But I just green. >> Good evening. Today is Tuesday, February 10th. The time is 7:30. I call the order the Marbor Public School Committee meeting. I'd like to remind everyone that we are and we are streamed live by WMCTV. Have everyone rise for the pledge
of allegiance. >> 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, liberty and justice for all.
>> Thank you much everyone. So we'll dive right in with presentations. So we have the first presentation that is by SEAC which is the special education parent advisory council. >> You have some print out because like
having flashback >> correct >> we do. If you're going to speak you need to talk into the microphone just so people at home can hear you. Sorry. >> Just make sure the green light is on the microphone. On your microphone.
>> That's green. Yep. >> Good. You don't have the same. >> Good evening. My name is Heather Mandansa and this is Jennifer Elliot. >> Hi. >> We're co-chairs of the Marbor CPAC or Special Education Parent Advisory Council. our agenda for tonight. First, we're
going to do a quick introduction to who the CPAC is, what we do. Then, we're going to do a quick year and review of last school year because we weren't able to present last year. Then, we'll move into this year, our year-to- date accomplishments and goals for the rest of the year. And then, we will open the floor up to questions.
>> That's the way it is year, but >> So, as I mentioned, CPAC stands for Special Education Parent Advisory Council. Our mission, which is a bit wordy, but it's straight from our bylaws, is to work by communicating, evaluating, advocating, and educating
within the community for understanding of, respect for, and support of all children with special needs in the community and the Marbor public schools. So, in short, our functions are advising the district, sharing information, and hosting workshops, and connecting families with
resources, educators, and the community. Any parent or guardian with a student with an IEP or 504 accommodation plan can join the CPAC. And students aged 14 or older who have an IEP or 504 plan can also join. Although at this point in
time, we don't have any student members. Our leadership council this year, Jennifer and I are the co-chairs. Our secretary is Jillian Macy, treasurer Nells Johnson, and we have three members at large, Anna Paula Hence, Camila Das, and Paula Guz.
and we host monthly hybrid meetings the last Thursday of each month at 7 p.m. in Whitam Commons and on Zoom for those who can't attend in person. Next, in your packet, we have a quick screenshot of our um flyer with QR codes where you can
download in English, Spanish, Portuguese, or Haitian Creole. We just wanted everyone to have this in case you ever come across a parent or guardian who could use a connection. And then the next slide is a bunch of resources that we share with a lot of families. And we also wanted you to have
the QR codes to access those in case you ever come across someone who could use them. >> Next, I'm going to review last school year, the 2024 2025 school year. We thought it was important to cover this because this is our first full year in existence. Um we were reestablished about halfway through the previous
school year. So in September we registered friends of Marorrow CPAC as a 501c3 nonprofit organization and the sole purpose of that organization is to fund raise to support our mission. We also hosted two caregiver workshops through the federation for children with
special needs. The first was basic rights understanding the IEP that was attended by about 10 participants and then the second was about 504 plans and that was our most well attended workshop so far with about 22 parents.
We also hosted two inclusive family events both with many resource fairs with special needs related organizations from the community. The first was our fall festival in October that included pumpkin decorating, lawn games, face painting, arts and crafts, a raffle and free
pizza, apple cider donuts, apples and cider, all donated by local businesses. The other event was a touch or talk in May. We had vehicles and staff from Marboro Police, fire, DPW, and what was Patriot Ambulance at the time. We also
had long games and crafts there and free pizza and ice cream. In February, we hosted a caregiver Q&A meeting Q&A meeting with members of the Marboro Police and Fire departments. This allowed parents to find out what those departments are doing to ensure
that they work effectively with families with children with special needs. And we were also able to learn what we can do to keep our children safe. It was a really informative and helpful meeting and I think it's a very important topic. So, we plan to host it every year going forward.
And finally, in May, we put together a PowerPoint presentation with the basics of what neurodiversity is. And this was presented to all middle school students during their May home room advisory period. It was about a 15-minute presentation, and home room teachers presented it to their individual classes.
Now, Jen's going to go into what we've been up to this school year. Hi, can you hear me? Okay, great. So this year 25 26 school year uh the first thing we did in the beginning of the year in September we held another social
event at Tumbettas because a lot of our events in the past were more focused towards elementary kids. And what a lot of people don't understand is that in the special education program it goes from ECC here all the way up through
postgrad 22 age 22. And there aren't as many programs to engage that population of kids. So, we had an event at TMBETS that went from sixth grade all the way up through age 22. And most people think of a CPAC or the Special Education
Parents Advisory Council as mostly being comprised of families with kids that are on the spectrum, but it's not. Again, it's all kids that have any sort of um learning disability or other accommodation afforded to you by a 504 plan. Folks don't always understand that
a 504 plan is isn't just an intellectual disability or a learning disability. kids that have severe food allergies or cancer, other medical conditions, they're also covered by 504s. And a lot of those families don't understand that they're covered by our organization and then they don't get access to the
resources they need. Also, families with children with special needs sometimes have trouble connecting with other people in the community. And we want to have these events to try to find a safe place where everyone can be included because we also think we're fun and we want our kids to have fun, too. So the
other thing that we noticed is that when we try to have these more academic events where we're teaching people, it's not as fun, right? So people don't show up. So we try to sneak in resource fairs into fun activities. So this year after we did the event for
the older kids in September, we also did an inclusive fall festival on October 4th. It pretty much recapitulated what we did last year. We added a few different resources. Um, we had it on a Sunday instead of a Saturday, but it still went off pretty well. And then on December 18th, we had an augmentative
and alternative communication or AAC presentation by Paul Bottom. He's great. He's really helpful with finding uh technical resources, other resources to help our kids access the curriculum. Then on the next page, we talk about our
goals for this year. So, we're having a presentation at our next CPAC meeting, which is at the end of this month on February 26 with our new superintendent. And then we are having a game night for grades six and up. We originally going to have it on March 5th, but we are now rescheduling it to later in the month.
We're looking at having the event at Ninja in in Marorrow, so we can have both physical based activities and games. And we're having a 9th grade inclusion panel during the assembly at the high school in the little theater on March 19th. In that event, we're going
to have um student volunteers. So, the high school is amazing. My daughter is in the the high school program. There's a lot of students that um that volunteer to be best buddies that work with the kids with unified specials. So, during this inclusion panel in the high school, we're we're going to plan to have it in
nth grade. Moving forward, we're going to have members of the student body that volunteer, staff members. We're having a um an alumni who went through the program and a parent so that the ninth grade class can really understand all the different perspectives of the
population that work with children with special needs. Then we're going to have another first responder Q&A on April 30th to again recapitulate what we did last year and another touch a truck on May 2nd and then another uh sixth grade neuro diversity advisory period. We don't know
exactly when in May yet but because we did it for all grades last year. We're going to try to do it for sixth grade moving on and then um I'm not sure if you're aware but it's another really cool thing we we've done as a unified district. We have basically unified field day in June. And so when you look around, you look at Special Olympics or
other things that are out there, most of the unified programming is with athletics. Not everybody is great at sports, right? So one thing we're going to try to do is a spirit unified chalk the walk before the unified field day. So where the community can can do chalk drawings, not just, you know, spirit
ones, but have a contest about who can do the best drawing, that kind of thing. And then we're going to have a Kona ice truck fundraiser for that. Then on the next page, um, we're going to look at creating a fifth grade inclusion fair at the elementary schools. So, you remember
the Scholastic book fairs, right? You walk through, you buy books, it's fun. We're going to try to do an inclusion fair that's similar to that where we'll have, you know, maybe a wheelchair relay race, you know, write your name in Braille, um, have kids look at one of the communication devices, those type of
things to to get kids to really understand at a young age what it's like to experience those type of things. And then, um, we've been working on fundraising to purchase playground picture communication boards for all the middle schools, uh, for all the elementary schools and the middle school. So if you look at the playground
out here, they have one of those things. It really helps even kids that are that are young that don't have the full vocabulary yet that don't have a learning disability. Those type of communication boards are really helpful to facilitate connection and communication. And then we're going to have ongoing caregiver workshops through the Federation of for Children with
special needs, PPE, and Easter Seals. And then the last picture is just a bunch of pictures of fun things we did. um on the flyer page. We also have links to our Facebook page where we we um post a bunch of pictures and other things. And now if you have any other any questions or anything else you'd like to
know, we're more than willing to answer them. So, thank you. >> Not a question, but I just want to commend the work that you're doing. we've been sorely needing this for many, many years and it's amazing to see, you
know, the energy that you're bringing to it and all the hard work you're doing. So, >> thank you. >> Thank you. >> Great. And sorry we couldn't get the TVs to work next time. >> I I also just wanted to say I I've been fortunate to be able to be a part of this group. I haven't been able to
attend all the time, but we've stayed in touch and I I really I've been really impressed with how much you all have really taken hold and tried to do things to get the word out to people. Um, I love the resources page you guys have
pulled together and I would love if there was a way I mean I know that we have some of this information up on our website, but we probably could add some of these things to make it even easier because you guys have done great leg work with putting getting the QR codes and things like that.
>> I'm not sure if the flyer is up on the website or not, but the flyer that the trifold flyer we created has the resource page on there. Um, so we could it could cover both bases if we had that. >> I'm also gonna say just like you were saying about how different, you know, everybody kind of learns differently
>> in different ways. Yeah. >> You could use some graphics on this website. >> Oh yeah. >> Your page because >> our Facebook page is a lot better. >> Yeah, exactly. I just, you know, it would be great because you guys have worked really hard to get this information together and it's a great
resource. the um Marissa the the ETL for the high school, she has a great Google site where she uploads pictures of all the stuff that they do there. So maybe we can work on something like that. So >> that'd be fantastic. Thanks for everything. Thank you. >> Thank you. Good.
>> Okay, we'll move on. >> MF grant recipients I'm sorry. I have to take it down. Good evening. U my name is Ayako Barnum. I am on the board um of the Marbor Education Foundation. Um, and for those of you who
are not familiar uh with MEF, um it's a nonprofit organization um founded in 1996. So, it's 30 years um um by a group of parents including Michelle Bordon Hinger
over there. Um and our mission is to fund programs um educational resources that complement existing curriculum goals in Marro public schools. And um we I just realized that um the ECC's uh playground picture communication board
the was one of the our um programs we funded um few years ago. So um and uh we rely on fundraisers and corporate donors and our upcoming fundraiser will be um in mid-March. It's our March Madness
squares. And tonight, um, MEF is pleased to present, uh, Wickham Schools Danielle Cicotella with, uh, um, $2,500, um, grant, um, to expand their restorative center, which will allow the
school to have one restorative center for seventh and eighth grade and and then another one for sixth grade. We funded um this program last year to um get started and then we're happy to continue um funding the so here you are.
Congratulations. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. We'll move on. >> Congratulations. Okay. Let's move on to the student advisory committee. Hello. Um, good evening. Um, my name is
Ala Gracia Tusin and I'm the S representative for the senior class and my presentation today is on the achievement of the special education department at MHS. Um, at MHS we have Mrs. Evosion. Um, she's the special education administrator and she explains
that um, the structure of the program it has four categories of levels of classes. It goes from subsparate which has students with the highest levels of needs and they are usually in this um classroom that's called like learning center and they also have also different
classes. They do different activities. Um and those students also gets the opportunity to go to a program called life the after high school that goes from 18 to 22 years old. Um we also have another subgroup that calls like small group sped class which are also called
essentials and those students are in specific classes based on the subject they have difficulty in such as math ELA science and history. if they have a disability in any of the classes um they are going to be in that group in that specific group. They also have C thought
which has two teachers a gen and um sorry a gen and a par support and those two teachers are just basically there to help the students and guide them um if they need any help with the math ELA science and history whichever subject they have a difficulty in. There's also
a sec um a fourth group called para support which also have both a teacher but the second one is um it's like a helper. It's not really a teacher. It's just a helper to help the kids. And those classes have about 12 to 24 kids in them. And those classes are put in the students that are put in those
classes are both based on their disabilities, teacher recommendations, the IEP, their social and emotional level, um their social and emotional disability and low cognitive scores. Those students, that's the criteria that they base it on to put the students in
those different categories of classes. And to be more specific, we also have unified art which is taught by Mr. Shave. He makes lessons that are based on preschool and kindergarten levels but also accommodate the students needs. Um he makes practices skills such um it's
more like practicing skills such as tracing, cutting and coloring a way to improve their motor skills. They can also use different materials such as painting. They can draw. They can use clay to make pottery. Um there's also regular students that are in those
classes that are there to help and mentor the students throughout the lessons. And those students as well um during half of the year they get to make their own lessons for the um for the special needs students um and they're also there to just interact with the students and it's a good way for the for
both of them to get like to meet new people and make new friendship. We also have unified music which is taught by Mr. Welden and he teach he teaches music through games just as teaching rhythms to bucket drums or creating a game such
as Mario have to get something and each challenge have a um have to complete like you have to get complete a rhythm to each challenge. Um they also teach he also uses games to teach melody. He he uses games for different varieties of things that he teaches in the class. He
also wrote a song that he used for them to introduce themselves, which is a good way for both the regular students and the special need students to interact with each other and make a bond and have a and make a friendship. Um, we also have unified PE which is taught by Mr.
Wilson. Um, they have different different activities they do. They have fitness room, hula hoop games and activities. Um, scooter activities, bowling, outdoor games including cornhole, boe and frisbee activities, project adventure, swing activities,
free time for movement exploration. They have different different many many more activities and all of those are made to help are made for um to in to improve the agility, strength and coordination of the
students. And we also have unified sports. Um the season starts with um two minute 40 two 45 minute practices per week with one weekly competition against another school. Um regular ed students join as partners and help facilitate the
practices and play alongside the competitors in the games. The goals are aligned with the mission set forth by Special Olympics which is largely to provide an opportunity for physical fitness and help the students experience the joy of sport and competition. this unified champion school each um the
school is a unified champion. We are unified champion school um every year since um 2022. Um coach Michaela Mahoneyi the Silva at Wickcom and coach Shenisa Simpson at MHS are fantastic coaches that bring their intensive
coaching resumes to the realm of unified sport. We also have unified boat here which is an event um that also has polar plunge which is an event that student council that does every single year um to raise a lot of money for the special Olympics and there's different
activities such and the pup lunch which we jump in a big basin of cold water and to raise money for the special Olympics and all these um activities are made for to better the special education department at MHS and getting this
information from all the teachers from all the teachers you can see there's like a proud there's a proud feeling and happiness that is radiating from them and saying like how there can see the ch the the students improving and getting better in different areas academically
and socially and I also can see the different students my peers like my my other peers like regular students that also interacting with the special ed students throughout the throughout the day I can say hi hi over there around over there and I'm always looking I'm like, "Oh my gosh, they know all of
them." Um it's really nice to see their interaction and really I see um our special ed education is really based on like improving the social the proving the interactions between the two um groups of students and it's really nice to see and I just really wanted to highlight that and how well the teachers
have been doing and the school in general. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Bye. >> Can I ask one question quickly? Um, I love hearing about the unified art and the unified music programs because I have to say I did not know that it was
that as formalized. Um, so I would and I've been here for a while. So I would love to hear more about that so there's opportunities that we can kind of shout it out a little bit more and gain more awareness of it. But
thank you. Your your report was fantastic. >> Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Good evening, school committee. My name is Maggie Morrisy and I'm the junior representative on the Student Advisory Committee. Tonight, I'm going to present on how the increased presence of
Immigration and Customs Enforcement is affecting students. One morning, I woke up at 5:00 a.m. to hear pounding footsteps and yelling outside my window. It turns out they were ICE agents who had raided my neighbor's home in the early morning. They were masked and armed, but were wearing no identif
identifiable uniform or and were driving unmarked cars. That morning, four of my neighbors employees went to the gas station before going to his house to collect materials for their job site. Uh they were speaking Spanish at the gas station, which caught attention of a group of ICE agents planted nearby
waiting for find people to detain. The unmarked ICE vehicles then followed these men to my street where they were violently detained. All four of those men were legally in this country, but they had not do not have the physical papers physically on them to show, so they were taken away to a detention center. This violent, horrible ordeal
was witnessed by my neighbors two young sons, one being a special needs student. My neighbor's entire family and the four young men who were wrongfully detained are all traumatized by by this ordeal. I wish I could say that this is an isolated incident, but this is a common experience in Malbor today. Several
students and faculty shared their experiences with me. There was one day in the last year where there were sightings of ice all around Malro, largely in apartment complexes. That day, many students and their parents were too afraid to go to school. One of my peers had to stay in her room with all the lights off and the shades drawn
for the entire day to pretend her family was not at home. As a person who attended school this particular day, I noted many empty seats. Another one of my peers described having to beg her mother to let her go to school as she had made her stay home for a week out of the fear. Another one of my students
described seeing an unmarked ICE vehicle parked at her street's bus stop waiting for families to arrive to pick up their kids. One ELD teacher described how the joy of last year's graduation was taken from so many students because their because their families were scared to attend the graduation and do anything to
celebrate after because they believed ICE might plant themselves at the event. The fear around ICE has impeded the success of so many Malro students having to miss school due to the fear of being racially profiled and detained. I spoke to an ELD teacher at the high school who shared that it is so difficult to teach
in her classes because ELD students are too worried about their families and their family safety to worry about school work. As you probably know, there was a large decline in the number of students at Malware High School this year. Largely that can be attributed to the unprecedented small freshman class.
But much of that can also be attributed to the many students that were forced to move back to either their home country or their parents' home country to deportation in their family or just the fear around it. Last year, my best friend who was born here in Massachusetts was forced to move to a country that she barely knew due to the
fear of deportation in her family. These loss of amazing bright students in Malo have had an immense effect on our school community. My neighbor's sons who woke up to mass armed ICE agents in their bedroom had to sit in a classroom just hours later and so many other students spanning from the
high school all the way to here their early education center have had their lives flipped upside down this year. This fear and stress impedes academic success. Students having to be chronically absent due to their parents fear of being racially profiled and detained just driving their kids to school has made it more difficult for
many students to succeed. After speaking to many students, faculty, and parents, the main feedback to improve the situation has been more communication. More communication with families that the school is on their side and that the school will protect students on school property. I recommend more opportunities
for parents and students to learn their rights when encountering law enforcement. I acknowledge that this is a very unprecedented and extreme situation, and I thank each school's administration for the actions that are being taken to protect students. But many families still have a lot of distrust in the school system because
they view it as another organization of the same government. Emphi emphasizing the school's position to support and protect students might help improve their situations. I would like to thank you for listening and welcome any questions or comments. >> Thank you.
Good. >> Yes, Dan. >> Very, very good job. And I'm so sorry you have to put up with that every day, whether it's friends or yourself. It's abominable that that would happen. My next question is actually for the superintendent. Do we have protocols in
place to the extent you can tell us for either of two situations with ICE? One, if they just show up at the door and actually do the right thing and knock on the door and not sneak around and they come to the door and they say, "We're looking for this." And the other one, of course, is when they're on campus, when
you can tell they probably are looking for kids around doing their educational thing as opposed to anything else. My uh yeah, my mic isn't working. Sorry. Uh to your question about protocols, yes uh we have very stringent protocols in
place uh to protect our students and uh we have a communication protocol in place should an ICE agent show up on school grounds um that we have we have in fact enacted this year um and u the administrator in the building followed the protocol uh right to the letter and
notify the individuals um myself included that needed to be so we're able to respond appropriately. So, we do uh and we do have uh some communication um um going out to families and uh some support
some support in place. I'd rather leave it there. >> That I said to the extent you can that's nice to hear. I'm glad to hear you have those in place. Thank you. >> Yes. >> Um thank you for the report. Um, I can't
imagine what you're feeling, um, what your friends are feeling and the teachers having to deal with in the administration on a constant basis. I am not sitting in your seats, but I, you know, I where I am working, I am
thinking of you guys quite often and thinking of these families. Um, that is one of the reasons I love being a part of Marorrow. I chose to move here. I wanted to be a part of a diverse community and I I welcome the diversity.
Um and I I hope that we can express um that we want to support as many of our students to feel like they have us on their side to be able to get to school and know that they're going to be safe.
It's easier said than done, but I I think all of us, that's why we're here. We We care about our kids and this community and allowing everyone to have an opportunity. So,
thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Hello everyone. My name is Atul Madora and I am a senior representative on the student advisory committee. Today I'll be presenting for Jade. So I'm haven't read this. Good evening school
committee. My name is Jade and I'm the sophomore SEC representative. Tonight I'm going to be presenting on Panthercast. You're probably wondering what is Panthercast? Panthercast is the student written, made and produced podcast here at Malber High School. The
podcast is shown during our win periods covering various topics, clubs, special Olympics, and in one episodes even the nurses. The podcast is a result of students expressing a want to work on video projects outside of class time. When Mr. Lima, who teaches video
production at MHS, saw the students were interested in the opportunity to create media, he hopped on board with making the podcast come to life. I reached out to Mr. Lima and asked him a few questions regarding the specific origins of the club in which he shared he had worked closely with the student Jolie
Partilia and that she had been part of every step. After developing the idea and finding students who wanted to be part of the production, Mr. Lima reached out to other student groups who may be interested like student council drama club and with principal spina support was also very critical as the project
came together as he allowed videos to be shown during our win periods. Students have enjoyed using the club as a creative outlet, loving the opportunity to practice and learn how video production works. When asked what Panther means to one of them, one student said, "Panthercast has honestly
done so much in expanding the student body's knowledge of the school and community itself." Nate Sawaj, a 10th grader here at MHS, said that being part of the creation process for this has been like part of being something special and that it teaches valuable skills such as
interview skills and even public speaking. The podcast, from what I've seen, has had positive effect on the entire student body. Students and teachers alike find the videos very entertaining. The podcast creates a sense of community that is so important to have in our school. When when asked
how the podcast affects the student body, Mr. Lima said, "Not only do our episodes frequently promote a specific club or event, but I think the existence of a podcast is a regular fixture serves as a general reminder to students that there is so much going on in school every day that they might not notice. It's also awesome for the students
directly involved in Panthercast to know that their work is not only seen across the school, but also gets thousands of views outside on social media. Overall, the podcast has been a great addition to all Marro High School has to offer. In the future, they hope to cover more topics like our spring musical
production of Mamma Mia. Anyway, it's a great That's all I have for tonight. And if there's any questions, have a rest of your night. >> Excellent. Thank you, Jade. >> Thank you. Okay. Moving on.
Uh good good evening school committee. My name is Sophia and I'm the freshman um student advisory council representative and my presentation tonight is about the benefits of ling crew on underassman and upper classmen. Um link crew is a nationwide program which was which was in sorry which was
originally introduced at MHS by band director James Verdone. It's a program that's been around for two years now at MHS that starts during freshman orientation where the underclassman gets to run into groups of of around 7 to eight people with 35 junior senior adviserss who help host the activities.
This program continues throughout the school year. The group's meeting to discuss school culture. It helps the students adjust from the shift of middle school to high school. Provides important skills to each party involved and further informs them about what the school can offer them during their during the school year's year. A a
benefit from link crew is it allows the freshman students to get a feel for the school before the first day begins. About a week from the first day of schools, the freshman attend a one-day orientation. Um during my orientation, prior to being make prior to us being put in our link groups and when we would first walk
inside, we were given a name tag with a number in the top right corner that ranged from numbers 1 through 15. After getting settled into orientation, we were introduced with activities within the gymnasium that would take participation that would take participants from the crowd to get the morale up. After the activities,
depending on the number and our name tags, we would get sorted into the different groups. In these groups, the leaders were assigned to um to the freshmen to follow the nationally designed curricul curriculums described by um Mr. Verdone to help get them
accustomed to high school. These curricula give the freshman important lessons that would be helpful to getting through the first year at MHS by providing the freshman sorry by providing broader outlooks on how to handle issues that they would be faced with. After the first lesson, the freshmen were given a tour of the school
and were given their schedules to locate their first ever class starting freshman year. By this, it helps them become more confident in their new upcoming school year and started the sense of familiar of familiarity in a new environment. Another benefit that had been
implemented since linker had been formed is that the underassman have a type of positive mentor entering high school. At the consulting with James Ferdon, it's been understood that in link crew, the leaders are selected through a nomination and application process. By volunteering, the volunteers help
provide the underclassman with structure within themselves and help them make more genuine connections with one another. With the volunteers becoming positive role models, it encourages more participation within school events, charity programs, sports, and clubs. This introduces the students new people,
new opportunities, and a new and diverse mindset for what they want to be in the future and what character they can become. Not only did it improve school culture, it helped build each involved student for the future. Um, the extra benefit of Link Crew is it teaches the helpers and the incoming freshman
important life skills. Link crew is built on focusing on implementing peer mentorship, building leadership skills, and improving community building. By volunteering in this program, the upperassmen work more on their leadership skills by hosting activities for the underassman to participate in. Also providing them benefits such as
service hours that can help towards graduation or honor societies and their volunteer work would be applicable applicable to be put in resumes or applications to help demonstrate their skills within leadership, teamwork, and team building. The underclassman get a better understanding by watching these
peer mentors what they can do to help their school, what they can do to participate in school. Helps them build responsibility and pride them themselves in the work that they will put out. Helps them become more inclusive in their community and helps them push to take advantage of the opportunities given to them to help shape our narrow
down what they want to do for the rest of high school or what they want to pursue afterwards. Um, Link Crew was a program designed to be a positive peer mentoring program that would help ease the transition for the eighth graders moving into freshman year for high school and would provide leadership
opportunities for the link leaders. For the incoming freshmen, it offered them a warm and welcoming environment, gave them a positive role model, and provided them a reliable support system with someone who could relate to their issues and could share advice on how to handle the social academic challenges they
would face. by helping the freshman um and coming to high school. Sorry. Um it also gave the upper classmen involved in the link crew to gain um valuable leadership exper experience, stronger skills within communication and mentorship. They took
a large role in sharing positive school culture that helped enhance their sense of responsibility and to demonstrate the pride they had within their community and student body. This program helps to strengthen all of the students involved by building bridges between different grade levels and be and giving a more
supportive and inclusive atmosphere for everyone involved. And I open the um that's all for today and I open the floor to questions and comments. >> Thank you. Good. Good. Good. Good.
>> Thank you very much. >> Okay. All right. That wraps up the student advisory committee. So, thank you all very much for coming. Much appreciated the reports. We'll move on to the superintendent report over here. Oh, okay. All right. Uh, good
evening everybody. Great to be here and good to see everyone and thank you to our high school students for uh raising very important issues uh across the board. uh please know that your voices are incredibly important and are absolutely not falling on deaf ears. Uh
we are right there behind you and are doing everything we can to support you and and your classmates through uh through all their challenges. So thank you so much for bringing those forward. Uh a few things uh under my report this evening. Um the school committee may
recall uh that in I believe it was sometime in November December we were talking a bit about the college support process at Malber High School uh and uh they have since done some revision to uh their support plan for our um for our
juniors and seniors. So have asked um Mr. Pina and his team to join us this evening to share an update with the school committee and our community about how MHS is supporting um our upperassmen through the college journey. So I will
turn it over to Mr. Serpena and his crew. >> Oh no. Okay, hold on. >> Really? Okay, hold on. >> Liz, thanks for being back here to give
us an update. >> I've brought another round of technological issues. Don't worry. Are we going to give it a second or should I should I start? >> Okay. >> Huh? All right. >> Okay. Well, while we're seeing if we can
get the slides up, I do think that you have a copy or that you have a link to the slides so you can follow along. There you go. Um, so first of all, I just want to say thank you for the opportunity to come talk to you about um what we're doing and what we might do differently to support our upperassmen
through the college planning process um at Merlbor High School. Um by way of introduction, I'm Liz de Horatius. I'm one of the five counselors at the high school. And I'm Amy Weman. I'm also one of the guidance counselors. I'm Steve Spin. I'm the principal at high school.
>> Um we have three other guidance counselor colleagues with whom we share um the work of preparing our students to go um into the post-secary universe after us. So um we're going to focus as um Jay said on the upperassman um the
junior and senior year process right now um and just give you an overview. So over the course of four years, the goals of Merlboro High School of College planning process are to help students do three things. Identify and articulate their interests, strengths, and goals.
Explore the post-secondary landscape as it relates to those goals. Actually, four things. Develop and execute a college application plan. And then evaluate college admissions offers with an eye toward right fit. the mechanisms for delivering this
curriculum or this this um the information that students need as multiaceted and we're going to talk about three ways in which we work with students. One of them is through our core um I don't know how much you know about core at the high school. You might know a lot. You might know a little bit.
Tasty Fessendon developed um develops our core our core advisory lessons. Core stands for collaborative opportunities for reaching excellence. So cores are small about a dozen student grade level specific groups kind of like a home
room. Um but we call it it's it's a panther period. It's where our students land for advisory lessons where they land on panther days when we might have class meetings and things like that and where they land um on what I need days when they need to get some extra help. So during that panther period, it's used
for a variety of things. Um when there's a core lesson, one of these cooperative opportunities um for reaching excellence, we are partnering with Tacy to deploy some of the guidance curriculum into those spaces because they are grade level specific. They're
small and they are um in cases where they need to be language specific so that the content is translated for our students. So that's one mechanism that we're using. We also have um some guidance programming that we'll talk about. So things and um meetings or
initiatives that run directly out of our office and are independent of core. And then there is a fair amount um obviously of individualized student work um between the student and the guidance counselor in developing um next steps. Um so I'm going to talk to you about
junior year, just give you an overview. Amy's going to talk about senior year and then we're going to talk to you about some of the ideas that we have for how we can do things differently um and maybe a way that we'll reach students a little more consistently. Um okay, so my vision was to be able to give you a
glimpse of core. I actually linked a core lesson to um the first slide about junior year, but these are just this is just a snippet for you. Um, for example, in um September of junior year, in these small classes um that are grade level
specific, our juniors had the opportunity to explore um labor market trends, sort of the job market, how that relates to post-secary um requirements and just get them sort of thinking in the context of what it means to get a
job, what kind of preparation you need for that job. Um so they have a whole period of time in in a small group environment with a teacher with them potentially in the language um that they speak working on this. Um
the second one is an example actually that came from last year. Um I grabbed an example of an April core for juniors during which um students had the opportunity to research careers and future educational opportunities to take some notes about that. And then we also
talked about how to um access teacher recommendations. So we sort of some global um content and then some very specific nitty-gritty content about um when you're putting together your portfolio for these post post-secondary opportunities. What can you do at the end of your junior year including asking
teachers for recommendations? How do you access that information? What form do you need to give them? How do you ask them on Navvian? So it's a combination of thinking globally about what it means to leave high school, where you might want to land, how that fits with you, and also what are the mechanisms that we
use at Marlboro High School to put put things together as you're moving forward. So that's just an example. Um Casey um does an excellent job of putting together lessons that are interactive. Um and we collaborate well around, you know, depending on what time
of year it is, if we have information at all to get out there about SAT or PSAT signups or instant decision days or anything like that. In addition to um advertising that in all the ways you think we do, we also put that in core where we know that students hope we hope
that students are in there in a smaller environment. and it's it's very accessible to them. Um, if you have a chance and and it's able you're able to click you can click into a lesson and see what that actually looks like for students to walk through, but it's pretty explicit. Um,
for guidance programming that's independent of those core opportunities. Um the first thing that we do in the fall um out of the guidance office is pretty much as soon as we get back um from summer vacation, we are advertising our PSAT testing opportunity. Some
schools do PSAT testing on the weekends. Um we find that anything that we do related to PSAT or SAT testing is best done in the context of the school day so that our students can access that opportunity. when we were offering weekend opportunities, we were going out of our way and running tests for
students that were coming from everywhere but our own school. Um, so we shifted to the school day model. Um, PSAT testing is open to everybody. Our district pays for it, so there's no barrier to taking the PSAT and we're able to offer um, English language
accommodations, 50% extended time, translated directions, and access to a dictionary. And we have we have seen students embracing that opportunity, which is excellent. Um, and then in the late winter, sort of spring of junior year, um, this is a little bit out of
order. Um, we're offering a Kaplan SAT prep class, which met this afternoon. Um, it's a 9-week opportunity, again, at no cost to students thanks to a generous Quest grant. I don't know if people remember, it's been a few years now. Quest gave us a a lot of money, and we've been able to stretch that money
over time. Um, like it or hate it, the SAT is what it is. There is some gamesmanship involved and strategy and Kaplan does a really good job preparing our students. We saw great score increases last year. So we have a number of students taking advantage of that opportunity. Um we have that opportunity
leads up to our SAT school day in April which is an opportunity for any junior who wants to take the SAT during the school day. Again they don't have to travel. There's a bus for them. Um we wave the fee for anyone who qualifies and students who do test with us who do
not qualify for a fee waiver um pay a little bit less than they would on the weekend and anytime there's a student who comes to us with any financial um question or difficulty we'll wave the fee and find a way to do it. We never want cost to be a barrier to any of our students. Um we do we have traditionally
done I should say a junior class presentation in the context of Panther period. um and we've mimicked that um that presentation with uh the same presentation for parents in the evening in the past. Um I will say that I think
we're learning that something that big and something that happens as a one-off um and something that happens in person for families might not be um the best way to engage people. So, um, when we talk about how we might do things differently later, that's probably a target for how we're going to tweak
things this year and then we can let you know how it goes. But during that presentation for juniors, which which is seated in the spring, um, this late spring probably, um, we start to talk about, you know, picking up the pieces of what they've heard in core in terms
of the teacher recommendations and in terms of college and career and start thinking about um, what does it mean to make a college list? What are you looking for in a college? Size, location, uh type of school, two-year, four-year cost. Um what can you do over
the summer to try to get ready? Start to write an essay, maybe visit some campuses. Um so again, that is a target for maybe tweaking. Um we do land in a lot of senior, sorry, junior English classes toward the end of the year. A lot of our
junior English classes turn their focus toward essay writing um in the spring and we are often invited in to talk about essays and sort of the common app and again the smaller setting is advantageous because it's just easier um
for students to ask questions and um it just fits nicely at that time of the year and then they are they have I mean Marielen might be able to attest but um those visits kind of generate some good questions that come directly from the kids about what they need to know in
addition to what we think they should know. Um there are also individual counselor appointments. Um the ones that happen during junior year cover not only scheduling but starting to think about college planning. Um students um on the
graphic on the slide that you can't see but you might see in front of you there's a picture of a folder. We sort of we didn't do the folder in the past couple of years. I think it might have been a budget thing, but students do or should be leaving that junior year appointment with a packet. Um, and they
will again this year. We're going to resurrect the folder, but um, you know, all the forms they need to give teachers, counselors, um, some a place to write their password down for the common app and for Naviance and things like that. So, we're going to try to they have a little bit of a starter pack when they leave um, as juniors. Um, so
some of the images on the page are just some of the some of the announcements we've made about things or just so you can get a feel for for how things look junior year. Um, and I'm going to turn it over to Amy for senior year which gets a little bit busier.
Right. So for our senior year core, um, I can just go through a couple of ones that they've received already and then some we have planned for the spring. Um, so in the early fall they did kind of like a postgrad pathway which was geared towards college or any student who decides military folk school anything like that. They had a whole core about
what is kind of like your future plan and what are the pathways and everything like that. Um, we also had one in late November that was kind of like an overview of what is financial aid. Um, again not only just in regards to college but for those going on to v uh trade schools and everything like that.
Um, a kind of general overview of financial aid. Um, our seniors recently had, if they remember, a entire core on the scholarship process and the Marro High School um, scholarship program and how they can access those and everything like that. And um, we will be having one
coming up probably in April around decision- making and how how do you decide where to go? And, you know, we do a lot of individual work on looking at kids kind of like financial aid letters and kind of picking out like what's a good fit, what's a good package. but that'll also be decision-m for if kids are going off into the workforce or
they're joining the military um or anything like that. So, that's kind of embedded into the core lessons. Um but some of the other programming that we do is um they had an entire Panther presentation that went over again kind of similar to junior year the entire application process from start to finish
and what they need to do. We also had that exact same night for parents as well with translation services both in school during the day with the kids and at night for parents. Um a lot a lot of individual um student counselor meetings
in regards to college applications. Um the entire guidance department writes a letter of recommendation for every single one of their seniors who is applying to college. Um we also between the months of September and November have about three to four colleges a week
who are coming in to visit. Um so the kids are actually able to sign up via our Naviance um platform and meet with colleges that are coming in. So those are the admissions reps that are actually reading their applications. Um so it's a good way for the kids to meet face to face and kind of make a good
impression and they can ask all the questions um that they have. Um we did offer in October the SAT school day which again was a guaranteed seat for any of our seniors during the school day to sit and take the SAT. Um we had a
college financial aid information night for families um this past winter um early winter December um in which we have a great um representative from MEIFA. His name is Kevin Fudge if you want to look him up. He's hilarious and very down to earth and kind of gives
parents the real nitty-gritty about financial aid because it is a challenging process for families. Um, in week of January 13th for our seniors, we had instant decision days in which we invited Quinc Sigman Community College, Mass Bay Community College, Worcester
State University, and Frammingham State University in to meet with our students. Um, our students could meet with them and get accepted on the spot. Um so we had 25 students between the high school and the alternative school who came in to meet with those representatives and
were um accepted on the spot. Um in the spring upcoming we're going to be doing a dollars for scholars work session. Um dollars for scholars is fantastic and amazing and they give so much money to our students and we want all of our students to take advantage of that. So we're going to be having a work session in which the kids can work on their
profiles and get everything done. And then we have a little all the seniors tend to hang out on the second floor in between periods. So there is a college acceptance bulletin board up on the second floor that I try to match with whatever their senior theme is. So their
senior theme is kind of like a road map and driving and everything like that. So the current bulletin board has um license plates with all of their college acceptances on them that's updated weekly. that's kind of senior. Um,
so a couple of the changes that we are going to be making, some are more imminent than others, are um, instead of doing a Panther period presentation, um, like a one-off for for juniors, we're going to split the class into two and do kind of a two-day workshop. We
had some success with kind of a rotating workshop a few years ago where we were able to come together as a as a group and talk through some of the just some of the timeline and then we broke apart into you know a common app room where we really got into how do you fill this
thing out? What does it mean when they ask you are they is our class rank exact and going through that? um an essay room, a financial aid room, and kind of have them go through so that it um so that it's a bit more makes a bit more of a mark and it's a bit more manageable.
So, we're going to pilot that. Um and we have long talked about and I think now we're definitely going to um make it a top priority to make a video library in which we kind of take the totality of a
um a presentation and break it into segments that are easily identifiable. I need to know how to request a teacher letter of recommendation on Naviance. I need a little primer. I'm just going to watch section five. If you wanted to, you could watch all of it. That way, we can um engage with our um Amy made a
great point earlier when we were getting ready, engage with maybe Mr. Lima and his department around helping us create that content and then have all that translated. And then in addition to not in place of opportunities to come meet with us and ask questions, but in addition, that's a library that lives online or somewhere accessible where
people can really get in there and get what they need. Um, and then also along the same lines of of breaking things up into smaller opportunities. Um, I don't know, like college cafe, college and cocoa or something like
that. Maybe during lunch inviting kids who feel like they need more of something. you know, sometimes you get everybody together and there's a segment of the students who are not going to feel that that's what they need right then and and I maybe breaking it up in this way and inviting students to some
of these optional workshops. Um so we have some ideas on junior year on how to change things and also senior year. Um so during senior year we are also talking about breaking up the large group presentation into smaller groups for better engagement. Um, again, we're
talking about um PM work sessions in the afternoons for kids, maybe apps and apps to work on their college applications um and everything like that. And then um our guidance department is currently working on a kind of needs assessment for our seniors um to survey them and and find out what they still need um
going forward. and we're going to um analyze that data and hopefully have some lunchtime workshops where the kids can come and work on some of those um student identified needs at this point in the year to make sure that they're all set before they leave us in June. That is pretty much it. So, I'll open up
to any questions anybody has. >> Have you considered sort of a look back? So, uh, when you're out, college freshman to come back and share what he, she, or they kind of learned or would would do differently in the process. Seems like there's a lot of good
resources. Just curious if you thought of that. >> Yeah, there were we we've done that in the past. There's been >> It's a good idea. >> Yeah. Yeah, it's a great idea. Um, like all of this is all good good stuff and I think we we did that um, you know, kind of in the winter break when students like we go back to school, but the
college students are still home. So certainly um we could resurrect you know and having representation from you know a two-year, a four-year, a public, a private. Um the other thing that we did one year um around the junior uh parent presentation, it might have been last
year is had some admissions representatives come and so that the parents could ask questions. I believe that Framingham was there. I think BEu was there. Kind of a a a good representation of different types of schools. So um yeah, that's an interesting idea that we could explore.
Denise, >> hello. I have some questions. Um, regarding the core program, how what professional development are given to teachers that are teaching these core the core subjects so they get ahead of time. They are they
can preview the lesson. Um, TC sends all of that out a week in advance so that teachers um can look at it. is very just informational um delivering strictly information and they're always encouraged at the end to come and see their guidance counselor if they have any very specific questions. It is a way
just to get out very kind of baseline information to the kids and then we're doing more individually counseling on the basis of when the kids come down afterwards. >> Okay. Um how often do you should a junior or senior see their guidance counselor regarding the college
application process? It really depends um depends on what their path is, depends on how um independent they are in doing everything like that. I would say juniors should start meeting with us now. Um probably
once be once before scheduling. Then we have our like 15 minute scheduling meeting and then at least once after scheduling before they head off for the summer. Seniors, again, it kind of depends. I see seniors daily. So what do you do to encourage them to come meet
with you and are you meet are our guidance counselor is meeting with every single junior student and every single senior student? >> Yes. >> How are you tracking that? >> So we send out various emails to students inviting them to come. I have a
spreadsheet that I keep personally and the kids who come down on their own fantastic and I check them off. The kids who need a little bit more proddding I send them an email. I call them out of class. Um, every junior will meet with us again for their 15 minute scheduling meeting. Um, and we
>> But outside of scheduling, how often are you meeting with the students regarding the college application process? >> It really depends on the student. >> Okay. But you you're telling me that you meet with every single junior student and every single senior student regarding the college application
process? >> Yes. >> Okay. And and that is being tracked by all of the guidance counselors. >> Yes. Yes, every single guidance counselor is expected to keep that tracking. >> Yes. >> Okay. Um, how are the families being involved in the college application process besides the nighttime meetings?
I've heard you talk about a lot of things that you do at the high school. How do the parents learn about this and what you're doing and how to encourage their students to be more active in the college application process? >> Um, so I think that so for example, the the I'm thinking about the college rep
visits or the testing opportunities or things like that. We try to send that out to all parents. I hope that people are are getting that. I know that we sent out, for example, college rep visits so that you're aware if you have to have a conversation at home. Hey, I noticed that such and such school is coming. I'd like you to try to go. Um I
do think that the model of um like coffee with the counselors or something like that could be could be a helpful one. Um you know we try to again I think maybe adding on to the mass communications some opportunities for
smaller it is hard to we do struggle trying to figure out how to increase attendance at some of the things that we do. So I I that is that is sort of a perennial question about how to what is the mechanism or the format that is easiest for people to because I know
people want the information and want to do that. Um have the same issue. >> Yeah. >> Sorry, we just Sorry to interrupt. We just need to use the microphone if you're going to speak because people won't be able to hear you. >> Thank you for everything you do. Um we
I've seen from the MHS parent side, your your information does come via email and like the backpack thing. Um what we've seen for the CPAC, if you try to maybe tag it on to one of the other social events, then you might get more people coming in. It's usually led by the kids. That's that's what we see. we have a
hard time getting people to come into the more academic stuff. >> I I'm I'm not specifically talking about just the events, but just in general, I don't know how parents are finding out about what colleges are visiting or just in general, how does the common app
work. Is there I haven't seen anything where we're teaching parents how to do that. And I think we need to do a better job at that. We need to do a better job at keeping um the parents informed. And I think you need to do a better job in um meeting with the students because I can tell you you're not meeting with
every student um unless that the student is asking for a meeting. They're not seeing their guidance counselors and um I really have a lot of concerns about it. Then I'm happy to meet with you after this to to talk more about it. >> Okay. >> Yes.
>> Um question. Um I know we're focusing here on the juniors and seniors. Have you all given some thought of of starting some of this process even earlier? because I think as you well
know um there's so much especially when you've got to get all those apps together the that early part of your senior year if you have done kind of your homework over the spring of junior year and the summer you can be really
behind the eight-ball pretty quickly and I would say that not only for the students but also for the family. So, one of the things I was I I I think might be really helpful is if you all might be able to work on some timelines, work backwards.
Sorry, I'm a production girl. That's what works for me, right? Like it's is is think about I have to on this date get all of my apps out by whatever time frame. So, I need four weeks, eight weeks, whatever. because I think
sometimes if you don't have a vision of what's coming it the anxiety builds. So that might be helpful and I don't know I I'm looking because we kind of talked about some of this. >> Yeah, for sure. I just want to add one point though. I like how Miss Hennessy said is there any way I think freshman
year is the most important. I think for me personally it was and from a lot of my friends it's like it comes junior year and they're like oh I don't have any extracurriculars. I'm going to join every single club, you know, end of junior year and it's a little too too little too late. You know, I know we do the club fair and it's like really great opportunity, you know, everyone's
signing up, but I think the importance of it is a little bit lacked. Um, why do I need to join a club? You know, and this is super random, but the essay process, too, the biggest lesson I've learned is experiences matter so much
more than, you know, what do you do? I think even the most random experience like funny enough I wrote an essay on eggs which is super random but it's really those random experiences that have made the biggest impact on me and I think if we're able to get that message out through clubs whether through classes
you know even what classes you take I think that's a freshman more freshman year thing >> and that's exactly what I I guess where I was kind of heading is I think if we might be able to kind of take a look and maybe roll some of this back a little
bit earlier. Um, it may not be the crash course of so much importance on that one meeting that needs to happen and it can be a couple different touch point opportunities so somebody's not missing something because they happen to, you
know, have an event on X night. But there are a couple things. I love the idea of having like that video library. I think that's again a a great opportunity of making something really work. Um and you know having food and
having and having something happening. Sorry that those kind of things do help. Um I think the consistency though which you you were touching upon Miss Ryan is that sometimes so many of the kids really don't know and they're a little
afraid in some respects of kind of reaching out saying that they can't figure it out or they don't know and again then it becomes too late. Um, so I think that anything that we can do to try to make the process happen earlier to give them much more time to have
those errors along the way may be more beneficial for them, but also for you all because it can be a quicker catch that you guys start seeing going, you know, I've not heard from that parent. I wonder how they're doing. Right? Um it I
don't know just that's kind of one of the things that was hitting me as you were talking. And then um the other thing that um definitely hit me um was around the scholarship aspect
really really critical. um because so many kids really have not taken the opportunity to get these scholarships and we have so many incredible resources out there that are ready and willing to support our kids. I would also say that
parents need to be aware of that too to help them which kind of goes what you were saying about like different activities a tool and things like that because when you start to fi um fill out the paperwork like that dollars for scholars CSF incredible opportunities
but the financials that even the parents have to enter in a certain time frame and then has to kick off to um your recommendation ations or something like that. It's a crazy long process. >> So I do like this is just making me Is
this on? Is it on? This on um Do you see the green light? >> Yes. Um I I So for dollars for scholars it it we made that available to students their junior year to start doing it and said you can stop and save and things
like that. So, um, you know, some of the things and we didn't talk about anything other than upper class tonight because that was the that was the ask. So, certainly, um, >> we could pull together information about other things another another time. Um, but, you know, the scholarship
information agreed like we're saying to students like we just went I was I we partner guidance counselors partner um with a core. So like I I went through the information with um with students and you know um it it is all linked there. It's all ready to go. They've had
it for a while and we are going to have a work session. Um the the two lovely um representatives who are former MHS parents come in and we say to students bring your computer. This is the moment to get it all done and um so hopefully there there is a lot of money for the
taking and um it's all you know gift money, scholarships. So >> yeah, great. Thank you so much. >> Um, if I could just add, so I know the ask was college planning. Again, obviously for junior, seniors, for a topic for another day, if you'd like to include freshman, sophomore, cuz I think
that's kind of like where we're headed. But also, if you're a student who's not attending college, then what? You know, like I I I'm assuming that you're meeting with every student. So that 15-minute initial meeting and they're like, "Oh, I'm not going to college." Then what? You know, I think there's just so much emphasis on college, but
that isn't for everyone. you know like there's trades, there's military, there's other things. I just don't want them to be lost in the fold. And I'm sure that there are things >> we just did, we were asked about college planning. >> I completely understand. So, and that's why I save for topic for another day so that we know and what those res
resources are just because I went to college but I also went to a trade school like I have a very different background because college isn't for everyone. So, I just want to make sure that they're not and I'm sure they're not being lost in the fold but it also be a good idea to hear what other options are. are available for students
who don't think college is for them. >> Yeah, it'd be great to see the the the mapping and I know each student is individual and what success looks like is individual, but getting a sense for the um intersections of course choices
um post uh high school choices and kind of where that starts and how those intersect because they don't run separate from each other. it's, you know, one student kind of making choices that set up other choices. So, I I I get the scope of what you were asked to do.
I think I I've sort of had this similar question of how do we zoom out and see um a broader picture of a couple different journeys and how they intersect. >> But this is all great work. I I don't want to minimize, you know, it's fantastic work and again this is one of
the most difficult decision I think any student has to make. So navigating that through like I the more guidance that we have for them, you know. So again, knowing I had like five different careers in my life at 45 like I I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up and I'm the mayor for the city of
Mro. So it I just want to make sure that it's okay that you don't know what you're doing, but how do we support that and and guide those students throughout? But but great work. So thank you. So, >> can I just ask? So, can I just ask? Yeah, I did. I was able to click on some of the links to the core programming.
Uh, my my concern is if that's embedded in the Panther period. I know that kids don't always go to those because they're off doing something else. So, the structure of the structure this year, maybe I'll let you say that, but they're they're supposed to be in their course like core is a responsibility. Panther
period. So, panther period refers to that that 45minut time. And this year it's either designated as a panther which means there's probably a class meeting or something like that or a win which is called what I need. And during a win students know that they have the option to get extra help or they need to
take a quiz but during a core the expectation it's like a class like okay >> uh attendance is taken it's an expectation. Yeah. >> Okay. >> Essentially what uh Lizard said it's it's an expectation that they automatically go they check in. It's a
class they take attendance. So when we schedule those core, they should all be going to that because they don't have they don't have any other options. So like in a what I need, they have plenty of options to go get what they need core, they have to go to that designated kind of home room.
>> Okay. So I guess my question is if somebody's absent that day or whatever. I just having these like oneoff like if you don't go to that thing, you're not going to get this information. There's a core there's a core Google classroom for every single class on which everything is linked just like any other you know
obviously we're also willing like I've had students come and say I wasn't there or I you know and I'll say sure like we'll go over that so they can certainly you know if you're if you're not there but everything and everything is linked and nothing is ever taken off so you can go back into anything >> from any of the course you want to go
back in and find the dollars for scholars link and you know it was in the schol it's there so everything is linked. Okay, >> that's great. And and um I just would encourage I the those video the video idea. I just know that this is a very overwhelming process for families. And
if we have and and particularly if we have families that um you know have come from other countries and they they have no frame of reference at all. and to, you know, a oneshot look at something is
an introduction, but having ways for them to go back and find that information, maybe they have to go three, four, five times. I mean, I remember what it was like a million years ago for myself and for my kids. And it it it's a lot, you know, I mean,
I know you know, Liz, um, because we've talked about it. Um, but um, I I love the video. idea and if we can have them translated, you know, into all our languages um and and someplace that parents know where to go to find this
information. And it could, you know, they could be in the midst of filling out a form and get stuck and to be able to just click a link and get the information they need at 10:00 at night or whatever when they're doing it, um I think is really important.
>> Anything else? Thank you very much. I appreciate that time. >> Thank you. >> Next to my report, just a very brief attendance update. Um, in your packets, you have our updated enrollment by school and overall as a district. Uh,
our current enrollment as of January 30th was uh is 4,321 students. So, that's just down slightly from our last report. Um the overall attendance for our elementary schools is again hovering around 94%.
For the middle school it is around 93 and for our high school is uh just over 91%. Um we are pleased to bring on board um beginning last Monday um our first re-engagement coach. We talked a little
about that position um and um so far hit the ground running as far as partnering very closely with our middle and high school staff to really get his arms around chronically absent students. What are the interventions we've tried? What's working? What's not? And he's
started his work to essentially put together action plans to re-engage those kids and get them back in the classroom. So, uh, very happy that, uh, that work is underway. And then my, uh, last item for tonight, uh, speaking of attendance is our
calendar, uh, for next school year. Um, and, uh, you will notice a few changes to the calendar. Uh, nothing too significant, um, and more so as it impacts um, the adult learning side of things, although of course impacts families too. um but
is our professional development days and how we've actually spread those out. Um in our current school year and in past school years, we have frontloaded our professional development. So we had the majority uh if not all of it actually was done by January. Um what you will
notice in the school year 2627 calendar um is our professional development days spread out throughout the year. So that uh we still have our two days at the very beginning of the year in August. So August 31st and September 1st this year. U Labor Day
falls late. So it's just a later start just because of how the calendar um is laid out for uh this school year uh for next school year rather. Excuse me. Um we moved uh a half professional development day into October. So we have
a half um professional development day October 7th. We have a full so our third full professional development day for staff on Monday, November 2nd. Then we do not have another professional development day. It's an early release day until February 3rd. So we moved um
the December half day into uh February. And you will notice that we do not have our January professional development full day. We actually moved that into March. So that will be on March 12th. And our last early release professional development day is on May 19th, 2027.
Um, one of the things that was really important to our leadership team when we created this calendar and made the changes was to um, essentially lay out this professional learning time so it would coincide with um, marking periods,
NWA, so um, our testing periods so that our educators would actually have time to look at the results, collaborate with their colleagues, do some planning so we could respond to it. So there was a very strong why behind uh the changes to that. >> Okay. Thank you.
>> I just have one question. Um my question is in November. Um I see you have professional development on November 2nd and we're actually closed on November 3rd which is election day. In the past I believe that the election day was our professional development day. I don't know why we have to be closed like the
why we're close closed on that day. Did you do this? >> It's It's a typo. PD should >> Oh, it should be on the third. Okay, we can change that. It was a typo. >> So, the PD day is on the third. I was just concerned that that's a lot of days off in November for parents with young children who need to pay for childare.
>> So, November 2nd is an inschool day and November 3rd is election day, which is professional development. >> Okay. >> No students, but staff is in. >> Yeah, thank you for that. That was a typo. So, we'll change that. Yeah, >> as a Rhode Islander, I'm not used to not
>> having schools. I'm not We don't close schools on that day. >> We only I think we only do here because we vote in the schools and that's not I don't think it's a big election year, but some years it's bigger than others. >> Gotcha. We'll make that change. Thank you.
>> Okay. We will vote on that later on. So, you want to suspend this? >> Do you But we're have to vote on her thing. >> No, that's suspend. >> Okay. Sure. Move to suspend the rules to
move the BPA conference up. >> Thank you. >> So, motion's on the table and seconded. Any questions, comments, or concerns regarding the suspension of the rules? All in favor? Okay. So now can you move the motion to
>> move move to address the uh BPA? >> Okay. >> Business professionals of America State Leadership >> on the table for the Business Professionals of America to take that up now is seconded. Questions, comments, or concerns? Seeing none, all in favor?
Motion carries. You have the floor. >> Thank you everyone. I'm Jane Haley. I'm a business teacher at the high school and I'm the adviser for business professionals of America. We had a big campaign this year and we had 90 people sign up for BPA and 49 of them actually
showed up to many of the meetings. But I only have three people that are want to go to states this year and that's why I'm here to get permission for an overnight um for it's March 6th through 8th and it will be held at the
Wellssworth Hotel Southbridge Mass and meals will be included. It's a twoight trip and there will have to be an early dismissal on the Friday because we're actually competing on Friday and Saturday and then the award ceremony on Sunday.
>> Okay. Thank you. Any questions? >> Nope. >> Are we voting now? >> We are voting. >> Motion to move to approve. >> Whatever. >> Motion's on the table and seconded. Any questions, comments, or concerns? >> My question is just based upon what you
had said about the numbers. You must have been pretty surprised that was really only three that were interested or able to. >> Yes. And it wasn't about money because we had raised so much money last year that I said that people could go for zero. >> So I
>> I think it's because what you were saying about extracurriculars and everybody tries to jump on it junior and senior year. I think some people were really happy to be part to say they were part of BPA but really didn't want to compete and what was involved in competing. They wanted to be part of something bigger than themselves and
they did. They helped with reality fair. They help with a holiday car drive, planning of a food drive. They help with all those particulars. Um what we used to call field day where we all sell a product and we sold. So we had a lot of
involvement with that. That just they I don't know if it was the extra work because there's a lot of extra work involved in competing and there's so many other things going on at this point. But um I I know that they were happy that they could write that down that they were a member of BPA. So, um,
and which they were. >> Yeah. Okay. Just curious. Thank you. >> Yeah. I've had as many as 55 people go to states. >> Yeah. >> Usually it's a long list. >> 33 people to California one time at the national. So, we'll see what happens.
>> That's I guess why I was wondering was about the we talked about before. >> Yeah. Well, campaigned and we did have a n like I said 90 people sign up and 49 people were our official members. made sure that they came to a nu a number of meetings to be able to be called a
member and we have paid dues for them. So >> do you do you feel like you might be able to actually like do some kind of a little question with everyone to say hey some insight to >> why did why did your attendance drop
off? Is it because you're done with the college application process? Is it because you got busy with something else? Yeah, I could do a survey. I mean, I just think it might help at least for us to know, right? Because we've talked about it from a financial aspect, which you did a great job on trying to make sure that wasn't the issue.
>> Yeah. It wasn't going to be an obstacle. >> So, thank you. >> All right. Thank you. >> There's a motion on the table and seconded to approve three students in one chaperone for a two night, three-day stay for the Business Professional of America State Leadership Conference. Is there any other further questions,
comments, or concerns? Seeing none, all in favor? The motion carries. Good luck to the students and have a great >> Thank you. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, Jane. >> Thanks for your patience for sticking around. Okay, we'll go back to the number five on the agenda, which is the
assistance to protive student services and equity. So, Brian, >> thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Uh, tonight I would like to give you an update on the previous report that I had done on the DESIE audit. Uh as you know back in December they came on site to do
an evaluation assessment of our uh compliance for special education and civil rights and we were waiting for the findings. Uh we did receive those findings. They're in your packet. Overall it was a very very positive report. Um and there was only one minor
finding as far as um IEP timeline compliance. Uh part of the regulations is that parents uh receive the IEP immediately after uh the IP team meeting. And in the past that was generally considered to be
within 10 days of the meeting if the parent left with the goals and objectives and the service delivery grid from the IEP. Uh the state has kind of redefined the the immediate part and now it's it's 5 days. So we um had a finding
for that timeline and it's two it's in two different areas but it's for the same um the same reason. So uh we did have a uh meeting with our desi liaison uh to come up with a corrective action
plan. Part of that is to do a training with our ETLs and our office support staff. John Fletcher, our director of special education and I met with them. Uh we had a full day training in January and that was part of um part of the review was those timelines and then
tweaking our procedures to make sure that we um are within compliance for that. Uh so part of that my call with our liaison was that she felt it um based on the activities that we had
already done that uh we already met our comp corrective action. So, she has asked me to submit evidence of that and the only other action uh followup would be for them to set a date for a record review um sometime in the future.
The other item that I would like to update the school committee on is our special education strategic action plan. Uh so I had presented back in October uh an action plan based on our students with disabilities uh outcomes
particularly with our achievement in uh ELA and math for our MCCAST scores, our chronic absenteeism and our uh high school outcomes as far as students with disabilities graduating within four years and uh not meeting the
state target as well as our students with disabilities having higher dropout rates um than what the state target is. So, uh we've been busy since October, uh doing weekly and monthly meetings with um within the schools. Uh John Fletcher
and I have gone around have done walkthroughs with the ETLs of each of the buildings and had debriefs um on those meetings and we've identified areas um for to go back to give feedback to the teachers.
We've also looked at uh data with the principles in ETLs. Uh each month we've targeted a different set of data points. So uh whether or not it's looking at the uh currently in January we're looking at the difference um from the fall NWA to
the winter NWA to see uh where which students have uh improved, which students still um still need assistance. And overall um from those findings, one of the areas that um we had looked at with uh Richard
Elementary School, as you know, we have a uh an additional interventionist at grade 5 as well as the intervention coordinator. And that was an area for students with disabilities as well as EL students that uh we saw some really good gains uh within their um growth, but
also within their achievement. So that's something that we're starting to have conversations about as far as what can we do differently to be able to increase um their achievement. We are uh also uh as part of that is
also looking at um our interventions which is ongoing. We've had before school interventions and uh there's targeted inter interventions that are happening during the day. We've had uh quite a few meetings with the office of teaching and learning uh
with uh Jen Ryan and Heather Russo, Chris Henry uh and Dr. Scaza. We uh with John Fletcher and myself uh be able to uh come up with a plan uh professional development plan. uh we had already talked about the uh PD that we had done
with the PAR educators and we had gone through those topics uh that they rotated through that included uh HMH uh reading into reading and into math as well as how to be able to uh instruct
small groups. We have done a professional development training with our K to5 special education teachers. We did uh part of that on an early release day and just last week we had a follow-up with an HMH presenter coming
in and uh presenting for uh in the morning was with our K to2 specialed teachers and in the afternoon was our 3 to five specialed teachers on the inter reading and what resources to be able to use, how to be able to uh take the grade
level content and have students be able to access that while uh while using resources to address their skills. That is uh something new. Uh it's something that we're just in the beginning stages of. We still have a lot of work to do in that area and that'll be ongoing into uh
next year. >> Um >> Jody, can I just ask you to clarify what HMH is? >> Sure. the H Hotton Mifflin in in hardcore which is uh our into reading and into lit is our core curriculum for
K2 10 and then uh into math is Ku 8. So, uh, up to this point on most of the time on professional development days, our special education teachers have gone to trainings that were targeted more towards special education topics,
whether or not it was um the new IEP and that um that format, uh, being able to do goals and objectives, and they've missed opportunities to be able to go to the same sessions that um, general ed teachers have gone to. So, moving
forward, uh, what we're going to do, John Fletcher and I are going to to flip it. So, um, last week when they when we had the HM the training with into, um, reading, that was during a school day, uh, which, uh, was easier to be able to
get the special education teachers from each of the elementary schools to come over to Hildrith to be able to have that presentation. So, we will do targeted special education topics on nonPD days in small doses and be able to have the
professional development days and the early release days available to special education teachers to make sure that they are part of the core curriculum instruction. So, that's one way, one strategy that we're looking to be able to increase uh special education
students access to core curriculum is um through um more opportunities for our special education teachers. Um and I think that is all I have for the update on the strategies. I there's a
lot more in my report. Um but in the um the last thing that I wanted to talk about was the kindergarten registration uh for the fall that is now open similar to last year. It's an online registration and we again have four uh
evenings where the registration center will be available to have uh parents come do a walk-in to be able to have um staff available including translators to be able to help parents walk through the kindergarten registration and
registration is also open for our early childhood center and the lottery for that is coming up. Um the deadline for those applications is on March 14th and the lottery will be um happening after that. Part of our leadership
conversations, we've been talking about the impact, the great impact that students who participate in our early childhood center, what a difference that makes for their uh being them being ready for our kindergarten. uh whether
or not it's their readiness skills in early literacy and early numeracy. Uh their social emotional skills, uh being able to uh take turns uh with other with other peers, and also being able to uh handle the routine of a school day, how
to um follow directions, uh be in a line, um how to act in a lunchroom. So, we are working really hard on increasing our pre preK1 um numbers and so uh working with Jill Reagan, our director
of of the ECC, we have uh looked to uh align and have our instead of a prek2, we're increasing in having that teacher teach a pre prek1 next year. PreK1 is one year away from kindergarten and
preK2 is two years away. Uh and also uh later on um is that okay like talk about um is sorry just uh one thing that will that we do want to talk about within the budget is uh increasing our preschool teachers. We do have the opportunity
here in this building to be able to open up uh we do have space to be able to do two more classrooms here. And uh if without that we will have 12 um 12 families on the wait list. If we open up
two more, we'll be able to uh accommodate everybody that's on the wait list as well as open up uh potentially 18 other additional slots for any other incoming. >> Any parents who are interested? >> Okay, >> sorry. That was >> Thank you. >> Thank you.
>> Sorry, I do have questions um on some of the special education information. So with the um time frame that needs to be monitored on making sure that the information is leaving uh with the IEP meetings and such, how are we going to
track it? Like do we have one centralized mechanism? So like they're happening on you know Monday and by you know the next Monday there's a mark in there so we know that it's been delivered. I mean, how are we >> sure
>> to make sure that this is actually all happening because it's a lot. >> Yep. Thank you for that question. So, we do have the capability of being able to track compliance within Aspen. Uh it's a workflow. And so, for each task that's
completed through the workflow, uh when the IP uh is due, when the team meeting is due, when it's actually held, and then from there, what date does the IEP go out? and we uh mail that out electronically and we have elect do
electronic signatures through Adobe Sign. So that is where um we're we're able to pull reports to be able to look at compliance. That's part of what I put in the corrective action plan is that John Fletcher and I will regular routinely run compliance reports and
look those over to make sure that um each of the schools is following those timelines. In addition, we are looking for alternative ways to be able to have IEPs translated uh quickly. Uh so we're working with Scott Parmentor on that as
far as either um an Adobe translated uh translation app or there are uh copers now. Our Xerox copier does um there's an app where you can put a PDF and scan it through and it uh will translate. So, we're just exploring those options um to
be able to have those um >> readily available. >> Thank you. And then the other area was I'm I'm glad to hear what you're doing about the curriculum opportunities around um HMO. Um I I've heard from, you
know, different teachers across the district that I think that that's something where they're they're they want to have that opportunity. So, I think anything that we can be doing to really um support them around that is really pretty critical, especially for
us to have success on them being able to actually then instruct appropriately. So, and in addition, uh both uh Jen um Jen Ryan and Heather Russo have been going to the special education professional learning like the PLC's and be able to follow up on any questions
that they've had from the trainings that we've had. uh they have found that very beneficial um to be able to have that support from um the office of teaching and learning. And uh this year we were able to um make sure that they all had uh teacher editions and and the actual
physical materials um to be able to use in their classes. >> Okay. Because that was one of the things I thought I was m I I saw something in there that they needed more materials. Right. >> They're ordered. Uh we had thought that they had been provided those a couple of
years ago. Uh and we uh just realized or found out that uh they many of the special education teachers did not have act uh actual access to other than what was online. So, um, we worked together and we have those ordered and the
interreading materials have been delivered to the schools and Jen was, uh, just unpacking them this week to make sure those get out and, um, into math is on the way. >> Okay. Can we then can you guys let us know when that that hits here? >> Yeah, sure.
>> Thank you. Okay. >> I just have one question. What is SWD educational placement data? >> Sorry. Uh, students with disabilities. Oh, >> okay. >> Yeah, there's just a lot of acronyms in your work. >> Sorry. Yep. Thank you. >> Oh, got it.
>> Thank you. >> Anything else? >> Nope. Okay, turn it over to Mr. Muhammed. Welcome to your first school committee meeting. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Welcome. Uh so uh in your packet there is um a
very comprehensive year-to-ate expenditure report that has um that's the our tracking of the spending and incumbresses. So if you have any questions please do let me know. It's broken down by the accounts. So um and
then second item I had is to share the tentative date for the budget workshop which is March 3rd uh Tuesday March 3rd um 2026 at 6 p.m. over at the >> I think we need to pick a new date. >> Okay. >> Yeah. It doesn't work for everybody.
>> Oh okay. Yeah. All right. >> I will pick a new date for >> So it's not the 3rd. >> We'll have to >> stay tuned. >> Pick a date with Yeah. >> Okay. It doesn't work for everyone. Yeah. A budget workshop's coming. >> Okay, it's coming. A budget workshop's coming. >> Sorry, >> TBD. Yeah.
>> Um and the third item of mine is to share some of the highlights of the food service update because it's really the participation rates. Uh the first time I looked at it is very impressive. I just wanted to particularly talk about the lunch participation across the district.
It's um majority of our schools have over 80% participation which is really impressive. So I just wanted to share that with you guys and I I gave you guys the uh a copy of uh a report with that. So
um thank you. >> If there are any questions please let me know. >> Okay. Anything? We're good. Thank you. We'll go easy on you. It's your first meeting. >> Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we're good. Moving on.
Looks like it. All righty. Acceptance of minutes. Minutes from January 13, 2025 school committee meeting. >> Motion to approve. >> Motion to approve is on the table and seconded. Any questions, comments, or concerns regarding the minutes from
January 13, 2026? Seeing none, all in favor? Motion carries. Okay. >> Wow. >> Moving on. >> Those your public comments. >> Foreshadowing of public comment. It
makes me nervous. So, you know, it's my favorite part. And of course, there's the public comment. Is there any public comments, sir? If you have a public comment, please step up to the microphone. Please state your name and your address and make sure the green light is on. Good evening everybody. My name is uh
Ron Benway and um I wish the ladies from the high school were still here because what I had to say was it kind of fits in with the uh when they were talking about ICE and uh you know the fear of the students
and whatever. And that's basically what I'm talking about is the students um well-being during all this, you know, everything that's going on. And it was an incident. Um my concern is uh I'm
worried that uh kids can't have their own opinions and free thought. Uh the students are po were posed. It is in a ELA uh class and my uh grand nephew
is uh a special ed special needs student in that class. So it was posed a question was posed to the kids with a scenario of something that happened over the weekend and uh they asked what their opinions or
thoughts were on the subject you on that one thing that the teacher had put up on the top and uh my nephew just answered well I you know would have been better if if it was in English
and that was his honest, you know, he wasn't, you know, trying to be one way or the other. Just that, you know, as a kid at, you know, saying, "Hey, you know, I just understand, you know, I wish it would have been in English." Automatically,
the teacher and some of the students just started attacking him. It they they're saying because, "Oh, you don't like Spanish? Oh, uh, you're you're you're you must be listening to this
other guy, you know, that you know, which is totally misinformed in saying that. I don't think that sort of thing. I I see where the teacher want, you know, when you pose a question like
that, the question itself is fine. The thing is that everybody should be allowed to have their own opinion and form their own thoughts as oppo and all of a sudden even the teacher gloming on
with I think had a precon you know preconceived notion about how the question should be answered but when it didn't fit uh the narrative
that everybody body else in the class wanted to. They all It was like a mob mentality and they came down on this kid who's special needs. Nicest kid in the world. He's my great grandson and uh great grand great
uh >> nephew >> nephew and uh he was affected by that. And he says in the past two weeks he says even before two weeks before this matter of fact I have his
email here. Uh give me one second here. Okay. Uh, I got I got this in his words. This is an email he sent to us.
I got like attacked today because my ELA teacher put up a question and had us say how did what was our opinion on it? and I guess it was about the halftime show and he's a big football fan and whatever
and he says well I wish it had been in English and that's when like everybody turned against well you must be against sp you know don't like Spanish or whatever. Now, the thing is, it's not just because he's special ed or anything. And even if
the even if it was on the other foot, the shoe was on the other foot. Somebody else came up with a different answer. Oh, because it was, you know, I wish it was in in Spanish. And everybody glombmed on. That would
not be right either. The thing is is >> the way the teacher is orchestrating or being like the uh commentator, not the commentator but being the mediator.
But when a teacher inserts themselves and it creates a mob mentality, that's no good either. No, no matter what your, you know, corner you come from or whatever. Um, and I think that really there's a lot of
special, you know, special ed special needs kids in the high school and I think they they need to not just think about what they say and and approach these kids, but I think it's somewhat
unprofessional to ask a question. What's your feelings on this? They all of a sudden jump on somebody. Okay. >> It's not fair to anybody, but that's that's all I had to say. >> Um, it sounds like an isolated incident. So, if you want to reach out to the superintendent's office or my office, we
can address those concerns. If you want to reach out to the superintendent's office or my office, then we can address those concerns. It just sounds like an isolated incident and we'd like more context behind that. Okay. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I appreciate you and Ron, can you just do me one more felony? >> N.
>> Thank you. Thank you, sir. Okay. Thank you. Appreciate you showing me up tonight. Public comment. Is there any other public comment? Going once. Seeing none. Public comment. Any other public comment
going twice? Seeing none. Last chance for public comment. Is there any public comment? We good? Yeah. You good? >> Okay. I feel that. Okay. Okay. So, um,
all right, we'll move on from public comments so we can all go home. How does that sound? Yep. Okay, moving on. Action items and reports. Just switch to the page. All righty. Ready? Here we go. Box. Um, so acceptance of donations and
gifts. So, box tops for education for Kane's student activity for $41.50. >> Motion to approve. Motion to approve is seconded on the table. Any questions, comments, or concerns? Seeing none, all in favor? Motion carries. Global
Companies LLC donation for high school discretionary fund for $1,000. >> Motion to approve. >> Motion to approve is on the table and seconded. Questions, comments, or concerns? Seeing none, all in favor? Motion carries. >> Uh
Yep. Yeah. It's just not on the agenda. Global Companies LLC donation for high school discretionary fund for $725 to >> approve. Motion to approve is in seconded. Questions, comments, or concerns? Seeing none, all in favor? Motion carries. St. Mary's Church,
Portsouth, Rhode Island, donate $1,500 gift cards to Market Basket for Marro families in need for $1,500. >> Motion to approve. >> Motion to approve on the table and seconded. Questions, comments, or concerns? Seeing none, all in favor. Motion carries. Perfect.
All righty. Moving on. Thank you everyone who donated. Much appreciated as well as our students. So, moving on to approved substitute pay. Um Patty, do you want to take the lead on this? If you don't mind, just give us a quick I'm putting
you on the spot. So, if you don't, I can talk about it if you'd like. >> You stayed. You might as well talk. >> You might as well. and I heard it's cold in the room, so give you some energy to move around. So, >> okay. Good evening, everybody. I'm Patty Brown. I'm the HR director for Marbor Public Schools.
So, I'm proposing to the school committee that we increase our substitute teacher pay um to $135 a day and our pareducator behavior tech substitute pay increasing it to $110 per
day. What we found with the behavior tech and um par substitute pay when we increased the number of hours from six six and a half to seven for paras and BTS the hourly rate for those substitutes fell below
the minimum wage and we don't want to be in that position and for the substitute teacher pay I did uh some research on area substitute pay and for other districts and our own and listening to feedback from teachers in
recent teacher meetings that we do not have enough substitutes in the Marbor public schools and the teachers really were um giving their voice to the conversation and saying we do think that it's the pay. So, we did look at the pay and um proposing that we increase it. >> Perfect. Thank you.
>> I'd like to make a motion to approve the um two rates that were proposed. >> Okay. Motion's on the table and second. There's any questions or comments, concerns regarding the substitute pay? Seeing none, all in favor? Motion carries. Thank you. Sorry for putting
you on the spot. I appreciate it. >> Moving on to approve policy, middle school pathway exploration policy. >> Thank you. So, the policy that you have before you um I would normally say is
for a first read. Um, if you all would be so wonderful on consideration of a suspension of the rules, um, so that we might be able to vote on this tonight, I would appreciate it since we didn't have that last meeting. Um, essentially what
you have before you were this was um, some feedback that we had received from Desi, right? Yes. Sorry, wanted to make sure I was saying at this time of night. So, um, we just needed to make a few
modifications and, um, what you see in red and the crossouts that you would see on page two was due to, um, some comments that we received from Desessie. >> Okay. >> So, I'd like to make a motion to suspend the rules.
>> Excellent. So, there's a motion on the table to suspend the rules and second questions, comments, or concerns regarding this suspension. Seeing none, all in favor? Motion carries. >> And I'd like to make a motion to approve um the policy with the amendments as noted.
>> Okay. And motion is on the table and seconded to approve policy IL with the amended verbiage. Questions, comments, concerns? >> What what means? >> So the policy is um policy. It's the
middle school pathway exploration policy. So um this is all about basically options of study that the students have. So you would have an option of continuing MHS for instance or there
would be other options. No, >> no. >> So the question that was raised by the audience was the pathway exploration and what I actually meant. So just people at home can't hear you. So that's why so um but we should be good now with the
clarification. So motion's on the table and seconded and any further discussion regarding policy. >> Can I just ask so you got the guidance? Did you get the guidance from so >> the uh >> was this part of the lottery the new
lottery ruling includes >> Yes, exactly. So um we submitted our middle school pathway exploration policy back I think in October, November sometime in that time frame. >> Um and then the department of education provided feedback to each district. We
followed the the odd thing is we followed their recommendations. We used their model language then they gave us feedback on their model language. >> Yeah. >> So it was just a typical like department of ed thing. >> So it's just clarification on >> it's just um
>> their language. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Right. Any other further discussion? >> Seeing none. All in favor? >> Motion carries. >> Thank you so much >> everyone. >> Okay. Moving on to the approve the school year 2627 calendar. Motion to
approve without one edit. >> Motion is on the table >> and seconded for the amended new school calendar for the 2627 school year indicating that November 2nd is a school
day and November 3rd is a PD election day, no school student day. Questions, comments, concerns regarding that? Seeing none, all in favor? Motion carries. Okay. School will be in session for the
next year. Hallelujah. We already approved the uh business professional of America. So, we're moving on to reports of school committee subcommittees. >> Are there any? >> Yes, sir. >> Um we will be having a polic another
policy meeting later in the month, the 26th if I recall. >> Okay. >> Something. So, more to come. >> Great. Thank you. >> Anyone else? No. Moving on. Members
forum. Oh, Mr. Atul jumping at the gun. >> So, two things. Uh me and seven, I think seven of us total, we helped with the portrait of a learner uh with the help Dr. Scaz's connection. It was a very help very nice period where we got to answer a lot of questions regarding our
experience in high school. That's >> true. >> Um and areas for improvement. Another uh thing I was talking about was uh last past three weeks uh three Saturdays in a row our robotics teams have competed in three different tournaments and this previous Saturday
uh we have won the South High tournament with over 50 teams. So teams >> yeah there's 50 teams um and we placed top 10 in the state for individual skills. Um and we will be competing next month I believe on the 7th for the state
competition for again the hopefully chance to go to worlds. So >> thank you. >> Whereiting >> where is that? >> Uh worlds this year in St. Louis. It's new venue. So >> where is the one the state? >> Oh states. Uh it's Firmingham Walsh Middle School. >> Okay.
>> Anything else for members forum? I just wanted people to put on their calendars two of our um musicals that are coming up. We have the high school musical that is Mamma Mia this year coming to the Wickham auditorium March 3rd. No, March
6th, 7th, and 8th. So, watch the watch the socials for details on how you can get tickets. And the Wickham students are putting on newsies uh later in March, March 20th to the 22nd. So, mark your calendars. Can't wait.
>> Never never seen it. I know. >> Anything else from Yes. >> Uh I two things I wanted to share. I had the opportunity to attend the MASC charting the course uh >> interesting, isn't it? >> Workshop. Fascinating. Uh Michelle,
thank you for your support that day. It was brutally cold, but good to have uh your experience uh uh there to support me. Um I share it only well it's mandatory so I did I did do that um but
but it was uh yet another affirmation of the importance of what we do and uh even more important uh a reminder of who we do it for. So, um, wanted to make that point and then just wanted to offer from a parents perspective, uh, I think
communication from school leadership has been outstanding as it relates to school closures and I wanted to evolve that comment a bit more tonight because uh, I uh, was very impressed with the communications uh, that are developed
around podcast with Mr. Lima and the students. It's great to see um we are dynamic in responding to the kinds of things that our students are interested in. Um for better or for worse, I understand there's a number of things that we are navigating. Uh that is our
new reality and it's great to see that there is uh equally uh high levels of commitment to that communication as well. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Well said. >> Yes. >> First, is today the hundth day of school? >> Yeah, I think it's today, right? I think
I saw that. Happy hundth day of school. >> Um, and um, I just wanted to >> Aren't you supposed to dress like you're 100 or play with a 100 Legos or something? Right. There's all kinds of things you can do on the hundth day of school,
>> shovel 100 ft of snow. >> Right. Um, so I had the opportunity recently back from uh an extended visit to our nation's capital. um for an uh National School Boards Association
conference. Um part of it was on leadership because I am now on the executive board of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees. And then the second part was an advocacy training. And then on
Tuesday, we got to spend the day at Congress and um met with um some of our legislators aids. The legislators were involved in voting to reopen the government um which we got to watch part
of the proceedings. Um actually it was the proceedings on the rules to allow them to vote to reopen, but it all worked out. So it was great. Uh good good uh professional development and uh
nice to uh spend some time in DC. >> Yeah. >> Anyone else? Members forum going once, twice. >> Move to adjurnn. >> Move to adjourn is on the table and seconded. All in favor of adjourning.
Motion carries. We adjourn at 9:32. Stay warm everyone.