001welcome everyone this is a public hearing of the Hopkinton school board on Tuesday April 4th at 5 20 p.m tonight we are presenting the withdrawal of funds from the school district building repair and maintenance fund um it reads as follows the Hopkinton school board we're holding our public hearing for the withdrawal of funds from the school district building repair and maintenance fund for the following and our Audi rtu cost additional cost additional in the building product project funds up to 37 398 a withdrawal for an Audi rtu controls at 19050. performance contract payment of 148.10 for a total withdrawal of ninety seven thousand dollars 596 and 10 cents so we'll go ahead and open the public hearing for anyone who would like to come in does not look like there are any comments tonight any
002board comments on this any questions can I just clarify for the record please do it's on record that the the Audi the unit and and the controls um when we took the remaining building funds and transferred it to CIP we had used all those CIP funds and this will help cover the cost of the CIP funds being zero which is a good thing right so we used all those funds appropriately uh and then this will cover that cost and then the performance contract has been in here for a couple years in our lives just for clarification if needed great so this is kind of the rest of our building project funds plus our performance contract yeah right any other questions any comments on our public hearing no okay all right uh with that I'm going
003to go ahead and close the public hearing we are going to be voting on this at our meeting which is in five minutes that's it nice job thank you foreign foreign thank you that's true that's true don't chase us here knock on wood thank you can you push people wow please oh yeah what's the name I've never heard of me thank you foreign options right on time all right Matt are you ready are we good yep all right good evening welcome to the Hopkinton school board meeting it's for April 4th 2023. this is the one and only meeting I get to open up every year as we now begin the reorganization of the hospital school board for the next school year today we have Mr O'Brien Mr Google Mr NATO Miss Folsom Michelle Clark Becca
004Gagnon Jody Condon Noah and Flo as our student reps prior to the meeting um Michelle swore in both Rob and Andrea for the record it was recorded so we can go ahead and post that if necessary um with that I'm going to ask Noah to say the Pledge of Allegiance for us wow [Music] of the United States of America and to the Republic for your suspense one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all I got excited um so we customary to say thank you to those who are leaving but with the election results you are both staying so congratulations on another three years of service um prior to moving forward with taking nominations for the chair this past weekend our school districts suffered loss with Mr Shorty Mr Shorey had been here
005for over 10 years outstanding coach outstanding teacher but in my short time here I can't tell you if there's a better human honestly I'm not sure there's a single person that can say a bad thing about him ever and he was extremely well respected here in this community but I can tell you the footprint that he left in Franklin and will continue to leave behind is something that will live on for some time so with that I'd like to take a moment of silence for Mr Schultz thank you um I'd like to just communicate that we are still working through some things in regards to with his family and and any services that may be occurring so once we know more we'll certainly communicate that I would commend the administrative staff and the crisis team
006at the middle high school for things that they put in place for Friday commend the students and our staff as we work through some some loss it's never easy for a school district stuff certainly never easy for students but I think I think the email or the communication that we said on Friday it's another Testament to what makes Hoppington great we really came together and stood by each other so thank you to all that with that um we are going to move forward with taking nominations for the 2023-2024 Ford school year so what happens I will take nominations of Oscar nominations does not require second I'll see if there's I'll ask three times follow the process so at this point I will open it up for nominations for school board chair I will nominate Andrea
007Folsom for school board chair so there is a nomination for Andrea for school board chair are there any other nominations for school board chair I would say one more time are there any other nominations for school board chair okay nominate Andrea Folsom all right so if there's no more nominations this will close nominations for school board chair increases the board we will boat in Porter in which they were recommended there's only one so with a show of hands who would like to support Andrew Folsom for chair all right congratulations Andrea you are now the chair again for the Hopkins school board and with that you can take essentially you take those words and change it to Vice changes perfect excellent thank you guys very much I look forward to serving as chair again um this
008year hopefully I learned all there was to know last year and so I'm sure this year I'll be perfect you say that very tongue-in-cheek um all right so on to um Vice chair so again I'll ask three times for nominations um unlike Beetlejuice it does not mean the person will appear um and then before I close it and then after you'll vote for vice chair um and they will just be by straight they don't get to take over the meeting um so is there a nomination for vice chair of the Hopkinton school board I will nominate Dulce La Poma for vice chair excellent all right nominations for vice chair and nominations for vice chair all right it is a weird process but we've asked three times um we'll go ahead and vote yes sure there
009can be discussions thank you rob for being Vice chair for the last couple years um you did an amazing job and I just wanted to go on the record saying I appreciate the communication and all that you did for the sport that's Vice chairman thanks Norm he's not leaving I know but I just want a good thing it's gonna take the wing again all right well so with that is there buy a show of hands um is there a vote for Dulce La Palma for vice chair all right and Dulce um is unable to join us this evening but she will be thrilled and honored I'm sure and similarly I want to thank Rob for your work and vice chair I know you've got plans for this year but we'll get to right now um
010so we can go ahead and talk a little more reorganization we talk committee work yeah so I would recommend discussion for sure with the new Vice chair not being here I would say the confirming of the new committee position should probably wait until all five are here so discussion for sure all right so for this coming year we have the same committees I don't think well actually I can't I can't speak to that um in the last meeting uh Mike floated the idea of possibly starting another committee that would be number eight for us a legislative committee um can I jump in real quick yeah so before I threw that guys at you really without actually any preparation um in after I was putting together next year we will have negotiations as well for Hess
011so I don't think that's a good time for that committee to start gaining any legs right now I think that maybe that's something we can reevaluate at a later Point sounds like your faces are all agreeing with me um but that would be that'd probably be my recommendation as right now I brought up like briefly a legislation board level committee to discuss lsrs that are coming through to be aware but okay oh okay all right all right if we could you know duplicate ourselves maybe um so we have the CIP committee policy curriculum and assessment Finance safety budget and the uh EAC the environmental action energy what is it energy action committee um and then yes we'll have the house negotiations this year as well um does anyone have any deep feelings as to where
012they would like to be this year Bob I have any feelings I would like to continue on finance and if you're talking to Norm I would like to be the representative to the budget committee those are my defense and then after that I'll service great yeah so I'm in full support of uh robbing on the budget committee I think he did a um Marlo's job with me last year once I was the professor he was a student you know he got a good feel for that um where I'm landing would be I'd like to work with Finance with Rob and uh CIP I spoke to both of them privately and I think staying on the energy for me would be important to me to continue to see that through um but I definitely would like
013to have my hands in buy it still because that's something I could be his back up to the budget excellent my feelings aren't strong um but I like to say on CIP oh great okay perfect I would like to be on a curriculum assessment and policy again I know that everyone is clamoring to be on those as well so the other committee we have is the Safety Committee I believe that one meets quarterly quarterly who's on yep okay um so I do know um from speaking with Dulce if it's okay with you Jim she is interested in going out to the policy committee so since your feelings are deep about that one so if you guys have any other thoughts or if anything kind of comes up in the next couple of weeks we will
014go ahead and finalize these at our meeting on the 18th thank you that sounds great all right which means that we have one more policy meeting it's gonna be amazing it's gonna be amazing Thursday at 8. so I'm sure I can make Thursday at 8 but we can talk about it okay all right okay so now that we are reorganized we kind of did the things a little out of order but we needed to reorganize in order to run this whole shebang I'm going to go ahead and open up our first public comment of the evening there are two public comment sessions at every meeting we have one towards the beginning of the meeting one at the end of the meeting you are welcome to speak at either both or none we just ask that
015you try to keep your remarks uh your comments to around three minutes and say your name and address for the record so is there anyone interested in this initial public comment right we will have a second one um towards the end of the meeting as well so go ahead and close public comments and move on to student rap comments how's it been going guys well it's been going great at the high school um things are still busy as always um just for updates from the high school we've got spring Sports area they're going great I think some teams are having their first games like this week or next um the play King lears this weekend on seven on Friday and Saturday I think uh prom tickets go on sale next week the quarters ending tomorrow
016and the environmental action Club is working on setting up the compost system for the second week of May so also today we had a student advisory council meeting and a lot of good topics were discussed there one that in particular came up that may be relevant to the school board was Sports as a gym credit which I think has been like floated around in general but Mr Kelly said it would probably need like board approval so it would probably be good to start thinking about that if we're gonna get any type of like consideration from any level of administration um and we also Noah and I are co-leaders of a student leadership panel at the school that's just starting up um started very recently we just had the introductions last week and it's a really
017great group of diverse Learners from all different grades coming together to talk about how as we um like change the way we teach in the schools and the way we grade how it can like have student input with that how we can improve the teacher student relationship and just getting input in General on how learning in the classroom is going so it's really good to get that started I think it's gonna it's gonna be a great thing for our school um in terms of student rap news we also met with Mr NATO to talk about the student rep policy and we're looking for it like we're glad to have some more description of what our role is and like maybe moving towards having a mentor for on the board or meeting with Mr Flynn to
018talk about that so yeah and then we went to uh Herald Martin flow and I last Thursday we got to see the dismissal process it's it's smooth it's very smooth but it's a process and um we had a brief meeting with Mrs Brown just to talk about what's going on in the school we're going back this Thursday to talk to first graders and kindergarteners which would be a lot of fun so that's what's happening in in our schools yep fun great well thank you guys we're really busy um and I think the gym credit that might be um yeah I was trying to figure out if it was policy or curriculum and assessment so that's definitely something we can bring to that committee um and start talking about so thank you for raising that okay
019great thank you excellent all right board comments point out that that beautiful vending machine with books the courtesy of a wonderful Foundation is uh out there and it looks great I'm not sure how they got it in here but I'm glad to see it looks just awesome it's awesome I had to tell my daughter it was a token that she did not have to pay 13 to get a book so but thank you to the foundation for for that's awesome [Music] um so I'm going to say a few words about Dave um you know when he came to Hopkinton it was pretty clear that he was an incredibly dedicated guy what wasn't clear initially was what a kind and dedicated person he was his parents were you know missionaries and and I think gave mission
020was school and everybody's got folks they check in with on a regular basis Dave was one of my check-ins you know whether it was something about school or gee should I really petition this that way and is it going to carry the weight he was always there to listen and help um and kids I mean from the time he arrived at seven o'clock in the morning driving down from Franklin there were kids being tutored by Dave schroy and after school it's the same I mean just an amazing it's thank you um I just kind of going off of that I just wanted to acknowledge that our high school students in particular have experienced a lot of loss this year we have lost um several coaches and really it's been I think it's just been a
021heck of a year so I'm just extending my my thoughts out to them to Mr Shore and his family but it's you know I I appreciate that the school and the Chris team stepping up to offer support to have our counselors available because I know as adults it's really hard as students who have a unique relationship with these individuals with these coaches with these teachers um you know we all know that that obviously death happens we also want to protect our children from having to experience it and it's always really hard when we see that um so I just want to acknowledge that as well it's just the way the hmh has handled it um it was very very well done and one of the comments that I took to heart on Friday is we
022actually had several students that were concerned about our staff so it shows the two-way relationship so we had a lot of coverages teachers covering each other dual teaching that day to make sure that we're able to support each other throughout the day and it's continued this week with check-ins on people that need it so we've been sticking together and uh again it's I've only been here a short time it is a amazing part of how quickly we wrap our arms around so with that we're gonna move on um thank you all for your comments we're going to go ahead and move on to our current business we're slid in there the public hearing yeah if everyone's okay to do that first yep so um immediately preceding this meeting we um so first Rob and I
023got sworn in then we had a public hearing um for the withdrawal of sorry so the public hearing we heard comments um on the withdrawal of funds from the school district building repair and maintenance fund um again just so that everyone can hear these numbers there were comments on uh basically building project funds that would go towards an Audi rtu with a cost of 37 398 dollars for Audi rtu controls and these are both part of the HVAC system correct um at nineteen thousand fifty dollars our performance contract payment which is an annual payment at forty one thousand one hundred forty eight dollars and ten cents for a withdrawal total withdrawal of ninety seven thousand five hundred ninety six dollars and 10 cents uh we had no comments um at that hearing um and they
024don't leave there were any comments from the board any other comments from the board nope um so with that we can go ahead is there a motion to uh withdraw no more no more than uh 97 [Music] 596.10 from the maintenance the school district building repair and maintenance fund right any discussion nope hearing none all in favor [Music] thank you so I know we bouncing around tonight there's a lot of emotions but can we go back in two minutes yes around I think that's crazy all right so we have two sets of minutes to also approve tonight um so we have the regular school board meeting minutes from March 21st 2023 is our motion to approve those minutes so moved second any discussion all in favor aye not opposed and is there a motion to
025approve the non-public school board meeting minutes from March 21st 2023. assume second discussion all in favor all right I'm opposed all right all right we get all of our top stuff done it looks like it all right we're back we're back on the rails here um okay so next up is Staffing renomination so it's that time of year um it's the exciting time of year actually we presented the list of renominations to you guys over the past three board meetings um we've had a couple couple discussions and non-public questions but it's annual renewal of our staff as we move forward to starting placements and assignments for next year I'll say one more time if there's any questions that aren't answered public if not I'd be looking for the board to accept the nominationalist as presented
026for um renominating a staff so one second any discussion or questions or anything needed to move to online public nope all right hearing none all those in favor all right so those and that has to happen annually before the 15th oh any staff that would be non-renewed would have to be notified at that point now since this has been approved the business office will begin their process of working on um completing contracts to be issued uh we've been I don't know if you remember last year we bumped it up significantly so it's the same thing we're going to be ahead of schedule which is great um a good part about Staffing as we see right now we have our two retirees [Music] maybe a couple balls in the air which is great so as of
027right now I'd say 90 almost 95 97 of our staff are looking to return which is very very helpful for us with planning so anything comes your way we'll let you know all right and we're on our second read for our Huss contracts yeah so Hess is in there uh remember that's our support staff so those are annual contracts and they get reissued at the end of every year uh for for returning staff we do have they're starting to come in now you'll start seeing we have probably right now anticipating maybe three or four that aren't going to be returning and about the job opportunities are moving on so you'll see those as come in but that's it's a challenge with support staff contracts that we deal with every year so with that though that
028list in front of you is 95 finalized anything changes between now and the 18th I'll let you know if you have any questions any questions as of right now nope okay all right end of school year calendar so I always try and wait till St Patrick's Day uh it's pretty close this year um we were able to throughout the school year the way the days have fallen and the way we count hours here we are on the same plan as last year so our students will be making up two uh two days so that will take them to Friday June 16th which will be a half day and then our staff are contractual by days and not hours so all of our staff will be returning on Monday the 19th and then on Tuesday the
02920th will just be HMHS and I'll only say that out loud if I can refresh your memory that had to do with one of my goals was ending the school year on the same day of the whole District that there was some funky stuff in there with professional development in those days so that's how that makes up that but we corrected that course action next year which we already approved the calendar for that one day that we'll have in January as a transitional day so you won't be seeing that as we move forward that does need a vote to adjust the school calendar to reflect those days and then Matt will update it and we'll post it out and push it out so that it's in everyone's inbox so they go ahead and do that
030then is there a motion to support the school calendar as presented by Mike it's like any discussion um when's graduation like what's the date I'm looking to her because I just saw today so one week okay thank you sound good we did not adjust graduation for the record so that's been that day there might be pitchforks if you did that there's flights are booked and there's parties planned so yeah all right so hearing no further discussion all in favor aye another post okay so last day for students is Friday June 16th all right on to a class size presentation yeah and as a reminder last uh last meeting we had the New Hampshire school board associations policy as our dropping off point and as a board we asked Mike to come back and give us
031a presentation on the plus size I think I got the number exactly right if I counted there's 10 people out there oh you guys yours is in that up yours is you can't take that okay oh okay yours is digital okay thank you okay so class size became a discussion for us as a board just kind of going a couple steps backwards first uh it became a discussion for us through the budgeting process prior to the budgeting process we had set some goals on what we wanted to do and achieve through the budgeting process it became a little bit more apparent that maybe some of our practices might not be sustainable and we had to take a look at what you'll see today is what we may have been operating under previously now class size
032I had said I forget what meaning it was when I said well what's our policy it was determined we didn't have a policy so that was an eye-opener for me so that's why the policy is so important because it's it's not a driver of class size policies or not a driver but it's it helps become part of the process right so you have targets and goals and when you have a policy it allows for communication on the why behind your doing some of your decision so so with that I'm gonna just briefly touch upon some some topics and discussion points to allow the board to to kind of uh direct this this the policy committee to develop a policy that fits well with hockey and we've said this since the beginning it's a Hopkinton policy
033so the challenges here is hopkinton's very unique to what most research shows you in class size so most research in class size policies that you can find on Google or wherever you want to go is typically driven uh inner city Suburban large districts right we're very very unique but I thought it was important because it was an aha moment for me because all I've ever known since I've been here since July of last year is four right I'll use that number four and then when we went back and took a look I realized the why behind what we were doing before so in regards to it's got subtitles on sorry okay so why policy policy helps us inform decision making it also allows the community to know why if there is a reduction or the
034need to hire what those levers are right so what are the levers it's not just arbitrary it's not what Mike feels it's not what the board feels it's not what the principal feels there's a policy in place to help support the why behind those decisions um we've used the word level Staffing and I think it's fair to say but level Staffing doesn't mean equal number level Staffing means appropriately based so again at some of those levels so when it talks about Improvement of budgeting due to class size if you have that number that you repeatedly bring back to every year it understands both the principle the assignments the superintendent the board it's just far more understanding of behind them and I think it's important when we talk about the research and that's why it's challenging
035because again most of what you'll find will be class sizes of 25 30 right and when you reduce those how instruction goes up we're in Hopkinton we're going to be discussing class sizes of 13 14 15 16 through 22. and I think it really impacts the policy is going to really help help support slash give Clear Vision for Harold Martin and Maple Street right we got into a last meeting about the middle high school and how unique it is now going to the Middle School model is going to flush out a lot of it honestly that's going to really make a strong core supportive classroom throughout the day for our Middle School students our high school level a lot of it is driven by course sign up course selection but more importantly the revaluation of
036our program of studies where chances of us running a class of five now is going to change because we're doing alternating years we're really trying to help support the Staffing and the course election so when you get into and this is where it's challenging because it's it's one of those topics where you can find research to support anything I don't want to say it that way but there's a challenge I just want to continue to refocus on hockey team so class size is not the only option for improvement there's been suggestions on several community members have mentioned before is that maybe do we hire more IAS is there more whatever that may be you want to make sure um the national average of a small class size is 18 to 20 the national average of
037an average class size is 22. we don't live in those worlds those that's not the Hopkinton now so which the uh understanding of that so this goes into what I kind of alluded to so what are some other things you can do let's say that we did uh I'll say increase class size things that we're already doing Early Childhood programs our pre-k program is unbelievable right our kindergarten program changing switching to play based learning through Miss Brown and some of the new instructional strategies that we're putting in place there it's really creating a better foundation for those students as they move through um I'm going to highlight Beckett here three things increasing professional development that's Becca using the data to inform assessment that's Becca implementing better curriculum program that now we have those support structures
038in place that we actually didn't have pre-pandemic so now we have someone who's overseeing and helping our Educators drive towards that hiring a math and reading Specialists you guys have shown your support for the interventionists and through the budgeting process that we have them at both Harold Martin and Maple Street um the interesting part uh you know I'm not gonna I'm not going to sit here and tell you everything's fine perfect that's not true that the professional development would be a challenge right so someone who's teaching first grade one year and then maybe has to move to third it's different curriculum it's different assessments it's different understanding and knowledge so those are some of the challenges that we would have to work I think this is this was the aha moment for me so prior
039to pandemic I'm going to show you the data for five years from 14 15 through 19 1920. so we got kicked out of school March 2020. so this will show you what we did before um you're gonna see a couple colors but you can see that generally what happened is there was no more than 18 in kindergarten first and second no more than 22 three through five no more than 25. those are eye-popping numbers but you're going to see as we get into the next chart the actual data there's really not too many one-off years so if you follow your cohort you follow it diagonally on the chart and you guys out there are paying attention so your kindergarten 15 I know it's going to sound crazy but your kindergarten in 15 16 is your
040first grade in 1617 so you can follow that cohort of classes through their progression through the Hopkinton school district um I don't know the graduating class that that may have been different but as you can see there the light colored you guys are black and white so the lighter colored out there would be three teachers per per graduating class and the darker is four so you'll see pre-dat year we had 17 17 16 16 50. right our largest bubble I'm guessing would have been probably the senior class I could be wrong but it's that 2017-18 year when they were in fifth grade they are at 24. I don't know the decision behind that but in that year alone it looks like there was three four three fifth and four six so I don't I don't
041know what I don't know why the decisions were made if you go all the way back to first grade and then being at 18. that could have been a targeted approach where you moved that teacher there were 93 kids there's 93 kids that's where that bubble so what happened in 2020 we received um Esser funds is the easiest easiest fund right in the board in the superintendent at that time determined that we should I think you guys were in an every other day model I remember you were potting I wasn't here right I wasn't so I think you potted A's and B days so it was half and half and so there was an idea to increase Staffing at them and then once you return which would have been my year last year there was
042four prior to me starting that would help with closing gaps of instruction that may have occurred during those times and then as we set goals for this year it felt good to keep those numbers but as we got into some budgetary staff it goes back to well what's the policy we don't have so that's what it was pre um when I pulled districts bow right down the road um that's a pretty good one I chose Concord a larger District just to give you an idea of what a larger District does and then Hampstead where my previous District was just to give you an idea so if we were going to go back and forth between the graphic and suggested targets I want to continue to say that it's important that we're talking about hockey and
043I think Norm you asked me the question and it's more of an anecdotal answer honestly on how is it going to impact our education are our kids still going to succeed you know and I would tell you that our kids are succeeding prior right so if these are the larger classes our kids are still achieving when you lower class numbers to 15 so there's some this year that are 14 and maybe even 13. the job is much as a teacher I think Rob can it is easier right it allows you more time and flexibility um not taking anything away from lower class size lower but your average or what we're looking at in Hopkinton those are all feasible numbers and the other thing I'm going to keep picking on you because you fired me of
044those questions the the policy isn't going to drive right so if we get to a point where we feel comfortable in the budget that it's manageable and sustainable if there is a small graduating class and we are level and we have great staff we're not going to just pull the trigger and cut the temperature that's a discussion at the board but there should be some discussion or some policy behind how we're making our decisions so that everyone's informed and it doesn't feel like they're ever again I'll say arbitrarily picking on a grade A class or anything of that so in Hampstead I just can speak to that it's a little bit more the same we have going on here um you know you you want to Target let's use kindergarten as example so max 18
045you want to Target 16 17 with a Max of 18. and you get into first and second I think it's going to be unique here I think our if we're developing a policy ours is going to look more K to three and then four five six because it's Unique to the buildings and I think the goal in Hopkinton if we're going back here if we're going to set some type of policy I think the goal the goal will be 18. it feels like a good number for Hopkinton with no more right no more than 2022 whatever it allows that flexibility as to get a norm keeps bringing up any move-ins or transforms so that you have a safe lever so that it's not an instance we're breaking policy we need to hire a teacher it's
046more of a swing rather than an individual but that's what I wanted to present this evening is kind of just a backwards step so that we can then set policy to help future movement or none movement whatever it may be with the understanding that reasonable right we're not we're not talking about 25 in a class in Hopkinton um we're not talking about changing our teaching practices or professional development we want to make sure that the right people are in the place and we wouldn't have drastic swings from from one year to the next um it's it's interesting the hardest thing in our profession is when you when I'm in I'm going to say when you try and pull back right it feels feels like you're trying to take away when really we're not we're trying
047to re-establish the the level set and I don't know if we'd even be here if there was honestly if there was a policy in place so that's kind of what's what's coming back around so I want to just continue to reiterate that if there was a policy in place it may have helped some decision makes the decision making earlier but this will help moving forward and as I said it's not a mic thing if I drop dead tomorrow there should be something in place to protect both the district the classrooms and all that um any questions oh you asked me sorry you asked another thing about space yes okay so with space we're we're maxed out here right we took our conference room away which is now a classroom we took our teachers room away
048which is now a life skills room and sometimes during the day if if if the if the things settled in place this building is going to always be maxed for space right at Harold Martin all those numbers on this chart would have reflected prior to the building construction being done so what will happen in Harold Martin is if there was a reduction of a class to three that depending on how the location goes that would open up a new learning space it could be a new intervention space it could be new small group space it could be a new uh I mean you can go down all this all those things so it would allow for more flexibility at Harold Martin if that were to occur would it be it would would you consider doing
049moving to class to like one of the new additions if it was larger than ones let's say it was three sections of yeah I think that's for Miss Brown and the staff to decide okay um I mean they would figure out what they feel yeah thank you for answering my question so this again this was the the purpose of this presentation we started last two weeks ago feels like last week two weeks ago with hey this is something that's come up we want to start talking about it we want to deliver uh you guys asked for some more information this is more background knowledge um and really now what what you guys should determine or work on as directives for the policy committee either goals information to to gather kind of develop that timeline on
050well now it's I'll see you so you're out not yet we didn't finalize oh that's true sorry so a few thoughts for the policy group going forward um so Michael you said you know small so high school's a little different um really the Dynamics of the class Define how it's going to go like I've had small classes you're like oh I've got 13. this is going to be a piece of cake no it's not because everybody's super quiet and I'm just doing Dentistry 24 7. no fun versus a class of 24 with flow in the front row going I don't see that but anyway um so I don't know a lot about the elementary school situation but I do see three things that I think we should consider so the circuit breakers so let's say
051we got 54 kids in a Grade that's 18 hits the mark that's easy we go up to 60 we're at 20 we're still in our Flex Zone but then we go to 62 we break over a 20. I'm just using those numbers now the class size drops to 1560 which creates another set of I would think that people might start to have some equity consents the other Dynamics I think that have to be a part of this picture are as kids come in whether it's Pre-K or one you're going to identify education these are also going to identify behavioral needs and how does that play into what's the best class size and going back to your professional development and all of those Dynamics so it's not easy but yeah because we might do the second
052one real quick yeah I think that's why it's another another why behind a policy I think when you're getting kindergarteners the goal should be lower class size and I keep saying lower meaning you hit that because they're adjusting to school it's the first time they're in this you know whether than Pre-K but now you're with all of your kids if you're going to Target like four or four for kindergarten they keep saying out loud will be a great adjustment for both the staff members and then really once you get into that one two three that's what makes Hopkinton unique is the building structure so does one and two look different than three that's what the policy would have to to help support there on on that piece because I think I think any you put
053a kindergarten teacher here they're going to tell you lower the better that's what it is um the lever piece that is the interesting dynamic in in looking at our class our graduating class sizes if our numbers are going to level off here or continue to grow it it it's going to come back to another discussion for the board it might it might have to reevaluate it because our last three back I'm going to look to you I think kindergarten 68 3 did you have it right I can't hold up because of my name um I think it's 68.63 16 like they're all within that 67 range but our eighth grade our sixth grade is 80 something so I I now that we have a policy anticipate having a policy in place it's going to be
054a re-evaluated one I think to talk about more what you're saying and when you talk you're right about the high school because there's classes that run I mean phys Ed can go up 30. um some of our uas can can run depending on larger sizes 30 right now and it it's still class size it's still one human with all those kids so don't don't uh don't talk less about the subject like sometimes people have oh it's just visited that's not accurate you know it's still challenging with 30 kids uh science has limitations you know wood tech and safety so it is unique on how class size is determined at the high school level can certainly bring Miss Brown miss cindoni here for discussion if you want to as we go deeper I know they've been
055a part of this work already so I don't know if it's helping but I'm trying to give a little bit more context to what you were talking about yeah I I mean what I would love to get some perhaps Anonymous feedback from Carol Martin Maple Street people that have been here for a while and not been here for a while maybe been in other places there's you know what's uh what sleep will be gone what's really good and what's oh boy this is really going to be hard I mean that's really the three categories that sort of you know break things down to when somebody is going about their work for the day and how they're best gonna meet the needs of kids yeah and that's an important piece because it policy is interesting right
056but board sets Falls very clear that's that's that's a rule um when policy doesn't exist want to make sure the voices are heard and so we can certainly uh I think it'd be building well because it's different I think like what a high school teacher thinks compared to hair Martin is certainly different so I think I can work with the principles on that on surveys or soliciting information from the staff [Music] it's it's also like you said who's been here forever who's been in other districts where do you live what do your kids live in that's why I wanted to continue to bring back to what's good for a hobby my second grader has 24 in her class my fifth grader has 25 in his class so each Community determines what they feel is appropriate
057we want to make sure we do what's best for hockey but I think in soliciting feedback is an important part of the process to help you guys determine what you think best practice could be thank you um this is maybe just an observation of some of the other policies that the known the policy committee we looked at other districts so it's less of a reflection on the numbers and I guess just personally I don't like the in-betweens are like oh 17 but no more than 24. because I'm not sure that helps your decision making I say yours that the administrator's decision making because it still feels pretty foreign so I guess as the policy committee does move forward I mean I would I guess my preference would be to pick to find a maximum number
058that it would be no more than but not do this kind of weird in between because I'm not sure it gets to the clarity that I think like you're describing that a policy should set um and I think it allows for more creative thinking on the part of the administration to sort of find classrooms that fit within that without having to sort of middle ground and I'm not sure is Clarity um purposes so anyway as you guys develop it that'd be my preference is to bring back if not more than rather than two separate numbers that may or may not be meaningful that's helpful what do you what are the rest of that because I I kind of like the two numbers but I also hear that that um uh just that input um do
059you guys would you also prefer like a set number um I'm up in the air on that I don't want to handcuff the mic and doing his job as he runs the district um so I'm with you to a degree on that but I want to give Mike the flexibility to do what he feels best for the district so that's really where I kind of pause it a little bit because ultimately Mike follows our policy and I want him to be able to have some type of guidance man I don't want to say live over him because policy's policy right that's where I just kind of pause a little bit once it's set in stone well and we the other thing that we had talked about in uh policy is the language around this is
060going to be that it's going to be done in such a way that it's not going to handcuff all right and so it's it's will strive to achieve a class size of no more than x number of students so that if it's determined that you know they're behavioral um needs that a class has or something that that needs to correct me if I'm wrong no you're right and I think I can help a little bit on this [Music] appreciates Jim Jim's brain on on the wishing well I'll call wishy washy of that right no more I would say that the max size and I think I had this discussion with Norm because the norm you said a couple of times what happens if nine kids move in I'm making fun of you but what happens
061if there's a large movie everybody okay no but I'll say you also policies policy can't break policies but I've come we've come to the board in Hempstead before and said all right we're two over do you want to waive the policy for the 23-24 school year or do you want us to hire so there's those levers that can go into place too I think one of the things that with Jim's notion is I think we say again I'll throw a number out there let's say the max is 20. and that doesn't necessarily mean that all classrooms need to be the exact same number right no I'm not annoying but I think that kind of wording in the policy May create more flexibility that you can have 21 16 and 19 and that's a good Dynamic
062given the kids that are in front of these signs that's kind of what that you said it much better than that's what I'm thinking like it gives more flexibility they don't have to be equal they can be yeah depending on this yeah you have more decision making and they can I guess you can make adjustments in your classes without having two numbers neither of what you're saying should be the number that you're using so yeah all right um thank you so so we have policy on Thursday we do hold on I had one more thought though before you jump in with that so I've I've heard um of of getting some feedback from um our staff and I'm also wondering how we would like to solicit feedback with the understanding that board sets a policy
063but from our our families sure so that's right so we have policy on Thursday uh I think that committee uh creates Community feedbacks I hate using the word service Community feedback forms so that we can put it in their inbox determine what information we're trying to listening and there's all alternative ways yeah like I guess I have two thoughts on this like one I as a board member he's not going to be on policy um I mean I guess I would rather have the board get the people like get feedback so if we're gonna set up a survey I think happy the full board I mean I know we can because and I guess the only other piece is that we have this forum for community members to come tell us and I think come
064to a meeting like you're hearing the discussion you provide a comment I don't know like as a parent if I go to survey that said how many how many students do you like to see in the class that I could give to write an answer that may be meaningful or not so anyway so I'm not saying you shouldn't do that but it is like how you word it what the information you're looking for because I don't know how we get a whole bunch of numbers and then we start then make a policy based on those numbers so I anyway I would just be careful I guess I would just cautious because I'm not sure how you set the survey up over be how you get the response and I just I just I'm just concerned
065what kind of feedback you get um depending on the question yeah and I also I guess I Envision it you know I think that it's helpful information to have to help inform the decision I would not personally be like basing as a born Reagan's facing a policy off of you know kind of majority feedback necessarily I think because it's as we've heard from my I feel like it's really multifaceted but I I think you're I made a note because I also I also have how we retrieve information from staff it's also equally as challenging because it's different for class different per grade different per experience so we're gonna solicit feedback from staff or from the community I mean to me it's like get a draft policy put it on the street and then get feedback
066based upon what what the board has written and drafted rather than an open-ended I just think we'll get better one we get better feedback though the actionable then it will be will be uh I guess sort of you know throw spaghetti against it so to me it's like get a second you can get a second read of the policy after you take this input yeah um and then we have forms where people can provide and then if there's something for the teachers who don't always feel comfortable coming here and speaking of them you know I I see Jeff's point to a degree I guess my question is the survey like a multiple choice people would fill out and then they'd submit it and we don't know it yeah because my issue with that it's like
067a multiple choice type thing you know and I know this sounds crazy but people can just continuously vote and the data is not correct as opposed to people coming here you kind of can see and hear from them but there are people who manipulate data like that fortunate okay you can be very direct Mike and just take your show on the road and go to Harold Martin one day and do the presentation you just did whatever yeah no so the internal yeah yeah the internal stuff is pretty easy for me in fact Harry and Patrice are already on it so the what you said the comfortable piece is probably most comfortable with it can be the it can be the principle or it can be um membership representation like all those we want to make
068sure they feel comfortable I think it's I think part of what you just said though is what am I I can present this what we were how we operated but if I don't have them to present what they're evaluating that could be a challenge so we might need the draft first [Music] right so um homework yeah we knew this was going to be a multiple meeting process okay so I think we're all targeting like second meeting in May type of trying to come to conclusions plenty of time or or it can be reached at any point at any time yeah is there anything else though yeah thank you this goes to some comment Becca May that she's made and a couple of our policies I want to honor I didn't actually speak to it which
069is if we and I want to go back to how we did before but we go back to three and we move elementary teachers between classrooms over time just to make up for you know class sizes um Rebecca said a couple of times that it is a challenging professional development like there's more support needed for those teachers for the reasons that Mike stated and so I guess as part of the policy it might be good to recognize recognize that um and maybe make it a policy of the board that when those changes happen we provide extra support for those teachers who are changing that's probably a practice that we have but I but I think maybe for those teachers who are impacted having it in a policy that the board recognizes that is a professional
070Challenge and we want to make sure that you know we're providing the necessarily training and development opportunities to be successful I agree I Echo is something if you don't mind I mean I've been flying the flag all night but the development of this policy makes me feel a lot better with the position like background it just helps what you echoed because the principal is already doing a lot this allows some Focus targeted approach um okay can I say something about that I think it's really good that you guys are talking about this definitely important to like have something on the books for the budget and stuff but as a student I would also say that I think like there's Nuance in it so it doesn't have to be just like a hard and set number
071like you're saying like I think the there can be a really good class of 25 kids and there can be a not grade class of 20 kids especially especially if the teacher has to move to a different like grade level to teach something because the like class size is Shifting I think it's more important to have a teacher who like knows how to teach that grade than to have a small class if you know what I'm saying and we'll be we can talk to the HMS kids about it too when we go because they're like that that exact age great yeah thank you anything else that you guys would like to see from the policy committee all right I took a lot of notes um so we'll report back on that at uh I don't
072know if we'll have a second read by the next meeting TBD it will be will be an agenda items front and center yes so that the community is aware of anyone that wants to continue to participate as we move along yes yeah all right so end of year board goal review so this is me of a friendly gentle reminder that this year I would really appreciate it if the Ford could review their goals by May and set new ones by June 16th Okay so to remind everyone my organizational brain is trying to bring some structure to the district and I've reiterated that board goals then Michaels and principal goals and teacher goals last year we developed the Kohl's Lakes which put us behind Within the so forth and so on process now I know it's
073a it might be a tall task but I think we can do it because I believe a lot of the work is moving so I don't think we're going to be Reinventing too much this year and now that you know me a little bit better it might help set those a little bit more so that's all that was on here for what were the dates again that you're targeting I would hope so we have one more meeting in April we could probably put the board goals on there as a refresher and then we have two meetings maybe three in May so that could be a check box slash to move on to the next year and then another one that says maybe we sent something new and then we have one more in June in
074the past we've um Rob has hosted a big barbecue for us then in order to set these goals it really helped setting and so I'm just curious if that's something we also want to put on the calendar we can do it here and we could do a part in these meetings if we're going to do that which I recommend if brought Mexican barbecue that we put that in the calendar donaires are on the menu here I've already I've already got it planned you've got to be exposed with donations so I just requested that our newly elected board chair and vice chair I'll come up with a date for that so you can we can get it set yeah and last year we ran into some scheduling conflicts because we had graduates um graduates this year
075right so I think we might have some more flexibility because I think we're going to try and do it on graduation today um no I think we end up canceling later because you had a party and he had a party yeah for mid-may yeah all right is there anything else I have actually nothing on policies we have not met between the last meeting and oh the last time we met we discussed the classes yep all right so no I have nothing nothing flowing I got the wrong name oh so we'll move on to consent yes are you okay with that yeah okay moving on a consent agenda um under the new hires you will see that we had mentioned two weeks ago about the AP Proctor there's just a correction to who they're replacing so
076no change to the person just to replace them on their uh replacement um this on there is also Thomas Cleary that will be moving forward for the high school math position if you click on his name on that link it's the nomination forms I hope that you took some time to read that that's what we improved practices within our operation and you'll see that we are continuing the trend of our hiring practices that we began last year so that will be the remember that's the goal when we're trying to find Thomas is going to be a great fit for us outstanding candidate really enjoyed his interview I think he's going to fit in well and then this is also the time of year you'll see on that that some resignations but end of year so
077you'll see that saris whiskey is going to at the end of this year any questions on how uh in your packet is two overnight field trips one two Germany and osram are you doing schedule B I lied we're gonna go to schedule B real quick it is linked you will see on there we have assistant varsity baseball Jake Paul don't need JV assistant Varsity Softball JV softball and then I thought there is another page Middle School softball if you scroll down assistant of course great all right then you will have two overnight deal trips that would be Germany and cause Ram and then I'm gonna ask Sarah if she wants to mention or do you want me to do it okay um so the checks have not come in the office directly yet but Hopkinton
078Public Schools Foundation has done their spring review for applications it is with great enthusiasm I say as I always say this is not normal but they have supported two applications that were submitted one was for having a brain cramp what was the first one the best one yes the Buddy Buddy program I mean I use Big Brother little brother type of thing but we're looking for a startup essentially to help support a buddy buddy program so foundation's going to help pay it's like an older students correct yep and then second one I'm super excited about along with Mr rozicki uh was a submission for udl but within udl you guys have heard throughout the year we're looking to basically create a I don't like using the word pilot but a classroom with the appropriate Furniture
079rather than our our desks and chairs of we're going to have flexible Furniture so our classrooms will be able to use be used in multiple ways so the foundation is supporting the I'll call it a startup cost so that we can show the value behind it we're going to collect data we're going to show reports we're going to talk about I'm I'm the Itchy kid that bounces a leg or clicks a pen you know what standing Furniture can do versus sitting Furniture so they are they're going to be supporting that and those checks come through Michelle will give you those numbers but just wanted to thank you and the foundation for sure so um I'm gonna Becca if you want to go before Michelle or after the show all right we'll let Becca jump in
080before Michelle gets their financials she's got quick Reef updates I just want to let you know that we had a professional development day last Friday it followed uh well no couple Fridays ago we followed a different structure than our um than some of what we've done in the past so we started out by doing it all staff meeting to go over evaluations plus which is our new software we're ahead of schedule on implementing it it wasn't actually due until next year but we went ahead and did it this year for the summative process so we introduced everybody to the software made sure they could all log in together it's fun we could do a tech training with every teacher in the district it was fun and uh so we got them all logged in that
081works and then we got them to see the different forms and basically they go in every year they need to write a reflection and in the past we've done some in Google Docs some in Word documents some in an email someone shared Google Classroom it hasn't been very consistent so this new software program allowed us to be very consistent all the same forms every teacher will use across the district and it preloads for them if they're in year one year two or year three of their cycle for recertifications and for reflecting on their teacher evaluation education plan so every teacher has what's called a tech and they're able to kind of say over the course of this year based on the SAU board goals District goals and my schools goals here's my goal that I
082want to work on um and so they they choose a goal each year that they want to work on related to those goals and they also are starting to develop what's called a an SLO a student learning objective so they'll have a personal goal for their growth and then they'll have a that they are contributing to their school community and then they'll have a student learning based school that they either work on individually or as a team or perhaps even in a larger group that is really a focused on student learning outcomes and so they'll figure that out so they have those two forms that they get to reflect on at the end of the year and that now is centralized in this system called evaluations plus so they do their Reflections when they're done
083with their reflection they hit a button that says I'm ready to send it to my evaluator typically the building principle or assistant principal and then they're able to write their end-of-year evaluation based off of the forms and information they've collected so we'll add on more pieces of that process next year but it was fun to kind of start that process everybody this year and so they've been very busy tomorrow is the deadline for getting all those forms in so I'd say overall they've been doing a great job the system allows us to upload artifacts so some of people have uploaded different lesson plans they've created or samples of student work or pictures of things that have happened in their classrooms and that's that's been good the other piece of this is that the system also
084holds our recertification process for us so in addition to a yearly goal and a yearly SLO that teachers have they also have like a a three-year goal that they'll work on towards their recertification in their area and so they were able to kind of do some reflection around that and pull out information for those people who are in the third year of their cycle ready to be re-certified this year so we released a timeline it's pretty well structured it's actually a little later into the season than usual we realize we really have to have these crazy early deadlines that we used to have so we've we've opened it up and we also wrapped in all of our support staff evaluations in that process as well so we've kind of elongated the time of the window
085but put everybody in the same window which is nice and consistent for those of you who know me and know that I like consistency after that we did some we broke off and did some different things the high school continued their work in Universal Design for Learning udl work so they did some work there case managers had a really fascinating Roundtable discussion um talking about how to better bridge the gap between what happens in Specialists and in typical classrooms and so kind of they've been able to kind of talk through some of their experiences with pushing into classrooms and doing work within classrooms versus pulling students out to work in small groups kind of where their role is currently and where they'd like to see their role go to so they were able to kind
086of develop some action steps out of that Roundtable discussion that was really neat to do elementary schools and the Middle School participate in the rest of our curriculum work so we now have this amazing document to bring to CNA committee which has all of the standards our common core standards or state standards that we're using for every subject area and it Maps out at every grade level which ones they're introducing to kids which ones they're working with and which ones they've mastered where they believe they've mastered at the grade level and then we will look at that and see where we have gaps and overlaps and we're going to streamline it so that we'll move forward towards our goal of presenting Hopkinton based standards that you as a board can adopt and we can build
087our curriculum off of entire tighter into in years moving forward so that was tremendous work that they finished up it was great um that's actually really intensive work so we did take part of the day to allow teachers some flexibility and choice and what they wanted to do for professional development so we really just gave them a block of time and said this is yours to take care of what you need to take care of as a professional and some people did some research some people did some grading some people created their comments for their report cards some people sat together with their team human debated issue it was it was great to just see people kind of free-flowing and then the afternoon um which is going to set us up for some I think
088some really interesting things next year as we did Round Table discussions I said that earlier but we did them at the end of the day on a the teachers ahead of time selected because we had I threw out like 20 topics and they pulled down like the 10 most topics they were most interested in and then we set them up here in this school in different classrooms and so in the afternoon they went to the classroom that was hosting the discussion that they most wanted to have and it was a great opportunity for teachers to start collaborating kindergarten through 12th grade um we did like a one of the room sessions for example was on chat GPT that's kind of a Hot Topic and um like what is it from how might you incorporate it
089in your classroom appropriately versus how to also talk to students and and work with it right and so it was hilarious watching teachers um experiment with it for the first time and then be able to get past the oh my gosh this is really scary and move into okay what are some of the possibilities and learn from each other and from each other's experiences another one you heard a little bit earlier about playbase in kindergarten there was a great group that got together and had some enriching discussions it was able to create a small action plan around play-based learning another one was I really like this group it was the difference between a school library a classroom library and a book room and why do we have all three and what purposes do they each
090serve and how do we best unite them together around some of the reading and literacy initiatives that we're trying to accomplish in our schools so that was a another really rich conversation great action plan afterwards so I think that will help shape the professional development we might want to reform around as we move into next school year so that was a great very busy day that I just wanted to share with all of you so you had principal updates you had Mandy and Jim and now you've had Becca so that's the trend we're going to try and do the directors and principles on our rotations so that you're not getting crushed at one meeting on updates um so if you need anything in between certainly just ask I'm Michelle under the fun stuff okay um
091one thing I just want to mention so um last week we got notice of what our health insurance rate is going to be for next year it is exactly what we had for gmr so it is going to be 9.7 percent um so I just I know I know um so um that was something I wanted to point out another item is um we've talked or heard a lot about Beyond School enrichment grants at many of the other schools and so Harold Martin put in for theirs which is a similar summer program for student-centered enrichment opportunities in the summer so um great job Patrice that's just under ten thousand dollars that will be for that um thanks to everybody um that came to the spaghetti dinner to help with they're looking to get um shaded
092area um I don't know how best to describe but not a tent but in essence devices for the playground yeah and there was some individuals that were not able to attend but they did make donations that are under the threshold but so thank you to them and we do have a few donations that needs board approval so each of the buildings received 500 from Health Trust so we have Wellness coordinators at each building and they have to do certain things and work with their groups and make goals to be able to get the 500 so thanks to the nurses the nurses are the ones that really spearhead this um thank you to Louise and Evan Walsh they gave 500 for the um high school girls lacrosse team and the last one is Oz Ram gave
093two thousand dollars for the robotics program and that's all I have Michelle on the uh Insurance how often has it been that it's coming exactly because I don't yeah so I have a history back to o304 yeah uh so last year we had exactly what our gmr was it was 10.10 um we had 10.10 um 2122 is kind of an anomaly because um but 2021 we had a gmr 6.4 uh actual 2.3 um the last time so last year as I said we were at the gmr 1819 was the time before that that we actually had exactly what the gmr was okay and then 15 16 was the other time we had the gmr so uh just to put into perspective but um yeah so unfortunately there will be no Savings in those areas um
094but I just thought it'd be interesting to talk about so I'm sure thank you thank you that's it all right is that that's the full consent agenda oh with that I would ask you that acceptance agenda as presented great any discussion hearing none all in favor unopposed okay so we are on to uh committee updates do you have any committee updates of any committees match a weird law because yeah the annual meeting canceled voting day yeah voting day so that would normally be all of our committee off dates as everything got reorganized so a little bit the energy committee and maybe how we could work together the town and the school district but it was more of like checking each other's plans and stuff I thought that was pretty interesting if we could work together
095at some capacity but that's pretty much it great anything else what's up all right um so with that we've come to our second uh public comment session um of the evening um the same same rules apply if you could keep your comments to around three minutes please and just state your name and address um and separate up if you have any comments for us hello um I just want to talk to you about instructional snow days um it's not instruction um the structure requires the opportunity for regular substantive interaction between faculty and students monitoring their student Bedford by faculty with opportunity for communication about the effort instructional shows no days Baron overs at once the school days there's no teachers peers pretty minimal work it feels like busy work and there's no continuity in the
096instruction I didn't learn things the way that you're teaching my students how to do things and so I go to help them and it's useless um students with IEPs are not receiving services it bears in unnecessary resemblance to covid Year's instruction which for a lot of kids is kind of rattling I'll just say my son in particular did not fare well during covid and a lot of the same kind of tears and emotions that I remember doing covert I saw Lauren our instructional snow day kind of doubled by the fact that he can see the snow and we're inside doing trying to do work that we did not do it um calling an instructional snow day kind of devalues the important work that teachers actually do in the classroom it's not it's not a school
097day it's not there's just not a real meaningful impact to the work other than we can say we did some work so we had a day off the calendar um at a time there's a lot of discussion about mental health for students it seems that this raw students have a natural mental health day and it actually increases stress I think for students because they know it's supposed to be a snow day and then the last thing I'll say is it's not fun it sucks and families should be outside sledding it's like one of the beauties of living in New England it gets no consent and they're fun and we basically zoom in and before you know syrup on top of snow and we eat it um rather than sitting looking at a packet that really
098adds little to no value to the students so I appreciate that I appreciate all the work that you do but just wanted to let you know my thoughts on instructional snow days um I know I've been only like three minutes I think I'm still in my bounce real quick just for the students I thought your idea about students playing sports getting credits a great idea there's a lot of turnover in your position so I just encourage you to create a memo and document like the steps that you're taking so you could pass that off so you find some continuity there and see that thing through some students there are students in this world I'm parent or a student who does you know the bare minimum in gym the hate gym they still get a credit
099for it and more athletes are out there crushing themselves to be great athletes and they get no credit for it so hopefully you'll take that and then the last thing just really quickly there's so much literature to support what superintendent Flynn was saying about class size most of it most of the numbers at least from my recollection I I work at a law school um we're going through the same conversation especially as a lot of the transition to like online learning is happening thinking about class size a lot of those studies are outcome based but a lot of the new literature actually is is um kind of revolves around cost benefit analysis also so that's additional literature to look to and a lot of that literature suggests that um that uh teaching intervention money spent
100on teaching and prevention is far more impactful than trying to reduce class sizes so um I'm not you know I'm not looking to have classes of authority but classes of 20 to 25 I think are super reasonable thanks thank you Richard other comments uh Trisha Lampert 305 Galloping Hill Road um I also want to just Echo uh flow has brought up regarding the gym and getting credit um the doe actually has a program which is called learn everywhere it's fairly new program so if your child goes to karate or does something on the outside that you could legitimately get and if they have been approved they can legitimately get credit on the outside for activities such as that so it makes all the sense in the world that if they're having they're playing basketball or
101LaCrosse or what have you that they can get a credit for that so I encourage parents to look into that program and then if you um look it up and you know of a person who's teaching something on the outside they may be able to sign up and it's a process it's a bureaucratic process to get through for those people but I see it's a very promising program so it's on programs the other program that um I think is also beneficial people don't hear about is especially for seniors or those that drive is that the nhti has a program which is early college and I know that there's some that goes into school but this is outside the school and they can go get credit to classes you started with stem but I think it's
102been expanded where that those are free classes at nhti and you get college credit not only for your high school but also going to college so that saves some money down the road and any every other class is half price so you could legitimately do your senior year probably without paying under a thousand dollars so from a financial aspect that's interesting to look into and then I guess the last point I have some other points but I'll keep it short is I had a question last time and I was hoping someone could provide an answer on the Sora app uh we do use the sore app currently at the Middle High School do not use it at Maple Street or Herald Park okay so that's ninth grade through 12th grade uh actually our it's our
103seven through twelve oh seven through twelve okay so do um how are the the students children the miners being protected from being able to access do the parents understand of what they're getting access to potentially that children have received have gotten access to which is pornography and explicit Graphics sexual material I mean you're promoting if you're asking them to sign on for a class is that what you're saying that you what what is the use that the school I can certainly step a meeting and go over it with you no I like I think everyone should know I think that this is something that people should know and if there is explicit material which for underage children is inappropriate if not illegal getting pornography to children or pick running access is illegal and if you're
104saying you need to sign up for this app for this class or you're encouraging it you know it's only used at the library it's used at the library so I what I would say is because it's an app and I know that a child can sign up for it can get on an app fairly easy like any other app is that parents need to know that because the parents can't see what the kids are signing up for when they don't get on that app they can't see what they're reading and I'm not about banning books this is simply this is simply about keeping material inappropriate for children away from them and I think everyone would agree that pornography is not appropriate for the mind of a child I also uh can say that as a
105district we're not providing pornography for children if you have the app and you're you're encouraging that app in any way without putting up the wine for parents that's a problem I just want to make it clear that as a district we are not providing pornography for students you're asking if you're showing them in the library to sign up for the satin without the cautions you know if you go to a store they have a cover and they have an explicit they have warnings for that parents don't know that I would say that it would be necessary for the school to send home or parents wear to let them know of that potential so they could watch for that and make sure that their children are not getting gaining access because it's like opening the door
106okay thanks Joe Morris 396 Park Avenue um so just carry that further than this the logistics the kids sign on to it in the library the app um it's under supervision of a teacher pretty much depending upon the class sizes and how intense that supervision is um is it easy for the kids because that there's a lot of inappropriate stuff available on the source app which is what's the point here so is it easy for the kids to access that if the teachers on the other side of the classroom for half the class with two kids having trouble I guess that's the big question yeah so our seventh and 8th graders do not have access to what our high schoolers have the app is able to when the students sign in it knows what grade
107that they are they are in our high schoolers should not have access to mature content you say your seventh eighth graders don't your high schoolers should not is that what I hear right also don't oh okay also don't okay but our but our seventh and 8th graders do not have access to the same titles that our high schoolers would have access to oftentimes the Sora app is actually used for those students to access books that are below their grade level in a way that's they can just access them and not be embarrassed that they perhaps have to pick up a book in the library that is below the grade level of their peers I don't miss you that's partially reassuring now thank you yeah [Music] any other comments to nope all right hearing none I'm
108going to go ahead and close public comment is there any other business of the board we do have the need for a non-public this evening we will not be doing any other business after that non-public we will go ahead and close the meeting so is there a motion to go into non-public under RSA 91a colon 2 comma a for personnel and C for reputation right it's a roll call both gym yes all right thank you guys very much Andrew do you want to sign me as well you didn't put your name because we didn't know um [Music]