full school committee meeting on June 15th, 2026. I'd like to call the meeting to order. It's 5:12. Let's rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible. Yeah. >> Name that too. >> Playing just for you. >> Over there. >> Um
roll call. >> Pamela Blair, assistant superintendent for business. >> Gregory. >> Gordon Smith, superintendent of schools. >> Antella Relo Jarzavski. >> William Shaw. >> Heather Brown, assistant super.
I have an approval of minutes. >> I move to approve the May 26, 2026 executive session meeting minutes as presented. >> Motion made by Greg, seconded by William. All those in favor say I. >> I.
>> I. Any extension? >> Abstensions. Oh, and one abstension. >> Oh, we not So, you want to do that again? I move that uh we accept the uh
May 20, 2026 um executive session meeting minutes with the one in change that Carrie was absent. >> Motion made by Greg. >> Second. >> Seconded by William. All those in favor say I.
Three to zero and one 301. Thanks. >> Next ones. >> Move to approve the May 26, 2026 regular session meeting minutes with the one change that Carrie
was absent. All those in favor say I. I. Nays. And any abstensions and carry carries 30 to one. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Any committee and subcommittee communications? Greg, you
>> uh sure. Uh since we last met, as you all know, graduation at the high school occurred. It was a fantastic night. one more time. Thank you, Anella, for doing that. No problem. Um, >> great speech, too. >> Oh, thank you.
>> Uh, the Pioneer Valley um, Christian Academy contacted us last week. Uh, they asked if we had any furniture left from the high school. We are giving them library tables, uh, 70 triangle desks, and kitchen appliances that were
otherwise week. Um the building itself, uh we're going to look to turn it over Thursday. Uh we'll be out. The movers were there Saturday. They've been in, uh they'll be in this week and uh we'll be done with it. They'll start abatement the end of
this week and shortly start knocking down the pool and head west. Power gets shut off Thursday. Be And uh finally, the time capsule, the new time capsule, the 2026 time capsule. We picked a date to put it back in the
ground. That'll be July 16th. And there are um drop off boxes for things that people might want to add to the time capsule at the town hall and library and fire station. Thank you. Okay.
Um um this last week. Um very well attended. I mean, we have so many teachers that have been here, so many staff members that have been in our district. Um and I think it says a lot about our district for many years. So,
my turn. Uh I think Elaf is here tonight, so they probably could talk about it, but um we have had um totaling 122,000 roughly in um requests and uh gave out more in uh
grants this year than we have given in the past and um so thank you for all of the teachers who continue to submit. Um the freedom form is still up and I think you already sent out the notice so folks could uh
or to Mountain View for backpacks. Um I have LPDC tomorrow uh Wednesday, so I don't have any updates from there. >> Um no report, but I have a meeting on Wednesday as well. Um >> thanks. It's been a busy few weeks. Um
request for fundraising event at Long High School. >> But I will Kevin Lennon really Alex. Uh last time we're here we presented the idea of Elite having the gala at the new high
school. Uh more um just because Galla is such a popular event um and it's just a lot more work for us to hold that the high school. We realize that. So we still want to have a fundraiser at the new high school. Um so we kind of scaled it
down. Um we're thinking still Cash Bar. We've been in talks with East Village Tavern. Uh they're obviously busy with the uh do it. Um, waiting on the details. Uh, and we're going to do Pasador or Derbs.
Uh, so there's some food there. Um, we're looking November. I know open house. >> Open house uh will be finished by early October. >> Okay. Yeah. >> So, we're looking >> Yeah, we're talking about the open house
that we're going to show off to the community. Not Oh, I'm sorry. Um, so we're and the goal of this event is obviously to raise money. So this is going to be another fundraiser for Eleaf. Uh, we're kind of targeting
raising money for some more um sports um that Smartboards. Yep. Um, we're looking at November 7th or the 14th, Saturday. You say November 14th.
>> November 7th or the 14th. I just want to reach out to uh make sure there's no big sporting events or anything like that. >> We'll probably get this band that we're hearing. >> They're auditioning as we speak. They knew to be here. Yeah. >> So, we're thinking music, too. We're
trying to figure that out. We talked to some bands and then we talked about scaling it back and kind of maybe like students giving tours. We talked about, you know, certain areas um obviously that were approved. >> So, as you can tell, like we haven't
totally decided define like what this event is. We haven't, you know, we meet once a month. Um Alex and Kevin have graciously um we have to figure out, you know, what the event's really going to be and what
are all the details and that's going to take time. But if, you know, if we don't have permission to do that, then we don't we're not going to spend the time to do all that stuff. So, I think probably what we're looking for now is an initial approval that okay, you can
have an event um a big part of it And then, you know, I think we we could certainly commit to having food as well. Um, and that I think having passed reserves is the route to go there. Um,
but then a lot of the other details are, you know, are not filled in yet. So, um, we're happy to chat about ideas if you want. Um, you know, but we're for the evening. Um, but in order to put those details together, looking for your
approval to decide, you know, if it's something that we really are going to commit the time to doing. >> I think it's a um a win-win event in terms of being able to showcase the building, but also, you guys can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think something
like 50,000 or so of the things that we asked um Gordon to look into is how many classrooms still are not equipped and um you know it makes it difficult to lots of really excellent grant proposals that are smaller and so you know you want to
equip the classrooms but also continue to have innovative ideas get funded for teachers. So I think it you know allows us to Yeah, we would I I I think you know you're totally right. Like this whole Smartboard thing has been a challenge
for us in the in the beginning. It's like oh do we fun these smartboards and now it's like we get you know more requests of for smartboards per year than we can fund. So >> um
and we have three main events. The gala we raise the bulk of our of our um our funds. Um the other events that we you know we we don't raise more than $10,000. So you know I don't this isn't
like an event for one Smartboard. Um, we'd love to find a good chunk of money to to do all this. Um, we're we're still trying to figure that out, you know. So, I just don't want everybody to think like, oh, we're going to have planners and everybody's going to get smartboard, you know,
that's there's probably >> if there's any businesses out there listening. >> Yeah, >> we would love your help. >> Absolutely. And that, you know, that's our goal is to get everybody a Smartboard. Um, we like that. It makes it challenging um because
they're expensive and then we only have so much money to get out. So, um, but we all think it's important to for everyone to have smarts. So, >> it's a difficult situation for us. Is this something I mean I don't know if
you know this but a one time thing or is it >> Yeah. >> Last time about it not being precedent setting. I think um I would be hesitant to open this sort of activity up to
other groups um sports teams uh other community groups. I think we should not get in the business of the entertainment business. Um, but this is a unique opportunity to have an open house. Um, and so if it involves
the fact that it's not the gala u might provide an opportunity for more folks to come that I imagine this will be less expensive than the gala. I know it's still a fundraiser um but that's an opportunity and another reason to say okay let's open it up to the community and we'll you know make it an event. Um, so those would be my thoughts on it.
>> Yeah, we'd really like to keep the cost to the attendees as low as possible. That would be the objective. >> The dates more than anything really I guess. >> Frank, did you have anything to jump in on >> ready to have a deeper conversation in a
different setting? >> Okay. >> Yeah. Do you know if November there's any significant dates that uh we would conflict with? >> Uh I think there's a Saturday night where the Hall of Fame is running clear.
>> Is your vision that this would be adult only since that's your vision? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Except yeah, unless we were gonna potentially get like high school
students as like helpers the same way we do at the gala. >> You know, I think probably a concern like to your point is around the alcohol, but didn't we reach out to other school districts and we did a unique situation that other districts
do? it. Um it's quite common for vocational schools to run events like this, especially as fundraising events. Um and then the other we only had about 10 11 were school systems that were opening a
new school and they did something like this and it was more of a one-time thing. They did it. They didn't have any other community groups after that come forward to ask to do these kind of things. Um, so those are the responses, the positive responses that I got.
>> If you if you have a contact of someone who's on an event like this at a new school, then >> you know, if they can help us ident, Gordon Are we ready to vote on this or should we >> I think Frank was
>> all right >> to have discussions before a vote. I think right >> you know for the first time having those conversations here on camera setting that >> no I don't think so >> in the very near future.
>> Well our next meeting is next >> 22nd. So, could we have one of those conversations before next week so that we >> are able to give you guys an answer? Um, >> but certainly in the next, you know,
week if we're involved with that conversation that we can, you know, make people available to have conversation about. For sure. >> All right. Do >> you want one of us to be involved in that discussion? >> Would you like me to be involved in that discussion? I
>> say it seems like a a great last effort. >> Okay. >> In line with all >> right. So in the next week or so you guys will will have a conversation. So then and you'll come back with information at the next
So, we'll put you on the agenda for next >> if you can check the dates so we can commit. If it's a date, give them the date confirmation. >> Great. >> How uh will >> um I have both of their contacts. >> That's cool. We'll connect. Good.
>> And before Monday, >> right? >> You're saying before Monday, we should we're connecting. >> Yeah. >> Yes. this week tomorrow or Wednesday or Wednesday. >> Not a lot going on.
out, >> right? >> You know, probably find some time on Thursday or virtually whatever we want to do. >> Come on Thursday. >> The need for the discussion is related to the alcohol in high school because I just want to make sure I understand in terms of if anyone's requesting to use
that building and building request form like that, this wouldn't be the process. It's because this >> so just go through our office and we might be. So, >> and then >> this one's going to us because of alcohol, >> correct? >> Okay. >> And it also has to go to the town
council, which you all you all know already. Yeah. >> All right. >> Okay. >> You All right, our next item, our end of year status review.
>> Okay, so we have um three different presentations. We have the district presentation which will come up on screen. Uh it's a little bit change in format for if you don't have notes you just have to check which slide is up when you're talking.
>> No, that's fine. I I mean I can see it. This is district one. But um so district will go first and then uh we have Birchland here and we have the high school here and we'll present our end of the year status reports.
You go to the next slide. This just gives uh beginning of the year, middle of the year, gives you a look at our demographics um and sort of how we uh break down as a
student population. Uh it also so it gives you race and ethnicity on one side and it gives you um some of the desi breakdowns in terms of percentages like the high needs English uh we've seen grow quite a bit in the um
last few years has been low income at 23.8% and we're starting to see students with disabilities creep up. Uh we were about five years ago below 20%, we're now at 21.7%. Going on to the next slide, we have um
um and then some of our metrics. Uh one of the things that we've really focused in on over the last few years is attendance rate. Um and looking specifically uh not only at our daily attendance rate but then at the end of the year where our chronic absenteeism is and then making sure that our
students in all in our community are feeling this gives you a breakdown. This is actually from Desi. So rather than giving you something at a power school, which I think the schools will do, um this is where DESIE has us as of March.
So overall, ELPS is at a 96.3% daily attendance rate, which is higher than where we were last year. >> High school at 96.4, which is where they end% or above. Um Maple Shades about the same, 96%.
Uh Mountain View has crept up a little bit, 96.8% 8% and Metobrook has moved up a little bit at 96%. So we're we're doing well in getting students to school on a daily basis. >> Do you remember how low we were as a district at our lowest
>> um when during >> well not necessarily >> consistently the other piece that um even >> I'm getting reports that the audio is in and out. I just want to fix it. >> Sure. We're just going to adjust for technical difficulty.
>> All right, moving on. Uh we give our wellness surveys um a few times a year and we report out on them uh in each of the three presentations and this these are not all the questions but these are some of the questions that are more
significant for our leadership team in terms of how we start to break this down. So in grades 6 through 12 and the the schools will go into more details specific to the schools to their school. um this is more district-oriented and larger grade spans. 6 through 12, we had
91.2% of our students reporting that their school um is inclusive of all backgrounds. Um in grades 6 through 12, we had 84.42% of our students reporting that they feel that they can be themselves at school.
We'd love to see that get as get into the 90s. So, that's something that we need to continue to focus in on. Um, and then something that we've been asking for years and um, want to make sure that all students have an adult to whom they can go to problem solve. We're seeing
91% of our students in grades 6 through 12 uh, state that they do have an adult in the building to whom they can go to problem solve. In 3 through 5, uh, we're seeing 90.4 of our students uh, reporting that they
feel welcome at school. And we have 92% um reporting that they feel safe at school. And then um this is just a little bit lower than 6 through 12. 89.7% say that they have an adult to whom they can go to help problem solve.
And we're switching now to teaching and learning. Um here we've over the years um tried to hone in on more specific metrics and be a little bit more realistic than the theoretical well if
80% of this will happen because in theory if you have 80% then you'll have um basically another 10 to 15% that will need core plus more and then maybe 5% that will need um more uh intensive
assistance. Uh we've tried to hone this mostly with I Ready and so a lot of the data you're seeing on the district level because we've used I Ready for um a much longer time than we used or Dibbles. Um the high school will go into when next week when we have Metobrook
here, they'll go further into the Dibbles information. Um, but we have at least from the grades span level much more information on I Ready. >> And just to piggy back on what Mr. Smith said, you know, while you're implementing curriculum, it could take
anywhere from 3 to six years to see that improvement. So, we're starting to see some movement, which is exciting. Uh, this is the I Ready reading uh for 3 to 8. And you can see that uh all three schools that use the I Ready reading are
in that uh quadrant of high performance, high growth. And this is performance relative to the national norm. I already wasn't able to give me the national norm slides yet because they like to wait a bit longer for all the schools across the nation. So this is as of here um at
this time when we took this out, but it's looking great. And if you could go to the next slide, please. >> If I could just um could you go back to that one slide? That's higher than we've seen in that quadrant. We're very firmly in the middle of that quadrant where in
past presentations you've seen all the circles or one of the circles closer to the midline. Um so we're excited to see that move into firmly into that quadrant um that far right quadrant. Uh this is a comparison from the uh
beginning of the year diagnostic to the end of the year diagnostic. So you can see that 62% of kids at Birchland Park Middle School ended the year at grade level versus 48% that started at grade level. So that increased. Again, like
Mr. Smith said, ideally this is getting closer to 80, but each year we're seeing a little bit more. Maple Shade was 37% to 60 and Mountain View was 38% to 64%. And then connected to the metrics we
actually shared in that smart goal, um we you can see this is for each grade, but um in total 62% met their typical growth and 33% met their stretch growth
for reading. Um so our goal was that uh let's see 65% would reach their typical growth. So we're a few points off for that but we did meet our stretch growth target which was 3 to 3% of students would achieve that stretch growth
stretch growth and again that stretch growth is what helps kids move beyond just that year of growth but um getting even more than a year's growth so that they can meet their grade level peers. And this is the math again. Everyone is
in that up that top quadrant um for high performance and high growth. Meadow Brooks first and second grade do take the I Ready uh math this year. Um which which is why they're in this chart and they're not in the other chart because
they use the dibbles for reading. And the next slide are all the grades. And we had 62% made typical growth. We were hoping for 65 and 32% made stretch. So we're a few points off from both
goals, but pretty close. Um and then math spring versus fall assessment. You can see we had uh 65% of kids meeting uh getting to grade level
math at Birland Park, 71 at Maple Shade from 30% at the beginning of the year, 68 at Metobrook from 14% at the beginning of the year, and Mountain View, 71% getting to that based uh versus 34% at the beginning of the year.
So, a lot of great growth. And finally, um, as we sort of go around what used to be, um, a circle because all these goals are interconnected. We don't like to highlight one goal over another. Um, we're looking at how we can
do and improve uh, becoming a community that's seen as inclusive and supportive for all of our students and families. Um, and similar to last year, we sent out a family survey at the end of the year. Um, and we got we didn't get as
many people responding or many families responding. Last year, I think we were closer to 200 families responding. This year we got 141. Um, but we did get some positive results out of it. 82% of our families uh felt that um our schools
create environments that where the students feel welcome, supported, and able to learn. If we add in um the their choices were extremely well, quite well, slightly well, or not well at all. Um if uh you add in slightly well to extremely
well and quite well, it goes up to 95.1%. You board that one more. There you go. Um 92% of the families responding felt that our schools create uh environments where the children feel either extremely safe
or quite safe. Um these are correlating positively with how the students are responding to these and uh 89.4% 4% of families responding felt that district offices were communicating um in an
effective and timely manner um extremely well or quite well. Uh I did add slightly well in there. Uh 90.1% of families responding feel like their children have an adult at their school whom they can count on to
help them solve difficulties or challenges. So that uh is actually a really close correlation to how the students were actually responding to that same question. And then um 78.7% of families responded that they feel in
our schools extremely welcome to quite welcome. It would be great if that was higher um in the extremely welcome to quite welcome category. So we have work to do there. It does go to 93.6 six when you add slightly welcome, but I don't know that we want to characterize ourselves as just being slightly
welcoming. We want to be welcoming to all our families. I'd love to see that increase and hopefully things that we continue to do and communicate out will see that increase for our families. >> And in addition, um before we go on to
that slide, if you could go back, obviously we hired Shandria McCoy, who is the coordinator of MECO student belonging and family engagement. Um she's done an incredible job this year. Uh it can't be a one-man show or onewoman show with family engagement. Um
but she has worked with a number of folks to build capacity including the equity to diversity committee to um have our community resource fair and she and I attended on Thursday Desessie's um family engagement professional
development which was at Holio Community College. And just as an aside, it made me kind of laugh when um folks from Desi were late because it was so hard to get out here. So they felt it a little bit of how we feel when we go all the way out to Eastern Mass and try to get there
on time. Um but we got some great tools that we are planning on incorporating. So this is ongoing um obviously to increase that family engagement because obviously if we have that connection and families feel like they're welcome and they trust then of course their kids are going to do better at school. And on
that note, if you could go to the next slide. >> This slide's not in your packet because it came at the end of the week and this is something that Miss Brown has been working on and uh has some incredible things to report. >> So um after our tiered monitoring
review, um our um liaison Elanita asked us if we would present at their end of the year office of language acquisition meeting. Um and I thought, well, what are we doing that's so different? And it it really uh it came to be when we
talked through that a lot of the work that we're doing around inclusivity is really translating into assetbased practices not just in terms of our ELLL teachers but teachers across the district. Um really kind of bringing kid
multi- language learners um second language as a an asset and building on that. Um and she was really excited about the number of our kiddos who are multilingual learners or ever English learners. Those are folks who have kiddos who have flepped out of the
system who are in honors class at advanced course work. So I presented with Andrew Dan Bron who is the um ELLL department head and it was exciting. She wrote back that 93% of the folks um said
that the session met or exceeded their expectations and that the feedback was that they valued seeing a district-based example of how multilingual learners can be supported through an assetbased lens. Um and showing them what it looks like when systems, educators, and school communities focus on students strengths,
not just needs. So that was just really great to see like all the work that we're doing around this is really paying off and how like Mr. Smith said all of these are so interconnected. >> So this started with um Desi does their
whether you want to call them or audits or um >> they have all kinds of names for them. >> Yeah. Their systematic review of programs. They did it's now called tiered focus monitoring. And so they did a tiered focus monitoring earlier in the year of our English language learner um
programs and support. and uh Miss Brown was the um contact uh for Desi and they were uh just amazed at some of the things that we were doing and they could not say enough about um Miss Brown's
work and our ELLL teachers work. Um and so that was really nice to see and that >> and the general ed teachers >> and the general ed team effort. >> It resulted in um this invitation to go present which uh was pretty incredible. That's exciting. It's always nice when
we're recognized. >> Desessie is looking at uh ELPS uh in a very positive way. >> All right. Did we I mean I'm sure you can disagregate the family survey like you know
uh obviously my subcommittee committee is diversity and equity committee. I think you shared an essay that one of our students wrote. So I'm just curious as to whether or not who didn't respond or if we if we're looking at maybe any patterns and who responded and identifying opportunities for
improvement. >> Yeah. So I don't believe that we asked for identification identifying >> get to collect their emails uh from the families but we are able to do that and break that down by student. >> Yeah. So, >> we're able to look at patterns more on
the student end because we can identify students who are responding, but we did not collect emails from the families. >> Um, we can have them self-report on the survey next year though. Um, just like I'd love to see this teaching and um this student achievement data
disagregated too just to see which groups are really, you know, supporting well and which groups we still need to work on supporting. So, >> and then I was just cur I mean we're going to hear the school reports, but you know in the areas where we didn't necessarily meet the goals that we set for ourselves curricularly or is there anything you're thinking about
differently going? >> It's hard to parse out curriculum and instruction. Um I really feel like it's very important to have the high quality instructional materials in front of folks. That's the what we teach, but how we teach also needs support. And so, you know, we're trying to leverage a bunch
of different things. Um I'll be talking more about another grant that we got that will help. Um so it it like I said it's hard to parse out when folks are implementing new curriculum though it does take many years because not only you trying to internalize things but often it's a shift in how you teach
altogether and you know folks need support in that. I think we're getting better um more substantive conversations and discussion during um common planning time. Uh having the coaches involved in that at level has been um
>> very productive and actually at the middle level as well. um that this is only year two of that happening and um those discussions have been just as I said more substantive um leading to more
actions taken after those meetings than we've seen before. >> And it's only year two actually for math. Uh the year before that we didn't have a literacy coach 3 to five. That was me. So, they only had me, which is not as as great as Denise's,
>> right? But I I think um now we're we're having the conversations on a weekly basis that um actually enable and push people to take actions, which I don't think was
happening before. Also, the more structured learning walks where they're getting feedback off of that. And then probably even more importantly that the the team that's walking gets a chance to really debrief and then they take that into the um common planning time as well. So I think that's that's going to
have some movement. I also think um you know Joanie coming on board the curriculum and instruction is her background. Um so she's going to have new ideas that may push that forward as well. Get rid of the dead weight. Bring in the superstars.
questions for us. >> Okie dokie. >> All right. Thank you. >> Okay. Want me to call up the >> Sure. >> All right. So, our next uh presenters are from Birchland Park and we have Mr.
Pearson and Miss Jung Andrew. All right, good evening everybody. So >> we're going to present some data as kind of follow up to our midcycle presentation to kind of let you know how our numbers have changed that the whole year has played out 21 to begin with. Should be starting with supporting the
whole child and I'll look at our attendance. Sorry. Sure. That's not me. All right, we're ready for the first slide in there. Yep. Next one, please. Okay. So, yeah, we are at 96.6% attendance, which is a slight uptick
from our our midcycle attendance. Um, was 95% or more. Um, you know, it's a lot of persistence with the measures we have in place with contact with families, letters, calls, meetings about students that are not attending all the way up to even a couple CRA cases this
year because we really value attendance. But what I really want to focus on is how we make Birchland a welcoming and inviting place that people want to come to. through a lot of our extracurricular activities, our clubs, our fun events that we have make kids want to come to school. We had our sixth grade award
assembly today. I got seventh grade one tomorrow and we have more perfect attendance kids than I've had in the last two years combined. So, we're definitely on the right track here. Um, and we're happy. You can see that our our attendance is up and um that even includes, you know, the unexcused travel which is a big thing in East Slime
Meadow. Unfortunately, we had a a big year for that as well. But getting those kids in school is important and I think we're on the right track with that. So glad to create that environment that kids want to come to school and they're excited about what's uh going on at Birchley. Okay, for our next slide.
Okay, teaching and learning. Um so you can see the goals that we set for ourselves here and how we did last year. These goals as Mr. Smith said are based on I Ready. It's the the data measures that we have right now until MCCAST comes in. So we like to set a goal that's both lofty but we feel attainable
as well. We want to be ambitious but we want to make it, you know, realistic and something that we can go for. Um so that was our goals. If we go to the next slide, you can see how we actually performed this year. Um we did pretty well. You can see again we're all in the high performance and high growth as Mr. Smith alluded to earlier and that our
green in the spring has increased quite a bit from the fall and our red has reduced which is the the ultimate goal of everything that we're doing. But we're moving kids in the right direction. All right. But if we go to our next slide, however, you can see that for reading, we did not quite reach
the goals that we did set for ourselves. Um, you know, we were aiming for that goal of 68%, we were we were short of that, which is not completely unexpected as we were in year one of a new curriculum. We're doing read and reconsidered, and there are some growing pains that come with that, but it's
still a little disappointing because at the midcycle, we were more than halfway to our goal. So, we were we were hopeful that we were going to reach it this year. Um, so we haven't had this data for very long, so it's something we're going to have to digest over the summer. Meet my instructional leadership team early next year, figure out why we lost
some of our momentum in the second half of the year. Um, it wasn't terrible. I mean, our our growth numbers came near to meeting uh there in the stretch category, meeting the goals we set for ourselves, you know, 35 or 31 and two of the grades there. So, there were some things to celebrate. Um, but we did fall
short of the goal that we set for ourselves and we're going to hope that with the targeted supports we have in mind for next year. We did a lot of learning walks this year. We sent student our teachers to view another school that was doing the reading reconsidered curriculum, meet with those teachers to see how they did it, what their advice to us would be. Uh, we're
working with the coaches to go in and do some co-eing and modeling next year to start the year right from the get-go. And so year two, a little more comfortable with the curriculum, what's required, and what we need to do to adapt it to 50-minute lessons versus 90. I think we'll we'll continue to grow in
that as we get more comfortable with it. So while we're disappointed in there, if you look at the next slide, however, um we're still outperforming the state and the uh country when it comes to comparing our performance and I already the benchmarks here. Uh you know, when you look at the the green, we're we're
much higher. the red, particularly in the eighth grade, we're far below what the state and the national norms are. So even though we're disappointed that we didn't reach the goals that we set for ourselves, we're still performing well against the state and the country as a whole. So we're satisfied with those numbers. All right, but if we go to math on our
next slide here again, you'll see the same thing. Um we are high performance, high growth. I remember in the winter I said we always had that phenomenon where we had the seventh grade and the low growth and high performance thing and they always rebound by the spring the way they they um schedule their units the way they set things up and there
they are they're the top dot I know I can't show that on here but again they did a great job for us but all of our grades were in the high performance and high growth and again we greatly grew our green while reducing our red um from the fall to the spring which is our ultimate goal. And when we go to the
next slide, you can see here we were um much closer to reaching our goal um than we were in English and our grade seven finish did beat the goal. 68% of them reaching the typical growth, but we saw you know improve improvements from last year in both grade six and grade 8. And
for our stretch growth, we met it in two out of the three goals. So we're helping them to make up the ground. Some of the students might be missing that need to make up more than one year's growth to catch up to their their peers. We're we're heading in the right direction there and we'll continue to work with math as well. There's still we did a lot of support this year. A lot of
discussion about the shift with illustrative math and kind of the philosophy of creating mathematical thinkers versus students that you know are just practicing over and over till they get something down. We want students that are able to attack any problem no matter how unfamiliar they are with it. Um and have a a way to go
about it. And that's kind of the whole goal of I am. That's the mindset we're trying to instill. And I think we're making progress, but we're never satisfied. So when we go here again, just like the reading, we're we're far out stripping the state and and the nation when it comes to comparing us with the
benchmarks. A lot more green and a lot less red. Uh particularly again in our seventh grade, which does an incredible job every year for us. And we want to keep those numbers going while we keep uh pursuing the goals that we set for ourselves as a school.
>> Okay. On our next slide, we're going to talk about our next goal under the inclusive and supportive culture and climate category. Um, our job again is to make sure that all of our students feel included and welcomed and that they have their own niche in the in the school community um in the school and
are a part of a school community overall. And so some of the steps that we've taken, we've implemented a mentoring program. This been going on for a couple years now with Maple Shade. Um, and the goal there is to not only have younger students start to feel welcome before they even come into the
building, um, as sixth graders by reaching in, tapping into them. We did this from January to June. We just finished it up. um had two cohorts, >> 10 students each and then we identified >> sorry
the last song we said last but not least >> we identified six eighth graders who we felt that would be standout students and really um bring some good leadership to this mentorship program. Um, and they did a phenomenal job to the point where
I feel really sad, but a lot of the kids were crying on our last day and it was just a beautiful thing. And we had Mrs. Shandria McCoy also to support us this year, which was a just added benefit. We really, really appreciate her. Um, but that those students coming up from Maple
Shade are now already feeling that sense of belonging and preparation to come into middle school and our students are also benefiting from some leadership. We also have our student council and diversity club. They put on quite a few events this year and spirit days and whatnot. And our goal was to make sure
that we continue to tap into them and tap and figure out what are their ideas that they would like to share with the leadership um so that we can implement them as we improve our school. And of course we can always do better with that making sure that we meet more often if even um but this year the goal was to
really identify and highlight student voice. And then finally on our feedback surveys um you can turn to the next slide. Um our goal is to again make sure that everyone feels heard supported and included and we're really really happy
with the results. Of course we would like them to even improve even more. Um but in our school climate and wellness survey that we took at the end of May um most all of our questions students responded favorably and these are some ones that we really wanted to highlight
particularly the belonging in the school climate category. Um most of our students feel comfortable reporting incidents of racism, bias, discrimination and there's another question that taps into that they feel that they also the adults in the school
respond effectively with that. So at 82.9 83% roughly and then 85% of students feel that you know they feel comfortable sharing those things because they know there will be some type of response. Um the second question um do
you feel part of a school community or community at your school? 90 roughly 91% of students feel that they are in some type of community whether it be through our clubs or you know mentorship program or uh diversity club council
volunteering advisories um spirit days you can find your niche somehow someway. um the students are really having fun overall and are finding that they are a part of the community there and that um again you can just kind of go through the numbers
83.9% of students feel that they can be their true selves. Um 92.3% of students feel that the teachers are there smiling and greeting them every single day so that they do feel comfortable as they walk into the school and that 91.8% of students feel that the school is
inclusive of all backgrounds and identities. It's very important for us um to know that they feel that way and of course again we want to make improvements wherever we can. So that will be our focus next year to really strengthening our school culture. Um we really are happy to hear that students
feel that again adults at home but also in school are trusted adults that they can rely on to help them um and respond to things when they have issues and and whatnot. So 97.5% of stu of students have family members or adults outside of
school and 91.4% four% of students have teachers or other adults in the building that also are very um they're comfortable with to report. And then finally on our last slide, our student engagement survey feedback. We wanted to kind of not only figure out how do you
feel overall as a member of the community, but let's talk about your actual classrooms like what's going on in terms of instruction. Are you getting feedback so that help you can become a help you become a better student? Um and so the first um question here, I have the opportunity to show my learning in
many ways. We really really love this question because you know we know not every student tests the same way or respond learns the same way or even want to share their understanding of concepts the same way. And so um about 92.2% collectively strongly agree or agree
that yes, they have multiple ways to show that they have learned the concepts that have been taught in their class. Um and they're really excited about that. Once um we also asked about feedback, you know, what kind of feedback are you getting? Is it quality feedback where that you know exactly what you need to
do to improve? And again, 92.2% either strongly agree or agree that yes, once I get that quality feedback from my teachers, I know what to do to make it better. And then finally, we want to make sure that teachers are also checking in with students periodically and regularly. Um, and so like things
like morning check-ins, check in at the morning at the at the end with an exit ticket or um opening up the opportunity to ask questions. Again, a good 90 91% of students say yes, my teacher does check in with me to make sure that I understand and then follows up with me,
you know, to correct my misunderstanding. So, we're really happy to hear that. Um, so they know that the students um are learning and growing at high levels. They're comfortable, they're safe, and they're also having fun. They're feeling included. That's all that I have today.
>> Any questions for us? We can shout to you the answers. >> A little dance. >> I did a good job presenting drumming. >> Excellent. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you.
>> I have a lot. I know >> for the followup. >> Yeah, I was You want me to talk about that now or? >> No, why don't you go in after after this? >> I figure once we go through the our goals then get into the >> correct stuff. >> Yep. >> Morning everyone.
>> What? >> All right. So, um just to um uh start us off with our smart goals, uh Gary's going to start by going through the um sporting board and talk a little bit about attendance. I'll go through uh
achievement and learning and then um Ann will bring home that part of our presentation uh just going through the inclusive and supportive culture. Um and then from there we'll talk a little bit about some of our um post-secary success of some of our students from previous years and also this year's graduating class. So that
uh so as Missy and you guys have already heard our um average attendance is at 96.3% which is a big number for a high school. It's a great number for us. Um, ironically, we got to most of this really through more of accountability, so to speak, which has led us to the
opportunity to make an equitable space and build inclusive environments for kids. When we make phone calls home and we're talking with parents about a student losing credit or when the student themselves is concerned about losing credit for a course due to their attendance, it tends to open up the
doors for great conversations because they're they're more open to tell us what's really going on. You know, why don't you want to be in this class? It's not uncommon for us to have a student with one class total where they'll be above 20 absences and the rest could be well below 10 in some cases. And so it does open up a lot of great
conversations. So we learn about conflict. We learn about challenges in the classroom. We learn about, you know, challenges with 7:25 a.m. which a lot of kids have. Um, but the beauty of it is that because we've been sustaining this effort now for two years, I think the kids, they're they're proactive with us
now. I have I have more attendance recovery sheets for kids who don't need it than I almost than I have for kids who do need it. So they think they're going to pass 20. So they'll come and grab a sheet from us and they'll I have I had a girl turn in I think like 12 recoveries and she doesn't even need
one. So I think you know the account the interesting thing is that the accountability has led us has opened a door for us to actually do the things that are in this goal because prior to this there was no accountability. the kids could avoid the challenges. They just didn't go they didn't go to class.
Um they wouldn't, you know, they wouldn't have to explain it. They wouldn't have to address it. Now we're fixing problems. We're getting ahead of things. Um we are responding to things sometimes reactively, but it really has created an opportunity for us to dig in and understand more why kids are
missing. And um I'd say we've probably have 50 kids who have completed successfully uh credit recovery. And like two years in a row now, grade recut tennis recovery. Two years in a row, seniors have skipped their skip day because they didn't want to make up that time. So that's that's two years in a
row. But now we have freshman skip day, sophomore skip day, and junior skip day. So it keeps coming. >> That's not endorsed, by the way. >> It's not sanction. >> The students are organizing that and we're
families to end those practices. >> Mr. Smith does usually attend, but it >> So, we go to the teaching and learning SL. >> Yeah. Okay. Uh, so jumping on to the next one. Um, we talked about this a lot at the midcycle. Um, I think we know the
LL scores are not where we want them. Um, uh, but Miss Brown, myself, um, Miss McFetty who's English department head, Miss Derry, who's the math department head, we've had lots of conversations about how we're looking to adjust what we're doing. um with our moving away
from a diagnostic and moving more towards uh uh incourse assessments um going into next year to get better data to really demonstrate where our students are um um you know making gains and understanding material versus the diagnostic which um you know we've
talked about some of the struggles we've had with grading that because it's hard to grade a kid if they're scoring at a fifth grade level and that's actually their actual level you know marking those students down. So, um moving that more into a um an assessment where we can collect some of our data and and um
uh monitor our students progress within that course um that is specific to that course. um having uh both a midterm and a final connected uh both to some of the ISL data that we're covering and also connected to the coursework and algebra
and geometry and then doing the same uh with um um English um and aligning it to some of the skills we're working on within the Odell curriculum looking at information uh their analysis offormational text and um looking also at their analysis of um
uh different works of literature. So um uh but just to talk a little bit about the math uh so what you see there is an aggregate score of grades 9 and 10 uh if you break that piece out um based on the data that we have uh only 22% of our students within the ISL diagnostic were testing at the grade level of that
assessment. Um for sophomores uh for math it was at 17%. Um, and then on the ELA side, we did see better scores uh for grade nine. We saw 59% of our students testing at or above grade level uh in grade nine. And in grade 10, unfortunately, we did see that dip again
with um down to 30% for students at or above grade level. Um I did look at some of these numbers in comparison to the midcycle. Uh some were going up, some were going down. It was hard to really draw great conclusions based on some of the the data that we did have. Um but we do think that the shift we want to make
next year with um building our own assessments within the ISL program because I do see a lot of value in that program and uh allowing us to collect data for um you know progress uh against the standards that we're covering within that curriculum will give us um um more
actionable data than what we're seeing now. So, >> is this data similar to what the students are scoring, like what are their what their grades are for each marking period? >> They're they're not um they're also not
in line with with our uh our MCCAST data. Um if you look at our MCCAST data, we're above the state average in almost every standard um in both ELA and math. Um and our students are are passing at a very high success rate in these courses. So, I think that's what's telling me is
that our approach to um using diagnostic diagnostic where kids aren't being graded uh and that accountability piece I think is a big part of this. I think it's also just there's some test exhaustion in there. Um uh I think is really driving this based
on conversations we have with staff, conversations we have with kids. Um so we originally started using utilizing this diagnostic. it was only for grades grade grade nine for students who are in a standard level uh class and we really targeted a small cohort. Um and the idea
behind that data was used as a screener to identify students who might need additional support going into their sophomore year identifying uh and assigning those kids to that sophomore team. I think when we expanded it to all of grade nine, all of grade 10, um I don't know if it's giving us the the
data that we necessarily are looking for. Um so uh so I think shifting the approach making it more content related uh content specific within the course those students are taking is going to give us something that us help us uh I guess big picture better understand how
our students performing also be in line with um the changes that DESI is going to continue to make in terms of competency determination. they're they're going to be moving towards end of course assessments uh
which if we start to get students used to that um utilizing the EXL database uh for questions but make it more specific to the courses they're taking it's going to be very similar to things that they'll move be moving into in the future. Um, I want to say our current
sixth graders and seventh graders might start seeing this as part of their compensated determination when they get to high school. We do have a clear path of uh of how we want to build these assessments within the system. Um, we're going to embed uh the uh the midterm and
the final exams that we've already built and utilize the same standards to um to align what's going to be in EXL and and also what the kids are doing on their um uh on those on those, you know, uh summitive exams at those two points in the year. Um I think it's going to give
us something with what we're kind of being tasked with doing. um something that's going to be um just a better picture of where our kids are at and also just more actionable. So that's what a lot of slide five talks about. Sorry, I kind of I spent a lot of time talking more about that than than
the data. I will say it's hard to really find things that are actionable within some of the data that we're currently getting in the way we're we're going about the diagnostic. Um and I think we do have to shift and take a different approach. Next slide. Um, so I just went through
slide five. Does this make sense to jump to uh slide six? Right. Um, so in terms of just like you know Natalie was talking about inclusive and supportive culture and climate at the high school. Um, we we utilize the DEI
committee. Um, our students are part of the athletic leadership council and we also have been working extensively with the school council which is comprised of us staff and then students and parents and that group has really become almost like a sounding board in some ways but
also almost like an advisory committee in some ways as well. Um, if you look at um the charts here we you can see that 89% of our students have reported that they have a trusted adult that they can count on to help them. Um you can see
that we also have um about 91% of our students responded that they have um that they feel that ELHS is an is inclusive of students from all backgrounds and identities. And then 86% of our students feel that they are part of a community at ELHS. Um we are trying
to do a lot to make students feel even more included. We're trying to expand programming every year. We seem to add more clubs. Um, and we're trying to target larger groups of students to get involved. Um, I've been working with Shandria McCoy and um, we have we have
um, some male students um, who have been part of the academic leadership association and they meet weekly with Shandria and Valente Tull. Um, next year we're going to be expanding that to a girls group as well. Um, and she's really working with kids who traditionally have felt kind of
disenfranchised. And so, um, we're hoping that this is going to, um, help kids feel, you know, more included and feel like they're a greater part of the community. Um, we're increasing the number of unified courses that we're offering. Um, and we are expanding
certain programming. Uh, we've had more nighttime programs for students and their families to come into the school. Um at the eighth grade informational night, we also had some representatives from clubs there so students can actually see what's being offered. Um
and um we've tried to increase just the amount of things we do for spirit and climate. More pep rallies uh one each season um having spirit weeks and just trying to expand, you know, that sense of belonging. Uh so that takes us to the end of the
the smart goal presentation and we are going to transition a little bit into just talking a little bit about uh some of our students post-secondary planning and success. Um before we jump into that, is there anything you guys want to hit on with the smart goals? Uh so just I just want to make a little
plug here before we jump into that piece. Um because I am going to be talking a little bit about college. College is very expensive as a lot of you in this room know, especially who are putting kids through college. Uh I'm I'm excited uh just to to share this news. Our our guidance staff has been
working with this uh this group called College Affordable. They're a nonprofit and they're based on the other side of the state. um they uh um we we've been working to establish a partnership with them over the last uh couple of months um in order to work
with us because they're you know they even though they're a nonprofit there's a cost to running their operations uh they did um uh seek and get funding from the Davis Foundation which you know supports different educational initiatives um so um because of that uh
the funding that they receive they're going to be able to work with East Metal Public School uh free free of cost for all of our parents. Uh basically what their group is uh they are a group that has established um uh an approach where they are trying to
help families and students with the financial aid process trying to lower costs. Um uh really what their approach is to create a a realistic family budget to measure affordability. So work with families on that, optimize scholarship opportunities with target colleges. um
assist with completion of aid and grant applications, uh review and interpret financial aid offers to allow for a fully informed decision and uh review potential lenders to select the best opportunity. So, they're going to work individually and also run seminars in our community starting in the fall um to
uh to just go through that financial aid component, you know, which um I think is going to be a great opportunity for our our kids and our family uh families. Um, all you have to do is register with them and they'll start contacting uh in and working with you uh setting up one-on-one appointments, setting up
webinars, um, just to talk to you a little about the process because it's it's it's obviously very comprehensive now and and college is not cheap. So, uh, they're not looking to kind of do this, you know, a one-off here and there. Um, we're the second school out in this area that they're they're
working with. Uh, the other one who they just started with this past year is up in Northampton. um and their hope in this process is to hit at least in the first year about 50% of our rising seniors, you know, so they want to work with as many and as much as possible. So, uh it's a great opportunity. I think
it's going to be a really good thing for our students and our families. And I just want to, you know, talk about it because we're on camera and give a little plug. So, >> not only is this amazing for all the reasons you just said, but with the new graduation requirements, all kids are going to be required to fill out the FAFSA and the MAFA. So this is going to
be really really helpful. >> No, you live in Northampton, right? Correct. >> I have not heard about this, so I'm writing it down to see. I have not heard about this yet. >> So uh and they did he did ask me to share as well. Uh this doesn't extend just to our students and families, but if there's, you know, any staff members
who, you know, have students who are going to college as well to work with those uh those individuals. Frank, I imagine some of these things staff, our counselors, guidance and career counselors have done in the past um in terms of counseling students on
their >> a little bit. Okay. We don't heavily weigh into the financial aid aspect the process. Um, so this is so our our staff will obviously continue to work with families around the college planning process, but when it comes to the financial aid component, um, you know,
that's where this group's partnering with us to kind of fill in that piece as well. We've brought in financial aid speakers in the past. Um, but obviously, you know, our counselors are also not accountants, right? >> Understood. I just what I don't want to do is lose sight with our our staff. 100%
>> put it all on this group and then this group goes away in five years or whatever. >> So, this group is not about the college planning process, >> okay? >> Um and making sure you find the right fit for the schools. It's it's making sure that you can afford the some of the schools that you're applying to. Um uh one of they even have uh within their um
their web page like uh program you can plug into um what your GPA is and what your SAT scores are, some of the schools you might be looking at and they can give you estimated cost of what you might get in terms of financial aid. So whether it's even worth applying to that school, you know, so certain school X
based on your GPA, you may get zero merit. Well, this school over here, maybe it's 30 $40,000 per year. >> That is great, you know, >> really helpful. >> Yeah. >> Um so it's just stuff like that um that they'll they'll help you, you know, try to make a more informed financial
decision um on top of the academic stuff, which is what our staff traditionally focuses on. >> Great. who really educates the students on I I think it's easy for students who aren't paying those loans yet. Um, you know what I mean? Is is that the guidance counselor? Is that something
that they also do to just kind of >> that's that's a big part of this partnership. Um, and the guy who started it, you know, >> he learned all of these things going through these this process with his kids and there's so many things that he's learned after the fact that he's like, I wish I had known. Um, so he just felt
like when college was ballooning uh in terms of its cost that um you know there's got to be somebody who can also help families navigate this piece and make college affordable. >> It's wonderful. >> So um the guy's great. He's going to be coming to the school in the fall to run
some different uh seminars right off the bat. Um and we're uh we're excited about it. It's one more great thing for our families. So um so with that piece um so this I know a conversation that uh has been a little
bit ongoing and um uh I I do want to thank uh Miss Brown and just open architect for um putting some of this data together for us. We it it allowed us to also have some conversations with our guidance staff, you know, um about looking at some of the trends that we've seen with our students over the years in terms of how they're um one uh being
successful going into college, but then also persisting while they're there. Um so, uh that first slide, slide seven, just talking about postsecary success um gives just a little breakdown of um how many of our students are attending either two or four year schools uh and
how many of them are um persisting beyond that first year. Um so uh what's great to see is we're seeing consistency in terms of trends. You know um from 2023 24 25 73% of our students attended a four year two or four year school 85%
class 24 class 25 78%. Um which give us an average of of 79% for that aggregate of those three years. Uh so just seeing that consistency is great. We're we're putting about 80% of our students who graduate into a two or four year school. Um and and what's also just awesome is
the number of those kids who continue on to that second year. So uh the class of 23, 89% of those students uh continued on to their second year and the class 24 95%. You know, so a large majority uh just stayed uh stayed in school and continued on. Uh we don't have last year's data yet um because obviously
those students just finished up their um their first year right now. Um uh but it is it is great to see. So, um, and just continuing that conversation and and jumping down to the next slide, just talk a little bit about the class of 28, which was also I think we all know
another phenomenal class. Um, >> 26. >> What's that? 26. Did I say 27? >> Okay, sorry. Back it up. Jumping ahead. >> Class of 26. Uh, >> so, uh, we had 186 students graduate.
Um, 70% of those students had a GPA of three or better. Uh and just we we also run Latin honors. Latin honors are, you know, they match what happens at the college level. Um where uh we just recognize students. It's it's basically our honor role that we run at graduation
each year. Um 6 point 6.5% uh uh were in that first that first tier um for if you were at graduation, you saw the bronze honor chords for uh from Kum Kumlad honors. Uh 13.4% of our seniors graduated magnaumlad. And then
uh the last one 26.3% which is your highest uh uh GPA which is equivalent of like a 39 on a 40 scale um of our students graduated with mukum uh honors. So uh it was great to see and you can see that in in just some of the coursework they take in terms of
students um of our class who took AP classes. Uh 40% 46% of our seniors took at least one AP course this year. So that's not through their four years but just this year alone. Uh, and 72% of our seniors took at least one honors class this year. Um, so it's just great to see
our kids challenging themselves, um, taking those higher level courses and also being successful. Uh, the college plan one, I just I do want to say, uh, the numbers are great, but there's a slight grain of salt with that. Those are their plans for next year, but we don't have their enrollments yet like we did on the previous slide. Uh but 71% of
our students are uh reported that they're planning on attending a four-year college and 25% uh um said that they were planning on attending a two-year college. So that's that's 96% of our kids going on to um a postsecary school next year. Uh I hope and I would
love to see that number stay at 96% when we get that data um through open architect next year. So um kids are going on to do great things. um they all have plans after they leave us and uh it was just really great to um you know celebrate this class a couple Fridays
back and um you know uh see where they're they're off to next. So >> actually in the packets uh we included where class of 26 uh their postsecary plans >> and so you have some
>> kids going to phenomenal schools. We have pretty incredible schools and if they're not going to school, they have some pretty good plans uh as to what they're doing. >> What kind of tech schools are they going to? I saw a few were going to tech. Is that auto tech usually or? >> Um so we have kids going to Porter and Chester. >> Okay. >> There's some we also have had kids go to
um so they're listed under the 2-year plan. Uh but they're also there are vocational programs at those schools. We have some kids going to stick for HVAC. >> Okay. >> Uh Ask Nunuk also runs um some vocational programming as well, you know. So there there's other um programs out there at some of the two-year
schools. Uh which is I think why you see that 25% higher because it's also taking into account some of our state um community colleges. >> So are there trades programs at the state community colleges you're saying? >> Yeah. >> That's great. That's fantastic. >> And then um
>> it's free. >> Yeah, that's even even better. Yeah. >> Even as Nuk is free, too. >> Nuk is not free. Fantastic. >> So, a lot of our kids because of that new uh free tuition um opt to go to stick or HC. Great opportunity,
>> especially for a trade. Yeah. >> Yes. Have as many. That's right. >> And uh just one soul graduate joining the military. Is that lower than usual, >> would you say? Yeah. >> Varies from year to year. Some I'd say it's usually five or less. >> Single digits every year.
>> Yeah. >> Interesting. >> It's a smaller class. Yeah, you think about turn 86 >> had lots of kids who took the ASVAB this year. Um lots of them kicked the idea around. >> Okay. >> Um you know we had you know one student who applied to West Point. I know that
uh we had kids that looked different militarymies. Um uh but ultimately you know they make decisions that that fit fit them. So >> how do our um AP like how do our numbers
compare to other schools? Do you know >> terms of the percentage of students who take APs? Um so I don't have a comparison in terms of like Long Meadow Minich what where those numbers are at.
Um I can just go back to like our honor roll status from um from the college board that we got back in January um where you know they recognized us for a high percentage of our students taking APs and also a high percentage of our students who were taking AP exams and
receiving college credit. Um >> actually >> so just based on that metric >> so awarded >> uh I think either you got three if not four points for the amount of people taking APs. >> Yeah. Yep. So, so while I don't have
that comparative data, you know, the metric where we're we're getting recognition for having high um high percentages of students who are taking those classes and taking the exams and receiving college credit. Um it's good to see, but it wouldn't be bad to, you know, get that data from other districts
around us just to see how we we stand up. All right. >> Any questions or >> It was a good email to the families you sent. I just read it. Y >> I Yeah, I was multitasking. I I texted
the individual involved just to make sure she was good with it, too. And >> good. Yeah, this was on the uh situation. I sent it to you guys just so you were in the loop. But >> All right. Thanks. Any other questions? Well, thanks for coming. Thank you.
>> Yeah. Thank you guys. Do >> you have time to stay just so when we talk bleachers uh >> topics two items? Yeah. >> Okay. >> Okay. >> You don't have to stay at the table. I just
>> You can I'll I'll stay. >> Okay. >> Greg, just give me a call tomorrow about the other thing. >> We'll coordinate. Maybe you and I can get on the same page with the conversation. >> See you in in the afternoon. >> You're live on mic right now. So
>> yeah, no, that's fine. I didn't so you know. >> Hi. Thank you. >> Good night. Thank you all. >> Right. Our next item, acceptance of the Davis Foundation Foundation grant for Hill for literacy.
>> So >> it's the same organization grant. Yes. So um >> exciting grants >> after uh so uh Healey has given a lot of money obviously towards early literacy and one of the things has been these early these
literacy launch institutes and so I went last summer with um our K to2 literacy coach and our 3 to8 literacy coach and if we attended the whole thing we could put our um name down for getting coaching and we were one of very few districts I think they said maybe five
who were awarded this and they worked with our third grade teachers this year and it was very successful. And so Hill Literacy actually reached out to me and said, "Would you like to keep working with us? We'd like to apply for funds for the Davis Foundation." And I said,
"Of course." Um, and so they secured this money to work with our K to2 teachers and it's all around small group um instruction and really um it's actually aligns perfectly with what Metabrook's focusing on next year. Um,
so their goals are really making sure we have a coherent MTSS literacy system, which we really do have a strong one right now at Metabrook. So that would be great to continue um strengthening uh tier one literacy instruction
um and that professional learning uh around the hill structured literacy um lesson plan. So Tracy, who's the coach down there, has really studied this extensively and has already started introducing a lot of things to the teachers. So this will blend in really
well. They'll get professional development during their common planning times on the professional development days and uh one-on-one coaching, which is designed to help them boost Tracy's capacity to coach. So Denise, the 3 to8
coach, did that with the third grade this year where she sat in with Tracy, the hill literacy coach. So this is a different Tracy, sorry, the Hill literacy coach who observed. They would talk about what they observed and then Denise would be there for the feedback
session. So it does that double um um what do you call it? I'm I'm losing words because it's late, but anyway, it supports the teachers and the coaching and leaders. Um anyway, they applied for 98,323,000323.50 and they got it.
>> That's amazing. Isn't >> that wonderful? >> Wow. >> So, we would love for you to accept this so we can continue to work for Hill for literacy. And this is, by the way, does not go through us. This this they get the money and then they work with us. So, we don't have to do any kind of extra bookkeeping or anything. It's just
a matter of do you accept their inind donation of professional development for us. Thank you. >> Sweet. I would, if you're ready, Madam Chair, uh move to uh accept the Davis Foundation grant for Hill for literacy
in the amount of $98,323.50. >> Motion made by Greg. >> Second. >> Seconded by William. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. Okay. >> I
carries over four to zero. Thank you so much. >> You've done the same. Should I have done that? >> Except yours for >> You didn't get a grant per se. You're get like an organization who's working with you. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> That's a partnership. >> Yeah. >> They did write a grant on our behalf.
That's why I asked kind of taking them funds in. >> Okay. They're paying. Yeah. Right. >> But it is it is similar. So you brought it to their attention. So that Yeah. Being very transparent. >> No. No funds are coming >> to the >> actually no funds are coming in the
>> that's we're accepting of is the money. >> All right. >> But we brought it to the >> committee. You're good. >> Good. >> Okay. >> All right. Next item. >> High school stadium bleachers discussion.
>> You want me to start? >> Sure. Okay. So, um, last year through, uh, State Senator Alivera's office, um, and the supplemental budget, we were granted $150,000 to complete, um, what was originally in
the high school athletic field project back in 2010 and 2011. As part of that project, we were supposed to put in a set of bleachers on the visitor side that would be similar to the bleachers that are on the home side. However,
unfortunately, um the costs of that project when it went out to bid were larger than were expected and so there were cutbacks that um or reductions that had to be made in that project, bleachers being one of them. So, since then, we've done a number of different
things to try to put more um seating capacity on the visitor side, but nothing compared to what the $150,000 will do that we got through uh State Senator Alivera's office. Um so, that's where we are. We're looking to move on
that. I did uh I'm going to hand out Kevin's uh Yeah. So, uh Mr. McGee, the athletic director at the high school, had just forwarded um what he's been looking at as he looks to utilize
these funds. Um and it still does have to go out to bid. Um we have a pretty good idea in terms of the specs that we would put out to um potential biders and the hope would be that it's um ultimately bids come back under that
150. But we're right at um that mark. If you turn to the second page, I think it's if we got every everything that was initially talked about um it's estimate of about 161,000.
So, it still has to go through the bid process and I know you wanted to talk. >> Yeah. So, we there was some discussion about putting this into the high school building project because it's grant money and some other constraints. Um, we're looking to just replace what we
have in kind basically. So, putting new bleachers where the old ones are, which we're allowed to do outside of the project, obviously, and we should and must spend the funds that uh the state senator was um able to coordinate for us, and we've received those funds already. So, what we'd like to do is put
it out to bid with these general specifications, as uh Mr. Smith was saying uh it it requires the bidding process, but the hope would be that once this goes out and it comes in close to that um budgeted number, then um the
group that wins the bid would come in, remove whatever um bleachers that we have no use for any longer. There's potential to move some of the smaller ones around the campus. So, we may do that. Take away what's there existing. There's currently a pad already. The concrete pad exists. And so then they
would put in the new uh bleachers and they would do the total install. Um code requires accessibility. So this one would have an accessibility ramp um different than the other uh bleachers, but other than that, it would just be a new bleacher system. And like I said,
it's important that we don't let this slide and and not spend the money that we were granted. I would hate to give it back. So >> yeah, I would just like to add that um I did reach out to the state to get and we we have received permission. And I have a nice email um because this grant was
supposed to be expended by June 30th, but our situation with a new construction and just so much and explaining all of that. Um we have permission to go into next year. So that's the first really good thing. The second is that um I can't just go to
state contract for this to get buy bleachers because whenever there's an installation, it just causes, you know, additional um things that need to be done for procurement laws. So I'm still checking into that. I also just want to be sure um that we don't need any
additional I don't know like um a designer or some somebody. So I'm just still doing a little bit of checking on that. But I would like to recommend to the committee, you know, I was reviewing school choice um uh before this meeting um before I opened my mouth to say this
to make sure that it it was good. And we we have um the plan for school choice was to ex that we were going to expend probably 4400 to $450,000. We are under that by about $140,000 which is great. My recommendation would be to not let this project go, you know,
not be funded to if it does come over and and we as a group as as the, you know, putting the bid out, always have the right to reject a bid. So, we could always come back to talk about it, whatever that number is. But if it is only 10 or $20,000, I would highly recommend that we the committee um, you
know, approve school choice funds to be used for it. >> Okay. I think that's a good idea. >> So, how do how do how do we start the RF? >> That would be me. >> Um, so again, I'm just the timing. I got a lot going on with it, but I
>> I just don't want to slide >> and I won't let it slide. So, that's why we just wanted to bring it up today. Get everybody up to speed and we will >> you'll eventually get >> Yeah. It's got to go out. Yes. Exactly. >> And then it'll come back to this committee to actually expend the funds and if there's additional money needed,
then at least you have that option, >> right? And are we trying to get the entire length of the concrete slab? >> Say again. >> The entire length of the concrete slab. >> Uh whatever the this So Kevin had gotten three different um quotes or three different sizes. This
smallest of the three I believe if it's a little smaller than the pad, but it's more within the budget. They were some of them were upwards of 200,000. >> I was just going to say I think it was closer to 250 if you wanted to do like a complete size. >> So we're trying to >> Yeah. not go too crazy, but just
>> sim more similar to what we have, but all one piece. >> Frank has anything to add. >> Yeah, there's there's a couple different options like Kevin talks through one. Um, if we put ramps on both sides, then eliminates all the other bleachers that are over there and it doesn't fully fit the pad, but it still falls within the
budget. Part of this is also based on like building inspector's approval, right? Uh, another one is if we go with just one ramp, which I believe is acceptable, and the other side just goes stairs. We may be able to keep the most recently purchased bleachers right next to it.
We could >> let's not do that. >> It's up to So, so those one and they would roll. So, it's not the old ones that have been out there that are all smashed ones that are very similar to the ones that we'd be purchasing >> and it would increase the number of seats that we would have on that side,
you know. So, I like the idea of eliminating one of the two ramps and keeping that extra set of bleachers out there. It's I mean, it's it's a really nice set that we purchased about 10 years ago. Um, it would be it would give us more seating and it would be more appropriate seating for that space. Um, but I think we have
to it's all pending bids and building inspector's approval of uh what potential plan we lay out says we need ramps on both sides and that those extra ones go away and it's a good point. >> So, is that where we need to start then? Because in order to put bid specs out, you have to know what you want so that
vendors can bid on what you are asking them to bid on. >> I like the idea of keeping one of the two out there, eliminating one of the uh the ramps and having that additional seating, but also you guys got to be on board.
>> Yeah. I mean, I I know what you're trying to do, but part of my theory was let's just do this project and do the other side like one >> cohesive unit instead of Mitch matching.
And so, and we don't use those stadium those stands other than Thanksgiving football and maybe a couple other small town football games. >> There's two environments where those bleachers get heavily used. One is on Thanksgiving day when we host that game.
The other is on youth football on Sunday mornings when the opposing side shows up and they each take a side. Outside of that, most fans, even when they're away fans, on the home side, >> how would you see though, uh, if when this project's over, I think you're
going to see MIA entertain playoffs >> here, and I think you're going to then have visiting >> groups that want to be on the other side. >> Situations, I would look to maximize the >> gonna have a premier concession stand
and bathrooms. And bathrooms. >> And bathroom. >> Bathrooms. >> Mia will be excited about that. >> Finally. Bathrooms. >> New bathrooms, too. >> I know. >> Portaotties gone. >> The changing table. >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. One of them does.
Yeah. Just for you. >> Not for me. >> All the people. >> That's what I mean. >> All the people. >> Anyone who may be in need. >> Anybody who may be in need. >> Mhm. All right. >> Um, so would it make sense to bring the
building inspector into this discussion? >> Absolutely. >> Yeah. Maybe >> last time there was bleachers, it was 2016 and Bruce was very involved with the project with us. >> Was >> he was Yep. I remember it was he and I and >> but I don't know if he can even help
with this >> with the extension we have. I don't know if there's an urgency here, but you guys can help. >> Well, the project should get done. >> I fully agree. And if we lose sight of it, we'll lose sight of it. And I won't be here to I know we're not going to forget. >> I just go with it is like I don't know if you have to decide tonight, you know,
if we want to bring the building. >> Agreed. >> But you probably want to get something out to bid this summer. >> Is the kind that they want match >> regardless of when that the field turf um >> like they don't know. >> I'm sorry. >> Sorry. I just Yeah, because it just
seems to me like we're just replacing what we have, which isn't what the original intention was, was to expand seating, right? Uh, no. To replace what we had cuz what we have is just mishmashed and they were looking for a project that was kind of
shovel ready and that fit the budget and just did it. And so that's why we went that direction. That's why I think we should replace what we have and not just I mean it'll be up to you guys when you decide, but >> yeah. But is it more seating? >> We don't need more We don't need more
seating in my opinion. No. We will get more seating with this. >> Oh, more seating than you currently have. >> But not the huge one that we we were at the 250,000 one. >> Yeah, it would have been nice for those twice a year, but >> we stay within the budget or close to
it. I think you do both ramps and make it as >> I know as possible. >> Jordan had just said too that maybe more people would come to our facility, >> want to rent our facility. >> Yes, >> they still can. And they can just line
the stand outside the fence. >> No, I'm serious. What's wrong? >> Not as much room over there as there used to. >> So, you're proposing to extend what the seating on our side, not add >> Oh, no. No, >> no, no. I'm clarifying. >> Yeah, it's visitor side only. Okay.
Visitor. >> So, there's three separate bleachers >> and add to the visitor side. Just take those out and >> there's three separate units there now. They're all different. >> Well, can we get more quote? Can we get some quotes then? And I mean, >> yeah, the question will be is whether we
do one ramp or two because that will different I mean that'll be as Pam said the bid. >> I know, but can we get a quote? >> I think you're done. >> Yeah, before you get quotes I think you have quotes. >> What you're going to need is the building inspector's input as to whether
you can even go one ramp versus >> That's what I'm saying. I think we just do the two ramps, put it out to bid the day. Let's just finish this and not make it difficult. My opinion, I don't know. It'll be a nice setup, bleacher. >> I know, but maybe I don't know if we saw
the difference in price if we could use more funds or if we wanted to. I don't know. >> You're going to need an next year. I I think we're over funding the bleachers on the visitor side of the stadium. I think we fund them with the money we
got. if it requires another 10,000 or so that's available. >> Yeah, because I'm I'm sorry. I'm just going to go back to budget discussions and all the conversation during budget um even from town council on school choice and counting on that revenue and that we really didn't want to go that
route, but we kind of are doing that to put the you know get us get us through another budget year. It would be nice if we didn't have to do that and we could relook at um as at those funds I guess is what I'm trying to say to build that up
>> fund supplies which are yes get really expensive in terms of workbooks and things like that. So >> curriculum um >> I'm just feeling >> software licenses. I No, you're you're absolutely right. So I I see Greg's point. Um so I will start to work on this. It's
not something I can do immediately. There's there there's things that I'm um I need to know more about because when you put a a bid out, you can't just say, "I just want bleachers." Like, you have to tell people what you're looking for and then talk about installation and and I need to find out more about this >> this pad that's there to make sure that's still a safe structure. So,
there's a little more to it. And I certainly this is out of my wheelhouse, so I don't want to pretend that it is in my wheelhouse. So, I need to do a little more research. Probably reach out to some other um districts that maybe have done bleachers. Also, go back to our old specs from 2016. Um, so if I see anything that needs to be brought to
your attention, I will bring it to your attention. Um, if that's okay with the committee to >> to Greg's point, as we look at future meetings, maybe we just like put it somewhere as a pick a date that we would like an update on. So it kind of gives us a doesn't fall off the
>> radar. I mean, I'm sure if you wrote for no cost, you get a year on the grant, right? Probably. But still, >> I believe. Yeah. >> So at the next the next meeting, well, that's July 1st. >> That's too quick. Yeah. But the next one in August, the August >> I think 17. >> Mhm. >> And these, just to specify, these are
raised bleachers like our homeside, not for seat on the ground, so they're better. They're above the fence, I should say. Yeah. >> Okay. >> That's the difference. >> You don't have to look through the fence, >> right? You're up and over. Yeah. >> Helpful. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you.
>> Thanks. Appreciate it. Good, guys. >> Thank you. And thanks for the tip on college affordable. >> I know. >> Did you find it on our site? >> Yep. >> Thanks, Ry going on. >> I know, right?
>> You know, bleachers >> lot going on. >> Um, moving into new business. >> Uh, so Miss Brown, um, I think has, uh, some slides that she has put together.
We um in looking ahead um both the house, the uh state house and the state senate have passed separate uh bills um looking at a school cell phone ban.
So now they're into coming together and figuring out what that final bill will actually entail. Um, some of this will be in the slides that Miss Brown's going to go through, but um, we wanted all of you to have the information because
whatever the time frame may be, which could be late fall when the legisl legislature um, finalizes this and then Desi has to give uh, some parameters how school systems are going to respond. it's going
to end up changing um our current policy on cell phones in some way. And so one of the things that I think you'll see in the slides is that um the communication probably should start now to our
families because we're going to need a partnership with our families as we go from uh an environment which is a little bit more around building responsibility as they go up into uh the high school
grades to one where it's going to be no cell phone allowed. uh depending on what bill ultimately comes out as a law. Um but there are characteristics and Miss Brown will take us through this. Sorry, I'm stealing some of your
>> Okay. Back up a little bit. Back. So, just to give I wanted to give you the kind of the timeline. So, um all of this is leading up to the fact that the attorney general's office just put out a grant and so I I applied for it just to
try to get ahead of it because of this timeline. >> Right. So, Governor Healey called for this ban. There were uh a recommendation for passage. There were seven bills that were consolidated into one. Senate passed it, required phone free policies
by 2026. The House prepared a broader bill. So, they're adding youth and social media restrictions. The House passed theirs. So, now they have to come together and create a bill that they both agree on. So if if the house is pushing for even more, I'm imagining
that the ban is going to happen. So if you could um go ahead, please. >> Um so they're really pushing for the bellto bell. Um no phones during the school day, not just during classroom, all school hours. Um and so we would
have to outline obviously how to parents how they can contact schools and speak with their students, which you have already. Um and obviously we have to put into um the policies that they're proposing. They have a sample policy and the AG has a sample policy in their um
toolkit um that kids with medical needs can keep devices that you know IPS we have to honor and if students have work release or things like that. So there's always exceptions. Do you mind forwarding it again? Um so this kind of
just lets it's going to take effect at some point. I would imagine not as quickly as they were Healey was hoping in terms of the fall, but I did want to get ahead of it. Um, go ahead. So, they were offering $50,000 for um the number
of students we have, which would just be secondary. Um, and so there's really not a whole lot out there. There's foam pouches, which seem to be the best, and then some other different solutions. So, what they seem to be pushing for are
these foam pouches. Um, and so the 50,000 would be more than enough to get us the pouches plus backups plus the professional development and implementation support. And then going forward, I learned that these are no
longer rental. They're actually you purchase them. So, it would cost us in the operating budget roughly $2 to $3,000 a year to replace any broken ones or things like that. Heather, can I ask a question because I found out recently that Westfield High is using an app that
prevents the students from So, you're not already making the decision for just the pouch, are you? >> I applied for the pouch. >> We would have to do the pouches. >> If we got this grant and we wanted to go through it, we can see what we do. Um, that technology has gotten mixed reviews.
>> That's what I I gave uh Frank the contact. >> Good. So, um Yeah. And I'm not even Well, >> okay. Yeah. So I just went the conservative route. This is tried and true. Millions of schools use this blah blah blah. So I if we get the grant and
we decide this is not the way we want to go, we say thank you very much. We don't want the grant. The good news is that DESIE is also coming up with more funding for this. So that also shows that it's coming. Um, >> we had to just to jump in, we had to get
this grant in by June 5th in order. It's a competitive grant, so we don't know that we're going to receive it, but um, if we didn't put the application in, then we certainly wouldn't receive anything, right? >> We know that >> something's coming >> and it's going to involve professional
development for our staff and it's going to involve probably some equipment that we need to purchase. So, we figured having the opportunity for some funding for it would be helpful. And I found out about the DESIE funding after I'd already submitted the grant. So, um, the
good news is too that it's a two-year grant. So, if we get the funding, we can spend the summer and much of the fall really collecting data from families and really using that time for community events or getting the message out to
families. Really making sure everyone's on board and gets the why, including the staff. then having a professional development in November and then rolling out whatever policy that we have that would align to this um the implementation of that policy January
after break. It's a nice break for us. It's kind of starting new because when I reached out I said listen we have a brand new school. There's no way even if we could do this even if everything was going well first thing we're trying to roll out how to be in a new school. So
January would be fine. Um, and it's a two-year grant, so we have that wiggle room. Um, if you go to the next slide, I just want to show that we right now we have off and away. It seems to be working for uh sixth and seventh grade really well and then it starts getting
less and less effective eighth and up. Um, we do have the pouches. Um, uh, teachers have said that they spend, you know, class time, sometimes a little bit of time, sometimes more time kind of negotiating this. There's always kids are going to bring in burner phones and
things, but the idea is that would be the few and far between and we'd have to have that in the pallet policy as to what we would do with kids. It can't be exclusionary, which makes sense. You can't suspend a kid for bringing their phone because the whole point is to make sure they're actually
focused. Um, but it connects to academic outcomes and also mental health outcomes. So, there's all sorts of research behind it, but I just wanted you to know the reason why I jumped on it. I obviously asked Gordon for his um permission, but I didn't want to lose
the opportunity um since it was competitive. >> Have other districts found success with the pouches? >> It seems like it. I don't know about here. I did not reach out to Chap because again, I was just like, I got to get this done. >> Um >> Springfield High School's using them as well.
>> Yeah. Um >> they seem to have they I think they had some initial >> challenges because um pouches broke. Yeah. >> Um, the other piece is that, and I don't know exactly how this works, as you lock
them, you have to have multiple stations at the end of the day to unlock them because think of the um >> the angst that the student body is going to feel. I have to get out to my bus, but I need my phone and locked. So, you'd have to have multiple stations and
have all of that organized. That's where the professional development comes in. That's, you know, >> and what I heard from Yonder, and of course Yonder, they're the salespeople, but it seems like the the end of the day is actually they've figured out ways to make it much smoother and self um
service. It's the beginning that that takes a while and that is um you know, in the beginning it takes longer. Um oh, I do want to tell you about Brockton High. Um but um the good news is that we're going to have limited entry points
with the new high school. So it they'll come to a central location. So that was one of the things that they were excited about for us because when we're trying to manage kids coming in from all different places, it can be hard. Brockton High School's pres um um I didn't catch whether he was the
principal or superintendent of Brockton, but he presented at a webinar that I went to and he said >> he's principal. >> Okay. >> But it's it's almost like superintendent. >> Yeah. >> Right. So he said he's never seen more Uno games at lunch. that has just really
improved um lots of different things, but what he's most excited about is the social interaction between kiddos. >> Okay. >> So, >> another principal at uh West Springfield Middle School spoke about the how their success >> and the change in um
>> using the pouches or they >> using the pouches. >> Okay. I talked to a lot of teenagers who like are literally addicted and just want someone to take it away from them, but then like anything else you're addicted to, you don't really want them to take it away, but they know that they that
it's getting in the way of all kinds of things. So, >> England just um had a ban on social media 14 and under just recently. So, it's happening across the world, Australia. >> It's not healthy for kids. So, we wanted to not only bring this to your attention that we've applied for
the grant, but just get you thinking and um you know, as we move into the summer, we're going to have to work on messaging this out to families that this is coming and you know, obviously we gave you what our current cell phone policy looks
like, but changes depending on what the time frame is with the legislature and DESIE will have to be made to that policy as well. Did you did you say there's a DESIE grant also? >> So, I just found out that DESIE is um they haven't actually announced the
grants, but there's funding coming, >> which means there's also requirements coming. >> And did and you said you didn't look into the app. >> I did not. Um because I had heard mixed reviews on it and it seems like they're
really pushing the the pouches. Um yeah. um whenever you're well I don't want to talk about it because I don't I can't speak to the technicalities except for the fact that there's ways around it and >> and I'm not even sure if jamming kids phones is technically legal
>> but that's a whole other story. So this seemed like the tried and trueue >> and I heard you reference the high school several times. I mean wouldn't we also need this in the middle school? >> We would. >> Yes. So I applied for sixth to to 12. What I was saying is six sixth grade and seventh grade tend to be very compliant.
Eighth grade a little less so. And then as they get up it it becomes harder. Um >> okay. >> All right. Keep this posted of course. Um the next item appointment of school
committee member to town open space and recreation culture review committee. So, the um East Long Meadow as a town is now reviewing their um open space and recreation plan that they currently have on file with the state. They use the
Pioneer Valley Planning um association uh for guidance on this. Um so, they have to have a committee. The last time the committee was activated um I was on this group as was Mr. Wisconsin and um
it's probably somewhere between say three to six meetings to develop the plan. Um you have to get some community input. You have to do some research in terms of is what we're presenting still accurate in terms of what open space and recreation areas we have in town and how
do we look to utilize them. That's where Pioneer Valley Planning helps with that in terms of putting together strategic objectives. Um, however, um, the superintendent, they do need, uh, certain members to be on this committee. Uh, so the superintendent of
schools needs to be on it. The rec director needs to be on it. I want to say possibly library. >> Um, so they will need um incoming superintendent on it, and they will need a board member or a committee member be on it. Okay.
Is >> there any interest for anyone to be on it? Well, it depends when they meet. >> Um, the first meeting that they had um or actually will have uh is tomorrow
at 3, I already told um them that we we would not have a a member ready and actually were involved in negotiations. So, when they put out the doodle poll because I was planning to go for the committee, um that was the one day I said I was not available and that's the day of their meeting.
>> Picked day anyway. >> They don't want you there. I guess not. So, um, so they will, um, advertise. >> We were outspoken last time as well. Maybe that's why. What I will say is it's important as you're going through it to look at things in in a cost, uh, standpoint. A lot of the things proposed
are very expensive, as is everything, but don't necessarily make sense. In particular, one of the ideas was a second soccer field at Heritage. So, you know, where the soccer field is out back and it's teiered up like this. Well, there was a proposal to put a second field up in behind it. Now, if you've
ever been up and behind it, it's a it's a mountain. >> I think I remember that. >> So, they'll have to cut in and build terraces to get to it. Never mind parking is nowhere near it. And the cost would be well over a million dollars for a grass field that you really have little accessibility. So, I'm just
saying things like that sound good on paper. Oh, yes, let's add a second soccer field, but it was a very expensive and made very little sense as to put it there. I think there's a little push to do it. I'm just saying keep an eye on those things because they also want to do like a gazebo out in the middle of the pond and stuff like that.
Just be prepared. That's all. There's money in CPC which is great. There's grant money which is great but some money will come out of the operating budget I believe. So >> do you want to be on it? >> I'm not longer going to be a school committee member otherwise I would >> give it to Sarah.
>> Say 3:00 will be hard for me. I mean, I think they will they'll have a another doodle poll um to see when meetings can happen after this. That was just their kickoff meeting which is taking place tomorrow. But uh we used to meet Well, actually we
did meet around two. >> It was an afternoon meeting which is challenging. >> Well, that leaves a lot of us out. >> It does. >> Yeah. Um I mean the superintendent might be going to more of these meetings than
both members, but um they do like to have I think they need to have a school committee member appointed to it. >> Okay. Is this something that we could do on um the reorganization meeting?
Um, you can I think they would like an answer sooner rather than >> we have more information as to when they're going to have their meetings and what time because I think that seems >> that matters. Yeah. >> Yeah. I mean maybe the feedback can be we're going to have reorg in July and >> have later meetings
>> and right the current makeup of the committee feedback is okay >> 3:00 would >> I'll ask uh >> to >> after they go through their meeting when when they feel these future meetings are and then we we'll have a member forum by the reorg meeting. >> Okay. >> Okay.
>> Before Gordon I just want to make sure that I let you know that there's no funding in desi yet. These are it's a proposal making appropriations for the fiscal year and it's been enacted and laid before the governor. So there's a proposal to get money in the
budget for Jessie to be able to give grants. I didn't want thinks that the grants are available. They're not. >> That's it. >> Okay. Nice. >> Good update. >> Next item. Fourth of July parade. So,
um, this I I don't know if we voted I forget if we voted on this in the past, but, uh, the school committee has always, uh, participated in this as well as the superintendent. Um, other folks are welcome to march if they're interested in marching also at the table.
>> How can you, Pam and Heather? >> Heather, >> I am out of town. Sorry. >> Oh, how convenient. >> We always wanted to bring all the information to your attention. Uh I did submit on your behalf uh thinking that this would be a
positive uh vote that um you know to let them know that the school committee will be marching in this. >> Yes. >> Yes, we are. >> Okay. >> We're excited. It is a fun event. >> Yeah, it is >> fun event every year.
>> Okay. So, um I I did fill out the form and I will follow up with Ryan Quimby tomorrow. Do we have to let him know that there's a vehicle? >> Uh, I did say that there was a vehicle, but I will follow up on the form. I said vehicle with a trailer. Y'
>> be a cool trailer. Yeah. >> Okay. >> Um, let me follow up with him. >> All right. >> Are you on this? >> I'm a marshal. >> Truck. >> I show up for the day off. >> You have like the staff. >> That's the grand marshal. >> Oh, yeah.
>> We walk. I am not. >> I'm sorry. >> That's George Kingston this year. Yeah, >> grand marshall grandma and nepherved. >> He's done a lot for the temp. I know how many things >> this one.
>> Yeah. All right. Um, next item. >> So, the next item is um my summitive uh self assessment. I won't read all of this to you. A lot of it you've heard in the presentations. Um some of the things that you didn't hear which I'll just
bring to your attention is um obviously one of the big ones was continuing to manage um us through the high school building project and thankfully uh and that's not a oneperson job. Obviously everybody's involved. Um we're on
schedule. Uh we're on budget. We're entertaining. I think Mr. Fountainson brought this up uh in our last meeting that uh we're starting to look at some of the things that um we only saw as possibilities to add to this project. >> Nice. >> Um and now we they may come to fruition,
which is really exciting. Uh so that's exciting to see. It's going to be an interesting amount of work and um sort of organized chaos this week to get everything out of the building um and then shut the power down on Thursday. One that we haven't talked a ton about
is we are in the accelerated repair program for replacing the roof at Mapleshade. Um those bid documents should be out by the end of June. Um I'll speak to C spoke to him last week and it had been delayed. Um so I'll
speak to Collier who is our owner project manager on that this week to see when they're going out. >> Is that expected to happen this summer? >> So that will not happen this summer. The earliest they can start if they had gotten the bid documents out this week would have been something like August
17th. Um so it's going to push it out a little bit further and what they'll do. We had a roof project going on at Metobrook while school was in session. We can do it. Um it's just that they're they're going to have to outline the construction area and that would be the area that you know we just have to keep students away from
>> during school hours. They would do that. >> They'd be able to do it during school hours. um if it becomes disruptive then we we ask them to stop. You know if it's something that's you know if we have assessments going on and they're doing something that's incredibly disruptive we can ask them to stop.
>> So that's um on track. Uh the good thing is that we've gotten all the funding. We have the partnership with MSBA. So um and we have a similar reimbursement uh for eligible costs to this project. So something that would have been in our
capital plan consistently moved down the road is actually now happening. >> So that's exciting. >> Great. >> Thanks. >> Um the one thing that uh we will need to do is finalize this next um meeting if
possible with just however you want to finalize my evaluation because if you can't carry it over because I won't be here in Octo in October. So, um, to report to Desessie, we've always told them when we've carried it over that we will report in the fall submission. Um,
but they're going to need something in the spring submission this year. >> Okay. >> So, happy to talk about any or all of this with anyone um either now or individually uh over the next week, I guess, because we're meeting again next week.
>> All right. We have another tour of the high school. We have another tour coming up 24th >> next week. >> Yeah. It's exciting. It's happening fast. >> Can we go into that one? >> I know. >> It's really taking shape. >> I would I haven't in a long time.
>> All right. Our last item, schedule a reorganization meeting for July. So, we usually have it on July 1st. I don't know if that's a good day for everybody. Usually >> meet at the school office. Okay.
>> Usually not very long. Oh, right. >> We most important folks are there are school committee members, right? If I'm not going to be there, that's okay. Correct. >> Yes, cuz it's reorganization. >> That's what I figured. I just wanted to make sure.
>> So, so you will need um >> just out back then, right? >> Either uh your new superintendent or one assistant superintendent just to start the meeting and then once you have a chair in place, the chair takes over. >> Um >> I think Joan >> Tony going to be there. I >> planning on attending
>> and you may need space because I don't know if this room is available >> during the morning because this is active. Um they have programs uh basically 8. >> Where else could they go? >> Uh Tom's conference room sometimes is open.
>> Is it an open? It's an open meeting though. >> Usually film it. >> It's an open meeting though. >> No, I know. >> You don't usually film it. No. They can't do it at Carter Monday in the conference room there. >> Could do it. >> Yes, do it at Carter Monday. I'm just saying >> nobody goes to that anyway. Yeah, >> I know. But what? You might not be able
to do it in the morning anyway. >> I mean >> I mean you can have it um if if we're not >> I have a job. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> So Monday through Friday if >> the first doesn't work. You're allowed to go to the second or third or fourth. You just should do it as soon as you can. Yeah.
>> Yeah. It doesn't have to be. >> I'm best on the first. I don't know about you. >> What time? 5:00. >> No, I could do it in the afternoon. >> Yeah, afternoon was fine. >> 4:00. >> Four. >> No. >> 5 o'clock then.
>> Second is easier for me because everybody's leaving. Taking Thursday, Friday, so I don't really have any afternoon meetings, but I just have a dentist appointment at 3:00. >> Do we do 4:30? >> Do it at 2:00.
>> Can we do it on Zoom? Do we have to do it in person? >> Um, it would be difficult to do it on Zoom if if Jamie's not >> got it. Okay. >> I could do first noon >> 4:30 on the second. >> Okay.
>> Do it at the fire station. >> Well, that's someone would have to >> their point of Zoom is they could be remote. Yeah. >> I can't I can't leave. Why don't we work? That's why. So, um,
what time on the 2nd could you? It has to be in July. We said it can't be the 30th. >> Has to be in July because you won't have a new committee until July 1. Sarah doesn't get um, >> we can do it after the 4th. >> She has to be sworn in before your
meeting to to vote. Just so you know. She knows that. >> Okay. >> Monday the >> 6th. >> Just I'm just saying what what if you go after the holiday? you want to do after the holiday? >> It's too challenging. >> Next meeting >> August. >> Not until August.
>> Yeah, that's then that's fine. >> Is that better? >> Yeah, I have nothing on Monday. Not a single meeting right now, the six cuz I think people are taking like Thursday, Friday, Monday, >> which I am. I just realized >> I hope that a doctor
>> I'm sorry I have to Yeah. >> And babies. >> Actually, I will be here on the 6 so I could be the person. >> Okay. >> No, no, no. He said you needed >> Well, if Joany's is here, as long as Joanie can do it. >> If she can't, I'll be here. I'm coming back the fifth. >> So,
>> I have to be here for the literacy tutoring. >> Okay. Well, then let's >> I think I'm around six if you want me to pinch it. >> Yeah, >> right. I mean, I'm pretty >> Let's put it or I could do four on the first.
>> Look at you jumping back to the first. >> Do you guys want to What do you want? first is >> Wednesday, July 1st. >> I'm just going to make sure Joanie knows. >> I can >> What? On two wheels, whenever.
>> Fine. Then let's do the first at 4:00. >> 1 second sooner. >> Okay. >> Are you doing it at Carter Monday or did you If we did the fire station would um >> they don't fire station know it. So be more work. Just do it at
Carter Monday then >> because the door is still unlocked on the outside. >> We'll just open, you know, put >> just crack it. Yeah. >> Okay. Then we don't have to film it, I guess. >> It's a 10-minute meeting anyway. >> Exactly. And I'll >> Yeah, it's not a long meeting. >> Okay, >> cool. And you can sign while you're there. >> And I am there and Heather.
>> All right, >> we're good. >> Okay. Tony now Sarah. >> All right, perfect. >> And Amy >> and Amy. Amy Tony are important. No. >> Okay. >> All right.
Uh, anything else, guys? All right. Like to >> I would like to make a motion to adjurnn. I would move to adjurnn, I should say. Second. >> Motion made by Greg, seconded by
William. All those in favor say I. I. Any nays? Carries over four to zero.