members and welcome to the April 7th school committee meeting um I'd like to start the session with the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the standice for all
all right okay i'll start by reading Danver public schools mission statement danverse public schools is a dynamic community of independent learners dedicated to respect responsibility creativity and the pursuit of academic
and personal excellence this meeting is being broadcast on Danver's Community Access Television is anyone in the audience recording these proceedings i see none okay and just a quick reminder our next meeting is May 12th 2025 i'll
repeat that at the end and now we'll open the floor for any comments from the community all right then we'll call up Miss Julie Balduk the newly elected you can introduce yourself and get up there
um hi everyone i'm sorry I'm getting over what everybody's had um my name is Julie Bddock to Philippo um and I'm happy to announce that the DER CPAC held an election last week and we've elected um three board members um myself as
chair uh Jen Corsino as the inclusion specialists and Melissa Dmilio is going to be our treasurer which is a role we haven't had filled in a long time and Melissa has been really instrumental in the Thor pack um as their treasurer so we're we're really um excited to have
her uh so we're just really working on the transition from one board to the other something that we're also really excited about is um the we have a few uh partners within the community and in um student services that have agreed to
apply um to the federation's called the Apple Institute it means advancing parent professional leadership and education and it's um uh sort it's October to June I believe next year and um it really
focuses on how to engage families in CPAC but also just in the school system in general um and how to collaborate and which we thought was like perfect timing with you know um the student services being fairly new we have a new board um
we also have representation from the Dammer Access Accessibility Commission um the Northeast Arc and Damish Recreation is hoping to hire a new inclusion specialist that we hope will also be part of this team um and we really you know thank Superintendent
Brower for supporting it right away um we're excited to and hopefully get chosen um and we'll know in May um and other than that yeah we're just uh hopefully get everything transitioned and schedule our first community meeting of the year
thank you congratulations all right any items of interest for the school committee well I just want to piggy back what Julie was just saying um I was invited to be part of that team and I filled out my uh I looked through it and I filled
out my application um and reading through it I'm hoping that we're one of the communities that is chosen to participate in that academy because it looks like it could bring a lot to the table for everybody in the district top
thank you oh you might i just wanted to reference an email that I think you and I received from Dan about sidewalk issues on North Street I think or no Locust Street and I um I want to make sure there's been a
response I think I saw that you yes I invited the group to come in to meet with me I believe April 16th uh 12:30 if you're available come on in but I thought it'd be great to hear from them and then you know my job is to help no pun intended pave the way if there's
a way to make things go and certainly our connection to the BPW so wanted to hear about the scope first before and provide the best insight to help that would be uh it might be an excellent project but there'll be some bucks attached to that
okay and one note on the agenda for today we're going to uh we're still going to do a presentation on school choice but we'll move the hearing to the next meeting which will be on May 12th wanted to give more parents the opportunity to hear the facts um on the school choice component of that so
that's just the last update I think from the committee we'll pass it over to you uh superintendent power thank you very much and I just wanted to add one more thing um was noteworthy is Saturday the Harlem Wizards came to town and it was an incredible uh experience um must have
been well over 800 students and families and the Wizards played the teachers um the Wizards won surprisingly but it was a great opportunity to bring the community together um Rock the Spectrum was there and provided a nice area for those students who may be challenged with the noises and such um so it was
nice to create an inclusive event that I thought was uh well attended and a lot of fun um and I I hope you know the collaboration I know the Thor Pack drove this but we hope to build more collaboration and we have a lot between the packs and we'll continue that so um
I I thought it was great to bring the community together and I guess I'll begin so we have our student representative report recognition from DECA tonight we have a great presentation on naming the Colleen Ritzer Library uh we'll introduce our
incoming Ammers High School principal Mr strauss curriculum assessment subcommittee update and then class companion with Miss Morris back there somewhere that she'll present the AI so we're going to lead off um with our with Julia and I know Olivia is not here but for our school report from our student
representative okay i have a few things today um the first thing is about last Wednesday which was the first ever Falcon Showcase at the high school um I got to attend um and help like represent the swim team and then my one of my honor societies
that I'm in um I thought it was really really cool because not only were like a bunch of students there representing their clubs and their teams and honor societies and art um but like teachers were there um showing off different courses and clubs um just all the
opportunities at the high school um it was a great turnout i thought it was super cool to just see everything kind of laid out at the high school um yeah uh my next bullet is about uh our concert band performed at the Micah
Festival this past weekend and they received a gold medal um so congratulations to all yeah pretty awesome um this week is our annual senior spirit week so it's a lot of fun each day uh today was black tie we're all like dressed up i was freezing but
it was okay um tomorrow is decades day wednesday is the classic uh it's anything but a backpack day so you can't bring your backpack you have to bring all your school supplies and something else so excited to see that thursday we're all going to dress up as senior citizens and then Friday is like future
plans so if you're going to a college military trade things like that um it's a fun week um next uh our Prism Club which is our LGBTQ alliance club they held their fourth annual Trans Day of Visibility at the Northshore Unitarian
Church I think over by the library um this event um was just a really great heartwarming way for you know transgender experiences at the high school to be heard um but also supported by everyone in our community um I went to the first one back when I was a
freshman and it was great so I just know that's been added on each year my last thing and I was hesitant to talk about this because it's about what I went to but um on Friday me and um another senior Josh Henry we went to the state
house for student government day which was a really cool experience so it was like a mock joint session of Congress um where there's like a fake bill about cell phone use in schools um and people got
to you know debate and share their own ideas um but it was a really cool experience to kind of witness firsthand we went with our AP government teacher uh Mr stand tomorrow was really cool to see cuz it's it was everything that we've been learning about and to see us
kind of act in the role um we got to meet um our representative Sally Karns had a whole like photo shoot with her um but it was a really great experience um and I know that we're going to keep continuing that tradition on each year and yeah
congratulations i will share the pictures of student government day we're very proud that you were able to attend and represent our school very well i know Representative Karen's spoke to me and just how proud she was to have Amber High School students there this year so thank you for going and representing us
so well um and I do want to give a quick shout out before we move on to the Falcon Showcase the first Falcon Showcase which is an opportunity to allow families and and community to come in to see the great things that our high school has to offer and it was outstanding well done i know we have some some members of the high school
faculty there and principal dear and his team was wonderful um great performances by the band but everything down to the unique courses we offer and we hope to continue this uh our incoming principal Alan Strauss was there as well so he's has ideas to keep molding this but you
paved the way this year and I just want to say that was a big event and congratulations and well done all right we're going to move off to our next recognition so we have DECA so we have our high school advisor Megan Boy to come up with some great representatives and all the good stuff
that DECA has been doing and has done over the years and I'll switch your slides whenever you're ready thank you you can put the first one on if you'd like thank you again for having us here um we've had another fabulous year at
DECA um and I'm gonna let the students tell you a little bit more about what we've done and what we um what we have coming up in the next month so again I'm Megan Bullier i'm the advisor this is our 20 first year of DECA at the high
school i started it 20 years ago with I think it was some of them probably are listening 12 kids the first year where we had four make the state conference and one student at our international conference so it's come a long way um
with me is Lily Delpano who's our executive vice president and Olivia Henry who's our vice president of mentorship they're two of our officers they're going to tell you a little bit about what we've done this year um so before we get started like what DECA is for those who don't know is
DECA is a club that prepares high school students leaders and entrepreneurs for careers in marketing finance hospitality and management in high schools and colleges around the globe so there's over 4,000 high school chapters and over 290,000 high school members
and so to dive in a little bit to Danver's DECA in our chapter we had 267 DHS students compete at the district competition and that was hosted this December at the Double Tree Hotel and it was super super successful as we had 142
students move on to the state career development conference um competition in February that was hosted in the Seapport in Boston and then moving on from there we had we're going to have 40 students represent 16 projects at the international conference in Orlando that
will be later this month so for the first time this year they did um two rounds of competition the state conference is now huge um there are students from over a 100 chapters across the state over 3,000 students compete and after the first day
of competition we had a top 12 announced and th those students competed again so a lot of these students who are up here on the screen now are a lot of our underassmen who made top 12 in their first year of competition um so these
students presented again and um they either wrote a paper or did a professional selling event um in many different areas um so these are the students that were able to qualify for ICDC or our
international conference this April um so as you can see me and Lily are up there for our projects and community awareness and a sales project um we have people in the stock market game which involves buying and selling stocks and writing a paper about that um our school
store qualified um and then we had other business solution projects career development which was working with our elementary schools um community giving so raising money for local charities and financial literacy so being able to inform the community about what finance
is and how we manage it and how we use them talk about this first part so this first part was really exciting this year um our school store once again got a gold level certification as an SVE um but what was exciting this year one of my goals for the year was to try to
bring more of the development inhouse so over the summer last year we asked Deep if they would be willing to work with us to start making and creating our own merchandise within the store so Deep help us helped us to purchase a heat press and now most of the merchandise that we're selling through the school
store has been designed and made by our students in the store so they design the um logos online we sell it out and we have a transfer machine now at heat press and the students are now making all of their own merchandise which was a great addition this year um we have some
other projects that they're going to tell you a little bit about um and then we'll see if you have any questions so beginning with one of our extremely successful groups that made it to the international conference was Boss Babies and this falls under the career development category and so what these
um students did uh Audrey Lein Lizzie Frell and Kelly McCrae is they worked with the fifth graders at Smith School and they made each groups and they basically imitated a sort of business and or shop and other students were given money and they were allowed to
invest and buy in these certain products that the other students and fifth grade groups created um financial futures who is they're here tonight as well but this year they did a financial literacy project aimed at actually the eighth
graders here at HRMS that was the stock market game so again that process of buying and selling stocks um in real time um with eighth graders here so then moving on to invest this is a project management financial literacy
in a in that category and it is basically all of our seniors they were given these um jobs and money and they basically had to go through a real life simulation you know how do you buy a house how are you working with your
salary and imitating what your future career could look like and one really cool thing about it this year is that they noticed last year that they were struggling with the introduction to the project so this year they expanded to 9th and 11th graders with two um
introduction simulations that helped prepare for the course that will occur their senior year next we have Fallback Fest was which was an event hosted back in October at the high school in front of in the fields which helped raise over $3,000 for our
DECA chapter and it had um many fun events raffles fun games um local businesses and other vendors yeah so yeah we we'll have them tell you quickly about their projects but some other groups we worked with were
Morgan's message um Katie's Closet um we have a group that worked with the fourth graders at Highlands about introducing STEM and then we had a group working with the eighth graders here at the middle school to get them ready for high school next year called emerging leaders
where they did a program with the eighth graders teaching them what DECA is and getting them excited to join DECA so just quickly they could tell you just briefly about their project and then if there's any questions so diving into my project it was in the community awareness category and my goal with my
partner Jack Cronis was to raise awareness for the disease multiple sclerosis and that is basically where the immune system attacks the protective sheath or the myelin in your nerve bodies and it causes a disruption in the communication between the brain and the rest of your body ultimately a function
ultimately affecting the function of your body and what we did was partner with the nonprofit organization MS forms MS mission stadiums for multiple sclerosis to help raise awareness and we did this through a schoolwide assembly we did this through dedication games where we spread orange which is their
mission statement and raise money through online fundraising um so my project's called Bark and Bling and I do it with Brook Lowski um and so our project was a sales project and we created a dog bandana brand that we went to local events
within our community like Ballback Fest and we went to we sold them online through our website and we sold custom dog bandanas that um we sold for $5 each with all the money that we raised being donated back to the DECA chapter as well as other local initiatives like the
Talabet Memorial 5K and even um we partnered with some of the elementary schools packs and split the profit with them um so if you need a dog bandana with your elementary or high school feel free to reach out we still have plenty
of dogs and you got a heat press yes and a heat press that we can put their names on to so as you can see one of the big um goals of DECA is about public speaking getting up in front of groups and as you can see from these two examples and throughout the chapter um the students get so much experience
learning to do a project from beginning to end think about what could go wrong send out emails fix things as they go the planning the goals the implementation and then looking back and evaluating what worked and through that process they become better creative thinkers
they learn problem solving skills and obviously professionalism and public i mean I think they do a much better job than I ever could at explaining what they do and I think that's a tribute to what they've got the program over do you have any questions for us
i just have a for both of you and you can answer it in any way you like i mean how has DECA impacted you personally um I can speak on this really really well when I first came in my freshman year uh I joined DECA and it was mostly
because my older sister was the vice president and she was excellent at DECA and I joined because I saw how much it grew her as a student um she was very shy introverted and became you know someone who was amazing at public speaking and really came out of her shell and so I joined my freshman year
and I was very very overwhelmed but through the program through the officers and through Miss Sims she really helped me grow as a person you know from the night before my district competition I was in tears nervous and she helped me work through that and learn as a student
that I have to work through those hardships and it ended up me qualifying for the international conference my freshman year and it really ex um flourished me as a person and expanded my horizons um I know that Miss Sim just kind of
covered it a little bit but really why I do DECA is the opportunity for my future and I've even spoken to like local business owners and they're like I they who have done DECA and they're like I wouldn't be here without DECA and it's definitely as I'm only a sophomore so getting to know what I want to do in my
future even last year I did a finance project and understanding and getting to know what finance is in our community at a local level even this year doing a sales project creating a business and what that looks like and what that can lead to in my future and how it works
and just having a better understanding and even forming connections within my community like working with the dog park people I don't normally reach to or communities I don't connect with and I just that's my favorite part about it thank you so much incredible
yeah Megan you have built an amazing program with your students and uh see where it's gone from the beginning until now it's just fantastic and uh the two things that stood out to me from this presentation are number one the amount
that you're giving back to the younger students who are coming behind and not just those who will join DECA but you know teaching sort of life skills to those students and the idea of helping the middle schoolers transition um just fantastic and the other thing I would
simply say to um students here and anyone else from DECA who's in the audience um your presentation skills are at this point as good or better than a lot of people I see in business guessing the same thing you gave it's just um
fantastic and what you're learning here is going to to take you through your whole life you have a leg up on students who are in college right now who haven't had the same opportunities that you have so congratulations i know it's something you must put an awful lot of work into
and an awful lot of time into and something you feel passionate about and uh it will pay off thank you congratulations on the continued and and consistent uh success of the program
um I definitely need a dog band so I look for that and then the last thing I'm going to ask the the young ladies is in in your uh opinion what is the probability that glass is coming back to
dance what do you think 100% could you could you do me one favor and explain to to my friends here what glass means so glass is what the top three or like winners receive at the art international
conference the ultimate goal um so just a side note um about eight or nine years ago um Miss Bulier uh asked me to DJ an event at Marramac College for the uh DECA competition and when I tell you it was impressive to see well
Danver's had probably the largest representation there but to see how many students uh take this seriously and that being said how many of our students excel at it just shows that we're doing something great in our schools that to be able to go across the
board and to have this many kids heading down to Orlando and like Mike said bring home glass possibility to bring home some glass um what was the last time we did that maybe 2019 was it two years ago okay because I remember some of the guys that year that I um was involved with
that event uh came back or they came to talk at it but it's just impressive to see how everybody here just takes it so seriously and and it just excels for it uh and I want to one up Mike i have two dogs so I need two bands
so I just want to add to that um I just can't tell you how proud we are of of not only the program but just the work and the crossing over to the elementaryaries to the middle school getting excited i mean this really is everything that we're talking about the fortune of the graduate all those skills
of collaboration creativity communication all the things that are important for success after high school are happening here on our our walls and more than a quarter of our students participate in DECA but I also would be remiss not to mention there's a lot of support for DECA and Deep is a huge
supporter and they need a shout out as well because it's a lot of money to go to the trips and such and they help fund raise and support the program so Deep you know it takes more than just one right you have a tremendous team and there are others that are supporting you in our community absolutely deep has
been there for us from the start they help out when students have financial trouble our big rule is that never will a student not be able to participate because of finances and that takes people in our community and also I have an incredible team of teachers that are unbelievable a couple with me tonight
that are just above and beyond just as invested as the kids and their heart and soul is in it as well so we're lucky to have all the pieces that do come together in this awesome photos oh yeah please it's Sometimes I cry before presentations so
don't worry it's normal thank you so much awesome and actually to dubtail off of the DECA presentation we have a followup so as you may remember last year the school committee approved naming the high school library the Colleen Gritzer Library although I'm not sure that it's
formally the title's been uh firmed but to help raise money and make this a reality we have a DECA presentation um and I just want to say thank you to Miss Glenn and Mr hamilton who've helped provide the support but I just thought this is a great way of interfacing the
students um with the community and the high school and floor is all yours all right you want to go to the next slide oh did I get on here what happened i went the wrong way did I get excited
no I have a whole presentation if you could just maybe tell us a little bit about yourselves yeah no problem here yeah that's no problem all right so I'm Natalie Barrett this is my third year doing DECA next year will be my fourth um uh this is my second year working
with Megan uh hi I'm Megan i'm also a junior at Damis High School and this is also my third year doing DECA yeah and we've done we actually like they said earlier we had a project called Financial Futures this year we came here worked with the students taught them how
to use a stock market market simulator while we also created our own videos educating them on a bunch of topics and then we found out about the mural idea in the changing the name of the library to the calling Ritzen Memorial Library and we were offered the opportunity to
help fund raise as that became an issue along the way so we decided for our group name for it to be Be Kind Legacy because like before it's all about spreading the message of being kind and we want to continue calling Ritzer's
legacy all right so our project goal like I just said is to continue the memory of Colleen Ritzer who passed away she carried a lot of values that we want to be continued throughout our school and in doing so we think this can be done by creating a mural in our library
which students can see every single day our idea for this mural would not only be to have it but a board with who she is so people wouldn't forget her as teachers pass on and not pass on but just continue throughout their life and then as students continue to pass
through the school and then we're just really hoping that students never forget or teachers never forget of who she is and the morals she that she brought upon everyone else sorry um so our mural plan is we're hoping to have some like fundraising
type like just like events and we're hoping to raise around $30,000 in order to have this mural inputed and that each student can just be able to really like at any time like be able to go in and see this we're really hoping to raise as much as we can to make sure that this
dream not only comes through for us but also for all the teachers at Dammers High um so our vision will there will be a change from the library to the Colony Richard Memorial Library sorry uh there will be a mural
which students we can look at along with a plaque to continue the memory of Colleen we're also hoping to have a reveal once the end of the mural is completed we're hoping this will be around the beginning of the school year so that there's no project like
complications while students are in school and some of our fundraising plans are we are hoping to promote throughout the community of Damverse Andover and just all throughout the Northshore we're also hoping to go through families and friends and businesses whether that is local or
common donations and just any businesses in general we're also hoping to utilize a calendar raffle the calendar raffle will take place through May which marks Colleen's birthday month raffle tickets will be available for purchase during
April and winners will be drawn like during the month of May on each day we're also hoping to have a merchandise line using hopefully the Falcon's Nest and the Dammersteeka website we are hoping to extend the
original quarters that Sorry Mr hamilton go grab it um we're also hoping to make new hoodies and even more new quarter zips um our Yeah yeah these were the original quarter
zips which many of the teachers in our school have i actually don't know if any teachers don't have them but we know that it's a great way of promoting not only the message but the fact that we are fundraising and it's bringing awareness to the community all right so what we need for
fundraising sorry next slide please all right so we're looking to use an app called or more of a platform called Give Butter i know that our school has used this a lot it doesn't take money out of any donations it's very accessible easy
to use it connects to other accounts in which people can donate to so it's just very easy to use and even for the ICDC trip which DECA so the international trip was going on we even recently used give butter to collect money and we
discovered that through the app of give butter we can hold events so the event of our calendar raffle would be able to operate out of give butter allowing for our project to stay consistent on one platform so that anyone looking to donate can not only see that they can
donate just money to the idea but they can also participate in our events so what we are looking for in order to operate the gift butter is that in order for this project to run smoothly and follow the timeline we're hoping for we need to have a lot of access to the
account and the money coming in because as people buy tickets for the raffle we need to know who they are how many tickets they bought so we can give them the proper prize they are looking to receive and so we have a project at Danver High School continuing with the
DECA it's nice that we can keep it inside but it's called To us we refer as friends of DECA it's a it's a fundraising account in which uh we could connect our our Be Kind Legacy project into in which we would have control and
set up the account under them in which we would be able to have access and have the money be collected in one place without having a complication of having to separate the money from other transactions going through so it would allow for us to know exactly what money was going towards our project and an
audition would give our team me Megan our other partner Alejandro Bordier and the teachers all access so we can just make sure this runs smoothly and efficiently and we can meet our goal all right and thank you so much is
there any questions okay over to Mike Shar who Great idea um who are you planning on uh having create the mural the mural so we're currently looking so the previous teachers who had
a little committee they did a fabulous job they did a bunch of research and they found a company called White Light Visual they were able to give us a previous runthrough of the prices and estimated cost for the project which is where our $30,000 came from and that
would include the mural and the plaque which we think is just really going to sum up what we're looking for and uh we already discussed with them and they confirmed that they'd like to work with us and we're currently in the process of planning a time to meet with them so they can scope out the area and make
sure that it's um we're be going to be able to get up to where we'd like it to thank you good luck thank you um this is such a worthy project um I think Mary and I are the only ones up here who were here at the time that uh
the uh she lost her life and uh Colleen was really beloved and to find a way to honor her memory like this and the fact that uh you folks who didn't even know her are doing this is a fantastic thing
and it's much appreciated and it will mean a lot to the faculty here I know um who knew and loved her as well so you know I hope it's tremendously successful and thank you for doing that yeah of course and even though um us as students haven't met her we're very well aware of
her impact and to our everyday life we understand the kindness we should implement which not only continues their legacy but continues to build a stronger community and world it's a wonderful thing to do thank you awesome thank you everything everyone said I doubled down
on oh go ahead Sean sorry um so kind of go off of what Eric was saying i might not have been in this role but I was an assistant coach with the girls soccer team um on that day we were in the building um shortly after we found out and to say that the impact it had on
this community was very severe waking up that morning and having friends who work at the high school excuse me work at the high school not knowing who it was it was just a big big deal um and it
weighed heavy for weeks for days uh for months for years uh it still puts a piece on here but I I I applaud everything that you guys are all doing um taking guidance of some great people that have been around a long time and but to to keep this going because
she was I had only met her a few times but everything I ever heard of her was nothing but positive and to to have that memory go there's nothing better i appreciate your effort to say I don't know if Miss Glenn or Mr hamilton i know they're quietly in the
back but they've been driving the work but more importantly have utilized our talented students but a lot of work has been done in the back and I appreciate your efforts as well and whatever we can do to support please let us know and the give butter is the the district platform
you know we don't have Venmo it allows for better accountability and again on our end our doors are always open so please let us know how we can help advertise get the word out um we're just so proud of you thank you all right um and I do have my pullover by the way that was the first item I
purchased coming aboard so thank you and it fits still fits um next up is we'd like to introduce our incoming high school principal Mr alan Strauss um it was a great process we had uh wound up with three outstanding candidates a strong pool uh but Mr strauss rose to
the top we did a very extensive uh search and he it goes to say that he brings a wealth of experience but he's been very successful as a high school teacher as an administrator also he's a coach he's a dad i don't want to steal a thunder um but his experience over
multiple areas I think will bring a lot to not only Dammer High School but to our school community and and I listed his accolades uh on here um and they're quite impressive in terms of everything from district teacher of the year to coach of the year to principal of the year um finalist for the Massachusetts
principal of the year and just um you know and just my time in knowing Mr strauss he's not one to toot his horn so um you know it just it goes to say a lot about him and his style so I'm looking forward to working with him um I think he's going to bring a breath a fresh air
to to the school community um and I certainly know that our current administrative team they're outstanding and they've been working with Mr strauss to transition in and I know he's eager to work with our great staff at the high school and he's already been a sounding board to me because he has been a superintendent so anyway I think I've
said enough and I'll turn over to you Mr strauss how are you very good i'm very very excited all we have to do is listen to the kids and and students are are our why um I'm a dad of two i my daughter
who is now a special education teacher was a typical DECA athlete driven for AP classes the typical on the other end I have a special ability angel uh he's 19 um he cannot read he cannot
write he cannot hold a pencil um he struggles with two plus two but he plays the drums the piano and the um guitar fluently and what that has taught us is really the idea that students have
no limitations we just have to find where they are um Jack will be with me often you will see him he'll just kind of follow me around and he will take over the school without question um I'm so excited to be here actually um
I know Peter has done an amazing job this year and I'm really looking forward to working with him and Patrick and and Carrie and but last year when when the opening happened and and Adam left I immediately contacted Dan and said "I want to come."
Um but he was already in the process and it made sense but I'm really excited to be here um I came to the showcase and that was fantastic um I'm looking forward I'm going to be at faculty meetings i'm going to be setting up some times to meet with students um and as
many teachers as possible before everybody gets out in June um you know one of our goals is for our juniors who are going to become seniors is to make sure this is going to be your third principal in three years and and transition is always scary it's scary for adults and and so my job is is to
ensure that we are going to keep Danvers moving forward without upheavaling too many things um because it doesn't make sense um I firmly believe in in Collins's book Good to Great and and how do we make something
excellent even better um you know I I I'm a graduate of University of Connecticut and so you know we're all excited about another championship but as Oriama you know always says we're good we're great we can be better and and so what do we do um how do we
provide more opportunities for students how do we empower more teachers without upheavaling things and and and that's really the key um I know I'm going to be attending a CPAC meeting soon you know I'm excited about being
involved with them and and I know from a special education lens we watch uh DECA and as a special education parent we say "Well what's for us?" And and so my job and I've always done it is how do we bring everybody to the table and how do
we make this a place for everyone so everyone is heard everyone is seen and everyone feels important whether we're going to Harvard whether we're going to the military all of it's important and every journey is just as important as everybody else's so I'm really excited
thank you anyone have a comment oh um Alen I saw your interview on Zoom um and I just remember saying to myself "Boy this man
is extraordinary." And not just because of the educational background but I think the the life skills the impact of being a special ed parent one myself I know how that makes you grow and widens
your viewpoint of the world and the empathy that that helps and I think all of that came across in your interview along with just a fantastic skill set so I am thrilled that you're here
and uh certainly wish you all the best you have our support you have got a great team at the high school you kept this this year going amazingly well and uh you're stepping into a really good situation with good people and that's a
recipe for success welcome aboard wish you all the best um welcome aboard and I look forward to walking the halls with you in the very near future one of my favorite things so me and few members of the committee like to do that every so often so visibility
is key absolutely uh I'm definitely looking forward to it i teach special education i work in a program in Lynn myself u with children on the autism spectrum in the elementary schools um so I don't go on as many tours as they do but if you want to come
up to the press box during a football game I'm the announcer so come on up and say hello okay uh thank you for being here for wanting to be here um I have uh three graduates of Dennis High School uh we've always
felt public school is a special place uh good things happen here every day and um I appreciate your your Yukon reference you had to drop that right i would have been disappointed to find out that you didn't um and I agree with you just
because you're excellent doesn't mean you can't improve we're looking forward to just every and the staff is fantastic we're moving this this forward and uh we wish you well and uh let's get
Thank you thank you and thank you for commenting on our current admin team uh they've done an outstanding job transitioning but I don't look at them as transition they they are just of the heart and soul and great things so we look forward to a great year here all right we're going to
move forward to our summary of the curriculum and assessment subcommittee meeting um and Mary Wormer's going to take over from here great all right a couple weeks ago we had a a good subcommittee meeting where we shared our midyear assessments i'll get closer to the microphone um so if you go to the
next slide um just give you some context um just of the different types of data that we have at the DRS public schools that we use um if you look at this pyramid it kind of summarizes the amount of time we spend um or just the amount uh that these are looked at each year so
for example at the top is MCCAST because that comes in in the fall so it's a one time a year assessment that we look at moving down the pyramid there's um um we have look at survey data again that happens once maybe twice a year and we we look and assess um that data then as
you move further down into the middle this is when we get into the more frequent assessments so we have benchmark assessments that are given beginning middle and end of the year so that's our like I Ready data that you'll hear tonight and our Dibbles data at the elementary school and we also have math um uh benchmark assessments as well and
then underneath are just what happens with the teachers in their daily work so there's weekly um um common form of assessments looked at by grade level teams or course teams at the high school and then a teacher daily uses formative assessment to assess so there's lots of data happening to be gathered it's just
how how is it able to be shared publicly with you and so the benchmark or common assessment data is the best data to share with you so moving on to the elementary school um we this is the dibbles data that is the um in this chart that's our reading data so if you
look at this chart on the left side of the chart as you're looking at it was our data from the 23 24 school year and then on the right side of the data is our 2425 uh school year data so you'll see there's only two columns on that side of the chart filled out because we had the beginning of the year data and
the midyear data now um we're really going to look at K to3 on this chart because that is uh the 23 24 school year had the same data collected um assessments used as um the 2425 school year so um when we look at the um 23 24
school year from the beginning of the year to midy year there was about a 15 percentage um increase in in the students achievement um on the uh dibbles for k to3 and um and this year
2425 we're seeing more of like 19% increase so it was that was promising for us to see a bigger increase from one from beginning to mid year over the last two years that was great now um in fourth fifth we used uh different um
data or we used only one subtest of the data for the dibbles um and that's why those scores were higher because the K to3 data is a composite score so it's multiple subtests um combined and into a composite score we we use this platform called McLass that does the metrics for
us and this school year we were able to purchase it so that we could use it K to five so now we have really good data K to five being reported and just if you were interested the four to five from beginning year to the midyear is 11% increase finally uh for math we don't
have data to report because we re we just began to build a new benchmark system to measure fluency and really help um zero in on specific skill needs um of students so um this mid-year data was analyzed by our PLC leaders and they
brought the the data back to the classroom teachers and um shared with them um specific um interventions that they could use with their students so identifying which students really need skill specific interventions and then the actual interventions to use with the
students the at the middle school we use the I Ready as I talked about earlier as our um our benchmark data so on the left side is the ELA data or reading data and on the right side is the math data and um looking if you look at one chart
individually the left side of the data is the grade when you're on grade level and on the right um side of the chart is where you are a little bit you're below the grade level so what we saw between beginning of the year and midyear is that they decreased on the right side and it increased on the left side so
that was really important for us to see so in ELA from um um the beginning of the year to mid year we saw a 15% increase in the kids scoring um on grade level or above so that was that's promising so we're looking for you know
improvements in greater improvements from um middle to the end as well and then in the math the same thing the same thing happened you can see the decreasing on the bar graph on the right side and the increasing on the left side and there we saw actually a 32% increase
um of kids working towards grade level and above so those are promising data points for us at Richmond School at the high school they we don't usually have this type of benchmark data because there's so many courses happening at the high school level so
what um campus high really did was focused on each course group analyzing their midterm data and seeing how kids could do so they were really working on preparing kids for that data for the midter exam and then analyzing it afterwards so um Peter did that as the
um principal and the curriculum director combination role that he has had the PLC facilitators that means one person from each course was in the room and they analyzed the review data and they did um they followed a protocol and on the next slide I'll share some of the findings
from that um and so each this is just three courses there's many courses and too much data for you to share with you but um I gave you some findings from their analyses and then uh inferences for work that they would do um moving
forward so um in the in ELA they have they're piloting an ISL program which is very similar to I Ready and they're seeing the English teachers are seeing really great improvements on specific skills uh literacy skills in ELA so
that's they really found that helpful and they're going to continue to try to use that to help close those gaps and they definitely saw a shift in in achievement um for students in the midyear compared to last year in biology they're really working hard um to align
their um standards and um to to application based assessments so they're really working on like a proficiency scale for their standards like how kids are at meeting the standard and so what they found that that work really um putting that on the midterm and and
teaching kids in that way has really improved their achievement in on their biology midterm and then finally in world history they're using an that we'll put up in a moment to uh talk to you about class companion the AI it's an AI um program used with kids it's helps
gives immediate feedback to kids um based on a rubric that um the teacher uses and um they saw a 40% increase um uh from their students in from their initial assessment in October i can't talk tonight into the midyear assessment
so um looking forward to having Diane come up and I think I'm done so we'll have Dian Mori come up and um her data and information was shared in the subcommittee in terms of you know ways they can provide instant feedback
to students right a huge component of learning is to receive feedback and it can be challenging as a former social studies teacher when you have 20 essays to grade get them back in a timely basis where they can actually use the feedback to apply for the next um so um I just
want to turn this over and I know just to set this up further if there's more information um there's another slideshow that has more detail if you'd like for the school committee like or even come in and visit Miss Mory's classroom thank you uh yeah so I'm Diane Murray i teach high school at uh history at the high
school um and so I've been using Class Companion actually for a couple of years i when it first came out I was one of the initial people that was was doing it and I actually went down uh to a social studies convention in um Nashville and presented uh there and and uh talked
about it uh and it has just kind of improved and I this year I felt confident that it was good enough that I thought I should present it to Dan and Mary and and Peter uh and so we came in and we looked at it and I and I was showing them kind of the capacity for uh
for data and all of that it was really quite good so so this actually I have to say I had uh uh Sage Chatty the chatbot uh which is my chat GBT he he came up with this for me uh but uh so what is class
companion i'm all about using the AI um it's AI powered platform helps students uh improve reading comprehension writing critical thinking uh through interactive and standards aligned assessments um it's designed to kind of complement classroom dist um instruction but not
replace it for me personally what it does is it helps me to be able to give more writing assignments to my students for them to write to practice write to practice write to practice um so for me um I have one honors class that has 28
kids another one that has 20 um I have a Kota class that has 20 and then my AP European history class has 28 I think it is this year and uh for all of them but particularly for AP uh the writing practice is absolutely essential um I've
actually got 34 kids I think signed up for next year's AP and that's a lot of reading um that on the practice stuff that I just could not give back to them in a timely fashion so this allows them to get the practice the AI gives them the feedback which you'll see on one of
the slides I put up here um and then um uh I am able to look over what the AI says i'm able to conference with kids on the essays that will be more for uh you know grades and things like that um and then uh but the students get the
feedback right away and it's not waiting for me to circle around to all 28 of them which is tough and uh it is used across all subjects um I use it I teach one of the DECA classes i teach accelerated DECA as well i've used it
for kids to practice their role plays uh in uh in my accelerated DECA class um and uh so I've used it across everything and uh have talked most of my colleagues into using it too so go ahead yep um for the kids uh this is basically everything
that I already said one of the big things is the kids kind of have a chance to look at it and get feedback from the AI itself so that uh when I create an assignment I create an assignment and I give them two or possibly three chances on it um so they do their first one the
AI gives feedback I can actually set the reading level of the feedback so for my AP kids I'm setting it at you know a high school level for my kids in my co-taught class who may be reading at a fourth or fifth grade reading level I can actually set the feedback to be at
their level so that they can understand it it gives back feedback and then it also gives them a uh it has a little uh bot um that will uh will answer their questions and and help them out as well so go ahead and move that forward um so
this is actually an example one of my students attempts here so this is what the student sees when they do their work uh this is uh their writing on the left hand side and then the feedback uh that the uh rubric gives is uh that they give is based on the rubric that I provided
for uh the class so uh they get feedback and then if you want to go to the next one there um they have a chance to rewrite it um class companion tells me what's uh pasted in so that uh if they choose to be sneaky and try to use the
chatbot themselves uh I'm like "Hm looks like you pasted this whole thing in you know you're supposed to type in there." So it gives me feedback on that uh and tells me exactly what was pasted in um and then uh I can read what the students say if the students feel like something
was scored wrongly you see the little um uh looks like a almost like a paint roller next to each one they can actually dispute something that the AI gives them for feedback and that will pop up on my side and then I can go in look at it look at the feedback and
either you know talk to the student myself or if they do it at home I can see it i can give them feedback right there this is what the AI meant and this is you know why you got the score you got and you know we'll come in and talk about it and and take a look at that so go ahead um the program actually gives
me insights for each of my classes this is one of my whole class summaries for my co-taught class um so it talks about this is where their average score is how long it takes them to to do it how many attempts they tried some kids will try two attempts some will only do one um
and some do one and get a great score the first time others do one and I'm like well it's good enough for me um so like no you got to try more u but it tells me an overall but I also get something just like this for each individual student so my co-teer
particularly my special ed co-teer in my KTO class he actually is using the data from there when he's writing his progress reports for special education um so that he can write a progress report and say student made it from here to here want to move that forward um
this is more data that I get from the student so I can see as a whole class this goes from the top score down to the bottom score um and it tells me um how much their change was uh in percentage points up uh from the first attempt to
the second attempt it tells me how many times they tried um I also get information on how long it took them i can see that all as well i go ahead and move that y um I can also see individual students and whole class on where they're doing so this is a rubric that I
had for a essay they had to write about uh the Vikings um and so or should say a short answer uh and so those that's the main criteria that I had and then it tells me how my students scored so I know for example looking at this that
their weakest area is still in explaining the evidence so they can pick some evidence pretty well they write their claim uh but they need to explain it better so that informs me on where I need to work with the students as a whole and as individuals go ahead all right uh and then this is uh in one
individual student scores uh with this student here uh this is top to bottom but that bottom one about Confucious is actually their first score and then um evaluating a Nuni as a messenger up there uh that is how far she has uh
managed to progress over the course of um of several months on this um and she can actually also see her uh all of these insights too so the students can actually go in and take a look at their own work and their own progress and see
how well they've done and how much they've improved on i think is that the last one that's it so if you have any questions I had 17 slides and Dan kindly told me no uh so like sorry it's the teacher and me uh
but I do have I have a longer slide i have and anything you want me to talk about um and I'm happy to help you out that got any question and and comment by the way I absolutely love this so kudos to you for diving in and doing this and obviously
you've been recognized and you're speaking at conferences now about this um in my professional world I actually tell my colleagues because I'm AI certified as well that uh it's not going to replace you but the people who don't use it are going to be replaced yes and
I honestly think that is the the future of AI um I guess my question for you I mean it's like clear efficiencies you're still engaged you're doing more um it sounds like but I don't think you said it outright like the the students
are actually do you find that they're progressing a lot faster with this in place than before yes and it was interesting because at the beginning of the school year they were uh they were very frustrated with it because they're like "It keeps giving me feedback." And I'm like "Well it's going to keep giving
you feedback that's what you should you know each time it's like "Why isn't it perfect yet?" I'm like "Nobody's perfect i'm not perfect nobody's perfect." Um but this it gives them concrete you know they don't they can't probably read my chicken scratch when I give handwritten
feedback anyways um so it gives them concrete feedback and it has actually very much improved them and at first they were kind of like but now it's you know now they're like they like it because they realize that they have several chances to do
this which it should always be should always be a growth not just a boom this is your grade you're done with it and this way they can keep going until they get it i give them for their midterm exams I give them practice questions i give them eight chances to try and do it
as many times as they want um to get the feedback so that they kind of have an idea of what they want to write for their essays on their exams um well I am 100% fan of this uh the only question I have uh just knowing how whenever I try to uh use some sort of AI
um and you said that they could dispute a question how how what's the uh margin of error for how many times do they win that argument against the AI so to speak um because I feel like it's not going to be too many but I'm just curious as to
how pinpoint it is so yeah it's for the most time sometimes if I give it very it really depends on how strict I make the rubric and sometimes I'll tell the students my rubric's going to be very strict on this one and I'm saying you need to have an exact specific example
of this and that um so um usually when they dispute it it's one of the ones where I have a more difficult more challenging rubric uh that the students have to follow whereas sometimes I'm just looking if it's you know hey what do you think about this we did a we looked at um Mansamusa and his 400 uh
billion dollar uh you know trip to give away gold across you know North Africa um and then I asked them to compare it to u modern-day philanthropists like um McKenzie Scott and and um Melinda Gates and um and ask them you know how has
philanthropy changed what's the role of philanthropy and stuff like that and in that case they're just giving their opinion and so my rubric is a lot more simple and it's just you know you know do you give an opinion do you give a specific example and if you do so a lot of them will get it first time maybe second time through uh we'll get a
perfect score um but on the ones that are more complex you know they tend to dispute it once in a while I'll agree with the student and I'll say "Okay I understand you know the you know the the AI thought it was uh you know that you should be
harder on this and and and I was like I'd give you the point for that so I do override once in a while but it is remarkably um remarkably accurate yeah um you know ultimately when I think
about writing I'm always thinking about the fact that eventually you want to get to the point where you have your own voice and that comes through in the writing but there's also that technical part of getting the the grammatic piece right
getting the structure correct and then and it seems to me this is where you can come in especially with some of the more talented writers that you have that you can help them get to that voice part yeah but everybody has to understand at
least how to communicate effectively in writing and to write well enough that someone says right they know what they're doing and I think um that's what this particular instrument can help this tool can help with that piece and uh you know and then it becomes developing
their own voice which is something that takes the human contact and the human feedback I think so yeah um I love what you're doing with this and I think it sets you up to make some great writers yeah and it's they have been my my AP kids have been really uh embracing it
i'm I'm really impressed with the amount of and for that that's the exact technical like on the I'm I read for the AP i go to Kansas City every June and and read uh Mr uh Dr bower's uh neck of the woods out in Missouri um and uh and
I know what's needed there and it really is just like boom boom boom point point and class companion for that that's originally what class companion was set up for was for AP um and uh I actually you know was working with the uh with
the woman who uh was the founder of this and and uh and said to her you know you can I've been using this in my regular history classes I've been using it in this and then you know they decided to expand it out from there um but it is that and then the voice a lot of times
with the voice um I have you know I'll have them write it and those are the types of things particularly that I will then specifically read myself and give feedback for so the ones that I just go and boom boom boom you get credit for it
those are things that it's practice right to practice right to practice um and then the when we're doing something particularly special then it's all about the voice as well thank you thank you yeah I do uh can't leave yet i cut you
down to you know 917 but just teasing um you know as I look at this and um how has this changed your approach teaching right because you know those that might be old like myself that's completely different in terms of teaching and
learning but how has this changed how you help students so for me it allows me number one to know right away if they got something and it's not you know I'm not taking home a stack of you know 60 essays and then oh I'll wade through it
three days later i can see right away what they can if there's misunderstandings and things like that and that means the next day I can come in and correct things that they're um that they got wrong whether it's content or whether it's um arguing it also
allows me to uh take an argument that a student made that was really solid and put it up for the students to be able to see to say "Hey this is one that did well and let's talk about why it did well." So it's it helps a lot with the uh with the analysis of where the kids
are at and where they need to be thank you thank you and if you guys have any questions honest to God come by my classroom it's chaotic forward to Okay um now on to the uh amended item we'll we'll still do the the school choice presentation but we'll move the
hearing to the next session so uh back to you Mr bower okay my pleasure so um I actually upgraded this presentation that was back in March just informing the school committee as has indicated that through last year's budget season would
do research on school choice to bring back the pros and cons to see if this would be an option that would be uh advantageous to us considering but um just as a reminder that every year all districts have to have a public hearing and voting before June 1 to opt out of
school choice right that's uh regulation for us so we have that hearing every year um so that's important to know that it's an opt out every year the other piece too is that the law allows students to attend public schools in any town in the state uh districts that
participate in choice they can receive students districts like ours that do not participate we have no say whether students decide to go to another place for their education in the public school setting uh that's important to note the other components of school choice um is
that we can limit the amount if we would decide to participate we set the limit of receiving out of district students we accept by grade and that is by year so if you choose to participate every year the amount of students and per grade
that can vary determined upon our enrollment and patterns that we see so there's a lot of control to be able to make that change according to the needs of the district also parents and guardians are responsible for transportation um that's part of the rag
um and then the other piece too is that it's real important to know this that if you have x amount of seats that if the amount of applications exceed that there is a whole process that has to take place it's a random and without discrimination blind draw um that's
really really critical to this and also there is a requirement for advertisement but we set the the bar where that might be as simple as posting on your website it can be as complicated as you want it to be or something very simple and the important thing to note too is from a financial standpoint the sending
district pays tuition to the receiving district it's $5,000 per student there's always an additional $75 administrative fee that is added to that uh the other piece too just around us the school choice districts Beverly Peodyy Masco
Salem Manchester Essics Newport Dryen Reed Reading Hamilton Wam there's other districts around us that are part of school choice and have been for many many years u just to give an idea of where we are in terms of the amount of students that have participated in choice out of our district last year was
57.4 students and that's uh through GA grades K through 12 um the 57.4 the point4 is like one student went into choice latter part of the year tuition out last year was $441,870 that the town we paid out to
those districts now you might look at that and say this this will make sense in a second year the tuition is 5,000 but when you factor the 57.4 that's much less than the 441,000 the key to understanding the needs of students that
require special education services above what a district can provide the sending district is is build for any additional cost so that that that accounts for that higher number this year we have 63 students that are out of the district um and that number of tuition out will be
over 500,000 and that comes from the town it does not come out of the school budget but it comes out of the town coffers um like I said we also if you participate control the amount of seats per grade and it can vary every year i think that's important and obviously if
you look at people who might be interested in choice there's a lot of different factors um people may want something their district doesn't offer and if you look at the financial issues that are occurring all around us and seeing many programs being cut you know this is a a
prime time to take a look at you know we're very stable so we may offer things that other districts do not um special education considerations of programming that might be superior in one district over others uh there may be situations where families work near a school
outside of the district people may have moved um there could have been situations at the school maybe that didn't go well for that particular student they wanted a fresh start there's all sorts of reasons why people choose to participate in school choice um and the staff our staff that live outside of the district there's not an
option built on the contract bring their child here but school choice could offer that option which I think is important to note um and there is a sibling preference that once you accept a student you do have to offer sibling preference if you have a slot in the grade that the sibling might want to
come to school again the the piece that's important about special education services that if services exceed what we can provide we can charge the sending district um and chapter 70 enrollment which we know is important for
foundational monies we receive um if we were participate we wouldn't get the chapter 70 funds from that district but that enrollment counts toward our number and this year we were very close in the foundational budget $75 per student we
were very close by a few students to move to the 104 uh number which is substantial it's about $100,000 difference um we would get the enrollment although we wouldn't get the chapter 7 funds um tuition funds that we would receive um there's no restrictions
on their use it's by statute the um account would be in the school committee like our normal operating it wouldn't go to the town and you can build that account over time it's revolving so it's there if there's a big item that you're looking to bridge a gap with finances in
one year um it does help districts survive the ups and downs it can provide special programming um pretty much whatever we would need it to do but the key to this is it's a school decision um that's based on school committee if you choose to opt out you have that option
every year so for example if this year we decide to opt in for one year next year you could review it and say we choose to opt out thing is students that would come into our district are entitled to remain until they graduate any student you accept to school choice they stay in your district till they
graduate or if they decide to move and leave the district um so I think there's a lot of controls in place here that I think are important to repeat in terms of making a decision a to participate that can change every year and b how many students and where they would go
based upon your enrollment patterns the one thing that came up in our last meeting that this is a new slide and we did consult with other districts and our attorney um so if we were to accept the student here's the scenario and they would would be found
eventually to need out of district placement you know um the sending district would be responsible for that payment and and that billing however they would be invited of course to attend the team meeting and they should be invited to the team meeting to to
involve a situation like that so I cited the statute as well um we did our research on this and I think that's an important thing to note um again school choice is is a blind process so there's no there's no screening and there's no selection process um and it it should be
that way right it's designed to allow an opportunity for those that might not be getting that in their community i believe that we have a lot to offer in Danvers everybody around us and I have some data to show you you know um I wish we could keep our students here and we're trying but they can leave and if
you look at the breakdown this is this year as of January 1 um you can see the breakdown of districts and our students that have left 63 total beverly reading DBD North Andover uh virtual there's quite a bit there um and you can see
them scattered throughout again I don't know the reason why um and we're looking to put together a survey uh on that but at the end you can see where it breaks down by grade too so it's it's not like 63 new students left you know that
builds over time as they move through um so the districts are all around us accepting students um and they leave because they're you know you can break it down in any scenario but the fact is we do not so the other piece that I
would look at this is all draft and just looking at enrollment so if the recommendation were to join school choice I would make no recommendations for the elementary if you look at the grades and the average class size you have to build in variability for moveins
um and moving throughout the district so you can see the class size we wouldn't want to we wouldn't want to make any changes there so if we did opt in the recommendation from us would be not to have any seats at the elementary level i think you have growth though at the middle and the high school so when you
look at the grades and the enrollment again this is a projected but this is a draft meeting these are numbers we were just looking at and understand that at the middle school there's three teams per grade and if you were to take six students at grade six and filter them throughout the three teams you would not
see a noticeable change in the class size and that 268 is a projection that may be lower accounting for students who may opt out of the district or go to privates next year and if you project out grades seven eight nine and 10 just at a base six for a total of 30 um these
students would be absorbed without making substantial changes you would not even notice the class size change it's not all six in an elementary is linear right a grade one class they stay together but the high school middle school there's Yeah it's a it's a myriad
of of classes it's a matrix so again the thing to note is if that was the recommendation um although 30 seats might seem a lot it's spread out right over the five grades and keep in mind that the seats can change each year based on availability and again this is just a draft so this could be as you
choose if this would be the recommendation for this year if we accept in and then next year say well we want to take a look at it and let's say there's a bump in enrollment a lot of students tend to stay in the grade six then that could either be reduced or eliminated that's totally within our
parameter to make that change every year i think that's an really really important fact to note i don't see the elementary really changing much over the next couple of years the bubbles as they go we have a robust prek coming in and again we want to make sure that we keep those class sizes as balanced and as low
as we can um and if you look at the scenario based on revenue if we were to take 30 students if 30 students would enroll that would be the tuition that would come in next year's you know one $150,000 and you could see by just
adding 30 each year if that's what you did you know you could see the money that would be stacked if you did not use that money at all and that's just the baseline without any special education considerations for any charges to any services okay um and I think that's important to know
that's just the baseline so even if out of year one 20 students did fill those 30 available seats we would still see considerable you know $100,000 revenue that that's revenue we do not have right now and as we're going through turbulent
times and we're doing the best that we can and we're looking for I think the key thing with choice is to understand that um there's value added to having choice in in your school because people would want to come to your school for
what you have to offer right i I think that's important to note people as I said earlier are leaving their districts for various reasons or leaving ours for something they don't have i know that we have quality product i know that we have great instructions and great programs and looking at a measured piece if we
would choose to go to school choice is one where it's not going to vastly change the dynamics of the middle and the high school and the the financial piece I think can help us if we're looking to bridge gaps and particularly
as we know moving forward it may be tight the next couple of years um and it is a nice thing if teachers um you know would like to bring the students here and that works great but again that can't be marketed that way that would just be a nice piece that would uh
coincide we have and the piece about school choice is there's extensive research out there right so I found uh some research from earlier last year actually 2024 at that point there were
187 studies done on school choice now that's a broad thing over vouchers public private a whole vast variety of research studies it may be more now um but out of that 187 you know 84 were a positive effect of school choice on the
district or the individual or the family or the community you know there's some with no impact and very little a negative result um you know there's and I I didn't want to go through all the research studies on this but I was intrigued by this because you know there's a lot of
thought that has gone into school choice so it's not it's not a decision you go into lightly i think you have to look at all the benefits versus the areas that may not benefit and make the best decision that would best benefit the district i see our students going out
and again I'm working on the survey that I'd like to know more so we can keep working on our end but I know we would attract students and I know that people are vested when they're involved in choice programming um because they provide the transportation they make it work within their family a decision and
they have something that they're not getting in the district that they will get in this district and I can tell you in my 10 years of experience as an assistant principal of Beverly where Beverly's a choice district um and you know an assistant principal does the discipline and does um all the things
that the principal need them to do i can't tell you that whenever there were issues that would occur that it would be oh that's that's a choice student it wasn't that way at all and I and I can say that with confidence and very clearly um not at all in fact um
students come in and and I saw students that actually brought different gifts to the district as well so um it's a thoughtful program it's one that um you know I know that like anything if the choice if the decision is to join a
choice is that trusting us to put together a measured program so that it would be successful and ensuring that um we follow the letter of the law but we also ensure that we work closely with our faculty and staff to make sure that it's balanced and to ensure that you
know as we go through if there are different needs that we can always the option is always ours to make changes So I think that's an important thing so I've spoken way too much probably but uh we've done a lot of research again and I know opening again I am open for any
conversation you know if people want to reach out to me and have a conversation I'm happy to share information on choice I'm happy to meet um phone calls or whatever it would take just to communicate the information then people can make their own minds and their own
decisions that's all I have comments just a couple oh I'm sorry thanks for that Dan um clarified a number of issues issues that were raised in uh some emails that we received earlier today so I hope they're either
watching or they'll see the presentation online maybe allay some of their concerns um I do want to mention that in your um advisory committee that we had and I was sitting in with them there was I could
say with full confidence that there was an overwhelming endorsement of school choice by a broad cross-section of people from this town um so I think people digging into the
pluses and minuses of school choice um more feedback for us will help us make make a decision shortly down the road thank you i'm happy to include the updated presentation within my update
just so people can see the information as well thank you i just wanted to um try and touch on subjects I think that the community is concerned about but may not need to be
concerned so for example from the special education standpoint not only do we get reimbursed for if a student had to be outplayed um but also for services that that we would
render within the district and I I understood that correctly and I take it that means if we like occupational therapy if we had to contract out we contracted services is that what is meant by the indist
yes anything above and beyond that we would provide we could build the Senate district okay but also this is a great way for us as we're building our programming this can help us to you know also check the work we're doing continue to building in a way where people will
want to come here uh because I think we do um have big upside and it's at basically a neutral cost from that standpoint um uh let's see no seats at the elementary um I'm going to guess that
typically people who are going to come to the if they have to provide the transportation you're really talking mostly contiguous communities everything I don't know if there are are studies that say yeah it's a it's a five mile
radius it's 10 mile rad but I've got to believe it's other local northshore communities might think of being my experience has been in Beverly that yes that was mostly the surrounding communities that would come in choice um
and it's it's really an investment on the parents guardians for the transport transportation as well so some of the feedback from our um advisory council where the situation like you know it may come up where a student is struggling with transportation or struggling uh
with getting to school and such and sometimes I would have to work with families a little bit on that but they were really invested very heavily to ensure success yeah for the child in school and at the at the numbers theoretically that you're talking six students at the at the
middle and high school levels maybe per It's hard to imagine that being even a blip on anybody's radar so I'm happy to listen to uh to folks in the community if people want to email and whatnot happy to listen to it but it honestly is
hard to see a real downside from this the scale of the program thank you um I just want to um address something that Derek just asked i did work in a district that um had school choice it's
about 15 minutes north on 95 and when you mentioned uh contiguous communities I had a softball player that came from Linton uh I had I knew kids coming from Warren to this smaller town um so it you
know it might be mostly people from u neighboring communities but it's also people looking for a chance to do something way different than what they're used to in their neighborhoods so I had parents who were driving their kids half hour every day to go to a public high school wouldn't join so I mean there was definitely a lot it
brought to the table um for both the people who lived in town as well as the people so it brought a whole different dynamic i just wanted speaks to the commitment of the parents and the student too and that's a good
that's a positive if I were to say you know I showed the districts where students go you know you may see a reciprocal on that and and again like you said Sean there's certainly factors that would be advantageous to attending school in the
ambers but there's also a lot of personal reasons why people may make a switch as well um and again that's a personal decision and a family decision so it's not something that somebody would just change their mind and and make a change you know it takes quite a bit of effort to do that and to
transition into school is is a challenge for a student right it's a whole new environment for the student and for the family so you know I think people make those decisions very carefully uh and do what they think is best for their family and their child and again just knowing a
few of the personal cases that I remember working with you know it varied u but I can't tell you any difference in this they were our students and I thought that a number of them did bring some great gifts to our district as I said nothing's ever perfect and I don't
want to paint that but nothing's ever perfect for students that are in our own district as well we do the best that we can u but I know that we have a very professional staff and again this isn't about putting a strain or stress on our resources it's not at all it does allow
some revenue that's that would be greatly welcome but done in the balanced measured way that does not counter the work that we've been doing but allows us to keep building on the work that we're doing i think that's really important
awesome no I appreciate all the positive commentary on this and the feedback from the community and uh just looking forward to our next session where we can you know take our input and make our decision all right next up uh for new
business the monthly budget report hi everyone hello uh so the the different news this month to report I guess is good news in the sense that we did receive an initial payment
um on a state reimbursement on transportation associated with the emergency assistance program um it's really just an advance on a reimbursement that typically does happen but it often happens um the following year based on our end of year report
numbers so um last year they instituted a new process where we could uh report those expenditures in the year that we were incurring them and then they would uh process a reimbursement so that we could use those funds to offset them in real time that first payment was
$163,000 and it came in um a couple weeks ago so I was able to apply that to um as an offset to the line 802 that has been um growing in its deficit we do ex we do hope that there will be um
additional opportunities that represented a reimbursement of transportation through I think December so um certainly the provided the provision of those services has continued um since January
so we are hoping that there will be uh additional opportunities to submit for that kind of reimbursement for the expenses that we have seen um January and we'll see through June um other than that there is not a a
lot of new information to provide um it it just continues to be tracking um the projections on our um special ed transportation and our tuitions um and then the additional instructional
assistant positions that we um have brought in to try to address the student needs that we've seen this year um while our programs are being built up the chair can I add one thing yes so we've been in close contact with our our
desi lays on in terms of the 104 date funding we received a big allocation uh from September to December 495,000 and we're anticipating a second aotment which u they have indicated we will get notice within the next week how much
that second installment will be and that would be a January to March and then we know we'll have one more installment that will be toward the end of the year um again Mary and her team have been working hard as students are leaving our district um many of them are staying or
being transported back in so we're able to capture and that funding runs out after this year but that uh is a big piece that will close this and allow us to plan for next year as well so that's a big piece we hope to have formal notice within a week in terms of when we're going to receive the second
installment secondly uh we've been in close contact with our state uh representatives uh we know the supplemental budget is coming in terms of the circuit breaker relief the transportation we've talked about it all year from 44% to 75% recovery that's
substantial money um so that is moving forward in the supplemental budget which is huge uh in fact Sally texted today they're going to another session looking for any other reliefs that could be provided for all school districts and we had some ideas be provided so we're
getting a lot of communication back and forth with Joan Lovely and Sally at the state level we had a uh superintendent's lunchon two weeks ago that uh was all about funding and and the state representatives and from not just our
area but outside the region spoke in terms of advocacy for additional relief for our schools and knowing that it's a turbulent time for sure and I think the big question comes down to the federal funding and where that is going to go and they're also waiting for more
information as well as that money you know the entitlements will be shipped to the state but how will that go they're still waiting for feedback on that and told us that you know that they're planning their budget and the federal budget comes out after that so it's obviously creating a little bit of
anxiety but um you know we're looking ahead in the budget like if things were not to work out as well as they did before what moves do we need to make um so we've been talking about a lot of that planning forward what we may need to do in a worst case scenario but we're hoping for the regular scenario which
provide you know essential funding for you know title one and our IDA grants so again there's a lot of advocacy for this but you know we have a lot of things that are are coming back which we're very confident um and the good news is that the regionalization of
transportation um two bids came back so the committee is meeting this week to finalize that and they're still anticipating between an 8 and 10% savings on out of district transportation that's with the consortium so thank goodness we were
involved in that because that will really help us and we'll know probably this week what our percentage of savings may be um we have quite a bit of routes so it might be closer to 10% but once we have an update I'll report back sorry Pam for joining in on your presentation
i can um I was going to bring this up under legislation anyway I did talk to Representative Karns today and she said on Wednesday there will be a vote on a supplemental budget increase for this district and she said it's $1.3 billion
on the table she thinks it will pass you never know but if it does pass it would bring the circuit break reimbursement up to the 75% i'm sure that Oh is that it unless you have other questions I'd be happy to try to answer
them in in the world of numbers in your level we just had Massachusetts just got had a cut from the federal government it may be too early but is there anyone talking about what kind of impact that may have it was like 1.6 million or 1.2 million i thought it was 106
was You know what you're probably right well that money actually was earmarked toward extended ESER and extended postcoid funding oh okay so we are not involved that did not impact our district but it impacted many of our urban districts um that had money set
aside that they were counting on being able to use um we we were out of that so it didn't impact us but that hit some districts thank you thank you you're welcome do you want me to stay the the next item on the agenda
is related to student activities just in case you need me to help with that I'll stay nearby okay student activity account so so just to give a brief um description the student activities at the high school um and the middle school
are things that carry over from one year to the next but the um school committee needs to be involved when a an inactive club an inactive student activity organization has funds um in their
account and we are going to dissolve them basically um make them no longer be a student activity but what what happens to the money that they have on account so this um this anti-discrimination club um was created
three or four years ago and it no longer has any active advisor or active students but it has $500 in its account so the recommendation of the principal um through the superintendent is to ask
the school committee to consider um I guess appropriating or or saying it's okay for that money to be transferred to one of the other student activities with sort of a similar mission statement um which is the Prism student activity group at the high
school i would make that motion Mr chair that the the assets of the DHS Anti-Discrimination Club which amount to approximately $500 be transferred to an account for
DHS Prism which also exists to promote an inclusive environment at DHS second discussion i I just have a question and is it dissolved because there's no faculty that wants to participate or is
it a lack of student interest i don't know if I I think it's lack of student interest i think that the yeah interest is shifted to another okay that's my only question okay all those in favor of moving the
assets from anti-discriminary anti-discrimination club to the prison club uh I I I I none opposed motion carries thank you Pam
next up the superintendent recommends the transportation policy EA appendix for a first reading anyway it is in your folder one of the things
sorry as you may know last year um working with DPW we we acquired two vans that we utilize for transportation of extracurriculars in district transportation um they're not to be used for fixed
routes so they're what we call non70 vehicles so the lensure really is just the typical license um that allows coaches to travel uh allows teachers to transport um in review of our policy one of the things that is important to note
is that we don't have something specific that drills down to um overseeing uh this practice so we did research and we vetted this uh this appendix the policy EA student
transportation services we vetted it through our attorney but we also um quite frankly the Northshore consortium has a similar policy because they do a lot of transporting um so we just want to be clear in our and I'm append I would request school committee approves
this for first reading for review that we add this to policy EA just to be very clear in terms of what are the expectations of our staff that drive our vehicles with students there should be an annual endorsement um there should be an employee in good standing obviously
our core and safest checks which we do anyway for all of our employees uh ensure that there's a valid driver's license three years of driving experience uh ensuring that the driving record is is is a good solid record um and then we're creating a driver
endorsement training through David Pulsifer our new transportation coordinator um just to make sure that all policies procedures and safety protocols are followed uh but also understanding that you know clearly that if there's any type of moving violation
or anything such as DUI or three speeding tickets or more would not allow for any endorsement at all for driving i know that may sound like common sense and it is but we don't have anything articulated in our policy that allows this and I and I strongly encourage the
school committee to accept this as first reading to add this appendix to the policy EA right can I get a motion i motion we uh accept the appendix policy EA for first reading second any
discussion all those in favor i none opposed motion carries mr secretary on the minutes i move that we approve and release the minutes from the March 10th 2025 regular
meeting and approve but not release the minutes from the March 13 2025 executive session second any discussion all those in favor i opposed none i motion
carries all right on to communication um we uh skipped over item A on that was a consent oh I apologize thank you consent agenda um motion to approve the
fundraising and HRMS ski club and assistant track coach stipens and personal memo so move second any discussion all those in favor i opposed none thank
you for that reminder all right anything in communication all right legislation i think you covered that unless there's more um there's a there is uh really the only other item that we haven't talked about is the fact that and and again talking
with Representative Karns today the general budget feeling is there's a there really concerned about being able to fund some things that do impact children in the next budget for example it looks like they'll be facing having to cut case managers in
terms of mental health work that's going to affect students um there was an article last week where the the Trump cuts and I think the governor talked about the fact that it's hitting mental health services and uh if anything we need more funding and attention on
mental health services not just for students but for adults so um it's going to be very tenuous time and I think all that we can do as the superintendent mentioned is uh is number one advocate and number two plan and uh but we could
be looking at a tough year because the federal cuts are going to trickle down one way or the other that's it thank you um subcommittee liaison updates I'll say curriculum we just covered unless there's any additional items on that um
any other items people want to bring up i would say the safety meeting which was uh held last week really efficiently run by the superintendent and we had a present presentation similar to what we saw perhaps in a little more detail
regarding the student youth at risk survey and uh it was quite good and again reinforces I think the need for good mental health services i think we're going to be asked to do more in the coming years and to help our students and probably do that more with
a little less it's going to be a challenge thank you for that um human rights and inclusion were you going to uh share something with us today oh you have a piece of paper i thought you were preparing a speech
okay no that's fine that's fine anything else uh for leans um I just want to go back to what we spoke about at the beginning of the meeting i'm looking forward to working with the new board CPAC nice and moving this forward hopefully again we get into that um that
Apple program yes sir um our equity subcommittee meeting is slated to it's scheduled for April 28th Monday um I put in the memo on Friday we can move that to the 30th of April um that would that would help
Mary and myself won't be available so spring break no it's a week after okay yeah um the north the the Northshore consortium we had last board meeting i gave the update on the regional transportation which is very optimistic
uh the b the budget was agreed upon and settled there is a tuition increase to 8% um which is which is high it was down from the projected 9% um and they're going through negotiations as we speak the first negotiating session is uh Wednesday so
they're starting to that piece there so uh as well as Danvers Cares met today i wasn't able to attend um but I don't know if Mike you were able to attend today's cares but they're really working really hard the light the night purple
event is coming in May um it's a great great opportunity um to not only recognize those who struggle um with substance but also those family members who struggle with the enormous stress and community showing supported so it's
a wonderful event um and they're going to do a youth risk behavior survey dammers cares in the middle school so we're working on kicking that off very shortly um and I don't know if we have anything for deep Mary we have a couple upcoming events though uh yes but I was
going to say that um at Danver's care today they talked about um having our one of our parents Liz Barrier do a presentation on anxiety and when anxiety comes to school so um she did that for our social workers um back in February and she's going to be doing a parent
session on April 30th right after our subcommittee meeting so at 7 o'clock at night here right here in the NPR at Holt Richmond Middle School and any parent that has an incoming sixth grader they get a two for one because the incoming sixth grade parent night for Holton Richmond is uh at 6:00 to 7 and seven
Liz will be here to talk about anxiety which I think a lot of parents this is a lot that we grapple with at home mr shannon Liz is great and her passion in regards to anxiety as it relates to air pressure devices especially the
devices uh is really impressive so people can attend they really should okay and with that can I get a motion to adjurnn motion to adjurnn second all those in favor i All right good night
Danvers and next meeting is May 12th thank you