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Good evening and welcome to the September 18th, 2025 meeting of the Brookline School Committee. Uh the first item on our agenda is a proposed executive session. I move to meet in executive session pursuant to Massachusetts General Laws chapter 30A
section 21A for the following purposes. Purpose three to discuss litigation strategy in relation to a pursuit claim asserted by the minor victim of sexual abuse perpetrated by former high school teacher Larry Chen and purpose 7 to review and approve executive session
minutes from June 23rd, 2025 and June 25th, 2025. Is there a second? Second. Suzanne seconded first and Donna, how do you vote? Yes. Suzanne, yes. Sarah, yes. Jesse, yes. Carolyn, yes. Bob, yes.
And I also vote yes. Um, we will be returning to open session. [Music] [Music]
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[Music] [Music] [Music] Welcome back to the September 18th, 2025 meeting of the Brookline School Committee. We're moving on to item two, uh 2A, the consent agenda, international
student trip, Brooklyn High School Spanish trip to Mexico, February 13th through the 27th, 2026. Motion to approve the consent agenda. Sure. Suzanne moves. Is there a second? Yes. Second. Jesse second. Suzanne, how do you vote?
Yes. Sarah, yes. Mariah, yes. Jesse, yes. Carolyn, yes. Bob, yes. Uh, and the chair votes yes. Uh, number three was public comment. We
have nobody signed up for public comment. Is there anybody in the audience who wishes to provide public comment? Okay. Um, next up we have our student report. Our first student report of this school year at DT. So exciting. And then share my screen.
Exactly. Yeah. Hi everyone. Um shut up here. Okay. Hi everyone. Um, this is my first um, report on BHS as a school committee um, representative from the high school.
So here's my September update. So the biggest thing I'd say that's going on at the start of this year is we have a new schedule in light of the findings from the state that we need. I believe it's 50 more hours of time on learning this year. There's been a
couple changes that have gone into place um about this new schedule. So first of all, school starts 5 minutes earlier and ends 5 minutes later. So, it now runs 8:15 to 3:00 p.m. Classes meet four times a week. That's the same as last
year, but now we have 57 minute blocks that meet that are three times a week and one long 65 minute block. As you can see in the image, the blue squares are the long blocks. So, each block meets once for an additional um eight minutes.
This is a little bit different from last year where each block met for 55 minutes four times a week. Another change that happened is passing time which has been reduced from 7 to 5 minutes. I personally haven't seen that much of an issue with this reduce in passing time
but I know that it's been harder for students who take classes in the freshman building. So that's freshmen and also some seniors who take physics and then students who have other electives in the um in the UA building or have a wellness class in the gym. So
that can lead to some difficulties but I know that teachers are being accommodating especially when students tell them ahead of time that they have a class every day that is across the campus. Um T and Xlock. So TB block is advisory. X block is the free block that
um clubs use to meet and student government uses to meet. So now T and X are operating on rotation every other week and during 4 day week schedules which happen 10 times per year I believe because of holidays um T and X both meet
and I know that one concern about this is one clubs are getting less time to meet especially for students who participate in sports and other a after school activities. it's hard to find a time to meet with clubs and also for student government. So legislature meets
during Xlock every week so or previously every week. So now it's becoming a we're trying to adapt to meeting every other week and changing our practices. The other thing was ZBlock has been reduced by I believe 15 minutes over the course
of the week and luckily it still has been preserved because I know last year there were conversations about um how we'd accommodate everything because ZBlock I don't think counts as the time on learning since it only applies to some some people who take
orchestra electives. So then the other thing that happened recently was the club fair which met x block of last week in the quad and here we we saw tables for every club imaginable from speech and debate to
student government to Asian board games clubs. There was tons of different clubs students have the opportunity to create and meet. Even though now um there is the question of when are clubs going to meet or they're not going to be able to
meet as often, but we still saw lots of people at the club fair um talking about their clubs and lots of people showed interest, which is really great to see everything that BHS has to offer in that regard. The final thing I'm going to talk about
today is the some senior specific highlights. So there have been visiting college reps from over 200 universities and even international colleges. I know last week we had some reps from George Washington University in DC, a few other
schools. I think next week we're going to have Trinity Trinity College Dublin come. So students have the opportunity to get permission slips signed by their teachers and to step out of class for a little bit to um meet with these college reps and ask questions.
Senior parent night also happened on September 10th which was the BHS um counseling department and um Lenny Libson who is in charge of college counseling and he presented just about some deadlines and different things that
seniors should keep in mind. That's my presentation. Thank you very much. Any questions for her? You covered it all. Thank you so much. Oh, Mariah, I just wanted to say it was a stellar
start to your time here on the on the committee. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Um, moving on to administrative business. First up, our acceptance of grants for 5 A through G. Mariah, are you walking us
through these? Okay, that'd be great. Um, so the finance committee reviewed these at our September 10th meeting, I believe. Um, and I believe, if I recall correctly, we voted favorably on them as
a block three to zero with one abstension. Um, and um, we went through them. Um, Robin Benoy was there to review the title one through four grants. Um Karen
Schmuckler was there to review um that's a 5A through D. Um Karen Schmuckler was there to review um ENF and then Robin I think you also went through G or both of you went through the BEF grants with us.
Um so if there's specific questions they're both here again. I don't think we I'm trying to remember if there was any it was two weeks ago now or a week and a half. I'm trying to remember if there was any particular things to call out. Um, but not that I can remember off the top
of my head. So, I guess if you want to take questions, we can or I'll make a motion to approve. What are you moving all of them? I'll second that. Any discussion? Okay. This is a quiet group today. Oh,
Donna, sorry. It's okay. Um, I did just want to call out something from our finance subcommittee meeting that time. Um, and say that I was I did bring up that I was concerned about um
or I wanted to be assured that given that there's no framework within the district to vet resources. um that was something that had come up in the aftermath of October 7th and that there have been instances where um
it was equity related resources that contained deeply anti-semitic material um that I wanted to be assured that someone was going to review um specifically the training for the equity leads and I think there was something else and um that was addressed.
Thank you. Anything else? Carolyn, just kind of quickly, um, I guess this is a little bit of a segue from that and and I'm going to vote yes on all of these. Um, but also on the on the ideas training,
and I think I I I believe that the ideas program is it's long-standing. It's super credible, it's run by wonderful people, of course, it's well-intentioned. Um, but I I just feel
I I don't love saying this, but I I feel some discomfort with um when I see a framing that this sort of oppressor oppressed narrative. um which is kind of kind of central to to
programs that are um use this framework of dismantling systems of oppression. Um I'm not convinced, first of all, I don't I don't think we've seen evidence that that that's uh impacting student
achievement in in a positive way. Um, and I do think we've heard um from the public, students, community members, and and I could speak to it myself. I won't in detail now. Um, I I
worry that that framework has the potential to uh be alienating and and and divisive um as well-meaning as it is. Um, and I think it's has sort of
trickled down um to where I I worry that we're kind of swimming in that um and and my hope is is that that's less of a primary kind of driver um in the
district going forward. So, I have some concerns and re reservations on that one. Um, and I hope we'll have more conversations in the coming months about about um, just to clarify, um, what Caroline's
referring to is one of multiple small grants believe within the BEF grant, if I recall correctly, it's like for $14,000. So, there's many millions of dollars here and um, that's a very small fraction. One one additional comment I did want to make actually just to highlight and to thank staff in
particular because our cover sheet now has this wonderful feature which um two things actually which I loved about it. One was it tells us what we were awarded last year. So we can see shifting in dollar amounts which is very handy to sort of say like is it level is it going up and so the title one grant actually
increased by 400ish,000 around. Yeah. And I don't know that we got a clear answer. I'm not sure that anyone knew why, but we got $400,000 more dollars. And the great news about that is it actually reduces the borrowing against FY27 circuit breaker
funds that we had um had to do earlier. So, that's great. We're chipping away at that. Hopefully, that trend continues. And the other thing I wanted to mention was that the cover sheet because of the cover sheet that was really easy to see, I was like, "Oh, wow. There's this huge difference in one year to the other."
Um, and then the other thing is the cover sheet sort of summarizes the key goals like in a maybe three or four bullets of like what they're going to do. And it was really handy to not have to wade through for some of these dozens of pages. Um, I think this packet for seven was 85 pages long or so. So, it
was really handy to get that. We've been working on the cover page and I really love like new innovations make it great for us to use. So, that's all I wanted to add as well as the related activities. That was the other Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Those bullets. Yes, exactly. The first goals. Yes. So, thank you, Mariah, and thanks
to staff for um for making those changes. Donna, how do you vote? Well, Suzanne, how do you vote? Yes. Sarah, how do you vote? Yes. Mariah, yes. Jesse, yes. Carolyn, yes. Bob, yes. Donna, yes.
And I also vote yes. Uh, moving on to the superintendent report. Bella, great. Thank you. Betsie's going to run the the slides for me. Um, and I know you just voted, but I was really impressed with um the mo like
how dextterious um our SLT members were about adjusting to changing amounts and moving things around. It was really really quite impressive. Um so tonight, as I forecast last time, I wanted to highlight our
strategic objectives and priorities for the year. So one thing I it the reference document is the public schools of Brooklyn strategic plan which is on the website. So there is a strategic
plan 2027 to 2027 and so that is the reference document for everything. So everything that I say we're highlighting this year came from from that document. Um the objectives when you look to the strategic plan there are five goals one
two three four five and the objectives are described in the goals outlined um in the plan so that's what I mean by that your these are the things that you want to achieve want to take care of below each goal area in the strategic
plan are these bullets of priorities and um those are your those are your priorities the bullets under each goal section and then the overall action plan is laid out by year. So it's like by by FY25 you're going to do this, you're
going to do this in FY26 and 27 and then um so when I arrived I I look for and I studied the strategic plan. Um but strategic plans typically get updated while in progress. And so
working with the SLT team and then aiming um for our meeting in July, we we got input from the principles and from the senior directors that were in in attendance. We went through the strategic plan goal by goal, bullet by
bullet. Um because remember Robin, myself, um and Karen, none of us have been through the summer cycle. So really we we relied on the input and information from from the principles and
the senior directors about where we were on the strategic plan. Um some of it was um some of it was like have we met that target already? And and actually there's been really great progress on attendance, really great progress on belonging. I believe that data was
presented to school committee last spring. So you're aware of that. So in some ways we feel like wa made great progress on some targets, some oh they were supposed to be completed by this year. They're not. So you know we're picking them up anyway. So it was just
but typically that's what happens when you're in a multi-year plan. you you check in you and um see what there is to do. Next slide. So that this is um this is what guided
us to um as we decided on what were priorities. So instead of looking at a multi-year presenting you with a multi-year plan I think we took the strategic plan and identified the priorities that made sense that three of
us are interim and one one permanent obviously our our deputy superintendent of OAF. So what can we really make strides on in this year? Lay the groundwork for for the next year. There
also we really wanted to take advantage of the work that had been done and really wanted to move forward even though we're in interim status. We wanted to really be able to lead the group and and um take advantage of the investment and not have people feel like
they were in a waiting pattern for for a year. that was really important to all of us um that are part of the senior leadership team and also not just starting them but making sure that we're doing it right. So, we're really that
that we're committed to that and also being um transparent that for instance, you're going to hear um an introduction update on the the literacy um imple implementation for this year, but being
transparent that this is K5 and what are the next steps for six through eight that um it's not just a one year, it'll be a multi-year process of implementation and more development. So these are things that we were thinking about when we went through the strategic plan. So starting I believe
with goal one to remind you. Next slide. Thank you. Um so your first goal great is on teaching and learning. This is your overall objective. This is your strategic plan. And it does say that you are looking to
inch increase achievement for all students. All right. So that's a really key term. All students, no, no matter where they might be, increasing the achievement for all students and we're looking at a consistent high quality and
challenging curriculum. So it's in your strategic plan, all students, taking them where they are and moving them forward. And then under the goal, there were these bullets. And so the the next slide shows um the items of prioritization for this year. um
implementation development of the new literacy program K through eight. They will do a presentation tonight to identify K5 6 through 8. Complete a plan for providing PD around MTSS. So that has been in in process but not a
full plan for implementation of MTSS more fully. Tier one, tier two, tier three supports continuing with so scope and sequence with common assessments in ELA, math, science, and world language. I know in
many of my interview interviews, particularly um in at the high school, they've been working on on scope and sequence and common assessments as a um response to their recent NEAS um review and visitation. Um but I know that
that's something that we're also looking at KA obviously a big big step forward as we do the literacy um implementation. A next step is to work on the standardbased equitable report cards that reflect the above changes. I put it
here because I just feel like it's a really strong anticipatory next step. It's not going to be done this year because you really need to do more of the scope and sequence before you can can look to that. But I know that this in um the feedback from the principles
that this is a really important um yeah super important but they can't do it yet till they do the other parts. Um but I didn't want to lose that. So it's there. You will not see a report of completion at the end of this year. Um but it's there because I feel it's it's it's
integral to all the other things that you're doing. Developing a vision of a BHS graduate to include um K8. So the strategic plan really talks about vision of a BHS graduate, but we talked alto together that it should be anticipating
a K12 vision of a portrait of a learner. And so the the funding that was made available in the budget for this year supports the visioning of a VHS graduate. And so our work around is to be sure there's K8 representation on
those committees as they create that vision. But I say to you when when we talk about developing um that this the notion of a portrait of a learning K12 is is to be developed and important um and then supporting supervision
evaluation for 100% of educators as I'll say and you know the most important thing happening is that interaction between teacher and student and those of us in administrative positions it's really I think our primary role to facilitate um what's happening in the
classroom and that does include supervision and evaluation includes the training includes curriculum development and all of that but this is an important piece um of that happening. So the second most important educator role in the district is um those of the
principles and those of that are serving as evaluators and then those of us that are mentoring and supporting people that are supervising and evaluating others. So that would be goal one. Goal two, this is your objective for um goal two,
community and connections. Develop and implement a culturally responsive community engagement plan to foster connections around the caregivers, schools, the district and the community. So we have a sing single priority identified on the next slide and that is
to continue supporting equitable assistance of protocols and expectations for two-way communication with all community members at the school and district levels to inform and receive input to include families and resident non-school community members. really um
listen being able to listen to all in the community. And when I say equitable systems of protocols, it's just finding ways to communicate with our different um members in a way that's accessible to them. I will say this is um challenged
by not having a communications director and who um who supported us in in the creation of the newsletters and also um in updating our website. But I still feel we can't let go of the goal. So
it's still here but we are we're finding ways to work around it. The principles are doing their newsletters. um Zeke, who is um assistant to to Susan, actually has stepped up to updating our website um the small pieces
and um Kathleen has offered to do the newsletter for me. So So we're we're going to have a later start to that, but she's going to do that. So people are are um stepping up to fill those gaps, but that's not really um I'm going to say we're going to we're
going to be cobbling it together for this year. uh make sure that there's no gaps in important information going out, but it's um not as fil as as um as one would hope. So, we're we're going to be doing it. It won't be as anyway, we're
going to do our best. It's going to be great, but uh anyway, so there it is because you can't you can't let go of this objective. You can't let go of this priority. Um the next objective, climate and cult. Yeah. No, go ahead and don't I'll ask my
question. Okay. Um, climate and culture is your next objective. Partner with families in the community to create safe environments that promote belonging. Honestly, at the at this point in the third year of your strategic plan, so
many there's such evidence of progress in in this area. A lot of them a lot of them um championed and fostered by senior director um Matt Dubois. I'm just struggling with the title of clinical
counseling and social emotional learning and um he's done a lot of work partnering with different groups and also in my entry interviews there were so many community groups that wanted to reach out and have time with me. So there's just really I visited the teen center the other day. There's just a lot
of great partnerships. So lot of lot of progress on this. Um so continuing with and there'll be some presentations I know um coming in October around um SEAL curriculum in in 85% of
the pre-K classrooms curriculum in 85% of middle school classrooms. I know we're pretty on target for number one. We are we need to move um there's more movement necessary in the second one. um sustain our sustain our panorama
surveys, sustain the district-wide attendance and engagement working groups. So, attendance looks really a lot of positive progress and um the district should be proud of it because I know other districts have been working on it and the data here is um definitely
above the norm. provide coaching um to P to PD um PD and coaching to staff that foster um focuses on inclusion differentiation and remember differentiation is is um to meet the needs of students across the spectrum.
So our struggling our students on target and also advanced learners. It's all of that. Next slide please. Um so identifying and affirming these priorities underscores that equity addressing the needs of all students is at the core of our work and the
necessity of our collective intentionality towards that end. So we have goals that um strive for improvement. The only way you're going to achieve that outcome is that all schools are working together across the
grade levels. No, no, um, no, no single grade teacher is going to be able to do that. And so, it's really all teachers working together, all grade levels working together, all eight schools and um supporting that entry to to high
school all together. The school improvement plans will align with the goals. And again, the strategic plan is is um not new. it's been your document and we are just taking the pieces out of that making sure we carry it forward. Um
the educator professional learning and student learning goals will align with the SIP or the district's stated priorities. So that every every year when um in the evaluation cycle whether you're on a one-year cycle or a two-year
cycle you have to you have to pick your professional learning goals and student learning goals. And so teachers who have already attained professional teacher status, they're on a two-year cycle and all pe all teachers in their first three year three years are on a one-year
cycle. Um if a teacher is on an improvement plan, then they would be maybe back to a to a one-year cycle. Um so I just I think the district is well positioned to move ahead on already
established initiatives. And so the then um our work ahead of us is to to see that implementation is done with fidelity um across the district but also that we are making sure that we're laying the groundwork for future
development um and implementation expansion across across the grades and across the schools. The next slide. So in um the work with the leadership teams with the principles and then again with all our curriculum coordinators, senior
directors, directors across the district um really focus on one, two, three because that's the work directly um working with students and faculty. Four and five in your strategic plan was really about the senior leadership team.
The goal four was develop resource management and capacity building systems that will ensure educational and organizational goals are timely and accomplished with transparency. And goal five was governance. Excuse me. the governance objective
um foresaw that OSS OAF and the superintendent along with um thank you OEE we're going to work together to integrate their systems. Thank you. You giving me your water? Okay. Thank you.
Um so so governance I just name it. So so there's a fourth pillar that Oh thank you. Um so
this this this area does need attention. So SLT has been the level most impacted by turnover and reductions. There are just some key positions across um the four the four corners that were and we are
we're navigating that. We're way finding through that. We're trying to figure out how to reorganize while we're while we're actually already flying. Um so this is something that um we need to we need to look at reorganization and assessment of the impact of those
changes and we have to finish it before the development of the FY27 budget. And this goes to where I've said that there's there may be a possible need to address restoration of functions that were gone. I don't know that it will be
restoration of a position as it was. It may mean that we've resolved that we have some functions that we need to bring back and so I am I am not ready to even tell you what those are but we need
it's something that we need to do. Um we need to ensure accessessible fluidity of our data systems for the purpose of informing future practice and planning. We are compromised because we did lose my key data position. So we're also
sorting that out. But this is this is ident this was identified as a priority and I have perhaps rewarded it in a way that makes sense to me. But our systems need to flow together and and people all
through the district need to be able to access access that data and we need to do that to know how we're doing where the gaps are and inform our practice and planning. We're not at that place now
because we are we're missing some of the we're missing some of our parts. And so we need to again this is part of our reorganization and assessment. We're still working with data. It's just harder um than than it would have been.
So we're absolutely looking at our data and working with what we have. We find errors in our data. We're addressing them as we come upon it. So we're embracing all the data that there is and when we find errors we're committed to
to repairing them. We need to affirm system protocols and expectations across all functions. So this is part of the um the response to the entry interviews with the change of leadership. so many so many people
um in key positions in in um SLT and maybe one level down. Um people are are somewhat adhering to protocols as they remember that they were before, but they may not be the
best protocols for the here and now. And so honestly, I think we're all taking a fresh look and and not feeling we have to do things out all the way they've been done and trying to rethink through those systems and protocols and and um
and and expectations for roles and um and how people need to work with one another um again across all functions. So when I say all functions, OAF, OSS, OTO, um, and then
our support functions, data and tech, we need to establish open lines of communications across levels of leadership and staff across schools and departments. And so I I think I have also already described how we're trying to do our Monday schedules so that we're
aligned and we're more modular so we can meet with different groups. Um, we've had two meetings with our principles. I know that co curriculum coordinators have met. Different groups are meeting and we're just really we're just trying to keep that as a norm and a routine and
and so that to in hopes that that's going to foster horizontal communication and vertical. Um we are looking forward to our first 64 person training session on supervision evaluation on the coming
Monday and then the next one will be on the 30th. So six hours being done across 64 personnel in double sessions in over one and two. But also this will be a shared experience. Part of it too is starting early. We had a shared
experience on August 25th. this will also be a shared experience that we can refer to and talk to one another about. And so we hope to have other opportunities um to have those kind of shared experiences. So a basis for communication.
Um I added one on the bottom. I don't it wasn't really it wasn't in your strategic plan. um but I am identifying it in administration and operational
priorities. We need to improve the fluidity in in of um the integrated town school functions. So I I feel if you're doing the work, you must you should just name it as as a goal and get credit for it. So I mean this is consuming a lot of
time and and I want to highlight that this is an effort that we are working on and I believe that's the last slide. Yeah. So it's just a really high level um look at what we are focusing on as objectives and priorities for the coming
year and it's derive how we derived it or got it from the strategic plan and how we have um maybe oriented it to to the needs that we've identified so far. So if you have questions
thank you very much like last week an an informative and full report. Thank you. Um questions or comments? I have a question. Mariah, my question was just and if I'd known I should have brought my strategic plan so I could have looked, but what are we not
doing that was in the strategic like what have you depprioritized if anything? Um I think maybe more discreet items. I think the things that we really pulled out are
things that are need to be built upon. So I think we're like for instance the implementation of um literacy but the MTSS development looking at town school partnership things for the long term
I I think is what we focused on things that were systemwide that everyone um could find a place in in that. So we really looking at our 64
leaders um it's really 70 leaders but 64 they're more direct connected to teaching and learning we have of course Joe Albuquerque other leaders that of other departments or food service um so when so it's 70 but 64 that are more
directed toward supporting um studentf facing work um that that would be the way I would describe it is um can you give me an example? Can you give an example of something you cut just to help me understand?
I don't feel like I cut anything. Um, so I so on there I said that we would ask our educators when they choose their professional learning goal and student learning goal that they align with the SIP or something else identified um in
the in the district's strategic plan. I've always been um in favor that in a given strategic plan there is something for everyone and I feel it's it's okay to let people pursue like that's something that's really interesting to
me and I want to pursue it. Um and as long as it's on the strategic plan it means eventually we're all still going in the in the in the in the same direction or the right direction. Um, seal it up by literacy might have been
on there, so I didn't name it, but it's a discreet thing, but there I know that there are people in the district that are going to say they want to do that. Yeah, Bob. Yeah, thank you. Uh, Bella, you're having a supervision evaluation training Monday and another day as well, right? Yeah. Can I ask who's doing that? Just
curious. Um, we engaged Reebus's associate and it happens to be Carol Gregory who's going to be our instructor and so he's chuckling because Carol Gregory used to work for the Brooklyn for for public schools of Brooklyn and that's great.
She is a former union leader and um she's been working with Reebus for quite some time. She did the training here that was a little over five years ago and I understand there was positive reception to um Carol's sessions. She's
very organized and yeah great great um Karen sent out a survey to all our to all our leaders in the group about what they would hope to come out of the sessions. So I we I called some of the
highlights of that and sent it to Carol. She agreed to maybe differentiate slightly between the two groups. So um but she's the one doing it. Great. Um I just want to appreciate last week and tonight your emphasis on every
child in the school system is very healthy. I just want to compliment you on that all the time. Thank you. And then um and we're only as strong as our teams. So, I I have a I I know that um you're going to you're going to enjoy the presentation later as
an indication of like how everyone's working together and and the things that we have to look forward to. Thank you. And again, another excellent presentation. Thank you. Hey, thank you. And else, Donna,
thank you. I also really um appreciated everything you shared. I'm very excited um for the supervision and evaluation work. I think that's an incredibly important part of our commitment to our educators. Um and um of course I love
communication. So open communication I think is incredibly important. I was interested and this could be super quick but um with the strategic plan coming to a clo like it's the term is coming to a close in FY27
what what is best practice to start building out a new strategic plan. So um I'm I feel very privileged to be here as your interim and and that there was a plan that we to use as guidance.
So I really feel that in your with your permanent leader you that's their their vision um should be reflected in the next stage. So I think what we're doing um
as I as I said um we're focused on what we're doing this year but I think that the work is anticipating what you may need for the next year. So, as we work on building the FY27 budget, I have talked about possibility of looking at restoration, but I've also talked about,
you know, the need to develop or continue things that you've already invested in. Um, so I think it'll be I think what we because we are charged with building the FY27 budget that we it will reflect what we think you need to
have to support in the work in the next year. And so I think you'll I think we hope to leave you in good good shape for that. Thank you. Sure. Anybody else? Okay, Suzanne.
Yeah, thank you, Bella. You know, we all have our own little special things that we focus on. I have several, but um the one that intrigues me in terms of being a challenge is the school improvement plans aligning not with the goals. I
think they're able to do that, but I don't know that we give them um discretionary funds to make it happen. And so I'm not asking for, you know, necessarily response now, but that is something that I think about a lot. And we're going to be doing the school
improvement plans in October and curriculum. and um you know so it's always that kind of push pull between what's important for them as at the school the school and what's important at the district level. And so again
blending that together but in particular giving them some kind of leeway or the funds available that they need to make the the work happen. And I I don't know that we do that as well as as I would like to see sometimes. So anyway, I'm just throwing it out there. Some of the
challenges we have around that. By the way, I think they were really happy to be coming in October instead of September. There you go. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and the other challenge with that is that they're talking now about this year, but we need to know the budgeting for next year. So, it's not only this
year's goals, but of course, they have to think about down the road because our budget is going to process going to happen January or so. Uh, and so we need to know now what even what they're thinking they need budget-wise for the following year. Bob,
you probably know this, Suzanne, because you were a principal at the time, I believe, when school improvement councils began back in the 1990s as part of school reform in Massachusetts. Um, each school council was given 10 bucks per student to allocate as part of their
planning. So that disappeared when things I don't even know when it disappeared, but that was hugely helpful because there was real buy in and investment and in the plans because now there was some money behind it. So a place like Brooklyn High with 2,000 kids
got 20,000 bucks and you can do something with 20,000 bucks anyway. You remember that? I do remember that. I don't remember how much I got, but I do remember. I'm sorry. All I'm saying is $10 a kid went a lot
further in 1993 or 1994 than it does in 2025. That's absolutely yes. Anybody else? Thank you, Bella. Thank you. Um, next up is the update on the literacy program implementation. So, as they are gathering and they're
coming up, I think I was going to ask um Robin maybe intro to introduce the group and also this is um we thought it would be good to give you an overview at the
beginning at the start and the they will come back later in the spring to see to just give an update of how it's gone. All right. So, this is just just to let you know what the plans are.
Okay. Thank you. And it's nice to see you all again in such a short time frame, but nice. I want to introduce my co-presenters tonight. So, this is Dr. Joelle Peterson. She is our new interim senior director of teaching and learning. Mouthful. and Kristen Gray who
is our K8 um ELA coordinator now permanent no longer interim. So, okay. So, we thought we'd give you a little update on the ELA curriculum implementation that's happening full implementation at K5 and partial
implementation as we discussed last week at the 68 level. So not all um not all classrooms and not all units but we thought we would begin see by just grounding it in um beginning
with our strategic priority. So Bella has already mentioned this one this evening. So which is to increase achievement for all students by establishing implementing and regularly assessing a consistent highquality and challenging curriculum developed using evidence-based practices. And so this
grounds our all of the work that's led to the selection of fish tank as our ELA curriculum and certainly our implementation and the and all of the learning that goes alongside it. And then underneath that was one of the objectives that had to do with that
strategic priority along the way which is to select an evidence-based select evidence-based materials and provide professional learning opportunities to offer effective tier one instruction to teach all literacy components. So, as we go through our presentation
tonight, we I we felt like it was important to um kind of remember where we've been because this isn't a journey that happened overnight and the work that's leading to this moment of implementation has actually taken a number of years um as a district. And
so, um Massachusetts recommends a four-step process for any selection and implementation. And it really while it's a linear process, it's not it's not necessarily time bound. Like different steps will take different amounts of
time. You might be kind of moving in between steps at any given time. But our learn and prepare phase actually began back in 2022. And so there was a couple of years of of learning that happened on the parts of educators and the district in preparing for even thinking about
selecting a a curriculum for our K8 students. Um and Kristen and Joelle will talk a little bit about what that learning is. Um the investigate and select really happened in the spring of 2024 and the fall of 20 2024. So that
you know bridged the end of a school year and the beginning of the next and we'll talk about what that part looked like. Our launch really happened last spring where we were starting to prepare to implement and then we're at this moment of implementation and monitoring along the way. But we also wanted to
just recognize that we had a lot of partners in this work that we engaged to help with our learning and to help kind of think about um what truly we needed and we may mentioned some along the way but I listed them there few at the bottom because I think it's also an important to remember all of the work
that's gone into and all of the you know the thoughtful planning to prepare for this moment. Thank you Dr. Benoy. Hello everyone. glad to be here. Thanks for the opportunity to share about this work tonight. I just wanted to take a second to contextualize this curriculum
adoption um within the larger shifts that we've been experiencing here in Massachusetts and across the country in terms of how we're thinking about the importance of evidence-based literacy instruction and curriculum materials
that support that. So uh over the past three or four years we have seen largecale movement away from approaches we might think about as balanced literacy towards more structured sequential approaches to teaching
foundational reading skills and along with that has come an increased emphasis on building students high level comprehension skills through the use of complex knowledge rich text sets. So we can see Desessie has outlined for us here nicely some of these shifts that
I'm talking about. Uh back in 22 23 Kristen did some really deep work with her literacy specialists um to build deeper understanding of this first shift. They really dug into the research around how to support foundational skills development in reading. Um
thinking about things like how do we use decodable text to enhance our phonics contraction and what is orthographic mapping and why is it important? Um, and so there's a really strong knowledge base within the group around that first shift. But at the same time, the group was realizing, and I think community
members here were realizing too, that the core reading program we were using at the time, which was units of study, was not evidence-based, and it was not aligned with this intent of building comprehension through the use of um,
complex knowledge texts. So, that's really what occasioned the need to review the curriculum more deeply. and Kristen's gonna talk a little bit more about that process. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, so this visual combines two models of reading. The simple view of reading in Scarboro's
reading rope. In order for a student to comprehend and be a skilled reader, they need to have strong decoding skills or word recognition and robust language comprehension, which includes background knowledge, vocabulary, language structure, verbal reasoning, and
literacy knowledge. Our evidence-based instruction for the strand of word recognition was an area of strength because we are using a systematic explicit approach with um foundations which is our phonics program heard our phmic awareness program along with
decodables to support student learning. However, we had an area of improvement with our with our researchbased instruction for the language comprehension strand because we were using like Joel said, we've been using the units of study for teaching reading
and writing. So therefore, we needed to look deeper into the high-quality instructional materials and select an updated curriculum that allowed us to focus on language comprehension. And so a knowledge building curriculum would allow us to have consistency across the district for learning about topics of
study at a deeper level and the use of complex texts. So as you begin any any journey in adoption, it's kind of think you have to start thinking about what's your vision for students and what and for instruction. And so in this case, our vision for ELA was that students will
become critical thinkers who challenge themselves to expand and question the perspectives of themselves and others through reading, writing, speaking, and or listening. And so that was was core as we began to think about our selection of texts.
And then the selection process really took two stages. Um, so in the spring of 2024, just remembering that you had a literacy team which was um some of our curriculum coordinators, it was our literacy specialist really did that
first pass of looking at highquality curriculum materials. And so they began that by looking at seven different DESI approved programs. They used review reports from ED reports and curate to begin that. And that's a pretty typical process. And when you think about ED
reports and curate, just it's important to know what those two things are. It's kind of they're third party kind of neutral um give you information. Think about them like consumer reports, right? You like look to them to get that first pass. Ed reports is more national
standardsbased and then curate is really specific to Massachusetts. So it takes what ed reports does, it takes it a a level deeper. It really has Massachusetts um educators that are part of that review and it's f there is a focus on Massachusetts standards and
ensuring alignment to our Massachusetts standards. Um and also there is focus in the curate process of ensuring um alignment to practices that support culturally and linguistically diverse students. So making sure that that that
is an aspect of that you're reviewing curriculum for. Um, from that it was narrowed to three programs that would be further reviewed. And so that was where the work um, of the fall came last fall. And so I I'm sure that you were, you know, many of you were here at that point um, and talking about at that
point is where we did a deeper dive with Brookline educators and gave them the opportunity for critical review. Um and so teachers had the opportunity to meet with the vendors from the three different um curriculum um resources and
review those materials during their collab times and during faculty meeting times. So they were given some times to review those materials in person. You could touch it, you can flip through it, you can learn about them more in depth. Um and they were providing feedback on what they were looking at with using a
rubric. and we modeled our rubric very similarly after the rubric that's used in the curate process. So it's looking about looking at those um instructional materials. It's looking at the texts that are um that are part of that and
also um ensuring that there's cohesion and how the utility of the of the materials for teachers. Um there was also an open house for community members to review and provide feedback. So there's an engagement of stakeholders beyond the classroom which is important
and in the end we chose fishtank. So I'm going to talk a little bit about fish tank. So um we our stakeholders felt that fish tank really um supported and encompassed our um PSB's ELA vision statement that students will become
critical thinkers who challenge themselves to expand and question the perspectives of themselves and others through reading, writing, speaking andor listening and PSB core values especially celebration of difference and commitment
to equity. So fishtank has five guiding principles. Um, building knowledge is at the heart of all fish tank ELA units. Students build knowledge of the world around them, of knowledge of themselves and others, and knowledge of their power to create change. Gaining knowledge is
essential for tackling increasingly complex texts and building critical thinking skills. Also, all students, regardless of their background or circumstance, need access to complex texts that highlight a diverse range of perspectives and experience. So,
students should see windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors within the text that they're reading. Um, the prioritizing student voices and ideas to build agency. This is um students are engaged in regular academic discourse and it's essential for
students to syn synthesize sorry text and content spark their curiosity and develop original ideas and find their own voice. In all fish tank units students are engaged in daily formal and informal discourse. Um students are
writing in all lessons in a variety of ways and all writing that students do is connected to the text and knowledge that they are building. And um a big piece of fish tank is um intellectual prep. So this allows teachers to deeply understand the text
and the complexity and the themes so they can help all students master grade level content and standards. And I should emphasize all students just like Bella did. Okay. So we went um once we had our chosen um curriculum that we were going to move forward with, we went and moved
into the launch phase. So our educators went through a series of fish tank PD sessions. The K to5 cohort of educators were trained in the spring of 2025 and the K to8 cohort were trained this summer through um support of our Prism 3
grant. The PD sessions focused on the components of fish tank ELA text complexity and how to intellectually prepare for the units. And we also um um provided materials. So um K to5 had
access to the fish tank ELA plus subscription in February and all texts for K to 5 were p purchased um last school year in the spring and the teachers were given the text um before the end of the last school year in 6 to8
the um folks had access to our fish tank ELA plus subscriptions in July and all texts were purchased in August so the Prism 3 grant funded 50% of the purchase price for both the um online subscriptions and the trade books. So
that really helped us move forward with um our 6 to8 cohort. Now I'm going to give it to Joelle. Okay, there we go. Um, and I'm going to close us out by sharing a bit more about our plans for implementation this year.
Um, which is I know why we're all here really. Um, as Kristen and Robin both shared, we are currently in full implementation in grades K through five. That means that every classroom teacher
is using all the fish tank units as their core literacy curriculum. So, I just want to pause on that for a moment because that is huge and I want to acknowledge all the work that Kristen and her team have done to make that happen. Um, that's a huge lift and we should be really excited about that. So,
um, currently we have partial implementation in six to eight. Uh, the reason for that being that we didn't get the funding for that uh, material until slightly later in the game, but we are looking at full implementation for our 68 next year.
We have been fortunate to be able to partner with school kit uh to help strategically plan for implementation to identify our goals and priorities for this year and to think about action steps to move that forward. One of our priorities currently as Christian
already mentioned is supporting teachers in intellectual prep um in their collaboration in their shared unpacking of the lessons together because we found that that is really important in terms of how they're internalizing those materials. So that has been the focus of professional development so far this year and that will continue throughout
the year. Um we are also thinking about collecting multiple sources of data to help us um unpack a little bit more about implementation and inform our next steps and support uh for the future. So one data point that is going to be
important for us comes from our benchmark literacy data. We are still using um McLass as our benchmark literacy assessment. Oh, sorry. You know what? I think that that Sorry. This is the timer for
my child's bedtime. So, we know that we need to stop reading books. Okay. Not that I ever want to stop him reading books, but we do need to go to sleep. Okay. Sorry. Anyways, um yeah, mom moment. Um, as I
was saying, um, thinking about the benchmark literacy data, we still have, um, use of MCLS as our literacy benchmark for K through three and STAR reading in um, grades four through eight. This is actually the first year
we're using STAR in grades seven and eight. So, that's really exciting. So, we have benchmark literacy data on every child's K through eight, which is really important starting point to think about, you know, future growth and the impact of this program over time. We are also in the process of developing teacher and student surveys to administer throughout
the year to get a qualitative sense of how both teachers and ex and students are experiencing this curriculum on the day-to-day. That's really important and that's data that we would take very seriously. Um and finally, we have plans for regular classroom observations because we want to see what this
curriculum looks like in action. Um and we're thinking about this through a framework of learning walks. And the purpose of these learning walks is not intended to assess fidelity. It's not intended to be evaluative, but really to help inform us in how we can better
support implementation. So this process will uh encompass developing a common sense of shared look force in a fish tank classroom and calibrating ourselves around that so that everybody knows what they should be looking for in these observations. Our intent is to include district leaders, building
administrators as well as educators in this process as well with the goal of shared learning and really identifying where is implementation strong um what challenges exist, where is there a need for additional professional learning, additional resources so that we can have
a better sense of how to sustain this over time. And all these data sources are going to be really important for us in terms of moving from a place of fidelity this year in our first year of implementation over time um to a space where we can be more flexible, more
nimble, more responsive in how we're using this curriculum, still with the intent of integrity to the curriculum design, but in a way that is really going to serve the unique needs of the students here in Brookline. Um so that is the vision, that is the goal and um we look forward to coming back here in the spring and sharing more in terms of
our findings in this implementation. Thank you very much. Um I have a a question. Um h how does this relate or does it relate um to how we are are teaching or curriculum that
we're using for social studies and science and other places where children read text? It's a really good question actually and Kristen and I were talking about today. So our curriculum coordinators across the the disciplines have been involved
in some of the review process and certainly have the opportunity to be part of learning walks and understand what instruction looks like. Um because literacy is really taught in in every subject as you're as you're suggesting. And I think we were talking about it today in terms of kind of thinking about
where the fish tank units are taught in sequence. They are they are in sequence throughout the year. They don't move around. You can't like pop them in and out. Um but some of our other core um subject areas there units might be a little bit more movable and there's
definitely some overlap in terms of themes and where are there places where we can work together to to kind of maybe align our curriculum and also just build those skills together across those spaces. Thank you. Uh Sarah,
so Kristen and I can tell you that in Brooklyn we love peer-to-peer um professional development. our teachers love to get together with each other and use their expertise. And so I just wondered if you could like showcase that in any of this like in those learning walks. I understand that you're bringing
a teacher along with you, but will there be times that teachers will visit each other's classrooms and there will be times when teachers will sit down with each other for PD? Um yes, actually I'm taking a group of teachers next week um to um a group of
Lincoln teachers are going to visit Baker who um last year um in the spring some folks had either an opportunity if they wanted to try out the unit first unit and at Baker they did. So folks are going to visit that school so that they
can um see it in action and ask questions um since this is the second time of them teaching it. So I want to foster as much of that across the district so that we have a collaborative approach. Um another thing that we're doing too is um last at the end of last
year I met with the directors of special education and um e so that's another thing where we want to collaborate and make sure that we are supporting all of our students. It's exciting and thank you. Thank you. I would also mention that,
you know, part of the intent of some of their intellectual prep time is that opportunity to work together to really kind of get to know the curriculum, think about how it is enacted in their classrooms. That's great, Jesse. And then Suzanne. Thank you. Uh Kristen, you mentioned
writing in your presentation and my question is can you um discuss what percentage of the writing is done on paper versus how much of it is done in Chromebooks? And the reason I say it is because we know from research that
handwriting as as a part of learning is so critical to activate more parts of the brain for word recall and memory etc. And at least the other day in a discussion at one of the playgrounds in town with kids, I learned that even poems they're writing
to reflect about themselves because I asked them sort of what what's up? What are you doing? Um at the playground, they said uh they're they're they're typing the poems into the Chromebook and that way it gets shared in some shared space for teachers to review, you know, and the whole thing like math homework and all these other things being done on
a computer. So for something as critical as writing, um I just wonder what the balance is between or maybe it's all being done on Chromebooks. I don't know. But can you share shed a little light on that for us? I mean I I can't give you direct like
percentages quite frankly right now, you know. Um but I would say in the younger grades, they're definitely using paper pencil. They're not using Chromebooks. Um I you would see that more in um the middle school level. Um but definitely for like K1, two, three, maybe some I
think sometimes it depends on the teacher do you know of you know in the intermediate grades um but they use Chromebooks more in um the middle school. Okay. Yeah. Thanks Suzanne. Well actually Sarah stole my thunder or
the same thing I want to say which is I really want to highlight the um learning walks including teachers. It's another example of where a the building administrator might say that is something we're going to commit to doing and he he or she may want to put money
to cover for substitutes, you know, in their budget. I don't know how they're going to do that, but that's the kind of thing where you where the budget has to align with the work and and I just think it's so critical to have common planning time and instructional learning teams um
and to and to do that collaboration. So, um I absolutely agree with Sarah that that working together, observing each other's classes, and then having a moment to talk about it, uh certainly not in a judgmental way, but in a way that says, "What is happening? What did we see? What could I take back to my
classroom?" It's just it's so important. I'm so glad you're doing the work. Thank you. Thank you, Bob. Thank you. Um, Robin, um, if I was an ali al alien who arrived from some distant planet and I listened to your
presentation, I would have assumed that you had been here for many, many years. The it it's incredibly impressive to me that you use the um the word we um to to describe the history of the work that's been done. Um, and you were incredibly
comfortable with the history of the development of Fish Tank and probably other stuff, too. So, I just want to say that as an alien, um, I think you've been here for a really long time, and that's great. And both of you, um, I like the fact that you spoke quickly
because it it it meant that you were enthusiastic and passionate about what you've been doing. And I congratulate you on the work that you've done, and this looks great. I love the fact that you're going to have baseline data on every student K to8. So to build upon that. So thank you very much. Impressive
Donna. I feel like I'm always following Bob. But I do want to say thank you. That was incredibly impressive. And also welcome and congrats Kristen um on being named permanent. Um I'm very excited to um
hear your report back in the spring and hear about the data. I think that's really important that we have those feedback loops um at the school committee um level. And then I also wanted to ask um what challenges you think you might
encounter in the implementation of the implementation and monitoring stage. And um if there were things that you do encounter and that you that would have
budget implications to address, would we do we have enough runway to incorporate those things into the budget planning for the next fiscal year? That's a tough question. Sorry. Um but I I think that one of the
things that to just know like any implementation there you know there there's bumps along the road right you're learning it's a year of learning and doing something for the first time so we'll learn a lot in that process and we'll you know we'll do the best we can in terms of planning in
terms of budget based on what we know um and I think that one of the things that the team has also been very good at is thinking about then how do we if there's additional things that we need how do we utilize our opportunities for grant funding to make sure that we get those
and so um I mean the prison 3 grant is a is a good example of that right so looking at all of our options and always keeping our eyes open to that so I I'm just going to comment on this so that you don't have to um at the ENR subcommittee meeting or committee
meeting and um you know in various other places the discussion has been what is a level service budget for PSB look like? And um that I think in sort of the outside world's mind is a very is
one number and it's a very easy thing that we should be able to um fix. And I I think that this presentation, you know, shows us that with education things get implemented over years. So, in my mind, a level service budget for
FY27 includes the FY27 implementation of this program. I'm not sure that everyone in town would agree with me. Right. So, I I think this is these are the the budget um questions that we're going to have to look at and um and and
address both here and and with the broader community as we look at overrides. No, I I'll just say I think um I really appreciate how much thought you're putting into the into the implementation stage because I you know
just um there's so much more than just launching a curriculum, right? That's such an ongoing process. Um and we want that to be as robust as possible. So um also, you know, for the students of course, but to protect the investment as
well. So, thank you. Thank you all. Oh, sorry. Carolyn and then Bella. Do you want to go first, Bella? Um, I'll echo the thanks and welcomes and congratulations on on um being here
in this work. Um, and I really appreciate people being here so late at night like you're missing your child's bedtime. No, really. I mean, I I feel that when I'm here. um you're all sitting here and you've
worked all day and it's very late so it's it's appreciated and I I guess I want to say I'm that you have to be here. Um so and this might be naive because I was not a classroom teacher. So in the earlier grades and this is a
two-part question. The second part is a little bit of a downer but please take it as a question not a criticism. So in the earlier grades, are there like prescribed texts that that go with the kind of explicit
instruction? And then as um in the older grades, so like do teachers still use their own classroom libraries? Is there more sort
of flexibility in the text or do that does that stay prescribed? And then kind of a related question I guess and it the first part is a real
question about the program and how how it's done. I did see something this was flagged by a community member. Um let me bring it up. I think it was the eighth grade.
Um, like a list of units and I'm sure all of these texts are valuable. The world is really dark right now. There's a lot of darkness and young people have a lot to deal with. Um, and
I don't know how this fits in, but I'm just going to read the units. Unit one, facing prejudice. Unit two, encountering evil. Unit three, abusing power. Unit four, surviving repression. Unit five,
facing calamity. So, I'm wondering if those themes are necessarily going to be part of our eighth grade and and just if you could sort of speak to that.
Fish tank curriculum. I believe that it's maybe this is sixth through eth. I don't know if it's eth um um so to answer your first question and I mean Christian you can jump in too if you want. So there are there are the texts are aligned to the instruction. So
it there are core texts in every unit that are part of the instruction for that unit and that's even the lower grades and that actually extends up into the middle school as well. Um, and so they're a cortex and that it's tied to. So they're not necessarily
interchangeable. Um, and so to answer your second question, like that is those are units within the eighth grade curriculum. And it's also remembering that 8th grade is a year of civics instruction as well. So
it's very much tied to the overall learning of our eighth graders. So, so it sort of answers my question. So, like I'm thinking about sixth grade and I'm remembering the classroom sort of being lined with the teacher's own books. So, do those those will still be
Yes, classroom libraries are still there. Um, you know, if you think about younger grades, there are many readalouds that may happen in the day that kids might be reading on their own and choosing books on their own. But the texts that are core instruction tied to the fish tank curriculum,
okay, will be consistent across classrooms. So students experience like in my most more recent child's sixth grade, the approach was like book groups and kids would pick their own book and then they
would sit at tables and guide their own um book groups. So is this sort of replacing that? Okay. Yes, that is. And but alongside that, there's still the opportunity for choice reading. Okay. Along the, you know,
okay, and and those books that were used in the book clubs um are still available for students to make choice. That is an expectation. My daughter's in sixth grade at Lincoln um and her teacher, she they had open house last week. So
they're reading the core text of the Watson's Go to Birmingham as their first, but there is an expectation that they would the child will also have their own choice uh book to read independently. Okay. Um, and then just going back to these
themes that I read, um, I I I'll just thank you for maybe being open to to that being flagged as, um, I I think it's th those themes sound sort of heavy to me for for young adolescents. Um,
so maybe there'll be more discussion about that in in future months. I'll I'll just also offer um FishTank is hugely responsive to feedback and is constantly updating units materials. So
we already there are already several new units that have been developed that we're not utilizing this year because they are so new. But the content is constantly changing and that is absolutely the kind of feedback that we would be interested in exploring and providing to Fish Tank. Um and I think
moving forward we will make decisions about you know the trajectory of the units and what we want to stick with and what we don't and there does need to be some opportunity for for us to make those kinds of decisions in a way that benefits Brooklyn kiddos. So um I think
that that is an evolving question but um I am really heartened by the fact that the fish seems to take our feedback seriously. So thank you Mariah and then Superintendent Wong. This is just a general question sort of tied to this conversation, but
in terms of the selection of texts, um, is it accurate to say that the selection of texts that you're making is basically uninflu like you're taking what's in in fish tank, are you being influenced in any way? Are you editing the content or
like are you basically offering the text in the unit? Yeah. As designed. The expectation this year is that we are teaching the recommended scope and sequence for each unit. Okay. We will not be deviating from that this year. Okay. Yeah. Because I know that in some communities there's been a lot of pressure to edit
texts or anything else. And so I'm just sort of wondering where that stands in Brooklyn. Yeah. For for year one I think it's really important that we are teaching as written. Right. This has been thoughtfully designed and vetted and by changing things at this stage we really
compromise the design of the program and so we want the full experience of the curriculum first before we can make decisions in a cohesive way about changes we might need to make. Yeah, superintendent. Okay, thank you. Um, I was going to say
something different. I still will, but I was just thinking of the what Carolyn just read and I thought, whoa, I'm really curious to see what those books are that are in those units. But, um, it's also so middle school. I was eighth grade all the time.
It's so middle school. And, um, you know, eighth grade, they're just in uh, Storm and Dang, like they're just Yeah. And I I wonder if the titles of the units are meant to engage or provoke or get them to think, but I am curious to
see like what those books are. But it also felt to me like it out of context it does sound kind of like doom and gloom and so we should look at it. Maybe they could recategorize. But I it they struck me as so so middle school. Yeah.
Um so I wanted to say more about um one of the members asked like what they foresaw would be challenges and the implementation. So you know what our teachers are differentiated as well and so everybody learns at the pace that they're going to learn and I think the
challenge right now is to give everyone what they need. Talk about equity, right? So giving everyone what they need. Some are just going to go faster or it it's gonna um I don't know some some people will just gravitate toward it faster, other people
might struggle with it. And I just think it's really incredibly positive that this that this is happening that people are all their tried and true. They are shifting to new curriculum, different books and you know when you have your
tried and trueue, you know like oh kids respond this way. Hey, I have my my whole repertoire. I know what to do. And so this is this is really um it is it's a bit courageous everyone doing it all at once. But I also think it's great because everyone's doing it all at once
and they can learn from one another and again shared experience about you know what did you do or I didn't expect this to happen. um it could be kind of bumpy along the way or sometimes people feel self-conscious like I'm not getting it
as fast as everyone else. So it it's really about um supporting teachers. It's it's a vulnerable space to be and so it's supporting um our educators so that they feel there might be might not
feel as smooth or or just I have questions um all of that. So I I I think this is the this is the honeymoon part and so later on we'll hear about how it went and how how um maybe some
challenges were overcome and adjustments that will be made. Um but it is it's quite an endeavor. Suzanne and then we're going to move on. I just want to give a quick shout out to our librarians. um they do thousands of
uh books circulated every every year, thousands. And and they really know literature and they're really good at um helping students find the books they need. So um I think we are really blessed and in uh in addition to having a great literacy team, they're part of
that team in many ways. And so I just want to give them a shout out. Thank you. Thank you for your presentation. and I hope that your your child is fast asleep when you get home. Um, next on our agenda, thank you, is uh the FY27 capital improvements program
request, including deferred maintenance items. Discussion and possible vote. I believe this is Dr. Given. No, this is this is Jesse. Okay. Uh, good evening. So the finance subcommittee met yesterday
um under Mariah's chairmanship and chairpersonship and what you have uh before you here are two spreadsheets. One is a detail of the deferred maintenance plan by school for eight eight of the buildings and um what we uh
in reviewing it yesterday we asked Dr. given to provide or to update uh the the top spreadsheet which is the uh the smaller table. Um there was some clarity we wanted around what she meant by classroom capacity in terms of improvements and so we that actually is
focused on beep and so we had her add some wording in there to make it clear to all members that oh it's up on the screen too. I can't read it. Um that that that that's leases for beep over the next several years. Um she had furniture listed. We thought it would be
clearer and also clearer when it gets down the budget cycle a little bit to also include anything that needs to be done in the schools for fixtures and equipment. Um then she had the deferred maintenance gender inclusive bathrooms which show up in several of the schools are also a project.
Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. Well, the Lawrence cafeteria expansion. This is a I think a consultant study to look at feasibility for expanding it. when Lawrence was renovated, the um the cafeteria wasn't and there's some spacing issues. So, in terms of capacity, so
I think you mean to say and then some um classrooms were added since some more capacity was added in the rest of the building and so the cafeteria doesn't reflect that. Exactly. in terms of uh amount of space for all the students that are there. And so that's uh in in the FY27 plan. The
deferred maintenance is brought across from the the larger sheet for each of the next several years. I mentioned gender- inclusive bathrooms and climate control, which really includes all the AC updates that need to be made across the different buildings that have been asked for. And then um in the you know
down the line uh Baker School uh a feasibility study perhaps four years out and then um nothing yet TBD on potential construction or something. We'll we'll sort of get get there when we get there. And so the um uh we can open it up for
discussion. Um the the subcommittee Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And the subcom subcommittee after a substantial discussion um with uh with Dr. given uh and also with some comments from Joe Albuquerque from the buildings um voted unanimously to support this plan and
then bring it forward to the full school committee this evening. Are you making a motion, Jesse? Yes, I will. Or second. Oh, okay. So, Jesse moves to accept uh the CIP program request as uh presented. Mariah seconds.
I do. Can I just make a clarification? Both the agenda and this document are labeled FY27. They should be FY27 to FY32 um CIP request because it's a multi-year request. That one does, but the agenda itself and
the cover sheet don't. Carolyn, thanks. Um, thanks for that, Jesse. So, um, I see the color key. Yes.
And the rating in terms of urgency. Yeah. priority. Yes. Four. So, okay. I'm sorry. So, the numbers do not
refer to the to prioritize one through three refers to urgency and then four and five were climate control and um bathrooms. But does do four and five It's not related to urgency. Okay. Right. It was just to uh separately categorize them so they could
be grouped and put on this cover sheet and clear consistently in the column. Thank you. We were a little confused. So, and who um whose rating? This is Charlie's rating. Like who comes up with the the rating? The urgency.
Yeah. I thought it was a shared I thought it I thought it was a shared conversation between principles Joe and possibly I'm not sure if Charlie participated in the walkarounds or not. Um Susan is available. Oh, okay. Perfect. Sorry, Susan. Go
ahead. Yeah. So, there were conversations um between the director of operations and principles primarily. We did uh have a conversation with Charlie and asked him if he had any um thoughts on on what
else he's seeing in the field that might want to we might want to add and he um said that he he felt that uh we had covered everything there. um the uh the development of the top three categories
um urgent. Uh so we did some work on those definitions and it was uh with principal input that um the rating system was applied. Thank you. Um so I guess I will just make one
install additional AC units. Um, I guess I I mean obviously there are so many competing interests and not as much money. I wish AC
um was urgent. But where are you talking about those? Which one are you looking at? Well, I can't tell if it's urgent. I guess like I can't tell. Let's say I see
it at Baker and I see it at Hayes. Matters. I mean, you can see that the the AC is frontloaded. There's 540,000 for next year, 550 for the year after that in the little spreadsheet and then it goes 350 and 100. So, it's certainly front-loaded
in years. Yes. In the years of implementing. Okay. Climate control. Okay. Okay. when when it was categorized as a five, it lost its sort of rating, but you can see it. Okay, that's super helpful. Thank you. So, combining these,
Susan, just so I understand because I don't think I captured this yesterday. It ties to what you just asked, Carolyn. Is this funds that we're asking for climate control is in addition to Charlie's HVAC CIP line that he also has because these are priorities that need
to be accelerated. Is that the or Okay, thank you. We would like to accelerate them because not all of our uh buildings um have uh climate control um throughout. So, it's a high priority of ours um as a school
district and we want to accelerate um uh the addition of uh units throughout our schools. And sorry, I have another question unless somebody else does. Go ahead, Carol. Just looking at this. So
Baldwin is on here, I noticed, which is interesting because it's an administrative. So it's our it's it's on here because it's we're the user agency are building it. Yeah. Okay. And there's no funding. Yeah. There were deferred requests. They
were already all completed and it's just here for recordeping. Okay. Thank you. Sure. And I mean it's easy for you to be like there's no funding, but I'm just seeing it's for the first time. as complete in No, I see that. I'm just saying like I'm just catching up with this. So, just be
patient as I'm trying to take in this super teenytiny print and it's lots of information. Um, and I'm sure this is an enormous amount of work. So, as with all else, thank you everyone. We'll just um say that when it's
submitted to the town, we will collapse out the items that have been complete because it's a plan for 27 through 32. It's presented this way so that the committee has an understanding of what work has been accomplished and what remains. The committee
yesterday was really grateful and thrilled that like this I mean it's tiny font and you could just see how much it's really work right exactly goes into creating something um this content rich really really clear Suzanne you had your hand up
yeah thank you thank you for this I'm I am intrigued by I this is going ahead to the guidelines for budget but just bear with me about if there's federal or state subsidies money available that we might have a universal prek and I'm
looking at that and wondering how that would how how we would meet the needs of uh classroom capacity for beep. So we have beep leases here. Um I don't are we just renewing what we
have? We're not changing any of that. the leases that um we have right now um run through I think it's 29 FY20. Yes. Um and then we would need to renegotiate
um leases at that point. So our leases expire at that time and that's why you see TBD thereafter. Okay, great. And you if by some miracle we do get funding for universal um prek, I guess we'll come back to the
drawing board. It had better include money for buildings as well. Yeah. Okay, great. Thanks. Anything else? Okay, Jesse has a motion on the floor. Mariah seconded. Donna, how do you vote? Yes. Suzanne, yes.
Sarah, yes. Mariah, yes. Jesse, yes. Carolyn, yes. Bob, yes. and I vote yes as well. Thank you. Um we are moving on to item 8A, the FY27 to FY31. Can't believe I'm saying FY31. Um budget
guidelines discussion and possible vote. Mariah. Um so let me start by giving a little bit of context while I log into the Wi-Fi and connect, but I'll just yap while I'm doing this background. Um yap
important information. So, we had 45ish minutes of conversation about this document yesterday, and it was, as they say, robust conversation. Um, it's my goal for tonight to not plan
on taking any sort of final vote on this. I think that there's a lot more conversation to be have. We didn't even get all the way through the document. We spent a lot of time on really on section one. Um, so I think we just need to keep going on that. My plan was that um everyone has two documents I think and
I'm just going to wave those around. So you have the print copy of the marked up last year's document. This one represents what Jesse and I went through um yesterday before our meeting and
Jesse had some comments and we rolled it all into one document so people could see like his additions and and subtract or his additions I think for the most part um and subtractions. They're for discussion. Nothing is final. This is a group document. And then earlier today,
Donna provided um a different version which I haven't had the chance to read, but Donna will get the chance to hope if we have time, presuming we have time to talk about what she feels are you didn't make it in track changes, so I don't know what's different, but you can talk us through. It's all different. That's
great. You can talk us through it. Um and and with that, I'm going to try and join the Zoom and do that. I wonder um I wonder if what makes sense, Donna, is maybe while I get technically on maybe you want to talk a little bit about what
you cared about in this document and then I'll get my document loaded up and we can sort of start having a bigger conversation. Okay, I'm happy to. And um I'll just say that I I I did it as a as an exercise in my own brain because
something about this the this document wasn't I I wasn't it it wasn't resonating for me in a way that um that um as a somebody who sat on the other side of this table for so many
years there was some disconnect for me that that I was having trouble with. So um part of my process was just a little bit of starting from scratch. Um, and in my thinking, it was more about framing um
our our our specific like vision or priorities over the next year in the hopes that it would help create an increased efficiency for Superintendent Wong and the and the and the district
leaders when they're going to actually um build the budget. Um, in other words, I wanted to capture more of what I was what what was in my head in terms of a vision for what was important in terms of priorities, but at the same time
leave a lot more leeway for the district to then interpret that because I think you're best positioned to, you know, when you're building out a budget, you're best positioned to say to to to give to give life to what our vision is for
for our priorities. So that's what so I essentially took this document and the strategic plan and meshed it all together um and adjusted the introduction. So the
introduction I think has a lot more narrative to it. Um and then I tried to maintain and then I restructured the budget guidelines so that they align with the architecture of the strategic plan. Um and trying to
maintain the goals that were the bullet points that were in here in there like I tried to move them into categories that aligned with the strategic plan. The end. Thank you. So that's an interesting
thought um about do we want to adjust our as you're saying adjust our our guidelines to align with the four slash5 yeah goals of the strategic plan. That's an interesting idea to consider. And again I think like this document um you have the version that the finance
subcommittee started with yesterday. We started to make some notes as we went along yesterday but like nothing's written in stone. I think the idea is that we're synthesizing, trying to listen, and we're going to go back and hopefully come up with a next draft that gets us closer to where we need to get.
Hopefully with a document that we'll all reach that we'll all agree to vote for. Any other input for Mariah and Jesse before we? So, Caroline, thank you. Um, and I haven't read through these,
but I also think it's interesting what Donna is saying. Two things. One, I appreciate that she's bringing like the years out there and that perspective. And I do think it's interesting to think about it. I think it makes logical sense
quite possibly for it to mirror the architecture of the strategic plan. And then I'm thinking also about Superintendent Wong's um presentation to us tonight about what I'm glad he is is pulling out. Glad I'm glad you say that because
actually that was a I meant to mention that earlier. It's a comment somewhere in here. I think it's this one and it says reference content of September 18th strategic objectives here. Yeah. Yes. Because we talked about that last night and we had talked about it last week also with the three deputies in the
room about like tell us what is the key stuff that's going to happen and they said yes and then it showed up in tonight's presentation and like yes we should make sure that we're elevating and highlighting the the I mean I think that priorities assuming you know that we support superintendent
Wong um in her vision and her priorities then I think it it sort logical. So I I I like that thinking directionally having not weeded through these yet Sarah.
So let's start with what Donna said to kind of build from. Um so um last last night we were able to talk about the first section and I would love to go through Donna's document from the
beginning. So, beginning with teaching and learning, and I'd like to highlight that I like having the literacy goal as the first one that makes sense to me. Um, and the point that I was trying to make last night that maybe I'll try to
state again here is um when you do guidelines in past, we've said we try to make not have too many of them. You know, maybe get it down to like five. So, we're really saying something because if we put everything out there, we can't do it all. We know we can't. And so we're not really saying anything
if our list is too long. So we do have this dichotomy between this idea that we keep on saying we all really value small classes and in fact our classes in Brooklyn are maybe even smaller than they need to be. And so like if we look
at this at the first document and you look at the the first thing that's on that document, it says um which are sorry which one are you referring to as the first document? Look at if we look at um I think that you gave us this document first. Yes. And then this is the Donna document.
Okay. So at the first document at the first item that one started out with um enrollment forecasts and so ensure class size of the high school remains closer to recent historical trends that I totally see why we put in. And then we
say leverage K to2 enrollment forecast to identify where positions can be shifted. Is that our priority? Or I would like to argue is the reading literacy initiative our priority because I'm not sure how
much we can do with shifting right now in order to change classroom sizes. We have a high school that has um has things already figured out. We have, you know, a middle school where it's really hard to shift classes because um, you
know, you have a a one science teacher that's full-time and to um to reduce that would would kind of mess with the whole staffing and in K to 5 you have um eight different schools and so it's really hard in a school that's like
three sections to um bring up or down those averages and classes. So I would argue that let's start with teaching and learning and the idea of literacy initiative as Donna has it and what I
really like is yesterday we were talking about some of the statements about literacy being maybe too aspirational and here she has including materials and I think that gets really close to what budget is what's important about budget. I don't just to clarify I don't think we
said that we we were too aspirational. I think we said it wasn't specific. Okay. Yes. I actually want to just comment on what you said, Sarah, because I I want to push back a little bit because I I actually read that differently and maybe I'm reading this incorrectly, but I read that as
leverage K to2 enrollment forecasts that next year if there's a fourth grade, I'm making all of these up. So, please people who are watching like don't read any school into it. there's a a section the the size of that
cohort is going to um collapse by one. So therefore, a fourth grade teacher could get moved to a school where there's going to be a potential expansion. I I read that as just us
using our staff efficiently for where we might have the need and using those enrollment forecasts and being nimble with um our resources level of priority for you but I don't think you need
it does when we're in a constrained environment. Yes. But can I make a suggestion which is that one to your point Sarah if we think about it in terms of the five strategic goals. I think that it this one really ties with the idea which I think we think of important is continuing this process of being able to retain FTE to then dole
out later on and being able to have that um reservoir reserve. Um, and so to the extent that that might actually go under um the ANF goal um more appropriately rather than teaching and learning because it it supports teaching and learning but maybe not directly in the
same way like maybe it really goes with this other thing. We we are all sure that we still want to have that reserve like that. Exactly. And so when you think about the the reserve fund comes from Susan and team leveraging K to2 enrollment forecasts because they pull those seats those those FTE back to then reallocate
them during the year. That's really important. So everyone wants the reserve fund. So that line is really important but maybe not in teaching and learning to your point. So well it wasn't wasn't just add it wasn't in in that version. It's under staffing and enrollment.
That's right. That's right. Exactly. where it does make teaching learning then it's not but maybe Mariah was saying could we eliminate one a because we have it later on in the document. Well, I think that I guess what I'm going to I'm going to ask is maybe I can
ask you all questions to elucidate what I need to do for a next draft rather than um I think that makes sense. Okay. So I guess one of my thinking my first thought is how do people feel generally about Donna's idea of aligning with the strategic plan five goals? Does
anyone not like that? If so that's going to be in my next draft and I'll use yours and re reallocate stuff. My next question is um I I think we should actually refer to Dr. Wong's slides too and align with Yep. I think that that was very clear is
how we can tie out and and I think that was a plan yesterday and it's reaffirmed today that we're going to very clearly pull that content out that you and the team worked on to incorporate here. My next question to you all is do we want to repeat things here that
are in the strategic plan and or specific and particularly those things that were spec were already highlighted tonight. Do we need to repeat them? Because I'll give an example. The thing that's in the current document is 1B intensive focus on literacy roll out. Yeah, we've already like that's that's been said repeatedly in the strategic
plan and tonight. Do we actually need to have that as another thing here like as our own guideline? We already know that they think it's important. It's in the strategic plan. Why are we repeating ourselves? I think because it needs to continue to be funded because we but they are going to fund it because our first guideline and I just want to
go back to this on page one. Our first guideline is that the primary guideline is that all activities described in the strategic plan. I'm not saying we won't modify that wording. I'll say all activities, but particularly the ones that were presented on September 18th will have clearly identifiable funding
in the budget. The rest of this stuff is basically, hey guys, things we didn't mention in the strategic plan, don't forget these things. This is not the like I want to highlight and bold things in the strategic plan. I really I really hear you for that. Um and I think that literacy initiative is
so important. So but I will defer to other people. Can I get a sense from the group on that? Are we repeating things or are we because we want to emphasize them or are we not repeating them because can I can I ask can I can I jump in? Yeah. Can I shift the question slightly? I
love it. Look at how the tables have turned. I'm learning finally. Um, I would ask if you're comfortable, Bella or Robin, would it be helpful for like when you're building the budget, do you
need to see that in there? Is that helpful for you or is it like are we being redundant from your perspective? It's it's helpful in the advocacy. So, I think we would build it, but then and in the advocacy of the budget to say that
we are following the guidelines. So if the school committee votes a set of guidelines that that enhance that we can point to it. And I was going to say to answer your sort of rhetorical maybe question Mariah I think the strategic plan and this are
two different yes they have two different functions and this is really public facing. So I think it's a good sort of transparency document as Belle is saying like there's probably lots of uses where we want to refer
to something concise that has some sort of more tangibles than the strategic plan which maybe is a little bit less like deliverables but sure
of thoughts. Okay, my next question is I'm going to go down I'm going to skip world language for now. We had a lot of conversation about that yesterday and I don't know that we're going to sort that one out tonight on where we land. But what we didn't we spent a lot of time on it yesterday. What we didn't spend time
on um I want to scroll all the way down was the preparation for possible override in FY27. And what I would like to hear from the committee and have a discussion with staff is um the the 4 A through D that
are here I believe came directly from you um Superintendent Wong. And so the question I have is, is this what the committee wants to see? Um, and have that sort of if we need to have any sort of rationalization between this plan and what people want to see, I think that's
important. Um, particularly I think and I'm I'm going to try and articulate this. I think it's here, but basically like what what is the granularity of the budget that we want to see? For example, do we want to see the level services
budget? Um, and I think this is what's written here. Basically, you're saying belly, we're going to be as the level service budget first. We're going to reduce the things that we already have of efficiencies and then we'll provide that as a sort of a a total and then anticipated growth needs.
And that's essentially things that we're already doing. And I think this is what you Val was were were alluding to earlier of hey these things um are already in motion and we're considering like we're not we'll tell you that they aren't in but really this is a level service because it's the continuation of
a multi-year program that we have already initiated then restoration which we have talked about several times right so the things that we removed last year but as we've talked about earlier tonight the communications program as one area um is
really quite challenged without having those positions and if people recall we had paused even multiple positions because we did not eliminate them but again so this whole restoration bucket and then D which is um improve I guess improvements I don't
know what you want to call that when it's so is the question do we like it exactly is there anything in this granularity that's missing I really want to talk through it because I don't what I don't want to have happen is we as staff get to the end of the process and someone says but why didn't you deliver
a budget that is something else than what you've delivered because that's really hard to go back and um have to recreate afterwards. I want us to all be very clear on what we are expecting to see. Jesse,
Suzanne had I comment, but Suzanne had her hand. Uh I don't know if I want to bring this up, but it seems to be important to me. It's a contract negotiations year and so I don't know what that will mean in terms of how we position it and the override and what other kinds of funding
we might need. But I it's important it's not just it's not just salaries. There are other things that may cost money like additional professional development or if we were to do um common planning times or whatever other things other than just the high school schedule,
right? School schedules. But I do think that um that when we think about the override, we need to think about the impact from um negotiations in the contract. I assumed um anticipating collective bargaining was going to be part of the level services.
Yeah. Yeah. It's it you have you have to have it. Mhm. Okay. Yeah. So assuming that CBAs are are then in B in one of the B's. Um Okay. Jesse and then Carolyn.
One of the um activities we've been doing in expenditures and revenue is to have every department in town present to us their situation in terms of their budget. Looking both at their expenses um now and going forward and their revenues now and going forward. So what
I don't see in either of the guideline documents is revenue. Anything in the budget? Well, that's because we don't generally Well, I'm saying we have materials fee, we have beep, we have maybe summer program, whatever it is, seeing proposed new revenue streams.
I think that from a townwide picture, if there were if there were ways in which we could identify even our current revenue stream in the budget, it might be small. I mean, you know, you know, 85% of our budget on ours separate from the town
allocation. I think what Jesse might be referring to is for example at the last override or maybe it was two overrides ago um that is when building fees became baked into the budget as a revenue source. I would just clarify that you're talking about
saying about schoolside generation of revenue school generated as opposed to our share of the town pie. Correct. Only because in expenditures and revenue we are looking at every department's ability to
bring funds in. It might not be large in the schools because we're basically spending 65% of the budget of the town's budget, but that's because we need it and no one disagrees with that. But when if we go to ask for more money next year even without an override, one of the
questions that people have been asking is what about revenue? So I don't believe it's a large quantity of the 20 million or so that's left of the 142 after you take 85% out for salary. But
it is something that we can point at and say this is money that's coming in. So I've just wondered why even in the guidelines that were produced before I joined there's no mention at all about revenue. So I'm just putting it out there as something to think about.
Um maybe you modify a evaluate current operations and programs for possible efficiencies and revenue. I kind of feel like it fits in that in that category. Yeah. I do you do say keep in mind that
there's always a balance of um fees and access and that would be something for you to think about but you should it probably makes sense to identify it right and one of the other things that has been brought up um I think it came up in a CPAC meeting last year as well
as um in ENR had to do with the expanding the ALC for example to open it up if if there were seats available for the same number of staff that are running it could In fact, let's say there are two seats available and we opened it up to two students from a
neighboring town or city that's looking for the kind of advanced and excellent support that we do provide in the ALC. That would be income. So, that's sort of another area I've been thinking about in terms of showing producing a a sense to the town that we bring money in. Yeah.
Yeah, that's the idea. Do you have your hand up? No. Okay, Carolyn. Thanks. Um, so, so what it really is, I guess I always thought the purpose of this was to sort
of guide the preparation of the budget. So, the preparation for possible override in FY27, I mean, this is important and I'm glad we're going to have this conversation one way or the other,
but I'm sure it's just me being dun like how come that's it's because we have to plan for like four different scenarios, right? So, if we have an override, what we can afford, if we don't have an override, what do we have to cut if we ask?
Okay. Right. So this is this is requesting to be sort these are the okay that makes sense. Um I think to answer the question that I think you asked Mariah about four
I think I just need I feel like I need to think I I can't answer. Okay. Okay. But I but I do this is really meant to be just a conversation. knew we weren't going to get to, but I do support the and I know this is
like a hot topic and it's it's um I think the public is going to obviously need to see the public is going to want to see level funded plus what we want and the justifications.
Um do you mean level funded or level service? Level service. Thank you. Yes. Um, I did the same thing the other day. I said the wrong one. It happens. Yeah, you um and sorry, I'm gonna um Can I jump back to something? No, no,
no. I'll jump back later. I want to I want to add one request that I would have for four, which is the no override outcome. Yeah, which I don't think is here right now. So, I think there needs to be an explicit if this fails, what what do we lose? Which is worse, I think, than a
level services situation. That that was an obvious one we missed. Sorry. That's okay. That's why we're talking about it. Although I'm not sure. Do you have enough data to actually do that budget? We don't know what an override amount yet would be. Right. At this point they don't, but this is 3
months from now. Well, what happens is um you're talking about January. Yeah. Well, eventually, right? This is the budget delivery. So, we create a level services budget. We find out what the allocation is. Right. I was I was I was thinking today versus January January.
Okay, now you can go ahead Carolyn. I just wanted to tack that on while we were still on four. Thanks. Yeah, I just wanted to jump back to the classroom item, whichever that was. Um 1a 1a.
Um whether it's worded exactly the same. I I actually am not I don't adore the wording on the high school one because I think it's a little vague and depends on what you mean by historical. Um
but I think it I think it's I like having that in there and again as this is a public facing document um I think it's something that's important to the public. Um, so I I favor
and and I think it's important to our high school leadership. I'm I'm going to guess um you know that it's a it's a statement of support to Anthony and Hal for us, you know, to to address
a commitment to um to class size that comes very specifically. I think maybe you were just elected after that one, two budget cycles ago. There was a um a restoration that we did
at the end of that budget. I think it was the same year that world language was cut. Um we added back some FTE to the high school because Right. That was the year that Yeah. the seven FTE or whatever it was. Yeah. Right. So I think that's where
that language is derived from was um subsequent to that year. This this is this conversation is going well in that we're starting to identify some top level priorities. Is there any chance that I can ask you a question
um that's for all of us is um what would be to Mariah sorry because Mariah was asking us questions. Yeah. What would be in addition to literacy and class size, what would be other top level priorities for people?
Are we talking about in Can I can I ask a favor? Can we park the like I feel like I got a lot tonight and I want to park because I think that I what what I would like us to come back to if it's okay next time is a reshuffled document
and then part like and then to have the the conversation of um world language like the the world language conversation and then the like what else is missing like throw your favorite things in and if there's anything we can remove because I take what Sarah said to heart of
I'll give an example like SIPs. I feel like when we first added that in several years ago, they really weren't in the budget cycle. We have a pretty great rhythm. Just saying for me, that one item could probably go cuz I feel pretty good about where things are at with that. But again, I just think we could have that
conversation next time. But like let's look at the next version of the document and then um hopefully make it a little further and have some of those like very topic specific um conversations at that point. I I think that makes good sense.
It's getting late. Um I was actually going to uh suggest that we dispense with subcommittee and leaison reports since we met last week and the only one that's um met Oh, are you still on budget? What are on budget still? I don't want to move on if you're still on the budget.
Yeah. Yeah. I was I was make a a comment in response to what Carolyn was saying earlier in terms of this document being um I think you called it public facing. And so when I was doing that synthesizing or like reworking it or reframing it so that it aligned more
with what what was in my head um that's I focused on that that top top part because I do think it is a it is a public facing document. I think we're in a really difficult year and we need to um communicate very clearly that our
vision is to um advance the I wrote advance the strategic plan, center student needs and steward resources responsibly. I really liked what you wrote and I will take what this is and weave it in and thank you. I I I think that I was
thinking along the the lines that you're thinking that we really have to center our what are center our thinking for the for this budget cycle um predominantly and then give more room to Bella and the
administration to give definition to what some of those like what those what those priorities would look like. Um, thank you, Donna, and thanks for taking a stab at a second um, document.
So, I was going to say we're going to dispense with subcommittee and Leah's own reports because nobody has met since last week, except that I'm realizing that ENR uh, the committee that never sleeps met at at uh, noon today. That's right. Yeah. Five times since our last school
committee meeting last week. No. Well, that's convenient because um what we just did really responds very clearly to what was discussed today at ENR. So, having number four in this document is a
helpful answer to what ENR is asking of us. Okay. Any other Can I just Can I make one comment? Um, I think that it'll be good that we get a sanity check from ENR by providing that
and being like, are we I do not want to have anyone feel like they haven't got what they want and then staff has to scramble after the fact. I would have like everything to be baked in to the process so that there is no surprises and then frustration. So, it will be important that we have clear
communication. And I'm sure I'll reach out to Cliff from the advisory committee perspective and you and Jesse can go back to ENR too to make sure that there's um that everyone is marching in order in a timely way as we go forward. I would Yeah, I'll just add one more
comment then if um in the in the redone version of a plan forward for expenditure and revenue um it was decided today that we're going to split into three subcommittees. one that's going to look at town uh expenditures and revenue, one that's going to look at
school expenditures and revenue, and a third that's going to look at the long range forecast and recommendations. Um neither uh no school committee members going to be on the school one, so you can anticipate some volunteers from the other part of the expense and revenues committee.
They I I think the feeling was that we'd already have a Well, we both volunteered to be on it. So, um we might want to push back a little bit on that, but um the idea was to get, you know, fresh folks from outside the school district to ask these questions. My my comment then was that
you, you know, already has the questions we put together. you've already um clarified like beyond any need for more clarity on your timeline and that um the the data that the expenditure and
revenues committee needs will come at the rate that the district has the ability to answer. And so so is this subcommittee not going to reach out then until that's done? Um well they would like to we we would like
chair green would like to have all the assignments to these three subcommittees in by tomorrow. So or by the weekend and then they're going to begin working. So we'll just giving you a heads up that I just don't know what they're going to be working on. So we were given a set of
questions and honestly we are committing quite a bit of time and energy. Whatever time we're spending on this, we are not spending on the other things, right, that we do to support to support our schools. I understand.
So, I think they should wait till we finish and then and then engage with what we offer. I'll be happy to take that back to them tonight. Yeah. In response to the questions that they gave us. Right. Sure. So, Bob,
yeah. First of all, I just want to say that I thought what Donna did was great. I think that this is an unusual year as everybody knows. Um and I think the whole effort toward creating a real clear budget that a a clear uh
principles of the budget um for the public to see um is certainly an important step one. My question is um is there a timeline Bella for now we're talking about principles then we're going to talk about specifics. What's the timeline
or that? So I had always said the month of September. So we're so we're still in September. So we're hoping I just want to cl What's the budget timeline? No, I think the response and the questions or let's clarify when
Okay. If if this is an override year, Mhm. what are the expectations from this committee or from the town um for for the schools to have clarity on principles and actual specific budgetary recommendations. So we our we have a
whole finance subcommittee has and with in conjunction with staff finance subcommittee in conjunction with staff develops this every year this very detailed budget development calendar and it maps to all of our meetings and um
off the top of my head this that we are we have this this document scheduled for several meetings but it is planned to be voted in the month of October. So we are coming right up because staff needs to use it to be able to do all the work that they need to do. Exactly. Okay. Yim. So simultaneously to that at the
override study committee, they have submitted a very detailed list of questions uh that you you have a copy of to um Superintendent Wong and team and they are diligently working on those questions which have obviously revenue
and um and and budgetary implications, program implications. I um and lots and lots of detail on on um our revenues and expenses and program costs. So that's that's simultaneously happening. And
then they are looking for um a budget forecast. So a forecast not an actual budget. Uh I I believe they've now uh moved that to the toward the end of November or mid November. Okay. So usually that you mean a three year or five year?
Three year. So, while we're spending time answering the questions, we actually can't build the budget, right? So, usually the budget is submitted in February, the prel the preliminary budget. What about now?
The full budget is still on on our timetable of sort of December, January discussion, same thing. January, February, March. I thought they needed it by January to um get on the ballot or something. I think we were trying to give a a forecast. Okay.
Um but it might be a forecast with a lot of, you know, so March seems to be really late on a on an override in May, right? So I think we're going to try to give a give a forecast. It might not be a full-fledged budget. Yeah. Um but do our best to give a forecast.
I mean, I think that's what the town side is doing, too. They're giving a forecast. I don't think anything they've said is their budget. It's a forecast. the um select board has to have it ready sometime in March to be voted on in order for the override to be on the
ballot. So if you work yourself back from that, our budget would have to be pretty well finalized in the January February time frame at least. So that we would and and by then we'll know from expansion of revenues by the end of the this year um what the recommendation is in terms of one-year override,
three-year override, no override, whatever. You know what what's going to happen? A a big question for us is what is the allocation going to be? And I don't know that the town knows what the allocation is going to be, but do you understand like we can't make a you can't really make a forecast without knowing that,
right? I'm just thinking if budgets are complete in March and it's an override vote in March, that gives you two months to sell it. That's to me it feels uh like a very short Yes. time frame. Okay.
Right. And we we are planning to begin working on the talking points narrative story about why it's required much earlier than March like in December or November even already. And and again I don't know that town
site's ready to give an allocation. So we can we can try to do a forecast once we have that. Y Suzanne. Yeah. Thanks. Uh I just like to go back to the subcommittee question. Yes. I really feel strongly that there should be somebody from the school committee on
that subcommittee. I'll write to them tonight. Yeah. Yeah. We thought so, too. Okay. That's why I'm bringing it up. I'm going to reach out to Bernard and see if he maybe he doesn't want somebody who's on the reporting
side. I don't know. Okay. Any new business? I have two quick items. Okay. They're both thank yous. Okay. One is to Betsy for Brooklyn day. Thank you. We had a We had a umbrella
over our head, a canopy over our head. We had vests there. We had give notebooks to give away. We had stickers for parents. And the only reason it was there was because Betsy was there earlier and was able to drive her car right up and get it all set up and get it all unloaded and everything.
The day was a blast for all of us that was that were there as well. tons of interactions, but really thank you so much for your part in making it successful. Thank you. The second one and the second one is um in abstentia to Kathleen um S Bella Bella's assistant.
Um some parents as well as I um noticed that there were errors in the dates in the um cultural and religious observances calendar as well as in the notes on the main like colorful calendar and she's been very responsive in
discussions back and forth to get them all straightened out and hopefully I think by tomorrow we're going to have it published on the website and that'll straighten out for the people that wrote in and as well as I contacted you know them as well to explain that there were some errors and that we get it all straightened out. So, thanks to
Kathleen. Thank you. Any other new business? Seeing none, I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. Okay, I we will leave it to Betsy on who um moved and seconded, but Donna, yes. Suzanne, yes.
Sarah, yes. Mariah, Jesse, yes. Carolyn, motion to adjurnn. Yes. No, I wanted to say what do you do? That's the aa. What did they do at the Boston Tea Party?
Not aoy. It's like a hi and a say or something. Bob, I have no idea. It's very late. Bob votes to ajourn. I'm thinking about it. Okay. Um I vote to adjurnn as well. Thank you everybody and have a great evening. Thank you.