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 Chford Teledia and posted to the CPS website for interested community members to access and watch. In-person public participation will be taking place tonight in accordance with the Cher School Committee public participation policy. Anyone speaking tonight during our public input portion of the meeting is notified the superintendent's office of the desire to
speak and been provided with these guidelines. Upon request written comments received no later than 12 p.m. on the day of this meeting will also be read and made part of the record of the meeting during the sec public comment session. So welcome to this meeting of the ch school committee. Um as you might have noticed uh superintendent Lang will
not be with us tonight but we have assistant superintendent Hirs will be here to keep us on on yeah keep us on track here. Okay. All right. So, our first You leaning up against the lights. You put them back on. I kind of liked it. It was nice. Moon lights. Just press
the middle button. The middle one of All right. Okay. We can keep going. All right. All right. Our first order of business is to approve the minutes from our regular meeting on April 15th. Okay. I make a motion that we approve the minutes of the regular school committee
meeting of April 15, 2025. Second. Okay. Any comments or corrections on the minutes? All those in favor? I I abstain. One abstension. Okay. So, four I and one abstension. All right. Next up, we will hear from our
CHS student rep. All right. So, the senior survivors competition has started this week. Um the first round will be over on Friday and um additionally, the CHS theater guild is first is hosting their first ever cabaret. Um tickets are being sold at lunches also with the QR
code that is um accessed by their Instagram page and um and uh additionally sold at lunches are Catillian and prom tickets. And then the new school committee student representative spot is uh the race is starting to happen to see who's going to fill in for Lana. So far there's seven
kids in the classroom. They're all working on getting their hundred signatures, letter of intent, all that fun stuff. So it's gonna be fun to watch this election. So you need 100 signatures. That's more than you need to run the school committee. Put it on board. Interesting. That's great. Well, thank
you, Patrick. All right. Any other good news to share? Yes. So, we have um great news. Um we had town meeting last night and the school budget was passed. Thank you very much to the town meeting reps in the town in general. The capital um the capital budget was passed as well as
well as foster transportation reimbursement from our federal funding. So, thank you to everyone. Good news. Okay. All right. Anybody else have any good news to share? Okay. If not, we'll move on. Um, it doesn't look like we have anybody for public comment tonight. So, we'll move to new business. I think we have a
couple of presentations to begin with. We do. So, we're going to welcome the Center Elementary School tonight. They're going to be the first up for pres presentations. So, I'd like to welcome Principal Fer and assistant principal Omabono. They can come on up and have a seat at the at the table. And they have their clicker. And it looks
like they have a lot of guests with them today, which is great. You have center rock stars. Yes, we we brought half of our third grade um team with us today, but you're going to learn a lot and um and enjoy their an opportunity to hear their writing. Um so I just wanted to
share a little about how this came about. I had an opportunity to visit a class and they had just done a text set which we'll talk about a little bit more about but on honoring our traditions and um some kids were using the ro the uh dictionaries that the Rotary had donated
and it was just really exciting to see them do some research and look through those and they made connections with each other about things um shared traditions that they were celebrating um and I had a chance to look at their writing and so that's kind of how the idea was patch to bring in our authors
and some of our editors. We have two of our teachers as well. Um so for students, we'll introduce them um again when they come up to present their work. Um but we have Arya and McKenzie if you guys want to give a
wave and Zade and Rio and we have Tanvi and Shishi. Genesis um should be coming hopefully. um if she comes a little bit later, we'll um have her present if we're still presenting. Um but we want to turn it over that to them so that they can share
their writing with you. Um and again, what I was saying is they had different text sets with themes. Um one of them, like I said, was the um honoring our traditions and we wanted students are asked to think about
all the books that they've read in that text set and then there's a writing prompt related. Anything else you want to say to that? Additionally, we know that even years ago when we had purchased FPC classroom, they have so many opportunities. The more kids read and write, the better they get at reading and writing. So, these are just
real authentic, engaging ways that they're able to um make connections to their reading and their writing. And you'll see that they all did different things based on what they wanted to write about. And these are pictures of the um tech sets. The other one was animal journeys. Then you'll hear more about
these books when the kids present. All right. And the first theme was honoring traditions as I mentioned um and they did the interactive readalouds and then explored some traditions that they wanted to share and researched them. So first we will have
um Shishi is going to come up and share hers first. Here she come right. Here you go. My my cult Ghana independence day My culture celebrates Ghana
independence day on March 6th. This is when Ghana got its independence. When there was slavery, slavery, the king, the queen of England took over Ghana because she wanted the gold that is found in nature in Ghana. Slavery lasted
until 1957. Ghana was the first country in Africa to gain their independence. The first country the f the person who led the charge for independence was Kame and Kruma. Now
other people across the world come to celebrate Independence Day in Ghana. In Ghana when it happens the king of Ghana comes to the celebration to watch. People dance and s soldiers stand at
attention holding flags. The celebration occurs at AC Ara which is the capital of Ghana. People join the celebration to in person
or watch it on television. Some people have a party or simple celebration. On Independence Day, people wear candy clothing which consists a cloth of a pattern of yellow and black with accessories of
gold. They wear gold rings and necklaces and headpieces. I have never gone to an Independence Day celebration, but I'm looking forward to go someday. Want to see any questions? [Applause]
You okay to answer a few questions? Anyone have any questions for Shishi? Just a comment. I actually didn't know that history of Ghana and that's very interesting and um thank you for sharing that. That's uh that's a powerful history and I'm glad you're here to tell that story.
And I love that she's wearing her Kente cloth and if you notice she has some beautiful gold shoes on as well. So she asked if she could um dress um in an outfit reflective of the tradition and I said of course. So that's we appreciate that. Thank you very much. That was
great. All [Applause] right, this is perfect timing. We're going to ask Genesis to come up and she's going to talk about Easter right here. You get the Easter
Easter. My honoring tradition is Easter. Easter is always on a Sunday. In 2025, Easter was on April 20th. On Easter, we go sometimes to church, not all the time. If we go to church, we usually have an Easter egg hunt planned
by the adults. The older kids have to do the hunt for candy. We make sure the younger kids find plenty of eggs. We have another Easter egg hunt at home. There's always a golden egg, which is special to find. Sometimes we have
family and friends come over to celebrate Easter. In addition to candy, we eat fufu, which is a spicy soup made with yams and meat. [Applause] Any questions? Anybody have any
questions? I just want to try the yam. What is it? Yam and what soup? Uh-huh. What was the soup you? Ham and meat with spicy soup. I'm down if you ever have a chance. All right. Well, thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.
And the last author for honoring our traditions is Tanvi. Diwali. Diwali is an Indian festival celebrated in late October or early November. It is also known as the festival of lights. It is celebrated
because of victory over darkness. We eat food called biryani, a spicy rice with chicken and naan, a type of flatbed. There are many different types of curry that we eat during the we also have different dresses to wear. It is a time
when we clean the house and wear new clothes. We decorate the house with lanterns. We might have parties or get together with family and friends. We light candles called das. Most Indians put them near the doorway of the house.
We do this to keep the evil spirits away. Diwali's best colors are red, orange, yellow, gold, and dark blue. Sometimes in India, we throw big parties and have fireworks. We have dances and lots of food. Diwali is one of the most
popular festivals in India. Anybody have any questions? My food questions. I'm going to talk about food. So, let somebody else. Do you help prepare the food for this event or do you just watch mom and dad do it
sometimes? No. Great. What's your favorite part of Diwali? Um, uh, I like it when we do the fireworks, the firecrackers. That's fun. All right. Well, thank all three of you for sharing your traditions
with us. Thank you. [Music] We're gonna bring the teachers up next as well. So, and this is the other prompt. Amazing animal journeys. Sure. So, um
[Laughter] the the animal journeys and oh yes sign sorry also third grade yes um so we use the animal journey text set to help
introduce the district prompt which is having them write about um the seed is lively the egg is a patient oh yes so that one and it's a nice way to kind of introduce the kids to a more familiar
way of writing about reading with some animals that they might be more familiar with and then go into more of a abstract complex way of writing. Um, and they're putting themselves in the first
person. So, we read a text set based on animals first. We let them pick one and then they're supposed to put themselves in person as the animal, write a story about their journey. um the district prompt, they're supposed to do a similar thing, but they're putting themselves in
place of different objects. It could be a rock, an egg, a seed, a seed, a butterfly. So, that's a little more complicated. So, this is kind of like a warm-up. Yeah. Um get them some practice. Yeah. A lot of the kids enjoy these though because it's um one of them is like a
husky dog. Um penguins. Um what else is there? The falcon. Oh, the falcon. Yes. Yep. So, with these, we ask that they take some facts from the text set. So, you'll notice that you'll might hear like about migration, where they travel, um what they might eat, but also add
some fictional aspects to it also. Any questions? I I have a question. It might be too early in the in the presentation for this, but um do you I'm a former teacher. Do you um do they go through revisions and editing? Do you go
through that process? Is that part of this program? Yeah. So, um, first drafting, yeah, we kind of, uh, take more of like a a step-by-step approach, which I find is helpful. So, we start by creating their
setting to help give the setting a uh, like a visual so they can come up with some descriptive words. They build their characters. Um, yeah, internal, external, and then we do graphic organizers to help with developing their
problem of their character, how their character is going to solve that problem. And then we follow a story mountain. So, it's kind of a lengthy process, but I feel like it kind of prepares them for what and it it helps in the overall uh they do a story
mountain to help them visualize how their story is going to um play out. Yeah. Yeah. And then they write it and then I have my kids, we revise on Google Doc. Um I like using Google Doc because
I can make comments right in there. Sometimes we do peer revision. Um but yeah, we we do a written draft and then we do a typed draft. Okay. Thanks. We hear them.
So, can I ask a question? Yeah. Um in terms of writing, so at this this is third grade. Yeah. So, at third grade, they're already typing fluently. Well, they some of them they're pretty text.
Um, some of them if they're struggling, they can use the voice to text too. Um, for kids who like really struggle with it. So, that's an option where they can speak into it and it will pick up their words. Yeah. Um, then we also have them double check it, make sure it didn't
pick up anything incorrectly. Um, but a lot of them it sometimes takes time, but they can type actually Yeah. more fluently than you think. They do. Um what is it? Keyboarding without tears. So they love it. They love typing. Yeah. And we also push the typing a little bit
just because MCCAST now is also online and they have to type their responses. So we haven't practiced it a little bits at a time, but they still definitely write a draft, edit with pen and pencil. Um usually a red pen to edit and then um
final draft. And if if they for me if they have time if like I have an early finisher I'll let them type it. Okay. So there is still the hand the actual writing out the spelling and all these things without the assistance. Yeah. So
handwritten copy first and then into the which is actually really important because as we move along now with this technology you don't need to learn on it. Yeah. They I guess they Yeah. Thank you. Yes. No problem.
You ready? Is it too low? Yeah. Okay. Hold on. Here. Take the stomach one. Stand up. Here we go. I have to do that too for my chest. Once upon a time, there was a bird named
the paragan falcon. On top of the ice, icy snow mountain, the paragan was heading to find food. She was on top of a snowy mountain. As the breezing wind blew past her, she saw, "I'm kind of bored. Maybe I should go eat pigeons."
From Alaska, she was going to Seattle, Washington, because that's where most pigeons are. She took off and in the harsh wind it was kind of hard to fly. But the paragan falcon had wet feathers to keep warm in the wind. In the middle while she was
flying, she bumped into an angry horned owl who was looking to find food. Also, the horned owl was so angry that she wanted to eat the paragan falcon. The paragan was nervous and panicked, but she had an idea. She could go in circles
to make the horned owl dizzy. Plus, she was the fastest bird ever, so she gave it a try. But the horned owl ate the paragrin cells. "That didn't hurt," said the paragan falcon. While she was spinning in circles, the horned owl was so dizzy that she fainted and fell down.
The whising wind pushed her down and she landed on a tree. The peragan won the battle. After a few weeks, she was in British Columbia, a province in Canada. She rest she rested on a nearby tree. After a few days, she woke up and took
flight. Finally, at last, she was in Seattle, Washington, the United States of America. She saw a lot of pigeons on skyscrapers, on top of buildings, and on te tree branches. In the end, she had a full tummy and was ready for the night.
She flew onto a nearby tree and slept. Wow. [Applause] And then he drew a picture of a paraguin falcon. Oh, that's great. I have I have two comments. The first is your descriptive language was excellent and I
really like the way it flowed where you had some short sentences and some long sentences. So, it flowed really well. Nice writing. Yeah. Good job. [Applause] And then we have Rio.
Oops. Finally, said a paragrin as he entered the city. Ooh, a paragrin, said a pigeon sarcastically. A very hungry paragrin, said the paragrin. The paragrin starts chasing the pigeon. They go past parks,
buildings, and streets. Then the paragan catches the pigeon. The pigeon tries to get away, but the paragan's talents are too strong. "Thump!" "Is that a human?" yelled the paragrin. The pigeon got away in the chaos and laughed at the paragan.
The paragan was so mad that he took that he took the human's necklace and flew off. "Hey, give me that back," yelled the human. As the paragan flew with the necklace, he was getting hungrier, so he went to a rooftop and looked around for food. He
saw buildings, streets, and cars. Then he saw a pigeon. He got ready and took off. But when he got there, he saw cars, but no pigeons. "He must have gotten away," said the paragin. "I'm starving
here." Just then, a car came zooming at him. The paragrin barely escaped upward. On the rooftop, the paragrin saw another paragrin named Bob. Bob said, "Looks like you've been through a bad
day." "Yeah," said the paragin. "Oh, what happened?" asked Bob. "So the paragin told Bob everything." After the paragan told Bob about his day, Bob asked, "Why do you have a human necklace?" I took it when a human startled me and made me lose a pigeon,
said the paragan. Well, I need to get back to my family, said Bob. See you later, said the paragan as they ported ways. Now, the paragan was on a mission to get food. He flew around, but there were zero pigeons in sight. The paragan was still determined to get food. So, he
flew around searching for pigeons. While the paragan was flying, he saw no pigeons, so he gave up. Once the then right in the corner of the paragan's eye, he saw a pigeon. So he rushed after the pigeon as fast as he could. As he
chased the pigeon, they ended up in an alley. The paragan flew up, so the paragan chased him up. Once the paragan was up there, he did not see a pigeon. All he saw were rooftops. Then he saw a pigeon on another rooftop, so he snuck
up behind the pigeon. Then he heard something, so he jumped out of the way. It was the human, and he had a stick. "Give me that back. Give me my necklace back," yelled the human as the paragan flew off. "That was a close one," said the paragan. Then the paragan saw the
other paragan, "Bob." And the paragan told him what just happened. "Wow, did that really happen?" said Bob. "It did happen. I might go back to see if the pigeon is still there, said the paragan.
When he got there, he saw a note that read, "Sorry about your pigeon. If you give me back my necklace, I will give you food." So the paragan left his necklace and came back later that day to find food. And he ate it happily. The
end. Excellent work in intuding so much dialogue. Good work. Quite interested in this Bob character. My interest really really creative. All
right. Thank you very much. Thank you. [Music] A long journey. One cold September day in Alaska, I realized it was time to start my 8,000mi journey from Alaska, where I am, to warm Argentina and South America. First, I
flew to Yukon Territory and British Columbia. In British Columbia, the trees are thick and grow so close together that I cannot see the ground. Next, I went to Seattle, Washington. Suddenly, I saw a pigeon, one of my favorite foods. Yum. I souped down and caught it. Then I
went to the top of a building and ate. Later I went to Utah. I saw a dove under me and caught it. I went to a legend ate. A day later I went to the Texas coast because there are so many birds to eat. Like the golden clover, laughing go
and greenwing teal. I tried with an old friend of mine and left. A few days later I got to Panama. For a while, I traveled with a flock of Swainsons and broadwing hawks. Then I split up with them and headed to Colombia. I was about
to go to sleep for the night when a great horned owl swooped by in I hid in the bushes and thankfully he did not notice me. The next day I headed to Brazil and rested because tomorrow I would go to Argentina. When I woke up, I
flew to Argentina where I would stay until March. The end. Fun facts. Peraggreen falcons fly up to 18,000 m in a year. Peraggreen's predators are the great horned owl and golden eagle. Three, a parag falcon can fly up to 240
m per hour. Four, paragans live on every continent except Antarctica. I hope you enjoyed the book. About the author, my name is McKenzie and I am 9 years old. Some things about myself is my favorite foods are pizza, tacos, and natural
chicken sandwich. I love reading and adventure. I am super good at math and love school. My favorite subject is math and social studies. And my favorite colors are pink, purple, gold, silver, and sunset. The end. [Applause]
Um, I love the inclusion of facts at the end. Also, I'm very impressed with your cursive, which I think is definitely better than mine. I noticed that. Thank you very much. A mother's journey.
One day in the rosy glow of the setting sun in midmay when Antarctica's winter has begun. Me as a young female emperor penguin I lay my first egg. It is my very first egg. The color is cream and it is shaped as a softball. My mate
waddles fast to pick it up. During the ne next months, a little chick will grow inside. And all the while, my mate will keep it safe and warm from the fierce winter storms that blow across the Antarctica's ice. We sing for the last
time until I return. Next, I join the line of female emperors marching away from the colony. I have to do my job. I have a hard job. I have to fill up my belly and feed it to my baby. I also have to feed myself.
The closest food is more than 50 miles away. Flopping on my belly to go get the food. We are trying to cross the big iceberg, but it is too big. So, we jumped through the cracks in the ice and
swam. Then, we ended up at the other side of the iceberg. And then, we jumped out and landed on top of the ice. Next, we jumped in the water and collected all the fish I could. Then, all of a sudden,
a leopard seal stole all the fish and started to attack us. So, we had to swim away as fast as we could to stay alive. We were so scared, but we happily got away. We all have everything we need, so
we started to go home. Next, as we were heading home, there were fierce snowstorms and were and we were afraid we weren't going to make it home. But then a lot of orca whales came up to us
and said, "Do you do you need a ride back to your home?" We all said yes. Then after a long ride, we finally got there. Then we all got off of the orcas and then we all ran to our babies and
hugged them. We all were so excited. Then we all celebrated at the end. [Applause] Any questions? Oh, that's all right. Take it very
seriously. Hi, I'm Arya. I am 9 years old and I am from Chunford, Massachusetts. My favorite color is light blue. My favorite sports are soccer and basketball. I have two siblings and a
younger and an older brother that is 12 and a younger sister that is seven years old. I have a dog named Bruce and he's so cute. My favorite subject in school is math and writing.
In Andover, my dad owns a pizza shop and it tastes so good. [Applause] Excellent writing. Also, I'm very impressed with your drawing of the penguins. Those were really great. Well, thank you all very much. You were
excellent authors, excellent readers and presenters. So, very impressed with third grade. You know, I think my son was third grade eating dirt still. So, great job. Thank you all. [Applause]
Thank you. We're gonna get a picture of everyone outside. Thank you all for coming. Thank you. We were doing like you did really well. That was good. They're really good. Very good. Nice writing. very well constructed stories
and I just said that they're a tough act to follow, but I actually think they were a wonderful introduction to lead us into what we're going to talk about tonight because these wonderful children are why we're here talking about social emotional learning and counseling and
sense of belonging. Um so thank you to the school committee and to um our families at home for welcoming us tonight. I'm Shannon Bishoff. I am the uh district coordinator for social emotional learning and counseling. Um I am very excited to introduce the two colleagues next to me. Um I have invited
members of our social work team to join us. Um because we are nearing the end of our three first three years since we've introduced our district social workers. So, I'm really excited to talk about and highlight some of the work that they've been doing since they've joined us. Um,
this is Julie Hopkins. She is based at the high school and this is Joltha Broer. Um, who is based at four of our schools. Um, two of our elementary and both at Parker and McCarthy. Um, and we have two members of our team as well. Let me
just that not able to join us tonight. Karolina Ziuliani. Um, she's based at CHIP. She is not actually one of our district-wide social workers. She's just based at CHIPS, but she does join our department meetings on a weekly basis and collaborates with us on all of our
um efforts in the department. And then Sean Dutcher, who is just returning from a a maternity leave. She is home with her her baby tonight. So, um we're here representing her. But I'm really excited. Um I'm going to let Jela and um Julie have the microphone so that they can highlight some of the projects we've
been working on. Um, we always want to hear from families at home and from school committee. Um, these folks on either side of me. Um, turn over any stone that needs to be turned over in order to remove obstacles for families and for students. Um, so we can see them
soar here at Chsford. So, I'm going to go to Julie first. She's going to talk a little bit about I decide. Thank you, Shannon. So I decide is a drug use and substance use diversion curriculum that we are excited to have
implemented at the high school level. Um and there's um and if there's a need for it beyond that, we can um move it to middle school as well, but we're triing it right now at the high school. And so it is a program that was developed by
Mass General Hospital's addiction medicine center and it's evidence-based. It is designed to be delivered in modules. So if there is a drug infraction at the school, the
student instead of maybe being um ex uh suspended inhouse or out of school, they might join in this curriculum as well as a way to um you know bring them back into the school and have them build a
relationship with the person that's delivering the curriculum to really understand what other resources they might need in the community to um to succeed in in school and to also um decrease their potential drug use. So
the module um the modules are about 45 to 60 minutes each and so at the high school we've been implementing it during our pride blocks which are about 45 minutes. So it takes about four to five
sessions to complete the curriculum and then after that we just follow up with the students to make sure that they're meeting their goals that they developed during their curriculum and that uh they have all the resources that they need and it's a nice way to create a relationship with them and follow them
through the rest of their high school career. Why don't you jump to a table of plenty that way I don't have to move the microphone back. Sure. Sure. So, Table of Plenty is a partnership that we have fostered this year, and I know they do a
lot in the community already. I was delighted to have met them. I didn't know about the organization previously. They're a nonprofit in town that um not only do are they very generous with what they have given to the families in the
school district, but they also offer a community meal every Tuesday evening. I think it's from 5 to 7 maybe every Tuesday. No reservation required. You go in, you have a nice family sit-down meal
and it's open to everyone. in need. Um they have been able to partner with us on multiple occasions, giving us gift cards for us to give to families before um before school breaks, which is
important because a lot of families rely on the breakfast and lunch free lunch programs at the school. So that helps them get through the vacation periods of time when we're not there. So that has been super helpful. But additionally,
there was a big project that we did with them before February break where their amazing volunteers went out and bought groceries for about 65 families in need that we had identified. um they put
together these beautiful packages for them to get their families through February break based on their dietary needs, based on um how many how many children, how many people are in the house. Um and then we delivered the
packages to each of the families doors with gift cards attached to the bags and letters from Table of Plenty inviting them to their Tuesday night community meal. Um lots of volunteers across the district were were delivering these bags right before February break and it was
really amazing um how many people came out to help. So Table of Plenty can't say enough about how generous they have been. Going to hand it over to Jalita. She's going to talk a little bit about our partnership with the Chumsford Health Department this year. Yeah. So um we
have um partnered with the Chonesford Health Department on a couple of different things. Um last year actually uh I worked with the social worker in that department and we came up with a curriculum for parents to support
parents around and caregivers of um children with disabilities. Um, and it was really about supporting um, understanding the stress um, that these caregivers are under. And we had
it at the library to invite um, we started pretty much with like elementary, we kind of piloted it with like elementary families. Um especially helping them in the beginning stages too of like the supports, things they might need, um things their children might
need and even respit for them and trying to also create a little community within those groups like some of these um parents don't know each other or know that there's other families struggling with the same things. Um which was wonderful. the uh social worker, she was
great. Um and uh really enjoyed that and want to continue that. We also jumped into this year this fall, we attended the um Chford fall festival which was great. We had a booth to kind of one it was great because we got to again
um see the other community resources and be able to partner and talk to some people face to face um especially also families and we students came over. Uh again this is I'm lucky enough to have started three years ago. This will be my
third year. So, it's been really good getting to know the community and some families didn't really weren't didn't even know that we were we were there um at the school district to help with the resources that we can. So, it was great. It was really good to get a little more
um to get out there a little bit. And as far as community resources, we've also created a pretty large database. Um it's it's really great. We have it categorized in tabs and sheets of all the resources that we've come across. Um, which is great even over the three
years like even little things. Sometimes you come across different counselors, different therapists. You're like, "Wow, this person's great. I need to remember this or who specializes in what and it's great. It's nice and easy. We share it with um other providers and um other staff and we can easily access things
and help parents out. Um, and obviously we communicate a lot at who um especially with mental health supports of who has openings, who's available right now, who what treatment's been great, what's really worked. Some of that I'm getting back
from feedback from families and parents and students that are going through some things themselves. So, um which has been wonderful and obviously the supporting student and family students and families. I think what's been really great, I just wanted to add um is that I
am across four schools, but the four schools have been wonderful and um I we've now kind of established within the school community who we are. So, it's been really great coming in and getting the referrals and um really weaving
ourselves into the schools. Julie's great. She's at the high school level, too, and and going through the different houses and just being there. So, now staff knows exactly when to kind of call on us and bring us in. And even families
are like talking to each other. And some of them are like, "Hey, you should call Jala or reach out." So, it's it's been great. It's been wonderful. I want to thank both of them and to our two other members who couldn't join us
tonight. um they have worked tirelessly the last several years. We've had to define this position um while they were here um and we're still defining it. And I I think you know we started the position with the supportive school committee um to bridge between home and
school and I think that they have just led the way in making that happen and establishing partnerships and um both within our school community and within you know the broader Chsford community. So extremely happy that they're with us. Um, I know our work together has just
begun. Um, I do want to highlight for families at home, we included the link down below. Um, we don't get many of them. Um, but we really want families to know that they can access our social workers from home. Um, and it can be from anything for anything. if they are
having difficulty um getting their child to school with attendance. Um if they're new to the area and want to better understand what resources um they can have access to. If they just want to be connected to neighbors um you know any question that they have, please send it
our way. Um if they don't have the answers, they will find somebody who can support families. So we do check that. Again, we don't have many uh referrals come through that way, but we'd like to see more of them. So, we wanted to share that out. Great. Before you move on, can
anybody have any questions or comments? Um, I have a question. Um, and I don't remember the name of the program. The first one I decide you talked about. Is that for Can you explain? Is that run for everybody? Is that for just students
who are having problems with uh addiction? What is what is it about? Sure. I think the the main referral line for that for that curriculum is there's some kind of infraction at school. So, if there a vape sensor goes off at the
high school, maybe that student participates in this curriculum. Um, and the different modules are are based on different types of drug use, too. So, I have the ability and anybody delivering
the curriculum has the ability of kind of catering the program to the student. So maybe we don't go beyond a certain type of drug or product. Um but it really opens the line of communication with that student and families too. I
should say that there's always consent from from guardians before we jump into this curriculum. Um and there's a contract that we sign together and then we continue to follow the students. So we don't just deliver the curriculum and let them go but we build a relationship
and then um go from there. Did you say vape sensor? Yes. I Is that something we have that I didn't know about that? So you have a vape sensor just in high school. That's amazing. I'm not telling any standard. We got away with a lot when we were in
high school. Sorry. Go ahead. So any other questions? Who knew? I just I was just going to add one more thing about I decide. Um so this is relatively new to us this year. We do have clinicians that have been trained both at McCarthy and at the high
school. I think we're still in conversation about how to move forward with I decide, but it was a clear need that we wanted education and learning um for students in this area. So our some of our counselors at the high school have been trained and they're using it
even one-on-one with students who might disclose in a counseling millu. So not having anything to do with um you know a disciplinary you know response at all. So, um, we feel like it's another tool to be able to educate and respond to student need. Right now,
I would like to also say Table of Planning is amazing. Um, they've been working in the community for so many years and they're absolutely amazing. Um, but other than the food and security, which seems to be a main major
area, the 65 families, is that across the entire district? It is. Okay. across the entire district and they were they self-reerred. So we put out a QR code in the connected flyer that goes out the
communitywide flyer and they were able to self-reer table of plenty actually didn't know who any of the families were. We were able to create a document so then it was private for us to be able to deliver the groceries. um but they
were just there with their volunteers to kind of get the supplies together and um really financially support this this program. So it was wonderful and I would say that number is probably lower than what's really Oh definitely. There were
definitely some families even I know of that um didn't participate. Wow. So, um, that's one apparently a major need in the community. Um, what do you see as maybe the next biggest need in the
community? Are we meeting them? Are we meeting those needs? Mental health, yes. Treatment. Um so this is where our growing kind of database of of providers comes in which is a live document because we all know
organizations um you know change different providers come on the scene they leave. So it and you know there's different availability and um and and different levels of providers
out there. So sometimes we need to access a crisis team, sometimes we need to access a treatment center, sometimes we need to access just individual counseling. And Shannon will go on to describe some of the other referral resources that we have like car solace
and cartwheel which have been gamecher for us to be able to get families connected easily to providers. I think I think what's difficult is you'll um find a lot especially with uh treatment for children is the the lack of um
providers. So we're looking at weight lists sometimes of months and months and months. Um it's actually kind of sad that um I'm putting in referrals for things like inhome therapy and um individual counseling and I'm find getting excited because it's an eightweek wait and that's kind of sad
instead of a you know six months or or more um which is which is tough. So Shannon, um, like I said, it's been cartwheel's been wonderful because we can at least get some patch through some sort of service beyond the mental health
supports that we can provide to at the school um, which which you can go on to talk about. Yeah, I'm going to jump in and um please feel free to share more questions and um even use our self-reer to ask more questions of us because we always want to keep building our
resources to support families and you all might at home and and our school committee might have ideas for us as well. Um so just to talk a little bit about our partnerships, we're continuing our partnership with Care Solace and Cartwheel. Um, Care Solace is the
referral um, service that we have been using postcoid, this is, I believe, our third year with them. And cartwheel um, care, which I'm going to talk a little bit more about, is like a virtual mental health partner that we have immediate access to. A couple of other highlights
for this year. Um, we have a new partnership with Clark University at the um, Macau Mosakowski Institute. I had the pleasure of meeting um Dr. um Nadia Ward at the New Orleans uh school mental health conference. She's a longtime Yale
professor in psychology and Clark was lucky enough to bring her on board to establish this new institute. She is like leading edge in terms of digital supports and technology supports for mental health for children. So really excited. Um Dr. Ward has um been to
Chsford several times. So, we're partnering with her on this new pilot on my piece, which is a tier one, tier 2, and tier three um online technology support for kids where they can learn and establish their own tools and strategies to respond to their own
symptoms um as well as us using it to establish um goals for individual students. So, just starting that pilot, but that's been a work in progress all year. We're really excited about that. Also exciting this year we partnered with um several school districts
including Westford and Bill Ricka Wilmington um Tukesbury and Tingsboro um to uh do um a multi-dist suicide prevention training for all of our counselors, our social workers and our psychologists. Um this was definitely a
need in our district to um just increase our skills, our tools, our training to respond to students mental health needs, suicide prevention. Um so it was really exciting to have over 60 um clinicians in a room together from multi-dists. Um we could not have put that on uh without
the support of the prevention partners of uh North Middle Sex as well as the health departments in Westford and um in Chsford. So really want to thank them for supporting those efforts. We hope to continue. The training was done by Dr. Larry Burkowitz. He's a member of the
Riverside Trauma team. Um he is our ongoing partner now. We get to use him for coaching and consulting. So we're excited to continue that learning into next year. Um so we also continue to have mental health awareness and suicide prevention curriculum um that's
implemented. I can talk a little bit about the high school in our freshman classes. Um and we use a a screening tool uh after those uh lessons have been implemented in the classroom. And for our seniors as well, um we use the NAN project to come in um and it's folks who
come in and share their live stories um of recovery to mental health. Um they are also hosting our students at Empowering Youth Voices coming up on May 9th. It'll be the second year that they've invited us um to that statewide symposium. Julie's going to go this year
for the first time. We're really excited about it. Um, last year we actually had a Chumsford alumni who was the keynote speaker for empowering youth voices. It was incredible. Um, another highlight is the addition of our STEP intervention classroom at McCarthy school this year.
You all know that we had that at the high school level and we've been um advocating to add that to McCarthy. Um, and the opportunity arose now that that's a 78 building. We have our whole cohort of 78 students there. Um and our when we look at data and numbers, our
referrals have been quite similar to McCarthy and the high school. So it definitely demonstrated the need for us to have that intervention classroom for students who have been out on on extended absences for either mental health or medical reasons. So really excited to have that program up and
running. Um so Care Solace, I just want to highlight that they've expanded their care services. Um Joltha mentioned that at home when families are trying to access ABA services, therapeutic u mentoring, um family therapy in the home
setting, it's really hard to find um our resources locally are capacity. So Carousel has extended. They don't just we don't just refer to them for individual therapy. we now um can refer for ABA, for psychological assessment, psychiatry, intensive outpatient programs, partial hospitalizations,
um hospitalizations and stabilization, and substance use counselors and programming. So, I provided the QR code and also the link. Families at home can self-reer um it can be anonymous through this Chumsford site um or a member of our clinical team at school can also
make a referral for a family in need. So, here's just a um a breakdown of the mental health referrals to Care Solace for this school year. Um I looked back at the last one I presented and it it pretty much mirrors it um with anxiety, depression, trauma, uh you know, being
our our three priority concerns that um families and students are seeking support. I also want to mention that carousels is not just for our students, it's for our families and for our um all of our colleagues here at Chsford School and their immediate families. So, a
wonderful resource. So, Cartwheel Care um we have a very limited partnership with them. Um, previously we just leaned on them for psychiatry. Um, but now we have a partnership with them where we can access individual counseling, parent
coaching, family counseling, psychiatry in addition to them providing u monthly webinars to to our families and caregivers. You can find those in our districts. More every week that get sent home from central office when those are available. Um, so we have 25 referrals
per year. We're currently at 23. So we're by the end of the year we will definitely reach our 25. Um and what that does is that's immediate access for us. So those therapists are in the waiting for us um as our partners. So it's different than making a referral
and having um Care Solace find a therapist. These these folks are therapists and they immediately get on and do virt virtual support for our families. They have several multilingual um therapists on their um that are
members of their team and I currently looked they're supporting families in Chelmsford who speak Haitian Creole, Portuguese, Spanish and Arabic. Um they're always reaching out and asking you know for needs and when we present a need they they are looking um because they want to be as accessible as
possible to our families in need. So they've been a great addition to our team. I think Julie's our number one referral to they're great. And what's the best part about cartwheel, I think, is that we're
able to collaborate with them. So, if guardians sign off that the clinician can talk to us, we have a direct line to each other. We can support them as best as we can in the school building and beyond. But, it's a really nice partnership.
So just want to highlight um referrals over the year with cartwheel. We just like to look at that. It provides us with some information around trends and when we might need to be um most responsive to families. So you know you can see in September and March we had
our the most amount of referrals to to cartwheel. Um and now just a few highlights. I'm looking at the clock. Um Dr. Dr. Harsh, I promise I'll I know you guys have a long night. Um, a few highlights around social emotional learning and sense of
belonging. Um, we're continuing to utilize Second Step, our SEAL curriculum in grades. Um, we're using that in grade I it says grade K to 12, but it's not. We're using our Second Step curriculum in grade K to 8. Um, this is the nearing the end of our fourth year using that curriculum. They've made significant
improvements to their middle school curriculum through a very big grant that they received. Um, so we've been pleased with those changes. They also have introduced a new curriculum for high school. Um, we are not piloting that yet, but we are we have been given access to it to start to take a peek at
it and see what it might have to offer us. Um, we have our seal advisory block at high school where we still lean on Character Strong um as an SEAL curriculum to pull themes for kids learning about SEAL in high school. Um, we're continuing to use our Panorama
student success and SEAL platform. Um, and we just completed our spring survey for uh looking at student competencies and SEAL and sense of belonging. So, I just closed those surveys. Um, that data is not even hot off the press yet. We'll
be looking at that over the next um days and and weeks. So excited to to look at hopefully growth areas in in those areas and also providing us opportunities to look at goals looking into next year to support students. Um I can say that looking at the fall data, one of our um
priority concerns that student let us know about is just emotion regulation and that was across the board. Um so that's certainly something that we're going to be you know establishing some goals around to support kids around. Um I also want to introduce days. Um that's
our diversity, access, inclusion, and support team. Um we used to I I guess what I want to we used to say DEI and MTSS as two separate entities, but our goal over the last two years has been really to integrate the work of MTSS and
DEI. So we came up with days um through some working groups uh and we feel like that speaks to MTSS and diversity, equity, and inclusion. So those teams are meeting as a district team and also as a school team. Um and we're oops pro
in the process of setting some goals um using the SEAL student data to help us set goals for next year around that. Um we also have been utilizing you science. Um it is not about science. It's about the science of you. meaning students um get online and they're able to take some
aptitude assessments which teach them about their talents and their strengths and it provides them opportunities to think about careers and make career connections. Uh we are now doing that in grades 7 through 12th. Um this was the first year that we did that. We piloted
it a little bit in the spring before, but then we implemented it schoolwide. Um really excited about that. And it also helps students when they're thinking about courses that they want to enroll in, um interests that they have and and just making connections where their personal strengths lie and what excites them about
learning restorative practices. Um I am really excited to share that we've had a yearlong learning experience with um a wonderful team Pathways to Restorative Communities again with our partnership with prevention partners of Northern Middle Sex um who supported a lot of
this learning. Um we were able to train our administration uh several of our schools. We were able to train our recess aids and we did a family and parent training at home. Um, we are really really excited about this work. I still feel like we're very much in the
beginning stages of it and um, it it's been an incredible partnership. I also need to mention Katie Sims because she has been my partner every step of the way to implement and um, plan for all of the restorative practices trainings. Um, so
we're really excited and looking forward to next year in terms of what are our next step goals with restorative practices. College Affordable is a team that we have worked with for a couple of years, but new um just starting last spring was their bridge to equity program. College
Affordable is supporting families with um a better understanding the pathway to college for all students. Uh they are a nonprofit. They work with our Chumsford families providing webinars to support um students and families that are
applying for aid, how to fill out FASA forms. Um and their bridge to equity is sort of a you know an elevated supportive um plan that they they do to support families that need more help with this. So they lean on us and say, you know, what families need and want
help um to get gain access to college and make it more accessible and affordable. So they have been an incredible partner. Um, and we meet with them as a as a high school counseling team like every other month. Um, but we're in touch with them quite frequently. And if any families want to
know how to access their webinars, we send it out um in the weekly some more that is sent home by the district as well as communication that comes from the counseling department. And then just last but not least is our pocket talks which is a device that we've been using
to support um translation for our counselors um our social workers um and our admin at the schools like and we can use them during phone calls during home visits um and it's been a wonderful addition and again our prevention
partners team has been wonderful and donated that to Chsford school so thank you to them and that's it. Oh, I I personally want to thank you not only for all the work, but also for reminding us that that we do have students and families that that
have issues, that have needs. Um, you know, we get to see the best of the best. You know, we get to see the the great authors in the third grade and we get to see the athletes and the musicians and but sometimes we forget that there there are there people that that need help too and and the fact that you you're out there doing that is is,
you know, it's it's great. Thank you. Thank you. I just wanted to make a comment. So I happen to know a lot about your work and I think that um first of all that list is huge and so I assume you don't have a lot of free time but one of the things I will say is not only they cover a lot of angles but it's very obvious that they care about the
students and uh not just the students really but the whole community at large and the work you guys do is amazing and I think it will um benefit us for a long time. I think in the next few months there's going to be a lot of uncertainty uh over the next few years and as long as you're here I feel better about
having my kids in the school for sure. So thank you. compliment. Thank you. We appreciate that. One plug because I work with you got to do it in a microphone. But yes, the microphone. You know what? I work with these guys all the time and they're amazing. So, since you guys have
brought them on um truly partnerships with us, so they do amazing stuff. So, thank you. All right. Any final comments, Susan? I do. Um, you know, we hear about people who think that SEAL initiatives don't belong in schools and
they can't be more wrong. And you've let us know about so many kids and families are struggling and I'm really grateful that we have you, the social workers, the counselors in our school because there is a great need for it. Um, I've spoken with Shannon before. I've spoken
with Dr. Lang. hear from a lot of parents who are concerned about their kids in school, the behaviors of kids in school. I don't always have answers to give them about the specifics of what happens because I'm not privy to it and I shouldn't be. But I hope people who
are watching and hear this know that this is something we all care about a lot and we have a lot of programs in school to try to work on all these different needs, these social needs, these emotional needs that families have and students have. And I'm really
grateful that we do and I hope people are confident that it's something we all take seriously. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you to everyone. Having now been through the whole cycle of education, having two daughters who
are juniors in college, I really really have to tell you that I think the most important part of the whole education process was the inclusion of the social emotional learning. they get to this point in college, they're basically
going to have to be working on their own in many many ways. And building that resilience in the social and emotional component of intelligence is so so important. Um, so I can't agree more
that this is a super important component of education. And I remember when we brought on the first social worker, uh, John probably does too. And Dennis, I do. And, um, and I think
Chsford, we just talked about what are the two greatest needs. We've got this food insecurity issue that I think all of society right now has a lot of insecurities, including that one. And, uh, the, uh, whole mental um, wellness
component of life. uh impacts all of us, but especially our young people. So, um I am I c I cannot say more how important your work is. And Shauna's not here tonight, but I wanted to say something
about something she did and Sue Zen knows about this, too. And she went out of her way to really help a family last year. We got a little bit involved in helping out as well. And that went beyond what the roles that you play are.
And I bet each one of you has done the same thing for uh students in in the whole district. So you really want to thank you okay for doing that because I know that the role you play requires going out of the position and what the
position is all the time and what that fine line is be you know where do you go beyond the line and so thank you for um keeping in that struggle and for making the lives of so many people so much
better. Thank you. Right. Well, thank you very much for coming tonight. Thank you so much. Thank you all. Bye. I think when we hired I think I had didn't have gray hair yet. It's amazing. It's been a long time. It's been here too long. Okay, we're going to be moving along. We're going to go into um we're going to send this over to Joanna, but just
another reminder about kindergarten registration. You never have too many reminders about signing up to come to school. Register early and often, right? So it um our third day for a kind of group kindergarten registration is May
7th from 9 to 6 here at the central office. Um it's like 15minute appointments and you just bring in your little checklist of items. You sit with your future school clerk and you register your student for kindergarten.
Just a reminder May 7th 9 to6 here. Great. All right. The next item is the liaison assignments. We had these last week. I just wanted people to take a look at them and see if they wanted to make any changes. I didn't hear back from anybody. Um so everybody comfortable with what they have for this
year. Nobody wants All right. So if that's the case, uh I'll take a motion to just approve these as our Okay. I move that we approve the 202526 liaison assignments and contacts as presented. Second. All those in
favor? Hi. So, we'll have the superintendent post those. Um, next item um has to do with the um Parker School building. Uh, so we had a meeting of the um the the building committee last week and we met with Leftfield, which is our selected um project manager and they
were great. They they they told us a little bit about themselves. Um they have a lot of experience. They have a lot of experience in this area. A lot of them live around here. Um they've done the Tinsboro Middle School. They did the Barika High School, which I don't know if you've seen that. That's amazing from what it used to be like. Um so it was great to meet them there and then he
kind of went through the process uh and the timeline. So um they're going to meet with MSBA in a couple weeks to just get the MSBA approval for them being our project manager. And the next step then is for us to find a designer. Um and that process is a little bit different
with the project manager. It was kind of on us and the building committee to interview candidates and make a selection. With the design process, we have to go through MSBA. Uh and so one of the things they they want they do is they put together um a design panel to to look at the designer choices and then
uh interview and make selections. And um that panel consists of 13 people. 10 of them are from MSBA. So they have the majority uh stake in this committee but then three of them are from from our building committee. Um and so u the three people are usually the the town
manager, M. Paul Cohen is going to be on there um superintendent and then a school committee member. Um, so, uh, we figured that, you know, since I was already on the building committee that that I would be best served to be on that. And, uh, we did vote on at our meeting, but we also wanted to take a vote here just to, um, make the
appointment official. And then we'll, we'll move on to that next step once, um, left field is officially part of the MSBA. So, give yourself some credit. It was a unanimous vote. I'll do. Okay. Yeah. I move that we designate um our chairperson Dennis King to serve as
one of three representatives of the um Schumsford School District on the Parker Middle School designer selection panel with the MSBA for the procurement of a designer for the Parker Middle School project. Second. Okay, any questions?
Just a quick comment. Y awesome work on that. If anybody got to watch the Parker meeting, uh it was public televised and I took a look after the fact. Great work. Thank you for doing it, D. Yeah. And if anybody watching at home, yeah, if you had a chance, it it was a great meeting. I'm going to ask the superintendent maybe to kind of just do a quick summary of the timeline to see
where, you know, where we are, where we need to be um you know, uh in this whole process. So maybe next meeting we can do something like that. But um Pat Maloney also gave a good um description of it last night. Yeah. At the town meeting last night, too. Um all right. So we have a motion. Do we have a second? I
second it. Okay. All those in favor? I. Perfect. 5-0. All right. The next vote is um to appoint Superintendent Lang to the Valley Collaborative Board. Um he served in that position now for the last six more than that probably. Yes. Yes. Because it's made up of area
superintendent from the um schools that attend Valley and he is currently the chairperson of that board. He he would he said he would like to remain on that position. So uh we do take annually take a vote to appoint him to be our representative on that board. So if okay
I move that we appoint Dr. Jay Lang uh to the Valley Collaborative Board of Directors. Second. Oh, sorry. I totally was not here. My bad. All right. Any other questions on that? All those in favor? I That was crazy. Okay. I don't see any
field trips in the packet. So, we we don't have any field trips. Um any leaison reports? We just met last time. I don't think so. Um action items. Um we meet again next Tuesday just to remind her. So, because of the vacation, we bumped our meeting. So, we meet again
next Tuesday. At most likely, we're going to try to get a photographer in here for 5:30 because we haven't had pictures taken from committee. Thank God. The superintendent will let us know for sure if they can come that day, but they will take individual head shots um and and a
group photo. So, like 2018 were the photos, right? You look quite young then. I Thank you. I All right. Um any other new items? Okay, great. Okay. Um we don't have any public comment coming in second um for uh second meeting here.
So what we're going to do now is we're going to take a motion to adjourn to executive session. Okay. Um and then not return. So I move that we adjourn to executive session second. And just to add to it into not to return to regular session once we
enter we won't come back and we will not be returning to exe to regular session. Yeah. And then this is to discuss strategy with respect to negotiations. Oh, we have to say all this. Oh, that's okay. That's fine. Okay. Well, hold on. Let me turn. All right. Hold on. I move that we adjourn
to executive session. We will not be returning to regular session. And we're doing this for the purpose of contract negotiations. I will second. Wonderful. All right. We have to roll call on this. Uh Diana I. Susan I. John. I. Maria I.
I. Great. Take five. All right. Take two seconds and just