All right, we're good. All right. Um, if everyone would please rise and join the pledge of allegiance. Sorry, we had just a little echo there in a moment. We're all set now. All right. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic
for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much. >> All right. This evening we have ourh consent agenda posted the minutes from our April 9th, 2026 meeting as well as
the oath of bills and payroll. Folks have a chance to review the minutes. >> Good. No proposed edits, I assume. Is there a motion to accept our consent agenda? >> Uh, so moved. >> Motion made by Elaine, seconded by Sean.
Um, reminds me that I believe Janine's on. I just double check that on. So, we're >> we're uh we're ver we're like hybrid tonight. So, everything will be a roll call vote. Um, so motion made by Na, seconded by Sean. Um, I'll ask for a roll call vote to accept the consent
agenda. Eno I >> Sean Sean I Janine >> Janine I >> Justin Bzai and Elaine >> Elaine I >> right that passes unanimously great this is our first opportunity for interested citizens is anyone with us
this evening present person or remote >> first opportunity second opportunity uh towards back half the meeting >> nobody hearing none seeing none uh we'll close interest citizens and we'll move to recognition. Couple uh orders of
business for recognition this evening. Our first of which is the student representatives report. So I'll turn this over to Kavia and we are excited to have you this evening. Thank you for being here. >> Of course it's my pleasure. Um starting with Shaker Lane. Shaker Lane students
are excited to begin the STEM challenge for the year. On Monday, students began this challenge and will be engaging in this great activity challenge for the next month. Shaker Lane would like to thank the PTA for tomorrow's lunchon to celebrate teacher appreciation week.
This is always a day for that the staff look forward to and appreciate this wonderful time for them to have lunch together. Next is Russell Street. Thank you to everyone who came to the staff student basketball game before spring break. It was a fantastic event that was fun for everyone involved, helped raise
funds for the PTA, and brought the school community together. Students will be wrapping up MCCAST testing over the next few weeks. Please make sure students get a good night's sleep, have a healthy breakfast, and arrive at school on time. The fifth annual spring
STEM challenge is underway. Students will use the design process and their creativity to help several different careers adapt, survive, and thrive. Next is Littleton Middle School. The middle school is hosting its first family trivia night next Thursday, May 7th,
from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Craft Food Halls in Boxboro. It's a great opportunity for families new to Littleton to meet others and for established families to see old friends. Proceeds benefit the LMS PTA. We hope to see you there. And the eighth graders
will take their STEM MCAST next Wednesday and Thursday. LHS is next. In partnership with the Doug Fluty Jr. Foundation, LHS hosted a performance by Spectrum of Sound for the entire school. This event promotes
autism awareness and inclusion. The stars of the Spectrum performed an engaging and educational event designed that celebrated neurodeiversity. Tomorrow, May 1st, the Massachusetts State Police will be presenting a ThinkFast interactive teen safety safe
driving program for all grades. Visiting teams team members representing the New England Association of Schools and Colleges will conduct an on-site acredation visit of Littleton High School next week from May 4th to May 6th. May 4th through May 8th and May
11th through May 15th are AP exams. May 6th is the LHS spring concert and May 9th is prom at Sherton in Nshawa, New Hampshire. Thank you very much. >> Thank you so much. Questions?
Great. Thank you. Job well done. Um, all right. At this point in time, I'd like to pause and recognize uh being with uh Be Thank you so much for your years of service. I'd just like to say a couple words and invite others to uh say some words if they uh if they choose to do
so. Bino joined uh the school committee in what is one of the more contested open seat um races although it wasn't an election period. We had the um you know unfort unfortunate situation where we had a vacant seat but it actually turned
out to be quite fortunate because we had like five six high nine. Thank you for >> uh nine uh applicants for the position. Um I I can remember like it was yesterday like the school committee was
blown away by the um by the pool and being was the clear choice and ever since she's joined school committee. She's been a valuable uh addition to the team. I I know that you accomplished quite a few things uh during your school committee time, but I think one of the
more important ones was like your lead role with school start time. Um, so Veno was like jumped right in and was like, I'm happy to co-chair that um with another member and the um the process community involvement that you
folks um spearheaded just made that an overwhelming success. And the other thing that I've enjoyed, I think most about you as a school committee member is that you're not the loudest voice in the room, but when you do choose to speak, we all listen with great
anticipation because there's generally, you know, some wisdom, like some nugget of wisdom that's coming with them. So your your your voice and your words are are meaningful at all times. So, thank you very much for your service and we're going to miss you. Um, and we have a a
very small token of appreciation for you this evening. I'd really like for us to, as awkward as it is, we won't get a picture if we don't do it. I'd like to take a picture. Um, so I'll just kind of open the floor. Kelly, I would like for you to say something, but sure. Open it up for school committee members as well.
>> Yeah. So, Beetle, uh, it's been a pleasure having you on school committee. You've, uh, made a huge difference in helping us move the district forward. And I'm going to echo what Justin has said. Uh you don't speak all the time, but when you do speak, there's something super
valuable for us to to listen and your thoughtful process and and caring approach to uh making decisions for the school district. You're great. Appreciate it. I mean, I really miss you. You've been a an incredible team member and uh you
know, we we're a lot better for your service on the school. So, thank you so much and >> add on to that >> at the end. >> Yeah, at the end. But um yeah, just to I really enjoy serving with you on the school committee and you know in
addition to the other talents that others have mentioned, I you have a unique talent for um observing a discussion that may get into a little back and forth and seeing
it through a unique lens that you can come in and introduce a new perspective gets us unstuck. And that is a talent that not everyone possesses. So I and I I think it's just part of your nature of being so thoughtful and um with your
wisdom of you know personal dynamics and so that that part that's been um really appreciated and also your lens on the the youngest students and making sure that our representation is is always top
of mind. Um, and I'm I'm sorry to lose the other educator on the team. It'll make me always made me feel a little less nerdy about it. So, but um you've been on the school committee the whole time. I have. We were just talking earlier about how we're in the same
election cycle, but um but I'm just so grateful for you carving time out of your very busy life to serve on this whole committee and um it's been such a pleasure working with you. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, I'll echo that as well. Um, you always had a calm demeanor. You always
have insightful questions. Um, but I I will echo what uh Elena just said. I think your knowledge about urban education is really great. I sat down with you before first meeting in September and we talked and stuff and we kind of talked again and I appreciate you taking the time with me. It was really great. I'm just having my uh my
buddy here on the on the side here. Um but yeah uh I think one thing I'm really grateful for is that you were here when we were taking the time that uh you gave a very u very strong knowledge uh a number of things and a lot of good experience and I'm grateful for part of that
conversation. >> Thank you and and thank you to you all and Brad and Jen and Stacy and everyone I've served on this committee with what an incredible committee. my favorite of all the committee in the town. I'm not even slightly biased, but we have debate
and we ask questions and we all always agree and we're better for that and I think it's just been such an honor for anyone considering running. I highly recommend it. I was too scared which is why I showed up at that one time where you have to like actually run >> competition
>> when there was actually nine people and I didn't expect that at all. Um, but I was too scared to make lawn signs and put myself out there. And so, this seemed like a good step. But don't be scared. Come talk to any of us. It's really worth it. You really can have an incredible impact. And and this is just
such an incredible community to serve on. Thank you all. >> Thanks. Thank you. >> And we know you're not really going anywhere. >> No, I mean, I might come back after after the election, but you're still a a very dedicated and active parent. So, we'll see. All right. If we
if you wouldn't mind. >> Can you take a picture? Great. >> The Photoshop to move space into Oh, wait. >> That way a little bit. Go that way a little bit so we don't can do that. >> That's right. >> Here we go. Here we go. Three, two, one.
>> Good. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. >> All right, Kelly, I'm going to throw it um back over to you for any other recognition that you wish to uh alert the support Canadian public of. >> Sure. Uh next week, uh we're having our
high school NEAS reacredititation visit. I'd like to thank our high school administration and staff. There's a huge amount of work that goes into preparing for a reacredititation. A lot of time, a lot of effort, dedication,
and uh next week we uh have that opportunity to show who we are to the NEAS uh committee. and we're going to be there going to be a lot of tired people in the high school by the time we're we're finished the reacredititation, but we will do we'll do fine and it's uh I'm
just so appreciative of the dedication of our staff and administration to continue to do that every 10 years. Uh it's worthwhile endeavor, but as I said, takes a lot of lot of dedication. I'd like to
let everybody know that our Shaker Lane School building uh community forum is on May 12th uh from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. on a center on Shadic. We're going to be going through some uh initial designs of the new school. We're going to talk with
our community about what kind of history would you like in the Shaker Lane School. Middleton is full of wonderful uh memories and history and it gives our community an opportunity to help guide us in terms of what should we focus on when we're creating a school that that
respects the history of Littleton. So really excited about this forum that's coming up and there'll be other forums as we progress with the Shaker Lane build. This will probably be my last forum, but I'm sure there'll be three or four or five at least more coming up in
the next six to eight months. uh our student rep Cav Caveat does a did a great job and and uh the only thing I want to re-emphasize is we had a few group uh trips over the April break and
I I'm I'm just so appreciative of the fact that we have staff that that uh find uh vendors that will take our students to other countries. We had a group of our lab students uh uh explore
Sicily, the Bay of Naples, Rome over the April vacation. The highlights included uh visiting Mount Etna, swimming in the Mediterranean Sea, and of course uh stepping foot in the uh coliseum and the Roman Forum. So, what a what a great
experience for our students to be able to travel in high school. Th those memories are going to be with them forever and that's what we want to do. We want to make sure that our students have have exposure to to things other than what we offer in our community and we can't do that without dedicated
staff. So, thank you to the staff that continue to do these trips. We also had uh as part of the exchange program a number of our students uh uh went to uh Spain and uh the uh teacher that accompanied them is Margaret Gillan and
our students uh you know spent some time in various cities in Spain and they finished up in the capital city of Madrid. So again, what an incredible experience. And our DECA club is very active and they competed in
the international competition ICDC. This weekend they uh traveled to Atlanta to complete in the business related events with topics ranging from marketing to hospitality. Such a broad range of opportunities for these students. We had 16 students advance to the state
competition in Boston. Of those six uh nine of these students uh qualified for the uh international competition. So this club has been in existence for four years or so. Is that right? >> Four or so years. >> Three years.
>> And look what they've done in that short period of time. So lots of good things happening in our district. And uh as Cavia pointed out, we we have so much going on this time of year. We have concerts and middle school play going on and uh it's just a great time of year.
Lots of athletic events. It's a busy time of year, but it's a great time of year to uh to be able to get outside and and take in some of these events. So, thank you. That's it. Great. Wraps up the recognition portion of the
evening and we're going to move into presentations. We've got three presentations scheduled for this evening. the first first of which is state of curriculum reports. This is part one. We're going to cover four content areas this evening. Um before we um get into the presentations, I'm just
going to draw our attention at the top of the agenda. This is something that I had gotten away from and um I just want to go back to it because I feel like it's so relevant tonight presentation. So we started the year by sort of always talking about the district strategic plan and authoring a central question.
And I just want to call our attention to tonight's agenda where it says alignment the the district strategic plan standard one curriculum instruction assessment align enhance curriculum instruction assessment continually improve student achievement. Tonight's essential
question I think maybe this is for the benefit of the presenters as well. What we're going to be listening for is how can we implement and monitor effective instructional practices that align with our vision for student success. So the presentation is the following
curriculum coordinator. I'm reading this for the public's benefit. Uh the following curriculum coordinators will provide departmental highlights and universal design for learning connections within their content area. We've allotted 80 minutes for this section of the meeting. I'm sure it will
go more than that. Um, but there'll always be some questions. So maybe if the presenters could like maybe a 15-minute presentation um to allow for some questions, we'll take the presenters in order. So first up we have Meredith Perry. Welcome.
>> Hello my friends. >> K through 12, the health and physical education. So welcome. Baby Meredith, before you uh kick us off, um just to provide some context, we really wanted to focus these presentations knowing that we were
adding a little bit more into each night because we're condensing the nights. So, it may not actually be a 15-minute presentation. We're really focused. Um that hey, five minutes was what I was like, let's let's be super focused and >> we can turn five into 15. No problem.
>> Provide some context. I like a few deals really the focus here. >> Great. >> Thank you. >> Uh my name is Meredith Perry. I am the K to2 cure coordinator for health and PE. I am um no stranger here. Um I have a 14
15 17 I have no idea how many years I've been the curriculum coordinator. It's been a while. Um some things that we um did this year specifically we implemented our updated curriculum. So, if you remember last year with my riveting state of the curriculum last year, we talked about how we did our
curriculum review and we went through and we updated all of our um courses to align with the standards. Um and we also added in some um new resources. Um so, we spent this year updating making sure that our maps were good um but also
really focusing on UDL since that is um the district's focus. Um, we also are updating our PE course. Current uh currently this year we have three different courses um in PE and next year we're only going to have two. So we have
strength and conditioning and fit for life. We also had some sports and games but that one hasn't been running. Um so what we're actually doing is just combining it. We're having a PE class. We're still offering yoga um because that is something that's different. Um but this actually really coincides with
the UDL drive that we are doing because if we go to the next slide um our UDL in health and PE it's we're actually like the OG for UDL um if we're really going to talk about it um because
I actually have this really fun graphic um which I did use AI just to throw that out there to create this graphic um that with there are different paths to get to the same spot. So, if I'm at Littleton High School and I have to get to Shaker Lane, there might be some construction in the center of town, so I might need
to take some back roads to get there and it might be the faster way. Um, might be a more efficient way. And that to me is what UDL is. Um, it's a personalized experience for each student. How can we meet this objective? And which path can
you take that's best for you? Um, and that's kind of how I look at it and how I see it. Um, I have an example here. um it's a screenshot of an assignment that I have in my host class where I just have a bunch of different resources. Some are videos, some are articles. The
articles can be read to students. So, there's lots of different ways that they can get that information. Um an example that we have in PE class that we're trying to get them um to do this specific skill, in this case, to put up their feet and how do they need to do it? Some students need to have their knees bent. Some students need to have
the ball to help them because of their flexibility. So, there's lots of different ways. um for them to meet that same object objective. Um we also do things like do nows where at the beginning of class where they come in and they are um getting their background information, background knowledge, how
are they getting it? Where are the connections that they're making? And it's all different. Again, just meeting those same objectives. Um something else that we do um more so in a PE class is that we just have the objective of getting your heart rate up. Let's do some cardio to the beat of this music.
So you can choose whatever move you want to do. Do you want to march? Do you want to do jumping jacks? Do you want to do all these different things? The students are getting the same objective, but they're taking a different path. So that is for health and PE just different paths that we take. That's how we at UDL
in our >> very good. Do we have questions comments? >> PDL. >> Yeah. I think last time you came that you um you had new framework that you
had to deal with, right? And so when you were developing new activities in alignment with the new framework that was that an opportunity to think of it through the UDL lens? >> Exactly. And so that's what we focused this year on doing. >> Yeah. So you didn't have to go back so much and retool things you had done. You could just come up with new ideas with
>> or retweet them just to Yeah. >> Just just update them, right? Just >> making sure that everyone's just meeting the objective however way they can. >> How have kids been responding to that um that level of differentiation. >> Um I I personally think that they are
understanding it better. um they other things. We have videos, we have graphic organizers, there's a presentation happening, but they also have the notes in front of them. So, just getting all the different ways for them to get the information. Um it's it's helping them
have more fun. It's, you know, we're meeting the objectives and that's our our main goal. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> You love the road map. >> I'm sorry. >> Love the road map. >> Oh, thanks. I thought it was fun. Good. Thank you so much.
>> Quick, sorry. >> Sorry. Um, no, I just wanted to ask, is there um something that you haven't accomplished yet that you're still working on that that um we can look forward to, but or like maybe you can just, you know, fill us in on something
that hasn't hasn't settled in yet and and you're working on it and you have you have plans. Um, for me specifically in my in the health curriculum, um, I definitely have made some tweaks along the way. Um, it has not been, you know, a smooth
sailing. I've tried some lessons and they weren't the best. Um, so I just made some notes. Um, the, um, scope and sequence, I'm kind of adjusting that. I moved things around a little bit. I didn't like the way that it flowed this year. So, um, always making things
better, always tweaking, always adjusting. Um, and that just goes for any any course. >> That's brilliant. Thank you. >> Because you're the OG UDL. >> Um, kind of just this is like not
necessarily a professional question, but do you think that this this UDL concept has this what has made teaching more difficult? >> No, this is what makes teaching teaching. This is what we do. >> Okay. Yep. that per that perfectly fine answer. I accept your answer. I was just
wondering about like the prep that goes into it and the individualization and the I need to offer all the these different ways to access the same curriculum. But >> because maybe you come at it from physical education, there were always limitations there and we're always going to do something. That's that's totally
fine. I'm I was just curious. >> But even in health classes too, I think that if any student is struggling, I want to make all students successful. So it actually doesn't matter. Um, and as you teach, you realize that some strategies work better than others. Um,
so you keep those strategies in your back pocket and then maybe pull them out. Maybe you show them first because you realize that it actually helps more students than you thought that it did. Um, so it's it's more of a what works and what works is what we do
>> and if we need to adjust it, we adjust it. >> Awesome. Good. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. Next up, we have Elizabeth Kelly, grades 6 through 12, world language. And I announce you that way just because
that's how it program. >> That's okay. Yep. Elizabeth Kelly, Liz Kelly, whatever you want to call me. Um, thanks for everybody. Um, I am the curriculum coordinator for world languages 6 through 12. As Justin said. Um I have a couple um this is our
department. Um I have a couple highlights. This is actually a picture of us. One of our highlights was um attending uh the Wayland um high school world language institute where teachers from various schools in Eastern Massachusetts um engaged in discussions
of how to plan differentiation and communicative language tasks. So that's one of our highlights. And then the next slide please. So um our department highlights um we always I always want to mention the seal of bi literacy um our results um just as
a reminder to anyone who doesn't know the Massachusetts state seal of bi literacy is awarded on a student's diploma for intermediate high proficiency in English and another language um and so we have some of our results from this year um we have um
four students in Latin are the field this year 13 in Spanish one in Chinese and one student in Haitian Creole. Um we had two students earning the seal with distinction and unfortunately she left. One of them is Fabia Calipula. I would have liked to recognize her in person
because she knows but um and then also Vivian Lee. Both of them in LA. Um some other things that we've uh done this year that I'd like to highlight is um put together some extension course offerings. part of the proficiency model of learning um overall language includes
the concept um which is sort of UDL uh that some students need more time to acquire language especially at our novice or lower language uh levels so our lower intermediate levels as well and so at the high school we're now offering um an extra or second year uh
at these levels for students who need more time. It's not for everyone, but for if students do need more time, um it will give them that time to move along their own personal path. Um something else uh being done at the middle school is um instituting a proficiency rating.
Um it's an ungraded um idea of feedback, but it's and it's for uh students in trimesters two and three of 8th grade at this time. Um it's a way to give them personalized feedback as to where students are along their path without um incorporating it into their grade. again
also introduced the idea of proficiency to our middle school students before high school. Um the last one there again is the world Wayanland World Language Institute. Um and as we were talking about differentiation there um that is going to lead into my next topic. So my
next slide. So um I have a handout for you that um Beth Steel is going to get to you. Um we got this as a note card at the um Wayland World Language Institute um workshop and these are the key tools um
on the card that are differentiation um to tools for differentiation we discussed at this workshop. Uh but the thing is about differentiation um when we plan to offer and implement these tools in our instruction that's what universal design for learning is. So,
we've been doing differentiation for a while. It's just taking the idea and flipping it to thinking about it at the beginning of our teaching instead of um as needed on the spot. So, these um lists up here, some of which are on the card also um are some of the strategies
we plan for and offer to students. And I do want to make a point of saying that for all of these um students are making informed decisions uh based on their own learning styles and needs. So, the idea of student choice is important for us too. So scaffolding is one of them. That would be things like graphic organizers
and sentence starters. Um word banks. U most of us have board walls in our classrooms. Um modeling might include things like group writes, guided instruction, or even practice assessments on a regular basis. Tearing um is something that we're doing more of
lately. Um this can be done with texts or activities. Um and we're again working to increase our use of this. I happen to use um a tiered reader in um my Latin intermediate for class um on the anid. The anid is at a very high level and so having um easier uh tiered
levels that we can either choose to use or we can go through them one by one um has been really helpful. Um choice that's just something we're all doing. Um this is very popular especially for unit assessments. um if we have a specific objective like you did on your meeting agenda uh and then have
different options for how to achieve that, that would be a choice board or something. And I've just included a sample um of that in Spanish. So, um I am happy to answer any further questions you have about UDL or anything else.
>> Mine's not necessarily a UDL question, but I was wondering that's fine. what your take on how AI the presence of AI is going to affect the world language 3 five 10 years from now
>> that's a really big question instant >> okay um so yeah um one thing is we're struggling a little bit with AI I'll talk about that because um AI in world language has gotten really good. For a long time it was not very good. Um it is
suddenly very good. Um so one thing we're watching out for is actually um getting students to think and produce language and interpret language without AI. Um because as easy as it might be to pull out Google Translate um you know in
another country, I was just in Italy last week. Um, it's also really fun and I think more authentic to try and figure out what someone's saying and you know only in a like desperate situation um use AI um or Google translate or
whatever it might be. Yeah, I mean this is I think it's a just a um big issue for all of us in education. Um I'm not sure if I quite answered your question but >> Oh, you did. Well, you did. You did. Absolutely. And the reason why I ask is
because I I wouldn't I wouldn't know necessarily how good it's gotten, right? Like >> that was just helpful to hear anyway is because >> Yeah, sure. >> when it first came around. Yeah, sure. It wasn't good. It butchered it or like but now I mean it's just improving every
day across all >> Yeah. And it can certainly be helpful in a lot of situations. I think we'd like to promote more organic use of language and real world situations. Um, so trying to to let students know it exists um and
maybe incorporate it into some activities. I do know that um there are some AI um platforms that allow for students to practice their interpersonal communication and some teachers are using those in their classrooms. Um
especially for things like um for a proficiency test for um French and Spanish and other languages that have the speaking component. It gives students more practice with speaking and um interacting so they can interact with like a bot or an AI. >> Sure. >> Yeah. So that's helpful. Um I just think
we're also care we're trying to be careful of students over relying on it. >> Right. >> Yeah. >> Got the knowledge of it. But no, I appreciate your answer like and I was also curious how as to how the implementation could could take in the classroom
>> and using AI to fine-tune those skills or practice. >> Yeah. Yeah, we're definitely doing that. >> Yeah, that's awesome. >> Yeah, >> cool. Just curious uh like kind of the concept you can go, right? What are the trends as far as interest in different languages you offer? Give you kind of a sense of why that's trending that way.
>> What are the trends in the languages we offer? >> As far as interest, right? Like I >> Yeah, sure. >> So, I I do say this regularly too that we're really lucky in this district to offer three languages. Um we're a very small district to offer three languages. Um, we have some dedicated staff I think
who work really hard to maintain the interest. Um, Spanish is obviously the easier one for us to recruit for. Um, Latin and French though have their fans and um, you know, so far so good. We've been able to m maintain those three languages. Um, I think we have a lot of
success with those three languages. So, I mean, we do we do work. Um, we have in sixth grade the exploratory program where students are exposed to all three languages. Um, and I am hoping to go down to the middle school like I did last year and talk to the sixth graders just from the the top perspective kind
of like here are your choices. Here's what it might be in Latin. Here's what it might be in French. Here's what it might be in Spanish when you choose for seventh and eighth grade. And then we're lucky that we are able to then offer from 7 through 12 a continuous curriculum of the same language so that students can get as far along that
proficiency path as possible >> because it does take time. Yeah. >> How are students getting uh biiteracy and languages that you can offer? >> So some students come in with a home language. >> Oh >> and um and then we've also so the two
that I mentioned this year were um heritage languages. Okay. Um, so we have a lot of students who have heritage languages um that are spoken at home but or are studied elsewhere or a combination. But then we also have had not this year that I can think of but we have had in the past students who just
decided to pick up another language on their own. Um last year we had someone in Japanese and then also in Portuguese and those are entirely self-study. So these are really dedicated students who had other language experience because of course once you learn one other language you know you your brain is sort of open
and more >> I have a um I have a UDL question. Okay. >> So um this is very helpful all of the strategies that the UDL strategies. So, um, what I was hearing you say is that when you're planning lessons or folks on
your team, um, that you're designing the instruction so that there's multiple different kinds of scaffolds to meet the lesson objective, but then there's also student choice. So, it's sounds like there's a a balance between what the teacher is anticipating and planning
for, but then what the student chooses as the best path for them. So, I was kind of wondering about the balance there between what the teacher's anticipating a student may need and what a student chooses. >> Does it always align and what do you do if it doesn't align? So I think that um
what I've learned is I I've been teaching a long time and um at the beginning of teaching we called this differentiation and that's what this workshop was really about and that's the idea of you are teaching something and you see oh somebody's not getting it and you kind of swoop in and and scoop it up
and figure some something out. Um as Meredith said you end up with tricks in your pocket and you figure out what works. And so for me and for our department and for all of us I think really who talked about it um UDL is really just trying to anticipate what the what you're going to need to differentiate and doing it ahead of
time. So there are times when um my UDL turns into I end up having to still differentiate for sure but we're just seeing more um forward planning and pre-planning. I guess >> that's thank you that a really clear explanation. I appreciate that.
>> Yeah. Liz, is there any merit? I was intrigued by your comment on AI. If you could >> I have a lot of thoughts, >> but I I was thinking about a lot of a lot of our students that are taking a second language
>> do not have parents that speak that language at home. So you kind of hinted that AI is almost at that point where you could create an environment at home where the student had an opportunity to speak that language more than they
currently are. Do you think that that would be helpful in developing fluency? >> Well, we already have some students doing it. So for example, the ones that have done their self-study, >> they're they're exposing themselves to language a different way. And and again,
um I think AI can be great, but AI is still a computer. And what and so a lot of the way that students who have done their self-study have exposed themselves is often by watching shows, uh YouTube videos, other um other things. Um and as
far as I know, that still seems to be a little more authentic because it's something that you would do anyway. And so it's it's again, you know, you watch a show, you want to know what's happening. So you're you're you're quickly catching all the vocab and catching up. You also have visuals at the same time. So AI could end up in
that same realm, but I think for now um it's not necessarily any better than or it could be just one of the tools. I don't think it's better than any of the other tools that are out there for students at home. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Yeah,
>> I loved your point about once you have one language under your belt, it's easier to get another one because the brain kind of works that way. And I don't want my AI question to be like, you know, world language is like it's the critical thinking aspect of a student. Yeah.
>> And training the brain like because you learn world language, you know, it makes it easier to learn other things not just the language as well like to to develop um that critical thinking aspect. So I don't think world language is going anywhere that the the teaching of it. I
was just wondering where the in how we going to do this and how we going to implement it. >> Sure. >> Um over the next few years. So >> very good. >> Great. Yeah. Thanks everybody. Um Hillary Bridge is up next.
>> She buying house. Thank you. Hello for having us this evening. >> All right. So, um I am the curriculum coordinator for K through2 Fine Arts here in Littleton. Um we have uh some highlights for you to uh yeah jump right
into too far. So, uh just some of the things that uh have we've done this year in our courses or that are things that the uh departments would like to highlight. Um, we received some new guitars and keyboards at the middle school. Um, which ties in nicely to our piano lab at
the high school. We um got a new piano lab system that allows students to work uh with each other across the classroom and also allows me to pair students digitally across the room and I can hear all of the things that they're doing without them knowing that I'm listening to them. So, it's a very cool tool that
we have been using. Um, we had Ball in the House return to uh, Littleton this year and gave a full school presentation at the high school. That was back in March. They also did some workshops with the music students during the school day. They worked with both band and chorus, um, which was a great
opportunity for our students. The art department received some LAF grants. Um, they received some games and the photo classes got some lighting and some backdrops to really enhance our student work. Um there was some artwork for from the high school uh fine arts classes
that was displayed at the Ruben Library in March. Um we'll be having our art show at the high school in May that coincides with our concert which is next Wednesday, May 6, 7 o'clock. Should come see it. It's a free show. Um the drama department has put on many performances
playing in a day. They had their musical. The middle school um play is next week. I believe it is the 14th, 15th, 16th or maybe 15, 16, 17 weeks from now. So, um, those are some other upcoming performances that are to be looking forward to. And, uh, if you ever
want to see some other student artwork, there's the little art gallery that's right outside Russell Street, so you can see some student work displayed there as well. So, we can transition into the um, UDL. So, um, I might actually argue with Meredith that music is an original UDL.
Um, I actually think any flash that's based around skill acquisition, it lends itself quite easily to UDL. Um, and it's just sort of an organic thing that comes about when you have many years of experience teaching small people to do things that are technically quite difficult. Um, so just some of the
highlights that we have over from the district. Um, our learning objectives have always been clear and uh always tied in nicely to what we've done. Personally, I always bring up what we're doing in this class, how it ties into what we did yesterday and how it will help us moving forward. Um, we have uh
an entire course at the high school um that is called uh applied music and it really is just students forming their own learning objectives. Um students uh choose a musical goal and I meet with them at the beginning of the year. We learn how to form a smart goal. They turn their goal into a smart goal and
then we make little goals throughout the semester and they pretty much work independently and I check in with them every class to say like what are we working on today? Where do you want to go? Um and they change their goals from week to week. So they have an overarching goal of where they want to be at the end of the semester, but they quickly learn early on that you have to
set much smaller goals because they overestimate how much they can get done in the course of a week. So, not only is it really cool because they get to choose what they're going to be studying, but it also gives them a lot of realworld skills about, you know, how life can get in the way when we're trying to create goals and meet things.
So, um they uh turn in a paper at the end that talks about the process and a lot of them really reflected on I thought I was much more capable of getting things done and then I forget how many other things get in the way. So, I always thought that was a a good perspective taking for them as well. Um,
we use many flexible methods in both art and music. Um, I scaffold almost every single skill that I teach my piano and guitar classes into three different levels. Um, everyone learns level one and then we sort of talk about if you feel like this was really good and you were great at that, let's try the next
level and so on and so forth. Some students want to jump right into level three. And uh, I usually give them the option. If you think you can do it, let's go for it. And uh, sometimes kids will bump back a level. Sometimes kid who's been hanging around at level one might go to try the level two today. So we have a lot of different um ways to
make skill acquisition uh as slow as students needed or as fast as they would like to have it. We always offer all of our resources both digitally and paper. Um at the elementary level there's choice in every single lesson including there's varied media subject matter the
tools they get to use. um adaptive tools are available for our students at the middle school or and at the elementary school and the art classes. Um there are discussionbased things that happen in art classes. Um we use varied media in all of our music and our art classes. Um
regarding our formative assessments, like I was saying about Meredith before, every single performance-based class is just a series of formative assessments. That's literally the entire class. We talk about a skill, we demonstrate the skill, we talk about what we did well, what we didn't do well, how we can fix it, and then we fix it. It's literally
just a series of formative assessments. Um, we use think pair share often. The uh middle school and the elementary school like to do mini conferences with students about their artwork. They have self uh self-success criteria rubrics that they use at the elementary level too for students to be able to assess
their own understanding of their work. At the elementary level in music, we use um interactive games that kids aren't even unaware that they're being assessed in the moment because it's so much fun and they're having a game. Um that includes things like collaborative improvisation or um call and answer,
turn taking, those types of things. Um and then of course regarding flexible assessments, we always have I always have for students an in-person or a video option if students have to perform something for me. um the history of rock final which is of course I teach at the high school is just a single prompt that
students can choose to answer in any way they wish and the prompt is what is one way that popular music has uh affected the American culture from the 1950s to present day and then they can choose anything that we've studied over the course to highlight and in any way. So,
I've received podcasts, I've received blog postings, I've received posters and board games, I've had kids write papers, I've had kids do slide decks. So, just about every option on the planet, kids are able to present there for their questions. Um, there are always options
at the elementary level to write, draw, or verbally share their understanding of a subject. Um, word banks and sentence frames are often used. So, uh, as I said before, I feel like the performing arts or really any skills based things really lends itself to UDL. So,
I'm happy to answer any questions if you have. Do you find it difficult to evaluate one's competency of the subject matter based upon all the different medium that you're accepting as a final
assignment? Like how do we you know someone chooses to write a paper versus someone submits a poster or a board game. >> Does it make it difficult for you to differentiate which student has a better understanding of the subject matter and
who performed a better output? >> Not particularly. I do have a rubric. I wish I had it here. The rubric actually spells out what I'm looking for for them to answer the question. But as long as their project has answered all of the questions, they score pretty well. Um, and students always have access to the
rubric ahead of time, so they know exactly what I'm looking for. And I have gone back to students, you know, it's not just a do whatever you want and then I get it in the end. We, you know, we plan it out together and everything. And I'm I've gone back to students and been like, is this really answering the question? You know, and then they kind of go back and refine what they are
perhaps presenting. >> I mean, if you had to pick a winner, that's harder, >> right? >> They're not comparing apples to apples. But for you're just assessing confidence across the board. As long as they met that competency on the rubric, then any acceptable I'll take any of their their
work. >> I love this idea of the learning having them create their own learning objectives. I've never heard that before, but that's very um uh metacognitive, right? >> Yes. >> What's that word? Um, so but then I'm
wondering like if it's getting down to that um a lot of your work is very individualized >> and how do you manage that with so many students that are um doing so many like different learning objectives, different flexible methods that they're choosing.
You know, it sounds like you would have to spend a lot of time with individual students like helping them develop their objectives and their smart goals. And so how do you how do you hit that sweet spot but also make it manageable with all the students that you have?
>> Sure. Um that's a good question. Uh I think sometimes being in a small district we have both blessings and curses about it. Um this semester I had nine students in that class. So nine was definitely doable. I've had up to 12. So I think having a smaller class size
definitely makes that help. Um, but from the get-go, I kind of tell students that if you don't feel like you're going to be able to learn independently without me right here, then this perhaps maybe isn't the course for you. Um, and I have had a few kids, just two, that I can think of that started it and went, you know what, I actually don't think I
could do this. And then they just chose different class. But there's a lot of individual coaching at the start and then it's more like a gradual letting go. So I stay with the students for quite a long time in the very first few classes and then as the semester gets running, we have a routine going then I
can just sort of do a lot more loops around the room and check in with different people. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. And then um this is more of a logistical question. You were talking about the piano lab a little earlier. >> I'm picturing a a piano with headphones so that they can hear themselves but the
whole room's not hearing. Is that what it is? >> Yes. That would be chaos. >> Terrible. They also they have microphones so I can also talk to them and they can talk back. Yes. >> Wow. >> And I have the most important part an
all mute button so that I can all their pianos and all their microphones. Yes. >> Yes. >> When you walk into the room though and they're all like headphones on and you don't hear any like everyone playing so all you're hearing is like
you can't hear. It's >> very peaceful though. It's quiet. It's very quiet in the room. >> Yes. Y >> come on down >> anyet disco parties everybody dancing and that's why
>> yes exactly. >> Do you guys have any questions? >> It's not UDL. It's AI. It's not UDL. Okay. But like this is our glimpse into curriculum. Um so I was just curious it being the arts. has AI shown up in the
like in the teaching of the arts or the student >> um aspect of it like are you receiving AI back? Is there any like encouragement or discouragement in the use of AI as it relates to the teaching of the arts within LPS?
>> I think that I have yet to and I'm not saying that it doesn't exist. I have yet to find a way that I could use it help to help students study. I have seen it show up a little bit. Like I said, history of rock is a course based around music, but it's really just a humanities course. There's it's a history course.
So, you know, I have encountered some of that. Um, some of my music theory students have tried. Um, I think you'll find that if you ask AI to produce music for you, it is a great piece of comedy, but not very musical. Um, so I don't know that it is
>> reached the point where it is helpful for one to use in a academic way. >> Sure. Um, but it, you know, it's changing day by day, >> right? It's funny because like the world language like you were like it was wasn't very good a couple years ago, but now it's actually pretty good, right? >> So, it'll be interesting. I was thinking
like you would you would die. Like I took three years of Spanish and I have retained nothing. >> Beth, you would die too. >> But with the help of technology, right? Like you could drop me off and I will probably survive. I can't play the
guitar to save my life. You could >> I could probably I could put together, you know, a guitar solo with the use of AI. Um, so it'll be interesting just to see how it evolves over time. >> I would be remiss to mention, too, um, as Liz was talking about language
acquisition. Um, music is processed in the brain the same as language. So, um, learning music is, uh, >> it's probably why I'm terrible at both. >> Yeah. >> So, learning music helps with language acquisition and vice versa. So, they are processed in the same area of the brain. So, uh, I can
>> and everyone is capable of learning. I this is Justin >> if you if I take nothing else of the message is that music is for everyone and that everyone is capable of doing something. So yes, >> just one thing it's not so much your
question is uh I was really impressed. So uh I did a podcast on the high school musical and then Tracy O'Neal reached out to see if I'd do it but I was supposed to do it next week. I was really impressed that Lucas Wright was a student that actually went role play school. That's really cool. Shows a lot
about the different talents that our students have. >> Yeah, Lucas is also in the music program. Very talented individual. >> Really cool. >> Yeah. >> Great. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> All right. Last but not least, we have Elizabeth Rigo. Grades 6 through 12,
math. >> Think about your answer to AI now. >> Yeah, I know. I know that. Yeah, I know. math I can do. I can do not >> I did retain some math. So, >> um so I just want to start with some
math department highlights. Um so last year we also went through our curriculum review process. So this year we've been incorporating the new curriculum, trying to update our lessons, assignments, assessments, projects. Um grades six through eight.
Um they're using the edge gems program. Um and at the high school, we have a few different ones that we chose depending on the courses. So algebra 1, geometry, algebra 2, we all chose um the McGraill reveal math. Um and then pre-calculus,
calculus, financial algebra is all using Sungage and statistics is using BFW. Um the eighth grade students participated again in the Scholastic Cartis math challenge this year. So they complete fun extra challenging problems
and they can win prizes. 20 students entered this year in 10 correctly solved challenge one and entered challenge number two. Um Alex is being used in algebra 1, geometry, and algebra 2. It's an adaptive online program linked to our
new curriculum and the online textbook. We're able to see what the students know and what they're ready to learn. It can help fill in gaps while also helping students learn new concepts if they're ready for it. Um teachers are incorporating a whole variety of projects. Um some are creating a book or
a game to show their understanding of concepts. Um they've done a slope city project, systems of equations project with real world applications. um unit circle pictures, transformations, picture project, exponential applications, detective project with
trigonometry. Um and we see many real world projects in financial algebra. Um this year LHS joined the Massachusetts Math League where students competed against other schools solving difficult math problems. They tied for first in the February competition and they came
in first in the last competition in March. Um, last year for AP Calculus, 25 students took the exam, 96% of students received a three or above with 14 students receiving a five. Um, in AP statistics, 25 students took the exam,
71.4% of students received a three or above. Um, this year, 175 kids participated in at least one New England Math League. this year in our two top scorers, one was a ninth grader and one was 11th grader, they earned 23 out of a
possible 36 points in total. Um, the financial literacy fair is happening again this year. It's run ran by Pam Bait in the financial algebra classes. Um, it teaches students about their real life finances, credit scores, and other budgeting skills,
approximating their income and expenses in their early 20s. Um, this year we also identified students who may need extra help and support in math and we were able to receive the support in the academic support center with the help of Justin Leonard and Tommy Pru. Um, for
MCCAST this year, Littleton Middle School was recognized as a national blue ribbon school nominee and Littleton High School was recognized as a school of recognition. Both schools demonstrated progress toward annual accountability targets and improved achievement in ELA
and math. Um and then on the next slide we're looking at some UDL and map. Um so students work collaboratively with flexible grouping. We do random groupings. We'll do different activities with say jigsaw. We might do do some
homogeneous groupings or heterogeneous groupings. Um we also communicate, review and align our materials to the objectives. These objectives are communicated. Um the goals are given in the classroom or on assignments and or on notes. Um we align our lessons to
these objectives and we circle back to review and reflect on them. Um we provide notes and packets or templates to assist and organize students notes and learning. Teachers model a safe space for students to learn and collaborate. These exemplars and model examples to help students learn and
understand concepts. Um students have multiple ways to access the curriculum. This may be verbally, visually, and in writing. They are learning in the classroom with notes, activities, group work, and thinking classroom tasks. Resources, notes, and information are
also available on Google Classroom for students to access. Um, and reference sheets are also provided as needed. Um, a variety of assessments are given, including projects, activities, assessments, group work. Warm-ups and exit tickets allow teachers to review
and quickly assess student understanding. Um, and it also allows for time to reflect. So, we give students multiple opportunities to show their understanding. Thank you for your time. Anyone has any questions?
>> I do just want to say I love that you guys play. I watched it. I came on to me after you done it. So, as part of like I know what was going on. I watched it. It's great that it's really good real world experience for kids.
>> That's awesome. Yeah, we've done it. Can't remember if this is the third year, fourth year, fourth year. Um, but the kids really love it and we've gotten a lot of community support for it and so it's been really really great.
>> Will you be doing a video again? That that video that >> was great. >> Yeah, it was really great. >> No, I don't know. I'm not sure who made the video. I know TV came in and made that video. >> Oh, okay. >> Well, it was amazing because they were interviewing students too, like in the middle of their experience and they were
like shocked how much it takes to live in the world. You know, >> yes, it's definitely a good experience for them, especially as seniors. >> Yeah. >> Um, >> can you say a little bit more about the math league opportunity? Is that some is
that like an event that's with other districts or is it within our district? >> So we have two different things. So we have New England Math League that we've done for a long time now where we hold it in the cafeteria and then sometimes also in classrooms just because we typically have a pretty large turnout.
Um but at that students get six challenging problems. They do their best to complete them. Um and teachers offer extra credit points for um students who get problems correct. So, that's something that you don't have to sign up for. Kids can just show up. It's once a month from October through March, and
anyone can go to it. Um, what was new this year was the math team. Um, so that was started um by a student who was interested in starting this math team. Um, and they had, I think they ended up getting 10, I want to say 10 students on
the team and then they had a few alternates as well. Um, so trying to remember how many competitions they went to, but I think they went to maybe four or five competitions. Um, and they went to different towns. Like I know they
were in Wuburn or maybe it was Burlington. I think they were um one week and um yeah and then they competed against other schools and um they had different groups where sometimes they were doing individual problems um group
problems and they really enjoyed it and they did really well and they would go Mrs. Kerna um was the teacher who advised it. So they would go to her flex block and just kind of practice challenging math problems to prepare and they were really into it and so it was
was fun. It was a good addition. >> And I had one more question about um you were talking about the Alex um program. >> It sound you know that it's adaptive. Is that Yes. >> So it sounds similar to the MAC testing. Is it is it similar or complimentary or
>> am I mixing them up? So the math testing only occurs so it occurs three times a year during certain windows where Alex we have all the time. So they are working in Alex every week. Um so it's a little different in that respect where
we can you know give them assignments we can say go work in Alex learn five topics um where map is at certain times. So the Alex is more like an instructional adaptive program where the MAP testing is an assessment that's
adapted >> and Alex's curriculum aligned with our tier one curriculum whereas now I >> Okay, thank you. That's very helpful. >> We're so lucky to have both. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Um so my question was about the
financial literacy fair. How close are we or have we run not just a fair but an elective where it's a semester long class on personal finance and I'm just if we haven't I'm just wondering like where that is at like district peer
districts Massachusetts curriculum what's your take on that because >> to everybody but speaking for myself like I would be such in favor of that >> like a running a financial literacy course >> personal financial >> so I know that that has been in the works. Um, I know I've met with some of
the other teachers. I met with John to try to incorporate that because I know there's been interest in it. I know students have expressed interest in it. Um, so I know I think they were maybe trying to run one for next year, but I don't know if it's happening.
>> It's kind of still in the works. I think hopefully running next year. >> Yes, it is. Yes. And it would be offered as an elective available 9 through 12. I mean probably 10 really like 11 and 12. Yeah. >> What's also interesting about this is
that um the state the graduation council is also is putting together a framework and there's potential in there where students to graduate and earn a a diploma in public high school in Massachusetts will have to take some sort of financial literacy course and demonstrate some sort of proficiency in
that um area before graduation. So that's part of the proposed framework. And so that's um an a topic that will be frequently discussed for sure. >> Sure. >> Yeah. >> I mean I see some real value that in
that likely >> not like I wouldn't I wouldn't say like oh it's for seniors only because a lot of times with seniors have >> committed to a college education which is coming with mountains of debt. >> Yeah. So, like I would say that might even be like suggested that it's at the
junior level because you're learning about personal finance and you're making a big long-term decision >> as to where you might want to um pay for your higher education. >> Oh, no. AI question for you.
>> Just ready for it. Oh, I'm just Yeah. Good. Thank you. >> Right. Well, it was awesome to hear from everybody and thank you for all the UDL information.
Um, next topic is on the agenda is fiscal year 28 and multi-year school budget needs. The committee will review the letter um to be sent to the finance committee. So, they're pretty sweet. But I'll tell you, I did a poor job of offering this in UDL because Janine's
not here. I have a physical handout. Um, so Janine, I apologize. Um, but I've got a copy for everybody just to take a look at. Um, and as silly as this sounds, I think I'll probably read it just for the the
public. And um the idea here is to discuss it and try to come up with some sort of bad table tonight. So >> um so what I'd like to do is is is read it,
discuss it, talk about whether or not we should like whether or not we should do this and if we should under what under what language. But um I sort of had this reflection point where I was like, you know, the town's experiencing some tough
um financial bud budgetary cycles and we have presented our annual budget every year the past couple of years, which I thought serving on the budget subcommittee was well within a reasonable ask. And for two years in a row, the town has pushed back on us and
said, you know, um it's insurmountable. we're going to need you guys to accept less. And we've been in the fortunate situation where we've had some revolving funds and we we have a strong school choice offering where we've been able to sort of take some of this burden off of
the town. But as we're all coming to realize this strategy of us spending some revolving funds isn't a sustainable one. So, this kind of just hits home with that and the the intent here was to sort of put the finance committee and put the select board on notice that
we're going to need to take a much closer look at the budgetary needs of the school department going forward. And my my hope is that as some tax revenue gets turned on with the 550 King Street that it's not simply like, oh, well, the school department's 46% of our budget,
so let's give them 46% of the new revenue. um we might need 65% of the new revenue because we have major demands and we've been accepting less and less and grants of all departments have but I think most people in town would agree
that a strong school department um equals a strong town. So, for the benefit of those at home, um this is addressed to the Littleton Finance Committee and the Select Board and the subject is advanced notice of fiscal year 28 and multi-year school budget
needs. The Littleton School Committee is submitting this memorandum to communicate the district's financial outlook and to provide advanced notice of the level of municipal support that'll be required to maintain organ uh educational quality beginning in fiscal
year 2028. The intent of this memo is to support early discussion and collaborative planning well in advance of formal budget development for the upcoming fiscal years. Based upon the most recent data published by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Littleton
Public Schools reported total expenditures per pupil of I'll say just shy of 20,000 in fiscal year 2024. This figure is the latest finalized per pupil spending data available at the state level. In contrast, the statewide average for fiscal year 24 was
approximately just north of 23,000, placing Littleton more than 34,000 below the Massachusetts average on a per student basis. Comparable districts in close proximity to Littleton, including Grton, Dunstville, Actton, Boxboro, and Westford, continue to report per pupil
expenditures that exceed Littleton by level of thousands of several thousands of dollars annually, with many operating above the state average. These districts compete directly with Littleton for staffing, quality programming while operating within the same regional cost
environment. Staffing levels further reflect the disparity in investment. Littleton 10's district-wide student teacher ratio remains approximately 14 students per teacher compared to the statewide average of closer to 11 students per teacher. This difference has accumulated over time as a result of
sustained budget resistance. While the district has managed this efficiently, the higher ratios limit instructional flexibility, constrains class size management, and reduces the district's ability to expand targeted academic interventions without overextending
existing staff. Student performance data from the mo most recent MCCAST administration reinforce the need for additional instructional capacity. Spring 2025 MCCAST results show that while Littleton continues to perform well overall, a significant portion of
students remain below grade level in both reading and mathematics key grades. Grade five English language arts based upon the 25 MCCAST. 48% of students were partially meeting expectations. An additional 4% were not meeting
expectations, meaning 52% of students performing below grade level in reading. In grade seven mathematics 2025 MCEST data shows that 37% of students are partially meeting and 6% are not meeting resulting in 43% of students performing
below grade level math. These figures highlight persistent instructional pressure points despite strong overall district performance. Addressing these areas require sustained investment in intervention services, instructional staffing, and program continuity.
Districts such as Grunt and Dunstable Act and Boxboro have addressed similar challenges through lower student teacher ratios and more robust intervention staffing supported by higher baseline operational budgets. Littleton's current funding structure limits the district's
ability to implement uh to implement comparable long-term strategies. I'm almost done. The school committee also recognizes that the district has absorbed financial pressure in recent years in order to support overall town fiscal stability. In fiscal year 2025
and fiscal year 2026, the district accepted operating budget increases that were well below levels identified as necessary to fully maintain staffing capacity and services. While this approach was taken deliberately and responsibly, it is contributed to
structural constraints that cannot be sustained indefinitely without risk to educational quality. This memorandum therefore serves as formal advanced notice that the Littleton School Committee intends to request operating budgets increases in excess of 5% annually for the next three-year period
beginning with fiscal year 28. These anticipated increases are intended to address gaps in our per people spending relative to peer districts. stabilize staffing levels and improve outcome for students currently performing below grade level in reading and mathematics.
The school committee has continued sorry is committed to continued collaboration with the finance committee and other town bodies to discuss these needs in a transparent and deliberate manner prior to the fiscal year 2028 budget cycle respectfully submitted little to the
school department or little school committee. So these are these are my words. This is the experience that I've sort of lived through the last couple budgetary cycles. And I bring this to your attention with some forward thinking and my hope and desire is that
with some suggested edits or con, you know, a vote of confidence or something that these can then become our words and we could share this with the finance committee and the select board. So open it up for discussion. John? >> Yeah, Justin, I really appreciate you
doing this. uh per people spending is uh really intriguing. I was doing some quick math. Even if we do the 5% competitive growth for the next three years, we're still below the state average even after that. So that's how much of a gap there is expending, right? Um and I think calling out the MCAST um
scores and saying as well as the uh per teacher ratio really important to look at as well. I think we both most both most kind of not alarming but most uh I wanted to elevate the fact that even if we do make this choice we still above the state average and I I think we are
most county's credit a very well above average district so we shouldn't be pulling the district back right it's it's eyeopening that we are a high performing district when we highlight these things that are that are taking place the staff and the administration
should receive recognition for that but it's not it's just clearly not sustainable And the 5%, you know, budgetary increase in excess of 5%. It's baby steps, right? Like I know the town can't afford like for us to have a massive windfall, but
at least it gets marching in the right direction. >> I appreciate you doing all the research and pulling this together. This is really important advanced notice. Um, when you were calculating the per pupil expenditure, was that what we were
spending of what the town was giving us plus what we're spending from our double check on whether it's the total whether it's the appropriate or it's a total budget. I'll double check. I can't remember >> because I think the relevant number would be what the town was giving us the
appropriated amount. >> Um, which is probably even lower. you're going to double check, but you know, if it is lower, that's an important number to highlight as well. And um yeah, we've seen our surrounding neighbors, you know, Brockton, Donable,
Aen, Boxboro, Westford also, you know, have financial difficulties, you know, failed overrides and, you know, somehow their per people expenditure is still higher than ours, >> right? So, it's a bit of a double-edged sword and I fully recognize that, right? like here I'm naming other districts
that are spending more and then they're going through overheads interval or they're laying off staff so they're shrinking. So like maybe the maybe the fact that our our budget hasn't swelled to the point some of these other districts we've been able to sort of maintain status quo and we're moving
along but you know I I truly believe that something's going to come out of five competing street and when the revenue gets turned on this the select board and the finance committee need to be looking at us first to say we know you've received less the
school the schools are important and important aspect of the community. Let's try to catch you folks up. That that's the point of it. And I wanted to get this out to them if we could before town meeting. >> I know the budgetary cycle is going to start real soon, but it's like
eventually like essentially is a one-year notice on next year's town meeting. We would as citizens vote it through. You know, it's interesting if I look back during the 15 years I've been here, been maybe two budget years where
our budget was accepted. All other years we cut. So if I I take an average of $300,000 decrease or 15 years, that's $4.5 million in itself. It's a lot of money that could be reinvested into
program, reinvested into areas that we feel need greater attention. rather than reorganizing within and putting more stress on our programs and teachers and pair of professionals to make sure that that we're successful.
So, I appreciate you doing this, Justin. >> Sure. It's uh it's time. Well, I think it's also really important to bring this concern to the community so that it doesn't I the community may have the overall impression that the school
district get is getting all this money because of the Shaker Lane vote and the new building and that therefore the district is flushed with cash when it clearly isn't. That that's an isolated situation. So I think it's
important to elevate these ideas, this information so that it doesn't all get rolled into one impression, >> right? And you know like we we accepted a 48% increase over the prior year and
we have contractual salaries that are significantly more than that. So that's a recipe for disaster. Um, we also have been really responsible along the way like know thanks to budget subcommittee budget subcommittee members prior the
work of Kelly and Steve we didn't spend eser money co money on operational things so we're not one of these districts where we're looking at you know cuts because the money is drying up and it's gone. So, we've we've been really good stewards of the budget over
the last 15 years, I'll say, or or longer. Um, and we're fortunate that we have uh a strong school choice um offering, but it's it's not going to work out long
term for little unless things change. >> Yeah. So, echo everybody. I think in the name of sort of transparency and forward planning this is excellent. Um, I would also say everything we've been adding with now, Justin, I would almost recommend to also be in here because
though it has all been stated and it feels like it's known, even these MCCAST scores, all of this is, it's all public, right? The way you sort of summarize it in one place here, I think what you just said right now of like being good stewards of the money for so many years has allowed us to get to this place
where we've been able to have much lower and you you said it a little bit here, but I would these are just my suggested edits to put in some of the data that you have like last year the cut was this or we accepted this, this year is this, next year, you know, we're anticipating
but in FY28 this will be the impact just to make it like a strong sort of persuasive. You have so much data in here. That's one data piece I would add. And then the other one, we say it's a competitive district, but I might also
encourage adding a little bit of like how are we defining that or we know we are, right? Is it because we're the blue ribbon school? Is it because of the other right >> component? So we can add a line or two of like we are a high performing district despite these purple scores. Here are things that demonstrate that. I
think it would make it a little more poof, but it's it's really great. Thank you. >> I'm gonna have you those comments. >> Those are just my suggestions. >> I I I just wanted to um This is
brilliant, Justin. I'm so so happy you're doing this. Um I I feel like you like of course you're doing this. This is exactly what should be happening. Um um and I really love that the like like
Veno was talking about the data points starting with the MCCAST. Um and I don't know that I have the numbers or this is something we should pursue but it I I wonder about our staffing and our
turnover and how our staff is feeling. if there is a way. Every once in a while I hear a a teacher talk about um AIDS and and are you know have do I have enough aids? Do are are you know I don't
want to say that obviously we've been staffing responsibly and and doing a lot of hard work but that isn't very easy when you don't have the money to do it right. Um and you've just done such a great job with that. I didn't know if
you would be able to add something in there that our is is our and I I've been looking for a way to evaluate our turnover. Um I've actually called MA um Mass Association of School Committees and said is there a a database across
the state that compares that that tracks turnover that we can compare with schools? Um, and I'm I've been getting nos so far, but if anyone knows a way for us to compare it because I I just
think that's a way to evaluate, you know, an organization is what is the turnover? Is the turnover the same as everybody? Is it a lot more? Is it a lot less? That's it's just one of those evaluation points and um you know that
that makes a big difference in especially in a school Thank you. >> All right. So, did you say you looking for a motion? >> No, I'm not looking for a motion. What? Um, there's no vote on our agenda. What what I what I'm hearing is that we have
there's a consensus that we believe this is a good idea, right? And it's it's forward thinking and it's smart and a couple folks have offered some additional edits to make it even even stronger, you know, maybe more compassionate. So, I'll put together I'll take the sort of the the verbal
offerings tonight, dump them in, and I'll just get a final copy out to everybody, and I will send it to this to the uh finance committee and the select board unless I hear back otherwise, like we can't have we can't deliberate over
it through email or anything like that, but I'll get you a copy so you have it. If there's something, if there's an issue, please respond just to me or call me and if we need to, we'll revisit it again at another school committee, but I really want to try to get it out like next week. Um, and in the email, I'll
say like, I'm going to send this on Friday. You know, it's now Tuesday. You've got a couple days, I think. >> Are are you interested in this being read at town meeting or something or in a school? Okay. >> I'm not what I'm interested in doing is continuing to work in a this high
functioning collaborative effort with the finance committee and the select board and you know for all interested citizens that are watching the meeting they they now have the information but >> I'm not looking to cause a scene within town I'm just looking to continue this
partnership that we have with with these folks and work together going forward to receive the funding that we that we need to carry us uh to get even better >> I think it's a very logical action and
not a scene causing action, but a a a this is information that the whole town needs that the town. We would like the town to all start thinking about this because over the next year we're going to we we need to do some work around it
and so don't be surprised. >> Yeah. Well, I think just um you know, giving the finance committee and the select board the notice, we'll collaborate with them. You know, we might end up on their agendas. they might end up on ours, all that good stuff. And ultimately, if we can put a
budget together for fiscal year 28 that shows greater support for the school department and all three boards are in favor of it, it'll go through town meeting. It'll go through town meeting just fine. >> Okay. >> All right. We're taking the initiative
to think ahead like that. I I think that's probably why we're in the, you know, the relatively stable financial position at Bren is because we've been so proactive. So that's a big piece of it. I I appreciate you doing that. >> Sure. And I listen I you know that
we've gone through a couple tough budget years. We've been we've managed it responsibly, but it's I'm just feeling like it's not sustainable and sort of been upset and up. So um all right, presentation number three is a financial
update. The business manager Steve Mark going to tell us how great everything is. >> That's hard to follow that. Um so yeah, my mantra all year uh we are in um relatively good shape um in the sense
that we have enough funds to meet all of our obligations through the end of the school year. Um that said, when you look at the report, people are going to say, "Wow, it's uh this report is through April and there's $8 million left." Um, yes, but we also have approximately $5
million worth of P um payroll and salaries to pay out as well as um our operating expenses and contractual expenses and things like that. So, um don't be shocked by the $8 million number left with three month with two months left. Um if you remember, we um
we hold teacher salary to pay out over the summer and that's a that's almost $2 million worth of salary right there. and then we have two months with a u full staff payrolls and everything to go through. So yes, we are in good shape. Um I'll take questions on that. But
while I have the floor, um I also want to as I have been mention again bus registration is open and we opened it in April, early April. So folks, please register for the buses. Um >> registrations yet? >> Yeah, we have.
>> Yeah. give like a TV, >> you know. >> Yes. And we also we also uh initiated a a revision to that registration software where uh if a family uh is eligible for SNAP benefits or free and reduced
benefits. Um the system recognizes that. So when they register, it automatically registers them but doesn't charge the fee. So, um, last year and in the subsequent years, we've had to manually go in and, uh, adjust those and register those. This year, we're hope hopefully
that automation is working a little bit better. So, uh, we continue to make improvements to that, um, software. We're the only ones in the state of Massachusetts that use this particular registration software. So, um, but also take a second to also
update the committee on um, some of the capital projects we're working on. Um so the HVAC at the middle school um that's um gone out to bid. We've awarded a contract. Um they are ordering the equipment. That project should be done
this summer. We're replacing five six HVAC units on the middle school roof. Um I won't get into which ones. Uh that's um that total project uh is right around $400,000. So, uh, and that's, uh,
planned planned at this point in time expenditures out of school choice. Uh, we had a meeting today on the track resurface program with the engineers. Uh, we're getting that project up and going. They're they're doing the the, uh, engineering specs to make sure everything's in compliance. Um, that bid
will be going out soon. Um, and then again, that's a project we hope to get done this summer. If uh if it won't be done this summer, then it might be early fall uh time period. Certainly have to get that done before October and the weather changes. Um so we're working on
that project. Uh and I'm uh meeting with Musco a second time to discuss the light replacement at Alumni Field. Um we're working on those quotes and bids and um strategy when we're going to update
those lights as well. So those are all in the works. Hopefully they all get done by the end of the summer. Um, so just wanted you to know what was going on with all of that. >> Okay. And also, excuse me, special thanks to Senator Aldridge for advocating for a number of schools,
including our district. Uh, as a result of the the constant uh advocacy, we have another $110,000 that we can use for physical upgrades to our schools, the current budget here.
>> Correct. and and uh we last year and the year before we had received some green community funding through the state. We we updated some lighting um in the high school classrooms to go from fluorescents to LEDs. Um that funding
went away because the green communities changed their parameters and no longer fund lighting upgrades and lighting projects for energy efficiency. Um, so, uh, again, as Kelly mentioned, we we received the funding, um, and we're
going to put that toward the phase 2 lighting at the high school, which will, uh, complete the high school lighting upgrade project. So, a lot going on. >> Yeah, that was a that was a nice um surprise getting that.
>> Yes, very nice. Thank again thanks to Diane Dickerson and Dave Riley who both worked on that initiative. >> And then so the Mark about the funding that came through um Senator Eldridge and it I thought it said that the
funding could roll over into the FY27 fiscal year. Yes, it can. So you don't have to spend it. >> No, we don't have to spend it before June 30th. >> That's right. Right. >> Correct. And we we received another earmark a couple years ago uh for a specific project. Um we received those funds. I forgot the timing. It was like
January, but we had to spend it before June 30th. Luckily, we had a plan in place. Um, in this particular case, the funding does roll over into next year. So, we could uh we can take our time, make sure the project is uh managed correctly and phased in correctly, and that money will um roll into next year.
We have to spend by the end of next year. >> I'm glad we have the luxury of time to be able to not rush the spending. >> Yeah. And again, thanks for Mark Ronach. email part of that as well working with Senator Aldrich. >> Yeah. So, >> uh Mus did Musco do the jet field
lights? Was that the vendor? >> Yes. >> Okay. Yeah, that would be great. >> Yes. >> Yes. And we're looking at their >> I think the track absolutely needs it. I said, yeah, I was on the track the other day. I sent a message. I think the track >> track definitely needs to be
>> Yeah, the track definitely needs to be resurfaced. U we can do one resurface that'll last probably another seven or eight years and then in eight seven or eight or nine years it'll have to be completely stripped off. Their hot top will have to be um reconditioned and
repaved. Um that's a bigger project, but um that's a normal timeline for a track. So >> resurfacing include redoing that the inside edge for lane one. No, we're gonna talk to DPW about
putting some material up in there and packing it down to to to support that. We did we did look at >> possibly adding like some concrete along that and the price went through the roof. >> Sure. >> More than
a lot about track and track program, but I know that when those folks were here a couple years ago, we've been holding some money for the track renovation project. They expressed some concern about the crumbling of the inside lane. So, >> correct. >> I just want to make sure that if we're going to spend money, we're going to do
it in a way that meets their needs. >> Correct. And the engineers did look at that. They didn't think it was absolutely critical thing to do at this point in time. >> Um, so we did get $40,000 from the LTO. We got that a number of years ago. We're still holding on to that. Um, once we
get the final bid, I will come back to this committee and we will need a vote and and approval to use that $40,000 that's in get some donations that's in the agreement between school committee and LTO. We'll um take care of those that later um once we get our final
quote. We know the number. Uh we also uh went to the community preservation committee um and received um $100,000 for that project as well. So >> great. And um I got a call a couple
weeks ago from Middleton baseball again. So obviously they were the ones that donated the jet field. They're uh sort of in this early planning phase of potentially donating the storage shed related to the um I don't even know what you call the baseball field.
>> Wickham field. >> Wickham field. Thank you. >> So I haven't seen it myself, but I guess there is a concrete pad board. Yes, there is. >> There's just no shade. >> Yes, there is. >> So, they um they haven't yet, you know, come before us or asked for permission
or presented a gift, but I just wanted to alert the community members or um committee members that that's potentially going to work. So, that would be another wonderful gift and it would not only benefit varsity program or burn rand one, but um it'd be like a
storage shed for everybody. >> Yes. >> For all the baseball. >> Which one is Wickfield? like what I would say is the varsity field now. >> Oh, okay. >> The new varsity >> it's by Russell Street at the end of the Lumi field next to Russell Street. Yeah. >> We also met with when we were meeting with the engineers today, we also
reviewed the new Whitam Field backs stop the netting that's there because it we seem to have a lot of fly balls going up and over that fencing even though it's 40 ft high. Um, so they're looking at some engineering options to possibly prevent some of those fly balls from
>> right >> making it over the netting. So >> yeah, >> lots of things. >> Slightly off topic, but I did talk to Dian and Corey and it sounds like the shed they were asking for is coming home quite nicely. Great. Well, good. >> And the shed, the town shed behind
middle school um that school committee approved uh is in progress, almost done. that's being built by the show tech students. >> Um, so if you get a chance, drive by and take a look at it. >> Is that the one you were talking about? >> Yeah. >> Oh, okay.
>> Got it. More detail. No, you're great. >> That's it for me. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I do think that backs stops issue. It's plenty high, but it like you want the catcher to have plenty of room for like a popup, but there's no overhang. So,
like anything that goes up is coming down on a vehicle, >> right? Kids are throwing faster. >> Yeah. >> As well, >> right? >> So, I mean, cars be. Um, all right. That concludes
our presentation this evening. Not so bad. 8:36. Uh, this is our second opportunity for interested citizens. So, if there's anybody in the room, you just have your name, stranger, and your address for the record.
>> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. is Brad Austin. I was at 8 Adam Street. My public commented is that this town owes Beel a large measure of grant whenever um you know whenever you joined this committee we were still debating um transmission rates and masking procedures, the
protocols. Um thankfully you moved on to other topics and you provided the central leadership, the school start time stuff. You were in contract negotiations, the the calendars, how we represent our community. Um, I know you've done other stuff with um, Shaker Lane and um, and you've just it's been
vital leadership. We This whole town's benefited from your ability to represent all families of Littleton and your statewide recognized um, expertise in early childhood education. So, I just want to say thanks. Thank you so much and um, look forward to seeing you
around town. It's it's fun on this side of the table, too. >> That's it. Thank you, Brad. Thank you. >> So, yeah, >> you know, we'll be available for a picture photo op in about 10 minutes. >> Long meetings.
>> Um, all right. Thank you for being here, Brad. >> Um, we're going to roll through subcommittee reports. The first of which is PNBC. >> Yep. Uh, you did not mean, but uh, sharing fill that in. Uh, I guess I just
record the podcast with Kelly and uh with Jonathan May and Mary Mercy. Uh, we did officially decide just last week that the school will open May of 2029 uh based on what the expectations were of timeline and what made the most sense
for uh the building. Okay. So, good questions. I can answer them. >> Uh, Bean Sean podcast coming next week. >> Yeah. So I'll >> This is your exit interview. >> Yes. Exactly. >> Yeah. Right.
>> So with a this like this is years out. We're going to just you might lose track of this but probably not. The first tenants of that building will probably be uh guarant. >> Yep. >> So there'll just need to be some I'm just putting this on you for now and you
pass it on to whoever is in charge at that point in time. But there'll just need to be coordination because Camp T will be needing a home and in the event the project doesn't open in May and is opening like they're going to need to know which building to go into. >> Yep.
>> Um it's great for us because we'll have a couple months buffer for the school year. So I love that but like May presents a problem for them I think. And so it only gives them like a 30 days notice as to what building they're going to be moving into. It's on Gil Gilbane's radar already.
>> Or maybe they move into the existing shape no matter what. >> That's probably gonna That's probably gonna be >> Yeah, there you go. Impact Demolition. Yeah, >> thank you. Okay. Um budget subcommittee
budget subcommittee in a way presented everything this evening. Um town meeting is May the 15th. May 5th >> May 5th um Tuesday
May 5th. >> So I would like all of us to attend town meeting and uh support the the budget um as presented especially for the school department. A lot of work went into that and um fingers crossed everything goes through on Tuesday will be a okay for
another year. Um policy subcommittee comes over to We have a second reading for um three different policies. I do we need to have further discussion on them.
>> Uh why don't you just give us a quick minute? I don't think we need much discussion. We talked about these last time. >> Yeah, I'm good too. >> Okay, I'm good as well. Jean, sounds like we're all good. If you want to
proceed with your motion. Um, so I would like to move that the committee accept policies BE DG, JF, BBB, and JH um for their um for their final reading
and to be accepted. >> Motion made by Janine. >> Second. >> Seconded by Elaine. This is a roll call vote. Pino I. >> Sean. Sean I. >> Janine. >> Janine I. >> Dustin votes yes. And Elaine. Elaine I >> unanimous perfect already covered Jer
lane Sean I'll turn it over to you for any communications of committee reporting oh great it's exactly what I wanted uh two things or three already mentioned the Shaker Lane podcast that came out today next week uh I was very honored the um middle school drama reached out
after having seen the episode about the high school as I mentioned earlier so I'm going to report that next week then it's getting your uh her last long here. So I'm excited to have her on. We were talking this week about uh the weeks you wanted to cover. So I'm excited. >> Great.
>> Excellent. >> All right, that's wraps up boards all business. Just a reminder about the forum coming up on May 12th, 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. >> at the U
Shadic Street Center or Center on Strat Shadic Street, I should say. Good. Yes. All right. Um, our next scheduled uh school committee meeting is May 14th, 2026, 7 o'clock, Wilson Police Station. Come one, come
all. Uh, between now and then, our town elections. So, you know, we will uh we will miss you at the next meeting, but we are expecting a new member. Um, so that's wonderful news, but I encourage everyone to attend town elections vote
and uh we'll see everybody uh in a couple weeks. There's our motion to adjourn. So move made by Sean. >> Seconded by Veno. >> I'll ask for a roll call vote because Janine is remote. So go around the room again. Dino >> I.
>> Sean Sean. Janine. >> Janine I. >> Dustin. Yes. Elaine. Elaine. I >> unanimous. We have a journ.