Good evening everyone. My apologies for the delay. We are now um here at the Mro Public School Committee meeting. Today is Tuesday, May 12th. The time is 7:47. I call this meeting to order and uh we are being taped and streamed by WMCTV.
Having said all that, let's all rise for the pledge of allegiance, please. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. >> Thank you very much. Let's just jump right in, shall we? Let's head on to the superintendent reports. >> Uh, thank you. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the committee, uh good to see everyone this evening. Uh a few items on
my report for tonight. Um want to start with some great news. Uh we learned recently that uh Malboro High School has been awarded the project lead the way grant for the biomed pathway. Um that is very exciting um for a whole variety of
reasons. Um, first and I I want to thank Steph Gil for her hard work on developing this grant and working with the science department to put together the material necessary. Uh, it what is the expression of at first you don't succeed try again.
We did not get the grant the first time through. We went right back to the drawing board. We revised, we put all the right material together, resubmitted, and we got the grant. Um, so I think that's just important piece to note. um very proud of the team that was at the uh lead of that work. Um this
pathway is going to be uh critical for us in MHS uh for a couple reasons. One in the we do have in our program of study which actually we'll talk about in a minute. Um a uh biomemed course right so that piece isn't new. What is new is
this uh program of studies as it relates to this sequence of courses. So we have four courses that are part of a national curriculum that will expose our students to uh a series of uh biomed
um professions, best practices within the field um foundational kind of concepts, content, skills. Um and over the series of these four courses um or four years over time if we have a student who sticks uh through that um it
will result in an opportunity for a capstone project which we hope will result in uh internships. Um that is uh where our partnership with the Malbor Economic Development Council comes in. Um, we have stayed in close contact with
uh Meredith Harris about this pathway and uh about how we can plug into the many opportunities that we have right here in Malboro. Um, I see this as an opportunity uh not only for our students but an opportunity for our workforce.
Um, it would be tremendous to be able to send students through this entire pathway having them finish with a capstone uh and an internship and then be placed in the field. Um you I'm sure you're aware um the biomemed
field does actually not have any specific one certification because it's such a broad-based field of study. There's a lot of different avenues you can go and through this pathway our students will have a chance to kind of put their toe in the water of many of
these different uh potential careers. So very excited. Uh we intentionally picked this pathway. There are others, but we intentionally picked this because it's such a natural fit for uh for Malboro and frankly for Central Mass, which is also quite a hub uh in Blackstone Valley
of um biio medicine. >> Can I just ask a question? Um in terms of teachers that are going to teach these courses, do we have them already identified? Do they need extra training in order to teach these classes? >> Yes. And yes. Uh so we do have the
teacher uh identified. The first course that we'll be offering is the principles of biomemed uh class and so we'll be offering that next year. So we do have um the teachers we have one teacher that is interested in doing that and there will be a training that uh the teach
she'll need to attend over the summer and so we're working out the details um of the kind of the the when and the where and all of that. But >> it's sort of like a um like an AP when you're teaching a new AP course like that sort of thing. The curriculum's done. developed.
>> Awesome. Thanks, Catherine. >> Um, just a quick question. Um, is it something that you all have, um, reached out to Marbor Hospital about um, some internship time through volunteer hours? And the only reason I asked that is we've learned that through one of my
children who's going down this path and um they very much need volunteer hours if they are headed down anything more for additional um education, you know, and I just I'm sure there are other avenues, but that might be a good one to
work on because it is so close in proximity. So just thinking about the >> That is a great suggestion. We have not tapped into that yet. Uh we did um have a couple of ongoing conversations with Miss Harris about what we would be looking for and and kind of that initial
step was actually really bringing um uh professionals from the field into the high school to start talking with our students about what the different career paths and opportunities would be. U but that is a great idea that volunteer piece. So thank you for that. We'll add that to the list. >> Thank you. >> Thank you.
uh you'll see that on your um in a subsequent meeting on the acceptance of uh the grant um that process that we have in place. So that's not on here yet, but it is coming. And I do believe the grant is around $14,000. Going to go to the
>> We're good. Yeah. Continue the report. >> Great. Uh the next item I'm actually going to turn it over to uh Chris Henry who is our director of instruction and educational technology. Um this is a revisit of our program of studies. Uh principal Serpena is here as well, but
he's uh the principal job is never done. He's tending to uh a student matter at the moment. Um so he'll be joining us in a few minutes. Um the reason that uh we asked um Mr. Henry to to join us this evening is because he has been uh just a critical component in helping to really
get the program of study across the finish line. Uh you may recall that we brought this before the school committee at sometime around late winter and had some initial conversations but there were a few pieces that we were waiting for to finish. Um one was the
accelerated learning pathway. The other was the al alternative education uh the biomed pathway uh we had applied for but hadn't heard yet. Um midterms finals there was still some logistics to work out there. Um some of the like the leveling of the courses and and such.
So, all of those issues have been resolved. Um, and so, uh, with that, we're ready to bring the draft back to the school committee. >> Good evening. Um, so, uh, the, as you can see from
your your packet, uh, there have been there there have been some changes, uh, some additions and omissions as, uh, we've gone through. A lot of those I believe were anticipated by this group in that we talked about those and and then put the program of studies on hold
um as we were waiting to um solidify and add in the addition of the accelerated pathway for example um and make sure that we were like realigned in order to offer our um alternative pathway grades 8 through 10 at the high school next
year as well. Are there any specific questions that I can answer? I know that there were some and I'm anticipating them. I didn't know if there were. >> Great. >> Sure. Hi. Um, thank you. So, I'll try
and um go through some I think may just be um some editing. Um there's a lot of format which I think you guys are going to be doing anyway on that. Um, I'll start with something really basic on page 81.
Unified music just probably needs to be bolded. Easy. No biggie. Um, when I was jumping around, it looked like our math section was probably in there twice in two different areas, but just wanted to double check that. Um,
the two computer science courses, are they both considered AP? Do we have anything computer science that would not necessarily be of the AP nature? >> So, both of those courses um are currently AP. Um we've run into the
challenge of being unable to identify a teacher with the skill set in order to do that. I know that it is um principal Sarapina's goal to continue to leave that posting available and and search for um someone who can teach that course
um course of study. Um, and I guess then that goes to somewhat of the question that Michelle was asking about the biomed. Is this something because it's been a challenge of finding an appropriate staff member that has that credential. Is that something where we
may be able to ask staff if somebody would be interested in taking additional coursework to start down that that pathway um so that we could be enhancing our own staff here. I'm just curious because I know this has been a challenge
um for a last few years and it's something that I think from some conversations with maybe somebody at the table at that there there are kids within the school that are really looking for this. though. Um
then just to make sure I understand when we're do talking about the deletion of the CP designations and then the um movement of um honors to H is that still going to be those all of
those students within the same course, same classroom I guess I should be saying and just certain delineations or is it will be separated courses? So the the the plan right now is so those are separate courses. Okay. Um and one of
the reasons that we have changed some of the naming is to give uh the high school a fresh start. >> Yep. >> Um in that what happens when you start to name courses and all of them have a different level. What we've confused is the baseline for that. Um, and so when
we combine a CP course and an honors course in the same place, that honors course, which we were hoping would be the baseline and then everyone would rise, ultimately um through like a a process of time drops down to the baseline of the CP course. And so what
we've done is we have relooked at all of our courses. Um, we have called our base level courses just English nine. That is the base and that is rooted in our high quality instructional materials and our standards. >> And so now when you take an honors
course, it is the standards plus. Yeah. >> And so when someone asks what is the difference between a CP and an honors course is that our um excuse me, a standard level English 9 course, I have to still get used to that. Um that is
the standards. That is our high bar and our set of high expectations that we set for students. And then when you take the honors class, you cover those standards plus additional standards. Some provided by the state and some um as part of our accelerated pathway. And our goal is to get students moving through the standard
coursework faster so that they can um take some more advanced coursework later on. >> Perfect. Um >> CP was always kind of confusing. >> I agree. >> Exactly. um essentials, pretty much all of our essentials class are really supporting
all of our special education students. And I guess one of the things that I'd love to probably not hear but dig in a little bit deeper was when we um created that CD section earlier um per the DESIE
requests um I know that we had had some conversations around the table about how do we help some of the students to get to that CD. So, I'm I'm kind of curious, is there a way that we can also find potentially maybe some middle ground
between that um these essential courses, what might be able to help some of our students get to the CD as well as then the graduation requirements. So, that just hit me as I was kind of walking through that since we had this
conversation, I'd love to see if that could be something that we flesh out more. So, >> can you please define CD >> competency determination? Sorry. So, um I just think that that way it will help us on helping our families better
understand other avenues that could help for all of the different students that we have. Okay. So, that's something that kind of came about as I was looking through it. >> I can speak to that a little bit. We have really good middle ground that we're already working towards uh with
those courses. Um, Assistant Superintendent O'Brien and I have worked together to make sure that all of our essentials courses use the identified highquality instructional materials for that grade level. And so there's your middle ground. That's our place where we're going to be starting from is all
of our students in any so they'll use English 9 again course are all using the same materials. Now we have to look at what um scaffolds and supports they need. Um but we may be finding through that process that we have students who are ready to with the appropriate scaffolds and supports move on to
another course. So we've identified that middle >> that's exactly what I was hoping for because right now with the designation that we have on there that that doesn't necessarily that's where that's great if we can start building that scaffolding. >> And just to add to that uh so like the
standard course is is the one that meets the competency determination requirements. So there wouldn't be a course between essentials and a standard course because anything below standard would not meet the competency
determination. So it would be the IP team determining at what point uh can this the student may take an essentials course like in grade nine or 10 >> and then be to the point where they could take a standard course in 11th and
12th that would meet the competency determination. And so it will be in the general education standard course where we'd be looking to put implement those scaffolds and supports. >> And that's perfect because I think that that's something where it's going to be really important for us to help and
articulate to the staff so that the counselors the IEP like IEP discussions so that we can see can that student potentially meet that that ability and move into that. So you know that's great. I just wanted to make sure that
we had that discussion and that that's a discussion that we have so that we can help those students potentially achieve that. Um the other thing was um for the accelerated pathway um nth grade students are they able to take biology
and or physics or not and but or physics or is it just biology because I know in the past physics has been an option. And I'm just curious about where we're headed with that. >> So, physics has been an option in the past. Um, we have run into some
constraints with with staffing, right? >> Um, and also, um, the fact that in many other districts around the state, um, physics is not a freshman course, right? >> And so oftentimes we run into the challenge of finding educators who are both certified in physics and willing to
teach um, ninth graders. Um and right now what ends up happening is we have a variety of um students like so we have some courses some freshman taking biology um some t taking physics and we're running into some scheduling conflicts with that and so the new
realignment and it will take us a few years to fully realign um is that we are moving biology back to be the course for 9th grade students um to align with the state and then to also support some runway for our other paths if we've that some students being able to take biology
now the biomedical pathway is available to them if they're waiting until junior year they could run out of time. So there's a a lot of things with that benefits. >> That's fine. I just wanted to clarify. Thank you. Um uh the honors earth and space science no one certified to teach. Again that was
where I was wondering whether that's something that um we could speak with any staff members and whether we might be able to support that cause. Um and then the same was around the um woodworking and carpentry. Um where you know is that something that
we might be able to talk with staff and see if there's any interest and that we could potentially support that endeavor. Some of the challenge with woodworking and carpentry and I know that principal Serpina had he had a much more eloquent description of this um is that as the
state has moved through certification changes and adjustments um the woodworking carpentry is now a vocational degree. Gotcha. And so um we've been able to fill that position with some I guess we would call legacy licenses. Um but as those folks
are either retiring or moving on, we don't have a like a avenue for backfilling that um and it is kind of moving the um the woodworking and the cabinet making as a into a vocational arm. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Welcome. And then um this was more just
I guess um two questions for >> bless you >> for some more insight just because honestly I I don't know it was around the reading graphic novels uh where it was reading a minimum of two graphic novels and as I as I guess I was I'm
admitting I don't really know or understand around that area but that was just interesting to me to think about the time the timetable And maybe it's just not understanding that genre at all. But I was like, is that um
is that really full full for a semester course? I I don't know. I it just was something that struck me because I have no knowledge base in that area at all. Um and I just I don't know that kind of hit me as something interesting book. >> I'm happy to I'm happy to speak to that
as well. I got my old PLA teacher. Um so the graphic novels that are being discussed in that um program description um are adult level graphic novels. So oftentimes when we think of a graphic novel, we'll be looking through our um our middle school library and we'll see
the diary and some of those things. Um you know really literacy aids. Um but the other aspect of graphic novel it is an emerging legitimate adult art form and there are of graphic novels that are written for adults and older
adolescence. >> Yes, I need to take the course. >> So that's the first uh layer to this. Um I believe Hey kiddo is one that they're talking about. Okay. um in this particular course uh this is a course that's designed for our ELEL students who have finished EL1 and two um and to
give them a elective wrapped around literacy and reading um and so uh by its nature a graphic novel has those like visual supports but also they're reading a advanced adult level text with adult level themes um supported certainly by
imagery but you know very um upper adolescent adult imagery um and So, I'm actually impressed when they said in the in the halfyear course they're going to do two of these cuz you could spend um an entire semester just looking at one depending on which one you chose. >> So, you and I obviously need to have a
conversation around this so I can learn something. >> I got I have some recommendations for you too. I'm happy to do it. Y >> that's an exciting that's an exciting opportunity for our students. >> Thank you. No, it really intrigued me. So, I was like, "Oh, okay." And um the last and again this is kind of a
question around that um Microsoft Office specialist. It was interesting to me to see the word broken out from the Excel from the PowerPoint um as opposed to potentially a combined course. And again that just could be because of so much that needs to get
covered as opposed to maybe a a little bit more of a exposure to. So those were our courses um that had been previously linked through the business department as a credentiing course. Yeah. And so um there it ran kind of on a slightly
adjusted schedule where you would run the course of it and then you would take Microsoft Word and then you would run the other course. So that's why there's three, but there is a skilled adjustment to the schedule where you can do all three in one year in one block of time. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> They're written out as separate. >> Thanks. All good.
>> Any other questions? >> Not a question. I just want to thank you for adding some more to have semester >> long classes because I know we've always kind of looked, you know, encouraged increasing those um where possible. So,
thanks. >> I'll pass that on. >> Any go ahead. >> I do have a question. >> Um I saw physics C was on there. Do we have a teacher for that? >> I I believe we do. >> We do. >> Okay. someone who's taking it online, I'll
tell you it's not the most fun online. >> Yeah. So, one of our challenges with some of those courses, and I will speak to this, is that um we want to offer as many courses as we can. What ends up happening is that if we only have one or
two students that are able to do that with the balance of like the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, um we end up not being able to run a course. and then that's where our virtual high school option lands in. So, we're hoping that by keeping a course
like that in our program of studies that it continues to be an option, it continues to generate interest. Um, and that also hopefully with the realignment of moving physics around, we'll have students who also have the right level of math that they can opt into the that challenge and feel very comfortable and it wouldn't have been a few years since
their last physics course. But I do I do understand like that. >> Is physics C calculus based? Yes. Perfect. Perfect timing. Any other questions? No. And anything else?
>> We can we can run through them all again and we can see we get the same answer. >> Well, thank you very much. Thank you very much. >> Thanks, Chris. Um, and the last item for my report is just an update on student attendance and enrollment. Our
enrollment has uh moved up just slightly. We're just under 4,500 students, which is good to see. Um, and you'll notice that in our attendance, uh, overall attendance for elementary schools, we're just under the 95% mark. We've been sort of hovering around there for the year. Uh, and these are
attendance year-to- date numbers. Uh for the middle school um we are um just under the 94% and for MHS we're just under the 92%. I do want to make one correction um to the attendance
summary sheet that is marked item 3C in your packet. Hopefully that those markings helped kind of find things. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um and uh on 3C if you look underneath um grade nine uh our
chronic absenteeism rate is not 90.4%. >> I have that. Yeah, I'm like that's got to be a typo. >> Yeah, it's right around 25% which is still too high but it is not 90%. So yes, that was a typo. Um apologies for that. >> Um >> may I ask a question?
>> Of course. on the um district enrollment chart. The services only is that homeschooled kids that are getting like special ed services inhouse. Um what's the initial referral school? What is that >> designation?
>> That is for e either preschool age students who are not attending our preschool uh so ages three and four that are that are going through an evaluation process. that's where their information is held. And then the
other is any students that are attending a private school at parent pay that are going through a special education process. That's um the designated initial referral school. If they're found eligible, then they would go and
be enrolled in the services only. And if they're not found eligible, then they would just um fall off the the numbers. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Welcome. So, um, thank you for the clarity on it not being 90% because that really But I
guess my question really is, um, seeing the percentage that was chronically absent for 12th grade. Um, I I'm just curious though, where what are we looking at for graduation rates, especially in this 12th grade grouping?
Like any ideas around that one? because I mean if we hit a certain mark of how many kids are not going to be there, are they meeting credit requirements? Um >> and as Steve's coming up to answer that,
um just so our family and friends at home, I know that we you know this remember the graduation rate is not as straightforward as we would think. There's an adjusted rate and an unadjusted rate. Um so there is tracking that happens for students who come in
and out and then there is tracking for students who just start with us and finish with us right that's the adjusted rate so when those numbers are released and right now our numbers are right around 96% um as of 2025 so when those numbers are released next year we'll have a it's a
year behind obviously um we'll have two different numbers to be looking at the unadjusted and the adjusted >> and in terms of the the exact number of graduates who are going will be walking this year. >> Um my admin team, we meet every few
weeks with guidance. We have a running we have a running tally of the students and where they are in terms of their graduation status. Um so we have another meeting coming up. I actually think it's next week for some of these kids. It could potentially come like right up to
the end based on what they may need. And I know uh Miss Casey's looking at the um the MTAS and ALA students as well. So in a few weeks we should have it absolutely button down as to who will be at graduation, who may not be and who may
need summer school. >> And I guess on that question is um does that take into consideration tardies as well as then overall attendance issues? because I'm I'm I would think that tardies are going to be an indicator
about their capabilities of meeting expectations. >> Yeah. If if you look at if you look at some of our students that may be on the cusp, um their overall attendance isn't necessarily great. Um so we when we have
these meetings, we put in kind of action steps we need to take to try to work that out for them so they can graduate. Yeah, I guess that that's that would be my hope especially is that, you know, we they obtain get to school getting to
school on time, >> you know, so we're trying to put them in that direction and um Yeah. >> So, yeah. So, within a a week or two, I could get you numbers. >> Yeah, that that would be that would be helpful. I would just >> we just try to give them as much time as
we can. >> Totally understand. I guess I I'm asking so that we're also holding up the rigor which that's the conversation that we've really had over time is that if we're setting that standard and it's not just
really about 12th grade. It's really setting the standard that we can't keep moving forward students if they're really not meeting grade expectations because all it's doing is eroding our foundation anyway.
>> 100%. We've had that conversation. >> Yeah. >> Many times. >> So I I you know, so I say that relative towards this 12th grade discussion, >> but I think it's really more in support of our staff of saying I don't think we want to keep on moving forward students
that are not meeting the needs, right? And then we have to look at what can we be doing then to help them to meet the expectations, you know? And so I just don't want to move something. The diploma needs to mean something. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. And and we've we've we have these
conversations all the time. >> Yeah. Because I don't want it to get to 12th grade, they're supposed to be graduating, but they still really didn't achieve. >> Right. >> So, okay. Thank you. I'd love to talk to you later. >> Okay. >> And if I could speak concretely uh just from a numbers perspective for last
year, we had uh graduated a group of um 285 students. So those 285 students flowed in and out of that senior class. We graduated 94% of them. Uh I think the bigger number is in the adjusted which
adjusts for all the kids who right like were in and out and it just looks at the kids who started as freshmen who ended four years later. Our graduation rate was uh 96.7% of the kids who started with us as freshmen and stayed with us graduated on
time. uh and there is about 184 students in that cohort. So we had about a 100 students turn over during those four years but 184 of them remained as a as a group. So just to speak from um a data perspective >> and just to add to that as far as credit
loss at the high school level I know that there's a certain number of absences uh that you have that you end up potentially losing credit. Chronic absenteeism that's reported to the state is any absence. So excused or unexcused.
And I know that within the handbook, an excused absence does not go against credit loss, but the state doesn't an absence is an absence. So, um, all of that is excused and unexcused. Granted, we want all of our students to be in
front of teachers all of the, you know, all of the time. But I think to your point, Jod, that that's actually something that like we celebrate in, you know, in elementary school. Yay, full attendance, perfect attendance, right? Like maybe we actually need to keep that
positive thing going the whole way along. Yay, perfect attendance. So that we're just continuing to support that the whole way through so that because, hate to say it, you know, everyone loves awards now. You know, maybe it's just one more. Everyone loves an award. You
keep on getting an award. Yay, eighth grade, you've made it the whole way through because sorry, parents are going to be like, "Yay, my kid got full attendance." You know, um, we need the parents and the families to all be supporting it. And to go along with that, that is the work that we are
currently doing with our re-engagement coach who is supporting uh both Wickham and the high school is really strengthening that tier one level uh with incentives with messages of uh having students feel welcome, feeling
belonged, and developing those relationships and having a really positive emphasis on we want you to be here in school. So, we're planning we we've done some of that so far um so far this spring since Jab and Gutierrez, our re-engagement coach, started in March.
He has partnered with our special education department at the high school and our PAR educators where each PAR educator has four to six special education students that they are their champion. They have met with each of
them, discussed incentives that they would like to to have to earn it for having an improved attendance, not perfect, but we're just looking for improvement. And they check in with each of those students every day. And if the student isn't coming to to school, if
they miss school on a day, they are reaching out to both the student and the family that day from a sense of um of concern and being supportive, not punitive. And that has had a tremendous imp um impact on students attending. And
now we are rolling that out working with the assistant principles at the high school for the guidance counselors and school adjustment counselors to start using that same model. And that would be a tier 2 that we would implement going, you know, from the get-go next year so we're not at the end of the year trying
to um address the chronic absenteeism. >> That's great. Thank you. I can share with you one of my many many accomplishments in life was a perfect attendance from 8th grade through 12th grade and I won a presidential award. So >> wow. Yes, I know. I know. But um so
obviously almost 30 years later it obviously still has a profound impact you up. >> That is >> that is great. It's great. I just show up. That's that's it. But uh it obviously did mean something at the time. Um my mom had crazy rules about school. So obviously that's why I went
every day. But it does it it obviously does have an impact. >> It does have an impact and it does you know your mom had crazy rules but your mom also got you to school >> doing the right thing. That's great. >> Yeah. So to your point it just it does have an impact. So but it's just how do
you cultivate that? Yeah. So >> pause. >> Yeah. But anyway let's move on shall we? Yes. Any other questions? >> Okay moving on. >> Thank you. Assistant Superintendent of Student Services and Equity reports. >> Thank you very much.
Back in October, I had reported out to the school committee that we are due this year for a review of our uh bullying and intervention and prevention plan. So, back in October, we did have our legal council be able to review our current plan just to see if there was
any changes in regulations that needed to be updated. That was done at that time. Over the last couple months, uh we have had a variety of stakeholders look and review our plan for feedback on any edits or changes that we need for uh a
revision in an update for um the next two years. So that involved um we had our supervisor of SEAL uh teacher um our health and wellness teacher teachers who are providing some of that curriculum
and instruction uh on bullying principal superintendent uh we had our SRO also look at it uh school committee member and we have made edits and we're now to the point where um going to involve and ask some of our
parents to u provide feedback as well so that we have a voice of each of um the stakeholders in a revision of that plan. I know that uh superintendent DeFalco uh has shared with you um the current draft of that and the expectation is at the next
school committee meeting that we would have it on the agenda for the school committee to vote on a final um version of the plan to be implemented over the next two years. And if I could just add one piece, I'll be meeting with a couple of parents uh
that have um agreed to meet with me to review the document before bringing it forward to the school committee at our next meeting. >> That's great questions. Nope. >> Thank you very much. >> Can move on. >> Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and
Learning. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I have a very brief update for the committee tonight on our preparation for incoming kindergarteners. Uh I want to start by saying I had my class wrong. It's a two class of 2039.
So I am pleased to report on upcoming events and opport. >> Uh first and foremost, kindergarten screening will take place at Hildris School on June 8th, 10th, 15th, and 16th. This is a little bit of a different um process that we've than
we've used in years past uh terms of location and and timing. So, we have uh some preliminary plans around being really efficient and purposeful with kindergarten screening right down to like where we're going to hold it and how we're going to make it as logistically efficient as possible. Each
elementary school will be sending out detailed scheduling information to parents and guardians. that's going to happen as soon as the uh welcome to kindergarten nights. I believe Richard even has theirs tonight. So, as they have these welcome to kindergarten nights that are hosted by um one of our
local entertainers, uh they will be not only registering um in some cases families for kindergarten, but also providing them with uh schedules for screening on these June uh 9th, sorry, 8th, 10th, 15th, and 16th dates.
Uh it's important to mention that early registration, this is for every anyone watching tonight, any kindergarten, incoming kindergarten parents, uh and participating in kindergarten screening, offers parents and guardians the opportunity to access our new summer jumpstart program for incoming
kindergarteners that starts this August. So, this is a great um idea that the district has come up with to uh offer a um uh first crack at kindergarten for our our young youngest students to get
them prepared for all the demands of uh sustaining through a school day, learning the routines um of of school, getting adjusted to classroom expectations. So, uh, we're excited to be able to offer that program to many of
our incoming kindergarteners. And if you are registered for kindergarten, you, um, have the opportunity to access that program. The kindergarten jump start program for income coming students will be held on August 26th and 27th and 28th from 9 to
12. So, it's a half-day program. It's not a full day. We're just getting giving them a little taste. uh kindergarten jump start programs will be located at each respective elementary school with a primary focus on acclimating acclimating students to the buildings and the expectations of kindergarten in general. So having it at
each respective building gets a little bit of that um this is my school um and feeling comfortable with some of the specific school culture uh for these young learners. During the weeks of kindergarten screening in June, families will receive a kindergarten readiness kit. I have to
give a shout out to Donna Marshall. I believe her daughter might be collecting the minutes for tonight. She has done a great job putting together the uh kits. We have a lot of fresh materials in these kits. You may recall we have had kits in the past that have been a little stale with some cutting activities and
some very um uh generic fine motor gross motor reading math skills. Uh but we've freshened it up with the health of help of the content supervisors with some newer um materials with some literature that's going in there, multilingual literature um and some fun activities
that we think will make learning for our youngest learners fun and engaging uh during the summer months. So thank you Donna for helping us to get those together. These kits will contain fun and engaging summer activities for children to practice new skills in literacy, math, and science. The kits
will also contain multilingual books, as I had mentioned, for children that explore other content areas. Families are encouraged to reach out to the main office at each elementary school with any questions about screening or summer kindergarten readiness opportunities. >> Okay, questions.
>> Can I just ask a question? Um, the I love the idea of the jump start program. Are we providing transportation to that or is it like a parent drop off pickup kind of thing? Um I don't what did we land on? >> And are we still and leading into that? Are we still doing the ride the bus day
prior to the jump start or is it like after the jump? We >> haven't scheduled the ride the bus day yet, but we did talk about the transportation piece and uh we're going to ask parents first if they could uh bring their child to the jump start program. If they can't, we're going to work to coordinate some of the
transportation. We kind of brainstorm some different ideas around that. Uh the other thing that would be important to note that we're making a little bit of an adjustment to our kindergarten um programming in the start of the year. Um I'm sure many of you at the table had these, you know, come meet your child's
teacher and you come to school and this is the classroom and all the things and then all the kids get in and it's be a little bit of a disaster because we've never had the kids together before. So, one of the things that uh we're going to do is um for the first couple of days of school, we're actually they're not going
to be assigned to it. Yes, they'll be assigned to a classroom, but it may not be their permanent teacher for the year. So, we're actually going to give the students a few days to work together in different um groups to determine whether or not we have the right uh pod potting,
right? The right class dynamic and then be able to make some changes after the first couple of days. Um and so many of our students and it's important to remember only 25% of our kids are coming from our early childhood center. So the majority of our students are not coming
from uh ECC and many of them do not have any preschool experience. Um so right where we're kind of merging all of these different experiences into one classroom. So, hence the jump start uh piece, but also like let's get the
students in the first couple days and and really kind of feel out the dynamics and then let teachers and principles work together to make some of the changes if we if we need to. So, that'll be a little bit of an adjustment. U but we're hoping that it will actually result in better classroom dynamics.
You just gave me an idea too. Perhaps uh aside from transportation to um and home from that those jump start sessions and the kinding garden orientation, ride the bus that happens in the fall. Maybe we could get a bus on site so the kids can
get familiar with uh just boarding the bus, bus expectations um as part of that orientation during the jump start. So >> thank you. >> Excellent. >> Anything else? I just think this is such an exciting
time to contemplate students starting their academic, social, emotional journeys with us, you know, if they aren't with us from EEC. And I just wanted to be one of the first people to say welcome to the class of 2039 for those uh joining on in September through
one of the um pre-access program. So, great stuff. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Scazo. Moving on to the school business manager. So, Muhammad is not here. So, superintendent.
>> Yes. Uh just briefly, um in your package, you receive the monthly expenditure report. If you have any questions after reviewing that, uh please don't hesitate to reach out right now. Uh we are in good shape as it relates to our incumbrances and our balances and our uh funds. Um, speaking
of transportation and busing, uh, we are working diligently with our, uh, very small but mighty transportation team at the district, uh, to do a few things. Uh, we have started the process of actually rooting our students for next
year. Uh, we, uh, will not have a, um, a repeat of this year's start to the school year with busing. Um, so um, that is the goal. Uh we all remember that >> bar is very low. So >> um
>> yeah the bar is very low. That is true. >> I don't need a low bar. >> We're we're moving we're moving on. >> Yes. >> Uh it'll be light years beyond where it was. Um and uh but one of the things that we're doing right now is we're focusing in on uh two kind of main
pieces of the transportation work. We are um as the school committee well knows, we're adding back four uh buses, which will be great. we're going to add back to our fleet um to help provide more ridership opportunities, more busing to our students and families. Uh so uh we have started the process of
identifying the key neighborhoods and actually bringing those walking zones in of it. Um we have the streets identified. Right now we're looking at the numbers of students who are living in that area to actually ensure they can fit on our buses and making sure that we have balance uh balanced runs. Um so
that's one piece. Uh the other um part that we're doing is we're really looking at those transition grades. Uh that's a really important piece as everybody knows to ensure that as we kind of roll the students up from one um you know tier of busing if you will to the next that we're making the appropriate
adjustments on those runs to ensure they can absorb the additional ridership. Um so um this is very well underway and uh just a thank you to the um the small transportation team and Jody who has still stayed very much involved in that
work to help support them as they're moving through. I know Muhammad's new uh to this process, but uh >> and can I just clarify uh so with the with the walking zones, it's specifically to the secondary level for Wickham and the high school that uh
their walking zones were significantly larger than the elementaryaries. So the streets that we're looking at are the ones that are currently Wickham and high school walkers. So, for instance, there are there are streets for GoodNow
Elementary that we bus, but if you're a Wickham or a high school student that live on that street, you walk. So, we're looking to have some consistency at the secondary level to make sure that uh if if we have a street that you're bus we're busing at the elementary level
that we're consistent with having the secondary level also um be able to have that the bus as a wrership opportunity. >> Okay. >> Good. Okay. Let's move on. >> Acceptance of minutes. minutes of the
April 28th, 2026 school committee meeting. >> Motion to approve the minutes of April 28th, 2026. >> Motion's on the table and seconded. Any questions, comments, or concerns? Seeing none, all in favor? Motion carries. Thank you very much. Moving on to public
comment. Is there any public comment? Any public comment number two? Seeing none, any other further public comment? Seeing none, we will move on from public comment action items and reports. The
acceptance of donations and gifts box tops for education Cain Elementary School for $8. >> Motion to approve. >> What did I miss? >> Eight bucks. >> Eight bucks. >> Hey, eight bucks.
>> We'll take every every Yes. >> Okay. Motion is on the table and second for $8. Any questions, comments, concerns? Seeing none, all in favor? Motion carries. Thank you. Pilgrim Congregational Church, 20 Walmart and 20 Market Basket gift cards for families in
needs in assistance for $1,000. >> Motion to approve with gratitude. >> Motion to Oh, question. >> Oh, sorry. >> No, that's okay. No, motion to approve is great. I just wanted to clarify just because I am a member of the Pilgrim Congregational Church. I feel like I can
be very impartial on this, but um I felt like I should at least say because I've been a member and I'm a deacon. So, >> sorry. >> Motion is on the table and seconded. Miss Deacon, any questions, comments, concerns? Seeing none, all in favor?
Motion carries. Thank you. Hope and comfort. MPS students and families have consistent access to essential hygiene products for 1500. >> Motion to approve. >> Motion is >> also with gratitude. >> Motion's on the table and second. Any
questions, comments, or concerns? Seeing none, all in favor? Motion carries. Coco Tree Kids for donation of 575 pairs of children's underwear to support students and families for a monetary
volume of $300. Motion to approve >> with >> and seconded. Questions, comments, or concerns? Seeing none, all in favor? Motion carries. Fiscal year 26, investigating history and extension grant for grades three and
four. >> Motion to approve. >> Motion is on the table and seconded. Any questions, comments, or concerns? This is for $33,000 and me in 800 bucks.
>> Yeah, it's not on the donation sheet, but it is on the agenda. So, we were moving forward. Motion on table second. Questions, comments, concerns? No. All in favor? Carries.
Okay. Uh, moving on to Marbor High School program of studies. It was discussed earlier today. So, we'll just need to vote on it. >> Motion to approve. I'm just going to send a few little notations of
highlights or stuff like that. >> Motion on the table and second questions, comments, or concerns. We all good with We don't know what Katherine's sending. I don't know. Are we all good with that? >> I'm going to make it crazy. Thankfully, you have great people who can
>> Yeah, it's basics like a few little things. >> No questions, comments, concerns. Seeing that, all in favor? >> Motion carries. >> Okay, moving on to AI policy first read. >> Um, thank you. So, um, in front of you,
you have a really good policy. I want to say that. Um so the um policy subcommittee sat down with a lot of folks, number of them here tonight, some that are not here as well. Um we had
building administrators, we had Chris Henry, we had Scott Parmentor, we had a lot of students that were able to be a part of the discussion. Um I'm not even going to say that it is perfect because it's not going to be
perfect. It's going to be something that's going to continue to move forward and change. So, this is a first stab at heading down this path. We need to acknowledge that. We need to acknowledge it. Um, so the wonderful thing is that,
um, I'm going to say I think Chris Henry, you did a great job of involving staff on having some really, um, great discussions on how to approach this to hopefully bridge that gap of how to make sure we were attacking things appropriately for
staff members to help and support them, but also understanding that it's human first across the board, whether it is staff or students. Um, so we don't want to put our heads in the sand. We are trying to go at this as best as we can.
So, first Reed, please take your time on reading through um, send questions to me and I will if I don't have an answer, I will be more than happy to reach out and ask away. But I just wanted to acknowledge it was a really um, really
fruitful process on getting here. So, >> thank you. >> Thank you. So it is a first free so there's no action. So if there's any questions now we can take that up. If not we will move on. Looks like we'll move on. Thank you. Reports of school committee
subcommittee. Anything good good. Okay. Members forum. >> Yes. Sorry. Oh, um I actually meant to um
mention with the program of studies that I was pleased to see conversational Portuguese and also the welcome to MHS course. Like why have we never had this before? Such a great idea. I'm really pleased to see
that. Um, and I just wanted to thank the uh city council finance committee for hosting the superintendent and Mr. Sadiki last night um and not
cutting our budget and we got a lot of positive feedback about everyone's uh thoughts on how we're doing things and I would like to uh thank our chair for uh his comments regarding our process in
securing our leader. So, but >> it was a good lesson. >> It was needed to be said because I respect each and every one of you for making that decision by not moving the two candidates forward. We took a big gamble and uh we definitely won. So, um
thank you. Anything else for members forum? Yes, >> me. Um we have a very busy week here at the high school. um our well not a busy day Thursday the 14th which is this week we have the MHS art show in the lobby of the high school so it's always
>> awesome to see all those great artists Emmy Ryan >> and um also the same night um so the art show is from 6:00 to 7:30 MHS lobby but happening from 7 um at 7:00 at the
Wickham Auditorium is our fantastic jazzfest um featuring doing Brian Thomas, which if you haven't heard him, he is fantastic. He's has been a um guest teacher a few times at the high school. Um and those jazz students are
fantastic. Ali Ryan trombones rule. >> It's all Ryan's all the time. >> All right. So, I have reviewed the warrant and I will be signing that tonight. And the other thing is I did want to acknowledge um on Friday, this
past Friday night um they had spring sing >> which um has voices required and it was from out of nowhere our middle school a capella group and then the group from Wakefield and I apologize I'm not getting their name but they were really
>> steel voices. >> Voices of steel. >> Yes. I don't know why that just triggered. >> I love it. Thank you. We work together there. >> Which is a scary thought. >> Yeah. And it was and it was really good. I know that um you know some of the students were a little concerned because we didn't have as many different groups
be able to attend spring singing this year that had happened in the past. There were just some conflicts of different a capella events going on. >> But um they were phenomenal and I just once again I you know as we were doing
our teacher appreciation walk around which was fabulous as well. It was just one of those things actually seeing Dr. Falco walking around and going, "Oh my gosh, they're just amazing." Like to think of all of the different things that we have going on here when we talk
about the whole child. This district is completely about the whole child, >> right? and and it just screams as we are walking through whether it was like the artwork we were seeing on the walls, the bulletin boards that were going on, um
the in fizz classes that were happening as we were going from building to building. Right. >> Ah, >> no. And if I could piggy back on that, like just like >> I showed up late to the ac capella and I had to leave early, but I really was upset about that because the the amount
of talent and then to be able to go to the fashion show that was in that week and then you're in the fashion show and you hear a little bit of noise outside and then you I'm ended up going to the men's volleyball game and how exciting was that? like it was like so full of energy and I'm like you know so to go to
all these events like there's to your point there's so many things going on and it's pretty exciting to see that excitement and how much pure talent there are and the students just love every aspect and there's an avenue for each student to to find their voice
which is extremely incredible um but and then thank you to all the teachers you know I didn't make it to all the schools I did make it to a few but to see all the students and uh just to be in the classroom is always a highlight highlight of my day. So I I I kudos to to all of you to make this community
such and I I will say this forever as much as I hate cutting the budget but it needs to happen like the true heart is in the schools and and I'm very fortunate to get a little glimpse of that each and every day. So, so thank you. >> And and just on that with the the staff,
I have to say I absolutely love when we are going around for teacher appreciation to actually see so much of our staff even after they've retired that they are coming back and substituting you know like Ms. Sorry, Mrs. Mahoney who like heart and soul
like robotics man she is going to keep that program you know to help to continue to bolster it. Um she was actually there proctoring MCCAST. So like they >> they won't leave. They retire and they keep coming back. >> But we love it. >> The previous
>> It's just instructor was at the show. >> Oh when we get right we got into the fashion here we were at MHS and in the fashion department and they're putting away like folding all of the extra pieces of fabric and here's Roberta just doing her thing again. You know like
>> that just it really this is a family. This is a family that is absolutely dedicated to this district and and people, you know, I I think that also says why you wanted to come here. I I mean, I just it's our community. People
are invested and I'm sure, you know, I look over at you, Dr. Scuzz, and I know you're going on to something that's going to be a great big step, but you've been here for a really long time, and you're always going to be attached. you're walking around talking to all of the people that you've had these great
relationships and they are all thrilled for you for your next opportunity to. So, I think it just it like just speaks volumes about when we're talking about appreciation. It is absolutely pure from the heart appreciation day in day out.
So, sorry. Thank you. I think the superintendent enjoyed the walkalongs that I joined because I jumped a few times with the chaos and I think he chuckled quite a bit at my under not understanding the complete chaos that's controlled but I'm not used to that in the halls. So, uh he did not have my
back at all. In fact, pointed and laughed. So, I know I felt secure going on those walkounds. So, thank you superintending the this tradition of us going around and thanking the teachers because I don't think this happens in every district. I'm so sad that I'm not able
to do it anymore because I have a job. Um, but I'm so thankful that you guys do this because I can tell you it doesn't happen everywhere. So I I think the teachers know that and I I and as much as I'm glad that we're able to appreciate the teachers and the staff throughout the district. So thank you.
>> Yeah. >> All right. Now >> Dan unfortunate this year because scheduling cont. It's just amazing right now. So I felt so bad about the teachers and I still appreciate you
actually. And if you're still tuning in, family fun day is this Sunday at Ward Park. I think you'll believe it's from 11 to 3. Um I will be there. Um, feel free to swing by, say hello, and tell me your constructive criticism because that's why that's why I'm there. On that note,
any other further members forum? >> Seeing none, you know what I need? >> Move to adjourns on the table and second >> to back into executive session. >> Correct. >> Yes. >> We have to adjourn >> and then we'll >> and we will adjourn from executive
session. >> All in favor? We're adjourned from our meeting at 8:49 and now executive session. Thank you everyone. Have a great night.