To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. This being this meeting is being live streamed by Chelsea Tele
Media and posted to the CPS website for interested community members to access and watch. Inerson public participation will be taking place tonight in accordance with the Chson school committee public participation policy. Anyone speaking tonight during the public input portion of this meeting is notified the superintendent's office the desire to speak has been provided with
these guidelines. Upon request written comments received no later than 12 p.m. on the day of the meeting will also be read and made part of the record of the meeting during the second public comment session. So welcome to this meeting of the chumps of school committee. Uh first order of business is to approve the minutes from our meeting on September
16th. >> I move that we approve the minutes of the regular school committee meeting of September 16, 2025. I second. >> A double second. All right. Any corrections or comments on the minutes?
All those in favor? >> I was there. >> All right. Next up, we'll hear from our representatives. >> All right. So, today, October 7th, at 5:00 p.m., there is and well, it's still going on, the Escape the Vape Seminar. This is in the Chunford High School Learning Commons, and it focuses on the
dangers that comes from vapes while also giving families preventive skills to use against it. Um this also the CHS class of 2027 um student representatives is uh hosting a Halloween movie night on October 18th at 6 p.m. in the performing
arts center. This will have snacks, raffles, and will show the Hotel Transennsylvania movie. And there's also no school on October 13th, which I am pretty excited for due to Columbus and Indigenous People's Day. >> Um yeah, to continue off, nothing too much going on. Um on September 29th at
craft fair uh it was a huge success. Freshman and sophomores were able to see all the available clubs uh during plus block in the gym. Um to see what's available and see what they have interest in. Uh as well as on last Saturday the pumpkin pooa took place. Uh
a lot of clubs had their own tables with games and uh games available for everyone to participate. Um clubs were spreading awareness for what they do, events they hold, and what their purpose is. A lot of elementary school kids uh showed up and dressed up in costumes and
participated with the club. It was an amazing event. Um all the clubs came together to uh share their information involving fun games and prizes. And to end it, uh picture day retake is on October 22nd. >> Great.
>> I have to admit, I thought you said the workshop was on Escape from apes. I thought that'd be a good one, too. But >> yeah, I think escape from vapes makes a little bit more sense, but But if apes came, it's good to know. >> It'd be nice to know how to
>> That's a good skill. >> October 22nd. >> All right. Uh, any other good news to share? >> Yeah, just to plan ahead. Um, I know we're still in October, but no, whenever we're in one month, I'm always in the next month. So, November is the um theater guilds presentation of Oklahoma,
and their tickets will be on sale. So, make sure that you um get your seats. It should be good. And um la before we had our meeting tonight um we are happy to announce that our assistant principal Christopher Cohen is now on board at McCarthy Middle School. So we're very excited to have him with us.
>> Great. >> All right. Anybody else any good news they want to share? >> I know the high school you guys had the leadership conference again this year. >> Uh and it was Mr. Bartos and Tom Peterson I think got together and kind
of uh led it. Um and uh that was very great to hear because we need to see great leaders continue onward. This is great. >> Okay. >> Can I just two quick ones you say that we actually um this afternoon had the first of three um kind of internal
visioning sessions for the Parker Middle School building project. We had about 45 people um come predominantly uh district staff um staff from Parker. We had some uh admin and teachers from the fourth grade level uh because obviously one of the options we're looking at is a 456
configuration. So we wanted to get elementary input as well. Um but it was actually very well attended. The next three this is the first of three Tuesdays we're going to be um doing that work. Um but a great group. They seem to be very involved. um AI3 the um design
firm and u Mike Perillo who is their educational consultant who's helping us put our education program together led the discussion in the different sessions but it went out very well >> so that's the internal work and then there's an announcement going out either tomorrow or Thursday morning for the
three um public sessions and so our first public session where anyone in the community can come this is external obviously anyone inside the schools can come but um the promotion we'll be pushing it out publicly is um two weeks away. So, it's going to be on Wednesday
um October 22nd at 7:00 in the evening and it's going to be at the Chelmsford Elks on Littleton Road. Okay. >> Um so, that's where we had some of our visioning sessions previously. And that evening is going to be kind of a critical uh night and we're going to be working to uh tape these so that we can actually then show them and broadcast
them to the public if they can't attend. But that'll be a complete recap of exactly over the last five years. Kind of how we got to where we are, the decisions that we have to make between now and um the end of the calendar year. It's going to actually come that quickly around um the different options we have
to explore, which ones we may want to spend a little bit more time with, which ones we might want to take off the table, and we'll lay out the whole agenda and timeline for the project. So, that's a key one, kind of a save the date. anyone who would like information to lend input, insight um Wednesday,
October 22nd um at the Cheltred Elks at 7 PM and again literature will be going out within the next day or two about that. Um that'll be a good night for uh for people to be able to participate if they're interested. So just those two good news items about the Parker project. It's really um getting off to a
good start. >> And just to add, you know, the the group in general is very very enthusiastic. um you know a lot of good opinions, great the students in particular um were very free with their opinions of of what they would like to see in a new school. So you know it was
>> that's quite a good take. Yeah. >> So when people ask us at meetings because I get this question a lot. Um when would the school actually be built like finalized and students can walk into it and have classes there? What
would you estimate is possibly the earliest >> the schedule right now which I think is realistic you know and um you know aggressive but would have the building if everything goes according to plan open for the 203031 school year. >> Wow.
>> So in September of 2030 is when it would open whether it's the two three or four grade level school that's likely when it would open. So, >> we're about uh four and a half years away. >> Not even a half. Four. >> Four. >> That's wonderful.
>> Which is closer than we were before. So, >> closer than we were before. But yes, it's it's and we'll we'll have that whole time lined out for you. >> Yeah. >> Any other good news? >> Okay. We don't have any speakers for public comment, so we'll move right into new business. >> Thanks. We actually have several uh kind
of updates tonight. Um, Linda's going to share the um, MCCAST updates from the last spring, then talk a little bit about our strategic plan, get into some of our goal work. Um, but a lot of this is going to be grounded in the the work that's already underway. So, I'll actually turn it over to Linda
>> to, uh, share the MCCAST update with us. >> Great. So, um, so don't be afraid of my 39 slide PowerPoint. It has a lot of just background information for you and there is no quiz at the end unless you would like me to develop one while I'm speaking. So this is just the annual
update of our spring MCCAST results for the district. So this is just focusing on how our students did at the larger district level as well as at the school level and then looking specifically at some of our subgroups that we've been working on as a district through our
strategic plan. So just these are the kind of the um like updated kind of slides on our percentiles and our accountability system. So our accountability system provides an overall classification for each school and district based on two measures. So
it's a normative percentile and that compares schools statewide and is a criterion reference progress that shows how schools are close to meeting the improvement targets that are set by DESIE. So that criterion reference each year we receive targets from DESIE as to
where we should be for both proficiency levels um and also some of our um our grow student growth percentiles. The hard part about our um targets is we don't typically receive them until January of the current school year. So it gets a little um you know difficult
for us to make sure that we're on target with them at times. But we do wait for them to come out by the department of ed and then we go through them and make sure that we're working towards that. So what they're doing for criterion reference and I'll go over it a little bit more when we get to that is they're really looking year over year. So it's a
different cohort of students but they're comparing you for how you did the previous year compared to the current year that you took the MCCAST. So it's two years worth of data and it's against ourselves not the other districts that are out there. The percentile is how we're performing compared to like districts.
So starting with the school percentiles. So it ranges from 1 to 99. One of the biggest things that I tell people is if you remember ever um bringing your kids to the doctors and they tell you what percentile your student uh your student your child was for height and weight,
think of percentile that way. So it's between one and 99. So if you're closer to 99, that's higher. Um and it shows how each school compares to others serving similar grade levels. And these percentiles are divided into three groups. We have K8 schools combine K12
schools and then high schools separately. So they look at your configuration as a district and what you offer for schools. So like our high school is a 9-2 school opposed to some of them in the area that are 8 through 12. And that's the schools that they're comparing you to.
And then um I'm looking at our percentiles from our for all of our schools. None of our schools are requiring assistance or intervention from the department of elementary and secondary education which is very good but we never are in that danger of being um you know receiving assistance at that
point. Um if you look we have um the different percentiles that are up there with Chsford High School at 80%. So when you think of that, we're we're outperforming 80% of the schools that have the same profile as Chumsford High School. That's the best way to think about that. So we have some increases.
We have some um some that have gone down just a little bit, but then for the most part, they've all gone up. So that is very good for our percentile. So that's how we compare to other districts. If we're going into the criterion reference, this measure just assess how we're doing towards those key indicator
indicators that come from DESIE for our achievement in ELA, math, science, student growth, English learner progress, chronic absenteeism, and high school has a few others which include um advanced coursework and um completion of
those courses. So that's your dual enrollment classes and your AP classes. So they have that additional piece on there. And then schools are um actually rated on a um four it's a four person it's a four point scale. So if you're looking at this measurement right here
they give us certain percentages towards how we're doing towards achievement then how we're doing towards our student growth and then English proficiency for all students and lowest performing students if we have enough students in that criteria and then that additional indicator. So this is our grade three
through eight. And when you get to the high school level, they have the same indicators. However, they have advanced coursework completion. So that's that's your lesson on criterion reference for 3 through 8 and 9 through 10.
And then from there, each of those indicators receive points based on how much progress they made towards those state targets. So if you declined, you received no points towards it because you made zero progress towards it. If there's no change, you have 25%
improved, but still below the target that they gave us. It's 50% met target, you receive 75% credit, and then exceeding it, you receive 100%, which is the four points. So, it's on a fourpoint system. Um, I will tell you that our when they give us our targets, they're
not huge. So, they're looking for you to go up like a few points. And what's kind of hard, especially on the um proficiency level for us, is that it's an exact number. So if they say you're supposed to be at 503, right, and you make 502, you've declined,
do you get upset if you went down by one point? I would say no because 500 is meeting standards, right? But that's how this this is how they assign our accountability. So it does get a little tricky. This is where we've had the conversations even with our strategic
plan where we have the exact number that we're going to make 85%. Well, there's times we make 83%. Is that the end of the world? No. But it would be considered not making progress. So overall for the district, we have um we're considered 46% towards working
towards those those target dates, those targets that they set for us. We have moderate progress overall and we obviously our overall classification is not requiring assistance for the Chsford Public Schools. So it's not that we're making 46% progress as a district. It's
we're making 46% progress towards meeting the targets. Make sense? >> I don't want people to think that we're only at 46% out of 100. >> So, this all goes on our accountability page and this is a snapshot from the
accountability page from Desessie. What I did is I highlighted the areas. So, those red boxes is where we lost points as a total, right? So, these would be the areas that we'd want to, you know, look at to make sure that we don't have um year-over-year issues in here. I
think some of the ones that really stand out for me is um so you have the difference between all students that are not in high school, so those three through eight and then high school has their own piece. I think some of the areas is that our proficiency for ELLL students went down than we've had in the
past from last year. Um we did lose some points in achievement at the high school level. we lost like most of the points from the high school and we're trying to dig into what are some of the factors that affected that. So it doesn't mean that the students didn't meet their standards. It's just that they didn't
they didn't exceed those standards. They would decline. They would below what Desi had set for us. And then looking at chronic absenteeism at the high school level. Those would be the bigger areas that we would have to take a look at. the the chronic absenteeism one is something that they can take care of
like immediately with their attendance policies within their programming and working with those families. That's something we don't have to wait for Desi to give us targets for. That is something that the high school could work on immediately. So those are the areas that we're working at at a district level and at the school level
to have conversation about like where those what happened at the high school specifically and what happened at some like losing those um proficiency levels for um ELLL students we have to look at those students specifically and then just to as a refresher students
receive any type of a score between 440 to 560 so not meeting all the way up to exceeding meeting expectations. And um I put this in from last year as well because the class of 2026 is the first class. So when they were in sophomore year, they had to meet those
new proficiency standards. So they were higher. It's higher than what other classes had to meet. And this current class that our juniors now, so the students that took the spring MCCAST in um March, March and April, they were required to meet those higher
proficiency levels. So Desi has changed it. So they raised the bar. These are the two classes that you're seeing that hit that. So these kids that are now juniors are the ones that had to meet those new expectations. Okay. So now let's look at actual data
that we have as a district. So what's nice is we have like a platform um it's called open architect. So we can look at everything you know collectively. So just as a district as a whole in ELA, we've had a little bit of an uptick. So the on the lefth hand side where it says over time for ELA, you'll notice that we
at least had a little bit more progress since 2021. However, um our data is typically pretty flat lately, even with some of the things that we've implemented. Good flat because we tend to be in the higher ratings. So when you see those blue, the dark blue and the
light blue, the dark blue and light blue are exceeding and meeting the standards. People have to remember too that partially meeting the standards is passing. So that upper part of the gray those students would be passing MCCAST. They're just right on the bubble of getting that pure 500 for proficiency.
So that this is an exact number. So we tend to we always do better than the state and ELA, but you'll notice that our data is a little bit flat with a little bit of an uptick obviously in ELA from last year to this year. Moving on to math. This is where we start to see the dip. So we again data
is close to being flat but we did see a decline in mathematics across the district. So this is three through all the way to the grade 10 students um for MCCAST and mathematics for the school year. And then for um science where
again that flat data but we are still holding strong at some of those higher rates and those students that are impartially meeting are still passing their MCCAST across the across the board in science. Okay. So, now we're just going to move on to some of the school level results
because that's what makes up those total results that I just went over. So, looking at the individual schools, we tend to still again we're higher than the state, but year-over-year we're noticing that students we still have to close that gap for students with
disabilities. You'll see the the green at the bottom um the green dot that would be students with disabilities. and then students without disabilities. So our students without disabilities are still outperforming our students with disabilities. So those that's why that is part of our strategic plan and why
we're looking into the servicing and how those students are learning in the classroom. And then what it does too is gives you the year-over-year for how the schools are doing year-over-year. So our data tends to, you know, stay steady but again flat. And this is across the board
for the state and some of our area school districts. We have not received our dart districts yet. So those are the districts that have a very similar makeup to um jumpsford for 2025. But in the Marramac Valley in general, they're seeing the same type of results.
And then mathematics, this is again, this is where you see that dip and that little bit of a wider gap. So the mathematics is where we're seeing that wider gap for our students with disabilities and for our science students as well. So this just gives you an overview of
how the individual schools are performing and that's when they have those specific data meetings at the school level, grade level, teacher level. Moving on to student growth percentiles. So proficiency is how you did based on,
you know, you have to five 560 is as high as you can go. This is how did you grow from where you were, right? So we're focusing in on those um you know, ranges indicating student progress that are comparable to peers within the district, right? I mean statewide. So
how did you how did students do compared to how other students did statewide? So, as a district overall, we have the typically the one-year growth where you'll see some of the gaps is even our students with disabilities, and I've
talked about this when I go over the I Ready data as well. Um, one-year growth is great, but if you are not at grade level or not close to grade level, you have to be higher than one year's growth, right? And you need that stretch growth to get there. So, as a district,
we make one year growth. That's wonderful. But if you are behind, you need to make even higher growth than one-year growth because then you'll never get that catch-up. That that gap will never close. So that is the work again that we're doing with the strategic plan to find out how we can
close that gap for those students. And again for mathematics, you're going to see it's a similar story as we go through each one of these. Um for ELA and math, science does not have uh student growth percentile. You need two year two consecutive years of data in
order to do student growth. And science only administers their test for grade five, eight, and grade 10. Grade nine students take it for um take biology if they're in the honors biology class. So you'll see nth grade data. Do you have a question?
>> Yes. So when we're looking at this data for McCarthy and for Parker, >> starting last year, right, is when we split the >> uh we're in year three, right? This is our third year. >> So it's 23 24 and 25 data. It's already
school the 56 and 78 >> 23 24 was the first 24 25 last year was year two. We're in 25 26 now. >> Okay. >> So the date is from year two. >> But I think the data is only two, right? >> You're only right. You're only going to
have Right. You're going to only have the 20 >> Yeah. >> four. No, you'll have the 23, 24, and 25. No. Yes, I'm sorry. 24, 25. >> 24 and 25. Okay. >> Right. The data that you have beforehand is when they were a grade 5 through
eight school. >> Mhm. >> That would be the same thing for Parker. So, we I did pull this the information for our special ed subgroup because again that is one of our focus areas for the strategic plan. And when we look at just their overall data in general, we I
mean although some of it may be low, they are making some gains in some areas and you'll see that they're at least some closer to that like 480 area for their performance and then how they're doing across the board by the schools. And again, that's a good point that you make, Maria, that for when you're
looking at Parker and McCarthy Middle School, you really only have two years worth of data to look at. And again for mathematics and for our science students. Let you take it all in. And then our SGP for the SA for the same
subgroup for ELA and math. Overall, we see that there's definitely a higher growth piece. So, that's great. You know, we want to see that growth, but we need that additional stretch growth in order to see those those gaps close. So, interestingly enough, in ELA as center school, that gap is not wide
at all. If you look at the average SGP by school at the bottom in the middle, they're right next to each other. So, their gap is very minimal. And then when you get to mathematics, you'll notice that for the math, South
Row has the the small gap for math between regular and special ed students compared to the other schools. Has has there been any um I know it's very early days, you got this data like last week, but has there been any consideration of whether
um there could be some debriefing of you know what practices might be distinct about South Row for math and center for ELA that might be worth considering piloting at other schools. >> Right. That is one of the things. So, I do know the uh math specialists have
been looking into that data and the reading specialists at the elementary level the ones looking into that. I'd like to see how it's been year-over-year. Is this just like a one-year enigma or is this been consistently how they have I'd have to go back in and pull the data which is pretty easy to do with the um dashboard.
But it is important that we have those practices because if they are seeing a difference then we should be implementing that across the district. >> I mean it's worth noting it's really specifically around the achievement gap. Um, in other words, it doesn't necessarily mean South Row is stronger
overall in their math scores. It just means that their special education students are doing stronger. So, >> yeah, that's an interesting um interesting thing to dive into. >> I recall that they did a presentation last year about um some of their teams
doing um team teaching, fourth grade in particular, >> working very well for them over at South Row. So, that looking into that >> certainly worthwhile to see, >> right? did like the fourth grade scores was that what >> brought it up. >> Mhm. >> Is there any impact at all on the
numbers and the fact that I think it's south row has more special ed is there a difference in the number of special education students at each one of the elementaryaries? there could be a difference in the number of like just the headcount but
you have to kind of get into the IEP itself and figure out what type of services are actually like required for the student. Um I don't think it's dissimilar from building over building because when you take a look at the number of like IEPs that the special ed teachers are servicing there's
consistency across the four elementary schools. >> But we have our autism programs for instance. Oh, I'm talking about like special ed kids that are in the general ed setting just like ELA support, reading support, things like that. We have very different programs um for like
our autism program at Harrington and Bay is completely different than the life skills program at center or the strive program at South Row. I was talking more about just the um the special ed student who's in a general ed classroom who's receiving like a little extra support,
not in a specialized program. >> Yeah. So each elementary is not really it it's got a different population in terms of >> true >> the composition of the students. Okay. >> Yes. >> Thank you >> very much so. >> Um and then moving on I think one of the
big things that out there you probably heard in the news is like how are we doing compared to prepandemic levels right? Everybody wants to know the acquiring you know information. So pull the data for that. Um interestingly enough we don't have like a huge gap between
2019 and 2025 data. So even at that exceeds where it's a 5% difference from 2019 to 2025 for you know exceeding it's a 6% difference and then same with the um partially meeting and not meeting
it's 5% and 6%. So yes, it's down, but it's not a an enormous gap from 2019 to 2025, which is good, right? That's that that's a good thing. We're we're heading in the right direction. Um I think what's going to be very very hard though
is comparing things to 2019. Couple of things. One, we had um we had legacy tests that was still happening. Then we moved to nextgen testing. We changed standards. We changed proficiency levels. And we've now test changed testing companies. So I those variables
that are out there kind of it's like inquiring for me. I'm always like well nothing's been the same since 2018 actually right because we started making these big changes towards next generation testing which is a completely different test than a legacy test. The
science the students that were taking science were still in legacy for quite some time right they finally came up with a nextgen test and then all these other moving parts happened. So I'm like, how do those variables affect it? I may never get that answer, but I do know that I feel like every year we we
all say this is like something else has changed and our new change is we went from two if we went from Pearson to Cogna for a testing company. I don't know if that changed anything for this school year. We're going to find out. >> Any variable that changes use the data somewhat, right? I've been we've been so
and you know you taught during this time too like we had the same test over and over and over again and then things change and every year something changed. So like even that even changing the proficiency levels for the class of 2025 and 2026 I'm like okay how does that affect everything? So we'd have to do
some type of like linking to see what's happening. I have to leave that up to the mathematicians at times, but I I'm always cautious of like what I mean before we go through this big overhaul or make these major changes, what else was affecting everything. I would be
curious and I don't know if I'm ever going to find out um how are I know that we have um all the students took participated took the MCCAST, but with the change in the law, was there was that a factor? Was it not taken as strong? I do know that many of our
students at the high school level for the retests, even though they were scheduled for it, they didn't take it after that law was passed. They they didn't have to. So that changes the data. So those are like my kind of questions that are out there. When you look year-over-year, but if I'm looking
just at 2019 and 2025, there's not a huge gap between how we performed, which is good. And that's ELA. You'll see this is a little bit more of a dip for math, but again, it's not huge. it you have to look at the different grade levels to see what it what is happening and the
same for science very very small changes for science who had the maj majority of the changes in their testing so then um we will look I wanted to look at cohorts because again every year that I'm presenting this data to you it's a
new set of students so if you look at year-over-year for how our students did from 2021 and 2021 tests remember was not like the full test, they could take it at home. Some kids were taking it at home, some were taking it in school. That was our hybrid year. Um, overall,
our data kind of stays pretty strong. Um, so on the left hand side is performance. So that's that meet or exceeds number and then on the right is SGP. So, it is pretty like we have some ups and downs in certain grade levels, but you'll pretty much consistently see some
of the same scoring for students based on how they've been doing. So, that 2021 school year is a little hard to know how well they did because some of the students didn't even take it in school. Just I'm sorry, just to make sure I'm understanding how to read this correctly. When I was looking at this at home, I was operating in the assumption
that to follow a single cohort of students, you look down diagonally. Is that correct? >> Correct. So the the first box in the top left um >> so third grade >> third grade in 2020 2021 would then be under fourth grade for 2122. Right.
>> Right. Because that current third grade is fourth fourth graders now >> and then the reason you don't see third graders under SGP is because you have to have two years worth of data. So there were third graders in the past. So it's really only fourth graders that you can have an SGP on. So then you'd go down
diagonally that way. Yeah. >> So, the third graders are really your fourth graders. Your fourth graders are really your fifth graders right now because this is all data from when they were in those grades last spring. >> Yeah. And with 8th to 10th, you're
actually looking two columns over. Um, yeah, it's interesting when you look at it that way because in some cases up and in some cases down, but it even looking at the same group of kids from last year to this year. Mhm.
>> You see some pretty big swings, >> right? >> Um and you know, like looking at what the seventh graders last year, 47% meet and exceeds. This year, 62% that same grade of students
meets and exceeds, which is a huge positive move, >> right? >> Um and then you look like last year's third graders, this year's fourth graders, everybody dropped >> subtly. Um, so it's it's an interesting
>> there's no there's no clear pattern. >> Yeah, that's what I was trying. >> We're used to seeing a clear pattern and we don't have a clear pattern. So we're like, >> what do we do at this point? Like we have to look at our internal benchmarks and how our students are doing and and have eyes on them, right? Teacher eyes on them to, you know, help us
distinguish what they need and what they don't need. You can't take one single test anyway, but it does get a little um difficult when you know you're up, you're down, you're down, you're up. It gets a little crazy. >> Yeah. >> But it is good to look at a whole cohort
of students and how they've been kind of progressing through and remember they're coming from COVID to going through things and you know learning. So there still is the group that has learning loss. Same for math. So like you could be like okay well they were up then they went
down but now they're up again. >> Yeah. I feel like the most standout drop in this case is um fourth to fifth grade in math. The students that were in fourth grade last or two years ago in fifth grade last year, >> right,
>> was the biggest drop. I mean, that's 20 percentage points. That's a lot, >> right? >> Um that's my older son's grade and I've anecdotally heard from a lot of parents of kids that age that their kids scores dropped. So, that's an interesting
>> Yeah, it was a lot of drop. I think just from last year to this year um if you recall last year the high school exceeded their targets. They were being celebrated and now they don't have any of their points. So it's you have to be careful with the celebration too, right? Because it can change. >> Yeah.
>> But I'd like to know a little bit more about the testing. >> Yeah. Yeah. That one was just the biggest like 20%. I don't think any other distinctions positive or negative hit that 20 point mark. That's a big big difference. The other thing that if you look back the year prior they had jumped 20 points or 18
>> right 49 to 67 it's very diff aberration that you know what what was it about fourth grade >> is there ever possibly even a disconnect between what the curriculum does in a grade and what's actually on MCCAST I mean or is it >> shouldn't be because everything's
aligned to the standards >> especially in math like math is >> pretty tight I was going to ask though if there has I know Again, these are early days, but I'm wondering if there's a plan to look at whether there is a correlation between the students
performance on I Ready and the students results in MCCAST and if we are seeing that I Ready is actually predictive of MCCAST score or if there's something very unique about the MCCAST experience that's producing slightly different results than what their week-on-week
results are. work. Yeah, we work with curriculum associates and they typically ask us permission to, you know, >> see the MCCAST >> to see the MCCAST. We sign off on the on the thing and they'll give us the information. With math, it's pretty very deadon. The only uh variable for the reading and it's it's pretty dead on for
the reading, too. But um MCCAST has writing um which and I already, right? So, but they do again going to lean on the mathematicians, some type of equal percentile linking. um they are able to tease out the reading part of the MCCAST
to I Ready to give us that predictor. So I we actually have our meeting with I Ready tomorrow to go over our beginning of the year data that we just we just finished our first diagnostic. So that would be one of the conversations that we have of like do we want to participate in that to give us the linking again and once we have that
that's something I can bring back to the committee and present because it is interesting. It does help us. I mean, frankly, just from me never wanting to make assumptions, one of those assumptions we I think we all make, not just in Charms, but many districts, is that these tools we use to prepare
students for success are actually correlated with successful results. It would be nice to see that hard data either proven true or are there places where it's not predictive? >> Yeah. Because you want to we wouldn't want to continue with the tool if it's not helping us.
>> Exactly. Yeah. or or if it if we determine that it is helping but it is not correlated with the MCCAST. I think figuring out what that gap might be what what's the difference? >> Right. Any other questions on MCCAST results?
>> You don't want to do you don't want me to do my last slide? >> Oh, I didn't skip. >> Oh, it's the same one. Sorry. >> You don't want to hear about science. >> Your most favorite. I'm just teaching you. So, yes. And here's science. >> And here they are. >> I already went to that slide. Yeah. Well, and what's interesting though, you
have to I have to note it is you see the big everybody's like, "No, ninth grade. That is our students that take the biology MCCAST as ninth graders because they're in honors biology." So, you are always going to see high numbers for your ninth graders because those are students, your top students taking that.
>> They're already students who have like essentially signed on to take a more challenging course or >> Yes. So, they so our our freshmen that are in honors take it they take it freshman year. Otherwise, um, students are slated to take biology their sophomore year.
>> So, >> the thing right from the beginning that really stands out to me um on this accountability by schools percentile. It's 67 at McCarthy and it's 65 at
Harrington. Now, in terms of McCarthy, there's very little to compare it to internally or whatever, but in terms of the elementaryaries, wow, that's a huge difference among the schools. The
disparity is there somehow. And I'm trying to figure out why that much disparity because it goes from 65 to 81. And that's pretty big. >> We have to look at the subgroups. Um,
Harrington is a title one school. Um, it is the highest percentile of title one. So, it's it's got the highest percentage. So, we'd look at the subgroups because my my, you know, hypothesis here is that one of the subgroups needs a little additional support. That's where we put the most of
our interventionist as well. So, that is one of our highest schools. >> So, that is what we're doing. We are putting more help >> there at that school. >> And then in terms of McCarthy, what do we do? because it's not, you know, moving people from Parker to McCarthy and so on,
>> right? We have to look at so those grades seven and eight students, that's some of the work that we started last year. I'm going to continue this year where we're doing those looking at those uh focus standards, those foundational standards in math because that's where the that's where the the data is showing and doing those specific lessons to try
and um progress monitor those students to make sure that those lessons are then spiraled through because that's where we're seeing what the issue is. So, we're going to do that work again this year. We saw some increases in grade seven definitely when we did that program. Um, so we're going to be red beoing that again this school year to
really focus in on that because they need that support. We did try to put some interventionists at that level. It's very hard to get interventionists for that level. They have to be they have to know their mathematics. This is not a generalist. So, it was difficult to actually get people to apply for the
job and we're happy to do so, but it's just getting the personnel to do it. So rather than trying to find somebody that's not there that has the qualifications, we're actually going to be focusing in on those students again with those standards, those foundational standards and giving them those specific lessons.
>> And that's in math. >> That's in math. And when we looked internally at the data, I remember last uh data points that we looked at at the end of the school year last year. >> Um and that huge drop in performance
between, you know, seventh and eighth going into the eighth grade. How does that correlate here? I mean, both of those grades are here at McCarthy. >> No, I know. So, say grade seven made the change. Grade eight. One of the issues
we run into too is the amount of testing that the grade eight students take in the spring. >> So they have to do three MCCAST now. So they have the civics, they have the math, and they have the ELA plus they're finishing their benchmark. But that is that focus work that I'm talking about that they'd have to go and make sure
that they're teaching those foundational le those foundational lessons and then seeing how the students perform >> and then revisiting them again if they're not getting it. Mhm. Because I think part of this performance thing to me in that those two grade levels, you
are starting now to get how many teachers versus the number of teachers you had before, you're moving a lot more. And so it's not only and you guys say it if if I'm wrong here, but I think then you also have to have executive
functioning skills that are much higher. And I think some people, you know, keeping track organizationally, keeping track with the work, the different ways of teaching, all of that. I think some students if that's missing that it might
be something we want to look at that we just pro give them you know just a couple of sessions on it or whatever to start off the year because I a lot of people tell me this when my child gets to that seventh grade level they fall
behind uh and the reason they do is because they just aren't organized enough or they're not doing the work when it's supposed to be handed in that type of thing. So, are we doing anything else that helps there? >> I mean, they do they do go over this
with them. They work with them. They also are going from a two-teer team to a four teacher team, >> right? >> And the teams work together to try and organize the students. So, they do that type of work. I just don't know if that's why they're not performing in math or >> not even just in math, but overall,
>> right? >> Yeah. I wanted to ask one more factor around the math performance at McCarthy. Um I know there is one big shift that happens in seventh grade and that students historically have had three different levels of math
>> um that they could be kind of sorted into for the seventh and eighth grade levels. I have heard from my son's teacher that that is shifting this year and they're they're reconsidering what the requirements are to get into the different ones. um that the the new head
of math is is looking at changing that. Um and I was >> Oh, you're talking about the criteria. >> The criteria. >> I thought you were saying like they're not going to have the three levels. I'm like, >> "No, no, no. The criteria is shifting." >> Okay. Yeah. >> Um and I was curious if that is at all
in response to some of the data that's coming in. I guess my question is, >> are we tracking how those different cohorts of students receiving a different math experience in seventh and eighth grade are doing, you know, related to the broader school
performance because I would imagine those students are getting very different learning experiences. And you would assume that the students in the honors track or accelerated track would be more likely to get meet and exceed scores, but I'm curious if that is
holding true and if the gaps are broader than they should be for other students. >> Yep. So they have um so they have the excel the honors accelerated math and then they have um grade level math. >> I think what they're and don't quote me on this because I will uh confirm with
the math coordinator. I think what we're seeing is that more students were being put in grade level math that probably should have been in an accelerated math. Right. >> So I think there's the criteria change that you're hearing is because I think students are being placed into something that they could actually be placed into
a higher class. Right? they're being put into a grade level class, they probably belong in accelerated class. So, I think that's the criteria change >> and that does that does change it because it's the pacing, right? So, because your honors students are going to get into algebra 1 in 8th grade, >> instead of waiting until they get to
high school to take algebra 1. So, that's that how that track works. So, I think what they're doing is making sure that the students are really placed. And then if those students are in a grade level math that they actually are working more and spiraling back on those foundational math skills rather than
continue on because to continue on it's not going to help if they don't have the foundational skills. That said, has there been any thought about almost like an opposite consideration of if the students at that um kind of grade level math class
um if there is a need to help the students that are let's say in that group move out of that low lowest performing bracket? Is there um I know you mentioned that there are certain like focus standards and things like that, but
given the correlation between students who take algebra in 8th grade and people who experience success later on in high school, has there been any consideration of I don't mean accelerating everybody, but um setting more students up to be ready
to do some of that more accelerated course work in ETH. >> So collapsing a level. Yeah, maybe. I mean, I don't I mean, I'm not the uh >> No, I know educator, but I'm I'm just curious if there has been any dialogue around that, and it may depend on where the gaps we wind up seeing in the data
are, but >> it that does come up. It's it's a it's a debate. There's a lot of conversation around it, but I think that is something that has to be looked at, and I think that's what the math coordinator is looking at is that why are so many kids in here that
actually should be here based on some of the data we have. So, I don't know if we'd go to a full collapse of a level, but it is out. It's never It comes up every year, >> right? Other questions on the MCCAST results? >> There's my question slide. I just want
to make sure you >> I had one, but >> Oh, half of it's coming up. >> I had one. It's not 100% related, but MCCAST used to be our graduation requirement. And just recently, the state came out with their visions of a graduate, and it made big hoopla, but
what does it mean? and where are they going with it? I mean, it's not really graduation requirements. It's just I don't know like >> No, it's a it's it's a great question. Um, so our high school goes through an ask process which you've heard about and it used to be um vision of the graduate
used to be called um 20th 21st century learner, right? We used to have a definition of what's a 21st century learner and that has now shifted to the vision of a graduate. It is really just about like what do we envision to see students when they leave high school? do we like what are the um social skills,
what are the academic skills, what are the civic skills. So that is what the vision of the graduate is about like we as a district expect our students to be able to be global citizens that can you know work collaboratively those some of those almost like vision statements. So
where it's a little bit of a confusion is we're following the NEAS process and we actually have a small working group that's refining the vision of a graduate but then the governor has her working group of a vision of a graduate. So we're waiting for that information to come out and we're trying to figure out
do they get melded together because I feel like NAS has a process. This is this is the discussion at the high school level and we're going to talk to our me ask rep when we when we meet next but the high school's on this track to come up with a vision of graduate and the governor's on this track. Do these tracks meet
>> and where how does that track play into graduation requirements? >> It doesn't right now. >> No, but that's what they're saying about it. But eventually we'll come up with the graduation requirements based on this. I'm like, well, how's this going to tie into that? And then they have a graduation requirement group and it's but in the meantime we had to come up
with a seed requirement that you voted on and we have to upload that to Desi. So we're all kind of in limbo right now and we're just kind of going with what we've voted on how we're working through it >> and seeing where this governor's work is coming because those are actually two separate groups.
It's very confusing. >> Very confusing. That's why you asked, >> right? because even after you had uh voted on it, they want us to upload like what our process is for it. I'm like, this is our process, but we will we will follow suit and we'll see how this works out. We're going to be doing this together. >> Okay. So, we don't have to do anything.
Right now, you don't have to do anything right now. Graduation requirements the same. Yep. >> The high school's going to continue on the vision of a graduate work that they're doing until we're told differently or if we have to do some type of um >> grouping together. Okay. We'll hold hold
hands and do it. Well, the good news is we have teams that can do this. So, we have like an NAS team. We have subgroups that are working on this. So, there are people to do the work. >> So, right now you have nothing to do. >> All right. That's my I you know, I want to make sure we didn't have to make any program changes or graduation. Okay. No, we don't have to change any of our
graduation requirements or our CD requirement that you have voted on for students taking those classes. >> Perfect. Okay. >> All right. Any other questions on the MCAST? Dennis for a future meeting. Just thinking that um it would be good a few
months from now to know given these results >> what then each school decided to do even if they address it to us in their presentations or whatever they do. But just for example what we just talked
about looking at um the interventionists more interventions going in maybe into Harington and so on. Where are we at with that? Seeing what's happening with um you know the grade 8, grade seven to grade 8, if anything else has happened
this year that may address these kinds of concerns that we talked about. Just a bit of an update. >> Um cuz you know we get this wonderful data but then what happens during an entire year? >> Y >> um yeah that would be great. >> Would that come out in each of the school improvement plan?
>> Have to be right. It would be in the school improvement plan and it would also be, you know, they whatever they pres like what they're presenting on. >> Yeah. Okay. Cuz we did get a cop, you know, the school improvement plan. So hopefully that would be >> Oh, yeah. They would have they but they would probably not base it off of MCCAST because we don't get it in time. It
would probably be off of um I Ready. >> Okay. Because what happens is maybe the improvement plans going to say, well, we're going to hire these number. But you're saying it's very difficult to get interventionist in mathematics at a particular current interventionist.
>> So what actually happened during the year? Did we were we able to do it? Weren't we able to accomplish it? What happened? So that you know we can try to figure out I mean maybe we need to budget differently or do something differently that helps more to you know
change the academic. Um it's the most important. It's what we do. >> Right. >> That's the whole kind of purpose school. >> Yeah. >> Last I checked. >> All right. Any other thoughts on MCCAST or any? >> Okay, we'll move on to strategic plan.
>> Sure. So, um do you have this one? I can just start to talk. >> Have it. You keep talking. I'll >> um So, just to share the uh some strategic plan work for you. Um Tessa is back. So, uh Tess is our contact from DM Group. Um she is back and we're
transitioning. Uh Maggie helped us last year. Uh Tessa is now going to be our point again working with Hannah. So we're thrilled that she is back. Um we had our first kickoff meeting last week with the different strategic plan groups because at the end of last school year, if you can believe it or not, we're already going into year four of the
five-year plan. So it goes very quickly. But we um internally the admin team had taken a look at the different actions and initiatives at the end of June before we left for the year. And then when we got together for our um summer retreat, uh we also took a look at the different initiatives that were going to
align to the work primarily again based on the I Ready information because we didn't get the MCCAST information until the fall. But um we wanted to see if there were different initiatives that were started that were going to continue, were there initiatives that were complete that were going to end or were there any new initiatives? And we
basically went group by group to update our um strategic plan for the year. So as Tess would do well just to ground us in the work um you know we have this overarching um group that meets regularly every six weeks or so to keep us on track um broken down by the five
different priority areas academic achievement equity um primarily special ed work um seal human capital and operations and facilities um again between June and now is when we take a look at the um the map itself we
figure out our initiatives as I just indicated and we're really going to start shift ing between now and the end of the school year into um all the implementation and then the progress monitoring. Um everything ties back to the initial u mission, vision and value statement that we put in place when we
launched the strategic plan with our theory of action, our priority areas. And again, this has been I think very helpful in kind of guiding the work in the district and as we'll see later, a lot of the school committee work and um obviously the administration team's work is aligned to this plan. Um so when we
met we and I advanced it. It didn't work. >> Okay. When we um met last week with the uh group to review everything, we asked you can go forward one more um we asked groups to kind of report out exactly where they were at. So on academic achievement, there's a couple of initiatives that are obviously
continuing. Um they're going to have a new look uh this year, continued work on some of that mastery work with the seventh and eighth grade in particular. And then as we mentioned in the subcommittee um one of the things that Linda and the teachers had noticed is needed emphasis specifically on the
writing practices. So that got added as a new initiative for this year but again it's it's not like a completely different thing. It's something we always worked on and it aligns with the um the overall um goal and priority area for the year. So um one of the things that we also do is we take a look each
year at our um rates you know our actual rates and how we accomplish things. We look at our targets from year to year we will adjust them slightly. As Linda mentioned earlier in the meeting too though um we have a little bit of an issue and I don't know like the next time we do the strategic plan if we may
want to have some goals that are actually like ranges that we want to fall within instead of just like particular numbers but we don't want to be reactionary and if a goal you know goes obviously if we overachieve one year we want to make sure we're still challenging ourselves sometimes we'll increase the goal a little bit for the
following year. um if we have a goal that we we didn't quite achieve, we don't want to just go dropping our target because we knew at the end of the five years that's what we were still looking on. So, I think it's okay to be, you know, up or down a point here or there if we're still making our progress. But, um we asked each of the
you can slide. We asked each of the different groups to uh to go through their um their areas to update their um their data. We again globally as we talked about when we had the meeting last week um over 80% of our uh initiatives um saw advancement even if
we didn't hit a target there was growth uh tied to each of them so that was excellent. Um the work is going to uh continue with with equity uh this year largely again using that third and eighth grade um levels as kind of our data points that we're um that we're
watching. There's one new initiative with um with the power group. We'd spent a lot of time in the whole roles and responsibilities of Paris last year. We're shifting now to focus a little bit more on the onboarding uh the induction and now the training program of the Paris. So that's going to be kind of a
crossover initiative between this group and um the human capital group because Diane and HR is going to work on that. Um we actually had the kickoff meeting yesterday with a representative group of paras that the union identified and some administrators that we identified to get
working on that. So, I'm hoping that that's going to be another um successful endeavor over the course of this year. Um our work in the district, um these are all just continuing. I think again they made really good growth in in certain areas. Um they're a group that
meets regularly to take a look at the different um panorama surveys and tools. They really do look um carefully at their data and uh I think they're on a really positive track. um human capital again and we talked specifically bless you about their
crossover new initiative that's going to be working with the equity group around parah educator onboarding induction and mentoring and um there are other initiatives we're uh continuing on into this year and then lastly in uh finance and not finance and operations operations and facilities um continuing
with our short-term capital planning which we're actually going to start at our next school committee meeting um you know we're still monitoring our buildings for uh cleanliness to apast standard. Um we were implementing our new work order system and then we have two new initiatives that also tie to uh
primarily the short-term capital plan, but it's um standardizing the um visitor management system that we now have in the schools because of the um the new secure entries uh that have been installed in each of the buildings. And then um Bill's worked very hard with the technology group around security
enhancements with the um emergency notification system. We're piloting that this year at Harrington. and it came out very well over the summer, but we want to uh make sure that we actually um like the way that the system's functioning, it's working properly. Uh because if we're going to implement that in other district in other schools in the
district, we want to make sure that we have standard protocols in place and that that's going well. So those, you know, while they are new initiatives for this group, I think they're manageable and they do tie to the work on the short-term uh capital plan, um which again we're going to be starting next next week. So, um, in a
nutshell, going into year four, a lot of it is continuation work, uh, among this particular group with some new initiatives that I think are going to hopefully push us over the edge a little bit on some of the, um, uh, the targets to help us get there by the end of, uh, June of 26. So, that is our strategic
plan update for the year. And again, um, Maria and Susan and Diana are going to represent us on uh, different groups when we meet, and you guys can kind of coordinate schedules. that draft schedule that I emailed out is is the final dates. So, those are the dates that we're going to have for the meetings, but um we appreciate your
contributions to those and and hope you're willing to continue. >> Right. Any questions? This being year four, when do we start to look at post this plan? >> Well, Dennis, we're just starting year four. We have to be >> I'm just saying I'm just looking.
>> I know. We actually I know we we did talk about that. It's amazing. We're already going into year four. So year five is a parallel year. So we're this year is going to be all just dedicated to these initiatives, but next year we're going to be launching the year five initiatives, hopefully bringing this to a close. At the same time, we're
going to start a process to develop a new 3 to 5year plan. So that'll kick off next fall. Um which I actually think is going to work well even just like timing wise for us and capacity wise because a lot of the work say for the building project is going to culminate by June.
So, by next June, we're going to have some several key um issues that are going to be decided. Our application's basically then going to be sitting with the MSBA for approvals before we get into schematic design and things. Um that all wraps up around May and June. Next fall when we come back, we'll have
our initiatives going for the fall. I don't think we're going to have to do the level of outreach that we did the first time, but we'll do an abbreviated version of focus groups for current, you know, staff, um, students at the middle and the high school level. Um, parents obviously certain groups like the LPAC,
the SPED pack groups along those lines to get their input and we'll spend um, next year five as we're implementing also developing the next plan. And then the goal would be by the spring of 207 to actually have the plan be launched to get us for three to five years.
>> So next year is going to be busy, but it's going to be a shift away from building while the designers working on the building project to us kind of honing in on the strategic plan. Great. might in the next plan the three years versus five years may actually become an
important thing because I just think that things are moving along a lot quicker and methodologies and tools and so on used in education that you might want a shorter term so that you can look at it again quicker
>> in evaluating I don't know but that's I'm not going to be here so but But honestly, >> no, but those >> say that Marie know >> those conversations will all be on the table because we're going to just have to decide what we want. I think, you know, when I look back at the five big
areas, I can't say that those five big areas aren't going to still be our work in the next plan, but it might just be refinement. It, you know, there may be just something new that we're thinking about. What, you know, academic achievement is always going to be work for us. Is there different grade levels
we might want to target or or things? Perhaps we'll have to get into that. You know, we're always going to be working around equity issues and, you know, trying to close the achievement gap between our special ed population and our general ed students. Like I don't see that changing, but there might be new things that kind of come into play. But I think it'll be the will of the
body, you know, when we get there and when we get the feedback from the focus groups, whatever direction it's kind of lending us in. I think we do maintain some flexibility within the initiatives that we offer each year. So, we always have that. But there is something to be said about, you know, whether it's a three or fiveyear plan. At least as a
district, we kind of know that that's where our focus is going to be in the relative short term. And that does help us from a budgeting standpoint, too, because as we're putting budgets together, we make sure that the budget is aligned to support the plan. And I don't think you'd want to have like a year-to-year plan because that would be
very difficult to budget for and for schools to really operationalize. Um, so I I don't think you'd ever want shorter than three years. We can talk about it, but I mean a three to five year plan I think makes sense. >> But that will be a lot of work next year.
>> Right. Any other questions on strategic plan? All right. We'll move along to uh draft goals for school committee and superintendent. So I thank the assistant superintendent for helping to always organize it and put everything in the
correct format and make it look pretty. >> No problem. >> Um you know a lot of these things again are carryovers. Um because we're still kind of basing our goals on the strategic plan. Um and there were a couple additional on school committee side um professional goals related to
like the building project and to AI. So I don't know if everybody's had a chance to look at them. Um we'll take some comments tonight or suggestions if anybody has them. Uh give them another couple weeks to to brew and then uh we can look to approve them for the next
meeting. So, any thoughts or comments on the school committee side? You I don't know if anybody's have a chance to read through them or compare them or >> I I did and I just wanted to say that I I think it's
it's a good idea that we have that professional practice goal around AI. I wonder if that goal should be strengthened where we make something around making a determination about how to move forward. I I don't want to say
that we will make an AI policy because we may choose not to, but um something that shows that we aren't just attending PD, but that we're turning that PD into a plan for how we will um determine a path forward around AI on
the policy side. Um, that was the only thing I was thinking. Um, was sort of strengthening that to be more of a an outcomesbased goal. >> Okay. >> I understand what you're saying. I thought that was included somehow
generally in the first one. >> Um, token deck review and update school committee policies. >> I see what support. Do you see what I mean? just thinking it's more generally there because there is the other policy too that we want to make sure we um
adopt on the digital technology and so on right >> yeah if needed yeah I mean I agree with you and I think it might even if it just traces back to the first goal you know and as needed um you know create any any implicated
policies >> take a look at the wording and then see if we can come up somewhere great Any other thoughts on the school committee side of things? Again, we're not going to vote them tonight, so we have another another couple weeks to look them over. And if anybody does see something as they look
through it and feel free to email me and uh we can make some adjustments and have people look at them before the next meeting and then hopefully be ready to vote on them that point. Good. All right. How about on the superintendent side
and similar type of formatting? >> Yeah, Linda helped me out with this one. And um so it's formatted similar. It just mirrors um a few updates to some of the work that we completed last year. Um you'll notice in the uh facilities and operations. I just added a couple that
relate to the business manager uh system standardization and the ENS system standardization. Um but the bulk of the work just uh ties back to the um initiatives in the strategic plan >> with the AC what is the my path program that you mentioned in the academic
>> that's that's the I ready >> you know but what that that's >> so what it is is that you take a diagnostic it put it levels where they are and then it gives them lessons to help almost like a building block to help them increase their ability to to meet those standards. So what are what
are we looking to push it more? I mean what's a goal? >> Yeah. So it's a goal because it requires you know timing at the school like at least for the for the one through eight students 45 minutes in math 45 weekly in ELA and 30 minutes at the K level. So
making sure those students are actually hitting the the time and passing the lessons because they could do as much time as they want but if you're not passing a lesson somebody has to do some reteing. >> Okay. I think again to Linda's point just kind of digging into the use it's extra
functionality we have within I Ready that we believe if it's if it's well used by um students and teachers it will help them. I think we'd like to see the usage improve um and actually show the uh students and the the staff that if the usage improves then here's what we
can expect based on I Ready scores which will correlate to MCCAST scores. Um so that's a a point of focus for the year >> and in the superintendent goals when we look at it is is the for example the meaningful meaningful integration of
technology in our curriculum when you use the word technology is that inclusive of AI what is that >> which one are you in >> I'm looking at the last one here but throughout when we're looking at a word
tech using a technology in a classroom integration all of that. Um, does that include AI? >> Yeah, I mean I I don't see exactly where you're you're um referencing, but I mean I would generally say AI is a technology that we're going to have to figure out
as a district, you know, how we're going to be using it like um and it was great that we were able to get that uh individual to sign on to the session with us in uh early November. I'll obviously be participating with you with that. I've invited Bill Silver as well um because we'll be actually kind of
doing the work in the district. But I would think AI is technology related and whatever we decide we want to move forward with like how we're going to actually implement it, how we're going to share with staff and students like the expectations and how to use it. >> I would uh I would say that that's included.
>> And looking to at the academic goals, I mean >> going full circle, one of the goals is seventh and eighth grade math, you know. So I think that's very very appropriate given what we just were discussing. So, >> right. >> Any other thoughts on the superintendent's goals? Any other things
you would like to see or any modifications? >> And this is something honestly over the next couple of weeks too. If you see anything, if you just shoot it to Dennis or I, I'm happy to take a look and you know, if if it's a rewarding or tweaking and you want something in or out, a different point of emphasis, as long as
it's aligned to something we're working on, I'm fine with it. Um, if you let me know, we're not expected to vote on this tonight either, but if you uh let me know, we can um review it, queue it up, and bring it back in a couple weeks. >> Okay. >> All right. So, if we're good with that,
>> I thank Linda for putting putting it formatting together. >> I can never forget to do. >> All right. Moving on to the uh meeting presentation schedule. Yeah, I just wanted to share the meeting uh presentation schedule with you for the year because I know a few people had
asked about when we're going to be having schools and different departments come in. Um so pretty standard. We're going to ask well we did ask the schools to try to focus on selecting um the first meeting date of the month for a school presentation and then the departments to come in for the second
meeting date of the month. That's why you'll see um some blanks. But um we're going to start actually next uh next meeting with the fine performing arts right down the line. Um, I know Maria, you had actually asked specifically for Sped um to be there. So, we're gonna have Sped present with CHIPS the because
Chips um on May 19th, Chips is the obviously the preschool program, but which is predominantly special education and she'll be able to actually kind of work from there to show a whole continuum of programs in the district from preK all the way to 12. That just seemed to make sense. Okay. >> So, that's why that's together there.
>> Great. >> I have >> Yep. Sorry. No, you were asking. >> No, no, honestly, sorry. >> Is this fixed? Um, in other words, have the is this a definite schedule? >> So, the schools and the coordinators are the ones that kind of pick these dates.
Okay. >> Something can come up and and like if something ever comes up in someone's personal life or if something happens in a school, what I ask them to do is just between themselves just flip it so that we can try to have only one per meeting and we don't get like doubled up. But, I mean, this is pretty much what they've agreed to at this point.
>> Okay, that's fine. I was just wondering if it was not yet fixed. I was going to say that given all the conversation around math tonight, I wondered if that one should come sooner in the year, but um if it was selected by the the folks themselves, I know this is outside of their regular hours. I don't think
>> there's, you know, there's nothing to say I I think I'd almost probably just leave it like this because I don't know what else it would affect, but there's nothing to say that we can't have another focus on a different evening if we have a topic that comes up that we want to have someone else in for just for an extra thing. Um, I mean, maybe it's just to talk about a particular
project we've got going on or a particular initiative. We could do that even outside the department presentation. So, nothing precludes us from hearing more from people, but this at least gets everyone on the agenda at least once over the course of the year. I think it would be good for me
personally, I would like to see if the schools, for example, at the high school level and the middle school levels and even at the elementary level, what they're offering in terms of extracurriculars, um, which would mean the clubs and activities and the leadership ideas and
all of that. Um and the reason I'm saying that is because I am getting a lot more and I don't know how every about everybody else but I am getting a lot more on you know um whether we are providing enough in terms
of stipens and so on for leadership leading the clubs um and and whether we have enough student participation. students still find some of the activities that they're participating in sufficient for preparation for moving
forward and so on. And I think as we incorporate more and more what's going to have to happen with the AI and so on the technologies >> that it's really important to have those other skills that are being developed through uh teamwork and relationship
building and all of these things that happen in these clubs and activities including sports. >> You I don't disagree. The only thing I would suggest is we really don't have extracurriculars at the elementary level, right? >> Because they start in in fifth grade. So, I mean, I definitely can ask Parker,
McCarthy in the high school. Yeah. Because they have the numbers and they can certainly report on what they do, but I just um we don't really do because of the age level, elementary, but those three schools at least I can ask to make sure they touch on it. >> They have extracurricular in the sense that they have their um student councils
and those things which do develop. So, >> Oh, you mean at the elementary level? >> They do. >> Yes. I thought you meant like only after school offerings. Do you mean even just opportunities during >> what they have the opportunities to develop those additional skills? Okay. >> That I think are becoming more and more imperative. >> Can I expand it then to be like
extracurricular or like student leadership opportunities, >> right? >> Okay. >> I'm getting quite a few of those. I don't know about everybody else here, but some people are approaching me about Okay. What's going on with that? >> Yeah, I can ask them to touch on that. >> That would be great. Thank you. All
right. Any other thoughts on the schedule? Any groups missing from the list that you looking to hear from? I think somebody's right here. >> Yeah, I know. >> Okay. >> All right. Uh if not, we'll move on to
the um the MASC resolutions. So, >> thanks Patrick. >> We have our >> yearly conference coming up in November. um part of which is um the delegate convention where they vote on various resolutions. From my understanding here,
it looks like there's only one new resolution and then like seven continuing resolutions. Um so we can go through them. I again hopefully everybody had a chance to read through the whole resolution. Um, I'll just read through like the therefore be it resolved and then we can uh have a
discussion and then we can take a vote and then after all said and done we'll we'll see if anybody is available to be there our delegate can then cast our votes um for that part of it. Okay. All right. So the first resolution is resolution one is removing BMI testing
from schools. Um and again just skipping to the be it resol uh resolved. Uh therefore be it resolved that MASC urges the removal of BMI screening requirements from all public schools and be it further resolved that MASC urges the express banning of BMI screening in
all public schools. So I believe I don't know how much BMI testing they do or they just if they ever even use it in schools anymore. I know they did back when I was school they did that but I don't even know if they it's still something that's being done. Maybe it's being done some places not others. Um but it seems like they want to get rid
of it which I get. I mean, it's kind of an outdated way of looking at body type, but >> um any idea what we if we do or not? >> I know that they do the screenings. I just don't know what they do with the information. We'd have to talk with um Peggy Gump, our director of school nursing, to find
>> I believe it's a state level requirement still. So, I think the advocacy that they're urging would be not only to >> discontinue its use, but to express expressly remove it as a requirement for all districts. Anybody have any thoughts positive or
negative or >> parents I think can opt their children out same thing even with the scoliosis >> right >> um screening so there's a lot of >> okay >> ability with that >> any >> there's a lot of discriminatory
thoughts to build into BMI uh I know that and um I don't know I just for me I think the data was gathered and nothing is done with it. >> I also think it's aside from what you said that it can be used for
discriminatory purposes. I don't think most schools are, but I also unless our schools are required to provide some sort of health related interventions
>> that become clinical in nature. I'm not sure what the benefit is from gathering that data in schools. Mhm. >> I feel less strongly about the banning of the screening, but I do feel like it should not be a requirement.
>> I agree. I don't think it should be a requirement. I think we'd be better off encouraging parents to keep regular health checkups with their um primary care physicians and their pediatricians than worrying about reporting what the BMIs are on kids. I just don't think it's worthwhile. Yeah,
>> it's already required that students, you know, pres present proof of a physical every two years, right? So, >> yeah, I have to agree with I, you know, the therefore be it resolved, I have no problem. The banning I I don't if they didn't have that that second sentence, I
I think I'd be fine with it. I mean, express banning of BMI. What happens if I don't know you're doing a health class and you're doing a you know unit on nutrition you want to talk about BMI as a measure you know as part of that I don't know
>> it's not well it's not saying you can't discuss what BMI is it's banning it as a universal screening and I do think >> as a universal screening it's been relatively proven to be an inaccurate way of measuring a student's health
>> right other thoughts on Okay. Why don't we take a motion to >> approve or Yeah. Approve resolution one and then we can go from there. >> I move that we approve resolution one removing BMI testing from schools as presented.
>> Second. >> Okay. Any further questions, discussion? All right. All those in favor of resolution one I >> I >> zero. Great. All right. I believe all the other ones are reauthorizations. I don't
think there's any other that one. So, they have one, two, three, four, five, six reauthorizations. So, these ones have been up in the past that have either been approved or not approved. I don't know >> um if they've been approved and then nothing ever went happened to them. So, they want to put them out there again or
maybe they were voted down before and they want to bring them back again. But we can go through them and again we can discuss and see if we approve of the continuing resolutions. Okay. So the the first one is regarding sanctuary laws for trans transgender students which I
believe we've seen this one before says therefore be it resolved the Massachusetts Association of School Committees calls on the great general council to join with other states in the passage of the so-called sanctuary laws to ensure such children and their families have the power of enjoying in safety and tranquility the natural
rights and the blessings of life as guaranteed by the constitution of the commonwealth. Well, who doesn't wish for that? >> For all children, >> right? >> So, any thoughts before we take a motion? All right, we'll take a motion on
>> um I move that uh that we approve Yeah. >> the uh regarding sanctuary laws for transgender students as presented. >> Second. >> Okay. All right. All those in favor? >> I I zero. >> All right. Next one is increase in the
maximum balance allowed by the special education reserve for fund. Um therefore be it resolved the Massachusetts Associated School Committees calls upon the Massachusetts legislature to amend chapter 40 section 13E by deleting 2% of the annual net school spending by assert
inserting the following 5% of annual net school spending. >> So I think this is the account we have right? Is this the one we have or no? Um >> the special education reserve fund. Is that the one we set up? >> Yeah, that's the one we set up.
>> So right now we can only take have 2% of our >> they want to put >> I I think the higher amount is a good idea because things are getting more and more expensive. >> Thank you. >> Have a good night. And from the description, it seems like other towns find it more tenuous than we have a nice
little thing on the side and we need an in case of emergency, you break glass, but it looks like other towns use a little bit more freely. So they just look for >> if you increase it from two to five, it only gives us more flexibility. It doesn't hurt. >> Doesn't mate. >> Oh, I think it's it's good. >> I agree. >> Okay. >> All right. We'll take a motion.
>> All right. I move that we increase uh we approve the increasing the maximum balance allowed by the special education reserve fund from 2% to 5% as presented. >> Second. >> All right. All those in favor? >> I. >> Okay.
>> Mr. John being here doing the second. >> All right. Moving on. The next one is membership of the on the board of education of elementary and secondary education. Therefore, be it resolved the Massachusetts Associated School Committees calls for the enactment of legislation to repeal the provision of
Massachusetts law that prohibits practicing educators and sitting school committee members from serving on the board of education elementary and secondary education. We have further resolved the Massachusetts Associated School Committee's calls for legislation to reconstitute the board of elementary and secondary education by including
members with expertise as licensed educators and members with expertise in public school governance. So I believe this one's been on before too. They just want to allow teachers and school committee members to be on the board which I don't necessarily think it's a bad idea. >> Makes sense to me.
>> There's way too many business interests that wind up on those kinds of boards. I think counterbalancing that with the practitioners and policy makers. Makes sense. >> Yeah. And I can assume this is the one that's been approved before, but then the state legislature probably didn't has not yet moved, >> right? Move forward.
>> So take a res. >> I move that we approve uh membership on the board of ele the resolution for membership on the board of elementary and secondary education to change as presented. >> Second. >> Okay. All those in favor? >> I. Great.
>> Right. Next resolution, preserving the local governance of Massachusetts schools. Uh, be it resolved that the Massachusetts Associated School Committee calls on the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to restore local governance and accountability to Lawrence and Southbridge public schools no later than July 1st, 2026,
recognizing that Holio was removed from receiverhip on July 1st, 2025. We have further resolved that the Massachusetts Association of School Committees calls on the Massachusetts Legislature to enact legislation to limit any future state takeovers to a term of no more than three years.
Your thoughts? >> Um I I know what they're saying. I understand has been in there for what, eight years, 10 years. >> They can't get out. >> Yeah, they can't get out. But again, I'm not I it doesn't impact me. Right. Right. >> I don't really have a position on this.
It's um >> I see both sides. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. And I think it's a lot community by community. >> I Yeah. Yeah. I think my main concern is that in when you look at the cases in recent years of state takeovers of local
school districts, there is limited evidence that there is actually positive outcomes, sustained positive outcomes in terms of student results, in terms of long-term sustainability.
Um, and so, you know, I think the the idea of a long-term dependence on that state, it it's not good for on anybody's account, I think, for this really long-term
um requirement of of them to follow state um leadership um state governance, sorry. Um because when you look at the actual data for how these districts, it's not like they improve more and more over the 8 to 10 years that they're
under receiverhip, you tend to see some gains relatively early on and then it peters out. >> Yeah, I would agree that I don't know if I like the first part where we're voting to tell the state to take Lawrence and South Bridge off because I don't think that's our prerogative to do that.
>> Yeah, that's true. you know, um, so that's where my concern would be there because I, you know, and I know there's, you know, I teach in Lawrence, so I know there's still issues in Lawrence. >> Yes. >> On a local level, too. And the state level and, you know, um, so >> I feel like the state has some
responsibility to have that kind of oversight >> on failing districts. I don't know enough about the data at all to comment on that part, but I am also a little concerned with >> just telling them to let it go. >> Yeah. Okay. All right. All right. We'll take uh
>> You want me to do it in the negative or? >> No, just do it positive. We can vote. >> I move that we um approve the preserving local governance of Massachusetts schools resolution as presented. >> Okay. >> Second. >> Okay. All those in favor?
One. All those opposed. Three and three. All right. Uh next one. personal financial literacy education be resolved. The MASC file legislation that would have the effect of ensuring that all students have exposure to personal financial literacy curricula and ultimately graduate from high school
with lifelong knowledge of how to be f fiscally responsible to avoid being deterred by financial wos. This legislation should ensure that students at various levels would benefit from curricula in Massachusetts public schools which would include content in personal financial literacy.
Okay. Well, we got to fit it in though. This my >> Bitcoin. Yeah. >> Um, yeah. >> Well, >> well, the I mean the irony to this one is that and I think it's good. I mean, kids should know about financial literacy and we do provide that through
different forums, but it's just ironic where most of the times the the group is saying we don't want to be told what to do, but then all of a sudden here they're telling districts what to do. Um, again, I don't think it's it's bad information or or I mean, kids obviously should get that and we do that in a lot
of our classes anyway. I think I'm just more curious about exactly like what the parameters they'd be putting on this are. You know, uh, is it particular grade levels? Is it a particular curriculum? Um, who teaches it? Um, it's just a little vague for me on that one,
but I don't conceptually think it's a bad idea, but that's just rather ironic. >> Yeah. The other thing is the rationale behind it. If you read it, it's about planning for college and so on. I think the financial literacy stuff is not only for that. It's so much more.
>> Um, and shouldn't be focused on only that. But >> well, it it does talk about other goals being best options for, you know, use of credit cards, securing personal loans, etc. >> I think for me, the reason I do support
this aware that these it's not like we're approving a law. We are approving advocacy which results in many different things. But um I think the reason I'm in support of this is because there's a lot
of research showing how inequitable students access to support around financial planning is. Students who do not have parents who were college graduates really struggle with financial planning around college. um and other
financial planning is less likely to be available to them um because of access to the people who have that expertise around them. Um, so I think by establishing an expectation that every student in the Commonwealth has access
at some point in their career at in that school district to support around financial um, literacy is I think a critical goal. I do think it's important that this it does not mandate
when or if it needs to be a full class or credit bearing course or anything like that. It's saying that they should ensure that there's exposure to personal financial literacy curricula and I think that gives enough flexibility for districts to do that in a variety of ways.
>> Right. We'll take a motion. >> I move that we um support the personal financial literacy education um provision here as presented. >> Second. >> All those in favor?
>> I 4. I believe this is the last one. Um, establishment of a regional school committee assessment reserve fund. Therefore, be it resolved that the Massachusetts Associate of School Committees calls upon the Massachusetts legislature to enact or amend legislation which permits municipalities
to establish a regional school committee assessment reserve fund. That's all it is. >> So, I'm just making sure I understand this one fully. This was the one I struggled the most to understand. Maybe it's because I have the no background in financial literacy, but
um the >> ironically, >> right, um uh this is giving the regional school districts the ability to create a reserve fund. It is
not setting aside a reserve fund from state funds. Is that correct? >> I read this differently. >> Okay. Now, and I could be off base. I think what this is doing is allowing municipalities who feed a regional school district
>> that the municipality could have a reserve fund to be able to offset like spikes in tuition. >> So like a town of Chelmsford could establish a reserve fund if they wanted to >> to help offset like Nshoba because we send kids to Nshoba and it's all based
on the number of kids who get admitted one year. Now, we're pretty fortunate that it's relatively flat and it and Paul's able to budget for it. It's not like huge spikes, but I have to think statewide, you know, there are some smaller communities that maybe in a given year, if you have six or eight or
10 kids that go to a regional school that you didn't budget for, that could be pretty substantial moneywise. >> So, if the municipality, they don't have the ability right now to have a reserve fund for that. Well, this would allow it to happen. And so if they wanted to kind of squirrel aside if they had free cash at the end of the year and they wanted
to put some money into an account that could help them just offset a big spike in um in regional assessments. That's my read of it. >> So it is in but I was correct in that it's enabling any given municipality to to set that aside. It's not
>> advocating for the state to set aside. No, no, no. It would be the municipality in their own just being able to kind of have that kind of a reserve fund, not the uh not the state. And it doesn't go directly to the regional school. It just allows the municipality to tap from it in an extraordinary year.
>> And it has to go to the municipalities legislative body for acceptance. >> Yeah. >> Right. Yeah. So like for us, the select board would have to be in agreement. It would have to go to town meeting, right? Meeting would say yes. And then that could be a fund that they could, if they
wanted to, put money into. It's almost like a special ed reserve fund. We have money there just in case of an extenduating case. >> I'm just I don't know enough about this at all, but I'm wondering if it's even speaking more toward true regional >> school districts like Actton Boxboro.
The two towns have to come together and they have to equally put money into their budgets for their high school. Grant Dun Dunstable. There's quite a lot of um regional districts where at a certain grade level there's now a regional school. Maybe it's to make sure that they're prepared to fund that in a
more equitable way. >> Well, I don't think it's to fund in a more equitable way, but it could to your point. I mean, if one of I don't know these communities enough, but like if one community was having a difficulty adding on or the spikes were high, maybe they could have a fund that they could
use it to like smooth things out a little bit. But um I honestly don't know enough about this because it doesn't directly pertain to me, but that's just my read of it. I think it's just allowing the municipality the flexibility to be able to do it. It's not saying that they have to do it. Y >> it just gives them like a tool if it
ever got approved. >> And this clearly must have come from um districts that feel that need. >> Silver Lake >> in the Silver Lake region, >> but it might others may have the same. Right. Right. >> Yeah.
All right, I'll take >> I move that we um support the establishment of a regional school assessment reserve fund as presented. >> Second. >> Okay. All those in favor? >> I I zero. >> All right. The other thing is um we need
a delegate to go to the um delegate convention. It it is on Friday. >> When is it? >> At 3:15 of the conference. >> I know I personally I'm going Wednesday, Thursday. I will not be there Friday. I don't know if anybody else is planning on being there Friday at that point in
time and if you would be willing to serve as a delegate. >> I want to be. >> You want to be? >> I don't I didn't Are you doing it again this year? Are you ready? >> I will be at the conference again this year. I was planning on leaving after lunch on Friday because I have some
things coming that weekend. So it if nobody else can do it, I can give people an answer at a later date, but I could not commit to doing it today. >> Do we have to take a vote today on it? >> No, we we have to do it by the 20. Get our delegate in by the 20some.
>> I'm sure they would even take it later. >> I I that's why I wanted to get it on now, but I think we a little bit more. >> I think we should nominate John. >> Well, I think Well, he did say he's going to go for four days, right? >> All right. Well, we can wait if you want
to check your you know yours. We'll check for the chips fall on a few places that I can't >> if Yeah. >> Is there if we can't go if we don't have someone that can go. Is there a way to just like record your votes? >> I don't know. >> I would I would take a guess that the answer is no because let me tell you
almost every single thing changed dramatically >> while we were there last year. In fact, I was going to advocate that whoever is designated should be given the leeway to um in as much as possible within the integrity of our votes potentially shift
their vote based on changes made to the resolutions. Almost every resolution goes through a huge change before it's ultimately voted on. >> This is why I asked if you were going to be there cuz you're now an expert. >> I don't know about that. I definitely got an education in it last year though
and there were definitely several instances where I truly didn't know how I should vote to uphold the integrity of what our intentions were as things shifted. Um, and at the end of the day, everybody just turned to me and just said, "If it's shifted dramatically, just vote what you think is the right
answer." Um, but I felt weird about it because it was different than things we resolved at times. So, I I would just say whoever is going, we should add that sort of explicitly. um permission to interpret, you know, what is most in
alignment with our committee's decision. >> Makes sense. >> All right. So, we'll hold off on that till next meeting um until John's here and then, uh we'll go from there. All right. Very good. Um next is a new policy. You want to
>> Yes. So, I'll give you the overview and um I actually mentioned to Dennis I looked back at our policy manual and the way that we're actually supposed to approve like new policies um is to put them on a couple of agendas. So, um the first time it's on an agenda is just for
discussion purposes. So, that's why I just labeled it discussion. Um so, I'm just going to give you an overview. No action tonight on the policy, but I'll put it on for the next meeting and then that's considered the action meeting. um just to kind of get in a little habit of um the way we do brand new policies. So
um we all got literature from MASC and the state not too recently. It was right towards the beginning of the school year so it must have been early September about changes to the whole um CTE admission uh process which affects like Nishoba Techch which is our sending
school. So, a little bit of background. Um, we have a very good relationship with NO Nshoba Tech. Um, we have some of our eighth grade students every year select that as an option and you know they go they're very well serviced and they have a good experience. Um, there's eight member districts in Ashoba and uh
we work with Denise very well. So, I guess we're not the test case for this. I guess there are other um schools in the state where the school district, the sending district and the tech school don't necessarily get along. So they don't um share information about kids.
They don't promote each other's events or opportunities and things like that. So the legislature last year actually um put a new um law, new regulation in effect, and that's what this is the result of. It basically says that we're considered the sending district, but we
have to um work with NOAB. And what Denise did, she was super. She called the little convening of all the eight districts. Um gave us a little bit of the background. We developed kind of a draft policy all amongst ourselves that conforms with the um the reggg and it
basically just calls out you know what offers how we're going to share information from our to our eighth grade even I think sixth seventh and eighth grade families um about their option if kids want to go to the tour they can so this just kind of delineates that whole thing um we have to have an actual
policy to that effect we have to submit this to desi by sometime in I think November 1st the um school, the regional school then has to do something differently because I guess there was some question about some of not Nishoba but other districts
who they accepted in and was it really a fair process. So they actually have to implement a lottery now um to take kids into their schools. It can either be a blind lottery, it can be like a weighted lottery. they had to go through all kinds of criteria to determine that and they have to submit their policy to the
state that basically says here here's how we're going to do admissions. So, um I guess statewide there was a whole big thing going on that just didn't affect us. Um so we didn't honestly pay too too much attention to it. I didn't even think that as a sending district we had to do anything. I thought this was just going to affect Nishoba say having to
have a a lottery type thing. But lo and behold, we have to have a policy in place that just says how we're going to information share and how we're going to work with our tech school. So, long and the short of it, um Desi came out with a little um list of things that you had to meet. We met with Denise and the eight
districts kind of uh drafted this little policy. It's customized for Chelmsford because other districts might have other regional schools that they enroll to. Some have like two different schools that they enroll to. some off of different programs, but this is basically like a Chelmsfordized version
of the um of the policy that would meet the desirags and um it quite honestly it already delineates what we do. So it's not really a change in practice for us. Um so that's why it's um before you tonight just for information and for reading and happy to talk about it
tonight. We'll put it on for the next meeting as an actual action item. So that night you would actually vote to approve it. Can I So, if I'm understanding you correctly, so I I've seen in the commissioners weekly that this is now a statewide thing. So, >> uh, essentially what we are approving is
our version of a thing that every single school district is going to have to be approving on in one way or another. >> Um, >> the only thing I had a question about is my cap, which I I know what my cap is. It's a a technology platformbased
way for students to do long-term future planning. Um, do we use that at the middle school level currently at say McCarthy? >> Yeah, I actually talked to Shannon Bishoff about this. So, seventh and eighth grade. Yes. And it doesn't necessarily have to be the technology
platform. I think that's coming like the state I do think is going to try to push everyone down using this technology. It's basically like a um almost like like a rubric or like a lessons that kids need to achieve actually dating all the way back to sixth grade. So u we are
going to do a little bit of work um with Josh Black the principal Parker and some of the sixth grade but to integrate these different lessons that um are part of my cap. I do think eventually it's going to be formalized into actually using that whole software program and everything but for the time being you basically just have to more like the
curriculum. you have to make sure you're covering all the different lessons and things like that. >> Oh, yeah. So, it was my understanding, this is from several years ago and mostly with high schools, that um my CAP there were any number of platforms it could be used with, but that most schools integrated it with their SAS in
some way or another. Um but in any case, um that was my question is what whether it would be a shift for us to move that back to >> in practice. We're basically doing the required my cap lessons. We might actually just do a little bit more work with the sixth grade because the focus has been seventh and eighth right now.
Yeah. But it's not going to impact anything we're doing >> from the state side. It's sixth to 12. Yeah. Right. Okay. >> My question on this is about the pathways because we have pathways too. >> Correct. >> So um to me this is a bit confusing
because when you're so this is only for the technical school. >> This is just how we're going to relate to the technical school. Aside from all of this stuff that we do with the shower and like they have their open houses and things, we do the same through Chsford
High School. So Chumsford High School because they're already our kids, we don't have to share information with them. They have access to it. So they market to our kids, >> but our middle schoolers need to learn about those pathways and so on that we also offer. >> Correct. >> At this same time that they're being
exposed to this, >> correct? >> So that's my question is shouldn't the policy apply not only? No. We don't have to have we don't have to have a policy that pertains to anything that we we do. This is really just because of the whole >> Yeah. >> um regional school.
>> Okay. Because honestly, I think it's very important that students be given the option if you know if they're going to go into technology or engineering or whatever being being given the option of either going there or staying with our system. >> Correct. >> Which might >> So we're actually and I talked to Steve
about this. we're advancing like when we usually roll out like the high school um tours and discussions about these programs, our dual enrollment programs um all the different options jumps at high has to offer. This is basically um kind of kickstarted us to have that
conversation to make sure although we're not in competition, we want to make sure that the kids if they're receiving this information schools, but in the fall they're also receiving information from private schools, parochial schools, you know, all of those um >> right >> central all of those schools competing
for kids. So we want to make sure like Chelmswood High is also out there marketing. It's just we don't have to have an agreement saying we're going to share information with Chelmswood High. they already have the information and they can they can um educate and work with the kids already. >> But uh we definitely when the high school comes in even if you'd like for
their presentation because it's a little later I can make sure that they talk about how they're reaching out to the seventh and eighth grade families and make them aware of the programs. >> Yeah. Okay, that sounds good. I think here I feel like there's a distinction between what is actually being
implemented at the school level and what we need to do to just essentially conform with the state's new requirement around the policy. >> Mhm. >> All right. Any other questions? Okay. So, we'll have again two weeks to stew on it if anybody has any thoughts they want to email superintendent. Email me
ahead of time if you'd like, if there's anything you want, but it's pretty boilerplate and um again, Denise was super to work with on it and I think it covers us. Um so we'll take it up for actual action at the next meeting. >> All right. Lastly, some field trips.
>> We do. We just have two field trips. Um, speaking of student leadership opportunities, Maria, >> the uh McCarthy Middle School uh would like to take a select group to the student leadership conference at SNHU uh for just a day trip up to Manchester, New Hampshire in October. And then the
Chelsea High School has selected the location Atinson Country Club for their senior prom, which is going to be on June 3rd. Okay. >> Um, so just requesting permission for these two out ofstate trips. >> Here we go. and move that we approve the field trip by McCarthy Middle School
student leadership conf by students of McCarthy Middle School to the student leadership conference on October 16th, 2025 at Southern New Hampshire University, Manchester, New Hampshire. >> Second. >> Okay. Any questions about the field trip? All those in favor?
>> I. Okay. I move that we approve the field trip by Chsford High School students to the senior pro class of 2026 June 3rd 2026 at Atkinson Country Club in Atkinson,
New Hampshire. It's their prom >> second. >> Okay. Any questions on the prom? >> No. Did they go there last year? >> No, that was two years ago, I think. >> Okay. Yeah, it's a nice venue. That's why I asked a nice venue. Uh, we have a second. All those in favor? I >> I zero.
>> I do think New Hampshire should be paying us. Every field I feel like every field trip that we approves to New Hampshire somewhere. >> Well, I know, but you don't see the ones we're going to amass because >> we only have there's probably a lot more
>> Starbridge Village stuff. Yeah, >> we're going to have to have the other states start uh competing. >> All right, I believe that's it. Um, any leazison reports? I um I went last night to the South Row PTO meeting. Um
and there's a lot of emphasis on gearing up for the pumpkin fair on the 18th. Uh sign right outside the administration building around that. Open to the entire community from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on the 18th. Um
they are also beginning to gear up for this year's fourth grade student council. they've already received a large number of applicants. Um, and every year that seems to be a bigger group. So, let's see if this year's class uh keeps that up. Um,
the school is has a team really diving deep into multi-tered systems of support um being provided at the school level to differentiate for different students who need different kinds of interventions. Um, so that has been a sort of
behindthe-scenes emphasis. Um and um for those who are following the fact that last year there was that big $20,000 prize that somebody got through the box tops program. They are focused. There is a separate committee working on
that that is focused likely on um play playground equipment that is geared toward younger kids because um some feedback has been that some of the younger kids find some of the more um acrobatic structures on the playground less accessible. So that may be a focus
for what they decide to do with the funds. Um so that's it for South Row. Um great meeting. Um they all felt curriculum night went well and they were really excited about the um updates um coming together really well in the front of the building for the the secure
entryway um and for the improvements around the roof that are expected to come um next year. Um the McCarthy and Parker PTO's have their first meeting this upcoming Thursday. So I'll report at our next meeting. >> Right. Anybody else?
Um, I went to Chip's PTO meeting last night. Um, their board is a all new on the board, so they're definitely feeling their way and how to run everything, but uh, they have plenty of, um, fun enrichment things going on, which is mo what they mostly do there. Uh, they just
finished getting their orders in for their spirit wear. So, if you have a child who goes to um Chips, they're having a spirit day on Tuesday, November 25th to wear your new gear or on Wednesday, December 10th. They have to
be really careful there because not everyone comes every day. So, they have to alternate what they do. Like one month they'll have something on a Tuesday and the next month they'll have something on a Wednesday so that everyone gets to go to at least half of the events. Um, so there's they really work with that very carefully to make
sure that it's um fair for everyone. Um, their picture retake day is November 13th. There was some confusion about how that would work with the little guys, but if anyone's listening and your child either did not get their picture taken or you would like to have it retaken,
that's when it will be November 13th. If your child doesn't attend that way, just let the school know and they'll have a time for you to come in and bring your child to get their picture done. >> Um, they were asking again if um there will be any funding from the
superintendent to help support um teacher appreciation events. So, >> depends what kind of mood I'm in. >> Oh, yeah. >> Yes. I got to get a message out to them. >> Okay. So, you'll get a message out to them. They were asking about that. >> Um, yeah. So they're working hard, >> right?
>> So I um I'm part of the wellness committee and we had our first meeting um this year. The wellness committee will once again focus on the fair, the wellness fair. So we the whole meeting really was a discussion of what we're
going to do in terms of getting that all going together. And this year it will be at the high school in the gym March 6th of 2026. um more multicultural inclusiveness,
that type of wellness activities. We're going to try hard to u promote presentations on that. Okay. For and I attended the CHS PTO meeting on October 1st um and got Mrs. Vatelli was there.
Oh. >> Um and Steve was not able to make it, but they always do a presentation by the principal. They had a very good turnout. Um, and they've got a full board, uh, including a couple of new parents on the
board, which is really nice to see. Um, and they had their first the pickle ball, >> uh, tournament, which really did not make a lot of money. Uh, but it was the first one and they learned a lot and they're moving forward. And um they also
have their first um they just had it their first staff um >> uh >> grab and go >> grab and go which I think went very well from what I heard. Uh they asked the same question that Sue got in terms of whether you're going to be
>> I forgot to send the email out but I'll get it out to them. >> Okay. So the staff appreciation is part of what they use that for and they are happy to implement it. Um they want you to know that and they always appreciate the help. >> Okay. >> All right. Um we already discussed the
visioning session that was held tonight. We have another one coming up next Tuesday >> and then we have a regular building committee meeting on the following Thursday. That Thursday, next week. Next Thursday. So >> lot of building stuff coming up. Um you already mentioned the public forums, right? >> Coming up. So the first one is on the
22nd. Um, just also to remind people that town meeting, >> yes, >> will be on Monday the 20th with a couple school items on it. Correct. >> Okay. >> I just look we have >> it's going to be a busy >> uh switch gear, special ed tuitions. >> I mean, it's like I just
>> Yeah, a lot of it relates to the town's free cash at the end of the year. uh the town manager had just recommended like where it goes. But um I want to say almost close to two and a half million was being recommended for the next phase of the McCarthy roof which would be significant for us because obviously you
can get it funded through that it can come off the capital list because one way or the other it's going to have to get done. Um then we have the special education um circuit breaker funding we talked about previously. Um so that's on there. I'm sorry gear. >> Oh the switch gear. They replaced the
switch gear. Again, the schools are just aging as far as u that goes, but they replaced the switch gear at McCarthy this past summer. Does it mention which school? >> No, I just I have the >> So, there was another uh school. I actually I don't It may be South Row because when they're doing the roof over
at South Row, I think there was a concern about the new power that's going to be required to tie in the solar panels. So, they might have to replace the switch gear for South Row. I'll find out for sure for you, but um every year I think they're going to try to upgrade some of the switch gear. Um it's basically the con the electrical
connection uh that comes into the building before everything gets out into the classrooms. >> Okay. So just this is 20th for those of us that are town meeting reps. Um if not, you know, we can still come in, >> right? >> We have voice for the schools if we want. Yep. Okay.
>> All right. Uh any other new items? Awesome. Okay. All right. We have no I have no emails of a comment. So I will take a motion to adjurnn. >> I move that we adjourn. >> Second. >> All those in favor. >> I thank you. >> Thank you every