e e e e e e e and a lot of young folks are in the crowd I just want to say in advance that um once we get through the ceremonial
portion where we acknowledge a lot of the achievement of some of our students um parents and students are free to go um after that happens or you're welcome to stay um until after um so um I'd like to open this meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance flaged
States indivisible jice all right the Danver Public Schools is a dynamic community of independent Learners dedicated to respect responsibility creativity and the pursuit of academic and personal
Excellence this meeting is being broadcast on Damas Community Access television um is anyone in the audience recording these proceedings okay um right like to begin with items of interest uh we'll start of is there anything from the uh school
committee okay any items of interest from the community hearing none okay um superintendent Mr Bower yes uh before we begin uh next month we'll have Deca come and they had an outstanding showing
again at the uh state competition you know we have over 200 students involved in Deca which is our um our entrepreneurial program and they they did a great job so we'll have them come to the April meeting so just want to give a hats off to Deca and all the students and the
advisers ready for our opening which we always begin with our student representatives for the student representative report Olia and Julia take it away thank you um so this month or over the last month we are going to recognize the high
school's accomplishments of some of the things that happened um we don't have any updates from the elementary schools today um but like you mentioned um dver BEC competed in the state competition at the end of um February we had about 131 competitors and again our program has
about over 200 um some of the results that came out of that is we had 51 finalists 36 ICDC qualifiers and then six students earned leadership spots um to advance to the ICDC competition um so this past weekend our
Color Guard winter Color Guard performed at the Spartan's winter Invitational um there's only two more opportunities uh to see their winter performance so March 22nd um at New Bedford and then March 29th at the nesba
finals um jumping off to that our theater Department competed in the annual drama fest they had a show called submerged about a submarine I'm pretty sure um hope panag gulus received a judges award um for her performance and
oscara also received a judges award for his set design um next we want to talk a little bit about the Falcon 50 challenge so the Falcon 50 challenge that we have at our school is a year-long initiative designed to promote kindness Community engagement and personal growth so every
single day um there is a new challenge that is set over the announcements in the morning so it encourages students to come in and you know throughout that day try to do that challenge um the challenge is going to close next month whoever on the community Block in
the school that has the most Falcon 50s that were logged will get a um pizza party um and then the Falcon Ventures range from personal development to acts of kindness so there's 50 different there's like, 50 um different challenges
on there that students can complete and they range from all different things so it's not just about um kindness they're it's they're all just kind of spread out um and finally this is happening right now I don't know the exact numbers I'm assuming there's around 50 of them um
students that are currently in New York City on like this art field trip um I know yesterday they got to see The Outsiders on Broadway um which one best musical it's awesome show um and they also visited the Museum of modom Art um today um I know they've been at the Met
and all around like the Rockefeller Center um area all that so this is a great opportunity um for the people involved in art and theater um also anyone that hasn't been able to visit New York City yet cuz it's an awesome experience um yeah that's all we have for this month thank you thank
you right any questions or comments from the committee thank you again Julia and Olivia all right I think the moment we're all waiting for the DPW Electric division calendar presentation come on up please we have um some great
participants and I can't wait to get my calendar the students who are here for the awards if you want to come up front don't be shy come on don't be shy uh good evening everyone U my name is Erica bisanti and I am the recycling and energy conservation coordinator for the
uh Danvers Department of Public Works and I'd like to thank our school committee for allowing um me to present our 2025 DPW student calendar contest winners uh this year's calendar recognizes the creative talents of our sixth grade art students at the Holton
Richmond Middle School in Miss Bond's class whose illustrations help demonstrate this year's topic of storm water pollution prevention our winners along with their fellow peers were preent presented the importance of storm water pollution prevention and how it is
supported here in the town of danverse uh topics included discussions around the fundamentals of pollution prevention simple ways to reduce pollution at home and how important it is for our Danvers residents to help keep contaminants out of our storm
drains after this discussion students were encouraged to educate Danver residents about what they had learned with topics ranging from yard waste cleanup reducing litter keeping harmful substances out of our waterways and protecting our local environment our
winners did an amazing job uh creating illustrations that will educate our residents all year long their hard work has helped make a difference by teaching our community to help protect our environment and encouraging our residents to do their part to practice sustainable habits and a big
congratulations goes out to all of our participants and our contest winners so at this time I'm going to invite Miss Bond up um to announce our winners and I'll hand out the certificate so once you hear your name you can come over and grab your certificate and don't go away we'll have
a photo opportunity uh this evening we're just going to announce the award winners that were able to come but we have already announced at school and online all the uh 12 winners uh here with us tonight Gabriella Coto
Haley [Applause] Cummings Matthew D'Angelo [Applause]
Ali de [Applause] anonio Willow Douglas [Applause] Anessa
[Applause] Lee Nathan [Applause] Martins and our other winners who weren't able to be present tonight are Julia
besi scar kth kby mlin Eliana and Grace [Applause] white we'll get a photo of school come
up parents please parents if you want to get a quick photo then we'll get everybody in Smiles how this works make it work e e all right I'd like to call our athletic director Drew Betts to come forward we
have more recognition for our winter sport athletes we have two state champions amongst us that better all right all right good evening everybody uh I want to just first thank the school committee Mr Bower and Miss wormers for inviting us here today um we obviously have two
student athletes that have had some incredible accomplishments sort of throughout this whole year um but we're really highlighted at the back end of this winter um we don't have some great certificates to pass off to them but we will give them a little bit of Swag um to show a little bit of appreciation for
all of their hard work um so the first individual is is someone that feels like he's here um more than I am for different recognition but is our senior will Concklin um so will was the division four state champion in the two mile um and that's just one of his many
accomplishments sort of throughout his high school career as he gets ready to head into his last um season this spring but will was earned um the NC cross country Runner of the year he was the D4 Runner of the meet in the indoor state meet he's a 2023 D2 state champion for
the cross country team he was elected as a Boston Globe and Herold all Scholastic and as he's continued to have sort of success this year he was selected as a moan Lumber athlete of the month for November the Mia student athlete of the month for December the Salem News cross country Runner of the Year all while
also being a high honor roll student um so before we kind of give a round of applause and recognition for will um I just want to say it's been a pleasure to sort of watch him work over these past two years because as he kind of walks around the building you would really have no idea just based off of how humble and sort of kind he is
um that he has so had so much athletic success so well [Applause] congratulations and I would say well don't go too far because I'm sure they're going to want your picture as
well um the next individual um we're going to recognize is Kaye Wescott so being um just my second year here I'll say I was very new to gymnastics um but over the past two years seeing Kaye and the rest of the team compete has been incredible so I think what's what was
something that was very new to me is in gymnastics it feels like there's so much pressure you are the lone you know person competing and everybody is essentially watching you in the way that Kaye carries herself into every single meet into every single competition is just incredible she's a model of
consistency and I think this year really seeing the opportunity to see her at tberry high school um in the individual performance and then again um two weekends ago at Al gunin at the state championship performance she has just been so consistent in everything that she does that is just it's it's really a
pleasure to watch and I look forward to seeing you know those continued success over the next two years so I just want to say thank you for allowing us the opportunity to watch you and congratulations as you guys can see here so she earned a state championship in the allaround The Vault the beam and the
floor um and you know still will have finished third in the bars so it was really really impressive and is also helped um lead the team to a second place finish when she was in eighth grade a third place finish as a freshman and a fourth place finish this past year so Kaylee
[Applause] congratulations just as a quick thank you I also want to say thank you guys for always allowing us to sort of recognize these student athletes for all their hard work Mr beds are we doing pictures I think yeah I think we need do some
pictures I so all right so we can get Kaye and will right back up here please oh e guys nice to see you I know Will has his crew out to uh cheer along as well as kayle's family just want to say um it's been a pleasure
watching our winter sports as much as possible I didn't get to gymnastics but I've followed uh just a great great year looking for great things continuing your career in their cross country teams um just really sportsmanship comaraderie effort in both sports individualized but
they're really strong bringing their teams together so very proud of both programs congratulations [Applause] and I I just think it's it's important to note that you know not only do we
have outstanding Athletics but we have a lot of great programs at our school the DECA uh performing arts and we'll have more recognition but so many great things were happen in our elementary and middle schools as well so it's hard to try to bring up as many as possible but um this just a great opportunity so
right now I'm going to turn this over to Mary um at our upcoming subcommittee meeting we'll discuss our midy accomplishments but just wanted to give a brief overview tonight of the format of what that will be uh and then after the subcommittee and April will bring forward the results of that subcommittee
to year again with the committee okay take it away Mary great so I thought I would share um our midyear accomplishments um halfway through the year you kind of look back at your improvement plans that you set up in August and so we're looking back on that I thought share a few some of the really
speaking very broadly about some of the uh things we've accomplished this year so far or working on as we move forward so you remember from our strategic plan and our our Improvement plans we have three goals across the year that we work on you know improving student achievement um cultivating safe and
supportive learning environments and cultivating also a sense of B learning so um for student achievement we have um we've been working on as we say all the time the mtss for uh academics which here it's focused on Ela and math and um we really are working on strengthening
it k five and um building it at um sixth grade in the Wind Block so that's been a big a new structure for Hope en Richmond and then we working hard on it this year um and then we're also working on like supporting the academic academics in grades 7 through
12 through structures that exist already so the long Block in grade seven and eight and the community Block in grade uh 9 through 12 um additionally this year we've done we always do teacher study groups but um our our focus on those study groups this year has been to really strengthen our tier one
instruction um it's a district goal and so um the elementary team put together strengthening our Universal instruction uh study group is really continuing our uh exploration of the science of learning and implementing our uh phonics and our uh comprehension programs we had
um participants though from Ela in the middle school and at the high school level so it's been really great to have like talking about reading K K12 that was true we have applied learning study groups both um P richond just starting theirs and then we have one at high school that's continuing now we're on
the applying that and really um making sure that we have a pilot group ready to go on the applied learning um middle school science has a curriculum review and the uh Arts teachers K to 12 uh all working together on a arts and cult cultural Vitality um alignment and
that's uh through the desie Grant from desie so it's been really cool to have not just the Performing Arts teachers together but also the uh Visual Arts teachers working on that group we've adopted new curriculum it's listed there this year and lots of support um from the curriculum directors on uh helping
teachers um Implement that and then also the providing professional development and then uh finally as administrative team we've been working on learning walks so we've been focused um on uh understanding instructional expectations really around like um having clear
expectations for students communicating them to students and um assessing their um understanding of those learning expectations um if you move over to the safe and supportive uh learning environments um we were working very hard as we talk about a lot in these meetings is establishing mtss or
multi-tier system of supports for social emotional learning behavior and mental health in our schools and so we working hard on uh setting a strong tier one um curriculum but then foral and now behavioral expectations so we really
worked hard on setting expected behavior for students across the to school in all different settings we are collecting data um around Behavior referrals we're analyzing that data and we're using that to um to assess the impact those um expected behaviors are have um
expectations are having on students and finally Dan's convened several uh safety committee meetings we have the district Safety Committee with um that has community members uh the police and fire as well as Union and uh DPW um sitting at the table along with administrators
we have a threat assessment team and um the DPS Wellness committee then finally sense of belonging we have uh sense of belonging teams at each of the elementary schools they are working to develop the um mtss foral and Behavior at their schools and
they're doing um really Yan's work this year and um on really getting those structures up and running um we really worked on theal uh tier one curriculum uh there's a study group here at the middle school that is um working on defining that uh you know strengthening the lessons and uh finding new lessons
for them to use um but what's been great is that we've worked uh K to 12 to review um a progam um lesson resources um from a program called wayfinder and we finally um have a u purchased that resource base so that we'll have alignment K to 12 in oural
programming and uh we screened uhal for each students um k through eight um the Middle School 628 has been doing it um for a few years now but then the elementary level K to 5 we were able to do this fall and we'll go on screen again in the spring just like the middle
school does and then finally we have a um a team it's called culturally responses responsive practices Leadership Academy we went through a three-year program with desie and we um are we're done that three years but now we're carrying on that work and we're
really working on integrating sense of belonging and inclusive Concepts into our district work so we've met a few times this year and then finally uh our meeting on March uh 24th we will report to you mid your data um that we recently done at the end of January beginning of
February and that data will be presented for uh Elementary Ela um at H Richmond they'll present the math their I read I ready math data and then at the high school they start a new program ISL so they have EXL Ela data and uh they also
going to come to us with some trends that they found out of there we had midterms in January and like the Departments have sat down and that data and have some friends to share with you well thank you Mary um any questions mik so this is like a teaser yeah this is the teaser for coming attractions
okay but I felt like I wanted to share too like the work that we are doing in the district so you can see kind of the comprehensive look of oh you pulled me in I'm I'm good I'll be there anybody else Mike Eric no just
looking forward to the uh full presentation same here thank you Mary okay we will bring all that information back to the committee in April as well just an overview of that subcommittee meeting so I just wanted to provide an
update of of my goals um we're beyond the midpoint of the year but um you know when it comes into May I'll be able to present the goals in terms of where they are with evidence uh provided so I just did a quick run through in terms of each
call I'm not going to read through each uh strand but the first piece is improving student achievement across the district so all the key action items the four biggies are all in progress uh and a lot of this will come out with results in the uh accomplish meeting mid year
accomplishment meeting in in March um so I can report that everything is moving along as well the big piece here the learning walks that have been implemented are outstanding it's been great to to collaborate bring all of our administrators into the building um it's been well received by our staff it's an
opportunity to really get in and see the student learning and we're looking to to make more moves next year and possibly involve teachers which I think is a very important piece so we have a big meeting April 29th to to solidify plans for next year so I I think we're in a good place here in terms of the curriculum being
implemented and again looking forward to seeing the data that'll be presented in the May 24th subcommittee meeting secondly the alignment of District practices and one of the things just through last year's um you know entry into the district just seeing that a lot
of protocols um need to be improved updated so that's big piece of this goal and working with our central office team as well as the other administrators to um just really fine-tune hone in and if their absence of protocols make sure they're there uh very basic things but
very important so that we can be more efficient as a central office to best serve the needs of our schools um um and once we complete this year and update our protocols then we are aligning with our employee handbook which needs to be updated I don't think it's been updated
since 2014 but we are getting there on that um so that's all in place and I just gave a small grid this is just a small grid because we have a a working sheet where you can see the the breakdown um this doesn't have technology on there doesn't have transportation doesn't have the
curriculum piece but as we go through this the list is a lot bigger but I just wanted to show give a small thumbnail sample of the work that we are doing um that I think will improve our services as a district and lastly is development of a strategic plan and that work has been going very well we've established
our steering committee and really have our vision statement is I would say 95% done and um Mary's fine-tuned and it says 90% but it's actually more than that ultimately we're looking to create the vision portrait vision of a graduate
back in align with K12 um and that's going to be very very important for our work to tie together a strategic plan so that work has really been I think very impressive and and very proud of this work so far um the next slide is just where we have the final vision statement
is just about done um and then the competencies our graduates will be able to the six pieces and I'll present this in more detail as we go along but um this is feedback from various stakeholders right we have the faculty we have students that have provided the community school committee right we had
select board we we had large groups come in uh this has been refined several times so and we've shared this at the superintendent advisory Council meetings um and had a really good meeting last uh last month to really pone in we're just about there then we're getting ready
once we do one more past through we'll share with the community so I think we're in a good place and that is an update on the goals we kept it simple but I think um that is key because there's a lot of work that's being done and we'll continue to do so you have any questions or anything regarding the hes
yeah no question but I really really like the way this vision statement is coming together because that's really the foundation of what you build everything on and I think it's uh well thought out and and relevant to uh what we want from our students and future
citizens it's um really nice work and looking forward to of course the full and final presentation anyone else um I I agree with you uh just said for the simple reason I uh probably mistakenly attended a lot of these
meetings and U but it was it was still good to be in the room because as Dan just said there was there was so much just meaningful and authentic sharing that came from all these groups to help uh really inform this this uh this goal and the
other thing I do want to say is uh to just circle back to your uh your learning walks um I want to thank you again it was it was impressive to to go on that with you with this short for a short amount of time but to see the granddaughter of my high school English
teacher teaching at danas High School uh was uh was incredibly meaningful I like to I I liked him very much he was a great man and uh it's just nice to see his his granddaughter being a member of our staff so thank you all right thank you Mr Bower you're
very welcome and next up is a special education update we've provided updates throughout the year uh tonight we have our three assistant directors we have Mara Dela Cruz who our secondary assistant director we have Derek Mion
who's our elementary assistant director then we have Angelique the Lost uh who is our out of district coordinator so they're here to present um just giving updates in terms of where we are and the progress that they've been making
great thank you so tonight we'll provide some key updates on four areas specifically looking at professional development special education programs and Continuum of services too far away yeah there we go students with disabilities profile and short and
long-term planning slide perfect so specifically with the professional development piece here we're we're looking at some professional development that was recently provided by constellations Behavioral Services so as you know we worked with constellations this year I'm
sorry I got to ask you to lean into that mic sorry about that yeah all right so is that better yeah so professional development by constellations Behavioral Services as you know they completed a separate audit for us this past spring
or this sorry this past winter and based on the information that was provided from that audit developed specific training goals for us and so here you'll see a summary of training that we have planned for March through June of this year and so down the bottom there where
it says content it has an overview of what is being targeted in each training after school these trainings are specifically for IAS instructional assistants that work within the programs and this is meant to be a sequential training so it it builds on each month
and and you know something that's learned in March is built upon in the following month so on and so forth and our plan is to continue with this for the remainer of this school year on the half days that we have and then we're currently working on building out a plan for the next school year so that we have
all of that mapped out and ready to go for these programs as we head into the new year another recommendation that came out of the audit was um centered around creating programs for students with
language based learning disabilities in order to do that we needed to redefine who we were what we were doing and also vertically align it so we've been looking at K through 8 um and in February of 2025 we met with Landmark Outreach and our consultants and we
looked at grades three to eight and create that alignment so at this point we are going to revise our Master schedules for both Elementary and Middle School to ensure that all of our Learners have that the right service um in place um and we are
going to be able to um identify in schedule trainings for those individuals that will be supporting our language Bas programs okay so in uh planning for special education services across the
district um we wanted to look at the um the impact of lack of literacy instruction during the pandemic in which students are progressing through the grades while still struggling with literacy skills needed for more complex text um so we conducted an analysis of
which specialized reading instruction methodologies individual staff members have received training in we did that in January and this analysis showed that we still need to provide more reading training for our special Educators um we found that there's teachers that are
trained in a variety of methodologies um and specialized programs but we need more Educators trained across the district uh in order to increase our capacity to deliver the instruction um so that it can be delivered with Fidelity and consistency across across
the schools um then we also applied for and received a federal targeted special education program Improvement Grant and we're using this money to consult with crafting mines to provide training to our special Educators in grades K to six with a framework for assessing
interpreting planning and delivering instruction for students with specific reading disabilities and or related s I'm sorry related needs and this will begin during the optional PD days in June 2025 and August 20 25 um the next
steps will be to schedule school-based consultations with crafting mines for the 25 26 school year um and by doing this it will ensure that crafting mines will work with teachers groups of teachers as they implement the skills that they learned during the optional
pte days um to make sure that the instruction is being delivered with consistency across the district and then for our short and long-term planning the recommendation was that the new special education leadership team should begin an in-depth
analysis of special services programs and demographic demographic Trends and so we started by utilizing medic funds claimed against student services to the district as a funding source um in order to do that we met with New England
medical billing representative uh the director of Technology the director of student services and student services administrative assistance to identify claiming obstacles uh within Power School System uh and then we met with nurses and the
New England medical billing representative to discuss claiming services using the supplemental nutrition assistance program the snap program so our next steps will be for the nurses um they'll begin begin claiming Services um I'm sorry began
claiming students for Individual Services and create a claiming process within our Software System for other related service providers uh one of the things that became clear was that um our system or power school system um there's
not an ease um of claiming within that system and so we're working on on um creating directions for service providers to make it easier for them we want to create modules so that it's very explicit and clear how the service providers can um uh can put in enter
their claims into the system any questions for any of us yeah um thank you for that I I definitely have a question because well first a comment then a question I mean I again I continue to be impressed I remember you
know the challenge with getting the funding for what we wanted and then you know having Consultants come in and having our whole special education uh system being audited so again Kudos because you're you you know
there's action happening and and we're justifying what's been done um the the portion that really stuck out to me it's not only the professional development but also then the deployment of that to you know provide additional services to our students and then to really take an
assessment of of what students are still being impacted post pandemic which I think is critical I mean it's something that you know my wife and I discussed I have a daughter and son in the school so it's it's something that comes up quite a bit um my question is is specifically
in regards to this medical billing is this something that we did before or has it never happened is it something that offsets a budgetary item that we had or will this funding bring in out outside services to kind of
Remedy any challenges I'm I'm kind of I haven't heard about this so I'm curious to learn more about it that's a great question so my understanding is that it was utilized it was inconsistent I believe as far as the the usage of the system itself and so
we're really looking at trying to make it easier for everyone to be able to to claim said Services it can often be just that little decrease or you know making it a little bit easier for folks to be able to document the services they're providing can can make that much big of
you know bigger of a difference for Stu uh providers so that's our understanding I believe we sent out the consents new consents in January our administrative assistant and we have roughly around 100 consents that have come back thus far this year new consents great I'm I'm
sorry just 100 what consents sorry so we need consent in order to be yeah sorry about that I'm thinking of dollars and cents that's kind of where my head is that no it's my first time on the mar like 100 cents okay that's a dollar yeah so uh 100 new consense and so I checked
with the office today and I believe we had about 400 also in the system I'm not sure if that includes the 100 that just came in so it's certainly been done before it's just the consistency that we're looking at improving and and just a followup to that for clarification is that to bring in outside yep resources
okay in the past I mean is it a matter of if the claim isn't made an outside Source isn't brought in or is it something that the town and the and it impacted our budget that's kind of what I'm trying to understand the last question on that is what is the annual
estimate of claims I don't know if you have one yet but it's a good question I do not you have more experience so it does it's funding that is returned back to the district um it does not affect what parents do with private pay and what they do with their
own doctor so it should Revenue that comes in um it comes quarterly so we have to really start thinking about we need to meet our quota so if our folks are writing down all of their services and claiming it then we get a percentage
of that claim um so it does come in throughout the entire year different buckets and what was your question you had a specific question is there amount the amount varies it all depend it it really all depends if we meet our quota and then how many cons consents we get
our consents do not need to be um we give them out per year so we not per year so we need say Mara gets it Mar Mara's parent can give it to us once and then every year we say hey we still have permission to claim and that's okay at any point a parent can actually um
resend that so that's why it's so variable the amount of money that we get it all depends on what we claim and then parents continue to give us back something and this is why this is why it's also so critical to to make sure that there's an ease of reporting this information for the service providers
because it can be it can be very timec consuming to submit all of the you know if you have say if you're a speech pathologist and let's say you have 20 kids on your case load that are eligible for this and you have to document all those services to then take time to enter all of that information into a
system you need to make sure that's ease um there's some ease to that otherwise that's just one more thing on your list of to-dos that gets timec consuming and burdensome okay and before I give up to Mike because I know there's a couple other questions I would love to see like some
Benchmark data around what we've done historically and how this is improved with the process right yes absolutely I I think we should have and not right now but yeah when you guys come back you always come back with great info so thank you for that any other questions
yeah go um my recollection is that we um a lot of years ago and I assume it's continued were in fact um recovering money from Medicare you know anytime we could and that included services that if
we if we for example were providing occupational therapy or physical therapy with our own internal staff is if that was something that could normally be recovered from Medicare we would in fact make the claim um my recollection is
that the money that came back went right to the town budget though like in uh like into the central budget it wasn't your mark just for the schools but it offsets the budget and it's it's good to capture so I like to see us um trying to
get more formalized about that and work the system to make it a little easier for our staff to do that um the only other comment I would have is I like the alignment with the um the uh audit you know clearly we took the audit seriously
and we're taking the advice and trying to uh work through that to make the improvements we need to make so a good job on that and yeah keep us posted on how the Medicare piece goes thank you Mr anyone else well thank
you all again appreciate it anything else Mr bar before we move on to uh unfinished business uh nothing at this time just thank you to our Special Education team our student services team they've been working really hard and doing a great job but still a lot of work to
do all right Mr B with the unfinished business yes switch over so we're moving into um making the recommendation for a second reading of our competency determination policy I'll
pull this up for you it's in the folder again as a reminder that as mcast is no longer a graduation requirement we have been tasked with adopting a compeny determination policy for a local graduation requirement that applies to the class of
2025 and we made a decision as um as we discussed earlier that um just going to go back to the piece that's most important we expect that we'll receive further guidance from the state so we kept us very basic as most districts throughout the Commonwealth and that is
to create the compensating determination that is based upon the courses that traditionally would prepare for administration of that test in the sophomore year for example two lab Sciences with a passing grade uh ninth and 10th grade math courses um and nth and 10th grade ELA courses with a
passing grade and that's our standard as a passing grade again our courses are aligned to Desi standards um again this in combination with our graduation requirements that would then in turn be able to award a
diploma to um our seniors so we've set this up um to look in tears so really this year most the students have already passed the mcast so they've already met the compeny determination but we're obligated to look back to 2003 for those students who
may not have achieved uh a passing score and therefore did not receive a diploma so we've been working on that process um most students complete the mcast in our district so it's it's not a very it's not a big number at all uh but again we are keeping this very simple the fact
that we expect more guidance from the state within I know right now they're going through and talking about it um so this may change in the next year so we've approved the first reading so bringing it forward to approve for a second reading and approval of this
policy my screen here okay do I have a motion to approve I can't oh here it's gone okay uh can I have a motion to approve the yep there it is yep motion to
approve the compeny determination policy um second reading second all right any discussion okay all those in favor I I I I oppos None the motion carries okay on to new business and uh thank you monthly budget
report so I prepared for you this evening um or earlier um in this last week or so um a report of the status of the operating budget through the end of February um it continues with a lot of
the same themes that we've been talking about for the last several months we did actually see an uptick in the projection for the out of District tuitions um I think there were a couple of uh new placements in evaluation I think um that
is the result of that um out of the student services office um we also did see the um Legal Services Line run into the red for the first time this year it's not entirely atypical it can vary from one year to the next um depending
on what particular sorts of um issues they might be faced with last year I think a lot of it was driven by the fact that we were doing contract negotiations with a lot of our units and so um there was a lot of legal um involvement in that process but
um that's not going on this year this year it's it's other sorts of of things um and also the fact that I have been trying to uh anticipate what we will be spending through the end of the year rather than just waiting for it to
happen so there is a purchase order open for example that we've encumbered funds for some of the legal services um but I mean other than that it's not a dramatic change from the past it's just it's still not good news so um we are facing
a deficit that we do expect to be able to close with the resources that we have on hand um we're waiting still to get some of the like reimbursement from the state for the transportation costs that we have um been faced with this year um
they will advance the payment of that reimbursement typically it comes the following year but they're going to pay it some this year so that we can use it to offset the actual costs at the time that we're paying for Pam can I just ask one question of course we're having technical issues bringing it up can you
speak to where we are according to the budget where you think we'll land because we literally cannot see the numbers so wondering if you just you could just share some of that with us verbally um sure I mean the with the exception of of some
of the instructional assistance support that we've needed the salary piece of the budget is is on track and same with the supplies and the um other sort of licenses and things like that that are sort of typical costs that were within the
normal range where we're seeing the challenges are with out of District tuition and with out of District transportation special ed Transportation um where last month I believe the expected overage on the tuition was just under $100,000 and now we're looking at
$242,000 so we've had three or four students who have I think three who have had um out of District placements in the last six weeks or so five or six weeks and so those um additions to the projection through the end of this year
have caused that deficit to grow um is that inclusive of the transportation for the new outa District no that is just for the tuition piece so you said 100,000 to 240,000 yes okay thank you yep in terms of in terms of the death
deficit like in terms of beyond what we had budgeted to cover um and then the the transportation is in is very close to where it was um last month it's it's gone up a little bit but not to the nearly the same degree so we have a lot
of um resources the district is in a fortunate place in the sense that we have had a good process in place to carry over our circuit breaker Reserve from one year to the next and that provides us a to deal with challenges
but this is the third or fourth year in a row that the district has faced these challenges and it is not unique to Danvers it is something that almost I I can't really think of anybody I've spoken to that is not facing this sort of challenge in their District um but it
is something that we had hoped a few years ago was a blip in the you know the normal course of things because it does often um EB and flow this is now the fourth year I think that we have seen
this sort of challenge 22 23 24 25 um and and I I do think that the slope of the challenge um that we're facing has started to be less deep with the
Investments that we've put in in terms of um the programming and the staff and the oversight and the Audits and and all that kind of stuff um the transportation coordinator to kind of be looking at that on a daily weekly basis um but it's
going to take time for those Investments to really pay off and result in um the absence of these kinds of challenges so any questions or comment Mr Crane I would just say um I
think you sort of hit the nail on the head pin this is happening everywhere particularly when it comes to special education costs and um it's one of those things where from a state level and a local level um it's not very easy
because it's so unpredictable and it's the most unpredictable thing we deal with in our budget and uh as a state country we we've probably got to look at different ways to deal with the
funding for special education students and uh so yeah I recognize it's an issue you're right it's been an issue for several years but uh very hard to get a handle or anticipate in February of a given year when we're
passing our budget what is going to look like February or a year from now so um just keep doing what you can to to find savings every everywhere we can in the budget reasonably and uh you know I I
appreciate your hard work on to the cheriff so a couple of things one I'll um the link didn't line up well I I'll make sure I resend that but Pam and I have done a lot of work in terms of looking at uh where we are and it's
planning off the curve is true um you know because this is the fourth year being in a deficit this time obviously you know um two years ago 2023 there was quite a bit of money that was utilized at Esser and they took salaries off but there's still
a pretty good deficit and we're about the same as we were last year except we are less in some areas in terms of transportation and the special education services although lately we've had a few evaluations that you know we have to do and we will do um but right now as we
talked about the instructional assistance that we're we're utilizing that we brought in to help support programs in addition to what we um you know the allocation from last year that's what we're working with so a lot of things we're looking for the reimbursements as well as that 104 per
day to help offset these things um as we're looking and as the shelters Clos the shifting of needs for our our students so it's a it's a balancing act but um you know certainly this is not where we want to be in terms of the the functioning of the budget but it's
really the reality of where a lot of districts are right now unfortunately we're planning ahead so we know that we'll be able to close the books but everything has a reaction right so the legal fees on one side with with one set of attorneys going up as we're doing a
lot more training uh our special education site a lot more training a lot more work with our teams and some complex cases that require a higher level of of help um that's what we're going to do to ensure that the proper services are in place um and as we
talked about the tuition out is a little bit lower although we've had a few bumps lately but you could you could attest that you know we are better in some places but again more work to be done and I have to commend Pam for her work and keeping us informed and it's important to keep the committee informed
as well so I can also send you the analysis that we did over the last four years just to show you know it's been a pattern and I know the town has helped us with some some help along the way in past years and we're hoping to get out of that and I think it's reflective of the conservative budget we're coming in
with this year as well no thanks M thank you okay um Item B uh holon Richmond program of studies great I'd love to call up Ellen fi rilm director and she'll do the presentation of the hton Richmond program of studies proposed
revisions uh and this only requires a vote uh for for first time just a vot of approval good evening so um we're asking that you please consider the following changes and revisions to the Holton Richmond program of studies for the 2025
2026 school year so we've revised the description of the interdisciplinary team organization section of the program of studies to reflect the change that we made this year from a Content based based model of special education services to a team based model so we
just revised the language to reflect current practice there um the English language arts course descriptions have been revised um for grades 6 through eight to reflect the adoption of the fish tank curriculum program that we're piloting this year and will be fully
adopting for next year we've also revised the science course descriptions similarly for um to also reflect adoption of the opsed curriculum program that we will be implementing in 201 25
2026 um we've revised our description of project Hawk our social emotional uh learning program um or not program but our activity block during the day to reflect some changes in programming anticipated for next year as Mary
alluded to the wayfinder um program has been purchased um so removed language around um some of the other programs that we are using currently um and as as Mary talked about we've implemented the Wind Block this
year in grade six it was we anticipated Wind Block for this year so it's actually already mentioned in this year's program of studies but now that we have a little better sense of what it looks like we added more language there and a more detailed description and then finally item six we've revised course
names and descriptions for the art courses in grades 6 through 8 and then finally revise the titles for the student support services staff previous ly known as our guidance counselors um to just reflect changes throughout the district that shift from guidance
counselors to counseling staff any question any questions okay um can I get a motion I'd like to make a motion uh that we accept the changes and updates to the hrms program of studies
for the 25 26 school year I'll second that all right any discussion all those in favor I hi I opposed none motion carries thank you thank you okay dcat just one thing
if you could just check to make sure the rejection for audience at home is flush with the slides just had some feedback that that might not be the case oh I know you're not Decat I just keep looking back there okay okay PRK tuition presentation
and recommendation okay um so last year we presented um our recommend for a tuition increase and that was based on the audit findings of our prek programming and last year we took a conservative
approach and and looked at one layer of an increase and then coming back in the second year so this is year two um with the recommendation so um again our our program is outstanding we have certified teachers facilities support staff we
have outstanding um School support with OT pts slps bcbas all these initials which are uh great resources for all of our students in the school psychologist that is available um and when we look at comparables around surrounding districts we have a very competitive and robust
program and certainly in line financially um in fact you know we think we we have a great a great deal for our students um and before last year's increase the rate was not increased in 15 years so we're looking at a phased in
approach um and again we still have a capacity enrollment although we're robust and our enrollment went up uh this year and I'll go through this in a second so just basically a breakdown of our full day half day and our Learning Centers um you can see the hours of
operation and how many the models and how many students are in there but to the bottom you can see the enrollment we went from 119 last year to 128 and we still have room for 13 more students uh our marketing has improved and Bethany stangis who is doing the work of
coordinating our prek programming along with Derek monion um has done a really nice job with building the program we've moved everything to Riverside so that has helped in terms of the staff being able to work together development together um we have improvements coming
to the Courtyard this spring so a lot of good things were happening with our prek program currently if you look at our uh full day and our half day four days half day five days which in the afternoon you can look at the annual last year we looked at the hourly rate but frankly
that got to be confusing because there are variances and differences with towns in terms of length of days and such so we went with the annual um and we looked at the comparables we were we were in a pretty good place with the annual tuition in the half day and again the
increase has helped us with with training and development for instructional assistance as well as curriculum development resources which I think has been outstanding so the recommendation is to uh again one more increase and I will say this too our projection at this
point if accepted um for an increase is to to leave it at this and leave it alone for a while um again you would say roughly I believe we're 850 an hour and our projection this comes out to $10 an hour and we're going to leave it at that
uh over time and we feel that still is a is a good deal with the services that are required and we do we've helped families with financial assistance if needed and I think that's important note um and if you look at the comparable averages we have 10 districts that we've used for comparables and I have a I'll
turn the page on the second but um you know when you look in the the full day tuition we are up a little bit more but I think that does Factor the that we are looking to limit the increase this year if accepted um and again not bring
another increase for a long time we hope uh but we know that other towns are still kind of in the boat they're looking at uh evaluating their programs as well well and when you look at the comparables and breaking it down there's a lot of numbers on that page and it might be but um we put the FY or Sy
school year 25 program details on the on the left column the middle column is what our rates would be and the plus minus so you can see it's it's up and down but it does fit within you know the communities around us in terms of alignment um and I know that some of the feedback we received some of the talents
they were like us and haven't really increased the rates either so we want to be competitive but also the the extra funding this year for the increase has allowed us again some of the money goes back into the program that we can utilize um to help support um some of
our IAS that we've brought aboard as well as the training uh that's necessary and I don't know if Derek if I've left anything out Mr Mion I know okay so we were looking for you know if possible and again KN tonight if it's
something that the the committee would like to you know think about for the for the next month if there's further information you'd like me to bring back uh or if you're comfortable making a recommendation or if not it's kind of just leaving it right now we have a month to play with if you decide that
you'd like more information for me to bring back and present or if you're comfortable now with a recommendation to go up to increase um we could do that this time at the will of the committee the committee questions do we know how competitive we
are with private prek content cost wise any we are we are a good deal compared to they're more expensive than we are I don't know exactly all all the prek programs around but and some of them actually they they're longer days as well you our days aren't quite as long
as some like we don't have extended time where you know students can stay to four or five for pickup right right right are the are the parents aware of this or have they heard the Rumblings that you considering doing this or has there been
parent input to this not yet no anyone else yeah so going back to uh slide two slide three on this on the DPS prek structure all right so we went from 121
to 33 from year 22 to 23 then a drop in 24 do we think that's connected with anything other than the birth rate or which I'm sorry M which slide if we on on the DPS pre
stru sorry which has the there we go down the bottom yes so we did see a drop from 23 to 24 yes and and I don't know the exact uh rationale for that okay that that could vary um as we looked at last year in
terms of the marketing of and information that was available we did improve that area um I don't know if it goes in waves where um because you could see back in 2021 you know it was it was a little bit lower than it went up then it went down and went back up so um I'm
not sure what to explain that specifically but I definitely could find out more information if you'd like um yeah I here's the thing I'm glad that we split this over two years um I don't love the increase at the full-time level
for the parents because I think it's uh like $1,100 um having said that I guess the proof is in the pudding if we were to approve this tonight and then they come back in a year and we find out that the
uh the numbers have dropped that may be an indication to us that we're over pric versus the community Maybe not maybe um so I could approve this I could see myself approving this and then let's see
what the effect on the product is so to speak well one thing I'd like to say and I appreciate that um oh Mr Mone would you mind come forward I should have had him come up forward anyway thank you all right one of the things that I
wanted to mention too when considering the uh comparison between private and our preschool having been a former preschool director in my previous district is just a special education teacher portion of the preschool program and so that is different from what you
would typically see in a daycare setting or a Private Preschool setting they're fantastic but it's just a different level of experience that I feel warrants that additional increase looking at the price looking at the rates it's very similar in my former District we were
having similar discussions about tuition and we were in a similar position to where we didn't necessarily it wasn't changed for quite a while and so I would say looking at the numbers here I would say that's rather consistent for preschool just based on my experience my
experience was with a smaller District but I think you see an e and flow sometimes of around 10 kids and it's not unusual to see what you see up there in 2023 and 24 so I think the biggest thing is really just the special education teachers and just the variety of
resources that are available to not only special education students but to all of the students that are within the program peers and and anyone that is part of it so I didn't want to leave that out would you mind talking about that because the the tuition does that does change for
students with Services sure absolutely so when you have students students that receive uh special education Services they're not pay you're not required to pay for uh services within preschool so when you're looking at IEP Services you're looking at providing free and appropriate services to students at no
cost of the parent so when we're looking at the tuition piece what we are looking at is the the peers and trying to ensure that we have enough peers to keep the ratio that's required for uh integrated preschool programs which is 51% of students not on IEPs and 49% of students
that that are on IEPs and so it's really trying to and it is it is certainly a a challenge and it looks like Danver has done a great job in my former District we certainly had difficulty with bringing in enough peers
to be able to uh sustain a program so just looking at the overall numbers it feels like we're in a in a in a really good spot there um but like you said it is true based upon the increase you know if if you do see a drastic change in numbers I think that's certainly also telling but I wanted to mentioned that
special education piece just because it can be so beneficial to students not only on IEPs but students that are in the class as a as a peer model thank you yeah absolutely you want just in case want go
right is uh thank you for that yeah is the committee comfortable with um moving ahead Mr brow's recommendation today or do we want to wait if I could no uh my daughter is in second grade and just knowing what we
paid for a private preschool it's that increases not again to Mike's Point like comparatively to the other options in town um within uh the town borders you know it's still even with an increase it's
still very comp know very much on achievement compar I wouldn't see an issue with it going forward all right so I'll make a mo to approve the new proposed piece
second any other discussion all those in favor I oppose none motion carries okay on to school choice thank you Mr Mion for uh that piece as well um
so as I informed the committee I believe it was last spring and certainly during the budget season that I would bring information about school choice knowing that we have a hearing in April as we're required by law to have uh a school choice hearing to opt out of school
choice that's that's a regulation so I put together some information just so the committee can consider you know prior to the next month's hearing on school choice so I I think the big piece about it is that you know we we do have to have a public hearing before June 1st we
have in April um and it requires a vote to opt out of school choice and we have in Danvers I don't believe Danver has ever participated school choice um and obviously the law does say that you can be part of the school choice program as
a receiving District but certainly it's out there that anybody can participate in this so the status that we are in now we don't receive students but students can go out of our district and we can't impede that um and I have some data in there right now I think it's like
54.4 students last year um are out of district and different Choice situations um and I think the big piece too that's important is that um you know with school choice if we decide to opt in um there's a number of financial
pieces that are important um and part of that is you know the sending district is $5,000 tuition and that's set by the state the $5 administrative fee per student um parents are responsible for transporting their children to school so
we do not have to provide transportation um and certainly um receiving districts can limit the amount of seats that are available and can put on per grade which is important because if you look at a projection of enrollment knowing if class sizes are
very tight you certain would you would not offer seats at that particular grade um and the other part too is that the process itself is that if we receive more applications than seats for example if we set a limit of 10 seats of grade
six 10 of seven 10 and 8 and we exceed the amount of applications we have to have a blind draw right and there's a whole process that we follow through so it has to be a random selection without any discrimination and we also have to advertise that we would be in involved the school choice program but it's very
limited in terms of like what that advertisement would be and you could see it varies by District um but the thing that's important to note is that all the districts around US participate in school choice in terms of being able to receive students you know Beverly
Manchester Essex um new airport Salem Masco Hamilton wam reading Triton um a lot of districts you know our students can thank you student services team they can they can receive our students but we are not in the position
because we opt out of this every year here to receive students that may want to come to our district so I think the consideration is is that and you can see that off of last year's data 57.4 students and the point4 means if a student goes out like you know with four
months left of the year that's how it's it's calculated the tuition out that the town pays is $441,000 that doesn't come out of the school coference it comes out of the town cers okay now as I know please note that the tuition's 5,000 the
administrative fee are $75 per student the one piece with special education if a child receives services that are above with the school can provide you charge the sending District that amount that that that overage as an example if you had a student that would require occupational
therapy services and you have to bring an outside provider in then you would build that sending district for that that's why that number 441 is higher than if you would 5,000 times the 57.4 again transportation provided by the parent Guardian if in an IEP there's
something that is written in that a child is uh receives Transportation then the sending District pays for that not the receiving District okay um and currently our staff does not have an option to bring their child into our district if they live outside of the
district there's nothing in our contract so this is a means too that you know staff could utilize school choice as an option and that's nice if they can bring the child here and it's great for teacher retention um but we also control the amount of available seats per year
and that can vary each year but also the determination of the school committee if you opt in you still have to have the hearing every year and make that decision so I guess what I'm saying to consider if we decided to enter school choice and after a year you the
committee decides to change their mind do the other factors um you can do that okay the one piece that's important to note with school choice is is that once you accept the student in they're with you through graduation so playing out the scenario
let's say that school choice we opt in for a year and then after one year saying you know we want to we want to pause it not do it for the next year students that came in would still stay with us for the remainder of the time they graduate so I think it's important to note that Chapter 70 funding as we've
talked about like we would not receive if we if we decide to join school choice um so any child that would come to us we we did not receive that Chapter 70 funding we just get the 5,000 tuition and any overage for special education but we can count the enrollment towards
our foundational budget which if you remember this year we're at $75 doar per child in the foundational and we were close to moving to the next level which would have put us at 104 per day so that enrollment helps us although we don't get the funding specifically it
helps um and again the tuition funds are AR counted in our budget so schools that utilize school choice you know it's a fund that is available and really there's no restrictions on use so you would have it in a fund kind of like in
a revolving account to some degree but the account can build over time let's say that you have a project that you would like to undertake a capital project that's above our budget the town's budget you could utilize that let's say if we had a revamp on technology you could use that for that
that if you had a a a shortfall and maybe a couple key positions you could use that for short term so the the funding is something that is really flexible um and and I want to say that you know there's pluses and minuses to
school choice you know I think the pluses outweigh the minuses um and I think the minuses are a lot of times perception and how that looks in terms of um functionality of it that's what I mean in terms of somebody that's as an assistant principal was in a district
that had school choice you know really did not notice a difference in operational did not notice students that were on Choice who were not on choice just didn't just couldn't tell the difference um but I think when you consider this you know it's the financial piece that I think is
important but I look at like we have a great District we offer many outstanding opportunities for students and I think we would be attractive because of our great services and I think people would take advantage of that and there's lots of reasons why people would opt out of a district um
many many reasons um and I and I think taking a look at you know where money may go and I just did a quick Baseline of tuition um and I just put 25 students I didn't break it down like five across the grades but whatever that breakdown
would be so if we were to bring in 25 students you know we would bring in the tuition of the 5,000 that's that's there that's money we could utilize and then that grows if you continue with 25 seats over time and that tuition grows as well
um so in a lot of ways you know it is a revenue Source I look at districts around us are doing this and our students you know have opportunities to go out I would love to review and we have a discussion in April you know to be able to consider bringing students
into our district and I think we would bring students in not only potentially faculty member students but other students that would see value in all the program that we have um I've known some situations where families work close to a district and transportation that makes
sense for them and for family decision and various reasons so I'm bringing this to you to see this is the research this is with school choices in a nutshell um so that when we get to the hearing in April you know we have time if you have
questions that you want me to research further bring further information I'm more than happy to do that um but I think there's a lot of benefits to consider as a committee I'm I'm open for any questions or if there are things that you want me to do for further research um and if you
don't have those questions now certainly can do that work over the course of the month before we get to the hearing um not so much a question but a big thank you to responding and in delivering this I will personally say as
being a part of this committee there were too many votes where I sat here and it was like school choice but no information and I've heard a lot of misinformation about school choice from people in the community and from members of this
school committee um I think people in the community are afraid of school choice they've been they I mean this is literally the most information I've ever seen about this I've actually sat with some parents who presented me with
information that was 100% false and I hope we can get this information out and we probably should um so parents can see exactly what it is um some examples of misinformation are if we take a school choice student we're responsible for any
special education needs which based on your presentation is completely false and if you if you mind share um we're we're responsible for the services if anything goes above and beyond we can provide then the sending district is built for that okay so if it if it and I
think that's a great question because um you know our resources are where they're at um you wouldn't want to put something in place that would require more resources to come in so that's the complement to this program um is that yeah so Baseline if a student has um you
know if they need physical therapy and we can make that work but if we have to bring an outside you know contracted services for that or for other students then that's the billing portion that I think is important important to note um and um I did speak with the number of superintendant that have choice in their
district and you know most of it was positive and most of it is about it adds to their school district and certainly we've seen some declining and although we're stable now but we're facing some challenging times ahead of us and I'd like to think that I see great things in
our district and I know we would be attractive um again I don't know projecting it out we would have to really do deep dive into what how many seats we would offer and my suggestion is to be a little conservative in year one absolutely just to make it work um but I'm more than happy to tighten this
up and share this with the community at the will of the committee another followup to that is if we do take a school choice student and they need to get placed at a landmark or to leave our district to be out of District what
happens with that cost so that that again goes above and Beyond what we would be able to offer so you work with the sending District who would be financially responsible for the majority of that so there are uh advantages uh to the program because of of that option um
so again that is a service that would be required outside of what we could have so the teams would meet but ultimately the responsibility would be on the sending District okay thank you I think that's all I want to ask I to the chair I'm happy to drill down even deeper on that
to give even more specific examples of that the um okay so when you say if a if a by the way I'm I'm looking positively at this um I think it could be good for the district I have the sense that we have space and I will tell you that one
of the reasons that we did not accept school choice students before this and before the Smith School say came online is that there were times we were busting at the seams at most levels and so we were especially before we built the middle school high school so I think we
got in the habit of just oping out but I feel like we have some more space now and the opportunity to use that space both to to offer our Educational Services and to offset some of the students who are going to other
districts I think is a great idea um I want to follow up on what Gabe said when you talked about if you had to send it a student out of district and you said you you work with the other district and they would be responsible for the
majority of it would we can you it's obviously not hard and fast at least that's what I hear saying so it's possible we'd be paying part of the landmark tuition and that the sending District would be paying part or for the the feedback that I received from other
superintendants is that they they basically the majority is paid by the sending District so I'll be able to dig in give you the off of that because typically some feedback is they paid for all okay yeah that that would be nice to
know yep um the other thing is so if what you said is that for the students who go out of Dan um the town pays the tuition doesn't come out of our budget when students come into the is
that $5,000 is it hard and fast that that comes into our budget or is that in the say wait a minute we're paying $400,000 to send students to other districts this money should come to us
and how is that so the experience um as I've spoken with other superintendents they work it out with their town so that's able the ability to work within the revolving account okay I mean and that's not a bad thing frankly even if it's an offset to what the town's paying out hey we're all sort of in you know
we're in one ocean here and we can lift all the boats which is that um right so I know and I had a discussion with Rodney about this in preliminary just saying we're presenting tonight and I was going to circle back with him just to make sure we're all on the same page so when we come back um the the April
meeting okay that those questions are 100% sealed but that it's been positive from the principles superintendent excuse me that I've spoken with that have choice and being able to utilize the funds to offset and they do work with the town so we're in a unique situation that the DP W does the
maintenance of our buildings but I know in some districts where that's not the case right you know they may need to use some of that funding for some Capital Improvements where kind of in different situations so there is a give and take on that okay but um you know I I see the benefits of that the financial piece
huge where it can cover some gaps you know would it be a situation right now with where we're at budgetarily that some of that can be utilized offset absolutely okay um and I guess this is really more out of curiosity this students who go to other districts from
danis um do we have a sense of which districts get the most of our students I don't know you're doing I knew you were G to ask that qu or somebody would ask that question so we are digging into that but I do know that we have students of Masco I do know that we have students of Beverly I do know that we have uh students of Manchester so we we have
students I don't know the the number of students how many in Hamilton when them but we do um I mean it's a decent number that are out well I is when talk about what 57 I think it was 57 I kind of thought Masco only because
you've got a lot of people close to the Middleton line I thought the same thing perhaps Hamilton winam because we're not that far from the Hamilton winam line no we're not and Beverly right there as well okay thank you look forward to more information I that answers another
question I I I was under the impression that in order to be able to send students out you had to participate but that's not the case case no matter what Danver students can go to school choice schools interesting didn't know that
and I'm glad to hear you say that if we do consider this you want to start off with a conservative number um I think that's important for a lot of reasons one to see how this plays out um but two as we're aware but I
don't think we've really considered there's some housing U that's going to be occupied downtown damis we have no idea who's going to have children if there will be children in the building but you know there that's something that we're going to have to keep keep track of too because uh we don't want all of a
sudden you know be looking to open up a classroom where we don't have space or something like that so um I just want us to consider that as we Maul this proposition over so I I think that brings a good point in terms of looking at you know we we have an idea of where we are
Elementary wise we know that we're very tight so and we also know that particularly in the younger grades it's great to bring people in because they will stay however we need to make sure for movein that occur throughout the year that we have enough room and we don't go over our contractual trigger right over the maximum in the class
where then we pay an additional we need to make sure that we have a cushion but also out of respect for elementaries where you know there's some balance issues that we've been working through so but certainly at the middle school and high school there there's there's room um and also looking at that
carefully the entry point like grade six for example and grade nine are big areas where people look to make a clean start into a new building um but also there could be siblings that would be involved you know and if we have Elementary seats
we would be very cautious in that piece but just doing a preliminary look over that um we'd be very very judicious on that particular in year one and to your point if there would ever be a wild fluctuation that's why it's important that every year that you you opt you
have to make an opt in or opt out so after a year we go conservative you fill the seats and then there's some different wild influxes then we can you can put a pause on that for sure um but I'd also would want to you know just like anything else be able to provide
updates in terms of how it's going if if the committee decides to take this on um but we did share this with our administrative team you know and and certainly you know we want to know any blind spots in areas of concern and by and large the feedback was positive but
certainly um wanting a little bit more information but I think we covered everything that's basically in this but yes students can go out they can opt out um and they do so we want to be in a position that you know can we offset that would we negate that over time I
don't know but I do know that we have a lot to offer in this District I guess my next question um um not a question but a request out of curiosity is it possible to survey all the teachers like th throw out a Survey Monkey to see if they'd bring their
kids um one thing to be careful about um I would I've often I have ran run this by the union leadership um but not to great detail I just said that we'll be presenting you know Monday night about this and I'll bring back more information um you know
you have to be very careful in terms of the we have a a process that goes through right you can't show any favoritism um but we I know some districts that this is a it's a nice benefit if that's available and there seats available but I could I can get some information on that for the committee I think the big thing is like
is there support for this right and then overall you know would there be an interest if if seats are available for them to bring their children here I could definitely find out a piece of that as long as we make sure that we stay in alignment with the basis of a non-discriminatory practice of accepting students
if you end up in the position when you have to run the lottery you can't give favoritism to staff students so okay I guess another question is is in regards to test scores
um when we do tally test scores or out of District students considered in your district with their scores or does their score go back to their town would and the town where where they take the test your mic wasn't on so I said that
to Mike's on okay yes where the uh child takes the test the district that's where the scores go thank you oh than um if there's nothing else that was a fantastic presentation it's literally the most information I've ever seen on
this so really really appreciate that and um a pleasant surprise to the agenda um for me personally in regards to the amount of detail that you put in here so really appreciate your response and time on it and now off to secondary curriculum
director realignment okay so the secondary curriculum director realignment um as noted with our our budget I think we've done a really nice job of minimizing reductions across the board overall but there is one reduction that
will take place this year and it is um we're we're going to go down one curriculum director at the secondary level um that's important um to note because that in itself um you know again we're in a tight budget year but I also
look at it as an opportunity to really revamp the secondary curriculum director's position and also really merge the the two schools Holton Richmond and the high school into curriculum director into one position and I think the rationale for the change
is very simple there's a budgetary item that that is necessary but two other items that are important is that always looking for vertical alignment between the two schools I think is critical and really just having a chance to sit back and observe for a year in the district
and seeing that the elementary curriculum director has a team to work with the um directors at the middle and the high school although they work with the administrative team they just don't really have like a team like the elementary does and I really believe
wholeheartedly that to move curriculum in a school you need distributive leadership you need others to take on the work I.E the teachers and I think having a structure that involves a team that involves with leadership in the teachers is an effective way to move
schools forward and we have great potential in both schools to increase our teams um I I think to me that that is something and and Mary and I we've talked a lot about this um if we can emulate a team like the Elementary at
the secondary level I think there's there's huge upsides to that um if you take a look at the curriculum leadership alignment that we have right now where Mary the assistant superintendent works with the elementary curriculum director notice there's a
team underneath that the the math literacy andal uh coaches we have the Middle School curriculum director the high school curriculum director have a K12 health and PE Drew Betts and then Mary has an ESL team that she works with to coordinate the curriculum across the
district um what I'm proposing with the team approach is that to streamline this with the assistant superintendent still working with the directors but an elementary curriculum director in a team the secondary curricular director in a team still keep the same and see if I could
build a team with the K12 health and PE andal still has the team so right now if you look at the elementary that's the team right we've seen that you've seen that in presentations um and I and I also want to note that this is not knocking the work that the directors and the schools
have been doing I'm not knocking that at all I'm looking for opportunities that to really harness and and really start to move things forward in more of a um structured approach looking at a draft model and again this is a draft really raw model
of a secondary curriculum director and creating the team a stem Humanities and Performing Arts right and then harnessing the lead teachers as well underneath those particular strands so when you look at stem Humanities and Performing Arts we
don't have the funding right now to put in uh a member of a unit a just solely will dedicate to that we don't can that be done in combinations and the answer is yes can we leverage existing stiens and see if we can dig in deep and create
a few more absolutely can we have a stem leader at both the high school and the middle school can we have a Humanities leader at the high school middle school and we already have a Performing Arts um leader that is doing work right now with both the high school and middle
school so this has been in work that piece I think you can and I think that those particular leaders would work closely with that secondary curriculum director it's already happening at the high school because we had a change this
year as you know uh Peter took the Reigns at the high school we developed some stiens for humanities and a stem leader that worked closely with him and they in turn did a lot of the work with their teams throughout the school the high school so I see that as the evolution of creating that also the
middle school and I think that will in turn create more distributive leadership and more teacher involvement in our curricular work and we already have a bunch of things in place I think that in itself will allow more streamlining so the responsibilities you
know this is just a brief overview of you know the responsibilities for developing budgets grant opportunities working with the assistant superintendent um you know wide professional development working with the whole school both schools bringing them together uh increase capacity for
communication about teaching learning assessment develop tools to assess student learning those are all things that we have but that would be done at a focus of a 612 model so the bottom line is at this point you know moving and consolidating
that director is there but there's a lot of work that still needs to take place and that is Consulting with the assistant superintendent but also the incoming assistant superintendent working with the building principles uh working with staff working with the union for ways that we can develop those
teams at both the middle and the high school that can help share the work with the secondary curriculum director and I think those teams are really really important and also that goes in tune with you know divining designing professional development it's part start
of the Year early release the PD in January study groups that take place and then also working on how to the that person split do teacher evaluations that they do so it's changing the approach from just being building based to secondary based but the overall goal is
to create a streamlined system that I believe will help increase vertical alignment and create a strong team and utilizing our great resources of our teachers that um already doing a lot of the work but I think really streamlining
it further so as a budgetary need which is always a tough thing I look at as opportunity to really streamline the process so that's the presentation again a lot of work to do but that is the nuts and
bolts any comment I'll just say I fully support it I know there are hard decisions that have to be made but it completely makes sense in regards to building a team at the secondary level um so thank you for that that's my only comment yeah I tend
to think um this is really something that we bring a superintendent in for to say look this is the structure I think will work best um to get the job done at this point in time and this so I it's my
position is I'm going to support you in creating the structure you want unless it's you know in out of space somewhere but uh this is not unreasonable so yeah is uh the the new assistant superintendent aware of the structural
change yes um you know we've discussed it recently I've shared this presentation with her uh she's been coming in the district and I'm planning on bringing together a meeting with her uh first step to me was presenting tonight to getting this out there and then the next step is the follow up the
next steps uh but I would like her and Mary to be directly involved as as this evolves along with the you know I think it's important to have the principles involved and having Julie and her team because there's that close piece of working together and again this is not knocking you know the existing structure
it's looking to streamline and improve where a budgetary piece but also I think to provide like I said the alignment and teacher teams are we able to uh keep that person or we are we losing a person that's up
in the air at this time okay yeah there's a process that we'll go through um and that'll be coming out shortly so thank you y go ah no okay um all right now to the order of business consent
agenda approve I move that we approve the consent agenda as presented a second second any discussion um I I'll just I don't know if this is the moment for but in regards
to discussion just for uh fundraising just in general um I did have a lot of parents reach out regarding the um the basketball fundraiser and and the various committees and I think when we do um Mass fundraisers
that is a central location that will cross where it's it's more like a mass fundraiser that incorporates all schools that we have a a more detailed conversation just to ensure that there's not only equitable
distribution but Equitable uh work that goes into something like that um just so everyone can kind of participate and something like that I feel that you know when large fundraisers like that are planned um and parents don't know that
they're attending an event that majority benefiting one school over the district it creates it creates some confusion so some clarity around that would be great and I thought I had to squeeze that there because I almost forgot about that but just transparency around that would
be wonderful I don't know if anyone has any other comments I concur I concur with that that position I I had same experience with a number of parents reaching out about the same thing so thank you bringing that up no problem if I could
through the share um we have a central pack meeting coming up um I think in a month and certainly we'll discuss it at that piece you know there's always good intentions but there's always ways that we can continue to work together uh and that will be on the agenda for that and also please note too that there's been
some really nice work uh there'll be something coming out rock the Spectrum with some free tickets available um that two parents have really have reached out to a Foundation um in ways we can help students that might have difficulties in a large with the sensory of a large
event and there also there are tickets that the pack has put aside um for families that may you know have Financial need and they'll work with the principal so there is that piece but I I I will work with and I'll report back to the committee on that to continue to work in collaboration uh with
PS fantastic um with that um all those in favor of the sent agenda I I I I oppos None motion carries and Mr secretary the minutes uh I move to approve and release the minutes from the
February 3rd February 10th and February 24th 2025 regular meetings and to approve but not release the minutes from the February 14th 2025 executive session one second okay any discussion
no all those in favor I I oppos None motion carries and on to communication items on communication okay legislation I don't have a report regarding any state legislation or
issues and I on the federal side is I think we need to keep focusing because because there continues to be and it seems like the push to eliminate the uh Department of Education at the federal level continues and some say well you
know what does it really do well it makes sure that the money for title one and the money for special education and other Grant programs gets to the right places um and that's important because otherwise what's going to happen is the
you will spread out different the financial functions to different Federal departments so that's one thing the other thing is there continues to be talked about the budget that will be presented
uh the initial budget that will be presented by the Republicans May in fact have cut to Medicaid and Medicare now Medicaid in particular is you know the
uh assists a lot of low in families and I think we get some title um I don't know if the title one money is from Medicaid I don't believe so but um but certainly it will put families in a more difficult
position in damers and in other places so I think we have to keep a close eye on those things that can affect funding to daners and other systems and I think when I went through last month it was like a million and a half dollars that
we get federally um that's a big junk that could make a difference in what we can do for our students so I think it's important that we keep talking about that and if things really start to heat up we need to uh maybe do some advocacy
with with our legislators and you know take it to a logical place where we can preserve the funding we need thank you for that thank you any updates from subc commmittee Mr Shannon um curriculum in assessments
meeting later this month but today I attended my second dvas K's meeting and I am happy to announce that the average number of attendees over two meetings was 23 very well attended um we enjoyed a
presentation from Liz farer today a licensed social worker uh who focused on anxiety uh basically coming into the school and and um I think you're going to hear more about that from from our
social workers it's it's a conversation that needs I believe to continue with parents in the district across town um so we'll see what happened very impressive made me reflect on my childhood was I could I could talk about it for the next hour it's great in fact
I'm going to no um there was a youth leaders update that um they talked about DHS student leaders going down to hton Middle School the rising leaders program that that's going very
well um light the night purple which recognizes mental health and substance abuse is tentatively scheduled for May 13th um there is a College Planning seminar in the Gordon room at the library on 319 and I believe you have to
register for that through the library I went to one a couple years ago uh it was actually it was actually very good I I recommend it if it's the same gentleman he was fantastic um and I was remiss earlier in in
recognizing uh when looking at my notes you know students DHS there was a group uh from our NextGen group that just went out to a conference called connections conference at clar University it was
last I believe Friday and the focus in what NextGen does is basically develop ways to support H the community and make sure that everybody feels like they belong and I was the benefactor of
NextGen a NextGen effort maybe a year or so year and a half ago where they they've made up games to drive conversation around difficult topics difficult
conversations um it's educational but the some of the some of the issues are are are difficult and it CS for self-reflection and and just being open to listen to other people and learning and kids these These are kids developing
these games um to to drive these conversations is very powerful and I guess they they laed out at the the conference on on Friday out o'clock 600 students go to this conference it was sold out and uh you know I guess Damas
was well represented in the room so Kos to thank you for that just um real quick on the Danver human rights and inclusion committee am I correct that Paul poock and Charles Desmond are trying to set up I think they want to get together with
the superintendent we have a meeting scheduled I think at the end of this week okay great any other up yes to the chair y um just to note that our safety meeting will take place at the end of the month
our district safety meeting the uh Northeast Consortium um had its last board meeting last week and the preliminary budget piece uh they're going through and coming through um potential increase you
know right now you know through a first run it's it's looks like it might be a little bit higher than anticipated as the other consortiums are this is a contractual year for the Consortium so they're going through contractual negotiations um I'll bring back more
detailed information on that as it becomes clear but um right now the percentage increase looks to be you know about 9% right now which is substantial but they still have to do their work like we we did to bring it down but also
the consideration is that you know they're going to have the budget for increased contracts the good news is that the regionalization of Transportation so they have the information and they've sent out bids to the the contractors Transportation so
those bids um are in alignment with various uh Auto District placements that mix and match the communities along the way uh so I think that's really really good news because we want to that be able to pay off next year uh the third thing is a lot of discussion about
recovery High School right um in the enrollment has declined funding is always in question um so they're putting together a study group uh the board members to really look at like ways to make sure that you know it's sustainable you know as there different marketing
that needs to take place and the funding as well um so stay tuned I'll keep you posted on that that's real important stuff um if I could I'll continue with our deep meeting is coming up next next week yep that's coming up next week um
and then CPAC I'll put out a flyer um the annual elections will take place one month early on April 1st um and the the current board members will be stepping down so there will be a whole new elected Board and they'll assume those
roles immediately following the vote um so I'll put this out in a communication this week and and there is a uh Google Drive that describes the positions and the responsibilities and then uh the way that people can apply for to be put onto the ballot itself and the voting takes
place on April 1st but there is a deadline of March 25th if you're interested in for one of the positions the chair secretary treasurer Community leader resource inclusion and program organizer and member at large um that's a very important body so um I may put
that out as a separate message away from mine so that people can see this um I know CPAC will send this out and probably Christina as well so and we'll keep you posted on that and then I think that is it in terms of uh
Subs is is through the CH you is there a a reason why the entire board stuffing are they timed out they get their students out of the no I think it's just a matter of you know the the time served and and moving on nothing more than that
okay thank you all right can I get a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn we vote yep next meeting is April 7 2025 and let's close with a vote all those in
favor I I uh none opposed good night ders thank you