All right. Good evening and welcome. This is the October 6, 2025 meeting of the school committee. Call the meeting to order 520. This meeting is being both audio and video video recorded. I would ask that everyone please rise for the
pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all.
Okay, I'd ask for a roll call. Heather, if you'd start, please. Heather Brown, assistant superintendent for teaching. Emily Blair, assistant superintendent for business. Antelone. Gregory Thompson. Amy Denta. William Shik,
Carrie Jerzabski, uh, Caitlyn Card. Thank you all. Okay, we have minutes for approval. I entertain someone to move on. Motion to approve the September 22nd, 2025 regular sessions and minutes made
by Amy. Second by William. Discussion. All in favor say I. I. I. Those opposed, nay. That carries five to zero. Thank you, Samantha. Committee and subcommittee communications. Antela, would you like to start? I have nothing right now.
Okay, Amy. Um, I would just like to share that I had my walkthrough at Fort Park. Um, I was able to sit with Prince Pearson, speak with a few more people. They seem to be off to an excellent start this year. Unfortunately, my visit got cut a
little short by a fire drill, but um overall it seems like they're off to a wonderful start and it was a great visit. Great. Excellent. Thank you, William. Nothing. Joe, I have nothing. Nothing tonight. Okay, great. Excellent. Thank you all. Uh, right now we have an
opportunity for visitors to address the committee. Seeing none tonight, we will continue on. Uh, 5.1.1 Superintendent Report. We have a discussion with retired superintendent Paul Gagliaduchi.
Good evening, sir. Thank you for joining us tonight. It's first time I've had a tie on in about four months. It's looking good. You remembered how to tie it. It's good. Well, my wife said, "Wear tie." She said, "What do you think?" So, uh uh about two months ago, I sent
Greg a letter email just saying that I know that you're going to be looking for a superintendent and if I could be of any help in any way. Um, and I specifically said, "I'm not looking for a job. Um, just give me a buzz and I'll I'll meet with anybody." And so, here I
am tonight. So, um, thanks for having me. Um, so a little bit little bit about my background. So, I'm a retired school superintendent. I've been a superintendent in Massachusetts and in Connecticut, uh, two districts in
Connecticut. and I retired from uh Ham Newham Medit Regional in 2009. Uh since that time I've done a lot of different things and one of the things that I did or I have done and still do, I'm still on their website. Um I am an
executive search consultant for the Connecticut Boards of Education, which is similar to the Mass Association of School Committees. By the way, you know that Massachusetts is the only place that calls you people school committees, right? Everybody else in the
country is school boards. Um so, um so I've done about over the years since I retired about 15 searches uh for school districts in Connecticut, uh either by myself or um with uh one of one of the other
consultants. Um um and um what I think at least from our perspective, the other consultant, main consultant is uh there's one other superintendent, but the other main consultant who does most of the searches
is a former schoolboard member like yourselves. Um she actually was president of the National School Boards Association. uh Mary Broadick, her name is. Um so, but what I think that in terms of us
being a pair that work together is she brings a school board perspective and I bring a superintendent's perspective. So, tonight if you I don't really have anything prepared um other than to respond to any questions and maybe give
you some uh suggestions. Uh is it Amy? Mhm. So, at the last meeting I saw on LCAP, Amy made a statement that is extremely important is that by statute, one of the most important things that
you people do is hire a school superintendent. That's clearly one of the things that stands right out in the statute. Um, a little different from what you people are preparing, and I'm not saying it's wrong. Please don't get me to think that I'm saying that. But in
Connecticut, we don't use um uh large groups of non uh schoolboard members as the search committee. Um and the reason why that is because there were some issues of confidentiality.
So I would tell you that when you bring this committee together, it's extremely important that they know that they cannot discuss any of the candidates outside of the meeting. There were some problems in Connecticut where uh some
people on a committee, they knew that there was a relative who lived in a town where the candidate came from and they started making phone calls and what's the person like and all of that. and that person uh happened a couple of times the superintendent had not informed their board that they were
looking and there was some problems that occurred because of that the candidates um and I'm not sure that there was a lawsuit but there was threat of a lawsuit so I just want to tell you that make sure that that group knows
that they have that confidentiality is a major major issue in fact we even have schoolboard members sign a letter saying that they will not discuss any of the candidates. Uh so it's like a confidential it's not really legal but
we do it anyways. Uh just to hit the hit home the fact that confidentiality is very very important. Um, so I have a couple things there. Um, so from my perspective as a
superintendent, you um need to know that there will be some people who will applying who will be applying who may not want their current school boards or school committees to know that they're applying. And that plays into that confidential LL
issue as well as when you get toward the end of your search process. And so if you were to say to me, Paul, uh, we really liked you. We liked what you had to say. You're one of three finalists and we'd like to come visit
your district. I might be a little hesitant to say I'm not sure I like the prospect of being one out of three. If you told me I was one out of two, I would feel more comfortable. So I just want you to know that from a
superintendent's perspective that whole thing is very very important. Um and again that superintendent if they do reach the final exit level it's up to them to tell their board their board or board chair or school committee chair
that they are being considered uh by East Lime and if they don't then that's their problem. But I just want to let you know that I know that I heard Greg at the last meeting talk about when they were going to visit. And to me, the visit really comes at the very very end.
And um so at by that time, if a person is that far along in the process, they should have uh informed their board that they are being considered. So when I was in Summers, Connecticut, just over the border, and I applied to
Hampton Warham, I was one of two and that's when I told the court a serious candidate for leaving. By the way, um I should mention that you are extremely fortunate and it's unique that you've had a
superintendent stay as long as Gordon has. That's I was 14 years in Connecticut. He's got me beat by two. So, and I thought I was setting records. So, that's it. You've been somewhat spoiled that you've had the same person.
And uh it doesn't always happen. So, it just doesn't always happen that someone is going to stay that that long. It's more like four or five years typically, right? Four, five, four, four, five, six years. I would say that you uh so I did eight or nine eight and
a half nine years in in uh Amnham. I did seven in the I went to uh was a part-time superintendent. I did seven years there. So anything over five is pretty much a lot of the three to three would be on the short
side. Five would be really what you're But if things are going well and the person's happy and you're happy and things are moving along that you never know how long there's a lot of issues that obviously could could happen
a superintendent is selected by a school board and in three years that person may be looking at five different new people and all of a sudden that person is saying I don't have the rapport that I had before. So, you never know what what
it's going to be. Um, one of the other things I just wanted to mention and then I'll just say if you have any other questions and I won't take any more of your team. Um, couple of things actually. I'll start from the bottom of my list.
Take your time. Don't rush. It's that important. And don't think you have to settle. If you have some candidate, if you come to your final group and you still are not that have you don't have to make that
final decision, you can stop, you can find someone to fill in and you can go out and revertise it. So just make sure that you feel like, oh, we've put all this work in and we're I still are maybe am not comfortable. Take your time.
Don't you don't have to settle. Um what's important though is that you people as a school board school committee that you see enough of your candidates that you have spent enough time asking questions and getting to
know that person really really well. And so what what is the what is the standard now in Connecticut is the school board names themselves as the search committee and that allows them to meet as a search
committee and avoid the open meeting laws because they're don't they're when they meet as a search committee they're not a school committee they're a search comm so that it's how the connected open meeting laws work
um But that allows them to see everyone from let's say you get 15 applications. So what we do is we bring all 15 applications to the school committee or school board and they get to see
everyone who applied. And our practice is that we have we use a traffic light. A red light would mean we have some real concerns about that candidate. Yellow light would mean we think the
candidate's okay, but what do you think? Green light would mean this person should probably get an interview. Not that we're making the selection, it's just that this person should get an interview for sure. And that's based upon us
having met the candidates and us being the search consulting having interviewed the candidates ourselves before we send them to you uh to the school board. So you would go through all the 15 candidates before the school board. We will get on and do a Zoom with all 15
candidates and we'll spend maybe a 15 to 20 minute interview on Zoom just to get a sense of their personality, why they're applying, is there any issues that we need to know about? And if we pick something up in a
person's uh paperwork, like for example, oh, you only spent two years at this place, what what was the reason for that? you know, and we do that before we send uh anyone to a search committee. So
that so we in a sense do the vetting that way and we do try to do vetting as best we can. You probably all read the news about the gentleman in Iowa familiar with that that situation. Um somebody didn't vet that person very
very well. Somebody made a mistake. Uh so that that happened that happened. Um the last thing I want to say is that when you're developing questions and I'm sure the consultant will give you a list of questions that you should have, we
like to also try to put in some what I call out of the box questions. Simply thought button. Where did you go on your last vacation? you know, just to sort of get to know the person more than um the technical kind of side of things because
everybody you meet is going to pretty much respond to the technical questions the same way. So, we like to try to ask the school committee or school boards to get to know the person a little different. It also can it has serves two things. It gives gives a little insight
into the person as an individual and then it also sort of make every time we've asked question like where did you go on your last vacation or you had a chance to go on a the golf or cook at home which one would
you do or something some crazy kind of question sort of catches the candidate offguard and it sort of gives that view an opportunity to see what happens when the person didn't expect that So those are just some things that I wanted to share with you. I thank thank
you for having me. I'm certainly willing to respond to any questions that you might have. I I was actually here when we u went through the process with Gordon and so our opportunity to meet potential candidates would be to go on visits either to their school or they will come
here as well. Do you have any suggestion on who we might talk to in terms of to get a feel for that person other than from themselves go to their district or there's two things that that I've used in the past that I think work pretty well.
First of all, you have to understand so if you were to call to call me and say Paul you're a finalist we're going to come to visit you next Friday. Can you you know um I'm going to probably put people in a
room that more than likely are going to tell tell me that I'm really wonderful. Um I did not do that, but I I'm sure that some people would. Um I told my secretary,
I want every constituency group in the room for these people to meet. So, I want custodians in there. I want par professionals. I want teachers. I want parents. I want town people. You know, you just name it. I want that. That's
who should be in that room meeting to talk about the candidate. Um, I find that one of the best things is when you bring the candidate to battle. And what we do is we try to set up individual groups to meet with those
people. So we'll put five or teachers in a room, put four or five administrators in all different we'll put paraprofessionals in a room, secretaries in a room, custodians, we'll put kids in a room and then we'll ask them some simple questions, you know, like a form
saying, you know, what was your impression of this person? We don't ask them to vote on that person, just what did you like about this person? what questions might you have had about that person? So, that's I think that's more effective because it really puts the the
candidate on the line. But I will tell you a story long time ago um very long time ago when I was a teacher. I taught in West Springfield and uh respond to your question, Greg. So, a longtime superintendent was
leaving in West Springfield. He had some health issues and for some reason uh I was selected as to represent the teachers of the entire district in West Bankville. Don't have a clue how I got selected but I was uh so I was the only
teacher on this in quote search committee and we were split into couple of groups and our group was going to go to uh Rhode Island to interview a candidate and he actually ended up being the superintendent.
So, uh, we're driving with a businessman, very prominent businessman in West Springfield, and we're driving to meet this in the town where we're going to go to meet the superintendent at his set office. And as we're driving in the in the town, the gentleman turned to me, I was driving the car, he said,
"I want you to stop." I said, "Where are we stopping?" He said, "See the barber shop over there? I'm going to the barber shop." Knocked on the door and he went in and said, "I'm from West Springfield, Massachusetts. We're interviewing his name was Felix Tomeo. He's your
superintendent. Anybody know him? And that so not saying you should stop at every barber shop and coffee shop, but that was something I never forgot that this this gentleman thought that that was the way he was going to find him. Did somebody know him there? Did they did he? Yeah, I remember that there was some
people said, "Oh, yeah, we know the guy, you know." So at least it it it was but it was I thought was important that here was this gentleman very prominent businessman in West Springfield decided I'm not going to go through the traditional stuff. I'm going to go talk to the guys at the barber shop and find
out. So you mentioned Rhode Island for the West Springfield candidate. How far would you recommend we look in our search? I know this will be New England. Yeah. New England New York. Yeah. uh because you're going to find people are somewhat the northeast is
pretty similar in terms of how school districts are run. Uh go beyond that, things get different. You get into large county school districts, it's very very different than than what we're used to in in Massachusetts, you know.
So if if we were what East Meadow was in Colorado, you would be with 10 or 20 other towns in a big county group. One superintendent. One superendent. Yeah. So, I would think that I'm not saying that it's a wrong it's it's not not that you should not look at someone
from outside, but what I'm saying to you is that normally if if I was doing a search, I would be getting sending out your information to the superintendent organizations in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut
obviously Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, Maine actually. Okay. Have you decided like have you had that discussion of what you're looking for in terms of experience and all of that? We have not done that yet, but we will
in terms of the job description and the um the posting for the job. Uh we will tackle those parts of it. Yeah. Y questions from the committee. We're we're timing is right for us. We're early, right? Wouldn't you say? I
think you're doing well. Okay. Yeah. We've got a new building to sell. Sure. We've got a fantastic school committee. Crickets. You know, our budget sound relatively. So, I think it's going to be a relatively soughtafter job, wouldn't you
say? Yes. Okay. Um the first year will not be an easy year because that person will be bringing the new the new school on board and that's a very very busy busy time.
And uh obviously that person going to need a lot of help from people who are currently here. Um but after that so when I left Hampton Wilberham the person who replaced me was Marty O'Shea who's
now the superintendent at Long Meadow. So Marty had been the principal of Minutach. know we we passed all of the overrides and all of that and then I left. I had it in my mind that e if I was going to
it would not be in everyone's best interest if I stayed and left the project halfway done and then a new person came on. So to me it was either I leave now or I stay for three more years because that's
how one takes. Yep. I decided that I was going to leave. I was qualified to retire. It's a good question. Yeah, it will be I know it will be a challenge for the for the new person to jump right in. We're literally going to open the building, you know, a week
after they start. And um I mean, it's run very smoothly so far, you know, knock on wood. Um but I think it will be part of the appeal. I'm hoping um because that'll be a brand new office uh you know for as much as that means uh in
a brand new building. So, okay, Paul, I want to thank you for coming on today. Thank you. May touch base with you again as we go through the process. And uh we'll see you tomorrow night. You going to the uh planning board? I saw you there last time.
Yeah, it's here tomorrow night, just so you know. I know. Yeah, I should be there. Tell your neighbors, right? Okay, take care. Thank you, Paul. Appreciate it. Okay, moving along. We have the East Middle Public School status report and
draft of the 2526 ELPS smart goals. So, the draft of the smart goals are embedded in this presentation and they're based on looking at the data um and tweaking it based on uh the needs of this year.
So, um, which is not here, so it's it's me today. Um, the first page is our demographics, and it's always just kind of important to check in and see where we're at. There has been a little movement in a lot of these groups. Um,
however, our percentage of kiddos who are white has continues to shrink. Last year it was 73 and this year is 71.3. And just you know another reminder as to uh all the kiddos who are going to East Long Menopa and meeting the needs of all
of our students. So that's embedded in our smart goals supporting the whole child um by creating a safe, joyful, nurturing, equitable and inclusive learning environment which students feel valued, connected and ready to learn. We will see an increase in daily attendance and a reduction in chronic absenteeism.
ELPS students will also show an increased sense of community and belonging as reported in the ELPS wellness and screeners. And I would argue that would als it's also going to increase academic achievement. So we will be looking like we did last year at our daily attendance rate at our chronic
absenteeism percentage and on student reported percentages on belonging on our wellness and climate screen. So we have our action steps. Um a lot of these are are similar to last year. We are lucky that we did onboard hire and
on board a new ELPS coordinator of VECO student belonging and family engagement um who will be working uh with schools with principles and with kids um to help increase uh improve school climate. Not
that it needs to be improved but there's always work that we can do. um and increase family engagement. Um so, uh I know there are it's a lot information here, so I don't want to read them all to you unless you would like me to.
No, that's okay. Yep. Thank you. So, uh this is our attendance rate through uh the second. So, last year is on the right hand column and through the second is here. So, we're looking good in terms of our percentages.
And we gave our first uh wellness and climate screener. And these are just a few results from our 3 to five belonging um responses. We have 85.8% of the kiddos in grades three to five saying they can feel like they can be
themselves at school and 91.5% of the kiddos feel that they are welcome at their school. So, the way that the teams look at this is um the wellness screeners, we do look for students who we we want to check in with if they're
reporting, we have other questions like I feel lonely this amount of time, I feel happy. So, the counselors do look at that information, but the MTSS teams also look for trends because obviously we want all kids to feel like they can be themselves at school. So, they dig deeper into the why and we try different
initiatives to improve this. And this is the 6 to 12 belonging responses. So, uh, I thought this was really great for secondary. Uh, we don't have a whole lot of kids who don't feel like they're part of the community or kids who feel like they can't be their true self. There's
always room for improvement, but um, middle school and high school are tough times for kids. And so, responses to start off the year. And then we have our accountability data. Now, this is from last year. This is our product absenteeism for the non-
high school and high school. So the way that the accountability system works is they basically group the high school kids and then everybody else. Um obviously um for the MCCAST that doesn't include our K to2 students. Um so as you
can see we uh exceeded or improved our target in the non- high school groups for all at schools for all kids. And uh we did in exceeded our target at the high school um but we did decline a bit for low-income students and students
with disabilities. Um so it's a constant effort because obviously if kids aren't at school it's going to be hard for them to learn. Um and the high school does have a graduation coach that works with kids, a whole team. So, it it's definitely something that's continued to
work on, make sure kids are getting to school. And stop me anytime. I'm going to just go through. Yep. Um, I'm really excited about this. This is advanced coursework completion at the high school. So, you'll see in a few minutes the the MCCAST scores at the
high school dipped. Um, and they dipped across the state. I'll talk about that. Um and one major reason that I'm thinking is because uh it's no longer required for graduation. So students didn't necessarily not all students necessarily uh put forth their best
effort. Um but advanced coursework is is separate from that. That's really a a group effort at the high school and it starts actually at um the elementary schools getting kids ready to be able to take these advanced classes in the high school. And so what I was really excited
about is students with disabilities, we exceeded the target and we went up 9.7 percentile points. And so that's been a target of making sure all kids have access to advanced coursework completion and reducing barriers so that all kids can excel. So that was an exciting thing
to see and our graduation rate. And like I said, we have a graduation coach. This is looking great. These are our uh goals for teaching and learning. So um we continue to implement
high quality instructional materials um and instruction rooted instruct in universal design for learning and culturally sustaining pedigogy um and want to see increases in um our academic scores across um lines of race,
socioeconomic status, ethnicity and special education status. So these are just aggregates right now. Um but basically we looked at our our scores from last year which are listed here and raised the bar a bit. Uh ideally you'd want 80% or more at or above grade level
by the end of the year but we're also doing increments that are are attainable within the year and you'll see that a lot of these are quite high. So uh we have a lofty goal but we have excellent objects. Any questions on these? Did you want me
to go through? Okay. And so these are our action steps and we continue to provide professional development coaching uh frequent classroom observations with actionable feedback um and building MTSS teams to
monitor interventions and make sure kids are getting what they need and no one's falling through the cracks. Um I've already started uh learning walks with principles and done three um so far. Um and they have looked like Miss Stenta
said earlier this a great start to the school year. Um and what we do is we we talk about things that we saw and we send out trends. We send out glows, things that we think are great and things to think about some grows. Um and it's just overall trend. This is not
individual feedback at this point. Um the professional development this year is going to be half curriculum based and half whole childbased. So um there'll be curricular sessions facilitated by department heads around curriculum and instruction. And then we'll also have
choice from around our social emotional learning um through Vanetta Lightfoot who is the director of belonging equity diversity equity inclusion and belonging at uh LBPC and um we also are bringing in James Schultz is from safe schools
and we also have a partnership with Massachusetts Partnership for Youth. So we'll have a lot of different options for them as well. And so here's the data from the beginning of the year. So this is not last year, this is this year. Um the the
blue is and green are basically kids not needing extra support. Um the yellow and red are kids who are needing extra support. So we ended the year last year with kindergarten at 73% at or above grade level or in the green or the blue.
Um we're entering with 44% dating support. Last year we entered with 29%. Um the good news is in addition to the the tier one instruction that they're getting there. Uh this is where the kids are getting their um high dosage
tutoring. The kids who we've identified with Amplify. We started that today and they were so excited. I actually was there to help get them set up. So, um, our neediest group is that first grade group and you know, research shows if you target first grade, it's you get the most bang for your buck. So,
this is a remote tutoring, the remote tutoring while other kids are getting small group time. So, the kids are really excited. They're excited about their headphones and the microphone and they're still in the classroom with everybody else or have So, some of the we set it up so that some are in the classroom with other
folks, but we also wanted to take the burden off of teachers trying to manage lots of things. So, the interventionists um have some blocks of time in their schedule where we brought all of the kids to one classroom, got them all logged in. As you can imagine, getting a bunch of first grade kids all logged in.
There's lots of things to click. So, they all got set up. And so, um we decided that would be a great way to kind of introduce the program so teachers weren't feeling overwhelmed while they were also trying to do small group instruction with kids in case there's technical difficulties or other things. And how many students are going
to use that service? 32 kits total. We got 32 slots. Um and then second grade is in um better shape than last year. We had kits begin 50% needing support. This year is 37%.
Um so and as you remember from the growth last year, we got a lot of kids at or above grade level by the end of the year. The goal being all of them. Um, and this is our I Ready and EXL. So, the
three through eight schools use I Ready reading. Um, and this is, uh, where kids are at. And, um, it's important to know that yellow is not something to be worried about at the beginning of the year because yellow green basically means that kids have mastered some of
the grade level standards that they're entering. So, if I'm a fourth grade student and I'm in the green, I've already mastered some fourth grade standards. If I'm in the yellow, I've mastered my third grade standards and I'm ready for those fourth grade standards. Anyone in um the red are are
behind um terms of some gaps in their learning and that's what we target immediately in terms of supports and interventions. Um, but we're in great shape if you look at it that way in terms of kids really being ready to to um access the curriculum this year. And
then the LL is what we use for ninth and tth grade. Um, again, the same scale in terms of the dark green, light green. Um, so we have about 28% of the kids needing some extra support. And as we've
shared along the way, the ninth grade team has set themselves up in teams so that they can provide extra support for kids who need it. Um, it's often really difficult to schedule interventions in a second in a high school and they've done a great job to create some creative
schedules to make sure kids are getting the support they need. Can I ask what kind of support are they getting at the high school level? Because that's concerning. That looks concerning to me. The Yes. So, and the interesting thing
about the ISL reading is it does measure different things than I Ready um in the sense that I Ready is uh phonics phmic awareness if if that's where kids are at otherwise they test out or they max score uh vocabulary and
in comprehension and informational text and um lit literary text also is claims to assess grammar and writing um the kids aren't actually writing, it's just based on multiple choice. So,
uh they do get access to um the LL personalized learning, but they also get uh support in their fund foundational classes. So, the foundational classes are organized around who needs what supports. Um and they're taught by
English and math teachers. So that's my goal is to uh you know as we continue to implement high quality instruction materials make these numbers shrink and really catch kids much earlier because yeah it's concerning if you have that many kids. So foundations courses are they're
utilizing the results of these to inform the instruction already closer yes closer to to close those gaps so that they're able to access the grade level content. How many years have we used? This is only the second year really
perfecting it. So were the numbers similar? I know slightly different cohort cohort, but yeah, they tend to do worse on than I Ready and um you know and so you see an eighth grade group looking fine on I Ready and then the next year. So I you know it's two different tests. So it's
hard to to compare apples to oranges and you know um there's definitely a culture of I Ready at Birchland whereas that culture of Il is not necessarily there for ninth graders. So I'm saying that in terms of how how much people are really investing into this at this point um and
how accurate the data is. But for the most part, you know, kids are going to do the best that they can. And so, you know, the the idea is to make sure that we're addressing the kids who have gaps so they can get supports because that's saying one in three are having gaps, correct? One in three students, a third.
Yeah. Yeah. Is that common in other districts? Do you know is that a So, I think different than I Ready. So, I unfortunately does not provide national norms for anything above 8th grade, which is really frustrating. So,
I can't really compare. Um, I do have national learners for I Ready, but um, it feels like is trying to catch up to the diagnostic game. They were personalized learning and now they're trying to do something similar to as I Ready in terms of having computer
adapted tests and things. So, I think we'll see more things in iixel as we go along, but they're pretty new to this game at least. If not, do we plan to stay with my XL or are you would you have like the mindset to shift to
something else? Yeah, we talked with the the high school to see, you know, if this is working, but um they really do appreciate the fact that the personalized learning is connected directly to how kids do. So, that's helpful. Um just like at Birchland Park, the I Ready is connected. And while
there's a diagnostic for the older kids, they don't have personalized IRA does not have personalized learning for anyone above 9th grade at this point. So that was the deterrent to continue with Ire. Are we able to or has there been any
discussion of adding any of the new um DESIE requirements for graduation in our goals? So the new desi well we're working on the new competency determination which is different than the graduation. I'm just saying that for everyone. Um and
there is a piece of that now. So that has evolved. At first it was kind of like it was a local decision and then Desi turned around and said actually you know you have to have these things and so we do need to show how kids are mastering the skills. Mhm.
So that will be aligned to the smart goals, but we are in the process of doing that. So those will be added into this. I don't know about this year because we're we have till December to do that. So okay, you know, it might be something that we
talk about and implement the following year, but obviously the goal is always that kids are mastering the skills, right? So, um, that's one of the things that they're working on on the during department times and the professional development day are are really, um, tightening up
our common assessments, especially for math and ELA, um, and and determining exactly what mastery looks like. That's what we have, competency determination. So,
um, this is, uh, the national norms comparison for IE. So for reading again this is third grade through 8th grade and we're all the way on the right comp and the national norm's all the way on the left and that's the national norm
from fall 22 to 23 then the year to date 25 to 26 and then mass and so we are starting the year with kiddos much more ready to learn than Massachusetts as a whole and nationally and then this is our trend of how we
start off the year, year to year. Um, and as you can see, it's pretty steady. Um, what we want to see is obviously it would be great to have more kids starting the year in the green, but really reducing that red um by continuing to improve tier one
instruction and and making sure that our interventions are aligned so that we're catching kids early and getting them the supports that they need. Um, where' those 400 students go? Um so we used to use I ready reading with uh K to2 and then we switched over
to Dibbles. Um partly because um mostly because we get better information from Dibbles for the early um earlier ages but also Dibbles was a completely um approved early literacy screener whereas I Ready was if we did
their one-on-one assessments which is basically what Dibbles does. So that's why we end up switching. So that there's the gap. Y we didn't lose 500 kids. Does this does this slide concern you at all either? This to me is
having 26% of kids. Yes. And even in the in the yellow too. Well, the yellow at the beginning of the year, remember, means that they for the most part. Now they you can break this down into each category. So, I could have uh I could be uh green in
phonics but yellow in my comprehension. Um but generally speaking, at the beginning of the year, yellow means I'm ready to go. It doesn't it doesn't really mean, and I just went to the um our I Ready rep to make sure I was on par point with this, but it doesn't
really mean they're one grade level below. If I'm starting fourth grade, I've got my third grade standards. I'm one grade level below because I don't have any fourth grade standards. Why do they report it like that for I don't know because it makes it really confusing because at the end of the year it's a totally different story.
Doesn't even Yeah. So obviously the more kids we have in green then that's great because we have kids really ahead of the game. But for me at the beginning of the year I want to see the red shirt. Um so going back in time again to our
accountability uh we are uh substantial progress towards target. They don't give an accountability percentile to districts just for schools. Um but all of our schools are not requiring assistance or intervention which is to be um and it it
was great to see that there is a high um growth for the most part across the board for ELA grades three to eight. Um and uh like I said earlier there was a dip in scores from MCCAST. So there was
low growth because if the achievement declines so does the growth. Um and then achievement for 3 to eight we uh exceeded or improved in most of the areas. um declining with high needs and
uh multi-race kiddos who identify as multi-race um who are not Latino. Um so, you know, again, we kind of look at trends and try to figure those things out, but for the most part um we were either no change or incre increased. And
I took down notes on this to let you know that the third grade actually this is not one of the ones that dipped just the high school and science in general. Um again uh the achievement dipped and I
have this here. So it averaged in uh a six percentage point drop in high school ELA scores across the state. So when I dug a little deeper
into this, what really brought us down is the performance on the essay, which could mean one of two things. It could mean that we need to improve writing instruction. Um, and uh, we do have a a new curriculum in place that we're still adopting that will help address that.
Plus, excellent teachers. Um, but I also think about a high school student who might think, um, this doesn't really count towards anything. I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time writing an excellent essay if I don't need it to graduate. So, this is 10th grade essay.
This is the high school. So, we did fine on all the reading. um standards. It was the writing standards that we dipped quite a bit on. What was the percentage that we dipped for ELA? Um in general, all students 13.3
percentile points. It was in deep increase decrease for ELA and math. Well, those are that's not percentile points though, is it? Those are points. Total points because it's out of 500. So 13 is like 3%. And you said the state average was six or was that? Yeah.
Sure. Correct. Yeah. And from 19 2019, the state dipped 10 10 10. Actually, they say percentage points. Six percentage points. That's not a percent though. Not here, but in general. So, we're
doing better than the state if that's the case, right? Because the state dips six percentage points. 13 points. It is. This is not what we want to see. Um but yeah trying to think about incentives for amcast
when it's not part of the graduation that's a certainly an issue that's across the commonwealth as you just mentioned but how are we are I mean I don't even know how to wrap my mind around that like you can't like you said can't necessarily incentivize a student to
want to sit and put everything they've got to that essay when they don't they no longer needed to graduate So, how do we combat that? And is not a sprint, it's a marathon. A lot of what it is is stamina, too, right? So, if I'm exhausted and I don't have that,
how other districts perform? Uh, there's aircraft. Can I make a comment on why I think the scores are so low? Yes, absolutely. I think it's, as I've seen in like high school, a lot of people are using AI to
write essays. So, kids don't know how to write essays anymore. They already forgot. Yeah. Yeah. Like MCCAST when I took it, I almost got a perfect score on it. It was not it's it's not a difficult essay, but every class I'm in, every English class, they AI their essays,
and kids don't know how to write anymore, even in AP classes. So, it's not just like standard or honors, it's an AP issue, too. It's all across. And you can't get AI to write your AMCAST essay. No. Right. Can't do it on the AP exams either.
That's why people didn't do as good. they did in the classes. Okay, that's a really important insight. When we're writing our AI, they should write essays in class then instead of writing them at home, they write them at home and use AI, but if they did it in class, I wonder if that could change help them. Yeah. And then I think that's also why
the math excel scores and the English scores are so low because kids don't know how to use grammar because they just have AI do it. Trouble insightful thing that's been said. I think a lot of it has to do also though
with our messaging and if there's any incentives for the kids to do well on it. Um because there aren't pockets of schools that have done well their MCCAST and I think that's a learning thing too. It's like how do we how do we not everyone dipped like
it dipped across the state. I'm not saying we all dipped this much but yeah like what what what is the why? Is it the AI? Is it how we message it? You know, there's a lot of things to think about to improve that.
And then math, math, we're even stronger, which is not something I would have said a couple years ago. So, I'm very excited about this in terms of grades one through eight. So, we do give the I Ready math to first grade and second grade. Um
on the other hand uh the ninth and tenth as you can see is concerning and it is always interesting to see the end of the year eighth grade math scores and then look at the so I think one of the things data does is
make you ask questions right so how was last year h how was last year similar we we also did not do as well on the as the kids had done previously ly in uh eighth grade irony.
That's 57% of the gaps. Yeah. Yeah. Where are these kids taking the test? Like is it in their math class? Is it what kind of setting is it in? It is in their math class. Okay.
Um and is it over how long is the test? the assessment. I think it's a 45 minute. They just changed it. They had they have a flex and they have a level up. Um and so we just switched over to level up. Um flex
what they had last year allowed kids to even skip um questions they didn't know. Um because it was really more designed for figuring out what kids knew as opposed to kind of also using this as a barometer for the school. So the the new
level up gives them grade level standards. Um so what do you think the where do you think the disconnect is coming from? So if we're saying like by you know how this data looks students that are leaving eth grade are in pretty good shape but then like maybe they're I
mean I don't understand the disconnect between the eth and the ninth. Do you like think that there's something well when do they take this assessment? The beginning of the school year and math class. So, you have a sum you have the summer. Yeah. But this is this is
I'd also be interested to see what their grades are in these math classes as well. This is one assessment that they're taking. Like what are the teachers saying about So, I mean, I think you're all coming up with some really good things here, like, you know, could we change the testing
environment, right? At Birland, they shut down. It's like an MCCAST day. Kids take the I Ready. If they don't finish because it's untimed, they go someplace else to finish. So, are there lessons we can learn from just how we administered or the assessments? I think the data
that um you know both I ready and excel provide are actually more insightful than MCCAST. To me, MCCAST, it's a couple of days, very high stakes testing that many of our students because of anxiety or whatever the issue might be, that's not going to be necessarily how
we know how they're this is how we're really going to know and be able to like drill down with the specific skills. This is how we know how they're doing. Y and it's the disconnect to me is what's really standing out. We're saying in eighth grade the students are basically getting it and then by the time we get
to the the way that we're assessing them in ninth grade there's a major there's a major gap we but it's two different products it absolutely right and so like is there like in terms of looking at the questions that are being asked versus like what was covered
because I think it's hard if this was the same product that followed them all the way through but in theory the concepts should be the same well it's one grade level, two grade level behind, three grade level. So I mean they're behind the assessment is
showing they're behind sign. Yeah. Yeah. The high school will be able to answer more specific questions. They'll bring they can bring the domain they can break it down between 9th and 10th grade. um you know this does uh assess all kinds
of things like geometry and measurement and things like that whereas in ninth grade they're taking for the most part algebra. Um so one way of looking at this is maybe we just focus in on that algebra domain in terms of measuring how
well we're doing there. Um but yeah I think you have a point. I mean it's two different products so it is hard to compare and all the students take it. Yes. Right. And so is there any like so in terms of like students that are on IEP or 504 the math they may have been
exposed like I'm just wondering if there's a difference in terms of what they've gained through and what they're being asked to perform on this test. Yeah. And yeahurricular computer adapted test. So I can't even tell you what the questions are at this point. Mhm. Um,
are we not aligned uh or are we not pacing correctly or? Actually, uh, the eighth graders who took algebra last year did really well on the algebra final, which is the same final that ninth grade algebra kids
take. So, that is aligned. Um, this is just bringing up more questions. Do I think 53% of our kids are below grade level in math? No. Um, so I think there's some great questions that you brought up that we can dig deeper into.
Maybe to Caitlyn's point, kids are learning completely differently now. Yeah. And I don't know, are we adapting as well as we could be? Maybe that's a big question for a lot of days coming, but I'm not sure. What do you think?
Yeah, I think that um kids like I know at least like I'm in AP Calc right now a lot of kids like they do their work but like the lower levels like they'll just like AI the work and they don't know how to do it and then it comes to the test and they fail. So it's a really big
issue like it's in every grade. So you've seen photo math. Yeah, photo math, loose chat, GPT. I mean, one way around that is when you know you were talking about the competency determination is looking at mastery of standards, right? So you know
like giving that in the class essay, do you know how to write an essay or not? Right? Um so well and if AI is truly um throwing us off then we have to adjust how we're doing things and maybe that means not
allowing you know the laptops and phones in the class when we're writing essays. So maybe we go back to handwriting essays. I don't know. We could do handwriting anymore, right? Not really. But I know that for like AP Lang, um our teacher would have us we
have a lockdown browser in AP classroom where you can't access anything else. So you could you type your essay and then you'd have to submit and then you couldn't access anything else. There's also ways to identify if it's AI as well. Yes. I mean not really
if there's it's really hard. It is hard because you're using AI to detect AI. Yeah, that that's what's really right. But I know teachers that have been able to do it and I mean is there some kind of policy in place in their classrooms that if you do get caught
using this like what are the consequences for it? Are there AI polic but in the same breath we're going to have a policy committee soon and AI is one of them. put in the same breath some a kid using Grammarly that's AI would get detected by would get detected
by AI uh which is slightly different then but very similar to spellch check that's AI too AI has been around for a long time we're just realizing it now but composing the whole essay is
that's the problem that is the problem do do are the instructions Gayen for your assignments to not use AI specifically or is that not brought up? It's brought up usually in like the syllabus like teachers will say they have like copy and paste detectors. If you get caught using AI, you get a zero.
Okay. It's usually like I think all my classes have said that discourage stuff at least. No. I don't think so. Well, if we're using it openly and we're doing it. No, but in a silly question because we
are as educators going to have to adapt and there is going to be some of it that's going to need to be allowed. We can't outpace this. No, we cannot outpace. We're in the early stages of calculators. That's it. Yeah, that's where we're at the very stage when calculators came in. Oh, your brain, you're not going to be able to do the more the calculations and the
calculations got easy, more difficult, and the calculators help, but they weren't necessarily we're learning how to use AI, not necessarily. Um, it's going to some people using it to do everything, but some will get to the point where it just becomes another tool. Yeah,
this is our second year of this assessment. How does this sort of line up with MCCAST data in terms of math and language? This is just quickly the I Ready similar 54
high growth 3 to 8. Um some high growth in high school despite the dip. Our dip in mathematics was not the same as a dip in ELA. um just to get there uh as you can see here. So this is the how we did it in
terms of the outcast and different subgroups for achievement. Is the target based on the prior year? Is that what that Yes. And they keep changing the target. They keep making it moving the target. They're moving the target. Yes. But will our target be lower than 507
next year? Do you because we're lower this year. That's a great question. How do they go when that I think it keeps I don't think they adjust for going backwards. No. Is that a statewide target or that's an east middle target? 507 state makes it
for all all districts is 507. No for each district based on year is different history of that. So the algorithm yeah it's a very interesting algorithm that's
hard to parse out I have to say and science has dipped as well uh across the board but also here. So I I think it you brought up a lot of different things you know testing environment this did a lot
science more than the others. No not English. No, we tended to do really well in I didn't the past few years we have done quite well last year for a school of recognition the high school was for math and ELA. So obviously things haven't changed dramatically that all of a
sudden you know kids aren't teachers aren't teaching kids aren't learning like something else is going on you know uh because yeah we had high achievement and high growth at the high school last year and we're at Maple Shaver schools of achievement right recognition so
yeah I think it's like like AI the times are changing with MCCAST what do we do And then our last one is always about creating an inclusive and supportive culturing climate because again kids don't feel like they belong. Research shows they're not going to do well in
school and it's also going to affect other things. Um and so as I talked about before we look at an individual level at this um survey data, but we also look for trends. Um so the beginning of the year we have 76.9% of kiddos three through five feel like the
staff treat the students respectfully always. And then 257 sometimes. And as you know, kids often mean sometimes as usually. Um so a very small never. And also students at my school treat each other respectfully. A very small never
which is great. Um and then about 6 to 12. My school is inclusive of all backgrounds and identities. Again, pretty strong responses to the positive. And in my school, teachers greet me um daily for the most part. Most. So that's
great. So yes, we have work to do. Um but we are not alone in the state. Um and uh we just have to dig deeper into the data and see what what's really going on.
But this is where we're at. I was curious early on you talked about belonging and connection and how that benchmarks compared to other schools because like you just said you know feeling like you matter and looking at that population does tend to affect
academics. So I just how do we stack up? Do we know in the past we used panorama dashboard. We stopped using panorama for budget reasons. It we were able to get a new data dashboard for um a much lower price
that can do more. However, the one thing we don't have that Panorama allowed us to have is national benchmarks for those questions. So I don't have national benchmarks for those questions, but we always did really well in terms of belonging and culture and climate as an aggregate. When you disagregate,
you start to see some patterns with different groups of kiddos who are not necessarily feeling that way. And how are we addressing those patterns? Exactly. So uh that's one of the things that the MTSS teams do. So for example, at the high school, Frank brought this to all the department heads. He brought this to the staff. They did a lot of
different things to what's going on, what's the why, and what are some things that we can do. Are we gonna be reinvigorating the DEI mini because it hasn't started up yet? And last year kind of, you know,
we had some ups and downs with even meetings and I don't even know like from a federal level, are we even allowed to do that? I don't know. I'm not sure if we're allowed to, but Gordon said we'll start up in November. Oh, we'll start in November. Okay. because that kind of goes to Carrie's question which is how do you know what's the bigger picture? How are we talking
about? Yeah. So, one of the things that ended up happening is changing the policies, right? So, we did um we revised um as a district equity and um diversity committee. We've revised a bunch of policies around safe spaces and
discrimination and then brought to the school committee to so that's an example of a big thing that happened. All right. Thank you, Heather. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Okay, that was let go. So we can move on
to the assistant superintendent for giving us report for the FY6 first quarter report. Yeah. Uh so attached is a spreadsheet that is designed as a financial update for the FY26 school budget as of September 30th. Um as a reminder, this report also includes grants and
revolving accounts. If you go to page five, that brings you right to the uh spreadsheet. All these salaries are on the top section of the spreadsheet and um 80% of our budget is per salary.
Different items that fall under salary. Um most of the salaries are uncovered at the beginning of the school year. Uh however, which you can see down the bottom there when uh the salary site has 29 million budgeted, we've expended 4
million and encumbered 23.8 million leaving an available 1.8 million. As you can see that the the bulk of it has already been encumbered. Um as you go down the list here, the athletics coaches and game event staff, they're they're not encumbered there until you know it's expended. Um under the nurses
and medical staff, we have hourly uh staff or pay as needed for IEP needs. Clerical and custodial, those are really longevity that's paid at year end that's uh remaining there. pair of professionals. We still have a few vacant positions, some that people start and then they quit and then we got to
post again. So, uh you'll see this, you know, revised as the year goes on. Um the KOD SLPA, uh SLPA, ELLL, new tutors, that has a those are hourly people. So, you're going to see the balance there.
So, the teachers, um they're 21.1 million. Um last year, I believe we were at 21.6 6 million but as you recall we had a reduction in force. So the number is lower this year. Um so the the balance that you see there is really due
to FMLA leave of absence or changing in staff. Um if somebody leaves and somebody else comes in at a lower rate perhaps. Um again I'll keep uh monitoring this from month to month and but I think we're in a very good place. Um you have administration those are just contractual obligations that are
remaining there. They're paid out maybe at year end. Um I broke out uh permanent building subs from the regular subline so that we could track that. As you recall, each um school has one permanent building sub there which really helps the school immensely. Um and then
there's just a little bit of the professional development which mandated trainees internal um PD that's that's done there. Are there any questions on the salary side? The permanent building that's for five the 115. Yep. Okay.
Development too. This is title two. No, this is the operating subtract just um Y have we always had SLPAS? Yes. Okay. Yes.
I didn't know we had them. Yeah. Okay. Great. So, the bottom section is your expense side of the budget, which of course is the remaining 20%, which is not a whole lot to run a district on. Um, as you make your way down, uh, the copers are not encumbered yet. Actually, the town
does that purchase order and they just have not, um, you know, done that yet. I'm sure it's going to be on the next, uh, report that I bring to you. Uh, contracted services. So, what do I want you to know about this? Um, last year we had uh, $3.2 million. Uh, this year we
have increased at $400,000 for that to help um, offset the rising costs that we saw last year. So, again, I'm feeling good about that. Um I've worked with then I'll go to the next line the special ed out of district tuitions um $2.5 million. Last year we we had budget
of $1.1 million. Um so that was a huge increase that we talked about last year. Um and as a reminder um this is one funding source for out of district tuitions. We also have um the IDA grant and we also have circuit breaker uh
revolving account. So um I feel good about this. Um I've sat down with um the student services department to make sure that you know all of the out of district tuitions are encumbered that we're on top of that. So um again I'm feeling pretty confident with this uh vocational
tuition you'll see that that's rising. Um it's a steady increase. Prior to CO there were only 23 students and this year there's 76. So this number has been really rising. Wow. Yeah it's it's tripled. I went back to look at the numbers and it was like 20. Actually I have it written down there somewhere. It's like
it is great. It was 21 23 this FY19 there was 21 students that 20 uh 23 27 29 43 59 70 and 76. So that's really I agree. It's great. Like Amy said, I'm just concerned on the budget side of it
as we continue to grow. I mentioned some districts cap the number that they send out or and there there are conversations happening about that as well. And um also what can the collaborative um handle, right? Yeah. Right. Right. And then there's a balance between the seven member
districts, which we are one of the seven of course with then um uh districts that are not member districts like because now we want more there's more and more kids interested in coming here. So those conversations are happening and I expect them to continue.
um office expense, uh custodial supplies. Um we we do have some supplies in here, but I I want to remind you that school supplies will be funded this year from the school choice revolving account. So I had zeroed out all of the I had to
that was part of our budget strategy last year. um which I'm not going to lie is causing me a little angst about the now FY27 budget because we need to get those monies back into the budget because school choice is not going to be able to keep doing this for us. So, um
we'll talk about that further as time goes on. Um but how much is that? What did we take out? I believe it was about $450,000 million bucks. Yeah. Half a million dollars. Yeah. So, um, the schools, I set up accounts for each of them. And, um, we're getting the
schools what they need, but we also had many conversations here at this table and then in our leadership team about, you know, let's really look at the supplies that we are ordering and make sure these are things that we really need because any monies that we can save. And again, I want to be clear, if
we need something in the schools, we're getting it. And we want the students to get everything they need. But anything we can save school choice is going to roll over for to help us for FY27 that concern that I am having. So um wanted to remind everybody there. Um so the
bottom line here is our operating budget is 36,895004. We have expended to date uh as of September 30th 4,960800. We have encumbered 29,628027 leaving a remaining available balance as
of September 30th of 2,306178. Um it's imperative to remember that the balances provided are snapshot in time and are changing constantly which is why I'm always reviewing accounts and you know uh any question on the operating.
Did you mention the balance of the teachers that's 22? I didn't specifically say that. It It does seem a tiny bit high. So, I want to I want to delve into that, but I didn't get to do that many. Um can't I don't think No, I I don't think we we have that many
there are. Okay. And and if we I do have um seven leave of absences. Um I didn't hone in on how many. I think the bulk are the teachers. There might be one or two a different bargaining unit. So, if somebody has to
leave um and and I put a long-term sub in instead, that money is coming out of the subline and not so it could be those kind of things. But it does take some time, as you can imagine, to really go in and investigate and all all my accounts and everybody is encumbered and and everybody's where they're supposed
to be. Um so, that's what I'll be working on next month for you. Good. Okay. So, the next section are your grants. uh we have uh federal grants and state grants and private grants. The federal grants these are most of these are entitlement grants. So we get them
year after year. Um there is an application process that we have to go to kind of um put the plan in on how exactly we're going to expend the funds. Um so we've got the we we rolled over uh FY24 specialed IDEIDA and FY25 specialed
IDEIDA. Those amounts will be um used up this this year. Um, so does that mean we won't be rolling any IDA? We don't typically roll over um the grants. This was a unique situation. They had um a line item in the grant called equitable services where you have
to offer um supplies or tutoring or to um uh students that are not in our district. Um they're not coming to ELPS. They're private school because the parents might have them at homeschooling or in a different in a different school that we need to offer. But it's not so
simple because most of the time they say, "Yeah, no thanks. We're we're good." So this money has been sitting there. We couldn't expend it on anything else other than these services, which when we're doing some tutoring, but that takes a long time to eat up, you know,
$10,000. Um so um just recently Desi uh we had to jump through some hoops to and explain all of this that kind of I'm talking about now. And so they have just um allowed us that we can spend this money on something other than equitable
services because we've proved that we've we've really tried to do to spend it but just couldn't. So is that going to create by expending at the 24 the eight and change is that creating a cliff as you were concerned about the other cliff? Can you rephrase that?
So we're we're uh we're putting 1.7 in IDA this year into our operating budget. You've expended 1.7 million already. The 888 and the 863 FYI talking operating budget versus the
No, I'm talking grants. We're spending the grants. Yeah. Right. So, you've expended the 8.88 for the FY24. Oh, that Yeah, cuz I was just showing you what the full amount FY25. No, that was from FY24 that it was fully like all that was expended. We didn't
just expend it. Now, I'm sorry if I didn't. Why is it on this chart then? Because it was the full grant. I wanted to show to be transparent what the full amount was and what is just remaining. So, that 888 was expended last year. Yes. Yes. I apologize. That's But the 863 was expended this year.
No, that that was expended FY25. I only have 11,000 this year. Oh, the 26. Yes, Roger. I'm sorry that that wasn't clear. You're welcome. So the current FY26 IDEIDA is 864,000 and the bulk of that you can see the
incumbrance there 797. You're showing it because there's an available balance. That's why I got them all listed. Yes. Okay. Thanks. I got it. Sorry about that. No, I thought you were expending those as you're No, no, no, no, no. I feel we are in we are in a good place. Um I do not have any concerns at this point in time. Um
so as you follow them down here, they send these the same grants. Title one, title two, title four. Um, then we go into our state grants. Again, we always get the uh, excuse me, DPH comprehensive school health grant that used to be 80,000. They reduced it to 72,000 this
year. Yes. And, um, spook committee did already approve all of these uh, new grants. Um, I don't know if it was at the last meeting or the meeting before that. Um, so all of these have been approved. Um we get the we have the MECO grant which
is 350,772 and um the bulk of that well it helps the transportation costs um to uh you know transport the MECO students. Um we have a new uh what's her title? Coordinator of MECO student belonging and family engagement.
Yeah. Shandria Shandria Nicole who's doing a fabulous job. Um her salary is also covered under this MECO grant. The METCO B grant was really last year's carryover that they wanted it set up in a new grant for this year,
but that's really what that money is. And actually, Heather's working with um student services director. Yeah, that's going to be for uh supplies. Did I just see right some curriculum for Yeah. Um and the last private grant that was um Mr. McGee was recently here for that
USA with United States Tennis Association. Uh we gave $1,000. Um thank you very much. And that'll help um pay for tennis court rentals. So, you know, all in all, um as a reminder, um I spend
grants down, we spend grants down, and then I uh I go in and it's a reimbursement process. So, we spend it, then I go in monthly and draw down what we have expended so that I can make sure to stay on top of uh revenues coming in to cover those expenses. So, um you know, without these funding
sources, we would need significantly more in our operating budget. This is um $3.4 million, you know, in grants. So, are there any uh questions on any of the grants? And lastly, you have uh the revolving accounts.
Um the birth column there is the carryover because these are rolled over from one year to the other. So these just go from one year to the next. So you'll see the athletic revolving account. Do you want me to list each one Greg or one? Okay. Yeah. Athletic revolving. I wanted
to show you um the incumbrance also because I think that that's important because we haven't expended it yet but we know we're going to. So you're going to see that with that incumbrance that it's actually 9,000 negative, but that's because the athletic fees and gate receipts are not posted yet in Munis because there's a there's a time lag on
that as you can imagine. Collection of it, getting it to the town, all funds go through the town hall and then there's a posting process and then an approval to that posting process before it actually hits the general ledger. And when I run the reports, it's just what has been posted in Munice. So there's always that little bit of a difference. Um,
obviously we don't have any money there in athletic stadium for obvious reasons. There's no rentals due to the construction project. Um, school rental and miscellaneous accounts. Those are things from um JCC CAP program, the Willie Ross and miscellaneous rentals that occur. We have the student mobile
technology device. That's a self-funded insurance program which has been very successful. That has a $34,000 balance. I feel like that's a healthy, it's not too much. You see, um, you know, there's different times that you'll see it drop because all of a sudden there's a lot of repairs, you know, for the students. Um
is that the total revenue for the year? We've collected all the um we carried over 31,000, right? And so far only 2600. So we the way we set this up and I I'm not going to remember two years. Yeah, there's there's two or three years. So yeah.
So that's why you don't always see a huge When's the date when's the payment due for students? Beginning of the year. Yes, I would think so. So have we is that all the revenue? It's really Ryan's uh you know department. Is that all the revenue we generate? 26
2600 No, it it trickles in all Yeah, it's not just collected then. I think the majority of it like especially like new students who come to the district it would be but other times um it's it's throughout the year. So you'll see that number change.
Um the staff mobile technology repairs uh that's self-funded. Also, the ELA um just gave me a $2,500 deposit that has been deposited, but it hasn't been hasn't posted yet in um here. Uh the school gift accounts, I just want you to
know that $50,137 that you see right there as revenue, that is ELA because that's considered like a gift. So, it's it's in that line item. We just wanted you to know that. Uh the tuition revolving account, um that's really that's Metobrook preschool program. We have 15 full day and 14 half
day. Uh the full day is 6,300, half day is 2500. Um we fund 1.7 teachers and two parents from this and that's part of our strategy um during the budget process is to talk about this tuition account which helps to offset um the salaries
and again the revenue is low because we haven't collected it all yet. Correct. How do we build for that or how do we So I was just looking at that today. Um, so the the money is collected in student services office and it's it's monthly typically unless somebody prefers to pay
it up front and then they get we give them a slight discount if they do that and a couple people do. Um, sometimes uh a student might and just as a reminder, I might be expecting $135,000 in revenue, which I never use that full
amount because I know what what happens is sometimes then those kids start in the program, but then they qualify for an IEP. So now they become the they're not the peer tuition. Correct. So they stop pay Yes. Exactly. And then there's always the numbers that
Renee, principal Renee Looney, needs to be um aware of because there's that ratio for the number of students. Um yeah, so there there's a lot of things that happen behind the the scenes. But um I'm still I'm feeling good about this and I've tracked out my projections over the next couple of years and and I will
still be able to um use this account, you know, during the budget process fund. Exactly. Yep. Um circuit breaker. So, I'm very happy to say that we were able to roll over $925,000,
which was better than um what I was projecting um you know, mid year. I was thinking we probably 455 if we were lucky. Um it ended up being 925. So, I'm very grateful to that. The revenue that you see there, that 123,851,
that was um I have to go to my little notes here. Well, Governor Healey um gave a supplemental I think that's what they called a supplemental amount um for I don't know if you recall last year, but we talked about the transportation
reimbursement for um out of district placements and how that is now part of the formula, which it didn't used to be. and circuit breaker um is reimbursed up to 75% and it has been 75% for the last few years but the transportation piece
was only at I think it was 46.47% 47% that we were um reimbursed which was you know significant. I mean every you know 100,000 here 100,000 there it all start adds up very quickly. So that she went back and um issued the supplemental uh
payment and that's what it's for. It was from FY24's transportation going from the 46.47% to the 75% and that's that figure here that was deposited over the summer. Okay. The 123. Yes, the 123.
We haven't received any of the quarterly distributions. So, I'm happy to say that we will be receiving a little bit over $2 million this year for circuit breaker, which I'm really really happy about. Um last year 1.6 million. Okay. Um
is that because our cost went because of everything that we've been talking about? Yeah. So, it's filling part of the hole that we already created, but not all even though we're receiving money. Yep. Um the first payment 514,325 came in on October 1st. So they Yeah,
they wouldn't for September 30th for me. It's got to go in on October, but that so that that payment comes in um quarterly. The next one, transportation revolving. Um, we rolled over 137,000 because remember most of the revenue that comes in is at
year end because we're trying to collect it before everybody goes off for summer vacation and forgets about transportation. Um, as a reminder that is for the students um that are not eligible for free transportation. It's $270 uh per student which really equates to $150 per day. That's where that
number comes from. Um so over the summer here we've collected another 18,842. You'll see the amount in there that balance 156,000. I just haven't done the um encumbrance yet to help offset the expenditure yet. So, you'll see that change on the next uh financial uh
school food service. Um Lori Paul was here at the last meeting. Um she remind everybody that breakfast and lunch are free. The lunch reimbursement is $4.74, which is 17 increase from the prior year. Breakfast reimbursement is $2.94, which is a 10-centent increase from
FY25. Um, she has a healthy balance in here, but as she mentioned to you, there's a few projects, large projects, because when you're doing, you know, kitchen lines, it's not it's not just 10,000, it's 50, 60,000 a pop. And she's um working on on those there. So, um, I
feel good about that as well. Last account, school choice. Um, so our monthly revenue, um, I, so there you can see 36,000 has been the revenue for, I guess it would be July and August, August, September, but it was only like 17,000, which I know it's going to be higher.
And it's because they they wait, of course, until you get the October sims and the March SIMS to then do adjustments. So as this it'll be bottom heavy, I guess, is what I'm trying to say, that the revenue will will go up there. So, um, as of right
now, uh, we see $190,000 in school choice. Um, this does come in monthly with the chapter 70, which goes to the town and then the town, uh, books the chapter 70 in their account and then books this into the this revolving account for the school department,
school committee, uh, expense that. And so as I mentioned um this is we're using this for um supplies and everyone's really being you know scrutinizing making sure that we're making good purchases um the right purchases and um hopefully we'll have uh
more than we're anticipating the rollover. What is the anticipated rollover? Do you remember things were talking? Oh you're talking about when we're done at the end of the year. Oh at the end of the year there's not going to be there's not going to be much. That's right. That's a problem. Let's put this, you know, then the
school committee makes a decision um each year about uh the school choice and how many slots. Um as a reminder to anybody out there, it's $5,000 that the district gets as a base amount um per student. Um and then there is a special
ed supplemental component and it depends on the services and whether that raises to 9,000 or 12,000 um but it's $5,000 for the flat base amount for per student. What I don't want to see happen is I really would like to not see the
school committee um rely on these funds every year because it starts to get very scary when things do happen and there's no place. I mean I understand maybe and again we'll talk about that during budget. We're already there though. Well getting there. You can't go back. We're already it's
well or hooked in or we made some changes. We had a layoff. we had a large layoff and you know I've increased the um special ed line so I'm feeling good about that and um I'm I'm not seeing any concerns um so I'm hoping that at year end we're going to see some
different things Greg that won't be does anyone have any other questions for me yeah thank you uh and we should I accept that. Correct. Yes. Take someone to move to accept the quarterly. So move. Motion made by
William. Second by any discussion. All in favor say I. I. Those opposed? Nay. That carries five to zero. Great. Thank you. Okay. We have MASC resolutions for the MASC MASS delegate meeting on November
14th. Skip six. Oh, I already crossed it off. Thank you. Take.1 business superintendent search process discussion and committee employments.
Um, where were we going to start with this? What about the ones that have already been the like the admin and all that stuff like that? Have we Oh, the administrators. Yeah. Have we No, they are. Okay. Yes. Kr Connor
Connor Martin and Jenny Sullivan. Sullivan. Okay. So, the Maple Shade principal and the student service, the director of student services. Samantha. Samantha. Executive. So, that takes care of our admin. That
takes executive. So, that's what about the other don't know the names yet. They're odd. I got the two. Oh, they were they wereitting a name. plus a threee. Okay.
That's great. So, we are still waiting for the teachers from them. They will uh select their own members for the committee and as well as the pair professional. Okay. They'll do the three. They'll do those three. Yeah. Then they'll send us the reps for
those. Uh the student rep, we're waiting to hear from Mr. Paige, correct? Yeah, he was going to work on that. Um, we still need school committee representation. Yes,
we can discuss that if so inclined. And I think that's all we can do tonight, right? Unless we talk about the size. Yes. So, um, and I thought there was another
community member and a parent, I thought. So, I was just going to ask how did was there any action on that since last met or any process for people to express interest? Have we had any interest in any of the other any positions whatsoever beyond
the ones we talked about so far? I know Gordon got one or two uh parents I believe he's heard from parents. So, he's got some emails of just Yeah. interest. Yeah. So, I guess the So, where do we start? Um
so we're at so that the we've approved 13 member committee right and we've listed out the positions and all but one which would be the one we added last time uh which will be a community or a parent parent. No, I thought it was there was only one
parent, right? We have a slot one open and then that's what you were talking about. I thought there was a a community member. I don't remember. No, we said a community member and a parent. We said two and two and they just leave. So
just the parent that brings us to 13. So there's one slot not accounted for right now, which would be one parent, right? Did we want to Well, so the conversation was about expanding it to at least bring in two more community members, bringing it up to 15, which was the conversation we
originally having when we were talking about 15 versus 13. Um, so my recommendation would just we bring it up to two more to bring it to that 15 to be able to add those two community members. Um, and then we would have a body of 15.
So they have two parents and four community members. Well, I had also said maybe someone from town council or the town manager. Correct. In le of one of those. Well, yeah. No. Right. Right.
Yeah. What's the body's pleasure again? Yeah. Well, so it sounds like there's a desire to go to 15 and add a couple more slots. Yes. And that So that would add two. It can either be two more community
members or a community member and someone from uh the town. Okay. because we already have the we already have one of the we already have one parent. Yeah. Uh
could we just take the Could we t potentially take the one parent and the two additional people and just make it kind of universal? Whoever fits in that slot, we let them fit in that slot. So we're not necessarily saying, "Oh, we got to wait for one more parent or two
more community members." Whoever fits that, you know, obviously one of these categories, but filling that slot, we go to fill. How do we fill it? So, say, so we have three spots that aren't accounted for. If we go to 15, correct? I thought one of those slots was already
for a parent. One is already change it because we haven't done any action. It will be a parent because we're not going to do less parents. Yes. Okay. But right now, we have three spots that are not named. The other 13 are either named or designated for a certain position. So then if we leave it at the one, if we
leave it 16 or minus, I'm sorry, 10 and three. Yeah, we have 10 that are already named. So we stay with the 15 with the with the number of 15 by two. We leave the one parent. And if we leave the one parent,
we just go with the original thought of adding two more community members. Then that so it could be parents or non-parents that express interest. Parent meaning parent current one has a student in the system currently or somebody that had a student in the
system. They would be a community member I would say. Okay. So you could just take it off. Take it off. Correct. So we have three slots left. Anyone who's interested could put their name into the hat as long as you fit one of those two categories either. Well, everybody does unless
you're not from East. Right. Right. Fair enough. Fair enough. Which why would you want to be on it? Right. I guess they're member. They want to move here. Right. Right. They want superintendent. I think it might be if I was watching
our meetings, I might be still confused as to the makeup since we keep talking over. So maybe just one more time. Okay. Can you go through who we have and who's already appointed and what we're discussing? Yes. So um in the end we will have one
student, two school committee members, um two administrators, two teachers, one pair professional, um
one clerk 2 4 6 7 8 9. William, you have the list. Who members? One parent. One. Well, two. No, two parents. Well, right now we have one, right? No, we have one pair and we have one parent at the two community members we have right now.
There it is. Two community. So, is that That's 12, right? 2 4 10 6 8 9 student. Oh, we have a student. That's 12. That's 12. That's 12. Our 13s have been the extra parent that we're looking for.
not named. So, there's one parent not named and you and you're proposing two additional community members, but he wants to throw them all in the same pot. I think there should be someone from the town, too. Then we go Well, so do you want to do one parent,
one community member, and one town member, town official? Then that gives us the that still leaves us at the 15. And we would uh ask for people to uh just express uh an email of
interest and we would put the names in a hat of the at least the two groups or within the categories if we're committed to the categories. Yeah. Either a parent or not parent community member. Well, in that respect we have we'd have only two slides left. A parent or a community member.
So if we get one of each is what I'm saying. And then one of the town council members. Doesn't have to be town council. It could be town manager too. We can send that to them and ask. Yes. Yes. And they can give us But we're letting them make that choice. We're letting them kind of make their
designate. Yes. Okay. Everybody good at that? All right. Just to recap, two community members. No, three. Three. Yes. Okay. Two parents. Yes.
One student. Correct. Two teachers. Yep. Two admin. Y two school committee. Yes. One pair professional. Y one clerical and town manager or town council. Correct. Right. 15. 15. Right.
Yes. I guess to play devil's advocate on some of our other conversations and what we heard from Paul tonight. You're gonna do we already we have two community members and then we'd have two parents. And so the other option would be add an additional school committee member
because you can only have two can we because he said oh I get it never mind forum I know connect is different that's why but I don't want yeah designate yourself as the like if we wanted all five of us just to be a part of the search committees could designate
ourselves as a school committee though we would post as a school committee if three of us meet and discuss business we would hosted as a school committee. Then how do they get around that? Who Connecticut must be different that if they were calling those same
people the the search committee or screening committee then they were able to meet must be different in Connecticut. We cannot meet a majority of this board and discuss business without posting. We all we all know that, right? Like that other
than what you heard today, that's like confident. If you you can designate yourself as we could designate ourselves as the screening committee, the five of us and we would post as a school committee though. I would I mean I would look for legal. How could you do that? We wouldn't be able to do that. That's people's privacy
if we're looking at which is why we're not doing it. if we are my understanding if we want to go to legal and ask them but I have never heard of a committee being able to meet a could just be I'm not saying that
I want this this is not what I want but I'm just saying that we could in theory be we could just like I've said three of us take the five of us and be the search committee you're proposing no but we can't because we would post it at the school committee and it would be open session
unless it's privy to executive because of the that probably would be because you would go into executive that but I don't know that for sure. I don't know that. I don't know if it's subject to executive session but that's not what we're you're talking about three and three is still
and I knew that but then I don't I guess I went down that road Connecticut this room for three hours. Sorry. So let's stick with her thing. Thank you.
All right, we'll stick with what we have. We'll stick with what we have. Well, we'll stick with what we're saying we're going to have. So, we got Do we need a motion to entertain? And should we not get people? We don't We don't get people. If we don't get an extra community member or something interested, then we would go with a committee of 14.
Oh, we'll get people. You think? I think we um Yeah, I would take someone to move to uh adjust the screening committee to 15 as discussed. So I make motion that we adjust the screening committee from 13 to 15 as discussed.
Motion made by Wood. Second. Second by Amy. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. Those opposed, nay. That carries. Five to zero. Okay. And I did announce the teachers and the parah. What's that?
Just sent out an email 40 minutes ago. So the people have been named the two units. Oh, they have the names. Oh, good. Yeah. save them. Yeah. Send your email. No, I mean I'm happy to read it, but I Yes. Yes. I didn't mean
No, I didn't get it yet. Speaking of turn. Okay. Unit A, Alexandra Lennon and Erica Manville. The alternates will be if they are not able to serve on the committee, Tracy Carroll or and Nicole Lennon. Unit
E is Marie McFale and the alternate is Samantha Kelly. Okay. And when they say alternate in case the other person if they're like say well but not but not like hey I can't be there on Monday you can someone has to commit to the whole part
commit to the whole part right okay so uh with that new knowledge I would entertain someone to move to name those three people if so inclined I move to name those three people that we just shared
Alexandra Lennon, my glasses. I'm just a little disappointed that your phone is still small. My uh I move to name Alexander Lennon and Erica Manville. Um alternates uh Tracy.
Okay. And then E member is Moren McFale. Motion made by K. Second. Second by Amy. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I those opposed nanny. Good job. That carries zero. I know. Okay. So, we have nine.
We want to talk about school committee or next meeting at 7:05. I think we'll be I think we'll be more comfortable um presenting the two committee members at the next meeting. Works. Okay.
Y awesome. Making progress. Thank you all. Great discussion. Okay. How you doing, Felen? Doing good. Got to go. You got a homework or anything? We're going along. I have a big meeting. Not using AI.
She definitely is. Maybe we have to use AI in the next meeting. Okay. We have going back to 7.1 approval of the MASC resolutions for the MASC
MASS delegate meeting on November 14th. Um, how many are there? Did you see increasing the maximum balance allowed by the special education reserve fund? So, in the past we've tried to um
a synopsis of each one. Anybody feel like that? I think we can just read the therefore it yeah the rationale usually um yeah's got it you put your best
resolution one is removing BMI testing from schools um scrolling down the it's uh therefore be it resolved that MASC urges the removal of BMI screening requirement from all public
schools and urges the express banning of BMI screening in all public schools. Yeah. Um so we'll vote on each one as we go through. What grade are they doing this? BMI.
Heather, do you know what BMI? I do not know we were still doing this. I didn't either. Well, we should stop it. Yeah, I didn't know there's All in favor uh um can somebody move to uh remove BMI testing from
uh to recommend or vote in the affirmative resolution and just say the vote say whatever you want. Yeah. BMI testing from schools. Sure. Motion made by second. Second by William. Any discussion? All in favor
say I. I. The second is um regarding sanctuary laws for transgender students. Um suggesting therefore be it resolved that mass association of school committees calls on the great and
general court to join with other states in the passage of so-called sanctuary laws to ensure children and their families have the power of enjoying in safety and tranquility their natural rights and blessings of life as guaranteed by the constitution of the commonwealth. And the rationale is the 2011 passage of the act relative to
gender identity marked uh Massachusetts commitment to the civil rights of transgender residents references additional laws. Um that's good.
Yep. Okay. Um would someone please move to uh vote the affirmative regarding regarding sanctuary laws for trans. Make a motion that we vote in the affirmative regarding sanctuary laws for trans transgender students.
Second by any discussion all in favor say I. I opposed n carries five to zero. The third resolution is increasing the maximum balance allowed by the special education reserve fund. Um,
Massachusetts Association of School Committees calls upon Massachusetts legislature to amend chapter 40 section 13E by deleting uh quote 2% of the annual net school spending end quote and by inserting the following quote 5% of the annual net school spending. rationale is current prices for special
education day programs Massachusetts can cost the district between 50,000 and 70,000 per student. Um is that sufficient? Yep. Okay. I will I move to increase the maximum balance allowed by vote in the affirmative to increase the maximum
balance allowed by special education reserve fund. Motion made by carry. Second. Second by Amy. Discussion. All in favor say I. I I those opposed nays 5 to zero. Uh fourth is membership on the board of
elementary and secondary education. Uh Massachusetts Association of School Committees calls for the enactment of legislation to repeal the provision of Massachusetts law that prohibits practicing educators and sitting school committee members from serving on the board of elementary and secondary
education. They're calling for the recon to reconstitute the board board of elementary and secondary education by including members with expertise as licensed educators and members with expertise in public school governance. Paying job or what? Move that.
Sure. Move to vote on the affirmative of membership on the board of elementary and secondary educ. I mean um motion made by Carrie. Second. Second by William. Discussion. All in favor say I. I. I. Suppose nay. Here's five and zero.
Uh preserving local governance of Massachusetts schools. Uh, Massachusetts Association School Committee calls in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to restore local governance and accountability for Lawrence and South public schools no later than July 1st, recognizing that
Holio was removed from receiverhip on July 1st. Oh, it probably needs more context, but calls limit any further state takeovers to a term of no more than three years. That's what it's called.
Yeah. Messation school. Yeah. causing the Massachusetts legislator to limit any future state takeoffs. How long was Hoyo can receive a trip? In three years, right? Much longer. Yeah. This one because they take a little more.
Yeah. Right. I wonder why they're pushing for that. Well, research shows that any change takes at least five someone remove it because it doesn't give enough details. It does it just says, you know, to remove um to restore local government's
accountability for the Lawrence to South Bridge um solution, but it doesn't say in here anything about like what data is driving that. It doesn't give a lot of information about I understand that no school wants to be under receiver. No district wants to be under receiverhship, but I'm just
looking for more three years long enough. You would hope, but and I wonder why Arlington was the one who came. They're not even on the list. They put a few of them in here. I think they're really active. Really
active. I was getting that one person, right? Well, they're citing that state receivers have failed to meet almost all like fast and globe data. I mean, they're cing a couple partly in that there's no plan, strategy, or timeline for restoring.
Yeah. As the grounds Okay. Take a motion. The affirmative. Is it okay to give because you're going to this, right? You're going to be there's a lunch and discussion of these resolutions. I think either this Friday
or next Friday that I signed up for. And then yes, I'm going to go to the um be okay to give Carrie because I know this was kind of what we did in the past, like give her our blessing to hear all of the details and then make a
decision on behalf of the greater good meadow because for certain like I just don't know if I have quite enough information for one like this to people are voting. Yeah. So you can move to give the voting delegate the
authority to I move to give the voting delegate the authority to make the decision in the resolution for the preserving local governance of Massachusetts schools um as as she sees
fit after hearing all the data. Okay, good. Second by second by discussion. All in favor say I. I post zero. Next one. Personal financial literacy education. Are that right? Y
um submitted by the FM school committee. Um, therefore, be it resolved that MAC file legislation that would have the effect of ensuring that all students have exposure to personal financial literacy curricula and ultimately graduate from high school with a lifelong knowledge of how to be fis fiscally responsible to
avoid being deterred by financial wos. This legislation should ensure that students at various levels would benefit from curriculum. Massachusetts public schools would include content in personal financial literacy. So this adds it to the curriculum. Is that is it a mandate that each school
choose personal finance which we have? Yeah. Okay. Want to move it? I make a motion that we move in the affirmative for the personal financial literacy education. Motion made by Williams. Second.
Second by Amy. Discussion. All in favor say I. I. I. I. Nay. That carries 5. Establishment of a regional school assessment reserve fund. Uh the Massachusetts Association School Committees calls upon Massachusetts legislature to enact or amend
legislation which permits municipalities to establish a regional school assessment reserve fund to amend MGL part one title 7 chapter 40 by inserting section 13F where Silver Lake Regional School is.
I can just tell you from I just thought I would share with you on the when my uh Mazbo there's always lots of talk for regional districts they they struggle with very different things than than we do the transportation costs and things like that. So um so this would help
it would I believe doesn't do anything for us but it has a real struggles allocates resources that way that that's correct yeah seems important that they would be able to do that right I make a motion that we move an
affirmative regional school assessment reserve funds second made by Williams seconded by car discussion all in favor say I I I those opposed nays five and zero. Cool. We did it. Nice job. Thank you.
And with that, we have to nominate a delegate for the MASC MASS delegate meeting. You're going to be there. Yes. Is anybody else planning on going? No. My hyenas in November. Beautiful place.
Quiet. Uh someone would uh move the nominate car motion made by William second by Amy. Any other discussion? All in favor say I. I. I. Those opposed nay. Congratulations.
Thank you for going. Yeah. Thank you for going. Yeah. There was it's good useful. And then we didn't have a training in this neck of the woods. So I'm also thinking I'd be able to additional information. Yeah. Yeah. Do they have a charting course class during the day?
I don't know that they do per se, but there I feel like I'll pick up on some other pieces that I until there's one that opens up. So, yeah. Like usually goes I don't think he's going to make me make some friends. Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. Finally, we have come to our last piece of business, the Bertland Park Middle School pathway exploration policy. So you have in front of you a policy and a desi template and basically this is a mandate from Massachusetts to
create this policy um which Gordon did um with the guidance of other L lVPC superintendents and career tech as well as meeting with virt counselors and principles and the good news is
everything except for one thing are things we're already doing. So it was just a matter of writing it into policy. Um the one thing that we need to formalize is we um are now creating a field trip to CEK from for eighth graders whereas they were always invited
to the open houses but and to ensure that every kid has the opportunity to go um that will be something that's instituted and paid for um by um so DESI requires every district to
have a policy in place and this is our policy. all the students will go on the field trip eighth grade. It's not um optional. They are they're all going to get on a bus and go. Um that's a great question. Like if they don't want to go, I think we just have to offer it to
Okay, we have to offer it to So, any other questions on the policy? Take a minute. We have to Yeah. policy.
Is there one top one? Is there a policy number on the uh just the title? The ELPS middle school pathway policy. Someone wants to move to or approve that, please. I move to approve the ELPS middle school
pathway expiration policy. Motion made by Carrie. Second. Second by Amy discussion. All in favor say I. I. Those opposed, nay. That carries. Five to zero. Okay, we made it.
Made We don't necessarily have to but just my own knowledge in the last meeting we referenced that each of us are have are liaison to the schools and I do not know which schools um when Amy said she went to Birdville and it I told her to go ahead and stick with
her original um if you want we can put it on the next agenda as an action item we'll discuss uh I have I have you I have the high Do you want you want to just take them out real care?
Yeah. So, it's just reaching out to the principal and sharing the person and then seeing how she wants me to and so um a lot of times uh I'll try and do a visit to the schools as the chair
and usually I try to go with the other school committee who is the rep for that school. Okay. So, as we get along we'll coordinate some visits with folks. That's right. Okay. Great. Okay. With that, we've come
to the conclusion of our meeting. Caitlyn, thank you for being here and your input. Jamie, thanks for recording tonight and being here. And I would uh entertain someone to move to adjourn, please. We'll make a move to adjourn.
Made by car. Second by discussion. All in favor say I. I. Those opposed, nay. That motion carries five to zero. Thank you. We are adjourned. And you'll let me know if you