to open. First, we would like to rise for the pledge of >> allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice
for all. >> The Dammers Public Schools mission statement, creating a supportive environment where all learners thrive. Tonight's meeting is being broadcast on Dammer's Community Access Television. Is there anyone in the audience who is recording tonight's meeting?
Um, we will move on to items of interest. Uh, is there anybody in the public that has anything that they would like to bring up today? Paul, come on up. >> Good evening, Danvers. Uh, Danver School
Committee. Uh, my name is Paul Pollock. I'm a member of the Danvers Human Rights and Inclusion Committee and I just wanted to mention that this Saturday we will be celebrating Pride in Danvers during Pride Month. Um the [clears throat] festivities will start
at 12:00 noon at town hall on Saturday the 13th and then proceed down to the library area for anything from food to music to fellowship etc. we will have raffles. Um, and I don't I don't most of you have
if you ever been, you've known we we have the same agenda pretty much every so if you want to come and have some fun, meet a lot of people, eat good food, right? Come on over. We're hoping the weather is excellent. If it is in Clement,
uh we will move to the atrium at the high school. Uh we will notify you well in advance. Uh there is a u uh hashtag or Instagram which is friends of uh uh Danvers uh human rights and inclusion
that'll be posted on that Instagram. All right. So um we hope everybody comes bring your children they'll have fun a lot of prizes draws you can win something and some of the gifts are quite nice. All right. Thank you. Thank you.
Hi everyone. I'm Julia Defilippo. I am the chair of the Dammer CPAC. Um coming with two items tonight. First, I wanted to follow up on the message that I sent with to you all on um Sunday evening, last night. Um just following up on the
conversation we had in May, which I really appreciate around um the updated timeout restraint policies and to report back that we've um CPAC and um superintendent and student services team um have a very collaborative meeting and
are continuing our conversations and found many areas in which we agree uh around how to um implement the policy. And so we all committed to continuing those that dialogue and very much uh you know appreciate the transparency um
that's you know within the administration to make sure families are are updated and really understanding what this means for for them their child and um we're happy to really collaborate around that and I think you know as we saw with our work through the federation
um in our jammeris team that I think this will be an example for many other districts of how to collaborate with CPACs and student services teams uh special ed departments and um you know making these things be more responsive
and effective. Um so thank you. Lastly, I um just wanted to report briefly on our annual survey that we uh closed just recently. Um and you know I I am still sort of finalizing it getting feedback
but I think the preliminary results are uh you know leave me very optimistic and um comparing to last year some of the things around um families really rating communication as a huge strength this year. Um for example I think the the
mean of some of the items were about 3.2 last year and they're all the way up to almost a five. Um it was similar similar I would say uh you know sample size. Um and uh I think overall there seems to be
a shift from um just wanting information and awareness to like now really wanting deep relationships and um really wanting to engage and be involved. Um and those connections are sort of like the the feedback and some areas to grow which we will you know we'll continue to work on.
Um, but I will definitely as we finalize it by the end of the month, we'll be sharing it with with everyone. It'll be at our website. So, thank you. >> Are there any other uh public items of interests tonight? Anything from the school committee?
>> Just uh I would just say outstanding day for Danver High School graduation on Saturday. Uh the weather held up which was great but um and of note we had a great speech from Dr. Bower from Mr. Strauss and um the stu I I really look forward to listening the students speak
and um just to see the excitement in all their faces everything was great um but it was just a perfect day outstanding. So thank you. >> All right so we'll move on to information from the superintendent. >> Thank you Chair Dy. Um, before I begin
though, I just also want to give a shout out to our HRMS LGBTQ plus alliance. It's their 10th year as a club and they marched yesterday in the Topsfield Pride parade. Uh, very proud of the students, Miss Zappa, Miss Purcell leading the way
and uh, very proud to be part of that group and it was a wonderful opportunity uh, for our students to show their pride. So, just want to give a quick shout out to that group. Um, so tonight we have our student representative report. A lot of recognitions tonight. Um, and we'll wrap
it up with the subcommittee reports. So, Nathan, you're on your own. And just to note that next year, Amelia Vaz, grade 10 will be grade 11 will be joining us. Um, and I think she'll be wonderful addition to the student report. Take it away, Nathan. >> Hi. So, today um with our with my
report, I'm by myself today. Um, we have Yes. Um, Saturday was graduation. It was amazing. I was there with the um concert band. Um, there were 188 graduates. Uh, and uh, there was a bunch of uh, really
great speeches from both students and staff and um, and and admin. Uh, and the DBW did a wonderful job. We also had scholarship night and that was awesome. There was uh, $355,000 given out to over 110 BHS seniors. thank
all of the partners and contributors. Uh the internship fair was also very successful. Um and I'm excited as uh somebody who's going to be a senior next year. I'm excited to start mine next year. We also uh the spring sports had a very
successful season. Um boys lacrosse, girls tennis, uh baseball, softball, and track all made the state tournament and cheerleading triyouts for next year are happening this week. Um, this year, Principal Strauss has asked students to be a part of the interview process for hiring staff and
has been very successful. So far, students have been involved in math, business, and Spanish interviews, and tomorrow they will be involved in theater uh director interviews. Also, the marching band has picked its show for the 2026 2027 school year. The
theme is Pandora reopened. We are all really excited, including me. Um the davers salute to heroes monument which is which created by three DHS DECA students was approved by the select board. This this will allow for the monuments to be created in honor of
Purple Heart recipients. Thank you to um I hope I don't if I butcher this name I apologize. Ario and Haley uh Leaporto and Chase Richmond
for all their hard work on this and also we are all preparing for finals next week. >> Is there any other news you'd like to share, Nathan? I don't put you on the spot, but >> I was just going to ask >> some big news tonight >> through the chair. Um Nathan, you realize that sitting over there comes
with privilege, right? a privilege where you get to brag about yourself, but I know you're a humble guy, so I'll say it. Um, for those of everyone that pays attention to our band, Nate is going to be a section leader for percussion next year. So, congratulations. [applause]
>> Thank you. Big shot. >> And this is the time of year where um it's it's very bittersweet. We have uh a number of retirees that are moving on. Um we wish them all the very very best. Um a couple weeks ago, Deep sponsored
the Breakfast of Champions. That was an opportunity to honor our retirees. Uh we have 13. Um and just want to make sure that they get the recognition that they're due. Um basically this list of of individuals, you know, I can't tell you how many thousands of students
they've impacted over the time. Um and certainly we're going to miss them greatly. That's why it's bittersweet, but happy for them making this big decision. So, we have Judy Judith Ashby, Sheila Bell, Sarah Bournestein, Kathy Gazera, Anne Gagnen, Beth Anne Hilton, Christopher Hopkins, also known as
professor, uh, Sydney Nel, Rachel Sagi, Chris Smith, Ranata Ulig, Carla Veterary, and Denise Yelli. All great great individuals and, um, they've all, as I said, have connected many, many different ways. There's a number of great retirement parties coming. So, uh,
we just wish them all the very best. All right. Next up, we have um more recognition. Um, and I'd like to invite uh Miss Margaret Driscoll up, the director of the MASBO, the Massachusetts Association of School Business Officials with a
major award to present to our very own Pam Crumb. Thank you so much, Superintendent Bower. It's such a pleasure to be here. Um, as the superintendent noted, I'm Margaret Driscoll, executive director of the Mass Association of School Business
Officials, also known as MASBO, and I'm very proud to share that this year's Donald F. Johnson operational and cost efficiency award is conferred on the Danverse public schools, represented by your director of finance, Pamcrum.
The award recognizes the accomplishment of a district that has implemented a program, activity, or initiative that has resulted in increased efficiency, saving funding that can be implied more directly to educational priorities. It's made possible through Masbos's
partnership with Voya Financial and includes a $3,000 student scholarship to the district. And Pam has indicated earlier that that check has arrived and is safely in your hands. So, we're uh very pleased about that. Described as
the single most valuable member of the district and also the most humble, which I'm sure surprises none of you, Pam approaches every challenge, large or small, with a focus on solutions. Whether establishing clear protocols for school-based fundraising or leveraging
circuit breaker funding and grants to stabilize special education programming, no problem is too small and no challenge too complex. At the district level, PAM has strengthened systems that support both support both fiscal responsibility and
student centered decision-making through close collaboration with student services and finance staff. Improved tracking and monitoring of out of district placements has enhanced transparency, planning, and communi communication with stakeholders.
This commitment to efficiency extends into long-standing practices as well. By addressing gaps in preschool tuition collection and implementing clear, consistent payment processes, the district has seen improved reliability and equity and revenue collection.
At the same time, Pam remains focused on innovation, helping to develop new revenue streams, including the creation of an in-house child care program for staff and thoughtfully evaluating staffing and service models to ensure that students are supported in the most appropriate and cost-effective ways.
Recently facing a $2 million budget deficit, Pam played a key leadership role, working collaboratively to identify sustainable solutions, reduce reliance on outside vendors, and preserve resources for student learning. Just importantly, she models excellence
for colleagues, sharing knowledge, mentoring others, and strengthening the broader MASBO community, including consistent participation in the Northshore roundt. The result is a lasting impact that reflects both operational effic
efficiency and a deep commitment to students and families. To you all and particularly to Pam in concert with the business office team, warmest congratulations on winning one of this year's most prestigious
MASPO awards. [applause] Thank you so much. um I this award when I found out about it a couple of months ago now was completely unexpected. Um, and I am very grateful
for those in the my colleagues in the Dammer administration who thought it worthy of nominating the district and me and my work um for this recognition. Thank you, Margaret. Um, we have a very strong collaborative team that works really well together and so we share
ideas. some we've have new ideas that have come in from outside the district and we welcome those and we combine them with things that we already had in the works um and the outcome is improved operations for the district. So we try
to um we try to improve the efficiency so that we can do more with what we have. Um and so I'm I'm very grateful to the team that I work with. I'm grateful for the nomination and to NASBO for all the support that they've given me um over the last four or five years. It's
been a big challenge in this role for me personally um but I feel very well supported by the MASBO group of colleagues that I have around the Northshore and the state. So, thank you very much. >> Hi Pam. I remember when I first uh
joined the committee about four or five years ago, there was a a slight panic to uh some folks leaving the district and how would we run our operations? How would we, you know, balance the budget year after year? And let me just say, I think you have personally been an incredible impact to our school, our
district, and everyone here. You've absolutely exceeded every expectation. Um you were completely as humble and as quiet as you were. you you've come in and you've just done the job. So, I incredibly proud of what you've done. I'm not surprised by it,
but I just want to acknowledge that. You know, you stepped into a situation where everyone was really nervous, but you've blown it out of the water. So, thank you. We appreciate you. >> Thank you. I felt very supported by the school committee as well, I will say, over the last several years. It's been wonderful.
>> Okay. And congratulations. Uh but I I I think you've been a a critical partner for us as we did. Um you know, I'm just thinking of the budget every year, right? You're unbelievable with that. Um but also through our our teachers contract that um that you helped us, you know, figure out the financing for. Um
so you've just been great all along the way. So um and also outside the box thinking, right, with with what we have tight budget every year. We'd never have this huge budget that we can deal with. So, um, you know, we we always make it work and and that's due to the work that you've done. So, we appreciate it. Thank
you. >> Chair, >> uh, I was the one who asked you to speak. I just didn't know you were going to speak that long. Um, [laughter] but you know what? You got up and you and you and and you crushed that, too. Um, it's been a pleasure to work with you and I look forward to continue that
work. This is not a surprise, as Gabe said, and uh, we're so fortunate to have you on our team. So, congratulations. Thank you. >> Yeah. One of the things that I personally know is there are other communities that they're way behind the eightball and we're not, you know, some
people who look at two and a half, 3%, you know, every every job that you have gets raises every year. So, there's always going to be an increase in some sort of a expenditure, but we're keeping it there. And other communities are way behind that eight-ball and they can't keep up. Um, and I definitely appreciate
that, you know, here in town we're able to at least keep pace and be ahead of the curve. So, I appreciate it. >> Thank you very much. >> Oh, >> I I didn't bring it. >> Yeah, of course you didn't. >> It's a statue.
That's all. >> [applause] >> And we have another recognition um an outstanding recognition if our principal straws can come forward. We have four allies uh recognized by P Flag uh for the support of our LGBTQ
plus students. Apology St. Take it away. Thanks. Hi again. How are we doing? As you've probably figured out by now, in my opinion, celebrating excellence when our school within our school is vital to the growth of who we are. We
need to do more of it. We need to celebrate our teachers. We need to continue to let the public know what we're doing, but I also think it's really important to let individuals hear that something they're doing is excellent and nominating people is is a wonderful way.
As Mr. Pollock said, June is Pride Month and the Pride celebration is Saturday. So, the timing of this is perfect. The Greater Boston P Flag Parents and Friends of Lesbian and Gays organization offers the opportunity each year for schools to nominate those daily who are
seen as an ally to the LGBTQ TQIA plus community. While the word ally has many definitions within this context, it refers to someone who is nonLGBTQIA themselves, but who is defined by a very clear and powerful set of criteria in
support of the community. challenging discrimination and actively amplifying marginalized voices. Creating vibrant inclusive spaces where every student can bring their whole authentic self to school. Using inclusive language and maintaining an unwavering commitment
to affirming student identities, standing tall as a visible ally who courageously confronts bullying and bias, and leading every day with profound empathy and respect. The four people nominated for this honor don't just understand these criteria. They
embody them every day. Each one serves as a powerful beacon of support in their own unique way. And honestly, a simple list of what they do is unfair because they are champions in their own special way. And this isn't a competition. They simply do this because of who they are.
Please join us in showering these phenomenal individuals with congratulations. Please come up as I introduce you. Toeer Carlson, math teacher. Emily Gonovs, school social worker. Todd Butterworth, math teacher. Heather
Carnival, ELA teacher. [applause] This group is the absolute definition of what it truly means to be an ally. Thank you for standing tall, keeping our spaces bright, and ensuring that our students always feel safe, seen, and heard. We're incredibly proud of you.
>> [applause] >> Perfect. >> It's a lot. Think we got everybody. Thank you. [applause] and I apologize for the improper acronym as I got tongue tied for the LGBTQ plus IIA. Thank you. My apologies. Next up,
we have DECA recognition. We have some big news to report. >> Hello. Thank you guys for having us here tonight. Um so as you guys may know uh 60 members of the Damage DECA chapter um
attended ICDC in Atlanta uh late April. >> You have to tell me. Yes. Um so out of the 60 students there were three groups who qualified for top 20. Um and CNI ended up earning glass third place in project manage or yeah project
management sales project. So yeah [applause] >> um so these are the top three groups that are in top 20. The Be Kind Legacy uh the Foggin Foundation which is us and then Sun and Swirl. And these three groups were just put in so much effort over the whole year which was really
great that we got to earn top 20. Okay. So the overview of our project was there were really like two kind of um coinciding different initiatives that was part of our project. One was the alumni and one was the 501c3 which I'll
talk a bit more about. Um so that was kind of so last year as part of this project um the previous um team members established a 501c3 project to help um get money to damage DECA quicker because before that takes a
lot more processing going through different committees probably such as this one and while a lot of the money still has to be approved with a 51c3 can't be taxed so there were a lot of benefits to it um so part of this year was utilizing that 501c3 to get to the other projects to help them like the Be
Kind Legacy, Hometown Salute. Um, as well as just getting money so that students could attend the events like ICDC because they do cost thousands of dollars and some students aren't financially able to attend. So, giving them scholarships was one of our initiatives. Um, if you want to talk a
little about the alumni. >> So, Ben Moore did more of like the money with the 501c3 and I did mostly alumni. So, we reached out to like alumni and past Dammersta members. We made um newsletters and we sent out to give them
updates on what's happening at Dammer DKA. We did some alumni shoutouts and we're hoping well Ben won't be here next year, but I'm hoping next year to like maybe host an alumni event for any alumni who wanted to come and celebrate Dan Saka.
>> Yeah. So pretty um proud of the project, happy with the way it finished. And also just one of the things I'm most proud about is that we started off at districts by getting yeah fourth place which is just and it's like our district's not that big. It's basically just like Northshore Massachusetts and then we ended up getting third in the
entire world in our category. So I think that just kind of speaks to the effort um you know we put in how we took the feedback and our kind of perseverance throughout the project. Um, so some other stuff that we did at ICDC, a bunch of us went to the Atlanta Aquarium, which I personally didn't go
to, but I heard it was a lot of fun. Um, we went to the Braves game as a whole community, all of Dammerste went. We had a lot of fun. And we also went to Deca Night at Six Flags, which was everybody who was in DECA across the whole world, even some other countries, United States, everyone was invited to go. So,
we had a lot of fun doing that as well to celebrate DECA and all of our hard work over the past year. And these are just some other pictures of our trip that we went on. >> Yeah, that's about it. Just want to say um thank you guys for the support. I
know you guys are very generous to DECA um allowing us to not only talk but just helping us out too. And I know everybody um our supervisors, you know, and all the members of chapter really appreciate it that enable us to go to things like this because everybody, you know, no
matter who won or lost, whatever, I know everybody had a ton of fun in Atlanta. So, just want to say thank you guys. >> Thank you. [applause] >> And they did what you asked through the chair. They brought home the glass. >> Yes.
>> And that's actually a nice segue for a deep update. So, we have Mary Beth Barry who's here to present and a major supporter of our DECA program. >> Good evening everyone. Mary Beth Berry, current president of DEP, uh the Dammers Education Enrichment Partnership. Um
most of you know about DEP, but I am just going to give a quick overview yet again for folks that are new and folks that are watching or new families as well. Uh the mission of DEP is to one, we're a nonprofit organization serving the Damas public schools. By building a
relationship with the Denver schools and area businesses, we offer Danver students and teachers additional opportunities and resources for an exciting and engaging education. Each year, DEEP funds teacher grants that are um we look for innovative grants and
grants that also help improve the technology in classrooms and grants that help to provide students a unique opportunities that give them a competitive advantage not only today but in their future. Um, next slide. Um, currently Deep has
an executive board and board of directors. Uh, myself as president. Ben Thomas from DECAT is our vice president. Mari Matt is our grants coordinator. Michelle Keith is our treasurer. Angela Chumis our secretary. And for board of directors we have Glenn Buchcci, Gayla
Bartlett and Richard Stony. Um, basically your executive board are parents. Most are parents. our vice president is not apparent um currently, but um Mari, Matt, Michelle, Keith, and
Angela and I started at uh Riverside where Rockets and we started at the Pack there and then continued through middle school. And in 2015, um because PAC was no longer in our realm and high school
didn't have a PAC, we joined deep. Uh and we're still there. um not because we have children in the school district anymore, but because we care about our schools and the community that we live in. However, we are open to having new members and folks that want to take it
over. Um it's been 11 years and I feel like it's time to kind of pass the torch, but um folks are busy. We understand that. Um, but anyone looking or if you know anyone that still are younger parents that want to be involved
but uh have moved on to middle or high school, uh, send them my way because again, just looking to pass that torch and continue the good work that Deep's been doing since 1990. I hate to see it, uh, die and that's goal is not for it to
die, but um, we want to keep it going, but I think it's just time to retire maybe. Uh throughout the year we do a lot of fundraising events. Uh well we have in the past. Um currently our board is just we've just gone we've all kind
of advanced our careers so we have a little less time to put on some of the big events and they do take a lot of people to help run those things. But we do memberships uh family memberships individual community. We have corporate members that contribute. Um we've done
dining for dollar events with um different food establishments. Texas Roadhouse is a big supporter of Deep in the Dammers public schools. So want to give them a shout out. Uh community events. We uh for a few years did the downtown treelighting. Uh we took that
over when um the Dammers family festival was no longer and then we passed it off to Falconfest. Um, we have alumni, uh, retirees that contribute, um, in kind donations or monetary donations every year and local businesses. True North Bank, which used
to be Northshore Bank, just recently donated $1,200 to us. Um, for every new account that was opened in the last year and a half, they contributed, I think, $10 towards some local nonprofits and Deep was one of them. Um, the food
pantry was the other. We also do the save the seat where folks can purchase um a plaque to go on an auditorium seat in the Danver High School auditorium and care uh current care. So anytime you order online from CURS the florist you
can select a nonprofit you want to contribute a percentage to. I would love it if you uh chose deep for that. Um the next slide so since 1990 they've been doing teacher grants. I have included
here the last six years of where we've uh contributed in grant monies and what we've had for applications. Um as you see, you know, 20 21 22 23 um almost $20,000 or a little more. Uh and the
applications were a little more. Um and then we get into 24 25 26 and we're around closer to the 10,000 mark. um quality of applications that come in. Not everyone that writes an application gets a grant and that's due to
guidelines. We have guidelines. Um some of those are we don't fund consumables. Um sometimes a grant application is something that the district should be funding potentially. Um and we work with the administration. If we get an
application, we don't just say no. uh we work and just you know kind of collaborate as is it an appropriate grant is it not and then we go from there. So this year we almost $10,000. We had seven applications. I have gone I
have spoken to teachers. I've spoken at opening day. Um you know teachers you have a lot on your plate. You do a lot and sometimes writing a grant takes some time but it is out there. There is money there and we do every year encourage them to apply and they can do so as a
group. Uh this year um one of the grants was for the technology department yet again. They asked for a piece of equipment that they currently had that was antiquated and it was a Castle TSM12 pocket hole joining machine. So in our
um our technology department where they're doing woodworking, they needed that. Uh Mr. Sanjano had talked to me about it. We, you know, said great, write the grant and they did. And that grant um was quite a bit of money. So, we're happy to do that and help with that because otherwise it would not have
been able to be funded through our regular school budget. Um, so we have worked hard to to contribute a lot of additional funding to the school district um that these are outside the budget and Pam does a wonderful job. Oh, she left. But, uh, we work with Pam as
well and uh the curriculum office um they're really good at helping um us with coordinating the grants. Um, so again, guidelines, innovative is a big word that we want. We want innovative grants, something outside the box, high quality, thoughtful, connect to current
curriculum, and benefiting a larger number of students. So, not the I got 10 students and I want to purchase X, Y, and Z. We want something that's going to last a little longer, going to hit more students um to make, you know, the money go a little further. Uh, in technology,
we do help with, but it does have to get approved by the technology director. So we have teachers coordinate with their building principles who and they also have to coordinate with our technology director Mr. Sullivan. Uh so over the years one at one point we were putting whiteboards in all you know the
elementary schools and then the packs were helping with that. So um we'd love to do it. Um and so those were just some of the the guidelines. Again we don't fund consumables or field trips or food any of that. the next slide. So, uh,
our DECA students here, Deep is a huge sponsor of DECA. Um, we were in on it from the ground zero, uh, because Deep being a business, you know, a collaboration of businesses in town helps support DECA and a number of ways.
So, not only do do the teachers um submit DECA um deep teacher grants, but we also fund them with monetary uh donation. Last year it was 10,000. This year we did 5,000 in um a donation that
helps send the students to ICDC or the states because like the students did earlier, it does cost a lot of money. And then this year, um, the DECA teachers submitted a teacher grant for a maker space package that included an embroidery machine, a scan and cut,
sublimination printer, and mug press. So that is going in addition to the t-shirt press that we purchased for them last year. So their school store now can make these items rather than having to go out and outsource it and have that middle guy and taking a cut. So they're able to
do a lot of this work now in their in-house. and we have ordered uh deep spelling bee t-shirts from them so that you know we're we're still helping out each other. So this year almost uh uh over $8,600 in contributions to DECA. So
um but they, you know, they did an awesome job this year, but what they didn't say is they competed against over 20,000 students around the world and they came number three. So again, huge shout out, hard work, really happy for
our DECA, DECA students, uh because of all the hard work and it's a great program that we have at Dammers High School and um hopefully we continue that program and it continues to grow. So next slide. Events that we have sponsored this year. We do the um HRMS
spelling bee. We sponsor the step step up for Colleen 5K, the DECA program. We have sponsored the band and the chorus uh on their trips and um in the past we have sponsored the credit for life event and the high school and middle school
school stores. We've given seed money so they could start those um programs and uh the deep breakfast of champions which you were all invited to each year where we honor not only our deep sponsors but our retiring teachers. So that's a photo of this year's group that was able to
attend. Um 12 13 retirees 13. Um and they really look forward to that. Some don't even know what it's about and some are like oh I don't have time to make it and we make sure that they make this event because it is very important that they understand that as a district we
really value their hard work that they have given over the years and it is an hour of their time. But I do want to thank um the folks that attended. Um Mike attended and um it's really good to just honor them and they deserve it and so we're really happy to do that for
them. And then so again, we're always looking for new members, new board members. Um meetings are over for this year. Uh folks can find more information out at supportdep.org. Um not sure what next year is going to look like as far as we've talked about
doing quarterly meetings. Uh again, it's just more of a time thing for a lot of us right now. And um the goal is to work on a plan, a succession plan, and that's what we're doing. So uh again, don't want to give it up, but um life happens
and things change and other people need opportunities to do this, right? Right. Anyone? Anyone? No. Uh so I think that's um that's my presentation. Uh again, if you wanted to really quick that some of the teacher grants that we or all the teacher grants that we supported this
year, Great Oak, the art teacher asked for flexible seating in the classroom. Dammer High School asked for that um the pocket um joint machine. Highlands kindergarten um they asked for morning stem bins. So things that the students
could do in the morning when they come into the classroom, activities, hands-on manipulations rather than sitting and doing a worksheet. A lot of these included uh puzzles, Legos, building blocks, snap cubes, uh different uh magnetiles. Dammer High School, we
talked about the DECA one for the um maker space. Dammer High School also they have an esports club now. And esports is an upand cominging thing and especially in colleges it is actually a degree program. So, I have over the
years um I serve on the recreation committee and I have said, "Oh, we should be doing esports and it takes a lot of um infrastructure and technology." And I was happy when I heard the high school was doing it and they applied for a grant this year looking for three Switch consoles so
that not only can the kids in the club because it is a club and it's a new club but they're also coordinating that with the students in Best Buddies the embark and the rise programs. So it has been an inclusive program after school activity
that is up and coming. So uh happy to do that. HRMS. We did a 3D printer uh which uh I think their original 3D printer D-pad purchased. So, they needed a new one and we uh supplied them with a
new one this year. So, again, any questions? >> Just thank you for what Deep does. Appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. And um to reiterate what you were saying about other people's turns, um
you know, it's it's funny how you you walk around town and you see maybe not the same 10 people, but the same handful of people year to year always doing things and and I definitely appreciate you and Mark being two of those people that I've known for 30 some odd years doing a lot of those things. So, um you
know, thank you for what you do and hopefully other people will step it up. So, >> other questions? Okay. Um, I did just want to throw out there, yes, having two students in the Dammers public schools, uh, have graduated and now they both graduated
college and it took a village and, um, when my youngest just graduated, I actually went to the elementary school and I thanked the teachers there that got him through because honestly, if he didn't have that support and that beginning, that foundation, I don't know
where he would have been because it was a struggle. and all the way up to the high school thanking the teachers that uh entertained my child every single morning. He came into school early just to see that teacher for 45 minutes or a half hour. So, um I want to say that the
Dammers public schools coming from a a private school girl. Uh I want to say that public school worked for my children and but it's a a team effort that everyone has to put in. So again, I want to thank the Dammers public schools and all the staff that were involved in
that for me. So, and my children. So, thank you. Okay. In the last portion of the update, um we have two subcommittee meetings that uh took place um towards the end of May. And we have some highlights to provide for you. Uh in terms of the
policy subcommittee, we basically talked about the amended restraint policy and um talked about all the information with that and Derek uh and Christina attended as as well as the rest of the team, Sue and Anelique. Uh we had a great discussion on that. Uh the competency
determination policy which uh I'm glad we went with the basic one because we had to change it and we have it up again for change tonight. But I just wanted to list all the policy work that we've done this year and it's quite a bit and um it's certainly around areas that we
talked about in the retreat last year, but also as things come up uh to improve services uh for all of our students and for our supportive staff as well. Then we talked about policy review for next year and certainly we'll look at putting together an audit um which will be a lot
of work but um our work will continue the policy. if anybody has any questions on that. And then I'd like to call up Julie Posinac, Peter Dearo, and Christina Ryan just to give some updates with the equity subcommittee a little bit more information. Um, just for the
committee's knowledge, typically this time of year, we put together an endofear report, but a lot of our local data is being tabulated now. So we wanted just to basically give some highlights of the equity because there's a lot of great work that's been done uh
connected to the curriculum and access for all students but uh we will provide a more updated report and end of year report as we either August or in September and that actually coincides with year two of the strategic plan as well as our district improvement plans. So I'm going to turn this over uh to
Miss Pastan. Start first. >> Thank you. Go ahead. Thank you for having us. Um we're going to give you just a brief overview of the MTSS work happening at the elementary level in preK through grade five. Um go ahead forward. So an MTSS system, we've been
working for a few years on building these. Um but I just wanted to give you a quick update tonight. As you can see, um this is in order to have a system that's supporting all of our learners in preK to 5, there's a lot of things that need to come together. Um and we are focusing our work around those four um
pillars you see around the outside of the blue circle. Academic success, health and wellness, social, emotional and behavioral development and school belonging. Go ahead forward. Um so at the elementary level, we chose to begin with literacy um as our focus. So as we
began to build these systems a few years ago, we really focused on our professional learning, adopting highquality instructional materials, making sure that we were making decisions based on data and that our schedules align so that we could do the work that we needed to do. So that was
the work we really started in literacy. And if you keep going forward, you can see that um we really are able to track our students as they move through the grade levels. So, as you can see, our current first grade class, that first line across is where they were in kindergarten when they were
kindergarteners. So, they started the year at 43% benching um and then they began their first grade year at 69% benching and in the middle of the year they were at 77% benchmarking um on our literacy screeners. And again, our data collection for end of year is happening
right now. So, as Mr. Bower stated we'll be able to update these numbers for you um in the fall move going forward. So we're really excited to continue this work with mathematics. Um so math has sort of taken a back seat to our literacy work um and we are very excited
to be moving forward with the adoption of a new highquality instructional material in the fall. We are working to make sure that we implement universal screeners and diagnostics as well so that we are able to um provide that support for all our students the same
way we do in reading. Um we want to be able to mirror that system with mathematics as well. So again our schedules are shifting for next year in order to be supporting students from reading and mathematics. Um what's next? Oh, so this is some of
our example of our local math data. Right now we collect curriculum based measures and we also screen um all of our K and1 students using an interview. We sit with each K1 student and interview them um which is timeconuming but at the information you get from
sitting with a kid for a few minutes is absolutely amazing. Um, so we are looking to shift this next year to have more universal screeners and diagnostic work as well in grades two to five. Um, so that we can really make sure that we're meeting each student's needs um,
in all those grade levels going forward. Um, so we continue at the elementary level. We've been working on our social, emotional, and behavioral development MTSS system for a while. Um, we did adopt a new high quality instructional material, Wavefinder, that's preK to 12.
We've implemented screeners in grades three to five and again we're basing our decisions about what students need and what our tier one instruction should look like based on that data. So if you go to the next slide. So this is some example of some of the way points data that we collect in grades 3 to 5. And
you can see that wayfinder which is our social emotional curriculum in prek through 12 is working on those um six competencies that are in that circle there. And we measure students progress. We measure their growth. Um, this is self-reported data that students do
multiple times a year. But what's really cool about this data is that as a teacher, when my class takes this assessment, it then gives me recommendations of which lessons my cohort of students need. Um, I can see that certain student oops, sorry, certain students need more support than
others. So I can see individually how each student is doing, but I can also see as a my class what I need to focus on, what skills I need to focus on. Um, and school belonging has been a focus at all five elementary schools for a while. We've been working on our PBIS
systems, develop defining what that positive behavior looks like, what those expectations are. Each of our five schools has an accountability system. Um has a system for setting those expectations, but it looks a little different at each of our five buildings because each building brings their own
character and excitement around it. Um you might hear Highlands High Five or um Great Oak has Dragon Drive. So these are systems that the teachers have put together with their principal. Um and we're really tracking sort of that tier one implementation of those PBIS
systems. And if you can flip to the next slide, we collect what's called a TFI tiered fidelity inventory multiple times across the school year. So myself um and our elementary librarian who actually focuses a lot on our work. We go around
to all five elementary schools and we ask kids, have you received a ticket? Do you know what the expectations are? Um and we ask students, we ask staff members, and we're able to track um how the implementation is going at tier one. So you can see this is an example of
Riverside and how those numbers have increased. The reason that the green is just doesn't get super high is because right now we're only measuring tier one. If we were going higher and doing more tiered fidelity inventories, we'd be seeing um higher numbers, but right now
we're just measuring our tier one um in terms of school belonging data. So really where we're headed at the elementary level, which we're really excited about, is how do all these systems intersect? How do we make sure that we are meeting students needs across the whole day? Um so I may be a
student who is very very strong academically but I need some social emotional support. Um I may be a student um who needs some extra math support but not extra reading support. So how do we build so that all these systems when we meet to have our data team meetings, we
need the social worker, we need the classroom teacher, we need the math interventionist, we need the reading interventionist. How are we making sure that a specific student is getting the support that they need for each aspect of their day? Um, so it's a balancing act and a lot of pieces have to come
together, but we have a lot of solid work happening in the reading. We're really excited to expand to the math. We've done a lot of work in the social emotional area, um, in the school belonging area. So, what we're really hoping to do next year is make sure all those systems are intertwined and
intersecting in a way that we're really looking at the whole child and making sure that they have the supports they need to be successful across the school day. Hello. So, similar to like Julie said, a lot of the end of year benchmarking is happening right now. So, we'll follow up with that specific data later. So for
tonight, I'd like to share a little bit what's going on uh with the intersection of the applied learning work at the middle school and high school and the finalized portrait of a learner which we developed over the past uh year in terms of our strategic plan. Um so there are two initiatives going on both this year
at the middle school and the high school in terms of um pilots around applied learning. At the middle school, we've been uh fortunate to receive a grant from the 18 Foundation around replicating applied learning instruction everywhere, specifically with discourse mapping in terms of getting students talking more in the classrooms and
sharing their ideas. Um using peers as thought partners and really make it a dialogue between peers and the teacher instead of just a ping-pong back and forth. So, we have um an initial pilot this year that we're going to be continuing to next year. And then DHS is in year three of their applied learning and leadership institute journey um
which we'll talk a little bit more about in terms of really um the durable skills that we want all students to have going into their post-secary plans. So I just wanted to show this overlap. So the 18 foundation has a framework that helps us think about what strong applied learning looks like. It involves
real world problem solving, pairing content knowledge and soft skills, iteration and persistence, professional framing and collaboration and communication. And part of the reason that we're very lucky to work with them is that this aligns so nicely to the portrait of a graduate for Dammers
Public Schools that we came up with. Um, and so the overlap is really there. And when we're talking with our teachers and our staff about it, it's all about it's not separate initiatives. It's not separate things. We're all driving toward that same goal of putting the students in the driver seat for their learning and working on their skills that they're going to need moving
forward, not only in the classroom every day, uh, but in their career moving forward. So, first I just wanted to talk a little bit about the work we've done at HRMS. Um, we do have more specific data that I shared during the subcommittee meeting that I left out because it's a lot to parse through. Right now, we're just um
collecting survey data from teachers and students, but our hope is to see over time that that's going to um transmit to our achievement data as well. So, look forward to looking at that more specifically. Um, these couple of slides right here um we were fortunate enough um to be recognized for our work this
year and they asked us to present in Norwood. um last month at their celebration of learning. So out of about 30 schools that participated, we're one of seven schools that presented um and they were really impressed with the overlap between our portrait of graduate and that there were the work we were doing around our discourse mapping. Um
so we really tried to roll this out intentionally throughout this year, trained an initial group of teachers with our instructional leadership team and then slowly involved more teachers who wanted to be involved this year. Um, and teachers that were involved commented that they were pleasantly surprised with the amount of discourse that students were having in the
classroom. And the whole goal is to think about how can we strategically plan our lessons to plan for intentional moments of students talking to each other throughout the lesson. Um, and then as also as a way moving forward, um, we're starting to operationalize how we're going to be measuring our portrait of a graduate as
we continue to get guidance from the state in terms of the new graduation requirements with MCCAST. um it seems like one of the core pillars is going to be some sort of capstone or portfolio of a student's learning experience throughout their K to2 experience. So we store discourse mapping as a key way
that we can actually you know measure if students are being strong communicators or collaborators. And so we want to continue to uh use this tool as we empower teachers to do learning walks in their peers classrooms and learn from one another and actually measure and gauge how much students are talking in the classroom.
Now shifting from the middle school to the high school. This is the third year that the high school has been running the pilot to school. And this is all centered around what are the skills that students are doing in the classroom that can be paired with the content. So it's not just going through the lens of what is the content objective for the day. So
teachers in the high school pilot really were strategic in thinking about what am I having students do um around the skill of communication. And moving forward, we can use any of those portrait or graduate skills to pair with the content knowledge, but we want to start small and just focus around that communication
skill. um as we got this off of the ground and we used this framework. It took a couple of years to sort of land on this and we got this framework. There's a book uh called clarity for learning and it describes this what why how framework and typically in a classroom you know for many years we know that there's the content objective
which is really the what um but what our hope was is just to go beyond that and really be explicit with students in terms of why are we learning what we learning which connects to that real world problem solving the professional framing and then that how which is pairing that content and the soft skill and then our hope is that being that
explicit with students they're not just learning the what of the content but they're also understanding that through through this lesson I'm learning that I need to communicate through giving a presentation communicate by participating in group work with my peers and just being very explicit about
that in the lesson so students know that they're consciously working on it as well as a specific skill and that's it. >> Good evening. Next slide please. We recently participated in our integrated
monitoring review and this is when DESIE comes to ensure that the district practices align with state and federal requirements and support strong outcomes for students. As part of this audit, they reviewed 52 indicators and identified four areas requiring corrective action. For each of these
actions, we had to develop a corrective action plan to resolve any non-compliance within a year. So by May 2027, there were four areas that were highlighted. The first of which is IEP team composition and attendance. And what this means is ensuring that all
required team members are present at IEP meetings. The next one is regarding progress reports and ensuring that families are receiving progress reports along the same times they're receiving their child's report cards. The next one talks about childf find and tiered intervention documentation, which is
what Julie spoke to earlier, which is really making sure that as students are receiving those tiered interventions, we're monitoring that data and then reaching a point where we're wondering whether or not the student does have a disability and referring the child to special education based on the data at that time.
SE18B talks about the determination of placement in the provision of an IEP to a parent. We have five school days to ensure that parents receive their child's IEP. So we want to make sure that we're adhering to those guidelines. For each of these corrective actions, we have to identify a plan that has three
essential components. The first being the root cause analysis as well as evidence of completed corrective action and a description of our internal monitoring process to make sure that we're ensuring that this isn't continuing to be an issue. >> Are there any questions?
>> I do have a question. I have multiple questions. So I think we'll work backwards. How's that? Now, okay. Um, in regards to the corrective action and next steps, I I in root cause analysis is any of this budget implication, resource constraint, like why why were
we out of compliance in four areas? What do you think the key driver there was? The key driver has been that we haven't necessarily had the team chairperson at those buildings to ensure that the paperwork component in compliance is clearly articulated and that what we saw in our data is in the buildings where we do have a team chairperson that data is
much different and so really we're correcting those pieces that have been out of compliance. >> Okay. Does anyone else have a question for I'm going to work my way backwards. >> All right. Cool. Um back to the middle school and high school. Um, I I love the
whole initiative around engaging in the classroom. I don't know if anyone's heard of the millennial stare. I mean, kids really aren't communicating anymore. Their heads are down. They're plugging away. Um, how long has this been like when was this first initiated?
And are you seeing like that difference? And now I say it full transparency. My daughter's in the middle school and from elementary school to middle school, it's like a whole other person. I think combo band and part you know, she's coming home and debating me, which is a whole
other issue. But can you tell us more? >> Yeah. >> About that because I'm excited about that because yeah, >> kids don't communicate as much as they used to. >> The the high school has been involved in this work for the past three years. And the middle school um this is the the second year that the middle school has.
And so part of this is going out to see other schools both in state to see like high quality applied learning programs and how can we replicate that here. And then there's usually um a larger visit too. I know last year the middle school got to go to Denver. This year the high school got to go to Denver to see like highly innovative schools and see what
they're doing and how can we bring that back to what we're doing here. But um the data shows which I didn't get to tonight just for the sake of time that students are reporting that they're feeling that the work they're doing is more meaningful that they're talking more in classes that they find things more relevant and that the skills are more applicable to other areas. So those
are huge gains that I think are really meaningful compared to the survey data we gave at the beginning of the year. >> Awesome. Well, thank you for sharing that. >> Of course. through the chair. There's a No, I really apologize. There was one piece that uh we will share uh the video uh
and schools are going to come to Danver High School next year. >> Yes. Yeah. So, out of um all of the cohorts um they pick two or three to move forward into the next year to be an exemplar for others in the state. So, we're actually we opened up um our own
sort of grant program that other Massachusetts school can opt into. There's actually a fiveminute video trailer you can check out. And so we're going to be host school in the fall for other schools to apply. Come and see the work going on in our classrooms to see how they can come back and replicate it in their schools which is really exciting.
>> Awesome. >> Any questions for him because I'm going to keep going. >> Yes. >> The discourse mapping. Can you just talk about how is that something that um let's say they read something right?
Let's hope they're reading right. Um and then the kids as a group identify the different parts of the reading and what the problem is or can you explain the discourse mapping a little? >> So the discourse mapping is really a fle a reflection tool that teachers can use to to be reflective about their
practice. So it involves a teacher going out to a peer's room and really mapping the discourse that's happening in the classroom and seeing who's doing the talking, who's doing the thinking. is the teacher sort of facilitating or are the students the ones going back and forth with each other? Then there's a follow-up conversation with the teacher
to give like the feedback to each other and then a follow-up after that. So really hoping moving forward to expand it from here and use it as a learning walk tool to see what is the practice going on and what are specific areas we can put in proof around. >> And this may be a leap but anecdotally
do you feel like the cell phone policy that we have with I'm hearing the kids are engaging with each other more because of it. >> So, I just think it's a very healthy thing for young people to talk to each other even even in
non-class spaces. >> Yeah, I think I think that's definitely a huge help. I mean, I know the middle school has had a a more stringent cell phone policy, but in terms of the high school, I know that talking to teachers at the beginning of the year compared last year to this year, they had to adjust their pacing because they were
able to get through more things because of less distractions. So, that was a huge they were to get to almost like um like doubled the amount of stuff they get to in a in a week, which is great. >> Nice. I just love that we were encouraging
kids to talk when back in the day it was like sit down and shut up. So great stuff. Um Dr. Ber, can you take us to slide 30 and Julie please? >> Okay. >> Yes. Literacy data. Okay.
Yeah. Can you please clarify if we're looking at apples to apples now? I remember we were doing a transition. So now for literacy and for math. >> So for literacy all of our K to 5 students are screened with the same
literacy screener K to five. Um so you've been on board for a while where we are transitioning. We have K 1 2 3 now all the way through actually through sixth and seventh grade as well. Um so what in previous slides I have showed you for this is we wanted to follow a
cohort of students. So this shows you so the column on the left if you look at current second grade right now the current second graders in January we're at 75% of the district benchmarking in
the middle of this year that 55 is at the beginning of their first grade year. The 67 is the middle of their first grade year. 84 is the end of their first grade year. The 72 is the beginning of their second grade year. So we see a dip
over the summertime. Um and then they move 72 to 75 and we're currently collecting the end of year um benchmarks. But the other part I should note for you as you've been along on this journey with me of purchasing new materials and books, our K1 and two
students have had the high quality instructional materials from the beginning of their kindergarten experience. our third, fourth, and fifth graders were on the transitional time. So the work that we have to do in three, four, and five looks different right now. We need to adjust our tier one
instruction to meet the needs of these students who did not have that high quality instructional material from the beginning of their kindergarten experience. So you do see sort of a differential um in our K1 and two data and our three, four, and five data. And our data in
fourth and fifth is very similar to our data in sixth and seven. Um and so we are planning professional development in June combined fourth through 8th grade. Um and we're bringing someone in to really focus on how are we how are we adjusting our instruction,
our tier one instruction to meet the needs of this cohort of students who are demonstrating um the pattern is very clear for us. We were here today screening all the sixth and seventh graders. our fourth, fifth, and sixth and seventh graders, they are reading
accurately, but they are reading their words correct per minute is not high enough. And so what that tells us is we need to adjust. They need to be reading more. They need to be reading out loud more. So we need to shift our similar to what you said to sit down and shut up.
>> We need them to be reading instead of silent reading. They need to be and we think of these as things that we expect our younger learners to do. We need our fourth through eighth graders as well to be doing this in reading out loud, processing, having those conversations
um in a way that isn't what we've always traditionally done. So, we are shifting our practice based on the data and I think it's a great opportunity for us to collaborate between the elementary and the middle school um because the data is so similar, the pattern is there. So we need to adjust and we need to learn
about that pattern and adjust that instruction. The hope would be that when our current K1 and two students move up to 3, four, five, six, seven, we may what we need to do may look different. Does that make sense? >> You completely answered my question. So thank you for volunteering all of that.
The the other followup to this before I go to my next slide is I mean we're when we're looking at fifth, sixth, and seventh grade, we're looking at the K1 kids coming out of COVID and does that seem to be a consistent like national >> and so COVID and the transition with
[clears throat] the science of reading and the transition of curriculum all coincided? >> Yeah. Can the chair and I'm sorry to interrupt. This is really important. We've worked really hard. Julia and her team, they've been in the middle school this year addressing a lot of the gaps and working with the the middle school
team, which really hasn't happened to the volume that's happening now. So, there's a new piece of that which is so important because we're trying to get that alignment moving. So, kudos to the team for that and we hope to see those results. Anyone else with this?
Um I hope when we see you in August that you're going to be incredibly um happy >> willing and happy to share the progress monitoring that's go monitoring that's going on right now with the immediate data. So I'm looking forward to seeing that >> because it's trending in the right
direction. >> Yes. I'm very excited the data that's being collected right now. >> Thank you. >> Sorry I took a lot of notes. You you know I care about data. >> I know you like the data slides. I know. And I I it's refreshing to see data and
a map in a plan. Um Dr. Bower, if you could go two slides forward, please. >> Mathematics. I'm I'm making an assumption that I mean, we're only going up to second grade. It looks like the data stops. >> No, it does not. This is just a snapshot. Um
>> Okay. But it looks like it fell off a cliff in second grade. No, this is just a snapshot of so currently um >> can you help us understand the slide? >> Yes, I got you. Hold on. Okay, so currently, you know, we're transitioning
to a new math program. We um with our old math program, we uh collected curriculum based measures. So, the data that we collected for math was end of unit assessments.
Moving forward, we're hoping to move to a model more similar to reading where we're collecting benchmark data three times a year and progress monitoring throughout th youngest learners, our K and one
students. So similarly to in reading um where we've talked a lot about the importance of K and one for literacy and that there's a high percentage of students that where you bench at the end of first is statistically where you're going to stay for a large proportion of
students. So the work that's happening in K and one is incredibly important in terms of early literacy. Turns out the same thing is true with mathematics which is why we implemented the midyear screening data and you see the um we've
done it we do it two times throughout the year where we sit with every single K and one student. You get much more out of an interview with them than you do with them taking a paper pencil assessment. We our math coach Allison Day has done an incredible amount of work of
collating that data from K and one making individual plans for students for groups of students um for teachers for their whole cohort of classrooms. What work needs to be revisited? What these four kids need more practice with? What these two kids need more practice with?
What we are hoping to shift to with the new program is I is beginning to have what we want which is what we have with literacy is a consistent measure going K to five potentially going higher than K to 5. We would like a consistent measure. So rather than relying on
individual unit assessments um which obviously change yeartoyear content to content where I'm in a fraction unit or I'm in a multiplication unit. We want to be able to track the way we do for literacy, how are our students benchmarking on a similar assessment
going K to five. So not that the unit assessments are not important. So you can see um this school for example, I don't remember which school this is, but um you can see investigations unit 5. That's an example of our previous math
program, but you can see that at this school the second graders actually piloted the new math program, Eureka. Um and so you can see that the percent of students meeting benchmark on that end of module 2 assessment is not that high.
We are trans we are transitioning to an extremely more rigorous math curriculum which is fantastic but we are going to see that dip um from our previous math program to this math program. So, while we will continue to gather that end, they're called modules in our new math
program, um, end of unit module assessment data and make instructional decisions based on that. We're also hoping to implement a benchmark system for math so that we can track students the way that we do for literacy um, in meeting those benchmarks across the
school year. Math is a little trickier because you haven't taught your fractions unit yet. It is very content specific versus when I'm working on literacy, my skills are running the gamut and I can see >> um this is just an example to show that
we are collecting math data and we are looking at it and adjusting our instruction based on it. It is not as cohesive, clear or aligned K to five as we want our new system to be. Does that make sense?
>> No, it does. I can understand the complexity and I'm not sure if it makes sense to track, you know, performers and addition and subtraction, tracking performers for division and then fractions and then >> being able to branch them off as they go on. But you know me, I love data, but it
it stopped at second grade. Thank you for clarifying that it's a new module. >> It so for K to five, all students take the end of module assessment or end of unit assessment um across the year. So there's um eight module six modules next
year. Um our old program had eight units. So they're taking an end of unit assessment every few every four to six weeks. We were collecting that data. What we're hoping that is important. It's important to know did they learn
what you taught. What we're hoping to move towards is where are students measuring on all those domains at three points in the school year. so we know exactly who needs extra support, who's at risk, who needs that extra support. Um, and that we're able to track those
cohorts and see the growth um with implementing a new curriculum next year. >> Are those um math assessment paper and pencil, >> the current ones? So, of course, it's not an easy answer. The interviews are
us speaking and the kids do some writing. Um, in for the unit assessments in the younger grades, they're paper pencil. In three, four, and five, they're on the computer. >> Um, I don't want to put you on the spot, but I want to put you on the spot. Um,
for the benchmark system, >> does Eureka have their own? >> No. What we are hoping Eureka has a has their unit modules. They have beginning of year, middle year, end of year. What we're hoping to move forward with is
similar to our um Dibbles assessments for literacy. MClass also has a math benchmarking system which would allow us to have all of our academic student data in one platform so that when we're at data meetings we're able to discuss both
aspects of students and different needs and see those charts in a familiar structure in a familiar way um be able to measure that student growth as well. So we want to have
just like the dibbles is a measure of it's telling you if a student is at risk if they don't have intervention. We want to have that same piece for mathematics. So instead of waiting till I don't do well on my end of unit assessment, we
need to know at the beginning of the year who's at risk and in which domains are you at risk? Because as Gabe said, I could be really strong at adding and subtracting and I get to fractions and so what is the preloading that we could do if we measure students ahead of time
before we get to the fractions unit. Um and we really similar to literacy, we want to really target our younger learners and really set that solid foundation um so that they are prepared for the more complex math as they move up um the grade levels. I didn't realize
that McLass has a math brand new. >> So that's good to know because we don't use that. We use I ready. But in the world of academics and the speak that you have with people out there, >> is there is there any sharing going on as to what works >> the best with or
>> there are few options. There are cost considerations. Um there are a few options. I has been um blacklisted. Um but we have there are different options that we've explored and the one that we are hopefully going to be able to move
forward with would be aligned to our literacy. So having our math and our literacy on one platform um McLass math is new. Um but they are they are great at we've been negotiating because we already have McLass literacy for
literacy and so it behooves them to have districts on board for both. Um, so that will play out over time. There's been so much more focus from the media around the literacy, but that eventually there'll
be more on the math. Um, >> but as you and I know, there's also mathematical literacy, right? And you know, >> so, but thank you for asking answering the question. >> Um, yeah, I had uh one question. Um, recently I've moved from special education to being an elementary school
math teacher and uh, one thing that I noticed my students love to brag about is, hey, I finished my my assessment in 10 minutes and their score reflects that. So, is when they reach these benchmark times, is that something that can be reset and they can do knowing
full well that they thought of it as a video game and they were just trying to, you know, cheat code their way to the end of the saving princess or something. Um, well, that happened to me today here at the middle school. Um, and I think that if you know your students, it was
and we were in paper and pencil in seventh grade. It's M class is moving to seventh grade next year, but um I was able to call students back over and say, "Did you really were you unclear as to the directions here?" Or and they're like, "Okay, we're going to do it
again." So yes, you can reset if something doesn't seem you're not going to make a lot of instructional decisions. The screener is supposed to be brief, very quick. You screen everyone to tell you who's at risk. Um so if one piece of data doesn't seem right, you're either going to check in
on the kid, have them do it again or collect look at other data as well. So you wouldn't make a lot of decision just based on one piece of data. >> Right? I just know when kids have had their hand they just like see >> the combination of the student, the assessment and the teacher would put
together the whole picture of who's at risk and who needs and then sometimes you have the discrepancy of >> um why are their scores like this but their MCAST scores are up here. So what happened in this testing environment? Um so that's why it's important that um we're triangulating our data and not
just relying on one. But the point of the screener is to collect a lot of information very quickly to identify who's at risk, who's most at risk. Last one two slides back social emotional.
Okay, I'll make the assumption it's a five point scale. Correct. >> Correct. >> Can you just explain the graph on the right? Is that like the in classroom? >> That is a classroom. So, what you do not see on the left hand side are the student names. >> So, the first student with straight
fives across the top, the second student has some um areas that need additional support. >> Yes, you can see, does that make sense? Yeah, that's a classroom set of data. And you can see that that final column where it says insights, that's going, if I click on that as the teacher, it's
going to tell me what in what small groupoup instruction, what additional supports that student needs. So, I'm able to use the resources based on the data to tell me what my whole class needs and what individual students need. >> And I and I guess the question is, is
this a a one-time self assessment done by elementary school? >> We did it we did it twice this year. >> Okay. >> So, we did it two times this year. Um, and each time just in three, four, and five. Um, and each time the classroom teachers met with the social worker and
the principal to review the data afterwards. And um uh to Sean's point, sometimes what is self-reported is not always what the teacher is witnessing. Um and so it's a conversation, but what
this is telling you, what's incredibly important too and why those meetings were held after each administration of this is is there a kid who popped here that we didn't know? Is there something that the data is showing us that we were not aware of? For some students, it's
like, "Yep, they're on the radar. We see the social worker. We're working on those things." And others, it's like, "I better have a conversation with that student. I didn't realize that they, you know, that they felt like they needed support or that this was hard." Um, so in a way, that's incredibly important,
too. Um, and then some students will um either do much stronger than the teacher might think or vice versa. So like to your point, it's important to look at the data and use it as a source of information, but it's not the full picture. It's one snapshot.
>> Yeah. Because that was my only concern with the age of the student. It's like if they're having a bad day, >> you know, but assuming all types of instruction and guidance goes into it. No, thank you. Thank you for taking the
questions. Uh nice work and keep going. Thank you. Next, we're going to move on to before unfinished business. The superintendent recommends amended policy JKA, timeout, seclusion, and physical restraint of students for a
second reading. >> Yes, chair. Uh, if I could have uh Mr. Munan and M. Ryan come forward just if there's any questions. um through your discussion phase. Um and and certainly as we know the the policy itself is is
really just uh a revision with added safeguards as we we discussed and we just want to give a a shout out to CPAC for the collaboration and the dialogue because obviously the policy is one that keeps us as a district in compliance that protects students, staff and
families but the real work goes into the application of the policy with procedures, protocols but through the C the CPAC collaboration and understanding that we have to do our due diligence with communication to families in multiple ways. Uh whether it's comparing
a crosswalk of the old to new policies and procedures and what does this mean? Uh setting up meetings um touring the facilities uh repeating that process, keep an open dialogue, um and also being able to acknowledge that you know throughout any adjustments that are made
through policies and procedures as we put this in that there is a collaboration with CPAC. So uh we value that a great deal and certainly the real work goes into the professional development that uh Derek and and the team will put together u for staff and
administration to ensure that not only does the policy follow with fidelity but that all the supportive measures are in place so that uh families, students but most importantly everyone is on the same page. So uh the recommendation is for a
second reading for approval the school committee. Um as noted the new regulations have to be in place by August 17th. So the first the major piece is the policy having it as uh constructed and then there will be more followup in terms of finalizing procedures, protocols and again the
whole communication phase which which is really critical here. All right. I would uh I would entertain a motion uh for a second reading of JKA timeout seclusion and fiscal restraint students for a second reading. >> So moved.
Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I those opposed passes for second reading. All right, we're going to move on to some new business. Uh, first off, we
have the Richmond Middle School camp Cody field trip. >> Yes, if I could to the chair, uh, we have Holton Richmond teachers, Mr. Valle, Mr. Hodgson, uh, accompanied by principal Colin Tony to present the, uh, Camp Cody field trip and, uh, Mr. Valle
handed out some information related to the field trip. So floor is yours. >> Thank you. Um so as you know we've been going on these overnight field trips for over 30 years um here at Holton Richmond. We used to go to the old Stone Environmental School and now we're going to Camp Cody. So we would like the
opportunity to go again in the fall. The dates we have selected are October 14th to October 16th. That will be a Wednesday to Friday. Uh two nights, three days. Um the cost of the trip we're looking at $475, which we think is a good price point.
And it also puts us in line with other Northshore towns that also go on these trips. And I'm just going to give you a snapshot of last year's enrollment because it projecting for next year is going to be a little bit more difficult because we have more students coming into Holton Richmond. It looks like
we're having about 50 more kids coming next year. Last year we had 176 kids go and we took 18 um faculty chaperones and out of those 18 chaperones we took one administrator, one school nurse and one
guidance counselor. There were also 18 naturalist teachers at Camp Cody as well and they also had their own uh nurse on site. So for 176 kids they were supported by about 40 adults total for the trip.
So to give you a little overview of the purpose, the purpose of this trip is to directly support the science curriculum and we chose camp Cody partly because they do have such a rigorous strong curriculum program and I passed out a
guide to everybody and I also passed out a overview of the itinerary of the entire three days. And one of the things that we liked about this is that it gives us the opportunity to tailor the curriculum to what we're teaching back here at school. And I know we're doing a
three-year roll roll out of the new open sed curriculum. And at in historically, we've also always done life science as a focus, but as we're rolling out open sedum humanities. They have almost every single option available to us from math
to STEM to life science to earth science even some humanities activities. So if you click through if you flip through the book you'll see that they have a lot of different opportunities and that's something that me and John do in the summer at the end of the summer and early in the uh fall we look at what worked well last year and then we kind
of tailor those learning experiences up at Camp Cody to what we're going to be teaching in the classroom. So we do have 176 going and ne we do have 50 more kids go coming into sixth grade this year. So we could potentially have about 200 to 210 going but we still
do have some kids that stay back and I think John is going to speak more to the learning opportunities back here at the school for those kids that are staying back and some of the reasons why they chose not to go. >> Sure. So, we want to make sure that the kids who stay back have have a great experience as well. So, in each
curriculum area, like Mike and Alex and I, the three science teachers will come up with some lessons for them to do when they're back that'll be enjoyable for the kids. Um, each curriculum area has designs lessons for the students to stay back just, you know, so they feel like they're having some fun things. We also
brought in um some different sp like we had curious creatures come in one year. Um, so we try to we try to make it an enriching experience for for kids who stay back. Um, every year we give a survey. So Mike was also talking about the curriculum and we kind of survey the
kids about, you know, what they enjoyed, what they didn't enjoy, what they felt they get a lot out of. But the other part of that is why do kids not go? Um, and honestly the the number one reason that comes up every year is because they can't have cell phones. Um and and as
much as we as much as that seems strange, they're not allowed cell phones because it's an environmental school and obviously we want them to spend some time um you know unplugged. And as surprising as that is, it does become in this day and age where kids are used to be able to be in contact with their
parents like immediately and parents are used to having kids um being in touch with their children immediately. So that's a hurdle you know we have to overcome. Um, and some, you know, for some 12-year-olds, being away for for two days away from parents, which they
may have never done, you know, is a difficult thing for them to do. Um, and down the list also, of course, is cost. You know, for some families, they, you know, they feel like the cost is too much based on on what they what they the experience wants the kid to have. And then there's other things, you know,
kids who don't want to be out outside, um, which, you know, has its own, you know, implications. But, so those are some of the reasons why they don't go and some of the things they do when they're back here at school. >> Um, so one thing we do do, make sure we
reach out to every single family that doesn't go. Um, we try not to let any kids slip through the cracks. So even if a child says we don't want to go, we still reach out to that family with a f usually a phone call um to find out what are the reasons and if there's some help
that they need, we can work with them. But we try to reach out to every single family to make sure that everybody has the opportunity to go and we try to make that connection with everybody that says they're not going, you know. So enrollment has been going up. When we came out of COVID, um it was around 140
kids and it's been climbing every year since then. And next year, like I said, we have more kids coming into sixth grade than we have in a long time. So, we could potentially have over 200 kids go next year. So, I do like to see that ascending enrollment. Um, but yeah, we'll continue to try to get as many
kids to go as possible and we will reach out to those families that do say they can't go and talk to them for whatever reason it is. I have talked a lot of families into going when they talk about um how they're nervous about their kids going away for the first time or they they're not sure the the safety up
there. They're all in good hands. We have 40 well-trained adults up there. Um and I try to talk them into sending their kids and that works quite as long as you make that connection that works often. Is there a scholarship available for
kids who can't pay but want to go? >> Yeah. So, we do have scholarship money and we handle it on a case- by case basis. At the beginning of the um school year in the fall when the parents come here for open house, we do another presentation right here and it usually fills up. They we have almost every single parent that showed up for open
house come into the MPR and we do tell them if you have a concern with finances, reach out to us. It's all confidential. Um, and we'll work with each family on a case- by case basis. But we have not um, we this the trip is self-unded. We have not had to get money
from outside places in the five years now that I've run this trip and me and John came on a couple years ago and started doing it a couple years ago. We haven't had to reach out for any outside money. The trip is entirely self-unded. >> Yes. Yeah. We Yeah, we started to promote it at the fly at the uh fly like
a hawk night. Um that was uh in the spring. >> Yeah. Know uh for me um having worked in elementary schools in Lyn, we used to go um to I don't know if it's the same camp Cody up on, but uh we is it uh yeah, it was Nature's Classroom at the time. I see this is outdoor classroom, so I
don't know if it's a different company, but um it's some of the absolute best times. Uh, and I think that the time of year that you guys are choosing to go is perfect because it lets your students see you in a different light rather than being just the hard classroom teacher. Uh, they see you outside of the
classroom early in the year so they can build that relationship with you early. So, I I think it's a great great trip. >> I mean, in addition to the science curriculum, the team building and the bonding that you get at the beginning of the school year is invaluable. >> Absolutely. Great. And I would just add Mike and John do a great job planning
this and full confidence and taking care of all the needs, but I would echo a big reason. They were only have been here for about a month or so as sixth graders. Some some students just aren't ready for the trip. Um different than a DC trip where they've been hit three years. This is a much different experience. So I think, you know, kind
of looking at John's data really supports that. >> All all three of my kids went through stone. It was a great experience. Um, but quite honestly, I thought they should have maybe gone for three, four, maybe five days. Kept them over the weekend. That would [laughter]
>> I think the hardest part of the trip is um all the parents were waiting for the bus to come back, you know, tying up uh they're anxious to see their children. So, that's always the most exciting part of Friday. >> All right. So I guess um we can
entertain a motion to uh accept the HRMS camp Cody field trip. >> So move >> second. Any discussion? All those in favor? >> Post passes. >> Thank you guys. >> Thank you.
>> Yeah. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you. >> Next we have the culture and climate survey results. Yes, chair. Okay. Um I did share uh the presentation
slides. I did take a couple out just for tonight just to streamline the process. But um this is the first year of uh actually the second year of launching a culture and climate survey for our staff as well as for families. But this is the
first year that we utilize the panorama platform. Uh but I want to I can't understate the combined effort through the DTA instructional assistance, our administration. Uh we came together as a committee. Uh lots lots of work to
create the survey itself, disseminate the survey, to do the analysis, then now start the presentation. So tonight's really the first step of the presentation. We plan to share this out with the greater community before the end of the school year. We've shared it with our staff. Um, again using the pan
panorama platform allows uniformity, allows us to norm data based off of the staff, which is great. So we can compare across the country. It's more benchmark data for the staff itself because excuse me, families is norm staff is
benchmarked because we did alter some of the questions to fit our needs. So we weren't able to norm because we did change some of the questions. Um, we did receive 179 uh responses to the family uh through staff, 319. Uh, we'd love to
see more um more responses from families and that's a strategy we'll talk about for next year. Uh, for the staff, we did a lot of time built into professional development. So, it made it easy for staff to complete the survey itself. Um, and I think that's important. Along with
the survey questions, there was opportunity for open responses. Um and and that also allowed more depth of review of the information and I think that's important to note. Um for future considerations, there's one uh item that we talked a lot about as a committee
though uh there really wasn't identifying data to school or grade level or a position. Um we weren't able to delineate feedback from was it an elementary teacher, middle school teacher, high school teacher. It was just generally to the staff. Um and and
a lot of that is is basically uh growing together uh and providing an opportunity so that you know uh staff members feel comfortable completing the survey. Um but the understanding is that that data really is important. So um we'll be able to expand that next year. What that does
is that it would allow us to really dig in deeper when you see some of the trend data. Is it more in the elementary, middle school or high school? We're just not able to ascertain that quite with this data. However, we see enough trends and um direction to to give us some
guidance for next year for ways we can improve as a district. Um and certainly there's a a mechanism for single responses. We need to update that to make sure it's single responses. So that goes hand in hand. Um and I think that's growing pains for year year one with the
survey. Um and again open responses, we did have some guiding prompts, but we I think can fine-tune that a little bit more as well. Um, but I think the bottom line is being able to take the survey to create action plans uh for improvement. That's the bottom line. So, I'm very pleased with the collaborative effort
from the committee. Um, and and again, I just want to share the uh base findings tonight. Um, so there were some shared priorities. Basically, when you take the survey data from the staff, the survey data from families, the panorama, then
you put into the open responses and then you bring it all together that allows us to boil it down to the shared priorities. And I think these five areas are are certainly areas that coming into the district through my own entry plan and just through research and setting up
strategic plan that these are not surprises and this gives us more I think direction to continue and fine-tune our work. Um, so the stakeholders, they want meaningful opportunities to be heard, valued, and involved in decisions. Staff and families, um, student support
systems, you know, increased need for academic, behavioral, mental health, and special education supports, uh, relationships and belonging. You know, there's strong connections, but we certainly those are areas to improve even further to keep pushing inclusion within our schools. Uh, and
understanding a positive school culture is essential. That's the baseline for any student to be in a situation to learn and to prosper and to thrive as well as staff to be supported to do their work as well. Communication and trust uh transparency, timely responsive
communication and authentic engagement whether it's staff member working with admin, admin working with admin, staff working with staff, families working with staff and admin. It's it's really all stakeholders working together in this area. And then student behavior and
school climate, just consistent expectations and accountability, safety and behavioral supports. Um, you know, we have work to do in those areas, but we've made strides as well. I think the big key takeaway for all of this, boiling it down, is that, you know, we share a common vision. You know, we want
strong communication. We want deeper partnerships. We want student supports and a culture of trust, belonging, and accountability that promotes success for all students. Um so I think that is when you bring this all together certainly this does connect to our strategic plan
and will help guide our improve our plans moving forward. So from the family side you know there are five big areas that they really look for in terms of feeling welcomed heard informed included connected as true partners in their child's education.
Um, and when you break down the themes further, you know, needs for more depth and consistency, um, in terms of personalized communication when possible, right? Stronger school home partnerships, uh, more direct teacher communication if possible, and clearer
academic updates. And I think we've talked a lot about that in terms of how we're starting to align just our actual data with literacy and math, and we're starting to streamline that more, which I think is important. Um, and then really looking Are we across multiple
platforms? As you know, we went to reach my teach, which is more of a centralized general communication that translates across the board, which is a huge move for being inclusive and reaching all of our stakeholders. But we do have multiple platforms. Can we streamline this? Uh, family engagement needs
strengthening. You know, what are ways that we can engage families? And I know that the difficulty is that we weren't able to really identify elementary, middle, and high school because we know it feels like a natural tradeoff as students get older in terms of engagement, but you know, the
opportunities to engage, volunteer, and connect with schools that is strong. Um, so what are we going to do to see how that we can capture and improve uh family engagement, student behavior, safety, and school climate? You know, obviously concerns about bullying, vaping, disruptive behavior
inconsistencies. Um, that's nothing new. Um, and I can't say that's just, you know, facing our district, but it's something that we've been really digging into. Um, and I think we've put in some good steps, but certainly there's more work to be done there. Um, strong
behavioral expectations and consistent responses I think is important and that's something that we can work on as we look for alignment from elementary to middle to high school. Gave, you talked a lot about going from that elementary to middle, it's a different world now. Going from middle to high school, how can we align that? Um and certainly just
working on keeping the work up for safe, positive, and supportive school climates. Um and then again, stronger academic and student supports. Um that's an area of consistency meeting consistently meeting the needs of all learners. And the last but not least,
trust, leadership, and belonging. They matter. So families value approachable leadership, welcoming school cultures, and creating a school strong family partnership with authentic relationships in a sense of so I I think that's a
bottom line. We talked a lot about this as an admin team in terms of being responsive and timely um with their communications um but also that authentic and being able to call people in and open the doors. But also I think it's about creating opportunities as
well, right? and being able to meet families where they are because needs have changed and how can we think outside the box a little bit to to improve in those areas. So I think those are really really good actionable. I didn't I took out the data piece with the norm data because there's some areas that are really strong. I'll share that
later. But when I disseminate this community that will be in there from the staff side, uh I think you'll find similar themes um you know talking about student behavior, accountability and school climate looking at increasing challenges with student behaviors
because that does impact learning uh and that can be isolated but that's enough to create uh issues that we work on and certainly staff's looking for clear consistent expectations uh and certainly additional behavioral behavioral supports and interventions when possible. Um, I think the consistent framework
that balances support, accountability, safety, and learning, you can see that we're making strides, but there's more work to be done in those areas for sure. Staff talks a lot about communication, transparency, and trust. So, that piece um in involvement in the decision-
making, we are working on distributed leadership as much as we can with our staff. Um but earlier proactive communication it was challenging to see like is there one area in our district that may not be as strong as others because it wasn't data that was set up
by grade levels. So I still feel that we always want to work be as proactive as possible and I know our admin team does and then meaningful opportunities for input shared decision- making. For example, the high schools created department chairs which allows more
frequent meetings of the key leaders in the departments with the high school admin team. So instead of monthly meetings, now they will have weekly meetings and even more access. So we look for more opportunities. The middle school we're looking to implement that and I know Julie and the elementary team uh and student services is looking to
create more opportunities at the elementary level for that as well. Um, and I I think really that that creates more collaboration in the two-way communication. Um, staff support, workload, and professional respect. Um, certainly, you know, fatigue at this time of year, but
certainly um, you know, sustainability. You know, we have to be careful that we're not asking people to do more with less. You know, and I know that's, you know, unfortunately an area that can really put a strain on our staff and we have to be mindful of that, you know, in terms of making sure they're manageable
case size um and also professional respect. We know that um public education and it's it's before I arrived, you know, it's certainly one that um we're working really hard to make sure that our teachers and our staff, you know, they have the professional respect they deserve. Um
and certainly, you know, we need to prioritize their well-being so for sustainability and retention. We have a high retention rate in our staff, I will tell you, which we're very proud of, but we need to keep working at that. And then student uh staffing of student services and operational supports just
ensuring that any gaps in staffing or those gaps are closed and we're doing that. But certainly we know that there's growing student needs. Um and you can see that different levels. Um you know we did a strong emphasis at the elementary. We've built that and we're working now at the middle and certainly
the high school. I hope that our this is the first year of team chair at the middle school. Bringing now a team chair in the high school. I think we'll see results there. Um, I think that that is an area that we're cognizant of and certainly I think that second bullet
improved onboarding. We've talked a lot about when staff come that we want to make sure this goes with the branding like what are we doing to ensure that they feel that they have what they need to be successful and it's just not that first teacher orientation but throughout the process. I will tell you that we
started the um the mentor program for instructional assistance this year. It's the first year uh very proud of that program and certainly one of the first around to to improve professionalism and we heard that negotiations three years ago. So it's something we're very proud of. And then I think when you get into
the last piece, the collaboration culture and instructional effectiveness, this looking at the collaboration and professional community, instructional flexibility that's so important. Um stronger relationships across departments, meaningful professional learning opportunities. I think you
heard some of that tonight when we talked about how uh the work that's being done from moving up from the elementary to the middle school in terms of that literacy work that's being done, but also as Peter's bringing down from the high school into the middle school, the applied learning uh and getting into
the discourse, you can see that's starting to happen. Um Julie and Peter work really hard on the optional PD programming that we have at the end of the school year, the beginning of next school year. Um, so you know, we want to set up professional cultures that support belonging and excellence for
sure and shared responsibility and that's critical. So when you look at strengths and opportunities, I I think we do have a strong foundation and and a lot of the feedback came in. We have caring educators, we have supportive schools, and we do have positive student relationships, right? And our families
and staff remain deeply committed to doing the work for student success in public education. Um, and there's a strong belief in our missions, values, and our future. And and and we feel the momentum going. And it's our job to take this to really build and dig down deep with our improvement plans for next
year. What are actionable steps? And this is being shared and it has been shared with all the schools and they're going to work with the admin teams to go over areas to build their specific improvement plans at each school, right? Because there are some are further ahead in other areas and we want to try to
level the playing field. But the key opportunities for growth, I think, are consistent. We'll continue to strengthen communication, trust, and transparency. And by improving uh transparency and trust, that's by doing what we say and saying what we do. Um and and really uh
embracing that. Uh stronger family school partnerships and stakeholder engagement. We've talked a lot about that and seeing that um the norm is not necessarily the way to go. We need to look at ways we can improve that. um enhance academic behavioral mental
health supports no doubt there and improve responsiveness to stakeholder concerns. Um so I think in told this is obvious the community values at schools and wants to work together to strengthen the system supports and relationships to help all students succeed. So at the end
of the day although the the data that's norm I think we see that areas of engagement the numbers weren't great necessarily by the data but for the norm data was higher than a lot of the other areas but certainly concerns about student behaviors and expectations that
we need to increase and work on that and I think on the staff side one data point that really uh stood out to me is the evaluations and since that was benchmark by us hopefully we can improve that. But it's an area that we're taking a good hard
look at our team to look at how can we review and revamp our evaluation system and our process to provide feedback that's actionable for our staff, all staff. We've we've already talked long and hard about our tools of evaluation for instructional assistance, administrative assistance, and and
others that really that that has been just stagnant for years. We need to improve that. But also, how can we really dig down deep? We did learning walks. We've started to expand that, but we've talked long and hard and we're we're starting those conversations about how can we look to calibrate our
evaluation across the district. We do have some new administrators. So, it's it's really ripe for that. So, that data point really stuck out to me to build uh for next year and so those were the the key items. Uh again, I'm working on a communication that will go out to all of
our families and such uh if not at the end of this week, probably early next week. Uh And I'd like to open up some dialogue for families to come in and share and look for ways we can improve more outreach to families. And I think the partnerships that's an area that
we're trying um and we partner with groups, but I think we can improve in that area. So I'll stop there questions for the committee through the chair. Please remind me how many staff do we have? How many do we have?
>> Over 500 and 319. And it is possible that somebody responded. It's possible. Um, so that you alluded to the problem of the survey. I think the other problem since I'm a teacher, I've experienced it
myself is how do you convince staff that the survey really is? How do you assure them that? Because when you tell them, oh, this is anonymous survey, they don't believe you. They think there's some way. Then the survey is really useless
because we have these generalities but we really can't get specific to the building the people of the building and that would be much more helpful right to be actionable certain things >> right and certainly the open response opportunity did allow for some responses
that were specific to buildings and I've reviewed that and I've been able to speak with administrators in those particular areas. Okay. Um, so that that's been helpful um to note and and I did include that as I boiled it down with the other data from the panorama.
But I think the open responses did provide opportunities for more specific feedback. Although I do think that the piece of caution about anonymity is is you know and I understand um but as we explained that we and the committee was
great. like we we need this data so then we can say wow at the elementary level communications like this it might be very different than middle and the high school or expectations um but we look at as as a start uh for sure um and again
you know that 319 I'd love to see all everyone complete this and and maybe they will as we build trust and transparency because I think the other part goes into like why fill out the survey I don't have a voice you know my voice doesn't matter And I'm just one of
500 per se >> or I'm 179 of couple thousand parents that we have. >> But we have to make sure that we demonstrate that these are the areas. So we sit down individually by buildings. We pieced and pulled these out that we can say we took this, we've applied this
and these are areas that we're trying to change built off the survey so people can say oh they are listening. And if and if we do that I'm hoping that will improve the trust and transparency. If we don't then then the option. Thank you.
>> I'm wondering was there also a survey that students did? >> Actually, yes, we did uh for the high school uh middle school, I'm not sure where they're at. We held off the elementary this year because they were doing a number of other surveys at the time. So, um that is an area if I can
expand a little bit more that I'd like to do a little bit more work with some advisory groups in schools as well be able to sit down and speak with students. Um I don't have the survey data back from the high school yet. I'll ask Principal Strauss and I'm not sure where the middle school was on that but
we do have we did have a version ready to launch for the elementary and we'll do that next year. We just need to get a better time. I think the MCAST piece really hit us in some other uh Dr. Could you just I saw the uh professional development came up and it
said um if they wanted it more relevant or something like that. Can you talk obviously we're as a school committee we're not as close about what you guys are doing for professional development that's more operational you guys handle but can you talk to us a little bit about how you guys choose what you do and and process?
>> Yes. Um in fact you know I can give you an example that the elementary the adoption of the Eureka math curriculum there was a lot of professional development that was done with um I forget how many uh math educators I know Julie's out there and I actually saw it
in action what's 43 and so that was relevant because they've they've selected that they how do I implement this into my classroom u the work that Julie's going to do with the middle school um you know grades four through eight as we talked about the ELA
piece. Um certainly knowing that we created pathways this year for PD which allowed teachers to choose on those early release days specific areas that that give them more focus. Uh we had one on the anxious generation for example. You know the impact of digital media. Uh
I ran one on co-eing. It was a smaller group. I was hoping to do one with more teachers. Um, but we're really diving down to because I think, you know, staff, they want those specific areas. Um, so I think the days of us pushing out just general PD, that's kind of
coming to an end where we can focus in specifically, but we need to really in get that done early. I know for the optional PD, we we were limited fundwise with grant money. So, Julie and Peter worked together to see what is the focus mental health. So, they went in a couple of areas. Uh we have safety care
training that uh Derek is working with our uh our team because that's required for some of our um more restrictive programming. Um so th those are things that we're looking to do um and work you know what are the needs specifically
when we implement this in the classroom. >> And what about offering a survey similar to this and say what do you guys do you guys do that as well as part of the process? >> Not quite as much. No, but there's room for that. In fact, um has been a professional development committee and certainly with some turnover and
restructuring of central office um that never opposed to that knowing that. So for example, our instructional assistants, we do have uh professional development that we work with them and we sit down and meet with that leadership team. We talked you know what would be beneficial. Uh we were able to
bring in uh some professional development for them and then after that took place we did a survey of how was it and we found that it was effective for some but not as much for others. is they want it more situational type items for them to instead of just they kind of
understand like how do we de deescalate right but like how can we use this specifically in our practice that was one example um and we probably could do a little bit more feedback I don't want to speak for for Drew and Peter that lead a lot of PD but I know they are reflective when they reach back uh but there's always room to continue and
expand that >> um what I've seen in other districts when you because I smiled when I saw that more relevant PD because it's more the specialists that or you know um music and art might need PD that is very
different or desire PD that is very different from the other teachers and I have seen in other districts where they allow for an offsite PD with other music teachers or other art teachers you know to help build their their skills. Um but
it always is the support staff too that wants to feel included and and improve their practice. >> Yes, I totally agree 100%. And I think it's it's easier for areas such as when we talk about the open sed uh science
curriculum and some of that lends itself to natural PD uh as the we we didn't really talk about tonight but the middle and lower levels of the high school lower grades are looking and I believe they agreed upon a math curriculum that's going to lend itself to some specific professional development and
it's actually Eureka so that we can be aligned with our elementary to our middle to high which is fantastic. So, uh, definitely an area to keep our eyes open. All right, we're going to move on to school start time exploration presentation.
Okay. Um, and this just quite simply is just one slide and this tonight is justformational. So, we have a wellness advisory committee that meets quarterly. Um, and we have to meet and I'm included. our director of food services is the leader of that. That uh group has
uh people from physical uh education, uh wellness, our um nurses and such and we talk about a number of different topics. We brought some um policy work last year in terms of some of the dietary work that's happening in food services, but it came to the advisory committee like
what about school start time? Are we really looking at you know what's happening with our teenagers? And we all know this the surveys and studies that show that teenagers need more sleep, right? Um so they use this as an avenue to talk about, you know, is there an
appetite to talk about school start times? And as I cautioned the group, I said, "This is a major question, right? And certainly one that is not just for one area. This is something that really has to be communitywide. Um, and even
just an exploration of this can certainly bring anxiety to a community because you're talking about families, you're talking about staff, you're talking about students. Um, so I just wanted to bring to your attention that there is an appetite to to explore this.
Um, and you know, we talked a lot about this in the committee. There's a number of exemplers from other districts that have undertaken reviewing their start times and some have made changes, some have not. Some of our districts around us have later start times for their middle and high school and some have
more of a traditional time like we do. Um but we definitely know that the studies are there. Um teenagers do mostly. So as I explained to a few students that were using for the civics product project, this is a multi-layer
discussion, right? Um, so the first place we went to is our DTA and had a discussion and actually had members of the committee speak with the DTA just about is there even an appetite for an expiration of this.
Notice I'm careful by saying expiration, right? Not being committal on anything. And [clears throat] the DTA did a a survey and I just embedded one of the the questions in there and basically would you support an exploration by the district to look at possibly changing
school start times notice said would take a year or two definitely two years process and you can see the percentages right there speak for itself. So 166 responses, that's, you know, a decent amount. Excuse me. So there is an appetite
there. And I guess they've explored this years ago, well before I came here, but um so it really is a two-year process. It's something that certainly requires stakeholder feedback because, as I said, this isn't something that is is done
lightly. You just can't change the school start times. You need to talk to families. You need to talk to teachers. You need to negotiate this contractually because this is already built in. And certainly, how does this work? What does it look like? So, we would need stakeholder
feedback at JMLC. We'd have to create with our union uh just to negotiate to be able to get in these conversations, but I would be looking for a larger committee of multiple stakeholders um and then really bring out the research. What does this look like? What are the benchmarks? What might school?
and then basically get the pulse of the community and then you know after year one see where this is. If there's an appetite to continue further then you would move into a year two process which would be more refined. So it's it's I just I'm bringing it out tonight just as
a piece and really uh thought out of courtesy for school committee first before and I know we're at the end of the year so nobody wants to talk about anything new. Um, so there'll be more discussions about this as we get into the start of next school year. We'll certainly keep everybody apprised. Again, just just saying this is an
exploration. This doesn't there's no committal to any of this. Uh, but being able to lay out what would this process look like um because it would involve multiple stakeholders across the ask um were these faculty members or students that were surveyed in these responses?
>> This is uh straight from the teachers unit. The teachers themselves. Okay. I I didn't know if that's who >> I did speak with the survey. >> Okay. Sorry, chair. >> Um I did speak with a couple of students for their civic projects and they they supported wholeheartedly. Um and and you know when I speak to teachers
anecdotally and myself many years ago being a teacher in a waterfall schedule, you know, students just weren't as you know. So if you're facing an algebra 2 test, you know, at 7:30 versus 10 o'clock may be very different, right? as opposed to I found certain groups of
students just were definitely the sweet spot from like 9:30 to lunchtime. Sometimes when you get up to lunch, you know, they might get a little tired from lunch. In the beginning of the day, it might be a little more tired. Again, there's a number of things to really consider here because obviously we have
very involved students extracurriculars. We have family requirements. We also know that we have siblings that take care of younger siblings. We know the fun clubs employs a lot of our students after school care. But I also know we have some families that also work in Boston. So that 7:30 for them is really
challenging. But I also know we have faculty members and staff, you know, daycare sometimes don't open before 7. So the struggle if they're living out of town to come here. Hopefully our early childhood center in a year after would be helpful. Um so it's a very I just want to say it's very complex but it was
interesting to see this and certainly it's worth an exploration. I'm happy to answer any questions or running late. So, >> all right. So, we'll move on to financial assistant waiver process. >> Okay. Um, this quite simply is just a
way we look really hard at all our processes and looking to ensure that we have equity and uniformity with our processes and one of those areas is financial assistance. So, the goal is to create an acrosstheboard fee waiver process that's uniform. We want to get
away and ensure that, you know, if a family has an a financial need that we're able to ensure that that need is met, but we also want to make sure that there's a process that's not cumbersome that matches currently what we're doing. We already have a process for uh Chromebook insurance. We also have a
process for transportation, same one, districtwide, but we have a number of fees with music. We have fees with athletics. We have fees uh with with various trips and such. So, we're going to make sure that we have a process that uh all families can fill out in terms of
consent. Um and that part is step one. Um and then if there is need that is because we also know that families, you know, putting together the information may have needs greater than the information shows and there may be something that um that may be uh an
issue that won't show up in the in the the data. So we need to have a process where we can review and talk with families on that that won't create any struggles or any ambiguity and certainly we want parents families to feel comfortable right because we know life changes somebody may have a financial
need that comes out of the blue and we need to make sure that we we so we're looking to streamline the process um and you know as we've already established this we want to then be more thorough so in my last update I sent out the uh
mechanisms for this and then also our all of our clubs and organizations that have fees associated will add this to it as well. Uh we just want to ensure that there's nothing that would ever be considered arbitrary. Uh so there is a process for all. So I just want to
inform the school committee of that in the general public. Any questions? All right, let's move on to the superintendent recommends amended policy IKF competency determination for a first
reading. Is there a presentation for that? >> Yes, sir chair. Uh if I could have Sue Donatel the cost and uh Peter Dearo come up. There's been as I mentioned earlier uh we've already revised this policy but there's been more changes so there's
been a lot of research and I'm going to turn this over to our team to present. So, we presented this in the fall originally um and the guidance had just come out. So, we kept it as general as possible. Now that we've gotten more um advice from our council, we've in
increased the specificity to ensure that um expectations are understood by all parties, students, families, the school system itself. Um so these are the areas of change um that we adjusted for the policy. We increased clarity around the required coursework for mathematics. We
aligned it to our program of studies. So our policy now includes all aligned courses that meet the requirement um just so that it is known which of our courses um students can earn the competency by taking and passing. And then we also increased clarity around the appeals process itself.
So these uh highlights just represent uh the specific changes um in the policy itself. The rest remains the same as in the fall. Um and I've been coordinating uh with both Sue from a programmatic perspective and on analik um to make
sure for our district students that um everyone you know um understands the policy in terms of um how students are meeting the competency determination. >> Hello Sue Donatell, assistant director of secondary. So we started meeting in
October I think it was uh as we continue to refine our specialized programs particularly at the high school we wanted to make sure the scope and sequence of coursework was aligned for students to be able to demonstrate competency as they work towards their diploma. Additionally we looped in
analik as students in our out of district programs engage in coursework in other schools. So, we wanted to make sure that we had a framework to evaluate transcripts towards uh graduation requirements as they receive a Denver high school diploma.
Any questions? All right. So, I will entertain a motion to uh IKF competency determination for a first reading. So, Second.
>> Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I >> opposed passes. All right. Uh, next is superintendent summative evaluation 2526.
All right. So that's me. All right. So um my colleagues and I have uh culminated our data on the evaluation of superintendent power and
these these um pages were informative of uh standard one was instructional leadership, standard two management and operations, standard three family and community engagement and standard four professional culture. uh and we found in
all four of those standards that uh Dr. Bow was either proficient, exemplary or somewhere in between the two. So uh we were very um happy with uh the findings. Some specifics that I will for time
purposes pull out um for the performance goals for district improvements. We'll look at um the environment of the school district goal one. Uh it was mentioned that the school safety committee, wellness
advisory committee, bullying harassment audits, uh budget development, school choice uh being implemented, uh early retirement incentive that uh we we put through um and such other um
implementations to get the district moving. um were um big pieces uh for um and exceeded the goals of the uh superintendent. Um as well as uh the
improvement goal um 4B, IVB, Roman 4B for cultural proficiency. Um we uh determined that like the bullying and harassment harassment workshops, administrative team uh culture and climate survey um events uh such as the
DHS unified basketball game pathways um and such um those were met um you know with high regards around the community. um as well as other other things that were going on in the district that we
are very impressed with are the growth of the uh I um the AP course load the um the reflection of possibly um moving in to get your associates degree with your uh
with your high school diploma. the uh program where you could get your first responder license. Um you there were so many uh things for our students that have been added over this last year. um
as well as sorry trying to jump between a few so we don't spend too much but um everything that we do in this district whether it's the new curriculums uh whether it's talking to the parents whether it's communicating with the district uh we
find that you know as as a parent myself and as most of the board parents we we get emails not just as school committee members but everything I get I get twice um because the transparency uh with the district, with the students, with the stakeholders,
um is pretty pretty clear. Um he's very thorough with letting us know things that are going on within the district and whether it be positive or negative. Uh he's very clear with the intent um that things are are being taken care of and that the children are of the first
interest and the best uh case. So overall I would like to propose a motion to accept our evaluations as to uh we have written
sorry culminated with I'll say proficient plus um towards exemplary uh for Dr. Bowers's evaluation. Any discussion? I'll just put the motion forward uh as stated.
>> Second. Any more discussion? >> No. >> All right. All those in favor of accepting the uh evaluation. All those in favor?
>> I I those opposed passes. >> All right. And we will now move on to the school committee subcommittees and leaison for 2627. >> All right. So for this year um we
shuffled around a little bit. Um for the equity committee it's uh going to be Mike and myself. Policy Beth and Gabe curriculum and assessment it would be Beth and myself. Negotiation uh Josh and Mike budget Josh and Gabe. Um as far as
the liaons um I know that we had a discussion amongst the group um about um some of the um groups have really difficult times for us work-wise where few of us are
educators um and a few of us travel throughout the day. We're hoping to connect because we all have interest in everything actually. Um, and we want to connect to see if the leaders uh at some point in the summer connect to see if they would have like 20 minutes for us to be their liaison to give us a recap
as to how they're meeting. Um, some particulars we know like Dammer's cares. I get the uh email all the time inviting us to meetings, but it's always during my first period of class. Uh, deep same thing. So, it's it's just difficult for us. So, uh we will reach out to those
groups and we will set lions. Um and we will possibly have one if at least one if not two people uh interested in each group. Uh I know Beth and I are both interested in CPAC and everybody's shown interest in multiple groups at one point
or another. So, um we'll go from there. >> Sounds good. And then next we will move on to the uh meeting dates for 2627 which it's up on the screen now. So um
that will be added. Our first virtual meeting will be Monday, August 10th and our first inerson meeting will be Monday, September 14th. Um and there will be a um a workshop will be at some point in the summer. Uh,
we'll figure that out. And there it looks like the first maybe not the first Monday because the ninth and the fourth. So it looks like we're on track for a typical typical track for the second Monday month. All right. And next order of
business is secretary. Secretary moves to approve and release the minutes from the May 11, 2026 regular meeting and the minutes from the May 27th, 2026 special meeting. >> So move second. >> Oh, you made the motion. Second.
>> I make the motion. Second. >> Yes, of course. >> All those in favor discussion. Sorry, discussion. Sorry, >> I don't have any questions. >> All those in favor? I >> Those opposed? None. >> No passes.
Next up, the consent agenda. Motion to approve the personal uh personnel memo, fundraising request surplus memo, and Washington DC stipens. >> Show moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor? I
opposed. So passes. See any communications? Any legislative communications? Legislation. No. Um and any subcommittee leaison updates? I believe we heard some of those
throughout and we will reach out. >> Damn had a meeting today. So those those um notes haven't been >> and I would entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Second.
>> All those in favor? I I