recording in progress. >> Hello. I'd like to welcome everybody to the February 12th, 2025 meeting of the Brookline School Committee. We are going to start as we always do with the consent agenda and we're going to take one A and 1B together. Anybody willing
to move the consent agenda? >> I will move then. >> Two items. Great. Any discussion? >> Uh Mariah did. >> Oh, sorry. Great. >> Well, we'll go straight into a vote. So, Bob, how do you invote? >> I vote yes. >> Caroline,
>> yes. >> Thank you, Andrea. That's right. Andy, >> yes. >> Had to read there. Mhm. >> Mariah, >> yes. >> Suzanne, >> yes. >> Donna, yes. >> And I vote yes. Um I do have to inform you that Val um and Jesse are not with us this evening.
>> And sorry Sarah, I have a quick >> Go ahead. >> Um because there's a lot of public here and probably watching. Um I might get a phone call that I'm sorry I it's uh family business and I just
have to take it. Might not. But if I leave, that's why. Apologies. And we all noticed that Jesse Hafter, Dr. Jesse Hafter is with us. So, sorry for my mistake. >> We are um >> Did he hear you?
>> Jesse, can you hear us? >> Yes. Thank you. >> Great. Thank you. >> Um would you like to vote on the consent agenda? Okay. >> Yeah, I think there's a delay. >> All right. So, um we are going to go
right into um into why we're here today. The school committee will hold a public hearing on Sorry, I'm wrong. I'm reading the wrong thing. We're not doing the student report, unfortunately. Yeah. So, um, >> there is no fatigue like, um, the town
that I work in had conferences this week, and so I'm not on top of my game. So, here we go. We're going to pretend like we can do this. Massachusetts General Law, Chapter 71, Section 38N, requires a public hearing on the annual school budget. Massachusetts General Law, Chapter 76, Section 12B, requires a
public hearing on school choice. The school choice law contained in the Education Reform Act of 1993 presumes that each school committee will admit non-resident students under the school choice program unless there is a vote to the contrary by June 1 of each year.
Such a vote must follow the public hearings on the issue of whether or not to participate. This evening, we are combining the public hearing on school budget and school choice in addition to our regular period of public comment. The public hearings are an opportunity for the public to provide input on
either topic. The school committee welcomes and will be listening very carefully to your comments, but as is our practice, we will not be responding to individual comments. The school committee plans to vote on the fisc year 2027 proposed budget this evening after the public hearing and intends to vote
on the school choice at the first school committee meeting after the May 5th, 2026 town election. I would like to inform the public in addition that the school committee has added a meeting to our schedule. We will meet on Thursday, February 26th at 6 PM here in town hall.
One of the agenda items will be a presentation, discussion, and possible vote of the 9th grade social studies course, WISP. So, I have a list of um speakers and if you
>> So, and I just realized I have slides, but there's also I guess I I need help from the team. Are we doing FAQ slides as well after or am I just doing budget public hearing
slides? >> Do you mean before public comment? >> Well, so we're new to this. We didn't realize I'm going to start with um just public hearing slides. Okay. And then Yes. There's >> I'm going to go as quick as possible. Yes. And um so Betsy is going to run
them for me. Welcome everyone. Um I'm so I'm Bella Wong, the superintendent and I just thought I would put some slides as a context for the public hearing. Um this first slide is just where we are right now. This is our budget number for
the year. Um coming into this year there were um reductions to staffing and also elimination of professional development online tools um contracts and and supplies. The funding allocation for this year was 5,944,972
for 4.34% increase over the prior year. And then also to fund this year we took 1.943064 million out of circuit breaker reserve fund. So in total the money that we
expended or is budgeted to be expended as an increase over the prior year allocation is $7,888,026. So this year represented a 5.7% increase over the prior year. This is just a review. This very quick of the
things that we did to prepare for FY27. We looked at um all our lines. We looked at restructuring, reorganization. We also look for possible revenue generation. We anticipated that this was going to be a challenging um year for
funding for FY27. And you can go on. So this is this is all this all went was reviewed um in the prior meeting. You can go to next slide very quickly. Um we are looking to restore a few things and then
you can go on and these are the things that we want to continue to invest in such as the K8 math curriculum renewal. Um Google we want to launch a K12 science and technology curriculum review vision of a
learner that will be K12 seal of a biiteracy which is um recognition of students that master language study whether that's other than their than their their home language. So for someone who is an English um language
learner or someone who is um English um >> native English >> yes native English um and then has mastered French. So it's a it's a it's a recognition of mastery of a language other than the one that you are that you
grew up with your native language. We want to expand to a couple of courses in career technology education, adding two classes. Um up up updating our safety plan um for chemistry. We also need to continue to work on our
curriculum articulation at the high school part of a NEAS requirement. Um continue our work on world language. And then very importantly, we've talked a lot about our ELA curriculum development um in the K8 schools. The next um and
then other adjustments and new alliabilities for FY27. So this is a quick overview of what we went into more depth on February 5th and then I want to just get into the heart of the frame for today. So our initial budget present um
proposal this is our initial budget proposal is 150,898,826 and it represents an increase over the prior over this year of 8,16,235. We worked hard to get it from 12.8
million projected in November to this number that was presented last week in February. It represents a 5.68% over the current year. Next slide, please.
These are um it does represent a net reduction of 19.7 FTEEs in staffing. And I wanted to take this moment to say that um so in the face of a significant townwide
financial deficit, which is what we are facing, it's the responsibility of district leadership to advocate to ensure that our schools are not only just staffed well, but are equitable and sustainable across all schools for the
foreseeable future. So, we have to make sure that we're doing that for all our schools. From the newest, from the newest to the most veteran, every staff member represents an investment of time and resources to ensure we have staff
who are best prepared and of the highest quality to work with our students. Every staff person, every staff member we have holds value. No reduction is without loss. However, as part of addressing the
structural deficit, we are tasked with conduct conducting a holistic review of staffing and needs within and across our schools. We have committed to making these decisions with care and thoughtfulness. And the decisions we
have made are with compassion for the individuals and the school communities directly impacted, accountability for the system at large and responsible stewardship of the district's fiscal resources. Staffing decisions we have made are
student centered, equitydriven, and systemwide. decisions are based on enrollment trends, service demands and operational function. All reductions are position level adjustments. We avoided looking at whole
programs. Um the the the reductions that we determined are across all schools um impact different grade levels. They're not concentrated in any one area. The individual impact is determined the
individual impact is determined by contractual seniority and the adjustments are considered when a school is below professional guidelines experiencing sustained enrollment decline or below district averages. And
so this is this is something that um we took a lot of care with and it is not without meaning or significance. Next slide please. And these are just the staffing changes by offices um across admin and finance,
student services and the office of teaching and learning. And the latter being the largest because that affects the classroom teachers particularly in the K5 but also in different sections different places across the school district.
Next slide please. Thank you. So the possible funding shortfall scenarios actually we are still waiting we are still working on on clarity on what that is going to be exactly. So these are the fiscal year budgets over a period of
time. If you focus on um I don't think this is all right it's not the updated one. So, I'm just going to focus on FY27 where um again, we are projecting
initially a need for $150 million $898,827 which represents an increase of $8.1,6,000 $230 um $236 with an increase of 5.68%.
At this time, at this time, the town has given a projected allocation of 1,740,76. And I say at this time because that number may change. Um there are it may
go lower, it may it may go higher. All right. So this is our working number as of today. Um assuming that's the allocation then the gap is the number below which is 6,365,530 even after
the the net reductions we've already proposed. So we are still facing um a gap of a significant size and again the town allocation may go lower or it may get bigger. Um, we are still seeking
clarity on allocations for FY28 and FY29. As you know, what's being considered is a possible override question. The possible override question would cover funding projected for a multi-year. So
FY 27, 28, and 29. We're working closely with town administration to attain clarity on those numbers. And um we're hoping for an update, not unfortunately not in time for today, but hopefully an update by the end of the week and we'll
be working on numbers over the break and then be able to share updates um after. Um we are projected for a meeting or scheduled for 2:26. So hopefully more clarity and I know this is something that um everyone is is looking for but
these are the possible funding shortfall scenarios and they are um they're significant. If you look at the next chart um this is our projected growth for FY28 and FY29.
So on the bottom right hand corner. So again you have our projection for FY27 and then for FY28 and FY29 at this time we're looking at increases of 3.8%
and 4.62%. The reason um the the the percent increases go down is because we are carrying a structural deficit of about 1.9 million. The 1.9 million that I said
for this year we took out of reserve funds is being carried forward into the budget for next year and that's is represented in that 8.1 million. If the budget for FY27 is fully funded,
structural deficit gets resolved and we no longer have to carry it forward, which is why the percent increases drop for FY28 and FY29. That assumes full funding of the FY27 budget as proposed.
The next slide just shows what a difference and an indication of um our um the significant deficit that we're all facing townwide for the schools in all departments. Our revenue
allocation historically has been over 6 million. And so as I said in the previous slide, the projected number is 1.7 million. It's a big difference from what we have received on average over the prior three years and again
underscores um the situation that we're in now. Next slide please. These are um so again these are the allocation numbers that we've um that are projected
from the town. again 1.71 1,001 1,740,76 and so the other the other numbers are TBD at the moment. Next slide. I won't go into detail on this, but this shows um identifies our
structural deficit of1,943,64, how it was managed in the current year, and how we're carrying it forward in FY27. Again, if it's fully funded, FY27, the structural deficit will resolve. Um,
and then next slide, please. The uncertainty is yet to resolve. So I do think our projected number will change. Um we have new information about title two, title three, title four grants. These are federal grants that we
had assumed would not be funded in the next year. So we have new information about that um which may adjust our projection for next year. The resolution of the town allocation. The town is also negotiating um gick which is the health
insurance benefit for town employees. um negotiating on on what the premium might be for the next year. There's also new information about tuition expenses. Um there are there are several staff members that are anticipating possibly
retiring at the end of this year. Um and they're waiting for retirement plus legislation to pass or not. So that may be if it passes that would also be a benefit to to the budget. And then just uncertainties yet to resolve is the
impact of a funding shortfall. Um and just the last is just where we are in the budget calendar. Obviously we're having the budget hearing tonight. Um, and the school committee is anticipated to vote on on the initial
budget, hopefully in full support of the budget that's been proposed because there's a deadline to submit a budget to the town on February 15th. Um it doesn't mean the school committee won't vote on different versions of the budget from this time forward and we'll continue to
deliberate until through March and then um and then town meeting vote will happen on the school budget in May and uh the FY27 budget begins on July 1. Um made a mistake. Our next meeting is um
actually February 26. We do have a meeting scheduled on the 5th and on the 19th. Um, so that's just the context of the public hearing. I I don't know what we're doing about the FAQs.
>> There's a budget section later on. >> Okay. So, we can do the FAQs later. All right. Thank you. >> So, I was a little eager before to get to the public comment and but that's a very helpful context to start with. So,
um I will make sure to call out the next two names so that people know. >> I just make one more >> just so everyone's clear. Um the gap that you explained, Bella, of 6 plus million is not the things that we're still considering that the cuts that the
reductions that you've proposed are with with the budget as we have it now. and we might have to make another if this if we don't get the override or the full allocation there might be additional significant reductions that are still to be made for next year and possibly out years. So I just think it's important
for people to realize it's not like if they say oh please preserve this there's some sort of wiggle room. Unfortunately we are a total of $8 million and and that was even with the cuts. So it's it's quite severe of the situation. It's not like these choices were made um the
choices that you made were made just about on the edges. There's quite a large deficit that you're working with. >> So, thank you. And also to and to be clear, these are not um as I said, every staff member holds value. Every staff member holds value. Um but the initial
budget being presented with the 8.1 million increase um does does embed in it almost 20 FTE reduction. Um, but it's also a funding gap that's quite significant as we look forward. >> Thank you.
>> Sorry, Sarah. I just wanted to add >> No, it's all good. >> So, we're going to be hearing from Katherine Walsh first and going on to Al's um sorry, Oz patch chick afterwards. >> Works just like this. So,
>> okay. Do I just hold keep the papers here or thank you? >> Do I wait or Okay. Hello, my name is Katherine Baines Walsh and I am here to talk about eighth grade ninth grade honors history. History is
my favorite subject and I love learning about it. One of the things I was most excited for at the start of high school was being able to take honors history classes with people who care about it just as much as I do. Unfortunately, history is the only quote class in freshman year without any honors
options. I don't understand why history has to be the only subject to not have any honors classes in eighth grade. History is one of, if not the most important school topic in this day and age. Studying history makes us more informed and can make us better citizens
to both our nation and our world. Being able to learn about history is extremely important. It can teach us other perspectives we might not have been able to learn about. We can learn about biases and how to craft arguments with primary and secondary sources. These are very important skills we will need in
life. Honest 9th grade history would keep students who are passionate about the subject fully engaged and motivated. In an unlevel classroom, students are work teachers are working with students have a very wide range of skills and needs. Students who struggle with history will naturally have many
questions and they deserve the time that poor from their teachers that they need to succeed when an unlevel class is the only option available. However, when they teach students have less time to also challenge students who ready for deeper discussions, more complex sources, and multiple perspectives on
historical events. Without an honors option, students who are highly motivated end up waiting rather than learning. An honors history option would allow 9th grade teachers to better meet everyone's needs by giving passionate students a space to go deeper while still fully supporting those who need more guidance in the standard classes. I
know that each eighth grader has different academic strengths and weaknesses and some kids excel in STEM while others excel in humanities. If the kids who excel in STEM and English are given the opportunity to challenge themselves, then why shouldn't the kids excel in history be given the same opportunities as well? I ask you to
please reinstate 9th grade honors history. So, kids like me able to stay engaged, challenged, excited about learning the same way kids in other classes already are. I have a petition for multiple students and teachers across the middle school and I can give it to you afterwards. So, thank you.
>> Thank you. >> After Oz will be hearing from Brady Mlan. Okay. Good evening. My name is Azie. I'm in eighth grade and I'm going to be entering high school next year. I'm here to address a decision that was taken in 2019 to unlevel social studies for the
freshman year. I'm not here to discuss the reason you did so. That's water under the bridge. But my concern is that the opportunity may not be available for me and the roughly 500 other students who will be entering 9th grade next year. For as long as I can remember, I've been fascinated by history and social studies. I stared at maps and
devoured countless historical fiction books, looking forward to high school, where I was certain that these interests would be supported. However, now that I'm only a few short months away from high school, I realized that this not might not be the case. Throughout the years, my parents have done everything they could to support my interest,
enrolling me in extracurricular social studies classes and even making the hard financial decision after the pandemic to pull me out of the public school system for a private school that we hoped would have a more rigorous social studies program. And we were right. While I was there, I had a truly transformative experience like you see in movies where
I was able to fully connect with the teacher and look forward to social studies class every day. I learned so much history with him and for the first time I had a social studies teacher who intrigued me and captivated me instead of repeatedly teaching me the same things about the pilgrims and the Mayflower year after year. I'm now back at Driscoll and I participate in
something called Quizbull. Quizball is a competitive academic activity where my teammates and I travel around the country competing against other schools to answer rigorous questions on topics including history, geography, and literature to name a few. When we encounter extremely skilled teams from other schools in other states
or even in other communities in Massachusetts, there's one thing they have in common, and that is the fact that they have a strong focus on academic challenge enrichment in both high school and middle school. We, on the other hand, have to work twice as hard to get better, trying to find time to practice during recess at school, fitting it in between extracurriculars,
and even staying up past our bedtime to practice. We already lack an opportunity for rigorous learning in middle school. And now, this is something that's also being taken away in high school. Why is it fair that students who are passionate about math have the opportunity to take three different levels upon entering high school, while students like me who are passionate about history, geography,
and social studies have to continuously be held back from participating in a higher level of learning. I and the many other like-minded eighth grade students urge you bring leveling back on the agenda before it's too late for us. It must be understood that social studies is crucial for us to be successful citizens, informed voters, and
thoughtful decision makers. We're the next gener next generation of leaders. Don't take away our opportunity to be educated ones. Thank you. >> Thank you. After Brady, we'll hear from Sarah Chosner. So next, Brady McClean.
Hello, my name is Brady McClean and I'm also here to talk about WISP. I am a Driscoll eighth grader and I feel passionate about maintaining rigor in my studies. Last year I moved to Brooklyn from Silicon Valley where I took advanced math in sixth grade. When I moved to Massachusetts, I learned that
Brookline did not offer level classes level math leveled math classes in middle school. This meant in seventh grade, I'd repeat everything I learned the year before. Even now, as an eighth grader, I am still repeating topics and skills I learned in sixth grade. When I
say I repeated seventh grade math, I mean I was forced to do the exact same lessons with the same Desmos learning software. Before the move, I was very passionate about math. I love to be challenged. But now, after repeating these basic math skills over and over, my vigor has weakened. Dr. Sarium puts
it perfectly. Challenging tasks spur the production of mileium, a substance that increases strength of brain signals. Unlevelled subjects, including social studies, removes that challenge. Kids who are fervent about social studies lose their spark. But this is not the
worst of all. Unleveling cast down the communities who face it. Instead of holding every student to the mean, we should let students become outliers, set the curve, and reach their full potential. I have high hopes of achieving illustrious things. My dream is to metriculate into an amazing university.
This goal is already hard enough as it is, but without level classes, this would be harder. Not only do advanced classes teach you important things, and colleges look favorably on having them in your high school schedule, they also create a strong learning environment.
rooms filled with peers who are also able to learn new things and to be challenged, ask more important questions, and disrupt class less. Teachers also benefit from this system due to the due to them preferring to teach harder classes with more eager students, causing them to contribute to
an enhanced learning environment. In closing, I and many other students believe you should bring back leveled social studies. We student we students want to reach our full potential and we want your help. know need your help to achieve this.
>> Thank you. After Sarah, it's Hannah Goldberg. So Sarah Chosner next. >> Hi. Thank you. I want to start by thanking Superintendent Wong and your team for the incredibly thorough and thoughtful work on the budget only nine
months less than nine months into your tenure. Thank you. And I want to echo the thanks to the school committee for your selfless service week after week and year after year. I wanted to address two things that came up, two unrelated things that came up in last week's uh school committee meeting. The first is
about the work of the futures committee and how that connects to the budget. Um last week in the discussion of the options for restructuring, I heard multiple school committee members use really tentative language. I heard at some point in the future and begin to
consider and not a lot of detail and nothing determinative and explore a conversation and very long term and I can totally understand the reluctance to explore structural changes for example the discussion of moving away from a K8. I love our community school and the fact
that we we can walk to it. So I I understand the reluctance. I don't want to lose that either. But what I hear in the reluctance is um basically a looking away from the structural budget problem and a commitment to continuing to make
year after year cuts until the state changes prop 2 and a half or until we do constant overrides. And to me, that's actually much more concerning than a commitment to seriously looking at all the options. Um I worry that the status quo is going to be death by a thousand cuts and doing this year over year. And
to me, that's worse than the discomfort of seriously looking at other options, no matter how unappealing they might be. So, as a member of the public and a parent, my request would be a serious, urgent, deep analysis of the potential structural changes before we lose too
much with the year-over-year cuts. Um, the second thing I wanted to raise is about WISP. I want to I'm thrilled to hear that it's on the agenda in two weeks. I urge that discussion to be databased. I think if we want to remain one of the best school districts in the state, we have to use data to drive
decision-m and it has to be data about student outcomes, whether that's academic or social, emotional, whatever the goal is of a course. Um, myself and members of the public asked for data to be looked at 16 months ago, which is almost a year and a half. And I
don't think I think not bringing data to bear for 16 months, I don't think that can be put on one person's medical leave timing. So when there's a repeated request for data and it even aligns with a a PSB school policy that specifically says we should have evaluation
committees formed for new programs and then that data isn't brought. I think that actually is in opposition to our um strategic plan goal one which says increase achievement for students by establishing implementing and regularly
assessing a standardsbased curriculum. So my request is that in two weeks when the discussion comes up that it really includes data and student outcomes data um so that our decisions about programming in schools is is data driven. Thank you.
>> After we hear from Hannah, it will be Marissa Sloan. So Hannah Goldberg, good evening. My name is Hannah Goldberg. I am the third to fifth grade guidance counselor at Driscoll. Last week, I sent you a letter, and tonight, I'm here to continue to implore you to reject the proposed reduction of a
guidance counselor position. I don't envy the position you are in to close this budget gap, but when it comes time for your vote, I urge you to think about our students. Since 2020, we have been living through a youth mental health crisis. Our students are facing severe mental health challenges such as
depression, anxiety, eating disorders, trauma, school refusal, and the list continues. With our clinical team, we are stretched thin, but we can manage our students needs. And together, we do that well. Since we have been able to deliver tier 1 and tier 2 social emotional support to all of our
students, we have seen a reduction in students requiring tier three intensive social emotional services or crisis intervention. But when a student is in crisis, at risk for self harm, or harm of others, we have the capacity to effectively intervene. Because our team is appropriately staffed, we are able to
deliver universal prevention, targeted supports, and crisis support at the same time. Reducing a guidance counselor would completely flip our model of support upside down. It would mean splitting our approximately 530 K to8 students and growing between two remaining guidance counselors. When more
sections are added to accommodate our growing school, this number will continue to rise significantly more. The American School Counselor Association recommends a maximum ratio of 200 stu 250 students per school counselor. I personally think that is far too many. But if we were down to two guidance counselors, we would already exceed that
ratio. Our focus will be taken from delivering preventative and other vital proactive support services to having to manage our students safety. We won't be available to students who need someone to talk to or need help working through a conflict because we will be fully occupied trying to keep everyone safe
when a student becomes disregulated. Students also cannot learn in this type of environment. And and students shouldn't have to go into crisis to get our attention, but this would be our reality. This is not about making our jobs more difficult. This is about having the capacity to keep our students
safe and able to learn. I also want to emphasize your school would not function as it does without Jackie Lavine, our middle school counselor. Sorry. Um the work she does cannot be replicated or absorbed without significant loss to our students and
staff. If the district's goal is to retain highquality educators who are committed to academic excellence and supporting the whole child, this decision would have the opposite effect. So when the time comes to vote, I urge you to think of our students. They deserve more, not less. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Good evening. My name is Marissa Sloan. This is my ninth year as a school psychologist in Brooklyn and my fourth year at Driscoll. I'm also a resident and the parent of a third grader at Wrlull and prospective kindergarter. I am speaking tonight to ask you to reject the proposed counselor cut at Driscoll.
With my ask, I won't pretend that I know the ins and outs of balancing a school budget year after year, but I recognize that it is complicated work and takes hours of deliberation and careful consideration. Please know that the work of school clinical teams is similar in this sense. To someone on the outside, it is hard to recognize how much time and effort is
required to support our students each day. I ask that you listen to the middle school students of Driscoll, to the families, and to the educators when they tell you the devastating impact this proposed cut will have on our community. As a school psychologist, most of most of my time is expected to be filled with
evaluations and meetings. But I feel privileged to work in a district that prioritizes student mental health and that I'm also able to provide social emotional support to students each day. On my end, the support looks like scheduled groups, individual counseling sessions, and teacher consultation.
In addition to this, my team members and I all carry a walkie throughout the day. This is not because we are sitting on call doing nothing, but because we are on call for student support while simultaneously attending to all the other responsibilities of our jobs. For some students, this support means help. transition to the classroom in the
morning. For some, it means a three to four person response to maintain a student's safety and dignity when they are experiencing dysregulation. Other times, it is multiple staff following a child who has run out of the building. Sometimes student support can mean risk assessments, which is what we do when
students present with suicidal ideiation or threaten to harm others. This requires at least two, but sometimes as many as four staff as in addition to determining a student's safety risk. We need to consult with administrators, alert caregivers, and sit with a student in that moment to ensure safety. We do
not have personnel to lose. Earlier this week, one staff member literally had to leave a call they were responding to to go respond to another call that required multiple staff to ensure student safety. Cutting a counselor means cutting student support in every way. Last week you heard Carrie Hibbert and you just
heard Hannah Goldberg describe how tier one intervention classroom lessons will disappear at our school. This is the preventative work that again Matt Dubois just won an award for. Fewer support staff also means that support left over for students in approaching or recovering from crisis will be impacted as well. This is
happening while our school is growing. In fact, we have nine students have registered in the two weeks since this cut was first proposed. An additional section has been proposed for one of our grades. We also house two district-wide programs. Um, and I know that this is not next year. The following that they
those will be available to out of district students as well. I would be remiss if I did not close without mentioning that the loss of this particular staff member would be devastating to our school community. Our middle schoolers that spoke last week did a far better job than I ever could of explaining why Jackie Lavine is
critical to our community. And I would urge you to go back and listen to their courageous speeches as you deliberate. While it may sound like I am advocating for my team right now, at the end of the day, I am advocating for accessible mental health support and services for all of our Briscoll students.
>> Thank you, Marlene Gonalves. Hi, my name is Marlene Gonzalez. I teach seventh grade ELA at Pierce. Um, I started with old Pierce, right, where so many of our classrooms didn't have walls, where once I witnessed a very
suspicious, I don't know, drop of liquid fall from unit A into a colleague's mouth as she was speaking. Uh, where we had to take over town hall a few times cuz our classrooms are above 90 degrees, where it wasn't ADA compliant, right? And that there were rats the size of
like, I don't know, dogs who were never afraid of humans. Uh, now we're at Fiser Hill. We've got one adult bathroom. Our library is nooks in a hallway. They're killer bees that plague us. And I'm not kidding. They're like huge bees. But we make it work, right? Because a school
isn't a building. A school is its staff. And Pierce staff make it work and make it work well. We improvise. We adapt. And we overcome. Yearly. We scramble and figure out ways to make things as normal and functional as possible for our kids.
We come here and explain what's actually happening in our buildings. We try to keep our morale up and we try to support each other because every year things get so much harder. And now this proposed budget where you speak of finding even more efficiencies. That is a gut punch
to us in so many ways. But the one I'm going to highlight today is Sandy Sakard, um PICE's educational technology specialist. When people have issues with anything that has a cord or batteries or just like is shiny,
Sandy is our first call always. When a kid does something to a Chromebook, and I feel like most of you have middle schoolers, you know how they are, it is Sandy who fixes it. When we are testing digitally up to 10 times a year between MCCAST and STAR and there's a problem,
Sandy is the one who fixes it. When you need someone to bounce an idea off of, there is Sandy. at 8:15 when you freak out because your kids were supposed to get on Gail, but we no longer subscribe to Gail and you've got a lesson plan going on and you need vetted sources and
you burst into her office. She has alternatives for you within 5 minutes. That's all Sandy. And it's been so hard to deal with the fact that we only get her 2 days a week at Fiser Hill. And now
it's being proposed that we share her with Lawrence. one person, three buildings across town, and we would only get her one out of every five days. And when you talk to Sandy, she's clear with what she's concerned about. She wants to make sure she's present to support all
staff and students in all of her schools, not just in her role as an ETSs, but also in her role as a member of the Pierce Equity Action Team, mentoring students, and the girls on the run coach. Here's our concerns, though. Yet again, our kids will be put at a
disadvantage compared to other kids. That you're abusing Sandy's devotion to Brooklyn and the fact that she is going to run herself ragged to make this work. That you're treating a veteran who has served for more than 20 years like a
replaceable widget. Sorry. This is not a neutral staffing choice, right? This is a direct hit to teaching, learning, and equity. It will slow instruction, increase disruptions, and place additional strain on staff. We've been doing so much. We've been
giving so much. What's left at this point? We care deeply about our students, our colleagues, and this district. Please show us that you care just as much about the district as we do. Thank you. >> Thank you, Melissa London.
Lots of Okay. All right. Good evening. My name is Melissa London and I teach fifth grade at Pierce at Old Lincoln School. And I'm here tonight uh to highlight what the proposed budget cuts to the edtech department will mean for all of us at Pierce School if Sandy Sakard, our edtech specialist, has her
position at Pierce reduced from 1.0 to point4. Sandy doesn't just dole out Chromebooks. She is a committed educator who aims to ensure a just educational experience for all students in creative ways. In fact, she is one of the finest educators that I have encountered in my nearly 30 years in the field. Currently,
Sandy is at OS three days a week in Fischer Hill for two. If these cuts happen, Sandy will have only one day at each school. As Marley mentioned, the impact on instructional time will be enormous. You see, edtech really isn't just about Chromebooks. But while we're on the topic, before school opened in
September, Sandy prepped 588 of these for students, 20 more for paras and 10 spares. Now, spare Chromebooks come in mighty handy during the numerous tech emergencies. Between five and 17 per MCAST testing day, Sandy told me each
day, right, that she might have to handle. Not sure what this looks like next year across three buildings. I sure hope Scott Moore is ready to field some calls. Tech hardware is only one piece of Sandy's job. It's really the software side of what she does that I want to
make sure everyone understands will be the biggest loss if these cuts are allowed to happen. Sandy visits 14 classrooms for regularly scheduled weekly instruction. Every student in grades three, four, and five receives 30 lessons over the course of a year in digital citizenship, cyber bullying, how
to recognize clickbait, and fishing scams. They come to understand the power of AI and develop healthy digital habits. These lessons help keep our students informed and safe. Our students, your children, and these lessons are critically important in this day and age. And if Sandy can no longer teach these lessons because of her
schedule due to your budget cuts, classroom teachers will have to teach the lessons. At the middle school and in the younger grades, Sandy collaborates with teachers to plan and carry out project-based lessons and units. Pierce teachers Dominique Kurard and Jenny Galaguti want you to know that under Sandy's expert guidance during the
coding project students learn perseverance, empathy, and critical thinking skills. In science, they are transformed into acoustical engineers applying math, science, technology, and engineering to solve problems related to sound. Sandy supports literacy instruction during the poetry unit,
where students type, record, and illustrate their own poems. She works closely with small groups during the culture project, guiding students through meaningful research using technology and supporting students to select content authentically highlighting their heritage. Susan Leman reports that second grade students
learned to type to be ready for third grade MCCAST and that Sandy was instrumental in troubleshooting how to help two students in Susan's class with limb differences to experience success with typing. Sandy also works hard to support special education students to utilize software and tools that help
them achieve their individual academic learning goals. Sandy's commitment to equity extends beyond the classroom. As a member of the Pierce Equity Action Team, Sandy has helped lead professional development focused on equity, contributing to important conversations and growth among staff. She has also coached girls on the run at Pierce two
days a week after school for over a decade. One of my students asked me if the program will continue if Miss Sakar's position is cut. I told her I didn't know. We need coach Sakard. The proposed budget cuts to the ETSs program would be deeply felt across the entire public schools of Brooklyn, but would be
devastating particularly to our Pierce community of students and educators who benefit daily from Sandy Sakar's leadership, expertise, and care. I strongly urge you to reconsider this decision in light of the profound impact she has on our school. Thank you. >> Thank you.
We'll hear from Matt Durant next. Sorry, Matt Durant's next. Hi, I'm Matt Durant. I've taught at the Hay School for 26 years as an education technology specialist. On Monday, our team started a petition to urge you, the
school committee, to fully fund the ETSs program. We sent this petition to our elementary and middle school colleagues and parents that we work closely with. At the time of printing today at 4:30, we had 350 signatures. We're now at 359.
This is an incredibly busy time and we've received over 350 359 signatures over the last three days. I'll pass a petition out for you to take a look at as Jenny takes it from here. Hi. Um, I'm Jenny Murphy. I'm the
educational technology teacher at RUNL. Thank you again for letting me speak. I am speaking tonight on behalf of Ann Marie Mazaki, who is our educational technology teacher at Driscoll. She couldn't come because she was crying too much.
One aspect of the educational technology specialist position is collaborating with teachers to infuse technology into their lessons. either by supporting their ideas or sharing new possibilities and strategies for effective technology integration. This collaborative process
is something I have come to deeply value over the past 11 and a half years that I have worked in Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Education Foundation has been a consistent supporter of this work throughout my time in Brooklyn. This work feeds my spirit because it excites teachers, engages students, and often
brings shared joy as we watch students learn and showcase strengths that might otherwise go unnoticed. Recently, I was invited by Olivia Rail, an outstanding art teacher who always puts students first to partner on an idea lab grant. We worked together and
co-presented the idea. The BEF awarded us the the grant. After setting up one of the laser cutters that we were awarded in her art room, Olivia described the students entering the space like bees to honey. I have been fortunate to witness this same excitement many times over the years.
Whether students are designing and 3D printing a model of a plant cell or programming bluebots and watching their thinking become visible through movement. Just the other day, Olivia and I received an email from the Brookline Education Foundation inviting us to be
one of the projects they feature in the BEF spotlight video. My first reaction was excitement. I'm always grateful when others recognize the power of my collaboration and my technology integration in the service of students. And to be recognized by the BF is truly
an honor. At the same time, that excitement was tempered by deep sadness knowing that the very work that is being celebrated is now labeled as an efficiency and proposed for elimination. What makes the educational technology
position so effective is our ability to build and sustain relationships with teachers, students, and families. Please remember, please reconsider this proposed cut so we can continue to support innovation, curiosity, and the
joy of learning within our school communities. Thanks. Thank you, Sandra Sikard. Hi, I'm Sandy Sakard. I'm the educational technology specialist at Pierce School and I've worked in Brooklyn for over 20 years. I'm here to
share how profound the impact of the proposed ETSs budget cut will be. I also want to acknowledge the kind words that my colleagues have said about me tonight and to note that I am I I don't work in a silo. My colleagues are amazing both at Pier School and
across the edtech department, the librarians and the educational technologies. So, we succeed together because we work together so well. For the past 20 years, our positions across all schools have been stable despite other departments growing with increased enrollment. Our status has remained
unchanged despite inventory increasing dramatically from one school computer lab to one:1 Chromebooks. Our expanding reliance on online administrative tools, the number of online assessments increasing each year, the amount of curricula being delivered online growing steadily, so much that teachers can be
paralyzed when their laptops or projectors are inoperable. Presently, I teach grades three, four, and five weekly, so about 30 lessons over the school year. These lessons include learning to type, digital citizenship, use of Google tools like Docs, Sheets, and Slides, MCCAST software, digital
literacy, and coding. I also teach kindergarten through 2 grade and middle school on a project-based approach. The budget cut proceeds as suggested. I will spend two days a week next year at Pierce and three at Lawrence. Since Pierce is under construction and split into two buildings, I will have just one day a week at each building. This
presents an enormous obstacle to teaching and learning with technology with an inequitable share of ETSs at Pierce. Since I heard about the proposed cuts, I've been asking myself, what do I not teach next year? If I'm at OS one day a week, I can teach about a grade and a half each week. Do I not teach
students how to evaluate information they find online? Do I ignore essential coding skills? Will they be prepared for middle school science if I don't teach them how to use a spreadsheet to organize and analyze data? At what age do students need to understand bias and AI or how to express themselves using
multimedia? Will sixth graders learn how to manage social media issues on their own? At what grade is it most important for students to be able to discern verifiable information from misinformation? In middle school, I push into classrooms for project-based learning and for digital literacy and citizenship
lessons. Our sixth grade is having a workshare tomorrow morning to share a website students have created a collaboration between our social studies and English teachers and myself. Kids are excited and engaged in this project. Over three weeks, I taught students how to use our databases, search and
authenticate websites, and publish their research on a website. Since we are in different buildings, I taught those lessons during the two days a week I'm at Fiser Hill. How will this project proceed next year if I spend just one day a week at their middle school? We've been told this cut is to create
efficiencies. I'm curious how efficiency is improved when there will be one ETSS to cover 24 testing days for MCCAST in three buildings. Our middle school teacher has to troubleshoot her projector while teaching. when it stops working right before she's supposed to show a video, a student's password is leaked, and they're unable to change the
password without assistance, or a new student starts middle school and isn't issued a Chromebook for 4 days. I urge you to fully fund the ETSs positions in all of our schools. Thank you, Benji Lewig. and after Carrie Hibard.
>> Hi, my name is Benjamin Ledwig. Um, I'm a junior. Uh, but I came to BHS just as the start of this year. Um, during my first few days, even before I had all my classes set up, uh, the librarian team at 115 Greeno was a team of support for me. Um, I had a space where I could not only do my work but also build a sense
of belonging, which is kind of key when you join a new school. Despite completely full schedule and multiple extracurriculars, I spent over 70 hours doing community service for BHS through the student library advisory. It's a direct cause of the librarians being not only welcoming but also pillars of BHS as a whole. My story is a far from
unique one. Um, my peers on SLA all have similar experiences getting opportunities and support from the librarians as well as the community they actively create in the library. During my time in the school, I've seen librarians happily help every student that has entered the space. The library is a support that many students default to uh because of the welcoming and truly
beneficial environment created by each and every librarian. The impacts that uh the librarians have had is excellently shown in the group I'm representing today. Uh the student library advisory or SLA sle as it is colloially called um is a group created last year to organize library events and meaningfully
contribute to the community. Um last year SLA had 14 members and this year year we have 21 members. Good increase. Um on top of gaining participants we are also gaining influence in the school running higher quantity of more ambitious projects this year such as the second reading challenge monthly events
and a personal empowerment of each individual member by allowing them to take on tasks and projects they are passionate about such as um speaking here tonight. Um none of this would be remotely possible without each of the librarians. They all contribute quite a lot who are not only vital to the
empowerment of the SLA members but also key parts of SLA, the library, and BHS as a whole. It's not an unfounded claim. Uh since Tuesday of this week when SLA decided to take on this issue, we have collected over 711 signatures from students, teachers, and voters of the Brooklyn Public School System declaring
that they do not support the removal of any of the BHS librarians. And may I remind you, this is 711 signatures in 3 days. Um, in an interview about the potential reduction of the teacher librarians at the school, a student was quoted as saying, "I would rather gouge
out my eyes with a dirty spoon than see a librarian fired." Um, while obviously no budget can satisfy everybody, especially with so many economic problems facing the school board at this time, it cannot be stressed how important the um student uh
the librarians are to the um morale uh running of our school and education of the students. It's clear that the opinion of the student body and the school board voters is that firing a librarian should not be done obviously from our 711 signatures in the past three days. Um I urge you as representatives of the people to make
the decision that reflects the needs of your constituents and students. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Oh, and should I just bring these over here? >> After Carrie, we'll hear from um Olivia Rael.
Hi, thank you again for your time this evening. I'm Carrie Hipper, the T K2 guidance counselor at Driscoll. I'm here again uh about preserving the guidance counselor position at Driscoll. Last week I spoke about how this cut would mean an elimination of tier 1 services and a reduction of tier 2 services for
our student body. K to 5 will no longer receive weekly lessons. They do now. Sixth grade will not receive advisory lessons that are taught or planned by guidance. Um, less time will be available to support students with the eighth to 9th grade transition. Less time will be available to welcome new
families to kindergarten. Small group and individual counseling for students across grade levels will be reduced. Less counselors equals less counseling. Period. Another thing that will be lost is our relationships. Those don't show up in the numbers or the data. However, they are essential to our work. When two
counselors are spread across 530 students and growing, we will not know them. Students will not know us. Our work is less effective, less efficient, and it's an immeasurable loss. I would also like to highlight the paradox tonight of cutting a counselor um by
underscoring two of the five core values touted by BPS, commitment to equity and ethic of wellness. Cutting a counselor is in direct opposition to these values. If we are committed to eliminating barriers of educational achievement, why are we cutting staff that directly serve
this goal? Counselors cultivate safe and trusting relationships with families and students from disadvantaged groups. We invite parents into the building. We help them fill out financial aid forms. We get them set up with Brookline Thrives. We fill out section 8 housing applications with them. We send updates
home. We coordinate summer program. And we give like a little extra that sends the message Driscoll is your home. You belong here. Your child belongs here. We are advocates to help level the playing field with the privileged in this town. Counselors are also on the front lines at Driscoll to ensure that students with
minority status are getting regular education supports. We work so we aren't unjustly labeling a student as disabled. That matters to your DESIE audit. And doesn't it also fit your bottom line? If we are committed to an ethic of wellness, that's also um a core value by
BPS, why cut a counselor? We will not be teaching or continuing s sustainable practices as it states in our values. When we are underst staffed, we can't get and stay ahead of the distress that falls at our doorstep. In January alone, I started seeing 11 additional students
in first and second grade individually and in groups for anxiety. next year with two counselors. Maybe one of these students exhibits large enough externalizing behaviors at school that they'd meet the threshold for services. The rest would quietly suffer during the day and cry at night as their parents
have reported to me. I am angry that Driscoll students will be left to white knuckle it through their day. I don't want to drive home each night knowing that we are falling short right now. I am proud of the work we do and respectfully. It's the 100th day of school and I have not seen Miss Wong
walk through our building, look at our students, see our clinical team services. Had she done this, perhaps she would understand what a counselor cut really means to us. I look to our school committee, people of privilege and power to do the right thing. Do not cut
counselors at Driscoll or anywhere. >> Thank you. After Olivia, we'll hear from Joey Elmar. >> Hello, my name is Olivia Rail. You heard from Jenny a little bit of an overlap um from the letter she she read from Miss Mazaki. Hello, my name is Olivia Rail.
I've been an art teacher at the Driscoll School for the past 10 years and I'm speaking tonight regarding the proposed cuts to the educational technology specialist positions in our KD8 schools. The proposal to shift the position from full-time to halftime is at minimum deeply concerning. Collaboration has
been one of the most energizing and meaningful parts of my 30-year teaching career in education. First as a classroom teacher and now as an art teacher. The energy comes from students enthusiasm as they engage in deep deeply with learning and make meaningful connections across subjects. This week
and Marie Mazaki and I are full-time ETSs at Driscoll and I received a bittersweet email from the BEF. They reached out wanting to feature us in the video at the 2026 BEF trivia. In November, Miss Mazaki and I were awarded $1,500 for an idea lab grant for the
project titled The Art of Geometry. The seed for this project began when we learned that the our middle school math teacher, Jen Jordan, received a BEF grant where she'll be traveling to Spain to explore the intersections of art, math, and architecture with a focus on Spanish tile design. Miss Mazaki and I
saw this as an opportunity to build direct connections between math, technology, and art at Driscoll. Our grant allowed us to purchase two laser printers. We developed a plan in which Miss Jordan teaches math concepts such as translations and rotations. I teach students how to design paper
tessillations and Miss Mazaki teaches students how to upload their designs into software so the laser printer can cut them from thin plywood. Each eighth grade student will create their own teslating puzzle like this one I've brought here tonight. This kind of
collaboration only happens when there is a dedicated time, continuity, and strong professional relationships. A.5 simply cannot support this level of work. Someone who is at Driscoll for only two and a half days cannot meaningfully meet with three first grade classes to create books about responsible digital
citizenship. They cannot consistently support vulnerable English language learners in bu in our building both language getting both language access and digital skills often starting with students who have little or no prior experience. These are just a couple of
the many collaborative collaborative projects that Miss Mazaki has completed this year. These are the projects that excite students. These are the projects that energize the teachers. And these are the projects that are not possible without a full-time edte specialist. I fear that a 0.5 position will only allow
for troubleshooting technology glitches that staff are experiencing. Our new Driscoll School building has amazing technology which allows for dynamic interactive instruction. However, without adequate staffing, the role may be limited to technical fixes rather than in the meaningful instructional work that directly benefits students and
perhaps most importantly, the joy in learning, something we cannot afford to lose. I recently overheard a group of third graders in the art room talking about how Tuesdays are their favorite day because they have art in the morning and coding with Miss Mazaki in the afternoon. That excitement speaks
volumes. Miss Mazaki has also partnered with classroom teachers to support some of our most vulnerable students, inviting them to serve as helpers in the tech lab when they need a break or could benefit from extra attention. These moments are not only support
regula support regulation and connection. They help students feel valued and capable. >> Thank you. After Joey, we'll hear from Kaylee Malcolmson. >> My name is Joey Lazmore. I graduated
from BHS last year, having attended Brooklyn Public Schools my entire life. The same two alma mater as our superintendent, Bella Wong. And I believe that laying off one of our high school librarians, is not a worthwhile means to cut costs from our deficited budget. I'm going to start off by saying I hold
a deep respect for you all, the school committee and the superintendent, and I do understand the struggle that you face having to make difficult choices to maintain Brookline's worldclass education while trying to minimize the impact on our students. But from my experiences at
BHS, this action is not the right way to do that. Miss Knitley, Miss Mains, Miss Walner, and Miss McIll. Our four librarians are some of the most studentf facing positions and student facing professionals at the school. They each mentor multiple student clubs and
interact with hundreds of students, teachers, parah, and staff daily. They're often the first resource students go to when in need. And from my experience volunteering at the library, that is especially true for when students are new to the school, like Benji, new to the country, or are have
learning disabilities. basically the students who need the help the most. And this help is not assigned. It all of the trust built between the librarians and the students is built naturally. And I think this part, this personal connection is one of the most beautiful parts about our library. And it all
happens while our three 115 go librarians are stretched between tasks. Since the library acts as the main study spot and social location at Brookline High School, it is often so busy that the librarians have to enlist volunteers to help with their duties like answering the phone and shelving books. This gives
the librarians more time to be with the students and serve the community. With one fewer librarian, this capacity for connection would be greatly hindered. And to me, this part of our library is something that sets BHS apart from the rest. Now that I'm in college and I've heard stories about the high school
libraries of my peer, I want you to trust me when I say this, that we have something special here in Brooklyn. We do not want to squander this. Once again, I understand there is no budget cut that will make everybody happy, but I urge you to prioritize the service for
and success of the students and maintain this critical part of our great school. Thank you. After Kaylee, we'll hear from Addie Koschic. >> Hi, thank you for having me. Uh, my name is Kaylee Malcolmson and I am a prayer
professional at Pierce School. I am here to speak in support of my ETSs and library colleagues. I am very concerned about the impacts of the cuts the district is proposing to ETSs and library. We are a district that claims to be committed to educational
excellence. Yet year after year, cuts are made that negatively impact the people whose tireless work actually makes this district excellent. As you know, Pierce is currently spread over two buildings. This is already a challenge enough for all our educators
who travel between two sites, including our ETSs, Sandy Sakard, and our librarian Amanda Cretchmer. And on top of that, planning, managing, and delivering programs for elementary and middle school, which have very different
requirements. Our specialists in K to8 are already working two jobs. My chief concern here is that these cuts are made without understanding what the long-term impact will be. As it is proposed now, Pierce will share Sandy
with another school and she will only be at Pierce, again, campus split across two buildings. 4 FTE one day in each building. What will be the impact? Our children will have less access to support in
navigating their tech, less access to multi-day big projects, less instruction that will help prepare them for a techheavy future. Additionally, I cannot keep track of the number of times that Sandy has saved a lesson, an entire day of teaching, or an
MCCAST test. by being able to respond quickly to troubleshoot a tech issue. Without Sandy present, there will be far more hours of lost learning. I also want to speak on behalf of our library staff and especially on behalf
of our Cavalry Award-winning librarian, Amanda Crutch. She has she has for years expertly delivered both K to5 and middle school library programs and for the last 18 months has done that while traveling
between our two buildings maintaining two large collections of books on two campuses planning and delivering lessons for 24 K to5 classes and a middle school of around 200 students all while finding time to collaborate on special projects with teachers across the whole of our K
to8. The proposed cuts to the library department will push our librarians to the brink. Right now, having classroom teachers accompany their classes to library specials have so many wider benefits that we will lose due to we
lose due to apologies, I've lost my spot. That we will lose should that change. It creates fewer opportunities for librarians to collaborate with our teachers. Amanda is an incredible educator who has built strong relationships with our children, but she
would clearly be unable to keep the library open to other students while she's teaching alone. These students would no longer be able to freely check out books or use library resources other than during very limited windows. This would further reduce the opportunities
our students have to build their independence and foster a love of reading, which is a cornerstone of education. Therefore, I am asking the school committee and the district to please reconsider these decisions and fully fund our ETSs and library
programs. Thank you. >> Thank you. After a we'll be hearing from Wincy. >> Uh good evening. My name is Adita Koshik. I'm a senior at Brookline High School and I'm speaking today on behalf of the 32 student library volunteers at
BHS. As you know, this budget proposal would reduce the number of librarians from 4 to three. Uh when we volunteers heard this, we were quite concerned. A decision like this would affect not only the librarians but us students as well.
At BHS, we have three librarians at the main library and one at the freshman library. The structure is integral for the functioning of both libraries. On average, we have more than 600 students using just the main library every day.
Last year, we had a thousand students who participated in the libraries events and 11 clubs that were and still are led by the four librarians. Letting one of the librarians go would severely hinder the help that students currently receive from them. I myself have been
volunteering in the library since 2023, working closely with all four librarians. Every day they shelf books, teach classes, help student help students with essays and citations, plan events, create book displays, and much
more. Not only have these librarians been instrumental in student support, they've also given many students like me the opportunity to gain real life work experience through volunteering. The librarians even provide support for students worrying about their futures.
They help with navigating college application process and writing essays. As a first generation immigrant, their help in the college application process was invaluable. When I had no one to ask, the librarians were always there for me, and that made the process much
less daunting. They they've also made the library a warm, welcoming place where students can rest in addition to doing their work. Their support isn't only academic, but has greatly helped serve the mental well-being of students. The librarians
have uh crafted self-care goodie bags filled with mindfulness meditations, stress balls, calming scented oils, etc. When high school is stressful, the library is a safe place for so many students. At BHS, we have seen the
effects of not having enough librarians already. The freshman library, manned by only one librarian, Miss McIll, is stretched to its breaking point. It frequently closes for parts of the school day, cutting off freshmen from academic support, a comforting space to
do work, and the plethora of support services that the main branch offers. The main branch, which has significantly more foot traffic, would suffer in a very similar way. However, uh as the primary library for the school, the
effects would be much more significant. For the past 3 years, the library has been my refuge, and I know I'm not the only one. My high school experience would not be the same without the support the library has offered me, and I want to make sure that we preserve the
support for students to come. >> Thank you. After Wednesday, we'll hear from Molly Walner. Good evening, members of the school committee. My name is Wincy Fun and I am a Brookline resident and homeowner of over a decade with a fifth grader
attending Piers. I'm here regarding the proposed reduction of Pierce ETSS Micard from a full-time position to a 40% allocation shared with Lawrence across three buildings. I recognize the seriousness of the district's budget
challenges, but this is not a peripheral adjustment. It is a structural reduction in our ability to provide safe, highquality, future ready education. Mrs. Ka does far more than the her current scope in middle school
especially where Chromebooks are deeply integrated into daily instruction. They play a critical role in safeguarding student technology use. She helps ensure responsible device behavior,
protect student data privacy, support teachers with classroom management in digital environments, and respond when issues arise. As we just heard, this is not optional support. It is foundational to maintaining a productive and safe
learning environment. She also directly teach teaches and supports digital literacy curriculum. In today's technology landscape now further complicated by AI, students must learn
how to evaluate online information, understand bias, protect the digital identities, and use AI tools ethically. I wanted to share some evidence and data to support this. The United Nations
Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, has emphasized that education systems must establish guard rails and structured guidance for ethical and safe use of AI in schools.
Without adequate specialist support, we risk inconsistent implementation and uneven student preparation. As an executive leading data digital and AI in a biioharmaceutical company in Cambridge, I can attest that global
workforce data reinforces this urgency. The World Economic Forum's future of jobs report in 2025 identifies digital literacy, data fluency, and AI competencies as among the fastest growing and most
critical skills worldwide. The report notes that nearly 40% of core workforce skills are expected to change by 2030 due largely to automation and AI. This is not abstract. This is the world our
current fifth graders will enter. Research consistently shows that sustained embedded coaching improves teacher practice and student outcomes. Mr. Car functions as a digital instructional coach, helping teachers design effective lessons, integrate
tools, meaningfully differentiate instruction, and avoid losing valuable instructional minutes to technical disruption. Um, I am deeply grateful for um her support and my request is straightforward. Please reconsider this
reduction with other streams of revenue override. Protecting this role protects instructional quality safety, um, student safety, social, emotional development, critical to our district's long-term excellence and town
reputation. Thank you so so much. >> After Molly, we'll hear from Eric Coburn. Hello, I'm Molly Wner, one of the four librarians divided between the two libraries at Brookline High School. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I appreciate your thoughtful
consideration, particularly in the face of these challenging budget decisions. In so many ways, school librarians are the best bargain in a school district. We provide schoolwide return on investment. We continue to lead, evolve,
and provide crucial support as the tools of the information and communication landscapes emerge and change. We fill any role that our community requires. From thought partner to book matchmaker, copy editor to life coach, fact checker
to co-teer. We as librarians are all of these things and everything in between. Not just daytoday, but hour to hour. We are in charge of the largest classroom in our school, serving anywhere between 600 to 800 students a day at the 115
Greeno building alone. In our libraries, we connect students to their passions, allowing them supportive exploration of the stories and skills that interest them, both in service of their academic achievement and to nourish their unique identities. We are a safe and welcoming
space for all students, regardless of what has brought them through our doors. And we work hard to ensure that they feel seen, heard, and respected through programs such as our annual library reading challenge, storytelling events, poetry fest, student author
talks, and summer reading. We have engaged nearly 1,000 students in library related extracurricular activities in the past year. When people say young people don't read books anymore, we've pulled out all the stops to make reading
fun and ensure a culture of reading in our schools. Our circulation figures, growing number of book clubs, and high attendance at our programs show that we have been successful. We scout and evaluate emerging technologies and introduce them to the entire learning
culture of students and educators. BHS librarians teach two out of the five learning uh professional learning courses that faculty are required to take leading the school's professional development efforts in artificial intelligence.
Librarians are charged with ensuring that students seek out and verify credible information for their academic and personal lives which is particularly challenging in our digital world. I'm sure that everyone in this room agrees that misinformation is an enormous
problem and that our young people need to learn how to na that our young people need to learn how to navigate. To address this, the BHS library team recently received a highly competitive three-year grant to develop and implement a curriculum to ensure that BHS
that students at BHS graduate with the skills to identify credible information and determine what they can trust, share, and act on. All of this is only possible due to a fully staffed team of four licensed librarians. Our staffing
reflects the value that our school district places on our role, training, and expertise, as well as leadership's recognition of our impact on student learning, achievement, and belonging. I urge you to reconsider this cut and look for alternative ways to balance the budget that do not sacrifice and weaken
the literal heart of our school. Our students deserve a fully staffed library to compete in the 21st century landscape and to to develop to their fullest potential. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Eric Coburn. >> Hi. Can you hear me? Great. I'm Eric
Coburn, a longtime BHS English teacher. Bob hired me over 20 years ago. Um, and I'm a BHS grad, class from 1987, and I'm here to urge you not to cut any librarians at BHS. Um, I've spent my career at BHS building a culture of
reading. In my nth grade class, we read challenging texts together like The Odyssey, and we just finished Raisin in the Sun. And we also do an enormous amount of reading independently and in book groups. and librarians are a really huge part of this uh for me and for all
of my English colleagues. I have kids like Ella Neil Miller who read 86 books um when she was a nth grader in my class on her own over the course of a year. Um and I have kids who who really struggled to uh to to to to read and and kind of
avoided reading. For all of my students, independent reading and the librarian librarians really really matter. Kids find books uh at the library. They read books at the library and they need knowledgeable and empathetic librarians to help them. Um the librarians help me
too. I serve the kids tea every Friday and we spend half the period reading independently and I check in with the kids and have conversations with them while they read. It's a beautiful thing and I couldn't do it as easily if I didn't have the librarians uh helping me. Um this week we're starting a
project where we all read books more published more than 100 years ago and that means scrambling to find uh the particular books that the kids want to read. Um so the librarians were helping me been helping me find copies of Pride and Prejudice and Little Women 20,000
Leads Under the Sea, Narrative of the Life of uh uh Frederick Douglas and and so on and so on. And that's just my class. The library serves so many of us. There are hundreds of kids in the library every day. They are reading, writing, they're doing
research, they're getting support for, you know, a dozens of different things. These hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of kids need librarians. So, please figure out how to save the librarians that we currently have. Like, I think we could use more librarians. Um, my
English classes my English classes are are larger than actually now than they have ever been in my 23 years at at BHS. So, I'm I'm aware that money is tight and I don't know how to fix this, but I am here to say that tight budgets really do make a difference and I really hope you can find a way to keep the
librarians we have. Could I teach a class of 40 kids? Maybe. But it would be way worse for my students. And I think the same is true of librarians. Could our school survive with one fewer librarian? probably it would just be a worse school. Um, and I don't want a
worse school. Reading is still in my view the most important part of education and libraries and librarians are absolutely crucial. Also, um, you guys should do a bell-to-bell phone ban districtwide. Um, that costs no money and it would make our
librarians even more important, but that's a separate topic. Um, again, just like save our librarians. We love them. We need them. and um thank you for the work you do. >> Thank you. We're going to go to Zoom for our next
person. Elizabeth Collins Willis will be on Zoom. >> Hello, my name is Beth Collins and I'm a literacy specialist at Pierce School. I appreciate the chance to speak tonight in favor of restoring the ETSs positions to the budget. This is my 23rd year in
this position and in that time there have been eight superintendents, six assistant superintendent and six curriculum coordinators. Within my school, there have been five principles and seven vice principles. Of these 23 years, almost all have included a budget
crisis. Almost all have been called unprecedented or potentially catastrophic. Throughout this turmoil, it has been the teachers who have kept the schools functioning. The educational technology specialist is one of these teachers and is espec is
absolutely essential. The ETSs position affects all the ways that teachers meet the needs of students. Pierce's ETS, Sandy Sakard, has been in Brooklyn for more than 20 years and has served the district with unmatched devotion, expertise, and professionalism. The cut
in the proposed budget, the one with an override, would more than double her responsibilities, the staff she would work with, and the students she would support. She would be required to move among three school buildings, as Pierce is now housed in two buildings more than
a mile apart. In trying to understand this decision, I wondered which aspect of Sandy's ETSs role is considered expendable. It couldn't be her responsibility for hundreds and hundreds of Chromebooks and laptops, labeling, maintaining, and
distributing them, often beyond her contracted days in order to get everything done correctly. It couldn't be overseeing the student use agreements that govern the safe use of such powerful tools. could be the essential work of supporting teaching, professional
development, assemblies, performances, and community events through technology support, equipment delivery, and problem solving. Work that has saved countless hours from being unproductive. You might be surprised to know that the Department of Education's MCCAST
platform does not always work perfectly. Sandi is responsive and knowledgeable and solves MCCAST issues and Chromebook snafuss the way she does everything immediately, calmly, kindly, and completely. How can she do this across three campuses with two schools worth of
MK MCAST age students? Another aspect of the role that seems essential to school functioning is her invaluable help in investigations re uh regarding bullying and in protecting children who have the power of the internet and instant connection
at their fingertips. I don't know details of particular cases but I know administrators would say Sandy has been instrumental in understanding events that have transpired and that she has done so with compassion and the utmost integrity. It might surprise people to
learn that ETSs teaches students proper digital citizenship, how to avoid fake news and plagiarism, how to conduct academic research and write citations, the acceptable use of AI, and how to protect themselves from online predators. Sandy knows the name of every
student in the school and has taught them respect for and responsible use of technology. Clearly, those aspects of the job aren't expendable. the educational use of technology, apps, and instructional programs. Sandy knows them all. She teaches students how to use
Drive to organize their work. She learns new programs and teaches them to teachers. She explains which tools are useful for which tasks. Is that expendable? So, I'm left with the really cool stuff that must be what we lose. the class websites that capture project-based learning, the thrilling
experience of first graders learning to code with little robots, video performances during a changemaker assembly celebrating Martin Luther King Jr., Girls on the Run after school club, and so so many other varied, original, and innovative experiences.
Maybe the district can tell us what of the things that I have mentioned is considered expendable. I don't see anything that we can afford to lose. Thank you. >> Thank you. Our next speaker is online as well, Vanessa Olette.
>> Hi. Um, I'm a fourth grade classroom teacher at the Roland Hay School and I'm also speaking about the need to fully fund the ETSs program. As I know everyone knows at this point, the current budget proposes a 50% reduction splitting our ETSs specialists between all of the K to8 buildings. This would
have a profound and incredibly negative effect on our students, on their learning, and on the quality of our teaching. Um, as you've heard, ETSs teachers don't just bring devices and apps into our classroom. These are professionals who use technology to bring our students creativity, joy,
collaboration, critical thinking, incredibly high quality instruction, um, and thoughtful reflection. Uh, these teachers work extensively with students across the school, giving direct instruction each and every day. Every time RTS teacher at my school, Matt Durant, comes into my classroom where
teaches my students. My students are curious, they're engaged, they're motivated, they're thinking. This is the environment we want for our kids. Our school DTS professional teaches research skills, works with students to think deeply about their writing for an actual authentic, meaningful audience, and also helps students craft thoughtful,
detailed work. In education, we all know that one size doesn't fit all, and it's our job to tailor our instruction to meet the needs of all of our students. Thoughtfully implemented technology helps us do that. It helps us give enrichment to kids who need additional challenge. It helps us support students who might be struggling with work. And
it gives all kids the tools they need to succeed. Our ETSs specialists teach us how to develop motivating projects that meet the needs of all of our students with a wide range of academic needs, all while addressing the learning standards that we need to do. I know that ours makes me a better teacher and pushes my
thinking about instruction. Without consistent collaboration with our ETSs teachers, our instruction will be or I'll speak for me. Without my ETSs teacher, I know my instruction will be more wrote, less engaging, and less creative. This would significantly harm
students in their learning. And I know my experience is replicated throughout the district. We're teaching a lot of new curriculum right now, and this curriculum constantly needs to be refined and improved so it meets the needs of our students in our classroom, and quite honestly, so that it's not boring. Our ETSs teachers are the people
who often make the difference between dry, bland instruction and engaging, authentic, hands-on, project-based learning that actually means something to our students. If these teachers are split between more schools, we won't have the time we need to effectively co-e, collaborate, and design effective
instruction and lessons together. And students would get a fraction of the time they need with these incredibly impactful educators. As the classroom teacher, I don't have the expertise to do this alone. and I absolutely cannot do it without our ATS professionals. I
completely understand that budgets are incredibly tight, but cutting these positions forces us to compromise on the the vision that we have for our own schools. We all want innovative, supportive schools that meet the needs of all of our students and prepare them for the future. That's our shared mission that we all have in this space
and we cannot do that without our educational technology specialists. Thank you. >> Thank you. And our final speaker is Uriel Zaperski. Uh, hi. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Yuriel Zaperski. I graduated from BHS last year, class of
2025. And I would also like to talk about cutting the librarian at BHS. And I have an anecdote for you. I am dressed the way I am today because it's spirit week at the school where I managed to get a real adult pay me money job as a librarian's aid in Somerville. It's
decades day. I went for like a '9s 2000 grunge thing. Um, I am taking a gap year. So, last summer I applied like crazy to try to get a job in any kind of library because that's where I want my career to go one day. And I got one. I
work 18 hours a day. I teach kids how to take care of books. I help them find them. I help them learn how to read shelves. I catalog. I weed. I get to make decisions about who should get to read the Five Nights at Freddy's books. The answer is sixth grade and up.
This would not be possible without the vol the library volunteer program at BHS where I spent 600 hours and the time the librarians were able to spend on the program and on me. I strongly believe the volunteer
opportunities would not be as beneficial to BHS students if it is made to operate a librarian down. I was a volunteer when there were two librarians at 115 Greeno after one retired and then three again after Molly Walner was hired. The 115
library currently has three amazing librarians. So see the volunteering under any two of them would be bad. But if Molly Wner wasn't hired while I was there, then the workload would have remained too much to have a dedicated librarian who can give their focus to
giving volunteers realworld learning experience. And without that learning, I would not have this real pay money. I have a retirement account amazing job that I love. I know these are the hard choices about
budget you have to make. But if you remove a librarian, then the three and remaining would have to make hard choices, too. Should they help a walk-in student with a paper or work on a lesson plan to help a whole class get started? Should they work on the lesson plan or shelf some books before there's a
backup? Should they shove and know they'll get it right or teach a new volunteer how to do it? Should they teach that new volunteer or expand the knowledge of a more experienced one? There is no way for
three people to fill the space of four. And I believe everything these four do for students is essential. They will get three will get plenty done because they are all incredible. But I don't know if I can impress upon you how
much every chance librarians get to go beyond the minimum turns into so much teaching, learning, and incredible value for the students of BHS. For me, that value is the $10,000 in my retirement account I will make at the
job that I got this year. I get to put that on my resume. I get to take that to college. I get to have the work these librarians put into me for the rest of my life. In conclusion, please don't.
Thank you. Thank you very much. And that concludes public comment and we are going to go back to our update on the U fiscal year 27 proposed budget. >> Thank you. I think Susan's going to lead this part.
I should say Susan is gonna lead this part. Looks like we'll be hearing from Susan Given, Karen Schmecker, and Robin Bonoy. So, at the conclusion of our um meeting last week, uh we had asked school
committee members to submit questions and um and we received quite a few and uh based on what we received um and what we had time to be able to prepare um we sent out some responses to those
and FAQs and Um tonight we're just going to take a few minutes to kind of walk through uh responses in three areas. So uh professional development curriculum, there was a number of uh questions that came up around that. Uh special revenue
funds and staffing. So those are the three topical areas we're going to uh walk through a little bit more in detail you tonight. So, uh it will be Robin and um myself
and Karen who will uh uh review some of the information that uh is in response to those questions that were asked. >> Okay. There were a number of questions that were about professional devel professional and curriculum development.
Um, and so I just want to note um or just remind us that last year we know that there was a significant cut there had to be a significant cut made to the professional development fund line and the original request was actually higher
than this year's request. So this year's request is actually a reduction in what our original request was last year. And we really tried to build it again from the bottom up. Working with thinking about our obligations, working with our coordinators, working with our
principles to consider, you know, what what do we need in this coming year? What's critical? It doesn't represent every this number doesn't necessarily represent every ask that they made. We had to make decisions and prioritize. So some of the things that this supports
in this line item across budgets are contractual obligations we have. So for instance, tuition assistance for teachers comes out of this line. That is a contractual requirement that we have. Um some of our required trainings for
teachers that have been with with us. Um so I think about specifically some of the required trainings that are for some of our health and wellness teachers. thinking about um some of the programs that they offer that require our you know for our staff um and some of our
new hire curriculum specific training. So for instance when we hire a new teacher and we want to make sure that they have some of that same background this allows us to bring that back in. So if if our our staff has received training in a particular curricular area um or curriculums you know specific
curriculums um professional de memberships for um various disciplines and programs. So we think about um the ability and that's not like professional memberships for across the board but thinking it about
some of the organizations that we as a school district belong to are here. um our leaders benefit from that, our coordinators benefit from that and are then able to bring some of those resources, those updates to their departments. Um so those are critically
important. Professional development and conferences related to district instructional priorities. This is a really big place within the budget um that we're feeling the loss of professional development funds this year and it's critical that it is reinstated
within the next year. So if we think about the work that we're trying to do around literacy, the work that we're trying to do around MTSS as a district and make sure that um we have the professional learning for our staff um
and for ourselves in terms of conferences again, you know, thinking critically about prioritizing conferences in areas where we are needing to grow and ensure that our staff have access, staff and leaders have access to those um and you know one
specific place that I want to call out in particular because this is called out within and this is within my budget so you'll hear later um about the idea of a science curriculum review which is it's a it's a regular practice that we need to engage in. So we'll be engaging in
that work next year K12. So we want to look at that cohesively. I want to make sure that um our the curriculum that we're offering and the practices that we have are aligned to state and national frameworks. They're they're aligned with current research and we have a
tremendous opportunity in terms of the National Science Teachers Conference is being held in Boston next year and we want to ensure that staff have access to participate in that. It's incredibly meaningful um professional learning that allows them to connect with educators
across the country. And the fact that we have a national conference in our backyard, we want to make sure that we have we are able to offer some access to that. Um school-based improvement efforts that are aligned to school improvement plans. So these are professional learning um needs that
principles have identified for their school communities align with their school improvement plans. So again, we're trying to think about our strategic plan. We're trying to think about the the work that we're engaged in and we're trying to think about the work our schools are looking at that they've
identified that where they need support and professional learning. And then also in the area of leadership and systems development. So there's those are some of the places where superintendent Wong might have identified professional needs across the district. So those all kind
of live in this line item. Um so just explaining that a little bit more. So um just to underscore it, last year the request was 416,674. So the request this year is much less and it reflects just really building from the base up about what we thought
was most important. It's 100% investment in the staff to offer training and growing opportunities for them. Are we asking questions as we go or at the very end? >> Oh, you're leading the meeting.
>> I was thinking it would be good along the way. >> Okay, then I have a question. >> My question is, I appreciated what you just said about NSTA being in Boston and taking advantage of um local national conferences. So is the conference travel
that's in the professional development exclusively for regional as opposed to national? Will you be taking advantage of for example people might skip a year or go every other year or just take advantage of a local event rather than embedding travel? I think where we're looking when I call that out
specifically um there might be other other places but that specifically I think is just opportunities that we want to ensure that we have the professional development funds to take advantage of and we've identified that at you know in planning ahead that's a place where both um our curriculum coordinators at the K8
and the 912 level as we've been working to kind of think about what a review looks like we also want to ensure that staff have access to professional development. >> Okay. Then I'm going to reframe the question. Do we have any national travel in our budget that we cannot replace with regional travel? Mandatory required
national travel that we can't Okay. No, thank you. >> We do not. >> I I will say because we are where we're located, a lot of conferences come to us. So, >> I'm well aware there's lots of things in Florida and other places. So, >> no, that's not not what we're funding.
We're really thinking about um that you know our opportunities that are close by. Carolyn. >> Um, thanks and sorry uh that I missed the beginning there. Um, so this is helpful and my question or
comment might be more of a a Susan or Bella. Um I think what would be helpful is more um more specifics like somewhere
there's a back end where there were different specific things that we know we're going to be doing and someone clicks some and then the full number appears. So, um I know in some systems
it's easy to get that transparency. Um so, is there a way for that to happen with our system where people can see um kind of more more specifics?
>> In specifics, are you asking for like a line item funding or like specific activity >> like if If if there's a particular training program or a particular PD,
>> are you look you're looking for like the types of things that are funded like how many memberships are in the budget, things like that >> and to to what like I would think if if there's a plan I mean I'm being super general.
Someone says, you know, we want to do XYZ training or membership so that we can do these classes or that classes or take the time to do XYZ and that's how the number is arrived at
I suppose because XYZ equals A. So yeah, just more of like what it is exactly like the conference here is a specific but just what the backend
inputs are. Is that ever seeable? >> Well, we can certainly provide you with more information about what exactly is in there. Like like we've said, it's memberships. It's things like uh there's a conference coming to Boston. We're
aware of that. uh we're going to invest in that because we're also doing the science review. So that's the priority. So other things um were not considered because those are the things that we're working on aligned to the strategic plan. >> Certainly the principles have uh their
SIPs which you've reviewed. Yeah. >> And so the professional development that they've requested is in support of that. So we we can um you know share >> you know more about those types of the budget lines um in some places are best estimates. Yeah because we actually
don't have the um >> the conference prices actually may not be posted like that's just not >> I could see that going through that some of them were like $150,000 and then some are like $17,451. So then I figure it's something specific
and I'm not challenging the number. I'm really just would love a little more just, you know, sunlight on what folks are doing. That's all. >> But I'm not I'm not I'm not looking away or things like as as the superintendent
said, we don't track it to a minutia level. >> Understood. Okay. So, it's like >> will say like I I want this much because >> they'll give you a bucket. >> Goal in my SIP is X. And so we're setting aside in order to be able to achieve the goal.
>> Okay. >> But else that's helpful to help me understand. Thanks. >> In the end, they have to put the purchase order in. It has to be approved and it has to have been budgeted for and it has to fit within the >> the intended purpose for which >> it was budgeted for.
>> But in this at this point, we don't have >> a ton of detail. >> Yes. >> Thank you, >> Jesse. I um I guess my question put simply is
what did we not do in this space this year that we had to do? Was there anything that we were supposed to do and because it wasn't funded, we did not do it in this on this budget item.
Well, I in places in within this budget um we were not able to fund whether it was somebody coming in to offer professional development to departments. So thinking about the work with the coordinators if they wanted specific outside resources to come in and work
with teachers in their department during department meetings during our professional development day or other things like that. um that was limited and there were places that we had to say no because there was not the professional development funds um unless we could fund it from a grant source or
some something like that. Um there are places where I do not believe all of our our memberships that we typically fund for >> I was going to say that um participation in professional organizations memberships for networking learning from
each other was was severely curtailed in this year um for the principal leadership team but for our curriculum coordinators across the board and there might have been conferences that people might have availed themselves of um that
they didn't because they knew there was no money in the budget for. So that was really unfortunate. Um the conferences especially are opportunity not just for people to learn the content but also to meet others and and and honestly to
network and continue to learn after. So that was severely cretailed in this year. Um mandated trainings had to happen. Um and so and then again the school can be protected professional development for the literacy
implementation um and also for vision of a learner which was much appreciated. >> Suzanne. >> Well, I was just going to give one example that impacted the school committee as we did not have funds to go to the MASC annual meeting. uh nor could
we vote on the resolutions that the association our state association uh brought to uh the membership. So that's just very particular but we had nothing in the budget this year whereas we have in the past number of years
Bob. >> Yes. Thank you. Uh Robin can you talk about the status of teachers as scholars a professional development program that was born in Brooklyn many many years ago. What's the status of that now? >> So, we have a few seats in teachers and
as scholars and it's funded by the BEF. >> Sorry. >> It's funded through um BEF. It's a funded through a Brooklyn Education Fund grant. >> Do you know how many slots we have? >> Believe we have four. >> Okay. I just want to support additional slots for teachers of scholars. I felt
it it was um one of the most inspirational um professional development experiences that I ever had as part of the system. So, Appreciate that. >> Robin, if you want to go on to the next FAQ. >> Sure. Um the next slide is the next
section which is the K12 science techn and technology curriculum review. So there's 60 the question was around how much was funded for it and understanding what that was for. Um so there is a request for $60,000 in next year's budget around that. And so again, so
when we think about our responsibility around K12 review. So it's you know sometimes curriculum review or review of individual courses or a unit of study is done. So that work has been happening
but to ensure that our K12 program so looking holistically at our K12 program really understanding co if there's cohesion if there's alignment across and are there places where we may need additional um instructional resources
and I think just from our our initial assessment we know that there there most likely will be particularly at the um K5 level to make sure that across K5 we will need we have consistent resources that are aligned ed to the state frameworks. Um uh the most recent state
frameworks in science and technology um were adopted in 2016 I believe. Um we have not had a full K12 review in that time. We may have been doing work individually at a grade level in a particular unit or um you know in
different places. um but to look holistically at the experience for kids and ensure that we're aligned K12 around that we haven't done and those frameworks have been um around for about a decade now. Um it's a place that's been identified before the pandemic kind
of threw a loop in that other you know priorities came into play so it's been done kind of peacemeal and we understand that we really need to look at it from a K12 perspective um and so that funding is for stipens for participating review team members outside of their
contractual hours. So um thinking about that that hourly rate that we pay. So we we budgeted some for that and so for any costs associated with piloting instructional materials. So certainly while you know we may be able to get materials for initial review like a a
kit to look at when we're kind of trying to narrow down but if we want to pilot within our classrooms and need a large you know amount of materials to do that there's you typically a cost that goes with that. So we're you know that's kind of an in uh projected anticipated cost.
Um and that is you know thinking about it from a standpoint that's conservative. So we wanted to make sure we will kind of keep within that but we know we need to set aside some funds for that purpose. >> Carolyn,
so just to clarify the 60,000 is like a consultant and includes stipens and costs associated with >> there is no consultant. Okay. So this is really review that's being done. It's internal review. This isn't hiring somebody to come in and look. It's really us going through a process of
review and looking closely at >> okay programming. >> And then um also I need help understanding last year maybe in the curriculum subcommittee >> we had a presentation from Emily I think
>> and I felt like maybe I didn't understand I felt like what she was talking about was that what she was bringing in was relatively new. I don't remember the name of the science sed or
>> open sed that's that's part of it right like so we've been able to bring in new units of study in places >> that's not necessarily across the board and that's why I say probably piloting instructional may happen K5
>> I think you know thinking about that so make sure that >> so she's been doing that work but kind of right >> supporting right in where she can in light of everything else that um we're working with as a district. What we really need to do and this will come you know in an
OTL presentation is there is a a desire and a need to get back to a regular curriculum review cycle so that we can then plan for predict budget for it helps us in lots of ways and also think about the capacity of teachers so they can anticipate when review is going to
happen think about what the impact might be them on them as teachers and we can do it in a thoughtful and cohesive way. So >> also including the funding that is needed to react to the review after it happens and do the steps that are requested in the review. Um did you want
to get to the second part of that question because I think that's really eye opening. Um is there indeed nothing on our budget for diversity focused curricula or programming? >> Next slide.
Um so in terms of um what is funded both in the general fund and then in through grant funding um so Panorama is funded in the general fund that's >> that's our social social emotional screening tool that's actually funded at
$19,000. Second step is a social emotional learning curriculum again through the general fund that is at 10 $10,000. um cartwheel care which is another seal and mental health initiative comes out of the IDA grant and that's funded at
$50,000 and then our work around diversity and equity uh work with ID ideas and seed um our leads are all fun are grant funded so those are funded through both the BEF grant and the title two grants
>> and Mariah >> sometimes what's written in this document and what's on slides is different are is the like what's the what's the document of record like that has um ideas etc the BEF grant and title two but the one worth looking
at doesn't refer to title two or BEF grant >> well but they don't say the same things it says the only thing others so I'm just wondering will this be updated to like >> we we can update and that might have just been a timing thing >> yeah that's what I was imagining but I
just wanted to make sure okay thank Okay. >> Okay. So, now we're going to move on to special revenue funds. Um, so we we had a number of questions and this came up last year as well um about oh, can't we
uh just move, you know, money around, you know, can we take money that's in the operating budget and fund it through special uh revenue funds? So special revenue funds are restricted funds where your general operating budget is not restricted. It's for general educational
purposes. And when you have uh different types of special revenue funds, there's certain properties associated with them and restrictions that prevent us from using it in any other way. So uh grants are a form of a special revenue fund and there were a number of questions around
that. Uh revolving funds are another form of a special revenue fund. there wasn't uh much in the way of questions around that. So um I thought it was important to at least start um and uh kind of frame it so that people understand that when you're looking at
grants or revolving funds, they can only be used for the specific purpose defined in law that enables you to have a revolving fund or the granting authority. And so when we apply for a grant, um, and all grants have to be applied for, even if they're called
entitlement, it doesn't mean we just get the money and we can use it how we want to. There's certain goals and purposes and objectives associated with the grant and we have to write um the grant in accordance with that. Um, those grants are reviewed by the uh subcommittee, the
finance subcommittee before we um submit them. Um and then uh the awarding authority, whoever that might be, state or uh federal level or a private organization, then they're they're the ones that review it and they say, "Yes, we'll award it and no, we won't." Um
oftent times with entitlement grants, they'll kick it back to us and say, "No, that doesn't align with what the purpose of this grant um is. It's not consistent." And so then we have to rewrite the grant. Um and so it's important to understand that we can't just move money from place to place.
When the grant is awarded, then we have to spend it in accordance with the terms and conditions associated with that. A fundamental principle associated with um special revenue funds is this concept of it's to supplement, not supplant. So supplement means in addition to and
supplant means to replace. So, we're not allowed to replace existing expenses by funding it through a grant. Okay? Because that is a fundamental principle that uh is consistent with almost any grant that you have. So, um in other
words, if you're going to write a grant, um it's to enhance an existing program and or to uh fund a new initiative. Okay? So, those are really the two primary reasons um uh for the grants. Um
and then and so we have two really large grants. One is the METCO grant and the other one's IDEIDA. And so we thought we would uh spend a moment to explain what the METCO grant um can be used for, the purpose of that grant and then the IDEIDA grant. So if you go to the next
slide, thank you. So the MECO grant is a state grant and it's a program um that really supports voluntary dise disegregation um to increase diversity in schools. Um
the purpose of the grant so is is really to pay for costs to support METCO students. Um it's not to support general educational costs in the in the district. It's really supplemental funding um that goes to support the
needs of those students. Transportation and most every METCO grant transportation is a big component because in order for students to be able to uh participate in our program they have to be here. Um and of course they're coming from um you know Boston and so transportation is a big component
of that. That's an allowable cost under the grant. um academic support um as well as social, emotional or mental health supports are also uh items that can be funded under the grant. Um professional development as it relates
to um creating the conditions um for those students to thrive and of course supplies and materials associated with running the office andor the programs to support those kids. So here the all of these um types of costs are um allocated
um uh to this grant. Again, in order to be able to be funded from the grant, it has to be um uh in service to those students. So we can't spend uh we can't move regular ed, you know, a a classroom teacher into the grant and fund it
through that grant um because that would be general educational expenses. What we have done is um where we have academic supports for those students. So we have a body of students that um need additional academic supports, we have charged some of our math specialists and
our literacy specialists off uh to the grant um to the greatest extent we could. Um we also have a couple of guidance counselors again to support those those students in those schools. Um there's a little bit of professional development um and of course the
transportation. And so that's predominantly um how our grant is allocated um on behalf of those students. >> Carolyn, so I had a question especially since um
our um the superintendent's budget proposes cutting some guidance. So, I just wanted to fully understand and um I had the METCO grant pulled up on my laptop, but I didn't bring it. I don't remember how many guidance
counselors there are in the METCO allocation. >> So, I guess I have two questions. So, does that mean that those two guidance counselors only work with METCO students
>> predominantly? that predominantly work with the METCO students >> and does that also have a few cases in which they would uh serve other students in the process but they're predominantly serving METCO students >> and there's only two guidance counselors
in the METCO grant >> social workers >> social workers >> and so they can only work with METCO students but then I don't suppose the inverse is true but regular nonmetco CO
guidance counselors can also work with METCO students. So there's no opportunity to Okay. So is there a possibility of looking at some reallocation within the MECO grant for more guidance to backfill
the loss of guidance in the budget? Uh, is that a possible conversation? Like the I do remember seeing that. So the METCO grant has $10,000 for materials, $10,000 for events like a bowling party
and dinner party, and then I think there was $12,000 for um student conferences. I can't remember now, but there was like $30,000 at least for those kinds of
things and 10,000 for materials and and then I think we also got a supplemental transportation grant and I felt like I don't remember exactly it must have been in finance and I was listening but that
the transportation is covered by the regular grant. So then I think the there was a question asked like oh so what do we do with this extra $25,000 and it was like it just goes to something else within the METCO grant. So that was my
basic question was whether there was any possibility of a conversation where there could be a re allocation within the grant to help backfill that loss. So, and I'm not I don't think I'm asking you to answer it on the spot, but
>> that occurred to me as >> maybe a conversation that >> could potentially happen. >> Yeah. Yeah. So if if we were to take um a a staff any staff member who is supporting general education
um it would be called supplanting to then use grant money that's intended for METCO students specifically um in order to be able to fund something. See, she really >> I understand. I guess what I'm guessing is that the two guidance counselors that
are funded by the METCO grant don't cover all of the guidance needs of the 303 METCO students. And then we have an array of other guidance counselors who are also serving MECO students.
So, I'm not talking about taking something away from METCO. I'm talking about the potential of of adding of reallocating within the METCO grant which has been has a proposed allocation to potentially
backfill some of the guidance need. >> Yeah, I mean we did do a >> and I see some people nodding >> in the audience who probably know about this. >> Yeah. So, we have about 300 METCO students. And so, if you're using the 250, which is the the case load average,
right, for guidance, is it 250? >> Yeah, that's the guideline. It's 250 and we have 300 and we're already charging two guidance counselors. Those are, you know, we're we're we're being pretty um aggressive in how we're
approaching it already, I guess, is what I'm saying. You have 250 on average, right? So that would be up to 500 that would be per guidance counselor. Right now we're doing two with 300 students. >> So you're saying that in the METCO that
the METCOR allocates 150 that the METCO guidance average case load is 150 students per guidance counselor. >> Can I ask a question? >> That's that's not that's not really No.
Yes, >> there there's social workers. >> Oh, sorry. Social workers. >> But the grant has three social workers in it. >> And the I'm looking at it right on my screen from what we approved in August. And it has three social workers in it and has four classroom teachers in it. But what's written here is it
>> classroom teachers. >> It says classroom teachers. Full-time classroom teachers. >> Literacy specialists and math specialists are considered that under the guidance of the METCO grant. >> Okay. It says classroom teachers though, just so you know. But also it says three social workers.
>> Just say what it has. >> Sorry Bob, will you ever recognize you? Just let them finish this and then >> I mean I'll I'll speak to it because Rob I don't think Robin was here at the time. So one of the social workers who was in on the Medco grant moved positions within the district to the
high school. Um and that was reallocated. So while they did have three last year, they don't have three this year. They're two. You're saying it got changed after a >> That's my understanding because there were there were reductions
made to liaison, >> but Malcolm would probably be the better person to answer that. >> Caroline, I want to get Bob in too, but go ahead. Sorry. What do you What do you mean there were reductions in liaison? >> So again, I'm stepping in for Robin because Rob wasn't here and Malcolm
isn't here. So these questions would be better for Malcolm. >> And I don't want to put you on No, that's okay. I think I'll just say I've asked numerous times if we could have Malcolm or someone to just help us really understand the allocation
um because it's a sizable amount of money and just to make sure especially um with you know refiguring um that's going on in the main budget it I think it would be um helpful just to
have these questions answered. We have scheduled it for June. >> Yeah. >> Um but also I think that that this FAQ was what it could be used for and I thought Susan already said that it can't be used to
>> supplant. It can be used to supplement. >> Um and so there are a couple of counselors that are in there and they work predominantly with students that are in the MCO program. So I think I think we've been trying to
answer the questions but we do have the medical program that will be on for on the calendar in June. >> Okay. But that doesn't help me for understanding for voting the budget. But thanks >> I think we can get that and I think Mariah to your point I mean grants also
you you know staffing changes you know even within the IDA grant and grants do get amended. So I know you know sort of what was approved things happen uh etc. So there was probably an amend Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. But so there was probably an amendment done. Um so I
think if there no more questions on that I think >> there is one more question. Bob >> sorry >> please. Yeah. U before the room empty empties out because a lot of people have left already. I just want to thank everybody for coming here tonight and staying with us and providing incredibly
powerful presentations. Everyone was a powerful presentation. So I just want to acknowledge that and thank everybody for participating in a democratic system as we struggle with our annual budget. So first of all, thank you for that. Um
secondly, in terms of the METCO budget, um so I clearly understand that there's flexibility within the budget to allocate services to METCO students. True. So I guess I would have um a since
academic development is the most fundamental uh goal of our school system. I know we have um maybe nine coordinators, metcoordinators, one at each school, one at the high school. Yes. And again I just having not
explored this at all. um if we can uh bolster the academic support of METGO kids by u maybe taking a look at the coordinator role, see if um it could incorporate some tutorial a tutorial role for students just to um you know
supplement the academic um program for the METCO students. Um and and thinking about that would probably also consider um an analysis of achievement levels of those kids um and how we could support them uh better than we do now or at
least as you know just just a question I have. >> Did you want to continue? >> Go ahead. So our biggest grant uh in the district is the IDA grant which is just over 2.3 million. Uh this funds uh services for
for students in special education. One of the things as you know this year is we are um have coordinating early intervention services in which 15% of our IDA part B funds are required to be spent uh when districts have been
identified as significant disproportionality. This is the area in the grant in which you're actually required to do early intervening services. And so those funds are spent on students um who both are have IEPs
and students who are have academic um gaps and needs. And so that 15% is spent on students both within general education and special education. Um the other main areas of the grant and you'll see if you do quick math it doesn't add
up to 2.3 million. Um but these are the main components of the grant. Um the IDA grant funds most of extended school year um contracted services which are IEP mandated services for individual students and also all of our consultants
who work in the district in our programs and with students. So that funds our consulting physician which is a requirement. It funds our consulting psychiatrist. Um our RISE programs have consultants. Um and so that's sort of a a large range of different contracted
services come under there. Proportional share is the money that comes out of the federal proportionate share. That is money that is allocated to students with disabilities in private schools in Brooklyn. So that is not necessarily students are not do not have to be
residents of Brooklyn in the private schools, but any private school in Brooklyn who has a student with a disability um is entitled to proportional share. And so we work very closely. We have a number of Jewish day schools um and we have a number of other private schools that we work closely
with in terms of making sure that they are getting services for their students. Um so that's the $154,000 in proportional share. It funds over a million dollars in staffing. Um and then we a lot of curriculum and instructional materials uh for students with
disabilities uh students with more moderate or significant disabilities. And then this year as you can see uh a large portion of the grant um uh is really around literacy coaching, literacy tutoring and PD. The literacy
tutoring is actually for students. Um so this is afterchool tutoring um high dosage tutoring and again this can be used this year because of the CCIS grant for students who are as we're doing our literacy screening. Um we can provide
again early intervening services which is part of the CCS component of it. Um it's also funding all our Wilson training for teachers um as well as our OG coaching uh for teachers and then just broader professional development that we've started this year and
hopefully will continue on an ongoing cycle to make sure that all of our teachers um have evidence-based reading instruction training. >> Any questions? >> Excellent. >> Donna, I have a question for Karen. Okay.
>> Um um aside from the high dosage tutoring, what else are we funding as part of that 15% of the the early intervention? >> Um so high dosage tutoring is part of that. The afterchool, we've just
actually launched um at BHS we we're doing after school literacy um and summer coaching. Um so that comes out of the CCIS. um our flexible support team um is also funded out of the um CCS component and that you're supposed to
look at you know what what is your data that you have in the district in terms of needs around early intervention. So that all comes out of that part. >> Sorry I have a question >> Caroline um and I asked you this in email so now
what what is the flexible support team? Can you say more about just what that means? >> Um, so the flexible support team is actually a model we had in the district when I was here before. It's a model that is used in many many particularly elementary schools. Um, it's a a team
that is generally a clinician paired with a paraprofessional. Um, right now it's just a pair. When I was here last we had multiple people in the role. Um and the goal is really to be able to mobilize um support for students who are either in um behavioral um or mental
health crisis in schools where schools may have exhausted um all of their resources or just need um either um a short-term stabilization um process. And so the goal is really to provide is
which is what it's for sort of that early intervention rapid support and stabilization. So that's what the team does. >> Does that mean like in the moment? Is that what you mean by shortterm? >> So it's not it's not a it's not a 911 so
to speak. Um what it is is as you know we do a lot of what we call wraparound support. Yeah. >> So as students begin to struggle. The goal is that >> the team is able to so schools refer um so there's a process >> um and it is geared this year and again
this came from data around where >> um where teachers and where we were seeing areas of need and this was certainly in our younger students K12 um so it's very much focused and targeted at younger students this year because that was the identified need but they're certainly working with some of um you
know third and fourth grade but it it was targeted for our early learners >> and they this team gets like some special training. >> Correct. They come with special training. >> Yep. Okay. >> And then they we continue. So, but both positions require, you know, certifications and specialized training
in terms of crisis management. Um, but it's really a a trauma-informed approach. >> So, it's a it's a clinically based approach that's trauma informed. >> Okay. Oh, sorry. It's still me. Sorry. >> It's all you. I'm gonna hand it to um
well, part part of the questions might be you Susan. So then the other big component um and that's featured you know very prominently from last year's budget as we all know because circuit breaker was used to bridge the budget deficit gap at a 1.9 million um bridge.
Um so circuit breaker is you know the commonwealth special education reimbursement program. Um it is the program that uh districts receive reimbursement from the state for high cost special education needs. It funds both in district and out of district
highost needs. Um 75% of costs and it's been funded at that level for a number of years that exceed the annual student claim. And as you can see, it's a pretty high bar at 53,431, which was FY26. We don't have the number
yet for FY27. Um, as you can see, that's our circuit breaker. And as you know, circuit breaker is funds from the prior year's um circuit breaker claim uh is what funds the the future years um
tuition and which is how we've used it uh here in Brooklyn. Any questions? I'm floored if there's no questions. >> Mariah, um I this chart and maybe the next chart I
I think you had it on your slides earlier, Bella. This one doesn't have or maybe it's somewhere next on the next slide doesn't have this the the thing that we have in the FAQs which was on Bella's slides from earlier. But I still, it doesn't have to be now, but like I
don't understand this chart. And some of the numbers that point to each other don't match and I don't understand why some match and some don't match. Um, so I would benefit from understanding this. And then my question that was in the FAQ,
um, which I I don't think actually got answered, but I'm not sure. So it doesn't have to be now, but I just I don't understand. um why I guess I don't understand fundamentally why the $ 1.4 million in extra revenue means we still have a $1.9
million deficit we're carrying forward because that's and like this chart doesn't help me understand that. I'm sorry. >> Sure. >> I thought we tried to say so the 1.4 million that this year is from one time one-time occurrences. It's not built in
the budget. So the so the deficit still exists. It just it's getting carried forward. It just means we were able to resolve it this year. >> Go ahead. Yeah. >> Right. So in the current year budget, when you take a body of expenses that are recurring and you move them off and
you pay for them out of one-time expenses and you move them off your books, in other words, you move the expense off the books and the revenue there is no more recurring revenue to fund that. You've got to bring the expense back into the budget. So in FY27, you're taking the $1.9 million of
real tuitions that we have to pay and you have to put that back in the operating budget. What happens on the revenue side? So it means that when we started this year, we had $4.2 million in revenue that
could be allocated against the tuitions. when we put an additional $2 million, we not only lost the revenue, but we also moved the expense off the books. So, in FY27, you got to put the expense back. >> I'm just going to say that I like I don't think I can do this in a verbal
response. >> Maybe we can sit. >> Yeah. But I think that like I'm probably not the I'm sure I'm not the only person in the community who's not following along with this. I think it um will be helpful because again it's such a large amount of money to really explain this bit of things because I think it's also
like we're talking about one-time occurrences but some of these funds actually are recurring which is what is throwing me off as well but but we can talk about it separately and hopefully once I get it >> I also want to I think also it's being identified with more clarity than you
might have had in the past. So it might be like why didn't I hear about this before in >> No, we talked about it exhaustively circuit the circuit breaker using of the to use >> but I think it precedes even last year coming into this year. >> Well actually I will say that what I find confusing is that it's now been
identified as a structural funding deficit with a specific dollar amount as opposed to an overall structural deficit in out of district tuition and OSS spending which I think there's a there's a distinction there. >> I don't think it is. Oh, well I I I
don't think it's attributed to tu to tuition. It's actually other things, but maybe Yes. >> So maybe I can just speak to that piece. >> I just want to note that Mariah. Yes. I think that we would all like to be part of that conversation. So just let's make sure we are able to >> Yeah. And I just meant that like
hopefully if I understood it because if I don't understand it, I think it's probably not understandable. And so hopefully if I can understand it, not to be like a snob about just like I'm getting the nerdy. >> We're all thinking about it. Don't worry, we're like if she doesn't understand it. >> I just wanted wanted to note this. So,
>> but like it's a public consumption question, but I think we probably shouldn't try and figure it out right now in the interest of time. It's just to put a pin in for like a future. Okay. >> Sure. Next time you come in for a warrant, >> I'll sit down. Um, but what I do want to say to be clear, the problem wasn't uh
in the structural deficit wasn't associated with tuition. In order to use circuit breaker money, it has to be a special education related expense. So that's why the tuition was used to
move off of our books to balance the books. So let's be clear, the problem wasn't that we over spent tuitions. It just happens to be the vehicle we're using for one-time revenue happens to be the circuit breaker. And the only thing we can charge to the circuit breaker
fund is what we have been charging, which is tuition. So, let's just be clear. It's not a it's not that we over spent and the problem was there, >> but that seems like a really weird revisionist history from our conversations of like a year ago where we talked about how much money was going
was being spent in OSS. So, it's weird to me that we're now saying we weren't overspending because there was a >> we were in we were in transportation, >> but that's why I said OOD wells. That's why I backed it up. There was a larger overspending thing happening here. >> That's what I was saying. I was that's
what I'm saying. It wasn't that we over spent the tuition line by $2 million last year. >> Fair. Fair. >> That's what I was saying. Okay. Y >> um at the same time, the tuition line is is large. So you might have been talking about the largest of the tuition line, but in fact
>> settlements, there was all kinds of things. >> What is the driver of right that type of thing? >> Okay. actually Robin next. Um so there was a question about
administ >> that's okay there was a question um in about administrators um who teach or don't teach right and is there a possibility of so I think I thought it was important here to outline that we actually do have administrators
um that do have some teaching load currently um so at BHS um and our K12 coordinators who are located at BHS but really support our students K12. They are all unit B employees and they have a
0.2 teaching load currently. Um our K8 coordinators do not. Um our 6 through 8 world language coordinator um it does teach 2. Okay. um our BHS associate
deans who are unit A also have a 02 teaching load as part of their responsibilities and the BHS assistant head of school has a 0.25 teaching load. So those are currently our our administrators who are teaching
responsible for teaching classes as part of their overall duties. So the coordinators at the high school that are not K12 coordinators do not teach point 2. >> No, the B the 9 through 12 and maybe it should be outlined that way on the
slide, but the 9 through 12 the K through 12 and the K through 12. >> You said that. >> Yeah. Coordinators all teach point 2. The only coordinators that do not teach are the six uh the K through 8 coordinators. None of our vice principles have in our
Kads have a teaching responsibility. >> And the full deans >> and the fullans and the full deans at the high school. >> You can keep going. >> Ryan, >> is that standard with other districts? I'm just curious about like for example
vice principles. I remember when I went to Lawrence many many years ago, our gym teacher was also our vice principal. And I'm just curious whether in other districts they carry a teaching load. >> Not typically. Um I was a vice principal for many years. I did not have a teaching load. Um and
>> as a principal, my vice principal did not. >> Usually it means they're they're carrying a supervision load. >> Supervision load >> and responsibility for discipline. >> Yeah. Um, so that really is I mean is part of their responsibilities. Bob,
I just want to add my voice to anybody who believes that just about every administrator in a school system should teach a class. I um I have some experience with that and um
lots of people would say the administrators have huge workload which they do um but I think we I think we should also always explore it because there's potential savings there um significant savings um for example how
many vice principles do we have in the system >> I don't know how many we have total We have Yeah. >> How many vice principles? >> I'd have to kind of >> more than 11. >> How many? >> More than 11. >> So Bob, because you spoke, I have to
speak now, too. I have a I have a real hard time with that because administrators always get pulled away for whatever the latest crisis is. And so, are you going to have them like team teach so that there's somebody left behind? I don't want to get into a bit a
debate with you Sarah about this but when I decided to teach an English class points of view at Brooklyn High School many many years ago. Um, everybody said, "Bob, you can't do that because there's crises." And I said, "You know what? I got 20s something administrators. I'm not the person who has to handle a
crisis unless it's like, you know, a monstrous crisis. Then obviously I taught so I'm just, this is just a fact. I taught points of view flock every day or four days a week at Brooklyn High School. I was never pulled out of my classroom for 20 years. So,
it's possible. and and the feedback that we get um by administrators teaching is very positive because then you're doing the job that most everybody else in the school does. So I would be, you know, I
just think that there's a TR, if you have just say, let's just say 10 vice principles teach one class in the middle school, right? And each class is worth probably 20 grand. So there's 200 grand savings every year. Um, so I would, you
know, I just want to throw that out as a potential savings. And um I'm not at all worried, Sarah, that uh there would be crises that constantly pull the vice principal out of a classroom or a dean out of the classroom. You know, I think there's big money to be saved there. Um,
and I know again I don't want to talk about me, but when I left Brooklyn High, um, many teachers came over to me and said, "When we saw you walking into room 342 with your textbooks and with your r your stupid green rank book that I had because I wasn't computer savvy with grading, um, they said it really
affirmed um, what they were doing because they knew I had a, you know, they knew I was a busy person. So I just I'm strongly supportive of of as many administrators as possible teaching including vice principles, coordinators, etc. Thank you. >> Good, good point. Thank you, Robin. I I
just have to also share that the work of our vice principles is partially crisis response. As a vice principal, I was a critical member of a crisis response team and needed to be able to mobilize
and work with my counselors and my BCBAS at any moment. And that was true for me as a middle school principal as well. So I just I think we you know in when we make broad statements I think we also have to think critically about what the roles of
people are in um so >> 15. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> You can continue. Okay. Okay. So, there were questions about the edte specialists, the ETSs's um and you know,
we've heard a lot of um you know, a lot of conversation has happened around this role and I guess I just have to say um that this any of the decisions that we made around staffing huts were not made easily and they were made in
collaboration as a team with our principles as a whole, as a leadership team and with our principles and they were hard decisions. Um, in making this decision, we had to think about that they while they do teach our students. Um, and they are
important resources for instruction for our teachers, they do not carry a specific assigned solo assigned teaching load. And by that I mean that they the way that their position has been constructed is very similar to our
literacy and math coaches in the sense they are working with another unit A member. they're generally the students classroom teacher um in the way that we're structured currently. And so as we discussed how we um how this might be
enacted, we thought about the reduction across the district. We did consider impacts and it's not a decision that's made without impact for teachers and students and we understand that um and it was a decision hard made. So that's how I frame it. I don't know if anybody
else that was part of those conversations would like to be part of, you know, add to that, but um I just have to stress that this was a decision made as a leadership team with our 8K8 principles. >> Go ahead. The question that was actually
written, which was mine, is what is different about this year's proposal to eliminate ETS staff compared to last year's proposal that was rejected by school committee? And I don't really think that was answered. And I appreciate what you're saying, but I feel like some of this is a little bit of been there, done that, and didn't do
that. So, but that's a that's maybe a comment for later in the conversation. And I think and I understand that and I think as we entered that deliberation we knew that this had been brought up and rejected in the past and I think as we built our budget from the ground up trying to really think critically we had
to have the conversation again as we had many other conversations alongside it. >> I will say this that this team is different than last year's team and maybe the team before and it's been the same recommendation for a few years in a row. So it's three different sets of administrative leadership
>> years in a row. Well, at least >> well, at least two very different teams with the same recommendation. >> Sorry. >> Was the recommendation I don't remember this. Was it exactly the same last year?
>> It was to have them if I recall, but it was 0.5. It wasn't framed as a 6.4 with a bigger school. So, it was subtly different, but >> I see >> broad brush strokes the same. Okay. >> Our thinking was um with a larger smaller school to prevent or or mitigate
travel during the day. So they will be wholly at one school for the full day. >> A question. Uh Sarah. >> Yep. Jesse. >> Um about ETSs. Um
when you look at the full spectrum of ways in which we're educating our kids in the 21st century, um the the primary approach with Chromebooks
and with online curricula is um in a digital framework. Obviously there's a lot of things that happen human to human in the classroom but digital literacy and uh the bridging between the
technology and the education seems absolutely unqualified required. And so, you know, some of the testimony we heard um two weeks ago and tonight
speaks to that where it's hard when you're not in front of a classroom as a full FTE teaching to um I don't know, maybe be measured and we didn't hear anything about
measurements to be measured in terms of impact. um you measure a teacher by how how kids, you know, pass tests in subject areas and they're there in front of the class. Um this position's different
much in a sense more wide ranging. it crosses over so many academic disciplines that um that that that sort of speak to the
core of how we deliver education. So I guess my question I mean that's just that's a comment about this but the question is um similar to the library um similar to the library
um comments we heard. I mean obviously none of the speakers are going to give us like options like you know keepts but if you had to look here or look there and it places us as a school committee in a very uncomfortable
and a sense difficult situation because no one's providing options. They're just advocating for what they don't want to lose. Um I don't say that I don't say that in any way to mean that people are selfish. Not at all, God forbid. But they have a single issue in mind which
is not to lose this particular thing. And in the case in in in in my looking at it um uh you know troubleshooting classroom technology and developing what we heard from folks in terms of you know tech
enabled innovative lesson plans things that many of our teachers uh across the K to2 don't have. I mean they just don't have and um the the the uh you know if
we if we believe in you know digital literacy and the onslaught of AI everywhere, what else could we be doing to again as we did last year on school committee protect all the positions and yet find opportunities for cost cutting
um in other places. I understand why Jesse is speaking right now because we have been all listening for a while and we really do want to deliberate. Are we comfortable having a conversation or should we wait until that there's a um a motion on the table before like should we let them continue
because I wanted to say what Jesse said too like I've been sitting here wanting to say these things right but do we need to move ahead? >> So is that okay Jesse? I I I understand you know >> we're almost so yeah let's let you Why don't you continue? Yeah. >> No, no, no. That's fine. That's fine. I
mean, I I thought we were sort of at that point. Um I apologize if it was out of out of order alignment with >> No, no, not out of order, but um Robin is in the room and you can't you can't see her. She said that she's pretty close to being done, so let's let her finish. Um thank you. >> I think we're on to the next
>> Well, yeah. Also, I I can't see the whatever if there's something being screen shared, it's not showing for me. So, >> okay. >> I That's why I didn't know where we were in the in the sequence. Sorry. >> So, yeah. So, we we don't have these slides um in our materials, right? We only have the narrative.
>> Is that the case? >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> We're sorry about that, Jesse. >> No problem. I'll just keep listening. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> So, I want to reiterate uh something that Robin said. Um I think all of these
reductions and particular particularly this one and and in fact all of them um are really made I think from all of us under duress right the duress of a significant structural deficit and we are in the landscape of impossible trade-offs um as as you've heard tonight
our guidance counselors our social workers our psychologists are the emotional heartbeats of our school um as a clinical psychologist by training and as a former guidance counselor uh this is an incredibly difficult um
place to be standing up uh in terms of this. The question that was asked which I want to really speak to uh was really around how this decision was made um and what were the ratios um which we'll look at it at a different side. I also want
to say that seeing the data and knowing the data does not change the significant loss of an incredibly talented dedicated important person in any school. So I just want to I just want to recognize that. Um so we looked at the OSS team as Robin said the all of these decisions
were made with our principles uh with the OSS team and we really did and we were tasked with doing as unfortunately leaders are required to do again facing the kind of deficit that we're facing with a holistic review of staffing of needs within and across schools. And so
we look at the whole picture in terms of um our schools are diverse. There's variation of student need uh as you'll see in the data. There's variation of case load. Um and so we take a holistic we're not looking at a single number in terms of um and we look at it with a
lens of equity and parity. What is equitable? What is sustainable? We want our schools to be staffed well. But we are not chipping around the edges here. We are absolutely when all of the things that you've heard um these are all
impacts to students and to staff. There is no mistake about any of these. Um, one of the things we looked at is of course enrollment trends um and that you know we know in terms of our um our class reductions what are the service
demands uh and what are our operational functions as I've already said we look at the variation of needs um our schools are different and their staffing is different um so there's not an expectation that schools and staffing are always going to look exactly the same they shouldn't they should be
differentiated these should be really thoughtful um discussions. I also want to say that all of the reductions are position level adjustments as Bella has already shared, right? And the individual impact is determined by contractual seniority. Um
so adjustments are considered and this is both uh you know within general ed uh when um and you've already heard the ASCA guidelines or one to 250 um and we use that as a professional guideline, right? Um and you certainly heard um
that many people feel that that's too high, right? But that is the professional standard that we certainly have always used as as our benchmark. We don't we use guard rails and not cliffs. But by what I mean by that is it's not a single number that when you get to X number, we make a reduction. Right? We
watch numbers both schools that are underlined and schools that are overlined. uh in terms of as we try and keep our numbers as close to those professional recommendations as possible. So the adjustments are considered as you can see below professional guidelines experience
sustained enrollment decline and then very much below standards and district averages. Next slide. So as you can see in the data um as as I said the ESCA guidelines are 1 to 250. Driscoll's guidelines next year with the
reduction will be 1 to 262. What you're looking out in terms of the current ratios is currently so this is for FY26 for all eight elementary schools. You will notice that Pierce is an asterisk. Pierce is also um below the ASCA
guidelines and that will be looked at and monitored but they're in two buildings. Um and so when if and when enrollment may change that would be relooked at um and so again as we were looking at staffing holistically across the district. This is how and why uh the
decision was made in terms of equity and parity. You will also notice that Ruffen Ridley um is on the higher end of those guardrails. Um and that is also something uh we pay attention to. And so I know people wanted to see the
the different ratios across the school. Um our ratio for across is 1 to 242 next year. Uh I believe for FY27. >> That's the average. >> That's the average. That's the average is 1 to 242. Um and you can see we have
you know within that we have variation. Um it does bring it does align Driscoll more in line with our other elementary schools. Um but as I said the data does not uh curtail you know the significant loss. Um, I do want to say, and it is a
very small saving grace, um, that we do have a retirement, and I very much hope, uh, that Jackie will be able to remain and would be willing to remain in the district should this position be reduced. Any questions? >> I saw a hand, Caroline.
>> Okay. Sorry, I'm going to go to Donna first. >> Um, what's the ratio at BHS? Um the RA I don't actually have the exact ratio. I actually asked Matt about that the other day. Uh and he was going
to calculate for me. It's not that straightforward because they're two career counselors. Um so he was going to get the ratio. The ratio at the high school has always been lower than the one to 250. The role of the guidance counselor at the high school is is a different role. Um but I'll get you the
exact number. He's he's actually working on that. And the the ratio that the average that you mentioned the 1 to240 is across the K8s then >> that's just K8. Yeah. This is not if we if we calculated in with the high school the ratio would be slightly lower than that because their ratios are lower
>> Caroline and Driscoll. Um, is this staffing separate of um, Winthrop? Do these guidance counselors work with Winthrop House students at Driscoll?
>> No, Winthrop House um, is has their own clinical psychologist attached to the program >> and that psychologist only works with Winter Pass students >> both at the middle school and high school. Correct. And this is a follow-up
question now that you've shown us this column, which is sort of interesting. I'm I'm loathed to ask this question because it's not directly related to the budget, but maybe it sort of is. Is
there not a way to sort of even out the F FRR and the P pierce by having like one person do 02 of their time or something
>> that >> No, >> it it doesn't really work when you when you do that. >> Suzanne. Yeah. Uh could you just Carol could you just remind me do we have a social worker then at each school or where are we with that?
>> We have a full-time social worker in all our K8 elementary schools and then we have at least a full-time psychologist in all the K8 elementary schools. Some of the larger ones and schools with programs have a 1.6 or a 1.8 or a 2.0.
And so just to to help me remember, so do the psych psychologist might see students, >> correct? >> Counseling, therapy, >> psychologists see students both in general ed and special ed, >> but they also do all the IEP evaluations, >> right? >> And our social workers, I know they work
with families a lot and how do they interact with the individual students or? So social workers have a case load of individual students as well both in general ed and special ed and do a lot of the wraparound support and family engagement. Okay. >> But all three of those positions work
with students. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh so the next um question was really around um some of the OFS restructuring OAF restructuring and um it was around
are we going to be adequately staffed um in that department um with this restructuring in place. So just just for those that weren't here, the position of finance director was added. It's a fairly recent position and with the uh
um shifts that have occurred over the last year, it's allowed us to be able to really think about how do we be more efficient, not just in uh OAF, but in support of all of the other uh offices.
And so the restructuring is is not just looking at the finance function, but how has some of these finance uh functions been kind of offloaded in other areas and how do we bring that together so that we're able to provide maybe a higher level of support um across the
board. So uh some of the um elements that enable us to do that is uh by looking at uh in particular our time and attendance system. So just for those who don't know, the finance director oversaw
um all payroll functions as well as uh school accounting. In this model, uh we have a um a person that will will oversee the accounting and we have our payroll and benefits manager um who will
be overseeing the payroll function. Um, so it's it's kind of peeling off a layer and having those two positions report directly to me. Um, but for us to be able to move some of this body of work around, um, there's some systems work
that needs to take place. And so implementing or resetting the the attendance system um and adding a timekeeping system will help streamline some of our processes and help us to be able to um maintain better documentation
um throughout the throughout the district. So um with those kinds of efficiencies implemented um and then redistributing the work amongst uh existing staff um um and then
consolidating these functions. We feel that this model will be um be able to serve us um in the future at a level we're we're not currently able to do at this point in time. >> Suzanne. >> Yeah. Sis, did you just uh talk about
HR? Is there going to be restructuring and HR? That's a component of it. So by um so that's why this is there's a lot of um interplay between HR and payroll as you can imagine. Um and so uh some of
the pain points that we've had in our system is the attendance system and syncing up some of our systems so that uh staff get timely, accurate information. Um, and there's been some challenges around that. It's been long-standing challenges. These aren't
new challenges. These are perennial challenges uh that we've tried in a variety of ways to um to address. Um there are new products out here out that schools can use that weren't available um years ago. So, right now we use a
product called Front Liner ASOP. Um, and that was like the only game in town for uh tracking attendance and substitutes and um and there's other products that are out there that schools report um are are are quite slick and work very well
and are comparable. So, we're going to look at some of those systems. Also um the timekeeping system is we we don't have one and um the paper records um are are not always maintained at the level you want to and then everything becomes more manual processes than automated
processes. So um what we'll be moving um off of HR is the attendance piece. the the management of leave. Um because leave is directly connected to accumulation of benefits and pay. Um and so that would be brought over under the payroll manager who has extensive
experience with that work. But we do need to automate some of these and and course correct on some of our systems in order to be able to do that. That will allow us uh by moving that body entire body of work off of the HR department. That's what's enabling us to be able to reduce one FTE over there. There's also
some onboarding components that are currently done in HR that would then be done um by a member of the t payroll team. So, we feel that um again some of the the model that we had in place um served us and as we've automated some of
the systems um and we've gotten more efficiencies as I've been here um it it's allowed us to be able to kind of rethink how we're doing things um given that we have uh fewer staff and such a a huge uh financial challenge again this
year. >> Thank you. I don't know if we're nearing the end, but um I Okay, >> we are. >> Okay, >> now now we move. So, the next two slides are really about the vote that's uh taken tonight. So, the first slide here really um for those who weren't here
last year may not be aware, but there is a town bylaw. Um and that bylaw requires that the superintendent of schools and the town administrator um submit their budget appropriations by the 15th of February. Um, and so I just
wanted to cite that so you know why we're doing that um here. That's very early. I've not seen that uh requirement uh um in other places that I've been. Uh but it is one that we have to abide by. And so on the next slide, you'll you'll have the standard vote that you've taken
over the last number of years um in order to comply with that so that we can the superintendent can submit the appropriation in accordance with that. Um and so uh this is the action that the school committee has taken the last several years um in support of that
bylaw. >> Well, I really appreciate all the information and I have to say the way that um I work, I really enjoy receiving the narrative ahead as opposed to slides and then having you speak off of slides where you're filling a little bit of the narrative as you go. That was all really
appreciated tonight. Thank you. So, yes. >> So, are we going to take a vote on the budget? >> We I think that >> it's it would be a great idea to put forward a um a
um an idea and then we will have the discussion after that. So, would you like to put forward a motion? I'm so tired. >> Would you? >> So, I'll do it. And sorry, I just want to make sure I'm clear.
This is for the number, not the allocations. or for the allocations or for both. >> Well, the motion is on the screen. >> The motion's on the slide. >> Yeah, but we don't we can accept that or make our own, right? Historical formula for the past couple.
>> Can I make a comment on motion? >> Yep. I know no one's moved it yet. And normally I would be the first one to champ at the bit, but I um have a hard time with the motion this year because I have a hard time with the ETSs decision and the librarian decision. And so
knowing that those are baked into this number, I almost want to say um to modify it to backfill those and then say we would continue working on it. I know I know that we are in this huge budget gap, but also I know that these
positions represent what I believe is what like it's critical. Jesse spoke to it earlier and it's just so critical to like how we think about education. making our students. One of our speakers earlier used the term future ready and I think that that was really well put. Um
if 10 years ago you might say oh well we don't need ETSs maybe five years ago like >> have any of you seen Sora in the past like two months I really want to start delivering. >> I know I'm just saying this is why I'm not making the motion. I really appreciate the way that you're saying that because tonight we do have to come
forward with a vote, right? And so you're kind you're you as always you're very much thinking ahead to what will get us to that. So, do you want to con >> So, okay, I'm gonna wing it. >> Yeah, go for it. >> I did not plan this because I was having such a existential crisis over here in
the corner. Um, but >> Oh, excuse me. One second, Mariah. Jesse, would you like to speak before Mariah? >> Should I not finish the motion sentence? Okay. >> My question Thank you. Thank you. Um, my question has to do with
the number that Bella put out tonight. Let's just say it in round numbers. $151 million. I don't have it in front of me. Are if we're voting the $151 million to go to the town as our proposal, it's a proposal, right? So if we're doing it as
a total then I think what what um that that means that between now and March 20th or something based on the schedule Bella showed there's going to be multiple discussions about how to do what we did last year Mariah which was to get recommendations from the
superintendent on where we'll have to cut to to to uh to bring it down bring the gap down and making adjustments all along the way. Um, so I'm okay with making the motion as
long as the clear understanding is that this is not to seal the fate of any of the decisions that have made been made up to now. This is just a proposal from the from the district, not a final decision. That's >> But Jesse, a budget is a statement of
values and priorities, right? And if I don't if I can't get my statement right on like the first moment, then I'm not ready to do it. So that's all. >> So I mean so I guess Yeah. So, I guess my sense is uh Sarah, if if this if this
means that we're tacitly approving the proposals in staff reductions as presented this evening, if we vote for this $151 million and change, then I have a problem. If it's
>> Well, that's the real Yeah, that's the difficulty of the early date >> then. Yeah, but what's but Okay, so two comments there. Okay. One is this is just a proposal and in at least last year we had the opportunity over
several weeks to hear from multiple um components within the community as well as to have in-depth conversations, multiple FAQ cycles to get ourselves to a position where we could um at least
get a majority. And the second thing I'll say about that is what I find very troubling is that the the last three years of the town revenue allocation um were were were funded by the last
override and we have absolutely no indication that the coming override will be passed. And so I'm cons very concerned that we're not looking at a proposal that has a no override scenario in it. And that gives us if we had it
and what concominant reductions would occur, we'd have some room like a you know a floor and a ceiling Mariah or something to look between and say if this much gets funded this is what we do. If that much gets funded, this is
what we do. And if everything we're asking for gets funded, which may not happen, then this is what we do to total total right now. I mean, the 19.7 that Bella mentioned in the 5.3 of the town at last reading is almost $25 million.
It's sort of significant. And um we we should I think as a school committee, we should have visibility into what would happen if we didn't get all the money that we're asking for. Anna, >> um, do you want to go first, Andy,
because you were had your hand up. >> Since this is directly to what Jesse was saying and maybe Okay, thanks, Donna. Um, yeah, I mean, Jesse, you were saying that like whatever we vote now, yes, there can be further deliberation, but I I do think that as a practical matter, like as time goes on from here, like our
number can only go down. I would be shocked if there were any opportunity to raise it from here. And so I do think that any cuts that are embodied in this 151 million number, if we were to vote this language now, we we're basically committed to those cuts, right? Just
practically speaking. >> Well, unless we um supplant them with other cuts. I mean, we could come up, you know, we could brainstorm as a school committee and maybe come up with two or three other options that protect ETSs on the
libraries and, you know, still get us to the 151 or even save us money. I mean, we haven't done that yet. >> I think that's a theoretical possibility. I just don't see that happening practically. So, >> okay. Well, thanks for Yeah, I appreciate the comment, >> Donna.
I I I think what Jesse said what Jesse said resonated for me and I I'm not un I guess I wouldn't be comfortable carving carving specific cuts out of the of the vote we're taking tonight because I feel
like it's then unfair to the ones that are still in there. Does that make sense? Like I I think I'm not I'm not sure why we would be carving something out at this point rather than having having full discussions and
dialogue and then deciding what we're carving out because then you're sort of that makes me uncomfortable. I I would not I would not vote that way. Mariah, >> I think that I could make a motion along
lines of something like words smiththers, feel free to get ready to make this better. This where whereas the superintendent's proposed FY27 budget is 150, etc. What's written there? Um and um there is an additional four
positions. It's four, right? Is it four? Five, I'm sorry. Okay. Five FTE. The four plus one. >> Yes, thank you. >> Correct. The the four plus >> I don't know which one you're talking >> library. >> Library and teched is 5ft FTE. Correct.
>> Right. >> It's it's um the proposal was for the 8K ETS to go to 4.0 for the K8 and then of the five librarians at the high school to go to four. >> So that's a negative of five.
>> Yeah. Yes. >> That's where the five four to three. >> Four ETSs plus one librarian equals five. Right. >> Um there aren't five librarians at the high school. Currently, there are four librarians at the high school, >> but we're talking about a ne negative of one at the at
>> I was just referring to what Bella said. >> Can we confirm that is it is it five to four or four? I thought we were I thought we said four at the main campus, one in the ninth grade building and would be going down from four to three, >> three at the main one.
>> It's a reduction of one one librarian and four ATS. >> And so voted the superintendent's budget is this and there are these four positions that we wish to restore and the town allocation is currently 144 etc. and then the rest of the wording continues. So we essentially I'm not
trying to dollarize the four the value of the four on the fly. I'm just saying that we wish to restore them. >> Why are we what? >> It's import It's important to me which is why I'm presenting it that way. Other people can feel differently about it. I just feel like those four positions are really important to not leave the gate
with them on the cutting floor. >> Does wish to restore mean we're committed to restoring them? You know, we just alluded Jesse just alluded to the fact that there's $20 million that if we have no like we could be going back to a budget of eight years ago, five years ago. I don't I can't remember
when 130 million was last our budget, but I'm starting with the budget that I would feel relatively like I would feel supportive of. And then as you I think just said like it's only going down from here. But this is the budget where I think those four positions I won't vote
for it if it doesn't have those four positions restored. >> Ella, >> so my understanding is that at at this time it's the four that come out and then we have and then we have the rest of the budget process to work with. It
it doesn't mean that it just means for now at this point you would you would want them to come >> I would want them to be restored. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Right. We're still going to have to go through the rest. Right. But my starting point is with those four restored in the budget.
>> I'm sorry, Mariah. I I have to clarify. >> Are you saying you want to change the number or you just >> I'm not I'm not going to propose to change the number on the fly because I don't want to I don't want to ask staff for projected exact dollar amount, but I would basically say it's that plus the restoration of the four positions and
not try to quantify that on the fly in this moment. But in your but but as you're thinking about this are you you're putting a monetary value >> I'm saying four but it's five I think right sorry I'm sorry it is elite >> so I just want to make sure I understand
we're not going to ask someone to tell us we don't know exactly the number but you're thinking of it that way you're not saying >> yes I'm thinking that there's an additional dollar amount associated with that and understanding comes back Yes.
What if I often think of uh each position as about a h 100,000 give or take. So that's five positions. That's a half million dollars more. >> Maybe >> I know maybe but if you just put it in
>> I don't think that's what Susan budgets at and I don't want to I don't want to guess at a dollar amount. I just think we know it's a 5ft FTE and and that's one thing we know. That's all. Bob Yeah, as we um continue annu annually,
>> I I think that we should put a motion on the table and then have deliberation. Um Bob, would you be able to hold that thought for a second? I just want to pref preface the motion and the discussion by saying that um that annual, you know, every year the
school committee is faced with um an ugly financial situation cutting very important people in the system that we need great, you know, terrific people. Um, and I just want to put it in
the in the broader context that this week, um, I guess it was the government relations subcommittee that organized a meeting with all of our legislators, including Jake Alchenlouse in DC. And the report that the government relations committee presented uh to the
legislators, the state reps, state senators and uh representative Ashenclaus was the report that we prepared was pres was prefaced by um a report by the Mass Municipal Association that was published in October. And I
just think that you know as we sort of have a smaller local discussion, it needs to be placed in the larger context. And the report that we referenced was called a perfect storm. And I guess I want to say loud that
Brooklyn is not alone in these kinds of del deliberations. The perfect storm is the perfect uh financial disaster that continues to face the state and other states, excuse me, as well. And so the
public needs to understand that our deliberations are in the context of a um a treacherous financial condition that all communities in the state face and Brooklyn is one of those and we are
not alone and I think the solution um needs needs to come from the state and from the national government. You know, the I I'll just say one more thing that the IDA program that was adopted in 19 what 74 promised to fully fund special
education. It never comes close to that. Chapter 766 in Massachusetts was supposed to fully fund special education. It hasn't. And so here we are again looking at a budget that's going to
impact many many highquality people who serve our children well. And I just want again I'm being loud stating that this is Brooklyn is not alone. And the and the remedy is not really a Brooklyn remedy because Brooklyn does not have
the resources to to to to fix this mess. And so we have to continue to work with the legislators and continue to work with the national leaders who represent us and and and help the schools um staff
themselves um in a in a in a meaningful way. It's incredibly frustrating. You know, just about every year. I mean, >> I've been in this business for a really long time. >> I think Jesse wants to speak. Did somebody >> Thank you very much. Okay.
>> Yeah. I Yeah. Yeah. Without all without additional commentary, I'll make the following motion and then if we don't like it, we can change it. >> I'll tell you. Yeah. >> Did your motion go in? >> Do you want to hear Mariah's motion again? Would you mind? >> Yes, please. >> Can we hear her motion?
>> Okay. The motion is Maybe I'll be more eloquent this time and get the number right. The superintendent's proposed FY27 budget is $150,898,826. And there are five positions to restore. And the town allocation is currently I'll say and an additional
five positions to restore. And the town allocation is currently 144,533,297. School committee will continue etc etc. So it's basically adding back the five positions to restore. >> Yes, I would second that. >> Then we can go on to discussions and commentary.
>> And now we can discuss Um, Andy, hold on. What do you think? >> I'm struggling with the wording that um Mariah just came out with. I mean, can we use a can we insert the phrase something like, you know, the budget is 151 million um not including the cost of
five positions that the school committee would like to restore. >> Amazing. >> Not including the cost of five positions >> that the school committee >> amendment accepted wholeheartedly. Thank you. Is that a friendly? Very friendly and
welcome acceptance. >> So that would be a bigger number, >> right? You're going to end up at a bigger going to be a bigger number. >> Okay. Thank you. >> So do we need to second that friendly amendment? >> Jesse, do you second the friendly amendment wording?
>> I do. >> Thank you. >> So do we have to vote separately on that? >> No. >> And now we're gonna have a conversation, but I think I had Carol in before Donna raised her hand. Um so with all due respect to Mariah of
course um I I am a no on changing the number um Bella and her team and the principles much as it's obviously horrible to contemplate this
um and it's obviously terrible to contemplate and and to be clear should we vote either number. The exact decisions are not what we're making. We're going to be spending weeks
continuing to deliberate. I don't feel it would be fiscally responsible for us to vote a number that is not the number that was arrived at by the superintendent staff.
and through much discussion with our town partners um the work of the expenditures and revenue study committee um and when these kinds of proposals have been made before I think it's been disruptive for
those reasons um and it's obviously I agree with Bob we all know um we're not alone it's a difficult time for municipalities ities. Um, be that as it may, our job is to
work with the money that we have. Um, and I I I feel that I feel a responsibility to that and I feel a responsibility to the implications of trying to go outside that um in terms
of, you know, if we do want an override to pass, but we're sort of um this might be a little exaggeration, but kind of going rogue um out of the gate. eight. I I just think we have to
really um be prudent in our in our in our decisions um at at this point in order to um do the best we can. >> Thank you, Jesse.
>> Was is the is the current mo is the current motion to add the FTEES on top of the budget. Is that what Andy had made as the friendly amendment? Not including the cost of the five positions the school committee would like to restore. >> Yes. >> Not including the cost. So how does that
>> not the number is larger? >> It goes >> not necessar not necessarily because let's say the school department can find the 5fts worth of expense somewhere else then it stays. I'm totally I'm totally behind Bella's total. I'm not behind
those cuts. So those specific cuts. So why is it necessarily true or maybe it's that the um 5FT have to be above and beyond? Why can't we just find I didn't say it's going to be easy, but why can't we find or go back to the drawing board
a little bit and find those five FTE the equivalent of it? Maybe it's partial >> because they're not in the proposed budget, Jesse. They are they are actually eliminated from the budget. That's why because the budget isn't a dollar amount. The budget is a book that is a plan. That's why semantically,
theoretically, you're right. But in practicality, the budget book articulates which positions are funded and they are not funded. >> So we don't really have a choice to have a continuing set of meaningful discussions about the elements of the
budget book. Ryan, this is it tonight. >> No, we're going to go through the whole thing. This vote is just about like we have to transmit something. The vote is that we're supposed to send something to the town by February 15th. It's the slide before this one.
>> Yeah. Yeah. So, >> yeah. So, that's the rule or the bylaw. And so, that we basically make this vote saying this is what we've done for now and we know that we haven't met the budget, so we're going to keep working on it. That's what our vote is, >> Donna.
>> So, okay. >> I think I've sat on the other side of this table and at home for probably 10 years watching school committee meetings. this the um impetus to carve something out of a
the carve something out of the number that we're voting tonight is not something that I I don't think that has been part of past practice. Most of the deliberations on what you like or don't like in the budget happens after you take this vote. Um, I'm again I'll say
I'm uncomfortable prioritizing something specific um without having a really keen understanding of what the impacts are when you're carving that out now without having the the opportunity to to sort of
explore more holistically what else is in here. um that $500,000, just to use your numbers, has an impact somewhere else. And so I'm not comfortable voting yes because that would mean I'm making a decision without the opportunity for the
superintendent, the superintendent's team and the principles um and all the other folks that are involved to to go through their process that they need to go through to come up with um >> Can I respond to that here? I I just
wanted to get in one idea is that um one thing that makes me very uncomfortable is to not have staff know what the answer is going to be. So I assume that we would never do anything here that we
like intend to later cut, right? Um but that's that's a tough one, right? Is the roller coaster of oh it's back in and then later on is it back out. We don't know anything about we have a $20 million deficit over the next three years. The idea that anybody thinks that
anything is safe frankly is a delusion and to worry about like frankly this thing given the broader financial context. I'm sorry but like it's deluded to feel like this is going to be the one thing that is going to break the budget. The budget is going to break without a
successful >> it's the one thing if if if it is diluted and there's not one thing. So why are we focused on the one thing? because I find it I made the motion because I find it something that I think should be in the school system and that's why I added it. It's important to me of the
>> but I'm saying I I totally understand that and I respect that. I'm saying that this vote in my opinion is not where we typically have these conversations or historically you've had those conversations. And so doing that at at
this point means then then I would feel like well then I'm gonna make you know like I want to argue for something else or I wanna >> but you can that's what the point is right now. Anyone could make an amendment to strip the additional language I put in. >> Mariah I know that I can. >> Good.
>> I get that I can. I'm are I'm explain explaining why I would not vote for it. That's all. I know what I can and can't do. I'm just saying the reason I'm not doing it is because I don't think that's the appropriate place for it. So that's
why I would vote no. >> And just if somebody didn't know, what we could do is we could vote it down and then have a continued conversation and a new motion. >> Correct. >> Y >> or someone could amend it now and before we actually take a vote. >> Bella,
>> I um I appreciate the the feelings behind the motion. Um Oh, I'll just bring the mic closer to me. Yes, there. Thank you. I um I appreciate the the thought behind the
motion and I it's not like um we went through these conversations and everything was like easy, >> right? So, so when um
when member or members are speaking to the value of um reductions that we're speaking of, I have to say I we we I get that. Um and
maybe it's maybe it's just an important point. we're at a very preliminary stage and um so the way I receive the information is is is that um these decisions are going
to be hard >> and um we can accept in this moment that that um it's early I I hear like it's too early in the process for
speaking for you Mariah for for for for um me to accept this reduction at this point. >> Yes. >> It's just early. It's early and um I'd like to take that back like put it back
off the table for now. But the reality is we have a tremendous challenge in front of us. Um I don't see having it restored as
being um a line drawn in the sand as we continue to deliberate. Um, I also appreciate someone saying, "Oh, you know, the back and forth is hard." I
think, um, the back and forth, the uncertainty will be hard. Um, because I think we are anticipating the possibility of an override. We don't know what the size of the override is
going to be. And I would like to assert that we hopefully at I'd like the the proposed budget even in reversal to be fully supported. Um,
and I also realize what it means on the multi-year. Um, it's just the start of a process. And I I don't think we have to be at odds at each other acknowledging
what this process means. And um but uh but we will we will have to continue um to refine the budget. We anticipate a revision coming out after break and it's not because um we haven't invested more
time enough time in it. is that it's simply we don't have all the information we need and so we're we're trying to and I know people are hard are working hard to get that information to us and um and some of it just won't come. It's it's
the timing um and that that makes it challenging for all of us. I guess I'm saying that um yes in in the presentation to you it reflected a lot of hard work that was not unemotional
and um and you might hear the emotion close because I find this process very hard um because it it impacts people there there's not enough expenses that we can
use to close the gap. So I um so the so just to say I understand um restoring the the positions is not a lack of faith in the work that we have performed. It's um it's just it's a
statement that at this point there's uncomfortability about what it means or the impact to that function. And so we we have we have a lot more work to do. And um so I just wanted to say that if that was helpful
>> and I know that you want us to get along as a school committee and come together but I want to tell you that this is where we're at our best. We are okay disagreeing about budget and nobody's feelings are going to get hurt like we these conversations are hard because there's passion in them and we we feel
we feel strongly but we can get through we'll get through it. >> I think it's a very collaborative discussion. I think that it's an important discussion and I think the public in Brooklyn wants to see us work well together and that doesn't mean not
arguing and so I respect the superintendent's work on this and I would I would move forward with her recommendation on the budget which is a tenative um decision that we have to make. So >> that's not >> I know >> it's his explanation
>> Jesse. All right. May maybe I I'm sorry if I missed something here, but a half hour ago I asked the question and Bella said this is just the beginning of a process and at the same time on on Sunday we have to give a number that we voted to
the town. So this doesn't really give us time to talk about it. If I'm hearing what you said right, this doesn't really give us time to talk about it in two weeks and in two weeks and in two weeks until we get to mid-March. We can talk about it, but this number embeds certain
changes that some of the school committee may not be comfortable with. If there is an opportunity, as Bella alluded to a few minutes ago, oh, there'll be other changes and oh, we're going to provide you with something different in two weeks, then I'm okay with it without any amendments. just we
vote the 151 million as currently proposed and then we have opportunities as changes come back to us to um continue to stress the real pain point some of us have with the current proposal. So I I'm sort of stuck again.
And I maybe I >> I don't know what >> Sarah Ryan >> Bella can you articulate this was something I asked last week but I think maybe Jesse like the question is what is the process over the next right >> coming weeks and and part of it you alluded to earlier when you said like we
we're waiting for the allocation and so there's a lot of sort of question marks but for example if if the allocation and we have a preliminary FY27 allocation there's going to be more information coming out over the next couple days But if the allocation still shows more or
less what's on the screen tonight, imagine it does. What is your process to um to clo to identify like the no override? How are you going to go through the no override scenario with us?
So, as a team, we've been we've been in anticipating what what the impact of um insufficient funding um for for a proposed budget or what we
might recommend ultimately the final number. Um, I I Okay, I'll speak honestly. We We um we thought a lot about the proposals that we brought forth tonight. Um they're not easy decisions for us to
make, meaning that they're not they took a lot of thought. Um we we literally went through school by school, line by line um we have harder decisions to make
moving forward and I will say being the we um we're the messengers we're the messengers um there's only much there's only so
much funding available but um in the aggregate it's quite expensive to run the schools as we would like. Um, so we are we are the messengers of
>> um c can can you explain that please? >> So we're presenting reductions to you. We're the messengers. >> We're presenting the reductions to you and then um it's >> it's I will say it's a little hard being
challenged on the recommendations and so then it's okay. we still have to go back on them. We have to find we still have to find a way to get to the number that will work. So when you
ask what the process is, we um maybe this was our our we're a new team. >> Yeah. So this was our first effort to again try to look at enrollment adjustments and averages and do our best
to say this is this is a reasonable adjustment or correction. And so looking forward we have other recommendations I'm going to say with some tearity what it's going to be like when we put them out. Well,
let me I'm sure I mean I know like just like no one ever runs for school committee to be in these these chairs in this moment and no one ever is a you know an administrator. This is not great. This is horrible for everyone involved. But I guess my question is like last year ultimately the school
committee um asked for a slightly larger like we we asked for a slate of things for us to consider that was larger than the gap and then we went through and talked about them and asked for more information and we took votes over time. I know I'm sure you watched it or at least watched the recordings of it. Are
you planning like for example, will you be doing something similar to that where you present slightly more and we go through the the choices that you put in front of us or are you going to put together like a dollar amount to the number and not present more? I'm just that's I guess what I'm trying to
understand of process going forward. So I so I think I we're hesitating to to to build that gap number for you and the impact because >> I'd rather not have to make a bigger number of reductions. And so even if it
goes up a million, that's a big difference to us. If it goes up 500,000, it's a big difference to us. And so I just hesitate putting out more reductions than necessary because every time you do that, it has an impact
>> to whoever was considered holding that position. >> So I don't there might be um some program like comparable choices among programs
um that we're thinking about. But I wasn't thinking of giving a larger list because of the impact and also it's hard there were it it it's hard there were 19.7
FTEES and you've restored five. >> What are the implications of that? So I I think we will make our best effort to make what we think are the right recommendations as oppos I I feel in the observation of
what happened last year the the the whip sign um and I I'm not sure if there are functions that might have been just as
critical didn't have as much air time and so it you have to think about how that works. Um yeah it anyway >> Donna
thank you. I just want to say, Bella, you sort of have encapsulated what what my concerns are with again, I understand your motion, Mariah, but my the reason I would vote no is because I'm uncomfortable carving something out that way and ending up in
a situation where we don't know what the impacts are, where we weren't the people doing the work behind the scenes. So, I would hate to mandate something um when I wasn't the one doing the work. like I h that's I don't know um
you know I won't get into metaphors but um I I I also do feel like last year was an incredibly painful process and have um different segments of our school system having to come out and um
>> campaign against each other so that their positions are saved. is really incredibly painful for the entire community. So, I I guess all that to say is I appreciate what you just said,
Bella. You sort of touched on the things that were worrying me and um explained why why why I would vote no on the motion on the table. Jesse, >> thank you. Um, first of all, the weight do the weight
does the wage line in the current proposal um include what could come out of union negotiations? >> We are >> or is it >> we are hearing um we have six contracts in negotiations and we are carrying
>> Oh, sorry. Yes, we are negotiating with six contracts and we are we're carrying funds for that. Um and that is something actually has been discussed with the school committee.
>> Okay. Um the second the second just observation I wanted to make to follow up on Donna's comment. One of the challenges I mean I'll speak personally for for me uh you know since last year's very difficult budget cycle and and this
one is that essentially all the work gets done outside of the school committee and then it's presented to us either at a at a public meeting which is the right place to you know give it to the public and us at the same time and
then we're constrained within a very short period of time, a couple of hours to try to investigate what's underneath it like to Carolyn's point two hours back about like give you know where are the specifics on educational training and conferences and stuff like that so
that we can be more informed and so I felt last year I definitely feel this year that yes in the terms of what you're saying as as being the messengers we're the receivers but we don't really have I think all the information we need to make a proper decision and if we if
we make I'll you know, quite open now. If we tend to make suggestions that go against the current um proposal or strategy of the district, it seems like we're trying to be adversarial when we're not. But, you
know, even in a in a corporation setting, a finance team brings the financial information to the board and the board may say, "No, this is not what we want. We can't run our company this way." ultimately maybe a CEO or CFO makes a recommendation to the shareholders and we just, you know, it's
it's it's troubling to me that we're we get the information, we get explanations, and then we've got just a very very short period of time because we can't wait for another vote. It has to be now since Sunday is the deadline to get the number
to the town. So um we we we I'm you know in the future maybe there's a a better process where some of this work that that you refer to Bella is um shared as it's going on maybe in working teams or
with school leaders or something so that school committee members can participate at some level in reviewing not the final proposed budget but even reviewing elements within And I think that's where we we we we
feel somewhat helpless actually because we're looking at this massive number. We know that that it's potentially unlikely that we'll get it all. The town allocation from two weeks ago to now dropped a quarter of a
million dollars from 1990 to 1740 and that was without any explanation. And so we're sort of helpless. So, I mean, I I I think in terms if it's actually mandated, as Sarah mentioned at the beginning of the meeting, that we have to provide a proposal to town um by
Sunday, then let's get a motion that we can get behind and do the vote, please. >> Does that mean that you would like us to take the motion uh to take the vote from Mariah's motion so that should it fail, you could then do a different motion? Is that what you're saying?
>> Yeah, let's let's reread it and then let's vote. Okay. So, I will call the vote. Um, and shall I restate the vote or >> Yes, please. >> Yes, please. >> Maybe Betsy can read it back or something. >> Well, this is what I have. Um, the
superintendent's proposed FY27 budget is 150,898,826, not including the cost of five positions that the school committee wants to restore. I would suggest in parenthesis here we put four educational technology specialists and one librarian position
just for clarity. Um so adding that uh five positions that the school committee wants to restore parenthesis and the town allocation is currently 144 million 533,297. >> How do you vote Bob?
>> Excuse me. Does the not including Betsy mean that the five positions are above or below or it's ambiguous? >> Do you think it's ambiguous, Jesse? >> Well, only in the sense that from my
point of view, no. But I'm if I'm voting on it, I'm voting on it because we're going to stay within the 150 million and restore the positions. But I heard a comment earlier about no, this means we're going to swell up by, I don't know, just round up $500,000. So, it's either we're going to 500,000 more or
we're finding $500,000 worth of cuts somewhere to to to um to protect maintain, you know, um Mariah, the five positions that, you know, I think uh you and I agree need to be protected.
So, which is it? That's the question. I don't want to swell it. I want it within the same number that that the superintendent proposed. >> The motion but the >> that's not the motion. >> But Jesse, the those positions are not in the book. They are not in the budget
book. So, it's going to add to it because they're not in the budget book. >> Then fine. I'm I'm okay to I'm okay to proceed now that you've >> clarified that. Thank you. >> Okay. Well, I have one and I think I want to
say something that's important to me to say. Sorry. >> It's okay. Go ahead. >> I know. Well, it's hard. I know. And somebody said nobody wants to be here. We didn't join school committee to be here. And obviously ad nauseium. It's terrible. We talked
about this in the hallway last week. I mean, I did join school run for school committee to be to to be because I'm willing to make hard decisions for the public good because the public schools
rely on public support and I think politically um it we need to support the superintendent's budget. Thank you.
>> I wasn't asked. >> Um Bob, how do you vote? >> I'm thinking >> I vote no. >> Carolyn, >> no. Andy, >> no. >> Rya, >> yes.
>> Suzanne, >> yes. >> Uh Donna, >> no. >> Jesse, >> yes. >> And I vote yes. But it fails on a tie. >> So now we need >> Will you entertain a motion?
>> I will entertain a motion. >> Um my motion would be to uh for the language as shown on the slide there. >> I'll second. >> Bob, how do you vote? >> I vote yes. >> You can you uh Andy, can you I can't see
>> sorry if I can read it out. Uh the superintendent's proposed fiscal 27 budget is $150,898,826 and the town allocation is currently $144,533,297. The school committee will continue working with the superintendent, select board, and town administrator to align
these numbers through identification of additional efficiencies and revenues. >> Andy made the motion. Donna seconded it. Um Bob has already voted yes. Carolyn, >> yes. >> Andy, >> yes. >> Mariah, >> abstain.
>> Uh, Suzanne, >> yes. >> Donna, >> yes. >> Um, Jesse, >> yes. >> And I abstain as well. So, it passes.
Um, and at this point, um, we have a superintendence report. No, that's what we did before. >> As she as she left. >> Okay. >> Sarah, what's next? I'm sorry. So, um,
Bella was just asking if we wanted to. I think that that was painful for a lot of us and so we're just taking a second to breathe and say, do we want to stay? Um, Robin Benoy stayed until this point to present to us on teaching and learning and so we were just taking a second to decide whether we should go through with
that. Yes, >> Robin, does this accurately represent one of the slides in your presentations? >> There's like four double-sided pieces of paper here. What's what's the subject matter of it? >> Teaching and learning update. >> Like how long is this? Is this like an
hour presentation? >> Do you think it's going to be like an hour? I mean, okay. >> I would like to hear your pres. >> Okay. >> Are there um are there any other votes this evening? >> There are no other votes. Jesse, if you need to go and the rest of us are going to stay for the presentation.
>> Thank you. >> Are we having executive session at the end? Okay. >> No. >> So, um, thank you, Robin. Robin, she's going to do an update on the on the other other areas in her department just to to remind everyone um besides the
literacy that there's all these other these other areas that she's been working on. So here you go. Okay. Wow. So that's a hard act to follow. Um but what I would like to say is um you know
as I present this update, this is really an update on the work of our educators and our coordinators and our principles and collaboration between OTL and OSS. So you know I have the the
privilege of really presenting the hard work of of many many people you know. So, I just want to acknowledge that. Um, and when I began to work with the coordinators specifically, um, all of our coordinators K8,
um, K12 and 912 to to just kind of consider what should be part of this. And I looked at all that they had to share with me. Um, I really decided to approach it from a place of themes within their work. And I thought that was really important in
terms of thinking about not them as separate silos of work that are happening, but really cohesive and coordinated work that's happening across the district that really is happening across all of our um content areas and touch all of our students K through 12.
So um this first slide just rep it's just a a preview of the of the areas of focus that I will go through. And the other thing is as we go through each of these slides, I'm going to pull out a few examples, but in every one of these examples, there are more, right? Like uh
there are more specific examples throughout the district. So the the first um area of focus is really this K12 coherence and you heard a little bit about that earlier as we talked about um the science review which we'll talk about again later but really that that
building coherence in our program is something we're working towards across disciplines and so what you'll see as examples in this oh sorry slide um Betsy sorry what you will see is there you really kind of f focuses into two
buckets of work. Um vertical alignment. So that alignment that's happening um in different across different grade spans and this idea of curriculum consistency and that's happening across a grade level across a department. And so we're
across a course. So many people teaching the same course to try to build consistency. And this really speaks to um consistent and aligned expectations. And it also, you know, ultimately supports our work around building more equitable
experiences and opportunities for our students. So again, just some quick examples. Our performing arts is doing scope and se department is doing scope and sequence work K12 in terms of what is music education look like? What is performance arts overall? It changes a
little bit as students move from K to 12. Um, I had the great opportunity of attending the eighth grade curriculum night, parent night last night and going through each of the coordinator presentations along with the parents and hearing, you know, just really how our
opportunities expand for our students even as they move to the high school, but even then within the high school as they metriculate from 9th to 12. So, thinking about what it looks like in kindergarten to and into our middle school and into our high school. And that's a really important lens that our
departments are are taking. Um, middle school science assessment development. Um, Emily, as you mentioned earlier, so she's been working um, particularly with our middle school science teachers and they've been thinking about a lot of things in terms of their scope
and sequence and what is the middle school program for science look like, but also really trying to align themselves around assessment opportunities and assessment practices. So again, that's another theme that's happening across the entire high school in all departments. Um they are doing
scope and sequence work and curriculum articulation work that um would be doing anyway, but it's also coming out of our NEASK our most recent NEASK report. It's like one of the actions that we're working on as a result of that. Um and that is really happening across the
board. And I call out high school science particularly because they are doing work across their um and really I they're doing it across but particularly around their first year course. So this really actually belongs in the second bucket. My mistake. Um but really
thinking about the across their um nth grade course. Um what does the alignment and experience look like for kids? Um and then just thinking about consistency again across buildings. our grades seventh and eight grade seven and eight world language teachers. So they had um
a review in 20 23 I believe if I'm remembering correctly and so they've been doing work across the middle school but this year specifically in seventh and eth they started with six in previous years moving to seven and eight and then of course you know we've heard a lot about so I'm not going to go into
great detail about all the work that's going into that K8 um literacy work in ELA and the use of high um quality instructional materials Um so if we go to the next slide again across our our departments we're
seeing lots of work in terms of strengthening assessment and reporting and so again calling out some specific places. So there's a lot of work happening again if we think about at the course level to have common rubrics and the
idea of common measures of learning. And so again, this speaks to if I'm going to call out the high school specifically, they've been really doing a lot of work in this area to think about if a student is taking a particular course, you know, across multiple teachers and you know, like again, you know, like there are
elements that are common and part of that is assessment and there, you know, like I think, you know, I think originally part of the driver for that work really came from students and their student um student voices around really wanting to make sure that that that assessment looked equitable across the
same course. Um and again our calling out our grade six world language. So this is part of that middle school work that arose out of the 2023 review. Um our sixth grade world language teachers have been really thinking about proficiency benchmarks. And again this is happening across all
languages but thinking about what is the experiences for sixth graders regardless of what language they're taking and what are what are we looking at in terms of proficiency. So that's work that they've been digging into. Um, in terms of grading practices, our I want to, you know, shut our our K8 physical education
teachers that have really been trying to think across, you know, many of them work across more than one school, right? So they really have this lens on being in multiple places in our K8s and the work that they're doing around trying equitable grading practices um, as well
as a whole department. And then this last one's a really important piece. I actually heard this is something as I um entered the district and began speaking with coordinators was a place where it was this was really the lift of our coordinators at the K. Um and there's
there's probably greater work around our progress report language and things like that to do with teachers in kind of a you know larger long-term work around what our progress reports look like. Um but this was really making sure that the progress reports that go home to
families and they they went home most recently at the midyear um actually reflect our current curriculum expectations and language aligned um across. So they really worked to make sure where were there places we had
outdated language because or um indicators because curriculum had changed right like so we're no longer having that same unit of study ensuring that you know what's happening there and I think and again I may misspeak on this
but my understanding was previously kind of in this gap of doing this work we might have been sending home things to families that said a little note in the progress report that said Well, not applicable at this time or we're, you know, this this isn't. So, we're trying to be make sure that we have more accurate communication with our
families. >> Can I make a comment? >> Yeah. >> I I hope that at some point the progress report like version the next version will get beta tested with some parents to make sure that they are able to glean from it what educators are hoping they
can because I found it um really hard to interpret the progress report. like what am I supposed to understand and it doesn't mean anything to the lay user. So that would just just some feedback, right? I think it's it's such important work and I'm just excited to think about
as you're thinking about it under practices and communication how that's going to be received as well, not just transmitted. So thank you >> and that's good feed and that's good feedback for us as we continue to work on this but knowing that it you know that it is something that we're engaged in, we're thinking about you know that
as a way that we're communicating with our families, right? Um the next slide is really the you know work that was happening that really fell into this um this theme of equity access and systems of support. So um
in two buckets within that expanding access and then inclusive systems. So within this you know our work around MTSS is work we've been engaged with as a district um over multi-year. It's part of our um our student opportunity act
plan, right? It's a big it's a goal within that. It's within our district strategic plan, but within, you know, kind of in this bucket, we're thinking about um work that are it's K8 math. It's a math PLC focused around a book
group of really thinking about >> Yep, I can. Sorry, it's late. It's been a long day as it has been for all of you. Um so it is a professional learning community. So this is really currently
made up of our 6 through8 um teachers and our math specialists that are participating in a book study about you know rethinking this idea of disability and math you know like really kind of digging into it. Um it also aligns to work with that we're trying to do as a
district around beginning work around UDL. um what >> universal design for learning. So I'm I'm in educ as you speak mode at this point in the union I guess universal design for learning. So it's really thinking about how we design instruction
to support multiple you know multiple learners across a spectrum right like so thinking making sure that you have supports in place and it's really targeted toward tier our tier one instruction in particular. So, as we as we start to dig into some of this more, I'm sure we'll
go into it more. >> Sorry, what's the book? >> Um, the book I'm going to I may misquote it, but I think it's rethinking disability in mathematics. So, um, so uh, the other place where we have done
some work, um, is in our FX program at the high school. So this is and this probably should be on the slide but um formerly the calculus project but we're no longer associated with the calculus project as an organization. Um so this is really that that work that we're
continuing to do to ensure to support the retention and promotion of students within honors and advanced math. Yes. >> Is um when we talked about this related to the stipens a couple weeks ago, we said it was also at the middle school level. Is it it's also you said to high school right now, but it's both, right?
Middle. It's really the high school, but there's also this this idea of supporting at the seventh and ethnic really desired that to to expand there and particularly with summer programming and support. Um, another place to call out is in our within our world languages
at the high school. So, the Spanish PA heritage pathway and this is a 2year two two courses. It's a it's a one and a two, I believe. And it's so really so thinking about our Spanish heritage speakers. So students that they're
they're they may they have a connection to the Spanish language like Spanish may be spoken at home, but it's really thinking about so what does a a course in Spanish language look like for them um because their needs might be different in terms of kind of building
um building language from that perspective. And so this was supported originally by the innovation fund and there are a few courses within this that we'll call up that have been supported by originally by the innovation fund. Um but that was work they were very proud of. Um and question
>> um I don't know why Spanish was chosen. Is there any thought of doing this with other languages that are largely first languages or heritage languages? >> That's a great question. I don't know the answer to that. Okay. I'd have to dig in more with with Rachel, our um
high school coordinator to understand. Um but I think they're they're probably they're relatively new courses. So this is right. So >> a couple years old. >> Yeah. Um and then social studies course accessibility for our EL students. So
our English language learners. Um and so this has been collaboration between our social studies coordinators and and um our ELE director um to think about accessibility of materials and um
and practices to support our our learners in that way. And then inclusive systems. Again, our wellness is really thinking about as they're thinking about editable grading practices, they've been thinking a lot about inclusive strategies within their PE and wellness
classes. Um and um doing some work there. I know Carllin's very proud of that work that she's been doing with her department. Um and then you know the bigger piece is the MTSS development in partnership with the office of student supports. Um we had the a great morning
this morning actually. So, um it was a good very positive morning working with our team um and our partnership with new teacher center and so which is currently the funded out of grant funding that continued partnership and um really
starting to think about districtwide what is a system of support, what is a framework for providing support for students um and and really kind of digging into what that means. But we had a really productive morning. So, I think both Kieran and I left that feeling um
productive and energized and thoughtful about that work that's happening. Um, next slide. Okay, so innovation and student engagement. And again, I'm just going to remind everybody that as I'm pulling out examples here, there's I could probably
dig into many more um in some of the what's going on in our classrooms. Um so there's some crossd disciplinary learning happening. So there particularly in elect I think about it in terms of elective offerings that's happening at BHS. Um so that's one place
that it's happening. Um another concentrated um place that it's happening is in terms of our K5 and particularly as we've rolled out, you know, our implementation of fish tank. What we're finding is
there's a lot of places where we might have overlap just because of the the way the program is structured and the books that are being used and particularly in when they um depending on the topic of what's being read, you know, at all grade levels. And so thinking about
um this is beginning work with our ELA science and social studies coordinators to really kind of look at units, where is that overlap, where could we prioritize um to look at our you know the the order of units or the scope and sequence or
you know how to how to capitalize on the work in each content area >> and fish tank already has that embedded right? So fish tank has it embedded but like so for a good example I can't remember the name of the unit at this off the top of my head but um I believe
it's in first grade one of our first units in social studies has to do with you know the idea of families and communities and we have a unit later in first grade in ELA that's about families. So be really great if those units happened at the same time and we
were ensuring that there was there was overlap and we could bring build cohesion particularly as we start to talk think about like science and social studies at the K5 level and we we know like if we had all I mean one of the things I wish I had all the time in the
world right and our schedules are tight and so how do we um ensure that we're devoting the time that we need for skill building but also So, not shortch changing science and social studies which which tend to particularly in the
early grades maybe not get as much time because you're needing more time for literacy and math, right? Like there's only so many um times hours in the school day. And so, how can we work together to make sure that we have cross-disciplinary work? We're supporting the work of each other. So, that's starting with our coordinators to
maybe identify some units or some, you know, areas where there's overlap that we may want to bring teachers in. um for collaboration to kind of really work on those. So we know that there's a piece that we you know as we think about the budget or we think about some of that collaborative work where we might
need into work with teachers and um over the summer whether it's summer work um and or places like that really starting that work to identify it so it's coordinated and strategic and we we think about how we're going to do it. um some other places um that we have a
forensic science course at the high school. I think it wasn't run for a while and now it's back. So really looking at these authentic applications of learning and perform so um they have a performance-based final. Sounds super cool. I wish I took a forensic science I
mean I was a former science teacher. I wish I had taken a forensic science course in high school and um where they're really analyzing a crime scene and they're having to use the skills that they've learned throughout the you know as part of their um assessment within the course. So really thinking about application there. Um, our justice
and action course is a disciplinary course, but it's also really kind of digging into um it is a cross-disciplinary course between ELA and social studies offered. I think it's primarily juniors and seniors take it. I don't know if it's open to 10th graders,
but like it's an elect. It's an English elective and a social studies elective. I think you can have it for either. Um and it's really looking at understanding and examining the American justice system. So you know um timely for students um engaging happening in their
world. Those are conversations that are happening in the bigger world. Um and they're exploring it um both from a social studies and English perspective. Um >> innovation fund um course also. You are correct.
Um and then we have some field trips and real world experiences that are happening that are cross ELA and social studies. Um a most recent one I can think of that or an example is um students going to the the Lowel Mills
and like learning about that time period and what was it like and what was the life of students. for those getting out um not on this slide, but I also want to shout out is we've had some efforts within our um middle school science department to really start to think about the importance of field
experiences for students and some some teachers trying that out. Um and how can we have more of that within our program. Um and then this last one is really within our visual arts department because I always want to make sure I shout out examples from all of our
departments. Um, this is a student uh course that was really student response driven. Um, so it was a red redesign and it's really on wearable art and apparel design. Um, that uh I think it's not I think ninth graders can take this one if I remember
from last night. It's one of the many electives they can take, but it really came out of student interest and um something kids were really wanted to think about, you know, designing clothing for themselves. Um all right, next slide. So this is the curriculum review cycle.
So a predictable curriculum review cycle. And this is something that we're in the beginning stages of working on and articulating with and this is work of um myself Joelle Peterson our interim senior director of teaching and learning
and our coordinators is really kind of thinking about a multi-year curriculum review roadmap and also thinking about process and so what you know using guidance from DESIE using our current um policies in the district to really start to think about like how
Do we number one as I said set up a a predictable schedule for curriculum review that allows us to kind of think about resources. It also allows to think about educator capacity and then eventual adoption of if there are curriculum resources that are adoption
adopted on the other side how we plan for that fiscally so that it's not like everything all at once. Um I always think about within that in particular um our elementary teachers and the fact that you know as a classroom teacher
teaching all content areas every time we are thinking about curriculum review or having to adopt something new we want to think about their capacity in particular because they have all of it versus um content specialists. Um and then um and that's really across all areas. So what
we've been mapping out is trying to think about um not just math, science, ELA and social studies, but also in terms of where is world language in this process, where is our visual arts and where is our performing arts um in this in this as well as SEAL. Okay. Um and so
think part of when we think about key elements of that cycle, we're thinking about structured process, that clear plan, um a a process for piloting and feedbacking, feedback, a feedback loop as we're making decisions and then also
thinking about implementation and how do we monitor it. So when we think about implementation, we're thinking not just about um the purchase of any resources that might need to happen. We're also thinking about time, we're thinking about professional
learning alongside that, right? And then we're also thinking about like as I talked about with the K5 work that's happening right now with our coordinators, is there cross um department alignment that not needs to happen, realignment like so all of these pieces as part of it.
Um, and then our next slide. This is our last one. So, these are two areas that you've heard about recently. And so, this is really thinking about accountability and strategic planning. So, I want to call these out because just to give you an update about where we're at. All right. So, our DESIE district review is coming up at the very
end of March. So, I presented on that a few weeks ago, more comprehensive report on it. So, where we are is in that coordinated document submission. So I you know using the the framework that they've given us making sure that our documents um are being submitted. So
we're coming to the close of the document submission part of it. Um Superintendent Wong and I met with our liaison this week to start to look at a draft of what um the district visit will actually look like in late March and
maybe start to think and give some feedback on that. Um, so we'll that will be still be in planning and so the closer we get and we have an actual schedule for like when school visits will happen, what focus groups will happen, when, how do we invite people to
those um and then also preparation for stakeholder communication. So there's, you know, two main groups that we need to communicate with around this is um thinking about our larger community because there is um opportunity for
a family and caregiver forum that will be held on Zoom. So kind of making them aware of this process and what it is and inviting them to that so that they can register and sign up. Um and then also communicating with each of our other focus groups from within the district. So um school committee is one of those
focus groups. I think you know so you might want to give some thought to this. Um I think it has to be one less than a quorum. So in terms of figuring out who who attends that um and then um also thinking about our educators K12
particularly because some of them may be asked to join a focus group and some of them may have their classrooms visited so they understand what that looks like and when that is and there's they're not surprised by that. Um and then the second piece of work that's really about accountability and strategic planning if
we think about that as the theme um is our vision of a learner work and I know the curriculum subcommittee heard about that work recently and that and we have been engaged with that with the high school. So I've been working closely with the high school on that and their team and um Britt um Stevens and John
Andrews are leading that work um for the you know for the larger group um and then um where we are in that right now and really that comes out of NEAS it's a requirement for us in terms of our NEAS accreditation but as we've thought about it um and been working through it we're
thinking about the importance that the vision for our learners overall and our eventual graduates from Brooklyn High School are not just the product of Brooklyn High School. They are a product of our community um from preK all the way to 12. And so that feedback is
important. Um so where they are, they've done a lot of work at the high school, some pre-work and kind of engaging their high school educators because it does start primarily as a as a high school assignment um from NEAS. But um they're in the stage of collecting stakeholder feedback. So
>> So it's very exciting. Yeah, this is a very exciting moment. I'm surprised you guys haven't heard of it. >> Um, yeah, I was going to say this week, um, surveys went out to families. So, if you have children in the schools, you've received a survey. Those of you on the committee that may not have a child
within the school, um, I have some directions about how to send you a survey link. So, you can also contribute um to that feedback um, from that perspective. And so really where we're at is getting some feedback around um it's really skills and habits
of mind and um that our our learners will have as they launch off into the world, things that we think are critically important. And as we think about that, the implications for it help us and guide us as we're starting to
think about what instruction looks like. So, and I give I always give this example like if we say our kids need to be critical thinkers, we need to give them opportunities to think critically. It just can't happen when they're seniors. It has to have how are we building those muscles across, right?
Like, and so that has to we have to be checking ourselves if those are what we say we want for our learners. So, this isn't a process that's so much about like exactly which classes are offered or um who takes it when or any of those things, but it's trying to think about
across all of our courses, what are we trying to build for all of our students that you know, so um we're always asking us ourselves those questions. And as we started this work, I think it this is uh an important place to think about. We started with having educators think about
generation beta is being born right now and they were they will enter our school in five schools in five years. Um and so as we start to think forward we need to think not just about the students we have now but the students we will have and how do we support um their growth in
a you know an everchanging and global society um as learners. So I think that's um exciting work that we have happening. It's really energizing as we've started to get into these conversations and um think about the
implications of how it helps us again if I go back to that very first slide about coherence right like how do we as a K12 system think about the educational experience of all of our students and make sure that there is both alignment
across because we are a school with many a school system with many schools alignment across our system in terms of what we're able to offer students and and also cohesion across our district across our our prek12 spectrum. >> That's where we're at.
>> Yeah. So, Robin, thank you. I've been asking Robin to do this presentation because you've heard from student services, you've heard from counseling, heard from different areas, and so teaching and learning um covers the core the core program. And again, I um am so
impressed with Rob what Robin has been able to do. And so you saw that she talked about curriculum, she talked about um assessment, innovation, and then sort of forward thinking in um and also strategic planning.
She's done a lot to to be and there's so many great things happening and and you can hear that she's saying, you know, that the work is to tie it all together, vertical alignment, which has not actually been the culture here in Brooklyn, but and so this is this we
acknowledge this and so this is a shift um to make sure vertical learning, horizontal continuity. um one one senior director of teaching and learning. So I think that there have been a a lot of good work around
curriculum development and assessment and getting people aligned on that. I will say not having the second senior director. There's more work that we can do about fidelity of an of supervision evaluation. So I just want to
acknowledge that it continues to be a growth area. Um, so but you can't. So Robin right now is like the hub for so many different things between the K8 and that 912. I feel like there's really
good balance of attention that she's giving um across across the grade levels and um and also that focus on equity and working with OSS. So,
it's a place I I'd rather she focus and and get that, but we also acknowledge there's this other area. >> Um, and so I I just want to acknowledge we are not covering everything. >> Speak to it a little bit. One of you is just like where what is our baseline
right now in terms of evaluation? Are we doing 50% of them, 80% of them, 10% of them? >> I think it's definitely better, but Yeah. number. I'd have to like go into our >> Sure. >> Sorry, I'm not speaking to the microphone. Um I'd have to go in and
pull a report. I think it's I think it's better. Um >> I think it was really clear from the start that that was our expectation that everybody was supposed to be fulfilling their responsibilities there and then identifying areas that needed support.
>> Right. So it's are you f are you trying to shore up any specific area? For example, ensuring that prepps evaluations are done completely even if the other ones are right. >> Okay. So is that accurate to say you're focused there? Okay.
>> Um and my principal meetings, it's actually in in my one ones with them, it's the first part of our conversation every time like how are your first years, your second years, your third years, who's on your radar? Um and then we we progress to the veteran staff. So
it's it's so that's the only way to model it is to is to is to do that. Um >> Donna. >> Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. >> Um um
>> Oh, yes. >> Thank you so much, Robin. I wanted to ask when you're talking about vertical alignment if you can take a minute or two to talk about homework practices like the alignment across schools and then also I I think I you've talked
about this before because I know I've asked but about the alignment in math minutes across buildings what work is happening there >> I think those are both places we probably still have some work to do in making sure that I know that work has been done over the last year to try to align but I think that's really some of
that scheduling work. >> We have we need to do >> we have we have identified that something >> I thought maybe this was something we could fix and it was going to be reflected in the budget.
>> Um but it's it will take a a bigger effort. So we we've always said that it was going to be the focus of um for next next year. So, um, once the hard work of the budget book is in,
we'll keep working on the budget, but we're anticipating spring >> that we will be able to move toward on some of some of our other initiatives are just work that needs to be done. Um, but that's part of the looking at the middle school schedule.
>> And is that also true for the for homework practices? that'll come down >> my practices you know we had that's >> that has that has not I will say focal area but I think you know again as we
look for >> coherence >> we'll add it to the list >> right like if there hasn't been a practice of alignment um >> I think as we start to align ourselves more >> I hugely appreciate all of that I mean in order to do well at something you do
have to have priorities you can't do everything right away, right? So, that was a a great presentation, very uplifting, just really at the core of what's most important. So, thank you. >> Thanks, Robin. >> Yeah, thank you, Robin. >> Um, should I
>> Yeah, >> the presentation's >> lot going on. >> Yeah, >> I have Sorry, I'm gonna ask one really technical question about the survey. Um, it asked for my email and that was required
>> and I'm never sure when that's part of a survey whether that means that that shows up and it's not like there was anything super secretive but it's it was like my opinion. >> Yeah. >> So I didn't >> I will bring that back to our survey
designers and ask about it. >> I like when it clearly says >> right. Yes, I understand. >> Or just let you do it without it. Thank you. >> So for um going to work tomorrow and being alert, would it be okay if we skipped um subcommittee leazison
reports? Or maybe let me ask a different way. Who has something extremely important to add into um subcommittee reports? >> Okay. >> I'm just going to say one thing. >> Yeah. >> Sorry. Expenditures and revenues is meeting weekly Wednesdays 2 to 4 and
people might be interested in tuning in to helpful. It's regular now. Yes, it's it's like it's now turned into a regular cadence for the bigger meetings and it's um I think interesting conversation because it's starting to go towards structure and form of the recommendation
of like what would be recommended to the select board. >> Thank you. >> I think there Yeah, I think it's regularly the next couple Wednesdays. >> Yeah, they vacation. >> Well, yep. >> Do we have new business?
>> I was asking is there new business? >> I just Yes, this will not be long. Um, I just want to note that today is February 12th. It is the birthday of President Abraham Lincoln. And I think that as a
school system, as a school committee, we should reflect on his extraordinary leadership during that time. And I would propose that we read the Gettysburg address not tonight, but at the beginning of next school committee meeting, because in today's world, I think that address
is very compelling. And I think as the leaders of school system, we should read that address at at our ne opening our next school committee meeting. That's what I propose. >> I'm not going to react, but we we hear you. >> Thank you. And that adjourns this
meeting. Thank you very much.