hey good evening and welcome this is the meeting of the school committee it is February 10th 2025 called the meeting to order 526 this meeting is being both audio and video recorded I would like to ask that everyone please rise foredge of to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation under God indivisible
with liy and justice for okay roll call Samantha please Pam Blair assistant super business Trulia superintendent of schools Thompson William sta lenta hether Brown director of curriculum Emanuel Garcia student representative okay thank you all we have one set of minutes for
approval I take a motion please I move to approve the January 27 2025 regular session meeting motion made by Ana second by William discussion favor say I I I those oppose nay that carries five to zero for those committee and subcommittee Communications Emanuel you want to start us out tonight I sh um once again uh elhs isting in read Across America day on March 7th some of the high school
students are going to go to meow Brook to go read to the kids um some other things are Spartan's we're rehearsing for that that's happening March 7 and 8th and um girls basketball just had a huge fun week oh what book are you reading I have no idea and what's your act for Spartan I'm one of the directors oh cool congratulations very cool is they did they pick a theme yet uh it's kind of like Hollywood like they have spart tanum
like on a Hollywood son oh that's cool I know nice great thank you Amy okay William oh there's a leaf yeah well I went to my first Leaf event leaf leaf leaf Leaf's the next town overa event it was it was it was different it was interesting um beautiful beautiful place um absolutely beautiful um everybody seemed really fun everybody seem to know each other except for me
I knew you guys so that that that's that's what really counted we had fun um but no it was really it was a really good event really well done so IUN good fundraiser too absolutely it's a great fundraiser and people got some good trips out yes they did chair including out to the Grand Canyon the big hole in the ground thank you Antella did you have anything else nope I'm good say Okay um just the two announcements we're going to meet with
Town Council the 25th and then the topping off ceremony is the 26th of March and you'll all be 26th of February February I'm sorry you all should have been reive the invitation if you hav they've gone I don't think is that a Tuesday we'll check on it okay it's coming on the 26th at noon Amy just so you know we'll send we'll make sure everybody gets that okay we're going to
do lunch 12:00 topping off it's when the steel is done okay last steel beam the last steel beam they'll put a tree at the very top of it so they'll hang a evergreen tree and then that's on the 2 all a big deal working crew comes in and we're gonna we're hopefully get get some good lunch for everybody and that's on the 26th of February 12 o'clock oh cafeteria so it's my my birthday nice planning on it we'll sing Happy Birthday to William that's when we're there right is that what you said birthday oh
sweet ni okay uh with that opportunity for visitors to address the committee seeing none uh we have Mr Paige here right now so I would entertain a motion to move 5.1.2 eels draft competency determination to the next order of business second William moves it second it's no seconds any other discussion all in favor do say I I I
those oppos name motion carries 5 Z okay package you have a memo for Mr Page outlining add information that um had asked for so wanted to provide all of you with that
thanks hey do you have this right no yeah I'm pulling it up right now yeah so um on February 4th I sent uh the school committee memo um outlining uh
our local high school uh recommendation uh for the compens determination uh back in November I think as everybody knows but I'll just state it anyway um uh there was a vote that passed uh to eliminate mcast as the comped termination um and with that vote it also uh required districts to make the decision locally uh what the new competency determination would be but it could not be anything connected to the passing of an mcast test
um State's recommendation since has been um to recommend coursework uh connected to the standers that are currently covered by the mkss test uh so um what we are looking to recommend this evening is um the cours workk connected to uh the classes that students would take to prepare for uh the mcast math English and uh science tests um uh
what I'm I'm going to be outlining tonight is uh similar to some of the districts around us minog just passed uh their um local compeny determination recommendation which was uh the exact same one that we're discussing um agam is voting to uh pass the same one and llo is also making the same recommendation so we're we're in line with what other districts are doing uh our thinking is the same um uh so uh long and short what I'm looking to
propose tonight is uh for student to meet the compens determination for English uh those students successfully complete coursework uh basically pass uh English in grades nine and 10 on the math side uh we made the recommendation that students uh successfully pass Algebra 1 geometry and Algebra 2 um and because science does allow the students to pass uh two separate tests uh we made the recommendation that students would pass either biology or physics even
though right now all students do take um biology as freshman so the vast majority I expect would have um biology as the class that meets their competency determination um there's a little note on there we do have some students who take algebra in uh 8th grade um at the end of 8th grade when they take that course they do take a final exam um which is based on uh the algebra one standard so successful passing of that exam uh we would a those
eighth graders as meeting that competency determination for Algebra 1 um also during year 10 I'm sorry grade 10 uh students do have the ability to take AP seminar uh as the equivalent as an equivalent for their English 10 so we would also acknowledge that as uh meeting that determination as well um and again the rationale behind all of this is each of these courses that we're outlining um you know they are standard driven
es and uh you know they are the standards that prepare the students to successfully pass um the mcast in those three content areas and this is different than graduation requirements yeah so we we have our we have our graduation requirements which are set which we're not looking to alter or change uh the state is just requiring now because um mcast can no longer be used as a compeny determination that we identify a new competency determination which basically just means the stud uh you
know demonstrate that competency in those content areas uh and um these recommendations were making ton are in line with uh what the state is recommending we do and also in line with what what is covered on the mcast test are they mostly graduation requirements anyway though don't they overlap they do they do overlap they do yeah so there's a little some common sense in terms of how we're approaching this and a passing grade is defined as uh D minus or
above a kid who has a60 overall average in that course yeah is that in line with what area other yeah a D minus yeah that uh everybody's going with successful completion passing of that course they're not uh setting a higher threshold just for the competency determination uh this is also um
just to note it this is in line with a similar practice that the state implemented during the pandemic um during the pandemic when the mcast test was we'll just say uh postponed for about a year and a half there uh they allowed districts to utilize one course in English one course in math one course in scien as uh um meeting the competency determination um so the passing of courses is a practice that they did briefly engage in uh when
we weren't taking the MC T Test do we expect the state to come forward with another determination of Competency tool I would not be surprised at some point if there's a revisiting of of something but at this point um this is the guidance the yeah this is the guidance that they're putting forward because they are saying that um based on that new law that the decision is made locally and it cannot be the mcast test well it can be the mcast test as a measure of graduation requirement as
a graduation requirement yes but not as a competency determination locally said a score yes if we so chose to say a child must have a score of blank an Ela math science as a function of their graduation that is what do we have that now no because we have the state test right but the same test the mcast we could that into the graduation requirements We cannot put that you can't put it in compens termination you'd have to put it in graduation requirements but that is part of what
the state did say they you could that you could you can even have passing the mcast very careful on their wording and they're not recommending that districts work around that law they're just saying that if you chose to do that you could our school districts allowed to use a score and high school mcast test as part of their local graduation require requirement apart from the competency determination yes establishment of graduation requirements is at the sole discretion of school districts so would you propose that as might want
to do graduation and competency are two different things yes yeah so but the mcast data will still be used in our District's accountability report yes so maybe we should make it part of the graduation requirement because determining the threshold if you're if you're now holding back graduation what what is the threshold that that would be a challenging I'd be more inclined to look at the competency determination and say why does it need to be a D minus
if we're really look I mean to me a high stakes test isn't measuring is measuring student learning in a certain type of way but maybe looking at how they're actually doing in their courses is a different way to approach it and say maybe a c minus is better way I don't know I'm just course failure that you just gave us the course failure rates for current 10th graders who P who from last year so the current 11th graders yep
this is only indicative of somebody who scored a 59 or lower yes over the course of the year yeah it's not by term it's that's their final average yes it is not inclusive of kids who see uh anywhere in the D no one example of eligibility for activities in sports is still see average 2.0 2.0 y so it is is something
that at least is done for eligibility um depending are you saying that it would be you'd be hard pre I don't want to put words in your mouth but does D minus show that they've attained competency in that subject are you asking yeah I I would I would say that a D minus shows that they have not but right but a c minus would I mean it has to be somewhere it just
depends on the group believes the appropriate threshold would be like to me a D minus doesn't show that you've met a comp any type of Competency in a course and of course that's debatable I mean there's so many different it's subjective in certain ways and there's also special education students to think about I mean there's so many moving parts so I'm I was just throwing it out there that well I mean I I guess I would agree to disagree I think a D minus is still passing
um I mean you know what do we what do we call a doctor with a D minus yeah sure doctor yeah at the end of the day they're still a doctor it might not be the best one but they still are not you're not wrong the D minus I'm giving is not necessarily the same D minus you're giving agreed so how how is that consistent I don't think it can ever
be with grades if we're if we're because we're not always going to be doing it the same way so we can never get there it's so objective yeah I mean even with all different assignments I mean do all the teachers have the same assignments and the same finals and the same essays uh or any of the things that they count as summi of Assessments we do push and our commonly talk classes for
students to have common experiences um is it perfect every single homework I I can't say yes to that is it I mean the summatives I I mean homework assignments no we've been gradually transitioning to that and I think we're in a really good spot for that especially in the courses that you see outlined um uh all all these courses have we'll just say standardized curriculums at this point um and those kids do get those common experiences where the assessments are same in fact The
English Department met with the woman who is facilitating the PD in terms of helping them implement the Odell High School literacy and they looked at student work together from a common assessment so Frank you have initial thoughts of the cus versus D minus sir I'd be hesitant where we have we'd be setting two separ processive standards requirements over here would say that they would meet it and then you'd be saying over here they do not
I I think that could be some confusion there um for me I I think this is in line with what other districts are doing what the state is recommending in if first students are passing courses uh that are based on the standards that are going to be covered on the mcast I would recommend this as is um I'd be concerned raising that you know because I will say to to address what Miss Trulia was talking about for um
we have students who pass courses who mcast uh because they're just not good test takers and we also have students who pass C mcast and fail courses because they don't do the work you know so um some of those failure rates we have students in that group who are competent and they have demonstrated that competency through their test but they still have failed that course you know so um yeah maybe emphasis on these major then yeah
it might not be now there's higher stakes and if you look at the compeny determination at the state level the number of students who failed uh or so many times were unable to attain their diploma St was like 700 kids you know so if you drill that down at the district level we're not talking about large percentages here um I think there is% 41% 31% across the subjects did not meet expectations in 10th Grade last year say that again 30%
of students did not meet expectations in ela last year uh 41 did not meet expectations in math and 31% did not meet expectations in science or I'm talking about kids who did but they still met their compens determination I'm talking about students who did not meet their compens determination which are two separate pieces comparatively we did have a number of students who did not meet expectations on mcass but they still met their compe determination which are two separate things when you
say not meet you're including personally meeting right yes because that's not meeting yeah but the state is still looking at as meeting competency determins I'm just saying no I'm not I'm not arguing we'd like to move everybody up to meeting expectations um but the state does allow the competency determination to be met partially meeting but I think the reason I asked for the GPA that's concerning to me that we have a 10th grade GPA that's sitting at a B+ average which when you look at
a scaled score context that's teetering around meeting expectations exceeding expectations so how are we going to how are we going to manage that when we think about in that GPA though you also have the weighted it's a weighted GPA on a 4 five scale but we're also pass saying kids are passing with a 60 right there's a minimum GPA requirement for extracurricular participation is there a minimum GPA requirement for graduation remind no no it's
it's meeting the graduation requirements for Credits based on passing course work and passing for graduation is the same passing as competency that's what we're recommending now I was hoping to solve your GPA situation I mean would would that help to put a minimum GPA requirement in the graduation requirement which would kind of solve what Amy is saying say they happen to get a D minus in one well they'd have to do extraordinar
well in a different one to I think that's a separate conversation okay uh tonight is just about you know understood for our local competency determination based on what the state's asking us to do this year because this I will just say there's a timeliness year because this does apply to the class 25 yeah and besides all the other things we're talking about this is pretty much what this this is what the state's basically saying State's recommending that these are the courses that you put forth I mean they pretty much lay it
out mhm where are you finding that because any language I've seen the state is saying we're not going to give you a list so the so the recommendation was based on the standards that the mcast is assessed on right but I'm saying question eight on the frequently Asked question says will desie be providing a list of courses that meet the new language of the law no no not the courses but so but that's what I'm saying is the guidance can't be the courses we can't claim the guidance is the courses from the state the state
is specifically it's course work so um this I went the webinar and there's the the uh frequently asked questions like you're talking about but they they said something for example if a student completed three years of science they meet the grad requirements that's your grad but if they took physical science chemistry and environmental science they would not meet the CD because the coursework needs to be connected to the standards measured by mcast assessments offered in 2023 so that's where that comes from is the courses are have to be
connected to what's assessed in the mcast so they're even saying if a child takes four years of math but they don't get past Al Algebra 1 they wouldn't meet the competency determination as Mr Paige is saying because they need to have the algebra too to be connected to the standards assessed on the mcass and and we're really just talking about I mean right now we're just talking about this class right now this class of 25 so this would be
going forward this is all classes going forward right so the state changes What specifically we're we're focusing right now on this class we're talking about the future classes but talk about the graduation of this group of media the media and I don't think we I you know I don't think we play around with games with what mcast did and so on and so forth if the teachers say they if the teachers say they passed then they graduate M I don't think we sit here and play you know kind of play you know if it's a GPA or if it's mcast or so on and so forth if
they did the work the teacher said they gra the teacher said they pass let these kids pass and let these kids graduate let's not play with their graduation it's it's just not fair I don't think it's playing with their graduation we are if we if we're sitting trying to figure out other mechanisms to figure out if they're going to graduate or not we are playing with it what different mechanisms are are being brought forth I'm saying I mean I'm looking at I'm looking at most of the room I know I graduated I passed I graduated There Was You
know the teacher said I passed we we we we move forward I think we just I think if this is what you're you're you're assessing based off the teachers assessment of the kids that are working with the kids they graduate if I can clar why clarify one thing for the class with 25 so the students who took the mcast already and already achieved their competency determination those are already in place okay so they're good the kids who took that as sophomores okay I can tell you there's one outstanding senior who needs to take the science she was unable to take the science this February because is the new
law was already in place so her coursework is going to dictate whether or not she graduates right now so I do have one student who's outstanding but the other ones if they had passed that mcast during their sophomore year they've already met their CD that's not being pulled back from them got it you know but this current class of sophomores we're going to take it right now is it's going to dictate it because they're no longer allowed to use the mcast right basically the state kind of took care of folks who weren't passing the mcast and controlled sure right and now it's on local
so we have to have that system and be transparent with families before these kiddos graduate is there another measure on the table I don't I don't know what else we would use I just think there needs to be greater continuity like T anel's Point earlier an an a in my class might mean a c in Gordon's class like if there aren't there is
not consensus around grading if there's not consensus around what is contributing to the end of the year grade if there's not consensus around those items or how much I wait something versus how much Amy wait something or I assess these standards more often because I believe they're more critical to the grade level then we're running the risk of not creating what's quitable system what's the grading policy in terms
of like how much how much how much is a summi of assess different for each teacher right I mean so our commonly talk classes we do expect teachers to use the same grading weights and categories for all their classes so for instance in like math I don't know the percentages off top of my head but tests and quizzes are x amount X number per term homework is x amount um you know classwork might be x amount I can't I don't know the categories off the
top of my head but we do expect that in commonly talk classes they use the same categories with the same percentages have they developed Mr paig in those classes um common assessments that's what's happening with the reveal math they have common assessments that they all can come from and then the Odell the same thing um so I guess my question would be have or implementing we're implementing and we still need to probably calibrate like having access to something and actually utilizing it are
dramatically different and I think your point too is like the calibration of it because we might give the same Common Assessment but I might not great at the same way so that's an important piece of of it as well and you also might not wait it the same way I know you're saying that that you guys try to have the same weights but is anyone monitoring these is there a policy in place like this is what the expectation is or maybe we all o
set that expectation with this m like this is what our grading policy is for summatives it's this percentage for formatives it's this percentage and everyone's following this so you're talking about beyond the commonly talk classes but I think he talking the competency determination courses just for those courses these courses I think as a starting point like if if we're going to stand behind stating that these students have
met the the requirements and we're not looking to adjust above moving the percentage to above a 60 and I I think there has to be greater continuity around continuity around what those what those pieces mean e even so much as to say that yes I get that a student could leave birchland passing algebra one passing Algebra 1 based on berchin standards now now we're bringing in a whole another Lev that's a common
assess but I'm saying like how that teacher creates or how that teacher creates their classroom Dynamic and what has been building towards that we we don't give eth graders algebra credit unless they pass our final exam so they can pass the course all year but if they don't pass our final exam in June then they retake the course as high schoolers so some of this work has already been done is what you're saying yeah so Mr B this is so this would you argue
is a good Baseline right now Bas districts that have already implemented it this yeah this and this I it sounds like there there's a separate conversation maybe going on around potentially adjusting our graduation requirements at some point um for compet determination meeting with the states asking for States graduation requirement you know this this is the one that I think makes the most so with this being the most basic and the base line I I would think in listening to
the discussion it it sounds like we could start here and then adjust moving forward um but not try to figure this all out today after the work that you've already done to kind of give us a baseline to move forward from I think for some of the other conversations we're having I'm open to those conversations but if we're just talking specifically with the compeny determination tonight this would be my recommendation I agree it
seems like a conversation that's going to be ongoing I think we've already started to have these conversations over the past several years and I think it's really a sensitive subject as well because teaching is an art there is some subjectivity to it but you also want to balance it with a certain type of um you know making sure that everyone's being held to the same standards and I know that this conversation has come up in around this table so I agree maybe it's idea to just look at this what's right
in front of us but I definitely agree that there's some more conversations that maybe we'll have around this in the future okay I don't I don't necessarily agree I think that if we are if we're thinking about saying to the public as a board who's responsible now for approving this that
competency is determined by anything above a 59 I just I don't I don't see that and not having that the capacity to know what went in to creating the score of a 60 for one student versus a score of a 60 for another I think that that's that's challenging I don't know that that do you think that's able to be uniformed in
I think look at English n and say these are the six standards that we are going to all commit to teaching these are the three assessments that we're going to ensure have those six standards on them these are the three essays that we're going to use towards in common we're going to score them together I think there are practices and roles that each individual can play within each of these grades to create greater levels of continuity in terms of saying an A in my
class is the same as an A in Williams an F in my class is the same as an F in Amy's because without that and I'm not saying this would happen but without that how do we then determine that kids who maybe have not historically done well don't end up in the class where an a is just oh you turned your homework in and I'm not saying that happens but we create a situation for ourselves to not be able to put to rest the idea that it could and I agree I
I absolutely agree I just I just don't know if we can figure that out right now question just we have three out of our five members who work in Springfield have you guys decided what youry determination is going to be yet have you had this discussion I know we haven't well I know what the message has been that the mcast is still going to be looked at pretty heavily in our district which it
still will be here you can't have it as part of your competency is that the message that has gone out to families we haven't given any messages we're doing other than when they've asked questions about signing up for retest you think they'll make it a graduation requirement in Springfield I don't know because other if there's no incentive there's it's not going to work so there's incentives to passing the not passing mcast but doing well on the mcast I don't know how well it's going to be received by our students but their scholarships available uh the seal by
literacy has um you know set standards for how well kids have to do when it comes to um scoring well in the mcast so there there's stuff that can be appealing we'll just say half the population probably to a percentage of the population um you know but there are going to be challenges for motivating kids who don't care about some of that stuff I do have to say like a lot of the conversation that you're having it seems like our potential changes to
the graduation requirement that would then influence this but do you do we need to um deter can we can we have something in place for now and then match it up with whatever we change with the graduation requirements we have students who meet our graduation requirements and don't meet the state's compeny determination and then we have kids who meet the comp determination but they still fail to graduate why we need a policy so like they are kind of separate things um
you know because those graduation requirements are local and they they've been in place for a very long time um this is obviously a change with this the state we're moving from uh you know a baseline standardized score which I think is kind of what M truler was getting at uh versus now cour workk um that that doesn't have that um that standardized level to it that the state does with the mcast I get it um but you know a pass in November and it put us in this situation where all
all the districts are making these decisions now locally and um trying to figure out what makes the most sense and did you explore the option of just the summit of evaluation being the determining factor or that's not because then it's then you could uniform that the state recommended looking at course where connect standards so okay I follow State Guidance with uh okay this recommendation doesn't we're not required to go that way but
that's their recommendation and that's the recommendation I'm putting forward would we also be able to put a grading policy with this like so that everything counts the same for so we have that are you talking about just for these courses we can start with just these courses I mean or we can do all courses but so we have a lot of that stuff in place for our talk classes um I
don't have all those courses memorized off the top of my head in terms of percentages are but tell you so then we're teaching grade nine Ela they're not the same then they're not the same then if you're saying that different courses they count for different things so you saying that AP Literature is not creating the same way that is for homework for classwork um for quizzes and tests that's that's what I heard you say yeah so if you're looking at Ela 9 yeah standard
and honors two commonly talk horses they're going to be using the same grading waiting for their categories and the same categories obviously that might not be the same as the AP Literature teacher who submits his curriculum to the College Board you know so like that's what I'm talking about there might be differentiation within the department but for the commonly talk classes you're going to see the same percentages and the same waiting do feel that common core classes are as similar as we can get now at least uh I would say in math for there I think part of the reason why we're
doing the curriculum Revision in English right now is that's we're getting there objective yeah it's it's a subjective content area obviously but we we've really pushed the last few years to work towards that and I think we're uh we're very close to being there for English I can tell you on the science side especially for biology we're there okay um I can tell you in the math department the biology department they use the same they use the same assessments uh in BIO it's the same same it's the same exams um
well physics you only have one teacher physics I have one teacher so we'll continue that as a focus always will for yeah that's been a push for me for five years common experience for kids in commonly taught classes any other questions or comments before we put this to a vote recommended
changes I just don't think a list of courses is enough I think there should be a something that's speaking to what within those courses is uniform like certain evaluations even if it was just a a common final exam I think I would do they give they don't give common final exams uh Frank is that fair say in like courses uh math is math do uh
biology biology biology is typically a lab not it's not an exam it's a lab and and English had some subjectivity as you said anyway inherently so yeah I'll just say the English side is more of a performance assessments than that traditional final exam the performance would be writing since it's new curriculum they're going to need more time to calibrate those but yeah infrastructures in place Andel I think
there needs to be more on it too like what I mean common assessments what everything's worth like the the grading policy for all of for the summi lives how many summi lives they're they're doing can we uh perhaps just a suggestion approve this for the one year now and going for forward look for some more detail because I imagine it's
partially timely that we and then we could also everybody's in the same boat of having to rush to do something unless you have a suggestion to add now that we could come to some consensus I would say perhaps we go with what we have when does this need to be decided by for at least one individual I have a student who needs a science for this so this would go into place for immediately this for your seniors this
school year Jo has and pass the comp determination before the November um the state really recommended getting something and writing and passed by a board sooner than later so that we do have that in place for could we look at it Frank in the upcoming year and perhaps some of the discussion we've taken had today I'm open to these convers ations
and um I can tell you departments have even brought up the concept of potentially using some type of Competency exam at the end of these courses to demonstrate that I think I would just need more time before making that expectation here today because obviously this only got passed two months ago three months ago at this point um so you know making these types of adjustments on a fly I would not recommend I think it takes time but I think if I talk to math science English about using something type of com competency final exam one of
the I haven't heard anybody say this yet but one of the conversations that I had with science and math department was around you know if a student fails a course they go to summer school um used to demonstrate competency because it's only a four-week course versus a full year course you know so that's where the conversation around potential competency exams for summer school came in just to make sure those kids meet those standards and do demonstrate that competency or Proficiency in that content area you know so if you guys were wanting to push for something like
that I'm sure we could um have that conversation as well and I I think we have a staff who's also already open to that idea and they actually approach me with it so logistically we approved this for the one year tonight give you some time to work on it further for next year that would work functionally logistically for you now okay and we're able to change it I say we one year yes for this year yeah but I think is more for seniors this year right there's also value though and that the students are
able to check their course and everybody knows what they need to do to to right fulfill their requirements and I think this can actually be a really positive thing I mean I'm completely against high stake standardized testing so I don't hate this shift at all um but I think it can I think it could be really positive I think it could solve to a lot of collaboration between you know I think that it's important for us to kind of get the point like I really want to have your teachers feel supported this isn't like
a punitive thing this is I think absolutely let's make whatever we need to do tonight to make this move forward but then using it as a real opportunity to address some ways that we can improve what's going on I don't I think that's a positive thing yeah and we'll TR that to the staff of course we're all trying to work collaboratively and those students I think that's what your point is yeah so any other questions comments
we'll put this to a vote I entertain a motion to approve the local competency determination expectation as presented this would only count for this year specify that in the motion yeah and this next coming year we should have a revised like before the next year starts correct is that what we're if I can just get some clarity so the expectation is for this year that these
are the comp this would be the competency determination for class of 2025 res High School yes going in looking at the class of 2026 you're asking me to look at a potential competency exam at the end of each of these courses so the same set of courses some type of Competency exam at the end of those the challenge there would be many of those students have already taken English n have and English 10 uh they've also taken algeb GE
staff and come back with you've heard what concerns are here so leave it to you and you know four or five months from now if we could start talking about it so that we can give as much people as much loan as possible does that work and it doesn't have to be an exam I think it's the it's the need to ensure that there is continuity across room 303 room 306 room 309 can't say that's definitely the direction we're moving and I'm not disagreeing with that um what I do want want people to understand and I think Mr
Paige is uh worrying about is that your 11th graders have already gone through a number of these courses so you're you're passing a compensation that's fine graders if we're going to be candid here you can be looking at your current eighth graders to meet all of these right so the policy is going to have to match that so if they only meet these requirements because they've already met them fine but the new ones that haven't taken the class this is how we're going to move forward so it'll take some time to move into it but I don't the motion you want to limit it to just
the graduating class of 2025 because then you're really limiting the class of 2026 because they don't know what to expect they've already taken these courses it's fine but included in next year's competency expectations will will outline that I believe those that have already taken the class you're basically going to have a scaling up yes they they should be grandfathered in as long as we have that understanding yeah so because you can't go back I There's No
Going Back kid already took the classes listening to what Mr Smith is saying I think the class of 25 and 26 would be pretty much exempt because your current juniors are the ones who are taking Algebra 2 right so they're mostly through the list right yeah so maybe we want to make it Val I can still come back to you obviously for for next year and um be a partial that that sophomore class um partial for that freshman class to be full full implementation for the kids who are in eighth grade okay so
this would be uh com competency determination for the class of 25 and class of 26 yeah that's what we're looking for okay anything else not I would entertain a motion please go ahead Amy you got it motions to approve the elhs draft compeny
determination for uh the 2025 and 2026 graduating classes graduating classes of 2025 and 202 Works second motion made by Amy second by William any other discussion all in favor please say I I those close nay nay motion carries four to one thank you everyone thank you appreciate tonight thanks for the guys get out by seven
boys basketball senior night s we're out by seven no worries on that I hope okay we are going to go back to 1.1 and that or 5.1.1 2425 elps winter status okay um at your places we updated the de which will be on the screens
uh with additional information and want to walk you through uh where we are since we presented our smart goals back in September and October and um then this sets up the school for giving you a more specific look as to where they are um in the next school committee meeting everybody find the
just uh updating you on our demographics um we have um as you know we have um continued to see an increase in on the right side um lwi income students with disabilities and therefore since both those categories are Incorporated in what's defining High needs we're seeing
increases in high needs um you're seeing a much more diverse student population we're seeing first started as superintendent we were probably well in the 80s in terms of percentage white students and now we're at 71.3 and you see how we um break down with other ethnicities so we do have a diverse population and a variety of work we've talked a
number of years about supporting the whole child but what we try to do is continue to in our smart goals um focus in on how we're doing that and certainly one of the um big ways that uh We've focused the last two years is around how we partner with families to help them with challenges that have been um keeping their students from consistently coming to school because coming out of the pandemic that has become a challenge throughout
the Commonwealth and also throughout the nation I interrupt you second Manny we've held you for an hour and a half if you have homework or anything and you want okay Fe yourself anytime just feel free okay thank you please thank you um so this gives you an idea of where we were last year where our targets are for attendance um our current attendance rate um is similar a little bit higher
at um in some places but um similar to where we were last year in terms of a daily attendance rate and you see where our targets are for chronic absenteeism um over on the right side where it says 205% uh excuse me 2025 Target percentage 11.4 7.4 and 11.8 we're right up against that um so one of the things that uh we're doing as we work with families um our percentage
in terms of chronic absenteeism is right now looked at in terms of the percentage or um the days attended um with days in membership meaning that we're just around2 days of school so how many days they've attended um in those 102 if we can get them to come more consistently as that day in membership grows the hope will be that our chronic absentee is percentage will go down a little bit and we'll get closer to the targets
or underneath um that Target percentage so we're seeing similar results to what we had last year where we did a really incredible job um in in many cases dividing it in half of to wear The Chronic absenteeism but right now we're up against itead so um with the increased use of high quality instruction materials really
trying to um use professional development coaches leaders to support and the instructional shifts that we need to do um we have these metrics and today so you'll see uh there's the K to2 has shifted to Dibbles and the high school is using EXL so today you will see the data from uh 3 to8
I ready um those to what we have currently um so before we get into that I just wanted to show this is the grid that I already um provides and you can see that for reading all of the schools that used I ready are in the high performance high growth category and the high performance is nationally normed so um while there's always room for improve this is definitely something to
celebrate and then I broke down the I ready reading growth by bas light pement so this is um a kid the beginning of the year scored three or more grade levels below or if they scored mid or above grade level that next column is the number of kids who met their typical growth goal and that typical growth goal is based on how they scored they kind of got put into cohorts and then the next
one is the percentage of kids who make stretch gr growth and you know we really want to see that stretch growth continue to increase because that's really when we see gains a kid making typical growth is going to do great but if they're already behind it's hard to meet match with their peers um and so one of the things we're trying to do to improve that is really using our common planning time um to to look at data and the eventual goal is to really have formative assessment Cycles where we can
pinpoint um and really get real specific um around the data um so that we can continue to improve that stretch growth and then the uh yellow highlighted is a the percentage of kids who have improved placement since the beginning of the year then you have your students assessed um based and the total students so you can see you know for some there are some kiddos who didn't get assessed throughout for whatever reason but for the most part we've caught most them for this reading are those that met this
annual stretch in included in the annual typical growth percentage so that 18 in that 48 or is that an addition to it's a good point um I imagine it's in but I don't know that yeah would make sense because you would have to meet your typical growth in order to also meet your stretch right it's just how you broke it out but okay I took I asked Samantha today to print a couple things um especially related to stretch and typical growth so if you
look at the back of this there's some really strong research from stretch growth is the way to go Yeahs to this so if you look at the very very back page in that packet that's gonna do is it's show how the student if you look at grade two for instance on the far left and this is the student has met their stretch growth two
years in a row they are um reaching grade level in Reading 83% of them as opposed to a student who reaches typical growth two years in a row 7% isn't by definition doesn't that make perfect sense though not necessarily because if they're two grade levels behind they would have to stretch twice to catch up yeah if you only get typical if you get typical you're only gaining
a year right but this is across all I understand but I just think it's inherent well saying that right the kids in here are not just the kids who are below they're also kids who score a mid above um no at the bottom it says all students began year one two or more grade levels below oh you are correct that's part of the push is we are looking at percentages we need more kids too I agree agree yes and that the res the only way you get if you do
it well that's by definition right but if you look at two or more grade levels below right now we're at 15% of that 161 so by definition then we're looking at repeating similar results as to what we saw last year year before if we don't start making a concerted effort to get that do this this is research based and shows that if we do do it we close the gap rather than allowing the Gap to continue to exist I think the other piece too is
believing that it can happen um you know research shows us it can yes and I'm not disagreeing um but that mindset the chicken or the egg thing this is a result of the definition of stretch that's it so yes you have to stretch two years in a row to gain two years if you only grow you're only grain you're not gaining you're still two years behind tyal if you get typical you're years behind still what I'm saying is we have a metric by
which to progress monitor this starting in kindergarten and if we're not leaning into it and actually letting it do what it should be doing and yielding the results it should be yielding for students then we're going to sit again with 59 students in fourth grade who met expectations last year on mcass like we're not helping our own cause if we're not looking at the research behind the programs that have been purchased and making the push through goals through professional development
that this is what we should be expecting so it's not enough to settle for typical no here and if you remember when we talked about it at Boi we're 65% of our students achieving typical growth yeah we're setting ourselves up to be in a situation by which bless you to not get bless you thank you students across that Finish Line the idea of the the metrics though I think we're to look at it over time because um we had not reached 60% in terms
of typical growth no I agree but I'm just saying like yeah and so we have to I agree one of one of the um conscious choices was as we set those goals was if we keep putting it at 80 and everybody sees 80 when we've been somewhere in the 50% 59% um as impossible I agree with you we have to make it tangible so that they can go after after it and then keep discussing it and bring it into
bringing the results into complimenting time so we're all looking at together and there has to be tight procedures around how we're making it attainable what are we doing ensure that small group instruction isain kids are getting what they need in order to shrink the gaps and that's an interesting point especially with reading so one of the things with um Whit and wisdom is that the lessons are very long and it's new to teachers so they have said we really don't have a whole lot of time for
small group instruction so one of the things that's happening is that Whitten wisdom has heard this feedback as well as a few other things um that people have been saying and they have created hourlong lessons so we have 90 minute blocks literacy if we were to adopt that we really would have no reason to not have that half hour time for that skill work that kids need um beyond the whole class instruction yes you're going to differentiate yes you're going to do accommodations but the skills that
kids particularly need there isn't really time necessarily built into the schedule especially when we're asking folks to use um their curricular materials with Fidelity um and then same thing with math we're really pushing to get those illustrative math lessons within the half hour sorry within 60 minutes so that we can have small group time um and at Meadow Brook they don't have the luxury of that much time for math but they do have something called Flex blocks is and that's something that we can um use and I know the two coaches there have really been working on
helping people set up their classes for that small group instruction so all of this is an agreement but that's the direction we're going in um to address these needs and the coach is working with common planning time part of that is also building the capacity to have these conversations around data to really pinpoint what kids are um needing support in so that we provide that support um you had
asked us last year projected proficiency um this one actually was in the original packet which combines the grade levels but we've also broken It Out by grade level um and it's this is the point I think you're making very similar percentages to what we saw last year at this time in terms of projected proficiency the way uh the state breaks this out we had talked about this we were talking
about competency determination is you have exceeding expectations which would be the blue dark blue I guess um the light blue is meeting expectations and I has it as proficient and not proficient the state uh gives that guess that's a light partially meeting the hot pain partially meeting expectations and somewhere in there is where the score for compeny determination is determined um or had been determined um and then
the dark red is your um not meeting expectations if you're using the states page of that that I had pass around has the scaled score context yeah in there as well hard to look at this without that front page terms of this yep that's the state L levels threes fours on here you're looking at meeting or exceeding expectations right that whether you have
the language to match up what we're saying students can do and are not yet showing us they can do one thing to say like partially meet yes I get kids can partially meet something but partially meeting is not meeting grade level expectation so the goal being that we'd like to get meeting and expectations yes important to read the language to know that it's not just semantics like
when we say a child partially met like you know there's 56% of our third grade that that's projected to fall again this year 56% of 189 students are projected to partially meet expectations wait real number what are you saying I'm looking at sorry yes yes if you
combine those 67% two3 of our third grade right now are not projected to meet expectations on mcast like 67% of 189 and these are part of the conversations so for example foundations has a lot of application for encoding writing but not a whole lot of application for decoding and so again the coach at metab Brook is really working on that small group time
to have time for that application we've got decodables and really make sure kids are having time to apply um because what we're finding is might get kids at the third grade who are accurate but they're not fluent that's going to obviously influence their ability comprehend because they're spending all their cognitive energy on trying to figure out what the words are um so again not negating what anyone's saying just just saying it it is a work in progress as we're moving forward um I don't take it
in the way I just think we as a committee need to be very clear about what these numbers meet so to underscore it that is 126 third graders who are projected not to meet expectations 130 fourth graders were projected to not meet expectations and 111 fifth graders that's not what happened last year though yes it is exactly what happened last year but they end up falling I've got it on the Y but here you can have that as well so
it's actually uncanny how I mean it's not uncanny obviously based on statistics but it it can be very uh it's so uh let's see here so this this is a chart accountability data and it breaks out by how what percentage the state had what percentage we had terms of exceeding meeting which Mr trulio was talking about um I ready has that
definitive line um State talks about uh partially meeting expectations and they have it gradual range and then not meeting in terms of the projected proficiency chart on I which is this one uh you have a you know a clear delineation which I think is what Mr trul was talking about in terms of adding up the percentages yep last year 43% kids met or exceeded
exceeded expect GR in third through 8th and this year we're projected 45% so it is it's it's as it has one of the tightest correlations possible I mean when you look at the research it's 78 point8 in terms of right predictability so if we match up with the state though aren't we I'm not saying we're matching up with
the state I'm saying the results at mid year y are saying we are going to produce the same results for students this coming year as we produced for them last year which is 45% and making sure our Educators understand that how closely correlated highly correlated this information is that and that's something we started last year and need to continue doing this year so that they
know that this report actually reflects what the state gave us an accountability um it more closely probably uh we gave an end of the year projected proficiency and I think we're on within two percentage points in each category but the other thing we need to provide is the time and the skills to really dig deep and and do that and I I have to say with the with the way we've have this new curriculum which is whole class there really has not been a lot
of time for that dig deep and um address those skills within the classroom um but that's what has to happen in order for that stretch growth to happen I just wonder how relative it is because if we're doing if we're close to what the state is doing or better in many of those categories then is it the measure that's off and not the not us I mean it's it's an interesting question um
it's certainly we want to shoot to Mr tr's point to continue to move students into meeting expectations or exceeding expectations but it is also interesting in the same results from I ready you know as you look at the how we're doing against the national Norm we did a little bit better in Reading in terms of being in that upper right quadrant and here we are in math not doing as well but still in the high performance high growth area
um against National Norms right all the people who take this test so it's it's both you know you want to look at the urgency I don't disagree with that absolutely we need we also want to celebrate some of the some of the things that we've been able to do um because we've not always had these graphs we've always been in the um upper right um well again better to be high performance than high
growth already at high performance lower growth though right but there's lower potential for growth so we're much better off in this with higher performance and argue that that was not the case quadrant four which is high performance high growth is where you would want to be you can't be there every year though how can you do that because in order to get high growth you have to have some Gap you have some room we have P so if you get growth every year I know I got what you say I'm not we're not at high performance yet but I'm just saying like well we're on the high performance side in the yeah no we're moving into that
quadrant um could do a both and here like we're people are really working hard we're putting things in place uh we compare well and we continue to strive to be excellent you know because our kids can do it I we but it's really not like one factor there's lots of factors that still need to be put into place I think um to keep pushing that um and I think the more we
are talking about these results of their understanding that these projections are highly correlated to where they're going to be um that hopefully then motivates change as well as we're giving different ways of looking at this and different ways to instruct the motivation should come on this side in terms of creating a sense of urgency M found that you
saw um in English gives you an idea where they are typical growth being stretch growth also how many students what percentage of students include the placement um and then in terms of uh total student sucess oh and those the typical growth uh don't meet the metrics at this point in the year and the stretch growth and we're
not there yet um it is good to see with the students with improved placement though I mean that two or true grade levels below 72% um same thing that we need to do for ELA is really pinpoint what kids are are falling behind in terms of math and and working in those small skill groups um the same studies in that packet that speaks to the same results being yielded for mathematics when kids meet stretch growth
the the thing is like we we can we can work in the infrastructure you know and that's something we're looking for um one of the biggest pluses for that arts and letters is it's still a high quality instruction material it's still very rigorous but we have a short school day so we can't only do that whole class instruction for 60 minutes we do need that time for small group and they don't currently have that right now so um is the same
to this math thank you um so this is uh what was originally in the slide deck as the combin gives you an idea of that same protected proficiency talking about in terms of math um and then broke it out by grade level and so it gives you an idea as to where right now if the the mid year um gr three grade four
grade five are in terms of feing expectations meeting expectations partially meeting um and not meeting and it uh there's a again the same correlation with they did on the MCAT the only difference being that the mcast measures writing I ready doesn't so um uh that can skew it um
same with uh the IR doesn't necessarily have kids explain their answers and things like that which they are expected to do in mcast so the mcast expectations are even higher than is what I'm saying so and sometimes our our project our mcast results did go above what the projective efficiency was um but everything we looked at last year was with less than 5% no but most part it's predictive points are on
the plus side not many not many but again I think it think we have to do a better job of looking at numbers like we we have to acknowledge that last year 662 students did not meet expectations that's alarming to me like when you think about third fourth fifth sixth seventh eighth grade that's a 100 kids per grade level not meeting expectations it's alarming to me too but I think you also have to take into consideration the
other side of it like education's a business there's a lot of money in this I mean on a like you were kind of getting a little philosophical there like expectations from what from this company from the mcast I mean it's all there's a lot of subjectivity into it and I also think we're missing a huge piece of the conversation which is we're still in an aftermath of covid there's still I mean I understand that we're trying that we're doing everything you know from a curricular standpoint to continue to have our high standards but there's I I just think it's this is
a small obviously it's our job to drill into this but like there's a bigger Mosaic here that's at play as well I think I don't know if you're a parent of one of those 662 kids that that Mosaic plays a role like that's hard I'm I'm not disagreeing with you at all on this but I think there's just other there's it's just a really complex obviously thing that we're looking at here I think again it's that both and recognize that we're still postco kids are coming really not able
to self-regulate which is why we really pushed the regulated classroom which is all about we can't help kids self-regulate if we can't self-regulate ourselves because adults are struggling with this too um Gordon and I were just at a workshop about this um and all of the things and we can continue to strive for excellence because we don't want to be leaving kids Behind of course we don't right so I'm agreeing definitely have to continue the sense ofur Mercy um when we're looking at districts that
Desi Compares us to we're not dissimilar in terms of they have similar percentages that's not in any way saying we shouldn't feel the urgency nor should we be not communicating the urgency I think we should um as we look at how we're doing in terms of the results though it's also good to see are are we matching up with similar districts at least in terms of our efforts or are we exceeding that um and that's some of the information that we provided I think at the end
of last year and also at the beginning of this year in terms of how Desi Compares us with other communities um you know on this you just see the state but um in those dark charts you actually see sort of how they've these other districts um with similar demographics demographic expectations exceeding expectations I'm sorry no no go ahead I was just saying that you know you actually see how it match matches up but demographics of whom does it take into account the
teacher staff like if I know like on Dart is it looking at number of years of experience of the students um I don't know if they do that generally look at your your percentages correct we also have to look at our teaching Force our teaching force is very seasoned as an I mean what's the percentage Pam if you know like is it like two-thirds are at 70% is at the top
step is at the top step so we aren't necessarily facing the same factors that other districts are in terms of not staffed Young G into the profession is not necessarily a battle that we're facing we have a seasoned staff who has been given high quality instructional materials to use and we have a group of students who are poison ready to learn so I'm only saying that to underscore the fact that we were sitting here looking at very similar results at this
point last year the year before we were sitting here looking at very similar results we as a body are accountable to students Point Blank period that is it you when you look at the M ASC I even printed that today a school committee must be responsive to its constituencies and governance sensitive to the diverse needs of all Learners an advocate for students and learning before the people of the community and as such a vigorous Ambassador for public
education before all citizens this is what we are accountable to as a board and if we don't start to think about it differently and do things differently then we can't expect different results this is who we are accountable to and like I said we're not hitting 50% of our kids meeting expectations we have to do something differently we have to like it's not okay because it just becomes next year's issue and then the year after that's issue and
then we're looking at compens determinations that now we don't have that common standard at 10th grade but I would argue and again I'm not trying to come across as defensive we are taking those steps to put things in place we spent uh got a lot of grant money to get high quality instruction materials using that professional development like the N the high school English team has been meeting um Esser money funded a you know basically a coach to work with them
um really uh mobilizing the coaches where we have them to build capacity of teams um and and like I said the I there are a couple pieces missing that are you know things that we have to fix in terms of an infrastructure but I don't think that we're looking at this and saying what we're doing is working I think we know that we have to keep working at you know what I mean we looked at last year during negotiations redesigning planning time and how we focused on certain
things yeah I just think it's imperative to recognize like when we're working on things kids get one shot at each grade level and we need to have that urgency every time we enter the classroom and I can you move on to the other ones I just want to say like if you go like I know that it doesn't necessarily feel like it's connected directly but yeah I were just um again at a workshop was like the the statistics around the research around
if kids don't feel like they belong in a classroom they they literally cannot learn like their amydala is hijacked and their hippocampus campus can't do its job and so you know that is another piece like I said with the regulated classroom and working on these all these pieces are all designed to try to create these spaces where all kids can learn and I think part of it talked about earlier too is that mind shift that all kids can um you know um especially with
our special ed population really believing that uh you know we have tools to help remove barriers from the curriculum if we're using those tools and really doing the accommodations we need to they that population of kids should also be excelling right so I just wanted to point out too that you there's other factors um involved including you know some mind set mindset shifts was regulated classroom
mandatory for all Educators to take so yes we did train the trainer and then on our PD days we uh had no attendance is an issue at y for um the PD days in the morning uh the schools had trainings and then Meadowbrook has taken it even further using their faculty meetings and things like that so they have really taken that and you know it helps with self-regulation it helps with belonging it helps with management because it
also helps with engagement because when you're can't teach if they're not right if you're monitoring and figuring out not only where you are as the instructor in the room but also where your students are so that you can adjust to make sure that people are feeling comfortable can engage them um the one thing that the significant rise here in engagement that's because of the change weal talked about in terms of students not seeing sometimes as negative
but seeing it as a positive so that's a blip that uh is not one where're Like Whoa We we changed something that was incredible but we did have uh extensive conversations actually one is recently is um last week with high school students around you know how they were seeing when you're asked um how often are you interested in what you're learning in your classes they see sometimes as a positive as opposed to a NE negative where it was weighted as a negative in previous surveys um but I
think it's this is all part of what needs to go into any classroom you have to obviously make sure you're setting the climate and making sure you're attentive to making sure that all students are feeling welcome and ready to learn um I mean that goes back no matter what we call it it goes back to maslo in terms of just um breaking down basic needs so I think in addition to the diff these are all the shifts that teachers have to make I think their classroom management needs to change because
kids um are different now in general right and so what we always did doesn't necessarily work instructional shifts even principles are making instructional shifts with the D the The Walking The Learning walks that we do we sit down and look at data together we look at different things they're learning these shifts too so I I mean I'm not trying to make excuses as much as we are still in a learning curve in so many different ways trying to balance all of these things um but I don't disagree I think
the point that you're making um is that we're we're bringing this information because it needs to be brought into these conversations not only into leadership team meetings but then once we've broken it down we bring it into those smaller meetings with teachers whether it be planning or setting us up for a learning walk set the goals right that that smart go drives the individual goals same page one of the things that um we
looked at as um we looked at the uh winter climate and wellness survey was breaking it down um into the different subgroups and as you look at um orange to me but I guess it's red no I was thinking it was orange when you get further into the darker orange that's a subgroup that's getting further away from the average and so that's an area where we need to
look at you know whether it be experiencing challenging feelings or engagement as we've been talking about or experiencing positive feelings school safety those are all things that we're not seeing um more of the green then we're not able to take the steps where we can actually get them to engage and learn to the level that they're capable of learning um you know just going back to maslo and we're seeing this not only in 612 and we need
to start to dig into this um but even though we're seeing decent numbers overall say on the 3 through five survey we're also seeing it in the 3 through five not as much orange six through 12 but some and so we need to break that down and look at that um and have those same conversations not just at the leadership team level but breaking it down with staff yeah and staff that have seen this have it right it definit they
actually have access to this because all staff has access to Panorama so they can get into this I don't know if if they're not having a facilitated conversation that they get down to this level but they can if they wanted to look at their class and see how past surveys went um because all of this is Panorama but I think to the point that you've made a few times we're not we need to continue
to have the conversations and create thaty while putting all score around not only staff but also students and we as a committee need to think about the things that we do have the locus of control over and make decisions to support with the data changing like I know you said it half jokingly but like a we have a very short school day we have a very short school day I wasn't joking it's but we have an extremely short school day and it's hard to fit it extremely hard and we've talked about this we still don't teach all
the Massachusetts Frameworks we don't don't teach all the state Frameworks that we are accountable to because we don't have the minutes in the day to do it right so we need majority of time is focused on literacy and math those are what are ass social studies and science uh sence picked up thought prioritized I'm talking about digital lit that is not science standards exist we have Health standards that exist we have a wide variety of standards that move beyond that scope we're not addressing
because we don't have the minutes just yeah they're yeah and you're right and we pick them up uh whether it be through the the enrichment program or um through PE or through counselors coming in in terms of health standards and digital literacy with um some of the enrichment work that we do is picked up there but it's it's always a a challenge because how are you going to get to that when is pretty much scheduled out first
on literacy and then into math and and with the schedule and the way it is some teachers feeling like they don't even have enough time for math because it's you know in the afternoon and it's this this you know transition time and this transition time and it boils down and they have a half hour for math right so how do we look at the infrastructure so that we can prioritize that too and then again how do we as a board look at things that we do have control over like the budget what are we choosing to keep
from curriculum are we helping folks to narrow the Scopes they can go deeper we have control over the calendar and how many instructional minutes students receive on an annual basis we do have things that we can put in place structurally to help support the data to shift and I think we have to think about that when we're making decisions that have impact or that have the potential to impact students in a positive POS way I printed the other stuff I'll leave it in your mailboxes around academic
learning time and the requirements by the state I asked Gordon also for all of the schedules for the buildings because things like field trips things like delays all of that erodes instructional minutes coupled with three lost days for half days we have six half days that's three days that are not full instructional days that therefore create a situation where we're losing
3 days of instructional minutes that eat away we have to think about differently or else we're going to keep seeing the same results on behalf of the students of eam me our winter status report at the so are the schools coming next week schools are coming at the next meeting um and so more specific look at what they're doing at that school
for those grade spans um tried to give and we're discussing here and I live minute what we saw today focus on data round attendance data around I ready or
developed Excel okay and less about panorama survey is one thing it's a data point but I think we've been talking about how we we know what we are good at in terms of right supporting the whole child but I think it it's still connected I mean if you have the orange as we saw in those I'm not saying not to put the Panorama we certainly have to do a better job making sure that all our students are feeling like they belong because that's connected to how they perform the
template is is Greg it looks like Manny took you did he waves goodbye um okay great discussion uh we will continue it in two weeks and final uh item for business tonight fiscal year 26 budget development discussion okay that's me to start off uh so after updating all your contractual obligations
for FY 26 as well as increasing the special education budget lines that we've been discussing a level Services budget is an increase of approximately 3 million or 8.57% increase just as a reminder the past three years the school department has requested on average a 3.9% increase for level Services therefore we will uh need to strategize on how we we can reduce the budget request um so you know
I've listed um similar to how I do on the quarterly reports to you the different line items here just as a general reminder uh 83% of our current budget is salaries and 17% is on the expense side when I say 83% we have 260 approximately I could be off one or two 260 employees on unit a uh that's 21 million6 uh 21.6 million currently uh we have um 18 custodians that's another
million we have uh 18 secretaries that's another million 2.4 million in uh PA professionals which we have 105 uh 15 administrators I believe that's 1.8 million um my point is it adds up very quickly and I am very confident with what I bring forward to you and unfortunately I wish that number were lower but it's not it is $3 million that we need uh in order to keep you know all everything as is which which we know we can't do so we will strategize and um
bring a plan again forward at the next meeting so we can maybe talk further about that and make some decisions and have the school committee vote and because obviously for anybody out there listening we know that this is not a reasonable uh budget to bring forward the town cannot afford that we understand that so we would never bring this forward to the Town Council um so that's where we're at I don't know if anyone has specific questions or you know I guess I would just like to say I know when you were talking about all the different you
know scores throughout the the state the budget is the same we're not every district is like us but a lot of districts are struggling just as we are I'm hearing more and more um from other people and articles that I'm reading and I don't want to mention any certain names I wouldn't want them mentioning me um us so uh you know a lot of things are up between the contractual salary increases special ed out of District tuitions I've shown you what they are the Contra uh the contracted Services
transportation that goes along with that you put all of this together on top of inflation and then all that um aser funding gone it's just a perfect storm and um I do think that we're uh better off than some districts um but we're not alone that's where we're at thanks Pam thankam the second page um you need break chapter 7 loc down and unfortunately you see
over the last three years Chapter 70 is going down in percentage in terms of their increases that's due I believe to the student Opportunity Act because they're trying to flip that and towns mun the municipal side trying to increase them but then they have their challenges as well so yeah thank you for see any funds from the student Opportunity Act well we did see it a big adjustment very big investment in fy4 that they gave the million dollars in the last two years we
um at least with this year's draft of the governor's budget it looks like we're getting the uh minimum per pupil okay I guess that's what I'm asking which has been ra it was $30 last year they increased the minimum uh Aid to $60 and now the governor has increased it to 75 so um you know that could be increased there certainly I'm sure that they're getting a lot of pressure from a lot of um places that schools need more funding um but
then again everybody's got their challenges and I I don't know how much money the state has either so there's too many moving pieces still behind the scenes um even you know for us as well as the town so although we have started uh many conversations with them and we're really pleased with them and they've been some very good discussions um nobody really knows that number yet so they're not going to be able to tell us what they can you know afford and and we don't we're still gonna get that number
down so thank you plan good plan anything else I don't think so happy a lot of good discussion yes good two and a half hours later if nothing else I would take a entertain motion toour pleas Move Motion by second by discussion all favor two and a half hours while spent looking at data I don't think that's something that's flip it's what
flip I don't think that's something to take light we SP two and a half hours looking status of our stud and I think that that's important as well as determining how we're going to move forward with the competence for the graduating classes of 25 and 26 favor say I I motion carries 5 to Z you areed