Call to order the regular session of the school committee. It's Tuesday, June 1st. The time is now 6:41. Um, those attending tonight's meeting should be aware that the meeting is being audio and video recorded by Apac and ASRSD. Any audience members who wish to record
any part of the meeting must inform the chair who will announce the recording. This is to comply with the mass wiretap statute. The listing of matters of those reasonably anticipated by the chair, which may be discussed at the meeting. Not all items listed may in fact be discussed and other items not listed may
also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by law. So we'll stand for the pledge of allegiance, please. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under
God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. All right, Michelle, will you call the role tonight? Mrs. Granger here. Mr. Quincy here. Mrs. Regions here. Mr. Rupert here. Mrs. Simmons here. Miss F
here. All right. So, we'll we'll move on um from public participation just until we have mics so that we can have public. Um, and we'll move on to the consent agenda, which tonight consists of the warrant memo, which is dated June 1st,
2021. Counts payable warrant um, dated May 14th for 1,32. Oh god, that's bad. I can't read that. 32,821. Yeah. And then the payroll warrant 24
dated May 21st, 2021 for $478,224.96. and payroll warrant 24.1 dated May 21st, 2021 for 39,000. Um, there's also a donation from the Graten School of 24 Zenith helmets to the Air Shirley Regional High School football program,
which is nice and generous. Um, I think I saw somewhere trying to get there, but it looked like those helmets were valued at How much were they per? 200 per 200 per helmet. So that's a very generous donation from the Graten School. So I'll
entertain a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda. Make a motion to approve tonight's consent edition and accept the donation from Gren School of 24 Zenith football helmets. Second. U moved and seconded. All those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed?
Okay. Great. So we'll move on to new business, which is the recognition of our retirees with Dr. Malone. Thank you, Madam Chair. I apologize my podium isn't here. We're still getting used to uh in person meetings, but there was standup. So, first I'd like to recognize Mary
Ford. Mary started in September 1999 in the Shirley public schools as a special education par profofessional for $8 per hour. In January, she got a big boost to her hourly wage and went to $8.71 per hour.
In April of 2000, uh, she became a permanent sub and then she became a permanent grade six science teacher in the fall of 2000. As Mary informed me, she never got promoted beyond sixth grade. That's true. We had a conversation last
Mary has been quite involved in the district outside of the classroom. She has mentored teachers. She organized a STEM program last year. She's organized curriculum nights and other efforts that you've put forth. uh you've always put the children first. She has been a ski
club adviser for students since 2001 and in looking through her evaluations she received grow glowy appraisals and this one stuck out for me on a summitive report written in 2001 by Richard Mallaloy. One of the standards was promotion of
equity and appreciation of diversity. So I thought the committee would appreciate that and he wrote about Mary that she asked who has not come up yet and she continued to question that as her lesson continued of her students and he also
wrote Mrs. Ford is sensitive to the needs of her students and differences in their diversity. Mary has one grandchild who I suspect had something to do with her retirement and she just learned she has another on the way. Oh, yay. Mary has a new career
now. Professional babysitter. I know professional. You have to be paid. Well, Mary, I think they are paying babysitters $15 an hour. Okay. So, Mary, on behalf of the school committee and myself, we thank you for your service, many years of service to
the children and families of the district, and we wish you all the best in many years of health and prosperity. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for coming. You're welcome. Our next retiree that was able to join us this evening is Rebecca Dowy. Rebecca
was hired as a substitute a substitute in October of 2000. In January of 2001, she was hired as a part-time assistant for early learning. She became a full-time teaching assistant at the Devon School in September of 2001.
She also worked for the extended day program at Laura White. Miss Dudy has also worked in the summer school program throughout the years. She has been a dedicated employee who has worked with our most challenging students. In an evaluation of her in 2015, it was noted
she took on a more challenging role with grace and was able to provide the teacher and students with strong support throughout the day in school year. So Rebecca, again on behalf of the school committee and myself, we thank you for your service to the children and families of the districts. We wish you
all the best in many years of helping us good luck. And if either one of you would like to say anything, certainly feel free. I'm not putting you on the spot. You're welcome. Yeah. Well, then we had the middle school held a nice little uh
retirement celebration last Thursday. It was very nice and I had gone over and uh you enjoyed yourself. It was awesome. Yeah, it was nice. And the goodies were good. The goodies were good. Great people. Yeah, it's just um a great place to work and I'm not happy to leave, but
I'm happy to leave. It's all better time. Yeah. Well, I'm still liking it. Yeah. This is true. That's that's a good point, right? Yeah. And Rebecca, do you have any plans yet for moving? Um, just
chilling out. My husband wants to travel, but I told him we got going to give you some time for us. Yeah. Right. Very good. Well, thank you. Thank you both for coming. We really appreciate it. And and good luck and congratulations. Thank you. Thank you both for coming and for being such
wonderful mentors for our children and our district. And I've had almost all of you, all of your children. Ashley, all your children. Ashley, I have something else to read about Miss Dodie and I apologize because I was rushing over here. So, I went into your file, too,
and there was some notes for you. We had several. So, she worked in Shirley when when the Shirley school uh districts merged, the Shirley files are like this. And you know, the the the personnel files, I think every piece of paper, everything went into those from years
back. And so, there were quite a few notes to you. and one said, "We hope you have had a wonderful summer vacation. I just wanted to thank you for being the person you are. I know that the boys are always safe under your watchful eye and that means more to me than anything. Enjoy the summer and we'll be seeing you
next school year. Love the Richard family and Richard signed DJ." Yep. And then the other one was, "Dear Kathy, to thank you. Thank you for all of your help and your smiling face every day. Love Susan and Jacob." So,
I thought you'd appreciate those. Yes, I do. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sorry. I forget about those. Yeah. Well, you can look in your file, you know, anytime. There's lots of them in there. So, I think there was even a little note card from somebody must have sent you flowers and who they were from. That was
in your file. Yeah. Have to say Mary saved our family quite a bit of money. My I married into the Chipmate or two days late. We time is a relative thing. So, and we would always she would always call in a panic a day or two
after the ski passes were supposed to be in and Mary had already put us in for him because she knew we were going to be and for that though we were always waiting at the bus to help unload everything. So, we we worked on both sides. A lot of lot of dark nights out
there at the bus in the parking lot. Yeah. Very nice. Okay. Yeah. Enjoy your retirement. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good night.
You can stay. Just cuz we have to stay doesn't mean you can stay. Thanks. Have a great night. Thank you. All right. So then we'll move on to item seven, superintendent report. Dr. Malone. Sure. Thank you. Just an update
on the page hilltop boiler project. So after we had reported to you that with the UNI event work and such that the project increased um to about 500 I think it was 50,000 and so I went and started to do um some research to see if
I could get us into the accelerated repair program with MSBA and um I spoke to someone there last week but unfortunately we are not eligible is they do not approve the installation of the UNIVETS they only support the actual
boiler room piece of it. So when we um uh disagregated the cost, we would not meet the threshold of required amount of $250,000. So unfortunately, we're not going to be able to submit to to that program because the the due date was this Tuesday and I said, you know, I was
willing to write that, but um again, we weren't eligible. Uh today I sent out a Blackboard notice to all the families. Um we received uh updates from the commissioner um department of education last week. There were two guidance documents. Here he is uh that was sent
out updates the desico 19 guidance and then the desicoid 19 safety standards for kid to 12 graduation ceremonies. Michelle we can put those in the drive. I'm sorry listen. Did we put those documents in the drive?
Yes, I did. Okay. Thank you. Sorry we were anyway. So, I just wanted to point out for the community if you if you're not a parent in the district that uh the core mitigation strategies that have been in place will remain for the remainder of the school year. Masks wearing um on the buses and indoors, hand washing and hygiene, staying home
when sick, assigned seating, and physical distancing. Masks are required outdoors. However, they are encouraged for adults who have not been vaccinated. And these same strategies must be adhered to for the summer program, extended school year, and summer other
summer programs. and uh we all can be relieved and pleased that he has uh stated that all districts will return fully in person 5 days per week for the fall 2021 reopening. So that was uh wonderful news to hear. All Desi health
and safety requirements will be lifted and this includes the physical distancing requirements and we may not offer any remote options to families. Um the only virtual pathways are those for um students prior to the pandemic for
students like in cases of hospitalization or home tutoring. And he did state though there's always a caveat here that he will continue to collaborate with the department of public health over the summer and it could be possible that elementary students will be required to wear masks
when we return but that's not um finalized yet. So that was really good news. And then the graduation uh safety standards, they did update them, but there's still several restrictions in place and protocols that we must follow uh around guest and ticketing operations
like uh for the high school graduation. People have to register to come in, have to check their IDs and and all that. Um contact tracing, distancing, and masking outdoors and hygiene protocols. And um I can assure you the high school administration has planned this year's
graduation and is following those guidelines. And I do want to talk about so unfortunately um the grade 8 graduation you all received an email from some upset parents that they wanted um to have an inerson graduation rather than the driveby. But I can assure you
if you start to read the graduation guidelines that you will understand why the middle school was not able to pivot our favorite word for the last year and a half to an in-person uh you know graduation and I know some parents and students are disappointed but um it's just not enough time to meet the state's
regulations and guidelines. Uh but I can assure the families it's going to be much less sterile than last year because last year people couldn't even touch one another and touch the diplomas and such. So, and the grade 8 team um has planned a bash for the grade 8 students outdoors
and some other fun events for the eighth graders. MCCAST High School has two more sessions. Science, I think it's June 8th and June 9th and grades 3 to 8 is finishing up uh this week. Middle school Laura White and Paige Hill Talk will
complete the science portion next week. And just a reminder, we have graduation this Friday at 6 p.m. on the Harold Gene Norton Field. Uh today the seniors participated in the senior parade through the years and they you were at the school Joyce was visiting at page hilltop when they came through the page
hilltop in their beautiful new gowns gorgeous um like a rust color with like a white stripe with some gold. Gorgeous. And they went to all four schools and then they returned back to the high school where they got their yearbooks outside. It was wonderful day. Did Anna
like it? Uh sure. We saw her for about five minutes. What? I have five. No, it was really nice and with them, you know, getting, you know, to have each other sign their yearbooks and everything. So, that was great planning. I'll get the scoop later. Oh, good. Okay. Um, so the
Dawn Parker dedication, I have been in communication with Mr. Parker and he has given me a window of time. uh he would like to hold it between the dates of t Thursday, June 21st, excuse me, Thursday, June 24th through Tuesday,
June 29th at 5:00 p.m. in the media center. So, if the school committee could get back to me and what dates work for you, I will uh confirm with Mr. Parker. He uh will be giving me his um uh uh guest list. I asked him for that.
Um his quite a guest list. So, um, you know, we'll plan the event and then we'll have some refreshments over and, uh, and if it's in daylight, it's nice out, we can start outside and such. So, um, you know, good window. But, okay. Does anybody have any questions or
anything about that? Since we're all here, would it be just easy to fine with me? Yes. On a day. Yeah. And then it's done. Everybody has their calendars. So, the 24th is a Thursday. Um, and then we can go on the next week, the Monday
the 28th. I like Monday the 28th, personally. You I'm sorry. Monday the 28th. Yes. Monday the 28th. Huh? Did you say you prefer Monday? 28th is a Monday. Yeah. And that's good for you. Yeah. Sorry. It's hard to ask. Is How about everybody else is the Monday? That does doesn't work
for me, but that's all right. Okay, I'll I'll I'll come back for it. Mr. Quinty, is that is that for you? Okay. The 28th. Show you can make another arrangement, you think? Yeah, I'll I'll just come back. Okay. So, I'll write that down.
So, Monday the 28th. Great. Thank you. Thank you, Joyce, for making this easy. 5:00 p.m. Okay. And then the other thing I spoken last week about special education that we had received a letter from DESIE on the 2021 special education program under part B
um and that we met the requirements and we were not requiring assistance. And I just wanted to point I wanted to give you the letter and just point out that the determination um is based on the 5-year cohort graduation rates for students with disabilities, the annual dropout rate for students with
disabilities, the public school monitoring special education compliance data. Uh the problem resolution system special education complaints data. So that's you know if people have a complaint they send it to that that arm of of desi performance on special education state
performance plan annual performance report and then data and findings of significant disproportionality which I spoke to you earlier I sent you the letter that um they did not have a finding there either. So each district's based um using a rubric and based on the
scores placed into one of the special education determination categories. As a result of this determination, the department is not requiring the district to engage in specific targeted and technical assistant activities. So, congratulations, Mrs. Bozac, and the whole special the whole special
department. And then lastly, I'm going to read the final list of our um typically as um school committee members that have been with me a long time know that I typically would give you a written report, but when the zoom zoom happened, yeah, zoom in in I started uh
just reading it. Uh so here are the acceptances for our seniors for next year. Assumption College, Berkeley College of Music, Boston University, Bowden College, Brandeise University, Bridgewater State, Case Western Reserve,
Champlain College, Kobe Sawyer College, Dean College, Embry Riddle, Aeronautical University, Endeott College, Fitsburg State, Framingham State, Franklin Pierce, Gettysburg College, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and
Health Sciences, McGill University, Middle Sex Community College, Mount Wus Community College, New York University, Northeastern University, Penn State University, Plymouth State University, Regis College, Wensler Reporting in
Progress, excuse me, Wensler Polytenic Institute, Riviera University, Rochester Institute of Technology, Roger Williams University, Salem State University, Southern New Hampshire, State University of NY, Global Skill, Suffach University,
Thomas Jefferson University, University of Arizona, University of Connecticut, University of Maine, University of Mass Amherst, University of Massel, University of New Hampshire, University of New Haven, University of Pittsburgh, Johnstown, University of Rhode Island,
University of Tampa, University of Vermont, Wentworth Institute of Technology, West State, West Virginia University, Worester Polytechnic Institute, Worester State University, And I think that completes that. That's a pretty good list. Yeah. Good.
Congratulations to all those students. And that completes my report for this evening. Thank you. Thank you. All right. We'll move on. Um Mike, are you live? I am. Yes.
So, I'm guessing there's no public participation or is there plenty of people were texting me, but they're not around. Okay. Well, if you happen to see anybody, I mean, I can open it up right now for public participation or we can move on and if you see anyone pop up.
Yeah, there's no right now. We have one person. We do. Is that what you said? Well, I think we're all set for public participation. Okay. Thank you. All right. So we'll move on to ongoing business. Item A, report on special
education. Mrs. Terra Bozac, Mr. Tebo, need your assistance. All right. No problem. Is it? Do you have it on your computer? I do. I share. You want me to share it with you? Do you want to move on to the next?
Sure. Yeah. So, we'll move on to the recommendation to accept school choice students for the 202122 school year while Mrs. Bozac and Mr. Tebo work out the case. All right. Thank you, madam chair. So, in your drive um
you have a memo for me. Um but also in your drive there's a very long document and I really put this for our new members um to show them and I know it's small um but when I came here in 20145
I started this sheet and I've kept it every single year and the reason why is because I didn't have a handle as a new superintendent on the number of students specialized students English learners uh school choice all of those numbers so I have continued to carry carry it over
every single year. Um and so now we end up with um so then when we start the budget uh we do a projected enrollment for the next school year. So the very last column is uh this is for the
where is it? Um the projected enrollment which is um for next year. So that's the very last column and it's in red. And as you know, we've had uh enrollment projections done by NZDAC and we know that pretty much the birth rate here is
pretty flat and so our enrollment is is going to stay pretty flat. Um so um each year after report to Desessie if we will be a school choice district for the following school year, the 2021 2022
school year. I am making that recommendation tonight. And if you look at the memo I gave you, what I've done is um given you a breakdown of what we project for next year by school by grade. So if you look at the first school is Laura White uh the
first grade is kindergarten and there are three sections um over at the p excuse me at Laura White. Right now we have 38 students um projected which is a student teacher ratio of 12.7. Now, um
that number will seems low to you, but we will get many more registrations over the summer. Uh we do every year all the way up through August. So, every year I might um struggle a little bit with sections because we don't want to have, you know, sections that are that are too
low. Uh so, anyhow, so if you go down to the right column, you'll see the student teacher ratios in the district, I think, which is a really important number. are ranging, you know, if you look at grade 1 19 at Laura White, grade two 19, grade three, 14.7, that's always been low
since kindergarten. But looking at the numbers behind it, if we were to reduce, so say I reduce that to two sections, then you would have, you know, 22 students in two classrooms. And if you get additional students, so we just we just
it was an anomaly and we just kept moving forward. So you'll see all the numbers if you go down and page hilltop prek. Um and I'm going to give you some other perspective when we turn this over. But uh right now we have 56 uh preschoolers registered which is pretty good because at the preschool we can
only have a maximum of 15 students per section. And um and what happens we have an in what we call an integrated preschool which means we have special education students and so the ratio always has to be uh one more typical. So
say that the uh maximum enrollment is 15 per section. We can have eight typical and seven special education students. Okay. And uh Paige Hilltop uh our room is actually better than it's been in the past at the kindergarten 63 students. So
um and you can get down you can see the numbers at at Page Hilltop um those ratios. So I've said every single meeting we've had when I do this that we have excellent teacher student ratios in this district. very small class sizes. If you turn or for me, I've turned it
over. Um I've given you a couple of things. Uh so I give you a reasonable class size chart. So typically throughout the state in the Commonwealth, and I've presented this before I just told you about preK, K to 2 average class size would be 18 to 20. Now that doesn't mean there are there
are many kindergarten classrooms that have 23 24 students in them because there are many. And I've always said we always when I came you always offered free full day K and you offered a free excuse me a full-time paraprofessional which again um when I came from Hville
they had a.5 so two kindergarten classrooms one par profofessional was shared morning afternoon so again very fortunate here and then 3 to 5 it goes up a little bit 22 to 25 6 to 8 in high school 24 to 28 but our current class
size at the high school ranging from 7 to 21 students because you have some electives are smaller than others. So again, great um great enrollments there and I already talked about the enrollment sheets that are in the drive and if you have any questions I'm happy
to uh print out larger versions for you. But right now for grade eight uh we have 30 students that are going to show tech which is what we have about every year for for a weight listed which means um they might have to make some improvements in whether it's attendance
or discipline or such. Um and then we have uh possibly uh going to Monty Tech uh three students. They're currently school choice students and I think I guess their option is they want to go to the show and then we have one that might go to Shashient Tech who's going to move
and then we have three that may attend private schools and then you know that um the Parker charter schools grades 7 through 12 uh we have four sixth graders that will like more than likely be attending at the park chart to be with a
sibling. Okay. Dr. Can I just ask you a question on um so with those eighth grade students attending other schools is is the number that's reflected for the ninth grade excluding those kids or does it include those? Yeah. No. Yeah. No, we didn't I'm
sorry that did get updated because we worked a lot on this today. So, um so the 136 um that are in the eighth grade at the middle school now. So, we're looking at about 103 um or 100, right? if you add going to
the so it'll be larger than the freshman classes we've had prior which is good. Okay. So the the numbers that are listed here right now are the current classes the current class sizes. Yes. So for the projected year we just we roll over the numbers that we have unless you know
students have withdrawn. So if you look at the high school it says grade 936 because that's the eighth grade class currently at at the middle school. So, you subtract the 30 that are going to the tech and the three that may attend private schools. Um, and then you're
down to what's the math yet? 103. Okay. Yeah. So, they're taken out. Yeah. We didn't take them out yet here. Yeah. Um, just going back in time, I remember when we were interviewing you, you were talking about how hard you had
to fight to get tech slots in your previous employee and how hard it was you had to really work to get those. We're in a different situation here, but I think most people are not aware what some of the screening criteria are for the tech schools. Could you address what some of those are? Sure. Because that definitely affects us. Yeah. And I um
last week or two weeks ago, we had three students and just a little sidebar story that I did a presentation on the National Diversity Day and uh when I introduced them to their their peers because they were presented to students in grades 6 through 12. um three of two
of those students were going to the tech and because of of programs that they wanted um you know visual arts. So they most students go there because of a special program but um right now in the show tech um as far as enrollment their enrollment is down so they're pretty much accepting most students that apply
um but the criteria is based on attendance discipline and grades in an interview. So, uh, it's it's the, um, four terms in your seventh grade that they look at that those pieces of data, attendance,
discipline, um, what I say attendance, discipline, grades, and then the first two terms of the eighth grade, and then they conduct an interview. So the application process uh starts around December January and um then they they you know this year they
think they did a zoom but they will come out to the schools and do an interview process then but they they do a lot of recruiting early on in the school year. Most of you will get uh postcards and things from them having open house and um they do a good job enticing students
I will say that. But many of the students that are struggling in many other areas would not meet their entrance requirements and we will be dealing with those students that have a number of problems. They will come to our school. Yes. Right. Yeah. Uh and but the other thing to point out though um
and I don't have those numbers and I can get them for you but um not all those students end up staying there. Um they do return back to our district as well and I can get those numbers for you. But every year it's been pretty steady.
Between 20 30 students have been going there. Yeah. Thank you. Anyone else have any other questions at this point? Okay. So, so I would need a vote to the school choice, please. Sure. So, I'll entertain a motion um to accept school choice
students for the 2021 2022 school year. I make that motion that we accept the students the choice students for 2021 20 the 2022 school year. Second. Moved and seconded. Any other discussion? All those in favor, please say I. I. Any
opposed? Great. Thanks. So, Terry, you want us to come back to you now? Are you ready? I'm ready. All right. So, we'll go back to item A, report on special education. Thank you.
Yeah, so um I put together this presentation on the Airley Regional School District special education program and I just put down um myself the director of special education, Mary Beth Hamill the director of student services.
I have a new educational team leader for the middle and high school. um Miss Jennifer Kyper and Linda Bernell, the elementary educational team leader. Um the special education service providers within our school district are
licensed special educators. We have inclusion, small group, substantially separate programs, related service providers, board certified behavior analysis, occupational therapists, school psychologist, speech and language pathologists, contracted service providers,
augmentative and alternative communication specialist, assisted technology specialist, physical therapist, board certified aiologist, orientation and mobility specialist, and teacher of the deaf and heart of hearing. preschool applied behavior
analysis and ABA specialist and our paraprofessionals. So the special education programs at Eric Regional School District are our early learning center which is integrated preschool program servicing students ages 3 to 5 years old. We have
our structured learning centers which are called the SLC's. Those are located in Laura A. White, the Air Shirley Regional Middle School, the Air Shirley Regional High School. They are designed to serve students with educational needs due to a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder and/or other related
disabilities such as developmental delay, intellectual impairment, and significant social and/or sensory needs. Our adaptive learning centers, our ALC's, we have those located at the Air Shirley Regional Middle School and the Air Shirley Regional High School services students whose primary
disability may include cognitive disabilities, physical challenges, complex medical needs, multiple disabilities, and/or communication needs that require a high level of individualization and support. Then we have our student support centers, our SSC's, and those are located within the
Page Hill building at the Air Shirley Regional Middle School and the Air Shirley Regional High School. Those provide academic, behavior, and social emotional supports that facilitate improved functioning in all areas. The student support center serves students with average cognitive abilities who
have had difficulty making effective progress in a fully included program due to a primary emotional disability or behavioral disorder. Do you have any questions on those programs? Do you want me to ask as I'm building?
Yeah, I mean we have a lot of I mean um a lot of experienced people, a lot of educated people digging in India. When we go to um staff with paras, are there particular requirements or benchmarks that they have to make or even if if
they start new, do they have a series of trainings that uh they have to come to meet the needs of our program for the PAR professionals? Yes. Yes. Some of our PAR professionals do an ABA training program that we have. We off often offer
CPI courses throughout there. I have met with the the pair of professionals in the student support centers with the special education teachers and we talk about each of the students that are in there and what some of their behaviors may look like or their social emotional challenges may be. The BCBA for the district and the one that we are
contracting out through Keystone works with the programs that are um working with students with an autism diagnosis or behavioral challenges. So, we're constantly trying to bring in as much professional development as they need or ask for. And I think you you're asking
so the par profofessionals they either have to have to have an associates degree or they have to pass what they call the par pro exam. Yes. Yeah. Yes. That's before they're hired. Yes. But then when they're hired we try to give them the training that they need to be successful in that
program. And it this year has been complex because we have had higher staff turnover for power professionals or it's been harder. So we're trying to after you know right when they're hired get in there to provide that training for them. And the other thing just to point out for our two new members is because we
have two elementary schools. You'll notice that um Laura White has the structured learning center and Helop has the student support center. So we wouldn't put both programs in both schools. So if e students in the elementary level qualify for either one of those programs then we provide
transportation to to each school those students and I already told you about the English learners just as a in the elementary school if they're beginners or what we call newcomers then they go to the page top and uh the transport transport.
So the special education population for the air regional school district right now we have 358 students identified as a student with a disability. We have 318 in district. Um what we're seeing is an increase in autism diagnosis over the
past two years. 18% of our students with disability in district have a primary diagnosis of autism. We have an increase in emotional diagnosis over the past two years as well. 12% of our students with disabilities in district have a primary diagnosis of emotional disability. Our
out of district students we are we have remained relatively stable with that. We have 40 students that are in out of district placements. So I think the range has been like 37 through 40 for the last since I've question. No, that was just that was my
question. It seems like we had 38. So, is 40 kind of kind of the uh median of what we have or I mean that's what we have now, but it turns out to be almost immediate number. Yes, cuz we've had as high as 42 and we're sitting right now
at 40. Yeah, but we haven't been higher than 42, I don't think. No, no, no. No. How many of those 35 for How many of those are placed in residential? We do not have any residentially placed students as of right now.
Yeah. All day programs. Yeah. Wow. Which is the next slide, I think. That's that is incredible. Yeah. Yeah. We don't have any residential, right? No res because as you know when we do the budget and we we present you I mean a placement a residential placement can go 200
$250,000 per year. 300 375,000 a year. We just actually one just turned 22. So we are at zero right now. So our special education population by school. We have the early learning center, our preschool, which has 29 students, 45% of
our preschool population receiving special education services. We have 35 typical peer role models in the preschool program and seven students receiving iterant speech education services. Those are students that are qualified for speech and language or an
OT only and they come in and they receive that service and then they leave. Um the Page Hilltop, not including the preschool, we have 78 students um identified with a disability. Laura A. White, we have 71. The Air Shirley Regional Middle School,
we have 80. In the Air Shirley Regional High School, we have 60. I try to keep this current at least once a week. I am going through the numbers. I'm trying to keep it as current as possible. Well, the reason why she says, well, and we have an I have an org chart that has every single employee. Um you know, if
you've been to Mr. Plunkets office. That's where we keep it. And so Tara did one in her office, too. So she had to. Yes. So that when she calls me at the last minute, I say, "Wait a minute. You're 17 in this grade." And Well, it's important to do that because there's team meetings like every week. You need to know kids are coming in. Kids are are
It's like a revolving door. Absolutely. Of the the students that show up for uh for preschool, we have 40% of the preschool population that are identified here. How many are identified during screening and how many are like presented by their parents saying look
these are certain things that you know the medical community has already identified and we want to discuss that. So that is that is an excellent question and Mrs. Hamill would probably have a better answer for that but I I want to say that most of our students in preschool come in through early
intervention or they're coming to us moving in from another district and they're already placed on an IEP. We do have child fine like I send out child fine letters to the the hospital, the pediatricians around here, the like Air Kitty Depot, um Air Community School,
the Guild, all of them so that if there is a child that they are, you know, that they may have concerns about that they're reaching out to us as early as possible. And that is a small percentage that we have. I did just have a pediatrician send something in for a preschool student, but primarily they're
coming out of early intervention, so they're already receiving services. But that is a good question. I could probably get more information on that too from Mary Beth. I'm going to write that phone. So, so tack on to that. So, um, so the early intervention kids, they
come to where? Because they're here, right? I mean, we give them services when you say early intervention. Well, early intervention is 0 to three. So, they're receiving services through what's called early intervention. And then about 6 months before the child turns up to a
year, usually we get it at the 6 month mark. They'll refer to us and say that, you know, we have this child, they're on an IFSP and we need to, you know, have them evaluated. Then we have to get a team together and we make we either go into the house or into if they're in a
child care center and we meet as a team and then decide which assessments we're going to do and then usually we take the outside di diagnosis for the student too. If it happens really quickly, we have to take them in on the plan that's already presented for them because we have to have services for them on their
third birthday. Anyone else any other questions? got to look at the slide for this one. So we have uh 25 students in collaborative placements. We work with Keystone Caps Valley Collaborative, Except Collaborative, Case
Collaborative, and Asive Valley. We have two students that are in public day school placement over at M uh North Middle Sex Gateway. Private school placements, we have 13 students. They are placed at Lighthouse, Dr. from Franklin Perkins, Melmark, Cotting
School, RFK, Don Watson Academy, Summit Academy, Center for Applied Behavioral Instruction, New England Center for Children, the Learning Center for the Deaf School. Oops. 16 students or 39% of our students placed in a different district
placements moved into either Air or Shirley already placed in an out of district placement. I felt like that was a good piece of information for you to have. Tara, can I ask you a quick question? Sure. What determines which collaborative um students are placed in? Is it I mean
do they offer different services or is it like how how do they how do you determine which collaborative? So we try to work primarily with the ones that we belong to like we are a member of Keystone, we were a member of CAPS and we still have a strong relationship with them as well as Valley Collaborative.
Oftent times a student will move in and they're already in a placement. We try to keep their travel time as close to living at home as possible because honestly until you have to do this job and you're driving an hour or an hour and 10 minutes to a placement that adds another two 2 and 1 half hours to a
student's day and then if you think about like inclement weather car accident things like that. So we try to work within there. We get to know these placements really well by you know figuring out what services do they offer which do they not offer but then contract people in to use it. It really
is a team decision. We'll oftentimes have somebody come to a team meeting and they'll have already like four placements that they want to know and they may not know information that we already know. So we try to have a really open discussion at the team meeting on, you know, what services are available at each placement and work collaboratively
with the families. But if we have a student move in and they're in a placement and it's like an, you know, an hour away, we do reserve the right to then hold and convene, you know, reconvene the team, have a meeting and talk about the placements that we currently use. So because we want
students, we've had students not at district placements. I, you know, and they'll come back and they'll play football on the football team or um basketball or come back far away. Yeah. And if they're too then they don't get to do that. We want them as much as a member of their community as possible.
So, I just I knew we were a member of Keystone, so I wasn't sure why. Yeah. You know, if you had to go with, you know, obviously don't have to, but um I was just curious about that. So, thank you. And I just remind you that we have uh Keystone leases from us in three of our four buildings. They lease at Paige
Hilltop, at Laura White, and at the high school. And they did ask us if we had any space at the middle school, but there really isn't any space at the middle school. they'll be happy with the page page and talk about that after. Um, and just for people who might be like a little behind, like you know,
remember yesterday, not today. Um, Keystone used to be flat. Yeah. Yes. They're like, "What's Keystone? I've never heard that before." So, our tiered focus monitoring, our TFM, this is conducted every six years
of the uh by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. And what this does is it comes in and does a really thorough review of civil rights, English learner, and special education. It consists of two main parts. Self assessment, which is in the spring of 2021 for us. And the site visit, which
will be in the fall of 2021. The self assessment is a record review and policy procedure upload component of it. And then the site visit, they will come in and they'll do an on-site record review, observation of instructional spaces and grouping, staff interviews, and a CPAC
interview. So, our self assessment was due May 17th and it is completed and uploaded. And then our on-site record review will be announced for us pretty soon. I'm sure I'll get an email over the summer surprise coming. And then the site
visit, phone interviews, those are to be announced and determined. Uh draft report comes two to three months after the visit, 10 days to respond to factual inaccuracies. Final report issues four to 6 months after the visit, and 20 business days to create corrective
action plan if needed. So I'm coming full circle because when I started, I was fixing it. I'm back at it. But so um do you have any questions of this? Yeah. So when you came sorry just I just want to say for the members here so when you came in with us like 40 what did we
have 48 44 44 corrective actions that got corrected and then we had zero then we had zero. Yeah. So we'll be that was in the midyear review. So they do a midyear review in the six years. So it's every six years they do a midyear review the threeear mark. Okay.
And at that point three years ago we had zero. I remember zero and I couldn't remember when that was. So yeah, that's a really that's a big deal for district. Yeah, mid year. Okay, good. Thank you. So program development, these are things
that we are either currently doing this year such as the Wilson level one certification. Um I feel very fortunate that um both Dr. Malone and Mr. Keri supported me in bringing in Wilson level one certification training for our
special education teachers. So, the ones that were able to take it at the by the end of this year, I have a couple that might need to run into the summer, but I'm working with them on that will have that certification. Next year, we are starting with year two of this. And we are bringing on more special education
teachers to have this certification. And I've been able to go in and observe and to see the difference with a student reading from the beginning to like 6 weeks after to 12 weeks. It's just been incredible to see. It's a reading program. Yes.
Yes, you know about her. And then I will be doing an IEP development with Nova Valley Technical High School for the fall of 2021. We have set a professional development day together in October. Michelle Falhoney and I and we're going to do some IEP development with the
staff. Spire reading program for special educators. that will happen from from kindergarten through grade 12 to give them another source to use another training for reading for some specialized reading. And then we are bringing the crisis prevention institute
training in that's happening on June 22nd. And then the special education parent advisory council, the CPAC, I'm going to work with CPAC to create surveys to parents of students with disabilities regarding the programming and professional development ideas.
We're going to work together Um, how has seat belt been way? It seems like for as long as I've been here, this is pulling teeth. Try trying to get enough parent involvement. I mean, we're required to have it and it's and the the concept is terrific, but you end up
having to browbeat some people into into sitting on them to do something, you know, and it seems year after year after year. It's like it's a really good idea, but something structurally is not working with that because it's just a nightmare
all the time to get any kind of directive across that. Is that any change in that at all? Well, I am happy to say that um we have four members. We have two co-chairs. We have a secretary. We have a treasurer. I was on the phone Friday with um one of the co-chairs for
almost two hours. She actually wrote a letter um to Dr. Malone and I about some of the things that she's brought in this year. And I would love for them to be able to come one night to school committee to talk to you and then they you know we can start working collaboratively together. It has been
very hard complex to get a CPAC and I feel like now I want to do whatever we can to support this so that they will do that and I am a firm believer in you know bringing them food and coffee and that worked like I still then the pandemic came but they they stayed on so
on June 9th um one of the school counselors and um one of the special education teachers they are doing a presentation with CPAC we'll have to share that flyer and it they're doing it on the transition from elementary to middle school. So was in a blackboard
notice today. Oh, good. So yeah, it would be the fly. Yeah, if you could share that with us, too. So So I'm excited. There are four members. Yeah. Yeah. And if they're interested, we'd love to have Are you doing that in person at this point with all the changes? Um I am not I think it may be
virtual this time but you know I I my hope is that it will go back to in person and it's I think what's hard for you know when we trying to establish a CPAC is you know parents only have so much time so they were going to other events and things like that so I think
now and they have this it's working really well we have had like seven or eight people attend so it's it's more so we're just trying to you know think collaboratively to bring in more events so that the movie thing when I did the movies last year with them that was a big event that brought in um a lot of
people. So I'll be happy when we can start doing those things. Tara, if I could just say one thing I'm wondering if maybe the Zoom aspect is helping with numbers and maybe that's part of the questionnaire you ask parents is would you prefer to keep this as a Zoom meeting because people might be finding
they're more able to attend because they don't have to leave their house. they don't have to get child care and that kind of thing. So, it' be worth asking as part of the survey if they prefer to continue on a Zoom basis or if they prefer in person and just see what what people's responses. That's a really great idea. I just wrote that down
because I didn't put this in the presentation, but definitely since we have had the Zoom platform, we have had um better attendance for team meetings. Like parents are able to show up, they don't have to the travel time from work, they don't have to worry about child care issues um any of that. So, I want
to make sure that we are able to still continue to do that while because it it works. It shows it's working. I've had parents call. They're thankful that that option is available. So, that could be why we have more. Yeah. I mean, you know, a lot of people like that in person piece, but parents, you know,
maybe it's just a, you know, an issue of not wanting to go out again at night or whatever their meetings are and and having that extra um child care. Yeah, the child care is probably the big option. But so it's worth asking. And when it's cold out, who wants to go out? Well, when you get home, you don't
necessarily want to leave again. So, and a lot of the population requires more care than a lot of other kids. So, it's not it's easy for them. Yeah. Right. Absolutely. Right. Excuse me. So, we began consultation in January of
2020 with Keystone Collaborative for an external evaluation of the air regional school district special education programs. The final report will be furnished to the director of special education by June 30th, the end. And with this, we'll review the reports to
create stronger programming for students with disabilities and build programming to keep students in their neighborhood school. So, I'm excited to get the final draft of this. Yeah. So, some great things. It'd be interesting to have that information for
the for the for the committee, I think. Um because as you well know, dollars of dollars and we don't we want every one of them spent. But if we could, you know, put things here that would help. I mean, the travel has to be
tremendous going to the collaboratives for the these kids. Absolutely. To sit on a bus for an hour each way is torture to me. You will know when I get this report. Okay.
And here are some great things. So we have seen a significant increase meeting the rigorous mass core competency or completion rate. So we are at the for students with disabilities 58% in 2019 and 20 which is up from 39.2%
in 2017 and 18. Advancing the grade 9 passing rate for students with disabilities which is at 73.7% in 2019. It's up from 21.8% 8% from 201718 and an increase in advanced course
completion rate 20% in 201920 up 8.9% from 201718 and research studies show that if you do not pass your grade nine courses you have a higher chance of not graduating high school. So these are
great things and of course we always have areas of improvement which we are focusing on and one of those areas is our four-year graduation rate for students with disabilities. In 2019 and 20 the student with disabilities rate was 68%.
Um and we want to make sure that that's at 100%. We don't want one student not to graduate. And then the discipline rate for students with disabilities in 2019 2020 the students with disabilities rate was 43.5%. It's high. So we know we have work to do
in those two areas. Tara I have a question. Um with the graduation rate are you looking at that as a four-year graduation? Are some of those kids counted as not graduating but they're doing a fifth year? No. Well,
they yeah, they do because the report that I just shared with you, the report that we got from desk says the fiveyear they look at the fiveyear, right? So, I was So, I'm just saying that that number can be a little misleading because some kids with disabilities are right are in
school a little longer um to meet their needs. Yeah. So, that's the fouryear rate 68% and the fiveyear rate. I mean, so the other 32% Yeah. So, how are those kids counted?
Like, what year are they counted in? So, then they get counted to the next year as the percentage. Do you know what I'm saying? They must be. And but you have to remember too that we're looking at low numbers in senior class. So, I'm looking at uh
19 20. I was going to ask if we know how many students that really is when you break it down. Right. I don't know if I'm going to be able to read these numbers for you, but Terry, we can get back to you on the numbers, but the the students Yeah. So, it's a lower number and that's Yeah,
that that makes the number that makes the percentage look a little bit skewed, right? You know, you got 100 students and only 68% are graduating. That would be that would mean, you know, quite a 32 students aren't graduate. But I think they look at it like when you when you take that number, you take maybe you had
I'm going to just throw 18 students and four of them dropped out of school. So they would look at that percentage out of the 18 students. So it would come up to 68% even if only two or three didn't. But it's still like we say it's if there's one student that's dropped out or one student that's not graduating,
that's one too many. So, I think the number looks high because it's only taken the percentage such as when I do like um if I'm looking at how many students are on IEPs in one of the schools and I might say, you know, 20%
because I'm only taking that number of students divided by the entire number. So, I think that that's just over what it is for the students with disabilities, right? That's just Yeah. So, can I ask you a question about the discipline rate? So, so what what
accounts for discipline? Like is it discipline in a classroom? Is it discipline that the principal has handed down? Is it discipline that's reported? Like what what is it that um that that discipline rate is measuring
incidences of suspensions in and out of school? Okay. because of their disability or not. Because it's regardless of the disability because if it's a if it's a behavior that's related to the
disability, is that separated out? I'm I'm getting really complicated, right? I think that's the instant in school just regardless of what exactly what that is. Yeah. If they're classified as a student with a disability and they've had discipline,
then they're going to be considered in this percentage. Yes. They're coded differently. Okay. Yes. So, it's when you enter that information, a student with a disability, it's entered differently because they do have a disability. So, when it's an in or out of school suspension, it's coded like
that. Okay. That's interesting. It's interesting to know whether it is the discipline. Well, yeah. So, that's just counting the number. doesn't say whether the behavior was actually caused by the disability. Right. Right.
Down the manifestation determination route. Right. Um which we don't want to get to, but that would go down that road. Yeah. So, how do you begin to address that? Like how do you you know like you kind of have to figure
out why it's happening and Right. Exactly. and how how are we handling these situations is really what it's all about. Um I did just do today um the Department of Education um I did their new they did have a new training. I don't know if you've seen this
Charlia. It's on lake restraints and what you're using in deescalation and now everybody taking that and I think it's it's really important. It has such great information in it and I sent it to the elementary principles first today just because I wanted to have someone to
talk to about this and and then you know now I'll take it from this and then we'll bring it into working with the special education teachers and then we'll go you know larger than that but it had really great um visuals and graph like how do I do this how do I do that it's oftent times the students escalated
instead of you know arguing back and forth with them knowing that they may have a disability that's going to cause them to become more heated. It's learning like what can you do in that like ignoring it, walking away from it, taking a deep breath, giving them something. So, this had a lot of great
information. I was very excited to to watch this today because I think the whole state needs this. So, is that you think that's the direction that everything is going? Well, I think this and I'm surprised it hasn't been done to some extent before. Well, I think it
has, but I think now with the pandemic and we've had so many social and emotional challenges for students that now everybody's really looking at things like that. So, while this is the co May co year in 1920,
um were were these rates higher or lower than they had been the previous academic year which had been 1819 or they same because half that year was messed up. I'll offer a couple of pieces. So the I'm on the school profiles which is
public information for everyone. So students with disabilities there were 375 students 20 were disciplined and 3.7% received an inschool suspension and 2.9 received out of school and we didn't have any other expulsions alternate
setting emergency rules or anything. And Mike just pointed out the fiveyear to your point the fiveyear graduation rate for students with disabilities is 87.5. So it does increase significantly right. Yeah, that's good. So I guess you know the way data are presented in in different ways in lecture interpretation
and I know it's it's when you do percentages then then yeah I mean I like to put the numbers in especially in a small district because you put a percentage and then you put it with a number and it's it's a lot different. It's good to highlight the issues, but it's also good to, you know, understand
what the numbers actually are behind it. And, you know, you need to identify areas to work on. But, um, anybody have any is that is that 43.5 number of incidents over number of students or number of students with one or more incidents over total number of students?
It is. I have to look because I pulled that up. It should be the number of students who have had one or more. I would hope. individual incidents. Yes. No, no, not the number of incidences, right? Like if I have five, I can be suspended five times, I be counted once.
Okay. Yeah. I'm going to because I did pull it right out of the data. So, yeah. Do you mind if I chime in real quick? Yes. On that just because we recently spoke about this, but it is um for instance, like how many children have been involved in certain levels of discipline? So, if one student has five,
so you could have greater than 100%. Um, no. It's just that one student has been in in at least one. So, yeah, one or more. So, is that so like if I'm suspended five times, I'm counting once. Yes. I
always knew you were trouble. All right. Thank you. I know we're asking such Thank you questions. Sorry. interesting stuff. So, when we get to our six-year review, uh, and they're here visiting,
shuffle um, next year, do they kind of give you indications as they go along? Raise their eyebrows, or they totally am non-committal. They really are non-committal. So, if if they keep calling me back, then I realize
something's going on. So I I think when you look at that number that 43.5% is out of the total number of students being disciplined. So if you go to the school profile chart um there were 53 students disciplined in 2000 um so you
gave them 2019 2020. So 2019 2020 uh the total number of students disciplined in the district for in school and out of school suspensions was 46 2.7%. Out of those 46, 20 of those stu were students with disabilities. That's how you have to
look at the number. Okay. So, it's a lot different than Okay. Does that make more sense? Yes. And is this districtwide or like all ages? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Terra, is that it?
Yes. Very nice interesting information. Thank you very much for sharing. Anybody have any questions for Tara? Tara, wasn't there something that I think I heard maybe at the beginning of the year that um last year we had a number of students
move in who were already on a IEPs who were already in placements and there was really nothing we could do about it. Yes, I put that in one of the PowerPoints slides that we had. Um, yeah, you said
like 38% or something like that. Were all new kids who just moved in? Yes. I think you said percentage got moved in. Yeah. And you can't change placement without parent consent. I think it was up there.
We had the placements that work. I'm pretty sure you said 13 or 38 something like that. We had 39 16 students which is 39% see in that one I have that of our students they were already placed so they moved into either
air or Shirley and they were already added out of district placement like Melmark or wherever it was. Okay. We've had many as as we formed the district, we've had many particular areas that I would say are Phoenix
moments, but I think the the the strongest one has been this. And when you take a look what the drivers are for special education, I mean, it was a stew when we showed up and we had to try to we couldn't even see the edges of what you were trying to accomplish. But I think when dealing with those types of
issues, you have to have some sort of protocol to handle it. And I think the reason we were successful with this and and it's always in this you never complete this task, right? Kids keep showing up and the need is always there. But the reason that we've
been successful with this, that's I believe the major drive to most of the changes we made was to try to keep all the kids regardless of what disabilities, what issues that they were facing, involved in the community, involved with the students that they
grow up with. to give them access to as many things as you possibly could and we've created a number of programs both at Lauren White and Pilto to try to take kids that were outside and bring them in and try to keep people together and try to to improve the normaly in their lives and I
think that is what's guided this program and I think that in a large part has to do with why this has been successful because that's been unner. Yeah. And we we did reduce our special education percentages, but as we've seen with the autism rate increasing in the early childhood, it's bring it's
bringing that number up and you know and uh so we're inclusive, right? Everybody's is we're an inclusive district and um you know, we have to take care of every student and what that particular students their needs are. So, so to that point, are you seeing um like
we have sufficient staffing for this the programs we already have or are we looking like we may have to increase some staffing with the increase in the autism numbers? I do um I I I am thinking that that's probably what's going to have to happen with the
increase in autism. Um I feel as though the preschool right now has you know that's it's really strong and has a lot of supports in place but now we are moving these students from preschool into kindergarten and we're going to make we have to make sure that they're adequately supported so that they aren't
they we don't lose them to audit district placements. So I'm going to look at the data with that with u Mrs. Hamill as well as this outside report because that is something that he's already talked you know he has spoken to me about that as well. So, okay. So, we want to make sure that they are getting
what they need so that they're continuing to strive, right? We want to be able to continue to service them in our Absolutely. Yeah. We do. And and I would encourage you, you know, our preschool, I mean, is going to be coming to a close, but we still have three weeks. you wanted to come in and observe those classrooms and see the work that those
ABA specialists and those teachers do with those little children, you you'd be um you know, I think you'd be very proud of what the services that we do provide in the district and the need of the students. I mean, there's a lot of physical need around three-year-olds with autism, you know, runners trying to
to leave, restraint, a lot of work, a lot. Yes. So, so do we see the pool of staff out there to bring the proper people in? I would think that this is something this is not just us. This is everywhere
or um trained professionals or trained enough to to help at least even the Paris needs help, right? Are we thinking of setting up our own program of training at some point? We have been doing that. We've been using the BCBAS
to to bring in training for the power professionals and that has worked really well. Um and that's another thing that we have identified too through doing this external review is that we need to just bring in a little bit more you know
some on severe needs that training for power professionals because we have the special educator in there but you know they're responsible if there's a classroom of 12 all 12 of them but yet it's the power professionals that are really in there often times like doing that really difficult work so we need to
make sure that we're supporting them and giving them the training that they need and we have students that require discrete trials and making sure that we have the staff that is prepared to do that because everybody has to be looking for those people. They are. It is. Yes,
absolutely. So, we have to create your own. I'll be calling you Joyce. Well, you know, and I I and we've talked about professional development that professional development it's really hard. I think, you know, we've off we offer really strong professional development, but you only have so many
days. So, our special educators and our par professionals are typically trained in special education, but then our special educators uh feel that they're not equipped to be our our inclusion um special educators that go into the classroom, want to be trained on um the curriculum, you know, the curriculum
being taught as we do the regular teachers. And it's it's very difficult um to to meet the need of everyone within the time that you have for school. Obviously, we can offer uh you know, we offer a professional development in the summer. We offer it, you know, on vacations. We try to we can
pay people, you know, as we can, but there's only so many hours. And um you know, Shelley, you know, you're a teacher. It's it's where do you go with it? You know, you you try to focus on what is your theme, what is your focus for the school year and try to build a cohesive professional development that
has meaning um and impact to all of the educators. And that's really hard to do. So are your collaboratives doing anything like that? So is looking at that as I mean we try
to help um always have to think about it but you know because we have so many rooms where we have that they use at a good rate. Um he has been excellent to work with. Should should they be a
resource for the staff that we need? So, should they be training more than just for their own needs so that they don't have as many needs because at some point they're going to run out of the world? They have been conducting a lot of professional development for us. They
are doing um he has certified staff to do the CPI training that we're doing. So, they're conducting that. They've gone in um his BCBA we had contracted with her. She's gone into the classrooms, the SLC classrooms to work with the special education teachers and
the power professionals on ABA methodology and you know understanding complex diagnosises. So we have been using them as much as possible. He is the one that we hired for the outside review. So, I'm I'm definitely going to take what he puts
into that report and ensure that we do training for the staff around that. Does the man think you'd have to reach for every resource at this point? Yes. You know, getting kids back in school would maybe free up home so they could be very fresh. Yes. I mean we have we do a
cluster coaching model that's been um it's very effective model uh in schools about then the teachers are out of the classroom and then they feel you know very stressed because they're not in the classrooms and um so it's it's it's really hard to to find the right um the
right mix for people because we we say well you know cluster coaching is so effective where a teacher does a model lesson and other teachers observe and then you're a facilitator and then um you debrief after which is very effective but again it's a half a morning and getting substitute teachers is really difficult. another barrier
that we've had uh obviously this year um really difficult but we were smart to hire uh long-term subs for each building which is very been very helpful which we're putting in next year's grant the the SR2 grant uh so and we try out
different models and and different ways to provide our teachers with the with robust uh professional development and you know support them then to apply it to the classroom so it's not just you have a three-hour training I know everything. Let me go in. We It It takes
support into the classroom as well, support and feedback and coaching for application. Yeah. So, that brings up a real interesting thing. So, if you have um some of your subs because some of these pair professionals are going to be out and you can't just dump the kid into
the corner, right? And so are we doing or should we do or does anybody do um basically training for our substitute list to take over par professional positions and do it properly? Well, what happens typically in the schools if you have a teacher out
typically they'll move the par profofessional into the teacher's job. The teacher's job being the pair professional being out and the teacher going well we try to we try to bring in some par professional. Yeah. But a lot of times what happens is um this the teachers out the par profofessional is
moved up to the teachers role and then we don't we can't backfill the the par professional's position. So because the the principles feel that the par profofessional knows the students in that classroom and knows the students needs and is best suited you know to be the teacher of record for that day but um it's it's still a challenge to them
back fill the par profofessional. Um, and sometimes when they have the sub, they'll they'll make that switch and then substitutes can get frustrated because they say, "Well, I'm, you know, I'm working for peanuts already and now you're degrading me to a different, you know, hourly hourly wage because they're now the parah." But the par gets a
stipen increase if they do substitute for the teachers. So, it's pretty complex and challenging. It's not simple. I know shaky head Joy, right? It's it's but you know in all districts are really confronted with the same problem as us.
So anyhow thank you Tara keep working at it we keep trying. Yeah. All right. Anybody else any any last questions? All right. Thank you very much. Thank you for all your hard work. Um and we'll move on to the update on the air regional high school fields project. Dr. Mal. Sure. I don't have anything written
for you. We had our first meeting today at 4:30. Um, couple of notes uh on the funding side of it. So, uh, Peter Frasier uh from Hilltop Securities, he's our financial adviser and Rick Mley, you met Rick before he's come to meetings from the bond council. We're already
working on the issuance of the bond and they have uh emailed us and said we should have the financing in place by mid July. The bond will go out to bid and the regional school committee will need to vote to award the bond to the lowest responsible bidder. Uh, we will probably need to get you together in
July. um that comes to fruition. Okay. Y uh the meeting today, a couple of things. Um we went over um we did some introductions and and such and uh and then um Patrick McGuire and Jonathan Chowworks from Activitas did a
presentation and they went over all of the a general overview of all the elements of the project and uh and then uh we looked at you know some some synthetic turf. We look at we looked at the um the which word I don't know what word
I'm looking for but the the track element you know they they had samples on it and such. Yeah. Um talked a lot about that. Uh we talked about started out they said you know what do you like and dislike about the facility that you have. Steve Kendall had to um call in and Steve Kendall said what Mike pretty
much doesn't care for anything. There's not much to like a single thing on the track. Yeah. So and then then they asked us about you know what they named some other facilities. What do you like about other facilities that you might want to bring here? So it was pretty good. Um and um we talked about
that we I know I informed them uh they know that a couple of new uh developments for them is that um you know of course the the um Mr. Norton donation which I spoke with Mr. Norton at length uh last week. Uh I invited
him. I gave him the uh link to the meeting, you know, if he'd like to join us. And um he did um I think I've stated that he wants um his money to go to the projects that we had to value engineer out at the 52, which is probably going
to be um the utility building. And uh he and I did tell Mr. Norton that um he could select the sign that he wants and placement of it when we get to the design portion of the field. Um so I had a pretty long conversation with him. I
reminded uh so right now the town of the air has recommended that uh we u install a well dig a well for the irrigation system that's part of the project for the baseball/ soccer field. And of course I've notified the committee that the PREC family has graciously donated
an irrigation system. I'm not sure of the scope of their project, but we'd want to move that to the the softball field. Um, we talked about Title N and if we do anything to the baseball field and what it would mean for the softball field, but really the improvements right now um are really around the soccer
field. So, um if like say we put a a dugout in the baseball field, we would have to put a dugout in the softball field. So, we we explored that. We talked about that. Um I did uh explore with air the uh preservation funds we
are eligible. So um we're going to you know work on that. Uh we got into they gave us a timeline. There's five tasks they have to complete and they're going to send me presentation and I'll board it to the committee. But there are five tasks to
be completed. Uh the kickoff for construction is slated for April of 2022. Um they should have the track and field completed by August. of 2022 uh in baseball um in September. Uh they are
going to be sorting the baseball field uh which means we don't have to lose a season for baseball because the they'll have the fall season for the sod to grow and take. So that was that was good. Our next meeting is going to be July 20th. Um it's Tuesday at 4:30.
And then um we talked a lot about um you know going out and looking for donations now that we have a project. I've got to send um the documents that we had from you know prior iterations of the project. I'm going to send them to uh Patrick Maguire because
um they talked about like um remember that we have in the project we it's not um it's not in the budget but the portable athletic equipment. So they name what those those are and sometimes people just like to buy parts of those and that. So, they're going to give me a
long list, if you will, of what uh people might be inclined to purchase. I mean, you can make a $100 donation, make a $500 donation. We're not looking. Um, and so uh we're working on that. And I think that's about it um for the
project today. So, we're well on our way. And it was a really good meeting. We have a good group of people. And um that great questions. All right. So um there are no chairman's
notes that I have. Are there any topics for discussion not reasonably anticipated 48 hours in advance of this meeting? Seeing none. All right. We'll move on to communications. Cheryl. Okay. So the first thing is there's a correction. So,
the senior car parade through the towns of Aar and Shirley is actually tomorrow, Wednesday. Yeah. 7 p.m. at 7. It will start here, loops around in Shirley and ends up back here. Um,
Friday is the June 4th, this this coming Friday is the graduation at 6:00 here at the um field. Uh, Monday, June 7th is the Title One family engagement workshop. That will be over Zoom at 6:30m.
Wednesday, June 9th, special education parent advisory committee, um, which Tara spoke a little bit about, is at 700 p.m. over Zoom as well. Um, June 10th is the 8th grade bash, which Dr. Malone spoke about from 5 to 7 at the middle
school. Wednesday, June 16th is a school committee meeting at 6:30 right here. Same same room, the high school. Um, Thursday, June 17th is the 8th grade drive-thru graduation, 6:30 at the
middle school. Friday, June 18th is a half a day, last day of school for grades preschool through 11. The dismissal time for the high school and middle school is 11:20 and for the elementary 12:15. Uh, lunch will not be
served. And then June 18th is the high school prom here at the field at 7 pm. Thank you. That's it. And madam chair, if I may, for the school committee uh for the new members. So the we're going to do the procession this year. So if
you want to arrive about I know I know the high school got talked to you about about 5:45 and there'll be people to direct you where we're going we're going to go to to walk in. And you'll be have your seating reserved seating in the front. I don't think you're going to be able to sit on the stage this year. I'm not sure. I got to finalize it. Mr.
Quinty, Mr. Christie. Now, are we wearing uh you? Yeah, you have. And we didn't get them yet. So, I have to ask myself. So, we're wearing I took mine last year. So, just in case got the wrinkles.
So, can and can when you talk to Mr. Christie, can you make sure that Mr. Simmons can present the diploma to her daughter. And Jim, do you want to give um Cat her diploma? It's up to Cat. Okay. So, maybe he'll get back to you on that one. Okay.
Anna wants me to hand her her big deal. Of course you can. It's a She didn't want me to take a picture of her on Friday on her last day of school ever. But good for her. Yeah. Well, she didn't have the same when you took the picture of her for her first day of school, right? No. When I
was six years old, you said, "Stand, I'm taking your picture." What a difference between 16 and 17, I guess. Yeah. As Mr. Quinty just said, I'll have to ask. Okay. Okay. Thank you. It'll be fun.
So, it shouldn't be as crazy in the parking lot this year since Well, the guests are limited, right? Are guests limited or no? Um, six. Six guests. Yeah. But they, you know, they're going to work this week to get the pods. At least having it at 6:00 instead of high noon, you all won't get sunburned and
die. That was so hot. All right. Uh the rain day is Saturday. Um I haven't the weather today, but the Oh, what time? Saturday. We're not going inside. No, we can't co We can't. No, we can't
go inside. Is that audience? I know, but we have a provision to do an inside graduation with all the the limitations. What time on Saturday? Um, work. Yikes. Well, uh, Mr. Christie told me
today. Let me just text him real quickly. You need one minute, please. All right. We then he heard that the weather was changing. So, it's going to be hot. It's going to be hot. It's going to be hot. Yeah. You said like passing thunderstorms in certain areas. You know what? We always luck out. It's going to be fine. We're not even going to think
about arranging. All right. So, um, while we're We can adjourn and you can tell us what he says after. So, we're going to adjourn the meeting and enter into executive session with no intention of returning to the open session. We do need a short executive session tonight. Um, so this
is for contract negotiations for non-per unit personnel. So, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Madam chair, I make a motion to adjourn the meeting into executive session only to return to close the main session and contract negotiations for joining university.
Oh, second. Okay. So, do we need a roll call for this one? I think we do, don't we? Yeah. Michelle, can you Mrs. Granger? Hi, Mr. Clinty. Hi, Mrs. Reut. Hi, Mr. Crook. Hi, Mrs. Simmons. Hi, M. Hi. All right.
So, we're adjourned at 8:08. Bye, Terra. Thank you. Bye. Thank you.