Hey. Heat. Heat. Hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.
school committee. June 4, today's the 4th, right? June 4th, 2026. Um, we're going to start this meeting off in a little different way. Hopefully, uh, people will enjoy this. I'm going to say a few words. Education at its best is about inspiration.
An English teacher inspires you to become a writer or an English teacher. A math or a science teacher inspires you to study engineering or become a math or science teacher. A woodworking teacher inspires you to become a cabinet maker.
Or just embrace working with wood as a lifetime habit hobby. An instrumental music teacher inspires you to aspire to first violin at the Boston Symphony. Education at its best is about inspiring
a love of learning or or or doing something well across the myriad of disciplines. So, to begin tonight and to honor the best of education, we're going to begin our school committee meetings with moments of inspiration and then we'll get down to business. But
tonight, we are honored to be inspired by base value, the ac capella group, a an ac capella group at Brooklyn High School, directed by our most talented human being, Michael Driscoll, who's been doing this work at Brooklyn High School for 23 years. So, everyone, base
value, let's go. Is it not going to be two doo. >> L is for the way you look at me. >> O is for the only one I see. to me is
very very extraordinary. He is even more than anyone that you adore. And love is all that I can give to you. Love is more than just a game
for two. And love it. Take my heart and please don't break it. Love was made for me and you. >> L is for the way you look at me. O is
for the only one I see. V is very very extraordinary. E is even more than anyone that you adore. And love is all that I can give
to you. Love is more than just break it. Love was made for me and you. L is for the way you >> and O is for the only
V is very very extraordinary is even more adore and love is all that I can give to you. Love is more than just a game for
two. And love can make it. Take my heart, but please don't break it. Love was made for me. And love was made for me. And love was made and you love.
Oh my gosh. >> All right. What do you think, Amazing. >> Not bad. >> I shed several tears. >> Brooklyn High School. I want to I guess we're on. I want to thank Kenny Kosald, who's the um coordinator of performing
arts K through 12. He helped set this thing up with Michael Driscoll. They do amazing work. They've been doing amazing work for years and years. Go. Okay. Um everybody okay? Everybody hanging in there? So, we're going to start with the
um consent agenda. which is number two on the agenda today. Any questions on any of these items, consent agenda? >> If not, we can vote to accept the consent agenda. Starting with Laura. >> Do we have to move it first?
>> Yeah, we should move it. >> We have a motion. >> I'll move it. >> Moves it. >> I'll second it. >> Jesse seconds it. Laura, >> yes. >> Faer, >> yes. >> Jesse, >> yes. >> Sarah, >> yes. >> Donna, >> yes. Carolyn. >> Yes. >> And I vote yes as well. So consent
agenda is approved. Thank you very much. Okay. Next we have um Adifi Jay Shankar who's been with us for the entire year and it's a little sad that
you are completing your your work. Oh my god. We have a little thing for you. Anyway, um, one of the one of the one of the accomplishments that Adithi uh, performed this year was she served on a search committee that resulted in the hiring of Superintendent Bella Wong.
Thank you very much because you were active participant in that. So, I just want before you say anything um, I want to thank thank you for your um, inspiring work um, and just ask you what are you doing next year? What's your future? >> I'm going to Georgetown University.
>> Wow. All right. Okay. >> Anybody want to say anything to Dy? >> I will >> please. >> Um I just want to thank you for your work and your contributions and your
presentations and your viewpoints um contributing your your views and your knowledge of the school and the students. um and your lovely presence here with us. Um and I've just I I love our
student reps and it's been really wonderful to have you and I wish you really good luck in your future endeavors. Come back and visit us. >> Anybody Anybody else? >> I've been so pleased to have you here. I've been so impressed by you and I
think that it just makes it all that much more real for us because we're in the business of seeing how students grow and who they become and the fact that you can speak to things of consequence so eloquently. We just kind of assume that the whole student body is like that because you are like that. But you know
it is it does play out that whenever we get a chance to interact with a BHS student that they're very sharp and so it's just been great to have you with us to make this work feel that much more real. So, thank you. >> Any other words? Appreciation.
>> Um, I also want to join in saying thank you. I've enjoyed um you are my school committee table neighbor. So, it was always nice to look over and see um your smiling face and you have such a calm demeanor and I really enjoyed um hearing your perspectives and your insights from
the high school. I think um uh you really brought voice um you brought voice from um from what's happening there and we appreciate it and I wish you the best of luck. >> Final words.
>> I have I have worked with so many student representatives and I've been so impressed with you. You're definitely you I appreciated that you always thought about what you were going to say and I appreciated how you presented what
you said and um how you um how you evoke um your beliefs in what's important about core values, expressions of that at the school and um I just uh
you represent you're a representative of of the student body and you did it really well and you should be very proud of that. Um I wish you well in your future and I'm so glad that we got to know you through this through your participating in this.
Thank you. >> Okay. And I think you have a report tonight as well. >> Yes, I do. >> Go for it. So, this is my update for June. >> This is my update for June. Um, I didn't present for May because we had one at
the end of April and then this the last May meeting was going to be super close to this one. So, I have a few things from the end of May here, too. So, first of all, I think something that's been big on my mind and big on the minds of lots of teachers and administrators is that seniors are going
to be graduating soon. Um, we've had lots of activities related to that happening recently. So, last week was our last full week of school and we had spirit week which was organized by students. Um, one day we had students
come to school in white t-shirts and pe people got to sign them. Then another day we had senior skip day which was not a school sanctioned activity but everyone went to the beach. And then we had another day where um students came to school in college merch. And it was
really fun to get to see where everyone was planning to go in the future. And then we had another day where students um for the countdown on Monday for our last day of school. Everyone came to school in tropical beachwear and we stood in the quad and we had our
tradition of the last 15 minutes of school or so on the last day. Um students gathered in the quad and we counted down the last 10 seconds of school and then um we all got to file out through the quad. I'm not sure if everyone's familiar with this tradition, but on the first day of school for 9th
graders, you walk in through one entrance of the quad and for the last day of school for 12th graders, you walk out through the other entrance. So, it's ve a very full circle moment and our teachers and administrators were cheering us on. So, that was really nice. And then after that on Tuesday to
Wednesday, we had senior prom, which was at the House of Blues, a jazz club in Fenway. That was an excellent night and I really appreciate all the care and effort that went into organizing prom and also the after the prom party which is hosted at the high school. And then
seniors went to senior sunrise after that at 5 am in at Lars Anderson. And this is a picture from there. It was a really beautiful moment to bond with the grade. And then today we had our pickup for cap and gowns and our graduation
rehearsal and yearbook signing which was another one of the final moments. I feel like the goodbye has been kind of long because we've had all these fun activities interspersed, but it's been very nice to get to spend these last moments together. And then finally, Sunday we have graduation. Currently,
it's scheduled to rain. So, there might be some things up in the air with that. They might move the timing slightly, but they might move it inside if there's thunder, but that's going to happen on Sunday. And then um other than everything that's been going on with
seniors, we've had science MCCAST, that was this week for 9th graders. And um final exams for the rest of the school are going to happen towards the end of their school year, which is the 23rd and 24th. Seniors had our final exams in the
last few days of May. And then this past weekend, there was also a senior athletic appreciation night to honor seniors for their excellence in athletics. So, lots of people went and got awards from coaches, um, which was very special. And the last
thing I wanted to talk about today is that legislature just passed a new bill about transferring into a new class deadline. So, the issue with that so far is right now we have it in the student handbook that students can add a completely new class up until the end of
quarter 1 or 10 days after quarter 1, which is a really long time. That's until mid December. And I think most teachers think that is um unrealistic. A student would not be able to catch up um with that much work after having missed that much. and curriculum coordinators
have been enforcing a different deadline which I think has been the month of September. But in order to correct that discrepancy, we wanted to work on a bill in legislature to fix it and define when students are able to add a fully new course. And I just want a slight um
specific here is that this is not about changing levels of a course. So it's not going from honors algebra to standard algebra. It's about saying instead of woodworking, I want to take painting or something like that. Um, where you're
picking up a new course that was not in your schedule before. And something we were discussing a lot is this applies specifically to seniors a lot because when you get to senior year, there's so many more options in the courses you're taking. So if someone is taking
foundations of calculus, if they switch to trigonometry, which might be slightly easier or harder class, that is considered a course change, not a level change. So we needed to firm up these definitions to describe um when students would be able to do that. And what we
arrived at that passed this past week in legislature is that students can add a new course that's a fully year course three days after IPR comes. IPR has come out in quarter one. And the reason we arrived at that was because students
were really um arguing for this deadline to be after IPR so students can get feedback from their teachers on how they're doing before they decide they want to change the class. And for semester long courses, the deadline, I think it's 10 days into school. And um
the reasoning with that is semester courses are quite short and it can be really hard to catch up if you're already like a third of the course has already finished. You can't reasonably catch up to that. So this has passed legislature and what's slated to happen next is um our head of school, Mr.
Meyer, can either sign the bill or he can veto it and we will see what happens there. But if if it um actually does go into effect, then that will be the new law of the land for next year. And that is all I have for the June updates. Um
since this is my last meeting, I did want to say a few words. Um first of all, I want to say thank you to all of you. Um everyone knows that it takes a lot of work to run a school district, but I don't think I quite understood how much work it took until I was part of
this body. I mean the agenda packets are really thick and long and you guys meet very often more more often than I am here and the meetings are so long and I appreciate the hours and the effort that you are putting into this work. it is
super important and super um commendable. And I also wanted to say that I'm very grateful for our system as a whole that has allowed students to have such a voice and such agency in the
decision-making processes that um are involved with running a school district because I know this is not the case everywhere. In fact, I haven't talked to many students who say they have experienced this where a student is allowed to serve as a representative on school committee. And it is so special
that I've been able to do this and that we have this role in the first place. At BHS, we talk a lot about freedom and responsibility. That's one of our school mantras. And I think that is definitely manifested in this role in that a
student is allowed to come and serve and literally have a seat at the table where all these huge decisions are being made about what school is supposed to look like and school primarily I think affects students and it's amazing that students are able to have a voice in
this process and one other thing I wanted to address is that there are so many stakeholders involved with schools schools in education. You have your teachers, your students, families, community members, administrators.
Um there's just so many people involved and I really appreciate how thoughtful all of you are with coming to these meetings and listening to all these people. And I think in Brooklyn, people are very um civically engaged. They like to participate in these discussions and
conversations. And I think that's incredible. I also know it's really hard for all of you because there are so many competing viewpoints and um interest groups of people who want to be heard and people who think certain things should be run certain ways and you guys
bring so much care and consideration into these conversations and I really appreciate that. I think that's all I have to say for now. I know the new student representative is going to be Anukica Banerjee. Um I know Anukica from the squash team. She and I have been on
the squash team for the past two years. And she also joined the Cypress, the school newspaper this year. So, I know her well. I know she has a great work work ethic. She's incredibly smart. She's going to be amazing at this job. And it's kind of coincidence that the past three school committee reps have
all been on the squash team, but I'm glad that we're representing a niche sport. And um I think she's going to do awesome and she's going to represent the students well. >> Thank you. Oh my gosh, sorry. I forgot one thing. I wanted to say thank you to Betsy who
does so much work for the school committee and really keeps things running smoothly. You have sent me like so many emails that have helped me stay on on track and I really appreciate that. You send them well in advance. Whenever there's a change, you send me like three months in advance warning so
I can change it on my calendar and that has been so useful and I really appreciate all the work you do in running these meetings. We have a little gift for you. >> Little presentation. >> Small for you just as a token of gratitude. I don't have a mic so I won't say much except thank you.
>> Thank you so much. >> A this is so sweet. I really appreciate it. >> Thank you again. You're the best of Brooklyn. Great. Okay, we're three minutes early in the agenda. Um, Superintendent Wong's
report comes up right now. >> So, we have a few things under the superintendent's report. The first one is the FY26 financial update and Dr. Susan Given is going to present that. So, she won't be here to give us the
fourth quarter report because the fourth quarter won't be done till the very end of end of this month. This is um this is kind of a special gift to get this financial update at this time. So, don't expect one next June. Um and um and I
appreciate that she did it, but it it's essentially as close as you can get to a fourth quarter report and and it is a gift that that she's offering. So, I'm gonna She did present at the um subcommittee, but I just thought it's
good for for um just a more public presentation of where we are at the moment financially. >> So, I'll be incredibly brief um and just let you know that uh this report is presented uh for activity through May
the 22nd, not June the 30th. So, um there's still more, uh processing of information and expenses that will hit the books and all of that between now and then. Um but we continue to trend in a very positive way for the year and uh
I anticipate that um we'll close the year and be able to close the uh structural gap that uh we entered the year with. So, that is just really terrific news and I'm sure a relief to everyone here. Um it there's a lot of work that's uh happened throughout the
year in order to make that so um my colleagues in uh the corner offices uh going after special revenue funds and making sure we get every dime out of the reimbursements that we can for circuit breaker and applying for every opportunity we can to uh leverage um you
know resources so that we can um take advantage of those and and we were able to close the gap. So that's good. Uh so at this point in time uh we are um uh we have $822,000
um to the good in our operating budget which is a half a percent remaining in the budget. So that is like really uh landing the ship um close to the margins but on the positive side which is nice uh given the last couple of years we've
really struggled to to um close the year on a positive note. So, um, revenues are higher in special revenue funds, circuit breaker, um, grants, uh, use of facilities. We've buil really been aggressive at at tracking down and, uh,
um, getting all the receipts that we can on the books this year. So, that's great. We'll make some additional um, adjustments between now and the end of the year to take advantage of some of those opportunities and shift some expenses around uh, as we're permitted to do so. And then we'll move some of
those circuit breaker expenses, tuition expenses back onto the operating budget. Um uh and like I said, we'll close uh in a good position by the end of the year. So that's my brief report. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Susan.
>> Um we have one more meeting with with um Susan at school committee and I I must say she is working really hard tying up as many things as she can before she finishes. So, we really appreciate Susan
and Oh, she broke the microphone. >> Oh, pardon. >> She's going out. >> Going out with a bang. All right. Well, thanks. So, and actually, she's going to help support. Hi, welcome. Um, I am the next thing on the on the list is to
update the 26 27 staff materials fee applications. And so as I wrote the committee um we so just backing up we received 20 applications and um and 20 applications 11 for kindergarten, nine for grades 1 through
12. And originally we declined um some of the kindergarters because we were worried that the overall kindergarten um numbers were far below the projection. Um, but I met with the material fee
families and our that are staff and um I really appreciated hearing how how much um they actually really dep or count on the program existing as
it does. Um I heard from some of our staff who have been with us over a decade over a decade. Um but only are just now um have children that are ready to come into kindergarten. So, they've actually
planned where they live. They've planned around this moment and um historically we haven't decline kindergarten. So, um, among the staff, um, they've, nothing's ever guaranteed, but there's a
feeling if you really want to make sure or have the best chance of having your child be accepted through the material fee program, you need to do it for starting with kindergarten. And so I um it I really appreciated hearing that
that for them to have um applications not accepted at kindergart was a very big change from what what they have um what has been practiced in the district. Also overall we have 20 applications. I did um reverse the decision on the
kindergarters and we've already sent those letters out to accept the remaining. So we had accepted five, declined six, and so we sent letters out to accept the other six. But we have nine other students in the grades 1 through 12. And what I what you have is
a chart that was given. It's in your packet and it gives you an idea of where the projection is across the board. K 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 and also the projection for high school. and you just scan it and
you can see when we say oh grade four and grade six are large cohorts. So I'm just going to recite the numbers so that those are watching can get a sense. So
466 464 501 477 543 that's grade 4 500 534 is grade six and grade 7 is 528 and 501. So you can see the differences among the grade cohorts across the level. So practice has been when
applications come in, if it's a large grade cohort, we might say no because we're we're committing to space available. Now the other way of looking at it is if we only have one student
applying, it it doesn't make a difference um across the board. So what you have is a snapshot. These numbers will change over the summer. So I put in a different color. June one. This is a June one
snapshot. You can see what we're talking about in the differences in the size of the grade levels. And you can also see where we are with actual. So with actual we the kindergarten will move the most over the summer but we're a little
worried where projection for a kindergarten is 466 and we're currently at 386. All right so we'll see how the summer goes. Um and then you can also see for the high school where our projections are and you can see across the grade
levels 9 10 11 12. So the actuals right now are for enrollment are 522, 507, 537, 588. So next year senior class will be very big. And so you can see like they they actually, you know, they vary
between 588 and 507. And so it's a challenge sometimes to even out the sections and the right number of teachers and and and all of that. So I am ready to accept the remaining nine
applications for grades 1 through 12. But I felt it was fair more fair for me to share the information that we have at the moment. The snapshot also say that in in our practice we might have declined for some of the larger grade
levels but as you can see we have applications for one one and we do have three for grade nine. Now, grade nine, the rising um grade nine is is um larger than some of the other
grade level cohorts, but it's actually smaller than the graduating what will be the senior class. Keep in mind that the grade nine of the grade levels is the one that will likely increase over the summer. And so, just just to keep that
in mind. So, um, unless I hear otherwise, I'm ready to commit to to accepting the other the other nine. Right. So, we have accepted 11 kindergarteners and that we would accept the other nine.
>> Can I say something? >> Sure. I deeply appreciate um Bella that you reached out to the teachers who are have applied and other teachers who've been involved in the program listened carefully to them and as you said um pe
our teachers build their lives around the materials fee program they depend upon it if they live live in JP or Dim or some other contiguous community um they view the materials fee program as a a very important component of their
commitment to Brooklyn. So, I just want to thank you um for reconsidering um the original position that you took and I think that's a an indication of really really strong leadership. So, thank you. >> Thank you for that. Um I'd also at this
Thank you. At at this time, I'd also like to take an opportunity to point out um why we eliminated a kindergarten section at FRR. So you have the numbers in front of you. Um and what you have is um just the kindergartens. You have the
total number of kindergartens currently enrolled and then you have the current averages. And so for our community I'm just going to cite the averages 15.7 14.3 17.5 13 12.7
16.7 19.5 and 13. The guidance for K is 22. So, we want to acknowledge that because the um the projection for K is 466 and we're currently at 386. We might be
lower than the projection. I don't know by how much. We'll see by the end of the summer, but our average class size for the kindergartens are low right now. when we looked at it, um, we could have possibly removed more kindergarten
sections than the one that we did. Um, we did take the one at F FRR, um, because they have five sections going to four. Um, we did take in consideration other what how impactful it would have been to take the kindergarten section um, and other
schools with fewer sections. The other is at FRR we decided to add a grade five All right. So, the grade five at this time is over guidance. So, we add we took a K, but we added a grade five. And so, in
terms of what we budgeted for the year, we felt like that was a reasonable thing to do given where the averages are. That being said, the average for the kindergarten class right now for FRR is 19.5.
The guidance is 22. Lincoln and Lawrence are shared buffer zones. So Lawrence the average is 13 and Lincoln the average is 12.7. So new families coming into the buffer
zones will likely be enrolled in those other schools. So that's part of the consideration when we thought about what we were doing with the kindergarten sections. Um, so we just just explain what how the decision was made because I know there's some
questions about that. Do you the committee members have any questions about that? >> All right. So, we did eliminate we did Yes. Um, you >> Caroline, >> um, thanks for all this info and I just want to the way this is laid out. I'm
just trying to catch up with understanding the table. So if we're just talking about kindergarten at the moment, so the projection was 466 based on whatever at the m actual means at the
moment we have 386 kindergarters kindergarteners registered. Does that include our 11 materials fee acceptances? >> It includes um five of them.
the other six. >> Okay. So, it'll be 386 plus 6. >> Actually, I'm not sure. Actually, maybe it doesn't include the other six because I changed that. Well, no, June 1. I don't think I changed my mind on before June 1.
>> So, it probably just has the five. Yes. >> Okay. Um, and then, sorry, I can't do the math. It's like a soant but for the what is and then this table with the
averages and the number of sections is today is that right >> June one >> June one okay and what is the total kindergarteners number June 1 >> is so actual see the actual three it's
386 >> okay then I'm not understanding >> okay myction is 466 where >> So my question is whether my first question was does actual mean the number of enrollments we have currently for
school year 2627 but >> actual is all the numbers on the on the page. >> Okay. >> And so what do we have do you know what we have currently for enrollment as of last time? So, um,
you you can just add up all the actuals. So, I didn't total it up. Um, and I should have could have done that. So, do so you would just add all the actuals across for K through 8 and 9 through 12.
You can see so you can see like where we're a little up, we're a little down. So, across the grade levels, projection and actuals. Yes. >> Okay. I guess I'm sorry. I'm going to try this one more time. Does actual mean the actual project enrolled for next
year or children in classrooms >> actual as of June 1 >> is for next year. That's >> for next year. Okay. For next year. >> All for next year. >> And my question is how many kindergarteners do we have in the district this year?
>> Is it just the 464? this year. >> You want this year's? I don't have this. >> I'm just curious. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> So, kindergarten, I'm going to guess that it's 464 because that's what we have as the
projection for first grade for next year. So, I'm guessing there's 464. >> So, it's never ex It's usually not exact. >> Okay. So, kindergarten enrollment is looking a
little low at the moment, but there's a long time to go. >> That's why we reduced one K section. >> Yep. >> So, it it's So, we did we reduced one K section at FRR. We added a grade five to F FRR.
>> Yep. The buffer zones have capacity to take more case >> and so does FR >> and still Lawrence Lincoln >> are they >> and Driscoll >> right >> are really low.
>> Okay. And do these actuals include incoming METCO students and do you know how many METCO kindergarteners are in? We do include the MECO students and I don't know how many K's exactly. I don't know if Susan knows but I don't know
exactly how many Ks is it is are most of our incoming MECO students usually kindergarten you might know. >> Yes. >> Yes typically. >> Okay. >> Thank you Carolyn. >> Great. So we do acknowledge the number is low. That's why
we don't typically reduce a K section in in in this late a year, but that's why we did it. Donna, >> um, can you talk a little bit about for those of us who who who don't know, how does it work when you're thinking when
you're cutting a section, but you're I assume you're also looking ahead if this if the grade above that has more students and you will need to like maybe add a section back at some point. H how do you think about that process? So, because it's the incoming K, we don't
have that one that's going to come. But you're right. Sometimes if we look at a grade one cohort, I if we look at a cohort that's small, we might not eliminate a section because the next one is big. >> So, so exactly. Um, I will say that we
might be heading into an environment where there's going to be some variability and and it it may dip, it may go back up. Um it so um we have or the district has engaged um a consultant from time to
time and so I talked to to Susan Given about this and we think maybe it's a good time to maybe engage to to look because there are just um just different factors that they might see trends that they might know that could help us um
predict. >> Thank you. >> Anybody else? Jesse. >> Yeah. I guess my question is um in comparable comparable districts also have a demographic that's changing at the low age.
>> Um I was just say Brookline is is unique. Okay. >> And so it's hard to look at the other districts and see what's going to happen here. Um it's because of where we're located. Um the jobs that people access here
>> and whatever might be changing in that environment. I think I think Brooklyn might be a little unique and that's why I feel like even though there's a dip, it may rebound. >> Um there many places it's it's it's really
influenced by the housing market. You know, are you having changes in your housing market? And so for here, I think the factors might be just more dynamic. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Okay.
Superintendent your end summary. >> Okay. So, um I apologize. I'm not presenting goals tonight, but I really felt it was so important to just sort of Oh, thanks Betsy. Um just do an end of year report just like a highend
and as she's calling this up. So, the it's so our main areas all right is teaching and learning, student services, administration, finance and operations. So we have our three deputies um Karen Smuckler, Robin Benoy,
and Susan Susan Given. And I have really appreciated the strength of this team and what we've been able to do. But you have three main areas and just understand that each of them then supervise a whole another level of
administrators and then they in turn um supervise a whole another level but beneath them. And all of this translates into um what happens in the schools and in the classroom. So it's really complicated and um lots of different
branches. So the three main areas the next one is just so in the in the end of your summary was orientation establishing working group routines. So coming in as a team 200 plus ent ent entry interviews and I thank so much all the people that were willing to
participate in those because it really really helped me a lot to orient to what were the priorities what to focus on first. Um then completing the SLT team which was um adding Karen and Robin and thank goodness that Susan was here and
remember Susan's finishing her third year. It's still a relatively new team. reestablish school visit rotation, getting out to the schools, but I still feel I can do a lot more next year. But just like getting in and um just seeing
principles in their work environment and seeing teachers there and students, reestablishing the leadership team schedule had really that schedule had really fallen off over the last few years. So we as a SLT we meet every week. the SLT with principles. I was
actually thinking we would meet with them every other Monday. Oh, but I think actually we've pulled them in almost every Monday because there was just so much that we needed their input on. So, I'm hoping next year to give them back some of their time. It's not that easy actually leaving their schools and
coming here and parking and getting here, but they've been really great. And sometimes we've had to zoom like if they have no VPs in their building on a given day. Um but the SLTs with principles we've been pretty much every Monday that's not a holiday three hours every
Monday alto together. The BEu leadership meetings happen um once a month. Parent leader meetings happen every other month with me and the other month was with um school committee. Moving forward I'm going to have them um every month. So
that's been that's a Zoom meeting with all PTO leadership, but also other leadership of CPAC or STS, other parent leaders. Um, town administrator superintendent meetings. We were striving for every other week, but I
know I can always go up and he can always come down. But we've had regular meetings, including Susan and Melissa, and those have been really helpful to just um you know, operating on a no surprise, making sure each knows what's
coming down. And then um the school me school committee chair vice chair meetings are weekly and those have been really helpful to set agendas but also just uh no surprises just sharing things that are going on and obviously the the regularity of the school committee
meetings. So just establishing the routines um and just knowing that those are going to happen because what you do is you save up things and you it's a more efficient use of time and it also reinforces the collaborative nature of
the work. Thank you. Um another endofear highlight is just adjustment to the FY26 reduction. So I'm saying last year's reductions. I just want to say that while we felt them internally, everyone on the outside kind
of expected things to be as norm. And so we had to struggle with like it we were really impacted and everyone else was expecting the same level of resources. So I'm just saying that was an adjustment and u but we lost a lot of
support there. Um, another transition was transfer of base to recreation department. And the shift there is we used to have someone that was um the school department layers on for for that. And so that was a transition to not have that person interface with us,
interface with um with base. Um we also anticipate um additional new district level reductions as we move forward within the departments of HR, OSS, and finance at the district level. But we are looking forward to the restoration
of the director of data and information systems. All to say that it's just been we've been adjusting along the way. Thank you. Teaching and learning. So I'm you know what I'm leading with teaching and learning because that's the heart of what we're all about teaching and
learning. And so there's a lot of things that we were doing implementation of the literacy program in K5 developing what we're going to do in six8 launching um in developing the MTSS um across across the entire district. I would say that's
more been in the in the spring as we're doing that reestablish thinking cyclical review of our curriculum and so that's why we're announcing next year science and technology. So, we've fallen off that cycle goal review. The last um full review was for math and then literacy
was a very ELA was a more limited look at at at um ELA. It's just really important to look at our curriculum over a period of time and affirm what works and prune what doesn't and adopt um new things as they make sense. We also
committed to the district curriculum assessment, you know, and that's a misnomer. It was more than curriculum because they looked at special ed, they looked at finances, they looked at a lot of stuff. So, I'm gonna say it falls under this category and Robin had to sort of organize it, but it was not just
curriculum and we're waiting for that report and we'll get it I think this month. Yeah. um NIA continuing the work that was is required of us which is the visioner of a learner and the curriculum alignment that they're all doing at the
high school but vision of a learner is expanded to include the K12 just highlighting new courses because I think it's kind of cool that we added those courses in computer sciences so bolstering our work in technology algorithm algorithms and data and
systems programming competency determination with because the MCCAST was um removed as a graduation requirement as a a vote across the state, we had to come up with new competencies for graduation as required.
So, that was done. We've been talking about grade nine social studies course, WISP, um and that was presented to us and we'll be talking about it again in the fall. I just just want to note we sent kids out to the Dominican Republic, to Mexico, to Taiwan, and Europe. And
so, um, the things in the world are doing what they're doing. And I just I think it's great that we are committed to have programs that send kids out and we have families that are willing to put the kids in those programs to send them out.
Um, and so we got to get out of our borders. And so, just that. And then a highlight for us is monitoring, supervision, evaluation, and that will be ongoing. That was named as part of um a strategic um goal for the district and
it will remain as such. So next, thank you. Student services, I just want to emphasize student services is more than special education. It's counseling and mental health and um it's anything we do that is an intervention for students. A
lot of it is in general education, not just special education. So, student services is huge, right? And so, we present pieces of it. Um, and they are in partnership with um TNL for launching and developing MTSS
and it's a constant perpetual monitoring of services, compliance and need for training. This is the area that changes without our say. I mean, regulations are always changing and we're just having to
respond when it happens. And so, next, please. Um, over the year, we try to intentionally roll out presentations over the year so they're not all bunched
up so that the school committee members have the opportunity to really absorb the material that's presented to you. So if you note these are the presentations reflective of TNL and student services and you see like there's this regularity of every month you had sort of this
other major thing presented to you and it's on purpose it's intentional and it's also intentional that we keep TNL and services up at the forefront right so that's just a reflection of what you
had this year thank you Um, but a huge focus this year was on financial management and operations. And so I we we have to say we have to address that. But I just really wanted to lead um with TNO and what we do to
support our students around student services. We had a successful close out of FY25 and we closed it out at sometime in November. That was no small task because what was left out of FY25 was frankly kind of a mess. And so, thank
you to Susan and everyone in her department and also to the contributions of the deputies in being able to close out FY25. Um, and again adjusting like everything like things that were being that have been eliminated.
FY26 has been better than on target with a structural deficit. We came into this year with a 1.9 million structural deficit. We are currently narrowed it down to about 500,000. We are on target to perhaps closing it even more. And so
it's amazing. FY26, no surprises. Susan has been on target with her quarterly reports. No surprises. And we are better than on target. So thank you to all that hard work. And we now have solid preparation for FY26 without a deficit
hanging over us. That is such a big deal. All right. We are going to go into the year without worrying about this deficit. How we were going to pay for things that were not in the budget. I want to highlight we had successful
progress on PSB town CLA MOA which sunsets in October 2026. On that was the approval of financial policy. On that was the quarterly reports. On that was the student services presentation that happened in November. We did everything
that was in it. The only piece left on to be done is the mun working group. Everything else has been addressed but it's sunsets in October. So we're actually still within the window that we said we would get it all done. We would hope we could get um the mun part done
but we will. Um other things were transportation for South Brooklyn that was really frustrating at the start of the year but we were able to resolve that ultimately. We also needed to add um transportation for Pierce after school programs and this was really to
support um equity for those students that are now on a split campus that they're able to access everything else that the students at the other K8s are doing. And we've done a lot of work on updating the emergency protocols. Most schools went through evacuation drills
and they're updating. They weren't perfect, so they were up they're updating to make them and responding to those experiences. Next, please. Um, just highlights on accountability. We always have to do endofear audits.
That always happens, but we got extra audits this year. So, desi audit of the IDA grant. And you know what? We were expecting something to come out of it. I we were really really proud to have nothing out of compliance and no corrective actions. So that was an
amazing result. MTRS got audited. We had the district curriculum assessment and and I am listing it because they looked at our finances and operations again. We had the town audit committee that was working with us because of the CLA
review report. And so once the CLA audit, theou was done, um they they sort of stepped back and let us have space to do the MOA and so we were able to do that. And of course, we're always meeting with advisory and the advisory
subcommittees. There are a lot of people in advisory on a lot of subcommittees. So they are always working with us and asking questions to make sure that we are accountable for um what we say we're going to do. Next, please.
just um highlight some there are a lot of small casual capital projects. I just want to state you know we have this big building project that is going on next door and it's been kind of quiet which is good news it so I'm used to building
projects where it's like we found something we weren't supposed to find or something or we need to do these big change orders etc etc. So it is it's huge that that project has been going on as it has been without um
without without big problems and changes and so that's exciting. Um the school committee did approve a solar project at Driscoll. The school committee did approve EV charging stations and um so just in supporting sustainability you
did approve the climate leaders application for municipal decar decarbonization roadmap fleet management I don't know that's what the title was fleet management electrification and vehicle replacement policy you did approve the Brooklyn music school project which is citing right there next
to Lincoln school and I'm just going to take the chance to address the school rooftop playgrounds since we're on the top of capital projects. So, um the Driscoll school project has been closed out, meaning any funding that was left
in that project is closed out and the team that would have addressed with any lingering issues around the project that is no that no longer exists. So we know that the rooftop playground there is a there is an issue when in warm weather
with the exposure to the sun on the impact on the temperature of the surfaces on the school rooftop playground because the main body is no longer in place. Um and also there's been
changes in leadership on some of the other departments. um park for example that has a new leader. I'm a new leader. There are other new leaders. So we don't know what happened, what got ruled out and
and why we why we were totally why we are in this situation. Now I will say we now understand what happened. Um, umbrellas were were supposed to be the solution for the rooftop. The umbrellas
cannot go in. Um, it has to do with what would support the umbrella and the proximity of that support being too close to the play structure and as you can imagine students running around and so you can't put things where they can
run into them because they run into things even when you don't think they're going to run into them. So the umbrellas and additional structure cannot be done. One of the options that have been considered originally I understand now
we're putting sales up. So where we are right now is um in conversation with the architect who has been generous to allow us to talk to them directly is to re-examine reook at the other proposals
that were considered. It's entirely um they entirely thought the rooftop might be an issue. So, it's not like they didn't think about it. Um but they had resolved a different solution which is not the one we can do. So, we're in the process of working with the architect.
We um may need designs to be finalized and then we need to see what that will cost and then we will determine on what we can do to um address the funding needs. But right now we are in that place but we are making progress right
because we know what we know what we had and what we can't do and so we're moving forward about um with other solutions. The Lincoln playground I know people have been asking about that. That money was being held for the schools in case we needed it. We didn't need it this
year as Susan Given has presented. We've actually narrowed the deficit um even further. And so this was in case we exceeded the deficit and we didn't. So that money is available and they it's all in there for FY27.
Next next slide please. Just this really big deal. You the school committee has been busy. I've never seen a school committee so busy on their policies. Um, so the civil rights student policy, it's great that has been
passed because it was important for us because it gives us the base of the training and also gives us the base to address um when things go wrong like what's the process for that? the financial policy.
Thank you to Mariah Norrea. That was on her to-do list and it was listed as one of the things to be done on the MOA. And so, um, thank you to everyone, Jesse, everybody, Syra, um, on the finance subcommittee to get that done. But
that's huge. So, there's a big huge manual now done, um, um, that that's in place. physical restraint policy, administration and medication policy are things where I said, you know, changing rules and we have to like kind of drop everything and meet those deadlines and
get them done. So, thank you. Next, please. Just some highlighted recognitions, you know, here at school committee, the MASS student awards, Alana, Beatatrix, um, Aia Mason, and Aiden Sullivan. And what was
really heartwarming were all the testimonials and all these people that came to root the students on and also the BF Cavali awards which were presented here. Huge huge um honor for them and I just thought you know kudos to Steve Lantos who's retiring this
year. He got a scholarship in his name. >> Yes, you approved it. It's a Yeah, >> I didn't know he was retiring. >> Oh, he is retiring. So kudos to Steve. I feel like it's really very cool >> and and thank you to Andy Louu and Mariah our school committee members that
have you know that were so much part of FY26 not here tonight and then also um to our PSB administration Donna Finnegan Susan Given Patricia Laham retiring yes
she's retiring um and I don't know what how to say but you know there was the unexpected did a chemistry lab accident in July, but also throughout the year the loss of loved ones, whether it was like a recent student alum, parents, um
guardians, you know, other loved ones that we lost in this year and they impacted us sometimes more in the immediate um environment in a in a particular school or sometimes the loss was so big that impacted us as a town. And so I
just want to acknowledge that that happened and then the myriad of legal actions that everyone came together to address as they might come. And did you notice I did not mention the override because so much has been said about the override and I just want to say there was so much
more that happened and and the override's so great and you know about the override. We talked about it. So many of our our meetings were around the about the override and um and so very grateful and I and it's going to give us
the capacity to do more on teaching and learning and and supports for students in the next year and I'm very very grateful for that. Thank you. So,
Bella Wong is a very modest human. And when I excuse me, when I say what I'm about to say, which is not a formal evaluative statement, Bella, Bella's going to go like this because that's who she is. But anybody
who's who just watched that presentation with dozens and dozens of topics and issues and in degrees of complexity and magnitude, anybody who watched Bella's
ability to be engaged in all of those items and issues and topics to me is extraordinary. Um, she's been here for less than a year and her knowledge of the system is deep and
and complex and impressive and this is a big and complex organization and you've been here for less than a year and you know this organization now as well as any superintendent that I've ever seen. Um, so you can put your head
down, but I just want to say you are an impressive and wonderful individual and we are so lucky that you are here. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> You want to say something? >> Yeah, go ahead. >> I was gonna say it's a good place to
work. I have a wonderful team. There are wonderful educators and wonderful students. Um, and and so very talented in many ways. So, it's Anyway, thank you. >> Sarah >> wanted to take this opportunity to ask
if you feel that you are fully staffed for HR currently. >> We have not at the moment um but we do have a new HR director that will start July 1. We still have um part-time consultant. We had someone return from
from a maternity leave. So, we're more fully staffed than we have been. And um so we so we're not we're not fully staffed because we don't have a an HR director in place. So thanks to Susan um we've been sort of doing it between the
two of us. Um not at the moment but July one. >> Great. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Comments. No. If there are no comments, we move on to public comment. And I think most people know we
encourage the community to come here either in person or virtually and express themselves as part of the democratic world that we live in. And you each get about well you each get no more than three minutes. And Betsy's a great timekeeper. And so Betsy also has
a list of people who are speaking. So here we go. Public comment. Uh >> our first speaker is Oz Pelchic. Good evening. My name is Oz Polic and I'm in eighth grade at the Driscoll School. Uh, unfortunately, I have to delete leave directly after my comment
because I have a school band concert. But, um, some of you may remember me from a few months ago when I spoke about bringing back level social studies for 9th grade at BHS. My grader recently has been working on a civic action project in social studies class where we've all chosen a cause that we're passionate
about to advocate for. I decided to continue advocating for leveling. And in my research, I came across a law, specifically title 7, chapter 71, section 13 of the Massachusetts General Law, that says, and I quote, "Any course not included in the regular regular
curriculum shall be taught if the parents or guardians of not less than 30 pupils request in writing the teaching thereof, provided that the implementation of said course is voted by twothirds or more of the full membership of the school committee. This is a tremendous opportunity to finally get it passed without any obstacles from
third parties. I've written a petition for current eighth grade parents on bringing back level social studies. My minimum requirement is 30 signatures. I've reached 33 and counting. This still not including the many other Brooklyn residents who believe in students having the opportunity to receive rigorous
instruction on subjects they're passionate about. I understand this issue has been debated and discussed extensively, but as we learned this year in civics, elections matter. So, as I stand here today before the new and improved Brooklyn School Committee, I urge all of you to give students who are
passionate about social studies the same opportunities as you give to every other student. Thank you. >> Uh, next we have Linda Roseman. >> I agree with everything that Oz just said. That's a tough act to follow. I'm Linda Roseman. I'm a town meeting
member. I'm a retired Driscoll prek parah hay school substitute teacher former chair police commissioners advisory committee and I'm a current community liaison to the hay school council. Five years ago our wellrespected school resource officer
program fell victim to the nationwide anti- police sentiment generated by the murder of George Floyd. Our program was a model for other municipalities and ironically we are now one of the few schools school districts without a
school resource program. At an August 2024 policy subcommittee meeting principles were invited to come and discuss their priorities for the coming year. That was in 2024. One of their top asks was a reinstatement of the SRO program.
SRO's were not security guards, surveillance teams, or disciplinarians. They forged relationships with students and connected the school, students, and their families to services and resources in the community. The school resource
officer was often cited by students as one of the trusted adults they felt they could talk to or go to for help, advice, and support. SRO's taught classes on internet safety, relationship safety, drug and alcohol use and abuse, and included lessons on
how certain behaviors can result in criminal charges. And yes, their presence also helped to deter violence involving students and the use, abuse, and distribution of drugs and alcohol on school grounds. Perhaps most
importantly, being on scene helped them to steer misguided students away from the juvenile justice system and connect them to support services. Students who were firsttime offenders were given a second chance to avoid prosecution when SRO's were able to
intervene and negotiate diversionary contracts. Community policing is about relationships. Public safety officers are part of our community. Police officers should not be anonymous people in uniforms. Forming
and maintaining relationships between our young people and our public safety officers is good policy. Our principles want this. At the August 2024 policy subcommittee meeting, principles spoke eloquently about the void created by the
absence of SRO's. They were ignored. Let's support them and bring back our school resource officer program. Thank you. Uh, next we have Talage Nardi. Right. I'm Talage Nardy. I'm a nth grade English teacher at Brooklyn High School and I have a second and fifth grader in
Brooklyn. Um, but I am actually here to share a group statement from the Brooklyn school staff who have children enrolled in the materials fee program. Um, we heard some good news even as I was walking in. Um, I want to express our gratitude for the recent decision to
accept kindergarten applicants to the materials fee program and it sounds like all applicants. Um, we specifically thank the Brook Lion School Committee members for hearing our concerns and to Bella for her willingness to meet a large group of Brookline faculty and
staff late last Friday afternoon. As she saw from the turnout in the meeting, those who are invested in the program include hiring managers, parents of Brooklyn graduates, current parents of students in the program, and staff hoping to enroll their children this
year and in future years. As she heard in the meeting, this program enables our schools to recruit and retain talented educators for many years. Listening is not an easy skill, especially when it means truly hearing other people's
perspectives and experiences. We thank Bella for reconsidering her original decision in light of hearing the impact on Brookline faculty and staff and to genuinely understand their personal stories. Bella's prompt and sincere engagement was deeply appreciated.
Finally, we want you all to know that we love working in Brookline. We love our students and we value the opportunity to have our own children attend the schools where we work every day. Thank you. Uh and our last speaker is Thomas Reid.
>> Good evening everybody. I was here in December reading an open letter and I'm going to just read some some parts of that and come with a new take on the same same topic. Um, again, my name is Thomas Reid. I'm the executive director of Driscoll Extended Day Program, DEDP,
and I'm here to talk about the fact that from 3 to 6 every weekday, there is no school town staff on site to manage entry into Driscoll School. Um, as a result, DDP staff end up handling access for our families each day. We love that. We're also constantly interacting with
anyone else who needs to enter the building after after hours. That we love less. This includes non- DADP caregivers, school staff attending meetings, outside instructors, uh students arriving for lessons or practices, playground users, community members, right? There's I think a Pierce concert happening there now. Um we
frequently let in parents who are coming for parent teacher conferences, right? School structured school uh scheduled events. Um the new DR school building was designed and promoted as a community resource and is widely rented by community stakeholders, choirs, churches, theater groups, music lessons,
and town meetings. These renters all face the same building access issues and often rely on DADP staff for help. While we while we are committed to supporting the larger districtal community, it shouldn't fall on DDP to manage building access for every individual entering or exiting after school hours. Current town
policy requires each renter organization to manage its own access plan. Which means that for up to 10 10 programs in the building after school, each group should hire its own individual person to manage staff access after that time. Um
I'm just here essentially to point out the was that >> Oh, okay. Sorry. >> No, no worries. I've and that was that that is where I wanted to kind of um leave my prepared remarks and just point out the the redundancy there, right? And
that that redundancy represents a huge amount of waste, right? We're saying that for Brookline music school to run a single one-hour lesson policy is they need to provide two teachers, right? because otherwise they're leaving, you know, if a if a family arrives 10
minutes early for their lesson, say on a day that's 20 degrees, we had a bunch of those this last winter. Well, then town policy says I need I am required to leave that child outside in the cold, right? I can't do that. Town policy says that Brookline music school's responsibility is to have two educators
there. one to run the lesson and the other let the Pearson in multiplied by every rental program in the building. You see it just doesn't make sense, right? And I want to highlight again to me what makes Brookline so special as a town is the vibrancy of these resources
and services. And I think that amount of waste can only kill that vibrancy, right? And can only limit the amount of access to these services. I think the metaphor that comes to my mind is like the fumble on the 5yard line, right? I think we've built this wonderful school
playground and we're working on how to manage the heat, right? I know that was something that was mentioned. I think the same could be said with the field, right? The the playground in the field on the other side of Driscoll is awesome. As I I took a quick headcount as I left just now, about 75 or 80
families, right? There's a bathroom on the exterior of the building. You can't get into it. There are three bathrooms inside. You can't get into them. So for those 70 or 80 people, all of the landscaping around Driscoll is dying from a torrent of toddler urine. There
just is no other option, right? That is, you know, parent, they're they're coming with a a common sense solution to a this thing. And again, I think the metaphor for me is that drop on the five yard line, right? I think we have this awesome gym that we want to rent out, but we have no way to let teams in. And
I'm frequently dealing with frustrated B-rec basketball parents who say, "Why won't you let me into the gym?" I say, "The town says I'm not supposed to let you into the gym." And they say, "We call the coach, but it," you know, I'm having those types of interactions constantly. And I think if we continue with that metaphor, right? We've dropped
the ball on the five yard line. We're in luck, right? because all we need to do is pick it up and move just this little last step to hugely up the amount of access that the whole community is getting to these resources and services that they are paying for and have paid
for. Um so again I I come here you know not just as an extended day director but as somebody who just sees the whole community just like tantalus out of reach of these awesome services that they you know
voted for in this huge number with the the override. I I view that as a mandate that this is what Brookline is about. So I come asking please help us get awesome access to our awesome resources. Um and thank you so much for your time.
>> Thank you. The policy manual says that the chair can direct public commenters in some direction. So I guess thank you so much for your presentation. Bella is who who can we >> reached out to?
>> Actually this is something we we've been working on. It's just we just didn't get it done this year. So, our issue is um how to compensate for it. We we're actively looking at it. Yeah.
>> It's about locked doors, right? >> It's about it's about having someone there to open it and so who's who's opening it and and compensating them. And so, it could be I mean, we I would like to look at the
use of the buildings and and um it might be embedded in the rental fee, you know, that we can do it, but we just couldn't do it mid >> in the middle of it. So, we have to look back and and figure it out. But it is something where it's a problem. I would
acknowledge it's a problem, right? >> Yes. >> Thank you, Donna. >> It's okay. >> Okay. >> No, I was just going to add that it's at multiple locations, not only at Driscoll. So last year in policy we
heard from all the other programs Hayes FRR etc that it's a recurrent issue. So it's good that we're working on it and uh you know maybe this summer we figure it out. >> Okay. >> So yeah >> it just it brought back memories to me because when I was growing up the high
school gym the high school the elementary school gym was open and everybody went after school to the gym um played ball. So that today we lock schools. We didn't do that back then. Anyway, thank you. Okay. Um, any
comments? Anybody want to say anything? No. Presentations and discussions of current issues. We have an update on the implementation of the district literacy curriculum. Robin. >> Thanks. Thanks, Robin. And Joelle
Peterson. And they came from another from a SCS >> um Yes. event. Oh, >> good luck. >> See you on Sunday. Bring it bring a rainer.
Um, as Bella looked back on, we came to you in the fall and updated you on our plans for the year with our literacy implementation um, at the K5 and the 68 level. Um, so we're back again, Dr. Peterson and
myself um, to give you an update of where we are and where our priorities lie in the next year. Um, and as we start, I also want to acknowledge Kristen Gray, who is our K8 ELA coordinator and all of her hard work
this year. Um, she presented with us in the fall. She was unable to be with us here tonight. Otherwise, she would have been. Um, but she had a prior family commitment. Um, so she was not able to. I I think you know we can't start this presentation without um acknowledging
all of her work this year and you know what a big undertaking it is to launch um curriculum across a district um and not just at one level but at K5 and 68. Um so um so as we present our overview
this this evening we're going to give a little background as you know I like to do just to kind of reorient ourselves about where we're at. We have um some new members with us um now. So, we want to make sure everybody's in the same place. Um we're going to talk about some of our learnings um from the
implementation and we're going to talk about our next steps for next year and beyond because it's um it's a continuing process there. Really, as we talked about curriculum review earlier, as Bella mentioned, it really that really is an iterative, you know, process that
it's never really done. um it's just in different stages of where you're at and you're constantly reflecting back on and looking to improve that. So if we take it from that lens of continuous improvement. Okay. So this is a slide I shared at the beginning of the year. So this is just
to remember to ground us in that review process. And when we think about the curriculum review process, we're thinking about you know is there learning and preparing we need to do as we as we review our curriculum. We're investigating different options, looking at our own curriculum, and we're in this
case, we were selecting um we were in that launch mode of piloting and starting to really think about what the implementation would look like last spring and over the course of the summer and preparing um for all of our educators for this fall um to be
implementing new curriculum, which as I, you know, continue to say is no small undertaking, right? They're learning something new. they're trying something for the first time. Um, and when you think about pacing or you think about materials, they're learning all of that. Even though they are experienced and
they come with this wealth of knowledge and we have excellent teachers as Bella said earlier, um, there's still a learning process that happens anytime you're implementing something new. I also just want to highlight that throughout this project we you know this process we've had a number of
partnerships in the learning particularly in that learning and preparing um phase and certainly as we have gone through this year as well um and in our strategic planning as we move forward. So some of the partners that are up on you know our list are we
continue to work with um the spec specifically school kit we've worked a lot with school kit this year and we'll talk about that um we have continued to work with new teacher center particularly around as we think about how this fits into our MTSS work because
these are deeply tied together. Um okay next slide. I also want to make sure that we remind ourselves of our district strategic priorities. So our strategic plan had outlined this as a priority for us of increasing the achievement of all
students by establishing and implementing and regularly assessing a consistent highquality and challenging curriculum delivered using evidence-based practices and specifically as it relates to ELA. So, we had an action item of that we would
be selecting evidence-based materials and providing professional learning opportunities to offer effective tier one instruction to teach all literacy components. Okay, next slide. Thank you, Robin. So before we jump into sharing our learnings from this first
year of implementation, we thought it would be helpful to provide a little bit of context um and understanding around where fish tank fits in terms of the larger K8 literacy curriculum. So when we think about the skills that we want
our readers and writers to develop, we can think about two domains. Word recognition, which would be the decoding skills. Um those are primarily targeted through three evidence-based programs. Um foundations and heard in grades K
through two and spelling connections in grades three through five which target skills like phmic awareness, phonics, morphology, those foundational literacy skills. The other domain we want to be thinking about here is language comprehension.
This is the skill set that supports higher level comprehension of text. when we think about building knowledge, vocabulary development, close reading skills and how those are applied in students discussion and their writing. And so this is the domain that fish tank
primarily is targeting for us. So I just want us to understand that fish tank is a piece but not the full breadth of our literacy program. You can go to the next slide. Thank you. Um, I also think it's important, um, as Robin already alluded to, to understand this work as connected
to the larger focus on MTSS, um, which we shared a little bit about at curriculum subcommittee a couple months back. This, I think, is actually the first reveal of our our visual our um, our that we've designed to ground this work in PSB. So, very exciting. I'm
sure I'll be talking a lot more about it, but tonight I just want to highlight one element of this visual, which is that the foundation of this entire system of supports is a solid tier one curriculum, right? We know that all
students deserve access to coherent evidence-based instruction in the general education classroom. And so that is what is so important about this fish tank adoption is that it has really allowed for us to move towards coherence and ensuring that all students are
having similar access to these highquality instructional materials in every building. And of course we can also think about a tiered system of supports in in that skills domain. The three curricula I mentioned are really our our core programs for foundational literacy skills. We've also thought a
lot this year about how we can support literacy intervention at higher tiers. Um building more robust practices around structured literacy through adoption of programs like EUI and refining our um universal screening practices with MCLS.
So all that is related um work that I think we'll we'll see um is is really central to this MTSS structure that we're trying to build. Betsy, you can move forward. Uh thank you. Um so this slide we also shared earlier in the year
just to give a sense of the several different feedback loops that we were hoping to create in this first year of implementation. Uh as a quick reminder this year we have had full implementation of fish tank in grades K through five in every building and partial implementation in grades six
through eight with a plan for full implementation in those grades next year. Let's see you can move forward. Okay. So, we have some adorable kindergarteners at Driscoll uh to act as our entry point into this next
slide. Um, we thought we we'd start by answering the question of like what are we seeing in 15 classrooms or how does the literacy instruction that we're seeing now look different than years past. And I think you know this this is all informed by the the collaborative observations that we've done as part of
learning walks um feedback from teachers informal classroom visits um all of these things um that we're seeing. So I think the most salient dimension that you would notice in walking into a 15 classroom is the fact that students are not grounded in this shared experience
of reading a common grade level text. So this emphasis on complex text that serves the role both of helping students to develop their reading skills but also building knowledge about the world. Right? Fishtank is a knowledge building curriculum. So they are reading and
writing about meaty content. And so this this experience of everyone having that shared reading experience looks different than what you might have seen in a classroom doing guided reading for example which was a popular model. Um and you know this requires high levels of support right to ensure that all
students can access that grade level text. So you'll see a lot of explicit teaching around routines for reading vocabulary discussion um explicit instruction in comprehension strategies to support access to those texts as
well. And then in terms of writing instruction, um, different than in years past, perhaps students are writing primarily in response to the texts that they're reading, both for the purposes of solidifying their understanding and supporting their comprehension, but also
demonstrating they're learning. Um, and they're they're writing in multiple genres. So, in both reading and writing, there's this heavy emphasis on non-fiction. Again, back to the purpose of knowledge building. So kids are really grappling with content that they
are also thinking about in science and social studies. Um and there's um a lot of potential as we'll speak about later um in terms of integration of those curricula um across the school day. Let's see. You can move to the next slide. Thank you. I just wanted to speak a little bit about what our structure
for professional learning has looked like this year. And I I'll start by saying I think if you talk to most teachers, they would tell you they they wish they had more, right? um we are working within the structures available to us um and and you know providing the support where we can but I think there's
there's always more to learn and more support that we wish we could offer. Um this year we've been able to um use some of our Tuesday afternoon time on um five days to provide support around fish tank and also a half day of that PD session
that happened in November um was devoted to fish tank primarily focused on intellectual prep by grade level and when I say intellectual prep I mean this very structured process of unpacking lessons and units and really thinking about how am I how am I understanding
learning targets is how am I preparing these materials so that they are accessible to my students and and and able to meet the needs of the students in front of me. There's a really important piece of this implementation process that we've prioritized in professional development. Much of this has been led by the literacy specialists
at the building level. We've also had dedicated training for our PAR professionals um with our OSS partners. We think it's really important um that there is that cohesive understanding for anybody working with children in the classroom to to be able to to understand
fish tank and the instructional moves required. And so that has been important in terms of building that shared understanding. Um there's also been um outside of structured professional development time opportunities for collaboration and feedback from educators throughout the year. Bless
you. Um we've the allergies are real right now. Um We have offered uh fish tank forums, optional fish tank forums during collab time, multiple points throughout the year where um grade level teachers have um met as a team to share resources,
provide feedback, troubleshoot, um ask questions. These have also been facilitated by literacy specialists. Those those have been really productive opportunities um for for teachers to collaborate with each other. We've also had the opportunity um each grade band
of teachers uh K235 and 60 has met directly with fish tank developers to provide feedback to ask questions to get support. Um and those have been really valuable conversations as well. And I just want to underscore how unusual it
is for a curriculum developer to be that accessible and and to really be willing to sit down for three hours and talk to teachers and provide that direct level of support. So that is something I very much appreciate. um about this program. Um we've we can think about other layers
of instructional support as well. Um monthly literacy specialist meetings have um very much focused on preparing literacy specialists to support implementation in their buildings. And uh Kristen and I have met monthly with um our partners in English language
education and special education to think about issues related to accessibility and inclusion for those groups of students. And then to get back to um the initial slide thinking about feedback loops um we talked a lot in our first
presentation about learning walks and wanting to leverage this as a structure to support implementation. So to this point we have been able to conduct four learning walks at four different buildings um with um in each of these sessions 40 building administrators, literacy specialists and district
leaders all taking the opportunity to calibrate ourselves around a common look fors tool and really just develop a shared understanding of what to look for in a fish tank classroom. Um understanding of the trends that we're seeing in instruction and how we can better support teachers in this work. So
that has been hugely valuable and we hope to do more of that next year. Um there's also been many opportunities for teachers to provide feedback directly on the curriculum. I will give Kristen a lot of credit here. She is a very busy
woman, but has really made it a priority throughout the year to meet with every grade level team in every building multiple times. And when you do the math, right, nine grade levels times eight buildings, that's a lot of meeting time. Uh but but I think those have really paid dividends in terms of her
being able to collect the kind of in-depth feedback that she needs from teachers to support the work and also just building a shared sense of ownership and collaboration through this process. Um we have also just uh sent out an end of the year survey to educators on their experiences with fish
tank. Um so we're looking forward to digging into those results. Um and we imagine that many of those trends will confirm what what we're already speaking about here. Um and we've also been trying to get some student perspective particularly in grades six through eight where u teachers have been administering
end of unit surveys for students um and using those both for their own self-reflection but also to um inform instruction planning. And then as Robin mentioned we've had um several very important partnerships in this implementation. We've already talked about um the feedback sessions that
teachers have had with FishTank. Um Kristen and I also meet bi-weekly with Fish Tank to, you know, think with them about how to support implementation, strategize, ask questions, give feedback. Um there's also a really exciting opportunity for six of our teachers from grades six through eight
um have been asked to join their tech selection committee. So they are working directly with FishTank to look at some of the texts in the middle school curriculum and think about um additional texts that they might want to bring in. So, that's a a really cool opportunity for them. Um, and as Robin also
mentioned, we've been working since last summer with School Kit. Um, they are one of the Desi approved implementation support partners that we were able to access through the prism grant and they've been really helpful in terms of helping us design a strategy here and think, you know, long term about, you
know, what our hopes are, indicators for success and also um, in helping to facilitate the learning walks. So, that has been a really valuable relationship as well. All right. So, some of the trends that we're seeing, so one thing that we noted
is particularly as students are responding to text. So, high levels of oral discourse with students, um, structured pair and small group discussions, stronger inferencing abilities, vocabulary routines. Um, what you see here is actually a picture, I
believe it was a fifth grade classroom, and they were working in their in groups. They were discussing a novel. They were looking for evidence in the text in this picture of um you know a a question that they they were all and they were looking for um
evidence quotes, character actions that would kind of lead them to come to a conclusion around that question. Um and that was actually really exciting to see. This was a picture from one of our learning walks that we did. Um, we were also able to see on that same day kind
of the foundation for that being built in the fourth grade. So, this is the fifth grade. They were looking at more complex text. They were looking for different kinds of evidence. It was a little bit more concrete in the fourth grade. So, you could really see how that skill of being able to um speak to the
text in their writing um could was built over time. That improved writing stamina. kids are writing a lot as part of this um as part of their the routines of this curriculum. So, and substantive writing, so really thinking about the
meat of what they're writing. So, if we're thinking about critical readers, critical writers, um we're seeing that happen in the classroom, high level of engagement with the content and as Joel said earlier, strong connections to science and social studies. So when we talk about a knowledgebased curriculum,
we're seeing these places for that crosscurricular connection and we'll talk about a little bit about what that work might look like as we think about our priorities moving into next year. Our coordinators are already thinking about that. Um and that's a really exciting opportunity.
Next slide. Um so some of the lessons learned. So really getting intentional about the pacing of units. As we said at the beginning, it's, you know, it's difficult and the first time you do anything, you know, you're you don't have your pacing down yet. Something might take a little bit longer. You're
learning it. So, as we begin to work together in those collaborative teams of teachers, why it is so important that they're talking with one another and thinking about what the pacing looks like through the year, um schedules, schedules of our buildings, that's come
up before, but certainly not just at the middle school, but as at K52 and thinking with intention about how our schedules really support targeted small group reading instruction, particularly at our K2 level. um and how it really
how they support ensuring support for all kids in the classroom. So, as Joel talked about, you know, those partnerships with special education and our EL e supports, how do all how does all that align? We're all working together on a schedule that allows us um
to be a team for kids in that way. Um the need for focused um work on accessibility. So, that is really a next step. We've started those conversations and really thinking about how we ensure um accessibility for all students, how we partner together as adults to support
students. Um there's a strong desire for additional professional learning and collaboration. We hear it over and over again for teachers that they they really value their time collaborating with their colleagues. So, you know, where do we intentionally find that? And that's um
why Tuesday afternoons are so important? um and being able to use that time with intention and ensure that collaboration is happening, those opportunities to bring people together. Um and then opportunities for science and social studies integration. So, as we think
about, you know, certainly as we've gone through the pace of the year the first time and we're thinking like, hey, wait a minute, we need to kind of think about not only how how the scope and sequence aligns for ELA, but where do the where do units align with science and social
studies and how do we pace them so that there's integration there and we're we're also um you know making it make sense. We're seeing those crosscurricular connections for kids. are thinking about it holistically. Um so that is a place where we um we need
to do some focused work um as coordinators and they've begun those conversations and also allow for bringing in um educators to those conversations around what that looks like in the classroom and get their voices into that. Um next slide. So some
of our priorities for the coming year. So full implementation is in grades six through eight. As we said at the beginning, it's been partial implementation in 6 through 8. Um, a partnership with crafting minds to enhance our implementmentation of evidence-based literacy instruction. And
this is really focused primarily on our literacy specialists and our administrators. So again, p building capacity um in those two groups um to be able to continue to support classroom educators and our support staff in that in in this
work. Um and I you know I need to recognize that that work next year is being supported by um a BEF grant. Um I also want to rec recognize BEF's partnership in this. As Joel said, School Kit, we were able to to bring in School Kit initially through the Prism 3
grant. We were also ex able to extend some of that support through um a BEF grant during the year. So they've been uh supportive of that place of ensuring that we have some of those funds um where we weren't able to support it otherwise to continue the learning for our educators. Um collaboration with
science and social studies as we've said to align um and strengthen our curriculum overall. Um certainly as we go into a science review um in the coming year, we're thinking about that particularly and what that means for um our K5
um teachers as they're you know managing both um continuing learning walks. So this has been a really positive experience um really trying to build capacity at the at the building level to ensure that that practice is sustainable and that it extends beyond literacy.
literacy has been a vehicle for us to begin that practice. Um, and really coming together around not just walking into classrooms generally, but having a focus and having the opportunity to discuss after about what we're seeing and what we take away and what does that
mean and what does that mean that teachers might need in my building if we're thinking about that with building level teams. Um, professional learning focused on writing progression and enhancing our assessments overall. And we also recognize as we think about it's you
know as Joelle shared all the components of our literacy program really thinking about that refresher of foundations like that professional learning we need a refresher every so often for our K2 teachers our literacy and our EL specialists again thinking about these are all components and we need everyone
to have that learning and be on board. So um that's where we are in the coming year. We've got still got a lot of work to do in literacy. Um but it's you know it's been it's been a learning journey this year for us. So and need to commend all of our teachers um for their hard work
>> implementation. You made a lot of progress. >> Thank you very much all the questions comments Sarah. >> Yeah. Yeah. As Bella said, you've made a lot of progress, and it's nice when um these reports, you're not just repeating what you did before, but we're really
hearing what the growth that's happened since there. It sounds to me like um Fish Tank's really working out for us with um consistency of practice. Um and that there's like rigorous um texts and expectations. Um I didn't really hear you talk about common assessments, but I
think that's part of it, too. Um which will really help us out with MTSS, so that's that's great to hear about. And I love when I hear you talk about um paid time for uh educators to get together. That's great. Especially so I'm always thinking about the middle school level. It's just where my head is. And
especially if these with these rigorous texts, like if there's a lot of background knowledge that you want to bring to the texts, I' love for educators to have time to explore those subjects and really feel like they're prepared to talk to the students at this high level about, you know, the topics
that are contained in in the texts. Uh what I didn't hear um so I didn't hear reference to what we've always done in Brookline, you know, like are those wonderful libraries that were the classroom libraries and the ELA teachers are those um libraries books now in the
actual school library are is there time for choice and voice for students or like are they are are students still able to explore the joy of learning like where is where are the literature circles where you know and I I hope that um we didn't throw out everything that
we had before, right, with this and we're we're taking time to still bring in what the educators brought even prior to fish tank showing up. Um, so I just hope that we'll have that deep engagement and joy of learning with
reading, you know, still even with it's great to have fish tank, but um that we keep what the good that we had before. that um I would say classroom libraries are still inc critically important and choice for students is still critically important and we also have to think
about what instruction to the whole class looks like right so there's there's a balance there um I think that deep knowledge building particularly at the middle school you you bring up an important point and that I think that's where it's even more critical that we're thinking about um how we think
crosscurricularly around using our partners that we're not so siloed in middle school and I think we've seen some of that collaboration happening. So we've talked a lot about the elementary in terms of alignment but also support teams supporting one another and thinking about how we build knowledge
for texts, right? Because that's that's always been part of of English teachers and certainly part of our English teacher work at the high school as they're engaging in various novels. But I think that collaboration has been critically important and the fact that
you know to me there's also this piece of um having a district-wide curriculum where we have many voices coming to that collaboration whereas you know previously if we had different things happening in different places you might
have had a collaboration with somebody on your team but I think we're we're broadening that circle and we're bringing many educators to that conversation which I think is critically important um when we think about all of our students. >> I think yeah I'll just add quickly um you know having spent a lot of time in fish tank classrooms and I I think
teachers would tell you the same thing the joy is there kids are engaging with these texts at a very high level and and the writing tasks like they're so excited to share their folktales or you know tell you about what they've been talking about with breadwinner. So these the topics in these texts are are really
um high interest. And so I do think that we are still seeing that spark that is so important. And I I also think that one of the things I very much appreciate about fish tank is that it's a curriculum designed with a lot of professional respect behind it. Right?
It is engineered for levels of autonomy where teachers are making decisions about the structures that they're leveraging to teach these texts. So for example, there's a range of reading routines that teachers can use. Some of those might be small group. Some of those might be independent reading or whole class or partner reading, right?
So knowing your students is still really important and there's still flexibility built in there so that teachers can engage, right, the kinds of models that they >> which is one of the reasons why we chose chose it, right, was so that could be um like it could be customed to the
classroom. But I also like the idea of choice for the student just because those libraries are so rich. Um I hope that what you're saying you see with your own eyes but then you also get the feedback from the teachers. I hope that they're saying what you're presenting to us. Yeah,
>> I think it's important to say that we're in the beginning of an implementation. So there's a balance of where it's important to have common text because the teachers are learning from each other across. So, so one where there's a lot of progress is the
learning walks because that wasn't being done before. So, the learning walks, but also we are striving for horizontal vertical alignment. I there'll be more flexibility later, but in this it's a very critical stage
where we they're really trying to reinforce being able to use shared text. So they're learning from each other and then but they'll they'll they'll be they'll be >> they'll be they'll be more choice and
flexibility but they need to build that core um where they're at >> foundation first. >> Yeah. And also it's very it horizontal vertical alignment is hasn't
been the norm and an alignment can be perceived as being too restrictive. Um but it's just it's important in this phase to be able to do that. Um, and then
I I don't know. I guess that that's what I'll say. Like it so I don't see I see it being more flexible later, but but this is a this is kind of shift in how we do things across the schools and trying to so I love it that Kristen is
she's trying to she's doing that. She's trying to unify everyone so they're moving in the same direction. The more they are able to together, the more they will like compound that effort. Um, but I I see it it'll just naturally move
toward toward more texts when people understand what it is that you're trying to get out of the out of the the literature that you're using. >> Dr. Baines Walsh, please.
Thank you. And thank you so much for the work so far that you guys have done as a parent of both a fifth and eighth grader. I have seen firsthand um the positive changes. Um my you were talking about the breadwinner. My that's one of my son's favorite books now. He was
talking about how much he enjoyed it. And what I appreciate is what you mentioned about the flexibility of how you do it. My son's part of the lab program. And so to be able to for the lab kids to be able to read the same book as the rest of the kids so they could all take part in the same conversation for him was really
important. And to your point about choice um every night he does 30 minutes of reading of his own choice um and there is room for discussion of those books as well. So for him it's been positive. My daughter, an eighth grader, was texting me a few minutes ago um because she was doing her ELA homework
and was talking about how more meaningful it is because they're having all of these discussions and to have her come home and talk about Animal Farm and All-American Boys and be so engaged um and knowing that she's having these really deep conversations with her
classmates um has been deeply satisfying for her. And so, thank you for the work that you're doing. And I appreciate that she's going to be able to metriculate to BHS and there's going to be a common ELA experience. And you know, as a teacher myself, knowing that like when I teach
sophomores, knowing that the freshman, you know, my my sophomores have had a common reading experience, right? It means that as a teacher, I can now make common references knowing that everybody has read the same things. And so I think this horizontal building, which will result in vertical, um, I think is going to be a gift. And I know there's bumps
across the way. I know there have been pain points. Um, and so I guess one of the questions, you know, so there's there's always, you know, one step forward, two steps back. That's how it is whenever we implement anything good. So I'm wondering, do we have knowing how good this is and how amazing this will
probably end up being for the district? Do we have a sense of what the common pain points are for teachers? Are there common pain points? >> Um, I think what Robin said about pacing is is a big one, right? just feeling
like there's too much to do within the constraints of the time that they have for literacy. >> Particularly the point about in K2 um really feeling pressed for time to the point where they're not able to provide the kinds of targeted small group instruction that they would like to
>> be able to do for our younger. And so that that has been a big conversation with those grade levels. And you know to address that as Ramen said like part of this is thinking integration of curricula over the school day with science and social studies so that you
know as we're streamlining this content there'll be more opportunities for those small groups for flexibility and choice in other areas throughout the day. So that is that is definitely something that we're working to address. But I think that's that's one of the major pieces that we've heard from teachers.
Is there anything you would add? I think you know another I wouldn't say it's a pain point but it's a recognition you know that having the flexibility to make choices around text and I think that's a place where being able to give feedback to developers and also as as they learn
routines and think about where can I make a choice and where do I really need you know where are must dos where are my may dos how do I make those choices under really understanding the big picture of everything I think it's part of the learning of any new curriculum
and as Bella shared like as they become more adept and familiar with the routines and they can more flexibly make those choices and you know hopefully particularly if they're if they're coming together and collaborating they're doing some of those they're making some of those choices together as
teams right so again that kids are coming at with common experiences that are critically important um as we think vertically about our system so Carolyn, >> thank you. Um, thank you. That was
really clear and great to hear. Um, I'm a really concrete thinker. So, it's really satisfying for me to hear this at this point, what this is actually looking like and what's actually happening in classrooms because
my experience before was the, you know, sort of theory that we were hearing about what this would be like. So, um, and thank you for presenting so clearly. Just curious, a couple other people mentioned assessment. So it um I'm
guessing is there's not an assessment piece with fish tank or do they >> Oh, no, there is. >> Okay. They have their own assessment system. >> And so are we using that? Um, and then sort of like I certainly don't
expect, you know, everything to reverse and be fantastic overnight, but like at what point will we be um or you be like setting some goals and benchmarks and just a little more about the assessment.
Again, not expecting you to see like everything is fantastic immediately. Um, but just a little more about what that's going to look like. So the the curriculum is designed um with its own assessment system and you know with each unit there are contentbased assessments
um there are also cold read assessments and then there are more integrated um like project based assessments and one of the things Robin mentioned that there's going to be a lot of professional development around next year is um the fact that fish has continued to develop this project based
approach to assessment and sort of wrapping our heads around that um as a new approach. So that's that's exciting. But um we're not at this point tracking those assessments in any central way. Um we're certainly using that data in in
planning conversations in you know in MTSS meetings but that is not being aggregated in any way at this point and I I definitely think it's something that I would like to move towards um as far as like what can we expect in in terms of outcomes and and when might we be
able to see um from the data um capital d that there is some shift here. Um you know having done this kind of an implementation in another district like it takes a couple of years. Um I think anecdotally uh we just gave our end of the year benchmark assessments for literacy star
and mclass and um star is the assessment where I would expect to see more of of an indication of growth because it's primarily a reading comprehension assessment and not a skills based assessment. And I will say I think we're seeing like
like some marginal growth in in certain spaces and for certain groups. Um I would be really interested in thinking about um what we see in terms of MCCast writing. I don't want to like project but I think the writing that we're doing in fish tank is much more aligned with
the kind of writing that students are being asked to do on MCCAST and that it's response to text. So um that that might be an early indicator but I think you know given that this was the first year of implementation in K5 it's probably reasonable to talk about, you
know, some goals related to those different data sources next year or the year after. Um, and then, you know, perhaps um shortly after that for succeed, but this this kind of thing, >> you want to you um thank you so much.
This is um was a really great presentation. Super um concise and like very clear. So I appreciate it. Um I had a I guess I'm building a little bit on Caroline's question about the I was I know where you said um ongoing data
collection. So is that was that data collection coming from the assessments that you referred to? >> Yes. Got it. >> And then again also our the benchmark assessments class and star. Um I'm curious when you talk about the um some of the pacing issues, how does that
tie into the um the the grade bands or the schools where we have more or less ELA minutes? Is there any does that is there >> I mean on paper every school has the
same amount of time designated for literacy 60 minutes for fish tank and 30 minutes for the skills block. >> Okay. >> So that's that's supposed to be implemented consistently in the preschool. Um is it >> I thought there were some schools where we had was that just in math where we
had >> middle school I think more >> so that's in that's in the middle school grades in terms of the periods in middle school. >> Got it. that has actually been I won't call it a pain point but yeah that middle school periods are 4550 minutes
and the lessons are written for 60 minutes that's been you know particularly challenging for teachers to think about how to adapt um in that way but um you know I think they've still as far as I can see like if we're thinking about curriculum coverage like they have
there's like everybody has sort of been on on the same page as far as how many units they've gotten for the year. >> Got it. >> I I would just also add to that like I think that's you know as we continue to look at schedules we have to think about not just minutes but how does that come
together for an experience for a student. So >> you know how we're constructing that time, how it's fitting together, how it fits together with some of our um our other services for students and other opportunities for students, right? Like so that's important that we're doing
that work together and not in isolation, >> right? Thank you. I'm glad you're thinking about that. Um the last thing I just wanted to suggest is as you're considering feedback loops and I'm so pleased to hear that you're also collecting feedback from students um that you consider particularly maybe in
the I I don't know what grade what grades it's most appropriate but some feedback from parents. >> Thank you. >> Thank you Donna Fisa. >> Sorry. Thank you for your uh work on
this. Um I have some I have questions slashc comments. Um one is that uh whenever we have learning walks um our educators uh deserve and expect that the results be shared with them or the feedback be shared with them as to what
did we see when we are doing learning walks. So I just uh was wondering about that if you have a system in place already or if you are thinking about it as to we go from classroom to classroom and what what what did we see? Um so um
something to think about um and I'm sure you have thought about it. That's number one. Number two is the shared success stories. Um at times that works um you know when we are trying to shift our educators mindset is you know peer
observations uh them being in each other's classrooms and just sharing what's working and what's not. So that was another thing that was on my mind uh maybe a suggestion maybe you are already doing it. And the third piece is whenever we
have choices um there is a tendency that there uh could be a mixup between differentiation and equity and that is a very fine line that needs to be towed and needs to be reminded as to you know I'm giving you the choice um and and
this is a way to differentiate uh but also it could be um detrimental for equity um and and it could have a negative impact. So, some things just to think about. Again, I'm sure you have thought about it, but I thought I would
just send a reminder. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I have a couple quick questions. Thank you. I appreciate what Carolyn said in terms of your clarity, insight into what's going on, and it sounds great. Um, two questions.
Do you find particularly in the middle grades any impact of AI on what's going on? >> That hasn't I mean that hasn't been >> brought to our attention as something that teachers are really grappling with
in those grade levels >> in terms of papers writing. >> Yeah. I mean that hasn't been a topic of conversation really. That's not to say it's not happening but Oh, sorry. Um, yeah, I mean, there hasn't been I've been at all the middle
school department meetings and that has not been a topic of conversation. Um, is it happening? Perhaps. Uh, but, uh, not to the point where it's been raised as a concern to us. And I would also say I think a lot of the the writing tasks in Fish Tank are designed in such a way
that AI could not complete it. And a lot of the writing is being done in class. So I I would add to that in terms of like certainly everyone is grappling with AI in the current context of the of the world and in education. Yet at the same
time I think that one of the things that we see around writing are the routines that are built. So, if I kind of go back to that picture with my fifth grade students and they're pulling out quotes and they're they're preparing for the writing and all of that is happening, you know, um you know, they're not just
going off and writing it. They're they're working together. They're trying to build that skill. They're thinking about how they might scaffold it. And so, I think over time we're going to see a development of that skill for kids. So, >> so is there any thinking about professional development
um as we move deeper into AI uh so the teachers can be discerning and you know sort of be aware >> I think that's on our radar for all teachers and not specifically related to literacy but understanding that that's something that particularly with our
middle and high schools teachers um that they want more of. Finally, um, do kids write with pens like penmanship? >> I think it's Well, I you mean a penmanship penmanship as a
>> I'm sorry. I mean, do they do they write or >> Yes, they're doing both. They're both. Yes, >> because I wa I mean I watch my grandchildren and their penmanship is really embarrassing. That's all. Sarah,
>> so things change and so I think I I just want to test this out to see if this is a a correct understanding. So high quality instructional materials now mean that you have one text for everybody and so you don't tier writings. Instead you
have a co-teer or a or the teacher is offering supports. Is that how you deal with special ed and EL right now? Yeah, I mean many of those supports are embedded into the fish tank curriculum. Like there are scaffolds and supports that are written in as part of the
curriculum for teachers to draw on as they might feel appropriate and you know in collaboration with special educators, EL specialists. Um, but I would say there's there is often not a taring or leveling of text, but particularly in terms of how kids are engaging with many
of the secondary readings, like there is still an element of sort of choice and differentiation in terms of matching students with text that might connect with interests or background knowledge um and and using that as the the jumping off point for accessing the text. So
there there's definitely still some of that um you know choice and and and independence in terms of kids selecting the text. >> What what does the text I'm still thinking middle school. What does the text look like? Is it a um is it printed out on a piece of paper in black and
white? >> No, they're they're trade books. They're physical books. >> And some of those books are tiered to a different level. >> No. >> Okay. So it's it's always >> Yeah. I'm talking about like secondary supplemental readings that might be used to build background knowledge around a particular text
>> and that's a print out. >> Those might be printed out. Okay. >> And there would be they're not necessarily at different reading levels, but there is a there's involved. >> You could read about this for your background knowledge or >> kids might have the opportunity to pick the things that they're interested in which we know is important in sport
reading comprehension. Right. So, >> so one thing we've said in other presentations, not necessarily tonight, is this is also a manifestation of MTSS. So, you have a text and you have tiered supports. >> Yes. And so, so this has been a really
great vehicle for MTSS like how it just looks and feels. Yes. And I will say like I think we do have more work to do in terms of accessibility and that's where you know we mentioned our partnerships with with ELE specialists and with special educators to really
think you know are the supports that are embedded in the curriculum are they enough right where are there opportunities to build in even more levels of support right how can we engage in co-planning those kinds of conversations are still really important >> okay do you have a interim summitative
statement Um, >> anything you want to say? >> Uh, just that I'm really proud of this work. You know, I think Oh, sorry. Just that I'm I'm really proud of this work. And again, we give credit to Kristen for this, but you know, I think this is this
has been a culture shift in Brooklyn. We are not a place where, you know, this kind of unified curriculum um has been embraced as the norm across grade levels and schools. And so there's, you know, there's there's been mindset work. there's been changing hearts and minds
and we're still in that process. Um, and I think the the results that we're seeing in terms of student engagement, um, in terms of reading development are really reinforcing for teachers that this is the the right
decision and, you know, sort of motivating them to move forward with the work. So, that's what I hope we'll continue to see into next year. >> Okay. Um, Donna had something, but then she didn't have something. So, thank you. >> We'll see you again. >> Thank you.
>> Thank you so much. >> The next item on the agenda has to do with super superintendent evaluation process, but we're going to put that off. We're going to postpone that until the 18th of June. Okay, everybody
with, you know, superintendent goals and voting on that. Okay. Um, subcommittee and liaison reports. What I want to do is announce the sort of the reorganization of subcommittees and starting with curriculum. Carolyn thaw
is going to be the chair. Diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice. Sarah McTA is going to be the chair. Finance, capital projects. Jesse Heftter is going to be the chair. Uh government relations, we're going to keep that vacant right now because it really it not a lot happens with that until we
meet with the legislators later later in the school year. So, uh, Donna and I will sort of jump in when the government relations component, um, is necessary. Um, negotiations, I'm the chair of that and policy.
Suzanne Fedispiel is the chair of that. Um, I'm not sure if we have any reports. Carolyn, do you have any report on curriculum? No, because uh we couldn't meet in uh
whenever we were supposed to in May because of reorganizing. So, we are meeting the 17th. >> Okay. Uh Sarah, anything going on with diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice? >> We don't have a plan to meet currently because um we don't really have a staff
member to call on for it uh for diversity, equity, and inclusion. So, um, we might try to reconfigure and do it more like a workshop or something like that, but for right now, we don't have a a plan to meet. >> So, the state requires us to have an
equity um inclusion justice person, a a contact person in the system. Right. >> Right. And that's um our leadership, our senior leadership is >> sharing. SLT is standing in because it was eliminated, right? >> Yeah. Okay.
Okay. Um, finance capital project. Jesse, what's up? >> So, our first meeting of the finance and capital subcommittee was Tuesday. Um, I just want to point out that I feel we have a very strong team. So, Carolyn,
FISA, and Val are all bringing um a lot of women power to the committee. I'm learning a lot. And um yeah, and um I'm also um using the emergency line to Mariah as often as I need to as well. So she and I have been meeting regularly as
well. Um we met and dis and discussed the two main items that were discussed tonight and brought to full school committee, which was the gifts and grants and uh Susan's excellent third quarter report. >> Thank you, Jesse. um negotiations um
they're in full swing and we'll have an executive session if we if there's no new business to discuss collective bargaining. >> Laura, so I I would just like to suggest like a future school committee or a future
subcommittee discussion about the world languages offering in middle school. Um, I'm interested in understanding how the district determines which languages are offered at each school, how enrollment capacity is set for each language, and what happens um if more students request
a language than there are available seats. And I think it would be, you know, interesting, you know, interesting and helpful for the district to explore the sort of balance between student interest, staffing, and equitable access to world language opportunities across our schools.
Carolyn, it's in your ballpark. >> So noted. That's I mean I'm saying that somewhat. Um >> I was going to um So we I've talked to Robin about putting the departments on a cycle of presentation. So you it could
be a two-year cycle or a three-ear cycle depending on the pacing. So we could put world language on that. It would make sense. So this is this is the kind of thing where if you see a department regularly then you come to
understand those kinds of questions >> so we can do that. >> I think it's important. Thank you. Um any new business? >> Any new business? We're doing really well on time tonight. This is really great.
>> But that's only because we deferred one >> one. Yeah. Sorry. >> No. Come on, Donna. >> Okay. Any new business? >> Donna, we have to encourage it. We can't discourage it. That's >> right. No. No cynicism.
>> Okay. No new business. Then we have a proposed executive session. Motion. We need a motion to meet in executive session pursuant to Massachusetts General Law Chapter 3A section 21A for the following purposes. uh to discuss strategy with respect to collective
bargaining with Brooklyn educators unit A unit B parrofessional unit um if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining position of the committee and the chair. So declares and purp and purpose 7 to approve executive
session minutes from the April 30th 2026 meeting. Is there a motion moved >> to go into executive session? >> Yes. Moved. >> Second. >> Second. >> Um Laura, how do you vote? I can turn the mic on. Yes. >> I'm sorry. Does he need to say not to return? >> We'll do that after.
>> Oh, okay. >> Thank you. >> Yes. >> FISA. Thank you. >> Yes. >> Yes. Yes. Yes. >> Yes. Okay. So, do we need a motion for adjournment? I think so. >> No.
>> We will not. Everybody out there in television land watching on big Hope you enjoyed the meeting tonight. See you again. And we will not be returning from our executive session. Okay. Thank you.
>> Good job. >> All right.