Like people to call your attention on that um policy document that again is attached to the agenda. Call your attention to number three um which addresses that public policy the public comment um should be limited to those items which fall within the purview of
the school committee. And I just want to I note that with the exception of the superintendent, criticisms and complaints naming specific staff members or students are generally prohibited in this
setting. Um so I think that about covers it. Um we should we'll begin. It doesn't look like there's anyone on Zoom. >> Nope. >> All right, but I'm guessing that there may be some in the room. Um so if anyone in the room is interested in offering a
public comment, please approach the podium. >> Hi. Hello. My name's Greg Britton, b r i t t o n. Uh you need an address or is that good? >> No, that's fine. >> Okay, great. Um first of all, thank you for providing a forum and an opportunity to speak
today. Um I think gatherings like this are really important because local institutions which we place our trust in should reflect the very best intentions and values of the community. Our schools sit at the very center of the community's trust. We entrust them
uh with what is most impre- uh most precious to us, which are children, and the understanding that they will create environment reflecting our highest hopes for how our children will learn, grow, and be treated. As a 10-year resident of Wenham, I have felt very positive about our schools. As
I thought about why I settled on three elements that I love about our school system. One, teachers with commitment to community. Uh we have a core group of teachers who are rooted in this community, who trick-or-treat with their kids on our streets, who attend Little League games, and who entrust their own kids to our school system.
I think too is teachers who demonstrate extraordinary care for students, every student. From the That strong community connection comes a deeper investment and care in our children. It's a It is paying it forward in the very best sense, whereby a ripple of generosity
might impact their own kids down the road who are also in the school system. And I think teachers who model strong character for our children every day is a is the third thing that I really think of when I think of our school system. We are very fortunate to have people of high character serving in teachers'
roles. Kids often do not remember what they are told or even listen, but they certainly remember what they see and how they are made to feel. They model the these behaviors they observe, good or bad, and therefore having teachers of high character is essential to the their development. So, I I
why this tedious meditation on our school system? Um a few weeks ago it came to my attention that a young man who I think exemplifies these broad ideals was informed that he would not be teaching in our schools next year. My wife and children
uh My wife and children were surprised and upset that Philip Goudy Oh, I'm sorry. This is for him, not against him. So, okay, great. Philip Goudy, our neighbor, a former student of our schools and a current teacher and coach, was going to be let go at the end of the school year. Philip
exemplifies all three of the qualities I just mentioned, community, care, and character. He's a Hamilton native. He grew up here and chose to return because of his love for community and his passion for teaching. As I said, I think having teachers who are connected to our community matters. Their commitment
extends beyond the classroom and creates a culture of care throughout the schools and towns. Philip 40 seconds. Philip Goudy took upon himself to revitalize the middle school track team. Anyone who has ever tried to organize 50 middle students The uh middle school students understands what an undertaking that was.
Uh Philip pulled it off and he got a starter's pistol by the end of the season. Give him starter's pistol. They were dropping hats for a while. Uh more importantly to me, Philip extended an extraordinarily warm and perfectly calibrated welcome to my son who has special needs. Philip encouraged us to
enroll our son on the track team. He then supported and challenged him exactly Is that 3 minutes? >> It is. >> Can you Can you wrap up, please? >> Yeah, sure. Well, I I So, basically two things. The He was great to my son on the track team, warm. He's many of the students'
favorite teachers at the school. Uh he also took it upon himself to help special needs kids in on the Washington D.C. trip to make sure they were okay walking around Georgetown. And it seems silly to me that some kind of bureaucratic process would remove Philip from our school system. This is a guy
who lives in the school system. >> Thank you. >> Uh and and replace him with someone else. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> That's okay. I'm sorry I have to cut you off. >> All right. Are there other people in the room that would like to offer public
comment? >> Welcome. >> Thank you. Um hi, I'm Charlotte Llewellyn, l e w e l l e n. >> Okay. >> Yep. >> Okay. Hi, so I currently attend Miles Over Middle School. Um just graduated
today and every single year I've been there, I've had a different health teacher. Um but this year's was definitely my favorite. And just like the man who spoke before me, I'm here in support of Mr. Goudy or Philip Goudy.
And I really just have to say that he's an extraordinary health teacher and I think person in general. I When I went on the D.C. trip or the Washington D.C. trip with my school, I sat behind him on a 10-hour bus ride and he was just so he was so warm, and he was so polite and
sweet. And I think that he brings that to the classroom, as well. And I think that we would be doing the whole school a disservice by getting rid of him over a thing as trivial as budget cuts. And I truly do believe that he just
makes our community better. And he's just so kind and brings a great presence. And that's all. Thank [applause] >> Somebody under 18? >> No. >> Are there other public comments?
Yep. Step right up. >> [clears throat] >> Hi, my name is um Ginger Jones, j o n e s. Um so, like my friend over there, I also attend Miles River Middle School. I just graduated today, as well. Um but I just
wanted to take a moment, like the past two speakers, to talk about our healthy to your Mr. Gowdy. Um Sorry. >> [laughter] >> Um because he really has made a difference in our lives. Um sorry. Because every day I come to school, and
he just makes our day a little bit brighter. Because sometimes things get hard, and our assignments can get really stressful, but I always know that I can find a friendly face in the hallway that I can look to, and he's always there to support us, and he's so encouraging. And
he also just really shows up for his students. I know that he has attended many sports games on behalf of his students to show up and support them, as well as like running our entire middle school track team. And he's just I know that eighth grade health can be
an interesting topic, and like kind of uncomfortable for kids to talk about and learn about, but he made everybody feel super comfortable in my class, and um made sure that everybody felt supported and welcomed and able to ask maybe some uncomfortable questions and learn
something that's like very important. Um but he also found a way to make it very fun and I know that um [clears throat] that he just made my school year a much brighter experience and I know that my middle school experience we've had a
different health teacher every year and like Charlotte said this is definitely been my favorite year not only because he's just a really great person overall but he just made the subject we were learning about just seem more interesting and he really had a great
job of engaging his students and I think that again it would be a really unfortunate situation if somebody who really made kids look forward to coming to school every day wouldn't be there next year to um support us because
it's really important when students have teachers that they really care about and help them learn. So I think that it would be really important if we could keep him on the team. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> [applause]
>> By the way Ginger excellent speech today earlier today at the Miles River filing out. All right. Anybody else? >> Hi, I'm Joni Albers A L B E R S. Um I wasn't planning on speaking about this today but I would love to just
honor the fact that we have students here with us. It's an unusual sight. You don't see this very often at a school committee unless you have a teacher everyone truly cares about and Philip Goudy is that. He was yes a track coach but But was so much more than that. I
think you could name a club if a if a kid wanted to do it, they would say, "Hey, Mr. Goudy, will you lead this club for us?" And he would say, "Of course I will." Because that is the person he was, is, and um I'm just going to go a little on my speech here, but
as parents, we trust that when our children leave our house for school every morning, they're on their way to a place where adults are people they can trust and feel good about, and Philip Goudy is that person. Um I can't imagine health class with
without him. As you said, health is such a touchy subject, and he is the person that makes them feel safe. And I'm not sure anyone else can do what he did in that health class. Um so I would like to ask you. I understand
there's laws, I understand there's budgets, all of that. But I hope hearing from us tonight will make the school committee and the administration look for any any possible way to keep Philip in our district, because this loss is
immense, and I just I'm begging you. I'm also coach to the coach with him in cross country and and track, and if I lose him, I also don't know what I'll do. Um so he impacts everyone every day, and um again, I don't think health class can possibly be the same without him
there. Um so thank you. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Okay, do we have any other people that would like to speak? Yep. Did you see my daughter's face? She's thinking, "Oh god, what is she
going to say?" Welcome. Um I am Paula Pike, p i k e. I have um lived here from the time my daughter, who's the mother of the little cute girl that spoke today um was in kindergarten. >> [clears throat]
>> I taught as a speech pathologist for 27 28 years in Peabody and then I became a special ed director for vocational schools when I had two kids in college at the same time. So I am fortunate in that
I was a mom of children that went here and now grandchildren that go here and I also worked in the district and I was an administrator. So I what I want to tell you is that when you have as an administrator I sit
here and I think well I chose to live in this town because of what it was. One of my favorite things was that when I found out that you let your teachers bring their children here and I thought well that's commitment when you're going to allow that to happen those teachers want to be
here and this little guy this this coach I had the experience the other day to be with him. He would he asked me to hold a javelin cuz a mother was coming from track to pick it up and he was going to sit there it was as hot as heck out the day of the dance and um
he was going to do it anyway and I thought you know what I know who this woman is I'll hold it for just a committed lovely boy and the more I hear about him the more I think wow this is not a teacher you want to as an administrator that you want to leave on the curb
because he will not come back and they're hard to get really good teachers they're hard to get. And I feel if there was some way that you could make this work if you can't hear the the genuine love for this man coming from these kids that's on you but as a fellow
administrator I want to say if I could if I could find that money I would find it. Um that's all I have to say. Thank you very much for the opportunity. Thank you. >> [applause] >> All right. Do we have any other members the public that would like to speak? Welcome. Come right up.
If you could just start off with your name and please spell your last name so that we get it right. >> name is Aaron Deegan, uh 43 Margaret Road in Hamilton. Um thank you for being here tonight and for all that you do for the the school district. Um I am a a mother of two children in the middle
school and and a child in the elementary school and here tonight because of a teacher who I I heard was being cut from the budget um and he's had a really profound impact on on my students. Um one in particular was fortunate enough to have this teacher um as a teaching
assistant in his first grade elementary school year when it was a hybrid year with Zoom um and you know, this the kids were going to school some days, they were at home other days, so getting out of the car in the morning was really challenging and this teacher really had an impact. He was there on the playground. He was there making things
normal in a year that was not normal at all. Um and so he he's just a a wonderful teacher, very dedicated to the students um and we felt very fortunate that when uh we heard that he was going to be coming back this year as a teacher and my then first grader, now sixth grader, would actually
have the benefit of having him again as a teacher. Um he's been a great health teacher this year, uh very dedicated to the track team and actually started that up and um and it's just been a wonderful experience. And so I feel like he really exemplifies all that we want our kids to
do, which is to feel safe at school, to uh be inspiring future leaders and be encouraging them to try new things. Um so I just wanted to let my voice be heard. Um my two middle schoolers are here tonight to to hopefully show the impact that he's had um and we hope that
you will be able to reconsider this uh for for his um the benefit of all of the students in the district. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> [applause] [cough and clears throat] >> Okay. >> Still no one online.
>> Okay. Anybody else? Okay. Um So, at this and it doesn't look like there's anyone on Zoom. >> No. >> No. Um so, at this point we'll close the Zoom and we'll close um the public uh comment portion of the meeting. Um thank
you all for um using your time to share some um your views with us. Um it's helpful. Thank you. Um so, uh to the agenda. So, we kind of have done things in a little bit of a mixed up order, but um
I think we're on number six. So, superintendent's report. To you, Eric. >> Thank you. With the permission of the committee, I just want to move one item up from new business and left it down there accidentally. Uh I want to take this moment to recognize
our retiring staff members, if that's okay. >> Absolutely. >> Okay. Each year we have uh small number of retirees and um the way our school years overlap, sometimes they um and how the MTS MTRS the teachers
retirement system works is they have to leave partway through the school year. Um so, it triggers some interesting moves. So, I have a list here that I I want to recognize the people here that have retired uh either in the fall of this that will
retire in the fall of 25-26 school year or at the end of the year. Um Wendy Lincoln, teacher at the Winthrop School, 16 years of service. Wendy Mason, ESP at the Miles River School, 19 years of service. Janet Soares, teacher at the Miles
River, 11 years of service. Gina Putnam, teacher at the Buker, 18 years of service. Kelly Keegan, ESP, at the Winthrop, 24 years of service. Lisa Heights, admin assistant at the high school, my former admin assistant, 26 years. Susan
Neuth, food service worker who ran the Winthrop kitchen, 26 years. Nancy Purkis, OT specialist teacher district-wide, she worked in all the schools, 21 years. And then at the end of this year, we also have another group,
Deborah Lanigan, who's a counselor at Winthrop school, 7 years. Denise Halliday, ESP at the Buker school, 25 years. Kathy Kerrigan, our data specialist district-wide, she's been here 25 years. And then Deb Capozzi, Vinnie's accounts
payable person, 25 years and she's she works for the district. So, I want to thank all of the people who have retired this year for their commitment and service to our students and to our our district. Always amazing to see the longevity of people who are working and
are committed to our system. So, thank you. One other thing, superintendent's report, I will be sending out the new graduation requirements that was released on Tuesday afternoon by the state. They
pushed it out They were trying to push it out before school starts. There are some pretty big impacts for some school districts. I think for us it'll be minimal, but it does include several requirement changes including all students meeting mass
score, which our kids generally meet mass score, which is 4 years of English, 4 years 4 years of math, 3 years of science, 3 years of social studies, a number of electives. So, our kids are not won't have an issue there. The state is, however, over the next couple of years developing
uh end of course assessments district-wide that will will even eventually replace the MCAS. Um so, we don't know what that looks like. They don't know what it looks like. They said there was more guidance to come when they did the webinar this week.
Um but, it looks like I'll just use as an example, if a child's in Algebra II or Algebra I, they would take an end-of-course assessment that is developed and scored by the state. They They underscored that very heavily. Um in order to meet graduation
requirements. Um that we're not sure what that looks like. I I I mean, we know what MCAS has looked like across districts. It's been messy. Um it'll be interesting to align courses across the entire state because we all use slightly different curricula.
So, we're not quite sure how that what that's going to look like. So, more to come. Um there's also a requirement for all families all families to opt in or opt out of the FAFSA, which is a financial aid form for college.
Um it's it it's a push by the state to try to get more kids into college, but also aid for college. Uh FAFSA is uh an aid vehicle for some families. Um so, that the the state is is really
making a push to get people to get on board with filling out a FAFSA form or filling out a uh they call it MASFA, which is the same thing. It's a statewide form. Um so, that is another issue that uh we'll have to contend with. I'm not sure what that will look like, but it's going
to be also built into the the uh kind of career logistics for kids. The state is looking for um documentation of kids' plans through their through all 12 school years using a
uh an online program called MyCap uh or similar. We use a We use a slightly different program, does the same things. It has basically benchmarks that kids meet each school year in relation to their future plan. So, it doesn't necessarily have to be for college, but that's what majority of our
kids 6 96% of our kids go to college, so that's what they use it for. Uh state is requiring it for all kids uh and looks like at all grade levels. So, we're not again not sure what that looks like, but that's 3 years out. So, these are things that we'll have to shift uh some of our planning that we've
already done uh to meet the expectations of the state's new system, but again it doesn't it kicks in over the next 5 years from 2026 to 2031. There are different variables. The first one will be the ninth grade.
The current uh eighth graders who just uh filed out today into ninth grade will be responsible to meet the expectations of MassCore. Not a problem in our district, so we're not concerned about that. We are however concerned about what that looks like moving forward for the uh end
of course assessment. So, I just wanted to put that out there. There's a 108-page document they released yesterday morning. Um I have started to read through it. It is um a lot of the about the lot of the work that was done along the way. Um there has been some pushback from
uh the principals group, the superintendents group uh the teachers union specifically about money. The lot of the things that uh we'd have to put in place are going to cost some money, so it's going to impact the budget. We don't know what uh testing will cost or
any of the adjustments we'll have to make, the trainings that will have to occur. There is a commitment by the state according to the webinar I attended that there'll be a half a million dollars of funding available starting this summer uh to support this move. So, we'll just keep our eyes on it and
stay wide open. I I don't have a lot of detail. I'm sorry. There is not a lot of detail. They just kind of said, "Here's our plan moving forward and this is what we're going to do. Um there's also um expectations for kids to uh they can gain uh
badges if you will uh similar to how our foreign language kids um can get the seal of bi- biliteracy. They're creating these seals for other things. Sounds like they're going to do it for like math and STEM and music. Um so these are
seals that kids would be able to work towards um across their their years in school. Again, we don't know what what that looks like. They don't have a lot out there. And then um part of that will be related to uh final course um
project. So another area we're not concerned. Our seniors do a great job at the end of the year. They do end of end of year uh research papers. They do uh presentations for their internships. We meet we meet a lot of the things that are coming forward already. There will
be some of the the things I talked about in between like the end of course assessments. We've no clue yet, but we will continue to get information and bring it to the committee as soon as we can figure out the direction of the state. So I just wanted to put that out there. Make sure people knew that was coming. I will send the document out. It's 108
pages of exciting reading uh for people to peruse and um I'll put something together for a presentation when school starts when we when we do our first meeting in August. And then finally um all the kids here today talked about
filing out ceremonies. We had a lot of those. Moving up and filing out ceremonies across the district. Always a great time of the year. Kids move on to their next chapter and um it it was a a really wild and crazy end of the year running. I spent my last 2 weeks running from
school to school to school to try to see all the things that our kids and our our teachers and staff were doing across the district. So great end to the school year. Uh I'm already missing kids and looking forward to work in the summer to get ready to start up the 26-27 school
year, which is I think an extra week away. I think we get an extra week of summer this year. >> Excellent. >> Thank you. Does anybody have any questions? >> Just had one quick thing I just wanted to confirm. Should Kathy O'Shea be on the list of retirees as well? >> Not yet. She's retiring in
>> Oh, okay. >> She will be, yeah. >> Okay, got it. Thank you. Um no, and thank you for taking the moment to acknowledge all those retirees, some of which some of whom have served just a really long time in the in the district. It's wonderful.
>> We have some people that are overlapping. There'll be another group in the fall. >> Yeah, okay. >> A few people that are that will leave part way through the school year, the new school year, so just three or four that will So we'll actually do retirees a couple times in the fall cuz there are
a couple coming our way that are they you know, this is like their last full year, but they still have some a little bit of time with us. >> Thank you. Anybody else have anything else? Okay. Um next up we have the consent agenda.
Does anybody have anything they would like to hold from the consent agenda? All right, Tom to you. >> Can I motion to approve the whole thing or you just want to go Yeah? >> Just approve the >> You can do the whole thing. So nobody held held anything, so you can motion to approve the entire consent agenda.
>> Okay, I move to approve the entire consent agenda as outlined this evening. >> Second. >> Second by Julia Campbell. There's no discussion on the consent agenda. All those in favor? And that is unanimous of the six members
present, and the motion passes. Okay. Um >> [clears throat] >> All right, so moving on to new business, you will see that the first item of business is the um, vote on an ESP contract. Um, we are not quite
ready to bring that um, forward. We thought we were going to be ready, but we're almost ready, but not quite. Um, so we're not we are going to skip over that this evening. Um, and then next is um, I think Brian is going to
Mr. Madigan is going to present some changes to us about the student handbook. >> You want this one up? >> Yeah, it's fine. >> That's fine. >> Oh, did it. >> [laughter] >> Somebody moved. >> me. >> You need an aerobics break >> You got to keep moving, aren't we?
>> [cough] [clears throat] >> All right, uh, good evening everyone. I can tell it's the end of the school year because I'm here to present the student handbook updates uh, uh, for next year. Um,
as in years past, I provided a summary of the changes in addition to uh, what I hope were the red line changes in the actual uh, proposed student handbook for next year. Uh, most of what you're seeing
for changes for next year are simple date changes, name changes um, for people who have changed uh, position. Um, there has been some language inserted by council. Um, because they did review the student
handbook prior to um, you know, me giving it uh, to the committee tonight. Um, and I've outlined in there uh, specifically you know, what they've added. They're just things that should have been in there uh, that weren't previously. Um, so they you
know, they made that change for us. The one um, maybe item of discussion here has to do with our cell phone policy because that's an actual student conduct change or a change to the student conduct conduct portion of the handbook that was
voted on by school council in May and passed. We also presented this to the students the entire student body who's remaining at the high school after graduation. Um and as you know this year we started out
our new cell phone policy by having students in home room turn their cell phones in at the start of the day and they would be without them for the entire day and they would pick them up just before dismissal and so we made a little couple schedule
tweaks here and there just to make that actually work and what we found by the end of the year is that nobody's head fell off. So clearly um you know the policy didn't do any harm and in fact we noticed a number of really positive things. If you've ever had a chance to walk through the
cafeteria this year it's quite loud and that's because our kids are engaged with each other they're looking at each other and they're really interacting in a manner that you know how humans are actually supposed to. Other thing that I noticed as I walked through classrooms that kids are less
distracted than they were before because they just didn't have cell phones out. Now teachers typically were pretty good about making sure cell phones were away but you know wasn't unnoticed in my classroom visits that kids would have them you know on
their lap kind of hidden digging their bag quickly to look at it you know for whatever reason but because this year they were separated physically from their cell phones that happened a lot less. Also we noticed that when kids are walking through the
hallway they're not staring at their phone and running into each other which believe it or not actually happens. So those are some of the observations from this year. Um, you know, in terms of, you know, some of the concerns that were voiced prior to us starting this, the communication issue didn't really
seem to be anything. In other words, if there was a schedule change, like to practice or games, that was managed somehow. I mean, kids still have access to devices, be it iPads, Chromebooks, or laptops, and they're still able to message through that. Trying to get kids
better at checking email. Uh, they're just not quite there. I think if I emailed the whole student body, come down and pick up $50 right now, I probably would go home with that $50. It'd be pretty safe. Um, so they have gotten a little bit better at checking
their email just because that's the device they have. Um, but what we did notice this year, um, is there may have been, uh, some students who kind of chose to work around the rules a little bit. In other
words, keep access to phones, or it was set up in a manner that that really allowed that to happen. Okay. One thing that we had set up for this current school year, uh, was we gave students who drove to school the option to keep it in their cars. Okay. So, if a
kid would come into school, didn't have a phone during home room, "Oh, it's in my car." Okay. You know, we did have parents um, fill out a form to say that that's indeed what was happening. Um, but what we found is that from time to time that form may not have been
filled out by a parent, cuz it was online. Um, but just the in the rhythm of the school day, a kid might say that to a teacher, they don't have a chance to check that updated list, and we're just sort of, you know, okay, I guess it's in the car. Um, but there have been
times where kids said that, and they were found later on during the day with their cell phone on them. The other thing that we had offered was a senior privilege. Um, [clears throat] after first quarter, um, if nothing crazy happened, we allowed the seniors to keep their cell phones in their backpacks.
And that seemed to be okay for a while, but then I was kind of regularly picking off seniors in the hallway with their cell phones or seeing these strange rectangles in pockets. And that's not really how that was supposed to work. I just think the temptation of giving
them the option of I'm going to keep it in my car or I'm going to keep it in my bag just invites problems when the goal was to separate kids from their cell phones so that they're engaged with each other, they're engaged in class. So, we met over the course of the school
year. We reconvened our cell phone team to look at things. We were also thinking about the pending law in terms of kids being separated from cell phones during the school day and you know, how we're going to make that work and keeping in mind what our
experience on the ground is. So, where we landed and you can see it in the update is that everybody at the start of the school day will turn their cell phone in. Not I'm going to keep it in the car, not after 9 weeks I'm a senior I'm going
to hold on to it. Everybody will bring their cell phone in every single day. Now, there is an exemption for kids who need to carry their cell phones for health reasons, things like that. So, we're notified of
that. We're also giving parents the opportunity to say my kid will keep their phone at home. And that will be a paper form that hopefully slows the process down a little bit. And just forces more of a
conversation at home. But otherwise, kids are expected to put the phones in the home room and come pick it up at the end of the day. Um if kids become I think forgetters of their cell phone, you know, we have a series of
consequences to deal with that because my guess is um you know, you bring your bag to school, you bring your device to school, you bring your cell phone to school. I I doubt you're just forgetting that, you know, there's everybody has one. You know, if kids don't have one, they can do the opt-out
form, which the parents would sign. Um and you know, you could see what the the disciplinary consequences are for um doing some unscrupulous things with phones like maybe having a burner phone um and things like that cuz that that has
happened this year um not surprisingly. Um but I think over you know, overall, this has been a really positive change for the school. Um like I said, everybody survived the year and the feedback from the kids is it's really not anything after a while. And now that
we've lived it for a year, um I think it's just going to be how we do business and we're seeking to tight tighten it up a little bit, but also make it one of the things that we all do this together. Not, you know, we've got this group of kids that do this and this group of kids that do that. It's we're
all doing this together. It's just going to make it easier operationally. And that's really the only student conduct change in the student handbook. >> My only problem with the new policy was
in possession during the school day that you couldn't mirror a phone to another device during the school day. Apple does that automatically. Like if you have an an Apple account and you have a MacBook and an iPad and an iPhone, >> Yeah. >> it automatically mirrors it. There's not
like an option as far as I know to turn that off. >> Yeah, but they should they shouldn't have that sitting up there during class. And you also have to to I believe within range. We have to be within range a certain range of it for it to work, too. I mean, that's been our experience
so far, anyways. So, you know, they they just should not be doing that during class. Um I think it's pretty simple. We'll just explain it to them. There's no mirroring. >> change that sentence to not having it out during class instead of mirroring?
Because the mirroring happens automatically. I would put it as not accessing mirror devices during class. >> Not mirroring. >> Since that sounds more like what you actually want to do. >> Yeah, I mean, I'll have to maybe go back
and see how that's worked, but in my experience has been if kids are away from their phone, they're not able to mirror it. So, if they have class in room 100 and their cell phone is in room [clears throat] 400, which is kind
of like kitty-corner across the school, that hasn't been an issue. That's That's our experience so far. >> I think the adaptation coming in September on the Apple Watch solves that problem. >> Yeah. >> Doesn't? >> Yeah, if you have cellular service on
your Apple Watch, you can be six counties over from your phone. Doesn't matter. It'll still work. >> Yeah. >> And that's I I mean, we need to broaden the language to be electronic communication, something of that nature, because I know with my watch, I can be anywhere without my phone. >> Yeah.
>> And I can receive and do anything I need to do. So, if we're going to put it out there that the communication device is the problem, we may want to include the language of all communication devices, electronic communication devices, excuse me. >> That's what We're actually waiting for
the state law to get through the state house. It's It's passed both House and Senate. >> [clears throat] >> It's now in what they call reconciliation. They're trying to decide which pieces of which will go into the actual final policy. We assume we're going to get it before
the end of the school year and that covers any electronic device. So, it's it would cover us for watches. I mean, are my watches the same way? Uh cell phones, tablets, even. Um and that will be interesting because they they have out
outlined so far a number of ways including purchasing software that can jam you know, which I find fascinating. That's actually written into the law. I don't know how you would do that, but that's part of, you know, trying to figure out how to manage it, but >> Yeah. >> It's been it's been I mean, we're ahead
of the curve. We've been ahead of the curve with doing this and taking the steps and I think uh I forget how many people are on Brian's committee. There's a committee at the high school that talks about it several times a year. They review it, go back, talk to kids, talk to staff, made the
changes. I think that they're trying hard to keep up with it. It's it is it's going to be harder and harder and like you said, as the technology changes and advances, VR and all that will will make it, you know, even more difficult for schools to manage. >> The meta blue light glasses alone just
>> Where there's a will, there's a way. >> Yeah. >> Other people have questions? >> No. Thank you. I really support this. >> [laughter] >> Fully fully support it. >> Okay. Um and you're looking for us to vote this in its entirety, correct?
>> Yeah, the whole handbook. Yes. >> Um even though as the superintendent outlined, there may be it may come back to us. There may be changes, which >> Yep. Just in case >> It's the case. The State House reconciliation process. >> No, and we've had that's happened before. So, okay.
Um All right. >> Good to go. >> Do you have a motion? >> Yeah. I motion to approve the student handbook changes as outlined. >> Second. >> Seconded by Julie Campbell. Is there discussion? >> No.
>> Okay. Um, looks like we're ready to vote. All those in favor? That is five in favor, those opposed? One opposed, and the motion passes five to one of the six members present. Okay. Thank you.
>> I understand. >> Oh, okay. Um, next up is a report on the AI working group. >> This is, um, part of one of the products of the
district goal that we set last summer to begin to explore artificial intelligence, to develop some guidelines. Um, it's it's Brian and Linda, who's way in the back, took on this
attempt, this first attempt. It's it has been, uh, fascinating ride trying to figure it all out and trying to trying to make sense of all that's happening. Um, the the full goal will be extended into next year because the initial goal had developing these guidelines
and then also doing some pilots. We just could not get to the pilot part, which is why you're seeing this in the last meeting here. They were just trying to get the guideline piece in place, and there's still more tweaking that has to be done. There's still more opportunity for discussion, and then I know that there are individual grade level guidelines that
will be developed. Uh, I think through the summer, right, Brian, if I remember correctly? >> We'll start drafting them over the summer. >> Yep. >> Okay. >> So, we'll hand it over to Brian to present it. This is our first shot at it. >> Okay. So, uh, we were asked to develop
AI guidelines for the district. Now, this is not district policy because, uh, the group that was convened is not the school committee. It was a group of educators and a couple of high school students uh who helped to put this together. Uh we had representation uh from all the
levels for educators and like I said uh two high school students uh total of 14 individuals uh were on this AI group. Um we had six meetings from March through May um roughly every other week. Um and
like I said, the goal was to establish guidelines for AI use um in the district. Now, what do these guidelines actually help us accomplish? Um they describe what AI is. Um they provide a vision for ethical use of AI.
Um they identify principles we want to stick to and then finally how each of the stakeholder groups in our districts um will work with those principles in mind. Um like I said, this is not policy. That would be set by school committee. Um
this really is going to give us an idea of, you know, how, you know, different groups will interact with AI and also uphold the principles like I said. Um this is also not a how-to use AI guide. If you read it, you could easily
recognize that. Over the summer, we plan to draft usage guides for each level, elementary, middle, and high, uh that are developmentally appropriate. Um and the idea behind these usage guides is giving teachers some
information about how AI uh could be used in the classroom appropriately, ethically, uh and uh effectively, and equitably as well. Um just trying to keep some of those principles in mind. Um I think that's where teachers going to really
start to dig into this technology, see how it can be used um you you to enhance learning. And certainly that's going to look different in an elementary classroom um than in a middle school classroom to a high school classroom. Uh so, we want to keep those
developmental levels uh in mind. Um to to develop these guidelines, we used uh DESE's framework uh for AI use in schools. So, we didn't do this just didn't come out of nowhere. Um they give you a framework uh for the guidelines,
things that should be in there. Um but, you're really able to insert your own language for um you know, that works for your district. Um but, we also looked at other Massachusetts districts um that have established AI guidelines um and
districts outside of Massachusetts just to get an idea of the language that's out there um and really kind of uh what they're looking for. Um we wanted a document that is readable and digestable um and and gives people something to think
about. Um that's the reason why it's five pages long um and not where we started at 14 pages long uh cuz we knew that that was not going to be a winner. Um so, the process for this was we took the framework uh
the language from DESE um and we we filled it in, you know, using our knowledge, um some survey data that we got when we surveyed students, and we surveyed teachers to see, you know, what their concerns were uh with AI. You know, we considered what we learned from
other districts, and to be transparent, which is one of the principles of this, we used AI to help put some of this language together cuz we're getting it from a bunch of different sources. Um and one of the things that AI is pretty good at sometimes is digesting things and giving you output. Uh but, the cool
thing about being a human being here is that uh we get to determine if we like that output or not if it and if it fits what we're actually uh looking for. Um this was a very iterative process like I said when we started out the guidelines were like 14 pages long or
like nobody's ever ever ever going to look at that that long and it's really not usable we noticed there was a lot of duplication in there that really would just be kind of confusing so we were able to comment on the language you know in person also we're
able to do it online and so ultimately you know we're able to shrink it down to five pages we really tried for four like crazy but it was just getting to to wonky I guess
you know and our our reading of it we were really mindful of yes we did use AI to help it or help us draft it a little bit but you know ultimately you know we had two or three human beings looking over the language and making sure it just doesn't sound
you know like AI produced all of this cuz sometimes that's what you get for output so briefly you know that the way that we we organize this is we wanted to provide a definition of AI you know what are the different categories of AI tools that are available
that we are you know already using probably at all levels just to make sure that every you know the community understands like this is what it looks like in school but we were also mindful of saying what AI is not okay we're not looking to
replace teachers with this that is absolutely not at all what we're looking to do or to diminish the relationships that drive deep learning we know that AI is not perfect perfects at all it gives you garbage sometimes
and so you need to be careful with that and AI does reflect bias so you have to be mindful of that we've also tried to align this um this work with
um you know, the the district's strategic plan moving forward, you know, for you know, where where technology is part of that um strategic plan. Um but doing this in a responsible manner. We also wanted to be mindful to
include a statement about the portrait of a learner um cuz we try to keep coming back to that over and over again. That's the why of what we're doing in school um and what we want all of our students to be able to do. Um and we don't want AI use to short circuit um
any of the skills um such as critical thinking, communication um and adapting and persevering. You know, if a kid has a hard assignment in school, we do not want them to turn to AI to do the work for them because you are not then developing those skills
that I I just outlined. And then the guiding principles really are kind of I I maybe describe them almost as sort of behaviors, how we would want um people to act around artificial intelligence. Um you can see uh the principles are teaching and learning,
transparency uh privacy and safety, equity, accountability, and literacy. Those are the principles >> [cough] >> um around [clears throat] AI use. And then I think, you know, perhaps most importantly is that we
identify stakeholders in this so that way every person can understand this is what I'm supposed to do uh with AI and, you know, we have it at um all of the different levels. Uh district level um
school leader level, so building principals, um curriculum leaders um educators, teachers in the classroom you know, and finally students. Students do play an important role or not finally, students do play an important role in this
um because, you know, they're ultimately the ones that are going to be using AI to further their learning at some point appropriately. Uh so, they need to understand, you know, what the what are the expectations of them. And then families at home because we do ask kids to do things outside of school. Um and so, we need that partnership with
families to ensure uh that kids are doing things correctly, that they understand um some of the tools that they have, that parents understand the tools that kids are using. Um uh because I think that that home and school connection is just going to
reinforce the principles that I already outlined. Um the you know, the the world that we're in, kids are using AI all the time outside of school. Um kids are using it in school. They're using it effectively at times. They're using it appropriately at times and
they're using it inappropriately at times. Uh but also as our students move beyond high school, they certainly will be using that um and any post post-secondary setting. Um you know, and in professional careers, it's
there. And I think that we do have a responsibility to show kids what these tools are, uh what they can do, uh what they can't do, and what they should not do as well. Um and because this is about preparing them for the future, uh but still bring it back to the
portrait of a learner. Are we Are we using these tools in a way uh that furthers students attainment and internalization of those competencies. So, that's where we're at right now um with the
the summer our work our our work is going to um involve drafting usage guidelines with these principles and roles and responsibilities in mind. >> [cough] [clears throat] >> How might an elementary school teacher
use AI in the classroom, how might a uh middle school teacher use it in the classroom, and high school teacher. But, I think it's also going to be important to have parallel guides for students. Um it's pretty helpful to, I think, show students you know, teachers are going to
tell you there's a stop sign here, do not use artificial intelligence tools on this work. And then there might be a full go at the other end where like this is a an assignment, a task where you're going to really need to dig into AI um to help you get this done.
And that the role of the teacher there is going to really be to guide the students on how to how to use that. So, that's where we're at, and we hope to use those guidelines then um you know, once we've had a chance to have teachers or the usage guides, once we've had uh or teachers have had a chance to
look at those, think about it, get some professional development around the use of AI, then run the pilots next year, collect some data on that, and see if we need to tweak any of the usage guides, but also perhaps some of these guidelines as well based on our experience.
>> I think on top of that there are a number of support mechanisms that we'll probably find that we'll drop in because of our strategic plan. The strategic There's a fairly sizable chunk of the strategic plan going moving forward that's related to AI um in really helping our staff to
understand it. We have, you know, just like any other technology, you have the early adopters, and you have the people like no way. So, we're we're we've got to find that middle ground with our staff as we uh start to move forward with these guidelines to say, okay, these are the kind of these are the
rails, and see how that grows and goes. There are, you know, there's there's a lot of um data out there that relates to AI, but now, you know, bring in the banning of electronic devices in schools, but now
we're trying to manage AI, you know, so there's going to be a lot of competing factors that will drive this and change it. So, I think this is like the first step forward. The usage guides will be the second step forward and the work that we'll need to do over the next few years, especially with helping people to
understand how it works because what we're finding right now and I sent you all an email about this a couple weeks ago. The companies that work with our data use AI fairly religiously and you know, unfortunately
in some cases we have proven it wrong already. So, it's also part [clears throat] of our job to keep alert and understand how these things are being used across the spectrum of our school district and and we [clears throat] we continue to do that and continue to be vigilant and talk about it.
We have experts at every level. Linda works down at the elementary. We have [clears throat] people at the middle and high school and then several of our principals are also involved in kind of working this forward and and it is a learn as you go. I mean, every time
I read the news at 5:30 in the morning, it's like this new technology just came out today. So, it's getting scary and schools have never ever been able to keep up with the the change of technology. You just you just can't. So, our goal is going to be to
try to make sure there are some guidelines in place, keep it safe, teach kids kind of the what's and how's and also helping our staff to understand and use it appropriately and you know, as Brian said, while also maintaining
opportunities for deeper learning, which is ultimately why we do what we do. >> Anyone? >> Can I just >> Can we maybe start with if people have questions first and then we can offer thoughts and discussion. Did you have a question?
>> Uh, >> have one. You said you used AI to help write. What what language model did we use? >> Uh, we were using uh Gemini generally uh cuz that's our our district um supported platform cuz it's part of Google.
>> Yeah. >> Do we use anything anything else at all? >> No. >> Focus on Gemini. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Okay. >> We we stay within the Google platform because Google offers free educational umbrella to schools, so it's kind of kind of safer, if you will. There there
are a lot more mechanisms in play to protect kids and and staff. >> I have comments after no more questions, but >> does anybody else have just a question? Jen. >> Um now that you're moving on to policy, are you looking to develop a general AI
policy that applies to all three types of artificial intelligence, or are you going to consider each one differently? Because it's they are quite different, right? >> Yeah. >> I don't have a problem with this with somebody using AI to finish an email,
but I don't want them using it to write an essay. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Uh, so I just think of doing it as a blanket policy might cause confusion. >> Yeah, so I I think the nice thing is I'm not the school committee, so I don't have to make the policy.
>> [laughter] >> But they were going to put together guidelines. So do you got to do guidelines for all of AI, or do you do guidelines for predictive AI, generative AI? >> We determine if we want >> Yeah, you can determine that. Yeah, and I think you're going to have to separate it because of the they're dramatically
different. Generative generative AI and agentic AI are dramatically different with dramatical dramatically different results, um including depth of knowledge, understanding, and access for the user. So
I think it it will make sense when we get there to to do that. Cuz I'm I'm waiting for the fourth AI category to come. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, it's coming. >> So, Jen, that's a good question. Like I Like maybe these this use or these
guidelines can help inform what the school committee policy might look like. We take it in the other direction and say, "Okay, in a high school classroom, um you know, how could you maybe use AI
to help develop your own personalized study guide, okay? But you still got to keep these principles in mind like the kids do, the teachers do. Um you know, so this is kind of maybe a central document, you know, the policy would be over that. The usage guides are
really the on-the-ground documents that can help people uh develop different experiences for kids. >> And I think the iteration of the usage guides will have to occur a little before we step into making that policy cuz there are still some lessons for us to learn.
Kind of >> Anytime any university I'm at tries to do an AI policy, within 4 months it's out of date and they've found a million loopholes and things that they didn't consider and >> It's on fire right now, so it's hard to
manage. >> Um questions are finished. Anybody have um comments or discussion? >> Just Just a couple things to bring to light as you're going through this that are incredibly critical. Um one, unfortunately, just with how fast
things are moving like what AI is not able to understand context, nuance, or ethics like a human. That's the whole reason they pulled Table 5, so it can. Right? Like that's a major problem already that it's moving that fast. Um two, as a district, we need to be looking at shadow AI.
Shadow AI is a real concern at the higher ed levels. Uh it's out there. Turnitin and all these other uh assignment graders, they can't keep up. They They just can't. And the amount of what their kids graduating college having their diplomas revoked because
they're going on social media and crediting AI for their diploma, right? It's all shadow AI. So, whatever we look at in terms of guidelines, we need to look at shadow AI. This The last thing I'll say is we really need to look at using it in the
classroom poses a few problems. The LLM learns as you go. It's how AI works, right? So, when a teacher puts something in in the morning, 6 months later, the LLM will pull that back. That data may be outdated, wrong, incorrect,
or you know, just completely outlandish, but it's now coming up and the students are seeing that based upon that LLM learning. Gemini's famous for that, unfortunately. So is Chat GPT. Chat GPT, as we all know, is very nice to us because it agrees with everything you say. Everything
comes down to the prompts. So, there's there are nuances throughout all of this that as we go, this education to specifically the the staff is like ongoing. It It's almost monthly because it's going to change that fast for a long time.
And that's that's where I would start. Just full disclosure, I have built an LLM for a very large Fortune 500. I'm working on another one right now. It's moving faster than we can dream. And I think the the biggest concern that I have is the shadow AI. We can't control it.
Kids are going to go home and they can reconnect and it's just It It's out there and it is causing havoc. But at the same time, we have to embrace it because we use it in our professional lives every single day. So, there are some nuances.
>> Um I So, I I think I have a comment that is maybe on the opposite end of what Tom is talking about, and I really focused I shared this a a bit when um when the strategic plan was presented to
us. I um have a concern about our youngest learners. Um and I mentioned this in the strategic plan. I really have some concerns regarding specifically, we have in here, you know, prioritizing students' digital
literacy at every grade level. I am giving some just pushback that I I I agree with everything Tom said about the need to really be on top of this at We don't want our kids
graduating from the high school without being really as literate as possible and knowledgeable as they can on how to use these tools that are real-world tools. And I don't feel like I really need to prioritize digital literacy,
particularly in the realm of AI, with our kindergarteners and first graders. I So, it's me. That's just my opinion. I feel really comfortable that our youngest learners could be spending 7 hours a day in a haven
away from screens and technology at school, and that I have no concerns that they wouldn't be able to catch up with their peers at later elementary school. I just >> I think it would >> Digital Digital literacy doesn't mean
knowing exactly how to use it. It means knowing when >> Yeah. >> to use it. And >> I'm just saying >> I mean, it's not like a step-by-step. It's more like >> I'm just saying I'm not actually All I'm trying to say and I We don't need to I'm just saying >> Yeah. >> me personally >> Well, my son did kindergarten on Zoom. So
>> No, but I'm just saying I don't know This is me personally. I don't know that our kindergarteners need that that needs to be a priority in the classroom. Like that's I'm not naive. I understand that kindergarteners are going to be exposed to lots and lots of technologies, but
I'm not sure that that needs to be our focus. So, just it's just a concern that I have. I don't >> Yep. No, I agree with >> The work here, I think, is so difficult and so important and like I I'm not in any way
like I think this really represents the right where we are right now. We've done a ton of work to represent that. I'm just That's just me. We don't need to like I just have some real concern about how much focus we need to have on
digital specifically digital literacy in our littlest learners. It's >> I agree with you that I don't think kindergarteners should be using it. But they still need to start even at
that young age developing digital good digital habits, whether they're using it or not. Like >> I we I I don't think we need like like I disagree, >> [laughter] >> but that's okay. >> computers need to be in schools, but there are predators out there that will go after 5-year-olds.
>> No, of course. I'm not naive that I'm not saying that they're not exposed to it in the world. I'm just So, anyway, I I don't I'm not >> Just just giving you your opinion. >> I mean, the the the state has digital literacy standards that are going to
apply to to each grade level. I you know, I think up to us to decide what's appropriate for each grade level and how those standards, you know, can be actualized, but also when the guidelines, you know, talk about
teaching and learning specifically and it it said it should be used as a tool that supports and enhances student learning. You know, that phrase right there, like if it's not doing that, then you don't use it. And so, there are cases in kinder well, probably a lot of time in kindergarten it's just not
appropriate. And this, you know, these guidelines are not meant to say that you have to use AI all the time. It's I think it's meant to say like it's a tool, it's out there. Kids should know how to use it appropriately. Um teachers should know learn how to use it appropriately as well. Um but certainly
there's going to be times even in a high school class like high school settings where it just shouldn't even be used at all at all as a tool. It's not appropriate. Um >> And I would imagine there are times that it would certainly be appropriate for a kindergarten teacher to be using using
AI. That's quite different than what I'm sort of concerned about. Taking I just am concerned about taking precious time for our little learners to focus in on you know, sort of I I understand there's real world things.
I'm just saying I think we have an opportunity not to spend a lot of time in the littlest littlest learners on screens or talking about screens or learning about Yeah, I I just that's just an opinion.
>> But I think it's also [snorts] important just to note that there's something to be said when a kindergartner can look at something, digest it and question it. Is that AI? Is that real or not? Right? Like my first grader says to me, "Dad, that's got to be AI." Right? And and I think that I agree with
you on the screens 100% but I also think that there's an education piece because they will catch up as they get older and they'll be very much involved in it. But I do think there's something about kindergarten, first, second, third understanding what's real and what's not, being able to think for themselves
and questioning is this real? Is this you know, if they don't know what AI is and they don't they can't question it properly. So there's a balancing act. >> But where what's the district's purview on this? Like are did the policy committee
developing this policy? >> is going to give us >> Okay, so the state's going to give us guidelines and we need to adhere to those guidelines and then do you want the policy committee to take take this
and develop a policy for the district. >> I've seen a lot districts typically have an AI policy or it may be part of you know, their acceptable use policy or some other technology connected
policy. I mean, I maybe a good homework assignment to research some districts around us and even outside of that like that do you have a specific AI policy? You know, the ones that I've seen aren't super specific.
Because then they start to get lost in the weeds. >> Well, or to Jen's point they're outdated as >> Yeah, the policy should [clears throat] also say this is going to be updated or looked at every every five minutes. >> [laughter] >> Part of the process towards the policy
is like this is step one. Let's get the guidelines in place. Let's do the the the pilots. And then use the data from those pilots to then hone in on it. And it's I almost feel like we're going to revisit this thing every six months
because it's moving so quickly, but I think if we take those steps, we'll be able to put up a policy in place. That I didn't check MASC to see if they actually have a draft out there yet. I know I'm not sure, but I I know they've been helpful in in developing that as well.
So We're not alone. The districts all around us are wrestling with this in different ways. So I think at some point we'll all have to kind of come together to say, okay, what makes sense in in public schools, you know, and I think we'll need more help and guidance from the state. The guidance is currently
limited to that document that the committee used, which gives us a good outline, but it's not enough. We need we need more depth to that. So I I think you'll see that come from the state as well. They are working towards a number of uh addressing a number of concerns that
have come from superintendents and teachers groups and things like that, so. >> Yeah. I just had a a question. >> process. >> Um can I clarify the timing of the usage policies that you mentioned? Just I think you mentioned that there would be
or like usage guidelines for each sort of school or grade level. And do you mind just revisiting that again for me of what that would be and when the the thinking is of starting to draft some of those and implement them? Yeah. So over the summer >> Okay. >> we would draft some of those, I guess
level-specific usage guides. And they're going to be drafts, so um they're not going to necessarily tell every single kind of classroom teacher exactly what to do. >> Yeah. >> Uh but the idea would be to bring those to um the opening professional
development days as a way to to start to gather feedback from teachers, uh but I think we'll also be having some some professional development specific to AI use in schools. >> Okay. >> Um so that'll kind of push that a little bit further. Um but based on, you know, the feedback
that we get during those opening days and then some further work, perhaps reconvening that AI group, um and you know, enhancing these usage guides, once they're ready, and we feel like these are kind of actionable a little bit here, um
choose a couple of classrooms, maybe at each level, uh to see how AI can be used, how it how it is enhancing or not enhancing kids learning, um and then tweak the usage guides. I mean, we've kind of we've gone through this before a little bit, you know, when we went to be a one-to-one
school, you know, however many years ago that was now. Um and it it's it's bumpy at first because you kind of don't know what you don't know a little bit, which is nice. It's nice to go back to these principles. It's nice to go back to these stakeholders groups or whatever
stakeholder groups everybody knows what their responsibilities are. Um but yeah, it's probably going to be a little bit bumpy at first. Um but you know, that's I think that's a good thing for kids to experience because that's kind of how the world is. >> Right. >> You just you don't know the answers all
the time and you got to navigate that. >> I mean in a very soft way, I feel like this happened when the internet entered education. And so I guess I'm just I'll be really curious to see if we go back far enough. >> [laughter] >> I'll be curious to see
how the usage guidelines sort of function in the wild, you know, because I think that's what will make a lot of this very tactical and real because I really liked what the committee came up with in the guiding principles in that first section
for teaching and learning that says that this isn't supposed to be a shortcut that replaces thinking, struggle, and growth because I think that's for me the kind of the crux of the issue. It's like that sometimes school isn't always supposed to be easy. You're supposed to be challenged a
little bit and continually improving. And I even feel like in my own work like I'm constantly trying to become a better writer. And like AI makes me a faster writer, but I'm not necessarily always sure it's better. You know, so [laughter] some and sometimes that's okay, but
sometimes it's not. So yeah. So anyway, that's that's the end of my comment. Sorry. Thank you. >> I I I just want to say I just sent you an email. I've actually had a colleague of mine Lance Eaton
who is at the University of Massachusetts in Boston who's actually been putting together a AI syllabus repository since 2023. Um and really it's like like 170 different like professors putting together um how they
coordinate AI usage in there. So I just think it'd would a probably a valuable resource for you as we look for this how other you know, institutions of higher learning are actually doing it. So, I like I said, I literally just sent it out. >> Okay. Anybody else have anything else?
Thank you for that work. >> thank you committee. This was a lot of work. >> Yeah. >> A lot of work, great start. >> just wanted to say five pages, we cleared the room. If it was 14 pages >> [laughter] >> Right. Right. But yeah, thanks for you know, having
uh me here tonight to present this. It was nice to to have a pretty in-depth conversation about learning um even though it's the end of the year. Uh it's nice to uh engage in that kind of dialogue because this is uh this is why we're open for business. And
so, it's it's kind of cool to to look to the edge of where we're at here and you know, what we're going to do in the future. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Right. >> Thanks, Brian. >> Thank you, Brian. Thank you, Linda. >> Okay. Um so, if you're following along
here next to we've already um done uh item D, recognizing the retiring staff. And so, next up is a report on the district goals. To you, Eric. >> Dana, I probably missed this at the beginning of the meeting. Are we at all breaking into executive >> We are going to have an executive
session meeting at the end instead of at the beginning. >> That was >> Yes. You did miss that. Yes. >> I'm sure you covered it. >> Yes. Yes. It We had I don't know We I explained. We had thought we might be able to vote on the
ESP contract. And so, that we put that at the beginning, but we weren't quite able to just dotting our i's and crossing our t's, but we weren't quite ready. So, we're going to just have the discussion at the end. There wasn't the urgency to have it at the beginning. >> Ready? >> Yes, go ahead. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh
as you know, each end of the school year we put together a uh district goals report that's based on the goals that we set way back when and you know we had our if you remember our uh workshop for school committee last year
when we were out in the hallway prioritizing goals and getting our ideas in order and trying to make sure that we set uh some solid goals for the school year. This report is the kind of final iteration if you will done by the leadership team
uh related to the goals. Uh I won't spend a lot of time on the first goal cuz Brian just went through it but it's all about the AI policy and pilot initiative. Again there are pieces of that that will extend into it'll be part of a goal for next year um that's related to the strategic plan as well so
you'll see that come back around. Uh MTSS implementation we continue on year five and and really trying to uh strengthen our framework and learn from what we do and make adjustments and kind of live
and grow um the framework. We had a a number of wins uh with with writing and literacy art. We had a really strong focus on writing this year because that our teachers really came up with the the reality that there was not enough
writing built into CKLA so uh a lot of work done in the area of writing. Um and again some of our data highlights are that are related and kids are exiting grade one with stronger foundational decoding skills than they
ever have in the past. The chart that's in the report I think is is um pretty fascinating when you look at it uh from the segmentation. The the left side of the chart that that blue
is the beginning of the year for kids in 2021. Um that's their assessment level. And then when you go to the the right right side of those five bars, this one right here where I can right there make my pointer a little bit larger.
Um right off the bat, we're seeing higher scores right in the beginning. Um same thing's reflected in the third group of five on the right side, the light blue uh a little bit lower uh as a whole. And then by the end of 2025,
those scores uh were dramatically higher than even um anything that we we had done the previous 3 years. I mean, all of a sudden we got this big bump. Um so the things that we have been working on, the interventions that are that have been
put in place are working and showing some promise. Um same in mathematics. We're looking at math screeners K to 5. We're seeing some some good actionable data. And um we're trying to pair that new math
screener with also coursework, professional development. We had some of our teachers take a 30-hour course in math mastery. Um in line with if you all remember, we're partnered with the uh Department of Education Tiered Math Support Academy. So we get a lot of assistance from the
state. They connect us with third-party uh individuals to to help us to grow and and kind of fine-tune our our MTSS process. Middle school, as you remember, is slightly behind the elementary level. The elementary had about a 2-year jump on the middle school.
Uh really starting to show um some some good increases. Again, students per- performing in in math are about Excuse me, students in i-Ready math are performing at or above grade level. That number increased by 23%.
The number of kids are performing at uh grade level. We we are focusing on uh some of the kids who are coming into school that may be more than a year behind because they tend to track much more slowly. So, we're looking at other opportunities to
help to meet their needs and give them stronger interventions. There's an IE block at the middle school that's really used as an intervention block and the flexibility of that gives the the middle school people the opportunity to move kids around as needed to the right locations. Um
I think it's it's been interesting to see the second year of the HMH literature being expanded um in in each of the grades at the middle school and um immediately fluency immediate fluency growth of 82% uh in
our you know looking at our Read Live which is a a fluency software that we're using at the um middle school. Um social emotional integration has been the kind of the last piece of the puzzle. So, at elementary we use Open Circle. Um we've been able to expand that
through all grades. Now, middle school is now leaning into Project Adventure and doing some work with the leadership but also the social emotional feature pieces. Project Adventure has a number of units that help students to manage social emotional
uh growth across time. So, you can you can you know have these kids uh experience these opportunities through the school year and learn more about themselves and and how they interact and act in certain situations and with certain people. So, um the high school again continues their
they're finishing their second year of using Reveal Math curriculum um and they're they're they've been building uh using the Building Thinking Classrooms framework to give teacher real-world insight into how kids think. So, sounds kind of corny
but it's literally a whiteboard probably twice the size of this and kids have to write out their work, show it to the teacher. Um you're seeing more kids out of their seats and out at the boards showing like, okay, this is how you solve this problem. Why did you choose this? And you know, if you could have
two kids up there with two different two different approaches to and with the same solution. It's a good opportunity for kids to see that. So, you you're there's a lot more movement and interaction at the secondary level. Math midterms, Brian has done a pretty good examination
of midterms across grades and students with IEPs, which if you remember, that was our focus this year to try to focus on kids with IEPs who were lagging, improved 50 to 57% based on comparatives from last year.
Last year to this year, 57% improvement. Students with IEP in English, same thing, 87%. They have made multi-year progress, 67% in English 2 years ago and 87% this this past year.
So, it's it's the MTSS work is ongoing and we said this 5 years ago when we started talking about it. It's hard to think that this is my fifth year, but there's been a lot of work done. I you know, the the intervention program is is
evolving, we're shifting and changing. We're changing the coaching model this year. Moving from three to two and really looking at the coaches now as specialists that will cover STEM and and literacy, excuse me, so that
we start to kind of grow that system across all three of the schools. We've gotten everything into alignment, people are moving kind of in the same momentum. We've managed the curriculum really well in the growth across grades all the way
up through the high school and even the intervention piece, bringing DIBELS. We're one of the few schools that uses DIBELS all the way through to eighth grade. So, um those are all data sets that we can use to learn and grow. Teachers are using uh data in meetings.
They're having data meetings. They're run by principals, run by coaches, and they talk about it. They talk about group data, individual data, and try to see how kids grow. Um or not grow. We we do have some areas that we're going to refocus on next year
to try to figure out what's happening and what are some of the things that we might be missing. So, there's there's constant work for um that whole group of of educators. And and we've a really sizable group that's that dedicated. People doing interventions, people doing specific uh
pull-in, push-out, um uh more surgical like taking kids out at just the right time. And uh we have teachers that are going into classrooms now, teachers that are starting to support staff that's starting to understand CCLA. As as we've learned through the ESP
contract process, we want to we need to do more of that work to help our ESPs and our support people understand um how those curricula work in conjunction with what's happening in the classroom. So, there's there's lots more to go and we'll continue to grow this, but um
Jen Clifford and her crew continue to stay connected to the Department of Education. Um science people as you heard got the grant earlier from the middle school. So, we're doing all the right things to to move forward. We we tend to be leaders in curriculum adoption and
curriculum integration. And MTSS, schools come to us to see what we're doing specifically at uh at our elementary level. So, those are all good signs that we're moving in the right direction. Um so, looking at that goal, I think it's everybody understands it's going to
continue on just kind of the next the next uh metamorphosis if you will. School start time, we went through school start time uh through the committee, presented it here. We still have a lot of work to do at the committee level and last meeting you received a stack of data. Um
and some of the some of the information that that's come about we'll bring together at uh the workshop in August and [cough] during that workshop we'll dig in to the data, get some ideas, and then have some discussions about what we should do
next. So, that that's really uh the committee did a great job. It was a lot of work there, a lot of detailed a lot of passion in that group. So, it was uh it was kind of it was fun to work with. Um and then state-of-the-art schools we continue to uh try to address our
facility demands. Um you know, we had to pivot that elementary school project that we were leaning into. And you know, the I think the community conversations were probably the most successful thing I participated in this year uh for a number of reasons, but
personally it gave me some better insight into uh things I could do differently and things that I can learn and grow from. Um and I also think people felt like they were heard and and that they they have a voice in the process. The job now will be to continue to do
that and support that and keep people involved. You'll see in the next couple of weeks there'll be a flyer that will go out um that'll outline the RFP that we reviewed a couple weeks ago. So, that will be a separate community-wide survey to see, okay, where are where do people sit? And
then as special meetings come up we will take advantage of that to try and get funding uh and lean into what, you know, where people feel comfortable. So. Um high school roof replacement they're actually dropping equipment and and uh material starting on Monday.
So, you will see a lot of activity up there Monday during the day. Um it is messy because there's 129,000 square feet of roofing and siding and fascia and soffit replacements. All all that stuff will be on site in various
locations. Uh yeah. We will close off some of the site to use only because we we don't we just don't want people get in the way. There's a lot of work to try to be done before school starts. This project will go into the school year probably in October. Final The
final deadline is late October to to to get the sign-offs that we need. MSBA statements of interest as you know, we did submit those as we planned. Three were submitted. And then really trying to
outline the work that we did. Part of what you'll see on August 18th is a report of the reports, if you will. I just curiosity-wise went back and started reading from the original superintendent's
like this is what I've heard in the first 6 months I've been here. You remember that report like these are the things that are important. Taking that and then taking the 5 years worth of reports and just going back through them and trying to see the work that has been done. It's
incredible. It's incredible when you look at it from just this perspective, a lot of work over a school year. Demanding people have been resilient. People have been supportive and you know, it's it's just how do we continue to grow it, I guess, is is where the conversation. When
teachers identify something, we're trying to be more you know, respond quickly to that. Writing is the best example. Writing was an issue. We've addressed it this year. We will continue to address it. There's a long ways to go with that. And then continue to grow things right
up through all of our grades. We continue to try to hope to modernize our schools. We have a number of projects going on this summer including some window replacements in this building, water main replacement at the Cutler school which will impact the parking lot, which
will need it will force us to replace the parking lot cuz it goes right right through the middle, unfortunately. Um and then we're we're going to hope to move that RFP forward in support of getting some activity done uh related to our buildings and our
facilities. Um the new some of the new people on the Hamilton FinCom have reached out to us um are very interested um in our process, our capital process that we installed 2 years ago.
And trying to work with them, we have um a liaison who comes to our meetings and we work through the process with a liaison from each of communities. FinCom is now trying to look uh at at a further kind of further out, like what's the next 5 years look like, what's the next 10 years look like. So, um we're
trying to get all three entities on the same page for that because capital costs are uh you know, word magnanimous, if you will, because not only school side, all the the towns are are looking at some some really big projects that are coming at
us. And we'll continue to look for ways to be efficient, we'll continue to look for ways to gain funds like MSBA or other grants, you know, as as you may remember, the HVAC unit on the roof at the high school was not set to be replaced, uh but we were able to get a
grant for a 2/3 more than 2/3 of the cost of the the unit and the roofing company is going to put it, you know, they're taking off the old one, getting rid of it, and putting the new one on for us as part of that project. So, trying to be more efficient so that we're not reopening up new, you know,
brand new roofs and cutting holes and things like that. So, there's there's a lot going on. Um you know, there's still so much more to do. If you read the give the HW news a shout out today, you know, the heat in the building is is
incredible. Uh they wrote a really good article, I think, about how how do you deal with that? How do you manage that in New England schools, which many of them have have not been built with air conditioning or air anything. Um and our schools were 70 years ago. So, and you know, we we'll continue to
work work within our means, but also I think we need to stretch a little bit, too, to get some of these things done. Um and continue to work in the community. I will commit to staying in the middle of the communities and being at the meetings and talking to people and making sure people understand where this group um leans into and and try to
get some more um things done with with our facilities. And that's it in a nutshell. >> All right, people have questions. All right, Eric. Thank you. Thank you for all that hard work. >> [clears throat] >> Yeah, I want to thank the leadership team. They they
When when you're building this report with me, I'm always the person is like, "You need more. You need more." You know, we uh often forget in our roles because of all this kind of up and down across the school year, you forget like,
"Okay, we did set a goal at the beginning of the school year." And I had uh principals set literally write an elevator speech. You're going to write an elevator speech that you're going to use with your staff why we're doing the things we're doing. And it was focused on trying to continually improve some of
the the you know, scores in the subgroups like special education, ELLs, and uh low income. Those have been problematic for us if you look at our SOA report. That's where we set our goals in the SOA, student opportunity act stuff. And
they they they kind of, you know, we we prod them and, you know, they're probably uh happy this is done, but there is a lot of work behind the scenes that our principals are doing. A lot of work behind the scenes that our intervention people are doing. A lot of work, you know, Jen Clifford is non-stop uh trying
to figure out different ways to make sure that teachers have what they need. She's building professional development to try to meet the the the goals that we haven't even set yet including AI and those other things. So there there a lot of there's so many things going that we often forget to stop and smell the roses
and this report gives our leadership team an opportunity to kind of say, oh yeah, we did do a lot of work this year. So >> Yeah, you did. Um, Jen, did you have a question? >> I was just I was just wondering if you guys were planning on expanding the high
school program to trig. Cuz you stop at geometry or algebra two. >> To just flat trig? >> And precalc. >> Oh, yeah, so we do precalc. >> With this MTSS approach? >> Oh, no, no, no. Sorry, no. We only really starting to think, okay, I I want
to I want to maybe go to school for this or I want to go do this and um, it you see these changes in kids and I think that would be interesting to see what the data looks like. Brian tracks purposely tracks at the second at the high school um, the shift in midyears
because that for us is a more reliable measure. So he looks at all the course midyears to say, okay, how are these subgroups doing in these midyear exams and that's even we may not be seeing big shifts in the the screeners that we use in some cases, but then you take that same kid
and you look at them versus what they're doing in the classroom and you see a a tremendous amount of growth. So trying to reconcile all that has been has been a trouble a little bit of trouble with the high school. It's a it's a little bit harder to do, but I I you know, it's kind of I don't know, it's it's fascinating to to dig into.
>> Okay. Anybody else? Thank you and thank you to the leadership team for all of that. >> Yeah, thank you to all the leadership team. All the teachers and support people. This is a lot of work. >> Yes. >> And I think it's important to recognize
that that there is a so much going on behind the scenes that you know, people are are just continuing to grow and drive forward and we're seeing success because of it, so. >> Um, okay, uh, next up we have, um, athletic user fees. I don't know who's
speaking to this, whether this is Eric or >> Yep. >> Um, Monday, Monday, right? >> Monday. >> We just met Monday. >> It was just Monday. >> Here it is, the date's right here. Um, Monday, June 15th, the capital planning, uh, finance subcommittee
met, uh, as we always do, we brought in our athletic director who we're only going to be with us for [clears throat] a couple more weeks, but, uh, brought him in, um, to talk about fees and talk about structures of fees. Thought we had a great conversation, dug into a lot of the data. We saw some,
uh, really increases in some of our sports this year, oddly. They were gymnastics and ski, which we did not expect. >> I'm sorry, increase in cost or increase in >> in students, the number of participants, so that for us that was something that we we didn't plan for, but it worked
out, uh, well to have, uh, robust gymnastics team. We have It's been It's been, uh, smaller for years. Um, so we a couple years back, I think it was 3 years ago, we we started to look into a tier model and trying to differentiate
between the more expensive sports and less expensive sports. Uh, that has worked to some extent, but it does drive an overage when you have an increase in your, uh, higher tier sports, so all of a sudden you get 20 more kids
paying $700 for, uh, tier one sport that you didn't plan for, you That's a lot of money. You're starting to look at 15 grand more than you needed, so uh, we want to we wanted to try to figure out a way to balance that. Um, committee talked a a about what that
would look like. We did some number crunching and uh, uh we decided in in that committee that the two scenarios to go to look at was keeping two tiers, increasing all the fees, or moving to a single user fee. And the single user fee actually drops
the uh fee uh below the lowest fee that we had this past this current year. So, uh subcommittee discussed and ultimately chose to go with a single fee of 575. Um and again, we we review this annually, so this is specifically for
the '25 uh '26 '27 school year. >> [snorts] >> Well, the 575 also incorporates So, when they're when Craig was doing planning for the year, he was estimating 10% less
>> Yeah. >> students. And so, we would get 10% more than we expected. And so, we would get a lot more money, like >> Yeah. >> 90 students extra money. Uh so, instead of doing 10%, we also want
him or want whoever the next athletic director is to do 5%. Uh just plan for that. >> of budgeting. >> So, we still have a com- >> You're talking about in terms of creating the estimated budget. >> So, we have a cushion. We still have that 5% cushion, but we don't have, you
know, extra a huge amount of extra fees that students paid into the system that they didn't have to. >> Yeah. >> at the end of the >> And the numbers are they continue to be in the 70% range of kids participating in sports. We had 653
duplicated users. So, there were I think 28 three-sport athletes. There were number of two-sport athletes. So, that's encouraging. We're we're seeing that number continue to rise each year. Um we had a number of kids come back from private schools
who are uh athletes as well. And you know, we we believe part of that is the fields of driving some of that increase in participation. So um we think this makes sense to to do a single fee. And again, we'll review it back in next
May June again and and see what that looks like. We feel like we'll be able to meet the 50% ish it's 50% this year, right? Yeah. >> Uh 55. >> 45 for the students. >> 45 for the students. So we'll be able to we feel like we'll be able to meet that percentage
of cost that's needed by you by by using the 575. >> Okay. That's great. >> Yep. And >> Right. Um so we need a motion. >> Uh I motion to vote to approve the
athletic user fees for 2026-2027. >> Second. >> Seconded by Jen Carr. Anybody have any further discussion? Okay, looks like we're ready to vote. All those in favor? That is unanimous of the six members present and the motion passes.
Thank you for your work on that. All of you. >> [snorts] >> Okay. Um next up, I don't think we have anything >> Nothing in finance. >> finance and operations. Benny, no? >> No. >> Okay.
Committee reports. Uh Capital Finance? >> You I think we've talked about everything. >> Okay. Um uh and I do you have are you going to have a scheduled meeting over the summer or not? >> No, we were going to shoot for coming
back and scheduling a new meeting at the retreat. >> Okay, great. Um Policy Amy is not here. I know she's um we do need I think to have a policy meeting. So >> I've I some difficulty getting everybody together.
>> Yes, so well I will I will get back to Amy and um hopefully she'll get us all set up. Um negotiations, we will update you in executive session um this evening.
Um and I don't think I actually sent anything out to the secretary regarding the secretary report, so I'll we'll just um um >> It's coming. I'm ready. >> Yeah. Um
yeah, it's never-ending. I don't know if you have anything to >> Nothing. >> Um but basically like if you know, if we could just maybe over the summer we'll connect just about reviewing what is actually missing and what's not missing. I think we're in a pretty decent >> We're in really good shape. I have the I have the list. Yeah, we're in good shape. >> [clears throat]
>> We've had a a number a large number of >> Yeah, no I I think we're in good >> approved in the last couple of meetings. We did a capital I think four >> Yeah. >> policies just a couple more. >> Yeah. Any missing minutes are usually me. >> Yeah. But we're caught up I think on on all those.
>> Um okay. Yeah, no I mean in other words at some point I mean in other words we can't we can't go back and recreate something from you know, whatever 2015. That's not possible, but you know, if we can Um okay. Um I didn't know Julia, are you
going to speak to the in our inboxes? Was that you? I'm happy to I'm happy to speak to it. I didn't know if you were going to speak to it. Okay. >> Um so um typically Amy would speak to that. I think um we Oh. Sorry, my computer decided to sign out
right now. Um >> Time to go. >> Time to Time to go I guess. My computer's done. Um no, um so this you know, typically just sort of let people know what we're seeing in our inboxes. I think in general we heard
some of what it was in our inboxes at public comment. Today, um we also did hear, which I think happens maybe every year, we hear some I think they're eighth grade students write um with some interesting civics questions and projects and I always enjoy getting those and one in
particular was about the air conditioning, which is great and thoughtful and um that was that. Um and I don't know if anybody had anything to add. Normally, like I said, Amy's on top of that. Um Um for the chair's report, I don't have
too much to add. I did want to let the committee know that this year the MASC annual meeting is different. I don't know if anyone else saw that, but the meeting is actually it's typically on the Cape, but this year it is actually in Danvers,
which might be a real opportunity um for some of us um you know, to go. It'll be a lot easier to go to just a portion of the meeting. Um but anyways, that is November 4th through 6th in Danvers. Again, it typically has been on the Cape. I've been a couple of times.
Um and usually you would go and actually stay for a few days. Obviously, this is a little bit of a different opportunity. We could potentially any number of us might choose to go um you know, for a portion of it. Um we don't have it yet, but they do put out a
whole um schedule of events, so you would know what time the various [clears throat] speakers or workshops are. And so, just put that on your calendar and think about um whether that's something you might be able to do um cuz Danvers is not very far away.
So, um and it is I I will say I've found it to be really worthwhile. I've learned a lot. Um it's a great great place to go and you meet some other people from all over the state that are also on school committees.
You can make some good connections. >> [snorts] >> Um anybody have any questions about that? Um the only other thing I just want to let the committee know is we will Um, I can just send you an email, but we will need to set up a one more This is our last meeting of the year, but we'll
need to set up one more. I'm envisioning just a very quick Zoom meeting um, at some point. Um, I would anticipate that we'll be able to vote on the ESP contract um, really soon. So, I would anticipate that we will you'll get an
email just to say let's schedule um, that. Um, anybody have any questions for me? All right. Anybody have any topics for future meetings? Which isn't Well, I guess with the exception of that potential short one.
>> Um, do the year end if you're talking about the August meeting? >> I guess in August we'll do that, yeah. Seems very far from now, but I know it's not. >> [laughter] >> Um, all right, great. Um, nobody has anything else. I'm just warning you that I'm going to move into
the executive session if nobody has anything else. Okay. Um, I move to enter into executive session under General Law, Chapter 30A, Section 21A, number three, to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or
litigation, the ESP union, if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body, and the chair so declares um, and not to return to open session. >> Second. >> Second by Kristen Noon. This is a roll
call vote. Uh, David? >> Yep. >> Yes. >> Uh, Kristen? >> Yes. >> Julia? >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> Jonsey is a yes, Dana is a yes, and we are in executive session. >> Thank you.