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recording in progress. Good evening and welcome to the September 11th, 2025 meeting of the full school committee. Uh before we get started, a couple of couple of things. I want to acknowledge that today is September 11th, 24th
anniversary. Uh just observe a a 10-second silence. Thank you. Um we start the school year with three new leaders. Uh Bella Wong as interim superintendent, Robin Bonoy as
deputy superintendent for OTL, and uh Karen Schmuckler and all her goodness agreed to stay on for the full year uh with us in OSS. So um welcome and um continued welcome to uh Karen. Um, we
did have some meetings over the summer, but this is our first meeting of this school year as we enter the second week. Um, I I want to set our tone as one of um politeness, kindness, grace. We had some
difficult um conversations and dialogue throughout the last school year. Uh, and I really want to make sure that we set a tone for our students and for our community of um giving each other grace and um and space to share opinions and
uh have conversation and dialogue. First item on our agenda this evening uh is the consent agenda. Has three items on it. I just want to call out before uh entertaining a motion the Elijah Lincoln Good Goodman Memorial Scholarship and
and thank the family and friends uh of Mr. Goodman uh for their generosity uh and their support of the community. Is there a motion to adopt the consent agenda? So moved. So Oh, is there a second?
I second. Okay. Um, I am going to have a hard time going around the room, but I'm going to do it uh as best I can. Bob, how do you vote? I vote yes. Okay. Carolyn,
yes. Andy, yes. Suzanne, yes. Sarah's next to me. Sarah, yes. She was in the center. I was going back to her. Um, Mariah, yes. Donna, yes. Jesse,
yes. Uh, and I vote yes. Did I miss anyone? Nope. You got everyone? Excellent. Uh, moving on to the next administrative business. Possible vote to authorize the BHS Innovation Fund to serve alcohol
during their annual Gallerama fundraising event on November 6, 2025 at Brookline High, 115 Greeno Street from 7 to 10 p.m. Students will be present. Um, as folks know, I think folks know, this is uh one of those things that we're
required to vote. Um, but it's it's sort of standard standard practice and nothing out of the ordinary. Is there a motion? So moved. Bob moves it. Is there a second? I'll second. Oh, go ahead, Jesse. Yeah. Second.
Jesse second. Any discussion? Excellent. Bob, how do you vote? Enthusiastically, yes. Andy, yes. Carolyn, yes. Sarah, yes. Suzanne, yes. Jesse, yes.
Donna, yes. Mariah, yes. And I also vote yes. Um, next on the agenda, we're moving right through, is our superintendence report. This is a an introduction and welcome and the update on school opening that I think we are
all eager to hear. Thank you. Um it's my um pleasure to be with you tonight and I also thank the school committee for their support in in my transition to to this day. So it um the agenda does say introduction,
welcome to the new district staff, but we're going to do that um as part of this presentation update on school opening by the members of the senior leadership team. So we are going to go in order with um Karen Schmuckler, then Robin Benoy, then Susan Gibbons, and
then myself. And so the introduction and welcome to new district staff will be part of Susan's presentation. So I think we have slides that we're going to call up. So Karen Smunkler, deputy superintendent of OSS, is going to start
us off. So we thought we would each take um our sections to do that. Well, good evening everybody. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. Yes. Okay. Good evening. It's my pleasure to
be here um back. We've had a very busy summer uh with a lot of exciting um things. Uh so I'm going to get right to it. In terms of um OSS um we have um enhanced and
rejuvenated our literacy work in the district. Um a week ago we trained 30 educators uh in Wilson um which is an evidence-based um instructional programming for students with dyslexia. As you heard um
last year when we presented on the literacy work, it mirrors very nicely with where we are in terms of our literacy rollout uh which is using foundations which is also part of the Wilson reading system. Um so we are very
excited to be able to do that. This is a initial start of work will be a two-year program of making sure that we're training multiple groups of educators and then supporting them with coaching and ultimately certification um in Wilson. Uh we also are doing the same uh
with OG which is Auton Gillingham. We have a number of educators who are already trained um who are hoping to be certified. We're going to be doing a coaching model this year and then we're going to be offering the certification for Brookline educators in the summer
and into uh the following year. So, we're very excited about that. Um we had a strategy meeting over the summer moving on to our work in MTSS which is uh collaborative work with um the office of teaching and learning. Robin and I
met with our partners in New Teacher Center really to update on sort of where we ended at the end of June uh with New Teacher Center. For those of you who have been here, this would be the third year of the work with new teacher center
uh which has been grant funded. Um and we're very excited we were actually able because there's so many new people to actually add some additional time with new teacher center uh to support both um new leaders and also some of our
principles with some coaching um in terms of the roll out of the literacy initiative. So that's very exciting. Um through the support of the BEF, we've also able to bring in um some professional development around universal design which very much mirrors
and aligns well with the work on MTSS. And so this is work that will be offered to educators and to leaders. They do a train the trainer model which is really always helpful for sustainability. Um so we very excited and appreciative of the
support from the BEF in terms of that. Um we always do our QBS safety care training over the summer and into the school year. This is our uh prevention and intervention and deescalation training that many of our educators and paraprofessionals
um undergo. And then we also um launched the paraprofessional handbook. Uh this is really the work of the um special ed directors. This work was led by Naen Maul. Uh it's work that has happened
over a number of years. There've been multiple people involved. All the special ed directors were involved in this. Um but we were very excited to actually um have the paraprofessional handbook uh finished um and being able to get it into the hands of our
paraprofessionals. Um and so that was that was work that many many people did over the summer. Um just to mention the Wilson work. So all of this is really the OSS student services um leadership team is a very strong and committed team
and all the work that we did uh is really um credit to that team. So Anna Ba Matig who is the one of the prek through 8 special education directors uh facilitated and really did the hard sort
of lift work in terms of Wilson. Um Becky McCabe is our lead in terms of our QBS safety care training. Um as well as Robin Fabiano at the high school. Um Matt uh Dubois has been integral as has
Anna in all the work with MTSS in partnership with OTL. So just kudos to all of them. I was wondering if we can ask questions. Val, do you want us to move along pretty quickly? Um, well, I I I'd like to let Karen get
through her section first and then I I think if there are three people doing presentations, we can let each person get through a presentation. And I should have noted apologies at the at the um outset. Uh my apologies for not being in the room. I'm traveling for work. Um
also remote are uh Donna Perry and Mariah Noa. Great. Thank you. And what you can see on the side is actually the um Brookline multi-tered systems of support. That is the product. It was one of the deliverables of the work with the new teacher center. Um it's sort of a
comprehensive map. It's a working document and a draft and it will evolve over this year. Um but those are both the two um documents that um reflect the work of both the MTSS work and the paraprofessional handbook.
Um we are also continuing our work around equity um and antibbias. Um many of us are going to attend the um attorney general's um work on combating hate in Massachusetts schools which is next week. That also incorporates the
commission that has met over the past couple of months uh around combating anti-semitism uh which is going to be part of the work around combating hate in Massachusetts. And as we look forward this year in terms of the work that we need to do
across our schools in terms of equity and antibbias um very very exciting is the launch of unified sports. Um this is also credit in to goes to Robin Fabiano. Basketball season starts next week. Um our first
the first game is um against Newton South I believe next Thursday 4 o'clock. Um we have 40 people, 40 participants in unified sports. Um as you can see that's the fall sport. Botchi is a new sport
for winter and then track in the spring. So we're very excited um for that and for the support um that goes into that. In terms of grants and contracts, many of you heard this last night. Um the IDA grant has been approved um um which is
very exciting as it really funds and supports so much of the innovative work that we're trying to do this year and we have 90 96% of our vendor contracts are executed. Um so we really are feeling well positioned to move forward this
school year in terms of all the work. Um we did a lot of work over the summer in terms of substance abuse prevention. um very detailed. So I'm going to give you a little more information in these slides because there's really a lot happening this year. Um so Matt Dubois
and myself met with our partners at DB DPH and the Brooklyn Parent Education Network and that Matt continued to meet with both our partners and our district educators in terms of all the work that we do both at the curriculum and
instructional level in terms of substance abuse prevention and intervention. Um and Matt is on the steering committee of the Brooklyn Coalition for Wellness and Prevention, which is Be Well. Um so in partnership with Be Well, they're launching and we
are launching an anti- vaping campaign which is going to be launched in the fall of 2025. Um we that involves our Brooklyn High School peer leaders who are going to be uh launching the campaign at both the high school and then they also partner
with our middle school guidance counselors um to do work both at the fifth and sixth grade level. We're also training some of our guidance counselors actually used last year. Ide as you can see there is this is really a
tier 2 uh intervention. It's drug education, curriculum, intervention, diversion and empowerment. Um this is really around when students have had issues around substance abuse. Um it is to provide diversion and education uh in
lie of um discipline wherever possible. Um and so we're systematizing that across the district uh in terms of um being able to train all our counselors and our clinicians to be able to provide the education and training to students.
Um I decide is a curriculum that comes out of the um work out of Mass General Brigger uh which is where that curriculum comes from. Um, they also did a review of our health programming in both seventh and ninth grade and have included additional
lessons from the Stanford Reach Lab on vaping and marijuana use. Also in partnership with the Massachusetts Partnership for Youth, um there'll be two parent workshops, one on October the 15th, one on April the 8th.
The one October the 15th is around marijuana. Uh the one on April the 8th is around focuses on vaping. Um you'll soon be sharing or Matt will be sharing the results of the health survey data
with you. Um they have been crunching numbers all summer on that. Um and there's some very positive data coming out um of that youth health survey data uh which will be shared to you as part of the presentation of that data. DPH
and the district um will also be convening a parent panel to really help have people be able to kind of look at that and interrogate those results. And then DPH along with the community partnerships will be doing a community
wellness summit in winter of 2026. So that is the um sort of full scope of some of the substance abuse prevention and intervention work happening both in the district but also in strong partnership with our um community
leaders and that is it. So I can take questions. That that's a lot. Thank you Karen. Um questions, comments? So I'd like to break in if that's okay. I was trying to understand the model
that the um Wilson and OG was for. Is that you know could you tell me grade levels and can you tell me if it's only going to benefit students with IEPs and if it's to work one-on-one or in small groups or is it in the classroom?
So foundations which is part of our um ELA curriculum rollout is in the classroom. Um and so that is sort of at your tier 2 and tier three level. Um the Wilson training um is primarily this year for special educators. Um so that
will be implemented in special education individually or in small group. Thank you. Anyone else? Can you see us? No. Can you have their hands up? So Jesse, go ahead.
Yeah. Um Dr. Schmucker. So the 96% of contracts have been executed with vendors. Is that the direct support to students vendor? Is that what you're referring to? Correct. It's a combination direct support to students. It's all our professional development vendors. It's all our tools um all of the sort of
technology. So everything that we do in um OSS. Thank you. And Donna. Hi. Thank you. Um thanks so much Dr. Schmuckler. First of all, I want to say congratulations. you did an incredible amount of work over the summer. The team
The team did and we're so appreciative. Um I wanted to ask where we can find information about Thursday's game if we're interested in attending. Um and also um congratulate you on the paraprofessional and the team on the paraprofessional handbook. I think
that's in an incredible accomplishment. Do you have a sense of how many paraprofessional openings we have in across the district at the moment? I don't exactly, but I believe Susan does and she will be she will be sharing it. Um, but we've we've had also a
really um a lot of good hiring which we're excited about. There are still some openings but not many. Okay. And where can we find information about the game on Thursday if we I will email it to I will to you. Thank you Karen. That was amazing. There's a question from Bob.
Sorry Bob. Yeah. Quickly. Um, you mentioned that we had we were funded under IDA. Yes. Is that a surprise considering what's been going on in terms of defunding? Um, it it wasn't. Um, there wasn't
really any threat to the I mean, I think we were all worried, but sort of, you know, over the summer there was there were concerns about the title grants. Um, there was not ever a concern around the IDA grant coming from the federal government. Um, and so hopefully it it
stays that way. And so there was never a concern about the title one and the and the and the IDA grant. It was the other smaller ones, but they're not insignificant for us. So we were relieved that they were released. I think the vendor contracts you
referred to are the ones supported by the grant. I mean, they're all of them. So some of them supported by the grant. It's just highlighting how much that helps us, right? Yeah. Some are supported by the grant, but some are also general fund. Okay, no more hands.
Thank you. Um, Superintendent Wong, who's next? Is it Is it We have We have um Deputy Interim Deputy Superintendent Teaching and Learning, Robin Benoy. And so she's coming up next. Good evening everybody. Thank you. Sure.
Um so we did a lot of work in a very short amount of time over the summer because things were rolling along even before I arrived and um then as I entered and continued through the summer. So I thought I would lay it out in just in terms of some of the work that I've been doing and doing with
schools and some of the things that were happening behind the scenes. So, um, certainly I I believe I think June 8, uh, July 18th was my my start date and immediately I was able to do interviews, entry interviews, and begin establishing relationships with our coordinators and
our building leaders. And so that's our K8 coordinators, our 912, our 912 coordinators, and our K12 coordinators. Um and many of them came in right away um to spend time with me to tell me what was front of their mind for their departments and what was happening in
their schools and in the realm of teaching and learning. So that was a lot of orienting for me and a lot of information all at once. And then of course um starting to build relationships with the senior leadership team and the OTL staff um that remained.
Um and one of the other pieces of that was um immediately hiring an interim deputy an interim senior director of teaching and learning and Dr. Joel Peterson. And so we will introduce that later when you do the new new staff.
Joel Peterson Peterson, she'll be with us next Thursday um presenting on the literacy implementation. So so you'll see her then as well. um and she too, you know, hit the ground running starting to establish those relationships and getting a sense of the
work that's been happening and the work that will need to be happening throughout the year. So, that was really important. Um the other piece of kind of orienting myself and starting to orient the department was thinking about understanding the systems that were in play and what we needed to do to keep them moving along. So thinking about
that interdep departmental work across you know some of the collaborations we've been doing and the interdep departmental work across um content areas and schools that they're doing together. So just how how do all the systems work together some of our other systems such as homeschool and course
approval and how do we keep those things moving along for teachers because there was a little gap at the beginning of the summer. Um and then beginning to understand the scheduling and the way each of the systems work. schools work as a system and a system of schools together.
Um, another area of kind of learning and work that was happening over the summer was certainly the work that was happening behind the scenes for the implementation of fish tank in K5. Um, and Kristen Gray, our ELA coordinator for K8, was doing a tremendous amount of
work to make that happen and get that ready for teachers. Um there was also some professional learning that was happening for teachers in grades six through eight as they got ready to pilot. Um and we were doing some work with um the Prism 3 grant that helped support some of those materials and some
of the professional learning that went alongside it. Um, we also, as Karen mentioned, began, you know, continue to work on our partnership with MTSS and to think about how that work moves forward in the coming year and kind of oriented there. And then also beginning to
understand the professional learning needs for for the system throughout the year, knowing that, you know, that there was a loss there in the budget, you know, a tough loss and some cho choices that had to be made and how could we support some of that professional learning through grants that we were able to secure. And so some of that was
voted um yesterday with the tit with the title grants. So that we were really help thankful for that um as we begin the school year. Another big event that happened um was welcoming our new educators to the district. So that's a lot of work that happened for our
mentors, both our mentors that work with our first year teachers to the district and those that are in their second and third year. Um so a whole system of folks behind the scenes welcoming them and supporting their professional growth um in Brooklyn and our new teacher
orientation which is really a threeday orientation for new new teachers to the district. One that our HR department really orchestrates and helps orient them to those aspects of the system. one that um was done in partnership with OTL
and OSS as we kind of brought them on board with some of the big work that needs to be done and you know who um let them know who some of the folks are that they can um lean on and then also what are some of the programs that are offered within our system. Um and then
finally the other piece of work that's been happening is really preparing for the year ahead. So the prep the preparation for the ESSA grants, the title grants was was a was a lift. um you know that we had to kind of it was a it was a lift because again you're
working from a lot of planning was done in the spring and then having to execute the um the preparation of the grant later in the summer and not not necessarily having all the same staff but working from a lot of the work that had happened prior to um working to get
our evaluation system up and running and getting educators in you know in the right place in our system aligning um evaluators with them. So, working with principles and coordinators to make that happen. Um and just beginning our collaboration as an office of teaching
and learning and thinking about how we're setting the stage for the work we'll do together with the coordinators Joel and myself throughout the year and that the work that they'll do with each other um K8, K12, and 912 as a whole as a whole unit. um preparing for the DESIE
review and working closely with the high school as they start to think about their vision of a graduate and what that process is going to look like. So, a lot of good things to come. That's really the book. It's really been um a number of weeks of kind of
listening and learning and kind of orienting and wayfinding is kind of how I how I would think about it over the last few weeks. Thank you so much. Have you been here a full six weeks yet? This is maybe this is a lot. This is a lot. Barely.
Thank you. Questions. Sarah's going to coordinate in the room. I can't see when the slides are up. Carolyn, thank you. And thank you, Robin, and welcome. Um, it's great to hear from you and meet you in person. I know.
Um, and this is fantastic and it must be a very heavy lift. Um I'm just curious going back. Oh yeah, on here. Um just with fish tank when it says pilot 628 through eight. I'm just wondering like
what's what does pilot mean operationally? So a little bit different from the K5 where they piloted units in the spring. So some teachers have, you know, there are teachers across the district that worked with units that have had a little bit more experience. Okay. And we're going for a full implementation. Okay.
Okay, 6 through 8 teachers were just learning about the materials over the summer. They're just now beginning to use some of the units. They may not be using all of the units, okay? So, it's not a full every teacher every unit of the year. So, as we go through,
you know, they'll be a, you know, they're just a step behind in terms of that learning curve. And then do you is there a system of kind of getting feedback from those teachers? Yes. Yes. Much like with the K5 and even as we go through this first year of implementation, they we will be
continuing to gather feedback from teachers as as they you know actually implement units and what's working, what do they need more of? Are there places we need to tweak and adjust um as we've gone through units for the first time? And some of that same feedback will come from six through eight teachers as well.
And are there teachers at each K through eight piloting? Thank you. And then thanks. And then I just have one other question on the vision of a graduate um which I think had sort of come up even before the ballot question having to do with
the MCAST. So are those related? And I was gonna ask this perhaps in new business anyway and it might not be a question for you but just sort of where we are in terms
of like what does it take to graduate from Brooklyn High School. So they're two slightly different things. So we will be working on we will be bringing forward our competency determination piece later this fall. Okay. Um so that's another piece that we've been working on. But the vision of a
graduate is really bigger work. actually becomes systemwide work when you start to think about like what do we want our graduates to look like eventually as they head off into the world but then thinking about systemwide what does that mean along their journey like how do we prepare them for that and it's not just
a high school piece often starts there because of the NEAS work but really it's thinking about every educator and every school along the way yeah contributes to the journey of a graduate from Brookline so the vision of a graduate is identified in your strategic plan and
actually it was identified to be further along than where we are now but really we are launching that work. The high school is um actively seeking a consultant to support them. The strategic plan really is
vision of a graduate for the high school. But we've already talked to the the district leaders and everyone agrees that really this they will start because that's what was supported. But the but the intention is that it will be prek12.
So when they do this work um they'll include rep include representatives from the prek8 to be part of that. Um but again the intention would be to expand it so it's a little different than what you have in your strategic plan currently.
Thanks. And that's really interesting and sounds great. And then and then maybe and so then the competency determination that's that's different. Yeah. That's um technical requirements whereas vision of a graduate is going to
be um it's going to be about content. It's going to be skills. It'll be habits, you know, like habits of mind and the competency determination is more technical to graduate from high school and will we get updates about that? Maybe this is new business.
I'll actually talk a little bit about that um when we do subcommittee updates because yeah, we're the school committee is required to pass a new policy around that stuff before the end of to extract. Thank you so much, Robin. Okay. Um, I said your name. You didn't hear me?
Yeah. Okay. I just want I just want to look at Robin and say I am so impressed with your entry. How, you know, you've made so many connections and you have demonstrated an incredible understanding of the entire system in a relatively
incredibly short amount of time. So, I want to thank you and appreciate you. Great job. Thank you. And I I have maybe the last question. Okay. Go ahead, Donna. Nope. Go ahead. I also just want to echo Bob and
Caroline's gratitude. We're so happy to have you here. Um, I wonder if you would say that the year ahead section that you have up here captures what you see as as as the priorities that you have in mind for for the for
the year ahead for the school year ahead. Um, that's a good question. I think it's still evolving, but those some of those um bullet points there are certainly some of them tied directly to the strategic plan as Bella pointed out. So
evaluation system is up there for instance because it is part of this the strategic plan and making sure that we have a cohesive system of evaluation that supports the growth of educators. Um and the DESI review is going to you know it's going to loom large um in
terms of work that we need to do and that visit will be coming in the spring. Um certainly there's other big work, the literacy work that's been happening, the MTSS work that continues to happen and continues to grow within the district are also priorities.
And I and I imagine as you sort of like move through the next few weeks and even the next few months, some of that will maybe shapeshift. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Jesse. Did you want to speak? Hi, Robin. We already met just before the meeting, so welcome
again. A question about fish tank again. So in the implementation um if you go to online to fish tank for each of the grades and I've done it you can go to look at each of the each of the books each of the lessons plans it's all online right. Yes. So, how is PSB making a decision about which lessons plans to
use and which books to use? And is there some way to find out more about that if parents wanted to know in advance or if um uh if uh let's say you know someone in the pilot 6 to8 wanted to know um from the all that they offer there, how
are we making the decision? Is it being done through curriculum coordinators or is there some other process being followed? Um certainly they can always reach out to their child's teacher. I mean, I think that's always a good place to start to have that connection with a child's teacher. At the beginning of each unit, there is a family letter that
goes home um to kind of highlight this is the you know, this is the focus of the unit. These are some of the things that will be happening. And if there are questions about that, they can certainly always reach out to either their teacher or their, you know, building administrator and that can be a larger
conversation if need be. Thank you. So, Robin, one of the metrics that I love to hear is about teacher evaluations. I think it's just really linked to quality of teachers and I I don't want ever metrics on who got what
grade. I just want metrics on completion of evaluations. Do have you set a goal for yourself of how many like what percentage you'd like to see done this year? I think we're all is what we'd like to see done. you know, our educators deserve those conversations, the
feedback that they're in, you know, that they're part of that those are two-way conversations and the feedback that they get through observation and working with their evaluator throughout the year. I'd love to hear you report back to tell us how how far you got. Thank you. Um, so it is identified in the strategic
plan that we're that the district was not at 100% evaluation of teachers of educators and so that is our hope. Um, but we've been thinking about why it hasn't happened. So, we are
thinking about barriers to structural barriers to teachers being able to do that. And, um, so we're looking at case load. We're looking at how many buildings that they might have. That's part of their work. And also, um, some of the training that we're putting in.
So we so while we want that to happen, we're trying to figure out how to support our our educator evaluators to attain that. Suzanne, yeah, I was just going to say that um
not all teachers have to be evaluated every year. So when we say 100% of teachers evaluated, we might be saying 100% of those who are up for evaluation. Um see teachers are on cycle every year. Yes. Either you know it's a either a
formative the cycle or some right profession um status teachers teachers who are not yet reach who are non PTS in the first three years are getting fully evaluated each of those first years but once they get PTS they are on a two-year cycle. Um so they
really actually that has been a a tremendous increase for all people that evaluate that that um educators are on evaluation cycle all the time now. Thank you. Thank you Robin Val. No more hands.
Okay. Thank you Robin so much for all this work. Um Superintendent Wong is Dr. Given next? Yes she is. Um so our deputy superintendent Susan Gibbons to receive all of us and coach us and
show us where everything was. Um anyway, so our deputy superintendent um of the office of administration and finance. Well, hello. I hope you all had a nice summer and uh we have been busy busy busy as you can see and I was just sitting here taking a moment um to
reflect on the massive amount of work that is taking place here in this school district. It is so significant and will have uh enormous impacts on the education here uh for our students. So, I'd like to start by just saying thank
you Bella, thank you Robin, you know, and thank you Karen, um, for all you've done over the course of the summer to keep us on on target uh, to be able to continue the work that was started in the past. Um, so for me, I um am going
to cover just a couple of areas. I'm not going to get into a launch of all the things that we have to do in my office over the course of the year. rather I'm going to focus on some you know opening of the school year um topics. Um one
I'll introduce the new staff who are new to our district and are non-aligned. Um then I'm going to talk a bit about transportation because that's been a little bit of a hiccup this this uh school opening. So I want to talk about that and then I'm going to talk a bit
about um recruit and hiring for the for the current year. So, um, and then at a future meeting, maybe next week, we'll talk a little bit about, um, operations and building, um, Charlie is going to be meeting with us this week and our subcommittee meeting. And so, we'll give
you more of an update on things that occurred over the summer with our facilities. So, that will not be on the agenda for tonight. So, uh, you've had introductions. Uh, you know, Bella Wong is our, uh, interim superintendent of schools. uh Robin
Benoy, our interim um deputy superintendent of teaching and learning, and Karen Schmuckler, our deputy superintendent of student services. So that um rounds out uh the newbies on your senior leadership team. Um next in the office of teaching and
learning, we have uh Joelle uh Peterson, and she is the interim senior um director of teaching and learning. Uh she just started just I think two weeks ago, right? Something. Yeah. Yeah. She So she really just joined us. Kristen
Gray is our um coordinator for K8 um ELA and she was an interim and she has now been um moved to a permanent uh coordinator in our school district. And Brianna Brown was also an interim last year and she will now be the permanent
high school um science coordinator. In the office of student services, we have uh Lillian Ollle. She will be the director of Winthrop House and Alexia Thompson will be uh the coordinator of
uh BHS school counseling. And then in the in the office of administration and finance, uh Z Perry, my executive assistant, he's been an amazing um addition to the staff. I'm I'm so delighted to have him
with us. Um Shaina Abborg is the uh administrative assistant in uh the operations department. So, she works, you know, with transportation and facilities. And she just joined us uh just uh a few weeks ago as well. And
then we have in the um area of registration and enrollment a new specialist there. We've had several of those over the last year, but we like to welcome uh Guyatri Natarasha Rashan. Um, and then, uh, last but not
least, our food service coordinator is Michelle uh, Macarelli. So, those are the new members of our non-aligned um, district staff. Let's see if I am
having some challenges. There we go. Um and then for principles we have Sada Euan um over at FRR, Sed Ola at Baker, and Candace Whitmore at uh the Pierce School. So we have a full complement of
principles um uh on board with us this year. So that's exciting. Okay. Um and then for vice principles, we have Michelle Crowe, um who is at FRR this year, uh Mary Galant at FRR as well. We had two openings there for vice
principles. And then we have Christy Hernandez at the Pier School as a vice principal last year. She was the assistant director of uh educational equity and we welcome her to the Pier School this year. And um Michelle Crowe is at Driscoll. So, so just so that everyone knows that
she is at FRR now. Yep. Okay. So, that's our introductions. Um, and we're delighted to have everyone on board. I will talk a bit more about um, you know, how our recruit and hire season went, but I wanted to get into
transportation next. Uh, and then I'll end with some like really, of course, for me exciting news about uh, our statistics around hiring this year. I think you'll be uh really happy to to learn some information about how that went. Okay. So, let's talk about
transportation. Um so, I'll just start um with a little bit of an overview to to orient us and um and so transportation services are provided um based on the school committee's policy. So, that sets kind of eligibility for services. Um the services that we
provide are free. Um no one is charged for our transportation services. So, that's important. couple of years ago during our override there was a decision made um that we would not be charging fees for South Brooklyn which was the only population that was charged fees um
for transportation. So since that time um we have not charged any uh any fees. So in essence um students that are K through 12 who live with um outside of a mile and a half from their school we provide transportation for. Um, students
on IEPs, of course, are are who meet eligibility requirements for transportation. Of course, we provide those folks with uh transportation. Those are usually done through a different contractor um using vans. However, we do transport some students
on IEPs within our schools um in, you know, from from neighborhoods to our schools. So, um those are for our in-house um special education programs. Students on free and reduced lunch um are eligible and students who qualify for McKenna Vento or foster care are
also eligible to receive um transportation services for us. So for what we call regular education uh transportation, which is really what my focus is going to be on tonight, we have our buses are are considered 65 passenger buses. Okay, they have
sometimes they're 83. Ours are all um 65. that's important as you think about like capacities and we've heard a lot, you know, kind of um of chatter around um do we have capacity on our buses and what does that mean? I'm going to talk a little bit about that tonight. So, I I
wanted to also call out that our bus contractors have not changed. So, we're using the same bus contractors this year that we've used last year. And in fact, Eastern, I think, has been here maybe 10 years. So, our regular education transportation company has been in place for a very long time. they're very
familiar with um Brooklyn and all of the roads and and uh bus stops and schools and all of that. So, they're they're not new. So, that that I wanted to make sure folks understood that. Also, the bus drivers are all returning. So, they're veteran Brookline bus drivers. Um and
I'm going to I I mentioned that because we're going to talk about some of the challenges that we've had this year. Um, and I wanted to reassure folks that um, you know, we've got what we've got people that are familiar with Brookline even though we've had some circumstances this year that that uh, were not one
anticipated or could easily be um, navigated without having like real life um, experiences. So um, we for bus routes I wanted to to just mention this of course at Fiser Hill. Um, so that's the Pierce Middle School students being
transported over to Fischer Hill. Um, we're providing that out of the building project um, resources and last year we had a little bit different model that we were providing, but in essence we had three routes that were going from um, the library here over to Fischer Hill
and then at the end of the day in reverse. This year we added a bus. Um, those of you that were here last year during the budget season know that that we had a small eighth grade class that moved up to the high school. So, we did anticipate that we would have more students at the middle school level. So,
that wasn't new. Um, as we looked at writership and we surveyed the families that were, you know, going to be this year's uh, sixth, seventh, and eighth. Um, based on that information, we realized that um, it would be more cost-effective and efficient if we added
four routes. Um, we had money. This is costneutral, by the way, out of the building project because we had money set aside for shuttles. Um, and we're not going to need to use shuttles because we've actually asked added dedicated runs. The financing of this again is out of the building project has
no bearing at all on uh finances in our operating budget and that is actually working quite well. At the high school, we've run three routes um at the high school. So, in the morning, there is an early, a middle, and a late bus in the morning. and in the afternoon. There's
two at dismissal time and then there's a late bus after that. Um nothing there has changed in terms of uh the number of routes and uh the times that we're um uh providing uh services for kids. And this is the kids from South South Brooklyn or
students from South Brookine at the K8 level. That's where we had the the cut this last year. So during the budget process, we went from four down to two at the elementary level. Um and so uh we have two we have two routes. Um the
route on bus one is going quite well. We've had really no significant hiccups. Um there's always going to be a little variation and flexibility needed at bus stops. Um um as you're opening school and kids are like, "Oh, I'm little." You
know, we had a child the other day that had to go to the bathroom, ran back into the house, so the bus waited. Um and this happens with little guys, right? Little guys and gals. So, um, we try to be as accommodating as we can, but we also need to make sure that we get the kids on time. The problem bus for us has
been this, um, K8 Route Two. So, our bus number two, I'm going to talk about what's what's happened there. And that that one really services, um, Lawrence Lincoln Hayes and Lawrence Lincoln, Hayes, and Wrl. um and that uh has not
um you know uh has not gone um as we had hoped. So the next thing I want to talk about is a little bit about how do you plan and how do you schedule buses? I I I could see by some of the questions coming in that you know perhaps people didn't quite understand you know how the
process works. But what we look at when we're we're scheduling transportation is in June and July we're we're getting a sense of what um students are registered like who wants transportation because not all that want transportation um actually ride and all not all people
that are eligible want transportation right so we have we we do some work behind identifying who is um likely to be riding our buses. So we go through a little registration process and then in mid August we set routes and stops um based on where that wrership is looking.
So we don't go doortodoor um we we um design our stops around where our our riders are. Then we do a dry run. So we have the buses go out before school starts and go through the runs. They test the timing to make sure that you know the timing is right. We recalibrate
before we publish and we send information out. Um but really in in the end um circumstances are going to change when you're live and school opens because especially in Brooklyn, not only we have a lot of public schools, we have an awful lot of private schools and
other schools and we're all starting around the same time. So the congestion around schools and in our streets is going to increase significantly during the hours that school um schools start and dismissal. Um and you can't always simulate that. this year. Um, of course,
we learned that the MBTA was closing the Dline. Um, and we didn't, actually, it was Bella that that learned that, uh, by reading an article in the paper and she called and, you know, everybody and said, "Hey, did anybody know this?" So, we we tried to do some course correction and anticipating on what impact that
would have, but again, until it happens, it's really hard to know. Um, so we had that. We knew about School Street. Then we learned about um the MBTA. Some of the other uh closures and road work we weren't aware of. And um and that changes. It's not like it's the same for months or weeks. You know, roads will be
closed or construction takes place as as as folks are trying to um repair during the good season. So, some of that we weren't aware of. And then what we do at this point when you open school is you do ridership. You you gather ridership data, right? And so our staff are are
going on the buses, you know, they're timing the stops, how long does it take, they're re-calibrating um routes. So as they see that, you know, there's a lot of traffic goes this way, they try different ways of wayfairing through our towns and and so we adjust um our
pathways uh to our bus stops accordingly. So that's the work that we've been in in the midst of doing um and we've made some course corrections based on the data that we have and we implemented those um actually yesterday and today with good results. So, as of
yesterday and today, um, bus two and the other one was the late bus in the morning for the high school. They've both run on time to school yesterday and today. We may be make some more course corrections after some of the roads open up again and we get to see, but we're
going to hold off um until we get um some additional data over the next couple of weeks. Okay. So, that's kind of this is standard fair, right? This is this is transportation planning and implementation and adjustment 101. Okay. So, our challenges, as I said, were on
bus 2 in particular. And that bus started over in Lawrence um at at Edmonton and it picked up a number of kids. And one of the one of the things that we learned, and this is why we need the data, is that we have to see where the where the the the stops are backing
up, right? In order to be able to know where to make adjustments. So, we were having difficulty getting the bus from Lawrence to the first stop, the the second stop, and it was taking us 20 25 minutes. That's the first pickup. Okay. So, everything thereafter is then going
to back up, right? And then by the time we got to the last one, um you know, it was it was so far behind. Um and a lot of this had to do with road closures and the congestion at the beginning of the school year with everybody being on the streets at the same time. So um so as we
looked at the data over the first few days that's what we learned. So what we what we decided to do at least you know for now and it may not be for the whole year but for now those kids were on the bus way too long wasn't right. So we um we were able to negotiate and secure a
shuttle to take the Lawrence kids. So we changed the bus time and we took those nine kids off of the route and we started the route on the other side. The other thing we adjusted was, you know, Route 9 has been a bear and it's a bear anyways. Um, and so what we did is we re
um aligned where our stops were and what order we were delivering kids to schools so that we wouldn't cross Route 9 more than once and that helped a lot. So, it's a lot of these like adjustments that we made um that have allowed us to
at this point um be able to get all the kids to school on time um reduce the the number of uh minutes the kids are on on the buses and we will probably be able to make further adjustments. The other thing um that I want to talk about is at the high school. So, one of the things
that that um I think we were we were kind of taken um by surprise was was at the high school the eligibility the families that were eligible for uh South Brooklyn um transportation. And so what happened there is that the
data file um that we use in order to be able to survey families um we get from our data team out of Aspen. Um, and one of the things that we learned, um, was that the buffer zone students were not included in the in the data that came
over. And so the survey didn't go out to anybody that was in that buffer zone. For one, another thing that we learned as I looked over last year's and this year's is that there were there were actually streets that were in the correct buffer zone um that didn't get
um didn't get emails and so and and transportation. So, we went back and we looked and what we learned is that some of the some of the coding about who was in what buffer zone um was inconsistent. So, we've cut work to clean that up. Um
the other thing um that also impacted this a little bit was was we have in Aspen the primary email address for families, but what we learned is not all families are using that as their primary email address. So they might be looking in this email, but we sent it to the one
that's on record for us as being the primary. So there was there was some of that. So it's like a whole convergent of uh different things that caused that. So what so I want to talk about what we've done uh since then. So we talked about the buses at route at at um um bus two,
but on the data collection side um what we've done is we've gone through and we've cleaned up Aspen. Um there's still a little bit of you know we get a call here and there um even recently from a parent um that was actually coded to wrinkle that should have been in the buffer zone. Um so we missed that and we
corrected that. Um uh the other thing is that there was not a definition of what streets and residents were outside of 1.5 miles from the high school. There wasn't a list of that. And so I worked with the planning department um to use
their GIS system to be able to identify exactly what residents are a mile and a half away from the high school. So we have a list of that and it's on record now so we know. And then we took the uh data list from Aspen and we compared the two so we would know who to send emails
to. Um so that went quite well. I think there was only like um three or four emails we got after that um like I said that were zoned differently or the email address was wrong. So I think I think at this point um the data file um for those
eligible families is is is pretty tight. Um but if not if there's anyone out there and you know they they feel like they didn't receive it or they should be within the mile and or or you know are eligible certainly reach out to the transportation department. we're happy
to help you. Um so that um those were the challenges and those are the actions we took in order to address those challenges. And as of yesterday and today when we implemented the changes, the buses are now running um on on time within five minutes. And I think that
that will improve a little bit, you know, more when we um get these uh pathways open, the MBTA as well as School Street, which we did call today to make sure and confirm. The MPTA has said a live voice um told us that yes,
they're planning on running a regular schedule starting on Friday. And if you were at the building commission meeting this week, you know that um they're they're on uh target to also open school streets. So, as of Monday, we should have a much more normal um circumstance for us to be um transporting our kids.
So, we're we're grateful for that. Um so, that's the results and um that's my report on transportation. Happy to take any questions you might have. Susan, can I start us off just a a question on bus two? Does that include
students who are being transported to our specialized programs at Wrl and and Hayes? There may No, I don't think so. I think those are all being transported by van there. I know that there is at least one
or two students that are on IEPs that do use our regular transportation service, but the majority of our students are are uh transported using the the smaller vans. Okay. Um, and then has any thought just
for next year been given to um sending out emails through the PTO's at the um South Brookline schools for rising 9th graders just to perhaps give um just extra notice if they haven't looked at
their Aspen since they registered their student for kindergarten to that this might be a time to update information. Absolutely. Absolutely. I think I think you mean a notice to parents to update their information, not
that the registration forms would go through the PTO's the other thing. No, I'm I'm talking about a way, right, just to to another well, right, a different avenue that parents might see um if they're not checking that email that Aspen has for them, but they might be they might be
more up to date with their PTO email. Um, so just I guess um cross-pollinating as much as possible within the school communities. I think that's great. The other thing we're doing now that we have the list of what residents are actually eligible outside of that mile and a half, we're
going to set up a field in Aspen and then we're going to tag them so that we'll be able to have a list and when students are registered, when they're registered, then we'll be able to like tag them not by zone but actually by eligibility there. And I think that will help to at least give us another data point to triangulate information.
Okay, I see Mariah's hand and then I'll go to Sarah for questions in the room. Thanks. I just wanted to say thank you to the transportation team. I know that these kinds of operations um are incredibly stressful when it's happening in real time and you know you want to
get kids to school and and it feels like this was a lot and you have sorted it out what feels like incredibly quickly. So, thanks to the team for that, Andy. Um, yes. So, as we get more information
about eligible BHS families, are we confident that we actually have enough buses or is it possible we'd have to add more um more routes? Let me talk about that. Thank you. Great. Nice segue. Um, okay. So, in writership,
so that was another question that had come up. what is the capacity of um on our buses and um and I've said over and over again we have capacity we have capacity so what does that look like so when I talked a little bit earlier I I mentioned registrations when we do our initial planning we do it on
registrations primarily because we don't know we don't have better data at that time um but then we look at writership right so we have so I'm this chart here provides you with the difference between registrations who says that they would like transportation and how many
students we actually transport. So, um again, if you look at bus one, we had 80 families um indicate that they had students that they wanted us to transport. Of the 80 in the morning, we're transporting 33. In the afternoon, we're transporting an average of 39. And
this is data. This is the average, right? This is the average that we took for the last five days. So, um and the range is not great. you know, it's I'm not when I looked at I I said I was comfortable with the averages because it wasn't like this huge range um at any of
at any of the um on any of the buses. So for bus two 65 we have 65 and this this takes out information about the shuttle. So you can see the shuttle bus that we added is been we've separated out the data um there. So we have 65 registered
for bus two. In the AM we're transporting an average of 17. In PM 30. So you can see with these percentages that there is capacity on the buses. So that's not that the challenge is not that. Um we'll talk about the high
school a little bit and what goes on there. Um for Fiser Hill that's really running um at at at a good clip, right? I mean we're not at capacity. We could add some more. the majority of the kids are using bus the buses there. Um and so
76 and 88 um that's that's not you know not too tight. There's still some capacity there. Um so we feel good about that. At the high school um 221 have registered and this is through yesterday, right? Um so 221 registered
but only 97 are riding in the morning and 66. This is all three routes like the early, the middle and the afternoon. Okay. So there is the ability to transport the student population that's actually showing up um at and this is
not different, right? Wrership last year was different than registration. It almost always is. Um so what what what about the weight list, right? So let's talk about that. Okay. So, in the in the mornings, you have three different times that buses are picking up for South
Brooklyn. You have an early, you have a middle, and you have a late. And we just say that not because they're like an hour apart, right? It's it's not like that. It's, you know, there maybe there's 20 minutes between the early and the middle and then um the late. And so, what one of the challenges with the
South Brookline morning was that that late one, right? And that was a congestion issue, not a capacity issue. Um, so what we do is we take the kids and we know when we start off with assignments, it's done by lottery by the
way. Um, and you take all the families that ask for late and you give them late and all the families that ask for early get early. And then there's a there's a, you know, there's a population that all want to go on the middle bus. And so it's by lottery that they're selected to go on the middle bus. And we start by
saying like in this case we had 184 off of our surveys that we knew we had to transport. So divided by three roots you you you assign them 61 6161. Right now when you do the wrership now is when you get to see you know how much capacity is
there in the middle and so we incrementally move them off the weight list and into their preference um to the greatest extent possible. So, one of the things we've done is this week, starting on on Monday, um we moved uh a third of the students that were on the wait list
off the wait list to their preferred time. We will do another round of this as soon as we can get really good data on um you know, once the um all these uh uh the transportation pathways open up, we want to see if that has any impact.
And also as clubs start at the high school and kids go on later buses or decide that they're absolutely not going to ride on the bus or whatever, we'll have a little better sense of that. Then we'll do another round of adjustments there. So our goal would be to the extent possible to move as many kids, if
not all of them off um the weight list and onto their preference. Last year we weren't able to do it for all, but we were able to get a good chunk of them um to their preference. and we and we will continue to monitor that and we'll do our very best to get uh families and
kiddos on their preferred um uh bus. So that's uh that's that I do have some information I can share by bus you know so you can see like for example the late bus at the high school on average we're transporting four students it's not I
mean that so that's the late bus so most the kids are are are are um uh getting on the bus at dismissal time we don't have a whole lot late but that might change as clubs kick up and you know kids are staying later for after school activities and things like that
So, we're not saying, "Oh, that's not enough to to warrant a bus," but we'll continue to monitor um that and see how uh things play out and kind of give you an update in a few few more weeks. Carolyn, thanks and thanks Susan for all this and
I and to um the transportation staff who I'm sure it's stressful with all these moving parts and I don't think it's this probably isn't a good forum for sort of getting into the weeds on this. Um, I have offered um to staff to I live in
South Brooklyn um and have for 15 years and I have kids at the high school um and I've been hearing from a lot of community members. Um, so I would love to be able to collaboratively um work
with staff on on sort of um filling in some of the the nuance that I think would help um community members um get what they need and get students to school um at reasonable times. One thing I would suggest, for example,
respectfully, is that the reason um that you're seeing great ridership to Fiser Hill and not great ridership to BHS um is the times. Um the early bus is a
zblock bus, so that's great for kids who have ZBlock. Um, but for kids who don't have ZBlock, it's not really reasonable to get on the bus at 6:48 and get to school at 710. Um, so I'd again I'd love
to be able to um to to chat more about the details, but I would say that th those numbers reflect um the use the the usage reflects the usefulness um of the bus. Um, and just in terms of
eligibility, in terms of Pierce, and I think it's great that we have bus service for Pierce, um, and we know there's I think they reported there's $2.1 million, um, currently in the in the owner's
contingency of the project. So was the um eligibility for peer students just all sixth, seventh, and eighth graders or sixth, seventh, and eighth graders who live
more than a mile and a half from Fischer Hill. Uh it was designed that and with our understanding that any students that were um a Pierce student that is in sixth, seventh, and eth would be eligible. Okay.
Um, which is again great. Um, and it's it's great that there's plenty of of money in the budget to to keep it cost neutral for the district. Um, I don't know that it's vehicle neutral or logistically neutral. Um, but again, I'd
be I'd be happy to try to work with with you and and staff on this. Um, because it remains um challenging and that's why people aren't getting on the bus because it doesn't make sense to get on a bus at
6:48 when school starts at 8:15 and 8:30. So, um, but thanks for all all the work and I'm sure it's stressful and lots of moving parts. Susan, can you actually clarify that? Do we use the same vehicles for Fisher Hill and BHS?
Do they make There's two buses that share. So, each bus can do up to two routes and there are two buses. That was true last year, too. Um, in fact, all of our routes at um at Fiser Hill were shared. They did
one one uh regular red ed ed. This year we have one dedicated bus to Fiser Hill and we have two buses that are we call them shuttles so that share with the high school. Thank you. C
Sorry, can you explain I I'm I don't understand what that means. Do you mean that the bus um when you say share, do you mean that the bus goes to one and then it goes to the other? Is that So So when you're So if if you're doing two routes
Yeah. I'll give an example. Um, you do an early bus at the high school, an early bus run at the high school. Then you go to Fiser Hill and you do the morning one there. Then you go back and you do the late one at the high school. Got it. Thank you. That makes sense. Okay.
Yeah. So, and that has Sorry, we had all of the buses sharing last year and what's different is that we have one dedicated to Fiser Hill. So, there's only two shuttling through the high school. All three of them did it last year
and so in that sense if they didn't share actually n do you want to call on people sorry I wanted to call on you thank you Sarah so in that sense if they didn't share and maybe actually Susan I was going to
ask you this first you said um or in your slides which were really helpful thank you um you I thought I read I thought it said that twothirds of the students students are still on the wait list for their preferred bus. How like approximately how many students
is that? Do do you have 28 left? Oh, okay. And so in that sense, if they didn't share buses, would those students get their preferred time or do you have any insight? This saves money by and it's typical.
Usually you have one, two, or three tier routes for your buses. I mean, that's standard in the field. Um if if you wanted to add more buses and pay for them, you could do. But if if fish if we didn't share if the bus if those two buses weren't shared, would that have an impact on the
It would just increase your cost, right? Because you would if without doing that, you have to add more buses. If you don't share, then you're going to have to have a bus for each route and then you're going to pay more money both in the operating budget as well as um in Fiser in in the building project.
Yeah. And is that why we have um the 735 bus at BHS? That is for ZBlock. No, I think isn't is No, the 735 arrival. Oh, arrival. Yeah, sorry. Oh, um
yeah, I I Okay. I was just curious because having a high schooler, I was like I would love him to get to school at 7:35, but yeah, I don't know why he would need to. Okay. Thank you, Caroline. Thanks. And again, I I think it would be better probably to have this
as a separate conversation that that I'd be happy to have, but my thinking, Donna, in response to your question. So the the ridership need is such in South Brooklyn that really there should be two vehicles
going at the same time simultaneously in order to pick up throughout the neighborhood and get kids to BHS at a reasonable time like 8, which one of the buses does. It wouldn't cost us more if the Pierce
project, which has $2 million in soft contingencies, had its own bus, which would be fabulous if we had one or even two buses paid for the vehicles paid for by the Pierce
project, not just the runs being shared with other parts of town. So hopefully that can be uh explored which I think would benefit everybody. Um it Susan is that accurate that if they weren't Okay.
No. The other thing I want to say is that what's happening in the South Brookline buses isn't a change like that's the way it's been. We didn't change anything there. Whether it's or not working that the model
the model has been in place for many years. We didn't that wasn't a change. I just want to be clear that wasn't a change for this year. So if we want to change the model that's a different conversation, but this is in fact the model that has been in place um
or I'm going to say at least five years. So if if we want to change the model, it'll cost more money. Not and it and that is separate. We can't. It's not. So before we were transporting Fiser Hill, this is what the high school model, you
know, if we want to change it because they were sharing buses, right? And now we've reduced, so there's fewer buses to share that um it's going to cost more money out of our operating budget and and it will cost more out of the building project, right? It'll cost more in both. So, you know, if we want to
change a model, then the school committee can certainly engage in a conversation if we want to if we want to do that. We're happy to take a look and um cost out what that would be. But I'm just I just want to be clear that the issues that we had this year had nothing to do with a change in model that has
been in place. So, so I I want to separate that. And also the model was the same before we had uh transportation at Pierce going over to Fiser Hill. Andy. Uh, so what I'm understanding is like any bus run between South Brooklyn and BHS
has to be paid for from our operating budget. It makes no difference at all whether that physical object, that bus, is also being used at Pierce at some other time of day. Exactly. So I don't understand what these two things have to do with each other. The problem is the the times. So the
times being offered to students don't are not useful times. So it so I'll use myself as as an example which I don't love to do. Um I have a child at
the high school. He is offered the ZBlock bus which would make him get on a bus at 6:50 in the morning and get to BHS at 7:10. and he was offered a 4:00 p.m. bus home and school ends at 3. So
dozens and dozens and then there's another bus where you could get on the bus at 7 and get to school at 7:35. So the times the schedules aren't useful or
reasonable for families and students. So they're two different buses. Like I'm looking at the schedule right now. Bus three and bus 4 are presumably two different vehicles. The problem with bus
4 is the time. It drops off at BHS at 7:35 because it then goes to bring Pierce kids to Fischer Hill. So in under your suggestion, it's not like we'd be running more buses or more more runs between South Brooklyn and
BHS. It's just that the runs that we do do have would be at more convenient times because we wouldn't have to be accommodating the need to use those same vehicles at Pierce. Yes. With the caveat that that number of vehicles did um
did get 221. I I don't know the capacity of the vehicles, but yes, but the So, it's not just it's there's a couple, as Susan explained, there's definitely a um there was some communication challenges
in making sure that everybody was reached who might want bus service and then the assignments are they're not useful like it's um it's not really a service if it's not useful.
um and and not reasonable. So, um I'm not understanding, Carolyn, you're you're saying that a 7:35 arrival is not a useful service. That every bus should arrive at at what at 8. I'm I'm
just not understanding without adding vehicles to our operating budget, how that would work. So, those are two different vehicles. If you had two vehicles running in South Brooklyn simultaneously picking up
all of the 221 students who weren't in ZBlock, which is presumably the vast majority, then you could get you would have more wrership. it would be useful and you wouldn't have community members and students
um you know struggling with what's being offered because yes I think if I was doing this and I looked and said I'm getting students to school at 7:35 and school starts 45 minutes later
or 55 minutes later. Um I would say that's not ideal. Let's try and get these students to school at a reasonable time. Let's get kids on a bus at a reasonable time. And Susan, you're saying that would require additional vehicles. Is that correct?
Yes. Okay. I just want to make sure I understand that. Thanks. And why would it require additional vehicles? And the other thing that I'll say is that when the number of riders, right, get moved to their preferred site, it's
not changing in any significant way. what the wrership percentages are. So if that theory was true then as we moved everybody onto their preferred which would happened last year and the year before then you would think you would see a difference in wrership and you
don't and I do have data from last year that shows that. So I again I'm h I don't know that this is the venue to to look at that but if the school committee wishes to um have us reimagine our transportation then we can certainly consider doing that.
Ella, so Susan, last year did everyone eventually get moved to their preferred bus? It's my understanding all but a couple of them were moved to their preferred bus. So we're we're in the process of that. So, you've been moving people from the
weight list to their preferred spot. Um, what percentage are at their preferred spot now? One third. What? Only one third. There's only um Well, one third off the wait list. Off the weight. Yeah. Not majority are off the wait list. Right. Right. Right.
Um so we have 28. I don't know what the percentage is. I didn't understand. I don't know what the percentage is. So it's so eventually I think we're anticipating everyone's going to have their preferred spot which mean no because you're assuming that anybody wants to get on a bus at 7 for a school
that starts at 8. So and again I've I've offered numerous times and would continue to offer to work collaboratively um with staff as a community member. I think I can offer some some insight and there are probably community members um
who'd be happy to do that too. I think you are you are planning to meet with Caroline sometime. Yeah. Yeah. Great. Okay. So Susan, you understand what's being communicated here and Caroline, you feel like you've been able to express
yourself? Uh yes. And fundamentally, I would really like the opportunity as a school committee member um to have access to staff and and collaborate with staff and
communications. No more hands. Yeah. Um Susan still had hiring updates, I believe. There we go. Yep. Yeah. All right, shift gear back to staff. Um, so this information, so just to orient a few of you, um, my first
year, um, the hiring process was, um, um, was not getting the kind of results that you would want to see. We had about seven and a half% um, opening rate on my first year. So that was just shy of 100
student orund staff members. Um it also would take um like you know a month into the school year to get everybody onboarded with their equipment and all of that. So it was really a pain point. So in my first year we redesigned um the
recruit and hiring process and onboarding piece and um and we went um when school opened last year we only had 50 openings. And so this first slide here shows you in 25 what the what the
school openings were at the time that we um opened school. And so what we had was 50 openings at that time. So this gets to your question um Donna. Yes. About how many pair of professionals um did we have open? So, um, like I said,
uh, so last year we had a little over 3%, um, left open when we opened school, and this year we're just a little over 1%. Um, and and for teaching positions, um, we only had one position that was
open when we opened school. Um, and that was due to a late resignation. So if it hadn't been for the late resignation, we would have had 100% UNNA hired and in the classrooms on day one. Um, and this is, you know, for me, I I always say
what matters, right? Quality teachers and contact time between students and teachers and getting teachers in the classroom ready to teach our kids on day one is an important responsibility. And um, so that's what um, this slide kind of shares with you is a is a major
victory here. um last year. So last year we had four openings when school uh started with the custodians. This year zero. So um you can look through through the numbers um and see some of our uh uh information about openings there. The
second to the right, maybe it's to your left. I think it's to your right. Um the second slide um shows our hiring season. So it's new hires for this season. And so when I say this season, usually we start recruiting um you know in like
February, March, April, May, June, July, all the way up until the school opening. And so during this hiring season, this year we hired 133 um which is which is significant. Last year it was 123 and you can see on this slide um by uh bargaining unit and
non-aligned um how many were hired in each area. I think a significant not a big surprise. we had a lot of turnover and non-aligned um and so last year we had four this year we had nine um and that includes the turnover of a lot of people in town hall so um I just wanted
to share that because uh you know some some of the things uh that we're doing um have turned out to work quite well and uh you know for me it's a it's a happy day when we can have teachers um there on day one in front of our kids so and also you know when I look you're
always going to see unit C which which is where you're per this is always a high number like I don't see anything the thing that's remarkable about this is uh that that we didn't have any um professional staff openings except for the one late resignation that is very
unusual so um pleased about that um so this next slide shares a bit about um what I I call turnover right so we have those that are hired and those that are open and so um what is the turnover for this season 153 permanent employees So that's a lot. Now that's not all we
hired. This is just during the hiring season. So um last year if you take the whole year we hired about 231 employee permanent employees and then in addition to that we're hiring about 790 people on stipens or extra comp. So our
hiring is a lot is significant here um in Brooklyn in any school. So, in terms of gender, um this next slide, I shared this with you last year, 83.5% female, 15% male, 1.5 um did not um uh just left the the field
blank um when asked. Um, and then in terms of uh racial uh identity, uh 5% Latinics, uh 6% Asian, 12% black, 70 white, one American Indian, uh one other, which is usually a combination.
Um and then 5% left uh the survey blank. Okay, so that is some statistics about our hiring season. and I'll turn the mic over to uh Superintendent Wong. Thank you, Susan. You gonna run?
Thank you, Susan. Thank you, Susan. Sorry. Can I just ask one question about that? About that, Susan? There's a question. Susan, I just wanted to ask if you have also historical data on the turnover. I I I did you say I can get last year's. Okay. But and
then we don't have anything beyond last year. Is that right? Any good data from priorities? That's okay. Thank you. Okay, thank you Susan um and thank you Karen for um running my slides. So for so I'm just going to hit the highlights
of um what happened in the summer. So, when I arrived, uh, I really wanted to do the entry interviews. And so, entry interviews, I open up to, um, a number of people, and I'll talk about who, when, what, why in a in a second, but
every time I've entered a district, I've done them. And so, the what I ask everyone the same three questions. What's what do they think is important for me to know? um what they think is most urgent for me
to pay attention to. And then the third is um also important maybe not as urgent. And the purpose of um the why the purpose is to help me um determine themes or or trends that would support
how I can be most helpful um particularly in the interim role. And um and so when I started doing them from from the minute I arrived and I'm still doing them, the bulk of them are complete. So if you're out there thinking you're supposed to have an entry interview and it hasn't happened
yet, it's because we're I'm still doing them. But so far I have done um over 140 entry interviews, which is probably the largest number I ever done committed um coming into a to a district. One reason
is because I committed to interview everyone on this floor and on the on floor four and that and so for those of people who are watching that's all the school staff that are located at town hall serving different operational
functions but also part of OTL and part of OSS. Um and so who so that's part of the who I interviewed. Um, when I first arrived, I really wanted to do the the senior leadership positions that were available
and then also the principles. And that was because when I arrived, I knew that there was a leadership retreat um scheduled at the end of July. And I really wanted to hear from the principles what they thought would be useful in that leadership retreat. And also um Karen helped us send out a
survey so that we were also to get input that way. Again, it's really I I feel that we're all here trying to be most helpful to the administrative leaders that we are supervising, coaching, mentoring, and um to be helpful to them,
to be most helpful to the others they may be supervising, and also to the teachers that they're actually supervising. Um so so and then the other who is all the members of the school committee um members of many of the town boards
chairs um people who have been identified as important to for me to speak again for that purpose of what can be most useful. I have interviewed all the curriculum coordinators, all the senior directors, um union leadership,
um and then many leaders in the community that um run groups that are helpful to us like BEF or the innovation fund um or other advocacy community groups. Um anyone who's wanted time has been given us a lot. I also have um
interviewed town staff leadership and um within the building but also across the other department like fire and police and DBW and health and um tech um also um water I don't know there are a lot of
departments um so I've I've been able to and and everyone's so terrific to make themselves available for for me to do that. I thought I'd like to share this is not an exclusive list of um emerging trends or themes, but I wanted to give
you insight of what I've heard. Um, a lot of times people told me about their personal history, which was helpful for me, how long they've been here, um, whether they grew up here, they moved here, whether they had children themselves that went through
the district. Um and so it was it's the whole range people who have just gotten here and people have been here for a long time and it gives you a flavor of what we are looking at. Our audience represents
a whole a whole range of experience and and knowledge about the district. So so we have to be um aware that it people aren't all all um well this is how we we used to do it or how we do it. there are people like, "Hey, could we do it
differently? I don't really understand why you're doing it that way." Um, and be open to that. The um, in terms of what people thought was important for me to know, should be no surprise some of these themes. Um, last year's budget cycle, people really wanted to talk
about that. They wanted to make sure I understood it. Um, the process of its development and the outcome. And so the process of its development was um played out over many meetings, many school committee meetings. And I was impressed
by how many people watched those meetings. Really impressed residents and staff. I have never been um I have never been in in a situation where so many people are watching those meetings um
because they really wanted to understand what was happen. Part of it was out of anxiety that they're watching those meetings, but a lot of people watch those meetings and um so you understand so that you understand how you present
yourselves, how you make decisions, how you process is really important um because a lot of people are watching and and um and absorbing that. There was a lot of concern over the numerous changes in senior leadership, particularly the
seat that I am occupying at the moment. Since 2018, there have been six different superintendants, whether acting at interim or permanent, not including the one who is acting for one week, but if you include that person,
then I am the eighth one um over a seven-year period. and and and so that was a very strong theme that emerged in the entry interviews of what was important for me to understand. Um so you know um middle level building
base and senior directors actually have been very consistent curriculum coordinators very consistent a lot of veteran staff veteran years represented in that group. So what it's really primarily is at the senior leadership
level and um and so many people might have thought it doesn't really matter who's sitting in that seat until they've experienced what they've experienced. But there is a practical impact of so many changes to senior leadership. just the inconsistent expectations like what
one leader the stylistic wants um as an output or outcome or processing um it has an impact it's has had an impact on evaluations timelines for completion um it's disrupted um it's it's caused
disruption changes for new projects disruption changes to oversight um I am being mentored by this person but that person has left. Now I have a new mentor, new supervisor. And what that has meant um there's been
insufficient time to build strong teams and establish lines, norms of communication that rely on fil familiarity and norms. Every time someone new comes in into the environment,
people are learning how to work with them. when that person says that word, oh that means this. Whereas another leader might have spoken in a different way and that's what they meant. When someone said, you know, at your convenience means something different
than when someone else says at your convenience. And it's been stressful to adjust to all these different leadership styles. And um it's just just a practical impact and the impact to the work that can be
done best by teams has been significantly impacted because members of the teams have um adjusted and people are renegotiating those kinds of work relationships. Um
also I want to note generally when someone comes new one is typically orienting orienting into a system with established ways of getting things done.
So usually when you're coming new, you're adapting to the structure and it's on an individual level. I will say I have found it hard to figure out what what the systems are and the structures and if I'm finding it hard
with so many people willing to help me. I can only imagine what it's like for many others entering into the district at this time. So it's um it's not to be taken for granted the impact
um how it trans transfers through the district um in terms of expectations, the teams, the efficiency um the productivity of of the district and getting things done and also the the
delay in orientation when someone enters into the district and being able to find their way and making it work. Other concerns expressed about progress on instructional initiatives where you know there's a team that's moving
forward an initiative and the members change and there's a there's like this it it often enters into this period of just waiting till someone comes up to speed and picks it up and takes it and and continues with it. There is concern
about progress toward assuring equitable experiences and outcomes for all students. There has been so much work um and and um groundwork laid for to do this for all students. Equitable um
experiences and outcomes for all students. There's concerns about the future. You know, what people wanted me to know. They're concerned about the budget. Um but on the positive while people are anxious and they are
concerned there's a lot of pride especially from those who have lengthy longevity right so that's a really positive sign people who've been here a long long time have a lot of pride and investment in in
in the district um so that's great there is frustration and there is weariness. Um, I don't think this should be a surprise to you. Um, but a huge positive,
a huge positive is that people don't want things to stay as they are. They want things to be better. They're not aquousing. They're not accepting, well, this is just the way it's going to be. Um, they they want they are not um they
want things to get better. Um, the other impressive thing, um, I've interviewed people in all different roles in in the in the district, all different roles. Um, whether there are support functions,
administratively, or instructionally, in operations, in the classroom, um, mentoring or developing curriculum, working with, um, special education, etc., etc. They are all hugely
self-aware and reflective. I feel it's a highly emotionally intelligent um staff reflective of the community that they are working in. It's a huge
positive. So so interesting to listen to um in these interviews. People are craving guidance on how best to move forward as a collective organization. People are craving a stronger sense of a
community working toward achieving collectively shared aspirations. They're looking for guidance. They're looking to do this together. People are looking for leadership. People are looking for leadership at a senior level across departments to work
together. They are also they also see the school committee as leaders. So again they are watching the meetings and they are absorbing the way you are making decisions and processing but people are looking for leadership and
they are also acknowledging the importance of it and so that's just um the feedback on the emerging themes um while doing the entry interviews which have consumed July August and still into September there's other work
that was being done parallel Um, one was really when coming in a big objective of mine was engaging with the leadership teams to get to know them and so getting to know the principles, the senior leadership team that was here
um and um that just really really important again um arriving knowing that there was going to be a three-day retreat for the leaders um in the end of July. And so that's such a critical time
um to be able to get to know the team but also set um the plans for the for moving forward. Um the other was um there's a lot of concern around you know
what what is how is the district going to move forward on its um equity work and I want to be clear this is equity work um for for all the students all the students um and so I feel a major objective in
the summer was to um reenter our attention on working together to achieve central strategic objectives and priorities for the benefit of all students. I have not been in a district that had the benefit of our OEE.
So for me coming into the district, I thought we should take what's been done. Um but of course you're going to continue to focus on equity and do that work. Um but you can't do it without the leadership team in place. So definitely
coming major summer objective was filling the position of deputy superintendent of OTL. Um the other is um really appreciating the partnership of Susan and um and Karen. But we have to rem I want you to remember Karen only
arrived in the spring. She actually doing the summer work was new. So everything from spring, she's a she's a first year coming in um with a lot of experience, but everything that um she's
done actually with such grace and put in place is still someone coming in new. So, we are Robin's coming in new and I just I hope it's okay um um to call out she's never done this role before and um
and everyone I talked to in her reference check said she was ready and I think she's she's ready and so just that the way she's transitioned has been um really with a lot of poise and grace and
um has been received so well and I am so glad uh to have Robin and um to be to be staying through the year and then I don't know how we could have done it without our anchor. You know, I cannot imagine if we had a
fourth new person um sitting in the other corner. So, we're always like, where's this? Can you like redirect us, help us way fine? but also um and and Susan's just entering her third year in this role. So I just can't
imagine though without having that anchor in place. So completing the senior leadership team was a high priority. Um Robin started just right before we had the leadership team meetings in July.
And then the July leadership team meeting was a huge effort to come together working with new teammates about what we would do. And um so it was a three-day retreat. The first day was really a time to um get to know one
another. But I feel I'm not really one so much for icebreaker moments, but really like what can you do substantively that helps you bond? And so I have always opened up the summer leadership retreat with a a period of
self-reflection on the year that's happened and sort of debriefing that emotionally. And in this case, in this situation, there was actually quite a bit to debrief um how emotionally the
spring and to be able to acknowledge that. and we worked with a facilitator um who helped um do those conversations with us and um actually we had two facilitators um
and it's just it's a it's just once you get through that you are already on your way to building um that working relationship for a team because you've you've you've
come to know um each other a bit in somewhat in a vulnerable space and then um and then we can focus on the work. So was the work is that um
coming in as interim I want to honor the work that has already been done to date. So together with the team, we pulled the strategic plan um of the district and we re-evaluated
the strategic plan bullet by bullet with the leadership team to get their feedback. Again, three of us have been been through the summer planning before. So relying on the
collective knowledge and understanding of the principal team and some of the senior directors, we um evaluated the strategic plan, what they thought was completed, what they thought remained as priorities that we could do in the
coming year. I will present that work at the next meeting. Okay. But out of that group, we couldn't have done it without that group. um we establish the priorities. So our our central strategic objectives and the
priorities for the benefit of all students all the priorities at the core is equity for all students. That leadership meeting um we tal we started talking about some of those
priorities and so I think we will talk more about those priorities. are going to be um presented to you at a later time, but definitely the literacy implementation and the MTSS. And I do want to just um highlight MTSS, tier
one, tier 2, tier three supports. Tier one is primarily in the general classroom. Tier 2 is also in the general classroom. Tier three may also be part of general ed classrooms. Um it's not just in special education though special
education clearly is tier three. The literacy implementation that's happening is tier one across the K5. MTSS is across all the subjects, but we are
doing the literacy implementation, which is tier one training across the entire district, all buildings. And so it reflects the wonderful work that has been done to date by the predecessors.
And so this is this is a really exciting launch but to understand that it how it fits into MTSS and that there is um there there's intention to expand it to
the other areas. A lot of work has been done on social emotional learning. So there's other components of MTSS. There's so social emotional learning and there's also the academic learning. But the literacy, this is a really
special moment what's happening in the district. And again, it's building on what has been done before. And I think that feels good for the educators of the district to feel like that is something that was built and is going to happen.
And it also through everything that happened in the spring, the school committee decided to protect that investment. you protected the PD for the literacy implementation. I just want to I just want to underscore
for everyone that what the schools represent is about this core learning about students and it's about equitable outcomes for all of them and how thoughtful that process was and
continues to be. And I hope through these meetings that we're going to be able to highlight the good work that's happening in the district. Whatever is being invested in the
schools, we I am I am committed with everyone to show off the investment that has been done in the schools and how we carry forward. So um there will be presentations more
about um the so literacy will be um presented next week. I'll talk about the strategic plans. Um SEAL the um our our um student behavioral data will be coming in uh October. there will be a
big presentation on student services in its entirety um that that um Karen is going to do in November. So, we're going to try to pace these things to sort of also educate um everyone in the community about all the
things they were doing tied to our strategic objectives and priorities. And again, the credit goes to everyone that came before us and built it. um the August leadership meeting um it's 70
people so it's the building leadership it's the curriculum coordinators it's um Joe Albuquerque facilities it's everyone that holds a leadership role um and so together in that group we did some antibbias training for the evaluators
which is actually required by one of your policies that you um you put in place October 2024 about promoting um equity and hiring retention and so you actually have it there. So we were able
to commit um some antibbias training on that day and um also talked about would be able to share the work that came out of the July leadership meeting um around identifying the strategic objectives and
priorities and also made it clear um the importance of alignment and the importance of fidelity of implementation. So we talked about these are the strategic objectives, how we got there and then also how they need to be
reflected in the school improvement plans and then in turn reflected in the um educator evaluation goals and our principal goals, our leadership goals. Everyone has to pick professional learning goals and student learning
goals. And so for everyone to be encouraged to choose goals that will be reflective of the priorities as represented in the SIPs as um defined in the strategic plan and uh there is
there is um I don't know how how um I can say how important it is for educators to feel autonomy in their practice. And so it's a balance of educator autonomy in their practice,
ensuring that they are they are teaching things for students to learn that are important, that they're all part of that, but also the importance of moving in a common direction. um
a single great teacher is not going to close a gap. It's every teacher working together across the grade levels toward toward that. And so the literacy implementation
is just a really great opportunity to start everyone fresh from a common framework. And so um so anyway I it's an exciting thing to do and um go next slide.
Thank you. So initiated during the summer and ongoing um a lot of the a common theme in the entry interviews or umi systems had changed, expectations had changed. So initiated during the
summer and ongoing and working with the the senior leadership team about how to affect this. We we are working on establishing leadership meeting norms. So we um talked about it with the principles in July, principles and
directors in July and then we um restated it with the August leadership team how we were structuring. So we are building our leadership meetings on Mondays um in the afternoon. So sometimes we may
the leadership team may be meeting with principles um the principles may be meeting on their own. So we're trying to do every other working around holidays um to uh to create that capacity. We have said to the curriculum coordinator
group and the senior director groups and other groups inviting them to pick their common meeting time to be similarly aligned with ours so we can look at scheduling more modular. So if we say we
would love to meet with the senior directors or special ed directors we can pull them as a group or um the curriculum coordinators can we pull them as a group. So we're trying to align our the way we meet and to be able to
facilitate collaboration um yes vertical alignment but also encouraging horizontal alignment among among the groups. We are working hard um to integrate the agendas. We we um I think
from what I saw we had the budget calendar, we had um maybe um other other calendars associated with implementation of something. So we're trying to integrate them to be more efficient
um for the for the principles or other um leaders so that they're not coming all at different times. So, we're trying to integrate what would have been separately scheduled budget meetings into the Monday blocks of time. We are committed to um training supervision and
evaluation. The last formal training was was um I guess over five years ago approximately. And so we are building in um that opportunity to train on supervision and evaluation and we're building it into the Monday schedule to
the extent that we can. Um we are explicitly communicating expectations for the SIPs. We had our first meeting with the principles um last Monday. We'll have another one this Monday. I was happy to meet with BEu leadership um
this week. So this is part of the meeting norms that we're hoping to establish to um keep our lines of communication fluid. Um but communicating expectations for the SIPs and goal setting. Um this is initiated
during the summer ongoing and then developing and planning support action plans to achieve our strategic objectives which you're going to hear more and more of in the meetings to come. Um and then initiated during the summer and ongoing preparing for a
possible override. I know that people have um definitely shared their ideas of how we should be preparing for a possible override. And so I'm going to take the opportunity to share my perspective on how to prepare for a possible override. And so I say
that to the members of the school committee and we can continue to have conversations about that. Um, but I just wanted to make sure that my voice was heard on on this. I feel that when you when you're preparing for a possible override, you have to understand the
financial context. What came before, what we're dealing with now, and what we anticipate for the future. Preparing for a possible override, you need to understand the budget drivers, the salaries and expenses. Sometimes it
can be the tuitions. Um but it's just what are and and every year sometimes it can be different. It can be a different thing. Um but what are the budget drivers? Salaries and expenses before, current and future. Um we're being asked to project the
future and I'm saying we can do that better when we make sure that we are understanding before and current. Um understanding the townwide context. We're not We're just a piece of the pie, right? We're just a piece of the pie. So
there are no department ever has everything that they need and all the departments we cannot not do with any we cannot not do without a department. I don't know if I did that right. We need our fire. We need our police. We need our DBW. We
need like we need all the departments. And everybody needs to have what they need. And there's just it's clear no one has everything that they need. And so it it's a balance. So you can't do it without understanding the townwide context.
I know that um people want us to be fiscally efficient and we will do that. We will be fiscally efficient. At the same time, we are the ones that have to tell you what is
needed to educate the students in the town. And from all the meetings I've listened to, at the heart of it is is we are looking through a lens of equity. A lens of equity for all students, no matter where they come from, where they
are. So be in preparing for a possible override you have to understand the breath and depth of the educational pro program before current and future.
I I can't just create a budget based on what there is. I don't I don't know if there should be something different or something less. So we have to you have to give us a chance to understand the breath and depth of the educational program before
current and future. It's a huge it's a huge budget. There are a lot of programs and then doing that. Yes. Every you know you have to do this every year. You identifying efficiencies across all departments. We will do that work. You
know sometimes you do things the same way forever and ever and maybe there's a different way to do it. Maybe technology is allowed for efficiencies. You know that. So we have to identify the efficiencies that can't happen
without really reflection and trust in being able to do that. We need to make sure we need to identify areas for further development. We all know that we are implementing the literacy program
K5. We are piloting in 68. It's just understood, I think, that if you're going to um maximize your investment and what you're doing that we will be looking at 6 through8 and we may be looking at other
curriculum areas. Um there might be areas I for new development. I don't have I don't know for sure but there have been studies done. We have we have studies done about um disparities in our
district um disparities in experience, disparity and outcomes. And so we are obligated to come up with strategies um for how to how to work with that. And that may be more of the same committing to what we
already have in place, but it may be about identifying areas for new development. And we are asking for honestly at least a couple of months. Um, we could do a back of an envelope
projection, but it'll be just a back of the envelope projection. Um I I feel to do to do this right we we have to do this sort of really more in-depth analysis of what we have the
before the current and the future. That's my last slide. Yeah. Okay. So those are that is the summer updates where um and I am so grateful to this team. I feel like um one of the
highlights is coming to work with with this group and I have really enjoyed um getting to know the principles and also the curriculum coordinators, senior directors, everyone and I'm anxious to get in schools more to observe what's
happening in the classroom. So again, what's most important in the district is what's happening between teacher and student. And our role as administrators is to support what's happening in the classroom. And those of us that are
supervising people that are supervising people, it's all about what we can do to support what's happening in the classroom. So the instructional core is it should be the focus of all initiatives around equity and so that's
what I believe the literacy initiative is doing. I think also the work around MTS tier one tier 2 tier three um interventions and support systems of interventions and support. How many
students do you know that don't have a disability don't qualify for an IEP? but need that support. And so the investment in this is it's about all students and there is likely further
development that we if we want to continue on this path. But I I thank our teams and I and I thank you. Superintendent Wong. I I I want to thank you. It's hard to believe that you've only been here for a little over two
months. Um this is amazing work. You've I I've had the pleasure of of seeing you perhaps more than um most over the summer. Um and you have been so gracious, so generous with your time uh
with school committee, with your staff, with your staff staff um in preparing to um start this school year and really getting to know the community. and and those interviews that you did speak volumes to your commitment to this
community. Um your thoughtfulness with which you are approaching this job and really look forward to working with you over this school year. Thank you so much for this presentation. You you are welcome and it's my pleasure. I have enjoyed all the
interactions I've had. Bella Bella Bella Bella Dro. No, I'm not going to sing. Um, I just texted my wife, Bella. I just listened to you for a long time. Usually, you know, you phase in, you
phase out when you're listening to people, but I didn't phase out. you captured my attention for 45 minutes or whatever it was. So, I texted my wife. I said, "Bella is brilliant."
And I just want to say a few things. Um, first thing, you emphasize that equity is about all of our children. You said it over and over. That's that's a truth. Equity,
educational equity is about all of our children. Thank you. You also demonstrated just an incredible understanding of this place
with its strengths, its history, its weaknesses, its goals, its challenges, its aspirations. Um, and you just can you you demonstrated an incredible listening ability. You've met with hundreds of people.
You've done these huge huge leadership meetings, 70 people, smaller number of people. And you I mean your collaborative work in a very very short amount of time in a
new system just blows me away. And again, I look forward to listening to you all year and and just celebrating what I'm celebrating right now,
which I think is is your brilliance and your softness and your humanity. Thank you. You anyone else? Carolyn. Thanks, Sarah. Val, I have a feeling
this might be around the table. Um, yeah, I was mesmerized by listening to you and I hope uh what you said was true that lots of people watch our meetings. I hope many people are watching this
meeting so they can share in um in the excitement uh that at least I feel and and I I'm guessing that others do um with with your arrival and the arrival and collaboration
um and continuing support of our intrepid Susan um Given, Dr. givens and these two other women who um are rounding out your team. And as I was listening to you, it was almost
like I felt my my role as a school committee member sort of transform or start to make sense because I suddenly I I I felt like, wow, I have so much confidence in these
people. um not that we didn't have wonderful people before, but you are articulating and and elevating and and bringing forth for us um vision and work. Um and and then I just thought, wow, I can kind of sit back and watch
this um and and hopefully support this. So, welcome again. And thank you V. No more hands. Oh okay. Um thank you so much for uh all the information opening of school to you and
the entire team to all the building leaders to all the educators pair professionals support staff thank you uh for getting us started in the 25 to 26 school year. Uh, and with my apologies to Julie Jetty, we have one person up
for uh, public comment. And Julie, when you're able to switch over, we will start your three minutes. Hi. Thank you. Thank you, Val. Um, thank you, everyone. Um, and, uh, also welcome
to, um, Superintendent Wong and the new, um, administrators in the district. Uh, my name is Julie Jetty. I am the parent of a um a Baker eighth grader and a BHS junior and I'm um a uh town meeting
member in precinct 16. Um and I also happen to be on the shared mobility advisory committee. Um although I'm not speaking on behalf of SMAC, we do have the committee with the best acronym in town. Um, and I only mentioned that to say that I'm really interested in
transportation issues and um really interested in helping people find ways to get out of cars and onto um other forms of transportation, which is not easy to do um from out from here in
South Brooklyn. So, I um I want to thank the transportation department. I know there's been a lot of work um done on the issues that we've had out here with buses, but I I have to say that um I I don't think they're solved yet. Um and I
think that there's still a problem um with communicating with the right uh families. Um I know that an email and I appreciated by the way uh Dr. Given's explanation of um not reaching students
in buffer zones because that explains why nobody in my immediate neighborhood got the spring registration email. Um but there was an email I know that went out on Friday that I did receive. A lot of my neighbors still did not. Um there
were people kind of across my precinct whose students had graduated who did receive it. So, I I'm I'm very worried that we don't really still know the um scope of the problem and and the need
for transportation. Um, I can also say that, excuse me, a lot of parents, um, I'm hearing from our who've been assigned to the, uh, ZBlock bus, uh, are driving their students because they they
simply can't get that, you know, they they can't tolerate their students getting to school a whole hour before their classes open. My student happens to be in Zblock. So, um that's great for him, but um you know, these families are
really struggling to get their kids to school and it's, you know, from the shared mobility perspective, I will just say that it doesn't help anybody to have um extra cars on the road trying to get to BHS um when students are trying to get to
Lincoln, Old Lincoln, BHS, and and um you know, the other uh all the other schools in the area. Um I I know that um Dr. Given said that nothing had had
changed with the schedules and that just hasn't been the experience that my neighbors have had. Uh there was the the the middle bus, I guess. Um the bus that now gets to BHS at 7:35.
Um used to pick up near our house at 7:40 and it's now picking up like between 7:15 and 7:20. Um that's also really early. That also really, you know, just doesn't work for a lot of students. So,
um, and I have one family, uh, and I think these there are several families whose students are getting to school an hour before their classes start and because they've been assigned to the four o'clock bus are still are at school
an hour after school ends. And I just don't I don't see how it's it could really be acceptable for a kid to have to spend two hours at school doing nothing. I think it's probably a bad idea for the high school also. Um so
that's a concern. So um and I would also say that it's a particular problem for students um who are in some of our um special uh or partially separate I guess substantially separate programs. Um, I spoke to the
parent of a rise student who said that, you know, her students getting uh to school very early and sitting in front of the classroom that's not open yet and presumably watching TV on her
phone, which is just, you know, not great. So, I really hope that I I think I think there was a communications problem that turned into a sampling problem or a a registration problem. Um,
but I but I do think there that we also need to think about what these times and stops really look like because it's it's really inequitable for a lot of families out here. So, um I would also like to offer my help. Um, I I know that uh the
district wants to solve this problem and um I know that other parents here would like to be helpful also. So, thank you and thank you Val for letting me go over my time a little bit. Appreciate it. Apologies for the delay, Julie. No worries. Thank you. Okay, next we are moving on to our FY26
budget update and FY27 budget outlook. Susan, I think we're not. Yeah, we're not doing that item. We're not doing that item. Okay. This is why we have the sub eye. Um,
next on the agenda then is the FY27 budget development calendar. First reading and possible vote. Maria, is this you or Susan or both? You know, actually, we were going to do 5B. So, I'll I'll just take over for that. Val, I don't know what's going on because I thought we were going to have the chance
to talk about the budget. So, Mariah, I'll I'll take over here and then I'll pass it to you next or have Val pass it to you next. So, um so this part of what we were hoping to do was have a conversation that the school committee can partake in
on expenditures and revenues. um because the study committee has done some work and we wanted to Jesse and I wanted to report to you update you about it. So I have a bunch of slides here and I made sure to get that into the meeting materials ahead. You also have a print
out of it. So, I'm going to let you Betsy just advance as I speak um because everybody already has um this set of slides and it's really just meant to make sure that everybody knows the work that's been done already to lead us into
a conversation about um about a possible override. So, just to let you know, we have a committee that we have formed. Um we have nine members of that committee and on the committee um I you know I sit as
the voting member and Jesse is the alternate and we have you know members from the AC from the advisory committee and from the select board and then members of the public and the idea was to bring together people that represent different um interests around town.
Um this committee will be deter will hopefully um recommend an operating tax override or we're going to determine if we're going to recommend an operating tax override to Proposition 2 and a half um to alleviate what we expect to be significant operating deficits for both
the town and the schools at least in um fiscal year 27 and beyond. And you can read our charge. which I made sure that it's linked here in the slides that people um at home to can access with the the media materials. And one of the
things that um are charged from the select board includes instructions to also identify, consider and evaluate possible revenue sources and operating efficiencies. So it's about the whole thing. We have had override study committees in
the past and we rely on that information. the information that we get both from both the town and the schools to allay allow the study committee to conduct our own analysis. And here I have up on the um so I guess next slide I have a bunch of the different
presentations that we have um that have been presented to us and I made sure to link some of them so that you can read them as well. Next slide. So some of the presentations were depart
um town departmental reviews and what we were doing is we're getting from them the key key areas of focus um basically their need to haves their vital services that are not being met their cost control measures revenue opportunities opportunities for collaborations with
the schools comparison to peer communities public requests for new services and service gaps. So that's just like that's one type of presentation we had. And so we went through, you know, as Bella was saying before, um fire, um water, all the different um all the different
departments. So what will we be recommending? Um, our past override study committees have recommended the amount of an override, the allocation of the money between the town and the schools, the time frame at which you will have the increases to the
le levy, and we've also um we're also going to recommend um revenue opportunities and opportunities for operational efficiencies and expense reductions. So, you know that we are in the third year of that last override. It
happened in May 2023. Our overrides tend to be for three years and we have the final portion that is being levied in 2026 of that last override. So, um I wanted to talk about time frame
just so that people realize um we will serve ourselves best if we have this override, if we propose an override um by January so that we can get out into the public and talk about it so that people are well informed before they vote.
And um the charges that and the charge that I have seen our committee want to ask the schools is that we would be able to tell the the voters how additional levy funds
would be used. And we want um people on the committee would also like that we can show the community the possible impact of our recommendations as well as the advisory committee would really like to have the to be able to measure and monitor the success of any
new initiatives and investments that are made. The work to be done is also um to show the town what a level service budget forecast would look like for the schools. And um the committee has also
asked that we show the impact to the town and um public schools of Brooklyn if the committee if we either didn't decide to put forward an an override or the override was not adopted. And so this is my last slide and I just
wanted to say that the continuing conversations that have been happening with the committee um have been around a set a set of questions that they've asked the schools. I think we've referred to that before here and those questions really center around special education, the use of space in our
school buildings, how to optimize them and the impact of enrollment on budget. Um as answers to these questions are provided by the schools uh we will integrate the information into our overall plan as the schools are an integral um component of the overall
solution. So I hoped that kind of quickly I brought you up to speed of where the thinking is of the committee. Um of course just like any town uh you know committee that happens you can go you
can watch the the videos of it you can read the minutes of it. you can read the different um you know uh documents that have been presented and this was tried to try to kind of get your attention and get you thinking about that. So I wanted
to make sure that the that the bulk of what we're doing here is a conversation where school committee members get to express themselves on this topic. Thank you Sarah. Um questions or comments? Donna, I actually just had a clarifying
question about what you just had hoped the discussion would be. Are there specific topics or or questions that you have for us that you were you were hoping we would discuss or is it related to questions? I think I kind of wanted to get your attention that this was going on and
make sure that it's something on your mind. Um Jesse can help me out here of what we, you know, hope to do, but just to make sure that we bring it to the school committee that this is something that Jesse and I want to represent the whole of the school committee when we're
on that um study committee. And so just to make sure that we've had conversations. Mariah, I just want to add um that at last night's finance committee, we started to discuss uh the budget guidelines for
this year as well and how they're going to intersect with in part how they're going to intersect with the disc with the override planning and discussion. Um so that we can start to think about what are the things that we think is important. We asked the um Bella had to
leave. she had a conflict, but we asked the three deputies who were able to stay and and participate in the conversation um to get a list of really like the prior like the the very short list of um where we should be focusing as we're thinking about this really understanding
that um as Bella mentioned earlier and I think she said she'll present at the next meeting. um the the heart of the work is in the strategic plan and there's a lot of work ongoing and I think she said she'll be providing an update for us on where things are at in the next meeting and and what's um
what's really still going but that so we want to look at those things. we had this conversation really about like not losing um not losing focus on the sort of key underpinnings of a successful district. Like we talked about middle school time
as one example of that and making sure that we had equitable middle school time. Um and so we don't want to be we want to make sure that we have a strong strong foundational functioning school system and what we need to do to make sure that happens. Um, we also talked
about um the the fact that we have been in a a we've had to make significant um reductions to our program over the past couple years. And so this idea of um restore restoring and a restoration level budget sort of the level service
budget that um that uh Sarah just mentioned that they're asking for um but also what would a restoration budget look like and then a program improvement budget. So, I just wanted to let people know who weren't there at finance as well that there was this other conversation which dovetales really um
closely and importantly with the work that's going to be coming and needs to happen for this expenditures and revenues committee. I I watched the recording at 3 this morning, Mariah, and I thought the the restoration conversation was um really important because I do think that there has been a
a chipping away over the last five, six years of um various programs and I'm not sure that people are aware that some of them are gone um or what what form they're in now. So, I I appreciated that discussion that you all had.
Yeah. And I think I just want to add to that too that Bella yesterday was um we had an a conversation more or less about the timing which Bella has talked about earlier in her presentation again ties to this that um and and I I expressed my
concern that if we present a level service budget early on it becomes sort of this default assumption that that's okay when we really have chipped away at many key things that we don't want the level service budget to become the talking point and everything else is like a plus because really we as we all
have understood that there's very significant cuts that have happened that are impacting operations this year. So um yeah so that's I just wanted to make sure people had the context of yesterday's conversation as well and if they want to watch the video that's great too and I'll in our updates on our
liaison reports I'll add a little bit more into that later on. Thank you Angie. Um yes. So in your last slide Sarah you s highlighted these three areas where um you said the committee wants more information from the schools
like special education, use of space in school buildings and enrollment. I mean these are all important things to know about but is there a recognition that the impact of these things on our budget is sort of dwarfed by the biggest budget driver which is the year-on-year growth
in the salary budget based on steps lanes and cola. Right? that that's the really big thing that we somehow need to address and we you know we have to address it this year in the context of negotiations alongside you know possibly preparing for an override I just does
the committee understand that like they these are all important areas but you know I guess you're not asking do I understand that because that's what I always lead with whenever I talk about our budget but um so Jesse said they do I think that if you look at the six pages of questions that the committee has asked um the superintendent to
answer um that the that what you're referring to is one of the five topics. So it is there. Yes, sir. Um uh so I just wanted to um add that u one of the things that we might get from
Chaz Kerry and the town next week is an update on what town services and features and staff reductions will be on the agenda if um if an override isn't passed. And I think in all fairness, um,
speaking from the school committee side, we should anticipate the same thing that if an override doesn't go that it would be either a level service budget or less because the money's has to come from somewhere. We're already um it was discussed today at the RSC meeting. The
town is over $3 million short already and we're $2 million short at least because of the circuit breaker thing. And so, um, we do need to pay attention very carefully to the, um, to to putting
together an explanation to the public about, um, why we're going to need more money and exactly what we're going to do with it so that we can begin to persuade and bring people to understand why this is
so important. Um yeah, the there there are many more um details in the PSB questions which I believe all of us on school committee got a copy of. If not, I know that Bella and her team got and it is linked here in this last slide. Yes. And we have it linked. So you you
there's a there's an extensive set of questions um that try to enable um our um ERSC committee to um understand exactly what it takes to run the schools
and where some opportunities might be for revenue. We don't see large ones, but there are some. and then what to do about expenses um in in a situation in which there isn't more money um after next year. And so we're trying to look at it from both sides. The town has been
able to do some projections for for on their side and in order for our committee to um move with some speed to get recommendations by December so that the select board has it um early in the first quarter so that it can end up if
it's going to happen on the ballot. Um we don't really have a lot of time at this point. Um um personally I I guess I'm a little frustrated even in the sense that we have our ERSC committee is where it is right now discussing rather than um building up the recommendations.
We have done some work on town school partnerships in different how how that model works in in other municipalities that are similar to Brooklines and we continue to do that work uh in a subcommittee I'm on in that ERSC. But
overall um time is marching on and we do um have to get ourselves to a point where we understand what the um what the limits are to how much we'll be able to spend and and and be ready if it happened to understand what changes might have to be made if again on the
town side and on on the school side. Bob, thank you. Terra Bella during the um interview processes that we that you were part of obviously I think you my translation of some of what you said about budget is that one
of the things you might like to do is a zerobased budget. In other words, you said you want to blow up the budget. I mean that's my those are my words and start all over to some extent and sort of take a fresh look. Um because the
alternative is sort of assuming that what's there is there and okay. So h I listen you've got a few things on your plate. How are you thinking about that now? I I don't know if we have time to do to
rebuild from a zerobased budget, but I think there are areas and it it will be extra work on Susan's part that we can ask questions about doing things differently and um we're we're doing some assessments now
to figure out if there's some things that we can reorganize. Um I'm sorry I did have a thought to share. There are we there hopefully this will um kind of answer your question too.
There have been a lot of questions around special education particularly around tuitions and I just think they are there's just miscon misconceptions out there which is why I asked Karen to do
the presentation in November to do a really comprehensive presentation to educate the community because this is a wonderful forum to do that. Um, I also want to say that we do our best to uh serve students within district and
families would prefer to have students um to be served in in district and there are times where we're not able to serve a student in district. and um and just to appreciate
that those are those um that's like a that's a difficult decision. Um, and I I I don't I just want people to understand
that that um families would um families would typically prefer that their child is able to stay in general ed in schools in that in their community. and um to to be to think
about it with some sensitivity when they're asking questions and um the I don't know the innuendo one might cast on that process. And so I I hope in the presentation we'll go through how how
referral works, how um IPS may or may not be developed, assessments, the annual revisiting of the AP, and sometimes students will go out of district and um the the considerations that are that are part of that process,
maybe to demestify it, but also just have people understand that Um, those are often emotional decisions. Yeah, I I understand why you're speaking about that because I think I've been guilty of that myself is looking at that number
and um placing maybe too much importance on that. You might have heard me say it sometimes. And um I just recently did a deep dive into looking at percentage of students um who are in out of district placements um of overall students that
are on um IEPs for us and uh we tend to be low in our town um when you compare to comparable communities when you compare to the comparable communities of other town like our school comparable comparable communities and our town comparable communities. And so you're
right that a little bit of education is a really good idea around that because that has helped me understand better. It's yeah more than more than an aggregate number that what that represents. Um
so yes looking for efficiencies but also maybe um helping people to answer the questions and put some transparency on the processing and the decision making. I think I mean I think I'm I'm not
exaggerating if I say that over the past few years there's been a loss of trust and respect for the schools. There has been some and I think um this is already a highly taxed community. Um it's also a
community that has wealth here and there. Um but I think I think the um I'm sure everybody knows this that we have to rebuild trust. we have to establish trust in the school system and elsewhere. Um, and you the way you do
that is by demonstrating competence and I think that just at this meeting here as I've been impressed with Bella's presentation and also Robins and Susan's um that's the way you build trust. Um, and I also want
to say that I think that um it's essential to have an override. There's a structure structural deficit in Massachusetts. We all know that. Um and I'm hoping that because we've suffered financially over the past few years that
we can have a robust override and that we'll pass because people will trust us. One of the things I've heard again and again um is communication is really important and I know that eventually for
a proposed override if we end up proposing an override we will probably go out into PTO's and have conversations do you think that it would be too early now for our communication team to start out those conversations even if we don't quite know what's going to be proposed?
You're asking me? Yeah. Well, I mean, I over my years when I was working for the system, I participated in a few overrides, the high school renovation, um, other other overrides for mainly for buildings. Um, and the
key, I mean, uh, Jim Walsh, the guy up here on the on the wall, he and I did a road show with other people to to do the first high school renovation. And your question is when do we communicate to the community to PTO's to the community
at large? Um I think when we have um our act together in terms of what we're what we're asking and demonstrating the need. Um, I think then the most important thing you do is get out into the community, talk to folks, and um,
demonstrate the absolute need um, for increasing their taxes to support the schools here. I just read somewhere that Brooklyn was just identified as the number one community to live in in the United States. Did anybody see that anywhere? Maybe it was on Facebook. I
don't know. Maybe maybe it's AI. I don't. But, you know, everybody says schools, schools, schools um in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, Brooklyn. And um we have a big responsibility to maintain that and to support that. Yeah. So, I'm
certainly excited about going out into the community and talking about what we need um in a compelling way. And Brooklyn Day is coming up this Sunday and I'm going to be out there for a few hours. because I don't know if we'll talk about override, but um I just want
to smoo with the community and um communicate how how much we all care about this place and our schools. Yeah. Thanks, Bob. I got I got um your attention and I feel like I've um addressed the hands around
the room. So, Val Oh, sorry. and Donna. Um I think maybe I'm like slower than the rest of you on the uptake, but I are we going to have continued discussion so
that like um how does the information that's going to the expenditures and revenue committee when you need to answer questions about what the school needs or some of the you know the list of questions that they
have there are those discussions that are happening at this table and then you're taking that information back to them or like what's the sequencing? Yeah. So just to be clear, Donna, um Bella, I mean we didn't have a superintendent going to these meetings for a while, right? So let's take that into
consideration. Bella is now attending these meetings. Susan is attending these meetings. Um and Karen is when the need arises. So, we do also have a a staff presence so that we don't always need to have um have it filtered through Sarah
or Jesse to have it a straight presentation from um our staff. But as we heard over the last couple hours, this these teams are just building up, right? They've done tremendous work of building that capacity in those teams
over these last eight weeks um and are really u now looking looking toward closing FY25 um so that we can be able to do those projections for that ENR committee and the start answering the questions um that they're able to answer uh with some
fidelity. Bella, correct me if I I'm speaking out of turn. Nope, that's right. We're just waiting for those for that to close out and then we can answer the questions. I think they understand that we're answering questions based on FY25.
Yeah. Okay. And so, Val, I think we've finished up here. Great. Um, moving on to our school committee action FY27, uh, budget development calendar. First reading and possible vote. Mariah,
thank you. So, yesterday at the finance meeting, um, the finance subcommittee unanimously voted to recommend the dates that are partially on the screen in front of you, I think. There we go. um and with the understanding that you know just as in last year these dates are not
necessarily fixed but they are aspirational. However, given of course the timeline of a potential override we would need to have a budget relatively set um I think Susan said that really March would be the right window. We wouldn't want to creep into April as we
did um this past year. So again, the school committee or the finance subcommittee recommended um voted these dates. Um and I guess I would make a motion for full school committee to approve them.
I'll second that. Or Jesse seconds that. Sarah, can you take the role in the room, please? Bob, how do you vote? I vote yes. Carolyn, yes. Andy, yes.
Suzanne, yes. Jesse, yes. Donna, yes. Val, yes. Mariah, yes. And I vote yes. Thank you. Um, we are moving on um to our subcommittee and leaison
reports. And before we begin, I just want to state that uh for a pilot for this this school year, we're combining our our finance and capital subcommittees to um try that out and see how that works. Um if it seems
successful at the end of the year, uh in June, we would vote then to uh make that change in the policy manual. So just so everybody's aware it's a pilot year to see how it goes and um if if it's deemed successful we would move that uh to a
policy change. So subcon reports curriculum Suzanne anything uh so our first meeting is going to be uh in October. We're meeting October 20th and October 23rd. Uh the agenda is
going to be uh presentations of the school improvement plans. So we'll have five schools on one day and we'll have five schools on including that includes beep on the second day. Uh so uh everybody's welcome. It's always interesting to hear the plans and see
what their priorities are at the um at the school level. And I think I think that's it for now. Thank you. Can I ask a can I just ask a technical question? Are we going to jointly notice those with finance or are we going to like last year or are we going to leave them as straight
curriculum? But anyone can join? Yeah, I'm not sure. Um, we can think about that, but I would leave them straight curriculum, but then we wouldn't be able to ask any questions. That's my only concern. Right. Except we may have it as a open
session for everybody, right, Betsy? Double post. double post it. Yeah, we could do that. That might be easier. That might be easier. Okay, we'll we'll figure that out. Thank you. I have a question, Suzanne. Um, so it looks like those fir Excuse
me. Looks like those first two meetings are pretty full. Um, do we have the interest authority to request reports from um different leaders in the system about curriculum stuff? Do we have, in other
words, can we request that the social studies department at Brooklyn High School present on WISP? Can can we do that? Well, when you come to a curricular meeting, we can set the agendas for the for the upcoming meetings. I mean curriculum. Yeah. So, we can do that. Yes, we can.
Okay. Good. Sarah Dij, no update. Okay. Um Mariah, finance. So, I gave um quite a bit of an update earlier and we voted the calendar. So,
that's most of what we did yesterday. We're going to meet um again next week and um part of what we're going to cover next week. big important thing is if all goes well, we're going to be reviewing the CIP
um to vote because it needs to go to the town the week after that. So that's a a little bit of a preview and accounts payable warrants is that so actually I have a thought about this
which is um I was thinking because what happens is we get to the end of the night and I never want to talk about this and what I thought would make sense because we run out of time and it's late is if I started sending these to Betsy and we just included the scan in the consent agenda and that way people could
see it week to week. Does that make sense? The entire warrant? No, it's just one page. It's a one page document. Sometimes it's two pages. It'll give you the dollar amount. Um that way you would see it like week to week. And if there was anything
exciting, Jesse or I could actually maybe just like write a note on it and that way would be people would see it like right then and there. I think as long as there's no student identifying information or there's nothing on it. It's just batch numbers and dollar amounts. There's
nothing um identifying about anything. Okay. Caroline, did you have a hands up? Yeah. Sorry, I have a quick question and I was trying to check this in Google. Did So, at finance, you guys um reviewed
and I think voted grants. Did was that part of our consent agenda tonight? No. Okay. So, we'll vote those at a later meeting next week. Okay. Thank you. Andy, is that a hand?
No. Okay. Sorry. Continue. Val. Government relations. I think there's no update right now. Negot Y Suzan. Actually, Betsy gave me a whole page of notes, but I'll just we'll try to reminders. Uh I our meeting is going to
be October 8th, but what we need to know is the MASC annual meeting is scheduled for November 12th to the 14th. It's down at Hyannis and we typically go. However, we eliminated from the budget the money for that conference.
So if somebody wants to go, um I guess they would have to pay for it, but we should let Betsy know as soon as possible. Um, I mean, you could pick a day, maybe you go down and come back for the day. I don't know. Um, it's kind of a long haul.
I had told you that I was interested and then I had a quick conversation with Bob walking in today and I'm straight in doubt that I'm not going to go. You're not going to go? You said it's the 8th. It's the 12th to the 14th. That I know, but I'm saying the one before that. Oh, October 8th is our government relations meeting.
The subcommittee. Subcommittee. Okay. Yeah. The reason we need to know is Betsy, I'm not sure you're being picked up in the room. I think you're not turned on. So Betsy is just saying off mic. Go ahead. Uh just to say the reason we need
to know is that um if we have someone who is going to be the school committee's representative there the school committs to vote that person as a delegate and also that um the school committee would then take positions on the MASC resolutions and we need to schedule that. So, it's it's too bad. But I think that when
we eliminated the money for that, we took the decision that we're not going. So, it's about what is it about $500 for the conference? 400500. Yeah, we got we've we've been getting the information in in the mail. Has
everybody gotten it? I mean, you're getting the MAS. Okay. Um, so if you had a if you knew somebody who lives down there, maybe you could crash with them. think about it, let us know. Thank you. Um, so negotiations is going to be
chaired by Andy with Suzanne as the second member. There's still a vacancy if anybody wants to join. Andy, do you want to do negotiations and policy? Sure. There are no updates on negotiations, but um, policy did meet uh, this past Monday for the first time
this school year. Uh, we um, talked about pending policies. So, these are ones that were discussed um by policy last year, but where we didn't end up passing anything through school committee. Um as well as a couple of things that we are going to be taking up this year that uh were not discussed
last year. Um so, really briefly um in at our next meeting in October, we'll be talking about um a class size and sectioning uh policy. So, this is, I guess, enrollment and class assignment. Um, uh, updates to
the flag protocol and pledge of allegiance, um, that Mariah brought up. Um, as well as a building use and access policy. That one went very far last year. I think all that was left was to combine it with an existing section. So, um, that will come up uh, in October as
well. Um, something so um, earlier Carolyn, you asked about competency determination. So where this intersects with school committee is that uh DESIE is requiring school committees to pass policies around competency determination and graduation requirements by December
31st of this year. This is in the wake of the the MCAs getting abolished as a graduation requirement. So right now staff are working on competency determination and I think Suzanne um you and I should just figure out um how how how that needs to go through curriculum
andor policy. So basically it needs to come to the school committee for two readings um you know in with enough time for us to pass something by the end of December. End of December. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. But at the at the moment staff are working on it. Yeah. Okay.
Um yeah. So that that's teed up for uh for October. um November we already are going to be we know we'll be discussing the students civil rights policy um and instructional materials policy where we're looking maybe just to incorporate
some MASC language uh into the PSB policy. So the two things that the two kind of big things that uh we did not work on last year but we're going to be taking up this year. One is um there's a the whole section D of the policy manual on fiscal management. Um, so a lot of
work was done on this several years ago back when Sam Ripen was our um um ANF deputy superintendent and um when when he left that kind of came to a halt but I think this year uh we really should bring that over the finish line. So that's going to be something ongoing for
the year and that's an entire section of the policy manual. Uh and the other thing that we need to uh work on this year in policy is the issue of school resource officers. Um so the school committee chair has um said that she would like our our discussion of that
issue to originate in policy. Um so I think there would be at least two meetings that would be largely devoted to basically public hearings on that topic that we haven't scheduled that yet but we know that's coming. So that was basically our policy meeting. We were setting an agenda for as much of the
year as we can currently foresee. Any other liaison updates? Subcommittee updates hearing none. Any new business? Caroline.
Um, this is just a little the bringing up mask. Um, MASC reminded me of something that's on my calendar for tomorrow that other people might be interested in. Mask is having a webinar equity 101 tomorrow at noon. I'm looking
at the link just on mask.org under calendar of events on the homepage. Um so that might be something of interest for school committee members and others. Thank you. Anyone else?
Okay, hearing none. Is there a motion to adjurnn? So moved in and a second. Yes. All in favor? I I We stand adjourned. Have a good night everybody. Let's see.