Everyone, it's 7 o'clock and I'd like to call together the November 20th, 2025 school committee meeting. If you would re uh please rise and join me in the pledge of allegiance. 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, liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Uh this evening we have our consent agenda posted which are the minutes from our November 6, 2025 school
committee meeting as well as bills for payroll. Everybody can review the minutes questions. Is there a motion to accept the consent agenda? So move. >> Motion made by Sean. >> Second. >> Seconded by Janine. All those in favor by saying I. >> I.
>> I. Right. It carries. This is our first opportunity for interested citizens. There's anybody with us this evening. They're in person or on Zoom that would like to speak before the school committee. This is your first opportunity to be a second opportunity at the second half uh towards the back half of the meeting. One here. No one on Zoom.
We'll close in citizens and we'll move into our student recognition report. So, uh, Sid has prepared a student recognition report for us. We share that with the committee. The Shaker Lane recently had their attending conferences and the staff put hours of
work into preparing these meetings to track student progress and achievements. Um the staff would also like to congratulate Superintendent Clenchi on his upcoming retirement and thank him for all his service over the many years he's been in Littleton. Sugar Lane would like to wish everyone a happy and safe
Thanksgiving. And for Russell Street, the third grade team hosted their stargazing event on Tuesday with the help of faculty members and students from MIT Hack Observatory. There were clear skies and a great turnout. The third grade team looks forward to making
it a tradition. Russell Street is also hosting a food drive through November 21st. Items can be left in the boxes in the main lobby of the school and Russell Street also wishes everyone wonderful Thanksgiving break. Moving on to the middle school parent conferences at
Littleton Middle School went very well and was a sincere thank you to all families who attended and congrats to LHS girls soccer coach and LMS math teacher Jen Goff. LMS will be rooting for you as the talk goes on.
And moving on to the high school, Tuesday 11:20, the Latin Club attended Massachusetts Classics Day at Boston University. And on Friday, November 21st, the girls varsity soccer team will compete against Sutton for the state championship at 700 p.m. Loyal Field in
Lemonster. On Tuesday, November 25th, the annual Powderpuff game at Alumni Field will occur at 6 PM. And Thursday, November 27th, there will be the annual Rotary breakfast at the L LMS calf from 6:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. as well as the
Thanksgiving football game that same day against Air Shirley at 10:00 a.m. Tuesday, December 2nd, the guidance is going to host the college financial aid planning at 600 p.m. in the auditorium. And lastly, on December 4th to 7th, LHS fall play will be presented by the drama
club. Our town performances will be held on 7 p.m. from Thursday to Saturday and Sunday at 1 p.m. >> Perfect. Thank you so much. I'll ask the meeting over to Superintendent Ellie Clench for >> other moments of recognition or
scheduled introductions. >> Yeah. Uh my pleasure to uh introduce uh Aaron Bro who is our new food services director. Uh Aaron has been with us for almost a month now I would believe. Been a couple week. Yes. So
>> uh Aaron has uh acclimated very well for the new position. I have to say uh I am a user of the food in the cafeteria and uh I have noticed no difference at all. It just seems to be continuing to to
move along. So kudos to Aaron for uh being able to just pick up and and and move right on with our food services program. I'm really pleased that Aaron and Leah are communicating a lot. So it's nice to to have a team already
there and together uh they'll do some great things. Leah and Maine and Aaron here. So thank you. We're thrilled to have you within our district and I just thought it was important that the school committee had a chance to uh meet you soon. Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here and a pleasure to be
part of the team. >> And our next introduction, I'm going to have Principal Everheart do. >> She just asked if she didn't have to come up and I was like try fire. Um, welcome everybody. I want
to I want to introduce Beth Droan. She is the new assistant principal at Littleton Middle School. Our previous um AP was Valanche. He became principal at Veterans Memorial Middle School in um Marblehead this this fall, which is it's the coaching tree, right? That's what
you want. You want your APs to to learn what they need to learn and and and take their own schools. And so he he was able to do that. And so after quite a long search and three rounds, we had more than 60 candidates um apply, which is really unheard of. Um, you know, we we we we land we have Beth and she comes to
us originally from Massachusetts through California and now back. And so we're very excited to have her. She's been a great fit so far. And I'll turn her over to you. >> Yeah. >> Thank you so much for this opportunity. Um, I'm thrilled to be here both tonight and in Littleton. Um, I've worked in
several districts and this by far is that has the the most community support. And so that's that's really special to be in a place that that has that. Um, and yeah, so far it's been a wonderful experience both with students, staff, and um, getting to know the parents and
uh, it's it's been wonderful. So I appreciate the opportunity and look forward to community success. Thank you. >> Thank you for all of you. Aaron Beth, thank you for joining us. >> Sure. Sure. Um, as I said before, sorry
for my first meeting. I should have come up here to the podium. Um, it's a pleasure to be in Littleton. It's a pleasure to inherit such a wonderful program. Really looking forward to carrying on uh Leah's legacy on what she's built here over the past four years with all the local food being
brought in and fed to our students. Um, I feel like that is tremendously important in this industry. It's very easy to order a bunch of prepackaged, manufactured, overprocessed foods, um, and have them slapped on a tray, but to me, that's just not what school lunch is
about anymore. Um, there's a lot of scratch cooking. There's a lot of farmtotable um, and that's the kind of stuff that excites my passion. So, it is wonderful to come into a district where that is already in place. the teams already have the skills to execute those type of
venues and I can't wait to go up from here. So, thank you all for having me and uh look forward to uh some wonderful years of success coming Saturday. >> I was supposed to be easy on you tonight. I didn't know uh Jason was
going to do that to his new assistant principal. >> We're very happy to have you both. big shoes to fill in both areas, by the way. But, uh, >> I believe you're both up for the challenge. >> Um, you all set? >> Yes. Actually, okay. We've got a couple
more pieces of new business and we've got a number of presentations to get through this evening. Uh, the first of which is a request of the town clerk. So, uh, town clerk Dan Corey will request the school committee to make a motion to consider placing a new townfunded shed resto uh, storing
election materials at the middle school. right into the podium please to give us uh the details. >> Good evening Dian Corey and Tom Clark. Thank you for having me this evening. Um basically what I'm looking to do is get
permission from you to have a shed built in place behind the middle school. Um, at this point in time, I'm using the entire um sh um storage area that's in the in the gymnasium. And obviously, it's um a detriment to you folks because
I'm using it and you're not able to use it. So, this is kind of a win-win. Um, as well, it wouldn't cost you anything. We would be paying for it. We'd be taking care of it at all times. We won't be putting any kind of electricity or heat or anything like that. So, there
would be no issues with that. Um and it's just a matter of permissions from you to say yes, we can do it. Um we're actually looking to the show to delve it for us. We've already gone to Dr. Pigeon and um so she's to the B council and
they're going to be getting back to me and letting me know when you can start the process if we get a submission from you. >> Great. You know how big the shadow is going to be? >> We don't at this point in time. It's just a matter of looking at what we have in the storage area and figuring out
what size we need. >> Sounds good. >> Just just for clarification, the the voting machines themselves, you lock those away. So, >> yeah. So, the actual brains, they a town hall, they're locked in the vault. Yeah. Um and then the newer machine, the uh
the body of the machine, they will stay in there's a small little compartment that sits behind the um storage area. So, we'll kind of keep those four um boxes in there, but everything else will come out. >> So, it's just like the banners and the
>> Yeah, the actual voting booths in the booth, >> all the booths, all the tables, all the um extensions that we put in between. >> Yeah. everything that goes, you know, out on election day, it will be giving you back
that whole area. So, sounds great. >> Do you have any idea where it'll go? >> It's Well, I'm going to talk Eric Bentley and I have had a couple of conversations. It's just a matter of, you know, if we get permission. We didn't want to go too far. Sure. >> If we didn't get permission, it didn't make sense to
>> Yeah. figure things out until we actually we wouldn't go any further until you know we got the permission. Then we're going to go to the next step to see how big we needed it and then next step to see where which each step would come back and let me know.
>> Sounds very sounds like a great idea. I'm fully in supportive. My only concern would be and I shared this with you on the phone. Yep. >> Is we were approached by the Little Tooth Lacrosse a few years ago and we're like, "Of course you can have a shed. Clerk's office. Of course you can have a
shed." You know, then we're going to hear from baseball like we're going to end up with shed city behind the middle school. Y >> So, um just getting an understanding that you'll come back before the shed goes in to let us know exactly where it is so that we're mainly the school department and the custodial staff are
okay with the placement. Y >> and perhaps I don't know if there are any other organizations that would need a shed like maybe we could do you know you can't think of anything any other uses. >> No lacrosse already has one. Baseball
uses uh the storage over uh at alumni field. They have a shed over there. Um basketball doesn't need one. Football doesn't need one. So, >> and the only other thing is I know that you know right at this moment in time that you have all the chairs that you
put in um >> we have the chairs storage trailer over at Alumni Field. >> I mean, if you were looking to move those over as well, we could possibly think about putting them there as well. Try to make it, you know, may not all be able to fit in there, but maybe we could
make some kind of accommodation to bring some of that >> consolidate things a little bit. Are those the same chairs that get you used for graduation? >> Yes. >> So that's why they're at a lot. >> Yes. That's why we have a put a storage trailer at alumni field and it's full of
chairs. It's full, >> but we also use them for town meeting. >> Yeah. So I don't have any questions or objections to you moving forward with the project. So long as you just come back and let us know. Sounds like size
of shed and location. Final location. I'm only going to make one suggestion. Make sure you have a shed that has plenty of ventilation >> because um we've had sheds in the past that didn't have ventilation and things got kind of gross inside. So um >> yeah,
>> thank you for that. Appreciate it. >> Right. Uh so it's school property. We should do a a motion. We should we should vote this through even though the clerk's going to come back and give us the final details, but that's the confidence you want to proceed with the project. So is there So, and I make a
move that um the school committee okays the town clerk to move forward with a with um plans to create a shed to to provide storage for town election materials and other things as we see it.
>> Does that sound all right? >> Yep. At the middle school >> at the behind the middle school will be the designated >> motion made by Janine. >> Second. >> Second by Elaine. Let's be favor by saying I. >> I. >> Perfect. Thanks so much for viving with us. >> Thank you.
>> All right. Second piece of new business evening is superintendent letter of intent to retire July 1st, 2026 slasht transition. Uh the superintendent school committee will begin outlining a process for the transition to a new
superintendent schools. All right. So, uh communication has gone up districtwide. probably not catching anybody by surprise, but in the event event event that you are hearing this for the first time, uh Dr. Kelly Clenchy has informed the civil committee of his
intent to retire July 1st, 2026. This was a planned retirement. We're very gracious of the advanced notice. Um really couldn't have asked for a much better situation here. So, we're we're we're thankful. We recognized your uh 15 years service. We've all individually
wished to you >> uh goodwill you know thanks across the board. Um so at this point in time we wish to discuss how we need to get organized in the transition areas itself. We were fortunate that three of
us that attended the um school committee conference down in the Cape had an opportunity to chat with Massachusetts Association of School Committees um who had some information for us about the process and Superintendent Clench of course she'll be a resource um and there
are other places for us to turn but one of the first pieces of business that we wanted to accomplish tonight um is a discussion but I think one of the things that we should try to this evening is creating a subcommittee to sort of spearhead these efforts. Um, a subcommittee of two members. That way,
those two folks could work u independently sort of off meeting cycle. We wouldn't have a quorum. They'd be able to do research, gather some information, and then continuously come back to the school committee for for updates. >> Should this committee include um people
from the community? >> No, not at this time. >> This is so this would be a getting ready for the committee. is the subcommittee. >> You would you would be working on I may be making an assumption but I'm assuming
you would be uh hiring MSC to conduct the search. That's one of the things the subcommittee can talk about because there are other options. >> Couple >> there are a couple options. We um so the Massachusetts Association of School Committees has got a number of
available resources to us which are included in our membership and then they offer a solution all the way bells and whistles and we pay them a fee and it's pretty hands-off for us. Um, so the subcommittee will be charged with evaluating all of our options in terms
of how we wish to organize the search. Probably I would think I don't want to speak for everybody here, but I'll cover the basics. Um, probably in charge of gathering some information or outlining um, some communication in terms of
community feedback. So we wish to make available or I wish to make available I speak for the committee. I wish to make available an opportunity to hear from our community members about what they feel is important in a superintendent and we can do that a number of different ways. Subcommittee will evaluate them of
course but a survey information sessions in person and virtual and the subcommittee will also be in charge of likely organizing a screening committee and Jenny that's where members of the community will get involved.
>> Okay. Um, and the screening committee for applicants would likely consist of uh school committee, faculty and staff uh and other members of the community. You know, those that have those that represent different subgroups within the
Littleton public school population or even community members at large >> plus town representative as well. >> Plus town representatives. Um, Genie, I mean, uh, Ela, I'll kind of go around here. Do you have anything to
add? >> Uh, no. I mean, just when we met with our field director from Mass Association Committees when we were at the conference and she outlined the steps that they would guide us through.
There's quite a bit that they would do simply because we're members of the association, so it would be without charge. It's just that if if we asked them to take us over the finish line, then it would be a a fee of 11 11,500.
>> Um, but that seemed like we would be my feeling on that was that we would be turning over more than would necessarily want. like I I feel like we have the capacity within the school committee and within
the stakeholders that we recruit to do a lot of that work ourselves. That was my um that was my impression. Not sure how others felt about it, but >> I feel similarly I think my initial thought was
we just had tremendous success with Shaker Lane project. The community really came out in support of the schools. I believe it's going to be a really um sought for position. We're a high performing school district. We just had two new two new individuals come and
tell us how great it is to work in this town. Um we have a superintendent who's going out on good terms. I think you know the thought process is uh there'll be a number of applicants and I didn't want to take the hands-off approach like we'll we'll meet you when you get hired.
It was like no we want to that's not the impression I wanted to give. it was we want to be involved in the process. >> Um >> see >> but but as I think what we'll do is we'll have the subcommittee sort of evaluate all the options report back to
us you know maybe as early as next meeting or it would be that meeting early in January. We got to make a decision by then. in terms in terms of the timeline for the committee and the uh public. Um, we would hope that the subcommittee
would do uh a lot of this work, come back to school committee, I would think likely the January meeting, be able to kick, you know, vote through or get community uh committee buy in on a process and sort of kickstart it and
perhaps we could have the job posting in second half of January. um conduct screenings and interviews in March and in an ideal time frame uh would be looking to make an offer or start you know negotiating a contract in
March. um their their uh start date would likely be July 1st, but we would hope to be able to negotiate some sort of overlap between the departing superintendent and the new superintendent coming in so that there could be some some cross trainining and
some getting getting to know the the district and community. >> In a in a perfect world, that's how it would take place. >> And the other thing we So Sean was able to join us um virtually for this meeting. So, it was the four of us that met with um our field director. But the
other nice thing about working with MASK is that um we would be working with Alicia Malin who's our the Northeast field director, but she's on the Neshoga Tech School Committee. Okay. >> So, she knows she knows our community.
Um I've worked with her in a couple of different capacities already. So I she came to us with a lot of knowledge, a lot of um enthusiasm for supporting us. Um however we define that we would like to have that support. So, um,
a couple things I thought I I heard, um, just to add to this is that, uh, it isn't our choices aren't just either the full full services mask or um, doing it ourselves, but they did mention there
are a couple other firms that do it. And I would hope that the sub subcommittee for due diligence would at least make a phone call to one or two of the other firms just to say, could you tell us what your services are, how much you are, you know, just so we can do a an
apples to apples um comparison on what's out there and and think about it that way. And the other but the other thing I've heard um I mean yeah they had they had a full service mask has a full service but
I I don't think that we have to keep our hands off you know like we're the ones hiring the service. So if we want to hire a full service and say this is really nice, we want our people involved here and here and here, that's certainly
something we can take to a service provider and say, you know, since we're the ones writing the check, this is how we'd like to handle this. >> Um, which I'm not afraid to do at all. So, um, and that was just something because, and I'll tell you, I'm falling
back on that because I've never done this before. I feel like uh this is this is not my my wheelhouse. Um but so like if there is someone who's really knows how to do it, I would love their expertise, you know.
>> Well, I I do have some expertise. But >> yeah, >> the the search consultant organization never uses a handsoff. That would be a recipe for failure. Mhm. >> Uh they do bring some expertise to the
table in terms of how do you organize a screening committee? How do you design questions that's going to allow you to take input from your community, your administrators, your staff, and design questions that you're going to get the
right answers to. It's not easy to design questions in terms of questions that you're going to have to consistently use from candidate to candidate because your process has to be solid that way. If it's not, you lend yourself to some unpleasant experiences.
So, I think that's where some expertise needs to come in here. >> Uh they do typically work with your communities. They have experience of how to how to create the venues to to get the input that they need. Uh but in my
experience of of 27 years of being a superintendent occurred many times I've never seen a process where the school committee wasn't involved in determining what's happening during stages. The final interview in the process is always
and say always school committee inter interviewing three candidates four candidates and the school committee makes the decision to hire the superintendent. Nobody else says that >> right. Thank you for clarifying.
Uh perhaps we should have said that. So uh the job will get posted, applications will come in. The screening committee would be responsible for sifting through the applications. They would then select a pool of candidates that they invite in for interviews. Uh definitely interviews
in Littleton. Maybe it gets whittleled down and maybe the screening committee wants to actually visit do away visits where we would visit the candidates district and then ultimately they put forward to the school committee at least two
not more than four I believe was MCA's recommendation but then the ideal number being three um and then the school committee would have the opportunity for final interviews at decision I have never been none of us I don't believe have been involved in the process
process of hiring a superintendent. >> Sure. Okay. >> Close but not quite. >> I've been involved in uh the hiring of the town administrator twice and it's a very similar process. Um John, any takeaways from the conversation we had?
>> Yeah. >> With MCAST or >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I I think uh maybe not even just takeaways. I think you guys kind of covered that part, but I think you kind of highlighted we just went through this process to vote for a new school and kind of have these connections in the community now that
we're kind of still fresh. I think it's going to be really important to use that to kind of keep uh conversations flowing as we make this decision. And whether it's a survey or an outreach, I think that's going to be a really important thing. >> And I'll say I've already been approached by a number of individuals who wish to uh participate in the
process. So that's a that's a positive thing. There's a lot of good momentum here in terms of the community. Um, that's great. >> So, I'll be sure to notify those folks of opportunities, but um, there isn't anything else to add. I think we should talk about the two me, you know, who
wishes to be on the subcommittee. It's unfortunate Venol's not here. I'm I'm going to say she's going to be okay with whatever we decide tonight, I think, but it's it's fluid, too. So, um, all all of the committee members are welcome to
participate in this. It's just I don't I don't ever want to have, uh, more than two of us working together because then we would end up with a quorum of the school committee and it would be in violation of open meeting law. So,
>> uh, does anybody have a strong desire to spearhead this effort these efforts? >> I'm interested. >> Yeah, me too. Uh, whatever people decide sounds great to me. >> Okay. Um, I'm I'm I'm kind of torn either way. I'm
happy to assist uh but also happy to sort of take a back seat. Um, from a subcommittee role. So, if the two of you are most definitely interested, I'm certainly okay with that. >> Okay. >> That sounds great. Okay. Yeah.
I mean it sounds like we'll we'll be doing a lot of the homework behind the scenes but bringing everything to the full committee so it's going to be very transparent >> step by step. So things like if we are to if we want to um create a survey for
the town but like what they're look what they feel like get get a read of the town. Can we do that one by one by with contributions and like bring ideas to the two of them without creating quorum? >> So I think what you could do is you
could share your ideas with um Elaine or Sean either in person or in writing. >> Okay. >> What I wouldn't want you doing is emailing the two of them and talking about things because then the three of you are on the same email chain.
>> Understood. Yes. And there I appreciate that. Thank you. >> There are surveys that are available from Camc. My recommendation that you is that you look at them and and tweak them if you want. >> Remember when you survey the accuracy of the survey usually
depends on those questions being fail tested so that we know that the questions are going to get the results that they're supposed to be getting. Development surveys is an easy process. I'll be honest with you. So, but if you have a template to look at, then those tweaks
are easier to do and and still have fidelity to the survey. I think that's what you really need here because that data that you accumulate needs to be accurate. You don't want any false reads in any of your questions. And that was when we talked with Alicia
Melon from MASC. She was talking about that as well that she would walk us through um questions that other districts have used in their surveys to the community. Uh the way people have organized community forums to get in
person feedback. So they they'll guide us through um best practices uh through this whole process. And I Janine, you mentioned um other organizations that do searches. I did pick up something at the conference. So many things to share with people, but
there's the New England School Development Council. They're another one that does searches. So we can contact them to your point that to perform our due diligence and make sure that we're not just going with MASC because they're the ones that are familiar with to us. But
>> so um yeah, you getting started. It's like you guys have already done a lot of uh research on this. So, thank you. That's great. >> Well, thank you for giving us the heads up because um you know, being able to start now instead of later in the school
year gives us the time to really do this well. So, we appreciate the timing. >> Oh, thank you. I appreciate that. And then I feel good about this because you are going to have the necessary time to employ a process that we will be very effective. And NASDAQ is a a record
organization as well. I think their office is still at Barbara. >> Yeah. Uh um and I'll I'll just add, you know, in the event that we have internal applicants, that would be a welcomed process as well. We've mentioned searches and it it feels like it's like
we're going to go out and find somebody brand new. Um that might be the case or we might have somebody in the district as well that has expressed an interest and we might find them to be a perfect fit. So, I'm just sharing that with uh with everybody publicly. Um so, if it's
okay with the two of you, if you guys could run with this and come back next school committee meeting with a plan for community involvement, survey um I think maybe like the questions associated with a community
involvement or the discussion to lead the community involvement and then their research on firms to help assess and also uh a subcommittee a screening committee breakdown the positions that need to be
filled within a screening committee based upon the research that you've conducted. So like you might come back and say it's it's our recommendation that there's 15 people on it and it's uh you know whatever >> seven seven from within the staff and
eight from with not in the staff and we want you know every we need to make sure we've got all these boxes checked. >> Yep. >> Sounds good. >> And then at upcoming school committee meetings we'll just um be part of the subcommittee report of the meeting. Right. So, every meeting we'll report
out on where we are with the process >> that or we could have it as new business in the beginning of half of the meeting. >> Okay. Like depending on how much we have to share, >> right? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Y >> I feel like sometimes we get to September reports and it's 9:30, >> right? Um,
so I wouldn't be opposed to putting this on as a new business item agenda that a new business or a continuation of old business um get it in the first half of meeting. >> Title of the subcommittee superintendent search subcommittee which you prefer to use.
>> Do we need to vote on creating a new subcommittee? >> Yes, we do. >> Yeah. >> Is there a motion to for the creation of a superintendent search subcommittee? >> Second. Motion made by Sean. Second by Elaine. All those in favor to give by saying I. I. >> Perfect for creation. And then I will
move that Shauna Hearn and Elaine Salman are our two committee members. >> Second. >> Motion made and seconded. All those indicate by saying I. I. >> There you go. All right. You know what you're doing. You know who you are and you know what you're doing. >> Yep. >> Perfect. >> Y.
>> All right. Uh, that wraps up the new business for the evening. Then we're going to roll into our presentations. got four scheduled for this evening. The first of which is an update of safety and security. Our school resource officer uh Wazinski
will give an overview of the school safety and training and procedures. Welcome brother. Welcome. Thank you for being with us. >> Thank you for tonight. Uh good evening. Thank you guys for having me. Um just want to give a brief
update on our district's safety and security efforts. Um so we continue to train under the Alice protocol which is alert, lockdown, inform, counter, and evacuate. Um this remains our standard for active threat response. Um Alice is an optionsbased approach that empowers
staff and students to make the safest decisions in a violent intruder situation. Uh we remain committed to keeping this training consistent and up to date. Um thank you to Beth. She provided the um copy of the concepts for you guys. Um
just to review, um as of the beginning of October, all of our fall drills have been completed um with success. Um we did have a few issues back in the spring and those issues were resolved and um everyone did a great job uh this fall.
Um, so moving on, uh, last December we, um, completed a reunification tabletop exercise, um, here at the PD with all of our administrators, um, and public safety personnel. >> Um, did did the chief come last year and give an update on that? Okay. Um, so
we're now working to expand that training um, to include most if not all staff. Um so I'm in the early planning of stages and I'm partnering actually with the um Topsfield um one of their police captains and the superintendent um the Trifold County uh
I believe it's the Milford Boxford in Toppsfield um they routinely run reunification drills there um so with their experience um hopefully that would be a valuable resource as we continue developing our district-wide um reunification planning. Um, I also want
to express my appreciation for Dr. Clenchi. Um, with your progressiveness of strong support um, and your leadership, it's been key in moving um, this work forward. So, thank you for that. Um, as we continue planning, our next steps include, um, it's going to be
a two-day training. Um, so the first day is going to be classroom based. Um, and basically we'll do like a walk through um, of how the actual drill will go. Second day will be the full the full scale drill. Um, so obviously that will include our school teams and public
safety partners. Um, lastly, all I have is some recent trainings that I've attended since the beginning of the school year. Um, so I've been to a bus enforcement and safety seminar, uh, behavioral threat assessment training, um, the standard response protocol and standard reunification method, which is
through the I love you guys foundation, and a seminar on challenges and solution and school safety, which was put on by FYI just on Tuesday, which was where I got the contact information actually for TOPSfield. Um, and I'm also scheduled to attend a
threat risk assessment training in a couple weeks, um, which I'm looking forward to. And that is all that I have for you guys. You guys have any questions or concerns, happy to answer this question. >> Yeah. When you're um talking about reunification, is that after the
evacuate step and you've got folks that >> So, yes, reunification is after a violent incident um occurs. This is what happens after. So, this is the steps that the school administration um would take in reunifying the um students with their parents.
>> Okay? And I thought we heard last year that you were shifting to a new like shifting away from Alice. >> So um it's called alert and I actually just sat in on a training um with one of our other officers who is certified to teach it and I personally like the Alice
protocol um better and just the terminology and and the way that it's it's relayed to the students I think is more appropriate. um where alert is is good for an adult population. Um so I'm actually going to work with the chief and my sergeant Pablo Fernandez and our
lieutenant Doug Landry to see which which one we think is going to better suit the school moving forward. Um so as of right now we're going to remain with Alice. Um they're essentially the same concepts. Um just the the wording is a little bit different. Um, but I think
Alice has been successful here up until this point and you know there's no need to change something if it works. So um it'll be a conversation that we're going to start to have over the the next month or so and kind of figure out which route we're going to take and then obviously we will bring it back to you guys and depending on what you guys feel um we'll
obviously make decision based on that. >> And and what has your experience been with the um practices with students? Um, are they, it's been many years now that they've been trained on the Atlas protocol, so are they starting to sort of take it in stride more than they were
in the beginning years of it? >> Uh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, Shaker does a great job from the get- go. Um, so by the time they get to Russell Street, it's already second nature and by the time they get to high school, it's, you know, they might roll their eyes a little bit, but but they do it and they get through it. Um and every year we try to add a little bit more of
a stressor component to it. So it's gives the kids a little bit more of a real real life effect. Um you know we do fire drills all the time and they go the same route every time, right? It's not necessarily the same case for um a safety drill. So we try to change it up every in the fall and the spring and we
do a different location in the schools and kids have to um think on their feet and make real life real time decisions and and the older they get the the better they get. Um, so I've had a very good experience over the last couple years and the the principles have been
great. Um, and very willing to take on new approaches and try new things. Um, and you know, it's important to be progressive this day and age and and the principles have them. So, I'm very appreciative of that. >> Thank you. >> Sid, is there anything amongst the the
student population in regard to these drills that you might want to share? >> Yeah, I think the drills are really useful. We usually do that like a practice drill advisory and I think the teacher do a good job of like leading students and like showing like what are the best routes and how to think on a
real life situation that it's meant for. So I think yeah the Alist works have been working really well for my experience and my peers as well. >> Thank you. >> Just out of curiosity obviously we're replacing Shaker in a couple years. >> Uh does that make sense building? I know
right now we're we assess building security and surveillance annually. Is there any benefit doing that a little bit more regularly or are you pretty confident we just start once a year? >> Um I mean >> so is it what what happens is our our
dispatcher is uh checking those those cameras probably weekly. >> Yeah. So >> so it's it's pretty frequent now. It's good. Yeah, I mean we're we're all interconnected, which is so so powerful because if if uh something ever
happened, they have access immediate access to our cameras. >> Yeah, Dispatch actually has the cameras up and running 24/7. So if you popped your head in right there right now, we could see everything that's happening at schools. So great. >> And it's constantly um
we do um 911 button checks or panic alarms. We test those three times a year um in all the schools and that's another thing that we check um is the cameras to make sure that they're they're working in there because obviously we talk about real real time information. That's where we're going to get it usually um and
they're obviously the first people who who's getting phone call, right? So they can give out that real-time information just based off what they're seeing from those cameras. So it's definitely something that is checked throughout the year and obviously if it there's an issue with it, it's fixed that day. Great. So, >> and the new Shaker Lane school
will have a credible security system in it. They've been working with LPDP. >> Yeah, I've sat in on a few of those meetings and I hope to continue to as you know we get further into that um that project. But they're they're doing great things with that school and congratulations by the way. It's very
exciting for you guys. Exciting for me too. Exciting for us. So, >> so the new school will will have a primary secondary security route is designed so that each uh grade level neighborhood will be self-contained. So,
if we need to section that school off or or do a lockdown, those neighborhoods will be locked down. So, this is really incredible what what they can do in the state. Okay. >> Thank you.
I don't want to sound like a dead dead horse, but could you check with your fellow SRO group, your advisory group, >> I I mentioned this before. Um, when I visited other districts, you know, going to ball fields and stuff, I see some districts have got the number the
windows numbered. >> So, I can actually touch on that. >> Oh, today I um I went to all the schools. All of the schools have um numbered exterior doors and inside um with the exception of Russell Street. So, I touched base with Andrew Romano today. Um, they had a few doors replaced
over the summer and those those doors have not gotten new numbers yet. So, she's going to work with Eric Bentley to get that that fixed. But, um, all of the schools have labeled exterior window uh doors. >> The doors are numbers, >> which makes perfect sense. >> Yes. Which and in in an incident where
police or fire are responding, we're the ones who utilize that. Everyone in the build their own buildings, they know they know where their classrooms are. They know, you know, what numbers are. um that's more so for us and everything is already labeled perfectly. >> Okay. >> So that's >> so I'm noticing some districts have the the windows numbered.
>> Yeah. >> I'm I'm not entirely sure what the benefit of that at this point is but that is actually something that's on the list of things that I want to ask the um the chopsfield um superintendent and the police the captain um who I plan to meet with because they have made mention of
that during their presentations. Okay. >> Um and there's not there's not a one-sizefits-all. who knows. Um I think each jur jurisdiction does it differently. So I'm going to see what they do and then if they have valid reasoning for why they have it on their
windows, then obviously we can address that. Um but sometimes having too much information on windows I would just be a little bit hesitant of. >> Yeah. I think that's all I'm asking is just, you know, investigating where the
sort of nor the northeast or nationally where we're at with that because when I did like a little bit of coronary research, it seemed like it was even state law in some states. >> Yeah. I mean, I think where Littleton's above the curve where we already have all those windows and or door, excuse me, doors um inside and outside labeled.
So um >> in other districts I could see some benefit because it's very hard to know square footage of the schools. Uh I know when I lived in in city it was uh actually mandatory that we had a uh our our house sign on the
front and in the rear as well or fence or whatever at the back just so it wasn't >> an emergency they had two ways to identify the house. So, I think this is from my own experience, it's indicative of a a big district where it's very very
hard to expect the respondent team to know the the insides of the school. >> Sure, >> it's impossible for them, but because we only have four schools and all of our police officers go through our schools, uh they have that memory already. So, I
think it's it really to me it depends on on the size and and how active your police force is and and knowing where every corner of our schools are. Yeah. No, I I I can appreciate that. But of course, there's always, you know, the
first like let's say you're off that day you're going somewhere else. So, the first responder might be someone who's only been here for a week. >> Um it happens. It could happen. Or it could be the gas company is the first responder. or it could be Littleton Electric that's the first responder. >> Um, they might not
>> they might not know. So, I'm all I'm saying is >> just see what sort of the trend is these days. >> And if the trend is we should have these things done, let's do it. And if >> people are torn on it and we're comfortable with where we're at, then totally fine.
>> But every time I've visited other campuses, I'm see like I seem to notice that all the way. >> So, you notice every window is placed. >> So, there's Yes. So, there's two ways to do it. It's either every single window is numbered with the classroom or if there's >> on the outside or on the inside. >> On the outside. >> Okay. From the
>> So, it's as you're So, you know, gez, if there's an incident in 203, >> that's 203. >> Um or you you label the first window and the last window in the classroom so that you know the windows between us every single classroom. >> Um, >> see, but that's hard too because it's
like, all right, well, does it go evenly or does it go odd? Is it odd? like >> so it'll be like 203 nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing 203 so that you know that they're all 203 and then the 205 would start after that. >> Yeah, I will definitely do my research and see you know >> I can it's easy enough to even travel to
the surrounding towns and see what they do. So >> you should follow Studio G as well because they're they're doing these they're building these schools all the time. So >> they have a security expert. >> So there >> I mean I I think the reason why is the
first responder gives from the outside no matter who it is. They might have no knowledge of the uh interior >> layout of the building. >> They know if there's an incident somewhere. That's where I'm going. >> Yeah. I mean first responders have their own lingo anyways. we show up to a
building, you know, we know it's either the Alpo, Bravo, Charlie, or Delta side, right? And just having those numbers on the outside for the the doors, that's most likely what we would utilize anyways to make entry, >> right? >> Um and then obviously if there is an incident inside, >> usually school personnel knows what
numbers >> what room number we need to go to. Um >> but >> but I will look into it. Absolutely. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Questions. Thank you so much. >> Thanks for having me. Thanks so much. Take care.
>> The one comment and that's not for you. Just I'm so impressed with the amount of training our resource officers receive on a field basis. They It's not one and done. There's a series of of trainings every year. So I feel that's we're as safe as we possibly can be with uh
training that our police department receives every year. So thank you for that. We really >> Yeah. In favor? >> All right. Next up, uh, Cross District Professional Development Day. Director of Teaching and Learning, Elizabeth Seal, will provide an update on the
November 4th, 2025 the cross district. Welcome. >> Thank you. Good evening, everyone. >> Um, I'm happy to be presenting to you this evening about this, but I would like to acknowledge that I'm one of a team that really organizes this day. So on behalf of Natalie Proto and Julie
Lord, I get to be invited to share all the good news. Um but they our our trio works throughout the entire year to plan and organize this day for our district as well as the two neighboring districts that we collaborate with for this day.
So our cross district PD this year um we call it lash learns uh for short. We've started just saying lash. It's Littleton Air Shirley Harvard. And so instead of saying cross PD, a lot of people just say, "Oh, lash day." And so, um, it it's
kind of a nice transition that we've had just in title. This year was our ninth year offering this day between all three of our districts. We had about 330 educators participate and we offered uh 40 workshops throughout the day. On the right, we have our flyer for the day.
Uh, uh, thanks to Paul Ozik who creates the flyer. He's created for the past several years. And I love um I think I've actually mentioned this before. I just give him the title of the day and just a little bit of affirmation and then I just say whatever comes to mind. And so it's always fascinating to me
what he sends back. And sometimes I'm like, "Oh, this this is great. It makes perfect sense." And other times I was like, "Wow, not like this one. I was not thinking kind of the newsy look when we um mentioned the next generation." But I love the juxiposition that he created with this. And so thanks to Paul for
creating our flyer for us. On the next slide, you can see our um structure, our agenda for the day. And so we have this big huge hyperdoc that we use. Everything, all of our information is on there, which is why you see things that get linked and all of the information.
Everyone goes to this one document that has this agenda at the top page. And you can see for the day 8 to 3, we have it broken down to several different sections. We've tried a few different formats. We have ended up sticking to about three kind of workshop based
sessions and then one where our we have our either department or grade level time people to gather together in their job alike groups to have time to to work with and talk with each other. This year we opted we've done um keynote speakers
in the past we've gotten away from keynote speakers and so this year we decided to try a different approach where we did headliners. So we had four different headliners come in and so it wasn't one keynote, it was four. And so there were different topics and so everyone was able to kind of pick one of
the four headliners. That was their first workshop. And then during workshop two, those four headliners remained and did either the same or a a different workshop. And then we started to add in our educator workshops as well. So our teacher run our teacher facilitated
workshops during that session as well. And then in the afternoon we had our third workshop and that is where it was just teacher le and educators from across the three districts were able to offer sessions as well as studentled workshops. And then end of the day
together in our department time um and one thing that we added this year that you'll see kind of throughout that we received really nice feedback on opposite of lunch we had a win session which we've talked about over the past couple of meetings. Actually, we've heard that term win standing for what I
need. And so, we built in just like for our students, we have win session during the day for students to be able to work on what they need. We've decided to put in a win session for our educators during the day opposite of their lunch. And so, we provided some um broad ideas
that they could run with um but also left it open for them to be able to do what they needed during that time. um because it is a kind of a jam-packed day. So, it gave them a little bit of chunk of time to themselves to kind of reset and do what they needed to do throughout the day.
And on the next, so the next three slides, we'll see the the three different workshops, a few pictures from them, and what was offered during those workshops. And so, workshop one was the headliners. the four um we brought in four different consultants, four different areas of expertise
um to share with our our educators. There was a lot of focus this year on AI as you can well imagine given all of the conversations and discussions around AI and education. Um there was also a heavy emphasis on mental health and mental
wellness um which is reflective of then the other two kind of major headliners there, right? So we have two that are AI and techbased and then two that were um wellness based and um the entire day
while it's very open there were clear pathways that staff could pick in those pathways should they choose to remain in like AI mindset all day or in a wellness set all day. So that was workshop one. Workshop two, we had uh our educators
were leading in addition to the four headliners that we just saw. And here, if you look towards the bottom, the ones that have the asterisks are the ones that were offered by uh Littleton Public Schools educators. And so, we're always proud, we always pride ourselves in the
fact that our staff step up to the plate and offer workshops on this day and share their expertise. And it's always amazing to see what they're able to come up with and and people leave their workshops in particular with clear strategies um and information that can
be put into place the very next day. And then on the next slide you will see again the third round of workshops again teacherbased and studentled. >> So last year with the first year we kind
of did a trial run with a studentled workshop. Um it was offered by Sisters in Tech which is a group that Julie Lord oversees of uh students at the high school that are very interested in STEM and they last year did a presentation on Canva and it was really really well
received by educators and so when it came up again this year that group said to Julie absolutely we want to participate again we want to do AI and so they did come and they led a session on AI and it's always very very um interesting when you have students
that are educating the educators, right? They're sharing their expertise of how they could um use that in their own hands and how it can interact with their classes in school. And so it's always helpful to have that student voice because last year we really got good
feedback. We enjoyed having the student be part of the day. That's why we're here, right, is for the students is to have them participate in this day more. And so we were able to have a student panel um as part of a a workshop this year during this this session of workshops and we h what we did was we
had Kristen Mcmanis facilitated it and there were two to three students from every district. They came together and they did a panel and there were a couple of broad-based questions that they started off with, but they really shared their experience of their education, their K- to2 education in the district. And it's interesting that they were able
to answer the same questions, but in different ways or in similar ways. And so it was nice to hear their input um with what we do on a daily basis. And so that is something that as we continue to move forward with this day really keeping in mind how can our students
play a role in this day and how can and what can we learn from them because it is very significant the the capacity of what we can learn from them I don't think he's really yet um so that's the third workshop the next slide just to highlight a little bit more specifically
those students two studentled workshops that we had the student panel um as well as the student led workshop of AI in our hands. You can see pictures of um the sisters in tech in the top left. That's the whole group with Truly Lord uh working on their presentation and
getting it all ready and together um which they were very excited about. And if Julie were here, she'd be getting even more uh animated and excited about. She really really loves working with that group. um as well as she works with another group in in fixing technology
and our students are very um very very capable and Julie does a wonderful job letting them just go and do it um and demonstrate their skills and throughout the day we try to have
some fun and so we have done bingo a handful of times and so we wanted to incorporate bingo again. Um you see the board that we use there on the right on the bottom right that's covering the bingo board one of the bingo slides to put in a mentometer which is just a um a
platform where individuals can answer a question it can create a word cloud there's a lot of different things that mentometer can do that is the capacity that we used it for on that day and so you can see there um the responses that of some that participated in the bingo of just their one word overall of what
they thought of the day and so you can see the variety of responses that we got there. It's also just one quick like dipstick of what did people think of today in one word. I find it very interesting to see what words are chosen
and why. Um and then on the left is the wind block. So, I had said we had provided some really big global view of a few ideas that educators could do and you can see they're really broad and that was intentional just to kind of spark maybe a little bit of an idea and
then allow educators to run with it. We did receive really great feedback of the wind block. Actually, even before November 4th, I had been um actually at the high school and uh in conversation with the teacher, one of the the teachers said to me, "I love the
schedule. I already know that I love the wind block. Thank you for giving that to us. It's going to be incredibly helpful." And so, just knowing that they had that time to slow down during the day, I think we've all been to workshops and full day conferences where it's just nonstop go.
And by the end of the day, you're exhausted. you're like, I have all these ideas, but now I'm back to trying to figure out a routine. How do I implement them? And so that was the opportunity to that. And so, um, we were happy to be able to work that in and hopefully, uh, moving forward maintain either that
exactly or some version of that moving forward. I would be remiss if we did not just have delicious looking food um, on our slide this evening. we hosted here in Littleton and this was child by fire for
Aaron and he was only a couple of weeks in um and he my first conversation with him he was like so I hear there's like this big day coming up and I was like oh welcome to Littleton and so we pretty pretty quickly uh his
turnaround time on this was pretty impressive and so to have him host hundreds of educators coming through special Right. And I would say Aaron and the entire food services uh team really knocked it out of the park. Our team
does a really amazing job and provides scratch kitchen, right? They they do provide very fresh food and local, right? So they made sure that they got cer from a local farm, fruits and veggies from a local farm. Just highlighting a variety of different really local, freshlymade, aware of
allergies and allergens in the menu. >> Ice cream from Kim >> and Yeah. Yeah, I know. >> Yeah, I mean it's they really do a top-notch job and so it looked beautiful. It presented beautifully. Um they did a really wonderful job and just
a huge thank you to them for being able to provide that for not only Littleton but our um air surely and Harvard counterparts on that day as well. Feedback for the day. Um we at the end of the day always have a a survey go out just asking general questions of what
did you think? What do you have? what did we learn? What can we use? And so I put I pulled a couple of quotes from the survey so that you could see it here. You can see a lot of concrete strategies, people walking away with concrete strategies that they can put
into place the next day. The win time was highlighted um in several people's responses um and a lot of collaboration time which is the goal for the day. I think it's taken us a while to get to where we are where now we're seeing the
collaboration happen outside of just that November election day PD where people are reaching out to each other and having follow-up conversations working together collaborating space and that was one of the purposes of this day and so it's nice that that has come to
fruition and hopefully will just continue to develop and then in good fashion um AI was a a major ajor topic of the day. It continues to be a major topic in education. I drew all of our feedback into AI and said summarize the information for me and it did and I had
read I I went home and started looking at the feedback survey because that was what I wanted you know that evening after the day I sat down and said what did we think of the day right and so I started reading it and then put into AI
you know a week or so later and it was interesting AI is continually getting better and better right and the AI my response was accurate as to what I read um from directly from people's responses. And so you'll see again information. This is really helpful for
us when our team meets again, which we're meeting in a couple of weeks with our counterparts in our in the other districts to review the day, reflect on the day, go through the survey, what did we like, what did we want to change, um
anything of that sort, and be able to start planning for questions. It really does take a year for us to kind of get everything up and going and moving for the next year. Um I would say overall the day was a success. Uh a major point
um of of change for next year is to make sure that our secondary staff are eating lunch first and our elementary staff are eating lunch second because that is um more appropriate to their daily schedule. And if that is kind of a major point of contention that I hear, I'm
happy with that. I take that as a win and happily we will make sure that that happens next year for the board schedule. Uh so with that being said, because we hosted it really is a big lift for our team, our our maintenance crew several times having conversations
with Fernando leading up to it. And every time he'd see me, he'd be like, "Is there any change? Any update?" And I would say, "No, it's the And then of course like a day before I was like so Fernando and we took it with grace. Um so huge thank you Fernando and Jean were there all day for us and the entire
maintenance crew for making sure that all of the spaces were set up. The space is clean. The building is always very very presentable. It's really wonderful to be able to welcome people into our school. Um our technology team was amazing throughout the entire day. They were supporting running around from room
to room to be able to provide that support. Our tech team also stayed the evening before to make sure that we were all set up for the day. So, a huge thank you to all of them. And thank you, of course, to our food services who provided a lovely, as you saw, meal and provided everyone with that nourishment.
So, it was overall a really wonderful um day for for learning. Happy to take questions if you have a question or comment. Janine, do you have anything? >> I don't have anything. Thank you.
>> Yeah. Um, so it's it's interesting the way you were planning it that it kind of fell into these two buckets of AI and mental wellness. Was that planned? Was that a stated theme and then teachers were coming up with workshops that were related to that or is that what the
teachers were coming up with and then you saw it was kind of falling into those buckets? So we when our team gets together of the three districts, we always say what's going on in your district, what's happening, what's kind of what are you what's your planned professional development topics? What
are your unplanned PD topics? What are the conversations that you're having? And so we start there and we find a lot of commonalities between our three districts. And so we try to come up with
a general theme in that sense. And then we also use the feedback from the previous year to support what people wanted to see from moving forward. And then we also sent out another survey. So when we start in the springtime, our
group kind of starts like every other week or so, we put out another survey to our our all of our educators saying, "Okay, we're we're starting the planning process. What do you want? What what's on your mind? Are you willing to offer a session? What would it be on?" And so
then we're starting to kind of gather the information there too and we're starting to see the commonalities there. And so that's when we say, "Okay, here's kind of our major themes that we're going with." That's how we picked our headliners. And then when the teachers
put in for workshops, we really welcome any workshop that staff wants to put in. But because we've done our leg work, a lot of times it falls within kind of the the general theme of the day. But that's not to say
that if a teacher has some other idea that we would say no to it. Um because that's the idea of the day, right? Bring something to the table, share with others. And so um because of the way that we do the day a lot of times we are on
what we're hoping it to be. Sounds like the perfect mix of grassroots and districtled because you know obviously we want this to also meet district goals and initiatives things that are you know we're hoping that all teachers will move
forward with AI and and mental wellness. So it's but how wonderful to be able to do that with also honoring teachers voices. So it's thank you for >> all those nuances. That's very skillful. >> Absolutely. Absolutely.
>> Great job. >> Thank you. >> I'm so glad you enjoy. >> Yeah, that's that's just a great way to broaden them and get them exposure. >> Yeah, exactly. It's always I think it's a piece that we really need to make sure is at the table and I'm glad that we've
been able to incorporate it and hopefully right last year we had one this year we had two hopefully next year we at least three right continue building that upon that >> any experience at the in as a student standing in front of a group and presenting is gold
>> exactly yes I agree >> um great job I think it's a big big lift to have it in district but I also think it's a lot of fun right we get to squeaky clean school and great food and great workshop. So, job well done. Um,
do you think that this will just continue indefinitely with Air Shirley and Harvard? I mean, all three districts seem to be like this is this is gold. Let's just continue with this forever. >> Uh, I for the near future, I would say
yes. I think we've had conversations of different um structures of it, right? And so there are certain times where there have been certain years in the past where a certain district has said, you know, I can't have elementary come because they're doing this other thing that they have to focus on. And so we've
been flexible with each other as to >> if people need to have a a certain subgroup of their district missing, but we've also gotten to a point where everyone sees the benefit when everyone is there. And so, yes, I would say the
intention um was created by three superintendents nine years ago, one of whom has already retired um and and pretty soon we're going to be seeing a change over in that. But I think it's an established practice that I do not foresee changing at any point too soon.
What I would potentially see is conversations of does it make sense? Is there another district that maybe wants to join us? Right? But I think we have to be cautious that we have to make sure that we can hold it right. And we the key of the day is being able to really
cross and have elementary C secondary have conversations with secondary also have conversations across their grade level. Right? So there is something to be said for keeping it a relative a reasonable size um for the sake of our teachers being able to communicate and
meet and continue conversations outside of just that day as well. >> That was a really long-winded way of saying, >> but I had another question. You kind of alluded to it. So um attendance-wise, do we feel like this is well attended? I
mean, I'm mostly concerned about our staff, but I'm would be curious if the attendance varies district to district, but do we have like greater than 95% of staff participating in this? >> So, it varies year to year.
>> Um, and so it is a full day of PD where there are some years where staff life happens and it's a day that staff have to take. Um, and there are other years where our attendance is really great with it. And so it does kind of vary in that sense. And I say that because it is
a day as an educator if you don't have to create sub plans, it's easier to just say, "Okay, I have to do these doctor's appointments. I'm going to schedule it this day and get them done." Right? >> And sometimes that happens. Um I think the thing is is that we're creating a
day that is inspiring to try and ensure that people are in attendance and coming. It is a conversation that we have. It is a conversation that we have within district. It is a conversation that we have uh with the other districts as well. So that way all three districts are saying oh attendance this year is
looking like this. How does it look for you? And what I will say is that we are comparable across the districts. Okay. Um with regards to our attendance rates on the day. And so that is a good sign that there's not one district that's specifically super low in attendance and
others are really high because then that would be concerning as to moving forward. >> And then do we do any do we have any subgroups in Littleton that maybe don't participate in this cross district and they do their own independent thing? Um
Yes, >> like service providers or >> nurses. So, our nurses for uh several years now have done something that's very specific within their field. Usually offered by um either Northeastern or Boston Children's.
They'll attend uh virtually and that's across all three districts. We've made that agreement. What's interesting is over the past nine years a lot of professional organizations have decided to start offering their own day of PD on
this day. And so um for example Mayford which is the um our health and wellness like our physical education professional organization they've started holding it's always a Monday Tuesday this week of of November that they do and so our
three districts always have a conversation and we always ensure that we're in agreement and what we have come to um agree to is that two members from the department can go to that professional organization's professional development day. Yeah, >> with the intention of those that go are
then coming back and teaching the rest of their department that is participating in this day. And so really it's the best of both worlds, right? They get to have their professional organization targeted in their content area, bring that back to their department, but they also get here's what happened within district, what's
moving forward here, and bring that those that went to the other. >> Good. Thank you. >> Thank you. Great. Next up, third presentation evening, which is a
review and discussion of school district rankings. School committee member Sha Hearn will discuss with the committee the Massachusetts school district rankings. The agenda items are always so repetitive. I feel silly saying that, but
>> um we better it's for the public. So thank you Sean for putting this information together and sharing it with us. >> Yeah, no problem. Again, I don't think the school should be taken as goal. I just think it's an interesting data point. We can kind of take from that what we will. Um and I'd also like to
say as you can see in the rankings, right, we started out there uh at four. Uh that was done over a period of years of hard work to get there in the first place. U it we did slope off this year a little bit. uh if you uh move on to the next slides. The thing that I was trying
to look at right and this is based off of the Boston magazine um which again if there's any issues with the data feel free to call it out. you know um you know it's not always 100% accurate but um I looked across the years and said okay what do we have for percentage um
of efficiency and then what is that equal to when we look at all the high schools uh in the state right so basically just did a rank formula on that um and we've historically done quite well uh it's only been recent years that it's slow a little bit again
I think that we're still on the 70 percentile like or above we're still doing quite well. We just wanted to raise that if you keep moving along. Um kind of just the same trend. Um not to harp on it. And then one more slide. Um kind of the same thing. There's no data at least that I could find for 2022. Um
again, you know, we we've been a green district for a long time. Just just want to call it out. And then you know uh SAT scores. So SAT scores are the same situation. Now there's a couple of things I want to call out. Obviously we discussed this at prior meetings is um
MCCAST is no longer a graduation requirement. So it's a question to know how serious some students are taking this. Um additionally um you know the trend started prior to co but now about 80% of colleges and universities no longer or at least have test optional
for SATs. So there's less of a focus for students uh as well which may contribute if you keep this is one thing I did want to call out right is that AP proficiency went up. Um so that tells me this is you know based
on limited data set that although overall we're slightly down our best students are recovering well from the co years. So I think that that's co is a clear uh commonality with this period of time. Um and so I just wanted to call out um kind of what I'm seeing with
trends. Um I think also I know El's going to probably speak to this later but you know mental health aspect of that time period and you know working towards that. I know there's been presentations about uh the actions that different school principles are taking towards that which is great. Um I would
say that my background is in data analysis which is why you're saying this presentation with me. Um I know that there's some vocal uh survey data views on climate and learning that I'd be curious about seeing um and kind of digging into a little bit more uh as an
outtake from ancast. Again, I think that um although maybe their uh importance has been viewed a little bit differently, u the guest is still a really good tool for districts and people to look at uh how we're doing as
far as uh performance. Um uh and so I think that looking at that survey data as well as uh I would be curious about informing parents uh the importance of still taking the MCAST seriously, still taking seriously and kind of that piece
uh would be good. Um I also would be curious about maybe a survey out to students that uh students parents that um the students are in AP classes, right? Clearly again our top students are feeling still doing really well. they're bouncing back at a little higher rate than our average student. Maybe
there's something to be learned that way. Um, again, I present this just really start a conversation. Um, again, I think that the district has done a terrific job historically, which is again why you're starting off at a high level. Um, oh, this is an interesting piece, right? I think it contributed to
the change in um, why we moved down a little bit is that educator evaluations was removed from what I can tell from the Boston magazine uh, evaluations. Um it was brought to my attention that Lincoln Sbury uh saw that they had an issue with the way that was handled last year and so they ended up pulling it. Uh
historically you can see how well our our teachers are rated. Um you know they're far and away some of the top teachers evaluations in the state and so you take that out of the equation which can be a key piece. I think that also backed in to what what we're seeing.
There we go. So yeah. So again, key takeaways are um that the change in using educator evaluations uh is negatively impacting us because of how well we've done with that historically and I'm sure we still are. Um I'd say that with the MCCAST and SAT school stores, they are moving in a
negative direction. I think there's some mitigating factors that I think are worth looking into uh with you know longer graduation requirement and the SATs being less utilized by our colleges. Uh, and then I think the the important thing again to remember is that the AP has going really well. So
what we can so um I bring this up again just to kind of bring it to the committee and see if anyone had thoughts. Um, I appreciate this opportunity. >> One thing Sean, sorry, please. I I just noticed it now and I think what happened
here is the 2025 results that you have are the 2024. Oh, was it slid by >> and the 2025 have been posted recently? I can't remember. >> Wait, is that correct, John? >> Yes, we reported that we went up actually this past year 2025. Uh so
rather than like say one of them was 66% that was short for two subjects that was last year but the previous year we were 75% meeting or exceeding expectations in ELA this 20 in spring 2025 74 75% meeting expectations
math and in science we were 83% exceeding expectations. So that trend line that we pointed this out at a previous school within the presentation actually goes up but we were aware and Justin to his credit has acknowledged that different years prior years
noticing the line going down the ranks so that each you know 25 is 24 is 23. So just so you know and you were curious about and that's what the the Boston magazine is relying on. Um I guess
they're looking at their previous year. That makes sense. Um and you noticed that there was a year where there was no result. Yeah. They that was during co there was a two years 2020 and 2021 where students did not take a science test. >> Okay. Yeah. >> Thank you.
>> Sean, were you able to find out what metrics they were using to determine um the district ranking? >> You think overall district rank? >> Yeah. >> So these are the components, right? So it was um a combination of MCCAST uh uh
ratio teacher ratio uh it was less class exactly AP AP proficiency again by subject matter uh not for AP but for the MCAST and for the SATs um they make note of um kind of uh household income and
the u cost of housing but I don't know that factors in I think that's just as a a mark to see how well the school is doing based on resources. which we always do very well with, right? Compared to um how affluent our town is, we always succeed compared to our kind of top of our
>> And then when they took out the educator evaluation scores. >> Yeah. >> Um >> that >> because we were doing so well with it. Yeah. Because we're doing so well with it, right? We you know, one, two, whatever. Um when they took that out, it
negatively impacted us by nature, right? And you pick something that's going to be above where you are sitting in ranking, it's going to pull you back down. >> That's a lot of drop. >> Yeah. >> Or like one element. I >> Oh, I don't think it's all that element, right? >> No, but yeah, it does make
>> Yeah. I I wanted to at least give credit to the district for what it's done. Yeah, >> I mean you have to remember each each grade is a different cohort and it's not uncommon to have have dips and rises because we're we're dealing with 110 to
130 students also need to take into account even though we we added a number of students at least to send out district into our district our results have remained soft.
So there's so many variables to look at but no matter even in a population of a,500 you're going to see dips in scores. It's amazing how how grades have have some consistency beyond the district level.
Not easy to explain but I've seen that for many years that uh you know maybe a grade five class and you follow the grade five class. uh until graduation and and you see improvements in growth,
but it still is below the the class or the grade more correctly before it and after it. This pattern exists. You know what we said at our MCCAST meeting which is really important is the SPG student
percentile growth is really important because that really for me as a superintendent indicates that our students are moving ahead that is so important. So, a question that I have about the
impact of removing educator evaluation on our high school ranking makes me wonder how how um how often do teachers get an exemplary rating? Is it how difficult is it in this district? How frequently does
it happen? >> Well, it depends on on the composition of our staff and the longevity that our staff have been with us. And it also depends on your philosophy. >> Well, I guess that's what I'm asking. What is the philosophy? >> The philosophy here is is simply if we
give an exemplary as well earned and and our philosophy in this district, if you have an evaluation measure that's not attainable, it should be on there. Well, I can just share that in the districts I've worked in meeting it's considered that the standards on the
teacher rubric are rigorous and that if you're meeting those standards as a at the proficient level that that's already a very high bar >> and that it's very rare for a teacher to get an exemplary rating. that that would
be for example the kind of teacher that would be such a rock star that you wouldn't be bringing other teachers to their classroom to observe their practice. Um >> in my experience it's been very rare. Um so
>> if we have a higher proportion of our teachers getting exemplary and then all of a sudden that's removed from the ranking formula. I can see how that would cause a large drop. >> Uh perhaps it depends on how it was
weighted and I think these are weighted measures. I don't think they're equal measures. So that's what I don't know. >> Yeah, I'd have to reach out to get a deeper understanding of the format. >> I would imagine it's they are weighted. >> I I would agree with that. Yeah. >> Um can I just while I appreciate this
coming to our attention, I've had in another life at another place. Um there was a an intense discussion about a report in mainstream media very much like this and those who had been in education for
years and years did not really put a lot of weight mostly because often mainstream media like this has other agenda. Um, I don't know that it does, but I
after listening to the conversation, it was like, please don't get wound up about this. It's in mainstream media. I mean, it's in a it's in, you know, um, a a a magazine that is selling ads to and
and it's not a it's not really a scholarly examination. I mean, it does use metrics, but I mean, one thing that that has bothered me for years is there's been such a push on dual enrollment college classes, yet
that's not considered >> and yet they they keep an AP rank and and an a you know, the history of AP courses is really quite interesting. And when education became available to all, which it should
evolve before it did, there was a a a political force that said, well, we're we're dummying down our curriculum, so we're going to we're going to create AP exams. And since that inception, I think it was 50s or early 50s, um it still,
you know, is is a is a metric that's used by a lot of agencies. what they fail to realize that dual enrollment courses are are equivalent to AP courses and they're actually at the college level and yet it takes so much time to
change that mindset in people that determine metrics for ratings. So that's one thing that that I've noticed for years and keep questioning at what point in time are you going to consider dual enrollment, right? Most high schools in most states are are
offering dual enrollment courses. >> And and the research is clear. If if a student has at least one college course in high school, the chances of graduation increase substantially and the the chance of finishing on time with
your peers increases substantially. Yet, this metric isn't isn't incorporated into into any any uh rankings that I've seen at this point in time. So, no, that's the feedback I was looking for. Again, I don't take this as gospel. I kind of take it as what are we looking
at? What uh like I said last year and Sbury reached out and said they didn't think something was fair. So let's evaluate what's going on getting treated correctly. To your point, you know, you can can make different decisions. Uh I do know that their numbers are run by a Babson professor. So there is some
didn't to it. But again, choosing what what you value in the formula is always going to make an impact. So >> thank you guys. Don't leave it. So I I applaud your efforts in bringing this information for us because
I can remember being here celebrating you know 4 10 6 and 7. So I think it's only fair that we revisit this topic when the numbers drop right otherwise we're sort of kidding ourselves. So, we we you know, we gave ourselves a big round of applause when the uh when the
information looked good and we'd be doing ourselves a disservice or we'd be, you know, we'd be kidding ourselves to say all of a sudden GC's numbers don't matter now that we're 40. Um I I do recognize that the self, you know, the um
>> the educators, >> yeah, the educator evaluation >> certainly played an impact in that. I remember looking at some data um previously, you know, as it relates to your question and it it does it to me it did seem like um you know, we scored
well in that area and I can I can understand Lincoln's gripe. It's like a self assessment of your teaching staff, >> right? >> Um point of clarification before. So I think when and again this is Boston Magazine's, you know, top school
district. I don't even think it's statewide. I think it was like the Metro West or the 495 bubble or something like >> Yeah. Yep. Got it. >> Something like that. Um it's it's fun to celebrate this when we're a high rank, but I'll tell you, I mean,
>> people do care about this. I mean, this is what drives property value and drives along with the VSS value and the taxes and all that good stuff. Um but this is what also helps the school district move forward. So folks that are interested in highquality education are then seeking
Littleton moving into Littleton and it helps it helps us um move forward. So to see a drop here is a little disheartening. I think some of it has to do with the educator uh evaluation piece. Obviously a lot has to do with the MCAST and the SAT scores. In terms
of MCCAST, I mean it's level playing field like it didn't matter for anybody, right? So, the fact that, you know, we did score as well, other districts could be saying the same thing, we're I I never want to be accused of teaching to the test or anything like that, but the
reality is for anyone who's listening, these things matter. Um, in terms of the MCCAST, uh, sorry, the SAT scores, you got to be crazy if you're just voluntarily taking the SAT. Um, that obviously matters to that student,
right? They've paid a fee to take the SAT. They're using it as part of their college application. I'm fairly certain that best efforts go into those. And the the trend as presented this evening doesn't look good. But what I think we're seeing is like Boston Magazine's
2025 rank is based upon our 2024 score results. Is that what we've come to the conclusion? >> Yep. Cats. >> Yes. for MCCAST and possibly for SATs as well since they might roll this information out in the fall and they're using the spring data, right?
>> I think they you can access the SAT scores through the desi profile. I think they probably do that and um Bessie I think when they reported they reported based on the year it was taken whereas when we report SAT scores to colleges and stuff we choose to we do the
composite score which is college admissions are going to recognize where we post the students best score of multiple opportunities on our school profile we we pick the best scores and you know and and report that for that student we compile it all together so
it's a composite score which is a very common thing for high schools to do uh to show how their students ultimately performed what was their best performance and that average together. Um but I'm not sure if Bessie just takes the they somehow get the data from the
college board and show from that school year or from that year calendar year. I believe it's probably a school year and they may just take here's how the kids scored that year and you know it might not be the best score for that kid at Littleton High School or whatever school
you know it could be neighboring school. Um, so there were also other things. I just looked at the Boston magazine. I don't know what the weights were, but there were graduation rates counted into this. We do fairly well with that. Access to the arts, access to digital
literacy and computer science courses. I could I'm not sure if that will continue to stay in there. You'll be strong emphasis on AI school. Um there was a huge push for a lot of schools to have uh computer science courses years ago and they have they have a lot of
offerings that's not something that we particularly offer that right now other than online virtual high school um advanced coursework completion obviously cited that and I don't know I don't think they factored this into the metric but they did publish the median income
of the towns the median home price but based on just the metrics for schools We we I I think as a high school as a high school principal, I would want to look at what we would what we're doing with SATs. We do not teach we do not teach the SAT. We want to have test prep
program. Years ago, when I first came here, the SAT scores were not at all where they even write this past year. Um and we knew we needed to do something about that. So, we brought in partnered with PTA. We did an SAT boot camp. we started there has been a resurgence in
the SAT after the there is a lot more test there are a lot more test optional schools but some of the more selective especially more selective schools have reinstituted the SAT as a requirement in order to mention you have to take it or to score so we have to recognize that too and see what we're doing for SAT
prep for our students uh so I had a conversation with our you know one of the members of the guidance department before this meeting was talking about what we what we can specifically do about helping kids prepare for the SAT. A lot of our students, you know, parents
are invest especially highest achievers. Um they invest in test prep courses on their own except they can be quite expensive. We recognized that well over 15 years ago and we invested in with PTA support and we advertised this and
helped subsidize that course prep. Uh, so I think it might be a time for us to revisit that and have make sure we offer it on campus for students who might not, you know, have an interest or might be thinking, oh, I don't need to take it. Um, there will be a lot of kids who
won't take the SATs because the school they're applying to are test optional, right? >> Um, and that's perfectly that's perfectly fine choice for that family. But I do think we need to look at what we could do there. MCCAST, we've already reported extensively on that with that
what we need to do um and certainly have you made the point right said is having students take it seriously. Yeah. Even though it's not a graduation requirement, is it? So it'll be interesting with Boston magazine and other similar publications useful for
their metrics and preparing school districts in the future whether they'll continue to use MCCAST or not. Um we all we've always recognized since the since the advent of MCAST that it's closely tied to socioeconomic status you look at
the you know of the towns and rel soioeconomic status has grew quite a bit you know in the last 20 years and we can see it based on the incomes that published in the magazine but all the top performing schools are high SCES
schools for sure and that so that's and there is a lot resources and we appreciate that. I don't want to carry on too much, but I just want to recognize that um this is something we want to pay attention to. I think you said it well. I appreciate chairman's comments about that it does
matter when it's publications, realers do use this. They were, you know, when have I go to Rotary meetings or and I'd have been doing um the realtors, they'd all be, you know, singing praises of high school for the divine performance in the rankings. And they said, "We use
those rankings. We have we have a few families we looking at town is sure. So we have been here before though I will say historically since I have a fairly long tenure here looking at we have before in the rankings and they changed
the metrics on different years. Some years they Boston magazine just published a report for the ranked districts. So the and then they they give the high the year off from school preparing high schools but I think they've really latched on to great maybe well ranking
high schools. So we have slid before when we were high and we brought it back up. So with that I could say that this there could be some confidence that we can we want to do better that in the rankings. I acknowledge that Lane you talked about we probably have to look at it. You know we have discussed
recalibrating the the teacher evaluation rubric. Um there could have been some generosity perhaps given during the co years and things like that. Well, the problem is it's it's hard to take that away once you've given it, you know, >> but it looks like that's not RA and that
it is a self report thing, right? You know, we that could be manipulated by schools wanted to, you know, just kind of make everybody example, >> right? Because it is a self-evaluation and >> yeah, so we have to be careful of that. You know, I think we we and we are we've
discussed that actually I think at admin council at one point of just recalibrating making sure that proficient is the is the goal of being and being proud of the fact that you school proficient and and you're a model teacher who can for other teachers as you said I just wanted to acknowledge
your point there but yeah so I think I touched upon every metric at this point but it's that it's fair criticism we have to be able to look ourselves in the mirror and say we're where we want to be this year in the rankings although because we loved it when we were up
there in the top but 10 >> rights >> and it's you know we were there for four years or potentially before and dips happen and we can readjust and the metrics change and it's just it's just the way things work. So there's lot like I'm not hitting panic alarm by any stretch of
imagination but I also want to say like not on our watch is the trend going to go down and stay stay down. Okay. So >> the goal would be to bring this back up. I think that when I don't even know when this report rolls out, but I think that >> September, >> August, September. >> Yeah.
>> So perhaps the next time this rolls out, they'll have the the data on the bounceback of our MCAT scores and we might see ourselves go up. I don't know. Some I've also seen these um these metrics include things like diversity within the community and extracurricular
offerings. So I think we do really well with our extracurricular offerings that included right for the size district we are. Um diversity is obviously a tough thing to to control. Um but you know in in summary I welcome presentations like
this because it feels really good when we're in the top 10 and then we should pause and take a time out and look at why we dropped and is it something we want to address or is it just noise? this is just media noise and it's really nothing for us to pay attention to. We've got our strategic plan. Let's
continue to operate on that or are there some things that we can do that that really matter to the community to try to score better. So, we would go with it's something we need to look at and see if there's anything that we're missing.
>> It's a trend. Trends are important. It can debate the validity of the trend but the bottom line is there there was a downturn and something needs to be composition the grade it we've seen these things happen before but my
expectation as superintendent track goes up and it already has with the 2025 results but it's motivation as far as I'm concerned as well I mean I don't think any any of our staff uh feel good when when the curve curve with the line
goes the wrong way. Right. Thank you, Sean. >> Well done. We'll give you rounds. >> All right. Our fourth presentation this evening is the mass mc 2025 fall
conference update. Uh Justin McCarthy, Elaine Sampleman, and Jane Wood will give an update on the 2025 fall conference that we just got back from. and lots of information. So, I think Elaine's going to kick this off, correct?
>> Yeah. I mean, I could go first or last or whatever you prefer. I do have slides. >> Yeah. So, why don't you kick this off, walk us through your slides. You can do it from the podium if you like. And Jimmy and I would like to share a couple >> remarks on our uh our experience. Yeah.
Our experience as well. >> Okay. That's not my first >> there's two slides before that >> there >> or maybe >> mass joint the first slide >> and then go back
all I know >> oh all right okay I had a couple slides ahead of that but um One was title this. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah. All right. So, you have it in your packet. But >> um I just wanted to start off um thanking the district for sending us to the conference. It's um so beneficial every year. Um you've been getting more
and more members to come with me. The first year I went alone and then the next year Justin came with me and then this year Janine joined us. So um to me the the objectives of going to the conference are to learn about innovative practices that are happening in other
districts um to observe some models of superintendent and school committees collaborating together and also to network and connect with um representatives from the Massachusetts Association of School Committees. So I
always learn so much at these at these sessions and um I did want to put some slides together computer backing you know >> perfect. Um, so tonight, um,
I went to a lot of sessions, but I went to three that were on the same topic, which was mental wellness, and they were all talking about integrating it with MTSS. So, just to I'm try we're trying not to speak an acronym. So, MTSS is
multi-tiered systems of support. So you can actually see it on that pyramid there. So the um I hope I'm saying this right, Lynn. So the bottom tier, tier one is um what everybody gets. Tier two here it's in yellow is are are for it's
a higher level of support for students who need it. Tier one is more specialized support. Am I saying that right? Okay. So what was notable about these sessions at the conference was that the districts that
were talking about it were integrating mental health mental wellness into the MTSS framework. So it was interesting the three presentations I went to on this topic were all kind of hitting the same notes. I'm sharing the slides from
what I thought were the best slides. So I contacted Armen Py. I don't know if you know him in Medway. Y >> um he's the superintendent there and I reached out to him after the conference and asked if he would share his slides which he did. Um and so I'm sharing this
sort of as a point of discussion. I you know it's it's weird sharing somebody else's slides. I didn't make these but um I selected ones that I was hoping would spark some interest, some conversation.
Um, I'd like to learn where we are as a district in comparison to what's going on in Medway, which from my very brief survey at the conference, they seem to be sort of the exemplar of districts
that are integrating mental wellness into the MTSS model. So, I'd like to share how they did it and then um you know, hopefully spark a conversation about where we're at here in Littleton and what ideas we may want to incorporate from some of these other
districts. So, Steve, if you could go to the This doesn't Oh, there it is working. Thank you. So, this is a video I'd like to share. something is wrong with you. It feels like the end of the world is going to
happen. So knowing that I can or I can go to a judgment free zone and just let it happen is it's important to me >> knowing that there's going to be like a whole like support system basically of people. Um
it kind of just like calms my worries and I feel like a lot of the support here has helped. Oh, sorry. My my fault. >> Well, let me just frame it.
>> Um, so these are four middle school students in Medway speaking to their experience once these supports have been put in place. So, what their lives are like now um having their emotional and mental health needs met within the school
system. So, yeah, try it again and see if it works. free zone and just let it happen. When you're in middle school, when you feel like something is wrong with you, it feels like the end of the world is going to happen. So knowing that I can I
can have the support. I can go to a judgment free zone and just let it happen is it's important to me >> knowing that there's going to be like a whole like support system basically of people. Um,
it kind of just like calms my worries and I feel like a lot of the support here has helped me grow so much and it's done that for so many other students too, which I think is incredible. Through all the years, I've never felt
like I've stopped being supported. It's always been there. Like I'm walking down the hall, I see Miss Yim. She says hi. And I can just feel like I belong here. like I have someone who cares about me in this school
>> and that's never that feeling has never changed. >> Thanks for your persistence and getting that to work Steve. So if you can go back to the slide deck. Um uh okay so this was the goals of this
particular session were to recognize the district's um expanded responsibility for coordinating mental health services and understanding this modernized vision of um MTSS working
>> no maybe I'll let you advance this Um, I think you're on their slide deck and not mine. If you can >> get out of the video and go back to the slide deck that I shared. >> Yeah, that's their slide deck. I'm
sorry. >> Do I use my computer? >> Oh, you can. Are you logged in? >> To the meeting. Well, not to the meeting. >> No, >> should be able to >> let me
All right. So, where do you want to go to? >> Um, yeah. I just really want to show them these graphs. Yeah. Um, >> is it mental health crisis? >> One for the public. >> So, youth mental health crisis that
slide your >> um >> yeah, hold on. >> Sorry. Thought I had this all set. >> Yeah, it's Yeah, youth mental health crisis. It's a It's a bar. It should be right after that.
>> Little bit packing in the top. >> Yeah, I'm trying to get there. >> That's it. >> There you go. >> Excellent. Thank you. So, >> well, it was worth it because I feel like >> this graph is really important because
we pay so much attention to the mental health crisis as it relates to the COVID pandemic. But what this graph shows is that there was a crisis before the pandemic. You know, this starts in 2013 and we could see that there were higher
incidents of uh feelings of sadness and hopelessness um suicide ideiation um and that that continued to increase through the pandemic and then continued at a high level after after the pandemic.
Um >> yeah, on the left it So 20 40 60 is this >> numberund I mean number per thousand >> I wondered that too. So >> this is what's weird about presenting somebody else's slides. If I had made
them I would know but I think what was notable is just the trends. >> Yeah. Um, I'm glad you pointed that out because I had the same question when I looked at it >> and it it's just like >> right >> dative person it trends don't like.
>> So um could you go to the next slide Steve? So this is looking at it another way. This um incorporates middle school students as well as high school students. We're seeing the same trend starting in 2011 going this ends at
2021. So that's like right in the middle of the pandemic. But you can the point is you can see that a crisis was developing before the pandemic. So in a in some ways it seems like our our attention on the pandemic kind of took
our eyes off the ball of what was really happening um under our noses. So um next slide please. And then we had talked a couple meetings a ago about chronic absenteeism and this shows the impact of mental
health on on that problem. So we can see obviously during the pandemic there was a larger problem with chronic absenteeism. That was when we were in remote learning and um but even in 2022 it hasn't gone back down to where we
would want it to be. So um one of the points that was being made in the session is the um correlation between um mental the mental crisis and chronic absenteeism. Um next slide please Steve. So another
point that they made was you know we've got students that need mental health services. They're all going to need them after school. So that puts a huge burden on the providers in the community to all be meeting the needs of these students after school. Um to meet the current
needs, it would take 47 child psychiatrists per 100,000 children. And currently the United States only has 9.75 child psychiatrists for that cohort. So that's also indicating the that we've got a crisis and that we
don't have the providers to meet meet the crisis. Next slide, please. So, and here's the ultimate referral bottleneck. We've got schools referring to these providers. We've got pediatricians referring to the providers. Caretakers also and then you
know with the afterchool and weekend counseling appointments are just not sufficient to meet that demand. So, what this is leading up to um next slide is considering providing more of these supports in school. Um, I hesitate. I've
got another video that explain driver. >> Okay. >> Shift in responsibility. Schools and districts make it their direct responsibility to actively coordinate and provide support services that occur outside the traditional
school setting. Tier 4 accepts that only schools can do this comprehensively and in some cases it brings external resources into the schools even during school hours by ensuring timely comprehensive support for students with intense needs. Schools are no longer
subject to a failure point when an outside of school provider cannot be located or the length of time before intensive support begins is weeks or months. When schools take on a tier 4 level of responsibility, districts increase their control over the type and
quality of support for students who previously were left to a system that is challenged and overwhelmed. Here are the four core components of a fourth tier of supports. One, taotherapy. Two, care coordination.
Three, inschool outpatient therapy. And four, wraparound services. Okay, that's the end of that. >> Okay, perfect. So, next slide. So, all I know about what we do here in
Littleton is what I saw on the website. So, I'm sure Lynn would have much more to share with us um at a later date, but what I saw on the website is that we do use um Care Solace for care coordination. So we do have that component of this tier 4 core component.
Um at the conference, you know, when I went to these sessions, there were a lot of discussions um in the Q&A at the end of the sessions. A lot of the districts were talking about using cartwheel for uh taotherapy and for wraparound support. So um and they happened to be
at the exhibit hall. I don't know if you guys visited them but um >> so we do have some of these um systems in place but what struck me in medway was the degree to which they are really
dedicating themselves to providing these services for students. So can you go to the next slide please? Um, so in Medway, so Medway is a little bigger than we're about 10,000 population. They're about 13,000, but I think demographically
there's some similarities, but what they did was hire a clinical supervisor. So this was um someone at the PhD level that they've had come in 10 years ago. So that tells you how long it takes to put this whole integrated system in
place. But um he is just working on the mental health component. He's hired a licensed social worker that does inhome therapy. They've hired a therapeutic mentor that works directly with um students in the home and in the
community and a parent coach that works with parents as um up here with a lived experience. So those are three staff positions that they've put in in Medway. Um and this is why I was saying it seems to me like this is like an exemplary
model. like you know this is hard to to build up over a short period of time but the successes that they were reporting were really notable. So if you can go to the next slide um one of the things that they were
noticing is that their counselors were spending a lot less time um on referrals to outpatient providers. This is, you know, you we can hear later from, you know, what our experience here is in Littleton, but um in Medway, the
counselors there were spending an overwhelming amount of their time trying to line up outpatient support for students who were struggling. And now that they had these in in district supports, the counselors were spending
much much less time on that and more time actually working with students. Um the other point that they were making um forget if I oh right that slide where it says 4%. So the data is showing that even if you do line up outpatient
supports that only 4% of the students attend six or more appointments meaning that they just give up after a short period of time. Um whereas when they were getting the supports in district they had an 84% success rate which is
pretty notable. Um, next slide. So the outcomes were affected attendance, it affected academics and it had a financial impact as well. So quickly to the next one. Um so they
noticed this um impact on their chronic absenteeism that with through these four different implementations they had um 71% of their students improved or maintained their attendance. Next slide. Um
this is an another graphic showing a similar thing just breaking it down by grade span. Um, next slide. And then, well, so my concern when I was hearing about this, you know, if students are being pulled out of class to get mental health supports, what does that do to
their academics? But they were finding that 76% of the students improved or maintained their GPA. Um, next slide. So there was also a there's always a school committee member that's in these presentations because it's showing
collaboration between school committees and superintendent and other district personnel. So school committee rep got up and spoke to it and you know what their role is in all of this which is really advocating for funding and resources. So, you know, if we want to
start talking about moving in this direction, obviously there's financial implications. We'd have to talk about um you know, what what this means for our budget. One point that they did make is that they were seeing a reduction in the outofdist placements, which are very
costly. So if we if with fewer out of district placements which can be like $100,000 a year um that would pay for part of this programming. Um next slide.
So in Medway the way they got support for this was really a you know a campaign to educate um parents, families, community about the value of doing this. It is a departure from past practice. So it
would take um you know well we know how to do yes campaigns don't we? Um but you know this would I I'm sharing this with you just to start a conversation. I am not suggesting that
this is what Littleton is ready for, but it was it was so um powerful to see what can happen if a district takes on this mental health responsibility for its students instead of relying on it all to
have an outpatient. So, there's some additional slides. This is I'm not going to go through these, but I just wanted them in the packet so that you could see them. This was a um another presentation on a similar topic, but there's a few slides in there that are related to the
Massachusetts Partnership for Youth, which I saw on the website. We have a partnership with them. So, um I picked up a bunch of brochures and stuff that I'll share with you. Um, so anyway, just um I'll close there because this has
already gone on a long time, but um just wanted to hear what other folks on the school committee think about this and if um you know, I'd love to hear more from the district about um what we're currently doing and what our philosophy
is for supporting kids in school. Yeah. Um, so I love the concept, but I I'm sorry my I can't sync something up. In the beginning, you talk about how we have a national crisis of number of
mental health professionals, especially those who are who are u in the pediatric specialty, which is very important as is from what I understand. Um, so if schools
want to even if we want to go out and and bring in mental health professionals, how do we like there aren't enough? So, I'm uh I'm like I mean I'm glad Medway was able to do this, but and and I'm sure you know you know you work
hard, you can find them, but I'm just kind of like but there aren't enough but so go get some. It's like >> well they they would need a they hired um a clinical supervisor who was doing um having doing counseling and then
>> um also they were the counselors that they had were spending less time booking outpatient appointments and spending more time working with students. Um and then they had those three other staff members that they hired. So they were able to make it work. I think the idea
is that you're you're hiring people that are dedicated just to the district and not to the entire uh geographic area around where >> there are a couple and I appreciate you saying that uh we do some of this now
but I spent three years uh as a chairman of an intersectoral committee very large area and my job as chair was to bring justice social services and health care and education under one umbrella focusing on wraparound services
for at least families. I have a lot of experience in >> uh one of the challenges that Janine has mentioned is is real. Uh I was fortunate at that time to be able to convince
these agencies to provide services to the students and families at area schools. But we had this they had the staff to do this. And what's different now is because the
problem has has grown significantly. In order for a model like this to work, we need more people trained in those areas. And the model that that I actually helped create brought in agencies and assigned people to various schools so that we had
consistency and wraparound services. But you need the numbers of people to do that. I mean, for example, social services, it frustrates me that this is the model. You don't know what you're going to get when you call social services, and that's through no fault of theirs. But the model we created when I
was on this committee was that we have x number of social workers assigned to our district. >> Yes. >> And and they can build relationship with with families. And that's when wraparound really really starts to work. So I I'm I'm 100% on board with this
concept. It's just that there needs to be a transformation within this state in terms of how our services are offered. And plus, we need more people that have these qualifications to make this work. And
it's a phenomenal model as as you'd witnessed in Medway, but I think Medway is really unique in being able to make this happen. and and when we do our presentation, you'll see that we've we've done a bit of this and we even I had conversations about bringing in a uh
psychiatrist and offering services after the end of the school day and using healthcare plans. >> But we decided, and I can't talk about this in open session, but we ran into some snags with
that concept. Uh but there I mean there are creative ways to try but it's really hard to secure a psychiatrist in this day and age that would would devote uh 20 or 30% of your time to one district. But I mean there is an identified need.
This is a great way to to start those conversations or not well not start continue those conversations because there is a crisis out there and we know it and you know your your tables are charged despite the x-axis not being well defined it shows that that it's
increasing which is very concerning to >> yeah two things I think I agree with what you're saying I think it's difficult when you deal with unable students healthcare things like Uh, one thing I'm curious about is, uh, and again, take time. We can get creative. I don't know
if there's a residency program be willing to give rotations into a district like that. That's definitely a little outside, but you know, there's some serious um, medical schools in the area, whether it's BU or Harvard or House. Maybe that's a possibility. Um, I'm also curious if they spoke at all
about dstigmatizing mental health, right? So, I I know that it in the last five or 10 years there's been a big effort to do that. I don't know if they spoke to any of the efforts if they weren't about doing this, right? Didn't have all the services, but if people are afraid, I think particularly, you know,
uh might be a little less likely to speak up. Um how do they kind of encourage people to use the resources and feel empowered to do so and not if they're going to get, you know, picked on for it? >> Yeah. I mean that was a discussion in
another session I went to that they raised that issue about um the stigma and yeah it was part of a discussion. It wasn't anything that anybody had any great answers to because that's a societal thing that it's going to take time but it it wasn't so much that they
were hiring psychiatrists. It was that they were hiring counselors. So um and the report from Medway they said that it was it wasn't hard to find people because they liked the school schedule. They like the consistency of being on the payroll, not having to deal with
insurance companies. U they liked having the summer schedule. Um so they didn't find it too challenging to be able to hire extra counselors to be part of the rent burden services. Um but to your point like I think finding a psychiatrist would be they didn't talk
about um having a psychiatrist on staff. you're going to sidetrack psychiatric nurse is really hard to find in this day and age too. >> Yeah. Um but anyway, thank you for um thinking about that. I just it was such
a powerful idea and that also it was being talked about in multiple sessions made it feel like this is something that's that's really catching fire um in other districts in the state. So, you know, we want to make sure we're talking about it at least >> and we will prepare a presentation on
our clinical service. Yeah, I look forward to it. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you for sharing. >> You're welcome. That's all right. >> Jadine, do you have anything to share with the committee about your experience
at >> conference? >> I have a couple notes. Um I don't have a slideshow. Um but um so the overall I I um wasn't surprised but was pleased to to find
that a lot of districts are dealing with the same things we're dealing with. Um they're dealing with how do we work well with municipal boards is that was that session was like okay everybody strap in. Um but but I felt really good about
uh it did make me feel really good about where we are. Um and I just want to give a shout out to Steve. A lot of things that I heard people worry about. I think um we have worked with our other boards
and adopting the um budgeting tool that other boards are using has smoothed our relationship with a lot of boards. And I just want to give you kudos that you've helped that a great deal. I think um from what I could tell other other
schools are dealing with, you know, how to handle cell phones and and school start times is big our big discussions. I think we are um in most cases if not leading absolutely you know aware and working on the problems that other other
groups are working on. a couple two sessions that I want to um one on sub commmittees this actually this there is a theme between these two one on subcommittees and how we can handle subcommittees in um with with open
meeting law etc and um and a session on therapy animals there were issues that came up and I was like I don't I honestly walked away not positive whether they were best practices or whether there were um these were things
we should do for the law by law like um in Massachusetts. So just wanted to float the idea of if the committee and I'm not sure exactly how to do this. So, I'll just say, um, could we talk to ask
some questions of our law, our attorney, um, and just say, so subcommittees, for example, should be open to the public. Um, I love going into um, Dr. Klen's
office, but is that open to the public? And are are we posting them in enough time? and and and and you know an attorney may say you're doing fine or they may say you know it's going to be better if you move them over here and you do and you just follow these two
steps. um therapy animals. The people that handle therapy animals are very very adamant about insurance and certification. And that's that's for everybody's safety, including the animals. And they're like, "Please don't make a
mistake cuz we they live to bring these animals in and and and have this have these programs." They're like, "One mistake messes it up for us." So maybe um our attorney would have a a boilerplate, >> you know, of and a list of a list of
certifications that are legit. >> We've already done a week, you know, I just I just thought I'd check. >> We have a number of the dogs in our district. We're we're covered. I'm glad you brought that up though because one incident and stopped. >> Yeah. Yeah. Well, knowing you know, we have the paperwork in place. everybody
is, you know, following crossing the tees and dotting the eyes and just checking in because I had no idea. And uh so you just it was just things to bring back and go, "Oh, are we doing that?" So that was just um that's that was that was my experience. Um as well
as just really it was really good to talk to people from diff different districts, find out what's happening. Um we're we're kind of like average, you know, we're doing great. Oh, we're better than average. >> Oh, of course we are. >> All these other districts are major
issues >> really good at the conference. We've got high performing district completely functional school committee. So, um, my my takeaways are just, you know, for Sean and with Vina watching his back, uh, number of great sessions. I and you
sort of leave with maybe more questions than than answers and it just kind of sparks future conversations. So, I attended a session on the pro uh, problem resolution system. So, maybe I've got some follow-up conversations to speak with Len about that. Um, and on
call AI. No, no surprise there, right? AI is a hot topic. Um Sean, our guest speaker was Pedro Martinez. >> No way. >> Yeah. Not the Red Sox. Pedro Martinez. >> The Desi Commissioner. He's from Chicago when
he shared with us at dinner um sort of the state's initiatives 2026 and beyond. Nice talk. The following morning we had a um a speaker on breaking the spell of high conflict um which we all enjoyed.
And then I attended another session on current issues and developments in educational law which made me think I ought to maybe check our our student handbooks and just make sure that these recent developments are reflected in our student handbook. And then another session on a district's use of social
media and they talked about you know the how Twitter has become X and you know maybe educators have gone away from that and they talked about districts using Facebook and Instagram and other social media platforms that I'm maybe was unaware of. Um I think as a district
we've got ways to communicate to the public um through our school now and other resources. Um, I don't think we're a high user of social media. Obviously, there's benefits to that, but there's areas of caution as well if you're going
to use social media. Um, and then I'll also say it's it's a great conference because you leave there's like 700 people there, 800 people there, and of course the superintendents are paid, but the all the school committee members for the most part are volunteers. And you
really leave the conference thinking there are some good people out there. There's some people giving their time. Everybody's trying to move a common goal forward. And it's a pretty small community, too. Like, you wouldn't believe how popular Kelly is. He wasn't even there. And everybody's asking for Kelly, his wife. Um, and when I talked
with a lot of the vendors, we either use them or they've talked to us in the past or maybe there's some opportunity for some future conversations. Cartwheel, the, you know, other other folks. and as we get through as we talk through the budget on things that we need to add or cut, it's great
to just make these connections. So, all in all, it's a great experience and um kind of get you charged up as a school committee member to, you know, see the rest of the two-thirds of the year through. So, I'll be trying to go back next year and I'll try to carry some of these things that I learned and
questions that I thought of uh into some subsequent meetings and some um sub subcommittee meetings as well. the reaction you guys. >> I'm I'm just thrilled really went. I mean, that's powerful. >> Yeah, thank you. You obviously were a
formidable force there in terms of encouragement and and you know, Justin, you're you're so right. It's it's nice to be with a group of people that are giving their time to to do good and and the sessions have have always been uh
well organized and and always looked at areas that that are common in districts and there's nothing like being around 7 or 800 people that are passionate about working with children. >> Right. So glad that the three of you uh
experienced it and two of you for the second year. But uh that that's uh actually been a dream of mine. I've been coaching you for many years and it's hard for some people to get away. >> I appreciate it. >> But yeah, this is my third. >> Yeah.
>> Thank you for doing there there certainly are a number of districts that get distracted with stuff outside the strategic plan. So, it's it's really nice that we have school committee meetings that are centered around the strategic plan. We don't have a lot of community distraction going on. Like,
you know, it was great to hear that Boston magazine thing, but we're not going to shift gears entirely to try to, you know, um be a top performer. We're going to stay focused on our mission. And it's it's wild how distracted some of these districts can get with uh some community input that's a little
misguided. So, right, you guys have shared. >> Yeah. Although they did have some fun side. I got to um go to a session Falmouth about Falmouth's lunch program. >> Oh. >> That is now including green houses >> and composting.
>> Wow. >> And they they hired a young chef who actually I think grew up there and then got went learned around the world and came back to Felmouth. >> And she's she's excited about helping the kids um advising which herbs to grow. But but
they've also integrated it some into their elementary science program. I mean when they they don't just they it's like why do you accomplish what are you doing? How does this work? You know which is not I mean it is a science. So
it was that was fun. >> It's awesome. And the food was good I assume after that comment. >> The food was good I assume. >> Yeah. I mean well food in there was good and the food at the conference was fine. That's all. So next year it's going to be in Danver.
>> Not just yesterday. >> Yeah. >> No more. >> Yeah. >> Well, >> is not close for anybody >> except the people on the >> except for the hotel changed hands and I guess they're not as interested in
offering conferencing the bridge project too sometime. So that's going to cause major travel. >> All right. We'll be doing >> well dancers is like dry. >> Yeah, >> I drove to
>> I mean like every day. >> Yeah, we might have to spend the night. >> Yeah. >> Um All right, that wraps up the presentation portion of the evening. It's our second opportunity for interested citizens. There's anyone with us this evening that graciously stuck around all meeting and passed on the
first opportunity. We invite you to the podium this evening. Thank you much Rob Browns 25 road. So some community input um first congrats Shaker Lane vote awesome you know uh volume of voters
appreciate also all the all the learning that I've gotten in more than the last year. Um you folks have been more than patient and uh thank you has learned a lot along the way. Having said that,
I now want to challenge you to you got Littleton's attention. 98 million got a lot of attention. I'm stunned by my level of ignorance.
And that's what I want to encourage you to to really chip away at because I still see me myself as being extremely ignorant. Like I've got granddaughters, you know, Shaker Lane. I don't know
what's going on. And that that's probably my fault. But I also think there are barriers that I want to just challenge you to overcome because I think as I spoke with numerous people in
the community, I'm not I'm not the only person. I've only been here for four years. Many people here in Littleton have been here for decades and family histories, etc., and they feel like they know it. I don't have that. Um, but cracking that barrier
seems like something that I think could really pay dividends for our schools and our community. And so I want to really encourage you to grab this opportunity because I really think it's unique. And I think that um benefits can serve you well for the next time you go for your
next big budget like as like tier 4. I I think you've really got an opportunity, but it's tough to do it when you're um trying to pitch something and you're asking for big bucks. It's far better to do it with regard to already have your
audience know you and socialize with you and and I think there's some I think they're easy ways, but having said that, I've seen what you folks been doing for years and the public didn't pay attention. that shame on the public.
But planting the seeds now is what I want to leave you with. Um things like an annual um seniors, I'll I'll pick on them for a moment. They have annual barbecues with the legislators. They got
100 plus people easy. They have annual barbecues with the fire and police departments. Get another 100 people out there easy. You folks have been at breakfast, you get 20 or 30, you a multiplier could be that barbecue sort
of session. It gives you the opportunity to sell your best of what's happening in Littleton schools. I'd even suggest much like walking through a year ago, I realized now I started walking through tours, you know, that Michelle Beth and
others did. Do an annual at each school. love to come to your school or at least I think there's a number of people that if you make the pitch to the council on age and you make the pitch to the you know the seniors at center in Shadic Street I think you'll start to chip away
and get someone to come out and by doing that 20 or 30 can then tell another 20 or 30 it's kind of like what you did with texting 200 people or whatever you know etc and I I really think that's an opportunity and I'll I'll cheat I'll use
your bingo Seniors like bingo. You could you could do a bingo game. You could do a bingo game at each of your school and I bet you get some a whole bunch of seniors that would think I don't want to go to that. But if you say bingo,
I think they might come out. And so I just I just want to hit you with that. And yet I don't want to focus solely on seniors because Sean knows um walking around long leg. I was going up to people that I didn't know and they were
rolling the baby stroller and I was like, "Do you know about the boat that's coming up?" You know, etc. Some of them did start to walk away from me because I can be a pain. But there's a lot of people that I met that are are here because of our schools. What you've said
tonight, this has been a terrific meeting tonight. Um, so you've got a lot to really offer and to say, but I know um because of my granddaughters that you've got a program for welcome before you join, you know, kindergarten or
maybe there's even more prek that I'm just not aware of. Um, but I also know people that have quit, you know, I also know I can I can name the others. There's Maddox, you
know, there's there's Milo and and those people have just moved in the community. You don't know them or I don't think you know, okay, but I know they're probably ready to say and ready to learn. What can I look forward to when my little one
is three or four, etc. And I think that you've got this real moment. Maybe I'm wrong. I've only been there for four years, but it feels to me like the people I spoke with might be ready to be holding on as the 98 million was going
by. So, I want to um really challenge you to uh to do that. And I think all the forums and all the tours, I think we learned you have to take it to them because they're not coming to you. So, I just want, you know, leave
you with that. off the charts phenomenal. Um the effort at town meeting with regard to feed the the children the child care off the charts phenomenal. Here's what I fear is that that was so shaker lane focused
which it needed to be. I really think that was part of your successful effort and it was I've yet to hear any criticism not one. All I've heard is price. So phenomenal. If we don't do that in some fashion, if
select board doesn't pull it off, which I think Dr. Clench, you and staff, Lynn, you know, Beth, etc., you folks made that happen. If it doesn't happen for whatever reason, then all of those young parents
with those kids in tow, whether they were the 20 that were in the cafeteria that were literally holding babies or 126 that you had signed up, even though you asked register in advance, you only had 70ome register and you had
120 that night. Those people, you want to come out to town meeting to support your school of initiatives. I want them to be there and it's going to take consistency of knowing and more or less forcing potential town officials for
broadcast it communicate it. Tell us in advance you're going to pull off the exact same thing. You can count on it. That way we get that generation that's really bathing. And I really have my kids out at 7:30 and 8:30 at night. But the programs that you offered were
worthwhile to be there because nobody complained about it. It wasn't just go off and you know do something. No, it was they really did something etc. So I think those are things that you can really build on. And then the other part
that I saw Julie Lord didn't know her week and a half ago or now I went to the tech for seniors and I'll close with this. Um did I need it? Probably not. But then I want to try it just because I'm looking
for how can relationships expand. I was impressed. I mean, I was really impressed. Um, take it to the center in Chadic Street. Right now, it's isolated in in the
library, you know, and I get it. That's where the students are. But if you get the center of Chatt Street, I can tell you because I go in there to bother a person or two and there's 20 30 people doing all kinds of, you know, this
activity or that activity. And if those kids are there with seeing seniors that are there with them, they're going to say, "What what was that? You know, how's that?" And you're going to get that multiplier. So that's my pitch. Two more pitches.
I'll be quick. I think you're already underway with this one, but I I spent a little bit of time at the building committee last night talking about specifics with regard to detail design. For you folks, it's a different version of that. I think you're already underway
with park and wreck and memorandum of understanding. I can't emphasize enough how as I went to different groups on the town side, the select board side of the operation to try to get their
cooperation to get try to get their endorsements for the Shaker Lake proposal, etc. I won't say it was resistance, but it wasn't what it can be and wasn't what I think it is today, which is a it
really came through after an initial me wondering, just me. I'm not saying it was ever a question because you folks probably knew it, but I questioned it what I was hearing. And when I hear things like a memory of understanding
with regard to how to utilize the schools because you folks are in charge of. So just resolving that and getting that out of the way and getting that done and just eliminating the reasons for somebody to have a net to say I'm
not getting what I want. Same thing for the community use of the new Shaker Lane. I encourage you, you got several years to do it. get the fundamental agreement in place. So as soon as that great building happens, it's available
to used night after night, day after day. That's >> Thank you very much. >> Well, I'm happy to report that I did not get a call about you. So you did okay. If uh if I could speak directly to what Robin said, first of all, thank you for
everything you did with the last great in that. That's important to call out. Um it is funny you bring this up about outreach. Uh Kelly and I record our first podcast this afternoon. It's now on YouTube, Spotify, town website. Um something I'm going to try and do every
month, have a different guest. Justin's going to be the guest next month. Um so we try and reach back out that way. Um I've discussed with other committee members, too. Uh you might remember leading up to um the town meeting that I held virtual uh others from about 7:30
to 9 kind of at a time period people were actually home and a mental leave when they're trying to care their kids something also interested in doing a monthly basis just to kind of meet people where they're at right um and kind of keep those mental going and I think we all of us created strong networks with our push to get the school
built and I think keeping that uh blood flowing within those lines is going to be really important. Uh so when things do come up or we're members of things, right, we serve them. So when they need to come up, right, we're ready to do it. Thank Rob, just so you know, for the
last 14 years, we have an annual senior lunchon in the spring. So we got about 100 people there. >> So amazing because I honestly don't know. >> Well, we we rely on the council on aging. I guess the second point uh you're
starting to read my mind which is scary. Uh I've been uh in deep thought about how do we how do we get back in the game of social media since uh most of us went off X for various reasons
>> and we have school now it's working very well but uh when uh Sean and I were talking today I was talking about some of the ideas and and I think our next step is is to utilize school now try to hook in with the town lister and get
them to sign up for school. Now, I'm not sure how automated counsel on aging is. I think they still send buyers home every month, but maybe they do have a list served as well and we can add them to our school now communications
have have list serves. So everything we push out as a as a school in our schools and school department will go to a broader audience and we are getting a message board at the central office as well which will be used to push out all
the good things that we're doing in our schools and I have to say as a superintendent that's on my agenda for our next ACC meeting something has been lost. Uh and and I see that because when your superintendent isn't getting the information about upcoming events the
way I used to, we need to rethink what we're doing. And no fault of anybody. I think we we're making dangerous assumptions at this point in time. And a lot of it is is the loss of of Twitter acts and u having that message board. Uh
I'm going to put in some expectations for schools in terms of upcoming events. Uh need to go out on school now separately from the school live showcase and and we really need to we really need to up our game where we were about four
years ago. So I'm glad you spoke tonight because I've been in deep thought about this for for about a month trying to figure out how are we how are we going to get back where we need to be without using uh Facebook or Instagram. We have this internal system that can become
more external if we design it properly. Thank you for that. >> All right. Subcommittee uh subcommittee reports assuming no one from Zoom. Okay. I'll close interested citizens and we'll move through our subcommittee report. First
of which is medb. >> Yeah. So, I can speak at PNBC or I can wait until shine. It's all kind of the same. >> Oh, it is all the same. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, no no PNBC report. Okay. >> Uh budget subcommittee unless I missed something. We don't have any >> I don't report.
>> Did our numbers get submitted to the town? >> Yep. Submitted to the town. Um I think the joint meeting is sometime in January I believe, but I don't have the exact date. >> Okay. >> On that school committee finan. Um I do know the town currently the town
budget model is currently I heard a number of around 2 million in the hole for the town as a whole. So um where that goes the town will have to figure that out as well. I just wanted to share that
>> we have a meeting with the town next. >> All right. Uh policy subcommittee got a couple policies to revisit here for a second reading this evening. >> Um can I make a motion to accept these policies? Um or should does someone else
need to make that? >> No, you could. I had one sort of clarifying question that I attempted attempted to ask about beforehand. Um so maybe I'll just see that all the way through right now if you don't mind. >> Sure. So, I was slightly confused to
say, you know, IKF is the graduation requirement and it goes on to list, you know, you need 116 credits. I I don't think my question isn't that we need to change the policy. It was just I want to make sure I understand this correctly. You need 116 credits. I'll just use the
example of which, you know, four years of English for a total of 20 credits. And then when we go to IKF which is different. It's the competency determination we we we change the sort of the criteria a little
bit. So if we look at English language arts we say you need two years and then you've got four well actually you've got more than four because it goes on the second page. You've got a number of courses which to
choose from. Um, and there are other sections in particular where I was curious where it says something about uh like if we were to look at science in particular, it says
um the second half of the middle block it says or its equivalent as approved by the high school principal or designate. Um, so I guess my question is really this is for folks who potentially have
completed their K to2 education. MCCAST is no longer a requirement at the state level. They revisit the district and say, "Here's my transcript. This is what I did. Could I earn a competency
determination?" And as long as their transcript has these items on it, they would then they would then receive a CD. >> Am I understanding that correctly? >> Supposed to Yeah. State supposed to have that capacity to all the high schools to
grant that to alumni >> and that's done at the school level. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Um see the the CD just replaces the MCCAST requirement. So they had to have something for for the accountability
measure which is tied in federal funding. >> Yeah. >> So the the competency determination is is in its place. It's it's listing uh subjects that used to be tested at MCCAST and beyond for certain students
on IEPs etc. And we we had to come up with uh criteria criteria for developing or for uh determining competency subject areas. Even though we still offer MCCAST, it can't be used for competency
determination. So not the school level but the district level. Right. When you when you you asked if this was done at the school level, this would be being done at the district level. These >> the district level >> this determination then says you
you have a competency from the district, >> right? It's operational high school. >> Oh, okay. >> Yeah. The high school principal or the high school principal designate. >> Okay. Okay. >> We determine whether or not that subject matter has been mastered by um
>> I was thinking of different things. I mean, it's not uncommon for the high school principal to get students in from out of state or out of country and they have to determine whether the subjects they bring on their transcripts are equivalent to the courses of the soft
then they determine placement. >> So if someone comes in as a junior then that that takes >> from an independent school or from older students. >> Yeah. we have to do a transcript review and make sure that they in order to receive a high school diploma from OS
they have to meet that requirement in addition to graduation requirements. So, if there's someone that has uh completed their c let's say they use the term graduate, let's say they completed their education at Littleton High School, had previously not passed the
MCCAST, so therefore didn't receive a diploma, they could now come back to us and so long as they met the definition in IKF and met the and passed all the criteria
in IKF, we would then issue them a diploma. >> Correct. >> The appeals process on the third page of the policy outlines that. So any student um that finished enrolled within little public schools between 2003 and 2024
when MCAST was considered the CD >> can come back and it would be with a transcript review assuming that they then meet all the CD this in this policy along with the local graduation requirements. we then would be able to
issue a diploma to that individual who previously was not eligible solely because they could not pass and pass. >> Okay. And then my other question is do we have someone
um you know the general population takes these classes anyways so they're going to go through and but do we have someone that helps advise students should they be in a situation where they're um not taking the normal workload for a number you know could be any possible reason to
say you know geez you've got a couple semesters here left we should really push to try to get these classes accomplished if you're able to do so. So that as you finish your schooling within Littleton, you would then be eligible for a diploma,
>> right? Our school counselors and then student the special education leaison works closely with the school counselor and and me. >> So it becomes the special education liaison. Yeah. And really the principal. >> Yeah. Or or the assistant principal
>> or coordinator guidance. We work very hard to help students get to the finish line that might need a different track path for their chapter. >> Okay, >> those are my questions. >> All right. Um,
thank you for that explanation. So, would you like to make a motion? >> Sure. Now, I have to get back to the page. I was following along. Just a sec. All right.
>> Okay. Great. >> There we are. Um, I move that the school committee accept the following policies as uh for our second reading. KCD, KHB, I
KF, I KFE. Second by Janine, seconded by Elaine. All those in favor by saying I. I. I. Motion passes. Thank you very much. And then our fourth subcommittee is the Shaker Lane building committee update.
>> Perfect. Uh so we've done a lot of work for putting uh construction manager at risk. Uh so we started meeting the subcommittee underneath the sugar building committee October. Um once the vote successful, we moved forward. We
put out um project. We had eight bits come in. Uh we put the list down on Monday to 6 as a committee. Uh two have since pulled out uh which is not fairly uh not surprising. Um the remaining are bane
sham rich. Uh we will interview them each for an hour long. Uh likely the night of December 15th and December 16th two each. Uh and then we'll meet your decision on the 16th as a as a subcommittee and present that on
December 17th to the full committee. Um so uh those are all meetings. We encourage people to either come in person or watch online whatever is best for them. Um but yeah that that'll be the next step uh in the process. And as I kind of highlighted before part of the
reason why I kicked off uh calling it pause on public schools as a tiger pun. Um the part of the reason why I kick that off is because we do have this big project. We did just get the town to approve almost a million dollars. We have a lot of ownership in that
transparency is important. So it's important to have going forward. Additionally with the news of Kelly retiring I think it's important through that process as well that we have a way of communicating. So >> great
in person meeting but there's a zoom on it as well. >> Great. Where will the Inerson meeting be? >> Uh to be I'm not sure yet. >> That sounds like a great community event. People might want to come out for just
um all right. Is there any other new business, old business before the school committee? >> Well, thanks. >> All right. I will uh mention that our next school committee meeting is December 11th, 2025, 7 p.m. at the Littleton Police Station. You want to
come all um is there a motion to adjurnn? I move we adjourn. >> Motion made by Elaine, seconded by Sean. All those in favor indicate by saying I. >> I. I. >> All right. We have officially a journ.