Thanks so much. This evening we have a consent agenda for the minutes from our >> September 25th, 2025 meeting as well as I not payroll. Everybody have a chance to review the minutes. Great detail. Also, there a motion to accept the content consent agenda.
>> So move made by Sean. >> A second >> second to be. >> Uh all those in favor indicate by saying I. >> I. >> Perfect. It's our first opportunity for interested citizens. If there's anyone with us this evening that would like to speak before the school committee or
anyone on Zoom be a second opportunity towards the back half of the meeting. >> We have one. >> We have one. Alex, do you wanna let like procedurally do you want to let them in and ask them to introduce himself? Okay. Elise, can you hear us?
>> Yes. Can you hear me? >> Not quite. Just give it one sec. Want to try again? >> Yeah. Can you hear me? >> Little better. >> Is that Is that better? >> Yes. It's not here. We're waiting volume to come up in the room. So, what you're doing is fine. >> Okay, good.
>> All right. Um, I'm Annelise Taber, 291 Goldmith Street, Littleton. I am the chair of the Yes for Littleton committee um ballot question committee in uh support of Shaker Lane school. Sorry, a lot of words.
Um so I had uh I just wanted to plug the upcoming Shaker Lane events and then I had a clarifying question. Um, so just so the public is aware, um, we have our last Yes for Littleton community meeting on October 14th from 7 to 8:00 p.m. in
the, uh, Ruben Library Murray room. And so we're going to be talking about, uh, town meeting strategy at that meeting. Um, I can't believe it's our last one already. Um and then on the 18th which is a Saturday that is the final Shaker Lane community forum um which is hosted
by the Shakerlane building committee and that is at the center on Shadic and that's at 4 p.m. And then the final Shakerlane tour and info session is a week before in town meeting. So that's on Tuesday October 21st at 6:30 and that's also hosted by the Shakerlane
building committee. And then uh yes for Littleton will be at trunk or treat which is on the 25th which is a Saturday at 6 PM in the alumni field parking lot. And then of course we have town meeting which is um Tuesday, October 28th at 700
p.m. at the Littleton Middle School um gymnasium and cafeteria with free um child care for ages three and up and um family-friendly voting in the cafeteria. Um and then EHS is organizing
transportation to town meeting. So, if you are interested in taking advantage of that, please call dispatch. Um, and then we have our town vote, which is November 1st, which is a Saturday, and that is 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the
middle school. I think that's all of it. Um, okay. And then my clarifying question, um, and you know, feel free to to, um, answer this however, whenever. Um so we wanted to um to know so if the
vote does not pass and we do end up with um the entire student body well basically and and we end up with the 22 modulars as as in the no plan. Um, I just wanted to clarify
who will actually be in those modulars and where will they be because that is a lot of modulars and I know we were speaking before about how um putting the prek to 2 population in modulars is not
really feasible due to you know their developmental stage. So um just wanted to put that question out there. Um, thank you guys so much for all that you are doing for this uh, Shakerling project. We are very close to the end. So, thank you all.
>> Great. Thanks. Thanks, Emily. Nice summary. Um, >> thank you, >> Ellie. I don't know if you want to answer that, but you know, I'll I'll say there there hasn't been a we haven't formulated a plan in the event that it goes no. So, it's not like it fails and
then next school year we have a plan to bring 22 modulars in and we're going to tear Shaker land apart. We would uh address that situation as it arises and probably wouldn't um we probably wouldn't voluntarily incur that expense. We would wait until we're forced to do
the code upgrade um by tripping the trigger report and then assess what our situation is at that point in time. But there the there is um the reality is factual that that building will need significant upgrades at some point in time and it could be the very near
future. So to answer your question specifically, the 22 modulars is an assessment of displacing that amount of students uh in temporary classrooms. And the point's been brought up before that it might not be the the prek to 2 population that we
end up displacing because that might be a harder student body to move through modulars and access other amenities or things like that. So we would have to go back to the drawing board as a as an entire district to try to figure out the best way to perform a code upgrade on that building and then be woefully
disappointed with the amount of money that pumped into that thing and the fact that it's still underdized. So anything to add? >> Uh yeah, thank you Justin. uh there is no definitive plan and I think if if the new school didn't pass first thing we would probably do is try to
identify the systems that are more most likely to fail and get a cost on them and then that would probably determine further direction after we had that ideally if we could take care of a couple of systems that we were concerned
about and we didn't hit this $2.73 million and there would be a a greater chance of not having to bring 22 portables in. We could bring some portables in at the old Shaker Lane school. So, we want to be cautious. We we want to make sure we do due diligence
before we do anything. So, it it would it's far too premature to come up with a plan at this point in time. Uh, one other thing, uh, Annaise, you didn't know this, but, uh, I was informed today that the center isn't available on October 18th. So, the forum will be held
at the middle school on that date. >> Perfect. Thank you for the clarification. And we'll make sure that she gets that for her. >> Sure. >> All right. Any other adjected citizens?
Feel like none seeing none of us. All right. We'll close that portion of meeting and we'll move uh through our recognition reports. We have with us this evening will perform will provide the student representative report. Welcome.
>> Good evening everyone. Uh I have the school reports. Let's start with Shaker Lane. Shaker Lane had their book fair evening last night along with their second annual mask reader. staff dressed up in costumes and read a story with a voice changer where
students guessed who the reader was. Thank you to all the families for attending this book fair and to the staff who supported this event. Also, Shaker Lane's fund run will take place next Friday. The school's goal was to raise 25,000 and they surpassed this by
raising uh $31,000 and there's still time to donate to the fund run. Moving on to Russell Street. Russell Street had a successful safety drill on September 29th. Thank you to SRO Jones and Winski as well as other members of the police
and fire departments for their assistance. The third band has begun. Students are getting the hang of assembling their instruments and making their first musical tones. Full band rehearsals will begin next week. Also, fifth graders will be heading on a
walking field trip next week to the old Buring Grounds. Next is the middle school. LMS had its first sixth grade kids night out on Friday, and it was fun. Thank you to all of the PTA for hosting. Also, LMS will
have a Halloween dance for seventh and eighth graders on Friday, October 24th, and the cost is $5 at the door. uh the high school uh from October 10th to the 17th there will be spirit week activities and on October 6th
event will take place at 6:00 p.m. Then the homecoming football game is that week at 700 p.m. On October 18th the morning will start off with the PSAT for the class of 2027 and 2028 at 8:00 a.m. and in the evening it will be followed
by the homecoming dance at 6:00 p.m. Thank you so much. >> Thanks so much. >> Turn it over to Kelly Clenchy uh who will provide a report on LHS and LMS being recognized as schools of recognition. Yes.
>> Thank you. So very pleased to be able to announce that uh Lton Middle School, Lton High School were designated as schools of recognition. What does that mean? It has something to do with our accountability status uh which all schools and districts are rated on every
year. Uh it is in relation to MCCAST scores. We had a strong improvement at those two schools which you all were one of the few schools that were recognized when you can consider the total number of schools in Massachusetts as a pretty proud moment. And they also take a look
at overall achievement in the OA now as well. So, congratulations to the high school and middle school. Job well done. >> Well said. Yes. Okay. All right. We've got a number of uh new business items for us today evening. The first of which
invite uh Dave McManus from Milton youth baseball and softball to the podium who will present an overview of an anticipated hope so lighting system donation for uh Jeff Be. Welcome Dave.
>> Okay. Um good evening everyone. So, thanks for running, Steve. Um, just presented a few slides to go through the project. Um, in short, for those who don't know who LYBS is, we're the Littleton Youth Baseball and Softball,
uh, organization. We are a nonprofit 501c3, completely volunteer staffed. Uh, players in our programs range from preK to high school years. Uh this past year
2025 we uh operated seasons in spring, summer, fall, and actually we're doing winter clinics as well. Uh we had over 500 registrants this past year uh which was a 22% increase over 2024. So uh baseball and softball is clearly growing
at town u which was part of the rationale to do this project to begin with which I'll get into in a moment. Uh the primary goals for our organization are to ensure the kids have fun uh most of all but also teach and develop their skills in these games baseball and softball and ultimately to enable and
empower them to become great teammates and leaders in the community. And we work closely as you would imagine with both parks and wreck and the LHS athletic department. That's just a primer on LBS uh this project in particular. So, I came before this committee back on February 27th,
earlier this year, and proposed uh a lights project installation at our Jet Softball field. So, Jet Field, just to orient you, see it on the map, it's the softball field down at the Russell Street complex that's right next to Alumni Field. And under the this
proposed project, we outlined that would cover 100% of the costs. Uh which we did. We would manage the project and work closely with town boards, committees, etc. We did that and now we're here to complete this last step with you tonight. In terms of rationale for the project,
so I mentioned earlier the growing numbers in our programs, but uh Jetfield was most recently renovated in 2018. It is the primary softball field that's used in town by all of our youth programs, all of our divisions, but also the high school uh JV and varsity
programs. Uh so consequently scheduling on that field has become incredibly challenging in recent years uh as the numbers continue to grow. The high school typically in the spring would play their games or does play their games starting at 400 p.m. And so when we need to uh get on the field our after
that they turn tend to start 6:15 maybe even later. So you know sunset it typically will allow those kids to get maybe a little bit more than an hour. uh maybe the kids get one at bat, couple innings in the field and it just has
become a very uh you know unsatisfactory experience not only for the kids in our town but for kids and parents who are traveling from other towns to play here. Uh so we looked at this and said lights on this field would be extremely useful uh would accommodate the growth not only
of our program but it would also lift up the entire softball program intent. uh and we've been in the fortunate position as a board, as a league to be able to raise sufficient funds in recent years through uh donors, our annual fundraiser events and our sponsors. So, we looked at this and said this was a great
opportunity to put funds to work uh both for the league and the town. Next slide. So the project the design we laid out which is what we executed was to put four light poles uh two in the outfield two around the infield as you see marked
on uh this design with stars. Uh the lights utilize this new type of technology called ball tracker which now that we've actually got this installed it's pretty cool to see. Uh this is new LED lighting that really focuses all of the illumination on the field itself.
And it's very different actually if you go down and you see the the bulbs that are lighting up above N. Uh you'll notice the difference between the two styles and approaches. So uh power was and is sourced from the existing panel that's down at the field and the imbaged
lights and I think we've seen this out already in our use has uh really minimal impact to the residential neighbor. So again, just bringing us up to speed. Um installation was fully completed uh this summer. So completed the work uh in
August. Uh total final project cost actually came under budget. Uh we estimated that it would be about 163,000 base costs for the work. It came in at 160,825. Uh we were fortunate as well because we estimated that the project could go up
to as high as uh over 28,000 if we had to do drilling through ledge around the field. And we did some pre-rilling uh boring and found out that we weren't going to hit ledge. So we got lucky there uh and saved about $40,000 in doing so. Uh and as mentioned, the
lights are already in use. Here are some pictures. We've had games there starting uh September 13th was our first one with our senior division. Um, so they're in use and it's great. Um, from a warranties and operating cost standpoint, these were important things that we covered up front when we
presented this project back in February. Uh, the equipment includes maintenancefree 25-year warranty. Installation carries a one-year warranty and then we outlined and did some math around objective utility costs uh, based on conservative estimate of the number of days and hours that was able to be
used. So, uh, impact, as you can see, is fairly fair. Well, you know, $500, $600 a year. So, um, basically, again, we're just here to say the lights are done. Uh, we executed on what we said we would when we came here in February. And as
part of the process, if you recall, um I didn't outline this very clearly in the start here, but when we talked about it back in February, because of the way this project was executed, meaning LYBS does not own the fields and property here. So we did the work, we carried the
cost, what we need to transfer ownership technically of these lights to the owners of the field and the property, which is look at the public schools and the town. So um you know we will actually stay very involved I would imagine in terms of you know use and maintenance uh partners on that front
but the actual ownership at this point becomes the schools and the towns. So that's what we're here to do. >> Great presentation. Any questions or comments for Dave? >> Thank you so much. This is really cool. >> Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. It was um it
was incredible project. it it was executed, I would say thankfully almost flawlessly uh because we had great partners and vendors helping us. Uh and really, you know, for myself and the board, we're just here as stewards. Again, we were fortunate enough to be able to raise these funds over the last several years and be put in the position
to do this. So, um it benefits the town and we're happy for that. That lighting is incredible. It really is. It's just I can't believe it just illuminates the field, but there's no off glare >> right in the parking lots.
>> So, did you call it like a ball tracker light? >> It uh >> is it actually? >> So, that's the the manufacturer's terminology, trademark or whatnot. But if you go and you actually hopefully do take a chance to see a game down there,
uh it it really it it lights up just as as Kelly said, the the field in and of itself. U so you don't get uh you know typical old style lighting. Ball gets hit up in the air and players might lose it in the lights. This technology, it
just it doesn't have >> however they designed it. So >> y we appreciate your dedication and generosity. This is amazing. >> Yeah. Lots of kids get a chance to play under the lights. It's a whole thing. It's a different thing, isn't it? >> It it is. You know, I mean, some of my
core memories growing up playing baseball and other sports were games under the lights. >> Yeah. >> And it just it's a completely different experience. Uh that game that I mentioned in that pictures back on September 13th. Unfortunately, I wasn't in town, but uh from what I heard when the lights went on, there was just an
enormous eruption in the chambers. So, yeah, players just loved it so far. >> Good. >> Excellent work, Dave. I uh want to thank you guys for moving forward with the project. I know like early on there was talks that maybe that money was earmarked for Shaker Lane and with everything that's going on at Shaker Lane to pivot and do this at Jetfield is
a tremendous asset for this sports complex that's all of a sudden coming together at Alumni Field. Um so that's great. on my way over here, I was I was thinking of, you know, people that had been involved in Hitathon and and it I would be doing everyone else a disservice to name a couple people um
that were involved in the fundraising efforts in the last couple of years, but this has been a communitywide event. It's taken place years and years and years for you folks to have raised the amount of money that that you have and we're just so fortunate that you've been able to make this investment. So to
everyone that participated in Hitathon and uh and the likes of baseball and softball registration, we appreciate it. >> Y all set there. >> So we need to uh >> make a motion. >> Make a motion. So >> you should change the amount though to
$160,825. >> So are we accepting the donation or are we taking ownership of the lights? So the the lights are on Little Public School. >> Yeah. >> The it's a permanent asset on we need to
accept them. I don't think we ever actually gave up any rights and do them. We're just accepting the uh the donation of the lighting system formally. >> 160,000 >> $825.
I make a motion that um Littleton Public Schools accept the donation in the amount of $160,825 used to create a lighting system in the baseball field inside the middle school. That work
>> we'll amend that say a jet field or we'll amend that say you know from Littleton baseball and softball or jet field. Yep. >> From Littleton youth to board jet field. That's acceptable to me. Motion made by Janine. >> Seconded by Sean. All those in favor
indicate by saying I. I. >> Well done. Thank you. >> Last point. We're going to have a big celebration event come the spring. So, we didn't want to mess that up, but we'll do that spring. >> Awesome. >> Is there I was curious. Is there like a setting like the home run flicker?
Did you get that? No. >> We'll look into that. >> All right. We're also looking at that same technology for Alumni Field. >> Yes, >> we we would need to replace everything on Alumni. You can do that, right? >> We're working with Musco and figuring
out what we need to do for Alumni Field to update the lights to a similar >> Yeah. >> lighting package. Yes, >> that'd be great. >> Yes, they're current lighting is uh problematic, >> especially when we lose a poll in that another poll during the game. >> We had three polls. So,
>> yeah. Um, all right. >> Working on that, too. >> Next up, we have the superintendent report. So, Dr. Kelly Clench will provide an update on the 2025 2026 enrollment as of October 1st, 2025. >> So, October 1st, 2025, we have a total of 1,632
students in our district. Uh, inclusive of 98 school choice students. You go back to last year at this time, we had a total enrollment of 1,654 students. So we've uh we're down by 22
students. We had 100 uh school choice students last year at this time. So we're our enrollment is close. But I think for uh the conversations that we've had in terms of the Shaker Rain School and district enrollment uh it's very clear that uh resident
enrollment is is going down a bit at this point in time and school choice is is keeping us whole in terms of not going down too far. It's always important to look at the graduating class for each year. If you look at our 2025 October 1st enrollment, we have 13
uh school choice students uh graduate and we typically take seven in in kindergarten depending on the projected enrollment at that time. So, you can see that we're we're down six students uh
right now. But what I found throughout the years is we're getting more students that are coming in in other grades that were opening up and that's why we were we were still able to come in with uh 97 students or 98 students this year more
correctly because I believe last year we had 16 school choice students graduating. So that's very hopeful when I looked at that. Any questions? >> Just kind of looking over the numbers real quick.
>> Quick question. Sure. Um I assume it's like someone transfer to the town, but does someone need to be in the class by freshman year they graduate from Wilton High or as long as they are in their senior year graduate? >> Yeah, they can come in their senior
year. No restrictions. And Michelle, for your knowledge, uh, you have 416 students as of October 1st. >> Yeah, I think might be 4:15 maybe. >> Depends on the day. >> Yeah. Yeah, I would say 4:15.
>> You were at 425 last. >> Yeah, like I talked about that rolling south. Well, it's up from 411, which is the number that I think we've been using throughout the Shaker Lane slides project. >> 414. >> 414.
>> We're using 414. Okay. >> Um All right. The All right. Very good. Moving right along. Um so just this is placeholder um for new business, but reminder to submit
your MCAST delegate form. Those of us I think everyone all of us got this packet last week. John, this might be your packet. So okay. >> Um so there's information in here about the joint conference November 14th. That must be the Friday. Uh it is. So the conference runs the
12th through the 14th. Three of us are going. Right. >> Right. The three of us. >> Yeah. And you don't have to go to the conference to attend the delegate. >> You guys will get involved at some point. Maybe next year that side will take some interest. My daughter's a little older.
>> Yeah. >> Lots to do for families of Cape in November. So, >> um, all right. So, we're all set with that. If you have any questions, just see me afterwards. Uh, so we've got a couple presentations scheduled for this evening. The first of which is school improvement plan update. So, the plan is
to hear from all four principles. Um each principal will share two major goal areas from their school improvement plan. So generally we let you go in whatever order you want and we'll stick with that. So
we don't even have to go in order. Like we could have street >> like the proposal. I think at some point Russell Street or Middle School's got to go first because you guys always get the luxury in the middle. That's >> right.
>> You're never in the hot seat. >> Hi everyone. >> Hello. >> Have to go to get this report this update about our big goals for the year. Um and we it's some you know you had an update this time last year. We had to
provide you an overview of u you know what our big goals were and uh they they remain the same. They're two-year goals and they are very involved for the high school specifically related to MTSS the
multi-tered system supports program aim to provide this we aim to provide academic behavioral and social emotional support for all of our students and as you recall there's tiered levels of support typically consists of three tiers of support tier one universal support tier two targeted interventions
and tier three intensive the students there's a lot more energy and engagement with our goals this year, this specific goal this year. Last year, the focus was especially on the development of our portrait of the learner and we presented on that. I'll be giving you an update shortly about
that. This year, I was really uh excited to find that we updated the LPS student accommodations intervention process flowchart. It makes it very easy to follow. So, we'll be sharing that with parents as needed, but certainly with all the staff. I want to thank Julie
Lord and Beth Steels for their work on this. This is in the district uh curriculum accommodation plan and clearly identifies well-designed process for each school and this was a pivotal part of our goal. Um and they did it really for us by updating the flowchart. We're looking at different versions and
we went through the decap and they said, "Oh, people already updated this. This is fantastic." So, thank you to them. Um, we want to this year we want to reinforce the effectiveness and followup of our student support team with the clear process manual that's on that development's underway already. More
structure and follow through with the membership and also feedback to the teachers about we're in progress. We're going to and with that said, we want to ramp up the tracking of schoolwide data related to student performance. It's already mentioned the importance of that for our MCCAST scores. So, we want to
make sure we're continuing to do that data at regularly scheduled intervals. Um we also expect to increase our communication of student progress with students and parents. This is beyond challenging behaviors with concerns or prog progress reports of term grades. We
want to spot as we we want to spot concerns for earlier and this is something that we're always striving for and we're going to continue to do that. So a lot of this is mention what I'm mentioning tonight is a continuence of what we started last year and the year before really continue to provide more
common planning time. This is a school improvement goal. It was identified as a priority area in our accreditation report. Uh so this is underway and it's going to be I use the word ramped up again. It's going to be ramped up even more from last year. I've already reached out to department coordinators
and individual teachers who wanted to who have joint projects uh and want to collaborate. It could be also across departments but most of it will take place within departments. Uh there's already two our two Spanish teachers have already gotten together. Our English department and math department are planning to get together soon to
review to do MCCAST data analysis. U this occurs during the school day and flex blog and teachers can discuss instructional practices and review data together. We can we're going to continue to strengthen our health practices. I know you hear a lot about universal design for learning and this of course
addresses academic behavior social emotional well-being. Um the across the district there's a administrative uh uh our administrative council u there's a there's a new across the district initiative among administrators to engage in walkthroughs and have feedback
sessions with students uh with teachers specifically about what they're observing and we have a new uh observation form that will be very helpful for us to engage teachers and all think all the principles have started to share with the teachers so they there's no no gotcha moments no
surprises It's supposed to be more coaching and positive feedback separate from the evaluative process. Although of course universal design learning is part of good instruction. We look for that and we would consider if there were weaknesses in the evaluation pro process. But this particular uh process
is is really to be positive promotion of UDL and positive feedback for teachers as much as possible. Spotlight what they're doing really well. Um, we're going to ask teachers uh at the high school about their specific implementation of UDL and I imagine that's occurring at the other schools.
Uh, and that's already underway in our goal setting sessions. And the next goal um that I'd like to comment on tonight is related to our you know vision of a graduate as we were calling it portrait of a learner. We had a identified area
for collaborative conference uh report and we are have actively been attending to this goal and uh but we've already dedicated two PD days this month past month September 10th September has already gone by and 24th focused on assessing and demonstrating portrait of
a learner. So, at our September 10th PD, teachers met in departments and reviewed the six competency areas for the LHS portrait of a learner and and identified skills in each area. They began to determine methods of assessing what proficiency looks like for each of the
skills in the six column. There are um at our September 24th PD topics and goals focused on number of things, but creating digital portfolios was a primary one for grades 9, 10, and 11. we're launching that that the digital portfolios that we've already launched
them now. Uh and they're not going this is not going to apply to the class of 2026. So they're probably grateful for that. We're going to focus on uh 9, 10, and 11. And they've already created Google folders for all the six competency areas that will become part of what we're calling a digital
portfolio for students. Um the teachers also reviewed a roadmap for grades 9 through 12 that show current course assessment co-curricular experiences that students may use in their digital portfolios. They shared discuss a specific timeline and tasks for LHS to complete each month during the school
year and that's a really important uh process to have very well organized because we have our accreditation visit in May the first week of May. Um they also engage in sharing discussing a sample Google slideshow for students to
make their presentations in the spring really helpful you know really uh organized and structured and simple to understand that we gave a template to all the students and that's what we're going to uh have them present to this spring
October 6th we had an advisory uh session where our students were introduced to the port of a learner and the assessment process that they'll engage students created the folders as I've already mentioned on that day. And uh I'll just wrap up with a couple of
highlights of what to expect uh as we move through the school year. The students will be uploading assignments to the folders to document progress that reflect on specific assignments, how they relate to the portrait of a learner using prompts and the template I mentioned. And then they will engage in
presentations to their advisory u highlight highlighting the skills that they chose. And if you remember the skills are critical thinking, effective I'll actually list them off for you. Effective communicator, skillful collaborator, critical thinker, um
mindful learner, healthy and well balanced learner and engaged citizen. And so all the students will collect evidence of how they can de showcase that they they have um achieved skills in those areas and can demonstrate that.
So, um, we made a lot of progress already with SM and I'm happy I'm proud of the staff and how engaged they've been in the process and I'm feeling that we're well prepared. We're well on our way being prepared for the value of the accreditation visit. May >> Excellent. I'm going to try something
different. I'm going to let us roll through the entire presentation. We'll hold all our questions or comments to the end. >> If it's important, we won't. >> I wrote them down. >> It's the best. And oftent times we we get more information that might answer your question.
>> All right. All right. Uh talking for the middle school. Um the two goals that we're going to focus on, one is an extension of some work that we've we've already been doing according to school improvement plan. Another one will be sort of a new focus. Well, it's been in the SAP. Uh I want to pay particular attention to it. So for the middle
school, what the the thing that we're going to focus on the most um the goal, the original goal is really around the implementation and the development of the implementation of UDL practices in the classroom beyond moving beyond just ideas and choice boards and the simple
stuff, but really rolling up our sleeves and doing doing the actual work. One of those tasks that I challenged my staff with a few weeks ago was to move our students from what we call an emerging status of assessments. Right? This is
mostly teacherdriven where the teacher decides what that assessment is going to be. It may take one or two, three different forms to a student-led focus where the students decide how they will assess themselves. They'll reflect. They'll create their own rubrics. They'll decide what form that assessment
takes. And it gives students that ownership and opportunity to to to demonstrate what they know and what they've learned, but to do it on their terms in a way that that's going to allow them to shine more brightly than just a usual, you know, multiple choice or fill in the blank or essay or
anything else. So, this an opportunity for students to really become invested in that. So, it is a departure from some of the things that we've done because teachers by nature, we tend to be a little bit more um controlling is not the right word, but we want to make sure that we can can have control over the
responses, what we're looking for, what we're hoping to see. And this is giving control over to the students. And so, what will happen is each teacher at one point in time this year will generate and allow the students to create their own studentled assessment. It can be a
unit, it can be a small quiz, it can be in a small area, it can be over a lesson, but it will become completely student driven where the students will decide what the content is, what the assessment will be, how they'll be assessed, and how they'll reflect on it. If each teacher in our building does that one time and every student has
about 10 teachers over the course of the year, students will have at least 10 um studentled assessments, their own assessments that they do each year. So 30 times between the time they enter middle school to the time they leave, they will be creating their own
assessments and their own opportunities to show what they know rather than using the standard format that we may have used in the past. So this is that next step in UDL and really getting students to be in control and in charge and invested in that. So that's going to be our our primary goal. So we spent our
first two staff or two first two early release days looking at that talking about the the structure of it and giving time for our staff to be able to begin to implement that. Um one teacher has already started that process. Another one began today and I'm very excited because our staff is really throwing
themselves into this idea of letting go a little bit and and giving students that opportunity to be creative or to to to venture out to something different. And so that has begun and it's quite exciting. The second goal is something that that we put in our SIP. Um, after
COVID, we we lost a lot of our the middle school used to have a lot of great evening events and events for families and and after co we lost a lot of that. We used to have like a a community volleyball tournament that teachers would have and they were vicious. I got to be honest. I joined I joined the teacher team and it it got
ugly and then we had like a cornhole tournament where community where families would come in and that got very competitive. Like that was that was really something to see. We just we haven't brought that stuff back and I it's always been my goal for the middle school to be a real hub for the community and in order to strengthen those bonds between the middle school, our staff, our students and the
community. We need to find ways to invite people in and to be a part of it and and just not just strictly academic senses. So that's the goal as well is to work with our our school council to determine what is what is it that the community could really benefit from? What what what what does that look like? What's the outcome? What do we hope to
achieve? Is this something fun? Is it something informative? is something that makes our our community better. That is something that we're going to work on this year to determine how do we start building those new traditions at Littleton Middle School to strengthen those bonds. So, those are our basic two. Thank you.
>> Good evening everyone. >> Um for Russell Street's two goals, both of them are really continuations of what we laid as a groundwork from last year. um the first revolving around our stripe initiative. And um for our goal this
year, we want to have many more opportunities where the students, the Brussels street students are the ones taking the lead on some of those uh Stripe initiatives or buildingwide assemblies or community events that that incorporate our Stripe program. Uh we
had a few glimmers of that student voice last year that I really want to build off of. One was um a group of students working with Miss McKinley read a book about an artist named Brent Badaclan um that they were really inspired by and his work all about bringing smiles to uh
the community. And uh with her help and with the help of the LEF, we were able to bring Bren Badaclan into the school last year to give an assembly for our students. And every student walked away with a a piece of art that was inspired by um by his work, which was really great. And it was the students that that
said, "Hey, we want to pursue this. We want to, you know, help uh Miss McKinley write the LEF grant. We want to write the letter to Bran Badaglan to invite him to come into our school." Um, the second example was a a group of fifth grade girls last year said, "We want a fifth grade talent show." And I said,
"Okay, go plan it. Go find a sponsor. Go find, you know, someone who can who can help you plan it. Come back to me when you have things sorted out and we'll see what we can And sure enough, I think on the last day of school, um, we fit in a fifth grade talent show and invited the
third and fourth graders to come down and see some of the talents from our fifth graders. Um, so those two examples, um, really showed me that that Russell Street needs to have that student voice in all things and especially when we're talking about Stripe, the values that we want to instill in our students, we want the
students voice on on how we can do that best that that resonates with them. So, uh, we're looking forward this year to to gathering, um, student voices in the form of, you know, lunches with me or or having different panels of students and, um, identifying ways in which we want or
the students want to see Stripe in in the school and how they want to build a sense of community and a sense of belonging in Russell Street. Um the second goal is uh a continuation of our implementation of Whitten Wisdom now that we are in year two and um the this
year's goal focuses around finding the areas of Whiten Wisdom that we can adjust or adapt to better meet the students needs. Um last year the the directive from us uh in implementation of year of year one was we're going to
do the program as written. So we so we can know what this program is, what it isn't, what it has, what it doesn't have, but we need to do it with fidelity or integrity are two of the adjectives that we would use a lot so that we can understand you know what this program is
and how it operates. We have done that and um in doing so our teachers learned a lot. Um they learned what really works well with the program everything that it has and they also found some some blind spots or some areas that maybe focused a little too much time on one area where
our students already had those skills and not enough time on other areas where our students need a little more support. So this year um through the lens of universal design for learning and um the the documents that that the other two principles mentioned um we're going to
find the ways where we can adjust or adapt or incorporate more UDL principles into the wisdom um curriculum. Not throwing the curriculum out, still doing the program with it still with its standards and essential questions and and core content. Um, but finding the
areas of the program where our teachers can have a little more autonomy to make those adjustments um because they know their students best and what's going to resonate most with them. >> Thank you. >> This is lovely to everyone.
>> Hi everyone. Um, Shaker Lane here. Um, so goal number one, um, we worked on, we actually started to work on this this summer, um, the assistant principal, Rebecca Deacon, and I, we're finding, and I think, you know, as the students get older, some of the dysregulation with students coming in are getting a
little bit more and more challenging. So, we um we actually were fortunate enough to attend a PD last spring um by Beth um Lynn Snow with Jessica Minahan who was a was a very uh well-known BCBA
behavior specialist and myself, Rebecca Deacon, our school psychologist and school adjustment counselor attended that and walked away literally implementing some of those practices in the afternoon and said we really need to bring this back. We need some fresh eyes. We need some new ideas for our
staff. So we have been so this brings us to goal number one is to enhance the ability to recognize um underlying messages behind students behaviors and really implement some practical strategies strategies that between you know the four of us as our clinical team you know over 100 years of experience in
public schools we're just looking for something different and um her book the behavior code that's been out since I think 2015 was a refresher for some of us and for some of us it was new but it's really looking at you know the behaviors and starting with her PD that we actually brought staff in. So in
September we brought Jessica Manan Minahan into our staff for a PD session and it was amazing to see the intent in the staff in that professional development just scanning the room and seeing how intent they were with their attention and you know coming up and sharing with Ally Gilman and a few of us
that this was so powerful and so like hands-on take away we can try these practices to really try and connect with students figure out what's going on. Um, so that's really the first piece towards this goal. Um, and the other piece to it, um, we have a response team that meets every other week, which is our
clinical team. And we are analyzing our response calls in the fact that when we're responding, we're writing down what works so that we can go back to those strategies and say, "All right, with Justin McCarthy, this strategy really worked. Want you to know that next time you're working with him." So, it's really, it's not a log of our
calls. It's a log of what's working for each student and how do we connect with that student next time right off the bat. So, putting that in place. Um really just um looking at our SSTs through different lenses when we set our goals like how are we how are we setting these goals to really get to the
academics because a lot of the students that are coming in the needs are social emotional connections understanding their behaviors. They're not able to articulate to us that they're nervous, they don't want to do this, something's bothering them, they didn't eat well this morning, there was a an argument in
the house. And so we have to figure that out um and kind of crawl in their their heads. And so that's really our focus this year is really to support the social emotional needs of our students. So that being said, we can move on to academics. So goal number two um very
parallel to what principal McDonald shared is in our second year of implementation of weight and wisdom is looking at how can we make this program better. How can we look at what we did last year um with the integrity of the program but then pair it down just a little bit more palatable. So what our
teachers found last year is some pieces were redundant and they were doing three turn and talks or three um different activities where some classes needed three and other classes were like we're one and done. my kids got it, we're going to move on. So, giving the teachers the autonomy to tailor the
program to best fit the needs in front of their students in front of them to the students in front of them. Um, we are also partnering with Leslie University this year to um have them come in also do some um uh just some rounds of observations and give us some
feedback. I believe Russell Street already had their session. Ours is coming up next week. And then we have PD at the end of the month um about Leslie University helping us grow this program, making sure we're hitting all of the areas of reading, phmic awareness, phonics fluency, comprehension, and um
vocabulary. And those are our goals, our big goals for the year. >> Thank you. >> Want me to stay questions for me or go backwards? >> Go in reverse order. Okay. But so it was great to hear from everybody. Thank you so much for the uh presentation. Does anybody have any questions or comments
for Jac I have a a quick comment just um noticing too the students you have in kindergarten right now were born in CO right uh 2020 first graders we have were one years old which is a very
interesting time to get shut off in the world and so not surprising to sort of see you know a need for a completely different approach to social emotional behavior probably in all your hundred years of experience and just like completely different and so it's it's
exciting to see sort of PD that's engaging with marketing thinking out of the box. It's a very different group of kids than any of us have ever known. >> A lot of it does stem to relationship building. Yeah. >> Which takes time. So I feel like that's why September the first few weeks are
great. Then it gets really rocky. Then those relationships form and then hopefully by November, December, we get some some momentum going. But it really takes time, especially the little ones. And >> just looking at the way children are growing up a little differently probably than I did or maybe some of you did
where there's a lot of technology, there's a lot of instant gratification, there's a lot of, you know, I want this, I want it now, I'm not going to take no. Having to wait is is hard for some of them just because of the environment that they're in. It's the the world we're in right now. So much more technology.
>> Yeah. >> For lack of >> Well, I always appreciate hearing these school improvement plans at the beginning of the year because then we hear at the end um how it all turned out. So, it's it's great to have this introduction and I'm wonder I I love
your u both of your goals, but particularly goal number one where you're really trying to understand the reason behind the behaviors. I'm wondering how you will know if when you're successful with this like when we come back you come back and we hear from you
in the spring. Um I mean it's hard to measure something like this but what what measures of success are you looking for? >> Well, one tangible one that I think would be easy to to look at and evaluate and we actually did it today in our response meeting is how many times are we responding to Michelle Kaine? How
many times did the strategy work? Um, and when we looked at our data this week, there were five calls on Monday for support, four calls on Tuesday, three calls on Wednesday, and two today. So, it's going to be interesting to look at that data for student wise and week-wise because Mondays are tough.
Mondays are tough for us as adults. Mondays are even more difficult for little kids. So, we do find Mondays are tough. Fridays can also be tough because then it's kind of you're you're going back to a place that a little more unstructured, as it should be, the weekends with family. Um, so it's going
to be interesting to look at that data. To me, that is hard data that we can tangibly look at. Um, I think just I'm thinking of one little person we have in first grade and the relationship we're trying to build with this child and it's up and down. I just think that's going
to be more organic information and just seeing, you know, how is this child presenting now and what is this going to look like in December? What's it going to look like in June? That's going to be really hard. I agree with you to take that. It's just maybe going to be exper experiential experiential data. >> Yeah. Maybe like a case study like one
particular child who's struggling and see how this approach impacts that child. >> Yep. >> A lot of students coming to us with trauma >> um different types of trauma, environmental, you know, food insecurities.
Um it's it's different. Thank you for all. Yeah, >> I don't really have a question, but I just want to say I love hearing that you've done all this work for all volunteers and you're still wanting to try and learn new stuff and that's wonderful. >> Yeah, thanks Sean. >> Thanks.
>> Very good. Uh we have any questions for Russ? >> Thank you. Colin, >> come on up down here. Um, does anybody else want to go? >> Um, so I I guess it was a similar question
to what I had for Michelle with your first goal. Um, I love the idea of student agency and students taking more control with your um your strike community initiatives and um when we see
you again in the spring, what would you be looking for to measure success with that particular initiative? I think the other one is more measurable. >> Sure. >> Like I mentioned, I'm I'm looking forward to putting together a panel of students that that can meet with me or that we have a Stripe team that meets
monthly. Um so we can put that panel together and we will have meeting agendas and minutes and notes to take. Um and also um when we have our monthly Stripe meetings, I think something that that we can keep track of is how often is the microphone in the hands of an
adult versus how often is the microphone in the hands of students running running those meetings. we had um an AI presentation that that Miss McGregor helped us out with and she said, "But I want students to to present on on the new technologies in AI." And we made it a point to to make sure that those
students were the ones that were presenting to their peers. So, um two quick things off the top of my head of how we can measure it and um make sure that that we're not the ones talking at the students about Stripe, but they are the ones teaching each other and showing each other what Stripe is.
>> Fantastic. Thank you. >> Yeah, I'll add I I really love that idea of the student involvement, right? Because you know those that want praise and in the terms of the strike award, right, they they sometimes know how to receive that like do good in the eyes of an
adult um and they're not necessarily their peers. So to to empower the student body to say, you know, you can earn a strike award through recognition. it gets there gets everybody thinking about student behavior. You know, in the workforce, we all know people that like
are great to their managers but are terrible co-workers. Um, so it's it just it's a really, you know, it's a really great idea and you'll it's worth trying and I think it just sheds a new light on the program. Yeah, one one aspect of our monthly meetings that we had last year
was um a student nominated stripe for each uh a student in each classroom. And those stripes meant more to the kids that received them than any stripe that they could have received from a staff member. Um getting one from their peers and each classroom had different ways of
nominating and and selecting the student that would get that month's stripe award. that was, you know, even more um just evidence that the students really benefit from, you know, working with each other. >> I also was just going to comment on the
student voice goal. My daughter is part of the fifth grade class that urged the talent show and I was surprised but so pleasantly surprised that you were going through with it. like this is new and he he's doing it and she's like ah um but I think it and that was going to be my
comment sort of Russell Street middle school and high school this theme of student centered community centered and bringing that in and appreciate that coming from school leadership like there's a trend of leadership and student autonomy and knowing who they are and really having that sort of
internal accountability and so appreciate that in age appropriate ways throughout the schools also social emotional and shaker lane and and building up through the years in ways that are in >> Thank you. >> Come on, Jason. We got We got We'll find a question for you.
>> All right. I got I got something, but I'll let somebody else go first. >> I have a question. >> Sure. Sure. >> Um I love hearing about the this studentled um putting together their their projects and their assessments.
How much do you uh is there a way that um curriculum guidelines on what what you know we we do have framework that we are we are teaching within >> y >> how much do you communicate about that
to students so that they they do they feel they have a framework is this like totally free form how do >> it's not totally free form I I imagine that some of this is going to evolve over time you know just given This is our first time out. One of the things and I I forgot to mention this when I
first stood up here is when we when we started this process, we did it by departments and my hope would be that there would be some commonalities that would strengthen through. So for example, the ELA department in our building got together and they all chose the same standard. So that sixth, seven, and eight will be doing this this
student le but using the same standard so that it creates a sort of a continuity between the three grades and will give us an opportunity to really see how that progress is measured. So I was really impressed to see them thinking along that line. I know our our social studies program is doing the same thing. Um and we'll see it come come
true with all the others. So, we I don't know if we'll get to that point where we're giving the kids like here's our, you know, here's the here's the the standards that we're trying to hit, but I imagine we would um as part of that because it could only help their framing of what it is that they're doing. But, um >> and it seems like they are that's that's
a great age to start talking about like, you know, this we want you to be part of this, but you have to understand we also >> are being held to account from outside forces. I think that's that's one of those things that 12 13 year olds go, "Oh, wait. My my teacher isn't all
powerful." >> Yeah. You know, >> you have those moments sometimes as a principal, too, when they when you come in and you're doing an observation, the kids are like, they know something's up and so the kids will ask you and you say, "Well, you know how you get grades from your teachers?" Well, the teachers kind of get grades from us. And it it really kind of levels it a little bit. You can see the the wheels kind of
turning. And this is could be one of those opportunities where they really get to see that process of teaching and learning from a slightly different perspective. and hopefully will create a little bit more ownership and a little bit more mindfulness when it comes to what it is that they choose to do. And if they really choose to adventure out, how do they bring those elements in? And
it's not as if the students are just going to do this on their own. We say, "Here, go to it. We'll see you in two weeks. Show me what you got." You know, that's going to there's going to be a lot of guidance along the way because some of some students will will be really hesitant, you know, because it could be overwhelming the the total number of possibilities. Other kids will
just jump right in. So, it's going to take a lot of work as we as we go through this this year and then perfect the program as we continue to do it in future years. But, I'm excited to see how this goes. And I have a feeling that our staff will begin to realize quickly this is actually better, easier for
them, right? It's easier to grade. It'll be easier to manage it. When I think when it really gets going, I think they will be able to see that that this is far more powerful than than you know the standard assessments that we that we've so often given >> and it spark new teachers. >> Yeah. Right. Right. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah. I think there's going to be a tension between student control over the assessments and a teacher's need to have consistency for grading because they do have to generate report cards. >> Yeah. >> So, it'll be interesting over the course
of the year to see how that sorts out, >> right? >> You know, are do you still have like letter grades on your >> numbers? But yeah, so you know how to figure out with all of these different options for assessments how to create consistency in grading.
>> And that'll be that'll be one of the real tricks this year is having students determine how that assessment is graded, right? What are what are the what are the the must knows, right? Those essential understandings that that a student must have. What skills should
they have mastery of and then how does that how does that get assessed? And so that'll be curious to see too how do they assess themselves? How do they assess each other? And where what role does the teacher play in all this as a guide rather than just the disseminator? >> I'll mention the kids are tougher than than chips.
>> Yeah, it's more often than not that's the case. They're way harder on themselves than than the teacher is. So it it'll be Yeah. We might have to say like, "Okay, pull back. Take it easy on yourself, right? You're 11, right? Let's let's let's let's not worry about college yet." Yeah. >> Yeah. >> I see them get together and some of they're like, "No, no, we're going to go
out there." Yeah, big dreams. Big dreams. That'll be great. >> I I'll say I uh I love your goals. I think they're bold, but I think at the same time they're low risk. Like, >> yeah, which is okay. I'm saying that's a that's a good thing. like this this
flipping the idea of the student evaluating their own success for one assignment, you know, isn't isn't going to if they if they do a poor job of that, it's really not going to upset the fact that they didn't master some essential learning skill that they
>> that they needed, but it gives them an opportunity to um >> to have a different perspective in the process. Well, you're 100% right, especially as in this initial year because I think one of the worst things we could do is see, okay, we're we're we're getting rid of everything we know and we're gonna completely redo this. I
don't think we would have I think this is true of any school. You would lose staff investment because all of a sudden all the years and the work they put in, you're saying, "Okay, we're going to scrap that. We're going to move on to something else." And I think you're right, would put that on the students to be like, "Oh my god, if I don't do this right, you know what I mean? This this could really hurt me over the long term.
This is just going to be a single assessment in the course of a year." >> Correct. What I like the fact though is you have you know you have five content teachers and five unified arts teachers you know that's over the course that's at least one a month you know if it's spaced out right where the kids are doing this so it's going to be a consistent program and over the course
of like those three years that's 30 times they'll get really really proficient at the problem solving part of it too you know this one of the things that we talked about to staff we often talk about kids you know they've lost the problem solving abilities that they that they once had we don't think critically you know these things that educators we say all the time well this
is where we put our money where our mouth is say, "Okay, we have to teach that skill and this is how we teach that skill. How are you going to solve this problem? I'm not going to just give it to you. We'll figure it out together, but you're going to figure it out." And I think that's the part of this that I'm most excited about is we get to move
from, you know, just thinking about the the deficits that our students face, but trying to create more powerful, meaningful learners out of them. I I think that's going to be the the part that you can't really assess, but I think will prove itself over time as they move through the middle school into the high school. problem solving ability
and that critical thinking aspect I think will be tops. I really I really look forward to it. >> I think I misunderstood when you were saying um a student led assessment. I was thinking at the level, but you're thinking it's more at like the lesson level. >> It could be unit level. I think that's where the teacher will decide based on
their students. You know, each class is going to be different because class demographics and payments are different. So, they're going to have to really think about and be mindful about how they roll this out, especially the first time. But um it might start small >> right just as we initially you know but ideally we get to those those end of
unit assessments as well and that certainly could be a place for that. What I want to I just want to move students to move from you know taking information in one column moving it to another calling and call and then getting graded on that. What we really want is that that understanding that mathematical thinking almost across all
subjects, right? That number fluency that we that that kids need, but to see that in in the other subjects so that they just have a really well-rounded understand deep understanding of the content and can just display that in any number of forms. >> Yeah, it'll be great to maybe when you come back to talk about this in the
spring if you had some absolutely some specific examples that I'll do that would be great. >> We'll absolutely present on that. Yeah. Excellent. Yeah. So, I was going to say like that hearing about the school improvement plans is great. The school committee improvement plan would be re-watching this 20 30 minute portion of
the meeting >> prior to the update so that we have >> um >> challenge accepted. >> It's a challenge to us, right? We need to do it and then we'll be better prepared to take the information in the updates. Be fascinating to see how all this goes, >> right? I think I think so. I agree.
>> And you're you're uh you know, a nighttime event. It's you know, I I applaud the effort. But I I hope for your wildest success. It's so tough these days, right? >> It really is. >> Um, everyone's just so busy and when they're not busy, they need to take a deep breath.
>> But my my hope, Justin, this is how I create something that is that is so meaningful that they'll make time. >> Absolutely. That's the challenge >> that >> it'll feel like a deep breath to come. >> Yeah. You know what I mean? Get out of the rug. Good. >> I love it. It's it's a it's it'll be challenging. You know that.
>> I do. But that's but you said it's bold and that's why you know anything we're doing is worth you know taking a picture that you know the attendance is less than uh >> mind-blowing. I tried something we tried >> I tried something like that in my first year. I brought Mary and Ryan the the Middle Sex DA in to talk about social
media and the harms of it and I was so excited. I was like cuz her office is fantastic man. I I put it out there and I built it up with three parents show up >> and you're like oh this is so disheartening but so it can't be worse than that. So I already have the bar has
already set extremely low. So you know >> well two would be worse. >> Two would be worse. Fair enough. Fair enough. >> But I think we should start by having an event to celebrate your nomination as a blue ribbon school. That can't fall off the radar. >> Jessie has said that they will do
something and they've emailed a couple of times asking for more information, but I think the the expectation was the states would take the time to honor that. Jesse has not said how they intend to do that. Um, it would have been really nice to have that banner on the building, but but I'm hoping I'm hoping
that Jesse does something to if if if that program is no longer going to be that Desi creates something that is equally prestigious and meaningful to the schools because it is a big honor. I I don't take it myself like this is all on the the teachers, the students, the families. like they're the ones doing
the work and I just would love to see Desessie, you know, um recognize that in in >> I mean there were only six schools in the state that got that. >> Thanks, >> that got that visit all those in a day. >> That she could visit six schools in a
day, the governor. It's a really big >> next time I go to Harvard women's basketball games, I'll I'll I'll hit her up afterwards and be like, >> she could do it. >> She got mine. Yeah, we're not forgetting about it. So, we'll make >> Yeah. No, I don't think they've forgotten about it. I just I hope I hope
they may get something. >> They're planning. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. So, I'm not worried about it. They'll come around. >> We should at least have ice cream and Justin could tell us what kind. >> That's right. >> All right. >> All right. Thanks so much. Thank you. >> Right. >> Last but not least, I got a concert for
the high school. Sure. >> You want to start? >> Sure. So, >> were disappointed when I left. I checked my notes. >> Um, no, I was really interested in the the Google slide template that you're going to have every student >> y
>> um prepare their achievement on all is it all six >> criteria for we might start with just a focus on two or three this spring and then we'll build up to a crescendo at the end. you know, at the senior year they'll be we actually have a design
already made for the senior year and they'll be using a Google site. So, thanks to Paul Orsac, our library media specialist who created that already. So, the goal would be to get to that point where they would look and reflect back on their four years. felt like a current freshman who was starting this could
choose an assignment from something that really stood out sophomore year, even freshman year and uh and showcase that in a presentation to their advisory uh their senior year. So, there'll be ability to choose across different assignments or something exciting that they did in their senior year that they
they're really thrilled about. They want to share news about how this, you know, expressed how they're such a skillful uh collaborator, effective communicator. Yeah, I mean I love the idea of providing the template to freshmen so that because once they're seniors it's hard to remember what they
>> and building off what Jason was saying we wanted to make I told the staff when I bring that we really want them to be there's an old you'll know this expression in education that we want the teacher to be the guidance eye not the sage on the stage so there this is I
emphasize this in my presentations the faculty this is a studentled presentation they create the portfolio they have to manage it. They'll have regular check-ins just from with their advisory teacher. And I think you know about our advisory model. Ideally, the student the advisory teacher who was
assigned nth grade stays with that group of students all all the way through till the time they graduate. So, they built that relationship and connection. But they'll the teachers are just monitoring their progress and providing, you know, coaching tips and feedback, but not it's not not grading them on it. It's just
making sure they're prepared for their presentation and holding them accountable to be ready because it is a requirement for the students. Um, but that approach where the students, it's very self-directed from grade nine all the way through and they own it. And you know, it builds off
some of the stuff that's already happening at the younger schools. I mean, they call talked about uh student presentations and things like that, student leadership. Uh and so that's what we're going you know that will all come to a showcase in the spring this year and then we'll and we'll learn from
this experience too and see how we have editor process we'll see how we have you know we have to approve it. The cool thing is that we're launching it in the spring and the visiting committee will be here at the time when some of these presentations will be happening. So they'll get to see it firsthand. That doesn't always coincide, but they'll be
able to go into we want to purposely schedule some of the advisory sessions when the visiting committee is here so that they'll see uh student presentations. >> Well, it as as I mentioned with some of the others too, I'd love to see some examples when you come back in the
spring to talk about this. Oh, and the a lot of schools and you know this from uh Parker, they invite community members and parents in to do presentations. Innovation Academy up at Kingsburg does the same thing. One of our teachers is a former principal at Innovation Academy.
So, they've been able to talk to him a lot about what he what he went through and how he facilitated the process. Um, so we may get to a point, especially in that senior presentation, where we would invite. I think it would be nice to be if kids were open to it, to have some school committee members come in maybe
even this spring. Um, I know that the visiting committee will want, if you don't know this already, they will want to meet with uh certainly Justin and probably some other school committee members to to find out, you know, more about Littleton High School. Um, and just the support, the community support for the schools, which is quite strong.
So I think um you know that that's an opportunity there to bring in community members and and and we build on that model that's it's well known across the country the schools. >> Yeah. >> Cizerizer. Yes.
>> Yeah. Yeah. I think it'll be so interesting once once you see those presentations if there's any through lines across the presentations about memories that the kids have of like opportunities that they had all through high school that seem to be common among them
would learn a lot from >> and the kids can showcase things that are specific to coursework that might demonstrate their critical thinking but they could also I think I've mentioned this in a previous presentation they can also showcase something that they're really it could be a deco presentation that they traveled to Anaheim,
California, made a presentation there. They went to We did have a student do that a couple years ago was award-winning. Um, you know, and we've had students have great achievements in music and art and they beyond um the high school curriculum and they they can showcase that as well as demonstrate
their skill. So one of the um things that adds a lot of value and another principle um is the when you said the community being part of it um
students are encouraged to find someone in the community that is an expert at what they're working on. And um some of some of those experiences are are amazing.
>> Yeah. I And you remember the the STEM uh research projects that were presented to you. >> Yeah. >> So, you know, Nikico Jacobs stands out as someone who's done it a couple of times and been very successful. Um there were two wonderful presentations by students last year call vividly. and uh
you know she might want to reach out and have that professor who she was working with and having virtual meetings with come come out and see her presentation that kind of thing. So there's there'll be lots of opportunities for that. Right now we want to keep it sort of low stakes for the kids. It's the first time doing it. So, and take the pressure off
of having like an a major audience so that they will have you know they'll be presenting in front of their peers and their advisory teacher and maybe but they can invite in another teacher or counselor if they're if they really want to they can have these are brief presentations and we wanted to keep that
to you know keep it it'll be a bigger deal probably when they're in their senior year but there'll be more time allotted but the this first roll out this spring we wanted to keep it low stakes get them comfortable with the process and Then they'll all have to do it again next year. So, and we'll we'll build on that.
>> Great. Thank you so much. Thank you. >> We'll give everybody the opportunity. >> Well, I have a quick question for you before we leave this topic. >> It's so interesting to me that goal number one across all four schools
really focused on student centered learning. Was that a theme in your leadership meetings or was that a big coincidence? >> No, it's not a coincidence. We we we work together and and we identify areas that uh uh we want to
work on that's consistent to all schools. >> Oh, that's it's fantastic. I love the continuity from right to school to school. >> Good answer. Thank you. Yes, >> I didn't want to leave you hanging like
it wasn't a good answer. Um, all right. So, our second presentation for this evening is an update on the portrait of a learner goals and objectives. Um, it's Elizabeth Steel, director of teaching and learning, will present an update on the portrait of a learner. >> Glad we did that little boomerang
because we ended up finishing on really talking about portrait of a learner actually from the high school. So, we'll just continue on with the portrait of a learner. All right. So, last year we presented um an update with regards to our portraiture of a learner. And so, I'm going to provide an update to the
update, but also try to provide some context to sort of base ourselves and remind ourselves and for anyone that might be new that this is new information for. So, portrait of a learner provides a framework for what we want our students to know and to and be able to do upon their graduation from
Littleton Public Schools. And it's really our opportunity to make our vision actionable. And so making what we want a student leaving Littleton, the skills that they're going to have, the disposition toward learning, be able to be something that they they learn and expand and enhance throughout all of
their schooling here with the Middleton public schools. The purpose of a portrait of a learner is really to answer the question on the previous slide. Thank you. that that are what are the skills, knowledge and dispositions that learners need to be successful in a rapidly
changing, increasingly diverse and interconnected world. And so when we that's a very big broad question which is why perser learner we try to be specific but there's multiple layers to it right so it can be big and broad and many different areas in which our
students can really learn and grow and develop those skills. So for a little bit to take a step back full context here, vision of a of a graduate is where Portugal learner came from. Vision of a graduate was something that we asked the accrediting um where we get
accreditation from for our high schools created um as a requirement for high schools. And so they started having to create what does a student graduating from Wilton High School need to have done, need to have accomplished, what do they need to be able to do when they leave high school? And so even our state
actually Jess Desessie just came out with a vision of a graduate um recently very recently within the past month or so um at the state level as well and it's very interesting getting a little bit ahead of myself but the state one is interesting to look at in comparison to ours there's a lot of overlap and similarities which I think is an
interesting thing um and affirming for us of kind of we're looking at it um in a way that the state is also looking at it broadly. So um the vision of a graduate has evolved into uh a portrait of a learner because when we take a step
back and we say when we a student leaves little builtin high school we want them to have these skills and this set of knowledge right that doesn't just happen in the four years at high school that actually starts way back in the shaker lane and then gets built upon across the street built upon at middle school and then evolves at the high school level
right and so for us it really is a portrait of a learner all the way from when they enter their first step within building public schools at whatever school that may be all the way through. And so it's important for us what we have have come to realize and find is that our portion of a learner there is a
very clear through line because we want to make sure that the students come in and are able to develop and enhance those skills as they grow up through Little Public Schools. Um our team last summer, so the summer of
2024, our admin team did a professional development. We brought in a couple of individuals who um have been well known in the state with regards to making this evolution from vision of a graduate to portrait of a learner. And so we brought them in our admin team participated in professional development with them last
summer of 2024. And then we immediately started working on and enhancing our profession our portrait of a learner within our public schools full well knowing that the high school had a leg up because they had already been starting this work due to
NAS coming and doing their visit. Um so all last year we spent time working on creating our portrait of a learner and it has expanded at different times at different steps. It goes from whole staff to leadership team back to whole staff. And so it's it's an
interesting process that we are kind of taking our time with to make sure that we get the bones right to put something in place that valuable and feels worth putting towards our students and so that they actually also then see the value in participating in that. So when they get to the high school and they're doing these presentations about themselves and
the skills that they're they're exemplifying, they feel confident in what they're doing. So there are four phases to the implementation of a portrait of a learner. And on the next slide you see what those four phases are. There are the find the truth, define the skills, magnify the moments,
and measure what matters. Last year we really focused on find the truth, find true north, excuse me, and define the skills. Um find true north is what we really that's kind of centering ourselves in. What is learning? When you come to Wilson public schools, what does
it mean? Who who's involved? Where does it happen? all of that and then we spent time defining the skills as well last year and what that meant in each of the competency areas that we identified. This year we are continuing to deepen our magnifying the moments, finding more
moments to magnify and we're having conversations about making sure that measurement is there. So we're building the bones and the structure to be able to have this for moving forward. The key to the portrait of a learner, I think one of the keys to
a successful portrait of a learner is to acknowledge that we're building a strong structure. We're building strong bones, but we have to ensure that we understand teaching and learning changes. It evolves. And so, we have to be able to come back to this and update it as we see fit for moving forward. And so I
think that's what we're we're we're doing a nice job of right now is having kind of these broad-based conversations of what does that mean? What does that look like in practice? And then being able to revisit it as we continue to move forward and make sure it still makes sense. So in the fine true north,
our first stage that we worked on last year on the next slide, you see the result of that work, which is our definition of learning. And so we were able to say when you talk about learning, who's involved, what is it? Where is it? When? Why? How does it take place? Right? So that is something that
we had created last year and we had shared with you all last year. After we did the first step of find true north, we then went into the defining the skills. The defining the skills on the next slide um you'll see Brussels street and
Shaker lanes. And so while all schools have the same six competency areas and so you see you will see them on all four of the visuals on the this slide and the next slide and John already listed them out for you this evening. Right? So all
six competency areas we agreed as a district those are the ones we're focusing on. And what the schools did last year is staffs came up with the skills that each student needs to have underneath these these competency areas. When we looked at it as a district, what
we realized was that we were all in agreement on those skills. We were just saying them in different ways, which makes perfect sense because we were saying them at the age appropriate level for the grade band which they were working. And so you'll see on these defining the skills each competency area
when I say competency area, I'm saying the effective communicator, critical thinker, mindful learner. The skills are then those bullets um underneath or next to it. Those are the skills that if you actually compare Shaker Lane to Russell Street, you're going to see that through line for for each one of them. And then
Russell Street to middle school, there's a through line going there. Middle school to high school, there's a through line. So that our students really are we're not throwing random different skills at them at different grade levels, right? We're continuing to work and deep and enhance those skills that they're working on. The next slide, you
see the uh the middle school and the high schools. And so the content of these skills um is basically finalized. The um the beautifying of them is still going to be um a work in progress coming
forward. Right. High school has done theirs. Um like I said, they're a slight step ahead because of certain deadlines they have with NASK. Um but we will be able to take the others and start to align them with images and have that also look at how can we make that be grade appropriate for the schools that
um at their grade stands. So with that being said from there what we did was we started magnifying the moments and so what that means was that we looked at and thought of learning experiences in which our students could
demonstrate these skills that we have identified as being important. So we said, what are the events? What are the the academic learning experiences or the extracurricular opportunities that our students can take part in at various grade levels in order to demonstrate
their knowledge of these skills? And so what we did on the next slide, you'll see, and thanks to Julie Lord for her creativity, um, we created a a road map. And so it actually goes all the way through grade 12. This slide couldn't couldn't handle I couldn't handle it. So
I'm just giving you a little taste here but you see it is one road right that goes along and on this we see prek through grade 4 and this is just a very beginning sampling is not all of that is marked this is work in progress. Our
goal is to create an example roadway. It is not actually no two students will have the same roadway, right? Because no two students may participate in every single same experience nor experience it
the same way. And that's something that we've had conversations about, right? Where after global school play day, I may feel like I worked uh and became a strong engaged citizen on that day. I might have that reflection whereas a a um classmate of mine might feel like
they became a critical thinker that day because they had to do a lot of problem solving. Right? And so everyone has varied experiences and varied perspectives and takeaways from potentially the same learning opportunity, right? Which is why everyone's road map is going to look
slightly different. But we as a district wanted to create something that we could hold up and show as a as an example of this is this these are the opportunities that you can have and here's how they can look for you going all the way prek
to 12 through low schools. The last piece is the measure what matters and it's that evaluation piece. And I think what's important when it comes to evaluation is that it goes beyond just the numbers and the letters of grades, right? for especially for something like this the skills that
we're talking about the competency areas that we're talking about what we really are are hoping our students are doing is having a lot more um metacognitive thinking right so just taking a step back and reflecting how did I experience this learning experience what did I learn from it not just contentwise but
skill-wise right what was I able to do differently this time that worked out better in the end and so what we have uh determined and and are are in the process of working towards is every school has made I can statements based
on the skills they've identified and then we are working on creating reflective prompts so prompts or sentence starters so that students can then say well I can speak write listen in very creative ways and here's how and
so sometimes when you ask the student well how do you know you can do that they say well I can do it right and so the reflective prompt is something to kind of trigger them to the next step of how should like tell me a little bit more about that. Right? And so it's really trying to get them to pause and
think about their go one level deeper into their learning experience. It ties into what you noticed about all of the the first goals, right? Really being that creative, that student voice, that personalization. This I think what
is amazing is that so many times we'll be in discussion. It happened just this past week in our admin team leading team meeting where we were talking about something completely different and all the brand was like well we could tie this to portrait of a learner and so portrait of a learner has be
really kind of a um a home base for us of kind of it's it's been our true north we've been coming back to it of oh it can tie to that in this way how cool would it be for our students to be able to tie that and think about it in that way and so while uh the post still
continues to to be a work in progress. I'm really happy and proud of our team for the very thoughtful, intentional um and purposeful way that we are going about it. And so this year we're going to continue with continuing on the reflective prompts, measuring how do we
evaluate the implementation of this and and students really growing in their skills. Um as well as being able to provide more of those magnifying the moments. So being able to come up with more of those examples so students kind of know what what we're talking about when we say magnifying moment and having
learning experiences to be able to couple of items before we get started. When we do these presentations we make things look pretty easy. This process is not easy. We we began with the definition of learning 16 leaders around
the table each having input each word smitting multiple times. Then we went back to the schools leadership team staff then came back again and wordsmith and and finally came
to agreement and if you can imagine 16 leaders having this document in front of them on Google docs all taking it apart and putting it back together that was quite the process in itself. At every stage of this process, we used we used that that
approach. Even when we we look at the the six skills, we had some skill sets presented by the high school, we wanted to preserve them, but only if it was a belief system with
all the people that we collaborated with to to develop these these six different areas. Because these six different areas are going to define what our students are going to strive for prior to graduation. They're that's going to be the package.
Graduate will have these skill sets and we'll be able to identif that that they feel that they've excelled in and that they've grown in. So this has been a long process and and I'm really proud as a superintendent to
to see how complex this process was and look at the product that you you have before you see. So you know it's our job to make it look easy but behind the scenes uh there's a lot of a lot of work a lot of dialogue uh sometimes
compromise common ground and uh we're really proud of the product that we we worked on together to create. Thank you, >> John. >> Yeah. Um, first of all, this is great. I just was curious. Um, well, I guess first of all, I was going to say I like the engaged citizen part. I guess we're
all involved in supporting like that piece, but um, I noticed that only three of the six have something listed for the I can and like the prompts. I think that's still work in progress. So, I just wanted to call that out. But, >> yeah, no, thanks for calling that out. I I should have specified that that slide
is just a screenshot >> of uh and actually just Russell Streets. So very very specific screenshot just to give you a little examples of what we're what we're working on in >> great. Yeah. No, thanks for talking that up.
>> Um I was going to say this is an incredible amount of work. I can appreciate but u uh appreciate you sharing Kelly. I can just imagine and loved this flip from vision of a graduate to portrait of a learner and
this through liner and we commented on school improvement plans and the the through line all the from all the schools and I was going to say I'm so glad that I'm on the school committee and I get to see this level of detail but like do how do we bring parents into
this? Can we like share this at back to school night? Is there an image of this in schools? There is I'm so sorry I've been walking by but like I'm just imagining you know shaker lane pork as a learner like when you walk into the school is there a plan for that? >> Yeah to to do that right like to be able
to put that out there and kind of have everywhere and visible and students really engaging with it so it becomes a very >> every kind of part of their day right to be able to see that in in their classrooms all the time. >> Yeah. >> This really defines us. >> Yeah. >> There's just no product visual product.
Right. So the the idea is those what's on the slides that define the skills. >> Yes. >> Yeah. So is to kind of now that we have that language and those skills solidified to take that and make it um an image that is
age appropriate, right? So there's a lot of words on that. Yeah. >> And not a lot of images. And something for Shaker Lane, it would be helpful to have a few more images on that versus as many words. So all students at Shaker Link can look at that and say like, "Oh, that's what that is referring to." Right. >> Yeah.
>> And so making those adaptations now before cuz we don't want to put anything out until we have that just kind of settled across the board. And then the plan is certainly to get that out there um to not only students but also to
families. Awesome. >> It's a wonderful thing to be able to come back to use pieces of it throughout the year, but have that those touchstones. >> Yeah, it's Yeah, >> I just want to express my gratitude for
how beautifully you explained this. I know you put a lot of work into your slide decks and I I appreciate the context for understanding where this came from because all of a sudden a lot of districts were starting to work on portrait of a learner and I was like
what was this grant like what where does this all coming from? And now I know it came from NEASK, but it's it's so powerful. I think to your point, Kelly, how it really helps a district define their vision and get
every school on the same path, every grade level on the same path. It really gives us as school committee members an entry point for really understanding what's happening at at an important level in the district. So I'm um very
grateful for as always your very clear way of providing context and explaining complicated things. Um and it's yeah being you would notice too that I you know the the student centered
aspect of the first goals and the school improvement plans do seem very aligned with portrait of a learner. I I I love this throughine, this continuity. I feel like we we all have some traction. You know, we as school committee members can
be part of this, too. So, it's um I'm obviously very excited about this. So, thank you very much. >> Absolutely. >> We're going in the same direction. >> Yeah. Which is always good. >> Exactly. Exactly. >> I mean, we started out years ago when we decided to have focus groups at the
middle school and high school. >> Yeah. we've been pushing engagement to agency and student voice and we all have but we were trying to figure it out. So I thought well this is one way of starting the process and and that was I
think a pivotal point for for the middle school and high school and have an opportunity to talk to Russell Street and our leadership team meetings but to listen to our students talk about their experiences what they value what they
didn't value and and in a dialogue that was a two-way dialogue and and their presentation skills I mean, they were just talking back and forth, but but they were so
cogent and and focused when they were talking. And I walked away from those focused discussions and going just with a smile. I think, oh my goodness, like you talk about learning about your students and and their educational journey and the product that's sitting right in front of was was an amazing
experience. and and from there we continued to to grow in other other directions and and then when you look at the two big goals tonight you did see that content of people that's been jelling for years and we really use a leadership team model that that's
somewhat unique when we hire new staff and they come into our leadership team blown away because my philosophy is when we're in that room we're colleagues there's no pecking horn and we talk about things that we're passionate about and we we work together to to to meld
something that that gives us direction and it's worked very well and I'm just really proud of the leadership team worked most of us have worked together for a number of years but when we bring new members in uh they're they're excited to to jump on the wagon
explore with us >> well and kudos to you for having the leadership team meet so frequently it's more more frequently than other districts I've been involved with. So that that makes a huge difference that you just have that continuity of um
knowing you're going to it's every two weeks, right? >> Yes. >> Yeah. That's incredible. >> And we have uh online agendas. People can add agenda items. It's very participatory. >> Every summer we we used to
choose a common book. Now, each of us bring something that we're passionate about, 16 of us, to the table, and we talk about the the book and and why it's important to us. And then at the end, we take a vote and we choose what book out
of the 16 books that have been read we're going to focus on for the year. So, we do some very creative things. I mean, that really it keeps us together. uh it keeps us curious and we've spent each other's uh passion to take it. So
it's it's been rewarding for especially for me as a superintendent but hopefully for the leaders in this room as well. >> Great job. >> What you know you you're fine. It's more just a comment. What I love about it is this idea that kind of started by Jason
which is like flip this around and student assessment create your own rubric. This is the framework sort of how to be successful at the school that you're at and it gets you ready for the next one. So while you're not going to be personally graded on your portrait of a learner, your mastery of these skills
gets you prepared for the next building and ultimately what's what's life like after LPS, right? Um so I just I love it this sort of um opportunity for students to assess where they are where they might need more help um so that they can
be thinking about not just the core academics but how am I doing you know in these six areas >> and I think as we talked about earlier sometimes students can be harsh on themselves right we're we can be our own worst critic and so I think it's a really good opportunity to be able to
have them have those thoughts and conversations with others so that they can also become their own best critic. >> I think it's also a life skill that >> guide guiding them through that. >> Exactly. It's huge. Yeah. Exactly. >> Thank you.
>> Thank you. >> All right. That closes the presentation portion of the evening. So, this will be our second opportunity for interested citizens. I don't see anyone in the room. We got anybody on Zoom? >> Oh, hold on. It's quiet night tonight. Um, we're going to roll through our
subcommittee reports. So, we'll start with PNBC, but I just I'd like to include Shaker Lane with that as well since that's the big PNBC topic and then we don't have to visit Shaker Lane separately. So, anything PNBC u not Shaker Lane specific.
>> Sure. Yeah. So, at the senior center, they're working through a fix on the botchi ports. Um, they're still trying to determine 36 King who's insurance. is going to cover the issues from the summer. Um, and at the police station,
uh, although I believe the water issue has been resolved, there's still a bit of a trap. So, we're working through that. Um, with the windows here at the police station. Uh, and then to kind of Yeah, that was my desk. Um, and then to let's go over to Shaker Lane. Um, I know
Kelly worked on this as well, but Dave Cartoon put out a great video series. Just want to call that out about the project. Uh, really well done. Uh and then just to bang the drum again, uh town meeting is October 28th. Uh ballot vote is uh November 1st. Um if you get a
mail in ballot, those are already out in the mail. Look out for those. The town meeting booklets already out there. Uh be aware of that. Um there was a forum on September 29th. Uh it was was really good. Uh a number of people that are
butters ended up attending. So there was strong support. People had feedback. I just want to call out, you know, you don't have to just go to the meeting if you, you know, oppose or support and we just want to hear what you have to say back to that end going forward. And, uh, as Kelly mentioned, the next meeting or
the next forum is going to be October 18th, 4 p.m. to the middle school. >> Yes, middle school. >> Middle school cafeteria. That's great. Yeah. So, that's that's all I have. >> Great. Um, I'll just add on slightly. So, I received maybe everybody did, but
it hit my street today. So, the uh the warrant information. So, you know, hot topic for everybody. They've just recently received them. So, I I know that we've been beating the drum. You know, if your household's in support of this, we really need all household voters. So, I sent out probably
I know 20 text messages, probably like 40 recipients because I put, you know, husband and wife on the text together like you got your voter information today. I want to remind her, you know, this is uh you know, we're I'm hoping to see both of you there. And I'll be honest with you, like the excuses are
coming in. Like, oh, we got dance that night at soccer. So, I would just reiterate for all of those that think that, you know, we've talked to people and they're both going to come. We're going to need for everybody that's out there listening, even on replay, you're going to need to uh approach your
neighbors and friends and really drag them both to town meeting. um where you've got households that have got two, three or you know more uh voting members in that household. So, super important that uh you pick up from dance and then
come to town meeting when you're able to because the votes probably not going to occur until I'm guessing 8:30, but might be a little before, maybe a little after, but um you don't have to be there at 7. had free child care and familyfriendly room
>> in the cafeteria. The center is set up on the perimeter of the the cafeteria. So, we're we're doing everything we can to uh get our voters out uh to attend town meetings. So, I'd also like to
thank Gilfoil for uh creating suppliers for us. Uh if you're I'm sure you're all in school now. Uh you've been getting a lot of information the past two weeks and it's going to continue up to October 20th. >> Are those flyers being sent out on your
social media feeds or how are they being distributed the school? >> They through school now they're on our website. I do not have a social media feed anymore. So we're looking at blue sky but we haven't we haven't made any decisions yet. We don't we want to make sure
before we jump into social media again that it's going to be around for a little bit. We're not going to be looking at each other and saying pull out and we stay in and and this summer I pulled out I just had you know in terms of a social media post for a school
district it just it just wasn't working. So >> well you use school now that for that purpose >> yes and it it's linked to our website. So, we're getting we're getting a a good bang for a buck, so to speak. But, you know, I I do miss a broader social media site
>> and and just I think everybody's struggling right now. So, I'm glad we have school now. That is have been a great uh addition to the patient within our community. The town has also been wonderful with our list. They've been sending everything out as well.
And uh yes, for Littleton, I can't speak highly enough about Anelise Robs and the other members of that group, uh they're working tirelessly to to promote this project. And personally, I I think where we
started when we first started getting numbers in uh the seven I believe 19 a year uh worst year is is pretty darn decent compared to some of the projects that are being approved in other areas. One was just approved. I don't want to
mention the name on air, but uh their initial worst year was uh over double what ours is. So keeping our fingers crossed as I said many times as a superintendent I I think the solution that that is the only
solution from my point of view as the educational leader would be to build a new shaker school. I think the other alternatives uh really aren't getting uh it's not a good investment. All you're doing is putting money into something that you know isn't going to last. it's
going to cost more money. Then we're going to have to go through a process again to apply for school. Uh if that happens in 10 years, you all seen the slide where it uh goes up significantly in cost, 5% a year minimum. So we're
hoping that our residents uh you know have have followed this information so that they they have good information to use when they make their decisions, too. Well, I received my postcard in the mail and just if anyone out there did receive a postcard and they have any questions
about it, you would love for you to bring it to a meeting and ask us the questions and let us have a conversation with you about >> one thing I want to say with Tom meeting too is that um you know we transition I don't know when that transition happened but we transition to
clickers and that's going to be this process right so it's not you know there's a kind of notion out there that tell me takes forever, right? There's really I know there's other business really this issue. They put this in front of a lot of stuff that it usually goes behind. This is going to be accessible to people. It should be good. I know
there's also busing for some of the seniors as well. U really trying to make this tangible and easier to get to people. Um to follow up on that, so I heard from Karen Morrison, chair of the select board. she's offered a wonderful 1046go
um like podcast series and she the today's topic was what to expect at your first town meeting. >> So for those that have never come to town meeting and are like what am I walking into? >> Awesome. >> It it will be um a very different experience for you if you've never been to town meeting before. But
>> having the clickers will be um what is it? 30 seconds. So, in 31 seconds, we'll know what the vote is and we won't have to >> raise hands or shout or there won't be a a motion for ballot and all that stuff. Ma'am, so clickers solved a huge problem.
>> And again, we need twothirds vote at town meeting. So, it's not just all right, let's get all the line two3. So, we really need people to show up. >> Yeah. If anybody has never been to town meeting, it's a New England tradition. It's kind of unique to our region and it's it's very uh special and wonderful.
So >> participatory democracy >> is participatory democracy. >> It's as raw as it gets. >> That's right. It is >> well well civil the entire time. >> Yes. >> Um all set.
>> Yes. Thank you. >> Great. Uh budget subcommittee. Um I think we given the update last time because we had a meeting started to go through it. Nothing else additional. >> I don't think there's anything additional. So really no new report in the budget subcommittee other than we've begun our work uh policy subcommittee.
>> We met this afternoon and so we couldn't post or tonight's meeting but at the next meeting we will have 11 policies >> and we we did have made some changes even if it's fixing typos but we have we
working really hard to tighten it up and make sure all the language is clean. So I have an ask of the political subcommittee which one you might be aware of two maybe not. The first one was just because I I I I joke and I call it this school committee chair uh
support group but what it actually is is a bunch of districts that get together and we talk about uh what's bubbling up in the district. So it's it's great. It's a lot of fun actually. Um the first one was um and Dal sent it to me. So we do have a policy around service and
therapy dogs. So I think we're going to review that one. We are because there's been an update for the MASC policy and so we didn't get to it this afternoon but in our next meeting we have that as the policy. >> Great. >> That was that was a topic of conversation at this
>> so >> you know I'm glad to hear we have a policy for I mean I've looked at them but for whatever reason that one didn't stand out to me districts are experiencing >> um like a slight problem if they don't get out right. Okay. >> Um
and then the other one which came up in the budget subcommittee meeting was just if we have a formal policy around um corporate uh sponsorship and uh how that might translate to advertisements on school property. >> Oh
>> yeah. So we could just get that on the agenda just to review that. >> Yeah. We could go >> Yeah. That was that was we were talking about like it was an company's logo. So, we had the Jetfield donation tonight, which was all privately raised, but um the youth basketball organization
in town's thinking about making a donation for uh a replacement on the middle school scoreboard and the easiest way to raise capital for that would be to have sponsor a corporate sponsor for the local business. And they just wanted to make sure that if they were if they were
promising >> uh some sort of opportunity for their name to be visible that that would be allowed. >> Yeah. Okay. We can add that to our list. >> Great. >> Thanks so much. >> Uh, some districts do, some districts don't. So, we just have to, you know,
revisit ours or come up with one. >> Yeah. >> Um, any other CPAC? Did you have something? >> C. >> Yes. >> You want me to do it now, >> please? Okay. So, yeah, I have a report from CPAC. So, that's the for those of you who don't know that acronym, it's
hope I get this right. Special education parent >> advisory. advisory committee >> council council. Anyway, so they had their first meeting September 30th. So, um Lynn Snow gave an update about um
what's happening in the district. Um they're very excited about the upcoming meeting on October 22nd, which will be at 7 o'clock at Central Office, which is now at 36 King Street. Um, so they're going to have a professional coach,
former educator, and fellow Littleton mom, Stephanie Russo, come to speak about self-compassion and how parents can build resilience and find their footing on those hard days. And um, she's going to share some simple, easy
to implement tools that parents can start using right away to feel more confident and supported. And I think that's such an important meeting to attend for anyone who has a a child um with special needs because it's it's a
hard road at home for families. And if you can get some tools for self-care um and and also just being in a community of of people who are going through similar things, it's it's so important. So that again, that's October 22nd at 7 o'clock at central office.
>> That's it. >> Excellent. Thanks so much. Any other subcommittee reports before I ask for a motion to adjurnn hearing? None. Uh I'll ask for a motion to adjurnn. >> Motion made by Sean. >> Second by Venal. All those in favor
indicate by saying I have a jar. Thank you.