Well, good evening and welcome to our February business meeting for the Hatfield School Committee. I'm Christie Bedro, chair of committee, and we will kick off as we call into order tonight um with public comment. Is there anybody joining us on Zoom tonight who would
like to make a comment? Nope. And there's no one with us in person, so we will move on and we can close out the Zoom meeting. Um and with that we'll go to mission moments. Anybody want to jump in with a mission moment they'd like to share?
>> Yeah. >> Um this past week I've done many assemblies usually with like just K2 and then another one with 35 but I brought all K to five students together uh last week because we are underway of kicking off our afterchool clubs. So we have
five different clubs being offered. Um a few teachers it's new that they've never done a club before. Um, so we're excited about that and letters and and emails will be going home confirming the student enrollment in those >> other mission moments.
>> Um, I would just like to have a like moment of thanks and a shout out to um Jenny Sheret and the zoo crew. Um, I brought a gaggle of middle schoolers to the Smith Academy boys senior night game and it was super fun. lots of
engagement. They had like swag for the kids to, you know, like use and cheer with and it was it was like just really nicely done and there were like students of all grades at Smith Academy that were really actively enjoying that. It was really fun. Yeah,
that was awesome. >> I'm going to piggy back off that because that was one of my moments too got in front of me. Um but but yeah, the the zoo crew as a whole um and and Michet as an individual have have really done a
nice job of bringing spirit to Smith Academy and I've had a lot of families comment to me about that. Um how it feels like that there's been something that has been I don't know if they've said missing but but lacking in the last several years that has is feels like
it's back. Um so that's been really really nice to hear. Um and just today I was talking about kind of the the amount of student involvement we've seen this year and it has been um just just increasing. So point in case we have on Thursday we have our open house. Um in
the past years I have had to kind of beg and plead and and advocate to parents to volunteer their kids to um sign up. We haven't had to do that with any of our events this year. Um, we have, I think, 12 kids signed up for, um, for Thursday
night. We've had more than we needed sign up for the veterans dinner this fall. Um, so there seems to be a real kind of spirit of engagement, which is nice. Really nice. >> That's awesome. >> Well, I want to do a little mission moment for a group of HS teachers. I um
don't generally do drop off unless it gets super super cold. And so, Miss Hicks, Miss Bastoni, Miss Betty, and Miss Petra have been out there no matter the weather with a smile helping kids get into the building. It has been so
efficient. I don't think just because everyone's cold. Um, but it just the warmth that they have shared despite the temperatures. I was really impressed. So, thank you to all of them who work that duties post.
Are there Are there others? I also say I have to say the drop off itself was like the most streamlined I have seen it also been really like it starts earlier and that must make a big difference moving. >> Yeah.
>> Quick 10 minutes this time this year versus five last year. Definitely a big difference. >> Huge difference. So that's awesome. Anything else? Okay. Is there anything that needs to come out or be adjusted to the minutes?
Okay. Um, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> So moved. >> I'll second it. >> All in favor? >> I. Thank you very much. Um, and with that, I think we will turn to the midyear academic review, which is our
presentation tonight. >> Sure. Um, so I'm gonna pull this up. Oops. Middle. Can everyone see it? Okay. So, this is um this is an academic review um really looking at some
progress that students have made um according to some of our our benchmark assessments this year and some of the highlights that we um see as students um are kind of metriculating through. Um, so we're going to start with Smith Academy. I want want to um kind of pull
up the This is the whole school I Ready data. So this doesn't distill in in this picture doesn't distill it by grade level, but gives us a snapshot of the whole school. Um, so as you can see, uh, if you look at the I didn't label these, I should have labeled them. The one in
the bottom is the midyear benchmark. The one at the top is the fall benchmark. So, as you can see, in the fall, we had um 31% students in the green. We have 40% now. 37% of students in the yellow
compared to 26 now. So, that number is going down. Um and 33% um in the red in both cases. So, looking like um students are moving from yellow to green, which is good. And we're
hoping to see some movement here from from red to yellow. >> Just can you clarify for us as we're going through these on the what's expected to be at grade level? So if you're starting seventh grade and you're at
grade level, does that expectation for the beginning of seventh grade or is that the expectation for the end of seventh grade? So, I believe that for this assessment, if you take it in, it's if you're starting in seventh grade and you take the assessment for seventh grade, you shouldn't necessarily be in
the green because like that's where you're expected to be there at the end. >> Okay. >> So, we wouldn't expect to see 100% of students or even really any students in the green in September. >> Um, so we're seeing good movement there. We saw we started strong with that group. We're seeing more kids move that
direction. Um and and so that's we like to see that if we look at um >> before you move on, can you tell us what grade levels um took this in at Smith Cath?
>> Yeah. So it's sixth through 10th grade. >> So uh and we we use I Ready throughout the year for a couple reasons. So it gives us a better I mean when we talk about metrics we often hear about MCCAST but MCCAST is a snapshot once a year that's given to students um you don't give it at the beginning of the year to
your students you so you're comparing their you know this year to previous year so this allows teachers to see the group of students that they have in front of them how they're doing at the beginning of the year on a kind of standardized metric how they're doing the middle year and how they're doing at the end of the year. And what isn't
shown here, but what is nice to see is that it also distills based on what they're what they call strands, what we would call standards and areas where you can get a a snapshot of okay, maybe I have 60% of my class in the green on
algebraic expressions. Um, so I know that they kind of have that, but I have a really high percentage in the red and yellow in geometry or geom you know, whatever math term it is, whatever that strand is. So, as a
teacher, if you're teaching a class and you can say, "Okay, I might go a little bit lighter on this algebraic expressions unit and a bit heavier on this unit." So, it allows you to kind of tailor what you what you're teaching and how you're teaching to the students that are in front of you. So, that's you get
that breakdown. Um teachers can see that breakdown both for individual students, but also for the the class as a whole. Um, so if we look more on a gradeby-grade basis, we can see some movement here. So I kind of categorize this like bright green, which is a lot
of movement in the right direction. Um, light green, which is some movement in the right direction. Light red, which is some movement in the wrong direction, and then darker red here. Um, so you can see most of our groups are either in the bright green or light green category.
So, we're seeing movement of students from uh yellow to green here. Um we're seeing a decrease of students in this case. I'm not going to go through this for every classroom from within the yellow because students are moving up to
green. Um in a couple case, we're also seeing an increase of students in the red. So, we got to look at what we're doing for those particular students. So, that's when teachers will say, "Okay, I'm going to take a look at each individual student. which students are maybe not making the progress you'd like
to see or are attesting in a way that um that is showing that they're they're losing proficiency and what am I going to do differently. I will say um there's there's an asterisk here on this this particular red uh because if you if we
go back if we go back to this one you see for example this is a this whole section is red this is the red stripes and the regular red the red stripes means that there are three or more levels below they're testing there um in this case even though we saw an increase
of 10 to 17% we saw a huge decrease in that really red that that red stripe area and a decrease in the regular rate. So we are moving kids up up to that level. Um another point to make about this
particular one um is because this is really recent data. This this this happened last week um and we're we don't have EL yet because that's happening tomorrow and this happened late last week on Thursday. What we haven't done yet is gone through and talked to the
students who get flagged for rushing the assessment because you might be surprised to hear that that happens where kids will just kind of rush. And um this is one thing nice thing about this assessment is that it flags if it if it's if a student triggers like hey we're you know they might be rushing and
we get a little actually a flag that pops up next to their name. Um, so it says, "Hey, Connor might have rushed through this." And we can look and say, "Well, yeah, you went from green to red. Um, why don't you take some time and do that again?" So, we have not done that yet. So, um, I suspect that when we do
that, we may see some shifting in here in here as well. Um, when we look at ELA, again, we only have one one data point for the school at this point because um, we have we haven't taken the the midyear assessment yet. But here's here's where the
starting point was in September. Um, if you look up here where it says students assess total, this includes all students in the school. And we don't have 11th and 12th grade take it. So, um, that's why it looks like there's like a third of the students that aren't taking it.
And here is kind of where that breaks down by grade level. So, um, starting with with some higher levels in in green and sixth and seventh grade. Um, and looking looking to see yellow and red
both move up. >> What does I assess them on in ELA? >> Like in math, I get it, but like >> Yeah. So, it assess on it. It's again, it's broken down by strand, but it will be things like reading comprehension. It'll be things like vocabulary, using context clues, assessing main idea, um
looking at kind of getting what figure of language might mean in fiction, um and and sort of those those easier to assess um skills. What it doesn't have uh and and what teachers have what they
kind of do independently is doesn't have have writing. Um, so the IRA assessment is not is not a good assessment for writing. U, but our teachers, they they'll work together. They've designed rubrics for writing that that go up through. So, uh, the rubric in nth grade
will look similar but be more complex in 10th grade, 11th grade, and 12th grade. So, there's a clear progression of that. Uh, and they'll look at writing together um for for those for for th those students. Um, and we may be looking at
extending uh or SD to the middle school at least in the in the near future. >> Should it be concerning that there's a couple grades where it's 50% or more that's in the red?
>> Yeah, I think I think there is I think there's reason for concern, but I don't think that there's I don't think it's I don't think we need to be alarmed, I would say. So I I think um
for a lot of these grades um some of them are are some of them are smaller grades. So when you have a class where there's 14 15 kids, if you have three or four kids that are that that struggle in a certain area, um then you're going to
you're going to see higher numbers. That's that's the one of the reasons that um some grades at Smith Academy they don't the state won't even give they won't even publish that that data because it's a little too identifying because they need more data points for
it. Um but but yeah there are there are some grades where >> start of the year too. >> Yeah. And this is also start of the year. That's a good point. But but to that point, I think it also because it's the start of the year, it gives the teachers a good point like, oh, okay,
I'm getting a 11th grade or nth grade class. Um, and this ninth grade class has a particular strength in this area or they have a particular deficit in this area. And it really helps them right from right from the start identify
what those what those areas are so they're able to focus on it. So, if I was looking, you said the ELA, you've only had one assessment, correct? Math you've had two. >> Um, and the numbers in the red
remain consistent from the beginning of the year to the midyear assessment. Um, are some of the numbers um expected because of the population? Like
maybe there's um IEPs or um uh learning disabilities in in math or in ELA or something that affect this. >> Yeah, that that's that's a good point. So this is this is an assessment that's a standard assessment. It's not the the
assessment itself is not differentiated. So um if you have students who are you know if you have students who are in 10th grade um and they're they're testing at a um at a seventh sixth or
seventh grade level. Uh and I say they're testing because sometimes a performance on a test isn't indicative of a performance problem they're doing. But if they're testing at that level um and they move up a grade or two, that's not going to be reflected in this data here. That's going to be you're going to
see that when you look at an individual student and say, "Hey, Connor, nice job. You went from, you know, working on skills that you know that that we would see in the in the seventh grade to, you know, skills that we would see in the ninth grade. You're still in 10th grade, but like you know that that's good
progress." So, um, you know that if you're if you're not moving if if you're starting from a point that's that far down, you're not moving to a point that's, you know, one grade level below or two too below, you might not see that reflected in here. So, that is a good point. And and we do have students that
are have significant challenges and teachers work really hard to help them help them meet those challenges. I wanted to ask that just for people that might view this and they would be alarmed at the numbers in the red, but if you
expect a certain amount of the students that would be there given their current abilities. Um, >> yes, >> I don't know if I'm saying it right, but >> yeah, I I I hear what you're saying and I think the the important part to remember is that we're always looking
for growth, >> right? Um and we look at that growth holistically when we do things like you know look at the entire school um or individual grade levels but we also look at it studentto student. So this doesn't this isn't going to distill down to that
level. Um but we but but that's what teachers do. They'll take a look at this. We'll sit in data meetings and look okay um you know as a as a whole nth grade class here's where we are. um these three students who I've been working with on these particular skills
uh you know you after school or during skills blocks or during academic enrichment you know I know that I've been working hard on these these skills hey I can see even if even if they're not moving from red to yellow or yellow
to green or even red to lighter red um I can see within that skill set how how they're doing um so so there there may not you know that that level of growth may not be reflected in here. Um but I think we are we are seeing it.
>> Our current 10th grade class when they take their final MCCAST this year because there's only like 10 kids in the class, right? >> Yep. >> So just so like the community knows those results will probably not report, right? >> They we won't probably see them for 10th grade. We will see them as a school. So we'll see Smith Academy as a school.
>> Okay. >> Yeah. And often we don't even Yeah. take because they only take ELA in 10th grade uh in math and 10th grade. We often don't get even high school data level data. We just get Smith Academy level data which includes se through 12 from
the past now 6 through 12 this year. >> I just don't want people to like see the results when they come out in the fall and say, "Oh, they must be hiding something. It's bad." It's just we just have enough kids and we can't because you could look at and be like, "Oh, well, there's only 10 kids and you know, n number of kids like you could you could figure out." >> Yeah.
Um, one thing I did want to highlight as we, you know, so we looked at some data and some progression here is a non-exhaustive list of colleges and universities that our graduated seniors are have gotten into this year and it's a it's a pretty impressive list even so
far. Um, and again this this only reflects the students who have told us where where they've gotten in. Um, and I think there are maybe five or six of them at this point that have total. So, we're still waiting to hear back from a whole bunch of them. So, you see a pretty impressive list. >> This year's senior,
>> this is only this year's seniors, and this is this is only a few of them. >> So, assessment data is one piece of the puzzle, one piece of what we're looking at. We're looking for growth. We're looking at specific skills that get developed and that can be transferred um
and applied. And the goal for when when anyone comes through Smith Academy, the goal is that when they graduate, if they decide that they want to further their education at a institute of higher learning, that they're able to whether
they choose to or not, they will have the skills to be able to do that. Uh, and I think we continue to show by the outcomes with our seniors, folks who have come up through that they're ready, which is which is, you know, that doesn't even start in Smith Academy.
That starts all the way down in kindergarten. And this list will continue to grow, which is great. All right, speaking of elementary, so our fall I Ready data, this is again for math. Um as you see we had 17% of
students being at the close to onrag grade level or a little bit above and we had 18% who were uh between two and three years below. And then that yellow again is the expectation of students are getting
instruction from their classroom teacher. At the end of the year those students should hopefully shift up. And our winter we jumped up to 40% of our students are now either early um at grade level or slightly above. And we
definitely did a nice job of shrinking to having only 5% of our students um two to three um year three levels below. And one of the things I can attribute that to is um a couple of things. One, you know, we definitely have a little bit of
extra time in our our math block or our time with our specialists. So yes, we've been done some enrichment, but one of the things that we have Miss Lannavville doing is she's going and doing flashc card work. So she spends 15 minutes um twice a week, once on the first floor, the other day two well two days a week.
So one day she's on the first floor, the second day she's on the second floor and classroom teachers have identified students and she's just she's keeping track of data. some kids are really into it doing it more on um practice at home and not to mention the fact that we also have um Richard Winer doing
intervention. So we have actually only been targeting our four uh third, fourth and fifth because Mr. Winer also does work up at Smith Academy as well. So we needed to make a decision but we specifically had targeted grades three, four, and five since they are MCCAST taking grades to receive that extra
support. But nice nice jump in data here as far as le um more students showing some growth especially lessening those years below grade level. Um another data point um I ready is not the only data point for ELA. We're
looking at dibbles. Um this I just decided to do we do the dibbles in grades K through five. Um so this just kind of gives you and again we have attributes of being well below below at and above. So in the fall we tested a total of 139 students. So we as you can
see we had 75% of our students who were or 75 students um at or above for their dibbles. And again dibbles is assessing phonics, vocabulary, reading comprehension, letter naming, fluency and some of those change depending upon
the grade. There's also a composite. So there's a total score and of course that moves from fall to spring. I mean sorry fall to winter. So a composite score in second grade might be 320 and then in
the winter it's 362. So there's a significant jump in understanding and expectation over those scores um between those two and then of course it jumps even that much more come spring. In the winter you can see that we have um some students still in the well below. So we
have 34 still in the well below for dibbles but we do have a nice shift. Um we have 88% of our student or 88 students who are now at or above. Um and again we utilize this to have conversations when it comes
to looking at that data around who needs might require intervention. The special education teachers are in that conversation as well. We even have some of our reading interventionists working with special education students to give a double a double dose to see if we can get some of those kids out of the red.
>> Double double do. >> A double dose. Yeah. Um we also have DRA scores. So again, we aren't using I Ready for ELA in the younger grades. We have um foundation scores for K123.
But the main two scores that we also utilize um are the DRRA score. So again, this is the um reading fluency. So this is a student's ability to be timed, reading a passage. Um in grades in grades two and three, there's something called a maze where it's the reading
comprehension. So they're basically reading a passage in a minute and then all of a sudden the word will stop and then they're giving a couple of choices and they have to figure out which word makes the most sense. It's part of the it's like a reading comprehension. Um, so that sometimes slows our students down a little bit, but yes, our second
grade definitely did a nice jump from 45% of our students hitting the benchmark for second grade in the fall to 58% of them hitting in the um spring. I mean, I'm sorry, winter. I keep doing that. I keep thinking we're already at the end of the year. Um, in grades one
and three, we actually had um an increase in students come um the winter. So that increase in students made some of those numbers drop. Um that's just kind of the nature of how that is. And then we did I did pull in the I Ready
data. Our fourth and fifth grade teachers did want to use the I Ready for ELA. Um and as you can see again we went from 43% of our students in the fall on grade level or a little above to I'm trying to
do the math quickly in my head 15 65% of our students. No, that's not right. 55% of our students um jumping up to being um on grade level. And then again, the nice thing is that we're shrinking that amount of students. We had 14 students who were two or more
grade levels below to only having nine being two or more grade levels below. Any questions? The math of veteranist you said you have available for 3, four and five. Did are they available to K through two or
>> No, at this point we are utilizing again Miss Lannavville to do some of that flashc card work. >> Okay. >> For a lot of our teachers they felt like flack fact fluency and even if you actually look at our I Ready data we don't have a lot of kids in red in those early grades. Okay. The reds end up tending to be three, four and five.
>> A lot of those other kids are in yellow and green. Do we have the means? If we have a kid in the red who needs more help than Miss Landville can provide, we have the means to get them to the method. No. >> Okay. >> Not at this point. He just doesn't have the time. >> Okay. >> So, it really is the teacher trying to think about organizing their classroom
to do stations so that they can actually pull some students and do some small group work for any of those kids that might need it. But as far as intervention goes, he just doesn't have time in the schedule. If those students are on an IEP plan,
would they be likely to be getting support for that work? >> Oh, of course. Yes. Their IEP would either have them have push-in support with one of the dedicated people that does that or they're getting individualized education support by the special education teacher in a pullout
session. >> And I would add to that, just because someone's not an IEP doesn't mean that they wouldn't get some of that support. So you may have like we have um we have a lot of push and support. So a special education teacher will push into a
regular ed classroom and work with some students on specific skills. If you have a kid in that class that's not on IP but needs work with those specific skills, they'll pull them into that group too and work with work with them on those skills. And these assessments allow us to to determine like, hey, yeah, this
this kid may not be on a a plan of some sort, but but we're recognizing that there's there's a gap here that we need to fill. So we can we can fill that gap. Um, so, so that's that's one of the the benefits I would say of having so so much push in support of the support that
comes into the classroom rather than only pulling a slight number of kids who are identified on plans out is it allows you to mix those mix those groups up a little bit more into and to to give the kids the support that they need regardless of whether or not they um
they have have that on their plan. So that would speak to the grades the the early grades who don't have math and equation >> right >> other questions. >> Okay. I'm trying to think about which way to
>> um I think I would like to know a little bit more about our we have like a lot of different metrics that we're using and I'm really actually happy to see that we're doing like midyear and trying to really keep track of growth and I think
that focus on growth is great and really important but I think I'd like to know just like a little bit more about how we deter determine what students um need more intervention and like how that is like communicated both within the school and within the families like at both
schools. So what I'm not able to show you is my our data book. So we have a data workbook that has all the kids' names and then the way it is set up is that we have all of their data up to the point of the midyear assessments. So we
see all of their DRRA, their dibbles from fall to winter. So then we can see has a student made progress, have they regressed? And then during data meetings, we're having conversations and then we can actually pull up the MC class. So our reading interventionists, our special education teachers, all of
them are part of those meetings so that we can say, "Oh, look how close they were. They made some really good progress. They were only one or two points away from hitting their composite score, which meant they would have been in the green. That's why they're still in the yellow." So we have those conversations about why is a student maybe still in the yellow, why are they
still in the red and those kinds of conversations then become whether or not a student we the reading interventionist might say I'm going to continue working with these students and I might need to add Melissa and Connor to this group >> and then they send home letters to families basically saying your child you
know through the team we've decided that your your child might benefit from intervention and that same thing happens for math as well for grades three, four and five. So, is there like a specific threshold that we are using? Like all the students in the red are going to go into intervention and we're going to
look individually at the students in the yellow and see like is there a certain like number that we're looking for or is it more just like a conversation? It's not a number. It's really when we first started using I Ready, we were targeting kids specifically in the yellow because we felt like if we had given them a little extra that'll get them into the
green and they said no actually the kids in the yellow are exactly where they need to be. You want to target the kids in the red. So, we target the kids in the red, unless they're on an IEP, but we also want to keep tabs on those kids who are in yellow that are close to red. So, if they're starting to make some
steady progress, but are still on that cusp, then we want to see if we can jump in and provide some support >> to make sure that we can get them where they need to be so that they're not falling behind and or end up in the red. So, those are the kinds of conversations that we're having when we're looking at that kind of data. So in these data
meetings at HES for the students who are performing really well because I like I love to see this huge like the data speaks for itself for I already reading informed is just the slide I'm looking at right now like a huge jump in the green and I think that's something to
really celebrate but like in these data meetings are we also talking about the high achieving students and like how we can provide more enrichment give them a little bit more of a push >> that's part of why we started having the enrichment right So, we wanted to be able to and actually I have to say that
it's really exciting to see that this is a first year that those kids who when they took I Ready for either ELA or math because we do it for both fourth and fifth sixth grade teachers before they moved up to the middle school um had really complained saying they flatline.
They they come in really strong in the fall and they do absolutely nothing for the whole rest of the year. They don't go down very much, >> but they're not going up. >> They're just kind of staying where they're at. So, we know that they're capable. So, why aren't they moving more? And this is the first time that we
actually had our kids in even who scored in the blue who were scoring above actually were hitting their typical growth score by winter. And that had not previously happened and those kids were actually in enrichment. >> Nice. So, the growth score is like how much they have improved from fall to winter. >> Yes.
>> Okay. >> Yeah. the system for at least I Ready, not so much dibbles and DRA, but for I Ready, they will because it's nationally normed, they will say kids who have scored this particular score when they come in in the fall, >> if they continue with their paying attention, doing their classwork, doing
their my path practice, these kids will typically hit this score by spring and then there's even a stretch growth that they'll hit if they can even do a little bit more above and beyond. So, we're finding that previously our top kids would never hit their typical growth, but now they're starting to hit their
typical growth. >> Well, I love to hear all those things. Thank you for like just really like walking through it because um yeah, I think this is showing some really nice growth. And is the is the process for determining like intervention and things like that at Smith Academy, is that the
same or does it look a little different? >> It's similar. So we we take I Ready and then they they meet and they review the data and um again we're looking primarily at um at students in the red for any intervention that we might need. Um we typically because our intervention
is done in class. It's not done as it's not like a pull out separate class. Um we typically don't send big communications home like hey Connor's getting intervention it's pushing. It's because it's already embedded within the class. It's just a group within the class that meets and works on those
skills and then applies it to the work that they're doing as a whole. Um what we what we also use it for is so at the middle school they have the wind block. It's called the what I need block. So that's to answer your question about looking at some of those um th
those students in the green or above green. uh we that that gives them an opportunity to say okay this group is really like they're really cranking hard on math. Um so Mr. Greenwood for example our um seventh and eighth grade math teacher he identified a number of
students who were doing who are really really cooking hard um and they are competing in a math league kind of tournament. So there there's a group that of those of those students that were were high up in the green um and they're being pushed during their wind
block um to do some more more advanced math more math that's kind of more high school level um and then apply that in a compet competitive setting against other other schools. um which is which is great and that happens uh that those
opportunities exist um because the middle school team looked at that in the schedule and said, "Hey, we really need a a block of time that's not an X block that, you know, we're not going to come into your X block for a, you know, for for a genius hour, but we can utilize
this time that's embedded to give some students who might be um in in the red or yellow that extra push to get, you know, to to get where they need to be or students who are in the trained to apply that um that knowledge and expand that
knowledge in a in a kind of um in a hands-on sort of way. >> So is the wind block also being used you said to give extra support to students who are in the red in math or in English? >> In math or in English? Sure. >> Yeah. >> And and for some students, truthfully,
um the wind block can be, you know, if there's um a science test coming up or or something going on in science that or if you have a group of students that has a really particular interest in science, it can be a time time for them to apply that knowledge or to say, "Hey, we know this is coming up. We know this group is
is struggling a little bit. We're going to give them a little extra support, a little extra dose of science work to to get them ready." So the wind block is specific to sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. >> Sixth and seventh primarily. >> Sixth and seventh. So in the higher grades,
>> like I'm I'm looking at some of these older grades that did have kind of quite a bit in the red >> is there's a different process around >> the Yeah, I mean the process for for looking at the data is pretty much the same. So they look at the data, they look at the students, and they look at the strands and say, "Okay, these are
students that are um you know, struggling with this particular area." So it in the intervention may look um it may take a couple forms. So it might take the form of within a class a teacher's pulling you know everyone's
working on work you know we'll take math for example. So, you know, they do the lesson. Here's how you divide fractions. Here's what it means to divide fractions. Here's why. You don't just flip the number over. Here's what actually does. Um, and they're then they are working on their their kind of
individual work. During that time, you might have the teacher uh pull a group together and say, "Okay, we're going to really dive in on this. We're gonna we're gonna um you know, we're going to do that fraction work, but before we get there, you're going to need to know this
in order to be able to divide fractions. Um here's what a fraction is and and go through a little bit of that piece. And so their work might look a little bit different to build that up. So then they can get to a level where they're dividing fractions. Um it also may look
like uh after school help. So frequently teachers will send home uh notes to parents and students to say, "Hey, um I am after school on these two days. I've noticed that Connor is struggling with this concept. We would really like to
see him come after school on Tuesday and Thursday. Um we're going to work together to to kind of boost this. Contractually, teachers are required to be after school at least one day a week for for extra help for students. Um the vast majority of teachers are after
school three or four days a week for extra help with students. Um generally speaking that particular intervention works better when the communication goes home to families um rather than just saying, "Hey, I'd really like to see you after school to do some more math."
>> I bet. Um and so so we've had we have struggled um in the last couple of the years to get a lot of buyin for extra help after school. I would say this year we're seeing an uptick in that which is good. Um you know I think that
you know sometimes kids don't want to stay after school to do more school work. Um but I think that's you know that I I think having that communication about hey here's what we're here's what we're up against. Here's what we're trying to get to. uh we'll get there. The other so and and then the other
piece um we have we have the academic support center which is um that's a place that students can go in lie of xlock if they're you know if they have to get caught up on some work. Um primarily that's if if they've missed something or if they need to get caught up. It's not really a time to get extra
help although there is sometimes some tutoring that can happen during that. Um, but the other piece too is that, and this goes back to kind of what we were talking about before, but with with interventions, we may have a student that is really like that that hasn't been identified for special education
that is struggling in a certain area, and we might say, "Hey, um, we're going to we are going to give Connor a skills block during during the day, even though they're not necessarily identified for special ed. We're going
to do this for five or six weeks. We're going to see how it works. They're going to work specifically during this time on study skills, on organization, and making sure that things are ready and organized for homework. Uh, and we're going to reassess in five or six weeks to see if if it works. If that's the
case, if we're making a change to a student's schedule, um, you know, we're saying, "Okay, you're going to go instead of going to health class, uh, you're going to do this for, you know, every other day for for six weeks." At that point, we would absolutely send a communication home and say, "Hey, this
is what's going on. Uh we think that we can we can address this with a a short-term intervention. We'd like to do that. Uh and and we're going to reassess in five or six weeks to see see how things are going." Um at that point, that's where we would we would absolutely do that.
>> I'm sorry I had so many questions, but this is very helpful to me. So, thank you. Do >> you have more? >> No, I you guys can go. >> So, Um, have you guys taken a look at where how we compare to the I Ready National Homes?
>> I have not. >> I have not either. >> Yeah, we can. We can. >> So, we'll bring that back in and maybe >> had a chance to because I know this >> Yeah. >> caught you ahead of
>> Yeah. I mean, we're right in the middle of the the um >> national and state or just national. I don't know. >> Yeah, we can see if they break it down by state. Um but I know that it's a nationally normed assessment. So we can we can at least look at that
>> the questions on >> as a general feeling as you guys went through this were you pleased with where we were the year? >> I am pleased to see growth uh in specific areas. I think when we look and
when we have the data meetings um and we look at um individual students who might have kind of plateaued a little bit um it'll be good to good to develop plans to to help support them. >> How much harder is it to make growth as
you get into your upper grades? >> Well, that's that's part of the reason why we don't do it in 11th and 12th grade is because at that point things can kind of like get a little more nuanced. So you might have students who are taking pre-calc or calculus that
aren't taking you know a different discipline in math and it may have a difference but it I I think in general when you're in ninth and tth grade it's you know the the competencies are still pretty standard across the board. Yeah, you might have a student in geometry or
you might have a student in algebra. And so you might take a look and say, "Oh yeah, this student in geometry is scoring lower than um than students who are taking algebra in the algebraic thinking strands." And that, you know, that's part of the data me say, "Okay,
yeah, that makes sense." Um or you might have students in geometry scoring higher in geometry and le and not as high on um algebraic thinking. So that's to be expected, but I think in general um because you have to have kind of some
level of of competence across the board when you're, you know, building those skills in ninth and tth grade. Um I think the the expected growth is pretty pretty standard. So I think it it would be would be expected to hit that. >> Is it would it be easier though for a fifth grader at a third grade level in
math to catch up than a 10th grader at an eighth grade level? It may be. I I don't have enough I don't have enough >> I'm saying a very strong nodding head. >> Yeah, I I I think I think it makes sense that it would be. Okay. >> Um because there things just spiral so
much much more at that level. Um >> but I again I don't I don't have enough nuance within the within the assessment to like say yes absolutely it's more expensive. But it makes sense that it would. The other piece of this too is that at least at the a fifth grader at
the third grade level, we have access students have access to I Ready right through until the middle of August. So when school ends, they still can get on and do their minutes. So that whole idea of the my path and doing the lessons and following along all of that, that is supposed to be filling in those gaps.
That's that whole my path is directed specifically to where that student zone of proximal development is. So they have access to that all summer until that rollover happens when we're getting ready to on board our new students for the next school year. So all of the end of June and all of July and in the for
so they've got a good six, seven weeks where they still could be practicing math five days a week. >> Six, seven weeks. Thanks. >> That's why you looked at me. Okay. >> I watched Conor. >> Yeah. Jesus. >> Okay. So that's a good time for us to
move on to administrative reports. Thank you guys for pulling this together. >> You're welcome. >> And kudos um HS. >> Yeah, that was that was impressive shifts. >> A lot of green. >> Working hard. >> And I'm loving seeing green move up too.
Like >> that's green stripe more green darker green. >> Okay. So, John is sharing with us for those of you that are um coming along live that our signal has been dropping in and out and he's going to be reconnecting us.
>> Do we need to take a pause? >> Okay. As it goes. So, with that, >> Sure. Um I can kind of highlight a couple things here. So, our PD committee is in the final stages of of uh putting together a proposed calendar for PD
events for next year. Um I I would say that those meetings have been really fantastic to have that much input um in a real formalized way. So, um like to thank everyone who's on that on that committee. Um really uh a lot of priority areas including neurodiversity,
training, curriculum, uh time to to train on new curriculum and align existing curriculum. um and continuing to work on school culture and climate initiatives um at at both schools I think are are high priority areas um management and operations. Uh this
was written before we had two new hires at the elementary school too for ESPs. Um but we've hired Mike Bell as an ESP at Smith Academy to replace an ESP who uh departed. Uh we've also made a hire at Smith Academy. Julia Loger has started in the office uh as the admin
assistant. So, she was in last Friday. She'll be in this Friday working with Jackie. She's replacing Jackie Pel who is sorry, sorry, Jackie Mcrist um who is moving on after 19 years in the district this year. We wish her the best of luck.
Um and so she's phasing in throughout the spring. So, you'll see her um this Friday and then next Friday and then as Mar as we get into March, she'll be working three days a week while she phases out her own uh business. Um and then she'll be full-time starting in the
summer. Um and she's wonderful. She's a graduate of Smith Academy. Um so she went through Smith Academy and um she has a lot of experience, administrative uh assistant experience at the secondary level and at colleges too. So she'll be able to help
support students as they walk into university future. Um in terms of the safety and building report, the SK the doors are on the schedule for HS. So not just uh we're going to do it, but actually on the schedule to get done
>> next week. So those like Groundhog Day, >> but we're looking forward to having those in. Uh once those are in, we'll be able to to do some of those um up upgrades for the cameras and for active care too, which will be helpful. Um we have incoming boilers at HS. Um we
anticipate the install um starting in early March. Uh couple the boilers really picked a good time to actually go down hard right in the middle of that freeze, but Cody worked uh that's our our HVAC company. They worked hard to
cannibalize one of them to take parts out of it. uh and and rebuild them and put them in the other one. So, that boiler was up and working. Um they did get another part and actually both boilers are up working now. So, we have two two functioning boilers there. Uh
and they anticipate that working um until the new boilers are installed, which is great. Um the roof project is currently out to bid and our project manager is going to be reviewing those bids soon as they come in. We also had a walkth through today with uh Northeast
Solar. Um so we walked we did a walk on the the roof to look at um kind of proposing a capital plan uh to the town for uh if we wanted to look at a solar project up there. So that happened today and we anticipate having that rough uh estimate of what that would cost uh
tomorrow. Um the CPA, so these are a couple things that aren't on here. These happened after I wrote the report. Um CPA has been working hard on um on Day Pond. Uh so they are um they are dredging it.
They're deepening it. And we have um I'm I'm trying not to laugh and think about Adam Adam's puddle, what it's also called. >> I know. >> Um so they're they're deepening in it. They've built a road that they are going to take up when they leave. um because the road for heavy equipment goes right
down across the varsity, sorry, the JV um soccer and baseball field. Um but they have assured us that that will be in better condition after they leave than it even was before they started. >> Um but we're excited about that. I think um one of the things that we're going to
be working on with the fishing club um and the and mass wildlife is to try to get a kind of early spring stocking down there if they once they do that work um because they will hopefully allow those fish to kind of hold through for a
longer uh longer time. Um because if it's dredged and airrated, they can survive, which is great. So, we like we like that. Um we have an open house on Thursday for new and prospective students, upcoming students and new students. Um we are really excited. We have a lot of
students that are are have signed up to do that. Um zoo crew has been fantastic. I am personally really excited about this Friday. We're having our every four years we're going to have our winter Olympics at Smith Academy and we're having our first one this year. We have
150 kazoos that have been ordered for the opening ceremonies. um with which they'll all be doing the Olympic theme on the kazoo as they kind of march in. Uh we have seven events including things like um inflatable bobsled um
Scott uh sock speed skating in the gym so speed so things things like that it should be a lot of fun. Uh we had the Gazette join us today. They are writing a article on our VSU partnership. Um, so
that's been we're excited to to do that. We've been trying to get them in. It hasn't worked out all the year, but they they were able to come and see the psychology class and the food science class and talk to those students. Um, so that that's exciting. Um, and
we have we continue to meet with staff and review u budget projections for next year. Um, and you know, our goal is to make sure that anyone whose positions may be impacted uh is notified well in advance. Um, so we've already had preliminary conversations with folks about what it's looking like. Um, you
know, as we get more uh more information coming in, we will have more solidified conversations with them, too. >> But at this point, anyone who could potentially be impacted has been has beenified. >> Is that like a broader conversation?
like you know like if if we're we're aiming for up to seven positions has been kind of the conversation but is it more than seven folks who are >> Yeah, we've talked to everyone. So the way um the way it works is is if folks have professional teaching status then
they get into that um that kind of level of seniority and certification in those conversations. uh we've talked to anyone that doesn't have professional status and said, you know, listen, um either we anticipate
uh your position probably not being affected um but we having this conversation because you don't have professional status um or you know we we anticipate that there may be an impact that could that could could impact your position. Um and so that's that's been I
mean they're hard conversations to have. It's not the conversation anyone wants to be having. Um, but I think having it in February and and January when we did um is just a much kinder thing to do than having them in May um or April when
it's you know people people can have time to get themselves ready and get their get their resumes dusted off all that. >> So professional teaching status comes at the start of your fourth year. >> Start of your fourth year. after the district not supports your teaching.
>> Yeah. So, so it's with the district. So, when you have have taught successfully for three years, um you get you get professional teaching status and that allows a couple things. So, it allows um you're you're less kind of under the
microscope quote unquote for evaluation. So, there are fewer fewer formal uh observations that are needed for for folks who have achieved that. Um and it also allows uh according to the collective bargaining agreement some um
some claim to position. So if you you know if you uh have seniority and professional teaching status um and there's a reduction in force uh it goes by certification and hire date. Um, so whoever was hired kind of, you know,
last in, first out kind of thing. >> Is the three years pretty standard for districts around us? >> Yeah. Yeah, it's very It is very standard. >> I think it's longstanding in our contract. It's not new. >> Yeah. >> Yeah, it's pretty it's I would say it's
long-standing in pretty much every contract I've in every district I've ever been. I have a few more quick >> district questions. Um, you mentioned some hires. How many holes do we have >> staff right now? >> Yeah. Across the district. >> You're both staffing.
>> Um, yes and no. Um, >> I'll explain that. Am I >> Fair enough? >> Yeah. >> Um, do we know when the paving will be going out to bid? >> The paving, uh, I will have to check with the project manor. can tell you based on capital planning um that the
paving won't happen until the very end of the summer. >> Okay? >> Because there's probably some other townwide paving of parking lots that they want to tie it together with. Okay? >> To save money. >> And so they won't and they also won't touch it till the roof is done, >> right?
>> And so the roof schedule is what's driving it more than anything. But they're still because I sat on a meeting with DPW director a few weeks ago. They're still looking to make sure that it happens before school starts, but it will be tight. >> Yeah. And and the roof will start I So,
they're going to start some parts of the roof during the spring while school is still in session. Those parts that they can do without uh substantially disrupting classes. Um, so they'll do those and quite literally the day after school gets out, they will be dropping
the membrane off and putting it putting it up. >> They're counting our snow days, too. >> They sure are. Yeah, they really are. Yeah. >> Um, as we've been mindful of our budget over the year and um, you know, we our budget was more expensive than we originally anticipated going in.
>> Um, and I keep signing bills for HVAC repairs and you were talking about the ones that Cody has done. Do you have a ballpark as to how much we've spent on repairs this year and are we still within the budget line of what we of how much we allocated for repairs >> for this year? Um I don't have I don't
know exactly where we are. Um I just didn't look at the number right before this this meeting. I believe we are still within that within the budget because we added substantially to that line anticipating um >> we were expecting expensive. >> Yeah. Yeah.
>> So we can take a look at that later this month. >> Yeah. Yeah, we we can. And the good news is that we can anticipate savings in that area for next year. >> Shouldn't jinx it. Fingers crossed the boilers keep kicking
until the new ones arrive. >> More for the district. >> Uh quick question about the Olympics on Friday. >> Um are any elementary students coming up to be spectators? We we think so. We're not 100% sure. We
were trying to we are actually trying to go through logistics on um how they would spectate this afternoon. So, we're hoping that they they they can. Um there are different stations throughout the the ground. So, we just need to figure out supervision on those stations.
>> I'll be talking to the fifth grade teachers tomorrow. >> We just had this. >> Yes. And it should be a balmy like 33 degrees. >> Oh my gosh. >> That much wind. >> Don't even need a coat to walk in that
>> practically. >> Thank you very much, >> Miss Petra. Um, so as far as staffing goes, I had two people who had moved on to ESPs. um one the fourth grade grade fourth and
fifth special education ESP and one um fifth grade ESP had given their notice and andor had left. Um so I had those vacancies um thanks to posting on Indeed because Schoolring wasn't really touching it. Um I have now hired those
two. I just recently learned this past week of another resignation um but because of a school spring applicant that I should be fully staffed after the vacation because they have accepted the position. So, I'm just finishing up paperwork and then we should be we should be fully staffed with ESPs.
>> That's awesome. Um, I met this past week and we did our data meetings um looking at all of our mid-year data. So, if they haven't already um intervention groups and enrichment groups uh enrichment groups were identified, we're having our um first cycle of enrichment end. So,
we're doing a family presentation and a little bit of this is going to be happening at the all school meeting this Friday. Um, Desessie came in and was doing both observations of classroom instruction as well as interviewing teachers, specialists, and administrators. Um, and that's really it because I had updated my update
previously. So, this is just two weeks worth. >> So, first thing is that we do have a vacant position, a tutor that basically was working with the medically fragile student that's homebound. This is actually person that's been in the
position this year and resigned after a few months. So, I've talked to the family and we've reposted the position. Hope to have somebody in it soon, but I have not received any application since posting the position probably about a week and a half ago.
Our uh SLPA, which is our assistant to the speech and language pathologist, was actually out on extended leaves since last December. uh they returned back to work today and we have started to talk to some of the families about miss services and looking at what we actually
did to try to make up services in the interim while that staff member was out. So I do expect that the SLP and the SLPA will be working with families to basically say this is what was missed for schedules for scheduled sessions and start working on the compensatory
services to replace those throughout the end of the year. And if we do not finish up by the end of the year, then we do have extended school year services where that can be offered as well. We have one more section of our TFM to
actually report off on and this is the bias review. It is due on February 20th and I'm hoping that when we submit that on the 20th or before that that'll be the end of it and that we we will have completed our cycle corrective action
plan by that time and we'll look at getting prepped for our next round probably by next year. >> And uh also the the CPAC we've done two virtual meetings under the federation for children with special needs so far under our waiver. Uh we are obligated to
supply at least one more which I'm hoping to do by March. Uh at a recent uh advisory council at CES. I did actually uh encounter some districts that were talking about regionalization and they were talking about reaching out and
decided not to wait for that. So I did send them really kind of a request to say when you get to the point of actually offering this to the districts we would like to be considered in in that. have not heard back yet, but that was fairly recent.
>> That's all I have. >> Let's skip the Smith Academy one. Was there anything in there that we I thought >> Yeah, I mean the only thing that I didn't um mentioned was the Desi review that we had last week. So um Desessie came out they well they contracted with
uh AIG who came out and they uh conducted a number of focus groups and interviews with myself and other um teachers and students and staff members and um parents, school committee members, town
administrators, all all kinds of folks. They um they they I guess this was kind of a mission moment too. um they they were really impressed they at the people that we had and they kept coming back to that said you have like it seems like you have just really incredible people
that that work here and um you know Desi is really big on systems for big districts um but you have you know even if you don't have have all those systems which you might not need because you have no students that would would need that you have the right people in place
to address all the needs that come up which was wonderful What do they do with all the data they >> This is great. Um, so they put it in a report uh and then they give us the report and we we can read it. We can um we can >> like we should read it.
>> Yeah, we will. Um and it and it has it will have good information. It will have um kind of their findings about what they see as the district's strengths and areas for growth. Um what it doesn't have what it's how it's different than like a tiered focused uh moni monitoring
review is it won't have um like teeth for lack of a better word. So there's no nothing that they're going to say okay you need to fix this and show proof that you fixed it and submit this as evidence that you fixed it. Um this is more just a snapshot of hey here's how we think
things are going according to our um standards and indicators. uh here are some things for you to think about as a district. Um and it it can help imp it can help inform our you know improvement process and and our goals as
administrators and and schools. >> Um there is no school finance subcommittee report because we did not meet in the last two weeks but more to come. Stay tuned. Um, policy subcommittee. I know you guys didn't
have it like it's been two weeks. >> Correct. >> Do you want to try and do a third reading on these or would you like us to hold that off? Um, I think we can I'm comfortable with our third reading on the bullying prevention as I don't
think we have any other outstanding we don't have any other outstanding edits that were >> um Dr. Driscoll, that one did not go to the legal team or did >> I think it was just the
>> I think it was only the hazing policy that was going to the legal team and we have not been able to implement any of those edits, >> but bullying prevention did go to the district team and it looked >> Yeah, they >> um
>> I don't think we sent to them. >> Bullying I don't think >> not there wasn't Yeah, we didn't feel there was a need. Um, so I feel comfortable with that one. Um, Kathy, I don't know how you >> Yeah. >> Yeah. And then we can maybe just hold off on hazing. I don't know if the
committee had any other thoughts. This would be like a third reading. I There have been no changes. >> Are there additional thoughts or changes from the committee that you want to speak to about bullying prevention? Okay. Seeing that, I'm going to make a
motion to approve the edits to JICFB on bullying prevention. Is there a second? >> Second. Is there any further discussion? All in favor? >> I. Any opposed?
Okay. So, bullying prevention is voted and we'll hold off on hazing until you guys have a chance to take a look at that. Um, with that, we get to our last item of the night. We're going to have our final conversation
on the 2026 2027 calendar. So last we met, we adjusted the start day for preK and K and we agreed that we would give time for administration to have a conversation Yep. >> with the early ed team to talk about the
last day for prek and possibly K. >> Just preK. >> Just preK. >> They will get out the last day like everybody else. >> Okay. >> And they were completely amendable to that. So, let's talk about what is the last day for prek?
>> June 8th. >> They would go back Monday and Tuesday and then that would give them Wednesday, Thursday, Friday to um do testing and get the room cleaned up before they have to get it ready for summer school. >> So, but do testing like are there kids?
So in those days the teachers are there and they will kids who are in preschool will be brought back to be tested. >> Yes. So any families that we have said yes to that have not used us before or haven't come to our preschool we will be inviting them to come back during those three day two days of those three to be
able to have them come in and do um assessments before we start figuring out and creating class lists so we can let people know in August who their teacher is >> to anticipate the next school year. >> Correct. >> And that's when they'll do kindergarten screening. Correct. >> Um, yeah. Well, any of the students that
are that are in K, right? PreK getting ready to go into K, they can do the the DESA screening then, too. >> Sorry, not DESA. >> So, that um that day, would it like move with the snow days or you're just
recommending like a set date? >> Um, right. Because kindergarten would move with the snow days, >> right? And I guess that would is I mean if we got if we're pushed I'm still thinking it would still be just the last three days. So if it if we had two more snow days then it would be pushed to
>> is that this year with prek and now we've had two snow days. >> No because we didn't we don't have that built into the schedule this year. So we're going to have I'm doing that internally. >> Okay. >> So the I I think the goal and if I'm misstating this please correct me. I think the goal is to try and frontload
that screening to the end of the year. Yes. >> So that they need less time at the start of the next year for testing >> and to create bus list over the >> summer class list. Right. >> So I guess my question is unrelated. If
they're getting a day for cleaning their classrooms and just thinking about equity, why would not everyone have that? always has been that way because they and I guess part of this goes kind of back to COVID, right? So, the prek room is used over the summer for summer school. And what
they've done is they basically have completely taken everything out and washed and bleached all of those materials before those kids come because the custodians will come in and basically pull that entire room out, do all the floors and get it ready to be
basically fall ready and then they put everything back in because summer school for prek literally starts. So he does the entire they do both of them go in and completely do the entire prek K wing so that if those rooms were needed for summer school they're ready to go.
>> So it's the teachers doing this work. >> Huh? >> Is the teachers doing this work of >> the the K the prek teachers are the ones who are cleaning all of the materials. They're not doing the room but they they basically take and they >> scrub all of the mats and they do all of the the materials and manipula. So anything that the kids have been
touching in case they put it in their mouth or they just they clean and wash all of that before they box it all up, put it into bins. So then they can set it up so that the custodians come in and basically empty out all the stuff so they can do the floors. >> Are there other teachers who also have
that expected of them? >> No. Which is why I don't think it's it's never been a union issue and no one else has ever complained about that. What we have been finding is an inequitable room distribution of students because we literally have just been like, well,
that kid can go in this room and this can go this kid can go in that room and then they start the school year and it's like, wow, we had no idea. Had we known, we would never have put these two or three kids together because they need a lot more support. We would have separated them out, which is part of the
reason why they can have those two days again. you know, they're done teaching, but we can then invite families back before they get into the throws of um summer vacations, then they're not in the building. We don't have to pay them extra. We don't have to worry about compensating to come in later.
>> It's just already part of their school day. It's already there, right? And then we can when we're sending letters out to families, we can say, "By the way, >> you know, congratulations. You're in preschool." And >> part of what the welcoming packages is we're going to be sending you information. and we're going to welcome
you in um at the end of June or sometime in for next year anyway in June to come in so that we can do some assessments before we start sending you the the class list to tell you who your teacher is going to be in August. >> Um when does the extended school year start?
>> Um that usually typically is right after 4th of July. So whatever that next day is after the 4th of July, that's when summer school begins. >> It's July 8th I think this year. It's three days a week, two hours, Tuesday, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, and it goes through the 31st.
>> Do we know when other districts does our calendar roughly align with other districts? I know like this year we're a couple days behind. >> It is all over the map next year because Labor Day is so late. >> I I know there's a contractual issue in Northampton, which someone was telling me about. >> Yeah, it it's I typically were within
like a day or two. I I have seen districts all the way as early as we are and all the way as late as after Labor Day next year and there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of rhyme or reason to it. >> I think most most districts that we're
seeing that I'm seeing are starting um that you that that 31st that week. Um so there, you know, similar to us um but again they're getting they're getting out >> so late >> later. And then you have some districts
that are really I mean some the districts that are starting after um after Labor Day that that's that's pushing them into really the last week of June >> before by June 30th. >> Yeah. >> Well, like a parenting issue that comes up for us sometimes and some of friends
is that >> camps generally start like in that third week of June, >> but they end the middle of August because they're they're staffed by college kids. Yep. So they're gone. >> Yeah. >> So like starting it, you know, that that earlier in August is beneficial. And then um but then we end up like I think
this year we're ending on a Monday or Tuesday now. We're like a day or two behind Frontier. >> It's on the website for what it's worth this year. I was proud to see >> like how many snow days the new date is. >> There was there there was a camp that Frontier runs that um my son and a couple of his friends want to do and
they they miss it because we're like two days behind Frontier. >> Okay. >> Um so I just didn't know if if we attempt to align with our friends and neighbors. >> Usually we we're pretty close. Um but again it can be you know within a couple of days but next year next year
>> um it's like the one every what what is it eight years when that happens if you factor in leap year it's it it's as late labor is as late as it possibly can be and that's really um created a lot of a
lot of chaos when it comes to schools. So in this calendar, we're proposing adding one extra day at the end of the year for teacher testing or for for student testing. Right. So we're shortening preschool by one school day >> compared to this year.
>> Compared to this compared to compared to this year? >> Yes. >> I don't have this year's calendar. >> This year it was two days like like the preschool was Yes. >> started two days later and ended two days is planning on ending two days before. Yeah. Yeah. >> So, we're we're we're taking one back
and we're clear that that's like it's an established need. Like it makes sense. >> Yes. >> But they did, you know, when I was having the conversation about, you know, again, those families that have older siblings, that seems to be a hard thing to ask them to have an extra whole week.
Yes. >> Where they're sending their you their older children but not bringing the preschoolers in. They said yes, that actually makes sense. I think this will be and said that yes it's would make sense to have Monday Tuesday the two days for testing and then the one day to make sure that all the rest of additional cleaning would happen is
completely they said doable. >> So the copy of the calendar you have in front of you is what we've updated as of January 26. >> Yes. It does not include >> but it doesn't include the 8th. So, what I'm interested in having a motion for is
to move the last day for prek to June 8th. So, move. >> I will second that. Um, however, is there a way we want to notate on the calendar about the snow days for prek? >> Yeah, I can put that on the side where
it says uh similar to how it says last day of school, no snow days, >> right? Let's just make sure it's clear. >> So, every last day will shift with snow dates. >> Every last day will shift.
>> Every except for graduations. >> Okay. So, we have a motion. We have a second. All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Thank you much.
And thank you to the education team for bearing with us on that one. It is 18. Is there a motion to adjurnn? Motion to adjurnn. I'll second it. >> All in favor? I I thank you all.