##VIDEO ID:aollu9l9MKE## br e from the same guy always spicy country like d e AG I like thewe with the what I e for e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e all right well good afternoon everyone um before we get going because this is being being taped I just want to you know make sure everyone who is watching this at any point understands that what we're about to discuss are the priority needs of the district there may be some numbers attached to these things but these are not requests these are you know we we um I I asked Dr Kusa and her team to put together sort of you know a really good picture of what what the needs are and so that we can go through it all I think it's important that the community understands that there are always more needs than what we were going to be able to afford um so again this is the the the needs not the requests it's it's not going to indicate what the the budget is going to look like it's just um something that that is important to to display sort of how much is going on what we are doing and then what we we need to more on yes and for those of you who might be listening at home we will have this or it may already be on the website it's called Uh FY 26 FY 27 HPS District priority needs and it has our building bridges together mission and vision of our strategic plan on the front cover I'm going to walk us through and our principles are going to walk us through some of the needs that we put down I do want to start by saying that to to Mr Alfred's point it is still early in the year while we start the budget season very early we still have a lot of unknowns as the year progresses related to you know um Personnel specially at all the costs that we share as a a school Community we are very grateful to the town for having funded our teachers contract which we really believe will help us not just attract and retain quality Educators but also we're excited to be able to increase time on learning for students going into next year it's been a lot of work getting to that point but we really do think it will pay off dividends for our students in the end so with some of these changes and just some of the things we've had um postco you know some of the positions that we put forward in the past have been related to some of the co um regression we saw we are seeing an improvement in our students over time but we still see a lot ofal and mental health needs even though that has somewhat declined a little bit as well but some of the things that you'll hear us talk about tonight will be directly related to our strategic plan and the district's uh momentum that we try to do to reach some of the goals um in our 5-year plan so I'll walk through what someone um on the central might jump in if you have questions about a specific item um I'll go through each of the four arches with the central team I'll pause at the end of the first Arch and if you have questions there we can pass those on and then we'll go into each school as well so if you look under Arch one um most of the items we put in there are really um Grant funded and if you look um a lot of the work we're trying to do is meet the needs of our elll population and the many cultures that we have in the district and one of the needs that we have down here that we're looking to fund through a grant this year would be um pocket talk devices and the pocket talk devices are relatively inexpensive but they're handheld devices that we can use so that our students can translate in real time with their peers we do have um iPads and other translation devices in the district but having something that children can use in real time IND or for parents when they come into meetings it's an initiative that we wanted to explore moving forward so we're going to start with a small number of those and increase that over time the first in the we have um how many did we pilot this we have 17 four each school and one cice is our yes right I mean well Dean we we're creating a need we have a need for them so we're trying to fill that need with getting more of them in the district so we we do believe we need more than that's small amount that we have what is the ELP District uh last check 160 I think 160 173 I forget [Music] one and then as you know we recently um among many other towns with u power school there were some significant data breaches we were lucky that they were minimal and didn't um get into any significant and data concerns however prior to that we had already been working with the town to get enhanced cyber security and data privacy protection so with the town um 10,000 of that will be funded by HPS and 40 4,000 by the town to help support that work going forward we've been doing a lot of work on that um in the last few years to begin with um and this will just continue that work can we get a list of what next SC for that type of Stow in terms of the dollars [Music] yes we're under we're operating under a free Google workspace for Education Suite right now and we know Google is gradually squeezing us to the paid tiers so I've been talking with Chris Mayo the town IT director quite frequently uh by moving up to this tier we can actually big one of the big features we can pull back fishing emails for example uh Dr Kusa all the principles over here they all get spoed seems like a daily thing now we're getting emails from staff somebody got spooked we can now pull those back before they hit people's inboxes because if we can't do that then people are going to click the links we already have two staff members that were compromised and this is all independent of the power school breach these are our own issues just to reminder when that happen it's like it it scares people more yeah so we need a way to control that and this weite gives us that now it gives us a ton of Google Classroom features as well lots of teen teaching and learning features so we're actually talking about how to roll that out either late this spring or next fall is there can you speak Lou sorry can you provide so you mentioned we're going to a new Google Cloud tier essentially right what is in there and what is not because I think from a cyber security issue we're going after think things that are what sounds like hey we should probably went after a little while ago out that we need to be Pro proactive with so not that I'm advocating we increase that ask but let's make sure we're aware of it if we need to react to it we're aware of the numbers correct this is actually the top level we can purchase there is another Gemini level it's insane we price out today would be like $75,000 if we wanted G Gemini integrated within our G Suite fully integrated that would be the cost so we know we're not going there yet um but this this is the top level suite we can get with the most security features the most privacy features the most Google Classroom features so and again we we vetted all the other tiers there's four tiers three being the bottom there's three other tiers this one was minimally more than some of the other ones and it gave us all these other features cyber features that we need so under Arch 2 you'll see if you look at each of the initiatives that much of what we put in there um to work on social and emotional well-being are things that we've either already started or and are sustaining or and continuing the reason that we wanted to show this to you um to be able to answer questions tonight that you might have particularly with newer members in the school committee but also the uncertainty in the future right some of the grants we are concerned about may be discontinued in the upcoming years so right now jel has done an amazing job and working with J Bey to get much of this work funded through grants in the last 3 to four years however should that change um then that might be a need that we have to fill another way in the future so this is really informational in um Arch two here so if you wanted to take a look at that if I could just ask mood check I my understanding was I thought we moved that into the actual budget itself a few years ago um because we had been getting it from a grant that Grant was an ending and I thought that you know one of the things when I was on the finance committee was that we were able to sort of get that back into the budget so it's it we we've actually been funding it through a grant I'm just trying to I thought we did put Moon check back so I I apologize I'll Che on that can we look into that cuz I in my mind I thought we had shifted it back but we gone back and forth sometime so mood check and and um Mo check and Care stus is funded through Jess bey's office so um I have to follow up with her on that um just to be clear it's an incredibly important program so so I just absolutely so in the first piece L um and caralis in um are funded through her office cartwheels funded through my office in combination you add the three of those that's about 880,000 in in uh SI 2 and three and all the below it's about another 100,000 so if you add that up and take out the other P about 160,000 total to all the work happening all the other pieces um and we'll follow up the other pieces but I think in general if you add up a lot of U Miss spe's funding comes through either some of the entitlement grants some of the other grants that comes through Supply a lot of the work that she does through her office part of what we wanted to share was more of an FYI right um a lot of the work that I'm funded through isn't necessarily work that I would say supports my work cuz my work is to support their work right so a lot of the work that you hear when I report out is actually reported out when the principles report so when the principles report the work that happens a lot of the work when they report their work it's the work it's the work that I'm supportting so a lot of the work here is in support of their work right so if down the line the grants were to shift if down the line desie were to shift their supports around mental health around the works that supports around the work connected to data reporting and and Equity report that's where my fear would be right so for me we've been funded pretty solidly over the past three years we've been for the most part um been receiving the same amount of funding but I wanted to kind of be able to share report out that we've been receiving this funding stream for a good amount of time that's been really I think in support of what the school has been supporting um so it was more of just kind of sharing that funding stream over time we definitely sh you know check with u Miss Bey kind of how that funding's been U going over time yeah so just to get an idea you know the amount of money we're talking about that potential 160,000 that they talk about in si um number two you know could be significant we hope that we'll be able to continue to be in the ch um if you go to uh strategic initiative number five there similarly the data dashboard right now is being funded through a grant and it's been a great tool that we've added this year and again we can maintain that right now with the grants U subject to change then moving on to Arch three under teaching and learning we've continued to do uh curriculum reviews each year Jan uh Joanie is looking to push out some of the curriculum reviews just because our our staff have felt overwhelmed we were so far behind as you know we've talked about how the last one had been done in 2015 and now we're playing ketchup we just purchased this phenomenal new all these math resources K to 12 however that comes with additional training and needs and teachers really are working hard on these new materials so that's why she's not predicting anything new for FY 26 um for funds for that but looking into FY 27 to purchase materials pending some curcum review information that will be com in as you're looking at um FY 27 are you looking at some of the grants available like prism for the purchase of Elementary curriculum you have to be at certain stages so we're active participants in Implement T these Implement and so you have to be at a certain point in time to qualify for those so yes if we are there absolutely and then for the like social studies and digital literacy um curriculum are you looking at some of the open source curriculum that's been created we will be yes y we've been um continuing to train under um strategic initiative number two under ARS three continuing our OG training that's really been a great tool for our staff to have that many of our special educators are now able to do some of that tier two and tier three instruction with their students rather than to have to have reading Specialists we love having the ability to have reading specialist but to have our special ed teachers who the liais on for the students be able to deliver those tier two and three um resources to the kids has been really phenomenal so we want to continue to expand and train more staff in FY 26 and if I can just add to that we are going to have all our English language Lear teachers OG trained also could we get a breakdown of how many are trained and how many are you know are not so we can look at it so we can better assess two to four we can get you we can get you numbers for each school on that and some have left unfortunately and then we have to you know train new people but we can get um another an update on that number for you and then under strategic initiative number five where um last year when we presented we knew there was um a $223,000 offset that we would have to bring into um FY 26 because we purchased so many curricular resources for Math and I ready and Exel help us with math but also with Ela but those resources we we took a lot of our old um technology resources and tried to um get rid of some of the duplicated resources for this better resources but since we were able to fund some of this through Capital now we'll be moving this 23,000 into the operating budget for FY 26 but that's already in the budget by 26 budg it's already buil sorry already built into the way you and then under Arch four you'll see um most of this is capital we're looking at continuing our work with grades five and grade eight $150,000 for Chromebooks in the fall capital and then potentially the same number would be FY 27 we did get a new estimate that Dr Jordan could speak to if needed on the audit atum lighting coming in at 999,000 which will hopefully help us fund that with spring Capital this year we are looking to and we talked about this in budget sub as well we are looking to start to replace our exterior doors on our buildings we have had some issues with the mechanisms there so we really think we need to start funding um those and try to spread them out over multiple years because they are costly as Mr as Dr Jordan indicated 15,000 per double door so we're looking at um capital for 75,000 for this upcoming year and then we're just seeing increases in the need for resources at all buildings for supplies we have really been kind of hate to say about robbing Peter to pay Paul and pulling from other places we haven't really increased these line items in some time so Dr Jordan is looking to try to put $10,000 in each um building for these materials that every year we're looking and trying to find ways to fund after the fact CU we haven't budgeted enough for them in the past but but we increased the budget for for maintenance by $40,000 before the the override last year did we yes I'll have him check that if if we need more I mean then then then then that is not I'm just saying MH my understanding was we already increased it so we will definitely double check on that and then under strategic initiative number three we have put this on in the past as well we're trying to shift our model at all buildings right now we do we have one custodian that is on the Miller placentino Campus that we just were able to hire um and we're able to do different work with that position then we are at the other buildings with our staff that are um part of our vendor and our contract with the vendor so we would like to try to bring in staff that are our full-time staff at the other two buildings as well which would be a cost of 70,000 moving forward this has been a request that Keith has put on there for a number of years and we do believe entire time on the committee well it does it will will cost us a little bit more we're also hoping to offset some of the work that we can't get done you know so like some of the Landscaping the DPW on the townside helps us with uh mowing the grass and things like that but sometimes just cleaning up the front of the buildings trash removal and um pulling Roots out and and dead dead plants some some years the buildings have not looked that great and we don't have the staff in house to do that these staff would be able to work on the custodial needs in the building but then some of the needs out of the building as well and then for um elll again um this has become a need I think what was the number you said of increase on ell yeah it's it's either 168 or 17 actually I apologize I'm moving on to the next building I'm going to pause there before we get to placentino and just see if you have any questions about Arch 1 2 3 or four for a central office any more questions okay than you I'll hand off to Dr slany at placentino so um we have one strategic initiative at placentino and that's around increasing the teaching staff for our multilingual Learners um we um currently have a full-time FD for a teacher and a05 for a par and this has been a growing need that I've talked to you about um in over the past couple years and we recently did just increase there um if you look at the data I provided we're not even coming close to meeting the recommended instructional minutes from the Department of Ed um it's a real disservice to these students and to our whole school system when we're thinking about access for our students um our our students are incredible and um we want to be able to provide what they need so that they can reach their maximum potential um like do with our monolingual students um we currently have 16 level ones at placentino um that our that's our entry level when we look at language level coming in um we are at 34 students at placentino and while our numbers holding steady um it's more the level ones and twos that really require more instructional time and minutes that we're just not able to do with our current staff yeah I just did a range and I am in a similar boat so I am also uh looking to increase uh in that area um Jamie talked about her level ones I have seven level ones and I have four level twos and I have approximately 30 students who are L's uh if we think about you know our L's and 30 students we've got one L teacher whereas when we look at our special ed staff we might have one to 12 or 1 to 14 we're we're not even close to making the minutes that we need uh for these kiddos um and I also have the range we tried to do it very similar so that looks the same I only have five kids who are making 50 to 75% of their time and 20 aren't even making 50% of their time just based on the quantity of students that we have um my other need that I have down is um we have need for more testing and Direct Services by our OT uh we used to have a 1.0 and we backfilled with a Koda uh we are seeing the need because of testing uh and the Direct Services that the the um certified OT can do that we need to bump that back up to 1.0 um and so we would shift some of the Koda hours but we do need to we do have an increase there um based on uh the student demographics that we have and I think the need still has to be filled regardless of whether we have a full-time person so often what we end up doing is we're paying out of our contracted service that we're paying another way which could be more costly so we think it' be more efficient to make the current model full- time and I don't I don't want to get into details but like obviously that would be a change for the person in the job mean is that something that they we it it could be it could be adding from another building somebody who's part-time um but it there is the I mean there's the cost factor to adding the point to well but also the person being able to do that extra time based on their there there's like it's helpful the same hours next year so you know that might be it synergies be one person between the two it very well could with our schools being combined um I don't know that we thought of I mean we're still grappling with us being on the same time but yeah that that I'm just wondering y y it it possibly could yeah and I think for one person to do it then separate the yeah and I think over time I mean this is our first pass of this discussion but as we get closer to the final budget number we always try to come up with other Creative Solutions and potentially um as we look into next year there may be some opportunities to um save we won't know that I think starting the year but as the year goes on we might be able to see if the schedules will allow us some flexibility since the the two campuses will be at one time moving on Miss Manning Ram um so one of the things that we're asking for is under AR the social and emotional wellbeing on of students and this is a um similar position that we've been asking for um identified as a priority from 21 to 25 so it's been a consistent ask it was a position that was cut in 2012 where there were 3.5 FTE that were never reinstated um and you know our model at the middle school um is similar to the elementary school but our needs are very different um the high school model under this sort of um umbrella of administration is you know they have two assistant principles and then the campus monitor we just have the one assistant principal um our kids are uh super high in curiosity but um they're they're low in decision- making that's developmentally appropriate for middle school kids and I I love that about them but we have um a need that we still need to fill from these critical Cuts in 2012 um we have challenges you know all over the place with data Behavior supporting students supporting teachers Logistics and operations um so you know I think the the benefit to the to the community would be there would be fewer serious consequences more time on learning um there would be this sort of like focus on curriculum instruction and evaluation for teachers um where a Dean could kind of take care of some of the lower level behavioral needs and operations that we face on a daily basis did you Prov us with a job description for this at some point um I David do we provide a job description of this at that would be helpful to kind fly what you're looking for this person to do and what kind of behaviors and issues you're looking to address with this person maybe they had one from 2012 that's before I was on the committee so I don't I don't have that simar I like looking at supporting Behavior or needs El professional development can you talk about why this role wouldn't fit within like another adjustment counselor like why is it in administrative role um I think the operations piece really is the is the turning point so we have a lot of things that need to be supervised at at our level so we have buses lunch ways hallways events um and that kind of goes above the scope of what's in an adjustment C's job description um the the low-level behaviors and catching those early it is some of the social emotional stuff but it's also just this sort of lowlevel Po decision making that happen happens that may tie us up for for hours a day that having somebody to kind of handle those things and um in a way that's like at an administrative level and can be sort of kept track of in our PBIS systems and our multi-tiered support systems so it's like the first responder kind of to branching kids out maybe to an adjustment counselor for a plan or something to that effect does that make more sense yeah I think I'm still raing my had around the four administrators for a school of the size so it just it would just be what well Tessa our SSA doesn't do any of this sort of interaction with the kids she does the special education aspect so um I think comparing like we're on an elementary model with the current model that we have we don't need to be on a high school model but I think we need to be on a middle school model and I can definitely absolutely great thank you I'm going to throw one question out there I think I know the answer just knowing our data gaps but going back to pre 20102 post like sh do we have any data to support with the elimination of this role back then created more issues I mean you could probably make a correlation but the the kids having been in public education for 30 years like the kids are completely different yeah yeah no yeah so a long time ago we could probably connect something with data but I don't know if it would be I guess if you have any data over the last few years to show it's getting worse right that might help um in 2012 did we have the principal assistant principal three school counselors and adjustment counselor then as well like was it the same structure when we had a students can't hear you H oh okay um so in 2012 at the time the de of students was cut did we have an assistant principal and three school counselors and an adjust adjustment counselor and an SSA and a principal like do we have that whole structure in place then or did we move some of these roles the only thing I don't know is the adjustment counselor I do know that there were three counselors one for each grade there was an AP uh there was a princial there was an SSA at that time okay um and I believe there was a um a um Grant funded social worker to start with way back when which they eventually I think rolled into uh getting I mean you would know more but I think that's you got it um I think to the point that we also um you know this is true that we keep hearing more and more parents um saying this children are being bullied much of the time those bullying allegations are not accurate because they don't meet the definition of bullying however the commitment to the time of that investigation is what we're seeing a lot which is why councils can't do that work that really falls on the purview of an administrator and goes into after school and phone calls from parents that's just one example there are other investigations but I feel like that's one that we see increasing quite a bit as yeah bullying investigations even just like the question of it means we we open one you know and there are legal fees um and consultant fees associated with anything that's potentially bullying harassment or title N9 so as these sort of events happen and even have to investigate them whether or not we make a finding um or determination that says it was true we still have to do the work um and then I've also requested a 1.0 FTE special education Bridge teacher for Rams um it's it it will fill a critical Gap um and create across the district we are one out of the four schools uh we're the only school without a bridge program it's in our um Continuum um the HPS Continuum sort of offerings there are cohorts at each building there's a cohort at our school right now in seventh grade um and we have an incoming uh sixth grade that has another cohort which would increase our students who would need to be in that Continuum to about 12 or 13 um and what we do now is we spread those kids across the continuums that we currently have which is really stretching those special Educators um the bridge description is supposed to be like a partial inclusion with subpar support so these are really kids that have like academic social vocational needs um and the potential for a 5-year graduation track with the absence of that at the middle school we're really sort of disserving these kids um and also impacting our graduation rate potentially um the eligibilities are s kids language disabilities delays um but the social and adaptive skills can be on par with peers which means we want them in the inclusive classrooms as much as possible so it's just a separate program um and it would at this point just require uh one special educator to fill that need and you want I mentioned ear earlier process there's still a lot of certainly we're the mid year but we also will be looking districtwide at enrollment and if there are any shifts that we can make to fill some of this so right now this would be a new position but we we will look as we continue on throughout the year to see if any of these needs can be filled with um existing staff shifting from other places based on enrollment which we do every year and then the final um need is a math tutor and um this has been recommended by the math study group um and it's key to closing the the gaps that we have in math education So currently we have over 50 students that are um 2 to four plus years below grade level at math and grade 6 to8 and only a05 um math interventionists so to date um the challenges that we Face she's only seen 16 students to make um these targeted interventions because she has a cap of 12 um Can Only see students once a week for 28 minutes that's just based on our schedule um if we had a math tutor we sort of envisioned like a math lab where we could be increasing numbers of students that were seen um in making more um significant gains we are making really great gains um we have the students that are seen making 70 to 370 points growth each 100 points is a grade level so imagine the impact of managing that um with another math tutor um and it could also sort ofe like create a space for kids who might be looking for some acceleration in their math skills um in this math lab area Karen did you say 50 kids that are 2 to four years is that and these are kids that are not previously um identified and students that are not on I or outside ofre yep addition questions so I'm just going to continue along the same exact line that Karen just talked about with the need for some some specific math supports um maing um we're seeing um when you look outside of students uh with I um you're looking at you know somewhere um depending on the Diagnostic in the week and when that happens but right 20 to 25% of students are um not facing grade level um yet um we are seeing growth we do have the interventionist coming in with um building the tier one sports in the classrooms one of the problems that we have um with our current schedule is if you have four periods you can where do you where do you intervene um so what we have look at a specific math support that's going to happen that has to happen during a math period U and so to have something like a math lab or a math tutor um would really allow us to build those supports with with what we have um it is a a challenge that we face because we do have our interventionist um but they're not solely dedicated to to map their stem across the board and there's the person of the humanities but um uh we're seeing a a really big need in uh building those Mass supports so that's why we are also asking for um some support with uh with a tutor uh to support we already have with the ADC the difference with the ADC just for those who are don't know the ADC is supporting kids who have uh long-term absences so they might come in and that person's working across really organizing all of their work with them supporting the students who are coming in from hospitalizations um uh or who are who need support that are sort of more more longterm need uh but that's why we're also asking for the the math Cher there um we all know that dsb is is not as structured as it needs to be uh to get students support like they should so there is a a program that exists uh called ning students that works for power school um that will allow us to schedule students in they can be scheduled by teachers ahead of time um or students can schedule themselves in so we'll be able to actually um track can get some data on sort of the usefulness of dsv um and where students are each time wherever they um are assigned right now it's connected to a period but that not getting too technical but it's really hard to track the usage of that time um for students um so will help us to do that um when we um not going with the high school schedule with the uh X block we potentially introduce it so if we don't have this though what would we use for X block sir we we need we need something okay to start tracking that these Flex block so it's it's some it's it depends what school some X some Flex some whatever you call it but we need something to help track students during those flexible schedule times um the next piece here um we are seeing an ever increasing amot of students who are um accessing the nurse and need nurse supports um and right now we have a uh A4 long-term sub we'd like to have A5 permanent um extra you know so we have 1.5 nurses um that would allow us at least to have two two nurses um in the building for at least half of every day um right now we have somebody who comes in for two days a week as some extra support but we really like to um expand that to to support students because it is just it's it's constant um and I've asked nurse T to start pulling up some of the data but it it is more and more every year um that that uh she's having to work with so we just need some extra supports there um and I think that's in line with like the rest of the schools as well what is the guideline that is supposed to be mention m i i i forget it at the moment but we have met up like one to 1 to 400 or one to something we're well beyond that when you get we're not we don't when when you get over 500 you have to increase FTE and I believe it's every 100 is a 0.1 I'm not don't quote me but I think I'm not I'm not say number because I think 600 is a 1.1 700 I but don't quote me on that cuz I have to re look at the most recent but I'm pretty sure that's something the formula and right now because it's an LTS we are able to use in the Grant I would be removing and ify 26 I put that we were potentially at 50% Grant 50% operating but if it becomes permanent we really can't use the grant for that we use the grant for other needs and just the final piece here is looking at inreasing our uh Performing Arts um f from uh we have 75 positions to 1.0 um we have a really difficult time trying to hire anybody I think we had a total uh four applicants last year um and all four of them got jobs that were full-time uh not part-time we were very lucky to find who you know we had a somebody who's going to be our building sub uh who um who has a background in music and has stepped in um but in order to really support um the the coral programs and the Performing Arts it would be great to be competitive um with with the job and have a a full-time position uh to be a list and historically that was time that was historically as understand on the answer to your question oh thank you um it says according to desie recommended nurse to student ratio is generally one full-time equivalent FTE registered nurse for every 250 to 500 students with an additional .1 FTE added for every additional 50 students Beyond 500 yeah I said 100 it's actually 50 so a 1.5 would get us pretty get us closer to best practices guideline so Mr list do we the current high school schedule do we have the the I guess the course demand to expand the course teach we can't create so we don't have I mean we would have the court we would like to be able to expand the the per Arts offerings we just don't have the FTE to do so under the current schedule but it's also yes under the current schedule it's hard to uh build those courses out it's more of a it's a car before the horse chicken yeah you don't know necessarily if you're going to have you think you should have the demand but you don't necessarily well I think I think we have well so we have so it's weird our schedule because love going back into the schedule thought I had one night away uh no it's basically we have the demand for classes it's when we can fit those classes in based on the current schedule and the FD so it's a but if we open up the schedules to allow for that we wouldn't have enough Mt so then we would not write right and when was that reduced you to the one toates me okay so yeah to shift right yeah yeah um I my concern is that it's been kind of a revolving door and I think the feedback that I've heard from students is that like why bother because they're don't they can't invest in the program because the person who's there isn't going to stay and that's a concern so how do you build a full program through a high school if you lose your your performing arts teacher every six months or a year and we did and that happened last year for a full-time job correct for y so it is tricky and then U students also will tell you that they don't want to miss other offerings during dsb having classes so you know it's it's a little bit of both and it is problematic and it would be wonderful if we could expand our program for sure yeah so that gets us through um our list of priority needs if you look at the last page this is our 2025 covering class sizes and the number of sections we have by grade level that Dr J put together for us and then our projected class sizes based on this year's currents so you you will see some areas where we have some lows and highs and each year we look at that um and in some cases as we shift to teacher up or down um wherever the need is we do that just that's an annual thing we do as a um leadership team together um we also will look to see if there's any offsets in enrollment that will allow us to shift a position to one of the needs that we have on the priority list um as we get closer to the end of the year and that's something we do each year as well is our second gr small if I look at this year it's because um the way that that's written is the current number of teachers in those grades for this year okay so if you look some numbers look really high in class size and some look really low so as Dr kusus says those are the current FTE in each grade level what we will do once our we figure out the enoll shifts is then we recalibrate those numers realiz there was such second grade classes so I think well it's because you went up a teacher in third grade where's Mont one and two or K through [Music] two we're not currently full no we the numbers here see where it says mon 68 oh those are the those are the sorry that's it's a that it's the age grade yeah okay Frank kind of your question jie was saying like and Susan and I talk about this how we would show the two want to show you what would happen if that same class moved up to the next year and just acknowledge that teachers potentially move and those are something you know the all the principles are well aware of um those situations that might might occur so looking at looking at grade three and four I'm going to ship that one section to hopefully to four because that will cover that bubble that's moving through there yeah and when it's just um in the same building it's not considered a transfer but we do try to you know see if there's someone that's interested first but um it isn't really considered a transfer if we move a building then we have to look for in voluntary transfers first and then we would go to involuntary but in the building um from y year principles have some discretion over that based on needs of students for example we talked last year a lot about the bubble that move the group that moved from fifth grade to sixth grade um that group will move and that's why you see in sixth grade eight teachers instead of 10 and then you know when moved on to the next year you'll see that kind of highlighted area specifically for for that next group so why it's showing 25.8 in sixth grade and 18.2 really we would move that set those set of teachers got which no one loves to do but a reality is we have to deal with the the students in front of us and how to meet their needs I can recall when I taught Elementary going from first to third to Fourth and in my last year they were moving me to fifth so the small of the building that happens even more frequently but we try to avoid as much as guess I'm concern High School future so that concludes our priority needs unless you have further questions that you'd like us [Music] answer inhibits for a little bit you know [Music] just any any other questions or do you guys have anything else you'd like to add what's that well so so I guess we can we can walk through the process here because in what so we talked yesterday in budget sub I know the town um would like our they like to have our number whether they can meet it or not that the school committee will vote on um but they like to have my estimated budget number um they would like it by February 14th so we currently have our budget presentation scheduled for February 27th which has been similar the last since I've been here it's been late feary we've done it but I did talk to um Dan and Don and Frank yesterday about moving it to February 13th since we have a meeting that night so David and I are going to work on putting together the presentation um with all of the part one two and three and the priority needs we will go back with the principles and see if we want to adjust and rethink any of the priority needs we're certainly open to feedback from you if you if there are things that you've seen here that you would like us to um prioritize less I guess if there's something that you we will you know come together and decide if there's things that we still need to move forward for the um budget presentation but some of this by that point we may actually take off and rethink as well um but I do want to get that done February 13th just to get that number at least out there to the public in the town so so Dr Kus has the unable sort of job of doing the first cut of the budget because obviously as you get further along in the budget process you know more and you can you can Whittle it down um but the schools are unique and down in that so there are four tiers to sort of the budget process in the towns side and everyone can tune out now as I get my fin hat on but anyway the tier one is normally the department request which is is usually of of the voted of the board or the department head working with the the Town Administrator um because our process is a little longer because we have a larger budget we use the superintendent's budget even if our the request will be um our officials or board request will be different in the future um and so in order to get it to as part of the budget package that's going to go out with the Town Administrator um recommended budget uh we he needs to sooner rather than than than later and then you'll usually vote in March so we can get it into the paper the March or yeah something late March early late March yeah so that we voted and there's a budget hearing yeah a few weeks a couple weeks later and then has been in the town warrant the other thing we need to talk about I know there's there's an email that went out today actually isn't really on our agenda but as far as we do need to discuss at some point the uh State the governor's budget came out and that's disappointing and and was that higher than last I'll have to go look I don't think it may have been higher than the initial Governor's cut from last year but um not from where we ended up I don't think so we we'll have to go back over that and and see how we want to what we want to do with that um but we're still January thank you thanks everybody so at this point because we did post them separately we'll entertain a motion to adjourn and then we will reconvene for our next meeting at 7:00 so uh that is a misprint if you look at the top dat bud it's actually closes for seven so we can't we couldn't need over from say around s it does say approxim the official posting so I'll entertain a motion to adjourn all right all favor yes all right we are adjourned at uh 555 Don if you would turn this off and then uh guys us ready for the 7 o' e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e [Music] all right Don we'll get started uh good evening uh welcome to the January 23rd 2025 uh regular meeting of the hallon school committee we will get right into things we have the uh consent agenda with some some gifts and warrants um does anyone have any any changes for any of that stuff okay so I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda second all right all in favor thank you um reports from our student uh rep um so tickets are on sale for student directed 1X they are on February 7th and 8th track senior night for girls is tomorrow girls track um one their relay and boys basketball had their first sweep like Varsity JB and freshman all won 37 people competing competed at um Deca districts are going to States and the other day there was a service learning community event and that's where students that took the service learning elective had the chance to present their project to the community and tomorrow is finals and so is Monday good luck thank you um scho can we [Music] call just a couple things there is a um con service Tuesday feary 10th at and 11th school it's a pretty cool kind Community Building um empathy building exercise students and staff just real briefly um I was looking to to come to the service learning night um last night and see some of the projects that our students have put together um projects on um renewable energy uh there was a project on um unified uh theater uh I know we've heard about the unified basetball program I thought that was another outstanding project and our State Rep was here as well last night um to uh learn more about the students projects uh we have a mock trial team at the high school I think for the first time in many years and they competed last Wednesday and we'll compete again tomorrow um and then as for uh girls and boys indoor track competed at the Massachusetts division 4 state relay meet last weekend and the girls for the second year um did take first place congrats um and and I do not have anything tonight uh so at this point we'll move on to uh to public comment um we have public comment in the room if there's anyone online uh that we just speak if uh they could use the raise hand function just so I can call on them after we take the public comment from the room um but uh first an if you'd like to to come up you just yeah good evening good evening everyone thank you for the opportunity to speak a public comment um I've done this before and um I'm a little nervous tonight um little um lot going on with school and finals getting ready for finals so I don't have my thoughts all together but um I have a lot to say and obious about um the math leveling and um so I just I I'll give a little history of myself an canot 1135 Highland Street a lot of I know a lot of the people on the school committee um I know that Don and Cynthia you've had your children come through the school um and you know you know the process of where we've been and where we're going um I've lived in town for 37 years I've been employed by the hollison public school for about 25 I've held many roles during my tenure here at hollison public schools math teacher math and business department leader and assistant principal I have volunteered for many committees over the years I come here tonight as a parent Community member in a math teacher our daughter is entering entering sixth grade in the fall and we want to ensure that she has access to the best best education possible that meets her needs this includes all subjects but tonight I will focus on math and I just want to say that being a math teacher in Holliston Public Schools is really challenging because we hear so much it's always about math it's always about math what we don't do right what we do wrong what we can do better and it doesn't just come from the community it comes from a lot of different places and it's hard and I think that people need to stop and think about that and I want to thank Hillary I just met her tonight but I really want to thank her because last week at the last committee meeting and I'm paraphrasing what you're saying obviously I have my brain is not in a good spot but I'm paraphrasing what you said um what I heard you say was you were asking the Math teachers to accomplish many tasks at this time and all at once and you listed off I think five things I can't even list them off even though I'm doing them every day um and adding more is not a good idea and that is a fact that is a fact we are working so hard to teach our students which is number one bring on this new curriculum trying to have common assessments trying to do vertical alignment trying to differentiate as best we can and it's hard and um the other thing I want to say and I talking to a couple guidance counselors is that if you have not been in the classroom since covid and this isn't a covid excuse this is just kids are just different it's not their better it's not their worse it's just their different and their requirements are just different so I'm going to leave it at that as far as what's happening but I really want to thank Hillary for recognizing those things um a little background information I've participated in the last math curriculum Review Committee which was um when the new framework came out in 2011 and I think we worked on that for like three years a threeyear process we realigned everything for those of you who may not know we used to have so many math classes we used to use Chicago math series there was so many different math we we we we put it down to a a more um a more of a flow for other um like other school districts um and then we had leveling we brought back leveling we followed the desie guidelines if you want to accept accelerate math if you want kids all kids to have access to calculus you have to have acceleration points and desie puts out three Pathways I have all that information I can share with the school committee in case they're not familiar one of the pathways is that you level in seventh grade and in seventh grade you're a seventh and eighth grade you're able to get through the seventh and eighth grade standards and some of the algebra if you level in seventh grade you get through enough Al algebra that kids can go and take Algebra 2 if you those kids that are in honors algebra if you do not level math in seventh grade the algebra class cannot get enough standards covered for kids to go to Algebra 2 I know Ron Taylor said that last week that is not true you C you you don't have those standards and I have that all laid out so I just want people to be aware that when we did the last ccum review we were very thoughtful as of what we did I know I'm on a a time frame okay so I watched the last school committee meeting last week and I was I was surprised that the math study group was all of a sudden was already was already um reporting their findings I wasn't surprised that they wanted to Del it it it it it wasn't surprising to me um and this is where I'm going to be really honest about what happened in the math curriculum review and I know that individually teachers came and spoke to school committee members but we were concerned in scared about our jobs to be honest but I'm going to be honest because this is how I feel in the fall of 2023 a math curriculum Review Committee we established um we it consisted of 13 Math teachers PRK to 12 three curriculum Specialists Ron tale our assistant principal math background David Kim and Joanie manard um we met at least monthly to gather information do a traditional curriculum review we spent several meetings discussing the pros and cons of leving seventh and eighth grade every meeting David was involved in a lot Joanie was involved in a lot a lot of meetings came back to it on October 24th 2023 there were 15 members in attendance two people Joanie and James didn't vote because they thought they shouldn't um we voted on what we wanted to do with leveling we unanimously said that we want to continue leveling and we want to bring seventh grade leveling back at that point there was some heated discussions um David Jordan suggested that we ankor the group in research the next meeting we did that we did a chalk talk we have all those notes from chalk talks and then on December 20th Dr kuska came to our meeting and there was only nine members there and it was decided that there wasn't enough members there to continue the vote so that we would just we'll just delay leveling until the fall and that we would that we would put together a study group to talk about all courses and all leveling fast forward to um the springtime um it was only the MTH study group there wasn't all the different levels so it's really concerning to me that this happened and I'm here and I'm passionate about this I'm passionate for all the work I've done in my career here I'm passionate for the students coming forward and I just really think I'm going to ask the school committee to really slow down on these decisions and get information from everybody not just the people that are on the that were on that committee that committee consisted of five members Joanie Jamie slany Ron Taylor KLA cruss who is is a stem coordinat at coordinator at Rams with as a science teacher and Leah um Barton the stem coordinator at the high school who was a biology teacher and I think Sarah Dorian was the only math teacher on that committee um one of the biggest problems I have and I just found out this past week was that one of the people on the committee was Tas with putting together a flowchart as to what happens in 8th grade to the high school and high school did not have an opportunity to vet that flowchart and there's a lot of misinformation on that and it's just really concerning that this stuff is happening and I'm sorry if I've offended people it's not about the people it's about the positions and I'm a I'm a Community member too and I have a parent in the school and I really wish the school committee would just hold off and give more opportunity to this discussion and I'm sorry if I've overstepped my bounds but that's how I feel thank you and I'm not the only one there's a lot of other Mount teachers that if you speak to I'm sure they would feel the same way thank you thank you is there anyone on the zoom I thought I saw hand yes Sean wants to speak okay Sean go ahead we can't hear can you all hear me okay yes yes yes okay I'm I'm sick so I apologize in advance here um so I'm Sean Belo I'm the U High School band teacher music teacher um I'm here to publicly state for my colleagues and for the members of our community that I was involuntarily removed from the HHS scheduling committee by Union leadership as a retaliatory measure for voting in favor of advancing a schedule framework recommendation the Frameworks that hft leadership has subsequently put forth are regurgitations of schedules that the committee has previously determined are either not obtainable or will actually further deepen disparities and widen learning gaps these are the very issues that prompted us to look at schedules in the first place over the months of work on the committee it has become apparent to me that Union leadership lacks empathy communication skills and drive to work collaboratively to create an environment where all students can thrive in their own words this is about power not about students union leadership purposely withheld part of the recommendation to the Federation in order to fit their narrative most disheartening to me is that during the meet during our meetings Union leadership voiced that the needs of students particularly those with IEPs and 504s should not factor into the schedule because they are in fact the minority so why should we up upend everything for a few Union leadership took the same view towards colleagues and subjects who were also advocating for change to better support their students educational needs in pursuit of these viewpoints Union leadership threatened me with consequences for having conversation with conversations with colleagues so that I could gain a better understanding of their needs and advocate for them Union leadership's behavior during our meetings was quite frankly embarrassing I was squashed shushed and silenced for attempting to get people to listen to one another Union leadership stormed out of meetings when things did not go their way we want students to treat each other with respect especially when working through tough issues and there was a clear lack of good modeling on that front though I was warned by new new leadership that there would be consequences if I did not fall in line at the end of the day I had to do what I needed to do to be able to look at myself in the mirror knowing that I did what I could for our students because they deserve it I sincerely hope that as that committee moves forward they're able to work collaboratively for the benefit of all thank you thank you thank you John is there anyone else on Zoom who uh there is but there's no hand ra no hand raised all right if you I'll give one more opportunity if someone else who's on there wants to raise their hand to make public comment there's an iPhone on there but no hand rais or no hand rais no name okay so um thank you very much and uh we will uh we'll move forward into our uh [Music] presentations we have a student presentation tonight oh sorry oh there she is yes Civics sorry Mr mlau is going to put it up for you so if you want to come up to the mic and then he can advance the slides for you if you just let him know thank you sorry I didn't see you look you can come yeah wherever you feel comfortable hello uh my name is Amilia Holmes I'm a junior here at hollon High School your sorry um I tend to speak quickly so if I'm talking too fast just please let me know and stop me feel free to stop me if you have any questions um okay so first off I'm part of the Global Citizens program and I'm sure you all know that what that is but it teaches students how to be active participants in their local and Global communities so part of this project entails completing a service project and for mine I'm responding to a need of the community the state of Massachusetts and even ation wine for increased civic education you can click the slot okay so why is it important to engage students in civic education at HHS well given the current political climate of the United States it is becoming increasingly important to cultivate engaged informed and passionate citizens next slide um however recent Generations are showing a heightened sense of political fatigue Cambridge researchers collaborated with the human surveys project in almost every global region and found that among 18 to 34 year olds satis satisfac satisfaction excuse me with democracy is at its steepest decline one cause of this is democratic backsliding Democratic backsliding is when democratic governments begin to erode through restrictions on rights and participation because of this in the United States young people are voting less they're rejecting party affiliations and they're expressing disillusion with the government in research data however this does not mean young people people don't care about Civic issues I ran a survey last spring asking students about their political awareness and only five out of 66 of the participants indicated that they had no issues that concerned them on a national and Global s Gale and only 10 of 66 had no concerns at a local level young people still have issues that concern them and that should be addressed and taken seriously which could be accomplished through a high school Civic curriculum um on top of democratic backsliding a un global global survey found that 76% of respondents under 30 think politicians do not listen to Young People another reason for the high numbers of political fatigue by allowing students to solve real life problems and engage in their Community we can show them they have more power and autonomy than they think go to the next slide so how do we engage these students Civics is a required class for all eighth graders in massachusett and while there's no requirement for high school students are required to fulfill a Civic Action Project during their High School career you can go to the next slide um at hollison high school this project currently lives in the foundations class which is a freshman year requirement and this Civic action entails by defined in the 2018 history and social science curriculum framework is to develop Civic knowledge skills and dispositions a civic's Action Project should be taught by teachers of the social studies Department with a Civic Centric course within a Civic Centric course in order to successfully engage students in the subject matter and the problem they've chosen to address with their project the issue with the existing Civics education is that it's often it often occurs through discussion rather than participation the sentiment among Civics education experts is that a highquality Civics education is incomplete without teaching students what Civic par participation looks like in practice and how citizens can engage in their communities that's why the style of a service learning curriculum would be the most beneficial for hon high school students Service Learning is an existing course at the high school and while it is required for meths of the Global Citizens program it is not a current requirement for all I took this class myself last year and it does invite and encourage discussion still but it is focused on teaching students how to practice real Civics problem solve and how EMP and have empathy for others in our world and that's how my project that I'm presenting to you now came to be I think it would be really beneficial to all students if it was taught as they came through hollon high school um and then I have a graph on the next slide that represents so basically what I was saying about it being more about discussion than participation the dark blue indicates like how many of um surveyed 12th grade students have not done this thing and the lighter it gets the more that they've done it so as you can see the more frequent activities include discussing current events giving a presentation taking class or taking part in debates or panel discussions while the least likely is to write an actual letter to give an opinion or to help solve a problem that's it great thank you thank you any questions good job you just do a point we did discuss in our policy about graduation requirements and there was a discussion around Civics um but there'll be more to come with um David L is going to be presenting about his recommendations to the changes to the handbook um reflecting grad graduation requirements and credentialing and all that and part of it would be that if we were at something like Civics it would have to be like for the an incoming class so probably what was it 2028 the earliest would be like class of 2028 to do St to implement that did you also discuss any volunteer hour or any service learning type um we didn't we didn't get specifically into that yeah he said he was going to be presenting for us to share about that but we were talking about things like because of mcast and and then also just talking about classes that we know that are not really supporting students as we need them to um and so he was going to present on that and also about Civics which was part of our discussion so thanks for bringing up I guess outside of requirements though and policies or anything good open Pathways for students to get engaged without being like policy definitely is one way requirement but for students that want to get involved seems like there a misunderstanding of what how to get involved or lack of ability to directly get involved and participate I think really moving to make sure that the Civics requirement is met by all students is important and we are we have moved towards that direction and I that really would be better served not by policy but by program of studies Mr list is trying to see that you'll see some um potental changes that he'll be um putting forth this year the student mentioned the foundations course it is a little bit outdated as it is so this is an opportunity potentially to shift some of those courses and update them to to make sure we are covering that information let's we you start doing it through policy it actually slow down the process where Mr list can do this annually present to you don't know how to or are limited in getting involved um before we make it a requirement uh cuz then it becomes yes they're getting it done but the energy and positivity may not be there we are required though to do it in uh and 10th right so are it could doesn't have to be like a semester year long class so like elections up for ex example an elected class you can take but I think the opportunities for public speaking as a result of these courses is also a huge need for our students and they've done such you know speaking of the service learning last night they do such an awesome job by having those opportunities and this allows more students to have those opportunities okay great um shaa and so you're on here twice in in different places but what I think we do is you can give your first presentation and then we'll pull up the new business for the for the trip to allow you to to do all of your stuff and and if you want to leave then you can okay great thank you thank you hi everybody I'm shaa Frost um if we haven't met before I am an English teacher up here at the high school and um I shared an impact report um that Megan bark shared with me she's a 2020 sorry a 2017 Holliston High School graduate and um she attended villain NOA and while she was in undergrad she started working on a nonprofit organization called wear quados and since then Megan and I have partnered in a variety of ways um I shared some of the highlights of that partnership in the wear queros 2024 impact Report with Susan and David list and a few others um and that's what leads me here tonight because Susan invited me to share with all of you so this is really lovely and wonderful for me to share because I've been an English teacher up here at the high school for 20 years which um affords me the special experience of seeing students four years out of high school 5 years out of high school 10 years out of high school 20 years out of high school and have maintained those relationships and some of them have really gone off to do some amazing things and have kindly returned to Holliston to partner with Holliston um and so that waiting time of allowing students to graduate from Holliston go to college establish their careers and then make their way back is something that I think comes with longevity when you've been a teacher in the system for a while so I just want to tell you a little bit about how Holliston High School has partnered with Megan and the community um so first of all wear quados the word quados is a play on the word San in ity and the mission of wear queros is to make clothing and embroider clothing for people who might benefit from some sensory stimulation and clothing that provides either discreet or more apparent um soothing patterns and the inspiration for where queros came from Meg having a family member um who was going through some challenges and it started with Meg embroidering a patch on her siblings um item of clothing and then finding at a lot of hospitals there were patients who did not have personal clothing and only had hospital gowns and so M started donating a lot of the embroidered clothing to hospitals throughout the state and throughout the region and there was an explosion of response um Meg has presented at the nursing college at um Boston colleges and she is a paid consultant to visit high schools throughout the state we're very fortunate because I have a strong relationship with Meg and she's come to Holliston for free on multiple occasions with a Starbucks bribe and that's about it so we took a little drive- through Starbucks and um she and I have that relationship so I've been really lucky to be able to have her in as a guest speaker so I'm just going to pass around the impact report so you can take a look this is a hard copy and I know it's been shared with you as well and I'll be brief at this point but first the Beautiful Mind Campaign which the school committee approved when Meg was a sophomore um 10 years ago at Holliston High School a little over 10 years now now uh partnered with wear queros and hdac that's the hollisten um drug and alcohol um awareness Coalition thank you so we had Community we had we queros with a graduate and our own students um we also worked with our student ambassador for project 351 um there are 350 1 high schools in Massachusetts and there's an ambassador that represents each individual high school so together with wear queros hdq beautiful mind campaign project 351 and the New England Patriots we were able to launch the green bandana project and the green bandana project was a Statewide project that the New England Patriots and other organizations helped fund by providing materials stitching embroidery everything that was needed floss etc etc um and we launched a mental awareness campaign last March um and Meg highlighted and featured her partnership with hollon and other school communities and her report so I just wanted to share that with all of you to let you know that this is what's happening and these are the relationships that continue well beyond students four years at hollon high that they come back and they are coming back as entrepreneurs as activists and they're willing to come back to this community because it's so great and we have so many good programs here to inspire the next generation of Holliston graduates and show them what they can do so thank you Susan for inviting me to share that tonight because I was just going to send an email but I ended up here no I I really think it's important because we don't always get to see what students do postgrad and I wish we had a better way to capture that so we're trying to think of ways to get more students back so I'm glad you have these connections and I thought you know it's important for us to hear the amazing things that students and staff do well beyond the four years that they're in high school so thank you thank you great thank you this is like amazing really impressed with so I was on the committee when we actually and she launched the Beautiful Minds campaign I could give us 100 members of that and then it grew to go down middle school and you know she's a really impressive young woman and I'm so glad that she's doing so well and that she's bringing her talents across Massachusetts and bringing them back to here too so kudos to Megan and thank you for presenting this thank you any other uh comments or questions this is great it's a lot of information I've looked through some of it but I want to read the whole thing so but appreciate you coming in and talking about it um so at this point we have new business as a is the uh field trip to to Thailand and so we'll just pull that forward to now to allow you to do everything at once um is there something you we and thank you I appreciate that so um I am also one of the Global Citizens co-advisors with the coordinator Caitlyn Mills and the additional co-advisors Doug clay and Erica clay and when we started the global citizenship program at Holliston which Amelia is part of and did such a nice job and we're staying to support each other tonight um we knew that travel would be an integral part of developing and fostering global citizenship um travel can be lifechanging for students especially in expanding their work world view and giving them opportunities to learn about different cultures um and for the Global Citizens program specifically we've been focusing on travel opportunities that are very specific to the United Nations sustainable development goals so we understand that students May travel for cultural experiences with their families exchange programs language ex changes and all of those are a really important part of personal development in global perspective but in the Global Citizens program we really try to hone in on a specific sustainable development goal so as all of you know in less than 3 months 36 students and six chapons are traveling to Northern Italy on a sustainable farming tour we're going to be in the Alps on farms rolling up our sleeves and and really learning about hydroponic farming biodiversity invasive species sustainability and then from there we travel to Southern France and returned to Boston from France that's a nday tour and students could not wait to sign up so now I'm asking for your approval for a 2027 tour um our goal is to offer opportunities to students students to travel with the global citizenship program every other year and we'd like to alternate between a eurocentric trip and a trip that is outside of Europe um the trip that I'm asking for approval for is a 12-day tour in Thailand and we selected this tour based on student feedback the desire to explore South Asia and really alternate between Europe and something outside of of Europe um but also it offers a service learning opportunity that is really unique and special um again it's a 12-day tour it would happen over April vacation in 2027 and um 5 days of that tour would involve students actually working volunteering at an elephant Sanctuary called poooo paper Park and I know that name is kind of gross but what they actually do is they collect um the stuff from the elephants and they recycle it and they make paper out of it and they swear that it doesn't smell at all so wrapping paper cards writing paper all of this really wonderful stuff the elephants that are there um cannot really be reintegrated into the wild so they are there as teaching animals and we would not be there as tourists we would be there as volunteers two days of the tour would consist of job training where we would learn how to care for Aid support clean up greet people and then 3 days we would be lodging outside of the park but arriving at the park every day to fulfill our roles for the day and really immerse oursel in that um the rest of the tour is more or less cultural visiting shrines temples marketplaces um museums so um we're really excited about the prospect of doing this in 2027 um it's a bold adventure and I think it's a Once in a-lifetime opportunity for a lot of people to be able to do something like this our Global citizen are ready for it they're chomping up the bit they can't wait to go if it's approved um so are there any questions is there any information I can provide for you yeah who Bears the cost of this trip is the families and students yeah so the families and students bear the cost of the trip um the cost of the trip is a $340 difference between the Italy trip and the Thailand trip and the Thailand trip is four additional days so the cost difference really isn't that much but there are a few things that I want to share with you number one EF International tours the company that we're working with offers a global citizen scholarship they distribute 100 of those scholarships $1,000 per recipient so they're very generous with their scholarships and this year one of our Travelers did apply and was awarded a scholarship $1,000 scholarship ship um students also receive personal fundraising pages and when they use that page for to solicit donations to fundraise money 100% of the money that is fundraised goes to their balance and the third thing is now that we're building momentum at Holliston High School and we're traveling with ef International tours um the Global Citizens program is not the only program that is looking for approval um students are traveling to Japan next year too EF offers Global reward travel points and those points the more we travel um AC crew and can be used to award students in need financial support um we have some flexibility with how we distribute the points among our students or we could distribute the points evenly so even though the cost to Thailand is $340 more because we have the global Reward Points it will bring that cost down so again students have the opportunity to apply and receive scholarships um fund raise and this year I didn't have any Global rewards points to distribute because I had never traveled with the group before but in 2027 we can distribute those points and the reason you're coming now is because you want the students want to have time to achieve the goal of getting the funds for 2027 that's another piece so um Thailand in 2027 would allow students 25 months of financing which comes out to at cost without the global reward points or any fundraising $209 a month and so the longer they are enrolled the more time they have to spread out that [Music] payment so just a quick question so this year is Italy yes next year's Japan which I'm not affiliated so this is a different okay yeah so that's why every other I got you know now so just the yep I'm just with the Global Citizens and the global citizens are offering this opportunity every other year okay do use fundraising program or is it up to the students individually to organize their own fundraising it's up to the students individually to organize their own fundraising um and EF offers a sort of guide book to fundraising things that you can do like auction off you know baked goods to your family or have a lottery with your family and um because they all have their own individual Pages if we fund r as a large group it can be a little tricky to distribute that um but that's something that we definitely want to work on and look more into and and think through that to make it more accessible to students has the global citizenship leadership considered potentially doing exchange programs instead of shorter trips much the way the French exchange students uh Exchange program is operating because that would cut those costs significantly and the students would actually be there there for a longer period of time and actually be able to engage in a cultural exchange where someone would come over here and they would go over there that been discussed cuz I feel like that seems like a more logical way to go than to you know have a a 12-day I mean it just seems the price is just to me barely expensive when I look at it um I don't know what your thoughts are about it but um so we have not explored an exchange program um and the French immersion students do have that opportunity to do the French immersion exchange programs um and there are different companies that offer different opportunities to students um so Forum International does a really nice job with language exchanges that's something that my daughter did when she was in high school and she did a language exchange um in the Global Citizens program we we really are focused on giving students an opportunity to learn about sustainability and um Wildlife life on land Life Below water and really get into the sustainable development goals as a group and Bond as a group that's a big piece of it too because when we're traveling together and exploring um you know all of these new opportunities together it I think it will really bring the group together to bond um but that's something that maybe in the future we could definitely look at and do we just haven't explored that yet okay um so the the reason you're here is that we need to sort of approve these international field trips um are people uh ready to do that I just a question so how long 0 so Italy is 9 days Thailand is 12 days because it includes the 5 days of service learning and that's really the key to this tour it's not just travel and it's not just a cultural tour it's not simply let's go to Thailand it is Service Learning so students really are going to be trained um at this sanctuary and learn about their processes um it's just going to be an invaluable experience for them as Global Citizens not only exploring the world but really rolling up their sleeves volunteering making a difference and learning about the ins and outs of wildlife rescue it sounds like an amazing opportunity but I the cost is concerning just thinking about access those even with fundraising you um as you're looking past this trip to others forther G are you exploring other opportunities to meet the same goals travel um but at a more price point that more kids could take advantage of yeah we definitely keep price point in mind and as far as the service learning trips go this was the most affordable um Europe is going to be just under $5,000 and so there are um Service Learning opport unities and tours that are more expensive than this and then there are certainly opportunities that are less expensive um where we could travel to national parks within the United States um but knowing that every few years we have a brand new batch of Global Citizens this may be the first and the only time they get to experience something outside of the United States and really on this level with their group so um we see some students repeating tours you know and the affordability of that um I imagine can be really challenging and they're going to want to fund raise but for a lot of students this is that one opportunity when my daughter did the language exchange and that was an exchange it did cost our family $5,000 and we budgeted for her knowing this will be the only time that she'll do a language exchange um and we definitely encouraged her to fund raise um I was aware of scholarships although she did not apply and unless you apply you're not going to be granted the scholarship um so yeah you know um the the cost is not easy on all families and I empathize with that because I've been there and um with my own children um so that's why I wanted to start early to give families the opportunity to really spread out that budget and do their fundraising and again remember I'm going to be applying travel points to their accounts in order to alleviate the burden of the cost students are still able to be part of the Global Citizens endorsement without having to budget for and pay for a trip like this right they could with their take a trip to Canada of or with their family take a trip to a local like a national park but this this is not a requirement of the global citizenship program it's just an opportunity and it's an opportunity that students really want um students asked how you know what what's the cap on this because they think that we're going to need two groups they're ready to go they're ready to sign up they can't wait for it um even Amelia was saying gosh I wish that I didn't miss the boote on this because Amelia will be a 12th grader next year so you'll be a freshman in college by the time we travel right and we were having that conversation today um but our we recognize all of the opportunities that Global Citizens Embrace both on a local and Global level so whether they're involved in the French Exchange program or traveling with another group or with their families um that's something they can perspectives they can bring to the table and no this is not a requirement it's just an opportunity all right so um well I think if people are ready will entertain a motion to to approve this trip though I would say just let's continue to um to to look into different ways of of of providing additional support for students so that those you know can't afford this naturally might have more opportunities to do so just as we go forward keeping it sustainable persective and there are other countries that we could go to that really that touch us we could go to Canada we could go to Mexico or something like that and still be pursuing the same objectives um it may be less expensive and more accessible so yeah and um that's another reason why every other year we want to be really Mindful and look at where we're going so if incoming nth graders next year feel as though Thailand is a little far it's 12 days expensive or anything like that um 2 years from then we'll be doing something closer and maybe looking at Mexico or England or Ireland or Canada or national parks within the United States and really trying to I think the goal is to try to give students of a variety um and really that service learning piece is a big one with this tour not all tours offer the service learning opportunities so that was a big um attraction for this one in particular I also hear Greenland's amazing um there is a component of missing school for this though right I'm sorry if it's 12 days they do miss some school as well yes students would miss a little bit of school either end yeah okay so uh someone like to make a motion to approve this second okay Sarah all those in favor oppos okay that carries thank you very much thank you thank you so much thank you thank you Amia you both moral support all right um we have a policy yeah it's a second reading it's a second we don't actually have to read it then right I don't have to if anybody has something else they want me to change other than the typos that we in pretty much it um okay so um we can wave it and go to a motion to well entertain a motion to wave the second reading and and do we approve it or we have to go to we have to approve and then approve uh J J NC acceptable use of digital resources second all in favor all right catching up um central office updates yeah just a couple for me um couple of updates on um I did have a well I guess I'll start first with as uh many of you know we um are looking to finalize a decision in place a permanent principal at Rams and the interviews will take place with Dr Menard and Mr list are going to be leading those next week they're having a meeting on Tuesday the 28th and then they'll do the interviews on the 30th and I do think we still are seeking if you're able um a volunteer from the school committee if they if you could take part in those if you'd like to if you can't we understand that but we do always offer a slot for school committee to participate in those interviews so I don't know if anyone is available um but if if so if you could let us know tonight Joanie would um add you and get the invitations out to anyone interested were the dates again the 28th from 3:30 to 4:30 and then the 30th from 3:00 to 8:30 it's a very long rigorous schedule but they going to do all the interviews in one night so that they're not bringing people back to follow the 28th is a zoom meeting doing to sell [Laughter] it 28 is a zoom meeting interim search like all day for two days I'm sorry the interim search was I thought we did but we did shter blocks we did two smaller blocks yes for the in and it was a more expedited um process like two days I think two but it was also um I think it was in the summer so we didn't so we didn't have um the teacher schedules they flexibility the teacher that sat on now we have to go around the teacher schedules as well and students because we will have a student on there so anyone able to to interest in doing it so sorry the dates again are at the 28 28 3:30 to 5 3:30 to 4:30 by zoom and then 30 the 30th 3 to 8:30 in person that's Central in the confence room I know it's a lot we're not trying to pressure we just wanted to the earliness no one able to do it Sarah wants do the 2 the 208th are just going over the process though it's not the interview so when you put Sarah down and and then we'll send you the information I will send you the information and then you can let me know and when do you anticipate making a decision and announcement so they will then that night recommend finalist and send that to me on Friday probably and then I will meet any of the finalists the weekend I'm trying to expedite this and get this resolve because we also will then have to post potentially um post if if Miss Manning were the candidate we would then post the um assistant principal role as well which is an interim role so we want to plan for that and be mindful of that okay um I will add so yesterday I did have my Ram student Round Table they're amazing all of the kids I mean I've had my regular Round Table meetings at all levels and the middle schoolers yesterday I did say to them I really would like to hear um you don't have to talk about Miss Manning per se I would just like to hear your thoughts about what you would like to see in a permanent principal at Rams and they did give me amazing feedback about Miss Manning in particular even though I wasn't trying to put them on the spot with that um but they also gave me a lot of information about the characteristics they they look for kindness and empathy people that listen to them just a lot of great things and a lot of characteristics I described of our current principal so it was nice to hear and we do have a student I believe that will sit in on the process next week as well and then my only other thing was I I lost um so okay I know I lost my it's okay I forgot what I was so that's fine uh doc uh can you bring up the presentation please I have a very quick presentation to show you what we were able to accomplish on January 17th so we had a full day and very productive and since director McLoud is here I'm going to HT it to him on a few times so you can move it so take this one all right U sure so we had a cyber security expert from Arctic and and Company uh Boston and Springfield locations he spoke to the uh entire District uh here at the high school and then at the middle school and uh he touched on pretty much all things cyber security you talked about the power school breach which is just I mean this this was planned months in advance so just the timing was kind of perfect for him to come in um so he touched on uh basically professionally like what what to watch out for like all the fishing uh no no surprises um Ai and how things are just becoming much more sophisticated you no longer see those errors in those emails like you used to see grammatical errors not anymore and then the next Frontier might be voice where the AI can and do kusk and I talked about this a bit you know capture her voice perhaps and use that to um socially engineer um fishing attempts so and yours right now and mine right now they although they don't care about directors of Technology they they like superintendents and principles mainly so the three of us are pretty safe um but it it was good that uh the audience had plenty of time to ask questions people were asking about aging parents and and all kinds of things so it was a personal and professional presentation because it's cyber security um so and it's also in our strategic plan so that was one of the presentations for ke yeah for all the teachers they also attended a lan marked a company that provides professional development uh Direct B was able to make the arrangement we had them come and talk to all teachers really getting them to understand the science of breathing and how it applies in all content areas you do not have to be teaching Ela in order for you to be responsible for that so they went through that and then all staff had an opportunity to in small groups really discuss some reflective questions and kind of get some ideas off each other how that really applies to their subject area next some other building based teacher PD we had at placentino they were working on Eureka MTH squared uh we had an elementary Ela curriculum review meeting uh Camy training for Miller two levels Mr McLoud if you want to expand on that yes so Camy used to be a resource mainly for special education students but um it's now expanded because it's great at for in accessibility so lots of students have you know different needs in the classroom so Camy offers an opportunity for teachers to differentiate um and integrates with Google Docs so teachers can easily open Camy within a Google doc and get all the features of that resource so we're piloting it this year for districtwide implementation um and determining if it's a good fit uh Rams they contined their social emotional work um they really they made a differentiated menu Choice option to meet staff where they were in their progression in social emotional learning at Rams um the 8ighth grade math team met with the math department chair here at the high school um to have some vertical alignment um conversations and then also at the high school they did work on vision mission and values regarding mtss the next one pair professionals were here day remember this their second full day um they had ruler training Which social emotional learning continuing training there they had uh data dive how it impacts their role in the classroom as Mr McLoud talked about they also attended the cyber security training and then they had training on accommodations and modifications for multilanguage Learners the nurses attended two different trainings um by um well trained staff from uh New England one was Trauma Symposium and the other one was pediatric cardiatric cardiac oops pediatric cardiac emergencies and covid impact on you we did have additional training virtual Choice boards for counselors sa's and school sites um for special ed slps OTS and PTs IEP accommodation some modifications um our unified Arts at the elementary level they looked at special services um protocols for their classrooms and then our counselors sac's and school syes and ssps had 504 training with Katie minel our one of our lawyers District lawyers so we're to pull dive any [Music] questions you're [Music] welcome um uh really brief just uh we have some walkthroughs with uh some of our potential candidates for maintenance technician who's replacing Matt robshaw who is our um moved into our director of Maintenance uh position um tomorrow down at plastino Miller and our excited to kind of get that um that position in our maintenance staff uh at um full uh full fill um there um one just acknowledging uh earlier this evening our principes who were here for their priority needs um now being at the other side of the table or in a different lead uh position leading into the budget cycle um and understanding uh having been here for for the last 12 years and how this builds out um I'm just very appreciative of of their presentations and identifying uh the needs of our district so thank you great thank you and yes that was a great uh job by the principles earlier z um moving on we don't have any Personnel but so we'll move to uh reports from the subcommittees communications and previous meetings so we caught up there which is great um again over the next [Music] weeks pa um we met on Tuesday and I did not schu us for another meeting but we will be doing that um discussing I mean we aren't discussing stuff obviously there's a few policies we have to bring up that need to be rescinded because other policies have taken in place and or they're redundant so we'll be bringing some resined policies forward I know exciting um probably at the next meeting J butet had a meeting yesterday uh our next meeting is Monday February 10th at 4:30 central office uh yesterday we went over some bud of minute uh minutes were approved we did an update on the fy2 operating uh budget and uh again discussed where we were with FY 26 uh we talked about um you know some of the budget impact of the school start times change uh and we we did a preliminary review of the f26 capital budget did you happen to get Transportation costs yet we are working on this so yes that's what we talked about in terms of of uh the bus contract and we will have more information in mid-February okay and um okay so super um we had to reschedule our meeting cuz some people were sick and the rest of us did not want to get sick so what did we resched I don't think it's on the calendar but I just looked up January 27th that's it 4 yeah 4:30 I it's aspirational for me to get there at 4:15 it's going yeah I just I just sent it for 4:30 hope you did yeah it yes oh there it works better yeah yeah I really try hard to get out of the office right at 4 it just doesn't seem to happen and I keep making people wait so I'm just going to say 4:30 it'll be fine okay all right moving on to Old business and uh so a high school schedule update I know there have been some questions that I've heard about online and and uh people have been asking so um just want to uh go over a few things so you know just as a reminder to the community um on May 20th 2024 the Hall of school committee came to a memorandum of agreement or an Mo MOA uh with the hollon Federation of teachers on a successor collective bargaining cont contract this agreement included the creation of a high school schedule committee subcommittee that was tasked with re uh researching and evaluating our current high school schedule and making a recommendation on a potential change to the schedule by January 1st the agreement went into effect on September 10th 2024 upon the passage of the operational override to fund the salary portion of the mo MOA uh between September 10th and December 20th the scheduling subcommittee met at least 10 times for over 30 hours and narrow narrowed down High School scheduling options and agreed to survey students teachers families uh and families regarding several High School scheduling options on December 20th 2024 the scheduling subcommittee voted to recommend a schedule to hollon school committee and the hollon Federation of teachers um for ratification per the mo MOA uh the agreement schedule option one was recommended in a vote supported by five of the eight subcommittee members four administrators and one teacher with the remaining three teachers either voting against all proposed schedules or abstaining at our meeting on January 9th 20 at our meeting me in the hollon school committee meeting on January 9th 2025 we notified the community that the hollon Federation of teachers uh had communicated to the hollon school committee that they had voted not to ratify the recommended schedule subsequently the hollon school committee voted to ratify the schedule um in its own vote um as recommended by the scheduling subcommittee due to actions and omissions by the hollon Federation uh the hft uh hft members on the scheduling subcommittee during the schedule subcommittee's meetings and leading up to the failed hft ratification vote on January 8th the hollon school committee filed an unfair Labor practice charge against the hollon Federation of teachers yesterday we assert that on multiple occasions the hft members of the schedule of the scheduling subcommittee members failed to bargain in good faith as required by Massachusetts labor laws um while I believe that it is unfortunate that we had to take this action I would unequivocally state that the hson school committee remains committed to working with the hft to implement a new schedule via good faith bargaining while we requested expedited review as part of our unfair Labor practice charge against the hft uh there is no guarantee that we will receive this expedit review um and even if we do that it will be you know we'll receive it ruling in time to implement a schedule for next year uh consequently because we must continue to move the district forward uh by addressing significant concerns with the existing schedule things that we've been talking about uh for a long time um uh with these uh we need to also look to moving forward simultaneously with an alternative path it's my in my view um so tonight I want to uh talk about and make a motion to um request that Dr kuska look into the feasibility of Minor Adjustments in the implementation of our existing high school schedule for the 24 sorry for the 25 26 school year to allow for classes to run year-long specifically I'd like to understand the feasibility of using the existing schedule to implement an AB class offering where classes meet every other day and students take eight classes at a time but for the entire year so the motion I want to make also includes a request to present the feasibility to the school committee in the near future um for our consideration on potentially voting to implement it next year so we're not voting on any implementation this year we want to look into it and we're asking uh Dr cuso to look into it um for for a potential future vote so before we do that I'm just curious when Mr list needs to make sure that the course schedules are set for next year students you know register for classes I believe in March right so I feel like there is that's part of the feasibility okay yeah okay so just be mindful that that's where it's still a deadline it's still near it's not like we can wait till May no no we're certainly not waiting till May um so we beet again twice in February right um so while this obviously isn't ideal uh you know we need to look at these Alternatives in case our filing cannot be resolved expeditiously as we work towards uh improving Equitable educational offerings for all students so you know this is this is not what I was hoping for um but at the same time there are such glaring issues with our current schedule that I think that we need to look at Alternatives so um we can open up to the floor we can someone can second the motion or did you make a motion already sorry I just want to make sure that just a question as we assess the feasibility altered the existing schedu it will take into account the additional 15 minutes and how would that be applied we'll have to work on that okay yeah would we hear feasibility by the next school committee meetings you think we haven't had a chance obviously since we my my hope would be that we could try to get that to you by February 13th um now that I if that's the vote that you make tonight but I would meet with u Mr list and probably have talked to Jordan since he's been involved in the high school schedule discussion as well so that would be my my U desire to get it to you as soon as possible because we are in a tight timeline to make changes and I would second the motion um any more questions or uh debate all right all those in favor I opposed okay that carries unanimously so um thank you okay uh additionally um we have in in in your in our folders a uh a communication to to send out to the uh to the community about this um do we want to just spend a minute just reading over it since we have Dan here now do we want to send up now or do we want to wait for tomorrow I think you should okay that's fine I added the the date up top for some reason when I make a changes it's not showing it'll be sent out to the to the community um email all [Music] most and the and and then the community members who have signed up for the yes just say it why are we taking the r off of L you took the r off I put it back what did I do an can we put the U into it yes December 30th yeah I know but even you say 2024 [Music] after I'm incorrect it is do tomor yest oh yeah 20 seconds no all day long period is there period there I can't tell a here to that's put in for this [Music] any other changes I'm just going to go and accept make sure it looks good [Music] [Music] I get [Music] everything we good that all right so I'll entertain a motion to uh approve the communication to be sent out to the uh to the community tomorrow those in favor thank you Dan can you make sure that when you send the communication out that it has all of our names and email addresses at the bottom of it I know that that's supposed to be happening but I haven't seen the communications happening that way okay thank you I don't we don't usually put email addresses on the bottom names put our names and our email address it's like okay we can but that's fine um so you can set you can you you want me to send this to you or can you grab it from the folder yeah okay so tomorrow morning sure thank you very much all right um so moving on the uh continuation of the the math uh the middle school math discussion um I put this on here in case you there's some more information we want to talk about tonight I I think we just wanted to share some possibil based on um what we were hearing and and the direction that you would like to go for next year so we can certainly again this is not a final or finite discussion but we wanted to just POS some um ideas to try to reach um the goal of trying to get Algebra 1 in to 25 26 for our Advanced students so we're going to show you a couple of um things here tonight so this is our current model and you know there could be a couple of minor things that need to be tweaked there but we currently have heterogeneous gr grade six Math in heterogeneous grade seventh math in eth grade is the when we do the leveling in both science and math we have the regular grade 8 math standards in the and then we also have algebra one part one so you can see I'm not going to go over all of that but you can see the opportunities that students have um going from either math or Algebra 1 and where they can go into the high school do do we have any kids that went from math 8 to Algebra 1 part two this year I can't answer that without having delved into it I don't have the data with me tonight so um we could get that I just didn't know we had any type of whether we had any kids who moved from math 8 to Algebra 1 part two there're in skipping over Algebra 1 part one I wasn't aware of any um meth like way to do that yeah okay I some of this was given from to us and um we've been trying to V it but we're you know just trying to get some information on sort of where we could go um knowing that there's still time to make tweaks and do some summer work to get there so what we were hearing is trying to get so the the current model um from talking to the teachers there are four standards that we're not covering in Algebra 1 in grade 8 that end up going into the part two in the high school just because they can't fit it all in right now so if we move on so what we would propose in the hope of trying to deal with some of the equity but knowing that it's be very tough to try to adjust next year we talked about trying to do alra one for you can I just interrupt for a second can you refresh it um because assistant principal Taylor's in there right now making some adjustments so I just want to okay yeah thank you y sorry so one of the things we're working on we talked about a lot of the training that we've been doing with teachers plus the changes that we've done with the math resources that we purchase so the standards are the curriculum and each grade level is expected to teach the math standards the tools that we bought are are trying to prioritize the standards and the training as well so really what we need to do mult for multip year process is to make sure that we're bringing more algebraic thinking in in all levels and there is algebraic thinking in the in the lower levels in elementary we're trying to bring that further down and then make sure that we're addressing it so that by the time they get to grade eight they can handle more advanced learning and algebra so last year we talked with the teachers and did some summer work about trying to take some of the math grade8 standards and bring them down to grade seven they have tried to do some of that it's been challenging they don't think they're going to be able to get to where they would like to get because it's a lot to fit in and similarly we talked about trying to bring more algebra um standards in grade 8 and at some point trying to bring standards down to grade seven I think there was only one standard that grade six had talked about trying to bring down and they probably haven't taught it yet so I I would assume that would be later in the year but ultimately um if we're looking for a multi-year trajectory even though the group that met the math study group was recommending deling to address the concerns around our Equity audit we know that that may not be the best route to take for next year because if we try to do alra one the way it exists right now with those four additional standards but they haven't had the math grade8 standards we'd be having gaps in there even more so so we would like to try to work with the teachers to see if we can take the current math the current algebra that's in grade 8 and work on that being the offering for most students and then the advanced students would get the full algebra one um why would a student NE this is for next year right so why would a student who's taking a full year of algebra 1 next year need to go into Algebra 1 part two in high school if they were struggling they might end up having to repeat some of it that's but they would go but if they're struggling they're going to go andge one part two honors well if you look at what I put above though this is the current model that they do at the high school so up above you can see ninth grade current that the hope would be as we proposed in our presentation last time that we would want our high school teachers to do a math study group to see if this is the change we make for next year that the following year they would want to try to adjust so that might not be I didn't want to change what we're doing already so what what I think would be I think helpful at least for me would be to see how it is now and sort of what I what I Cent out is the the the standards and the the modules that are being taught now M what are being and then in in all these classes and then what is being sort of proposed for next year for for these classes I just I want to see the the movement of of I can't you know because right now we're just saying Algebra 1 and it's sort of this you know seeing those seeing what is actually being taught sort of underneath to understand the movement and how it's being yeah I I do have that the issue right now is that we would want to work with the teachers to make sure that they can actually give that I I can I could tell you what we would like to do to try to get all alra one which is the four more additional standards that is done in currently in um algra one part two but we really would that's the work we would want to do with the teachers this spring which we talked about in our presentation before so right so maybe just putting together sort of the the what your your your thought would be for next year what you'd like to do for next year and then we you go back and have conversations with the teachers to see if that's actually possible I just I I understand what you're saying but it's sort of putting the cart a little bit before the horse but at the same time understanding what your model is and where you're striving to get to is important so I think to to Ann's Point earlier prior to uh 2019 they had the grade seven accelerated math and then three levels in grade eight and and we also are mindful of the work that we've done with the equity audit and all that work that would actually be backwards to where we're trying to progress so trying to move the algebra standards down to the lower grade level so that when we progress up they're ready to handle more algebra thinking in grade eight was the way we were trying to get the alra one that you had discussed um when you voted last [Music] spring gr six and seven these are dle grades your putting more pressure on teachers to teach more for students that maybe have different levels of learning yes which is what we do in elementary school I mean that's that's how I taught I had I taught grade three and four for 10 years and I had three levels of math within my classroom I mean that's that's how I taught I would start the lesson with one and then we try to differentiate to reach the other levels so you're never going to get every child there but if the goal is to try to do it at full algebra one in grade eight but also try to open up doors for other students we don't feel like we could do that in the without having at least the two levels right now we what I'm saying I know our goal is not necessarily to go back but we're putting more pressure on Sixth and Seventh in a homogeneous classroom that may already be struggling to teach the standards that are put forth increasing the amount of content that I have to teach and perhaps not getting it to the dep because youve got the I think isn't it heterog I the other piece is that it's it's tracked to like science as well like if you are in a certain you know math and you can't get a certain science either so that's sort of part of the problem I think so maybe go on to the next slide so this would be kind of way we we're thinking about is that the work next year in n9th grade would be that they would be looking at if we're were offering math 8 algebra in grade 8 and then Algebra 1 for advanced Learners in grade 8 and trying to open up and expand offerings for students then what should we be doing in ninth grade it is you know a little bit a Wonder like why we're taking our students in grade nine if we're if we're looking to do full algebra one in grade 8 a full year class but then in high school some of our students are getting two full years of algebra one in nth grade which doesn't all it seems counterproductive to me that we're looking to do a full year of alra one in grade 8 but then in grade n some of our kids are getting alra one part one and alra one part two which is actually because we have a semester schedule that's two years of math so well I think also that's probably why we should get the the high school math uh teachers involved in in in this and that's exactly why we would want them to have next year to start planning for the following year I going to head on this one so considerations for this was really back to the work that we had done in the past opening up more opportunities so students have opportunities to explore to the higher levels we're also right now we see students that have not been in the higher level math and have been basically tracked out of that but they are Cog ready at times and we haven't had a way to move them along um although the data that we showed I think at the last meeting does demonstrate that we have some students that are in lower levels that are actually achieving higher than some of the students in the higher levels so we definitely would have to look at the placement criteria so that we have opportunities for that movement because this is where the the the more you add levels the more you track students the more you actually close doors and that's the worry whereas in high school we do have the ability to expand and offer more opportunities for students because we're in teams we we really lock kids out even more so when you add teams and levels the kids are pretty much tracked all day and it is counterproductive to what you're trying to accomplish in other areas social emotional learning and things so this is this is how we are hoping to try to make that transition can we remove the teams which in a way would help transition them better to high school which doesn't have teams right so that that um you know is something we've talked about I feel like that is also something that teachers brought back it's it's predates me that was a big discussion of which is more important at Middle School and they feel that the value they get for the social emotional piece and the wellbeing teams is a better model but if that was the direction you wanted to go then yes you you would have to eliminate teams otherwise we continue to put a lot of our IEP students are in the lower level and there sometimes our elll students for various reasons we're not getting them the opportunities and we're locking them out and then there is really no Pathway to take to get into these higher levels and even even into High School sometimes so I do think we should probably take a look at the at the teams talk you know survey The Sur talk to the teachers see see what their thoughts are but I think that we certainly don't want to sort of lock kids in certainly form you know special education teams or anything like that to to track I mean that is absolutely not not acceptable but if the alternative is then therefore that we can't do you know allow the the kids who are running at a at a faster Pace to to run it that faster pace and we sort of slow them down I'm not sure that that's acceptable either so you just mean the Middle School teachers correct Sur just to eth grade teachers about about about you know we are on borrowed time though to make if we were making a drastic change like that that would be very challenging to do for next year also with our enrollment shifts as you've seen we have a smaller bubble going through so we may not have the availability to accommodate that how are we supporting the teachers this year in sixth and seventh grade to increase the number of standards that they're hitting to prepare for this for next year so they started some of that work last year that that's what that the summer work was and we would do that work again with them the seventh grade teachers have tried to absorb more of the a couple of the eth grade standards and from what I'm hearing the grade eight teachers that are doing they've already tried to bring in more of the algebra one standards as well because they knew that that was something that you had talked about last spring so this is the work that Joanie had done and um Carla had done with them in the summer again doesn't mean they're going to get there you know this is a multi-year process when you make changes like this it's really a 3 to five time 3 to 5 year timeline do you want to continue on just I did offer some other slides so this is what we did talk about ultimately was the recommendation from the math study group was the deling given the challenges and the time the trajectory that we're on we're suggesting that we wouldn't do that for next next year the deling but potentially the following year but having next year to do the ninth grade study group look at the changes by adjusting and having a full eldra one at um in grade 8 with a regular math 8 alar one as well so you'd still have the two levels for next year but explore that possibility for the following year after we've done some work with the high school which would then allow students more students to be able to go into either Al one part two or honors or right into geometry is what we're hoping to try to get more kids into that when they enter high school so that they can get to calculus so part of the reason where where we are is the schedule does create that issue and that's why we've had the alra one part one and part two but really it's it's interesting that we're trying to accomplish so much in grade eight but then we're doing two full years for many kids of alra one it's it's counterintuitive so I'd like to see what we can help how we can help our grade nine and 10 teachers to say what can we do to to try to push that up as well you if you went to full year you'd probably be doing alra one all year and not having it in Parts which is actually two years right we'd be cuz just the kids having it every other day would allow some of that fully complete gr that are at that level they can move on versus everyone which is why for next year we're suggesting that yes so but this is going backwards because you're now doing some math 8 in grade eight for everybody and then some algebra one so I I I and I I would prefer I don't know if I can support this I think that i' i' prefer to see let's keep algebra one as an honor course in eighth grade let's take math 8 and see over a span of 3 to 5 years how much we can sort of Advance all the kids to get to them and then maybe in 3 to 5 years maybe then we've gotten the standards um accelerated enough that you're doing you're doing the same can you go back yeah and I think that that is definitely an option we're just saying I'm trying to accommodate the fact that we talked about deling as one of the you know when looking at the data that was the ultimate thinking right you could slow down that process to your point point and every year assess how the kids are doing I don't think D leveling was ever the the the I don't think we ever there a school committee decided no I didn't I'm saying was ding I'm just saying that because the math study who presented that I was just showing you that next year we could reassess and decide whether you wanted to go that direction or not it could be a multi-year saying NOP we'll just this what you are referring to so we make sure we're understanding what you're saying yeah I'm saying it's keep keep that and try to keep accelerating the math8 standards but I think what you're saying is next year algebra one teaches all of Algebra I don't care whether you call it honors call honors but it teaches all of the standards including the four standards that we still not hitting which was what the school we voted basically what we were doing in 2019 where we and like what Hopkinton does now where we we to teach all of the standards of algebra and then with math 8 we are building in more gradually over time more and more the algebra standards as well and this is not to say that they're going to be able to do all of this like we really we would start that process so you're right it would take them multiple years so it might be very well done to say let's do it over a three-year process and then determine where we are in a few years to see have we moved because otherwise we're we're trying to also address the fact that we need more of that in kindergarten all the way up as well so after multiple years our kids are going to be coming up with more of those skills as we advance our students and all so I understood that the algebra 1 course previously taught I don't know if it was just the power s but taught the standards but enough that you'd be able to do Algebra 2 is that the understanding yes okay I just want to make sure Algebra 2 is not algebra one part two I understand that I'm clarify no I'm clarifying for myself I'm just this is where it's confusing the part one part two does throw people off so that's why but yes that would be the the thinking that but but usually geometry and then Algebra 2 right so in 2019 I I know you were here but in 2019 there was no algebra one part two of the high school correct um I'm not I mean and would probably know more over there but I think there was I think there was no no no this is this is this is factual base not opinion base it's not a right you can go it was there a class back in 2019 and was there was there at the high school part two there was part two also right okay you didn't earn all the standards in if you struggled in algebra in eth grade you could repeat part of it right that existed as a class so that existed as a class okay so those kids that they so honestly algebra and do you just want to come up to the microphone do you want to just come up to the microphone I I know but but is a lot of okay which is the beginning of part one of so kids that get enough that some of the kids that are High Flyers and and they really want to learn they can go to part two and they can be successful so yes we have that and then before before they Del in Seven Grade what most schools have now is if they have 8th grade algebra they get to the stuff we used to get to which gave the kids enough opportunity to get to go to Algebra 2 without having to take Algebra 1 yes but if you don't and I know people don't want to hear this but if you don't level in seventh grade there's no way you're going to be able to accomplish that that's it's just the there's just no way you there's a lot of Standards to cover a lot of Standards to cover and I think what you were saying is puts a lot of pressure and I know that's where I'm going to stop I'll answer any actual questions so can you go to the last slide I think can I just say one more thing just one more thing you can get to different levels to get not just so the reason I put this up is because this is what we did present the last time about the deling and what it would mean it would satisfy the equity audit things we understand that there are barriers and concerns with that so you know I certainly am open and I think um the discussion we've had we're open to still having two levels in grade eight I would be very worried about trying to add more levels back because it is kind of going opposite of what we've heard from our equity and and the opportunities for students and the doors that close the the longer you or the earlier you level and this came out in the equity audit you do take care off a path very early and it it becomes even more and I get that but that's somewhat easier to remediate is it hold on a second that's somewhat easier to not easier it because it cost money but for us to work on ways of of Accel helping them and accelerating them through through tutors I I what what I I still think is always missed when we're talking about Equity is the equity for those kids that are able to go faster and I I just I'm I'm worried that if we you know become a district that sort of is doing that that we're doing ourselves a disservice uh over the long term well any that's why we propos the sort of intermediate phase of saying if if we're looking to get as much albra one in grade 8 keep the two levels and try to um gradually Advance our students so that more students will get to there and then we can reassess in a few years [Music] time the other part of the equity of it though is also when you identify the the kids that are going to take some of these different classes and I think some of the data you showed at the last um meeting meeting really showed the importance of looking at a more databased approach which I think with some of the tests testing andl and that that information that we have now we can do a better job of using that criteria to hopefully help kids and like not just put them in the right class buts so try and support kids who are almost there and maybe just need and allowing for overrides and regardless of which direction we go that is something we are working on as part of this whole process of trying to find better ways to assess children so that we're not closing doors and trying to open doors regardless of any direction we take so I I'll just say this I mean and I know this is been a encounter to what a lot is being said but I would actually be interested in actually explore and bring back leveling in in grade seven I think that I I understand what what the audit was saying but I I just I think that and it may be that we can't do it until we have the ability to bring resources to it because again I I do not want to start you know locking kids out of the ability to get to to move to to different levels if they are able to you know they they in in eighth grade they they've been sort of you know on the they're having in the honors or whatever but but in eighth grade or nth grade whatever it just clicks and they get it and and they can go I want to make sure that they they're able to do that some some people you know grasp subjects later on so we need to create those Pathways at the same time I don't I I just I I just think that we need to be more um open to ensuring that that our kids that can do it have the opportunities to do it I think we we we may run into if we go that route um we we're out of compliance with special ed I'll be honest with you that's part of the concern that's driving a lot of these conversations as well is we're overloading our classes because again if you're going back to the fact that we have teams and then we're leveling in in science and math what ends up happening is the majority of students get tracked one way or the other and there's no way out of that so you know there's a lot of different factors that the team also the language crack like it's all it's it's just all and that's the problem when you make teams the levels become even more impactful because the levels now push our kids in One Direction or the other and is really hard to move now hearing that but then let's explore not having teams I mean that's the challeng I feel like common that's hurting the top and and I don't know if it's helping the bottom as much as we think it is I think by creating path having leveling sooner allows us to actually identify students that are exceeding where they're at but also may need more help earlier and you can create those Pathways to get them in the right spot but if you go from not leveled to leveled you know instantly you lose ability to do that soon the research the there's a lot of research that would say differently so I mean I think you can find research on both sides depending on the study but um but there's a lot of research that would show you some kids also just aren't ready at a certain time but then if they haven't had the opportunity they fall behind and can't catch up because they haven't you know so there's a lot of historically when we had the three levels didn't we have classrooms where at the at the highest level you'd have like full classes 32 33 there was a time when kids were standing there cuz you couldn't get enough desks in there and at some of the lower levels it you had classes class sizes of 15 16 17 plus you might have support in there too I mean we uh whenever we have or had like imbalance based off of like what we would have you're leaning more towards small class sizes in um uh in like your math 8 um than you were in your algebra or when you had when we ran IPS those would be a little bit larger class sizes um uh just so that we had that that layer of support that would be there um so yes well I mean I think ultimately we're looking for your input as to where you want us to go for next year because our teachers are waiting to try to plan for that and we have to kind of map out um try to accomplish some of this work for next year thing I was helping of the map look at Dr Jordan did a presentation last year when you share um something that your team of teachers looked at in terms of um I believe it was like a visual of the eighth grade sticky notes and it identified who was taking the upper level classes and who wasn't and it was very clear and I believe that you said that the way that the scheduling was um currently in place it created barriers for students with disabilities and El students to get services and advance and uh pursue Advance the so I was hoping that that was something that this math group would tackle is there a way to for multilingual Learners and our students with disabilities that's 25% of the Middle School population I'm I'm sure there are some of those students that are ready for um advanced math how do we get them into it and still get their services so that is what we presented the data if you recall when we did our math City Group those are other kids we were talking about and so if we go to the mall model that we described with trying to get a full alra one for the advance we would have to look at other we haven't we haven't had time to kind of go through what can we do but part of that is an end of the end of the year assessment which we did present at our math study group presentation um and then also we talked about trying to look at the criteria again but that's some work we would still have to do with the Middle School teachers with the data that car shared it looks like if you Creed those two levels you would still have the way way that it's was presented you'd still have one class that is very heavily Hispanic students with disabilities and multilingual Learners and very overly represented with multilingual uh students of disabilities based on who are the students that are two three and four grade levels below in Ma and and then that that's part of the limitation of the team right that's that's that's what we run into and that's that's that's what I'm curious about is there a way to offer different levels of math and provide students with their services with is it the team structure that's creating the barriers I'm just not understanding how the components work well the team the team structure limits the ability to move kids around right because you only have certain options especially on a two-teacher team so if you have uh what do they have just one Advanced and what I mean it it's not just your teams it's also like say you have one special educator number of special educator you have and you pair like students together and how that grouping occurs also defaults regardless if you have teams or not into heavy 504 IEP into those spaces based on like how we're how we're covering that um I would just my CU I heard a lot about D teing things like that I wouldn't want the the potential of a solution to result in another problem um that's there so I just that would be I'm staying pretty out of it as far as some some of this but like like that that would be my biggest caution is the middle school has gotten where they are based on many of the structures that have been consciously put there in the first place um so as we look at trying to create a solution it shouldn't create another another problem and in looking at our mcast scores which is just one um one assessment there was a decline over Co um in grade 8 math and we saw that and it was somewhat significant but if you look at our current eight scores they've even though we took those levels away and have less levels right now in grade eight the scores are um kind of rising back up to where they were preco which would make me feel that the model is not as far off as we think if the kids are um the kids that are being assessed are doing fairly consistent with what was preo and then the model that we talked about with the three levels in grade eight and two levels in grade seven Hillary I would say you're correct Bas metal colored posted note I don't know I was going in I had a moment there when I was cre but uh I just started on it and it kind of went but yes with the way our structures whether we add levels or whether we're in current our current structure um are creating significant inequities for our students as far as how it defaults there while we have it's there's there are other third and fourth levels that that exist within there and that we have a caught that exists there are certain services that have to be pushed into certain classes that create these other types of levels that exist that are not like algebra and math 8 um there are other classes that exist that create those as well we're also we're limited on our um L um Educators and so how do we create that we end up having a cluster them to certain certain classes based on the numbers we have uh and those spaces tend to be spaces that that are heavy on IEPs 504s and then we create these zones because those are also students that don't find their way to our higher level classes um that you end up in these these places where your algebra are predominantly white um white students and then it's and because we're not a very large District that also creates limitations because there's just not as many teams and shifts that you can do to keep you know one advance in each class in each team we have one L teacher for Rams also okay so what do we want to see for next time to start because we do need to give some guidance on on Direction um i' I've asked for some things just the standards for for the different classes um at least in the sort of the ideal model um but other than that [Music] um what what are people thinking as far as what they want to do am concerned add stands so I don't know howage I I guess it' be good to know where we're at right now how well we're achieving standards we're in what we have in those grades and by adding more do we feel like we can take those on or are we going to be here a year from now and say this was a mistake I mean algebra is not confined to grade 8 in high school right we we we teach algebraic standards in all levels and part of the work that we're doing is to help our teachers learn to help better teach some of those standard as well I mean that's really an effort that we made all the way so that work is already starting with the hope that now our K students will have expanded and as they continue on so that's why that sort of that three to five years is where you should reap the benefits when you start addressing that regardless of what we do even if we did nothing different this going into next year just the work that we've already started and continuing should result in better ELD Ric exposure for all students regardless Focus talking all about all really focused on know that I concerned with sixth and seventh grade if we don't set up for Success eighth grade then those students are any student who could be disadvantaged and I think the reason for trying to the desire to keep the two levels in grade eight by some is is to try to give them more opportunities going into high school but to Ann's Point some kids are able to do that regardless of the levels that we have now at the levels we've had previously they were able to shift um based on motivation and other factors as well can you bring up the slide again about what you want to move forward with what your go back with keep going that one or the other one which one do you mean that one this one are you talking about this this is just year proposed model for just next year yes so I not the but the grade nine would be happening the following should be looking at the rest of that right just just that I just want to see the standards that are anticipated as being in there is it all of algebra one but in in in theory for next year I mean this is basically what we're doing we're just hopefully getting back to sort of where we were with the full year of Algebra 1 and that that was sort of already what the the vote of the school it was last year well that's that's what you already voted so we're trying to make that happen this is how you're trying to get there okay and I don't know correct me if I'm wrong I think the sixth grade teachers and the seventh grade teachers are still kind of of collaborating and trying to figure out what the best standards are so I'm not sure in two weeks if we're going to be able to well no we standard I think he's asking us to propose something but again I really we would have to do that work with the teachers right and we talked about doing that with them in the summer you know because we would have to get them to do that at the end of the school year I think what we're looking for is a chart that says here's the sixth grade standards here's the seventh grade standards here's the eighth grade standards and then how are we taking some of these eighth grade standards and Scaffolding them down to the sixth grade so that we can that's what I mean there's some kind of work on that I'm not asking yeah I just want to see them visually what are we we can show the current standards it's up to you guys to figure out what you think is going to like work best but I don't even think it's up to us I think it's up to our teachers to have input and voice in that that that's my concern I don't want to be speaking I'm confused why we don't know what the standards are because in addition to Curriculum maps we also have desie standards for sixth grade and seventh grade so I'm not I I I guess I feel like we've done this before we were doing this in 2019 and before that so why is it that we're struggling to um teach half of math 8 in seventh grade along with sth grade standards and then have a class in e8th grade where we're finishing math 8 and doing all of the algebra one standards we've done this before so what has changed about it I mean Desi has the standards we have Curriculum maps with standards we know the standards are but we haven't asked the teachers in grade seven currently to take on the grade eight that's the movement that we're trying to shift in so that wasn't done last summer at the beginning this year they started to talk about it and they did a couple of Standards but from what I'm hearing they don't know that they're going to get as far as they would have liked because we haven't also gone down to sixth grade and try to shift some of that down okay so it sounds like we we haven't explicitly gone that far yeah that would be this year's work it sounds like we have some more conversations to to be had with with the staff with math staff at Rams yes but without knowing what direction you let I mean if you're looking to do algebra one in grade 8th then we have to Al and trying to offer more algebra to all students we we do need some Direction so that we can help them do that work I don't think I've heard anybody in the committee trying to pull back on what our decision was last year the decision was to get all of Algebra 1 offered um for those students who are ready for it right for those ready for it I don't hear anyone opposed to having math 8 plus some albra standards I don't either because then that's the work we can start I don't think we're going to get elbra for all like next year like that's realistic and that was on our vote last year it was not no we never I do agree that it requires right now in math in seventh grade math to be teaching math8 standards as well right and and probably in sixth grade too if we're building into a model I mean I think what I've hear from you is that you would like more students to take all of Algebra 1 but in order to do that we should be start earlier exct in sixth grade this year and in seventh grade this year yeah but we're already you know well into January so so I think yes good well again I want but before we sort of finalizes I would like just to see the the standards we want I think we're we're trying to make sure that we have a common understanding of what Algebra 1 is that it's not eight standards but it's all of the stand not so there are there are four standards that are not currently in there I have the right ones and I think that's what we like to see statistics I believe quadratic equations and exp exponential functions and polom but you're trying to cram in three years you're really trying to cram four years into 3 years is what you're doing you have four years of Standards by years the CH not standards right you have four years of standards that you have to cover in three years so I also wonder the assuming that there's a very well thought out congression to the waiting at the curriculum together like there's a story that's told maybe there's I don't know if it's um cycal where it returns to some of the standard taught previously in the year or it just kind of Builds on it but there's a progression and so how does shifting something going to like shifting some of the seventh grade standards down into sixth grade what will that what will that look like for teaching a seventh grade and eth grade so what they're doing though is they're looking at standards that they feel they can bring next year standarded that that goes together so they're looking for like natural fits like if they're doing a unit it makes logical sense to put it with that right um so they would be able to do that using the resources that we have it's just them both trying to Grapple together with what's the best fits together and it is a lot of work but um you know that's why you also saw um us trying to increase math tutors and things like that cuz we want to make sure that there might be other opportunities for today to help pick up some of those kids for tier two and three interventions or enrichment you know by having more of those staff in the building as well so I'm curious about this but I think the progress monitoring is going to be really key to make sure we don't have not increasing that number of kids moving from tier one to tier two as we expand the amount of contact that all right so it sounds like we're partially in the right direction I just want to be able to assess we are yeah I mean I think we're kind of in the same direction as where we where we've been um I hear we have a data dashboard that maybe can can can help with some of that the monitoring the open architect and we do want to work with the teachers to build both the end of year assessment that will help us if we want to try to do it a little bit early to see if we can shift some students and also the criteria that we're currently using are ways to embed other pieces to get student voice in there and things like that that we haven't been able to do necessarily okay [Music] yeah on yeah we're moving on um do we need to vote we have the accept quarterly report and the tech quarterly update I just for your information and it's really just for information I'm I'm obligated to make sure that I at least share those with you quarterly since you are you know since we are members of both accept and Tech sure unless you have questions it's really just for information okay any questions no all right uh so then I guess we're done right no okay so we'll we'll take on a a very mundane topic of uh the uh 2025 2026 school year not a mundane very exciting I I have sarcastic school is purple thank you liso she sees me so I'm just going to I'll kind of walk you through because Joie and I met with Lisa today to kind of look at what we did this year and obviously we know that there was an additional holiday added this year that then put us into um the 20th which is not ideal just because of the fact we have juneth as a day off and then we're coming back for half a day so I am worried about the low number of attendance we'll have on that day so if ideally we do want to finish before juneth because that 19th is just a bad time of year the holiday itself is not the problem but just if it was in July it would be great um but it just kind of disrupts learning at the very end of the year when you're trying to keep kids in the building so we looked at um the PD schedule from this year and you'll see that we proposed um again on the 12th of September a full day PD I forget it was a different day but it was the same weekend on a Friday and then the second full PD day we do want to keep with the the um presidential not president but the election day November 4th because we have done it different years with the presidential we like to have it that day but in other years we've had a different time but we found that we've had more opportunities because a lot of districts hold it on Election Day so then we can do some work with other districts and bring staff in and or out um to accommodate more diverse needs of our staff and then we have the other full day PD we put on the 16th of January and then one on March 10th um we know that people liked the long weekend for students um we did the 17th last week and then we had the holiday and the 20th so we're keeping that so we're trying to keep consistent to what we did this this current year but this would get us out on the 18th of June because if you look at the December break we'd be coming in the 22nd 23rd and then we'd be back on the the second and that's really the this is the only thing we can come up with to get us out before juneth otherwise we'd be coming back for half day after the weekend and a holiday a long weekend and a holiday which would be I just think that would be a waste of so with with the um Elementary School is now aligned and the high school and RAM is still sort of staying aligned and there being a lot of sort of cross talk with with them why would we not look to at least maybe one I mean I still don't understand if we couldn't make one of these full day PDS into into two half days and S and and save a day um it it doesn't because we still have the contract is still 185 days regardless so try to remember how we did it before all right Susan can I just ask whether or not so first of all when I look at that January returning back from the winter break yes to come back to school on just that Friday the 2 makes no kind of sense whatsoever like nobody's going to come in that day it's going to be you know what I mean like that just doesn't seem so then I wonder whether or not even if you kept all your PD days the same whether or not we started um the teach opening day for staff earlier and go back back that up in August so the 22nd is what yeah or even the 21st I think that that would be looked on very unfavorably but okay yeah I don't I think what about moving so the PD day that you have November 4th like we didn't typically have them we only did them on the presidential election cuz those ones were really big turnout days I don't know that like on an off cycle year it's going to be so that day um Cynthia we use a lot for like especially for our oneoff teachers we had other to combine PD for them with other districts and everybody's trying to play in off on that the particular day it was really beneficial for our Wellness teachers and other teachers language Wellness are all your UA okay but hold on hold on so let's go back to the half day for a second so you take the March 10th and turn that into a half day and then say you make February 11th a half day right teachers are currently would be teachers and students would be in school on the 11th they will still be in both in school on the 11th that will count as a day then you'll have teachers who were in school on the 10th but no students but now you'll have both so wouldn't that why would that not move the the the end of the school year up a day but can I just point out so that eliminates because right now having full days your counselors across the district are all getting together right so you've got three you You' still got three full PD days what are there what would be there just I'm trying to through out the m so it's three full PD days what are the the teachers contractual uh fourth and fifth days for their 185 right so the opening day on the 25th is one day yes and teachers would still have to do another day yeah that was that's what what got to us stand we went did the half days a few years ago and why we added the 181 is because we could only get to four uh days and it kind of with the hft I believe at that point in time and I'm I you know we need to kind deeper into the research of what we decided at that point um yeah when we brought it went to 181 days with students cuz then we would lose a another day of time on Lear just because of the contractual implications of of of the contract saying 185 days and then then only having 184 days there yeah we have found the the in school at seven we have found the full days to be efficient from a lot of just the fact that we've been able to do two full days for PA professionals too you know it definitely opened up a lot of doors have take one full day two half well and that was our other thing from INE Equity trying to limit the number of half days we had there's a lot kids in school this hasn't happened um okay here here's an unpopular one what about making the 24th a half day sorry what month are we talking December nobody a good Friday one snow day we go from the 18th to the 22nd one one snow from 18th to the 22nd is the last day of school how many people you think you're showing up on the 22nd you're not well that's why I'm trying to the 22nd either no no no you've avoided it by snow is so hot the kids are going to be melting obstacles every day I'll be the wicked witch no I said we back it up in August I know it's not a popular not doing huh 21st and 22nd what do we what choice do we have why do we start Tuesday why we start on Monday cuz we open opening day back it up in August it's just not a favorable schedule I mean it's just well I mean you could the limitations are we do have a lot more holidays um we do have a lot more holidays and I respect the why behind that but it is getting more and more challenging to fit the school year in and some districts have opted to only recognize yeah federal holiday you know it would be a cool [Music] option let's do it just to Pilot it for one year put it to do a March break I know are you listening people it's 't even be here so you I have kids still here a March break a March break instead of the I know I said we would have had to do it last year for next year like that's two years out why because people vac oh you know what this is public school all right um so you know I'm just saying a March break we just approved in April 2027 that's fine so it's a pilot it's for one year but they're going in April now they'd be missing two weeks of school Cynthia if you had that you should have focused so we can do this in 2028 any5 26 are they going in I'm talking about next year it's coming next year guys are killing me just try it card all of you don't even give it a shot you know that a lot of the other private schools have our in our contract what's the earliest date be very teachers can start it's not specified it is not it's it's 185 days but you cannot go past June 30th which is why that's state law yeah right um but that's why though okay coming back to them coming on 22nd for PD day and starting school on the 25th it's a Monday I mean it makes no sense start Monday I can tell you one of the reasons we we moved we did have PD one year we did um the full day open teachers hated when we get the PD right cuz they're so stressed about getting ready for kids and didn't say you can't do it but that we got really bad feedback and that's why we moved into the TR but okay so wait actually why forget the PD day why they have to be in the day before two days before start not one day Sarah's warming up to it let's let's keep talking about it what March break I'm telling you right now so I'm not saying no February I'm saying we do a long weekend over President's Day we' never talked about Mar we never talked about Mar we talked about shortening February weing February and then I said you make they get I did talk about I had a whole whole I only remember the things I want I'm aware on the that's what I'm saying you get two days off in feary two days off in and then you get a March break quitting a March break no idea dat one day why don't we just change the start times again no why why won't you try it so can we make a motion to start on teachers in the 22nd start school in the 25th you got your day and as a as a as a sitting School at at an open meeting you are free to make any motion you you can't hold on don't make it don't make it hold on because if you do listen because when we if we have five emergency snow days we're going into the 26 yes but at the end of the day we we're not going to find five days so at least get one no but we need more than a buff well next year we might not have any snow you may have also 10 days I'm going to come back and haunt you over this I I want you all to know what what are we haunting over anything anything and everything but right now the fact that you won't even just Tri a pilot Tri pilot was I told you but we we we surveyed the surve the community last year and they didn't want that no no no no that we surveyed the community and they said yes no they didn't want no no no it was about 60% who did not want to get did not want to shorten February it was it was pretty I I wouldn't say it was like like 80% but it was they also are very upset when we go far into June cuz kids aren't learning it's super hot do you want to P do you want to pull about getting rid of non-federal holidays I mean we can start we haven't surveyed about it how many snow days have we had in the recent past few years on one last year that was I don't want to talk about snow days when we're like in peak season right now don't worry there won be right be very different since I've been here we had we had one year with electrical outages we had one one my first first year and do we have two one year one the one last year which everyone called beforehand and we all got two inches of snow was was the Wast didn't want to call that one I know but but everyone else had so you did not have a choice um but um I mean we all right what just why don't why don't we do this we don't have to vote on it right this is like the first time we're seeing we should have seen this in November why don't we why don't we do this why do you want to put together a survey I would no yeah right put a survey and include federal holidays March whatever March no I don't want to do that I just want to do what I'm asking I don't want to do all that option one option can we cut a few days off of February break or your your options are cut a few days off of February break or potentially go into June 2 23rd if they on the 22nd and come back on never oh yeah yes so can I just so the what school committee's perview is to vote is the first day of school and the last day of school no I'm not voting on it yet I didn't tell you how to do it tday I'm just telling you what that that's what the requirement is if you're looking for input and you're saying potentially the 22nd to be able to not have to come on the 2 should we throw that out to teachers which would you prefer coming on the 22nd why that doesn't solve the end of the year though well I think we're trying to build the buffer if there is the no if there is a a snow day we have a buffer suit they don't have to come in the I was thinking about the second because I can't nobody's going to come back on the second of January that's what I'm ask I'm not sure what year is it is it to shorten this no I would say okay so out of the two multiple issues we have whether it's a snow day or January 2nd it it makes sense to move it up to Monday and have teachers coming on the Friday like that but to go we were talking separately here you do have to think that they would lose that weekend so there's a lot of people coming back staff from like the cave or Maine so they're coming back that Friday so weing that so in effect they're losing that Friday and I just I caution the fact that yes we have some unhappy people about math I mean the school start 's changing you just as a school you might want to think about how many changes you're making in one year they're going to be really unhappy what January January 2 and uh June uh so which one are you okay upsetting more or just just if you could just if you could just put that on just state that one what I am saying is we need to look at what the data says and starting on Tuesday makes no sense that's what the data is telling we already started Tuesday part of the other thing is we're not starting on a Tuesday we're starting on a Monday for teachers and Tuesday we don't like a Monday start for kids in August cuz it's the first week of school right they're adjusting to a new schedule and now you you usually put kids in if you do it after Labor Day it's a three-day week yeah we're doing a 4-day week which doing five Tuesday Wednesday Thursday and we had the Friday off for professional and then we had the long weekend to squeeze our way back into it but it's a lot for the first week for the little ones especially because we have all these extras there's a lot of extras you never really want Push into the I want put the second off start the Tuesday we're going to we have a snow day to come back the 21st ice pops March break that melt that day so do you want a table to nicely with I bet the folks that have yeah right there think we keep it for next discussion table is for now yeah there's a lot being discuss okay so the first day of school will be sometime in August y sometime in June will be ending school we can guarantee that the last day will be before Jun 30th I sayth or I don't know we like the PD days they out I don't I'm no not really but we're picking up our our yeah I know I I don't I just would rather have our our PD days more front loaded in the year than like do we have to have one in March could we do it part of the reason we do in March is because it is a long month on the VAC yeah but we have we used to have nothing in February break make one of those days PD day we have a lot of short weeks so so you hate the teachers almost got it okay I understand that where you're coming from can't have the vacation no we were cutting off the vacation for everyone right but but instead of doing that just make one of the days of PD day and they off buts okay just for the record that was Frank Frank says that you should come back Frank number hold on let me just pull it up I'm saying March break for everybody that's I'm saying did I put a motion on the table no I said it's on the table no motion all right still on the table SC all right so what am I doing you want me to survey people no no you're you going put together a survey then we're going to then we're going to all nitpick what you put together what I can't go throw out a survey monkey on I'll talk sah surve I survey them I just want to give them like my specific up no I thought we did do that two years ago we gave them my we did not I thought we did no we did not I had Cynthia KY it all over it you guys wh no I thought we see if I can find it no I just not even looking at it I felt no love I spent a lot of time on that yeah there was a survey but yeah she kind of got I was salty about it I was a August 6 like good start it did not thank you Tony for confirming that I think my kids are in Camp then but it's fine all right so we will table this we'll bring this up uh we'll continue this it's unfortunate I'll see what I have when are we meeting next February 3 it's unfortunately it's 3 weeks um all right well that gives me a little time I I think unofficially I think we can we can let at least let parents know that you know to look towards the last week of August March break no no l towards last week of August as the as the start of school last week of August and before and ending before June 30 so don't sign up for Camp before June 30th um don't schedule any vacations in April or February and Frank wants the teachers to to have to come in on the during February PD days in general kids are off teachers are in yeah and they said they said no can you send it to me again one of the actual sure day it's just like a PD she said she put in my people said no the people said no but they don't know they don't know but if February vacation never existed and we had R PD days no one would know the difference want to take it away you know what if we take the break away put a PD day there [Music] out like I am walking I am walking thanks all right Dan is done with this discussion no no is so I think we need to adj so we do have a policy submitting minutes that are in there're working on all the other minutes um yeah you guys get yourself together here I put in my minutes but nobody else is anyway um we we do actually need to meet hopefully briefly an executive yes just just just for just just you know for a second so our next meeting is February 13th um happy Valentine's Day um and uh so now I will entertain a motion to adjourn from Open Session into executive session from which we will not return for the purposes of discussing strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position to the public body and the chair so declares move by Don there Frank yes Hillary yes Joe Sarah Cynthia no Don yes then I'll vote no too um we're now Jour into executive Session 5 to two for