good evening and uh welcome to the uh February 13th 2025 uh meeting the halls of school committee we are uh meeting remotely tonight so I'll just uh quickly we're meeting sorry hybrid tonight so I just read the uh the remote meeting
statement quickly pursuant to the governor's July 16th 2022 act relative to extending certain covid-19 measures adopted during the state of emergencies suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law um GL 30A paragraph 20 the halls and school committee will be using remote participation for this meeting the audio of this meeting is
being recorded and will be posted to the town's web page as soon as possible in accordance with keeping the public informed of actions during this meeting at this time we'll take a roll call of attendance um Frank here Hillary here
Joe here Sarah here Cynthia here Dan I'm here and Don yes so we are now uh in in hybrid mode um it's like beast mode but but hybrid
um we'll run through the consent agenda quickly does anyone have any questions or concerns so with that I'll entertain motion to approve the consent agenda second uh then we'll have to do a roll call vote Frank yes Hillary yes Joe
yes Sarah yes Cynthia yes T yes Don yes okay moving on we have our report support from our student Representatives so spring registration for sports is now open the class of 2025 is selling carnations as a fundraiser
the parents of the class of 2025 are holding a berui fundraiser and also selling tumblers and they also held a CrossFit fundraiser for the senior boat cruise Deca state competition is in Boston Seaport and it's coming up at the
end of February it's on the 27th and the 28th NHS Juniors will be help in out at the hollison High School open house this is on Wednesday the 26th girls basketball senior night is tomorrow against Norwood boys basketball senior night and ski senior night were earlier
this week and girls ski team one senior night and also the tvl okay great thank you um next we will go to uh school committee individual comment nothing
nothing for me no comment no comment nothing for me okay uh don okay I have one quick thing um that I'm going to cover under here is this uh um Dr Kusa Don and some people from the town work with Travis on coming up with
an agreement for a memorandum of agreement between us and the select board and for facilities management and I guess the select board wanted it to be an agreement between the select board and the school committee rather than like the Town Administrator and the superintendent and so um we have two
options either it's in your folder um I can either just sign it if anyone if if there are no objections to to My Signing that or I can put it on our agenda for for next time we can kind of vote on it and it can be from from the committee um I I just present you know it's it's
basically just kind of an agreement that we we'll continue to work with uh James keyston um he'll work with us but that it will all go through uh Dr Kus and Dr Jordan um and is that in our folder it's the town
of hollon Das better facilities more I would recommend we review yeah I think we should review it I'm not it's not showing up in my folder for some reason gifts I can do it again
I right it's okay I'll go through the whole thing again I know he just wanted to get it sort of done and settled before he left and I know the 27th is still before he leaves but is there anything that has changed about the agreement this is really just
more memorializing sort of how we're how we've been doing it there's there's no nothing um Earth shattering I would say but but it's up to everyone yeah it doesn't look any
different than the former one right well I think James Cas has been very supportive and helpful in yeah the last couple years the only question is whether we want to have this as an official item vote on it next next time because it didn't
um did we vote on it the last time I feel like we did so we didn't have I know you're thinking of DPW we haven't had an a specific agreement oh you're right that was like at the ground the two I'm thinking of the grounds and there was a there was technically a
budget impact on that one because we had yeah yeah okay there is no budget impact on this and I think that there were a lot of big projects that James helped with recently yes but moving forward I think with the new staff in place too um um Matt is doing a r shot
it's doing a great job new maintenance people we feel like we should be not taxing him as much as we did in that past year just because of the projects we were doing so to people I mean I can put it on the agenda for the 27th and we can we can vote on then it's really yeah was support next
meeting okay make it an official agenda item for the next meeting um all right we now have uh public comments and we have a a few uh Miss
Rivera hi good evening I know most of you know me but U my name is Amanda Rivera I'm a longtime chemistry teacher here at PA High School uh thank you for the opportunity to comment tonight my understanding is that later this evening you will be discussing and potentially voting on implementing an AB schedule
for next year it was stated in a past communication that an AB schedule would be only a slight adjustment to current practice while on paper it may appear slight as the day-to-day schedule would in fact remain the same to students and teachers in AB schedule is actually quite a significant change at no time
during the past few weeks during the feasibility study where teachers or departments asked about the impact to curriculum classroom Logistics or cost implications that this schedule would have and I believe that the committee and the community should hear from teachers on these topics with regard to
curriculum and continuity of of learning while an AB schedule does technically provide for year-long learning the implication is that every other week teachers and students would meet only two times with the numerous holidays and 4day weeks on the calendar there could be multiple weeks in a term where
classes only meet twice per week as an educator I have serious concerns about my students ability to learn practice and master new material with so few class meetings in a row additionally implementing an AB schedule takes students from managing four classes at a
time to a total of eight classes at a time I encourage you to have conversations with students about their thoughts on managing eight courses concurrently I can assure you that the change while perhaps feasible is in fact quite significant for them lastly with
regard to the three-term AP courses an AB schedule would mean approximately 20 fewer class meetings before students have to take their AP exam while the class would continue to run after the exam teachers would have to increase summer work speed up content delivery
and cut labs in order to get through the required content prior to testing with regard to classroom Logistics any scheduled change that requires all courses running concurrently even on alternating days is going to run into significant space challenges
specifically for the science wellness and art departments many labs and projects span multiple days with lab bench space at a premium science teachers already have to share rooms extensively one of our teachers teaches every class that she
has in a different classroom lugging equipment biological specimens and chemicals around on a cart all day double that and surely the lab curriculum will have to be modified or reduced in order to accommodate all sections safely running at once the most
significant impact would be to our wood shop program we do not have the space to store the wood and projects for all construction Tech and Tiny House classes to run at once to do so would require purchasing or renting a temporary excuse me a
temperature controlled storage unit or a mobile classroom which leads me to my final topic cost when I have raised questions about cost with regard to any of the potential schedule changes I have been assured that quote the school committee is committed to covering the cost
associated with any schedule change while I absolutely appreciate that sentiment I find it hard to believe that any and all costs will be covered when those costs have not yet been laid out I have spoken with my department and put together a rough estimate of the additional budget needed to run all just
science courses on an alternating AB schedule again while it may not seem like alternating days is not concurrent because of our classroom Logistics multi-day labs and current level of equipment sharing and textbook turnover between semesters there's actually quite
a significant impact here I welcome any members of the committee to visit the department for an eyes on tour of the classrooms and a equipment that we stretch to the limit on the current semester schedule or to see the specific equipment listing behind this estimate
additional chemistry equipment $1,282 additional physics equipment $1,732 additional biology equipment $6,000 additional environmental science equipment $3,500 additional textbooks
$220,000 that total estimate without a storage unit or mobile classroom that I would assume would have to go to a bid is $ 52,54 again teachers are not opposed to a schedule change or adjustment the teachers on the scheduling committee have put forward multiple schedules that
minimize the impacts I've listed above we care really deeply about our students and their learning experience in our classrooms and to that end we ask that any potential change be rigorously and transparently vetted thank you thank thank you um well I don't want to speak
to the numbers I will just simply say that one of the assurances from the uh recommended um schedule by the the schedule subcommittee included the purchase of of the additional supplies that were going to be necessary so there's nothing really changing from
that to to this one um I I think that that sounds like a very high number but um there certainly we recognize there will be some additional cost um former uh School Committee Member and his team seemed
uh seemed member of the community Amanda Bigalow thank you Dan um I'm Amanda Bigalow 122 Brier Cliff lean um I have a seventh grader at the middle school um and I'm here tonight to talk about my favorite topic
math um I'm a career high school math teacher for those of you that don't know um I've been a department head curriculum writer consultant um taught High School College my majority of my career was teaching High School in the Boston public schools and uh the Framingham Public Schools where I currently teach um I also do
tutor Fair Mount here in Holliston um and I did used to be on this school committee until this past May so not to brag but I do consider myself an expert on this topic um it was the March 14th um meeting of 2024 I believe where
it was I who made the motion to add a full Algebra 1 curriculum to 8th grade um to begin in the fall of 2025 so uh this the next school year um and at that time I think we were pretty clear that we did not mean that this algebra 1
course would necessarily be for all students but would be more of an honors math um and the reason being um for me I think the biggest issue with deling the eth grade and having this for all students is the equity piece so as we all know Equity does not necessarily
mean the same for all students insert the graphic of like the people looking over the fence here right um and I'm very very concerned about the equity issues that would be created with deleveling 8th grade um so let me explain so uh without the option of like
an honors math curriculum as we know and Joanie I know you did research on this many many families in town um do utilize programs like Russian School of Math Kuman um private expensive tutors like
myself so that ENT Al without us offering honors math in the public schools only those families who can afford to pay these very very high prices would be allowing their kids to have access to this you know high level
math curriculum um so I don't think I need to explain why this is a huge huge Equity issue um not only for that eighth grade curriculum but also for um those students would be the only ones who are more likely to be accepted into honors classes at the high school level
assuming those will remain so it's essentially privatizing honors math here in town which you know this is a public school system doesn't make any sense um talking about the honors kids but also I've taught you know every level for
years and years and years um including you know the cp2 lower level classes um and I really feel that deling is unfair to those students um we've I've heard talk about like oh the stigma of being in a low level I don't don't hear that
very much in my experience and again this is like my daily life every day um but I do hear a lot of students in these levels being like Oh I really feel smart in this class like math anxiety is huge we all know for students we want everyone to be able to feel comfortable
in their math class comfortable to talk to share a problem to ask questions and I fear that that would really go away um in these mixed classes in eth grade um so I know that one of the answers sort of that's been thrown out as a solution to these
issues is differentiation there's been lots of talk about differentiating instruction um it's great especially looks great on paper um but the amount of planning it takes to properly differentiate in a public school class
to all the levels that we at Holliston teach um for teachers there's literally not enough hours in the day and I don't mean the contract day I mean like the 24-hour calendar day to properly plan all of the extra work that it would do to properly differentiate to every
single level and with respect to everyone who thinks otherwise I don't think you've spent enough time teaching public school middle school or high school math if you think that that's not the case so um that's all I want to say I really hope that these levels are maintained in order to keep Holliston um
a competitive District to be able to properly suit the needs of all of our students at all levels um to keep hollist and math Equitable among all students um and to avoid more students leaving the district so that's all I
wanted to say thank you thank you uh M Kone good evening Jimmy katone 199 9 M Street uh tonight the school committee will hear the feasibility of a potential new high
school schedule referred to as the ab schedule and the school committee has a potential vote on this schedule listed on its agenda a move to an AB schedule is a major change that would have students taking eight courses at once doubling
their current course load of four a few weeks ago when the school school committee voted on a different schedule there was no analysis of the impact of the schedules on students teachers or the budget no public discussion weighing
the costs and benefits of the schedule and no opportunity for the public to provide input after hearing a public discussion the ab schedule that is being considered tonight along with the previously voted on schedule has students taking eight courses at
once in a survey by the high school schedule subcommittee parents and students were overwhelmingly clear that they believe it is not in the best interest of their students to take eight courses at once citing challenges due to learning disabilities emotional and mental
well-being time constraints due to working necessary after school jobs and being able to balance a rigorous course load just to name a few a decision to move to a schedule with eight courses at once is in
complete opposition to the feedback from parents and students teachers voted the last schedule down for many reasons and agreed with parents and students that eight courses at once would create more hardship for students to help facilitate the
feasibility study the union suggested to Mr Liss that he meet with each department to gain an understanding of how our students would be impacted by the ab schedule from the perspective of our teachers this never happened how can we answer questions
such as how much will this cost for supplies do we have enough classrooms what is the impact of running these courses at the same time how will our most vulnerable students be impacted by this change this leads me to believe that any report on this schedule tonight has been
done without a thorough examination of the implications it presents voting on a new high school without incorporating feedback from teachers parents and students seems to be irresponsible and unwise to me is there some other driving
force behind this change are we all here to serve the community yet here we are ignoring the community's input and why is the schedule being put forward outside of the schedule subcommittee as parents of students in
the school myself a parent in the school a parent of students in the schools a taxpayer and a voter I ask the school committee to improve their transparency by holding a public forum that includes a presentation of the pros and cons of
any new schedule so that the community can be informed can participate and have advanced notice for such forum for those looking for any more information a document comparing this schedule to others has been posted on
the Holliston teachers Facebook page thank you for your time thank you and good evening everybody good evening and kenon holl um say holl High School 11:35
Highland Street and um as many of you know I've um I've been here a few times talking about this similar topic and um I'm back tonight because after the last time I was at the meeting I I had asked if um the math kirkum review report had ever been presented to the school
community and the well to to the school committee and the community I looked back I couldn't see that it was so I'm not sure if that report was ever presented so um I asked that if it hasn't that it is presented because um when we think about that we had at least
13 um we had 13 math experts across the district who I think like Amanda said if you haven't been teaching in a public math classroom um the way we have in a district this size you know we don't have all the resources as other big communities have um you know it's really
important that you hear from the mouth teachers and I think um we all talk right we all know what's happening we're all talking across the district and this is how um lack of transparency doesn't create good doesn't create a good environment and I think that that's one thing that
is honestly happening because we're all hearing bits and pieces so I encourage you to request that the that you invite the math curriculum review Representatives back to to to um send on that report um so I um I went through and I looked
through the I've been reviewing the report and I just want to read um some pieces from the mission statement or the vision of vision of the math curriculum review and I think that this is really important because we spent I think at least four meetings going over this
Vision but just a piece of it um our shared Vision it says by focusing on the current Massachusetts math Mathematics Curriculum Frameworks we will promote consistent and effective vertical alignment prek to 12 which provide the foundation for rigorous higher order learning opportunities for all all
students and then it goes on to say Central to this work is regular collaborative data informed decisions amongst all Educators like and I that is not happening we we haven't met again and when I when I've been hearing all these bits and pieces of from the math study coming forward and to not have
that stuff be vetted through the math curriculum Review Committee it's concerning to me because I feel like we're just banding something we're just band dating and I don't think I think we want to be thoughtful if we make changes to this because as Hillary said a couple meetings ago that we're being asked to
do so much and it's just like people saying that within that 247 like I work I work and work and work I just don't stop and it it's just not fair to continue with that I do think that um Cambridge I'm not sure if you follow Cambridge but Cambridge has been having
this debate for many um I don't know maybe three or four years I think it's been going on and was supposed to do it I think this year and they delayed it and they've been getting push back for delaying it but what they've done is they've come up with a um a math academy for eighth graders to take during the
school year and it's a really thoughtful program so I'm not up I'm not saying like we can't change these things but we really have to be careful when we do it and I just I really want to you know ask that any changes that are proposed or made to the math curriculum that it does
get vetted through the math curriculum review um I do think there's one one more thing I want to say is when I when I left industry I was a 401k consultant so I did work 10 years um in Industry so I have that experience and I know what it takes to have a job outside of a school um my first paper that I had to
do I went to Framingham State to start I got my degree at Leslie but I started and my first paper was on intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation and I think when you see students who feel good about themselves and they feel great they have that intrinsic motivation and they work together and they want to
learn but when like Amanda was saying is that you put these kids together and they just don't feel good about themselves and they develop more anxiety and I think we have to be really careful about that so um I thank you and I encourage you to get a copy of the report and look through it because it's
really good and there's a lot of great work that we did thank you thank you TR good evening Tracy flecker 96 rolling meow Drive teacher and mom of five thank you for letting me speak again tonight on the topic of the high school schedule change
at this point with the information that has been made public I fully appreciate that the school committee has taken steps to continue this process of change to the high school schedule thank you I also applaud Mr Bido for standing up to the bullying both during the initial process and now speaking the truth is
always right although not often easy I wanted to speak tonight as a reminder that the issue regardless of who said what when how throughout this entire subcommittee process and the legal battle the issue Remains the Same the current high school schedule needs to change let's give our students the
credit they deserve they can handle eight classes if in if the state has overwhelmingly gotten rid of block scheduling Holliston can handle the change as well the current schedule leaves large gaps in content continuity for all of our students we pride
ourselves on French imers but then have students at the high school level go at times a year without direct language instruction We complain that our state rankings are dropping but don't question how going two semesters without academic content in a subject area has an impact on that our AP scores
on as high as we'd like but some students are ending classes four to six weeks before they take a test and our extensions on AP exams are just Band-Aids and many students are not able to take those with this current block schedule we've read our Equity report but we don't stop to correct the
inequities for students that are clearly presented I've been an educator for 20 years and a parent for 14 both jobs require a constant requirement to change and it is hard our job as Educators is to provide an equal education to all
students our job as parents is to support that work in equity even when it may not pertain to or directly affect our own children some of the ACC accusations that have been thrown around about which students we should be listening to and prioritizing during all of this debate on schedule aside from being awful or
missing the big picture we have a moral and legal obligation to educate all of the students in Holliston I think it's great that we are looking at ways to have AP courses continue for a full year but why are we also not prioritizing our special needs students who have never had the opportunity to take a music
class kids getting extra support with this block schedule do not have the same access to things that might be their passions one day career path or what's keeping them in school the Ada and idea require schools to provide reasonable accommodations to ensure that students with learning differences and on IEPs have equal
access to educational opportunities our current schedule is in direct conflict with those there is no equal access some definitely not all but some students and teachers are hesitant to embrace a new schedule because they perceive things will be harder for them our role though
in equal access means we create a schedule that allows for equal access it's our job as the adult to make decisions based on what is right for all of our Holliston students the high school students in Holliston regardless of what classes they take or how they learn individually in a classroom will
benefit from a change to the current schedule to one that allows content instruction for an entire Academic Year and more equal access to educational opportunities thank you members of the school committee principal list and the many high school Educators and community members who are fighting for a change
that places value on the education of all of our Holliston students inter think I got to everyone okay um moving forward we'll go to uh the uh the fiscal year 26 uh budget
superintendent's budget presentation I can't wait to present all right let me just get my screen up okay and um Dr Jordan and I have worked quite a bit together on this presentation so he'll be jumping in as
well as we move forward okay so similar to last year I'm presenting some of the information that's going to be in the next few slides rationale for why we're proposing the budget that we are budget history and some of the comps that we do um in the area around us what a level Services
budget looks like and then what's the town projected budget and any deficit that we might need to make up um our priority needs request that we had presented um a modified version of to that we'll be presenting from the version that we presented in January and
then Capital request as well so again um similar to last year the rationale for the budget for tonight is really we're continuing the work that we started with our 5year strategic plan 22 to 27 where I've tried to each year not just present a onee look ahead but
try to look and estimate more than one year um we're now going to be in year four of that strategic plan so next year we might be starting the process of thinking about um planning for a new strategic plan after 2027 again that's year four of our
priority needs process as well um our transportation in tuition impact for FY 26 budget are still quite uncertain we talked last year about the significant increases we're seeing with transportation and tuition out of District so those are always uncertain and growing our Personnel increases with
our leval service budget or whatever budget we move for forward with and we are still experiencing challenges at the Town level so we are also trying to meet what the town is able to afford and all of this has been taken into consideration as we move forward so Dr Jordan presented the um
various districts that are part of our accept and Tech that the two collaboratives that we are part of so I'll let you just kind of look at that while we um last you and we presented this I believe we were the bottom of a perable cost we have moved up slightly but still we are very close to the bottom for how much we are spending per
pupil versus the district surrounding us what does the tuition and transportation increases mean um and then we we are talk about how circuit breaker impacts those tuition increases and transportation so each year we're looking at spending that money the
following year we um so we we put in our tuition and transportation and we get a partial reimbursement depending on year um most years would get tuition reimbursement up to 75% if it's fully funded we'll still wait to hear for this year whether it will be fully funded
Transportation um for FY 24 was at 44% and we carry over that money that we get reimbursed from FY 24 to the current year and then uh legislation and new guidance I just put some links into there so for chapter 71b section 5A and school Finance regulations if you had
questions about just circuit breaker and the impact on school budgets so some people are and many people probably not familiar with the term level Services means it truly is defined as taking the current Year's level of services and projecting that same level
of services forward one year the level service budget is necessary in order to maintain the current level of services at HPS just in simple terms the Personnel that we the number of personnel that we have currently this year the classes that we have this year now that doesn't mean it would be
identical because we always tweak based on needs of students but the number of classes that we offer the number of staff that we have and all of that expenses related to all of that is a level service budget so if you look at our budget for
FY 26 based on the um the things that David presented in our part one two and three and I did include there's a link there um in each slide there are some links as well this is what David presented for our three parts to that
budget so if you wanted to look back at that document you may do so so if you look at the costs that we're projecting um as David shared in the past the salaries that uh we're looking at estimating for next year based on our current level of Staffing
is that would be a 4.93% increase for next year other fixed costs which is technology and um other items David you want to just mention a few of the items that are in other fixed costs uh yeah that I mean that's that is where everything but payroll um and special
education costs are um so this is would be all of our curriculum instruction materials um uh utilities uh maintenance costs um are in incorporated into our our uh other fixed
costs so well that's 140,000 it doesn't seem significant it's a 2.62% increase to the overall um fixed cost that would be for FY 26 special ed costs um as you know we had significant increases unforeseen last year as did many
communities we looked at um the the 14% increase that was allowed at the state level did create some significant increases last year and the transportation costs were staggering um last year and if you recall the town did give us a one time 7 $50,000 um offset
to help us manage that which we greatly appreciated but and by looking at our out of District placements our tuition our transportation costs from this current year and last year we're we're really trying to do our best to bring that number down so most districts are
still looking at significant increases percentage wise in the in the upcoming budgets we are actually projecting right now A negative. 26% increase which I think is phenomenal and really reflects the work that our speci Education team and our student services administrators and director have done this year to try
to keep students in District and um also our staff that works on transportation to try to get lower prices and get locked in those prices so it when we presented in May there was a hope that we'd be able to um bring tuition costs down more depending on who we could
either keep in the district or return to the district if it's best interest of the students that number um was hopeful very optimistic but we we are pleased to see that we are trying to bring that number down to a negative number to offset um any deficits for FY 26 so the
final level Services budget for next year would be $44 m78 4,400 and that would be a 4.21% increase um for FY 26 to clarify one thing just if if
you're looking at um and I apologize the top is FY 25 appropriation that is minus the 750,000 um that would be just so you a comparison of for percentages I did um have Miss Bey
include some um slides because we did this last year as well I think the date is um last year's date at the top but she did update some of our um numbers for this year so as a reference you can see the number of students we had on IEPs for fy22 to FY
um 25 as of currently number of 504 students number of elll students and then out of District placement so if you can you can see I think the the biggest thing here is that our out of District numbers have gone down but when the numbers have gone down the individual
costs have increased so that's why even though um our numbers are going down which is great and we're keeping more kids in District the tuition increases have have been um more than expected over time were those move outs from the the town or brought back in
District sometimes it's coming back to the district or sometimes it's a student that has aged out as well okay just thinking about future years how to think through this yep and then she did put in some information as well for the sped budget increases some of that I've already talked about you know the
tuition and program restructuring increases um just the the complex students that we're seeing um and and those complex services that they need are coming at a higher cost increases to um she talks about the substantial increases in the gas all of those things
you know have transpired that even though we were hopeful to even bring the special ed cost down the fact that we're able to bring it down at all this year is is significant and then she did provide some other considerations and medications that you can uh look into as
well and Jess would be happy to speak to this further I know she'll be coming back to do a presentation later in the year as well I don't think this is in our folder you it's linked to the um docum okay but I I can pop it in the L pop in
separately okay let me just moving on all right so with that if you look at where we are with the town of Holliston and the school budget um as we have in the past the Town Administrator um soon the title hasn't specifically changed
yet has it changed official the laws passed but I don't know if it's official but Town Administrator SL manager um the current Town manager has a 3.25% increase as a placehold of HPS obviously all of this has to be voted on at down meeting this number isn't guarantee but
that is the number that he has modeled for us at this time that would lead to a 96% deficit um for the level Services budget to meet um the numbers that we shared with you already and that is a $414,500
deficit in that usually translates to positions because you can saw our other costs we're trying to keep down at a minimum so unfortunately that is um that would Impact Staffing if we had to go that rout it also that number that
significant number still doesn't include any of the priority needs that I'm going to present next so that all of these things were in our priority needs discussion when the principles joined us a few weeks back so I have them all listed here like like we did in the past Under The Arches so
under Arch one the cyber security we talked about would be for data privacy at a $10,000 cost the town is absorbing $4,000 it's something we're working on together and then Arch two um a RS dean of students was presented and I'm not going to go into all of the needs there
but um I know that principal Manning did share a document with you trying to share some of the reasons why and she talked about the night that we met that there really is just the change in students and the needs of our students that this is what she really feels would benefit our students the most and at the
high school they're looking for a um a tutor to offset some of the work that we've been trying to do with um the other tutor should be there as well you have thir up in Arch to oh yes it could have been under teaching and
learning but we put it in both right so the high school looking some for some of the changes and interventions that we're doing looking for $25,000 for an additional tutor at the high school the current nurse staffing ratios at the high school we have a full-time nurse and then we have a04 longterm sub nurse
which comes two days a week we really feel like we need continuity five days a week so we'd like to bring that up to 1.5 which would be to get us to 1.5 and staff it with the um we as a permanent position that would be about $37,000 additional and then under Arch three for
teaching and learning our principles at placentino Miller both talked about the significant inre increase in our multilingual Learners and the need for more elll teachers and both of them are recommending because we're not really meeting the number of hours in any way
shape or form we've we've presented in the past about the significant increase of students moving into the district so they would both want to add a05 to really try to get closer to compliance for the needs of our our elll population and then Miller um did
request because again um OT needs for our students occupational therapy we're seeing many more evaluations for our students at the Miller age level and so just to keep ahead with evaluations to add a point2 to the current point8 model we also have a part-time person that
does um that's a Koda that cannot do evaluations but can service students but they work under the license of the occupational therapist at Rams um we really want to increase our program offerings because we has created the basis program at the high school we've done it at Miller as
well and we see the same students moving up up to middle school and the same programmatical needs to keep our students again in District longterm we think it's more cost effective if we add that position at 75,000 we do need a way to support these students that are U
moving into the Rams U population and Ram's also talked about the need for tutor we're going to talk later about you know some of the things we talked about with math already in the last few weeks but as we create needs and changes to our math programs and
adding more um resource our whole new math program at all levels and trying to really meet the needs of all Learners to at least add one tutor about approximately 25,000 at rims would help us with the intervention model that we've already put in place that Carla as
our stem interventionist is working on during rims block we really need more staff to do that work and then we've talked for many years about the needs to try to enhance and grow our performing arts program at the high school with the limitations that we do have as we've talked about with the scheduling but
having A7 5 position at the high school for music has been challenging so to get 0. 25 and make it a full-time position so we don't have the turnover that we've seen would be ideal um and help us expand that program particularly if we do change the schedule and now have more students which I would hope would grow
the program and and require that need anyhow at approximately 15,000 and then Arch four this has been a need that we have talked about for many many years and we continue to Band-Aid um and come up with the best Solutions we can but we really wanted to
go back to the model of having full-time custodians at our buildings we currently have one full-time custodian at the Miller placentino Campus we use um a vendor for custodial services at our other buildings but we really feel like if we had our own full-time staff within
the budget we would be able to maximize the services that they were able to give us but it would cost us a little bit more initially to get those services in place so we does EO and I did uh the priority needs and costs are um in there as well the booklet that we presented last time but what does this mean those
level Services would to get all of these priority needs is about 446000 and then that is a total of 45,2 30,400 which makes our 4.21% level service projection go up to
5.25% which is clearly significant when we're modeling at the town that we might be able to manage at 3.25% so if approved but we didn't have this appropriated at the Town level this would result result in further reductions and that could be approximately six to 10 positions um
that I I certainly can't support um a reduction in staff of that of that nature however I do see that we still have priority needs that we need to really consider because we really do need to reach compliance for our students and we have a in my opinion a
moral obligation to service the students that are coming into our district especially as that number has increased and we're trying to manage with the same number of staff and clearly um more coming in and not adding more staff clearly has maxed out the system Beyond um the ability to give them what they
need and that's why I am still requesting that we consider adding the 05 elll teacher at placentino and a05 at Miller and then I do think um we again getting back to compliance and special education is that something that is compliance and a legal obligation as
well as a moral obligation to service our students I so I am requesting that we consider somehow coming up with a 75,000 for the special ed bridge program I said basis earlier I meant to say bridge I apologize for that and then um the math tutor again with all of the
changes to math to be able to provide more intervention support to our students and help support our staff with those interventions would I I would ideally I would like to see more than one but one minimally at Le at least for next year to start and the same at the high school again with all um potential
changes that are happening and try to increase rigor and supports for students adding that one tutor and the to total cost of those items that I'm hoping to somehow figure out a way to fund would be 199,000 which would get our number that I presented on the last slide down
to 4.68% but clearly still a significant number um to offset with a 3.25% model I did know on the bottom well I do think the nursing is certainly a need um because we're funding it as a long-term
sub currently um through Grant funded and money that we are able to get I would still manage somehow to do that at least for one more year as an LTS as a 0.5 however I would be coming back to you next year to try to get them to be a permanent position at the high
school David you want to talk about Capital requests uh yeah so um these are items that uh We've St discussed uh a little bit within our uh budget subcommittee meeting but um this is one as far as the
Rams and high school Wi-Fi upgrade um we're kind of this essential point this is also has a rebate associated with it um about a $33,000 rebate that's associated with it as well um The High School auditorium lighting um this has
been sitting on the request for a long period of time um we've worked to get down a quote that was above $200,000 to a quote that was to30 to an essential quote down to about 99 or estimate down to
$999,000 um the essential need is really the dimer panel uh that's on uh on there and it is um we're on borrow time with it uh and when that that fails that kind of fails um our entire um lighting system so I think we're kind of um at a
point while you know there are are things that are more it's always kind of bumping this down the road as far as the most essential item um it might be the time to kind of move in that direction um it was one of the questions as far as its association with our potential or a
potential high school project redoing the project uh this is a mobile um lighting system so if we were to move into a different um High School um we could transition this lighting system to to that space uh critical exterior doors
um this is uh I'm looking for the truly critical doors that uh need to be replaced across the district uh with the intention of applying to uh the msba which I'll talk about later down the road but um msba in a future year for uh
some identified uh exterior doors CU that is considered part of the uh accelerated repair program um our exterior doors and windows are included that as well um but this will allow us to kind of um get our critical doors there and finally um this is um this is
just kind of part of a conversation with the be the Rams roof part two uh that's worth um discussing here at the school committee and what you all decide to do um I think the intention of the town meeting uh this past fall that uh where
the uh 1.25 of the total 2.5 um cost was uh given to the district for the Rams roof to address the most critical area areas um and waiting for the M msba uh roof approval we did not get it uh this
past year but we're applying again this uh next uh this next year um I'm placing it here uh if it were give it if we did do um receive if we did go forward with it uh at a as a town Capital request
that would make us not eligible uh for the MS ba piece uh but it puts it at a lower total cost uh if we were to do the entirety of the work during the summer um but um that would take us out of the running if we were to put uh find out
for the fall um for the the other 1.25 that said it's just put it here just put that out there so that's information for you all to kind of consider um at the the cost savings that might be of putting the whole project together or not so before we take take questions I
do want to um remind people of the process a little bit obviously there's no um expectation that anyone would vote on these numbers tonight while it is um you know the town wants our numbers to make
determinations the earlier you vote on budgets and move forward in the year with needs unknown and uncertain as students enter or leave or you know things do change quite a bit in education in short amount of time so the later we are able to get through this
process and have um more known certain numbers for some of our costs associated and also um you know looking at retirements and all of the other things that do take place we are hearing of some more potential retirements that are taking place this year that are still um
in the works so again when we do get staff exiting and enjoying their next chapter of their lives we look at that as um a way to try to get some favorability which can offset some of these needs as well so again you know our goal is not to say that we're expecting you to vote numbers that we
talked about but however these are true needs if we do want to keep a level services staff that we have plus the needs that we talked about tonight but I I'm also realistic to know that we're you know we're that's not going to happen so we are going to keep crunching and meeting and as things as more
information comes in and the costs get tightened up as we go we'll come back to you with a hopefully a better scenario but regardless this it's not going to happen at 3.2 5% with those needs right now um but we hope to get closer to that number as we yeah our numbers get our numbers
are a little bit more accurate than they were um you know a month ago and will be more accurate uh a month from now and um as as Dr cus discuss as Dr Dr kusus indicated uh we do have news of a a couple more retirements so there's
favorability there but also it could be a month down the road and we find out something different that since the other direction is as well so it's um you know we just hopefully we can just kind of dial in uh each each month that goes by and then the other thing is when we did priority needs we did put um projected
enrollments for next year based on the students that are in our St our district right now moving up and as we talked about last year we are seeing some enrollment decreases specifically um right now at the lower campuses um and those students will continue to move through the system so we have to adjust
every year regardless of what the budget is at set we look at enrollment to see where needs are we shift staff as needed and um we also look at how many classrooms will'll need as a result of the enrollment in each grade level so that also could be an opportunity to um minimize this number as well right so so
just piggybacking on some of the things you said just so people understand that the the town has four levels of of the budget process um and the first is the department request the second is the uh Town Administrator not Town manager's recommended budget uh the third is the
select board recommended budget and then the final is the the finance committee's uh recommendation to town meeting for the first budget most departments use a either something that goes through the goes through the the uh department head or the board that oversees it for those
for those departments that have boards um but the schools have been given a little bit of special dispensation given that we have a significantly larger budget so we've been given a little bit extra time I think Department budgets were due end of January or something like that um but but because it it still
takes us longer um we've kind of come to the agreement that the superintendent's initial budget will sort of stand in for our level one budget and as we refine it through the process um that will sort of take over but the initial cut and what will be shown uh to to meeting to everyone as the level as
the initial um that's not unique to this year that's hist that's been the last since Travis was here basic will budget is the most variable and we did we did ask Dr Kusa to move uper presentation she had initially planned on on this being 2 weeks from from now uh but but
we Travis had asked for him by the 14th and so um thank you for accommodating that uh dve just one quick thing our numbers are always accurate we're just getting you know you know we're just getting to refine them the numbers we give you are accurate but as we get more information
we're able to get them as Town manager I mean um Travis has always put in like a matter a placeholder for our budget which is nice to have something to shoot for even if we disagree with it and want
it to be more like 4.5 as he paying attention um he's like yeah I don't think so but one I said like five billion times one thing I would like to just point out to the community if you go to page seven because I think this is important because we talked a lot about these these numbers uh during the
override process and um it's just coincidentally come out that the Gap right now is is is still about the same as where the Gap that we were talking came out during the override but the the reasons for it are are very different and we we discussed that that was a risk during the override so during uh when we
were presenting the numbers for the override and and I just I know uh Dr Jordan we working on the exact comparison so I'm not going to give specific numbers but the we were expecting a lot more quote unquote savings from from the special education cost because that is a net number um
with cost um with more we we had expected more pupils to be out and then uh than reimbursements to to offset them so we expected that to be a more negative net number but what we were seeing what we were expecting what we talked about during the override was some favorability in the other areas and
we've actually we have seen that it's just been that's been offset by um you know some some unfavorability in in in uh placements and and and in and and greater than expected cost increas
is still flowing through the way of cuz looking at this chart it looks like hey special that is actually the most favorable I think what what you're saying is the ones looking at the percent change those are not growing actually as fast as we expected them to they're below what we expect them to grow while the negative number isn't as
large a negative as we expected correct okay as we were hoping yep as we are hoping well I think planning budgeting well as as from a groundup basis looking I mean we weren't involved in it because we don't get involved in student level decisions but as the at the groundup
level I think that there you know there some things happened that we were not expecting and and then there were some like last year uh out of District placement cost you know had this the 14% increase that really sort of hit everybody there have been some
additional similar or larger size cost increases that flow through this year that were you know not um expected kind of using using Dan's words I think that the numbers that were count used to calculate may they were accurate at that point in time numbers that were used to
calculate accurate at this time and you go from a month or two from now we might be a different number more ACC accurate but accurate update yeah and part of the issue is that if we're looking at a child that's in a current program and we were modeling or expecting potentially
another 14% and some of those some of those actually even though the state was saying 14% is that high end of the number there were some um 24% some somewhere 35% 37% so that's not common knowledge and we didn't realize that we
thought the cap was the cap but then when people had unforeseen circumstances themselves they could then petition and have so those that that also threw that way last spring like like all districts prepped for that 14% increase um and
then this year despite the cap at the 14% um we saw some who received the waiver that we were hit pretty hard by that that went up as Dr Kusa said 33% 22% um that Jesse presented um in her
presentation yeah and you'll see because you can see the outo district numbers have dropped and that was and I have to say again kudos to our team that and that's again why it's so important as we build that basis program up and continue that model because that model has been effective keeping students in District
with their peers and that's why I think that's a really important position for our be help for the community because I look at this and I'm like uh salar not the most obviously just looking at the raw facts could we put in the percent change we expected at the beginning of the year
we're going to do a a comparison to what the the budget that we the projections that we presented if we were project it says 4.63 right 93 93 if we expected it to be 5.2 and it's lower than that that's we're favorable well the the 4.2
is approximately what we had projected for the override it's just the composition of those parts is is different yeah but it would be good right we voted on the salaries the town voted on the salaries and right now that is if I look at the increase of change
that's the culprit so what we look again that's level services so we look at we look at the current staff we have when we were budgeting last year going into this year we looked at the staff that we had in front of us at the end of the year and we move those salaries forward and that gives us a budget for this year
and then we take right now we look at the staff that we currently have in front of us we apply the steps the the estimate of steps and Lane chain well steps we know if there if it's the current staff Lane changes we have an an estimate on that because we already know a number of people have put in for Lane changes as well and then the cola is
applied as well so based on the Staffing that we have in front of us right now that is what it would cost um for the increase for next year again this is where I talked about favorability as things change in retirements again that number hopefully will be reduced based on those changes and we use that to
offset where we see you know not just retirements but you get um staff that may leave to go to a different dist district and then you either hire in a different staff member at a different rate or you end up consolidating or restructuring based off of like that
staff member leaving um I think sadly those details are extremely important because if you take a simplistic view next year's coal is 3% we're looking at 4.93 I know there's a lot of things in there but we need to spell that out I think so but it's it's a 3% but also
1,500 on top step not a 3% we spell that out though just so that it's clear cuz they myself included read percentages I'm like that's way off that's almost double of what 80% more than I expected it to be yeah cuz that's only the cola and then steps and lanes are baked into
but I think Community o is like instead of just posting this slide we need to explain that but just steps and Lan is generally about half a million dollars perfect put that in there right so we give context of where that number comes from different we can put a link
yeah okay so yes so this is uh the uh the budget subcommittee uh will continue to meet we we'll work on refining this over the next uh you know few weeks Don I don't remember we were planning on I think getting
this budget subcommittee recommended budget by mid-march early March mid March I think was mid March early March yeah so um so so more to
come on this but uh obviously work to be done any more questions do we usually vote on it before we have the public for on the budget I think we voted on it the the meeting before right and then we have the public hearing which has to be
the first week of April has to be posted for what is it 45 days um meeting what it is I'm not sure I'm not sure what the posting is but Weir ke just told me that it was a here we have the um in the I'll look at it after we
have the meeting schedules and it's I have the date in there somewhere yeah so if you have it in there but we should be fine the well not that our budget will be fine be prepared to vote on it I guess
um thank you and okay we've got a few policies oh we really don't we have one resending resending this is good I know right we're we're doging this stuff stop don't um we were doging nothing okay um
so we have one uh revision that I wanted to discuss which is the immunization of students and um the three other ones are resend to resend policies that our nurse manager is recommending that we resend because they're a either covered
elsewhere or they are no longer they are no longer in the policy manual they're not not in MC's um guidance policy anymore so they're obsolete essentially so we're just trying to like clear those out and they are usually covered under something else for example um the one on HIV is covered under communicable
diseases so it's not you know it's not own separate entity and the issues around overdosing and opioids they discuss in uh um JL jlcc which is sorry jcd which is about um medications so anyway um so we
have the revision of JCB and I'm just going to read the changes uh which are in red um no student shall attend a hollison public school preschool
elementary school or secondary school program without a a licensed um Health Care Providers cert certificate attesting to immunization against communicable diseases in accordance with current Massachusetts Department of Public Health uh
mdph required immunization schedules the only exception to these requirements will be made on written receipt by a licensed health care provider that immunization would not be in the best interest of the student or by the students's parent Guardian I don't have to say the rest of it um religious
beliefs okay and then below um just a minor change from saying no child we said to no student um we also substitute back in it used to say like doctor and now they say licensed healthare provider
um same uh in accordance with current mdph required amus schedule uh let's see student has been um put in for child it's really all that's really changed that's not pretty
non-substantial other than that um if the district physician in charge of school health program does not agree with the opinion of the students licensed health care provider the matter will be referred to MB MP sorry mdph
whose discussion will be final okay and the last is such writing shall be submitted at the beginning of each school year to the students school nurse does anybody have any questions
about this nope okay again Brenda Barton reviewed this over with Dr zlat and her team okay um so would you like a motion to approve the revision please so I will uh entertain a motion to approve the
revision to JCB immunization of students so move second okay Frank yes Hillary yes Joe yes Sarah yes Cynthia yes Don yes and I
yes okay thanks and then um the others are resend to resend I guess we have to resend each one separately okay do you have questions about the resending of do we no longer have any allergies we do not okay good
and um like I said jlc is now covered under um medication where there's a mention of um that the nurse has to keep um Noone is that right say that right Naran Nar um and then the
jlca GB C G whatever HIV is rescinded because it's now covered under communicable diseases we treat everything anything bloodborne is all covered under that doesn't have to have its own separate so okay so we have to reive them separately I think any
question questions about uh sending these three and we'll do three different votes I guess just yeah just to be clear cover yeah is there anything did you want to add something no it wasn't specific to that so apologize no no no worries um okay so I
will entertain a motions to resend JTA life-threatening allergies second Frank yes Hillary yes Joe yes Sarah yes Cynthia yes Don yes and I'm a yes
uh CH a motion now to resend [Music] jlc school nurse management potential life-threatening opio overdose second Frank yes Hillary yes Joe Sarah yes Cynthia yes
Don yes and I'm a yes um finally uh understand a motion to uh resend jlca Dash or it's a dash DH GB g c a h i i don't make them I don't know
WXYZ Joe Hillary what Joe was slow on that one who who who made the motion Hillary okay who seconded it second okay Frank yes Hillary yes Joe yes Sarah yes Cynthia
yes Don yes and I'm a yes as well all right um so that brings us through PA and I just realized um and I apologize uh Mr list is is waiting waiting here so why don't we why don't we take him him and we should we should have this I
apologize but we I looked up when I started talking you know I usually think of that I didn't I I I was looking right at like I should have just stopped talking would you please come I I'm not going to ask you if you'd like to but would you please come up to the uh to
the uh to to the uh Gallows and um oh boy while he's getting settled um 43 is the public hearing April 3rd and I so we'll just triple check I 45 days sounds long but I you know what that that's not
my expertise I'll have to think I always leave R it up to so I'll leave it up to David to check all right well thank you for for for for joining us oh place to be on Thursday night it's the only place to be on a Thursday
night unless there's a you know an important game going on or something all right so uh you are here to um present to us our requested uh feasibility work um on a potential AB
schedule thank you so um just wanted to share a a short presentation um we can go to the second slide I don't know is it up there uh so this is just the request um that was made um was about um allow uh would
this schedule be able to allow classes to run for um our current schedule be able to have classes run year long um and uh you may recall that um I presented uh last year um uh similar
similarly um uh to a schedule uh like this um um and uh what you can see in slide three um is what that looks like for the Times um the reason the times are different from our current times now
is because this is the um additional uh 15 minutes added um what you will see in this is in order to make it even it's an actually additional 16 it's 16 minutes added uh in a time uh minute taken from uh passing of another period um but
otherwise when you look at the schedules you see the current schedule and then the ab Day schedule um and they both uh align uh with times it just has the 1 two 3 4 and the bday
5678 um we currently if you go to slide four we currently have um a rotating schedule uh that means that uh our first day is a right now our second day is B third day is C so you would see that up there is days one A1 A2 A3 and A4 and as
you can see for the B days so it basically just uh takes um the second half your classes and puts them every other um in order to give you a a
visual of what this looks like um in a schedule because I know like this rainbow of colors are are very confusing there uh what you would see in the next slide um is a purple though [Laughter]
uh is is a sample schedule um again the sample schedule here could there's lots of different iterations every student has a different schedule um but I just wanted to give you some some schedules just to have an understanding of what this looks like um you know currently
our students do a day in the first half of the year that's why it says terms one and two or semester 1 and currently bday would be semester 2 but in this schedule uh they run every other day um so in this schedule here you have English uh like the first days English Science
World Language and elective and then your next day would be math social studies uh PE and then another elective but again there's so many iterations of that um if you go to the next schedule um this uh shows um I guess
what you would say is is basically um could be constituted as uh basically like a freshman or S sophomore schedule that has math meeting every day um and so what you'll see here is this this is a
um iteration of our schedule that is it is the exact same as our schedule um so the students in that math class take math every day instead of every other day so I know it's kind of confusing but
um that's how it's it's an iteration of our our our current schedule um and as you can see as the school committee asked the the classes run uh uh Is it feasible to run year long and so you'll see there uh the feasibility of UC science um in both terms that's lets you
know that's how you know that it's running all year so to answer that question about that feasibility of year long um when you see it both places and if you go to the next slide this is how uh AP looks in our current schedule um
and the what you'll see here um our AP classes right now run uh sorry the which one uh sorry yeah I was on my wrong one on my slide there um the uh current schedule RP runs three terms so that has to fit within the year long so again if
you think about it term one day one you're seeing your AP science well that extra term that it has fits on that bday so for one semester you have science every day and
then the second semester you have science one day um and so that's it is an exact replica um of our current schedule just with if you were to splice it up and put the other classes in you would have the ab day so uh I guess to
answer the question Is it feasible yes you can take our schedule and and run the classes year long and those AP when you say AP sign or AP math the same M it's not they're taking by on count
separately yeah so you would a AP science class that one yeah that's an AP science class as I said every every schedule is different so like if you had a kid who was I mean most kids don't but if you're taking like AP Bio and AP cem and the same that's you could do that
the same way that you do now um this is just a pretty much like a a balanced schedule um but the minutes are exactly um the same as you would get now if you had curriculum so we're adding I
mean there's a full year so classes be happening at a similar time at the same time how are you going to balance curriculum so things like books how do you balance that out I mean I know we're investing more that's part of the terms but yeah I mean you have to invest more I mean that's that's the reality of iner
but how would it we'd have to buy double the books for everything that's not necessarily I mean we we have to you know you have to take a look at the inventory of everything um in some cas with books uh depending on the class you you know if it's it's like a uh Ana
class then you can say you know a teacher's reading this book and then another teacher's reading another book but there are situations where um like we said before in like a science class where you would need to buy additional either licenses for online or or books I
mean that's that's that's a um and and we know that from uh any of the schedules that we put forward that is going to be reality um of of any any new schedule that's running year long you have to make that
adjustment and it as you mentioned I was not here last year but this was shared a year ago so this was something that was communicated like this has been out there it's not a brand new yeah this was yes this was asked about yeah last
year so elective one of your electives could be you're taking chorus or banded and that could be elective so won't be taking up DB time uh correct that's the benefit I guess or the feasibility of it yeah I mean that yeah I tried in um the
six slide where it says like a sample schedule with support yeah um you can see that elective one that it's again these are the idea that classes can run year long right um so I just wanted to show um what that what that under this model it's feasible to move Coors and
band in into a regular period yeah that's what I'm asking and on the schedule with the aps just so that I'm clear that the AP science that's the same science course it's not too separate it's like a it
would be if we said bio bio yeah it would say AP Bio AP Bio a day and it's also on bday for the first semester yeah because they have right now they're doing them three terms and that because they have labs and different things so this is the way to get the three terms
in so you'd be doing two blocks the first half of the year and one block that's actually good I know it's just easier to look at it when it's like an actual class you have in order to yeah I me that's I guess important brought up even
though it's not as long as three terms you're getting the same time because you're doing double the classes in that yeah in that yeah in that first got it so I just want to be be clear for the community though um while this is something that we're considering tonight
and we've got now the feasibility report this is separate and so any sort of terms from the work of the subcommittee the sub committee continues to still meet for the mo MOA they consider cons continue to discuss schedules um
but you know we we need to to look at potentially alternative paths given the issues that have have come up through there I guess it's also related to that important for the community to know like schedules need be created I believe in like started in March
right they register for register for class so we need know what classes are going to be made available and when they're going to be right it's time sens yeah and this is feasible with current Staffing levels correct we wouldn't have to make any
changes yeah I mean that's yeah I mean it's it's as I said before it's a splice of our schedule and then every other day it's really taking the current schedule and make it that's yeah I think it's important for the community the student specifically
putting the studentes on this going from four to eight classes the way I look at this and how it's being built out is I do a class today I would have to cram that material in where now I have all year so even though I'm taking eight classes and eight different pieces of material essentially it shouldn't be as
I'll say rigorous or in depth like how how does that work for I just want to think from the student lens here it's so one of the hard parts of scheduling across the board is there's no perfect answer to any question right I mean depends what class right it depends what classes you
take um it depends the the the workload of those classes um the reality of the schedule and I said I shared this publicly last year is there are there are the the classes are running they are spread out and there are eight of them so um de is now there's four so that's
that is a that's a reality of the schedule okay I'm good well well I appreciate you you putting this together I know um it was at our our request um so we'll we'll we'll take it from
here I guess and uh for for my own knowledge what has so after was presented last year what was the outcome of that like what that present was a little bit different that was an informational piece that was um so I came to uh we had started a scheduling
process um and it was asked of me just to present something that that existed that again it was kind of the same idea like that is like is there anything that exists that is our current schedule that not that nothing really changes um
sort of swap in for one for one but addresses some of the challenges we have with the card yeah yeah so that was what was asked to me last year and so as a part of my updates on our schedule process and looking at schedules that was presented um right around the same
time last year so we just I mean we were still in in bargaining the schedule the high school schedule has been for a long time but you know at that point really after the neas report and after the equity audit uh the issues with it had really risen to another level and so
um we asked for sort of a presentation on on some of the things to look at subsequent to that we are we reached an agreement and sort of that scheduled subcommittee kind of took over for um the that part of the process um I'm
actually done now okay all right well thank you all right thank you thank you Mr thank you so much if you guys want the presentation from last year I can I can share it with
you that would be it's in the folder oh y like I just pulled it out of my other folder well then never mind um all right so what would we like to do with this
tonight I don't I don't think we're prep I mean I'm not prepared to vote on something right now and I think that we need to take some time to hear from folks and the last yeah review over and um you know see what might percolate in the meantime with the subcommittee
that's still working on schedules I'm hoping um they are still meeting yeah that's good glad they're still meeting I guess the question I'll have there is if something comes up Ian 27's coming up March is coming up at what I mean we don't know what we don't know but if something comes up how are we going to
address there's potentially new if we don't vote tonight I think that we would need to make a decision by the but on the you know by the 27th okay so they have between now and then and we have to review that I just don't want to catch the community off guard right there's
that perception and feedback we've been getting I just want to make sure we're thinking through this a lot yeah you're right I mean I think that we definitely don't want to catch the community off guard so um if if there if we don't want to vote
tonight I think that that makes a lot of sense okay um I think that uh we should encourage feedback and and sort of talk to people the next couple weeks and real break is one of those weeks but um it's not you know ideal but not everybody's traveling to South
Carolina I'm just saying is that really like that like if you're thinking of like a the Exotic place I am also in favor of waiting to vote we just heard the presentation tonight I think we need a little bit time to reflect
and okay any any else on okay by what date in March do students choose their classes I have I I don't know the exact I think I mean I think
first he's gone gone I mean I think the issue is that we haven't presented to our incoming eighth grade students so it's you know we're we're on borrowed time way I know that
all well having a rising freshman um put a pin in it I don't know a pen but you know like a well something something y it's kind of like th T it's going to come back P little piece of painters
tape okay um we move on to uh the central office uh update um just a couple quick things uh I I have um my teacher meetings and taking place there some teacher meetings I had reached out to staff as I try to
do each year and I've had some really nice meetings today and this week and after vacation as well which I really enjoy getting the opportunity to meet with departments or individuals um something new that principal list would have heard if he was still here I had um
one of my thoughts is I really want to I try to get into classrooms and it's I've never as successful as I would like to be I I keep I need to get into the more often um I'm in buildings more but I'm always not always getting to classes when I meet with principes our time seems to run out before we get to
classes together so that's something that I still work on um regularly but I am going to um be reaching out to principles I did talk to Dr slany today that I'm going to be doing principal for the day that I will be the Principal in each building and and and be there and
I'm going to try something new and probably they would end up working remotely that day on school business um and I will be the acting principal so it'll be my next strategy to visit with students I'll probably reach out and see what works best for them so miss kenon
might see me um visiting that day as well whatever day I come up with I'll send some kids the off thank you and then tomorrow I just want to mention that I do have my high school Round Table which happens to fall on Valentine's Day we'll see if students come I don't know if that will um change
anything by it being on Valentine's Day or not but I'm hoping I see some friendly faces there tomorrow and let me see there's anything else I think oh I I will have for the next agenda to the maintenance contract will be on the February 27th um agenda and then I know
that there was um some somebody had questioned me about where we are with our Hollis Coalition against hate and bias so I've had some smaller subcommittee meetings two of them with a smaller um member of that group about five of us have been working on an alack so we're going to be meeting on February
26th I believe and um one of the things that I'm working on with Mr vene is transitioning him to now that he's not doing as much intensive work on the equity steering committee which was a challenge last year for him to try to do both so but he is going to try to take over more of the
hchb work as well going into next year but we are having our next meeting and I'll be working with that team to come up with hopefully a flyer for a community event and we'll be rolling that out so after that meeting I'll have another update hopefully be marketing um
a larger Community form from that group okay Dr Mard uh the only thing I have to report I have been busy getting the information you ask me at the budget subcommittee about interventions um I have some I will have it completely for ready for you the next school committee
meeting okay great Jordan uh myself Dr Kusa and uh Mrs Alfred um attended Travis's or Mr Hearns um uh kind of going away party uh earlier this week uh it was nice to kind
of uh see him see him off uh they had some nice food Arrangement and good conversation with folks but um whether whether we'll have the opportunity at this the next school committee but I just wish him well uh in his his next steps he should join us for the next one
I'm sure Heely night in h you get him an invite though yeah I will okay yeah um okay so moving on to the reports uh from our subcommittees uh Communications yep so
um we had talked we met on Tuesday was that Tuesday um we were thinking of trying to set up some office hour dates okay and times yes so we need to do we can do office hours anytime but we we usually do them
around the budget but we could also do them earlier too if um around until March anyway yeah I'm just saying we have vacation and we can't really you know it's going to be like the first week of March anyway right yeah do you want to talk about dates T I
mean do you have dates planning planning office ours is one thing that we can do uh outside of meeting you can schedule things so um maybe could you put quick or something do sure I'll send we thought about other different ideas
though I mean I'm all for setup officer but we still have to right how those went and then I'm more than H more than happy to sit there um but I feel like we're doing that in the community is not engaging so you again kind of thinking
for what are better ways they just not into us um you have some thoughts Frank I thre the question out there thanks thanks like you guys Talk Amongst yourselves no but we we should all think about other ways and and not that I think we should do for the budget
obviously with the start times done now and and high school schedule like we have a lot of topics to talk about but MH are there better ways suggestion box suggestion box yes great there's this expression you
can water but you can't make them drink go visit houses if they invite us like that I'm not doing that um you could we you could do office hours at at the senior center if you'd like sorry the center I work there um which is a nice
idea because budget yeah for Budget yeah we did do one last we did yeah yeah I did the candidates last year too which is I thought was well attended so that is there is there a general time frame that people would like well we're only
open four so no no I'm just I'm just saying in general for when to probably between the first or second week of March yeah well except that we're not going to present our budget until the middle of March or so you want to do it after yeah but then we're still just
getting feedback on it well we can do some before and some after you know so like how many do you think I we 11 during the over I don't think we need that many we don't need that many two or three we did like three typically do like three unless Frank wants to do more
cuz I'm I'm there he's just going to knock on doors yeah he's oh you're going to knock on doors Joe and I okay joing you now Jo okay okay perfect let me know how that goes all right I'll send do other other venues I like the center yeah come
to the center I I realized I totally forgot when we were office office hours what's up oh newsletter no well but I know I forgot that when we were discussing the uh the high school schedule that we have a communication to go over to send out
tomorrow to the community to discuss oh the um well let's then it should be like this big like this is something we're presenting here it is here's the link I know I'm just but it's a little verose is what I'm saying okay well we
we can talk about cutting it down but I you need a little bit more color than than than just you don't color just quick easy short Short's better and is this coming from you or the committee well the idea of discussing it now would
be so that it would from the committee yeah would what's not in the on the agenda is it it's in the folder okay I going to go back closed out of it the one that says draft email mhm
okay draft schedule email okay you should all have uh edit access what I what I did was take some of the um pros and cons from the presentation that Mr list had done last
year and put them on here and do we have um can we link his presentation onto this um we're going to include the presentation that he just gave yes yeah yeah that's what I mean
yep well we conclude last year's too if that's helpful I don't know if it's just kind of dated and redundant never mind y it's beyond the scope of what we're let's B on for
[Music] um I think yep not only is it just pass the deadline but it pass the deadline to feasibly Implement due to that's that's more mood though um because in in the
Moa we have April 1 the third bullet is a little confusing the math courses semester long full year um right so I think that's discussing the fact that so one of the one of the issues with a lot of the
schedules was that if you the way that the block schedule works now you can take a whole course at the begin you know the first semester then take the fall you know course that builds on for the second semester um that's more difficult obviously if you're if you're running full year
courses and so there was there's there was the potential for some so the the AB implementation of our current schedule sort of allows some flexibility so that you're actually math doesn't really change okay so if there's a
better way of saying that I'm you know the semester long full year makes it sounds like it's it should be one or the other I mean semester long and full year versus semester year we just take out semester long just take just have it be full year mhm yeah I think it's
confusing wouldn't all classes be full year yes it's it's example where right now like freshman year they would have Algebra 1 part one for half a year and then algebra one part two so it's really two years of math so they'd still have
the they still have to double up math by taking oh is that why his schedule they had yes so they'd have it every day if it was going to because you would take it like PE is only one term so in the this next iteration it would be one two
one semester yeah so two two terms two terms I think better way of saying that than is both days full year Al like both AB Days full versus semester Alone full year daily full year daily full year there we go right is
that better cleaner way to say it versus alternating yeah I think people are not going to really understand any I know it's going to be hard it's hard to describe it I mean I just think semester went full years daily for for the full year or allows for the for for for the
math uh uh for math progression to remain consistent with current but it is no it's it's it's staying the same you're right staying the same or would you know it could they can take math every day for the
full year yeah like they do they can know yeah yours sounds better is it every day for the semester for the year it depends on which the math course is like for example like I mentioned the algebra one part one and part two that's really two years of math so if they're going to
take math they would be taking two semester long courses right you wouldn't have to take the second semester you could you would just take it so you'd take math every day for the full year which would be the makeup so algebra one in freshman year would be all year long instead of part one and part two it' be every day all
year y you're not taking two Mathes at one time over the course of the whole year and said you just take them every day all year that's what you're pretty much doing already you are doing that already I did appre though uh Mr List's
response to AP cuz that was a concern last time and makes a lot more sense the same classroom time just shorter because the way we're doing it so some math classes you'll still take every day throughout the I mean one of the things
I I didn't include in there but just something I've been you know has been something we've talked about a lot is if you get the flu and you miss a week of school right now you are missing like 116 however however many weeks or in a semester you're missing a
huge uh amount of class time whereas if you're you know go to a schedule it's year long you miss half of that yeah for each class but I guess across more classes so it's across more classes but then you have more time to catch up for with it um because I think that you know
some of the things that you know this is this is not doubling the the workload it is you know you're taking core you four or five core classes and then you have electives um you have other opportunities to get Services
I mean this is this is you know it is it it is more CES but again you're meeting every other day I think the appreciation too of you're not condensing all you're not getting in getting out and forgetting it like there's more time I would feel I feel like there would be
more time to there's more time for for for the learning to happen and sink in right yeah cuz if I skip it there has to be some sort of recap for at least a piece of that like cuz you've skipped potentially a year Well Cent modrow you could you could take French first semester of a freshman year and then not
again until second semester of sophomore year exactly and by then I don't remember much so I don't remember yesterday but okay well the reason you're not in school many reasons
um so right and and I think there is there is research out says you know if you break up the learning a bit it allows for for the learning to to to sink in more so you know I guess you know while seeing a teacher every day um for for a semester might might make
sense I mean see having that same teacher for the entire year also allows for for those relationships and those you know those um that that to to um I don't know if you need to say vote we chose not to take a vote last night
or was potential change think we can just say we want to take the next two weeks hear from the community okay a lot to think about it is um but you know again I think that well we have a lot to think about it this is not obviously the sort of in
my mind anyway the the ideal solution but at the same time we have identified so many significant concerns for so many I mean there are you know is a huge percentage of kids that are either on IPS or doing abandoned cours that are missing out on
a lot of different opportunities and you know again we have had this scheduled for 25 plus years you most districts that went to the block schedule have moved away from it or or significantly modified it to be a much different sort of of
implementation um we are behind and our students are hurting for it and yeah I think it would be important to me like if this were to go through measure any impact I mean we're hoping to see positive impact right I mean generally the idea of making
decisions and changes is to see positive impact yes I know D we we should measure that data dashboard yeah all right well at least it's under a page so that's something you're welcome
thank you all right any uh any more changes all right so I will entertain a motion to approve this communication to the oh the is there anything we want to is there any other stuff we want to include with it I just no
just no we we just i' been talking with Sarah earlier about just some other things that we' wanted to sort of send out in a kind of a newsletter but yeah I think at this time don't together just keep this keep itle that's fine yeah yeah that's okay okay okay
so I don't want to no it's not and then we can consider a newsletter for the next time yeah okay so I will entertain a motion to approve the this communication being sent out to the community tomorrow or in hopefully tomorrow move by Dawn second all right
Frank yes Hillary yes Joe yes Sarah yes Cynthia yes and uh Don yes and I am yes okay we will get that out thank you um and then please you know for for people in the community we all add in
there just to to to bee just to make you know communicate with the sent us emails uh you know put our emails in there we're going to she's I know I was anticipating doing that um but please do you know let let us know what you think I think that the
is there was a survey done but I think there was limited information that we were able to provide to the community about the the the others it's it's scheduling as I have learned is is not simple so so um and there's a lot of misinformation out there too so okay and we're going to make sure that the link
of the report is in here right cuz it's not highlighted right now yes okay yes is it going to be linked or is it going to be a separate item with the letter I'm going to I'm going to send it to to Mr McLoud and how he chooses is best to send it out will be okay you know
probably link it okay I just miss things that have been linked in and there's like a double link and then people are like I didn't see it okay that's all thank you um fluffy are we talking
about the calendar now no we policy any updates I just did did oh I asked to meet for subcommittee oh yeah yeah um well I just sent out a request to hold them you know for a meeting on Tuesday the 25th but I don't know if it's fible
yet okay um budget you're muted Don had a meeting on Monday February 10th uh and that is when we went over uh the part one part two part three of the budget and the superintendent's uh proposed budget we
will meet again in advance of our February uh 27th next meeting okay uh subel our next meeting is is February
26th uh at central office at 4:30 okay um moving on uh we will move to the uh the middle school math discussion I think there's something in your folders about that yes I just um
put an information sheet in there um for you um and there's a link just to just some current research that could been brought to my attention just for another a whole country that's looking to rethink how they're doing math as well if you look at the left side of the
document it has the e8th grade current year what we're doing is we do um the regular level is math 8 with all of the current grade8 math standards and then the accelerated class has math 8
standards and then up most of but missing four of the algebra 1 standards that are taught in Algebra 1 so what we would propose for next year is as we talked about at the last meeting I believe a couple meetings ago maybe it was now is making to try to get
more students um being exposed to algebra taking what we currently do in the accelerated class and having that be the uh regular math 8/ algebra class which is the same standards that you see on the right of of the 2425 year would
now be for the general level and then the full algebra one would be adding those four standards the concerns with that are really around the students that had covered in this in the current model the current grade8
accelerated group would have had grade eight standards which is tested on mcast but also that they need for other learning later and they'll ALS they also had a lot of the alra one standards that means the students that are in grade seven now when they go into
grade eight if they're in the accelerated Algebra 1 they will not have the ability to get the math 8 standards there's going to be a gap there there's no way to make that up when you you know because those standards just would go away with algebra 1 we have some ideas that we've talked about about maybe
trying to do some potential enrichment opportunities again with this math tutor idea that um right now Ram's block has a lot um in the in the schedule and it's a short block but that's when we do some interventions so potentially we could do some enrichment offerings there so
students could take and get some of the math eight standards at they wouldn't be getting um in grade seven right now going into grade eight and then potentially offering some after school opportunities for math en Richmond to get the math a standards that they have missed as well there's also the part of the work we talked about would be that
um we're going to be having a a math study group at the high school and working with teachers there to see as we've talked about trying to shift some of the grade eight standards down to grade seven and some of the seven down to six we'll still continue that work with teachers um either this between this spring and going into the summer
and it's challenging I mean you know anytime you try to make adjustments like that it's a lot of work and we want our teachers input on that but then I know that part of what the Middle School teachers have talked about is trying to get that full alra one in already knowing that there's gaps because they won't have the math 8 standards um going
in to grade 8 they would also want to see if High School could absorb some of the algebra one standards as we go into um algebra for the algebra 2 the following year cuz we we would expect that anyone that's taking Al one getting
not maybe the full because we still have to work through this but they'd be getting as close to a full alra one in grade 8 would be able to go into geometry in freshman year but then we'd still have potentially um some standards that you know as we transition it doesn't happen overnight it's not a
one-year fix to try to move this model forward when they when we do Algebra 2 when students have a gap because they do algebra one they do geometry and they do algebra two they generally have some you know review in Algebra 2 of the for one standards is that a point to work on
those things or is that more just supposed to be just review so that's something we've um talked about with the middle school and we haven't had a chance to talk with the high school yet but part of what I think it was in our um presentation when we talked about the math study group about really trying to do beginning of the year assessments as
well to determine what do we actually need to review are we doing too much review do all stents need that review so really being strategic about Di spping and assessing at the beginning the end that would not be a great assessment it would be a determination of what the true needs are and then figuring out if
there's gaps to fill there um as I enter both 8th grade but then also into the high school classes so we want to work on that with all teachers and have them build what works best for them also with the uml part of having that that's one of the reason we purchased that program because that also will help identify
standards that students are missing and that's where um for students that are in the general level that have standards that are missing or gaps coming in from sevens regardless that's where the intervention model works and helps the teachers and teas out and Carla with her work and hopefully another tutor for
next year can specifically Target in mtss interventions this the missing standards there but then for students and the accelerated we want to make sure we help help fill their gaps because this isn't their fault that they didn't get exposed to that have we thought about two and I may be completely out of
line here if you're going from seventh grade into Algebra 1 so you're missing that red dark red right bright red over like I remember when I had I did that there was summer material like hey catch up on this like these are things to be honest you're going to miss so you need
to do it as a pre-work almost um again it's hard to force and and do but making that material exposed to them if I'm a student going in Algebra 1 I Pro I have a higher aptitude and thus you know I there might be more expected of you sure
I'd love to say yes but again that gets back to some of the equity issues we've seen you know there's some students that have to work all summer and or Babys sit there you know I mean there different well to be fair in seventh grade you can't really work but we go there you do have other duties make a baby yes absolutely um but
I'm helping with siblings all those things or just there way for the summer so yes we could certainly offer summer expectations and hope that they're doing that um it just go as we're trying to open doors and not closed doors it still creates inequities if you can't expect them all to do it I mean you know there
no easy solutions how do we do this before I'm I'm curious about so for the proposed 25 26 year basically math 8 is all of what is included in our
current accelerated course MH and are do we feel confident that we're going to be able to teach that to well this is the work that we haven't had a chance to work with the teachers on yet I mean this is what we're suggesting it feels
like I'm why we haven't done the work though yet because we voted last March so we Y and we work Jo had scheduled numerous hours with teachers and they started proposing shifting some of the standards and what they thought that they could do we're hearing now when we
met with um all of the teachers that they weren't able to necessarily accomplish what they had hoped to accomplish through no fault of their own so if I'm reading this right um the proposal for next year is that the um path for all students is math 8/ algebra
which is the current accelerated and then when they get to ninth grade that's that Algebra 1 column for all students is that right they well the or eth grade the that's eth grade this is still eighth grade so the green side is what we're proposing yes cuz we currently have two so
we're it feels like you've just ramped every too accelerated M yeah okay I see actually that's a good point we're ramping everyone up is the approach so is it so so the standards that were Miss that would be missed by
the eighth graders next year that went into Algebra 1 I just and I apologize if that was something that maybe I just didn't understand is that something that is going to be a recurring thing that they would always the algebra one students the following year the the the
existing sixth graders would also miss those standards well I think that's what we're hoping to account for because really no matter how you slice this you're looking to do four years of math in three years right okay but we but but prior to to to your coming to districts my understanding is
that in 2019 we we did have a full year of algebra one they had three levels in eighth grade at that point okay but so were they still hitting all the standards though and how were they able to do that then if you're saying it's not I know they were doing necessarily a
full algebra at that time okay even in our current schedule math and accelerator volume each of these is not covered in units it's not like one day you're taking a unit and it's like could we worth of
work and then trying to split them up so it may look kind of I'm trying I'm trying to see if there's anything Miss is there anything missing from math 8 that if you're an Accel in the blue and so prior to correct me if I'm wrong prior to the
before my arrival the algebra one that was in eth grade they weren't getting all of the math standards and that's why that was one of the reasons that we were trying to get some equity on that as well if iall that discussion the they got the eighth grade standards in
seventh grade and then they did the and then they did the so then when they were in e8th grade they didn't revisit the uh math 8 standards they took algebra took ALB so and did David Jordan I think you just explained it but isn't that the
model that desie has right now for how to implement a full Algebra 1 in eth grade is to in seventh grade cover seventh grade standards plus math 8 standards so that you can in fact do all of Algebra 1 I guess I I don't um I'm
really concerned about moving to a different model where we're not teaching all of the standards right um when we know there's a model out there the Desi model that allows you to cover all of them yeah I can't speak to I can speak
to kind of like what we were aiming to do uh back in 2020 and 2019 um as far as those standards and the way that those were mapped out um des's provided uh a model um and then
there are models that like NM public and some of the other uh districts have utilized as well this is where when we were back in 2019 and started this the really 2017 and started this process um we were moving standards across all
three grades um and so that um everyone had the leaving seventh grade had the opportunity to potentially take um an algebra course in 8th grade not that all kids would take an algebra course in 8th
grade but they had have the opportunity and what the the focus of that was to um was to delay the kind of barrier um that's kind of created like too early by the level uh but not um not necessarily deny
algebra for for 8th grade um so that they could move into the same pathway they would at the high school um after 8th grade and I just want to go back to why all of this work happened is because we received an Equity audit that really had add indicated that this was concerning
then we had an equity steering committee and we put together the mass study group as a result um of you know the recommendations that we had and we there are other districts and um I don't think I have the list tonight but we could get the list of some of the districts that have deleveled completely so we did
explain why the committee recommended um the math study group recommended deleveling looking at the data in front of us the team approach and it it is tracking students and um when you have teams and levels it the tracking pretty much tracks them all day and then
although we would like to say we can open more barriers and open more doors to allow children to enter if they haven't had the content exposure even if they have the ability they're still going to fall behind and it makes them entering that next level nearly impossible no matter what system we put in place again we we heard the concern
that there was no interest in deleveling I understand that but in order to do um make the these changes and and minimize adding levels to scho school I mean that that was a detriment when you undid the teams is what I think would
happened what year Mr Jordan you remember when the teams were the teams were taken away and then re added specifically in 8th grade um due to um the number of students that we had and then kind of the the variation of
students and their needs across the district we we D teed in in e8th grade for a couple years we were going to count for that and that was I mean I can look up specific I want to say that was 178 2017 and
2018 you feel like the changes were for the equity audit I'm sorry I feel like some of these changes yeah no the changes happened in 2019 is when it was um the process started you started
addressing in 2017 yeah I mean I think the didn't the changes start after 2020 I think it was in the fall of 2019 you you held [Music] um like you you brought parents in and told them that the changes would be
implemented the following year yeah so we prior to and I can speak a little bit to the history prior to co I me start the the conversations the meetings both with families and with the high school school and with folks started in about
2017 um the those initial conversations with the high school started with Jenna Galster who was the department head at that point in time um and then they it wasn't until um 2019 after that long
process that um that you know it was presented as far as making that transition in 2020 the 2020 2021 school year um obviously March of 2020 um hit and um that's where we ended up but we
had not made a transition yet at that point right we had two levels in seventh grade in this school year of 1920 correct um and three levels in eighth grade in the school year of 1920 correct okay so so I again I guess
I would like more information on um you know the fact that the vote was last March so we've had um almost a year and it sounds like the teachers have tried to work in these additional standards um
but as you said Dr Kusa no fault of their own um I'd like more information on that because I'm really concerned with going continuing to go with a model that is is not des's model right I mean I think there's probably a reason why desie has a model with leveling in
seventh grade to allow all of the math a standards to be covered I am really concerned we're trying to fix one hole um and creating another one uh by not teaching all the standards before they go into high school so um and at the
same time I think I heard you say the teams and leveling impact again I'd like to approach you know if we if we bring back the leveling in seventh grade and have the leveling in 8th grade can we mitigate the impact of that by taking a
closer look at teams and I know there are some benefits to having teams but are there other things that we can other structures we can put in place in middle school to get the pros that we get from teams but also minimize what you're describing as the
impact teams and leveling together well again not being a teacher in the building at at that middle school I think that would really we should be engaging teachers in those conversations because if I'm not mistaken Dr Jordan part of that was the the teachers saying that the teaming of students was
beneficial and that's why you went back to that model yeah I I don't want to you know without focusing on on Solutions with this is I I don't want to you know throw the baby out of the bath water with too many things um I
think what the middle school has created and been um over the last several years um is what kind of led to the recognition that we have so I just wanted to be I always want to be cautious when we're unpacking things
that have led to a successful model to to date um so uh I think every solution in including levels or not levels um have have consequences so um and benefits and I think it's worth kind of taking a deeper analysis uh of that so
so one thing El because John brought up and I want to forget um joh you were mentioning that the teachers were not able to get to where they were hoping we also brought in as you know a huge new math curriculum resource districtwide and training and everything else so our
teachers are learning all of this material too so In fairness they're working really hard it's not that they're not willing and able and trying but they're absolutely so I mean you know that's why I think they need to be part of that conversation as far as what they believe is manageable with
additional training with with additional um you know the PD that they're having as well as the time to absorb the new materials what they do feel like they could accomplish if we tried to shift my my only thing to to add add in is um Robert Adams Middle School is something
for hollon to be really proud of it's one of the highest performing middle schools in the state of Massachusetts and was nationally recognized um as a as a middle school um so I just think anytime we're looking at anything that we're wanting to adjust or modify there
um I think we should do it um with uh deep deep analysis uh if we're doing that and I don't think anyone is disagree disagreeing with with with with how how how great our Middle School is um but that doesn't mean that we want
also then be careful making changes as in any way right because it could be that potentially the leveling was was is part of the reason for for our success I I'm just we we absolutely want teachers to be involved in this and so what I'm but
my what I'm I'm wondering is How would the the current Math study group then um put together because there aren't really Math teachers on that committee we um reached out Joan you sent did I send it or you
sent out asking for volunteers to um support that work so we have one eighth grade math teacher volunteered and then our um the four stem intervention positions um were a part of that but I'd say more attendance by the middle school
and high school um High School assistant principal but it was only focused on the Middle School yes but we needed I mean what does the high school so well no but now we're talking about having a high school
math study group corre so I just I mean we we had I what I'm I guess what what is kind of fuddling me I'll say is that we had a math curriculum Review Committee last year that from all
accounts seems to have overwhelmingly uh voted in favor of of maintaining if non expanding levels and then we have a a MTH study group this year that is that is in in favor of deling it I I just I'm I'm
having difficulty um reconciling the two so one of things we did introduce this year is we talked about is that data dashboard and having that data being able to dis excuse me disaggregate the data and that is where the conversations happen this year looking at the data and
the research that as I think Joanie explained last year they they did have the math curriculum review focusing on purchasing new materials and looking at the current things we had and and where the standards and instruction was happening I only attended one or two of those meetings but um but the data
analysis and research have not happened and that's why we proposed having this year to look at the data and research and the vote they took was a temperature check before we did not have the opportunity to do a deep dive into all of the information so we were focused on
picking resources that we were going to use and I think I I remember at the time too that the equity steering committee had had not started yet they were we had just shared that report in October and then um he had just started those meetings so we had also asked for time for the equity steering committee to
look at this and then they shared their recommendations so all of these things you know it's like Perfect Storm all happening at once plus a whole districtwide initiative with new curricular resources after 15 years of no math curricular review so um a lot was happening there is no there's no one
no one was trying now we were being as transparent about this process we were giving updates regularly um so yes although the mass study grou did recommend deling we did not go that route we came back with um an alternative which we would then have to
work more closely with teachers to see how we could Implement to see if we can shift some of the sixth and seventh grade standards down as we discussed but also algebra is not happening just in grade 8 algebra concepts are having happening k all the way up and that is
also the goal of the work that we're doing districtwide to help support teachers with the algebraic thinking so that as they progress through our system all students should have a better acquisition of alate funds but I mean on on one hand you're saying that that our students you know we haven't had the time to sort of get them fully up to
speed on on on the standards and the curriculum early on and yet the proposal though is to actually sort of put our current math uh you know eighth grade math program on on sort of steroids if you will and accelerate it because we're shifting everybody up so I just again
that that's just an inconsistency that I I'm I'm I'm I'm not fully understanding and again making the advanced class this the regular class now and you're making algebra one the advanced class right I'm trying to look at this
from like um what does this look like for teachers to students and so if I'm looking at that math 8 algebra pathway for students next year like I the question that keeps coming up for me is are kids going to get or are teachers
going be able to dive deep enough into those Concepts and meet the needs of the kids in the class like one of the things that I'm looking at is functions so I'm not a math teacher but functions is introduced in eighth grade I believe for the first time and then there's a ton of functions um standards it's a huge
component of algebra that seems like a lot for kids that maybe struggling in math or not to be introduced to that concept and then really built and dive deep into that as well as all the other things they have to cover as math 8 and algebra and
differentiate for kids too so I just I'm I'm curious about the feedback teachers would have in terms of How Deeply they can get into all these Concepts um and meet the needs of learning throughout the year and and the other
option would be to keep the general math as the regular math eight and not add but we were also hearing that there was a desire to have more opportunities to expose students to algebraic thinking so that we could expand Pathways and versus closing so but since it's already a subset potentially taking that down a
bit I'm sorry right taking the the material down a bit like it's not like it's only red or only blue it if we think about there's a lot of Concepts in there I know every dot is not equal but just the quantity of it I agree with you
Hillary just seems a lot so like looking at how do we exposing the algebraic Concepts but not into the same scale or quantity of material so cutting that down yeah and that would be the work that the teachers would do we have and that's what they're struggling with right now in curriculum meetings the
Middle School's concentrating on that moving things around and kind of figuring out what the sixth grade can pick up more uh what the seventh grade can pick up more and the teachers are determining that we're not telling them how to do that because I thought what I had asked for last week was really sort
of a grade byg grade um sort of look at what each grade standards were what they were we were looking to shift because obviously we' also last year um asked that you know standards be shifted that seventh grade standards be shifted to sixth grade that e8th grade
standards be shifted to seventh grade in preparation of the ability to offer a full year of of Algebra 1 to for for some kids um um next year so if if we could see that as well and and maybe just it's my uh the fact that
I'm more of of a number person than a written person following this is just a little bit difficult to try to follow which standards are where I don't know if we can number the standards so that they're consistent you can sort of see one is there one is there where they line up where they kind of line up I'm
I'm just I keep looking and I'm doing a a search for for triangles and that you know and just trying to figure out where that is was developing a document um Mr Alfred that has all the standards that are color coded by grade and then you
can see like if a different colors in a different color that is indicating you're shifting it from one grade to another grade so we can get that to you like like in the in the proposal for next year are there math 8
standards that then would be in grade seven yes right so that's sort of the things that I'd like to see as well yeah right but as we as we presented that work we had said that that was the work that we would be doing with teachers in the spring so we haven't had
the opportunity to do that work with them yet J's just starting that work yeah but there're seventh graders now they're like halfway through right the year so I guess I'm no we did the teachers did I said we spent how many hours of work we paid for for the
teachers and they put together what they proposals were but then as I indicated they got a whole new math curriculum and needed to dive deep into that so you know similar to other things that you hope to accomplish it's not anyone's the effort was there but
there's a lot of work on their plates and so it's not always a perfect science and simple as just adding the standards and making it happen have you looked at the middle of the Year Exel data and seen kind of our current seventh grade class what
are what would this look like for them to move into math 8 algebra next year who are the kids that are going to need some support where would that fall in their schedules so some of that right now the EXL I know that Carla is using that to develop the mtss interventions but yes looking at the standards they
missing and trying to fill the gaps but you want to talk a little bit more about we are building uh the seventh grade teachers actually was that this week all the weeks are running together to me at the curriculum meeting I apologize if it was this week or next week there's or last week or the week before this week
or the week before I apologize um they're working on creating an Exel test not for grade but that's assessing them on the standards that we're looking at moving around to see what their understanding is to see if
they don't have to spend a lot of time on that standard if they already know it then we're not going to have to spend a lot of time on it you see what I'm saying so they're trying to figure out where we are in the standards that we have in the math 8 algebra column right
now I'm just wondering about as I I Exel as adaptive the seventh grade class which of those seventh graders still have gaps that we need to support right now and then thinking about are would they be ready to move forward at an accelerated pace and kind of using the
Adaptive component with the test that you're describing and that is what we're trying to do with right and she's addressing some of that through intervention it would be nice if we had more support car's only one person and that's that's our issue right that we can't Target everybody um she's doing a
phenomenal job I wish I could clone her um you know cuz she's so good at what she does um but unfortunately we have one person to do that work at the middle school so we do at some point need to make a decision decision though um I mean it almost looks like what you're
proposing for next year really should is sort of almost going back to what we really probably need is is three levels of math because again I don't know how you accelerate everybody without leaving some kids Behind essentially um I guess so I I still I
kind of would would really like to see that sort of full progression of from 6th through 8th for for different for different tracks um and then I'd like to see what the Desy model kind of looks like at this kind of level with these to to see
how how that would fit as well and we may need to think about Dr Kusa you presented last week coming in with this plan and then following up in the 26 27 year with possibly deling seventh grade could sth grade
is that's what happened in the got it okay yeah as part of the and our students have I mean the data has improved so it's not like there's plenty of districts that dle and
some that level and the success yeah I mean it would be good to see those students and then honors 7eventh math could we cover those eighth the ones missing in Algebra 1 because those students would theoretically be moving Algebra 1 I would
assume say that again so if I'm in the honor 7th are we going to cover one level in grade seven there's no levels can see with no levels sorry I mixed up term we need we should go and level seventh grade then sorry I'm using
the wrong terms if you look at you know to go to Dr Jordan's point they have done a phenomenal job so to mess with putting levels back in seventh grade is messing with the successes they've had that they've been able to do with is
that the key to getting through all the standards so there there was a point when you could cover all of them in fact I des's model has all of the standards being covered if you level seventh and eth so is there a plan that you can
present that covers all standards not you know moving to cover all of algebra one but then also taking away some geometry standards so I I mean I think if the desire was that it was that that was the desire to relevel 7th grade I
mean we came in with what the recommendation was based on data and research and if the purview is that you would like to level in seventh grade that's certainly your purview um it does I just want to remind the reason that we went this direction was we had an equity audit saying that there really should
not be levels in grade eight I mean in U Middle School um and we should be looking at all of our schedule offerings and opportunities so this was not taking um you know there was not a desire to just blow things up we could have left things the way they were as well but we had information coming into us that we
had to look at we had an equity steering committee I don't want to discount all the work that the people in these various groups did um and that certainly could have been decided last year if if there wasn't um if the recommendation isn't going to be taken in consideration
or to go the other way to add levels I just it goes against everything that we' received so I that is why we proposed um as a group what we did well I think as Amanda said earlier though I mean you know the equities Equity audit kind of seem to ignore the other side of equity
yeah and that's my concern I I you know haven't heard anyone on the committee really in want a dle and if the only way to sort of keep put the only way if the only way to really keep levels in eighth grade is to
bring back level in seventh grade then I think that's so then we start tracking like every so we're just going to go back to tracking every single thing again closing more because you're closing we often tie science with math together as well so I just feel like
that's closing off opportunity than opening it up no we need to work on ensuring because again part of equity is ensuring opportunities for for movement within the the pathways and so that may not have been something that we were doing before and then something that we can look at um so that no absolutely we
know I'm not as I said the last time we're absolutely not looking to track kids and you know not allow for for movement within within those tracks we need to find ways to support kids and get them to where they they want to be I I've been told not to use the word rigor but what I mean by rigor is to allow
kids to run as hard and fast as they are are able and want to and give them the support for the for for kids who want to be able to to do more while also allowing kids who just kind of want to learn and and you know to to to do that too and not have to feel like they're they're forced to to push harder than
than they're able we should not push kids to be if I can I'd also like to say things have changed somewhat since uh8 2019 the district has invested in programs like ISL and all Learners Network and I think in part of that what
I've heard from Administration is it allows kids to go farther when they can um and learn more so I think I also think it's different than 2019 and 20 when we were deciding who goes into the
two levels in seventh grade or the three levels in eighth grade I believe at that time you were looking backwards to mcow scores from almost a year before right um along with teacher recommendation there were there was um now we have
programs um that allow us to test kids uh more often and and identify kids that are are ready to make that move you're not just relying on data from a year previous right yeah I will say though um there are some very high achieving
districts that do not level um I think it's wellsly need him have gone that and they're not seeing that students are coming up with deficits as a result of those changes again I understand that there's not a desire to Del grade8 and that's okay but you see conflicting
messes there's there's there's there's cases and and arguments on both sides I mean Newton theing blew up I mean it I mean there's I think one of the things that I've learned in in all this is that there is actually no one right answer for for to say this is the way to do it
I think it's a community by Community Based decision I think it has to do a lot with the resources the community has the the um just the families that desires for families I have not talked to one person in a town that wants
dling saying so there's you're talking about adding levels at this point I'm just saying that we going to that yeah what I what I will say is like regardless for against levels adding or not um the more levels you have the more constraints you you place on the
schedule which create more clusters of like isolation for kids period like regardless of what you do so um if if we're looking to add levels or remove levels that's you know that POS it each
one of those directions poses other consequences that need to to be addressed if you know if if the concern by removing levels is riger for higher performing kids then you know that's that's a problem that needs to to be addressed if you go that route if you
are looking to um create more levels it kind of creates a distilling effect down to where you we end up and that was kind of the graphic I had shown last year is where you end up with uh pred
predominantly not just predominantly um almost exclusively students of color on IEPs students in 50 on 504s um L students all in the same courses uh there that so those pose problems surely from the levels that are
there that put constraints on the schedule which means that those might be problems that we solve doesn't mean that it's about levels or not it just means that those are problems that need to be solved regardless of what direction the school committee decides to go in yeah no I remember your presentation last year and that was that was quite telling and Stark I mean I'm not I don't want to
Discount that and I don't want to recreate that um so we we need to think about but that's again why we should have more conversations with the staff at at at Adams about about the teams and whether that's you know where where is the is their um their priority too like
um so what was the I think it was I had something else but anyway I think it's too when you have a smaller District too and you start to put all these constraints on it you actually create that like you're a
3,000 student in high school you have lots of options and things in the path you go the smaller the school the spread the kids out more that was my question so we have this data dashboard now how far back did we load data so I'm like Curious like if we look at kids from middle you know in 16 and 17 and how
they ended up doing on their high school mcast scores versus um this might be asking for too much that we have Co so no no but we but we we're far enough out of Co now that if we look at kids from like 16 17 before anything was done and then how
their MCAT scores didn't especially how relative to the state and we look for kids who um three I mean now 3 years ago we're we're coming out of you know middle school and now just took the mcast last year how are they doing I mean that we're yes still there because
there still there's still but but it it's worth at Le looking well I was going to go back further just to kind of get away from the dashboard doesn't do that back oh you're saying it goes back to right now okay can we load the data can we can we
get that data no not in time for what you're looking at and I don't know how far they can go back I don't know either okay so what are we asking for um so how do you envision addressing do you think do you think like okay so if you're thinking that your planned for
this next year and there is going to be a gap do you feel that that is a gap for one year of students just that one year that we can Target interventions to make sure those students are up to speed and either the eight or Algebra 1 if they're ready for that we're trying to just
provide an opportunity for students to take Algebra 1 and I'm I'm imagining that maybe in this first year that might be a smaller group of students but it may grow as as that as the years go by and we're able to kind of shift around where those units Go I mean changing
units is huge I mean it's it's a huge Endeavor to move all of that I know on the page it probably doesn't look that big but it's big I think I need more information on that piece the intervention piece so I heard you say after school and that raises
concerns for me in terms of feasibility and Equity but then thinking within the school day um as you mentioned Carla is only can take so many students and it's during Rams block so just thinking through if this plan were to move forward when does that intervention happen what other resources that you
have or need to make that happen how many students uh based on yourl data would you be looking at kind of more information on that piece would be helpful and I think that we would we would want to do for next year and I've already we've already talked to principal Manning about this as well that we would want to do not just
interventions but also enrichment opportunities to expand to cover you know some of those things that we know the kids are going to need because they just haven't been exposed yet but that they can pick up quickly so that's where that that beginning your assessment for all students will be helpful um in all grade levels so yes um there's the
problem is that there's only really one block of time during the day to be able to do that is at Rams block and it is how many minutes 30es yeah that you know so that has limitations which is why I mean you could potentially offer some kids to
have enrichment opportunities say during Rams block or after school if there were some people you know you could you don't want to close doors but we can only fit so much into a day is not that long you know but Cynthia I think what you're saying is keep 80 the way it is introduces algebra one to avoid
disruption to that's not keeping the way it is yeah no it's not I mean but if if we're being able the whole point is to be able to offer a full Algebra 1 and that may just mean that not as many students are able to take that full Algebra 1 in the first iteration year but in subsequent years there should be
more of them if we're able to reorganize the St does that make am I making sense you're making complete sense but but which is weird for me to say but um sure maybe she should sit there every time know right no this is this is too close um but the Sorry God but but the um it
almost seems like if you were going to do that though because I don't I don't like pushing everybody up into what is now the accelerated no I don't think that they will so it almost seems like and we can still stay with math again we we can still stay with that's the whole point we can still stay with math but
we're able to offer allow for those students who are ready to move into them and offer that algebra and then it kind of or we do three for at least a period Well it I don't I don't know what does that make sense to you let's listen to the teachers we had three before accelerated we're not but also like
Middle School's doing pretty well right I want to just add I'm concerned about breaking something that doesn't need to be fixed you get what I'm saying but are the kids exiting Middle School necess I mean how how are they performing in in in high school and how has that changed that was what I was trying to get to with the with the m you looking at the compartive MCAS data is is there and I
haven't you know done any surveys of of High School Math teachers but is there has there been a change in where kids are at in the number of you know what classes they're taking vers how they're how they're performing in in in high school math classes are they I think it's well I'm not sure I think it's hard
to say because you know Co interrupted so much of the grouping of kids that are right now like a little bit difficult it is hard to distill that my own kids were in sixth and seventh grade during Co so they've doubled up on yep um mine are
not Happ they've taken two two years each yep um until junor yeah we don't have the ability to do that in middle school the high school some of the kids are take and I also for students that may not like that that well now we're making them take two years wor seems
like and we're taking so here's the just for example you know we have broken up Algebra 1 in 9th grade to two years wor it's two it's it's the full year it's part one and part two and so we're then asking students to take what we do in High School part one and part two and
moving that down to the middle school and that is sounds crazy to me I'm just me I I understand I'm just talking about this in this current iteration of where we are because we have to scaffold to get to get to it so because if I'm sitting here looking at my own sophomore
who is not at that point either because he's taking two years each each year so he's taking part one part two part one part two and only in junior year will he have an opportunity to say I'm going to try honors Algebra 2 do you get what I'm
saying developmental where kids come too right but there's a lot of there were a lot of deficits I think questions right if if we if we feel that it's realistic to do alra one a full year in grade eight and get kids to be successful then why why are weing full year that's what
I'm saying why are we do taking a full year to do that in high school I don't know I mean okay so let's let's we just kind of come up with a with an ask so we can so what's the current eighth grade breakdown percent of students nothing scientific in regular
math versus accelerated today's if you were the numbers I don't know I'm just thinking about how do we disrupt like we do have a blue rib about 40% that are in The Accelerated it's four it's four usually three to four sections of the two four sections out of
the 10 sections so 4 % of students roughly so it's about half and half okay if we bring accelerated to we're impacting everyone with the proposed proposal here right cuz everyone the regular math now will go through accelerated basically and then you have algebra one most of what we do impacts
everyone yeah not necessarily because if we keep math 8 the way it is those students that would go through math 8 anyway would go through math 8 and then Algebra 1 would exist for but the but the but the issue but there are going to be kids that are going to be able to run
faster than math 8 but not quite get you know still not be able to sort of bridge that's not everyone that's why there's an accelerated math right so what I'm saying is as we progress that it may be in our interest to do three I get what you're saying yes and and maybe you end
up with one or two sections of of Algebra 1 what do we call intermediate then or accelerated inter okay I mean we don't need to worry about is an educator I just add one caveat here what we have seen that has improved as well um as well as being a
National Blue Ribbon School is our Mental Health Data is improving as well so I mean I think we need to take all of those factors into consideration because when we add more constraints and um it is tracking so you when you have a small number of kids you are you are
definitely tracking and you're going to be tracking more if you go that model will that affect um those I don't know I mean I mean mental health should I mean you coming out of covid you know there was a deep decline in mental health uh but our our data was better than some of the surrounding districts
recently so I I guess what I would like to see for for for next time Le to continue on with this is just to see the standards broken down as we teach them now from six in sixth grade seventh grade and and we sort we have the two eighth grade classes right then what the proposal is for sort of next for you
know for students to be able to do right and and that doesn't mean that all students are going to be able to take algeb it means that we have an opportunity for students to take algebra one that's what we ask and that was so if that's and that doesn't whether that what what what constitutes a full
Algebra 1 versus Algebra 1 enough standards to be able to get to Algebra 2 there's got to be a Desi standard for algebra one the one on the right all the all blue is the additional four standards so that is all that's a full year
valuable per J okay which is a shorter list but doesn't mean it's you can not look at the number of boards right it's yeah don't look at the number of the list the dark blue though you could look at on the right hand side of the high school doing in algebra classes wa but
then you're you're going to so in Algebra 2 they're doing the dark blue you could do that in Algebra 2 no what are they doing now in Algebra 2 sorry Algebra 1 part two so that's why because the grade A currently is only doing the blue standards on the below right
they're not doing those four that's why they're doing a double alra one in the fresh but there's still some kids that go from our current accelerated math eight algebra which had some algebra standards they're still going into honors algebra one part one in high school
right two two they go right to part two part one some go to part some go to part one some do the depend on their level that's seven oh sorry I was thinking we have six or
seven two we have two honors and I think four CP but my point is we have we have kids in in the accelerated in math in eth grade now that are going into algebra one part one no they're going to one part one yeah and some that are going to part two so I guess I guess as
part of this that's like a pathway right so I guess I guess as part of this I'd also like to understand what is algebra 1 part one and what is algebra 1 part two by standard in high school yes but also if I complete Algebra 1 with flying colors in eighth
grade I would thank you Dan if if I did though like I made it through not even flying colors the expectation would I'd go to Geometry correct okay if you algebra one in e8th grade you would go to geometry in grade yes but today that makes it well they could still go to
they could still do it if they did part two aleran part two in 9th grade the first semester and the second semester they could take geometry if they wanted to take math the entire year well then with the news schedule though how would that all math
every day huh how would that work with the new schedule they would do half a year still yeah they would still do half yeah we would still work and as D said you you do have kids at every pathway that continue up with the pathway or
stay the same um depending on how they perform sometimes they get into the higher level course and it's overwhelming so they you have students who might be in algebra inth grade they continue with algebra inth grade and that's that's kind of what
happens yeah I definitely not everyone's the same so again what are what are we asking for for next time I I would like to see so this is really helpful it's great to finally see it I I agree with Dan I think let's look at today's Sixth and 7th and then a proposal of what we would
add in to see what what I would be missing in algebra one that I wouldn't be getting in sixth or 7th now if we had extra material there I just want to remind you though this is work that we need to do with the teachers and they're not here next week so that's a really tight window so we would have
to oh and that's part of the work that they were going to be doing depending on what the decision was because we need a decision to know so this is your proposal but your your Proviso is that there are some identified gaps that you're still trying to work out can we
ask you to talk with them about a plan to address those gaps as they move forward I'm sure you do but I just you know I think we still want to move forward with the proposal because it gives us the algebra 1 that we've all asked for right it says Algebra 1 right
there I still am concerned though the the new math and algebra the new we're assuming they're all ready for it and they're not all going to but there's no other option for them to take then they're only stuck in that I'm sorry no I know to three I know you're getting
no Frank they're in math they can take math a al/ algebra or Algebra 1 no I get that today or we could do regular or I I don't think accelerating everybody is the is the right way to go so what you're saying is that we do the one
that's in the current math 8 for next year we're doing all three and do algebra one no no we're doing all either my this one I'd say mat these these this column these two columns plus and I One basically you're eliminating the copy is that
realistic I don't know we can do if you want to I don't not look at the equity issues that we already unearth I I want to address if that was just for like one year to make sure that we were right no I'm not saying this is a permanent really hard to do that to the teachers
yeah so you have that and then you go to this you're learning a new master I know resource each each one of these standards is a lot okay so let's look at this instead of having three the math a algebra instead of just copying and pasting our accelerated
course today having the teachers revisit what do we feel comfortable possibly cutting out so it's not as accelerated no we don't want to cut out all this can we go back can we go back to the teachers and have and and and see what the teachers want it may
not be able to do it for the 27th because we because everyone is out off for the next week but but the following meeting yeah okay because if also really like to see the the thoughts behind what are you doing to get that's the exactly where's
the Gap how are we going to address those gaps are some thoughts on getting them ready if we're doing the regular math 8 for the general population next year if that's where we are agreeing then we would still try to propose
adding some more algebraic standards into that with the work that we're doing with the teachers okay so I think we're agreeing with what you're putting in here we just want to understand the the Gap piece no no no I think the concept yes but not the final okay fine we can
talk about it in seventh okay a really long-winded way of let's move on thank you oh calendars oh my favorite did you prepare something for us no I didn't okay I was going to but I decided not to all so I
think I think at this point I want we can still look at things but can we vote the first day of school yes well but if we don't know we're not we're not in a position to make a significant change for for for next year looks ugly so this year looks ugly
and now and and it's snow day so yeah I mean so there's the December uh the winter break where we're going to expect people to come back on this the Friday the second is we're going to have nobody
here well and we we didn't this year have the 22nd because we didn't want to open school for a day of the week so I'm just right I know I'm saying that that that is to this is where I think the teachers might not like me did we
put the second you're talking about getting rid of February vacation down no no no no no no the second because it's going to be hard it's hard for everyone to come back so they're not going to come back they won't be here no I get that yeah but could we move then
PD date to the second uh teachers won't be here that day I get it Hillary I'm just saying exactly I'm like they just just no one's going to be here no one's here okay I I don't know I was just thinking of how to minimize yeah I hear you but we can't
make it a PD day cuz the teacher AR going to be there I I try I uh overwhelmingly feedback we changed it to a PD day in September help me out here oh yeah right and they were like I didn't like it I wasn't concentrating I
was worried about getting my classroom ready you know that was the mindset I guess on that day you wanted to keep the PD day on the 12th on the 16th they didn't like it when I forget when we had it like we used to have it like the yeah yeah we used to have it
the first week so we would have a longer um and they did not appreciate that at all okay well we did it forever so just on the flip side though if we keep the second the way it is if we do a p8 no one shows up if we don't no one shows up so I I no cuz then we spent money and
time and no no one shows up anyway that day is what I'm saying so it's basically no so I you're almost giving people permission even if there's a school day's ugly um great that's an awful day all right
well can we just yeah I guess we let's just vote for the first day and still noodle it can we noodle it can I'm happy I'm happy to got more feedback can I bring up something we are in a position that we're trying to secure people for next year yeah and we need to know dates
for PD cuz that's I know but like the longer we wait the we lose people yes so with the schedule there's no snow days right there's no possible well technically the last day is five days later there we're showing but we're already you you I don't know
it's a weird thing you technically build in five snow days but you don't actually talk about them yeah because the end of the school year is the 18th right right yeah okay oh yes so sorry and then five school day uh snow emergency right but if we okay if we hit one then they're coming in Monday the I know it's bogus
they're coming in Monday the 23rd right now because we we're ending on the 20th this year and we had a snow day yep yeah nobody will be here again I do want to I mean I know that what are we arguing it's like it is what it is and staff did
some staff members had asked about this and I just wanted I told them that I would share yeah they that they there were some staff asking me well why can't we survey and find out about interest in um just looking as see people would do just the federal holidays and remove again but there is an impact of that
that not you mean remove all the holidays and just put federal holidays is that what we're talking I think that's yeah I think that was yeah but not for next year we got to vote on this like soon why we're we're we're it would be challenging I think we need to give a you just want to blow things up on your
way out the door the community needs to have a heads up on this just pilot I keep talking about pilot nobody cares we have a 25e pilot in our contract that's I know it's not pilot anymore uh okay listen we can move all the puzzle pieces there's no idea what if we don't move
the April break but we take days off we weren't I just was remember when I was talking about doing the March break instead I'm just revisiting let's forget the we're moving but we get rid of February break and we just make it like a long weekend we we did a survey on that last year and it was I there's
everything's always not conclusive but people don't know what they haven't enjoyed the being able to get out earlier in June the isue I think is daycare too though if none of the surrounding we have a lot of teachers that are surrounding
District have vacations for next February already yeah aren't we sending kids on a trip or is that April that's April they're not going in in February anywhere there are a lot of our staff members that you mean they're already planning vacations already we haven't
even confirmed the calendar how dare they well that's why speaking of you Suzanne who what she knows who she is it's fine you're now talking to air like there's nobody over there watching
there's nobody over there she going to text me that she's watching all right so I don't I I'd like to entertain a motion to set the first day of school to be August 26th I'm in is it after 10: it feels like it's after 10 all right Frank yes Hillary yes Joe Sarah what did we
say first day of school or first teacher day no first day I thought first teacher day was the opening dayth First first day of School for students for students thank you the 26th yes I agree with that and then 25th would be the staff opening day okay so
Cynthia we said yes did we all say yes you haven't said yes yet I said yes okay Don I okay I'm a yes we have a start we can we I understand the PD stuff I I think that as of now we we just go forward with the the sort of the PD that
we have and and if Cynthia comes up with any more you know great ideas I have lots of great ideas oh ones that work s we going with the PD not planning I I if we can if we can think about a way not to be open on the second but not
to do I mean like that does seem a little funky um but anyway let's move on we have to do a March PD day we're not giving up a PD day no just move it okay so just later part of the Year moving on
to new business um we had had on our agenda to find um people for the town's policy advisory committee um we didn't find anybody but the town has found some someone for us who some of us may know um which I think so I think uh it's it's
a great uh I'm glad that she she applied so I entertain a motion to appoint uh Miss Janes shanesy uh as our one of our two the other one would be vacant uh for now anyway representatives to the town's uh policy advisory committee move by
Sarah second all right Frank yes Hillary yes Joe abstain I don't know okay she's great Sarah she's former School Committee Member Cynthia like six years um yes enthusiastically Don yes and I am also an enthusiastic
yes just to mimic Cynthia okay so that's 60 with one exstension you guys need to sit together more often we really do not um okay so did I I sent around the The Joint letter with the select board I believe they've already sort of approved
that so we don't really have a say but basically this is just an advocacy letter for for more money and and more things okay okay so I'll entertain a motion to uh approve the joint letter with the select board uh to our state
representatives second uh sorry Frank yes Hillary yes Joe yes Sarah yes Cynthia yes Don yes and I'm a yes as well thank you can I just add um the February 28th legislative breakfast that I'm hosting
yes I'm going to go I need to sign up y yep I put that on my counter um it's coming up um okay do we have the Exel roof do you just want us to kind of vote to basically say let's do it yeah I mean
it's it's not a at this point um there aren't too many layers to it I did in your folder is kind of a resource page which includes yeah the Rams roof SOI application and it's kind of current iteration the Miller roof SOI
application for this year which the plastino will be identical yes the msba wants two applications for the same building um yeah the main thing if you're really trying to like if you're questioning is there the need um the best resource to go to would probably be
in the supporting documentation the Rams and Miller placentino roof audit um and then if you want like another layer of convincing I would go to the infrared survey which um shows this kind of the various kind of flood uh damage and water damage that's throughout um and
then um for your reference as a school committee if you're wanting like what's kind of the past voting structure um last year uh I've got copies of the 24 letters from the select board and the school committee um and then also just kind of what the the voting template is
right so go ahead no me I I think that I I'm looking at the voting template right now Vis is very prescriptive and we need to follow it to to the T so um maybe we just vote to sort of say we want to go forward and then next time we actually vote the prescriptive but do you have it written I think that's from the same as
last year that's but nobody's got dates in it and I don't know is this separate from the SOI for the high school yeah we're not doing that right a second that I just want to make sure that we are not we are still doing that we are still doing that we're just not doing it today that is not the bo I just want to so let
see here this is just for Accelerated repair let just see here all right yeah you have to read their like language or something all it is asking for um at this point um is your what it
is your vote of interest to to do this as a committee it then goes to the select board to do a similar vote right um once I have a vote which is then in a cop the form a letter from Dan and then a letter from likely the some somebody
on the select board um once I have all that in the completed packet it then goes to signatures to Dan and Susan and to the select board um that they get another pass at the application to make sure that it all checks off they sign their signatures and then it's come back
comes back to us to send off right but they publicly have to read they to read statement yeah so it would be the date today's date and then this date that that he believes he'll be okay so when you want to set the date uh that you're going to submit
it um so the the due date is March 21st okay so we'll do that all right having convened in an open meeting on February 13th prior to the SOI submission closing date the school committee of the town of hollon in accordance with with its Charter bylaws and and ordinance has
voted to authorize the superintendent to submit the massach to the massachusett school building authority the statement of insurance form uh d March 21st um 2025 for the Robert Adam H Adams Middle School located at 323 Woodland Street hollon Mass
01746 which describes and explains the following deficiencies and the priority categories for which the application may be submitted for the Massachusetts building authority in the future and it's priority area number five replacement renovation or modernization of school facilities systems such as roofs Windows boilers heaters Heating
and ventilation systems to increase energy conservation and decrease energ related costs in in a school facility specifically restoration of the Robert H H Adams Middle School roof and hereby further specifically acknowledge that by submitting the statement of Interest form the massachus school building
authority in no way guarantees the acceptance they prove that or the approval uh of an application the awarding of a grant or any other funding commitment from the massachusett school bilding Authority or commits the T of holl to to filing an application for
funding with the Massachusetts school building authority do I hear a motion move by Cynthia second Frank yes Hillary yes Joe yes Sarah yes Cynthia yes
Don yes and I am a yes as well okay so now I going get to read this again what is the address of uh placentino Miller it is 235 235 to the and do we want to call what do I want just the the placentino Miller
School no yeah both um say no it's going to be one application because it's the same roof guess technically we would we should read it twice twice once for placentino once we have to we submit the same
application twice to for each when you go in they have yeah so I have to I have to load a form three because it's technically two different buildings yep yep I asked msba that's is
what need some water out having convened an open meeting on February 13th 2025 prior to thei submission closing date the school committee the town of hollison in accordance with its Charter bylaws and ordinances is voted to authorize the superintendent to submit to the msba the statement of Interest
form dated February dated March 21st 2025 for the placentino Elementary School located 325 Woodland Street hollon Mass 01746 which describes and explains the following deficiencies in the priority categories for which an application may be submitted to the Massachusetts school
building authority in the future priority area number five replacement renovation or modernization of school facilities such as roofs Windows boilers Heating and ventilation systems to increase energy conservation and decrease energy related costs in the school facility specifically restoration of the plastino elementary school roof
and hereby further spec specifically acknowledges that by submitting the statement of Interest form the school building authority in no way guarantees the acceptance or the approval of an application the awarding of a grant or any further funding any other funding committ commitment from the massachusett
school building authority or commits the town of hollison to filing an application for funding with the Massachusetts school building authority move by Cynthia second Frank yes Hillary yes Joe yes Sarah yes Cynthia yes
Don yes and yes as well okay having convenient open meeting on February 13 2025 prior to the SOI submission closing date the school committee of the town of hollon in accordance with the charters by bylaws and ordinances has voted to authorize the superintendent to submit to the
massachus school building authority a statement of Interest formed dated uh March 21st 2025 for the milary element for the milary Elementary School located at 325 Woodland Street hollon maass 01746 which describes and explain exps the following deficiencies and the
priority categories for which an application may be submitted to the massachusett school building authority in the future priority area number five replacement renovation or modernization of school facility systems such as roofs window boilers Heating and ventilation systems to increase energy conservation and decrease energy related costs in a school facility specifically restoration
of the Miller uh Elementary School roof and hereby further specifically acknowledges that by submitting the statement of Interest form the Massachusetts school billing Authority in no way guarantees the acceptance of the or the approval of an application the awarding of a grant or any other funding commitment from the massachus school building authority or commits the
town of hollon to filing an application for for funding with massachus school billing Authority moved by Cynthia sorry I slept on the job there second Frank yes Hillary yes Joe yes Sarah Cynthia yes
Don yes and I am a yes okay do we want to do another one just for Save wait a couple months and you get the high save for the next one no more room that that fasc okay so we uh we've got some uh communication subcommittee minutes we've also got some budget minutes um budget committee
meeting uh committee meeting minutes um our next uh meeting is scheduled for February 27th 2025 I hope everyone has a good break um we do have reason to continue our executive session um so uh I will
entertain a motion to adjourn to Executive session from which we will not return to discuss strategy with to collective bargaining or litigation of an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares um and this is related to uh the hft and high school scheduled
committee so moved second I'm sorry H second all right Frank yes Hillary yes Joe yes Sarah yes Cynthia yes big cring Don yes and I am a yes as well thank you
and good night e e e for