This is the January 15th meeting of the school committee and we will call the meeting to order at 509. This meeting is being both video and audio recorded. And um tonight's agenda we will be interviewing two uh finalists for the superintendent position here at Islam
Meadow. And um first we're going to start off with Dr. Peter Gillan who will be joining us. Dr. Gillan, want to welcome you here today. Um, if I'm just going to start off and go over what the process has been so far for you and all the candidates. Um, all of the candidates
obviously applied to the position with all the necessary paperwork. We had a screening committee of 15 members and we are very thankful for those uh folks and their time. Uh the screening committee did narrow to the field down to three finalists. Uh one of the finalists ended
up taking a position prior to the end of our uh search and so we are down to two finalists tonight. And with that we start with uh Dr. Peter Gillan. So Dr. Gillan, if you'd like to start off today with a little brief um
>> no worries. just a brief little bio, a little bit of information about yourself. Uh if you can speak into that mic, we'll let you know if it's working or not. And uh thank you so much for being here tonight. >> Thank you so much for having me. I am grateful and excited to be here. My name
is Pete Gillan. I am uh a proud resident uh of East Long Meadow, father of four in the district, and the principal of West Springfield Middle School, where I have served as the principal for the past 11 years. I was the vice principal prior to that for six years in the same
building, a high school English teacher and coach at West Springfield High School before that. And I began my career as a sixth grade English teacher at Forest Park Middle School in Springfield. I want to thank you all very personally. Uh for the last month, I've had the opportunity to meet some of
you as we've gone through a very thorough process. I want to share with you just even before we begin the comfort that that gives me as a as a resident and parent uh of how seriously and thoroughly you have taken this. So regardless of how uh how things unfold,
please know that I'm appreciative of that. I want to share with you that uh that I've loved my time in West Springfield and continue to. Um but there was only one job opening that I applied for and that's this one. I am a candidate nowhere else. I am only a
candidate in East Long Meadow. That's because I am passionate, invested, and committed to preserving the strong educational pro programming facilities and uh and and offerings that we have for students that we've had for so many
years here. I recognize greatly the challenge that is following a beloved superintendent and Mr. Smith who've been here 16 years. It is a testament to this community uh the support that he's been given and the challenge in front of us is in in that time um that he's been
here I've worked with six superintendent. So uh it is a testament to you folks and speaks to the interest a district that stable and that supportive right here in my hometown uh is is certainly a dream job and I'm
grateful to be here. >> Great. Thank you Dr. for opening and uh thank you for the reminder. In addition to the things I spoke about, we did send a delegation to both of the finalists of schools and um want to thank each candidate for for facilitating that.
We've had two school committee members and uh the students uh student members went as well. Um so thankful for that. And if we could actually start with a roll call, Caitlyn, if you don't mind, just so we can introduce ourselves all one more time. And if you could use the mic at that end, please.
My name's Caitlyn Card. I'm a student rep and I'm a senior. >> Good evening. Carrie Gerzovski, Antella Rashilla, >> William Strawther. >> Hi, Amy Denta. >> Gregory Thompson,
>> Anna Flanigan, student rep. >> Okay. So, um, uh, Dr. Dr. Gillan, we have a group of questions which we've given to you just a little bit a while ago. So, you have some knowledge of them. We're going to ask them in the certain order. Um, feel free to answer
them as you will. And so, we're going to start off with uh Antel, I believe. Right. >> Okay. >> I'm actually going to start off with the question. Is there one written for you over there? Okay. I'm going to start off with that one. All right. Um, so what
are some instructional or curriculum directives you've given to your school that you were able to see an impact in student growth in your accountability report and how did you monitor and measure the usage of the HQIM and
growth? Uh it's apppropo to begin with that because this has been uh one of the hallmark uh initiatives in my career at West Springfield Middle School. Uh some of the instructional and curriculum directives is that we've shifted to a
full implementation of highquality instructional materials at all core subjects within the last two years at West Springfield Middle School. We've used what DESIE has suggested. We conducted a curricular review committee
that was partnered by myself, our administration, our instructional lead teachers, and our teaching staff to identify the highquality instructional materials that we'd like to use that best aligned with our mission and vision. And then we began a pilot program in small groups to roll those
pieces out. It was daunting because we did that at four different subjects. So somewhere along the line, everyone sort of felt that. And over the last two years, we have now fully adopted um at all four core subjects, science, social studies, mathematics, English language
arts, um high quality instructional curriculum materials. We've um brought in consultants to help uh help us deliver that instruction um in a with fidelity and with integrity. Both of those terms I've used intentionally because we've adopted both of those um
both those strategies in different areas. Um the impact has been uh has been outstanding. I I'll admit and open that it wasn't first met with uh with excitement and cheer. Um but the data showed us that we had a need to do
something different. Um the recommendations from DESIE uh were clear on what we needed to do and uh as recently as this morning to be able to walk through English classrooms and see their use of study sync which is the ELA program that we selected uh it it's been
remarkable to watch that growth and see the the data results come in from our progress monitoring. So it has been uh that piece has been a daunting task in the last four years. Everybody uh in our very large building, the largest middle
school uh this side of 495, everyone in that building is impacted in some way. And it's taken a little bit of time, but we have uh we've really started to see some great gains for our students and uh and some deep buyin from our staff.
>> Hello. Hello. Um, could you please share how you would approach designing professional development systems that both elevate instructional practice and foster a datainformed approach while creating a culture where all staff feel valued, supported, and empowered being mindful of the various career stages?
>> Absolutely. Um, the the key piece there about involving stakeholders and all staff, what I'll say is uh people support what they help create. That's how. And so ensuring that those folks regardless of where they fall in their
career have a voice in helping to create uh what they've been tasked with. That's the key to designing professional development. And the reason behind that is because the best people to go to are your boots on the ground, the people who
are studentf facing each day. So involving them not just in the planning but also in the delivery that's been an effective strategy for us. We've used u you know the outside presenter the outside consultant as much as we've used
internal experts that have just crafted their own organic knowledge from their work. Uh that's been incredibly important. It's also helped us maintain um a healthy budget as we do that do that important work. So I think that's how how do you approach that? You
approach that by remembering that mantra that people support what they help create. And so if uh we review all the data in the world at central office and we we speak with our administrators about what they think and we don't involve our teachers uh then we've left
out the most important component of that. So uh once that's happened those you begin that uh that that collection of folks then it's continual cycles um of review and improvement data cycles using um agreed upon protocol with your
stakeholders to progress monitor as you go through um your different stages of professional development, your different stages of training um all align towards the goals that the district and stakeholders have selected. That continual process um is cultivated through trust. When you involve folks um
who participate at the ground level I think I'm on deck now. Um good evening. >> Good evening. >> So can you tell us a time when you intentionally grew or mentored others to take on greater responsibilities or leadership? uh how did you identify potential support their growth and what
impact did it have on the organization and or as you as a leader? >> Yeah, it it took me some time. Uh this was not something that I was great at early on in my career. um it's hard for me or it was hard for me I should say to
delegate effectively and so uh through mentorship and just through sort of the the natural uh trial and error uh that is anyone's professional career I soon realized that I needed good help in order to do my job well and in order to
do that I needed to train folks effectively so I've participated in a litany of training programs or or training opportunities I should say through my work as the board chair of the New England League of Middle Schools uh through my work with the Massachusetts School Administrators Association. But the question asks about
you know the greatest impact and that certainly is in our own district where I've had the great opportunity to mentor uh aspiring leaders as identified through the cle program. I know the one that you've had uh used here, but really
inhouse uh I have what I would say the most wonderful team of assistant principles. Um and I'd put that uh put that up against anybody. Um and so what we do is through a collaborative and shared leadership approach. Uh we meet with that that team of folks um every
single day. We sit down and meet and we walk through problems. Um and then my strategy in terms of mentoring um potential leaders is to work with them uh behind the scenes almost and then let them go try to solve problems on their own with my support. I think the best
way to learn is by doing but I think it's by doing with support as well. And what support looks like is continual check-ins uh caring for mental well-being and um and supporting folks who take those risks. The question asks about identifying potential leaders. I
think the way that you do that is through uh number one recognizing uh skill. Who are the folks who you wish your kids would have in whatever the role is? Whether it's teaching or as an administrator or as a principal, as a superintendent when you walk by, who are
the people that you wish your kids came in contact with? That's a great first benchmark. And then you look at how they do in terms of their achievement, the interest that they express, the opportunities they they have to scaffold out in very small steps. It can start in very small ways. And as that interest
grows, then you do exactly what I mentioned at the opening. to support them um through continual meetings and through uh care behind the scenes and and remembering that um you know the greatest task we have in that is remembering that um that you're not just
in charge but that the people are in your charge. There's a big difference in how you approach that. Approach that. In charge is command driven and directive driven. But when people are in your charge, you are directly responsible for
their care. And it shifts the way you think about leadership. It shifts the way you think about growth and how you support someone through trying times while you allow them to do the work on their own. And that's um that's a hallmark of mine that um that I say to
you tonight humbly. How do you ensure clear, consistent, and transparent communication across diverse diverse constituents, including students, families, staff, union leadership, the school community, and community partners, especially when navigating complex or sensitive issues.
I think there's two pieces to that. One is that um that communication needs to be one regularly scheduled. If communication is just reactionary, then that's where gaps occur. Um regularly scheduled. What I mean by is regularly
scheduled meetings. You have standing meetings with key stakeholders. Union leadership is a great example of that. You have standing meetings with the folks uh who have a vested interest in what's happening at schools. school committee of course uh principles
parents those those kinds of things as that's regularly scheduled that's a helpful component. You also regularly schedule updates um you know weekly messages come out from leadership teams here in this district uh that share the
range of we have a parking line issue to here are the events coming up and as parents and stakeholders uh expect those regular communications it helps uh strengthen understanding and interest. So regularly scheduled communication is
step one. What that then allows you to do is step two. And in moments when there needs to be um issues that are communicated that weren't planned, um when you do those things honestly and from that baseline of regularly
established trust, um understanding is is strengthened and uh trust is strengthened. So when you have those moments, you respond honestly. You respond in a timely manner. You maintain confidentiality of those folks who need that protected. But you give the
community, whomever the community is, whether it's parents, teachers, whomever, you give the community in front of you, all the information that you're able to give them at that time. And if you're not able to give that all that information, you explain why. And hopefully uh doing that repeatedly and
regularly builds a community of uh of trust and understanding. I'm hopeful that you've heard me say over and over and over again that um schools are not apart from their community. They're a part of the community. And doing that and believing that that we're all a part
of the same community, uh communication stems much more naturally uh than it might from when you see yourself as oppositional forces. That's not what we are. East Long Meadow is a group that's all on the same team, all striving towards the same goals and so communication processes should stem
organically from that. >> Um, please give an example of a specific situation where where you identified an equity gap in student outcome. What actions did you take to address the issue and what would you do differently if a similar situation arose? >> This was a tricky one for us at in West
Springfield. our English learners population is um north of 20%. It changes very honestly daily um and those the languages that those students speak change daily uh
really dependent upon global issues. So starting years back, uh we had an English learners program that was self-contained where regardless of your background or language spoken, uh regardless of your
grade level, you were in one classroom by yourselves with little opportunity to mingle um and to connect with uh with students in the general population. It did not take long for two things for both moral
conscious and for our data our achievement data to tell us that this strategy wasn't uh wasn't appropriate and wasn't working. Since then, and this is probably about seven years or so, since then, what we've done is expanded
to an inclusive English learners model, uh where we have staffed that those programs equitably where we've uh shifted so students are able to be with age alike peers but still get their language instruction uh in blocks of
time when other students are getting language instruction. We've tried very hard to remove the otherness. The question asks for what did we see? We certainly saw a data a rise in our data. Our access scores have grown exponentially since we've done that. But
the anecdotal piece that I I'm hopeful you saw when you walked through our our school um was in our lunchroom, which is a spot where you can't fake it and where the uh where there may not be a data marker. But if you were to walk into our lunchroom tomorrow, and I invite you to
come call me on this. If you were to walk into our lunchroom tomorrow, you would not be able to tell where do the students who don't speak English sit. You would not be able to tell where do the students from different countries. You wouldn't be able to tell everyone sits and eats together. You'll never see
that on a Desi report, but you'll see it when you walk through our halls and when you sit at our tables. That took years of undoing. But that when you talk about a a specific situation where we saw the idea the the the equity gap, we saw it in two places. We saw on our data
sheets, but we also saw it in our hallways. Um and immediately it took it took some time, but took steps to get to a place where um I'm really really proud of what that looks like in our school and in our district. So, as a superintendent, how would you
lead um the responsible integration of artificial intelligence across instruction, operations, and assessments to improve outcomes while ensuring equity, data privacy, and more importantly, ethical use? I it's a great question and what I've said in our
building and what I've said just in in the community is that we it feels like we're on the precipice of when the internet first started. I think some of you may have heard me even say that a time or two. Um where we don't quite know where this is going to go and two things happen. One is this is scary and
two is this is exciting. There are opportunities in front of us. openly. I nor any other candidate is going to sit here and tell you we know where this is going to go. We don't and they don't. What we do know is that we need to pay very close attention to it. We need to learn about it. It needs to be a
continual conversation. We actually spoke a little bit about how it impacts our progress monitoring assessments as students are just so ahead of where the adults are. So the question is as superintendent, how would you lead the responsible integration? We all need to
be learners. We need to be open to the opportunities, but we need to not forget to protect our students because it it really is the unknown. And while I think the opportunities down the road will outweigh the scary parts, we still need to name the scary parts and we need to
help folks and and be a part of that learning. AI is beyond chat GPT. It's it's it's beyond the the folks who call my grandmother in Waterberry, Connecticut trying to get her to buy gift cards, right? that those things are all real. But AI is so much bigger than
that. It involves the medical field and how we diagnose uh medical needs. It going to impact the educational field and how we deliver instruction, how we assess students, uh how we design programming, what our classrooms look
like. It's going to change very, very rapidly. So, the one thing I'm going to do is sit here and acknowledge to you. don't have a perfect answer for what it's going to look like and what we're going to do. I don't think anybody does. But what I can promise you is that we're going to learn as we go and we're going to do two things at once. We're going to
look for opportunities and utilize them. And we're going to protect our students along the way by going slowly and making sure that we don't rush to judgment or policy or um or quick adaptation. Right.
Um based on the data from East Long Meadow Public Schools, it could be um the state accountability data or if you've seen any of the the I Ready or data in any of the previous school committee meetings?
Um what do you see as areas of strength and opportunities for growth? And how would you present and set goals to school leaders and how would you hold the schools accountable and measure growth for meeting the goals? >> Of course the some areas of I'll start
with areas of strength because I think that's important to um to mention. I think when you ask this this expected question uh folks in the audience get a little nervous. So I like to start with the positive parts. um your science work
uh in terms of comparison to state average is outstanding and it's outstanding K through 12. Um the growth that you've shown in middle school achievement in your in your recent year
years last two years has also been outstanding. There's variability at the elementary level uh where folks have dipped a little below or a little uh below where they have been in previous years. But to be in a place where your accountability ratings range from 61 to
69 to be in the curricular shifts that you're in year two that identifies exactly where where we are, you're going to see the odd dip from time to time. I think the areas of growth are clear when you look at your high school data has taken doubledigit dips um in achievement
performance in English and math in the over the course of the last year. I think that's natural. Um so the opportunities for growth exist there. The opportunity opportunities for growth exist in high school achievement in English and math. Uh ensuring growth at
the elementary levels in English and uh and mathematics. Um, Metobrook is not to be ignored. Everything starts at early elementary with early screenings, early intervention. That's a that's a key opportunity. So, uh, that those pieces I
think you are a stable and strong district that like many districts are undergoing some dips as you implement new curriculum, as you deal with the question about what does MCCAST mean to 10th graders going forward. Uh, wrestling with how to convince folks to
take that seriously. certainly is an opportunity and a need and probably tells part of the story. What I'll offer uh in terms of how is that data tells a story. Uh a refrain that that the folks from West Springfield are tired of me saying is that data gives us
information, not definition. Data gives us information, not definition. The way that you go about that is by using a flashlight to examine the wise. you have some some dips in some specific subgroups that need examination as to
why um but that don't those don't need to be fixed with a hammer. We use the flashlight and find the way the why and not pound the hammer because the data story isn't what we'd like it to be. Um I noted the high school dip, but I also want to note that a high school is
tricky and some things to celebrate. uh your uh their work towards chronic uh chronic attendance or chronic absenteeism has been fantastic. Their graduation rate is up. The um the AP work has similarly been fantastic and there's points that have been earned
there to help support the school as you go through these curricular changes. So those opportunities exist as well. Um and I know that as the curricular work that you're doing starts to scaffold up that all grades K through 12 will start to see that. So what we do then is you
collaborate with those stakeholders. You work with your your administrators. You examine data and you conduct those data cycles of review. We examine what does the data tell? We don't panic. We don't respond to blips. We look at trends. What are the trends over time tell us?
Um what story does it tell us? And then we use um professional development that we talked about um the examinations of what does our practice look like and we bring those stakeholders in to help solve the problem with us because as I said it's very very easy to look at your
look at your data scores and say they must they must not it is a community issue schools are a community issue and involving all stakeholders from parents to students school committee administrators teachers support staff.
Um, great things happen. >> Dr. Gillan, how do you decide which academic initiatives deserve sustained investment and which ones need to be paused or ended even when they are popular? >> The the data guides us um and we need to
evolve as the data tells us to to evolve. So um the academic initiatives that deserve sustained investment are the ones that are working and the ones that are working over time. The ones that trends show are positive. Um that's
how and that data looks like um not just your MCCAST or I ready scores but I noted the absenteeism graduation rate AP scores college acceptance uh your student climate data which again is fantastic. over 92% of your students say
that they feel safe and welcomed. And so that helps you identify what's working. Your trend data shows that it's not reactionary. Um it it's it's not the mood of the moment
or I like this, I don't like this, or one small population is upset. It's let's look at the story the data tells us and let's respond to that. Okay, Dr. Gillan, uh, in municipal financing, some years have stronger budgets than others. How will you
promote consistency in educating students through both the robust years and the lean ones? >> I think what's important to to guide is your stated district goals. Uh budgets connect to goals and when you when you
align decision making to your clearly stated goals. Um it illuminates and clarifies decisions. Without those goals, it makes decisions a lot trickier in those lean years. And I know you folks have been through them and I was pleased to be at the uh at the joint
meeting of the town council and the school committee on Tuesday and I know that you you're facing some similar challenges. So when you face those challenges, it's the agreed upon goals that all stakeholders have said are essential. How do we best get there?
What things might not help us get there or what things might be a little extra in those moments? That's what that's what you use to make those decisions. How does budget connect to goals? Every dollar has value. Um and working towards you know those classroom centric goals that needs to happen. you have them
stated as, you know, the the the curriculum work and educating the whole child. Those are your the two goals for 25 26. Those are two great guideposts that I would argue should continue as um as goal markers as you do this budget work that's upcoming.
>> How would you lead efforts to increase student engagement while also building strong district-wide collaboration among schools and departments? How will you measure whether your efforts are effective? >> Uh the second part of the question, how would you measure whether your uh efforts are effective? Uh Ulys's Grant
says a leader knows they've lost their way when people stop bringing them problems. That's how you measure number one the effectiveness of what you're doing. when folks stop coming to you as a problem solver and a and a solver uh someone who's solutionbased that's a key
marker that whether it's overall or on a specific issue uh you may have lost your way or folks may have found another expert. So how do you maintain that is the original question. You do that through communication. You do that through soliciting that feedback. You do that by actually following through after
you solicit that feedback. It's a two-part process. It's very easy to conduct a survey. It's very easy to hold a uh meet and greets and standing office office hours and those kinds of things. But we t I talked about trend data. When you see common trends from your
constituents and from the people who are in your charge, it is incumbent upon you to respond to them. Of course, there are going to be isolated moments when folks are angry. Trust and believe, I've been there. Um, of course, there are going to be moments when people are unhappy with
the decision that you've made, or they disagree with the direction that you're going. But in those isolated moments, if you've made a habit of valuing and acting upon the feedback that people have given you, um that's that's
precisely how you do that. Um and and openly, I don't think there's any other way other than seeking that feedback, seeking that communication, and then responding to the themes that you see. Please share an example of a time when
your commitment to equity required you to make an uncomfortable decision and how you supported your community through it. >> It it's this question is in my head the first thing that came to me had a
specific name attached to it. So in answering the question as I stumble I'm stumbling to explain it without naming um the folks. Uh but it connects to student discipline and it connects to equitable implementation of student
discipline. And so often we are so quick to want to punish that we forget to teach. And that's what we're here for. And we forget what the outcome that we really want. What we really want is to
help all students be citizens, productive, healthy citizens of the world. And when we have those moments when we're so quick to punish um and there have been a couple there have been a couple in my mind where
I if a student had had different uh economic or parental support Perhaps folks might have pushed me to make the decision related to discipline that they wanted me to. And I knew that and I
could see it. And it was awkward and hard, but it was the right thing to do because when we step back and objectively look at what we're here for, when we pull all of it away, curriculum, budget, all of those things that we get tangled up in here, we're here to teach
students how to be productive, healthy citizens. when they leave us. And often the best thing that we can do is keep them with us instead of send them somewhere else or kick them out. And that doesn't mean that firm discipline
isn't appropriate. It just means it needs to be carefully examined and that our own opinions need to be carefully examined. So the answer to that question is there have been specific disciplinary incidents where students committed major
infractions when the easy answer was to just remove them forever. But that wasn't the right thing to do. And if they have been different students with a different makeup, I don't think everyone would have wanted that same
outcome. Um, and I'm very proud uh of those moments because it was very difficult. It came with a great deal of scr they just one. It came with a great deal of scrutiny. Um, and if and I would go back and do it again over and over
and over again because where those students are now is where we hoped they would be. >> Okay. Next question. How do you see the role of the superintendent in collaboration with the school committee using the collective bargaining process to promote student achievement for a
sustainable period of time? I I think um the the role is uh trust um the role is providing. So the the question is you know how do you collaborate with the school committee through collective
bargaining to make sure that student achievement uh student achievement rises. Trust is the key the key piece in that moment because the school committee, the ELA, the superintendent of schools, the administrators all want
the same thing. And understanding that we're all coming from the same place. We're just parsing through strategy and resource is the is the key piece. I think that that's how uh that's what the role is. The role is to remind folks of
that because it's emotional. Um it's logical, it's financial, it has longstanding impacts, there's um there's value attached to that collective bargaining often for so many it's how
folks feel valued. You are telling me what you think of me. Um when really what we're doing is partnering to deliver resources so that we all have our common goals met. And it is I've been in the collective bargaining
process on both sides of the table. I've been in the collective bargaining process when it was very easy. Been in the collective bargaining process was very difficult. And what needed to be centered some and some folks did a great job of leading that and some folks struggled. And I think the struggle
comes from what needs to be continually reminded is um we're going to try to honor your value as much as we're able to, but we have common goals that we need to get to. And those common goals are student centered and not always
adult- centered. And that's hard to hear, but everyone believes it. when you can strip all that away and when you can talk about know we we really do value you and let's find ways to show that um that are within our resource folks come to the table a lot uh in a lot better
place but it's uh it's the superintendent's role I think to offer balance and to remind folks of that you're not necessarily the intermediary but you do have to be uh the water on the Fire. I'm going back to that first one.
>> Yep. >> That's number two. Um, how do you ensure that special education programming in your district is both legally compliant and genuinely effective in meeting students individual needs while also promoting inclusion, equity, and high
expectations across all schools? And please describe a time you led a change in special education services that improved outcomes for students. The key piece there at least to for the first part of the question is the individualized um and so that comes again from um
progress monitoring and it comes again from responding to what's put in front of you. Um that happens first in the classroom. The first spot where the individual needs are addressed are from the instructors working with parents and
working with students. data will then show and trends will then show what are the programmatic needs because the programmatic needs stem from multiple students demonstrating the same need where the district then requires some
intervention. Uh that's what's as you all know what's so hard about special education is that changes what that that the data and the need change regularly. what uh what we see happen with the students in front of us. They present a
range of needs and what we see with you know ASD and that the range of that spectrum how we can respond to it. Each district is entrusted to do that in a way that meets the needs of the students in front of them. But you have to be nimble and prepare be prepared to uh to
respond to that. So, you create programs based on the trends that you see, the long-standing trends that are demonstrated by data and achievement. I'll give you an example because I know that's a little roundabout, but it's tricky because that's what happens. Uh, our data showed us years ago, and it was
worse years ago, that students just weren't achieving, special education students in particular, weren't achieving. And what we had years ago was a full, and when I say we, I mean district had a full resource room model. special education was other uh and that's where the pendulum was at the
time and we were stuck because we were in a budget place where we knew what we had to do was be more responsive than just louder and slower. But it was going to be tricky because though the data showed us we needed to do that the the funding to go to a
co-taught model would be very very difficult at least in our building it would require a 9person FTE investment and I knew that going in front of a school committee and asking for nine FTE just for my building was going to be a
daunting task. So we started with a pilot program. I think that's a great way to examine how you respond to these fluctuating trends. We started with a pilot program where instead of nine, we began with two and we did it at one
grade level and we began our shift to a fully inclusive model that hinged upon co-eing um and the ability to help students step out from time to time, not as a
structured class when they needed. We identified educators who raised their hands and said, "We want to try this." Uh because I know that we need this so much. We brought in uh professional development to help teach th that very
small group because it was cheaper and we were able to afford it and it was much more targeted. We brought in PD to work with that small group to teach them how to co-e while the rest of the building maintained its original model. That drummed a little excitement. It drumed a little interest. people wanted to know how that was going to go and it
also allowed us to then not need to rely on the outside PD so much because we had cultivated in-house co-eing um inclusive model specialists that were used to doing it with our personalities with our children that met our trend data that
has since expanded over time where we presented at the district um the district inclusive practice network at the state level um and we brought in our staff and walked through or we brought our stuff to walk through how we got to that place where we went to a fully inclusive model and we got our 9FT over
time and it has become our building based practice and we were very very proud um for a few years but then the data continued to show us that we still had gaps in that and even that
one-sizefits-all model of co-eing and inclusion we were struggling with and the call for we need to bring back some of the room pieces um has germinated. And so what we've done is we've because we had maintained that healthy staffing, we've become flexible on how we use that
staffing. Even again as recently as this week, we've adjusted schedules from the second for the second semester so that students who need to have a little more uh individualized support can do that without being stuck in that um bubble of
calling it a a resource room or a pullout program. We've had to respond to um what we've seen in front of us, what the data, achievement data tells us. And achievement data isn't just MCCAST, their I Ready progress, what we saw in terms of feedback from parents towards
their IEP goals. We saw anecdotal data from teachers going, I'm struggling, the disparity of need is too great in my classroom. I'm not meeting anyone's need. I need help. We saw all of that and we've responded. And we've responded in the same way that we've done effectively pilot programs. Start small.
folks are going to clamor for a we need a 100% solution. We need all of this fixed. We need all fixed immediately. Budgets won't often allow that. Staffing won't often allow that. Student case loads won't often allow that. So if you can't give 100% solution, it doesn't
mean you ignore it. You follow through with a 10% solution or a 20% solution and you build that data to be able to generate to folks see how this aligns towards our goals. Let's talk about next steps. So that co-eing pendulum, it's been a great success. we were recognized
for it and now we're learning that we need to be a little more flexible um because our data has shifted again and our students have changed and so that's that's what has to happen in special ed programming. It needs to be nimble. You need to have be willing to implement a p a pilot program and you need to respond
to trends and not just immediate uh you know isolated uh cases. >> Okay. Looking five years ahead, what is one district structure, practice, or assumption you believe must fundamentally change in order to achieve
a stronger future for students and why? >> Uh there's two pieces I think. One, we we touched upon AI that was going to be my answer when when asked about where are we headed because I think that's unknown. But I think coupled with that too which is really t difficult is
facility use and you folks have seen that um that how we organize uh our students through changing enrollment, how we organize our students K through 12 through um needed
programming, how we use uh technology within our facilities to adapt to student needs. What's tricky is we have a a model institutionally, both education as a whole, but also in how we've designed
schools that serves the masses, but a demand for individualized service. Those two things continue to clash and I'd argue continue to be a core of educational uh issues across our state. We are we are designed for mass
instruction. We demand individualized treatment. Somewhere along the line, we need to adapt. you've started that and recognized that with the new high school uh using the resources that we have. How do we continue that kind of thinking K
through 12 does it look like way what schools do kids attend? Uh how do we use our technology? How do we use our um how do we use AI? How do we use the space that we have um to make sure that just
because kids are of a um a certain marker, age, grade, IEP status, that it it's not just move through the system or move through the system because that's how the system is designed and how it was originally intended. Um and we're
often boxed in by what facilities look like. So in 5 years, how schools look both how they look physically and how they look from an organizational structure and how they look um in terms
of instructional delivery is going to be drastically different um because of both external factors and what we have uh what we see in front of us. So, it's a great question and that the first thing that I thought was how we use buildings and how we use resources. That's not
going to change. Resources are going to be what they're going to be. It's resourcefulness that's going to be the key to solving those problems. >> Dr. Gillan, I'm glad to uh be able to say that you've reached the end of our questioning session of our meeting. too.
>> I want to certainly recognize the marathon that is applying for the East Sal uh superintendency and thank you for your all your time and efforts. Uh certainly we will take into consideration um our visits to your district, your visits to our district here on Monday where you um visited all
five schools, central office and the senior center. Um our goal is tonight is to interview both candidates. We will have some time for deliberation at the end of the meeting. We are also scheduled for ne tomorrow, excuse me, at
um 3:30. If we are not able to come to a consensus tonight, then we'll roll till tomorrow. So, what I would ask is that Tracy would contact you either way tonight to let you know our status. And with that, if there's anything you'd like to close with or ask of us, this is
your opportunity. >> I have no asks. Um uh just to closing when you put somebody uh with 15 questions um and you're looking for perfect answers to go 15 to 15 I know that like any candidate when I get back
in the car I'm going to think oh man I I should have or I would have. So perfection is not what I'm going to promise you and I know that um that's not what any candidate ever is going to deliver. What I can promise you is a commitment to what I hope are the things
that you hold important. I can promise you a commitment to integrity. I can promise you a commitment to serving the whole student. I can promise you a commitment to being invested in this community here. I can promise you a
commitment to the stability that you have shown those who have gone before me, the educators who who serve you and the folks across our town who have st served our town. Uh your commitment to stability um precedes even my interest
in this position. So no, I I cannot promise you perfection, but I can promise you those things. I will pour myself into this work. I will give you um the communication, the collaboration, the trust and the authenticity with all
of its imperfections uh that I hope that you would expect. And if as you do that examination, what I ask you again is as a dad, um I ask you that if you find that someone has those things that that integrity, the commitment to to equity,
the commitment to community service, the commitment to all the wonderful things that is this fantastic town, if you find somebody better, then I expect that you hire somebody better because that is the level of my commitment. Um and I mean
that sincerely. We are we are all here temporarily to make what has uh gone before us and what comes in front of us a little better along the way. I would love to be a part of of that work. I thank you so very much for the warmth,
the hospitality, uh your long hours and communication that you've put uh put in um into this since October. It has been an absolute pleasure and I am grateful to know that uh the community in which I live takes its education so seriously. Please know that I do too.
>> Great. Thank you so much Dr. Lyn for your time and efforts. If you want to hold tight, we will uh make a motion uh to recess for 15 minutes. Uh we'll have a chance to say goodbye for the evening and um then we'll be back with the second candidate uh shortly. Okay. So, I
would take a motion for the 15-minute recess, please. Motion made by William, second by Carrie. Discussion. All in favor say I. I. Those opposed, nay. That carries 5 to zero. Okay, we are in recess. Thank you. >> Thank Okay, we're back in our meeting. Uh,
we're 6:20 and we are going to invite our second candidate forward shortly. Do do This thing working. >> Good evening. Like to walk welcome Dr. Joanne Manard.
Thank you for coming back tonight. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. >> Welcome again. Good to see you. >> Um we've discussed when we open the meeting the process uh briefly what you've been through as a candidate. We realize that it's a long process. Want
to thank you for um hosting us at your school, some of the community members to you and then of course coming to our district uh yesterday for the day going to all five schools uh the senior center central office. Thank you for that and your time and effort towards those. >> Absolutely.
>> Um we understand it's been a long run so far. We have some questions to ask tonight. You've been given the questions just a little bit ahead. >> Um and so we will begin and go right in order as they are on your >> sheet. Uh you have an opportunity at the beginning to make a statement if you'd
like and tell us a little bit about yourself. We have an audience tonight. >> Um and we can >> That's Jimmy. Sorry. >> Yeah. No, that's our fault. And it's not like it took it took us only about a half an hour to set this place up. Okay. Tried a bunch of different things, but Jamie wanted to you.
>> But, um, so, uh, with that, uh, Dr. Mard, if you would like to start with, uh, your opening statement, please. >> I wanted to thank you first of all. Um, I got to meet every school committee member over this process, which is really impressive and it shows your commitment to the school district. So, I
wanted to thank all of you for that. Okay. So, my name is Joanie Manard. I know it's spelled like Joanne. That's very strange. I go by Joanie. Um I wanted to tell you a little bit about myself um and what I can bring to East Long Meadow. I have a wealth of
experience. I have been a K through 12 principal. So I was a principal at elementary school for four years and Peter Sam Center School and became a secondary principal at Turner Falls High School, Great Falls Middle School for two years. I have been in the assistant
superintendent's role for Hollist public schools for five years and just like East Long Meadow um my uh my responsibilities under my role are very wide and deep and I'll get to some of
those as we're talking about that. Um prior to that I was a STEM coach at Medway Middle School and I taught also for 11 years. Something else that I bring to the table is I came from the business world um and did a lot of marketing and selling and I'll kind of get why that plays a role in this also
when I get along a little bit later. >> Excellent. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> We have Antella starting please. >> Okay. >> Oh yes, we'll go through a roll call of introductions if you don't mind briefly. Caitlyn, if you could start, please. >> Right. My name is Caitlyn Cardon. I'm a
student rep. >> Hi, Caitlyn. >> Hi again. Carrie Jersey. Babski. >> Hi Carrie. >> Hello. Antella Rashilla. >> Hi. >> Hello. William Strawther. >> Hi Amy Denta. >> Gregory Thompson.
>> Anna Flanigan. Student rep. >> I appreciate the students being here too. That's awesome. >> All right. So, I have the first question. >> Um, I'm actually going to be doing the one I Do you have one that's written? >> Yes. >> On there. Okay. >> You going to go that one? >> Yes. I'm going to do that one first. All
right. >> All right. >> Um, so what are some instructional or curriculum directives you have given to your your district that you were able to see an impact in student growth in your accountability report and how did you
monitor or measure the usage of the HQIM and growth? Sure. So, I'm lucky enough in my role I'm charged with all curriculum reviews for the entire district. So, since I've been there, we did a 2-year math curriculum review for grades K through 12 plus. Um, in the
first time since 2011, we have a consistent resource for the elementary school, which is Eureka Math Squared, and for the secondary schools, Reveal. Um, we had a world I was in charge of a world language curriculum review, preK through 12 plus. I'm ended up with a lot
of resources. And for those of you guys who don't know, we have a French immersion program at our school. So, that's a really in our district, that's a really critical part um of my job in getting resources for them as well as a wellness curriculum review. We're right in the middle of an ELA elementary
curriculum review. I was able to secure a $224,000 grant from DESIE to help secure whatever we decide that committee decides. And we're al also in the middle of a 2-year science curriculum review. So that's
kind of um a big big big huge part of my job. Those curriculum reviews um are um including administration, teachers, curriculum specialists who work under me um as well as getting uh
parent and student feedback. So how do we monitor it? So the one thing I can really speak to that I've been in charge of is math because I can tell you the results. So, um, this is not because obviously I didn't know that question. Um, this is something that we present
and I don't know if it's appropriate to give an additional something to you guys. I don't know. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you. Um, I don't know if I have enough. I'm sorry, but >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you. So, if you guys can look. So, my curriculum team
and myself present twice a year together. or I present at every meeting but they collectively come with me and if you guys can see we talked a lot about what is happening in our district with our interventions but if you turn
to I didn't know what the question is going to be and I could address all of these but if you go a little bit further and you can see um our math interventions and how we're measuring it so we use for math in the elementary
schools we use I In the secondary schools, we use LL. So, we're always looking at those benchmark assessments and if students are receiving interventions, we're monitoring that and we're putting progress monitoring reports within open architects, which is
our data dashboard. Um so we are constantly using when people are receiving um interventions we are additionally testing them in I ready and so we're progress monitoring we're able
to see that growth and that's some of those charts that you guys are seeing um so we can see exactly how the materials the high quality materials we received and purchased are impacting student growth. We then look if something's not working.
We have discussions as a grade level team depending on what grade level it is, why that didn't work, why we think it didn't work, and what ideas we have to modify that. So, we're constantly looking at that. We have a very robust
uh data data talks and data conversations in our schools that we're constantly monitoring that on a regular basis. Please share how you would approach designing professional development systems that both elevate instructional
practice and foster a datainformed approach while creating a culture where all staff feel valued, supported, and empowered. Being mindful of the various career stages. >> Are we not going to do the number two? We'll get back. >> Oh, okay. I'm just making sure. Okay.
Okay. Thank you very much. Okay. Um, so again, as the assistant superintendent of curriculum instruction, I am charged with the responsibility for the professional development for the entire district. So, um, I have um compiled a
committee that we get together three or four times a year. And on that committee, it's about 25 people. And on that committee is all my curriculum specialists. I have one STEM person at each school, one humanities p person at
each school and one unified arts person at a district-wide and then administrators um and other central office. We get together and we decide collectively what our focus is going to be for the year.
So this team went through a lot of iterations and a lot of ideas and a lot of lengthy discussions on how to get there. I led a one-day training and we collectively decided to focus on tier one instruction for the entire school.
Um and as we all know that's for general ed instruction that impacts every single student. So our focus for PD for the entire district is tier one instruction for the next three years. Um, so what we do is we collectively decided that um
I'm in charge of we have a full day PD day um tomorrow and I sat in East Long and Meadow Library creating the PD feedback form when I got here a little bit early. I'm in charge of creating the feedback form. That feedback form is the results are shared with all
administrators across the district um including principles, assistant principles, student services assistants, all my curriculum team and PD council members. On the PD council are union members and um administrators. We have equal amount per our contract. And per
our contract, I run that jointly with the union representation. Um to further tie it, we have a strategic plan I was lucky enough to be part of my first year. Um in that strategic plan, we had over 20ome people and it was the
included the town manager, uh select board chair, school committee members, parents, students, um parents were uh students like really brought a lot of voice to it. um and administrators and teachers. We collectively built which you guys have a copy of just the
initiatives. We collectively built the strategic plan which goes underneath our arches. We make four arches. We have communication. We have um social emotional learning, we have teaching and
learning and we have resources. So it is and you see in what I've given you all the tasks that I'm responsible for at the district level. Um we communicate that on a regular basis but I also built with my team a PD
agenda template that is used at every school across the district. And in that we have a the sess the session who's running it of course where it's at all of that. But it also states the initiatives that that PD session is
directly tied to from our strategic plan as well as Desi's high quality PD um uh PD what I can't think right now. Um uh standards sorry I couldn't think of
the word. Um so I have so much involved uh in PD. Tomorrow I'm running a three-hour session on multicultural um curriculum review. So with the district team. So not only do I present, I prepare it all. I work with the
principles to do building based. I do the whole gamut. So that's part of my job day in day out. >> Good evening. >> Good evening. So can you tell us a time when you intentionally grew or mentored um others to take on greater responsibilities or leadership? Um how
did you identify potential support their growth and what impact did it have on the organization and on you as a leader? >> So I'm lucky enough one of my other roles you guys are getting to see a lot of my hats here. Um in my role as assistant superintendent I'm in charge
of induction for the entire district um and new teacher orientation. So, I'm in charge of managing and running a big part of a two-day orientation in the summer and then I have monthly meetings with all the new teachers in the district. Um, but let me kind of go a
little bit more about um other things that you're talking about. In my role right now, I'm lucky enough I told you I have those nine curriculum coordinators and um I fully believe my leadership style is collaborative, but it's also empowering. So, as I told you, every PE,
excuse me, every school committee meeting I present at, but there are two a year that that team, those nine people come in and present, I do not say anything at all. I work with them extremely closely to produce this. This
was the slide deck from one uh presentation that we did together. Um, we vet that, we practice it, and I let them do the whole thing. I just introduce them and I always communicate, you know, if you feel at any point in time that you're uncomfortable, just
look at me and I know that you want me to jump in and kind of add something to it. Um, also when I was a principal, I'll give you another example. Um, I always believe in building leaders. So when I was in Peter Sam, I always um
every place I've been, I encouraged people to go to different professional development, but I ended up convincing one of the teachers I hired in Petersham. He is now the principal at Petersam. So he moved up and I was able to give those supports. Um going back to
my curriculum people, you know, I've really worked with them to expand their roles and empowered them. And it's really having one-to-one conversations around what supports do you need? What can I provide to you? What additional um
supports can I give you? For instance, my middle school science person because we're going to the science curriculum review potentially look looking at open sed training for 4 days. You know, she was there today. So, we're always looking at
and they know I've built this community with those curriculum staff that they know that I'm very open to considering what their needs are and looking at seeing that we can financially support those. I'm lucky enough that I've been able to bring a lot of other grants in.
So, I am able to fund a lot of those that is not touching any budgetary needs. How do you ensure clear, consistent, and transparent communication across diverse constituents, including students, families, staff, union leadership, the school community, and community
partners, especially when navigating complex or sensitive issues? >> Sure. So, let me first tell you kind of uh the different ways I've used to communicate. First of all, um so in my role right now, I um I'm part of a
district some more newsletter. It's a platform where you can embed videos and pictures and some of you guys were able to see some of the newsletters and it's on the website for you to see too. Um but we communicate that way. We have bright arrow. I'm able to send a lot of
messages out. I do that on a regular basis. Last one I probably sent out was our um civil biiteracy test encouraging students to take that. Another one was about the grant that we secured the $224,000.
Um so I'm in the district newsletters as well as teaching and learning newsletters that we do three times a year and Carrie and Antelli saw that and it goes on quite a long time. Um, but it's very powerful and it's very wellreceived and it's talking directly
to how students are meeting the standards and how they are demonstrating their mastery of the standards. Um, you're talking union leadership. I am lucky enough that I am in joint union l
management meetings every month. So, I sit on those. It's a superintendent, myself, the other assistant superintendent and union representation. So I do that on a regular regular basis. Um I have been on contract negotiations as an assistant superintendent and a
teacher. So that's been communicating with school committee, the greater community and union. Uh I think sensitive issues, you know, there were a lot of things when we were negotiating that came up and we had to come up with strategies on how we were
communicating where we were in the process. Uh, another thing sensitive issue, eighth grade math is a very sensitive issue in Hollist public schools. So, I've had to do a lot of communicating and working with the middle school. Um, there's a lot of um,
let me kind of back up a little bit. We had an equity audit. I was part of that. Um, we had an outside consulting firm and um, I'm also part of the equity steering committee for the district. And so we use all of those reports out on
how we can best serve our students. Um, and I was also part of a two-year DESIE program called Influence 100 where we concentrate on equity and how we can do equity within the district. But we did a whole big presentation. We had a math study group um for just the middle
school that included myself, the superintendent, my curriculum coordinator, teachers, and we really um and an assistant principal from the high school because they feed into, you know, they're directly impacted. We did a big presentation on our recommendations
using data um from our dash data dashboard MCCAST, you know, a whole bunch of different results and making recommendations on where we think we should land in our offerings for math. Um we had to communicate
um I was communicating out to the community, which was a um hot button on how a student could qualify for an algebra class. We have now changed that. Uh the school committee asked us to ask uh to to institute algebra for all next
year. So we have totally switched gears. But along the way, the journey along the way, there were a lot of really rich discussions and a lot of very lively math forums that I was in charge of leading as a district and having those conversations from parents and community
members on their concerns of where the math program was going in in the district as a whole. Um, please give an example of a specific situation where you identified an equity gap in student outcome. What actions do you take to address the issue and what would you do differently if a similar
situation arose? >> Sure. Let me give you two examples to build on that math example. Um, now because of what we've been charged with, we do realize that we have an equity gap that students did not um
master some of the standards. So, we're putting together a support class for students for next year. So, that's one way that we're addressing as a district that and I'm working very closely with the Rams principal. You guys got to to meet Karen. Um, another way, um, when I
was high school principal, I saw a lot of inequities on what we were offering for program of studies. So, let me give you two examples. Um, Turner Falls High School is is very similar to the size of East Long Meadow. And so we knew that we
wanted to have a very rich offering for our program of studies, but we knew we could not fit everything, all the electives in our schedule as well as covering it with our teachers. So we collectively as a staff decided to offer
a lot of electives every other year. And so we communicated very clearly to all the students so they could plan ahead and they knew, you know, exactly when those classes were running. and the counselors kept very good track of
informing those students also. But um another big problem that I saw was that we were bleeding in 8th grade. Um remember I was middle school high school principal. We were losing half of our eighth graders to the tech school that's
less than 3 miles from our school. And so I interviewed families, students that had left as well as students and families that remained. And I basically needed to find out what what was the issue. Why were they leaving? And I found out that we were not in their
opinion. Um and they were right that we were not offering programs that offered students a lot of opportunities at Turners Falls High School. A lot of students at that time were not going on to college. There had to be pathways that were non- tech that the we as a
public school were providing. So what we did um we worked together to collaborative collaboratively write an innovation pathways DEESIE um request and we were lucky enough our first year to be awarded and it was healthcare and
social assistance and at that time was the number one job need in Franklin County and then the second year I was principal we were able to successfully write a health uh excuse me an advanced manufacturing um innovation pathways. Now, Desi has
decided to fund a lot of that. Back then, they did not. So, we had to get really creative with the staff we had and kind of shift some roles because part of it is your junior and senior year, you're doing outside internships and we had to have somebody monitoring
that. So, we kind of split that role and the person monitoring it. And then I went out along with the guidance counselor and we went out into the community and sold manufacturing agencies and different healthc care social assisted agencies. Would you
sponsor our students? Take it further in advanced manufacturing. A student would leave that with a level two adv um manufacturing certification. And we got manufacturers in Turner Falls to agree if a student did a good job, they were
going to hire him immediately after graduation. That's a huge, huge, huge deal for Turner Falls High School. Those are just a couple examples. >> Joanie, can I just follow up on that? Did the changes uh create a change in how many went to the tech schools? The
changes that were made >> uh the decreased. Yes, we were able to retain a lot more students, right? And actually then the students that were not in the pathway, we offered a lot of career advice. We brought in people that
had graduated from Turners Falls High School in those fields, talking about the career paths and what you needed to do it. So we were able to make huge, huge shifts and it added a lot to culture and climate of the school. So as a superintendent, how would you
lead the responsible integration of artificial intelligence across instruction, operations, and assessments to improve learning outcomes while ensuring equity, data privacy, and ethical use. >> So just like you were asking me how I build leaders, my current
superintendent, who is my boss, has done an incredible job of building me. A lot of assistant superintendents in Metro West where I am are not given the um opportunities that I have. I sit in every budget subcommittee where FINCOM
chairs are the fincom chair and reps are school committee members. I'm also in policy subcommittee meeting. So um every single policy meeting I'm in. We just had one this week actually. um but we run that and then we work together and
bring in the experts from the district who are working on that subject. So when you're talking about AI, our director of uh technology and digital learning, he's actually doing his dissertation right now at BEu on AI and he's doing a study
in Hollist. So we're doing a lot of work on that. As you all know, Desi made this huge book of AI guidance and they published it after school began. It's like, thank you very much. Um, and we kind of took that and hollistanized it. Um, and we worked with the school
committee what our policy is. We intentionally keep kept it vague because we knew how much AI is changing. Um, we also um Dan who's a director of technology and digital learning um he is running an AI steering committee. I am
part of that. So part of what we're doing, not only do we work with a school committee on policy, but we actually have this steering committee where we're lucky enough to have CEOs, CFOs in major companies, right, who are parents of
ours who use AI every day. They're part of the steering committee and they are kind of guiding our work along with we have we're lucky enough in our district to have three technology um integration specialists. So they're also working
with us on the plan. We also have students our biggest con our biggest group is sixth grade students. Um and it's really funny because as we're talking to them we are realizing that not all of them were using it correctly.
So we know we have a lot of opportunity for growth and education. We actually had um a central admin meeting today and Dan presented and we did we always do a problem of practice and his was about how we are going to up AI usage by our
teachers and administrators which will then impact our students and we have a lot of room for growth and what we're doing is we're capitalizing on those tech integration specialists dance department in providing professional development for our teachers
tomorrow. For instance, at the middle school, there's an AI choose your own path. There are four different AI tools that the teacher can choose from that they want to get a little more educated about. So, we're thinking of very creative ways and uh what's really
driving that is what tools teachers are interested in, but they also have to be Google based because that's as a district that's what we decided to do. So, there's lots of different ways we're doing that. So we're getting uh parent feedback, we're getting student
feedback, we're providing professional development, we're doing train uh we're doing policies with the school committee and that steering committee. All right. um based on the data of East Long Public Schools. Um it could be any
of the state accountability data >> or if you've seen any of the I Ready or data in any of the previous school committee meetings. >> Um what do you see as areas of strength and opportunities for growth? How would you present and set goals to school
leaders? And how would you hold the schools accountable and measure growth for meeting the goals? Uh so lot of great strengths. I was happy to see that. Right. Uh really strong performance um in math and
science, you know, as you're going up, which I saw. Um the one thing that I really think there's a lot of room for opportunity is ELA and writing. So I would really want to dig into that um with the assistant superintendent of curriculum teaching and learning and
really kind of delve dive deep into that. what resources have we been using? You know, how are we having data talks together? All of those types of things. Um, I would also really want to look at growth percentiles. That's what I like
to focus on. You know, your your test and your um group of students that you're testing changes obviously every year. So, it's really hard to ch you know, compare a third grade class to the next, you know, fourth grade class t taking the test. But I would rather look
at those growth growth percentiles for the students. So I did see some room for improvement. It was mainly writing again in ELA um where the growth percentiles would have to be looked on. So what I would want to do is sit down with Heather and kind of make a plan. Um, but
I was talking to a lot of principles about this on my visit yesterday and I know they're in different uh places in their data talks and I would want to develop some kind of district protocol collaboratively with them around data
and um, you know, you can do so many different things. I brought this because our district right now is really digging deep into data wise and we're doing a lot of study around that. But we're really building that culture um around
how we look at data together, a set protocol, how we can have conversations, how we can sustain that, how that data is being used, who's responsible for it, you know, the progression, how we come back to it, all of those types of things. Um but I would want to be
reporting out I um every district I've been in, um I do like the the responsibility. I know the the principles talked about this yesterday. I was talking to them about, you know, presenting to the school committee. I would really like to look at beginning
of the year, middle of the year, and end of the year reporting out on where we are on those goals and depending on, you know, I would want some goals around ELA at all levels and then how are we embedding and creating that data culture. So, we are having really rich
conversations and kind of breaking down, you know, in every school district I've been in, um, it's tough to talk about student work for a lot of teachers. So, it's really kind of taking, you know, these are all our students. We're not looking at your class and targeting your
class. we need to look at at a whole and see patterns that we're seeing in a district and then collaboratively discuss how we can close those gaps. But it's being, you know, making goals around that, having meetings with me,
but then also being held accountable to the school committee around those. How do you decide which academic initiatives deserve sustained investment and which ones need to be paused or ended even when they are popular? Mhm.
So, we have a um a great really simple sheet and it's this template that we use and you have to fill out for like every initiative. Um you know, how many students did this initiative impact? How much did you spend on it? What growth
did you see? And we drive that to have a discussion around it. And if you don't see growth, then that is something collectively we talk about at central and as a district administrative team, then you know that obviously is not working. If we're still not seeing
growth in that area, what other initiative are we going to implement because that's not cutting it. So we are very data driven about it. It removes, you know, placing blame on everybody and it kind of gets you in a mindset that you're just looking at the facts, right?
and you're not taking it personally. >> Dr. Marard, I have the next question. In municipal financing, some years have stronger budgets than others. >> How will you promote consistency in education and educating students through both the robust years and the lean ones?
>> So, how we run in our district and I would want to continue the same thing here. So, as district leaders, as a district leader, um I'm responsible for everything underneath me. Curriculum is a huge ticket item. I just sat together with the superintendent and assistant
superintendent for finance and operations and just put capital expenses together and we're requesting over $450,000 for curriculum expenses. So, we collectively put that together, right? But we build a plan out. Okay, that is
capital. Now, how are we going to sustain that? And we literally type out where is that coming from from the next year? What lines are is it coming from? Is it coming from my district lines? Is it coming from the school line? Um, and
we literally keep that document and kind of just keep on going back to it. So, you know, just like your house, you can't purchase something that you're not going to be able to afford to keep up, right? So, we look at everything we do and plan it out. Um, and the school
committee has challenged us to do that too and rightly so, right? And explain where we're going to get those funds from. Um, so a lot of been and these are not sustainable, but I do find creative
ways to bring additional funds that we can bring and it can lighten my load on my line so I can use those lines for other things. So, like I told you, I was able to secure that grant, $224,000 grant for Prism, which is ELA for K
through five, right? So, that now that has freed up a lot of my lines for that first year that I can put for this science curriculum review. You know, I have a genocide grant that we've used a lot for social studies and ELA. Um,
we've used to secure that. So, it's not it's not securing stuff that I need to sustain, but I keep looking for alternative methods that is freeing up money that I can sustain the things that we need to do. How would you lead efforts to increase
student engagement while also building strong district-wide collaboration among schools and departments? How will you measure whether your efforts are effective? Okay. So, my first year as assistant superintendent, which is five years ago, I was charged with three audit Desi audits at the same time and
it was that was a big lift. One of them was a curriculum audit. Um, one thing uh that Hollist had a lot of growth of opportunity is student engagement and we have a lot of work and that you know falls underneath my title for the
district. So we collectively as that district-wide team like I told you the superintendent, central admin and all building leaders, we developed a a learning walk protocol that we go as a district team to every single school. So
yes, the high school teachers are going down to the K through2 school, you know, like everybody's seeing everything, right? We are going around as a team. Student engagement since I've been in Holliston has been a focus of ours on the learning walk that is communicated
to the community that is communicated to all teachers before we go through. We also give a rubric to the teachers before we go through what we're expecting to see what does it look like that teachers are doing and what does it look like that the students are doing.
And as we're going through those learning walks, I'm always having conversations with the students. What are you doing? what what do you think you're learning? You know, what are you working on? And if the student can't explain that or they're not engaged, we have an issue. We also track um how the
students are engaged. So, we're really trying to increase discourse um collaborative conversations with the students to really kind of showcase the teacher as a facilitator. Um obviously there's a lot of time that there's direct teaching, the teacher does that.
Um, so what we're doing then while we're doing curriculum reviews that has driven every single curriculum review. So our vision as a district is engaging students that's right embedded in there. And part of our every curriculum review
is how is that resource going to actively engage students? How are they going to be having collaborative conversations? How are they going to be the the um leaders of their learning? Right? How are we going to assess that? How are students going to assess each
other? So, we're always bringing that back. Um, when we do learning walks, the principal then is charged. I'm sorry. After a learning walk, we all come together with that team. We find patterns. You know, we're we're documenting things as we go. Um, we find
patterns and that principal then communicates those patterns out to the entire school. Then the district leadership team talks about what we're seeing across the district and what changes we need to make as a district to
get that in student engagement up. >> Please share an example of a time when your commitment to equity required you to make an uncomfortable decision and how you supported your community through it. Mhm. So, I talked to you about eighth grade math. That got pretty contentious a lot of times, which was uh
pretty uncomfortable. Um, another thing that I talked about in my other interviews when um when I was principal at Turner Falls High School, I was hired with the understanding that I was going to address the uh blatant uh bias and
that was not addressed in the moment at the school. there was um pretty low culture and climate and students did not want to be there. My first week on the job, I had a middle school student screaming at me that I was not going to
do a better job than anybody else and I was not going to help her and she did not feel like she belonged. So, I knew that I had to do a lot with belonging. So, I did a lot of different things to address it. Um one of them is that first of all, I had to discover why it was not
being addressed. I didn't understand because the teachers that I had were very caring teachers. They had built good relationships with the students. So I sat down at a faculty meeting. We just kind of sat around and I said I'm really confused. There's a disconnect to what I
am seeing you kind of how you're interacting with students to what you know I am hearing stories about that are not being addressed. and they said to me they had never been trained in how to address it, which is fair. So then I
decided, okay, I need to bring in experts and we need to deal with this together. So I brought in the collaborative from Northampton. We did a lot of professional development as a staff. Um, and they trained us. There are four strategies with teaching
tolerance standards that um, you can address bias in the moment. We were trained in all four of those. We used actual examples of what had happened in that school before I got there and we practiced on each other using those four different strategies. Um, and I was
right there with them because I knew I needed to do it too. Um, and then I said that there was the expectation, I don't care which st which um, method you use, but you have to address it. You're now all trained. So as we were doing all
that, I was doing things on the student end too. So um at middle school I had a twice a week all school meeting. At the high school we had a once a week all school meeting. At those meetings I was informing all the students as a school what we were doing all that process I
was just telling you about. Right? So I said, if you are experiencing that something that you're really uncomfortable with, you know, I don't care who you what adult you go to in this school, you need to tell them and you need to tell them what's upsetting. Meanwhile, I also built culture and
climate clubs for both schools. As we all know, high school's very different than middle school. Even though they shared a lot of the same resources, I needed to treat them very differently because they deserve to be treated differently. So I developed culture and climate clubs with the assistant
principal. We invited students that um had academic challenges, behavior challenges, and then students that volunteered, and we asked them for ways that we could improve the school. We had incredible ideas, some that I never even
thought of, and we were able to get um a lot of culture and climate um raised and belonging went way up. Um, we had things as simple as they were never um, given permission to have a pep rally as a high
school student. And I said, "Seriously, every high school student should experience that in the United States." So, we got together, we planned it, they ran it. I just like went along for the ride. So, the students were always involved in all those processes, too. So, it it really, you know, when you're
asking me a lot of these questions, it's not one solution. It's all these different things that you do together to raise it. And I was able to see a huge increase in um how students felt about the school. How do you see the role of the
superintendent in collaboration with the school committee using the collective bargaining process to promote student achievement for a sustainable period of time? >> So, like I said before, I've been lucky enough when I was a teacher in Spencer East Brookfield, I was a union rep for the it was still a junior high, seventh
and eighth grade. So, I was a union rep and I was also on contract negotiations. Um, three different times we went to arbitration. So that was a really interesting journey um on that. So I saw the whole side of the teacher side. Um now as assistant superintendent, I've
been part of that teacher negotiation and we really had a lot of conversations um about how we could embed certain things. One thing that um a concrete example is something we're able to do in
this contract negotiation is that we increase the student day for students by obviously um by 15 minutes. So we're able to gain a lot of instructional time. Um and we also um did a lot of you
know ex it had to be in content areas right um so we're really are looking at um a different achievement. We also part of the collective bargaining was looking at the high school schedule. Um we're still um
kind of having discussions around that. I can't really go into details around that, but that was also part of the collective bargaining about um we had a very antiquated schedule and we had a bargain to change that schedule and now there's all these dominoes by changing
that schedule which is going to happen next year. There's all these other things that we are now dealing with from that agreement. Just to follow up. So in adding the 15 minutes to the students >> in the collective bargaining agreement,
was the um staff lengthened as well? >> Yes. >> The same 15 minutes? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Oh, I'm sorry. And I can I go back to that for a second, please? I'm sorry. um part of um you know different districts see it different ways. In Hollist public
schools the school committee very much wanted um us to be adviserss to them and be very quiet during the negotiations themselves. So you know I Spencer was a different thing. So Spencer East Brookfield. So I would abide by the
school committee's wishes. I've seen it lots of different ways. sometimes you know everybody at the table speaking um but so every time we would break they were always asking us advice okay you know so budgetary would go to the other assistant superintendent myself would be
like teaching and learning and what what does that what does that entail and what other things are we going to have to deal with so it's really bringing our expertise to the collective bargaining and how would it impact the entire district and making sure that's addressed in what the school committee
decides All right, Dr. Manard, we're going to go back to question number two. >> Oh, we are. Okay. All right. >> Okay. >> All right. How do you ensure that special education programming in your district is both legally compliant and genuinely
effective in meeting students individual needs while also promoting inclusion, equity, and high expectations across all schools? and please describe a time you led a change in special education services that improved outcomes for students.
>> Sure. So, um, one of the things that I worked on with our student services director, we're um, a power school district and we knew we needed to do a lot of improvement as far as uh, special ed services and how we communicate with
parents went. So, we purchased special programs, which is another add-on to uh powers school and the um student services director and myself did a lot of training. She did more the 504 and
IEP end. We also purchased it for the multil- language learners and I run all of that. We have over 100 students in our district, so I'm in charge of that. So, we picked it up for that piece also. But for both parties for special ed and MLS um we were struggling with the
documents that you need to have and getting compliance with signatures and communication. So special program allows it to translate it right away. I just told you you like of all the students we have we have six major languages in our district. So we need to accommodate all
of those. So all those forms they can translate right away. And we got the e signature document which has you wouldn't think something like that would make a huge difference but it really does in getting the signed documents back from the parents that we need to
get for both special ed and um MLS. So we did all the training on that um and in with that um to communicate as we all know the teachers have to fulfill whatever those um special ed services are and accommodations are. So, special
programs we work, there's an icon. So, if you have a student in your class, you can clearly see there's just a little icon that says IEP or 504. So, they know where they can go. And we have a very secure system where teachers can access
all those confidential documents. So, it's much cleaner. Um, we had a system, you know, where they were coming down and looking at paper documents and that was not very secure. So, we're looking at from a secure end, too. Um, also in
my role, which does directly impact um students on IEPs or 504s, we're looking at our district curriculum accommodation plan. And um that is a general ed accommodation. We have a lot of room for growth in
Hollist and we have not been using that wisely. And so what's end up happening is that a lot of the accommodations that should be on that district uh curriculum accommodation plan are ending up on an IEP or a 504. So, we are shifting that
and starting to educate both staff and students about the excuse me, staff and families about the changes we're going to make and it's going to be like a long process kind of like CPAC, you know, meetings about that and what the changes
are and what is in a DECAP and what is going to be potentially in an IEP or 504. Um, and also the process. So we've really worked together and defined better what our student um SST student too many acronyms
student services team. Yes. So our SST process is at all the schools. So they were kind of looking differently at all the schools. So, we're really looking collectively at the district level and defining on what that looks like and what the process is and the like
pre-referral process for an IEP and 504 and really making sure that teachers are trying different accommodations to try to correct the def, you know, deficit or um struggle the student is
having to see if that will work. and we're monitoring it and making sure it's being done with fidelity for a certain amount of time and then coming back and revisiting that as a team. So staff does know that, you know, you can't just go from somebody struggling in a classroom
to referring them for an IEP or 504. You need to go through this process. And we've been working really hard at the district level to redefine that. Looking five years ahead, what is one district structure, practice or assumption you believe must
fundamentally change in order to achieve a stronger future for students and why. >> I have seen this was my whole dissertation at University of Hartford, but I have seen in all the roles I have taken that a school cannot a school
district cannot do it by themselves. They need partners to help support the students in all ways. Um Jerryel who's our director of social emotional learning and equity, we are having a chronic absenteeism conversation today. He and I were and he's made uh district
teams around that and how to combat that. But you know he in our different roles like he has reached out to all these community partners that we have in Holliston mental health supports trauma support you know all of those people to help support us right I have worked in
my role as getting people to help support internships to help support our students with experiences at people to support PD um you know we Dan is doing that at like equity steering committee right we're bringing in export experts
that can help make us intelligent decisions that are going to be more effective for our school district. So, um I think it's looking at bringing in knowledge from the outside, but it's also bringing in financial support from
the outside. Um I've been able to do that in my principal roles in both principal roles and in my role now. It's really hard if you go present to businesses and um different groups. It's really hard if you have a student story and it really
helps if you have students with you to tell the story um to help get support from those agencies, those businesses. So, it really looks at partnering with school committee members, with the town manager, with town resources, with
business leaders, really getting out there and me pounding the pavement and trying to get more support for the school district. I think that, you know, as we all know, um, budget is probably
going to get leaner and leaner. So, we need to look at alternative ways to bring funding. I think it's also working closely with the um legis the local legislators. I'm lucky enough where I work, I'm part of the superintendent round table. We have regular conversations with the legislators about
what we need what we need their support with. So again, just like I said before, it's all these different methods to get different support, but I think it's looking at it differently. I also think East Long Meadow has a huge leg up because you are building a big beautiful
school. you are making the spaces talking about student engagement that should be happening all the time. Schools um like the existing high school were not built for that purpose because that was not important. Right. And so
now when you're and I was talking to the high school principal about that and I was asking how much of a in um input he had and he was really talking about purposely building those spaces that students could have this collaboration space. So it's also, you know, that's
rare, you know, that you have that opportunity, but like at our schools now that I'm in Hollist, we're trying to repurpose the space we have, right? And thinking about it differently. That means um uh getting different furniture,
you know, like you can't tear down walls. We don't have the money to do that, but we can do things like that and kind of rethink and reimagine the space. And I find it very interesting because part of some of our classes in high school, we ask them for suggestions on
that. Reimagine the space. What would you want? What would you like? And so I always go there their capstone projects for the students and I always go and I love hearing their ideas. You know, some are we can't do financially, but some we have actually taken into account. and we
just got approved from MSBA um our seventh time in Hollist and we're looking at incorporating some of those ideas if it gets passed by the town. >> Okay, Dr. Mard Joanie, glad to tell you that we've reached the end of our questioning section
>> and I'm still alive. >> You're still alive. We are very grateful for um you coming to visit us yesterday and hosting some of us in your district and spending all the time and effort um that the uh process of uh applying for the SMO superintendent job requires. So
thank you for all of that on behalf of the school committee. Um our next process is we will have some time this evening to deliberate. Okay. >> We also have scheduled a meeting tomorrow for 3:30 in the afternoon in case we are not able to come to some conclusion tonight. So, what I would expect is that you will hear from Tracy
this evening to give you an update on what's happened um after you've left and uh again, thank you so much. I would ask that you um have the opportunity to give a closing statement if you'd like and if you'd ask if any um information that you wish for us. Yes.
>> After the closing statement, we will uh make a motion for a >> fivem minute recess or so and we can say our goodbyes for the evening and then we will continue on. So, perfect. Okay. Thank you. One thing I wanted to say in my closing statement that I did not get to communicate, you know, I think I was
very serious in my responses, but one thing that you don't know about me, I really do embed myself in the fabric of the community and that's what I would do here. My hus my husband and I were talking about last night, we're lucky enough to be empty nesters. We made the decision that we would move closer out
here. Um, also that you would see me at like the Fourth of July parades, at the town festivals, you would see me sporting events, music events. You know, I want people to be approachable to me. When I was talking to the principles yesterday, I said, I want you to invite me into your schools when you're doing
celebrations. You know, to give you a little bit better idea, like I've been duct taped to walls. I've kissed pigs for literacy challenges. You know, I want to do that as a superintendent still. I need people to see me in a very fun, approachable way. And I think like some of the answers, you guys were
asking serious questions, which you needed to do, but I was not able to communicate that. So, I just wanted to share that with you. Um, and also um please consider the breath of experience I bring and I would love to be a part of um this district and be a part of the
team. So, thank you very much. >> Great. Thank you, Dr. Mor. >> You're welcome. Uh with that I would uh entertain someone to move for a fiveminute recess please. Motion made by William. Second by Carrie. Any other discussion? All in favor say I. I. Those opposed nay. That motion carries 5 to
zero. Thank you. We are at recess. >> Thank you very much. Okay, welcome. We are back. Uh would like to welcome Tracy Novik to the table, our uh representative from Massachusetts Association of School Committee who's been our trustee adviser
throughout the process. Want to thank you for that, Tracy. uh and certainly any input you'd like to give us as we move forward in this process. What uh we would like to do now is this is an opportunity for folks to speak about their visits to the sites. So those of
us who went to their sites, we can speak about when the candidates came to East Lmetto both on Monday and Wednesday of this week and the experiences you had um for that and any other information you'd like to um talk about. This is our opportunity. After we go through that
and have a brief discussion, we possibly may take a straw poll to see where folks are sitting, if we're ready to make a vote at some point at that early or not. If not, uh, we can continue with some discussion and see if we can get there. It is now 7:30. If around 8:00 we're not
to some sort of resolution, we can think about adjouring for the evening. And as I mentioned to both candidates um picking back up tomorrow at 3:30 which we are posted for. Okay. Who would like to start uh with some of their experiences with the candidates? To
start you'd like to start. Thank you Fred for volunteering. >> I saw it in your eyes. >> Um so I was able to visit Hollist for
the day with Harry. Um, and I feel like Dr. Manard spoke a lot about all of the things that she's responsible for in the district. Um, we met with five different groups of people. Um, one of them being
the the instructional coaches that she talked um about, the superintendent, um, school committee and community members, principles, >> central administration >> and central administration.
Um, all of them how they spoke about working with her. Um, I mean, she builds relationships. Um she includes them in all of the decision making. Um and they especially the
coaches said how she builds them as leaders. Um anything else you want to add? >> Yeah, I I prepared some notes. I mean, I don't want to be I don't want to be too lengthy, but I think um I had the unique
opportunity of going to visit both candidates districts. Um and I went uh with with Greg to Dr. Gillan's first and then we went to uh Dr. Manard's. I think you know they're ve they were very different visits given that um Dr. Dr.
Gillan has responsibility for a building, you know, so we met with folks throughout the day that he's leading and working with directly, whereas Dr. Manard's experience is diverse over several different um career
opportunities um which gives her a stronger understanding of sort of K through 12 and she brings a perspective of central um administration. I think what was highlighted sort of consistently through a variety of the different groups that we met with was
her um ability to be creative and innovate in securing funding through grants and some significant amount of funds that was allowing them to do some things in the curriculum with literacy where there was some weaknesses. Um she also shared that you know uh there has
been some tension in the district between the union leadership, the teachers and um school committee and superintendent and she based on the relationships that she was she built and it was evident through the course of the day um was able to advance curriculum
reviews that hadn't been done for like you know over a decade in that environment. And so I think it spoke to a lot of what people were saying in terms of her collaborative nature um and being relational. Um
so that's doc that was Dr. Manarda. Do you want me to switch gears to do Dr. Gillan? Yeah. I I think um our meetings were great in terms of all the folks that we met with. It was clear some of the things that resonated tonight. I think both candidates are
very student centered. Um and it's this is a vocation for them. Um and it was it's very clear that he knows his students and his students know him. Um and he also has been in a unique position where he's worked with four
superintendent over a 4-year period of time and where there was curriculum change across all of the subject areas at the same time. Um and so that was evident in the conversations that Greg and I had in terms of how he supported
the teachers in particular the um chairs in in kind of navigating that. Um so those are some of the things I took. I know if you want to you have the visit. >> I don't have other
>> Okay. No, I I'll speak to uh our visit to West Springfield to Dr. Gillan. Uh certainly this the support of his staff um of the town uh is clear and evident. Uh it is a well-run building. It's evident as we walked around. It is
immaculate and the students are uh appeared happy and relatively quiet. It was a quiet building for middle school. Uh and so I do in meeting with them both on their visits to our district. Uh certainly
want to mention both had very high energy. Um it may not show in an interview process as this uh did tonight, but I I applaud both of them on their passion for education. Uh Carrie, as you said, they're they're both cut out for the job uh that they currently
have and are seeking. I believe that and I and I truly believe that if we choose either one uh we would be in a good direction and I applaud the screening committee for the work that they did to give us uh solid u professionals and they truly are professionals. So
I'll leave it at that for now. William, would you like to Amy anything from the screening process or meeting them in in person when they came here? >> Y okay sure. Um, so I had the opportunity to go to West Springfield
Middle School with um the rest of them. Sorry. And um so with when we were walking around the school, we got the opportunity to go in like the special education classrooms and meet with their autism specialists and those experiences
like the things that he has done and the things that he spoke on about that being able to go from like not even having them in their school to integrating them into the classrooms. I thought that was very well done. And also you can tell when walking around the school like you can tell the students know him. He's
with the students constantly. Like the students were interacting with him. One kid told him he looked sharp. Um and I just thought like his even when other people were speaking to us, they just told us like he's such a good communicator. He they all felt very
supported. Um, and one thing that stood out to me was his implementation of yonder pouches, which I know is a very like controversial thing with some people, but everyone who we spoke to was um, we were worried at first, but it's
going very well and we have no complaints about it, which I thought was a very smooth process because that's not a hard that's a hard thing to implement. So, that's what I have. And I will say Anna, both Anna and Caitlin in in visiting West Springfield were an asset
uh beyond belief uh not only in communicating with us and giving us their perspective, but also communicating with the other adults in the room. And so, thank you both for all the time that you both put into this process. And we appreciate your input and effort. So, Kaitlin, did you have anything you wanted to add? Not necessarily right now. Okay, that's
fine. Anything else from the table? So um we had the unique opportunity to actually be part of the screening committee. So we were um and I see some of our um I see our illustrious chair um here Don who has been through led us through that entire process um along
with a couple of our other members. This was we had a number of members I mean people applied um and we went through the process very diligently finding the right people. Well, if there is a question about th those that we have before us, there should be none. Um, we
have two great candidates that that came before us and we, you know, they did their job. They did what we we did what we needed to do to ensure that, um, regardless of who took the mantle, um, it was going to be well done. Um, and I think we saw tonight another masterass
of what we saw um, during our much longer done, um, longer interviews um, and much longer time. So, um I I applaud our student here because that was incredible. Um but I think we, you know, we did a good job that a good job was
done and I think we're going to walk away today or tomorrow um with a candidate um and a new superintendent that's definitely going to lead us forward. >> You ready? >> Sure. >> Okay. Um I'm not sure where you want me to
>> wherever you'd like to take us. >> Okay. Um What? >> Oh, thank you. Okay, so I guess I'll just put it all out on the table. This is an impossible. This is impossible because they're both incredible. Um,
just unbelievably competent um and and just really great people just to sit in front of and listen to their vision. And um it was it was inspirational for me. Um, I will I'm going to go ahead and put it out there that there's one of them that stood out to me um as a better fit
for Esong Meadow and that was Dr. Gillan. Um, and I'm just going to go ahead and say a couple of the notes that I have. Again, I think that they are both incredibly unbelievably competent. For me, I'm looking at Dr. Gillan as a long-term commitment to the growth of
this town. I think that he embodies this term transformational leadership. I just keep coming back to this term in my head, transformational leadership. He's inspirational. He's not all talk. He's motivating. Um, I feel like there were
certain questions that, you know, he Dr. Manard really got into the nitty-gritty. We like that. We like data. We We know this. This is one of the reasons that we're here because it's critically important. I think Dr. Gillan did as well, but he offered something more for
me that was more inspirational, more visionary, more motivating. I think that he is the type of person who's going to bring people together. I truly do. Um and so for me, um just sitting here, you asked for my two cents. And so that's a lot of sense.
It's a lot of sense. So I'll turn this over now. >> Agreed to. >> Anyone else have something to say? >> I want to say one more thing. >> Thank you. Uh just one more thing, sorry. I think that, you know, looking
at the two individuals, probably the biggest concern as we're looking at Dr. Gillan and going, he just doesn't have that central office experience. I would just like to gently remind everyone else on the school committee that neither did Gordon. And we got 16
unbelievable years out of Superintendent Smith. And I believe that we would have a similar we can scaffold um Dr. Gill in just the same way we say we're going to scaffold our students. We can support him as he transitions.
Okay, my two cents are over. >> William, >> well, I guess I'll give my two cents. Um, so my two cents is um I believe that Gordon has done a tremendous amount of work over the last 16 years. um and that work as you know
coming in as um not having that central office experience um and being that transformational leader. Um but I'm one that believes in building on the the building on what those have
before us, the work that they have done before us um and really taking that um to the next level. So, it's one thing for have a leader that's more of a manager and have it's another thing to have a leader that can move us forward. Um, I believe in the the journey and not
necessarily the destination. Um, I believe in in that journey that's where life lessons happen. That's where your experience happens. That's where you really learn. Anybody can get to the finish line. Um, but it's one that has to go through all the different levels um before they get there. and the
experiences they get, um the ups and downs they get. And I and I hear that um I hear that experience. I hear that um those examples. I hear all of those things. And unfortunately, we if we could hire both
of them, we would. Um but we're at this place where we have to choose one. Um so for me, um the one I would choose today would be Dr. That's fine. >> Oh, you got microphone. >> I do. Thank you. Um I do I think it's a
tough decision because I think that the candidates both have um very different experiences that shape your strengths because of the opportunities that you've been able to have over the course the tenure of your career. Um,
you know, I have varied experience in the educational system. I don't know necessarily that I would have said coming into it, I think someone has to have X, Y, or Z. I do think having been uh in a in a high school environment myself and then spending some time in K
through five that um there's something to be said for um understanding the unique challenges that each you know building principal has and serving the population of students that they have in front of them. Um and having had the experience
as a principal where you're you're charged with with that leadership. Um, and then really being able to understand the challenges of of this, you know, leadership in terms of having to make hard decisions. And we've been in a district that has had to make some very
hard decisions and may have to make them moving forward, but ensuring that we are elevating the student experience and moving our achievement data, you know, to the next level. Um, I think some things from Dr. Manard's background that stood out for
me was, you know, it's like 65% of their students, 130 out of 200 students at the high school are in internships and obviously my experience is at the postsecary level and we want to sort of see what happens to students when they leave our schools and so I think it's about the preparation in and through um
and having those partnerships. I think in our fiscal times the ability to write grants successfully and bring in some money are um is important. Um I think what maybe didn't come through that comes through in the visit and these are things that not everybody can see that you know you have the benefit of is that
um in not having being in a building where you can easily build relationships she's built a curriculum team that has helped her to build relationships across the buildings to advance things that don't feel top down. Um and I think to Williams point um you know we have some
opportunity for growth. We have some fantastic educators. Um but um you know I I look at the achievement data in each of the districts and um and you know I think increasing climate surveys with students feeling you know by 40% when
she was in Turner Falls like there's some results there. Um, so again, I think they're both strong candidates and they both uh care deeply about the work they do. But for me, um, in terms of moving the district forward,
I think Dr. Manard brings some additional perspective. Um, I'd also like to thank the steering committee for bringing forward two excellent candidates for our district. Um,
we've had um, Superintendent Smith now for 16 years. So, and he's done an amazing job and it's been wonderful on school committee with him. Um, but both candidates were very strong candidates.
um and visiting like um Carrie had said, visiting Hollist and seeing what Dr. Manard has actually done in that district. And then tonight also hearing
about all of the things that she's done in her previous um professions or jobs in education. Um, I feel like a lot of that work and what she's done already could help our
district. Um, so I would also be for Dr. Manard. No, >> you need to go. Um, yeah. So,
I mean, unless we're trying to persuade, I don't know that there's too much use in me saying much. Uh, I am I have some concerns. uh in terms of I know some districts will require
residency and I'm not saying that we require res residency but I believe logistically closenessless closeness is an asset um and so for me and having the time to spend with both candidates
specifically Monday and Wednesday I had some individual time with them I think they are great and again William if we could hire both of them and be co-super would be fantastic. Um uh I do appreciate uh visiting West
Springfield and seeing Dr. Gillan in his natural place and how highly people spoke of him. Um and so that leaves a good impression with me. I had a great experience with Dr. Manard uh when she was here yesterday and had great
conversations with her. Um that said, I feel we have a majority already. Uh so I suppose we can vote unless folks want to further discuss anything else. >> One of the things that also came out on the visit, you said one of your concerns
is where she lives. They said that they they see her at everything that she's there, her husband's there at all the after school things, everything that happens in town. Um um so and we didn't ask about that.
That's something that they brought up that I think shows part of her character and it was also something that she brought up as well at the end of the interview that we didn't we didn't even ask about. Um, so I think she cuz we were wondering
I was wondering the same thing like why would you want to come all the way over here? But I mean the community says that they see her and that she's around. That was >> anything else?
>> Okay, then with that, if someone could move, >> use the microphone. >> Thank you, Jamie. My apologies. Um, I would take someone to move uh to hire a specific superintendent, please.
>> I'd like to make a motion that we hire Dr. Manard as superintendent. >> And that would just be barring successful negotiations. >> Yes. >> Barring successful negotiations. >> Motion made by Carrie, second by William. Any other discussion? >> You want to use the mic?
>> Motion made by Carrie, seconded by William. Other discussion? Nope. Okay. Hearing none. All in favor of the motion, please say I. >> I. >> I. Those opposed, nay. >> Motion carries four to one. Um, we will >> take a recess so I can caller.
>> Take a recess. Uh, so I would take a motion for a fiveminute recess, please. >> Motion made by Williams. Second. Second by Carrie. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. Those opposed, nay. That motion carries five to zero. Thank you. Okay, we are we are back from recess and
Uh Tracy, you've spoken with >> Yes, I spoke with Dr. Bernard and she enthusiastically accepts contract negotiations. So, I'll be putting her in touch with you so you can open up uh negotiations for her contract. >> Okay. Excellent. Tracy, thank you so much. I appreciate your help on all of this. >> Yes. >> Uh everyone who came out tonight, thank
you for coming and uh I would entertain a motion to adjurnn, please. >> I make a motion that we adjourn. >> Motion made by Carrie. Second by Antella. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. Those opposed, nay. That motion carries 5 to zero. Thank you. We are adjourned.