Stand by and four. >> Good evening and welcome to the Tuesday, July 28th meeting of the Long Meadow School Committee. Mass general law allows for remote participation at public meetings until June 30th, 2027. All votes while there is remote participation must be made by roll call
vote. This meeting is being recorded and aired live on LCTV. School committee members, when I say your name, please say here for the record. Bisra >> here. >> Zack >> here. Emily >> here, >> Kate >> here, >> and I am here as well. And no one is online yet, correct? Okay.
>> All right. We will begin with the pledge of allegiance. I pledge >> allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice
for all. All right, we'll move forward into correspondence. We have a few notes there. >> The following correspondence was received by the school committee and is recorded for public record. An email from Bill Deulio dated June 24th, 2026 and an email from Kurt Freeman dated
June 18th, 2026. >> Thank you. Moving on to minutes. We have approval for the meeting minutes on June 23rd, 2026. Possible motion. I move that the school committee approve the minutes to the June 23rd, 2026 school committee
meetings as presented. >> Thank you. We have a motion. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll move to a vote. Miss Rob Zack Emily. >> Yes. >> Kate, no. >> And yes for me as well. That brings us to public speak. We do not have anyone
here in the room and we do not have anyone joining us at home. So, we'll head into school committee announcements and recognitions. Does any committee member have any announcements or recognitions to make? All right, we have no uh business with
guests and the student representative report. We do not have a student representative report yet, but our new student representative uh Micah Aselis. >> Yes, Micah Aselis was appointed as the student representative for the 202627 school year. So, we look forward to
meeting with Micah at a future meeting um at the beginning of the school year. will start getting those reports as well. That brings us to administrative reports. Um, school committee chair report. I don't have a report other than just a note of thanks and appreciation to all the people who are keeping everything humming along during these
summer months. Um, our administrative staff and central office staff, all of our um, educators who are working summer programming and also all of the folks who keep all of the buildings and technology running during these months. We appreciate all of your work. >> That is all. We'll turn over to
superintendent report. Uh not a lot. I I some good news. Um we received news that the governor had filed a uh supplemental budget uh for FY 27. It it's intended to provide direct one-time funding to uh to communities directly to school districts
actually. Um we'll have broad discretion on how to use those funds. Uh we're anticipating it still has to u work its way through the legislature and we'll find out how we can access these funds. But the good news is that it will provide an additional $112 per student
above and beyond the chapter 70 allocation. So that's uh roughly $300,000 to Long Public Schools. So uh we'll be sure to convene a finance sub to talk about uh you know make provide some recommendations to the school committee on on how we might apply uh
that windfall. So, it's good news uh to this community. A lot of communities across the state um are strained fiscally right now and so it's coming at a a really important time for Long Meadow and many other communities. Uh the only other item I'd mention is that
um with the uh involvement of the school committee, support of the school committee, we are preparing some communication to families on our Chromebook protection plan. So, it's our intention to uh uh give families the opportunity to provide uh for a modest
amount uh a opportunity to uh protect Chromebooks uh so that uh if there's any negligence or damage uh families are protected and it will uh hopefully provide a buffer against unexpected bills for those uh for the devices. So,
uh more to come on that. >> Any questions related to that? Exciting news about the budget? look forward to some finalized discussions on that front. And that brings us to subcommittee reports. And for curriculum subcommittee, we have a guest today, our
um director of curriculum and instruction, uh Beth Nelson, is here to join us and talk about our most recent curriculum subcommittee meeting. Welcome, Frank. Hi, everybody. Um thanks for having me and thank you again to Emily, Nicole, and Bizraat for meeting with me last Wednesday. Um, as things
sometimes happen, uh, towards the end of the school year, we started talking with one of our colleagues at the middle school about the potential to enhance our programming at the middle school. Um, certainly we're looking to expand our programming for the new middle school, but we saw an opportunity to do that next year um, within our existing
staffing and not affecting our schedule or our budget. So, I'm here tonight to talk about a proposal to run a pilot program with our eighth graders on literacy information next year. Um, I know in your packet there was a more detailed presentation. Um, but tonight I'm hoping to just highlight some of the
key features of the um, course proposal and hopefully gain your approval to begin scheduling students for this course for the next for the fall. Um, the curriculum subcommittee did vote in support of the proposal. Um, so I am greatly appreciative of that. Um, and
the complete side deck is in your um, your packet. I know. Um but I want to quickly highlight some of the key components of the course. So um literacy information lit information digital information is everywhere. It's around our students um artificial intelligence
um media bias. There's so much coming at our students so quickly right now and we saw an opportunity um where students otherwise would have a scheduled explore block which um would be a traditional study hall. uh we see an opportunity to give them some of these skills with a
teacher who is trained in delivering um this sort of curriculum and this sort of education. Um so what we would be doing would be looking at gaps in student schedules. That's why it would be a pilot for a select cohort of eighth graders. It would be the students that otherwise would have an explore study
hall block. Um, and instead of them having a study hall that's supervised by a library and media specialist who's a highly skilled and trained educator, we're going to take the opportunity to use her um her skills and her knowledge and give these students some um realw
world skills that we hope will help them transition into high school next year. Um, for the 26 27 school year, we're only looking to pilot with eighth graders. one because it's very late in um the scheduling season, but also because this employee still travels
between two buildings and we want to offer this at both um middle schools. So, there's just not the capacity to offer it to all of the grades at this point. Um, we'll look to see more creative ways for the 2728 school year pending this is approved and all goes
well, but certainly for the 28 29 school year when we are in the new Long Meadow Middle School. Um, our goal would be to offer this for sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. Um, and to be determined would be if it's an elective course or it's a course that every student would
have um, to take. So with all that um our goal eventually would be to really focus on literacy engagement with like orientation to literacy genre tasting. So sixth graders really understanding all the genres but having um an invested
interest in um building that lifelong interest in reaching for a text. Um and digital citizenship. In seventh grade we'd be focusing on the media literacy which would be factchecking, media bias and digital storytelling. Um eighth grade would be focused on academic
research. So it would be database navigation. They would be working with several different databases. Um AI ethics and then their end of the year project which would culminate with their action civics project would be a service leadership project. For next year because we're just focusing on eighth
graders. Um, we're hoping to um not necessarily do a little bit of all of this, but be really intentional with what how we are building out this scope and sequence to make sure that we are giving the eighth graders those additional skills to be successful. Um, but in a manageable way, knowing that
the schedule would allow them to have this course once, possibly twice in a six-day rotation um for next year. So, it's not an everyday class at this point. Um so we would be looking at the database and academic research next year. We would be looking at artificial
intelligent ethics next year and um a capstone project tied in with their action civics. Um the assessment for this course would be a pass fail. We're not looking to grade it at this point while we're piloting it. We're going to take feedback all year long from the
students, from the educators, um from the library media specialist, and anybody else who wants to provide feedback. um to make sure that the course is to be the best that it possibly can be. Um but at this point
to give students a better opportunity than what we have right now and we saw this creative way to do it and we think it'll be a really meaningful way. I know I went through that very quickly, but I'm happy to answer any more questions in greater detail um or answer any questions from the presentation that
was uh presented on Wednesday afternoon. If I could mention a lot of the the the genesis of this was in the from the conversations that we've been having about what the programming will look like when we open in 2028. And and as
we've made our way around to uh groups of families and students and staff and one of the questions I often ask is, you know, what what type of additional programming or learning opportunities would middle school students benefit from? And what I've heard over and over is information literacy. We also hear
financial literacy, career awareness uh and and hands-on learning opportunities. So, this is really um an important step towards broadening uh middle school offerings and uh we're we're excited to bring it to you. Uh school committees
are um required to approve major curriculum adoptions. So, we wanted to make sure that we brought this to curriculum sub and to the full committee for your consideration. And have any questions? Happy to answer. I mean this I mean sounds to me I mean
fabulous. I mean they're they're learning research skills basically and and do we um currently follow through at the high school level as well? >> Yes. And these these skills are currently taught in our English language arts classes and when the schedule
allows the library media specialists can go in and go and co-e some of those classes especially when we're really focused on research. Um but this will just be far more intentional. um when it works out and especially as we build this into a course that's offered whether it's once a try or every day
during a trimester or in a quarter however the new schedule unrolls um it would be we would want to align it with the curriculum that's going on with the ELA classroom the science and social studies classroom so that as projects are going on and we're doing research um
as we're using artificial intelligence we're making sure that that is connected with the um information literacy classroom, >> right? Because these are like required skills in order to be able to do higher level research, right? To do anything to do.
>> Yeah. Great. >> Thank you. Does anyone else have any questions for Dr. Nelson? >> Zack. >> Uh go ahead. >> Go ahead. as well. >> So yeah, I I know you I was on on the meeting on Wednesday just uh more
information on how so usually when when you propose to develop a curriculum. Uh from the conversation I had with Tom really that process
is expensive like there you know really the amount we pay to for what to for one course is really expensive. >> So is this going to be just like other courses that we're developing? I mean, you've already developed.
>> So, the the curriculum that you talked about with assistant superintendent Tom Maza is uh usually defined as high quality instructional materials where we're going out to a publisher and it's really aligned with some researchbacked practices. >> Um this for starting to like for this coming school year, the library media
specialist, it will be teacher created curriculum. Um as you get into secondary education, you do see um more evidence of teacher created curriculum. Um, so this at this point we do not see it being an expense. However, I do plan to
use some of our title four grant monies that we just received to send our library and media specialists to some professional development on either AI or on digital literacy, whatever she feels she needs more of to make sure that she is able to bring back the most um to this course. Um, we're also spending
some of our Title 4 funding on her writing the curriculum this summer. Okay. Um so it this will not be a big expense at all. Um summer curriculum work happens throughout the summer for every discipline. Um so it's that's a
normal practice for us. But I do want to make sure she has the professional development to support her ongoing learning in this area as well. Um but I don't see a formalized highquality instructional material curriculum adoption at this point for this course. Now, we may after doing a year or two
identify a resource that's out there that could supplement our curriculum or what we're doing initially. I don't see it being that big. The big expense with curriculum materials comes with the teacher manuals and it's only one person. So, a teachers manual sometimes can be a,000 to,500. When we did an
elementary um literary, we had to buy over 70 curriculum uh teachers manuals. when we're talking about a middle school uh curriculum adoption, there's usually only six or seven teach, you know, one ELA teacher at both middle schools for sixth grade, seventh grade, eighth
grade. So, um some of those big big numbers, although they're still large sums of money, they're not as large as an elementary literacy adoption where it is very large. Yeah, it's just it's always good to be
>> absolutely >> you know aware of the expenses. I mean these are ex like you said church very exciting very helpful yes the kids need them can we afford them I don't >> absolutely >> I think our intention would be to you
know when we when we bring adoption proposals to the committee to make sure that it's something that we see as sustainable um you know something that we can continue to fund in the years ahead uh I think this is the type of course that you know can be run with
some strong instruction and some strong professional development and a really modest very modest investment in resources. And in fact, in in the case of this proposal, I'd say that resources that are currently in the libraries will largely drive the the curriculum for the
kids. we already have the access to the databases um which are online databases through the Massachusetts library system and then the so much of the resources because mostly digital are online and a lot of them is open source now which
means anybody can access that curriculum. All right. And Zach, >> uh, yeah, I just, uh, a curiosity more than anything. Um, but first, I just I think it's a fantastic idea and I'm a huge proponent of piloting. Um, I think it's a great way to kind of beta test
new ideas and stress test them and iterate. Um, so I I fully support it. Um just curious though um as with any new program or undertaking in a kind of a similar vein although not expense related necessarily um are there any
anticipated friction points that you see either in the near term or as we uh head towards 2028? What like what are what are the lifts going to be along the way that need to be smoothed out that you anticipate? So, I can anticipate um this coming school year some eighth grade
students might still have an explore study hall and some are going to have to go to this additional class. >> And as an eighth grade student, I might prefer the study hall than going to an additional class. So, I can see that as being a point of friction. Um it's also
that can come up with anything. Um you know, not everybody takes some our music courses are in some cases electives. So, not everybody takes that. they could be taking an explore study hall. In this case, we are scheduling students. It's not something that they elected um to go into. So, that's a that's a point of
friction. Hopefully, we can talk it through and talk about the benefits and they see the value in the benefits in it and they enjoy the the learning that's happening and the engagement that's happening in the classroom um long term building out that scope and sequence. So, this year we're building it for, you
know, uh if you think of a the middle school schedule is on a six- day rotation. If the students only have it once in that six day rotation, that's 30 lessons we need. If we're able to schedule them two times in that six day rotations, that's 60 lessons. But if we build it out, depending on what our
schedule might look like in 27, 28, and of course 28, 29, um, we might be looking at more than 60 lessons for each cohort of students. We also need to make sure that it is a fluid one from sixth grade, a transition to seventh grade, and eighth grade. So, it's going to be
constant um reflection every summer for the next few years. There'll be reflection every year, but really some intentional work in the summer to make sure that we're ready to go for the next school year, which is what's happening with that exploration studio course that we came to last year, I think around
May, June, with that course uh proposal. We piloted this year at center and it's going live this year at all three schools. Um, and those three educators have been meeting all summer to make sure that what happened this year is accurate, reflective of what the students need in in the classrooms in
front of them. So, >> summer's a busy time that a lot of work gets done um that many people don't always think about, but we're busy during the summer. >> That's great. Thank you. >> Sure. >> Questions for Dr. Nelson?
>> Great. Um well, seeing no other questions, I would entertain a motion to um approve the adoption of an information literacy pilot for the eighth grade students at Williams and Glen Brook. >> I move that the school committee approve
the information literacy pilot for the eighth grade students at the Williams and Glenre Middle Schools. >> We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. >> Thank you. Any further discussion? >> Seeing none, we'll move to a vote. Desra, >> yes. >> Zack, >> yes. >> Emily, >> yes. >> Kate, >> yes. And yes, for me as well. Thank you
very much for coming out and for talking with us last week as well. Look forward to hearing more about this as the year progresses. >> Yeah, I will. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you so much. Thank you, everybody. >> All right. Um, we have no other subcommittee reports. Did policy
subcommittee meet? They did not, right? >> No. >> No. Okay. Um, so no other subcommittee reports. Um, that brings us to LPVC. Did board of directors meet again? >> No. Board of Governors? No. uh seal not yet. Um and energy and sustainability is
Matt and I think they did not meet again yet anyway if I recall correctly. >> It's the third Thursday. >> Oh, okay. So, he'll maybe have one for next time then. All right. That brings us to uh we have no ongoing business. That brings us to new business and preliminary approval for a exchange
field trip. We'll turn that over to you, Dr. Rosh. >> Thank you. Um so as you know we uh Long Meadow Public Schools and the town of Long Meadow have a um formalized relationship with Takawa Japan. Uh and we've had a an exchange program that has
been in place for decades now. uh and we're already in the process of planning 2027 uh trip and uh the committee we are required to bring to the committee um uh field trip overnight field trips uh in
advance. This is well in advance just to get a preliminary approval so that the trip organizers can begin um excuse me scheduling the the logistics, the travel, the the residencies um uh the exchange families, that kind of thing.
And so this is for your consideration to consider approving um the preliminary approval of Long Meadow High School traveling to Japan April 14th to April 26th on in 2027 >> questions.
I'm sorry. >> Yeah. So, it's um it's largely students that are um excuse me um part of the East Asian history class. >> And so, it's usually a fairly small group of students. Um Lorie Snder is a history teacher at the high school who
is uh really the architect, one of the main architects of the uh Techawa Exchange program. Um and uh she works with the students and prepares them for this cultural exchange. We have it's usually on an alternating basis. One
year we host a delegation from Japan and then in in the alternating years we send a delegation to Japan. Um so >> that's yeah >> is it are they seniors? >> Uh largely seniors if not exclusively seniors. So um because I think those are the students that are involved in the
East Asian history class. Uh so um >> juniors and seniors. >> Yeah. As juniors as well. Uh so yeah a group of of motivated eager students who spend a you know significant amount of time studying Japan history culture in preparation for the trip. So
>> so last year we we hosted >> we hosted a small delegation from Japan and uh we've hosted the the mayor of Takawa. We've hosted educators from Takawa. We've hosted student groups from Takawa. Um and uh and most recently
about a year ago the select board formalized the relationship between Long Me and Takawa and and established Long Meadow as a sister city to the city of Takawa. So >> uh it's it's uh very much a partnership that we hope we can sustain in the in
the years and decades ahead. >> Any questions? >> And what do they do while they're there? >> Uh they will um they'll do some cultural sightseeing. They will um they will stay with host families in Japan. Uh they will uh go to schools and take part in
assemblies. They will be they'll they do presentations at Takawa East High School. Um it's a it's a really rich transformative experience for the kids that go. >> Have the have the has the group all do they have any kind of like a buddy system where they're in touch with a
particular uh students from >> pair them up? I'm not sure how far in advance that pairing happens, you know, so if there's any exchange between the two before they make their way to the host family. But yeah, I'm not interested. >> That's great. >> Other questions or things related to the
preliminary approval for the trip? >> I will entertain a motion. I move that the school committee based on the details provided in the report extend preliminary approval of the Long Meadow High School East Asia Club Exchange student field trip to Japan for the dates of April 14th, 2027 to April 26, 2027.
>> All right, we have a motion. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll move to a vote. Israel, >> yes. >> Zach, >> yes. >> Emily, >> yes. >> Yay. >> Yes. >> And yes for me as well. Thank you to um Lorie Snder and the other educators who
are working to put this together. Appreciate it and look forward to hearing more about it. >> That brings us to our next item on the agenda which is the occupational therapy position. Would you update on that? >> Yes, thank you. Um this is a proposal for the uh school committee to consider
approving um the establishment of a uh point8 uh occupational therapy position. Um and um we have existing OT staff but we have also uh contracted uh with
outside agencies to supplement exist the services provided by existing staff. As the needs have grown uh as the number of valuations has grown and frankly as the cost of the contracted services has grown, we think it would be far more
cost-effective to establish the8 OT position. Uh and so since it is a new position and it would increase our overall FTE wanted to bring it to the school committee for uh consideration and
potential approval. Um the uh this would be budget neutral in the sense that uh we would um reduce a contracted services line and the the uh funds to cover the cost of this would come from the from the general fund. Um so but uh the the
net on it would be a budget neutral uh proposal for you tonight. >> All right. Any questions related to that proposal? >> Yeah, just quick question. Well, you're you've been using some contracts, right?
>> Yes. >> What are they doing? What >> uh it's it's their outside agencies that um in in the world of special education, it wouldn't be unusual for us to contract with some outside agencies to provide some specialized services. If the outside agencies can, you know, can
do it on a a more flexible cost effective basis, we will sometimes contract. So it might that might be for uh speech services, it might be for OT services, it might be for services to serve um uh the deaf community. Um so a
variety of outside services are used. But uh whenever it's it's possible and more cost-effective, we like to you know have the services provided by LPS staff. >> And this would be specifically for an occupational therapy position, which is assistance with daily living activities.
>> Yes. more relation. Okay, >> that's all good. Missed your question there. >> Yeah. No, no, that's good. >> Any other questions or thoughts >> and or possible motions? >> I move that the school committee approve the establishment of a8 full-time occupational therapy position for the
2026 2022 school year. >> Okay. So, a 0.8 FTE position. We have a motion. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. Any discussion? >> Seeing none, we'll move to a vote. Um, >> yes. Yeah, it should be point8. >> Oh, sorry, Zach.
>> Yes, >> Emily. Yes, >> Kate. >> Yes. >> And yes, for me as well. Thank you. Um, all right. That brings us to building use requests. We have two um that are together under a consent agenda. >> The uh requests are in your packet. One
is from Rays of Hope uh to for October 18th from 7:00 a.m. to 3 PM to use the parking lot at Long Meadow High School. Uh the second is from Pantusco soccer camp um to a from August 10th to August
14th. Uh that's to use the fields and the playgrounds at Long Meadow High School. >> All right. Um, we have a possible motion, but note before that this is a consent agenda, which means there is no discussion of items on a consent agenda. Um, they would be approved together. If
anyone would like to see either of these removed from the consent agenda, now would be a great time. No. All right. Then I will entertain a motion on the consent agenda. >> I move that the school committee approve the consent agenda for the July 28, 2026 school committee meeting as presented.
>> Thank you. We have a motion. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. Any discussion? None. Initial vote. Bizra, >> yes. >> Zach, >> yes. >> Emily, >> yes. >> Kate, >> yes. >> Sandy, yes. For me as well. That brings us to um one final motion related to executive session that we will not be
returning to open session from. >> I move that the school committee meet in executive session pursuant to Massachusetts general law, chapter 38, section 21A, purpose 3, to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining position of the public body.
specifically regarding a memorandum of agreement MOA relating to leave for active military personnel and seven approval of minutes and will not reconvene into open session. We have a motion. Do we have a second? >> Thank you. Any discussion? >> None. Bizra, >> yes. >> Zack, >> yes. >> Emily, >> yes.
>> Kate, >> yes. >> And yes, for me as well. Thank you very much. We'll see everyone in early August. Have a lovely evening.