 of those who were virtual so clearly being in person had an impact on

058those outcomes some of the key takeaways that the data shows us students student performance declined across the state in both english language arts and mathematics with the steepest decline in math it's not only um a district indicator states nationwide as well these results as we mentioned earlier set a new baseline for us commissioner was quite quite clear about that um that means this is going to be our starting point moving forward so in chariton rhode island we saw less of a decrease in scores than massachusetts i'll talk about why that's important in a moment but you know we usually use massachusetts as a benchmark it's important to note that character had the fifth highest participation rate in the state i think that's significant um and it's a shout out to our educators our building leaders

059all of our teachers and staff to get kids in to take the test um you can see we outpace the state by uh more than 10 in some cases uh ashaway ranked 8 out of 180 elementary schools in math so ashway has been historically a school that has strong data in math and they were able to maintain you know that strength relative to the state average so kudos to the teachers at ashuae and principal scan of vehicle the percent of students with iep so these are our students with individual education plans students in special education meeting or exceeding expectations in ela remains the same so we're going to see that a lot of our students draw but our students with ieps and ela remain the same and that's significant again you know that's a shout

060out to our teachers who work with those students their parents and families for being being able to maintain those scores let's take a look at the data so this is composite data for grades three through eight um so you can see um we have the data here for 2018 19 and 20 21 20 was not a testing year and you can see the the impact of covet again while we were making uh some gains in ela from 18 and 19 um you know the impact of covet is evident in terms of the scores um and where they are so we had more students falling in partially less so in meeting and maintained and see exceeding if you go back to 2018. and in math as we mentioned math took a bigger hit not only here

061in state nationwide again you can see those results while we were able to maintain our data in 18 and 19 you know we did see our kids falling and meeting and increasing and partially this is a composite for the grade level data as we talked about and this is just the composite for the students meeting and exceeding i did add the state score there for 2021 as a comparison so again you can see where for ela which we've typically done very well especially at the elementary level in grades three and four and then five you can see that again covet obviously had an impact where many of our students who may have been once meeting or exceeding are now moving back into partial the good news here is that we did outpace the state so

062our averages were better than the state as they typically are same thing in mathematics and again uh math being that one where you know we've seen the hit across the nation but again you know our elementary schools are typically um stronger here um we're just seeing that those scores dipping relative to the state now i did mention earlier about massachusetts and us using typically using massachusetts as a benchmark so the data is the data is here in terms of um from that meeting to combination of meeting and exceeding so typically massachusetts um they've been doing this work for a very long time you know their theirs is known as the mcas ours is the rycast our model is based on the massachusetts model um for good reason they've been doing this work as i said

063historically prior to even common core being released they've had a pretty rigorous assessment system pretty rigorous um curriculum uh reviews um and implementation um and as such uh you know they're a leader across our country in terms of achievement and in fact in many years if they were their own country they would be in the top five to ten across the world so that's why we typically look to massachusetts um and as a comparison as a benchmark because it is an indicator of you know our own growth so you can see here in terms of beating and exceeding um right on pace with massachusetts again above average um than the average in rhode island for english language arts same thing in mathematics where we're just a little bit below so we again we do outpace

064rhode island on the average and right there with massachusetts um some good news here is that like our partially meeting students we do have like a high percentage there but really what that tells us is that you know that's the group that we that's really ready to move and especially with as we'll talk about what our next steps are that's a big part of our work moving forward in mathematics so taking action this first set of action steps is really focused on leadership so there's really a concerted effort um as you can see here conducting learning walks we were at one today at cala richmond last week we've done the elementary schools facilitating data chats with school leaders it's important the data really tells us where we need to move where we need to act

065so it's important for our school leaders to be aware and be able to talk through it monthly meetings with school leaders we have one in the morning with our elementary principles with a focus on instructional leadership and then using multiple sources of data to understand student needs this is the whole concept of becoming like data literate like understanding the data with the idea of how do you use it to shift instruction to then shift student achievement michael yes it's me could you just explain a little bit about what i you know i don't know if you want to wait till after but now that we're in it what a learning walk is maybe that would be sure something that people might want to know with that yeah great question so a learning walk is um

066so how we've been doing them this first round is myself superintendent picard take the element where the principals will meet at one of the elementary schools our focus for these first round of walks is on grade three english language arts did you know we have a curriculum implementation this year for ela and so we'll visit the ela grade three classrooms with a focus on what the instruction looks like both from the student end the teacher end and then the classroom environment so just kind of like looking making observations we'll then go back meet and debrief the visit and really we're just pointing out like what did we see in terms of what were those areas of success were what are opportunities for growth what kind of feedback can we give the school to help it

067grow those are really what a learning wants thank you okay um this next piece uh we have an ela fellow who is providing embedded coaching and support to classroom teachers this is again part of the ela implementation for the curriculum resources educators our teachers are using new curricular resources and revised curriculum to strengthen core instruction if one of the things that the research has shown in the past 18 months is one positive way to overcome any type of learning loss and to strengthen gains is to really focus on that core instruction and by core instruction we mean that everyday teaching that teachers are doing and that everyday learning to standard that students are getting so just focusing on that maintaining that on strengthening that and that's really one of the best ways to mitigate some

068of the data provide professional development around these um curriculum resources so in math and ela as part of the implementation purchase and implement new high school math curriculum resources um so for that's for the next school year so this year we have a k-8 implementation in math um next year we'll finish that closely close the loop so to speak with a 9-12 um and finally um these next three items uh really they're in the planning stage right now um and we'll be using our essar funds uh elementary and secondary school emergency relief to to support these initiatives so increased tutoring opportunities for students so even though we want to have a strong focus on that every day instruction that kids are getting it's also important to provide you know before and after school opportunities for

069student learning as well build capacity in math to support curriculum implementation and provide instructional coaching so the whole idea of building capacity is that once these funds are gone our teachers still have that those ability the skills to carry the work forward same thing with social emotional supports around mental health needs that is it thank you questions um lisa thank you so very much um if we can return to the conversation around core instruction um different families are reporting that different amounts of um home instruction homework is coming um can you speak a little bit to what the role of homework is in trying to um kind of ameliorate some of those gaps and do we have an approach to that is it based on those formative assessments that you're taking on students is it

070more individualized um if you can explain that for me and for some of the families sure the homework itself yeah what right what our approach to homework is as a district and then if there are variations some families feeling like wow there's so much homework coming home and others are feeling like how come like he doesn't have homework um if you could speak to that little sure sure i think it does vary so i think you're right i think homework um you know is largely dependent on you know where the instruction is on that day teacher choice what they choose to do or to give at that point or not and where they are at it so for example i was at the middle school on monday and saw a homework assignment which i thought

071was really great it was a was a list of problems that made me a little nervous because sometimes you you know the whole point of homework sometimes is to go home and have kids succeed on what they're doing not go home and have kids like do the same problem 20 times wrong right and that's not getting support but the the the way that the um and it was one of comes from one of our resources where there you know the problems were at the top and the answers were at the bottom but students didn't they weren't assigned to a problem but they had the answers there so they knew if they got one right they could see it at the bottom if they got one wrong the answer wasn't there so at least it gave

072them some opportunities so when they came back they knew they were doing it the right way the correct method so it does vary by teacher there is you know choice in terms of how much homework they're giving what kind of homework and so the so the district approached them i think i heard you say is that the homework is meant to give the students opportunities to succeed at home to practice right so it's not meant to be instructional at that point no you shouldn't and this is [Music] just to add to the homework piece do we have any um constraints on how much homework can be given per grade level or is there anything like that in our in our um there are some guidelines in the handbook like around middle school high school there's

073guidance but it is teachers do have some autonomy with how they work that but typically what dr miller said is you really want to be mindful our goal is to make sure the students are working really hard during the day and that there's a few ideas where they can practice take some things home to continue to work on but the opportunities and homework will depend sometimes on the need of a student and the practice that's necessary and then i would say like typically uh although it's not i don't i don't believe it's guidance that we put in guidance like nationally you say like 10 minutes depending on what your grade level is you know so if it's grade one it's ten minutes grade two twenty minutes et cetera okay thank you mr day and then

074mr luzon uh yes first i wanna say that i think uh jaina along with uh both of our unions here at charo did a fantastic job of keeping the school district in person learning yes uh the concern i kind of have with this thing here is i this was put together by the state of rhode island right so uh which part i did you put this together well i all right i guess it says uh 85 percent of students were impressing more than 75 percent of the school days and then for terre haute is 75 of the time which what is the difference between school days and time that's a good question so so that was we we did that based on the state benchmark so this the state so that we could compare chose

075that 75 number which represented um if you were in school 180 days 135 of those days so 75 of the school year was 135 i believe 133 for charitable uh 133 yeah okay well just to clarify um if you all remember the elementary schools um actually i think was king of five had to be in every day no district had the option not to do that so um you're going to see higher attendance so what you look at is the days of attendance that the students had opportunity to come to school so some may have had the opportunity but on a quarantine or concerns may not have been in school so there was more opportunity as elementary because no one was allowed to remove days for k-5 just saw a point of clarification you had

076more flexibility with days when you had um upper-level middle school and high school we kept it in every day but some some districts did not right so some districts across the state did like a hybrid model for older kids where they were in every other day or they did concurrent learning like we did here like there were a variety of forms so that's why it's kind of hard to the way to compare is to really do it on like a percentage of the number of days in school and some had shortened days they shot in the time so so we were playing with they were playing they were playing games with uh with numbers right basically no i would say playing games i think they're trying to be mindful of like what what actual time

077looks like based on uh the in-person learning attendance that's some variety because there was no really control districts that you know you couldn't control a child in quarantine there's a lot of things out of control so it was um sort of the best effort of being thoughtful about what that time really would look like right well i kind of gets me back to my thinking is that we were what one of how many schools that had in-person learning full-time all year long i think this is something that should have been one of the few should have been i think the num where we what number it was i think we we should have should have bought an ad in a newspaper if we had to to turn around and let the taxpayers of this community

078know what we did compared to some of these other school districts i think i think that should have been a a you know an ad on tv or whatever to let people know that you know we are a school district down here and some people think you know we can't spell backwards unless we give us all of the letters are in order that they need to know that you know we exceeded and excelled and and i'm not being critical of your report but i i just think that uh you know the job that was done by the staff and the superintendent and everybody else it never got never got out to the community and i don't really give a damn what massachusetts did i don't give a damn that that we we're better than massachusetts

079you know we're still we still had a lot of things that were working the answer so i mean i i appreciate the report but but i i would like to know how many school districts had full-time learning and and how we compared to those districts that had full-time learning as opposed to the state of rhode island because you know if we if we if we were that good and not that good we should be putting that out there and i'm not trying to you know criticize what you're doing but yeah i've always maintained that we don't get the respect anywhere in the state of rhode island that we deserve and sometimes we don't uh we don't do a very good job of selling ourselves no i i i think we thought about comparing it's just

080that i think to the superintendent's point k to five everybody was in full time it gets tricky like once you get into secondary because there were so many different options and so it gets a little tricky to be able to compare i think that's why the state decided on that seminar there's no database so it really is a quarter of mild or talking so for you know an easy example anecdotal you know there are districts that ended at one o'clock um early when they were high school middle school there were some that had um all the l days it was still a day of learning but it's not in person learning so it's it's the definition that districts choose to use sometimes what makes it complicated sort of find those districts but for k to

081five we should have it all pretty much equal because it was required by the state to have in-person learning for k-5 parents had the choice to opt for the l but you had to offer in person every day okay to find it mr luzon you had a comment and then just to continue on real quick with what bill was saying bill just wait for b1 on on reports and then we can then we can really toot our own pawn with that one so with that being stated um on taking action i mentioned at the last meeting i'll mention again tonight i'm i'm concerned going forward i realize that the second two um we're going to use essa funds to to teach our teachers but the first one for example increased tutoring how long do we

082need to do that for which we will find out when it starts happening but how long are those funds going to be around for and if they're only good for a year or two then are we going to have to budget to continue on on anything with sr funds yeah which is why the the better strategy is what we start from the beginning it's the core curriculum is not a remediation you don't remediate a number of students who've had a lot this sort of gap but what we know is when we put them in the classroom every day and give them everyday instruction of many of those students that fell into that partial are going to grow it's been it's based on the nature of the way that the teachers are designing their lessons designed

083the curriculum what um research tells you is now you have the nice thing is we've already had that plan moving forward and even some of our teachers asked you know why would we do implementation of new resources you know coming off this pandemic because it's exactly what our kids need and it's okay for there to be bumps module one for ela that first unit is gonna be bumpy and unit two is gonna be better than unit at unit one and then unit three is any better than unit two because they're learning too how do you utilize the new resource they know how to teach that's not the issue it's now we've leveled the playing field so whether you're at ashaway or richmond or charlestown it doesn't matter your whole valley you're going to get have

084access to the same resources and the same benchmark of instruction we're looking at the same assessments so now we can really um think about our instruction across the entire um regional district to say okay what's going well how are you doing it here's what here's the success i've had here's my learning opportunity here's where my challenges are and we utilize sort of our professional development the coaches that come in we were just at hope valley uh today they had some coaching with the teachers of mathematics it's to sort of build that level of capacity and what we know with escrow funding it's until 2024. our biggest lift is going to be to build the capacity so that um and carrie pastor i'll give kerry a shout out she's been doing a great job with her

085ela and with one thing that you just say to me is you know you need the same thing in math which is the goal for our extra fund is by building that capacity you're going to put the work uh and give the teachers you know that that work together to be able to really access all the supports to do what's uh doing by students using the data so it's going to go away but if we do this correctly and we implement the coaching peer-to-peer support uh that is designed to take action is going to make sure we're ready when the funding is gone so there's not a continuous need but esther and the state plan does require and our community survey was very clear parents want learning supports that was the number one priority from

086our survey that's summer opportunities after school opportunities to enhance and it doesn't sell it through just tutoring but to enhance the level of instruction but we do have to target on our students who have the most significant need as a district the most significant need right now is our middle school and this is on top of what schools already do so like you know once uh and you know in 2024 when this goes away tutoring doesn't go away this is on top of what they already provide thank you ms chambers yeah um this was great thank you for presenting this i'm very proud of our numbers i've watched this district grow and i want to acknowledge that this district was one of the first in the states to put computers in the hands of kids

087and not only that it all long before the pandemic not only that we had a rigorous professional development program to groom the teachers on how to use those the the technology and integrate it with the classroom face-to-face so i think when the pandemic came along we were ready for it and i think the results of this assessment are showing that this is not something that just happened as a result of coving this was long long ongoing in our efforts to provide the best learning opportunities and resources to piggyback on what gina is saying for the teachers and the students so i'm very proud of this thank you now you should be i think within some of our learning walks that we've seen we you know with the technology savvy that our teachers have we're already

088seeing them utilize that you know that the knowledge that they have and improving you know the implementation as a result and it's not just teaching with computers it's using the computers as a tool to focus on the students learning and independence in learning so thank you and donors and then karen yeah i just like to echo the sentiment um in the uh for the appreciation for the the presentation of the data in an accessible way that's really helpful for us um i just like to comment on something that i'm seeing emerge in the conversations that you have with those committee members and that is in these interventions they are um interrelated with one another so oftentimes you will see you know we have increasing tutoring opportunities for students but if the capacity is being built

089adequately then that will help to um take that place when the s are funding so i really want to point out kind of the interrelated nature of the interventions and highlight that and just congratulate you yeah thanks and to super appreciate that and the superintendent's point if we're doing that every day instruction well and we get better at that we're going to see less of a need for the tutor good thank you karen yeah thanks for the data um i just want to take a moment and thank all the kids who took these tests these tests are um extremely daunting they're overwhelming and our kids sit for anywhere from 60 to 90 to 120 minutes working on a computer screen um so our scores are fabulous when you look at everything that they did last

090year in the middle of a pandemic and thank you to the teachers and the administration for making this happen thank you karen questions sure ela i don't think [Music] yeah that's it's not really it's not really you can file the cohort for some grade levels it wasn't built for that reason but you can follow so for example if um you look at the eighth grade you would just count back um well you really i don't know if you can without having the 2020 date it kind of disrupts it but you're talking about like a cohort so like if you took the test in grade five what were your scores then compared to when you took it right yeah yeah the question is i want to understand when you say this is the new benchmark and

091so for third graders or younger children and saying this is our new benchmark for them that translates differently to me than looking at an 8th grade population and saying this is their new benchmark and what i worry is if a population is the eighth graders are at 23 percent if i'm reading it in math and say okay we get to 30 for our eighth graders or thirty through that cohort we follow their proficiency and they get to thirty and we say great they're above 23 because that's our new benchmark and i hear where the new benchmark is coming from that is still a drop from those students pre-pandemic big i think the other way to think about it too is it's going to take time to recoup that right so you think you know we

092talk a lot about our second graders for a reason like so when the pandemic started they were in kindergarten right so then you know they after march 13th and 2020 you know they really didn't have that like you know like they were back but it wasn't the same right you know we'll acknowledge that so now they have second grade right you know and that's it that's for uh there's a lot of foundational learning between k and 2. so i think it's the same i think there's been in order for us to recoup it it's not going to just happen like in one year or two it's going to take some time yeah but to your point the teachers have access to the eighth grade which they're now our ninth graders right so there are ninth

093graders which we all know is one of the highest level of transitions so we're providing target supports for transitions as well the fifth the ninth which um we have here but we're also looking at we'll look at their growth to your point so those that have taken the assessment and having other assessments we're looking sort of at that what are those different data points tell us and what we saw which was really promising is when we did our beginning of the year assessment many students even those that fell into that partially had most of the skills necessary to be able to be proficient moving forward so it really was about making sure that we're really thoughtful about the level of instruction so that we're targeting the right areas because you know in a resource you

094could do many many many many things but when you use the data to really be thoughtful about it we can target the specific needs of every student based on that data so we're building the capacity even with the admins and the teachers to really know how to look at that data make plans and then move to growth so we should see cohort to cohort um to your point that we call that like a change chart what's the difference from my you know when i was in seventh to eighth did i grow because you know i could be proficient but never grow so that's where we wanna make sure we do both right i think you're looking at i mean you've always watched the data over the course of middle school and high school and slip

095yeah you know it doesn't get easier as you go um and so trying to distinguish between what is pandemic numbers what is just natural transition numbers and i i hear you know you think you know we're not doing the mediation year after year you know for us sectors of students who have pretty pandemic results their new benchmark is not like if those students can get back up to the proficiency levels they've established before and then surpassed that that's to me a new venture a great degree [Music] i mean i don't think anybody in our lives now wants a pandemic benchmark for [Laughter] and piece together movement you actually make a great point i think you know to what superintendent spoke about like one of the things that we don't have access to this year in

096the data is the growth data because you need two consecutive years to have growth data so one of the things that you know we don't have access that we typically would be growth and that would tell us something else about the data yes sir got a question from um already i'm not interested in how charitable compares to rhode island i'm more interested in how does charitable compare those highest performing districts i'm not interested in in comparing us to um uh provinces the the central falls and i don't know through the wall but the the districts they're gonna make up the largest proportion i want us to challenge ourselves to prepare ourselves and hold ourselves accountable to highest performance um my second point is i was actually going to take this on this table so if

097you don't mind keeping the slide up there because um i'm going to talk about one of my children that's represented so in 2018 which is blue one of my children who was in third grade so he was part of the group that was 49 um meeting rxc in fourth grade which is represented by orange their class through the 69 we're going to skip bring five because we weren't assessed but now we go to grade six in 2021 and they're represented by the 19 which is great so that right there is demonstration of a significant drop that's a that's a 50 percentage point drop from meaning to exceed it i understand that this takes time in my show my kid doesn't have that time like he can't wait two three years to make up this lost

098time and i get that this is a challenge that we have because next year he's going to be in 7th grade and then 83 and the expectations there can grow and and to your point make those kids again sorry was your question no i'm sorry no no it's okay um so so that's that's what i want folks to acknowledge is that there are groups particularly the middle school that have a significant drop and i think we've got to look at where that was that's where those largest drops occur and then focus the attention yes or two yes or three one in in those areas in whichever way whether it's in school additional uh health and resources after school summer i get coping burnout i get it's tough to get folks in to do this stuff

099but i think every effort has to be made to close the gap in these kids that have shown the potential in grade four in 2019 almost three quarters of the world we are exceeding down to less than 20 so that's my concern there and then finally to a point that i've made before your second year we all you know i think many of you acknowledge the in school in person running his best next year when you're working on your calendar once again thank you we've lost four days this year to them through the professional development our kids have lost four days which is almost due to school we've got the monthly early release days i just thank you please keep our kids in school as much as possible when it comes to school closures for

100weather and data events i do not envy your position that storm came in at the worst possible time 6am the buses are rolling out um despite both cetera you know that was a tough call and i would not want to be here i appreciate the fact that that was a real school day and i'm basically this learning day because as you've seen here our kids need to be in front of our teachers to make these oh we have someone uh do you want to be a math teacher historically so one of the things that in talking to principal scan of diego is that we've been using the current resource that we have right now um but it's it hasn't been like used i would say like it's been as a supplement teacher choice to kind

101of build it in so now we're using it more with fidelity so it's an everyday process that teaches all the teachers are doing it i don't know how long ago but several years ago principal scanifieco made a decision at his school that they were going to use that resource that we're using now with fidelity and every day and i so you know can we did we do a deep enough look into you know is that the main reason well it's one of the reasons for sure um you know it's also you know you can also point to the level of teaching the teachers themselves and the planning you know all that goes into but i think one of the things one of the nice things now about bringing that resource system wide is we have

102a school where we've seen success with it and now you know we know that it works so it's just a matter of now providing that professional development growing our teachers his superintendent said we have pd going on at oak valley today the other three elementary specifically embedded coaching but as a coach with the teacher in the class you know providing them in uh on the ground feedback so that's our plan to get questions what is that resources i would only be speculating um i you know as a math format teacher myself i would say you know in watching it it's hard to teach math virtually you know there's whiteboards involved is you know you can't it's hard to give student any feedback um if they're not on the screen or you know it's it's hard

103i would say so if some students were virtual you could see the the comparison sorry in those scores so it's difficult but i'm only speculating i'm only speculating and to be just to be fully transparent pre-pandemic the district's math scores were an area of need like when i came in with that data that was an area of focus so that's why the review and to dr camille's point uh principal scanipieco you know talked a lot about um sort of with those teachers about sticking to the fidelity of the resource because it's a vetted high quality resource so as you start to bring things in sometimes you know if things can get away from you so while you it may be a good practice for some it may not work for all where the resources that

104are built they're built for that they built some scaffold those to really go um further and faster if they need to to remediate those that need more remediation but um it provides that level of that resource that allows the teachers not to have to worry about pulling so um he's definitely been someone who's what we've tapped into and one of the reasons why i do believe he's our stem lead for the elementary schools as well so um he has a very good input and his teachers have done you know those data dives with with their resources and really looked at those assessments and have seen an easier implementation because they've been using i mean there's a few new pieces to the revised curriculum but um they're a little bit more savvy with the resource because

105they've been doing this for a while ma'am in the back do you have a comment um is and because i know my son is very busy now but he's really never taken tasks like that at that level that long you know on a chromebook and so hopefully now that all the schools are collecting already um you know miss matt russo here just um as a as a concluding thought i just really wanted one compliment right our our community and also point out for you chair thank you how the agenda really can and is supporting this topic right so i've taken copious notes on on some of your recommendations this is a real dialogue and this is where it can happen it's on an agenda item yes so chair i want to acknowledge there's you're allowing

106as much time as necessary i'm thirsty and our community is incredibly well informed and giving us great input so compliments to all of us taking a moment to be together and coming together on on this report so i thank you i'll just take a moment to take that in yes thank you i think okay thank you thank you thank you thank you so the next item is assignments to subcommittees school improvement and school safety teams there are vacancies are that are indicated in red uh this is also an opportunity if you wish to change your presentation on school improvement and school safety teams if you prefer yes mr i just want to bring up the subject we have two new members i know they should get first choice [Laughter] feel free to nominate you so

107let us know what you want to do and and also too if there's a um you know you can go there are vacancies but if you'd like to be on another committee i think that can be adjusted to so we do have an opening on the finance committee and we have a charleston hopkinton representative so if the richmond person would like to join us that would be great for just one meeting yeah it's just one meeting that's just one meeting it's just it is it's just one meeting we meet just a little bit right before right before the omnibus and we meet for like 30 minutes okay so karen's going to do it yes i make a motion to nominate karen reynolds to the financial management in a second to uh appoint uh karen to

108the um finance committee any discussion those in favor unanimous thank you very much very popular though yes okay and we have um two uh well school improvement teams um does anyone want to want to expect this is the selection committee donna or is this other to sit on the team this is a part of that this usually happens around april right it's just it's just it's just a one it's what one or one meeting or two depends one or two one or two pending selection committee meetings yes i volunteered to take richmond you volunteered to take richmond you would do a motion sure and then donna spears for ashley and karen reynolds for richmond second okay so we've had a motion and a second to um recommend and appoint uh indonesia and karen to richmond

109school as on the selection committee the sick collective selection committee any discussion those in favor great unanimous thank you so much we have a full slate yes mr jay i just want to uh mention that uh top of the page here the threat assessment oversight committee which is called the district safety team and uh it lists four four persons uh associated with the school district it also includes the police chief's fire chief and an ema director and we we've never had a meeting of this group and and this uh law has been in effect in two for two years now so this this committee has never met daniel yeah i think mr it's an annual and if there's a threat assessment i can make sure that happens thank you for that mr day yes mr

110elizabeth so carrying on with what bill is talking about how long does a what would be our policy or our expectations how long would a committee stay dormant before we address whether such as chair um callahan the facilities subcommittee as an example i i wish i could answer yeah no i know i wish i could answer them so maybe a future agenda item yeah that's pretty tough yeah i guess we're good thank you mr luzon so the next item on the agenda is the memorandum of agreement between the character regional school district and charitable education support professionals pertaining to custodial overtime article 7.1 and 7.5 i recommend approval of the moa which has been reviewed by legal counsel and nea esp and the moa is attached exactly there's been a motion and a second to

111um accept the moa the memorandum of agreement between the terror regional school district and chair hope esp pertaining to custodial over time um any discussion does anyone want to explain what it is or should we explain do we have to no okay no anybody have questions nope okay i'll take it to a vote those in favor oh i'm sorry yes it will be public once they approve it the minutes got sealed until an agreement has been reached so once they approve it it'll be on the website tomorrow morning okay that's good information thank you thank you good question okay so we'll go back to the vote oh any more questions no okay those in favor okay any oppose got two oppositions obsessions recusals i don't have to but i'm recusing you're gonna refuse okay thank

112you so weird um mr day mister okay so moving on to consent agenda items is there anything that needs to be pulled a one and two one and eight two anything else for discussion that you'd like those mr day i just had one question on h2 each the window the window okay we'll pull it and then we can have a discussion is the question okay do we need to yeah okay questions clarifying questions or items to be pulled thank you clarifying questions mr day you have a question well and there's a memo here about windows select window replacement central administration building and uh i have no idea what who's kathy's office is which which windows we're going to put in that and i don't i don't i don't know everybody's uh first name in the

113administration building and just kathy's office to windows the offices um the admin building it's basically for the it's covered those that don't have any windows so it's to open up the air of opportunities and those offices that were enclosed with no windows in the admin office as well as the skylight over at the middle school but i still don't know i still don't know whether it's so they're not they're not numbered like the schools um i can't think of the number john i did his number by letter that you look at right when you come in the door right across from that's the office um ned's office is a secretary well you know okay makes sense but is that it i think yeah so we if they do get windows do they not then those

114windows need to be numbered i don't know i would i just know i'm thinking maybe a math next time of like which window could have to me if it would have been you know the administrators secretary's office for uh for ned i wouldn't have that position not a problem okay thank you madam chair make a motion to move the remainder there's been a motion to remove the remainder of the consent yep in a second thank you dr callahan there's been a motion a second to um approve the consent agenda items those in favor thank you okay yes sir at this time i make a motion to approve a1 executive session minutes of october 26 2021 approval of executive session minutes of august 2021 minutes not sealed second there's been a motion in a second to

115accept the executive session minutes of october 26 2021 approval exec of executive session minutes of august 10th 2021 minutes not sealed any discussion on those minutes no those in favor of the minutes that should probably be september 10th okay there should be so that's yeah that's just a new notes okay september 10th it should be in september 10th not august 10th we're making that correction that's okay so that's all right those in favor thank you those opposed abstentions recusals mr mr abbott's understanding okay number two make a motion to approve a two regular session minutes of october 26 2021. for a second thank you there's a bit of motion in a second to accept the regular session minutes of october 26 2021 any discussion on those minutes no those in favor thank you that wasn't

116unanimous thank you okay on to reports thank you at this time there are no subcommittee reports um we do have the u.s news and world report rankings that came in we take great pride in reporting that our district elementary schools ranked well in the first ever u.s news and world report k-8 rankings out of 180 elementary schools in rhode island ashwa ranked six which is the top five percent charleston ranked seventh which is the top five percent hope valley ranked 10th which is the top 10 percent and richmond ranked 27th which is the top 25 percent and our middle school ranked 14th out of 66 which is in the top 25 percent we continue to be proud of the work of our teachers students administrators and staff and parents so we also have our text

117messaging option opt-in some of you may have gotten a text if you did not already opt-in you provided an additional opportunity today to um opt-in if you did not opt-in you will not receive text messages so families and staff that want to be a part of the text messaging will need to opt in you can still do that any family can choose if they haven't done it yet in our superintendency update the directions are noted in there we have sent a few emails out over the past few weeks of providing the same directions and then we sent out a text today that school messenger actually sends out you another opportunity to hit yes to do that and it's just another way to be able to message parents but this would be more for those emergency

118situations maybe your bus is running late things like that so it's a very quick and you uh it wouldn't be like for attendance and things like that we don't want people to opt out so it really is for those quick emergency needs like a bus running late or um an accident as an example and then the vaccination clinic we are hosting the 5-11 vaccination clinic at character middle school on friday november 12th starting at 3 p.m a link was shared with our families and is available to the public at vac stri.org by early monday morning we had all 300 spots taken up i had a few parents reach out looking for additional i explained that the rhode island uh district man uh disaster management agency was leading that with rydo so we didn't have really

119say over that so i said that i would reach out and paul i spoke with rhino they um said that they would increase it to 120 more spots um for friday and those appointments are still available and going which is nice um that we could do that for our families and again we are the host site but it's run by the rhode island disaster management agency and partner with rydo and our upcoming events we have our november 12th secondary end of grading period for the first quarter november 15th high school winter sports meeting in the middle school auditorium at 7 pm on november 17th we have our early release day secondary will be dismissed at 12 45 elementary at 1 55. november 18th high school picture retake and makeup day november 24th there's a no

120school for students and school year staff november 25th and 26th is no school for students or staff december 3rd elementary end of grading period for the first trimester december 6th hope rally school pto meeting at 6 30 pm december 8th early release day secondary dismissed against 12 45 elementary at 1 55 and our ash away school holiday bazaar is on december 11th okay so uh now we're at the time school committee request for future agenda items or legal opinions do we have any requests okay we have two mr day and then mr luzon mr day oh yes i'd like a uh i'd like to have a report the next meeting for on the saf activities and the account oh we haven't looked at that okay okay thank you mr luzon yeah i got i got

121three requests well i usually go a couple months without asking for anything now i got three um i had a luxury two weeks ago reading the five cent cigar and in it they were talking about where they had this big meeting and talking to people about mental awareness and um i know we have to do so many hours per year so it wouldn't hurt to have a presentation given to us um my next request is uh subcommittees long should they remain dormant i mean it's up to us we've determined that yes so how long should they remain dormant before we say we don't need that subcommittee or i know sometimes it's required but we can discuss that when it's on the agenda okay and my last request is the taxpayers today are brought to our

122attention that we took them out of the uh the process on one of our policies but we do have an appeals policy here uh could we have that on the next agenda we could discuss how we can fine-tune it to meet the needs of of all the taxpayers also excuse okay craig your first thing was like presentation on mental health is that what you were looking for mental health and awareness and awareness i think i don't assuming uh mr libori would probably have some contacts to steer us in the right direction thank you anyone else yes at this time i make emotional journey there's been a motion and there's a motion in a second to adjourn those in favor thank you everyone thank you