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 meeting is being
livereamed by Chelsea Teledia and posted the CPS website for interested community members to act and watch. Inerson public participation will be taking place tonight in accordance with the chancellor school committee public participation policy. Anyone speaking tonight during the public input portion of this meeting notify the
superintendent's office that the desire to speak is provided with these guidelines. Final request written comments receive no later than 12 p.m. on the day of this meeting 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 ch school committee. First of order of business to approve our minutes for
our meeting on November 18th. >> Okay. I move that we approve the minutes of the regular school committee meeting of November 18, 2025. >> Second. Okay. All right. Any corrections on the minutes? All those in favor? >> I I >> 5-0.
>> All right. Next up, we'll hear from a Chelsea High School representative. >> Thank you. 16 Chsford High School students were invited to attend a National Merit Recognition Breakfast at CHS on November 20th. Congratulations to all of them. And a special congratulations to senior Jacob Lazar,
who is a semi- finalist at the National Merit Scholarship Program, and he is in the top 5% of Massachusetts seniors in academics. Cher beat Bill Rka on Thursday during the annual Thanksgiving football game. Special thanks to Bill Reka Superintendent Dr. Carrie Clary for coming to support CHS on Monday and
congratulate Chsford for the win. And winter sports have started up this week. The first days of practice and tryyouts being on Monday the 1st. >> Okay, great. All right. Anybody else have any good news to share? >> Um, couple pieces of good news. I mean,
yes, congratulations to our football team and um the play was amazing. got to see Oklahoma. If you didn't get a chance to see it, um if it's ever out again, I'd say go by. But it was great. It was great to see the kids. They did amazing job. Dr. Lang was um so kind to give
them a meal prior to their presentation. So, it was that was great, too, to be able to see them in like a different aspect and they were so appreciative. Um, one of the other pieces I want out there is just it's more of like a an announcement. So, the Special Education Parent Advisory Council, CPAC, you may
have heard of it before. Um they're holding a meeting tomorrow. It's virtual. So December 3rd and it starts at 6:30. There's going Leslie. Leslie, that is her name. Leslie Leslie first and last is the project director for the mass CPAC and she will be there um
tomorrow night. So if you do want to be part of that meeting, please email Amy Ree at Reese Ajumps.k12. us for a link. >> Great. All right. Anybody else have anything they want to share? >> Not this time.
>> Nope. All right. So, we'll move on. Um, I don't think we have anybody registered for the first public comment. So, we'll move on to new business. >> Sure. So, the first up tonight is going to be our spotlight on our next school, which is McCarthy Middle School. And we have uh Jeff Parks, Dr. Parks, who is our principal and our new assistant
principal. I'll let them introduce themselves and one of our students to talk a little bit about um what's been happening at McCarthy this year. So, welcome Dr. Parks. Glad to have you. Thank you. Uh, thank thanks for having us. So, oh, I forgot my clicker. >> I would have just been a human clicker for you,
>> right? I know. I know. Thank you. >> So, here's just a a quick peek at what we're going to um what we're going to talk about tonight. First, let's uh let's meet the team. So, I'm Jeff Parks, principal. >> My name is Lena Felzani and I'm an eighth grader on student leadership. And
I'm Chris Cowan. I'm the assistant principal. >> So, um, I did keep Kate Dwire up there. Kate is one of our other eighth graders. Uh, she wasn't feeling great. So, but she was going to be here, so I thought it was important to keep her name up there and give her a little shout. Uh, hopefully she's at home tuning in with
the thousands of other viewers through CTM. So, so hello Kate. We'll see you next time. Uh before we jump in, I just wanted to um you know, make a quick statement that now that we're in our third year of the reconfiguration. Um you know, every year has its challenges
and you know, some wrinkles that we had to iron out the first couple years, but I can say with confidence we're we're heading in a great direction. Um the staff's melding together nicely. Just the the feeling of the building is is improving. I think the students are all used to being together five, six, and
now, you know, it's all they it's kind of all they know. there's no more kids coming from the different schools now um that we're experiencing. So, uh you know, wasn't without some challenges that we expected, but we said all along, you know, three years for the positive change that you want to have happen and and here we are. And I, you know, do
think we're really moving in a good direction. So, I just wanted to mention that um before we get into our uh the improvement plan a bit. So, I'm going to highlight two of our um school improvement goals. The first is focusing on student achievement. We're continuing
with the spotlight on mathematics um in line with the with the district plan. We'll be using I Ready as our you know kind of measuring stick in the spring as we go through in order to try to meet this goal. We're using the um strategies that we learned through our partnership
with the DM group last year. We had a breakthrough results program where the math teachers were working collaboratively weekly setting short and long-term goals and then really um ensuring that the instruction was being delivered consistently in order to try to help meet those goals. So, we're
taking what we learned from that and implementing it with our staff now. And in order to make that happen, we're leveraging some of our common meeting time, which is a bit of a new feature in the schedule. And I'll talk a little bit more about that later on in the presentation, but really trying to use the time that we have where all of our
teachers are off um to to have very specific focused meetings and we're really working towards um capitalizing on that time. And then the second uh goal that I'll highlight is around our school climate. Um,
in addition to keeping, you know, smaller teams that we started as part of our schedule last year with a goal of helping students feel connected, helping students feel welcome at school, and improving, you know, positive behaviors overall. um we're continuing to have
students um when they do make mistakes where you know we have some clear-cut consequences that happen as far as like you know the behavior stuff but we're being very deliberate and more intentional about processing with the students. So things like you know reflection sheets and really having
discussions with staff members whether it's you know me and Mr. now and or some of our other professionals, but really bringing other people into these discussions when things do come up um is something that we're going to continue to focus on. And I do think it has been helpful. So, not just a student does A
and gets B and then we send them back to class the next day or you know the ne the next period. Really trying to to dedicate some time to helping kids work through things so to help improve their decision- making um you know moving forward. So, it's always going to be a work in progress when we have a little
bit over 800, you know, 12 to 14 year olds in a school. But again, um I do think that we are moving in a in a good direction with that. And uh we're seeing some some very positive things um from from the huge majority of our students and we we just want to continue that
trend. So, speaking of our students, instead of saving the best for last, we decided to put Lena in the middle. So, I'm going to turn it over to her now and she's going to talk about our leadership group a bit and and her experience with it. So, you just hit that one if you
want to. Okay. >> Um, so, as I said, I'm on student leadership and this year we have eighth 12 eighth grade students that were selected by McCarthy teachers or nominated by the previous eighth grade students. We have meetings every once in
a while and we talk about fun activities for our school or things we should change. We got to go to a workshop at SNHU to help us become better leaders. And this year we'll help select the next group of student leaders for next year.
Um, so as I said, our group meets every few weeks and we discussed the McCarthy team Olympics, which we had last year as well and I think the year before, but instead of just one field day and we brainstorm new activities and pep like
pep rallies and spirit weeks. Um, as the leadership committee, we also collectively decided that school spirit-based activities would be great from the McCarthy community, like pep rallies and spirit weeks. They help get people excited about being part of the
McCarthy community and dances like instead of waiting for the end of the year, we plan to have an additional event for the eighth graders after winter vacation. >> Project 300 is one of the most significant giveback events we have. In January, our school does a huge can
drive we call Project 300. We ask McCarthy students to donate as many cans as they can. We then take these cans and donate them to the Salvation Army for those who need food. This drive is run by one of our eighth grade teachers, Mr. Gallagher.
Thank you. >> How did it go this year? >> Sorry. >> Yeah, I'll take that back. >> How was project 300 this year? So, we are we made a little bit of an adjustment um two years ago. Actually, we had it
around the same time two years ago, like Novemberish. And then last year in meeting with um with the group, we decided that we wanted to move it back a little bit. And so, we're just kind of getting geared up now and we're actually officially going to do it in January. The thinking is in in talking to some of
the um to the you know to the Salvation Army and to different areas like including including the Trump food pantry. November, December, the giving season, everybody is is really chipping in and you know and and helping out. um and
after the end of January, early February, their supplies tend to really kind of um deplete and they rely on the folks that who are going weekly, you know, with things like that. So, we wanted to try to target a little bit of a later time um to make sure that they
we can at least like help kind of sustain those groups for a little bit longer. Um it came you know through some discussion and thinking about it and it took some of us a while to get away from well no project 300 is always these are this is when it is and we just had some
talk well you know maybe it's time to evolve that a little bit um and move it back. So we weren't um not only you know competing with all of the other things that are happening but again trying to support the groups that are feeding um all of our families that that need support and try to sustain that a little bit longer.
>> Yeah. That's great. >> Yeah. That's good. >> Thank you. Um, so and then as as far as I just wanted to, you know, for you and actually for you too, Patrick, like taking advantage of the opportunities to come to these type of meetings and speak publicly, I know it can be
nerve-wracking for for students and and people to get up and do these type of things, but it's only going to make you, you know, a better leader down the road. And so I encourage you to take advantage of all these opportunities that you get. So nice job and thanks for coming. Um, >> nice job.
>> So, we're going to shift into Can I steal this back, please? All right, >> that's us before we loaded up the bus. >> There you go. >> It's pretty cool, right? >> It was cool. >> Yeah, it was a great It was a great day. >> All right, so before we get into um you know, some of our some of our updates,
uh, I'm going to introduce um one of our new staff members and and Chris is going to just tell you a little bit about himself and um and welcome to the team, Chris. >> Thank you. Thank you. And if any of this is sounds redundant, um, forgive me. There was a little bit of an article posted. I did not know
they were coming that day, or else I would not have worn the sweater that you see in the picture that is currently on the website. Um, so again, it might sound a bit redundant, but it's a bit more reflective for me to do this now being um, I think about 3 months in. Um,
a little bit about my background. I started off um, at what is now Valley Collaborative a long, long time ago. So, I was I sort of dipped my toe into the world of special ed without really even knowing it. And that became kind of a
calling card, a passion for me. Um, I left um Valley and went to Bria Public. I also went to Burka Public. So, thanks to all of you for letting me have this job here in Chelmsford. Um, I'm drinking the Kool-Aid now and I live here in
Chelmsford now. So, I've come full circle there. Um, so I went to public. um and sort of um created a specialed um sub-sepparate program for students with social emotional needs and behavioral challenges. Um implemented that pretty
successfully at the time. Had a brief stint following um an administrator at Belka in Malber as a team chair. Realized I very much missed the hands-on student work and also realized I didn't love being a team chair. um was afforded
an opportunity to come back to what is still currently collaborative to sort of revamp um a struggling program. Um as the principal at the time loved the work that I did um little bit of turnover as
people get a bit burnt out in that environment sometimes oftenimes we get younger sort of aspiring teachers who are looking to ultimately join public schools. Um, fast forward eventually I kind of had that same bit of a um desire to try
something new again. Coincidentally, I went to um well maybe ironically I went to St. John's High School in Shrewsbury where they don't even have special ed. Um but they did find that appealing because special ed or not, some of the same challenges and and needs exist in
both private and public school. Um after working there as an administrator in student life um for a variety of reasons I was appointed interm principal for two years really enjoyed the work. Um it was a little bit of a hike obviously in
Shrewsbury and uh some changes in leadership that allowed or or made me kind of want to see what was out there again. As luck would have it um this job opened up and I I grew increasingly excited about it. I had to kind of keep on the down low
from my son who I didn't who goes to McCarthy right now. I didn't want his head to spin if it wasn't a real opportunity. Uh it became one. Um and I'm blessed to to to work work here now, live in live in town and have students
or children in the district. Um, what I can say now that I wasn't able to say a few few months ago is that it dawned on me that this job in in this particular district at this time is um sort of a culmination of everything that I've done so far. Valley allowed me to be special
ed. St. John's allowed me, even though it was private school, to do some of the things that we do in a more traditional public school. um you know at Valley you might you know you might utilize group therapy or reality therapy and things like that
that are a bit more outside the box whereas working in a traditional high school allowed me to see what public school um is all about too. So we kind of joke that this is my Goldilocks zone. This is just right. Um and I love
working here. I think I'm very grateful for Dr. parks and the partnership that we've already formed. Um I in closing just a little bit about my style. My strengths are probably communicating with people, interpersonal communication, whether that's working
with students, uh parents, teachers, um I hope um and I want to make a difference in those areas among others. Um continue the good work with social emotional learning um and deis efforts here in the district and uh look forward to being here for a long time. So,
thanks to all of you for having me. >> Welcome on board. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, Chris. I I will say he when we interviewed, he checked a lot of the boxes. I was hung up on the Bill Rucker thing for a bit, >> but I just >> I got over it. >> If it makes you feel any better, my
wife's a mila, and so when she goes to things, she has to wear like half and half the green in the >> You're good. You're fine. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> You're going to make it. >> Um, so and then just a few other uh kind of staff highlights I wanted to point out. If you recall last year, um we I
made a a recommendation to reallocate one of our positions and we added a second supervisor of students. It ended up being uh Kevin Branco. Um and I am so appreciative of of his support. He's been doing an outstanding job. He gives
a great teammate um to us, but also to Mrs. Crowley, the other supervisor of students. I think it was a much needed position. Um, and we really appreciate uh the support in in making that happen. Um, he's got a great way with kids. He did that same job for about 15 years at
CHS before he went into private industry for a while and then ended up coming back into the into the schools to work with our kids. But he's just made an outstanding um splash so far and it and it's it's very very well used and and much needed. And I think that's one of
the reasons why for the additional support is that we're you know moving in a good direction. Um we also have you know some new teachers this year some new par educators that we have hired who who have been you know great additions to the school. So we're very excited for kind of that new perspective and a
different lens like like Mr. Coward is bringing as well. I mentioned uh briefly before about the adjustment to our schedule. So, one of the the new features and it's the same structure, but what we have this year, there's two opportunities per week for our where the
eighth grade teachers are all off at the same time. So, math, science, ELA, social studies, and our world language teachers are all off at the same time, twice per week. And that allows, before we had the teachers from one team, you know, two math teachers and two math teachers could work together, but never
all four. But now we have that opportunity twice a week. And that's the same for all of our core subject areas, which has been um which has been very helpful. And it also allows our coordinators to go in and support the work that the teachers are doing more regularly and not have to wait for department meetings or try to catch the
teachers at different times to relay messages. So, it's two built-in opportunities per week for each grade level, which is which has been it's proving to be to be helpful. We're still kind of getting used to um to how it's used and what the structure of the meetings are, but it is being used by
the teachers to to collaborate across team which is great. >> Uh if you also remember last year when I came to this presentation um I brought Julia Ganon. Julia Ganon is our social worker at McCarthy and she introduced
the STEP program which was new to us last year. Julia is on maternity leave enjoying time with her with her family. So, uh, but I did think it was important to provide an update and, uh, Mr. Con is going to do that for us and give us an update on on the STEP program. Now,
>> thank you. So, uh, very briefly, during my time at Ricka High School, um, we we did a a version of STEP. We just didn't know we were doing it. Um, so that was kind of heartening to see that we're doing it again here. Um, I'll also share
that at St. John's more officially um it is a step program. They called it bridge there. So I'm pretty familiar um with it as both sort of the um facilitator of it in Berka and also um from a little bit
more indirectly at St. John's. I think it's important to point out with programs like this that it it is not special education. Certainly um a student with disabilities could be in it, but that is not a requirement for the STEP program. Um for for me, and I
know some of this is a refresher, um students that are in our STEP program or um afforded the opportunity to be in the STEP program are there to kind of ease with transitions in a lot of cases. Whether it be it's it's a broad range, right? It could be anything from a
broken leg that kept you out of school for a few weeks to, god forbid, a tragedy in your life, um certain circumstances, depression, hospitalization, um variety of mental health issues, whatever the reason might be. Um you could qualify for STEPP. Um
STEPPP allows you to transition back into school. Um hopefully improving your attendance when otherwise you might not be going to school. and it allows you to kind of progressively get back to your classes. It's not one-sizefits-all. It's a very indiv individualized or customized
program that allows the student to return to school at a pace that works for them. Um they might be comfortable going to their social studies class but not their math class for example. Um they might be comfortable going to all their classes one day and none of them the next day.
Um, so it's again it's a little bit alleart in terms of uh the fit or what it looks like, what it what it's designed for each kit depending on what they're going through while in the step program. Um there are obviously um highly qualified people that are
either in the room or available to the room for therapeutic needs uh and academic needs. Uh, one of the crucial elements of it for those that are manning the room or the adults in the room is to overcommunicate with teams of
teachers and therapists so that a we're tracking where the student is from a safety perspective, but the teachers are in the know um as to the progress uh of the student, the needs of the student, and the pacing of the student to make sure that they're not going without
educationally. They still have access to to curriculum. Um, but teachers aren't left wondering, will this kid or will this kid not be in my class that day? Are they in school? Are they not in school? So, it sort of um organizes all of that and allows a student to return
at a pace that works for them. Um, and on that note, students could be in there for a week, students could be in there for a lot longer depending on what they're going through. Um, on the flip side, if a student is not accessing it, even though it's
available, we could come back to the table and discuss if it's the right the right placement or the right the right program for the student at that time. Um, but in the end, it's a it's a a room, it's a program that's available to students that are going through something difficult and trying to
transition back to school as best as they can. Okay. >> Um, your slide says that you have five students actively involved. Is that the highest number in a year or >> so? This is Yeah, this is only year two and if I remember correctly, I think we
had um closer to 10 last year throughout the course of the year. I do think like with the, you know, as the holidays come and the winter comes, we this if if last year is an indicator, we will see a spike in the number of students accessing the program. >> I see. Um, so this is, you know, where
we are right now as of, you know, the the end of November, beginning of December. >> Um, with students that otherwise may not be coming to school if they didn't have that support. And like, you know, like like Chris was was saying, >> it's really uh flexible. So, some
students might go for a period of day. Maybe they check in there during the day and then if they're having a hard time, we'll go back, you know, for for any reason throughout the course of the day. But it's really just provided a um a a good place for students to go where there is a highly qualified adult in
there who can help them kind of work through whatever it is that's happening. >> And it's not always, you know, just the counselor that they have to go to, you know, things like that. So, it's it has been very helpful, but I do I don't want to predict this is going to happen, but I do anticipate it'll probably that
number will continue to grow as the year goes on. >> Thank you. All right. And then the last is just a few pictures that I'm very excited about as well. So last year over April vacation, um, we had a extreme makeover
to the cafeteria. It came out awesome. It looked so cool. The kids came back and it was like it it was like walking into a brand new place. So here's just a little bit of um kind of an overview of some of the changes that were made in the front and back. If you're ever, you know, in the McCarthy area or you go to
a play or you you swing by for some reason, I would love to I'll take a walk down there with you if you want to check it out. But the whole place to get inside of it, it really looks cool. And so all of what you see, like, as you know, like the sides are essentially covered. I mean, all windows, but each
end just has like some really unique features that they they did a great job of. >> Yeah, it looks great. It was It was time. It looks cool. Um, and then I'm going to try to contain my excitement with the new street hockey rinks that we have that just got put in. Um, but the
old tennis courts and this has been, you know, kind of a work in progress for a long time, but you'll see that the that the rinks and are pretty much done at this point. So, there are going to be two basketball courts, two street hockey
rinks, and then one uh tennis court with a pickle ball overlay that's closest to the to the road. Um every everything is in the equipment is in. Like, as you can see, the boards were just put up over the last um you know, last two weeks. It looks great. Every day the students are
asking when it's open. I think the snow will help kind of slow them down a little bit because they want to get in it every day. in the spring the area uh all the paint still has to go so everything will be lined properly and it's going to look similar to what the the courts and the the um facilities
look like behind Chumpswood High. So, we're really excited uh for that addition. It's been, you know, it's been a while and a work in progress, I think, for a lot of people that were involved with this project longer than I have been, but I'm thrilled and it's coming out great. So, >> it's true. >> All right. So, that's a little bit of a
some updates on the inside, the outside, and some of the things that are happening uh at McCarthy. >> Any questions anybody has? >> Just going to ask Jeff, um what would you say uh we can do for park uh for McCarthy?
Is there something that you think needs additional support in um whatever for one of the things I have been the most concerned about as we look at our um academic achievement and so on uh has
been that transitional to the seventh grade y >> and um making sure that those students really are able to perform well through the eighth grade. And as we look at, you know, councils that are now going to have, you know, testing after each
subject and all of that in order to graduate from school, I think that it becomes even more important to make sure that that transition goes really really well. if if academically you see that there's something that needs to be done
and so on you know I think it would be important to let us know yeah >> um yeah what is necessary of course through Dr. and and also through um Jay all the time. But um just that I think
it's it's really a difficult time. 12 12 year olds to 14 year olds are going through a lot in life. Um and society isn't helping that much right now. So uh it would it would whatever we can do. It looks like
the supervisor of students was a very good idea. uh having one at each level and that seems to have >> it's made a difference. Absolutely. >> Made a huge difference uh which is wonderful. >> Uh facilities and all the improvements
in the facilities always helps makes you feel livelier and so much more. >> Y >> bringing all the staff together which you u mentioned y >> um I think is also extremely important and brings you to that level. And so now
the gist of our thing is these academics and making sure that they're as u prepared as they can be um to really move on to the high school and you know be on their own there. >> Um so if you ever see something that you think
>> I I appreciate that and I welcome you know these kind of ongoing discussions but if we can pinpoint you know a couple of things that we think we can come to you with for support we will certainly do that. >> That's wonderful. I love to see the leadership and I'm so glad. And say hi to dad. I remember
Mr. Fzan quite well. And um how how has it been at McCarthy for you? What would you say? >> I really love McCarthy and I think that the addition of the supervisor of students has helped. I did notice that
as a student and leadership has been really it's been really fun for me and it's a good group of kids and we all get along well and we've been making some really good decisions so far I think. >> That's wonderful. So that makes you feel like you're more involved and doing more
things makes you feel great. >> Yeah. >> You look happy. >> Thank you. >> This is so good. Thank you. >> All right. Any other thoughts, questions, John? >> I mostly just wanted to say thank you. It was great hearing from you all. It's always great hearing from students directly about programs that are
happening. Um, I just had one really quick question which is just is the leadership program that you described the leadership program for students or is there also like a student council in the way that they have at Parker? >> Um, it looks a little bit different for
us. So, we really kind of have one dedicated um group. we do have the opportunity for student council. Uh but we we didn't have a staff member that, you know, stepped up to take that on. But I will say at this I I I saw even our first year as seventh
and eighth grade, it wasn't as popular as it is for fifth and sixth graders. >> And I noticed that even when I was at Parkin with all four grades that it was largely dominated by the younger students and then seventh and eighth tended to kind of trail off a little bit for whatever reason. Yeah, I was just
curious knowing that, you know, there's a lot of student leadership opportunities in the high school and knowing that this is largely selected by either teachers or prior students. I didn't know if there was a gap for a program for students who wanted to kind
of run for or kind of rise to those opportunities, but it sounds like maybe in the future, not right now. So, we've talked a little bit about um with some of our teachers noticing that and and that is, you know, something that we know exists. Um talking about like a
dedicated student government that would actually be that type of thing. We would have like a some sort of leadership cabinet for each grade that would do maybe different things than Lena's group does. Um but it is something that we're exploring. just want to make sure whatever it is that we roll with fits and we want something that, you know, we
not to say we can't adjust it, but we just want to make sure it's something that will be wellreceived. Um, and that kids would be excited to be a part of because we don't want it to be, you know, kind of looked down on. >> Yeah. No, definitely. >> Yeah. >> All right. Well, thank you. >> Thank you. >> John, you have something? >> Just real quick, I wanted to say thank
you. Thank you for coming and it's good meeting you as well. Uh, I always impressed with McCarthy and you guys done a lot of work, especially after the past few years. Uh, love the outdoor work that we've all been part of. Um, uh, and the last thing, I don't have any questions. You're not very far away from
having a Moses in your class again in your school again. >> Oh, really? Okay. How far? >> Next year. >> Okay. All right. >> Going to seventh grade. >> Warning or >> You'll have a You'll have a Leau and a Moses in your school next year. >> Next year. All right. >> Bring it on. >> It It gives him no power, but you know, it's just it's good to know that
>> it's nice to know. It's nice to know. >> So, thank you for coming, guys. >> All right. Well, thank you very much. All right. Have a good night. Much really appreciate it. >> Thank you all. >> Always a pleasure, Patrick. >> See you soon, buddy. >> See you. >> Okay.
>> Was good. >> We're going to >> I always like the school updates. >> Yeah, it was good. That >> good. >> Definitely is. >> Um we're gonna transition to our second agenda item this evening and um Christine Clancy is with us. Um Christie, you can come up to the regular table. Sure. And um just was going to
review the um what's that? >> You need a clicker. >> There's only two slides. I can >> This is two slides. Yeah. >> I say this this update. I feel I always go after the school updates and I have to say my updates not as exciting. >> Um it's informative but I I enjoy watching their presentations. >> Just as important though.
>> So it is very important but maybe not as exciting. Um so this is the FY26 quarter 1 update of all of the um school water school or school uh work orders. And as you remember we um upgraded to a new program. Asset essentials went into
effect this past January. Um with this new program it does allow um additional uh monitoring, tracking, preventive maintenance planning. Um, and also over the years we'll have more data that we can use to help analyze like how much money we're putting into either space
buildings or locations. Um, and I guess this first year is really just kind of building the data. Um, so I think we're limited in the reporting. I did try to for this kicking off this new quarters and more data like days age, but we're still we just need really a couple years worth of data. Um, so this is a very
similar format to last year. Um and so and also with this program and it does allow um uploading and requesting work orders and closing out work orders through a mobile app which I think has been very helpful for um accessing the the work orders directly um for my staff
particularly because they can be at the south row school and say oh while I'm here let me check on this other one before they had to go back to the office get the print out um so it definitely is um an improved um program and so I guess we've we've worked out the kinks and
continuing to to I guess expand upon um this program this year more focusing more on like preventative maintenance planning. So entering more work orders. Um we're using it for the schools. We're also using it for the town buildings as well. Um so for this first quarter, this
is between July 1st and September 30th. Um a total of 404 work orders were generated um or closed. I mean really generated. Uh this tracks very similar to last year's too. I look back at last year's and it was about 400 450 a
quarter. So it's about the same as last year. Um and we'll continue to monitor as the you know the years come on. It's overall a 76% completion. Um I will say that that is a little lower 83%. Um and I just that so I want to just kind of
focus like what why is that? And we were also at a point this year where we were down an electrician. It took us a while to hire an electrician. We um do finally have that second electrician on board. So that's great. So um and you can see it in the report when we get to the trades I'll show you. And also we had um
our playgrounds coordinator had retired. So we had to fill that position. So we had small someone from um internally at facilities took that position and then we had to backfill that position as a um small engine repair. So we had a bit of a resource um you know we had a lot of
positions to fill this year but we're fully staffed as of this October. So that is great news. Um, so that might be partial explaining why some of the when we get to the trades, I'll explain that. But as far as over overall, um, we can see the we have we show the metrics in
terms of completion by each school um, and the total number of work orders. This is for the quarter. I did go back and look. So if you look at some of them like McCarthy, 62% and I was like, oh, we have, you know, 17 work orders still open at McCarthy. That's just for that quarter. We've we've closed those out, a
lot of those out. I think we're down to a handful handful from that quarter. Also, it's there's always new work orders being generated. Um, so I went back to the open work orders from this quarter and a lot of them have um we've completed a lot of them. So, we probably just didn't complete them within those
that quarter, but shortly after that quarter and I think when we get to the trade slide that will I can explain that a little bit more. Um, I don't I just like to show by location because you know obviously the most most is at the high school. Um, we still have a few here at the school admin building. Um,
but I would also looking back at the number of work orders generated per location, they're probably about the same amount each quarter or even if you look at this if you look at this report from last year, it's very similar. So, um, I don't know if there's any questions on this slide.
No, >> I do have a comment. It's just interesting. We've been doing this for a long time, all of us. And like the age of school and the size of school, the the scale of tickets is just really interesting. Like the center doesn't have many tickets compared to like McCarthy. I think it's just age. I just
This is just me just riffing. I'm sorry. >> Yeah. I mean, >> it's interesting data. I like data and so do you. So like I'm like, "Oh, that's kind of correlates." So, >> and I think this slide is also helpful to us as we're going to be talking more and more with the community about our need for >> a new middle school. We could I mean the
high school's the best. So that's why it has so many work orders, but look at how many more Parker has than the other. So that's just useful data for us to see that older building needs a lot more work. >> Yeah. And I think that's a good point is the older it's a scale, but it's also the older the building. Also, I think
with this program is sometimes it depends on how much it's used because sometimes we'll say, "Oh, I'll I'll come and I'll fix this light bulb. I'll fix it." But I try to say, "Well, we need to enter the work order because I want to track that, too." So we we have done or someone will send us an email and we'll even though it's being done we'll make sure we're putting it as a work order.
So I think we've I think if you were if you were to go back and look at school dude versus asset essentials we are adding more work orders because we're trying to and it's easier we can do it in the phone now. >> So now we got to say okay what's that baseline like? Is it what's normal? So it seems like it's 400 a quarter for all the schools
>> and it's close to this but yes high schools the most and then Parker is is right behind it. >> Yeah that's interesting. I'd love to. Anyway, that was cool for me. Sorry guys. Go ahead. >> Um, yeah, it's a and there's a lot more you can do with this data. It's just I think we need a couple years to get
there. So, it'll be maybe more exciting in the future. Okay. Now, by trade, this is more exciting to me. Um, so we had I think originally we only had 11 12 trades tracked when we had school. So, we expanded that because there's just so many different um trades that I think
are easier to better to we we track potholes now. Small engine repairs, snow ice. Snow and ice, I would say, is the most because obviously snow and ice is more urgent. Like we need to I got a couple requests today. Can we you know this parking lot those we did not enter because they're so urgent and we're in a kind of emergency mode. So snow and ice
is like is sometimes someone say can you you know if we have you know can we haul snow to another park, another space or something. So I would say snow ice is probably the least um representative of what we actually do. Uh but here we have all 21 trades you know for anywhere from
carpentry, HVOC, elevators, general delivery. Um and the total number of work orders and how many remain open and I and so I when I first looked at this I was like you know the electrical 57% complete to me that's not I want to have you know 25% for flooring. I want to try
to target a higher percent completion. I went back into all those work orders and I actually looked to see okay what and we we have closed a lot of those out. They just weren't closed out in that period of time. So for the electrical so it says 53 total work orders were
generated in that time frame. 30 were closed 23 were open but then between um between October and November we're only down to five now in that. So so I think what we're looking at is like when in in electrical is a we had we were down in electricians. So now we have a second
electrician on board. So we're able to complete more work orders. So I should see that number for the next quarter improve. Same with playground. Playground it says we did not we did nothing which is not true. Um playground those work orders are down to I think one work order which it's um looking at
the port in place and that's we need to do that in a more of a summer season. So some some things also can't be done. So if anything's put on hold it's still shown as not complete too. Um, so I went through all the work orders and um and I actually and so I we what we're going to
do is for the next quarter kind of go through and I might want to show some more information about like if something's on hold because we know like for flooring examples. So some of them I think flooring request for McCarthy that's a work order but if you read the one of the work orders is kind of a mini projects. I think we're looking at some
of the flooring at McCarthy. So, we should probably put that on hold, but then maybe pull it out of like a work order and and I can I might be able to show it a little differently in some of this reporting. >> Um, so we'll look at it a little more. >> The other one HBAC is that
>> so HVAC. So, we're only down to one of those 33 and and I think that's also the timing because if you think about it with HVAC, we're focused on the cooling and the ventilation and then we're shifting so quickly into the heating season. And so there's so much that's done and and also we have a lot of open
work orders right now for HVAC probably close to that amount but those are more current and because it's con there's constantly a ticket being put in. So if you pull the open work orders is probably 33 but from that period July to September it's only one of so it says we
only we didn't complete 33 but as of today or this week we have completed all but one. So it's just I think our our the d I guess we're not getting all through all the work orders in a quarter. It's taking a little bit longer than a quarter to get through. So we'll continue to look at that. And so I think
as you dig into the data and then also there's a couple items on here where I think we've done a couple things too. We just got to make sure we close out. I will say we're better closing things out because we could do in the app, but there's probably just a little more clean up there. Um, but here you see,
you know, there's a lot of plumbing requests, a lot of HVAC requests, a lot of electrical requests, the deliver delivery request. Those are those are almost always complete cuz, you know, we have packages to be picked up at a, you know, from one building to those are most typically it's the um the trades
take longer. And then there's things that are, you know, we can't do some like flooring you have to do during a vacation um or um roofing. I know one of the roofing ticket items is leaking roof in McCarthy and that's, you know, a
large project that we're working on. So, I'm going to go through all of our work orders and if there's something that we know is going to be done because it's part of a project, we're going to probably put it like on hold or we'll put some different and I'll probably try to pull it out for the next reporting
and I can put those aside to show you like maybe we say of these we have so many on a project because the percentage is higher if you take those out. it still shows we have a lot of work orders and we're getting through most of them. Um, another thing we can do is you can
start to track critical or urgent priorities and but again we we're just still kind of learning to use the program but that's something that we can um further expand on in the next year or so. >> This is like leaps and bounds better than it used to be. So I appreciate it. Is this a pivot table?
>> No. >> Okay. >> This is just a graph. >> Yeah. No. Is this a program you use throughout the town or just for the schools? >> So we so when we we expanded it uh so we use it for all we use it for I think we have 45 sites and so we have buildings
but we put like town common because we get requests for town common. So but I think what we need to do is it uh it was originally intended for the schools. So I would say if you look at total work orders. So if we say 400 a quarter, 1,600 a year about we're probably only getting 300 on the town side because
because I think there's less work orders generated, but also we're not using it as much. Like when we mow town common, we're not putting in a work order that we mowed the town common. So we have to we're seeing I guess as best how we can use use that um that for the the rest of
the the trades or locations. Um street lights is the location actually. So, uh, we just say street lights and so any street light request requests that come in also go into, um, the program, which is nice because at the end of the year I can run a report and says how many street lights, how many requests did we
get and how many did we replace. So, it's actually very helpful for end of year tracking as well. Um, but I would say school, yeah, it was originally intended for schools, but we're expanding it um for the town side as well
>> because, you know, townwide, it's important to see where the money is going and um I think it really truly does show that there's quite a bit that's spent on just maintenance um of these buildings
um and >> trade related too, like plumbing, HVAC, and that's older buildings, too. So, it's always going to have those needs. >> Um, it's like the pest control. That's where it's we have that request come in, we take care of it immediately. So, it's
good to see that those are taken care of immediately. >> Um, it's the HVAC, those are just and I think if you because in other communities, I think if you a lot of other communities, I think you see this, it's the plumbing, HVAC, roofing, um, you can't always have a zero inventory.
You always have some work order in the queue to work on. It could be waiting for parts. It could be part of a bigger project. >> Could just be not the right weather like roofing. You can't really make roofing repairs right now. So, >> super. Thank you.
>> Any other questions? >> All right. Thank you. All right. So, next quarter. Nice to see you for you. >> In one sec to just come off this. Thank you, Christine. Have a good night. >> Thanks. You, too. >> All right. Um, third item on the agenda
this evening is uh back before us. This is the application for uh the Drake Academy to operate as a private school in uh Chelmsford. If you recall, um, I shared with you a, um, pretty complete application over the summer months when
the Drake Academy was considering opening and enrolling for September. Um, there's a checklist that was attached to the original application that lists all the different criteria that Thank you. that uh, DPW, not DPW, >> I was I was looking right. I know I was
saying about DPW that Desi um, requires the school committee to um, to go through. Um we had communicated with uh representatives of Drake uh Academy after that uh because they were still building out the space, needed occupancy permits, things along those lines. So uh before you today, we do have their
completed application that did um touch on and provide the information that was necessary uh for the remaining um elements. And when we did the crosswalk comparison again to the Desi um um required kind of focus areas, they have provided a um a response that's in
alignment with the um the recommendations from Desi. Um so at this point you have the full application. The representatives have indicated that um again they did not operate this current school year that they're going to look to open uh next school year for the
start of the 2627 school year. Um, again, the application packet covers grade 1 through eight in general. In their application itself, it just indicates how they're going to be looking to uh potentially open upper elementary school, I think third, fourth grade uh next year, and then kind of
grow as the clientele presents itself. But, um, technically, we'd be approving, uh, the private school application, um, covering grades 1 to eight. And uh we would just remain in communication with the uh school as they do the enrollment to try to get a sense for you know where
the kids are coming from transition wise in case our families decide to go or their families decide to come back to us just so that we have some um some indication of how many kids are going to school there and um and how it's progressing. So happy to answer any questions you have um at this point
aside from the application. There's nothing else that I really have for you um to help out. >> Right. Questions and I know you had some >> Yeah, for me it's it's just I wanted to bring up a few I guess specific things
as I read in detail the application. Are we making a decision on this application tonight or what is >> you can I mean um it's before you it's a complete application so you certainly could make a motion to approve or if you do have additional questions you could
certainly ask additional questions >> um >> um I wanted to share a few things that I noticed for with with my colleagues and that may or may not contribute to what our decision is. Um, in general, I noticed that it seemed it
seemed like the updates had addressed several of the things we brought up in the summer. Um, such as the concern around occupancy and things like that. Um, the there was a hazing policy that was explicit in there. I noticed a few things I just wanted to bring up. One is
on page I'm going by the page numbers of the submitted document from them not the PDF page numbers but on page 21 where they lay out the curriculum um let's see it is
talking about the different curricula um specifically under English language arts it mentions using uh foundations which I'm familiar with which is through Wilson Um, it's a early elementary
curriculum and since it's going to be a K to four, I'm sorry, a third to fourth grade classroom, not to mention eventually a 1 to 8th grade school. Um, I don't see anything here that indicates what the curriculum would be for other grades of students at the English
language arts level, especially considering that Wilson is really about the decoding and coding side of things, basic comprehension. Um, I'll be curious what the intention is
around additional reading curriculum. Um, it might be de developed by the school. I imagine it may be teacher by teacher, but it's not explicitly stated what that would be. Um, the other thing I noticed on page 27, it said
standardized tests aren't used until grade three, but since we're talking about a third and fourth grade room, I would like to know more. There seems to be an indication that there will be standardized tests used but not clear
what would be used. Um it mentions mastery trans transcript consortium which is um an ETSR run consort or managed consortium that does include mastery tracking but it it's not in and
of itself just a test. So I I don't know what the intention is around standardized testing and assessment. Um, I'm a huge fan of mastery based assessment, but it just I it was a little unclear what the intention is, particularly since they are starting with two grades that would be in that
band that they described as being standardized tests. Um, page 38, I saw the description of the organizational model. I see the
principles from being a deliberately developmental organization, which is a model I like and we've used quite a bit in my organization, but it's not completely clear to me what that actually means for the model of the organization. Um, I'm not sure what the
state requires in terms of this. So, it might be completely sufficient, it may not be. I'm not sure um what they're looking for in terms of an organizational model. Um, I'm a total org theory wonk, so I would I would um would have expected more explicit um
description of the organization, but that may not be required. I don't know what usually is provided for this. Um and lastly under page 49 where they talk about healthc care procedures um the um
it does address some of the things that are in accordance with Massachusetts law here um around criminal offender records around um fires and explosion reporting and things like that. But it's not clear to
me what the procedures are intended for students health except in emergencies or they mention a current CPR and first aid certification. Is there a a school nurse? Is there somebody who will have a certain procedure when students are
unwell during the school day? I again I don't know if that level of detail is required in this application or not. Just wanted to note that there I didn't see anything under the healthc care procedures section that felt like it was distinctly healthcare.
And finally, the financial plan that was included uh in appendix C to from what I can tell is listed with the assumption of a 7125 start.
um and the assumption of 20 students in the 25 26 year which we know since the school isn't opening is not the case. It might be as simple as the dates are just moved forward by a year. Um but since they may be incurring expenses this year
despite not having student tuitions, I don't know if that's an accurate assumption, though I noticed that the financial plan essentially is out of date. Right. Other questions >> in terms of the the finances for the
school. What is our responsibility? >> Um so I've never had a in all my time I've never had a private school come before us for approval. So this is like a first for me. Um the school committee's approval is pretty kind of cursory to this process. Um, Desessie
has a a rubric basically with all the different action elements that the schools are supposed to um conform to. Um, you're basically attesting to the fact that, you know, you've looked at the checklist and they've provided an application that addresses the checklist. Um, it's my understanding
like you can ask more in-depth questions and things like that, but like on the health one, they're not required to provide a plan to you. like as long as they say they're going to meet whatever the state regs are and basically they've gone through and said we're going to meet these state regs that's the plan that they have to provide. >> So that would be true I assume also for
like the organizational structure. We don't need to approve an organization. >> You don't know you're not approving the chart. You're basically just approving the the elements that Desi says in the rubric that they at least have in their application. Right. You don't have to get into the thoroughess of it or like um opinion on whether you agree or
disagree with it. you're just attesting to the fact that they've covered the elements, right? >> Um and then they're really a private school. Yeah. So, they're like operating on their own. They just need to be in contact with us. You know, if they were ever to close or again like student transitions, we would want to have that type of a relationship. But um again, on
the financial when I was reading it, yes, I noticed that they had the 20 kids in um 25 26. I just assumed they were going to just starting a year later. So, everything was just rolling out a year. They're going to hope to enroll 20 kids. Um, I would assume also, and I know these are a lot of assumptions, but when
they're going through the enrollment process, if they can't enroll enough students, they'll have to make a decision about whether it's financially feasible for them to operate or not. But that's really not for us to get into. Um, that's going to be for something them and their board are going to have to um kind of watch over.
>> So, the so concerns about the stability for students who enroll in it because of potential concerns around the financial plan are not in our call to make. Yeah, I mean you can certainly like question it, but I don't to what level um like we
can like withhold approval is questionable to me. >> Yeah, that's fine. It's it's a genuine question. >> No, but like on their end like they're going to have to to say to their families that they're financially feasible. I think Jesse's concern would be if they ever go under, then the students still need to be educated.
That's why I think the connection piece is so important to make sure that they're communicating with us and we would know like where the kids are coming from and things along those lines. >> But we're not really going to have any responsibility over the school, right? >> Once it starts once it starts to operate.
>> So DESI is our oversight board essentially. >> Are they overseen by Desi as well? >> No, I mean technically they have to oversee the reg. So what Desi is doing is Desi needs to know a school is operating or a school is closing and
they put that onus on the local district which they have, you know, somewhat kind of more control over. So we're like the intermediary to report to Desi once we approve this that the school is open. These are the grade levels that they're going to enroll in. Here's their location. You know, they have their permits, things like that in line. If
the school then closes as well, they would tell us we have to tell Desi that the school has closed. Um, that's like our role in this. We're kind of the middle the middle people, >> but anything that happens in between opening and closing is not our oversight. >> As long as they've checked the boxes and
they've provided what's in the application. Yes. I mean, they could have a particular curriculum spelled out on this plan that we say yes to and then like us, we might go through a curriculum adoption process and adopt something new in two years. They don't have to come back to us, right? you know, this is just like their original approval to get approved and we're not
going to kind of get into the weeds with the way they're running and you know, they wouldn't get into us. >> I guess a question for Linda. You know, one of the things we have to prove is an educational program is simil forget the phrase they use >> equivalent >> equivalent to ours. You know, I went
through but now what I don't know to the depth that you do. Do you think that they're >> Yeah, they're I mean they're offering the courses that we were in a program of studies. >> Okay. All right. So, yeah. Y >> but I do have a comment or question about that. Um Diana had mentioned this and as you know an early childhood early
elementary former teacher myself I'm a little concerned about the English language arts being just foundations and the Wilson because I think that's obviously want science of reading phonics being part of it but I don't really see enough in here talking about what kind of um literature will be there
when you get into the higher comprehension goals once the kids have mastered the basic phonics. I don't see anything in here that supports the kind of literature um that needs to be part of the curriculum as well. >> I had a couple others, but anybody else have any
one of my my questions is um have they notified these other districts? They say they want to draw up and one of the things that they have to do, they're supposed to notify LOL and Tings. Have have they reached out to these other districts to let them know that hey we're going to be opening up you know in Chelford we're going to start trying to
recruit your your students. Um do we know that part of their advertising >> that would be yeah I mean part of their promotional materials I'm sure but no I don't know >> but I no I read >> the school resides in Chumsford they have to get the approval from Chumsford but then notifying those schools it's no
different than you know the other private schools in the areas students can go to them. I just was at one of the things that they required to do by by DIY by somebody. I just didn't know if they had done it yet. Um do we have any obligation in terms of transportation special educ? I know they said one of the things it says students who attend
private approval approved private schools are entitled to the same rights and privileges to transportation to and from schools provided by the laws for public school students within the specific limits. Do we have any obligation to transport their students? We would have to look into that element
as it pertains to um Cheltzford only students. >> Um say at the elementary school grade level based on our boundaries. >> Um potentially there could be children that want to avail themselves to transportation. They would have to follow the same guidelines that our kids
do, like if they would qualify for bus or if they would have to pay for a bus, things along those lines. >> Okay. >> I I to be honest with you, I didn't query the address. I'm going to guess that the address is in the south row district. >> So if you happen to have a student, it would even be center of South Row, but if you happen to have a student who's a
Chelford student that lives in the South Row district and they wanted to go to that school, we would potentially have to uh transport them like we would transport our own students. >> Okay. >> But it's only in that area. >> It's only in that area. >> Okay. >> Because we enroll by geography. >> Okay. >> Right.
>> Right. In special education, I mean, do we have any obligations there? >> Okay. Um, they didn't have anything for cafeteria, so they're not serving food. How they >> I don't know. >> How are they, you know, how are the kids going to get nutrition during the day?
>> I assume it's the kids bring their lunches. >> Okay. Yeah. >> I used to work at an independent school that did not have a cafeteria and students just brought lunches. >> Okay. And my only other thing is it looks like they are trying to recruit for grades three and four and they have one teacher.
is it's okay to have help >> legally speaking that's allowed as long as the person is >> as long as the person is certified. >> Okay. I just didn't know if that's >> even in public school 1820s they did that but I didn't know if that we >> yeah there's nothing explain they have >> well I mean like there's a one room
schoolhouse on a tiny island off the coast of Portland that has kids ranging from K to 8 I think. >> Those were my questions that popped up. Um you know and then the financials. Everybody mentioned the financials and I looked at those and I'm sure you did. So, >> okay. >> Yeah. And again, it's just it's whatever
is going to materialize based on their enrollments and the tuitions and yeah, >> I'm sure they're trying to offset some of the fees by grants. >> Um, they'd be in the same kind of boat as we are as far as if grants don't come in or if kids don't, you know, enroll in the school, then they don't have tuitions to pay, you know, they might not be able to remain open,
>> right? So, it looks like they checked the boxes we actually check. So, I don't know if anybody has any hesitation taking a vote tonight to approve, want to wait for another >> We can do >> meeting. Um any other thoughts? >> It is on the table before us now. I say
we, >> you know, again, we have our questions there internal operations, but that's not really our our function. >> We're they're just here to say the application's complete. >> Yeah. >> I mean, that's really our job. >> Yeah. My only concern is that is that
remains that I think is a legitimate concern according to what we have jurisdiction over is the equivalent education thing around English language arts. >> I agree. which continues to be a concern for me, particularly given the grades. >> Get some feedback on. Is there anything in the the back of the packet there where they get they go they go through
all the grade levels? Is there anything a little bit more in depth there? >> I did look at that, but I >> they do list some of the other things that they're going to use. >> Yeah, that's why that's right. >> Like they're they're using the they have the standards listed and then they're going to useformational text like so it
sounds like it may not be a a program. It may be >> right teacher development >> more out of teacher um collaboration. So what I interpreted that that section to the back was simply the listing of the
standards, not necessarily. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Okay. >> I interpreted that as a listing of the standards, not necessarily as a description of the curriculum to reach those standards. But
>> I'm sorry I didn't hear what you said because I got distracted. What? >> Yeah, I was distracted. What was your question? >> It wasn't a question. I was just saying that I read that section on the back, but I interpreted that as a listing of the standards, not necessarily as the
curriculum that would support students in achieving those standards. I don't know if that's being um too facidious, but I didn't interpret that as curriculum necessarily. >> I we got a I mean, can I just propose
this? We've got a couple options. I mean, we could approve it tonight. >> The alternate would be if you do have um questions and they're valid questions. If you wanted to email me that we could defer tonight's approval to the next meeting. If you wanted to email me the specific questions you have or you'd
want them to address, I can email them to the group. They can either address them in writing to you or if they have anything follow up, we could have them come to the next meeting and at least be able to state how they're going to address it. >> You know, we're not going to get into or be able to get into critiquing how they
plan to go about it, but we can at least get the information if that makes you feel better. >> See, I I just think our role is extremely limited. I just think we're here to approve. If they've checked the boxes, we kind of have to approve, right? >> I just don't think that they've checked
the box about equivalent education. >> I agree because grade three, four, it it needs to be more than just the foundations. It's that's a more of a K2. >> I'm not the expert. >> Okay. >> So, well, what don't we I mean, it doesn't hurt to wait. I mean, they're
not, you know, I don't think that's, you know, two weeks is going to make a big difference. So, why don't we hold it off till the next meeting, see if we can get information or see if somebody would like to come to the next meeting, answer questions, and and then we'll do it then. >> If you whatever you do have is
outstanding though, if you could just take a moment, just email me like what your specific questions are, I'll forward that off to them and ask them to either respond in writing or attend the next meeting and be able to at least share their responses and then um with the understanding that we would take action one way or the other at the next
meeting just so that they could have some closure as well. and um if they want to try to enroll so that they can go ahead and do that. >> So in terms of curriculum your concern is on that's not sufficient but when you look at it for the mathematics it's Singapore math and that's all that's
mentioned. I know very little about Singapore math. >> I listen again I I assume that they have more detailed curriculum plans. I I understand that this is not going to be giving us their scope and sequence. Um
they may not even have a scope and sequence and that's you know permissible with student driven practices and stuff. But when there is listed that their ELA curriculum is a very limited >> useful but very limited program, I just
want to see even if it's two sentences more, a bit more understanding of how they will be achieving what is just broadly considered English language arts curriculum for students that goes beyond the decoding and encoding support that
those curricula provide. I don't necessarily need to see like, you know, K to K to or first to eighth grade scope and sequences. I just I want to see a little bit more of an understanding that they're either going to be self-developing it or
using something that feels like quality curriculum. >> And it's for me, it's just something that shows that they recognize that they need to have more than just those two phonics only based programs. that just as a statement to show that that's recognized. >> The the the second thing I think the
only again this is related to that equivalent education that I think is missing is it talks about how we won't start standardized testing until third grade but then since now they are starting at third grade I would just like are they indeed using standardized
testing or not or you know something around that just to update that to be reflective of the grades that they're serving. Okay. >> Okay. So, we'll do that. >> So, we'll do that. Yeah. And u but if if it would be super helpful to me if you just kind of put in writing what your
questions are. >> Yep. We'll do >> and then send those along and I'll get them off to them and we'll put it on for the next meeting. >> Okay. >> Great. >> Um next item on the agenda this evening. Um Linda has compiled the school improvement plans for the year. >> Um so each year we bring forward the
school improvement plans. Um these are one-year plans that um basically are off of the larger strategic plan for each of the schools. It is used in conjunction. They have um school councils that have representation of teachers, parents, and one community member at least. Um and
I've listed those names for you for each of the schools. And these were plans that were put together with those councils and come forward to the committee just so you're aware of what is happening at the schools. and they do meet the requirements that are set um forth by the Department of Elementary
and Secondary Education. So, they're pretty, you know, robust. They're long, but they give you at least a detail of what's happening in the schools in addition to some other pieces. They typically follow an academic goal and an SEAL goal for their schools. Not that they're inclusive of everything that's
happening at the schools, but those will be the focus for the school years. Any questions on the school improvement plans? >> I actually just had one overall question on it and I don't I don't think it's at
the school level enough that we would need somebody from a school to answer. I'm hoping you could answer it, Dr. Harsh. Um, >> me too. >> Every elementary school has a different very specific percentage. >> Yes, I that that actually comes up every year. No, that's that's a good question.
>> I'm just curious where those numbers come from. If you could remind us. So each year at the end of the school year, we receive um the growth percentile for each of the schools and where they landed. So each of those schools take that growth percentile that they receive
for their specific students and that's their starting point to increase from where they were last year to the following year. Okay? So it's coming from I Ready from the end of the year diagnostic that we receive of all students taking that goal. So, it would be different given the fact that um each
school has a different makeup of students and how they performed. But it is it's a good question because it does seem a little odd that it's very different from each of the schools. Some of them actually have the exact same one which I thought it seems to be like volume and center follow the same one each each year. I kind of find that
interesting but um yes, that's where it comes from. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Other questions? I had a little concern about the community member for South Row. Um, >> Donna Nukem, I don't know if I trust her.
>> Um, >> her background. >> My question is, um, what do they do with this at the end of the year? I mean, so this is these are your your plans. >> Do they sit down at the end of the year? Do they they go over the results? >> They don't wait until the end of the year. So, they have like a midpoint check because if there has to be some type of an adjustment, they would, you
know, need to do that instead of like trudging on something that's not working. So, that they get together with their councils throughout the school year. um they've set their dates just to monitor similar to what we do for the strategic plan. Not every six weeks like we've been doing for the strategic plan,
but um they do get together back with their councils and they um see how they're doing and if there's some type of adjustment that needs to be made. >> Okay. Is there end of the year report? Are they kind of like >> at the end of they report back and then they use it to then help develop their goals for the next following school
>> and they reporting back to you? They recording? >> Yeah, they'll fill that out and we rece and we do receive like their final status on what's happening with their school improvement plans. >> So, year to year, do they seem to do a pretty good job at meeting their goals? I mean, we don't see that. So, I'd ask that. >> Um, they do. And what's I think super
helpful now is that we have the strategic plan. I mean besides the high school because the high school kind of runs in its own other little world especially with NEAS and other requirements um they do a little bit more involved than what I've seen in the past and over the years even like when I
was a teacher because we they should be mirroring what's happening for the strategic plan. They shouldn't be doing something completely different. So um it does help because they're seeing the progress in the overall district plan and then at that overall progress is coming from those schools. So I think
they're definitely more tight than what we've had in the past. >> And does DM Group get this data or do they use this data part of their evaluation? >> They do have the they DM group has all of our data because I provide them with the data so they know where the schools where they are and where they need to
go. Um, and then that helps us make our over our like our larger goals and make sure >> you're trying to connect all the pieces. >> It all kind of gets it kind of gets put together, but they do have access to all of this because I do give them the access to I Ready and any other data that we have and then they try to correlate it with like our MCAST scores
and everything else that's out there. >> Okay, great. Right. Any other questions on school improvement plans? >> Thanks for supplying them. >> Yeah, great. All right. Uh, enrollment. >> Yep. Uh fifth item on the agenda this evening is our October one um I know
Marie is very excited. This is our October one uh enrollment report that we do every December. So um on October one that's kind of a critical date for us because that's what our finances for the following school year are based off. They're all predicated on the October one student headcounts. So uh we submit
data to DESIE. We go through this whole verification process and then they finalize and certify our data. Um, so we take that uh again as kind of the basis for next year. And I've kept the reporting of this pretty consistent so you can look like year-over-year and kind of see what's happening with the students. You'll see districtwide and
I'd mentioned it a couple of previous sessions, we're actually up about 60 um students this year. So we are certainly starting to see an increase um enrollment wise and I think that is projected to increase over the coming years. The first couple of pages of the report um again for historical purposes
of the elementary schools. So you'll see uh Baym Center, Harrington, and South row. We have several u all the schools originally set up to have four sections of each uh four grade level classrooms at each four classrooms at each grade level, but we have bubbles in some of the rooms. You'll see like Bay across
the board currently has five sections of everything. There are some other schools that have fives at certain sections down in center. Um but we're actually kind of built for four. Um so when we just try to take a look at what the average uh headcounts are in those schools, we just
apply a formula. But then behind that pages um you know four, five, six and beyond, we um I do give you the home room breakdown that comes right out of the database from the schools. And then this information is challenging to produce when you just look at overall
population say at Parker or McCarthy, you look at a total uh student population say at Park or 428 in fifth grade. Um, we normally are set up to have 16 classrooms at each grade level, but we do have an increase in enrollment. Uh, four, last year's fourth grade, which is this year's fifth grade.
We're a little bit larger. So, we actually have a kind of a bubble in fifth grade with 18 sections. Next year, that'll go up to sixth grade, you know, and then factor out the year after. Um, but you'll just kind of see that to get a um ballpark average uh class size. But then at the high school and the middle
school level, I actually give you the detail of the actual enrollments by teacher in class just to give you again a sense of the um the actual number of kids that are sitting in front of teachers because the global numbers also include like um special ed population that might be in subspar.
So this really kind of factors it out for them. Um and at the high the high school is a whole different animal with the um the classes and the electives and whatnot. So, um, we actually just produced that report for you by, uh, teacher, by grade, uh, by course offering at the high school to give you a sense of where the numbers are, but
you'll see, um, again, at the elementary level, uh, the numbers are typically in the, um, the low, uh, 20s. Middle school, fifth, and sixth grade, the core classes are, um, slightly higher. Um, they're in the low to mid 20s. Um when we get to seventh and eighth grade again
we had done some schedule alterations to really try to enhance and um make those class sizes a little bit smaller. So those actually are in the high teens um low 20s and then the high school um again your core is looking at the um low to mid 20s. um every once in a while
depending on you know the number of sections that they run you might have a class that ends up in say the mid to higher 20s but it just is because the um oftentimes this what they call a singleton class you don't have enough students to run two sections but you don't want to not offer a section and
have kids be able to take the class um we do make an effort at all grade levels to really when you hit the middle school and the high school um some of the um lower level classes would have the most appealing or the lowest class sizes and if you do see again those mid to high
20s oftentimes it might be an honors and AP class and um again it's to provide that offering to students as opposed to not or basically restricting who can actually get in a class um so happy to provide those numbers for you again we do it every year and these are certified
numbers that um again will be the foundation for our chapter 70 enrollment uh figures for next year >> questions >> not a question just a comment Um, I know it's a little hard to tell because sometimes things happen at the um end of
the summer with enrollments, but I I'm just looking at the kindergarten class side at center. And then almost every grade at Harrington are >> are larger than I'd like >> to see. So, I just kind of want to caution us next year to keep an eye on that. and you know whether or not we
need to add that fifth section back in I think I know it's a great cost but um when the kids are that young having too many kids in a class really impacts their learning so I just want us to keep an eye on that and and be thinking about that a lot >> next year the end of the school year all
throughout the summer >> just for your information like 100 is typically the tipping point so when a section gets up to like a 100 students is when we typically add the fifth section um I think with the exception of Bayium after we had done the to be honest with you I wouldn't have had five
sections in kindergarten at Baym. >> I was actually just going to ask why they did when other schools had more students and didn't. >> Yeah, but it was all kind of based on the timing because again you just can't fully predict what's going to happen, but their numbers coming out of the two enrollments this spring were like through the roof. They were in the mid
90s um and they actually kind of lost some enrollment over the uh summer. um could be some shifting, could be kids moving in and out, but they looked like they were going to well exceed 100. And typically the biome numbers have been. So um for continuity and consistency, we said go ahead and do your fifth section,
but then once we got into the school year, and they actually obviously dipped u below even 90. Um it doesn't really justify based on the overarching district numbers for them to have the five sections. So, that's a conversation we're going to have about dropping down to four sections for next year and
potentially moving that extra FTE somewhere else if we need it. If something hits 100, that would give us a little bit of flexibility. But based on the two enrollments we did for kindergarten last year, it looked like they were going to well exceed 100 and we had them go ahead and after we're actually staffed to and the kids are notified, we don't want to pull a
teacher out. Um, that's dramatic. So, we just do it for the year, but we'll make an adjustment for next year if we have to. >> Yeah. I mean, it's a balance of course because it's a it's a great cost to hire another teacher, but I just think when the children are that young, it makes a big difference if you tip once you get
into those past that 2021 number >> it does impact their learning. So, >> any other questions? >> I always wonder about the correlation between the academic performance of the various elementaryaries and the class
sizes. And so my greatest concern in looking at these numbers was that Harrington is substantially higher and they're not, you know, when you look at the performance levels, um that's a school where it's a little bit lower.
>> So I just honestly I I've been keeping a an eye just me at you know class size and I think what Susan just said is really true. It makes a huge difference especially in that level. Um
it would be nice to see those numbers are a little bit smaller than what they are. Other questions? Climates. My question I'm going to ask you possible question. Where are the 60 extra kids coming from? You know I mean we have you said we have 60 more. I look at the kindergarten this
year. Kindergarten last year. It's not a huge difference. >> No I'm doing off memory. Yeah. I want to say about 30 of them are actually um at chips in prek. Okay. Okay. I think because I think we hadund >> okay >> 40 like low 140s last year. I I'm just
doing that off memory. >> So now that's um concerning for another reason. So um obviously if if our chips enrollment which is primarily a special ed population and a lot of those um students as they get up into kindergarten, first grade, second grade
need additional supports um you know that can be additional cost even beyond um you know your regular enrollments but I want to say about half of that 60 were coming from uh CHIPS and the rest were pretty much spread throughout the elementary schools primarily. I didn't
know if there's the new things opening up and you know >> No, I mean to that because I know we've talked quite a bit about the um the development over the former West Campus that has not really hurt us. >> Um so again off the top of my head I want to say we have under 10 students
enrolled from that property and again they were at different grade levels so we have not been advert students but it's not like you have 10 first graders you know and they're all going to Harrington. They were all spread throughout the uh school system. I can get you the actual numbers that are enrolled at that address, but um
again it was like under 10 when we had um looked at it previously. So that one development is not necessarily getting us. We are seeing just turnover in housing stock in Chelford in general. So you know we're certainly seeing kids and I think I've mentioned this at one of the community forums enrolling at
addresses that typically haven't had kids in them for 20 30 years. Um, so some of the, you know, three or fourbedroom homes are now turning over and it might have been a retired couple at the time. Now it's a family with kids and so the kids are now accessing the ed system. Um, but again, they're kind of
spread throughout town. It's not like it's just one particular pocket. Um, but we are starting to see some of that, >> right? The prediction is that going to continue. >> The prediction is to to keep increasing. 60 is a lot in one year. >> Um, and again, I'm kind of flagging and internally watching that the chips
number. Um but that is concerning like long term. >> So I have a question about chips. I and I may not be up to date. Is it still the case that in um their integrated classrooms that there has to be a slightly higher percentage of children
not on an IEP compared to the IEPs? Is that still how >> Yeah. So they they would consider them like role model students. >> Right. So they have to be a a slightly higher percentage of >> it's usually one extra. >> Right. Right. Right. Um, so if if there
was a year where there were a lot of say three-year-olds coming from early intervention or something on an IEPs, >> do they have to kind of open enrollment for generals that meet those ratios? >> Yeah. See, they So, there's two things going on here or there's a lot of things
going on. Um, they never have trouble getting the role model students in the program. There's always a waiting list. So, that's certainly not a problem. We're not getting any financial um credit for the role model students in the system. So
when the numbers go up at chips, it's the special education student numbers that are going up. >> So what you're counting here is that just the special education students. Gotcha. Okay. >> Because preschool general ed students and you're not getting funding for them. >> I I know that. I know that. Okay.
>> So I didn't have counting the numbers. >> No, no, no. This is these are only the numbers that are actually counting towards um net school spending. Gotcha. >> Or counting towards the chapter 70 and ultimately net school spending. >> Okay, >> other questions on enrollments. >> Thank you for the report.
>> No, you're welcome. And again, this is something we we monitor. Um we just have to wait until it gets certified and usually we don't get the stuff back until um sometime in in um November. So that's why we always put this on the first meeting in December >> and we don't have to take action, right? >> No, I was just sharing the information with you,
>> right? And if as you're perusing it, if you have any specific questions about things, certainly just let me know. >> Okay. >> Okay. >> All right. Uh, new policy. >> This is Linda. >> This is me. I'm back again and I'm sure I'll be back again with competency
termination. Um, because this seems >> phase three. >> This is the topic of the year. I was >> going to say there's news about it this week. >> Oh, I know. And what's interesting is that we have to have this other document uh completed and um an upload. So just little just a little recap that um every
student in Massachusetts must have a competency determination in order to graduate from high school which used to be MCCAST. Um, MCCAST, as you know, um, during the vote in November 2024, was voted that we do not use MCCAST as a competency determination anymore, but
that districts um, develop their own determination through the DESIE guidelines um, on what we would consider competency determination for our students, which we did. So, back in June, I brought forward to you what we were planning on doing as a district at
the high school level for students to be qualifying as a competency determination to graduate from high school. Great. Um, so that's where we kind of left it with the committee. So, moving forward from there, Department of Elementary and Secondary Education wants us to upload what our plan is, which we have, which
is what you approved into there. It's their actual, it's actually the um grant management system, but it's really they have a section in there for applications for things like this. So, we have to upload that information. And as all of us in the Marramac Valley and throughout the Commonwealth started to do, we
started populating that and that's where we started to receive uh guidance from Desi and we started to see it in this actual system that they wanted an actual policy from the school committee on competency determination. Typically
information about uh competency determination always was in the handbook. It lies in the handbook that you approve every school year. So that's sitting in our high school handbook, but now it looks like they want a very specific policy. So I did go to the Mass Association um of school committees
website and we all kind of work together collectively as districts to um develop policies for our school committees which apparently has to be voted on by the 31st because it's something I have to actually upload into the system um along
with what's happening. So, um, I did look at the website, looked at the, um, the coding for it and then looked at what we were actually providing at Chsford High School, which is very similar to other districts because one of the things we wanted to do collaboratively was, you know, if I left
Chumsford and I went to Drake, I you can't preclude a child from graduating because they met the Chumsford regulations, but then Drake has something different. So all of us pretty much have u a similar plan on what we're accepting for a competency determination
for students and created our um our school committee policies from that. So that's what you have in front of you tonight because as a board you have to apparently have one which was a surprise to many of us because we all kind of took the word policy as like a procedure
like how were we going to do it not have an actual policy because it's it's very odd for you to have a policy that's so high school specific. Um, so this is the policy in front of you for your first read and review and to ask questions and see if there's anything we have to tweak
and it will come back to you at our next meeting for a final vote. >> Okay. >> Okay. I have a question. >> Yes. >> Um, would this change if the state does decide to go through with end of the
>> coursework and all of the things that just came out today? More came out today. This >> yesterday or yesterday. I'm on It's going to change again. >> Yes. >> But yet we have to do it by >> the 31st. >> Okay. So we have to do it. >> I believe that the recommendation So I
actually spent about two hours of my work today work hours today reading through the new uh recommendations or report and it looks like that will not be finalized until June. >> Right. So although it is a preliminary
description of what the committee recommends, it does not yet hit the point where it's ready to require policy. So I think whatever we >> approve, >> right, this is going to be for the class >> will be for this school year with the assumption that I'm probably imagining
that next summer we'll be >> talking about the next iteration. >> Yeah. Even though they talk about like implementing these things in the 2026 school year, which I don't know what that means is that the 25 26 26 27 because that's the world we live in. Um we have to make sure that we are taking
care of the class of 26 and 27 right now. Period. End of story. Those are >> other changes are likely to have a lot to say about the recommendations, but I will limit my comments. >> Yes, please. Yeah, we all are the current the thing in front of us and and say that um I don't see anything on here
that I have significant questions about. >> It doesn't vary much from what we looked at over the summer. >> No, not at all. Very specific for a policy, right? Um I just had we just had to make sure that when we did we made sure that there was a review policy and we made it broad that it was you know
determined by the principal or the designate just because there's going to be some nuances as students go through high school, right? And we don't want to preclude anyone. we don't want to keep it so steadfast. Um because there were some districts that were like, "No, it has to be grade nine and grade 10 ELA."
I'm like, "Well, what happens if they didn't have that? Maybe they're a student that came from another country and they don't have nine and 10 ELA, but we have 11 and 12 and if they do well in those courses or they they pass an AP course, like why wouldn't that determine competency in our opinion?" So, we just
wanted to make sure we didn't um preclude any subgroup or student situations from not being able to graduate from high school and be so stuck on grade just grade 9 and 10. >> So, when you say we is we all the districts around here are all going to use the same format or
>> we're all Yeah, we all pretty much have like maybe like a little tweak here and there if a committee wanted something different in theirs, but everybody is following those. Okay. those courses and the these are the courses that actually um were the ones when this there wasn't MCCAST right during COVID and those
students didn't take MCCAST these were the courses that DESIE approved as the classes that would qualify students to graduate from high school so we didn't really do anything different than what we've done in the past five years of graduating students >> can I ask a very quick question of our
student representative um I'm just curious as a student currently in high school while all of this shifting is happening. Is this something that in any way has impacted students sense of confidence around graduation or is this
something that you and your peers are largely not paying attention to and just trying to pass the courses that you're taking? I'm just curious if it >> I haven't noticed anything um with people worrying any more or less about
um graduation requirements. I did hear someone say um that they thought that MCCAST meant nothing. I was like, "Oh, no. It just means it's not a graduation requirement." So, there was confusion with that, but uh I believe that was
cleared up. And there's still none of uh any really uh people scared about >> Yeah, I I figure people probably weren't scared, but I was curious if because it is shifting sort of every year right now as we adapt to um the shift if if there
was any confusion or uncertainty. >> Well, the one thing you don't want lost in any of this is that the MCCAST is tied to scholarships. It's also tied to the seal of bi literacy. So, you don't want people thinking like, oh, this is nothing. There is something tied. there's money's tied to it, right? And
you and also, you know, >> accountability. >> Oh, say again, account well for us accountability, right? Um, so that's important too. But for students, right? Because they're not think students aren't going what's the accountability look like for chumps. Um, yeah, I won't want them to miss out even if it's, you
know, the Abigail Adams scholarship. It's not a ton of money, but it's money, right? And if you want to, you know, have that seal of biteracy or seal with distinction, one of them is the ELA MCCAST. So you don't want that lost in all of the other things that are
happening with graduation requirements. >> But I but I wonder if that attitude though is going to you'll see some results kind of go down a little because maybe there is half a kids going yeah I can get a scholarship the other half like I can get a scholarship how do I care? You know >> correct. I'm sure that that I mean even when we saw our current results this
year like it's not usually indicative of high school right we usually see them >> right that's yeah >> in some kids may not have taken it >> so whether we have MCCAST or not and my own opinions are are not what I'm going to talk about here now but the thing
that I am glad about is the focus now is really on the actual course of study and we've had a rigorous course of study and I think it's really important that we continue to have a rigorous course of study and students are expected to pass those rigorous courses and that's what's really going to tell whether or not you
earned your high school diploma in Chelmsford. So MCCAST was a tool and I'm not saying it's not valuable. I think it has value >> but I'm glad that the focus is really on the coursework. >> Yeah. So
>> I think that's it's going the way of what many excellent school systems in other parts of the world do as well which is test based on the subject matter and at the completion of courses which I think I think is important to do
as well and I also think that it does point to the students how serious it is to achieve in that course and to complete the course and to attend classes to do those things. I think it does instill in everybody a need to do
that in order to know, okay, at the end I have to pass a test. Now, in some systems, if you do exceptionally well in the course, you're waved from the test. I don't know what they're going to end up recommending, but it's interesting.
>> Well, whether it's a test or some other form of assessment for each of these courses, you still have to prove that you've mastered it. And that's what's important to me that each of the courses have to be achieved. >> I was just going to say that um the only
like caution is this was just the recommendation. So we're going to have to wait and see over the rest of this year what's actually going to kind of move forward because there's as I read it there's like not only just the test but there's like seven things we got to do. There's the test and there's the portfolio and there's the FAFSA and
there's the financial lit. So we got to see what actually all kind of shakes out. Um, and then the state's also going to have wrap their head around u even implementing districtwide all of these end of course assessments and you know what platform they use for that how that gets rolled out. So there's still a lot
of um discussion to be had. Um we're going to obviously track it closely. >> People are going to have different opinions on this as this kind of weighs out over the next you know six months to a year. That's why I think um you know we'll continue to monitor this will be an interim type policy and then
we'll obviously have to adjust based on whatever the final direction is. >> I was going to say my assumption is when when and if that final decision is made it will probably replace MCCAST and high school not duplicate. So it will be there will be a lot of questions of what
that looks like. So yeah, >> I guess for for the short term though, I think what is written here is I think you know I have >> I don't have any problems with this policy. >> But that being said, I think we're going
to still go with the same routine of >> Yeah, because we we're trying to get into that because we've had that in our policies about how we go forward actually adopting policies. So this was just the presentation to you and kind of the first reading. at the next meeting it'll act the same one will be back on the agenda and we'll actually vote to um
to approve it. >> Okay, >> sounds good. >> All right, >> thank you. >> Thank you. >> No problem. Um number seven, these next two are just a couple of updates for you. So, just as a reminder, um we have our next tri board meeting uh next Monday night, December 8th at 6 o'clock right here in this room.
>> I um I need to just name that I will be unable to be here. I will be uh in Boston that night. Um the um I I am sure my colleagues will will keep uh me posted and re recommend the right things for the school committee's perspective.
Um but um yeah, just apologies I can't be there. >> Have you had any preliminary talks to this town manager or what? >> We're going to meet on Thursday. Okay. >> Um so I'll get a little bit of an update. Um we've still been deep in our own budget development for next year. So, we've concluded all the different
school meetings. Um, in the process of finalizing all of our staff rollover and projections. Um, Joanna and her staff have been um soliciting like the department level budget requests, kind of reconciling those. So, we're internally doing that work right now. >> Um, I'll get a better sense on again
like Thursday. I'm going to connect with Paul before um Monday's meeting just to see kind of where he's at and where the town is at. I don't have any um like official from our perspective of like agenda for Monday night. It'll be more of a um like a discussion and maybe after I have a sense from talking to him
what we're looking at, I can try to communicate with you ahead of time. But um I'm assuming it's more of just an update with anformational sharing as to kind of where we're at in a discussion about how to proceed. >> Yeah. I guess you know our first meeting is basically you know it's going to be a tough year almost like last year's
>> Yeah. tighten our belts up. You know, everybody's going to have to >> right do stuff. It's just a matter of >> to be fair, I've been here for 10 years and I've done a lot of these with Paul and every year it's I know that some years are better than others, but every year it's always the doom and gloom. >> I know. >> I think it's Yeah, >> I get it. There's more some years it's
more real. The last couple years it's definitely challenging and and the budget challenges school and town >> are things that really aren't in our control. You know, it's like the health care costs are through the roof. Like that's something that's impacting um everyone, not even just school people like private,
>> but that's actually impacting the business side as well as the user consumer. >> Oh, it definitely is. Um you know, the retirement assessments um there are like some some big numbers that are just impacting us and but hopefully I'll have a better sense from talking to Paul on Thursday kind of where we're at. Like I said, if I can give you an update before
Monday, we will. And Monday will be another good I hope for discussion to kind of figure out like where we're at, where we're heading and then um we'll produce our budget calendar at the next meeting in December as well following a traditional trajectory. You know, we'll continue refining in December. January we'll be pulling everything together for
the end of January, early February, having the recommendation for you. >> I was simply advocating that he could be more cheery when he gives us bad news. That's all. >> But I'll see I'll be there. >> Yeah, >> I'm just You know, >> no, I know. I know. Can I just backtrack
for a minute back to the policy on the graduation? Just a quick edit that it says December 18th, 2025 school committee approved, but the next meeting is actually December 16th. Just an edit. >> I could be in a completely different year when I put that together. The story of my life.
>> I just suddenly I was looking to see when the meeting was and it's the 16th. >> All right. Anything else on the tri board meeting? Okay. Okay. And then we have the >> just a reminder um for the viewing audience and committee members, we have our third uh visioning session for the
Parker Middle >> I'll be there. >> Parker Middle School uh building project on Wednesday, December 17th, 7:00 at the Elks. >> I'll be there. >> Um that'll be a good one as we continue to kind of refine the product. Um just have that one on your calendars. More information will be going out through the newsletters and uh direct connect ad
messages, but Wednesday December 17th. I know times are tough around the holidays, but 7 o'clock at the Elks. If you can join us and hear a little bit about the project, it'd be greatly appreciated. >> That's probably when I was stuck on it. >> And we do not have any uh field trips for you this evening. Yeah. No, there I thought one was going to come in. It
didn't. So, no field trips. >> All right. Anyone have liaison reports? >> Not this time. >> No, no, no. >> No. >> No. >> I just have two coming up. CPAC, I'm going to go I'm going to do the Zoom tomorrow. >> Yeah. >> And then we have capital on Thursday.
So, we'll get our final hopefully our final numbers by by Thursday on on the capital project. So, >> cool. >> Report that out the next time. >> Yeah, we have that for the next one. Okay. >> All right. Um any new items, questions, action items? >> I actually have a question just
following up on the capital planning >> discussion that we've had and and where that landed with the town's meeting on that. I think you are our designate. Are you >> We're going to meet on that Thursday. >> Oh, so the decisions have not been that Thursday night we'll have so all the the members of the capital committee put in
you know what their recommendations were and then we'll look at what everybody said and the ones that get the most up votes are the ones that we'll >> okay so that that for some reason I thought that was happening at the prior meeting so >> all the different departments kind of come and present their cases and then
the members deliberate and so that'll be Thursday night so after Thursday night u we'll put a report together for the next meeting so we'll report that back in December Okay. We have um we were notified I believe that we have to appoint somebody
again for the show. >> Yes. >> And that's coming up at the tribe board meeting. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> They're still soliciting applications. So I don't think we have any. >> We don't have any yet. >> I was about to ask by Monday. >> Yeah. They said by they want the applications by I think the 3rd, which
would be tomorrow. Okay. And then hopefully we'll have some they'll send us some resumes and so we can take a look at it ahead of time. So >> I took that as kind of like a placeholder that just because usually um the town um moderator would come and before the meeting starts just do the vote. So I think we'll just plan on
doing that Monday night. Yeah. Before the >> and I think it's for the alter alter alternative. >> It's an alternative member initial. >> Okay. Y. >> So, that was um a question I wanted to um comment on something. I did go to
Oklahoma and I thought um we have incredibly talented students, incredibly talented students and an incredible group. And when you start looking at um you know if you go to plays for
different schools and different school districts one of the things you see is you don't see as much diversity in the students that are participating in casts like that and I thought that that was absolutely a wonderful thing to see. I
also wanted to comment on Oklahoma has a very tough theme >> to deal with and I thought they did a very good job dealing with that theme. Um and just really congratulations. The other thing is you reported at the beginning um that we have you know
students who have done so well in in their their testing and um that's another thing. we have students who are academically outstanding in so so many ways. So, um you know, it's it's a
wonderful thing and it's something to be celebrated. Um and you sit there and you just go, "Oh my gosh, I hope we can always give the opportunities for these students to use their talents." Absolutely amazing.
>> Any other new items? All right, I got to bring it up. The school calendar I know is going to be next week and I know we got a message from school. >> Then we have a question about the how this calendar is going to fall with Labor Day and
>> where we what are we doing? >> So um you you got a message from the town clerk. I messaged you today but then a couple members had pointed out I even looked at the date incorrectly. So I had just messaged I'm going to go back to the drawing board tomorrow and just take a re relook at things. But um the
underlying issue that I I still have based on the way the calendar falls and now it's even going to fall later in the school year is um you know missing uh a whole day of school for you know one school that that is the the election site. Um you know we've worked very hard
over the years to um kind of collaborate and cooperate with the election group that uses the gym. Um we've got a good system set up with um the police have been very helpful as well of kind of isolating areas of the building. Um I I'll certainly take a look at it and at our next meeting, the second meeting in
December is when we usually do the calendar. Um I'll present calendar option to you uh that evening. >> Okay. >> Because yeah, >> I usually work at town elections over at McCarthy and everything always goes very smoothly. It's never seemed to impact.
You see the kids walking by the hallway, but there's police officers there. Everything's safe and smooth. The only issue is if that were to be the first day of school. >> School. Exactly. What would that be like for brand new drop offs and buses and >> kids trying to find their way around the first day of school? That's the only
reason I would consider not having it if that was to be the first day of school. Otherwise, I think we're fine to go forward with school. >> Yeah, I think it is. When we look at the calendar, if I relooked at it quick, and I'm going to do this tomorrow, I think it would be the first day of school based on going back the week before um
Labor Day. Um, again, and I totally understand what you're saying. In my opinion, it is it's a preliminary election. It's not a the national election. Um, and again, this is just my take on things, but the number of actual in-person voters, um, where you now have
early voting and you have other options where people can go and vote ahead of time, it's not a significant number of people uh, coming to the school. I personally hate to lose an entire school day, which if we're already starting a week later, is only going to push us deeper into June. Um I'd love to be able
to find a way to just um coordinate even if we have to do something a little bit differently to not lose a day of school because yes, McCarthy is impacted, but they've always done a very nice job with it. We have seven other schools in the district that do not have voting in their schools. So, you'd basically be
penalizing the other seven schools. Um, it's very difficult to get a school year started to have teachers build routine and rapport with kids. I love the fact that the teachers come back on the Monday. We do a full day orientation. They get their room set up. You've got three days with the kids, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. We have the
four-day Labor Day weekend and then you kind of phase into four days of school and then five days of school. It's just a great flow. Um, so I will certainly look at it again and give you um a recommendation at the next meeting. We can talk about it. Um, but just to foreshadow for you, those are those are
my concerns and I would rather try to find a way to work within it. Um, to keep what we've been doing the last number of years because again for me that continuity and consistency is important. I'm not downplaying the other pieces of it, but um, I hate to lose a full day for the entire district for um,
you know, just one day on that front, but we'll have that discussion at the next meeting. >> Um, has there ever been a school year that started on a Monday? I know that would require the teachers to come in the prior Friday. >> Do what?
>> So, I'm just curious if there has been any consideration of the possibility of starting on the Monday, the 31st, >> then having the very next day off. That >> Oh, I wouldn't recommend having the day off. I just would recommend it not being the first day of school. >> Oh. >> Oh, so you mean backing up the um the
>> backing up by a single day. In other words, having the first day of school be >> have to look contractually to see if there's a contractual. >> That was my question. I I brought it up just that for consideration. >> Yeah. I'll look and see what the contract actually specifies and allows and we can have that talk.
>> Okay. >> Okay. >> Right. Any other new items? >> Okay. Great. All right. Well, now to our second public input portion of the meeting. I believe we have a registered speaker. Um, just as as you come up, if you could please uh when you get to the
microphone, just uh state your name and address. Um, and I just ask you if you could limit your comments to three minutes. Um, and then just remember, we're not going to respond back. You can come to the front. >> Yeah, you can come right here. >> Respond back, but we will definitely listen to what you say. >> We're here. >> You just have to speak into a mic.
>> That's the mic you use. >> Okay. >> Um, so thanks. I I know that I only have three minutes, so I just hoping that I can talk for 15 seconds before my three minutes starts. just um I'll just give my name and address so that you guys have context and then I'll do my
preamble. So, I'm Olesia Pli. Um uh Dr. Lang, thanks for communicating with me over email and and um allowing me to speak today here. I um uh thought that this would be pretty boring being here and listening for the whole uh event, but it actually wasn't. And it's not
because the items weren't boring. It's because you all are here in this room and you guys care deeply about our kids. And I'm not just saying that. That's not something that I've written down here in my notes. It was truly um really impressive to see and hear your concern um on every one of these kind of
potentially mundane items um from the troubles um plaguing 12 to 14 year olds to how important it is to have uh small class sizes for our kindergarteners and um uh looking rigorously at um the application of a new private school and
its curriculum. Um so I'm really impressed with with this group. Um, and so I'm even more confident and and comfortable to share uh what uh I've come here to talk about, which is certainly a um controversial topic. Um,
so if you would just excuse me, I have my um recently um in my 40s and so I have reading glasses now and um I can see this but I won't be able to see if you're looking at me. So um uh okay. So as I mentioned, my name is Allesia. I
live at 7 Clear Street in Chelmsford. I am a mother to two kids, a 5-year-old boy and a three-year-old girl. My son will likely attend Center Elementary School next fall for grade 1. Today, I wish to speak about growing concerns
relating to excessive technology use in schools around the country, including in elementary schools and in our lowest elementary grades. I want to clarify that I'm talking today not about smartphones but about educational technology used in schools such as 1:1
Chromebooks, learning apps, and recently artificial intelligence. I want to open my remarks with an important statement and that is that I'm here to work together, not against parents, teachers, administrators, and advocates.
We all care about our kids and as I mentioned you you you lot certainly do and we all want the best for them. So I'm not here to blame anyone or to point fingers about what is going wrong. I'm here because I need your help and uh I need the help of all those in
the room today and all of those watching from home. I need your help because I know that alone I can go fast but only together can we go far. Technology in schools has seen a rapid growth over the last 15 years with massive adoption
since COVID especially. Screens are now involved at least once daily if not much more in the learning of kids as early as kindergarten in public school across the country. And the US is not alone. This is not just an America problem. This is a global
problem. Even in countries that have long been hailed for their happiness index like Sweden, everyone is getting this wrong. While edtech was initially hailed as a godsend because it could lighten the load of teachers, introduce students to different modes of learning, and provide technology access to
underrepresented children that could never afford it otherwise. The evidence of what it has done is much darker. Math and reading scores are down. This is not just in America, but certainly America's included. aggression, student aggression, and distraction issues are up, and our chi children and
grandchildren have been coined the anxious generation. To take things further, kids are able to access uh to take things further, despite every good intention by well-meaning tech departments and firewalls, kids are able to access pornography, violence, and are
fed selfharm content by algorithms. In the case of AI, kids are relying on the tool to excess at the detriment of their own brain power. And that is to say nothing of AI romantic companion apps that have been implicated in a number of teen suicides in recent years.
Plus, these technology companies are taking student data captured by edtech apps and storing it for their own profit. Even if all these statements were not true, and sadly they are, and it has been well documented documented in uh media across the political
spectrum, it is undeniable that at the very least edtech with its sleek design and vibrant colors is supercharging the release of dopamine and changing the way our kids process and retain information and fundamentally changing how they
learn and live. And anybody who has an iPhone or a computer knows that this is true because it's happening to all of us. We go to a restaurant and we see married couples on their phones. And I've been there. I've been one of those couples. This is why I know that this is real because it's happening to me. It's
happening to all of us. You don't have to be persuaded to see that this is happening. It's happening to us. And imagine what it's doing to our kids. If it's if it's tough for us to put it down, imagine what it's like with the kids. And again, I'm not talking here about smart about social media, but that is clearly um a bad player here as well.
This is all too much for the young brain to handle. The worst part is these harms may be the tip of the iceberg. We're riding in a car without seat belts or a manual and we cannot predict the future. Something that hit home for me when I was learning about this issue is that
even the executives of these tech tech companies that are making these products, they send their kids to private schools that are techfree. They say, these execs have said that technology is so easy to learn that the best preparation for our kids is not
tech, it's doing things the oldfashioned way. Because this is an argument they hear a lot. We need to prepare our kids for the future. The future is changing so fast. the future of even speaking about the high school uh preparation that you were just doing the high school MCAT you said next year it's going to be different AI is going to be so much
further than it is today and um this argument that we need to prepare our kids for tech uh it is so easy to learn so fast to learn it is intuitive and addictive for a reason we we don't have to prepare our kids for this they it's going to happen to them anyway let's do things better in school so unlike those
tech execs we can't afford to send our kids to private schools But we can do something in our own community. We can tighten firewalls. We can educate our kids more about the harms. And I know that this school district is already doing that. So,
thank you. And we can lobby for change at the state and federal levels. But we can do even more. We can and we must take it a step further. We can go back to pen and pencils for elementary school. We can completely remove edtech
from kindergarten and grade 1. And if that's not possible overnight, we can make it possible for parents to opt out of tech in the classroom for their child. If we want to show the country we're taking this seriously, we can even start a pilot program where one class in K through 4. So, for example, say there
are four classes in kindergarten at center school. One of those classes is completely tech-free, populated by children whose parents request it. Imagine a class with pen and paper instead of Chromebooks. Imagine a class where kids do jumping jacks or push-ups
between lessons instead of brain breaks. Where kids mimic animated figures on YouTube doing stretches. This is currently happening at center school and probably around the district and certainly at every other public school in America. This is not blaming this school district in any way and public
schools in Europe. Um this although things are shifting, things are changing and this is what I'm doing here today. Okay, I'm trying I'm trying to change and shift and um imagine imagine a k a class where kids still feel emotions instead of being numbed by long hours,
excessive screens, and a limited hunger to learn. What would we be imagining? We would be imagining our youth. And I'm not saying that we have to go back because we know we can't go back. But we can try to shift things a little bit for the benefit of our kids. I would be the
first one to sign up and the world be would be watching us would be watching Chelmsford. One thing I have realized after living here for 5 years is that community something that's disappearing around the country where you know your neighbor and they help you and people care and you see kids being driven by
sleds by their parents in the snowstorm like today. Community is dying but it's alive here. You see those things in Chelmsford. It's amazing. We're all part of that here in Chelmsford and it doesn't happen in Burlington and it doesn't happen in other places. It h it's happening here. We've got something
special here. We're different. Let's give our kids the chance to thrive here. I hope my comments tonight have given you and those watching new perspective and confidence to join the fight on this topic. And I urge you to please join me in wanting more for our kids with less
education technology. Thank you. >> Great. >> Thank you very much. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> All right. Okay, I believe that is it. So I will take a move. >> Oh, I get to move. >> I move that we adjourn. >> Second.
>> All those in favor? >> I two motion.