the January 29th uh school committee meeting. I'd like to call this or this meeting to order. Would you please stand for the pledge of >> allegiance? 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. The mission of the Damis public schools, creating a supportive environment where all learners thrive. This meeting is being broadcast on Damas Community Access Television. Is there anyone
recording this meeting? I hope not. Tonight's focus is our upcoming budget and uh what do you have for us? Let's take a look. >> Okay, just an introduction and then
we'll be presentations with each uh school and our technology and transportation departments. >> So, who's delivering the format? I will chair I'll start this up. You want >> me to do it? >> I'll frame this and and go through and then uh we'll have each group come up
and basically as they present obviously it's an opportunity to be closer to the committee for any questions and follow questions. Um so we'll begin. So just to for the workshop itself you know we just want to give a little background in terms of the design you know the purpose
um and and really our goals. Certainly, we have pressures and we want to maximize resources, but then we'll have our departments express, you know, their their priorities and then we'll talk about next steps and wrap up. And I want to be clear that tonight is not a bottom line, right? We talked about this in our last school committee meeting where we
want to lay everything out and we know this is a process. By the time we get to the actual budget hearing in February, we should be able to pin this down to what our ask will be and then knowing from there what we might prioritize initially and then things we may move to years two and three. But we want to put them out there now. And I think it's
important to make this statement publicly that, you know, although we may not get everything this year as we ask, it's always a priority and it's something that's important to our students and our staff and our community. So, we'll move forward. And I just want the committee to know and the
community to know that this is a very collaborative process. Um, we ask our schools and our departments to work with their staff to what are priorities, what are their needs, how can we look at our resources. We work with our Pam Crom and Christina Ryan, our director of student
services, and Kristen Anderson, our assistant superintendent, and Jim Sullivan, our central cabinet. We try to dive down to our resources. What do we have? What can we repurpose? What can we reallocate? Knowing that, you know, we want to be financially responsible. And then also we have a big collaboration with the town which we're very proud of.
Uh we've started we've already had an initial meeting with the town manager and Rodney our finance manager and we have a meeting that will follow up next week. Um and then once we get through this um the whole process itself really starts in November late October by the
time we get the town meeting in May and then we start the whole thing over with the next fiscal year and school year in July one. Um we really want to look at the focus and the town's goal that uh with the select board. It's really twofold. It's to ensure that we're equipped with resources necessary
sustained progress in special education and essential programs while simultaneously advancing academic excellence in innovation across the district. So I think that's important to note that you have two separate prongs, but they're really one and the same. Um,
this is all about specialized programming and putting together programming that's good for all students because we have student needs uh in different facets throughout our schools, but the goal is for academic excellence for all. So, I think it's important that we move away from separate buckets and really put them together in one, which
is our specialized program. They're really high quality educational services for the unique needs and complex needs of all of our students. So we tie this into our strategic plan under the four strands of teaching and learning, schoolwide systems and structures, family and community
partnerships, as well as district procedures and policies. So we want to align to this as closely as possible. And you can particularly see the curriculum that we're looking to add. Um some of it we had the benefit of utilizing grant funding to move it forward. some will be new asks as well
as expanding advanced placement courses and and training, but also looking at ways we can work with all students under as we describe our multi-tered system of supports um and continue to build our special education programs, but our family partnerships and our community partnerships are so important. So, we've
increased our communication. Jim Sullivan will touch on that when he gets to his piece. Um, and I also think it's important that we look at our procedures and really make sure that our plans align with our strategic plan because this is not just for this year, but it's for the next five years. So, we're
really looking at two scenarios. One is the level service funded budget that we talked about. You know, that's one where the budget funds services that are currently in our budget. One that would meet contractual needs and meet inflationary increases and that's it. that's basically one that keeps the
lights on and moves um forward uh you could say, but really looking at a goal of setting a budget that really meets the town goal of supporting and building specialized programming as we mentioned earlier that we can bring and keep increasing and sustaining our special
education programming but also pushing academic excellence and innovation. So really, we want to meet the the vision that we we we've created, and that's to meet the needs of all of our students so they can be adaptable, resilient learners, empowered to thrive. And our
budget really should reflect this vision as we created. Knowing full out that, you know, when you put together a budget, the largest portion of it is personnel. Generally, 80 90% of any school budget is personnel. specialized programming um which could refer to some
of our student services as well as other programming. Oftent times you know we take circuit breaker that money coming in to reduce that and then we have transportation needs and that's usually about 95% of a school budget which is quite a bit 5%'s really for curriculum
materials supplies and equipment which is a small percent. So, it's really important that we evaluate our personnel and knowing that any substantial changes we make. If we can reallocate u and redistribute personnel, it's often to our advantage. You know, there's often
times of retirements, people may leave the district, we can reutilize and revitalize FTEEs. I think that's important. So, without going into too much detail, we know the budget pressures we face. We know the chapter 70 funding uh it's just not keeping pace with student needs.
It's an antiquated formula. uh from ed reform back in 93 that's just not meeting inflationary needs as well. We also know that there's some federal grant uncertainty. Federal grants two, three, and four which deal with professional development uh and items like that that those are in question. Uh
we face that at the start of this school year. We were able to get the funds. So, we need to prepare for that. Other district placements are still there. Uh although we've made lots of improvements and reducing uh transportation costs, we're doing a great job managing that, but those costs still will climb. Our
contractual obligations and all the other needs, but the offsets circuit breaker, we receive every year. We we really go after every grant we possibly can find. Um personnel in terms of attrition, retirements, and reallocation. We can move contracted services into our operating budget.
That's usually less money, right? So we get more bang for the buck. school choice tuition has come in and we've started that process. We're looking to expand that this year. Anything we can save on transportation and we will be reviewing some of our user fees uh at our next meeting. Um I won't go through
all the grants, but they're listed and you know roughly 2.29 million worth of grants that have all helped to offset our budgetary needs. Everything from entitlement to competitive grants. And my hat is off to our staff because, you know, they're working, you know, as principles, assistant principles,
curriculum directors, assistant soups, you name it, they're doing that, but they're also looking and trying to pull whatever grant funding they can, which which is really helpful. And with that being said, you know, we'd like our groups to come up. The elementary will be up first, the uh middle school, the high school, as well
as student services, technology, then finish up with transportation. So they'll come up, they have slides, they'll present um obviously with whatever questions you have um and whatever other followup we need and then we'll wrap up with next steps and um
we'll we'll follow up. So again, tonight the purpose really is to lay out the priorities and we know the process. It's like the funnel. We're starting here and where we wind up, we'll see. Okay, any questions before we proceed? >> I do. I have one. >> Yes,
>> because this is a regular meeting. We do not have any information for the superintendent committee on the agenda. >> Is that something we still address then even though it's a budget workshop meeting or >> I I think the chair whatever you would like to do. >> I I'll take that uh
point of personal privilege in actually because there's only a couple people in the room. Paul, did you have anything that you wanted to bring to our attention tonight? >> Ma'am, ma'am, did you have anything? And Julie, we got your re Thank you for your email. I'm good. All right. Thank you. Great.
>> Thank you, chair. We'll start up with our elementary and I'll control the slides. So, you'll tell me when to switch the slides. You may want to introduce yourself. >> Julie Foster, elementary curriculum director. Mandy Murphy, principal at
Great Oak. Brian Riley, principal at Forb. >> Sarah Fitzgerald, principal at Riverside. >> So, thank you for having us. We wanted to start um quickly with a few successes that we wanted to share. Um as you know, at the elementary level, we've been very
focused on literacy um and implementing lots of new things with literacy. And we have data from last year to show growth. Um we still have work um we need to do with our MTSS system and our um instruction of literacy, but we're continuing to build that um year to year. In addition, we've partnered with
DESIE to provide additional tutoring for our first grade students um through a grant program. And we're very excited to share that at the elementary level, we've had the same math curriculum for a very, very long time. Um and we're very excited and grateful to all the teachers and students who piloted curriculums
this year and we were able to purchase a new math curriculum that we will fully implement in the 2026 27 school year. Um, and in addition, all of our work at the elementary level, we've had lots of conversations with our faculties around how all of our work in instruction
actually supports the portrait of a graduate all the way through 12th grade. So, our overall um goal for our elementary budget, as you'll see in our priorities, is high quality instruction um and learning and supporting every single student. So, as we focus on our
third year entering um next year, we'll be entering our third year of implement of of our ELA curriculum um focusing on high quality instruction and materials for that and refining our MTSS system within our literacy and also focusing on our first year of implementing the math
curriculum. So, next year will be um a full year of implementing a new math curriculum which we're very excited about. And what you'll hear from Brian and Sarah in a little bit is the specific positions that will us to support and strengthen that high quality instruction and the materials to follow
that. So overall, our goal is really to focus on increasing high quality instruction so that we can support every single student within our schools to meet and exceed grade levels. >> So to that end, we have five uh major areas of requests that we're looking uh
to talk to you about tonight. Uh the first is uh not adding a reading feature, but superintendent said with some of the uncertainty in We're looking to move um a position that's currently funded through grant into the school budget so we can ensure
that longterm that position is not going anywhere. Um the next uh kind of new asset we have is five lunch and recess monitors for each of the elementary schools. So currently the way that lunch and recess is supervised in addition to
the principal is with instructional assistance. With the instructional assistance supporting lunch and recess are not available at that time to support in the classroom whether it be general classroom needs or special education related needs. Um and it's a large portion of the day that we're
looking at where instructional assistants are out of the classroom supporting students and watching um lunch import. What we want to do is really look at that instruction and that support in the classroom. So we were able to add one lunch and recess monitor
this year which is help adding five more to ensure that we can cover all lunch and recess monitors while ensuring that instructional assistants are supporting students in the classroom would be another major help. Um and then we're also asking for five assistant
principles. Currently the model of the elementary school is that we have assistance to the principal and those are teachers or related service providers that primary job is to be teaching students or providing services to students and as part of a siphon um help support the principal in the
building um through leadership activities. Um, when we're looking at instructional leadership and supporting all students, whether it be socially, emotionally, behavior, um, or, um, instructional leadership, we're looking for additional support. Um, this will
allow for more time observing and supporting curriculum needs, but also free the principal up to be an instructional leader um and support all students, support the school improvement plan goals and make sure that um we're available more during the day for um
curriculum and instruction um rather than kind of management of um the day-to-day operation. So, we've spent so much time focused on reading and with the new math curriculum, we're asking for five math specialists to support that new
curriculum, both the teachers and the students um helping to deliver some highquality instruction focused on a smooth transition in with the new curriculum. In addition, we would like to support the MTSS system within mathematics
um and and build that and grow that as well. Finally, we are asking for five digital literacy media specialists. Currently, we have one elementary librarian who oversees the five schools. In an effort
to increase the high quality um education, we are looking for this position to help teach our students how to be critical thinkers in an online world and how to be positive digital citizens and responsible choice makers.
Learning to evaluate resources when they're researching um and teaching online safety as well. questions. >> Hey, I have a the chair. May I ask a question? >> You certainly may. >> All right. Fantastic. Um, thank you for
not giving us a baseline budget request and putting everything out here. And I'm just doing some quick math, but I have a specific question um about the instructional assistants and the assistant principles. And it's just a general question. When you have
instructional assistants who are leaving their students to monitor lunch, does that also equate to, you know, additional events happening in the building like you have a lack of resources and people coming in that way?
Okay. So, that's the Thank you for that. The second question in regards to assistant principles, it's something I'm very aware of. Um, in lie of being able to get five specific assistant principles, is there another is there
another administrative role that could support it? Maybe something that's more budget friendly as opposed to I can doing the math in my head. I'm thinking 500k for five assistant principles. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm inflating it,
>> but more. Yeah. So, is there another potential way to address it? Adding a body, eliminating the need of teachers coming out of the classroom with a more administrative support in
the principal's office as opposed to an assistant principal. Would that be feasible? >> What would that look like? I mean, I think we could definitely have a discussion about what it looks like at each elementary school and what the model would look like. I think what
we're saying is that we're not looking for like coaching. We're looking for an additional full-time administrator in the building um that can take over if the principal's out or dealing with a vendor situation. Um, as you are well aware, our students needs are ever
evolving, right? And so this person would not only be there to support, you know, social emotional learning and behavior, but also be there to kind of help coach and support um teachers in the classroom, support the curriculum team in implementation of the um
curriculum in addition to allowing us to be more of that building base leader with Julie looking at the curriculum, what the final model would look like. Yeah, I think that there's open discussion for that. But I think what we're looking for is another full-time
administrator in each of the buildings. Um because it's very busy deck, there's a lot going on. Um and it would help you know support the unstructured areas as well as the structural leadership. >> Okay. And one more clarification because
in I come from the Boston public schools, the assistant principal is like the dean of discipline. I mean can we be explicit and is that what you're looking for like someone to take care of that or is it more of a broad and anyone can speak you all have different needs but
>> where I think there are so many times where if we are faced with a discipline situation we are the sole person making those decisions and to be able to go to a classroom teacher who's the assistant to the principal we would not pull them out of the classroom to to be able to
guide us through that decision take it. So, in this situation, it would be another someone to collaborate with in the moment, right there, right when it's happening rather than pulling someone out of the classroom. Um, there have been times where I have received emails
from families saying, "Wait a second, our assistant to the principal is also our my child's classroom teacher. How are they going to be able to um to to teach and to do their other position?" My response is always the pri the priority number one is the classroom
teacher. So we're not we're not pulling our assistant to the principles out of the classrooms and um I think it will be really it would be extremely necessary and beneficial on so many different levels to have someone to collaborate with on a daily basis in the moment
right there and then >> and not just around behavior like when you look at scheduling and substitute coverage and all the things that pop up during the day um having multiple people to be able to manage it while our assistant principles do a phenomenal
job. The amount of time that they can devote to that when their primary role is teaching 20 to 25 students in whatever grade level they teach or teaching related services or special education, it's limited. Um, so I think
that that's what we're looking for. >> I was just going to add on to that too and I think it's important for the principles to be in the classroom being part of the curriculum and knowing what's going on. and we do have so many different things pulling us in, you know, all kinds of directions. So to
have another person would allow us to be in the classrooms to be part of the MTSS conversations that are happening and things like that more readily. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> Um I guess uh just a couple of
questions. One relating to the lunch monitor. So I understand it says 25 total. So does that mean 25 lunch monitors total? >> Five at each school. Okay. And right now
you're using um educational assistance for that. >> Okay. So would you be looking at hiring 25 additional bodies so to speak? >> Okay. And have you broken that down by
what they relate to from a full-time equivalent? Would that be their only job literally to come in and monitor lunches? >> I think similar to the model that we have now where we each have a lunch monitor that comes in from approximately 10:45 to 1:00 and it covers that lunch
block um where all of the kids are eating. So similar to that. So it' be a part-time hourly position I believe right Dr. Bower. >> Yes. Yes. the exact model and currently we u through Emily Cook not in our budget she's been able to provide lunch
monitors but they have to work in the lunchroom because it ties with you know their funding so our our IAS and BTS when they not only monitor lunch they're also monitoring recess right because they're flip-flopping so that's that's the number that you need because you need a number in the calf but you also
need those outside as well so that kind of compounds and doubles the need but you know um they've been Great. Um certainly they're hourly. Um and there's not, you know, they're not full benefit or anything of that nature. >> Sure.
>> But so you're probably looking for because I think the minimum you can bring someone in for is three hours. So if you said 75 hours a day, I mean 25 people, three hours a day,
five days a week. I'm not going to ask you to put a number on it, but I just wanted to get a sense of the scope of >> and if I may too, you know, a lot of this has been evolving because one move relates to the next move, right? And certainly our number one goal is always
safety of our school and we certainly know that we have increased needs. Um, when I came into the district, it's it's a struggle because, you know, our students that need the most, their aids are they need to be in lunch and they need to be at the recess because those are the most volume with most kids. But
we really need to work with Emily Cook as well because if we can absorb maybe a few lunch monitors under this, it might be actually less. So, we'll be happy to come back with more of a an amount on that for for that because really for us in a lot of ways it would have to be somebody that could cover the recess and
that might that would not fall under >> I'm not going to try and push dollars too much at this meeting because we just want to get a sense of what you're looking for rather than trying to already talk and throw throw water on the hot pole so to speak. You know, I
think we can talk about needs most, but um on the full-time equivalent assistant principles, um question is would each school and I think you may have alluded to this um but can is each school going to be free to sort of design what their
internal model would look like. There may be in other words, there may be principles who are great at curriculum and want to offload some of the administrators. Then there may be some principles who really hey I'm not you know I'm good at curriculum but I want to bring in a
curriculum specialist as the assistant principal. So are there going to be is that going to be a possibility? Will there be you know open models so to speak so that it might look different at Smith than it might at Highlands? Well, at the end of the day, there's base responsibilities such as evaluation
and just operations and management and that would be consistent through oftentimes you might find a person that has a strength in an area that you could certainly utilize and complement uh with the principal themselves. So, um in my previous experience as principal, I had
you know assistant principles that might be stronger in one area over the other. So they may pick up more in like a curriculum area or if you have somebody that's really strong in student services as well, a combination. Um so there's baseline responsibilities. There could be some variances but there is a a
pretty poor baseline. >> Okay. So the basic intent here it sounds like is to offer more administrative support to the principles for sort of baseline things that they do. >> Right. And if I could add to this, um, I I have a we have a great group of
principles and and they will work with me and I will help them, but certainly knowing while the principal is busy with that, the school's still going on. Then if you comp, you know, compound that with arrival dismissal or lunch where there's recess, um, they're really split on that. sometimes, you know, not that
an investigation or such takes place every day, but it's time consuming and that has to be done um make sure that we're in compliance and that often will take away because there are times when multiple things may pop up. So, and I want them to be able to be in the classroom to drive our instruction. We
have to, you know, they work with their teachers, but it is hard when it becomes disjointed, you know, when they get pulled away, but safety is number one. >> Mr. Crane, I would imagine that a job description would have to creating it um as if we're moving forward for the
assistant principal and that would be a collaboration between all five of us as well as Julie as well as um >> thank you J. So I think for that for those assistant principles I I I totally see the value in that. I even what Miss
P said, I'd like to have a thinking partner, so to speak, right? And some of the you can bounce things back and forth with I would just the one thing I I always I'm a big fan of promoting from within. If we do have people within the district that are ready for that, I think this is a great opportunity to hire versus go outside the district. And
obviously, we're not going to force somebody that's not ready for it. But that's just one of the things that I would just ask when we are if we do go through these these full-time employees. I think it's a it's a it's a great morale builder. It's great school culture. If we can find some
um I just had a question about the I turned it on. I'm on now. I got you. Um the I'm going to ask about the other two positions that haven't been spoken about yet. The math specialist and the digital digital literacy specialists. Um, as
someone who does work in an elementary school, I know our um, our preps for the day are gym, ma, gym, art, music, digital literacy, and we have a writing specialist in the district. I'm in the
positions you're looking to do going to be something like that where they would come in instead of having gym twice a week or art twice a week, uh, because I know my daughter rotates um, a couple days a week. Is it going to be something like that or is it going to be a math coach that's going to help um teachers,
you know, in include the curriculum in their classroom a little stronger or is it going to be someone who's going to come in and kind of do both? And that goes for both of those positions because like you said in the district I'm in, those are used as um specialists and they come into every
classroom. >> Um great question. So in terms of the math specialist, um what we're hoping for is part of our building our MTSS system around literacy is really quite dependent upon our reading specialists at each building. So they really lead
that work. They organize the meetings. They collect the data. Um they're um intervening on our students and making sure that we're providing that additional support for students. We don't have anything. We have no equivalent to that for math. Um and so
we really see this next upcoming year with implementing a new math curriculum that it would be ideal if we were able to provide some math specialists um to really build that model for math as well. Um, we've really, as you know, been focused on literacy, but we really
are taking shifts and really thinking very critically about our schedule for next year and how does all of this come together and how do we build a strong MTSS system, not only for math, but for literacy and SEAL and how do all those pieces come together and we have we
we're very lucky to have very strong reading specialists across the five elementary schools, but we have no equivalent. Does that make sense? Um, so that's one part to your question. The second part is around the digital digital literacy um specialist and that we're really looking to strengthen. Yes,
that would be used as a special as a specialist position. Um we would have to look carefully about how we build those schedules if we're able to actually get these positions. How would we build those schedules across the five schools? Um but yes, we're looking for that to be
an equivalent. Yes. >> Yeah. Thank you. I just was wondering because I know the difference in the the salary of a and again it's we're just doing that type of stuff today where we're just getting a grip on it. A teacher who has that background as opposed to an administrator who has that
background. So I appreciate your answer. Thank you. >> Which math curriculum was selected? Eureka math squared. >> Was that piloted in each school? >> Yes. >> We spent the day out today with eight
teachers um going to watch um in another district nearby who's in their first year of implementation and it was very exciting um to get out to another district and see it in action. >> Which districts around us are you? Andover, North Andover, Hamilton, Wenham.
That's all I know right this second off the top of my head. >> Um would not sure what the plan is, but those people that piloted the math, would they be considered as the coaches? Yeah, we have we have teachers across the
district who are passionate about math um and who are very invested in math. And it would be um just the way our reading specialists are passionate about reading. Um and so we're really hoping to be able to build um similar to what we've done for reading, we want to be able to build that for mathematics as
well. And we do have teachers across the district who are very passionate about math. in relation to the assistant principal ask um one thing that I think you should consider is that
which unit do they belong to they don't have a unit so that would be something that's got we would have to get worked out as well just giving that that to uh with that I don't think I have any more questions thank you
>> thank Thank you very much. All right, we're going to move on to Holton Richmond. Good evening, Adam Colaton, principal at Holden Richmond. Good evening, Peter Dear, secondary curriculum director. >> Good evening, Danielle Lorac, one of the assistant principles at the middle
school. >> Good evening, Emmy Barrell, the other. >> Okay, so we wanted to start tonight by really giving our version of the HMS story the last few years. start with a narrative to really understand where we've been before we jump to where we're going in our our priorities and our
asks. Um we are in our our third year as a team. Miss Lorac and I three years, Miss Pearl and I two years. Mr. Dear just started working uh full-time with us at the middle school this year. And we have a great uh team chair that just started this year as well. So the pieces are all coming together. Um but we just wanted to take a look back the last few
years, really help the committee understand where we've been and where we're going. Uh so coming on board we really wanted to do a hard reset and just build a strong foundation of the middle school particularly filtering all of our elementary schools up to the middle school for the first time as big transition in Danver as is in any
community. Um so we really have been focused on what a safe orderly inclusive learning environment looks like for all students and all staff members. Really the anchor document we use is a strong start playbook. It's really a collaborative effort with our teacher leaders and team leaders. So at the first several weeks of school, the whole
everybody's on the same page about what what we're doing. What are the clear their consistent routines? We practice them. That really launches us off to a strong start. We've practiced that for three years and I think it's really helped turn our school around just in terms of how students do school here. Um we've also really paused to take a look
at what the whole child approach means at the middle school. So you'll see in our success slides things that we brought in to focus on academic social emotional learning for students. Um this current eighth grade is our first group of this three-year transition. I want to give them a shout out. Um they've really
exceeded expectations. I've been a middle school administrator for a long time. I've worked with um eighth graders for for a long time and we really invested in them as sixth graders and they've done a great job. As with any eighth grade group, they're they're they have their challenges. Um, but they really have done a great job leading by
example, modeling for the younger students, and we're really proud of where they're at, and they're really going to leave their mark as they transition out of here in the few months. And then lastly, the last few years, we've really invested time in reviewing our curriculum across all content areas, and it's been kind of a staggered approach. Um, but we really
want to commit to make sure that we're bringing high quality materials and really thinking about what learning looks like for students uh in 2025 in the classroom. So, our vision is really building on all of that. You know, we want both that foundation period that we we've had the
last few years really built on being a truly student centered school community. Um, not losing sight of how we balance the academic, social, emotional needs of students. It's always a little tug-of-war with time of how we bring in those needs for middle school students, but we're really committed to that process. Um really, you'll see some of
our slides, um really committed to authentic opportunities for what student voice, engagement, and leadership looks like at the middle school. I think that's critical for students to feel like they have um you know, a say in our school community. Um this year, we really have started to have more conversation with our faculty and staff
about what leadership roles look like amongst our teachers to help move our work forward. Um, we've had an exciting opportunity tomorrow in the high school to think about aligning career pathways with Dammer's high school. We had a really exciting experience earlier this year right in this room with Dammers High and our eighth graders around
project lead the way that you'll see an image of and we're talking a lot with our faculty about what is a portrait graduate look like at the middle school on like the last stop under the high school. Um, and then really a lot of reflection the last few years around how do we bring our our families and
community into the middle school. It's really that that first big transition where family start to lose a little track of what's happening. Um so we're looking at ways to to revise our events, our opportunities. A big highlight for us will be March 10th this spring. We've really revised our fifth grade
orientation. Um it's going to be tough to to follow the high school's lead with their open house, but we're going to have an interactive night here for students and families to learn more about middle school life here at Holdman. Um, and the other highlight is, uh, we partnered with YMCA to have an on-site teen center here at the middle
school Monday to Thursday. Um, that, you know, it's in early stages, but we're it's been a great addition for us. >> So, where have we seen success? Uh, first off, our students are coming to school. When we started a few years ago as a team, our our first commitment was, let's make sure our students are here.
That's the first indicator of success. So, our chronic absentism rates have continued to improve each year. and our accountability data. Last year, we were awarded all points that you could earn from the state for your chronic absenteeism. Our students feel connected and supported here at Holdriman. Just
recently, we did a trusted adult survey where students were asked to identify a member of our faculty that's their go-to person, and over 90% of our students identified not just one, but but a backup person. And the few that didn't, we're actively trying to learn their situations and how to support them. Um,
one of our several mental health initiatives is that we're in our third year of rolling out a science of suicide screening in the eighth grade where our social workers will meet. They're actually going to be doing that next week. We'll meet with eth graders to do some education awareness and also a brief screening with parental consent. Um, you know, just kind of see where
students heads are at. Um, really important to us are students uh taking on leadership roles and feeling included at the school. Um, in this room again, we do monthly um community meetings with each grade level that our assistant principles run. They do a fantastic job getting our students up in front of their peers to lead kind of passion
projects or presentations. We recognize students of the month, students recognize staff of the month and staff shoutouts. Um and then really proud this year that we added Best Buddies to Coman as a formal chapter. Um we're really excited about what we're seeing in classrooms this year through the hard
work of our teachers and their professional development and some of the new programs we've brought on just around authentic learning, student engagement, hands-on learning. Um, and then we've really put a lot of time and effort into meeting all the needs of all learners. We're in year two of a wind block in sixth grade, and our sixth
grade staff has done a really great job learning how to group students in really timely ways to target their needs. And then this past year, we were um really fortunate enough to add a full-time reading interventionist uh to pair with the math interventionist to to really scale it up to seven eighth grade. In
year to date, we've had uh many seven eth graders go through quick cycles of of support to kind of diagnose where they're at with their learning. So, these are just a few images went a little off script. I thought it was important to bring um some pictures to light for you. In science, we've adopt
year one of open sight ed. Uh many communities in the state are using this as their new science program that really focuses on putting students in the driver's seat. So what you see there is called a scientist circle and it's really students discussing whatever the investigation is and the teacher just
facilitating the conversation. So uh Peter and I have been into a lot of classrooms to see those and it's been really neat to see the dialogue. Um in the middle is an example of a student led veterans day assembly. We put our students in charge of um the whole event and they MC it and welcome a guest
speaker from the community who's a veteran. The fifth, any calendar day that ends in a five, we do Hawks high fives where teachers nominate students to do the right thing. So they'll get called over the intercom and they come running down to get their sticker and they love reading the notes. To the bottom left is
an example of sixth grade project- based learning or sixth grade math teachers are in year two of implementing true project based learning. So in this particular class, students are given um a client who's looking for a specific backpack to to fit a need. Um, and so
they get the client's requests and they go to work on dimensions and they really factor in ratios and and uh dimensions and geometry and they they love that hands-on approach. This is the collaboration with Danvers High in the middle. Um, we had a great opportunity
to work with industry partners this year through project leadway to hear a real life problem that panam challenge was having and they brought to our students for a solution. So they spent the day up here collaborating and then our favorite picture is our best buddies first meeting early this fall. So these just
bring to life things that we feel are just a few of our successes. So this slide represents our curricular priorities moving forward into next year. Uh first we have world language materials and programming. Over the past, I would say seven or eight years, the world language teachers at the
middle school and high school um have been on a journey towards proficiency proficiency based um learning experiences in world language to ensure that students are immersed in the language that they're learning and have authentic resources to learn um the language through. Um, as I on boarded
this year and talked with members of the world language department, um, it is definitely a priority to make sure that we have consistent and high quality materials for them to be using uh, to support language world language instruction um, in grades six to eight um, to ensure consistency and vertical alignment. And this will only then
support students as they move on with their world language instruction as they move in as freshman at Denver High School. Um in terms of math curriculum materials and programming um the uh grade six through eight teachers at the middle school in addition to and this
will be in the high school presentation as well in addition to the grade nine teachers um are part of a new math curriculum adoption process that has been going on since October. Um so this has been a facilitated process for them to create a vision around what high quality mathematics instruction looks like. um they've uh done initial
research around a dozen or so potential curricula and just as of our last professional development day in January have identified three high quality math curricula to pilot this spring. Um so they'll go through the pilot process over the next several months and then a choice will be identified by late
spring. Um and once again um it's a great collaborative opportunity. We have different stakeholders in the group from the teachers themselves to represent representatives from special education just to make sure that it's an inclusive process as we're we're moving forward with the new mathematics curriculum. And
then lastly, um you saw some of this in the slides that Adam just talked about. Uh we have project lead the way training and materials and open sed units three and four. So in terms of project lead the way, we're really committed to expanding the offerings we have around project lead the way here at the middle school. Gateway is the middle school
program. Uh, and Project Lead the Way, um, is hands-on activity- based STEM curriculum for students. They have 10 different modules, um, that align with both science and engineering and technology standards. Um, it really builds the skills we want to see that
are part of our portrait of a graduate in terms of problem solving, collaboration, communication. And the wonderful thing is they're all um connected to the pathways that we already have at the high school around biomedical science, engineering, and computer science. So students as early as sixth grade just could start
exploring these areas and get a sense of what they're passionate or not passionate about and then continue that course of study once they um go into nth grade. So that's really exciting. Um and then last lastly um we are going into year two of implementation of open sed. Um, just to piggyback on what Adam
talked about, it's been really exciting to see, um, the great work happening in our science classrooms, um, it's definitely an instructional shift. Um, because, as Adam mentioned, it's really putting students at the driver's seat in terms of asking the driving questions, generating the phenomena that they're
seeing, trying to decide what they want to explore in terms of lab activities and investigations. Um, and I just want to give credit to our science staff in the middle school for jumping in and and taking this on. Um the amount of collaboration and discourse we've been able to see in our science classrooms
has been amazing. So we're excited to continue to support this. So all of those teachers were trained in the first two units for this year. Um this will be a three-year implementation going into next year. They'll be trained in two additional units. Um and so we'll just continue to support them with the professional development and the the new
consumable and durable materials that come with the cost of the program. And just to add to that, we're actually hosting another middle school tomorrow to come see open sad. So kudos to our science teachers for the work they've been able to jump into.
So our last slide, um, you know, we really feel like we have a lot of pieces in play that we just need to bring together and lift our school up. And so, you know, the few additional things we're looking for are um, just through some staffing shifts this year, we did not have a building substitute. that's
just is a vital role for us to fill on the fly needs. So, we'd like to restore that position. Um and then just our commitment to helping keep our students safe. We implemented um vape detectors on our third floor in the building in all the student bathrooms and those have been a great deterrent as part of just
one way we're trying to educate students but also deter unhealthy habits. So, we'd like to be able to implement that across the school into small bathrooms, particularly a few of the singleton bathrooms that there's less access to any questions
clockwise again. Um, just one question and it it wasn't part of the budget conversation, but I can't remember the name of the room, but do you still have that cool off room that you send students to? >> The opportunity room. >> Um, we don't formally have the opportunity room. We have opportunity
assistant principles. >> We we that was really part of our, you know, initial launch school to really help u kind of settle things down. When I first arrived, we felt after last year our students were in a much better place, kind of get through the day. And really our our focus now is to meet
students with our ads so they're not out of class. So oftent times we'll get a call up to the classroom, check in with the student to kind of see what the needs are. But if we do need to spend a little extra time with students, our assistant principles and social workers and counselors all kind of team up on that.
>> Okay, that that was my only question. Thank you. Um just a couple first of all the the priorities are pretty clearly stated and they seem modest in but um in terms
of restoring the building substitute under reallocation what are we reallocating from two is the building substitute what are we reallocating >> I think that's more of an opportunity to look across the landscape of the district Not sure internally in our
building where that might come from. >> Sure. We had a reallocation of of just to meet a need in a different building and you know after this year we'll be able to move that back. And just to let you know as well, so we also have opened up and have an on call sub that comes
in. So we brought our own subpool in. So we have an open sub position that you know it's not the same person necessarily, but there is substitute coverage that they can use to per spot covering things that might pop up. >> Okay. >> So, yes, that's this is a low hanging piece of fruit, which is good.
>> Yeah. Um, and the vape detectors, you know, makes sense and it's a low cost item. My only surprise was to realize that the middle school vaping was is obviously becoming an issue. >> And I'd say that's a trend across all communities just with the access um that
students have unfortunately in communities. But I will say this year we we've made some great progress and the detectives just one deterrent. We do a lot of proactive work with students our health classes even here when we meet students in our community meetings.
>> I'm sort of low that it's all I have >> since it's out of my area of knowledge. $60,000 to pilot a math program. Is that for materials and stipens for doing the curricular work or
>> that's just for the um the new materials? >> Just for new they don't they don't give them to us. They say here try them out and you know >> Oh yeah. for this spring. Yes. >> Okay. >> For but moving forward with whatever we go with. We're just allocating the budget knowing we're purchasing your curriculum. >> Appreciate that. >> Thank you.
>> I'm done. >> Thank you. I through the chair just I just want to highlight um the the recurring theme. We're really looking hard to vertically align our schools and if you see the theme particularly with the world language because you know we we're
establishing the seal of biology at the high school um and working with their world language department that's specializing that need and certainly project lead the way you've heard that at the high school we have that. So, we really need to dig down deep into our middle school so students can see the
pathways that'll be in front of them. And I think that's been the missing link. Um, and that's a big piece in reimaging our our district. So, those are really important items and um hats off to the the math department as well and the work that's been done because that is an area that you can see with
our performance. Um, hopefully this shift will will improve student achievement. Yes. All right, we can call the high school up. Mr. Dear doesn't have to go far.
>> I know. Eight minutes. I know that. Good evening. First of all, I want to say that, you know, the high school is really the funnel and everything that happens at the high school cannot happen if we don't have excellence at primary school and the middle school. So, I want
to thank our primary school principles, um, our middle school administrators, special education, transportation, technology, all of that funnels into the high school. We're in a little different place in terms of what we need to ensure
that our students can do when they leave. You know, I'm going to continue to reiterate that the class of 2030, which is the class the freshman that are coming in, we have no idea what their jobs are going to look like, when they graduate high school, let alone when
they graduate college. So, we have to think a little differently. So, our presentation tonight at at Denver's High School, we focus on building meaningful relationships, developing student leadership, ensuring inclusion, acceptance, and understanding, and providing students with multiple pathways for success within our
community. And that last line is really the key. Uh, how do we create pathways? So, we're focused on providing relevant and rig rigorous coursework, innovative post-graduation pathways for all students. we will become a lighthouse
district for the Commonwealth. And I think we're close. I think we're getting there. Um and everything, in my opinion, is there for us to have that happen. We acknowledge, however, the need to expand and evolve opportunities to ensure that every student has a clear relevant
pathway to success based upon a strong academic foundation with equitable and innovative learning experiences. Therefore, we are intentionally rethinking traditional models to provide flexible, inclusive options that will
allow all students to thrive. Keyword being all. Some of our successes, and this is just a few, the AP silver medal, which we talked about, I'm going to reiterate again as I just said, AP success is wonderful for the high school. It's wonderful for parents, teachers, but
that is a it is a K12 success. the foundation created starting in prek. We see it at the high school. We're just lucky enough to have a banner right here. Open house, we all know um
reshaped how the community views Danver High School. I can tell you that this week two students returned from Essex Tech, both of whom had um magnificent GPA and were in shops of their choice. They came back halfway through the
semester as sophomores I believe. Correct. And we have one more who's coming back next week. Um applications for 26 27 are down at tech as well as at prep. All those are positives. The 18 applied learning leadership institute.
We have 14 teachers who are participating in piloting instructional strategies. This which connects to our Denver's public schools portrait of a graduate and will become a model school moving forward. Our DECA program, which everybody knows, continues to place the largest number of students at local and
state competitions. This year, 208 students qualified for local competition and incredibly 130 qualified for states in March. Our fine and visual arts continue to grow in numbers and student success. CEO by literacy, which superintendent
Bower just talked about, which is recognition for students who have attained high proficiency in English and one or more additional languages. We currently have six honor societies. We added one this year. There will be more coming. We most schools have four. We're going to be at seven by the uh beginning
of next year. Our leadership program and community block pro which are providing multiple opportunities for students to to connect with adults and peers. Mental health programming continues to be a focus as we prioritize social and emotional learning and support services.
and our RISE program is making an impact on the students enrolled and as a model for future programs. So, Danver's high school 2026 and beyond, we are expanding our AP offerings for next year. We will have 26 advanced placement courses for grades 9
through 12. It's important to understand we will now be offering them for freshmen. Uh we are the only school um on the Northshore that will have 26. Uh we are adding courses in AP African-American studies, AP research which is part of the AP diploma, AP
business and AP physics C. The AP diploma which you've all heard about um we were the only one in the area who will be offering the AP diploma will be awarded beginning um in actually that should say the spring of 20 no 2027
correct. Um the first part of that has already started this year with AP seminar. We're looking to begin a work study program. Students will work during the day and attend Emer High School in the late afternoon and evening to complete their high school diploma. This will be designed to prevent dropouts uh
and provide a structured pathway to workforce success. We have not had this in the past. We are looking forward to to implementing this beginning in September of 2026. The ACE program, which stands for accountability, connection, and empowerment, is target
is targeted support for students who are struggling to successfully navigate a typical high school setting. And without targeted interventions could be headed for extended eval. We all know the cost of extended evaluation somewhere begins at around $50,000. It is our belief that
this is going to help limit those, therefore being a cost savings for the district. our early college program. We will continue to work with Northshore Community College. Uh currently 14 students are receiving credit, college credit. Remember that's not AP students
and those credits will be transferable. The EMT certification pathway we're looking at 2728 students will sit for the EMT certification exam upon turning 18 and will be provided a job should they pass it. Um it will happen during the school
day. Uh so we are excited by that. Uh the one that's created some real buzz at the high school is the early childhood pathway. We are looking in 2027 2028 to establish an on-site uh daycare facility serving district staff and potentially
town employees uh which will also bring in additional funding. So, it will provide uh daycare for our staff across the district at a much lower rate than they are currently paying. Now, my daughter, I know how much she pays. Um students, however,
everything's about our students. So, students will enroll in structured early childhood pathway coursework to include child development, child psychology, art, music, special education, other related fields. Students will earn multiple industry recognized certifications. Um, and then
we are working, Superintendent Bower and and Peter and I are working on an associates degree pathway for 2020 2027 2028. It will be one or two pathways. It will not be, you know, I don't want anyone thinking it's four or five. Students
will begin college coursework in the second semester of their freshman year. dual enrollment credits will accumulate towards an associate degree and the degrees will be aligned with and transferable to Massachusetts colleges. Um, part of this work also includes
beginning in this coming September, we will be adding a freshman seminar course to begin to prepare our students for what college is like, but also to prepare our students for what uh careers are going to be like. We're starting at the freshman year rather than doing it
in senior year. Um and then chapter 74 Jesse approved pathways with the amazing work of Sue Donatell she and I have been working on looking at bringing in medical assisting criminal justice and cyber security. So that's the next two
years at the high school. >> So so jumping off what Mr. S just summarized, we wanted to talk about the immediate um priorities moving forward into just next year. I know it presented a lot of our long-term vision. Um this
is what's up for uh the school next school year 2627. Um so we have um an afterchool work study program. We're hoping to support for next year and this is to ensure opportunities met for all students um and to prevent our um dropout rate. Um this would be for
students struggling in a typical day program and are in danger of dropping out. Students would do a work study during the day and that attend DHS after school to receive their high school diploma. So, we would need staff um uh either teachers in the building to be stipened in to support this after school
and someone to supervise this work with students. We're also hoping to add a pathways director. Uh from the previous slides, you can see there are a lot of pathways. We're hoping to add a lot of options and opportunities and um other districts in order to oversee and organize that and have a point person.
There is a pathways director. Um this would be repurposing current um full-time positions um into a current teaching position to have this be a part of their assignment to be a liazison between the work with students and administration to ensure that um students are supported in this work as
they're choosing uh what endeavors they would like to pursue. And then the ACE program, accountability, connection, empowerment. This would be the new behavior program to support both regular and special ed students who have demonstrated academic social or behavioral challenges within their classrooms. This would include a
staff of a regular education teacher, special education teacher, instructional assistant, social worker, and assistant principal as a point person to oversee the program. That does not mean we're looking to add an associate an assistant principal. Um, this is really reallocating staff and all of that.
although we would need the way we figure it an additional 6 staff member. Additionally, in terms of curriculum updates, um we have a new uh text adoption at the grade nine level. Um going back to that vertical alignment
piece, um this is a shift um after middle school grade 68 adopted the fish tank learning curriculum for this year. Um so grade nine is adopting a new text as a result of that and also to update existing texts. um that students have as part of their coursework in grades 9
through 12. Not to be too redundant, but as I mentioned earlier, um the grade nine teachers are also part of the new mathematics curriculum adoption process. And so that would be for the content areas of algebra and geometry. Um but otherwise all the information is the same and they have participated in the
same timeline as the middle school teachers in terms of the piloting process. And then lastly, as we said earlier, um we will be offering four new AP courses this upcoming year. We always like to ensure that our teachers are supported um before going into teaching.
So we like to send them to AP summer institutes um so a cost to provide training for students so they're prepared going into September u teaching these new courses. So I'll jump in on the next slide. um to to really move pathways. Um as I
mentioned earlier, to create opportunities that are specialized for our students to succeed, we need champions to do that, right? Our teachers do outstanding work. Our school counselors, our support, our admin, they do outstanding work. But we need people that can do this. We also know that
within tight budgetary, you know, if we can repurpose and move uh positions around, we can establish this and that's the only way we we can be successful with this. I've been in other schools where you establish pathways and and they go fine, but you really need somebody that can make those community
connections, those that can establish and push to make sure that the uh internships that might be created on this are going forth. So I and throughout my years I I really feel it's important that we have and and schools just don't do a great job with this. Um
public schools, but I'm looking to create a director of strategic initiatives and innovation. Um and this would really just be a switch. I have a stipen that I can move that's non DTA and really see this position with an administrator, not hiring a new person
and really giving additional responsibilities uh to see the position and to see it grow and this person would oversee the pathway director and really kind of tie in all the associates degree and all these things that we need to move forward. um and somebody that can
partner with myself, partner with the assistant superintendent, partner with the curriculum director and the team and with the teachers as well. I think this is something that would really set us apart and somebody that could really prioritize this work. Secondly, we are
shifting the um lead teacher model at the middle and the high school to secondary department chairs. Um, so and this really isn't going to cost us any money, but it's really reimagining the lead teacher role and creating opportunities where they can certainly move the curriculum,
strive to improve student achievement, and really dig in deep and work with our teachers. Um, essentially our lead teacher role is there, but it's then just removing one class out of their load. We can do that. We have room to and would not impact in impact our
ability to offer courses. Um, and we're going to do this at the high school, middle school. You know, we reached an MOU with the union on this. Um, and this is something that I think will really provide team for the middle school principal, the high school principal, and administrative teams that they can
really dig in and do the work. When you're a lead teacher, you're teaching a full load, and it's really hard to, you know, this time outside before and after school, but it's challenging. So, we're really looking to change this without adding anything really more to the budget to get to put more leadership. I
believe we believe in distributive leadership and we have some great teachers that can drive this. So, sorry for taking my over my a lot of time, but um I wanted to present this because we've collaboratively thought about things that can push our district forward.
questions. Anyone but G. >> Mr. Chair, >> let's mix it up. >> Okay, I'll go first. >> Um, so thank you. This was great. So the um it's good to see all the the great programs that you guys have going on and moving forward and uh with your 2026 and beyond sliding, but that was great to
see that. Um, one of the questions that I had on your budget ask was the afterchool work study program. Is that something that we're currently doing? And we're just looking at No, this is a brand new. >> Okay. >> So, so what we're trying to do is when
we look at R 26 and beyond >> and we talk about what Superintendent Bower is talking about when he talks about specialized education. We've done a really good job with AP. We've done a really good job with DEA.
We've done a really good job. Where we haven't spent our some of our dollars is on our kids who are really just not making it and we don't want them dropping out. We know the cost for
a student who drops out what the generational cost is. So we want to provide and and part of what I didn't explain was part of the pathways director and the supervisor's job for this will be to help provide
jobs for them. So it will be getting them jobs, ensuring that they're attending their jobs, coming to the high school after school to then get their high school diploma. We want them to leave high school with a diploma. It
doesn't have to look the same for everybody. And it it's, you know, I I I equate all of what we're talking about to Schindler's list and Oscar Schindler when he said, "I could have saved four more." There are kids that we can't let
fall through the cracks. This is low cost for what it's going to bring us. >> Yeah. No, that's great. I love it. Um, and I I think even that additional context is is fantastic. I was trying to see it. What's the demand right now? Like do we have an idea about what how
many how many students we think this would affect? >> So I came from previously when when I was in way we started we started one of these. We started with 10 kids. It then became students from other districts
>> got involved and schools were paying us to keep their kids because dropout rates impact what happens to schools. And so we were making money off of it. You know, it was a a funding source. I think we probably can be and and Carrie and
Patrick, you work with the kids much much more closely. I would I can venture 10 12 14 kids right now who would take it in a heartbeat. >> That's great. >> Yeah. >> If I could add a clarification, this is, you know, typically my experience with
this in a previous district, you know, by the time a student's in the sophomore year, things just aren't clicking. This isn't for freshman and sophomores coming up. This is somebody halfway through the process and things are just, you know, there's all sorts of different things that student may struggle with school avoidance issues at home, whatever it
may be. Um, and we use that as a credit recovery as well. So, you know, that number that's not out of the ballpark, right, by any means. Right. >> Great. Thank you. Um, and then >> before you go on, since we're on this, the interest from staff to be a part of
this I didn't we haven't asked. We presented it to the staff and they were very positive about it. Um it wouldn't be hard but there's been some informal interest expressed that was presented. >> Thank you.
>> Yeah. >> And it's not just so you you asked the question. So it wouldn't be that a teacher needs to be there every day. So the way it would work is Monday would be social studies, Tuesday would be ELA, Wednesday would be science, Thursday
would be math. Um, Friday would be catch up with the supervisor kind of thing. >> Y >> and there's actually been interest in in some people what's the supervisor role. So, if we can keep our own teachers in involved, that's a win as well because they know our kids. Thank you.
>> Yeah, that's great. And then the the other thing is, and I think you've done a tremendous job, you and the team have done a tremendous job with the AP courses. I think it's outstanding. Like 26, you said the most on the Northshore. Um, the only issue that I have with that is that's great, but I only see 5K going
after bolstering the already great program that we have. >> That 5K is really to train the four new teachers. Yep. >> For the four new courses. Teachers are trained every, you know, they go back for training. They uh AP and and College
Board does a really good job of of creating communities. So an AP uh biology teacher has a cohort across the country that they work with. Um AP resources are are readily available. We
do send a number of teachers out to AP reading. So they become a reader. So that helps them in terms of understanding what's needed. So it's not that we are short changing. It's it's this is specifically in order to be an at AP teacher, you have to have a
syllabus approved and you have to be trained. >> And so this is that training that they need. The advantage now is that training can happen online. It used to only be at St. John's and in in Vermont and other places, but now people have families and
AP has gotten smart and so there's online training which is cheaper for us. So that that's why that >> that's great. And um I think, let me just be direct about it. I would support if you wanted to think creatively and think outside the box. I think I would support and I I bet that
there would be other members up here that would support putting more money towards bolstering the AP program because I think that we should go with the momentum that we have and let's start to let's continue to develop these kids that are on the path of of greatness, right? So, let's let's continue to to throw some money at.
>> Great. >> Thank you. I'm done. Yeah, I uh I find this both inspired and inspiring. Everything that um that you're talking about doing is so exciting and builds on success we
already have. So um it feels like we could have such an innovative program here in a relatively short time serving students in gambas in a very different way. So very exciting. Um, I did want to
talk a little bit about the ACE program and do you see that as being a self-contained program for the uh students with behavioral issues? What would it really look like in you know in a concrete kind of way if if you can explain?
>> So, I know Christina is going to talk a little bit about it >> or is willing to talk about it, but this is not just for special education students. Sure. >> And I think it's important to understand >> um A number of our general education students
are even more lost a and are struggling with regulation and don't have special education support. We need to provide those supports and um
the cost of this program versus the cost of extended vowels and anything else is it's a no-brainer for us. So, no, no, it's not going to be completely self-contained. But again, this will be fluid in terms
of how it works for some students. similar to the RISE program. >> Um, some of those students are more self-contained, some of them are out in the classrooms two or three periods. Um, I I think the difference for us is that we're really looking at bringing in a
social worker assigned to that program, bringing in, you know, one of the APs to oversee the program. So, there's continued um relationships. It hasn't fully been mapped out yet, but
I think the costs that savings and the savings for kids again potentially dropping out, potentially saying no, this isn't the right place for me. If this isn't the right place, then we're doing something wrong. Is the approach I take
all I just have one Oh, I'm sorry. Are you ready? Are you ready? No, thank you for your presentation. I mean, like everyone else said, I I thought it was well um laid out and I really like the initiative. I mean, Josh
leaned on the uh advanced placement part. I I'd really like to talk about the kids in the middle, that bubble, because that's where you can get the most significant impact with some additional investment. Um you know, the kids that are excelling, we can get an incremental and it looks like the
investment's there. And then we have like you know the special education cohort like you mentioned that has their dedicated staff. Is there anything else that's top of mind for that middle group? >> So the associates degree is all for our middle road students. So it's not AP students. >> Yep.
>> It's you know we were very intentional. Intentionality is very important to me. It was important that when we present to you and and I gotta give Carrie and Patrick and and Peter and Sue Donatel, we as a team really work to be
intentional in every group of students. And so the associates degree not only helps students, but it helps families. And we're talking about middle of the road C++ students, B students, um our
multil- language learners. who might not have thought about college because they thought it would be too expensive, but if they get an associates degree for free out of high school. So, yes, we're we're looking at all of that. We will continue to build that.
Superintendent Bower kind of slowed me down to not give you where we're going after this because I think there's a lot here. But, um, we are continuing to look at all of the groups of students. >> Okay. Thank you. Appreciate that. Can I
add to that? It's a huge point because that is the feedback in the entry hearing. You know, what about the student in the middle? And that's common. You know, what is the relevance the pathways as well? That's a huge hook for students because they're trying to figure out and that's why the middle
school we have to tune in. So, by the time they're headed to the high school, they have an idea of what area they might want to pursue. you know, the EMTert is is awesome, but also the medical piece and just in general the pathways that will strike interest in
students and and that to me sets a difference and we know if one student takes an advanced type of course in an area they like the success and graduation the the stats are there, the research is there. So, I think that's a very u it's a huge question because I
think we want to compass everything. That's why we kind of got away from just saying that program and that program was saying all specialized program. So, thank you for bringing that up. >> I'm good. Thank you. >> Thank you.
>> All right. Thank you very much. Uh, could I have our student service team come up, please? Good evening. Should we start with introductions? >> Sure. >> I don't know if you know the team well yet.
Start. >> Hi, Derek Munan. Assistant director of student services preschool elementary. >> Christina Ryan, director of student services. >> Sudantel, assistant director of student services at the secondary level. >> And Analie Dost out of district
coordinator. >> All right. Thank you for having us tonight. We wanted to give you a little update on our programming, where it stands now, as well as where we're headed for the future. So, last year, oh, next slide, please. Last year we had two different audits completed which really aligned our
mission and vision moving forward. So we are continuing along that path to really focus on refining and sustaining our vertically aligned specialized programs, aligning our staffing to meet our evolving student needs and solidifying the team chair model as a key leadership role. And we believe by doing those
three items, we will have a flexible continuum of care and we will be able to expand our indist capacity to make sure that all students receive a high quality inclusive education within their home schools and district. So one of the pieces we wanted to highlight today were some of our
successes. So, a piece that's really important is to really look at the amount of students who are referred for an out of district placement because that seems like a one-time cost, but it's actually a very expensive cost over time. And so, what we noticed last year was when we arrived, students were
already in the process of being referred to placements. And so, we heard from our predecessors, don't worry, those couple of students are going to come out and you'll be able to bring them back in a couple years. Unfortunately, that doesn't really work because once students are out and they're having a successful experience, they want to stay. And so we really made a tremendous
effort to invest in our programs thankfully due to the support of the town and this year we've seen a decrease in the amount of referrals. So last year we had 10 students who were referred. This year we only have four. Referral is key because we can refer but if we have a program that's able to meet students needs and districts. If students are
successful within that program and we have staffed that program to a way that it should be staffed, families are more likely to stay. In addition, last year we had students who were who were referred for extended evaluations. What that means is a 40-day evaluation period that can be conducted
within a district, but it also can be conducted outside of the district. And so we had families who requested those and staff members who are saying, "We're not going to be able to do this here. Can we do the evaluation elsewhere?" To what Mr. Charles said, those evaluations cost a minimum of $50,000.
So we have the capacity to be able to do those internally within our in district programs. And so this year we have only had two of those evaluations. Otherwise we have been conducting those within our in district programs. So if there is a student at another elementary school who is requiring a certain type of
evaluation, we can do that here. This also is important because the one-time cost of potentially $50,000 often shifts to a placement cost. So districts are then financially liable for two costs. The 50,000 on top of the potential $200,000 investment for that one year.
And we know that that cost only increases over time with inflation. >> I don't mean to jump in in the middle. Please go ahead. >> I mean, one incredible because we as a committee made a commitment to doing this funding, but if I'm not mistaken, you've already saved the district on the
first slide over a million dollars. Thank you. Next slide, please. So, this slide I've shown in previous meetings, but I just want to highlight the importance of building in district programming because at the minimum, we're spending at least $105,000 per student. Maximum is almost
$240,000. And again, that's a cost for one student for this year only. And as we've seen in previous years, there was an increase of 14 and a half% for out of district tuition. So, at any point in time, that cost always increases. So we thought it would be helpful today
is really if we prioritized our needs based on our program strands to really talk about what that looks like in real time. So for our embark and stride programs this year we needed a full-time speech pathologist as well as a part-time nurse. And so what we did was we have been filling those roles with
contracted service providers or substitutes. And so we really want to make sure that th those are true needs. We want them to be part of our budget proposal. In addition, we had to hire 18 instructional assistants. What we saw through our audits was that our programs have been chronically understaffed for
quite some time. And so, all of these positions are currently here right now, but they have been paid for by grants and other sources of revenue that may not exist in the future. >> Any questions about this? Oh, is this a is this reflective of the S
SOA student opportunity act and last chance funding? >> Okay, so that is what is currently okay and shout out to Julie. Thank you for sending that letter and elevating this. I guess the question is how do we if this is already funded via
the S SOA, do we have to put it in our budget to ensure that we continue to get state aid from it? just if someone can help me understand that process because it seems like it will continue to be funded if we ask for it and maintain it.
>> Are you asking in terms of the instructional assistance? >> Yes. >> Um actually some of that is funded with some of the remnants of the EA money from last year that we carried over and that that'll be gone after this year. So, we're able to to hold back some and that's what we're counting on to get us
through this year, but we know that that's that's not going to be there. >> Thank you. >> For our RISE program, this strand truly is a model where we have a full-time special education teacher partnering with a full-time school psychologist. So, at the elementary level, that
program currently exists. We have a cohort of fifth graders who are moving to the middle school. And so the fifth grade special education teaching position will also rise with those students. We currently have a full-time school psychologist at the middle school who is serving in the that capacity. So that way we'll have a fully functional
model at elementary and middle school. At the high school level, we have a full-time special education teacher, but we don't have the school psychologist yet. And so that will really complete that model. In addition, at the elementary level, we have been using contracted services to fund our behavioral support. And we want to make sure that that is part of our budget.
This year we also hired 11 instructional assistants again to support the needs of the students in that program. Our Soore program currently is in grade six at the middle school. We have a fifth grade cohort who's going to be rising to the middle school and that teaching position will follow those students to make sure that we have an
elementary and middle school cohort. In addition, we are asking for two team chairs because this year we have been cited by DESIE for non-compliance and that's a huge concern because when we have people who are operating in two roles, we make mistakes and mistakes cost out of placements. And so in full
transparency, we have had parents complain. We have also had to submit reports to Jesse which are outlining that we are non-compliant and this is something that we have to address. Any questions? Um, thank you for the presentation. It's
great to see the uh the cost savings as Josh pointed out in terms of the evaluations. Um, I guess the question I have is right now we know that we're again looking to go to the reserve fund for special educate.
What's driving it this year? because I say to myself, well, it's good that we're we're maybe a savings in the evaluations, but um the costs are still rising more. I'm just curious as to what's the biggest driver that damas and I'm sure other schools are facing right now. >> So, as far as the reserve, the reserve
fund is concerned that in theory was meant for unexpected expenses such as residential placements. >> Other districts just budget for in all possibility there might be two students every year who are moved to a residential setting and that's part of the budget. That is a very very high
amount of money and I don't think that we necessarily have always had that at our disposal to set aside just in case. >> Okay. Um what's the market like now for hiring instructional assistants? I know that over the last few years that has been a
challenge. Is it getting better from a hiring standpoint, from the employer standpoint? >> I think it has been a challenge. Previously this year, we rewrote all of the job descriptions to make it very clear to people who were interviewing. This is actually the role. The feedback that we heard from some of our new hires
is this isn't what I thought this job was going to be. I thought I was going to be a kindergarten assistant, which looks very different than if you're working in one of our specialized programs. So, in full transparency, as we've been hiring people, we've really been talking about those pieces, but we have had to utilize contracted service
providers for some of those positions when we have had a need to fill and not necessarily have candidates who are interested in applying at that time. >> I think that's an economic reality right now, but as I say, our district and others are facing the chair.
U just to add on that um you know Christina's team has done an outstanding job because not only obviously when you hire from our contractor that's much more money right but the second piece that they're doing is they utilize constellations for a lot of training >> and and that's been helpful and they've
also done some auditing work too. So, I think the piece that hasn't come out in the presentation in terms of the elementary programming is they're very close on a couple of pieces. Um, and we know we need more work through the continuum because that has to be because for our parents that are moving into sixth grade, they can't wait.
>> So, uh, we're getting very close. And the other piece that's important to note too is we're also getting close to a part where we might be able to franchise which means the opportunity to bring students in not at the expense of our our services but the superintendents we we talk a lot about that and in our
subgroups on the Northshore because you know a private placement versus utilizing a district partner you have a huge cost savings. So we're getting close to that which that revenue in turn can then move in. So that could be a tipping point positively for us as well.
I'm sorry I you steal your thunder on that. >> No, go right ahead. And I think that's important because when we're talking about pathways of high school and pieces like that, those are all avenues that as we bring students into the district, all students can benefit. So it would be much easier to have a program that students from surrounding towns could be
part of as opposed to being on a bus for potentially an hour and a half. Well, you know, in the years I've been on school committee, and I am as old as Methusela, so we've always talked about trying to bring more programs in house. And I think the momentum a few years ago
when the selectman and finance committee got on board, opened the door for us, but it was then incumbent on us to meet the expectations and show that we're making progress to it. And when I look at this, I think we have a very good story to tell to those two boards this
year when it comes to funding. So, thank you for the work that you and your team have done, >> Mr. Chair. So, I and I I agree, Mr. Lopes found out, you know, called it out early about the cost savings. I think it's great and if we to Mr. Crane's point, if we continue to bolster these
programs and we're saving this, we have a really good story to tell, especially if we're going after we're going to ask for more money. Um the question I have is it looks like it's about roughly back of the napkin math it's roughly a million bucks for the uh instructional assistance right so how did we get so
far behind where we need a just this group of 11 and then a group of 18 what what's driving that and I was writing and listening at the same time so I might have missed it if you said it but if you don't mind just giving us the the story on that one. >> Sure. I think what happened previously
was there would be a student who had a high level of need and the thought was we're going to send this student out of district to then get circuit breaker reimbursement and so those students were automatically automatically exited and so there wasn't necessarily an understanding of the cost of that piece. So I think it was, oh, we're not going
to hire these people because those students are out. And so what we're trying to do is say, yes, those students are out, but we know how to stop that from happening and we have to staff the programs. And if we don't have enough staff who are trained, who are competent, who are comfortable with that student population, we're always going
to be sending students out of district. >> Thank you. >> Could I go with the chair? I'm sorry I know I'm talking too much but you know those are decisions and discussions we've had over the last two years and from pull into the room where we're making decisions that if we're able to
add you know an instructional assistant you know versus a student and we need the service if we don't provide that there's a high likelihood that child we can't meet the services and they'll be out of district. So, you're making those types of decisions that, you know, um, fortunately, we had the funding that's
followed us, but we're at a point where we we've built the programs and we're close. And you're exactly right. So, it's almost like we have to take this over we do have to take this over the finish line. >> We also had 25 students move into the district this year on IEPs that we were
able to educate within our district and nobody had to leave and we had staffing capacity to be able to make that happen. And so I know that there's a narrative out there, but all these students move in and go out of district. That might have happened before, but it certainly isn't happening now. >> So to a point of staffing appropriately,
and in the world of special ed, we know it's very fluid. Um, and your data about the savings out of placement and extended evaluations is great, but we're only halfway through the school year. So I'll ask the question presently
what's in the queue for extended evaluations andor potential out of district placements for this year right now. >> I would say those numbers on the slides are accurate based on our data review of what's happened over time and really looking at student profiles and cases to
think did something potentially happen that we need to get ahead of right now. And I would say we have excellent ongoing communication with all of our principles to make sure that we're always talking about those pieces. And so there we are never surprised by those conversations because we already know the names that we need to think about.
>> Great. Thank you. >> Sure. >> Hi. Last we spoke um we were talking about some of the things that we were missing and I wanted to sit here and make sure that we call out like what do you need today to satisfy some of the
you know issues that we face this year in order of priority like what is the most immediate impactful need to satisfy some of the gaps that we that we see today? Like if you can snap your finger and do it now what would it be? >> I need the team chairs.
>> Team chairs. And can you tell us more? Team chair does not sound like a functional thing to me. It's not I just want to understand what what the impact of that. I I see parts part psychologist team chair. >> Tell us more about that. >> So the team chair has a variety of functions but one being is making sure
that at those team meetings that families understand their rights and students are getting the correct level of service. And so we need somebody at the table who's able to do that thoughtfully and diplomatically in really making sure that as students transition between levels, there isn't a huge dip in service or we're not missing
a piece of the puzzle. So look at all the evaluations holistically and make sure that we are thinking about the whole child. Number two is compliance. We have federal and state regulations that we are mandated to follow and we don't when we don't follow those, we are cited by DESIE and then we are in this cycle of
compliance and corrective action. So that's what we're doing right now. And when I look at what we were cited for, it's missing evaluation timelines. It's not sending IEPs out on time. That's unacceptable. And that can and should be fixed. And that's really what team chairs do. >> Are they universally called team chairs
or is that our >> team facilitators also just translating that to our like fincom and select board? >> Yeah. You know, it's like if and when we put the budget together, saying, "Hey, we need team chairs." Sounds really
>> doesn't give it, >> you know, the right kind of punch. >> If I could jump in because that question was asked to me last year at Fincom and I said the same thing as a team chair because ultimately not only that piece, but but Derek, Sue, and Anelique, you know, they're there really to support
and build programs. So, currently the work they're doing is really serving a lot of team chair roles. and they're doing the best they can to build programs. So the team chair that that that person then can be built into that building, work with the teachers, can work with co- teachers and all the other
programming we have while while Derek Anelique and Sue can continue to at a higher rate build programs. Um and I think that that in itself is a is a big piece. And I also know sitting in this chair too that um you know when mistakes
are made unfortunately the family it's it it impacts impacts everybody. Not only is it cost but it impacts families. So we need to make sure we have somebody in that seat that can provide you know the proper guidance for the proper accommodations and in addition um that in itself is a
cost savings and that administrator can really work closely with the building administrative team as well. It really comes back to that compliance piece. That compliance piece is one of most significant parts of the of the role and trying to ensure that things are done in
a timely manner. One for family relationships and for students to to succeed, but also for us to be able to keep kids in district. One of the challenges that we encountered early on right from the start was that there were a lot of procedural things that were missed previously. And so for us to come
in and try and have a conversation of out of district versus in district, it's really hard to have that conversation if you've already missed many of the timelines and and required meetings that are necessary to show collaboration and make sure that you move kids forward. So
that is really where that position is key and also bridging just bringing special education and general education within each of the schools together, right? because there are often times things that maybe general education is more familiar with, special education as
well. We have our own things and so team chairs are really helpful in working with principles and teachers and specialists and ensuring that everyone is hearing the same message and that we're all working in sync. So, it's a it's a critical piece of the of the
infrastructure in trying to make sure the special education is is efficient and beneficial for our kids. >> And just a general question among ourselves because it's an open meeting. I I recall hearing that we've needed
chairs, team chairs. Was that in this fiscal year? Was it last year? What did we miss? We we did add chairs last year. Um as principal colony mentioned, you know, we were able to make it work. So there's a a team chair at the middle school, which is a huge piece as we're building the
programming there in service. Um and and that person um is underwater sometimes because they're catching up for so many things in the absence of a team chair. And we also have a team chair at Smith, which currently has most of our programming is that those two cohorts
will shift out though at the end of the year. and we also split a team chair between buildings. So, we're getting there and it's been a huge help. Uh, but we still need more room. So, we did do that. >> Okay. Thanks for the clarification. I know I've heard it and it's like, what
did we miss? Did it be not hire? Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much, >> Mr. J. >> Um, I just want to make a statement more than a question. I appreciate that. um knowing my being a par professional uh instructional assistant the difference
between a like you'd mentioned a kindergarten um instructional assistant and somebody who works in a subs separate program if you don't get the right people in the right spots they're going to leave they're not going to feel comfortable they're not going to have the same passion somebody else so I think that
the biggest piece of our programming you know is is par professionals they're the ones that are down in in the dirt helping these kids out and knowing them inside out. So, I appreciate the fact that you're trying to um go across the board. The school I work in, there's
23 classrooms. All of them are either subsearate or integrated except for one, and that's a kindergarten. So, in our building alone, we have 56 instructional assistants, and there's four different types of of us there. So, uh, I kudos to being able to push that out and let
people know what they're getting into when they're coming in because you're going to lose the people who are passionate about one population or the other. And if we don't bolster that, then that's where we could lose out. So, thank you for that. >> Thank you. >> Thank you very much.
All right. Uh, we're going to shift gears to technology. Um, Mr. Jim Sullivan, our director of technology. Would you like me to sit on the other side with you so you're not alone? Good evening everybody. You're almost there. Got me, David. We're going to
wrap up soon. My name is Jim Sullivan. I'm the director of technology. Thank you for having me. Um the goal of the technology team as it's always been is to support teaching and learning uh you know here in the school district support all of our students and our teachers. Uh we're very fortunate to have an awesome
technology team to support our needs. And uh you know one of the things I think you'll notice in the presentation today is um you know a lot of the the work that we're doing is in in collaboration with our schools and with our leadership team. um you know we have a we have a great collaboration and
that's where we you know uh strategize and you know figure out you know the work that needs to be done. So as an overview um of the the presentation today um you know some of the things you'll notice in this budget presentation is uh there is you know some increase in licensing costs you
know across the district which is uh not uncommon but it you know it is uh you know we project to be a little higher this year. Uh we've I've been here uh before this year. We've also talked about uh the onetoone program with our devices K through 12 and that is um has been a priority that we're looking at
this year and um you know we are still working on you know finalizing what our plan is going to be moving forward but we uh we know that you know there will be you know changes you know that will come um you know to that program. And uh as part of that, we're also accounting for some of the subscriptions or some of
the services that we're using uh districtwide that were grandfunded, bringing them into the operating budget. Uh and also the um you know, capital equipment upgrades, you know, some of the physical upgrades that we're doing. Um those requests are actually outside of the school operating budget. They're handled through the um the town meeting
warrant uh process, but I'll talk to a little bit about, you know, what our goals are with that as well. So some of the successes over the last year that we've been working on um you know a couple of which being you know we're working with the HR department to streamline uh the onboarding process for staff and also uh you know the
automation of creating staff and student accounts which the those two things they may not sound like um you know a big thing but it becomes a big deal particularly during the school year when staff are being hired new students are coming into the district and the goal is to you know get everybody up and running
as as quickly as we can. So, we've been able to, you know, work with teams to come up with, you know, better ways that we can get um, you know, student, you know, get accounts created so the staff can get um, you know, into the classroom to get started, make sure they have their devices and the same with with students because, you know, having accounts and having access to, uh, the
digital resources is a big part of the classroom. Uh, one of the the other uh, big projects this year in collaboration with the town uh, which we started talking about actually at the last uh, you know, budget meeting last year is the consolidation of phone systems. So, um, historically there's been two big phone systems, you know, one on the
school side, one on the town side. And as part of our project this year, uh, we actually, you know, we collaborated with the town. We've consolidated those phone systems together. So, uh, you know, we're going to be realizing cost savings for that in the future. Um, but also, you know, some some much more efficiencies around, you know,
supporting it. It's now a cloud-based, um, system, uh, which will give us, you know, some better resources and upgrades in the future. We've also been working uh to upgrade the wireless infrastructure, you know, across our uh district. So, that's been happening over the last few years. We've um now
completed upgrading the wireless at all five of our elementary schools. This year, we're going to be um upgrading the wireless here at the middle school and hopefully next year uh for the high, you know, starting at the high school. Um that funding actually for those projects is uh funded through -ate through our
federal allocations as well as um you know the uh the town uh the town technology budget also supports that because it's infrastructure which is great. We're grateful for their support. Uh the informcast emergency alert system officially went live this year at all seven schools. So we have that as a as a
tool available in the event of an emergency. So that with you know simply put with a push of a button we do have the ability to you know let everybody know at that school if there is an emergency we also use that during the safety drills and as part of that uh we've also been able to tie that directly in with the police department
and public safety officials as well. So when that notification happens or when um you know alert is sent uh that's automatically um shows up on the computer screens at the in the communication center at the police department to let them know. It also lets the key uh public safety officials
on the police and fire department know uh that there's you know there's an emergency and how to respond. So um that that's been a big thing and we've been very successful with that. Uh we've also um in the district consolidated some of our communication systems. We used to have mult multiple systems, you know,
one for school and districtwide notifications and the other for classroom notifications. So we've actually consolidated all of that into one system this year. And uh the benefits of that system is that we do have the ability uh or it's integrated with powers school so that uh it gets
all the student information updated in real time. Uh gives teachers the ability to reach out to their classes and it also translates into the preferred home language as well. So um and and not only that actually the other benefit is that it also um allows them to receive it in
the method that they want whether it's an email, text message, phone call, uh WhatsApp all the above which is great. So that's been a um wellreceived. So some of the priorities in the technology team uh as I started to talk about is the we've been looking at the
sustainability of the onetoone program. Uh right now as I've mentioned before um you know the the model is the same whether you're a you know kindergarten student or grade 12. Uh which you know I think uh we've had a lot of different conversations with school leadership
with teachers. Uh we've had some surveys out and we've been um trying to make sure that we um you know dedicate a good amount of time to uh really hearing you know how the devices are used in the classrooms, what the needs are and make sure that you know if if and whatever we
decide that we're going to change that um it accommodates what we need you know to support our teachers and our students in the classrooms. So um I think one of the things that we're pretty confident about is that the model um you know it it will look it will potentially you know it will likely look different at
each level. So you know the the elementary you know setup of the onetoone program will be different than the middle or the high school. And I think you know we're going to really work to you know with the leadership team with the teachers to make sure that we we fit the need. Uh we're continuing to upgrade our classroom technology AC
across the district. So, um, you know, we're retiring the old projectors, smartboards, document cameras, things like that. We've been replacing those over the last few years with the clear touch interactive displays and providing teachers with laptops and retiring the old desktops in the classroom. So, we're
continuing to work on that, make sure that our teachers and students have state-of-the-art equipment in their classrooms. We're continuing to look at different processes uh throughout the district. you know, for example, like we were we've been working with HR as well to try to find ways to, you know, find efficiencies and streamline um
processes. Also, um the you know, the school registration has gone on online recently uh over the past couple years and we're working on tweaking that making sure that's a good process. And it's, you know, it's very important too that um by bringing these digitizing some of these processes, we're also
making them more accessible, which uh is, you know, valuable to the community. and also uh AI integration and there there's no secret that uh AI is out there and it's a thing. Uh but you know we're looking at this uh you we're trying to look at this districtwide to see you know what we need to put in
place as a district to make sure that we're using AI responsibly and making sure we're using it effectively. I think um there's there's a lot to it and we have uh we do have teachers out there that are you doing great things with it. So I think it's great that uh we have that but we want to continue to build on
that and provide a district model uh you know which includes professional development that you know for the teachers which will then um you come down to the students so that we can we can use it effectively in our classrooms. So uh some of the requests in the budget today as as I was sort of hinting
towards uh so we have some increase in subscription costs um you know we're estimating is we're we've been talking to some of our vendors that you know you know typically that's between you know three and 5% we're looking probably closer about 7 to 10% with some of our increases this year. Um smart pass which
is the e-haul pass system that we've used at the middle and high school now for a while. Um that's been grant funded previously. We want to bring that into the budget. Uh that's been a huge help um you know in tracking students, keeping them in the classroom and understanding um you know where students are and also giving some transparency
back to the families as well. uh the Appleare support coverage. That's um more of a back of the house request, but that's um that's the support actually that helps us our team or my team work with um Apple engineers, you know, on more of an enterprise level to
make sure that uh we have the engineering services available to help implement um technology across the district. And one of the uh the big savings coming this year is because we've now consolidated phone systems with the town, we no longer need our old phone licensing costs, which will help
offset some of those license and software increases as well. The other thing um on that's uh we're to talk about here is uh as we're looking at the onetoone program districtwide, uh the the actual lease payments for the Chromebooks that are currently at the
middle school, uh that lease has come to an end. So we you know, we've paid those off. So we're look the hope is that we'll use that money to support our initiatives moving forward with the onetoone program and be able to um you know to support whatever the decisions are whatever the needs are in the
classroom. So uh these this is the list of the capital requests uh which is you know mostly uh classroom upgrades you know for physical equipment. So the way that this works, this is outside of the school operating budget and uh the way
the way that we fund this is actually in collaboration with the town IT department and also the uh the town library division. So between the three of us, we actually put together one technology capital request every year. And so that uh funding we work with um
we work with town it very closely. They're a great partner for us. Um the town helps us where you know support the infrastructure of um all of the the networks across our buildings. So our buildings are tied in with the the fiber that goes through the town and all the
town buildings as well. So they're a great resource to help support us and we've uh all together work to put a request together each year for the technology. So, as part of that classroom upgrades, you know, as we've been working on over the past few years,
um we've now over the past few years uh upgraded all of the classrooms, grades K through five. So, we're looking at, you know, at the elementary level to continue to uh the upgrade process with some of the other classrooms of the specialist rooms. Uh we're going to continue, you know, um to retire some of
the old smartboards and projectors that are here at the middle school as well as looking at um you know, some storage for devices as well, whether you know, for Chromebooks or whatever. We found um that, you know, we've had this year Chromebooks uh in carts at the sixth
grade level. And one of the things that we have found with that that's positive is uh that we're finding devices are charged much more often and then they're available. They're not being forgotten at home, which is which is a benefit. Um, and also, you know, as part of those classroom upgrades, the teacher laptops as well. And the same thing with the
high school, you know, we're continuing to upgrade the technology in the classrooms there with, you know, retiring some of the smartboards, putting the clear touch interactive displays in as well. And the other piece here, um, is updated the the PA systems that are in our schools. So, uh, we're
not doing a full replacement, but it's really, um, when we had our old phone system, which was here, you know, on premises, all of our PA systems tied in, you know, here in the building. So, we've had to change some of the technology on how that works in the back end, but now that we have a new
cloud-based voting system. So, uh, as we get into the summer, just some of the, uh, project work will be around those those efficiencies as well. And that's the update. Are there any questions? >> Just one for you. Um, have we ever
looked at I remember my son had to get a graphing calculator. We had to pay out of pocket for it. Um, I think it was ninth grade. I forget what it was. Have we ever looked at doing anything uh like that for similar to what we do with Chromebooks for like graphing calculators? >> So, we have been looking at that as
potentially one of the options. So there a lot of um the onetoone programs that are happening in the area or even you know across the state uh they have different models whether they're school provided devices whether they're you know a um a bring your own type model or
even a lease own which sometimes it's so it's a new device you could you know in in the case of like high school you know you could pay that u pay for that device over the four years and then choose to buy it out and take it with you. There is one of the uh benefits of that model is that when you graduate you have a
device you're taking with you and it's a device that you're comfortable with. Um but yes that that is one of the things that we are talking about is you know option. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. Um just to touch on that, um if a family
chooses to buy their own, would the district uh provide the uh softwares that would be used in the classroom or is that something that would be an additional cost to the families? >> That's a good question. I I think we would um you know the fortunately we are a a Google district so most of the
resources that we have you go through Google Workspace. So uh we'd be able to access that really on any device. Um, so I think we'd be able to continue to provide those. Uh, there's nothing coming off the top of my head that I'm thinking would be an extra software that >> like Schooly or any of those types of
things. >> No. So, for the most part in this district, we're using Google Classroom as well. >> Yeah. I was just thinking outside of >> I don't know exactly what's used at each level and knowing it'll be different elementary through. I just didn't know if that was a >> uh because I know another district I had worked in they you when you if you
bought your own you could either buy your own without >> or buy your own and the school would pump in whatever was being so if it's all Google it's easy enough I guess. >> Yeah I I think the majority of what we're using right now is Google you know we do have some of the the curriculum softwares as well but those are all you know really they sort of link in from
the web. My only uh it's it's really more of a comment when I look at the technology piece budgetary or otherwise I'm I'm really looking at you know number one are we giving students the opportunity to experience technologies that they're
going to need going forward and that enhances their education. And um the second piece, are we thinking ahead ourselves? Are we making the right plans for what's coming in terms of what we need? Not just this year, but like
what's the long-term plan? And when I listen to you talk about the technology piece here, I I feel comfortable that you're sort of on top of that looking at it. And uh that gives me a feeling of confidence in in what we're doing from
the standpoint of technology. So I have no real questions. Just appreciate what you're doing. >> I appreciate that. Thank you. And one thing actually that I just made me think of too in terms of the one to one program, one of the things I should have mentioned actually is uh one of the things that inspired this but actually
we're continuing to to work on with this is how we can align whatever our devices or our processes for onetoone how we can align that to the portrait of a graduate as well. So we know that different devices have different technologies available to them. So um that that is something as well. Thank you.
>> Thanks. >> I don't know if this I mean obviously you could probably speak this but maybe a question for you in regards to uh technology like AI and such website design what role does that play in our
curriculum with I mean we want our students to use AI and in the internet in a ethical way but it's here it's going to be used um you said some teachers have Are we are we are we offering classes in the use of AI or is
it being incorporated into any of our instruction for students to engage with? >> I think it's starting to be integrated. I wouldn't say it's fully integrated right now. And so that uh you know we do have um we do have some teachers who are very interested in using it the best way to do it and our curriculum team has
been great in working with those teachers to make sure that whatever is happening in the classroom with that uh is is structured and is safe. And so as part of that, you know, I think to your point like we need, you know, we as a district need to, you know, get to that next step and that's what we're starting
to look at, you know, what we can provide districtwide, you know, as resources, you know, for teachers. And I think that starts with professional development. But I think that we'll, you know, we will need, you know, probably to identify and really understand what we want our model to be because I think
how it's used, you know, it's how it's used in high school is going to be very different than at the elementary level. But I think there still needs to be a fundamental understanding, you know, at the at the elementary level, just like digital citizenship skills. You need to
be un understand and aware of what's out there, even if you're not starting to use it. Well, I I was just going to say, I mean, we do we do our students a disservice if we allow them to go into the workplace without really knowing how to use our, you know, working smarter instead of harder or our students will
go off to college and use it and get themselves in trouble. Right. So, we do have that responsibility and I'm glad I'm glad you brought that up. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you very much. And our last presentation is transportation, Mr.
David Pulsifer. He's our transportation coordinator. He's had a long day. I think he drove two routes today as well. Filling in. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Good evening. Uh David Pulseer, uh transportation coordinator for the
district. Um so, you know, transportation first and foremost in the district. We want to make sure the kids are getting to school safe and on time and and it's a you know a evolving uh system, right? Like the
cost seem to always go up um like anything else. And so really what I do every day is I'm looking, you know, how do we, you know, keep our service in the district? Um, and how do we able how are we able to, you know, bring some cost
down in order to, uh, put back into the education really at the end of the day. Um, so that's where where I'm starting first and then, you know, so I'm continuing to work on those improvements. Um we did shift um some
out of district uh into the NEC contract which we bought, you know, and we're still looking to see if how the savings are, but we haven't really seen that yet. But we're working uh I'm working closely with uh their transportation coordinator and uh Nyx to try to make
sure we're maximizing the cost share, which is where that where the real savings is. But when you're m working with multiple districts, what we find is that, you know, you only have one hour, so it really has to work to make sure the kids's not on the van for an hour
and a half. We just made a just a side thing, like we just made a change and I got a call today from a parent that said, "Hey, just want to let you know like my son was on the bus for two hours, right?" So, it was just trying to do trying to do something that didn't
work and you know, it's all set. We fixed it and back to normal. But just so you know, um the DPW did um transfer over a Ford Explorer, which I plan to use for um an
out of district run. Um you know, we're getting that outfit hopefully by the end of the school year. That's all warrant money. Um so that's no extra cost. Uh we did purchase two, um school buses this year, uh which is great. You know, you have to keep your fleet ready, you know.
Um, and we did take on uh one one more route from the contract. So, the bus contract was 10. Uh, we took one over to us. So, now it's nine and five. Um, and that that extra bus and know also
helped lower our field trip costs for, you know, school programs like we did camp Cody with um more town buses than contracted buses. So, there's savings in in the school for that. And um athletics
is is a huge thing. You know, it's you know, $450 for for a rental for an outside bus where it's you know 125 150 for a town bus. So that all goes back to the education uh for the athletics.
Um our contract is up this year. Uh we'll have a new contract. Hopefully we'll have some other other biders. But, you know, looking at the routes and looking at the student ridership, you know, there's a possibility we might be able to do, you know, eight buses instead of nine, you know. So, that's a,
you know, that's another savings of, you know, 75,000 per per bus if that's possible. And, um, bus fees, uh, have not changed since 2012. Um, which is, you know, I guess good or bad, but, you know, the the families in
the district right now, it's a dollar a day, right? Um but those bus fees, you know, do help offset um increased costs which have, you know, gone up over the years. I think our bus contract over the last three years has gone up like 8%
maybe Pam can just correct me on that like each year. But that's 8% each year. So that's 24% right basically. And we haven't changed our price prices. So and maybe you know so that's just what we're looking at.
Um, so successes, uh, a big one is, uh, you know, we had 10 school vans. Um, and we were only using four, so we added two more and a couple went out of, you know, got got taken out of service. But we're
running two extra vans, so we're up to six. And, uh, I mentioned last year that when I was looking at our in district transportation, we were paying double. Um, basically we're paying like $700 a day because we were bidding out kids for
lower elementary and upper elementary and I've consolidated that with another company and you know where we were at 700,000 last year we're looking at like 400,000 this year on the ind district.
Um, so that's a success in my mind on that one. That's a big one. Um, and the other one I like is the collaboration with the Denver's YMCA. I was at kindergarten orientation last year and I stopped. They had a booth there and I stopped and I talked to I'm like, you
know, who do I talk to about, you know, having Damvers do the services. So, I met with John the director there and uh he was using a another company. it gave him a good price and that money that we're bringing in for for revenue has
allowed us to do two uh late buses um for the middle school and high school uh which both principles have said has been very successful. Um and uh the other thing was that we did take
one bus um off the contract in town and that has um again helped us with athletics. We've covered more trips um and field trips as well. Um so requests we're going to look
you know to get one more school bus. We have so we have six buses now at the lot. the our spare bus is on the older side and it just makes sense for us to just replace that. Our vans are in good shape. Um so we'll do the vans the next
year and then the one driver for the out of district um it's you know 45,000 sometimes 60,000 for an out of district student. Um so having us do it with our vehicle is half the price. We may we may
do more in district versus out of district. But either way, and just adding on the fact that um student services mentioned, if you keep a student in district, you're actually saving, right? Not only tuition, but the transportation services
um and our out of district transportation services still continue to rise. Uh we're still trying to figure out a best way to bring that down. answer any questions. >> I'll start. >> Yes. >> Nice job overall. Thank
>> if um is there any more competition out there now among bus companies? Uh because I know one of the issues with I think the last contract there was a contraction among possible companies who could bid. Is there any growth in that industry around here or No,
>> there there are uh a couple other companies around um one has contacted and might and might put a bit in. >> Other than that, as Mike said, you know, it's a it's a challenge. Um you seem to be approaching it as creatively as you
can and um just keep at it. I think we're in a better place now that we have your position in you than we were, you know, a year or a year and a half ago at this time. So, thanks, Dan. >> I just have to echo. I mean, great job.
This is one of I think Dan, it was one of your first asks. I remember you, you know, noodling the idea and and I remember being in the room with Pam and it was like, well, who's operating the buses now? And it was a mism you know mishmash of you know aids in the office
scrambling trying to figure out what's going on and you know Dan you promised you know costneutral and it's like cost positive so hey we support you keep doing what you're doing and we really appreciate you so thank you >> thank you guys
>> and I'd like to add to on our end you know whenever there are specific needs with routes that David works well with the principles and the athletic director to make sure the needs are had or you know the smallest need is is a big need right so if you have a field trip or whatever it might be uh but it's been
huge on the athletic transportation as well so um it's done a great job >> just one question would Essex Tech fix our buses >> we actually have a outstanding collaboration with the DPW and and uh David's done a nice job that's a hidden
piece as well because in the past if we've if we have a bus out we have to lease a So he's been on working with them closely for the schedule. So >> yeah, I do I do uh communicate with the DPW garage staff uh daily uh as well as
the other half of my position is the operations coordinator with the the DPW and LEAF. So I meet with him and the and the custodians and help address the uh issues with the principles if they have things within their school.
Uh, I just want to say thank you for um everything that you do for our students, but also our students do have summer activities and I appreciate all your help getting my park program to and from field trips all summer. So, I'm sure the students like that part as well. So, thank you.
>> Hopefully, we'll have town buses this this summer, right? Instead of the outside, they do like to go away. The bus drivers general do like to go away for the summer, right? So, I was just gonna wrap up. >> Thank you, David. Um, just looking at the next steps to
get to the bottom line. Obviously, we've presented a lot tonight. Um, and we, as we said, you know, it's a funnel, right? We we opened up here the priorities and where do we wind up by the 23rd when the school committee will vote in the hearing, you know, what they'll send forward to the select board. So, that's
going to look different than it does today. But it's important that we put that out because when you look at the level funded budget, we talk about personnel and then a non- salary request. What's still undergoing is a review of personnel, right? And certainly at this point with retirements aren't factored in in terms of that yet.
Uh other attritions and whether we fill positions or not. So that that work is being massaged out. the non-s salary requests. Um it was pointed out that you know from a a whole piece of really designing our budget to ensure that we protect oursel
with enough of a cushion for placements when they do happen. Uh we're working on that. So that that's pushing the non-ser requests up a little bit, but we're still working on how much circuit breaker and things like that. We still have a meeting with the town to go over that. So a lot of work will take place and then also determining the
specialized programming. What what are we going to put forward for this year? you know, what are we looking to add into that piece? So, as we chip away and and bring down some of those items under the level funded, that's how you insert the specialized program pieces in there. And we try to be as creative as possible
by repurposing as much as possible. So, we still have a lot of work to do. And the bottom line is to get a recommended budget, you know, the select board by February 23rd. I always put this one on there for increases. It's just interesting to me over time, but you can see the needs and I broke it down in the
five-year increments. Um, and obviously FY27, we don't know what that bottom line's going to be yet. Um, but the needs have changed, right? And certainly, as we pointed out, there's some areas that, you know, haven't been funded as much. I will tell you that enrollment is solid, right? And I think
we've had a lot of successes and we we're we're moving forward and we've invested a lot. So, we need to see these things forward. Um and so the next step's really the subcommittee we meet Monday night and that's where we would need to get the feedback to start lining up the ninth. So by the time we get to
the ninth is really where we should start funneling down to getting you know start talking like what percentages where we're getting at. What are the things that will carry into this year where we might have to move to next year and such. So that ultimately then we can have that meeting on Monday the 9th for school committee then come back to
budget subcommittee nail down even further then bring forward the budget book that Pam will create then have the hearing on the 23rd and that's when we create the bottom line and then we go to the select board and thin comment and town meeting. So we still have a lot of work to do. Um and it feels like it's a
tight line because the select board is March 7th that's a Saturday morning that's that uh hopefully will be on at 9:00 in the morning. So, we have a lot of work to do on our end and and Pam, a lot of kudos to her and she's been doing all of her pivot tables and she's already moved up, you know, in terms of
the the lanes and the columns. So, um but anyway, that's the steps we're at. So, that is the end um of the slides. >> Thank you for that, >> Mr. Lo. Um no, thank you for the entire presentation. I'm just wondering out of
curiosity if there's a ballpark figure based on everything that was shared today. I was hoping to see a roll up at the end, but um maybe not. I mean, the ballpark figure in terms of,
you know, right now if you look at where our our just moving the staffing forward, you know, is right now it's at 4%. That'll that'll go down because we still have work to do. When you look at the non- salary, that's close to three and a half, four%. So that's quite a large right there. But those things get whittleled down over time. And then
certainly when you have the um the specialized programming asks, you know, that's 3 to 4%. So when you put that all together, we know that that's not going to be the finish line, >> right? So roughly you're saying it's, >> you know, it's three, four, seven. So everything in would be a 10% ask from the town.
>> Okay. >> With that, uh, thank you all for your work and your input tonight. We appreciate it. Um, as Dan said, next meeting is February 9th, and I would entertain a motion to adjurnn if you would be so inclined.
>> Motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. Made seconded. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Thank you very much. Good night, Davis.