Thank you. Good evening. Uh, I call to order the meeting of the Hamilton Regional School Committee on Thursday, June 4th, 2026 at 7:05 p.m. And I'd like to remind everyone that this meeting is
being recorded and livereamed on uh HWC. Um, and you can pull up the Zoom. Um, but before we get to that, >> um, I'm going to start off, I'm going to
ask, uh, Mr. Tracy, uh, to recognize our student government representatives. >> Thank you. Um throughout the year we ask a group of students generally officers and each other classes uh to present at school committee meetings one
time a month. And this year we've had four uh students who have been consistently bringing reports but also behind the scenes working with their peers to gather information, get get it all sorted out, get it organized into a
presentation and then coming here um to do the presentation, answer any available questions. So tonight we want to take a moment to recognize uh those students for their work and um thank them for being a part of our team and certainly keeping the school committee up to date on the things that are going
on in school. So we have uh three out of the four here tonight. We have Anderson Craft, Colby McGovern, Emmy Pitkin, and not here but uh was active EIE Bernard Anderson. Congratulations. Thank you. You're going
to take both of these. Thanks. >> Thank you. And thank you all for your hard work. We appreciate it. >> Oh, thank you. >> Thank you.
>> Okay. Um, next up, we have an opportunity for citizens comments. Uh, do we have anybody on the Zoom? Nope. >> Is anyone in the room uh interested in
making a citizens comment? >> You sure about that? >> Anyone? >> Looks like no. >> Um All right. So, I will spare you all the um information about citizens comments. It looks like there are none. Um and we can go ahead and close the
Zoom. And citizens comments are closed. Um, next up we have uh um review of our school committee protocols and a portion of our mission statement. To you, Jen. As elected members of the Hamilton Wenham Regional School Committee, we
including the superintendent accept the high honor and trust that has been placed in us to ensure that the students of the district receive the best education possible. To that end, we hereby commit to the following in the conduct of our business. The school committee
recognizes the importance of working collaboratively with town officials and actively seeking their support to improve the district. And then uh mission statement. The Hamilton Wenham Regional School Committee's mission is to ensure our
schools create graduates with a passion for lifelong learning together with the critical skills needed to maximize their potential. The Hamilton Wenham Regional School Committee will lead and inspire a district that is a source of civic pride and municipal engagement to serve the
community for generations to come. Thank you. Okay, next up uh to Eric to provide us with a superintendent report. >> Thank you.
I'm chasing it around the screen right now. Okay, there we go. Um, thank you everyone. I just wanted to reach back a little bit and talk about uh both the candlelight ceremony and graduation. Amazing ceremonies. Candlelight was beautiful. The speeches were amazing.
They really the kids uh really did a great job stitching the speeches together and um creating a really tight connection with uh the class of 2026 graduation ceremony. Same thing. It was
a wonderful ceremony just under an hour long. Um 108 students and it was probably the more interesting graduation I've ever been to where the kids at the end they throw up their hats. They didn't leave. they all came together and kind of danced around and hugged each
other on the floor which was great to see. Uh it was a really uh tight group of seniors. We wish them well and good luck in in the future. And then uh last night I was able to attend the underclass awards and that was at the high school last night and uh another
great opportunity for us to see students who are up and cominging in the district and kids who receive uh not only departmental awards but a lot of our juniors receive some book awards. Um the patent leadership award is given out. So, a wonderful opportunity for kids in
grades nine uh 10 and 11 to be celebrated and recognized. It was a nice night last night. Uh this afternoon, I attended the uh middle school national junior national honor society ceremony. Again, wonderful ceremony, very simple
um and and uh straightforward, but uh new group of inductees today, and it'll be exciting to see uh all that they'll bring to the National Junior Honor Society at the middle school. Um number tournament games going on still, believe it or not. We I think this year we had
all of our teams head to the tournament. Uh currently the tennis team won today five to to zero. They'll move on to the final four. Boys tennis, girls tennis will play tomorrow at home at 3:30 and I think they play Hopedale
and then uh baseball is currently playing and I'll tell you what the score is in one second. >> It is we are up 3 to2 at the end of the fourth inning. >> Uh so teams are doing well. Uh unfortunately both uh boys and and girls
lacrosse uh lost in their uh most recent tournament games but great seasons for both of them. Uh girls lacrosse went 14 and three on the season. They also received the Cal Sportsman award and then uh boys had quite the turnaround
season. They had a tough start to the season. They turned it around ended up in in the tournament. So congratulations to both of those teams uh for making it in as far as they did in the tournament. And that is about it. >> Thank you. Anybody have questions?
>> Right. Thank you. Um, next up we have the consent agenda. Um, does anyone have any items that they'd like to have pulled from the consent agenda? Um, so I do. I'm going to ask to hold
both of the donations. Um, and are you willing to make the motion? Sure. I move that we accept the ex u consent agenda as writen with the exception of the two donations.
>> Second. >> Second by Amy Kberger. Um all those in favor that is unanimous of the four members present and the motion passes. Um, so I held both of these because
these are both really dramatic, huge grants from the ed fund. >> No pun intended. >> No, no pun intended. Exactly. They are both dramatic and dramatic. Um, and I was hoping, Eric, that you might just speak a little bit about them. Yeah,
these these are uh grants, two grants that have been in discussion for much of the year >> uh back and forth trying to figure out what the best uh approach would be to both of these projects. Um the lighting project is a continuation of the work
that we have been doing supported by the ED fund in the auditorium. Um as you know they did a renovation auditorium years ago and kind of left some things on un uh checked. So over the years, the Ed Fund has been and photo have been really good at donating
to things like soundboards and lighting change outs and and uh audio uh wiring and rewiring. And so this is kind of the next step. Everybody uh agreed that the lighting project would be the best bang for the buck and a $450,000 grant for um
updating our lights, which are desperately needed. We have a number of lights in the theater that don't work. they're just stuck up on the ceiling. And to get them down, you got to take them all down. So, this will be an opportunity for us to not only reduce uh
the number of lights we have, reduce the wiring cables that we have, it's insane right now, um to a very uh slim down version because of the digital capabilities of all the lights and the low amperage uh excuse me, low wattage um lighting fixtures that you can get
now for the theater. So, this is a big big grant for us. The uh amphitheater has been a dream of Dr. Pap uh for a number of years and he has been trying to figure out ways to make this happen. He finally decided um to dig into it
this year and going back and forth again with the ad fund committee. Uh he he was able to put together a a really good presentation to them. they accepted it wholeheartedly and donated the $362,000
um to put an amphitheater in. And for people who have been to the back of the high school, um if you're looking at the back of the high school between the science wing and the athletics section, there is a little curved in section. It will be it will naturally fit into that
section of the the back. There's two two places it could have ended up, but we believe it's going to be in that in that section. So, thank you to the Ed Fund. This these are both amazing grants uh for the district. We're looking at over $800,000
um plus the hundreds of thousands of dollars they they continue to donate throughout the year for uh to benefit our our teachers and our students in the classrooms. >> Thank you. Does anybody have any questions on either of those?
>> No, this is amazing. Okay. Um All right. Uh, can we have a motion? >> I move that we accept the two donations as presented.
>> Second. >> Second by Amy Kumer. Any discussion? All right. All those in favor? And that is unanimous of the four members present and the motion passes. um amazing work to the ed fund and to
all the um teachers and staff that organized the complexities of getting both of those grants written. And okay, um next up we're going to hear about the strategic planning.
There you go. longer draft. >> Yeah. >> We're going to talk tonight about our strategic planning process that we uh started. And the first and foremost, we want to say thank you to 29 of our community members who were part of this process. We had 10 community members, 10 parents,
and nine faculty and staff who met with us over the course of three and a half months starting in February uh reaching into May for evening um meetings. And it was a really nice process to be able to have lots of varied uh perspectives in the room and lots of different ideas and
thoughts. Um so this went a little bit longer than we intended it to, but we really felt like the work was so ri the conversations and the work was so deep and so rich, it was worth taking a little bit of of extra time. So we just wanted to say thank you to the committee. >> The strategic plan for us, this is our
second since I've been superintendent. We started with a three-year uh strategic plan and this time around we decided to lengthen it up, make it a five-year um but it it's a a system of of high leverage goals and strategies that are designed to drive continuous
improvement within the district across the district. Uh not only each year, but over this 5-year period. And what you'll see is the committee talked a lot about further out. we were talking about 2050, uh, which isn't that far away when you
think about it. Um, the work was was really made up of representatives from every stakeholder group within the community. We had people who have uh had kids in the district 30 years ago. Um and we've had a number of staff members, people who were involved in uh some of
our government groups and it was really nice to hear some of the perspectives but also for them to dig into some of our data to see the reality. Uh the work was really grounded in district data. We gave them hundreds of documents uh that they we compiled for them and they
analyzed throughout this process uh which helped us to build an honest picture of of the district and where it stands now and where we need to grow. And this this was really trying to connect the two strategic plans. The uh previous one there was still some
unfinished business. So we were able to dig into that. That was our starting point. Say okay what's finished? What's not finished? and then how can we pull some of that into the next level of strategic planning. Um the initiatives are uh really a a good uh connector for
each of our focus areas and you'll see that as we present it. Um they'll present the the initiatives will connect to goals over the years. So some of these initiatives just like a number of the things that we've worked on will be multiple years uh long. And then um the
idea of the strate strategic plan is to make it a living document. We talked a lot with this group about monitoring it along the way. Uh which is which is uh something we we're trying to figure out and Jen and I I think we decided on bring the group back around at the end of a year and say okay let's look at it.
Where are we going? What do we need to adjust and tweak? Um the final plan we're hoping to have publicly accessible by the start of the school year. Um and then we'll continue to be honest about the work, challenge ourselves, we'll challenge our course and make
adjustments as uh we learn and grow about the strategic planning. >> So in thinking about the components of a strategic plan, the four boxes on the left are mission, vision, core beliefs, and our portrait of a learner are really who we are and what we believe as a
district. And these anchor a multi-year roadmap that of every initiative that we have in the district from our early planning stages all the way through implementation. So we spent some time as a committee really thinking about our mission which is together we inspire continuous learning in order to lead a
purposeful life. Our vision which is what we want students future success to be is that they will engage the future with creativity and confidence. and our core beliefs which we established five years ago as a strategic planning committee. Passion for learning,
belonging, inclusivity, curiosity, partnerships, and integrity. And lastly, our portrait of a learner. Those six competencies that we are really seeking to help our students be able to apply what they've learned in our classrooms uh in in their classrooms and beyond. So
those are adapt and persevere to empathize to learn for life to communicate collaborate and think critically. So those four foundational pieces uh were what we started with, what we really made sure that everyone in the room understood why they existed
and we wrestled with them a little bit. And then we really spent our time thinking about these uh components on the right, the focus areas and strategic objectives, our strategic initiatives and strategic outcomes and our responsibilities, timelines, funding and monitoring pieces of the plan. So we'll
walk through that a little bit more today. When we initiated this process, we talked to the committee and and discussed the the the kind of the backbone of where this work will come from and it majority of it comes from the Desi strategic planning framework.
Um Jen and I have been through this process before. We went through it with a consultant last time and really took some pieces of that puzzle and some stuff from the Desi uh framework and built out a framework that we felt fit
the district um more cleanly. But uh there are three phases. We still use the same three phases. We analyze the context. So looking at all the data, data collection, data sources um and then looking towards the future and analyzing that data and creating a
direction and then drafting and implementing the plan which was fascinating. when you start to watch 30 people try and iterate uh these documents that we would bring back and forth on giantized pieces of paper and they're writing on them and they're
putting stickies on them and then we had to bring it back and recapture it so that we could bring it back to the next meeting and it was quite the process but uh everybody was involved. There was some great ideas and really some great opportunities for us to learn and grow as well.
So our first phase really did uh involve a lot of data. Um we were really trying to analyze our current context like where are we now as a district. So we spent some time looking at our plan that's ending this spring. Um we really use data to orient our team members and
we divided ourselves into self-based interest groups basically um of an a community and culture group, an academics group and a finance, budget and capital group. and we had three sets of data for those groups to analyze. The these included things like survey
results, um budget documents from both the district and both towns, goals reports uh for the last 5 years of our district goals, student opportunity act data and accountability data from uh DESIE, state of the facilities reports
that we've recently published, our enrollment data, our class size data, just all those things that come together to form uh and really create a picture of our district. So the these groups dove into these sets of data and synthesized those to really think about
what are the overall pieces where this leads. >> The synthesis process was really uh fascinating for me to watch people who probably didn't understand initially a lot of the things they were looking at. So trying to acquaint them and acclimate
them to uh school district data and helping them to understand what it represented and then bringing in kind of the the whole group to identify these broad themes as Jen said like facility infrastructure uh future ready curriculum inclusivity and then uh some
school level focus areas as well. uh the the themes really blossomed quickly, but we had to kind of rein it in and we were trying to control it. Uh but the themes ultimately came down to four focus areas which we'll present in a in a minute.
And then all these priorities, these focus areas kind of the big umbrella had to be defined. And so we spent I think a meeting and a half maybe almost two meetings just trying to define those uh focus areas so that um they met the
incoming data uh assimilation and all the thoughts that we had about what the future should look like and then really trying to integrate modern priorities, modern district priorities, um AI strategies, long-term master planning and then some deep deeper stakeholder
engagement which came up quite a bit through the process. One of the things you'll note on this is and I just point it out quickly only because um in the middle of this it talks about uh strategic spokes and that's even an an
idea of how the language changed as we walked through the process. We honed the language down and made it made it match how we felt our our district would be represented. So you'll see the the shift in a second. So, as Eric said, this is a really
iterative process. We would start with one plan, go through a meeting, think we knew where we're going exactly, but we really decided that we needed time to have those rich conversations. Um, everyone in the room brought a different perspective, whether they graduated from
the regional many years ago, whether they their children did that, whether they work there today, or whether they're just a community member now that has have never attended the regional. It was really valuable to have time to kind of wrestle with some of the things we were thinking about and to make sure that our all ideas were surfaced and
heard and captured. So we did a lot of work where one group would start with a focus area and try to define it and then then rotate new group in to work and build on the group of the previous. We went through several sticky notes. We went through lots of chart paper, lots of markers, even had some printed
posters that we were working on. um really to try to make sure that I I well I used voice to text but I think I took about I don't know maybe 150 sticky notes that were collected one evening on everyone's main ideas to to capture and
start to categorize what what is it that we were seeing that was unfinished business of our work currently and where did we need to go with that in the future. So we really took time to go from the large init discussions to the smaller pieces um and trying to make sure that all the voices in the room
were heard. >> Connecting the dots for the committee was an interesting process because again a lot of the members were not familiar with school terms. So we spent quite a bit of time really just acclimating them
to the million acronyms that occur in school districts, you know, MCCAST and DOE and DEES and all of the things that suddenly come at you. Um, and once we were able to do that, we really settled on four elements that make up our plan.
And the the greater umbrella is the focus area. And we'll show you what our four focus areas are in a in a minute, but those are broad areas. Um they they really are places that we want to specifically look as we develop the the
strategic plan moving forward and and they they really support the mission, vision, core value, portrait of a learner piece as we move forward through this process. under that are strategic objectives and they're they're a really strong component by connecting the
elements together but also defining the focus areas. Um we spent I forget how much time but a lot of time um iterating the focus areas and trying to uh connect the dots for uh people so that they were clear but also gave us enough um they
were broad enough to give us some latitude to plug in through the years where we may miss something cuz you know readily admit that we did not get everything we wanted in here yet. Um and that that stuff will come. And then under the strategic objectives there are
the initiatives the things that we'll do what are we moving towards to to meet that objective and then under that are really the outcomes you know what's the product what do you see uh at the end of first year or second year or all five years
the strategic focus areas and the base objective statements are here right now in the four areas of facilities operations and long-term planning uh communications s and stakeholder engagement, academic excellence for all students and future reg future ready
digital instruction and learn infrastructure and learning. Um these are really broad categories purposefully because we need to capture so much underneath these uh categories. I'll use um future ready digital infrastructure
and learning as an example. when you start to look at all the things that would fit under there. We were trying to figure out how to um start to recognize, understand, and develop some guidelines around AI, but also the infrastructure behind it. What is, you know, what types
of goals will we need uh to keep up with the structural pieces like the servers, the software, um and any of the safety issues that we need as we move forward. And then it goes all the way into training like helping staff members and being committed to purposefully training
staff members to know and understand uh what's coming at us along the way and then passing that along to kids um and helping them to figure out appropriate ways to integrate AI into their world. It's happening already. Our our phones are already converted in our pockets
when we you know when we weren't looking. So um there's a lot coming at us in this realm. So we wanted to try to tackle it along with the the current goal that you'll see next meeting uh for the AI stuff that's coming u but also
what that looks like moving uh forward towards the future. One of the problems we all recognize is the speed of at which things are changing in the technology area. And then the reality of uh screen time with kids uh came up a
lot and talking about how to balance fine balance or even gradually increase or decrease uh technology use at various grade levels. for example, you know, very limited at say K and one
and then as kids get up into high school, they start to use it uh more and integrate it into their their day-to-day. So, what are the next steps? Uh leadership team has begun to review it. We'll continue to look at it. Um we need
to add timelines in. The timelines are a little bit tricky because we're tr we're trying to connect all the initiatives in the plan that you have before you tonight uh through that fiveyear thread to see you know there are some things that might be one year and there are other things that'll be two three four
or even 5 years. Who's responsible is a big piece of the puzzle. trying to make sure we can align things that you know uh academic excellence there are a number of things that will fall under the realm of Jen and her people um in the teaching and learning piece but then
there's also parts of that that will fall under the principles the curriculum leaders the coaches and things like that and then um once we get those things done we'll have bring it back for final school committee approval assuming in that first meeting in August actually the only meeting in August but looking
for a final approval. We'll also do some of the graphic design work. For those who remember the previous strategic plan, the graphic designer actually took it and dressed it up, made it uh more public facing. So, we'll we'll do that and have all of that stuff ready to publish a final at the start of the
school year so that we can go into the school year with our with our new strategic plan as we designed it. Jen will take any questions that you have. I'm kidding. All right, questions.
Um, so thank you very much for that. Um, I so I did I have a sort of a I'm not sure that you'll I don't know really what my question is, but as I read it, I'm Eric knows I have some I have sort of some
concerns about the um the technology aspect, the digital digital literacy. And so this is a sort of a spec in the weeds question a little bit but one of the it says um on the not on this presentation but on the um document that
you gave that is on the second exhibit I think it talks about the full imp implementation of the K through8 um technology instructional sequences meaning that they'll you know be creating digital literacy from K through
8 and I have a concern about what that looks like and I We don't. We're supposed to be way up here, not in the weeds. Um, but I guess my my concern is that necessarily teaching digital digital literacy in kindergarten would
necessarily involve digital learning in kindergarten. And I'm not sure. >> I would say we already do that. So, we do have digital literacy standards K through 12 that we're responsible for teaching students in the state of Massachusetts. and our ideally our students are receiving um instructional
technology support in their library media classes. Um but it's really the goal is to be age appropriate and developmentally appropriate. So um we are not having kids on iPads all day long. We're thinking about how do we learn to use technology as a tool
appropriately depending on where kids are in their in their years. uh digital literacy is actually one of our accountability measures uh through the state of Massachusetts and it's something that we in the past have struggled with as an accountability point and I would say we also see that
rising especially in our middle school um where we haven't had a digital literacy curricular component and we're really thinking about and that's why that says K to8 how do we ensure that students through middle school have adequate instruction on digital citizenship on informationational
technology on how verifying that what they're reading is real. Like those really basic skills that are so vital now that haven't always been part of our coursework. And also on the flip side, how to respect a Chromebook that you're using and ensure that you're using it
properly uh and not uh damaging it quickly. You know, like it's very technology is so broad and as Eric said, it's moving so quickly that we are committed to make sure that it is the appropriate use for technology with the age of the child. But we also know that
we our students are assessed digitally starting in third grade by on MCCAST. So we want to make sure that we're not setting kids up for frustration uh by not having them uh exposed to enough screen time. We've seen that before. Um and we want to make sure that they have
the skills they need to show what they know through this tool. So, I understand your um concern and I would also say we have a device progression that we're trying to um really think carefully about about when uh devices are available to students. Uh what type of
devices make the most sense for students. Technology is it's not the shiny thing that we're trying to capture. It's really a vital tool that we're we're all using. As Eric says, we've got our phone in our pockets and we want to make sure we uh give students those foundational skills to be able to use them. um
responsibly. >> Thank you. And I did want to say I actually it in the I don't have it I don't have the right thing pulled up right now, but in that it did I liked the part about sort of getting curious about device progression. I liked that
part because I felt like it did open the idea to I mean just for full disclosure I personally really question whether our littlest learners need any any screen time any device time at school and
and I know that our seniors in high school absolutely have to be entering the world digitally literate. So I I want to say I did appreciate that idea that it felt like when I read it, it had some curiosity and and flexibility around looking at what is the proper
device progression. >> It's always been our approach approach is thinking about the uh the progression. I wouldn't say we always have the progression right, but we've done some work to try to think about that. Um, and I would say what you're seeing kids work on in classrooms if you
were to be in a primary classroom is there's a lot of technology used as an instructional tool by the teacher, not necessarily by the student. Um, all of our resources right now are digital. So we also have, you know, teacher manuals that our teachers use, but they rely
heavily on slides or just for their own organization, not necessarily for students to be using devices, but to make sure that they are moving through their day at a pace and sharing information efficiently for themselves. So, um, we we have a lot of technology
in our buildings and we want to really make sure that we're using it, um, to the most efficient way and the most effective way to make sure that when kids leave our schools that they have had a foundation of learning. I I I'm going to keep pushing that responsibility piece because that's
where I hear a lot of discussions around how students are using technology responsibly is something that I think we can always improve on. It it was also one of the areas and generally remember this night when we had these giant posters out and we had people iterating
the technology area was where it was people were like no we don't want this and then somebody else would come over and say no we need this and then somebody else would come over and go we don't really need this but we might need this so it was literally the page was covered um with stickies and and so
people are passionate about it um in the realm of technology schools will always be behind we just can't afford to stay ahead head. Uh so for us it's really trying to keep our heads above water and and give our teachers uh the skills that they need. Uh which you know we don't do
a great job with right now. And I think it's an important piece of this strategic plan is to be purposeful about what we want to help our teachers to know and understand. Um cuz there's always the early adopters who are on board who've been doing it for 3 years now and then there's others that are
like no thank you I don't want anything to do with it. So, it's it's really helping to find that middle ground as we grow this through the years. Um, and it could change as well. You could see um there there are some things at the state house now that could come out and say, you know, screen time is here, here,
here for particular ages. So, um we'll keep an eye on that stuff as well. >> Yeah, I I would say that AI focus area really uh reflects heavily on professional learning. Like I think that is the basis of what we're talking about is making sure that we understand what
are the implications of AI when a student's using it or when they what do we need to teach them about when to use it or when not to use it. What do we need to understand about all these tools? You know, Google is great at making changes and we've seen this year like wait something just changed. How do
we adapt to that? Like there are things happening so quickly that we need our professional learning to match that pace. How is the high school going to please high school and middle school because I don't see this being as much of a problem in the elementary school. How
are you going to police AI use? Because at the college level, it's really hard for >> Yeah, it's just it's hard for us as well already. I mean, that's one of the conversations. You could bring Bob Hickeyi down here, the curriculum leader for the high school, and he'll tell you the same thing. Uh I live with an
English teacher. Uh we talk about it a lot at home and it is uh messy. Uh but the good thing is our staff members can tell the difference pretty quickly. you know um we do we still do a lot of on demand writing and on demand stuff which
is helpful uh for teachers to get a baseline and and they can then have those conversation again looking at it from the perspective of how can we teach kids to manage these tools these superpower tools appropriately uh in school and out of school. I mean
the the the use of AI in school is very different than the use of AI out of school especially given the pace that some of these um experiential AIs are coming out. So things like manipulating videos and creating you know a walking talking bot of yourself that's perfect
is literally happening right now. So those are all danger zones for us that we have to kind of keep keep in line. it is going to be hard to keep up in schools and in some ways it's more of like okay what do you want to manage we work under um the Google umbrella that
we can control fairly well so staying within those boundaries is helpful especially for the for the younger kids and shutting it down completely for elementary kids is is always you know kind of a a best step I guess because they're just not you they're just not using that type of technology in
classrooms >> um I have questions about like this is so great and especially the other exhibit that wasn't on the screen. I would be interested in seeing some really specific examples of how you would implement some of these ideas like you know potential lesson plans or
articles. Um I like I echo what Jen had to say. We're we're having a hard time in higher ed with AI. So I I think also it's interesting to consider teaching the value of learning. Um, I feel like
just looking at what I see in my own home from what's happening at school, there's a lot of like gamification of learning and kind of checking the box because it's digital. And so I think it's this perfect storm of that plus AI is like, oh, put it in here, put it in here, check the box, it's done. So like
thinking about and talking to students about the science of learning like how information stays with you and and why it's important to gain it on your own rather than just take it from as I don't know all the age levels we're talking about that will be interesting too. But
I think that would be something I'd be interested in seeing and hear as well. >> The balance for us has been the portrait of learn of the learner. I think the the if you went to graduation and you walked down the hall, all of the seniors each created their own portrait of of them as
a learner and talked about in these posters. It was there's one for every kid on the wall there. They talked specifically about their learning and there's a lot of conversation about learning. I mean, you can walk to a teacher's door and it'll say, you know, I'm so and so and this is how I learn
best. So that has been kind of an ongoing growth conversation partially driven by NEAS but partially driven by these issues that we're confronting now like how do you help kids and adults to understand that
learning has taken so many different forms um but then thinking about it deeply and our kids think deeply about it which I think gives them an advantage when they leave. Um, we do get a lot of feedback from colleges when kids go off to college, they come back, they're like, I had to do this paper. It was 15
pages long. It was no problem. And all the people in my class were like, how did you learn how to do that? So, I think our teachers are really working hard to keep kids kind of within those within those realms of the the in kind of in-classroom learning and
understanding their learning, understanding how they learn best. And now we're seeing them communicate about how they learn. So that'll start rolling down to the middle school and continue to go down which is part of this this plan hopefully over the next few years. >> I would just add going back to Jen's
question, we don't know the answers and that's why this needs to be a focus area. >> I agree wholeheartedly. I was hoping you had a magic bullet answer. >> We'll share though. I think the ethical piece too is really important and I touched on like digital citizenship and
but also when I consider AI in my classroom I think about I get a lot of push back from my students like they don't want to use AI from an ethical standpoint both like intellectual property and environmental concerns. So I think that also needs to be part of this conversation and how we address
that with students and I don't I don't know the answer that's a really really tricky one >> and it's also a function of change you know a student coming into kindergarten now by the time they graduate boy like that will be so very different along the way um for us to be able to manage that
through the years and to to learn and grow with that we've done a ton of work with the HQIM high quality instructional materials the integration that Jen's done with her team. Uh those pieces of the puzzle are all helpful in growing
these learners that you know if you walk you go into our fifth grade classrooms and you watch what our kids are writing about and how they're writing, it's very different from when I took over 5 years ago. Um and I am not taking credit for that. I'm just saying like it is very different because of the work that's being done in the classrooms. Uh it's
focused, it's consistent, and it's consistent from school to school. So all all pieces of the puzzle as we build this out. >> It's tough. Yeah. Thank you. Right. I have I have one more. I'm sorry. Um so this is kind of just a
general question. I I guess maybe it falls under the academic excellence focus area, but I'm not sure. I just wanted you to talk a little bit about I think and I think Jen already mentioned this kind of throughout. I think there's a lot of accountability specifically to the district and to staff and I just
wondered if you could talk a little bit about your thoughts around student accountability like taking ownership of their I mean it's a little bit of what Amy was just talking about like like them learning about their learning but I'm sort of looking kind of where you see student accountability or how you
see that or does it fit in here? >> Yeah. go it it connects right back to the portrait of learner starting to grow this process of having kids understand what they're doing but now moving it down so remember the curriculum over the last 5 years has been kind of moving up
we're into the middle school with updates um portrait of learner stuff is moving down all this is happening I think right at the right time as the state will this summer release the graduation expectations for graduates and uh we will be right there at the
front of the pack so I I think part of the expectations for kids and the accountability comes at the state level, but kind of as a superintendent kind of the least of my worries. I like to see the accountability in the classroom and what kids are doing in the classroom
dayto-day and to see that, you know, walk around the building, see their their work and see what they're doing in the community. and going to events like the underclass awards and seeing what kids are doing that's connected to school is really uh a testament to how their kids are really starting to
connect the dots. So, and we're, you know, we're doing there are all kinds of initiatives going on. The the no cell phone initiative was huge. So, that brought that was accountability feature that really put kids uh in the face of other kids having great conversations. It's been different in the classroom.
It's been different in the hallway. So those things will continue to be discussed along the way and as you know this kind of overarching plan each year we'll develop a set of goals and look at all those pieces as we build it out.
Anybody else? Thank you. And thank you to all the people that worked um on the on the committee getting that done. Um okay,
so next up we have on our agenda is the um superintendent evaluation. Um so it actually says superintendent evaluation and vote but I think that we sort of talked a little bit about last time particularly where um Julia who is
our Julia created this document she is the compiler um not here um and um uh what was I going to say and I mean I'm open to the committee's thoughts but
I think what we talked about last time was reviewing this in in in this meeting creating some feedback if any for the compiler um and then bringing it back to the final meeting um
for approval. Is that what other people's understanding was? Um okay. Um so traditionally the way that we've done this is that we've read it out loud and usually we have the
compiler read it. um a compiler is not here. Um I'm open to what the committee wants to do in terms of going through this. It is very small. Um but I'm sure we can remedy that. Um
you know about what people want to do about how people want to um go through this. It's obviously a really important part of what we do. Um so thoughts >> um >> well
>> okay >> let's have a thought I mean if you I kind of forget how we did this last year we read through >> traditionally what we've done is we've read like read one section >> and then discussed if anyone felt like there was any feedback or edit that they
felt like they needed or clarification and then we moved forward through the you know all of the um the document. So um so I mean we can do that. I mean, typically if you were going to do it in
that way, you would probably actually start with standard one, do the standards, and then go back up to the top and read the final, you know, the >> that's how I would approach it, but I'm open to other people's thoughts.
>> I feel like um because there's just reading through it, it feels very um I can't think of the right word. there doesn't seem to be a lot of disagreement, right? >> I know in the past when we've discussed this, it was because c like one person
or another didn't feel like all of their input was included or disagreed with the overall sentiment, >> right? And I think we heard that from Julia last meeting. sort of said she felt comfortable not
being here because she didn't feel like >> that there was a lot of >> range of feedback >> that that was her feeling and but it's important for the members to sort of say what they
think. Um I I'm not I don't want to put words here but I'm hearing you say maybe you don't feel like we need to read the whole document. I'm kind of feeling that way. Yeah. But the only thing that I when I read this, >> I just want to make sure I think you've said this before too that this document
is useful for Eric as far as next steps and things to work on in the future. Um, so I don't know if that's like a place where we could focus in order to have a discussion or if we all just say like, "Yeah, it looks good."
Um, >> are we required to read it out loud? I thought we were. >> Um, I >> No, I don't think so. >> I don't think so. I mean, it's it's public document with right now it's marked as a draft. We're discussing it. We can't We've traditionally read it out
loud and gone through it. it um you know I I will say I mean I can just speak to that the only comment I had was that we haven't usually included who said which quote in the
>> document and this one does. I don't think that's good or bad. It's just different. Um, I didn't have any concerns about this particular document, this compiled document, and the way that the quotes
were used. I could imagine if a future document, if there was, say, one dissenting voice, you wouldn't necessarily want I mean, the idea behind the document is that we're going to vote on it. If it were approved, this is the evaluation that the committee is
providing to the superintendent. So in some ways it I don't the way this is written and other people can say whether they agree but the way this is written it's sort of like the there's a statement and then then member quotes
are used to illustrate that statement. Um and I think that that works and I think it's appropriate. Um I um my concern would not be about this document. My concern would be about
setting a precedent that we always named people. I would be concerned. I think sometimes you might just want to say >> five members or most members said this and two members, >> you know, >> didn't >> said something different like that. Um that would be my thought and I I said
that that I provided that feedback to Julia already. Um, but it it doesn't I don't see it as needing necessarily to be changed. It was just something I wanted to bring. So, um, I think it's more important to talk about content.
So, um, like did people have concerns that something that they felt like needed to be highlighted or called out is not represented here? Do people feel like things in here don't represent something that
you, you know, that you want to discuss, that you're concerned about? Do you >> think >> have concerns other than the fact that it's very tiny? >> Um, okay. >> Okay. Well, I
>> maybe I can help. Go >> ahead. the in reading this I think the the pieces that jump out at me is and when you're leaning into areas of growth >> um they tend to ring the bell of accountability um consistency of implementation and
then um really reporting these outcomes more maybe more often it sounds like that's that's the only thing I was unsure of is it is is that what the committee is looking for more more often or
that would be uh helpful clarification. And then um what was the other one? There was one other piece that was uh the stakeholder engagement piece I think will probably be addressed with the
strategic plan. But um any any other I'm always looking for ways to to update and change engagement. And I think if people are specific that will be helpful and surely we'll dig into it a little more too with our new communications piece on the committee but also uh across the
district. So I think those are the things that jumped out as me to me as what the committee was looking for in in future areas of growth. So that's helpful for me to to set goals and any more specificity is even more helpful. Okay.
Yeah, I mean I right it I mean it doesn't give a lot of specifics. It does say encourage continued efforts to strengthen broad-based stakeholder engagement and to maintain consistent communication across all consist constituencies. And I think Eric is
accurate that we've certainly discussed challenges around >> both of those um areas. Um, all right. >> Okay. >> So,
again, we're not the plan is not to vote this evening. Um, >> but also the plan wasn't to spend a tremendous amount of time on it at our next meeting. So, I guess I'm hoping that people will feel it. I'm not
hearing people feeling like, and David, feel free to chime in. No, you know, but like if you have if people have feedback that they want to provide, not so much I mean yes to Eric
and also to Julia about the writing. Um, you know, it needs to happen sort of either now or between now and the time next meeting. >> Mhm. >> All right. >> Okay.
All right, we'll bring it back on the next meeting for a vote. >> I think it's a good idea. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. Um and thank you to Julia for doing that work and thank you to everyone um
including uh Megan for um >> doing those individual evaluations. >> Um okay. Um Amy, >> yes. Do you have any updates for us on the communication working group?
>> Um, so it's a work in progress. Uh, Julie and I have spoken a little bit. I've reached out to MASC for guidance that I'm kind of waiting to hear back on. I've reached out to the editor of the HW newspaper um, to see how we could
potentially leverage the newspaper to get some messaging out. and I've been looking at other school committees and how they use similar working groups that are more flexible. Um, so we don't have like specific protocols in place yet. I think that's
the goal so that if something comes up that we want to communicate about, it's very clear what we're allowed to do and how we will do it. Um, so unfortunately I don't have a very solid update, but we are working and so we're planning on kind of taking advantage of the summer
as well to really have um really a specific document about the group or Yeah, it's a group. >> Yeah, it's a very small group. >> Very small group. >> All right, thank you. Anybody have any questions for Amy? >> Can can I ask one question? Yeah. Uh,
have you guys talked about uh outside group to kind of reach out to if you need? >> We haven't actually. That's something that we would probably like to talk with. >> I was I say I have a couple if you if you want that have reached out to me in the past couple of years that other
school districts >> committees use. >> Would love that. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> I'll send you an email. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. Um, all right. Next up is school start times and a lot of additional auto. I have notes. All
right, go ahead, Eric. >> So, this is really an opportunity as promised uh when we did the initial presentation to just give you more information and um we're not going to go through it tonight. There's massive amounts of
information here, but I wanted you to have all the information as we move towards the discussion phase so that you could have time to review it. So this is on this exhibit I mean on this agenda to give make the messages and the
information public um so that you all have access to everything we have and um so you can review it so that when we move towards a discussion which I believe we'll do during the workshop the school committee workshop uh we'll dedicate part of that to that discussion
and um really build upon working towards a decision what what we do next. So, really not a not not a lot of anything asking for you to do tonight cuz there are hundreds of pages of documents here, but I just wanted you to have everything as promised um so that
you can read through it. And then you have one document at your seat. It was a letter that was written by uh three students that I thought was uh important to include. So, I just didn't just want to put out there publicly. Yeah, I
figured you could take a look at it. Um >> Um Eric, can I just ask some just this is just to make sure I understand what each one of these exhibits is because I was not >> I had a question not and I'm not diving into the
>> content. I just want to make sure I understand the the first exhibit is is this this is an FY25 survey. >> This was an original survey when I think
Jen and Dave Frankle asked about it. >> Yeah. So I just want to make sure because that I understand. So because that so there's a family a a parent and guardian that first one is like parent and guardian from s fy 25 >> 2425 school year. Yep.
>> But then if you look I just want to if you don't mind just running through make sure I understand each one of this. Then the next one is also from >> FY20. Okay. So that's from the fall. Okay. And then because we have a later later on,
well, let's just go through because we'll get to the >> um and then you have the family feedback that's from >> the report. >> That's from FY26, correct? That's current >> this spring. >> So, anything that says feedback on the
final recommendation as a title, those are uh the surveys we sent out after we >> Okay. made the recommendation to the committee. We, as promised that night, we followed up with surveys um to just get some feedback on the recommendation that ultimately came from the committee.
>> Okay. I just wanted to make sure cuz it's like we have family or Yeah. from some information from FI25 and then we have family information from 26 and then teacher staff information from 26.
>> Yep. >> Um Okay. And then the last two exhibits are flipped. They should be the student one first, >> which is the student response to the >> actual Yeah. >> recommendation and then Craig wanted me to include the impact on athletics so
that people could actually see the data we were looking at. >> Yes, I have a Oh, I see what you're saying. Um I actually have a question about that, too. >> Yeah, I actually >> So, I don't know. I have a question about just And again, we're not I'm not going to talk about what it like the details of it. I just want to make sure I understand it. Mhm.
>> Um, so this represents I'm looking at the late late start impact on athletics. >> Yep. >> So this represents if the plan were put into place and the students are being dismissed one hour later. >> Mhm.
>> This represents the estimate number of dismissals that would >> correct >> be none of this represents what are the current number of dismissals that happen because of sports. >> Correct. And then maybe I'm being >> the current number of dismissals, >> but what is PR time?
>> Uh, let me answer the first one. The the current number dismissals is pretty limited because it's generally based around tournament time. Like >> the track team had to go to >> Forever Town, you know, like and it takes 3 hours to get there, which just happened to them. >> Um, think someone's going to Bourne.
>> Yeah. No, they did yesterday. >> That's usually only in >> Yeah. So they leave early, but it's tournament time. But then um same thing like golf will have their final rounds. They'll start earlier because they're dependent on when the golf courses will let them. But so not a ton, but there'll be a lot more. >> Okay.
>> From here. Uh if we were to move in that direction. What was the other one? PR >> I don't know what PR time. Maybe I'm PR time. >> Practice time missed. >> Oh, practice time missed. So wait, >> so there he's looking at fall sports
based on um timing, lighting. So all of a sudden you're getting an hour later start. >> It gets darker faster in the fall. >> Okay. So I just want to make sure. So that'sing >> right. No, I guess. So you're But the estimate here would be like for the
first one that a there would be 20% less >> practice time for JV soccer. Is that what that means? I'm not sure I buy that. That would mean an hour is 20% of their practice time. >> Depends. I I suppose it depends on the
sport. Yeah. >> So 5 hours is 100% of their practice time. And I don't know of any soccer team at Hamilton Wenham that practices for 5 hours a day. >> No, but it depends on So practice in September would is easier to pull off.
If a kid starts at 3:30, say, if they get out at 3:10, they would start at 3:30, 3:45 than in October, because it gets darker faster. And I think he was trying to figure out how to account for that. So, it's it's hard to look at it over the scale of a season because it
gets darker the further you go into the season. So, football loses out because they're still practicing in late October and everybody else is done. they lose um even higher percentages when you start to look at it, but because of the way it's spread out, they start earlier. So,
I think he was trying to come up with averages across across that time span for a season, not not daily. It'd be it'd be easy in the in September to get out there at 3:30 and still get a couple hours of daylight. >> Mhm.
>> And practices range between 2 and 3 hours generally, sometimes longer. Um, okay. I think I I think I don't have any more questions about any other people have questions about under just knowing what everything is. And
>> did everyone else know what PR time was? >> I don't know what that is. >> He presented it. So we we got we got a different view. >> Presented time. >> I was like it was present. Yeah, he presented it to the committee. So >> Oh, you know. Okay. Thank you for all
that. It's >> for your reading pleasure. >> Um, I noticed in some of the documents there were comments that were hidden. Is there any way to get those comments in a separate document because a couple of them really show I don't know if it's a
biased like sampling or not. Um, >> it was generally where teachers names may have been used or a coach's names may have been used and sometimes something that was not complimentary. >> Can we redact the names and give it to
us anyways? >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I haven't. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Um, okay. Uh, next up, uh, MSBA project. >> Okay. As we know the roof project is
approved was approved at town meeting and at the ballot. So we are moving forward uh currently with a target kickoff date of June 22nd which is the Monday after school gets out. Um the company the OPM Curtis and I have been
going round and round and trying to figure out all the logistics. uh Vinnie will start to take over from the money side, but this is a standard form that comes from the um MSBA and it's called the PFA and it's a
project funding agreement which basically says yes, we agree to take on this project, pay for it in the way that we've outlined. Um there's a couple things and you you can see in the letter there's a couple things that they will look for including
um a signature and the person who signs has to be authorized by the school committee. So tonight there's one vote and you have you have the mo minute motion. Uh there's one vote for authorization for me to sign this funding agreement. We've signed them before uh when we were going into the uh
elementary school project. Um but this one is actually for a project that is moving forward. And then uh once we vote, we'll send the the minutes from the meeting to our attorney. And our attorney has to verify
um that we are uh that the the district, the lo local governing body, meaning the school committee is able to authorize um the district to enter and be bound by the PFA. So Mark Terry would handle that for us. I talked to him already. He's
just waiting for this vote. We'll send him the result. he'll write his piece and then we'll send the documents plus the PFA signed to the state and then we'll move forward with the project. There's also other documents that are behind this that you don't see that are
like our banking information. So, there's a form that Vinnie fills out that has to go in, but it outlines our direct deposit, how money gets moved from Propay uh from the state to us in the reimbursement, how the reimbursement
system works, and our OPM handles a majority of that, and then Vinnie manages the money. >> Okay. >> Um, >> so we have we do have a a motion. >> Yeah. >> And for the vote, if you want to >> Yeah. Do you want to start us off with a motion?
>> I move that the school committee approve and accept the attached MSBA program funding agreement project number 202467505 for the MSBA accelerated repair high school roof project and in doing so authorize the superintendent of schools
to execute the document on behalf of the district and to bind the district to its terms. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Second by Amy Kberger. Um, anybody have any questions? >> I think so.
>> Is there discussion? >> Has the financial stuff changed at all or are we still where we were? >> What do you mean the actual >> Have we gotten more detailed numbers? >> Uh, still we're still at the overall uh
amount of 7.3 million. We're hoping to come in under that between, you know, bids and change orders. We're we're hoping to be under that number by the time all is said and done. >> Mhm. >> Okay. Anybody have anything else? Right. Looks like we're ready to vote.
All those in favor? That is unanimous of the four members present and the motion passes. Thank you for that, Eric. Okay. This one's Vinnie. >> Next, next up to Vinnie.
>> I don't have a PowerPoint, so >> Oh, man. >> Um, so per Massachusetts general Law 71 uh section 16A, a regional school district school committee is to appoint a district treasurer. And per our regional
agreement, we do that annually. Uh, so tonight I'm here to request the reappoint of Kevin Murs, our district treasurer, and Karina Warner, our assistant district treasurer. >> Okay, >> that was easy. >> That's good. All right, Jen.
>> I move that the Hamilton Wam Regional School Committee reappoint Kevin Murs as our district treasurer and Karina Warner as our assistant district treasur treasurer for fiscal year 2027. Second second by Amy. Anybody have any
questions? >> So even though this only accumulates to a 02 FTE, they really both do play a critical role in our office. They kind of gather and distribute over $55 million annually and take care of all of our debt payments and documentation
uh and also work closely with the state in uh investment with our OPED trust fund and our capital stabilization fund. Uh so again even though uh it isn't a bulk of our business office they really do uh play a critical role in making sure we function correctly. Uh Kevin has
been with us I think four years now and Karina I believe is on our third year. People have questions. >> All right. Looks like we're ready to vote. All those in favor is unanimous of the four members present and the motion passes.
>> Thank you Vinnie and thank you to Kevin and Karina. Okay. Uh committee reports uh capital Finance >> we are scheduled to meet um >> not next Monday. >> Next Monday not next I think it's the
one after that. >> The one after. Yep. >> I'm sorry. Monday after. >> Monday after. >> Yeah. The 15th. >> The 15th. >> The 15th. >> Yeah. >> Monday after the next. >> Uh from 1 to 2. >> Okay. Uh policy.
>> Policy. We need to schedule a meeting. I need to remind a member to tell me their availability. >> Okay. We'll look forward to that email. Okay. Um negotiations. We are meeting next um to continue negotiating with the
ESP union. We are meeting next on Tuesday uh the 9th. Okay. Um Oh, we don't have a secretary report. Um I um yeah, we don't have a secretary
report. Okay. Um I don't think I have anything to add except I did want to note about graduation. And I know several several people were there. I just wanted to note that um I think Eric touched on this, but it was um to me
really remarkable that everyone that spoke really talked about the way that they felt connected to each other and the um I'm just going to stick with that connectedness. And I just feel like that was really we're we want to maybe tap into what we're doing right be in that
in that because the world is feeling pretty disconnected. you read about it constantly and yet it was really powerful to hear that our that was a theme that ran throughout and then to Eric's point about them all running together. So I'm a big fan of focusing on what you focus on grows. Let's focus
on what did we do to create that connectedness because that was pretty powerful. Um that's my two cents on that. Anybody have anything else? Okay. uh topics for future meetings? No, because we have a lot of topics
already coming. >> Um we are um not going to have an executive session this evening. Um and you can >> we're not >> discuss that with Eric. >> Okay. >> Email tomorrow morning.
>> We are not going to have that uh meeting >> today. So, um, all right. >> Serious. >> Um, all right. >> I move that we >> Oh, not done. >> Okay.
>> Go ahead. >> Go ahead. >> Y, you can you can close the meeting. >> I move that we close the school committee meeting at 8:18 p.m. Second. >> Uh, seconded by Amy. Uh, any discussion? All right. All those
in favor and we are adjourned at 8:18.