--------- It's 7:00 and I'd like to call together the November 6th, 2025 school committee meeting. You would please rise and join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag United States of America to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you very much. >> Uh this evening we have a consent agenda posted which are the minutes from the October 23rd, 2025 school committee meeting as well as our oath bills and
payroll. We're have a chance to review the minutes. Right. Is there a motion to accept? >> I move that we accept the consent agenda. >> Motion made by Elaine. Second, seconded by Sean. All those in favor by saying I. >> I. >> Perfect. This is our first opportunity
for the citizens. Was anybody with us this evening or on Zoom that would like to speak before the school committee? This your first opportunity. Be a second opportunity towards the back half of the meeting. Hearing none, seeing none, we'll close that portion of the meeting and we'll
move into our recognition portion. joining here with our student representative Cavia uh who will give us a report uh from each school please. >> Good evening everyone. Let's start with Shaker Lane. Shaker Lane School is partnering partnering with loaves and
fishes food pantry collecting non-p perishable items until December 1st. Any community member who would like to add to this food drive is welcome to stop by Shaker Lane and drop off items. Shaker Lane staff looks forward to discussing student progress at the upcoming
conferences next Friday. Shaker Lane and Russell Street had their cultural fair last night. It was well attended with over 100 students receiving a passport to visit the different countries that families shared with us. Shaker Lane and Russell Street want to thank all of the families and staff who made this night
possible. Transitioning onto Rosa Street, students in all grade levels have had field trips or guest speakers over the past few weeks. Third graders had members of the historical society share what school was like in the 18th and 19th centuries. Fourth graders attended the Discovery Museum and fifth
graders attended boundless adventures to work together in team building activities. The third grade team is hosting a stargazing event on November 18th to go along with their outdoor outer space wit and wisdom module. Professors and
students from MIT will be on alumni field with telescopes and equipment to help see the moon and stars. A rain/cloud date is scheduled for December 2nd. Next, moving on to the middle school conference signups were sent to families on Monday. Please contact the school if you did not
receive them and would like to schedule a conference. Our annual pumpkin decorating contest was a huge hit. Thank you to all the families who donated pumpkins to the school. Next is the high school. On November 1st, the DECA Club's fun run is in support of the Wounded
Warriors Project was a great success. The run was organized and led by juniors Gabriel Gustinis and Briana Prey and club adviser Miss Smith. The event raised $2,211, going well above the original goal of
$1,500. There were also LHS clubs and organizations present to raise awareness and money for their own causes such as NHS's rise against hunger and the healthcare club as well as the LHS literary magazine and art club.
Additionally, all remaining food to support the runners was given to local food pantries. Thank you to Whole Foods for donating the food for the This Saturday on November 8th, Model UN UN will be attending a one-day conference to hone their debate and
model UN skills at Catholic Memorial High School in Roxbury. On the 10th, the National Honor Society will be attending a leadership conference at the Massachusetts School Administrators Office in Franklin. That same day, the school counselors will be taking
students on a campus tour of UMass LOL. On November 14th, an all day parent/teer conference will take place and there will be no school for the students. And the 20th, Latin club will be attending Massachusetts class of day at Boston
University. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. Very well done. >> Uh Dr. Any other recognition for this? >> I do have a couple. First of all, I'd like to uh thank our community for their support in uh building a new Shaker Lane
school. Uh being at that town meeting or STM meeting and and uh seeing the ballot vote uh to tell you one of the highlights of my career. the support was was so evident and and I just feel so
fortunate to be a leader in the Littleton and and know that they're they want to do the right things for our students and community. So looking forward to uh seeing our our students and staff uh move into the new Shaker
Lane School in the summer of 2029. And u I'm just so thrilled. I mean, but uh I was for days I I was just so excited. I'm still excited, but uh to to just know that we have that support for for doing what we all thought was the
right thing for for our students and to have the community understand and buy in because we all know how hard it is to reach a community in this day and age. And we were all successful. Yes. for Littleton. Uh I'll
forever be thankful for their advocacy for this project and uh you know the Shaker Lane building committee. I mean all of those all the members of that committee have worked tirelessly to support this project. So and the school committee as well. So thanks to
everybody one excited superintendent. And uh on another note, we had our ninth tri day on Tuesday was uh incredible day. Uh as we've evolved through time 99.9% of the sessions are are uh
requested by our teaching staff in all three districts. Uh we had a number of presenters in our district and uh the day was just it was just so well organized. Uh food was great. The organization of how we offered lunch worked really well.
and everybody was engaged and excited to be there. So, I'm just so proud of of that day as well. I'd like to thank Mrs. Steel, uh, Mrs. Lord, and Mrs. Coutell for their huge part in organizing that day. They work with other, uh, staff in
the two two districts, and it takes a lot of time organizing an event like this. So, thank you, Mrs. still and and uh I hope to see this this uh tradition go on for many many years because it's so evident that it's so beneficial to
the staff to have colleagues that they can talk to and and and learn together and grow together. So again, another proud moment. I was unable to attend the uh Shaker Lane Russell Street cultural fair last night, but I heard incredible
things that it was very well attended and uh there were just lots of participation by families and what a what a strong way to build community to come to could come together and celebrate cultures, learn about these
cultures, taste food from different cultures. as we, you know, we we've built some of the the foods into our food service program and it's just it's just a just a great another great indicator that Littleton does it right
and continues to do it right. So, thanks to the organizers of of that event as well, Mrs. Kane and staff and and the Russell Street staff, Mr. McDonald. Thank you. That's it. Okay. Um, I feel like we talked about Shaker
Lane so many meetings. I want to give I want to give the school committee members a chance to share anything uh any takeaways that she had from the town meeting or the election day if you you want to. >> Yeah, I mean I just think it was
incredible to see. I had a lot of uh high hopes having talked to a lot of people in the community, but I was blown away by the support uh and that was it was really awesome to see. And like Kelly said, there's so many people to thank throughout the community. Um, the S group and people that we kind of tap on the shoulder and ask to kind of reach
out to their networks. Um, yeah, there's so many people that did such great work. Really grateful. >> There's nothing that I haven't already said before, but just um very very proud to be a resident of this town, this community.
I echo those same statements. Um that uh going into special town meeting I started to get a bad vibe. I was there early and I you know my own daughter was sick and um I wasn't able to have all household voters that there that night and I just my sort of my inner circle
started to crumble with people like needing to pick children up for practice and stuff. Um, and then the rooms got busier and busier and then the boy scouts were helping keep children to entertain and all that good stuff. And at some point somebody had shown me a picture of the line to get the line from
outside. And it was you you people disappeared into the darkness was with the line. So I was like, I got to go outside and do this for myself. And I go outside, I see people all the way to the street. Uh, chief of police is out there. He's like, Justin, I don't know. Might have capacity issues. This might not happen
tonight. Um, so it was just wild. It was just wild to see that uh intense turn. So I thank everyone that attended town meeting. I thank everyone that um took some time out of their day on Saturday to vote as well. And like uh like we've all shared, proud to be little
residents, proud to live here. So, >> and I also echo I was in that line uh pretty far back and I came early actually before it started, but I was dropping my kids off and just want to really appreciate and I
heard this a lot online. They wouldn't have been there if it wasn't for the child care and just the accommodations of the family room, child care. It was seamless and easy and you just dropped off. But I dropped off, the line was short, and then by the time I got in
line with the street, it it went really fast. Just the logistics of it with that many people, it was built. >> Yeah. A lot of people to thank, but it was all done very, very well. So, great challenge. Great stuff. All right, we've got one uh piece of new business this
evening. I don't believe that we have a representative here. However, I can cover this uh for us. So, our one piece of new business is Friends of Alumni Field. Um I had heard from representatives from both friends of alumni field and also the Littleton
athletic boosters. Um I believe that uh friends of alumni field was almost like a special purposes type 501c3 um that was formed around the time of her field and the amenities associated
with that. And as there's my assumption is that as their students have moved on this group has become a little bit less active. There are some remaining funds that this organization has and both sides are in agreement that what they would like to do is sort of hold friends
of Alumni Field into Littleton Athletic Boosters. um Littleton Athletic Boosters will then be the custody custodian of the remaining funds and then sort of you know reinvigorate uh some fundraising efforts related with alumni deal. So
there was you know I had reached out made an offer for someone to come and share that same exact story with us this evening. Um without them being here tonight I was able to share it. They had asked whether or not the school committee had any objection to uh
friends of alumni field dissolving money coming over to Littleton athletic boosters and little athletic boosters sort of moving that mission forward. My feedback to them was I didn't think that that was really necessarily be a school committee decision. However, um if they
wanted us to be, you know, in favor of it publicly for the record, we were happy to do so. Um, so I, you know, open it up for discussion or see if anybody has any questions that I might be able to answer. And if and if we have questions I can't answer, maybe we'll,
um, ask them to visit us formally. But if we don't have any questions or things I can answer, maybe business app, >> I mean, this doesn't represent a gift to the school district, so it's just a lesson, >> right? So it's just money shifting
hands, >> correct? Um, so it is nice to know that, you know, when we want to go to different groups, we know that this group has been dissolved and that, you know, if there's something that we're
we're looking for help with, we go to the Littleton Athletic Booster Association and just that was so that was I I appreciate the courtesy. >> No questions. I don't I don't think this vote means much, but we'll point on record uh for their benefit. So, is
there a motion uh to acknowledge the disbanding of uh friends of Alumni Fields 50 one 501c3 um at the request of the athletic uh Wilton Athletic Booster Association? >> I move.
>> Motion made by Janine, >> second by Sean. All those in favor in saying I appropriate carried unanimously. I can report back to those folks that they have uh received our acknowledgement if that's okay. We have two presentations this evening. Uh the
first of which is an MCAST update. Before we dive into that, I just like to you're fine. Paul Judy gave you a false start earlier. Phil, it's contagious. I just want to visit the uh the agenda topic here which is um an alignment the
district strategic plan standard one curriculum instruction assessment align and enhance curriculum instruction assessment to continually improve student achievement. Tonight's essential question that the school committee will be listening for is how can MCCAST results inform curriculum and
instruction going forward. Without any further ado, I will invite director of teaching and learning Elizabeth Steel along with the high school, middle school, and Russian school administrators to give an update on the uh 2025 spring MCCAST results and next
steps. >> Thank you. >> Great. >> All right. So, I have the honor of kicking us off and then handing it over for John, Jason, and Colin to really dig into their school data. So, tonight's presentation just to give you some groundwork as to how it's set up and
what we're going to be sharing with you. On the next slide, please. Thank you. Um, so we're going to share pertinent information related to the spring 2025 MCCAST and then we'll go school by school. The high school will share their results and their next steps. middle school will do the same followed by
Russell Street to bring us all together um at the end. So diving right in, we know that MCCAST, we say it whenever we talk about data, it's one piece of the larger puzzle for our students, right? And so a couple of
interesting pieces of information about MCCAST 2025, maybe most kind of put out there is that the MCCAST results from spring of 2025 were not considered for the competency determination. And this is the first time that that happened as
a result of the the election in the that previous fall, right? And so, um, that does have an impact on MCCAST removing forward. And it's interesting to see kind of the variances that have happened and what will maybe continue to happen as that evolves. Um, science in grades
five and eight, the state is continuing to adjust the exam. And so, in grades five and eight, this past spring, the students had half of a typical historical assessment, and then the other half was a statewide failure test. Our students had been exposed to this
the year before. So this was year two of that same experience for our students. And the uh other major piece of last spring's MCCAST was that civics. It's the first year that it was an operational assessment for our grade eight students. And so you'll see when
Jason presents that data, it is just one. It's one data point is that's all we have at this point in time. It does mean that the grade eight students have four assessments. So it is important to point that out that they have ADLA, they have math, they have science and they also have civics. So it is a lot of
assessing in one grade level. So when he shares that um important to keep that in mind as well. Um the other thing I just want to remind us of and ground us in is that two of our schools, the middle school and the high school were both recognized as schools of recognition this year. And that does mean that part
of that is the MCCAST results. And so good achievement on our MCCAST results and growth within our MCCAST results did afford us the opportunity to be recognized as schools of recognition. And so uh that positive you will see throughout the presentation this
evening. And with that I will pass it over to Sean. >> You very much seal. Um, and while we recognize each year we always feel like we have more work to do, we we strive for continuous improvement. Um, and I I
would say that we we've succeeded in a great way uh since last year's presentation. And uh I noted the same thing. I wanted to while we still have work to do, we're among a select number of schools LMS and LHS who were recognized as schools of recognition. And that what that means is we were
recognized for demonstrated progress toward annual accountability targets with an emphasis on improved achievement in ELA and that so I just wanted to reiterate that and I'm grateful for that recognition. Um you you had a chance to look in your packet for but for the public they can see the slides here as
well as they know they can have access to the packet. moderate growth in ELA. Um we use a for the graphs we use a software platform called open architect and sometimes the numbers are a little bit off a percentage point or two like I noticed that from the school district
profile like you know school desk you might say 74% open architect reported 75%. Not exactly sure why that happens but it does h we've noticed it over >> it could be the out of district place for that out of district placement versus >> sometimes it's that but we have tried
that could be that could be that with open architect but we have been striving to focus specifically I would say at the high school and try and present high school specific data um since that's what sort of the variable we control on the campus at 56 um but with that said uh you can take a
look at the graphs and see that um We exceeded our exceeding category our in the LA our scores went up well depending on which graph you're looking at but 14 points from 10% to 24%. The the partially meeting scores we're happy to report went down from 12 points from 33%
to 21%. And that's a good thing because you know it means we went we way more kids scoring in the meeting and exceeded category. May not always be the case when scores go down but in this case it's a positive for us. Overall the meeting se seating category went up 9 to
10 points. Um so happy to report that you can see the SGP and um and that's how our students compared to um similar how to peers in the state who scored similarly um at the at the eighth grade test and uh moderate growth is is good
that we had and you'll see on a slide coming up that we had high growth in mouth. Now we do have to acknowledge that meeting or exceeding uh is not where we want it to be at all with students with IEPs. It's important to note that it's a very small sample size. It's not even less than 20. It's le it's, you know, could be 12 to 15
students depending on the test. So, it's very small sample size, but not where we want to be. I met with some special education teachers. I've already met with the departments to talk about this. We we're going to do real granular analysis of the in terms of item analysis on the test and really look at
the ninth and tth grade and see what we could do across the board. This is a phenomenon that happened across ELA, math, and science. And it's a continual challenge for us, but we're not happy with it. But we also recognize in fairness to the students and their families that there it's a small cohort,
small sample size. These students in many cases have significant disabilities and really struggle. And in some sometimes, and I've said this in previous presentations over the years, sometimes their score is the best they could do on that day. and they they exceeded you know I mean they're even
our expectations although it's not comparable to where we want them to be on a state test they worked really hard in some cases we found kids that didn't work as hard as they should have and that could correspond with the uh the test not you know counting for
graduation uh they do they're required to take it but they do not have you know the requirement to pass is not there I think um we we start we we we found some of that among some of the motivation and attitude of some of the students approaching the test this year at the
high school. We made some adjustments based on last year's performance u to put to go back to a a previous way of testing where we put kids in smaller groups in smaller in classrooms. We had a too large of a setting last the last year. We think that made a difference to
you know the smaller setting getting them in classrooms on testing and as many students in the library that kind of thing. And I think that that had a positive impact. But I just want to be, you know, I'm sure there'll be questions about it and we'll answer them, but I want to let you know that we take that as a challenge. Um although the sample
size is small, we want the best for our kids regardless of their abilities and skill levels and struggles uh and motivation, but uh you know, it's not where we want to be. But with that said, I'll go to math. Um the math slide and you can see high
growth since 8th grade. And that's that's a great number to have that SGP student growth percentile 71.2 points. Uh median exceeding was was great 74%. We're getting back up there. >> Um partially meeting scores went down uh
in a good way. Uh 32 23%. Our exceeding scores went up 22 points from 19% to 41%. you know overall we were up about 10 points from 64% 74% for meeting and exceeding um SGP 21 points higher than
the state that's so thank you to all the teachers and the students for their high performance and showing growth over time and especially high growth for this cohort that again we're challenged with about 12 students in that you know you know small sample size we can't really
get into detailed information tonight about that but um you know didn't perform as well this particular test. Um, we did take a look with students. This includes, this is focused on students with disabilities who have IEPs. We do have students who disabilities who have 504s for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it's emotional,
not always academic. Those results were better. We did a little internal analysis of that. And so, we were pleased to see that. Again, the sample size actually larger than the IP IP groups sample size, but um, better
performance overall. And so I think the the lower performance of some of our students on IEPs is indicative of the significance of their disabilities. Um and uh next slide rate
take a look at that meeting exceeding 83%. Specifically give a shout out to Mrs. Buringer and Dr. because they are they are our biology teachers and they worked really hard and they worked close close collaboration with each other. They did a great job uh
improving student performance in biology. Seating scores went uh while they seen scores went down slightly uh you know or 10 about 10 points partially meeting scores went down 13 points because overall meeting seating went up 15 points. So, we're uh really happy to
report that. Again, we still and it's acknowledged by all the teachers and department coordinators that we have challenges with students and I with IEPs not scoring as well as we would have preferred. Um but overall results next slide we get some impressions
not always the first one so I won't be that left hand side of our strengths significant upswing and I don't want to be repetitive but you could see that there significant increase in student score exceeding but that's great so we had a lot of high performance in fact I
was impressed that I think biology and might have been it was math had at least a half a dozen kids who that perfect score on the test and number of students probably anywhere totaling up to 10 maybe 12 very close to perfect scores
like just a you know question or two off when we really looked at it they took a peek at it again before coming over here tonight and I was like wow some of these so one of the things I want to do we want to recognize this achievement we have to come up with some type of way the high school specifically I speak for
our school of trying to recognize students who who put forth a really good effort trying to motivate kids. I give them a shout out and say you can add this to your college application. You know, if you scored exceeding that kind of thing, what we like to do is have recognition breakfast or the students
who scored in the exceeding category who or who demonstrated high growth. So even if they didn't um score, you know, a perfect score, but they were we had a lot of kids show uh they had SGPS of overnight since 8th grade. I mean that
it was a startling statistic when I looked at it again today before coming over here. Um and I want to recognize them with certificate of you know recognition and have you know we helped them build their resumes up for the the college application so they can have some accolades and things to site on
their college apps. But I think this will also maybe this word will spread that you get recognized for your for showing good effort. We have to come up with some type of alternative since the requirement you know is there anymore to you know for required to graduate passing grade is not required
challenges already acknowledged it partially meeting expectations we'd like to get move those students into meeting expectations and not exceeding and while a s small sample size talked about that probably the most tonight and I don't want that to overshadow the fine
achievement and recognition our students who uh did really well deserve you know, there's always a sense of like, you know, a bias toward, you know, where's the weak spot and so I'm acknowledging that a very candy forthright way tonight. Um, and then
next steps, some of them are similar, but I made sure to change them up. Uh, and I asked there's a long list, but this is just one slide for a condensed presentation tonight. Um each department has their own um detailed list of what they're what they're setting out to do
and some of them are targeting specific questions and things like that but you know for the school committee tonight I'll just highlight a few um specific ones here but you know overall ones improve performance of students with IEPs provide specific EVCcast practice progress monitoring intervention that's
someone something we tend to do every year but we want to do that in a more intensive way but really looking at the kids in the ninth and tth grade who have IEP and are like usually to confront a challenging test. >> Um we know the cut scores did change uh in 2022.
So that's something that you know it is a little bit you know more challenging to score in that meeting expectations category and then you know what happened over the course of the last five years of trying to get out of that little dip that we experienced especially in 22 23
23 24 ELA increased their goal is to one of the they gave me a list but one of the ones I wanted to highlight for you tonight is increase daily writing practice of notebooks journals continue time writing open responses this is something they feel will really help with the open response questions in the essays. Math wants to really emphasize
math vocabulary especially for students who have not retained vocabulary from previous courses. They also acknowledge that some of the questions that um you know two or three part you know the little more involved there are some more involved questions they want to explicitly give students practice with
that. They they know they thought that was something that that was going on with some of the items where they might have tripped up on. Biology continue to work with students with constructive responses where they're not just given a choice but they have to write their own open response and show reasoning and evidence. That's something biology has
done great job with and wants to continue um and continue to provide this is our part of our school improvement goal. Continue to provide calm playing time math and all the departments uh both Mrs. Buringer and Dr. Affinity and science have already met that
department's already met to review the MCCAST results and plan next steps as has the English department and that that process will continue even into other departments but specific to MCCAST that will continue. We'll do it we'll have another common planning time if it involves providing sub coverage for a
for a class that they you know they'll teach because they'll be together we're going to prioritize that. So that's what we mean by that. Uh but I don't know if we're going to take questions at the end after the presentations or we're going to go one by one. >> Happy one by one because
>> I have to come back and they all have to come back up again a little different tonight. >> Sure questions comments. >> Yeah. Um I want to call out I appreciate that you're already looking at ways to motivate students because it is a
different playing field, right? Um I was just curious like I love the recognition breakfast. Has the state addressed this at all? Obviously at the state level we've changed this. I was curious if they had thought of things right >> they rely on the they've gone back to this well it's always been there which is there's a incentive for John and
Abigail's John John and Abigail Adam scholarships for the University of Massachusetts if you could based on if you're in the top 25% of your class you know in more in schools that are high performing it's harder to get that scholarship because there's so many you might have done really well but there's
a whole 25% of other kids ahead of you. Um then there's a the copick scholarship, COPWC mastery scholarship and you can get that as well by um applying for it based on your performance on MCCAST and also including your AP scores and some other things. I was encouraging students last year who
were going to state schools. They some cases it's raising their awareness. We made sure to advertise and get the word out. But I think uh that was sort of after the fact, you know, you did well, you need to know about this. You're going to a state school. A lot of our students look past that because they're going they have goals and they and they
accomplish them to go on to selective private schools. Um and they have no interest, you know, in going to necessar they have they're set on going out of state as well. We you might as you saw from our college uh list of where the kids metriculated last year. A lot of kids are moving down going out down south. It was extraordinary actually the
number of students that went across the country too. We had students going to California, Midwest. It wasn't just down south which is a trend across the northeast where a lot of students are seeking like you know the big tie football scene and everything like that and we have no we know no shortage of
students who are interested in that too but for students who are staying local they candy the copick and the John Nigel acts and I think it would help to make sure that they and their parents know about this before the test that they know that they if you do well in this
testing actually you know you get John Abigail Adams says full tuition Granted, the fees are higher than tuition at the state schools, but it it's free tuition for four years and that's substantial savings. So, we want to let make sure we advertise that. And there might be a few
other things we'll think of, but I think that, you know, it might give you the sense of what we're trying to do. >> That's great. One other question. Um, and I I'm always hesitant to like call out certain groups uh because I think everyone's trying to strive everyone in really well, but um I understand that
there's more IEP maybe about four kids struggling on the tests. Is there a way to see against other districts how that's working, right? So if you were to isolate IEP kids, right, students, >> we can look at district profiles. So that's actually available to the public. Subgroup data is available. And one of
the things we did notice too, and it's it's not a part of tonight's presentation, but in our analysis and and you know, we want we don't want to get too granular with school committee, but one of the things we're concerned about is the male female distinction at the high the difference there. There was
a significant difference in performance in in certain areas for males and females on this test. And we want to look at what we want to do before we put an old wider for a larger form like this is gather grade data too to see if it
corresponds with you know probably does with final exams and you know final grades for a school year but there was something I I certainly noticed um I think I have here you know just and
it's not to open up you know a whole other topic tonight because we didn't have this in slides and It requires further exploration and investigation but just in ELA like 80 86% of our females compared to
64% of the males were meeting or exceeding expectations and that 22% difference between the males and females there in the math we had 10% difference 79% females were meeting CV expectations 69%
% of the males and then biology and then the department of coordinators in their analysis pointed this out as well. They caught it too. Um it was another you know it's like a 13% difference in biology. So that's across all three three tests. So it's not a stat that's a
subgroup we want to look at closer and see what's going on there. There is a lot of conversation across the country. If you're listening to podcasts, watching the news about concerns about uh males acade the academic achievement of young men, boys particularly compared
to girls where they're out girls are outperforming them significantly going national trends. We saw it here on this test. So I just wanted to acknowledge it. Thank you. >> Any else for John? Um but is there a way
to use the MCAST over the years to um help students understand their individual their their personal achievements, their personal improvements is that is yes >> because they get it. Um the the most the perfect way to do it is conversations at
home because there's a spec and we can do it at school too but they everybody gets this and you as parents if you have um students in grade three beyond there is a real detailed report that the state provides uh what to parents it's it's uh
and eventually the goal is to make it online. I don't think they launched it. They had a plan to launch an online portal for parents this year and it's on hold for now. So, they're they're mailed out to the parents, but it's very detailed. I'm sure a lot of people just
look at glance and they say, "Well, you met expectations." Some people might sit down and really um go into more detail about it, but um you know, it it there is a real detail in port that goes home. I know it's part of a a cultural it
would be part of a cultural shift to be like you meeting these things in the state is fine but what we really care about is that you our student >> self improve you what what you did last year we're going to you know we want to
see you get better >> right >> over the year and at your own rate and and help >> I think that might be an interesting conversation with the special education leaison to look at these great data and say, hey, in a way that doesn't ramp up
anxiety for the kids. It some kids have a lot of might have test anxiety, but just trying to be balanced about, hey, how do we help you grow? What do you think we can help work, you know, kind of like a success plan, a goal, but just even a couple of goals? not holding them up against other things but holding them against themselves for a bit
>> because I mean I think it you know in some cases we see that there's a correlation sometimes between their academic sometimes it's not there but often between how they're performing in on their term grades as well you know that this is what one snapshot time as we always say and we're always cautious
about putting too much emphasis on one test but this is a data point that we don't want to ignore and we want to acknowledge that you know what was going going on with that kid that particular day. Did they not take it seriously? I could tell you absolutely there were a number of kids did not take this test
seriously. I looked at the old we printed out the essays for some of the kids and they you just see that's a I don't know I imagine it's weighted I don't actually need to look and see how many points they lost but they wrote a couple of sentences or a short paragraph. It was actually worse last year when kids were the kids didn't
write as length but our English teachers really bonded into them. you have yet right right and our kids respond to that and that's why we saw so many kids in the exceeding category but some of our kids who really struggle don't take the test as seriously or just like schools like you know they're less motivated and
they're challenged by it um they wrote just a few you know they didn't write as much and that was to their disadvantage >> another quiver >> that would be something for us specifically to talk to kids about >> well yeah but another arrow in your quiver of helping kids feel motivated
Um, you talked about a lot of our kids are going out of state. They're going to different places. Um, I I it used to be um I think it still is, you can negotiate college financial aid packages.
So, no matter where you're going to school, if you if you do really well on the MCCAST and you apply and get accepted to a state school and get these scholarships, you can take them to the schools that
you want to go to and say, "Gosh, I'd love to come to your school, but look at all this money that this school is offering me, and I won't be able to bring that scholarship. So, what can you do to help me?" something to think about especially with you know the uh our neighboring New
England states I I know Maine stands out for that they're trying to get Massachusetts students they even put billboards up about it on the highways >> and they want the best students they want the ones that won these scholarships so this no matter where you go to school doing well on these is
going to help you with financial aid and to save money >> just speaking to people's heart there >> yeah sure the wallet Yeah. >> Yeah. I'm looking at the bar graphs. It's it's very impressive that
with every subject area they jumped up from the previous year. So, as an entire cohort, >> I appreciate you saying that because these are positive results compared. >> Yes, that's true. >> But, you know, we we talk about the subgroup of of students with IEPs because that's the data that jumps out.
Yeah. and but also recognizing it's such a small cohort and a small district. So, we're really talking about individual disabilities at this point. And >> and I say we look at those, we know this and these are numbers, right? We we we
know the the students stories. We know their families. We we work with them daily. And you know, and and to us in some cases, although we put a lot of effort into helping them do as well as possible and their parents do too, they're not necessarily and we're not always surprised by the results,
especially the students. you know, our students testing regardless of the significance of the disability to take they're checking the box. They fulfilled a requirement to take the test. >> And you know, that's sort of the problem with MCCAST with well, with all students, this is not giving us information that's going to help us
teach individual students. Like I think those MAP scores >> are much more important when looking at students. I think >> I mean this data that we get on our test sometimes it turns into like you know this is what we use to compete with other districts and and Desi says that's
not the intent but that turns into the intent because you know that we can't use them to help individual student >> without revealing identities about students. I mean some of these students will not they it's not part of their plan to achieve a high school diploma >> right >> but they feel the task
>> but the the point I wanted to make is that um you know when when we talk about next steps and how to support students with performing better on MCCAST um it seems like it falls into two buckets like we want to work on
helping them with their test taking skills which is what it seems like when you're talking about doing more work on vocabulary, doing more work on how to write an open response question, you know, how to write lengthy essays, you know, so there's that bucket, but then
there's also it I think it's so important to look at the item analysis because that, you know, just to for background, so every question on MCCAST is tied to a standard in our frameworks. And so that's one of the reports that
districts get is um how well students did on each question and then you you sort it by standard. So you can actually tell you know where your curriculum is is strong and where it may >> so the curriculum is pretty strong and
the fidelity to it. uh across the board mo uh the vast majority I don't know I we I don't have a number for you tonight but our students outperform the state at every item you know pretty much you know state performance which would be we expect that we we actually don't often
put up state comparisons but if we did it would be like oh we're 33% better than the state on this and it looks you know great but >> but there's always surprises you know when you do the item analysis you're like oh I didn't realize that so many students were getting low scores on this standard. We need to go back and look at
our instruction on this standard to do better for the kids next year. >> Our teachers do that. Yeah. >> And I appreciate that you mentioning the transferability of the skills that we're going to be teaching to other domains, other tests, other coursework in and coursework beyond high school, right? >> Those are the skills are the important
piece that we're going to part. >> Absolutely. I mean, as we keep saying, this is a snapshot in time. You know, this is one cohort and you know what you learn from it. you know, you those kids are already moving on to the next year by the time you get the test scores. So, it's not like you can help those
students in that moment. So, um >> but I think we're all cleareyed about >> what the relevance of MCCAST scores. It's a it's a snapshot. It shows us where we need to do better, but also >> with a small district, the number it's
really small cohorts mess with the data for sure. you know, so overall can really a positive report tonight, you know, to share. >> Well, echo what everybody said, John's the year you needed, right? The uh >> the uh the trend going reverse that
trend line. >> Yeah, the trend going into this year was uh not the angle we were uh looking for, but across the board, phenomenal results. So, I thank the students for their effort and the staff for their effort as well. Um, I love the idea of
the recognition breakfast. If you need to lean on the school committee to to help with the recognition, I think that's maybe something that okay, >> we would come out for and maybe say a few words and >> um, congratulate those those students.
Um there is a trend uh throughout the presentation on the the IEP subgroup that I think we're all familiar with and you know we drilled you on a little bit you know but I think maybe we we can maybe hear like a generalization after
the conclusion of the other schools because there's a little bit more data available in terms of um student growth within the IEP subgroup that the district's focusing on as well. Um, but for those of you that are listening, the school committee fully acknowledges that
um the the subgroup of those on an IEP, you know, far less than desirable as stated during the presentation candidly. Um, but more information to follow, I suppose, on that. Yeah, and thanks for mentioning thanks for mentioning the SGP because although the performance wasn't
where we wanted students did show moderate growth in both ELA and math since their eighth grade since the time they took a test in eighth grade and that's specific to students with the IEP. So, thank you for mentioning that. >> You're welcome. It was going to come out at some point. So, so >> this is my fourth year.
>> Yes. >> Remind me SGP >> student growth percentile. So the 10th grade is being compared to themselves in eighth grade. >> Yeah. Well, to their academic peers, how there's students who perform similarly to them in eighth grade, where how did
they perform perform? So they were in the 54th percentile compared to their academic peers, >> other 10th graders, >> other 10th graders across the state that scored similarly to them. So that's why it's extraordinary when we had so many students and I I just might want to
mention this on a future school committee who scored in the the 90th percentile like they they were had SGPS of 90 or better and it was a significant other. So that show shows you the value added from our instructional delivery
and the student effort because since 8th grade of course that was a different time there were different things going on back then and so there's some 10th grade test when they take ELA math and our students take just so be clear they take the biology test in the ninth grade unless we have some students who we have
um you know take a by year and they wait and they take it in the 10th grade because often on IEPs they need more time to grow and develop the requirement by the state is that they take the the science MCCAST test by the completion of their 10th grade. So we have a small subset of kids who do that 10th grade
but overall the um the biology test, nth grade test, ELA and math are strictly 10th grade. Yeah. So yeah, the growth is there for sure. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. >> Thank you. Jason never
know I'm not going to sleep tonight on you guys are not making it better don't do well as a parent. >> Yeah. >> Uh uh thank you. Um I'm just going to jump right in. Uh as you can see, you know, we've we've done really well the
last couple of years being uh nominated by the state to be uh blue ribbon national blue ribbon schools is not something that you know happens often and um you know maintaining that level of achievement is really where what we're trying to do. So as we go through
these you know I think we get the most slides because mostly less the most tests of anybody. Um, so we'll go through kind of quickly, but if you look at sixth grade ELA, that was really where a lot of it started a couple years ago was the idea of breaking ELA into reading and into writing. What we saw
was just explosion. The nice part about that, we you'll see this as the slides, if we just talk trends that's carrying its way up through seventh grade and now eighth grade. And that's really what we're looking to see the things that we're doing, you know, are they one-offs or are they are they compounding as the kids go through? So, as you look at our
sixth grade ELA scores, you know, high high growth percentages, uh, meeting and seating is great. You know, we dip on the IEP level, and there's a lot of reasons for that. You know, John named a few. And, you know, some co cohorts are stronger than others, and when you're dealing with those numbers, you know, they can be a little bit radically
different, right? But our sixth grade ELA continues to stay strong as we move forward. Next slide, please. Now, math seeing that moderate that moderate growth. You know, we're hovering right about where we were last year, which isn't the worst thing in the world. Um, again, a little bit of a dip
in in the IEPs, but not not so drastic. But again, we're starting to see some of those changes as well. We've had some staffing changes the last couple years. We've got a um a real opportunity to really see our scores take off the map like we have in ELA. uh as we move
forward uh next uh seventh grade ELA's like I said this is where you start to see the benefit coming through if you look at the median exceeding right it's a small jump from the previous year but really when you look at like students on IEPs to see a 12% jump that's where that stuff is
starting to pay off the growth percentages and everything starting to pay off because it's now making its way up and through u next slide please again seventh grade math right seeing seeing that small incremental improvements as we go on, which is what we want to see. Um, you know, that
meeting or exceeding number, we we have every reason to believe that that's going to jump. Um, and we'll talk about staffing here here in just a minute. So, small incremental improvements there, which is what we want. Uh, I think, you know, if you can't expect to have like these rocket ship takeoffs every every year, that's just not realistic. And so,
I think where we are is that idea is as long as we're making that current steady growth, then that shows then that shows we've really built a solid foundation. Uh, next slide, please. Right. Again, you can see it's starting to pay off in eighth grade ELA, right? Rises in our meeting and exceeding um these things
are are trending upwards. When we look at all this, uh you know, the IEP just a little bit of dip to hold steady. You know, sometimes it's difficult when you're comparing grade year after year because the kids are different. It's just it's apples and oranges. So, really you start to look at cohorts and we certainly do when we go through that to
see as a cohort, are we seeing certain trends? and and and those will come up here in just a sec. All right, next. Right, math. Again, nice jump for math uh in in the meeting and exceeding and as we start to trend up, we'll see those
those same things. All right, moderate growth overall, but but but we're we're great with that. All right, you can go on to the next one. Right, science and technology. there's not as much data, you know, subgroup data as we have um in some of the other things, but we have uh you know, we're
holding strong at that 67% New York seeing a little bit of a dip um across the board, but but nothing that would startle us to say that this is a you know a downward trend. Next, civics. Uh yeah, there's a dot. So, glean from that
what you what you wish. Um if if we assume that the numbers in terms of the meeting seating, you know, are are the same across all subjects, then we're then we're right where we where we ought to be in civics. We'll need a couple years to see where that number is. Is do more kids do well in that test statewide
and therefore these things push up? We just don't have the data yet to to be able to determine that. >> All right. So, uh a couple things that, you know, really want to focus on here. one, if you look at their our grade 8 cohort last year, the the current ninth graders, their scores have improved
year-over-year from sixth through 8th grade, which is what we want to see. Math had their best year in terms of meeting and exceeding since pre since before co, right? We're getting back to these numbers and we're seeing that that return to to excellence that that we know we can do. Um, and seeing high
growth and and and and my growth in in most every subject. you know, a couple of the challenges that we faced. We've had some staffing issues in in math. Um, but I really like where we're at now. We, you know, our sixth grade teacher has moved to seventh grade. We've hired wonderfully experienced uh sixth grade
teacher who's there now. I think we've got a real solid foundation for mathematics and the way we want to start looking at it in the future. Remember, this building thinking classrooms model where the kids are up and moving and collaborating as opposed to just the drill and kill Russian school of math style. So that as it makes its way through, I think will really start to
really start to benefit. Um but you know maintaining high growth in all areas is isn't easy. Um it's just it's just hard to do that. And so if you have a small dip and then we you know see it go up and then you know um our special education scores some areas of improved some some that dipped and that's
something we will continue to look at. There's one more slide I think. So overall our our our next steps what we really want to focus on is providing training and support for our special educators. Um delivering that inclass and small group support. Um Mike Jarvis
who is here tonight has done a great job of sort of you know envisioning what our learning center classes could look like as opposed to you know just hey we're going to work on homework and we're going to practice these things. this really sort of station based idea where the kids are having an opportunity to work independently with a with an, you
know, with an educator in a small group and be able to to to work on the things that they need to keeping this flow and this routine down. So, we're able hopefully be able to infuse more curriculum and more remediation into into those moments and giving students a chance to really work with that those
skills as opposed to um you know, a special educator has such a wide range of students that they have in front of them. it can be very difficult if you're the only teacher, you know, you've got this. This will hopefully help streamline that and make make more efficient, more productive the work that
our special educators are doing. >> Um, really focusing also on executive functioning strategies. You know, for a long time we talked about anxiety and mental health issues. I think what we're really starting to see at least at the middle school level, executive functioning be more and more of the pro
helping kids with task initiation, maintenance, bringing it to a close. Those are the those are the the skills that we're really seeing in the middle school kids struggling. I don't know where it begin. So rather than treating the anxiety, we I think it's really more about the executive
functioning. what skills and strategies are we helping students to develop so that when they see something that they don't know or they see something that looks incredibly large and they can't do it, how do you find that entry point? And so that's part of what we're going to be working on in our learning center classes. Uh but I think across the board
too looking forward to sort of having more discussions about student uh executive functioning and how we can incorporate that not just in our special education classes but across the board. And that's the middle school. real quick know what you said about executing functions. Um what is like
what's an example of something you're doing to help support them with that improve the executive function? So, for a long time, I think we all thought that executive functioning was, "Okay, let's have the kids take their backpack, >> right? Open it up. Let's organize your papers. Let's organize your materials. Get your homework down. Let's go to your
locker. Make sure everything organized." Uh, I've just learned a lot over the last year about what executive functioning was. And it's it's so much more than that. It's really about preparation and helping students become prepared for the obstacles. So identifying what the obstacles that they're going to face are and then
setting up a plan for how to deal with that so that they're not on their heels when an obstacle does show up. We've talked about it, we've looked at it, we're prepared for it. So that obstacle could be anything from I'm just distracted in class. That obstacle could be listen when I get home I've got to take care of a sibling or I have to do this. So how am I going to plan this
differently? And that's really what we're talking about with executive functioning is is really sort of thinking through yes the organization is a part of it and giving kids tools and strategies whether it's graphic organizers helping them with their calendars but also really talking about putting a lot of front work into this so
that now we're just you know the kids aren't shocked as they go along. So that's where we want to move towards this with executive function is is the organization is a part of it but it's not just that. I think we have to have those strategies about how does a student um go into something when there
isn't somebody right there helping me great mom. So that's I think where we're going to go with this. >> I'm always um shocked every year when I hear how many subject areas are tested at the middle school. Like I know it, but when you see it all in one slide deck, it's like this is unbelievable.
And now that you've got the civics test at 8th grade to pile on to those eighth graders. So, how do you create a culture in your school where you you manage the stress level around MCCAST, the expectations, how to build it into your
school culture, so it doesn't dominate? >> Yeah, I think there's a couple things. One, uh, we also just found out this summer that our eighth grade kids gets the joy of taking the NAP test, this national exam, um, that happens. We've been selected. It sounds like a great honor. Uh but it's one more test to pile
right in the beginning, right at the front end of all this. So our eighth graders now will have a fifth test that that they get to take. I know. So yeah, fun. Uh so to answer your question how we do this, what we started a couple years ago was really around uh rebranding MCCAST and then school. Like
if the teachers are talking about it in a negative way, how are the kids supposed to? So if the kids like, "Oh, you got MCAST, so you know, just suffer through it. Just get it done." You know what I mean? We do that and the kids are going to model and mirror what what we see. So what we tried to do is a couple
years ago we had really great success with it was sort of work on the rebranding of it as opposed to oh my god you have to eat your vegetables and do this be like this is a great opportunity for you to show what you know and you go into this a little bit skeptical because are the kids really going to get into it. So we make it you know make it with a lot of fanfare. So we have poster
contests and we have chants that we do like I I this all came from a documentary that I saw in Mississippi. They they get up, they teach the kids. I'll do it right now, but it's it's shameful me doing it, but they're like, "Pork chop, pork chop, greasy, greasy, mcast, mcast, easy, easy." And they
teach the kids this, and it's just the idea of like we're just building a culture of, yes, we're we're ready for this and this is a great opportunity because I've been working so hard that I get to show this. And so that's what we've tried to do over the last couple of years is to sort of change the narrative on that. um you know the the
the change for from uh the state in terms of the high school requirement doesn't really impact the dust. The kids aren't really thinking about high school when they do this. So they're they're the other thing that we did that I think is really helpful is um a few years ago, was it three years ago, four years ago
now? I was adamant we have to be able to find a way to do all the tests on one day, right? If so if you're taking if you're taking math, the whole school is taking math on the same day. used to be that sixth grade math would go for these two days and then seventh grade math and then eighth grade math. And so the whole schedule was destroyed in the spring
because you have to have alternate schedules. Everything is up in the air. Uh makeups, all of these things. Now we say, "Okay, this is math session one day, this is math session two days, and all three grades take it at the same time." I mean, the building is bursting and with people in spaces, uh it's all
hands- on deck, but I think that's the other part too is we minimize the amount of test taking time. to try and eliminate that fatigue so that when when our eighth graders, for example, do get to their civics test, it's not like, "Oh my god, we've been testing and having these crazy schedules for the last two months." We try to try to shorten that up.
>> So, you minimize the obstruction, >> right? What's the obstacle and then what's the plan? Right? The obstacle is the kids just get tired of doing it. So, how do you plan it? >> Cut down that time. >> Yeah. >> Executive object. Yes. >> All right. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Neils, >> have you come up with any ideas um
strategies for kind of making up the time all those teachers are losing in class in class time? I mean, that's one of the things that I heard as a complaint is we would love to teach this and this and this and this, but the MCAT
is going to going to test on this. So for two week, you know, so for a month we teach on this thing and then when they take the test and it's like and I felt like some of my teacher friends would be like >> it's like a month lost, you know, and it's so I love I love that you know
you're really minimizing when they take it, but is there also a way to re retake that time back? >> It it it it's difficult because I'll use math for an example. um you know, you you you know what's supposed to be on the test, but obviously every every year the test is a
little bit different in what the focus is. So, it's really you're just chasing your tail as an athlete. You know, you're hoping that you've done the things that are going to show up or at least that you've instilled the skills so that if a student says, I've never seen this before, they go, you know what, I don't know how to do this, but I know this, this, and this, and based on that, I should be able to solve it.
That's where we want to get kids to be. >> But sometimes you get to the end and you're taking a test in early May. you know, you got six weeks of teaching left. You know, those all those standards that you're unable to hit. So, plus then when the test is over, I think a lot of times kids feel like, well, I'm done for the year, right? That gas is
over. We're out of here and a month. So, you're really playing with that. It's difficult to recoup that time. >> Uh that's why we, you know, we're so careful with it when we have it and try not to to do that. Um but we try to make sure that the that the schedule stays as
as routine as we can and we don't we don't spend a lot of time doing noncurricular things um when appropriate even when you know because you need them from time to time but uh believe my math teacher will tell you that every minute is important and every every time I schedule something that that takes away
from that I hear about it. So they're very dedicated to this but there isn't there isn't an easy answer to that. >> Yeah. >> How you build that time back. >> I didn't mean to pin you down. I just like >> pin me down. It seems like the the ongoing conversation about MCCAST was a lot of we're losing class time.
>> Absolutely. >> Yeah. >> And then when you like I said when you have different schedules, you know, the routines that kids get used to and some kids were very routine oriented. So if you have your unified arts class at 10 o'clock in the morning, now you have it at 1:00 in the afternoon. >> That throws everything off. So we do see
the impact of that especially with the younger kids 11 12 year olds. They they they can struggle with those routine changes. So, uh, it's not just a bulleted thing. It's just a middle school, high school thing everywhere. But >> if I had the answer to that, I'd be on the road and see
books all this. Yes. >> But we we have had for years had the philosophy that you don't teach the test, you teach your curriculum. >> And if you your curriculum incorporates standards, you will do fine on the MCAST
test. So, we we've never encouraged teaching to the MCCAST test. Some of the things we have done is is we've maybe taken some samples of of essay prompts that said, "Oh, this is better than what we're doing." And we incorporate them into the curriculum.
But I would never as a superintendent accept uh teachers teaching to to a test. We teach the curriculum. If you teach it well, our kids will do well. And that's something we focus on. One of the hard one of the hard parts of that though is being in a small district. if you're if you're the sixth grade math
teaching, you're the only sixth grade math teaching in town. So, you know, your principal gets up and shows how you did. There's no ambiguity about who that is. And so, there is a little, you know, self pressure to put on to be like, listen, I don't want to be the one who's why did that go down like that? And so,
teachers do put unnecessary stress. Kelly's right. We don't ever talk about teaching to the test. Those words never come or anything akin to it. But I think I think teachers are just naturally competitive against themselves and they want to see their kids doing well and so
um sometimes it can be unnecessarily difficult when it comes to that. But it's you know large districts you can kind of hide period. >> I'll just echo what everyone said. I think the results uh are phenomenal. Uh trend looks good.
Um, it's funny that you mentioned, you know, sixth grade math teacher by way of example and then in here you had, you know, staffing changes. Sixth, seventh grade gez. >> Um, so I will say, um, I hope, you know,
I hope that situation is exactly what you hope it uh turns out to be and fingers crossed that you've got some consistency there because I think that'll make a big difference for you. Um, splitting that ELA time at the sixth grade level, couple years now, like
tremendous results. Back to that gear is awesome. I would like to see you guys stick with that. I would wish we could continue that in seventh and eighth grade all the way through. >> You're writing the checks. You're spending money. I mean, talking to that guy right?
>> But yeah, awesome. Awesome job. Thank you so much. >> The same same, you know, IEP issue. Sub >> gonna see that across the board. Yeah, subcohort. Um, some challenges there, but there, you know, it's not just the information that's in the presentation. There's other other supporting
information with it. >> So, thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Right. >> All right. Bring it on home to Russell Street. >> Yeah. Um yeah, we'll just dive right into the the third grade and we'll kick right
off. Uh third graders, uh our youngsters first glimpse and attempt at MCCATs. Um last year's third graders, we don't have any student growth percentile data for obvious reasons because they uh we have no data to compare them to as it's their first time. But in terms of uh meeting
and exceeding uh data for ELA and third grade last year, uh 58% of our students were meeting or exceeding. that was down 2% from the year prior. And our uh special education students, 13% of those students met or exceeded as compared to
2% fewer um than last year's data. But I'm glad that Jason mentioned the the cohort um kind of reminder of of um comparing to last year because those are different students and especially when you're talking about uh a subgroup like special education students. Sometimes
we're talking about case loads as small as 10 to 12 to 15. So, you know, a few students um can really throw those percentages in in lots of different ways. So, it's just helpful to keep that in mind as we're as we're looking at the comparison data from year to year. Move
on to third grade math. Um again, uh good showing for meeting or exceeding for our third graders with math. 62% of those students met or exceeded. Um that's a 4% increase from previous year. Um and 13% of our students met exceeding. That's the same percentage as
ELA. Um which is down 17% from the year prior. Um our current fifth graders um or current yeah fifth graders um are are doing well in that m that overall um uh for our all students category an
increase of 4% which I think um you'll see as a trend going through our math data. the fourth grade. Um so fourth grade now we have some student growth percentile data here. Our students were uh the 49.1 percentile which is right in that average range, 50 percentile being
uh right in that average. Um our meeting or exceeding data, 53% of our students which was down 2%. For our special education cohort, 14% of those students met or exceeded which is an increase of 9% um for our fourth grade ELA. What I
think is going to be helpful for our fourth and fifth grade data is to look at those line graphs um to see kind of where the ELA or math over the last few years uh is either on the up on the ups slope or or taking a down uh tick from the the last year on math please. Thank
you. Um so fourth grade math um a higher student growth percentile um above that 50th percentile and 57% of our students meeting meeting or exceeding which is around the same as the year previously. Um the student growth percentile for a fourth grader in math was a little bit
lower um but the same number of students were meeting or exceeding in that special education uh cohort and uptick in math on that line graph there fifth grade um in the typical or moderate uh range for student growth percentile in
fifth grade ELA 48% of our students were meeting or exceeding um down a little bit from the previous year as you can see in that line graph. And for our special education students with uh ELA and math um not uh the grad showing we have 4% of our students meeting or
exceeding which was 10% below where we were the previous year. And our fifth graders take their science MCCAST for the first time. Uh fifth, eighth, and then in 10th grade they have science. Um and uh good student Oh, I'm sorry. We're
looking at math right now. Um 59% student growth percentile. 60% of our students meeting or exceeding. So again, that that line graph is moving up a little bit. Um similar story with our special education cohort there. 13% meeting or exceeding and uh it's 13%
below where we were previous. Here we have science um and we're kind of right in line with where we were previous year. 63% meeting or exceeding which is right where we were the previous year and a dip in the number of students who were meeting or exceeding
that special education code. So in terms of the impressions um bounce we had a lot of strengths at Russell Street School. The all students average um was in the typical growth range for all content areas with the fourth and
fifth grade math math nearing that 60th percentile. And um I'll highlight that math right now. If you if you notice those those line graphs going up a little bit in math over the last three years. I think that's uh indicative of the into math curriculum that we rolled
out. Uh now three years this is year four for into math. Um so I think that's that's showing as incremental those as those um improvements are have been that they are showing improvement with with our math data. Um, so I think that we're on the right track with our into math
curriculum and uh it was the right call and we continue to see growth and improvement in our math data year-over-year. Um, fourth and fifth grade ELA um, we had 18 students move from the partially meeting um, strand to the meeting expectations. Those are the
students that we tend to keep our eye on. They might be right on the cusp from year to year. They miss that meeting expectations by a point or two. oftentimes those are students that are uh making use of our title one program or our tier 2 interventions. So we keep a close eye on those students to push
them over that threshold into the meeting expectations. So I was happy to see that we had 18 students move that way in ELA. 14 students make the jump from me partially meeting to meeting expectations um in math. And uh when we look at math a little bit more closely
um in grades three, four, and five, all of our uh of those individualized standards that you mentioned that we see on the item analysis, all of our students were exceeding um the state average on those standards with many dozens of those standards um being at
least 10%age points better than um the the state average on those um individualized standards. So again, that's a really good um data point that shows that the math instruction that's happening at Russell Street is really solid and our
students are are gaining um the skills that they need in that math. Um challenges as um we saw with some of the other schools and the data points, there's a large disparity between that meets and exceeds percentages between the all students subgroup and the
students with disability subgroups. Um something that I'll get to when we talk about our next steps. Um the student group percentile was under the 50th percentile for a different subgroup which is the high needs subgroup and that's one that I look at often because it includes our students um on IEPs are
lowincome students and our multilingual learners. Um so those are the students that we want to keep an eye on and um a challenge for last year. Those are the students that often need to grow more than a year's worth um within the last year to make sure that they can make those gains and close that achievement
gap. Um, so that was something that we're still working on. Again, something that we can address in our next steps. And um uh, just one more, we had we had more students, we talked about moving from partially meeting up to meeting standards. We did have some students that went the other way last year, and
we had more students move that way um, on the ELA assessment than on math. And I think that that gets to now we can slip to our uh to the next slide with our next steps because this really drives right into what I think is um a really clear-cut example of of year one
of a new implementation of a curriculum um with wit and wisdom. I I showed this data uh or to our school-based leadership team and before I showed them the data I said you know just give me your predictions how you think we scored uh just in the aggregate on the whole with math and with ELA. And the teachers
were spot on. and they said, "I bet we were right on track with math and we made some improvements and I am willing to bet that our ELA data um has some some room to grow." And that's exactly what what our um what our MCCAST data showed last year. And that's really um why this MCCAST data being one of the
big data points as to our school improvement goal um for this year. Um and to get to the essential question, Justin, that you mentioned at the beginning of this is how are we using MCCAST to to make curricular improvements um in the schools? we see what happened with our ELA data. Not it
wasn't uh what we had hoped for, but I think it was not unexpected to see a slight dip in year one of launching a new curriculum where we were doing everything as written within the program. So, getting back to our school improvement goal, right, adjusting, you know, continuing to implement Witten
Wisdom with a focus on adjusting and adapting that program um to better meet the needs of our students through universal design for learning. Because when we do that, when we give our teachers the ability to adjust and adapt and differentiate and scaffold in ways that better meet the needs of their
students, we're going to see them have better access points to the curriculum that's in front of them and show better growth uh in their ELA and their reading comprehension. Um second next step to go along with that um our grade three teachers are going to be trained in and
eventually launch um the geodess program which is um a sister program to Whitten Wisdom that focuses more on um decoding text and getting more books in students hands. That was one of the things that
um one of the reflections that our teachers made last year is we want our students to be you know reading more um with a book in their hand than reading to a teacher um so that when they sit down for that MCCAST um they can be presented with a passage and have the
decoding skills and the stamina to get through those passages and really work through them so that they can um do their best work in answering the questions that are asked from those passages. So starting um after the new year, our our third grade teachers will get some professional development and
then they will um get those geodess uh curriculum that that those programs and those books that are aligned to um the witten wisdom um themes for each module and we'll get more books in the third grader's hand so they can grab it. Uh
the third next step is um we've done that item analysis and the ben of MCCAST and our benchmark assessment data um to identify some small groups for our win blocks and um I want to work with our grade level teams to adjust how we are
using that 30 minute wind block that every grade level gets each day um to find some strategic groupings based on um the standards that students may be struggling in or the the areas that they may need a little extra work on and we can have students move a little more
creatively around the grade level hallways so that they can really get what they need that's targeted towards the skills and standards that um we know they may need a little extra work on based on the assessment data. So that's where Russell Street's going
to go. >> I'm I'm trying to be aware of the alphabet soup that we use when we talk about education and that we're not all educators. Um you you gave a nice definition of a wind block but maybe if you could connect that.
>> Yes. So what I mean um and that is often times so it's built into our students schedule every day often times that's when a lot of our students may get um related services. They may be pulled out for um specialized service that they have on a plan. They may be working with
an interventionist title one teacher. they may be working with their classroom teacher in order to get some extension activities because they're, you know, they they're ready to to, you know, fly off on their own and and do their own thing. Um, but it's really an opportunity for a student to get what they need. And it is on us as the
educators to to find the best use of that time for each student so that we can really pinpoint and target what that individual student needs so that they can take >> and this is like an elementary phenomenon, right? I don't see it so much at the middle and high schools. the wind.
>> No, no, it started in the elementary. It has shifted upwards and so what the language changes though a lot of times of like a flex law. >> So we do have middle school does have it um built into their schedule at high school now for a couple of years also
has a flex law in the the intention is the same at heart as the elementary. So it has it is something over the past couple of years that has started to shift from elementary and what's it called at the middle school >> what flex block high school we run it every day. >> Okay.
>> Um >> 910 to 9:45. >> Anyway, thank you for this detailed analysis. I um as a curriculum person, I'm always interested in the item analysis because I think that's got the biggest long-term implications. Um, and
while we're defining things, if you could elaborate a little bit about a what a decodable reader is, is that am I correct in assuming that this these are books that are leveled so that students are able to read something at their own
reading level whether or not that's on grade level and then they keep moving up. >> So, we're we've moved away from what you know leveled reading for students. Um, the decodables are at grade level, but I think 90% of the words within those
decodable books should be accessible to 80 to 90% of our students in that grade level. Um, using the foundations materials that they that they've had since kindergarten. they this is kind of the the next level up so that they can get books in their hands that they will
be able to reasonably read independently um in order to practice those those foundational reading skills that they're solidifying in the third grade. >> Okay. Thank you. And one more question is it's interesting to see the the lag
with adopting a new curriculum and then you know it takes some time for everyone to adapt their instruction especially with such a hard pivot in pedigogy correct it was is represented with wit and wisdom I mean that was >> a huge shift was the shift I don't I'm
you might not have been in the district when we shift it to in ma into math but do you know if that was a hard pivot as well for the teacher I wasn't here, but I can make a prediction that it wasn't as hard of a pivot as Witten Wisdom was.
>> Um, the shift to a knowledgebased curriculum that really um did away with um that leveled reading um was a very stark shift for most educators, not just in Littleton, but anyone who was adopting a knowledgebased curriculum.
So, >> which everybody is doing, correct? Everywhere. But and so it's really interesting to see what the what the lag time is with um you know I'm happy to see what the item analysis that you're seeing that the curriculum is aligned to the standard. So that's awesome. But
then you know it just takes time to for teachers to start to feel proficient like nobody ever feels like they're their best selves as a teacher the first year of curriculum because >> you're figuring it out on the fly. Um, so it's really great news that the math
scores are really starting to reflect um, this great math curriculum that we have. So, you know, I'm looking forward to seeing what happens in the future with you wisdom. >> I think that this data shows again what we've said many times that that the implementation timeline for a new
curriculum is three to five years. It is not one. Um, and if we think, you know, I think back to when I presented the school improvement goals that, you know, in year one of Wisdom, we asked our teachers to to teach the curriculum as written so that we could get a better understanding of of what's in this
curriculum. Um, I think what the data shows is we we got our feet wet. We're, you know, we know what the curriculum is, but the way that it is written is not conducive for every single student that we have at Russell Street. So therefore, we need to shift some things now that we know what's in this
curriculum to better meet the needs of all of our kids. So I guess along those same lines, I'm glad you mentioned Whitney Lisa because I was actually going to ask this last two which makes sense but and your point of it taking three to five years but this
grade three now for example let's just say 42% are partially or below and you had talked about that wind loss but that I mean and I know we have small classes but that's a large group of students if we're talking about sort of the group
that you're uh mentioning in the windwalk that need support. How do you And now they're grade four, right? We don't want to wait for them to get to grade seven. So, how are there sort of targeted interventions you're thinking for such a large group of students in grade four and grade five also as the
teachers I know are sort of adjusting? >> Yeah, the a couple things. one from the on the curriculum. Not only was Whit and Wisdom a really sharp pivot for our teachers last year, it was a sharp pivot for a lot of our
students last year, too. And so much so that Whitten Wisdom in year one has what they call a module zero in order to get students prepared for and and to understand some of the most common types of lessons that students will have within Whitten Wisdom. We didn't have to
do module zero this year at Russell Street because our students already had a year of Wit and Wisdom under their belt already. They still did module zero in kindergarten and first grade um because it's new to to those students. But our Russell Street students are now coming in knowing the routines of
Wisdom, knowing um what's going to be asked of them, knowing that they're going to be read reading really difficult um texts that they're going to be have to think hard think hard about and write a lot about. So, um, I think that that in and of itself will get to
some of the areas of the students that maybe it was a big shock for them last year, but now it's becoming the norm of of what is expected within their literacy block. For the students that still need that that extra support, yes, we have um lots of benchmark assessment
data that we look at, criteria that students uh have to meet in order to to receive title one intervention. We have other students that are meeting with um teachers and other interventionists, you know, at on an as needed basis when they have something that is just tripping them up that they need a little more
work on. Um and we're consistently adjusting what's happening in the classroom to to make sure that if there's something that we need to spend, you know, 15 more minutes on to make sure if there's that small group that I need to pull because I collected that exit ticket and I have these five students that I just want to make sure
get it. Um teachers are constantly doing that um assessment, reflection and then adjustment. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. I can see it. >> Um before we close out that topic, I Beth, I don't know, you know, Matt,
Mike, like if either one of you would like to just address uh the school committee on the conversation that we had this afternoon related to that IU subgroup. um you know the information the way that it's displayed at the pack and it's like we look at grade level by grade level by
grade level and sort of the theme across it's like you know 15 of the 18 tests or something like that it's a drop in the I in the subgroup of the so I was kind of scratching my head as to like well it's
not just we can't just explain it as a cohort like one cohort had a different sample size and it's different kids but it's is if it's across the entire district, perhaps there's something else going on. And I had a conversation with um Mike and Beth this afternoon and
there's plenty of other data for them to be looking at and it's not just oh you know we'll try harder next year or something like like it's not that something didn't go right it's just that the way data is presented it doesn't look favorable upon tonight's presentation but there's other
information to share and I don't want to gloss over it right for the committee's benefit for the public's benefit like it's important that we dig in on So, >> uh, sure. I don't I don't just want to speak vaguely. I know we did have a a pretty good conversation, um, this
morning, but or this afternoon, but you actually said what the biggest point to remember about IEP scores specifically is you have to compare the student to themselves. And that was a big focal point earlier in in one of the conversations, I think, when John was up
here. SGP is exactly what we're doing in that data point and comparing to similar students of that who scored in that area in the same. So when you look for IEP specific subgroup, you have to look at
the SGP as the primary metric. when you look at the SGP in some grades and I I have some numbers here so I can kind of pull out some highlights of I know it's all on the spot and not shared but um you know one of the things that stands out is you can look at grade 6 ELA for
example when you're looking at your specific IEP meeting an ex meeting or exceeding you see 11%. And you're like that doesn't sound great. >> We want our kids to be achieving at a high level but there's two things to to consider.
one, you're talking about 18 kids. 18 kids, that's how many are on an IEP in sixth grade that took the ELAM test. The piece that I want to address is their SGP was 61 and 50 is moderate, the average. So if you're scoring above
that, you're scoring above I think it's in the upper se you're above 70% of the similar scored students in the previous year that you were on this like so cohort-wise your scaled score last year compared to your scaled score this year
is what they derived the STP from. It's that base algorithm that's everybody that scored similar to you. Did you grow more than them or did you grow less than them? Right? So you see how it takes your performance, it measures it against similar performances and then spits out
a growth metric for you. That's what we have to look at. The other thing you don't consider when you talk about IEPs, and this is any grade cohort, you ask about the third grade cohort and then watch them go all the way through 10th grade. Those kids are going to stay the same on the Aspen ROS. What's not going
to stay the same is who's eligible for an IEP each. the kids who are doing well, who are responding to the intervention, who are making progress, every three years get reevaluated. And if they're doing well, we're losing them off our numbers. You're gaining them on the general ed numbers or maybe the 504. They're still
maybe in the high high needs population, but they're not on the IEP subgroup. But the kids that come on the IEP subgroup are the students that are exceptionally struggling as the grades get more challenging. So, you're not looking at an IEP subgroup the way you're looking at a grade cohort. moving
on. You're looking at a subgroup that has to perform well getting its highest performers taken away and getting the lowest performers added to it and our numbers are not dropped out. They're stable if any. Right? So, I can't stand up here and say we have all this
tremendous growth. But what I can say is that when we find a student in this district who needs support, we go in and we stabilize their academic program for them and we put them in a position to succeed. We had a conversation earlier today about the metric of meeting and exceeding expectation. But when we do an
IEP evaluation, we talk about fate. We talk about fate free and appropriate education. That's the metric for eligibility. When you look at a a sophomore in high school taking the MCCAST, they're getting a diploma at partially needed. So if you have a student with a disability, you're you're
you're setting them at a starting point much lower than a general ed student who's a typical neurotypical functioning student, but yet you're moving the goalpost further for them because they have to work for it. So, when you see a student two years ago that was taking the MCCAST in 10th grade with a math
disability, an SLD, specific learning disability in math, and they earned a 490 on the MCCAST, they're not going to count against your meeting or exceeding, but they just earned themselves a diploma. So, we're not considering their success, what the benchmark is for a student who
has a disability. It's just it's not a physical disability. It's still a disability. it's still them having to work and persevere in an area that is exceptionally more challenging for somebody who's neurotypical. So when we look at what we're doing for
these kids, SGP is really the only number and all of our numbers are in and around that 50 that moderate point. There are a couple that are that are concerning in pockets. Um but I I would be remiss to give my colleagues who are not here from the special ed department credit that we've already started diving
into this data. There are action plans going into place at every grade level um to target what those specific needs are because they are not full grades. They're not across subjects. They're just isolated either math third grade or ELA 6th grade, something like that,
right? They're not we're not looking at a systemic issue in special education. We are looking at fine-tuning. Um and and I just ask that we keep that in mind when we talk about what are our IEP subgroup numbers looking like, especially as the cohorts go on. your
cohorts are the same kids, but my cohort of IEP case load students is only taking the students who have the most struggle and we're getting we're passing back to your general ed cohort the students that we've done the most with, right? So, we don't get that success by the time they get to 10th grade,
>> but those 10th grade numbers sure looked good and we're only getting the kids that are still that far below um needing specially designed instruction to access thing. >> That is so clear. Thank you for explaining it that way. Or >> any questions?
>> I feel very enlightened. >> It's intense. >> One quick one. And I'm not going to know the answer right now, but >> uh you're saying that a certain number of kids come off of IPS each year, and that's not always going to be the goal for every student, right? Depends on where they're at. >> Do we have any tracking for knowing how
many kids in grade? >> Absolutely. >> I can give you the down to the number for every year. I mean, it's not on the spot, but if you want that, that's readily. >> Yeah. evening. >> Mike, thank you so much. I got a lot out of our conversation this afternoon and for you to be able to come here this evening and share this with the school
committee. >> Um, thank you so much. >> Appreciate that. Thanks. Thank you. >> All right. We're not looking very good on that over 845. Uh, our second That's okay.
Uh our second presentation this evening is competency determination update. Inviting uh director of teaching and learning Beth Steel back up to give a presentation on the high school CD updated policies in her request of first reading.
>> Perfect. Thank you. >> Got it. Um that was enlightening and also really enjoyable as a colleague to watch the passion that Mike Jarvis has for his he is exactly where he should be and that was just really beautiful. So thank you very much Mike.
>> Okay so related but not at all related now um shifting gears to competency determination. So to just provide some context to how we got where we are today, um we know that last November there was a a ballot vote that changed
how we determine competency detation within the state of Massachusetts. And so the ballot meant that we could no longer the results of the ballot vote meant that we could no longer use MCCAST results as determining competency for a
high school diploma. And so we changed our policy on competency determination which I may start using just CD through moving forward. Um we changed that last February in order to not be using MCCAST
as demonstration of the competency. Um, and then last May, DESIE decided to vote on updated regulations, which changed the CD again, which forces every single district in the state to go back to the
table and re-update their policy or actually create a brand new policy with regards to CD. And so um with that in mind, we had until or we have until the end of this year to submit our updated
CD policy. The update that was required based in May um that we are proposing here this evening is that we have to have two years of high school ELA. We have to have one year of algebra 1, one year of geometry, one year of either
biology, physics, chemistry or technology or engineering. that is all reflective of what was previously administered for MCCAST in 2023. We also have to show the aligned courses within our policy of how students can
achieve showing mastery um and completion of work in those courses. Additionally, for the class of 2027, those starting with the class of 2027, those students also have to demonstrate
competency in um one year of US history. So, we've expanded it to also include history. Now, in addition to the up into these updates, there was also more specific considerations for students with disabilities, English language learners, and students that might be
late enrolling into our district. We also had to include an appeals process in our CD. This is all new that we did not have to have back initially in February. And then also what DESIE did require is actually for us to separate into two
separate policies. So what we had done in February was that we came to you and we asked for an update to our graduation requirement policy and in that it talked about our CD and now what Jessie is requiring is a whole separate policy. So graduation requirements which are our
local graduation requirements is an independent policy and what we are proposing forward um for a first reading this evening is the competency determination policy. So while they um may seem related they are two separate entities and policies in of themselves.
The template that you have in your packet or excuse me the the policy that you have the proposed policy that you have in your packet we use the MASC template. They did come out towards the end of the summer with a template for the state. And so we did take that template and we tweaked it with the
information that we wanted to have for our district. And so as you're reading the policy, you will see what we are considering to show mastery, the coursework requirements in those three areas for the class of 2026, four areas starting with the class of 2027, the
aligned courses that we offer within our district for those, and then the additional considerations as required um by DESIE for students with disabilities, the English language learners, late enrolling students. You'll also see the appeals process that we had to work through um as well. in that policy. And
so I know uh I'm asking for a first reading, so I'm not going to go word for word, but I want to provide context as to what you have in front of you this evening. And so I'm happy to answer questions or to provide more information or context if I am able to. um but also want to put it forth so that it be a
first reading. >> Question or comments from >> It's funny reading through this. It just makes me so glad that that the ballot initiative went the way it did because now students get all of the supports
that they're entitled to on their IEPs to uh graduate from high school. Whereas with the MCCAST, I mean, they would get their test taking accommodations on their IEP, but they wouldn't be able to get to learn with their IEP the way that
now they're would be allowed to with this new CD. So, that that part made me really happy. Um, I just had a few little word tweets, but I put I don't know if you are you on the packet. I I put some comments on the Google doc just
word smithing a little bit but other than that it looked oh I did have one question about the foundational level of English proficiency um level one and two that seemed like a low bar but
um maybe it doesn't align with the WETA framework that I'm thinking of >> for access it does it's that actually is language that comes about the recommendation from the state. >> Oh, okay. >> And so, while we um one of the things that the state continuously said, we want to maintain the rigor, we want to
keep where we're at, but also don't push it further. Don't make it harder necessarily for our students. And so, that that and that's why the MASC template was helpful because it did incorporate the state's recommendation and that is exactly what actually comes from the state. Okay. So, we chose to
leave it uh as they indicate all that content. Perfect. Thank you. question. >> Um in the so I in the first paragraph when it highlighted
um Massachusetts okay measured by the high school English language arts mass mathematics and science MCCAST assessments administered in 2023. I mean, does that mean that that this is going to just be a part
uh is that is that MCCAST results or I'm sorry, I'm just confused at what what MCCAST is in there. >> Yeah. So, that um again that that is in the template >> and what that is saying is that students have to demonstrate proficiency
>> in the content areas that were administered through MCCAST in 2023. Okay. >> So that just translates to our students have to demonstrate proficiency in ELA um geometry algebra one and then any one of this multiple science um option with
the biology, the physics, the chemistry, technology or engineering. So it just provides that context for content areas >> what they what what they what they should be good at. Yeah. Exactly. Not not >> Yeah. which the the next line down from that paragraph,
>> an additional requirement for mastery in US history will apply to the graduating class of 2027. They had to separate that out because there was no uh >> history. Yeah. For the longest time. Yeah. >> No, I'm old enough to remember when it was just English or something.
student. >> So do you think I mean along that that same comment um would it be clearer just to say of the Massachusetts curriculum frameworks without identifying
the uh topics that were on the 2023 MCCAST because this is moving forward. this is our policy moving forward that we're going to be aligning to all of the frameworks, not just the ones that have been tested on the 2023 MCCAST, right?
>> Well, not necessarily because um for example, in math, it's very specific. It has to be algebra 1 entry. So, um it does have to be related to what was offered the content that was offered in the MCAST 2023.
So that's why it we do have to have very specific because of because of math and because of science. They are specific content areas which relate to specific courses that our students need to demonstrate. >> But now it won't just be limited to biology. Now they can show proficiency in any of the science domains
>> which was true for MCCAST as well. They could have taken the chemistry MCCAST. They've taken physics MCCAST, >> right? >> Which hardly ever that I a lot of districts didn't even administer those. So, um, okay, thank you that that resolved that comment.
>> Um, and then there was just one more that I had way up at the top paragraph. I just I want to like avoid talking about the common core because that could be misinterpreted as that thing that caused so much controversy several years back. Um, so would it be possible just
to say um to have it read of common skills and competencies without using the word common and core next to each other to potentially tweak people? >> That's a recommendation that's part of the MASC template. And so I will defer
to allowing you. >> So this is a template that we can modify with our vote. So, so when they gave that to us, they didn't mean the common core that we common, but you could interpret it that way by mistake.
>> Really? Yeah. It does. It It tweaks me the same way, >> right? >> And I don't think I I'm not intend I don't want to change the meaning of the sentence. I just want to change the wording so that people don't think we're following the common core because
>> Why don't we just add the Massachusetts common code? Well, we don't have the Massachusetts Common Core, so we >> incorporated that into our frameworks and we no longer call it the Common Core. >> Hold on. >> Yeah, >> I I wrote an OpEd for the Boston Globe
back then. >> And we have our Massachusetts standards that that align and may go beyond the comp. So, the Massachusetts Common Core is afraid, is it still valid?
Common Core hasn't disappeared from >> I don't think people use that anymore though. It's like the Massachusetts curriculum frameworks including >> never had a statement from Massachusetts Department of Education that eradicated the common core either. So I just I just
want to be careful that we hold true to what the state still believes and I I have you ever had any anything from the state saying that common core doesn't exist anymore? It's com the common core
in Massachusetts we use it built upon common core. Right. Right. So it extended beyond common core. I think what's interesting about this so I think to be honest I think we could either drop common or we could drop. Right. I think you can actually drop either one of them to get the sentiment that you're feeling. or so.
>> I think the other piece to this is that um we're going to submit this to Jesse and Jesse's going to read through all of them and we might be going through a very similar experience again after Jesse has reviewed all of the district policies. We might be coming back and
having to make adjustments and Jesse might that might be a hill that they die on, right? That says, "Nope, it has to be there." Yeah. >> Um, and so I think there's there's we can tweak it. We approve it as a district. We submit it to Desi and then
there is potential because of the graduation council that that the governor has also put together that Desi's working on that we might have to make adaptations to this in the coming year or so. um until it
becomes kind of a solidified policy that we don't necessarily have to revisit every year. >> So, it's going to be fluid. >> I think there's potential for that for the near future. And I say that because in February, we had to make an adjustment, right? Now, we're having to
make an adjustment. And each time now we have to submit to the state whereas before we didn't have to ne necessarily submit to the state. So now the state wants to read everyone's in order to kind of see and glean what's common, what's not common. So I I'm
making a prediction that there might be more forthcoming based on the steps that the state is taking it. >> Well, I'm just suggesting removing the word core of and if they want to put it back in, we can put it back in. It's interesting because without the capital
C's just if you read it as a sentence I don't even know why both those words are there because it's have achieved mastery of skills competencies and knowledge in said areas would >> make a lot more sense the word common and core in this sentence don't even
seem >> that's what I was saying I'm saying both the words not even taking out one like >> but apparently they're important to me there >> well >> I think you It's interesting because even the way
the way that sentence when you brought that up, it gave me a very different perspective. >> They're really not referring to the common core in that sentence. So, >> no. Right. So, >> so I changed my opinion. >> Yeah. Well, I think you know whenever we
go through policies, we would look to clarify the wording >> and if this is going to be a policy, I would like the fact >> that isn't misinterpreted by >> Right. >> Do we propose that in second read? >> Like we're in first. >> So we can we can make the change.
>> Yeah. >> I mean it's Alex, can you see the comment that I put on? Yeah. So that's I Yeah, I can do we make motions. >> Well, this is just the first three. That's frustrating. >> You don't make much of them. >> No.
>> Yeah. Because I could be behind just striking core right there and because mastery of the skills, competencies, and knowledge instead and >> right. So, let's not put in a phrase that could be confusing. >> I even if it wasn't capital C's uh
trademarked whatever curriculum, that just strikes me as a weird way to say it. Mastery of the common core of skills competency. And we periodically find weird wording in the mask >> policies, right? And so this is not unusual.
>> So it sounds like there's agreement that we just need >> common core of which we can do >> or even Yeah. to just strike core >> skills. So it would read achieved mastery of the common skills, competencies, and
knowledge in said area. >> What's the point of common? That's my question. >> Yeah. Common core of I feel like we avoid >> misunderstanding. >> Mastery of skills, competencies, and all mastery of common skills. Talking about
mastery of skills, right? Exactly. Exactly. Skills, competenc. >> Thanks. Yeah. Is the word mastery also a that's probably state provided language? And like that's that's the one thing
that stuck out as odd to me. And I I actually Google what does mastery mean. It doesn't mean like really what I think it means which is like you're truly defined as an expert in that area and you've um but I do think it's an odd choice because we
go on to say that basically you need a 60 or above. You need a passing score. and we just looked at the MCAST stuff and we're we're talking about partially meeting expectations >> and receiving a diploma, >> right?
>> And it seems odd that we would classify as someone having mastered something and also partially meeting a state standard and then giving them a diploma. >> This was a big discussion among the principles association and among the super curriculum and teaching learning.
This was that word alone. It's funny you picked up on that too because we all live too and everybody's wrestling with how to massage it into the policy language >> past proficiency of >> I know but they >> so the requiring mastery the requiring
what is your definition of mastery so when we submit we have to we have to say what is public schools uh definition of mastery >> and um I have a regional a regional group of um administrators
And we had a very long convers conversation about this as well >> and all of us we all share in order to right to try and be in alignment and see what are you doing this is what we're doing this is what we're thinking um and the
commonality is and it feels very funny to say you can be a demonstrate mastery with 60%. that is what we are establishing because you can get 60% and get your diploma and continue on and do really amazing
things, right? Um and so the state is very particular >> with the word course completion with phrases course completion and mastery that >> I'm not going to die on the hill. I just think it's it's a poor choice of words. >> Yeah, >> some of us are trying
>> achieve mastery but only satisfactorily can be. Yes. Yeah. >> Yeah. That's what they're >> But you're talking about all students. >> Yes. >> Well, wouldn't proficiency be I like Justin. You have a better word.
>> They will die off. >> Yeah. It's not a hill to die, but it's still like >> Yeah. >> Yeah. That's kind of worrisome that our state leaders >> sort of like an unrelated question but in the mathematics we say algebra one geometry ways in
which you complete this are by algebra 1 or geometry but then we also list foundations of high school math one foundation of high school math 2 what is that explain >> so foundations of high school math one foundations of high school math 2 are um subsparate math courses that still cover the algebra 1 standards and the geometry
standards and so if it comes up on a transcript >> okay those students even though it doesn't say algebra 1, instead it's going to say foundations of high school math one and we know that that's covering the same standards as algebra 1 and so those students are able to get through using that.
>> Okay. So it's maybe not as rigorous a curriculum different. >> Yeah. And it's interesting. So Desessie is picking US history as the social studies course that famous
people. Very interesting. >> Yeah. I'm starting to realize we don't have as much flexibility over this policy as we do with most of them. Huh. >> It and it got stricter with them. day, right? With their their passing of I between November and us having to submit
in February, there was a lot of conversation too about ensuring that the seniors that were graduating last year knew what they needed to meet, >> right? Because all of a sudden MCS went out the door and so we had to say, well, what how are you showing competency to actually earn that diploma, right? So there was a little bit of a feeling of
rush and then once Jesse was able to kind of have more time in May they then decided okay here here's the updated regulation here the updated guard rails and it did it became a bit um narrower
as to what our control local control might be >> and then mask was in the room for these meetings and that's why policy is template is coming from them >> that I'm not sure I'm not sure who was part of the
conversation. >> Well, thank you for interpreting this for us and for all of your work with making it work for our district. >> Yeah. >> And you too don't want to leave out all of your hard work, too.
>> Good job. >> Thank you. sort of feel we should draw graduation requirements, but uh we'll stick with agenda. >> Well, it is on the policy. >> No, I know. >> But it's we could, you know, do a a
first reading of graduation requirements. Pretty simple. >> It's simple. >> Why don't that's what I'm thinking since we're like we should already have that thought process going on. Let's move into that. So, so just a >> we're taking things slightly out of order here. What we're going to talk about next are the it policy IKF
graduation requirement. >> Thank you. >> Perfect. So the um this policy is a bit simpler in the sense that we just had to go in and take out what we had added last year. And so anything related to competency determination we took out of
this graduation policy. And so you'll see in red any changes that were made. Um, and then red and striketh through is what was added and what we're now striking to take away from this because it's no longer needed because it's its own policy. And so we want to try and
keep it clean and neat and only have local graduation requirements in IKF um and have everything else in the competency determination policy instead. And so it does say um the one kind of
adjustment um is on that the last paragraph on the IKF where it does state except for it used to say the state MCCAST requirements. Now we're just taking that out and replacing it simply with or except for the competency determination.
So they do like I said that's why they are related but yet separate. Makes sense. Anybody have any questions about that or comments about their opportunity to revisit IKF
anyways, but that's not that's not really the intention. >> My comment is on some of the policies we do like cross references related policies. Do we do a cross reference here relating to
It's a technicality, but it's it's what it's mentioning. >> You know, it's never the the source for for this policy has always been graduation requirements are
district created. We don't have a state um graduation. So these these courses are are what we have determined for a number of years are necessary to uh be taken so that uh
they're prepared for the next year students are prepared. It doesn't vary that much. I mean John and I have looked at these things for years. They're all very similar, but uh I don't know of any there may be I don't
know of any NGO reference to this. >> No, I was digging the cross reference. So, we have cross references at the bottom of some policies to our own policies. >> I'm saying should we cross reference the CD in postgraduation sheet? Should we cross
reference policy? I say food. >> Yes. >> Yeah. So when I was in the we do it is mentioned so >> okay like are you referring to that second paragraph where it says all students will earn the competency determination.
>> I'm saying at the very bottom if you scroll down to policy can you put on the screen the um IKF and scroll down. >> Do you see? >> No it's okay. >> You know there you go. Go down. Go down.
One more page. There you go. >> Right there. Cross ref. >> You see crossre >> student handbook. IKF. >> I'm saying in the IKF policy, we should write cross ref IKF. >> Yeah. >> Y yeah. >> Yes. Good catch.
>> Yes. >> Good catch. Good pick up. >> I think that should be Thank you for explaining why there's two. >> Sure. Yeah. >> About everybody. >> Yes. >> All right.
That concludes presentation portion of the evening and one not two uh first readings later on the agenda. This is our second opportunity for interested citizens. Take a break pause see if anybody wishes to speak before the school committee.
Hearing none seeing none we will close that portion and we'll move through our subcommittee report. So first up is PMDC. >> Yep. Um the only thing of note is that the um Bostonian court doesn't seem centered
for us Olympics. So not to get too much into the minutia of it, but basically the way it was layered was incorrect and end up basing being like little stones that were kind of rising up uh and creating a problem with the court. Um and Brontan was able to work with the
contractor to get contract the paperwork of the next wedding. Um so everything's getting fixed. Um and then other than that we're meeting next week. Um that will be the first one we'll meet post the lecture results of link. So more to come.
>> Great. Budget subcommittee report you want to carry that one. Um the budget subcommittee did meet today and um reviewed next year's the the
budget we are working to um submit to the fincom um and select board and do this together and um um I believe we've we've come to an an agreement on what
that budget will be. We are looking at two point. >> Yeah. Two.75. >> Correct. We completed our first preliminary pass of the budget. >> We will
uh >> we'll submit to the town. >> Yeah. Pause this commercial because We'll uh we'll submit to the town a uh budget increase 2.75 which I want to thank uh superintendent the business
manager for their hard work preparation for today's meeting. We spent about an hour and a half talking about the budget, um, changes that we need to make, some expenditures coming down the pipeline, and as well as we looked at our, uh, 10-year capital plan, and we've
identified some really exciting, I'm excited about a couple of them. Um, laughing. Um, capital projects for fiscal year 26, which is the year we're in. Yes. And 27. and we hope to uh
potentially knock these projects off this coming summer. Um so yeah, budget committee's been uh been pretty busy. More work to come as once we submit our numbers to the town and uh looks like we're in pretty good shape. So we're proud of that.
>> Yeah. Yeah. We're staying open to meeting in person with Fin Commons board and talking to them a little bit more so we're all on the same page. We feel like we were I feel I think we all feel like
we're in a really good place with this with FinCom and this select board and I want to keep that going. >> I think we really hit our stride especially with the Shaker Land project. Everyone working together. >> Yeah, >> it's uh it's been great. >> That was amazing.
>> Um all right, policy subcommittee big belie. >> Yeah. Um so we had submitted a number of policies for first reading at the last meeting which you have in front of you
and I think we're transferring all of those to second reading >> right >> that right and we've gone through two of the policies for first reading um the graduation requirement competency determination and then we have two
additional policies considering to And thank you, Alex. I just um >> So, do we want to vote >> on the policies that have had a first reading? Second reading. Do you vote to accept them? >> Well,
>> we we vote motion to accept them for second paying and just highlighting a policy overview document makes it really easy so that you could see it. Yeah, it's also nice having the different colors uh showing exactly
where the changes were for the first reading and the second reading makes it easy for us. >> Do we want to go through each one or were there any questions about specific? >> We spent a fair amount of time on a lot of them were typed
on roendicides. Yeah. >> Yeah. It makes them better. It made them better. >> So, does anybody have uh anything to discuss as it relates to a second reading on anything we covered last time? >> I don't think so. So, just a simple
motion to motion to accept the following policies for second reading. EB, EVAB, EVB, EC, EV EBH EC ECA CAC ECF EBC.
Second >> passed. Uh motion made and seconded. All those in favor indicate by saying I >> I passes unanimously. And now we have uh two additional policies
because of our first readings. >> Sure. I thought we kind of already looked at JF and IFOT. >> Well, let's let's talk about KHP. >> Okay. >> And then let's >> um >> I don't think we have a vote on it.
Really? >> Motions following is Yeah. >> So, we will if we want to and if we don't, we won't >> because we can do that. So
uh >> this is my meeting. It's >> our meeting. >> This is our meeting. We can do what we want. >> Anyways, um so this was sort of my ask. It was KCD and KH. >> Mhm. >> And this came about because of my
involvement in Littleton youth basketball and the need for an upgraded or updated uh scoreboard at the middle school. We got some preliminary pricing and Little Basketball talked about trying to make a a gift, a partial gift or something like that. Like maybe they
would make a gift. Maybe the school would the um school department could kick in a little money as well and perhaps we could fundra basketball could fund raise. And with that fundraising might come an advertising opportunity for a league
sponsor. So, when I look through the policies, um, what Little Youth Basketball is really looking for acknowledge to solicit a sponsor where advertising would take place within the school building. And when you look at the policies, uh, I just wanted to make sure
that this would be okay. So policy KCD reads public gifts and donations to schools. The superintendent with the authority to accept gifts and offers of equipment for the schools in the name of the committee when the gift
is of educational value and with a less um a value less than 5,000. In the case of gifts from industry, business or special interest groups, no extensive advertising or promotion may be involved in any donation to the schools. Gifts greater than 5,000 or that would involve
changes to school plants or sites will be subject to school committee approval. Gifts will automatically become the property of the school system. Any gift of cash whether or not intended by the donor for a specific purpose will be handled but as a separate account and expended at the discretion of committee as provided by law. The committee
directs the superintendent to asssure that an appropriate expression of thanks is given to all donors. So um I guess my question for the committee is in the case of gifts from industry, business or special interest groups, no
extensive advertising and promotion may be involved in any donation to the schools. Um >> do we get to interpret extensive like >> support this however you like? Well, I I'm just just going to throw up, you
know, if a local company puts up a um a scoreboard, can they put their little logo in the corner of it? I mean, would >> the second policy actually talks about that? >> Oh, okay. >> So,
>> so let's look at the I see I think it's more covered in the first one that I just read, but let's go to the second. So um >> KHB advertising in schools school business relationships based on
sound principles and community input can contribute to high quality education. However, the school district must also protect the welfare of students and the integrity of the learning environment. Therefore, when working together, schools, community organizations, and businesses must ensure that educational values are not distorted in the process.
School committee will allow the use of advertising consistent with the criteria specified below. A use of advertising made in connection with courses of study which have specific lessons related to advertising. It'll be up to each school principal to decide whether the lessons
related to advertising are appropriate. B. Use of advertising information in such supplementary classroom and library materials as newspapers, magazines, televisions, the internet. um the internet and similar media where
they are used in the classroom such as current events or where they serve as an appropriate research tool. School committee will allow advertising consistent with the criteria specified below. Paid advertising is permitted in yearbooks, school newspapers, theatrical productions, and event programs as long
as such advertising meets the criteria listed below. The building principal is responsible to review all material. Non-school organizations that are approved to use school grounds and facilities may use temporary advertising that is consistent with the criterion policy. Non-school organizations must
comply with the specific procedures and processes determined by the superintendent or the superintendent designate. Advertising must meet the following criteria consistent with district and school academic standards and goals. All corporate support or activity shall be consistent with the
state district and school academic standards and goals. Commercial involvement must also be structured to meet identified educational needs, not commercial motives. Consistent in district policies and age appropriateness. All corporate support
or activity must be consistent. district policies prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, age, religion, sexual orientation, veteran status, limited English proficiency, handicap or homelessness, and must be
age appropriate for the students involved. We're almost there. Three, certain corporate support or activity prohibited. No corporate supporter activity will be permitted in the district or in schools that promote the use of illicit drugs, alcohol,
tobacco or firearms. Promotes hostility, violence or disorder, attacks or demeans any ethnic, racial or religious group. Is this >> lialist? Thank you. Promotes any specific religion. Promotes or opposes any particular political view candidate.
Valid question inhibits the functioning of any school. All corporate business organizations support may only cite the organization's name, not specific products or services. Phrases, excuse me, phrases such as your friends at proudly supporting Littleton
Education, etc. may be used. The corporate business organizational organizational review includes consideration of the primary products and services for usage of such products, services would violate policies of the district. Sponsorship by individuals without attribution to a company,
corporation, or service is allowed. The school committee on a case-byase basis consider corporate company identification recognition for significant contributions greater than $5,000 in value to fund school facility capital items. Proposals must first go
through the superintendent for preliminary review, meet the criteria list above, and meet a specific need of the district. Suppose that's the only sentence I had to read. Um proposals without by the superintendent shall not be presented to school committee for final consideration solicitation of
sales or use of the name of the school system to promote any products excluding testimonials approved by the superintendent of the schools will not be permitted by the committee. So having got through all that I think my concern is addressed here where it says the
school committee will on any case will on a case-by case basis consider corporate company identification and recognition for significant contributions greater than school facility capital items proposals must approve the superintendent for
preliminary review meet the criteria um and meet a need of the think that's very comprehensive and I also think it allows little to need basketball agency sponsorship opportunity. >> Yeah, sure. >> So would they be looking for temporary
signage permits? >> Traditionally the way that it works and I think it's a great deal for any corporate sponsor your name goes up there and it's up there >> long as long as the scoreboard. >> So we take the scoreboard down. So, you know, the Lane baseball field
still has a a scoreboard that doesn't work and it says Barry Fine Corporation on it. >> Which also doesn't work. >> Yeah, that's funny. >> So, you know, it's it you know, it is a it just for you guys benefit like if we
were to get a scoreboard that makes sense for the middle school, the expense is about $28,000. Um there's a couple options that would of course be less than that, but that would be the desire of the basketball program in town. So, you know, we'd be
looking for a whatever 20 15 $10,000 sponsor and then trying to split the difference between the district and the uh little basketball organization. >> And this this has been done for many years. I was doing this in the 80s. >> Yeah. to score awards.
>> So that's just going to need to >> So did you want us to do a first read of this policy or we're bringing this >> I want I wanted the I wanted to bring it to the school committee so that I had clear communication that this organization could solicit a corporate
sponsorship and of course the corporate sponsorship you know needs to be a business that would fit this criteria but if so there wouldn't be any trouble with implementing it. I didn't want to get, you know, halfway through the process and find out that we don't feel
that way anymore or we want to make changes to the policy. So, as long as we're still all in agreement that this policies were fine, I think that organization is fine to pursue that opportunity. >> Is this a policy that we've previously adopted to the district or did you get
it from >> Did you Is this from our policy? It's just interesting that >> is it? >> Yeah. >> Sorry. What did you say? So if you look at the bottom of the policy, it says that it was drafted by Action Boxboro. But my question was, is this something
that we adopted apparently way back in 2005? >> I think that's the sword. Maybe that's what we're reporting. The source adopted in 200. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. So if it has the letters on the top, that means it was already >> It was red.
>> So I was just talking to you. We might as well if you're fine with it, why not do a first read on two policies and we've reviewed two other policies to the >> We sure did. >> 2025. >> We hadn't looked at it in five years. >> It's on our to-do list. So, we're we
just read it. We're happy to add >> motion made by Venol to accept that as the first reading. Is there a second? >> Well, can I motion all four? Sure. >> Yeah. Okay. Motion to accept the following policies for first reading. KCV, KHB, IKF and IKF second. >> Motion made by V, seconded by Lyn. All
those in favor in the case of saying I I unanimous. >> Thank you for doing all that homework. >> Um and on our agenda, we also have Shaker Lane
building committee update. Obviously, the 11th back with the vote passed. Uh I did want to mention that the committee, the subcommittee that's working on figuring out who the search manager at risk will be at today. We're hoping to
start whittling down uh the eight bids that we have next week when we meet on Wednesday. Um we have a rubric. We're working through it. Uh bids seem pretty strong. Um I did also want to call out that uh select board is looking to possibly do a survey about town meeting.
That's slightly off topic such a big thing at time being. So just saying if um if you we're at town meeting your opinions based on ship vote and stuff that you would like to bring forward look out for that.
>> Question on the uh the bid process that you guys going through. Is there you met today? I wasn't aware that meeting took place, but that's not anyone's fault to find. Um, is there opportunity are those public meetings? Is there opportunity for public input during this process?
>> Absolutely. So, they're virtual. Okay. Each meeting, we have public uh public forum and public uh comment. Great. >> Are they posted? >> Yeah, they're posted 48 hours advance. So, the next meeting will be Wednesday at 2 o'clock. We want to get that posted immediately because uh obviously Tuesday
is a u a holiday and tomorrow the town workshops is only open about half the calendar. So we will open the conflict >> right but Tuesday we'll be driving down
Tuesday it's Wednesday. Oh, Wednesday of two. >> No, it's question. >> Y Wednesday night there's a Shake Builder Committee. >> Yes. 19th. >> Next Wednesday.
>> No, it's the 19th, isn't it? I thought it was too next week. Oh, sorry. 19. >> 19th. Sugarland building. We all set? >> Good. >> All right. Before I ask Vernon, uh,
nope. I'm sorry. We're not all set. We have an update from the, uh, CPAC. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Uh, yes. So, CPAC has met recently and they wanted me to announce um a special opportunity that they have
for families. Um, so on it's on Tuesday, November 18th at 7 o'clock, uh, CPAC is going to have a virtual meeting with, uh, Mara Schulman, who's a mediator with the Bureau of Special Education Appeals.
So, she's going to present anformational session on mediation and facilitation. Um, so it's going to address what mediation is, how to access it, how it can be helpful when families and school districts are not in agreement. Um so
she's also going to discuss how and when to access facilitated team meetings. So if there's families um with uh special ed student or any family if you want to attend this meeting on the 18th at 7:00
the link for the Zoom meeting can be found on the school now app and also on the principal newsletters. Statement from >> Thank you. Any other subcommittee reports? New
business, old business day. >> All right. Our next meeting will be November 20th 7:00 little police station community room of tonight's agenda. Is there a motion to adjourn? So moved by Sean.
Seconded by Janine. All those in favor by saying I I very much Part: 2
4 p.m. I call the meeting to order if I may. We have a quorum. We're ready to go. I'm going to Whoops. Excuse me. I'll switch my screen. I think change
now. One second. >> We can see the meeting minutes. >> Oh, perfect. It works. Sorry about that. Um, cancel this. You can see the minutes now. Hang up. >> Okay. Um, I'll just bounce back. So, the
meeting has been called to order. Request a review and motion to approve the minutes of um, meeting number two, October 29th. I'm not from Reading
and I was in attendance. >> What's now? >> You had me from town of Reading, assistant town manager, not in attendance. >> I know that town well. Went to high school there.
>> Wow. Sorry, they're cutting days. >> I don't know. >> Wow, that's embarrassing. Sorry, Jim. Um, man, it's all good. >> I will make the correction. Geez.
Um, okay. Sorry about that. That shouldn't happen. That's my error. >> Big deal. >> Um, okay. Beyond those edits, any other changes or a motion? >> So moved.
>> Second. >> Second. >> Second. Okay. Any discussion? >> All in favor? >> I >> very good. Thank you.
Back to the agenda. Um just item three kind of general discussion regarding the progress I um and then the score sheets and then the references then the letters. Um so
let me start with the evaluations I've received um most of the score sheets. There's a couple score sheets still left to be submitted. Um so when you get a chance those who have not submitted please submit them
soon as you can. With respect to the reference checks the references were sent out last week. Some of them came back from the various firms due to typographical errors or something that
effect regarding email addresses. Our office made some calls and made some corrections and resent them. So they're all back out on the um on the email distribution. Secondly, we our office sent out second
request to those who have not responded to the questionnaires yet. So >> the whole reference category section uh remains open. We're giving that a couple more days for that information to trickle back in so we can do an
evaluation summary score. Um, that said, I know we met last week on Wednesday, we talked about a goal of having today be a day where we could make a decision with the summary
score sheets, but um, we're not there yet. Uh we still need the final score sheets and we need the reference checks and then just um a final tally which will not happen today. Uh we're not at that point.
We next week I'm throwing out for the committee's consideration that we meet next Wednesday at 2 PM. Uh reason being um have to put out a public notification 48 hours in advance
and Tuesday is a holiday being Veterans Day. So the next real available window from what I see would be Wednesday and the afternoons uh 2 p.m. seems to be the um opportunity time for the for this
committee to meet. So uh that's kind of a a thought on my end. I'll let the committee have a discussion or offer any further points. >> I think it's a good suggestion. Um yeah, I mean the timeline the timeline fits
and >> time works for me. >> Yep. Me too. >> For me as well >> works for me. Good. Okay. So, I'll prepare the agenda. I'll get it to the town clerk's office. We'll get that rolling. you'll get an email for next
Wednesday at 2 PM. Um, in the meantime, we will uh check out all the references. I'll give this committee an update on where we stand between now and next Wednesday and any other missing information from the committee with respect to the score
sheets. Uh, if we get them submitted back to me, I will do the consensus summary and get that notification out for further discussion. and or summary conversation and final selection next
Wednesday the um what's that the 14th I think >> the 12th excuse me the 12th >> gold >> so I think the goal it would be next Wednesday the 12th at 2 p.m. during this meeting to have the final selection
decided upon. Um both the who and the how many if I could say it that way. So in the meantime you can we can all think about the how many. Um but the who will be the score summary sheets that we we've been discussing
>> uh through the chair. Quick question period. Did we get any uh information from Jim's finance department regarding the financial statements? Uh there appears at this point the the first review I asked them to do it a couple times just in case have two
people look at it. First review um they're all they're all decent. They're all okay. >> Okay. Okay. Um Okay. I Well, I guess I stopped sharing.
I don't Let me go back to the agenda. I apologize. I should not have done that. Okay. And that's what I see on item three on the agenda that's on the screen. Um any discussions on that item
if we if not we can move down. Um if I was to um look at number four again uh this is my uh consideration as I map things out.
So, being where we are, um, you know, you can see the screen now. Here's some here's the schedule we had anticipated that's highlighted. We were hoping to have things done by the 4th uh, of November. Here it is, the
6th. So, we're probably a week behind, if I could say that. Um, not terrible, but it's about a week behind. So, with that said, and I'll put this in the meeting minutes um as a as a thought. Um, I'm thinking
right now as I map it out on the scratch pad here, if we could conclude the RSQ by next Wednesday, November 12th, send out the notifications to the
selected firms. Thereafter, have that done by the 14th, which will include the RSP package to those selected firms. using a Monday as a as a starting point
convenience of the calendar. So the RFP phase in my thinking would start on Monday the 17th of November. It would run until the 5th of December which is
>> because we do have the Thanksgiving break in there. That's about 13 business days, if you will, for the firms to collect what they need to do and prepare their packages. And then we would select interviews
for those firms either December 9th, which is a Tuesday, through the 11th. So, a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. Again, depending on how people want to do things and or if we need more time or things
happen by way of addendums or things of that nature, we go into the following week, which would be December 16th through December 18th, and wrap it up by the end of the day,
Friday, December 19th, the week before the holiday break. is my thought as a look ahead time schedule. >> Just one quick to the chair. Can we try
to shoot for the I think December 17th is when we will be having the building committee. So should we not try to wrap this up by the 16th and then at least the full committee then can you know confirm on the 17th
so we don't lose other you know 3 weeks after that. If we do the n 19th then we'll be going to the following you know uh and you don't have a meeting on the 24th for this building committee or the 31st. So we're kind of stuck with the
17th date there as a deadline. If is the building committee traditionally meets on the third Wednesday of the month? >> Yeah. >> Yep. >> I see the phone. Yeah. I don't know if we necessarily have to
lock this in right now, but um that's probably another deadline as you just mentioned. >> Yeah. >> Fresh as opposed to the 19th, make it the Well, it really be the 16th.
>> Uh conclusion of the interviews. >> Correct. Following day would be the building committee meeting on Wednesday 17. So okay between now and then there certainly can
be some discussion as we prepare the RFP by next Wednesday when we meet on the 12th. I can pencil in the date what that people want to come to a conclusion with on these durations and these dates of of the RFP and then of course the interviews
themselves and if by chance there's a little change we can always issue an addendum during the RFP phase to make any adjustments but if I'm if I'm um getting the feeling
I think everybody would like to conclude this before the holiday break at the very latest and certainly rolling in the committee the full committee's meeting date on December 17th. That's another kind of milestone date to try to um to
hit with a with a conclusion. So >> Peter, do you happen to already have just a a draft of some sort of the RFP? because if you could send that out then we could also use this next week to review it and make any comments and
maybe speed things up on that side. >> Absolutely. I can do that. >> Thanks. Okay. Uh back to the agenda for a minute or any comments from anybody. That was kind of item four on the agenda. I know this kind of has some
open dates there, but I think we just talked about that a little bit in highlights. Um, there's nothing else on three and four. I don't see anything on five that we didn't already anticipate.
The next meeting date we already discussed would be next Wednesday. Guess I'd open it up to number seven, public comments. I'm not sure if anybody's on this the call here um from the public.
>> If if not um we can go back to any other discussions or we can make a motion to adjourn and meet again next week. >> Good. Yeah, I'm good for today.
>> Motion to adjourn. >> Second. >> I thank you everybody for your time. >> Thank you.