good evening today is Tuesday February 25th 2025 I will call the Maro public school committee meeting to order I would like to remind everyone that it we are taped live by wmctv and we are rebroadcast so it is 7:30 so let's start with the Pledge of Allegiance if
everyone could rise i al to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all all righty thank you
everyone moving down no presentations today so we're move on to the superintendent's report Mr Mayor do you have to anounce that sorry thank you so m is actually remote so everything will
be a roll call vote thank you everyone for reminding me that all righty all righty we'll be on superintendent okay thank you I wanted to update the committee that um we um Monday February 10th I met
with representatives from the Citywide PTO um in this meeting during this meeting the PTO shared ideas with each other on fundraising and end of the year events that um happened throughout the schools so trying to um identify a
number of different events that are cons can be consistent across all of the buildings we discussed some common expectations for adult and student behaviors at evening events and um as a
number of the PTO members shared some ex um concerns that their children are having about the ice activities that were happening in the city of marbor and some of the rumors that were impacting them especially the elementary school a
lot of rumors um I do want to Circle back on the common expectations um some of them uh we discussed the fact that we will start communicating that um it should be
posted there is no smoking on any school grounds in the Maro Public Schools it is um signs we did have St signs we're checking on to make sure that they're all consistent um making it abundantly
clear that no alcohol is allowed in the schools as well and that our evening events in the schools are for families that means that all children need to have one responsible adult um and to intervene with any issues or
just to supervise the children so those are the general yes I was just going to say and it um it's all tobacco products it's all tobacco product so not just yes right yeah smoking vaping tobacco
products yeah okay I just yeah it's been unusual but we have found um evidence of cigarette use on our property recently so we just want to make sure sure that we're clear about that um our next meeting will take place on April 14th um
and the fifth grade um subcommittees are working on those celebrations for the fifth graders at the end of the year today earlier today Miss Hennessy joined me in a um Elementary building
tour um I updated the schedule of Elementary building tours for school committee and city council members these dates were sent to city council and school committee by email on Friday February 14th if you are planning
on attending one of these tours please let P Patty sibilio know she will track attendance and post on the city website if any of them have to be posted a quorum for either city council a school committee are attending it has not been
an issue up to this point Mrs Hennessee had a private tour earlier today um and we just want to be open to all of our um city coun councilors and our
school committee members so they see what are schools currently Elementary especially and I will be open and honest one of the things that we are we heard today from Principal Patel is the concern about a very large Housing
Development that will be opening in her District what is currently her District um and the impact it would have on jar um since there are number three bedroom units in that development so just looking forward in trying to plan
because a number of these developments will open up long time before any new building project could be completed the FY 26 school calendar um
it will be coming up for a vote later on tonight over the last couple of weeks I did a number of different polls tried a couple of different methods and surveys um and I sent them to school committee members to try to get feedback on
possible alternative school committee meeting dates to address school committee meeting conflicts in the upcoming FY 26 proposed school calendar there appears to be consensus that the
September 23rd 2025 meeting should be moved to September 30th that was I don't think anyone opposed that rescheduling the November 11th meeting
to November 10th appears to be the option that works for most members of the committee I I hesitate to say all but it may be all further disc discussion may be needed regarding the November 11th
alternative dates so yes um if I can just circle back on the tour thank you lovely one-on-one tour um that sounds a little sarcastic but it actually was really very helpful
and I would encourage um everyone on the committee but especially the city counselors I was going to actually do a personal reach out to every one um because even though you may feel like you've been through
the school recently or schools recently um there are a lot of things that the um schools have had to adapt to make use of certain rooms uh and rooms for the future and
it's really important I think and I would encourage every one to get there because getting your eyes on it especially when the kids are in the building is really helpful to really understand um when we have multiple El
classrooms that are happening with dividers within the classroom space to make use of um different rooms that used to be closets that are actually now um kind of multi-use rooms for some pullout
work or some um shelving units um it's it's really something that you need to have your eyes on it so it's a good visual representation as we're especially walking through the budget and needing have future discussions so
um just would encourage everyone to get there so thank you anything else regarding the superintendent report seeing none we'll move on Director of Finance and operations thank you um so start with
food service F Food Service team continues to produce some great meals for our kids um we're really excited to share that jar hit 85% in our participation for the month of January um great milestone for them they're excited about we're excited about it um you know getting kids to come and eat
the food is is fantastic and continuing to drive those numbers upwards is great we have uh Richard uh Kane and um the middle school all hit over 80% as well for the month of January so we're driving those numbers up and it's uh looking really good for for for the
lunches right now um breakfast uh the high school we we completed the survey from the students and not surprisingly um the students said they either skip breakfast as a meal or uh eat breakfast at home before they come to school that's the largest uh sort of part of
what's going on there with the students not participating which is has that number pretty low um Dan is working pretty closely with uh with Pam and the the team over there they're going to start uh we did talk about piloting uh some hot breakfast at the door to kind of help that we're to talk about doing
some uh changes to when uh the the cafeteria is open for breakfast keeping it open a little bit longer to allow for some more students to be able to get in there um and also Pam and the team are also working on sort of flexible line openings so if they have a line that has an item that's very popular um opening
up a second line or even throwing a couple extra Cooks over there to start to bang it out to to get that line to move a little bit faster and get that meals out to to everyone a little bit quicker uh we do have the the hot meals are very popular um but some of those hot meals take a little bit of time put together so you know having that flexibility to kind of jump in and
produce more of those and and get more kids fed at that time is going to be something that we're going to work on so um more to come on that as they continue to work through that um and see um how we can get that number up um and again it is hard to get someone to eat breakfast who has already eaten
breakfast but um you know we'll continue if that hot meal is right there at the door might be something that really kind of grabs their eye um Transportation uh had some struggles over the past month we had uh flu was tearing through our drivers um they did a great job of
continuing to fill the the roots and and get the kids delivered to the schools and get them back home uh but it was it was devastating we we had a lot of drivers that were down we lost um couple of our dispatches as well went down and that really caused some some chaos for us as we're trying to work through it so
um the past week knock on wood has been pretty good um well last week was fantastic because we didn't have school but um our numbers to you know today were pretty good um and talking to the drivers it seems like everyone's feeling a little bit better they're they're saying that they're they're seeing their drivers show back up so we're we're
we're thinking more on the upswing of this and getting around the corner um we also are going to be collaborating with nrt in a series of monthly reports that we'll start producing um we'll bring draft reports for next month um it will be probably not all the reports
that we were hoping to have but we're going to slowly develop those reports and get them ready so that there's something that is uh useful to us and something that we can uh comment on every month and talk about so the first couple of reports are probably going to be a little bit quicker to get because we already have those sort of established um there's a couple other reports that we're going to be
developing that we'll take a little bit more time just because it's not something that um lends itself well to a reporting structure so we have to kind of design that structure but we'll bring those forward we'll talk about those reports we'll we'll continue to adjust them until we get into kind of a rhythm of how we're reporting that and get something that's easy for us to digest
and work with um and then for financials we have the most recent uh year-to dat copy in your packet thank you any questions yes m Matthews um it's is kind
of a question for both you Mr Wells and Dr Riley is there any thought given to I you mentioned maybe announcing what the meal is going to be for the next day but what about pre-ordering so that if there's a I mean obviously like it doesn't have to be
tied to specifically to the student but at least if you know there's a volume that you need and an interest on something hadn't really considered pre-ordering I mean that was um in Co it was it worked really well for us um pre-ordering happened for a lot of
school districts they did the pre-ordering to make sure they had all the meals available and could get them down there so it's it's an interesting concept to talk through um we can certainly kick that to the team and see how you know how it might work um we we do a lot of marketing um we do have they do great marketing at the high school um
but we want to get that word out a little bit more as well so so that's that's an interesting idea I hadn't really thought about that just a thought that that that way they know like can say oh on Wednesday I know we're they're going to have french toast sticks and I can grab them on my way or whatever yeah yeah yeah that's not a bad
idea can add that to the conversation about the logistics yeah that we're working on now y absolutely Catherine um relative to the transportation with having a lot of folks that were affected yes um is it something and and with me not having
kids in the school anymore I don't know so I apologize this may have happened but is there kind of like a broader um communication that that does kind of go out to just give people a heads up because I feel like when you turn it into more of a human moment that there are a large number of people that are
dealing with flu it makes it a little bit more tangible and easier for people to then um understand when there are issues I'm just curious if if a communication did go out and if not is that something from a learn that we
might be able to do in the future if we have you know kind of larger groups that are being affected um I think it's something I mean I think we could I mean certainly it's you know it's not out of the realm of possibility it's not something not something I've ever done in the past um when we've had sort of the you know the
December January February sort of uh crash that happens sometimes where you know it just flows through the whole school students everything um I I actually think that's a pretty good idea we um nothing has sent more traffic to
our website than a phone message referring people to our website right right right because we've been looking at that data right so a message saying something to the effect that illness has
um impacted the service and you can find more information here and that principles will be communicating um individual route yeah I might be yeah strategy we I'm not saying that to kind of create more work for
someone but I think sometimes when you actually turn it into a more human moment that and it's larger it it just sometimes help PE helps people to understand better and be a little bit more patient about whatever the delay is
and also shows them where to go to ask the right questions kind of things so um sorry just kind of hit because the drivers are all trying to cover for one another when they're in don't know who's going to come go down next and it could happen in the middle of the day well and and that's kind of I think when when you
hear that your team has an issue it it makes it a little bit more manageable to go okay they're pulling together to try and figure it out you know so no I agree it's it's seems like logic and hadn't really thought of it before that's actually a fantastic idea to kind of sh
inform yeah thank you it's been my day anything else seeing then we'll move on to assistant superintend oh sorry Michelle I just was wondering if a tool had anything to add to the discussion
about breakfast and getting the word out I mean I don't really sorry go I just I can't see you but I can hear you I I eat breakfast at home usually um I'm one of those I wake up pretty early
to make my breakfast but um I think a decent amount of students I when I walk in I do see a long line of students getting breakfast um but that's as far as I do have a couple food restrictions myself I'm gluten-free so um it's not been the easiest for that I don't know if there are many I think you have to
pre-order that like talk to the ladies uh lunch ladies usually before yes and then they'll make it the next day I have done that a couple times but prefer to just make it at home so we could have some we could definitely if we're going to talk about the pre-ordering that's there we go we can add that right on to as well so yeah
yeah okay thank you thank you Dr SCA thank you Mr Mayor February break uh 2025 attendance cies last week we ran attendance acmy at both whitco
middle school and Marboro High School the funding for these programs came from the targeted assistant Grant assistance grant provided by the department of early and secondary education uh the primary focus of each session is to re-engage students into a
healthy uh pattern of attendance and we also provided some general academic support to help students be better prepared for their return to school after the break in the final push of the 24 25 school year we
had 24 students that number actually did increase to 27 since I wrote my report and 46 at witcom and 46 students attended at marbro um um high school so we were very pleased with the attendance we were very pleased with the outcome I
had an opportunity to uh visit the students and staff at both sites and everyone seemed to be um benefiting from the program and we look to run it again during April break we are in a research partnership with Boston Children's Hospital in the
University of Illinois Chicago uh we have partnered with researchers from Boston Children's who are conducting a school safety study in requested input from community members in the maror public schools the focus of the study is on looking at barriers for school-based
threat management teams according to the research study overview these teams benefit from training and guiding resources yet little is known about whether or how they are functioning including team implementation organization processes successes and
challenges given this knowledge Gap we are conducting a study to better understand how these teams are functioning in K through 12 school districts across the state so threat assessment in this context is covers a variety of topics such as mental health screeners uh emergency
response protocols that we have in our school system in our individual buildings and safety procedures as well as crisis management the researchers have started by interviewing staff members um they did individual interviews and then the
individual they interviewed a panel of uh Educators and administrators they interviewed high school students and they also did a virtual interview of a parent group so they're getting a lot of perspective from a lot
of different uh members of our school Community uh I will be providing the school committee with any updates as we receive the feedback because my um understanding is that we're going to get some suggestions and some recommendations as a result of this project they've been very nice to work
with and we are grateful for the experience and then finally April 2025 instructional prioritization Institute say that three times fast we continue to work closely with the Department of early and secondary education uh through
targeted assistance for our witcom El uh Middle School one of our next steps is a two-day workshop this April with other other districts in the Commonwealth as well as representatives from the new teacher project otherwise known as tntp for this Workshop specifically we
are bringing a vertically aligned team of Staff members from our department for our multilingual Learners the instructional prioritization Institute will take place in person at the DCU Center on April 9th and 10th and again I will update the school committee with
any action steps that come as a result of this experience thank you thank you good so close um on the attendance acmy I know we I I guess we haven't asked for
the the numbers of those at risk on attendance as we have in the past but so the the 26 and 46 students was that a what do you know roughly what percentage of the kids that
were at risk of at the higher number of absences uh we did a 10% Mark at the uh Day Day 90 I believe it was so they had all they're all at a 10% or
higher absent chronic absenteeism rate what the coordinators had suggested as a Next Step that I thought was a great idea so thank you for bringing this up is tracking the specific attendance data moving forward of these two cohorts of students to see if this program is
having any effect on truly reconditioning a a pattern of healthy and routine attendance at school so we do plan to do that that's extension that we haven't done yet so hopefully through periodic check-ins they did do some surveying uh through the sessions of
what are the barriers to routine attendance in school they tried to find some workarounds to the barriers that were identified and the hope will be that we see a pos positive trajectory in attendance with this these two cohorts full of students great thank you welcome any
anything else no okay moving on acceptance of minutes minutes of the February 11th 2025 school committee meeting motion to approve motion to approve is on the table and seconded questions comments
concerns regarding the minutes from February 11th seeing none roll call Mr Earl yes oh me we go right around oh sure yes yes yes yes yes Miss
Michelle yes thank you motions of approved and carried thank you public comments moving on to public comments going once public comment is there any public comment going
twice seeing none public comment third and final chance any public comment seeing none all right move the public comment is closed moving on action items and reports mber high
school program of studies this was tabled from the February 11th meeting Dr Riley good evening everybody thank you for inviting me tonight so we have our annual review of the program of studies I'm going to go through each
section because as you as you see on your handout we break it out into the different sections that we uh look at each year I'm going to reserve the early college program section which is number three for for the end so I'm going to
jump over that but um as I go through if probably wait till the end for questions is that um probably section by section so we don't have to backtrack would probably be idea if you don't mind yeah that's why it's still fresh in our mind why don't we play that game okay all
right all right yeah so section one the principal's message there's no changes there any questions good okay section two course selection
information some of the biggest changes to this section now reflect some of the drafted updates for our graduation policy language and so those those changes or modifications are partially reflected in the program of studies it's
not the complete policy but it's referenced we also changed some of our language about student course sequences in that that's those n9th 10th and 11th and 12th grade pathway blocks that are in that
section we moved the teaching assistant internship program to a different section that's moved to section five and we also removed the language about the educational proficiency plans
which was part of that mcast graduation requirement language up until January any questions on section two no okay I'm going to skip section three and come back to it uh section four our EMT programming
there are no changes to that section section five the educator pathway program so this is where we added the teaching assistant internship course description just try to put it in a place where we felt like it might be a little bit more user friendly to find any questions on Section Five yes
um my only question was uh I know listed in here it's only for seniors does that ever extend towards Juniors like I'm just looking if people have flexibility within their schedule and that's an opportunity for them and
that's a pathway that they're interested in is that a discussion point with the administration or we can explore it absolutely um the reason why it's not right now is because
we typically try to focus on tackling graduation requirements in grades 9 through 11 usually senior year is where the more flexibility is presented so that students can do something like this which absorbs a good portion of their school day but absolutely open to discussion I can bring it back to the
leadership team and I don't know that it's necessarily going to hit a wide variety I just thought that there could be a few candidates where that may be something instead of doing say a study hall they're spending time on heading over and doing an internship at good now
so it might be a shorter period of time but they still might be able to um make it work and you know the school could utilize the help so absolutely yeah I like the idea too of it offers maybe a multiple year opportunity for students
who want to pursue that educator pathway yeah again it might not be for everyone but it might be it might capture a few people that are really interested in an educational path and this provides them a little bit of a leg up it's it's you know to me I think about it almost like
a PT you know you have to get a certain amount of hours under your belt anyway um this just might be providing them another kind of place to to get that start absolutely thank you any other questions on Section Five
or suggestions all right uh section six our technium certification program no changes to to that section which was just actually recently added last year uh same with Section 7 virtual High
School moving into Section 8 The English Department we have added two elective course descriptions to this Department's uh section in the POS and we also removed the mcast ELA review course description
again with the elimination of mcast as a graduation requirement any questions on the ELA Department I have nothing on Al but I want can we just jump back to Virtual High School how many seats do we have at virtual high school now so it we usually
we contract for 32 seats a year 16 seats per semester and that that's a bit flexible so if we have more students that request it then we order more seats just I'm just looking for a number it wasn't a concern it was just a yeah yeah
it's about 32 here great thank you yeah all right uh math department there are a few updates in this section section N9 so as you could see in the visuals um we added l anguage um number one at the beginning of the section about doubling
up in courses to jump Pathways that was a suggestion that was previously made in order to make sure that that calculus option is always open to students along the way and you could see the updates to those pathway images and those updated
images tie to the next two courses that we added so there's an honors Algebra 2 course that's coming back we used to have honors Algebra 2 and now there's also the AP pre-calculus course description uh which was a recommendation actually that a tool
brought to the school committee last year and as a member of the student Leadership Council and so uh we're we found a way to build that into the to the pathways and I'm going to talk again at the end a little bit about early college and AP so um you'll hear a little bit more about that at the
end we also updated the prerequisites for AP Calculus abbc to being pre-calculus we are modifying a course name from AP Calculus BC and intro to multivariable calculus to just intro to multivariable
calculus and again this is a transition step for us as we add those new course Pathways in we have to make sure that we find the courses that are going to meet the needs of the students that are currently in the pathway and what they need to complete by the time they graduate so that's the reason for some
of the for the modification to that course name and and again also remove the mcast math review course description from this section any questions on the mathematics Department I have a clarifying question
yeah sure so can you hear me Dan yes I can hear you Michelle yep okay um so I just it wasn't clear to me and I thought maybe you just explained it but it's still not clear to me so previously the
AP calculus DC and intro to multivariable calculus was one class yes it it was it was designed that way to meet the needs of our accelerated students that were coming out a year ahead out of the middle school so yes it
was it was a it was a one-year class yep so now you're splitting it apart and it's two classes I read the I read the the course description for the multivariable calculus and it sounds like it's for kids that already took the
AP course it is uh the multivariable calculus is is a calculus 3 class so it goes beyond Calculus BC which is your typical calculus 2 and then your Calculus AB is your Calculus 1 so it's
really meant to accommodate the needs of students like a tool who have taken advanced mathematics and want to continue to do that through graduation so it is it's not an AP class though so they don't take an AP exam no
they don't we're just beeping it up so that those kids are continually challenged 100% absolutely yep excellent okay thank you yeah you're welcome sorry now that she asked that now I have a question sure no that's okay so the
advanced placement um calculus AB and BC is now going to be a combine all together no there's still going to be two separate offerings okay and for some students taking the Cal Calculus AB is going to be a better fit for them before
they graduate that's your typical year-long calculus one experience so you think about uh College semester IED course it's kind of spread out over the whole year and and it's we have a higher success rate with AB with BC there's a smaller population of students that are
ready for that BC is essentially Calculus AB in the fall and then calculus 2 in the spring so it's it's two courses built into one okay sorry I was getting confused by how it is written up in here gotcha thank
you oh absolutely all right section 10 history and social sciences so no changes there yes a to do have a question I think we brought up in the student leadership uh conference about uh AP econ and if that was being weighted as
two different classes because they take two different exams I think Andrew brought it up um it's the I think we're one of the few schools that offer it in one year yep both the exams and I was they were wondering if it was going to be waited to accommodate that or is it just still waited as one class not
currently so I haven't pursued that change yet and I apologize but I will Circle back with Mr Kylie on that it is it is a single year-long class but what a tool is asking is if it can be weighted as two classes cuz there's two
AP exams it's a different situation than Calculus BC which is in theory also two AP classes built into one but there's only one exam at the end of the Calculus BC so that's kind of where the hang-up has been right now so okay but I will
pursue that for you and and have discussions and if need be if I have a recommendation if if it's okay I can always come back and present it to the school committee prior to the end of the year so all right section 11 science and techn
science Technology and Engineering we added pathway images there helpful excellent any questions section 12 world and Classical Languages we added French 4 back in to
our program of studies we are hopeful that there are going to be enough students that are moving through that French pipeline to have a separate section of French 4 so we're preparing for
that and we also removed conversational Portuguese that beginning class it was a semester ised experience and we remove that because we don't currently have the capacity to offer that so we left the
Portuguese class in there though the Heritage Portuguese is still in the program of studies in hopes that we can bring that back yes so I'm a believer of not removing things from the program of studies sure y don't run it you can't
you can't do it you can't run it but why come back to us for that let me let me go further into this cuz I'm glad you asked this question so with the school's requirements right the elective experience in world and
Classical Languages is supposed to be a year-long experience correct so it it's hard to fit this in as anything other than just an additional elective offering and so our hope I think is that if we can bring back the Portuguese
program that it would be a year-long experience just like our other languages so this was kind of like the odd course out but if we if we would like to keep it in that's that's not an issue it's actually funny cuz Mrs Hennessy and I actually talked about this specific
thing today and we both said wouldn't that be fun to have a semester elective that is conversational Portuguese sure absolutely so I mean I I understand if you don't have the capacity to run it in a specific year but it might be nice one
year when all of a sudden you have 10 kids who come to you and say I really need one semester of something and that would be fun yeah absolutely that's just my take on I will say ditto I I just remember when we were begging for semester courses and I get it if you
don't have the capacity that's another issue but I wouldn't get rid of this because it could be a good option if you have the capacity 100% And we designed it and it ran last year with a small number of students so I'm sorry Michelle
go ahead I was just say I I agreed then we're leaving an in I'm all for leaving it in the hope is we would love to be able to bring that back awesome all right any other questions for world and
Classical Languages all right uh number 13 business and information technology no changes to those courses section 14 visual arts media and textiles we updated the course name for AP drawing to be AP Art and
Design we also removed a prerequisite from the illustration course description so that that can be served as an as an entry-level course for a student who's interested we added two electives print making and fiber art and specifically the fiber art class is meant to take
what has traditionally been our year-long fabric design and tailoring program and offer a semester IED opportunity for students use those skills so this is a first step for us with that particular course any questions for visual arts
media and textiles I have a I have a question sure um is did the AP change the name from drawing to Art and Design I mean is the what's the AP exam it it's either or
Michelle so I think what what Tim what Mr J is doing is just realigning the name to what the course entails which is not just drawing but it's it's the Art and Design Concepts okay I just didn't know so
nothing's going way though okay as a big supporter of the art Department I am thrilled to see um more courses available and taking out the the um prerequisite because I know it's always been a little bit of a
frustration that kids had to take um you know that entry level art course before they could take the courses that they really wanted to take absolutely that's right I love it thanks absolutely uh number section 15 the
music program no changes to that department section 16 well Wellness we updated the wellness 9 and wellness 10 course descriptions we removed the Fitness for Life course description that hasn't run in a long long
time we updated the course name for adaptive PE to be unified physical education we updated our fundamentals of cooking course description and we removed our cooking methods course
because because um we are are only offering cooking fundamentals on both sides of the year to accommodate more seniors so if we have a level two then that's going to tighten up who can access our cooking program and it's been
so successful that we are running four um consecutive year-long semesters of this so we have eight sections of cooking fundamentals it's a it's a big draw for the seniors Fe themselves main home that's
hope okay any questions on Wellness section 17 English learner education so we updated the EL course the introductory ELD course description we added ELD literacy and ELD language and essentially what
happened with this but you can see below removed eld1 and el2 course descriptions those are two blocks those classes so eld1 right now is two different um blocks of time for the two periods for the student and what
we're trying to do is become more intentional in an effort to help support better outcomes with our access scores we're trying to become more intentional with addressing literacy needs in one block and language needs in in another
block so specific a little more specific with the curriculum outcomes of those two approaches so that's the reason for the separation so nothing necessarily being removed rather just taking one big course and breaking it out into two
courses we also updated our intensive el23 course description and we added an elective which is called Welcome to MHS and this elective is meant to help support the need needs of newcomers into
our school community and introduce them to the expectations of the school the resources of the school and and just do a little bit better job of the onboarding process for our high school aged students hi so I love the visuals is
there a way that you could figure out about some visuals that could work in the E section cuz I feel like like we're talking about a lot of words for El one and twos and visuals may help them on actually
understanding what their paths and their options are that is one of our six eel strategies visuals in the classroom so I agree 100% I wrote more cowbell on my notes Here for thank you I was thinking more cowbell thank you will farell
absolutely absolutely yeah any other questions on El programming section 18 special education we updated the TLC program description any questions on the special education department last section section 19
library media center no changes there any changes any questions on LMC library media 7 okay going back to section three so I'm coming back to school committee this year once we this this school year once we have a finalization with qcc on the additional
courses that we're going to be able to offer through our early college program it's very exciting because we are looking at a relatively large expansion of the program you can see a couple of the examples that I listed out in the notes here we're talking about a public speaking class we're talking about maybe
a non-lab science course we're looking at Spanish 1 Spanish 2 course sequence and we're also now looking at a history course sequence over the full year so it' be two back-to-back history classes as of right now we're looking at
a possible expansion in programming of bringing us up to 36 to 39 college credits before a student graduates from malber high school and they're all completely transferable through the mass transfer block so every single state college will take those credits with no
questions asked what we're also going to be doing in preparation for this presentation to you all once we finalize the teachers that are approved the teaching credentials are what going to drive what courses can be offered for example the
history trajectory is based upon having a teacher that has the credentials and has just been approved as an Adjunct professor for that course sequence so that gets added in in the same same thing with the other classes what we want to do though is we want to also create a marketing strategy
with the early college program that links it more directly to the mass transfer block than what we currently have more visuals and and we want we want students to understand for their Junior and senior years how they can map out
through the scheduling process taking advantage of the full program and accomplishing more than a year of college before they graduate from Alber high so that's the goal and and as I said once we finalize the Staffing assign assignments I'll be coming back
to you all with that great news I might even invite our partners from qcc if that's okay to uh to visit as well thank you yes um dog and pony show really needed in e8th grade in front of
families sure when they're considering what high school they're going to go to yeah that's huge yep that's like really really really huge that you could potentially be walking out the door from high school with that many college credits yep so we we did presentations early
this year um we we captured students we captured families we've done tours we had families come into mour high school as well in the fall and so we are trying to push that messaging out there and make sure that families are well aware of what opportunities they're passing on
yeah if they don't attend malor high school and you're right though this is a big opportunity for marketing for us and we really do need to get the word out there I I just I you know I think about how many families sorry go into crisis trying to figure out how can I afford
College that's huge so like tens of thousands of dollars exactly so I mean that that really needs to be one of those big things when you talk about a marketing campaign that's a marketing campaign right there yep you know so thank you and in line with that one other thing I want to add about the AP
program is the same thing in terms of we're going to be mapping out how to how to achieve the AP scholar program so for students like aul who have have been achieving the AP scholar program we want to map it out so that a family can look at a visual and see okay if my student
enrolls in these classes as a junior and a senior and follows this trajectory then they'll complete the AP scholar program before they graduate okay um to also jump on what Mrs Henny was Hennessy was saying was that um having that those credits
and I'll speak for desie today in their convers ation about FAFSA and I know we used to do the guidance nights for the Fafa FAFSA application I don't know if we're planning on them again but since enrollment has been so
low we really should concentrate on trying to get as many kids and families involved in that as well in addition to having all those credits because they're only going to need it for a couple of years hopefully absolutely take advantage of every penny that's out there for them so absolutely one of our
requirements through the grant program that we're funded by the state is that we have a strategy for FAFSA and our early college students it's over a 90% faasa completion rate for our early college program so it's built in and it's required that we do that for those
exact reasons that you just pointed out it's a Gateway yeah it's a Gateway that's fabulous thank you thank you Michelle you had a question go ahead Michelle um I I just I would suggest that when we're when we're thinking
about marketing the district that yes I agree with Catherine that it's important that the middle school you know the eighth graders know what their options are but I think you know this is a big offering
that we have for kids with a really well planned out trajectory on how to get there and and I think having a broader marketing strategy around letting the community know and
Elementary parents know because that may um you know be part of their thinking when they're deciding to perhaps send their you know try to send their kids to amsa and that starts at a younger age so
I I wouldn't limit us to just the 8ighth grade students I would think that you know getting it's you know one of the things we usually don't do that well here in Mar is two around horn but the community needs to noce that this is a
this is a a real great program that we offer absolutely just my two cents thank you okay thank you anything else no voting on this we're not voting
it's just a report correct no okay all right motion to to approve the 2526 POS for the high school so I'm just going to ask that it's amended because we're not removing the Portuguese
conversation class correct yes as amended okay just want to make sure on more Vis and more visuals and more Cowell motions on the table too to approve the high school program
of studies as amended question questions comments concerns seeing none Mr Dan yes yes yes yes yes yesion yes motion carries thank you
thank thank you for the time draft F moving on draft fiscal year 26 school calendar so the calendar is before us so I have Pres presented um a
draft 2025 2026 school calendar that reflects the um a change in the policy that calls
for school committee meetings to happen on the 2nd and fourth Tuesday of every month except for December um by moving the uh September meeeting to
the um to the 4th yes it's actually probably the fifth right the fifth yeah and then I am proposing that November 10th be place the November 11th
meeting questions comments concerns motion to approve okay um speak now questions comments concerns there's a motion on the table and seconded so questions comments concerns is this part I just have a concern my
only concern is I'm not I'm noticing that from December 9th to January 13th we only have there's five weeks between there and maybe December is just a slow month but if I guess I want to put it
out there that if we need a special meeting to like let us know I guess it just seems like a long stretch than more longer than normal okay because there's there's five Tuesdays in December this year so I
think that's why it's longer than usual can can I one of the things and I I I didn't I said it but I wasn't here at this last meeting but I said said it in an email to the superintendent was that instead of the 10th of
November that we do the 4th and the 18th so the 1 and the thir and then the 2nd and the 16th in December so we have two meetings in December
normally we don't but again not having just having the ability to have more meetings and not as much of a gap between December and January that was the first and third week of both months and that someone had a conflict yeah
yeah Denise always has that conf the opposite weeks of ours and if it were other months I could make the exception but there's too much going on in December for me to not miss those other meetings and Dan you have a yeah yeah there were multiple conflicts for those days no it's not just me no way even it
was it's a conflict and we respect your conflicts well and we can always add a you know what I mean I think at least gets us the the bones you know and if we need to add something in we've got the time that
we can do that yep great okay any further discussion there's a motion on the table and seconded what I motion no further
questions yes yes yes yes yes yes m Michelle yes thank you motion carries fiscal year 26 budget calendar this was tabled at our February 11th meeting do you want me to um we are
resubmitting the budget calendar um with an adjustment to the first date to Wednesday March 19th at 5:30 p.m. and that's a difference between the
survey that asked for a five or a six because there was a little conflict so I just picked the time in the middle for that particular date um so hoping that works okay entertain a motion motion to
approve motion to approve is on the table and seconded for the fisc year 6 budget calendar questions comments or concerns seeing none we'll start off with you Miss
Michelle yes Mr Earl yes yes yes yes yes yes motion carries so the 26 budget calendar is approved thank you moving on reports of school committee subcommittees who would like to start
yes Mr I guess that would be me go for it so on behalf of the superintendent search committee we would like to put forward two candidates um the two candidates are David youngberg and David Thompson so
yes two Davids um we as a school committee need to determine the schedule for when they come to the district um so I do have a draft it was email um I'd be happy to review it so
the public has it as well you guys need copies or um so this is the proposed schedule yeah Matt might want same we revised it from the last time instead of it being
an all day Affair it would start at um 11:45 and the candidates would be touring um um like candidate one would be to touring one school while another candidate is touring another and then there would be the opportunity to have
lunch with superintendent Murphy um and lunch with a school committee member for the other candidate and then meeting they'd switch off and then um there's also time later in the day
for staff and the public to meet the candidates and ask questions so that would be our Forum which would be held at the mour high school in the Little Theater so there would be two sessions so on this proposed calendar it's the
first session would be from 3:30 to 4:15 and then the second session would be 4:15 to 4 4:30 to 5:15 uh 4:30 to 5:15 um
I know I had a little bit of concern with that because like I want the public to be able to attend but I also want the teachers to attend so it's kind of like I don't know what the best solution there is but then following the public reception um there'd be time for dinner
and then we would have our formal interview with the candidates here and we would make our determination from there so I don't know if the committee has questions or other thoughts about the schedule or if we want to go with this schedule
or what the committee would like to do just to clarify yes are they both here on the same day or yes so both candidates are here on the same day so like but they're never in the same room with each other so it's kind of a balancing act of who's got the candidate
at that point and taking them to one school while somebody else has them at another school okay it's touring less buildings than the last time um yeah and they all would fill out the exit tickets like the te the the
teachers and and public would fill out the exit tickets to give their opinion on the candidates so that we would have a chance to review them before we interview them that night thoughts questions I'm just trying to understand the timeline
here so there's a public reception at 4:30 to [Music] 5:15 oh so 3:30 to 4:15 but I feel like there's something that's missing here the first candidate has more things
than the second J yeah um we just found it it's the meeting with the principls and it's in that open slot so it it fits in there it's just not on the line yeah
yeah so where would that open it goes after the 245 got it oh yeah okay yeah I'm like something's not lining up here yeah okay it's a simple solution yeah
okay so we just have to figure out the day yes oh so that was the other thing so we did check with the candidates because time is of the essence because the candidates are also applying in other districts so we're kind of ahead of the game a little bit because they um
other potential interviews wouldn't happen till after these dates um they're both very much interested in maloro for various reasons but um we were hoping to do this on Monday March
3rd both candidates are available was in the email was it not so March 3rd is next Monday that's the date that the candidates were both available there was some potential were they both I think they were both available the fourth as well and possibly the fourth and
possibly the sixth the fifth is not an option but the sixth is also potentially an option as well work for me questions comments concerns want to comment no I mean I
think I and I you know just to support Miss Ryan it was is um trying to move forward so that we could get this underway I think um some of the feedback that we've received from discussions
with um superintendent candidates that have come through before you know having some good conversation with superintendent Murphy was also trying to be cognizant it it's a it's a long day right and also trying to do two
candidates on two separate days could also make it like even longer in some ways so I think that was a little bit of a combination of taking um some great feedback that M Murphy had been able to
provide us and having some conversation with Patty uh for her expertise from an HR standpoint to be able to try and help us juggle a little bit about how to make this work
so um you know we had um after we had come out of our executive session and we were trying to have some of the open meeting discussion in preparation because luckily Miss Ryan was able to have conversations with Miss
Brown and and try and move things along as efficiently as possible um so we could get people's involvement but you know recognizing I think is you would already said no time is ever going to line up for everyone
and we were trying to really weigh um you know trying to do a coffee here and a tea there but then making sure that we have something in the afternoons and it it it can become a lot so we're just hoping that this provides enough
opportunity for people to be um actively involved um not just the people sitting here around the table but being able to be cognizant of having our staff be able to get there um I think we were even having conversations with um the mea
that were um a part of the search committee had offered up a concern about um a staff meeting so that was another reason of not necessarily going towards the fifth I wanted sorry the fifth so it was just trying to work around um those
those type of things that we knew were already set in stone and we didn't want to cause any other um Strife but make sure that we had plenty of opportunity for people to be involved and I think I misspoke I Monday the 3 is the date that we're looking at
right not the fourth so I guess my question interview with school committee in school committee room would that be open to the public as well for questions I just want to make sure the people are aware at home because I don't think they can see this because it wasn't in the packet so
I just want to make sure that we give enough ample time so people can clear their calendars so people from the public can be here to ask these questions or be involved with the process I I want the public to be as as involved as process they possibly can so
um so the public would be is also um encouraged to come to the Forum right um as in regards to the questions the format that we've used in the past is each of us would ask the the same questions to the same to two different
to the two different candidates right and I did provide a list of the questions we asked during the interviews and I have a list of other possible questions we could ask the candidates that we could each review and
then at the night of the the um interviews we just ask the questions and you like you come prepared with you know your top four or five questions you might want to ask and if Heidi asks the one of the questions I was going to ask and I would ask one of my second choice
questions um but we would be asking because we don't have time to have another meeting before then to determine the questions right okay so that was the the thought on that my concern is just that if people are working they won't be able to make the Forum so coming to
right and we had a long conversation about that as well and um you based on the past I mean we've had them later and you still get like five parents but I feel like the parents that are interested most are working from home or
these days like I feel like there's not your typical 9 to-5 working parent anymore and they hopefully would have the flexibility to come a little earlier and well I just want to make sure that we have options and there is with the 6:30 and 7:30 where they can ask the
questions that's why I just want to make sure that the people watching or or listening at home that they are and can be available for their input so that's all okay and that was something also that we did um have the the parent
that was sitting on the the search committee was able to provide you know some insight about that as well and um you know his his feeling was if we could move it forward tonight to have this discussion here then getting it out and
posted um right away so that way everyone would have an opportunity to hopefully react and be able to um um earmark time within their schedules any further discussion oh sure Patty mind if I just ask for a little
bit of Grace on um the exact locations for everything I haven't booked anything yet and we just picked a date today so these are proposed and also if we need to week the start times of things by maybe five or 10 minutes to allow for teachers to get to things so just if
you're approving the schedule and the date I just need a little bit of maybe flexibility once I start trying to book something that's all I would ask so I'm going to ask this question then so once this is finalized is this going out to some type
of email blast or to the parents or the community so they're well aware of this that's happening or has that not been discussed it has not been discussed so I'm hearing it for the first time so yeah yeah I think if I'm a parent How
will I know that this is happening yeah I guess that's my question so unless they're not watching here right or in tune with what's going on with school committee which everyone should be but if they're not how do they get that information posted on our website um we do have I would ask to
blast it out through um our social media on Thursday when our incoming Communications coordinator can is working with our outgoing Communications coordinat so we have some
transition time together so to learn how to that works I will admit I'm a little concerned Petty cilios on vacation for the rest of the week so we're going to have to develop a posting um if there's a template or something yeah okay um I
just want to make sure that it gets posted tomorrow if it's Monday yeah I I would offer up that I can help you know Mrs Matthews I believe you have until Thursday to post it yes yes but we just
have to know oh yeah right so I'm just like it doesn't need to be done tomorrow tomorrow so there we have a day to figure out the times and the places and the and all that so okay there's day at 11 11:30 Thursday by noon if it happens on Monday be by 11:30 because if it
starts at 11 11:30 oh yeah right well yeah I thinking city council starts that's what yeah yeah yeah okay we'll pull it together tomorrow so it's ready for first thing in the morning on
Thursday okay so we need to suspend the rules so I'd like to make a motion to suspend the rules since this was not on the agenda but it is under we're putting it under I guess reports of
subcommittees um that we approve the draft schedule with some Grace for Patty okay to have the two candidates in District on Monday March 3rd okay so I'll second the suspension of the rules
so that we could actually then move forward on a vote okay thank so motion is on the table and second to suspend the rule rules so any questions or comments or concerns regarding just suspending the
rules seeing none Mr yes yes yes yes yes yes Miss Michelle yes I I do want to say I'm having a hard time with the visual with the auditory so I I got that we were only
voting to suspend the rules I just want to be really clear when whoever makes the next motion that I understand it before I vote okay so the motion carries to suspend the rules so now we'll need a
motion to approve the superintendent search finalist schedule so I move that we bring the two candid that we approve the draft schedule with some Grace for Patty in
terms of which actual schools and F a little bit of flexibility in the time from Monday March 3rd do we need more than that I would just say once the actual dates were submitted then we'll send it
out to all it has to be by Thursday at 11:30 so yeah yep and it is and do we need a motion for the two candidates as well all right so that's a separate motion though okay so that's the first motion is the
approval of the schedule I would assume you can lump it all in the same one it yes I I don't have the schedule in front of me and I'm not clear what it is other than what I emailed it to you last night the schedule was in the email I
sent last night here hold on please home you acknowledged you received it okay I just want to review it before I vote on it okay and then I guess also part of the
motion is we need to you don't know the candidates so how do you do just that we're as putting forward two candidates and the names so we're putting forward David Thompson t o m t h o m s o n and David
yber but it's spelled hold on things on it l j u n g b e r g I just texted her the name so that she be able to have that okay so I think you're still waiting for
Michelle's I'm waiting for her to be ready I I did receive it I did see it last night I reviewed just full disclosure I will be out of state on the 3D so I will not be here to attend this okay okay y thank
you so motions on the table and seconded for the superintendent search final schedule for Monday March 3rd with the dates of a little bit of a Grace and the two nomination names questions comments concerns
regarding the motion seeing none yes yes yes yes yes yes yes motion carries thank you and if I may I just again would like to thank the search committee which consisted of
Mr Caruso Mrs Hennessy uh principal house um Franchesca Scott and Heather Colin Tony who were both teachers as well as our parent um Mark ficaro we accomplished a lot of work in kind of a short amount of time correct so that was great and I think we're all excited
about the candidates you're about to meet so thank you yes great thank you okay any other reports of school committee subcommittees nothing from policy good nothing new let's move on before you
change your mind anything else no yeah what um I actually just wanted to say thank you to um members of the committee and the community that reached out to um the Board of
Education um today they were voting on a request by a number of different Charter Schools specifically were on this agenda um and amsa had requested for an additional 34 seats um and I will say
that uh while amsa does a huge amount uh of wonderful educating of students um I am happy that at this time uh they did not vote to support moving
that forward right now and um I'm I I say that from a standpoint that that means we do not have to start fearing Financial impacts or additional loss of student body um and and I'm happy about
that because I want to make sure that we have the opportunity to support all of our Learners uh our s our el12 three our special education students our general general population our Advanced
Learners and uh welcome the Wonder wonderful opportunity of all of those folks to have the support here at marro so I was glad to be in attendance okay and thank you for everyone being there and
supporting anything else from school committee subcommittees no that wasn't it was members but I didn't talk about members Forum yeah but it's okay members Forum I get members Forum I I have two items for
members Forum if I may uh first I would like to let the community know that tomorrow night the malor high school senior allnighter committee is having a meeting at the Malboro High School library um at 7:00 um come and hear how you can be involved and um what we do
and the plans for the after prom party for the seniors so anybody who's a parent at the high school is welcome to attend and then I also wanted to mention another event that's being sponsored by the allnighter as well as the amsa um after prom committee and the Malboro
Junior Women's Club is putting together um an event at the Malboro Library which is the social host laws and liabilities information night that officer Morrow is putting together for us so um it's at 6:00 on the 13th of March so come and
learn about the host laws thank you okay sorry she reminded me marara Junior Women's Club is doing their normal princess Boutique on March 15th 15th um
it will be hosted at the marbor high school and if anyone that um uh you know they do not need to be a member of the Marboro Community they can be from other communities you would just need to sign up at the Metro West princess
Boutique uh MW MW princess boutique.com doc um for uh an appointment so that you can come and be able to find a dress find shoes find some jewelry whatever
and it's all free of charge but you need to sign up for an appointment so thank you thank you I would just like to tell you that um our high school robotics team did make the world's Championship this year in Dallas um we competed this last thank
you we competed this last weekend um in Framingham for the state championship um which you have to qualify for so from the entire State 65 teams make the state championship and then out of those 65 teams 14 of those make the world Championship which we are one of them um
additionally not only did we place for the world championship we won an award so um I'll just preface this by saying it's not just a robotics competition they also have interviews for like team team organization team structure there's like rubrics and there's a whole bunch of stuff but we won the create award um
which was most Creative Design Elements for our robot um out of all 65 teams which is great so they really loved our creative approach to this year um yeah that qualifies us for worlds when is Worlds I believe it's May 6th through 8th or 5th through 8th it's a 3-day
event um in Dallas yeah oh congratulations congratulations it's very proud to hear that so all righty yes I was getting there I have reviewed and signed the warrant thank you you know that's my favorite part rather than public
comments yeah yeah anything else give me what I need motion to adjourn motion toj is on the table in seed questions comments concerns about adjourning nothing nothing nothing Miss
Michelle lead us off we're juring yes Mr Earl yes yes yes yes yes yes we are adjourned at 8:51 thank you everyone have a great night