##VIDEO ID:auGVTNkEzrY## e e e e e e you can fix it if you want to my daughter through tears was like but we've moved on the material is not as fresh um and it would just take me a lot of time but now that grade is affecting my current grade I have talked to so many students about this to see if it's something that just my family is experiencing or is it something bigger and Time After Time After Time it comes up that it is an issue in fact I've never spoken with anyone that it's not um I did an informal survey on Facebook recently on the mom's group um and it was an issue um and I've talked to teachers so I sit on the high school um what is it called the council the school council and um where we've been talking about this and I was talking to the special education teacher and she said that it's really affecting the special needs kids because they have to have feedback in a really consistent Manner and she's having to chase down teachers to get grading done and um and in the past to one of our kids like grading wasn't done from from certain teachers until right before the term ended and then by that point you they can't do anything to change their grades let alone like datadriven feedback for both the students and the teachers is my teaching being effective am I asking the questions the right way was this test fairly written right or are the students just not understanding this right but if the teachers aren't doing their grading they're not getting that feedback for themselves let alone students who are like how can I change my writing how do I how do I fix this this part in math that may not be clicking but will affect the rest of of how I do math in the certain subject it really just is affecting them and um I've talked to many Educators um I talked to a professor at Gonzaga um about professionalism and what is expected and she said that um the expectation is like a week of return like that seems to be a an industry standard um and in my the survey that I did like most parents in Littleton wanted a weak return um they just feel that that is valid right now when I've talked to the administration about it I want to be clear I have a really good relationship with the administration when I've taken problems to them they have been very responsive this one though has been tricky BEC and what I'm consistently hearing is that the the teachers and it's not all the teachers as with anything it's just a few but the ones that are having issues are saying things like if you force me to get my grading done within a certain time frame and I'm quoting here that it will be seen as a hostile work environment um I literally just heard this last week um and also like we should be free to run our classrooms the way that we want them to be or like with a specific teacher that I had issues with last week like the teachers are like well there's nothing in our contract that says that we have to have our grading done within a certain time so they're teaching to the letter of their contract instead of what our best practices and so in trying to navigate how do we get this change I feel like the Administration has run into struggles because they really try hard to work with the teachers and make the work environment a really good place and listen to them but there are these outlier teachers that just are saying there's no there's nothing in writing therefore I don't have to do this thing and in one of these with one of the teachers that I talked to last week she's like yeah this will probably have to be negotiated into the contracts so I'm here to like just ask like what can be done done um and also like I asked this fine gentleman like as a point of information right and I just barely asked him before like if you might share what your experience has been yeah I I'd be happy to talk about my experience as someone going through it um I think as a senior in high school it's it's some time away from middle school when homework was being graded daily but there's a lot more focus on quizzes and tests and um sometimes it takes a while for quizzes and tests to get GR but they make up a big portion of your grade so if you have a test and then another test not much longer after it if the grading takes too long then your grade will still appear lower which frustrates a lot of parents and the other uh big issue I've run into if if anything is um some teachers do have a policy that if you do poorly on a test you can correct it you can make it up there's a lot of reasons why a student would do bad it's not always that they didn't prepare but sometimes if those tests came later in a marking period Then if you wouldn't get the grade or test return until the day before then sometimes you just wouldn't have the chance to make those Corrections so I think that it's it's also extends the high school level maybe not so much on daily assignments but on bigger assignments okay thank you and and also to your point of like not seeing your grade like teachers not posting it in a timely manner is also an issue um some of our kids were really great about keeping up on their grades and things like that some of ours not so great as you would expect with the five kids right so for um one of our children in particular that we really needed to like follow this like went into as I'm like oh my gosh you have so many zeros and so many missing assignments she's like Mom they're in I promise they're in but I'm like can I believe you right and so it actually creates in our homes a real potential conflict with parents checking and kids saying yeah I did it but there's not this cohesiveness or what you can work on another thing that kids with ADHD um having grades posted in different areas is awful because you have to keep track of it in all these different places and your mind is going all these places anyway right like having them posted in one place in a timely manner I know that the grading is going be done within a week right or if it's essays maybe two weeks right just like bringing it in and putting some structure to it and expectations so I think will just help calm the system and like just I guess one last data point I asked some of uh some of my the friends of one of my kids before my the school meeting um last week and I said is this an issue that you're having right now and these are some of the top performing seniors in the school and one of them said yes currently I have a teacher where it's an issue and she said and last last year it was really rough though because there were three at one time she's like that was really hard to navigate so anyway so I'm just asking that it be looked into and um and if you feel like it's something that needs to be dealt with like we can work together as a community if you need more voices I'm happy to bring people to the table um but anyway that's that's all thank you just ask a clarifying question you were initially talking about homework were you was this um also like quizzes and formative assessments things like that all of it all of it okay all of it with some teachers like you know their grading is more of one kind than another right and again not every teacher is is this way there is a like Miss Elmore I'm going to call her out because she's so good like my daughter said that you handed in your quiz or your test and she graded it in front of you like you had your answer like you knew what you had done before class was over so there are some teachers that are really doing a phenomenal job it's just with any organization you're going to have people that struggle and deadlines are helpful um to kind of spur them and have expectation and also you know if it's needed to be in writing so the job performances can be more affected by it then that's also helpful I think to give our Administration tools to help make it happen instead of teachers saying well it's not in my contract you can't control that at least that's what my understanding is that can sometimes happen so well thank you for presenting this in such an articulate way and so much research in the community thank you it's very cool thank you yeah all right thanks thanks so much um always like hearing from the public I uh want to give school committee members an opportunity to just add a comment or uh it's they choose to or give the administration a chance if you don't uh feel that it's appropriate to respond that's quite all right um we could hear about this topic at another point in time I'll just personally share that you know my kids are no longer receiving one twos and threes in elementary school so Aspen's um pretty cool and um with technology and how quickly information moves you know it's it's a blessing and a curse at the same time um I do think that we ought to look at um I I swear I had the contract memorized at one point of time but you know that information escapes me um perhaps the information is in staff handbook or you knowy there ought to be some sort of guideline within LPS for uh timely return of work because we talk all the time about data data driven decisions and we should reciprocate that back to the student body they should have a fair uh Judgment of their assessment as they're trying to master these topics and I I I agree with you that it's kind of hard to um know what your grade is going to be if there's a couple assignments a couple tests that haven't been graded and in my own household too we've had that conversation why are there so many zeros my mom D is where the works turned in yeah um and it hasn't RIS to a of me thinking that there's a problem um but perhaps there is I don't know so what I have to so I thank you for bringing the topic Kelly sure uh thank you for bringing this up excuse me I guess my first reaction is Disappointment uh I I have no evidence to believe this is a a widespread concern uh I'm really disappointed excuse me that somebody actually thought this needed to be in a contract and and this negotiable good teaching is good teaching there is an expectation for any professional educator that you set an example for what you want out of your students assessments are a measure of of student knowledge but they're also used to help students learn so so the time lag uh should be not that long depending on the assylum excuse me uh for example our middle school high school teachers most of them have a a uh student uh Cas load of 100 to 130 students so every time they they give an assignment unless it's a multiple choice test it takes some time so we have to be reasonable in terms of turnaround time but the example you gave me is is not reasonable and the the responsibility of a good teacher and I believe our district is full of good teachers is to help students maximize their learning and by doing this you you need to do everything you can to get good information in the students hands so they can learn from from areas that they they need to have a deeper understanding we use data in our in our district to drive our decisions and we have standardized exams that that provide instantaneous data but that's only one measure we also need to to use formative assessments from te and some of Assessments from teachers so this is a a I'm going to put it right where it belongs at this point in time this is a school issue an administrative issue we need to in my expectation is and and I'm certainly not putting anybody at fault or right here as a leader of a school you need to set expectations for performance of your staff and at times those expectations need to be reviewed and and if there there are concerns about grading Etc and we've had this conversation numerous times with the middle school and high school we need to sit down and and and develop those expectations and practices to use a a stronger word that make sure that we ensure that our teachers are doing what's expected of it we have a rigorous evaluation system that evaluates aspects of teaching so I go back to the contract this isn't contract professional shouldn't have to rely on on a step by-step process in a written contract to do their job that's is not acceptable to me as a superintendent so my recommendation after after hearing this uh is that I'd like the Middle School principal the high school principal or director of teaching and learning M steel to sit down utilize your school-based leadership teams and and dive into this and see exactly where you're at do an assessment and an idea of where you're at with with grading and and you know the time it takes for returning assignments Etc uh and also checking to ensure that that your staff realizes that those assignments are not just for testing knowledge they're for learning student learning as well there wouldn't be too much to ask that you develop a set of practices in your school in a collaborative fashion and you know having said that uh this needs to be done in a timely manner it's hard for me to to sit here this evening and have been a leader of this district for 14 years and have been very specific in what I expect and this is something that I expect that this isn't up for negotiation that this is about student learning and we're all here this evening because we support students that's what our job is not negotiable so I'm going to charge the three of you with that task and I'm not expecting stringent timelines I'm expecting reasonable timelines for example if if a teacher is is collecting a essay or writing assignment that is 10 or 15 pages long we're not going to turn that around two days not with the case 12 100 to 130 students but that's not reasonable and if we do something that that is too assertive then we're not going to get the quality of Assessments that we all expect to to test student Maring so there's a fine balance here and and as a superintendent I I pride I have a lot of pride in the school district and I have a lot of pride and respect for our staff so I want to to reiterate the fact that this isn't is in my opinion this isn't widespread but there's something that that needs to be fixed and I know the leadership team in each School certainly I have confidence in them to be able to do that so now it's a matter of uh taking the information that we have finding out exactly where you are doing a litness test within your schools and from there you'll have direction as as to you know what you need to do M we implemented Aspen in 201 2012 2013 and it was a huge change for our stat but one of the reasons we implemented Aspen was to give our students an opportunity to see their progress throughout the term of the semester so that they be they can become active participants of their own achievement and in order for that to happen Aspen needs to be updated in a in a a timely fashion so that our students have have the marks to look at to see where they are and calculate where they are and and that was one of the powerful aspects of as one of the reasons why we chose that that program to use so I think we we really need to sit back and and evaluate what we're doing I mean we we spent a lot of time talking about multiple means of of representation in other words multiple ways of presenting student learning I think we've done quite well in our district in that area but I I see this as something that's pretty B basic and we we really need to to figure out what we need to do to to make sure that we're supporting our students as much as possible with reasonable expect and once that's done uh I'll be looking for a copy and a discussion and it's up to the school committee uh desires if they want you to come back and present uh the practices that you've developed in in your schools I also would like consistency in grade 6 through 12 thank you very thank you very much for that as one member of me I don't know we need a formal presentation on the topic but it will certainly share the results of um the work that's going to be put into this that would be wonderful this was such a good example of like open government sort of a feel good moment for uh citizens so thank you for offering that concern thank you for your response we have a path going forward to um get better as a district yeah can ask for um us to shoot for maybe the last meeting in February to have a at least a how this coming along we we can do an update until they and I don't think it's going to take them very long to get a reading of where they're at because I know the administration's very involved in their schools I I think that's fine I think the tricky not the tricky part I think the thing they have to establish is is how are they going to go about uh creating a collaborative opportunity to work with their their Educators to develop their practices so that's fair I mean from my point of view the sooner we have this uh resolved the the more time we can spend on student learning and and having that information that that U we all need to uh feel good about what our students are learning in their classrooms thank you very much for that responsive I'm happy that this is being taken so seriously wel an update about of Mone from now sure great awesome thanks so much and thank you yeah thank you as always like I love how responsive the administration is um yeah I look forward to hearing what comes of it what and what date is that specifically like the last meeting in February I'd like to 27 any I guess in all fairness certainly don't have to say anything principles or director of teaching and learning but if you would like to then we're certainly open to your confidence well I think um Jenny already knows how I feel we've been talking about this issue um pretty actively since November um that in the school council that the school council and then we had a followup meeting just oneon-one afterwards so I think it's very clear she said it well in terms of expectations setting expectations for time returno providing frequent feedback you can consistent communication poting CS it really is it be distilled down it's a very simple clear message it's professional expectation for for our staff you know and uh I think what we have to do I talk had a chance Jason Kelly uh this afternoon uh to discuss the concerns as well and sort of start a pre-plan of response after the presentation tonight the comments and I think one of the key things is Kelly sort of reiterated some things that we discussed in the U in the meeting and one of the clear things was to really do an assessment of just how widespread this issue is you get a sense of how G you know is it is it is it pervasive throughout 6 to 12 or is it teacher said there because the individual teachers you know they get they can they can be responsive to professional feedback and say this is a problem this is causing unnecessary stress and you know and it's not really in line with our expectations for professional formative feedback and progress monitoring of student you know performance both it's feedback for the student who can look at their grades and askp but it's also and their returned work but it's also feedback and information for parents to be updated on so we want to be really responsive to this I will I will get into detail but Jenny knows how I feel about this because we've had lot a lot of conversations including even last night we talked on the phone so you know we're well aware of the concerns and I I think the key thing for us though is to get you know both Jason and I at from six to 12 is really to get a handle on what are the teachers thoughts about practices on this what are what are they doing because we might to get a response that it's a teacher here and there that needs that feedback and not widespread and I think that's reasonable for February for us to update you on February 27 in terms of we can also have Draft plans for you can already get a sense of what the plans would be from the comments it's just responding to Jenny's concerns and the ones I just and I repeated today but just now but I think they in terms of if there's it's fair to give an update we do have February break so I want to be mindful other compet commitments that we have between now and that time to get you know just we have have actual evaluations to do in our buildings for teachers that are coming due at the end of this month beginning of February so we'll be providing timely feedback we want to make sure we're modeling that too so we want to you know look ourselves in the mirror and say how can we get better at this too make sure that we're being Tim um so and I think that was one of the comments you had so you know in the school council meeting J it said you know teachers have expectations for the students to return work by deadlines and that kind of thing and you know and we all want to be good role models for that both as an Administration as a faculty we do have a tremendous confidence and respect for our faculty when you have an outstanding faculty I I'll speak for the for the I'll repe with the superintendent said at District y but we do want to dig into this and see just what's going on and make sure we responsive to it because it is all about professionalism just being you know really good teachers in terms of assessment grade so we we'll get on it and you know you can have confidence us that we do that I I have one more um comment slash question about this it's it this may be an opportunity for some professional development down the road when there's you know capacity in the calendar for a new topic but you know the just the instructional strategies you know are they focused like you said on um you know following the progression of learning and and um monitoring that through formative assessments and check-ins or are is this teaching content with uh quizzes that don't serve to inform instruction but just serve as a grade in a grade book you know so it's a it's kind of a different it's it's the the tension between traditional styles of teaching versus more innovative um like inquiry based learning where you know you can get the pulse on how much a student understands by circulating around the room and listening to conversations and you can you can see who's with you and who may be lagging behind like who you may need to check in with to support without having to grade a paper you know and so you know if if teachers could get um more aligned with those kinds of instructional strategies it actually reduces the load of grading that they need to do because they're more in touch with the students in the moment so I appreciate that I'm mindful of the time but I I'll just respond what of your your comment is timing because tomorrow there a team from the high school and the middle school assistant principal joining us we're going to be talking about assessment for the portrait of a learner why so you know we're going to be talking specifically about that six to 12 how do we assess and Report out on the progress students are having with those competency skills that we we presented on a previous school committee meeting so we're going to taking that a different direction but in general we can also we'll be together tomorrow we can talk about assessment practices one of our school Improvement goals that's been in the high school school Improvement plan has been to provide professional development specifically for the best practices and assessment and Grading it continues to get punted down the road and displaced by other things such as preparing for accreditation but now it's going to be integrated into our re accreditation process so it's timely I think in Earnest we'll probably be able to really commit to this professional development through best practices and assessment in grading perhaps it could be a shared goal six to 12 rather than just that high school and our school Improvement plan and you're part of those School Improvement goals at school counil so we do present to you as a school committee our school Improvement goals and one of them would be you know really a dedicated effort starting next school but maybe towards the end of the school year we have we have initiated we had things each year even including last may we had one of the early release days we dedicated to assessment practices um but I think if we really make a strong commitment to that in our in our school-based professional development days for next school year and we'll be really responsive to this and we'll take it Beyond this is clear and reasonable and relatively simple in terms of responding to that's this doesn't require professional development days in complicated this is just decent solid professional practice what you've talked about tonight what I'm talk what you're talking about is more expansive and planning for the future yes I think there's there's definitely room for grow for us there especially with the vision of graduate Now call great thank you so much thanks joh good we good we good one other thing and that resonated with me somebody said Zer is that correct Z Zer zeros right of sincer um just a comment I am not a fan never have them a fan of giving JS if an assignment is not handed in May complete but definitely not a zero so Administration if this is happening in your schools uh please get rid of it had this conversation tell you told us yeah those of you who been with me for a number of years know how I feel it's very strong feeling that I don't know how you expect to motivate somebody if you're do Ser it doesn't make sense we did talk about that he knows what in that in that example I believe it was an assignment that was due that was not handed in on that was not handed in marked as a zero and that subsequently been handed in questioning how do you have a zero on better sometimes zero is a place just placeholder it's that's exact it is it's like you have an until that till you turn that in the teacher sending a student the message but the parents then has to be explained by the student to the parent and the parent has to believe the student at the time this sure this is question of what do you mean why do you have zeros well the teacher hasn't got around the gradient or I haven't submitted it yet so there's variety of things but we will put that absolutely on our agenda with the staff to address and say how do we how do we you know mitigate and maybe just totally remove this unnecessary apprehension around when it comes to zeros it's confusion what we need to bring is Clarity around the whole issue this is a really these are really simple again just to somewhat we p with really simple reasonable request we we SP important thing to bring that yeah we spent a lot of time I'm sorry we spent a lot of time uh creating strategies to help students uh have a better attendance record school I don't know how giving a student a zero as a placeholder it's it's productive it's counter productive so you please take care of that if it's happened that's what we can report out the feedback will assess that and Report out to school commit what we Le about that after the February 27the cor thank you thank you than all right see no one else with a hand up we'll close our first opportunity for interested citizens and we'll move on to recognition so uh AR ganes will provide a report or of events of each School sure good evening everybody a few updates from each of the schools Shaker Lane last Thursday held a January committee meeting and they partnered with the Super Bowl for caring and they'll be collecting Soup cans and other canned goods to collect five to donate to Loaves and Fishes and their goal is to collect 500 cans before February 7th um the 2024 through 2025 pre kindergarten registration for Community peers is open it's up until next Friday and uh the lottery for students to attend the 2024 25 school year is uh until Friday it's on Friday February 7th at 10: a.m. um for Russell Street their online store is closing tomorrow 10% of all sales come back to the school um that it'll be reinvested um the fifth grades the fifth graders are doing their Battlefield day tomorrow um they're presenting their uh models of Civil War battles and they wanted to thank the cast of Newsies Junior from the middle school for coming to Russell Street and Performing ber Middle School opening night for news East Jr is tomorrow 7 PM so if you'd like to see it it's available map testing form of standardized testing is next Wednesday on January 29th and the eighth graders are going on a field trip to Gillette Stadium on Friday the 31st and from the high school our semester ends tomorrow so we'll start our second semester um students complete completed the stamp exam last week for obtaining the Ser by literacy on their diplomas and the National Honor Society is participating in a rise against hunger packaging event and the Scher Regional High School on February 8th not in the town newsletter February yeah questions forish awesome thank you so much is there any other recognition that to be recognized this evening sure a couple excuse me uh this week I had the the opportunity to get out of my office and spent a few hours at Russell Street School it's always a pleasure to spend time in our schools and uh three hours gave me the opportunity to visit vir virtually every classroom and talk to all Educators and pry all the staff what was nice about that day is some of our students were writing math assessment so I had an opportunity to talk to teachers ask them about the resources that we're implementing at the elementary level into math and and and wisdom and I'm just so impressed with our with our elementary teachers dedication and and commitment to um felating implementing these resources it's a heavy LIF I mean teaching without implementation of of new resources uh takes a lot of time and effort to add two new resources that require a reflection or or rethinking but sometimes a mindset change of how you do business is is such a such a heavy unanimously I I I don't I didn't have any teacher that that had reservations about the and resources they're getting a little tired at time but they're committed they realize that that these resources are going to make a difference they make the difference in in how much our students learn how they apply previous learning to to new learning how they incorporate inter interdisciplinary opportunities into Ela for example and that's so powerful and I've talked to you about this before at Shaker so they they are on board and and they just continue to need our our support and and understanding and and providing what they need to to be successful so we brought in Consultants who who uh are are working with our staff we we've stiped out uh leaders both in into math and and W wisdom within our our school system so that they can spend the extra time with their peers and and help them implement the new resources new materials new assessments Etc uh we have worked hard throughout the years to to find a recipe that we feel works and and that certainly isn't implementing in one year and then walking away to do that the chances of success are minimal this is our third year implementing into math and this year we were're focusing on U assessments which we just talked about and we we' brought consultant in we have our um curriculum leaders that are are working with our staff and and it's working out quite well and I attended the sessions we had on assessment and it's a it's a huge shift to rely more heavily on computerized assessments but it's important to have good information so that we can assess the you know whether the program is making a difference you expected to be and there needs to be a balance between assessments that are that are formative and and assessments that for example in mathematics uh you top math if you remember when you were in map teachers always wanted you to show your show their work which is part of the process it's important so we spent a a number of hours two sessions uh with our staff because they were trying to to come to terms with what was right and in the end they really felt strongly that uh we need to continue with those assessments but augment them with the opportunity to show show their work students show their work during the assessments so spend that time going through that so but just a just a signal of of typical Growing Pains that would happen when you introduce your resources so again I'm so I'm so proud of our elementary teachers and and kudos to them for for U their commitment to to forge ahead and and do what they feel is going to make a difference in their students lives and I have to give a shout out to Mrs steel our director of teaching and learning who uh is uh obviously heading the implementation process and Mrs steel has a wonderful join so thank you uh my second recognition is we were fortunate to partner with lfd so used to say in LPD it's nice to say lfd milon fire department uh when training our staff with in CPR and AD and it was really nice we offered two sessions and I attended the one last night and I'm a I'm a firm advoc of of everybody being trained in CBR and and AD is is is a very valuable tool to to have as well I know it's it's hard for people to find the time but the more people that we have trained in our community and Beyond the more successful we will be if if somebody has an emergency and and needs CPR time is of essence and if you don't really know what you're doing and you're fing around I mean 2 minutes is a lot of time before you start suing yart so it's valuable uh I'd encourage everybody who listens to our school committee meetings to to think about that and and and also we we went through 20 on on choking as well which is equally important so it's just nice to have that strong partnership uh with r and fire departments and and you know we intend to to continue to do that here year I sometimes I like sharing stories of my career but I'm going to share this one when I was a principal of an elementary school a number of years ago uh all of my staff were trained in in CPR we really didn't use ads at that time it was more paramedic and we had a situation where we had a student on the playground that was uh running around ran into a Soccer Post U when I'm cautious and stopped reading we were very fortunate to have people trained and were able to resuscitate this young boy and U it was a success story and to this day I often wonder what would have happened if we didn't have training so to me it's somewhat personal because I I had that experience that was really negative and traumatic and it turned out to be the positive exp you're not going to find anybody as as U strong as I am an advocate CPR training and and Dorothy I want to thank her for being my partner and uh we worked out well we saved our mannequin and I'm even even more pleased that I'm here today and Not Another Universe because Dorothy was in charge of the AED and she had the paddles on and I was performing CPR so I'm glad she pushed the right button at the right time so thanks for that Dorothy you're welcome the last one is we know LMS play is this weekend uh and it's uh news's junior Friday night at 7 Saturday at 2 and Sunday at 2 if you have some time this weekend uh please come out and support our LS drama club you a wonderful job our kids are are thrilled to be able to perform on stage and and our drama program continues to grow and and uh you know it's just really nice to see our students you're free please check it out that's it great so much we have two presentations scheduled for this evening the first of which is Portrait of a learner presentation General update Ste director teaching learning that be sched for 10 minutes but you take as much as time many you need I'm learning to stay within my time so someone's got the timer going um I won't do that happy too um so happy to share an update on our district portra learner um in all reality I'm the spokesperson tonight this is really shared work um amongst our admin team and all of our Educators all together so I happen to be the person speaking but it is everyone's work that I'm sharing about tonight um so we know that we are living and learning and teaching in in an Ever Changing World in society and so the idea of the portrait of a learner helps learner excuse me helps us to create a vision of what we want learning to be that matches for our students now and in the future for moving forward and so um right off the bat I think we need to thank John clment and Maran Moran they are co-principals of nitm regional and they came to our administrat Retreat this summer and provided uh some learning for our admin team about the the portrait of a learner they've done significant work within their District within their school of what portrait of a learner means and their journey and experience and they came and shared that with us and walked us through some of the exercises of how to implement a portrait of a learner and what it can look like and so we wanted to acknowledge their work and efforts um and also because you're going to see we're not through our implementation and so some of the the things you're going to see are examples from nitm that we're using as models for moving forward so after this learning um that happened in August of this past summer we then created a timeline of how we wanted to draft our own um portrait of a learner and you see that timeline here and as of right now we are aligned with our timeline so we're in that phase two um process but we also want to do the give this due credit and give it the time that it needs and so we'll adapt as we see fit with regards to the timeline the portrait of a learner really answers the question that's on the next slide and that question is what are the skills knowledge and dispositions that Learners need to be successful in a rapidly changing increasingly diapers and Inter interconnected world and so it is a shift of looking at what what do our students need right now but also what are they going to need in the future knowing that things Change Daily hourly and sometimes minute by minute there are the four phases of implementation of a portrait of a learner we have completed that first phase of fine true north and so I'll share with you in just a moment of what that phase look like for us what we did and what we accomplished we are currently in the Define the skills phase that second phase um this takes a bit of time to get through and so we're just kind of toward the beginning of this phase and then we hope to get to the magnify the moments and measure What Matters by the end of this Academic School year so we have a draft of something to work with for moving forward and those are the stes since we're not in it yet I'll share what we ideally want to be able to do um and what we have as models to do during those times so on the next slide we see the find the true north and this is the first phase and in this phase of implementation we really establish a shared compass for teaching and learning that helps our students to learn and to grow what I appreciate um that they made clear was this idea of a compass over map right so a map is very defined it's very detailed there are pathways on a map it's kind of laid out for you whereas the compass is a tool that you can be creative and you can create your own Pathway to get to where you're going right and so we're finding our true north we're finding really what what our home base what we want to be aspirationally this for this phase we did a couple of different activities um we primed our brains for discussions on what our students will need um to know in potential future jobs like for example an AI ethics officer um or a neuro implant technician for example of future jobs right that may exist at some point um in the near or maybe distant future and so talking about what skills are those individuals going to need and some of the skills are skills that we all needed way back when and we still continue to need to this day right um and so that brought us to this idea of talking about our beliefs of learning and so this is when we pulled out our strategic plan and we looked at on page one what are the LPS beliefs of learning right and looking at these we were then able to the beliefs are very aspirational right so what does that mean what does that look like in practice and so then we started talking about what is learning and what is learning not right and so we were able to create a definition of what learning is and what learning is not based on what the skills that we had talked about right the ideas of things that our students will need and the beliefs that our system already holds true and so with that we created our District's definition of learning that you see thank you on this slide here each School participated in um coming up with this definition of learning so all four schools did during staff meetings during time together um the activity having conversations of what's what is learning what does it look like what is learning not what should it not look like um and so all four schools had notes of definition of what learning is and what it is not and so we as an admin team pulled all of of those notes together and interestingly saw a lot of similarities that span from Shaker Lan all the way up through the high school there are skills that our kids are developing and and creating at Shaker Lane that they need and need to enhance all the way up through high school and Beyond and so with all of those notes we were able to craft the definition of learning um NE to say it was done on a shared Google doc and so there was a lot of typing and retyping and typing over and occasionally telling each other to stop typing um that we needed to pause and so um this really what has that the the culmination of that phase one was the creation of this definition of learning and so we're excited to be able to sh share this out publicly and share it with our staff to be able to see the everyone's contribution to this so from here with this definition we were then able again we go from beliefs which is really aspirational to the definition of learning which is starting to come a little less aspirational it's starting to come a little bit more concrete to then jumping into phase two which is defining the skills so now we're looking at really being a lot um clearer and concrete with what are the things that we're attaching to our definition of learning and to our beliefs and so in this phase we are currently working collaboratively to determine the competencies and the skills that we want in our own portrait of a learner and so this um and we started this and the admin team went through this um during our summer Retreat and our staffs are now going through it uh together as a as a whole staff we did an activity of back in my day in 10 years from now and some of the we passed around pictures and there were pictures of a rotary phone for example or a picture of like a computer screen with www right so things that we have seen evolve over the past few years or decades or in some cases even months right with AI um and so we discussed the evolution of these things and how the evolution of those things had an impact on us and again some of the skill set that we needed to use the rotary phone you still need now to use a phone even though we may not be using that rotary piece anymore right um so while our our things and our technology may change and May update the competencies and skills really can continue to be beneficial as we continue to move forward and in this phase we're really tapping into what the high school worked on last year and you'll see John mentioned it just a few minutes ago these are the two visuals of the um vision of a graduate that John presented last year they had this work started and going and so we are now leaning on that work and putting it forth to see does this make sense do is this still where we want to be going districtwide um and so we're using the six competency areas that the high school created that are listed there in the bottom right picture so we have effective Communicator critical thinker skillful collaborator health and wellness mindful learner and engaged Citizen and determining are those the right competencies that we want and what are the skill sets that fall within each of those competencies that we want our students to really work on and enhance and build throughout their career and LPS and this is where we will start to kind of see slight differences particularly in wording um with regards to what are the skills because something that's worded for a high school student may not be worded properly for a student at Russell Street or at Shaker lane or the middle school and so this is where we start to have the ideas shared idea but the actual wording um and word smithing might start to look a little bit different so as I said we're in this phase right now um once we move on from this phase and we are able to have um our skills and our competencies defined we will then look at magnifying the moments and this part is really the intersection of the portrait of the learner and the curriculum so where kind of the rubber meets the road right and so we're going to consider the teaching and what teaching and learning looks like at their best and so this entails looking at what we already have in place we're not starting from zero we're starting with some really good things already in place and so we are going to look at what's already in place and what can we magnify what can we highlight as an experience a learning experience that a student can build upon their skills and competencies as they continue to go through LPS our admin team again we're our admin team did a little exercise on this but we're not here as a full District yet but our admin team over the summer had just very quickly were able to come up with some ideas of such moments such as for example the districtwide band concert that can do challenges The Playbook initiative tiger Tech so there's a lot of things already in place there's a lot of learning experiences already in place that can help our students um continue to build their competencies and their skill set and so this picture that you see here is from nitm so they were able to create a road map of potential options of learning experiences that students will Hit Upon and this is just 9 through 12 so this is just their High School of different learning experiences that in which students are able to show their skill sets in particular competencies so they're able to say I was an innovator in this experience because and then they're able to fill in that play um so once we have the magnifying the moments we then go into the fourth um phase which is measure what patters and so in this phase we're revisiting our true point right are we staying consistent with what we wanted that aspirational piece to look like and ensuring that however we assess or we've done a lot of talking of actually having it be Reflections align with our beliefs as a district and our definition of learning and so this is when we're going to consider how we provide the feedback what that looks like what do what do we Define as success right what do students Define as success what does that look like one thing that we as a um an admin team really liked and admired from the work that npm did is that they created um portraits of learner scholar profiles and this is where the students actually created a one pager and they identify the competency that for them stuck out to them the most so the effective Communicator the um innovator and they were able to say I am able to demonstrate this competency by doing these things and they were able to demonstrate that by different learning experiences that they had gone through throughout their years within the school that they were in and so that was something that for us felt um very authentic and really allows the student to self-identify right we do a lot of wow you're you're being a great creative thinker right now but let's have the student actually say wow I really thought creatively on that um so it's it's that's why we're we're considering Reflections right um this picture here is what nitm has created with regards to what they measure and like I said um as opposed to an assessment which at times we tend to think of right as the quizzes the tests that type of thing we're looking at Reflections and um doing I can statements and so the students are able to say I can do this or I I can do this sometimes right being able to give that autonomy to the student to be able to determine how they themselves are doing so again we're not at this point yet this is aspirationally where we want to go and ideally by the end of the school year this year we have something that's working in progress that we can kind of refine as we continue to move forward upate questions for uh if I can just add this is such amazing work that you guys are doing like really I really appreciate the time and effort that you guys are putting into this I don't know how you're finding the time to do it honestly it seems like such a deep dive for you guys to be so committed to um and really just it's such a contribution to our town and our school just not just now or when you guys complete it but I see it as such an amazing framework for our school and our community for it could be decades that this is such a good it's not so specific it's not like that road map that as the world changes it becomes something that's not usable but it's such a good framework for us that's always going to be applicable so I really do applaud you guys and this is one of those like Legacy projects that I think will really be so impactful so I appreciate your time and commitment to doing it this is great work thank you I will pass that along to the team yeah I echoed that too and I think so you had said the definition of learning is the part that you all have done the rest you're working on this is incredible and and really inspiring to read and inspiring to know that sort of the district is taking this as a true north as you said as a vision statement to then think about assessment and everything and the thing that I'm thinking about and I saw it in so many multiple places here but I think especially just in the context of the world we live in and the context of the world that these students are going into especially this idea of like a Learner in humility and that being curious sometimes curiosity is thought of as asking questions but the answer has to be within this box but when we really I think need to push to think about curiosity as I am open to having whatever I previously thought being completely questioned and a completely different perspective and so somewhere just thinking about like what it means to be a curious learner that there's like an element of humility to that I guess was something that like I was thinking and was inspired in that thought and everything that you all had so just yeah thank you we have recently well within the past year we've done some learning and one thing that I think what you just said um connect me back to that was the statement of I used to think this I now think this and the part that I think we've all heard that right and the part that was new at least to me in that in that exper experience was that that the sentence isn't over yet what goes on is and that may continue to change right and I think that's the key is like and that's why this is a continuous Journey not necessarily a road map with the destination yeah yeah thank you that yeah I'm so excited to hear about this project I was uh I went to a session at the mask Mass conference and was that November yes um D rova is also they they went through their whole process and it's a very similar process which is telling me that this is out there for for districts to partake and so on and all of the parts that excited me in that presentation are the things that you've articulated so I'm really glad that that's the direction we're going in um I was thinking you know in in your statement about what is a learner it it made me also think of the teachers that teachers should be considered as lifelong Learners as well they're not just the dispensers of knowledge so um I just wanted to clarify are they sort of part of the whole Vision as well yeah I think that's a really good um so trying to and that's something I've been very aware of personally of right using educator and Learners um because we also are Learners in this process right and our students have a lot to teach us and so um I think it's something to be very aware of that when we're we say the word earners we're very intentional that there's no age to what that actually means yeah and I think it's a nice way too to get Buy in from teachers when this gets to this implementation stage you know to keep it from feeling like a top down thing you know if if the Ming is that you know we're all Learners you know admin teachers students everybody school committee we're all Learners um and the other thing I was really excited to hear about that you're articulating this by grade span so it's you know it's a district Vision but what does it look like at high school middle school elementary um because that will make the vision easier to follow um and the other thing I was excited to hear about is that you're aligning this to the Strategic plan because that will just give it so much coherence and you know keep us all going in the same direction and you know when this is all said and done and ready to roll out you know the messaging can be really powerful because it's pulling together so many different um stakeholders so um and I just wanted to ask um so the your team that's working on it that so it's admin from different schools you have teachers working on it students or is it mostly admin so it's admin and all staff and so what's happening is that admin have kind of previewed activities based on the summer learning yeah and then we've laid out a timeline for admin so right now um it's until mid-February that the expectation is that then at our next AC meeting or at when our admin Council comes together to me they're coming with the evidence the facts of the discussion at their school and so all staff already have participated so staff voice is in that definition of learning of what that means um and so it's I think because what you said top down is not an effective way necessarily to do a lot of things and this is one of those items that we felt really strongly and I think our admin team was very excited a highlight of our summer retreat was this experience of learning this together knowing that we can go back to the table and everyone has a voice at it oh this is this is really excellent and I just I love the potential of this as a community Builder too to really build our our culture here in um little public very excited thank you definition of learning uh really good but what a process it was when we brought every all of the feedback from from the schools and then that allowed us to to start to write the language and then we we we dared to create a Google doc and have 15 people writing at the same time so annoying it jumps but now we know how our students feel when they do we expect them to do it so we took care of that we separated it but but it was you know body has different writing styles and and uh it was just it was so nice when this came together because it was uh long document at first and our goal was to have a succinct document that was you know easy to read and power I think we succeed thank you so much good all right presentation number two title update regarding recent changes welcome Miss years I do want to say though before um before I get started um as being a member of the admin Council and being at the retreat and being at the admin Council meetings where we kind of went through this process it really did for me resonate that how beautiful the process of learning is how messy it can be how wonderful it can be but when you have that underpinning of that that safety among the the strong administrative team that we have it's that we're able to kind of actualize that um and you know and really model the behavior that we expect to see from our students as well so um with that I will give everybody a update to um be always exciting and always changing regulations so thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak to you all tonight about the recent changes to the title 9 regulations um that have been in the news and are important to understand as we move forward um in supporting our students in maintaining a safe and Equitable learning environment just to give you some background Title Nine of the 1972 education amendments to the Civil Rights Act title as we know it as Title Nine it's a federal law that was that was passed in 1972 to prohibit discrimination based on sex and educational programs and activities so it's had a profound impact on ensuring that students of all genders have equal access to educational opportunities over the years the law has been updated to address a range of issues from Athletics to sexual harassment and Beyond so on January 9th 2025 the United States district court for Eastern Kentucky issued a decision striking down the 2024 Title 9 amendments in the decision The District Court held that the department of the US Department of Education exceeded its Authority uh when it expanded ended Title 9 to prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity so while there were parts of the 2024 Title 9 amendments that were not an issue with the case they were not um contested such as the inclusion of parent family and marital status for pregnancy related conditions the Court held that the issues raised in the case fatally tainted um the 2024 amendments as a whole and the 2024 amendments are invalid and they are set aside in their entirety so this Federal Court decision applies Nationwide therefore school districts must now revert back to ensuring compliance with the previous 2020 amendments to Title 9 and using the title N9 grievance procedures and forms that were in effect prior to August 1st of 2024 so for that reason the districts we're reviewing our grievance procedures but we've already begun to implement the title 9 grievance procedures that we had in place prior to August 1st 2024 so the interpret the interpretation of the change is ongoing and the US Department of Education has not issued any guidance in writing as of this time but we do not anticipate that the decision is going to be appealed so it's important to note that gender identity remains a protected class under Massachusetts law and that despite the court decision on January 9th staff and students continue to be protected from discrimination and harassment um based on gender identity in our Public Schools it's also important to recognize that these updates are not about changing our commitment to preventing discrimination and harassment and any form rather they reflect our response to the requirements of the law and an ongoing dialogue about how best to support students involved in a situation while also providing the necessary protections and resources to those who need the most so I want to just reassure um the community that while these changes are notable our district is is going to continue to prioritize the safety and well-being of all students ensuring that they're treated with respect and dignity we'll continue to educate our students and staff about their rights and responsib ities under Title 9 and state laws that protect our children from discrimination and we'll make sure that anyone that experiences discrimination or harassment has the support that they need and I'm happy to answer any questions anyone has I just have a clarifying question so the um does the state law that protects gender identity supersede the federal law I mean because our law is stronger if we follow that law does it really not do these changes at the federal level I would caution with using the the word supersede or um or or stronger um but you know what I what I'm saying is that we do still have a massach a Massachusetts day law that does protect um gender identity and that does that is reflected in um in what we do so if we follow the stronger state law then the federal law has less impact on our how the things are that here it really doesn't have any impact at this point in time and that's something believe me lawyers are working 247 try to figure all this out but I mean federal laws are are tied to dollars that states receive we don't know what that means yet so we so I think maybe to help kind of clarify that that distinction so so Title 9 federal law we have our civil rights procedures that protect all protected classes which under Massachusetts law includes um gender identity so while we have a set of procedures that we follow relevant to Title 9 we have a set of procedures that we follow that we follow um consider it to non-title n claims which would fall under our civil rights procedures oh okay yeah this is specific to thank you thank you bringing this up and thank you for continuing to stand up and take care of students staff all of all people in our community everybody deserves to be treated with digy and care and nobody deserves to be made to feel unsafe or un not as equ I couldn't agree more I appreciate you standing up that and right there second thank so much and our policy doesn't need to be updated because our policy is already in case that's a question I I reserve the right to if that should change um I'll I'll keep everyone updated thank you thank you all right one item of new business schedule for this evening which is a discussion regarding just year 26 budget presentation take place on January 28th Tuesday um The Joint meeting between the select board the finance committee and the school committee so um I'll offer that um we're being asked as chair of the school committee I'm being asked certainly would welcome your participation and Presence at the meeting uh we're scheduled for the 6:30 time slot on Tuesday present our proposed for the year 26 budget select Board of finance committee it's an opportunity for us to uh detail the uh heavy lifting done by superintendent uh Kelly clenchy business manager Steve Mark Janine myself and many many others that have put a number of hours in getting our budget in a presentable format budget that we feel strongly achieves um our desire to provide a high quality product for our students going forward next year and also a budget that we believe the town can work with meets the town's expectations for where our request should be so I don't know if uh you folks can can make it you won't necessarily have a a speaking role um but questions may be asked of the school committee if you have um comment or would like to participate you are certainly more than welcome but I will be there Kelly will be there Steve will be there jine will be there as well was this the meeting that was previously on the 27 yes yeah 2 keeps coming up and and I think it's I think that's just a type of I think I saw it again somewhere else no no it's the 28 it's it's it's a Tuesday night and Tuesday is 28 SEL typically means on Mondays yeah and we were asked initially to come on the 27th to just discuss what's happening at the school committee level um and then they rolled us forward and then this is an invite for our specific budget presentation so we can take the 27th off and this is this becomes I'm sorry that keep jumping around no this is our official invite and it's the 28th at what time are we on 630 6:30 6:30 is our P CL and is um at the library correct yeah I'm sorry I can't do Monday Monday well I'm free on Monday no we won't need a quum we're not um deliberating we're not voting we're not we're simply presenting the work that's been done so far um we will then then receive feedback and then at our meeting I'm thinking it's March 13th um jine and I will present our for the formal budget request to the school committee at that meeting we will need a quum because we will vote through um the budget and then the whole entire account will hopefully go through um everybody's budget so time good we know meetings sure is this this will be special this regular town meeting regular Town meetings in in the spring and special Town meetings correct sorry okay thanks at least I knew there was one of each yeah yeah I don't have enough sure I'll cover a couple additional talking points now since the budget be asked to present we're kind of on the topic um Janine myself mat was that two days ago Tuesday Tuesday Tuesday Morning spent two hours going through um a big chunk of the budget and I'm sure there were hours and hours and hours that um were dedicated to the budget um let's see if Mark and Kelly may have found FR together so it was a very successful meeting we feel like uh we're near near final draft of where we need to be um Jan and I then had a chance to sit with uh fin finance committee chair and kind of go through it peek see what U questions they might have so my anticipation is that um our meeting on the 20th when we present fingers crossed will go pretty smooth there's no be no surprises there and um I want to thank Kelly Steve and J for for the work that's been going on as we prepared for um a presentation on the 28th then the presentation that we make to the school committee uh first March Steve or Kelly anything to add on that topic no thank you okay kind cover all that yep that covers everything good this is our second opportunity for interested citizens can I just say a couple of things you may you may you may return to the microphone all right I love to technically should probably be a separate topic but we'll it no it will be Jenny Boer aoro um I I believe strongly in also giving positive feedback and not just bringing in negative so sitting in this meeting tonight and hearing all these presentations like as a member of the community the only one in this room right now um I mean it's ped could barely get up here um like I just want to say thank you to everyone like that works in the school and also to all of you for the time that it takes to to make sure that all these things are happening um one thing in particular that came to mind in the portrait of a graduate or whatever it's called I want to point out that um Dr Harrington has brought that to our school council specifically and he really did work to get the the um input of the of parents teachers and students in that so I just wanted like I heard someone say it was like a community building thing and he really has like taken that opportunity to do that so I just wanted to highlight that thank you for stay yeah typically we receive complaints and then they leave so thank you for hanging around for the good stuff and we we always like to hear positive feedback so L to me I think it's only respect you receiv inst credibility all right we'll roll through our subcommittee reports um pnbc you I can give some updates and then Kelly Canen updates I have are the meeting that we had with the S board on January 13th so Justin LAN and myself were there to represent the school committee um basically it was a pration kind of a collaboration between fincom select board and school committee on the upcoming project board of sh Lan building um the majority of the conversation the topic was its effects on taxpayers um a number of options that we have or will have in the future as the project progresses um but it was basically just kind of peeling that those layers of the onion back as to what it is we need to think about the future how we can work together um in the future so that we can hopefully pass this through with the voters um so we have a number of financial options that we have we don't have any decisions that we can make just yet because it hasn't been voted through the town we still have a lot of MPA um work to do but um it was great for us all to kind of sit I think in the same room and talk and collaborate and talk about what what issues we're going to find issues we're GNA uncover with financing this and also planning ahead so that we can figure out how to fund it the best way possible so that we can hopefully have the least impact on taxpayers um because this is just something that we have to have to get done um but it's a high price tag for for the town um and for voters so I think all in all it was a great it was a great meeting we uncovered what we needed to talk about and I don't know if there's anything in the future just yet but there's there's no action items or decisions to make just again but everyone's on board and supports it so if I miss anything I'll just add that you know information financial information was shared at the special town meeting and those uh those calculations involved sort of very conservative numbers across multiple variables um the effect on the taxpayer with the work that's been done and some potential strategies that we can implement the numbers moving in the right direction for the taxpayers so um again Stacy alluded to nothing's nothing's finalized there's still a number of variables in place but the goal is I mean everyone's in agreement that it would be wonderful to have a nice new school and it's certainly um more you know it's a need and not necessarily one um but we all three boards recognize that this needs to be palatable for the taxpayer we can't um can't propose a school that that we can't afford to pay for so everyone's working diligently to try to um you know it's there's widespread agreement that this is a Deb exclusion outside the levy uh will not be paid for with operational cash flow and uh we're trying to make that a situation where um everyone sees enough value in the building that they decide to to vote Yes when they're asked to and it's a decision that uh that they can afford so we won't we won't receive 100% yes V but we're want to make sure we are in a position to get it out there was an issue that came up when we were talking budget that I was just wanted to bring up here so that people can start thinking about it um there was a question that that other people had heard that brought brought to us that when we're talking about the shakar school we rightly talk about the changes in the the teaching and in the supportive space to support the students that were seeing now and different ways we're teaching Etc um it was asked so are those changes in space and and how and the students that were supporting is that going up through the schools well we need to put that kind of space in Russell Street and in the middle school and I'm not sure how to answer that so I thought I would bring it and and I I don't think you need to answer it right this minute I wanted to let you know that people in the community are are you know hearing what we're saying understanding appreciating it but also kind of rightly asking okay those students actually grow up and go to a different school then what I mean logically if logic applies to this situation there there will or could be in effect at the Russell Street school but Russell Street School was designed differently it was renovated in 2010 the Sherling project is going to have one more classroom can't use the word approve they're an agreement that that we need one of the classroom for grade this time there may need to be in a an addition or some Portables body but it's really hard to tell at this point in time when you you look at Russell Street School are there possibilities within that structure to reconfigure and and we're going to have to watch that population as time goes on when you've heard me speak about the fact that the uh population of students in our nation in our state is declining and it's already affecting the enrollment at postsecondary education it's affecting the enrollment in in towns and cities we're fortunate here we we're we're growing and and we have school choice that some helps offset any any decreases that we have Community student declining so we are in good shape but I we're not going to be bursting at the singings I I can't see that happen even once uh there going to be some huge U housing projects that come to town and if you you look at the demographics of of some of the people that are moving into our town they don't necessarily fit the uh the uh I guess expectation that one might have that it would be a young family with with with children that's not necessarily the case number of those houses that are that are per say m to a million plus oh you think about that that's a that's a lot of money for a startup for people just starting it so I think we need to be cautious I'm thrilled as a superintendent that msba did recognize and we needed another class classroom prr so we we'll monitor the enrollment as we do every year NASDAQ is a enrollment profile for us on a yearly basis as well so it is just to preat here the middle school and high school are are fairly modern and they're in great shape and and those two schools as per we guidelines were designed to add another wing on if necessary but we're not talking about a full build or anything it something had to happen so it's much more cost effective and and within those schools there there may be a way to reorganize a bit as well and and we also have to remember that at the middle school from grade six to grade seven there's a a draw to uh two private schools was anywhere from 10 to 15 students Year from grade eight to grade nine there's a a draw for students some students who attend M Tech any the other one in grade six to seven largely as part of chart so that is is a challenge that we have in our district because we have to make sure that we have sufficient students coming up through our middle school so when they enter high school we we are able to offer a full complimented programming because you know if you add up those numbers it could be 25 to 30 students that were were losing out of those grades with with the the two uh opportunities for for our students and families to choose other schools to go to it's a little tricky we've been successful of this point just I hope that helps yeah yeah I just actually it isn't really my question right of course part of the conversation yeah I mean as we go out and talk to to the public and you know if they're asking questions I want to share with you so that can add something here certainly you all the detail of sh projects but and my bias as an early child educat will show in this but I think the investment that we make particularly in our younger children can and should look different than as children get older in age group so if we're talking about more classrooms in the younger grades and better ratios that not that doesn't necessarily have to be the same even if we had an opportunity to renovate wrestle Street School it doesn't mean we would do exactly what we're doing in Lan because I think developmentally what our students need from K to two or pre to2 looks different than 3 to five and I think we're making an investment in our students in the younger years which will pay dividend as they serve as move on and grow older and so perhaps that is not the answer but an answer of you know I think the renovations are appro developmentally appropriate for that age group and for the investment in students in that age and it doesn't necessarily mean the same has to be that's a great Point yeah and that's that's was what my instinct was was the profound difference in in a child between six and a half and eight yeah is is it you know like it doesn't mean you take the same and move it all the way up yeah like should we have outdoor classrooms in the high school definitely but you know inappropriate also here it's it's just great that we can do that and if I can add too I think because I've had to navigate that conversation a little bit too Michelle gave me like kind of a good anecdote for explaining the differences between how the kids the demands the kids have on school buildings as they age if you think about parents like us who have young kids at our house our kids probably take up like 50% of every single room just for things to thrive in our house just to function to thrive in our house as they get older as their teenagers that those space needs are are less those demands the wear and tear all of those things are less so Shaker Lane is really setting up the building blocks for this big capacity for these very tiny people but that capacity is not needed as they move on to like the different schools so I found that to be kind of something that can be relatable to parents to understand like oh right like yeah my house did my house was a disaster and more space and was getting was beat up and you know how wonderful would have been to have a perfectly designed home for toddler well that's the the Brilliance of having a k to2 and a three to five school which so many districts don't you could easily had two elementary schools that were K to six but to be able to design a school that meets the needs of K to three students and it should look different than third F graders yeah for sure I like that great explanation I have also heard a a question are we in need of a new school because of school choice and the answer is no school choice is a is a opportunity for us to maintain enrollment not increase and throughout the years uh in any in any District you're in you you have various numbers of students in each grade doesn't matter whether you have thousand students in the school or not not all grads are are close in numbers just the way it works so we've taken the opportunity with those grades that have fewer students to U sustain the number of Staff we have in those grades by taking in school choice students so it's it's better for our children it's better for our staff we don't have to move staff around from grade to grade depending on enrollment and it uh it just St stabilizes our school district so it has nothing to do with needing a new Shake school I feel like I need to ask mying question of do we have any listening sessions coming up and I help we are inviting the seniors to uh tour the shakan school on a Wednesday be do you have AE well you're certainly welcome uh to attend that to their seniors we had a a great meeting with the uh human and Elder Services I always want to say Council on engineer used to be that many years ago but uh we had some great questions um was really uh cool to uh have two ex School commit members there from the 1990s and uh actually the superintendent that was uh superintendent Littleton ands and 19s so it was really cool to to have those people in the room and have them contribute to the discussion was that Dr Foster Franco Franco Franco right yes so nice to nice to meet him and uh but they had they had great question and you know thanks to to Lyn and Beth Michelle I mean and actually steveen OD was with us and um Jim dougen Itali administrator we really had a nice conversation and and some of the people said you know what after listening to you we get it because they're you know seniors they fixed income and and and right they saw have some concerns but they they did understand that that education has has dramatically changed and we had a good conversation about that and and the Flyers that we used posters that we used really were just a a reference point it's the story that you tell and the context that you add to those numbers that make the difference and I don't know I went away feeling really good about the conversation and U you know they they weren't quick to leave when we were done so that was a nice signal we didn't get up and walk out the door right away so I mean the more we we do these kinds of things the the word's going to get out more uh I do have dates for school counsel meetings and PTA meetings I'll send them up tomorrow to the school committee because we were're going to try our wage opportunities for school committee members to talk about the project at those meetings so send them out tomorrow and Justin and I we want to attend one just let us know and we'll we'll fill in those spaces I think it's important that we bring those two to uh volunteer uh groups on board with us they part of the community and and they're they're uh contributing a lot of time to our schools as well so they're part of the team right that towards February the Wednesday it's 2:30 230 is that specifically for the um it's not Council on agent what is it human Elder Services services but it doesn't matter anybody can anybody can go yeah okay we're we have [Music] conversation yeah that's why conversation meeting to discussion right yeah we we also talked with Town Administration and some elected officials about the town meeting the fall town meeting where the vot is taken to start that meeting 30 minutes early so that we would have enough time to to do a presentation answer question before we haven't heard back I think that would be advantageous to have that opportunity right we also might want to consider working to have child care available we will yeah we'll figure that out excellent may may town meeting is May 6 by the way yeah May 6 jump in on that point so I when we when we discuss that idea I thought the uh the specifics of that were we would likely present Shaker Lane updates at the May 10 May 6 oh we can do that as well and last time we had 10 minutes and we went 12 and this time it might be like maybe at least 20 minutes from the floor sure and that's regular Town meetings so there's a bunch of business needs to be attended to so the idea was proposed even though town meeting starts at 7 perhaps there's a Shaker Lane meeting that starts at 6:30 so anyone and all should come at 6:30 and by the time seven that way we don't that way we don't bump back regular Town business meeting we can try to catch the early birds and get the word out like please come at 6:30 because that's when we're going to start talking about ja Lan and then at 7 o'clock we'll get into regular time meeting I think we'd have an issue with unless they were just going to move town meeting earlier because we couldn't we couldn't make points or hear from interested citizens before they've called the meeting for order that's the night that we're going to be voting on um I think they were going to have conversations with the town moderator to see what his appetite for that was okay we're we're hoping that they will jump on board for that so I think it's really important so January 29th next Wednesday at 10 o'clock this is the opportunity for us to present to the to an msba subcommittee this is where we pitch our need for a new school the square foot footage that we need and talk about our education plan talk about the preliminary design of the new school uh we have 20 minutes to do that presentation presentation is done we're going to rehearse it on Monday Michelle and I will be speaking we have the educational part of plan Studio G and and our OPM will take various technical SE sections of the presentation as well U not I'm not sure I think everybody almost everybody was at my last meeting when we met town the new school on the schematic that was presented was rotated 60 degrees counterclockwise because of some concerns about prospective sewer lines in the future and O Wetlands but when everything came back uh they were able to put it back where it should be so they went 60 degrees clockwise and it doesn't change the configuration of school it doesn't change the the layout of the parking lots what it does do is provide more natural light in in the school during the day and that'll be more receptive to solmer P it's a good change so after that meeting the subc commmittee of the msba will meet with the full Committee of the msba and give a recommendation to them and then we go back on February 25th don't have a time yet but that's when they will vote as to whether they accept the plan as presented and we'll talk about the sore foot each allotments Etc and move on to the next phase which is a design phase of project so exciting work exciting uh place to be and and when I look back last May June in the summer the load was worse than a heavy heavy lift we all I then gave up our summers to to get this done and in hindsight was the right thing to do we where we are now one thing I was surprised by at the meeting I attended uh there weeks just wi that time so it was morning the only reason I had to head because I was invited to the meeting but they didn't invite me so I was tring to find a link to this meeting I had to be out so it was this morning and uh the trajectory for the bill has us at U August 2028 for completion and moving in September which is a year ahead of what we've all we've been talking about since the Inception of the project so well just a heads up nobody you know from Studio G or the OPM blanked when that tap came out so going to assume for the time being that that's a possib had a quick conversation with PTA representative this afternoon two two ideas came out of that one was um you know ultimately it's a yes no vote at time meeting I think we should have uh like a yes vote obviously there's going to be information it cost this a no vote doesn't cost you zero like the the like the status of the Shaker Lane building and the work that's going to need to go into that building over the years to maintain um the level of services that we are providing will have a cost um so it's not you know okay am I writing a check for this or am I writing a check for zero it's a no vote has a cost to it so we want to make sure we get that in our information at some point and then we've talked a lot about um meetings like that's that's a specific date and time that people need to make themselves available and when you have um a specially younger children you're often pens running on their schedule so if we could get out like some short uh videos maybe from the staff about what doesn't work in the building or what they need or that type of stuff or parent voices a PTA or school committee or whoever wants to be in like these little clips that stuff can go on the mom's page which we're all informated have we done the tour I'm not I know we we have a video tour already done but I mean we're we're at the point as soon as we we move through the current phase that we're in we need to get a hold of Dave cartoon in again Us's his real name today and talk take a look at the next video and and that could be part of that that new video we also Friday finalized a plan with uh Gil foil for PR and promotion of the project as well so you know having two entities helping us out with our own efforts as well I think we're we're pretty well supported at this point in time but okay you know anything you any of you think about uh you know bring to us we want to reach as many people as we can and I'm I'm hoping all of you feel that you have enough information now to promote the project and when you're socializing groups you know you have an opportunity to talk about the project that's a good way to get the word out I thought the point was a good one making making the information available to those when they have time to access it and also in a uh shorter period of time because they you might catch them for 10 or 15 minutes when they're in front of their computer and they want an update versus ask them to attend a specific meeting that might be an hour long or something like that so I think the cost of yes and cost of really even like as a visual both the the finance part but also like simple B in terms of like what it was do we have numbers for the costumes now no and they would be you know it would be hypothetical but um we could we could spend some time on that so that we um are presenting numbers that we can that sound reasonable and that we can support but yeah we good on that sure we cover the budget subcommittee information already um policy subcommittee anything to report this evening good I will be sending policy subcommittee a draft policy for graduation requirements and see I'm to bring that to the February 6 great um February 6 that's our next meeting is that when is that when the um Littleton Youth Baseball Sao want to come yes okay so little uh just for everyone's benefit next meeting we'll hear a presentation from Littleton youth baseball and softball that a proposed project associated with lights at jet Feld which is super exciting will really enhance that athletic complex um there's no other business before the schol committee yes meeting is Tuesday May 6 thank you anything else everyone's glad we're good all right I'll ask for a motion to adjourn that we adjourn Mo by second all those in favor please say yes unanimously we have a thank you where do I get my words out