Alrighty. Good evening everyone. It is 7:34. I want to welcome you all to the Marble Public School Committee meeting. Today is Tuesday, November 25th. I shall call the meeting to order at 7:35. If I can have all you rise for the pledge of
allegiance, that would be great. I aliance 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 much. I just want to remind everyone in the audience and at home that we are being taped and streamed by WMCTV. So, thank you very much. So, we'll dive right in to the superintendent's report. Uh thank you and good evening uh everybody. Um great seeing you all. Um
we have a very exciting uh agenda this evening. Um and we are going to start um with a couple of very special guests who are joining us uh both from Malboro High School and from Quincseman Community College. Um we're going to take a few
minutes and talk a little bit about our early college um program that we have at uh MHS. Um I do think um after having spent some time with both Liz um and uh
Veronica who we'll uh hear from in just a moment um that we have quite a jewel there at uh Malbor High School. something that definitely needs to be uh shouted from the rooftops as far as the opportunities that it offers our students. Uh and so with that, I'm
actually going to turn it over uh to both uh Liz, Veronica, and uh Principal Serpino. And we're just putting the slide deck up on the um on the screen here. You get it?
And you have uh a hard copy of the slide deck in front of you this evening as well. >> Veronica, do you want to start us up with some introductions? >> Yeah. So, good evening everyone. My name is Veronica Guay and I'm the executive director of high school dual enrollment
programs and partnerships at Quinc Sigaman Community College. So in higher education, we like really long titles. So yes, executive director there and I am thrilled to be here. Thank you,
Superintendent Falco, for inviting me. Um, this is really a celebration of what you all in Mara have done. I am proud to be co-presenting with Liz. Where is she? >> Here she is. There she is.
>> Yeah. Um, and you know, I enjoyed putting these slides together to share with you all. Um, let me know if you can't hear me, but I I hope I come through as um wanting you all to know that the epicenter of the work is at
Mara High School and it's uh excellence in instruction and community engagement. So, Liz, I'll let you Liz wanted to just the second slide I think is you. I knew that one drive, which turned out
to be like 75 drives when we were trying to figure out how to do this, was going to fail us in the end. So, [laughter] um, it's a pleasure to be here tonight. I know a lot of you. I don't know all of you, and I know that many of you are familiar with our early college trajectory over the years. Um, we're so
excited to be able to present what the program look like looks like today. These slides are doing their own thing. So, I'm going to tell [laughter] you >> I'm going to do my own thing. >> I don't know any of >> Just give it to a tool. He'll figure it
[laughter] out. >> Right back to slide number three. >> So, our partnership in its current um incarnation goes back to 2016. Prior to 2016, we did um experiment with
experiment with some other models for early college. Um, some of them were on campus at at the college and that was prohibitive because of transportation. Some of them occurred outside of the school day and that was prohibitive because of scheduling and some of the
them occurred entirely in the online context and that was not supportive enough for our students. So the model that we adopted in 2016 which is the concurrent enrollment model solved all of those issues and removed all of those barriers in one fell swoop.
So that is kind of the important point that we are going to really stress here this evening. Um there we go. If I could just get perfect. So the the first thing I wanted you to know is that at Quinc Sigaman Community College from the top
down early college work dual enrollment and concurrent enrollment are part of our strategic plan. We are very invested in serving and partnering with our community high schools. So I am happy to
say that right from President Padraa through the reporting line to the vice president of academic affairs, the associate vice president of academic affairs, the academic deans, my supervisor, the dean of college and
career pathways and and then me. But the critical thing here is the involvement of all of these academic people who are there to ensure the quality and the academic rigor of the product that's delivered to your students at Marboro
High School every day. Um so that oversight exists. It's strong and everybody again from the top down is very aware. Concurrent enrollment is a unique model. Um, so if we could go. Are you the You're the best. Okay.
Excellent. So when I say concurrent enrollment, please think of early college or dual enrollment as a big category. Dual enrollment is the big category. Those courses can be delivered in a
variety of ways. Concurrent enrollment is where you are for early college Marboro. you are right in the high school day as Liz explained. Um so we are able to reach your students. These
classes are on their high school schedule. Your teachers have been certified to teach our classes. Um we have other partners. Early College Worcester is a combination of
>> Veronica. I'm sorry to interrupt you, but if people are watching at home, they can't hear you unless you talk in the microphone. >> Unless I stay right here. Okay. >> Can I still talk with my hands? >> Sure. And you can carry the microphone over with you. You just have to talk in
it. It doesn't have to sit there. >> Got you. >> There you go. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Watch the >> Okay, I'll stay right here. Um, so that was important to just this this picture of how it it works in the high school
day. These are your teachers. Oh, there they go. Okay. So, we have Amy Veral who is teaching English 101 and English 102, composition one and composition 2. Carara Manzeli who
teaches intro to psychology, intro to sociology, and firstear experience. Our newest concurrent enrollment instructor from Marboro High School is Sarah Murphy, and she's teaching world history 2 and world history 3. And then we have
Stacy Fulis, who is a mathematics instructor in topics in mathematics and statistics. Your instructors are amazing. They are absolutely amazing. And I can tell you the academic deans want them to work for QCC after. So
they're they're amazing. Um, next slide. Okay. So this doesn't work unless we make strong connected connections um really by academic discipline and
that's what I am hoping that everybody comes away with that we have established a really good learning community here with full-time and oftentimes department chairs supporting your high school teachers. That's how we ensure that the
coursework is Quinn Sigman Community College level coursework, the academic rigor. We focus on the student learning outcomes. And what we need to do for our accreditation is make sure
that whether the course is delivered in Maraboro, in Worcester, Southbridge, many of our partners, that it's the same rigor and it's the same course. So that's why it's very important that we have these connections from our
full-time faculty at Quincig who partner with your high school teachers. So, Veronica put together just a snapshot going back to 2001 of our fall and spring credits acrewed by our students. Um, you can see that there was
a big leap last year. I've been giving a lot of thought to why that is. Um, I think our population overall in the high school was larger. I know it was. And we also ran one more section of English, one more section of math, and one more
section of psych and so we were able to once that those extra sections were in place, we were able to fill them up. So, um it it does look like a pretty significant leap right there. Um and I think that that is in part why um I did take a look back at all of our credit
trackers over time and added everything up since 2016. when we cross the threshold um at the end of this semester, our students since 2016 will have earned over 6,000
credits, which is pretty awesome. So, and Veronica alluded to um our courses when she talked about our teachers. We offer comp one, a composition one, and composition two, which create a one-year sequencing for our students, but actually offer two courses worth of
credits. At QCC, we offer an intro to social and an intro to psych, which we are um encouraging students to take in the same year. Um they don't have to in the same way as English 101102, but that's our our strong encouragement. We offer a first year experience course
which is sort of a survey um self-exloration career and college readiness class um that is very valuable to our students and also um is open to anybody. There are no prerexs for that class. So, where we can choose the most accessible version of something, we do.
Um, we offer a sequencing in math, which Stacy teaches. The fall is topics in math, and the spring is statistics. That's math 121 and math 122. Again, that creates a year-long sequencing from the high school perspective, but it is worth two courses at Quincy Community
College. And this year we're really excited to have onboarded Sarah Murphy who's teaching world history 2 and world history 3, another sequential set um six college credits courses that we're considering and we actually did try to offer this year Spanish one and two. We
couldn't quite find the right um enough students and we're going to try again. I was a language teacher and a student who would have liked that opportunity. So I don't know if there are some some students like that among us who might want to take Spanish two one and two uh mathematics for STEM which I'll I think
is mathematics for example for business or mathematics for technicians who might be interested in a very focused kind of math. Um we've discussed management, accounting and economics. We've discussed non-lab sciences. The lab part of a science makes it prohibitive in our
school day but a non-lab science could work. And then one of the really exciting ideas um is to offer n uh courses, native language courses um which Veronica might be able to speak a little bit more about, but um that would really be able to capitalize on the
wonderful diversity that exists in our school. So we have a lot of great things going on and we have a lot of great things on the horizon. >> So I just want to just one slide. So I This is a sequence of nine.
>> If we could use the microphone, please. Thank you. I'm sorry. >> I'm sorry. >> This is a sequence of nine courses which represents 27 college credits. So, if you think that you know full-time is 12 to 15 credits a semester. So, that's a
that's a good good uh kind of chunk right there. Okay. I promise I'll stay here. [laughter] All right. So I shared with you that early college and dual enrollment programming is a strategic initiative of
the college. Um we are seeking accreditation for our concurrent enrollment programs. Um, and this accreditation, I'll go through a couple of slides with you, but the purpose of this is it's a format to
force us, a rubric if you will, that will force us to focus on student learning outcomes, on the transferability of the credit. Have a statement of equivalency from your classroom to ours. um gathering evidence, classroom visits and syllabi
review. Okay. So we are going for our accreditation from a national organization. Um so NASA is the national um alliance of concurrent enrollment partnerships and this is the only
program in the country that uh can lend accreditation to concurrent enrollment programming. Thank you. Um as we all know accreditation is the language of education right? It's that third party
stamp of approval. Um, and we are, uh, if you want to go to the next slide. So, this shows that NASA is nationwide. Massachusetts is behind in concurrent
enrollment and dual enrollment course offerings compared to the rest of the country. um when we get our accreditation we will be only the second college in New England to be accredited. There is one college accredited now and that's Yukon.
So we are hoping to become the second. Uh, our letter of intent to the accredititor went out today and we will be spending the spring semester gathering evidence and artifacts and talking about you and our other concurrent enrollment partners. So, wish
us luck. I hope to be in front of you again to announce that we received it, but it's a lot of work and it's well worth it. Um, I think there's one more slide on accreditation. Um, you know, the biggest reason we want to do this is
to speak to the integrity of the credits. There are institutions out there who will frown upon taking transfer credits from a student who earned the credits while in high school. That's a reality. It it happens. Um, this stamp of approval, we think, will
make these credits more cash and carry, if you will, and more transferable for your students. Now, within Massachusetts, we're all adhering to mass transfer. So, within the state system, these credits are alive and well and will travel. Um, it's when we're
outside of mass transfer, then what what what is going to give us the caliber that we need for your student to have that those credits with them? >> Okay. Okay. So, I wanted to give you a sense
of who our students are this fall. Um I couldn't bring them all with me. Room's not big enough. There are 111 of them. There are 76 seniors and 35 juniors. And this is just a little snapshot of um some of some of of who is involved in
our cohort. So um 53% of our students when we look in Aspen are identified as um gateway students. 46% are first language not English. So, we know that there are lots of students who
have exited the the English language program. These students are participating in and thriving in our early college program and we're really excited about that. Um, we have 5% of our current students who are on IEPs and 16% of our students who have 504 plans
with us. Um, I have more information. I I picked what I thought might um might be useful to for you to know tonight. And this is a snapshot of a visit that we took to Quincigan Community College in the fall. [snorts] We like to get all of our students who are new to early
college to campus because we want them to see the institution where they're getting their credits. Um we want them to understand what it means to be a student in two places at once. It's very easy for them to forget that they are
fulfilling, you know, college credits and high school credits that they are dually enrolled and they have two different identities at the same time. So, we take a tour of campus. We get student IDs so they all have photo IDs. So, we say if you're going to do the work, you might as well get the
discount. So, they're excited about that. And then we also take some time to meet with the Office of Transfer and Articulation Services, which is a gem of an office. Our students learn not only that it's important for them to get the credits, but what can they do with them?
The value and the applicability of these credits is not to be believed. So, they come away with a really good sense of the credit landscape in college, what it means to be complete a freshman year, what it means to complete a sophomore year, how you transfer credits to a 4-year institution, how you save money
doing so. Um, I think it's great and I I think we'll have their office come at some point and do some um some presenting to us just professionally because the opportunities are really really staggering. Um, and then I I was trying to think about what I could share with you that I think
um makes the the early college experience distinct. And I think that there is, you know, people talk about different kinds of learning and intelligence and I think there's an early college quotient. I think there are some really really important things that our students are learning that are independent of discipline. They are
learning English and how to write and they are learning statistics and they are learning psychology. But here are five things that I think that they are learning no matter what they're taking. Um they are learning about the rigor and the pacing and the cadence of a college semester. So their classwork is as
rigorous to Veronica's point as it would be on uh on Quinc's campus. um they are doing this work in the context of a 15week semester. We are mimicking exactly the academic calendar at QCC. They don't have a protracted timeline. They have a shorter timeline
within which to finish their work. They are working 15 hours a week in classes. Um I'm sorry, three hours a week in classes over 15 weeks. That's 45 hours. Um so we have designated instructional hours and then the other balance of the
time that they might be in class is supportive. um which you know when I talked earlier about it being a barrier for our students when the classes were entirely online so they are in class and they do have this piece of support to help them um along the way um and the
cadence of the college semester. What does it mean to have an ad drop period? What is the difference between dropping a class during ad drop and dropping it when you would take a W? So all of this language that I think sometimes in a guidance office or maybe if you have kids in college feels familiar to you
isn't familiar. Um and it's important that our students understand what all of this means. Um learning management system awareness and flexibility. We are a Google classroom school at Moralboro High School. QCC is a Blackboard environment. Blackboard is a different
learning management system. Our students must use it and our and our professors, our instructors must use it. So we onboard our students in Blackboard at the beginning of the semester. They are expected to access it to access their work there and to post their work there to to discussion posts in Blackboard. So
it's good for them to flex some muscles outside of the familiar Google um environment. I say that as somebody who couldn't do a one drive situation up here [laughter] tonight, but it's really important to get good at different systems. you know that um this is an
amazing um point of exposure for our students. Our students who are the students that I referred to who have um accommodations with us in high school, those accommodations um come sort of through the school and to the students without the students really needing to
to um initiate that process. It's a very different landscape, the accommodations and accessibility landscape in college. So, our students who are in our QCC classes um go through the request the accommodations request process with Quinc Sigman's Office of Student
Accessibility Services and they receive their letter of accommodations which they then need to share with each of their teachers. They're walking through this student-driven process before they before their peers before they need to. And I think the familiarity with this is
going to be enormous when they do land on whatever college um campus they [clears throat] land on. U they have some transcript savvy like there's like an alphabet soup situation that goes on with transcripts like W and X and I and P and IP and all sorts of things. So um
you know they're aware that they have a transcript. They're aware of what that means. We say it tells your academic story. You need to take care of it, right? you're activating this transcript and you need to take care of it and know what it means. And then finally, um I'm going to let a student voice end the
presentation um about the value and applicability of college credits. We sort of always knew and we always say, well, this is just going to be great for students when they leave us. How could it not be? Um but we reached out to a student who is at Worester State right
now who came through our early college program. I should also say before you before you listen to him um he also received the seal of biiteracy and so he had the power of combining early college and the seal of biiteracy. Um he was
also part of our one goal program which is for another night but it is an initiative that aims to expose our students who might not otherwise have the opportunity to a variety of college campuses and to um the process of developing their aspirations and how to how to meet their goals. So, I'm going
to let um Jo Ramos's voice carry us to the end here and then we can take some questions. So, well, if I got the video to embed, then I'm gonna do that. But, yep. >> University. I wanted to share how early college
helped me because it truly changed my whole experience in college. When I graduated from Aubber High, I already had many many quality credits and because of that I started stay ahead of
most of the basic classes. I didn't have to spend my first year doing all the usual prerequisite classes. Instead, I was able to go straight into the core courses for my major and my minor. Early college also helped me to save almost a
full year of college tuition, and that's a huge amount of money, and it made college much, much more affordable for me and my family. It also saved me a lot of time because I didn't have to take extra semester or delay my progress. And
I would say another big benefit was confidence because when I first started booster state, I already knew what college classes felt like. I understood how to read syllabus for example, how to talk to professor, how deadline works, how to manage my own schedule. And
because of early college credits, the transition from high school to college was much easier and much less stressful. I think having those credits also gave me more freedom because I had room in my schedule to take classes to support my
future career and even explore all the subjects. I wasn't stuck taking only the required courses because I already took at high school. For me, early college was much more than earning credits. It was a head start and helped me move
faster, save money to prepare for real college life. and I truly believe he set me on the right path toward my goals in criminal justice and preo. Thank you for giving me a chance to share my experience with early college
credits. And I just want to tell you guys, you guys are doing a great job with uh those early college classes at high school. It really helped me and I'm pretty sure it's going to support a lot of families and students at Barber High School.
Thank you for your time. He's an awesome kid. He's an awesome kid. You can see he's an awesome young man. [laughter] >> We We could have just let him talk and not bothered you with any of that other stuff. So, we are at the end of our presentation, but happy to answer any
questions if time allows if you have any. >> Sure. Questions? >> Yep. Go ahead. want to go after you. >> Sure. >> Thank you. The presentation is amazing, but um the program is phenomenal and it's great to actually hear more about
it because we have our own ideas about the little snippets that we've gotten over the time, but to hear it cohesively put together is very helpful. Um so a couple questions I do have. You started to mention some of the partner high
schools, Worcester and Southbridge. How many partner high schools are you currently working with? >> Oh my goodness. We offer a total of almost 90 courses a semester. Um so that represents early college Worcester is
actually all seven high schools. Okay. >> Um and it's the largest program in the state. Um Marboro would be our second largest program. We have Southbridge and then we have uh partnerships with other
schools. um that is uh contract work. We very much are focused though on this concurrent enrollment model um for the reasons that Liz shared. This is how we break through barriers and we reach
those who might be thinking I don't know if I can afford college or I don't know if I'm ready for college. Am I going to you know am I going to take this chance on myself? And that's why, you know, the first statement on the first slide was
building student confidence. And I loved hearing that from this young gentleman here. Um, so our growth, um, you know, we're we're incredibly busy. Um, the vice president of academic affairs wants
us to focus solely on those programs that are offered within the high schools within the high school day. So, I think we'll be limiting um other partnerships and growing more concurrent. >> Great. Thank you. Um
>> you're welcome. >> Then another question I guess I would have is um trying to understand about that transfer of credits. um because I think that's something which for me I've always tried to think about how how to
expand that to other students and also I would say create awareness with students and families about the opportunity right and how do we how do we splice that so I'm I'm just kind of curious about I mean the accreditation obviously that's
that's a >> that's going to be huge I I I cannot emphasize what um a stamp of approval that will lend to the program because beneath this, I was sharing with Liz when we were waiting to come in, the
amount of work that's going into the accreditation process is incredible. Um, but it's so worth it because it makes us reflect and it makes us understand what somebody whose job is to review a
transcript is going to what's going to sway that person, right? And to take these these credits. Um, and so the fact that we're mass transfer is a is a huge step. So within the state of Massachusetts back in 2013 2014,
Commissioner Carlos Santiago said enough of this silliness. We're going to align curriculum between the community college system and the four-year systems. We spent years doing that. And I can tell you that English 101 at Quincig is the
same English 101 at Bridgewater, at Worcester State, etc. So you can rest assured about that. That's the mass transfer block. What you're talking about is if somebody goes elsewhere, right? Yeah. >> And so the best way for us to handle
that is with this accreditation. The transfer of credit >> decision is in the receiving it rests with the receiving institution. Um part of that part of our job is to encourage students to advocate for themselves
though. Um I've done it a couple of times for students. I I will call a provost office. I have no problem doing that and talking about that. So, um there's a lot to this. I can assure you that really is my number one job is to
ensure the acade academic integrity of this product. Now, keep in mind grades matter. You need a C minus or better to transfer those credits. So, we do no harm. Somebody gets a D in English 101, they're not taking English 102. We're
full stop right there. >> So that's probably the, you know, second layer, if you will. >> Yeah. And thank you. I mean, I think that's part of where I was going with that is trying to understand where we've we've talked about choose MHS is making this a big selling point to families
early on so that they can understand just what this young man was articulating about um the opportunities presented in many ways from a life standpoint, but also financially and getting, you know, a start on things. So, it's just interesting to hear about
how it works with you all, how he can he or she can take it to the next level. And I think that's just something for MHS to really be the drums with the families early on that they can see this opportunity. >> So, thank you.
>> Yeah. Um, I also think that we need to do a better job of capturing these voices in in a way that we can share them with with families. Um, so I feel inspired having asked um for this clip and and getting it, you know, for some
stories because oftentimes those stories from students speak really strongly to prospective students. >> 110%. And I mean, taking taking this clip, you know, obviously with their approval of of putting it out there and making sure you go down to the middle
school and you show them this with the families being able to see it so that the parents can say, "Oh, look at all this money that could be saved because they could start college right here, especially right now where things are financially tight." It it's going to
help them to understand the opportunities that we have at at Marbor High School. So, thank you. We have a recruiting staff in my office and and so they will gladly join all of you. Um you know politically the scenery in Massachusetts is ready for this. There's
uh commissioner uh you know desi >> commissioner for higher ed. They have made this statement that you know across the state we've got about 20,000 students in early college. They want to see that grow to 100,000 students. So there's no way that's going to happen
unless we do it during the school day with with partners like you. When Superintendent Defalco and I had a conversation about what about more immediate career entry coursework and and how can we do that and what does that look like, right? Um we don't want to get ahead of our skis, so to speak,
but we want to have those conversations as well. >> Thank you. Actually, I was going to that that was what my question was because I noticed on your faculty liaison list that you had the professor of healthcare
and an art professor. I'm just um curious about in keeping with the choose MHS and and capturing students who may not um you know may be more oriented in
different >> Yeah. either career paths or interests like I had an art kid, you know, who wound up going to art school. So, you know, to be able to offer more as we expand the program to be able to offer some
>> immediate career entry. >> Yeah. >> So, we could really use your help with that. I mean, that is a community colleges primary mission um is transfer and immediate career entry. What I can tell you is that for the programs that
are designated, DESI has stated that the credits must be mass transfer credits. So where we need you all to advocate and raise your hand and just say look what we're a model program. We can tell you right now we need to go beyond mass
transfer. You there's no you can't undervalue learning, right? And if we get somebody into the field and working and making a higher wage and they go on to a four-year school, they're ready. Um, so
that's where we could really use your help. Sometimes we get drowned out by the the four years, the big dogs. They're four. We're two. Um, but your population is is ready. >> Anything else?
>> Yeah, I I would like to maybe follow up the conversation with you. at another date because I sit on the board of MASC, the Mass Association of School Committees, and we need to know more about this. So, it's great. Thank you.
>> Anything else? No. Thank you for your time and your presentation tonight. Much appreciated. Lot of lot of great work. >> Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I'm going to take my leave, but I am happy to come back anytime and my best to you all. >> Thank you very much. >> Thanks so much. >> Thank you.
>> Thanks, Liz. Okay, >> please continue. >> The celebrations continue uh and the spotlight [clears throat] on uh Malbor High School remains. Uh this evening um I have the distinct honor and pleasure of introducing two of our um
Massachusetts Association of School Superintendent uh Excellence in Scholarship recipients. They are both with us this evening. Um I am going to take delight in embarrassing both of them. um because um we asked their each of
their guidance counselors to just write a little summary about uh their reason for being um uh nominated for this um prestigious award. So, um, I'm going to start with
Shayla Raone, uh, who has joined us this evening. And, uh, this was put together by Shayla's guidance counselor, Miss Weman. Um, and so, Miss Weman shares, uh, and I am going to read this verbatim if that's okay. Uh, so that
[clears throat and cough] the community can hear just how amazing our two recipients are. Uh, Miss uh Weman shares that it is a great pleasure that we recognize Shayla Raone as class of 2026 recipient of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendent
Award for ex academic excellence. Shayla is a true leader at Malbor High School and a dedicated member of our community. During her years at MHS, Shayla has been a member of the National Honor Society, the business uh the National Business Honor Society, the vice president of the
Business Professionals of America Club, the secretary of class of 2026, a two-year captain of the Varsity Lacrosse Team, the recipient of the Dartmouth Book Award, the recipient of the Frederick Douglas and Susan B. Anthony Award, and numerous faculty awards over
her high school career. Outside of MHS, Shayla is incredibly involved in her church community. She serves as the firsttime guest leader, welcoming new members to the church and also is the lead of service coordinating for the
church community. Shayla has also held a part-time job, I have no idea how, by the way, uh but held a part-time job for the past two years at Teta's Farm and spent last summer interning at a startup accounting firm to gain experience in the finance field. Shayla has
successfully completed four advanced placement courses and is recognized by the college board as an AP scholar. She is currently enrolled in three additional AP courses during her senior year at Malbor High School. Shayla is currently ranked second in her class and
has a cumulative grade point average of 4.9. Shayla is planning to major in economics in college next year and has an incredibly bright future ahead of her. Congratulations to Shayla for her past, present, and future accomplishments.
>> In a moment, I'll ask Shayla and our second uh recipient to maybe get a nice photo with the uh school committee. Um we saw our second recipient in action this evening uh as he swiftly responded to our technology needs, showing
leadership in a moment's notice. Um and uh Mr. Uh Carrick Rogers is a tool's guidance counselor and he had some very uh kind words to share about Atul Mador. He is an exceptionally driven, intellectually curious and charismatic
student whose leadership and impact extend beyond the classroom. He is not only a standout for MHS but also a highly respected figure in the broader Malboro community. Atul is a truly remarkable individual, an extraordinary
talent who deserves recognition for his many achievements. Academically, Atul stands at the top of his class, currently ranked first among 250 students. He has already completed seven advanced placement courses and is on track to finish an impressive total
of 12 by the time he graduates. His passion for mathematics and science is both deep and authentic and he aspires to pursue a double major in applied mathematics and computer science. This academic ambition is well matched by his
performance as evidenced by his perfect score in the mathematics on the PSATs. Beyond his academic excellence, Atul is an active and engaged member of the school community. We're going to actually hear a little bit more about that shortly. Uh Dr. Scaz on your
report. Um he serves as president of both the class of 2026 and the robotics club and is an integral member of the student advisory committee and best buddies program. Under his leadership, the robotics club qualified for the world championship, a distinction
achieved by only a select few teams across Massachusetts. In addition to his rigorous academic and extracurricular commitments, Atul also manages a part-time job exemplifies which exemplifies his strong work ethic and time management skills. In conclusion,
Atul Mador deserves the highest of recommendations. He is an outstanding student with a strong moral compass, a supportive family, and a relentless drive to excel. Atul possesses the intellect, leadership, and character to thrive
after cementing his legacy here at Malbor High School. All while making him an ideal candidate for the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendent Excellence Award. Congratulations, Atlena, I don't know if you want to um share the
tool. We didn't We got you flowers, buddy. I'm sorry. You can give them to somebody else if you don't want them. We [laughter] didn't know what we got flowers for each of you if you want to come up and I'm not sure this we typically would do photos with the school committee but it might be a nice >> Yeah, >> we do. We take pictures all the time.
>> Stand up front. >> Yeah. >> So if the two Shayla if you and want to come up front >> and you didn't mention that Atul is our student rep on the school committee as well for the public. >> Maybe you should do photos over here.
Yeah, we can do it. >> You can Hey, you all want to come to the front? >> We're coming out. One, two, three. One more. One, two, three. I'm going to turn it the other way. two congratulations.
Congratulations. Thank you. Okay. Thank you everyone at home for your patience with that. So and congratulations to the two of you. Yes, exceptional students. >> Excellent. Uh moving on. Um we are going
to talk just for a brief moment about some elementary enrichment opportunities that we have coming up. Um but actually um it is also going to be referenced in Dr. Scaz's report this evening um as well. But I want to just share um how
excited we are about both kind of the academic opportunities that we're going to be offering our students, some of which actually will be offered by our high school students uh to our youngest learners at the elementary level, but also uh really uh reaching out to our
community um organizations and creating uh what we hope will be long-standing strong partnerships outside of the core academic areas. Um, and so later on in in Dr. Scaz's report, like I said, we'll hear a bit about uh some of the
proposals that we are currently reviewing uh from two of our uh businesses in town that we are looking uh to be able to offer our students some extracurricular opportunities through the fine arts. Um so oftentimes we think about um our extracurricular work we
sometimes can kind of get mired down in the typical you know tutoring around reading and math and science and those things are very important and we're doing that too. Uh but I think it's important to also uh kind of face the realities that sometimes it's the other things that gets our students really
jazzed up about being in school. Um and so we're going to hear a little bit about that uh in just a few moments. Um, so I wanted to just frame that out uh for the committee. And then the last item in my report is just our updated um
financial review. Um so you have the full report in your packet this evening. Um outlined by our approved budget uh what's been expended year to date in each of our lines, the incumbrances and the available balance. Uh so if there
are any questions um don't hesitate to reach out and let me know. Anything else? No. Okay, we'll move on. Great. Thank you. Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning, Dr. Scotsza, you're up.
>> All right. This was teed up nicely. Thank you, Superintendent Defalco. And it is a big night for a tool. Um, you will hear him commended yet again in my report. So, I just want to briefly talk about before and after school
programming for the elementary schools. The elementary principles have started to plan for, organize, and in some cases implement before and after school tutoring and enrichment opportunities for our elementary students. I should note that principal Richard's in
attendance tonight has been right on top of this opportunity and has taken a lot of steps on top of everything else that she is doing for Richard School to make sure that before school programming is already up and running and after school programming in the form of an enrichment
is just about to be up and running. So current examples of these offerings include before school tutoring program at richer that provides math and reading support to students in grades three and four. Students are selected for these tutoring sessions based on their fall and wea scores. Everyone knows that's
our universal screening tool for math and and reading. Additionally, Richard School is beginning to plan for an afterchool enrichment program for students in grade five. We are currently exploring options for enrichment that include exploration with
instruments in music in general. We are planning to expand these enrichment opportunities to all elementary schools. So, as Superintendent Defalco mentioned um fine arts, we are starting with uh rock and roll. And as you may or may not know, I have dabbled in rock and roll
myself. Most recently played at the uh variety show the mayor was part of. >> Shameless plug here. It was great. >> It Thank you. >> You're welcome. I saw it. It was good. I appreciated it. >> This is great because as Superintendent
Defelco, Principal Richards and I were discussing that this makes it exciting for kids to come to school, spend a full day um working at academics and then have something to look forward to at the end of the day. So we have two proposals as the superintendent had mentioned that
we are reviewing and we are very confident that we will be able to get these programs up and running at richer and at other elementary schools very shortly. Good. Now Kane and Jarwick have begun to structure either before or after school tutoring sessions that are run by a combination of pareducators
educators and in some cases Marorrow High School students. In fact, our very own Atul Mador has taken the lead on assembling a fleet of high school tutors, currently 14 of them, who are coordinating with building principles to tutor elementary students
in math and reading after the high school dismisses. Many of our high school tutors are multilingual and can provide language support in Spanish and or Portuguese while tutoring. I will continue to update the school committee on the status of these programs as we
continue to get them launched and fully running. And I just wanted to mention that this this is all organic and uh comes from an idea that a tool had from a school committee meeting when we were talking about the need to do everything that we could as a community to provide
support to our to our students and tool came up to me at the end of that meeting and said I would be willing to tutor and I would be willing to get a group of students to to join me and he did that very quickly. So with the support from principal Sarapina um we've already got
a lot of the foundation in place to get this up and running. So kudos to a tool yet again. On the subject of principal Sarapina, the John and Abigail scholarship list will be read tonight. Um Principal
Sarapina and our MPS leadership team would like to congratulate the following students on their John and Abigail Adams scholarship. Commonwealth of Massachusetts has created this merit scholarship program to reward the hard work and achievement of Massachusetts students and to encourage those students to continue their education at one of
our public institutions of higher learning. Thank you, Dr. Scaza. Um, so we're really excited. We had uh just over 60 students um who got this honor. So, if you would bear with me, I'll go through the names. Lucas Abandanzio,
Kaylee Alexander, Elise Allen, Pedro Almeida, Nicholas Andred, Angela Aoyo, Kamacho, Jason Batista, Victoria Bitten Court, Marisol Bergos, Caitlyn Cabaral, Jessica Cardardoza, Lindseay Cuentes
Ortiz, Molly Kulkin, Matas Duza, Kayn Denine, Vivian Dos Santos, Steve Falco, Devin Favro, Alexandre Fel Felix, Leticia Figuredo, Mariana Figuedo, Max
Gardet, Ash Gars, Nat Natalie Galbankian, Hadley Hos, Matthew Hilts, Javin Huertas, Jordan Jean Jcks, Joe G's, Anthony Gimenez, Isaac Lattis, M
Madison Leath, Anderson Lopez, Castillo, Crystal Crystal Lozada, Riley Mchuan, Kawwan Machado, Tyler Minnell, Tayen McDonald, Atul Mador, Skyla Monahan, Jack Morrison, Angelis Munoz, Velasquez,
Julian, excuse me, Juliana Narena, Vladimir Okonnell, Marina Olivera, Slock Patel, Caitlyn Farm, Betsy Powell, Kyle Provost, Shayla Raone, Eddie River, Sera Bergos, Andrew
Rodriguez, Kawan Rodriguez, Allison Ryan, Samuel Lucas Santana, Kawan Shaw, Aaron Cedar, Chelsea Shaheen, Sierra Sweeney, Miller Tucker, Ryan Wood, and Edgar Zante Gomez. So, we're very, very
proud of all those students. Uh, that's a big list. Um, and we congratulate them for all their hard work and success. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, there's one additional item uh under my report tonight. Unless you have any
questions for me about tutoring. I didn't give allowed time for that. Thank you. >> Sorry, not a question, a compliment. I'm so excited that you guys are doing this tutoring and doing like the peer mentoring. It's amazing. That's
fantastic. Thank you. and thanks for getting it going and growing it because that that's just going to be a huge huge win for Marro and for our kids. Love it. >> At Did you recruit all your friends? >> So yeah, I asked around junior and
senior classes. >> So there are juniors. So >> yeah, it's it hopefully should. >> They're not all leaving when you leave. >> Exactly. Um >> you're very smarter tool. I don't know if anyone told you that tonight. [laughter] >> I tried. I would just like to add though, I think from like when I was a kid, what what really inspired me was
like my brother um like you know how he showed me like you know what math could really be like way further and how abstract and you know I could never imagine what it could do. Um but I think like setting an example of like oh look at look at all the cool stuff I've done um and like you know you'll work your way there but this is the important
stuff. I think that will set like a light in a lot of kids. Um personally did for me so just trying to continue that on. So >> yeah thank you. >> Fabulous. Thank you. Yeah. >> A final topic from the office of teaching and learning is on the English
learner program tiered focus monitoring. And Lynn Medallu, our EL director, has joined us tonight to give a presentation on where we are at with our tiered focus monitoring review. Excellent. >> Hello. Let me see if I can do this and
turn around and still talk. Fix the microphone from my height. See, maybe I might need you. Um, hi. So, yes, I'm Lin Medallio. I'm the EL director. Um, I know most of you, but there's some new faces. And, um, thank you very much for having me to talk about our tiered focus
monitoring report. We also have some celebrations and then a whole lot of work that we want to talk about. Um, so we will get started. Let's see. Oh, yeah. It's working. All right. So, in the there are 12 Oh, by the way, we talk about alphabet soup. E is known for
this. There's a gazillion acronyms and I'm going to try to say what they all are, but just like raise your hand or something if I'm going too fast and don't tell you what they all are. So, I'll start with ELEL because there are 12 ELEL English language education
criteria that the state uses to see if we're implementing all the requirements related to our programs under state and federal laws. And so eel of course is English learner and our data was collected from two members from DESIE the department of ed had two people come
and visit us last spring we uploaded a whole bunch of information that they had requested and then this fall they asked for some others and then came on site and were able to look at our schools. Um and so this is just a little taste of
the schools they got to see. They didn't get to see all of them, but they saw a good number of them. And then they did observations in many of those classrooms and then interviewed people. And we have some of our amazing EL leadership here as well to be part of our evening. Um, and they also spoke with parent groups
and student groups to really try to get the best idea of our program and how it was working and how we could get better. And so, and there's one thing I forgot to mention that was on the first slide. One of the things they really mention is the importance that the students entire
day is teaching them English. It's not just when they have their English language ELD classes, but all day when they're in math, when they're in social studies, when they're everywhere, it's part of their academic language as well. And so here very very small um but we
have some over data overview here that um they looked at. Access is the test that the students take every January. Okay, it's an English language proficiency test. When the students take it, they get a score. Um, when they get a 4.2 overall and a 3.9 in literacy,
that is when they exit. And then we start calling them FELS, which stands for former English language students. Um, and so you'll see that in there as well. And we monitor those students. I'll talk about that in a little bit. So, the access test is very important.
and they give us and the students uh a a goal for the next year. And so they say, "We would love to see if you could hit proficiency in six years." And in order to do that, here's what we want you to do in a year. And so then as a school, we always look at that data to look at
how are they doing? Do they meet that goal? Do they not? And what can we do to help them along with that? another acronym down there. ELSWD is uh English learners, students with disabilities. And so I'm going to start talking about
some of our glows. And you know what? I think I think I queued up Dr. Dalco the previous um presentation that might be a little bit longer. So I'm gonna um make sure as I talk I'm going to walk away for a sec. Perhaps um fix that. So I'm
going to grab my computer. One of the one of the great glows that we had this report was that our students all grade bands from grade 1 to 12 uh did grow and achieve um their growth
goals at higher numbers than they had the year before. So those numbers went up which was great to see. It's going in the right direction which we love to see. with everything else as you know uh after the pandemic there was a lot of concerns about students and um
having them make their their gains and so e has been no different and so we were really excited to see that and I'm back see that wasn't that bad actually I'm going to hand you that though >> all right
and so um we really want to celebrate that that all those grade bands did have that growth. Another great celebration is most of our grade bands also maintained or improved with um the number of students exiting meeting that exit criteria. So that is also wonderful
because that's our goal. As much as we love them, we want them to leave our program, right? Um another wonderful thing is as mentioned with Liz's uh early college high school is the seal of biiteracy. This past year we had our highest number of students 57 achieve
the seal. That is a total of 137 since its inception. So we are very excited about that. A lot of work and a lot to celebrate. >> Lynn, can you just explain for people what that is? >> The seal by literacy. >> I know what it is, but other people probably don't. >> So the seal of literacy is um a special
literal seal that you get on your diploma. you can get it or it with distinction depending on your access scores and then another test in another language. And so just this week actually we had some of the students start to take those tests for the other languages and if they get a certain score then
it's on their diploma. And also as they mentioned colleges are starting to look at that as part of their enrollment part of coursework and jobs. Um there's some scholarships you can get for it and so it's pretty exciting. Thank you.
>> All right. So, we had four areas in our findings that we want to work on in the EL program. And I'm going to kind of go from the bottom up to the top. One is crossed out fell monitoring. So, our former ELS, the ones who are exited with those access scores, um they're
monitored for four years, and we need to make sure we're doing that. Monitoring means that the EL department make sure we reach out to classroom and content teachers to make sure they're doing okay, make sure they don't need more support. If they do, the teacher says, "Could I actually talk about this
student?" Moren Mcdana right there is one of the people they might talk to and see if they need to be pulled back into the program or are there other supports we could give them? And so we do that for four years. It at first was on our finding because um it was very interesting. We have a system that they
said was a great system and it's really working where the teachers reach out twice a year, the EL teachers reach out twice a year. The content teachers, classroom teachers will even write in comments and our people from Desi said every single folder that they were looking for that piece of paper, it was
there. And not only that was there were really thoughtful comments from the teachers talking about the students and and how they were doing during the interview process. Some of the teachers were still confused on what the process was. So although we were doing it with fidelity, there was still some confusion
around it. So we um recommunicated, we changed our the actual form to be a little bit clearer what it was. And so this is our draft period of these findings. We really want to come and talk to you early so we could get started on our action plan. We expect that one to be taken off of it because
of that. The other one is interpretation and translation. The Department of Education now has training to have our interpreters and translators trained in three different tiers to make sure they are doing it the best they can and there is sort of quality control if you will.
And so I've been in conversations with Jod O'Brien and with our director of translations, Daisy Race, and we'll be looking at getting our translators who do go through quite a bit of training when they join our team, but making sure that they get the training that the state wants.
EL6 is reclassification. Does anyone remember that acronym fell? Right? So students should be reclassified when they hit those access scores when that I mentioned to you. In previous years, access scores was only one of the criteria you could use. You could use
other data, teacher recommendations, nuia testing, other things. And the state switched that and we didn't. So we need to we didn't switch it. Um, and so some of our students exited close to that score and we thought, you know, the teachers like, we really think so. And
some of them were farther away from that score. And so we're checking to make sure that one, we're going to fix our systems, but also I've been looking at all those students, looking at their current data to make sure that they are actually much like a fel monitoring
would do, but I really want to make sure they're doing well. And I'll reach out to their families, see if there's any concerns, and if there are, we'd we'd bring them back into the program. Um, but the one I really want to talk about the most is EL5 because that's program and services. And so there's four areas I really wanted to talk to you all about
this evening about what we really wanted to work on and we've already started the action plan for the first one is Wickham school specific. So our sixth to 8th graders and um EL12s are students in the
beginning of their language learning. So they're sometimes called beginners and they get classes of English language development of course but we have really been placing a lot of focus on the EL and it as its own entity separate from
you know outside of other classes and not how it connects to literacy and grade level text and tasks. And so that's what this first one was about. The EL12s until this year were not in grade level ELA or social studies. This year we have them in ELA
and it's a really great system and I love that Moren is here because she's one of the teachers that's pushing into the class with them. The students are in their grade level classes and it's co-eing where you have your ELA teacher and an EL teacher and the EL teachers only focus on one grade so they can
really get to know that ELA curriculum as well. They have set common planning which is important with the teachers and so working at making that accessible to the students. We have not moved into social studies. Angela House is part of a cohort of a redesign that we're doing
with Desi and um that is one of the number one goals we have for next year to get them into that social studies class. They will then get their ELD at a different time. Um it would come they have two different electives. So one of those we want to offer as an afterchool for those students um so they don't miss
it's very hard to give kids everything and not miss anything. So we're trying to find where it has the least impact on their learning. The next one, um, as those of you who have, um, been in the school committee for a while know, but I'll explain it to
you. For 2022 2023 school year in 2324, we had a district-wide stu uh, professional practice goal with all of our staff to really focus in on some strategies for EL students. It is very difficult for teachers um of all grade levels to really um if you're a math
teacher for example, you know math and you can speak math, but to understand the language of math sometimes is this extra level. And so we've been working really hard on showing that how do you speak like a mathematician, read like a mathematician, which they do naturally and sometimes that's the hardest thing
to teach, right? Because you don't even know you're doing it. So we need to continue supporting teachers in that work in providing the differentiation for the students and looking at it differently. We did everything large districts. So really we're looking now at going into PLC's, professional
learning communities um to do it more at the lesson level in smaller groups and also I was talking to all the principles um and really wanting to have like EL specific walkthroughs which we've done before but really having that conversation with the administration as
well before to talk about what are we looking for and make sure that we're all calibrated on that as well so we're giving a consistent message down at the elementary schools. I'll talk about them for a little bit. They've been doing co-eing for a while, couple years now, uh, with the EL34s.
So, if a one two is a beginner, your three fours have a little bit more language behind them now. Um, and they're starting to get into that academic fluency when you get into be a four. So, in the elementary, the students get their EL during writing with their classroom teacher and an EL
teacher. This is exciting. We love this method. But what we have to work on is really making sure um we have standards, English language standards that are called WEDA. It's our sort of group that that sets our our standards. We need to make sure that those WEDA standards are lying on top of the writing standards so
they're getting both. We sort of had two content areas in one and need to continue working on that. And um as I mentioned at Wickcom, we have that set up with common planning and everyone only really having to deal with one grade. at elementary they're spread out a little bit and we want to look at that and make sure we have the correct
staffing to support co-eing which is really such a great opportunity to have the students not miss anything. So that is why it's on my most important list if you will. Lastly, the one I want to talk to about is e supports to teachers at the prek
and k level. The state does not require e services at that level. We do identify those students um and then we monitor them at the end of the year to see if they're still going to be EL students. The kindergarten students take that access test. But we as a district and
the state actually it's also what they feel is that those classrooms are languagerich by definition and all students are learning language. But what we want to do better is we haven't been supporting our teachers as much with really that one-on-one conversation of
how to make sure that instruction is really taking into consideration the language. Um maybe it's perfect the way it is, right? But we want to make sure that they have that support. So starting in January, Michelle Blair, who's the assistant director of EL, will be in their PLC's to start that work and make
that connection right there. those teachers know us, but this way they'll see one of us weekly at their PLC's to start that work um and start monitoring those students a little bit more. >> So, here are our next steps with our
tiered focus monitoring. Did I miss any acronyms before I go on? Did it do it? Is your head spinning maybe with all the new information a little bit? Um, so we got our draft feedback summary. That's what I'm showing you now. In this little window, we have an opportunity to
respond to them if we think anything was incorrect or we want to fix it. Much like that fell monitoring we were talking about um making sure the forum they know that we communicate the forums. They will then give us a summary, draft their final report. As I mentioned, we've already started our
action plan, but we want the the whole district will be part of that um as well to make sure you know um e students are such a huge part of our population. Um and then of course students who speak another language are 60% I believe is is
our our um percentage. And so we want to make sure that the entire district is is up on our action plan because it will reach all areas. And then as they always have this happens every six years by the way our our TFM. And so then our action plan we set it up with what are we going
to do by when and meet those. And they may come back out. It may just be electronic, but it's a lot of good work. Uh, a lot of stuff we're doing at the Melbour Public Schools already. I've had ongoing meetings with the principles. Obviously, I'm working closely with um the office
of teaching and learning and student services. We're creating, as I mentioned, those action plans. And then the work we're doing with Angela House, that redesign cohort with Desi has been invaluable because they also talk about staffing. And so that will be really helpful when we sort of look closer at
our EL34s down in the elementary school. So that was a lot of information really fast with a lot of acronyms. Any questions? >> Yes, Michelle. >> Two questions. One is well I'll start by saying thank you for bringing all this
information and it helps us to kind of gear ourselves towards when we start talking about the budget because it's going to protect, you know. >> Yes. perhaps have budget implications. But my other question um is the can you just
explain how the access test is g is it like reading, writing and speaking like what do they test? So reading, writing, listening and speaking and so um depending on the grade some of uh kindergarten for example is a one-on-one. you almost and they've changed it a little bit this year, but
in past years as you play a game, you read a book, you know, and you grade it as you go. From grades one up, um the smallest kids is a p pencil, pen and paper part of it, and the older kids do it online. And so, one of the things that that we've been doing in our
department for a long time is we were noticing that our speaking scores tended to be the lowest, especially at secondary level. Students hate speaking into that microphone. It seems very awkward. they have said and so we have a lot of speaking prompts now to get them
sort of used to that to get them to be able to speak as richly as they might to us to a computer. >> Um so they have all four domains. >> Great. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Um thank you very much for the presentation. I have to say I feel like
this is the tip of the iceberg of of a lot of data that you've got somewhere. >> Yes. Yes, it [laughter] is. my my first the the one I threw up first was like 462 slides and you know Yes. >> which I get um it may have been too
much. It it's like some of this makes me go oh I wonder what the scores were there or where were we standing or how many kids were actually affected by this. So and that's probably my brain. I know I'm I like way too much information, but I may hit you with a
few additional >> course separate questions, >> but um just curious because I feel like I remember three or four years ago an opening day where you were heavily involved on talking with the staff about how we had
to get this common language and that everybody really needed to kind of get on that base level together to be able to talk EL appropriate. Am I anyone else remembering that at all? Um, is that something that we're still trying to
make sure that we're finding that common language everywhere? >> Yes. >> Because I kind of feel like it's kind of ties in a little bit with our MTSS and with the, you know, getting to all the tiers. We have to find that common language. So that because yes, it's 60%.
That's a huge portion of our district. We all better be talking about the same thing. So yes, and we've had real glows, if you will, during that time. For example, um there was a group, a cohort from DESIE working with our math department at Wickham and um one of
their pieces of feedback was it was the best examples they've seen of supporting language in classrooms. So that was wonderful to hear. So there are people who definitely have embraced it and have it's it's you fully taken it on and understand it. But it is like, and
Michelle and I do this um PD all the time. It's like the air we breathe, right? And you're not even aware of it. So, for example, you know, if in a classroom, if a teacher is teaching cause and effect, uh a classroom teacher, right? The eel side of it would be to make sure that we're focusing on
words like since and therefore and because and so and the order of everything and really getting those words in there. And um one of my favorite examples is a word as small as uh however. You know, it could be what was it? Um or but if you don't know that the word butt signifies like the fact
that now it's going to change. You know, I felt foolish, happy but foolish. If you don't know that that butt means that it's going to be something different, you have no idea. No way for context clues, you know. So sometimes these itty bitty little words for our ELS are extremely important. And so um it's it's
a heavy lift and a lot of people have done an amazing job and we still have a lot of work to do. Yeah, it just um I think back on the professional development conversation about where we need to have some of the PDs that are a little bit more like sorry this is a have to this to me seems like this is a
have to. Yes. >> Like we have to all learn this language so that we are not causing our own troubles. >> What I really appreciate is all of the road work road mapap work we've been doing closely ties to what we've been doing in EL. for example, discourse, getting students to talk, right? In
order for them to talk to each other, you have to teach them how to have academic discourse. And so, it almost it not almost, it does it helps bring that along and it helps bring that language forward. We do a lot, we've been doing a lot this year in our um groups of saying
to teachers, write your own sort of exemplar answer, you know, and look at that because when you look at that, you're like, oh, now I see the language I need, you know, just taking that step of and so language objectives is something that we say is a have to and that is 100% trying to identify that
language of your subject area. >> Okay. And the only other thing that made me also was your your thought about the curriculum and the kid and your age group getting involved with the elementary is we need to tap into our
kids at the high school that had the language under their belt and they can go be, you know, the teachers at the elementary level. >> Did I hear a lot of your volunteers were bilingual? >> Yeah, a solid amount of them. >> Excellent. Yeah. I mean, that that to me
is like a a no-brainer, like that we need to do that because it's going to empower them at the high school level and show role modeling for the younger ones. So, we're crazy if we don't. >> And as you were saying, nothing is more like impactful to a little kid than
seeing like a big kid. You know, they love big kids. [laughter] So, >> well, and it's only going to help us because yes, you think about the budget and that the impact that we may need to have, but then we need to let we need to think out of the box about how do we leverage our opportunities that we have
and it would be our students that have found their way through, you know, whatever challenges and create that opportunity of of utilizing them and their skill sets elsewhere. So, it exactly. >> All right. Thanks.
>> Anyone else? Thank you. >> Thank you so much for having me. >> Thank you. >> Dr. Scazi, you're all set. Okay. All righty. Moving on. Acceptance of minutes. Minutes of the November 10th, 2025 school committee meeting.
>> Motion to approve. >> Motion to approve is on the table and second. Is there any questions, comments, or concerns regarding the November 10th meeting? Seeing none, all in favor? They are approved. Thank you. Moving on to public comment.
Is there any public comment? Public comment for the second time. Seeing none. And lastly, public comment for the final time. Seeing none, close the public comment
section. Closed. Moving on to action items and reports. the acceptance of grants for FC 2517 fair share earmarks from the state for 200,000. >> Motion to approve. >> Motion to approved is on the table and
second. Is there any questions, comments, concerns? Seeing none, all in favor of the earmark. It carries. Approved. That was the only one. So, we'll move on. Elementary enrichment opportunities.
>> Uh, Mr. Mayor, if it's okay, um, could the school committee pass over this? We're waiting on one more proposal from one of our community partners. So, just want to make sure we have all the information before we bring forward. We were hoping to have it for today, so we put it on, but just hasn't come in quite yet. >> Can I make a motion to table? >> Motion to table is on the sec is on the
table. Would like to second the second. [laughter] Okay. Motion to table. Questions, comments, concerns? Seeing none, all in favor of tableabling is table. Thank you. Lastly, policy ILC
competency determination. >> Um, thank you. So, um, the last meeting you all had, um, this policy before you. Um, it is policy ILC, which is a new policy to be a standalone from the graduation requirements policy. Um, you
may remember that within graduation requirements, we had competency determination within there. it was a smaller amount and um Desi really felt the need that we needed to separate it out. So, we need to get this
accomplished. This has been worked on with our principal Sarapina at the high school. This had both assistant superintendents involved, Dr. Defalco, and our committee. So, um,
I'd like to make a motion to approve with the, um, amendments that are before you. >> Motion on the table and seconded. Is there any questions or comments or concerns regarding policy ILC? Seeing none, all in favor?
Motion carries. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Moving on to reports of school committee subcommittees. Do we have any reports? No. Good. Okay, moving on. The members forum. >> Yes, Katherine. >> Um, I just wanted to say congratulations
to those um students that were in and staff that were involved in dessert theater. Um, it was really great. I was able to be there on Saturday. Michelle was with me. Yes, the mayor was with me. You were on Friday. You were on Friday.
So, it was it was a lot of fun. Um, >> it's a great Saturday night date with the two of you. >> Yeah, it was, wasn't it? >> We just don't get enough time together. >> We don't. >> So, >> I loved everything. Truly something I'm thankful for. Yeah. >> They did also make the announcement that
the musical is going to be >> Mama Mia. >> Mama Mia. So, get ready cuz we all better get involved in that one. >> Yeah. >> Um, we're going to make sure that you get the soundtrack >> so you can start working on it. >> Yeah. >> I have not seen it. That's why it's a
little dig. But yeah, so >> it's all good. >> And um with a wonderful happy Thanksgiving wishes to everyone. I did want to make sure that people know that the football game is happening as always for Thanksgiving Day. So if you
>> Hudson, >> it's in Hudson. >> In Hudson >> in Hudson, >> Jordan. >> So there you go. >> I would like to congratulate Miss Hennessy for her lifetime achievement. membership, >> memberships, achievement membership. Well, the way they went on and on about
she was definitely an achievement for sure. So, we were at a school committee conference and she was inducted to lifetime membership. So, kudos to you. We're very proud to be there to represent and also to Michelle who was elected um on the committee. So,
secretary if my memory is correct, >> secretary treasurer. >> Got it. So, congratulations to that. So, it's nice to see Malber represented at all the conferences throughout the district throughout the Commonwealth. So kudos to the two of you and making the district proud. Um, anything else for members for?
>> We've also reviewed the warrant >> the warrant >> and we'll be signing. >> I I just wanted to share that I've uh really enjoyed and wanted to recognize all the different communications that are coming out from your communications department. Um, Superintendent Devalgo. And, uh, for the public's awareness, if
you've not seen it, I think everyone should get a chance to watch the first edition of Panther Cast, which I thought was a great production from uh, Marboro High School. >> Keep it coming. Excellent. Okay. Anything else?
>> Sorry. Yes, tool. >> So, yesterday we >> talked about you have nothing. [laughter] What else do you want? Actually was the powderpuff game uh between senior girls and junior girls and our class of 2026 won 14 to zero. Um it's a great game and our cheerleading
performance. I was in the air uh holding a field goal while they kicked a field goal. So um managed to do it great but it was a great game. Um great show of like community at Malbor High School. I think it's super fun organizing it, uh, practicing with the team and like you could see all the work that the coaches did and the players and, you know, it's
a fun game and Shayla actually who was here was defensive player of the game and made some amazing plays. So, shout out Shayla. But yeah, >> guess anything else? >> Okay, I want to wish everyone who's watching at home a very happy and safe Thanksgiving. It's truly time to be
thankful for and to kind of reflect on that. So, enjoy your holidays with your special someone. And on that note, >> move to adjurnn. >> There it is. Move to adjourn. All in favor adjourning. Motion carries to adjourn at 8:58. Thank
you everyone. Have a great night.