WEBVTT

METADATA
Video-Count: 1
Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=kIYHMSvr1No

NOTE
MEETING SECTIONS:

Part 1 (Video ID: kIYHMSvr1No):
- 00:00:00: Pledge of Allegiance, Meeting Opening, and Agenda Overview
- 00:01:59: CHS Updates, Teacher Appreciation, and Parker Middle School
- 00:05:45: Harrington Elementary Presents on the SALE Program
- 00:26:05: SALE Program Q&A, Support, and Implementation Details
- 00:36:44: Valley Collaborative Report, Field Trip Approval and Liaison Reports
- 00:41:33: PTO Appreciation, Policy Review and Meeting Adjournment


Part: 1

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I aliance 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. >> Okay. Well, it's wonderful to see

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everyone once again. We only saw each other what, one week ago. >> Yeah. So here we are and we have reordered the entire meeting and these guys are taking over. So here they are with us. Okay. Um this meeting is going

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to be livereamed by the Chelsea Tele media and it's posted to the CPS website for any interest community members to access and watch. And we do not have any uh folks who have signed up for public participation tonight. But just a

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reminder that interested community members may email the superintendent of schools, Dr. Lang, at his email address, which is listed on the agendas and on the website prior to 12:00 p.m. on the day of the meeting um to be scheduled to provide in-person input under the public

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participation portions of the agenda. Keep in mind, you're scheduled for the beginning of the meeting if you're speaking on the agenda items, if you're scheduled at the end of the meeting for non-aggender items. Um, we also try to keep comments if we can and input around

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three minutes to give everybody a chance to talk. All right. So, now I get to welcome everybody. I don't do these things in exact order, which is not good. And our consent agenda, which would be for the minutes, we're going to have that next week, only one week in between.

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>> We'll do both. >> We're going to give a little more time on that one. Um, and we have our CHS representatives right here. Any good news? >> Yeah, we we got some good news tonight. Uh, Junior Catillian is on Saturday, May 9th, with tickets being sold at lunches

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until tomorrow, May 6th. Uh, week one of AP testing is going on at the high school right now with week two happening from May 11th to May 15th, which is next week. And the Chuffs High School PTO pickleball tournament is coming up on May 16th with proceeds going towards the

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after prom party. >> That's wonderful. Okay. And some other quick events. Signups have officially started for Rhyme's annual 24-hour relay that takes place on May 30th and May 31st. And junior drop shadow day is

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coming up on May 19th. And juniors are currently contacting professionals on who they want to spend the day with. And um it is officially teachers appreciation week. And the letters we wrote last week to our teachers are now being displayed in front of all three house offices.

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>> Oh, that's wonderful. So, a happy teachers appreciation week to all our incredible teachers in the Chumsford School District and anywhere because teaching is not an easy position, is it?

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Okay. So, we are moving on to our next item and we have we get to welcome Dennis's input on the Parker Middle School status. >> Great. Yeah. Um, obviously not a lot happening since uh since last Tuesday, but we did uh the PSR was submitted on

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to the MSBA on Wednesday after we approved the minutes. Um, they acknowledge the receipt and we are now scheduled to meet on Wednesday the 13th with the what's it called? The facilities assessment subcommittee on the 13th and uh do a presentation, answer questions, and then they will

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bring that to the full board. With the full board's approval, we move on to the next element which I think schematic design. >> Schematic design. Is that May 13th? >> May 13th, next Wednesday. >> So, it's moving quick. I mean, I was shocked that we got in that quickly. So, >> yeah, we we were given two based on our

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timeline, we had two tenative dates. We were either going to get settled for the 13th or the 20th. Um, I was a little surprised we got the 13th just because we only did the submission a week ago, but uh they queued us up for the 13th. So, that should be good. So, at this particular meeting, um, we do like about a 20-minute presentation. They do a

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20-minute question and answer period. Um, and then this is kind of like a pre-screening before you get to the full board. The full board meeting is in June. And what our goal at the end of this is basically for this group to say, "Yes, we're going to refer you and approve you or recommend you for approval to the board in June." So,

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we'll have a much better sense of where we're at after the meeting. But, I think it's a good sign we actually got the first of the two dates and um, they acknowledge receipt of our um, preferred schematic report, as Dennis said, with um, edits and everything. So, we're in good shape. Do does this um do they have

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a does the state have a lot of projects going on at the same time right now for middle schools or >> I don't know middle schools but just in general they they always have a bunch in the pipeline I think >> because again there um different like phases of the work. So if you think about it a school takes you know from

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the initial application all the way through a potential build is you know seven or eight years. So they have, you know, I'm going to ballpark 20 or so projects each year that they're tracking. So, you know, there's hundreds of projects in different uh stages and you have to hit all these different

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prerequisites to advance to the next stage. So, yeah, there is a lot of activity taking place. >> Seems like we're moving along pretty well here. >> Yeah. >> Any other questions or input for this committee? All right. Thank you, Dennis,

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very much. All right. We are happy to have Harrington tonight. Um, our elementaryaries and I we only have one more elementary to go. We are happy to have you. Please come on up. And Rob is

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if if folks don't know Rob at home, he's Rob Ellison Allison, right? And he is the principal of Harrington. And would you introduce your team? >> Absolutely. Um, I have Karen Grabowski, my assistant principal. I have Christina Rayball is one of my sale teachers and

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then Eric Hiltz is our AB teacher. >> Hi Kelly >> and Kelly Cormier is our PELAP teacher at the schools. Okay, >> welcome to the table. >> Um thank you. Appreciate it. Uh it's always a pleasure to come and speak to uh school school committee regarding

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things that are happening at Harrington. Uh tonight we want to talk a bit about our sale program and how we've we've introduced them to those students to um unified arts to give them that introduction to the unified arts

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curriculum and that exposure. Um so just for a background, Sale's been with us. This is our third year. We started with two um classrooms. We are now three. Um the program's growing. Um we love having them in the building. Harrington hasn't

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had a specialized program in the buildings as long as I've been there for the past 10 years and a little bit before that. So, this was new for us and uh it's been a great addition to the school and to the school community. So, we've got some great staff. We've had some wonderful uh students come through. Uh so, it's been a really great asset

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and addition to to our building. So, the purpose of of tonight's presentation is to talk about how we've been able to um introduce our sales students to um unified arts. So, mostly

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library um music and art. Uh they already do AP with Eric and Kelly. This pro what we're talking about is for the students that can't that aren't able to have that. So, this is a way that we're able to include

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all of our students into that unified arts programming. Um, the schedule just allows us to do it. Uh, so we took advantage of it as a way to really include them into the community and get that exposure for them. Um, it's really to provide the sale students with that

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um the opportunities to develop more the generalized skills across the curriculum. So what we know about autism one in 31 students per the CDC uh it is a spectrum uh level of students requires varies uh in our school in this program we have

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some students that are able to be included in the class at some as general ed classrooms for a certain amount of time. Um but then we have some because of their you know their disability aren't able to be included in those classrooms as much. Um, we're talking about students with communication

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differences, sensory needs, social interaction challenges, and uh, multiple pathways for learning. Okay. And with that, I will turn it over to Christina, and she can talk about the program. >> So, Sale, for those of you who don't know, sales stands for students

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achieving independent learning. All of our students in our program do have a primary diagnosis of autism. Um, it is a substantially separate classroom within our school. We have three classrooms. We have a kindergarten, first grade, first, second, and second through fourth.

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And all of our students require specially designed instruction based in the principles of applied behavior analysis. Um, we're assisted very greatly by our board certified behavior analyst and our students receive services both in our substantially separate classroom as well as the

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general education setting. So, at Harrington, what we're working on, like Rob said, is really just expanding our students abilities to access the greater school community, especially for our students with more

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severe needs rather than being in the substantially separate classroom for the majority of their day. And we're working towards really creating those meaningful opportunities for students rather than just putting something in front of them. We want to make sure they're really getting something out of it. and we're

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providing access meaningfully to the curriculum that they wouldn't otherwise be able to access. Unified arts of course are a core instruction. So we are currently working with music, art, physical education and

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library in ways that it can help with students communication. So music helps support rhythm and language. Art supports visual expression for students. PE supports modeling and movement, library supports

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language development, and overall we're seeing improved participation and expression from our students across communication domains. We're working towards increasing regulation for students in these spaces as well. Some of these spaces, especially like the gym, are big open

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spaces that can be very overwhelming for a lot of our students. So bringing them in in smaller groups helps us with the regulation piece where we're able to teach students how to access that space and how to do it safely and remain regulated while they're in those

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locations. We also are able to provide more structured movement in those spaces. Some sensory input for students who have high sensory needs and may get overwhelmed in those spaces. And it is overall what we're seeing. It's improving their access to those spaces

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across the day, not just in our set unified times. We're also seeing some social development in students. We're seeing increased ability for turn taking skills. We're able to see students do more shared activities with their peers.

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We have the opportunity for peer modeling, which is really great, both within our students in the classroom as well as with the general ed peers when they are accessing the spaces. And it's real world social skills. You know, you're not always going to be in

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one safe little environment forever. So, we're really teaching them that it's okay to go into these spaces and be themselves. Overall engagement, our students respond really well to structure and visuals. So, being able to bring them into these spaces and work with our specialist

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teachers to bring those into those spaces to make them more accessible has been really great. uh the unified arts teachers are able to align their curriculum, what they're doing with our students with our students strengths. So, it really just helps them again feel more comfortable

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in that space. And the higher engagement u reduces avoidance behaviors, which we've actually seen a pretty big increase in this year, which I'll talk a little bit about further in. Impact on behavior is a big one. A lot of our students do have behavior

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challenges. So, we're able to address communication, regulation, and engagement within these spaces to help generalize the skills that we're working on within our classroom. We're also able to provide an alternate

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means of regulation. So, for some students, they're finding that, you know, maybe art is something that is really regulating to them and drawing really helps them get back on track. And we're able to figure that out through exposure. And it's also again just increasing

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access to more opportunities and things that could potentially be preferred activities for academic impact. It's just supporting the students attention. Um overall our students for the most

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part don't have the best attention skills. So we're really able to just work on that in different environments and generalize the skill across the school. there's opportunities for sequencing and classroom readiness outside of just our classroom. So overall, just that

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generalization throughout the school. We're going to go into a little bit more specific. So this is our impact that we're seeing big things on for our kindergarten first grade students. Uh Miss Fitzgerald is our kindergarten first grade teacher. So students in K1

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may not necessarily have the ability to access specials otherwise. A lot of the students are still learning their school readiness skills. So we're doing a lot of teaching those very basic classroom management skills at that age. And

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having that 25 minutes of meaningful instructions in that setting is helping them just build stamina so that later on when they get to the higher grades, we're able to get them access to those spaces with their gened peers and they

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know the expectations. They understand what they're is going to be expected of them and what's being asked and they're able to really go in and engage meaningfully but with their general ed peers at a later date. So, it's really vital to start at such a young age. And by splitting the classroom into two

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25m minute groups, um, every student's able to access that space with a onetoone to create the most successful environment possible. Especially with our students, we have a big safety concern. So, being able to bring them somewhere like an art class where

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there's lots of materials out isn't all it can be a little little scary for us. So being able to split the class into two groups makes it so that we also are increasing safety in that environment. And then again, it's just giving students exposure to new areas of the

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school and allowing them to also be introduced to other staff members that they may not know otherwise. I think you'll see a lot of common themes among the impacts here. Um so impacts on grades one and two, that's my group of students. uh we're really seeing meaningful access to curriculum in those

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small less stimulating and familiar groups for my kiddos. Um sometimes just being in their general ed class is a lot. There's a lot of kids in there and they're all doing their own things or all working on their own things. It can just be overwhelming. So being able to

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work in a smaller group of maybe seven to eight students is a lot easier for them to just access the material. And I've actually seen a lot of my students able to access the spaces with their GenEd peers. Um Eric and I and Kelly

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have a shared student who wouldn't even go near the gym the beginning of this year and now Monday morning comes and he looks at me and he says, "When is it time for PE and unfortunately is it on Friday?" So we have a big countdown to how long until you can get down there.

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But that's just one of the things that we've really been able to to build and expose students to to get them comfortable to those spaces and again giving them access to where they may not be able to safely do it otherwise and to teach them how to be safe in those spaces without there being

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other students that could potentially be a distraction or could get hurt if something falls. Um we're just able to do it in those small groups. So we are able to make it safer. It's opportunities to increase fine and gross motor skills, which are really, really

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vital at this age to really work on. And that's just a great way for us to be able to do that. And then opportunities to access sensory input during instruction is really big. Again, like I said, those spaces can be really overwhelming for students. Having a lot of kids in one room can be really

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overwhelming for those students. So the ability to be able to do it and provide the sensory input they may need to stay regulated is just really vital for us. And then our grades 2 through four sales students. So this is Mrs. Pille. Um and

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she says again meaningful access to the curriculum in the higher grades. General education arts curriculum focuses more on those higher level skills. As you would expect, it gets a little bit more difficult as they get older. So, our specialist teachers are able to bring those skills down to a level that works

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for our students and meet them where they're at in the smaller groups a little bit easier than they would be able to in the big general education setting. And the small group learning, especially with music and library, those small familiar groups are helping them learn

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and grow in that environment. Um, again, safe access to different areas of the building they wouldn't have otherwise. introduced to new staff and students are really excited to go to these specials and to see them walk in. Um, our music teacher comes into our rooms for I think

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just about all of our students, if not all of them, so that it's an environment that they also know and that's worked really well for us. So, we can really see them just be themselves and comfortable. It's fun to see them dance around. And these are for our specialist. Um so

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um you heard from Christina the sort of how it's benefiting the students. Um and so we have just a few reflections from um Dylan Mloud, our music teacher, and how it's helped him grow. Um it's really impacted him professionally um with really understanding, giving him a

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different perspective on music education and a different perspective on human connection. Um, and he really learned by growing to um, and by being able to celebrate small successes and um, recognizing that growth happens and looks different in a lot of different

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students in a lot of different ways. Um, from Kelly Mazone, our art teacher um that um, she has really found ways to help students um, as Christina talks about um, across all areas of their development. um really helping them with

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their non-verbal communication, getting to see how they're able to express themselves in other ways that they don't normally. Um really working on those fine motor skills, especially um in art, and that being able to understand um how calming art can be um for several of

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these students um and she's really um helped her improve her inclusive strategies that she's able to use within the classroom. And then Megan Pimementel, the librarian, um she hs how um it's helped her become a more flexible and

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thoughtful educator. Um and it's helped her really keep her lessons clear and consistent. Um really thinking about how to break them down into more manal manageable chunks for students. Um and then also it's helped her be able to grow um the library collection um by

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adding more board books and sensory materials into the library. um so that all students have more access to um the library. And these are just a few pictures. Um you can see at the top is library um then two pictures from art and then you

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can see Dylan um Mloud the music teacher um with his guitar going into um Christina's classroom. So, moving forward, we put this together um kind of beta tested it in the middle of the beginning of the year, just before the holidays. We we came up with

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the idea of how we can do this and incorporate more of this exposure for the students. Um so, moving forward, we really want to provide more and formalize it a little bit more so it's a little bit more structured as far as the time periods in which they go and and everything else. So, we're really trying

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to strengthen the process right now. we have the ability at this point to be able to continue with this. So, it's really important for us to really try to formalize it and really make sure we're hitting all the students when it comes to having access to these to the unified arts. And it's also a good way to

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continuously grow uh the staff members that really don't aren't a don't really work with the students with the sales students. So it just gives them an opportunity to really get their hands on with these students and and you know enjoy them because they they are very fun when you watch them dancing when

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Dylan's playing. It's it's it's amazing to watch them and then when you watch them doing their art it's really a fantastic thing to see. Um you know it's a student that didn't was afraid of the stairs and we started to incorporate going to art piece by piece by piece. Now it's now that that just like

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Christina said, it's an excitement. And if and for some reason something comes up and it doesn't happen, that student now of course is going to be upset because they're just so excited looking for it. So we're really just trying to formalize so we don't have those setbacks. We want to make it so that when they expect it, it happens. Um so

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that's the plan moving forward. And that's this year. Next year, Mr. Hills. Yes. So, um, as some of you might know and some of you may not, I I teach a unified PE class at Macccathy Middle School. This is the third year of

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that class. Um, I teach a unified at Bay as well. It's a much smaller group. Um, and that was started three years ago. Um, and then I reached out to Rob a little while ago wanting to bring that experience to Harrington. Um, it's an awesome opportunity for a bunch of different reasons. Um, so what is

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unified PE? It's half the severe special ed substantially separate u population teamed up with half gened population. Um and we utilize like the ability to kind of create those relationships. Uh give those kids a chance to have those interactions that they may not have when

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they're when they're in their substantially separate spaces. Um we're really fully going to incorporate with our sale program to do this. Um, even the kids that have graduated AP for me that don't need the skill building the same as they used to, I'll be able to

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wrap them in so they can have those relationship times and uh, and then it all culminates with some of the end of the year activities um, like unifi day which is coming up in a couple weeks. So, the benefits of uni unified PE is obviously the social emotional aspect of

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having like peers that they actually have access to that they wouldn't maybe normally have as much access to. um building leadership skills for those kids that are my mentors. So, they get to come in and they actually kind of I call them my coaches. So, I'll actually say to my coaches like, "All right, we're going to work on dribbling a

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basketball today. Here are the cues you're looking for. Um we're going to work in parallel the general PE curriculum." Um and those kids really take a huge leadership role and they take off and run with it. So, I'll go over like the basic cues. I'll set up the stations or the game. Um, and then I

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basically like put the onus on the coaches to really work with the kids and they're so good at redirecting. They're so good at creating relationships. Um, I have kids at Baym that literally have said that their favorite part of their whole elementary experience is getting to meet some of those kids in those

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environments. Um, so they become they start as kind of peers and mentors and then they actually move past that and they end up becoming friends. Um, and they literally seek each other out outside of the PE classroom and outside of even like like if they're they see each other in town, they actually are like, "Oh, I saw that kid the other

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day." And um, which to me is the greatest thing. When I hear that, I'm like, "We're doing it right." So, um, so it's it's beyond the gymnasium. It goes further than that. Um, and then the other really important thing I think for me is being able to kind of start them on learning how to do that at an early age. And then by the time they get to me

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in seventh and eighth grade, they already have the experience. So when I bring them in and I have my very first day of kind of going over what does unifi PE look like at this level, a lot of those kids will have that experience in the next couple years. So they they'll know what my expectations are.

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They'll know what my general classroom looks like. Um and then kind of how to operate along those like par those parameters. Um and then obviously creating those long-term relationships. So I hope all the way through high school and beyond these guys are like friends and and you know seek each other

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out. Um, and then it all culminates with unified game day at the end of the year. So, we have kids from the whole district. Everyone shows up. Um, and it's an awesome day to celebrate those kids that may not have that athletic celebration in a lot of other areas. Um,

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and they have everything from their medal ceremony to all the events to hanging out with Aussie. Um, and if you've never been, it's really an awesome day. Uh, you leave that day just feeling like, you know, it's an amazing amazing experience across the board. Um,

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so yeah, so reaching out to Rob, like that's what I really want. I wanted I want to bring it to Harrington so that we can have more and more kids have the experience of of belonging to this whole um this whole program. >> All right. Thank you. And with that,

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that's our presentation. Does anybody have any questions for us? >> I do. >> Um, I'm really glad that we've got this program going on. Um, so I I was a sped teacher and ABA certified, so I understand a lot of what

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you're doing and I'm really glad we have it. A lot of people don't understand why we need a substantially separate class, but these are kids who are so overwhelmed by their environment that it's really important that they have a safe place where they can the structures that you put in place. So I'm really glad we have it. I just want to make

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sure I'm clear. So when they go to art or music, are they getting support within a general ed session or have you been able to work out your schedule that they have their own art time and their own >> it's their own art time? We had we were lucky you had the flexibility to be able to have them in the unified art spaces

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>> because otherwise you've still got those conditions where it' be too overwhelming if you didn't. That's really great. Um I I I love what's going on there. I do have a question. So for the kids in the school who might be like autism one who who don't need this substantially separate program are there um like

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people on staff with the ABA background though who those kids still are able to get some of their services with because there are kids who kind of can benefit a little but they don't really need the substantial >> I mean it really just depends on you know if we have those autism one or you

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know um if it's an IEP it's try to develop the IEP to be able to support those students in that within the general education Right. Cuz not everyone needs this, but they still have. >> So, we try to we try >> some of those sensory and communication. >> Yeah. And we try to put that into practice with our services.

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>> No, I I think it's I'm glad we have it. And it sounds like you're really working on figuring out ways to make these kids feel safe at school, which is important. Thanks. >> So, if you don't mind, um, anybody else before I ask my question? >> No, I'm just going to thank you for all these >> I had a question, but I you can go

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first. these students. I mean, as a parent of a >> go student with special needs that went through the ch public schools, you know, seeing these programs and now the offering, it's it's great to see. So, >> thank you. >> So, for me, the question is I'm looking at numbers. How how many in K, how many

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in the um is it K through one? >> Yes, we have K1, one, two, and then two through four. So, our K1 right now has eight students. I have eight students in um one and two and then two through four is nine.

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>> So, and the way Susan I think Susan asked this question is just to make sure. So, you take your students and you bring them to the specialist. >> Yes. >> And they're able to be there on their own and do their thing. >> Yes, we do send like our parah professionals with them um to help

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assist with the activities, but the learning is coming from the instructors in the classrooms. So first of all I just want to comment on this your enthusiasm from everybody and I haven't been able to hear anything but you're welcome to give any input

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on this by yourself. >> I just think it's absolutely wonderful to hear this enthusiasm. The second comment I have is, wow, this is great because I think especially for children who have autism, access to the arts and the ability to develop this part of the

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curriculum with them is wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. And I think it gives them a better chance to then form more and more relationships. and what you're going to try to do at Harrington next year even gives them more of an opportunity because of the mentoring and

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so on by your coaches which is absolutely fabulous. It's a great idea. I'm sure it opens up other opportunities in scheduling uh which is a complaint I hear all the time about the special ed programs that we have throughout the

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system. The scheduling is a very very tough thing to do to get everybody in and get the best. So, you're welcome to comment on any of that, but I really, really think that this is absolutely amazing. And I want to thank you especially for taking the time to come

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tonight. Um, that makes a world of difference to us. Anybody else? Diana had a question, I think. >> Um, yeah. So, also just like excited to see that this exists. Um, I was just curious. I'm always excited to hear more details about impacts. at one one of the

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slides you mentioned that it has improved access throughout the day for students and I was just curious what that looks like or what you meant by that. >> Yeah. So I know I'm I could talk very specifically about my students. Um I know some of the other students and some of their things but very specifically

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for my students. Um like I said Eric Eric Kelly and I have a student who was terrified of the gym at the beginning of the year. M >> um any big open space was really just uncomfortable for him. Uh through AP

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we've been able to just expose him to the gym a little bit more and now he's attending a PE class with his first grade classroom which has been huge. Every week Eric and I are like you win again. So exciting. Um, but we're also

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seeing some of our other students just kind of come out of their shells a little bit more, which is we're seeing not only in these specials, but we're also seeing them be able to go into their gened classes and sit with their peers, whereas before they might like sit in the back. We're seeing them sit

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for morning meeting on the rug with their peers. We're seeing their peers recognize them too a little bit more because they're just able to like maybe walk around a little bit more. I know Rob mentioned this a little bit, but we have a kindergarten student who is like terrified of the stairs, but he'll go up

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the stairs to go to art. So, it's just giving like access to the building, >> which is just something that he wasn't accessing before. And now he's able to access it >> to at least go to art and build on that skill from there. >> For some of our older students, again,

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things skills could get a little trickier. So you start seeing when kids get a little bit older, their ability to access gened can sometimes decrease, whereas we really want it to increase. But because we have these things, we're able to teach them the skills in such a

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smaller group with more direct instruction, then they're able to access those spaces again with their gened peers. >> Maybe not to the same flip side, too. Um I was briefly discussing my unified class for next year. Um and a couple of

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kids in third grade overheard it and reached out immediately to me like how do I be how can I be a part of that? So for a third grade kid to already have that kind of drive and really want to be a part of that I think >> it's opening up access for those kids just the same as it's opening up access for sale kids. So

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>> that a question for you from the gen ed perspective the general ed both staff and uh students what have you seen as changes or how are you seeing that what's the reaction

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>> it's been incredibly positive um I've se you know the teachers really take this program and the students that they work with really to heart and they're right there with them they are they include them into every aspect of what they're doing. We have students

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that have minimal, you know, some have certain amount of inclusion time in a general classroom and those teachers uh really take it and run with it and they really include them in their community. Um when they're trying to do something as a classroom, they include the sale kids um as far as what's happening in

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that classroom so they're a part of it. Um, so the teachers that have been working with the sales students really have I think it's as Karen was saying, it's it's helped them grow professionally because now they're seeing different aspects of the different types of students that are in the building. >> So being able to work with them just

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helps them grow um more as an educator um and develop the skills needed for the differences of the students that the various needs that they have in the building. So that's kind of what I've seen since the program's been in place. I mean, it was wellreceived when it came in. It's it's a great program. I love having them. You know, we have three

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amazing teachers. Uh we got Eric. Um so, >> you know, so everything's brought a positive force to the school >> and we work really hard to consult with our specialists and all of our like gened academic teachers too. So, we definitely spend a lot of time working

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on like these are the strategies we can utilize in your space, these are strategies we utilize here and make sure that that's similar for students across the board too. So I >> it's got to be challenging to find the time >> Oh, absolutely.

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>> to to do that. How I mean in a in a ideal world, what what what do you need to improve all of that and make things go even more smoothly? >> Well, it's really just the schedule drives the day, you know, and like I was saying, we just we're in a very we have the luxury of having a schedule that

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allows us to do this. So we're using these periods in the day that we can have the students go into these programs and grow within those programs. We're taking advantage of it. So it's really just the schedule kind of dictates that. So we're just taking advantage of how our schedule looks now and you know just

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getting those students out there and introducing them to wherever we can. >> But also collaborating with the other teachers. I mean, I think knowing what I know now at about ABA, it's a real shame that more people don't have access to really good information about how to do it and what it really means. It's not

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just discrete trials. There's so much more. I wish all teachers knew >> and the more time you had to consult with other teachers to help them understand that, the better. But that's the kind of thing we have tons of time for. We have talked about I I've talked to the sales teachers about maybe in

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some building days next year >> talking about >> their skills you know what they see how they and see how it can translate down to that >> it translates to everybody >> right so just kind of putting it into play phrase there yeah >> you know like I said trying to take advantage of the assets that we have

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>> yeah you have some teachers who are really skilled in this and why not use them to help other teachers learn some of those things yeah great thanks >> any other questions 's comments. Just thank you very much for giving us your time, your perspective, and only the

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students can benefit. >> Yay. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Thank you everyone. Appreciate it. >> Have a good night. >> All right. Um, >> thank you. >> Thanks, Rob. >> Thank you. >> Thank you very much.

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What a beautiful night, huh? Yeah. >> Okay. We have the Valley Collaborative and our appointee. >> We Thank you. We have a board meeting board meeting coming. Um so in your packet tonight is Valley Collaborative's third quarter uh report. As a member district, every quarter Valley sends us

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a copy of their um quarterly report of business. And they also included in this a copy of their most recent um newsletter. Um yes, I was on the cover. >> I had a couple photos in there. Um and that's with one of our former students actually uh Matt Booth who was at the

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high school who received an award uh earlier this school year. So he was a great uh great student. So um actually just conveying this to you and we just take a vote to um accept the report and and place it on file. Um and it just stays with the uh the record of the meeting.

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>> Okay. Anybody have any comments or questions? I I just want to thank you for being part of the board. I think that that's really important. >> I enjoy it. Um, and uh, yep, your picture looks great here. >> Thank you. >> This is terrific. Um, okay. Could I have a motion, Susan?

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>> Um, I move that we accept the Valley Collaborative quarterly report for fiscal year 2026, third quarter, as presented. >> Could I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Thank you. All in favor? >> I >> I. >> All right. Now, we do have Do we have no

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field trips? >> Uh, just one. >> We do have one. Okay. Um there's just one field trip for the Chumswood High School Best Buddies program. >> Okay. >> To go up to Nashville Knights baseball game >> in NSHA on May 27th. Um so this is just the students and a lot of the different

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chaperons and teachers from the high school attending one of the nights games. >> All right. And so we'll entertain them. I'm sure nobody has any questions. And if you deny this, this is going to be a problem. >> Could I have a motion, please? Um, I

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move that we um approve of the Chford High School Best Buddies program to a Nashville Nights baseball game in Nashville, New Hampshire on May 27th, 2026. >> Wonder if I have a second. >> I'll second. >> Thank you. All in favor? >> I. >> Wonderful. Uh, liaison reports. We are

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at that part of the meeting, I believe. Do we have any? >> I already did mine. >> You did? >> Nothing yet. >> I do. Um, I last night got to attend the last South Row PTO meeting of the year. Um,

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as always, very busy. Lots of exciting things happening. Um, there's some beloved traditions that always happen this time of year for the South Row community. Um, like many schools, there's an art show coming up. This year for the first time there will be a glow

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room where the lights are going to the right kind of lights are going to be there so that students will have glowing artwork. >> Um they have grade 3's engineering day coming up. Um author's day where students share their writing um in mixed

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grade level small groups which is always a fun tradition. Um the kindergarten musical move up day and all of those things. Um a couple of pieces uh of things specifically worth sharing. One is that um they are all really delighted

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about all the work happening at South Row this year. There's there's actually a lot of projects happening this summer. Um they did share that as a result of how much work is happening on uh campus. They will be closing the playground over the summer. So members of the community

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that usually go to the South Row playground over the summer, that will not be an option this year. Um they are actually in addition to the roof work and all the other things happening around they are actually um adding some new playground equipment. Um, as some of

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you may recall last year I shared that um, a member of the South community won the community $20,000 from the Box Tops program. And um, the school also has one of the 2026 state teacher of the year

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finalists who won a prize for that and they have combined those funds to purchase some new playground equipment for the school. So >> um, so that will be coming in. Um but over the summer no access to the playground. So for members of the

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community um they're also really excited and I have heard anecdotally that other schools that I'm a liazison for also have had a huge amount of submissions this year for scholarships. Everybody's talking about like the most that they've ever seen for scholarships.

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um which makes for very difficult decisions and a whole lot of reading but um also signals um a lot of students with a lot of great things to say a lot of goals and um the certainty that whoever is picked for for the school

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will be really excellent >> any other reports I would just like to uh point some it's about liaison u report some of the things you just said in terms of what the PT PTO's are doing

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uh which are crucial to how our district does. Um we really want to thank the PTO's and especially this week for all their participation in staff appreciation because they do quite a bit. I know we as fund a little bit of

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that staff appreciation, but they run the whole show. Um so we really really want to say thank you for that. I do. I I am sure that I speak for you all when I say that >> and they absolutely they really >> get excited about like thinking of the

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themes for the teacher appreciation events and things. They put a lot of thought into it. So >> yeah, I think South Row is themed around Friends, the TV show in Central Perk this year. >> Yeah. >> Um and I do I do want to name that some schools are not celebrating teacher

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appreciation this week because of MCCAST and some other conflicts. Yes. So I know for example Parker and I think also McCarthy are going to be in a few weeks but um to me May is uh educator appreciation month. So >> yes >> spreading out the celebration.

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>> Yep. And there are teachers here. So thank you. But I also want to tell you the student drops here. Uh it's amazing what your council is doing and got all that organized in personal thank you notes to staff members. That is a

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wonderful, wonderful thing that you're doing. So, thank you for that as well. Um, anybody else? Enough of my commenting. Right now, um, we are having done that, we have nobody for public comment. And so, we are going to

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entertain any new matters that you may have, things that you want to bring up in the future. >> I just wanted to address I know I think it was Susan brought up about the policy review. So, actually went and did a little homework. Um, our last major review was in uh 2022. >> Yeah, >> we did uh Maria and I were on the policy

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club committee and we kind of went through all of the updates from MASC. Um, the previous one was in 2017, so about 5 years before. So, we're kind of on on the same sort of schedule. So, um, what I I did as it went through and I printed out the hundred or so updates

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that um have happened since 2022. So once uh school kind of slows down for me, I'll try to make a spreadsheet like we did last time of the policies that we have that may need updating and then we can sit maybe over the summertime and then hopefully by the fall come back to the rest of the committee with some

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possible changes or updates. A lot of them it just updates to language and and reference numbers and things like that. Um and a lot of the significant ones we've already done, you know, so some of the ones that were vital to get done right away, we've already done that. So, I'll kind of weave through that list a little bit and then uh maybe over the

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summer we can meet and uh take a look at some of these. >> And we've had several discussions over the year. So, at that meeting, we'll also be able to bring those into play, right? >> Okay. I'll look forward to it. Um not really. >> Anybody else?

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>> No. >> All right. So, I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> I make a motion that we adjurnn. >> Second. >> All in favor? Hi. >> Hi. >> Wonderful. Thank you. Happy meetings.