All righty. Good evening everyone. Thank you for joining us. Today is Tuesday, March 10th for the Morrow Public School Committee meeting. Like to remind everyone that we are being televised by WMCTV and we are live streamed. I call this meeting to order. We'll start off with the pledge
of allegiance. We are honored to be gathered here today with troop 26 and troop 41 who is going to take the lead with the pledge of allegiance. So if I can have everyone rise which you all know the routine which is great. So I'll rise for the pledge of allegiance and
we'll kick it off. So go ahead. >> Please join me in 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, with liberty and
justice for all. >> Thank you. Nice work, Troop 26 and 41. >> All righty. They're going to be sticking it around for tonight's meeting so they can get their community service badges. So, welcome to the school committee
meeting. Happy to have you. All righty. When do you want to suspend the rules? After superintendent? No, she's he's going to announce it and then we'll suspend the rules to go. >> We're moving on to the superintendent's report. >> Superintendent. >> Thank you. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Good
evening, school committee. Uh I'm going to open my report this evening with uh some really exciting news. Um, it gives me great pleasure to announce that after a thorough uh search process
that I'm recommending our current Witcom Middle School principal, Mrs. Angela House, as our next assistant superintendent for teaching and learning. In your packet this evening, you will find a copy of Mrs. House's resume. Although I know uh she is no stranger to our community,
uh she is deeply dedicated as both an educator and a leader within our school system, also an alumni, which is very cool. Uh and I'm confident that her leadership will help to continue the transformational work that is happening across our school system and frankly the
work that she has done to transform our middle school. Um she is a leader for all of us. She has uh been in the forefront of reform and transformation work and I cannot think of anyone better to be joining our senior team to help us
continue the great work that has started. So congratulations Angela and if you'd like to say a few words please on right >> is on. >> Uh hi everyone. Um thank you to the school committee Dr. Falco hiring committee and for the mayor for your
trust and support. Um I'll cry and then I'll get over it. There's like this moment and then I can move on with everything else. Um thank you to my family and colleagues for coming to support me. It's truly an honor to stand here before you and accept the role of assistant superintendent of teaching and learning.
Usually it passes by now. usually. Um, as I step into this position, I've been thinking a lot about goals and it's really one simple goal, just to keep getting better because when our schools get better, our community gets better. And I deeply care about care about this
community. Not just because I'm a student that graduated from Marbor Public Schools, but because living it for the past 15 years, I've had a different experience than I did being a student through it. Um, my time at Wickham has shaped me tremendously as a leader. The staff there continually to
show me what's possible when talented, dedicated people believe in one common mission and do the hard work together to change. And I'm incredibly grateful for my team of educators, pair educators, everyone from custodial staff to office support, cafeteria workers, my building
based administrative team for their support and partnership along the way. This was a step that I wasn't, you know, sure that I was going to step into. Um, but I've just felt so much warmth and love from them through this journey. So, thank you for that. The work of improving schools is never finished. I
know no one wants to hear that. Uh, but continuous improvement is important and what makes it exciting for me to step into this role. And sometimes I recognize a pace of change can feel daunting, but I see it as an opportunity. Our students need us to think ahead, to keep learning, and keep
asking how we can do things even better than we currently are. So, as educators, we can't just focus on where we're at or where the ball is, but we need to focus on where it's going. When I look across Marbor Public Schools, I see tremendous talent, passion, commitment. It's evident in our walkthroughs, in our
school committee meetings, in our staff, and it gives me so much confidence that we're going to continue building on the strong foundation we have in place. Thank you again for this opportunity. I'm excited to continue serving here in Marorrow in a different role. So, thank you. >> Thank you,
>> Mr. Chair. I'd like to move to suspend the rules. >> Okay, we have a motion on the table to and seconded to suspend the rules. Any questions, comments, or concerns? All in favor? Motion carries.
>> And I'd like to make a motion to move up item 7B, approval of contract for the assistant superintendent of teaching and learning. >> And to approve it, right? >> Well, we can vote and to approve. Move to approve.
>> Move to approve and seconded. Any questions, comments, or concerns regarding the contract for Miss House. >> Just a comment of we're really excited um for you to take this next step and it's really evident just by the comments
that you just provided us. Um your passion is infectious um with the staff and the students and frankly for all of us here. So, we're uh really looking forward to you having this next opportunity and um continuing to grow
and helping all of our students to succeed as well as our staff. So, thank you. >> Okay. You've always been a dynamic powerhouse and I didn't mean that to have a pun, but um so um when the superintendent brought this, I I
couldn't find a more fitting person. So I'm very grateful in everything that you have done and I can't wait to see how you blossom and transform teaching and learning. So kudos to you. So thank you. Thank you. All righty. Anyone else questions, comments? Seeing none. All in
favor approving the contest. Motion carries. Congratulations. >> Okay. Uh moving along. Um, we are going to have an update this evening from our communications coordinator, uh, Miss Esmer Casus. And, uh, we had a short slide deck that you're going to throw up
there. And there, um, we do have a copy of it in front of you at your, uh, seats this evening. While Esmer is pulling uh the materials up for tonight, um just as a uh kind of a refresh, um Esmer joined us, I think
it was some time in the late summer to talk a little bit about some of the goals that uh she had laid out for our communications and media work u for the start of this academic year. So, uh, in front of you is an overview of some of the, um, different ways that Esmer has
really looked to kind of lift the school system and bring it front and center through a variety of, uh, venues, uh, from social media, through newsletters, um, through our local cable access, um, leveraging, um, all the opportunities
that she can, uh, to really put front and center for our community just how incredible Malber public schools uh, is >> I have a Mac. Yeah, I'll send it to you. >> So, I'm going to keep talking for a few minutes a little bit about the uh
packet. Um there's not only one of the things actually I appreciate about the way that we've approached this work is not just um from the perspective of trying to get information out but actually trying to take information in and look at uh the analytics in other
words like what is the impact of um the work that we're putting out and one of the data points I just want to uh bring to everyone's attention you'll see as Esmer starts walking through um the material that there is a um some
information around our newsletters and the open rate versus kind of the click rate on the actual newsletter itself. Um the open rate means that right like the it was opened up and people had a chance to look at it. The click rate is you
know individuals interacting with the materials on there. So it could be that the individual that opened it did read all the materials but just didn't need to click on any of the active links within it. So, um, just as an FYI, the the click rates are very low, like single digits. Don't panic when you see that. It might just be that there were
not, you know, a bunch of links that people needed to click into. >> No, >> I sent it to R.J. >> Oh, good. Okay. >> It's just a Mac book. Jason, >> I I would add from my perspective
all looks like benchmark. So emp kind of year of looking at least for me like looking at this level of uh analytics from this type of work was just eye openening. So I I appreciate
you calling that out like it's a good kind of baseline to get a sense of where we're starting from with that. Appreciate that. It says then >> do you want to just move on to the attendance report while we get this? >> Sure. Let's >> Sure. I'm happy to do that. Um in your
packet this evening, you also have a copy of our updated attendance report um for the month of February. One of the uh things to just draw to everyone's attention which is really interesting um the our typically in the winter months you will
see a pattern where attendance tends to dip. We've seen that um particularly over January, but you'll notice in the month of February that our attendance actually did have an uptick as far as um um our regular student attendance. So, we're happy to uh see that in many cases
a lot of our schools were uh uh hovering between the 94 95%. Um and I will add to that um we are doing a very deep dive into our chronically absent students and uh are doing a thorough analysis looking into the impact of transportation. I
know that's something that the school committee has talked a lot about uh that uh the administration has taken very serious as far as really determining what are some of the reasons that students are not coming to school. Um and so through that analysis uh we have
seen that uh our chronically absent students the majority of them do have transportation provided to them from the school system. Uh and I do have the specific numbers. I will get them updated and out on your weekly update so you can see what they are. But I just wanted to put that out in front because
uh when we get into our budget conversation later, we are proposing to um increase our our busing. Uh but I want to be clear that um the chronically absent students, the majority of those kids do have bus routes already. So that
it is not uh from that. I know that was something that the >> Yeah, >> they're not walkers, >> right? Yeah. So, uh, just wanted to put that out in front. Okay. And, uh, we'll shift back to our media and communications update.
>> Sorry, superintendent. >> Sure. >> The first one is great. >> Oh, I see. Sure. the headings on the spreadsheet >> like ENT, HI, ADA. >> Yeah. And what I can do is uh for the um
weekly update, I can include what they what they are to help you unpack the uh the grid. >> A little key chart at the bottom or something. >> Sure. Yeah, >> happy to do that. >> You're not alone, Dan. >> Thank you, Dan. You got it?
>> No, no, it's all good, Esmer. >> All good. >> Yes. Um, okay. Good evening, um, school committee. Um, again, my name is Esmer Gas. I'm the communications coordinator for the district. Um, oh, yes. Sorry
about that. Um, so I gave you all an update at the beginning of the school year on September 30th. And so we just wanted to kind of see where we were before just as a summary. Um, so when I last presented to you, I told you a
little bit about the initiatives we had at the beginning of the school year, which was focusing on our branding, our visual identity. Um, as you can see through our social media, our website, some of the graphics that we've um that I've created, and just things that we're doing throughout the district. um just
to have a unified Marorrow public schools voice, tone um and visual identity. Um so I've been focusing um on the website. Like I said, I um rolled out some um calendar guidelines for our buildings. Um and then we also launched
our community newsletter, which is the Panther Nation connection. Um so um we share the uh updates with our families, our students, and our staff through there. Um and just going back to the attendance, we make sure that's part of that. We um show that to our families
and our students like our attendance rates by building so they are aware and we just promote just other initiatives that are going on. Um we also um started doing weekly updates at the principal the building level. Um so they all kind of have like a general outline of what
our families can expect from our building principles each week just so they can stay connected and know what's going on in their own building. Um and then of course um we share information back and forth so that they can see the information multiple times um whether it's a school activity or an event um
kindergarten registration anything like that so they can see in more than one time so they can we know that we can say you know we we're pushing this information out to them. Um and then of course back in the fall we had started our super Saturday video series which we partner with WMCTV to do that. um it's
anchored by the superintendent and we have a different guest each month. Um typically that is at a higher level topic. Um so it'll be like the Richard school building project or something else like that. Um and then of course just keeping up with our social media um
focusing more on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Um so those are the initiatives we had back in September. So, um, since then, um, we are still, um, focusing on our content pillars. So, I'm making sure that the content that
we're putting out has a purpose behind it. Um, it's either to engage our community with, um, storytelling, letting them know why they should choose MHS or, you know, come to an event or anything like that. promote our news and
events, motivate our families to interact with our content, and then educate them because what we found is that families um don't actually know all the offerings that we have. They don't know all the great things that are happening in our schools. So, we want to educate them throughout every piece of
content. Um with that being said, another thing that I focus on is enrollment marketing. um our high school principal and our middle school uh middle school principal have uh been doing such great job of connecting with each other and um focusing on showing
our middle school students what the high school has to offer. Um and they've been doing great work um internally. Um but we are trying to reach families that may not already be connected with us. So, we um sent out a direct mail booklet in October um which was a larger piece of
mail um that went out to families um in with children ages 10 to 15. Um and this was like a four-page booklet that showed everything that we have to offer at the at the high school level. And then we did a follow-up postcard um last month
that showcased um our high school and our middle school offerings in a smaller postcard size mailer that went to all families with children ages 10 to 16. And again, those are families that all families in Marorrow. So, not just the ones that are in our school. It's
families that may be are homeschooling or have chosen another school. So, again, maybe they're not aware of what we're offering. So this is a good spot for them to go to and then they have a QR code and their information where they can find more um information about our schools. So um that we worked with Minat
Press for that. Um and then like I said we have been doing our newsletter um the Panther Nation connection which is monthly for our community but then we also added our staff newsletter. So we found that our staff um felt a little disconnected about what was going on at
the district level. Um so we started a monthly staff newsletter that um our various departments share information and our um we have now a new newsletter tool that can show us how engaged our
staff and our families are. Um so we um can show you that we have um currently a 53% open rate for our January staff. Again, we just launched in January, so it's only been three issues. Um, so that
one was our our the one that was most open so far. Um, and then our we had a click-through rate of 8%, meaning that people are actually clicking on the links, um, and actually reading what we're sending to them. Um, for our February family newsletter, um, we had a
63% open rate. Um, for the Panther Nation Connection, the first edition with our news newsletter tool where we can actually track it was in February. So, it's only been two editions that we've done with the new newsletter tool. Um, and then we had a 6% click-through rate. So, um, we are hoping that
families um, and staff and students can kind of realize that that is the go-to place for them to find information. And we hope that these metrics keep improving. Um and then of course um like I said we've
been working on video series. We know that our generation likes visuals more than anything um and especially podcast um anything they can listen to especially if it's um shorter. So we um apart from the super Saturday which is
more long form we just launched the super six which is um basically our district community newsletter but it's just the top six things that our staff needs to know or our community needs to know and we partnered with our um high school students to do that. So it'll be
like a very short like real like two to three minutes um where they can just it's just very high level like in one minute or less. Um, and then our high school will be producing it. So, it works twofold. We're showcasing the talent that is at our high school, the
quality of our teachers because it's our video production teacher that is, um, running this class. And then, of course, we're informing our community. And then um we also have the Panther Cast um which is um being run by our Panther Media Club at the high school level and
they do that um once or twice a month and they showcase more uh high school clubs activities or events. So, from our video series, um the the principal episode from our Panther Cast um was one
of our um more more viewed episodes. So, that one had 1.7% more one minute views on Facebook than all the other videos. Good job, Stephen. So, that was that was a good episode. Um and then the premiere episode of the super six which is the
very short um newsletter basically condensed newsletter that received 1,646 reach which is um just how many people saw it interacted with it. Um and then our most commented on video um was the
premiere episode of the Panther Cass which was um with Jill Jackson. So people are interacting with them. Um we know that people are enjoying the videos. We've had some good feedback on them. Um so we will just keep working on that and making sure we're um where our
audience is we want to meet them there and just get information to them in different ways. And then of course all this content um is repurposed for social media. So we post the videos or the activities or
events on social media and we make sure that it is high quality photos. Um that again our brand is being seen through there. Um we have some good data on our social media as well. So we can see that
people are also interacting with it. Um, we have since I last presented to you on September 30th in the past six months, our views on Facebook have gone up um over 38%. Um, compared to the p uh April 24th through September 30th. Our content
interactions on Instagram have grown uh up by 500%. Um, and that includes the likes, shares, and comments. And then our comments on LinkedIn have um organic comments, which we don't pay for any of our content. So everything's organic. Um
they've gone up 160 over 160% on LinkedIn. So um you can see that um a lot of the content that is doing well performing well on social media is with our staff. So um they may not be interacting with us just yet with our newsletter, but they're definitely
engaging with us on social media. And so they like seeing themselves there. Their families are supporting them. So a lot of it is um our staff featured content is what's performing well. So that's kind of like just a overview,
general overview of what I've been working on in the past six months. I'm happy to field any questions. >> Questions? >> Thank you, Esmer. Thank you. It's um great information to see and it's nice to see um how you've been able to grow
um the interaction. That's fantastic. Um couple quick questions. How do people within um the community, meaning within the school community, let you know about different events going on so that way you're able to then actually push it
out? >> You know, how's that kind of happening? Um so again, one of the main points is I will check the school uh the website calendar. So if it's on there, I will reach out and ask them, hey, what's going on? Um, some of them will be
proactive about showcase, like telling me, hey, this is going on. Um, I'll I'll read through the principal reads and see what's going on, if they're sending something out, and I'll say, hey, can I cover this? Um, so it works both ways. We have um some staff that is really proactive about sending me um stuff and
then I'll be proactive about finding things to cover as well. >> Okay. And then um the other question I had was relative to the newsletter um which I've gotten and it's great to be able to read through um is that also then not only going out through email
but but then also being out through um pushed out through social media as well. The newsletter itself is not that's why we switched to video. Um we have found the algorithm is always switching so linking it um it actually isn't pushed.
Um, so we thought the videos and the reals, which is what Facebook and Instagram likes, make doing it that way. Um, and then we um, so for example, we just launched the the video last this month. Yeah, this month. Sorry, it's um,
and so I I know it's running all together. Um, so and then I I just posted like for more details, visit our website and the newsletter is posted on the front page of our website. So you will see every edition of the Panther Nation Connection and our Super
Saturday. Um and then we have our social media feed there. So everything's posted on the homepage. Is it possible to potentially do like a test to just see I I'm not saying like now, you know, but like somewhere along the way to see how
many clicks that you might get by pushing it out, not only in a video format, but potentially through a still format that they would click through just as an example to see what's working or what's not working possibly. >> Yep. I'm happy to go. >> Because you're doing great on getting your numbers. It might just be a data
point to help you see >> okay >> another area. Um but thank you great to see the information. >> Thank you. >> As I wanted to say from a parents perspective at a high level overall the quality of
the communications the consistency and the frequency from the entire district is exceptional. I see it as a source of strength and I uh have seen and appreciated how these communications
have evolved and continued to improve. Um but I also want to emphasize this is such a critical piece in driving overall engagement because as you reach further into the community, I think that's an audience that can then more fully
participate in all the other things that we make available. So really, really well done. Thank you. >> Thank you. Quick question for me. So when you go by the numbers for top content, the one minute views on Facebook, you said that the
superintendent had the most views. So 1.7%. What is the percentage of the followers or how many people are engaged? Like where is that? What's the context of the 1.7%. >> Um that is in comparison to the other
videos that we posted. it um drove more comments, likes, views compared to the other videos. Just the videos. >> Got it. >> Just at the other videos that we posted. >> Okay. Do we know how many followers we have on like is there a push to have
people to obviously follow Facebook, Instagram? >> Yes. >> Um at last check we had um I can pull that up right now. >> I don't I don't need to know the number. Just my I guess my question is like there is a drive to have people follow on social media I would assume. >> Yes.
>> Right. >> My second question is um I appreciate the numbers >> and where we're going with the social media. My concern is for the enrollment marketing. How are we tracking that? There's no So for our October mailer of
2025, where's the data? How are we tracking that? Is it working? Is it effective? because then we have mailed in February of 2026. So, we're still in that considering March, >> but how effective is that? Like what it's great that we did the mailer, but like where's the data of like how
effective was it? >> Right. Um I don't have the data yet. I I think I've heard some positive remarks of how many people are choosing not to um apply for other schools. So, that could be one marker. Um, we can also,
um, I can speak with our principles and see markers of, um, how many people have reached out for more information because the mailer does say like schedule a tour. So, I'm wondering if we've received um,formational requests to our emails. Um, as we stated, they're like
contact us for more information. Um, so I'm happy to gather gather data on that. >> So, I guess my question is how would you track that? I see there's a QR code here on the February 26, >> right? Does that go to a special link that's separate from our website or is
it just go to our website? So like how would you track that? Because again mailers can go and then it just falls by the wayside. So my concern is if we mailed in October 2025 and it wasn't as effective then we did another mailing of February 2026. >> So how effective is it? Or we just
mailing things just for the sake of mailing. I >> guess I appreciate that question. That was a conversation we had about when is the best time to mail a piece. um a direct mail piece because of the um application process for some of the other schools, the enrollment when when
parents are thinking about registration. So, we did discuss that. And then also um just we're thinking about that. Um but like I said, I think one good piece would probably be how many of our students choose not to um even apply for
other schools. Um I >> I guess my question is not necessarily the timing of it. If we're not tracking October 2025, so we don't know if it's effective. >> So then why would we send something in February 2026 when we don't know how >> effective or if we're not tracking that
data? Okay. I guess >> yes. Okay. >> That's just my concern. So >> and and to your point, I think that's where if we can make sure maybe you already are doing it where it's an individualized QR code that goes out with each of the different mailers. it
allows them for that opportunity to be tracked and maybe that's already happening. You know, I I don't know. But that would be something that if if the QR code for say October is a completely different QR code and feeds in
>> the February one, it may give us a different reading each time, right, as to how they're getting in. Um, and that's I guess why I was saying also in regards to the social media aspect from a different like you can then find where you're where you're getting the clicks
and likes and how they're being funneled in. >> It may help us. >> It's not necessary a budget concern. Obviously, everything adds on some line, but like a four page direct mail booklet is not cheap, you know, so it's pretty cost. So again, how many families did that go out to? How many were returned?
Are we tracking that? Because if we're spending a good amount of money on this direct mail booklet, great. But then we're following up with a postcard. So, okay, why are we following up with something that may not be as effective? Again, I'm not trying to develop, but I'm just curious as we have such great
data with all our social media >> that's relatively free for social media. Again, I'm not saying everyone's going to social media and it's free and in the technology space. going back to USPS which is could be very costly, why aren't we monitoring that to see how effective it is?
>> So, can you just add a piece of that? And I think um so in a few moments uh we'll talk about our budget and spec specifically the student enrollment side of it. Um I think to answer your question directly, mayor, look, we don't know. So, we're not tracking
specifically how impactful a flyer or the brochure is at this point. What we are trying to do, and I know the school committee is very much behind this effort, is to reverse the decline in enrollment. So, we're looking at all systems go, social media, videos,
mailers, and the the timing of those was intentional. We sent the >> um >> brochure home in the fall because that's when a lot of open houses are starting to happen for other high schools. So, we wanted to ensure that our high school, which frankly is better than all of
them, is given a fair shot by our community. Of course, I'm biased, but and then we want to send a reminder in February, late February, when families start making a decision. Sure. So, just but to your point, we're not tracking that yet, but that's a good point. >> No, I'm not saying that's not needed. You know, I just want to see, okay,
what's the next step? Like, you know, how do we target better? Like what where is it hitting? Where's it not? >> Is our data up to date? There's just a lot of thing, you know, like obviously like campaigning and like you throw things out in the USPS world and sometimes it comes back and things of that nature. So, I'm just curious to see
>> you did a great job with all the other details like like I just curious as to see >> what that data looks like and and how are we tracking it? >> Okay. I do appreciate that there are um there are I'm not sure there's free versions to for the link trackers. I
know there are some paid um versions for that that do that where you can see where the traffic is coming from. Um so we can look at that and see that would be worth the spend to get that. Um we I can tell you how many people received it which was 1,269
um recipients for the uh four-page booklet. >> For the postcard we sent it to 2,949 recipients. Um so those are the families with the children in those age ranges. Um, so I can I'm happy to go back and
see if the if what I have has data um just because it's a free version. Um I'm not sure if it has the data for the link tracking. Um but those are those are the numbers we sent it to. >> Yeah. And I think you've got a couple different things here. One, you've got a brand awareness piece.
>> Yes. >> Versus the direct response stuff on social media. So your data is going to be very robust there. >> Yes. the role of the direct mail piece is to reach people who don't interact with stuff digitally to cut through what they might otherwise ignore. I think an
interesting way to look at it is over the period of time when you think people got the mailer and interacted with it, did you see a proportional lift in uh traffic to the enrollment uh site for example, right? And then because you spent a certain amount of money on the
four-page piece and a certain amount of money on the postcard piece, per piece, the postcard I think is going to be less. So I think the evaluation is can we get as much a lift in traffic with the postcard and avoid
and avoid a larger expense per piece on the four page mailer or which which got us more. And I realize it's an indirect measurement because it's that plus a bunch of other things. Um I think that would just help us
uh be more informed about a dollar for a brochure versus 25 cents for a postcard numbers what what works best relative to lift and lift. >> Right. Thank you for that. We definitely
can get website analytics. um like a WW get website. I like to see the jump since >> there is a QR code that goes to the website. So it is there but I'm also curious why we did the direct mail booklet only in English and then the postcard in English and Portuguese. So again even
those numbers are skewed because right >> based upon the marketing that you're targeting >> but again it would just be curious just to see where that data lies because again to your point you can see if there was a spike in the website because they >> going to this QR or
Why not have a specific link on the website that caters just to that brand marketing that way? Because again, the website over is can be overwhelming if you're not used to it. So if there's a separate link that just caters to that so that way you actually know firsthand that they're going directly to the
information that you want to provide for them and then you can track that specifically. Again, I'm sorry devil's in details, but I'm not trying to tie you to do your job, but I appreciate money amount of money. Like we want to know where the money's going and see how you track that. That that's all. Anyways, I'm turning into Katherine with
my questions. So, I I will move on. >> It's not a bad thing. It's a great thing. All right. Anyone else? >> No, I think we beat this to death. >> I think so. >> All right. Thank you. I I'm allowed one part. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Great work.
>> Thanks, Esmer. >> I'm good. Thank you. Uh the uh last item of my report this evening is to review our um draft FY27 budget. Uh and um before you this evening is a smaller um
packet. I actually I think Muhammad's going to throw the deck up. No, you can do it from there. Um, in the packet in front of you is a smaller uh version of what we walked through at our budget workshop um last Wednesday, which uh
many of our uh members of our leadership team are here this evening. So, thank you very much uh for your um hard work, effort, energy uh and presence last week and thank you again for being here tonight. Um you won't have to sit through that whole uh presentation
again, but uh just a more condensed version. Um so um we'll get into the details in a moment but I I do just want to um say that our budget was created from um a lot of
conversations a lot of listening um kind of a lot of coalesing of information from um our staff from our students uh members on our leadership team really kind of leaning in and listening to and looking at where the needs are and where
we can provide um the most support um immediately frankly as we look forward into next school year. So with that um Muhammad is going to help me uh tag team the material and we'll move through and get to your questions. >> All right. So uh the budget process
actually started before I started. Right. There was already a a lot of ground work was done and um the leadership looked at the historical spendings. They looked at um trends, supply lines, you know, uh and then I
came on board. I looked at the budget versus the actual variances um identified areas um for efficiencies to streamline our operations adjustments, you know. Uh and then we had multiple meetings
um to review the spending and projections for the FY27 and to address the needs that we had for um based on the students and the programmatic needs that we had um we reviewed with um the leadership to prioritize
um our needs after and um and refine refine the staffing alignment to enrollment. And uh with this process, we were able to deliver the the budget draft uh by February 24th. And then we
did a workshop recently, March 4th, um to communicate all those changes and and to be transparent. Um so that was the entire process of what we went through to deliver um the services,
you know. um that was directed towards the class and to help better support our staff and the students. So uh so in the process that Muhammad mentioned, we landed on three guiding principles and this is important because
this is actually going to show up in our conversation as it relates to uh some of the um organiz reorganization that we are proposing in FY 27. Uh and with that, just to uh forecast for our community where we're going, uh we did
bring forward a level service budget, but as Mr. Crusoe uh mentioned at our last meeting, uh while it is level service, it is also enhanced service as it related to using the same dollar to do different things and bring better services forward to our um students and
families. And so uh and staff. And so to do that uh we landed in three um guiding principles that uh really helped kind of steer and shape the FY27 proposal. Uh Muhammad mentioned some of these already, but the first u is to really
bring more supports directly to the classroom. And so uh we will be having some conversations uh this evening and I'm sure in subsequent weeks around um the an increase in academic interventionists. So interventionists working directly with students um intervention
coordinators working both with our educators and working directly with students to really help those tier 2 and tier three supports. Um the second is really this idea of uh realigning our staff. When our leadership team took a
look at this budget, we did not say uh more. We said different. And so we looked at how can we reconfigure existing positions into the new positions we need to bring better services forward to really meet that first guiding principle of helping uh
direct uh more supports and attention to the classrooms for our students and staff. And then the third also Muhammad mentioned was this concept of how do we streamline and strengthen our district operations. Um and I I will not sit here
and pretend that the decisions um that needed to be made in uh either of those three areas were easy, but I will sit here confidently and say they were the right ones to make on behalf of children and our teachers in the classroom. Um so
what are those decisions? Um we look forward uh we are proposing a few things. Um and again these recommendations are coming uh from many conversations
across our district. um listening sessions with with staff in every single building, listening sessions uh with our students, which when I have uh provided the school committee and our community with prior updates around my entry plan,
just how critically important those conversations were. Um one of the things that is important to me with my own leadership is if you share something, I'm going to respond. Uh and so in these conversations, there were many somethings shared and before you this
evening is a quite a significant response plan as it relates to aligning our dollars to our instructional design and delivery. And so specifically with that, what are we talking about? Well, we're talking about expanding our early
childhood uh classrooms. Um, we have about 70 students on our wait list and we're looking to add two classrooms. It is not and will not meet everybody's need. I think I'm sure I speak for all of us when we say we would love a universal preschool program. We're not
there. It's going to take many years to continue to build that out, but this is a step in the right direction and will help us meet the needs of um, you know, at least another two classes of preschool students. Um we are looking at increasing our social emotional learning
interventionists um specifically at the elementary level and at the middle school level. And uh to our friends and families at home that are kind of wondering a little bit about that. Um we have these really robust restorative centers in our schools. Um
and they are designed to help students reset uh and get ready to go back into the classroom when they need an opportunity. if they are not feeling regulated um and need to connect with an adult outside of the learning environment in order to tend to their
learning task. Um and so uh we are proposing an increase in our uh social emotional learning interventionists. Again, when we think about um as I mentioned on the academic side, we talk about like these tiers, right? Like tier one is everyone, tier two are like some
kids need and then tier three are like few kids need. We think about the social, emotional and behavioral development of our students the same way. And so the concept behind the social emotional learning interventionists is they would be able to provide those tier 2 or tier three interventions outside of the classroom
setting so the teacher can also attend to his or her classroom uh in the other 20 students that are sitting in front of them. Um the third area is looking at increasing our interventionists. This is something that is critically important. This is targeting specifically our
academics. We in our district have done uh something that is not uncommon which is we have looked at hiring uh in the past very specific math interventionists and reading interventionists and that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. Um but we have teachers who are really
skilled and that can do really good work in multiple areas. And so when you hire only one or the other, you are then sort of pigeonholding the level of instruction and the type of instructional delivery that can happen when you might have students that need something a little bit a little bit
different. So in this design uh we have learned from the richer school uh where we had hired um I know our school committee members of this but our community just to jog their memory we hired a uh interventionist for grade five. So this is just a really good
teacher that can work uh with small groups of kids and multiple content areas. And so uh we are looking to bring forward interventionists across our uh all of our schools except our high school. And that model actually looks a little bit different um to help really
address those tier 2 and tier three needs. Those kids that need a little bit more but won't take away from the classroom instructor so that again the classroom instructor can focus on the whole the whole class. Uh along those same lines, we are looking at uh bringing forward an
increase in intervention coordinators. That is not a new position to us. Um and the the term coordinator um may have a feel to it that is more administrative. Uh these are actually positions within our teachers unit, our um Malbor
Educators Association, the MEA. These are not administrators. These are like top-notch teachers that intervene on behalf of students. So they would work with a group of two a group or two of students each day but also can partner with teachers and help them with lesson planning help them looking at student
work helping the teacher think about what are some interventions they can provide in the classroom it really provides a non-evaluative support to the classroom teacher u that is not an administrative role we are also building out our K through8 special education programming um and I
know there'll be many questions on that and I should also mention we will have a um specific ific agenda item on an upcoming school committee meeting uh soon uh where we can get deep into the weeds on that uh even more so than the school committee may want to go through the budget process. Running parallel to
that will be a um Malbor High School alternative education program um with a twist. And I say that because uh sometimes we think about alternative education. Uh I'm gonna just name it as a place where kids go that can't be in
the classroom and some may feel don't belong in the classroom. Um kids who, you know, uh may be labeled as kids who misbehave. Um and sure, kids struggle with behaviors. We're talking about all kinds of interventions and things that need to be in place. But we're looking to do something a little bit different
with our alternative um education program at the high school. You're looking at a true project-based, hands-on, career oriented pathway for students who are interested. Might there be students who are referred? Absolutely. But there also could be students who just want to take a
different approach to learning and take a more interdisciplinary project-based approach. And so, we are proud to be offering that to our uh our community. Um we are also looking at folding in uh eighth grade and any eighth graders who may be interested in that as well. Uh
speaking of the eighth grade, uh we're very excited to be adding to in in this proposal adding to the um uh Whitcom Middle School a an additional music teacher, which will help with a possible multi-year buildout of expanding uh the
arts across our school system, which is something that is important, I know, to each and every one of us. uh and also expanding our foreign languages by adding a Spanish teacher that will be able to uh support um 125 additional students uh through Spanish introduction
which would be great. Um shifting back into that coordinator role, we are looking at expanding our English learner coordinators so that we will have one in each building. Right now that is not the case. They are shared uh in in our restructuring of our
English language learner department. Um we think this will be a really important uh component to add in the absence of an assistant uh e director. And lastly um I think one of our uh very exciting opportunities for our uh community is
the addition and it's kind of it's the the title of it is a little bit wonky and can be confusing. Secondary teaming options. If you're looking at them being wondering like what is that? Um, one of the things that I have heard resounding from our parents at our fall uh, coffee
and conversations, from um, actually it's from some of our school committee members, from our students, from our staff uh, and leadership is the current model we have for our 9th and tth graders at the high school as it relates to uh, specifically our math and ELA
classes that are mixed uh, kind of heterogeneous group classes which I think um, are super well ined. mentioned and I love where the heart is on that but there is uh there are quite uh a significant number of challenges with
that model. So if you are a freshman right now you are in freshman algebra and you may or may not be an honors student within that section depending upon if you get the honors packet. Um, and so what we are proposing we do
is actually pull that apart and separate it out and create something totally different called an accelerated learners pathway that would actually begin in sixth grade and would go all the way through MHS. Um and the idea here is to
create a real rigorous program for students that they could opt in in grade six and could take them all the way through um where um at the end frankly they could graduate with a uh distinction or a seal of distinction
around accelerated learners or if they choose to opt into one content area they could have a seal of distinction in the accelerated learning pathway for English or for math. So trying to open it up and provide different opportunities for students who may have different
strengths. We would love to see a student opt in for all of the content areas, but we certainly understand that's quite a heavy lift. Um and um the whole ultimate goal with this accelerated pathway in addition to kind of creating this rigorous learning
experience for our students is to create an open schedule junior senior year for students to be able to enroll in more Quincsey Community College courses or AP classes for credit. Um we heard from one
of our graduates it was a video but uh he finished his freshman year of college while at uh a senior at MHS. Um and so that opportunity exists now but our idea is to really blow that out and give um a uh concrete pathway for students in
which to move through uh with that and starting it as early as sixth grade. And so we are very excited about that. um to kind of double back to the conversation we just had with Esmer. Our communications uh team, i.e. Esmer, um is going to be doing a lot of work
around getting this information out to parents. Um and uh members of our leadership team uh have been meeting around the clock to put in place the course um sequence and how to get the information out to families, the on-ramps for students to these different
opportunities and also off-ramps if it's not working. Um so uh lots of information here but wanted to kind of forecast that in our level service budget this is why I think Mr. Cruz is calling it enhanced service budget um we are proposing the changes
in staff to bring forward the expansion of programs. One of the things that uh is I think critically important to all of us, of course, as the mayor mentioned, is our obviously our student enrollment um and really looking at how to increase our um
our participation in our schools. Um in the past year, we have seen a reduction in students of around 400. Uh we lost approximately 200 at the elementary level and approximately 200 at the secondary level, moving from middle to high school. Um, and I know I have been
beating this drum and I'm saying it to a a room of individuals that very much know uh and embrace this as well. Um, but our families really do not need to look elsewhere for educational opportunities. Uh, we have amazing opportunities right here uh in MPS. And
so, um, we are looking to reverse some of these enrollment trends that we have seen. Um the enrollment trends are important not only because of students in classrooms, but those students in classrooms are directly tied to state um funding. Um and so before Muhammad jumps
into that, I just want to share and I'm assuming that many of our families at home are probably wondering with some of this reorganization and with changing some of our positions that we have into these new roles, what will that mean for class size? and the class sizes with all
of these changes um are um very reasonable and in most cases are the same as to what they are now. You can see for us and we know that class size is something we value here in um in MPS, but in kindergarten, first and second grade, so our littlest learners, we are
still able to maintain classes of 20 to 22 and grades 3 through 5, we're looking at 22 to 25, not uncommon. And upper elementary start to see the class sizes increase a little bit. the kids a little bit older, a little more independence. Um, middle school around 22 to 24 and
then the high school is around 18 to 24. Uh, and we know the high school offers unique courses. So, might you find a course that has 12 students in it or 15 students in it? Absolutely. Uh, there are these unique kind of one-off courses and our goal was not to eliminate programming. The goal was to actually
expand programming within existing dollars. And so, we were able to do that by maintaining our class sizes. And so Muhammad, if you want to share a little bit about the numbers >> and and how we're going to get this done. >> Yeah. So, uh, for for FY27,
our level service budget representing $2.94, uh,% increase over last year. The total dollar amount is 85,199,324. It's an approximately $2.43 uh million increase. That includes the
transportation. It includes the the contractual obligations that we have. It includes you know uh supplies and services. Um so with that I would like to share some of the revenue numbers just to uh
just to show where the money is coming from. So in in our budget book there is a um a more comprehensive detail with graphs and and explanation for this. But for FY27, as you can see, um for the total state funding, we're actually
starting um negative three um $324,680. Um so that's that's sort of um we're starting in the negative this year, you know, based off of um the the school sending and and the charter school
reimbursements. if you offset those. That is what we're starting off with for the revenue side. So, um it's a challenging year, but we're working within within the resources that we have as Jay mentioned. Um
and then now >> good. Um so um just in summary, this is sort of what we just um I just talked through, but I want to get really clear and specific about what the um finances will be supporting in addition to what
Muhammad just mentioned. Uh but we are looking to reconfigure existing positions into six intervention coordinators, six interventionists, which again could be math or English, uh any content area. five uh SEAL interventionists, one uh which is social emotional
learning interventionists, one music teacher, one world language teacher, two preschool teachers, and uh the current interim um assistant principal at Jarwick, we are uh recommending that we leave in the budget for next year. And then for materials and supplies, um we
will be bringing forward um a continuation of our middle and high school attendancemies, some new science materials uh for grades 3 through 5. Uh that is a result of a grant um expiring or running out, suns setting. Um and then bringing forward uh
districtwide our elementary afterchool music enrichment program that we've been piloting this year. That has been uh really great. Um and so uh we're excited to hear more about that as we move through the spring, but we'd like to bring that forward to all of our schools next um next year. And then additionally
to increase student ridership, we are looking to restore four buses. Uh not getting back to the 33. Uh right now we're at 25. Uh and we are looking to bring back four to see if we can kind of reconfigure some of the runs and increase um service to students and
families. And then with that, uh just the process um that we have in front of us. Um the um public hearing for the budget will be on March 24th and then um if all goes as
scheduled, the school committee would certify the budget that evening and then we will send it off to the mayor. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any questions? Sorry, I was I was trying to let others if anybody else wanted to jump in. So, >> I don't think there's anyone else. All
right, then I'll go. Um, first I just wanted to say thank you so much um to you all for putting this together, but actually to all of our administrators on all of the hard work that you guys did to get us to where we are um today and currently. The workshop that we had was
really really helpful. um to get a baseline started. Um did have some further questions that I had put out to the superintendent and Muhammad um so that I could kind of flesh out a few additional areas if possible. And um I
know that Miss Boddenher and I had had some conversation and she had had some similar questions I guess. So, um, first off, I just want to say, um, especially in having conversations with my husband at home about this, I think
one of the things that I appreciate about this budget, it's utilizing the incredible skills of the people that we have already here within the district to reallocate
a little bit differently so that we can make it work for the students to get to success. And that's not meaning that we haven't been doing it, but you all pulled together to really look at where we need to be going to kind of move us
to the next step. And I think that's kind of like when you put it in business terms, it's like where's our return on investment? And so from I look at the conversations we've had with the city council, with you as the mayor and the city council, it's wanting to make sure that we're investing in the right
places. And I would say that um I think that's where some of our conversations are going, right? Like um you we had asked and and you all had pointed out about the um SEAL interventionists. I think I I look back on how um we've done
a lot of work um about responsive classroom and that's been something that we've been doing for a while. um wanting to make sure that we're actually um focusing on having the appropriate staff
in place to have those classrooms really working well I think are is really important. I kind of took a step back and thought from a parent how I felt whenever there might have been a disruption in class and um more of the
students let's say had to take a walk around the school as opposed to that child being able to potentially be regulated and supported in a classroom that allowed for the teacher and the students to still be able to go ahead
and move forward on on their everyday studies. So I think it's kind of taking a look at things a little differently for me. I I would like to make sure that we are doing it on a vertical support. So not only are we helping on the elementary level and the middle school
level, but also I want to, you know, we did have a conversation about at the high school level. I want to make sure that how we are doing it, it's the whole way through, which I think we have the space, but it sounds like there probably needs to be a little bit more conversation about how that that person
is being utilized, if you will, and supported up at the high school, too, which we had that conversation, but I think being transparent here as well. Um, and similarly, I think for the
interventionists, uh, wanted to have that similar trajectory. I understand at the high school it's going to be a little bit different. Um, but I am concerned that I want to make sure that that is an element that we're thinking about how to make sure we're attacking
not only the tier one but the tier 2, tier three in a similar fashion across across the board. Um, I love the thought about the intervention coordinators, uh, being able to provide kind of like more boots on the ground to be able to
support, um, our staff on a more an immediate nature. Um, and that would be also really to the EL coordinators, too. Um, I think that's something that we've discussed for a number of years and maybe we haven't gotten to the point of having pure execution right there
immediately, but we need to. And so having it within the school, I'm hoping that's going to truly help on um supporting the staff so they can get to, you know, keeping everyone in their classroom, but having that help right there. Uh thank you for the clarity
around the um K to8 uh special education programming edition. Um we had a few materials somewhere where it was K to8 K to 7. So you know I think and you also mentioned about eight potentially with the alt ed. I think that's something
we're going to need to continue to flush out a little bit more about expectations. Um because I think in some ways we're trying to not have as many outofd district placements by that K to8
programming um being created but I think also it's our hope that it would be more of a transition. So it it's it's more temporary if you will. We don't want we don't want students to necessarily stay within that. And that really took me back to the report that we had had um
when special education had had that um CR CRA CR whatever with that the review recently about making sure that um we weren't necessarily keeping students in a subs separate for too much. So that was kind of one of the things that hit
for me a lot. um and making sure however that program is going to be created that we're being cognizant of that you know um the secondary teaming which you did mention I think part of it is a matter
of um meeting some of the needs around our um advanced pathways accelerated pathways if you will and continuing to have conversations around that so that we're continuing with the rigor that
we've discussed over the years and starting that earlier um I think is a a great option uh we've done it in bits and pieces but then I think to put more behind it so there is definitely more trajectory I
think is great especially with the addition of bringing back uh a more robust world language at the middle school Um, when I had asked about this and I just wanted to make sure everyone was on the same page, we're talking about potentially about 124 more
students who would potentially receive this opportunity to to get access, which is fantastic. And um, many of you will remember our music conversation from years past. I'm
really happy to hear the potential opportunity of the music students and the performing groups being able to get more consistency of three times a week. Um, you can't have a really great music program continue if they can't get the consistency and that's all about what
we're talking about with any of the other core subjects too. Consistency is key. Um, I do think it would be helpful for us to get more information about the um alternative ed programming at the
high school, more details about those um the four full-time team leaders and their skill sets and how that's going to kind of roll out with who's going to be in charge, how that's all going to work. because with losing
some of the roles up at the high school, um as I asked earlier today, I think we need to understand about how the evaluations and some of those um evaluations will be handled and in what roles um because that's going to be a concern
I think across any of the the unit B roles especially as well as our principal roles. >> Would it be okay to just say a quick piece on that? Y >> with the with the recommended changes the evaluation case loads each evaluator would would have current evaluator with
the with the adjustments would have three uh maybe four more total. So just as a FYI I don't know if you had a chance to see the numbers and I bet yeah >> I did and thank you I appreciate it. I just think that that's something again everyone will probably need to understand here um just because it would
it would have an impact um and of people's time and how that's going to affect their case loads overall. >> Yeah. And the hope is that by bringing more supports to the classroom that actually the administrators would have more time for some of the instructional leadership work like like that piece,
right? So it's kind of handinand glove. >> Yeah. Um the other thing which I'm realizing I didn't I didn't ask or say too much about was um with that K to8 programming one of the things that I was asking about and um I think you definitely are
addressing is um the crossover of the lensure needs that I would think that we would need to have especially with the secondary and the elementary crossover um and I'm wondering is that something
that we're going to look at dual lensure to support um our professional development potentially for some of our staff. >> Yeah. So we will we will actually and Patty has been really looking at kind of a almost a matrix of different positions
and lensure and that's a key piece to make sure that uh we will have a structure in place where whatever the program is calling for from a lensure perspective or individuals will have the licenses they need to do that. >> Yeah. I guess I that was also though I
was wondering whether that might be something we may look at as well of being able to potentially help some of those folks that may have an interest in that area but they don't necessarily have the lensure but are willing to put the time out there. Just something because we talk about enhancing the
professional development for our staff. It might just be something for us to look at. Yeah, and we do um to that point, we do offer opportunities like that on a regular basis for folks that need to get their hours in for their director license or for a principal license. So, if any of our staff are
tuning into that, please do don't hesitate to reach out if you need to sign up for hours or get your internship done like we we welcome that for sure. Um and one of the other things I was noticing as I was going through and then of course with tonight's information
with the um the attendance um situation I mean our numbers look like they are definitely improving and I think the attendancemies um have definitely been helping um and I guess that that's where I'm
wondering do we need additional staff to try and support in that area of re-engagement. at the elementary areas. I mean, and middle school, you know, I I just that was one of the thing that I was looking
at. We had a lower percentage um in I think there was like a first grade and a kindergarten which probably we could reverse around fairly quickly. It just kind of hit me as I was looking through the numbers. I don't know. Um the school committee
might remember when we posted for the re-engagement coach, we initially had a high school, a middle school, and one for richer. Um and so we ended up combining and just getting a middle high school coach. We uh have still been fielding candidates uh or maybe
candidate singular, but uh for the richer position. Um but I will say the richer school has the lowest uh chronic absenteeism um because of the approach in which they're taking of just literally relentless phone calls and
following up with families. And so we're still pursuing that as an opportunity but really one for a learning opportunity that they could then spread across the other schools. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. And then the last thing was um really around some of the advanced pathways was I know it wasn't really
mentioned specifically within our budget book but we had talked about like enhanced the enhanced service was um discussed about the biomed program as something for the high school that was talked about when we did the program of studies. I think that's something that
we do need to talk about these other opportunities that are being offered within the budget where it is. it's retooling and utilizing the skill sets of the staff that we have um and providing something stronger. So, I
think that that's my hope is that I know when we're talking about reallocation, it can be quite concerning for staff about, oh goodness, where do I fit? And I think it's just saying that we
have to look at our puzzle a little bit differently. And that doesn't mean that it's a bad thing. It's just a different thing. Um, and I think that that's my biggest hope with this budget is allowing people to
hopefully take a little bit of a shift um, and think positively about retooling a little bit to make a good thing even better. So, thanks.
>> Anyone else? Who can follow that? Good. Love you. Moving on. Assistant superintendent of student services and equity. This is >> Thank you very much.
So on Sunday, March 1st, we had 19 Malbor High School students who participated in the Special Olympics Polar Plunge and that was held here in Malro at the Special Special Olympics headquarters. And overall, the group had raised
$21,000. And our high school students was the top fundraising team with over $5,000. Uh overall, I it was a really cold day. As as you know, February, March has been um unprecedentedly
unprecedentedly uh cold. Uh but overall, they um they were um Oh my gosh. So, uh, they together, uh, were able to bear the cold and be able
to, um, get together and do the plunge. Uh, were you at that? No. >> Yep. So, um, it looked like they had a lot of fun. All right. Also, I wanted to provide the school
committee with an update on the special education uh students with disabilities performance on the NWA for the winter data. Uh Dr. Scaza had presented on the aggregate aggregate data at the last school committee meeting and today I
wanted to go through the students with disabilities subgroup and overall uh our target for the year is 60% growth in both ELA and math across our uh grade levels and from the data that you see
we're we're pretty well on our way in in regards to reading with grade one in grade five already have met uh already meeting that target of 60% or more growth. And uh the
remaining the remaining elementary and middle school grades uh for reading are right on the the cusp of being able to reach that and we still have work to do within our high school grades 9 and 10. In math, uh we have grade two, grade
five, grade seven, and grade eight that have already met the benchmark uh target for the school year. And grade three is just on the cusp of that. We still have work to do in kindergarten and first grade, grade four, sixth, and 9th and
10th grade as well. So, we are doing routine uh special ed data meetings at each of our schools. uh uh special education director John Fletcher and I are meeting with the principles in the ETLs and each month we are looking at uh a set of data whether or not that's
chronic absenteeism the uh the winter benchmarks for the NWA uh conduct uh conduct data and be able to look at trends. Uh so for instance um at Kain we were able to look through our chronic
absentee data and be able to target there's some trends with specific grade levels and we identified um some students that are in particular uh programs. So we developed a plan with school adjustment counselor along with wraparound service uh coord uh
coordinator is going to be reaching out to those families and engaging them in coming up with specific plans. Uh we are also looking to uh for our spring intervention groups to be able to address those um grade level spans that
are still in that warning zone um the red zone as far as not making um any u making moderate growth. And we are as far as our attendance data we are also looking to doing a spring attendance
campaign across the district. I'm working with um Javian Gutieras, our re-engagement coach, uh who's grades 6 to 12. We are working with attendance works and coming up with uh over the next month a uh a campaign that will be
providing uh snippets for the uh principal newsletters to go out to uh families. We'll be doing newsletters out um to our staff, providing some um incentives for
students and families to be able to uh increase student attendance for the spring to prevent that spring slide. And we have students that are on that borderline um of of being on the chronically absentee um 10% and we're looking to make sure that we have them
um reduce their absences so that they're not chronically absent by the end of the year. Thank you. >> Yes. >> Um, is there any way that you could look back at the NEWA information from last
year to be able to see how it could actually help, especially in that math area because I thought it was really interesting where it was kind of like every other year there was like a red, green, red, green. Okay. I'm wondering if there's something from a trend that
you guys could actually gather the information by looking backwards to see what's happened, what they were getting, what they might not have been getting, and how it affected. That was the only thing that hit me when I was seeing how
it was kind of like spotty. I wonder if you could get anything by gathering that data. >> Yes. Uh, thank you. We will definitely look into that. >> I would love to see it if you are able to pull it. Thank you. Thank you. >> So the next will be spring or towards
the end of the year for our next data results. >> Yes, spring. Uh and I think they were pushing that out because of MCCAST. >> Uh yeah, we just met as a joint evaluation committee to make a decision to push that testing window a little bit
past the MCCAST testing window. Um, so I want to say it's going to be early June when we will be uh gathering our spring assessment data. >> Okay. Thank you. Anyone else? >> Thank you, Miss O'Brien. Moving on.
School business manager, Mr. Mohammed. All right. So, the first item that I have is the uh my expenditure report, the monthly expenditure report. It's uh in your packet. There is a comprehensive document that
tracks our spending. Um just an um I have I've actually added the the names to the accounts this time and I added a column. I took out the incumbrance column because we found some discrepancies in there. So with uh with
with our projections and the and the year-to- date expended amounts were included in this expected expected expenditure column. Now so that that uh um increased the accuracy a little bit.
We're still going through these accounts to, you know, kind of fish out and and look at things that are um not encumbered yet, but we are doing our own projections to uh close the gap and give you some accurate numbers.
Um the second item that I have on my list is um the transportation update. So our transportation um currently is in stable position with um on-time performances averaging around 90%. Um
the delays are were largely due to the recent weather related delays uh in February, not this week, you know. Um but all all our routes across um all the schools are fully staffed and um
financially monthly invoicing has been stabilized. I understand that um before I started there were some hiccups in the transportation area um where um we were holding payments.
>> Yes. And uh yeah, so overall overall the transportation uh is is reliable with improved communication at both um management and the dispatch level. So um it's it's in good shape right now. Right now it's in good shape.
>> Thank you. >> Yeah, you're very kind with that report. So >> questions, comments, concerns for Mr. Mohammed? >> Thank you for finding the school committed line item for me. All righty. Good. Okay. Moving on.
Everyone's favorite. Public comments. Is there any public comments? Public comments going once. Seeing none. Public comments. Miss House is still here. So, we can say nice things about her if you want. If not, we can move on. >> Yeah.
Meaning, let's move this moving meeting forward. Public comment going twice. Is there any public comment? Seeing none, last and final public comment for the third time. Is there any public comment? Seeing none, there's no more public comment. Moving on. Action items and
reports. We have one donation. Let me pull that up. So, it's for $65 from a U check from Benoviti. >> Motion to approve. >> Thank you. Motion to approve is on the table and second. Any questions, comments, concerns regarding the
donation? Seeing none, all in favor? Motion carries. Thank you very much. And we already did the contract, so we're moving on to reports of school committee subcommittees. Yes, Miss Hennessy. >> Um, we had a policy meeting um just a
little bit ago and uh our main topic of conversation is around creating a policy around AI. And that's not really to scare folks. It's just that we can't bury our heads on thinking that if we
just ignore it, it's going to go away. And that's also not saying that we're trying to like limit everything 110%. But we're trying to have some educated discussion around how to
um utilize AI in an educated way. How about that? Um, so we don't have anything yet. Um, because we're really trying to do this in a really thoughtful way. Um, Chris Henry was really instrumental on bringing um, some
insight forward. We also looked at some other districts that have moved forward on trying to do something around AI. And um, honestly, I have to say I felt like what u, Mr. Henry had brought to us was
much better, but but it also allowed us to have some conversations that um I know needed to be taken back to the leadership team to really talk through um thoughts with the leadership group about their their approaches,
their ideas, too. So, I just wanted to make you guys aware of it. That's that. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any other reports for school committee? Nope. members forum. Members forum. Yes, Miss Fry.
>> Um, I just want to shout out to uh the casting crew of Mama Maya for a great job at their musical this past weekend. And also a shout out to all the parents. It's was a long week and a long drama season of thankfully my children still drive, but those who had to pick up their kids late nights and the parents
who helped with tech week and behind the scenes providing dinners and working the show, you know, thank you because they couldn't do it without without you. So, thank you. >> It was a great show. I was there opening night. >> Yes. A tool. >> I'd like to give a quick update on our
states. >> So, last week or last weekend, we competed in uh Framingham for a two-day event for states competition. We sadly did not make worlds. We were one point off, which is pretty much the closest you can get and not make it. Um, we did finish top 10 in the state though, which
I am pretty proud to keep that up. And we did win the sportsmanship award. So, our team across among 65 teams were awarded for the best sportsmanship, you know, team work. Um, all of the like referees, it was pretty unanimous apparently. They really loved us. Um, we
had one match, funny enough, where we didn't have a partner. So, it's a 2v2 match. Um, and one team left the tournament, interestingly enough, and we were by ourselves. So, we decided to make some fun out of it, and me and my friend both drove the robot with two people instead of one. So, they really got a kick out of that, and we actually
did better than we thought we would. Uh, we will take that. Um, it's great. >> So, excellent. Perfect. >> Mr. Course, >> it's almost anticlimactic because I was going to fall on Mrs. Ryan, but I'm sorry for my voice. I call it my cat voice. That's all I talk to all day is
cats. And so, when I go to real people, I can't speak. I don't know why. I apologize. But I I have to say that the production value of this mama as well, I mean, the talent was there. Matter of fact, that young gentleman who played one of the leads, I'm sure he's going to be on Broadway at some point because his
voice is fantastic. Everybody's voice is fantastic. And as a music person, I appreciated the fact that I could hear all the harmonies. You could tell the work went into that. So, I just know the production values of everything. The way this this is kind of acknowledgement of your daughter, too, because the way things worked and she was Ally was the
stage manager. way things work back and forth. It was like very it was it was I you know I probably should joke and say since I've done a show I can't see one that's been run so well but that's just a joke for me. Um but it was really good. I I just sat the whole night appreciate it. I was probably spending
more time looking at lighting and set movement than probably most people would. But it really was impressive and very well done. Very very well done. >> That's great. Yeah, it was a great great production. >> Um just wanted to also do a shout out for our jazz ensemble. Um, they had won
a silver medal at the Maj District Festival and Tyler Minnell, Al Ryan, and Norah Croser were all selected as outstanding musicians. So, just a big shout out. And again, this just
reemphasizes why we need to make sure that we're supporting our music the whole way down by having also that fifth grade um support. And uh this is example we want to keep growing it. So >> and they will be participating in states
this Saturday 12:30 and know it if you're interested. >> Yeah, I did see that post. Uh Newsies Juniors with the Malro Middle School production coming up soon. >> The Mro Middle School production will be not this weekend but the following weekend. Um and it is Newsies. >> If I don't say that, my wife the
director will haunt me. >> So please come out and enjoy. It'll be great. And uh I'll be building sets this weekend. So >> what what do you know the dates? I don't have a >> It's not this upcoming weekend, it's the following weekend. >> And do they do sat Friday, Saturday, and Sunday? >> Yeah, same thing.
>> They do. Same thing. >> Same thing. Yep. Yep. And the times are the same. >> So yeah, >> looking forward to going. >> Yeah. Yeah. It's going to be great. >> Um and last shout out, um Marble Public Schools post on their Facebook page for all of you could read who but the Business Professionals of America State
Leadership Conference, Selfbridge. Their hard work led them impressive top three finishes qualifying them for the national conference in Nashville this May. So I think that we should definitely do a shout out to them. So congratulations to the students that went making MRO proud. So congratulations and kudos to you. So
>> and um Jane Haley got an award as well. 20 year >> Oh yeah. >> Like I don't know >> dedicated service to MS >> greatest teacher on earth award or so. Yeah. >> Yay Jane. So again, just another reason why we choose Malboro. So very, we go
from the arts to the business world. I mean, it's all-encompassing, right? That's what we like to hear. Having said that, anyone else say I see what you did there. >> Yes, you're right. You like that right now? T all together. >> All righty. Can we wrap this up? Anyone else have anything for members for you?
>> Nothing. >> Nope. >> Best part. What do we need? >> Move to adjourn. >> Move to adjourn is on the table and second. All in favor adjourning carries at 9:05. Thank you again.